Amy Raine's journal

Deconstructing Magical Girl anime? Yes please!

2013-08-02T01:27:40Z

Unfortunately this is not a promise of a regular update schedule, as I am failing at keeping the few commitments I have already. But I was so excited by this show I had to drop a line here.

I saw Puella Magi Madoka Magica over the past couple of days and it is indeed as wonderful as you might have heard, if you have heard about it but haven't seen it yet. It is easy to find online for free and worth your time to watch. As a long time Sailor Moon fan I appreciated what the show had to say about the genre.

If you have seen it, feel free to squeal in the comments. Criticisms are welcome too, I like different POVs. Also, I would love links to essays or fanfic recs, if you have any.

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amyraine @ 2013-05-07T09:46:00

2013-05-07T13:54:08Z

Amazing series of meta by lonewych at Livejournal on the Monomyth in Doctor Who.

I can't watch the episodes without seeing the motifs, now. I'm like, there's the X! There's the World Tree! There's the juxtaposition of Above and Below and of red and blue! I can't wait to read the next one for "The Crimson Horror".

Some other really good DW meta at the community metatardis, if you have an LJ account and are into that kind of thing. :)

If you have links to meta, please share in the comments! I need to update my essays rec post

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Recommend a blog!

2013-04-30T22:13:30Z

I'd like to add some more to my feed!

I'm looking for ones with substantial content, not journal-type "here;s what I did today" stuff. It can be fandom meta or general media analysis/criticism, it can be science or math related, or it can be about writing, mythology, lit crit, Emphasis on analysis and discussion of the topic, not too much technobabble - something a layperson can follow.

Dreamwidth and LJ are fine, including communities, but I'm expanding the scope to any blog on any platform as long as it has an RSS feed to add to my feed reader. Video blogs are okay too.

Thanks!

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I'm finally watching Torchwood.

2013-04-13T02:13:20Z

I marathoned Doctor Who last year, so I knew about the series from the many in universe, fanfic and meta references to the show. But when I tried watching it a few months back, I couldn't. get through the first two episodes. I could accept the fact that Torchwood was going to be Darker and Edgier (is that trademarked?) but getting thrown into the violence and the sex without getting to know any of the characters smacked a lot of shock factor and I don't like shock for the sake of being shocking.

I'm now at the end of season one. Now I've gotten to know the characters.

I wish I hadn't.

( Read more... )

I will say this. I could watch John Barrowman make out with people all day long. That man. I watch Arrow for him and Paul Blackthorn. A lot of people are all "ooh, Stephen Arnell" and I'm like uh-huh, whatever, more Captain Jack and Harry Dresden, please.

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My personal writing Waterloo

2013-03-29T19:06:19Z

I have been thinking about why I fail to finish longfic. I’ve also been pondering why some of my stories work and others don’t, and why I’m struggling to start any of the original novels that have been taking up space in my head for several months now.

It’s because I’m one of those writers that, most of the time, wants to write about an idea or a scenario, not about people.

( Read more... )

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amyraine @ 2013-03-15T23:18:00

2013-03-16T03:20:38Z

Saw "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" with my best friend today. I'm sure a lot of people seeing it were "OMG Emma Watson!" Me, I was "OMG Mae Whitman!"

The Rocky Horror scenes brought back memories.

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amyraine @ 2013-03-14T23:22:00

2013-03-15T03:23:49Z

Livejournal is providing me with ads for lesbian dating sites. I approve.

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amyraine @ 2013-03-14T22:12:00

2013-03-15T02:44:32Z

Holy crap. BatB just plowed along like a freaking freight train into my nonexistent nuts. So much happened so quickly.

( Read more... )

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Writing help: how do I wring emotions from my reader like water from a dish rag?

2013-03-14T17:07:22Z

I am finding that my writing is emotionally flat.

That's not always true but it is more often than not.

I will remember what I was thinking and feeling when I wrote a paragraph, but after some time has gone by I'll go back and read it and all I can think is - man, that's dull.

I know that this is a subjective thing and that what might move one person will leave another cold, but some writers manage to tap into a deep, primal emotional center that most people respond to. I want to do that.

Any advice?

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amyraine @ 2013-03-13T10:34:00

2013-03-13T14:37:49Z

Been getting nerdy over at Lunatique's livejournal. Is fun. I'm a lit crit geek. :)

Here's the Dreamwidth crosspost if you want to comment there instead.

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I shamelessly love the new Beauty and the Beast.

2013-03-08T01:08:57Z

"I like it, but I hold no illusions that it's any better than any of the other dreck CW serves up. Kristen Kreuk is trying but she just has nothing to work with. Seriously."

Was it only three months ago that I said that? Aha, aha, ahahahahahahaha.

I'm so into the new BatB now it's embarassing. I was streaming it on the CW website and around episode five I started really getting sucked in. So of course I have to analyze why.

( Cut for spoilers. And swearing. Lots of swearing. ).

Ah, but I'm probably wasting my time. Nobody's interested in my passionate defense of this show because everyone's watching Person of Interest. Sigh.

