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Entries for November, 2004

November 5th, 2004

move me

Seriously.

If you could pick all my crap up, put it in a magic Doraemon pocket and dump it in California for me, I'd be be endlessly grateful. Well, maybe not endlessly. But I'd buy you a soft serve ice cream. Any flavour. =)

So, thats where I am. Shoveing stuff into boxes and trying to reduce its volume without throwing things out. (I want to chuck things, but don't have the heart.)

By the 20th I should be out of NY, so probably fwe updates in the meantime, even though my comp troubles seem to have been slightly eleviated by the d/l-ing of Mozilla Firefox. It makes my transparent tables turn solid black, though. Peh!

Anyway, the lack of entries is probably a plus, since I'm very cranky over this Bush win thing. I'd like to sleep the next few years away and wake up when things are less screwed up. Given theres still a world to wake up into, that is.

rurounibug ; 04:25 PM|fine, ignore me

November 8th, 2004

the truth:

I also haven't been able to get online because I've been in Indo, and the warnet (netcafe thing) near my house has--well, it ain't where it was, thats all I know.

Also, my abang has taken over my HP.

B: I left Mom that handphone. She said I could use it when I got here.
Abang: Tough cookies.

He then told me he'd erased all my numbers or thrown out my SIM card (Numbers stored on SIM for Nokia 3330, right?) when I asked to go through the address book so I could at least call my freind UT. After telling me he didn't have it, he SMS-ed her.

UT: So you're in town? Am I supposed to be psychic? Do I always have to call you? Sombong amat kau!! Kebiasaan!!

I told her that if she wasn't psychic, she wouldn't have known I was back to phone.

UT: Your abang SMS-ed me, bangsat bernanah! (No english equivalent for cussing this gross.)
B: Anak Tuhan ga boleh ngomong bangsat, tai!
UT: *cuih* Awas kau!

Any excuses are pointless, because I always don't call. ^^;

UT: Flying kick!!!!

Then Abang told me a freind of mine was in drug rehab. When I asked other sources:

IK: What are you talking about? His cousin lives near me, he hangs out there. I see him all the time.

Theres more. I didn't blog this because it makes me mad every time. Madder every time, in fact, because I don't think that kind of messing with people is terribly funny.

Bleh.

It takes the occasional visit home to remind one that the other side of the planet is far enough away only by virtue of being as far as one can get. When I read my previous whiny, homesick posts, I could kick myself (but settle for pointing and laughing).

I didn't have a lot of time there, the whole visit being mostly about paperwork, and didn't really get to do any of the things I wanted to, but thats where I've really been the last month: Slowly going insane.

Man, it's good to be back.

Addendum: Today it snowed--it is not good to be back.

rurounibug ; 04:14 PM|fine, ignore me

November 8th, 2004

tales for consideration

Or Bask's departure from reality. Just play along for a bit. Humor me.

Most of the Indo manga that gets published seems to center around or feature:

1. Fantasy, western: elves, dwarves, and D&D-like magic. (See, I know D&D now. I'm by no means a RuleGuy(tm), but I know D&D magic when I see it. What? You think I was born yesterday?)

2. Sci-fi, Final Fantasy or Escaflowne Style: Swords, Summons, Robots, Cat-Girls.

3. Romance, of the Round Table Variety: castles, princesses with flowing locks, princes and horses and jousting, and kings who dress like the king in Johann and Pirlouit (which is a spin-off from Smurfs. ^^ )

They also have a more-than-fair-share of: "Imaginitive" school uniforms, impossible names (Matthew Von Ruttenvogen de Raphellaues . . . . Please. Just . . . . make it stop . . . . Someone . . . .) , in-jokes clearly aimed at personal acquintances. (No problem, but next time warn me, so I don't waste money on your ego-trip.), and "borrowed" themes, or certain elements the author/artist clearly yoinked from fanworld and thought the reader wouldn't catch.

So, getting back on-topic: Would anyone be interested in a manga competition centered on the Indonesian warrior class (ksatria, silent 'k') or culture? The rules would be easy and simple:

1. Make it 'cool'. No need to be realistic. The European knight (hey, silent 'k'! Whoa . . . .) certainly isn't portrayed realistically, nor is the romantised samurai. Add billowy sashes, hair, etc as needed, and feel free to discard 'dorky' imagery like all that gold head gear. Decorate the horses any way you damn well want, just no European body armor, please.

2. No need to be historical. Make up a kingdom, if you want. No one has yet proved there was a camelot, right? Feel free also to throw in fantasy elements, so long as they 'fit'. (No bahamuts, sorry.)

3. No lame special 'effects'. Think Rurouni Kenshin instead of 'hadoken'. Steer far, far away from "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" or "Once upon a time in China" effects. No running up walls, no fighting with sashes or scarves.

