Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So I finally admitted in the U.N.C.L.E. comm that I don’t see Napoleon as a chronic bed-hopper even though he certainly loves a pretty face and is a serial dater. What I didn’t say was that if I really thought he was a bed-hopper like James Bond, I doubt I would be attracted to him or find him appealing at all. Part of the reason why Napoleon appeals to me is because I’ve always had the impression that he’s a more moral person than James Bond. I don’t like James Bond because he’s a chronic bed-hopper. I do like Roger Moore, and yet when it comes to Bond, there’s just an automatic turn-off. No attraction.

(Years ago, when I was experimenting with walking more on the wild side, probably because I liked how impressed someone seemed to be when I did it, I had a character who was kind of a bed-hopper and that continued even after he became seriously involved with one particular person. That was gross. We never wrote out any bedroom scenes or anything like that, but it was always known what he was doing. I couldn't do that now, especially the continuing with playing the field even after starting a serious relationship. I would be totally uncomfortable, especially if the character was very important to the story as he was in those role-plays. I would also be uncomfortable with the character having a big role since he was a big-time crime boss and very unrepentant. If I ever get my novel off the ground, he will either have a very reduced role, not be a bed-hopper, or possibly both.)

Speaking of Roger Moore, though, it’s interesting how I can be totally obsessed with him for a while and then it fades and while I still like the characters, there doesn’t seem to be much, if any, crushing. That’s happened more than once. I wonder if that means he’s more on the fringes of my darlings instead of smack-dab with them. With all the rest, there is constant crushing on the characters when I see them even if there isn’t a constant, serious obsession with them/the actors.

I think a lot of why it faded this time was because of Simon Templar, actually. I like the character, but I am one of the few who prefers the color episodes to the B&Ws. There were a lot of B&W episodes I hadn’t seen before and then they finally released the DVD sets of those seasons and I snapped them up. In the B&W episodes, Simon seems rather sexist sometimes. And I know that was likely largely a product of the times and has to be looked at in that way, but Simon by his very nature is an anachronistic person. I think that even in the present-day, Simon would probably have some sexist ideas and feel that women are silly worrying things that need to keep out of the men’s worlds and stick to their own place. The book Simon is a lot more that way, I think, but the TV version has some of it too. I hadn’t seen some of the worst offending episodes of that sort before and when I did, they were kind of a turn-off. The most sickening episode of all was the more humorous Luella. Everyone was unlikable there, from Simon to his friend to his friend's wife. I think those views aren't expressed as much in the color episodes. Or maybe possibly Simon matured beyond such views. I should have been watching the color episodes on MeTV once they came around to them again. I keep longing for a new DVD release of all the color episodes, but I’m not sure they’re going to release separately from the boxset. I'd better watch my scant few color episodes again; maybe that will cool things a bit and I'll like Simon more again.

I still love Beau Maverick and was thrilled to see a couple of his episodes I’ve never seen before when Cozi showed them. The Town That Wasn’t There was sooo good and establishes why Beau is my favorite Maverick. It starts out seeming that he’s being a selfish prick, but throughout the episode he grows to honestly be fond of the people he’s with and sincerely wants to help them. He even turns down $10,000 when accepting it would have hurt one of those people. He then comments to himself something like that his uncle would send him back to England if he knew.

(Honestly, I really don’t like Beau’s uncle. He treats Beau like crap and most of the sayings he gives sound really selfish. And yet when he actually appeared on-screen, he acted more like Bret and the others in that he seemed to try to help people, so I ended up torn on what to think of him. Although it also seemed like he mostly helped because he liked giving the finger to the bad guys rather than because he wanted to help the people who were being hurt. When I write about him in stories I try to be kind, since even when I don't like certain characters I try to examine them from all angles within the contexts of the stories unless they're meant to be out-and-out villains and don't need to be examined more closely. Part of me seriously wants him to just flat-out not care about Beau since he treats him so rotten, but I always try to instead stress that he's just worried about Beau doing something that will get him hurt or killed. Although the $10,000 thing makes me question that idea.)

I think Lord Sinclair may be my favorite Roger character. Part of me would like to say that my Roger Bond figure is Lord Sinclair, as I think he’s the one I want the figure to be the most, but I feel I can’t since I don’t have a Tony Curtis figure to be Danny. Sacrilege! If I had a Tony Curtis figure that’s around 6 inches, my Roger figure would totally be Lord Sinclair. I don’t suppose there is such a thing as a Tony Curtis figure? Sigh.

So I was supposed to report to be screened for jury duty today. But the case settled out of court, I suppose, as the trial was cancelled. No need to report in, I was told.

I'm relieved to not have to go in so unbearably early, but I really kind of wanted the money. In this state, they give you almost $20 just for showing up, and if they pick you, it's close to $50 a day in court.

And I have to admit that with my love of old lawyer shows, I kind of liked the idea of being involved in a legal proceeding. Of course, I was also concerned at the thought of having to decide someone's fate. Although if it was a civil and not a criminal matter, that would ease a lot of the pressure there, I imagine.

