laceblade

I still can't believe this all-white main cast for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie.

I mean....jeez, even just look at the logo! What are those Asian characters doing there, between the words "Nickelodean" and "Avatar"?! Or the world map, where each nation is labeled with an Asian character. Or, you know, the entire series, where every costume, setting, name, and fight style is Asian-influenced.

glockgal has perhaps the most useful Q&A, especially for those unfamiliar with the show Avatar. It is here.

The Angry Black Woman also has a nice post here.

But let me be blunt: one of the things that hooked me about this show was that it was set in an all-Asian world. And it wasn’t fucked up. OK, let me clarify. You know how usually, when there’s an Asian character in an American TV show, he (or more frequently she) ends up as the martial arts master, the (white) hero’s submissive love interest, the dragon lady vamp, or the magical elderly person dishing out nonsensical proverbs and occasionally a can of whoopass? The thing is, all of these stereotypes are present in Avatar to some degree. But because the whole world is Asian, they’re lost in a sea of non-stereotypical, non-exoticized, perfectly normal human beings. How amazing is that? Not only that, but Avatar actually depicts different Asian ethnicities. Though this is a fantasy world, there are clear allusions to the Inuit, Koreans, Mongols, Tibetans, several flavors of southeast Asian, various Indians, and more. The Chinese- and Japanese-analogues of the story actually come in several varieties (Earth Kingdom and Fire Kingdom, Kyoshi warriors, etc.).

This is just so upsetting! Avatar is perhaps the strongest thing I have in common with my nephew, and I'm kind of disgusted that this amazing interest in a cartoon full of strong women and people of color is tainted now. My nephew even ASKED me for Christmas if I could find him action figures of Katara and Toph. A boy specifically asking for action figures of girls of his own volition! Amazing! [Also, how come now when I look on Amazon, I can only find Aang and Zuko?!]
But now when he sees this movie I'm going to have to be all, "Don't you think it's weird that everybody's white in this movie?"

Dear Blog,
Am home at my parents' house now. Chad ended up going to Chicago to schmooze with some law firms instead of coming along with me, so I was able to sing most of the way home. I never realize it until I do it, but I miss singing all the time. I don't like people hearing me sing, so because I live with people, I don't sing very much (in the dorms, I think I sang when Steph was gone?). This is because I'm not very good at it, bwahaha. Still, I had downloaded my favorites from the Buffy musical, so it was a good trip.

And not only for the singing! Half-Price Books had volume 6 of Tramps Like Us, so I snatched that. They also had 3 DVDs of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and because my nieces complain to me that Dylan watches the Avatar DVDs I gave him on the last two holidays every freaking day, I decided that he needed some more. At least this way, there will be more variety to the episodes he watches every day? Let's hope that Olivia won't hate me too much.

The GAP Outlet is once again my primary source for clothing. I feel okay about buying two $30 pairs of jeans, though - most of mine are wearing all the way through, so I guess that means it's time. There was also a mildly frivolous dress-purchase, but who can pass up a $10 dress?! THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT.

I got to watch the news with Dad, which I miss but never really think about. When I'm in Madison, I never watch the news, and get all of my stuff from the Internet and newspapers. I need to carve a place in my life for Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulus.

After a dinner of fish, Mom and I went to my sister's house to visit with the Beasts. Olivia is a Girl Scout, and my sister is apparently the "Girl Scout cookie" house this year, meaning that all of the boxes of cookies for her entire troop are in piles all over the house. It takes a lot of willpower, I tell you what. I watched some Avatar with Dylan and Amelia, in order to keep them out of the way while Olivia, Julie, Kevin, and Mom sorted cookie boxes.

Mom left, and I watched the Buffy musical with Julie and Kevin. Kevin has seen a fair share of Buffy, but had never seen the musical, so he loved it. I think my sister liked it too, although she made a show of rolling her eyes. Whatever, she totally laughed at the funny lines.

