On Tour

Since I've been bragging about the location in which I live pretty much everywhere else on the internet I thought I might as well cover it here too! Recently I took pictures of the Clackamas river/surrounding area, which is around a five minute walk from my house. Somehow I've had my nice dslr camera for over three years and this is the first time I've taken it to the river to get pictures, mostly because I was afraid of something happening to it. Thus I have this really expensive camera that has only on very rare occasions been taken out of my home. Like when I went to the beach recently. Maybe I'll make a post of those photos sometime too. In any case, let me take you on a tour!

In which I go on and on and on.

I got tagged by Anna (by the way thanks for giving me the incentive to get blogging again).

Rules:

If you are tagged/nominated, you must post eleven facts about yourself.

- Then, you must answer the eleven questions the tagger has given you and make eleven questions for the people you are going to tag.

- Next, tag eleven more blogger.

- Tell the people you tagged that you tagged them.

- No tagging back.

- The person you tagged must have less than 200 followers.

So here we go! Eleven facts about me.

1) I have a lot of scars. I know people tend to say this about themselves but no really, I have a lot of scars. Probably upwards of forty.

2) Many of these scars are on my thighs because I was attacked by a cat that tore the crap out of them when I was a kid.

3) In spite of this experience which could have easily become traumatic, cats are my favourite animal.

4) I am rather fond of my scars to be honest.

5) Since the beginning of January I have gotten very into Anime/Manga. It has been months now since I watched a show with actual people in it. Can’t stop won’t stop.

6) Because of this one-track-mind animanga obsession I have fallen behind on almost every not-anime show that I watch. I think I’m caught up on about three shows. I don’t know what’s going to happen when all these shows actually start up again.

7) I have a slightly morbid interest in poisonous plants, which will become evident a little later.

8) I cry exclusively over fictional characters. The more personal something is the less likely I am to cry over it. But fictional characters man, I can’t contain those feels. They get me crying in two seconds flat.

9) l only wear dresses. I haven’t counted in a while but I’m sure I own well over thirty of them now. I haven’t worn pants (that weren’t of the pajama variety) in over two years.

10) I recently lost my job that I had worked at for five years. I didn’t get fired mind, the school/daycare basically went bankrupt and everyone working there was “laid off”. I am having a hard time adjusting to not having money I can spend freely. I’ve been able to buy anything I wanted whenever I wanted for the last five years after all (I paid for every one of those dresses myself excluding birthday/Christmas presents). It’s a difficult frame of mind to remove myself from.

11) I have a really, really immense love for my state, that being the state of Oregon. I would like to take Oregon and connect it to Britain, and bring in Japan so it’s just a short ferry ride away. That’d be perfect. So now you know what world dominion would look like in my hands. I’ll contract Dr. Doofenshmirtz to build me a Move-Oregon-to-Britain-and-Bring-in-Japan-inator. Yes, good.

Eleven Answers.

1) If you could meet your death at the hand of any fictional character, who would be your worthy opponent?

This might sound a little bit cruel, but I think probably the Doctor. Who says I’d have to be killed by a villain? Who says I didn’t become the villain myself? I’m sure if the Doctor killed me he would have a very good reason for it, as he doesn’t do so lightly.

2) What kind of character would you be in a science fiction epic?

I honestly don’t know. Maybe I’d be the bounty hunter after the antagonist. Maybe I’d go from asteroid to asteroid at the edge of the solar system with my drill ship harvesting precious ores and selling to the rich inner planets who don’t take the risk of traveling to the edge for them, because it’s a pretty dangerous job. Maybe I’m the young upstart who’s just gotten her hands on her own space craft and is forming a transport business. Maybe I’m a secret government test subject that escaped and is now on the run, maybe I’m the antagonist the bounty hunter is after, and smuggling myself aboard the ship of a recent new transport business owner I hop from port to port until I seek passage on a drill ship that takes me to the edges of the solar system where I can safely hide out for a while. Maybe the operator of the drill ship helps me to understand and come to terms with my new telekinetic powers. In the end I probably get my first and only friend killed when the bounty hunter finally catches up with me. I just barely escape in the drill ship. I never really thought the flying lessons my friend gave me would ever end up coming in handy. I COULD KEEP GOING. THERE ARE SO MANY OPTIONS IN SCIENCE FICTION.

3) If you decided to be a super villain, would you win? Why or why not?

