Witness the paltry fruits of last night’s labor here. It’s Part I of my stoopid Labyrinth parody, slightly rewritten by me, animated by Meez [I’ve made 105 at last count, but they aren’t all in this short], set to the tune of clips from the Labyrinth soundtrack. Parts II and III are done, waiting for upload, and I have plans to do the rest of the movie. I don’t promise that it will be more than mildly amusing, but it will be a good killer of half an hour.

P.S. If you do watch it, leave a comment and a rating [on the Google Video site, not HERE!], will ya?

I wonder if iClone software really works as it claims to… It says that its features include 3D character construction, clothing, prop building and placement, set generation, character movement and animation and sound import, all so a person can make little CGI movies.

Sarah realizing it’s 7 PM and she stayed out too late and she has to babysit, so of course she says her favorite phrase, “IT’S NOT FAIR!!” Shut up, you whiny bastard.

Holy fork, I’m clearly a) brain-dead and b) obsessed with Labyrinth. I just made about 50 [?] Meez animations of Jareth and Sarah so I can create a little version of Labyrinth. Preview below of Jareth doing what he does best: playing with his balls. This should tell you what kind of movie I’m making.

I enjoy psychology, cultural analysis and subjects of mental health, so I was excited to find out about  Psychjourney. I just sampled one of the site’s podcasts, an interview with Courtney Martin, author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, an Interesting subject, but the audio was echoic and blurry, and the interviewer’s voice was too measured and soporific. Another randomly sampled podcast on body dysmorphic disorder, suffered from the same problems. 

The jury’s out on whether I recommend these because they provide substantive overviews of interesting topics (auditory hallucinations, compulsive hoarding, rumor and gossip), but the audio quality is mediocre. It’s like listening to a low-tech tape of someone’s phone conversation. Why don’t you try one out and see if you can stand it? I know that I will be dipping into a few subjects of interest before blowing the site off entirely.

Does this sound like you: Female, age 18-28, told you can have it all, convinced you need to save the world AND take care of your friends AND your family AND your body, andover-achieving person who’s constantly striving to look better, smiling to the outer world, hitting the gym every other day, reading the latest self-help book [outwardly mocking but secretly listening to it], going vegetarian for health reasons…only to throw up your hands in exhaustion, eat an 8-ounce rare dead animal, despair at the hope of ever getting promoted, wish you could just have some hugs, nix the family reunion because you really can’t stand your great-aunt, feel sick and tired of your personal responsibility to be eternally successful and put together… Blogger [for Feministing] Courtney Martin’s new book, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, talks about the widespread struggle between perfection and exhaustion experienced by many contemporary bourgeois women.

Ignore the categorization and ads for this book that say that it’s all about eating disorders. From what I can tell, the book appears to address the larger issue of young women’s anxious relationships with their bodies. Super-achieving feminist go-getting vies within us against secret tiredness and desires for affection and peace. I saw a clip of her reading about the perfection vs. exhaustion struggle, and I thought that it had greater applicability than to just those women who have eating disorders. The internal strife she was writing about can be found in many current bourgeois women’s lives. 

Perhaps I’m particularly interested in it because I’m trying to pack and simplify my belongings and write a book and do seven hundred and eleventy-five book reviews and do all my occupational work and ensure a raise and eat right and sleep tight and keep the bedbugs from biting all at the same time…anyway, I think I’ll check it out…after my nap [hahah!].

…and all the book reviews I’ve been writing and all my other obligations, I’m starting to feel like a reanimated corpse:

This is about as animated as I get these days:

Unfortunately, even though I feel like death warmed over, I do not even have the consolation of cool hair, cool make-up or cool clothes as demonstrated on the avatar. This is probably why I like the Meez program. It has a large array of facial features, costumes, backgrounds and animation, which offer extensive online customizing possibilities. Furthermore, Meez are larger than, say, pixel dolls, and, unlike, say, Zwinkies, they do not contain any downloadable spyware. They’re also 85% free, although some cool shit, such as thigh-high boots, costs money. Thigh-highs aside, though, Meez provide an amusing outlet for the brain-dead.

In her spare time, Jennifer also keeps compact, detailed notes of everything in her memorandum book.

When she’s not cooking, cleaning, maintaining the limo or otherwise running the mundane details of Frank’s life, Jennifer likes to ride her mountain bike around Burlington, Vermont. Unfortunately there was no option to add a bike helmet, which she would not be caught dead without!

