HAPPY GENERIC NON-RELIGIOUS WINTER HOLIDAY. Here is what I gave my siblings this year.

• Garfield Minus Garfield
• Astro Boy (the 2003 version because I couldn't get the original, pffff.)
• Batman: The Animated Series (Set 1)
• Saint Tail (a random box set)
• The Guinness Book of World Records 2002
• Some Eyeshield 21 volumes
• Shoes
• Terrifying Littlest Pet Shop sets

 I AM THE QUEEN OF ALL BIG SISTERS

But then everyone was like "hey man, I know your only hobby is cartoons but did you seriously just buy comics and box sets for everyone in your family?" As if cartoons aren't the perfect gift for everyone in all walks of life. Poppycock, I say.

Here is my Quimmice-Present Buying Routine:

ME: I have the GREATEST idea for a present for this person!!! I am awesome!
ME: BUT WAIT what if it's a lame idea?
ME: What if they don't like it?
ME: OH CRAP THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA I'll just get them something else.

That said, I still haven't been able to find everything I was going to get for people, OH SNAP. QUIMMICE IS RUINED.

I just finished watching all of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which turned out to be a whole lot of fun and really engaging. I also finished my second real Neil Gaiman novel, Neverwhere, this morning. I enjoyed it a lot. And now I'm starting to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which is improving, and I've started renting Aura Battler Dunbine (yes, THAT Aura Battler Dunbine) and after seeing the first volume I'm getting the feeling that it's going to be a fun ride.

It's so nice to be done with school and have time to do this stuff.

I've hit that weird time where all my friends from school have left town for vacation and all my friends from other schools still haven't come back yet. I AM SO LONELY. And and and I'm worried they don't like me anymore bawwwww.

I swear I had something really important to post about here-- OH. FROG IS OUT TODAY.

EEEEEEEK.

I've been religiously avoiding spoilers ever since it sorta-got-released a while ago, and now I'm going to have to avoid them even HARDER until I get the chance to see it. I AM SO EXCITED AAHHHH

I JUST BIT MY LIP

BUT STILL I CAN'T WAIT YAYYY

I'm going to be brave and hold out until I can go see it with my homeboys. Even though I'm going to be walking right by the cinema downtown on my way from the library to the aquarium tomorrow. So close and yet so far.

And then the entry abruptly ended!

I have fun reading TVTropes (when I have the time to waste hours and hours there, anyway), but I'm starting to get the idea that all the editors are constantly twitterpated or something. They overreact to everything.

For example, behold the page Getting Crap Past The Radar in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where they just can't BELIEVE that those rascally writers were able to get something as suggestive and adult as... a drill used in open warfare past the censors! They've either got a really messed up idea of how rigid cartoon censors are, are super oversensitive, or are reading way too much into absolutely everything. Or all three. Probably all three.

Here are my favorite entries of things that we just can't believe were allowed to be shown on daytime television!

"In "The Cave of Two Lovers" the gang meets a group of nomads. Their behavior is basically that of a stereotypical hippie, bags under the eyes and all." Apparently hippies aren't allowed in cartoons anymore. Shaggy, you may be excused.

"In the pilot, Sokka is trying to give a speech to the boys of his village. They all say they have to go to the bathroom, and run off. The scene cuts to Aang coming out of a structure saying "Everything freezes in there!" So Yeah." OH MY GOSH GUYS A TOILET JOKE IN A CARTOON
DID YOU HEAR THAT? A TOILET JOKE... IN A CARTOON
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS AND GROUND-BREAKING WHY HAVEN'T THESE PEOPLE BEEN AWARDED A NOBEL PRIZE YET
WHY HAS NOBODY THOUGHT TO MAKE TOILET JOKES IN CARTOONS BEFORE

"Somewhat surprising that the G Rated Sex dance in "The Headband" hasn't been mentioned yet. Starts out slow and measured... and winds up with Katara and Aang panting and sweating profusely." Censors are required by the Code to remove all scenes involving physical activity since it reminds people of sex. Okay.

I'm getting flashbacks of those people who go "SAILOR MOON IS NOT A KIDDIE CARTOON IT IS FOR ADULTS, SEE LOOK HOW DARK AND EDGY IT IS". But that's sort of overlooking the fact that it is SO for kids, and it's not like kids' cartoons can't have any death or peril or teenagers going on dates oh my gosh in them.

blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

Well, I don't use it for Beanie Babies and Petz 3 anymore. :I

Come Monday, I'll be done for the year! I'm excited, because wheeee Christmas + friends coming back into town + Frog. The in-law is coming for Christmas though, which is a bummer. I might end up taking a small road trip.

