Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

**Squee!**

I have been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles almost before I can remember. XD; I recall getting a TV Guide in 1990 that had show previews and included it (and they were on the cover). That may have been my first exposure to them; I'm not sure. But I've been a fan at least ever since then. XD;

I actually remember very little of the old TV show now, except for a later episode that I always seemed to catch. LOL. And all I remember of it is something about some troubled kid on a motorcycle and Donny getting pushed and the other Turtles running to help him while calling his name.

No, the main thing I grew up on was the first movie. I watched it over and over. There was a time when I watched it every night before I went to bed. XD; I couldn't get enough. And all the way back then, I had recently begun to explore my love of h/c. And then, the movie had so much. o.o Leo and Raph having their conflict, and Raph getting hurt later in a battle with the Foot Clan, and Leo sitting and keeping vigil over him while waiting for him to wake up.... ;___; LOVE.

I rewatched the movie several years ago and still loved it, but the one thing that bugged me was having Donny be as much of a goof, or moreso, than Mikey. Donny is supposed to be logical, not a screwball!

I also grew up on one lone special issue of the Archie comic, the one where they fight the Grog aliens. X3 More love.

Anyway.... When the 2003 series came out, I didn't watch immediately; I think I got on board during first or second season reruns. I know a lot of fans of the original TV show hate it, but I loved it. It was darker, grittier, deeper...! The first season used a lot of plot points from the first movie (which probably came from the original Mirage comics, to which the new series has closer ties than the older show). Plus, a lot of the voices sounded similar to the way they did in the movie. Raph, Splinter, and Casey especially.

(Oh yeah, Casey? A beef I have with the old show. XD; He was barely in it! And when he was, I heard he was basically made to be an idiot. **headdesk.** But luckily, I grew up with intelligent Casey from the first movie.)

I was interested when I heard about the fourth movie going to be made. But I didn't get the chance to see it in theatres. I finally saw it today, though, after an odd series of events including seeing it in Wal-Mart last week, not buying it, and then dreaming about buying it a couple days later. So ... I did.

It took me just a few minutes to adjust to the CGI people (not a big fan of cartoony-looking 3D people here), and neither the Turtles or Casey were quite as buff as I thought they should be, but the story drew me in soon enough. LOL, I read that someone involved with making the movie wanted to prove that animated movies aren't all about "characters running into each other and passing gas." I had to laugh, because honestly, that's largely how a lot of recent animated movies look to me from the previews. But that's another rant. (And of course I realize there are some excellent recent animated movies that don't rely on stupid bathroom humor to run.)

I *love* this movie! It's dark, deep, but has its light-hearted moments too. I can see the influence of both the previous movies and the 2003 series, and judging from some reviews I saw around the time the movie came out, it appealed to fans of the original TV show too. And the Winters character ... fascinating. He reminds me of Dartz, both canonically and the Dartz from my fics.

Leo and Raph have more conflicts. I love the rocky relationship between those two. If characters are often at odds (or if it's not necessarily shown a lot, but it's still considered a staple of the characters), I really like exploring the reasons why/their clashing personalities/etc. Of course, if characters don't often fight, like Mikey and Don don't, then I do not like to see it much at all. XD; Donny is the scientific one again, as he should be, and Mikey is a goof, of course, but he doesn't annoy me like he usually does on the TV show. XD;;

My only serious complaint about the movie: I wish it had been longer. There were some things I would have loved to seen expanded on more. Is there a novelization? If so, I must have it!