Here’s my closest approximation of movie Jareth… Amusingly enough, the chair and cane come from a set called “Pimp Throne” and his pants are wet suit pants. Not that you can tell… Non-animated picture here.

In a more casual setting, Frank designs clothes. That really is what his bedroom looks like inside my head. Animation below. This shit cracks me up for some reason.

I did these a while ago, but couldn’t upload them until now. Witness Frank in his element, makin’ faces.

I did some dolly wrasslin’ after work today, using 18 gauge plastic coated steel wire to thread through Will’s arms. Since I had trouble getting one piece of wire all the way through both arms and the torso cavity [daunted by the curving holes in his upper arms — who thought that was a good idea?!], I ended up using two pieces of wire. One piece goes all the way through his left arm and out his right shoulder hole, down his right upper arm, while the other runs from his right forearm to his right upper arm. Now he can achieve the following poses without aid from me.

The much-enhanced Sabrina Sabrok looks like a CG 2.0 with a Bloody Rose body, especially in this photo. [Also here — I really like this photo, actually, mostly because of the combo of flagrantly orange hair + black vinyl.] Part of me is pleased that this freakish body shape appears on a real, live human being, while part of me is repulsed by the unnatural sphericality of those…growths…on her chest.

ashbet

 recommends Endicott Studio, a site containing said Journal of Mythic Arts, an online periodical devoted to luxuriating in fairy tales and analyzing them. I love scholarly online sites. They make me feel smart.

Frank's in pieces all over my desk and bed right now because finally, after a wait of over a year, I finally have a bulkier, larger set of double-jointed arms, more in proportion with his body, than the defaults than came with the Doll More Model Doll girl body. Yes, the TwigLimbs arms have arrived, and I'm pleased with them.

twigling

 has balanced an intimate knowledge of musculature and solidity with a pleasingly realistic style. Pictures below.

I’ve died and gone to Heaven. Over at Sur La Lune, Heidi Heiner has annotated a translation of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid with hypertext footnotes and explications in a fine exploitation of the online form. I’m drawn to Andersen over and over again, for his creepy sadism, self-abnegating protagonists and thoroughly gloomy view of life, so it’s always a treat to find illuminations of his stories.

P.S. For lovers of fairy tales, Sur La Lune provides interviews with fantasists, discussion boards, analyses of stories and other fascinating avenues to explore.

Moping looks extra picturesque at night. Thank you, Will. Most of these photos were created by tinkering with greyscale, levels and burn/dodge around his eyes. They’re gloooowwwwwing…. First is my favorite.

Carnival of Souls does not have much going for it. There’s the cheesy title, a definite strike against it, followed closely by its director Herk Harvey, better known for making simplistic mental hygiene films designed to drum good manners into 1960s schoolchildren. Then there’s the low special effects budget, which means that the creepiest things our protagonist experiences is attack of the pancake make-up and occasional periods where the soundtrack just fades to silence.

I’m happy to report, though, that Carnival of Souls rises above these limitations to be a surprisingly effective, almost existential, horror film.

Everyone go see Nosferatu at archive.org! This is a vampire film before it became a silly cliche, a vampire film before the vampires became romantic tortured souls, back when they were barely formed things out of the ooze of of our symbolic nightmares. You will not find much character depth or subtlety in this 1922 work, but you will find a steadily creeping sense of dread and a memorable exploration of what it’s like to be stalked by death. Answer: It’s freakin’ scary!

Nosferatu closely hews to the plot of Dracula, with a stupid real estate agent visiting the gloomy castle of a creepy count, who then follows him back to his homeland, killing along the way, and only the real estate agent’s wife, with which the vampire is obsessed, can stop the Black Death. Though Bram Stoker’s widow won two suits to stop distribution of F.W. Murnau’s film because it ripped off her husband’s novel, copies of the film had disseminated too widely for them all to be pulled.

Fortunately for us, the best, moodiest, most unforgettable vampire film remains in circulation today. The form — silent except for music, black and white except for blue-tinted nights and red-tinted sunsets — strips the story to its schematic, structuralist basic: a story of light and shadow. While Ellen, the real estate agent’s wife, glows in her white nightgown, Nosferatu is literally a shadow sliding across the walls, menacing innocents with his mere disembodied presence. The one-color tints for different times of day also add eerie feelings. The pale blue tint of night gives a cool, icy, drowning sensation to all scenes, while the red tints of sunset communicate alarm, sensuality and, of course, blood.