I've been doing a lot of writing for work this week, as a whole bunch of stuff came in that I felt capable of handling. I've been scrambling to get together enough spare money for both my boy Ponies and for Luna, whom I'm hoping to buy today when we go out to run other errands. This would be the best time to get her, I'm thinking. Then tomorrow I should be able to pay the seller for the boy Ponies, when I'm able to get the money for my writing projects. Due to my coupon, and some money from surveys, I already pretty much had enough for Luna, just not both boy Ponies.

Of course, I'd never want to leave the seller waiting longer than necessary, so if I wasn't able to get enough for everything, I would not get Luna now and instead I'd take my current money and add it to the money I'm getting and pay the seller. But I did a lot of jobs for a client whom I recall tries very hard to accept everything in time for people to cash-out, so if they do that and accept all the things I wrote tonight, or if the bigger-paying jobs go through today, everything will be fine. I already have mostly enough that I definitely will be getting; the stuff I did tonight is just to make it so I can get everything now.

I've long wanted to have a blog devoted to all my darlings. My Tumblr serves that purpose somewhat, but sometimes I really want a better place to archive certain things (such as interviews, when I can get them). I don't see how I can try to open another website, so I decided I'd see if I could run another blog.

http://thepathofthestars.blogspot.com/

Title is taken from the Sailor Stars song.

So money has been so hard to come by lately that I finally broke down and did something I had vowed never to do: I started writing some articles for the lowest-paying category at Textbroker. I was desperate; the site isn't how it used to be and most everything for the better categories was too technical or about locales I didn't know about and couldn't write about or was otherwise unacceptable for me. At least in the lowest category, I found a bunch of movie and television descriptions that needed writing. It's been hard digging out ones about shows I've actually seen, but it's a triumph every time I've found one. And it's been fun, too.

One of the ones I found that I could write was for one of the Winnie the Pooh shorts. And while I was writing it, it occurred to me that "... Hey, how can a teddy bear eat honey (or anything else) anyway?" Of course you're just supposed to accept it as children's book logic and not question it, but when they keep reminding you within the stories' adventures that he is indeed a teddy bear (stuffing ripping, needing to be wrung out if wet, etc.), it does cause one to scratch their head and wonder what's going on around here anyway. It sounds more like a fantasy that Christopher Robin is acting out with his plushies and isn't something that could really happen. Yet you know it really is happening in the context of the show, because at least four of the characters are not plushies (Rabbit, Tigger, Owl, and Gopher, and maybe Piglet isn't a plushie either; I don't remember seeing stitching on him or other indications that he's a plushie) and they're real and interacting with the plushies, which have apparently come to life yet are still plushies (i.e., Toy Story).

And amazingly, I had another good sleep. I also had weird dreams that also leave me scratching my head. It's so strange to all of a sudden dream about something you weren't actively thinking of while awake.

I was afraid I'd go to sleep dreaming about those terrible Goosebumps books, because I have Ginger and Lou talking about Mike having read some when they came out and hence, I needed to know what year they first came out. Then I got curious, read the whole article, and also read the titles of the books and a few summaries, something I really wish I hadn't done since several of the books deal with my most-hated trope. That, coupled with the fact that R.L. Stine says there are no deaths in the books, means that there must be weirdness on the level of what happened to Once Upon a Time's Mad Hatter, which I ... honestly think is worse than death. **shudders.** I was curious because having read the titles, I couldn't figure out how there couldn't be death in at least some of the books, so I read some summaries, and thankfully just glanced/skimmed at the one in that group of books that involved my hated trope, but it was enough of a glance to understand more of what was going on than I wanted to. Ugh! I wish I wasn't so curious sometimes.

But anyway, I did not dream about those things. The most stand-out dreams in my mind are two that seemed to be happening concurrently: 1, Mom and I were going to get a taxi cab and go to Wal-Mart after dinner, because I wanted to shop baaad and Dad wasn't available to go that day, and deciding to get ready was happening very slowly and I was getting impatient (something that often happens when going for groceries with Dad in reality, since he doesn't like going places), and 2, I was watching/acting out a very convoluted version of Princess Tutu's episode 22.

The taxi dream was taking place at the old house yet again and when we finally called the cabbie, he said we could go out the upstairs back door because that would be quicker. In the dream it made sense, but in reality, there is no road back there to drive out from. (There is a driveway that goes back that far, but when we lived there, we had old cars along that driveway. There wasn't room for another to drive along.) There is just the backyard. And in the dream, the snow was coming down generously (finally; the poor East Coast has gotten all of the West's snow!) and I was hoping the snow wouldn't complicate the drive. I was also a little leery of going out the back way, which fits reality, as I was pretty terrified to go into the backyard at night after the neighborhood started getting so scary. Also, both in the dream and in reality, we kept that door pretty bolted up. In reality, we never went out that door after we found it necessary to bolt it up.

Also frustrating was that the cabbie was a crook who just wanted to rob us. **headdesk.** One dream trope of mine is having extreme difficulty getting anything to go the way I want it when it comes to shopping. Either we don't get there at all, or we get there, but I can't find what I want and the stores are weird and I wander around in them a lot. It's very strange when I actually find what I want in a dream and can keep hold of it. Sometimes I find it but then it mysteriously disappears during the trip.

