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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.

From:

yuuago

Computers choose to screw up at the worst moments. (Fortunately, mine doesn't crash often, but I do type up my responses in a document for that purpose, just in case). They just never seem to do what you want them to. Come to think of it, I still haven't seen about fixing what is wrong with my laptop battery, ahhhh ;~;

To be honest, the over-9000 character comment was quite a surprise to me, too. Clearly I really do never know when to shut up. I'm very glad that you didn't get bored, though!

The last time I was in the mountains, I was 10 or so, and it was Banff. I don't really remember much about it, so this trip was a real treat. So gorgeous, ahhhhhh. But I wish I had been able to enjoy it better. Wish I could have gone hiking. Maybe another time.

Since I grew up basically in the middle of the bush, we'd get deer and moose and bears and stuff in town all the time, so seeing them wasn't too unusual (though seeing deer so close was awesome). I always find it kind of startling when people say they haven't seen much for animals, but I guess if you live in a big-ass city it makes sense.

I kind of miss Drumheller. We would go down at least twice per year - for Christmas, and for Canada Day. I spent most of my childhood summers there, and I really miss going. Not all that fond of the roadtrip, mind you. On the other hand, I've only been to Calgary once, and that was so long ago that I can't remember it. (I've been at the airport a squillion times, but that doesn't count).

Part of the reason I try not to focus on my own past is because there's nothing much to think about. I went to school. I came home from school. I read novels of dubious quality. I wrote really awful stories (and had fun doing it). Aaaand that's it. Not much to think about. I'd rather look to the future. And the present is okay too, I guess.

Fandom: I think that when I was not in fandom, I was more productive in terms of creative output. By that I mean I wrote original things. Fanfiction is all well and good, but... it's fanfiction. So, when I wasn't in fandom, I just wrote other things... which I feel is a (slightly) better use of my time. On the other hand, I tend to get involved in a fandom when I have absolutely no original ideas whatsoever, so I guess it kind of works out in the end. I still have an idea or two filed away, but I don't know if I'm going to write them. One involved a pair of brothers who worked at a haunted restaurant. Was going to have lots of scary poltergeist activity and such. I'm not particularly good at writing horror though - maybe that's why I was never really able to get into the groove for that one. Guess I need to read more ghost stories.

The thing about reading the literature to understand the history is something that I take from my background in both classics and medieval literature. In these cases, we know what happened, but reading the literature is the best way to find out what society - or at least, the educated classes - felt about what was going on, what had happened previously, and how things should be. The literature produced by a society - novels and poetry, but also things like fairytales and epics - says quite a bit about the ideals, aspirations, thoughts of people in ways that historical records do not - because, after all, the literature is produced during that people's own time. That's why when studying Rome, for example, one shouldn't just read history books written in the 20th century - we should also read histories written by Romans, as it comments on what they thought, as well as poetry like The Aeneid, as it speaks to the ways that the powerful classes thought things should be - and similarly, but a bit differently, Catullus's love poems say more about relationships between the sexes in his time than any history book ever could.

From:

yuuago

This is part of why I want to read the Kalevala. There are two things about it - firstly, the stories themselves, the old consciousness of Finland. It could, I think, say so much about the culture itself, expressing the... hmm.. sense, upon which everything is now based. Secondly, the compilation itself. National epic. Put together at a time when Finland was experiencing much change. Not too long afterward, the nation gained independence. So, its very existence speaks volumes, too. But ahh, I wish I didn't just have to read translations. It would be so much better to read it in Finnish.

... Whoa, uh, I got off track there. Sorry. Anyway, when it comes to reading old literature, part of the thing is that when one does it for something other than an assignment in school, it is done for pleasure - and many of these things really are interesting to read. Take Ibsen, for example. His plays are taught in schools (You may have had to study A Doll's House, possibly Ghosts as well) but the stories themselves are quite good, and thought-provoking. These were written in the 1800s, and of course, when we read them we are reading them in translation, so the languagae itself isn't difficult. And of course, there are Andersen's works as well, which were also written in the 19th century, and the language used for translations tend to be relatively modern, if a little nostalgic. As for the sagas and such, I haven't started reading them yet, but I expect them to be much like Welsh tales: weird, and with a sort of logic that makes sense, but bizarre sense. Fairy-tale logic.