Probably not. I’m really terrible at planning, even though I tend to think I’m pretty cunning. I’m also very distrustful of people so I wouldn’t form allies very easily. In the end people I could have formed working relationships with formed working relationships with each other instead, teaming up and taking me down.

4) Pick a plant - tree, flower, herb, or something else flora. Now character sketch: What is his/her personality as a human?

I went way overboard with this, please forgive me. You probably didn’t ask for an entire backstory and a sibling thrown into the mix. I got a bit carried away.

Hemlock is a young woman in her early to mid twenties, tall and lithe with long, white hair and deep, vibrant green eyes. She wears a powder blue yukata and sandals all year round. She lives in a small cottage on the edge of a marsh, so covered in moss that it blends into the landscape. She makes poisons for a living, of course claiming to never use them herself. Every bottle is labeled “for pests”, and she leaves it up to the buyer what they consider to fall under the category of pests. She never asks questions. A rumour has been spread in nearby towns that anyone who goes to visit her cottage but fails to buy something ends up poisoned themselves and thrown into the marsh. This, of course, is untrue. People rarely make the long trek (there are no roads, so they have to go on foot) to her hut and come away without having purchased something, but if they don’t find what they want she is more than happy to treat them to a perfectly safe cup of tea before they leave. If night happens to be falling she invites them to stay, as going home in the dark is dangerous and it’s easy to lose the path. If they don’t wish to spend the night she is often willing to guide them back to the road, as she knows the area by heart and could traverse it with her eyes close and never get lost.

Hemlock is mostly quiet, and she is very softly spoken. Her voice is somewhat deep for a woman’s, and sometimes something dangerous gleams in her eyes. This was something that happened especially when she was younger. She has since learned to hide it. She is very beautiful, but people tend to keep their distance. They don’t know why, but there’s something unsettling about her. Despite her calm demeanor she is very easily angered, but this doesn’t result in the immediate poisoning one might expect, given her trade. Her anger is the kind that churns under the surface. Most of the time she is furious no one even knows. She keeps it self-contained. Occasionally Hemlock can be seen to smile, and it’s a small, sneaking smirk, the kind to send shivers down the spine. Very few people know this, but she has a younger brother, named Lace. He looks exactly like her. She smiles unreservedly with him; big, affectionate smiles.

Hemlock had an interest in poisons, particularly poisonous plants, from a very young age. She always acted a lot older than she was, which was unnerving. The quiet demeanor she had even as child, and the way her eyes followed you, seemingly with some dangerous intent hidden there. She rarely laughed, and seemed always to be thinking about death, particularly all the different ways you can make things die. Once her parents caught her testing her homemade poisons on baby birds whose nest she’d stolen them from. Her parents were, in a word, afraid of her.

Her little brother was sweet and gentle and kind, completely harmless. He rescued birds that had fallen from their nest, and at his insistence Hemlock helped him raise them, making up a soothing balm out of non-poisonous plants to heal their scratches. He cried himself to sleep for nights in a row when they couldn’t save them. Hemlock loved Lace more than anyone, he was in fact the only person she did love. She was fiercely protective and possessive of him. When kids in the neighborhood bullied him she swore she’d kill them, and didn’t only because Lace begged and pleaded with her not to. He cried, and when he cried he could get her to do anything he said, something he didn’t realize himself, though Hemlock was all too keenly aware of it. Lace’s body kept growing, but he never stopped being mentally five years old. This wasn’t a problem for their parents at first, in fact it took them quite a while to even notice, but by the time he was thirteen and Hemlock was fifteen, they were completely fed up with both of them. A child who wouldn’t grown up, and a child who had almost certainly killed the neighbors’ rabbits, cats, dogs. It was escalating. They tried to stop her, but it just made her more sneaky about it. They couldn’t seek help, they couldn’t tell other people, they couldn’t let outsiders know there was something wrong with their family. They had to keep up appearances. When they found a shoebox hidden in the depths of her closet filled with nightshade, monkshood, foxglove, henbane, oleander, and her own namesake, hemlock, that she’d discovered around the area where they lived, it was the last straw. They knew she had made poisons but they’d never found them after she made them, never caught her in the act of making them, never caught her in the act of killing after the incident with the baby birds when she was seven. Now they had found the ingredients she used to kill. It was animals now, but what if it became something more in the future? Driven to terror by one of their children and simply not knowing how to take care of the other, they intended to quietly send both of them to mental institutions, most specifically different ones. Shortly thereafter their father died, the coroner diagnosed it as a heart attack. Six months later their mother died in the same way. After that Hemlock and Lace disappeared. There was a huge statewide search for the missing children, but they were never found. They were later presumed dead.

