Another fanfic question, this time requiring illustration.

What are these characters (in the images below the cut) wearing? Specifically, what terms should I be searching for on Wikipedia in order to learn the history and details of this particular fashion style?

The best I can come up with from asking around so far is "librarian-type". I'm not sure if this is an actual thing, or if this fashion has known equivalents in the real world.

If nothing else, how would you describe it in a fanfic, assuming the person wearing this style is not familiar to the viewpoint character (and thus unable to simply go "like that person's clothing")?

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Tags: fanfic, question

Every time I think of writing some commentary on the fanfics I'm working on, I start wondering if this sort of thing is really necessary, or if anyone else is actually going to care. Is this, basically, the best use of my Livejournal that I can think of?

And yet there's the fact that apart from my Livejournal, it's not like there's anywhere else I can ramble on about these things.

Which is a factor behind the sporadic updates here: I keep wanting to say things, but I keep wondering if the things I want to say are worth saying.

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Actual question for use in fanfic research: when do the various seasons happen in the northern hemisphere?

The situation in the story is that in this 19th century village in Japan, there will be a local festival taking place sometime in the autumn. Harvest festival, if I can swing it.

Later, after more stuff happens, there will be winter. Most of the story will finish off sometime in December.

So, my questions: when does autumn happen, generally speaking? When do the leaves start turning colour noticeably (or at least noticeably enough for poets to start composing haikus about them), and when is a plausible date for a harvest festival?

After that, what kind of weather is usually seen in the countryside (in a valley dominated by a single large mountain, if it matters) in December/early January?

I have to ask all of this because I am Singaporean, and living in the tropics means seasons are a thing that happens to other people. My one major experience with northern hemisphere weather was in Michigan, where it snowed in May.

Tags: fanfic, question

People seem to really like Aeon City, so that's what I'll be going with. (Also, even more wanted me to flip a d2, which came down in favour of Aeon City.) I make no promises on the accuracy on life in the American Midwest; as I said, it's as foreign to me as life in Japan.

Anyway, the main point of this post:

Recommend me a game I can buy from Steam. After the debacle with Uplink, and while I'm taking a break from the annoying control scheme of The Longest Journey, I'm looking for something else.

( Games I already own.Collapse )

Tags: gaming, question

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Tags: mbhc, question

I suppose this post is mostly aimed towards irishninja, being in the close vicinity (2 square burst) of the industry.

So I just got my copy of the D&D 4th Edition books, and being that I'm still a bit fuzzy about the licence under which these books are published, I have to ask: how much am I allowed to talk about them?

Specifically, I'm wondering if I'm allowed to go "page so-and-so of the Monster Manual" and then talk about the creature depicted therein with much detail. Gut feeling says that I can talk about it as much as I want, but since the Open Gaming Licence of 3.5E had some apparently arbitrary restrictions (mostly with spell names and monsters), I'm not sure about the licence 4E was released under.

Tags: d&d, question

What's a good and convenient free hosting solution for a wiki? Wikia requires me to have a significant number of editors ready to go (which I don't have), and I don't know how Wikispaces works. Suggestions and alternatives are welcome.

Tags: question

Assuming that nothing is even near set in stone yet, but that there will be a webzine of Stuff in the near future (no, I'm not in charge; I'm just kind of looking in from the sidelines), say about forty pages of Content, what would be a good length for an Article that will not be a Main Feature, but will be a Recurring Minor Feature?

My brain is telling me that it's it's 800, 1000, or 1200 words, but my brain is often wrong.

Tags: question

From the fourth DVD of Card Captor Sakura, in the Art Gallery of the Extras section:

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Tags: ccs, question, screenshot

Would you rather have a story which is technically inaccurate but which applies popular perceptions of a certain concept, or one which is accurate but which is not as familiar?

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to decide if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in my story are going to be Death, Famine, War, and Pestilence, or Death, Famine, War, and Conquest. The former is the popular notion of the horsemen, but the latter is more Biblically accurate.

This may not actually matter that much for a NaNovel, but if I ever have to use the concept of the Four again, I probably need to be able to decide whether I want to deal with the people going "but the rider is Conquest, not Pestilence!" or the people going "but the rider is Pestilence, not Conquest!"

Tags: nano 2007, question

So I'm borrowing the friendslist's.

