ANJELL
So, I made a very shocking discovery.

When the new January Korean dramas were coming out, I was 100% sure that I would fall for Chuno, hook line and sinker. Sure, I saw mentions of Pasta and while I was keeping an eye on it due to Lee Sun Gyun ♥, I didn't think it'd top Chuno. SLAVE HUNTERS! MESSED UP OTP THAT'S GOING TO HELL, BADASS LADY CHARACTERS!! CINEMATOGRAPHY. And the ABS. (Seriously fulfills my shallow quota. This show? Believes in having their men shirtless 24/7. Oh yeah, baby.) I'm allllll about plot, here.

But then, I find myself actually braving the chinese subs for the latest eps of Pasta (not that I got far... *can't read simplified chinese for shit*) and compared that with Chuno, which I'm only on ep 7 for that one, and knew at heart which one I preferred.

What's wrong with me, you might ask? How can I say no to Chuno? HOW DID I SAY NO TO THE ABS

I mean, Chuno is lovely, but it kind of reminds me of Nine-Tailed Fox in which I'm very much in love with the story but it's the kind that I swallow up in one go. A marathon drama, you can say. Wherein I sit back one night and speed watch the whole thing and will probably cry my eyes out at the end of it. I did this with Mawang too. (Clearly, I like to have my angst all in one go)

But Pasta? Makes my inner self squee in delight. [livejournal.com profile] darkeyedwolf aptly referred it as Coffee Prince: Now With Noodles and she's SO RIGHT! (check out her pimp post) *______* Except, imagine a more mature CF, with no cross-dressing. I liked that, the premise of a chef who wanted an all-male kitchen staff and the kitchen assistant lady who insisted on staying on. (Even as our chef desperately tried to fire her by any means possible, to the point wherein I lost count. And then slowly watch his resistance crumble to our 'goldfish' kitchen assistant. LAWL) It's so cute, and the chemistry between our two leads are on fire, and I LOVE THIS SHOW. ♥ I swear, their encounter is one of the sweetest and most original couple meetings EVAR. ♥

Also, Lee Sun Gyun is so frackin' hot. His smirk, his voooooooooooooooice. ♥ And Gong Hyo Jin is so natural and so beautiful and sweet-faced and I love her and why have I not watched her shows before? (Okay okay I know people have been telling me about Thank You for ages, but I was never a fan of medical shows and I didn't like the lead guy. *IS SHOT BY HIS FANS*)

I even liked the secondary leads. Mmmmmmmmmmm Alex in a suit. ♥ And I even like our bitch secondary girl. (Once again, I'm gonna be on the camp of liking all the female characters everyone hates) Yes, it was a cowardly move, what she did to our lovely arrogant chef in the pasta, but I always like my women with ambition and this badass lady chef here? Totally has that down. Yeah, I can see why she is labelled as greedy and I totally get it, but that's her appeal to me. She just wants so much, and I think, what's fascinating is that, while she trampled all over her ex to get what she wanted in the past, she's willing to owe up to it and fight for recognition of her abilities. I think she's plagued by guilt over her cowardly actions and feels like she can't move on from her past without her ex's acknowledgement, and she is making attempts to heal their broken relationship, and going back to confront someone you have wronged so deeply? That takes guts. It's selfish and self-motivated, yes, but it takes a strong, forceful personality to do what she does, and I totally respect that. Plus, I always had a weakness for ridiculously selfish characters. =D ETA Just wanted to clarify that she wanted her skills as a CHEF to be acknowledged by her ex and rival that she wronged, not one of those getting ex back storylines. (There's no denying that there's lingering feelings, but this is a lady fuelled by her ambition. If she can get her ex back it'd probably be icing on the cake, but what she really wants is to fight for acknowledgement of her skills from the one person who won't give it to her.)

Anyhow - long story short - WATCH THIS SHOW WITH ME. COME ON. THINK OF COFFEE PRINCE, NOW WITH NOODLES PREMISE!!! THEY EVEN HAVE A WAFFLE BOY CHARACTER WITH RIDICULOUSLY LONG AND BEAUTIFUL HAIR THAT LIKES TO WHISH IN THE WIND AND HAVE RANDOM MOMENTS OF US THE AUDIENCE WATCHING THIS CHARACTER ROCK OUT ON THE DRUMS AND PIANO FOR NOTHING BUT FANSERVICE TO US GIRLS. THINK ABOUT IT. THINK DEEEEEEEEEEEEPLY.

(or, talk Chuno with me. I'm totally down with Chuno talk. We can talk about the deep, deep glistening plot! You know we couldn't have understood the storyline without the shower scenes)

P.S. holy shit I'm not doing schoolwork AT ALL. T_T I JUST WANT MY PASTA ep. 10 SUBS DAMNIT!! gawd damnit I knew I should have paid more attention to those Mandarin Saturday classes EP 10 SUBS ARE OUT, SOMEONE IS NOT SLEEPING TONIGHT
ANJELL
As some of you may or may not know, there's a Chromatic Casting Meme going around wherein people are (re)casting various fandoms with People of Colour. Here's a most excellent links roundup for all the memes done so far. And I decided to do this meme for Demon's Lexicon too on my book blog. I only casted our four main characters because I got lazy but I thought I'd link in case anyone's interested. =D

ETA: Right, and before I forget, I also did a chromatic casting of Ash (marketed as a Lesbian Cinderella), j-drama style. Link.
ANJELL
DUDE DUDE DUDE I'M NOT EVEN WATCHING THE NEW WALLFLOWER DRAMA, BUT THE CREDITS ARE TOO LULZ TO PASS UP ON!!!!!!!
(starts 0:20)



WATCH THE CREDITS. DO IT FOR KAME

And woah, this Chromatic Casting meme thing going around? TOO AWESOME. It made me lawl 'cause I sorta-but-not-really did something similar on my book blog, (I casted the characters in Ash aka a Lesbian Cinderella story with an All-Japanese cast. Those in my flist who are into jdramas, if you're interested here be link.)

