Sep 2008 Archive, part a

A spork of my own, all my own! *huggles*

Iza scares you, does she? That's interesting. Flattering! Cheers!

*is happy, cuddling her spork* Never had one before; don't know HOW I survived...

I'm not sure if you got my email or not, but we'd rather like to have a few more than three questions answered for that application form, just so we get a clearer picture of your little Suethor.

Fynn, Kitsune, Makari and Ansela. If anyone else has sent some, I'm afraid I haven't got them.

you fill out the form as a TRC fanbrat and send them in to go through the OFU. I don't quite think Kitsune grasped that, but we can work with his form.

how do i enroll?

much of the series I can find on YouTube.

Sorry for not realizing this sooner.

More interesting than the average one.

Our own. I don't know about women feeling more comfortable with their bodies - there's certainly enough "This Is Pretty And You Don't Match Up" fashion around - but how can any of us really compare with another person? It involves getting completely inside their heads.

That said, it's a good theory. Cheers!

I can't understand how anyone could not get slash. ^_^" If you don't like the romance genre, then that's fine by me, but I don't get why someone would enjoy het pairings but not slash ones (unless said slash pairing breaks up their het OTP- I understand that all too well).

I'm thinking now about whether or not I'll write a second year.

Quick poll; who thinks I should? Given my poor track record of keeping it regularly updated ...

Makes sense. Does the old one have some sort of moderators/admin now then, in case the spambot returns?

A rare work of genius indeed. I might go so far as to title it an enduring classic.

...also, Vexen happens to be my favorite O.XIII member. :P

It's an awesome story, and awesomer because it's so true.

A rare work of genius indeed. I might go so far as to title it an enduring classic.

...also, Vexen happens to be my favorite O.XIII member. :P

It's an awesome story, and awesomer because it's so true.

Crazy crossover/fusion/AU things make me ridiculously happy. I've actually read most of that author's work; I haven't gotten through the one in question, but it was his or her stuff that put me back on to Bleach in the first place. 'Lone Flower' and 'Petals in the WInd' in particular - I read those and I was all 'hey, I should start watching that again, and pay more attention to the characters who aren't Ichigo, 'cause some of them are pretty darn nifty.'

Kenpachi Zaraki is rapidly endearing himself to me. *scowls*

Would this work? They're a set of letters I wrote to my teacher in seventh grade. It's quite a statement for my writing when it comes to casual topics. I swear that everything written here is absolutely true and please don't give out the information, even if it's not that personal.
There will be names not many people would recgonize, but then, reading my letters without background info is like reading fanfic without consulting Canon.

Letters To My Science Teacher: Destination Washington D.C.

Day One: April 5, 2008
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
HIIIIIII! I’m on a plane—a JetBlue plane, model A380. Right now I’m also watching TV. They’re built into the backs of the chairs. Pretty cool, huh? The show I’m watching now is 10.5, a sci-fi show about earthquakes and other natural; disasters. I applaud one of the characters’ (Samantha Hill, I think) tremendous knowledge of earth science. Earth science is so not MY forte. Ha. Later at seven they’ll be playing 10.5 Apocalypse. I want to see it, but by then I’ll probably be too busy learning more about Washington DC to be able to watch it.
I’m going to DC with my cousins Tony and Ashley, who like to call me Jenny-the-fur. (I personally HATE this nickname, so don’t get any ideas) Also coming along are my Aunt Sarah and Uncle Frank. They come up with the worst nicknames. (You can see them in the details book) Their dog, Rocky, is staying at home. Bet he doesn’t like that.
I wish you’d come along. Then I can have a conversation with at least someone who won’t be poking me every other word (Tony does that), criticizing me with a whole lot of swear words thrown in (Uncle Frank), making me feel insignificant (Aunt Sarah), or just being plain rude and immature (Ashley and Tony). Also, with them I feel like some alien from some distant planet in the Andromeda galaxy. It certainly isn’t fun feeling like that. Great…I’m not even in DC yet and already I’m school-sick (I don’t feel homesick, but I feel school-sick. How nice), and Portable C-sick. Boy, this is going to be a FUN vacation…
—Jenny
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
I am officially in DC now. Our plane actually landed in Virginia, at the Washington-Dulles Int’l Airport. We had to ride for about 40 minutes in a taxi to get to town, and so I took a lovely little catnap. After all, it was just as exciting as reading from the science book in class, but I would never sleep THERE. Our hotel is the George Washington University Inn and it’s just a block or so from said college campus. It has a really good Italian restaurant called Notti Blanche. It’s good, but expensive—dinner was $145!
—Jenny

Day Two: April 6, 2008
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
We went to the Museum of Natural History today. I like it. You’d probably like it too because they have a lot of evolution exhibits (which is to be expected from a natural history museum, right?) and a whole lot of fossils. Go Darwin!
Actually, we went at first to the White House, but they said that we had to apply for tickets through our congressman (Diane…something is ours, right? I forgot her last name.) Because it would probably take said congressman months to give a yea or a nay to the application, the White House was therefore out of the question.
But even before that, we ate breakfast at yet another expensive DC restaurant—the Old Ebbit’s Grill. It was so popular that the tables were all occupied, and we had to sit at the bar. The people next to me had so many Bloody Marys; I was getting sick of watching the bartender prepare glass after glass of tomato juice with celery. After breakfast, we had our White House tourist’s problem because my aunt and uncle did not consult with Diane whose-surname-I-can’t-remember. So we went over to the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, it was rainy and gloomy, and although we took some pictures, we decided to go again some other day when Uncle Frank can go get free tickets to go up to the top of the monument via elevator.
After that, we went to the Museum. Outside it was freezing cold, and I bet Mr. Angel would have loved to be there. He just thrives in freezing classrooms, and often told us that he wished that the air conditioning can go so low that it’ll snow in the room. Once we were inside, we visited nearly all the exhibits. I wandered away from the group once, because wandering around on my own or with a less annoying group than the one I came here with was something I did often. (I bet you’re imagining past field trips I would have went to where the chaperone had to call Lost and Found for my whereabouts.) According to Uncle Frank, Aunt Sarah had contemplated calling the FBI, and I don’t believe him. But anyways, I saw a lot of fossils and a lot of evolution. There was a mammals exhibit, an African culture exhibit, an insects exhibit, and the list goes on. One of the highlights of the day was watching the IMAX 3D film Sea Monsters: a Prehistoric Adventure, which was about a Dolichorhynchops osborni, or a Dolly for short. It looks like an older version of a dolphin, and the movie is about its life journey. Another highlight was seeing the Hope Diamond, a blue diamond that is supposedly cursed. What would have been a third highlight became a missed opportunity—the “Butterflies and Evolution” exhibit’s butterfly pavilion was closed. After tearing my eyes away from a pair of mating grasshoppers and their exasperated (and maybe scandalized) grasshopper buddies, we were told that the museum would be closing soon. We went down to the gift shop, and I bought lollisticks (they look more like candy canes without the curve, and are not peppermint flavored) for my cousins and myself and candy with bugs in them for Christina and Brittany. How appetizing…just kidding.
We went down to the cherry trees by the Potomac River and took a lot of photos there. Afterwards we ate dinner at a restaurant in Chinatown. Both of my cousins were complaining about their growling stomachs and sore feet. Back at the hotel, I had trouble sleeping because while our bedtime may be 9:00 here, back in Irvine it is still 6:00, and my biological clock hadn’t adjusted yet. So now I’m tossing and turning in bed, dreaming of what school would be like come Monday. That’s just how school-sick I am.
--Jenny

Day Three: April 7, 2008
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
We’ve decided to forego going back to the Washington Monument today because of inclement weather—yeah it’s raining again. Instead, we went to the National Air and Space Museum. It wasn’t as interesting to me as the Natural History Museum because I’m not interested in aerodynamics. I guess I just like things a little bit closer to home.
I bought a gyroscope from the gift shop, and I have no idea how to get it to work. Maybe M. Johnson can help, or you if you know anything about gyroscopic forces. It’s pretty cool either way. I should bring it to class one day…maybe. We watched a show about cosmic collisions in the planetarium, and learned how things can fly (and no, it is not gas propulsion, which was Tony’s immature comment. It is lift and thrust, which must overcome gravity’s pull and drag). In the IMAX theater I watched two movies: To Fly and Space Station 3D. I like the space station one more because it made space look like a nice and cozy place. It is about the International Space Station. To Fly is the inaugural film played for the grand opening of this museum, and it is about the history of flight. There was also a stimulator ride we went on—it wasn’t worth the money.
The exhibits were pretty intriguing, especially the satellite one where you could view the world from a satellite. I was zooming in on the Californian coast, although it most definitely is not Google Earth and I couldn’t find Irvine on the map. Or Huntington Beach, for that matter—no, I’m not trying to find out where you live. There were also a few displays about the electromagnetic spectrum, and a very awesome wheel that had a series of lenses and mirrors to show people how light is reflected in certain models of telescopes. One cool thing was that they had actual airplanes, rockets, and missiles hanging all over the place. I took pictures of some of them.
—Jenny

Day Four: April 8, 2008
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
Today we saw how money was made at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. You could smell the money there from the other side of the street. There’s money there, all right…loads and loads of it. Forget about bank robberies—rob the Bureau instead!
We got tickets for the 4:00 tour, so to kill off time we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum next door. For my favorite museums at DC, the Holocaust Museum ranks third, under the Natural History Museum, which is in second place behind the International Spy Museum. The exhibits were very touching and intriguing. I mean, Hitler positively brainwashed the Germans into thinking that their race was superior to others, and that life was constantly a battle for the survival of the fittest and the fittest should be them and not any “inferior” race. And for members of those in the “inferior” races, their life was brutal indeed. I saw pictures and videos about the executions of millions of Jews, homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabled, gypsies, and anyone who did not measure up to Hitler’s standard. There was a model of the gas chambers, showing hundreds and thousands of those people getting killed by asphyxiation. Some of those corpses were sent to doctors for medical studies, especially in the field of genetics (how could they!). Other live victims became the guinea pigs for other experiments that were on the same plane as torture. All of this was too depressing for Aunt Sarah and my cousins, so they went to see the Hishorn Museum while Uncle Frank stayed behind. We were separated again because I was actually paying attention to the exhibits. In the end, Uncle Frank had to send up museum workers to track me down. It certainly is not fair. Harrumph.
After lunch we went on a tour of the Bureau. They showed us how money was made. Did you know the bills aren’t made individually? They are printed on huge pieces of “paper” that is part linen and part cotton. There is about 36 or so forth bills on each sheet. The guide said that we can buy some of those sheets there in the gift shop. Isn’t that crazy: buying money with money? The gift shop also has shredded dollars in a bag. Altogether the bills in the bag have a worth of about $150…if they weren’t shredded.
We went to the Jefferson Memorial afterwards. From there you can see the White House, although it is very small. In the gift shop there I bought a replica set of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. All of them are reprinted onto parchment, and are somewhat hard to read. But if I could decipher the Tech Trek letter, I can read the Constitution replica. I don’t know whether to give it to Mr. Angel or to Mrs. Wimbrow, but I’d probably give it to the former because he also teaches US History. But that’s not helping my thoughts on what to get you…I’ll think on it.
—Jenny

Day Five: April 9, 2008
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
Boy, my feet hurt. We’ve set a record for most landmarks/attractions visited in a day today by visiting six. We visited the Washington Monument (Frank got the tickets at long last!), the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the outside of the White House—all before lunch. Bless the mighty mitochondria of my leg muscle cells! We took pictures outside of the White House because we couldn’t go in, but I’m fine with that. My aunt and uncle decided not to go to Monticello and Mount Vernon because they were too far. Sorry about that. The same fate befell the Roosevelt Memorial (both of them), the Pentagon, and the National Museum of Health and Medicine. I wanted to go to the last one because they had real body parts on display and there were stuffed germs in the gift shop. If we went, there wouldn’t be any question as to what I’d get you, but because we didn’t, I’m sad all the same.
This disappointment was somewhat alleviated by visiting the International Spy Museum. Their café, Spy City, had a wide range of hot dogs, but I don’t like hot dogs. My cousin Tony did, though, and had loads of cheese on his. How nauseating. I ordered a Panini. The museum, however, was not free because it was not part of the Smithsonian. But it was worth it because we had to assume aliases and anyone who knew me in elementary school knows that I love using fake names (I used my pen name on their valentines once). I was 13 year old Jane Meyer, who went to Ireland on a vacation (I wish it was for real). We had to withstand questioning by computerized guards and we crawled through air ducts to spy on people in the museum. There were real gadgets that real spies used, like a lipstick gun (Tony wondered if the spy using it would accidentally shoot him/herself because they forgot that it was a gun) and a shoe whose heel was actually an empty compartment. We also saw the history of espionage, and learned shocking things along the way. Did you know that George Washington started and led the nation’s first spy ring? Julia Child once served in the OSS and Alexander the Great read his soldiers’ mail to see whether they were loyal or not. At the end, we found our houses on Google Earth and shopped in the gift shop. On Google Earth I found the neighborhood near the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. I also found my house, by the way. Tony bought a mosquito prankster that buzzed in dark areas to annoy the occupants of the room. He pulled the prank on Frank (hey they rhyme!), who was nearly driven to insanity before he “spied” on Tony while my cousin replaced the prankster thing in his shoe. On hindsight, I really ought to have bought you a handheld lie detector. It would come in handy the next time someone violates one of your rules.
The Spy Museum really had an effect on me. While we waited to get our pizzas (that was dinner), I was suspiciously eying everyone. After all, about one third of the tourist population in DC are spies. I paid the most attention to people with bags because you can hide cameras and disguises in there. Because Sarah bought Tony books on the CIA and the FBI, I read those books while he immersed himself in Harry Potter and his Nintendo DS. I think I’ll be a scientist for the CIA.
—Jenny

Day Six: April 10, 2008
Dear Mrs. Fallace,
I went to the Capitol today with the others at 7:30 just to get tickets for the tours. Can you believe that you have to present yourself in order to get a ticket? No one can get more than one. It’s annoying because my biological clock cannot wake up at 4:30 (that’s Irvine time for 7:30). I envy you—you get to sleep in, and your biological clock isn’t thrown out of whack because you’re not on the other side of the country.
Our tour was scheduled for 12:45 so we toddled off to see some art at the National Gallery of Art, East Building. All I have to say is that some of the contemporary paintings displayed there were quite a waste of canvas. What is so artistic about two vertical lines on a blissfully blank canvas? Would you call that art? We then briefly toured the West Building, which was much better than the East Building in my opinion, even if they showcased quite an array of nudes and scantily clad people. We even saw the painting of Ginevra de’Bedici by Leonardo daVinci. Time soon ran out so we went back to the Capitol and toured the place. It is absolutely lavish. The place is practically stuffed with ornate carvings, chandeliers, paintings, and so on. If those were the results of our tax money, I am going to be so angry. There is a spot where all four zip codes used in DC come together, and we took pictures of it. Then, we went to see the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the Senate gallery, I saw where our current presidential candidates sat in the room. Clinton sits a few rows behind Obama, who sits in the front. McCain sits on the other side of the room from them, in the Republican side. He sits near the back. Uncle Frank insisted we sneak into the House gallery, and we succeeded, although I strongly disapproved of it. There we saw Nancy Pelosi

I have a horse owned by another character. It's called Methusel (no description yet). I keep thinking that it sounds familiar, like I've pulled a Paolini and transposed letters or added/deleted some. I've already ruled out Methredel from Oblivion (Thieves' Guild person), but there's still a nagging doubt in my head.

