Memoirs of the Angst-Bitch

I did it! I finally caught up on my LJ readings. I need to stop being a plurk-obsessed slacker and actually like check this thing once in a while. I had some rants (mostly dealing with Katsucon and its ability to make me feel completely detached from the world yay -- aside from realms_of_life who is love), LJ plastering my screen with game ads (no I don't care), jeers for the Maryland General Assembly for being so indecisive on the gay marriage bill and refusal to watch then new ponies (I woooon't.)

I also had kudos for sari_15, whose essay on the latest VK Chapter makes me feel like a lazy slug who really needs to get around to reading that chapter and analyzing it properly. I need to shake my VK annoyance in general because the developments in this chapter are actually quite interesting and could add something different to the Zero situation. That reminds me, I really should hang up my pretty Zero poster already.

It has been a very mixed week for the Nayami, with mood swings a plenty. I need to catch up on Star Driver, Young Justice, Drag Race and the manga I picked up from Katsucon. I also need to go check out King's Speech and do some other D.C.-related things. I have been having much fun with The Lost Hero, which pretty much spares itself of any of the character issues that plagued the first series. I still want my Thalia though.

I had poli-rants but they can be summed up as: MAKE UP YOUR MINDS PEOPLE.

So I didn't realize "The Thief" was actually a children's book and spent 15 minutes searching through YA before I finally learned the truth and had the super-fun experience of crawling around on my hands and knees while trying to find it in the shelves. Note to self, get Thief series on Kindle next time. I wanted to pick up "The Broken Kingdoms," but it wasn't there so I went with "The Giver" since I've never read it and the last of the "Shadows" series by Brent Weeks. I have to decide whether I want to stick "Firestar's Quest" somewhere in there, possibly after the Weeks book to give me something easier to read. The first two should be a breeze after all.

Oh, a coworker also gave me the "How to Train Your Dragon" artbook, which is lovely, and the Justice League, which I need to get around to watching. Probably I'll start on that today. CFUW kind of devoured my time yesterday. realms_of_life and I spent the other week watching "Batman/Superman:Apocalypse," which terrified me with the realization that the old man I spent the entirely movie wanting to go away was actually Granny Goodness (shudder) and "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths," which was just fun because poor Batman. I also discovered Amazon gives me Buffy episodes for a buck and might have spent at least $10 on that this week. I won't be doing that anymore since I have $400 dollars on my checking account, which I shouldn't, and I don't want to mess with that money unless I need it for gas and food. Ugh, I have to call and sort that out.

Also, I miss the Geass recap chats. What happened? People weren't around on the holidays, and I haven't seen them since. I'd post them myself, but I'm super lazy about doing screeshots and summaries; I just like to talk.

I am obsessed with Warriors and do nothing but read them. Except for now when I'm marathoning S4 Buffy. I love the episode where Faith comes back, so psychological. I also found out I read 26 books for 2010; this is actually a great accomplishment for me. Also a plus that I'm FINALLY not sick.

Oh yeah, my birthday ice cream cake melted.

If anyone asked for cookies and did not receive them by this point, let me know so I can send a different set or something.

I'm reading Michael Cunningham again since I finished "Curse of the Chalion." It was pretty much awesome, even if the end was a bit wonky. I even wrote a review on goodreads. But back to Cunningham, my love with him is an outlier to what I usually enjoy. I don't devour his characters, nor do I demand especially compelling ones as I might with any other writing. I'm never actually that excited by the stories they tell either. What holds me about Cunningham is his writing. I envy it in so many ways and know I will never be able to achieve anything like it. His writing draws me in and makes me relish every sentence like a gourmet dish. Just the way he captures the way people think, talk and live. It's like he's simply talking to someone on the street about his own life. That's how naturally his characters flow. All the little details about the things in their rooms, that one time in school, their promiscuous siblings. I wonder how it all just comes to him. Does he even have to sit and plan it out or is it just natural writing? Sometimes when I read Cunningham, I wonder if my writing comes off as pretentious because I over-think everything about my characters and don't have as much imagination for innocent side details because I want to drive home motivations, traits and personality. Whereas Cunningham presents his characters like people and his dialogue, not like a script of nothing but direction but more like talking. It's not really lyrical, although I would tell anyone Cunningham's prose is indeed beautiful, but it's so personal. It's the type of imagination, creativity and understanding of humanity that I yearn to show in my own writing. It's the writing of someone who has really lived.

I guess now people know why Cunningham is my writing idol.

Also, if you don't like Cunningham, that's fine too but if you mention it here, I will cut you. Just saying.

I decided to not fail at life today and go see Gabi. We watched anime and I has thoughts!

( Star Driver )

( Legend of the Legendary Heroes )

Also, in regards to "Name of the Wind," dang is little Kvothe a Mary Sue.

I solved my book dilemma by flipping a coin. So far "Shadow's Edge" is quite interesting. Plus, it has more of sexy assassin Vi so that's always a bonus. In other library news, "The Passage" ended up being a day late and when I picked up books yesterday nobody told me I had a fine. It's not like it's going to go up, but I'm still irked.

I was in an Elfen Lied move yesterday but wasn't quite up for a rewatch so I did the next best thing. I watched Sage's Elfen Lied Abridged, which is a masterpiece in both TERRIBLE DARK HUMOR (no, I am serious, if you have seen EL you can guess what he's going to be mocking YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED) and plotty humor. I am sad he only did 10 episodes for a 13 episode series but oh well. Elfen Lied is always a special series for me since it had so much I don't like: rampant nudity for the sake of nudity, main characters that I want to bludgeon in the head, overt violence to women, loli abuse because you have to meet the loli fetish and over-the-top depressing back stories. But the over-arching story is just so good! As are Kurama and Lucy. They more than make up for the suck. More people should watch because whether you like it or not, it's an experience.

