Sunday, December 5, 2004

Anime and Research
Something that I find attractive in good anime is when I want to go out of my way to dig up information on things. Rurouni Kenshin did this in the context of the Restoration. I read a lot about it, and was absolutely fascinated by it. (Peacemaker Kurogane hasn't helped much, either, because now I'm as much a Shinsengumi fangirl as a Kenshin one, but I take Kenshin's side simply to aggravate my roommate.)

There's nothing like a rousing rendition of "Loyalist versus Imperalist" over dinner.

Fullmetal Alchemist has done it to me again, although I already did some random research on alchemy due to the Alchemist Guild I created in my massive fantasy world. But what interests me about those shows is the things that tie it together, and show that the mangaka aren't just pulling stuff out of their respective behinds.

So, in other words, I am a complete geek. But a complete geek with more knowledge than average of the bakamatsu and the instructions to the Philospher's Stone.

---------------------

Whee? Ignore the meme of doom, I just felt this was an appropriate place for it.

Now, I need to plot out exactly how the yakuza will directly impact the RP.
Comments (0) | Permalink

FMA MeMe
--------[YOU]--------
1] What's your real first name? Catie
2] What's your nickname? Kenshin
3] What's your gender? Female
4] How old are you? 21

--------[FAVORITES]--------
5] Who's your favorite character? Ed.
6] Song? "Brothers", that Russian song.
7] Opening? Ready Steady Go
8] Ending? Tobira no Mukou e
9] Elric Brother? All THREE of'em. ^_^x
10] Deadly sin? Envy amuses me more than any being rightly should.
11] Chimera? Martel. She was so cool.
12] Episode? 50. For the SHEER AMOUNT OF BLOODY CHAOS it threw the fandom into for that week. Oh, my God, it was AWESOME.
13] Scene? When Ed dyed his hair. That was feckin' cool. Wish I could dye my hair like that.
14] Place? Iceheart's PalaceDante's SEKRIT HIDDEN LAIR!!1OMG!
15] Game? The fighting one. BECAUSE IT LOOKS EPIC-COOL. And if it's even a smidge like the Inuyasha game I will be bouncing in glee. *MOOOOOOOOOO*
16] Military staff? I'd have to go with Hughes. Although Roy is The Man.
17] Male character? Hm, let me think ED.
18] Female character? Hawkeye is the feckin' COOLEST. Let's kick Roy's legs out from under him and pull out TWO GUNS. <3

--------[EITHER ?'S]--------
19] Who's cooler? Ed or Roy? Roy. Ed, you're nifty and all, but the self-cauterizing his own GUT WOUND and THEN taking Lust down makes Roy the fucking COOLEST.
20] Who's cooler? Ed or Al? They're both dorks. But Ed's got the 'woo, look at me, I'm a midget and I kicked your ass' thing going on. *hides from Ed*
21] Which is cuter? Neko or Hayate? BLACK HAYATE!
22] Who's stronger? Armstrong or Izumi's husband? Last I checked they were evenly matched. Armstrong out-sparkles everyone.
23] Who's more brutal? Winry or Izumi? Has everyone MET Izumi? Mou, she makes Hiko look sane. I don't blame Ed for diving for the window, that's for damn sure.
24] Who's the deadiest? Envy or Lust? Lust is more... sane... about killing people. Envy just randomly STICKS HIS HANDS THROUGH PEOPLE'S CHESTS.
25] Which is better? Automail or alchemy? Alchemy
26] Who's smarter? Ed or Roy? Oh, god, Roy. Roy is, like, SCARY.
27] Who's cuter? Ed or Roy? Oh, definitely Ed. Especially when he stews about Roy outsmarting/outmanuevering him. God, those two are FUNNY.
28] Which is more painful? Losing a leg or an arm? Um, ow? Owwie owwie owch? Probably an arm, it's more convient to lose a leg.
29] What's better? Metal or fire? Fire.
30] What's better? Steak or potatoes? Steak AND Potatoes! Yummmy...
31] Who's cooler? Winry or Riza? Hawkeye wins. So Winry, but she's scary-cool.
32] Who would win? Riza or Izumi? Izumi. Hawkeye might be quick with her guns, but Izumi's got alchemy, having seen the Gate she doesn't need a transmutation circle, and, oh, she's fecking TERRIFYING.
33] Who would get maried? ... I pity the women, let's just put it like that.
34] Who would say "poop?" Roy or Winry? ... okay, that's just weird.
35] Who would say "buttmonkeys?" Ed or Hughes? Heh. Buttmonkeys. *giggles*
36] Who wouldn't say "howdy do?" Riza or Rose? Hawkeye.