Also, not sure if anyone cares about my Taiwanese drama watching ways, but I am UP TO SPEED ON AUTUMN'S CONCERTO. *-* Though, on one of the previews, it showed the girl getting stabbed to protect the boy this time and I was kinda let down that they didn't decide to go down that route. I'm trying not to think about what that says about me as a human being.

... I swear I'll start checking in on quality tv soon. K-dramas are looking epic this season. This is in no way influenced by the picspams I've been seeing of Chuno and the firm firm plot. Not at all
ANJELL
HILARIOUS VISUAL ESSAY ON ALMOND EYES

I died. Crying tears of laughter along the way. (It's old but I'm linking because it's funny and if someone on my flist knew about this and never linked me, let me tell you right now that I'm VERY VERY disappointed in you. VERY.)

Also, yeah, American Idol barely started but if I lived in the US, John Park is getting my vote.




(OH SHANIA TWAIN, YOU KEEL ME. KEEL ME DEAD.) I swear, when I find a better quality vid, I'll link, fo' sho.


ANJELL
So I was checking in on Muslimah Media Watch (which, by the way, is an EPIC site, check it out for those who haven't yet) and came across this post called Judging an Emcee by Her Cover. In this post here, the ladies report on Diam's conversion to Islam and her choice in wearing a hijab, and the french feminist community denouncing her decision as, and I quote: "With this new image, Diam’s represents submission, tradition and isolation. She was lost, and found herself by wearing the veil. This is something that we unfortunately see with a lot of young girls."

I stared uncomprehendingly at my screen. And LAUGHED.

DIAM'S? SUBMISSIVE, TRADITIONAL AND ISOLATED?!?! THE DIAM'S WHO DID CAUSE A EFFET?!?!? BEHOLD:



(It's no MV, but it comes with Eng subs, for non-french speakers)

Seriously, my first thought was, 'What were those quoted French Feminists smoking?!?!' And I personally think these kinds of comments are full of ignorance generated by Islamophobia and I have no sympathy for such sentiments. I'd say stuff about how it's such stereotyping that Muslim women = oppression, and the complete disrespect in referring to Diam's as a 'girl', but you know what? Muslimah Media Watch does a far better job of talking about this, so just go and click on the post I linked at the beginning of the post.

IN THE MEANTIME I will spam you all with Diam's MVs. Because she's fucking hardcore and badass and I love her so it's PROMOTION TIIIIIIIIIIME.






ANJELL
Okay, okay so I think I caught up with both LJ and DW flist... As in, I mostly just skimmed to the point where I was just like, surely that's far back enough? and tried to leave bits and pieces of comments here and there. If there's an entry that you want me to comment on or talk about, link me and I'll head over! But in the mean time I think I'll consider this "catch up" a success. (AND WHILE I'M AT IT, if you want to talk fandom with me, BRING IT. I haven't had fandom talk in ages.)

BUT FIRST THINGS FIRST, I may be somewhat late with this but please consider donating money in light of the Haiti earthquake that, I've been told, held 35x the force of an atomic bomb. *SHIVERS* [personal profile] skywardprodigal has a post on legit charities you could donate your money to. Yes, I know everyone is broke, including myself, but surely everyone can spare a few loonies (pardon my Canaddian-isms :D). And because fandom proves to be awesome, consider going [livejournal.com profile] help_haiti LJ comm for a fandom-style of donating. I ♥ fandom. =D

Linkage to some very thoughtful posts on the whole Haiti earthquake rhetoric (I haven't finished reading all of it yet, but I'm almoooooooost there):
[personal profile] deepad Charity is not the same as Compassion
unusualmusic Why is American TV coverage of the Haitian Disaster driving me to drink?

Also, the whole Bloomsbury!fail redux, aka more whitewashing covers fail, but I already bitched about it on my book blog so I'll just link and save my rage.

+

DOCUMENTARIES - There's this upcoming one that sounds very fascinating. It's called Rice Field of Dreams and it involves the history of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and Baseball. Here be YT vid:



Reflecting on 2009, I realized that I am slowly starting to watch documentaries on my own time. I used to think they would be boring (... I was a stupid kid, okay?) but then I soon found that really well-made documentaries can really break your heart. Which means I'll never go on a documentary binge unless I wanted my daily dose of rage against injustice or bawl my eyes out, but this doesn't stop me from watching good documentaries when they come recommended or even when I am skimming websites and find a summary of a documentary that sounds interesting. =D

Linking to Full-Length Documentaries I enjoyed (from NFB - Because that site ROCKS):
Unwanted Soldiers
Speakers for the Dead

+

MUSIC

alfjajaldfjadja;s WATCH THIS LADY GAGA MEDLEY:




Sam Tsui ♥

Also, through The Vampire Diaries I hath discovered the epic that is Dead Weather. Here's a MV of their song Hang You Up From the Heavens



+

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. or Sherlock Holmes Broke My Brain. In the Good Way

So yeah, I'll confess. I don't like the books on Sherlock Holmes. They bore me. But my friends convinced me that I had to watch it with them and I considered the very compelling point of having Robert Downey Jr. in it so I went. And it was beautiful. EVERYONE WAS SO PRETTY. I'm all about the plot, you guys Which brought on a tiny RDJ movie marathon wherein I rewatched The Soloist and tried Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with [personal profile] denenkyuu. And I came upon this revelation: if RDJ is in the cast, I lose my facilities to analyze the work properly (until the movie is done, but even then I might take a while to get back to my normal self.) All my brain this is guhhhhhhhhhhhh his voice guhhhhhhhhhh why so fine, and sometimes I hate myself. Surely I'm not the only one afflicted with this problem... y/y? *slinks to background*

+

Moar linkspam:
Israel's treatment of Ethiopians 'racist' Note: BEWARE COMMENTS OF FAIL
African Migrants Rebel Against Racist Attacks
Where are you from... really? For the Canadians on my flist.
ANJELL
So I'm fully aware that I haven't been keeping track of my flist these days. To which all I can say is, Sorry, Sorry~ =D Two things kept me busy 1) Book Blog of Distractions and 2) woooooooooooork. In fact, the only reason why I'm posting is because I'm on sick leave from busting my feet over my job.