And oh my, I don't think I like Socrates very much.

Hi LJ

I keep thinking that this looks like this. I think it's the 'brows and the 'burns.

sha ba la boo

I HAVE RECEIVED AN OMINOUS DREAM

I dreamed the sequel to Daisy Miller by Henry James where Mr. Winterbourne resurrects Daisy as a killer cyborg zombie and goes around using her as a cybernetic weapon to kill off all of Daisy's exes in super gruesome ways. And then Mrs. Walker, disgruntled by the demise of all these random people, decides that she has to TAKE THEM DOWN. YES MY DREAMS ARE ALWAYS THIS AWESOME.


Also AAAAAAAAAAHHHH the DVD for Up is out and I haven't bought it yet because I'm poor and Christmas is coming, but now I keep seeing Up screenshots all over the internet and just looking at them makes me all sniffly and woobly all over again. Dang it Pixar.

I haven't worked on my Henry James paper at all today aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I sure am glad that The Frog Princess is coming out, because it feels like all of the animated movies that've been released this year have been ones that I've been predisposed to hate before even seeing them (Astro Boy and The Fantastic Mr. Fox especially.)

I AM TOTALLY LONELY.

This week's exciting adventure!!: Tomorrow at Classics Club, I need to give a public service announcement to the club members about... basically, not being stupid and keeping things civil. A couple weeks ago we gained a member who is always eager to participate in discussions and stuff. This is awesome. He's also a prick, dominates all discussions and doesn't like to hear opposing opinions. Not so awesome. He's basically managed to personally offend everyone in the club and lately people have stopped coming in order to avoid him. Obviously something has to be done.

Which is why tomorrow I'm going to get up in front of everyone and tell them to keep it cool and think about what they say before they say it and not interrupt people &c. It will be not very fun (since I am usually a completely useless president and am just in charge of bringing snacks) but it really needs to happen.

Oh and WHO WANTS TO DONATE FOOD TO ABUSED ANIMALS JUST BY CLICKING A PURPLE BUTTON? YOU KNOW YOU DO.

Dear Lee from Sam Shepard's True West,

I hate you. I hate you and I refuse to go into American Lit tomorrow and talk to my professor about what a ~*~tragic artist figure~*~ you are and how you are simply too special and beautiful for 1980s American middle-class society because you are just such a goshdang free spirit who cannot be tied down by mundane capitalist norms. I bet you think you're so cute, Lee, just because you live in the desert and get all touchy-feely with nature. Just because you're in a  modernist play doesn't mean you have to moon around like a kid from RENT and whine about your lack of job all the time, jackass.

You know what you are, Lee from True West? You're not special. You're just a passive-aggressive douche. You think I'm afraid of your self-righteous thuggitude? Sorry, Lee. Not a chance, Lee. Sharing money with your hobo dad doesn't suddenly make everyone sympathize with you and declare you Best Fictional Character of the Year. No, Lee, it just makes you look insufferable and hypocritically holier-than-thou. And that is not inspirational or moving on a deep level, Lee.

I can't believe you didn't die in the end.

NO LOVE,
Me

Greek Test may or may not have gone swimmingly. Time will tell.

MEANWHILE, Classics Club was given a bunch of preview-pamphlets for a book coming out that's based on the Iliad. It's called THE RAGE OF ACHILLES. It's super bloody and full of sex and strong language, which isn't that out-there if you're adapting the Iliad, but the way it's presented is kind of so over-the-top it's goofy. And it's written as the most dead serious thing ever. It's rather uncomfortable. Not to mention it looks like in the long run it's just going to be the Iliad in prose with more naughty words in it. That doesn't sound like a waste of time at all!

Anyway, at club I started wondering about whether it would be better if it were adapted as a black comedy rather than a mystical melodrama, which somehow or another got me to thinking about what it would be like if it were written by the guy who wrote Baccano!, upon which I concluded that I'd really like to see that. I don't really have any idea what it would be like, but the idea of an Achilles who is very much like a primordial Ladd Russo amuses my guts off.

SO YEAH I don't know, I just felt like rambling about that.