--------[ED AND AL'S ROOM]--------
37] First floor or second floor? Second.
38] One or two beds? ...two.
39] What kind of wallpaper? ... this is a really strang section.
40] The floor? Rug, tiles, wood, etc. etc.? ... really, really strange.
41] How many windows or do they even have a window? ... there were windows.
42] What's inside their closest? Envy. ^___^x
43] Is their room clean? Depends on who's cleaning. Al would probably pick up any mess his brother makes without even thinking about it.
44] 1900-ish or let's make it modern? ... wtf?
45] Depending on your answer above, what supplies do they have? ... this is very strange.
46] Any pets? If so, what kind? The automail puppy! And Al's insane amount of kitty-friends!
47] Home alone, party, parents, etc.? WTF?
48] What type of bedsheets do they have?... white?

--------[WISHES]--------
49] Why is he/she/it your favorite character? Because of the epic SPAZZING!
50] Do you wish you were like him/her/it? No. I'm already frighteningly enough like him as it is.
51] Do you wish you were with him/her/it? For sanity's sake, no. It's bad enough having him live in my head.
52] Do you wish him/her/it is real? Yes! because that would mean he would stop terrorizing Kenshin!
53] Do you wish Fullmetal Alchemist never ends? All things have to end.
54] Do you wish the Fullmetal Alchemist movie was on right now? GOD YES BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL WAS UP WITH ENVY-THE-DRAGON AND WHETHER OR NOT ED BLEW HIMSELF UP WITH ROCKET FUEL.
55] Do you wish you had automail? That would actually suck, a lot. I like my limbs plenty, thanks. Now, if I were missing one, that might be a different story. But I'm not.
56] Do you wish you were a big suit of armor? Do I LOOK insane to you? (Don't answer that.)
57] Do you wish you were in the military? Having a brother sorta-in it is fine enough for me.
58] Do you wish that alchemy really worked? Wait, wait, this question doesn't make any sense. Alchemy DOES work. Alchemy is the roots of modern medicine, the only aspect of alchemy that DOESN'T work is where the Philospher's Stone comes into play, and transmutation. So, if you're asking if I wished it was possible to transmute something by pure will alone, (and harnassing energy from another world), then yes. That would be cool.
59] Do you wish for a endless amount of Fullmetal Alchemist stuff in your room? No, I'm still invaded with Kenshin/Inuyasha stuff. Select cool things? Yes indeedy. *hugs her caduceus necklace tightly*

--------[YOU IN THE FMA WORLD]--------
60] What would be your name? Catie
61] Your rank? I wouldn't be in the military.
62] Are you an alchemist? *stares at you* Look, have you MET me?
63] What type of alchemy do you use? Type? TYPE? *sighs* There are no "types" there are people who SPECALIZE. I wouldn't bother in specializing because I'd be holed up somewhere, cackling, creating the Philospher's Stone.
64] Who are you friends with? Dunno. I doubt I'd come across people, although I wouldn't be surprised if the Elric-kyoudai show up since I'm up to my ears in literature on the Stone.
65] Who are your foes? People who get in my way.
66] What is your purpose in the Fullmetal Alchemist world? Gih, I need a purpose? Go away, I'm studying.
67] Are you strong, smart, fast, etc. etc.? Depends on if I'm in spacey-Kenshin mode or cool-Kenshin mode.
68] Does the Elric brothers cross paths with you? *points to above*
69] Do they join you? *envisions how cool it would be to slam the door in Ed's face* Hee hee hee. Erm. They'd probably be bugging me, Ed especially, for information.
70] Does Roy happen to bump heads with you? Not that I know of. I keep to myself. Unless certain MIDGETS make off with some of my BOOKS. *glares*
71] Does Roy flirt with you? I haven't noticed.
72] Anyone else you run into? Literally? Probably too many people. I'm a klutz.
73] Does anyone ever save you or are you too tough to be saved? Probably depends on the situation, and if I notice/care that I need rescuing.
74] Did you almost get killed by anyone? Not that I recall.
75] What areas/towns have you visited? I don't get out much, but probably Central, aside from whereever it is I live. *glances around* Where DO I live?
76] Are you a lazy or outgoing person? ... Go away, I'm studying.
77] If you're an alchemist, do you desire for the Philosopher's Stone? *stares at question incredulously, then points up to question 63*
78] Do you have any automail? No, I'm stupid but I'm not THAT stupid.
79] Any friends with you? *glances around* I dunno. Anyone I know out there?
80] What ever your purpose was, do you succeed? I dun't know, it would be interesting if I did manage to create the Philospher's Stone by the directions *I* have, which are considerably different than the ones in the show. If I did, I would have... a LOT of power, because it would mean considerably less DEATH in the creation of the Stone. ^_^x
81] Did you ever kill anyone during a fight? Um, I don't think so. Have I been in any?
82] If you saw a poor lil' neko or dog, what would you do? Give them to Al to watch Ed completely freak out.
83] If you're an alchemist, who would you ask for advice anything about alchemy? No one, that's what my books are for.

