yuuago | Contact/Spam post

CONTACT
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!

Note: My journal has a permanent "reverse friends-cut" policy. If you find yourself tired of reading my daily nonsense, just remove - no worries!

[*Most recent page]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

From: (Anonymous)

The math in physics is pretty simple, my friend who failed applied math at school and summer school even did alright on it (of course, he took it the entire year). It's just that they twist around the easiest stuff so much that 2 + 2 = 4 would seem like calculus. It appears my morning coffee has no effect on me anymore though, so I'm left thinking that 2 + 2 = 5.

Not going to lie, the first time I read that strip with Sweden making the wife joke, I ended up spitting my tea all over my keyboard. And I liked that Finland was all FML. But since Finland's cute and cute obviously translates to girly, fandom decides to run with it :| I think it's pretty likely that Sweden would've given up on calling him "wife" to his face at least if it upset him that much. What's worse is when I'm reading fic and the narration actually uses the word "wife." It's one thing for Sweden to call him wife again but then to read "and then so the wife sat down. . ." or what have you. And yet, Sweden acted more domestic in the strips. So no, I don't think these kids are reading the strips very well at all D:

I just find what this kind of fandom does to characters so weird. I've been in fandom for years and years, but I never really saw much of this stuff in my western fandoms (western fandom not as in where the fans are from, but where the source material is).

oh oh hey you saw that one recent-ish scanlation, right? It was probably the most recent one with Finland and Sweden, and it had Finland being all "heeeey could I get some free space?" aeoijaeot I don't know I wanted people to pick up on that bit and maybe have some think something along the lines of "oh hey, Finland wants some independence! wouldn't it make sense for a nation to want to be a bit more autonomous/independent*?" but alas, the comments were filled with "xDD lawl su-san is perfect husband~!!1! der luv is so kawaii desu desu" i don't even know what desu means.
then again i'm the person who seriously over-analyzes a gag strip so maybe i need to chill out. and it's not like I wouldn't object to having Sweden as my husband, either. /dreamy sigh
*i have ranted this kind of thing so much it's not even funny. rant can be summed up as "love of own people > love of another nation personification"

I see how you're speaking against flat and boring characters, it's almost as if you are suggesting there might be something to characters other than pairing them together for buttsex! Unbelievable.

That's neat. I think it's pretty interesting how our online-selves can differ from our real life selves.

err, I'll admit, I never read any of her stuff myself. Thing is, there's a chance to win a scholarship if you write an essay about one of her books. I took a look at what they were about and all to see if it was worth my time, and I decided not to bother because I'm not going to read a bajillion pages about some philosophy I don't even agree with (that is, objectivism).

From:

yuuago

Ahhh, I see. Even so, 's probably I didn't take it. Numbers and me don't get along. Buuuut I can do the basic stuff, and I guess that's all I need for what I'm going to do. Though I must admit, I'm still kind of bitter that math is the reason I gave up on a science major. It'd be one thing if I just decided it wasn't for me, but realizing I can't do it? Ouch. Total ouch.

Struth, I laughed too at the time, but the way other people react to it just makes me go, "what?", and I wonder if they really, really read it at all. Mind, I analyze things closely all the time, because I've been trained to do that, but it seemed obvious to me that there was something not quite right there.

The unease illustrated in the strips + the actual historical situation is what makes me unable to see those two as having a completely functional relationship pre-20th century. So, when I see people going on about the husband-and-wife thing (as in the comments to the scanlation you mentioned), or (gods forbid) using those words un-ironically in narration, it kind of makes me feel a little creepy-crawly. I find it strange that people can't see that there's something not quite right there.

"love of own people > love of another nation personification"

I think I like the way you think. This is how I see things too - and it's actually an idea I'm going to use in fic sometime in the future. Then again, I've always been very interested in the difference between what someone wants and what someone needs, and the internal conflicts that can result from this difference.

Oh, and I nearly forgot - And yet, Sweden acted more domestic in the strips. This is true, but from what I recall, that's drawing on a stereotype of Swedish culture; that the husband in the family is very domestic and so on, at least compared to, say, North American culture. Can't remember where I read about that, though.

Anyway. What? There might be something to characters other than pairing them for buttsex? GASP AND EGADS. Wonders never cease. In fact, that is that I'm suggesting, my dear! Who would have thought. But in all seriousness, the flatness does bother me - especially when the characters actually aren't flat at all. And furthermore, I find it frustrating when, say, people latch onto one side and don't really see anything else. Going back to Sweden and Finland for example, it seems like people act as if they're constantly handcuffed together. In fic and so on, I hardly ever see Finland doing his own thing, or interacting with anyone other than Sweden; and I hardly see Sweden around anyone else, unless he's getting his ass kicked by Denmark. I just -- I don't get it. People do other things, people have friends, people interact with others than just their lover, really. I don't see why people seem to forget that.

Anyway. I think you made the right move with not reading Rand. Scholarships are good, but sometimes it's just Too. Much. Effort. Especially if it requires reading a squillion pages of nonsense.

From: (Anonymous)

oh jeez, I'm sorry to hear that D: D: let me give you an internet hug or even just cause those are always nice, right? ♥

It just goes to show that people will interpret things to mean what they want. Whether you're talking about Hetalia or some holy religious text. blah. Maybe it's a bit presumptuous of me, but I'm kind of getting the feeling that a lot of the stuff that squicks me out is so popular because at least a decent chunk of this fandom don't really know how relationships work at all. Or how people work, for that matter.

I actually really adore reading about their relationship pre-20th century when it's actually portrayed realistically. Okay, maybe not to so much reading it as imagining it cause so the closet I've seen is maybe like two kink meme fills but damnit I think it could be so interesting.

I read you mentioning that on the meme. err, it was for your sweden/norway fic, right? i'm just glad you're using it. i'd use it myself but i can't write to save my life and i was seriously this close to requesting it on the kink meme. perhaps one day i shall gain back my writing mojo and spam lj full of stories with unconventional opinions. until then, uh, i don't know. i'll draw art of it pff. i want to make a doujin thing so bad

Oh man, really? As if I didn't already have five hundred reasons for wanting to go to Sweden already. i love domestic guys pff

That bugs me too man. And it happens everywhere! With so many ships (just throwing it out there, but Spain/Romano has got a terrible case of this as well). I mean, I get that most of these stories are short-ish romance stories and revolve around a relationship (really, 90% of all fic is usually about a pairing) but it wouldn't hurt to see more of them outside of who they're paired with. I just want more character building. I think that if you take the time to really establish and build on a character outside of the relationship, then reading them while they're actually in the relationship will be that much better just because you'll care more about whose involved, and what's going to happen to them.
but again, most fic is about two characters getting together or getting it on. writers might think that there's no enough room to show character A leaving character B's side.

The funniest thing about the scholarship is that you need to write like, a 500 word essay for such a huge book. For 500 words, I might as well just sparknotes that sucker. ~~the idea of a 500 word essay is a foreign concept to me~~

From:

yuuago

! Internet hugs are always wonderful, yes. ♥! Eeeee~

I tihnk you do have a point - about people interpreting things the way they do because they don't know the way relationships work. Don't forget, a lot of people in this fandom are still in high school, and haven't really had many serious relationships. So, many people tend to have a rather skewed, possibly idealized, possibly strange view of how relationship dynamics should be.

Pre-20th-century -- well, I do like reading about it when it's written realistically, because it's interesting. Oh the other hand, it's the sort of thing I have to be in a particular mood for. Not the sort of thing I would read every day. Which kink meme fills are you thinking of, by the way? I might have read them already, but then again maybe not.

