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Jun. 10th, 2006 02:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2So I get up, feeling tired and sick. Stare at the computer, not wanting to get in the shower yet. Check e-mail several times, check comics, check the P-I. Waste time until I'm almost late for work.
Go to work. I dunno what it was, I was feeling sick this morning but it wore off as the day progressed... but overall I was feeling really blah. I haven't been writing, I haven't been playing much Second Life, I haven't seen Inara but once in two weeks (someone has a new girlfriend, I can't fault anyone for placing Real Life above Second Life). I wasn't able to stream music the last two days which is what I like to do when I'm on Second Life and have nothing else to do. That kind of bummed me out. I really should be writing, when I'm writing I'm in the mood to write and I'm too busy to be bored or feel so blah... when I'm not writing I have too much time on my hands when I'm at home and then I go to work and can't wait to get off work so that I can go back to doing nothing. How depressing.
Not that I ever really get depressed mind you, but I haven't been feeling too up the last few days, and that's about as depressed as I ever get.
I have a hole in my tooth. I need to schedule a dentist appointment.
I've been watching Ranma 1/2. Well, I'm not writing anything but I've been watching the old tv series. Several years ago I bought the first four seasons on dvd and also the collected OAV's on dvd, all from E-Bay, all for cheap because I bought pirated knockoffs. I knew it at the time, I didn't care, I couldn't afford to buy the official releases. I hadn't watched them until recently... but the OAV discs are a disaster... the language tracks are waaay off for the first episode and a half, and after that the discs won't even play. I should have known better.
On the flip side the tv series is in great shape so far and that's the more expensive purchase so that's good. I got a bit confused, watching several episodes and then going back to read some of the comics, and then watching more episodes and thinking, hey, didn't I see this before? Because I'd just read the same story. They really screwed up that tv series, for some reason after Ranma's martial arts rhythmic gymnastics battle with Kodachi, they have a stupid "made up for the tv series" story about Dr. Tofu's mother coming to visit (a character that doesn't exist in the manga), and it's really bad, as are most of the written-for-television-not-in-the-manga stories. And after that they launch right into the story that introduces Shampoo. One notable thing about this is that it starts out with Ranma at an ice cream shop with Akane, where he (in girl form) eats a parfait, explaining that he's never been able to eat one before because a guy would just look silly eating something so girlish.
Just two days ago someone on the fanfiction mailing list asked a question about this whole idea, why is eating ice cream considered girlish? The first person to answer said that it was an example of "fanon" -- something made up by fans that was used so often that it was almost considered canon even though it doesn't really exist in the source material. BZZZZT! WRONG ANSWER! The next person contradicted this, saying that it WAS canon, and sited the above scene, but then had no real understanding of why the scene exisited (why is eating ice cream girlish? Dunno, they just did it because it's funny). BZZZZT! WRONG ANSWER AGAIN!
More people jumped in to say that this scene ONLY APPEARS IN THE ANIME, and is therefore not considered canon by a lot of writers. Oh my God people, doesn't anyone get it? Sure, it doesn't appear in the manga, but it's common for Japanese men -- especially if they want to be macho or manly -- to consider eating ice cream "girlish". Don't ask me why, but as proof I have Tom Milliorn and Tony Butterfield's stories of visiting the Japanese restaurant that used to be down near the old Uwajamaya. They had a sweet bean flavored ice cream that Tom and Tony liked but several of the male staff would refuse to serve it to guys. Usually they'd just pretend that they didn't have any, or laugh nervously and say no, they couldn't do that, or ignore the request. So it hardly matters if the scene is canon or not -- Ranma has been raised to be as manly as possible, it's no stretch of the imagination at all to think he, a Japanese man, would consider ice cream a girlish thing to eat, especially a decorative parfait.
So... where was I? Oh yeah. In the manga, the story that follows the Kodachi martial arts rhythmic gymnastics challenge is the Golden Pair martial arts ice skating challenge. This is immediately followed by the entrance of Shampoo who is out to kill Ranma. In the anime, after their stupid interlude story about Tofu's mother, they launch straight into the Shampoo story, and only afterwards get to the ice skating story. I dunno, I guess they thought two goofy martial arts/silly sports matchup challenges in a row was something to avoid. Whatever. But the thing is, two important events take place during the ice skating story. Ranma gets his first kiss (as a girl, from the male Mikado Sanzenin), and then later he declares in front of everyone (to the same Mikado) that "Akane is my fiance and if you lay a finger on her I'll kill you" which is about as close to a declaration of love as he makes for a good portion of the series.
And in the Shampoo story, Akane has a flashback to that declaration. And in the anime, she has the same flashback... to a scene that hasn't happened yet, because of how they've rearranged the storyline. Talk about stupid! I was so confused when I saw this that I had to stop and check my discs because I thought I'd missed a whole story arc somehow. But no, Akane is just remembering the future. Somehow. Or having a momentary cross-media syncronicity moment with the manga version of herself.
Well anyway, like that was worth ranting about. I think I was talking about how blah my life has been, but really I should just stop writing and go to bed, I got to help Chuck move in the morning and I'm sure I'm not going to be there as early as I'm supposed to be.
I've been exploring more metal these days. That kind of depresses me too because I know I've spent more money than I probably should have, and have more music to listen to than I really have the time to listen to at the moment... I'm an idiot plain and simple. But anyway, I was reading reviews of a few more bands on Amazon... and noting bands that I want to check out in the future, like Mezarkabul, Turkey's greatest metal band (who blend metal with Turkish folk melody). And I came across this review of a band called Immortal:
"These guys aren't your typical ooh look at me I'm mister satanist douchebag!!"
