There's few things I love as much as buying the perfect present for someone. Knowing, while you buy or make it, that the moment you reveal it there will be this intense surprise and happiness on the other person's face and it'll be your doing.

Unfortunately, most people are very hard to buy presents for. It's not their fault. Their perfect presents are out there, but you either don't know what it is or it's impossible for you to get. Like say, if someone really really wanted to meet this famous person or go to some far away place. Chances are, I can't give that to them.

But sometimes you have the chance to make someone happy, and there is nothing better in the world than that. Making people happy should be everyone's goal in life.


That being said, the more specific you are about what your wishes are, the better people can fulfill them. I'm not saying to shove your amazon wishlist in everyone's face. I'm saying share your wishes and dreams, and listen when others share theirs. Most of the time, finding a good present is a matter of listening at the right time.

...I'm done rambling now.
If someone sees Asuran Zara's sunglasses somewhere, give me a call.

Tags: random

Seeing how final exams are in a few weeks I finished Gundam Seed pretty quickly.
It's that awesome. 50 episodes of pure awesome and mecha fights.
Any well, instead of calling it a night after that I figured that the first episode of Gundam Seed Destiny wouldn't hurt.
And now I'm hyperventilating because ASURAN IS FREAKIN HOT. Seriously. Wow. These two years were good on him. I don't know if it's the jacket, but I think I'm in love with his broad shoulders. And the sun glasses (in space) and the body guard-ish pose.
Marry me, Asuran's space-sunglasses! =D

Okay, now to finish the episode. XD

Tags: asuran, gundam seed, gundam seed destiny, hotness

Again, it's entirely salavora's fault for having this meme in her lj. I took the liberty of translating it into English, check out the above mentioned journal to find the German version. ^^x

( meme goodness )

Tags: meme

Once there was a girl named Jeanne who had nothing to do to procrastinate on an otherwise boring Saturday in June, so she decided to watch stuff. Like the last episode of Kurosagi, a Japanese drama (it's for a lesson, I don't watch these things for fun) which frustrated the hell out of her, not only because of the typical stupidity that comes with dramas, but mostly because there is no Shiraishi/Kurosaki faniction to be found. Seriously, that thing has been subbed and dubbed, why don't people write yaoi fanfiction about it? The pairing practically writes itself!
...also, there was Sengoku Basara, since Takahiro (English student of mine) recommended it. It's okay I guess, LOTS of yaoi potential (of course), cute and funny, somewhat interesting, nice music.
But. What really got me right now (can't wait to start watching episode 7) is Gundam Seed. I love it. Lots. One character is cuter than the next (and not in the cute and cuddly way, more in the "I want him so I can keep him and lock him and have him do stuff with other characters omg" way), the plot is exciting and the girls' annoyance level is moderate (as of now). It's fun to watch how they all get paired off with someone beside Kira (aka the protagonist) who is far more concerned with his childhood friend <3, not to mention that older pilot guy. XD
I wouldn't mind a fanfiction or two here, even though I still like Gundam Wing better. I mean, show me another anime that brought us yaoi fangirls THAT much fun? ^^x

In other anime-related news, the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is over... and it ended surprisingly well, if not as final-showdown-ish as I would have expected. Still, no last YuAki scene, instead we get a crotch shot of Yusei <3 who hangs out with Jack and Crow. Makes me look forward to season 3 next week. =)

Tags: anime, gundam seed, kurosagi, sengoku basara, yu-gi-oh, yu-gi-oh 5d's

I just finished watching Avatar.

I watched a few episodes years back but never got past the first two or three, then I more or less forgot about it. Despite actually liking it back then I might never have gotten around to watch it all if it hadn't been for karnimolly who likes to mention the fandom every now and then. XD Thank you~!

