yuuago | Contact/Spam post

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Anonymous commenting is on and IP logging is off. (This goes for the rest of my journal too). If you have something you want to say to me that's unrelated to other posts in my journal, this is the place for it. I love talking to people, so just comment away!

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D'aww, buddy, you aren't doing anything wrong at all :') You don't even need to change anything it's just. . . One of the reasons might be being, you, um, you tend to come off as pretty smart. and occasionally tl;dr-y. Now this is all part of your charm so if you decide to cut back on the tl;dr replies I might have to beat you senseless, but people might be afraid of saying something wrong around you or sounding dumb, especially if they've come to respect your opinions on certain matters. Ahh I dunno, I know it was like that for me, I really wanted to have a discussion with you about stuff and sometimes you'd reply to something I wrote and you'd say you agree or whatever but then I'd get too scared to actually reply back and get a conversation going cause I thought I'd get something totally wrong. still kind of am afraid sometimes, err. only a bit though!
It could also be cause you're a nice guy too, that bit may go over some people's heads. You certainly don't have to worry about being intimidating because you're acting like a dick or something.

Just wondering, does it take less time for you to think of something to say online? By online I don't mean so much replying to comments, but more of on instant messengers or something. Or is it the same amount of time, it's just seems worse offline because, well, you sort of need a reply faster online. Do you even have troubles finding something to say to people you know pretty well? ~~I ask way too many questions~~

Ahh, I don't even see the point in cable anymore. Most of the shows I watch I watch online anyways. I don't see why I should go pay for a bunch of channels I will never watch, and even on those channels I do watch from time to time, I'll only be interested in one program. Usually I only watch actual tv during breakfast, and that's because where we eat faces the tv in the living room. Even then, it's only the news. Though a few shows are starting up again and I'll probably be watching them on tv for a bit so I can fangasm over them with my buddy as we watch hehe

. . . does this mean if you get in the grove of writing original fiction again, you'll stop writing fanfic? :( I mean, do what you want buddy but :( we shall miss you. I don't see a problem with keeping any of the mystical elements in, though. It's nice to see mythical things with a twist done well, it really is.

I'm pretty interested in what "Julian's" personality would really be like. I always imagine a Jesus character go around acting like Buddy Christ or something, though. I really can't blame you for becoming attached to your characters like that, that kind of thing tends to happen. My friend and I actually created a character years ago, and we've written stories about him, and sometimes I bummed out that he's not even real.

Arrrgh, you know, first time I read this reply I swear I was able to think of an example of "silly idea done seriously" but now it's slipped my mind. If I remember I'll remember to tell you. Err, there's another book, not the one I originally thought of, and it's sort of like that. The Gone-Away World. It's not that silly and it is written to be funny at parts, but there are some crazy things that happen at the end of the book which are written about in all seriousness (something about mimes and ninjas fighting this big corporation, I don't remember exactly). Again, as far as I'm concerned, there's no harm in writing ridiculous stories. Do you think yourself incapable of writing in a more lighthearted/humour style?

My parents always told me that the biggest way to offend them and sort of piss on everything they've done for me is to keep my room messy. I think I'm messy, when I'm at home and I'm feeling too lazy to clean, but then when I go over to a friend's house that is, well, not as neat as mine, and i end up making a bit of a mess I'll always clean up what I did and even just the area around it so it's neater than what it was originally. Blah, I dunno. I guess we'll have to see when I move out. Which I'm not really planning on doing so soon (thank you, conveniently placed university).

Hell, the bus doesn't even go to wal-mart,
egads, what? You, err, you guys don't have a Staples or Grand N Toy or anything there either? Or maybe just a mall? Well, I dunno, you've probably looked over all the possibilities available to you so I suppose I can't say.

I wouldn't be surprised if you had nightmares of scrolls and ancient texts burning in fires, honestly.
Ooh, this is kind of off topic, but I haven't heard of anyone mention Alexandria in ages. Suddenly, I find myself wanting to buy the newest version of Civilization and build all the seven wonders for myself (I played those games all the time, when I was younger. Oh man).

Truthfully, I don't even know where half the authors I read come from (unless it's really obvious). They sell medieval stuff at your used book store? I hear you going on about this used book store of yours and man, it sounds like a party. The one I've been to doesn't have a great selection but it's pretty alright, I can't hate a place that lets me buy Crime & Punishment for $4 (my copy of The Brothers Karamazov was like. . . $30+ which, is, well. Yeah :| why oh why do I do these things )

Blech as in he only focuses on the boring bits or nothing interesting happens or he rambles on about mundane things like doorknobs? Oi, the fact that you had to read it for a class probably only made it worse, eh? (though if I had picked up a book that I didn't even like I'd probably make myself finish it. I can't bring myself to just quit a book, even if it makes me want to punch cute things).

How old is Fort Mac, even? My only impression of it has ever been "people who work in the oil industry live here," more or less (sorry!). Calgary's damn young too, and I don't even know when people started to move here (I'm not sure how we got one million people in here when not even one hundred years ago it could've still been called "the middle of nowhere"). I should probably go and learn about my own city a bit, ff.
Oh, and I should also add that all those old things just look real damn nice, too. I mean, maybe not so much buildings have been standing since 100 BC, but all those buildings say, err, after the Renaissance (I could be wrong with my time periods) are just so ridiculously ornate and pretty. Sure, modern architecture can be nice and all, but I still don't think it's quite as breath taking as seeing a ceiling painted with the angels and saints (or whatever). Ah, just me.

Well, you posted them now~ so many deer aetjoiatje SO ADORABLE. You got some real gorgeous photos too, it kind of makes me want to post my own dump for whenever I end up going to the mountains next (though that would probably be when there's snow everywhere).

I guess my problem is that even if I'm pretty well rounded, most of my ships are pretty rare. Actually, I don't even think they're that rare, it's just that only US/UK, Prussia/Austria, and Spain/Romano are posted. Yet when you ask people from the meme their favourite ships or their favourite rare ships, a lot of people will bring up the same ship that isn't being posted. Come on guys, stop avoiding the main comm and post there so I can have something to enjoy ;___;

Oooh, I remember them posting all that to the front. I never really paid attention to what it was all about cause I got everything from the kink aid. You guys have got it tough. I kind of feel compelled to post something there now, what with all the requests and stuff. Shame that people just keep bitching about it, the kink meme should be a happy place. A happy place not filled with requests that are five paragraphs long (I can forgive someone elaborating if they think their request will be misunderstand but having a story already that you just want someone to put into words is weak).

I enjoyed them, at least. And by recent I mean after the last post the kink aid made. I don't think my expectations are all that high for fic sometimes because I care much more about the ideas/characterization more than the actual story writing, but I still think they were genuinely good fills. I swear the writer is the same for a lot of them, judging by the way she writes "Sweden-Speak" and she keeps mentioning certain attributes or using certain descriptions that I don't hear often elsewhere. ahhh I don't usually try and friend people whose work I admire. I dunno, not because I think their intimidating (not usually) but I'm too worried I'll come off as. .. I'm not sure. Just something not good.

HOHOHO YES I DID YES I DID.
I think all those comments were a sign that there are quite a lot of Baltic fans around, but they just don't make themselves known because all that there is is, of course, Russiarape.

Well, I could explain. It's just me being silly and awkward. For all I know I could comment, under my user name on here and you could go a-lurkin on my lj and find out it's me. You finding out my user would probably cause me to run under a bridge in embarrassment and shame and would also result in me saying sorry a lot and a bunch of really stupid stuff aeiotjaeoitj orz doesn't even cover it. Ah, I dunno, I'm probably worried that you wouldn't want to talk to me anymore or I've done something somewhere that gave you a bad impression of me (which is probably absurd, I know, but my paranoia knows no bounds).

I've been in fandom, but these things are really only common in Japanese based fandoms (not so much in other ones, I don't think you're going to hear anyone calling a Doctor Who character tsundere). England used to be one of my favourites but the fandom keeps on focusing on his tsundere side and his Britannia Angel side and his Pirate side and his drunken waiter side (all of which I tihnk are fine as long as they aren't the focus, they're fun sides to the character because they're typically OOC) and I'm just all, "where is my stuffy, stiff upper-lipped British gentlemen?!" It's probably wrong to wish that I wish he was portrayed as more stereotypically British by the fandom, isn't it? I just can't see someone's version of England as "England" unless I can see him in a typical British comedy (and truth be told, I could easily see the canonstrips!England like that so I guess it's not too bad of a judgment)?
dude, there is no harm in you babbling here. I thought we established this.
:D

I was just getting my imagination get to the best of me, really. Maybe I'll draw the epic showdown between Edward and Estonia one day, after I'm done drawing 5000 other things.

Your lj tells me that today was your first day of class. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

I'M REALLY SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG. arghhh I was barely home last week (I couldn't stay up to type a reply either, I had to get off at like, nine thirty because of how early I had to wake up) and, err, I could only type bits of this reply up at a time. Okay, excuse excuses I know but I'm sorry nevertheless.

I will never get bored of your babbling, just so you know ♥

I JUST REALIZED I GOT THE SUBJECT WRONG (WHAT IS THIS "SORRY, BUT" DOING THERE)

FORGIVE ME ;____;

Well, I frequently do check for white text, because a lot of people use it. But if you use whitetext, I'll probably mistake you for whitetext binary anon, especially because nowadays she doesn't always use binary *flail* But I guess that's all part of talking to anonymouses. Anonymi. Whatever.