Hemlock was dangerous, and sometimes the look in her eyes, though never directed at him, would scare Lace. He didn’t really understand what his big sister was doing, or why their parents had been so upset with her. When his father and mother died he cried himself to sleep for months. But his big sister always took care of him, and she loved him, and in the end that was all that mattered. She was always nothing but caring and gentle towards him. Hemlock found them a nice cottage far away from the people that were mean to Lace, the people that bullied him, and she told him if he didn’t want to see other people he didn’t have to. He really liked it there. He felt safe. After a while he stopped missing his mom and dad. He only needed his sister to be happy.

Lace would never know it, but he tamed his sister. He kept her anchored. He kept her dangerous desires, that itch to kill, from ever escalating. He didn’t know that she killed their parents, he didn’t know the thrill it gave her. He didn’t know that after that she never killed anything again, be it people or animals. That Hemlock knew that if she ever again willfully killed something so small as a mouse she wouldn’t be able to stop herself, that she would completely lose control. For Hemlock it became all or nothing. Because of Lace it became nothing. Lace would never know that seeing him crying in pain and sadness over their parents for months and months on end kept her from ever killing again.

(By the way Lace is Queen Anne’s Lace, and it and Hemlock are in the same plant family. Hemlock being very poisonous and Queen Anne’s Lace being pretty and harmless, despite them looking the same to anyone who doesn’t know any different. Also, sorry for creating a psychopath. I don’t know but I’m now really fond of both these characters (lololol I was supposed to make one but I made two. Woops) and now I really want to write a story about them. I think I just spent over an hour on this, but I had a lot of fun. Also I've been writing for years but this is the first character sketch I've ever done? What's up with that?).

5) What’s an unpopular opinion you hold about music?

I don’t really think I have any. I mean I have a general snobbishness towards music and scorn for cliche/poorly written lyrics, but then there are a lot of music snobs like me out there who are the same. And believe me, I know we’re annoying. Let me just take a moment to apologize our behalf.

6) What do you do with notebooks/sketchpads/journals/diaries/similar once you’ve filled them up?

I’ve never actually filled up any kind of notebook before, despite having owned dozens. I like the idea of a journal better than the reality of one. When I was younger I wasn’t really intent enough on writing, when I did get more serious about it I’d already moved onto a computer. I’m sure that all the text documents I have saved could fill many many notebooks, but I really prefer typing to writing things down on paper. Also I can’t draw, so there’s that.

7) Your doorbell rings. Surprise! It’s me! What is your first thought/action?

Probably dumbfounded staring, then I’d ask if you’re lost, eventually invite you in, offer you some sweet tea and ask if you’d like to join me in a Doctor Who/A:TLA marathon, as this is my idea of a good time.

8) What book/movie/show do you love that you wouldn’t recommend to anyone else?

I sat here and kept thinking of shows I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, and then realized I would recommend them, have in fact already done so. I would recommend just about anything I love if I really thought the person would like it. As far as possessiveness goes, like “I love this so much I don’t want to share it with anyone” it would definitely be Natsume Yuujinchou because of reasons (SO many reasons, so I’ve had to simplify it down to just “reasons” because if I start I won’t stop). I have in fact recommended it to someone before but I don’t think I’d recommend it to someone I frequently meet with in person, because I’d be disappointed by how they love it so much less than I do. Aside from this it’d be No. 6. Be it the anime, manga or novels (especially the manga and novels), while I love it desperately, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone ever unless you want to die of sad feels that can only be slightly helped by fluff fanfiction. And I really don’t know what is with the masochism of this fandom because there are way too many character death fics and if I so much as read a description for one I will be in a funk all day. Oh but there is an endless amount of beautiful fanart that is like a soothing balm to my wounded heart.

9) You offer a shivering eight-year-old your coat. She smiles at you, and you’re not sure if it’s a nice smile or a cruel smile, and runs away. You stick your hands in your pockets only to find something in them that wasn’t there before. What is it?