My next TMNT-related mission: get The Secret of the Ooze movie. I remember the Thanksgiving Friday when it aired on TV. "Forget the turkey and turn on the Turtles!" LOL. And I don't think I forgot the turkey, but I did turn on the Turtles. XD Even my mom got a kick out of the scene where they're fighting bad guys in the nightclub and Vanilla Ice is rapping on the stage, trying to make the audience believe it's all part of the show. **snarks.**

This has been a productive weekend. Candy Clouds called to me and I answered, and wrote two chapters. Of course, I had two scenes already written for chapter 6, but still it was a lot of writing to get done in such a short amount of time. The songs for the chapters were "The Mummer's Dance" and "Jillian," respectively. And another character got involved. XD;

On Sunday evening our next-door neighbor came over with a belated holiday present: a chocolate chip nut bread for the family, and a little plush ladybug for me. ^^ I told her a couple of years back that I like ladybugs, and she's given me some ladybug related things since then. This plushie is so cute! I didn't even know they made ladybug plushies, though I did see a ladybug pillow at Wal-Mart. I think my plushie is much cuter than the pillow, though. XD

And dang. . . . Siegfried, that scoundrel. He intrigues me so much. I was trying to write up a piece in my essay about why that is, but I don't think it's coming out right. I have trouble putting it into words without it looking silly. He just seems so real to me, and I wonder if part of the reason for that is because he doesn't use magic and isn't connected with it in any way. I don't relate well to magic, so maybe Siegfried's use of technology and him not having a past life makes him someone I can relate to better. I think overall, he and Alister are the two characters I relate to most. I like to say that Siegfried is a jerk and stubborn as a jackass (meaning the animal and not an idiot), but not a demon.

Also, I keep being fascinated by having Siegfried interact with Tazi. XD I wonder what Tazi really thinks of him. I can see how she seems to feel on the surface, and it looks like she dislikes him even more than Yaminah does, but I wonder what she actually thinks. Siegfried keeps showing her different sides of his personality, and I think she's getting confused. XD One night he gets her out of a skyscraper that's burning (in an attempt to do a Towering Inferno RP), and then a couple of days later he ends up dying from poisoning and his spirit hangs around Tazi that night because she's the only one who can hear him. He's rather sad and melancholy for some of that time (he's worried about Leonhard), even though he also teases her a great deal. He likes to tease her, because he knows she'll react. XD Mina he doesn't tease, because he can see that she's more quiet and tolerant, and he probably likes her better, too. He's more willing to drop his facade around her.

I also started a Dartz one-shot. The idea has come to me several times, but never as strongly as now. This is one of those things that must be written. But I don't want to say what it's about until I see how it's coming. Suffice it to say, I think my idea is quite original. It involves one of the adventures Dartz had while wandering all over Earth for ten thousand years.

Question of the day: Why does Dartz wear a pendant with the Orichalcos symbol before he was even corrupted by the Orichalcos? Yesterday morning I went looking at pictures from the flashback in episode 178 in order to find a picture of Phiona, and I noticed that Dartz wore that darned pendant when he was ruler of Atlantis. **is confused.**

You know, playing Siegfried is really fun. XD; He's so delightfully devious and enjoys being difficult with people. I also decided that it's probably very hard to charm him and that if you try to flirt with him, he'll only flirt right back and will refuse to be captivated. He has a certain air of dignity and nobility about him, but if he doesn't like you, then watch out. **laughs.** And he isn't above calling some people clowns or fools if he feels like it. Face it, he acts like an arrogant, vain jerk. But he loves his brother. =3 Leonhard is probably the only person he really cares about, other than himself. (Haha.) We know so little about him, and that's probably one of the things that intrigues me about him, same as with the Doom bikers. There's just so many possibilities as to what he's like and what made him who he is. And he's just so darn misunderstood, and of course, if a character is misunderstood, the chance is that I'll be drawn to him.

Within Temptation is such an awesome band. I wish they were more well-known! **sniffle.** I still can't ever find anything of theirs over here, but I can find Nightwish. **pets her Mother Earth album from Stacey.** I was just listening to it again. There's just so many great songs, and they're so deep! American music rarely has that kind of depth.

EDIT: If anyone is interested, I created a community for just about the only canon pairing in YGO (and my favorite): Pegasus/Cecelia. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=pegsandcecelia I tried to name the thing "Even in Death", which fits so well, but it was already in use. -__-; I am amused by my message about trolls. XD Aubrie can be credited for the idea. Well, her and Hellsing.

