Head to corvidae for entries and such. I'm consolidating again. Though this journal will remain open and the icon links will be fixed eventually.

I found a good Ender's Game fic?  That isn't just pairing smut (of twelve-year-old boys at the oldest, for chrissakes, what's wrong with people?!)?  I tried to read some of the smut.  At least, I opened the link and glanced at it, started reading the first line and kinda died inside.  But it's so freaking disturbing to think of NC-17 Ender/Peter smut (think about the age thing a bit... we're talking a six-year-old and a ten-year-old here, nevermind the incest).  Backtracked real quick.

Did find one that's kind of interesting, if only because Peter seems very nicely Peter to me (Val isn't always very Val), though the pacing is hard to read through.  Jumpy and again still vaguely weirded about by the random sexual elements.  It's one of those "This is almost good" fics.

And then this one intrigues me a bit.  Though HikaGo is not really anything I got into that much, but it's pretty well written and kinda... nice to have alternate people around?

Randomly... realized with the expiration of my paid account here, my icons disappeared.  Sometime I'll get to relinking those again from a proper website.

Eureka 7 is rather ... odd. I've been TiVo-ing it mostly because it's kind of mindlessly enertaining to watch/have running while I'm doing something else/whatever. Whole bit with Charles and Rei, though was like, "Um, what?"

( My take on that part of the series. )

...Okay I'm done. More or less. Trying real hard not to fall asleep editing pixels at work, yey.

Ahh, NDK.  Classes + work = no time to work on anything else, so I didn't finish costume or drawings.  None of them, in fact.  But libekory and obsidianfawn have awesome costumes this year.  If all goes well, we'll all have things for next year, finally.

Convention's been odd this year, though.  ( Summary. )  We were all kind of feeling worn out by it or something, since we stepped foot in the doors.  Later obsidianfawn and I came to the conclusion that it's at least in part due to the fact that our current fandoms aren't at all anime-related.  And our old fallbacks are becoming obsolete and hard to find anything interesting for.  And, at least for me, I don't get deep enough into fandoms to care, anyway.  My biggest "fandom" is art.  I love it like woah, obsess, squee, and overall fangirl really pretty art.  Comics, shows, even books... not so much, except for a choice few.  Owell.

There should be more Avatar in NDK.

And not-NDK related:  KHII has too many moviessss.  I feel like I'm watching a semi-interactive movie more than playing the game.  Not really sure why, but I think the lack of text vs. cut scenes is what does it.  Instead of having to run down someone and talk to them and read... I just walk into an area and the game is like, "And you have this conversation, which brings you to these major plot points: A, B, C."  ::grumbles::

So oh my god.  Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is mine.  Yes.  That cover.  And it was brought to my attention (if you check out that wikipedia entry on it), that there is to be a movie.  I am not sure how I feel about a movie.  It's kinda all the literary stuff about the book that I love and it's going to lose that in movie-format.  But if/when it comes out, I'm sure I'll be there to see it.

Then I find she has this new book coming out, except... it's coming out in Britain.  So it costs pounds.  And I'd be hard-pressed to find seventeen dollars to my name that I could spend on a book right now (Father was kind enough to purchase the volume I got for me), so I'm not sure how I'd be able to fund double that.  Damn.

Beyond that... I seem to want to see several movies right now.  Half of which I'm sure are silly.  Like the Covenant.  And possibly the Prestige.  And the Illusionist hey wot?  Why are there two movies with nearly the same premise?  I thought I was crazy, but no, there really are two.  And some I doubt I'd even like when I actually saw it.  Like the Black Dahlia.

Edit: It took me forever, but I finally did the other two armies that have definite color schemes... the rest will have to wait until I figure if the Shadow series enlightens me on any of the other army colors or not before I just make them up.

Quotes x 11

RULES

TEASERS


( EG Quotes )

Crossposted to enderish, orsonscottcard, & book_icons.

Summary

Helena Campbell and her family are a circus family, but she dreams of being in the “real world.” When her mother is hospitalized for an illness, however, Helena finds herself in Dreamworld. The crumbling City of Light she finds herself in seems to owe its problems to its queen mysteriously being asleep and her charm stolen by the neighboring city’s princess. With the help of a resident of the City of Light, Valentine, Helena begins a journey to find the charm and wake the White Queen in order to save the Dreamworld.