A small blue wooden box that fits right in the palm of my hand. The lid is covered in strange, swirling designs that I can't help but think look sort of like a language. No matter how much I try I can never open it. I end up keeping it on the shelf by my bed. I never know about it, but every morning at the first light of dawn, a soft light glows from under the lid. After one minute it always fades.

10) What is the loveliest voice to fall asleep to?

Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, particularly in his first cd, The Creek Drank the Cradle. That entire album is like a lullaby. I’ve fallen asleep to it many times. But if it’s someone talking I can’t fall asleep at all.

11) Did you ever get excited when you found out two people you know (or know of) know each other? If yes, who?

Umm, not that I can recall. Though recently when I was watching Tsuritama I recognized the voice actors for Haru and Natsuki are the same ones who voice Yuuta and Chizuru in Kimi to Boku, and that still gets me excited, especially since Kimi to Boku is over (well so is Tsuritama but Kimi to Boku ended first, and in any case I watched it first). Plus the main character in Tsuritama is called Yuki, and Yuuta’s twin brother is also called Yuki, so every time Haru or Natsuki said Yuki’s name I’d start grinning because it sounded like Yuuta and Chizuru were saying it. I really hope that the Kimi to Boku actors end up working in other stuff together too because I love all of them. BY THE WAY I WASN’T KIDDING ABOUT THAT ANIME OBSESSION.

Well that was a lot of fun! I’m not going to tag anyone or come up with any questions because I’m not very active in the blogger community and most of my internet friends can be found in other places. This was seriously so much fun though I want to just sit here and keep answering questions. Also sorry the length got a bit out of control.

END

On Writing

I found these questions floating around the internet, and you’re supposed to have people ask you them but I decided I wanted to do all of them since they’re writing related (and writing about writing is a good way to procrastinate actual writing) so here they are!

When and how did you first realize you loved writing?

I’m not entirely certain that there was this one moment where I was like, “That’s it, I love this.” It’s been a gradual relationship that has slowly deepened into love (and well, sometimes hate) over the years. I was writing “stories” (ha ha ha, if you can call them that, they were so awful) from a fairly young age, but I started writing poetry when I first joined Apricotpie. I’d literally never even thought of writing poetry before then. It was a stumbling start, seeing as I completely loathe everything I wrote from back then, but I like where I am now, at least where my poetry is concerned.

Who is your greatest literary inspiration and why?

Okay so I don’t really have a greatest literary inspiration (or greatest inspiration in general) but if I had to choose one I’d say Tolkien, which is such a generic answer for a fantasy writer, but oh well. I just find the amount of detail and history in his stories completely staggering, and I hope to be even a tenth as dedicated to my stories as he was to his. As for poetry... I really like just about everything Richard Siken writes, Pablo Neruda as well, and E.E. Cummings. Keats gets an honorable mention, even though he doesn’t inspire my own writing style at all.

What is your favourite style?

See, I don’t really have a favourite style. I like writing and reading in third person most, but I don’t hate first person. If that’s what “style” means in this instance, I’m just going to construe it as such. Present tense writing is growing on me, though I didn’t used to like it. I’ve never tried writing it myself but I probably will some day. The only thing I straight up don’t like is second person writing. Ick.

Whose style do you imitate most?

I don’t imitate anyone’s style. I’ve tried to let the style of certain writers influence my own writing, but I can never actually do it successfully. I always just end up writing like me, which means I’ll probably never get any better than I already am. Doesn’t fill me with much confidence to be honest.

What is your favourite genre/subject on which to write?

Fantasy! Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Rowling, Dianna Wynn Jones (well, HMC anyway). I’m pretty into fantasy stories. I love the freedom it gives me. I don’t really have to justify anything I write, and I don’t have to be constrained by the boundaries of reality because I can create my own reality. This is probably just because I’m stubborn and don’t like conforming to rules. Also, MAGIC.

ETA: I also really like takes-place-in-the-future dystopian settings. I am itching to write one myself, but I haven’t come up with a good story line for one, probably because my mind is always so fixated on fantasy. Not, of course, that the two are mutually exclusive.

What do you think is the greatest flaw in your writing?

At the moment, definitely my tendency to over describe everything. It weighs down the narrative and makes things unnecessarily long and complicated. I swear that’s the only way I was able to complete NaNoWriMo in ’09.

What is your favourite thing about your writing?

