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  ConDFW 2008
Posted by: Ebony - 02-21-2008, 07:20 PM - Forum: General Chatter - No Replies

If anyone's in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex over this weekend and is interested in killing some time, ConDFW 2008 starts Friday afternoon. Guests of
Honor this year are Peter S. Beagle, Donato Giancola, and Thomas Monteleone. Details can be found at http://www.condfw.org.
It's cheap, relaxed, and you can buy Peter Beagle a beer.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

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  Live-action "Akira" announced
Posted by: robkelk - 02-21-2008, 04:05 PM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (1)

http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbus ... movie.html]Times of London story

Interesting that somebody on the Times of London staff has at least a clue as to how some of the more passionate otaku think:

Quote:Purists will probably be more outraged by the ‘future New York’ setting of the forthcoming movie rather than the ‘future Tokyo’ of the original Manga, but as long as they can get that big red motorcycle right, it’ll probably still be worth a look.

 
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

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  Bad fanon that trumps the canon for the far to long
Posted by: Necratoid - 02-21-2008, 07:54 AM - Forum: Other People's Fanfiction - Replies (63)

Okay, some people wondered what I was talking about in the current updates thread, when I said this:

Quote:
Okay if you want to spout garbage and fanon make a thread for it and people with actual experience with the canon can smack you down properly for
blithering on about how bad an one dimension berserker Akane was in some nth derivitive fanfiction you read somewhere. That your telling us about sweet,
innocent, perfert Shampoo only makes you dig the bad fanon hole your digging deeper. Seriously, its like listening to fangirls babble on about Sepheroth.




At the very least include an update in your posting to the update thread.



What I was refering to was the branching blather that had started in pages 30 and 31 of the update thread. What these posts went on about how Ranma's
theretical betroved (it is rather disputed as a status for the lot of them, at least they think so) where all sadistic psycho.... and babbled about such things
as Shampoo being the exception and Akane the rule. This is patently false, at least as far as the canon (manga/anime) is concerned.

I'm not going recap the canon for you, but I will backup this up with evidence. First Kodachi is a loony with sadistic tendancies, that she beats people
up before a competition and than laugh at the hilarity of such an event to their face is proof enough. I don't think anyone will really argue against this
particular point, why she is that way is a different and minor to this discusion point. Not to mention she isn't even a serious contender and literally
bribed herself into the position later, she literally tries to buy Ranma as a breeding slave. Ukyo is not sadist so much as she is unstable and unconiously
smashes things/people/people disgusised as things as a rebutal... at her worse she is vengeful and homocidal (manga wedding arc). However she isn't
actually causing others pain for the joy of it, personally I blaim her father. I'll get to Genma and Ukyo's father later.

Shampoo is a sadist, at least part time. If you don't beleive me ask a certain pair of herbalists that live near her village in the manga. She enjoys
tormenting them and only one of them did something to her... the other cured her and got mauled for it. This goes on at random intervals for around a decade.
Shampoo is a petty cruel child that its not exactly a stretch to think she left a trail of small dead animals as kid. Not that there is direct evidence of
that actually happening in the canon. She of the four, treats him most as a toy and her personal property. though far less frequent than in the fanon,
Shampoo does randomly try mind control vegitation on on Ranma, hypno mushrooms and the imprinting eggs from the Saffrom arc in the manga.... She is enslaved by
the eggs and is primarily concerned with enslaving Ranma with them as a way to have him as her own... its a primal urge for her.

Akane of the canon, manga notablly, is a sweet girl really. By this I mean she is the kind of kid that took home injured animals to heal... and actually
looked for books and advise on how to actually do is properly, at like 7. When she was kidnapped by Mr. Panyhose she patched him up and tryed to talk him
through his problems. She does this kind of thing routinely. Her cooking is burnt or bad, minus curry, but it never is lethal or prone to animating and
attacking someone. Yes, she does hit him, but he deserves it (like those reading or watch want to hurt him for that kind of deserves it)... and its once.
Also Ranma doesn't often (if ever) take place in a Team rocket style distance punt. She also walks away from situations where she knows she'll be
tempted to get excessively violent. She mostly hits him barehanded, not with the only mallet in the series, but rather with with her fist, random objects and
the like. However, this is normal female behavior (if not as hard normally) in Ranma 1/2. If you don't beleive me look for the early episode where Ranma
and Ryoga are attempting to get the vase key to the Japanese spring of the drowned man from under the girls locker rooms. Girls pull out mallets, brooms, and
nagitas to chase them. At one point in the series Kasumi hands Nabiki a mallet and she knocks out Kuno with a temple strike.