Review

Mirrormask uses an atypical method of combining CG and other animation with the actors, in a style that Gaiman readers may recognize as being similar to the covers of several comic works he wrote for. The characters are not so much beautiful as fascinating, intriguing mixtures of textures and colors. The story deals with Helena learning to love herself and her life, conquering the rebellious princess within, which didn’t particularly grab me, though I was interested. I did love the way the move looked, though, with the kind of strange moving-collage-feel. And I liked the creatures and rules of Dreamworld, such as the books, always returning to the library and the sphinxes. It was a pretty good movie, overall, if youlike a movie that makes you think a little.

Summary

An alien race, apparently descendent from insects, has attacked Earth twice before. In order to prevent defeat when confrontation happens again, as it seems it must, the planet has formed an international military system to serve as frontline defense against the “buggers.” What is a little strange about this defense force is that it collects its officers from children only six-years-old, but geniuses in strategy and tactics, and trains them to one day command the space fleets against the aliens. Ender Wiggin is particularly adept at honing the qualities the military seeks in their commander. And as he is molded to fit the role he needs to play, his older sister and brother weave a plan to save the world from collapse into world war once the alien threat no longer exists.

Review

This is my all time favorite book, though I’d be hard pressed to give a single, exact reason for its status. Ender is written so that anyone can empathize to one extent or another with his character. He’s an unwilling hero, capable of great violence if pressed but also empathetic and reluctant to use his abilities for destruction. He goes through a great extent of mental abuse and survives, but damaged. There are so many other themes in this book that I love–the alien mind versus human minds, not only in the direct contrast of the aliens against the humans, but also in the adults to the children, and even the children against each other. Isolation and family and what makes a person who they are. And I love the characters, Ender, of course, but also his brother Peter and Colonel Graff. The writing isn’t the best I’ve ever read, per se, Card has a fairly simple writing style, and the physical descriptions are definitely lacking, but the world doesn’t feel like it suffers from the lack of direct visuals. Would definitely recommend this to pretty much anyone who likes a good character-based novel, sci-fi fan or no.

Summary

Elizabeth Bennet is second oldest in a family of five daughters, blessed with her father’s wit and quick tongue. Her older sister Jane is sweet and optimistic and seems to have found the perfect man. Elizabeth is, of course, happy for her sister, to whom she is very close, but Mr. Bingley (Jane’s love interest)’s best friend, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Bingley's sisters are not as happy for their friend and brother as Elizabeth is for her sister and seem to do everything they can to sabatoge the couple. In the meantime, Mr. Darcy, who appears to be horrifically unmannered, seems to have taken an interest in Elizabeth herself, much to her chagrin. Whether or not the Bennet sisters manage to work out the complications in their love lives is the focus of the entire book.

Review

A real romance novel. Not the sort with a lot of sex, just gentlemen courting ladies and falling in love. Darcy and Elizabeth are brilliant together (and apart), both scathingly sharp-witted in their conversations and adorably sweet in their love. Darcy is one of those awkward men, who never seem to come off as being as truly kind as they actually are,which is the sort of character I love. He cares for his friend deeply, but doesn’t care what is thought of him as long as he feels he is doing the right thing. And Elizabeth is a strong heroine, very practical and able to take charge of any situation. Pride and Prejudice, being an 18th century production, has language that is a bit difficult to get into, but once I had it was well worth it.

Summary

Dorian Gray starts offan innocent young man, untouched by the corruption of the world. This draws the attention of the painter Basil Hallward, and Dorian becomes a favored subject and infatuation of the painter. Hallward’s friend, the Lord Henry Watton, learns of Dorian, and upon meeting the boy, turns him on the road of pleasure-seeking corruption. In a moment ofcarelessness, Dorian insists that he would rather give up his soul to have the portrait of himself (done by Basil, of course) grow old instead of him, and somehow his wish is granted. Dorian forever seems untouched by life, even as he falls deeper and deeper into corruption–only the picture shows the path his soul has taken.

Review

The writing style is pretty fast-paced, especially for an older book. I did not care too much for the protagonist, though I did find him interesting in the car-wreck sort of way. The gothic feel was very enjoyable; it reminded me of what I had liked about Frankenstein without annoying me in the way Frankensteindid, since what romance existed in the book was impossible in one way or another (the encounter with Sibyl becoming more of a tragedy and the homosexual implications were more subtle). And of course, I very much enjoy witty banter, so the conversational sections between Dorian, Harry, and their acquaintences were always fun. If Mr. Wilde had written more than the one novel, I’d be tempted to pick up more of his work, definitely.