Thoughts (other than "omg I love it like whoa") on characters:
( Spoilerific... )

Let's move on to funnier things: PAIRINGS! ^^x
Canon: I kinda like Zuko/Mai, it's funn and sweet and... LOL.
Slash: I'm gonna go for the obvious pairing here and say Zuko/Aang because my head can fit it into canon easily and without much work. Same for Zuko/Sokka, though with how their relationship was at the time when they went on their "field trip", Sokka/Zuko might actually be more fun. XD
There's a lot of things I usually like in fanfiction that I can't quite fit into this universe, but maybe that's because they're all bascically KIDS and I'm not detached enough (at this point) to make up something where it all works out differently. Or maybe I like the world too much to wand an AU right now (it's easier to *want* that for a world where Card Games solve all problems).
Thoughts: I'm picturing something post-series where Aang is nowhere to be found... and who's better at finding him than our resident Fire Lord? ...but yeah, just finished the third season so for the time being I'm good with canon. ^_^x

Tags: avatar

salavora und ich, gerade im ICQ:

jeazard ‎(17:20): YGO 5D's - the het shippers strike back
Raistlin ‎(17:21): lol, soviel het ?
jeazard ‎(17:23): die macher sind damit gerdezu IN YOUR FACE yaoi shippers
jeazard ‎(17:23): garstig
jeazard ‎(17:23): ich mein, das ist YGO
jeazard ‎(17:23): ein klassischer yaoi spielplatz!
Raistlin ‎(17:23): eben.. bööööse
jeazard ‎(17:23): *nick nick*
jeazard ‎(17:23): aber bald kommt YGO 5D's season finale: return of the yaoi shippers!
jeazard ‎(17:24): der erste teil passt ganz gut als "a new hope"...
Raistlin ‎(17:24): das wäre wahrscheinlich so, als wenn haruka und michiru auf einmal mit ... saja und yaten uzsamme wären.. *urgh*
jeazard ‎(17:24): ja, stell dir einfach vor, bei der szene im umkleideraum wäre haruka nicht reigekommen und seiya hätte michiru mit dem reisverschluss geholfen.
Raistlin ‎(17:24): ......
jeazard ‎(17:24): und während haruka udn michiru zusammen im apartment sitzen, denken sie an irgendwelche kerle.
Raistlin ‎(17:24): böse vorstellung
jeazard ‎(17:25): IT'S JUST WRONG
Raistlin ‎(17:25): brrrrrrrrrr
jeazard ‎(17:25): jaaah
jeazard ‎(17:25): und so was mach ich derzeit durch!
Raistlin ‎(17:25): *pat pat* mein Beileid!!
Raistlin ‎(17:26): das ist yak...
Raistlin ‎(17:26): eifnach nur .. falsch...
jeazard ‎(17:26): *nick nick*
jeazard ‎(17:26): bei jedem anderen anime wär's mir je egal...
Raistlin ‎(17:26): *g* aber nicht das, was?
jeazard ‎(17:27): *ernst nick* nicht. das.

Man hat's nicht leicht. XD

Tags: chat, yu-gi-oh!, yu-gi-oh! 5d's

Two pics I want to share with you here, both ( under the cut )

Iron Man and his living armor and a Spidey/Iron Man/Captain America shot from Civil War. =)

Tags: art, captain america, comics, iron man, marvel, spider-man

Firstly, yes, I have been slacking off in terms of book reviews, my last one was on... goodness, September 24th! The fact that between then and now I moved to Japan doesn't seem like a sufficient excuse either. So I'll try and catch up!

Before I get into this I'd like to state that I really, really love these books.
Okay, I bought Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise and Magic's Price - the Last heral Mage trilogy - several years ago. Being a lover of fantasy novels featuring gay characters it had to happen eventually, all the reviews I found online were encouraging, too, so it seemed like a good idea.