In the Princess Tutu dream, nothing in Act 22 was going the way it really went on the show except that Autor had been officially introduced. Autor was also being chased by a horrible purple tentacled monster, which he was fleeing from in panicked terror. I knew that in Act 23, it caught up to him in a creepy old house (that looked a lot like a house I know in reality) and Fakir and Ahiru, or even just Ahiru, came in to save him in time and then Autor and Ahiru talked for a bit, so I wasn't too worried. Autor definitely was, however, and when he reached said house, he ran around to the back and hid under a gigantic rock, trying to make himself unseen by the monster, which hadn't come around yet.

Meanwhile, for some reason Fakir was operating a crane. Maybe that was part of him trying to catch the monster, I don't know. Another scene had Ahiru quack and go duck and she was sitting on the steering wheel of Fakir's car, while he was sitting at the wheel and observing something. And I was thinking, "Oh yay, proof that Princess Tutu does take place in the modern day, just in a town that still looks beautifully old, just as I've said."

Weird, weird dreams, as usual. And I wake up kind of wanting to look over some of my Tutu fics. I have two hanging fics for that, I think, but I'm pretty sure they will never be finished, or at least not the one that's more fantasy-like. I don't have any inspiration for oneshots, either, but I still love the characters and it would be fun to revisit them sometime.

One long ago idea for the YGO story I've finally picked up writing lately was that they visit Kinkan Town before leaving Germany and Autor finds some more information for them on the amethyst. When I picked up the story several weeks ago, however, I decided not to do that angle. I don't think I want YGO to co-exist in the same verse with Princess Tutu (even though, yes, I had Siegfried and Leonhard make a cameo appearance in my longest Tutu fic several years ago). The magical girl shows I like tend to have a verse of their own, while YGO shares the more realistic verse with my live-action shows. In spite of the Shadow Realm and creepy magical items and things like Yami Marik, YGO fits a lot better into my live-action verse than any magical girls show does. I have the live-action characters run into weird supernatural stuff a lot, mainly ghosts, evil spirits, and sometimes haunted items, but weird, giant monsters and girls casting magic to save the world? No. That's a whole different category of weird and supernatural that really doesn't fit what I want for my live-action verse.

I guess basically, I can sum it up with that I believe ghosts, evil spirits, and haunted items all exist (I also think there are at least two haunted items in this house), but of course, I do not believe in bizarre monsters or magical girls. For my more realistic, live-action verse, I prefer to stick with stuff that I believe could more easily happen/already exists. (Admittedly, I break that rule now and then, like when I want to do an enchanted death, but not very often.) Of course, YGO has monsters too, but they were only really real in the long-ago past and were locked away in their own dimension, so that's not the same as monsters terrorizing people in the present-day, as they do in magical girls shows. When it comes to the monsters being "real" in Shadow Games, I think of it more as the Item holder influencing things in the other's mind so that they seem to be real. (Of course, they were real in Doom Arc, as I recall, but eh.) But then, I'm an incurable cynic and skeptic about things like monsters, when it comes to shows where monsters exist but so do mind games. :) Pretty much how I write Ginger and Hamilton and other cynical characters.

Bleh. Saturday was spent mostly in pain. I hate when that happens, especially when it's so bad I can barely think straight. The only good thing about it is that when it's that harsh, it's usually gone sometime the next day. I'm definitely grateful for that, but I feel bad that I really couldn't converse with people when I was trying to.

This past week I've been amused thinking back to when I first became interested in Boba Fett. I had the figure of my brother's, as mentioned, and I wondered who he was. Mom and I looked on the figure chart and found his name. Then I wanted to see him in action, so we watched the Star Wars films again (or rather, the latter two, since we didn't have a copy of A New Hope back then) and ... well, it was pretty much instant intrigue.

Then I started doing very strange things. I had Kit and Molly from Talespin become Boba Fett's wards. I don't know what happened to Rebecca. I do remember at that time I was on the rocks with Baloo, which was totally unfair to him. I think it started because I didn't like the way he acted in the episode Stormy Weather, which was childish of me since he was only worried about Kit getting in with a creep and doing dangerous things. But so anyway ... Kit and Molly were Boba Fett's wards. And I made up silly posters on some pink paper one of my aunts gave me that said "The Kit and Molly Show! With Boba Fett Too!"

Mom thought it would be nice to give her one of the posters, so she could see I was enjoying the paper. So I did, and she read it aloud and Dad was there and went, "... Hey, isn't that the guy from Star Wars?" and I wanted to sink into the floor.

I also remember that one of my first hurt/comfort adventures involved Kit bringing Boba Fett ... somewhere, and saying he wouldn't wake up, or something (I was six; I don't think I knew a big word like "unconscious" yet). And then after a while I was embarrassed by the whole thing and when I had him wake up, I wasn't sure how to have Kit react and it was all very weird.

I used to occasionally draw Boba Fett, but all that armor was confusing to figure out, so I didn't do it very often. I did draw Kit and Molly a lot, badly. Mom drew better, and I'd have her draw paper dolls of all the characters we used in our stories. So there were the paper doll storylines and the action figure storylines. Later on, since later we mostly played with figures and there weren't existing figures for everyone I wanted in the stories, we developed a verbal-only storyline that we still have ongoing today.