Woah... X Zero has a new cover and there's now X Infinity and... it's sad because I'm tempted to buy it. (Artbooks are so much cheaper now that the import price went down... I remember when I bought X Zero, it was selling for at least double the price online--I got it cheaply because I was there... but then my mom had already paid for a plane ticket to get there, so...) Fuuma on the cover! And Kakyou! (It's THAT image, the one that had text all over it and everyone sat around for hours cleaning up so they could design with it... including me, though I never actually finished a design I don't think, lol.) And new images in general! That will soon be whored around the internet, I'm sure, but still. I've been reading and watching Tsubasa (I hate CLAMP), hence the mild reawakening of my old CLAMP love.

Speaking of Tsubasa... Oruha! I scanned the audience at the club, but was sad because there was no Kazuhiko (or at least, I didn't spot one). Now that I read more, it's like I wish there were more crossover things where there aren't... and less where there are. And though I've gotten to the point of ... well not so much accepting as tolerating that this Sakura and Syaoran are not ... Sakura and Xiao Lan (I make a spelling difference in my head, for some reason... probably because Xiao Lan's actually Chinese, so gets the real Chinese spelling, so I can laugh every time that he still has a "xiao" tacked onto his name, whereas Syaoran is... hell knows, so he gets the spelling everyone uses). It also weirds me out that Clow is Sakura's father, whereas Fujitaka is now Syaoran's. I keep wondering if Eriol will show up as like a cousin or something. Fai and Kurogane, though, are awesome. Mokona also entertains me greatly, although I get moments of, "WTF, why does it talk?" since I was sorta used to the "puu" being the only thing it said.

NOTICE: HOLIDAY CARDS. I announced it in my personal journal, and there aren't too many people watching me here that aren't there, but since there are a couple, thought I'd post here also. If you'd like a card, follow that link and post your address (comments are screened) and I'll send one on by. :3

This is spoiler-filled, but I kinda doubt too many people who would be reading this would care? It's a slightly more obscure fantasy novel series, anyway.

Earthsea movie makes me cry. I noted a bit of this before, when I only caught like, the last forty minutes of it, but I watched the whole thing now and just... agh. Vetch = dark. Sparrowhawk = dark (I almost swear that somewhere LeGuin wrote that he's supposed to be black, actually, though barely anyone catches that--I was under the impression he was more of a Native American build). Tenar = v. white. If you're going to switch names, switch everyone's names. If you're not going to, don't. Vetch is a usename. Sparrowhawk is a usename. Technically Arha was Tenar's "usename," even if it really meant she had no name at all. Ged is very much his true name. Duny was what he was born with. People do not get up in arms over new names--the naming was half the fun of the Earthsea universe. Where's the otak? Where's Yarrow's mini-dragon? Ged's scars were much larger and more obvious and supposedly looked like a dragon had done it. Tenar is not a nice person. For that matter, the temple of the nameless ones is not a nice place, there aren't zillions of priestesses who are all cute or nice girls, and Thar wasn't particularly friendly either--definitely not motherly. Labyrinth does not have any light, unless you're still in the undertomb. By the way, who is keeping those things lit? There are no girls at Roke. Timeline so screwed.

Basically the movie seems to be some sort of horrible AU of the books, where people have the same names to an extent, but aren't even the same people anymore, things happen somewhat similarly, but not really, and the world has similar rules, but different. Come on, it was already a sort of miniseries or some such (definitely longer than a regular movie at the very least), why not just make it longer and do it right?

( //HARRY POTTER: Goblet of Fire )

( //FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: Conquerer of Shambala )

( //FINAL FANTASY: Advent Children )

In other fandomy news, I've been reading and watching One Piece (finally, ha), and decided to watch at least the rest of what I've got of Prince of Tennis, just to burn it and get it off Demetrius. Which is like, only almost half of the series to date (if it's continuing or whatever)... 66 episodes. Sometime I'll catch up in Naruto again. And I've been reading through the Shadow series again. Realized I'd never read Shadow Puppets more than once. Obviously haven't read Shadow of the Giant more than once, since it came out what... last year? No, this year. March, I guess. But yeah. Now it makes much more sense than before since I'm reading it right after reading Shadow Puppets.

And the reason I've been doing all this? I'm procrastinating horribly on studying for school. Also some of the movie watching took place at work since I brought my laptop in and watched crap while breaking down boxes, making marketing packs, and various other little fiddly things in the back. And I've been reading Shadow at work too... which is funny, because it makes me late to get home since after finally tearing myself away from the book, I realize I've cumulated work that should've been done an hour ago, and have to do before I leave, else I'll be murdered. Or y'know... fired. Same difference.