Anyway - yes, yes, the internal conflict thing is something I was going to use in the Union fic. I really wish more people did things with it, as I find it just so interesting (as I mentioned before). I do hope you eventually get back your writing mojo! Or at least draw more, because your art is lovely 8D

Hmm. I do think you have some good points. The length of most fic makes including parts with the characters interacting with someone else rather difficult. Slight tangent here - I remember once telling someone I'd written something short, and mentioned it was only four pages, to which they replied, "'Only' four pages? That's not short!". ... I think I have a rather skewed impression of fic-length.

I think that if you take the time to really establish and build on a character outside of the relationship, then reading them while they're actually in the relationship will be that much better

Yes, this. Precisely this. It shows a different side of the character, as people act differently with their friends or colleagues than when they are with their lover. Seeing that makes a person that much more interesting to me. Gives them more depth, makes them seem more real. When I think of it, some of the best fics I've read (and written) had a variety of types of relations and interactions. It's difficult to write that kind of thing though, especially if you want to keep it short.

500 words? That isn't an essay, that's... Dude, that's not even a drabble. WTF are these people thinking?

(It seems our responses keep getting more and more tl;dr... I LOVE IT)

From: (Anonymous)

It's so much easier to give love in the internet~ I swear in real life I'm not capable of even just attempting a hug without freezing up. It makes me feel like a dick sometimes, 'specially when someone is clearly upset.

You know, most of those kids have probably had more experience with relationships than I have (hell, most twelve year olds have too orz). I don't know the first thing about relationships, but I'm just thinking that this kind of stuff is common sense mind you, it does explain Twilight's popularity. I agree with you, though!

It might not just be because of lack of experience though, because even published yaoi is written by adults, right? (of course most of that stuff is just fap-fodder, and isn't meant to be realistic or ground breaking) I think it's the whole not knowing how relationships work maaaaybe also because some people still have this weird fantasy image of how gay people are like. I don't know.

Well, as to whether you'd want to read it or not (or how often), I think that's entering into the fantastic world of ~personal taste~. (The only thing I'm really up for 24/7 is genfic. . . ) I just care mostly about it being some what historically accurate. For instance, I don't like Russia/Lithuania, nor do I have any intention of reading it, but I'd probably be more peeved to see a fic that had Liet following Russia around like a little love-struck puppy than I would a darker one.
Um, the fics which might apply are as followed (I'm just listing the ones I can remember off the top of my head here): there's a fic about them meeting and it's showing that Sweden is pretty much taking him over. Then there's that one with bitter!Finland. And there's that recent-ish one with Sweden's diary and though it was set in present-day it acknowledged their past and how they weren't a happy couple. Then there's that one really dark one where Finland is tied to a bed or something. that's a lot more serious and disturbing than what I think it'd be really like and I wouldn't like seeing it very often but I did like it (this might go to show how fed up I am with ~su-san~-esque stories because usually I don't go anywhere near those stories. i'm too vanilla and I like real deal love too much, sigh).
That paragraph was a mess. I really need to update my bookmarks.

Reading well written internal conflict is like opening a Christmas present for me, you have no idea. How long is that Union fic of yours gonna be? Like, is it going to be a multi-chaptered epic or just a long one shot or what?
I swear I'm never going to get around to posting art because it's so impossible for me to finish :| I don't have the patience to colour or even do over line art to make it clean.

as people act differently with their friends or colleagues than when they are with their lover.
I want to high five you for this!
kind of off topic, but we are talking about different kinds of interactions so here we go: I would do dirty, dirty things to see nations interacting with their own people more. I'm not talking about just political leaders or national figures, but just regular day to day people. Once I read a fic and it said that the nations didn't interact with humans and it just rubbed me the wrong way.

Hey man, I've seen SRS BZNS INTERNET DISCUSSION about what drabble actually means (it's even more ridiculous than most srs bzns internet discussions). The "real" definition is a story that's exactly 100 words, but people stretch it. It's funny that you think 500 isn't even a drabble when there are people there who will be personally offended that you said that. So, yes, I do think you have a skewed impression of fic-length, Mr. Four-Pages-Is-A-Short-Fic (although four pages I would think is average fic length?)

(hahaha that's what I like to hear! it sure looks that way though. but I will always feel fear when posting a long comment. but really, I have nowhere else to talk about stuff like what I want to see in fic. I have no fandom friends irl and well, as far as hetalia is concerned, 95% of my flist doesn't even like/know what it is. so you're stuck with it )

From:

yuuago

Whooo, long comment, yes!

Giving love in the internet is excellent. It's a lot less complicated than in real life. I mean, I love hugs and cuddling and physical contact in real life - but the problem is that I'm not close enough to most people to warrant such contact, so touching of any sort makes me feel really really weird. Fortunately, I appear kind of... stand-offish I guess, because I'm so non-social, so people don't try to touch me much.

Relationships - it's true when you say a lot of them might be experienced with relationships, but the key word I used when I was talking about it was serious relationships. Most high school stuff is stuff 'n nonsense, I'd say. It's one thing to be dating around, you know, and getting all upset when your boyfriend dups you or whatever, but it's another thing entirely to be committed to someone for several years. ... Gawd, saying that made me feel like an old fogey. Sometimes the young'ns in this fandom make me feel so ancient, even though I'm most certainly NOT. Maybe I'm just a little uptight.

As for published yaoi, I think that just falls into the realm of porn. Like straight porn, and romance novels by extension (for example), real-life rules don't apply, nor does real-life logic. It's kind of a different thing. Still bloody ridiculous though.

Fics: Yes. Historical accuracy is important. Unfortunately I don't know anywhere near as much as I should - but I do know enough that I can spot when something is way off. Sometimes I'll read something that doesn't really appeal to me if it illustrates it in a logical and historical way.

Anyway, the fics you've mentioned sound familiar; I think I might have read them at some point, except for the Sweden diary one, which I haven't gotten around to yet. I do know for a fact that I've read the tied-to-a-bed one (need to find it again so I can bookmark it, hmmm...). It was so dark and disturbing, gahhhh, but I did like it. I don't think I could ever write that kind of thing, nor could I read it much because it would give me nightmares (I prefer happy stories), but it was so good. I do like the serious stuff so very much, especially when it illustrates medieval Sweden and Finland in a way that makes sense.

That's one thing that bothers me so much. I mean - fortunately I haven't seen it much, but that's because I actively avoid it, but - stuff that illustrates their early years as... being something other than a conqueror and conquered relationship. It's as if people forget that Finland was taken by force. I can't see him going willingly. I keep trying to picture it, and it's anything but this happy relationship. Goddamn, I just -- I don't know.

As for the length of the Union fic, I have absolutely no idea. Considering the amount of time I plan to cover, and the progression of events, I think that it'll be about the same length as "Starry Night", which was eighteen handwritten pages and something like 11,000 words. It's really, really hard to say at this point though, as I've only written 5 pages so far and I'm still in 1810, haven't moved yet. It'll just be one long thing, unless I end up breaking it up into two parts like I did with Small Hours/Starry Night.

From:

yuuago

Once I read a fic and it said that the nations didn't interact with humans

What is this nonsense? Hmph. I don't see that at all. Maybe that's because of the way I set my fics, though. In my mind, the nations live (for the most part) as ordinary people, so their day-to-day interactions are also, for a large part, with ordinary people. They go to cafes, they talk to the mailman, they chat with their neighbours over the fence. This reminds me of a Can/Pol fic that I haven't gotten around to writing yet; I was going to have a scene where they both go to visit his neighbour, an old lady who has a crabapple tree in her back yard. She always lets Matthew pick as many as he likes from it, as she's getting on a bit and can't climb a ladder like she used to... Er, anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I think the thought of nations not interacting with humans is rather silly. I love stuff where they interact with ordinary people.