4. Original. No re-made folk tales. Folk-tale-ish original tales would be fine. So would a realistic/real world setting.

5. Sci-fi is welcome. Rai Thunderjet is a sci-fi samurai, after all, and so, in a way (a very lame way) are things like Saint Seiya. If you can pull it off, go for it.

6. Fantasy is welcome. Inuyasha is old-world Japan fantasy. Sort of. Not samurai, maybe, but heck. Feel free to improvise.

7. First person to name the lead charachter with soccer-player sounding or Euro-tastic names gets decapitated. Names can be made-up words (ie: not real names) but must fit. No Legolases in SE Asia, please, but you don't have to name anyone "Mpuh Sendok" either.

8. Mixing cultures is allowed: Elementals and magic rings are pretty staple nowadays, but local magic/magical things/magical creatures (should you choosse to use magic) would get a bonus.

9. Yaoi, yuri, action, drama, comedy, whatever. 20-40 pages? Is that about the length of a manga short-story?

Okay, maybe thats not so easy and simple. ^^; This is me musing. Feel free to add/mock/suggest changes. I think it would be cool to not only try to host a comp, but also to 'cool-ify' our own pathetically portrayed culture. I mean, get some damn pride.

Works would be judged on:

1. Success in meeting the main requirement: Making something lame into soemething cool. If its cool and it's obviously Indonesian-culture-based, other rule-breaking can be forgiven.

2. Charachter, plot, and story would be graded over art. Clever plot twists and world-building are more important than pretty pics--If a stick figure strip turns out to be the best story, so be it! I'd love pretty art, but people tend to focus on that instead of the story.

Not sure about requirements, and it's a moot point if no one's interested, but hey, daydream with me. XP I know no one would put that much effort into a no-prize, but it would be fun, wouldn't it?

It would be neat. So neat . . . . ^^ And shiny.

But if you are intersted, or know anyone who would be, drop me a line. Suggest a prize. Just play this game with me, alright?

rurounibug ; 07:39 PM|fine, ignore me

November 10th, 2004

death to cats!!

The cat keeps pooping behind the woodstove. Will him trade for random shiny objects, as he is a pre-owned, HIV (FIV?)-positive, semi-psychotic unhygenic cat.

rurounibug ; 10:09 PM|fine, ignore me

November 15th, 2004

woe regarding books and random junk

I have too many fucking books. I have books I'm only keeping because I might need them for a paper . . . someday. Books I'm keeping (and okay, bought) because I like the cover art and nothing more. Books I'm keeping because the (not so good) author is often recc-ed on the website of my favorite (pretty awesome) author. Manga I bought and am keeping because I like the story and art, or just because I really liked the way a peripheral charachter looked in a single panel two pages from the end of the book.

Books. They're like a sickness with me.

Plus I have just loads and loads of junk that needs to somehow be crammed into one van. Shit. One minivan. What I need is a truck.

And oh yeah, I have to be done and on the road by this weekend.

Why the hell am I mucking about online?

This is really my art. My true art. I should major in procrastination because damn, that I could do.

rurounibug ; 07:47 PM|fine, ignore me

November 15th, 2004

woe regarding fics and site

I've been meaning for a long time to update, clean, fix my site.
Geocities has started an annoying side-window thing that makes me think I should move again, but it's so much trouble to tell people, nag about links, etc.

Then theres the origifics I've been madly world building around. I have charachter names I've been recycling since I was 16, and now I'm having to think up new names because you can't have the same names in your sci-fi tale and your elemental-magic tale and your secret agents tale . . . . That would get confusing. Plus, my crappy imagination would be revealed for what it is.

Also annoyed because some names I made up ages ago are now cropping up everywhere. And even if the books they were in were written before I was even born, I still feel robbed. Damn it! *fumefumefume* Because I read these authors, have yakked/ranted/etc about them, I feel like I should ditch the name for fear of being called a copycatter. >( but making stuff up is oh so hard . . . .

Not that it matters because even if the writerly parts of me have been nagging for weeks now (maybe because its NaNOWriMo, but more on that when the tension headache is less impending) its not like I have time to write anything what with the packing I'm not doing and the cleaning I'm not doing and the distractions of the web which I am, apparently, very much distracted by.

My worldbuildingthing is far, far more powerful than my writerthing and it seems that world building means 'making up rules' because I've been madly (see Nov 8th post: Tales for Consideration) making up all sorts of rules, here and on AI. When it's my place to, and not. And I'm getting the same worldbuildingthing buzz. I'm going to get WP-ed any time now, but as I write this post I'm starting to think that WPs might be the least of my problems.

rurounibug ; 08:08 PM|fine, ignore me

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