oh, the dreadful wind and rain
Feb. 23rd, 2011 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
langwidereWheeeeee~!! There was snow and rain and wind last week and it killed my power/phone/internets/will to live for three days, and then upon finally being able to boot my somewhat elderly computer I discovered that my external HD was having digital seizures (it would randomly load and then disappear and then become unwritable or unreadable, etc.), so I spent four fun-filled days panicking/backing up files/buying and installing a new drive/auuugh. Naturally all my shit did not fit on my somewhat elderly computer’s hard disk at once, so I had to do it in batches and wait for my dying external drive to gradually cycle through its various stations of the electronic cross before I could get everything off it. Haha, fun.
Anyway, so, how have you been doing? Good? Okay.
I have nothing for you, go away.
No, no, I’m just kidding. I have… some links!
1. First they came for the lolis… Tokyo cracks down on certain kinds of comic-book porn. Because, obviously, they’ve solved all their other problems and can now move on to stopping the exploitation of drawings. On the one hand, I have to stand and applaud anything that delegitimizes the practice of sexualizing (and in some cases actually abusing? those 'junior idol’ DVDs sound repulsive!) actual human kids for the sake of moe-loving barfmonsters — but I am a little afraid of the "dude who went to jail for importing loli phonebooks" thing. I mean, 93% of shoujo and BL deals with "underage" characters having sex. Do I need to go burn my copy of Elektel Delusion? What about my January 2011 edition of Vogue Paris? Or, um, what about my downloads of Glee? And Friday Night Lights, if that wasn’t an unwatchably awful show?
2. 10 Historical 'Facts' Only a Right-Winger Could Believe. Looks like what it is. Edroso. Funny.
3. This article describing new discoveries in the highly-speculative field of Let’s Pretend It’s Dungeons & Dragons Archaeology contains the following sentence: "Gough's Cave is situated in the Cheddar Gorge, a deep limestone canyon on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills." Sold!
4. In case you were inadequately revolted by the last post I made re: female eating habits, here’s one from the New York Times that could actually make you punch a kitten. Actual Quote: “On our first date, I was like, ‘Hey, why’d you stop being a vegan?’ And she was like, ‘What kind of guy’s going to date a vegan?’ And I was like, ‘You’re awesome.’ ” HAHA.
5. Edward Scissorhands turns 20! I know Johnny Depp is a major dickface, but this movie affected my life in the way that religion often affects the lives of stupid people. Also some of these works of art are stunning.
6. Do women hate science? Or does science hate women? Or is it that the crudely misogynistic model of higher education we imported from England in the 19th century and have yet to alter in any meaningful way exclusively favors people who choose not to have lives outside their discipline, thus eliminating contributions from women who wish to bear and raise children? Hmmmm, that’s a beard-scratcher.
7. Force your edition of Internet Explorer to render CSS3!
8. How they managed to restrain themselves from bringing up oxytocin, I’ll never know. Also: This article is insane. This is like, Sociology 102. I am embarrassed for them. The view of early human relationships they present here is laughably absurd. And I would laugh, too, except I’m busy eating a stick of butter so men will like me.
9. Why austerity never works. Again. This time it’s coming from a conservative, though, so maybe someone will listen. (Sorry about that, the UK.)
10. DO WANT! BIRTHDAY PRESENT.
11. Mother Jones draws us a nice picture of the inequities inherent in the American economic landscape. Too bad Teabaggers can’t interpret visually-sophisticated imagery, either. Try again!
12. Related: Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? by the eternally-awesome Matt Taibbi
13. Lastly, some happy news! Like, I almost peed myself. Seriously. (via some crazy anime lady)
I’m going to start twattering my links when I find them, from now on. In case you live for my linkposts (MOM!!).
Also I made a new layout for Cynn Corvus, out of that old drawing-ish thing I made in 2009 that looks a Anglo-Japanese lady cosplaying as the Virgin Mary dressed up as a kitsune in a kabuki play. Awesome, I know already.
I’ll put up a new index in the next couple of days, as soon as Ifind some nice artwork to deface make one.
I think everything else is good for a few months. It better be!