You're probably right - Iiii probably wouldn't have caught you under any other condition. Or maybe I would have. I'll have you know, I'm going to be stalking wip threads from now on, trying to find you. :| It's a game, in a way. Hah. <3 Anyway, you know, that thing you mention about how not being covered up makes you more uncomfortable - yes, yes, I'm much like that as well. It drives my parents nuts. Unless I'm out running, I refuse to wear shorts, and I generally prefer to wear long sleeves as well. "AREN'T YOU TOO WARM?!" Well, sometimes, but I'd be warm regardless, and anyway, lightweight cotton even with long sleeves is much better than the short-sleeved polyester nonsense that my parents are always buying me. And I feel very uncomfortable when I'm exposed. I just need to cover up. Maybe it's weird, but I don't care much, so people should just stfu about it, far as I'm concerned.

When it comes to RP, to be honest I don't read much of it at all, and especially not the big ones like - as you mentioned - truth or dare etc. For the most part they're just dull now, and the dares are certainly er, not the sort of thing I'm interested in. Sometimes I'll participate with Truth if I'm really bored, but that's about it. A lot of the RP that goes on now just... doesn't interest me, at all. So I'm just kind of floating around, thinking, "... Righto, then. Whatever".

Hah, Duplo popped up again recently, not sure if you saw that. Anyway, I tend to miss him too - wouldn't have known about his recent appearance at all if Icy hadn't messaged me all, "Dude, he showed up, GO GO GO". Nngh, if only he showed up more. That's really the only times I play nowadays, is when he's around. I just -- I don't know. Guess I'm in some sort of slump.

Holy shit, it was part 50 when you were writing this... man, am I ever slow. And lazy. Then again, school has been stressing me out, so there we are. But anyway, I guess you're right, it's still hard to tell when it will slow down. It's quite active during the evenings, but for much of the day it is not - the "dead hour" is getting extended, because of the periods when the North Americans are at school. Mind, a lot of the time I'm home during that hour, but at least the Euroanons are around then, and that suits me fine. And it's nice to be able to go to school and come back and not have a zillion new pages to read. Maybe just one or two. And a lot of the content is actually just spam anyway, so catching up doesn't take a lot of effort.

~~There's nothing wrong with a little madness. Shush, you.~~

Anyway, yeah. I'd suggest trying to spend less time trying to make sense of the crazy things fangirls do, because really, you ain't gonna come to any logical conclusion, darlin'. People are just plain weird. However, when you put it that way, it does seem logical that people would have such feelings toward fictional women (or real women for that matter) due to their own insecurities. Otherwise, well - what logical reason would there be for someone to express such hate toward someone or something that doesn't actually matter?

Of course, this goes for things related to fiction and fandom in general, too. I don't know how many times I've run into, say, Harry Potter shipping-related nonsense on fandomsecrets and found myself thinking that these people must be crazy in some way because of all the absolute hate that they toss at each other. Sometimes it gets absolutely venomous, and I can't see why someone would put the effort into all that hate (I do feel that actively hating something does take effort) unless they themselves had unresolved issues/insecurities of some sort.

Edited 2009-09-25 09:50 (UTC)

"You've got more freedom when the ship isn't canon"
You know, for a while, I was unable to figure out why I prefer non-canon pairings. You just hit the nail right on the head. It might also be why I like minor characters. There is just so much freedom there in terms of what has happened to them previously and what can happen to them in the future, and as far as pairings go, the options are wide open - if you're skilled, you can make almost anything work, and in almost any circumstance that you want. I guess I just don't like being tied down or wedged in by someone else's rules. This might be because I'm so used to writing original fiction; I'm used to being the one who decides what's what. (Hmm, maybe this is why I find characters like the Nordics so appealing - not a lot to go on there).

.. Anyway. I do agree with you, that it's so friggin' annoying when people say non-canon stuff shouldn't be shipped. As far as I'm concerned, not-canon stuff is part of the point of fan-anything, but particularly fanfic. It's taking something and then expanding on it. Canon isn't a jigsaw puzzle; it's more like building blocks.

Moving on. o Weiss Kreuz. Pfft. That series is SO TERRIBLE, but I love it any way, even now. There were some parts that were really awesome, in a ridiculous sort of way. As for my fanfiction, well, since it's still up and all, I guess I'll just link it. Here. Ohgods. SO BAD. And some of it is just... oh god. But in my defense, I was pretty young, and it was a really long time ago. The earliest stuff - some of the Digimon fic - some of that was written almost ten years ago. Shit, now I feel old. Looking back on it, I find that sometimes it actually wasn't too bad, or sometimes the idea was okay but just executed very badly (badly written). One thing that does please me, though, is that I was pretty damn prolific. Looks like nothing has changed in that regard.

You definitely shouldn't be surprised that MLP fic exists, though I can't say how active the fandom actually is with regards to fic (fanart, on the other hand... there's a lot of it). The vast majority is low-rated, from what I've seen. Anyway, I'm friends with some fellow collectors who write fic, and I've read a little bit. It was all right. Most of it is based on the 80s cartoon, so if you aren't familiar with it or can't remember exactly what went on, stuff is a little bit hard to follow. As far as MLPFandom goes, I'm definitely more into the collecting and restoring part than the other stuff - as are, it seems, the majority of people involved.

Anyway. Fables, well - I'll get around to it eventually, as with a squillion other things. Now that you mention you haven't read Maus, I don't feel as bad about not having read Maus yet. I mean, I know it's one of the major important works in western comics, but man... I just don't have the time! But it is on my bookshelf for when I do have the time. Argh, I have so many things that I haven't gotten around to. Most of the library that I have in my apartment is unread stuff! I just don't have time during the school year.

The comics as literature class was AWESOME. The professor was a bit of a wingnut, but the class itself was great. We covered... hmm, let's see. Here are the titles: Satrapi's "Persepolis", Jansson's "Moomins", Oakley's "Thieves and Kings", Bechdel's "Fun Home", Barry's "One Hundred Demons", Tezuka's "Buddha", and probably some other things that I can't remember. For the ones that were a series (Buddha, Thieves&Kings etc) we usually only covered one volume. Mostly we just studied them the same way that we would any other literature, though we also took a close look at the artwork and the role it played - for example panel arrangement, or the use of dialogue or no dialogue, etc. The professor actually didn't know a whole lot about comics; she specialized in children's literature, especially picture books.

...Oh gods. Arguments of PSP vs PS. I remember all that nonsense. The arguments could get quite ridiculous (I remember them at Deviantart and such) and it's just... whatever. People insisting that PSP couldn't be any good, that PS was far better, what kind of idiot would use PSP, pfft. And people would try to use photomanipulations and such to prove their point that PS was superior, and I find myself thinking... how does that even work? Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Photoshop by its very design more suited to manipulating photographs? And I just -- honestly. The only tools I use on the rare occasions that I do digital colouring are layers and the paintbrush at various opacity. Why bother pirating some huge program when I can use something smaller and simpler? But ahhh, sometimes the internet is just one big pissing contest. Whatever.

I'm pretty sure that when I started getting interested in digital stuff, I was running a computer that couldn't handre torrents. And/or I didn't know that they existed (entirely possible). I was 14/15 or so, and not very computer literate. Anyway, IIRC, at the time that we bought PSP it was around $80 CAD, whereas Photoshop was... gods, I don't even know. Some ridiculous price. My mum looked at the PS price and was like "HELL NO" but I didn't care much because I knew that PSP was okay too, haa.

Hmm, I dunno. In my case, I switch colours so often when I'm blending that it's just a pain in the ass - moving back and forth between layers and colours in the program, whereas in real life I can just grab another pencil. And issues with precision as well - though I guess that would be easier with a tablet. As with the dominant hand thing, yes. Sigh, at one point, I did want a tablet, but... even when I did draw a lot, I never felt like using the computer often enough to justify it, and now I hardly do it at all, so there we are. Though I must admit having one to piss around with would be pretty ace.

And yes, I have gotten people saying that sort of thing regarding photoshop and my colouring, etc. Pisses me off so much. Most of these comments came from back when I still posted stuff at Deviantart and Elfwood, IIRC. Argh, people don't know anything, but thinking about it still pisses me off. (And don't even get me started on the dude that said my art looked "amateurish" because I like to use bright colours...)

Anyway. YES. URSULA VERNON. Eee~ Yeah, she's the one who drew the pear (I remember the pear from before it was a meme. Go me!). Her weird fruit is awesome and when I have the money (someday) I want to get prints of all of it. Right now I only have one print, this one - one of the limited edition sizes, huge, signed and everything. I'm hugely fascinated with plague doctors so when I saw that she painted that one, I just had to have it. I've been following her work for years, and man, it keeps getting better.

With drawing... mostly it's the finished things that take forever. The ones I want to colour, I mean. With those ones I set out intending to start something and finish it. But no matter what I do it never turns out right. Way back I either didn't notice when things looked wrong, or I didn't care, but now I notice and it bothers me. I do scribble and stuff when I have time, but it seems nothing changes much, and in the end I still hate everything. Aaa, at this point, I'm just ready to stop with it, because it does nothing but make me discouraged.