The thing about Shakespeare VS the sort of thing we're talking about here is that Shakespeare is not read in translation. Well, some of it is, but it should not be. On the otherhand, with Nordic literature, of course people like myself have no choice but to read it in translation. Generally, the language used is quite easy, so even if it was written in the medieval period, or in the 19th century, it isn't that much different from reading something written in the 20th century, except for content.

Anyway. Those PSAs... man. I just don't understand it. I can always tell that I'm watching American television when I see a ridiculous PSA of that nature. The sad thing is, people seem to actually fall for it. How is it that people can be so... so... Ach, I can't even think of the word now.

About countries and population: It's kind of crazy, isn't it. I always get rather startled when I find out just how small some places are. I mean, Calgary - that's a city, but it has a population nearly as large or larger than some small countries (Estonia, for example, is only about 1.3 million, for the entire place). And I tend to think that Saskatoon is quite a small city, but compared to other places, it's pretty decently sized. So strange to think of.

I'm terrible at returning books on time too, which is why I'm very glad to be able to check them out for so long. And yes, I can keep them for an entire year, unless a professor recalls them. As far as I know, that's the standard for graduate students. Considering most of us need the books for thesis research and so on, it makes perfect sense.

When it comes to publishing, I could always write something for the lulz. Then again, that would be out of character for me and I doubt I could actually do it, hah. But anyway, eventually I'll come up with an idea that is good enough for me to want to finish it, annnnd then hopefully it will get picked up. First I'll have to find a good idea though....

Hmm. I know that some people are their own worst critic, but I like to think that I'm not quite that bad. Generally I can at least find a few things that I like about something - if I don't like it at all, I scrap it, and that has only happened to three fics out of thirty-ish so far. Sometimes I write something that's pretty okay, and I realize that it's pretty okay. So, there we are. Mostly when I post something to a community, I do so because I feel there's something of substance there. Not necessarily for length, mind, because I've posted prose-poetry before - but something of higher quality than my usual work.

From:

yuuago

Anyway. Yeahhh, I realize that a lot of the time, people just haven't considered the pairing. That's a comment I get a lot, especially when it comes to the really unusual stuff lik Can/Pol, Can/Nor, Pol/Est... I like converting people to weird stuff.

Pimsleur? Haven't heard of that, but I'll take a look. I was considering snooping about to see if I could find it for Rosetta Stone, considering I have the main program. Mostly I'm concerned about reading, as I'm text-oriented, but being able to understand spoken Finnish would be pretty cool. As for what I'd use it for - aside from ~~flirting with~~ talking to Finnish users, I'd probably use it for literature. As I already mentioned, I'd love to be able to read the Kalevala in the original form, and now that I've been reading some Finnish poetry, I really wish I could also read that in the original, because really - when it comes to poetry in particular, translations never do it justice, due to things like rhythm and internal rhyme and so on that are extremely difficult to imitate when going from one language to another. Right now I have LJ set to Finnish. I feel like a huge nerd.

~~Ffff, I only realized how much I said 'anyway' in that previous one, just now. I think I was very tired at the time~~
I hardly ever start threads, but I guess if I did I would try (very very hard!) to change my typing style. Though it's difficult. Gawd, even with the RP thread I started the other day, I was internally panicking. But, couldn't be helped. Finland wanted to play, and it was my turn to start topic. I don't even know why I get so nervous about starting topics... blah.

adsf. This is long and I am tired. And now, to bed.

From: (Anonymous)

My computer doesn't screw up often, but I suppose that when you've a word document, five firefox browsers open with twenty or so tabs in each, along with itunes, photoshop, SAI, and two folders open one should probably expect it. (what's wrong with your battery?)