None of this color and light symbolism would work if it weren’t for the actors…or one actor in particular, Max Schrek, who plays Nosferatu. As stiff as a coffin plank, he doesn’t seem to walk or float so much as he just manifests, further away and then closer. He does very little except for looming, but he incites the mad realtor Knock to fidgeting and murder and Ellen to dangerous sleepwalking. Nosferatu’s minons, the bubbling, squeaking rats, link him explicitly with plague and, in their seething motion, demonstrate the confused panic he incites in humans. But, in a genius twist of interpretation, Nosferatu doesn’t really seethe himself. He merely exists, inexorable, quiet, pitiless, dire. While he does roam from place to place, in the end, he lets his victims come to him, for he is death, and no one can resist him.

See The Media and Communication Studies Site. Okay, well, they’re not really old, mostly 5 to 10 years old, but that seems like eons where such papers are concerned. All sorts of juicy stuff is linked here, including queer theory, social psychology, online communication et hoc genus omne ad infinitum. Despite the age of the material, a random sampling of links proves that most work and actually go to the content promised! Have fun.

twigling

 reports that a set of Twiglimbs arms and hands is in the mail for Frank to replace his scrawny, disproportionate defaults. How exciting!

I took pictures of Will in the areas outside around my work. He drapes so nicely on stonework and he exerts an irresistible gravitational pull on my camera. He is just as much a pleasure to photograph as Submit [Elfdoll Hana Devil], only more so because he’s bigger!

Feministing is a feminist perspective on the news.

PopPolitics is serious analysis of pop culture.

Poor light and a wobbly grip on my camera means few good shots, but I thought I’d post them anyhow. Will does the languid, melancholy and introverted mood very well, I think. Incidentally, he is wearing a black see-through sleeveless that came with the I.B. Hunter outfit, the Dollheart Kala skirt, default black fishnets from Dollmore’s Bella Auden and Cheerydoll mixed black shit-kickers. As always, his sense of style is debatable.

According to the post office, he is attempting to redeliver himself to my work address, at which I am waiting excitedly. Hopefully he comes soon!

As I was tracking my EMS package this morning, I found out that Will is in the States, apparently just waiting until my work building is open so he can come in! Tracking says that there was a delivery attempt yesterday and a notice left. Since the attempt was to an office building, my work address, I am baffled as to where they left the attempt notice. The receptionist hasn’t seen it. Hopefully Will will arrive successfully today, much sooner than I expected! I was anticipating at least 3 weeks between last payment and arrival.

Ultimate Flash Face can help you create realistic mugshots of your characters, assuming that they have boring, short hairstyles. Below, an example.

Here are my most frequented Web destinations, ordered alphabetically. Can anyone recommend some good sites of news analysis, kind of like weekly news magazines, only less rarefied than The New Yorker and less hebetated than Time and Newsweek? Particularly intelligent pop culture blogs and tech blogs.

I made the final installment payment on Will. $1332.80/$1332.80 is paid! 100%! No more doll debt…. Now I’m just awaiting his arrival. I wonder how long Soom takes to ship items that are all ready to go.

I pared down my Will order again to just the I.B. Hunter doll with outfit and a pair of underwear. New total = $1332.80, with $1097.61 paid, $235.19 outstanding.

Look into the exhaustive archives for Escape Pod and take your pleasure of the many clear, humorous, perkily read sci-fi and fantasy stories on podcast. I just listened to the amusing, low-key “Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush.” I’ve also finished “The Burning Bush.”  It’s very dryly delivered, to humorous effect. And I know that “My Friend Is A Lesbian Zombie” will be good because its author, Eugie Foster, is an acquaintance who turns out consistently well-crafted, mythically solid and romantically tinged stories.

In fourth grade, I watched some painfully earnest and educational sci-fi mysteries for nerdy budding journalists, Read All About It. Each 15-minute episode revolved around Chris, Sam and Lynne, 3 Canadian 11-year-olds investigating the alien invasion, captained by Duneedon the freaky floating head, in their small town. With the help of a pedantic typewriter, Otto, and a talking TV screen, Theta, they published a newspaper, The Herbertville Chronicle, as the perfect alibi for their search for Chris’ missing uncle. Inevitably, vocabulary lessons and word puzzles advanced the plot and helped them save the world. Anyway, I forgot all identifying details of the show until now…
 
I remember liking this show [aside from the cadaverous floating head!] because the vocab lessons played to my strengths and made me feel that my verbal intelligence was applicable and important, although I can’t say that I’ve ever used my mental thesaurus to rescue myself and a friend from a Problem Pit. In any case, if this plot summary brings back nostalgic happiness [or nostalgic queasiness, if you’re thinking of Duneedon], you can find all eps of the first season on Youtube. Here’s the first. As the theme song exhorts, "There’s a mystery to be solved / So why not get involved?"

