Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

I found some more stuff I wanted available at jpqueen, so I decided on a whim to try yet another order. If you want anything, you just need to tell me by 2008.06.07 (in a time zone close to the International Date Line), and we can share the shipping. As ever, there's a chance that the items will be bought by someone else if you don't tell me quickly enough, but there's not enough turnaround for it to be terribly important (or for their recommendations to be useful—currently AZUMANGA is associated with yaoi and "Hentai").

When thinking about 4th Edition for a later post, I happened to run across this. When I found it, it was at 355 posts and counting, so I'm too lazy to read it all, but the first page linked this. DM has been linking this wiki quite a bit lately, but apparently he only uses reputable sections, because the first paragraph here makes me say "What the hell?" The talk page points out that defining this as an individual phenomenon is pretty arbitrary and that this is encouraged here, but the first sentence, as far as I can tell, completely fabricates a new definition for a Japanese word. . . .

Although Wikipedia has an entire article on wasei Eigo, the opposite (which is more significant to English-speakers) is not discussed in a centralized place. Some of them are included in this really long list, but it doesn't mention the one that I find most dangerous. This is noted briefly, however, in the article I've been avoiding, but they don't say anything about the actual movement; it's implied that it's just an insult.

Also significantly, it says that Japanese lesbians refer to themselves as "les." I'd heard that this was a pejorative, which is presumably why I have never seen it used self-referentially in lesbian media, only in yuri. I have something more to mention related to that in relation to another kansō, if I ever get around to it.

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

Between my falling out with daily_yuri and my irregular schedule, I haven't had it in me to watch my videos lately. Consequently, the files on Mother's computer are piling up again. (As I've mentioned before, I prefer not to burn files until I've watched them, to make sure they work properly and so I don't have to look up the official titles and episode subtitles.) My only solution has been to move things to the computer in the bedroom, but there are two problems with that. First, I only have a 1-GB portable container, so it's a pain in the ass. (This part might be solved if blitzcon ever actually gives me that broken laptop, because I might be able to hook it up to the others using that ethernet cable I bought a while back on the false assumption that my laptop had a port.) Second, even there, I only have an 80-GB hard drive, so that'll fill up eventually, too.

Of course, one might wonder why I'm even bothering to download this stuff if I'm not watching it. The main reason is that I'm restricted to torrents, meaning that I have to get the files while they're fresh, because it's unlikely that I'll ever have another chance once people throw away the files and seed the fansubs* instead. (I'm still bitter about the fact that I can't take advantage of Share because no one will tell me how to use an Internet connection.) Ms. mizuno_youko tells me that IRC isn't as bad as I thought, but if I'm too depressed to watch the videos, it stands to reason that I'm not going to wade through trying to figure out how that works.

*It's rather sad that "Anime" has become so mainstream that even bootleggers cater to people who can't figure out how to use a separate ji-maku file.

Despite what I've said here, this one appears to be more like the Western version.

And in case you're tired of official English titles that aren't translations of the Japanese, here's the opposite. Interestingly enough, it translates roughly as "the L worLd."

[Edit (2007.11.24): The former is also discussed here.]

Well, it looks like they found Zul'jin. He's been missing for years, and casual fans have been confused about why the jungle trolls are all on about him.

Also, there's a non-"MANGA" WARCRAFT comic in the works, and apparently this shaman guy is badass enough that he can keep a Keeper of the Grove as a slave. "Where did you put my divine focus?"

ANIME QUIZ - Which Evil Anime Badass Are You?

You are Vicious from "Cowboy Bebop"!You are IRRITABLE evil.
Take this quiz!








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| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Fortunately, this one was retro enough that I know who the character is. It also appears to be the most common result. Then again, he does seem to be the most archetypal "evil badass" on the list. Dilandu raves a bit much for the image.

It must be difficult to be an "Anime" fan when you're fluent in neither English nor Japanese.

Also, I rather like the link previews in the new LJ, even if they do take up bandwidth. (This one is a dinky enough image that I didn't <lj-cut> it, but I can change that if necessary.)

I had two shifts this morning, so between the down-time and the grunt-work, I had plenty of time to think about the character backgrounds for Project Homuncupunk. As before, I thought of a lot of full write-ups for various scenes therein. It also occurred to me that there are huge numbers of flashbacks for the first story arc. (Jū himself doesn't get much in that area due to his age, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem, as I made sure to throw in appropriate scenes to illustrate him in the first arc, and he really comes into his own as a multiclassed mover/shaker in the second.) I'm sure I could trim some more of them to extras, but I'll need a good chunk to use to illustrate the numerous characters and their relationships and current status. (As always, I prefer visuals to text, so this way is a lot better than just having blocks of expository stuff.) In particular, I need to establish the ones who are going to be developed further from those points by the end of the story arc, and especially the ones who will be dying in that time period. I usually hate to let go of any of my belovèd characters (which isn't necessarily all of them, but the majority of the significant ones), but this project has such masses of planned material that I know they all get proper treatment.

After I got home, I happened to read an existing comic, and was amused by the fact that the villain appears to the heroes and immediately tells them his (un)life story. I know Knaak is a popular author, but I haven't read any of his stuff since I was a kid (relatively speaking), so for all I know, he could be a hack writer. In this case, it may just be that he was restricted in how many chances he had to do this stuff. (Who the hell makes an epic graphic novel trilogy?) Meanwhile, while I like WARCRAFT, I'm not so sure about throwing away my pride to patronize the company that's "LEADING THE MANGA REVOLUTION" with its Americanized Japanese and Korean comics and its Japanized American comics. I also noticed a coincidental similarity in title to the other first volume of some comic by a Korean dude from that company that I have.

