Music Quiz Thing

1- First 10 songs on shuffle, write a little about each one.

I can't be bothered doing that. I'll write a sentence or something. YEAH.

1. Again Again - Lady GaGa

I didn't even know I had this. I've never actually heard it. Can't be bothered listening right now.

2. Common People - Pulp

I adore this~ BEST. ACCENT. EVER. <--- Sparta voice

3. In the Darkness - Naoko Mitome, Chika Sekigawa

This is from Super Paper Mario. Eh. It's not bad. Not the best track from the game.

4. 5,500 Miles - Presidents of the United States of America

Oh hey another one I haven't actually listened to. I think I downloaded them for the peaches song and never listened to anything else.
I'm listening now. First impressions? It's okay.

5. If Things Were Perfect - Moby

Not the best Moby song. Definitely not.

6. Shoujo - Kawai Kenji

From the Higurashi OST. I like this one. Very cute~

7. Like a Radio - Taku Iwasaki

This one's from Soul Eater. I have too many soundtracks. I'm really not that interested in this song.

8. About a Girl - The Academy Is...

Heh. Pop music, gtfo. I'm too hipster for you. I kinda like this song. Like, a lot♥.

9. Prelude - The Decemberists

As with any prelude to an album (excluding AFI's Prelude 12/21 of course) it's pretty non-memorable. This is a good album, though.

10. Buena's Password - Nintendo Orchestra (?)

Pretty sure this isn't an played by an orchestra, nor should the song be credited as such. Whatever. This song kinda annoys me.

...well, that was a mostly disappointing list.

2- How many bands have you seen live?

Uhh I've only seen two festivals, so no proper concerts. At said festivals I saw Cassette Kids, Yves Klein Blue, Bluejuice, Ben Lee, The Music, The Cairos, The Middle East, Yves Klein Blue (again), Custard and Powderfinger.

3- Which was the best band you’ve seen live?

Yves Klein Blue, definitely. Hence why I saw them twice. Powderfinger had the best stage/set, but Yves Klein Blue was just amazing.

4- Which was the worst band you’ve seen live?

Hm. Bluejuice, I guess... We actually walked away from the stage for lunch when they performed x3

5- Have you ever met someone in a band?

Yes, my guitar teacher. He's hardly famous though.

6- Have you ever been in a band?

Do school bands count?

7- Can you play any instruments?

Alto and baritone saxophone, clarinet, guitar and recorder. I have a keyboard that I sometimes mess around with, but I don't think that counts. I also have a flute that I can play a scale on ^_^

8- Which band would you give anything to see?

Radiohead. Oh my God, Radiohead.

9- Have you got any music hoodies, T-shirts, wristbands etc…?

Yes, plenty of T-shirts.

10- 5 photos of your favourite gig.

That I've seen? But I've only seen two. K uh, Q150, I guess. Have some pictures of Powderfinger and Yves Klein Blue x3

11- Favourite song at this minute?

Hm. According to last.fm, it's the acoustic version of 405 by Deathcab for Cutie. I agree with this.

12- Whats you’re favourite genre of music?

Alternative rock and indie. Whatever the hell indie is.

13- What song has the highest play count on your itunes?

I don't have itunes. The track with the highest play count on my last.fm account is Paranoid Android by Radiohead.

14- What song would you sing on karaoke?

None! If I had to choose though... hm... I can kinda imitate the non-screaming vocals of AFI, sometimes, and I often karaoke to their songs in my bedroom... Can't pick a specific song though. I'd also sing Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off by Panic! At The Disco because it's damn fun to sing along to.

15- What song should never be sung on

Er, Canon in D. Seriously, why the hell would you sing over it? It's perfect without vocals.
...Oh! And everything from Zelda. That series is full of amazing soundtracks that would be totally ruined with vocals.

16- Whats your favourite album?

Dunno. I'll narrow it down to my favourite band (ie: Radiohead)... in which case, Hail to the Thief.

17- What would be the best line up for a festival?