Last night I watched The Aristocrats, primarily under duress, because we had to return it before the late fees became atrocious. The Aristocrats features scores of prominent comedians yammering about a show-biz in-joke that is not really that funny, then analyzing what makes that joke so compelling.

In the tradition of investigative science/humanities radio shows like To The Best Of Our Knowledge and The Infinite Mind, WNYC’s Radiolab centers around a broad subject, like sleep, morality or stress, and glues together interviews and intuitions about it.  While To The Best… and The Inifinite Mind are very structured and strive for authoritativeness, Radiolab is more conversational, kind of like Sound & Spirit, lighter on the scientific details, but no less interesting. I would call it casual philosophy. Seasons are tragically short, but you can find listenable archives on the Web site going as far back as 2005. I caught a clip of Radiolab from an ep of This American Life, and I agree with TAL host Ira Glass that Radiolab should have wider listenership.

This 1996 film about necrophilia looks possibly interesting. It strongly reminds me of a vampire film. I need some more interesting movies in my life. I’m in a good movie drought right now.

EDIT: I just bought it from half.com because neither Hollywood Express nor Blockbuster had it. [Well, Hollywood Express had it on tape, but the world don’t run on VHS any more.] I wonder why I think less about purchasing DVDs than I do purchasing books. 

While I’m purchasing movies about sexual deviations, maybe I should also get a copy of Secretary, you know, just to fondle. I really haven’t been rewatching any favorite movies recently.

On the subject of paraphilias, I wonder when that movie about bestiality with horses will come out on DVD.

“Deviancy” is one of my favorite words, deriving from the Latin “de” = “away from” and “via” = “road.” Literally it means going off-road [or what happens when you get really lost on a car ride]. Though the adjective gets a derogatory inflection most of the times it is used, it is actually a neutral descriptor. I find it equally applicable for discussion of road trips, recipes, political leanings and sexual predelictions.

Very rarely am I generally impressed with a movie, but that’s my reaction to the latest Pixar effort, Ratatouille.

I also just have to mention that we saw a trailer for Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,

Wake me up when Stardust comes out. Despite my fear that it will be a thoroughly formulaic, thematically light fairy tale [Neil Gaiman is not notable for significant depth], it does have some good actors in it and possibly some nice swordplay. Alternatively, I’ll check into The Golden Compass, just to see how much of a compressed turd they make out of a good book by putting a Scientologist nutball as one of the lead characters [unless I’m wrong and Nicole Kidman swore off the space aliens Ponzi scheme religion once she broke off from Mr. “Not Gay No Way” “Big Nose” Cruise].

I just made a payment on Will, bringing the total amount paid to $1097.61. I guess I’ve purchased all of him up to his nipples. I can’t wait to get his head!

Unidoll is apparently coming out with new bodies [?] for their 63cm Uni Real male dolls. The new bodies have fully articulated fingers. From what I can tell, the articulated hands look like wooden artist’s mannequins. I think they are really beautiful, although I wonder about their clenching power. If the articulated hands can hold things without drooping out of position, I wonder if I could get them separately for my dollses…

Took some stuff off my Will order, reducing total to $1437.60. As much as I eagerly await my doll, I’m annoyed that the price for I.B. Hunter Sabik was so ridiculously inflated compared to the initial release and then to Cyborg Sabik. I’m also very annoyed with myself for paying said inflated price.

So in November of last year, Mike Dillon sent me five single-spaced pages of erudite speculation on Jareth, Sarah and the psychological ramifications of the Labyrinth. Not until today did I hack a shorter, less dense essay out of all his fascinating thoughts. See below for a theory on Jareth’s secretly benevolent nature. Apparently he really wants to be Sarah’s therapist. No really…just read it… Amusing comic-like illustrations included…

[MW STEPS UP to the podium at an outdoor amphitheater reminiscent of the Coliseum.]

MW: Howdy there, loyal Jareth’s Realm viewers.

[MW LOOKS around. SOUND of crickets chirping.]

MW: Apparently all my fans are invisible. Anyway, folks, we’ve got some great new material in the works. I’m right now editing a fan’s interpretation of Jareth as psychologist, so watch for an interesting essay on that soon.

[SOUND of crickets chirping grows fainter as MW PAUSES again.]