Anyway, I have a shower to take, aunt/uncle to visit, hopefully Kristy and Ryan to hang out with, readings for class, and - OH YEAH - that Constitutional Law midterm that's due Tuesday!

Today was very relaxing, which was a nice change compared to the last few days. I was in my pajamas for most of it, which always helps. My dad and I bought a space heater, so hopefully now when I go back to Madison, I won't feel like dying from coldness in my room all the time. Julie and her kids came to our house for dinner (steak and potatoes), and afterwards I went to Chad's house for a while, to spend time with him, Kristy, and a couple of other people.

I spent time doing some blog maintenance, too. While I originally thought that it would be too much of a pain in the ass to keep a heinously organized tagging system of labels for posts, I've since decided that it's quite useful. So, the LiveJournal tag list has been weeded through and organized, and I cleaned up the sidebar of the journal. As for the blog version of this blog, the tags list is still a bit of a work on progress, but can be found here.

Last night, I was also at Chad's while he entertained friends of his parents for dinner (delicious). After they left, Kristy, Chad, Dave, and I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which is the movie sequel to my favorite video game of all time, Final Fantasy VII. Kristy had played the game a long time ago, so I wanted her to see it for closure. From an outsiders' perspective (Chad's, Dave's), and even from an insiders' perspective, the movie was pretty lol. Chad kept asking if there was a plot, and if Sephiroth was going to show up, while we all laughed at at the improbable physics, and the cutting-in-half of a motorcycle with a sword. What got made fun of the most, though, was the English dub. I hadn't watched it all the way through in the dub yet, so I didn't know how poor it was. There were a lot of sentences that had unnecessarily large pauses in the middle of them, and I don't even know where all of that "dilly dally, shilly shally" crap came from. It gave me lots of game nostalgia, though. I should check out the special features on that DVD.

Speaking of movies, I've seen a number of ones for kids in the last few days, with my sister's kids. Among them are "Meet the Robinsons," "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," and "Night at the Museum." All of them were all right, although "Meet the Robinsons" was probably my favorite of the three.

Westmark
I finished read Lloyd Alexander's Westmark today. It is the first novel in the Westmark trilogy. I've never read anything by Lloyd Alexander before, but he seems well-known and respected in the Wiscon crowd for having been an author who wrote lots of YA fantasy that included strong female characters. Westmark was quite bleak in its reflections on human nature and society, and I quite liked it.

One thing that I definitely liked about the book was that Alexander doesn't take forever doing his world-building. His prose is sparse and to the point. Action, plot, dialogue. There is no lag. A pleasant change from, say, the endless reflections that plague the Libba Bray books.

( I have other thoughts that are spoilery )

I have the next book, The Kestrel, checked out, but I have some other things I need to read first. I'm looking forward to it, though, as many people say that The Kestrel had a profound impact on them.

rilina on Westmark here (Spoilers)
oyceter on The Westmark Trilogy as a whole here (No Spoilers)

Anyway, it's time for a bit of reading, and then bed. I'll be at the Packer game tomorrow with my dad, sister, and brother-in-law. I find it amusing that many households that live near Lambeau Field plow their lawns of snow (often to the point of completely covering their windows and siding with blasted snow) in order to be able to park more cars on their property, and make money.

I think that my favorite Christmas songs tend to be the darker ones, or at least the ones with spookier melodies. I enjoy "What Child Is This?" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is probably my favorite.

Anyway, my family has celebrated Christmas Eve. We went to mass, and saw my niece Olivia sing in the children's choir. Afterwards, the family assembled at my sister's home for hors d'eourves, dinner, present-opening, etc. On Christmas Eve, we always take the kids into one of the bedrooms, and read the story about the birth of Jesus from a children's Bible. For whatever reason, my mom had left the children's Bible in the car, so I was given a regular Bible. Read the passages about the birth of Jesus from Luke. From Matthew. (Do Mark and John not have them? Or could I just not find them?) Finally, I just kept reading, and Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount by the time Santa finished delivering presents downstairs. Which was good, because, you know, eventually the story of Jesus isn't really a "OMG, be excited and happy, children!" story. Well, it is. But it isn't. You know what I mean.

