klawzie

From what I understand about Sherlock (and I may have misunderstood when reading) there are only three writers for Sherlock and they each take an episode a season. (Mind, they probably collaborate to edit for consistency after the lead writer on an episode is happy with it.) Pretty sure that there's more people involved with Dr. Who (though this is just based entirely on assumption and I've never looked at the credits). I'm reading a book now on scriptwriting, because I thought I'd learn something about writing in general (and specifically about episodic/serial storytelling). Haven't especially learned anything yet that I didn't know on an intuitive level about writing, but sure as heck am learning a ton about the way scriptwriters work (as I ought, as it's a coursebook for many scriptwriting classes, apparently). But I'd have to think that based on what I'm learning, Dr. Who is likely to have at least a higher number of outside writers submitting scripts for the show and a larger team. As an aside - I really liked series 3 of Sherlock. Two was flashier, of course, but three seemed to be interesting more on an emotional level. I feel like they were very clever and careful with the introduction of the new series character and think that it was handled in a way that most fans would accept. I'm interested in what happens with her in series four.

I don't have one of just my favorites, but I do have one of most of my collection. Terrible photo, but it's what I have right now. I can point out my favorites, though! To the lower right, there are the set of spooky pale green dice. That was the "complete set" that came with my pound of dice. They're speckled and do not glow in the dark, even though they look like they ought. Of all the random sets I could have got, I'm not sure I could have done any better if I'd chosen them specially. I love them. Then next to those are the opalescent garnet red d10s. I got those specially for my Exalted Sidereal, Lion of the Heavens. His hair was meant to be the same color. In the photo, the dice look a deep red, but they're really the sort that catch the light in different ways, sometimes bordering pink. They are so beautiful. I need to buy a complete set that way. At the very very top, there's a transparent/opalescent tangerine d12. I especially love that it has green numbering. It makes me think even more of a citrus. The color combination is one of my odd favorites, plus it has shiny. What's not to love? There's a similar yellow d6 in the bottom left-ish, next to the Exalted brand d10s, next to two tiny yellow d6s. I can't see any of my other favorites. Either they're not in the photo, or I don't recognize them without them showing their true colors/textures. None of them have stories, really. I've rarely used them since most of my gaming has been done digitally. I can say that it's a good thing Lion only used his d10 set a few times. Any time I was playing around and rolling for him, he'd do astoundingly well. But whenever I rolled something for real, he'd just barely manage to scrape by, if he succeeded at all (which he generally didn't).

Ha - Darsc. Just today (well, yesterday - it's after midnight now) I log on and see the new message. SO glad I turned off notifications on that project. As nice as Larry Elmore seems to be as a person, it's really turning me off to anything his name is attached to, just because I don't want to be spammed.

For those of you getting fed up with winter... Check your local laws first.

Phrasing, Lana.

I feel like since I'm the next one to post after Buggy, I ought to comment on the post. But I genuinely have no words. Perhaps a quiet amusement flavored with confusion? There. Those are my words. I doubt this will make you feel any better, Pingo, but I have a Pokemon named after you. This one, in fact. Not because it specifically reminded me of you, but because I wanted to name it "Pinga" after my thunderbird character I played in a oneshot Heroine game, but apparently the game thinks Pinga is a bad word (I'm not looking it up to double-check - it's a perfectly nice Inuit name if my quick Google search for Inuit names was correct). Pingo therefore became the logical choice. Unfortunately, I think the very next Pokemon I ran across was this one. I would have named that one Pingo if I'd had to do it over again. Its name is "Paints" instead.

Did someone here recommend Yowapeda/Yowamushi Pedal? I'd never have given an anime about competitive cycling a second thought and the first few episodes have been a delight. So - if it was someone here, thank you! EDIT: I forgot to comment on CCS. I was only delivered the boxed set of books 4-6 because Amazon was out of stock of 1-3. So I read those and was very disappointed, cancelling my order for the other boxed set. I'd have to see if I kept the manga and re-read it to see if I could give concrete examples, but I stand pretty firm on the idea that the anime is better. Of course, the anime takes 12 volumes of manga and turns them into 70 or so episodes, plus two movies. And that's not all extra minutes of lingering gazes, extended giggling, and hair and sakura blossoms in the wind.