... My description. I actually really like my description when I do it right, in moderation. You know, when I don’t describe everything everyone does all the time. I’m pretty hyper-vigilant these days, and I can cut it off before I get too superfluous in my description. Otherwise I realize I’ve written a couple thousand words and literally gotten nowhere with actually like, forwarding the plot.

What attracts you to writing in general? Why do you love it?

I love it because it extracts me from reality and drops me literally anywhere. I can go wherever I want without actually going anywhere. I get very absorbed in it when I’m reading/writing, and I crave the distraction.

Top three sources of inspiration?

1) Life

2) People

3) Nature

Though I think all of these things can technically fall under the first one. I’m pretty sure the first one is all-encompassing.

Your dreams! Be published, be a critical success? What?

Yeah, both of those things would be good. But I want those things to be sort like an afterthought, or the side effect of a good story. I don’t want to write specifically for those things, I want to write for my own enjoyment. I don’t want it to ever stop being fun. The moment it does is when I need to take a serious step back and reevaluate my motives and inspiration.

Do you write fanfiction? If so, what genre? OTP?

I haven’t yet tried writing fanfiction, because characterization is hard. I mean, it’s difficult enough with the characters I create myself, the ones whose heads I can get into because technically they’re in my head. I find it really hard to grasp other people’s characters, and I would never want to end up writing an out of character abomination fic. I can usually tell when reading other fics whether or not someone is in character, because I can think to myself “I can see them saying/doing that” or “there is no way they would ever say/do that”. The latter one is when I quickly exit out of the fic and find something worth my time. Another thing that makes me exit out yelling “NOPE NOPE NOPE ABORT ABORT” is deathfics. If I’m looking for fanfiction it’s because I want consolation, because things in canon aren’t going my way. I want fluff. I DO NOT want you killing off the characters I love. The actual authors do that enough, I don’t need it in my fanfiction as well. Though I don’t really read a whole ton of fanfiction to begin with. I do however have several thousand OTPs, and it would take way too long to list them all, because you know I would go on explaining every single reason why I love them so much, and I just don’t have that kind of time. (Well, actually I do, but you probably don’t). One thing is for sure, if I ever do write fanfiction it will be nothing but fluff everywhere.

ETA: Continuing on this train of thought, I’m pretty sure if in the extremely unlikely event of myself getting published and people actually liking my books, I would definitely be scouring the internet for fanfiction of my own work. Like, definitely. I’d leave comments (under a fake name) on the fics I liked, and probably laugh hysterically over the bad ones. Then I’d probably end up writing some of my own. I kind of cherish the thought of someone commenting on a fanfic I wrote for my own story and telling me it’s out of character. I think that would be hilarious.

What are some of the most prevalent themes in your work?

I don’t know? Magic? I really like magic. Though if we’re talking poetry here it’s a completely different story. I think in my poetry I tend to write about words a lot, like my inability to properly grasp them. Largely because this is something that’s on my mind a lot. Words, why don’t you ever behave the way I want you to?

Three favourite novels?

Erm. That’s hard, possibly cruel even. I’m going to say the LOTR trilogy and count them as one book. Howl’s Moving Castle, and maybe The Book Thief or Cat’s Cradle or Anne of Green Gables or Harry Potter. There are too many books that could fit in third place.

Three favourite authors?

Well, Tolkien. I mean aside from that I don’t have any strict favourites.

Weirdest thing you’ve ever written?

I dunno. It depends on your classification of weird, which is probably relative to each individual. A lot of fantasy stuff might be called weird I guess, so probably everything I’ve written could be considered weird by someone somewhere. But I’ve never really written any off the wall straight up weird things. Um, I once half-jokingly wrote a short story about a three legged unicorn? (Several years ago). Oh and zombies. I’ve written a story about a girl trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic zombified world in which she has to kill her twin brother in the first couple of paragraphs, with a sword no less. It’s a simple, lighthearted family tale. You know, the sort of thing I write for fun.

Now, I would like to challenge you - YES YOU - to answer these as well! You know, if you feel like it or whatever, I mean you don’t have to or anything.

