Thursday, June 07, 2001

Wai! It's Terry and Jay!

*Blinkblink* I can never remember -- do I actually _know_ why Jay is such a jerk, or has that not been mentioned before? I remember that their dad was not the world's nicest guy...

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:36 PM |

Heee. The Cute Guy At SunCoast's name is Aaron. No, I didn't ask... But I -also- didn't just hang out for hours and hours hoping to figure it out. My mother and I were birthday-shopping for my aunt Lisa and another clerk asked us if Aaron was helping us, which he was.

He didn't try to talk me into Akira or Robotech/Macross again, either.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:37 PM |

To change the subject abruptly... I do like some shoujo anime. Most of the time I prefer shounen/seinen (I think, since biseinen is the adult form of bishounen...) anime to the pink, sparkly glittery giggly/jiggly world that is shoujo, but sometimes... I -really- want to finish Magic Knight Rayearth, and I'd like to give the Magic User's Club a try. I liked Escaflowne a _lot_, though I don't know if it was shoujo or shounen. It might be like YuYu Hakusho (to me, anyhow) -- defying categorization because it has enough elements from each type to balance everything out.

Of course, it -helps- that Whatsername from Escaflowne and Keiko, Botan, and Hinagashi are all pretty much useful and strong anime girls, as opposed to fluff-brained do-nothings that you'd find elsewhere. *Ponder* Even Mihoshii and Sasami are good characters. *Files this away for later*

And to veer away from pigeonholing for a sec... I am _so_ in love with Rurouni Kenshin. And I've even made an effort to learn to spell 'rurouni' correctly. I keep wanting them to ditch Megumi, but then she does something spiffy and I take it back...

I do get tired of the whole tangled-romantic-affairs portion of the plot, though... Megumi can find a nice young doctor (there have to be more than -two- doctors in the entire city...), Kaoru can have one of her students, Yahiko can have Tsubame or Mariko (hell, he can have 'em -both-! They'd probably get along pretty well...), and Kenshin and Sanosuke can have one another. Problems solved.

Yes, I -do- need to write. Why do you ask?

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:40 PM |

Okay, remember the poster with the bishounen-looking guy on it, in front of a big, complex window with a bunch of blue mechanical birds around him, that I bought at StarLand? His name is Kazuhiko, and he's from CLAMP's manga Clover. It sounds nifty, despite the fact that it hasn't yet been translated into English...

-------

Ooooh... Prettyprettypretty. *Grin* The Gift Of An Enemy, by Sylvia. I thiiiink it may have been influenced by Ghosts, but it's a _good_ influence. And it makes me want to travel. XF slash, and huge, but worth a read if you need something new-old to get lost in.

Speaking of fanfic, Technomancy has some -delicious- stuff. Euphony* is absolutely bloody _exquisite_. I had no words, when I finished reading it the first time. All I could do was squeak and shiver. They also have a little chunk of Trigun fic that's Wolfwood and Vash that makes me wonder... (* It's an Irvine/Zell piece, wherein Irvine tells Zell exactly what he wants to happen... Go! Read! And remember: the world _needs_ A) more good slash/yaoi and B) more Zell stuff in particular. [/zealous babbling])

Well, kinda. Vash's scars are a -huge- part of his appearance, once you see them in Vash The Stampede, you really can't get them out of your mind, and they'll probably crop up in a fic whether you want them to or not. Part of it is probably the base and enduring fascination that humans have with scars; the instinctive reaction of "Gee, that probably _hurt_, but they -survived-. They _rock_!",

Or something. It's late.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:44 PM |

*Blinkblink* In fact, my poster is the artwork for the cover of the second volume! Cool.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:21 PM |

*Snickers softly at Scrubby* And if that's your idea of evangelizing, maybe you should go on tour. I didn't feel preached at while reading that...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:23 PM |

*Snerk* If you're me, and you see this:

MAILROOM CLERK
MANUFACTURING ASSISTANT

You, of course, misread it as:

Malfunctioning Assistant.