Yeah.... I got my hands on some of the early issues of Sailor Moon and sat down all excited to go for it... and was so underwhelmed I just got rid of the beginning collection. Still have to properly see all of the anime (I've only caught episodes here and there), but I know I like it better as anime vs manga. It might get better towards the end, of course, but... Same thing happened to me with Card Captor Sakura, only moreso. Really enjoyed the first few episodes I caught of "Cardcaptors" (the American remix show of the series), so when I realized that the original CCS was different from CC, I ended up devouring the series as it was meant to be seen. Then I set about buying the boxed set of the manga and was like, "....there is no substance here. Scenes that impacted me greatly in the anime are watery at best in the manga. This is the turning point in the character's arc and it comes and go with barely a panel...."

Backing up the recommendation on Ayakashi: Classic Japanese Horror. Also, if you liked the last few episodes in the series, there was a spin-off called Mononoke featuring the Medicine Seller hero. Not to be confused with Princess Mononoke, which I haven't seen, but as you see is recommended. I really enjoyed Samurai Champloo (the episodes I've seen, anyway), so check that out if you can find it. Like the Saiyuki anime, it's a bit anarchistic iirc, but fun. I've only seen the first episode, but Katanagatari might be one to check out. I sort of think of it as what might happen if Ōkami had a kid with Pokemon. I mean, I hear that the series gets really dark and tragic, but it's basically about collecting ALL THE SWORDS. Which possess people and turn them into monsters? I'm not really clear on that. I love the animation style, though. And in spite of its very anime-ness, it's probably the most L5R-like of what I have to recommend. (Well, aside from a few episodes of Ayakashi, that is.) Folktales From Japan might give sort of a general culture insight, as well as insight into sort of perhaps a children's eye view of the period. The first few episodes I've watched were pretty great. Episode one has the stories "The Man Who Bought Dreams" and "The Rat Sutra" which really genuinely are two of my favorite fairytales now. Utakoi is actually set earlier than the feudal-style that you'll probably be playing with, but probably gives the most interesting insights into the culture. It's basically a series that looks at the love stories behind the hanafuda (the traditional Japanese poetry card game) and hits sort of the highlights of the rise and fall of the loves. (Very few of the love stories have happy endings. Saying this now.) It is interspersed with sort of "OOC" goofiness where the poets interact with each other and pretend to be on game shows...? It's very difficult to explain, but it does provide comic relief to the sometimes heart-wrenching love stories. I also recommend watching Utakoi before starting on Chihayafuru - which has nothing to do with L5R style gaming (it's set in the modern era and not about sword battling at all), but is all about hanafuda as a sport and, well, it's one of my favorite animes and it's related, so there. But, yes, very highly recommending Utakoi just in general and also for sort of human interaction background. I'm sure I'm missing some obvious suggestions, but I don't really maintain a very good database of anime I've watched. >_>; When in doubt, it probably wouldn't hurt to browse through Crunchyroll's "Historical" category. http://www.crunchyroll.com/videos/anime/genres/historical I know that there are a few series there I'm very interested in watching, but I can't recommend something I haven't seen at least a little of.

