Yet another fangirl raving. Pity the world for having yet another one of those.

 
Sad now. Tina confirmed yesterday that Love Mode is ending with volume 11. I can't really blame Yuki Shimizu for ending the series. Her drawing schedule must be insane, because she publishes a lot in the monthly BeBoys, and 11 volumes is very long for a yaoi series these days. But still, sad now. Love Mode was the first yaoi series that I fell in love with, and I'm sorry to see it end.

Now, I wonder how I can get my hot little hands on the upcoming 3rd drama cd...
posted by Mer W at 8:56 AM

 
So, I went to a con, and it was good. As usual, I spent too much money, but I enjoyed spending it. Some things could have been organized better. Most major con events didn't start on time, or overran their scheduled time. Registeration could have run much better. Most of the problem was that they were forced to start late, but there were other things they could have controlled to make it run smoother.

For once, I actually went to panels. (I think hell froze for a bit.) I avoided the CLAMP yaoi panel, because most CLAMP fans scare me. Went to the Biblos editor's panel, and actually asked questions that I hope weren't too stupid. It was interesting to hear the reasons why Biblos does what it does. There was a tad of gossip about Kodaka and that was fun to here too.

Went to a panel on the legalities of yaoi/slash on web. I guess it was good for me to know what American law says about it, but really I don't care. Coming from media/slash fandom, I seem to be hardened against the issues that manga/yaoi fandom developed. I was amused by the horror/shock that was shown against RPS in that panel. My amusement factor might have been due to the fact that I was sitting next to someone who reads RPS and isn't a 13 year-old girl. RPS seems to have become the Anti-Christ for some people. Went a panel on religious themes in manga & anime and was interested and engaged. The mod for the panel was more comfortable and knowledgable in Western traditions, so I didn't get to here quite as much about Shinto and Buddhism as I would have liked.

Hmmm, what else, I saw the first ep of Mirage of Blaze. I think it was okay, but I'm not certain about it. I was tipsy, the other fans were squealing too much, and the subtitles sucked. They were in an odd font, and tiny. I didn't actually like the video room at the con. The screen was hard to see, and the chairs weren't arranged well. Also, every time I wandered by, they seemed to be showing Boku no SH. That is show I'll most happily avoid seeing. The musicvids weren't bad. They were a bit heavy on Gravi, and I didn't like any of the music used for the Gravi vids. So, wasn't too happy with that. There were some nice Trigun and YnM vids though. There was also a Boku no SH vid. shudders Can we say, ewww yuck? The soul of the con was conspiring to make sure I saw that OVA, I'm sure. I won though! shakes fist I never saw more then snippets of the thing.

Parts of my haul, because these things do matter damnit! I picked up V from Baltimore's Shounen Hump and found her an Aya pin like she requested. Bought myself a Kuroneko-sama pin from the same dealer. Bought Aithine two TN djs. Bought myself assorted smut manga and djs, an artbook from a mangaka I like, about half of Hikaru no Go (Damn you, Tina! That addiction is your fault.) I got a halfway decent DNAngel pencilboard. It wasn't the board I was looking for, but it'll do. I also bought myself a copy of Shounen Hump and got my talented
roomates, Tina and Liesl to sign their shorts. Bought stationary and bookmarks from my other talented roommate Kryn, and they are beautiful.

I think I'm done now. I suppose this means I have to go answer the e-mail I've been avoiding....
posted by Mer W at 2:31 PM

 
Going to a con for a few days, everybody think happy thoughts for me. If I owe you mail, I'll talk to you when I get back...
posted by Mer W at 10:20 PM

 
Pam,Pam,Pam,
Pam, are you bothering to tell your roomates that you're annoyed as hell with them? Or are you just letting this build up until you go out back get the axe and chop them into bitty pieces for your dog's pleasure?

BR-549 is from Lawrence? Coooooool!
posted by Mer W at 10:00 AM

 
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh.

HarperCollins UK is driving me INSANE. Let me explain a little. I've been following Robin Hobb's series for about 8 years now. She started a new one last year. Due to the way the rights were sold Bantam bought the US rights, and HarperCollins UK bought the UK rights. The book is done, but will not be published in the US until January 03. However, it's was suppose to be published in the UK in September. Guess which one I pre-ordered? I have the Internet and a credit card. If I'm going to order books from Japan in a language I can't even read, I'm damn well going to order books from England in a language I can.