With writing, it's hard to say. People do say "just write, write about anything" but I find that difficult because it's extremely hard for me to write some throw-away paragraph with no point to it. I need some sort of end to work to. But when I do have an idea, I write it, and I keep it even if it turns out to be crap. The thing is that even if something is crap, sometimes you can salvage it by editing the hell out of it. Mediocre prose can be minimalized into prose-poetry and sometimes the effect is great. Or with poetry, one can take the lines, rework them, change it into something that's okay. It's a lot easier with shorter stuff - if I had to try to salvage a long story or a novel I think I would rather stab my eyes out with a fork - but it's all right.

... I also find that writing when you feel like it, and not writing when you don't feel like it, helps. Forcing oneself to write just turns out awful stuff.

Anyway, okay, I think I get you now. And mnh, Iceland as a duplicate of Norway? You've seen that in fic? Mann. I wonder where people got that idea. Looking at the source material, I can't see it at all. Ah, well, no matter. Speaking of source material - now that we have more of it (OMG YAY) I think I might be able to get a better handle on everyone's character, though I do need to re-read it a few more times. Eeeee, so excited about this~

(Sidenote, pfft. I CAN MAKE ANYTHING WORK or, well, almost anything. It pleases me that you thought of me. <3 )

Moving on. *squeeze* Saa, well. I really appreciate the thought, anyway. Things are better now, but I really need to keep my eye on myself and make sure I don't slip into any more bad habits. I can't afford to have that happen again. ...If you ever need someone to talk to about this issue, like if you're having a similar problem or something, we would talk about it maybe. Just putting that out there.

About jobs - well, the amount of work was maybe the same, but the thing with the school jobs is that aside from maybe 4 hours, all of the hours per week were not set. So with set hours, it might interfere with my studying, depending on various factors. I tend to prefer stuff that is very labour-intensive with little time to sit around and do work, so I dunno. Next semester I might be able to do something of that kind, but we'll see.

Teaching was both wonderful and awful. I didn't really mind the 8:30 AM part, even though it meant I had to get up early. Mostly the thing that bothered me was that whenever I tried to get them to discuss things - because part of the point of this thing was that they would engage in discussion, you see - I was met with a class full of slack-jawed black-stares. Like cows. And of course, all the whining about how they hated everything we had to read. And many of them couldn't write a sentence to save their lives. But some of them were okay. I remember one time, toward the end of the year, a student approached me about his work. He'd gotten off to a rocky start, but had improved steadily over the year, both in terms of English (it wasn't his first language) and actually writing the papers. The final paper he handed in to me, I graded as an A, and he was just so happy and said he'd really enjoyed being in my class and that he wanted to go on and take more literature courses in the future and I just. ;~; Ahhhh I was so happy.

So. I'm not doing anything wrong? That's good to know. I still wish people wouldn't be all intimidated by me, but at least I know that it isn't because I'm a douche or something. I mean, occasionally I was a douche (usually just in chat though) but now I've learned to step away from the meme on days when I've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed so to speak, so... there we are. Sigh. Tl;dr is right, but oh man, if only they knew I ain't as smart as I seem. Oh, well. (You? Still afraid? Oh come on, darlin', don't be scared!)

When it comes to instant messengers, I do have similar problems, though it's not quite as bad because the expectation is not for something as instantaneous as real life. It does take me a while to think of something to say though. Occasionally people interpret this as me ignoring them, when really I just have no idea what to say. (Not to mention that I have a habit of wandering off during extended pauses to go do other things, like laundry, or occasionally I'll go flop on my bed while waiting for a response, and end up falling asleep while waiting for a reply, so then people again think I'm ignoring them...) Even with people I know pretty well, I have trouble thinking of something to say. In some ways though, this is partly because I have very little to talk about. Pretty much every day is exactly the same, so if I'm talking to the same person every day, I run out of things to talk about very quickly. It's frustrating, because people get pissed at me about it, act like I don't want to talk to them (had this problem with an ex, ugh) when really I literally don't have anything to talk about. Sigh. So there we are.

Original fiction - yeah. Sorry to say, if I do manage to start writing it again, I'll probably stop writing fanfiction, because I'll be distracted by another project. I can only handle so many things at once! But I do think that it will be a very long time before I'm able to start writing original fiction again, so at least I'll be sticking around for quite a while. The thing about fanfiction, I find, is that it takes a lot less effort than original fiction. Maybe it's mostly because the source material is there, and the source material is ridiculous, so I don't have to worry if my plot/characters are dumb.

Thinking back on the story with Julian now, in some ways I'm tempted to put it up somewhere, but I'm reluctant because it's dumb, unfinished, and really fucking long. Sigh. Even though I haven't worked on it for a few years, I'm still attached to it. Maybe I shouldn't be, I dunno'. Anyway, stylistically, I really don't think I can do something lighthearted/humourous. When y'get right down to it, I'm not very funny at all. I'm a serious person by nature, and when I try to write something that isn't, it falls flat. I can do romance and pathos pretty well, but some other stuff, deeeefinitely not so much.

Ugh. Mess. MESS. MY HOUSE. RIGHT NOW IT IS A MESS. You've reminded me that I need to clean up tomorrow. :| Or sometime in the next few days, anyway. There is mess all over the place, and I feel like a bum. If my mum could see this, she'd be flipping out. "WHY DON'T YOU TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR LIVING SPACE" etc etc. Sigh. Ah, well.

Nightmares about scrolls and texts burning? Honey, you are spot on. Seriously, when I read about what happened to the Beowulf manuscript, I CRIED. I really did. ... Now that I think of it, that's kind of pathetic, but there it is. I guess it's just that I love dusty old things so much, and I wish we could preserve them forever, and alas, no. And to think that a part of them might be lost forever, ahhhhh. It's so sad.

They do sell medieval stuff at the used bookstore here! Well, there are actually two that I go to - the White Cat, which is downtown, and Westgate, which is bigger but more difficult to get to. They both have rather sizeable medieval sections probably because medieval literature and history is taught at the university, right, so that's where (I would guess) the vast majority of it comes from. The prices aren't always ace, but for the most part I don't care so much; I'm just happy to be able to find it. I mean, the only place I can usually get this stuff is online, and sometimes I can't even find it online... so there we are. I'm not used to living somewhere where things are so easily available; Fort Mac is Fort Mac, and Wolfville was so tiny that you couldn't really find anything at all.

Boyden - If I recall correctly (it has been a year, so I might remember wrong) I think the main problem is that stylistically, he was trying to be artsy, and failed at it, instead coming out rather bland. It was like biting into a sandwich that looked pretty good, but really just tasted like sawdust.

Anyway, Fort Mac - the place has been around since the early 1900s, but it wasn't until the 80s that it became a city. It didn't start to get big until 2000, and after I left in 2004, that's when it really started to explode. Don't feel bad about the whole "people who work in the oil industry live here" thing, because it's completely true. Either you're there because you work in oil or you're there because your parents work in oil. At the first opportunity, people get out. That's how it is.

I agree with you on the matter of architecture. Old stuff is so beautiful. Even things that have been around since the medieval period, which isn't exactly known for being gorgeous, have a quiet beauty about them. And the thing about modern stuff is, it might look pretty slick, but it just doesn't seem built to last. It doesn't even look solid. Seems like everything is made of glass and clapboard. 'specially when you compare it to stuff like the Old Town in Tallinn or the medieval buildings at Visby or whatever (these ones, just on my mind because I was looking at photos today, ahh). Feh, maybe I'm just biased, I don't know.

Aha, so you did see my Waterton photos~ good thing I finally got them up. I think I might go take more photos when the leaves start to turn a bit more. The residential streets are gorgeous here, 'cause the streets are all lined with elm trees, right. Totally beautiful. Of course, I wouldn't want to clean up after that, because the leaves litter people's lawns thick as a '70s shag carpet, but whatever. It's pretty.

Main comm. alskdfj. You mentioning that reminds me that I should do a post there this month. I just feel like I should. Get some of my weird stuff out there. I have enough stuff that I'm satisfied with, that I could probably do one post per month, hah.

About the kink meme, yeah, that's how it was done. New system is... convoluted. But I can't think of a better way to do it, so there it is. In all, even though it has plenty of problems, I'm still happy it's there, because my writing didn't really take off until I started doing fills. It's just that the requests - both format and volume - frustrate me sometimes. Little things. Argh, I really wish they would at least put pairing + kink in the subject line; it would make updating the Baltic index so much easier. I have to go through manually because the kink-aid hasn't been updating, and having to read through requests to see if it's relevant is just... alskdfj. Would rather not. :|

I read one or two of the ones you were referring to, and you're right, pretty good. Stylistically, there are so many similarities that I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same person. Now I really wonder who it is, and if I wasn't so lazy (and if it wouldn't be creepy) I'd go about comparing and trying to figure it out, oho. But, I am very lazy, so there we are. I still like knowing, though. Ahhh... Mostly when I friend someone whose work I love, it's because we have other things in common too, or because we've had awesome comment threads that have gotten way off-topic. I dunno, I just like getting to know people.