I’m thinking of making The Heart Goes 9 into a DW comm (I should have content going up in a couple of weeks). It would be much easier for me to structure entries, especially at first when I am guaranteed to have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Also I would have more control over who has access to my translations, in the event that somebody tries to fuck with me (I do not anticipate that this will happen at all — but we are talking about a potential audience composed almost entirely of fujoshi of various stripes, so anything is possible). Obvs I would leave the thing open unless I was forced to lock it.Also I wouldn’t have to make a layout!
Anybody care? Silence = "no."
ETA: Is our children learning? This is was probably posted by a future President of the United States.
Anyway, so, how have you been doing? Good? Okay.
I have nothing for you, go away.
No, no, I’m just kidding. I have… some links!
1. First they came for the lolis… Tokyo cracks down on certain kinds of comic-book porn. Because, obviously, they’ve solved all their other problems and can now move on to stopping the exploitation of drawings. On the one hand, I have to stand and applaud anything that delegitimizes the practice of sexualizing (and in some cases actually abusing? those 'junior idol’ DVDs sound repulsive!) actual human kids for the sake of moe-loving barfmonsters — but I am a little afraid of the "dude who went to jail for importing loli phonebooks" thing. I mean, 93% of shoujo and BL deals with "underage" characters having sex. Do I need to go burn my copy of Elektel Delusion? What about my January 2011 edition of Vogue Paris? Or, um, what about my downloads of Glee? And Friday Night Lights, if that wasn’t an unwatchably awful show?
2. 10 Historical 'Facts' Only a Right-Winger Could Believe. Looks like what it is. Edroso. Funny.
3. This article describing new discoveries in the highly-speculative field of Let’s Pretend It’s Dungeons & Dragons Archaeology contains the following sentence: "Gough's Cave is situated in the Cheddar Gorge, a deep limestone canyon on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills." Sold!
4. In case you were inadequately revolted by the last post I made re: female eating habits, here’s one from the New York Times that could actually make you punch a kitten. Actual Quote: “On our first date, I was like, ‘Hey, why’d you stop being a vegan?’ And she was like, ‘What kind of guy’s going to date a vegan?’ And I was like, ‘You’re awesome.’ ” HAHA.
5. Edward Scissorhands turns 20! I know Johnny Depp is a major dickface, but this movie affected my life in the way that religion often affects the lives of stupid people. Also some of these works of art are stunning.
6. Do women hate science? Or does science hate women? Or is it that the crudely misogynistic model of higher education we imported from England in the 19th century and have yet to alter in any meaningful way exclusively favors people who choose not to have lives outside their discipline, thus eliminating contributions from women who wish to bear and raise children? Hmmmm, that’s a beard-scratcher.
7. Force your edition of Internet Explorer to render CSS3!
8. How they managed to restrain themselves from bringing up oxytocin, I’ll never know. Also: This article is insane. This is like, Sociology 102. I am embarrassed for them. The view of early human relationships they present here is laughably absurd. And I would laugh, too, except I’m busy eating a stick of butter so men will like me.
9. Why austerity never works. Again. This time it’s coming from a conservative, though, so maybe someone will listen. (Sorry about that, the UK.)
10. DO WANT! BIRTHDAY PRESENT.
11. Mother Jones draws us a nice picture of the inequities inherent in the American economic landscape. Too bad Teabaggers can’t interpret visually-sophisticated imagery, either. Try again!
12. Related: Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? by the eternally-awesome Matt Taibbi
13. Lastly, some happy news! Like, I almost peed myself. Seriously. (via some crazy anime lady)
I’m going to start twattering my links when I find them, from now on. In case you live for my linkposts (MOM!!).
Also I made a new layout for Cynn Corvus, out of that old drawing-ish thing I made in 2009 that looks a Anglo-Japanese lady cosplaying as the Virgin Mary dressed up as a kitsune in a kabuki play. Awesome, I know already.
I’ll put up a new index in the next couple of days, as soon as I
I think everything else is good for a few months. It better be!
I’m thinking of making The Heart Goes 9 into a DW comm (I should have content going up in a couple of weeks). It would be much easier for me to structure entries, especially at first when I am guaranteed to have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Also I would have more control over who has access to my translations, in the event that somebody tries to fuck with me (I do not anticipate that this will happen at all — but we are talking about a potential audience composed almost entirely of fujoshi of various stripes, so anything is possible). Obvs I would leave the thing open unless I was forced to lock it.