However, my brillant plan was ruined by reality. HarperCollins pushed back the street date from September something to October 7. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, I waited. I wasn't very patient about it, but I waited. Today, reading the Robin Hobb message board, I discovered that there was yet another problem. Those idiots at the publisher managed to drop a chapter out of the book. Now the street date isn't until the 21, because a corrected book needs to be printed and the current crop needs to be destroyed.

I am about ready to scream! I want this book. I've been waiting for this book! I expected to have read it at least twice by now. I expect a multi-national company to be able to publish one simple book. To put it quite simple, I expected better from this company. I expected much better.
posted by Mer W at 1:22 PM

 
BR-549, anyone?

warbles

21 days not a wink of sleep. Got a belly full of pills and a bottle of heat. Sleep makes you old on the road. Trucking is a young man's trade. Pin-head, pencil-pushing loud mouth geek cut me off at mile-marker 33. I made him pay for the mood he made with his Pinto in a firey grave! 18 wheels and a crowbar cutting you down to size! 18 wheels and a crowbar can't runaway this time! 18 wheels and a crowbar I'm gonna put the hammer down!

posted by Mer W at 5:31 PM

 
Oh, look, I can access my blog now. Of course, now I can't remember what I wanted to say yesterday. I'll just wing it.

Let's start with Firefly. I've finally seen the show and I like it. This of course means that the show is going to be cancelled shortly.

What am I enjoying? Besides the boot to the death? (Loved that scene in the first episode.) Well, the characters are engaging and multi-faceted. They aren't the knights in shining armor of the Star Trek mythos. They get dirty, they do shady things and they have a ratty ship. I find these to be good things. I adore the couple of Wash and Zoe, and pray they don't end up like every couple on Buffy.

What I don't particularly like is the character of Inara. She embodies too many cliches to me. Not only does she have the "hooker with a heart of good" thing going on, she's also got the "in love with the captain" thing. Now, it might just be my middle class values coloring my vision of her, because you know I've got this whole idea that sex for money equals bad going on. Just so I'm not totally negative on her, I would like to state that there are some things I do like about her. She's smart, clever, and she does seem to care about the crew of the Serenity. So, I'm hoping that later episodes will tone down the portions of her character I don't like.

Also, I'm really like Buffy this season. I'm such a sadist, that I adore the broken Spike. It's fun, it's interesting. I liiiiike pain. Also like that Xander's role seems to have expanded. Not all that pleased with what they're doing with Willow, but,hey, I'm still bitter over that Tara dying thing.

Moving onto the anime portion of this blog, someone please explain to me the popularity of Nekojita's Wiess stories? Cause I am so not getting it. I tried, I really did. I read all of Violet Eyes, because I was sure that it would finally click for me. It never did. Quite frankly, her characterizations drive me insane. She's turned Aya into a wimp! She doesn't say anything new or interesting in her stories to me. I can't even catch a glimmer of emotional depth in her writing.

Personally, if I want to read about Aya being dragged into a relationship, I'll go read Aoe's Embracing the Shadows. It might be Schwarz apologist fic, but it's damn good apologist fic.

Speaking of Schwarz's apologist fic, I'm in mourning, Truth appears to be much more interested in writing Something Missing these days. Don't get me wrong, Something Missing is interesting, but I would much rather read her Threes series. The interpersonal relationships in 3s interests me much more then the ones in Something Missing. That interest is probably driven by my kink for threesomes.

Reading CC's con report was interesting. Especially the part about fans not wanting to read MfU because of wimpy Illyas. Have to admit, there are lots of wimpy/passive Illyas in the fandom. The trend does seem to be shifting back the other way though. Linda White doesn't write a wimpy Illya, however her Napoleon's a drip. So, no happy medium there. Taliesen does have a nice balance in her writing though. So do you, CC. Sadly, it's been so long since I've roamed amongst my zines that I can't pull out any other good Illyas. Of course, my hard feelings against the certain members of the fandom are inhibiting my enjoyment of the fic. It occurs to me that Katya really needs to finish her MfU rec page. This would be an invaluable service to those folks interested in MfU to afraid to waste their cash on poor zines.
posted by Mer W at 1:14 PM

 
PAM! Why did you not point this out to me? I am very, very disappointed in you! You've let me down here...
posted by Mer W at 3:22 PM