Yeah, my feet are swollen and I can't really walk without wincing in pain. It sucks, but there are various perks. Such as having all the time in the world to read my package of Le Pacte des Yokai vol. 4-7 (aka Natsume Yuujinchou) and reading lots and lots of novels. And of course, going through my #1 band love: F.I.R.

After all these years, they FINALLY CAME OUT WITH A NEW ALBUM W000000000T~~~ That's the good news. Bad news? Most of their songs suck. Actually, there's only one good song in that whole album, but I happen to love it a lot. It doesn't make up for the crap album, but if there was a single coming out for it I'd buy it within a heartbeat.

What song is this, you might ask? Hero by F.I.R.

As a little gift to tide over to the New Year's, I uploaded the song for your listening experience. Enjoy~!!!

TV Shows I'm more or less caught up with:
Vampire Diaries (US)- BONNIE IS THE BEST. ALSO, I SHIP DAMON/BONNIE LIKE WOAH. DO NOT JUDGE.
You're Beautiful (KR) - Three words for y'all: WHERE IS MAI SEQUEL!? *__________* Also, Heyi/Minam? Craziest crack couple evar.
Will It Snow For Christmas (KR) - The aaaaaaaaaaaangst
Autumn's Concerto (KR) - The aaaaaaaaaaaangst. And 我愛他 is hopelessly stuck in my head.

LOLWHUT?

Nov. 24th, 2009 10:24 pm
ANJELL
Guys, GUYS.

There's gonna be a korean remake of Dragon Zakura. Yes, the one with Abe Hiroshi and Yamampi, revamped into a korean drama. I don't know whether to be appalled or cheer.

(Am sorry about being behind on flist, will try to answer ppl properly once I get the comp to myself longing than a couple minutes)
ANJELL
Just discovered this vid, and it was really too good to pass up on.




And go here if you want to watch it with crowd reaction.

And here's the quote, because it is epic:

I say its time for us to say enough is enough! Are you with me? Are you with me? Lets send these European immigrants back where they came from! I dont care if they are Polish, Irish, English, Italian, or Norwegian! European immigrants are responsible for the most violent and heinus crimes in the history of the world, including genocide and slavery! Its time to restore the sovereignty of people native to this land! I want more workplace raids, starting with the big banks downtown. There are thousands of illegals working in those buildings, hiding in their offices, and taking Dakota jobs. Let's round them up and ship them out. Then we need to hit them at home where they sleep, I dont care if we separate families, they should have known better when they came here illegally!
ROCK N ROLL
It's [livejournal.com profile] kuro_yuki's fault. Blame her for the infliction of terrible writing on everyone. It's another Past!Shu-Lian one, with dialogue this time. Also longer than last one because [personal profile] denenkyuu complained. >D (Maybe next time I'll introduce the other main character Maria and maybe show one of my scenes of Present!Day happenings. Maybe.)

Excerpt #2 )

Ah, young love. ♥ It's a shame that it all goes to hell from here on out *IS BRICKED* Okay, bring on the hate. *waits*

+

AL;SDKJFLASJ I just went and watched incomplete subbed version of You're Beautiful ep 11. I CAN'T TAKE THIS SUSPENSE GIVE ME THE NEXT EPISODE DAMNIT. Also Jeremy is the sweetest. ♥
Jeremy Doesn't Approve
You know what sucks?

I finally got myself to 1400 words today and I don't even feel happy about doubling the wordcount I achieved from last time (it was 7000~ ish) because all I can think of is "I'M BEHIND I'M SUPPOSED TO REACH 16666 WORDS TODAY"

/end whining

+

I need You're Beautiful ep 11 like burning. *gibbers and bites nails* MY OTPPPPPPPP

Also, I bought A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott and Bride of the Water God Vol. 4 today. Go me. >D
OTP


a;lsdjf;laskjdfdas so I finally caught up with You're Beautiful ep 10. A;LSKDJF;KLASJ WHEN IS THE NEXT EP COMING OUT WEDNESDAY IS TOO LONG IT SHOULD JUST COME OUT TONIGHT [livejournal.com profile] kuro_yuki TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS SHOW A;SLDKJFA;LDSKJF;LASJDFAS;LKJDFADF TAE-KYUNG X MI-NYEO ALL THE WAY DAMNIT.

"Don't go somewhere where I can't see you!!" <- BEST. ROMANTIC. LINE. EVAR. Guh, and the song that followed. MY HEART, IT'S GONNA BURST.
Also, telling someone that it's okay to cry and puke in their car is <333
SKINNY EMO OCD BOYS WITH MOMMA COMPLEX TOPPED WITH EYELINER IS THE HOTTEST THING EVER AND IF YOU WATCHED YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL YOU'D FEEL THE SAME. <3333
Am very sad He Yi took the bitch road, but oh well, I'll looking to see more of her selfish-ness and hopefully she grows up a bit by the end of the series. (She caught my interest the moment she decided the way to react to kindness is to blackmail, lulz. I was like "dude this girl is so messed up what kind of horrible family situation was she brought up under to grow up in such a way?". I know this is not a good reason to be fond of a character and this probably says more about me than anything.)