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amyraine @ 2013-03-01T16:38:00

2013-03-01T22:05:13Z

I have been watching both the old and the new Beauty and the Beast television shows recently. I'm not going to bore you with a straight comparison because there isn't one. Despite sharing a title and character names they're not trying to tell the same kind of story. If I mention one while discussing the other it will be to illustrate a specific point rather than to make any broad statement about the quality of either.

( That said... )

Forgive me for going off on a tangent, but something GRRM said in that same interview:

"Only a cretin would trade the two-and-a-half years of B&B we produced for ten or twenty of THE INCREDIBLE HULK."

Excuse me?

Mr. Martin, I bet I can find someone who would have a bone to pick with you for that statement.

Besides, your books are a rambling incoherent mess. So your argument is invalid.

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amyraine @ 2013-02-18T16:39:00

2013-02-18T21:39:48Z

Anybody into the new Beauty and the Beast, Arrow, or Lost Girl and can point me in the right direction for fellow fans and fic?

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amyraine @ 2013-01-29T21:25:00

2013-01-30T02:28:45Z

Hi!

Things haven't gotten better so much as they've hit a sort of lull. The surgery isn't until next week, there's some issues getting enough work to, well, work, and my oldest is back into his school routine. I should be seeking out more income, but for the moment I thought I'd check in.

This fic is the most fantastic thing I have ever read, ever. I love meta. Tongue in cheek meta is even better, and tongue in cheek meta that is also a fic? Perfection. Is there a TVtropes page for it? There should be. I'm going to go look.

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I'm alive, really

2013-01-19T02:55:37Z

Some background before I get into recent events

In February of 2008 my husband contracted diverticulitis. He had a colostomy for six weeks, then was put back together and sent home. Within days he was suffering pain and fever and had to be hospitalized again. After a course of strong antibiotics, he came home, only to develop a fistula connecting the bowel where it was sewn back together to the incision site. There are few things more terrifying than seeing poop come out of the front of someone's stomach. Once again he was hospitalized and given antibiotics, then they sent him home, hoping that it would heal on its own. By this point it was late March. DH is an accountant and in the US our deadline to file taxes is April 15, so he was feeling the pressure to get back to work ASAP. He tried to work, but after two days he fell very ill, this time with peritonitis. There were so many infected cysts in his abdomen they thought he might die. He got another colostomy, then spent weeks in the ICU. I had him transferred to the Cleveland Clinic to consult with a specialist, who insisted that he wait another seven months before having the surgery to reconnect his bowel again. So DH spent the better part of a year pooping into a bag on his belly. Once he was reconnected, we crossed our fingers and hoped that it was over.

Nope. In February of 2011 he complained of severe abdominal pain. A CT scan in the ER revealed a ventral hernia --basically, he had been cut open so many times that the inside of his abdominal wall is like swiss cheese. Sometimes his small intestine pokes through one of those holes into his muscles, requiring an operation to fix. This time, he was able to come home right away and he was back at work in a week, but the surgeon warned us it could happen again.

The weekend before Christmas, it did. Another ER visit, another hernia. But it's not an emergency, and the earliest available date for surgery was Feb 5. So DH has just been making do with strong pain meds. He tried to work, but he got so exhausted that his performance suffered. His firm offered him short term disability leave, so he's home until the surgery. This time, though, they will implant a mesh, and that will hopefully prevent future hernias.

I have been working part time since last August, from home, which sounds great on the surface, but I underestimated how much of my free time it would eat up, especially when I take on extra work. I barely keep up with everything else, like kids activities and chores and showering.

And on top of all that, both of us are trying to repair over ten years worth of damage and no dental visits on our respective teeth now that we finally have some dental insurance, but of course it can't be simple. I need something like twelve fillings, a root canal, my wisdom teeth removed and a cyst on my tongue removed. But hubby's problems are worse--crowns, implants, root canals, it's nuts--so I have to put my needs aside until we finish taking care of him.

With all this my passing desire to find a new fandom to get into has died. It kinda sucks. I still have fic ideas and stuff I wanted to talk about, but I just can't find the time. I am doing my best to finsh the beta of ljwrites 's mega-opus Shadow of the Dragon King because we are soooo close to the end...but I can't do anything else.

So I dunno. This account will be open. Maybe I'll come back, once I fall head over heels with something wonderful and need an outlet for the squee. Until then, take care.

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amyraine @ 2012-12-22T00:19:00

2012-12-22T05:21:57Z

I'm rewatching episodes of Batman the Animated Series...

...and I think Harley/Ivy was one of my first femships.

Also, one of my first non-canon ships.

Double yay?

(i would like very much to read a fic of the two of them with wonder woman because the evil/good dynamic would be hot but batman is boring)

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Fairly spoiler free thoughts about the Dexter finale

2012-12-18T03:38:30Z

Jennifer Carpenter is the best thing about Dexter, hands down.
( put under a cut just in case )

I'm kinda glad I decided to pay for Showtime. Now to catch up on Homeland, since I heard that's a phenomenal show.

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amyraine @ 2012-12-09T12:59:00

2012-12-09T18:01:30Z

Testing to see if all my settings are up the way I want them. If you can read this, drop a line here at DW, please? Much appreciated.

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