You're probably right about the Baltic fans + Russiarape thing. Though the kink index requests indicate a tendency toward a preference for that, I do know (certainly) that a lot of Baltic fans won't touch that, eugh. It's just that they tend to be rather quiet. It all makes me want to write more genfic, to be honest. Baltic genfic is like candy to me, and there's never enough of it. (And come to think of it, a loooong time ago I had an idea for a genfic featuring both the Nordics and the Baltics, and never ended up writing it... maybe I should)

Whoa. Paranoid is right. Well, if you feel that way, allrighty then. But I'd like to stress that I don't judge, and rarely have bad impressions of people (and if I do have one, it only lasts five minutes before I forget it. Gods know I can't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning, how could I remember something like that...) <3

Right now I'm so tired that I cannot brain at all so I will just say that I agree with everything you said about England and people being dumb with regards to the portrayal of his character, and shall leave it at that. And I realize that we established that babbling is good, but I guess it's instinctual to apologize for it, because I've had instances in the past where people have told me to STFU or have given off vibes that indicate they wish that I would STFU and for this reason I tend to feel that I should just... STFU.

after I'm done drawing 5000 other things
Seems your list of things to do is as long as mine. Gods know I don't even want to think of how many things I need to write, especially since many of them will be longfic. Sigh. Where am I going to find time for this with school going on, I do not know...

Hah, here you are apologizing for taking a long time, and I'm going to apologize for that as well. Gahhh. I didn't mean to let it go for so long, but I kept running into homework, and then there was the presentation I had to do and -- well. I'm sure you know how it is. I'm always so exhausted nowadays, ahhhh. Well, I'd best get used to it.

By the way, I spellchecked this because I love you. ;p (And because I realize how bad my spelling is sometimes and was getting a bit embarrassed about it, but that is not the point)

's kind of weird, though. I don't want to point myself out every time i talk to you in whatever way cause it almost seems obnoxious, but at the same time there is something very aggravating about talking to someone you've become acquainted with and just not having the other person recognize you. Is this how it feels to be Canada? D:
I won't be appearing in lots of WIP threads for the next little while cause like I said, school. (I'm not on the meme on most days, meaning, if I want to get to bed at a respectable time that night I don't go on it at all that day. sob ;___; i think that actually not going on the meme is a lot easier than getting off it once you're on it, but I digress). Maybe I'll start making it harder for you and start posting WIPs of the Asians. If I ever figure out how the hell you draw them, anyways.

I can't blame people for thinking it's weird, I suppose it is, but really now, it's a quirk that's not weird enough to actually call attention to. The weather's getting colder now, so I at least have an excuse haha (it was so warm over here for way too long, last week it got up to 30 degrees!). With the weather getting colder I find my overall mood improving which is a bit contrary to how everyone else tends to feel, but hey. I can't help being painfully Canadian (or would it be more Canadian to bitch about the cold?)

Indeed, indeed. I feel a bit bad complaining about it, cause I know that lots of anons are still really into it but ahh. I miss plots to the RP. There's so much influence over the RPers now, it's hard for them to stick to, err, a sort of natural progression with their RP, I guess? Not to mention there's just sometimes too much of it and I don't know what to follow and what to not follow and, well, you know.

Maybe I did, my memory of the meme is getting pretty hazy, haha. pfff you're always in one slump, or another.

I've given up on thinking that the meme may slow down to maybe, I don't know, four day maxings. It probably won't slow down until the "next big thing" fandom-wise comes around. Till then, dead hour will be my favourite hour ♥ (cause even that isn't painfully slow or anything, it's a nice pace. Not to mention, it's when the Euroanons are on! ♥). I don't really want the next big thing to come around just yet, cause even if I can't handre how the fandom is now, it's still better than it being dead methinks.

~~It would be terribly hypocritical of me to argue. we're all a bit mad, here~~

But but maybe I've got some crazy complex in me that's telling me I can ~help them~? and that i can't do that unless I understand them?? Ah, well, I probably wouldn't be able to help them anyways. They'll either grow up and grow out of it or end up being miserable for the rest of their lives. You never feel better after spewing hate.

WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL ARGUING OVER HARRY POTTER SHIPS ARGHH IT'S SO REDUNDANT AND DUMB AND CAPSLOCK CANNOT EVEN EXPRESS HOW MUCH IT BEWILDERS ME SO. Well, probably because all the R/Hr and G/H shippers are being as smug as hell, but seriously. I will never understand why people want to bring so much negativity to something that should be uniting people together. I mean, if I'm shipping something you don't like, it's not like I'm insulting you. Ich, craziness. I don't think I've even seen those kinds of shipping rivalries in the Hetalia fandom, though I'll admit I've seen people get put down for shipping something. I'm not talking about being put down because you think Russia/Lithuania is truluv<3 ^___^, but more of. . . UK/Japan shippers minding their own business, and then getting a few mean comments from others (luckily the insulted members were mature about it and were just all "whatever")

Yesss, there's more fun in the subtext. Not to mention, if a ship becomes canon, then you can say goodbye to all those fun "getting together" stories~ (which I'm totally a sucker for, I think I love the tension in getting two people together more than what they might be feeling while in an actual relationship. Of course, to each their own, that's just me haha). I do like having lots of canon for characters, though. I like it when a relationship between two people is touched upon more (I'm probably talking platonic canon relationships, though) or when you just get more info on any character. The author sometimes comes up with things about said characters that most fans wouldn't think of, so then to tie those little things along with your own fanon is ahhh so fun. and makes for a more fully fleshed out character! (which is, idk, what makes hetalia even more fun if you don't mind me saying so haha. You've got canon characterization + other stereotypes of said nation already + history + fanon. funfunfun) IF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE. I'm tired, alright? D:
My whole love of the Nordics probably isn't determined by how much (or little) characterization they've gotten. I mean, at first I wasn't even very into them. Ohh boy, I even remember asking myself what could be the appeal of characters that had little to no characterization :| How things change.

Canon isn't a jigsaw puzzle; it's more like building blocks.
Can I high-five you for that? Simply because it's so ridiculously true. Man, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I think it's weird when someone lists all their ships, and all of those said ships are canon ships.
(I don't think I could make a list of what I shipped, though. I swear what I ship changes every day, and not to mention I'm pretty sure I like a good deal of those pairs more when there's no romance involves, that is, I'd rather the characters be friends or frenemies or whatever).

I have moved on to bigger and better things
That. . . that sounds so mean! pff but you're writing fanfic again so where's your ~bigger and better~ now? But daaamn, you wrote all the way back in '00! That's crazy! . . . Please don't tell me that times flies. I couldn't really get to read any of it, simply because I had no idea what the hell was going on. The only thing I could maybe sort of recognize was Digimon, but I watched that when I was like, seven and eight and I don't remember anything from it. I think there was a dude with goggles?

The My Little Pony fandom's got to be a fandom of many extremes. I can imagine there being innocent, pure and fluffy fanart and then, well, err, let's move on away from that subject.
I didn't even really think collecting counted as being into a fandom (and what do you mean by "restoring" if you don't mind me asking?) I've got someone else on my flist, and she posted some of her MLP collection and jesus christ, forgive my ignorance, but I didn't even know there were that many different My Little Pony figures in the world!

You know what I hate about actually getting around to reading stuff? It's that whenever I do have time to go and read a book or a comic or what have you, I completely forget that I've got stuff to read. So what happens is that I end up dicking around on the computer for a few hours and then when I look to the books on the nightstand by my bed I want to smack myself. Luckily I haven't got that many unread books lying around at the moment, but the unread books I've got lying around are pretty long, and that's a bit intimidating. I find longer books intimidating, during the times when I find myself not reading so much. For the first four or five months of '09 I had a ton of reading mojo and found myself just plowing through a ton of books, and long books weren't nearly as scary then. Then my reading spree came to an end while reading The Picture of Dorian Grey which somehow took me twice as long to read as most books thrice it's size. Ahh I dunno. Have you ever read that book? I was expecting to enjoy it more than I actually did :(

ahhh now you're going and making me all jealous with that class ;___; don't tempt me into doing English, man. Well, you probably won't be able to, but iaojaotej whata class.

But but Paint Shop Pro wasn't even made for photo editting?? Not in the way Photoshop was, at least. And I mean, it all depends on what you're using it for. I can't diss SAI or something with regards to how well the watercolour tool blends colours by saying "you can't do photo manips with i!!!" cause dude, that doesn't even have anything to do with what you're using it for.

I remember checking the price for Photoshop around '02, '03 or something, and I think it was well around six hundred dollars. I think SAI goes for about $40 though and I should probably shut up about that program already but it is the love of my life, if you can't tell already. SAI/Photoshop is my otp.

that's why you make palettes and use the eyedropper tool buddy :)
Having a tablet to piss around with is really nice too. Just to doodle whatever the hell. And you know what's also great about tablets? You don't get the materials all over the side of your hands. Man, sometimes when I start doodling in school, I find myself at the end of the day and the entire side of my hand has gotten all grey from the graphite rubbing off on to my skin, from the paper. Well, this happens when I'm alone at home drawing something nice too, but sometimes having half of your hand shaded in really confuses people.