For those who have the second DVD of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Region 1 version, I would like to direct your attention to the sixth chronological episode (or the last broadcast episode). I'll place the rest under an LJ-cut for spoiler reasons.

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Tags: anime, haruhi, question, screenshot

Clow Reed.

Anglo-Saxon or Celtic?

English, Welsh, Scot, Irish, Cornish, or Manx?

On the Chinese side: which dialect group would he most likely be associated with? Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew? Would it be safe to assume that he is (at least partly) Han Chinese?

Am I thinking too much about this? I don't want to have to commit to one choice only to be told that it's the wrong one.

Tags: ccs, question

Sauron wants the One Ring to rule over Middle-Earth.

The questions are: how, and why?

"How" has to deal with the nature of the One Ring, which, apart from its allure of power and nigh-indestructibility and uniqueness, is also, nevertheless, a ring, as in a toroid meant to be worn around a finger.

Sauron is an eyeball. Flaming and massive (perhaps massively flaming), but still an eyeball. Eyeballs have no fingers.

"Why" is more a question of logistics and strategy. Sauron and Saruman have what looks like an immense army, as well as the potential (wastefully squandered) for a network of spies (see Grima Wormtongue). Battles between the Free Races and Sauron's army inevitably come down to the wire, unless one side overwhelmingly outnumbers the other. And Saruman appears able to churn out Uruk-Hai at an industrial capacity.

It's not like the men and elves and dwarves can send Bothan spies into Mordor willy-nilly, as one does not simply walk in there. Mordor (and Isengard) is thoroughly fogged with war.

Therefore, why the bother with the One Ring when Sauron can patiently bide his time and build up a force to overrun Middle-Earth? Warfare and the act of gearing up thereof tends to increase the pace of technological advancements, such as the genetic manipulations inherent in the creation of the Uruk-Hai.

I'm sure there are non-meta reasons given in the books, but not actually having the books with me, I have to ask.

Tags: books, question

I've not had much luck tapping into the Collective Wisdom of the LJ friendslist, but this topic is oddly one of those with a success rate. Not a very good success rate, but that success rate exists nonetheless.

Anyway. I'd like a book recommendation for a 30-hour flight. (Actually it's about 25 hours, and I may spend some of that asleep, but I like to be safe.)

I read somewhere around a hundred pages an hour, so this would work out to be 3,000 pages worth of story. Therefore, I expect that it would turn out to be several books, which might make it easier, or maybe more difficult. I do need to have it all fit nicely inside a bag (easily stowable in the aircraft cabin), so Big Hardcovers are not a good idea.

Preferably I have not read these books before.

As for taste, I think that Terry Pratchett is the best writer EVER, so extrapolate from there. (I've read every single Discworld book out right now, except for the Science of Discworld books apart from the first. I've also read pretty much everything else Pterry wrote.) The books should not be weighted down with Angst and Drama, but should preferably not be so whimsical as to have next to no substance.

One of the most irritating trends I've noticed in a lot of fiction these days is the Gratuitous Erotic Scene. I won't immediately discount a book with one (or several), but I will be skipping over those pages anyway, which would compound the "not enough reading material" problem.

Genre preferences go in order of: science fiction, urban fantasy, high fantasy, mystery. Don't be too hung up on these, since I'll pretty much be willing to read anything except horror and romance.

I might clarify some more preferences later, but for now, do please recommend, or I'll end up reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon for the sixth time.

EDIT: Authors I like and have read most of:

Terry Pratchett, Discworld series - My absolute favourite series of books.

Jim Butcher, Dresden Files series - I appreciate the irreverent main character, but occasionally feel frustrated by his hard-headedness. Also, there's the occasional "Harry hasn't gotten Any in a long time" scene, which is always interrupted, but nevertheless tiringly jarring.

Neil Gaiman - After American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and Stardust, I don't think he's written any more prose novels yet. (Oh, and Good Omens.)

Neal Stephenson - Some very nice concepts, with a snarky turn of phrase, but the endings frequently need work. Also, I think I've read most of his solo works already. (Cryptonomicon, Zodiac, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, all of The Baroque Cycle, and two collaborative works, Interface and The Cobweb.)

Isaac Asimov - Thoroughly entertaining, but I think I've read all his books already. At least, I've not seen a novel on the bookstore shelves that I've never read before several times.


