I come from a land down under, where beer does flow and men chunder

[thorne_scratch]

Going to replace the music soon, so if you still wanted any from the last post, grab it. Other than that, not much interesting to say. But there’s a lot of it!

Comments

[shadow_shimmer]

I used you as a vague example in class today, btw, in the context of a post WWII Europe lecture. As in: "I know of people who have gone to the Czech Rebulic recently, and seem to have emerged largely unscathed."

Also, hit me with the swimporn pairings. :)

[thorne_scratch]

Hooray! I’m famous! Sort of! Yeah, it’s an interesting country, I recommend it.

You know, the fun thing about contemplating swimporn pairings is that it really isn’t arbitrary mix and match; if you’re sticking with trying to stay semi-realistic, you have to figure out who actually interacts with who on a regular, semi-regular, once a year, or once every four year basis

[thorne_scratch]

For all that Thorpe/Phelps is the most mainstream and well-known pairing, I haven’t managed to really finish much for it, although it is the majority of my swimming WsIP. I get distracted easily. Huh. I guess I like the pairing partially because it was the first one drawn to my attention (imprinting, dude) and partially because it’s a nice mix-up of a bunch of different kinks. (And, in a way, partially out of self-preservation. It’s easier to be satisfied in fandom if you can manage to like a mainstream or popular pairing, as opposed to the rare pairings. Not that I don’t like rare pairings as well, it’s just nice to be able to have a better chance at finding something to read

[shadow_shimmer]

Wow. I'd forgotten the Inge/Brooke. That was so amazing. You don't happen to have it handy, do you? *big eyes*

Also, I feel you on the Ian/Pieter thing.

I wrote a lot of Ian/Michael and I enjoyed it, actually. It was an easy pairing to make work. Like Michael/Aaron, which is still my default.

And actually, I very much like the humor in your swimporn. It's a breath of fresh air. Particularly by the end, there, the fandom seemed to have succumed to post-Olympics depression. ;)

[zenkatsuo]

After all my tales of woe about the difficulty of english it probably won't fly to claim it's not such a hard language to master. German is much tougher despite its similarity. Just having some grasp of Rammstein lyrics is cause for celebration.

...Have you ever seen Due South? Or The Invisible Man? Uum.

[thorne_scratch]

Heh. I hope I master my English someday; it'd be kind of sad if I didn't seeing as it's pretty much the only language I speak fluently! I think the issue is, as some folks above have pointed out, that English is still very much a language without clear rules, and is constantly changing anyway, which is why I think it's got a good stake on being one of the difficult ones. But of course, being who I am, I've automatically got a bias to my point of view.

Hmm. I know vaguely of Due South but I've never seen it; and I'm wholly unfamiliar with the INvisible Man, unfortunately. Pick something else?

[zenkatsuo]

People wouldn't know I study general linguistics if I didn't scream curses at the Dutch every time the english language bites me in the ass. And with a lot more martial vigor than I curse the Japanese people for incorporating all the difficult gay kanji into their writing system from the Chinese.
Those Dutch were a sick bunch.
I am, of course, too biased, but some linguist just refuted the hardness of finnish as a national myth, which is a damn dirty lie.

I'm not sure if I should be happy or sorry for you for not seeing them. They are both very gay and full of crack. The Invisible Man I recommend from the bottom of my heart.
I don't suppose you've seen any Black Adder... Ack, as a rule, if it's somewhat stupid or gay (and I've seen it) I most probably love it. Hey, what about JAG?

[thorne_scratch]

I scream curses at the Dutch just for fun! Well, no, not really. And yeah, I side with Chinese over Japanese; I'm sort of obligated to.

I'll check 'em both out. I have seen some JAG and Black Adder, but I don't really have any ships from there or any real opinions. Bother. Uh. Hmm. Maybe we should try movies. Or books. But I'm sure there's a tv show we've both seen that I can talk about. I mean, if worst comes to worst, I'll talk Oz or something.

[missliddell]

Re: gifting of jade ring. It's customary for the mother-in-law to gift the daughter-in-law with an "heirloom" (usually a piece of jewellery). Jade and gold are common, because they are regarded to be auspicious and you know, will probably make you pop out babies by the dozens, hur, or something. Jade earrings and bangles are common. They probably went with a ring to make it more contemporary. (My mother got earrings.)

[/random!]

Also: CSI! =D

[thorne_scratch]

always really gung-ho for us to learn about both side’s of the family’s cultural traditions, so I’m all down with the jade at weddings and red envelopes at new year and a whole bunch of other things that I’m pretty certain no Chinese-American family actually pays attention to anymore but that my family still insists on following. My confusion on the whole deal mostly was rooted in the fact that I (as second poorest member of the family at the moment) had to buy the damn ring. I’m not ignorant, just cheap. Well, usually not ignorant. Sometimes. Kind of. Let’s move on

[thorne_scratch]

Huh, part of my comment cut off. There should be part of a sentence there at the beginning say, "No, no, I've been to enough weddings on my dad's side and my mom was always--"

How bizarre. I AM ignorant.