XD; I really had a giggle fit an hour or so ago. I read detailed summaries of the Hellsing episodes and a couple of uncompleted fanfics with the AlucardXIntegra pairing, and then Aubrie and I talked about it for a bit. Eventually we wandered into the randomness of Alucard at a business meeting and Seto coming in as Alucard was drinking people's blood. Then Aubrie mentioned that she might have dreams of Seto and Alucard having business meetings, and that really set me off. XD; Good thing I didn't wake anyone up. ^^; I really must go to bed, though. I know I need to when I start laughing at everything.

I had really wanted to finish the blurb I was writing, though, so I calmed down and worked on it. I started it a week or so ago, but hadn't done anything more, and since the urge came on me now, I decided I should grab the opportunity. I really like how this came out, but it's so sad. **sniffle.**


( Losing a father )


We might be going out later. I need to pick up what's on hold at the county library (which is probably one of the Twelve Kingdoms volumes I ordered). ^^;

List 5 reasons why you are a dork. And make them good reasons. Justify them. Explain them. Be loud and proud of how big a dork you are! Then pick the 5 biggest dorks you know and have them do the same.

1. I am a hurt/comfort junkie. Always have been, always will be. **whispers.** Though I don't like random h/c that's just there to move the plot along and doesn't have a real purpose. I hate when I get so bored that I actually use that twist myself. ^^;

2. I love to collect things, especially YGO shirts and figures. There haven't been a lot of either lately that I've been interested in, though.

3. I don't know whether this is evident of being a dork or not, but I love details and philosophical things and psychological things. X3 Journeys into characters' minds and beliefs is extremely fascinating to me. Sometimes I even learn things about myself along the way.

4. I adore the Internet. I can feel free to express my true self and meet like-minded people.

5. I adore some of my OCs too much sometimes. XD Nothing can come of them, since they're fan characters for YGO, but I adore them anyway. **cuddles Alexander.** So cute!

**shrugs.** And anyone who thinks of herself (or himself) as a dork can choose to do this.

I got the manga for The Cat Returns today. It's quite different from the movie. I think Haru's relationship with Muta is cuter and more developed in the movie, as well as her relationship with the Baron, but her relationship with Yuki is much better in the manga. So I'm definitely happy to have it as a companion piece to the movie.

I was looking at Saiyuki mangas, and I realized how lucky I am that the F-word wasn't in volume six. It's in all three of the following volumes. XD; I think maybe I'll concentrate on the anime version.

And I think I'm starting to convert Lisa to being a Saiyuki fan. X3 She watched the first DVD and seemed to enjoy it. ^___^

... Come this fall, KidsWB is going to have a show about talking fruit, among other odd shows. What the HECK?! **weeps.** I do believe its programming is going down the drain. When I first was up watching the shows three years ago, I watched almost the whole block on KidsWB. Now I prefer the Fox Box, save for YGO.

Speaking of YGO, the episode earlier was 179. That one is so heartbreaking, when Dartz reveals the truth behind what happened to Raph and the others. Raphael just looked so shattered! **cuddles him.** I actually felt sorry for Dartz, too, that he was so delusional. One thing I still am not sure of is whether he was only influenced by the Orichalcos or whether it actually took over his mind completely and controlled him. The dub gives the latter explanation, but I dunno how well I can trust that. XD; I've heard both things.

Here's the scene that's been in my mind all weekend. XD; It amuses me, especially the last part.


