What is this, Horseville? 'Cause I'm surrounded by naysayers. Wordplay!

So, I read Hot Gimmick and have absolutely no one to blame but myself.

I'm going to spare anyone out there who hasn't already read this series the trouble: DON'T DO IT. JUST. DON'T.

Here is the Wikipedia summary of this garbage (highlight for light spoilers regarding the way in which this manga is a blight upon the world)

The story revolves around Hatsumi Narita, a passive sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a company housing complex that is ruled by the tyrannical Mrs. Tachibana, the wife of the company's vice president. How a family behaves in the housing complex can affect an employee's status in the company. When her promiscuous younger sister Akane thinks she might be pregnant, Hatsumi gets talked into buying her a pregnancy test. Unfortunately, things don't go exactly as planned and Hatsumi is blackmailed by Ryoki Tachibana, the arrogant teenage son of the powerful Tachibana family who bullied her as a kid, into being his slave.

The first volume of this series is mostly an introduction for all the characters and plotlines, and any possible readers of this series are warned that things do not stay as they seem for long. The main male characters (Ryoki, Azusa, and Shinogu) all quickly swap places as the story continues on through the series. For this reason, Hot Gimmick is targeted much more at a mature audience, as it addresses several adult themes that are not entirely appropriate for younger readers; most pointedly, the normalization of an abusive relationship. Hot Gimmick delves into a deeper side found in every society, while still maintaining its shōjo roots.

Please note, I read this summary before starting the damn thing. I KNEW WHAT WAS COMING and I read it anyway. My thought process was basically "Oh, it can't be all that bad. SURELY things will get straightened out in the end." WRONG.

It's shoujo I told myself, mistakenly linking shoujo and romance in my mind. See, in romance novels you are guaranteed a happy ending. That's what makes it a romance novel. It can be romantic, but if any of that hero/heroine dies at the end nonsense goes down - BAM! NOT ROMANCE.

Also, I'd just read Sarah MacLean's Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake which was just fantastic. I don't know that I've ever been so emotionally invested in a romance novel before, but I loved the main pair something fierce. The entire story was so fresh and fun, and I totally almost teared up at one point. Even if you're not a fan of romance novels, if you like good love stories, pick it up. It's a delightful read.

How quickly I forgot the garbage a read before that (Potent Pleasures, by Eloisa James) where I wanted to strangle the hero on multiple occasions for being such. a. massive. dick.

Normally, I don't read manga. Or, I'll read a few chapters or volumes and give up. The only series I'm actively following is Kimi ni Todoke. I think the only series I've read in it's entirety is Peach Girl. I never even finished Fruits Basket, which I loved, opting instead to just read summaries because I'm hella lazy.

So, what possessed me to pick this series up in the first place and then proceed to FINISH THE ENTIRE DAMN THING, is something I will never be able to explain (or defend).

( Spoilers for all 54 infuriating chapters (possible triggers) )

Excuse me while I go stab myself with a fork.

SO, Community started up again last night!



Which means that The Vampire Diaries is on the back-burner until I can download it. Because obviously, the two network shows I MUST watch are on at the same time. I'm so happy this show is back even though I didn't think this episode was the best ever.

Actually, I thought the "twittersode" was funnier. But that was mainly due to Shirley's tweet:

Shirley_GCC: .@AnnieEdisonGCC No one has heard from Britta? I just saw “Girl Interrupted” and I’m worried about intense white girls. // #NBCCommunity

I guess a spoiler cutis in order...( SPOILERS! )

I ended up watching the rest of NBC's comedy line-up, since I couldn't very well just watch the last half of TVD. I'm also currently crocheting a monkey for my cousin's new baby, which means I can't watch dramas. Crocheting and subtitles don't really mix.

30 Rock and The Office were both funny. People on TWOP's The Office message board are such negative nancies. If you're going to whine about how the show sucks and should be canceled EVERY WEEK maybe you should consider stop watching the show. It's annoying. I agree, The Office has fallen off in terms of quality, but it can still be funny. 30 Rock is better (and Community better than that). Both shows make me laugh, but I don't HAVE to watch them. And I'm certainly not going to complain about them unless they are actively UNfunny...

...Like the last show in the line-up: Outsourced. Seriously, how did this show get greenlit? It's mildly offensive to all parties involved, but the main issue I have is it's horrendously unfunny. I didn't laugh once. Mostly I spent the entire 30 minutes marveling at how huge a jackass the main guy was.

He was shocked (SHOCKED!) that his new employees didn't know who the Bad News Bears were. Dude, I didn't know that until the remake came out a few years ago. Isn't it funny how they thought he was talking about real bears? NO.

It would be one thing if we were supposed to see him as the arrogant American, but I don't think we are. I think we're supposed to sympathize with him. I did, for the first 30 seconds when we learned he had some serious student loan issues. Then he spoke and all that goodwill went out the window.

BTW, his love interest is the only white woman in the building, of course.

Every single character of every nationality seemed to be a caricature, from the hick Americans on the phone to the Indian man amazed at the concept of dating without getting married. It was all just so tired.

