Item 1) Akatsuki is not a training program. Why all the fics in which Sakura and/or Ino and/or Hinata and/or Tenten run off and join up to "get stronger"? I'll not go into how utterly brain-breaking the idea of any of them, Sakura especially, wanting to go rogue and join Akatsuki is all on its own.

Item 2) As there are more kunoichi in Konoha than just the aforementioned, it looks rather silly to start off your summary with "[t]he four Konoha kunoichi".

Item 3) Okay, author, let's say that Hinata finds a black baby in the woods upon returning from a mission and decides to raise it as hr own. Let's say that the baby in question is African. It is still not an African-American. Seriously.

Some Ishida & Nemu icons, because I like the pairing:

Preview:


At my LJ'

Dear anonymous review from the Pit:

Why yes, I did ask readers to be harsh in criticism of my story as I had not written fanfic for years before posting and I didn't want my fic to be unreadable.

However. I asked specifically for constructive criticism. Your review:

umm. u said be harsh, so. you suck lammas and leeroy and thompson all at
once. is that harsh enough?

is not. I think I'll be deleting it now, since you kindly didn't sign in to the site.

Confused more than insulted,
Me

I was searching Naruto on Google today and came upon this:

http://www.thedollpalace.com/dress-up-games/maker65-naruto-doll-maker.html


I thought it was pretty funny because, well, they are Naruto dolls! How much funnier can you get?

Okay, I'm not usually the world's biggest ni-picker on spelling. And I can switch gears between American, Canadian, and British spelling systems without a problem.

But, for the love of all the gods in heaven, spell the characters' names right! Not sure? Check the show's website. Check IMDB, they're right more often than not. Google the actor's portfollio site. See what the rest of fandom is using. Because Smith* =/= Smithe. The former is correct; the latter typo reads to my ear, in comparison, as "Smithie". For. The. Entire. Story.

I will give props, though. When you added that parasite -e, you embraced it and used it throughout the story (or at least the parts I scanned). A point for consistency.


*name changed to protect the guilty fandom

"Genre : flangst"

This may well be a perfectly cromulent term, but to me it just conjures up images of the characters hurling custard pies at one another and then getting emo about it.

 Hello, 

I've been searching the web and am feeling a bit frustrated.

Can anyone direct me to websites that are IchiHitsu based I don't really care if they are English or Japanese based.  It'll greatly help with my current project.

Thank you very much,
boskie 

PS: Here is the drabble I promised

Title Obvious
for slashthedrabble

New information up at the NHK schedule site. The raw preview for next week (#96) is up on the site now, too.

( Cut for Potential Spoilers )

Series 3 is 39 episodes long according to ANN. So, we're almost halfway through! Which probably explains the return to plot for the next few weeks. Hehehe.

You know, unlike many posters here, I don't mind it when fangirls exercise their new Japanese skills by including words like "neko" and "iie" and "arigato" in their anime fanfics. I remember how much fun learning Japanese was and how I wanted to use the words all the time, and I don't begrudge them that.

But the start of your fanfic is where you grab readers' interest. And if I open up your story and find a glossary of Japanese words... well, let's just say you have *not* grabbed my interest.

Also, GET THEM RIGHT. The world is full of Japanese language resources. As bad as it is to put your glossary in the front of your fanfic, it's even *worse* when it contains words like "Wagata = all right." Since "waga" means "we" or "ours", I had to think hard to realize you *actually* meant "wakatta", which doesn't mean "all right", it means "I understand", although in context they use it as an acknowledgement the way we use "all right." Come on, seriously. You want to learn Japanese? LEARN IT. Don't make shit up based on what it sounds like and then post it in your glossary (which still doesn't belong in the start of your fanfic.)

(I will give you points for *having* a glossary. Some fanfic writers don't, and confuse the heck out of people who *don't* know that neko = cat. But don't make it the first thing I read, please; I want to be grabbed by your *story*, and a glossary, much like "Here is a list of my original characters and their superpowers", tells me "This is a story written by someone who doesn't know how to get the reader's attention", which often means "This is a lousy story.")