I was even able to run to the library this morning, while doing all of my other errands. I now have some more manga to read, and DVDs to watch. I also received some from Santa Claus...Santa got me the omnibus edition of Magic Knight Rayearth, bwahaha (vol. 1-3 in one book). Which is cool. I also just used a coupon to get the Tsubasa Chronicle omnibus (again, 3 volumes in one). That's a pretty awesome deal, yo! I'd get the xxxHolic one, too, but I already own volumes 1 and 2. Oh yeah! Santa gave me the Whisper of the Heart DVD, so now people need to watch it with me, because it's so good and I love it! I've received nice things this year, and Christmas isn't even over yet.

Tomorrow will be my family's rendition of Christmas, Part II: More Screaming Children.

Merry Christmas, etc. to all.

I seem to be plowing through Libba Bray's Rebel Angels fairly quickly, so hopefully soon I can write about books and comics again. Because I know you're all dying to know what I think about them, :)

I have a paper due in less than 24 hours (tomorrow at 2:30pm, although I have class at 11am and would prefer to not miss it), and I haven't started it yet. And I am blogging anyway.

I don't think I've ever done this before. I forced myself to enjoy my Thanksgiving break, and enjoy it I did (except for the 9.5 hours spent at Shopko). I got to spend time with my friends, my family, and with Antoine. I got to check out manga from the library and watch Battlestar Galactica's Razor movie on my sister's HDTV. I quit Shopko for good (on good terms, but I just won't be going back! EVER! It feels so good to say that!). And I made some sweet purchases.

Despite the fact that I am not on task in terms of writing papers (*cough*like the one I should be working on now*cough*) and I am behind on the readings in all of my classes, I feel like I've been doing well in my discussion sections lately. Which is good, considering that I hate discussion sections.

I really feel like I'm getting to the end of college, because all I can think about is how amazing life will be when I live by myself, and when all I will "have" to do in my free time is keep an apartment clean, read books/comics, and watch TV shows and anime. HOW GLORIOUS WILL THAT BE?! Oh yeah, and I guess I'll find a job somewhere.....doing something.....(and no, I have not been having anxiety about that LIEK whoa at all).

Anyway. I'm really, really going to make myself write this paper now. It's a shame. I feel like there are 80 stories I need to write in my blog right now. Instead, my energy will be focused on the Wife of Bath, and possibly Tristan and Isolde. Because somehow, I will forge a thesis that utilizes both stories.

Note to Self: The Things You Must Blog About Whenever You Find Free Time (hahahaaaaaa):
* Tokyo Babylon manga
* Cantarella manga
* Battlestar Galactica: Razor
* The last few episodes of Heroes, but I'll probably just wait until next week's episode airs, and do it all at once. But let me say: CAN WE NOT MAKE ALL OF THE WOMEN ACT STUPIDLY IN EVERY STORYLINE?! Also, could Mohinder not be so stupid? I want to love him! He is so cute! But such an idiot. :( So is Peter. Peter + Mohinder = Stupid City

I am home now!

Yesterday was quite full. In the morning, I finished my horrible paper, and then went to campus to turn it in. I then returned books to Memorial Library, picked up lunch, returned books to the public library, sent out some Bookmooch books at the post office, and then went to work.

There were only about five of us at work, so it was a bit different. I then grabbed a bus, grabbed my car, and drove out to Verona to pick up Antoine from work. We stopped back at the house for Chad, packed up everybody's stuff, and set out. Unfortunately, right when we started driving, it started snowing. At first it wasn't too bad, but it kept getting really bad. Visibility was so bad that we stayed on 151 until Fon du Lac, because I was afraid that without a car right in front of me, I wouldn't be able to stay on the road. Once we got past Oshkosh or so, the storm stopped, and visibility was okay once more. The boys slept when it was the worst, but my mp3 player kept me focused!