Dump Post

Hey there, I've got a dump post for you. First and foremost, this is my new fishy, who goes by the name of Takahiro. I've had him for a day and we're already bros. He's the first fish I've had in something like two years. Um, actually, I don't have much more to say aside from that. I definitely thought I did when I started. A few little things, then, that aren't really of import. 1) This morning when I got on my computer the clicker wouldn't click on anything. The cursor would move around but nothing responded to it. I had a small freak out (especially since I only just got my laptop's whole I-refuse-to-charge-no-you-can't-make-me issue dealt with). I restarted it a couple times to no avail, but then my sister fiddled with it and neither of us know what she did but now it's working again, thank God. I couldn't deal with it breaking down on me so soon after getting it fixed. This baby's gotta keep chuggin' 'cause Lord knows I can't afford to buy a new macbook any time soon. 2) For four Saturdays in a row I went to the dentist, today has been a wonderful reprieve. I'll start back up next Saturday though. I had a root canal, which is done now but I still have to get imprinted for the crown and then actually get the crown. I have (CRINGE) seven or eight cavities (small ones, thankfully) but in spite of this the dentist says I have good teeth. Surprise, surprise, he says I need to floss more. 3) I'm sort of tentatively working on a new story. That means almost next to nothing because I have so many stories I've started and never gotten anywhere near finishing. No details of course because I'm stingy and slightly insecure about my own ideas, but I don't know, I'm kind of really fond of the characters this time around. I'm usually fond of my own characters but they feel more layered than previous ones I've written. I actually have a decent antagonist this time (for some reason I just have a hard time writing believable bad guys), someone with motive and a backstory you can sympathize with. That's my favourite kind of bad guy. You shouldn't be surprised to know it's a fantasy. I can't seem to write anything but. 4) I've decided this summer to make my first attempt at reading Shakespeare. I've been feeling like it's about time. I've got Macbeth and Hamlet to start with, and we'll see how it goes from there. 5) The new mewithoutYou cd comes out in a few days and I am REALLY excited. I've been listening to mewithoutYou for something like four years, and I still love them immensely. This has been such a good year for music, four of my favourite bands have already released new albums. 6) I had a really delicious blueberry scone today.

In which there is quite a lot of nonsense being discussed.