re: Mayo - I put mayo on only three things: - hamburgers (sometimes) - BLTs/tomato sammies (always) - cold turkey sandwiches (the sort you make from leftover roast turkey) ((clearly always or how else do you eat them? like a barbarian???)) Obviously, some foods have mayo in them - for example, summer salad - but I do not apply mayo to anything else. That way lies madness. re: Firefly - Haven't watched it yet. I keep meaning to and then just when I've got my queue clear and am looking to start a new series, someone has to come along and talk it up again. So I bump it down and put it off for fear of going in with expectations too high (either mine for the series, or other people with that eager expectancy of wanting to know what I thought). Same thing happens with Dr. Who and goodness knows what other series. Granted, fan glee can work for a series. I sort of wrote off Buffy for a few years until the popularity peaked. ....I mean, it did take me something like ten years after it went off air (not sure if I'm exaggerating - just guessing) to watch it, but I eventually did. I am very heartily glad that someone just mentioned Sherlock off hand as something they enjoyed and I was able to ( ::puts on hipster glasses now:: ) watch the series before it reached critical mass of fans and was everywhere. [On the subject, the latest episode is burning a hole in my HD. But I'm being good and waiting to watch it with my parents since I got them hooked on the series too.] There was some other topic I was going to comment on, but I got a lap full of niece-monster who wanted to watch kitties. Then regained control of the computer only to be handed a squirming baby-monster. Then there was breakfast. And all I can remember is mayo and Firefly. You're welcome.

I'm not aware of one, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. A quick Google search doesn't show any. (Nor do I think it... likely.) But I'm sure we could cobble together a list of anime that might scratch the itch, if you were interested? (Never played L5R myself, but I've read into the books off and on through the years because I think it's interesting.)

Happy belated! (Haven't logged in for a few days. >_>; )

Finally was able to make up the season finale of our Monster of the Week game. Apparently my character is a spawn of evil (fair enough). She is still paralyzed from the waist down partly because the few weeks off made the others forget they were on a mission to collect something to use in a spell to fix her and partly because, oh, I dunno, my character did Big Magic and teleported herself and someone else to the unknown location of someone else... (She has been making very terrible decisions since she started trying to run the team through group consensus rather than thinking things through logically and moving the team around like chess pieces.) And I forgot to ask the GM if our Luck reset because I'm down to only two Luck left. They're on the run from the SCP and currently in the hands of a group known as the "Monsterhearts" (because the GM is merging several of his Apocalypse World based games into one storyline... so far Monsterhearts and Monster of the Week have officially merged, but there's still tremulus and one or two others). I don't want to run through a whole season with only two Luck, you guys. Especially when I can't run away. D: I don't think the Monsterhearts group is going to give her a Professor X chair. They killed the guy she teleported with because he worked for the SCP and I think once they figure out she's part of a monster hunting group, she's next. >___>; I didn't realize until writing this all out how dire it could get. Goodness.

Well... I'm interested, depending on what sort of deal we're talking about here. xD

Funnily enough, seeing the last few posts has actually interested me in it. I know that Japanese rpgers have discovered the Mythos and are -chan-ifying it and I am curious as to the type of anime that serves to cater to this niche interest. Of course, I expect to hate it, but I sometimes seek out train wrecks intentionally.

Table Top? Pretty sure this: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C I love it, but I think Wil's cheesiness is hilarious. Not everyone will.

I am so sad panda, you guys. I am feeling way worse than I was yesterday. Probably because I let my guard down, thinking I was getting better. Maybe I can whine and someone will make me a hot toddy (we use rum in ours, otherwise the recipe is pretty much what others have posted either in this thread or... one of the others where we all went "boo hiss sick"). I want to go nap in the tub, but that requires me finding the energy to draw a bath.

Always a relevant xkcd. Except, I am told, about there being a relevant xkcd. Family played Forbidden Island with me today. First play-through we lost because the three Waters Rise! cards ended up popping up very close to one another and sank the two Earth tiles before anyone could react. Second play-through, we won! YAY. Mostly thanks to us managing to get through the three Waters Rise! cards early in the deck without dying and then having nearly half the treasure deck to work through before we had to reshuffle and risk the waters rising on us again. We did get up to nearly five cards being turned over before we escaped with the treasures, so it wasn't an easy victory. Super happy about how Dixit and Forbidden Island were received by the family, though. Especially that they enjoyed Forbidden Island. I might have sprung Fortune and Glory on them too soon and scared them off of anything that wasn't some form of party game. (They enjoy Telestrations and Apples to Apples and... something else that my brain is just not spitting out right now.) They tend to groan with horror whenever they see more than one deck of cards and a board that is in more than one piece. >_>; But Forbidden Island might help reassure them. Even if they said they still liked Dixit more.