Woo! I'll probably have to say in an author note that Firefoot was around before I discovered Eomer's horse, just in case someone has a go at me.

The joke's appreciated by me, though.

At least, it's 1846 in this (at 3:45).

... because Psycho!Anthony goes a little nuts with the razor as well. So they'd most likely be fine as long as they don't let him hamstring them.

(Speaking of which, is it possible to grasp someone's leg nerve and "tug" it without breaking it?)

Seeing Rapist!Anthony was kind of like the fanfic version of being violently savaged by a baby rabbit.

Sky can't very well go as a woman in male clothing in Victorian London and she'd be unable to move if she wore appropriate womens' clothing, so it looks like a male disguise is the best way. She would probably make an even less convincing boy than Johanna does if it wasn't for the Disguise Generator ... But then that may spoil the funny of another mission I wanted to do later, in which all four of my agents wind up getting gender-bent without their consent. (The Sue in that one drags Harry, Ron and Draco through a portal which turns them into beautiful Arabian handmaidens. Yeah.) Thoughts?

At least they have an obvious way to dispose of the corpse of Anthony's creepy replacement.

Oh, and if anyone reads Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles fics, could you send any minis you find to Misses Cass and Angel? They're mini-kiji- little demons. Very friendly towards non-fanbrats.

It's almost done... I nearly got finished before school started, but then it did. So it could be another couple of months or more before it's ready for beta-reading, at which point I'll have to ask for volunteers again, because I can't remember who all said they would do it. >.>

This is why I don't expect to make a career out of writing.

~Neshomeh, who is either project-obsessed and hermit-like or too distracted by every-day life to write anything.

But people keep posting on the other one, too, and it's been slow enough lately that no one is really sure.

No threats against Authors. That's not what the PPC is for. The 'Sue, however, deserves to be resurrected and re-Rabbitted several times.

hS

while Audacity will only take MP3s, I'm pretty certain I know how to convert MP4s to MP3, so yes, I'll take MP4s.

I try very hard not to assume a writer is female, but it's so hard not to; it's definitely a point worth including in my (already-many-words-over-limit) essay. :)

I do want to note that, of female writers, the best ones I've known are also those that break the cliches; the Wicked fanfic I mentioned below was boring because of its cliches. I'll freely admit that I like a fuzzy, fluffy romance where it all works out Happily Ever After (and if Prince Charming is in-character for the original canon, then all the better), but cliches are dull, and really, that sort of fluff is best kept in a one-shot.

Now I'm sounding all defensive. Didn't mean to. That's my form of rambling, I guess. Cheers!

Cheers.

This "bad thinking" definition is very helpful; now that you say it, I remember reading a Wicked romance fic where the male lead was just... not completely out of character, but so obviously acting out this girl's idea of Prince Charming that it didn't feel like a real story anymore.

Sorry, rambling. Also, it's good to know, from a female perspective, that you guys don't feel shut out.

Thanks!

That's exactly what I was after. Thanks!

I think certain characters just reach a point where they're so much a part of our heritage that we accept they're Mary-Sues / Gary-Stus, but we can forgive them. I mean, with Mary Poppins, it says she's 'Practically Perfect in Everyway' so we know what to expect. Same with Ferris Bueller. The movie starts very confidantly, and we expect him to succeed. If he hadn't there would have been many feelings of disappointment, huh?

The tendency seems to be for people who've been sporked to come yell at the sporkers directly (or yell about them on anony-memes), so I don't think it's too likely.

I had the same panic attack when the spambot struck just after I did an interview with a badfic author whom Trojie (easily connected to me via LJ) sporked.

*hugs* It'll be okay.

... but I'm pretty sure he will at some point, so I'll ask everyone on the Pit to keep an eye out and report him to the appropriate real-world authorities rather than the moderators if he does.

Just imagine facing them down raw.