Meanwhile, upon further thought on the Templars' armaments, I realized that a sword really isn't much use, even at close quarters, if you have a reliably semiautomatic shotgun with ammunition that respawns at negligible animistic cost (at least to high-end homunculi like them). I wanted anachronistic double-edged swords with crossguards just for the iconic image, but I suppose the shields might be good enough for that.

1. Comment if you want questions.

2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.

5. When others respond, you will ask them five questions.

This will take some time, so I'm just starting with one from phoenix_talon, who seems to have responded more quickly than lordjubatus:

1. Being that you seem to have watched as many different anime as I have watched other shows, if you could suggest just one for me to seek out an watch, what would it be?

Interesting. Let us begin by judging your tastes. I know that you are particularly fond of Eva and Trigun, two very different series. In other spheres, you are also known as a Trekkie and a role-player.

It has been years since I paid attention to such mainstream series as you, but there has been one incredibly popular series that I have flagged in recent years. That is, of course, BLEACH. It's a series that focuses on super-powered badasses fighting, which is about the best I can do. It may perhaps be a bit too far in that direction, as it's aimed toward the teen bracket, and serialized in Shōnen Jump, no less, meaning it's a really bloody long series with a huge number of characters. However, that's the best I've been able to get based on my limited knowledge of you and my limited knowledge of Japanese animation.

The other four questions will follow [2 4 5 3]. Meanwhile, any of you who want me to get to know you better can respond to the meme. (I personally prefer this method to bathing with my friends.) To tell the truth, of most of my friends I know so little that I'd have trouble thinking of five questions, but I'll try.

For some reason, it wasn't until after I posted that I realized that I could raid Mother's CD collection. I'm only copying them onto her computer, after all. . . . I'll get to that when she goes to bed.

Also, I forgot another comment that I was going to make in relation to this post, particularly considering the fact that the game draws on so many multicultural sources. The Japanese, when taking concepts from other languages, tend to either make new Japanese words for them or pronounce them in a more primal (close-to-the-origin) form than we use. For instance, in our areas of expertise, we often run into words like "Deutsch," "Italia," "kentauros," and "minotauros." However, one thing that the Japanese don't do well is plurals, as these are almost used in Japanese except in the cases of animate creatures, and the ones they have depend on your opinion of the noun to which they're appended rather than things like the language of origin or ending sound. (For a loanword, they often colloquially add an "s," just like a stupid English-speaker.) Consequently, there are some things that end up as always plural, like "fruits" (although they may have used "tsu" in the old days for an ending "t," before "to" became popular for the same purpose). Some of the most common I've encountered are "seraphim" and "cherubim." (Despite the use of the plural in all cases, the latter （「ケルビム」） is at least more accurately pronounced than in common English.) In the same vein, I can only assume that this is pronounced "nephil" (because I'm too lazy to look up each letter individually).

I've updated my one-shots. It's too bad that I don't have players for any of them. I'm desperate enough that I might even be willing to GM at ERPL if I had the chance.

One of the main selling points to me for making these in the first place is the chance to try out various settings and elements. Towards that end, I tried to make sure to include various factions and the special abilities associated with them. Unfortunately, this also makes it more difficult for players. The rules are not too much of a problem (even though in D&D and STAR WARS you have to make reasonably high-level characters to get access to much of the interesting stuff), as I build all of the characters and locations myself. However, the characters from these factions are more difficult to role-play for people who know nothing about the factions or setting beforehand. I try to give them primers on what their characters are, but this can only go so far.

In Rokugan, this problem is accented by the fact that one of the design strategies for the setting was to emphasize the alien nature of the culture. Even with all the information given, there are unclear areas, and they are not intended to be filled by our common expectations about how society works. Because of this, my version is an amalgam of what it says in the RPG books that I have, the wiki, and my own concept of Japanese culture. Conveniently enough, I chose to center the PC parties on the two most liberal clans of the empire, as they allow more variety in interesting character concepts, but I still only thought of three for the latter, so I ended up throwing in a couple of Lions (the archetypal samurai clan). If I think of more ideas, or if I only manage to get three players, that may work out all right.

I also plan to throw in a primer on Japanese language (or as much as you keep when speaking English in a stereotypical Japanese setting) to help those who play in the Rokugan mods. As noted before, I've given real-life Japanese precedence over that in the official setting, as the latter really sounds stupid to anyone who knows any of the former. It's not a big deal, but I like talking about it, and there's an off chance that people on this list might actually be willing to discuss things with me. . . .

Here's the blurb for the one-shot I mentioned earlier:

THE WARA-NINGYŌ

HIDA-KYŪ LEADERSHIP

CRANE EMBASSY

MERC STRIKE TEAM

This is not a Legend of Five Rings game because I don't know or care about that system. Instead, it's D&D v.3.5, using rules from Oriental Adventures tweaked to fit in with the current set. The ninja, samurai, and shugenja from the Complete books are standard, except that the latter have some of their spells updated in the Spell Compendium.

It would be damned nifty if we could sometime get arifyn and blitzcon together and run all the dialogue in Rokugan-go, but that's wishful thinking. (As you can see, I've changed a lot of names to make them a bit more authentic.) This is also likely a bit too combat-heavy for the Star Children's tastes.