I remember other oddball adventures back in the day like Kit being a brat and pretending he had amnesia and saying his name was Guacamole, because I thought that was a hilarious word. LOL. Poor Kit. I did such weird, weird things when I was a kid. And I had no concept of OOCness.

Leonardo Turtle owned a restaurant with his brothers. Probably a pizza parlor. LOL. Later on he sold it to Rebecca.

Don Karnage and Mad Dog hung out together. I wasn't crazy about Dumptruck or Gibber, so they weren't there. Over time, Karnage and Mad Dog pretty much became OCs rather than the Talespin characters. Eventually they really only shared the names and a couple of key personality traits (Karnage's conceit, Mad Dog's whining). I even redesigned them as other animals (Karnage as an Alaskan Malamute, Mad Dog as a Siberian Husky). The OC versions became the central characters in the stories I used to write and sell in the old neighborhood to get money. I also created a skunk character, Jackly the Pew, who was originally based on the Tiny Toon Adventures character Jonny Pew. (Jonny ended up being Jackly's brother.)

I created a whole bunch of skunk characters actually. I loved Fifi on Tiny Toons and she entered the storyline, as did Miss Skunky (an orange skunk who cameos with Jonny Pew in the episode), Red-and-White (a blundered version of Miss Skunky when I couldn't remember what she looked like), and a collection of girls either inspired by Fifi or who were early attempts at drawing Fifi when I didn't have a picture to be looked at: Viva, Vivi, Vifa.... Vifa, who started out as a sweet girl, eventually showed her true colors as a femme fatale and became one of my primary antagonists even today (albeit as a human version, not a skunk). I first tried that in my sixth YGO mystery and it continued from there.

Later, Vifa developed a twin sister named Flo. Flo was originally just Vifa in disguise, but then I wanted her to be another actual character. For the longest time, I had trouble giving her a separate personality from Vifa, but recently I differentiated them by having Vifa interested in money and jewels and Florence interested in power. Vifa could be pettily bent on revenge, while Florence didn't usually bother with that. Lately, however, she has gotten so frustrated with Ginger and Lou overturning her plans against them that she has made it a personal goal to defeat them someday.

Meanwhile, Jackly (or Pew, as we started mostly calling him) started out as an antagonist, frustrated by Karnage doing stupid conceited things and Mad Dog being embarrassed and whining and bawling about it. It was only after Karnage enlisted in the Army that Pew started becoming friends with Mad Dog. Eventually, they actually became closer friends than Mad Dog and Karnage had been.

Karnage drove General Stilton (from The Cat From Outer Space movie) utterly mad with his nonsense of wanting to look in mirrors and shiny hubcaps and anything else that resembled a mirror. Karnage eventually made friends with Corporal Klinger from M*A*S*H. Yes, we said "Screw time periods!" and pretty much added anyone we wanted. The setting was the present day, but anyone could wander in from other eras, at the same age they were in the other eras. And characters like Karnage remained anthropomorphic animals, while human characters stayed human. They co-exist together very easily.

Karnage was in the Army for many years, and then left to marry a mirror. LOL. It was a gag based on something from years earlier, when he'd talked about it and Mad Dog talked him out of it because he wouldn't be able to go on dates with anyone and back then, Karnage was a Casanova and loved dates. But this other time, Mad Dog couldn't talk Karnage out of it and Karnage said he regretted listening to Mad Dog that first time. There was a big wedding in New York City, with Lieutenant Schrank from West Side Story very unhappily running security and Ron Updyke from Kolchak: The Night Stalker being abducted by a bunch of rabid Karnage fans that demanded that Karnage be allowed to marry the mirror or they would keep Ron hostage in a hot-air balloon.

Ah, good times.

Currently the main characters are in Los Angeles, where they've mostly been for three years, since Karnage married the mirror and went to L.A., where he burst into court and got on the witness stand and said, "I solemnly swear that I'm glorious." Hamilton Burger's expression was priceless. LOL.

There was a sanity hearing, which dragged on and on because the judge and Karnage's lawyer were crooked (something Karnage was oblivious to), and Mad Dog and Pew and company came out from their main residence to participate in the hearing. Eventually Karnage was put under the observation of some doctors, who are fascinated by him and aren't much help, except for keeping him from doing dangerous stunts like getting on bridges and screaming about being wonderful.

Both Vifa/Vivalene and Florence pretended to be nice girls and talked with Pew, who wanted to give them a chance to start over despite thinking they were both awful in the past. He learned their true colors later and felt deeply betrayed. Then he met Virginia, a mysterious girl who likes to steal things and then pretend she didn't, and generally is a mercenary out for a buck. Her full origins are still unknown, but she causes trouble for the characters every now and then, including Ginger and Lou.

Fifi worked for a private-eye character called The Tester, who used to test Pew with mystery scenarios to train him to be a detective. The Tester is the English Cat from Scat Cat's Aristocats band in disguise, albeit I've never conclusively revealed that. Fifi eventually disappeared and they're still not sure what happened to her, but a girl resembling her has surfaced in London. She has amnesia and was found wandering by Simon Templar, who took her in as his secretary. She has adopted the name Patricia Holm, the name of Simon's girlfriend in the books. This is the TV Simon, so there is no real Patricia. And since Fifi is an anthro skunk, there is no romance going on between them. If she has any feelings for Simon, she will keep them to herself.