And don't even get me started on the dude that said my art looked "amateurish" because I like to use bright colours...
WHAT. WHAT. WHAT THE HELL. DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THAT, EITHER. He didn't even say that to me and I find myself ~raging on the inside~ because goddamn, that is one hell of a stupid thing to say. As if people who've been making a living of art for decades don't use bright colours, ever, nope.
(. . .seriously ???????)

hahah aww. did you meet her when you got it signed, or was there some kind of deal at her site going on? I'd bet that a house that had her work all over it would be quite an, err, eccentric kind of house indeed. Does she have any prints bigger than 13x19? Cause that's not overly huge, I think. Or maybe my mental-ruler is failing me and I should go use the ruler that's right in front of me to figure it out. . . I'm just thinkin' it'd be nice to have a HUGE picture of a smiling pear up on my wall, 's all. Or maybe the bighorned pear, because for some reason that actually made me go buhyooo. Mind you, I don't buhyoo too often ~~because I have no soul~~

Well it makes me wonder, how often do you draw anyways? Like, every day just a little thing every few days or. . .? Don't be discouraged ;___; the only road you're on is the road of IMPROVEMENT, which might be a rocky road with lots of bumps and cracks but I assure you that you'll see some wonderful scenery on the waaaaaaayyyyyohhh god remind me never to be a motivational coach /headdesk seriously though quitting is just not cool. not that i'm telling you to make it your number one priority but ah, well, don't stop ~~believing~~ yeah? :)

you know who else I just sounded like up there? those annoying kids who try to make you go out for school sports even when you tell them you don't want to :|

Touche, I guess. Maybe all the people who live by that advice are just 50 years old and they've gotten so into the habit or writing every day that to not do it anymore would be like forgetting to breath or whatever. Or maybe missing breakfast.
aotjaoijt make it into prose poetry? Goddamn man, it's not like poetric language is easy for all of us! The very notion of writing such a thing makes me grip at my heart in fear. I would say that the grass is a bit dry and it is giving good old man Bob a rash as he sits on it (okay, I might phrase it better than that but you know what I mean). You, on the other hand, would find a way to make that sound pretty and flower-y and I will be left scratching my head, baffled and asking, how the hell did you manage that.

His characterization certainly read like that, sometimes. I don't really know if I've seen him portrayed like that in art, because at times him and Norway having the same expression might just be for the sake of symmetry. and IOAJRHIAOJROAW NEW SOURCE MATERIAL ♥ Oh, god, when that I was posted I swear to you that I was having the worst day ever, and then that gets posted (I think that all of the recent Nordic posts have been on my bad days, if I recall correctly? Hidekaz, how do you do this). Ahhh they're so wonderful together. Finland wore a sweater vest eeee. you can't convince me that the sweater vest wasn't salmiakki-patterned, nope.

Hurr, you know, I mean. . . say you start slipping into bad habits again, would you mind people (such as myself, who knows) ~~demanding~~ telling you to take a step outside or whatever? Just. . .trying to slap some sense into you, to phrase it poorly. I am terrible about talking about my problems. I don't' know if it's because of embarrassment or pride or a mix of 400 things just, yeah.

The good thing about labour intensive work is that it at least tires you out, increasing the chances of someone going to bed at a proper time. Not that it's a guaranteed thing, but it's nice to actually feel tired at night, I think.

These classes, were they first year university students? You know, people who paid god knows how much to be taking those courses? Or were they highschool or something. That little story of the student is adorable, though. It sort of reminds me of how much we usually forget how much that kind of stuff might mean to teachers. Its hard thinking of ways to show teachers that you appreciate them, or at least it is to me. Just talking to them, maybe? Ahh, I know I probably talk enough with say, the Social Studies teachers at my school. Seriously though, the Social teachers at my school are just ajetoiajet wonderful.
I don't think I'd mind teaching, though probably not as a job. Just maybe every so often, or just come and teach a class. I'm good with the whole public speaking thing and I usually end up making people laugh when speaking in front of others, which is a good sign I think? That's how it's been with presenting projects though I guess there'd be a difference in actually giving a lecture or what have you.

I don't even know what you mean by being a douche other than you using :|
Can't say about the chat thing cause I dont' go in there that often and I've maybe seen you --HAHAHA NEVERMIND THAT I GUESS YOU FIGURED OUT ME OUT AFTER ALL. ahh hopefully I don't come off as, um, someone you don't want to talk to on there orz orz orz I'm almost tempted to rename my journal to xldoubledouble or doubledouble or something like that, I've been aching for a new lj handle for well over a year now pff

Okay, even if you insist that you're not as smart as you may seem, there's no reason they should know that~

Falling asleep while waiting for a reply? Oh god, I'm sorry, but that made me laugh i'm laughing with you, not at you, I swear. That's oddly endearing, 's all. I guess if it comes down to it, you can just blame a reply on a slow typing speed, but then again I'm pretty sure most people in fandom have a typing speed of at least 60 WPM, unless they're 13. Far as finding stuff to talk about, oh man, I think online I sort of resort to talking about myself, and I worry I might do it too much? To be honest I don't like talking about myself, but I find that doing so helps make conversation (cause unlike in real life, I can't just point at something and be all "ohohoh why is that old lady jumping over a seven foot fence" which actually happened as I was getting a ride home this week). I do totally get what you mean by having nothing to talk about, it's why I don't message my good friends every day (err, I mean, not that I message them much anyways seeing how I can still worry about being a bother to people I've been friends with since kindergarten but whatever).

Alright, so, err, say you get your original fiction mojo back in about a month and three days (don't argue that it can't happen, for who knows what the future has in store), does that mean you'll be quitting fandom in general? I'm not talking about the fic writing part, but the whole talking about it and spazzing over new Nordic strips and and and _{please don't' leave us ;___;}. At the very least, fandom does provide you with practice? It's better than being in an original fiction slump and not writing anything at all for months on end.

When you say that it's really fucking long, you must tell me: how long is really fucking long? Hurr, I think I have the opposite problem. I find lighthearted/whimsical sort of writing comes so much more easier than serious. Or, well, maybe not serious but if I'm doing something seriously it won't ever be flowery. Then again, I'm a pretty silly person. Though I'm a strange silly person in that I'm not playful at all. You're probably more playful than I am, pff. :| :| :| :| :| :|

I'd tell you to clean your mess but I don't think you're home right now. Because you're in Edmonton lol. Tell me, was it snow-y there? I went to Okotoks for thanksgiving and aoetjaot they've got a ton of snow there! I mean, for this time of year. It looks like late November.

:') We've all got things we get sensitive about, illogical as it may be.
Mm, I don't care about those medieval manuscripts, certainly not in the way you do, but I still find that to be a depressing thought nevertheless. Something just being lost forever doesn't sit well with me.

Oh, so I take it that stuff like medival literature and all isn't something that is taught at most universities (is this why you decided to go to the university of Saskatoon?) Ahh, did either Fort Mac or Wolfville have a decent sized library (or a few?). Or is it like this one little library here in Calgary, which has less square feet than my house (and I don't live in a big house).

I was going to ask you what was so, well, trying-to-be-artsy about his writing, but then I realized that could really mean anything and that it's probably more of a you'll-know-it-when-you-see-it sort of deal. You know though, I don't even know how similar our tastes are ahaha (I do respect your opinion for this stuff though, most certainly). Also! Well, we have a choice to read either The Wars by Timothy Findley or The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart for English this year, and I was wondering if you had read either novel, or at least something from either author?

You say the buildings now aren't build to last? I'm pretty sure they're more likely to last than the old stuff, I mean, considering the advancements in science and engineering and hell, architecture. They certainly look less sturdy though, seeing how people have decided that we don't need brick and stone anymore, as we've now got super duper metals with super duper strength! Ah, what on earth will those scientists think of next. It's really all just changing trends though, I mean, at one point those old buildings were considered cutting-edge and modern. Pff, maybe I just want more, I don't know, elaborate buildings? Man, maybe it's just that I'd just love for every building to be a work of art, not just the important business offices and fancy hotels. That is much too much to expect, I know.

Yes, yes, you should take more pictures, but let's hope that the snow doesn't get in the way of your fall (pff). The lot my house is on has probably a few too many trees on it, but they're mostly pine trees so not much cleaning to do there, thank god. My one friend gets a ton of leaves though, so last year another friend and I went over to rake leaves with her and went jumping in the leaves :D ajetojae tI don't even care if it's childish, it was a frolicking good time. We're doing it again this year, 's all I know.

I think you should post more than once a month eh eh. Maybe every time you write something.
. . . I am so totally the last person who should be urging others to post to comms consider how I still happen to be mortified at just the thought of posting :|

I don't think she's deanoned, I'm pretty sure I would've noticed. Nah, I surely would've noticed. Unless she has deanoned, but never posted to a comm before. I mean, I look over all the fics posted to kalmar and I always keep my eye on the fic section on hetalia_daily.

Nordic + Baltic genfic? Why are you even asking this of course you should write it. Otherwise I will stare at your username with a very solemn :|

I think I should go look through a bunch of your posts, or on here, and find how many times you use :|. It would be for science, of course.