We got home around 8:00 or so. Chatted with my parents a bit, and then walked over to my friend Lindsey's house, and got to see Heather, Laura, and Jennifer as well. I haven't seen most of them in a long time, so it was nice to spend time with them.

Anyway, I need to go put on makeup and figure out what (if any) homework I can get through today, before we go over to my sister's house. My mom's sister had five children, all of whom are over the age of 40, and most of whom now have families of three children. Add in Julie's in-laws, children, my parents, and Antoine and I, and....well, we eat family meals in 3 shifts. The only thing I'm dreading about the holiday is being unable to answer "So what are you doing after you graduate?" 15 times.

So, I am at my parents' house now. Today was kind of ho-hum, aside from waking up at an ungodly hour (5:45am) and going to a church liturgy meeting, and then work, and then driving home.

My sister's family came to my parents' house for dinner. My sister and I gave my dad 20 John Wayne movies and 20 other western movies for his birthday, much to his glee and my mother's vast disapproval (he will presumably watch them all the time, to her annoyance). After dinner, I went to my sister's house to watch Avatar with Dylan, and then my cousin Molly came over and we watched an episode of House.

I came home and then worked on my NanoWrimo story. I've written a bit over 1,200 words now, which is better than nothing! Ghost Hunters is still updating in the same place. As a total, from beginning to where I am now, the story has almost 30,000 words, which I guess is pretty damn awesome. Hehe, even if I only make it to 10,000 or so words each time....if I do it enough times, eventually the story will be done!

Who else is doing Nano this year? The people I know of for sure are myself, my cousin Molly, and Kristen. I have a profile on the NanoWrimo website. There's a link to it on the Ghost Hunters page, otherwise I'm under "Timria."

Anyway, I've been awake for a really long time, and now I shall sleep.

On Friday, I woke up quite early, packed, and drove home. Apparently, the high school was actually having a half-day, but I still managed to converse with the History teacher I was hoping to see (Brayko, Bunk was sick), and two of my old Spanish teachers. Talking to the Spanish teachers was sort of uncomfortable. They were already familiar that people are not allowed to "minor" in foreign language at UW-Madison, and when I explained that I already had two majors, they understood. Still, they were disappointed: "You were so good at it!" Maybe. I stopped taking Spanish after I got a BC in a course. I kind of regret not studying abroad during my college career. Once I'm done with school, I'd like to read some novels in Spanish (I still have the first two Harry Potter!) and brush up on it again, and get better than I was before. I miss it.

But anyway. History teacher and I discussed life, school, the high school auditorium, and etc. He thinks I should be a teacher, and also wants me to talk to the AP Gov students when they visit the Capitol in the Spring. Explain my part-time job, I guess. WTF, teaching. I thought I remembered hearing at some point that one could just go to South Dakota and get a teaching certificate after teaching for a year. Maybe I should do that! Except that I don't really want to teach. I don't think that I would be good at it, and I don't think that I would enjoy it for more than a year.

So. Friday, Mom made my favorite meal (corned beef) and Julie and her family came for dinner, and then I went to Julie's house to watch Avatar with her kids. Came home and did homework, woke up and did more. We went to visit my aunt and uncle, and then we got all three kids and went to a pumpkin patch. I procured 5 small gourds and some bound, colored corn for some festive decorations in my room.

Tonight, we had dinner at my sister's house. My sister has two cats now, and they like to attack and hiss at one another. They also have their own "kitty jungle gym." It is pretty heinous.

I handed my first paper in on Thursday, but I'm finding writing this one that's due Tuesday exceedingly difficult. Oh well. By tomorrow, I'll no longer have a choice, and will have to work on it!

Being home always feels really weird. Right now, there are so many things I'm thinking and feeling, but I'd really rather not write about them. I am so cruel, I know. Instead, reading and then sleeping.

There are so many things to blog about, not the least of which being all the awesome Harry Potter fanart that was posted to the Internet while I was gone.