Hello everyone, here is the reminder than in about 3 hours the chat session for episode 95 (17) will begin.
For more info click on the banner.



Episode 95 [Invitation to Small Shimaron]

EDIT: Screenshots are now available here

Enjoy!

 

I was wary of this fic from the start. Sasuke was a suave ladies man, Sakura was giggly and seemed a little on the slow side, and Naruto was a mindless spaz. However, the descriptions were interesting, and it had a lot of reviews, so I kept reading. Besides, I was only a few paragraphs in, and there was plenty of time for it to improve.

Aaand then they referred to Naruto as "the Aryan".

What? Back button time.

Hey, MGS person, mind not denoting pairings with cutesy little letter-only markers like SxO and VxR?

Because the thing is that four of the most popular pairings in the fandom, if not the four most popular, are Snake/Otacon, Naked Snake/Ocelot, Volgin/Raikov and Vamp/Raiden. It's not helpful.

While we're on the topic of Volgin/Raikov, I don't want to see Volgin used as fanfic furniture for Raikov to sit on and look good sat on. This goes for a lot of pairings - even though one member of a pairing might be more explicitly pretty, that does not mean the physical and emotional 'gaze' should be focused on them exclusively during the sex, at the expense of the other character, without some good reason. If you can tell the author finds one of these characters really hot and couldn't give a damn about the other except as a vehicle for the other character's hotness, then it ruins the hotness of the fic overall.

Odd question - maybe - has KKM ever had any canon gay couples? I can't think of any, not even as background noise. We know homosexuality is not only tolerated, but perfectly accepted in that world, we know that men can marry, and we know certain characters have homosexual tendencies and proudly love a fellow man...

But for the life of me, I have never seen an actual gay couple. 

Now, I know this show's supposed to be one big clit tease, but it fails to validate an important aspect of the show (regardless of whether you're a Yuuri/Wolfram supporter), which is that homosexual relationships are normal practice.

Hey f-list!! (^-^)/

As you can guess I'm back from my vacation. Actually I came back on Sunday night, but didn't have time to check lj at all! I'm sorry. I'll try to catch up with my f-list and various comments later (hopefully T__T) .....

Anyway, it was GREAT!!!
Thank you for all the nice comments to my last entry, they made me really happy :)

It was a short vacation, it was stressful for my body (in the end everything hurt - that's what you get for travelling to so many places in such a short time) and it was expensive, but WOW it was soooooo worth it!!
People who know me might already have guessed that I also took tons of photos (~ 2500-ish to be precise *coughs* ... in only ONE week!! o___o; .......). I'll gradually post the best of them, so I hope you're looking forward to that :)

Right now I only want to give you a brief overview of the places I went to, what I did, what I saw, my impressions etc.
Single entries to each city (or even every single day XD) follow when I have time to do so (T___T) .... GAH!!

Okay, let's start :)

First stop: Nagasaki (2 nights, 2 days):
I've never been in Nagasaki before (that goes for the other cities I've visited this time, too, by the way). I always wanted to go there. First thing I did was visiting the atomic bomb museum, memorial hall, peace park.
It was very interesting! Unfortunately not ALL the information was in English and maybe that's why I got the feeling that the Japanese see themselves too much as victims? I mean it's not like they were completely innocent, although throwing the atomic bomb at that time wasn't necessary anymore blah blah ... anyway it was INTERESTING!
I didn't know that the city I'm living in right now was one of the last few possible targets (it was among the last 11 cities they had chosen! Scary!!!)
.......



One of the various peace symbols/statues.

I COMPLETELY fell in love with Nagasaki! It's such a GREAT city! So beautiful and with a lot of charm - if you can say so. A lot of interesting buildings, nature, the ocean etc. You ABSOLUTELY can't tell that there was this disaster only a few years ago! Really, no way!!!! Amazing city. I also stand exactly where ground zero was, kind of ..... strange.

( More about Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Aso, Kagoshima, Sakurajima under the cut. )



On the ferry from Sakurajima back to Kagoshima.