Also, wasn't JeremyxMi-Nyeo's date the ABSOLUTE CUTEST!?!?!? *squees*
And the best friend Dong Jun was adorable too. <3333
ANJELL
I arrived about 10 minutes before the session was going to start and worried that I wasn't going to get a seat. As I expected, the hall was jam-packed, but I managed to get in, and I was still able to buy tickets at the door, 5 bucks exactly. (YAY SAVED ON EXTRA ONLINE CHARGES. =D) I got an orange X on my right hand, and had the choice between choosing one of the three author's pin-up buttons. At first I was all like "OH NOES CONFLICTED WHY MUST I CHOOSE WHY" but then I figured I only brought Westerfeld's Leviathan to get signed, so I choose his button.[1]

Anyhow, I secured a spot on the far left end of the hall, and fairly close to the front. =D I only brought my cellphone and my book with me, essentially. While waiting, there were these signing books passed around in which we could write fan messages to the author. I was passed Holly Black's book and Cassandra Clare's book, but not Scott Westerfeld's ;_;. Oh well, I signed Holly Black's in a flourish and got to go all !!!VALIANTISTHEBESTTROLLROMANCEFOREVA!!! so. =D

Thennnnnnn the authors got up on stage!! From the cheering I got the feeling the fans were mostly for Clare and Westerfeld, but while Westerfeld had the die-hards Uglies fangirls who knew absolutely Everything There Was To Know About Uglies, Clare got the overalll general bigger fan base that night. (My perception may be skewed, btw) Westerfeld was the first to start, with his slideshow of awesome. We first got to look at the Leviathan trailer and woah, does it look better on projection and wide-screen.[2] Then he launched into a talk about Leviathan which made me all EEE!!! since I heart that book andit'skindoftheonlybookIreadbyhimmumblemumble so yay! The part about the illustrator being Canadian drew its due cheers and the whole presentation was pretty funny. Unfortunately I haz no transcript for y'all because I forgot my voice recorder T_T and the one on my cellphone has shitty sound quality. But some of my favourite parts of that slideshow was the parts where he talked about his arguments with his illustrator about how things should look like, and how the camera ruined the illustration industry forever. There were crack jokes about the madness of fourth books to a trilogy made by all three authors, which got a laugh out of everyone. Also, not quite related to the slideshow, but he kept on name dropping his wife Justine Larbalestier, which I thought was AH-DO-RA-BLE~ because I see Westerfeld get mentioned on Larbalestier's blog quite often, and I was tickled that Westerfeld does the same in person[3]. >D Larbalestier/Westerfeld makes me go OMG BEST YA AUTHOR OTP EVAR!!! AND IT'S CANON!! No of course I do not wish for Larbalestier/Westerfeld RPF, why would anyone think that!![4]

Then, it was Holly Black and Cassandra Clare's turn. I will admit, I did not quite pay attention to much of the Clare stuff because I couldn't get into that City of Bones book[5]. But I will admit I'm intrigued by the upcoming Graphic Novel for the Mortal Instruments. Maybe I might like the story better if I get myself distracted by the pretty images long enough to ignore the High! Drama! that is Jace/Clary. Also apparently the characters in Valiant possibly feature in the second book of that Mortal Instruments series, which is motivation enough for me to finally consider at least skimming through City of Ashes at last. Holly Black didn't get to talk as much about the White Cat book as much as I wished but then I looked up basically a million spoilers online, so it wasn't much of a loss, I suppose. Also, they made references to their villa in Mexico, and Clare name-dropped a certain Sarah in London aka SARAH REES BRENNAN, so I was pleased.[6]

Things I found out about Leviathan @tour
- Just like how there are Christian views about the Darwinists in Leviathan, Islamic views on Darwinists will also be talked about in Behemoth when they get to the Ottoman Empire.
- From here on out it's loose interpretation of WWI and there will probably be divergences, etc.[7]
- The third book will take place in Japan for the first half, and United Sates in the second half.
- Japan is Darwinist, but different creatures from the English versions.
- United States is a mixture of Clankers and Darwinists.
- The fourth book is gonna be full coloured illustrations of everything. !!! HOW EXCITED AM I ABOUT THIS!!! AL;DJKFA;SLDKJFA

After the Q&A[8] there be signings. Of course, as luck would have it, they decided to start with the row on the complete OPPOSITE end of my side. I suppose I deserved it for not lining up for hours in the cold before going in, but WAH ;_; To top it off, I was starving, and some people brought like, a monstrous stack of books by all three authors or something so I was waiting for the longest time. Fortunately I got to skip the line because weirdly enough, not that many people came with books to sign for Westerfeld, so when they asked for someone who wanted a book signed from Westerfeld only I was like "PICK ME PLEASEEEEEE" and I got to go in front. And I got signature! (The message of signature was "Steampunk Rules", btw) And then I basically made a public spectacle of myself for being hyper and excitable, and I'm pretty sure Westerfeld thought I was crazy, but I decided that crazy comes in par with being a fan, so I forgave myself. =D =D =D

+

After I was done, I skipped (yes, literally) outside in the cold from the high of signatures and Leviathan spoilers with the biggest grin on my face and decided to go second-hand book shopping!! I bought Nation by Terry Pratchett, the hardcover for $9.99. BE JEALOUS, PEEPS. Also, I found Holly Black's Tithe and contemplated buying it and rushing back to try and get a sig, but I thought of that monstrously long line of evil and decided against it. Unfortunately I didn't find Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith, which makes me CRY because I saw it the last two times I was there and now that I finally have enough cash to get it, it's not there. T_T I also couldn't go pick up my copy of A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott because the Toronto Women's Bookstore was closed by then, so I'll have to go some other time. Nor could I get my pretty manhwa that is Bride of the Water God Vol. 4 at The Labyrinth because of early closing hours as well. But I figured the button and the signature and the spoilers for Leviathan will make up for everything. Can't have too much goodness in one Friday night, I suppose.