And as if all this nostalgia isn't enough, today I woke up with an urge to finally write my sequel to my fic for the much-hated TV show The Batman. I honestly really enjoyed the overhaul and found the series very fun and fascinating. About six years ago, I wrote a oneshot examining their version of The Riddler and then did a multi-chapter involving him that ended in a mysterious way. I never abandoned my idea and desire for a sequel, but I've just never got around to it. Now, suddenly, I really want to do it.

I re-read the oneshot tonight and will probably re-read the multi-chapter tomorrow. Maybe I'll re-read the three Riddler comics from The Batman Strikes! tie-in comic series, too. I really only liked the first one of those, though. And I especially detested the last one and felt The Riddler was OOC and the issue didn't live up to the awesomeness of its cover. I remember I planned that my sequel would tell the story that I thought that comic issue would, based on the cover.

I also want to bring in the idea from the main comics where The Riddler eventually at least semi-reformed and became a private detective. The first multi-chapter I did ended with him supposedly dead, but his body missing and a paper left in the freezer chamber that had the first riddle he gave Batman on it. I'm not sure I ever will reveal how he got out of the morgue, since there should always be some mysteries surrounding him, but I'm thinking the sequel involves him turning up as a private detective under his real name and staying in the shadows for a while, only revealing his identity to Batman and Yin later on.

I really hated that they dropped the Yin character from the show after season 2. She was awesome! And she certainly should have at least been in the episode where Ethan comes back to himself, since they were partners.

I don't know when I'll actually get a chance to start writing any sequel, though, or if I really will at all despite the abrupt burst of interest. I've got all the October Writing stuff to work with, and an idea to write a book about season 1 of Mannix, and I've been seriously neglecting my Perry blog lately.

So CBS has a website where they sell shirts of a lot of their shows. A lot of it's just logos, but there are some with characters. http://www.shoptvcity.com

I was there today, just looking around as I like to do now and then, and I requested them to make a Twilight Zone shirt with David Ellington from The Howling Man on it. An officially made shirt with H.M. Wynant would be so, so awesome. I'm trying to design a shirt with some of his characters to have custom-made for me, but I haven't quite figured out which characters to have represented on it yet (except that I know Coley Rodman will be there). If the place still exists (it's called The Big Tees, LOL), I can get a shirt made up there for $14.95. Last year, I had them make up one of my Hamilton Burger shirt designs. (Squee!)

Anyway, so I was browsing this CBS website and looked at their Andy Griffith shirts. And man, a little wave of nostalgia definitely swept over me. I remembered the summer of about 1998, when I discovered Andy reruns on our Fox affiliate. That was in July, so the whole rest of the summer was very Andy-filled.

Actually, that whole year starting with March was Andy filled. I remember special day-trips all over the valley with Dad, and stopping at various libraries in the City and County systems to pick up books on hold. I remember checking out the Andy Griffith cookbooks and writing down some of the recipes I particularly wanted to save and try.

That was the era when you could go to a bookstore and there would be tons of classic TV books on the shelves. PARADISE. I remember in March, going to Borders and seeing Barney Fife's Guide to Life, Love, and Self-Defense (a hilarious piece), as well as a couple of straight books about the series. I determined then and there that I was going to purchase one, and had it put on hold while I sold short stories around the neighborhood that I'd written with original characters of mine and earned the $10.61 needed to get the book. (I seem to remember dumping a lot of change on the counter at Borders, LOL.) It took all the money I had at that time, with the exception of a few cents (I think), but I found it entirely worth it. I read and re-read that book so much that it got dog-eared and started falling apart. I still have it.

It's funny how my interest in classic TV started. I listened to Mom telling about all those old shows for years, and I was interested and liked the sound of a lot of them, but then for some reason, when I had her tell me for the umpteenth time about Andy Griffith in March of 1998, I suddenly got smacked in the head with a strong desire to finally see the series and a determination to learn more and more. And unlike some whims of mine that came and went in a few days, that interest stayed. And stayed. And blossomed into my explorations into many other classic TV series.

The same thing kind of happened when I decided I wanted oldies music on the radio. I'd loved playing Mom's old records and I wanted to see if any stations were playing similar music. I stumbled across one and was hooked. That led to my interest in The 4 Seasons, The Monkees, The Beatles, and others.

Anyway, Andy Griffith. Even though I really don't care for the episodes where Andy kept disbelieving in Opie (why, why did it keep happening? You'd think Andy would have realized he could trust his son better than that, after what happened in the coat episode and some other early ones), there's still so much good in the show and I love it for those times. Barney. Aunt Bee. Gomer. Floyd....

I think the third and fourth seasons have the highest concentration of my favorite episodes, although 1 and 2 had some great ones as well, and even 5. The very controversial color episodes are generally not among my favorites. I don't like Barney's departure. However, I do like Howard Sprague, and there's some fun episodes with him, Floyd, and Otis in the color years. I also don't tend to mind Warren.