I just went and looked at a map of Alberta (I knew where Fort McMurray was about, but just to get a clearer idea and all), and christ, how long does it take to drive to the mountains from there? The distance is even longer than I thought it was! As for me, err, I don't think there's ever been a year when I haven't visited the mountains. A few years ago, practically every weekend in winter was spent at the mountains cause we'd go skiing (oi, does this mean you've never been skiing/snowboarding? D:) Did you get to do anything in the mountains, or were you just passing them by?

Hey now. Don't think we don't get any animals in Calgary. Okay, so, maybe we don't get moose or bear wandering about but we do get deer in the suburbs every so often. (this is a picture i took a few months ago or so: http://i31.tinypic.com/af8qyb.jpg there were like six deer on our front lawn. My sister and I spent like, half an hour watching them.) Aaaaand, I'll admit, maybe having deer everywhere isn't that big of an accomplishment. Now if there was a tiger wandering about. . .

There's probably not much to remember, honestly. I feel compelled to sell the wonders of the city to you, but I've got nothing. If someone was visiting Calgary, I don't think I could even advise them on what to do here. I could just be a poor salesman, though.

Ah, I see. Now I'm just reminded of that saying, time you enjoyed wasting isn't wasted time. If I could drill that philosophy into my brain, I'd be good to go.

I'm just wondering, when you'd go about writing original stories, do you write all of them with the intent of having them published? Or do you just mostly write for kicks, and just every so often there might end up being one you'd want to publish?

I'm not huge into the horror thing, honestly. I remember in elementary everyone would go around buying books about "real" ghost stories but after that I kind of grew out of it (I'm not much into horror movies anymore either, though that's because 97% of them are absolutely terrible as they don't really rely on suspense or story telling or anything). I don't know if I've ever read a fictional book that could be classified as "horror." Well, I mean, other than Interview With The Vampire, which according to Chapters is horror. Oh, I remember when I thought vampires were the coolest things ever. . . For a year or two I was one of those teenagers.

It'd be hard writing horror, I'd imagine. I don't think I could take myself seriously while doing. I'd write a bit and then I'd have to ask myself "pff, who am I kidding?" How many good horror writers get genuinely freaked out by what they're writing, even?

i just stared at that paragraph for like ten minutes and I have no idea how to reply to it with anything other than YOU ARE SO RIGHT, MAN. /BROFIST and it's a shame because it's a very nice paragraph and I happen to like it quite a bit but I have no insights of my own to share. hahaha this is embarrassing.
I hope that smalltext didn't kill your eyes. I assure you that the small text was necessary, as to hide my shame. I'm afraid that kind of thing applies to the next paragraph as well, for the most part D:
Can I just say I want national awakening fic with Finland? Man, that would be super. . . and probably really hard to write. Actually, I'd love that kind of idea for any nation.

From: (Anonymous)

Mm, even if the language in Kalevala isn't all that hard, you'd still have to learn Finnish for quite awhile just to make it through. Even if only because it's, well, I'm just going to guess here and say that it's long. Translations are a scary thing, not just cause as you said later in reply, stuff gets lost, but, i dunno, sometimes they can be so different from each other. I've seen comparisons of some old stuff, the same passage, translated by two different people and the difference is insane. I mean, they talk about the same thing, but just the style/words/everything else seem different from one another. how are you ever supposed to know which one to chose? :o

(I sort of figured but like I said, the fear's still there.)

By the language being easy, you mean it gets translated into fairly easy to understand English, then? I don't know why that surprises me. Maybe it's because (I apologize if I offend your very being by saying this) the only piece of medieval literature I know about is Beowulf sorry! and the people I know who had to read it for school seemed to complain about it a lot, though I suppose they can find a lot of reasons to complain other than how hard the words are.

Suddenly, I feel compelled to visit a Renaissance fair.