Well it can't be that paranoid I mean, unless you don't go journal-lurking and click on links to where art may possibly be posted and and oiejatoajt maybe I am too paranoid hurr durr. I find it hard that others wouldn't go journal-lurking though, I like seeing other people's layouts and profiles and usericons and, well, it brings me joy, okay? I don't like real-life journal lurking, though. Was at a friend's house yesterday, and I found the most gorgeous notebook ever (I'm a total sucker for pretty notebooks, you don't even know) so naturally I wanted to look through it. My friend said it was her brother's poetry/diary journal, so I opened it and I couldn't even read two lines without getting weirded out. I don't like snooping through other people's stuff, you know? Maybe it's because I value my own privacy too much.

. . . also, I always had difficulties understanding how people couldn't remember what they had for breakfast but that's probably because I always have the same thing in the morning orz

School, while I find it delightful (wait, what?), is more or less an artistic cockblock, isn't it? ahh it's worse when you have requests to fill out, I hate leaving all those people hanging. I actually went and wrote a list of what I've been planning to draw and I was left feeling rather horrified. If you haven't made a list of what you need to write yet, err, please don't. I say this because I am concerned about your mental well being.

ahah well, I'm not expecting you to be replying right away! I'm actually surprised that I'm finished replying to this already, though that's probably because of me having a lot of days off of school for whatever reason, hence me being able to stay up later and write something (for instance, right now I'm in the middle of a five day weekend. Which I'm not pleased about because whoo I'm behind in school :| brb going to library). But, uh, yeah man, don't even worry about it~ least it's not like back in the day, when I worried if you'd respond after every reply I sent pff orz
Don't even worry about your spelling, I doubt mine's any better. I'm certain it's worse, actually.
Bad spelling is a lot worse than what I do, which is either constantly missing entire words/phrases or using the completely wrong word (I had to read back on my own reply to see what we were talking about a few times, and I don't know how, but I sometimes end up using the word which is the opposite to what I actually want. orz orz orz)

aaand that's all ♥

PS. I SEE THAT YOU TAG YOUR POSTS NOW.

I'm friends with one or two people who use it constantly, while RPing or spamming me especially, so I've gotten used to checking almost every comment for some bit of whitetext or other. But sometimes it's disappointing when I don't find anything.

Hah, I would say more than ellipses, it would be more of a problem if you started using ;w; et cetera, because that's the way that I generally recognize her now. Though it's been a while since she last showed up... probably busy.

I do talk to anonymous users a lot, but there are only a few that I talk to off the meme on a regular basis while they stay anonymous. You, and Binary. Then there is Malaysianon, who sometimes posts to me anonymous even though I know her username and have her friended, and also Sab, who does the same thing. So in summary, the anons who really talk to me while staying anon aren't that many; just two.

As for you, don't get down on yourself, man. It's not a matter of competition, I'd say. I do consider you a good friend, even though our "letters" come less frequently now due to school taking up time. One can't be interesting all the time, eh?

I can understand not wanting to identify yourself every time. But then there is the thing with wanting to be recognized. It's an interesting problem. On my end, if I'm talking to someone that I know well and speak with regularly, I do want to know who it is - mostly if we get into a long conversation, otherwise it doesn't matter as much - partly because I want the familiarity, and partly so I don't repeat myself, saying things that they already know because I said it to them earlier that day or whatever. I like knowing when I'm having a conversation with my friends. I want that closeness.

Anyway, yes, I kind of noticed that you dropped off the face of the earth a bit. I should do that too, moreso than I have been, at least. The "not going on in the first place" thing is a good idea, and I think I'll try it. Gods know I'll have a lot of essay writing coming up and I really shouldn't be spending so much time there.
(And you plan to make things harder for me? You horrible, horrible thing~ Not that I mind at all. And yes, you should draw some Azns. Hop to it. When you have a moment, I mean. *boots*)

About the clothing quirk - you'd think that it would be not weird enough to call attention to, but people do notice. It's so strange. I don't understand at all. Mostly get the comments from family though. Thankfully, as you mentioned, cold weather is a good excuse to cover up - though it seems that when I go out and about to the school and so on, I keep seeing people dressed in very small, chilly clothes, as if they're trying to rebel against the weather. Sorry, I doubt Old Man Winter will get the message. ;p But, anyway. I think you're a bit of a weirdo, if your mood improves when cold comes... but then again, another friend of mine is the same. I was complaining about the snow and she mentioned she wanted it, haa. I'm used to hearing things like that from people who don't receive snow, but this person is from Norway, and so I was just, "Wat." Just be patient, you'll get it eventually, pffff. Aa, me, I used to not like sunlight and heat and such, and to a degree I still don't, but... I'm starting to really appreciate warm weather when we do have it. I'm sick of the winters being so long and cold and dark. I spent so much of my life up north and I just... I'm sick of it. If I had warm winters like Calgary, maybe I'd feel different.

Personally, I feel it'd be more Canadian to bitch about the cold. Or at least, the weather in general. Or life in general. It seems we're always complaining about something - but mostly the weather. It's either too hot or too cold or too windy or too dry or too wet or too whatever. Nobody's ever satisfied. <3

Regarding RP, yes on all your points. Especially the missing plot + natural progression. To be honest, I don't like the influence over RPers at all, especially regarding what will or will not happen. I was speaking to Iceland today, and our conversation made me remember back when the whole thing with the Nordic soap opera started, with horny_viking and iceandheather and the abstinence plot. I found myself thinking about how everything progressed rather organically, not too forced or anything, and it just went really well and it was so -- fun. That's all. ~~And then Kongeriketnorge stepped in and I stepped out and then other things happened and then the mood of RP changed and now I don't know what to do with myself, but anyway~~

At that point plots were worked out almost completely between the RPers themselves, and the planning was minimal (usually I didn't even know when h_v would post his thread), and there was very little backseat driving by anonymous users, if any. I preferred it that way. Now, it seems I can't find any points where I want to jump in, and everything is so controlled anyway (stifling?) so I just... haven't been doing it at all. Sigh.

I've given up on the meme slowing down. At this point, I don't think it will - especially on weekends. But I've come to really appreciate the dead hour - not the extremely dead hour, but when it's active, just slowish. A lot of my favourite people are around then - mostly Euroanons and Asianons - and it's great talking to these people, having conversations with them. I do prefer this to a dead fandom, though I'm not sure how "dead" something has to be in order for it to be considered dead, considering I'm not really used to the way fandoms come and go.

Re: ~helping~ people, it's great to want to give help and orchestrate positive change, but generally, when it comes to things, you can discuss with someone until you're blue in the face, but they won't change a bit. With this sort of thing, it's better if they do it on their own, because they usually won't change with assistance. I find that modeling what you feel is the best direction works well, in comparison.

I SEE YOUR RAGE AND I LOVE IT. LET US RAGE TOGETHER. To be honest, I don't understand the smugness at all. I can understand being happy that your favourite pairing became canon, but I do not understand being smug about it. To me, liking something is about you, and what other people like should have nothing to do with you if you do not like or are not interested in that match. I just can't fathom caring about it at all. I'm quite glad that I don't see much of this idiocy in Hetalia fandom. I mean, okay, sometimes we run into people grumbling about US/UK and whatnot, but for the most part people just ignore it if they don't like it, and even if they do grumble about it, half the time they're really grumbling about the dearth of fanwork for their own favourite pairing, rather than the existence of US/UK.

I find that even when I do like canon matches, it's the non-canon ones, just touched upon, that really intrigue me. I'm not sure why that is. Probably just the openness, the possibility. Today I was thinking back to Homeric legend, and the various matches I like with that, and found that even while I feel very strongly about the canon and my preferred canon matches (Odysseus/Penelope, Hektor/Andromache), it is the characters/pairings with less "canon" material, less screen time, that really draw me (Sarpedon/Glaukos - I even wrote "fanfiction" about them, once, for a school assignment).

But as far as Hetalia goes, I do like having some canon, and filling in the extra bits with history. I don't view history as canon, just as another option to draw from, because it can be interpreted in several different ways. Nor is it required. So it's a nice extra thing, something I love to work with. (and at this point now I'm just babbling, but anyway)

As you mentioned, I do agree that it's odd when someone only likes canon pairings. I just don't get it - there's something I find so appealing about possibility, that I can't imagine thinking about, and liking some of it. I mean, one doesn't have to "break up a canon pairing" if that is an issue; there are always unattached persons that could have some thought turned toward them and the possibility of relationships (be they romantic or otherwise). Except when it comes to ancient literature, sometimes, because there are so few options (only thing I pair from Gilgamesh is Gilgamesh/Enkidu... which is not canon but might as well be). I could probably make a list of my major pairs, at least for Hetalia, but the minor list keeps getting added to every day, and things go in cycles, and it's all scattered all over the place. And sometimes I like something only as a friends pair, but other times I want so-and-so to get fucked by anyone and everyone. I dunno, man.

"That sounds so mean!" Hah, well. At that time, I was feeling a bit snooty regarding my old fanfiction. Also, at that time, I still had people bothering me to continue fic, even though it was 2005 and I hadn't written anything in ages. So, I was frustrated. And you might not want me to say that time flies, but IT DOES, because in some ways it feels as though ninth grade was just last year (though other times it seems to long ago, especially when I hear young people talking about school now. Sigh.) To be honest, if I tried to read any of my old fic, I wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on either - except for the Weiss Kreuz stuff, because I re-watched that two years ago or so, and enjoyed it in all its wonderful horribleness.