MW: Plus I have some awesome fan art of Jareth coming up! The artist,

phurie_dae

, worked with me for over a year to get it just right!

[MW GESTURES dramatically. NO more  crickets CHIRPING.]

MW: It’s really sexy. He’s lounging in a window with a smirk on his face and you can see a glimpse of his Area.

[MW WAITS for audience response. CRICKETS have clearly gone back under their grass blades to listen to something more interesting, like a rebroadcast of Senate subcommittee hearings on welfare reform.]

MW: Screw this. I’m gonna go sing Video Killed The Radio Star off-key for the 478th time in a row.

[MW WALKS off the stage.]

I just made another installment on the Will doll, which brings me to $722.61 of $1498.60 paid off.  I think I’ve just about successfully purchased his legs, which make up 40 cm of his 80 cm gangliness. Did I mention he was an expensive fucker? I hope he plays fetch, washes my dishes and gives back rubs for that kind of money…

Home on the Strange uses a light touch and bold, happy lines to show the amusing, slightly exaggerated lives and intersections of a small cluster of 30-something nerds. The usual jokes about gamer culture are here, but fleshed out with relationship dramas and a deft use of character development. Ferrett Steinmetz and Veronica Pare make a fluid and humorous collaboration.

In the summer of 2001 and 2002, I watched both seasons of TNT’s Witchblade with a friend.

The Cerebrus Project Mini Fee Ruth that I sold to Baiken in France WITHOUT insurance or delivery confirmation arrived safely! In the mean time, I worried that it would get lost just because I had tempted fate by forgetting insurance and delivery confirmation. Now that the damn doll has successfully arrived at its destination, I offer the following announcement for me and others:

If you’re sending a valuable package by USPS domestic mail, pay for insurance and delivery confirmation. If you’re doing the same with a package going internationally, send by EMS [even though it’s more expensive than air letter-post] with insurance and delivery confirmation as well.

As a rule of thumb, I usually insure the package for 15 to 20% more than what the person paid for it. While insurance and delivery confirmation do not solve all problems, they do obviate anxiety about the package between its departure and arrival.

I have a Destiny, doncha know? With a capital D. Really! I’ve got a
prophecy and superpowers and everything.

Supposedly.

http://www.dollshoesinternational.co.nz/

I’m gonna compare these to measurements for Jareth and see what clothes Will might fit into. The stupendousness is fascinating, huh?

Based on these measurements and the eyeballing of my BJD wardrobe, I expect Will to fit into the following:

Tops: stretchy lace leotard, the black sweater with red trim, the men’s white dress shirt with sleeves up, the lace shirt, blank tank, Hell Queen bodice [with some wedging]

Bottoms: Hell Queen velvet bloomers [hah!], Kala skirt, red leggings [legs too short], grey leggings [legs too short]

Shoes: Jareth’s shitkickers, Frank’s faaaaahbulous pink glitter-shitting boots

I’ve seen Just The Right Shoe shoe sculptures in tchotchke shops. The designs have attracted me, but the fact that there is only ONE shoe has annoyed me. However, now that I see that they are 4 inches long, I think that there might be an actual use for these frustrating collectibles. You see…4 inches = 10.16 cm, which is about 2 cm longer than Sabik’s feets [8.3 cm] and generally about 1:3. Perhaps it is possible to modify some of these JTRSs into fabulous footwear for my dolls…namely WIll, for whom I cannot find a decent pair of atrocious heels to save my life… JTRSs sold here.

Fete miniature shoes are sold through Amazon.

Disco sandal keychains…?

High-heeled pump keychains…?

And these…oh, these…are the ultimate in coolness: Disco Diva JTRSs. Cheap here.

…although, since he is on layaway, the doll will not arrive for a while. Expensive fucker.

I am zees close to buying a Sabik [Iron Brain edition, yahahahahahah!] on layaway when he is available tomorrow.

I want this doll because it looks like a character of mine [Will] and because it’s approximately the size I want as well. With mannequins [aka life-size dolls!!] as a comparison, I mistakenly assumed that 1:3 BJDs would be much BIGGER than a measly 60 or 70 cm. Sabik’s size, 80 cm, approaches what I’d expect from a BJD, although I’d be much happier with a 3- or 4-footer.

EDIT: I really hope that Build A Bear clothes would fit Sabik as egregiously short crop tops or shorts or microskirts, especially since they are cheaaaaaap and there is a BAB store nearby.

In my investigations, I have discovered two more companies to add to my list of companies I do not want to patronize because they are tainted by plagiarism.