[1]Sorry Holly Black. Also, his button has shiny mechanical wing and yours is... a generic butterfly. ^^; *feels like a bad fan*
[2]I've seen it before, but on those small embedded vids from YT, so it didn't quite make that big of an impression on me.
[3]Seriously, when I got my book signed in person, he even handed me a Liar bookmark. ♥ Which is, btw, an amazing novel and everyone should READ IT NOW.
[4]So when a question was asked about having Westerfeld's babies by whom I'm assuming is a crazy teen girl I was like BUT THE OTP THE OTPPPPPP. *is bricked*
[5]Please don't kill me fangirls.
[6]WHY DIDN'T SARAH REES BRENNAN COME TO TORONTO WHY?!?!?!?! *cries* Also, for those who are SRB fans on flist, I extrapolated that the co-writing between SRB and CC didn't fall through. ^^;
[7]Which is a shame because I spent a large portion of my morning 20th century lecture actually staying awake for nearly the full 2 hours of Ottoman Empire section by wildly imagining how bits of stuff could be altered in this AU!Ottoman Empire. (Not that I find 20th century boring, but it's in french and it's in the morning, so yeahhh)
[8] Which devolved into ~*Lightning Round*~, wherein the authors had to answer questions as fast as possible. Westerfeld was the clear champion. And er, Clare can't do Lightning Round, lulz. (It was pretty funny actually. She'd get all stuck and tongue-tied and then Westerfeld would be like COME ON SPEAK FASTER, and Clare is like WOE)
SMILE OF LOVE
U GAIZ, SCOTT WESTERFELD IS AT THE T.O. TODAY AT 7 PM. Gawd I wanna go. But I'm cheap and thinking of the 5 dollars entrance fee makes me all sadface I still have time to make my decision. We'll see. xD ETA: *is gonna see scott westerfeld* SIKES

NANOWRIMO UPDATE:


10013 / 50000 words. 20% done!

It warms my soul to see that 20% there. ♥

I discovered that on a good day I can get 1666 words down in roughly 1 1/2-2 hours in one sitting. However, when I'm stuck, in 2 hours I probably won't even make 700. And I'm going through the stuck bits right now... It also doesn't help that I suddenly discovered a very cool ~*subplot*~ for my magicking model girl, but that requires me to think up of her antithesis character and rewrite this new character into everything. ARGH THE THINGS I DO TO MYSELF. ;___;

Also, Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier are offering NaNo tips for every day of this month, and I thought I'd share my favourite tips from time.

The Zen of First (Zero) Drafts - Every time I start thinking about how terrible the writing is, I tell myself, IT'S A ZERO DRAFT, IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE GOOD, I JUST NEED TO GET THE STORY DOWN. Very cheering.
Write Your Way out - It makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time when I decide to go back and rewrite a couple scenes from different POVs or switch from 1st to 3rd person, etc. And it makes me feel less guilty for keeping all these versions in the same word document and counting it as part of the word count anyways *IS BRICKED*
Word Count Is Not Everything - Sometimes I miss word count like yesterday and I have to remind myself that this is not the end of the world. ^^;;
Dialog Spine - Actually this doesn't really work for me since my dialogue happens to suck very very much, but it is a very interesting writing exercise for those who are good at that stuff. =D
WTF
So, in a fit of masochism, this weekend I browsed through the library to check out those YA supernatural high school romance things.

...

How much did I regret this decision, one might ask? I DON'T EVEN HAVE WORDS, YOU GUYS.

Actually, no, I *do* have words, because I'm gonna torture everyone on my flist by ranting about the crap I came across this weekend. IF I HAVE SUFFERED, EVERYONE IS GOING DOWN WITH ME, DAMNIT.

+

The first book I will be talking about is called Need by Carrie Jones. Now, you may go, I must have been tipped off by its general awfulness by the title alone. (Gawd those stupid one-word titles. On rare exceptions they work but MOST of the time I feel like they're just random emo words that the authors found while cruising around their dictionary.) Or, you know, by the cover of Exposed Neck + Cut Up Faces of Woman. And, just so you know, THIS ISN'T EVEN A VAMPIRE ROMANCE, YOU GUYS. IT'S FRIGGIN PIXIES. PIXIES!! Last time I checked pixies don't suck the blood of human girls from their necks so WHY THIS EXPOSED NECK SYNDROME WHY. *stabs*

But, like I said, I was being masochistic and forged on anyways. "I should stop being so judgmental!" I told myself, "You keep dismissing books based on ugly covers or titles or by the very genre it's in, and that's not very fair to the book, is it?"

'Sides, I will admit, I was kinda drawn to the whole pixie thing, ‘cause I keep imagining like, a Tinkerbell sized guy with some human girl and was like HOW WILL IT ALL WORK OUT!? *is bricked*

Now, the writing isn’t, er, exactly of quality, but I didn’t allow that to bother me at the beginning. I decided to be open-minded and ignore all the clichés and focus on the bits that were interesting. Like the fact our protagonist thinks of everything in terms of phobias. And that she is very passionate about ~*worldly issues*~ and Amnesty International. Activist teenagers are rare to find in YA fiction. (That being said, I wasn’t too fond of the whole “Oh those poor suffering people in third world countries let me wax pity all over this when really I’m just making this all about myself,” speech, but like I said, I wasn’t having high expectations of this novel.) Also, she like, makes friends with people when she moves to the new school, and doesn’t blow them off for The Guy. * The romance was gag worthy and cheese encrusted with some of the worst lines ever, but I thought I could get over it. Nothing could be worse than a sparkly meadow scene, I told myself. Surely no matter how low this goes, it can’t be as bad as that.

Well, guess what? This novel? PROVED ME WRONG.

Quote under cut because I’m not that mean as to have it uncut.

IN WHICH THEIR LOVE IS SO DEEP THAT THE ELECTRIC SHOCK THEY GET WHEN THEY TOUCH *SHUTS THE BUILDING DOWN* )

WELCOME TO NEED, LAND OF INDUCED POWER FAILURES THROUGH THE POWER OF HORMONAL TEENS’ PASSIONATE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER BY THE WAY OF HAND BRUSHING.

