insaneneko

I woke up and went to work, found it dark and deserted, and realized we have a full day holiday today instead of the half day I'd thought it was. I felt really dumb, especially since I didn't get to sleep until late last night and had to drag my ass out of bed this morning. I so did not want to work if I didn't have to, so I left. My only consolation is that my mistake turned out to be not totally pointless because I was there to accept a delivery. :P

I stayed up way too late reading Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves by Auburn. It is a WIP AU SGA/SG-1 crossover in which Vala, John, and Rodney are pirates. Other people "join" them as the fic progresses. Many characters have very angsty AU pasts, except Daniel who apparently still has his canon angsty past. There is A LOT of SG-1 in there, so I was pretty damned confused. I kinda knew what Goa'uld were, didn't know what Tok'ra or Jaffra or Oranians or Asgard were. But I figured it'd start to make sense if I just kept reading....And it sorta did but it mostly didn't. Thank goodness there are wikis to provide much needed background. XD; In any case, I adore the main characters (I really hope canon Vala is at least half as cool as fanfic Vala), but the side characters are wonderful as well. The interactions and the plot are so much fun to read! I look forward to reading more.

Companion verse series by seekergeek is an amusing WIP SGA/Valdemar fusion. It...works so much better than I'd initially thought upon reading the words "SGA/Valdemar fusion." I love some of her choices for what various SGA characters do/are in her fic. The premise is highly amusing: Rodney as an adult with a perfectly good job is chosen by the young and exuberant Companion Cadman. There will be McShep slash eventually, or so the fic warning says. I'm glad she didn't leave out the emo angsting that is requisite for a Valdemar story. XD;

And last but not least, a short and sweet fic: like gold to ayery thinnesse beate, Yuletide, His Dark Materials, Lyra/Will. A door missed - or left apurpose - can be found even when you aren't looking for it.

rachelmanija's review/summary of Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews made me nostalgic even as I LOL'd hard. That series sucked so hard, I knew it sucked hard (I think I was slightly older than the target demographic when I'd first read it), and yet I read it anyway. I totally approve of her idea of Yuki Kaori doing a manga adaptation of it. It'd be awesome.

zehavit_lamasu lists the books she read in 2009 with brief yet amusing descriptions. Love the BL novel ones especially. XD;

Attractive Fascinante has scanlated Double Line, a one-shot of Okada and Sakaki after Arashi no ato by Hidaka Shouko (my mini-review here). The English is...not the easiest to read, but it's not unintelligible (though at times, barely). I hope I can get my hands on the Japanese at some point, either as scans or preferably included in some future tankobon.

Just read a Calvin and Hobbes Calvin/Susie as teens fic called Theories About Nuclear Winter by hollycomb, and it won't let me go. It is beautifully heartbreaking for a lot of reasons, but mostly because the characters are so right on.

I don't own the full anthology--I now really wish I did. That was an awesome comic.

Food rec: If ever in Nagoya, check out Tenmusu. If on Oahu now, they are available until the 27th at the Ala Moana Shirokiya. They are small onigiri with tempura and they are awesome. ♥

I'm happy to have something else to eat next time in Nagoya, on top of kishimen, akafuku, hatcho miso, and that famous tonkatsu place near (under?) some train station that supposedly kicks lots of ass.

Speaking of onigiri, I have to recommend a fabulously easy way of making onigiri I learned (and put to good use) this week. Instead of just plunking rice into a rice bowl, wetting and throwing salt on your hands, and attempting to not get burned handling the rice directly, put saran wrap into a rice bowl and put the rice in it. Scatter some salt before and after putting the rice in, then stick the ume or whatever in the middle (pushing it down into the rice). Then gather the wrap together and twist the top, squeezing the rice together without having to actually touch it. Then, use your hands to shape and squeeze some more. The rice doesn't feel so hot through the wrap and the grains don't stick! And being able to squeeze it all together with the wrap makes it less likely that the entire onigiri will fall apart because you didn't squeeze enough.

I took onigiri for lunch three times this week, each day wrapped with damp nori. I used to hate damp nori as a child, preferring to take the onigiri and the nori along separately and putting them together just before I ate it, but now I adore the texture and flavor of damp nori. XD This also prevents the rice grains from sticking to the container you put them in. Mostly I had ume inside (I love love love ume in general and the ume we currently have in particular), but I did do the shoyu-soaked katsuobushi (I think it's called bonito flakes?) thing once. I think it was a bit too dry (and thus too flaky), but I wanted to avoid using too much shoyu. :P I took carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, steamed broccoli, or cucumber with miso to gnaw on, as well as chicken quickly sauteed in butter with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and tons of garlic powder. Yum!

Hilarious: Let's Make Final Fantasy VII Into a Footnote (Dirge of Cerberus). I've only read the first two sections but laughed all the way through them both.