The only part that made me smile was when the assistant manager talked about how American's eat hamburgers morning, noon, and night. And that was only because it reminded me of j-dramas, namely Hana Kimi and Yamada Taro Monogatari where they talk about American-style hamburgers that are the size of your head. WE AMERICANS LOVE HAMBURGERS.

ETA: Watched the first two episodes of Merlin. And honestly? I'm not sure why I watch this show. I forget everything that's happened 5 minutes after the credits roll. I really have no idea what happened the last two seasons. I watched it and yet, when I search my memory: NOTHING. Two thoughts though:

1. Arthur is such a tool. We're supposed to believe he's going to be a great kind? Try being a decent human being.


2. Why don't they just give Morgana a Snidely Whiplash moustache and be done with it?

This post is kind of all over the place. Please bear with me.


IS THERE SOMETHING YOU WANT, CATS?

( Earl and Zuzu say 'hi' )

ETA: The first Colts preseason football game was this weekend. REAL FOOTBALL IS SO CLOSE I CAN ALMOST TASTE IT. :9

I didn't like it when Yahoo announced that they were going to delete all of the Geocities pages last year. It felt like burning down a library: a library full of obnoxious tiled backgrounds, midis, and animated gifs, but a library none the less. Every page that sat on those servers represented the birth of the internet into the mainstream. It's not like we lost the tool with which to use the pages, everyone could still visit those pages using today's internet browsers. It's not like finding a 5 1/2 inch floppy and not having the Apple II on which to read it.

I thought it was terribly cold-hearted that they decided to erase all that history, even if it was abandoned. It made me sad.

But, it didn't make me annoyed until I randomly tried to find an old Fushigi Yuugi fanfic this weekend. It seemed to have vanished from the internet, it's disappearance no doubt assisted by the Geocities massacre. That is what people used back in '98 after all.

It made me very upset that I couldn't find it. I used to read fanfiction quite a bit, but nothing ever stuck with me the way this story did (besides random snippets of X-Files fanfiction my friend and I would read to each other when we were younger), which is kind of awful to say because it's totally a Mary Sue story written for one of the FY Big Name Fans. But, nevertheless, I had to find it.

I get obsessive about the oddest things. For whatever reason it became VITAL that I find it. I don't know why it was so important, maybe just the fact that I couldn't accept that the internet would fail me. But, it seemed like every link I came across was dead. This was before fanfiction.net really took off so it wasn't there. And even the old FY fic yahoo group had disappeared. I was beginning to lose hope and started grasping at straws by sending emails to what I knew were defunct emails (who uses juno anymore?). Until there was a breakthrough. I was just searching for the authors name and saw it mentioned in reference to another one of her fics. Mind you, I hadn't found any working links for ANYTHING by her so I didn't have much hope.

But, it was a link to an archived webpage. If you went to the site itself, it was gone, but there was still an archived version. It was an entire library of Fushigi Yuugi fics AND IT WAS THERE. I immediately saved it to my computer so I wouldn't have to go through that nonsense again.

Back to real life

I'm going to be painting my (tiny) kitchen and bedroom. I'm fairly certain I will be painting the (ridiculous small) kitchen the same apple green as the dining room. I love that color and I think it will look great against the dark wood and white cabinets in the (you won't believe how miniscule it is) kitchen. The question that remains is whether I'll paint all of the wall or just above or below the chair rail.

My bedroom is what I am really excited about. Recently I refinished a small dresser I found on craigslist and painted it canary yellow. It's so adorable. I kept meaning to do a post about it, but the pictures are just sitting on my camera at the moment. Having made that color choice, the rest of the room would have to work around it. I think I've decided on the color scheme of yellow, gray, and green. Have a look at some pictures (trolling design websites is my new hobby) to see just how pretty it is:


( More photos... )

I want to paint my walls gray and find a new duvet cover for my comforter. Currently it is sage green, which is pretty, but I want a more vibrant green. What I really would like is a white fabric with a bright green print. But that is proving difficult to find. And besides, duvet covers are CRAZY expensive for what amount to two sheet sewn together and some buttonholes. So, I think I'm going to make my own. But that means I still have to find sheets. The closest I've come across are there, but they aren't quite right.

Sometimes I read:

I recently finished Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and really enjoyed it. I kind of adored Eon because she seemed like such a real girl, full of doubts, pride, and amazing inner strength. She may not be the nicest person, but her life never allowed for it. And the Asian-influenced world was pretty awesome. My only quibble is that the entire book was kind of a slow burn when it came to conflict. No highs or lows to speak of, but I am anticipating the second book. I can't wait to see what happens.

I also started Graceling which gives us another excellent heroine in Katsa. Only, where Eon was forced to be withdrawn by her circumstances Katsa is up to her eyeballs in hands-on everything. Plus, Po is a cutie.

