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Jun. 24th, 2009 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoCONTACT
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Anonymous commenting is on and IP logging is off. (This goes for the rest of my journal too). If you have something you want to say to me that's unrelated to other posts in my journal, this is the place for it. I love talking to people, so just comment away!
Note: My journal has a permanent "reverse friends-cut" policy. If you find yourself tired of reading my daily nonsense, just remove - no worries!
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Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 08:33 am (UTC)Kidding, you're fun to talk too, and if you ever gain a deep and intense curiosity about this corner of the world I'll gladly talk to you about it.
48 hours? No wonder I missed pretty much two whole parts this week. Aah~ I want to go on vacation too, why did I take up this job offer. Oh yeah, to fund my other vacations orz.
Keep it up and you might just turn me into a fan of those two. And then I'll be a true Nordic fan.
Ah, Card Captor Sakura! Wait, those two.... Touya and Yukito right? Man, that was so many years ago, it used to be part of my Saturday morning cartoons routine. Do you read the more recent Clamp series like Tsubasa and xxxHolic?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 05:21 pm (UTC)I'm glad you don't mind my babbling. ♥ And all this makes me think maybe I should really read up on more stuff about various different parts of the world, as (for example) I know very little about where you are, except that it's... there. And that the various people I've spoken with from there are nice.
Pff, jobs get in the way of everything, don't they? But I do hope you'll be able to go on vacation soon. ♥ Me, I'm going to be without computer access for almost a week soon, and I have a feeling I'm going to miss a lot xD Oh well, I'll live.
Anyway. IS THAT SO. Well, I fully intend to keep going, so watch out! Hah. It seems I have a rather strange habit of writing fic that turns people into fans.
Touya and Yukito, yes. Ah, CCS~ Those were the days. I think I still have my VHS fansubs somewhere. Such a long time ago. I haven't read the more recent Clamp series - I actually haven't really read any manga series at all recently; I dropped out of interest sometime in 2005 and it's only recently with Hetalia that I started getting sort of interested again.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 03:37 am (UTC)Oh, I do have plans for visits to authentic German Christmas markets come this December which is why I'm slaving away now. I don't have much freedom when I'm home for the summer anyway so I'm saving up for when I get back to the UK.
Enjoy your computer-free week~
Well, when I read fics, it doesn't matter so much whether the fic is about characters I like written in the way I want it or not. Most of the time, a well-written fic can have me hooked on it regardless of the content. Normally I start off by looking for fics of the character or pairing that I like, then when I find an author whose style I like, I read everything else the author has written and sometimes end up liking another character or pairing. You are already responsible for making me like Estonia ♥
I used to be a huge manga and anime fan too. Now, not so much but I still have a few favourites I keep up with and I occasionally try out series that look interesting to me. It actually took me a some time to get into Hetalia... but I think having a flatmate who is a fan and thus is able to rec me strips and help me identify the characters helped a lot.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 06:58 am (UTC)Ooh~ That sounds like an excellent vacation! Good luck with saving up for that, then.
Ahh, I see. I'm much the same way, I suppose - when I do go out and read things, that is. Haven't been doing that much lately. Anyway, I guess if I make you like things, I'm guilty as charged. ;p
As for manga/anime, I never got as into it as I wanted to be. Of course here, when I was younger, it wasn't really on tv or anything, and I grew up in a small town five hours from the nearest city, so getting tapes and comics was difficult. I had to rely on my friends sending me copies of fansub tapes, sigh. Even after I acquired a computer that could handle video, it was still difficult, as I didn't know where to look. Sigh. Oh well~
no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 08:01 am (UTC)Well for starters, the weather here is hot (32C all year round), the food spicy, the people generally friendly, and nature-wise we're known for our rainforests and beaches. And orang utans. It's a multiracial country being a Malaysian doesn't necessarily means being a Malay. History-wise, the early kingdoms prospered on the spice trade, we were colonised for a long time by the British and shortly by Japan during WWII, then we went back to the British before gaining independence. And that's probably more than you ever need to know about Malaysia hahaha.
I admit I don't know much about Canada either. I've never been to that side of the world. I know it's cold, and there are prairies... and... uh.... pancakes and maple syrup. And that there is a pretty big Chinese population in Vancouver.
I haven't been reading much fics in the Hetalia fandom either- most of the time I have no idea where to start. I mostly follow the kink meme indexes, but since most of the authors are anonymous, it makes finding more fics a bit tricky.
Pfffft you're using the Estonia icon on purpose, aren't you? ♥
Ah, I did get some anime on tv when I was younger. Then I found a bunch of friends with similar interest so we used to swap series and all. And I live practically in the capital, so it's easier to get my hands on the goods. In a way, I've been a fan for so long I can't completely quit it but it's not the only thing I read so I guess it's okay.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 06:27 pm (UTC)Man. Canada. I could babble about Canada FOREVER. But I shall instead restrain myself and just say that it's a pretty groovy place and that, er, we don't really put maple syrup on everything. Really.
For fic, I used to read the main comm, but... most of it is not to my taste, so I don't any more. I've found one or two writers I like, so I keep track of them, and that's it. Sigh.
And of COURSE I was using it on purpose. Fff, I'm not as sneaky as I thought I was, I guess~
Anime/Manga - sometimes I find myself wanting to get back into it, but then I remember that it can kind of be an expensive hobby (here, at least) and I don't really know anybody in real life that I could geek out about it with, and that's half the fun. Plus I wouldn't know where to start. I hear people talking about all these new series and I just feel like I'm stuck in 2004 'cause I don't know wtf they're talking about. Oh man. xD
Estonia's sparkles do not work on France
Date: 2009-07-20 02:21 pm (UTC)I mean, Glay! My first Jpop crush! I used to have their songs on cassette! (I still play the cassette when I drive since the car I drive doesn't have a CD player.) It so rare to find Glay fans outside of the comm ♥ I don't keep up with their newer stuff but I love love love their older songs like Yuuwaku, Winter again, However, Survival and stuff from that time.
Okay, I will now address the other issues in order ;p I know you're on a roadtrip, here's a tl;dr comment for you to read when you return.
Malaysia- one more thing before I shut up on this topic; if you ever meet a Malaysian and have trouble starting or continuing the conversation, talk about food :3
You mean I won't find noodles with maple syrup in Canada? D: I am devastated.
I won't mind you talking about Canada. No, seriously, I know very little about it anyway. Hmm, if you don't mind me giving you a topic, how about you tell me about a festival or any cultural aspect that you like and is unique to Canada, or the part of Canada where you stay? Or if you want to talk about something else or if you don't want to at all it's fine too hahaha, no pressure :)
Re: fics, brb, raiding your delicious bookmarks.
Ah, I always have someone to geek out with IRL and I used to go for cons so it was pretty easy for me to get into new series and all. I was going through your interests to see what anime/manga you have listed there and then I got distracted by Glay hahaha.
Let's se... ah, Saiyuki, I think I mentioned that to you before as anon. I'm guessing you like Hakkai? It's proving to be one of the few series I still like after so many years and I really like the artist's other works too.
Weiss Kreuz, another childhood gem! Florists by day, assassins by night hahaha. Oh god, I really can't remember much about this series, except that it had its fair share of ridiculous drama and I had a soft spot for Omi.
Also, Pratchett and Good Omens ♥
Re: Estonia's sparkles do not work on France
Date: 2009-07-25 10:48 am (UTC)I am completely in love with them. I think I first started to like them in 2000; someone in the Digimon fandom who I very much respected at the time (though I can't remember their name now) mentioned they liked them, so I sought it out. The first song I listened to was "Rain" and I fell completely in love. I don't keep up with the new stuff either (at the moment) but oh, the old stuff is so wonderful~ especially the songs you mentioned (those are some of my favourites)
<3 They're the only Japanese band that I own CDs for. Getting stuff like that is very difficult and expensive here, so I try to be satisfied with the 4 that I own. Gah, can't remember how much it cost, but it was a lot - and they were used, too. Completely worth it though.
Anyway! I will keep that in mind <3 Food is, after all, a good thing to talk about. And NO we don't put maple syrup on noodles ;p I don't think that would turn out well. Just on pancakes and French toast really, and those are not things that people eat frequently. Or sometimes on supperfood - I know how to make a nice glaze for meat using maple syrup. And it can also go in ice cream too. But really, we don't eat it all that much. I tend to find the stereotype a bit silly, because I hardly even know anyone who likes maple, really.
asdkjf you've opened a big can of worms here. I can babble about Canada for even longer than I can babble about Estonia, and that's the truth.
Okay. Well, to start out talking about culture and festivals and so on. This is very difficult for two reasons: firstly, Canada is so big, and secondly, the population is so unevenly distributed. Consider in comparison to Malaysia: our population is only about five million more than yours but our area is thirty times the size of yours. For this reason, things tend to be narrowed down to not only provincial culture but also regions within the provinces. The northern portion of my home province, Alberta, isn't really much like the southern part. Pretty much the only thing that is the same across the country are the holidays - Canada Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, Easter.
On the whole, I would say that the only other thing we have here that applies throughout the entire country is the cold. We're constantly either waiting for winter or complaining about winter. During summer we complain because everything is too hot. But if it does snow, as it did in June, we complain about that. Then in autumn we're constantly counting down the days until the first snow, not because we want it to come, because we don't, but because after it is here we can stop fussing over when it will come. Then all throughout winter it's grumble, grumble, grumble, even when it's not so bad. Essentially, this is a national sport: complaining about the weather, especially cold weather. It's strange, because many of us don't really mind so much; I guess we just need something to grumble about.
