Tuesday randomness.

[nenena]

RE: Paris Hilton

My faith in The System has been completely restored. Thank you, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer. I've never met you in person, I've only read about you once in an AP news article, but I think that I love you.

cleolinda has articulated my exact feelings about Paris Hilton here, and in a much smarter way than I ever could have written.

And what bugs me the most about this is that Ms. Hilton STILL refuses to take responsibility for ANYTHING that she's done wrong. Argh, she reminds me of my worst maturity-challenged students. You know, the ones who will blame their parents, their friends, their dog, institutionalized racism, immigration reform, and the failures of the American/Japanese social support system for the fact that I just caught them cheating on a test by copying answers downloaded onto their cell phones.

But enough about Paris Hilton, who sucks. Here are some memes.

One for me to do: Ganked from sam_chan and meiousei: Name any character I know and I'll tell you three reasons why s/he sucks, whether or not I like that character. You can name more than one character. I like a challenge.

One that I am doing: Ganked from evercool. What's in your bag?

In my backpack is...
* A folder full of schedules and contact numbers for all of the schools that I work at.
* A precious, precious English-language edition of Newsweek that I picked up in Tokyo and am trying to make last as long as possible. Also, an issue of Time, same deal.
* Colored pencils, because I use them for my special-ed students, and I never know if I'm attending a special-ed class until five minutes before class begins.
* An electronic J-E/E-J dictionary.
* An electronic kanji dictionary.
* A bottle of lotion.
* A mail-order form for the Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo Pinky:st figure. (She's so cute!)
* A flash drive.
* An internet cable, because a lot of the places where I work expect me to provide my own.
* Envelopes of various sizes, stamps, clear tape, and some postcards.
* Some spare pens and a black marker.
* An extremely crushed cookie. Oh crap, I forgot about that.
* Emergency feminine hygeine supplies.

And normally my laptop and laptop cord would be in there too, but I'm at home right now using them.

In my purse...
* Wallet
* Camera and carrying case
* Hand lotion
* Hand soap (a necessity in Japan; rarely provided in public restrooms)
* Floss
* A comb
* Nail clippers and a nail file, because hangnails suck!
* My alien registration card
* Phonecards
* A file of business cards that people keep giving me
* My International Driver's License and my Iowa driver's license, because the former is invalid without the latter
* Address book
* Bank book and ATM card
* Emergency feminine hygeine supplies
* A little to-do and shopping list
* Many pens, all colors of the rainbow
* My hanko (signature stamp), ink pad, carrying case, and hanko registration certificate
* Health insurance card and various hospital/clinic ID cards (goddammit Japan)
* Packs of tissues
* Two mirrors. Bwuh, I didn't realize that I had two.
* Makeup.
* My cell phone.

...Yeah. That's all of the stuff that I never leave home without. Apparently I was a Boy Scout in a past life, or something.

Comments

[aster-dw.livejournal.com]

Mara
1. Couldn't agree with you more on all of this. I think she's ultimately taken a backseat to Hild simply because AMG is wish gratification manga. Not having been particularly attractively drawn or portrayed as a person, Mara didn't really come close to fulfilling that role because she doesn't cater to any fetish and she isn't interested in reader-proxy anyway. Hild, in both of her forms, on the other hand, is a fetish satisfaction goldmine for obvious reasons.
As for It's just brought up as an excuse to jump-start the Demon Urd arc , that basically sums up why I cringe whenever anyone on the forms proclaims Fujishima to be a wonderful writer. He honestly isn't. He introduces piles of random and unexpected plot elements without any prior justification to move the plot along and then abandons them, or retcons them out of existence, as you've so nicely put it. Ootaki's girlfriend, Urd's mother issues, Sayoko's inconsistent attitudes to K1 and so forth. I mean, I'm obviously most bitter about Mara's and Urd's loose ends simply because manga would have been so awesome if it explored those issues adequately... Sigh.

2. *snort* Yes. Although, I quite liked Mara's hairstyle during the Devil Urd arc. Perpetual dishevelled look suited her personality quite well.

Aziraphale

2. I'm inclined to say that the way the "bastard angel" stuff was handled in GO was fairly decent. It wasn't nearly as blunt and annoying as Pullman's or Kaori Yuki's "ZOMG! God is totalitarian, murderous villain, marvel at my originality!!" stuff. Aziraphale appeared to me to be morally ambiguous, but on the whole a thoroughly decent celestial being, even if he's enough of a bastard to be worth liking. So I didn't really see it as bastard angel cliché rather than him just being a fairly 3D character.

3. Odd that you should mention this. All GO slashfic that I've ever read (not massive amounts, admittedly) featured Aziraphale as an evil rapist or at the very least a manipulative seducer. Although, now I'm tempted to hunt down the sparkly pure-hearted uke fics and laugh at them.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I did rather like Mara's hair in the Devil Urd arc. But at the same time... It kinds of looks like my hair when I wake up in the morning. Which means that during the entire Devil Urd arc I just wanted to yell at Mara to comb her damn hair! It's the OCD part of my brain.

I agree with you about Aziraphale, now that you mention it. I guess I was just grasping at straws. Beause Aziraphale is pretty awesome. ;)

Yeah, I've read Aziraphale as a rapist or a manipulative seducer before... But the sparkly uke thing squicks me even more, because it's just so... Argh. I don't know, I can't articulate it very well.