Magic's Pawn
Oh, poor Vanyel. His dad doesn't understand him at all, always forcing him into lessons with that evil armsmaster, not caring at all that his first born son would rather be a bard than learn to fight. *sigh* Life is so hard for good looking Vanyel, really it is, and to top things off his father sends him away to his sister - Vanyel's aunt - who is, after all, a Herald and who ought to be able to make a man out of his whiny emo wimp of a son. Who also discovers that OMG he's gay surprise!
I read this part of the book aloud for friend once and we made fun of it all night. It was bad enough to laugh at, and too bad to actually keep reading. The book went to my shelf and was forgotten. Years later I met psycho_moonlil on Lynn Flewelling's lj (otterdance) and as we discovered similar interests in literature we naturally spoke of Vanyel and I expressed my distinct distaste. Now having someone not want to read a book that you've read yet being somewhat willing to talk about it has one big advantage: you can spoil the heck out of them! And so it was perfectly all right for her to tell me that ( spoiler ) and that ( another spoiler ). I was amused and figured that if that was the case I might read the books after all. Or not. Seeing how this had almost convinced me, psycho_moonlil then used one of the best arguments in favor of Lackey's books: their music. There's songs about the books, songs from within the books, and they're beautiful and awesome. I loved "Magic's Price" and "Demonsbane" so much that screw the sucky beginning, I had to read these books! So I did.
At his father's order young Vanyel travels to Valdemar's capital, Haven, where his aunt Savil teaches young Herald-Mages. One of her students is Tylendel whom Vanyel falls in love with. The two become not just lovers, but lifebonded and all seems well except for the fact that Vanyel's father must never learn of his son's homosexuality (because OMG the horrors!) and that Tylendel's twin brother is tied up in a family feud. And ( spoiler ) which leads to ( spoiler ), which in turn leads to ( spoiler ). It takes him a while (and a great song called "The Colddrake") to accept his fate and duty to become a Herald-Mage, and the most powerful one at that.

If you have never read a Valdemar novel (there are quite a few ^^x) there might be a few confusing points in this summary, and that have nothing to do with the subtle spoilers. You might for instance wonder, what the hell are Heralds, or Herald-Mages, and what on god's green earth is a capital-c-Companion?
I'll elaborate, since this is actually pretty interesting. When King Valdemar first came to the place that would one day be the country Valdemar, he feared that the same kind of evil and corruption that he had fled from would overcome his new home as well, so he prayed to all the gods that they might help him. And help came, in form of what looked like white, blue-eyed horses: magical and highly intelligent creatures, these Companions would Chose a human (who'd later become a Herald) and form a bond with them. By having the Companions Chose Heralds for certain qualities of character and by making it a law that the monarch must always be a Herald himself, Valdemar would be safe from corruption (it's a beautiful system, pity it doesn't work without Companions). Also, the Heralds had Gifts, special abilities that would help them fulfilling their duties. Possibly the most powerful - and rarest - Gift was the Mage Gift (magic, basically), and possessing it would make you a Herald-Mage.

Magic's Promise
It's been several (several) years since Magic's Pawn. Vanyel is famous; bards are writing novels about him, he's a war veteran (oh, btw, Valdemar is almost constantly at war with a country south ofthem called Karse) and everyone's hero. The queen has died and her son suceeded her, he'd Vanyel's pal but suffers from some weird disease no one can cure which sucks (or was that book 3?). Since ( spoiler from book 1 ) Vanyel hasn't really had a lover, but at least he can be openly gay because who'd fuck with the most powerful Herald-Mage out there? No one, that's who, 'cept his parents are still pestering him about it.
This book has intrigue, exciting and funny moments, drama, magic, plot twists - I enjoyed it remendously, despite the lack of slashy moments. I remember reading it almost non stop and could hardly put it down. The very end is a little... um, okay~, but there's book 3 waiting so whatever, right? XD

Magic's Price (with quotes from the song)
Another significance time jump and we finally get to meet a very important character, Stefen - at the beginning a bard in training - who possesses a rather peculiar Gift: he can ease pain with his music. With the king's mysterious disease getting worse by the day Heral Vanyel is glad to finally have found, if not a solution then at least something to give them time to find one. Not to mention that he and Stefen are meant for each other - or that's what Vanyel's nephew thinks, who set the two of them up in the first place. But Vanyel has given up on love, his duty being more important to him than anything else. Also...
"Oh there was danger in the North-That's all that Vanyel knew.
An enemy of power dark sought Heralds out-then slew."
Not only were there less and less Chosen with the Mage Gift, the Herald-Mages there were died and there was no one to replace them. Karse not being a problem at the moment - in fact there were rumours that the priests there were banning magic altogether - Vanyel is forced (literally) to concentrate on his personal life: his family (who finally learn to accept him) and Stefen, who has to take it into his own hands to get Vanyel to admit his feelings and to act on them. Surprise-lifebond! =D
At some point Vanyel figures that maybe those accidents the Herald-Mages kept having weren't accidents, and all the precautions they took didn't change that.
But only those with Magic's Gift were slain by silent rage-
Till Vanyel of them all was left the only Herald-Mage. (...)
And Vanyel cried-"we die, my liege, and know not why nor where!
So send me North my King, that I may find the answers there!"
Vanyel has ( spoiler ), so he knows what he's up to when he makes his journey north, accompanied of course by Bard Stefen, who knows nothing of this. They discover a huge army, hidden by magic, headed for Valdemar and there's no way they can alarm everyone on time to stop them - unless Vanyel can hold them back on his own while Stefen runs for help.
( The end is spoilerific! ) What made me cry was the very end though - yes, there's one more thing to come - and you should really go read that yourself. =)

Tags: books, last herald mage, lyrics, magic's pawn, magic's price, magic's promise, mercedes lackey, quotes, valdemar

For an art project in a German forum I decided to draw Tony Stark and his armor from a specific story line in Iron Man v3, in which the armor developed sentient thought and so became "alive". It soon turned into what can be described as an "abusive boyfriend", declaring his love for Tony on several occasions and seperating Tony from his friends and, most notably, current lover Rumiko. When Tony tries to get away from his violent "bodyguard" it falls into a frenzy of jealousy and takes Tony to a deserted island where it tries to torture Tony into submission.
In the end, however, Tony suffers from a bad heard attack and the armor gives up its life to save him.

Quotes from Iron Man v3 #28, 29, 30 (random order)
The Living Armor:
1. "Did I do this for love?"
2. "All I needed was your willingness... and your love."
3. "Just say you will be one with me."
4. "I will always think of you."
5. "Just the two of us."
6. "We're an Avenger!"
7. "You're mine, Tony."
8. "Just you and me now, Tony."
9. "This is our little secret."

And yes, this is canon.
I love doing research for art so very much. XD

Tags: comics, iron man, marvel, quotes

I admit that it's been a while since I was anything even remotely resempling active on scans_daily, but I still remember that in my early comic reading times it was a comm I frequented like no other site on the internet. I can't count the number of titles I added to my pull list because a clever member posted scans of it to spread the awesome and how many old comics I hunted down on conventions because only seeing part of it just wasn't enough.
There was a time where I used "motto" in real life conversation (albeit only with those among my friends who also knew s_d, but still) and exchanging comments was a source of never ending joy (except for the not to small topic of Iron Man, whom I loved and whom s_d hated since Civil War) and entertainment.
s_d helped me, a newbie in terms of US comics, catch up with old stuff that every knowledgable fan ought to know, even though it might have happened before they were born.

Oh, why am I rambling on like this? scans_daily has been suspended over some legal matter and I can only hope things will get sorted out soon.

Information: Read here and here.

Tags: comics, scans, scans_daily

If you had written a letter to yourself ten years ago, what would it say? Hard to tell, because most of you will not have written any letters to your future self back then. I didn't either. However, today I wrote a letter to my future self in ten years. Using a site called FutureMe I wrote an email that will automatically be sent to me in ten years; you can set the date to anything from a day to... god knows how long. XD I saw no point in making it less than ten years - by then a lot will have changed, I might have forgotten about this thing. Hopefully I'll still check that email account. XD

Anyway, I thought it was fun. I dare you to try it our yourself! Or just tell me in comments what you'd tell your future self.

Tags: email, real life

Snatched from otterdance
USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy, paste and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers.

( Cut for flist convenience. )

Some I'm pretty sure make no sense with just one word, but whatever. ^^;;

Tags: meme

Allgemeiner Kommentar: Ich hab mir schon länger vorgenommen, endlich wieder mehr auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Die Sache mit deutsch ist, die Art Geschichten die ich gern lese und folglich auch gern schreiben möchte, gefallen mir nicht auf Deutsch. Das ist schon eine Art Dilemma, nicht? Keine Ahnung jedenfalls, ob ich das hier durchziehen kann, aber man wächst ja bekanntlich an Herausforderungen, und jetzt wo gerade die letzte Prüfung hinter mir liegt wäre doch ein wunderbarer Zeiptpunkt, ein Schreibprojekt zu beginnen. :) Wenn nichts dabei raus kommt, habe ich zumindest mein Wissen in Sachen html-Tabellen aufgefrischt und erweitert.