But classic Andy is the B&W seasons, and I could do with some great third and fourth season episodes right now.

I miss that time of innocence and discovery, my excitement over the series, summer nights of watching episodes, and summer days of getting and reading books and trying recipes.

I think specifically, I miss the days of the original blue cookbook, and maybe I'll look for that and try to buy it at long last, if it's still in print. Thinking about that cookbook is bringing back such lovely memories for me, from a time in my life that's long gone now. (And having it would lead to such lovely food!)

Before I get to the rant of the subject line, a quick request for anyone who doesn't want to read through all of this entry. I have decided I may try to make a plushie, because I am having an almost impossible time contacting my usual plushie maker. (Also, I am not completely incompetent on making things like that; I used to occasionally do it when I was a kid. So it's thankfully not entirely new territory to me.) Does anyone know of comms with good plushie tutorials or just general "How to make plush" comms? I can't find any on LJ. I know about LovetoPlush on DeviantArt, and have saved a couple of clothes-making tutorials from there, but that's it. That seems to mostly be a place to post plushie pictures rather than to offer plushie-making help, though. And it's a human plushie I need help with, if that narrows the list down any.

Now, on to the rant and various squeeful rambles.

For those who don't know, I am a freelance writer. I accept assignments on a website to write articles to get some of my needed money. (The rest mostly comes from other online work, particularly certain trustworthy survey companies.) Yes, this writing in addition to the nonfiction writing I do for fun on this site and two Bloggers, and all of my fanfiction.

I've had a pretty good record in the past with people being satisfied with my offerings. Now, in the last couple of weeks, I've gotten several revision requests for various articles. I don't know whether I'm just making bad choices on which articles to write or if my writing quality has gone down. It's really starting to frustrate me. Luckily, so far I've been able to fix all the articles in a way the clients like. I'm still waiting to know about one I had to fix today, though.

I really hope the problem is the former. Writing is my passion (although some of these topics I have to write about, admittedly, are not). I'd be honestly devastated if I thought I couldn't write properly any more.

And I'm so geekily thrilled that I'm finally into the new My Little Pony series. I just love the Ponies. I'm a longtime fan, dating back to Generation 1 years. One of the earliest presents I ever got was a yellow pegasus Pony, Dancing Butterflies. I just adored her. (Still do; I have every one of my old Ponies.) I don't remember when I got her, but she was by herself for some time before my next Pony, a light blue pegasus, Sugar Apple. She arrived on my fourth birthday. Over the years I was able to get various Ponies from G1 as presents. Then G1 was over in the U.S. and I was so bewildered and sad.

I'm not even fully sure why I fell so hard for the Ponies, but they were always among my favorite toys. I used to have so many longing dreams about visiting stores and finding Ponies again. I hated waking up from those, haha. I am a shopper and collector by nature and often dream of shopping sprees for various products I love.

I collected a few Magic Meadow Ponies when they first came out, and loved them too, but they weren't My Little Ponies. And after Magic Meadows disappeared too, I was never interested in any of the other imitations.

Then came Generation 2. I was ecstatic! So they didn't look much like G1 Ponies and they were smaller. I didn't care; My Little Ponies were back at last. I got six of those and was even able to send away for a mail-order Pony, something I'd always wanted to do with G1 but wasn't able to.

I feel bad that I was never able to get anything from Generation 3. They looked a lot like G1 Ponies (at least until the G3.5 line) and I really wanted some. But at that time I just didn't have money to divide between them and other things. I'm still hoping to get a few G3 Ponies, especially the Halloween one cosplaying a ladybug. Haha, you'd know I'd have to have that one.

I knew about Friendship is Magic when it first came out, and I was very interested, but I just never got around to seeing it until two of my dearest friends both came to me talking excitedly about it. And at last I watched it and fell in love with the characters.

I had previously been very disappointed that the G4 line was mainly so small. But now that I'm into the show I appreciate it. Gah, Wal-Mart only charges $5 for one of them! I can collect a Pony every time we get groceries, pretty much. As a collector, that thrills me. I loved when I was able to buy something YGO-related every time we went out. I miss those days.

(Plus, now I think the smaller Ponies are cuter than the big Fashion Style ones they're releasing for G4. The Fashion Style ones don't always look right to me, somehow. I think it's the shape of their heads.)

I also did buy that talking Twilight Sparkle plushie. Yes, I am such a geek. I love having her read and sing to me. I don't regret choosing her over the DVDs, not one bit.

Also, because this entry is jumping all over the place and I want to talk about it, last night I started pondering on all the parallels between Once Upon a Time (eee, the season finale! SO. AWESOME.) and The Case of the Broken Ties, my long and twisted Perry Mason fic. What amuses me most is that there are a lot of parallels, and most of them are completely unintentional. I knew about Once (I've been a devoted fan from episode 1) and I was excited to write a fic with a similar premise, but I'd written two similarly-premised fics already. The concept is not new to me, nor was Once the beginning of my interest in it. The Broken Ties was a new spin on a premise I already found fascinating. Once may have prompted me to consider the idea for a Perry Mason story, but that's about it. What I came up with for it was by and large just out of my own head.

Here is a list of comparisons. First, the Once list.

- Everyone has false memories.
- Two people other than the villains remember the way things are supposed to be. (August and Jefferson.)
- No one can leave Storybrooke. If they try, something bad happens, such as a car accident.
- Most people have been placed in capacities other than their previous ones.
- Snow White (Mary-Margaret) is a school-teacher.
- Snow and Prince Charming are being deliberately kept apart.
- The Evil Queen, Regina, has an irrational hatred of Snow.
- Mr. Gold, aka Rumpelstiltskin, is very quiet and calculating. He stays in the background, letting Regina control everyone's situations, but he is the one who is really in charge.
( Spoilers for the season 1 finale )

And the Broken Ties list:

- Everyone has false memories.
- Other than the villains, only two people know the truth. (Hamilton and Paul.)
- No one can leave Los Angeles County. If they try, they wind up hurt.
- Some people have been placed in other capacities instead of keeping their current jobs.
- Della is a school-teacher.
- Perry and Della are deliberately being kept apart, although here it's because the villains are afraid that if they see each other the spell will weaken, not because of an irrational hatred on the villain's part. Nope, that angle comes in with ...
- Vivalene has an irrational hatred of Hamilton Burger, but rather than thinking he ruined her life she's just angry that he has rejected her multiple times and recently has been prosecuting her for attempted murder. In spite of all her evil, Once's Regina is still more sympathetic than Vivalene! At least Regina occasionally shows moments of humanity, mainly where Henry her son is concerned. Vivalene, to my remembrance, has never shown any humanity in any stories in which she has appeared.
- Vivalene's sister Florence is like Mr. Gold in that she is staying in the background and is more calculating in her plans. She only lets Vivalene think she's ahead. In reality, Florence controls everything.
( Relating to Once's season 1 finale )

Intentional Parallels:

Mr. Vann is the Mr. Gold equivalent, although he is mostly a visual counterpart only. As mentioned, Florence takes over Mr. Gold's role in the story.

I love The Broken Ties. I'm having a ball writing these missing scenes for 31_days. And since Florence still has big plans, she will probably be the villain in a future mystery fic. (Possibly a Livejournal-only one, depending on how I feel about audience reaction.)

1. Which is your favorite fic? Lead Me Through the Fire, for Yu-Gi-Oh! Life After the Tears, also for YGO, would be a close second. They're both very dark and somewhat departures for me, Lead Me Through the Fire in particular.

2. Which is your best-received fic? If that means the number of reviews, it would be Frantic in Frisco, one of my old YGO mysteries. Last I knew, it had close to 300 reviews.

If it means simply the one with the most praising of comments, I couldn't say.

3. Which is your worst-received fic? Any fic that is ignored? I dunno. Oh, maybe Nose Job for Diagnosis Murder. I had so many people tell me they didn't get the punchline, even though it was so obvious. **sigh.** Also, Lady in Red for the same fandom. It was meant as a "day in the life" snapshot kind of thing, but people hated on it because they said it was boring.

4. Which is your angsty-est fic? Probably Lead Me Through the Fire. Also, that Carmen Sandiego fic where Sean is in a coma, Alive Beneath the Snow. Unfortunately, that one burned me out so bad that I haven't felt comfortable writing angst for that fandom since. Scott falling off the roof in real life hasn't helped, either.

5. Which is your funniest fic? **shrugs.** I think Adventures in Thief-Sitting, for YGO, was pretty amusing. And What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong, for Final Fantasy VII. I'm planning a hilariously cracky fic for Princess Tutu using the prompt New Jersey Vegetable Monster.

6. Saddest? Lead Me Through the Fire. Disastrous, intense mystery, with Duke forced to pretend he is dead and come back as a harsh, cold person, interacting with Yugi-tachi under that persona while they believe Duke is dead. Also, there was eventually a real character death.

Some of my FF7 fics that focus on Nibelheim and Sephiroth's madness would qualify too.

7. Fluffiest? Probably those Zack/Aerith squeefics. I don't often write out-and-out fluff, but they lend themselves to it so well. XD;

8. Have you ever made someone cry with your fic? Oh yes, on lots of fics.

9. Which fanfic frustrates you the most? Any fanfic I'm having trouble getting written. Think Back on Yesterday, for Princess Tutu, has been causing me grief. But I actually have chapter 7 almost done, so it is no longer the fic frustrating me the most.

Maybe The Diamond Rose Glass, for FF7. I'm so close to finishing it, but I can't quite grasp how I want the climax to go and I'm mad at myself for revealing something in chapter 12 that should have been saved for the next chapter.

10. Which fic was the most fun to write? Oh gosh. Hmm. I really couldn't pick just one. Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart, for YGO, is a lot of fun. There's a mystery going on that ties in heavily with Lead Me Through the Fire, one that I'm anxious to reveal. I think there'll be some surprises.

The Diamond Rose Glass, despite my frustrations with it, was a ton of fun. I remember enjoying the descriptions of the bookstore and of Vincent's undercover work especially.

I also really enjoy my Princess Tutu ventures, particularly anything involving Autor and Fakir or Autor and Ahiru friendship. I really enjoyed writing Love is Not a Victory March, for the latter friendship, and the Phantom Hitchhiker trilogy, which more closely followed Autor and Fakir's friendship.