--------[FANDOM]--------
84] Would you call Ed short if you really met him? Oh, hell yes. Although, preferably from across the room.
85] Do you have a crush on any of the characters? Mmm, no. Although Roy is very ... lickable.
86] Would you want to marry him/her? No. I'm not THAT crazy.
87] Would you ask Al if you could hide inside his armor? Ask? What is this ask? Out of the way, I'm hiding from your 'niisan! *DIVES*
88] Are you a obsessed fan? *stares* I have the instructions to create the Philospher's Stone. YOU TELL ME.
89] Do you own a lot of Fullmetal Alchemist crap? A lot? Not yet. But I do have an artbook, some manga, a fan, a necklace, cards, and a few figures.
90] Own a Fullmetal Alchemist website? I barely have time for my own websites, why create a bad fansite when there's a million better ones already out there?
91] Do you draw lots of Fullmetal Alchemist fanart? A... decent amount.
92] Lots of Fullmetal Alchemist fanfics? No, not really. I don't much care to fic, except Ed keeps randomly popping into one of my other ones. Go back to Transyvania, you dork.
93] What would be your reaction when you see Roy in a mall or someplace? Stare, and stalk him around the mall like we did that guy who looked exactly like Folken.
94] What would be your reaction when you see Ed in a hardware shop or someplace? "I'd turn to whoever I was with and ask in a loud voice who that 9-year-old was, and should we ask him where his parents are before he hurts himself with the pretty tools?" That answer... is perfect.
95] What would be your reaction when you see Armstrong in a gym or someplace? Hide, before the sparkles KILL ME.
96] Have you seen the whole series? OH GOD YES.
97] Are you obsessed with a certain character? Not...really. Not as badly as you'd think. Just... amused.
98] Have you ever dreamed or thought about Fullmetal Alchemist during school, in a car, in bed, etc. etc.? Oh, yes. The weirdest dreams are the ones when I'm Ed, and I'll always wake up sleeping funny and have no feeling in my right arm, and I'll freak out.
99] Between a scale 1-10, how big a fan are you? Easily a 10. Maybe somewhere between 11-12.
100] Do you wonder why you took this Fullmetal Alchemist survey? Yeah. My fingers are cold now. o_Ox
Comments (0) | Permalink

Of Icons and Alchemy
I caught the tail end of episode 5 of Fullmetal Alchemist last night. I forgot it was on at midnight, and not at 12:30 like on Thursdays and thus, missed Hughes at his very best. I keep reminding myself I can catch what I missed on Thursday, it's not like I don't have that episode MEMORIZED or anything ... ¬_¬x;

Not any more so than any other episode.

Also watched the sixth episode of Gundam Wing, wanted desperately for Heero to step on Relena. So much for compassion. Still hold tight to the fact that they're all flippin' insane, except for Duo, who's only moderately insane. If I hadn't been so sleepy I would have watched more.

I need to go to more than one episode a night, this is a 49 episode series and four of the DVDs I have to return. Someday I'll own those four that I'm missing, someday!

That reminds me, I need to update my Guzzlefish account. If anyone wants to look me up, I'm renkinjutsushi. Always the alchemist.

---------------------

You know what the problem is with a lot of these alchemy texts? They're in LATIN. I don't speak, read, or comprehend Latin on ANY level. I barely comprehend Japanese, and English? Pshaw. Who understands THAT?

---------------------

I like to make icons, although I suck greatly at it. I have an icon-dump Livejournal if anyone is interested in it, it's named, appropriately enough, icon__alchemy.

---------------------

Last night we watched Elf (gih), and The Day After Tomorrow (glee!). I got a lot of doodling done, I've mostly hit a wall with my drawing and it was nice to get some ideas out on paper.



That's the best one by far, and Kage's head is a little wonky. Of course, that's only a thumbnail and I'm already coloring it. The
cat was actually Kagome's idea and she talked Ravin into giving Kage a kitty for Christmas. I swear up and down that the Kagome's absolutely insane, and the cat likes to sit on Kage's head, between his ears. He was not pleased, but the second anyone's back is turned he's lovin' on the kitty.