Authors I have been told I really should check out:

Terry Brooks - The Sword of Shannara series had been recommended to me a few years back, and I've just never gotten around to steeling myself for an unbiased read.

Robert Jordan - I've been told that the Wheel Of Time series is AWESOME and such. I grabbed The Eye Of The World, and was almost immediately put off by how heavy the prose was. It was like reading Lord Of The Rings without the lighthearted wacky fun. I don't know if it gets better.

Tags: books, question

I have two characters, children, about ten years old. They are lost in a big winding maze, and like good little children (or at least as good little children are supposed to be), they stay put waiting for a grown-up to find them.

To pass the time, they play shiritori. And herein lies the question.

I already have a ready-made list of words that they can go through, and the last few words are very relevant to their situation: specifically "maigo" (lost child) and "gomen" (sorry; and yes, this makes the apologizer lose the game).

However, someone not conversant in Japanese will probably not have any idea what those words mean.

How would one solve this? I'd really like to keep the shiritori game in, since it's in-character and actually highly relevant. The language barrier seems to be a rather inglorious reason to remove it.

Tags: fanfic, question, writing

Occasionally, in anime if not in real life, a character will go "a-chaaa..." This usually happens when another character just did something incredibly, utterly stupid, and will likely cause no end of trouble for everyone in the near vicinity. (Eg: "Who are you? What are you doing here?" "Oh, I'm just an assassin. Um. Was I not supposed to say that?")

How would it be translated into English? The feel is kind of a mix of dread and resignation.

It's more an exclamation than an actual word, I think, but I can't seem to think of an equivalent in English (that is G-rated anyway).

Tags: question, writing

How would you translate "nande yanen" into English, assuming you're writing G-rated stuff?

The best I can come up with is "whaddya mean?", which doesn't quite convey the sheer force of "WTF MATE" that "nande yanen" seems to connotate. (As well as the whole bit about manzai.) There's probably a kid-friendly term that gets used when attempting to convey the feeling that what the other person has just said is overwhelmingly stupid or bizarre.

Tags: question, writing

Is an uninformed vote better than no vote at all?

Is "tactical voting" (eg voting against someone rather than for their opponent, or voting for someone who has a chance to win rather than voting for someone who truly represents one's interests) a valid use of the election process, or a perversion?

I'm (obviously) not voting in this American election, but after my experiences in the SaiMoe tournament, and how eerily similar some of the rhetoric I've heard is between that and this election, I'm curious.

Also, I should probably learn to interrupt other people. I felt kind of sorry for the several campaigners who called me at all hours and asked me to vote, only to be stunned and struck near-speechless when I pointed out that I'm not allowed to.

UNRELATED EDIT: I would probably be more thrilled about Veteran Rewards hitting the Test Server for CoH/V if I didn't keep getting kicked off the server due to too many people having the same idea I had and trying out the new costumes.

ALSO UNRELATED EDIT: Further proof that CoH/V does not operate on any physical laws known to man: rolling a 7 on a d6.

Tags: question, ramblings

Need to come up with an anime high school name that gives the impression of being fairly large, yet private. The sort where the Student Council has Power, and the principal can be some oddball, and the teachers are weird. A name which kind of gives that sort of impression.

And no, "Sans Pantalones" is vetoed.

Tags: nano 2006, question

So apparently my question got rejected from little_details because I didn't put in enough context of the story.

Normally I'd just shrug and accept it (and rework it), but a) I'm tired, and b) judging from some recent posts I thought I was safe.

Apparently not, though. Maybe it's because I was looking for personal accounts more than actual facts.

To salvage the situation, here's the question: ( Cut for the uninterested.Collapse )

Tags: question

Cassandra Cuthbert will now be named Cassandra Chesterfield. Alliteration when written, not so much when spoken, and sounding very aristocratic. Unless someone has a better suggestion.