Lol, I don't think anyone else would see a festival I'd plan... but anyway. I'd pick.... hm, Radiohead would be the headliners, followed by Placebo, Modest Mouse and Deathcab. I guess I'll throw Muse in there as well because they do really good live shows.

18- Do you get any music magazines?

Very rarely. When I do, they're all JPop ones because I need them to find new music x3

19- Snog, marry, avoid the first 3 artists on shuffle.

Kings of Leon, Daft Punk, Studio Pixel

Ah... well, I'd marry Studio Pixel because, let's face it, the guy that did this soundtrack created the entirety of Cave Story on his own. So he must be amazing. Why wouldn't I marry him? I guess I'll snog Daft Punk. Must be a threesome snog, since they're a duo. I'm okay with that.

Poor Kings of Leon. I'll have to avoid them. Oh well... I'm not that keen on them anyway.

20- 5 photos of your favourite band/artist

RADIOHEAD TIME. I can't pick 5 photos what is this can't I upload them all then again I have like 300 pics of Thom Yorke alone (and quite a few of Jonny Greenwood) and I'm sure you guys don't want to see them all dammit

Who do you think you are, Jesus? Lol jks I'd pray to you Thom~
Lolol I am the worst Christian ever

21- Do you have music posters up in your room?

I have a Muse poster. I don't really have the cash to buy others.

22- Do you have the same musical taste as your friends?

Yes and no. Yes, in that Lainey seems to have a similar taste in music to me, and quite a number of my friends like the music I pick out and show them. That said, if you compared our favourite bands? Heh, no, not at all. My taste is quite different.

23- Have you seen any musicals?

Yes yes yes yes yes. I have seen Cats, Les Mis, Avenue Q, Wicked, Chicago and... um... I think that's it...

24- If you could see any musical what would you see?

Um... Phantom of the Opera.

25- Do you listen to the radio?

Rarely.

26- Whats the worst song ever released?

There are too many to list.

27- Are you listening to any music now?

Yep. 30 Seconds to Mars. I'm about to put Pixies on, though.

Lol scratch that. Now I'm listening to Radiohead. Fangirl mode activated.

28- What was the last song you heard?

Down is the New Up - Radiohead

29- Whats the next gig you’re going to?

No idea. =(

30- Spam tumblr with photos/gifs of all your favourite bands + artists.

Lolol this isn't tumblr. I'll go find some anyway (and probably hotlink them because I am a horrible person. To last.fm!)

...I guess this'll be my top five. I have too many favourites to post them all.

Radiohead~

Lol Thom, best dance ever.

The White Stripes




Placebo






Eels





Gorillaz

You can't have too many images of a cartoon band guys.

Languages!

I totally typed up a blog about my language choices ages ago, but it turned into a list of why I adore certain countries and that kinda wasn't my intention x3

Yesterday a bunch of us went to the University of Queensland to check out the campus and their courses. My decision? St. Lucia is a beautiful campus. It's huge and the buildings are magnificent. Their courses, on the other hand? Well, they're quite good as well, but, unfortunately for me, they don't offer quite what I'm looking for.

More research is needed, I guess, so I can find out what place offers the greatest course. I'm currently still aiming for Griffith university (Nathan campus, as it has the best courses for languages). At Griffith I can do a Bachelor of Arts in Language and Applied Linguistics, specialising in Japanese and Italian. That's enough to get me into translations for both languages. If I were to go to UQ I could do a BA in both Japanese and Italian, but I'd have to go a step further and do a Masters in Translation and Interpretation for one of the two. I'd much prefer not having to do a Masters degree, to be honest.

I love learning Japanese, and I adore the media from Japan (hence why I'd translate it, of course). That said, I absolutely adore Italy. I have more of a passion for Italy than I do for Japan. My love of Japan really does centre around their anime/manga/movie industries and the language, rather than the country, their history or the people. For that reason, even though I'm more set on translating Japanese, I'd prefer to go study abroad for a while in Italy.

At UQ one of the speakers mentioned that you really need a few languages to get into these fields, not just two. Especially if you're doing a European language, because a lot of Europeans have 2, 3 or even 4 languages under their belts. Fluently. I only know one, and it's the only language I've ever spoken my entire life. I've only ever been required to know one. Australia is mostly monolingual, so it's never been compulsory for me to learn another language. For a country that attempts to define itself as multicultural, we really aren't...

Aaanyway. I'm really looking forward to uni now. Really. One guy learnt Japanese and German, and actually studied in Germany for awhile. While there, he got to learn Old Norse and translate documents from Old Norse into German. Why? Why not, I guess... Rule of cool, or something. I think that's damn awesome. Studying overseas really does sound epic, and I'm looking forward to it. I'd love to go study in Italy. There's so much history to study and architecture to admire and gorgeous landscapes to gaze at and delicious food to try and a beautiful language to listen to and oh my God the entire place would give me a brain aneurysm.

Ahem. Moving on. I have a lot of languages I want to learn. My list is as follows:

1. Sicilian
2. Japanese
3. Standard Italian
4. German
5. Spanish
6. Macedonian
7. Russian
8. Latin
9. Greek

I cannot actually think of a tenth language that I actually care about enough. =(
Truly, only the first 5 or 6 are really ones I'd like to learn. The last 3 are also epic, but not to the same extent. You know, Romance languages are my favourite. They sound amazing. Funnily enough, only 4 made it onto the list (with Latin being a dead language and all). Also, I don't care if Sicilian is just an Italian dialect, it's freaking epic and is practically it's own language. I adore it. Sicily is very underrated. I love the south kthx.

I really hope I'm not disappointed by university life. I'm looking forward to it. A lot. And I'm really looking forward to just plain immersing myself in the languages. I'm just looking forward to the future, I suppose. It's nice to have ambition for once =P

Rambling is a Funny Word

You know what I hate? When you go to input a password, and the computer is like THIS PASSWORD IS TOO SHORT/WEAK/ETC and tells me to change it. It's like, dude, it's my security, I don't give a damn, GIVE ME MY BLOODY PASSWORD. ASDFGHJKL

I also hate when the school computers tell you to change your password every few weeks and won't let you repeat one. My last password was ILikeCake. The one before that was qwertyuiop and before that I had asdfghjkl. The one before that was ComputerPW4. Before that came ComputerPW3, ComputerPW2 and ComputerPW.

Dad's password was FridgeMagnet before he changed it.

I just got a new computer. Well, it's not really new. It's a collection of old things put together to make a working computer. Sort of like patchwork or something. There's all sorts of stuff in there. Anyway, the wallpaper rotates between a bunch of images. These images are all bright and, no joke, full of rainbows, love hearts, little animals and household appliances with big grins. I got this computer from my dad. This is weird. I need to go find a new wallpaper.

In Rome, it's illegal to keep a fish in a fish bowl. Really. I can't help but imagine this in the Hetalia universe... Spain was probably chillin' with Romano, and was like "Roma~" and Romano was probably like "shut up bastard, go do my paperwork or something, make yourself useful" and then Spain would've been all "okay" because he's a nice guy like that. And while working he was probably thinking about how sad and lonely fish look when in fish bowls and then he went and made fish bowls illegal in Rome. It totally sounds like something Spain would do =3

I just rambled at Dad for about 10 minutes. I mustn't have made much sense, because he interrupted me to say "I'm glad you go back to school tomorrow. You need to learn something so that your brain starts working again". Ouch.

I've been listening to Megaherz recently, and someone on Twitter told me to look up Oomph! because they are similar. I told Dad about this. This is what Dad has to say about all German industrial metal:

Me: [...]and then I looked up this other metal band-
Dad: Language?
Me: German.
Dad: Oh! So it all sounds like Rammstein?
Me: ... =_=

Pretty sure Rammstein is only popular because their lyrics are so horrifying. Brb Wikipedia-ing

"In addition, the songs "Amerika", "Stirb nicht vor mir//Don't Die Before I Do," and "Pussy" contain lyrics in English. The song "Moskau" ("Moscow") contains a chorus in Russian, and they sing some of their own songs entirely in Russian (including but not only Pussy, and the Russian song штиль). "Te quiero puta!" is entirely in Spanish. Oliver Riedel commented that, "German language suits heavy metal music. French might be the language of love, but German is the language of anger.""