Anyway - People would be offended when I say 500 words is a drabble? Pfft, crazy. People care too much about silly things. Anyway, I guess I do have a skewed impression of fic-length. It might be because I write everything by hand. To me, a drabble is whatever I can fit on one (sometimes both) sides of a sheet of paper, while a short fic is about four handwritten pages, and a medium one is six pages or so. Clearly I am insane.

I don't mind being stuck with your comments. ♥ I love having long discussions with people, as you might have noticed. I've had some on the meme, but not quite this in-depth as it moves so quickly.

Also, OMG I didn't realize it got that long!

From: (Anonymous)

let's see if I can beat that
These comments have gotten long enough to the point where I'm typing them up in a word document so I don't have t scroll up and down to read what I'm replying to.

I don't like being touched very much in real life, regardless of how well I know them, but sometimes people just really look as if they need a hug, you know? So I'll want to give hugs because I think people need them, not so much because I like the act. As far as not knowing people well enough to hug them and all, I guess it's a lot easier for girls, cause most of mine would be willing to give people they hardly know hugs. sometimes it gets to the point where it's just silly

What do you mean high school love isn't the real thing?!?! YOU JUST DON'T REMEMBER HOW IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG ANYMORE.
kidding~
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think that the average age on the anon meme is a lot higher than that of the main comm? The average age of the main comm is probably 15 or so and for the anon meme I think it's, err, at least out of high-school age. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get to your age, I get so freaked out by seeing people younger than me, especially since I started going on the internet since I was, crazy young. ~~I'm so afraid of growing up sob~~ BUT ANYWAYS.

Yeah, I noticed the yaoi comment didn't make sense right as I wrote it. I've never even read an actual one, even. Half the time I feel like laughing just by looking at the cover. Eh, I don't know. For the most part the only kind of porn I'm interested in is the written kind. To each their own, but I can't watch porn.

I think the ~feel~ of the time is what matters most, as far as your average fic is concerned. And if we're still talking on this thing, tell me when you get around to reading that diary fic. It was a lot better than I expected it to be.

Didn't the strip show Finland willingly going away with Sweden? Cause Denmark was a top-of-the-line asshole, or something. I can hardly wrap my head around what happened around that time period, Hetalia-canon wise. That strip is probably part of the reason why people write them the way they do. I wish people would research a bit more but I've found that it's a bit hard to get information on it. I mean, I haven't found any books that go over their history in general (in real life anyways, I'm not going to order from Amazon). The only history books I've found for those guys are, well, books about vikings. And while vikings are awesome, it's not what I'm looking for. Trying to find information on Finland under Sweden is even more difficult, especially if you want to find mentions of Finland being, err, can I say oppressed? One of the sites I found that did talk quite a bit on Finland's second-rate status happened to be very anti-Sweden. A lot of what they say is very general and broad, so go figure.

I could just suck at researching, though.

Speaking of researching history, I'm just going to complain right now and say the selection I have around me is ridiculous. There are more books on Maire Antoinette than the French Revolution itself, and there are more books on Princess Diana than English history. Really, library/chapters/used bookstore? Really?

Well. I'm just going to repeat myself and say I'm looking forward to it! :D

That's how it should be, though. Why wouldn't they want to spend time around the people who fought wars for them and created them and kept them alive? Also: that story idea is the sweetest thing I've ever heard ♥

It's those same people who probably have nothing going for them in real life and are desperate to feel ~superior~ over anything. Ich. It's like fighting with a grammar nazi who will call you out on writing "you're" instead of "your" (a simple typo, honestly) and act as if it completely refutes your entire argument.

WAIT. Did you mean four handwritten pages = a short fic? Cause in that case, I agree with you. Four typed up pages? Not so much. Cause for me, both sides of a piece of paper = maybe one full typed page.

Buddy, if we were to have this conversation on the meme, we would've already hit five maxings by now. I remember when maxing out in five days used to be considered fast.

From:

yuuago

HAH. I always type up my tl;dr comments in notepad, with the window set alongside the comment thread in Firefox, so that I can check what I'm replying to easily. Totally ace.

Real-life people... well, I guess that's true. Maybe I'm just out of touch. Nowadays I don't really talk to anyone except for my colleagues from the university, and even though we're all students I do try to keep myself at a professional distance. Now that I think of it, maybe that's just me being stuffy, but it seems the mature thing to do.

High school love is BLARRRRGH NONSENSE and that's all I have to say on the matter. However, I do feel better when I realize that many of the people at the meme are somewhat older. There are still several people who are quite young, mind, but on the whole they're at least somewhat mature... most of the time. Even so, it can be kind of freaky at times, like if I realize I just spent an hour talking about smut with a 15-year-old (fortunately this doesn't happen often)

Didn't the strip show Finland willingly going away with Sweden?

I think you're a bit mixed up here. When I said he wouldn't have gone willingly, I was talking about the conquering of Finland by Sweden in the 13th century. The strip you're talking about is about when Sweden (and Finland, which was part of Sweden's territory) broke away from the Kalmar Union in the 15th(?) century. Different periods. But anyway, you're right, that's probably why people write them the way they do, though of course in history Finland didn't have much choice in the matter.

As for books, you're completely right. It's very difficult to find books on any of the Nordic countries (the Baltic countries too), and I've resorted to scouring the used book stores and Amazon. Since I have an interest in this outside of Hetalia, I don't feel too bad about it. Anyway, so far I have one book on Sweden and one book on Finland. I haven't gotten very far into the Finland book due to lacking the time to sit down and read, but it does go into some of the problems that were experienced (as far as we know about them, anyway - I'm still reading about the medieval period right now; not many records for that time). Unfortunately, it's just not enough.

The problem with good history books is that many of them are horrendously expensive. I've looked through my university library, but they don't have much either. It figures. Argh, if only I wanted to know about Ukraine - we have tons of stuff on Ukraine! (of course, because this is Saskatchewan). But nothing on the Nordic countries, really.

From:

yuuago

Your book situation - UGH. Just UGH. I'm fortunate that most of the time I live in Saskatoon, as they have some excellent book stores and the university library. They don't have the stuff I need, mind you, but at least they have a nice variety otherwise and sometimes I can find some gems (like that one Baltic history book I managed to get my hands on). Where I am right now though, in Fort McMurray, the resources are pretty much like yours - in fact, probably worse; we don't even have a Chapters, we just have a Coles, and one teeny-tiny used bookstore that mostly has Stephen King and trashy romance novels.

Anyway. The whole nations interacting with people thing... you're perfectly right, and I won't say anything more on it as you phrased it best. But argh, it keeps reminding me of things I need to write, or things I started then stopped, like one fic I started a few months back with Poland and Władysław Szpilman. I didn't like it so I scrapped it. Maybe I should go back and rework it....

People who nitpick and squabble over things of no substance bother me. It really makes me wonder - can't they find anything better to do with their time than argue over trifles? Mind, I must admit that I get a bit twitchy with grammar, but my own is pretty fail at times, and people do make typos, and sometimes the person I'm speaking to doesn't have English as a first language, so by now I've learned to just deal with it. (When my students hand me an essay full of horrible errors, though - that's when I throw up my hands and weep for humanity. But, er, anyway)

In terms of length, four handwritten pages generally equals four typed pages. This is because after I type it up, I go back and rework it three times, and usually it ends up a page or so longer than it was with just the typed text. If I recall, the specific fic I was talking about at the time was indeed four double-sided handwritten, and four typed.