I need a name for a Frozen Land (well, Frozen Town). I've decided that it's probably going to be somewhere in the south. If you've played FF6, think Narshe, except bigger. If not, it's a bit like this: large town or small city, cold and snowy more often than not, and quite heavily industrial. Plenty of factories, most of them quite old, a decent mining tradition that's mostly automated now, and more recently a university, with (and this is important) a significant but not incredibly famous library. (Steampunk fantasy age, not sure what the literacy level is, but an efficient movable-type press suitable for newspapers just became mainstream, so this would have to have books printed using techniques one level down.) The primary source of energy in this world is steam, bottled in steam canisters, and exactly how they work is fairly Mysterious, but they do work, and this town both manufactures and uses these steam canisters in great quantities. Chief exports are steam and machinery.

So far I've got "Nissha" and "Ontar", neither of which I'm happy with.

UPDATE: Final change: Cassandra Cadwell.

Tags: fic, iai, question

- Would "Cassandra Cuthbert" ("Cass") and "Thomas Downfrey" ("Tom") be too bizarre names for a fantasy steampunk-type world? In the sense that they would detract from the story too much because readers are stumbling over the names?

- Would the average reader accept it if I said that Cass wears an ushanka, or do I have to describe what an ushanka is? Would "fur hat" be suitable?

- If there is a Frozen Land of the North already present, would it be probable, in terms of global climate, to have a Frozen Land of the South? I know it doesn't seem to happen as much on Earth, but that may be because there really aren't a whole lot of countries that far south (Antarctica doesn't count).

EDIT: If you're wondering, it's for this: iai
EDIT OF EMBARRASSMENT: Corrected URL.

Also, "Cassandra Cuthbert" seems to be a bit "off"-sounding. (In fact, the reason I asked the question in the first place is because I also though it sounded "off", but couldn't think of an alternative.) I'd like to keep "Cassandra", but "Cuthbert" can be changed.

What would you suggest? If it helps, Cass is a young lady around twenty, highly intelligent, somewhat upper-crust, sounds just-so-very-slightly foreign, and almost always wrapped up in a coat and mittens and that ushanka. I actually liked the alliteration, but if it's too silly, I'm willing to change it.

Tags: fic, iai, question
Apparently now I am: busy

So after I noticed how woefully ignorant I am about World News now that I can't get BBC on radio, I decided to grab an RSS Ticker extension for Firefox.

And for my first Live Bookmark, I decided that the World Cup would be auspicious enough.

I'm currently using the BBC's RSS feed, but am wondering if there's another (better) site to grab a feed from. Anyone?

(Also, some of the opening matches were just sad.)

Tags: computers, geekery, question

What's a good anime music station? Internet radio most likely, but if there's one "normal radio" station in the Ann Arbor area which plays mostly anime music, I'd be happy to know. (And very surprised. But still.)

By "good", I mean "not likely to go down often", "plays a good variety of music", "has a very large and up-to-date collection", and "good quality stream". Playing exclusively anime tunes is more preferable than a mix of anime tunes and J-Pop.

I was wondering this after realizing that the two Internet radio stations I listen to most of the time while playing CoH/V (Cape Radio and Coven Radio) don't really do anything for me. Mostly they play ZOMG LOUD ROCK METAL and call it "high-energy". I don't like metal. (They do play good stuff like TMBG and such, but relatively rarely.)

So far I've managed to google up Japan-A-Radio and Kawaii Radio, but I'm not sure which is better, or if there's another option.

Tags: anime, question

Are all the programs in the AMVApp considered up to date, or at least good enough that I don't have to redownload everything updated?

I'd like to get back into AMV creating, but I'd rather not have to go through the whole "My Codecs Don't Work Anymore" bit, especially with my trying to keep everything to as minimal as possible.

EDIT: ( Changes:Collapse )

Tags: amv, question
Apparently now I am: complacent

A question for Ann Arbor residents (or the surrounding environs):

Being that I'm very unfamiliar with how it is done in the US, what radio stations would you recommend I listen to?

Reason being I have a radio alarm clock, and I figured that I may as well use the radio function. However, a quick scroll-through of the stations I could casually receive (without adjusting the antenna) revealed... well, crap. Is it just me, or are there a lot of "popular songs" that are random screaming into the microphone, or dully reciting words to a boring beat, or simply artistes with no musical talent?

However, I am aware that sometimes the stations play duds, and maybe I just caught them at a bad time. Googling "ann arbor radio" revealed a few hits that made me even less enthused about listening to American radio.

So should I just stick to my mp3 player, or should I attempt to try tuning in to the airwaves one more time?

Tags: notes to self, question