Warnung: Ich bin Slasher und Liebhaber schwuler Literatur. 'nuff said.

Organisatorisches: Prompts können sich, solange noch unbearbeitet, ändern. Sollten einzelne Geschichten zu Prompts zusammen gehören, werde ich versuchen das irgendwie kenntlich zu machen.
Community: 100_originale


( Prompt-Tabelle unter'm Cut. )

Tags: 100_originale, prompts

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you. (although if you wish, I can post it to the public, or the F-list. Your call.)
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, or even me!~ that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to repost. We can all make stuff!!

(Taken, word by word, from pandanoai, one of the most awesome people I've met online. :)

Tags: meme

I wish I had an icon just for memes. Anyone know/have one?

I got this meme here, from a vlogbrothers video on youtube. XD Basically you search for your name and a verb in google and see what object google adds to your sentence.

( Verbs! )

My answers:

Jeanne needs to be in a relationship. - I am NOT making this up. XD
This is what the name Jeanne looks like in Japanese (btw, it was wrong).
Jeanne says I'm not romantic. - Are all Jeanne's alike?
Jeanne wants to fight. - No I don't.
What Jeanne does when she's drunk. - You'll never know.
Jeanne hates Christmas Bumper Sticker.
Jeanne asks: If you think you are more Catholic than me, then whyinthehell is your northern parish being closed? - o_Ox
Jeanne likes to write more than anything. - :)
Jeanne eats her way through Las Vegas. ???
Jeanne wears Prada. - Movie reference?
Jeanne was arrested for among other things sleeping with a Cardinal. - ...it's a long story. (*)
Jeanne loves her heroes. - Tony~! <3


(*) The Cardinal Jeanne had that affair with was Louis Rene Edouard, Prince de Rohan - an EDWARD! XD Read all about the Diamond Necklace Affair here.

Tags: google, meme

Say, when you get tagged/snatch a meme from someone, do their answers influence yours? Because when karnimolly tags me with a pairing meme and hers is full of Yu-Gi-Oh! then naturally my mind is on that fandom when I answer. Not that my mind isn't constantly on 5D's anyway. But still!! She made me read Yu-Gi-Oh! DM again, something I haven't done in years... I hope you're proud of yourself Molly! You have every reason to. XD

I'm having a hard time answering most of the questions; I don't read much fanfiction and hardly every write them. I stick to originals mostly. But whatever...

( On to the meme! )

Tags: meme

*goes through her calender*

( All that happened in 2008 )

Tags: 2008, jahresrückblick

The first five people to comment in this post get to request a sketch of a character (or whatever) of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their drawing ability level. If you absolutely can't draw, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to offer drabbles or icons or something instead.

Got this from pandanoai, and hey, it's a meme, how could I resist! Plus, panda's beautiful art is a temptation few could resist, and I'm definitely not among those few (aaand she's drawn stuff for me in the past). So there, first five people!

Ah, thing is, I haven't figured out how to scan things here in Japan... I'll work on that, promise! Worst case scenario, I'll have to send the thing to you. XD Or just make a photo, we'll work something out.

And, um, it'll be great if you chose a character I know. Or offer reference material. XD

1. pandanoai: Steve/Tony, click
2. karnimolly: Feraligatr/Charizard, click
3. psycho_moonlil: Mildmay
4.
5.

Tags: art, meme

Thx to karnimolly for tagging me. GOD I love memes. XD

SIX PAIRINGS I LOVE:
1. Jack/Yusei
2. Namor/Sue
3. Batman/Robin III
4. Steve/Tony
5. Snape/Harry
6. Seto/Jou

( HEAVENS, that's a lot of stuff under the cut. )


This is not countin pairings like Treize/Trowa (Gundam Wing), Smoker/Zoro (One Piece) and Gabriel/Marcus (Anita Blake) that NO ONE except me even notices. I have a hard time getting into pairings that no on shares. :(

Tags: meme, slash

salavora insisted I take this test, so I did. Or rather, I'm taking it while typing this, there was one were several questions that bugged me:

( You don't reall want to know, seriously. )

Tags: meme, test