laceblade: (Sailor Moon: Rei piano)
I don't know about other people, but I spend more time online during the holidays. This makes me turn into a posting machine, unfortunately.
If you're bored, here are things I'm thinking about lately.



--After a day and a half of infrequent use, my Kobo Touch has stopped responding to....touch! I explain my problem in this post over at [community profile] ebooks. If you have any advice or commiseration, please offer it there!

--Dreamwidth has had thousands of accounts made in the last few days, mainly due to people moving here from LiveJournal, due to the latest round of heinousness (turning on automatic payments without people's permission - check your settings!; getting rid of subject lines in comments). Whether you're new to Dreamwidth or you've been on the site for a while, [personal profile] rydra_wong has made a welcome pack post describing where to get info about Dreamwidth, how to connect with people, and how to find communities that relate to your interests.

--[personal profile] commodorified is starting a blog carnival called "Cooking For People Who Don't." The topic this round is called "Food Security." The post is here.
I'm a person who doesn't cook very well. I've learned how to make some food because I live alone and would like to cook. Usually things don't go great.
As a person with dietary restrictions, I really, really love this advice for the blog posts:
That said, Describe much; Prescribe little. Readers may be complete beginners in the kitchen, food store, or garden patch, but they are, and deserve to be respected as, experts on their own lives, resources, abilities, and circumstances. Avoid the phrases, and the mindset, "anyone can", or "everyone should".
That latter sentence is great general life advice, I think.

--[personal profile] littlebutfierce made a post titled, "productivity for the low-of-spoons," aka those with low energy levels for whatever reason. The post is here. I know I struggle with this. [community profile] bitesizedcleaning is great for housekeeping tasks, but I'm starting to think about "getting things done" in life more generally, outside of work (I don't have an issue there). I'd like to write, like to actively correspond with friends, etc. I just don't, at the moment. Still chewing on some ideas that other people posted there.

--I'm also still cruising around at [community profile] eastasianfandomgiftbag, a low-key gift exchange for anime/manga/video game/etc. fandoms. It's great especially for small fandoms! I WILL PRODUCE...SOMETHING?!



Reccing Things


--A recent NPR's Planet Money podcast called "Europe Turns on the Bat Signal" compared the Fed and the European Central Bank to super heroes. The podcast purports that to understand how both entities act now, one needs to know their origin stories and mottos, and then they explain. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE TO ME NOW! Here's a direct link to the podcast.

--Fruits Basket manga: This is more of a minor note. Usually, manga-ka use the margin space to write notes about things I don't care about: groceries, thanking their assistants, conversations with their editors. Occasionally, they can be hilarious (see: Hiromu Arakawa & Kaoru Mori), but usually not.
I <3 a lot of Natsuki Takaya's notes. She talks about playing video games like FF7 and FF8, but also video games in general. My favorite recently read one was about how instead of watching in horror when a character in your party dies, all she can think is, "I hope I get all the stuff I have equipped on you right now." BWAHAHA.
As for Fruits Basket itself: I've only seen the anime and have never previously read the manga. It's pretty great.

--Yozakura Quartet anime: Humans and demons live side-by-side in a city in Tokyo. Based on the description, I wasn't expecting to like this series as much as I do. It's about kids with special powers. Which sounds awesome, but navigating society with things that make you "special" in ways that are sometimes a curse is pretty difficult. It took me a few episodes to really dig it, but from then on, it was great. As a bonus, I like the character designs a lot, too.
laceblade: (K-ON: Ritsu tea)
--Friends With Boys, a comic by Faith Erin Hicks. Semi-autobiographical, the plot focuses on Maggie, a girl who was homeschooled with her three brothers and is now starting high school.
Eventually it'll be released as a graphic novel, but for now it's being published online. There are 35 pages up right now, with a new page M-F. I love Faith's stories. Read it! Read all of her stuff!
I think her publisher is pretty awesome for trying to do it online first to build an audience.

--ANNCast (Anime News Network) is the only anime podcast I listen to on a regular basis. I mostly listen to podcasts in the car (I can't concentrate if I try at work). I just listened to one from January titled, "Moe Money, Moe Problems," a group discussion about the trope of "moe" and how different people define it, and how watching it makes you feel, and what it means for the anime industry. Whether you've ever heard the term "moe" or not, I found it a really interesting discussion, and something people like [personal profile] littlebutfierce and I have tried to define in comment discussions. You can listen to ANNcasts here.