At the moment, anyway. I know that depending on the time of the year, my bff and I are either "1 day, 7 hours" apart on time, or "1 day, 9 hours" apart. I think those are the hours, but I've honestly lost track since I figured out how to add a clock for her time on my computer desktop so it says the time and date in Adelaide as well as Central. This is a leg up on timeanddate.com, though I still have a personal world clock set up with them for when I worked with an internet company and had to keep track of when I would likely see one coworker pop online in Malaysia, another in England, a third in Australia, a fourth in.... some South American country but I can't remember which he was stationed at at the time. /ramble Played Dixit with the family today. It was fun. My dad smoked us. He knows us all a little too well. Love the game. xD But I do want more cards to make it more difficult for family shorthand from creeping in too quickly. There were only four of us tonight and by the time he'd nearly earned 30 points, there were only a few cards left in the deck, so I'll want an expansion since at holidays our "gaming group" usually numbers about seven. There was a good amount on playing on words with clues like, "Weight/wait!" (My dad asked me, "How do you spell that?" in a totally "I'm onto you" sort of way. "I don't have to spell it. :B" sez I. Which meant when my picture of a scale with a feather and heart showed up he knew it was mine since everyone else had pictures of two people.) So when his clue a few turns later was, "Pardon me." and I saw the picture of a guy in a jail cell I knew we were playing with words again. I think everyone was onto him in that turn, though. I won't be able to get over how my clue of, "Slow trip" where my card had a snail and someone else's card had a snail, somehow everyone knew which one was mine. D< TWO snails by some miraculous coincidence are in play at once and....! Carved two mini stamps today. I can't remember if I said that in another thread, but I did. A nice-ish heart and a really derpy star (I kind of like it derpy). Keep thinking about picking up bigger blocks so I can make designs bigger than the size of my index fingernail. (The material is from a "make your own signature stamp!" kit I picked up in Tokyo, so I can have a long thin design or cut them and make tiny designs, so after I made my long signature stamp in the hieroglyphics style with a cartouche, I've been using the other ones to make tiny tiny stamps.) /ramble EDIT: Wow. Two /rambles in one post. Clearly, I lie.

Anyone I end up with doesn't have to be a geek, but they do have to respect my geekery, just as I'd respect whatever he got geeked-out over (even if it wouldn't qualify to the general public as "geeky"). I got unreasonably mad the other day watching some sort of show that combined the Antiques Roadshow with Pawn Stars (I forget what it's called, but it's on Netflix) and in two of the episodes, the wife was nattering on about "getting rid" of her husband's passion collection. Obviously, I don't have the details and maybe it was leading to bad financial issues that the show didn't touch on, but... Meh. My ideal home would have a hobby room for each person, so if person A were into NASCAR and NASA and person B were into scrapbooking and woodworking, neither would get on the other's nerves. /tangent I keep a wishlist going on Amazon for this reason. I try to narrow it down a few weeks before Christmas to just the things I want most at the moment and I pass it on, so my gifts have been pretty on the nose the last few years (even with the gifts that my parents get that aren't on the list and they're guessing - but they're mainly getting me practical things I've mentioned over the year that I wanted, like cardies or socks or something). My brothers don't ask and they do their best. It's hit or miss with them. Last year one of them got me a terrain kit because I was excited about the Reaper Kickstarter and so I'll probably play around with a diorama... one day. I'm just not at that point in the hobby yet so it was risky of him, but the thought was appreciated for sure. They know how into books I am, so somehow this year both got me bookends. They were pretty excellent choices - one got me a pair of pretty milkmaids that match my room decor and the other looked at my jade and other stone ornaments and got me carved stone bookends. But... I have no room for bookends. Once I'm feeling well enough I need to reorganize my room entirely and reshuffle things to be packed away in the attic or sold at the next garage sale. I always try very hard to look at "it's the thought that counts" and can usually see where they're coming from when they gift me and understand that part of it is financial considerations that lead to missteps like, "I know she's into Asian things, so I saw this gong at a garage sale and got it for her. What do you mean, no room to display it? It's a gift - find a place."