( Pleased to meet you (not!) )

Look at my Alister icon! Isn't it purty? Awww, poor Alister. **cuddles him.**

I loved the Jackie Chan episodes today. ^^ It really did seem like a series finale, the way they brought back all the old villains the way they did. It was really awesome! They had to revive Shendu to come fight his son. XD And Section 13 collapsed and they thought Tohru had died at one point, because he had been inside. ;__; And there was this cute part where Hak Fu was holding Jade. XD I loved that. And the Enforcers were around, helping Uncle briefly, but then went to get hot dogs during the big fight at a ballpark. Valmont even made a cameo appearance. He was on a bus that nearly went over the bridge. Jackie recognized him, but he hurriedly pulled his hat down and his collar up and fled. It made me wanna write a Valmont fic, but I doubt I'd ever get around to that. XD;

... Is it my imagination, or were Ice and his gang a lot cooler/smarter than the original Enforcers ever were? ^^; At least Drago (is it Drago or Draco? I can't ever remember which) got wise and kicked the Enforcers out after only one episode. XD; That's when he found Ice-tachi, instead. All of the other villains kept the Enforcers around, in spite of their idiocy.

I also got an idea for a new plot twist to use in Life After the Tears. I opened the chapter with that scene. Kudos to anyone who figures out who it's about! **includes a quick segment.**


( Haunted )


Now I've gone on to writing the scene where Alister brings Valon home. That's gonna be interesting. . . .

I don't like Netscape version 8. ><; It's not nearly as good as version 7.2. It makes Hotmail work all weird and won't take me to the correct page when I hit the Back button. That's only on Hotmail. Everything else works okay. But I'm actually considering reinstalling the older version of Netscape. It was so much better. . . . It's odd when they try to improve something, only to find that the new version is worse than the old one. That's how it is with WordPerfect, too. The only good version of it is 6.1. Everything beyond that is irritating.

Lisa and I did a cool RP tonight. ^^ Hopefully we'll get to talk/RP a lot over the next week. The main people I RP with are all away. I like RPing with Lisa and I wish we could do it more often. ^^ She plays a great, cute Valon.

I've been thinking about this for a while, ever since someone made a comment about fantasy writers being realists. I agree with the statement. I know that I, for one, am a realist. I know that the world is often cruel and cold and that things often don't go the way you want. People die, friends drift apart, etc etc. That's exactly why I write the way I do, because I'd prefer to create a little place where things actually do go right in the end, since it rarely happens in real life. XD; And you know, it's strange. I was musing to myself about what things would depress me the most and I think the answer is friends going their separate ways. I'm not sure even death would depress me as much as that, if the death was portrayed in a noble, beautiful way. (Though, technically, if someone dies, they're certainly going a separate way from their family and friends. XD; Character death definitely does depress me, but I'm wondering if friends all staying alive but going different ways depresses me more.) That's why I'm so anti-romance, I think, because if girls came in and interfered with the bikers and they all wound up with girlfriends, then they'd probably all get married and move away to various locations. They wouldn't see as much of each other, nor would they have much time for each other anymore. That's how it generally goes in real life, even if the people don't intend for it to happen. Sure, they'd still feel as close to each other, but they wouldn't be all that each other would have anymore. And I'm just in love with the idea of the three of them being a surrogate family. XD; In my little universe, I don't intend for anything to separate them, including death, for that matter. **smile.** It's my little escape from the real world and I'm entitled to that, just as romance lovers are entitled to what they want. **shrug.** I don't have to agree with them, nor they with me.

I had to go fix a glitch with my library card on Tuesday. I found that I couldn't place holds online and it was annoying. A librarian tried to fix it over the phone, but it didn't take, so we had to go in. It turned out that they had actually forgotten to replace the old card's barcode with the new one's. O__o;; **shakes head.** It's fixed now, though.

Afterward Dad let me investigate the new Star Wars stuff at Toys R Us. Then I bought Enya's A Day Without Rain album at ShopKo in hopes for inspiration on Candy Clouds, as Enya seems to bring about much inspiration for that. XD; We also went to Dollar Tree (where I bought new headphones, as the others conked out without warning on Saturday and I had to borrow Dad's, and sunglasses, as the sun was bothering me) and Wal-Mart (where I bought some more black nailpolish, as I'd run out, and the paperback version of the Star Wars Episode 1 adaption. Yes, I like the prequels). I still want to go to Borders, but we weren't really near it on Tuesday and it was getting late, so I wanted to get home.