As for the meme, you're perfectly right. To be honest, I kind of miss when it moved a bit slow. Not hugely slow, but a bit. I remember back in part three I carried on a five-day conversation with an anon, which was excellent and filled with Est/Fin and tl;dr (and somehow I was anon and managed not to be outed). That was excellent. But now, it moves so fast, and even if I say "if you reply to this I'll reply back even if the page moves on", people generally don't. Maybe they don't see it, I don't know.

And akjdf the length of these things is getting ridiculous!

From: (Anonymous)

your comment of 5022 characters exceeds the maximum character length of 4300

You are the god of tl;dr comments. My respect for you has increased tenfold.
you have also probably lost interest in this conversation because life has kept me too busy to reply. but i reply anyways, hmm

I'm actually surprised when I hear the ages for most people on the meme. I'm terrible at judging age. For instance, until recently I thought Odi was like, 22 or something. Apparently not.
Has that seriously ever happened? Hah. I suppose it doesn't matter whether you were into that kind of stuff at that age or not, it's creepy all the same. It reminds me of how I don't like to swear around eleven year olds even though I did that at their age. I've run into six year olds who swear more frequently than I do. It's a shame.

But that's why it messes me up. I know the difference between the two and I reckon that he wouldn't have gone willingly in the conquest, but the strip read as if they had just met. . .? Or, at least, I think it did. /goes to check -----> aaaaaand, it does read as if they really never got to know each other before. Finland says it's good to be free. hahaha. he also calls it an alliance. Eh, whatever. I hope that Hidekaz keeps focusing on the Nordics for awhile, just because I'm hoping that maybe he can make a strip about life in the Kalmar Union. And then fandom can see if they got Denmark's and Norway's characterizations right after all this time~ I'm kind of impressed with how far we've been able to run with it, considering how little information we've really got on them.

While I can say that I have an interest in history outside of Hetalia, I don't really know if it's going to last (my interest in history was actually sparked because of what we were learning in school, and then after awhile I decided to finally cave in and get into Hetalia). I plow through different obsessions like crazy. Just a few months ago I was reading books by Michio Kaku and getting out books about astronomy and all that jazz. A few months before that, 60s/70s culture. I think everything is interesting D: So, yeah. I don't think it'd make much sense for me to spend so much on a big history textbook. I haven't checked the big library downtown though, so I might luck out there.

I must have not searched enough (in the last few months I've been to three different chapters, an indigo, the same library I visit every few days, and a few bookstores I don't know the names of), because I shouldn't be having this much difficulty with books, it's not like I live in a small town. I mean, I live in Calgary :| The Chapters and Indigos seem to have the same selection, and smaller bookstores have an even smaller collection. The closest thing my school library has is a big book on the Sami people.
~~I've never read a Stephen King book. He's got too many out and I have no idea which one to chose.~~

Since you mentioned those trashy romance novels, I think all smutfics need to start having titles like those Harlequin Presents books, cause those ones are absolute gold. I mean, The Playboy Sheikh's Virgin Stable-Girl? Virgin Mistress, Scandalous Love-Child? I'm sure there's a fill on the kink meme that could easily be renamed The Spaniard's Virgin Housekeeper. the names are surprisingly repetitive. I think they must use a prompt generator, or something

I don't want you to be the person to tells you should write everything (unless I was to be your writing cheerleader, or something) but uh, that fic would be really relevant to my interests. Fandom needs more serious Poland, and I've never seen WW2/Holocaust Poland fic with Szpilman. . . but what I mean to say is just write whatever gets your creative juices flowing! :D

From: (Anonymous)

I think a lot of the English as a second language kids have more impressive grammar than native speakers. I am usually surprised to hear someone say that English isn't their second language. Everyone's ability to speak English so well makes me feel with such a failure in my own attempts at other languages. Damnit.

Maybe they knew who you were, but they were just being nice?
I remember when you had your deanon post saying that you're too easy to pick out when anon and then everyone was all "who?" And thus, you went from having a few people being able to out you to the entire meme. Good job, bud :)

awstgsopriuast AAAH SORRY D:

From:

yuuago

Haha, oh, character limits. ♥! Well, as I've said before, sometimes I just don't know when to shut up. In most cases - especially wonderful discussions like this one - I could go on and on and on (and on and on). And what makes you think I'd have lost interest in this conversation? Of course not, silly thing. I love long conversations that go on for days~ It's very difficult to get me to lose interest in a thing.

Anyway! Yes, the age of some meme-goers surprises me too. I keep thinking that most of them are around my age; the ones I talk to on a regular basis, anyway. I tend to forget the real ages. I guess it's mostly that a lot of the ones I talk with are relatively mature, and many of them are in college or university, so I guess I subconsciously think "Oh, they must be like me". Hah, no. And yes, the talking about smut with 15 year olds thing has happened. D: I was... rather disturbed at the time, because when I was that age I didn't actually have much to do with that sort of thing.

OHHHH derp, now I understand what you were getting at. Clearly I should not reply to comments when I'm exhausted. Yeah, I've read conversations about that strip, and most people are just like, "wat. WTF u doin, Hidekaz". Oh, well. Much like you I do hope that he does more with the Nordics. I want to see more on their characterization, and more history stuff, and just -- you know. I mean, running with it is all right, but I tend to be kind of nervous because it's like, okay, will I have to completely revise my characterization of them when more info comes out? So the sooner it does, the better.

History - Ahhh, I see. Yeah, when one hops obsessions so quickly, it probably wouldn't be worth it to invest in books, especially since many of them are expensive (though I have been lucky - thus far I haven't paid more than around $20 for any of my history books). In my case, I've had a keen interest in Estonia since I was fifteen, and a general interest in the Nordic countries since around the same time, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to get into the history as well.

But as for history in general, you know... it's only in recent years that I've gained an interest in it. In high school and such we didn't have much focus on history at all, no actual history classes whatsoever, so I pretty much didn't know anything until I took a medieval history class in university. That and Classics courses - you know, ancient history stuff - that's what got it started. Now I'm branching out a little, but it's still so strange and wonderful, as it's really a new thing for me to be learning about history.

As for books, well. Try the big library - they might have something. Also, try used book stores if you haven't already. In such a big city they're bound to have something. And even if you don't find any history books per se, you might want to turn to literature, as by reading the literature you can learn more about the historical context, the people, and so on. (As for Stephen King, yes, he's written a lot - if you want to read him, I suggest starting with Firestarter, Salem's Lot or The Dead Zone. All older novels, I enjoyed them very much, and the movies are pretty good too).

From:

yuuago

Pfff. PFFFFFF. Trashy romance novels! I know precisely the kind you're talking about, with the ridiculous titles and cheesy covers and everything. Anecdote: When I worked at Superstore, I was usually the one to take care of the books - unpacking orders and stocking and counting the returns and so on. Naturally a huge chunk of the stuff was made up of those trashy novels. I'd read the back, flip through them, laugh. A couple times I sat down over break to read them and my gods I could hardly get through them, they were so awful! Anyway. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they used a generator for those things, considering.

So, anyway. You could be my writing cheerleader if you want, hah! But as for the Szpilman fic, I'll consider it. If I recall correctly, it was about 3/4 of the way drafted. I think there were two reasons I scrapped it: 1. I was worried about Doing It Wrong, and 2. It was a little overly dramatic. But, I could always fix that. It was one of the very first Hetalia fics I wrote, I think, and I guess I just wasn't very confident at that time. Hmm, I should go looking for that draft now... need to re-read The Pianist, too.

You're right that people who have English as a second (or third) language tend to have better grammar and such than native speakers. I do find, though, that occasionally it has certain patterns that are unusual, and in such cases I can detect it - but it really depends on the person and their proficiency, of course. But the very fact that they can speak (or rather, read/write) it so well is impressive. I fail at languages, too. Eight years of French, and nothing to show for it, ahhhh. I've tried to learn others, but it's just not something I'm good at. I'm going to have to take French and Latin at the university level in order to get my phD, and the thought of being in those classes makes me facedesk so badly. Argh, maybe I shouldn't worry, but it's definitely not one of my strengths.