Heh. *amused*

Speaking of artstuffs, it's absolutely amazing how unoriginal people on the artboards are. I've been random-surfing and trying to build good comment-karma but ye gods... a good chunk of the pictures are either directly traced/eyeballed from existing pictures. I realize everyone does it, but it's so unoriginal and it doesn't speak highly of the artist.

I know this is a case of pot and kettle, since I've done it a LOT, but I rarely post the pictures! It is good practice but jeez, guys... now I'm really only commenting on pictures that are ORIGINAL. =_=x;


Comments (0) | Permalink

Saturday, December 4, 2004

Page Customization
I suppose I should customize my page, but so many pages are so bright and bold already, I like how simple and clean my page looks. I probably won't do much to it save change the color scheme, and even THAT might wait until after Christmas. (All the white reminds me of snow.)

---------------------

While watching the fifth episode of Gundam Wing last night, I realized exactly why I like Duo so much. At this point in the show... he's the sanest character. I was watching Heero laugh for the umpteenth millionth time and saying to myself "every character ON this show is clinicly insane!" Duo's insistance that he's the God of Death is downright normal compared to some of the others.

That's more amusing than it has any right to be, really.

---------------------

I ended up getting the last two DVDs of Mirage of Blaze today, which means I offically have the entire series on DVD. I have way more DVDs than any person rightly should, which is in and of itself rather amusing. Another thing I'll get around to doing is making a DVD list-post over here, just so people can oogle at my vast collection OF DOOM!

---------------------

Submitted a lot more fanart, although the next batch is all pencils ... I broke down the rest of the pile into penciled pieces, inked pieces, hand-colored and CGed. So, four more art-dumps until I'm current.

Now, to work on some of these monster websites I've started.
Comments (0) | Permalink

Websites, Angst, and Fanart
I've done another bad thing, and opened a front page to websites that, knowing me, will never EVER be complete. Ah, but I love building bare-bones HTML sites to showcase fanworks... what, you people speak of fancy, flash websites with graphics and... *gasp* ... SOUND? Feh, on all of you! I like my websites simple and easily constructed in Notepad. *waves cane at all you whipper-snappers*

So, my goal is to have a website for Acheron, which would be a personal links site to all of my journals, art archives and the like; for Demonscape, my personal massive original fiction; for RK-02, my massive fanon-verse; and for Kitaku, which will be a collection of all my Pokemon AUs.

If you clicked on any of the links in the previous paragraph, allow me to point and laugh, there's a reason I've only got a frontpage up. (Links will be active eventually. Just... not yet.)

The only operable website is Tsukino Namida, which is in dire need of an update. So I'm going to build my sites, and THEN I'll worry about content.

---------------------

I NEED A JOB WOE IS ME I HAVE NO MONEY AT LEAST I GOT MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING DONE. /angst

See, that was relatively painless.

---------------------

Wow, I just uploaded four more fanarts and they're already showing. I'm art-dumping at the moment, picking and choosing a bunch to put up. Once I've caught myself up I'll probably only be uploading my newest stuff. But until then... ART-DUMP!

---------------------

If you haven't noticed, my entries are going to be horrendeously long. Sorry. I tend to be long-winded, it's the reason I have a billion journals. Don't worry, I'll get tired of this website eventually and end up posting cryptic, one-line entries like "Where's my left shoe."

Probably sooner than you'd think.
Comments (0) | Permalink

Friday, December 3, 2004

AMVs and Paradise
I did a bad thing last night and started on another Wolf's Rain AMV.

This is bad, mainly because I haven't finished an AMV in almost two years. The last one I made was to Wolf's Rain, too, sadly. I finished it the day after the fansub for episode 5 was released, so I felt all cool using footage from episode 5.

Me, been in the Wolf's Rain fandom long? Never! ^_^x

So, my last video For You, is one of my favorites but still needs a lot of work as far as AMVs go. I'm no where near anyone's level, but then again I make AMVs because I *like* AMVs. So if someone enjoys my video, then I'm happy. (And considering someone told me it's on their list of all-time favorite Wolf's Rain AMVs, it made my head swell up all pretty!)

So, working on another video. Maybe I'll actually finish it.

And working on the video makes me want to dredge up Tsukino Namida and work on it some more. I've come up with some interesting ideas for the plot that I want to play around with ... there's nothing like twisting around familiar characters to screw with people's heads.

Ack, I haven't finished nor updated the website since May. Nevermind the e-mail links are broken. *facepalm* Me, dig myself in a hole? Never!

Hm, I think I shall go upload more fanart!