11. Which of the OCs you created is your favorite? Alexander. He inspired an entire race and culture, and hopefully someday, that novel will actually happen. He's like a kid, both with their innocence and their insight, and then occasionally he'll prove he's not as mild as he seems. If he gets blasting you, you're in trouble.

12. Are you better at oneshot or multipart? I think I'm equally good at both.

13. Which character portrayal do you think is your best? I'm particularly fond of my Siegfried von Schroider. He is an obnoxious, snarky jackass, but he's not a villain. He's very conflicted when it comes to his parents, as I've happily explored in detail in the few fics I've written for him.

I also am quite fond of my Autor. Everyone envisions him a bit differently, but I and some others see him as an innocent boy who doesn't really understand the seriousness of what's going on around him. I've matured his character and had him realize what a burden power can really be. He's also quite snarky, but insecure deep down, and he can become excited and enthusiastic over subjects he loves. He's new to having real friendships, but is trying his best with Fakir and Ahiru. He and Fakir mostly snark and banter at each other, or be awkward, while he's more open with Ahiru. He is coming to open up around Fakir as well, though.

A minor character in canon, to be sure, but I adore writing for Duke's store manager. His few lines in canon are intriguing, particularly how he notes Duke may have gotten in over his head. Duke seems to have confided in him, which is an intriguing angle. I like fleshing him out, especially portraying him as just an average guy who really doesn't want to get anywhere near danger and is afraid when he encounters something like a knife to the throat, but he doesn't run and is determined to see things through.

I also really like my portrayal of Duke and how I use mainly the manga backstory and personality for him, while adding the best of his anime counterpart. Duke is hence serious, cynical, and laden with facades.

14. What character is the most difficult to portray? I dunno. I also have trouble with Barry from Carmen Sandiego. I was really worried about my Rue, but I think I've managed to write her well after all. Though she isn't someone I'll be writing a lot for.

I forgot to copy over more than the questions I was given, but you guys have done a million of these, right? If you want five questions, say so, I give them, and you post in your journals.

Interview by rose_of_pollux:

1) KH Zack, Cloud, and Seph vs FFVII Zack, Cloud, and Seph-- which verse is your favorite to write for and why? You know, I've debated this question with myself a lot. As I recall from when I mused on it in past entries, KH is fun because less is known and you can make up more, but FF7 is fun because it's the original and so much *is* established already to work with. I think I tentatively concluded I preferred KH, but I think now I prefer FF7. Kaze's story could be an influence on that decision, as well as the role-plays I've done, but in any case I really love the darkness of FF7 and all the various established angles. With the Compilation, there's so much to work with. Of course, KH is pretty dark too, but there's not a lot of information on their versions of the characters.
2) How did you get into Princess Tutu? I saw the DVDs at Media Play (yes, it was still Media Play then) and was somewhat intrigued, but the concept of the Prince losing his heart scared me away. Later, Stacey and Elora both got into the show and showed me the infamous Hall Om Mig AMV. I watched, was immediately hooked, and ordered the first DVD from the library. I loved it so much, I couldn't wait for any more to arrive. I watched the entire rest of both seasons on YouTube over two evenings. I've been a fan since then and have been in the comm, but I never really felt confident in the fanworks part of the fandom until I could finally get the DVDs and watch and rewatch to my heart's content. I don't often connect with characters well enough to write for them, so discovering I actually could with the Tutu characters was a big thrill.
3) Your favorite characters in YGO have changed throughout the years-- but which one will forever hold the #1 spot and why? Honestly, I don't think anyone does. XD; My #1 spot changes with the favorite characters. For a long time I tried to insist Yugi was my #1, but I finally conceded that Seto had beaten him. But then Marik beat Seto, and there was Alister, and Siegfried. I dunno, I'm back and forth on Seto, but I really don't like him as much as I used to. He drives me crazy in Battle City. The coliseum thing really made me headdesk. But of course Seto has awesome moments all along too, mostly in the anime-only arcs and in R. He was really good in Duelist Kingdom too, though. At the moment, I'd tentatively say Duke is my favorite, but he doesn't hold the #1 spot overall. I dunno, I guess if it wasn't for Battle City, Seto really could be my #1, and heck, maybe deep down he really still is.
4) Which of your OCs is your favorite to write for? Alexander. He's positively adorable. A child in a man's body, he's both innocent and introspective. I really would like to get my novel done; there'd be so much about him that would get fleshed out.
5) What is your favorite episode(s)/moment(s) of WITWICS? The Boll Weevil Retrieval is my favorite episode. Kneemoi is AWESOME and then there's the crazy anvil nonsense. But my favorite moment is Zombie Jamboree in The Costume Caper.

I'll probably regret this, but it looks fun, so what the heck.

The Rules:
1. Comment to this post with the name of a character that I have written in fics. Or geeked out about. Or RPed. You should probably make sure it's one I've written more than once or twice.
2. I will comment telling you the following:

A. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
B. One of his/her best traits.
C. One of his/her worst traits.
D. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character.
E. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character (if I've written them).
F. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future.