Sadly, my search for something to fill the void the missing three Abridged episodes left in my soul led me to Vampire Knight Abridged (Warning: Yuuki's voice is LOUD AND PAINFUL), mostly because all Code Geass parodies rely on memes and don't know how to do humor in an interesting way suitable for CG. Anyway, I'm not going to lie, Gabi and I are totally addicted to VK Abridged. It starts out kind of shaky but gradually gets quite good.

Pros: Zero is an asshole I love this, Yuuki fantasizes about Kaname/Zero yaoi to the point that Kaname has to explain to her that he and Zero aren't going to have babies, Aidou is flamboyant and in love with Zero, Twilight jokes beautiful Twilight jokes, any scene with the Night Class together is magical especially with bitching Shiki, Yagari is a pirate and Zero calls him Daddy, Zero and Kaname's fighting over Yuuki is amazing, Cross wailing about his BABIES, great one liners, Kaname and Zero's voice actors slay me. Oh yeah and the vampires are crazily addicted to chocolate and shiny things LIKE KITTIES Zero is secretly fond of shiny things as well. :\ This is perhaps my most favorite random vampire trait yet and I have "borrowed" it for my one AU.

Cons: YUUKI'S VOICE WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO SHOVE GLASS INTO YOUR EARS AND IS PAINFULLY LOUD, Yuuki refers to Zero as Edward although she loosely explains why late into the series, a little much focus on Kaname's emo, one or two jokes regarding noncon venture a little too much into the mrrr area, people are harsh to Yuuki but she is more a Twihard than a Bella, the voice actors like to cuss more than I think is necessary.

But yeah, I'm addicted and stayed up entirely too late watching this nonsense. It also made me miss pre-timeskip VK hijinks. Le sigh.

I kind of love the idea of spoofing Family Circus, Charlie Brown and Garfield into political humor.

I want to comment on Woodward's new book, but I need a few days to let it all sink in. Wow.

News has been fairly depressing, what with the recent atrocities committed by some rogue U.S. soldiers, El Diario backing away from gang coverage due to the death of yet another of their journalists and the bizarre obsession with Christine O'Donnell's comments about practicing witchcraft when she was in high school.

I am also less than pleased to learn that my family has been keeping major secrets from me again, particularly about the status of my niece and the health of my sister. My brother, though, is doing well and looks to have a good start at a career. I even allowed him to give me a shoulder massage the other day, and he did a good job.

I'm not sure which TV show I want to follow this time. I've been hearing good things about "Lone Star," "The Event" looks to be after the Lost cult and "Boardwalk Empire" keeps getting compared to "Mad Men," which I admit, for me, is not an endorsement. The latter does promise me gangsters and boot-legging though, plus Steve Buscemi so I might try it out of sport. I am still debating on whether I will attempt "Lone Star" or "The Event" tonight.

( The Passage was a great experiment in writing and a fascinating origin/mystery story, but I have to say that I can't really recommend it. )

I wanted to pick up "Shadows Edge" this week but both it and "Tongues of Serpents" are out at my local branch so it looks like I'll be moving onto "Name of the Wind." I'm exited for this one.

My last bit of happy news is that my latest interview just sent my inner geek into OVERDRIVE.

Gabi and I had a fun time watching the first half of Nabari no Ou, only she cheated because she's already read the manga so I made her tell me THE BIG SPOILER. I'm not a big fan of Miharu because I hate that 'I'm a 12-years-old child' thing he always does. But I do love his relationship with Yoite. I really love them. I also enjoy Aizawa and Thobari. Poor Thobari. But more that that, I'm just excited to finally know who the fuck are these characters that I've seen at CFUD for years. I feel edumacated. We'll probably watch the second half next week or so.

We also caught up on Sherlock. And all I can say is wow is a certain character GAY. But yes, terrible cliffhanger and *insert fistshake gif here* and all.

( I finished Mockingjay on the Metro by accident. :( )

I guess I will be picking up The Passage at the library tomorrow.

I enjoyed the new Sherlock Holmes, but man it takes some getting used to the fact that Sherlock has a website, texts and uses Google Maps. I preferred when he Google-mapped using his mind later in the episode. I am also impressed at how much more they poke at the gay thing after what happened with Ritchie and the owner of Sir Conan Doyle's estate. Is more flexibility allowed when it's a modernization? I still have to watch the third episode since Tom left before that and I hate watching things alone. I might make my father watch it with me since he's a big Sherlock fan. I also noticed that the main theme for the action parts of this show is remarkably similar to the 2009 movie. I also am undecided on how I feel about Lestrade being more of a Gordon-type in this imagining. I prefer when he and Sherlock are jerking each other's chain.

This story of three vets, with one leg between them, scaling Kilimanjaro brings tears to my eyes.

I really want to play Okami again. I'll probably do that when I go to visit my family this weekend. Bro still has his PS2.

Also, all the buzz around the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie has been piquing my interest. What do people know about this book? Sell me on it. I might try add it to my queue. Right now it consists of Mockingjay, The Passage and Name of the Wind.

I am relieved to hear that my family might actually be going back to school.

About 100 pages into "The Way of Shadows." Still unsure on Azoth but he's fairly young so he'll have time to grow on me. I'm more interested in the young duke Logan and his magic mentor. Very Arthurian. I like.

"The Way of Shadows" returned me to a previous thought that I never quite expressed in my last discussion on triggers. My opinion as to the necessity of warnings remains unchanged, but I have been doing my best to cut stuff because I don't wish to hurt anyone by omission. Rule of thumb, if it's under a cut, there's a 75 percent chance it contains something objectionable.

( Like right now. )