I HAVE A TEST ON FRIDAY

IT'S ABOUT THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

I WILL TANK THIS TEST AND THEN GO SING ON EVERY MOUNTAINTOOOPPP

Apparently, media is consolidating these days and one day, all art forms will have been honed and refined to fit within the character limit of a Twitter entry. In preparation for this new golden age of creativity, I have started practicing my 140-character novel. Here it is.


Greg Story

Once upon a time there was Greg, and he didn't love his girlfriend. They went to see Where the Wild Things Are together.

The End.



I can feel the Pulitzer Prize in my hands already.

I've been feeling way better in the last part of this week than in the first. All the stuff that's been bugging me I've been able to work out and now I'm A-OK.

Me: 1, World: 0. HA HA, TAKE THAT.

I've even had some time for writing lately! I'm so in love with the thing I'm writing right now, probably because I've mostly gotten over all the retarded self-esteem issues I had about my abilities and stuff. (I still feel kind of shy and bllehhhhhhh when I think about showing it to people- and I promised ethelflaed she had first dibs on ripping it apart, but I'm going to TOUGH IT OUT and then I will get it published and HIT IN AMERICA and by then I'll have like super long hair and wear sandals all the time and buy cooler glasses so I'll be like. Awesome AND gorgeous. Then I'll win OVER 9000 Pulitzer Prizes and get interviewed on Oprah and stuff. End THUCYDIDES HUEG PARENTHETICAL STATEMENT) But I've been just planning the plot and characters for about half a year now and I still feel like it's only a half-formed fetus creature. WHEN WILL IT BE PERFECT :(

By the way, my Greex teacher told me off in class for pronouncing Alcibiades funny. BAWWWWWWWWWW BUT THE WAY YOU SAY IT SOUNDS LOSERY, TEACHER.

And I HAVE MONEYS FROM MY BIRTHDAY THAT I CAN SPEND. Should I buy the last two volumes of Diebuster or the parts of ROD (The TV Show) that I don't have? OR SOMETHING COMPLETELY RANDOM AND OFF THE WALL THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CARTOONS AT ALL?

I am such a pathetic little booger of self-pity right now. I feel AWFUL. And the worst part is that all this griping and soul-searching and regret isn't even helping since I've already come to all the conclusions I can draw from this. If I'm going to be whiny and emo at least let me have an awesome uplifting epiphany gosh.

I'm also going to pretend that this funk is actually all about the stuff that happened today and has nothing to do with the fact that I've been up past midnight for the last three days, am on my period and haven't eaten anything all day. NO THERE IS NO WAY THAT MY DEEP AND TORTURED EMOTIONAL STATE HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH BIOLOGICAL FACTORS. AT ALL. ~*~ACKNOWLEDGE MY SUFFERING~*~*~*~*~*~

uughhh I'm going to go eat something nice.

DEAR ANIME NEWS NETWORK FORUM POSTER GUY:

Can you go one post without mentioning your stupid Evangelion panel at Anime Boston that had OMG OVER 200 PEOPLE there WHO WERE ALL NOOBS and who WERE ALL BLOWN AWAY AND SENT INTO A STATE OF RAPTURE OVER YOUR FANDOM-EVANGELIZING RHETORIC?

Not to mention that said AMAZING PANEL appears to be you declaring that such-and-such character has such-and-such mental disorder which cheeses me off to begin with! Not to mention I have a really hard time believing that so many people would get ~*~CONVERTED TO THE FAITH~*~ because some dude tells them the main character has Associative Personality Disorder or some such poppycock.

Love, I THINK EVERYTHING YOU SAY IS BALDERDASH AND YOU REMIND ME WHY I WAS INCLINED TO HATE EVA BASED ON ITS FANDOM
Me


PS: I hate it when people ascribe random mental and psychological illnesses to characters because I feel that cheapens them. I think they're fascinating, wonderful characters because their little emotional fudgeups and the struggles they face with themselves and others are the sort of thing that everyone feels and everyone goes through. Going all Freud on them just distances them from the viewer and I think that's pussyfooted and retarded. HA.

Woah guys

I CAN DO THIS. I THINK I'M REALLY GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS THING.

(Big A, Little A! What begins with A? Apollo, Agamemnon, Achilles, Achaeans! A, A, A!)

edit: ASCLEPIUS STARTS WITH A, TOO and I am tired now. BEGONE FROM MY SIGHT, PAPER.