Where My Bunnies Come to Roam

Novel Reaction Post: Warbreaker

2012-08-14T21:01:27Z

Woah, it's been awhile since I've done one of these. I blame this on Tumblr. However, I don't like how all-text posts look on that site, so I'm on here.

Today I'm writing about Brandon Sanderson's novel Warbreaker because it holds the distinction of being the first novel I've started and actually finished in a good while. Whether or not this novel has finally broken my reading slump remains to be seen, however.

The summary (from Goodreads):

Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

This is Sanderson's fifth novel after Elantris, and the Mistborn trilogy, none of which I've read. However, Warbreaker is a stand-alone novel, so it's not necessary to have read his previous works.

My thoughts are below the cut. There will probably be spoilers, so be warned. Also, know that I read the version he posted online here.

I downloaded this book shortly before leaving for a weekend trip after reading this recommendation, but had planned on saving it for another time. Here's the thing about e-books, though: they're much more convenient to carry around and read while travelling. So rather than pull out the paperback novel I brought, I started reading this.

I found it difficult to put down, which is a very good sign. During my downtime that weekend, I would pull out my tablet and get absorbed into the world. And I do enjoy a good fantasy novel with a fascinating idea. In this case, the concept of BioChromatic Breath and the magic powers that make use of it, which is explained throughout the book. While there's still a few bits I'm trying to grasp, I've mostly got the hang of what we need to know. The different religions are also interesting and ring true to real life

I also really love the characters. That's good because Warbreaker is told in multiple POV's, alternating between sisters Siri and Vivenna, the god Lightsong, and Vasher, a man we don't know much about. Depending on the kind of novel I'm reading, I can sometimes be put off by changes in viewpoints. However, it worked for me here.

Thoughts about various characters:
- I adore Lightsong. He's so flippant and cynical about his religion, but he does care about people. I enjoyed reading his interactions with others, especially his high priest Llarimar. (That man is a saint for putting up with him. XD) The ending to his story made me sad, though.
- Between the two sisters, I liked Siri a bit more. Siri is more lively and not as bound to the rules, and was able to adjust to life in the Hallandren court. She was also able to get the God King Susebron to open up to her, which I highly doubt Vivenna would've done had she gone to Hallendren as planned. Speaking of Susebron, I wanted to hug him; he's so child-like in his understanding of the world.
- However, I was able to relate to Vivenna more than I did to Siri. There's a lot about her that I understood: the image of confidence and perfection she's had to maintain, her need to be useful and needed, how she's had to keep her own feelings hidden for a long time, and even the way she's had to change her views after being confronted with reality. Basically, I saw a lot of myself in Vivenna. I hope that made sense.
- Does Nightblood count as a character? He's a talking sword, so I dunno. But like Lightsong, he amused me with his observations. I was more attached to it than I was to Vasher. Bizzare.

One thing I'm iffy about is the ending. It's pretty open-ended and leaves room for interpretation and a potential sequel. I'm OK with it, but I do like a bit more closure in my stand-alone novels. There was also a lot happening in the last ten chapters or so; most of the novel spans several months, while the last few chapters take place in the course of one or two days. It's a lot to take in.

I also would've liked to see a bit more interaction between the sisters. They're finally reunited near the end of the novel, but there was only a page or so of them actually talking.

Otherwise, I'm glad I checked out Warbreaker. It was an enjoyable read, and I definitely plan on buying the book version.

Right now, I'm reading the annotations Sanderson has on the website. It's a good chance to see why he made the decisions he did while writing his novel.

This entry was originally posted at http://rfmadison.dreamwidth.org/11802.html. No need to comment over there; I can respond to comments here, too.

Playing with DrawCast and Manga Coloring

2012-07-18T03:27:58Z

Firstly, whoo! I'm updating this journal for once. As it turns out, I've been putting a lot of my works in progress and random graphics on my Tumblr instead of on here. Whoops.

Speaking of works in progress, I'm here to share two versions of an unfinished manga coloring, and I might as well throw in the finished piece while I'm at it. I say these are "works in progress," but they're pretty much finished. I even took the time to add random shading. (Still need to work on that, by the way) If you have't read the latest chapter of Kimi ni Todoke, this picture has potential spoilers. Beautiful spoilers depending on who you are, but potential spoilers all the same.

Here's an icon-sized sample, which I tried to keep as spoiler-free as possible:

Colored full-sized images are behind the cuts:

The first picture was colored using DrawCast, a drawing app for the iOS. I originally downloaded it for my iPod touch to add words to one of the photos I took, but re-downloaded it on my newfangled iPad out of boredom and because I remembered we have a stylus for the device. (Yes, I'm ridiculously spoiled) After I tried drawing for a bit, I realized I could try coloring line art with this app because it comes with a neat layer function. There were a few manga panels I wanted to try coloring after a long dry spell, so I tried a different panel from the same chapter as the picture above. Here is the result. While I do have issues with DrawCast (I have problems mixing together colors to make a decent skin tone, for one), it's nice for when I want to get a basic idea of what colors I'm going to use. And because I'm using a stylus instead of my laptop mouse, I have better control over where the colors go. And cleaning unwanted parts of the image got so much easier.

The second picture was done using GIMP, of course. Being on the computer gives me the advantage of pulling images from the Internet for color references so I don't have to guess at a character's skin/hair color. I can also put separate layers for each part of the picture I color, and I can change the opacity of different parts to suit my needs. I also picked up a tip from simplysailormoon> and decided to make the white background a light shade of gray. While not useful for this picture, it will come in handy when I have to deal with the color white at some point.

Here's the finished version:

I'll probably post it again if I ever get around to finishing the other manga colorings I've left alone due to my fickle nature. Or hey, there's always Tumblr.

This entry was originally posted at http://rfmadison.dreamwidth.org/11657.html. No need to comment over there; I can respond to comments here, too.

Almond Chocolates

2012-02-14T06:38:31Z

Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of that, as well as my first sporadic post on this account on Dreamwidth, I've decided to post the results of my latest dessert making experiment. For Valentine's Day this year, I originally wanted to try making red velvet cupcakes and experiment with coloring the frosting. However, while on Tumblr earlier scrolling down the Kimi ni Todoke tag (I still need to get around to a review of that manga), I came upon this recipe from a fairly new blog focusing on anime inspired recipes. Since I had just about everything it called for (with a few substitutions), I decided to try these instead.

Ingredients
1 12oz. package of dark chocolate chips ¹
3/4 cup whole almonds ²
1 tablespoon vegetable oil ³
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package small foil (or paper) cups for candy ⁴
Double boiler. If you don’t have one, you can fashion one using a deep pan full of water and a glass or aluminum bowl. Just fill up the pan 3/4 of the way with water, put the bowl in the middle, and keep the water hot, but not boiling.

Notes
1 Instead of dark chocolate chips, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips because Mom bought a HUGE bag for the purposes of brownie making (To be shared in a future post, hopefully).
2 You know what else Mom bought a huge bag of? Sliced almonds. Doubled the amount used as a result, which is 1 1/2 cups of sliced almonds. From there, I put half that amount into the food processor.
3 According to Google, I can use canola oil as a substitute for vegetable oil. Good thing too, because we have plenty of the latter at home.
4 While I would have preferred small cups, we only have the larger muffin cups that we never use at home. I had no desire to go out and by small foil/paper cups, so... yeah.

Directions
1. Spread all the almonds out on a pan and place in a warm (170°F to 200°F) oven. Let them toast in there until they become aromatic.

Yes, yes, it's not in a pan in the oven. But after what happened when I toasted nuts for truffles, I've gotten into the habit of toasting them on the stovetop. Works just as well, and I'm less likely to burn things. And after everything else I changed, I figured what the heck.

2. Pour all the chocolate chips into the bowl of the double boiler. Add the oil, salt, and vanilla, and let the chocolate begin to melt. Stir it occasionally.

It's pretty much melted at this point.

3. Take 1/4 cup of the almonds and chop them finely. Once the chocolate has melted all the way, add the chopped almonds, and mix it together.

Mmmmmmm, almonds. (See Note #2 above for why I put 3/4 cup of chopped almonds instead)

4. Set out all the wrappers you’ll need, and slowly begin spooning the chocolate into each wrapper. It can be a little messy until you get the hang of it. After filling each wrapper with chocolate, add one or two of the whole almonds on top. You can also add sprinkles instead, if you would like.

This was before I topped them with the almonds in the first picture.

5.Once all the wrappers are full, place them all in the fridge to cool and solidify.

It set faster than I thought it would. Yay for pleasant surprises!

The final result, unwrapped:

Sorry, this really could be a better picture. But see, it kinda looks like a peanut butter cup.

