Archive for October, 2007
Later today/tomorrow (depending on your time-zone or perspective), I’ll have some scans of what I’ve been doing, lately. Some of them I actually like, some I actively hate, others I don’t really care one way or the other.
My favorites thus far are my Dattebayo! diptych (possibly triptych) and my Bloodflame/Springrill diptych.
Also, I love knowing the terms ‘diptych’ and ‘triptych’.
Speaking of which, I wonder what my mother did with my Triptiques Moderne and Naturale? Last time I saw them, they were on/near the dining-room table, and now…
Hmph. Sleeeeepy, and my toes are cold. Jaa mata.
Posted in 
In America, the following pitch would get you laughed out of the building, if not the town. In Japan? They say “Yeah, okay, let’s give it a try! People liked Robotech, after all.”
Title: Moyashimon
Synopsis: [A] college student [who] can see bacteria/fungus with his naked eyes. He enters Tokyo Agriculture College and enjoys a campus life with strange professors and friends.
I mean, fungus? The hell?
Ave is now a level 16 ninja. I FINALLY found cheap ninja tools (Jeuno AH has lots of the most common for 5K to 10K cheaper than any of the other AH’s, including Norg’s. This is a little wierd, because most of the time Jeuno has the highest prices of anyone. I AM NOT COMPLAINING.)
I have yet to actually _use_ any of my ninjutsu, because I A) didn’t have enough Norg fame to get the first two scrolls (Tonko: Ichi and Utsusemi: Ichi) and B) had to wait until I was level 15 to get the rest. Not that I have all of them — I ran out of gil. Sigh. Oh well, I’ve been getting a pretty steady flow of income from the stuff I pick up while out farming for zinc ore to increase my Norg Fame, which is good. Eight ores down, 96 to go…
Also, 32 Red Mage/16 Ninja rocks. Dual Wield a Centurion’s sword and a Kaiser sword? Yes please! (I shooooould really find some people to party with and raise my combat and magic skills, but… eh.)
1) If they’re oozing, they’re NOT SCARS.
and
2) Seriously? Learn to fucking SPELL.
Not too much love,
me
This post brought to you by irritations from FurAffinity.
My skin is dryyyyyyyyyyy and iiiiiiiiiiitchy. When I put lotion on, the cats try to lick it all off, which is gross. More behind the cut, to spare the uninterested.
Section Three: Etiquette
– Remember that there’s another person behind that character, and that said person may also be on the other side of the world from you. They may not even speak your language!
– If you’re new to a server and you need something, most people will be willing to help you out, if you ask them politely. Sending a random person a /tell detailing what you need help with and casually mentioning that you’re new here without even a ‘hello’ or a ‘please’ makes the recipient wonder if you don’t mean you’re new to society, never mind the server.
(True Story: I was playing Ave in FFXI night before last, and some random goober sent me a /tell in essence demanding that I help him with some thing he needed to do because he needed sneak and invisible… He didn’t /check me or say hello or anything! If he _had_ /checked me, he wouldn’t have gotten much info, but he still could have worked out about what level and probably which job(s) I was using.)
– Don’t assume that everyone on your server is there to be your friend. In fact, some people are actually NOT into the social aspect of the Massively Multiplayer part of MMORPG. Doing a friendly thing like healing or buffing a stranger is fine; giving a friendly wave or smile is okay, too. DO NOT send a /tell saying “Hey!” or “Hiya” and expect everyone to be as warmly effusive as yourself.
(True Story: I had two different people send me /tell Hey or Hi and I had no idea who they were. They weren’t names I recognized, and they didn’t say things like ‘ossashiburidesu!’ or ‘hey, remember me, I used to be So-and-so, we partied in the [wherever] that time…’. I HATE IT when people just /tell me out of the blue, just because.)
– Don’t have your character stand over or sit on top of other people’s characters unless you know them. Personal space may be a strange concept to a lot of people, but there are people for whom having lots of personal space, even in a game, is important.