As long as I'm mentioning Nabiki, I'll tell you about the charicter defining moment of hers I remember most from the manga. Nabiki and Ranma are the
only ones home and Nabiki entertains herself by ripping her close and using a camera, tape recorder, ripping her own clothes, and acting to amuse herself
trying to get 'evidence' that Ranma was actively trying to rape her. She isn't making money for the family and is evil. Kasumi hands out mallets
at least one point and everytime people are listening to Ranma and Akane at the doors and such she is right their in the stack with them. Soun's tears are
an act that can start or stop on a dime... they are used to control his kids through embarassment. He can start or stop them on a dime. Considering that he
gets job offers as a ghost buster/monster dispoal expert for the dojo, I think he was actively doing this kind of thing preseries and hands it off to the
younger generation.

From the 2 1/2 to 3 seasons I've seen of the anime the largest difference with Akane anime and Akane manga is that Akane anime actually bothers to try and
participate in all the nonbrawl challenges and contests... with leave her more frustrated.

To me Genma is one of the more intresting charicters. Not that he is close to perfect, but he did accomplish his 2 goals with Ranma, trained him as a master
martial artist and he does qualify as a man amonst men, if not the gigaloo his mom apperently wants. One of the things that he gets the most flack for is his
engagement spree. The Tendo engagement is old fashion, but normalish. On its own wouldn't be that much strange thing in a series. Shampoo is only
Genma's fault as far as the Kiss of Death is concerned. The Kiss of Marrage is part bad luck, part left field law, and part chaos. So Genma got his
offspring an assassin not a self declared wife there. The Take-out girl is more Genma doing the correct thing. What I mean by that is that the guy has a
starving/hungry man and his baby son come up to him at a fire and ask for a bit of aid, a bit of food and a shared fire. One parable in polytheism in the West
and East covers this kind of situation... the one where say a crone asks for these simple boon of a meal and a nights rest. Turns out the crone is a god(dess)
is disguise and the ones with the supplies/fire/home either rewards or punishs the group/man dependant on his generocity. All Genma did was follow the
fable... unfact he rented his son to the guy for an evening... the guy wanted to take a man's firstborn for a simple meal... worse should have befallen the
creep, at least his gear should have been swiped.

Now when we get to Ukyo's dad it gets odd. Ukyo's father tries to make an engagement between Ukyo and Ranma and Genma flatout refuses... then shortly
afterwards he takes the offer with gusto and ditches the girl. The rather abrupt and spontanious change of attitudes is jolting to me. I've always
wornders if Ukyo's father drugged/cursed Genma here. Up to this point in his life Genma is more or less decent if arrogant man, after that point he does
things like train Ranma in the Nekoken (I still can't remember if he says the last pages where stuck together or that was fanfiction).and eat the Amazon
tournoment prize feast... or go to ancient training grounds on advise of a pamplet in another language. I think there is evidence that something major changed
at that point.

I make this specific post as a gateway into this kind of subject... there is a clear intrest in it, even if a large part is spreading bad fanon. I'm
hardly against altering facets of the canon for a story, but abrupt stupid ill explained changes bother me. As I've stated before Its not changes or
alternate universes or the like that get me, and I think romance is a part of a story... if its the main feature it just manages to be bad, more often than
not. I'm more interested in how someone ends up with someone than that they are with that person. (Besides not being something I particularly want to
read, my main issue with yaoi is that it smothers the plots outside them making out, etc... Which is often true of any fanfiction that lists the romantic
couple(s) in the preview blurb.

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  *whimper*
Posted by: Evil Midnight Lurker - 02-21-2008, 05:11 AM - Forum: The Legendary - Replies (24)

I can barely afford to play WoW and CoH both. There's no way in hell I can add a third MMORPG to my budget.

SO WHY THE HELL DOES CRYPTIC HAVE TO DUMP THIS ON US?!