Final verdict: Not bad. Not sure if being able to taste the salt is a deal breaker, but I like it. It made the chocolate less sweet than I thought it would be. And almonds make everything better. =D

This entry was originally posted at http://rfmadison.dreamwidth.org/11370.html. No need to comment over there; I can respond to comments here, too.

Fall 2011 New Shows: What I'll (Probably) Watch

2011-09-10T12:01:12Z

So, here's the thing. Despite the numerous hours I spend in front of the TV, I don't actually watch a lot of shows unless they're animated or on one of those kids channels. Very few live-action shows grab my interest from day one, and the few shows I do get interested in are either cancelled (Moonlight, Kings, Undercovers, The Cape), I drop (Royal Pains, Burn Notice, Fairly Legal, US version of Being Human), or I never get around to watching (The Good Wife, Nikita remake). In fact, White Collar is probably the only non-animated, not kid-oriented American show I'm still following right now, and it's not even on network television. I think I have horrible luck with choosing shows, I swear.

However, I don't know if it's because I'm not doing much with my life right now or what, but I've been looking up some upcoming shows for Fall 2011, and I find myself wanting to at least check out a few of them. With my luck, they'll all be cancelled after one season (or less), but it never hurts to try, right?

Note: This only lists network TV premieres. I haven't bothered to check if there were any new shows coming out on basic cable.

1) Revenge - premieres Wednesday, September 21, 10/9c on ABC

Emily Thorne (Emily Van Camp) is new to the Hamptons. She's met some of her wealthy neighbors, has made a few new friends and seemingly blends into the town. But something is a little odd about a young girl living in a wealthy town all on her own, and the truth is that Emily isn't exactly new to the neighborhood. In fact, this was once her old neighborhood, until something bad happened that ruined her family and their reputation. Now Emily is back, and she's returned to right some of those wrongs in the best way she knows how – with a vengeance. (ABC website)

This is my most anticipated drama of the bunch. Yes, they could probably think of a better title. Whatever. I love a good revenge story; it's my favorite type of plot when done right, so of course I'm planning to check it out anyway. But apparently it's a loose adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I adored the novel, and though I'm normally iffy on adaptations, I also enjoyed the movie starring Jim Caviezel. So unless something is terribly wrong with the execution, I'll probably like this too. Please, please let this be good!

2) Ringer - premieres Tuesday, September 13, 9/8c on CW

Bridget is six months sober and starting to turn her life around when she is the sole witness to a professional hit. Despite the assurances of her FBI protector, Agent Victor Machado, Bridget knows her life is on the line. She flees to New York, telling no one, not even her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, Malcolm. In New York, Bridget reunites with her estranged twin, Siobhan. Wealthy, pampered and married to the strikingly handsome Andrew Martin, Siobhan lives what appears to be a fairy tale life – a life where no one knows that Bridget exists. The sisters seem to be mending their frayed relationship, until Siobhan disappears overboard during a boat trip, and Bridget makes the split decision to take on her sister's identity. She discovers shocking secrets, not only about her sister and her marriage, but also about Siobhan's best friend, Gemma, and Gemma's husband, Henry. And when someone tries to kill Bridget in her sister's penthouse, she realizes she is no safer as Siobhan than she is as herself. (CW website)

Confession time: I only watched one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I'm not really a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar. However, I'm very intrigued by the plot; it should keep me on the edge of my seat. So many questions just from reading the summary: How did the sisters get estranged? Will anyone find out Bridget is pretending to be Siobhan? What the heck did Siobhan get herself in to, anyway? Hmmmmmmmm.

3) Prime Suspect - premieres Thursday, September 22, 10/9c on NBC

The series stars Maria Bello ("A History of Violence") as tough-as-nails NYPD homicide Detective Jane Timoney, an outsider who has just transferred to a new squad where her new colleagues already dislike her. Jane is confident and focused - and also rude, abrupt and occasionally reckless. She has her vices, and rumors of a questionable past follow her everywhere - but at the end of the day, she's an instinctively brilliant cop who can't be distracted from the only important thing: the prime suspect. (NBC website)

This is a US adaptation of the British series, which starred Helen Mirren. Personally, I have nothing against US adaptations (see the previously mentioned Being Human), but perhaps others might feel differently. The main reason why I'm checking it out is because I'm hoping Bello's Jane Timoney will fill a void that the departure of Mary Shannon and In Plain Sight will leave once it's over next spring.

4) Grimm - premieres Friday, October 21, 9/8c on NBC

Portland homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli, "Turn The Beat Around") discovers he is descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as "Grimms," charged with keeping balance between humanity and the mythological creatures of the world. As he tries to hide the dangers of his new found calling from his fiancé, Juliette Silverton, (Bitsie Tulloch, "quarterlife"), and his partner, Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby, "Lincoln Heights"), he becomes ever more entrenched in the ancient rivalries and alliances of the Grimm world. With help from his confidant, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell, "Prison Break"), a reformed Grimm creature himself, Nick must navigate through the forces of a larger-than-life mythology, facing off with Hexenbiests, Blutbads and all manner of ancient evils, including royal lines dating back to the original profilers themselves, The Grimm Brothers. (NBC website)

The first of two fairy tale reimaginings, another one of my favorite story types. I'm very intrigued by the premise. How vast is the Grimm world going to be? How many familiar character will I encounter? How does the world stay hidden? And how many other shows take place in Portland, Oregon?

5) Once Upon a Time - premieres Sunday, October 23, 8/7c on ABC

And they all lived happily ever after – or so everyone was led to believe. Emma Swan knows how to take care of herself. She's a 28-year-old bail bonds collector who's been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby. But when the son she gave up years ago finds her, everything starts to change. Henry is now 10 years old and in desperate need of Emma's help. He believes that Emma actually comes from an alternate world and is Snow White and Prince Charming's missing daughter. According to his book of fairytales, they sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen's curse, which trapped the fairytale world forever, frozen in time, and brought them into our modern world. Of course Emma doesn't believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town. Concerned for Henry, she decides to stay for a while, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems. It's a place where magic has been forgotten, but is still powerfully close… where fairytale characters are alive, even though they don't remember who they once were. The epic battle for the future of all worlds is beginning, but for good to win, Emma will have to accept her destiny and fight like hell. (ABC website)

I'm getting not one, but two fairy tale reimaginings! It'll nice to compare and contrast between this and Grimm. How come the fairytale characters in Storybrooke don't remember who they are? Also, didn't the Grimm Brothers also have a Snow White story? Will Grimm have their own version of Snow White? So many questions.

6) Unforgettable - premieres Tuesday, September 20, 10/9c on CBS

UNFORGETTABLE stars Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, an enigmatic former police detective with a rare condition that makes her memory so flawless that every place, every conversation, every moment of joy and every heartbreak is forever embedded in her mind. It's not just that she doesn't forget anything - she can't; except for one thing: the details that would help solve her sister's long-ago murder. Carrie has tried to put her past behind her, but she's unexpectedly reunited with her ex-boyfriend and partner, NYPD Detective Al Burns (Dylan Walsh), when she consults on a homicide case. His squad includes Det. Mike Costello (Michael Gaston), Al's right-hand man; Detective Roe Saunders (Kevin Rankin), the junior member of the team; and Detective Nina Inara (Daya Vaidya), a sassy, street-smart cop. Being back on the job after a break feels surprisingly right for Carrie. Despite her conflicted feelings for Al, she decides to permanently join his unit as a detective solving homicides - most notably, the unsolved murder of her sister. All she needs to do is remember. (CBS website)

Carrie Well's perfect memory is the draw for me, as is the mystery of what happened to her sister and why she can't remember what happened. I don't particulary care for the ex-boyfriend business.

7) Person of Interest - premieres Thursday, September 22, 9/8c on CBS

PERSON OF INTEREST stars Jim Caviezel, Emmy Award winner Michael Emerson and Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson in a crime thriller about a presumed dead former-CIA agent, Reese, who teams up with a mysterious billionaire, Finch, to prevent violent crimes by using their own brand of vigilante justice. Reese's special training in covert operations appeals to Finch, a software genius who invented a program that uses pattern recognition to identify people about to be involved in violent crimes. Using state-of-the-art surveillance technology, the two work outside of the law, using Reese's adept skills and Finch's unlimited wealth to unravel the mystery of the "person of interest" and stop the crime before it happens. Reese's actions draw the attention of the NYPD, including homicide detective Carter, and Fusco, a cop whom Reese uses to his advantage. With infinite crimes to investigate, Reese and Finch find that the right person, with the right information, at the right time, can change everything. (CBS website)

Speaking of Jim Caviezel, there he is! The screenplay was written by J.J Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Fringe, Undercovers) and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight). Out of all those shows I listed from Abrams, I only watched Undercovers (Which got cancelled. Just as well because I lost interest at some point) and one episode of Felicity, and I didn't care for The Dark Knight that much (I thought it was too long), so I don't particularly care about either of them (Though I have been meaning to check out Fringe). I DO like the plot, though. Could be a fun watch.

8) A Gifted Man - premieres Friday, September 23, 8/7c on CBS

Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) is an exceptional doctor who lives a materialistic life of luxury thanks to his work-obsessed career and powerful and wealthy patients; however, Michael's ordered world is rocked when his ex-wife, Anna (Jennifer Ehle), an idealistic free-clinic doctor and the love of his life, mysteriously appears to him. Michael's off-beat sister, Christina (Julie Benz), a single mom to her teenaged son, Milo (Liam Aiken), is thrilled that Anna's back in her brother's life, even as an "illusion," because Michael was always a better person with her. Curious about Michael's sudden change in behavior is his efficient assistant, Rita (Margo Martindale). When Anna asks Michael to go to her clinic to help keep it running, he meets Autumn (Afton Williamson), a volunteer carrying on Anna's work with the underprivileged. Touched by those in need and accepting of Anna's compassionate "presence," Michael's attitude toward serving the rich and poor is turned upside down, and he begins to see that there's room in his life for everyone. (CBS website)

This looks like a sweet story. My only drawback: the main character is a doctor. I can't seem to get into medical dramas; heck, the only medical show I followed was Royal Pains, and I dropped that after one season. If there's too much of a focus on the medical aspect of this, I'm out. Hopefully I won't need to worry about that; based on the summary, this looks to be more about Michael Holt's change of attitude. Question: Who decided to leave whom in this relationship?

More notes:
- I seem to be lacking in new comedies. I'm banking on not needing to watch those from the beginning.
- A majority of the shows I'm checking out seem to be crime procedurals of some sort. Huh, looks like I have a drama type after all.
- With the exception of the two fairy tale shows, all of them take place somewhere in New York. New York, I love you, but a change of scenery would be nice, you know.

If there are any other new shows worth checking out, I'll update this list.

Manga Series Reactions: Ouran High School Host Club

2011-08-28T03:03:38Z

My new obsession! I would have never checked out the manga if I didn't hear about the live action drama. And I'm so glad I did. I read all the chapters within a week (it would have been shorter if it weren't for real life stuff), watched all the anime episodes, and am currently working through the live action series.

The summary (from Anime News Network):

Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School, where it turns out that the bespectacled, short-haired Haruhi is the only student from a lower-middle class family in attendance. Then, to make matters worse, one day she breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to one of the campus clubs: a mysterious outfit called the "Host Club," consisting of six super-rich (and gorgeous) guys. Mistaking Haruhi for a boy at first, they force her to work for the club to pay the damages, but when she proves to be a hit with the female students who come to be charmed and entertained, the guys decide it's more fun keeping up the charade...

The series, by Bisco Hatori, originally ran from 2002 to 2010 in Japan. The series itself makes up eighteen volumes, sixteen of which are available in North America through Viz Media (The last two volumes will be available December 2011 and some time in 2012). There are also a few published after-stories; the latest is a two-part story released in the Japanese magazine LaLa commemorating the premiere of the live action drama (No clue as to whether these stories will be available in NA).

And now, my thoughts on the series. I'm going to try my best to keep this to just the manga, though I may do a comparison of everything if I feel like it.

I forget when I first heard about this series. Definitely not during my own high school years, that's for sure. But no one really tried to get me to read the series, and I hadn't seen any volumes in the local bookstores, so there was no reason for me to check Ouran out until now.

Twenty-six pages in, and I was won over by the protagonist, Haruhi Fujioka. She's my favorite kind of heroine: smart, capable, no-nonsense, and doesn't care what others think of her. She is amazing, and is, hands down, my favorite character in the series. Her reactions to the rich student's reactions to instant coffee! Her reasoning as to why she's dressed as a boy (By the way, had I gone into this blind, I would never have guessed that she was a girl). How great is it that she's not bothered by her appearance and that she doesn't care if she's outed as a girll? I ♥ her. *_*

One of my early impressions of the manga is that the setting is a lot like another one of my favorite manga series, Hana Yori Dango. Both have ridiculously rich students in an exclusive school. Both also feature a group of handsome guys and common sense heroines. There are a ton of differences, of course, but the first one that hit me? All the students in Ouran are nice (Well, almost all of them).

Which leads me to the Host Club. My favorite of the bunch is Mori-sempai (I'm most fond of the silent type), but I like all the other members for different reasons. Honey-sempai reminds me of me and my penchant for sweets (but not cake, oddly enough). The twins are hilarious and delightful to read about. Kyoya is wonderfully evil; he hasn't made me scream "RUN AWAY" at his "Shadow King" persona once throughout the series, so I can just enjoy him being his cool, calculating self (Plus, he got really hot as an adult. Yes, I'm that shallow). And Tamaki has a very dramatic personality. Normally I'd be irritated, but instead I can't stop laughing at him and his reactions. But the main thing I like about Tamaki is that he's so nice. It should be a crime to be so mean to him because he's so kind and sincere towards everyone he meets.

The series itself has parodies of various shoujo manga themes. Reverse harem? Got it. Genderbending? Heck yeah. Shounen-ai? So much that even I can see it, and I don't know if it was done on purpose or by accident. Incest? Here, have some twinscest. They even managed to put in the accidental first kiss, among many many others that I haven't mentioned.

Each chapter, in the beginning, is pretty episodic; I could've picked a random chapter to start with and it would have been OK. There's no long arc until more than halfway in, where the romance truly starts (By the way, I went into this not expecting a romance. I wou). It's also not that long, which is both a good thing and a bad thing for me. On the one hand, once all the romantic elements were finally put in place, the resolution is pretty speedy. On the other hand, I would be perfectly content reading about the Host Club being their ridiculous selves forever and ever (OK, maybe not that long. =P)

And the fangirls. Oh the fangirls. Reminds me a bit of real life, actually. The squeeing! The flames of moe! (OK, that was probably only in the anime. Whatever) How, near the end of the series, it turned out they knew a LOT about the various Host Club members. Which was why I was so disappointed when it turned out that they really had no idea Haruhi was a girl and though she was a guy who liked wearing women's clothes. And after I was so impressed with them, too.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were more stories after the series officially ended. The snippets on what happens to everyone (including minor supporting characters) in the future are short and some of them leave me wanting more, but it's still a nice addition. The current two-part is interesting and expands on one of these snippets; I really hope that they're released in North America officially.

This is one of the few manga series that I would actually buy the available copies so I could read them at any time. I keep referring back to random chapters just for the laughs. I don't think I've felt this way about a series in a long, long time. In short, I love Ouran.

OK, this turned out to be a lot more rambly than my last reaction post. Here, have a manga coloring of the last page of the first part of the latest story (original page here):

11 Ouran Manga Panel Colorings + 1 Wallpaper

2011-08-20T00:41:49Z

So, before I lose my nerve, decide to color even more panels, or edit the ones I already did, I'm putting up what I've done so far. I'm still new to this whole "manga coloring" thing, so I'm hoping to improve as I (hopefully) continue to be inspired and time goes on.

Samples (can double as icons, if desired):

Panels

Alternate background here (there's not much of a difference). Original page here.

¹
Original page here.

Original page here.

Original page here.

Original page here.

²
Original page here.

Original page here.

Original page here.

Original page here.

Original page here.

³
Original page here.

Wallpaper
⁴
Original size: 1600x900

Notes
1: ~~I didn't notice that little thing on Haruhi's left arm until now. I should probably go fix that.~~ Fixed. I think.
2: This panel made me laugh for some reason. ~~I imagined it a lot more shoujo-y, with the sparkly shiny bubbles, but I'm happy with this for now.~~ Now with shoujo bubbles!
3: I'm more of a Mori fangirl myself but... um... Kyoya got really hot as an adult. Not that he wasn't good-looking to begin with, but I can't stop staring at him now. That's all. ::continues gaping::
4: This is my first attempt at making a wallpaper, which I originally did for my laptop. I personally like it, but maybe it's too simple? *shrug*

General note #1: I'm still no good at backgrounds. That involves more effort on my part. I'm hoping to improve on that.
General note #2: Shading for skin and hair? Another weak point of mine. It almost makes me wish I'd taken an art class after grade school. -_-

Feedback would be much appreciated, but please don't be too harsh. I'm still learning!

More Adventures in Manga Coloring

2011-08-07T07:31:19Z

So, remember last time when I said that, if I color manga pictures, I'd just stick to chibi/sillier poses? Well... I guess I lied. ^^'

This is all due to my new obsession with Ouran High School Host Club (I'll probably get around to a reaction post the next time I make an entry over here). Thankfully, there's an anime version and a live-action version out for the series, and I can probably get most of my icons from screencaps I plan to take. However, the following shot isn't in the anime because the scene involved takes place later in the manga series:

It just screamed "COLOR ME!" But then the rational part of my brain said, "But wait! You haven't even mastered coloring basic manga pictures. How are you going to handle this? Think of the SHADING you have to do with regards to lighting and shadows!!! Besides, someone else must've already colored this and did a much better job than you can hope to do." Alas, the procrastinating part of my brain won out, so I spent a few hours coloring it in. And here's the original result:

I... might have gone overboard. I mean, I was originally just going to color the skin, the eyes, and the lighter parts of the hair. But with the background I put, it didn't seem right if I just left the picture half finished, so I colored in the rest of Haruhi's hair, the shadowy parts (thank you built-in shading), and her sweatshirt. To me, this result gives off a nice, quiet vibe because the colors are more muted.

Of course, I then decided to tweak with the saturation and contrast. It's not the first time I've done the process, but it's the first time I did it for a picture I colored. Here's what I got:

I really like how bright this is and how the shading seems to blend in a bit more together. Because I like using vivid colors in my icons, I'll probably use this as my base as soon as I can polish this up. Hmm...

Someone send heeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!

Edit: I didn't realize that my color scheme was so Christmas-like. It was completely unintentional.

Forays into Truffle Making

2011-07-29T21:46:03Z

So, I was in the living room while Mom was watching an episode of The Nate Berkus Show earlier this week. During that episode, he had Anne Thornton on to make Cookie Dough Truffles, which peaked my curiosity. After seeing how easy the recipe looked, I decided to look up chocolate truffle recipes (I didn't really want a cookie dough center) and clicked on this recipe from Cooking for Engineers. From there, the idea try my hand at chocolate truffles wouldn't leave my head. So yesterday, I made my way to a grocery store to buy ingredients to make the truffles, and here is the end result:

So, the instructions first said to chop up 1 pound of chocolate with a serrated knife. For the record, this is 4 ounces of chocolate:

I had to buy four of these for the recipe. And I had a perfectly good bag of chocolate chips at home that I was afraid to use because of something to do with additives and stuff. *sigh* I'm thinking of just using the chocolate chips next time.

And here is what 1 pound of chocolate looks like all chopped up:

The chopped chocolate was transferred to a medium metal bowl (the one I use to mix up my dry ingredients when baking).

After that, I put 1 cup of heavy whipping cream on the smallest saucepan we've got and set it on medium-high heat until just boiling (They call this scalding?).

Then I poured the cream over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for five minutes.

Here they are, getting nice and happy with each other.

Once the time was up, I used a rubber spatula to mix the cream and chocolate together until there were no lumps left. This forms ganache.

After that, I transferred the ganache into the fridge for about an hour.

Here it is, sitting pretty as it sets.

Meanwhile, I prepped two cookie sheets and toasted a cup each of chopped almonds and walnuts for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Why? Because I love nuts and wanted them in the truffles.

Once the hour was up, I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper, took out the ganache from the fridge, then used a melon baller to make little balls of ganache.

By the time I took this picture, I had made a lot of balls already.

However, the ganache wasn't really coming out of the melon baller, so I just dug it out with my hands and formed balls myself.

This what I made with the already used ganache.

Once that was done, I put the cookie sheet back into the fridge so that the balls will set. The original page said 15 minutes, but I let it stay there for almost 45 minutes or so.

Back in the fridge, settiling down.

While I let it set, I prepared the toppings for my truffles: cocoa powder and the toasted nuts from earlier:

Sadly, I think the walnuts burned. =(

Once I took the ganache balls back out of the fridge, I rolled them around in the toppings. The cocoa powder topping was easy; I just let them roll around inside the bowl until well coated.

One ball inside the cocoa powder.

For the nuts, I used my hands to help with the rolling process so that the nuts will stick to the balls. No picture of this, sadly.

And that's it! That's how I got the results from the first picture. Apparently, they can stay in room temperature for about a month if they're in an airtight container, so I placed the truffles in one.

Look! It's heart-shaped.

Taste-wise, they weren't bad. The truffles are really soft and will melt in your mouth quickly. The ones covered in cocoa powder were a bit bitter, but that's what I get for using unsweetened powder. And the walnuts, like I said before, were a bit burnt, so I'm trying to finish them off myself. The ones coated in almonds? My favorites of the batch, but that could be bias talking.

Future endeavors include different flavored truffles, more toppings, and dipping the truffles in chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Official Icon Batch #2: Legend of Korra Icons and Animated GIFs

2011-07-26T02:13:57Z

Anyone else watch the trailer for the new mini-series The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra? No? WELL YOU SHOULD!!!

Anyway, I made a few icons and GIFs for this wonderful occasion.

[32] icons
[6] animated GIFs

Teasers:

Icons:

¹

Animated GIFs:

1 The last five icons have textless versions:

Also, I had to resort to posting this on the PC instead of my laptop. Ugh.

Official Icon Batch #1

2011-07-20T00:06:07Z

I'm finally posting icons here. Yay!

[18] stock icons (including 1 animated GIF)
[9] White Collar icons
[5] Big Time Rush icons ("Worldwide" music video/ Big Time Breakup)
[9] Other (including City Hunter, Sailor Moon (Sailor Mercury/Mizuno Ami), The Wallflower/Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, Skip Beat!)

Teasers:

Stock:

¹

White Collar:

²

Big Time Rush:

Other:

³
⁴

1: A non-animated version of this icon can be found here.
2: The untouched sepia version can be found here.
3: Other versions of this icon can be found here and here.
4: Technically, this is a White Collar icon, but none of the characters are featured so it goes here.

Why "official?" Because I already have an "Icon Batch #1" for the four icons I made for this journal... two years ago. This also probably means it'll be a long time before I post another batch of icons. XD

Adventures in Manga Coloring

2011-07-10T05:12:27Z

For the longest period of time, I've wanted to do manga-based icons. However, I'm awful with using my photo editor(s) to color in the black & white shots. A lot of the time, if there's a manga character I wanna make an icon of, I either look for the anime and cap from there or, if there's no anime adaptation, find any colored manga shots. That's what I had to do with my Makoto icon from W Juliet:

I've been taking several manga pages in the hopes that one day I'll be able to clean them and make icons, but I end up losing interest.

For example, this cropped shot of Tsukushi from Hana Yori Dango had been sitting in my folder for a good year or two with nothing done to it (I can actually say that for a lot of stuff I took for the purpose of icon making, but that's a different story):

The best I was able to do with my very limited knowledge was this:

Well... at least the stars look pretty?

I've looked for a few tutorials, but to be perfectly honest most of them just left me frustrated. Eventually, I put that idea on hold.

Then, a few days ago, I was looking for how to do "Exclusion" layers on GIMP for a different icon when I stumbled upon this tutorial on how to color manga. I took a look at it and decided to give it one more try. And I was totally loving the process! I hadn't made use of the "Multiply" layer before, but I thought it was great how I could use different layers to color different parts of the icon and not ruin any previous coloring. And the best part: I could accidentally color into the black areas and not ruin the picture. So, here's that same Tsukushi picture shrunk to icon size and colored:

Sure, the subtle shading could use some work, but I'm finally able to color pictures! The only issue I had was the background; no matter what I did, it didn't look totally right. I eventually settled for this earlier today:

Also today, I decided to finally look up how to clean up raw manga scans. I'm usually OK with using the English scans because they're cleaned up and look really nice, but when I save images from MangaStream, they don't save the whole thing. So, it was off to Google, where I found this nifty little script for GIMP here to help with the process. It's a nice first step at any rate. I used it on a page from the latest issue of Skip Beat, cropped the image I wanted, and got this:

I pretty much memorized the basics of the coloring tutorial I got earlier and came up with this:

It's really easy when I only have to color the skin and the little star thing. XD

Anyway, I didn't have a huge issue with coloring the background here. It was probably the steps I took to clean the original scan before hand, I don't really know:

I actually finished the icon for this cap; it brings me great glee. =D

So, for now, I'll just stick to the chibi/sillier caps. Maybe when I have more time and patience, I'll try something more complicated.

BTR Goodbye Icon OR My Thought Process Part 2 (out of many)

2011-07-07T03:46:51Z

So, I got inspired by the latest Big Time Rush episode and music video (Yes, you are free to mock me) to make icons. This particular icon took up hours of my time, and not just because I was desperately avoiding schoolwork at the same time (and still am by making this post):

This was made with a combination of GIMP and Photoshop Elements 9. Today I decided to recreate this icon using only GIMP.

OK, so the first step was getting the screencaps:

The first screencap came from the music video Nickelodeon released to promote the episode and was originally 1280x720, while the second screencap came from an online clip of the episode itself.