---------------------

I write way too much. I've acknowledged this fact since the "Writing" folder on my hard drive hit over 5,000 files some time last year. I really don't ever seem to finish a story, either, and that's depressing.

Personally, most of my writing really isn't very good. I tend to go for the humor in things and that is evident in most stories. While I will write angst and romance, I tend to skip over those parts to get to the "fun" ... the fighting, and the humor. That's probably why most of my stories plod to a halt... I get all the "good stuff" out of the way and never feel like writing the rest.

Currently, I'm working on Prophecy, a story I started in high school. It belongs to the Pokemon fandom, and has a lot of good, strong characters in it. The problem lies in the 'villains' of the story, and their inherent... not-evil-ness. My bad guy is pretty damn bad, but he just isn't doing anything in the first draft of the story. I hope to actually stop stalling out on this sucker and actually finish it, because then I will have a bridgeway from one story (NextGen) to Falling Stars, and there's nothing like dark apocolyptic Pokemon fanfic to make a person happy.

Speaking of Dark Pokemon fanfic, who all out there has read Pokemon Master? Now that's a story that brings back memories, and has probably influnced every "dark" Pokemon fanfic I've ever started. (Contingency and Kitaku come boldly to mind, nevermind Falling Stars, which has a blatant homage in it anyway.)

---------------------

We're going to Pompilio's to eat tonight, since it's the Boy's 18th birthday and all. I haven't been there in years and years and years. And YEARS. Most of the evening will undoubtably be spent reminescing about the years my mother and cousin spent there.

It's incredible to believe that resteraunt used to be in my family. It was in a Tom Cruise movie! Of course, no one tells me these things, I found out by watching the movie. Nothing like pointing to scenes and going "I've been there. Oh! That's where we went on a field trip every year in elementary school! Hey, my great-uncle's resteraunt!"

Speaking of my cousin, must remember to smuggle picture of puppy to her.

---------------------

You know what's bad? When there's an add for a drug to make you taller on the top of your front page and the first thing that happens is Ed wakes up and screams "MINE NOW I WANT I WANT I WANT!!1!"

I need a fire hose and some new cages.

---------------------

Currently I'm watching Gundam Wing. I haven't watched the show since high school and, for the first time, I'm watching it in Japanese. I love the dub voice actors dearly but now I can see where people were coming from about the dub... the voices are grossly different. I like both the Japanese seiyuu and the English voice actors, though I think if I randomly yell "Takatori shi-ne!" again I'm going to get trampled.

I'm on the fifth episode and still I'm not hating Relena. Considering what contempt I hold her in, this is odd. I think it might be a case of the dub voice actor inflicting her lines wrong, because the dialogue has been similar in both languages, but in Japanese it seems to make more sense. Maybe I'm just crazy.

Also, I'm about six episodes away from finishing Asagiri no Miko. A cute show, but I don't think I'll ever watch it again.

Maybe at some point in the near future I'll have a comprehensive list of the anime I've seen.

Maybe.
Comments (0) | Permalink

Thursday, December 2, 2004

   Introductory Post
... and all that jazz. Wow, yet another website community to infiltrate and observe and... well, yeah.

So, who am I? A geek, an otaku, and a college student. I'm very much into animation, art, and alchemy. My three 'a's' so to speak. Though the last is definitely the fault of Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, I've developed the interest away from the show and currently I'm reading some treatise or another by Paraclesus.

I hope I spelled that right.

Anyway, currently I'm buried hip-deep in projects ... with NaNo all but over I'm pulling out some ancient Pokemon fanfics to beat into a mangeable shape. I specialize in something I refer to as "2nd Generation" fanfics ... aka stories that follow the descendants of the original characters or literaly happen the generation after the first story. It's something I love plotting out the best, where a character will be in "x" amount of years, and it also allows me to create characters with traits of the original but also with different traits as well.

I have a wealth of those fanfics, plus my own fanon-verse, named RK02. It started as a "modern-day" retelling of Rurouni Kenshin and has expanded to include the DCU, my 2nd-Gen Inuyasha and Escaflowne stories, Fullmetal Alchemist, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel and, oh yeah, can't forget Weiss Kreuz. There might be more things I'm forgetting there.

Yeah, that's a FUN story-verse.

So, I write a lot and draw just as much. I'm seriously plotting on creating the Philospher's Stone, my main issue is getting a hearth. So, working on that.

Also, I'm currently make a list of all the anime that I've seen. Yeah. THAT'S going to take some TIME. Even if I only fill out the anime that I've seen all of, that will take me a while. So, someday I'll have that list done.

Now, at the moment... I've got an FMA episode to catch.
Comments (0) | Permalink