Did I mention that our TV is so awesome? It has a headphone jack. >3 So I always watch TV with headphones. It's my own private little world. I can watch stuff in peace without waking people up. **smile.**

And I must mention this: I'm so proud. XD; I've been getting my durned math problems done correctly without having to ask for help as much. I completed the rest of the section myself and now I'm working on the exam. ^^ Then I'll only have two more books to wade through. ^^; Of math, that is.

Some idiot actually posted a poll at Janime's on whether Alister is a guy or a girl. O__o;;; After all this time, you'd think it'd be obvious! There's three pages (last I checked) of people trying to set the person straight. LOL.

And the other night I was watching a tape of Yami Y's duel with Noa, and I dunno why it happened right then, but I got remembering my pic of Alister as the Cyber Commander and I wanted to draw the other bikers as Duel Monsters characters. I knew right away that I wanted Shine Angel for Raphael (though I didn't know the name of the card at first), and later on I decided to add Dartz and have him be Witty Phantom (hey, they both wear purple suits. LOL), but I couldn't figure out what I wanted for Valon. I knew I wanted a Warrior card, and one that would allow his hair to show, but I couldn't think of anything. Someone at Janime's suggested Marauding Captain and I decided to try it. ^^ Currently that picture is half-finished. XD; I did the Raphie pic, though. I love how it came out. And I have a plot bunny to go with the pics, something involving someone sending them into a Shadow Game where they're those card characters.

I also have a plot bunny involving a couple coming and claiming to be Valon's parents. o.o That should be interesting. I dunno whether I want them to be a couple of con artists and not related to him, or for them to be a couple of con artists and to be related to him, though. XD; I figure Valon's real parents were probably jerks, if they're alive. I made up a thing where they purposely abandoned him when he was little. So saaad!

I finally did chapter 6 of the mystery fic yesterday morning. I still haven't figured out what should happen to Runi, though. And now I should work on chapter four of Candy Clouds. ^^;

I loved the episodes on Saturday, but the first one, of course, made me sad. XD; Still, as I speculated in my biker club, I think things had to end the way they did to be the best for all included, especially Alister. He needed time alone to ponder and sort out his feelings of anger and pain. If he had won, that most likely wouldn't have happened. Besides, we need Seto badly in the plotline at the moment. XD; The second episode was great, especially when Seto and Yami Y get surrounded by Duel Monsters. "I think you're nuts, but this isn't really the time for an argument." Classic line. And oh yeah! Poor Raphael. He was so upset when Dartz told him about Alister and was so blasé about things. I hope they haven't taken out the part where Raphael wants Valon to duel on Alister's behalf. . . . **hopes that will be at the beginning of the next episode.** Raphael did call Valon, but they had such a short conversation that it doesn't seem there would have been time for Raphael to say what he wanted. And he did say, "Valon, wait!" as the brunette was hanging up, so maybe he intended to tell him then and will call back at the beginning of the next episode. XD;

I just posted chapter 17 of Crimes for Christmas. I'm really proud of this one. ^^; It's got an interesting scene with Mai and Valon, which is interrupted by the arrival of the next disaster. XD; But I know how to finish up the scene that was started! =3 I'm looking forward to writing that piece. In fact, maybe I'll just type it down quickly in WordPad before I forget it.

I think we're going out later today to take something to my nephew. If so, I must buy some more blank tapes at Big Lots. **hugs Big Lots.** They have big brand name tapes for only ninety-eight cents each.

Oh yeah. ><; This person emailed me and asked which mystery story it was when Marik had amnesia. I told her Stolen Memories and then she went "Is that a story? -__-" I'm not sure whether she was just being rude and meaning "That was a story?! It was pointless!" or if she was just meaning something like "What kind of title is that?!" or if it was something else. It mildly irritated me, though. I replied something along the lines of "That is the name of the story, my dear. There is no need for faces of exasperation."