... Fff, reading over that, it all sounds very silly. I'll think of something better when I am not so sleepy.
Anyway. Bookmarks? RAID AWAY. Bah, I need to update those, though. I don't have much at all, woe is me.
asjdf Saiyuki and Weiss Kreuz. Oh my god, I love them both, though it's been a while since I re-watched either of them. Man, blast from the past - getting my hands on those fansub tapes was such a pain in the ass. Totally worth it, though.
Oh my god. It's 4:45 AM. WHY AM I STILL AWAKE. Mmph. I should wrap this up... and sleep. Yes.
I didn't expect you to reply so fast <3
Date: 2009-07-25 03:20 pm (UTC)Kidding, but I really loved their energy, enthusiasm and the joy they showed when performing.
I can actually find their stuff pretty easily here and at pretty reasonable prices to boot. They're not that popular here though... well, mainly cos they've been around for a long long time.
Ah well, aren't most stereotypes a little silly anyway? I actually didn't know of this stereotype before. I mean, maple syrup reminds me of pancakes, which brings to mind Canada (actually, it brings to mind a silly manga I've read before first), but Canada doesn't immediately make me think of maple syrup. Ah whatever, it still tastes good with pancakes, that's the most important bit.
I've never thought of how culture and festivals can vary so much in a country due to their size but that's very true. (...I was trying to think if this applies to Malaysia and then I realise that I can't say much on the variance in culture but I know quite a bit on the variance in food and the signature dishes in each region orz.) Anyway, you mentioned that the northen province isn't much like the southern part; how so? Or is that another can of worms? ;p
Ahahahaha, over here we complain about the heat. I wonder if it's a worldwide thing, complaining about the weather. I... constantly grumble about the weather in the UK too. Except for that two lovely days in February when it snowed ♥ My first time ever seeing snow actually piling up! My first snowball! Though I'm pretty sure people in countries with more snow were mostly laughing at how 6 inches of snow crippled London's transportation system.
lol one of the links in your bookmarks leads to a post I made anonymously. It's really obvious which one it is if you're curious so I won't tell you.
Saiyuki- READ THE MANGA. I know I sound like a manga elitist, but seriously, the manga is so good. I love how it can make me just crack up laughing at some parts, and other parts will make me stop and think and reread the entire part.
...you know, I actually have VHS tapes of the Saiyuki anime too. Not quite official ones; I recorded them when they were showing on tv many years back.
Re: I didn't expect you to reply so fast <3
Date: 2009-07-26 02:15 am (UTC)As for stereotypes, you're probably right, though I do find that in many cases there is a reason for it, and it actually makes some semblance of sense (in a weird way). Not always though. Anyway, I SUPPOSE YOU'RE RIGHT. (Though really, forget the syrup. Maple sugar candy is where it's at, yo! Oh my god, it's so delicious, but so so so sweet)
Anyway. It is indeed very varied and regionalized here, especially considering how our population is so spread out. So, what happens is you get pockets of population out in the middle of nowhere, and while they're similar in some ways to the rest of the province (and country), they're still quite different.
As for the differences between northern and southern Alberta, it's because of a variety of factors. Firstly, people are shaped by the land they live in, and the land in both parts of the province is different. In the south it's wheat fields and rolling hills, barely a tree in sight. The northern half, however, is thick pine and poplar forest, with lots of lakes (kind of similar to Finland, really, which is part of why I'm attached to that country - it's geographically similar to my home. But, anyway).
So, to go with the land, there is kind of a, hmm, cultural difference between north and south. The south has a lot of "cowboy culture" going on, very farming-oriented, very community-oriented, very tightly-knit. The south is where the major cities are, and it seems everyone is closer together, interacting more. The north, on the other hand, is very isolated and cut off from everything - for example, I grew up five hours from the nearest city. So, everything is contained within itself. It's like we're at the end of the universe or something.
At the same time, even though we're isolated geographically, culturally we're very mixed with people from other parts of Canada, because the North is an industrial area. So, even though we're cut off, there is a very eastern influence, from places like Newfoundland and such. Sometimes it seems like the north is more like Newfoundland (in terms of culture) than it is like the rest of Alberta. It's very strange.
Snow - yes, we would be laughing about how London shut down after six inches of snow. The thing is, where I am from, snow isn't exactly exciting. It isn't just because we are used to it, though there is that. It's also because you can't do anything with our snow! It's the wrong kind for playing with - you can't make snowballs with it because it's so dry. It just falls apart. In other parts of Canada you can do that, but not out west where I am. So instead we just complain about it, pfft.