Anybody care? Silence = "no."
ETA: Is our children learning? This is was probably posted by a future President of the United States.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-23 08:31 pm (UTC)4) Isn't it awesome when women make major health/ethics-related lifestyle decisions so they can be more "dateable"? SOOOO AWESOME~! And what kind of guy is going to date a vegan? Only desperate, pansy-boy faggots, of course. Obviously.
As for the "thesis" of the article itself: do I think actresses go out of their way to make their eating habits seem less restrictive and more "normal", in interviews? Well... some of them probably do, I guess? But here's a thought: how about we stop caring so much what women are eating in the first place?
8) The lesson here seems to be that too much “mate-guarding” can get in the way of “relationship maintenance.”
I think, perhaps, this was an inside joke between NYT writers: they were trying to see who could make the most bland, obvious point using the most bizarre, ridiculous logic.
10) OMG. And you will be able to do "picture chats" with this? And it will be only ("only") $100? This is pretty exciting.
I LOVE THE NEW CYNN CORVUS LAYOUT! I know I say that about all your layout, but for realzies. I love red dots design elements!
A DW comm would be a lot easier to update, and you'd feel less obligated to occasionally code/upload entirely new layouts. (If you wanted to "update" the look, you could just change the colors or header image.) I'm all for ease-of-use/maintenance/time-saving. Also, I think having it as part of the DW "network" might get you more hits without having to go out and, like, promote. If that's a concern. (Probably not.)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-24 05:28 pm (UTC)Well, you know — me either. The particular loli phonebooks that dude imported were clearly marked, unrepentant, hardcore manga porn with no extraneous storyline to kind of soften the, er, blow. On the other hand? Because loli and shota is legal in Japan, sometimes it pops up in otherwise "legitimate" works. Like, Yonezoh’s first commercial tank, Tsuyogari, featured an unmarked and mildly-explicit shota side story (I saw it in the scanlations and managed to avoid buying the book myself). That’s actually semi-common. Lots of 'straight' BL mangaka also do shota, and include it in comics with other stories featuring adult characters (like C.J. Michalski and Itsuki Kaname, just to name a couple off the top of my head). Even Naono Bohra has written shota shorts. I’m pretty sure that sort of comic is excluded by the "artistic merit" clause in the Protect Act (like, "pretty sure"), but that’s still awfully scary. I am deeply horrified by shota & loli content to the point that I carefully inspect (aka "download") any manga I like before I buy it just to make sure I don’t get a nasty shock when I open the cover at home — but there are lots of other BL fans who aren’t as particular. Honestly, I don’t think that makes them sexual predators. And what about the mounds and mounds of BL and shoujo comics which feature 16- and 17-year-old characters having sex? What about, for example, Utena, which depicts Our Lady of the Taken Revolution having sex with Akio on-screen? And what about Akio’s abusive and incestuous relationship with Anthy? Does that count as child porn too? I mean, both characters are underage when those plot points unfold. It’s hard to imagine perverts fapping to Utena, but I suppose it’s not completely impossible. And if stuff like that violates the law, I guess we’ll all be jogging around the prison exercise yard together someday :[
Shota & loli are disgusting and creepy, full stop. But I have grave concerns about sending somebody to jail for possession of child pornography when all the guy did was buy some particularly icky drawings.
I think that Japanese legislation banning sexual (or even sexualized) depictions of actual human minors is long overdue, and personally I would arrest Iinuma Akari’s mother for, like… pimping? Something. 'Endangering the welfare of a minor' at least. I am 110% behind laws that ban the exploitation of kids, in any form and in any medium. But, again, I think those sorts of laws can get pretty useless/dangerous when they’re applied to drawn art or prose or what have you. </2¢>
But here's a thought: how about we stop caring so much what women are eating in the first place?
I have some small amount of sympathy for a population plagued by obesity and ill-health being mesmerized by the eating habits of super-fit, attractive people — but we’ve fetishized food to the point that it’s some kind of a disturbing fertility symbol, now, instead of something you consume in order to stay alive. Personally, I think it’s probably just a matter of time before we’re all eating Soylent Green and liking it.
I think, perhaps, this was an inside joke between NYT writers: they were trying to see who could make the most bland, obvious point using the most bizarre, ridiculous logic.