Re: MLP fandom - Yeah, you pretty much have it. The stuff that I encountered was rather G for the most part, but that's because the forum that I frequented was very strict about the sort of things that were posted. But I've encountered things on DA that... well.. Anyway. Ordinarily, I would not consider collecting to be part of a fandom, but MLP is connected so closely with the cartoon (and comics, in the UK) that I feel that they can't be separated and, for this reason, I feel that the collecting is close enough to the media that it can be considered part of that fandom.

Anyway, by "restoring", I mean taking old ponies and making them look new again. Unless a pony is in the box or comes to you after being taken directly out of the box, then it is in played-with condition, and even ones that have been played with very gently tend to be a little bit dirty and have hair that needs to be treated in order to look nice again. Generally some washing will get rid of the dirt, and some conditioner will make the hair look good, but sometimes there are problems such as mould and rust that need to be taken care of. A while back I did a series of photoposts regarding a pony that I was restoring; here, here and here.

Sometimes restoration involves not just cleaning, but more detailed restoring. For example, if the hair is chopped, or so completely matted that it can not be detangled even with conditioner, then some people prefer to replace the hair. Or, if the hair has faded from pink to white (a common problem), the collector will dye it pink again. Occasionally people will touch up damage in symbols too, though this is not as common, and is in fact rather discouraged. The about hair restoration is, there's actually quite a bit of debate about it, because some people would argue that replacing the hair decreases the value, unless the condition is absolutely horrible. There's also argument that one should not sell a pony that has the hair replaced, or if one does, one should explicitly say in the description that it has been rehaired - again, because it is not the original condition, and rehairing decreases value. So, there we are.

Also, because you mentioned your friend, I feel the need to link to my own collection photos, here. This is only a fraction of my collection, though. 8D A lot of my ponies are at my parents' house in storage because I don't have anywhere to put them here.

About reading books - I have the same problem, with wanting to smack myself if I read something then realize that I have all this work to do. For this reason, I end up not doing any leisure reading at all during the school year, except at Christmas; most of my reading gets done during the summer. So, I have all these books around, and I want to read them, but I can't. Sigh. Anyway, I do tend to find large books a tiny bit intimidating. However, this is because I read very slowly, and I generally do not know if I will have the time to commit to a long novel and finish it in a reasonable time. The Count of Monte Cristo took me a month, for example. As for Dorian Grey, I haven't read it, though I have wanted to do so for a while.

Tempt you to English, you say? <3 Come to the dark side, my dear~ We have cookies, and coffee. Yes. Or, well. Maybe not taking classes, but I bet you would have found it at least somewhat interesting to sit in on.

Re: PSP. Yes, it isn't designed for photo editing, and that's what I told the person who tried comparing PS and PSP, but of course what I said went in one ear and out the other. Sigh. People are just dumb. Anyway, as for SAI, I'll keep it in mind in case my PSP disc craps out on me and I need to go looking for something to replace it with. ;p

Anyway. Yes, I'm serious about the amateurish thing, and I seethed about it for months, and it actually had a rather negative effect on my drawings. I changed the way I shaded and started to make everything darker, a bit more drab-looking, and looking back on it now, nothing from that point of time looked anywhere near as nice as the part that came before it. Fortunately for me I went back to brightness after a few years. To be honest, it still really bothers me. Bright colours in cartoon drawings? Gasp and egads. C'est impossible!

As for UrsulaV - Unfortunately I wasn't there (I don't think she's come to Canada before). It was a special deal kind of thing, and I managed to get in on it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have prints larger than 13x19, and while I realize that isn't huge, it's rather large compared to her regular size. It looks pretty good up on my mantle, anyway. I'd love to have bigger prints, but she produces them all at home, and her printer can only handle so many sizes.

Drawing... eh. I used to scribble a lot. Every few days or so. But after a while, I did it less - didn't have time to sit down and draw - and now, hardly ever. Usually the only time I scribble now is when I'm at parties. I tend to take my sketchbook and scribble portraits of the people in the room. I'm not very good at carrying a conversation, but I like being around people, so it gives me something to do, keeps me from getting bored. I don't know. Maybe I should change what I draw. Start drawing animals or landscapes instead, or something. I always did like doing backgrounds, if buildings were not involved.

YES WELL. Prose-poetry (and poetry in general) is, in some ways, a skill that can be learned. Partly. At least, editing something that already has been scribbled out, is. I realized this when I was working on my honour thesis. Part of what I had to do was take my poetry and make it not suck, and a lot of that involved breaking the lines down (or sentences, for prose), changing things around, finding precisely the right word. It isn't so much about making something sound pretty or flowery as it is about exactness, I would say.

NEW SOURCE MATERIAL IS YAY. But it is not enough. I need moar Nordics. And such. I can dream, anyway. Oh man, Noon and I were partying on AIM that night, let me tell you. It was just... I was so happy. It was much like the explosion the first time we got a strip with Norway and Denmark in it, really. Aaa~ (On, and I definitely agree with you on the matter of Finland's sweater vest. One of my friends even coloured it with salmiakki-pattern - I just haven't gotten around to iconing it yet).

Anyway. Regarding slipping into bad habits - I suppose I would not object to a push in the right direction. There's always the chance I wouldn't listen, but on the other hand, sometimes nudges can be useful. It's a whole difficult thing. And I can understand having difficulty talking about your problems; I usually do, too. It's getting easier, but it generally depends on the context, and I really cannot do it in instant form. Sigh.

The class I taught was indeed composed of first-year undergrads. They paid a ridiculous amount of money for it - rather, their parents did. To be honest, I have never understood students, even first-years, who don't take their classes seriously. Fortunately, usually those people flunk out in their first year, so we don't have to put up with them much more after that. As far as showing appreciation goes, I do think that just talking with teachers does a lot. And participating in class, if you do have something to say. Other than that, it's hard to say, really.

As for what I mean by being a douche - well, sometimes when I'm talking to people, and I'm in a bad mood, I come off as... well. Visibly grumpy. It tends to make people upset, I guess. So, I try to avoid doing that. Sigh. Anyway. YES I DID FIGURE YOU OUT. THIS IS HOW AWESOME I AM. <3 And don't worry about me not wanting to talk to you. I do want to talk to you! I love talking to you! So, there we are.

Yes, yes, I fall asleep while waiting for replies. NOT FUNNY. Sob. Sometimes it happens when I'm talking to one of my close friends, and it's a pain in the ass. And once it happened when I was RPing with Kongeriketnorge, ahhhhshit I forgot about that, I should apologize - though she'll understand, surely. But anyway. Nah, I can't blame it on slow typing - but all things considered, those who speak to me regularly know that I'm constantly tired, and they should be used to me falling asleep by now. Anyway, yeah, sometimes talking about yourself helps. I do that too. But it really depends on the situation. Usually I can't think of anything at all, so I don't message people. Usually I wait for other people to message me. Thankfully, it seems they realize this is the condition, and they do message me when they want to talk to me. I appreciate that.

If I got my writing mojo back, I wouldn't quit fandom in general. I would probably stop writing fic, but I'd still read the writers I follow, and I would still spazz out over the Nordics and so on. I just wouldn't be writing! Or if I did still write, I wouldn't write much. I love having something to talk with people about and squee over, so I really have no intention of ending this any time soon.

When I say that my original&failed novel was really fucking long, what I mean is that it is 94 pages in Word, and just over 60,000 words. This doesn't count all the short little one-shots relating to the novel that dealt with ideas I liked but wouldn't be able to fit them in there because they related to the backstory of minor characters. Anyway, I most certainly am not playful :| get that thought out of your head, you :| Because struth, I am not. :| :| :| :| :| So there.

Yes, I was in Edmonton, or rather the Edmonton area, which is entirely unlike Edmonton proper and WHY ARE YOU LOL'ING AT ME, YOU. :| THIS IS NOT FUNNY. And yes there was snow, more than we have in Saskatoon at the moment. And it was very cold.

Re: Medieval lit. Many universities teach it, but frequently it will just be a couple undergrad courses, nothing in-depth. At Saskatoon, however, there are three specialists; one in Arthurian romance, another in Old English, and another in Icelandic literature. The Arthurian scholar is quite reputable, and that's the reason I decided to go here (aside from cheap tuition and good location). As for libraries - well... the Fort McMurray one was okay, I suppose, considering it's not a town with a very literary atmosphere. The Wolfville had a public library, but it was tiny; the university's library was decent-sized, however, considering the size of the university itself (which was tiny). But ahhh, one thing I was so happy to have when I moved to Saskatoon was a big university library.

Regarding your assignment, I've read The Wars, but I have not read The Stone Carvers. I cannot recall much about Findley's novel, except that I found that it wasn't bad - but many of the people in my class (I studied it in first-year university). Aaaand that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

Ehhhh, I don't know. Maybe modern architecture is meant to last, but then I take a look at stuff like the buildings at Mycenae or whatever, which were built so many squillion years ago but are still in such good state, and I find myself thinking... will the new stuff hold up like that? I don't know, man.

I plan to go out and take photos, but I want to wait until it's a sunny day. Gods know when we'll get one of those. But it's better for taking pictures, though shooping can help with a lot. I just wish that all the trees weren't covered with snow. Yes, I'm going to keep grumbling about this. Forever. Sigh. WELL AT LEAST THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO SYMPATHIZE WITH ME. I can curl up with my Finnish friends and we can complain about it and share in each other's sulking about snow. Yes.