Then I cropped the picture a bit so it would fit better on the icon. Originally, I automatically cropped both to100x49 thanks to Photoshop Elements, but I like to work with the original sizes of the caps as much as possible before shrinking to icon size. It's a preference of mine.

The first cap is 909x445, while the second one is 731x358. I shrunk the first cap down to the size of the second cap so I can add both to a square canvas. If I had stretched out the second cap, I imagine it would look more blurry than it already does. I can say this based on experience.

So, next I opened a new file on GIMP, set it to 731x731, and bucket filled it with black so I'd have a nice, solid background to work with. Then I added two transparent layers to the image so that when I add my cropped caps, I can move them around and mess with them separately:

Next, I copied and pasted both caps onto the layers, the first cap on the bottom and the second cap on the top. There should be a small black border in between the two caps:

Not that it really matters, but I adjusted the caps by selecting each "New Layer" by clicking Colors->Auto->White Balance. This way, the coloring of the two caps look more equal to each other. I could just shrink this to 100x100 and call it a day:

However, I wanted to mess around with coloring a bit more. So first, I selected the cap on top and desaturate it by going to Colors->Desaturate

I personally like how "Luminosity" looks best and tend to pick it for all my black and white shots, so I chose it here. I then selected the layer with the other picture and desaturated it as well.

To get the sepia color on the bottom, I kept the layer selected and clicked Colors->Colorize. I then shamelessly stole the values from Photoshop Elements from their "Old Fashioned Photo" guided edit and put the "Hue" at 30 and the "Saturation" at 25. This should give a nice brownish tint:

For comparison, here's what happens if you click Filters->Decor->Old Photo and just click "Sepia":

The script colors the whole picture, and I think it looks a little more faded. Maybe it might work for a different icon. Of course, I could've avoided the whole "colors the whole picture" by working on the caps separately before putting them on the canvas. *shrug* Moving on...

After that, I clicked Layer->Merge Visible Layers (or Ctrl+M), then selected "Clipped to bottom" as my final, merged layer. I've been doing this for all my icons because if I ever move an image around to a point where it goes outside the image, the final result will stay with the bottom layer boundaries. After that, I duplicated the image twice, set the second layer on "Burn" and the top later on "Screen":

I like how the "Burn" layer accentuates the shadows and how the "Screen" filter makes the effect less harsh, so I went with it.

At this point, I merged the layers again and scaled the icon down to 100x100. At this point on, I'll be putting up comparisons between the one I'm doing with just GIMP and the one with both GIMP and Photoshop Elements:

The left icon is the icon I made so far. The one on the right is the original result I got from using Photoshop Elements.

The reason why I scaled the icon is because I decided to try a light texture, and it's 100x100. Specifically, this one by Ransie:

I opened it as a new layer and decided to play with the texture. I discovered that I loved how the icon looked when I duplicated the texture, set the bottom texture layer to "Subtract" and the topmost layer to "Screen." Not sure exactly what's behind it, but I found that the subtract layer keeps the colors of the light texture without ruining the coloring of the icon:

While the screen layer lightens the whole icon:

Once again the left icon is just GIMP, the right icon also made use of Photoshop Elements.

At this point, the icon looks really nice and could be considered finished. However, I really wanted to add some text. It probably wasn't a good idea to experiment with new texts on an icon with lots going on already:

Thanks to some input from the good people over at icon_talk I played around with adding text to the middle of the icon. Now, normally if I add text to an icon I do it before scaling the final image down. Since it's already shrunk, I have no choice but to work with what I've got.

First, I opened a new image file and set it to 100x10:

I selected the image and copied and pasted on top of the icon like so:

I decided not to make a new layer to put the border because I wasn't planning on doing anything special with it, so I anchored it.

Next, I selected the text tool on the toolbox and set the font to "Constantina Bold Italic," size 10 px:

And typed the phrase "The Hardest Part is"on top of the white border, like so:

For the word "goodbye," I kept the same font, but changed the font color to white and spaced the letters by 3 px. It's easier to just show what I mean:

And that's it! I flattened the image and got the final outcome:

Not bad! Can hardly tell the difference. Now, back to real-life work. *groan*

Grey Warden Lineup (Dragon Age: Origins)

2011-06-06T03:06:33Z

One thing I discovered about my laptop the other day is that it's able to run the DAO Character Creator, something that didn't work with the home PC (I don't really know why, and it hasn't really bothered me because I don't use the PC for gaming purposes). This turned out GREAT because I'm currently in the planning stages of an AU fic involving all of my Wardens, including the ones I haven't played yet. To give me a better visual idea in my head, I made all my Wardens and saved some of the screencaps.

Then I decided to see what would happen if I put all the cropped full-body shots of my Wardens together. That turned out fine, but the white spaces in my mash-up bothered me, so I tried to fill in the blanks. That didn't turn out well, but I didn't know what to do at that point so I just tried to get rid of some random part of the shot and came up with the picture below. That picture is linked to the full size version (Warning: The actual size is humongous. Just so you know). *

From left to right: Devlin Amell, Kyria Tabris, Comyna Aeducan, Mostyn Mahariel, Anstice Brosca, Fidelia Surana, Penelope Cousland.

Accidental? Yes. But I loved how it turned out, so I decided to save it. The one gripe I have is that now both my Brosca's brand and tattoo and my Surana's hair are hidden due to the shadowing. Otherwise, I'm pleasantly surprised by the result.

Also, my Amell is very much a work in progress. He's the first guy character I've ever done, and for some reason I'm not happy with how he turned out. Maybe I just fail at making guys. =\ Thankfully, I plan on playing him last so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

Edit: *Since first posting this, I have tinkered around some more with the image. The picture reflects the changes I made. I also fixed the white space issue somewhat in the original picture (not the one posted), which is very good.

Edit #2: Sorry I keep editing this, but I got to tinkering around with the original picture, and I finally got it to look like it hasn't been merged together. In other words, no visible lines! Sure some of the shadows are a little weird now, but I can live with it. Thank you GIMP and the Pandora script. =D

In Plain Sight Animated GIFs

2011-05-24T20:18:34Z

So, I had the TV on to USA this past Sunday to finish up the third Pirates movie, and I was too lazy to change the channel when it was finished. So I ended up watching an episode of In Plain Sight, which I've never seen before now.

I am now in love with the show. Specifically Mary Shannon. Words cannot describe how awesome I think she is.

I spent the past couple of days working on animated GIFs from the episode I watched (Love in the Time of Colorado) because I've become obsessed. It's also the first time I've used text on an animated GIF, because there were just too many lines I loved to not leave them out. =D

Now, I'm off to see whether this is a one-episode thing or a genuine love for the show. Apparently there's a new episode that showed after this one that I never watched?

Fanfic: Encountering Legend

2011-05-14T06:17:53Z

Title: Encountering Legend
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 908
Characters: f!Hawke, f!Surana
Summary: What would happen if Hawke had met the Warden before the disaster at Ostagar? An AU fic set pre-DA2.
Notes: So I'm getting around to finishing up some fanfics I started a couple months ago. My DA:O/DA2 fic (Does it count as a crossover if they're in the same series? Probably not, right?) was the first one I managed to work on. Still not completely sure about how it turned out, but the only reason I wrote it in the first place was to answer the question I posed in the summary. And, to be clear, I started the fic before my replay of DA:O, so I understand this is unlikely to ever happen. I just prefer living in my imagination. =D

Marian Hawke wiped off the last of the beeswax from the string of her longbow before plucking it. Satisfied with how taut it was, she lowered her bow to the ground, drew an arrow from its quiver, and notched the arrow. Then she quickly drew the bow back as she brought it to face level, took a few seconds to aim at her target, and fired. The arrow hit the center of the makeshift dummy she was using.

“Almost perfect. Should’ve gone a little more to my right, though,” she muttered to herself as she readied another arrow. She was about to fire when she noticed a young girl watching her from the corner of her eye. An elf, to be more specific, judging from the pointy ears just peeking out of the girl’s shoulder-length hair.

“Is there something you want, elf?” Hawke questioned as she removed her arrow and slung her bow behind her.

The young elf widened her eyes. “Oh! I’m sorry for staring. You just look like someone I know.”

Hawke strode toward the elf. “And just who exactly do I look like?”

“Um, just a lady I ran into at the Korcari Wilds earlier,” the elf answered, cocking her head to her right. “But now that I look at you up close, I see now you’re nothing like her.” She raised herself up on tiptoes to look at Hawke. “Your eyes are really blue, and your hair is shorter. Oh, and your clothes aren’t so revealing.”

Hawke quirked an eyebrow. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that all humans look alike to you.”

“Nope. There are enough humans in the Tower to know that's not the case.”