(True Story: One day, I was playing a healer/priest/something with low defense in Ragnarok Online. I was resting to restore lost HP, and this guy comes out of nowhere and has his character sit right on top of mine, and then tries to strike up a conversation with me. There was no one else in the area for miles, would it have killed him to make his character site at least a foot away from mine?)
– Remember, just because someone is playing a female character doesn’t mean the player is female (except in China, because the government thinks that regulating what gender you play online is somehow good for…something, the stupid fuckwits). More important than _that_, however, is to remember that just because someone is a female and/or is playing a female character SHE DOESN’T NECESSARILY WANT OR NEED A BOYFRIEND.
(True Story: I can’t remember if it was in World Of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online, or FFXI (though I think it was RO), but I was playing a female character and had been in a party with some random guy. After a while, he asks me if I have a boyfriend, and I told him yes, I did, sorry (he seemed like one of those clingy obsessive types, plus while he was okay to party with, I wasn’t particularly compelled by any of his party conversation). He said he understood, but would I maybe be interested in having an “in-game boyfriend”? My internet connection mysteriously went out after that, so we were unable to finish our conversation… But seriously, an in-game boyfriend? Especially with someone I essentially just met? That’s just….six kinds of wrong.)
Just a few simple rules to keep in mind next time you log in to kill a few dozen mobs.
So I’ve been watching Naruto fansubs lately. I like Naruto, both the show and the character. It’s hard not love a show that has ridiculous episodes involving Cooking Ninjas, after all…
Anyhow. So I love the show, for the most part, but I think that Sasuke/Naruto shippers are just fucking _crazy_. Sasuke is a horrible person — he’s cold, uncaring, obsessed, unpleasant, rude, has little regard for the feelings of others and is a jerk besides. Hell, even Neji is a better person than Sasuke, despite the fact that he has almost as many issues.
Shikamaru and Shino, two other characters who are not exactly the effusive and outgoing types, have better natures than an initial glance shows. For example, Shikamaru’s friendship with Choji. They don’t spend a lot of time saying “Dude! You’re my bestest friend ever and you rock so hard!”, but watching their interactions you can see that they genuinely like each other. At the beginning of the Sound Four (Plus One) arc, when Shikamaru and Naruto are at Choji’s house, Shikamaru tells a fussing Naruto that he’s been teaming up with Choji for a long time, and that he (Choji) is a good guy… But that’s it. Much later, toward the end of the arc (or at least the end of the various side-stories), Choji ends his fight thanks in part to his anger at hearing his opponent’s disdain of Shikamaru. At that time, he tells his opponent to “never make fun of my best friend!” — but again, that’s about all the verbal affection displayed.
Shino’s a little harder to find examples for, but the best evidence that he’s a good person comes from the interaction between Shino and his teammate Hinata. She asks him (as well as Kiba, the third member of their team) to help her train, and he does. When he and Kiba express concern that they might hurt her, she tells them to “come at her seriously”, because that’s the only way she’ll improve — and again, they agree, showing their respect for her efforts. In the Find The Rare Scent-Bug arc, he tells her about the Scent-Bug, and then backs her up when she suggests/requests the mission from Tsunade-sama. He and Kiba also demonstrate their respect for (and confidence in) Hinata during the same arc, after Hinata has been kidnapped and the boys haven’t been able to find her.
Neji… Neji is still cool and reserved, but he’s no longer fixated on the idea that one cannot change one’s destiny, or one’s self. He shows respect for and confidence in his teammate Tenten’s abilities, and while Naruto exasperates him (who _isn’t_?), he doesn’t treat him like an insignificant person or a burden on his team.
Shino, Shikamaru, and Kiba all treat Naruto like anyone else they know, though they do call him an idiot on a regular basis… Mostly because, frankly, Naruto -is- an idiot on a regular basis. However, they call him an idiot because he thinks that his kage bunshin no jutsu (shadow-clone technique) and rasengan (spinny-chakra-bomb-thing…?) can solve _any_ problem, no matter if it’s a cat in a tree, making noodles, or a seemingly invincible member of either the Seven Ninja Swords, Orochimaru’s bunch, or Akatsuki; not because they truly think he’s a worthless idiot.