...If this game pans out, I might have to dump City. Or maybe play them both on alternate months...? [Image: indifferent.gif]

--Sam

"I AM MIGHTY! I have a glow you cannot see! I have a heart as big as the moon, as warm as bathwater!"

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  CSS/HTML Help
Posted by: Bob Schroeck - 02-20-2008, 08:51 PM - Forum: Website - Replies (12)

Yeah, I'm still working on the prototype for the new website look. They're almost ready for prime-time, except I have two questions that I'm hoping someone here can answer.

The first is a CSS question: I want to set the link colors for a style -- specifically the style that does the white text for my copyright notice, so any embedded links in the notice don't do the blue/red thing on the dark green background. I've tried a bunch of things that I found in my research that looked right, but turned out not to be. The style is currently:

/* Define a class for the copyright notice. */
p.copyright {
vertical-align:bottom;
}

Now I've tried

linkcolor:#fff;
vlinkcolor:#fff;

in there but it hasn't worked. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Question two is a (D)HTML query. I want to put a simple Amazon.com search box in the same sidebar. The code from Amazon is very simple:

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=accessdeni ... =qs1&f=ifr

but nothing comes from this. I've tested the src URL by plugging it directly into a browser and gotten the search box, so it's not a broken link. Can anyone give me a clue what might be going on here?

Thanks!
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

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  Sasuke-Sue Revealed
Posted by: Shepherd - 02-20-2008, 06:27 PM - Forum: General Chatter - No Replies

I just saw a link to this in another forum and thought I'd share it.

http://sractheninja.deviantart.com/art/ ... s-63271750
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

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  American Gladiator's Crush is...
Posted by: katreus - 02-20-2008, 11:08 AM - Forum: General Chatter - No Replies

well, crush-worthy.

I'm actually surprised that Valles hasn't heard of her. She reminds me of Rider -- but as a real life person. Crush is mixed martial artist Gina
Carano. She's been a fighter on the MMA circuits, a trainer on Fight Girls teaching muay thai, and now, of course AG. She kicks tons of ass on the AG joust
yet seems down to earth.

Her mouth guard smirk just makes me laugh though.

Here's a youtube link to Gina Carano's fight against a female Thai boxer (pot. NSFW):

Ouch!! O_O Of course, not much better to face her in the joust either:

Edit: Crush Tribute -

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  The New and Improved MechaDeuce! ^_^
Posted by: MechaDeuce - 02-20-2008, 06:47 AM - Forum: The Legendary - Replies (6)

G'day folks! (^_^)

I've been in frank envy of the PPD Hardsuit armour designs since I first saw them in the Brickstown Safeguard mission, so a while back I commissioned Phil
Moy to do a redesign of the MechaDeuce battlesuit and incorporate some of the design features of the PPD Hardsuits.

And so, I give you, MechaDeuce Mark III - POWER ON!

[Image: Mechadeuce-Powerup.jpg]



Oh my GOD I so want this costume in game. *sigh*. ^_^

Later!

Bert V.V. (Aka SkyKnight/MechaDeuce)

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  Belldandy can sing *anything*, right?
Posted by: robkelk - 02-20-2008, 04:42 AM - Forum: Drunkard's Walk V: Another Divine Mess You've Gotten Me Into - Replies (2)

There's currently a discussion going on over on Usenet about cooking references in anime. This of course lead to somebody mentioning Belldandy singing http://www.tertiary.net/drop/20-The_Egg_Song.mp3]the Egg Song.

In reply, "sanjian" posted this:

Quote:I just imagined Belldandy singing My Omelett, from Dragon Half. Somebody had better accept responsibility for that.

 
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

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  All alone in the dark...
Posted by: SkyeFire - 02-20-2008, 03:46 AM - Forum: Future Steps - Replies (10)

One of the advantages of being multilingual was that one could pick the best language for a given situation. This late at night,
on the border between Blue and Brown sectors after being dragged out of bed for what had turned out to be a complete non-event, called for profanity. And if
ever any human language had been optimized for wearily cursing the universe's neverending campaign to destroy what little remained of Susan's sanity,
her native Russian was it.