Hawke took the time to look over the elf in turn. The girl was probably not much younger than herself. She donned gold and blue floor-length robes, and on her back was a wooden staff. She held in her hands a white flower with a deep red center. “Ahh, now I see. You’re a mage.”

The girl smiled brightly and nodded. “Yup. My name is Surana. Neria Surana. And you are?”

“Marian Hawke. A pleasure.” She couldn’t help but give an amused snort. She’s never met an elf so eager to talk to a human. Either this girl was really gutsy or was painfully naïve.

The elf Surana grinned brightly. “It’s very nice to meet you. So that’s a bow and arrow.” She tried to peer over Hawke’s shoulder to look at the weapon. “I’ve only seen them in books. Well, I guess Daveth has one too, but he didn’t seem to be very good at using it. Not like you, anyway.”

Hawke smirked at the compliment. “You haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait until I’m in battle.”

“Where will you be?”

“Under the command of Captain Varel, in the archery unit. I suppose you’ll be with the mages that came from the Circle?”

Surana shook her head. “No, I’ll probably be fighting with Duncan.”

“Wait a minute. Duncan, the Warden Commander? You’re a Grey Warden?” Hawke’s eyes widened in shock. “That’s… most impressive.”

Surana blushed and looked down. “Well, not yet. I still have to go through the Joining. That’s why I went to the Korcari Wilds earlier.”

Hawke nodded and eyed the flower Surana was holding. “You found that in the Wilds?”

Surana looked down at the flower as well. “Yes! Isn't it pretty?" Her face grew more solemn. “The flower’s for a sick mabari. Poor guy. I hope the kennel master is right and this helps,” she continued, a perturbed look on her face.

Hawke couldn’t help but feel sorry for the girl. She leaned down until she met the other girl’s eyes. “Hey. I’m sure the mabari will be fine. I should know. I have one myself.”

“Really? What’s the dog’s name?”

“His name is Lucas. A brave, strong, and loyal dog, like all mabari are. That’s how I know the mabari you’re worried about will be alright.” A gentle smile graced Surana’s face. She reminds me a bit of Bethany, Hawke mused.

“Well, I should go now. It was nice talking with you.” Surana chirped, visibly brighter than she was a few moments ago. “I hope we can meet again. And thank you!”

Hawke nodded as the elven mage ran off to the kennels. Poor girl, she’s probably not going to last long on the battlefield, she thought to herself as she continued to stare ahead. She might not even make the Joining, whatever that entails.

“Marian? Marian!” A male voice behind her interrupted her thoughts. Hawke turned to see Carver running up behind her. “Come on! We’ve got to get ready for battle.”

Hawke rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m coming,” she muttered as she rushed toward the army camp.

---

Hawke didn’t give much thought to the elven girl after that day, what with the disaster at Ostagar, the darktown invasion at Lothering, and the escape to Kirkwall. The next time she heard of the girl was a little less than a year later, when the name Surana became synonymous with the title “Hero of Ferelden.” As soon as she heard the news with her family, she couldn’t help but let out another amused snort.

“Is something funny, Marian?” Bethany questioned with an eyebrow raised.

Hawke smiled and shook her head. “It’s just unexpected, that’s all. Anyway, we’d better go. Meeran’s got another job for us.”

PS: After several attempts to post this, I'm really starting to hate my Internet connection and LJ. I've also resorted to re-downloading Semagic to see if I can post from it. Just wanted to get that out there.

Some glee for a change! (No, not the show)

2011-05-06T19:26:37Z

So, I now have a new laptop with which to do stuff with. The laptop came with a bunch of programs, including Adobe Photoshop Elements 9. I haven't used Photoshop since middle school! But of course, I got so used to GIMP that I figured it wouldn't matter much.

Then I got to making icons based on a scene from Jade Palace Lock Heart. It was going along OK in GIMP until I tried to do this effect:

When I originally tried it in GIMP, Yang Mi's character Qing Chuan looked all blue due to the color of the original crop, so I decided to give it a try in Photoshop. After messing with some enhance options, I squealed out loud because OMG, it looked 1000 times better!!

To get a better visual, this is the original crop:

And this is what it looked like after applying "Auto Levels" on Photoshop:

SEE THE DIFFERENCE?!?!

I'm sure it can be done in GIMP too, but that would involve messing with a whole bunch of options that I would be guessing at. Looks like I'll be using Photoshop to "fix" my screencaps from now on. =D

And now, here's some MORE venting.

2011-05-03T19:06:13Z

OK, ImageShack. I get that you have the right to change your service at any time. And I understand that it costs money with the servers and whatnot. But I'd like just a little warning before you decide that you're no longer accepting animated GIFs from free registered users. Putting up my latest GIF took a LOT longer that actually making it. You're just lucky I have too many icons and screencaps up there for me to remove my account, because otherwise, I'd have cancelled in a heartbeat. -_-

So that this post isn't a complete downer, have that GIF I've been meaning to put up, which is from Jade Palace Lock Heart, the period cdrama that I hope will finally get me out of my drama funk. Not sure how I feel about Imgur yet, but I'm trying really hard to avoid Photobucket if at all possible. And anyway, I'm only using the service for my animated stuff.

Public Service Announcement OR Venting Time

2011-04-27T19:57:58Z

I don't normally use this journal to vent. However, since I've been hit with a few spammy comments the past couple of days in this account, I'd like to say the following:

Listen, I know I don't use rfmadison often. Especially this past month. That does not mean it's OK to SELL ME SEX DRUGS or whatever it is you were trying to do. LEAVE THIS LITTLE DUMP ALONE PLEASE, ktnx.

I haven't really finished any of the fics I had planned on doing during my break from LJ. Maybe I'll have better luck during my break from school.

Custard Cake, AKA My Baking Woes

2011-02-21T01:17:31Z

So, yesterday was my mom's birthday. I baked her two things: my friend's mom's brownie recipe with walnuts added to it on Friday and a custard cake from the website Life Pinoy Style yesterday (For the record, the recipe is currently not there. Something about transferring all their recipes onto the new site or something). The brownies will have to go on a separate post, but I will say that it came out well. Too bad I can't make them come out picture-nice the way my friend's mom can. *sigh*

Let's get this disclaimer out of the way: I'm not a cake person. Now, I like sweets in general. In fact, I'm known to have a sweet tooth and am pretty close to getting diabetes if I don't watch what I eat. But cakes and I are iffy. I'm not fond of eating most cakes, and I think the only cakes I've enjoyed eating are the light and airy ones from the Chinese bakery and a couple of cakes from the Filipino store. Oh, and that one red velvet cake someone brought in. And ice cream cake, but really I'm in it for the ice cream.

I also don't really bake cakes unless they're one of those box cakes, and even then I don't eat it unless I'm really hungry. And I certainly don't have the patience to frost and/or decorate them. Drop cookies are so much easier in that respect: put them on the baking sheet, bake 'em in the oven, and presto. There are only two cakes that I've baked from scratch: cassava cake and custard cake. And honestly, I don't consider cassava cake an actual cake, so that just leaves custard cake.

This is only the second time I've baked custard cake. The first time was around a year ago, but since I had given up sweets during that time period, I couldn't taste and see if there was anything wrong with it. So, I based any changes I made on other people's critiques.

Well! Now that the explanation's out of the way, let's get on with it, shall we?

Recipe with Pictures from Me

Syrup – ½ cup white sugar to caramelize in its pan. Wait until it browns. When done, swirl around to eliminate bubbles. Set aside to cool down.¹

I already poured the caramel into my pan. Kinda wish I'd thought to take a picture of the process. Ah well.

CUSTARD
In a large mixing bowl, combine the following and make sure sugar is completely dissolved.
8 egg yolks
2 cans evaporated milk
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

The ingredients just below mixing.

After whisking them together. Ooooooh.

CHIFFON CAKE
In a large mixing bowl, combine the following:
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt

The dry ingredients.

Combine above ingredients well. This is your dry ingredients mixture. Using a hand held mixer, slowly add the following ingredients.

¾ cup milk
½ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
This is your wet ingredients mixture. Combine dry and wet ingredients well. Set aside.

The final cake batter after mixing in the wet ingredients.

MERINGUE ²Using a very clean stand up mixer ³, combine the following,
10 egg whites
And slowly add ½ cup sugar
Beat until egg white is stiff (hard peak) or can hold its shape.

Just before I start whipping the egg whites together for the meringue.

The beginning of the beating process.

A long time later. Look, you can't even see the actual beaters anymore (Trust me, you don't wanna know just how many pictures I took of the process).

Those better be hard peaks, because at this point I'm getting sick of beating egg whites.

Gently fold meringue into the chiffon cake mixture. Do not over mix so you don’t lose the air. Gently pour mixture into the custard mixture. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes @ 360 F ⁴⁵. Cool down and invert to show custard on top and the cake at the bottom⁶. Trim the sides. Slice and serve.