Now that we are quite firmly rooted in April, let's have a little tête-à-tête about March. For the love of God let's not mention anything about the dentist or any possible impending root canal that I may or may not be bracing for. March was a pretty good month for me, actually. Never mind that it's my birth month, because my birthday didn't have anything in particular to do with the quality of the month itself. Nice things just happened to... happen. Firstly, the new Andrew Bird album was released near the beginning of the month, and pretty much became the soundtrack to my March after that (actually I'm listening to it right now). It is quite honestly my favourite Andrew Bird album thus far (and he has many). If you like both the violin and masterful whistling I would highly recommend you check him out. Also The Shins released their first new album in five years towards the end of the month, and it is pretty wonderful too. Come to think of it, most of the things that made March a good month are some form or other of entertainment. But whatever, I have no problem admitting that I like to distract myself. The things that most often make me happy are things that don't actually exist in reality. Like fictional characters. It's okay, I'm fine with it. So, The Hunger Games. Yeah I went and saw it in theatre, and yeah I teared up at least three different times, which is extremely unlike me. It was just that good. There isn't even much I can say about it. I just really loved it. Also, LEGEND OF KORRA. Oh man, the first two episodes were released online a couple weeks ago (officially they premiered on Nick today, actually) and they were so incredible and gave me all the feels. KORRA IS THE GREATEST I LOVE HER SO MUCH. I teared up a couple of times now and then too. Mostly because Katara is old and has been without Aang for seventeen years which saddens me beyond belief because they are my OTP to end all OTPs. And I'm pretty sure EVERYONE is dead. Sokka was officially confirmed dead and it felt like someone had just punched me in the gut when they dropped that little piece of information on me. I know it shouldn't be so sad because they all died of old age (or so I assume) but cue buckets of tears being shed even at the slightest mention of it. For some reason the only one I can really imagine still being alive, aside from Katara, is Zuko, though I don't think it's terribly likely. I really hope we get to meet his kids though, at some point in the series. I kind of want Toph to be alive, though I don't think she is, because I'm pretty sure she would make the most wonderfully cantankerous old lady. Probably because she was fairly cantankerous as a twelve-year-old. Basically this show makes me feel a wide spectrum of emotions, which is to be expected since Avatar: The Last Airbender is probably my favourite television show. Oh, also I love Tenzin, and Meelo is incredibly adorable and I love him too. And another thing that makes me want to break down and weep is how Aang never got to meet his grandchildren. Ugh, WHY did he have to die in his sixties? I get the whole thing about him being trapped in an iceberg in the avatar state for a hundred years draining his life span or whatever and I even accept it as a credible reason but that doesn't make me approve of it any more. I realize I've gone off on a bit of a tangent and am no longer actually talking about March anymore, but oh well. This always seems to happen with me. This is probably just going to be a tangenty blog post anyway, and it's been a while so I don't mind. Onwards! Another thing I loved in March was Natsume Yuujinchou, which actually spanned a couple of months but the fourth season ended in March with the most beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful, bittersweet three episode arc in history that left me so emotionally vulnerable that I haven't been able to bring myself to rewatch them, even when I've rewatched all the other episodes in season four, just because I don't feel like sobbing over my laptop again. It's too soon, the wound is still too raw. I haven't cried that much over a happy ending since the series finale of A:TLA. And since we're sort of tentatively on the subject of favourite tv shows I'll just say that Natsume Yuujinchou takes second place after A:TLA. It's such a wonderful show, I can't even tell you how much I love it. It terms of favourite tv shows I tend to rank them based on how rewatchable they are. If I can watch something over and over without getting tired of it then I'm pretty much guaranteed to love it endlessly (Spirited Away is a good example of this). Natsume is one of those rare characters where I want to be his best friend, marry him, and adopt him all at once. I love him that much. Since it has so quickly rocketed up into my top favourite tv shows you'll probably have to put up with me talking about it a lot more in the future. And now that I've talked quite a lot about tv shows let's move on. To books, WOO! Or, more accurately, to a book. Singular. That is, Howl's Moving Castle. I bought it last month (MARCH!), a glorious hardcover that fits in my hands perfectly and smells delightful. I read Howl's Moving Castle for the first time in January, then quickly read it again, and now I've almost finished reading it for the third time. For the most part I want to talk about my own personal headcanon fandom crossover of Howl's Moving Caste and Doctor Who. Because Howl is a Welshman (which is a fact that I never cease to find utterly hilarious. Howl, this incredibly magically gifted person, being actually quite an ordinary guy from Wales, which is about the most unmagical place I can think of. For some reason the fact that he plays rugby also greatly amuses me). I'm sure the Doctor has been to Wales plenty of times, since he's always visiting England. Maybe I make this connection because the series has done a lot of filming in Wales. Anyway. This would have to take place sometime between Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky, and Howl and Sophie would be visiting Wales together (probably at Sophie's insistence) only to get mixed up with the Doctor and become brief companions in the TARDIS, Sophie quite willingly (Mrs. Nose would have quite a field day snooping around the TARDIS) and Howl with increasing reluctance, probably trying to slither out of it on various occasions, especially once things start getting dangerous. Sophie, of course, would set about cleaning up immediately, and would be quite comfortable bossing the Doctor around. Thanks to Howl I'm sure she's quite undaunted by eccentric personalities. I've not thought of any kind of story line or details, if I could come up with something I'd be compelled to write a fanfic about it, which I've never actually tried doing before. I just think it would be wonderful, and the thought has so amused me that I wanted to share it. I actually don't think that Howl and the Doctor would get along very well, at least not at first. Their characters are completely at odds, though I do think that Howl would eventually man up for Sophie's sake and help the Doctor to save the day in the end. Then with bountiful relief he would return to his castle swearing never to let Sophie go to Wales ever again. Because obviously it would be her who got them mixed up with the Doctor. She's not called Mrs. Nose for no reason, after all. And I realize if you've never read Howl's Moving Castle or watched Doctor Who then all of this sounds like a lot of nonsense. Actually, I'm pretty sure this entire blog post will seem like a whole lot of nonsense. This post is supposed to be about March but as it turns out my love for my fandoms transcends the confines of a single month. I'm pretty sure I had a great deal more that I wanted to talk about, but I was going to write this blog post at the beginning of the month and since I've put it off for two weeks I've pretty much forgotten everything I was going to say. But it's been a while since I posted anything so I thought I ought at least to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. I kind of just wanted to talk about all the useless things that have been on my mind, and now that I have I think I'll bring this to and end, as I've developed quite a nasty headache while writing all this. I've just read through everything I've written so far for the purpose of spellchecking (I am an obsessive spellchecker) and realized how many times I admit to crying over fictional characters in a single blog post. Oh well. This is, evidently, my life, and I am not ashamed!