It’s very interesting to watch the majority of Naruto in a very short space of time, because you get a feeling for how the characters grow… Or don’t, as the case may be (Sasuke, f’rinstance).
Naruto hasn’t grown too much, but he’s definitely changed from the beginning of the series. He maintains his steadfast beliefs in justice and goodness, as well as the idea that it’s important to be true to one’s friends. One of the more interesting aspects to Naruto (both the series and the character) is the fact that Sasuke illustrates what Naruto might have become, without Iruka-sensei and others. Naruto has also maintained his compassion for people who are hurting, which is also a nice touch (and helps to take the edge off when he’s being an idiot).
Sasuke… Has more issues than all of the New York Public Library system’s periodical sections put together. Daddy issues, brother issues, anger-management issues, inferiority and sel-esteem issues… Granted, the return of Itachi didn’t _help_, nor did his encountering Orochimaru. However, like Naruto, he had a support network of friends and teachers (including Naruto) who were willing to help him out. Like most people with Issues, though, he didn’t ask for help*. At least, not help in the “I need to get my life in order and move on” sort, since telling Orochimaru that he wanted to be stronger than Itachi does qualify as asking for assistance.
Sakura showed the least amount of growth in Team Seven. While she’s a perfectly competent ninja when it comes to basic combat, she seemed to have kept her old Academy-Days-Sakura attitude. The Jiraiya And Friends Tour Of The Country Of Field arc showed that most starkly — while Naruto kept his wits and did his best, Sakura simply sort of folded. Fortunately, that incident gave her the impetus to make a change for the better, but it did nothing to dissuade me of the notion that she’s mostly in the show to be a boy-interest.
Hinata, on the other hand… I would say that Hinata has grown the most. She starts the series as nearly a non-entity as you can get without being a random passer-by in the background, there to round out Team Eight and to have a crush on Naruto and that’s about it. However, it’s her crush on Naruto that allows her to grow, oddly enough. It starts during the finals of the genin exam, when she gives Naruto a jar of ointment after his fight. She fumbles her words a bit, and her voice isn’t very loud or very strong, _and_ she can’t bring herself to look him in the eye when she gives it to him, but she does it. Naruto, who is a bit puzzled because he lacks a clue about her and her feelings, takes it and thanks her.
Not too long after that, Hinata’s fight comes up… And she’s pitted against Neji. Neji scares her more than even talking to Naruto, and Neji knows it. He takes advantage of that fact, telling her that she’s essentially a complete waste of time and resources and she’ll never be any different, that she’ll never be able to change her destiny. Just as Hinata’s on the verge of resigning from the fight without even taking a single blow, Naruto tells Neji what he can do with his ‘destiny’ talk and tells Hinata not to listen to Neji. She’s startled out of her fear and decides that even though she’s afraid of Neji, she’s going to try fighting him anyhow. It’s a long fight, but every time Neji knocks her down, she gets back up and keeps trying.
Thanks to Naruto’s inspiration, she keeps trying at everything, from her training to her crush on Naruto. As the series goes on, she gets better at talking to him, even if physical contact with him still makes her turn beet red and faint. (This actually works to everyone’s advantage during the Scent-Bug search arc, as it reveals a Hinata impostor.) In fact, at the beginning of the Scent-Bug arc, she’s on her way out of the house to meet Shino, Kiba and Naruto so they can leave and her father tells her not to be a burden on everyone**. This, of course, is not nearly as loving a goodbye as, say, “don’t die”. When she gets back, she and her father and Neji are sitting on the verandah of the Hyuuga house’s courtyard and her father asks if it’s true that the mission failed. She says yes, it failed miserably, but she would work harder next time. (She’s smiling as she says this; the mission’s failure was NOT her fault at all. In fact, if -she- had been in charge of Sasuke’s hitai-ate, the mission would have succeeded. Of course, if it had succeeded, we wouldn’t have gotten the whole Curry Of Life arc, or the Cooking Ninja episode, or…) Her father is surprised, then manages to tell her to work hard (or he wishes her good luck, I suddenly can’t remember). Hinata’s much less shy and uncertain than she was waaaay back at the beginning, and it’s a wonderful transformation. (Also, her Naruto onigiri are absolutely _darling_. I want one!)