Anyway, that was basically it :D
Since Monday I was busy with unpacking, paying bills, doing things that have gathererd up during the week I wasn't here and ... yeah.

Today is my day off, so I finally have some time to write these lines.


Okay,
gotta answer some e-mails, comments etc. now and then back to my Japanese studies!


More (hopefully soon)!


Bye-cha~

I have been a bad fan and let episode 3-7 pass by unreviewed, as much as I enjoyed them every week. But since #8 was spectacular on all points and since I probably won't be able to enjoy the next two eps with everybody, I feel another overly long fangirl entry is in order here.

Seriously, this episode cracked me up so badly that I had to stop the vid and muffle my laughing fits with my pillow. xD



"Hi, I'm Xellos, and despite being covered in snail slime I'm ridiculously overpowered and can kick your ass ten times over. Do as I say, and maybe I won't put you in snazzy costumes like my life partner here behind me." ♥

( Five Friends and the Costume Party from Hell. )

AND I'M DONE. REALLY. I'll put off the in-detail analysis of Xellos' character design in Revolution till later. 8D

I wrote a fic inspired by a pic by mitsu_mazoku  and dedicated for her. She said I can post it in the comms, so here I am :) Hope you all like it :)

Title: Waiting
Beta: none, so there are probably thousands of mistakes.
Pairing: YuuRam
Rating: PG/PG-13
Warnings: sap, fluff, or whatever. XD It's a cute fic :P
AN: dedicated to mitsu_mazoku  in thanks for her art, which I like a LOT :) Inspired by THIS picture
Discalimer: Not mine, Don't sue, No profit made.

~*Waiting*~

the cut takes you to the fic in my journal. Comments are love, and please check out the art it was inspired with :)


x-posted to kkm_yaoi kyou_kara_maou yuuram yuurixwolfram

http://feeds.gocomics.com/~r/uclick/calvinandhobbes/~3/370622384/378243

Calvin and Hobbes for Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hey there. I've been searching for the english lyrics to Rain - Zangetsu, but can never find it anywhere. Anyone have the translation or know where to get them? I only want to know what's being sung since I love the song so much.

Summary:  Max's daughter is off an adventure of her own, trying to get out of your parents' shadow is not vert easy, though Kyle is sure she has what it takes, little romance, lots of acttion, and charecter death


Let's just try and ignore the spelling and punctuation mistakes for a moment.

Did anyone imagine a train suddenly derailing at, "and charecter death"?  Woah, I see the fourth wall cracking there.

(And I don't care what anyone says, Kyle is an awful name for a girl.  Even if it's short for Kyleena, because that sounds just as bad.)

[68] Naruto Fanart Icons ☆
Part One @ my journal

[49] Naruto Movie/Manga/Games Icons ☆
Part Two @ my journal

Total = [118]

Sasori and Deidara at a rave and punked out. Not the best thing I've ever done, but it was fun. lol It's under the cut but you can also view it on Deviant Art at the following link: HERE

( Rave Masters )

Thanks for looking~ <3

x-posted

[68] Naruto Fanart Icons ☆
Part One @ my journal

[49] Naruto Movie/Manga/Games Icons ☆
Part Two @ my journal

Total = [118]

Magical books are called tomes, not tombs. I don't want to see any more mages using tombs unless they are necromancers.

A. A. Fair was one of the pseudonyms used by Erle Stanley Gardner, who is best-known for creating the famous defense attorney Perry Mason.  Gardner wrote over seventy Perry Mason books from the 1930s through the 1960s.  Perry Mason is most known from the 1950s television show starring Raymond Burr, but there were also earlier movies and even a radio serial. In addition to the Perry Mason books, Gardner wrote a handful of other series.  His most notable non-Mason books are the two dozen or so Donald Lam and Bertha Cool detective stories published under the name of A. A. Fair.  (A full listing of Gardner's works can be found at StopYou'reKillingMe, a superb mystery book directory.)