Whoooo languages. My family mostly speak the language of anger. I think that is awesome. Also, lol, French is the language of love. Yeah, well, y'all know my opinion on that.
Speaking of which, I've heard some damn fine French metal, so you know....


I am so guilty of this. I also have the tendency to fill up my desktop completely and then think "whoops, I can't see my wallpaper anymore". My solution? Highlight everything, create a folder called Desktop and move everything into said folder. This is great, except I end up filling my desktop again and have to create another desktop folder. I have a folder on my desktop called 'desktop'. Inside of that folder is another folder called 'desktop'. Inside that is another folder called 'desktop'. I don't know how far this goes. I should count that one day.

Anyway. It gets really bad when you do open up these 'desktop' folders, because a lot of them are full of files that I have titled by slamming my keyboard. I didn't realise that this was a bad idea until I went to find an assignment only to discover that I had a good 30 word documents with titles like "awenfahngf asdkngfasd" and "okijergrgtre08jgnrt".

It's pretty cool when I go to title something with "dfihydsfsdgfe" and it's like "you already have a document titled dfihydsfsdgfe". That's only happened once to me so far, though. I also name all the blocks in my Sims game by whacking the keyboard, so in the town of "vc" I have houses named "fsd" "t" "324" and "t43g".

Heh. Reading that was great fun because 'words' like "dfihydsfsdgfe" are read as gibberish in my mind. I actually pronounce something in my head (usually something random that probably sounds nothing like the word I'm trying to read). I don't know why that interests me.

There's some carbon tax being implemented here in Australia. I didn't care much until I heard that it's going to affect costs of airline tickets (which should've been obvious but I fail at life so shut the hell up). Aw assballs. This has ruined my day. I mean, yeah, it's only an extra $3, but still. That $3 could make or break a holiday, you know!

I'm thinking about getting a Tumblr account. I don't really know how it works, but I keep finding hilarious images on there so... Plus I kinda use Tumblr for shipping goodness. You know when you find a page full of random stuff about your favourite ship? And you react by grinning and hugging whatever's nearby?

Yeah. Yeah, it's sorta like that.

I've been doing that all day while browsing Tumblr. All day. It's friggin' awesome. ♥

I've noticed that everyone seems to like Earl Grey tea. Except me. I'll go to someone's place and it's like "would you like some tea" and I say yes, and then they say "sugar, milk, honey, anything?" and I always say "No, thank you" and then they go ahead and make it. That's great. So far so good, yeah? But I've noticed that, even if they have a vast range of different types of tea in their cupboard (My Grandma has something like 6 or 7), they always assume that I'll want Earl Grey. No one ever asks. They just go "oh, yeah, everyone likes that one".
Goddamn it.

By the way, if you ever say tea cup in a British accent (one of the posh accents, I mean), I will never take you seriously ever again. Just so you all know.

Oh! So if you bite both ends of a Tim Tam and dip one end into your tea/coffee/hot beverage and suck the other, like a straw, you end up melting the middle of it (yes, that should be obvious, but really, who actually thinks I'm going to use my Tim Tam as a straw!???) and it is amazing. It just... I don't know, but something about melted Tim Tam is so damn good. Om nom nom.

You know how the Bad Touch Trio/Bad Friends Trio/Prussia, Spain and France are depicted in fanworks? I don't know how to explain it, but there's just this degree of crazy idiotic absolutely insane awesome to everything they do. They're always shown as really comfortable with each other and doing stupid stuff to each other that you should probably get slapped for and I dunno, it's just epic, and I want friends just like that k thanks ^_^

Yes. Super-Obama is featuring in my dreams tonight guize.