As for the anon, I don't think they recognized me. Then again, who knows. Maybe I really was that obvious even back in the day. D:

PFFFF The whole reason beyond the de-anon post is because people kept outing meeeeee *flail* Well, okay. To be fair, it was mostly

fyretoppaaa. But sometimes it was other people. And eventually I just got so frustrated and gave up. I didn't think that eventually everyone would be able to figure out when it's me! Arrrrrgh

Anyway, don't be sorry~ As I said before, I love long conversations.

From: (Anonymous)

brb sitting being amazed at you almost breaking 6000. HIGH FIVE.

Maybe I've said it before, but I'm in a constant state of worry because I immediately tend to assume that everyone is annoyed with me. Especially after I leave a tl;dr comment. Or a comment in general. Hah, the main reason why I end up not replying to them is because I think someone is annoyed with me (even though I know in my head that getting replies back tends to leave a nice warm and fuzzy feeling in almost everyone's stomach)
What would make you lose interest in a conversation, anyways? Or is that just going to be one of those answers along the lines of "oh, it depends, I can't really say because it varies."

People are getting into smut really young now :| I remember sitting in the waiting room one day, and I ended up reading an article in Times/Macleans/one of those things that went on about how early kids are starting to get into porn. You've got sixth graders addicted to watching it online. I don't even want to think about how that's warping their view on relationships and sex and the opposite gender, good lord. I mean, some of my friend's minds are warped enough when it comes to this stuff already, but it'd only be worse if you start that young.

oh pff, it was my fault for wording it strangely.
I don't think there's a reason to be too nervous about the characterizations, really. I really doubt that he's going to be giving an in depth personality for each of them. We've got the little profiles/descriptions of their characters, and that's probably as deep as he's going to get (if we see a Nordic strip, I don't' think we're going to see Norway suddenly bursting into song in a lineup because he was bored or something). Even characters like England, who are in a ton of strips, aren't fully fleshed out (well, go figure, this is a gag strip after all). In the end, fandom's still going to run with what little information we have and do most of the characterization work. Here is where I'm just going to go off on a bit of a tangent and say that I love that quality in this fandom. It's probably my favourite fandom not because I like the source material the best, but because it's the greatest creative playground for a fandom I've ever seen. I want to draw art and write fic for this series more than I would for my favourite show, it's nuts. And plus, researching "canon" = reading up about history, which is both fun and educational~!

How big are those books? Did you get them from used book stores or. . .? A good sized history book here is like $30. As if I'm not spending enough money on books already, sob. I need to learn to start using my library better but there's just something I love about having a huge bookshelf filled with books. . .

I wish we had history in school! Social studies only teaches you so much (we had lot more history this year than we did in previous years, which was nice.). A few years ago my school had offered a World History course for grade 12 students who did good in Social Studies, and I was hoping to take it but last year they went and replaced it with Forensics. Seriously, what good is that going to do, unless you wanted to be one of those CSI people? Hardly anyone takes it either, which makes it even more pointless.

The only history I really knew anything about was Poland, cause for a long time my parents sent me to Polish school, and they taught us history there (it was actually the only subject I paid attention to, pff). I always did have good vibes from the Nordics, though. Before I knew anything about them they just kind of reminded me of Canada, but with a history of vikings and matching flags (which I still think is so cute, don't even get me started).

From: (Anonymous)

I really need to get around to going to that library. I get home from summer school and then unless I have plans with people, I just sort of dick around and do nothing. I need the motivation to get off my ass. I always just end up angry at myself at the end of the day if I ended up doing nothing (unless it was one day of doing nothing in the midst of a lot of busy days, but that's different).
aaaand thank you for the recs!

I kind of feel bad for trash-talking those books because, you know, everyone has their guilty pleasures* and everything, but sometimes I just get a bit embarrassed looking at the cover and being near them. I know I've gone and looked through them, and just read through some of the dirty bits. Then I have to cry because all those jokes people make about romance stories, from the dialogue to the weird euphemisms, are true. So now I'm left getting my entire romance fix from fic, it seems. Which is okay, because at least I can read enough which is better than the trashy romance novel stuff (though some fic is pretty indistinguishable from it) and at least I'll actually care about the characters being together but I'd like to support my claim of liking romance with actual books instead of fic (which I wouldn't admit to reading).
*i will say that I'm okay with people admitting them as being guilty pleasures. I'd have a bit of trouble taking anyone who argues that these are great pieces of literature seriously.

sweet deal! I'll buy pompoms and I'll even get around to writing cheers~
1) If you're worried about doing it wrong, you're probably not going to. I think most people who end up "doing it wrong" are people who don't take much consideration into what they're writing.
2) overly dramatic? well, considering the subject matter I'd be quite curious to know what "overly dramatic" would mean!

I don't usually pick up on patterns, as I usually tend to skim when I read what people write on the internet and I really only get the general idea (same reason why I never, ever catch other people's typos or grammar problems, I guess?).
The French curriculum in Alberta is such a joke :| I don't know how it was where you were, but for us you'd start in grade four, only to have to start from the beginning in grade seven. If you went on and did french after that, you'd have to start from the beginning in grade ten as well. Half the time the teacher wouldn't even be able to speak french themselves, and they certainly weren't teaching you with the intent of making sure you can hold a conversation in French. I wish they treated it like a real subject, like they would treat math or science.

I can really, really relate on foreign languages not being a strength though. My parents sent me to polish school for several years and even talked to me in polish since I was a baby. I've been to Poland a few times but I still can't speak it fluently whatsoever. My writing is dreadful. I'm fine at understanding it, actually, but I can never ever find the words I want to use. Maybe I need to practice more, I don't know. And, uh, I'm not going to get started on how bad I was at french. I dropped that sucker as soon as I could (now I really wish I didn't.)

I'm sure you'll manage to get through whatever language you do, though! Are you leaning more towards French or Latin?

A week or so ago I needed to find something from the earlier parts of the meme, and I ended up going through the first few parts. And err, I'm pretty sure I could point you out at points. Sorry bud. I don't know how you do it. It's probably a good thing, the fact that we can tell you apart from others. I would say why but my brain doesn't feel like putting these random thoughts in my head into actual sentences so. . . figure it out yourself :D

From:

yuuago

I tend to assume everyone is annoyed with me in real life. Very inconvenient, that. Online, not so much - even when it seems that a lot of people are annoyed with me, hah. I don't know, maybe it's because of the internet environment that I just don't give a crap any more.
As for what would make me lose interest in a conversation - it does vary, and it does depend, hah. But really, it's mostly hard to say because other people tend to lose interest before I do, and stop replying before I do. For the most part, I can only think of two things. 1. If they're being douchey, or 2. They give a statement that doesn't leave much room for a response. In those cases I might want to babble on, but I don't have a lot to work with. That's pretty much it though.

I feel kind of like an old fogey for saying this, but I'm kind of concerned about the younger generation. It seems a lot of people have really warped views on everything, and it's just like... how the hell did this happen. I see young people talking (on the meme, for example) about stuff I had no clue about at their age, and I'm left feeling like -- I don't know! Like I should protect them or something. Which is ridiculous, and just poking my nose in where it doesn't belong, but there we go.