I would post more than once per month at the main comm, but I just plain don't often have something that I'm pleased enough with to share that widely. I'd rather keep a reputation as someone who posts there infrequently, but always with quality work. I was working on editing a fic, a rather old Can/Pol that I wrote for the kink meme back in the late spring. Wanted to post it at the main comm. But now, I can hardly stand to look at it, as I no longer like it any more. I had considered it one of my best fics, but now... I'm not sure, something about the style, I just can't stand it. It's possible that I'm just going through an "I hate everything I write!" phase, but man, feeling this way is such a downer and I can't bring myself to post anything.

And DON'T STARE AT ME WITH :| because that is my job. Well, the idea for the Nordic and Baltic story doesn't have a deadline - though it would be set in winter, so I would have to write it sometime before the snow melts - so maybe I'll be able to get to it sometime over Christmas. It wouldn't be overly plotty, but it would have a story/progression of events, and that kind of thing takes time.

To be honest, I don't journal-lurk. I don't really see any need to. Sometimes I check out a person's icons, but that's mostly so I can steal them for my collection, nothing else. I figure, if I was really interested in what they'd had to say, I would friend them. Anyway, real life journals creep me out, a bit. If I see one that a person has been keeping, I have such strong "do not touch" feelings, it's ridiculous. As if it was laced with plague. Definitely a privacy issue, I think. I don't want to snoop.

And I exaggerate with the whole "I don't remember what I had for breakfast thing". I eat the same thing every day, so it's hard to forget. ;p But I really am rather flighty and scatterbrained and while I remember useless details, I can never seem to remember anything important.

School is an absolute pain in the ass when it comes to art of any kind. I enjoy it sometimes, and it is a necessary thing, but it prevents me from writing, and this is annoying. You saw my to-do list today, so you certainly know the current state of affairs. Fortunately, most things on that list are low priority. Right now I want to concentrate on the Union fic, as well as a short Swe/Fin intended to be a gift for someone, which will be sent to them in manuscript format first. I'm actually kind of considering folding the pages in either folio or quarto format, laying out everything properly, and then binding it in cloth when I'm finished - but it will depend on how long the thing is, for one thing, and how much time I will have. But, I digress.

You were surprised that you finished your reply, and here I am, being surprised that I finished it. But I figure, it's good to get things through before school slams me against the wall and assrapes me, so to speak. Things are going to get pretty hectic soon, and I'm not looking forward to it.

In any case, I'm really glad that you no longer worry that I won't respond at all. <3 That does mean a lot.

Think that's all for now. Yes.

PS: AND YES I TAG MY POSTS NOW. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?

eeeeh I've had enough of this white text. Screw white text. It feels blasphemous every time I have to type "color" instead of "colour." I can feel my fingers aching to type a u that just doesn't exist.

I don't think I've ever used ;w;. honestly. That one looks almost sinister to me, but then again, I'm terribly old fashioned when it comes to emoticons. I'm going to start putting noses in mine, even. :-P (back when I was ten years old or so, and everyone started dropping the "noses" from emoticons, I kept them in because I thought it made me ~unique~ Really, kids feel unique and nonconformist for the dumbest things).

So in summary, the anons who really talk to me while staying anon aren't that many; just two.
Well. Due to recent developments I do believe that number has. er. dropped. In a sad little way I feel almost bitter (I say almost bitter because bitter is not the word that I want to use at all, but my lack of proper functioning tonight is preventing me from finding a more appropriate word) that you found out my user name. In a really petty sort of gasp how dare you go and search dA and happen to stumble upon my user by TOTAL ACCIDENT. Not cause I don't like that you know my user, it's more because I was just really embarrassed ahahah. But that's over and done with now. You haven't by any chance found out Binary anon, have you?

This whole identifying yourself bit would be easier if I was a very obvious anon, other than "aioejaioefjioajf" and ". . ." (and maybe the fact that my replies tend to get really long?? idk) I have no clue how obvious I am, really. You, on the other hand. But you already know all about that all too well so lets not touch on that.

I realized that after not going on the meme for so long, I've found it a lot easier to get off when I need to. Maybe it's because I ended up missing like, five parts but as it turned out, I didn't really miss anything at all. It doesn't balance out as well though, because then I find that other sites become even more tempting. But god, I wish I had a lot of essay writing coming up. Granted, your essay-writing certainly entails a lot more than mine would but I've just got a lot of math to do. ojeatoaet I've always been good at math but all of a sudden, right when my marks actually mattered, it decided to get real hard and arghh. The most annoying thing about math is that half the time you have to wait for it to ~click~ in your head. Which reminds me that I should be doing math right now but I'm not exactly awake enough to do math. The problem with staying home is that it takes me an hour longer to actually feel awake, usually because I'm just sitting and not moving around.

Yeahh, most of those comments do come from family members. What are families for, after all? Most people I don't know too well probably wouldn't find it appropriate to comment and my friends are already too used to my other eccentricities to even bother. I don't understand people who go around wearing summer clothes either. I'm still seeing girls walking around in skirts and dresses and all. Admittedly, I'd wear skirts in the winter, but at the very least I'd put on some tights as well and I wouldn't wear them when I have to stand outside for god knows how long every day while waiting for the bus to come. These girls aren't even trying, they're wearing minis without tights and flats. You won't be able to catch any boys when your legs fall off from frostbite, ladies :|

AND CALGARY DOES NOT HAVE WARM WINTERS. WE ARE NOT VANCOUVER. The fact that you grew up in THE GREAT WHITE NORTH does not make Calgary warm iaojtoatoi The only time it's warm in our winters is when we have chinooks, which are actually a lovely thing despite the fact that they give everyone headaches (myself included). I might be getting defensive about this, yes, but dare I say you're making me sound like a pansy and I won't stand for such a thing! I can't be a pansy, y'see, I must work hard to be rough and tough and pretty much be the son my father never had.

Oh, Canadians. I do think the "always complaining about something" could probably go for a lot of cultures though, haha.

I remember the abstinence plot! And how Denmark started going crazy and began knitting a lot. I remember I tried knitting once, I couldn't get it. I am so terrible with crafts/working with my hands, I don't even know what to tell you. But anyways, RPing! Well, actually, I don't have much to say on RPing cause I don't do it myself, so I don't know much about it being "controlled" and how that feels. It doesn't seem as bad now. . .?

Things are so nice and calm when the Euroanons are on. You notice there's never any wank when they're on, eh? I really prefer when those "Ask A ____ Anon" topics come up when the Euro/Asiananons are on, cause you usually end up learning quite a bit from them. eaojoeato I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw that we had a Swiss anon ♥ I still have yet to find anyone from Austria on the internet, though.

Oh, I know that. Talking doesn't always do much, change pretty much always comes from the person, and I think most people can attest to that. Not to mention that you're right when you say that modelling what you think is the best works a lot better than blabbering on about it. Half the time when you are lectured, you're being lectured by someone who doesn't actually live by what they're saying (sup, a large amount of religious people?), and in such cases, it's hard to see why you should bother listening to them. Also, usually the folks that people look up to for inspiration aren't people who lectured them either so. . . there we have it.

I don't get being smug about it either. It's sort of petty and I just want to be all. . . really, have you got nothing else to be proud about? :| (rude as that may be) Most of the hostility towards US/UK, I do think, comes from the fact that there's just an overwhelming amount of it, and less because people think that FrUK or America/Russia is ~the truth and the way~ Oi, not sure if I've said this before or not, but you know what irritates me? When people say to stop grumbling over the popularity of one pairing, and they say that if you want more for another pairing, you just have to go and write/draw some of it yourself, and it's as simple as that. That's. . . not even the same thing. By saying that it's practically implying that the people who ship a popular pairing are the only people who are going and making fan works for their pairing. Ahh I dunno, I think the percentage of fans who actually go and contribute US/UK or FrUK is probably not all that much different from people who contribute to France/Russia or America/Lithuania.

(Sarpedon/Glaukos - I even wrote "fanfiction" about them, once, for a school assignment)
Not going to lie, I adore those "fanfiction" assignments. Was this something you did during undergrad?

Usually, I just feel less need to go and search out stuff for canon-ships, even if I like the said ship, cause chances are I already get enough of it in canon. I noticed that's probably why I also have problems shipping popular ships as well, just because there's already so much of it I don't feel the need to look for it, think about it, all that. I'm just so used to having to break my neck to find fic, I guess. (oddly enough, even the "popular" nordic ships don't even have that much fic going for them. I mean, given the size of the fandom and all. The main comm has over 20,000 members, for crying out loud. Though with the influx of crap going through there, I don't think most people are that active of watchers, cause in other big fandoms I've been in with not as many members, posts tended to get a lot more comments)

To ask someone to continue writing fic, especially when the last update came a few years ago, it's just silly. I mean, it's logical to assume that they've moved on. I've come across wonderful fics that stopped being updated years ago a few too many times, but I don't see why I should bother the writer about something they're not interested in anymore. It's a bummer, yeah, but life moves on. I'm always sort of worried when I comment to someone's fic, cause I'm not exactly sure where the line between putting pressure on the writer to continue, and encouraging the writer to continue actually is.

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