Darn, and here I thought I'd found a job I was actually -over-qualified for.

-----

Muh. You can tell how out-of-the-loop I am... What the hell is 'standard business attire' or 'professional dress'? I'm pretty sure they're not jeans and a t-shirt...

I need to find out how fast I type.

I'm not going to try to find out by heading out to the ADN... Their keyboard was filthy and their typing-test copy _sucked_.

"Must be able to type accurately." Well, I just did that, so... Hire me. Yes, I am a literalist, why do you ask?

Good God but I hate this part of the process. I -did- come up with another version of my resumé, though... Whee.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:24 PM |

This is kinda cool. Yesterday, this street-cleaner thing came along, cleaning just the shoulder of the road. I guessed they were cleaning it off so they could restripe this side of the road, and I was right! The paint truck came by earlier, and did indeed paint another stripe.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:26 PM |

Tuesday, June 05, 2001

Things I want for my birthday (since it's _not_ that far away, which is freaking me out, but for a very different reason than most people will assume...):

-- Yu Yu Hakusho: TV Series on DVD/CVD. It's on eBay for, like, 80 bucks. And I want it, badly... Just not 80 dollars badly. Yeek. And yeah, there are some one there for less, but... I still have a hard time paying more than 50 bucks for one item of anime. Muh, never mind, it's Just Me. So many things -are-...

-- Actually, just about Yu Yu Hakusho anything. And almost any FF8 thing... I'd _love_ a Zell poster or something.

-- A room-cleaning fairy. Heh.

-- The ability to figure out what the hell it is I want to do with myself.

-- The new Tool album.

-- FF8 soundtrack

-- Trigun The First Donut soundtrack; whatever the next DVD is because I've forgotten the name... It's the one after Puppet Master.

-- Almost anything Rurouni Kenshin-related

Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:57 AM |

Okay.

Why do I happily mess with the status-quo and happily write fanfic featuring characters doing things their creators never envisioned for _some_ things while shying violently away from any sort of fannish involvement for other things? And why should the -type- of fanaction be repulsive to me?

Well... For some things, like, Harry Potter stuff, I just don't get the subtext (Harry/Ron 'text, yeah, I see it. I'm just a leeeetle reluctant to do anything with it... More on this in a sec.). On RareSlash, someone was blithering about wanting to write a Draco/Neville story.

Uh... Ooookay. _I_ don't see how you could _possibly_ write a D/N story from what I've gleaned from the books. If you're going to write an AU, then hell -yes- I can see all sorts of potential there -- particularly for BSDM fic. Except for one tiny thing...

Draco and Neville are supposed to be just 14.

BSDM fic with 14 y/o's?

No. Noooo. Ahn-ah. Nope, nope, nope... Not for _this_ little black duck, thanks.

Maaaaaaaaybe, and this is a _big_ maybe, when they hit 7th year. But not _now_.

And I've said this before, but I'll say it again: Harry/Sirius, Harry/Dumbledore, and I thiiiiink Harry/Hagrid was mentioned, are all just _wrong_. Yick... No! *Shudder* Harry's 14 and famous -- too much like taking advantage of the kid.

And I know -why- I don't ever want to RP a favorite character from anime/manga/U.S. pop culture -- When I was evolving from RP Newbie to Seasoned Vet, one of the first rules pounded into my skull was "No Characters From Books/Movies/Etc!!". And I still live by that, because I learned it early and because I just don't think I could RP them successfully (that is, IC).

Writing fanfic is somewhat easier because I can go rewatch whatever it is I'm working from, make notes, and revise what I need to revise. I can't put an RP scene on hold indefinitely to do that. (Well, I could, but none of us would enjoy it.)