Characterization: You're right about that. I'm just one who worries about anything and everything, no matter if there is a good reason to do so or not. Fff.
As for your little tangent, YES. I love that too. The fact that it's so open for stuff - it's the very reason I've been able to stick with it for as long as I have, and the reason I've been so prolific with my writing. I swear, I haven't written this much in ages. It's wonderful~

My history books are reasonably-sized and softcover. I ordered the Sweden and Finland books from Amazon, and they were both about $20; I got my Baltic book from a used book store, though (it's about $30 online). I wish I could find more, though. Argh, I wish it wasn't so difficult to get stuff. I don't mind ordering stuff off Amazon, as I love having a shelf full of books (or, er, floor full of books. I don't have a bookshelf). But so much of it isn't in stock, or I'd have to wait a month, and I just. alksjdf I'm too impatient, I don't want to wait.

When I was in high school, we barely covered any history whatsoever. It was basically just "Nazis are bad. Commies are bad too. Mmhmmyep". As far as I know there was never a history option in my school at all, sigh. It's frustrating, because I feel like I don't know anything at all about what I should know. My school did suck - when I went down east I felt like I was so way behind everyone in my education - and it's like... I don't know. I feel like I was cheated out of a proper education.

they just kind of reminded me of Canada
YES. YES. SOMEONE ELSE WHO THINKS THIS WAY. Okay, well, for me it's mostly Finland that reminds me of Canada (doesn't help that I've heard it called "The Canada of Europe" on occasion) but, anyway. alskdjfkdf yessss. I think that's why I'm so attracted to that particular country - the parallels I see, and the further parallels I draw from reading about it, ahhh... (And I do think their matching flags are just too cute, as well. Eeeeeee, especially like, the fact that Norway's and Iceland's are inverse of each other, alskdjf)

GET THEE TO A LIBRARY. I will be gone for almost a week so clearly you will need something to read during that time aside from my tl;dr. Consider this your motivation. ;p

Mehhhh, I don't feel bad at all; the stuff is horrible. As long as people realize it's horrble - and most people do - then it's all good. Seriously, that stuff is just hilarious. But the fact that it's published gives me hope that maybe I can get published someday. I mean, if dreck like that makes it into print, then... who knows.
Much like you, I'd never admit to liking fic in real life. Buuuuut I can get away with saying I like romance because I read medieval romance. Of course, it mostly consists of manly men riding around the woods whacking each other with big sticks... or swords... but you know. Whatever. SAME DIFFERENCE only not xD

From:

yuuago

AND YOU'RE PROBABLY RIGHT. As usual. I just, alskdjf, you know. With my sucky education and my tendency to fret over writing, it tends to result in those feelings. BUT I WILL TRY NOT TO WORRY SO MUCH

ESL speakers and patterns: Ah, I see. Well, in my case, last year I worked at the writing centre at my university, and most of the people who came in for help were international students. So after a time I started to notice patterns in the kind of errors that ESL writers make. Not perfect, but enough that I can usually tell now. That's why.

Anyway. Yeah, what you described sounds pretty much like what my French classes were like. I'm trying to re-learn it now, but it's so hard because I didn't really learn it in the first place. Add to that, when I was taking the classes, I was the only student who took the subject seriously. Everyone else pissed around and didn't do their work and the teacher just let it slide, so I couldn't concentrate, and... yeah. Majorly sucky.

As for French and Latin, I'm going to need to take both of them. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I need two languages in order to get my phD. Secondly, those languages are relevant to my area of study; medieval literature in England was generally written in Middle English, Old French or Latin. So having those two languages is best for me. I'd like to learn something else, like... I dunno, Finnish or something (pfff) but it just isn't practical.

......KSAJDFK why am I so obvious. *sobs* Well, I guess it isn't necessarily a bad thing, as you said. Someone said that it's because I'm verbose, and because I tend to say more than just random fannish comments. That seems okay. But even so, I wish I could be a sneaky ninja!

Anyway. Feel free to reply to this, but I won't be able to reply back aftere I return from my hiatus.

From: (Anonymous)

THIS IS CRAZY LATE, BUT LIKE I SAID, REAL LIFE HAPPENED SO PLEASE BE A DEAR AND DO NOT BURN ME AT THE STAKE THANK YOU.

We now return to our scheduled daily dose of tl;dr.

You should tell me how your trip went. Or I could wait for you to make an entry and I could go and read that despite not being on your flist . Tlell me though, did you get to see the Dinosaurs? 8D

Ah, I think everyone feels like that. Think of it this way though, you'd admit that your a more, err, "enlightened" generation than the previous one, right? At the very least, kids on the whole are getting more liberal, less sexist, less racist. Older generations learn from mistakes and then they teach the lessons to us. Your worry and care improves us!
One thing I am worried about though, is kids doing stuff like playing video games all day. I didn't even notice this until I was at a friends house. I like video games well enough, but I want to tell these kids to go outside anyways because i feel like they're wasting their youth away. You don't gain childhood memories from achieving this many kills on xbox, you know? Of course, my own worry may be a result of my own views towards how my youth's been.

This is most fun I've ever had in fandom, honest to god. I've been in big, important fandoms and they're nothing compared to this. Too bad the wank scared me off at first and I used to take every opportunity to get discouraged from joining. Now I wish I had leaped on board earlier now, instead of waiting until March.

(what books on sweden and finland did you get?)
Iiichh I wish with the whole COMMIES ARE BAD argument, they'd also teach us that communism =/= socialism. Or at least go more in depth with this, cause some people I know believe in a kind of capitalism that is more idealistic than any kind of socialism I've ever seen.
Oooh, I just got reminded, on the news there was a story about how some PSA was being broadcast in America, talking about how Canada's free health care was an evil, evil thing (you keep thinking that, America). They even got this Canadian woman, who had surgery in America, talking about how the Canadian health care system was about to leave her for dead, because she had to wait to get a surgery. The anchorman ended the report by saying "in the end, she did it the american way, by borrowing money from her friends and getting a second mortgage on her home." I don't know, I laughed.

Explain to me these parallels you see between Finland and Canada. Not that I'm doubting you, I'd just like to hear about 'em.
I wish i could explain better why I like the Nordics so much. JUST A FEELIN, YOU KNOW? (well, it's more than that, but it ~all starts with a feeling~ anyways). Oh and even in the comics they are so the best designed group, even if one was to acknowledge Denmark's funny little hat.

From: (Anonymous)

I ACTUALLY WENT TO THE LIBRARY! IT WAS BIGGER AND MORE BEAUITFUL THAN I COULD'VE EVER HOPED AND I GOT WHAT I WANTED ♥ i got so excited omg it was like euphoria and ecstasy and joy a-and you don't even know. Just sitting there and trying to pick out what book I want probably pleasures me in ways a man never could. When I got home, my sister got weirded out by the books I took out (she read through a book I got on Switzerland and was all, "do you actually enjoy this?" Then my dad, who loves history, rags on her and tells her she needs to get some cultured hobbies/interests instead of looking on Perez all day. okay okay sorry for tl;dr on the story of my life).

here is where i will be very uncheerleader like and tell you that you can be the best writer in the world but they'll only publish your stuff if they think it'll sell :( :( :( of course, it depends on what you're writing. i don't think anyone writing a book on the history of toe clippers is expecting to make a fortune. I hope you'll write about something at least a bit more interesting than that.

D'aww, look at you, only wanting to post quality stuff. While I think that's a fantastic quality that I think more people (here's look at you, main comm~!) should have, I want to encourage you to go and post stuff more often merely because it brings some people, such as myself, great joy. And because you're probably too harsh of a critic on yourself anyways. Really though, I mean, half the stuff you've written is about pairings I have no interest in at all, but I read them anyways and I adored the hell out of them because I love the way you write so much. Your style of writing can be so pretty sometimes I can't even handle it D: D: D: (or should I say, :D :D :D?). And I mean the good pretty, as in, pretty with meaning. As in, not just a bunch of emotionless, empty adjectives that have been strung together.

I wish they'd start us early on french, and treat it like real subject but can you imagine the complaining? Most people would be thinking "we'll never need to use it! We don't need to learn a second language! ALL WE NEED IS ENGLISH." Native english-speakers have the biggest ego ever.

Oooh I see. Good with that, for serious! I see you mentioned Finnish aka cutest language ever. I can't even listen to Finnish without wanting to repeat it right away cause it sounds so net. I swear to god I'm not even joking. ff even Finnish names are amazing. When I was younger and watched a lot more hockey than I do now, I always wanted the Flames to draft some of the Finnish players just because I liked their names orz

I like it when posters are recognizable! You know, when you've got a persona kind of thing going on. i don't know, it seems that with a lot of the newer namefags, I just don't know how they're like? I see a name but I can't figure out their personalities (though I guess I could exclude the few that are on my flist, hah). Not to say I dislike them, not at all, I think it's lovely that we have so many great namefags on the meme. I actually cringe when someone targets a namefag, or says mean things about them even if I never really had any opinion of the said namefag before. I get more offended by people insulting other people than people insulting me, how about that.

Though, I think it's the way you write, too. You're the only person I've seen actually say shan't when replying. I actually did a double take first time I saw you write it somewhere. You need to change you're style of writing when you anon. Stop calling people darlin', and maybe start writing in all lower case
pressing enter for the hell of it
maybe
right in the
middle of a sentence

Now I'm off to finish the eighteen questions I still have left despite doing six hours of physics today, not including what i did this morning in summer school. ughhh i am not in the mood for thissss

toodles. or something.
:)

From:

yuuago

IT IS OKAY. I UNDERSTAND THAT REAL LIFE HAPPENS. Hell, it even happens to me occasionally. So, no worries! And yesssss tl;dr, I'm so excited.

As for the trip, I'll be making an entry about it, but for summary: it went REALLY NICE, but my parents were a pain in the ass. But the scenery is gorgeous and I saw lots of deer and a grizzly bear and BIGHORN SHEEP, AHHHH (I've always wanted to see one). Here, have a photo, because I feel like teasing you:

It was SO GORGEOUS OMG. But you'll have to wait until the post for the rest. Anyway, no, we didn't go see the dinosaurs. When we pulled into Drumheller, it was too late for that - and since my grandmother lived there, well, we've seen the museum several times, so we don't go every time we're in the area. I'd like to see it again, though - it's been a few years since I was last there.

As for education - I guess you're right about learning from mistakes and so on. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way, considering my current location, but when I really think about it, you're right.
As for the whole going outside thing, ehh... well, I don't know. I tend to feel awkward about that, because when I was younger I wasn't really allowed outside. Well, okay, I could go outside, but I had to stay in the yard. There was a park right across the street but I wasn't allowed to go anywhere or do anything, even up until I was 13. I did have a bicycle, but I was expected to ride it in the driveway. Er. Sooo I spent a lot of time inside playing Sonic and reading novels. On the whole, I think childhood memories are a bit overrated anyway, so I don't particularly care.

Anyway. Hetalia fandom. I've never been in big fandoms or anything, really, and my last big involvement was so long ago that it doesn't really matter (years and years and years) so this is all new to me. I actually became involved in it because of the wank - I saw mention of it on

sf_drama and thought the idea was interesting. I'm glad that I became involved when I did (early January), though I do wish I had jumped in even earlier, because it's just so much fun.

Oh derp, history books - I've been mentioning and never bothered with titles. My entire European history collection is very small. It is thus -
*A Concise History of Finland by David Kirby
*A Concise History of Sweden by Neil Kent
*The Baltic Revolution by Anatol Lieven
I'm also slowly acquiring a collection of literature (because I feel you can't really learn about history without reading the literature as well). Thus far I have a mishmash of Icelandic sagas, Norwegian plays (Ibsennnnn), Baltic poetry, aaand also a copy of the Kalevala is on its way to me. But that's all so far.

When it comes to school (high school, at least) I've given up on trying to hope that anyone will learn anything. My mother is a teacher up in Fort Mcmurray, and the state of the public school system there right now is even worse than when I left it. I'm told it's much the same in the rest of the province. Ugh, I'm so glad that I graduated when I did, else I'd be going crazy.

I did hear about that PSA in the states; in fact, an acquaintance of mine, who lives in Georgia, asked me if it was true that our system is exactly as they say. Ugh. Ugh! Stuff and nonsense. It just makes me want to throw up my hands in despair. People are so ridiculous.

From:

yuuago

Anyway. Parallels between Finland and Canada, eh. Well, this is going to be REALLY GENERAL because it is early in the morning and I have not had my coffee yet and it's been a little while since I have read my history book. But anyway. A lot of the similarities I see are actually kind of superficial and limited, but... I see them regardless (maybe I just want to see them)
Firstly, geography. Okay, so, the whole of Canada isn't much like Finland - Canada is a pretty big place, after all. But the part that I'm most familiar with is very much like it. Northern Alberta. Pine forests filled with lakes. Seeing photos my friends take, I swear, it looks like Alberta. It's just that Finland is flatter.
Secondly, isolation. This partly goes along with geography. Canada = big place with lots of snow and trees and nobody lives there. Finland = smaller place with lots of snow and trees and nobody lives there. Fff. But in all seriousness, both have populations that are small (for their size) and spread out and kind of isolated. True for the past, less so for the present but still there.
Thirdly, just kind of a general thing - both were colonized, and that had a very significant effect on the development in terms of culture/identity/etc. But that's speaking very generally.
And fourth, just a bit of silliness that reminded me of Canada - I've seen Finns complain about having to learn Swedish, particularly if they don't live in an area with Swedish-speaking population. "Arrrgh, why do we have to learn this, I'm never going to use it!" Reminds me very much of having to learn French when living in Alberta. ;p Same deal. "OH MY GAWD, why do we have to learn French, we'll never use it!".

Anyway, there is more, and certainly more specific things, but I can't remember them at the moment. Ffffff anyway.

I AM GLAD YOU WENT TO THE LIBRARY. AND I AM GLAD YOU FOUND WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR. Best feeling ever, when that happens. (Oops, this reminds me that I need to go to the library too. I need to take back a bunch of textbooks from last year. Gaahhhh I am so lazy. Luckily, as a graduate student, my sign-outs are good until September...) Anyway. I understand the feeling. My family, well - they unfortunately don't. So I have to talk to people online about it. Sob sob but WHATEVER. IT'S GOOD.

Anyway, gahhh. Yeah. I realize that getting published can be very difficult, that publishers will only pick up certain things. But there's always the chance that I'll write something good that will sell.
Or maybe I'll just write something crappy and Twilight-ish ffor the money, and publish it under a pseudonym, so I can get rich. Hah.
But in all seriousness, I dunno... most of the stuff I write isn't very publishable. I mean, fanfiction aside, I mostly write poetry, and everyone knows that nobody reads poetry. Sigh.
Of course, I'll have to write academic books too, but those don't make any money and they don't count.

And. askldjf. OKAY I will try to post more frequently... when I write something worth posting. 8D Your kind words make me all a-flutter. Feels excellent hearing those things. <3
For the most part, I try to only post things that I am satisfied with, and that have something resembling a plot, because I think it makes the best impression. But I've decided that I might try to post a bit more, just because a lot of people seem to like reading what I write, and because I write unusual things that people might be looking for but can't find (I remember someone saying a short while ago that there's no Est/Fin around... well, no, there is, I just only post it to my journal, sob D: )
But. Yes. I'm going to get off my butt and do some edits to some old things and post them up to the main comm, or maybe kalmarunionen I guess (now that they have non-Nordic tags. Perfect for me, considering)

Anyway. Languages. UGH. I wish they taught French properly. But as you said, everyone would be whining about it. And fffffu one of my friends is trying to persuade me to learn Finnish and I'm like... aksdfj. But I kind of want to try. And at least I would have them to practice with (and they wouldn't tease me about my horrible Finnish too much... I think). But I don't know if I will have the time.