Well, seeing how free health care is only for communists. . .
People just like the idea of capitalism too much? And there were government people and news stations influencing their opinions and saying why they shouldn't want it. [insert deleted rambling here]. . . I shouldn't even be rambling about that stuff cause it's irrelevant and I don't even have any real solid opinions on government and the economy and social welfare cause I don't know enough about life to have an intelligent opinion. and i'm worried about sounding like one of those naive young hippies even though it's not like I think capitalism is ~EVIL~ cause I don't but I think America might be a bit too big of a country to not at least get a bit of help? idk idk idk i'm tired and embarrassed to even talk about this
and I have no idea what word you were trying to think of. i am no help whatsoever 8D

Not as bad as Iceland, which is like in the 300,000s. It's pretty exciting to see someone on the internet from a country with such a small population, though! A few years ago a few people from Iceland added me on msn because they liked the fic I wrote (sadly, they only wanted to talk about a7x and how much they hated iceland D:). I've actually seen more people from Iceland than Estonia, I just saw my first Estonian yesterday after they commented on some picture of mine on devart.

When was the last time you posted to a comm, anyways?

We need more love for the rarepairs~ Especially ones that can make sense, hah. It's a shame going to the kinkmeme or something and seeing the same three ships/prompts being filled out over and over again. I remembering requesting a rarepairing on there once, only to realize that it was probably useless to do so.

Ohhh, I didn't consider that. I guess it was designed more for people who were going to be going to the said country. Finnish kind of looks like keyboard smashing, to me. Keyboard smashing with lots of umlauts :) I probably get too much of a kick at going on wikipedia and seeing how every page looks in a different language. Arabic!wiki's even got a whole different page layout! Hell, even simple english is interesting and useful, sometimes. All I know about the string theory is from what I read on it's simple english translation page hah
Sigh, wiki, why can't I ever quit you.
maybe my eyesight is bad but I can't tell the letters apart in the அரபு_மொழி pages. What is அரபு_மொழி anyways?)

Aww. I wish I could give some advice for that but alas, I do not RP, nor have I ever RP'd. I don't think it matters much on what topic you start, cause as long as you start talking it's bound to turn into something interesting eventually.

so much for waking up feeling rested blahh :|

From:

yuuago

Uh... yeah. When you have that much open at the same time, you should probably expect it to work like shite, bro. Mine runs pretty well, but then again I usually just have AIM, MSN, Firefox with ~5 tabs, Notepad, maybe itunes. I guess I'm accustomed to trying to only run stuff in minimal amounts because the computer I had to use back home - before I moved out and everything - was a total piece of shite. We got it in like, 2001 or something like that. Runs Windows ME (still runs it, matter of fact). Slow as molasses. Blue screen 'o doom is far too familiar. So... there we are.

To be honest, I have no idea wtf is wrong with my laptop battery. For some reason, the computer can't detect it (I get an error saying "no battery detected" when I turn on the computer, and if I unplug the cord the laptop turns off). I've been told that sometimes batteries crap out, but I don't know if it's it. I mean, I've only had this computer for about a year. So I really need to sit down and see what's what, but I haven't gotten around to it yet because I'm lazy and I actually don't use it without the cord very frequently anyway.

Fort McMurray is wayyyy far from everything, swear to gods. It took us about 16 hours total driving time to get from there to Waterton, if I recall correctly - and that's why we split the drive into two days. Otherwise it would have been just too much. I'm used to distance - it takes something like five hours to get to Edmonton - but even so, that was pretty bad. When we got there, we uh... we didn't really do much. I mean, we were right in the middle of the mountains, but we didn't really do anything. We just kind of looked at them, 'cause they were pretty. Er. And Dad went fishing in one of the lakes, but I didn't get to because mum decided that was the perfect time to drag me around to souveneer shops and.... yeah. Argh. Parents. If I'd been there on my own, surely I would have done quite a bit, or at least would have enjoyed it more.

does this mean you've never been skiing/snowboarding? D:
Haha, no! Fort McMurray has a lot of steep hills; it's in the middle of a valley, so it isn't flat like, say, Saskatoon. I mean, our ski hills aren't anywhere near as impressive as skiing in the mountains, but we still have it. I haven't done it recently, but back in high school I used to go out and do it. But I kind of stopped after I had an accident. Nothing broken, but my nose was banged up pretty badly and I was really shaken up and after that I didn't really want to do it any more.

HOLY SHIT. DEER. Usually up in Fort Mac they don't come out and wander around in the residential areas like that - we haven't had that sort of mixing. You're more likely to see them on the side of the road (same goes for the bears and elk and such). But we do get little red foxes coming in and wandering around our yard.

While it's true that in general time that is enjoyed is not wasted, I would say this only applies provided one isn't supposed to be doing something in particular - because then you don't really have time to waste.

When it comes to original stories, mostly I just write them for fun - and also because it sucks having an idea in my head and not doing anything about it. When I want to write, I really really want to write, soooo might as well do that. Usually the "stories" turn out to be novel-length, and usually after a while I start thinking, "Man, if this turns out to be good, maybe I could get it published". I think the desire to be published, for me, is mostly out of a desire to share it with people. I want people to be able to read it. But a little money would be good too. I figure if I wrote something and actually finished it, but didn't manage to get published at all, I'd probably just put it on the internet or something.

From:

yuuago

To be honest, I'm not big into the horror thing either. Stephen King's old work is okay though. A lot of the stuff I have read in the genre falls short, and I think that the reason is, as you mentioned with the movies, it falls short when it comes to both suspense and storytelling. ...Fff, Chapters labels IWTV as horrow? Gawdno. What are they thinking, I don't even-- ahh, well. As for me, I do like Rice's novels, even though they're terrible, but... yes. Definitely not horror. Stoker's Dracula comes closer, though it's not quite there. To be honest, I still like vampires - and did try to write a vampire novel once - but man, most of the novels out there suck.

The "pff, who am I kidding?" this is partly why I was never really able to do this ghost story. I try to write scary scenes and they just turn out so... well... not-scary. But there must be some way to figure out how to do it, because I really like this idea, it just... Argh! Can't do it! D:

Anyway. Hah, no, the smalltext didn't kill my vision. ♥ I dunno where that big long paragraph came from, man. I guess I just tend to get carried away when talking about literature.

National awakening fic with Finland
Oh. Fuck. Do want. DO WANT DO WANT YES. ... Unfortunately I'd never be able to write it. Sob. I've come to the conclusion that when I want something in this fandoml, I usually have to write it myself, so frustrating... but argh. No, someone who knows more about Finland than I do would have to write that one. (I am going to file the idea in my pocket though. Ff.)

Speaking realistically, I know I'll probably never be able to read the Kalevala in the original. But ah, I can dream~ You're correct that it's long - I received the volume yesterday, and in this translation it's like, 650 pages - 50 cantos, averaging about 400 lines per canto, coming out to 20,000 lines (probably more like 21,000). Pretty hefty book - lucky that it's a paperback. What I would love to have is an edition that has the original on one side of the page, and the translation on the other - I used to have an edition of Beowulf like that, as well as a copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that was much the same (because though it's in Middle English, it's a very difficult dialect) and it was just excellent to have.

You're correct about translations being scary. Though personally, when it comes to differences in translation, I'd say it's more frustrating than frightening. Personally, I've determined that when it comes to translations, at least of old literature, the best way to go about it is thus. Firstly, try to read current, scholarly editions - ones put out by university presses etc. In these cases, usually the translator is more concerned about getting the meaning across than translating in a way that results in a pretty sentence. Avoid old translations - from the 19th and early 20th century, etc, for this reason. Secondly, read multiple translations of the same work. Since, as you mentioned, two translators will translate things quite differently, I find it's helpful (as well as interesting) to read different versions to get a feel of what differences there might be, and then determine for myself what sort of meaning might be gathered from a passage. But this can be time-consuming. ... Basically, though, just stick with scholarly versions. Yep.

You mean it gets translated into fairly easy to understand English, then?
Yes. This is generally the case. The language is not usually complicated, because there is no need for complication, if you understand what I mean. Since you mentioned Beowulf, I'll talk about that one a while. When I was teaching it, my students complained about it quite a bit too. The reason was not the language itself, but various factors. Many of the names are weird and often hard to pronounce. Also, the style is very circular, very repetitive. This is typical of epic literature, because it started off as oral literature. It was not written down. So the same thing might be repeated three different times in the same sentence, and the same tale might be relayed twice or three or more times, in different ways. Those are some of the reasons my students didn't like it...

:｡･:*:･ﾟ'☆

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