LOL, I am watching Buffy as I write this blog entry. And Angel is professing his love for Buffy, blahblahblah, "I wanted to take your heart and warm it and encase it with my own."
Buffy: That's beautiful. Thank you.
*hug*
Buffy: Or, literally? It's actually kind of gross.
Angel: Yeah, I was just thinking that, too.
*scene change*

I love this show.

On Friday, some of my fellow Bleak House interns and I went across the street to a bookstore that's going out of business. I could fill up a paper bag for $7....AND I DID.
BOOTY:
Hatchet - Gary Paulsen (I loved this book in grade school)
Another antique copy of "Evangeline," by Longfellow, with photographs of places in the story. I love this poem, which is saying something, as I tend to dislike most poetry.
Sirena - Donna Jo Napoli (I love her retellings of fairy tales for young adults)
The High King - Lloyd Alexander (I've been meaning to read stuff by this dude, and it won a Newberry Award, soooooo win)
Another copy of Redwall, by Brian Jacques. This is my third copy of this book. But this one is the British version, and has a pretty cover!
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature because I am not a geek at all.
Irish Cures, Mystic Charms & Superstitions with fun gems like, "Do not start sewing a dress on a Saturday, because the wearer will die within a year."
A Trilogy boxed set by Calvin Miller. "A mythic retelling of the story of the New Testament." There are like, goblins on the cover. It looks amazing.
The Golden Apples of the Sun and other stories - Ray Bradbury. Because one can never have enough Ray Bradbury
Lieutenant Hornblower - C.S. Forester
Hornblower and the "Hotspur" - C.S. Forester. BECAUSE I LOVE HORATIO
The Three Muskateers - Alexandre Dumas. Pretty hardcover edition!
The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - SotE was the first Star Wars book I ever read, and this has cool sketches and stuff. :D

Needless to say, Friday was glorious. Speaking of Bleak House, by the way, they received a nice mention in Friday's Capital Times.

There was lots of driving on Friday. Antoine and I, and Jenny from high school, drove to where my parents live. Once Jenny-less, Antoine and I continued all the way to our trailer. The kids were asleep when we arrived, but woke us up at 6am Saturday. I had spent the night on couch cushions cover in sheets at the foot of my parents' bed.

Overall, though, it was a fun weekend. We walked around in the woods on Saturday morning, finding some blueberries and using Dylan's incessant talking to ward off the supposed local bear and her 3 cubs. We swam in the lake and read books and ate brats for dinner, and went for a drive afterwards. We played some Trivial Pursuit, as is Up North tradition, and then went to sleep. Sunday morning, the kids slept later, and were quieter. Nothing too exciting happened before we left right after lunch. It takes 4.5 hours to get from Up North to Madison, and I was exhausted, but we made it here okay (after stopping for soda, ice cream, jewelry for me from my parents' house, and Jimmy John's). I think that Antoine had fun, in spite of the screaming children. I hope so! I did. And, because Antoine was there, my mom didn't yell at me all weekend. It was awesome.

It feels so nice to be back. I'm really glad that I love both of my jobs this summer. There was no sense of dread whatsoever in leaving the forests of northern Wisconsin and returning to my life.

Johnny Depp is Sweeney Todd! Everybody freak out.

The now standard linkspam of hot and angsty Harry Potter characters. DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILERS, DON'T CLICK. Make sure to full-view the Deviantart stuff.
Wheee!
More.
SWEET.
Sadness!
Delicious ANGST.
Wahhhh, cuteness!

I love the Internet.

The Fourth of July
Okay, so in my rush to slap a blog post up, I totally forgot to blog about my Fourth of July activities, which is sad because it was so much fun!

Firstly, I didn't have to work, so that was cool. And Antoine didn't have to work, either! He came to my house and we started a Final Fantasy V game.