*kills self*

I – I just, I couldn’t read anymore. My brain gave up it. It lost too many brain cells and shut down. *clings and whimpers* I tried, I really tried to be good and non-judgemental. I EVEN GOT HALFWAY THROUGH THE BOOK.

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I could keep talking about the awfulness of this Need novel, (AND BELIEVE ME, THERE IS LOTS I LEFT OUT) but I decided that I should stop for everyone’s sanity and proceed to my next book, a novel in which I couldn’t even get past the 2nd chapter.

It’s called Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors, and I don’t think I ever hated a protagonist so much in my entire life. ETA cut rant because I didn't realize how long this post was until just now. ^^;

Oh Protagonist, how much do I hate thee? Let me count the ways )

By the end of the second chapter, I absolutely hated this girl. I had to stop. I mean, I could have continued if this girl didn’t rub me in all the wrong places, because I can and have liked many books in which I don’t approve of the main character’s actions but find them fascinating/charismatic/interesting enough to keep going. But there was NOTHING interesting about this girl. She has NO GOALS, lets people call her names without fighting back, and just EVERYTHING. Even the title is just about as generic and boring as the heroine. (Also? Our angel guy at the background of the cover looks like a creeper serial rapist) I could not continue for the life of me.

+

So yeah, as an apology for inflicting my talk of terrible books at y’all, I’d like to recommend some supernatural folk/human romance I actually liked. You know, because I oughta balance out the hate with some love, right? =D

Recommendations:
Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
Valiant by Holly Black
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

Also, I haz book blog. It’s called GAL Novelty and I will be posting reviews of novels I’ve read over there. But don’t worry, I’ll save my book bashing ways for DW/LJ.

* Actually her friends are the best part about this novel. I LOVE THE ISSIE/DEVYN ROMANCE. GAH SO CUTE. And a guy in a wheelchair is portrayed as desirable and a real love interest. I know, I thought the day would never come too. But yeah, unfortunately their side romance isn’t enough to get me through this novel.
ANJELL

3429 / 50000 words. 7% done!

So far, sticking to the wordcount. Though I was definitely pulling teeth trying to force words today...

Things I've learned through NaNoWriMo:
- I suck at doing guy's POV. Okay, I knew this before, but NaNoWriMo just rammed this fact home
- But my guy POVs stop sucking on a comparative level once I get to talk about their crushes on whoever. Er, yay romance? o.o
- Writing POVs of aloof model-esque girls with sekrit magical powers is much easier than writing POVs of girls who are moody and cowardly and artistic and completely non-magical. Who knew? =D
- When stuck on the plot, take the time to do long ridiculous flashbacks to the character's past!! The angstier the better.
- I suck at trying to write on the bus, for I get all distracted by shiny things like passenger's weird convos and stuff.
- When wishing to procrastinate on school assignments, NaNoWriMo is the Best Excuse Evar.

Also, [personal profile] denenkyuu shamed me into showing an excerpt. Damn her. Why yes, out of the 3000+, barely 100 words of it is actually somewhat readable. I'm trying not to think about the implications this is making about my writing abilities

Behold, an excerpt )

Feel free to insult the horrid writing. Go on, I've armoured myself with steel so that the words can't hurt me. >D

Also, linking to [personal profile] denenkyuu's excerpt, because that's only fair.

So, to the NaNoWriMo-ers on my flist: how's the NaNoWriMo thing going? =D
ANJELL
I streamed this week's ep of Vampire Diaries, and for the first time so far in the show, I feel let down.

Vampire Diaries 1x07: The Bad )

Okay, but despite all this there were things that I really enjoy about this episode.

Vampire Diaries 1x07: The Good )

Also, just to put it out there and make it official, I'm on Team TV!Elena here. She's sweet and rational and no-nonsense and stubborn and isn't horribly arrogant and terrible like Book!Elena. In fact, it's mostly because of Book!Elena that I can never read the Vampire Diaries books. She just rubs me the wrong way. GO TV!ELENA. (And she's SO NOT ANOTHER BELLA. This girl's got a fucking spine and doesn't think Stefan is her one and eternal love and the best thing ever after just meeting him for a day. See, I hate Tw*light, and this comparison bugs the hell out of me, for all sorts of fannish reasons but the bottom line is that IT'S JUST NOT TRUE. *stabs*)

*coughs* Yeah... I want Vicki fic nao. @.@

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One thing I'm gonna say about this week's episode of Flashforward un-cut before I dive into spoilers: I ACTUALLY DIDN'T SKIP THE BENFORD SCENES THIS TIME. Shocking, I know.

Also, JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHN CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. ♥ (this is a weekly requirement.)

FlashForward 1x06 Spoilery talk )

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So in this week's episodes of American TV I've learned to like characters I didn't care for before! Who'd have thought? =D
ROCK N ROLL
So obviously blogging is my ultimate way to procrastinate 12 hours before my essay is due OMFG or something.

I'm gonna do this deranged thing and try to follow not one, but TWO kdramas this season. Which is ridiculous since one episode is about the equivalent to the length of an indie feature film, and kdramas air not one, but TWO episodes in a week. Which would mean that I'd be watching about FIVE HOURS OF JUST KDRAMA every week, give or take. With my american and taiwanese shows and the upcoming jdramas (one of which I already know I'll be following: LIAR GAME 2) I'll be watching, I shouldn't have ANY TIME AT ALL FOR TWO KDRAMAS. I suppose this is when Ultimate!Procrastination self comes in and "makes time". SLEEP, WHO NEEDS SLEEP

What drama may have invoked such feelings of awe and devotion that I would dedicate 5 hours every week for the rest of my fall life to kdramas? It's name is IRIS, and it's more badass than you.