First, the bad news. I parked on the street in front of my house Friday night. Saturday morning I go out and discover some jackass has sideswiped my car in the early hours, busted my driver-side mirror, and ran. No note, nothing. So now I am out $450 for brand new mirror and the labor needed to reinstall it. Plus, I won’t get it until after the weekend due to the holiday. Until then I have to drive around like some redneck with a broken mirror. It’s a little scary driving sans mirror. I enjoy being able to see. I should count my blessings that it wasn’t worse. I can’t imagine what it would have cost if they had damaged more of my car.

( Cut for picture of damage )

I really hope karma comes back and bites them in the ASS.

Good news: I’m done with Christmas shopping! Now I just need to wrap everything. Christmas is rather small this year given I have no money, which is sad because I really do enjoy getting people things. I had also meant to make a rag quilt for my mom, but never got around to it. I’m finally in the Christmas spirit, though! I’m even listening to Christmas music at my desk (thanks, Pandora). We got a little dusting of snow, which almost ended with me on my ass because ice and heels don’t mix. But, I survived.

( What I watched this weekend, jdramas, kdramas, and regular-type tv! )

Current NaNo word count:

21294 / 50000 words. 43% done!

So I made some awesome progress on my NaNo novel, and now I'm stuck. I kind of hate my story. I know that you're just supposed to keep writing, but I'm lost. I never really had a full plot figured out in my head, just a few scenes floating around. Those are written now and I feel kind of screwed.

I think part of my problem is the tone of the story. It's very serious. I don't really do serious. I've written a few things that can be classified as straight-up drama, but I feel far more comfortable in the world of comedy. When I started this, I think I fancied myself capable of keeping on my serious hat for the extent of it. That's not possible. I enjoy reading and watching drama, but I just don't think I have the chops to write a legitimate dramatic novel.

There can be dramatic moments, but I'm much more comfortable with characters cracking wise. That may mean I'm limited as a writer, but I do like to think I can do comedy fairly well. I think I just need to work on finding that happy balance where there is enough drama to make the story matter, but not enough that I just feel stuck in the mud.

All my characters have the capacity to be in a story with a different tone. There are just some plot elements that need to be modified. That's not going to happen now. You never ERASE when it comes to NaNo. I'll just have to bust myself out of this funk.

It would also help if I had a plot. =_=

I finished A Sleeping Forest last night. If anyone is looking for a suspenseful murder-mystery jdrama with some crazy-ass twists, I really suggest it. Use the torrent off of d-addicts though, the version on jdramas is awful and doesn't do Kimura's hair justice.

That's all I'm going to say about it for fear of spoiling something.

Now I just need to decide if I'm going to continue with Love Revolution or Long Vacation. I also have Painter of the Wind sitting on my hard drive. We'll see.

Finally got to see last week's Leverage. It was pretty adorable. It's a show I really can't take too seriously though. They gloss over a LOT of things that if you think about don't really make a lot of sense. The plot is really thin, so just hang on for the ride and enjoy the characters and their lines. It's harmless fun.

When I was at my parent's last weekend painting, we picked up said paint from Sherwin-Williams. The guy behind the counter was perfectly nice, my only problem was he had a rotten tooth. Seriously, it was BLACK. SO GROSS.

This reminded me that I need to set up a dentist appointment as I'm already way past due. I also picked up some whitening strips, because I've been thinking about doing it for a while, but didn't want to bite the $30 bullet. I couldn't help myself this time around. It's a little difficult for me though, because for whatever reason I have a LOT of saliva. It's always been an issue.

I played trumpet in 4th grade and got really good use out of the spit valve. I don't think I was meant to play any instruments besides percussion and strings. It was gross. And when I had my braces put on (the first time) they gave me a pill to take beforehand to decrease my saliva flow.

So now I have these whitening trays sitting in my mouth and I can't swallow so I feel like a rabid dog. Beauty isn't pain, beauty is REALLY GROSS.

HAHA. Hope that wasn't TMI!

It's come to my attention that I need to get a library card. It's been years since I had one (since I moved) and that is unacceptable. There is no need for me to be spending money on books when I can just borrow them for FREE. I need to start reading again, my brain is turning into goo just like they talk about on the hulu commercials.  The DMV is also on my to-do list this weekend.  I need to change the address on my license, then I will find the nearest library branch and start trying to reclaim some brain cells

BUT BACK TO TV.

Yesterday I started Being Human a short BBC series about a vampire, werewolf, and ghost living together. I'm only an episode and a half in, but I think I'll probably love it. I've enjoyed it up to this point - all the characters are interesting and have distinct personalities. Plus, the vampire? SUPER ATTRACTIVE:



Double plus? IRISH.

I also watched the first episode of Who Are You? because ever since I read the description I've wanted to watch it, though I'm not sure why.  I had been determined not to put more than three dramas on my plate at a time but this kept pushing its way back into my brain.  It just sounded so cute, so of course the first episode made me cry BUCKETS.  I supposed the had to kill they dad if the whole premise of the show (he takes over some kid's body to communicate with his daughter) was going to work, but did we really need that super extended grieving sequence?  I almost made it all the way through but ended up breaking down finally.  The preview for episode 2 looks far more fun and enjoyable, which is what I had been expecting.