Happy New Year everyone. :3 Looking forward to another year hanging out with you lot. <3

That's to prevent the deadly poisonous things (read: everything alive, and maybe some of those that aren't as well, eh?) from crawling in, right? No post-holiday blues as such. I already mentioned elsewhere that the part with the people I feel are "part of my family" was wonderful and the part with "people who are related to people who are my family" was awful (at the very least in comparison). Depressed a bit in general just because I'm sick and have been some degree of sick since.... what? Before American Thanksgiving for sure since I started out NaNoWriMo healthy and wrote it off as a loss halfway through. I'm pretty much "moving on" from 2013 and hope I leave it all behind. I have a calendar set out, new stamps carved to mark off days I've done various things, and, yeah, planning things out like a frequent customer card. xD x# stamps done per month wins a prize! The idea amuses me. But looking forward keeps me from dwelling on the past and being negative and is helping me manage my negativity about what's currently going on (being sick). Might help for you too? Look forward and set goals. And a good game with friends and/or family couldn't hurt. (My family and I played one of the games I got for Christmas tonight. It was fun. I lost horribly.)

Yep, my sister in law's bff has it and I am living of dread of her passing that along to share the way she has her pneumonia/bronchitis. That's what my brother is doing (the not-married one). He's the only one of us not sick or fighting it off. I was finally able to bully my parents into making themselves hot toddies and did the whole Success Kid gloat because after they drank them, I didn't hear them coughing in the hour or so they were awake after I shamed them into it. ("How come when I'm feeling mildly under the weather, you go on and on about taking Vitamin D and Vitamin C and echinacia and garlic on all my food and wearing badgers on my head because you read somewhere that badger fur has antibacterial properties, and I can't even get you to drink a cup of hot water, lemon juice, and honey when I squeeze the lemons for you? D<" )

I'd been telling my parents since I was about 8 years old that I was going to adopt because I'd never have my own. They heard it often enough they eventually believed me, even though I eventually dropped the "adopt" thing. It's always bothered me how many people tried to tell me I'd change my mind or it'd be different if I married the right man or I had positive qualities X, Y, and Z and so I had to have kids because somehow that would make the world a better place. I'm not sure which of those tactics irritated me the most, to be honest. The very idea of pregnancy stresses me out and makes me queasy. It's painful, messy, and completely undignified at all stages and I'm convinced I'd spend the entire time miserable and stressed out. And then you have to handle whatever person or persons result and how that changes the relationship with your partner. And it might not be a change in the relationship in a way either of us are happy with and I'd much rather the joys of a successful marriage than being a mommy. Of course, the issue might be moot anyway since I do have a health issue that might factor in to me never being able to carry even if I wanted to.... assuming I even found someone to make babies with! Plus, I know I'm selfish. Even the neediness of the family dogs bothers me. xD; I *do* love my nieces, though. It has changed a few things about my perspective on kids and for the right guy, I would be willing to try for a kid or two as long as we had a few years to ourselves to make sure we could survive just living with each other. But whoever he is, his clock is running out cos I am getting old and even more crotchety.

... >_>; I'm being commissioned to work on art for an up and coming TRPG and I am going to have to pay attention to this thread. Of course, it'll probably also help to make me even more obsessively self-conscious that I'll never want to see the finished book for fear I detracted from the text somehow. D: