straightforwardly

► ...Um. Today's topic is Fictional Character You Would Have Dated In High School, which... I don't really know how to answer? Like, does this mean a fictional character I actively had a crush on while I was in high school, or does it mean a fictional character I think I would have been really into had I met him in high school?

Since I have no idea what the answer to the latter would be, I'm going to go with the former interpretation. The first character that pops to mind is, honestly, Selendrile from Dragon's Bait by Vivian Vande Velde. For all that he's technically a dragon, I had feelings, okay? Haha. There was also Sirius Black from Harry Potter, and Rikash Moonsword (who is also most definitely not human— I sense a pattern) from Tamora Pierce's Immortals books.

Oh, and, if we're talking Jane Austen, then I'd definitely would have gone for Henry Tilney, closely followed by Mr. Knightley. (And still would, if we're being perfectly honest.)

There are probably others— I was swooning over so many fictional characters in high school— but that's all I can think of on the top of my head.

► So, I have many, many feelings about otome games on the cell phone, many of them negative— not because I have anything in particular against cell phone games, but because I think that the monetary models they tend to work with really suck and are supremely unfriendly to consumers. That being said, near the end of October I did start playing some (free) otome games on the cell phone from the Shall We Date? series, and many mixed thoughts about them.

The tl;dr version is that I think some of them have genuinely great stories, characters, gameplay, and even world-building, but I do really, really dislike their monetary models. I'd much rather pay a single fee for an entire game than 1) paying per route, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of, or 2) dealing with their blatant attempts to annoy you into spending money on their free games.

I beat Shall We Date? The Nilfheim today, which is probably the best example— that I've played— of the good and bad of cell phone otome games. I'm going to talk about the games I've been playing a bit more in-depth, but it'll have to be tomorrow at the earliest— have an exam I need to finish studying for and plans to bake gingerbread men with a friend after said exam, so I don't really have time to get into it now. So this'll just have to serve as an introduction for what I'll be getting into later / hopefully tomorrow. ♥

► So, I've been wanting to play Crusader Kings II ever since I read this amusing comment about it on fail_fandomanon (side-note: that community increases my to-play list by far too much). I still don't own it, nor have I played it, but it's definitely on my radar.

I bring this up because I found myself having a bit of free time yesterday (which, at the time I'm typing this, was Saturday, 29 November 2014), and since not too long ago I read a Princess Maker Let's Play which I enjoyed, I decided that I'd look through the archive of that site to see if I could find something else to read.

I found this Crusader Kings II Let's Play. And oh my God, I had no idea that it was possible to feel this fannish about a Let's Play. Just. There were so many great characters! I had so many feelings about so many of them! asdfghjkl;
( cut to spare anyone who just really does not care )

God freaking damnit, I just really loved this Let's Play. Is it possible to have a fandom based on a Let's Play? Because I want a fandom. I want all the fic about these wonderful, screwed-up people— even the ones I didn't mention here but still loved— and all the wonderful friendships and even more fascinating parental-child relationships. I kind of want to cry with how much I love it.

► So, I meant to post this entry yesterday, but apparently my rambling about my feelings about fictional characters from a Let's Play took much longer than I expected to do. Therefore, I'm going to talk about my plans for December now in this same entry.

Basically, I've been seeing those talking memes going around + all those plans to post every day in December, and I thought: I'd like to try to post every day in December. I have no idea if I'll actually be able to do this, since, to be quite frank, I'm likely going to be insanely busy the first twelve or so days of this month, what with finals and final papers and graduation and all that. Still, I'd like to try.

That being said, I'm not doing the talking meme, mainly because I don't think very many, if any, people will give me topics to talk about. Instead, I'm going to do something similar to those 30 Day Memes which were so popular a couple of years back. I found a list of book-related questions on tumblr, and I've decided that I'll answer them, with one answer per day.

Here's the list for reference: ( cut for length )

► Now for today's question/topic: Author You’ve Read The Most Books From.

I'm... not actually entirely sure? I can make a guess, though. This was the only topic which I actually looked at when I was still home for Thanksgiving Break, and when I glanced over my bookshelf, I figured that it was probably either Mary Higgins Clark (oddly enough) or Mercedes Lackey. GoodReads (which might not be entirely accurate, but is the best thing I have for figuring this stuff out) tells me that I've read 34 Mercedes Lackey books as opposed to 20 by Mary Higgins Clark. Since I can't think of any author that could beat that, at least not on the top of my head, I'm going to go with Mercedes Lackey as my answer.

Now, I could expand on that, but I'm going to end this here, mainly because today I have: one essay to write which I haven't started, another to outline so I can write it on an exam tomorrow, an article which I need to finish reading, and a 300-500 word commentary I need to write on said article, and I really need to get to work.

The last time I updated was when I was getting ready to head back to school. Now I've been here about two weeks, have settled in nicely, and have quite a bit to say about what I've been doing these last two weeks. (I've actually been meaning to write this entry for over a week now, but I keep putting it off, oops.)

► The first thing on my list of things to talk about is school. Specifically, the Tolkien class I'm taking! I signed up for this one as quick as I could when I saw it listed among the summer classes, and spoiler alert: I am so, so glad I did.
( more babbling under the cut )

► Perhaps unsurprisingly, that class has also awakened a new fandom for me: Lord of the Rings. It's kind of funny. While I've never seen the movies, I have read the books before— The Lord of the Rings twice prior to this summer (with the first time being when I was in the sixth grade), and The Hobbit once. And don't mistake me; I did enjoy them both times when I read them, but... I never really understood the passion people had for them?

Like, I loved Aragorn the first time I read it, and have always been really into Legolas and Gimili's friendship, but otherwise... it was just another fantasy series for me. I appreciated what it did for the genre, but didn't really get other people's reactions to it. I know there are people who reread it every year, and I remember just being baffled by that. Once every few years, sure. But every year?

Needless to say, I completely understand it now.
( under the cut: more fangirling! )

► Not to detract from my Lord of the Rings flailing, but I did watch the second episode of Sailor Moon Crystal last night, and I wanted to jot down some quick thoughts about it. Unfortunately, the animation quality bothered me a whole lot more than it had with the last episode— even Luna looked really odd at times, and Ami kept switching between looking great and looking uncomfortably off.

But outside of the animation, I really enjoyed it! The relationship between Usagi and Ami was great, that quick flashback to the Moon Kingdom really intrigued me, and I have discovered that I do, apparently, have some Usagi/Ami feelings. Maybe not strong feelings, but... yes, I was definitely shipping them at least a little bit in this episode.

► And I need to get back to my schoolwork, so I think I'll end this here, for now.

Whoops, dropped off the face of the planet there.

Since I last updated:

► video game-wise, I've beaten Final Fantasy IV (good, but the story fell apart at the end), Pokemon White (finally; don't know what it was but I actually found myself in the mood to play it, so yay there), and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky. (Currently doing post-game in that one.) I also started and completed Persona 3 Portable. (The oddest mixture of interesting and tedious I've yet encountered in a game.) So, yeah, I’ve kind of been busy in that department. I also read a ton of books (20+), but I can’t remember all of their titles at the moment.

► As for real life... I moved back into the dorms three days ago. School starts again next Monday, so I figured I'd take advantage of my slightly-faster-than-at-home internet, and try to cut down on my anime-to-see list.

► First up, was Inu X Boku Secret Service. I started this one Monday evening, and typed up my thoughts on the first episode after watching it, then ended up scribbling out commentary as I continued watching the rest. I figure I may as well post that here, for record-keeping's sake. ( spoilers for the first four episodes may lay within )