She had just rounded a corner in the deserted corridor, mind more fixated on reaching the nearest lift and getting back to her
cold and empty (but at least soft) bed than on her surroundings when it happened. Mere meters ahead of her, a sudden shimmer in the air, like a solid heat
haze, blurred the corridor for a moment before splitting apart like a theater curtain, opening onto a momentary sight that reminded her jarringly of the view
through a jump point.

Then a machine shot out of the opening, hit the deckplates, and plunged towards her on two narrow wheels with the whine of some
of king of engine Dopplering in her ears. Combat-honed reflexes dulled by shock and sleep deprivation, she stumbled backwards, slammed into the bulkhead, and
had just enough time to realize that there was no way she could dive down the angle of the corridor quickly enough--

-- before the howling machine screeched to a stop mere inches from running her down, leaving dark streaks on the decking and
probably giving its rider whiplash, judging from how his head snapped back and forth.

...the rider. The machine was an archaic -motorcycle-, Susan realized belatedly, which meant... "GARIBALDI!!! YOU'RE A
DEAD M--"

Her voice cut off as several facts finally registered in her brain.

??????: The motorcycle's rider was the wrong size and shape to be Michael Garibaldi.

??????: Despite the full-body protective suit, the open-faced helmet and goggles still left the rider's chin visible, and
that was definitely -not- Garibaldi's jawline. It was too clean-shaven, for one thing.

??????, and most important: Whatever near-tecnomagery the Security chief might be capable of when in pursuit of ever greater and
grander pranks (usually aimed at herself), teleportation wasn't one of them.

Not to mention the fact that for the past five seconds it had taken her to work through all this, the nameless rider, whom she
now realized was -strapped- to his machine, had hung limp and unmoving as a rag doll, either unconscious or--

She steeled herself and reached out to carefully poke one pale cheek below the goggles. Clammy, but warm. She dangled her hand
in front of his face and was rewarded with the sensation of shallow but steady respiration drifting past her fingers.

Great. She rolled her eyes upwards. "I don't know what I did to deserve this, but are you sure I was -that-
bad?"

There was, of course, no reply. Fortunately, her native tongue had a perfect word for this situation as well:
"Nichevo," she sighed, and activated her Link.

"C&C, this is Ivanova."

The response was startled. "Commander? What are you doing up?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Don't ask, Corwin. Call Chief Garibaldi and Doctor Franklin. Tell them I need them and an
incident team at--" she stopped to double-check the wall markers. "At Brown Twenty-Seven, Section Eighteen. ASAP."

"Um, Commander, I'm pretty sure they're both asleep, and I know the Chief had a bad day--" Corwin sounded less
than enthused at the idea of of waking the cantankerous head of security, which roused scant sympathy in Susan's heart. If -she- were going to have to pull
an all-nighter, then she might as damned well share the joy. "I don't care what kind of day he had," she cut the lieutenant off. "I want
them both down here, NOW. And don't worry," she added with just a bit of cheerful malice, "we'll be pulling in the Commander pretty soon
too."

"Yes, ma'am." Corwin somehow managed to sound brisk, efficient, and like a man being lead before a firing squad
all at the same time.

"Ivanova out." She killed the Link and propped her hands on her hips, glaring at the latest Weird Thing to hit Epsilon
Sector's infamous Weird Magnet (known officially as Babylon 5). Just one more damn thing that proved that the universe was out to get -her-, personally,
that's what it was. Just one... more....

Irritation gave way to bemusement. The motorcycle's engine had shut off after it stopped, the rider's legs were limp was
wet noodles, and she could see that the, uh, kick-stilt? Leg-strut? The whateveryoucallit that was supposed to hold the motorcycle upright... wasn't. So
-why- wasn't the darn thing tipping over?

"Who -are- you," she murmured, wide eyed. "And why are you -here-?"

If some stroke of divine precognition had given her the answer to those questions just then, Lieutenant Commander Susan
Ivanonva, Earthforce, second-in-command of Babylon 5, would have run for the cobra bays and taken her Starfury straight through the jumpgate on a course Away
From Here at the fighter's best possible speed. But since that would not have suited the whims of the universe, or the designs of the Powers directing the
path of the motorcycle's nameless rider, she was left in a state of blissful, if potentially lethal, ignorance.

For a little while longer, at least....

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