From:

yuuago

In some ways, I like being able to recognize people too. I like being able to identify who I'm talking to, even if it's by an alias (tl;dr draw-anon, Salmiakki anon, etc). But anyway, yes, a lot of the newer people who post under their name - I'm not sure what to think of them. But, that might be because I don't know them very well yet, thus don't know anything about their personalities. Maybe.

It does upset me too when someone targets a person who is posting under their name. For me, it's because when someone targets an anonymous poster, they don't really know who they're directing it toward. But when it's someone with a name, they know precisely who they are aiming their hate at, and it seems more personal that way. That's what bothers me most.

Anyway. People being able to identify me - yeah, it's probably the way I write. The word choice and sentence structure and so on. I realize that some parts of my vocabulary are, er, a little bit archaic (shan't/shall, remarkable/unremarkable, etc). Sob, I do try to make my writing a little less notable when anon, but a lot of the time it doesn't work. And I don't think I could ever bring myself to mutilate my grammar. Fff.

Oh well. I WILL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT. Yes. 8D

... Also, holy shit. Teal deer is really really really teal today.

From: (Anonymous)

why would you crash on me like this, computer. why. ~~it's a good idea i had half this reply saved, at least~~

I remember back in the day, when I was just a young little thing, I was amazed by you having a reply of 5022 characters. Oh, how times have changed :') It's strange cause your reply doesn't even really seem all that long. You should get a prize or something for it, though. I got such a kick out of it.

/feels teased. Aah, that picture is so lovely. The mountains are the greatest, though I think they're even more gorgeous in the winter, right after a fresh, heavy snowfall (I'm a winter-sort of person anyways, so I might be speaking with a bias). But I swear, I have been to the mountains way too much to see as few animals as I have. I've actually seen bighorn sheep a few times ( Back in my Harry Potter days I would like to imagine that my ~patronus~ would've been one of those. ) but I've never seen a bear in real life, hell, I've never even see a moose outside of the zoo before. It seems like the only time they ever appear is when my dad isn't taking me out to the wilderness with him.

I haven't been to Drumheller in, wow, ten years? Last time I went our car broke down on the way home and we were stuck on the side of the rode in thirty degrees for a long time. Fun stuff!

. . . And I thought my parents were over-protective. I just wasn't allowed to go to other people's houses very often, though either way I wouldn't get to do that much as most kids thought I was too weird to talk to, pff. Far as childhood memories are concerned though, uh, I'm putting a large emphasis on them at the moment because I fail at focusing on ~now~ and I look to the past too much (the future too, now that I think about it)? Which is nuts, cause at my age I hardly have anything to look back on :|

I think. . . I think I might have forgotten what it's like to not be in fandom. Darn. Was it more productive? I do not know.

Your view on how you should read the literature to better understand the history is so hardcore /high fives. Then again, you've already said you've got an interest in that kind of thing and most research I hear about is just a quick wiki search. I'd be a bit reluctant to try out reading those old pieces of literature, even if I ever decided that I did want my knowledge of a country/history to get so in depth. Ah, sorry, I know you love and adore old literature but I'm so intimidated by it because I'm not sure if I'll be able to understand what I'm reading and just not getting something is the worst feeling in the world for me. It was a pain for me to get through any Shakespeare in school (yes yes I know that not all old stuff are written the same but the fear shall always be there, regardless of what I'm reading). though it'd also depend on the time it was written? and if it's a poem/story/play/etc etc etc and I really don't know anything about this kind of stuff to be honest so I'm going to shut up

People who want to learn will learn. I like to learn. Hell, I should just spend the rest of my life in a university or something. Learning is just super.

ikr. I mean, I'm pretty sure that if we were in the states, my dad wouldn't have gotten the surgery he needed last week (cause while it was a big problem, it wasn't life threatening). I guess we Canadians can just sit over here with our shiny higher standard of living and point and laugh (or feel sympathy) at the people supporting those PSAs.

From: (Anonymous)

's cool, general is fine.
Re: Isolation.
You know how you say the population is small for its size? Man, I used to think that 30mil for Canada was really, really small, and I suppose that with regards to how much land we have it is, but it's sad, I was really surprised when I learned about how small of populations some countries have. I even used to think that Calgary, having a population of one million people, would make it a "small" city. Then I realized it's just because we're beside the third most populated place on the planet (ten Americans for every Canadian, i think?)
Re: Bilingualism.
That made me laugh out loud.

I am so terrible when it comes to returning books or movies or anything on time. I make sure to bring money every time I go return stuff because I know it's going to be overdue. Can you seriously take stuff out for a year?

I wish you luck~ after all, Twilight's probably the exception. Also, it's one of "those" YA books so it's not like it's expected to be brilliant. 'sides, if you go and try to publish something like Twilight, I swear that you will become dead inside. Your dignity and will to live will be reduced to nothing. Do you think you could even write something like that if you tried? Maybe if you made it a goal to use every synonym for "pretty" that's listed in the thesaurus, you could. Hurr, I don't know. It's not like the only successful books are crap, so again, here I am wishing you luck. And even if academic books don't make you money, you'll at least get a ton of intellectual cred. And publishing poetry will give you that artsy cred and all the hipsters will want to be friends with you (okay, that last part may be a bad thing)

Things you're satisfied with, eh? Well, what happens when you are your own worst critic? I don't know if you are, I'm just sayin. I guess if you're worried about writing too much random drabbles/porn you can just fit all of them into one post? Really though man, a lot of people probably don't ship those things you like not because they don't like the dynamic, but because they haven't considered it before. By posting you are converting people to your crazy obscure ways.

If you want to learn Finnish,err, try to see if Pimsleur has a course for it. They're terribly good CDs and you can even just listen to them while going on walks. They don't tell you how to read and write it but out of all the language learning products I've seen this is probably the best (It's really long and repetitive but it does a good at teaching you pronunciation and drilling everything into your head). I don't know if they have one, though (I'm googling it but my google-fu is week today). I wouldn't recommend anything from the Teach It Yourself books, those are. . . pretty subpar when it comes to learning languages.
So, what would you learn Finnish for? I mean, anything else than perhaps talking with Finnish anons/users on lj.
:)

You can't really tell anons apart, so it's not like you can really direct it at anyone specific either. Who knows if an angry!anon today was really the same anon, or three different anons. Being an angry!anon is a troublesome ordeal anyways. You don't feel any better by being bitchy to people (well, any happiness you get from that isn't going to be real happiness).

You know what else you say a lot? Anyway. Haha, I don't know, you said it quite a lot just right now. Or maybe that's only when you're rambling. of course I've been known to use "though" twice in a sentence so I'm not one talk.
I always change the way I type depending on my mood (and sometimes because I end up posting like, five itt threads a day and I don't want people to assume that it's all the same person --not that they'd be able to tell anyways). I couldn't even pay attention to my grammar for the life of me. I'll look over what I've just typed and not notice entire words missing, or ends of words (like "ing") or what have you. I would be the worst beta in the world.

. . . It took me maybe five hours to know what you meant by teal deer. I even googled it. Clearly, today is an off day.

:｡･:*:･ﾟ'☆

About

Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
My journal is a mix of fandom and RL.
Please see profile for more information.

Page Summary

(Anonymous) - (no subject)

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jul. 8th, 2025 07:00 am