Actually caught part of Bones today. I kept meaning to watch it, but obsidianfawn got me hooked on NCIS so I try to flip, but since commercial breaks are meant to be annoying, I can't really, and so I tend to watch NCIS since I'd seen it before and never caught Bones so I couldn't tell what I thought of the latter. But it either wasn't on today or they changed the time or something.

Love House. ♥

Boston Legal confuses me because there are two guys from Star Trek (original - Shatner and DS9 - Auberjonois), and then a woman who makes me think she's Martha Stewart all the time. And now that I was actually paying attention to the episode... suspicion confirmed: Alan is awesome(ly weird).

It's really entertaining, because Tuesday is the only day I'll actually turn on the TV and watch ongoing series. I usually only use my TV for DVDs and the occasional gaming (which is so rare--I don't make a good gamer).

As for the previous mini-rant... I'm starting to be won over by TRC. Which is weird because I haven't even read any more of it or anything. I've just been talking to a couple people about it and decided maybe I could like it if only for Fai and Kurogane. And I hear at least when Sakura wakes up again she's not as weirdly not-her(CCS)self (I haven't read very far, obviously). Stupid part is I've been having urges to rewatch CCS because of all this thinking about it and not only can I not watch ALL of it, as I'm somehow missing a tape (urgh), but it's so long... that's ridiculous, I shouldn't start that. /end ramblings

I keep looking for a CCS icon that I really like, but I can't seem to find one. Several good ones, some even really awesome ones, but just... not what I'm looking for I guess? ::silly:: It's probably just that I can't narrow it down to using just one since you can't fit the entire cast onto an icon and I can't decide who I'd want on my icon. I run into far too many TRC icons while looking for CCS, though. TRC does have really pretty art, and it's nice seeing more Xiao Lan/Sakura images, but... I just really dislike that it was made. CCS was already complete, and while I adore the characters... they aren't the same in TRC, so I don't see the point in reusing the characters. It made the relationships not as cute and sweet and the characters not as interesting. I miss Xiao Lan's old backstory, and the fact that Tomoyo's not Sakura's #1 fangirl and best friend. And Touya... and Fujitaka (...why? Just why...). CLAMP is too impressed with reusing old characters. It really doesn't work all that well. TRC might have been really interesting if it were a totally original cast, but there's just too many correlations that it just leaves me disappointed instead.

On a different note, I love the irony in constantly having my art categorized as "anime/manga/Japanese" while, in actuality, being miserable at drawing anime-styled drawings. The proportions and rules are so different from what I got used to when I practiced. But, I'm swearing an oath (to myself) to finally do some real DNAngel fanart (and maybe a re-do of that Haibane Renmei one) and others... and it's too much of a big-eyed, shoujo style to pull off the sort of tweaking I did for the FMA art to still make it similar enough to be recognizable. Style mimicry without direct image-to-image copying is difficult, though.

Both of these entertained me.





And ... really this can only amuse me as barely anyone knows anything at all about Anadheryn:


It's so bizarrely fitting.

Har. I need more pieces to put in the show for NDK.
So that's where this spawned from. Will be colored, hence the WIP-ing.
Always wanted to do one of these duality images... (y'know, two
characters, same/similar position but opposite) so I finally did one.

Title: .Duality.
Rating: G? PG? I should look up that other system again.
Source: Fullmetal Alchemist (I suppose it's sorta movie spoilers... if you don't know what Al looks like in the movie).

( Duality )

I found this accidentally while searching for movie references... Someone made Ed's automail rather awesomely. Well and other things, but that was the image I found first.

Have some pic spam. From the above fic. Which I endorse. Yes, endorse. Shush. It's Roy/Ed, with adorable Ed + Al relations. <3 Elrics. Take your images (from the 18th chapter so sorta spoilerish):

Roy forcing Al down a hallway to talk to Ed.
Roy tapping Ed on the nose.

Roy always comes out weird. And I still suck at cloth folds! WEE. Someday... someday.

Title:  .Dancing Alchemists.
Rating:  PG
Source:  Fullmetal Alchemist

So after months of working on this... I'm done.  Or at least, done as I'm getting as I refuse to redraw their hands again despite it bugging the crap out of me, and I suck at fabric, so that all looks like butt.  :x  You can take it in a slash context if you want, but bizarrely enough, I can't seem to think of it that way.

( 700x902px )