! I ACTUALLY HAVE READ THE SAIYUKI MANGA. Well, part of it. Not the whole thing. After a while they stopped selling it, and I can't get a hold of it any more. But someone who goes to my school says that she has the whole thing, so I might try to borrow it from her. I really want to read the rest ;~;
As for the anime, I think I've only seen up to episode 6, maybe. D: Sob. Oh anime, why are you such a pain in the ass.....
Re: I didn't expect you to reply so fast <3
Date: 2009-07-26 04:17 am (UTC)Maple sugar candy? I'll keep that in mind :) I have a sweet tooth, though my cravings are normally for chocolate. I don't remember seeing them sold anywhere I've been though, hmm.
Thanks for all that info about Canada! All I can think of to say now is man, I really didn't know all that before. I've pretty much lived in capital cities all my life and while I've never been geographically cut off from everything, it's not all about tightly-knitted communities either.
(It's somewhat embarrassing but I've not heard of Canada being similar to Finland until I got into Hetalia /hides)
I've heard of how some types of snow aren't suitable for fooling around with but I have no idea which is which, and I think no one in London cared either at that time :). I trekked to the nearest park on that day and it was full of people throwing snowballs, making snowmen and generally just playing around. Snow is exciting to me just because I've never seen it before at that time. The first time it snowed it took me awhile to realise that the white stuff falling down was snow hahaha.
DO IT. I love love love the manga and I have almost all except for the newest volumes and I'm slowly picking up the artist's other works too and man, I can't shut up when I'm talking about this ;_;
I actually picked up the manga before there was an anime; I bought the first few volumes in Chinese (and probably bootlegged, oops) and then I stopped because I didn't like the art and I couldn't understand much of it back then. Then the anime came along and I was like wow this series is great and wait, don't I have the manga? And then I dug out the manga and fell in love with the story and art and went on a mad hunt for the rest of the series ♥
Slow this time. Travel + unpacking = tired
Date: 2009-07-28 04:22 pm (UTC)Yesss, maple sugar candy. Most delicious ever. There is a hard candy, but I like the soft one better. You break off a little bit, and let it melt on your tongue, and oh my god is it ever delicious.
As for Canada, no problem. I love talking my country and could babble for hours about it. As for living in places, I've been stuck in relatively small and isolated areas all my life. Now I live in a major city, but even so it's a rather small one compared to others, and it's in the middle of nowhere - about three hours from the next major city, or something like that. So the isolation is still there, in a way. A lot of places in Canada are like this.
And Canada being like Finland - to be honest I didn't really think about it in that way and start making the comparison until a few months ago, when I started reading about Finland more in-depth. Most of the similarities are rather superficial, but even so, they're there. For example, much of it has to do with geography (similar in the northern areas, though Finland is flatter) and isolation - both have small populations compared to their size, and outside the major areas/southern parts, everything seems a bit... cut off. There are other things, but those are the two big ones that I see.
I do so love the thought of us being a bit alike. Maybe it's just because I'm so irrationally obsessed with that country, pffft.
Man. The thought of never seeing snow before, then not knowing what it is at first when you do see it... It just boggles my mind! I can't fathom it at all!
And OKAY FINE I will bug her about it and read it. I do love the parts that I did read very very much, and I like that artist's style (visual) very much, so there we are.
In my case, I watched the anime first, because I obtained it through fansubs. At the time, the manga was either not available in Canada, or it was available but not in my city (like most things, I would have had to drive five hours to get it). I tihnk I have half the volumes, maybe - some day I will get the rest, even if I have to go to EBay to do it, hah.
Re: Slow this time. Travel + unpacking = tired
Date: 2009-08-01 03:29 pm (UTC)ON the subject of snow though, oh god thinking back on my first year in UK there were so many instances of me being a total idiot in matters concerning the weather there. I mean, like, radiators. What is this alien contraption. Something like that anyway.
...I evidently can't write properly when I'm sleepy. And I will not get started on Saiyuki again or this thing will be twice the length it is now.
Re: Slow this time. Travel + unpacking = tired
Date: 2009-08-02 04:41 am (UTC)THAT IS OKAY. I mean, if you're braindead and tired and so on, I certainly understand not being able to formulate a reply. I don't really mind if people write short ones, or if they take a while - really!
Radiators. RADIATORS. Gaaaaahhhhh they confuse me ;~; There is one in my house, and it is ANCIENT, and there is no way to control it. And when it turns on, you can hear the liquid sloshing in it, and it makes REALLY REALLY LOUD AND WEIRD NOISES OMG. ;~; It scares me.
I can't write properly when sleepy - I typo the hell out of everything and my english kind of fails, sob. But anyway. <3 That's all for now.