This is highly likely. You ought to see the 'world news' output in The Lede.
This is pretty exciting.
EEEEEEEE~!
I love red dots design elements!
Me too! Thank you!
A DW comm would be a lot easier to update
This is my top concern. I don’t want to spend hours and hours making page banners and fiddling with code when I could be editing and posting translations instead. I’m not really worried about "promotion" as such — but in the event that I had to lock my translations, it would be way easier for people to get to them if they were posted to a popular service like DW. (The translations, not the people.) (Although…)
I’m trending this way even more strongly now. Thank you for your input! orz
no subject
Date: 2011-02-24 07:17 pm (UTC)What about, for example, Utena, which depicts Our Lady of the Taken Revolution having sex with Akio on-screen?...Does that count as child porn too?
You know, I thought of that was I was typing up my original comment. I guess I'm making a mental distinction between characters who are drawn, physically, as adults (some of the "adults" in Utena are drawn as slightly taller than the underage characters, and that's all) and characters whose "childishness" is clearly, specifically fetishized. But of course, that's a pretty semantic, hazy distinction. Hard to make any sort of enforceable laws about, and easy to get around.
There's also the issue of characters who are "technically" 18+, but clearly drawn to look like they're about 8 years old.
(Anthy's and Akio's characters are, in my interpretation, probably centuries old. And/or ageless. Should that be taken into consideration, legally?) (No, I think.) (Too nerdy.)
Really, I agree with everything you've written. I just get tired of the droves of moe-fans who flock to related blog posts and defend their preferences by crying about how they don't want to hurt actual children (even though they like stories about hurting children), so why is everyone so mean to them?!
But: I also think that equating shota/loli/moe with actual child pornography is tasteless and completely misrepresents the horrifying seriousness and consequences of real child abuse. I hope it didn't sound like that's what I meant! If it did, I apologize.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-24 07:39 pm (UTC)Nonono! God no! Not at all.
It’s a hard argument, originating from a genus of hard arguments — the "how far should the law enforce a ban on things I hate" conundrum is the material of modern ethics, I think. Nobody has the answers, really, and I am in the vanguard of people who have no real idea what they’re talking about but find themselves Troubled by the debate. So, don’t worry about it. I always find your opinions informative and interesting. Hopefully the authorities will not render Utena and Elektel Delusion illegal in the immediate future, so we should be okay.
I do get a little annoyed by the people who are all for putting into dungeons anybody who has ever looked at an "underage" manga character nekkid, whether catering to a creepy fetish or not. I once saw people whining about how gross lolicon is on a forum that scanlated Kayono. Fuhfuhfuh.
I just get tired of the droves of moe-fans who flock to related blog posts and defend their preferences by crying about how they don't want to hurt actual children (even though they like stories about hurting children), so why is everyone so mean to them?!
Yeah. Ew. That one, too :<
I actually bought a Lily Hoshino tankouban a couple months ago that I was semi-horrified to realize, upon receiving, contained a story with a shota scene.
Kawaiigattekudasai, yesno? It’s a sad world.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 12:02 am (UTC)The Hoshino Lily book was Yoru ni Umareta... which is just collected one-shots that were published in BExBOY, as far as I know. The shota story was the one that provoked my most immediate reaction, but there's also one that features one high school student getting raped by another (but then they hug and make up), which... isn't much better. I was disappointed. Till that point, the only stuff I'd seen of Hoshino's was cutesy shoujo and fantasy BL. All fairly innocuous. So I was just expecting, you know, "manly" knights boning fairy mermaid princes.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-26 01:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, the old "rape as a coyly aggressive courtship ritual" theme. Sometimes BL is a brilliant hobby.
Kawaiigattekudasai was the very first shota I ever saw (also one of the first scanlations I ever looked at). I was mildly alarmed by it, but figured it was just a comment on the fetishizing of adolescent sexuality in Japan (or something). What a goober!
So I was just expecting, you know, "manly" knights boning fairy mermaid princes.
I love Hoshino! I love her art so much. Gorgeous, adorable, aww. I love her interpretations of fairy tales, too. If you can find the scanlations for Harem de Hitori (the official DMP import is truly awful and actually incorrect in places), it’s worth a read. It’s just that she sometimes likes to smack you in the eyeballs with epic grossness. Nobody’s perfect, I guess :[