I have been familiar, if not fully acquainted, with Perry Mason for quite some time, primarily from the television show.  My mother watches it and I've seen many five-minute segments when I wander into her room, although I don't think I've actually sat down and watched an entire episode.  (Raymond Burr himself I've heard as a very tough cop in the Pat Novak radio series, opposite a very tough Jack Webb.)  The series has never really grabbed me.  Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against it.  Courtroom drama and legal issues have simply never been that interesting for me.  I read mysteries for the excitement and the puzzles, mostly in that order, and it seemed unlikely to me that the Perry Mason books would have much of those elements, particularly the first.

Somehow, through PaperBackSwap, BookMooch, or possibly an auction for a lot of paperbacks on Ebay, I've ended up with a few Gardner books.  They've all been earlier ones, from the 1940s.  In my experience, the earlier decades of long-publishing authors tend to be the best, so I did avoid the late 1950s and 1960s books on principle.  The Perry Mason books I've read have a different feel from what I've gathered of the show.  They're a bit more wacky, a bit more romantic, and have more action.  Still, at the heart they're legal mysteries and not my ultimate favorite. My first A. A. Fair book, Spill the Jackpot, is different.  I have no memory of how I got it, but at least the publication date of 1941 didn't look bad.  I finally read it right after The Case of the Crooked Candle, since I'd been very pleasantly surprised by the Crooked Candle book.  The next thing I know, I'm really liking Spill the Jackpot.  I mean really liking it.

Bertha Cool, the head of the B. L. Cool Detective Agency, has "the majesty of a snowcapped mountain, the assurance of a steamroller."  She'll never see forty again, weighs 200+ pounds, keeps an eagle eye on agency money, and never turns down good food.  She's a peach.  Donald is one of her operatives.  Donald himself... Well, let me quote Bertha:  "He's a pint-sized parcel of dynamite with the nerve of a prize fighter and a punch that wouldn't jar a fly loose from a syrup jug--but he's always trying."  Ain't it the truth!

After that brilliant success, I've gone on and read the first two in the series, The Bigger They Come and Turn On the Heat.  I've concluded that these books are good simply because of an astute combination of characterization and style that works extremely well.  Donald and Bertha are very atypical characters in the classic crime genre.  Bertha's no old hag, no femme fatale, and certainly no Girl Friday; she's the one who runs the agency, and she's all about the money with very little benevolence.  While at 5'5" and 127 pounds, Donald in no way resembles a detective, he's got about two full measures of a hero's typical willingness to fight.  Furthermore, Donald's size isn't just a gambit to make a detective series a little different.  Because he's simply not big enough to handle a serious fight, he's got an extremely sharp mind enhanced by legal training.  The legal element thus becomes key in each plot, but working seamlessly with events and deductions instead of becoming the entire plot.

Bertha and Donald together make a pretty wacky combination, especially when Donald's determination inconveniences Bertha way too much and spends way too much of her money.  Finding out what's going on is only part of the issue.  Actually dealing with it, and other things that happen, are just as much of what goes on.  Like the Albert Campion books, these are more suspense or adventure stories than true mysteries, since they're not written for the reader to try to solve.  They're written to tell a story.  Donald and Bertha do plenty of serious information-gathering and deduction--the books have a level of detail that I've rarely seen in other authors--but they don't stop there.  They don't just try to discover; nor do they just pitch a wrench into the works to see what'll blow, like Sam Spade.  They plan and maneuver to achieve a particular outcome, changing those plans as events develop.  Combine atypical characters with atypical behaviors in atypical plots, and you've got stories with humor, action, ingenious legal reasoning, plenty of the unexpected, and even romance (for either or both characters).  These books are page-turners.

Has anyone else read these books?  Like the Perry Mason books, Gardner continued the series through the 1960s; does the quality and content degenerate, as it does for other authors in the same period?  I'd love to hear other opinions on the Perry Mason series, too.

( Oh, 'Ben 10' fic writers. We need to have a little chat about the Null Void. )

In summation: when there are 5 possible seasons of canon, and two full length movies to work from, can we get a courtesy google before you just start making stuff up? Also: ew.