[squeemu]

I owe you two comments! Just so you know that I haven't forgotten, I mean, I don't want any more entries about me in your Locked Journal of Spite than need to be there.

Anyway, this week has been the week where all the homework I've been ignoring jumps me and drags me towards the river. ALL THE WHILE EYEING MY NICE WATCH AND SHANKING MY LEGS. I have millions of papercuts now, all of them below my knees.

/crazy

[thorne_scratch]

Hooray! Squeemu comments are my fuel.And of course I haven't made any entries about you lately in my Locked Journal of Spite. I mean, using a loose interpretation of "any" as "seventeen."

That seriously seems like a horrible fate. Millions of papercuts below the knees? Shit, that's harsh. That's another fate for Akio right there. The Million Papercuts of Humanity's Homework.

If your homework takes your watch, I am going to have to fight your homework. I called dibs.

[squeemu]

Three comments I owe you, now. I am keeping track!

The Million Papercuts of Humanity's Homework.

LMAO. God, that wouldn't be just a million, it'd be a trillion. Bazillion. Can you imagine all of humanity's homework? That's some serious shit, man. You don't want to mess with that.

My teacher won't believe my excuse for late homework. "See, a friend wanted my watch and then killed my homework, and -- wait, no, I can prove it! Look at all of these papercuts, I -- no, come back!"

zombie meme!

[shati]

SKU! And I don't know how much of BtVS you've seen, but if enough, that too. And LoTR!

Ummmm, or you could pick one. I am too cool for narrowing down.

Re: zombie meme!

[thorne_scratch]

Oh, man, SKU. I don’t think I really have a pairing that I disapprove of in SKU. I mean, nothing is out of bounds, is it? One thing I mentioned in someone else’s journal while commenting on this meme was that it’s really one big ship where everyone sleeps with everyone, even (and especially!) when they shouldn't.

One thing that intrigues me about the show is that we’ve got, what, at least three canonical incest relationships? Het incest relationships. But even though nearly all the incest pairings make me go "Ook," I can't help watching them anyway because they’re fascinating in their different motivations. Incest isn’t just an attention getter here; all of them make sense in their motivations, twisted as they are. They're not all the same. Nanami doesn't dig Touga the same way Kouzue digs Miki, or the same way Akio and Anthy play out their game. And that fascinates me

Re: zombie meme!

[shati]

Oh, totally. I think the ultimate 'ship is: Akio/

I think I’ll just try to sum SKU up with the fact that there is no pairing in there that I probably couldn’t find somewhat feasible.

Seriously. It's almost frustrating, because one of my favorite hobbies is having "who can think up the most horrific pairing" (Dumbledore/Ginny/a lemon drop!) and SKU renders it redundant. "Akio/his car!" "Canon." "Akio/his stepmother!" "Canon, dude." "Everyone/everyone/everyone's sister." "Yup, still canon." "Mikage/the frog!" "Probably canon."

Nanami doesn't dig Touga the same way Kouzue digs Miki, or the same way Akio and Anthy play out their game. And that fascinates me.

Huh. True. I tend to assume that Anthy/Akio is the original incest-shaped crack in the collective psyche of Ohtori, and that Touga/Nanami and Kozue/Miki are sort of . . . reflections. Ripples. But they are not the same relationship. I suspect I'm not making sense anymore, but THAT'S CANON TOO.

Re: zombie meme!

[thorne_scratch]

Um, BtVS. Hmm. I liked Tara a lot, although I’m not so fond of Willow. But they were cute together in a fuzzy lesbian sort of way, so not liking it would be like shanking puppies or something. I kinda hated Kennedy.

I think Riley was kind of a tool. I think Spike/Buffy was complicated but interesting; I never really got into the Angel/Buffy thing but I can certainly see it and respect it. I like Buffy/Faith because it’s so fucking complicated. I can actually almost get behind Xander and Buffy in a post-series way. I think Spike/Angel is cool and likable for all their history and married-couple bickering together.

I liked Jonathan, Andrew, and Warren being tools together, and even though it ends in stabbings, I like Jonathan and Andrew being geeks together. Poor Jonathan, you were my favorite.

As for LotR, I think my favorite pairing would be Eowyn/Faramir, even though I don’t consider anyone good enough for Eowyn. (Except me. No, I kid. But she’s my favorite. Stupid Aragorn, what were you thinking