Slayage, the online journal of Buffy studies, has a new URL. It can now be found here: http://www.slayageonline.com/

O frabjous day!

For the past few years, I have been looking for books about the affective, psychological and cultural meanings of dolls, specifically as they might pertain to the modern popularity of BJDs. If anyone has more suggestions, let me know!

Studies of Jareth.

I made a monogoggle prototype just now with my usual plastic cap for a lens base and bronze paint. Then I added several layers of leather, cut from an old purse, for padding around the eye. I felt confident that this might actually be a finished product and not a prototype, but then I tried it on my largest BJD’s head [Frank’s].

More for me than for you.

Screw caps seem to work pretty well for lens fittings on BJD-scale goggles.

I modified Brass Goggles’ tutorial on disposable steampunk goggles for humans tonight. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I took her tutorial as inspiration for some experimentation of my own based on the screw top for a small maple syrup container. The area around my desk still smells like syrup, even though I finished the monogoggle a half an hour ago. I can honestly say that this was one of the sweetest projects that I’ve done. HAR. While incredibly messy and unfinished, the experimental monogoggle looks more professional and convincing than my cardboard goggle mock-up.

Now making the rounds on the Net is the BBC2’s docu on the Westboro Baptist Church Cult.

Doggles sells eyewear for dogs. There are many different colors and sizes, as well as swappable lenses!! The sizing chart seems to suggest that an XS size would fit your standard 60 or 70cm BJD’s head. [I assume that the “head size” refers to circumference.] According to some more detailed stats, the XS head band adjusts from 5 to 13 inches, and the lenses are 1 inch high and 1.25 inches wide.

Doggiduds also sells goggles for dogs. No changeable lenses, but slightly cheaper.

EDIT: I just bought a pair of the XS smoke/chrome ones…strictly for research purposes, you know. $18.00, free shipping…and that was the lowest I could find after shopping around. Hopefully I can customize them with steamy, punky gimcracks… EAT MY PRICE TAG, ANOTHERSPACE!

Anotherspace sells goggles for dolls. It boggles my mind that the price is $42.00 for a pair of 60cm goggles with leather frames. Why are they so freakin’ expensive? Is it the leather?

Here’s an aviator outfit for teddy bears, including goggles.

Here are some white goggles, along with a swimsuit, from Build A Bear.

Here are some human-sized brass and leather goggles for inspiration.

Here’s a TUTORIAL on how to make brass[ish??] and leather human-sized goggles out of escutcheons and old belts…

Here’s an Instructable about modding welder’s goggles to make human-sized steampunk goggles.

This evening, using the pattern mentioned in the previous entry, I constructed a pair of lensless prototype goggles for Frank. I used cardboard for the frames, masking tape as an adhesive and rubber bands for the nose piece and the head straps. Since I was scaling down a human pattern, I guessed on the measurements. The actual size of the frames looks correct, but the side pieces are clearly too deep. I also made the mistake of using a stretchy material for the nose piece so that the goggles stretched out to look wall-eyed. Despite these first-time blunders, i proved to myself that I could indeed construct goggles. With better materials and more refined measurements, these will look pretty cool. The picture of just one of Frank’s eyes gives a sense of how neat these will be when drafted again and finished! Reference pictures below.

Here is a discussion thread about many styles of steampunk goggles and how to make them: right here.

Here is a tutorial on temporary steampunk goggles, fit for costumes: right here.

I can use this information to make doll goggles, I think.

Denny Kim, representative of Doll In Mind, struck up a thread about likeness BJDs earlier this year. After an initial spurt of interest and a round of orders in mid-February, the first set of custom sculpts are surfacing on DOA with model photos for comparison.

I loved making maps of imaginary countries when I was young. Now I can do the same thing on the computer with the freeware AutoRealm. I wonder if I could bring the United Provinces of Ilion into digital format?

CrazyTalk software does simple animations on still photos so that they seem to be speaking in synch with sounds. Interesting.

Oh yeah…and while I’m at it…

Not Doll Lab’s Miriam looks like their earlier release [EDIT: DollMore’s] Banji [translucent skin, round eyes, pursed lips], although larger and more mature. I like the sculpt, but the shallow cuts all over her body distract me. I can’t think about the aesthetic appeal of the doll or the paint job when I’m trying to wonder how someone would receive such wounds. I can only guess that she peeled off her pajamas and went sleepwalking through the raspberry canes, in which case the whole conceit appears silly, rather than edgy. Also…what the heck is that background…raisins on a sheepskin rug??

Those persons realizing that Sabik is too big for their tastes are now selling him. Unfortunately, his body, clothes and hefty shipping price come along with him. The price jacks from $650.00 [nude, no faceup, shipping included] direct from Soom to ~$925.00-$950.00 on the secondary market. It’s frustrating to see la poupee available but unreachable, especially since I want Sabik’s head more and more as I see more pictures of it.

I thought I wanted one, but I want Sabik’s head more. However, I already agreed to a split with someone else, so I ordered a CP MNF Ruth Special so he could have the sleeping head and the body and I could have the awake head. But now I don’t want the awake head. I ordered it today, no faceup, so it should be arriving in 2-3 weeks. Ruth isn’t available in parts, so, if you like the head, this is your chance to get it. Any interest?

Someone over at DOA provided pictures of Sabik’s head on a 70cm Dollshe boy body, concluding that the results were a scary failure. I disagree. The head looks slightly too large, but that’s not a problem, for a few reasons…

First of all, a Sabik head on a Dollshe body is about 7 heads high. The ideally proportioned male body is 8 heads high, but real people show great variation, so it is possible that a male could be 7 heads high. 

Second of all, the Sabik head fits in stylistically on a Dollshe body. The Dollshe body is characterized by a lean physique, elongated rectangular forms and fine detail. Sabik’s head also has elongated rectangular forms and fine detail. While the Sabik head may be a bit too big, its stylistic harmony with the Dollshe body overcomes some of the size difference.

Finally, the largeness of Sabik’s head can be mitigated with creative costuming and posing. I’ve already had experience with a big-headed doll, Frank, a Yukinojo head on a Bella Auden body, and I’ve learned that certain angles [de-emphasizing the poofy hair] and certain outfits [balloon sleeves to add bulk to his scrawny arms] compensate well for the size difference between his head and the rest of him.  If a Sabik/Dollshe hybrid were clothed and photographed with a modicum of skill, I believe that it would look great.

All of this is, of course, a neat way of convincing myself that a Sabik head would work on Jareth’s body so I could make a Will doll. Picture below.

That’s the 80 cm Mecha Angel by Soom. Actually, I just want his head because it would be a great 1:3 likeness of my favorite character from Love Has Fangs. No, not Anneka, but Will.

Will is a very amusing character. Anneka has a sense of style, but Will doesn’t. I always got the feeling that he never quite understood the norms of clothing and social presentation and just wore whatever he wanted. In the case of the representation below, I can just see him saying, “Oh, I like red…red’s good…and purple’s not bad either,” then just sticking all of those colors on his face. His look veers close to the stylized make-up of certain formerly elegant old ladies, not really drag-like, but definitely bright and noticeable.

Me: “You do know that you look like a mime, right?”

Will: “Is that bad?”

Here is me messing around with a modified photo of a front view of Sabik.

The dolls on this site would eat the scads of sensitive vampires and angsty zombies over at DOA for lunch. Sardonix would probably make friends with them… I like them very much. They look much more appropriate to me than the procelain dolls that they were originally. Thanks to Bastet2329, I will direct my hostile urges toward stereotypical undead characters into creative endeavors…

UniDoll’s Limited UH-14 strongly attracts me. Her heavy eyelids and thoughtful, pouty lips give her a plush, romantic look enhanced by her creamy complexion. She’s been reminding me of an earlier doll, but I only put my finger on the resemblance just now. UH-14 looks like Soom Kyrie. Check out comparison pictures below.

I don’t have a problem with the resemblance at all. It’s nice to know that, if I really wanted a doll like UH-17, I could easily [and cheaply] get one similar by purchasing and modding a Kyrie.

http://www.sweetheartsdolls.com/Index.htm

The Martians’ clothes fit Elfdoll Hana….

This is what I said in a post to

batchix

  about the Den of Demons: 

Denver Doll Emporium: $350 + $???? domestic s/h only. Out of stock.

Elfdoll: $350 + $???? international s/h. In stock.

Dolls and Friends: $350 + $???? domestic s/h. “Preorder.”

Doll Peddlar: Same as Dolls & Friends.

