tiptoeing through the clutter

10:49pm: http://natalie.mu/comic/news/show/id/23991

YAMI NO MATSUEI IS RESUMING.

Volume 12 will be released in January, consisting of manuscripts which were released over a period of time (i.e. the Hana to Yume stuff) revised, compiled and published at full size.

The serialization will also resume, although unless I'm interpreting that last sentence wrong it has yet to be announced which of the magazines owned by the Hana to Yume company will publish it.




.... And I would love anyone with decent Japanese skills forever if they would tell me whether my shaky interpretation of THIS article is correct in suggesting that there will be a five-volume sequel to Peace Maker Kurogane, the prologue of which is being made available on the site...?

9:44am: Oh, hey, I still have a blog.
CLEARLY, THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR A MEME.

( 100 Foods - How many have you eaten? )

The thing I like most about these kinds of lists is the memories they bring back. Food really is hooked into memory almost as closely as smell, and for the same reason, I'm sure: say Hostess Pie to me and bam, cherry filling, crunchy sugar crust, 85 cents at the clunky old art building vending machine on the college campus where I took summer art courses as a kid.... It's remarkable, really.

(Link me in comments if you do this one! I'm curious about your food memories.)

1:21am: Back home, and SPEAR
I have possession of something wholly awesome, which I've been tasked with returning to Japan appropriately! (Long story: uncle visited in the 50s as a boy, bought a weapon hundreds of years old from a museum that was almost closing from lack of funds, has kept it in a box ever since.)

I'll probably have to get in touch with, uh, I'm not really sure... maybe my old supervisor or something. Very competent guy.

In the meantime, however, I have pictures.

http://pics.livejournal.com/gardenfox/gallery/0000xr83

6:53pm: meme of "not dead rly"
( 100 books everyone should read... )

I'm not sure about some of these choices - The Five People You Meet in Heaven? Are you kidding? - and there are a number that aren't starred that I would dearly love to read, such as the John Irving books, A Confederacy of Dunces, the Tom Hardy books, and On the Road (how have I not read that already? Gah.)

On the other hand, there are a ton of books on this list that I have neither read nor recognize. Anything there I've missed that's really worth a read? Any shared tastes?

...And I am just as baffled as you are as to why both "The Narnia Books" and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are both on there. Ditto "The works of Shakespeare" and Hamlet.

(Extra points for those who can mark B but not A, perhaps.)

9:41am: In grand Memorial Day tradition, I burned my bangs off with a charcoal grill.

I probably shouldn't be quite so proud of this.

But the fwoooosh! was AMAZING.

12:26pm: Apparently a new strain of influenza is beginning to infect individuals in Mexico and the US. It seems more severe in Mexico, with about 60 dead, although that may be due to coinfection or other, unrecognized viruses in circulation (7 of 14 samples sent to the CDC from severe or fatal Mexican cases matched the US virus). Cases have been reported from New Mexico, Texas, California and New York, with evident person-to-person transmission, and the strain is sufficiently different from this year's flu vaccine that the vaccine will not offer protection.

(It's still a good idea to get vaccinated if you have not already been; this new virus is susceptible to Tamiflu, and the seasonal flu is, I believe, resistant. Becoming infected with both at once would raise the possibility of the two viruses combining and the novel flu gaining Tamiflu resistance.)

In good news, it doesn't seem to be a very deadly disease. It's primarily infecting young, healthy adults, though - 25 through 44 in Mexico, 17 through 40s in the US - so wash your hands and avoid close contact with people in public. Masks aren't a bad idea, either!

/PSA

(Those who are interested might want to check Effect Measure, the blog of an epidemiologist who's following the flu news quite closely.)

10:44am: my flower sense is tingling
...Anyone know how deep a pond needs to be to keep lotus happy? 'Cause we have this sand-and-gravel filter on our goldfish pond with a bunch of crud collected in it and peat moss and decomposing barley leaves. And Chawan Basu lotus is very possibly the most gorgeous water flower I have EVER SEEN.

(And the only lotus I've seen growing happily was in a natural pond/marsh waaaay over a kilometer in circumference, which wouldn't so much fit in the backyard.)

At least we're in a zone where we get frost maybe one or two times per year....

3:50pm: What Anime Character Stereotype are You?~
Hey Nil, hey Nil, the test says I'm tsundere :D

It lies like a freaking rug, but that will not stop me from clinging to that validation. It's fairly spot on with the meganekko bit, though, sigh.

Stolen from murasaki_kaze

( It's a tie! But only because I keep forgetting to set up an optometrist's appointment. )

8:32pm: artdump!
Original stuff of mine.

( Lucas Wingham, Master mage, set sometime around the sequel. )

( Nic, Master mage, around the same time. He didn't age well. )

( Lucas and Nic in their late teens. Yes, Lucas really is that short. )

8:17pm: Handwriting meme.
...because it seemed fun.

Stolen from nil_nova

( and I won't inflict the image on your friends pages~ )

11:25pm: Thought I ought to throw this out there~

Would anyone like some art? I can do fanart, original characters, pretty much anything although I can't promise that pictures with *lots* of people in them will be finished before the next leap year... basically, I need an excuse to get my drawing hand in gear, and so: comment here with art requests and I'll do 'em.

Think of it as an Early January present, because Christmas presents are, like, totally last millennium. They are also for people more organized and less prone to whim than yours truly.

(Also, I think my cat is suffering paranoid hallucinations. Either that, or there's SOMETHING under the bed that scares her into growling, hissing fits but not enough to make her come out. I'm not sure I want to speculate.)

7:28pm: Look, I haven't forgotten how to post!
...despite appearances. *cough.*

Been toying around with cel-style coloring; I'm still not sure I actually like it, but it's an interesting change.

( Prosper and Toxas. )

( Meinrad and Alban. )

( Pencil: sketches of Wolfram. )

9:11pm: New pictures. Well... "new." Meaning, I still have not actually scanned much of my sketchbook, but at least I have the old pictures that have not yet been uploaded.

( Tatsumi and Watari, pen and ink )

( Okita Souji, pen and ink )

( Okita Souji, Copic marker and crack )

7:55pm: ...totally inspired by infected_wound :D

( My RP journals, in rough order of use from oldest to newest. )

All those characters, and I've only ever played five fandoms. I fail.

...so that this isn't an utterly useless post, feel free to comment with any questions/suggestions/requests about any of 'em~

1:04am: hahaha i need to stop caving to these things
( Vital bits of yet ANOTHER LJ roleplaying application don't mind me. )

6:40pm: No I'm alive really I swear.

Also:

	None: You could easily get away with murder. You have the cold and calculating logic of a sociopath. For all our sakes, go hug someone.
from QuizGalaxy.com

You know you've been playing Okita Souji too long when your first reaction upon getting this quiz result is to giggle and say: "I'll keep that in mind~!"

No seriously. I got as far as the giggle before I caught myself.

(For those who may be worried, I am not a sociopath. I am a true crime buff. Who kept frowning at the answers and thinking up much better ways to do it, really. ♥)

9:49pm: na na na na artduuuuump
( Abel Nightroad )


( Really ridiculous amounts of Odessa Silverberg. )

3:29pm: I find these entertaining! In a sort of painful way. The rules are, if you want to do this, make a list of 12 characters (same series, different series, whatever) and then click the link for the questions -- and my answers with this list.

1) Methos
2) Ted
3) Susan Ivanova
4) Abe no Seimei (Onmyoji version)
5) Odessa Silverberg
6) Touya Akira
7) Tir
8) Shindo Hikaru
9) Kurapica
10) Gon Freaks
11) Abel Nightroad
12) Sir Integra Hellsing

( Questions go under here. )

7:29am: Ooh I love this meme.
Plus, need to post more.

Give me three characters from any fandom I know! I will choose one to marry, one to have sex with, and one to kill.

2:06pm: "Coffee in Heaven"
You'll be greeted
by a nice cup of coffee
when you get to heaven
and strains of angelic harmony.

But wouldn't you be devastated
if they only serve decaffeinated
while from the percolators of hell

your soul was assaulted
by Satan's fresh espresso smell?

-- John Agard

source



'Tis better to attend coffeehouses in Hell...

(this post has been brought to you by your local caffeine addict)

1:54pm: oh man, couldn't resist posting this.
Hilarious errors in English translation of Chinese menu.

Man, that beats anything I have ever seen in Japan for sheer WTFery. I suspect it's the tendency to translate character-by-character that does it.

(PS read the comments, at least one person who is fluent in both languages shows up to explain how you get "benumbed hot vegetables fried fuck silk" when you actually mean "hot and spicy garlic greens fried with shredded dry tofu." It is a thing of beauty and win.)

11:49pm: Suikoden III and random landscape
Got a few pictures finished this weekend~!

( Hugo, Suikoden III )

( Seaside sunset )

6:45am: Wow, it's been a while!
I'm finally getting back into the swing of actually producing art, as opposed to vegging and reading CFUD obsessively (seriously, I have to either cut back or stop lurking...) and I have a few pieces that I should have up here as soon as I get them scanned.

The D. Gray-man anime leaves me feeling deeply conflicted. They manage to make all the characters I love in the manga look even cooler -- major points. It's D. Gray-man -- major points. On the other hand, I have some quibbles with the acting choices that Allen's voice actress has made. I know she can do a lower-register voice, because I heard her do it in Hikaru no Go, but her Allen is so darned girly that Moa, in the first episode, had to throw her voice up about half an octave in their joint scenes to make sure that she sounded more feminine than the male main character. And, um, still failed. I was cooking dinner while I watched TV, and I came very close to setting my kitchen on fire because I had to keep turning around to see who had just delivered a certain line. The voices were remarkably similar.

And then in the second episode they did that painfully bad polka-dot background and sound effect to point out that Rinari was -- shock! horror! -- a woman in a short skirt. With nice legs. I cringed. I didn't really mind the lingering camera on her while she was bending over watching the video footage of Allen approaching the front door, because that was taken directly from the manga, but, um... they could just rely on the plot to draw in male and female readers. Really. It's a very good plot. Plus, gratuitous fanservice of Rinari hurts my admittedly black and depraved soul.

(There's a certain set of D. Gray-man characters that just do not go there, in my mind. Rinari, Allen, Rhode, and the Earl. It's my perception of them as basically little kids that causes this for the first three, and massive squick for the fourth.)

In happier news, there's going to be a Death Note anime, and it's airing at midnight, which gives me very high hopes that they aren't toning it down at all for broadcast tv. I'm still wavering on whether I want to deliberately stay up that late, or whether I'll just catch the fansubs or raws when someone uploads them. It will probably depend on just how good it turns out to be. If they get L right, I'll be all over that once-a-week late bedtime....

Suikoden III is really charming. I enjoy the fact that they have a female main character, since although Suikoden women always rock and I still kind of have a crush on Odessa Silverburg the main character role in the three other games I've played and one other game I've started (V) was quite firmly Teenage Boy Meant To Appeal To Player.

Okay, in IV he was meant to appeal to the player by having, er, a close third-person camera. And V has one of the most androgynous main characters I have ever seen. But both of them are male. Chris is an ass-kicking woman! In the best Suikoden style, which means not only does she kick ass but she kicks more ass and takes fewer prisoners than any of the men.

And they all worship her for it. Man, the Suikoden world is empowering.

Hugo is such a classic Suikoden main character that I called Certain Chapter One Developments practically in the intro to his chapter. Geddoe is really really cool and I look forward to the rest of his chapter (I'm only halfway through it. Gaming time limited by job.) Chris is my favorite of the three by a mile, though.

...The fact that I have a half finished portrait of Hugo on my dining room table doesn't invalidate that. Hugo has pretty eyes. Also, I can't draw armor to save my life.

Looking forward to appearance of Silverburgs, since I love them all and have somewhat spoiled myself by looking at quite a lot of 108 Stars lists. Whee, Apple's going to be back! I liked her a lot in II. Caesar I'm trying very hard to have no opinion on, since I haven't even met him yet, but I love his CFUD incarnation so much that it's not easy to avoid being influenced by that. Ah well, at least the CFUD GensuiIII trio inspired me to finally take a stab at the game; I had been planning to put it off until I got back to the US, since I don't have an English-language PS2 here and plus my English-language copy of the game is in my parents' house mocking my brother for saving at the wrong place in Hugo's first chapter (and, y'know, not leveling at all during the chapter, resulting in massive Zexen ownage while he tried to escape from Vinay del Zexay. He died the first time the knights caught him.... he died the first time the knights caught him ten times in a row. And gave up in a huff.)

Long story short, didja know you can pick up a copy of the game in Akihabara for 1800 yen? New, even. Why haven't they rereleased I and II for anything but PSP?? Also, the Knights' keigo hurts my brain.

2:11am: Christening post!
Well, I don't have much to say at the moment, so I'll just toss up my current clutch of sketches. Three D. Gray-man, one Saiyuki, one Hunter x Hunter.

( Under )