La Bella Lingua

A few days ago I started writing about the top languages that I wanted to learn (I will post that eventually, by the way). Most of you probably know that, at uni, I'll be studying Japanese and Italian, and after uni I might have a go at German (there's no way in hell I'll ever be fluent at all three of course, but it'd be nice to know some basic German on the side, right?) or Macedonian. Truthfully, Sicilian would probably be my ultimate favourite, but where the hell would I learn that?
Usually I fangirl over Japanese because it's different to English, it's very rounded and pretty sounding, their writing system is a lot more creative than the Roman alphabet could ever be and... well, anime and manga is originally written in Japanese, so it must be good. I adore Japan, and I really, really love the language. Unfortunately, it's just me. My family are... well, they're accepting of it, but they aren't fans of the country at all, and most of my friends are into other languages and cultures. Not that that's bad; it's always good to be an individual. It just makes it hard to truly fangirl when you don't have anyone to fangirl with. I can fangirl at them, but that's hardly the same.

Anyway. As I outlined in my language blog post that I have not posted yet (whoops), my great grandmother, who knew seven languages or something, loved Italian the most. I found out a few days ago that her daughter, my grandmother, loves traveling around Italy. I don't know where Italy is in comparison to all the other countries she seems to love, but it's definitely somewhere near the top of her favourites list.

I started to see a trend here, so I pestered my aunts on the other side of my family to see their opinions. As it turns out, they love Italy even more. One of them told me that Italy was her absolute favourite place, especially Sicily. Which is brilliant because it really seems that Sicily doesn't get the love it deserves (neither does the language, but that's a rant for another time).
I told her that I wanted to go to Italy and Spain at some point. She replied with "Spain is brilliant. It was this atmosphere that you have to love. But Italy will always be my favourite. It's beautiful. It has such amazing landscapes, and it has this really extensive history you just end up immersed in. The language is really pretty, too."

...well then.

I'm easily influenced, so I've started to look up more on the country and the language. I've always adored Italian. Pfft, they say France is the country of l'amour, but it's got nothing on how romantic Italian can sound. As I said earlier, I love Japan. My interest in Japanese culture will always top my interest in Italian culture. But when it comes to the languages, Italian may actually come up on top. It's more melodic and bright sounding, and the consonants are just so much sharper and more crisp.

Er, I'll stop fangirling over that now. I spent awhile looking at different places in Italy (Rome is gorgeous and Venice is so one-in-a-kind, but I still love the entirety of Sicily~) and then started looking up a heap of words. Why not add some Italian to my vocabulary, right? I like to think of it as getting a head start on my uni stuff. Yeah. That's my excuse.

Anyway, today I have decided that andiamo is one of my favourite words. It means let's go, basically, but to me it sounds a bit more urgent. It's a very pretty word. It just rolls off the tongue so easily. I dunno, I just like it a lot. Is it bad that I first heard the word through Hetalia?
I've also learnt that Italians use the term che cavolo as something similar to "what the hell". Thing is, it literally translates to what cabbage. So next time something weird and befuddling happens, make sure to exclaim what the cabbage?!?, alright? ^_^

Ti amo, hai capito? ♥ I absolutely adore how this sounds. Heh.
Italiano; la bella lingua indeed.

89 Truths

WHAT WAS YOUR:

1. Last beverage: Tea. With bits of Tim Tam floating in it, rofl.
2. Last phone call: Dad, I think. Before that? I don't actually remember.
3. Last text message: Clearly Unfocused
4. Last song you listened to: I currently have 405 (Acoustic) by Death Cab for Cutie on repeat. <3
5. Last time you cried: Hm... dunno, actually.

HAVE YOU EVER:

6. Dated someone: Obviously.
7. Been cheated on: I don't think so. I hope not.
8. Kissed someone & regretted it: Yes. I don't regret it now though. I'm pretty neutral about the whole thing.
9. Lost someone special: Indeed
10. Been depressed: Who hasn't?
11. Been so drunk you threw up: Nope.


LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Black (it totally counts, k guys)

13. Red

14. Green

THIS YEAR HAVE YOU-(2011):

15. Made a new friend?: Yep.
16. Fallen out of love?: Ah, I suppose?
17. Laughed until you cried? With my friends, it's not hard to do this.
18. Met someone who changed you? Hm... not this year, no, I don't think so.
19. Found out who your true friends were? Not this year, no.
20. Found out someone was talking about you? Yes, but this happens quite often. I do a lot of stupid things so this doesn't surprise me ^_^
21. Kissed anyone on your fb friend's list?: No

GENERAL:

22. How many people on your fb friends list do you know in real life: All of them bar maybe three, and I know them via other people that I do know in real life.
3. Do you have any pets: 3 goldfish, 2 budgies.
25. What time did you wake up today: 8:30am
26. What were you doing at midnight last night: Sleeping. My sleeping schedule is oddly sound at the moment.
27. Name something you CANNOT wait for: Schoolies week.
28. Last time you saw your Mother: A few hours ago.
29. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: One..? I don't know...
30. What are you listening to right now: 405 (Acoustic version) by Death Cab for Cutie
31. Have you ever talked to some one named Tom: Yep
32. What's getting on your nerves right now: Nothing. I am feeling very serene.
33. Most visited web page: Today? Pixiv. All time? Eh... Google?
34. Nicknames: None, really. Online I go by GoJo. My wife calls me "dear wife", believe it or not. One of my closest friends used to call me Cl.
36. Zodiac Sign: Cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius.
37. He or She: She. Usually.
38. Elementary? I like to refrain from posting too many of my details online, so... My primary school was a public school and hasn't really got a good rep, just so you know ^^
39. Middle School? -
40 High School? Is a private school and is, unfortunately, pretty dull and safe. Oh well.
41. Hair Color? Brown. Dark, can be lighter under certain lights... maybe it's just a boring, middle shade...
42. Long or short? My hair? Shortish? It's kinda middle-length now.
43. Height? 167cm, I think
44. Do you have crush on someone? Indeed. He's a total bastard. Really. x3
45. What do you like about yourself? Um. The fact that I currently have 8 instruments in my room. Only 2 are double up instruments (the electric and acoustic guitars).
46. Piercings? Standard ear piercings. One day I will have a nose piercing.
48. Righty or lefty? Right handed. On the rare occasion that I play sports, I am left footed.
49. First surgery: Can't remember if I had surgery on my eye or not when I was 3. If I didn't, then I guess... 3 years ago? I had a mole removed from my throat. It bled like a bitch ^_^
50. First piercing: Ears. My right ear, I think...
51. First best friend: Rebekah. I've known her pretty much since her birth, which is pretty cool.
52. First sport you joined: Soccer

RIGHT NOW:

53. Eating: Nothing
54. Drinking: Nothing
55. I'm about to: Go to bed
57. Waiting for: Nothing, really.
58. Want kids? Hm. Sometimes. I've mostly conceded that I don't want kids unless my possible future spouse does.
59. Want to get married? Uh. No. Not really. If I find the guy I want to spend the rest of my life with, sure, but it's not exactly a goal of mine or anything.
60. Career? None. I am a student. I want to work in Translating and Interpreting stuff one day. Hopefully for Nintendo EU.

WHICH IS BETTER :

61. Lips or eyes? Eyes. Easy.
62. Hugs or kisses? Eh. Depends on your relationship with whoever it is. I don't really want to kiss my friends (sorry guys) but hugging a boyfriend could be a little too chaste... xD
63. Shorter or taller: On me? I like being short. For friends, I don't care. For possible boyfriends, I like taller.
64. Older or Younger?: Don't care. As long as their age is pretty close to mine.
65. Romantic or spontaneous: Spontaneous, though romance can go a long way in certain situations.
66. Nice stomach or nice arms? Eh? Arms I guess... I don't really care either way.
67. Sensitive or loud?: Can't you have both? Loud, because being always sensitive would get boring. Still, I'd hate for someone to be loud all the time. Like with romance, sensitivity can go a long way...
68. Hook-up or relationship: Relationship.
69. Trouble maker or hesitant: Lolol trouble maker <3

HAVE YOU EVER:

70. Kissed a stranger: No
71. Drank hard liquor: Yes, but very, very little. Like, a sip from a glass that I regretted immediately. Bleh.
72. Lost glasses/contacts: Nope. I break and lose many sunglasses though.
73. Sex on first date: Lol no.
74. Broken someone's heart: Apparently so.
75. Had your own heart broken: Mmm. Hasn't everyone?
76. Turned someone down: Yep.
77. Cried when someone died: Yep.
78. Fallen for a friend: Yes. Quite often. Goddammit.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

79. Yourself: Not... really...
80. Miracles: I suppose. Not necessarily in a biblical sense.
81. Love at first sight: Ah, not really, no. Lust at first sight, on the other hand...
82. Santa Clause: Didn't he actually exist? Saint Nick?
83. Kiss on the first night: Um... yeah. I think it's fine, depending on how long you've known the person and all.


ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:

84. Had more than one bf/gf at one time: Lolol in grade 3. That's an interesting story.
85. Is there one person you want to be with right now? Truthfully, no. I'm enjoying my own company right now.
86. Did you sing today? Heh, yes.
87. If you could go back in time, how far would you go and why? I wouldn't go back. I just want school to be over. Then again, I'd like to revisit primary school... I miss the simplicity of it all, and I really miss my old friends.
88. If you could pick a day from last year and relive it, what would it be? No idea. Too many good days and none of them really 'stood out' so...
89. Are you afraid of falling in love? No, no, that part's fine. It's when I act on those feelings that I start to feel afraid.

[Stolen from Tenuto Tuo who stole from Miss Invisible who stole from Sarahmay]

Family Dramaz

So Dad went off at Mum. Properly. Finally. I don't know what's going on. I went walking with Dad this arvo (as I usually do) and got the lowdown on what's happening.

We recently went on a cruise (obv.) and Granddad (Dad's family) asked how it went. Mum went on and on. A lot. And eventually said "You could never be bored!". Apparently Dad made a strange facial expression at this, which Granddad pointed out, and Mum became irreversibly angry. Over a facial expression. Yesterday morning she yelled at Dad about never enjoying anything. The rest of the conversation is as follows. Sort of. It's paraphrased. And colour-coded for your convenience.

Dad: I don't enjoy anything because I can't. I'm always walking on eggshells with you. I can't do anything. I can't say anything. Everything I do or say gets turned against me.
Mum: I don't understand what I've done wrong. So what, you're miserable here?
Dad: Yes. I am.
Mum: So why do you stick around? Is it for me, or the kids?
Dad: It's for the kids.
Mum: Then you can fuck off and get out of my house.
Dad: Gladly.

Pretty sure it was more angry than that, but I'm in a mellow mood, as was Dad when he explained it to me, so it's probably changed a bit. Also, Dad said "it's for the kids, so you can take that to the bank" but in the words of my Dad, "I'm not really sure what that's supposed to mean. I mean, you can go to the bank and say 'hey, my husband's only at home for the children', but I don't think they'd say much other than 'lady, can you please leave'. I said it a few times but didn't really think about what it meant. Oh well, it was said in a fit of anger".

Anyway, that afternoon:

Mum: Do you love me?
Dad: ...you don't make yourself very lovable.
Mum: What's that supposed to mean?
Dad: You're quick to judge, you're offensive, you don't care about the feelings of others and you are easy to anger.
Mum: Offensive?
Dad: Put it this way. If I said 'I think your Dad drinks to much', which is a very, very mild example, you'd be offended, right?
Mum: I guess.
Dad: I wouldn't think it, and I would never say it. But you do think these things, and you do say them. About my family, about those around me, and about the friends of your kids. Do you even think about how that makes us feel?
Mum: I'm not the only person who gets angry in the world.
Dad: No, there are others. But I wouldn't live with them, either.

Thanks for sticking up for my friends, Dad ^_^
Anyway, then Mum came in yesterday with this.

Mum: Your father doesn't care about me and is only here for you. So. I guess that's it.
Me: 'It'. Define 'it' for me.
Mum: Just it. You know. It.
Me: Um.
Mum: ...
Me: ...

