And ye shall drown in kawaii and sparkly, all the rest of thy days...

    I'm trying to do too many fun things all at once. *puts down the praystation controller* Dammit, why can I only get a "Perfect" when her cards suck, although my deck is better than hers? O.o And she's a five-year old, but she's kicking my arse.

    What a lovely Friday yesterday was! ^_^ We took a trip to Kino's, since we hadn't been there in a dreadfully long time. And they had the Saiyuki gaiden!!! WAI! WAI! And we didn't even have to order it! And they FINALLY had vol.8 of Yami no Matsuei, which made me very happy and sparkly, while becki went O.o. I can't figure out why she doesn't like that series. And I bought vol. 1 of "Wish," because I've been promising myself I'd do it for a long time. They had "Chobits," too; first time I've ever seen that there. And I was terribly tempted to buy the Saiyuki drama CD they still have there, but decided not to. >.> I'm a good girl, I am.

    We got a load of Kirin beer and rice crackers, and trucked it all home. Becki actually opened up my copy of "Wish" while I was trying to read the Saiyuki gaiden -- for anyone who knows her, she HATES all things CLAMP. In five minutes she was threatening to go into a diabetic coma. *snickers* But she flipped through the whole volume, anyway, and pointed out a few characters she liked. O.o So that's one CLAMP series she might possibly be able to tolerate, when I buy more. She won't look at "X," she despises "CCS," has mild dislike for "CCD," and kind-of likes "Duklyon." "Clover," she ignores; "Tokyo Babylon" irritates her. I haven't tried collecting "Suki dakara Suki" yet, or "Watashi no Suki na Hito," but I want to. (Mental note -- I keep forgetting to buy the other two vol.s of Clover; gotta do that when I have money.)

    I LOVE the Saiyuki gaiden. ^____^ Gokuu is so tiny and adorable!! And I love him! with long hair! And I love Sanzou! with long hair! (Well, Konzen.) I just want to pick up Nataku and hug him lots. He and Gokuu are adorable scampering around together. I need to learn more Japanese; as it is, I know enough to read simple sentences, but the more complex ones slip past me. >_< I need a better kanji dictionary, too.

    Last night we watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and it was... *blinkblink* ...well, it's not the kind of movie I would think I'd like, but it was really a great movie. It's loosely, loosely based on the Odyssey, but somehow it all gelled and worked very well.

    Sunday we're going to see "Tomb Raiders." XD It's all about Angelina Jolie, baby. Yeah, yeah, AI is out, and Jude Law looks like he put on a good performance, but becki and I decided we could wait 'til it comes out on DVD. >.> Spielberg is an odd one. When he's good, he's very very good. When he's bad, critics ph34r to pan him.

    Hits lately... the mummy returns fanfiction... Noo, I swore I wouldn't. *glances guiltily at in-progress folder* Really. Erotica fanfiction. *snickers* Yes, but it's all down right now. I'm archived in various places; most notably KnM's site (see sidebar). Japanese meeting etiquette again. XD I bet they got a nasty shock when they arrived at my pita. nude pictures of final fantasy 8 people... Ewwww. No. Well, I wouldn't mind seeing Squall and Irvine nude. *refrains from commenting further* And finally, Gravitation DVD series opening and ending. Boy, are you dreaming. O.o

    And the damned cat WILL persist in pushing things off the coffee table. *lobs another paper ball for him to chase* *stares at the floor littered with paper balls* Little bastard. Usually he fetches them for me, but he's being prickish this morning.

    Elysaaaaaaaaar!! LOVE! AND! PEACE!! And enjoy your vacation, okay? You do deserve it, yanno.

    And now, I shall trot off happily to beat the five-year old at cards and make her cry. And sparkle some more over my manga acquisitions.

    tay-chan gave into evil impulses on Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 08:52 a.m..




    Have no ph34r, b33r is h3r3.

    Okay, here I go... This could probably be construed as butting my nose in, but I'm a yaoi no hentai. I can't not say something.

    I wanted to agree with Thea in that a) there's a lot of bad, cheezy fanfiction out there, period. This includes fanfiction of the yaoi persuasion. (And this is where I admit to adding a certain percentage of cheezy fics to the equation, myself, especially in my salad days as a yaoi author.) >.> And b) many yaoi fanfictions are written pre-supposing that you like the pairing, so there's an established fanbase. This can eliminate a lot of the set-up that would make a pairing more believable for a first-time reader.

    I find, in general, that I feel less of an urge to write fic for "established" pairings rather than pairings with slashy potential from shounen or other series. (Serii? O.o) It took me about a year to write a Touya/Yukito fic, but all my other fic of the same length averages three months or less.