--Lullabye for a New World Order: parts 0 and i by [profile] synedochic These are the first 100,000 words in what will be an obviously long series. It takes place 3 years before the start of Final Fantasy VII, with Tseng having met Tifa in Seventh Heaven and wanting her to meet Rufus so they can tell each other what really happened in Nibelheim. I'd never read anything by [personal profile] synecdochic before. Her writing tells rather than shows in a way that might usually annoy me, but I love her interpretations of the characters so much that it's kind of like I slip in headfirst. I wasn't able to stop reading this fic; it's been a long time since I've read such a long fic, probably years.
It's giving me some anxiety about my own fic, but the main point is: read it! Do it! I can't wait for more to get posted.
laceblade: (Default)
Now that I have an iPod, I am trying out podcasts! Unfortunately, I have not had good luck, probably because I am so judgmental. I do give every podcast at least 15 minutes (usually more) before turning it off.

I think that my main issue is that I really dislike amateur podcasts (at least the ones I've sampled thus far), for many of the same reasons that I detest morning radio. I do not want to sit and listen to two people I don't know have unsubstantial witless banter. I don't give a shit how many times you had to record your podcast because your friend erased it; I don't care that you turned off your air conditioning just to record your podcast; to be honest, I don't even care what's going on in your personal life, at all! Just talk about whatever your podcast is supposed to be about.



ABC's This Week with George Stephenopoulus - a podcast of the Sunday morning TV show. National Politics + George Stephenopoulus = <3
I like the fast-paced nature of this show. Everyone's trying to say as much as they possibly can, and the minutes fly by. This is my favorite one so far.

Wisconsin Morning News - Useless! The 8/7/2009 5-minute podcast was about the State Fair. How come WisPolitics doesn't have a podcast? These are things that I would like to know. Wispolitics just seems to post uploads of random, unrelated audio clips every couple of weeks. Which is cool, but not really anything to subscribe to.

NPR: Planet Money - This was okay, but almost too short for me? I think this podcast started when the federal government took over Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac in order to explain complex economic issues to people who don't know much about econ (ie, me). Again, it's okay, but I think I would like it if it were longer.

This American Life - Pretentious, useless. Can be summed up with: "People live in the world and interact with each other; HILARRRRIOUS!" It makes me roll my eyes.

NPR: It's All Politics - Two dudes who are probably important (but I don't know) talking about politics. It's kind of okay, but more of the 24-hour-news esque talk that I hate, where people are all, "Person X has to vote this way, and Person Y leans this way, but s/he doesn't like Z," and it's like a string of useless knowledge that I don't care about.

Daily Catholic Readings - Basically just that; over the course of three years, Catholics cover almost the entire Bible during Bible readings at mass: one from the Old Testament, one from the New, and a reading from the Gospel.

Anime + - Two teenage dudes reviewing anime. Made of fail.

Manga Pulse - Run by same people as Anime Pulse. It comes very highly rated across the Internet. Manga Pulse is two pretentious middle-aged male geeks talking about all kinds of useless topics and penis jokes, and almost never talking about manga, but instead go off on tangents. I cannot stand their speech patterns.

I also really hate the rampant misogyny in this podcast especially! "Once they hit 40, they've almost hit menopause....They're trying to fill an empty void with penis. You can just slip in there, boys! [beat] Sarcastically Boy, I just love misogyny!" You can acknowledge the fact that you're acting sexist, but the entire podcast is laced with stuff like this. I don't think I'd be willing it through it even if they did ever talk about manga. But since they don't, there are no decisions to be made.

Watch me vomit. I don't think I'll bother trying Anime Pulse.



Next to try are: Catholic Insider and Grammar Girl. Suggestions are welcome, but only if you promise not to get mad at me if I tear apart in a blog post review, :)



I have, however, had a lot of good luck with audio podfic.

Profile

laceblade: (Default)
laceblade

November 2023

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Apr. 23rd, 2025 04:48 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios