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Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
sepiamagpie
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8:36a
Castle Waiting
In my last post I briefly mentioned Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and I think it deserves more than a quick shout.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting my friend Ann and what is now customary we went to the bookstore and I aske her for comic recommendations, and this is one of the things she handed to me.
The plot is, essentially, what happened to the castle after Sleeping Beauty left with her prince. In Castle Waiting, it's become a sanctuary and in volume 1 (volume 2 is shipping its way to me right now. I'm sort of dreading it because 1 was a paperback, weighed two pounds, and made my hands shake when I read it. Volume 2 is a hardcover) we follow the adventures of a new resident, Jain who has come to have her baby, and in the latter part the adventures of Sister Peaceful, who is part of a sect of bearded nuns.
Lots of jokes and character humour, and except for the Sleeping Beauty opening, not especially fairytale oriented, besides everyone living in a world where those sorts of stories do take place, just not to these characters.
There's some strong Christian elements (because nuns) which seem to be less about Christians and more about bearded women, which I did not object to. Skeeter, the little novice with the huge mustache is adorable.
There's a rough, racist bit about Roma in the first third, which is mostly redeemed in the last third, but be on alert for that.
Castle Waiting is sweet, easy fantasy with a lot of charm and the art is fabulous. My biggest regret is that I could not get a good picture of Nessie (Sister Peace's good friend) that was on one of the covers for this post.
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sepiamagpie
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4:32a
What is my weakness? Books!
From 'Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett, first in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy
I've been reading a lot lately and forgetting to, well, mention it. A lot of it's been comics (I heartily recommend Castle Waiting by Linda Medley, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks, and of course I'm super excited they're publishing the Ruby and Sapphire arc of Pokemon FINALLY. There is something satisfying I can't even explain about seeing the games in art the way they were in my head. Also, the Ace Attorney comics are surprisingly pleasing! This has been a long sidetrack.) which aren't as easy to review, but the books have been pretty good for the most part.
Read some Christie, Poirot's Early Cases as well as And Then There Were None, both of which I really enjoyed. The second creeped me out pretty good in parts. The basic plot is, people are summoned mysteriously to a house and then they start dying.
Right before the above quoted book, I was reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo which is about a porcelain toy rabbit who is loved very much by a little girl, but doesn't care about her. One day he's lost at sea and ends up passing through the ownership of people he comes to care for very much and anyway, I had to shut that book down in the middle while I was reading because it made me start crying on an airplane. Considering I was also suffering from pretty bad food poisoning, I felt I'd alarmed my seatmate enough for that ride.
Kate DiCamillo wrote Tale of Despereaux, which remains one of the best books I ever read, and this one isn't disappointing. When I found her other books were available as ebooks, they got boosted way the hell up on my to-read list, but are now officially 'do no read in front of other people' books.
Right after shutting down the book to regain composure, I had to choose another book and fast to switch gears. I chose Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett, a YA book he wrote early on. His early stuff is kind of dire, but it was just what I needed. It's full of interesting character descriptions and a fun videogame story with an alien race I like.
The only problem was the main character, Johnny Maxwell who was inoffensive but so generic that once he started interacting with the girl in the story I started desperately wishing he was Janie Maxwell because at least I wouldn't feel like I was reading about a cookie cutter protagonist and it would have made parts of their interaction a lot less urgh to read.
I'm starting on the next book in the trilogy now, Johnny and the Dead which ominously starts off with Terry Pratchett explaining Pal battalions.
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(comment on this) Monday, June 17th, 2013
ayala_atreides
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11:24p
Batshit bizarre anime pirates everywhere....
So, earlier this year, I randomly picked up Volume 1 of the One Piece manga at a bookstore one night. I was bored and I was delaying having to go back to the place where I was living at the time. So I read part of it in the store and then bought it and took it home and kinda forgot about it. And then, on the plane ride back home, I brought it along as my in-flight reading. I read the whole book during the five-hour flight, and was intrigued. And then just a couple weeks ago, I started the anime-- watching the subtitled episodes on Funimation's website. I'm now up to episode 30.
This show is so bizarre. It's unbelievably over-the-top. It's even more absurd than Gurren Lagann, and that's saying something. This 600-episode series has outdone a show with a galaxy-sized mecha, and I'm not even halfway through the first 100 episodes yet.
And I FUCKING LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Seriously, I love this goddamn stupid show, it's amazing. I want to hug it and all of its hilarious characters. I'm not even sure that I could pick a favorite from the main crew. They're all so wonderful!
(And yes, yes, I know I should continue reading the manga. I will. But with a show crammed with this much action, seeing it in motion really adds that little extra kick.)
Also: that fucking theme song. That bastard is the catchiest tune ever.
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poisonyoulove
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12:53p
In any other world
Wank? In my fandom? It's more likely than you think.
You know, a lot of the people in Mika fandom have no other fandom experience. Sometimes it shows. For example, 50-year-old Originoflove63 doesn't realize that when creating sockpuppets, you don't use exactly the same punctuation/grammar. There was a second sock I saw a few days ago, but I am too lazy to scroll back far enough to find it. She tweets A LOT. (edit: another sock, and another LOL)
She's pretending to have been on a trip through Europe, to see Mika in concert, but ip evidence shows she's not left home. She's posted (then deleted) photos with watermarks on them as evidence of her whereabouts. People have called her a liar, and she has Flipped. Her. Shit. . . ranting about the horrible bullies who've unfollowed her, then emphasizing how it doesn't bother her. Over and over and over.