Folding the meringue mixture into the cake batter.

Um, I don't know if this is supposed to happen...

Pouring the cake mixture above the custard mixture.

Baking in the oven with the hot water bath.

The cake right after the oven. Good thing it's going upside down.

Topside view of the inverted cake.

Cross-section of the cake.

Notes
1 I didn't follow this part. Instead, I used the process from the chocolate flan here.
2 You know, I wish I had found this website BEFORE I started the meringue. Well, it'll come in useful for the future.
3 I don't have a stand mixer. I really wish I had one, but I don't work and I probably wouldn't use it much anyway. Would've been SO handy, though.
4 I found that the cake was done some time before the allotted time period. I think the toothpick rule applies here, yes?
5 On another note, the biggest complaint I got the last time was that the custard was all shriveled up after baking. To counteract this, I went with the water bath often used for making flan. To be more specific, I added hot water to a roasting pan until a quarter of the way up the level of the cake pan.
6 I stuck the cake in the fridge after cooling to room temperature. I normally don't do this when I bake cakes.

The result? Eh. The cake part itself was a little more dense than I would've liked. But the custard was great. This only means I need more practice.

Chocolate Flan

2011-02-15T05:25:02Z

So, a few days before Valentine's Day, this is the conversation that takes place between my mom and me:

Mom: So, is there such thing as a chocolate flan?
Me: Probably. ::runs a search on Google:: Yep, there are a few recipes. This one looks simple enough.
Mom: Good. Make it for Valentine's Day.
Me: *sigh* Fine.

And thus, my first attempt into making flan. OK, technically it's my second, but that was for a custard chiffon cake I made last year that I didn't even get to try. So there.

Ingredients
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 cups milk
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped ¹
8 large eggs
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 300°. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine 1 cup of the sugar with the lemon juice. Stir with a wooden spoon over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves, then cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar turns deep brown, about 10 minutes. Pour the hot caramel into an 8-cup metal ring mold²; holding the mold carefully by the rim, tilt the mold to coat the interior with the caramel. If needed, use a wooden spoon to push the caramel up the side.

2. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the milk with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add the chocolate, cover and remove the pan from the heat³. Set aside until the chocolate is melted. Stir.

3. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Gradually whisk in the hot milk, vanilla and cinnamon until thoroughly combined. Strain the custard into a large glass measure⁴, then pour it into the ring mold. Cover the flan loosely with foil and set the mold in a baking dish or roasting pan. Pour in enough hot water to reach halfway up the side of the mold. Bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the flan is set but still jiggly in the center. Remove the mold from the baking dish. Let the flan cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. Run a small sharp knife around the sides of the mold, cover with a large rimmed plate and invert. Cut the flan into wedges and serve.

Notes
1 I already had a huge bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, so I used 1 cup per batch I made. I don't know if it would have been better with coarsely chopped chocolate.
2 I have no idea what an "8-cup metal ring mold" is, which means I don't have it in my house. So I used a 9-inch glass pie plate instead. I actually had extra mixture as a result of this.
3 I actually kept the heat on for my second batch and stirred occasionally so I could incorporate more chocolate into the mixture. I don't know if it made much of a difference.
4 I don't exactly know what a "large glass measure" is. What I did is strain my mixture into a separate bowl before pouring into my pan.

Results

My second batch cooling on the table before putting it in the fridge.

Here they are chilling in the fridge. A true test of my patience. XD

SUCCESS!!! At least, I hoped so. This was my first batch, so I was a little skeptical.

A slice of the flan. Not my best picture, I admit it.

Manga Series Reactions: Mars

2011-02-12T09:04:26Z

So, after many many years of putting it off, I've finally decided to start reading the manga series Mars. I proceeded to finish it in less than a week. Oh my gosh, SO addictive.

Let's start off with some background. The summary is below (taken from Anime News Network):

Kira is an extremely introverted artist and Rei is a popular playboy with a frightening violent side. Touched by a gentle picture Kira drew, Rei makes a promise to protect her. Soon a friendship and romance develop and together they begin to confront the many demons of their pasts that are still haunting them, trying to build a peaceful future for themselves.

The series was originally published in 1996 by Fuyumi Soryo and ran until the year 2000, spanning fifteen volumes and a prequel. An English translation was licensed in North America by Tokyopop and originally released in 2002. In 2004, Taiwan adapted the series into a live action drama (That's for a later post. Like, "when I finally get around to watching it" later).

And now, my thoughts on the series itself.

When the series was originally released in the US, I was still in my teens. And I think if I had read it back then, I would have been a lot more into the story. Like, 100x more into it. It has the whole "bad boy falling for good girl" trope, which is one of my favorite romance cliches in fiction, second only to the "rivals to friends to lovers" trope. It wasn't until later when I began to question the former, although I will admit to being sucked in if either: 1) the characters are likable or relatable enough or 2) I'm just looking for those kind of stories.

With that said, the story was good at keeping me hooked. At fifteen volumes, the story wasn't that long and moved at a good pace for my liking. This is also the first shoujo manga I've read in awhile where the characters get together early, which means that I'm invested in the relationship between the protagonists. I have to say, despite the cheesiness of the romance (and yes, it is quite cheesy at some points, but I also have a low tolerance of cheese, so take that with a grain of salt), I like the relationship between Rei Kashino and Kira Aso. I smiled when they were happy, got nervous when I was afraid they would split up (which they did in volume nine, though thankfully for a short period of time) and, for the most part, hoped that they'd get their happily ever after.

Notice I said "for the most part." During the story arc when Masao Kirishima first appears and Rei becomes seriously violent, I kept yelling at the pages "RUN AWAY, KIRA!!!" or something to that extent. It chilled me. I didn't have the same reaction early on in the manga when he beat up the upperclassmen to a bloody pulp, but that was because he was lured into a trap and tied up . Seeing him snap was a huge concern of mine, and something I'm not sure I would have had if I read this years ago. But at the end of the day, I couldn't dislike Rei. He may have had to mature quickly and has a violent temper, but he usually means well, especially when it comes to Kira.

Kira is normally the type of character I would get irritated with after awhile: a weepy girl who almost always needs to be saved. But in her case, I could understand where she was coming from. The girl was raped several times by her stepfather and turned into a basket case afterward. I would have snapped if I were in a similar situation. Rei was really the first person who was able to open her up to the world and give her happiness.

It would have been nice to see some of the secondary characters fleshed out a little more (especially Tatsuya and Harumi), but that's not the focus of Mars. It's all about Kira and Rei and how they fight their inner demons and stand strong in their love. And hey, I wasn't bashing my head against the wall for the majority of the series, so Soryo must have done something right.

Other random thoughts:
- Does everyone have some crazy/dark side to them, or is it just me? It seems the only sane person in this manga from the beginning was Tatsuya and maybe Takemura (There's not much on him, so I don't know). Even Harumi was a crazy psycho bitch in the beginning, but has become a Kira/Rei shipper early on in the manga so I'm good with her. No one beats Masao, though; he's like another level of twisted in my books.
- Speaking of Masao Kirishima, I keep hearing the English dub voice of Pharos in my head every time I read his parts. If they ever decided to do an anime and had it dubbed (chances are slim-to-none at this point), I'd want that guy to do Masao. No joke.
- The quotes, they are amusing. They have also served to break an otherwise serious moment in the story. I laughed hysterically.

Barrier

2011-02-06T14:28:56Z

I suspect there's more Persona 3 fanfic to come because the bunnies, they are rampant. It's been a very long time since a fandom has inspired me to write multiple stories. OK, that's not true, but it's the first time I'm actually taking action and writing them down.

At any rate, the following is a break from fanfiction. I came up with this short story from a long walk home a few days ago. And this time, I actually had someone read it over ahead of time. Just don't ask where I was going with this.

The snow left on the edge of the sidewalk shines with an unnatural gleam, thanks to the sheet of ice that covers it. It gives an eerie kind of beauty to the scene in front of the young woman.

The ice also acts as some sort of barrier. Beneath, the snow is left as it was before the latest ice storm hit the area. A lot of the snow is sooty and would have turned to slush if it wasn’t frozen in place.

But the patch in front of her is pristine. No footsteps to mar its smooth surface or dirt to ruin the blinding white reflected back. She believes for a second that if she stepped on it, she would hover above and float to where she needed to go.
She approaches the area and, with her bare hands, breaks off a piece of the ice. She examines it for a moment with one hand before she turns her attention to the snow just underneath. She lifts it gently with her free hand, like a child carrying precious fairy dust, and reminisces fondly on her youth.

Suddenly, she flings away the burning snow and shuts her eyes to hold back tears. She then looks once more at the shard of ice she broke off before. She swears she sees a disfigured face staring back, mocking her.