I watched the OVA of Ikoku Irokoi Romantan by Yamane Ayano against my better judgement. Wow...it wasn't very good. I was expecting bad, but...it was far worse than my lowest expectations. The production values were very low, but beyond that the pace of the story was glacial. Even the sex was oddly lethargic and lacking in passion. The best parts were when Kaoru and Ranmaru were interacting (fighting), sadly. I didn't mind the revised storyline, too bad they sucked most of the zing out of it in the process. :P

I wish she'd write a sequel to the manga, though. I'd love to read more about Ranmaru and his hot Italian Japanese-freak lover, though I suppose they might have to deal with the fact that he's in fact being unfaithful to his wife...

Speaking of Yamane Ayano, where are the new chapters of Crimson Spell and Viewfinder? It's kind of annoying how many months elapse between chapters...It's so easy to forget and then miss the posting of the new stuff while browsing the flist (I suppose I should just unjoin some comms to make things easier for me :P).

After seeing a bunch of posts reccing yuletide fics on the flist, I decided to poke around and read a bunch. Some of the ones I rather liked:

Christingle by loneraven, His Dark Materials, Will at Oxford.

La Familia by sesame_seed, Chrestomanci, Millie gets sick and the Family falls apart.

Breakaway by shrift, Whistle!, adolescent confusion.

All True-Hearted Souls by mardia, Temeraire, intriguing Granby POV.

Houses and Rain by untrue_accounts, xxxHOLIC, the zashiki-warashi does Valentine's Day.

The Longest Night by thehoyden, xxxHOLIC, Yuuko riddles as usual.

Hair of the Dog by ruffwriter, Black Lagoon, Rock likes pain.

Speaking of fics, love the PoT drabble by bookshop that puts Tezuka and Bump of Chicken together and makes it work. Sort of. Okay, not really, but Tezuka is massively weird in a LOL+sweatdrop kind of a way. ^__^

And speaking of PoT, saw a post for a doujinshi I own and haven't looked at in forever: Asymmetry Triangle. Pairings are Saeki/Ryoma, Fuji/Ryoma, and Saeki/Fuji (yes, very WTF?), everyone is massively OOC, the art is pretty, the storyline is "heartwarming," and I really feel like digging out all the doujinshi by this circle that I bought because the art (and the character OOC-ness and the "heartwarming" storylines) made me smile despite the constant undertone of WTF-ness.

Been in a state of happiness discovering and reading some Highlander fanfics (nothing like revisiting old fandoms...), then somehow or another ended up reading astolat's Master & Commander fics. I know absolutely nothing about the books and have not watched the movie, but I'm rather keen to read the books now. The two that made me cackle the most? AUs. Shiny shiny (fairly long) AUs:

Duende
Bonding! Sword-masters! Rings! Love love love it, great use of fantasy/fannish tropes wrapped in the tasty language of that period.

Five Things That Never Happened To Aubrey & Maturin
Five: The World Turned Upside Down
Genderfuck! (Sort of) Mpreg! There is no bad here.

It amused me to realize sometime while I was reading that the drama CD of Flesh & Blood was playing in the background, in particular one of the sword-fighting sequences. I would love to watch an anime with really good sword-fighting now....

In keeping with my happy mood, some shiny music:

Come To Me (Mellatron Remix) by Clazziquai

Bouncing Off Clouds by Tori Amos

BREEZE by Genki Rockets

Two excellent if painful fics I read today:

a closed book by sesame_seed, Initial D, Takahashicest and Keisuke/Takumi. I don't even care for Takahashicest (in that I don't really slash anyone in Initial D, but those two the most out of them all) but...wow.

Flower by prillalar, PoT, Ryoma/Kaidoh. Another pairing that's not really my thing, but...wow.

I love fics that make me believe, if only just while I'm reading them.

My mini-squee moment of the day: Unprofessional by madsciencechick, a Conrad-focused Conrad/Yuuri KKM fic that is short and sweet. I adore how Conrad just can't help himself, and his relationship with his men.


I just read a manga featuring a hetare seme x violent uke (one of my favorite BL tropes) that just made me laugh so much. Violence na Kimi ga Suki by Araya Miki is about the pathetically shy and introverted Myouenji and his stunningly ridiculous first meeting with the scary, violent Kuroda, who becomes the love of his life. My enjoyment of the manga came from Myoueji's total pathetic nature and his desperate, single-minded admiration and love for Kuroda. His attempt to become stronger to be able to stand next to Kuroda as an equal was just so...earnest, yet so misguided it was adorable.



I particularly love the spread above--it encapsulates Myouenji's earnestness and lameness (notice the streams of tears).