I was first lured by [livejournal.com profile] darkeyedwolf's picspam of D00M because I'm all about the sophisticated plot of army men being soaked and cut up and in the rain. I'm shallow to the core, baby. Also, Lee Byung Hoon is the finest man in existence. ♥ Also, there's T.O.P. as an assassin. ♥

So, waylaid by plot and men, I wandered into IRIS and was blown away. It's like, ACTUALLY OF QUALITY AKA GOOD. The visuals are stunning, and not just for the guys (though they help, obviously), and while the plot ain't going into ground breaking places, it is solid and veryyyyyy action-packed and well-paced. There's never a single dull moment. Did I mention how good this show looked? When I first heard of the 20 million dollars (US!!) being spent on this, I thought it was the biggest waste of money, but I'd like to take it all back. Seriously, this show is so visually spectacular, I resolved to actually dl the episodes as oppose to stream. Those explosions/car chases/action scenes are worth it. Seeing Lee Byung Hoon's smokin' bod non-pixelated may have affected this decision as well.

Also, they used their marvelous budget to actually hire ppl who can ACTUALLY SPEAK THE LANGUAGE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SPEAKING WITH NOT-EXCRUCIATINGLY-TERRIBLE ACCENTS aka the Mandarin in ep. 3. This just washes away all my awful scarred memories of Cain & Abel. I mean, I love So Ji Sub, but even I couldn't suffer through that. And T.O.P.'s English is great. It helps that he has this sexy low voice that sends shivers down my spine. *IS KILLED* And I'm willing to put down money that it's probably the same for the other languages like Japanese/Hungarian/North Korean that have been spoken so far. (Well, they SOUND right, anyhow. Not that I can speak those languages, so perhaps I shall be proven wrong.)

And did I mention how much I LOVE THE COUPLE?! Guh, flirting over history facts, I was sold from that very first scene at that lecture hall. Also, their chemistry is sizzling and they're just so ridiculously fluffy and cute together. They give us all those happy couple scenes so that the director can bring it all down to hell later on and break our hearts. For, this is kdrama-land and there are rules that must be obeyed.

Anyhow, WATCH IRIS WITH ME. It's got the visuals, the plot, beautiful people being beautiful and shirtless and occasionally cut up or soaked in rain, gun violence, secret agencies, assassins, and romance hot enough to set your tv set on fire. WAAAAAAAAAAAATCH IIIIIIIIIIIIT~~~

... *goes off to do essay. for real this time*
ANJELL
Oh gawd, I shouldn't be doing this but I NEED TO TALK ABOUT YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL OR COMBUST.

Okay, so by the end of Ep 6, I am officially in love with Tae Kyung. (How do I know this? I keep stealing screencaps for this show, and I just checked my amount of Tae Kyung pics once ep. 6 was done. I HAVE OVER 100 SCREENCAPS OF HIM, U GAIZ. *DIES X1000000* AND I PUT HIM AS MY DESKTOP BACKGROUND FOR A WALLPAPER. *is besotted like woah*) MOVE ASIDE, SHIN WOO AND JEREMY, MY MAN OF A MILLION FACIAL EXPRESSIONS THAT STEAL MY HEART IS COMING THROUGH. ♥ Man, I don't even know what's wrong with me. I DON'T EVER LIKE SKINNY EMO BOYS WITH EYELINER EVER. If I have to be honest, guys who look like Shin Woo are more of my thing. But then Tae Kyung came along and corrected the error of my ways. I see the light now. ♥ ♥

Before, I said that You're Beautiful is like Coffee Prince on crack. I'd like to take that back. It's more of Coffee Prince meets Nodame Cantabile and shoved in a sparkly boyband. <3 Tae Kyung so reminds me of an emo version of Chiaki, with his face of OMG-SHE'S-CRAZY-I-SHOULD-STAY-AWAY-BUT-I-KEEP-COMING-BACK-FOR-MORE-WHY. And Mi Nyeo is so Nodame-like. Dense and smiley and childish and crazy, with her musical talent as her only saving grace. Only, you know, way stupider. *pats her fondly*

I'm actually shocked that I like Mi Nyeo so much, since, you know, I tend to hate these dense lead girls with a passion. But she's sweet, and soooooo unintentionally funny, and like, you know, a puppy. You can't get angry at her even when she tends to do such stupid, exasperating things. And say all you want about Mi Nyeo, but she's good-hearted and always does her best to keep her word even though sometimes she doesn't exactly know what it is that she's promising to do. I like that. ♥

And JEREMY. Oh, Jeremy Jeremy Jeremy. I mean, I love F.T. Island so my opinion of him may be coloured by my bias, but his facial expressions every time he gets all scandalized over Mi Nyeo KILLS ME DEAD. ♥ And how he keeps clinging onto Jolie and being all "I LIKE GIRLS, GIRLS OKAY!?!?!? MI NAM CONFUZZLES ME PLEASE STAY AWAY" Even his awful, awful shirts look endearing to me. *HUGGLES*

This is so gonna be an unpopular opinion, but I don't particularly care for Shin Woo. *dies* It's sad, since he plays the Nice Guy, and I usually like Nice Guys, and adding the fact that the actor is kinda really hot and totally my type, I should be all over Team Shin Woo. But watching this show, I realized that while I may like the sweet nice guy, I don't care of guys-who-pine-away-secretly-for-some-girl-and-the-show-constantly-giving-us-a-close-up-of-his-tortured-face-of-unrequited-love. I mean, I don't even understand why he likes Mi Nyeo in the first place. He finds out she's a girl and then suddenly feels the urge to Be the Man and Protect Her or something?! I don't get it. And I don't get how those feelings spiral into love. Yes, yes, the whole how he keeps spilling out secrets thing does imply that he trusts her and cares for her and whatnot, but I just, I don't see the chemistry. At all. Also, if they were to ever end up together the balance would be so off. Shin Woo is way too mature and sensitive good guy to Mi Nyeo's crazy, childish disposition. Can you imagine their relationship? It'd just be Shin Woo constantly pampering and spoiling Mi Nyeo, a one-way relationship. And those kind of relationships can't possibly work out well, imo. =/