I love how her sock is kissing up to the fandom's biggest troll.
Edit: 6-18 Shit has GONE DOWN. LOL! She's created more socks, and is freaking out about people calling her names. She's trying to report this to Mika!
@mikasounds Sorry Mika for everything you are going to read from Fans.But myself have been called a Pitbul once by *name withheld by me*
She was called a pitbull because she was frothy with rage and harassing fans because she wanted to be the fandom police. Someone had uploaded some concert video after he'd made an announcement about not wanting people to record a new song. She was in hysterics over it.
She goes on and on and on then starts badmouthing the MFC, making it sound like a wretched hive of scum and villainy, then points out . . .
I know some are really nice but about 6 to 8 of them are bad!
Okay then! ^_^
Also today, people seem to have caught on to the fact that Kodes100 isn't just a middle-aged male Mika fan who seems to like to befriend teenage girl Mika fans, but he's also one of the trolls who routinely refer to the (mostly adult female) members of the MFC as nasty cows.
Basically, there are "6 to 8" ladies who've been around since the dawn of the MFC, they're friends and have met Mika lots. Also, some of them are mods, so between jealousy and hurt feelings over being told off when breaking rules, there's a small group of former MFCers who hate them. These former MFCers make it a habit to bitch and moan about how horrible the whole MFC is, specifically calling these 6 to 8 vile names and following them around to troll them. When called out on this behavior, they scream about how the 6 to 8 are just big old bullies for pointing out their trolling.
Come on, everybody! Can't we all just love today?
Edit again . . . OMGWTFBBQ?! Apparently I. AM. THE. MFC. And she has an explanation for her ip situation . . . Screencap
current mood: *sporfle!*
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spawn_of_kong
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11:56a
After watching the Blu-ray editions of the original Star Wars trilogy, I realized -- I honestly do not mind nearly all* of the changes that have been made to the films over the years. At worst, they make me go, "...Huh," instead of sending me into frothing fits of rage.
Am now wondering if there's something wrong with me.
*The only change that honestly annoys me is how in every re-release of A New Hope, they keep changing the noise Obi-Wan makes to scare away the Tusken Raiders, with the Blu-ray version being perhaps the silliest.
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fandom_wank
[ ladyofviolets ]
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7:58a
Further proof that ship wars will never ever end.
All right, this one's a little late according to the WR comment, but I'm posting it anyway because this shit's too damn funny to let it pass.
Search the Taiora or Sorato tag on tumblr and you might run into the news that Hiroyuki Kakudou, the director for the first two Digimon series, recently answered questions about Sora and Yamato getting together at the end of Digimon Adventure 02 instead of the statistically more popular favorite, Taichi and Sora, on his Twitter account.
A while ago, Jippy posed a couple of questions to Kakudou via Twitter about what went on with the executive decision to make Sora and Yamato the canon pairing. He answered that Sorato had been planned since the beginning of Digimon Adventure, and that Taichi and Sora were never meant to be. Jippy took to tumblr and made some tl;dr posts discussing his replies, as well as using it to push her explanation of "Sorato is real" and overanalyzing the Taisorato relationship to contribute to individual character development, along with contradictory statements that Digimon was supposed to focus on friendship, not romance.
Lots of butthurt ensued.
( And here is some of it! Warning, tumblr links )
I personally never had a bone to pick in this fight since I hung out in the Jyou/Mimi corner and refused to touch the Taiora vs. Sorato vs. Taito bullcrap (specially since Sora was so hated by all "corners"), but still. Dammit people, it has been like... 10 years, if not MORE?
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(24 comments | comment on this) Saturday, June 15th, 2013
(4 comments | comment on this) Friday, June 14th, 2013
(6 comments | comment on this) Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
(43 comments | comment on this) Monday, June 10th, 2013
(6 comments | comment on this)
(comment on this) Sunday, June 9th, 2013
ayala_atreides
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11:24p
What a Twist!
So, quantumreality just dug up some of my old JF entries about Failbender. And with the recent release of Shyamalan's latest stinkbomb, After Earth, I had a thought.
You know how he initially became famous for the "Shyamalan twist" endings to his movies? Well, the biggest Shyamalan twist of all turned out to be his own career. He started off brilliantly, produced a couple smash hits, was being hailed as the next Spielberg... and it's all been downhill since then. Back in the days of The Sixth Sense and Signs, no one could ever have seen that coming.
(Also, the spellcheck in Chrome recognizes "Spielberg" as a legit word, but not "Shyamalan". Fun fact.)
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(2 comments | comment on this) Friday, June 7th, 2013
(82 comments | comment on this) Thursday, June 6th, 2013
(2 comments | comment on this) Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
spawn_of_kong
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3:54p
"Sinbad" (2012, BBC)
BBC's short-lived series Sinbad (soon to air on SyFy) is an odd duck. On the one hand, it's not what I'd call "good." On the other hand, I can't stop watching -- I need to find out what happens next.
Also, while the series can't compete with the Harryhausen Sinbad films in terms of monsters, it does get major points for having a rather ethnically diverse cast, including the always masterful Naveen Andrews.
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