She crushes the shard into tiny pieces before dropping them to the ground. In her anger, she does not notice the cuts in her palm or feel the pain that should follow. Instead, she continues to walk ahead to her destination.

A bright red spot is left on the newly exposed snow.

Wishful Thinking

2011-02-02T09:58:11Z

Dear Lord, Persona 3 has been bringing out the bunnies in spades. I wrote this during school and did some finishing touches at around 4 this morning (I had to fix part of it after consulting the official game calendar). Clearly I have issues.

A few notes: 1) Warning: endgame spoilers in the first part (and in the notes). 2) This was influenced by and pays homage to Sailor Moon. I say this because as I was playing through the end of the game, I kept thinking, "Gee, I'm getting Sailor Moon flashbacks." Not sure how subtle the references turned out. 3) Apparently, the Protagonist does remember everything even if everyone else doesn't. I'm operating under the assumption that she loses her memories like in the Bad Ending. 4) I was originally considering making it part two of Ordinary, but decided this would be better off as a separate work. I guess this makes this a sequel? But you don't need to read Ordinary to read this, so I guess it's more of a companion piece in this sense. 5) Oh yeah, so I went with the Japanese fan name Hamuko for the Female Protagonist. Nothing wrong with Minako, really. Just didn't feel like using it.

And so, the Great Seal is unleashed and the world is saved from the demise of Nyx. At least, that’s how the adventure is supposed to end.

Hamuko doesn’t regret her decision. It’s what she needed to do to make sure that her friends’ lives are peaceful once again. If she was faced with the decision again, she’d make the same choice in a heartbeat. And yet, a small part of her wishes that she could be with her friends living that normal life, if only for a moment.

Right now, she feels like she’s floating. The area around her appears to be empty space, but it feels warm and pleasant. She could get used to being here, wherever “here” is.

Then, a voice echoes through the space. “Hey. It’s been awhile.”

She smiles as she recognizes the voice. “Ryoji? Where are you?”

She could hear him chuckle. “Well, you did it. I didn’t believe it at first, but then, this is you we’re talking about, Hamuko.” There was a slight pause before he continued. “Anyway, you should be heading back. Your friends are waiting for you.”

This leaves Hamuko confused. “Wait, I can go back? But I thought---”

“Yes, you’re right. But you deserve to live in peace now, don’t you agree? I can’t promise it will last very long, but you’ll get your wish.”

She brightens at this news. “Thank you so much,” she whispers gratefully.

She swears that she could feel Ryoji smile in return. “You’re welcome. Until we meet again, my dearest.”

And then she falls, moving ever faster to where her friends are waiting for her.

---

Hamuko was sleeping peacefully until the alarm sounded, ruining yet another dream. She eyes her bedside clock wearily and sees that it’s 7:00. “Ugh, just a few more minutes,” she mutters before slamming the snooze button. Just as she’s about to drift back into slumber, she hears knocking at the door.

“Are you awake, Hamuko?” Yukari’s voice penetrated through the wooden door. “If you don’t get up soon, we’ll be late for school. I’ll wait for you downstairs, okay?”

She groans as she finally rolls out of bed. Yukari is right; if she doesn’t get ready now, her perfect record for the year will be history. It almost makes her wish she thought more like Junpei. That is, until she remembers how Ms. Toriumi is whenever Junpei gets to class late.

---

“Is it x = 35?” Junpei answers hesitantly. Hamuko doesn’t bail him out this time, so everyone else in the class is prepared to mock him once Ms. Miyahara says he’s wrong.

“No, Junpei, that’s--- wait, you’re right!” Ms. Miyahara looks back at the equation in wonder. “Isn’t it a beautifully complex equation? And just look at the sigma sign.” Ms. Miyahara continues to babble on about the beauty of the last equation written on the board until the bell signals the end of class.

“Aww yeah, Junpei’s moving up!” He exclaims later that day as he pumps his fist into the air.

Hamuko laughs and jabs at his side. “That’s because I’ve been tutoring you in math.”

Junpei grins back and squeezes Hamuko sideways. “That’s right! With your help, I’ll be better than Yuka-tan by the time senior year rolls around.”

Hamuko suppresses another giggle as Yukari rolls her eyes. “Not on your life, Stupei. Besides, you’re still failing classic lit. Isn’t Mr. Ekoda keeping you after school for ‘disrespecting our Japanese culture’ or something like that?”

“Yeah, yeah. I still don’t get what his deal is,” Junpei huffs back.

---

Hamuko manages to find free time after school one day, so she invites Yukari and Fuuka for a girls’ day out at Paulomina Mall. Although Fuuka is good friends with Hamuko, she doesn’t really talk to Yukari, even though they live in the same dorm. To rectify this, Hamuko proposes they go to the café so that they can bond more.

“They have this green tea flavored crepe that I’ve wanted to try. I wonder if it tastes any good,” Hamuko ponders cheerfully.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to make it in cooking club one of these days,” Fuuka replies with a smile.

“Wait, you’re in cooking club too, Fuuka?” Yukari asks in shock. “I didn’t know you knew how to cook.”

“Um, I don’t. Not really,” Fuuka says bashfully. “But I’m having a lot of fun with Hamuko there.”

“Well, I’d love to try what you make one of these days. Or maybe not; I can’t afford to gain more kilos,” Yukari glances down with a frown.

“Don’t be silly, Yukari! You don’t look fat at all,” Fuuka exclaims wide-eyed. “If anything, I’m the one who should watch what I eat.”

“Oh come on! If anyone needs to watch food intake, it’s me,” Hamuko points out.

“That’s true,” Yukari and Fuuka chorus. Realizing what they said, the three of them burst out laughing.

The three girls pass by one of the clothing stores when something catches Hamuko’s eye. It’s a pale orange spaghetti strapped dress, with flowery beading scattered along the bodice of the dress. The hem of the dress seems to go just above the knee, and a bright orange flower pinned to the sash completes the ensemble.

“Wow, that’s a pretty dress,” Fuuka gasps as she and Yukari see what has Hamuko’s attention.

“It would look great on you, Hamuko,” Yukari adds.

“You think so?” Hamuko asks, cocking her head to the side. She then looks for the price tag, which says the dress is ¥12225.

“Hmm. Maybe when I save up more money. Let’s go to the café!” She links arms with Yukari and Fuuka as the three of them continue to walk toward Chagall Café.

All in all, another ordinary day.

Ordinary

2011-01-27T16:40:33Z

Good news: Even though we've had yet another snowstorm in my area, I don't have to leave the house so I'm in a pretty good mood. So I'm finally getting around to putting up the last completed fanfic I wrote on my cell phone.

Not-so-good news: Instead of working on the millions of other budding story ideas, I decided to write a completely new one for Persona 3. But dear Lord, the idea wouldn't die in my head and it was easier to write than, say, the Fable III fanfic I haven't completely finished (I wrote maybe half of it before forgetting about it).

Anyway, this is based on the port for the PSP becuase of the use of the Female Protagonist. The story involves events that took place New Years' Eve, so yes, there are spoilers. Also, I really need to have someone else read my work.

All she ever wanted was to live a normal life. Go to school, hang out with friends, and complain about stuff like homework or parents. Well, to be fair, she hasn't been able to complain about her parents for over ten years, but that's not the point.

The point is she never ever asked to be a special Persona user. She didn't want to go out and fight Shadows or go to Tartarus or have anything to do with the Dark Hour. She didn't like having the rest of the team look to her for every important decision or being so damn cheerful all the time just so no one would worry about her. Truth be told, it's exhausting.

If you kill me, Tartarus, the Dark Hour, and your memories of the battles will all disappear. Tomorrow, you’ll wake up a normal high-school student. You’ll be able to live in peace until the moment of the Fall.

His offer sounded very tempting. So tempting that while everyone else decided to fight, she hadn't completely made up her mind. She knew what should be done, but it didn't match up with what she wanted. And what she wanted was to forget everything and lead a regular life.

She held the gun to his face ready to fire. As she did so, her mind flashed to several happy memories with her friends. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and decided then and there to give herself and her friends a peaceful future.

Her mind resolved, she snapped her eyes open and pulled the trigger.

A few days after, she came back to her room after spending her day with friends. She plopped down on the bed and gently fingered a new hole on the wall. She thought about getting it fixed, but decided against it.

Because on the night that hole was made, she knew that she would never be just an ordinary girl.

Of Snowstorms and Warnings

2010-12-27T07:17:21Z

So the past few days have been interesting. Last Thursday, our class had to go in to make up hours for school. I haven't been having the best week, but this just made my day:

Then today (well, technically yesterday), our area was hit with a huge snowstorm. It's going to continue until later this morning. I'm not really sleeping now, so I took some pictures of what's going on outside.