Really, that just says it all doesn't it?
Go to work. I dunno what it was, I was feeling sick this morning but it wore off as the day progressed... but overall I was feeling really blah. I haven't been writing, I haven't been playing much Second Life, I haven't seen Inara but once in two weeks (someone has a new girlfriend, I can't fault anyone for placing Real Life above Second Life). I wasn't able to stream music the last two days which is what I like to do when I'm on Second Life and have nothing else to do. That kind of bummed me out. I really should be writing, when I'm writing I'm in the mood to write and I'm too busy to be bored or feel so blah... when I'm not writing I have too much time on my hands when I'm at home and then I go to work and can't wait to get off work so that I can go back to doing nothing. How depressing.
Not that I ever really get depressed mind you, but I haven't been feeling too up the last few days, and that's about as depressed as I ever get.
I have a hole in my tooth. I need to schedule a dentist appointment.
I've been watching Ranma 1/2. Well, I'm not writing anything but I've been watching the old tv series. Several years ago I bought the first four seasons on dvd and also the collected OAV's on dvd, all from E-Bay, all for cheap because I bought pirated knockoffs. I knew it at the time, I didn't care, I couldn't afford to buy the official releases. I hadn't watched them until recently... but the OAV discs are a disaster... the language tracks are waaay off for the first episode and a half, and after that the discs won't even play. I should have known better.
On the flip side the tv series is in great shape so far and that's the more expensive purchase so that's good. I got a bit confused, watching several episodes and then going back to read some of the comics, and then watching more episodes and thinking, hey, didn't I see this before? Because I'd just read the same story. They really screwed up that tv series, for some reason after Ranma's martial arts rhythmic gymnastics battle with Kodachi, they have a stupid "made up for the tv series" story about Dr. Tofu's mother coming to visit (a character that doesn't exist in the manga), and it's really bad, as are most of the written-for-television-not-in-the-manga stories. And after that they launch right into the story that introduces Shampoo. One notable thing about this is that it starts out with Ranma at an ice cream shop with Akane, where he (in girl form) eats a parfait, explaining that he's never been able to eat one before because a guy would just look silly eating something so girlish.
Just two days ago someone on the fanfiction mailing list asked a question about this whole idea, why is eating ice cream considered girlish? The first person to answer said that it was an example of "fanon" -- something made up by fans that was used so often that it was almost considered canon even though it doesn't really exist in the source material. BZZZZT! WRONG ANSWER! The next person contradicted this, saying that it WAS canon, and sited the above scene, but then had no real understanding of why the scene exisited (why is eating ice cream girlish? Dunno, they just did it because it's funny). BZZZZT! WRONG ANSWER AGAIN!
More people jumped in to say that this scene ONLY APPEARS IN THE ANIME, and is therefore not considered canon by a lot of writers. Oh my God people, doesn't anyone get it? Sure, it doesn't appear in the manga, but it's common for Japanese men -- especially if they want to be macho or manly -- to consider eating ice cream "girlish". Don't ask me why, but as proof I have Tom Milliorn and Tony Butterfield's stories of visiting the Japanese restaurant that used to be down near the old Uwajamaya. They had a sweet bean flavored ice cream that Tom and Tony liked but several of the male staff would refuse to serve it to guys. Usually they'd just pretend that they didn't have any, or laugh nervously and say no, they couldn't do that, or ignore the request. So it hardly matters if the scene is canon or not -- Ranma has been raised to be as manly as possible, it's no stretch of the imagination at all to think he, a Japanese man, would consider ice cream a girlish thing to eat, especially a decorative parfait.
So... where was I? Oh yeah. In the manga, the story that follows the Kodachi martial arts rhythmic gymnastics challenge is the Golden Pair martial arts ice skating challenge. This is immediately followed by the entrance of Shampoo who is out to kill Ranma. In the anime, after their stupid interlude story about Tofu's mother, they launch straight into the Shampoo story, and only afterwards get to the ice skating story. I dunno, I guess they thought two goofy martial arts/silly sports matchup challenges in a row was something to avoid. Whatever. But the thing is, two important events take place during the ice skating story. Ranma gets his first kiss (as a girl, from the male Mikado Sanzenin), and then later he declares in front of everyone (to the same Mikado) that "Akane is my fiance and if you lay a finger on her I'll kill you" which is about as close to a declaration of love as he makes for a good portion of the series.
And in the Shampoo story, Akane has a flashback to that declaration. And in the anime, she has the same flashback... to a scene that hasn't happened yet, because of how they've rearranged the storyline. Talk about stupid! I was so confused when I saw this that I had to stop and check my discs because I thought I'd missed a whole story arc somehow. But no, Akane is just remembering the future. Somehow. Or having a momentary cross-media syncronicity moment with the manga version of herself.
Well anyway, like that was worth ranting about. I think I was talking about how blah my life has been, but really I should just stop writing and go to bed, I got to help Chuck move in the morning and I'm sure I'm not going to be there as early as I'm supposed to be.
I've been exploring more metal these days. That kind of depresses me too because I know I've spent more money than I probably should have, and have more music to listen to than I really have the time to listen to at the moment... I'm an idiot plain and simple. But anyway, I was reading reviews of a few more bands on Amazon... and noting bands that I want to check out in the future, like Mezarkabul, Turkey's greatest metal band (who blend metal with Turkish folk melody). And I came across this review of a band called Immortal:
"These guys aren't your typical ooh look at me I'm mister satanist douchebag!!"
Really, that just says it all doesn't it?