Another minority/unpopular opinion: u gaiz, I actually like our National Fake Fairy, aka He Yi. Yes, she's totally spoiled, and a fake and always wants her way, but her flustered face and her habit of tearing at her hair makes me laugh. =D And I keep seeing her as this awkward girl who doesn't know what to do when people are being nice, and deals with it by acting out and demanding more. What can I say? I have a history of having selfish characters as my top favourite characters in the series. ^^; I'm looking forward to see her grow as the series goes on and be happy. (Unless of course, the show decides to just make her the Irredeemable Evilllll Bitch Female Character, in which case I'll have to go to my corner of sadness and cry)

and now, I think I will save my post of FAVOURITE YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS and/or WHY TAE KYUUNG X MI NYEO IS THE SHIP OF MY HEART for some other time
pic#245649
And here be my promised book post!

So, there was these two sets of books my Latin American history professor wanted us to go through to help us find our thesis for our Research Paper. He told us that there are copies of them in our library and it isn't a requirement for us to buy it. Confident that it'd be in the library, I figured I'd just borrow it the weekend before the abstract is due, browse through it and BS my thesis without having to spend money on it. Then, this Wednesday, I was talking to this guy in my class and found out that when he said 'copies', he was lisping and adding the extra s sound to that word because there is only ONE SINGULAR COPY of the two books and it's on a 1 day reserve and I realized that I'd have to actually buy a copy if I want get my thesis ready in time. So I forked over the cash and bought one of the two sets he wanted us to read (the other copy was sold out), figuring I can just return it after I'm done looking for my thesis and get my money back, grumbling and whining as I'm wont to do all the while.

I read it. It was amazing and I'm keeping it and I'm sorry for complaining about reading this amazing compilation, a heartbreaking recount of Latin American history. (Also, I should start taking my prof's random book recommendations he inserts every 5 minutes during the lecture more seriously. Clearly, he knows where the good latin american history books are at.)

The book's called Memory of Fire: Century of the Wind by Eduardo Galeano and everyone should read it even if you don't care for Latin American history. The prose is fluid and highly readable, and oh, it breaks my heart and it's beautiful beyond words. This is the 3rd book of the MiF trilogy and it covers 20th century Latin America. Each entry is a excerpt of an event through the century, and there are terrible atrocities, absurd events, and a tiny spark of hope, in the people who defied the insanity of the times, in the future they dream of. Highly, highly recommended. ♥ ♥ Sometime this weekend I will be taking a trip to the bookstore to buy the rest of the trilogy. ♥

++

In YA fictionland, I received my copy of Marina Budhos' Ask Me No Questions this week (for less than 3 bucks! Be jealous. =D). It's an amazing book set post-9/11, and about a teenage Bangladeshi girl's experience dealing with her life now that her dad is being held under arrest for being an illegal immigrant and deportation lurking around the corner. I'd write a review full of CAPSLOCK OF LOVE AND SQUEE but thankfully Muslimah Media Watch wrote up a brilliant review of this amazing novel so that I won't have to shame myself in public places!! So instead I'm gonna quote a bit of the novel:

My family lived in a part of the world where there was no difference between land and sea. The water rose, and you went with it, like the reeds that leaned and bent outside. And after the rainy season was over once more, the land returned. There was no borders. There was only this way of living, back and forth between ground and water, year after year. (20)


Budhos writes like a dream. It's a beautiful piece of work, amazing writing, a story with hope while everything you knew is slowly spiralling down around you. !! And the book passes the Bechel test with flying colours. =D The only thing I might have wanted more of was stronger character development with Nadira and her sister's friends. But that's just a minor quibble. READ IT, READ IT, READ IT. It's like, less than 200 pages, so it'll be a fast read for those who claim they don't have time, and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

On covers, I wish I got a copy of AMNQ that had the full face cover. I got the one with the cut up face surrounded by black borders, and I'm SO SICK OF CUT UP FACES COVERS. *debates buying a copy of this book with the other cover*

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So, I read Justina Chen Headley's Girl Overboard a while back and enjoyed it immensely. So when I found her first novel, Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies) in the library, I snatched it off the shelves and finally got around to finishing it yesterday.

The story, btw, is about a hapa girl called Patty Ho who gets shipped off against her will to Stanton's summer math camp when her mom finds out from her fortune teller that her daughter's gonna marry a *gasp* white boy!! And in math camp, Patty finds herself, and crazy adventures like buildering happens, and there be hot asian boys&girls and sekrit family past reveals, sprinkled with math nerdiness all the way through. /end mai crappy summaries.

I love Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies)! I may actually love it more than Girl Overboard, which I actually didn't think was possible. I love how Headley doesn't just tell us Patty is a math nerd (in denial). Instead, everything Patty does, says, and think is framed around math concepts. I particularly enjoy reading her Truth Theorems. (So much better than those constant list thingss that permeate YA fiction these days.) Also I'm tickled that Patty's family speaks Taiwanese, and I smiled ruefully at the bit about Chinese school (flashback to my chinese class days, much? lol). I love every single one of the cast, and the story was delightfully funny and sweet and girls being beautiful AND smart AND kick-ass (Jasmine's my favourite ♥) and *flails*. I love this story, it made me laugh and smile and full of happiness and READ IT WITH ME, PPL. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT PATTY AND HER BOY LURING WAYS THROUGH MATH. ♥

Spoilers for NBTT )

And now, I'm seriously considering buying Headley's newest book North of Beautiful in hardback as oppose to waiting for the soft cover. Hmm, we'll see...

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So there are my book recs. =D Anyone have books they'd like to rec to me back? =D

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ANJELL
wingstodust

February 2010

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