Another part of it, I think, has to do with honoring what someone else has created. I cannot _possibly_ improve on Alec and Seregil. Maybe I -could- write something up for their first time, being the sappy voyeur that I am, I really would have liked to have seen that... But on the other hand, I -can't- write any sort of AU adventure for them because I like them too much. I like Lynn's writing too much. And yes, I've blithered about this waaay too much. But still!

I... J. K. Rowling's books are... Different. Duh. They're both -very- adult books, in places, but what makes them adult is different... Ergh. This isn't coming out right... Hm.

The Harry Potter Books are -scary-, in places. There were things that happened in books three and four that made me worry, that made me unhappy -- CD has joined the others on my list. And there were definitely places in Stalking Darkness that had me holding my breath and trying not to let my eyes get all teary. Yeek.

But HP is also a very juvenile series, so perhaps a lot of my reluctance lies in that. The other part of it is that Rowling's world has obviously taken a lot of time, thought, and effort to bring together. I respect that, having been once attempted to keep control of an RPG with horrible branchy sprawly plots and subplots and subsubplots that twisted back on themselves. Fun, but _work_.

So maybe I just don't want to deal with continuity issues. (And yes, I hear you, Vic. I'm sorry, okay? For the ninety-eight millionth time, I'm sorry for forgetting what color your eyes were. And yours, too, Marc.)

I don't know.

Maybe it's just the Vash/Wolfwood 'fic-bug that's talking. Of course, it's vying for attention from a number of other pairing-bugs... *Grumple* I'm going to try to write, soon. But first I have a mini-art-rant than wants attention.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:59 AM |

Hee. According to Maxim's Hockey Name Generator, I'm either Patrick La Mitchelleau (I don't think so), Dougie McMitchelldyk (bleh), or... Pavel Mitchellov (ahn-ah). I'm sensing a very lazy, uncreative pattern here, aren't you? *Mutters and goes poking around*

Personally, I think I'd make a better Darren Pang or Eric Boguniecki -- we're all little wee guys, as Chris Pronger said of Boguniecki. (That's pronounced 'bow-guh-nicky', as far as I know.)

*Soft little snerk* According to the IHDB's stats on Pang, _I'm_ taller than he is! Heh. I kind of don't think that's so, but I _know_ he's a short'n'sawed-off guy by hockey standards.

Maxim link found at Pop Culture Junkmail.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:00 AM |

Artrant done, and can be seen on my Elfwood page, eventually. It's probably a little...militant, and not nearly polite enough, but I don't think it's verging on the 'I'm taking my dolls and dishes and going -home!-' rant that _was_ threatening.

I don't censor very many posts on those pages because I believe that everyone has the right to say whatever they want, even if I don't want to hear it or don't agree. (I have a _really_ hard defending hate speech, though... But I guess as long as they're only _speaking_ and not actively doing anything... Oh, who am I kidding. I still don't think it's okay. But if they don't get to have a voice, I myself run the risk of not having one... I don't like that, but I have to live with it.)

Er, to swerve abruptly back on-topic... I leave them there because it doesn't seem right to only have gooshy "I luv it!" notes on there. I _like_ them better, but more than that, I like things to be fair. Life isn't fair, the universe isn't fair, but I can choose to exert what little power I have to create a small oasis of fairness. Or something like that, anyhow.

Maybe I just don't want to look egocentric, even though I am... Just like most people. Heh.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:02 AM |

More research done on Panger: he's apparently 5'4'', which makes him -barely- taller than I am. Yes, I -am- easily amused, why do you ask?

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:03 AM |

I am _seriously_ considering fiddling with one of these templates, because they're -gorgeous-. However.... I get this nagging little feeling that I should -learn- from these and make my own. *Grumplegrumple* I guess I'm not as lazy as I claim to be.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:04 AM |

The reason that my upcoming birthday is upsetting me is kind of an unusual one: when I celebrate my nativity (which, of course, differs from naivety), I lose my health insurance. Not like working at ECA would -help- -- my bennies there are solely intangible, unless you count my reading/writing/blogging time -- but I could at least be making money to cover my insurance rates.

It'd be even better if I had a job that included medical coverage, preferably BlueCross/BlueShield, because I've been pretty happy with them. I was happier when perscriptions were two bucks instead of ten, but I really can't complain. I -could- have to pay full price, and for three months of Desogen that'd be 75 dollars, instead of 10. So I'm not ungrateful, no, far from it.

I'm just... worried.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:05 AM |

Speaking of ECA/The Rest Of My Life, I've got a rough draft of a plan that actually seems workable:

-- Go back to ECA part time, because I really did like working there, when I -could- work. Besides, I think I'm kind of a default member of Friends Of ECA, a new parent-oriented comittee... An offshoot/subset of the Auction Comittee, and I'll have to explain this all later because I'm digressing.

-- Get another part-time/full-time job in the evenings, or in the mornings on days I don't work at ECA

-- Go to school. I'd only take classes I was interested in, and that way I would A) theoretically pay less B) -want- to be present and accounted for and C) learn new stuff, expanding my knowledge base.

 

Sadly, this means two things:

1) I need to find another job -now-, so I can have the flexibility when school starts again

and

2) I'm never going to have any time to do anything except -work-! *Whinewhinemoanwhimper*

Yeah, yeah, I know: suck it up and take it like a man, when was the last time I did anything that resembled work, what am I complaining about I been sittin' on my ass for the last month with only one rejected job offer to show for anything, et freaking dadlike cetera.

I never want to do anything that's not my idea. Working definitely isn't my idea, it's whoever invented capitalism's. Damn them. Well, sorta... It's easier to pay money for anime than try to trade geese for it... But I still am highly resistant to the idea of working for a living...

Maybe I don't want to work because 'work' bears the connotation of needing effort put into it and I'm not one to put effort into something that I'm not excited by.

Or something, because I can think of more than one occasion where I expended effort for a cause that I didn't want to be involved in...

I don't know. All I know is that I resent having my alone/veg time being infringed upon... But I'd hate to pay 180 dollars for thirty thirty-milligram pills every month even more, so I guess I'll fucking do it. Somehow.

And to think that I was entertaining daydreams of being in AZ when when it snowed this year...

Sigh.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:07 AM |

I need to go write something, something fun and fluffy and probably laden with sex... *Pokes at stuff*

I wasn't going to say this, but I can't stand not-talking about it any more. I think that Hubie, Alvie, Carter, Zed, Cid and Bita would make a great cast for a comic strip titled Vampire Geeks. I haven't done anything about this because I have -one- strip to date, despite my desperate desire to have many, many more. Weird. I think it's because I don't actually _do_.... Oh. Oh, I forgot! Alvie's a programmer! *Bangs head against wall, softly, 'cause people are sleeping* And Hubie works at the library, and Carter's just a blustering doofus, and Bita's apparently trying to take over the world or something, Zed's...almost normal, and Cid... Well, I don't know what Cid does. Cid might actually be the token 'cool' character, once I figure out how to deal with his hair.

None of that changes the fact that I still don't quite know what to write about... I'm not a programmer, but I don't have to be -- I have enough books I can fake that, along with enough observations/interactions with clerks for Zed's part. And library activities are easy to write about, since I had Hubert's job (day version, though)... Bita, Cid and Carter are still kind of mysterious to me.

And before I came up with the name Vampire Geeks, there were a few other titles that I tried:

Fangy, Pointy Cowards
Dangerous Cowards
Armed & Dangerous Cowards
Pretty Dead Boys (doesn't work for Carter or Cid, who are not pretty (-and- not dead, in Cid's case) nor Zed and Bita, who are probably pretty but not dead. And Bita's a girl anyhow.)
Goth Is Undead (Just...no. Not to mention the whole Conrad-riff part...)
3 Beanbrains, A Crimmo, A Chick and a Clerk (No... Too dull, or something.)
Armed But Not Dangerous
The Craven Undead (I really liked this one... *Ponder* The more I think about it, the more indecisive I become!)
Quick, Hide Meeee! (this one's funny, but not relevant enough, I think)
Bubbles For Your Bloodbath (too Red-Meat-Titleish. Yeek.)