The big weakness of the story is the uke--his personality does not shine the way Myouenji's does, and it's a pity because a properly executed hetare seme x violent uke dynamic just sparkles and is so much fun. But I think Myouenji makes the manga worth reading. I uploaded the first scanlated chapter, grab it here and check it out. A zip of all the scanlated chapters (which I believe is the entire story) is here.

Just wanted to add a disclaimer--I'm not saying the manga is good. It isn't. I just enjoyed reading it because it was fun, flaws and all.

ETA: There was an extra part to this manga that was released today (or was it yesterday?). In any case, here it is.

An excited announcement:

Vienna Teng releases a new album, Dreaming Through the Noise, on July 25th! A clip from the first track is featured on All Songs Considered: Summer Preview 2006. It's the 6/18 release for podcast download via iTunes. It is so going to be MINE. Some songs from her second album:

The Athiest's Christmas Carol, my intruduction to this artist and an achingly beautiful lyrical piece.

Harbor, a faster, more upbeat piece that still feels aching thanks to her voice.

A fic rec:

Be Like Buchou by soundczech is a delicious TezuRyo bodyswitching fic. I love the details, their disconcertion and how they cope with being each other. It's really adorable.

And my mini-Lush review:

Lemony Flutter
I've been using this cuticle cream faithfully this last week or so, and have been pretty pleased by the results. I have very dry cuticles prone to hangnails and cracking and the like. This cream does a decent job of moisturizing so that the skin around my nails doesn't feel so tough. I think I may need something even more heavy duty, but for the general user this is very good stuff. And what can beat the sweetly lemon scent?

Sandstone Soap
I've tried using this soap several times and it was one of the most unpleasant experiences ever. The sand is scratchy, and the soap left my skin feeling unpleasantly tight.

Not a Lush product, but one of my favorite hand/body moisturizers right now is Cowshed Cheeky Cow Nourishing Body Cream. It is very lightweight and has a heavenly (but not too strong) scent. *_* And of course it works very well. I want to try Cow Pat Moisturizing Hand Cream one of these days (maybe when the US site comes back up).

After rain, cat found way home: OMG I love warm fuzzy stories of pets making their way home. I love that the humans came through with equal devotion.

And on the topic of cats, from moonlit_page, the ( mapping of the cat brain. )

I haven't been reading Viewfinder fics lately because a) my life has been devoured by the fandom that devours all, and b) VF fandom felt like it was getting way to self-indulgent (in that the fics really just made the not-very-nice-characters too OOC nice--or misunderstood--in the worst kind of way). Yet for some reason I clicked on Something Ugly This Way Comes by midwest_tales. It was definitely kinky, felt like something that might have happened, and was doing the kink well...until the end. I felt a little let down, because I didn't think Asami would be like that. But I feel a lot better having read the sequel, Why Would You offer More? Now I can say that I like this most definitely.

First off, thefourthvine made my day by posting her introduction to Smallville. I saw the first season and kind of lost interest...which apparently was the right thing to do because canon went downhill and kept heading south as it went on. Reading her take on it? Too funny for words. Almost tempts me into reading Smallville fic right now but I'm not going to because I actually kind of got sucked into another fandom and it's already pretty hard juggling that and SGA right now.

We watched random extras on the FF7:AC DVD the other night, and it made me really crave some fic. I decided that it'd be a great idea to check out the Japanese fandom. I've read solely in English thus far, but I was sure the Japanese would come through in the long, angtsy fic department. It's been hit and miss so far, but I did find at least one fic I really liked (and it was long!). But reading in Japanese? It's weird.

( reasons why reading FF7 fic in Japanese is odd )

Been having a hard time finding good fic. I've mostly come across the usual fandom stereotypes and archetypes played out in FF7 world so far. But then, I've only gone to about 20 sites or so. I really wish the Japanese were into archives and rec pages, because it's hard slogging through so many sites. I did find (on my first try!) a promising fic that includes not only great character interaction, but plot and action (as in fighting!) and intrigue:

夢の湖 is a long Sephiroth/Cloud WIP set when Cloud is 14. He is assigned to serve Sephiroth. The author has a very interesting take on Cloud and Sephiroth's personalities, and manages to keep them true throughout the story AND have them interact appropriately. Cloud's motivations and mind-set are very solid, and he feels like a "real" character. While she tends a bit too much to tell instead of show, the story moves forward well. Her Zack is wonderful. The mix of clown, joker, soldier and caring friend is absolutely perfect. She also has written quite a number of side stories. I read a couple, and they are pretty fun if a bit too fanon-ish. Her use of OC POV to show a different side of things is well done.

Some random fanart pages I kind of enjoyed passing through in the search for good fanfic:

覇那我竹館抜木 (hanagatakekannuki) has some cute art. I really like this one.

At SAMBITARIA, I basically liked one illustration: this one made me laugh.