Then we joined some of my fellow pages/friends on the lawns of the Capitol for Concerts on the Square: Special Nation's Birthday Edition. They had some fifties-ish music, but also played the 1812 Orchestra AND SHOT CANNONS. I WAS SO EXCITED. One of my co-workers made some amazing sandwiches, and the rest of us brought things like potato salad and chips and brownies and goodness (and yes, we ate the leftovers all day Thursday).

THEN, after Concerts on the Square was done, we went inside the Capitol and, after tidying up, went upstairs and outside to the Observation Deck, which surrounds the entire Capitol. We could see fireworks being set off from about four different towns surrounding Madison, and it was amazing (also, some illegal ones being set off inside the city limits!). The sun had gone down by that point, so the temperature was nice, too - especially on the north side, where you could feel the wind. Also, on the Observation Deck, we're right beneath the giant Greco-Roman statues that are up there, so that was awesome, too.

Right before we left, we went inside and up a little bit more to the Trumpters' Balcony, which goes around the circumference of the Rotunda inside the Capitol. We were much closer to the mural that's up on the very top, and could also see the beautiful marble floor and pillars, tiled mosaics, and portraits of all four floors of the Capitol at once. So awesome. It was a very nice Fourth of July.

Saturday
My family came down to visit me, which included both of my parents, my sister Julie, her husband Kevin, and their 3 children: Olivia, Dylan, and Amelia.

They arrived around 9:30am, and the first thing we did (after showing them my room) was go to the Farmers Market. It was insufferably hot outside yesterday, and my family, parents especially, don't do well in heat. We made it halfway around Capitol Square and then went inside to walk around. My sisters children were very pleased with the incredibly beautiful Capitol, considering it to be an upgrade from my previous job at ShopKo. I love walking around inside the Capitol, but truth be told, it makes me a little sick. I can think of a lot better use for taxes than marble floors and oak paneling.

After that, we picked up Antoine and drove out to McDonald's for lunch (when there are lots of people, cheaper is better!). From there, we went to Half-Price Books (OMF, I got a volume of manga for $2; WIN), and then to Trader Joe's. I think that overall, the family was impressed with both stores, although they didn't buy much. I came out of Trader Joe's with food that will get me through most of the week, and also a new plant. I've kept my Lucky Bamboo alive for like, 4 months now, so now I have a new one. I like the idea of plants in rooms, but I also like it more when they're alive.

After Trader Joe's, everyone was tired and hot, so we came back to my house and watched some of a Harry Potter movie that was on TV, while I followed Amelia and Dylan upstairs to my room and tried to persuade them that it wasn't necessary to touch all of my things.

We ate dinner at Ella's Deli on my family's way out of town, and Olivia, Dylan, and Amelia enjoyed two rides on the carousel. Saying goodbye wasn't very sad, because this coming weekend, I am going home. So, friends from high school take note! I will be home the 13-15, and will definitely be up for doing something Friday after dinner.

I did end up going to see "Paprika" with Antoine, Creighton, Carolyn, Kristen, Louise, and other various people from Anime Club at the new Sundance Theatre. It was...amazing. Very trippy, ridiculously well-animated (really, I couldn't even believe some of it), great music, interesting premise, and masterfully executed, as is usual with works done by Satoshi Kon. Highly recommended!

Of course, afterward, everybody came over to our house. I struggled to stay awake, but eventually just came upstairs and crawled into bed,

Harry Potter
Hey, did you guys know that J.K. Rowling has confirmed that the bartender at the Hog's Head is Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth? I hadn't! Yay.

Anyway, everything else contains SPOILERS FOR BOOK 6, THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. If you are one of those people who only watches the movies and doesn't read the books, then, well, what the hell is the matter with you. The books are 80,000,000 times better. Anyway.

( Why Snape is not evil )

Sometime before Book 7 is released, I'll put up a list of all the things I think will happen, or just what I want to happen before the end. I really love being around as this fandom has evolved over time. I never wrote fanfiction or anything, but just reading the news online and discussing the books with both my friends from school and with people all over the world through the Internet has been amazing. I'll be sad when it's over.