And last, but not least: Antialiased, which would work better for a Lucian/Istvan strip, I think. Not that I'll be doing that soon, either. But it has potential, if for -no- other reason than I can draw Lucian and Issy repeatedly with no loss of recognition. Heh. "No, it has no plot, no story, and no real jokes, but I still draw it faithfully..." "-Why!?-" Because I can draw them and people can tell them apart!" "I see..."

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:08 AM |

Well... It's only kind of fun, and it's not terribly fluffy, and it -doesn't- have any sex, unless you count gender-specific pronouns. Here's a little Cid.

 

Cid sighed a cloud of blue smoke and flicked ash onto the floor. It was a direct violation of three or four statutes, but he couldn't have cared less. It wasn't like anyone was going to -stop- him, after all.

The man looked unhealthy. There was a grey pallor to his skin; his hair was the color of leaves long-dead; and his eyes were bloodshot. He kept scratching, too, as if he carried a flea circus in his shirt. People were going out of their way to avoid him, which was fine with Cid -- he wasn't in the mood to be civil anyhow.

Well, almost everyone was trying to avoid him. "Excuse me, sir, but smoking is not allowed in this sector. In fact it's not allowed-"

"I know that. Give me my citation, please." He spat the words out, dropping the cigarette butt to the floor and watching it smolder for a moment or two before stepping on it.

"Gladly!" The security officer pulled a citer from his belt and began entering information. "Your name?"

"Alloysius." He smirked, sliding a ahnd under his shirt and raking claws across his skin. He needed to get out of here, off this damned station...

"Surname or fore?"

"Only."

"Quit playing games. I can arrest you, you know. I really -should- arrest you."

"But you're not going to, right?" Cid's eyes narrowed, drawing the officer's attention for the first time... The other man's gasp made him grin.

"N-no, I don't think I will... But I still have to cite you." He squared his shoulders and tried to look anywhere but the slitted pupils or the overly pointed teeth... "Surname, please."

"Recidivism." He spelled it.

"Forename."

"Cid, with an i, and yes, that's -all- there is to my name." Cid shifted his weight and attacked a skittering tickle on the nape of his neck. it spread down his spine until it was all he could do to keep his shirt on... And to keep as still as could be expected, when all he wanted was to escape.

"You're not in here."

"I could have told you I wouldn't be."

"Hm. In that case... Place of residence?"

"I don't know, yet." He pressed up against the wall, the chill of it helping to dull the irritation by the barest of margins.

"You don't -know-? I didn't mean where you were going, I meant where you were from."

"Oh. Jurai."

"Jurai... System? Planet? Moon?"

"System..." He thought that was right. Maybe it wasn't. No one told him anything. And besides, it wasn't like the place actually -existed-.

"Planet?" He hated suspects like this. Why couldn't they just get all documented on arrival and then everyone could have access to that information? He knew very well why, and it didn't help.

"Ah-Ahkten four. That's with two ah's." He arched a brow, wondering if this guy would possibly -buy- this outlandish claim.

"City?"

"Ersatz. One nine five seven Left avenue, block six, building two, unit Nifty." Sounded pretty good to him...

"And your galactic shipping code?"

"Thirty eight forty two ninety seven four." What the hell was a galactic shipping code?

"Thank you." The little machine spooled out a slip of thermal paper which he tore off and handed over. "Pay this within thirty days and see a damned doctor."

"Certainly." Cid took the slip and promptly crumpled it into a teeny little ball, watching the disgruntled civil servant trundle away. No, he wasn't going to see a doctor, because he already knew what was wrong... Instead, he dropped his garbage into a planter and sauntered off in the direction of the shops.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:11 AM |