You can understand the awkwardness. After that I went on Twitter with a "Whaaat" type message.

Anyway, according to Dad, they are going to discuss things later. Dad said he was fully expecting to be looking at rental properties tonight. Actually, he skipped dinner in slept in a sleeping bag last night... So I dunno what's going on. Mum's being overly nice, Dad looks confused, goddamn they don't even like each other what the hell. I don't know.

Drama is always interesting, I guess. It's really sad how nonchalant both my father and I are about this. Actually, so is my sister. When she heard what was going on, she actually said, word for word, "Oh, really? Let me do this thing first and then I'll disconnect from the Minecraft server, k?"

I am so proud of my little nerd sister

Fandom Rant

Sometimes I feel ashamed of the Hetalia fandom.
I'm not the only one, and a quick Google search will show how many others agree with this sentiment. I'm not sure why there's so much hate in this fandom, but it's there, and it gives the rest of the fans a bad name. This is the reason that I've only ever been a lurker on the LJ comm and why I tend to avoid any Hetalia-orientated forums or threads. I love the comic, I love the characters, I love the creator, and I love a great deal of the fans, too. But there's a very vocal minority that absolutely pisses me off, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time they get mentioned.

'Hatedom' really shouldn't be such an issue. I figure that, so long as you don't flame others for their opinions and you don't outright denounce another fan for their views, then everything should be fine. Opinions are good. Everyone has them, everyone wants to share them. It just seems that some of the fans can't do so without bashing those with different opinions to them. Variation is good, guys. Stop trying to make everyone think the same way. And no, bashing the views of someone else is not debating. It's bashing. Don't defend yourself by claiming to be starting a good-natured debate.

My biggest issue with the fandom, though? It'd be the useage of the word 'rape'. If someone likes a different 'ship to you, that doesn't give you reason enough to threaten them with rape. Obviously, with the relative anonymity of the internet, it's pretty difficult for you to rape them, but even so, that's not a suitable threat to make. It's totally uncalled for. Don't make threats of a sexual nature. It's just wrong. I do remember at one point, possibly doing the Hetalia Bloodbath updates Himaruya was writing, a fan actually threatened him with rape and murder for not updating fast enough. Why the hell would you threaten the author? If you had any decency, you'd know that Himaruya is human, so he isn't going to update immediately, nor will he bend to your every whim. You'd also realise that things like that would make him less likely to update. I certainly wouldn't be pandering to a fandom who would make such ridiculous and horrid threats to me.

Then again, this is the fandom that once had a group of cosplayers doing the Hitler salute at a Holocaust memorial, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by any of this. Thank God I haven't seen the image myself.

Creating a hategroup is just asking for attention and drama. There's an anti-hetalia page on DevArt, as well as a forum. Get the fuck over it, guys. If you hate the series, then don't pay attention to it. Believe it or not, we're not forcing you to read the comic/watch the anime. And unless you decide to attack us directly, then believe me when I say that none of us are paying attention to your little hateclub. I don't see the point in creating one. I don't see the point in hating something so strongly when you could be putting your time into finding something you do like.

The thing with Hetalia is that there's a lot of love for everyone within the fandom, as well. The 'ship wars aren't very frequent and most members are quick to back up others, regardless of differences between them. The Hetalia Kink Meme, which is where anyone can request anything (not just of R rating, guys. I know it says 'kink', but let's get our minds out of the gutter here...), whether it be fanart or fanfiction, and there's very little judgment for it. There aren't many fandoms where that could happen. But this is usually overshadowed by the more negative things, despite there being more positives.

Yes, the series can be offensive. Yes, the characters are often based off of stereotypes. It's a comedy. South Park is more offensive than this. And if you're easily offended, then maybe you should take a step away from the series and move on.

Truly, most of the arguments against the series are more offensive than the comic has ever been.

(This rant brought to you by a dull afternoon, a Google search on "Hetalia fandom hate" and a read of the Hetalia Wank LJ page, which is not to be confused with the Kink Meme. 'Wank' here is synonymous with 'rant')