Opinions

I have all four volumes of Thrice's Alchemy Index now! I went and bought them yesterday with Jon, when we went out to the mall. I didn't end up finding anything for Kraken's birthday, though... the only things I could think of weren't in stores. So I'll probably end up ordering through Amazon, like he did for me. ^^ (I bought a card to mail him on Monday though! Yay!)

I'd hoped to buy some clothes, but I don't have much money to spare just yet. ;.; I did end up buying another album though -- the new Goldfrapp, Seventh Tree. I'm happy, because for this album Goldfrapp isn't focusing on the usual synth-pop / dance music that they've been doing with Black Cherry and Supernature. I actually got into Goldfrapp in the first place with Felt Mountain, which has less of the highly inorganic, manufactured sound (and is also darker in tone, I'd say, though Goldfrapp is always rather dark and abstract in lyrical theme).

But here's my impressions so far of the new Thrice!

I totally can't take this guy seriously.

"This guy" being Dov Charney, the CEO of American Apparel -- which I swear has to be the skankiest clothing store out there, with the equally skanky "hi! we're a bunch of amateur soft-core porn models" advertising. And let's not forget he does many of the photo shoots for said advertising himself. He specifically eschews touching the pictures up with Photoshop and whatnot, which I would applaud, except that the pics end up with something of a heavy-on-the-flash "Myspace whore" look to them. Nasty.

Oh and let's not forget to mention how open with his sexuality he is, including having relations with the younger girls he works with... of course, insisting that it's all consensual, and about sexual freedom, and he encourages a casual work place and so on.

You know, the Diamanda Galas mailing list is starting to irritate me. I'm getting that taste in my mouth like I got when I was on the Samurai History ML. (And let me tell you, I despised it there after a while. Historian-elitists using the ML as sport to make ignorant people look bad. *shudder*)

It's mostly because since Guilty Guilty Guilty came out there's been this progression of: 1) people gushing about the album being awesome, 2) people complaining about little nitpicks of the album (like the siren in "Heaven Have Mercy" and "I don't like her singing Piaf" and "why didn't she remove the crowd from the recording?"), 3) people calling the Diamanda admirerers brainless because they don't seem to have anything "critical" to say about her album/performances.

Oh god do I hate elitists in music. I REALLY DO HATE 'EM!

Wardragon was short today. That's all right, I had fun posting Archana as usual. ^_^ I wanted to remind myself of some things for Archa to say next week, but I'll do that at the end of the post.

I told the ST for the one-shot game that I need more time for my charsheet. I think I have a pretty good idea of how Riezsa's sheet will come together now, though. The hard part is the background, but ST's not really looking for complex stuff, so I should be ok with that. I think. ;.; I have a hard time figuring out a Motivation for her, probably because the Solar book keeps shoving "YOU MUST MAKE IT EPIC!!!111oneoneleven" in my face.

God, I really hate that, actually. Why does heroism to the point of arrogance like that have to be a *requirement* for being a Solar? I like the idea of being a Solar but without the righteousness attached. I mean, one of the examples for a Solar Motivation is actually "destroy the Realm and all the Dynasts" or some such.

Jon and I were watching Churasan... I think it was episode 99, or so? Anyway, I totally gawked because there was a scene between Sasaki and Haruka in a bar, and they totally played a Portishead song there ("It Could Be Sweet"). I think I remember being boggled at it before, but it STILL boggles me today! Just seems like a "wtf!" sort of coincidence, since I love both Churasan and Portishead. ^^;;

I was just going to post this at random before trying to get more sleep, but I just peeked onto IRC and saw something pasted on one of the channels I'm in. I feel a little bit betrayed and a LOT angry right now. Saying (even jokingly) that French Canadians aren't really people is a sick, disgustingly bigoted statement. Even if it were not about an ethnic group my husband belongs to, I would STILL think the same way about it. I treat my ENEMIES with more respect than that, or at least I TRY to. And if I fail, I have the dignity to actually feel *sorry* for offending them.

[Edit: I've spoken privately with everyone involved with the aforementioned pasting of IRC log and the offense I took to what was stated there. Everything's been explained in context, and apologies have been exchanged, so I have no hard feelings left. In light of that, the rest of my rant has been removed.]

This is another post about rape fantasies; in this context I mean "fantasies about being raped", in other words, imagining oneself as the victim of a rape. Just to be clear -- because I recently realized it might be unclear -- this is what I typically mean when I use the term "rape fantasy" in my posts.

Also, fair warning for anyone reading this that might be triggered by a post about rape, even if it is discussed as fantasy, or in a purely theoretical context. Please just don't read if that is the case.

Lastly, I apologize if this post comes across as preachy. This topic is simply very personal to me. I do not expect people to agree with my sentiments just because I happened to write them down and publish them online.

Yesterday, or this morning, I stayed up reading all of YU+ME:dream (well of what's available so far). It's a pretty comic... the art style improved so much over each issue. I thought that not knowing what being "gay" means was a little too naive of the main char, and there are some convenient plot points and cliches. But the story and art and characters still really drew me in, and I finished it in one sitting.

Oddly the fact it's billed as a lesbian comic didn't really cross my mind until after I was done reading it. Heh... but I think love should not be limited by gender, so, that's probably why. The only limit should be personal preference, IMO. [Edit: Not that I think my opinion has any impact on anything... and I really need to stop editing this post obsessively. I guess I feel kinda weird writing about stuff I don't know much about. i.e. being straight myself, and all.]

(Split off from the last post, thought it was too long. :P)

So I'm messing around in DR again. Just got Atma her circle, heh. Trained some mental stats and some stamina. It's actually helping a bit. Hopefully she'll learn faster now because circle 14 is where things will start getting a lil' more interesting again (finally).

She was messing with some people in game, too. Ran into some folks talking about burning Crossing and the rulers of Kermoria (well specifically Baron Gyfford and Prince Vorclaf) being weak. Atma just asked a few questions (irreverently) about why they wanted so much to seek power, and why they thought war was such an awesome way to do so. The people there probably thought she was just a heckler -- okay, I admit it, she probably was -- but they RPed through it, which was nice to see.

(I didn't sleep till past noon, and only for 5-6 hours, ish... but yeah... I started this entry then, and am continuing it now!)

I've been sitting here poking half-heartedly at Dragonrealms (Atma is still 4 weapon ranks away from her next circle) and reading celebrity articles again. So odd that I've become interested in that only during this partial and indefinite hiatus I've been on since last month.

First on my list of celebrity stuff I read is this Richard Dean Anderson fansite. That being the actor who portrayed MacGyver as well as a leading role in Stargate SG-1. There's something both heartening and disappointing about reading about the real life of a character you liked. I guess with the character you end up having certain hopes and expectations, and not all of those are fulfilled.

Kay, this is weird cause it's two celebrity posts in a row and I don't even usually care about celebs, but...

Avril Lavigne's new year's outfit. Also note the other outfits linked below the article. Here this site keeps saying that she has terrible taste, but I actually like it. I don't like her music but I think her clothes/hair look pretty cool. :P I used to dress more like that when I was younger, and I probably still would if I could lose more weight. :P

This is my opinion, of course. Everyone has their own idea of what's stylish, and that's what they ought to judge by when they get dressed. Not what "popular opinion" deems stylish.

Now, that said, this very same site has an article about Campbell's soup can print dresses. WTF? THIS is what's stylish? Oh, and don't forget this horrifyingly ugly pink dress. Welcome to the heights of fashion! *rolls eyes*