Even characters who haven’t shown much in the way of growth have at least learned one new attack or technique — Ino, for example, and Shikamaru.
* Disclaimer: I’m one of those people, mostly. I tend not to ask for help until the absolute last possible second, but that’s another post (or five hundred), so.
** Upon first watching this scene, I thought that her father was a total asshole who obviously had no idea how hard she works and how decent a ninja she actually is. After thinking about it for a while, I wonder if her father is just really really REALLY bad at saying “Be careful and do your best!” when it comes to missions… Because he _did_ manage to praise her for the tea and snacks she prepared for him and Neji to eat, so. Since we really don’t get much backstory on Hinata’s father outside of the context of Neji’s own Issues, it’s hard to say.
that the people who decided that adding a hanging loop to their art brushes (whether they were used for illumination or calligraphy) and stored them on handy racks was actually smarter than us current 21st Century types who leave their brushes standing bristles-upright in a jar or lying around on counters. What better way to dry a brush -and- preserve the shape of the brush-head than hanging it in a way that works _with_ gravity instead of against it?
Still alive.
Went to the store today and got some more paint — three tubes of secondary colors, one of Mars Black and one of Alizarin Crimson. Found a 20-brush set on sale; it came with a canvas brushroll, so woot!
Came home and painted a few more pieces… Need to scan them and get them up on etsy or ebay or something.
Also, I went to the museum with my mother yesterday — the annual juried watercolor exhibit was going on. The grand champion was utter shit, in my oh-so-lofty opinion. Looked like someone had just smeared some paint on paper. Also appeared to have been done in either acrylics or tempra, rather than watercolors. Most of the runner-ups and honorable mentions were in the same vein. I told mom that I was pretty sure the person/people doing the judging were the same ones that did the state fair art show judging; she agreed that it was likely.
And, of course, the beautiful “traditional” watercolors that were there got ignored. There was one of some lovely red tulips that I thought deserved to be recognized and it got nothing. Lesson Of The Day: if it looks a mess, it’s art and will receive accolades. If not, it won’t. Great lesson to teach in a fucking museum. Anyhow.
Future plans:
– doing a few impressionist-type paintings based on the fall colors on the landscape around here. Today was absolutely glorious; sun was shining and the colors were just…beyond words.
– more tryptichs. Mine tend to be composed of small squares, about 4 by 4. Need to find a way to stick them to a surface so I can paint to the very edge without leaving blank space where my fingers were.
– dig up exacto knife so’s I can cut the foamcore more accurately. The straightness of the line’s not so important — it’s part of the overall “design”.
– continue looking for paint/gesso, or buy more from maybe Dick Blick; they had good prices last I checked.
– research average price of random abstract art (by unknown artist); I’m thinking ten bucks is probably a good place to start.
– should probably get some Mod Podge or something and seal the paintings. Hm.
and like that. I need to go to sleep, now, ’cause I feel like crap. (And the reason I’m typing like this is because Toulouse is laying on my forearms and I can’t really see the keyboard. Despite the fact that I don’t really -look- at the keys any more, I still do better when I can more or less see the keyboard. *Shrug* weird but true.
40 minutes, two triptychs and a single. I’m not particularly enamored of any of them, but that’s the idea.
In other news, I discovered that I don’t have the right tools for the job… I scrounged the paint and brushes from my brother’s art stash, and while the paint is good — Winsor & Newton Finity Acrylics, in Cadmium Red Deep, Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White and Ivory Black — the brushes are not what I need and there are only four of them to boot. Time to go digging in the sewing room… Whee.
I forgot how much I liked painting, at least when the cats aren’t helping.