    Why is this so? Well, there's more tension and interest in the stuff that's slashy, rather than just assumed or relatively well-established in the manga/anime itself. I really like Touya/Yukito, have another in-progress fic with them planned out, but by far it's more interesting to explore the relationships between Aya/Yohji, or Zax/Cloud, etc.

    Why is Yohji slashy? Good god, the playboy who says he's "only interested in women over eighteen." Well, for starters, I could show a couple of official Weiss Kreuz images that are very yaoitic... *grins* No, really, from the start Yohji never struck me as dead-on straight. There are little hints, here and there, that he may not be entirely so. It all depends on how wrapped up in the character you are. Becki's been studying Yohji ever since Weiss Kreuz came to her attention, so I've had every single possibly slashy instance pointed out to me at one time or another...

    As for Kirk/Spock... *shudders* Well, personally, I think it's just Wrong, and have never nor ever will read a slashfic involving the two of them. Yet I can understand where the writers are coming from. It's a deeply emotional connection between two men, and it's an ongoing one.

    Fuu. Yes, two men can have a deep friendship and have it be absolutely not-sexual. >.> (I assume so.)

    On the other hand, when you have such a deep connection to anyone, sometimes a little bit of sex sneaks in. I speak from personal experience. >.>

    And Zoe Sionneach said in conversation, and I don't think she was just rambling:

    There are a lot of reasons why some people would see a "heterosexual" character as gay. Admittedly, some of that involves stereotyping; my initial reaction when I saw Youji was, "God, could he LOOK any more flaming?" And some male characters tend to behave in ways we normally associate with women or stereotypically gay men. But stereotypes are only part of it.

    With any character, all we know of them is restricted to what his or her creators choose to show us. Some of what we're shown is upfront (e.g., who the character is, what they do, what side of a conflict they're on...), but some of it isn't. Some characters are defined so generally that we have to do a lot of reading between the lines to try to get a "feel" for him or her -- and some of those more subtle cues may not fit precisely with what the creators show us, especially where sexuality is involved. Further, there's no guarantee that any two (or more) fans will interpret those cues the same way. And in cases where a male character IS written as attracted to (or involved with) a female character, many fans will compare and contrast his behavior when he's with *her* and his behavior when he's with other characters -- and the "canon" relationship may come up short, for a variety of reasons (she seems closer with her best friend than to her "boyfriend"; there's more sexual tension between him and his rival; she's written with no personality whatsoever, etc.).

    In Youji's case, yes, he is written as a playboy, and yes, men ARE listed as one of his pet peeves in his character profile. (Talya would like to interject that her gay friend Shaun lists men as one of his pet peeves, too.) Some fans are content to take this at face value, and that's okay. Others, though, look at his womanizing and blatant flirtations and see a man with a severe case of denial. Or they see him putting up a false front so as to keep his "true" sexuality from the others, for whatever reason -- after all, he is the oldest of the team and may feel he has to act a certain way around them, either to "set an example" of some sort or because he doesn't want to make them feel uncomfortable around him. Or they see him as bisexual, not strictly "lying" about his sexuality but simply omitting certain details around the others, again for whatever reason.

    It's important to note that no two people are going to see any character the same way -- the Youji I see is going to be different from the Youji you see and (especially) from the Youji his creator sees. That's one of the more fun parts of fandom for me, actually -- getting a chance to view a character in a different light than I would normally see him or her. Granted, I find some of those interpretations more appealing than others, but that's the nature of the beast. I mean, let's face it -- fandom would be boring if everyone thought the same way. ^_^

    Thanks, Zoe. You definitely said some points I agree with, and would have missed.

    And now, my own rambling over and done with, I'm going to finish my beer and pizza. XD XD XD Dammit, I worked ten hours today; I deserve it.

    tay-chan gave into evil impulses on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 07:12 p.m..




    When Pain!tay takes over, nothing gets done...

    Well, the bills are paid, and that's about all I can ask of myself right now. -.-

    I archived, and it was the Monday of Mondays at work, so I'm going to collapse into a ball on the sofa and attempt to chew my dinner. This could be a royal mistake; my jaw is aching a little. (I blame it on a few of the yawns today.)

    I was going to respond to Dr. MM's blog on Yohji, yaoi, etc. etc. but I don't have the energy. Maybe tomorrow.

    Annnnnd...it's time for dinner! *winces*

    Puu, fuzzle-fuzzle! Hope things are going well! How is the layout coming along? *looks hopeful*

    tay-chan gave into evil impulses on Monday, June 25, 2001 at 06:47 p.m..