Dolls to hack up for a set of Elfdoll Hana conjoined twins:

If I determine, through my own judgment, that a BJD company has committed plagiarism of another company’s designs, I can never support that company in any way again. Here is my list of permanently contaminated companies and why I can never touch them:

Eventually, I will pervert one, some or all of the following patterns:

Mouse: http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27075

Tiny teddy bear: http://www.mielkesfarm.com/teddy_pat.htm

Tiny sitting bear: http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1694

Nauseatingly cute little seals: http://www.critters2crochet.com/inde…ealpattern.htm

7″ bear: http://home.wideopenwest.com/~sag55/angelbear.html

Snail: http://www.fortheloveofyarn.com/Issues/Spring06/patterns/spring06_snail.shtml

Rabbit: http://ballostringdesigns.com/free/bunny.html

And a bunch of links to crocheting patterns here: http://www.myhq.com/public/c/r/crochetpoet/

I can make slippers out of cloth, I guess… http://www.fabricorigami.com/instructions.html 

I could probably make these, right? I mean, I can fold paper. HGTV has a link to origami shoes. Presumably these are for lazy asses like me who can’t sew…

EDIT: Another link, possibly clearer, since HGTV’s model baffles me: http://www.geocities.com/Rachel_Katz/folding/hh_shoe.htm

EDIT: Animated instructions with pictures for making zori: http://www.fudebakudo.com/en/zori.html

So Soom’s Mecha Angel’s name is Sabik, and he’s 80 cm tall, which puts him at 2.5 feet or 1.5 heads taller than Jareth and Frank. I do not want his body at all, but I really like his head. The combination of long cheeks, narrow eyes and a full mouth gives him a more mature look than other male dolls with similar features, like Dollshe Haund and Iplehouse Lion. To me he seems to have the facial frame of Haund [cheekbones, jawline], balanced with the features of Lion [large eyes, sensuous lips].

I really, really, really like the head, though he doesn’t look like any character that I want to make a doll of. Thus I have no excuse or strong motivation to get him beyond liking his head. Damn. I just don’t have extra room for a 2.5-foot doll to casually hang out in. Close-ups below.

Soom recently developed a tall, etoliated male [somewhere over 65 cm, I guess] named Mecha Angel. His slender limbs make him look like a preying mantis. But I can forgive a lot of bodily disproportions if I like the face. [For example, Frank has narrow shoulders, stick-like arms and fragile fingers, but I like him because of his fabulous face.] So far, as you can see below, Mecha Angel combines the usual Soom Pre-Raphaelite mouth with slender lines and large, liquid, expressive eyes. So, to my mind, it looks promising. I’d like to see close-ups…

This is more like a private notebook of reminders to myself. You just happen to see it.

Case in point: Here is me reminding myself what clothes are in the mail to me.

I have some Hound clothes — corset, blouse, vest, etc. — and SD girl clothes — mostly tops and skirts — for sale on DOA. I will also trade for long-sleeved shirts and pants for SD10/SD13 in neutral and/or conservative colors with conservative tailoring…or outrageous punky stuff, particularly in red or black. Please make it go away so I can buy stuff that my dolls will actually wear! Thank you.

Did you know that you can E-mail the US Dollmore dealer, order clothing and pay only US Priority s/h if you live in the US? Neato!

There’s a lot of sharing amongst my 1:3 crew. The 2 70 cms, Jareth and Frank, share pants. The 2 60 cms, Jennifer and Sardonix, can wear each other’s clothes, but have radically different styles. Since I have a lot of 60 cm shirts, skirts, dresses and socks, Jennifer, Sardonix and Frank share them. I would like to get Jennifer and Frank one or two basic pieces that are tailored specifically for them, though, hence the brainstorming below…

So I’m buying Sardonix yet another slightly used DollHeart outfit from a DOAer. This one is Kala. With a hat, a necklace, a blouse, a corset, an underdress, a sash, a pair of leggings, shoes and a turban, it provides many mix and match opportunities. I can’t really tell if all the blue parts are detachable from the cranberry-colored parts, but I think so. The bestest thing about this set is the shoes: red shoes with upturned toes and a slight heel. They look unusual and fanciful, all at the same time. I dislike the turban; I would have gone with an elaborate veil or snood. I can’t wait to run Hell Queen pieces together with Kala pieces. That should be fun…

As an aside, Kala was one of the many winners of DollHeart’s first design competition, but it’s been very unpopular. Many other designs have sold out, particularly in the EGL, goth/loli, punk lite or cutesy-wootsy animal genres. Yet Kala, distinguished from the hordes by its innovation [relatively speaking], was shunned by buyers. It’s disappointing to see that so many owners just seek the froofy or punk stuff. I’m surprised that Kala hasn’t sold out; I mean, wouldn’t it appeal to those who like Ye Olde Flowinge Fantasie And Renaissance Type Stuffe? I know it speaks to the YOFFARTS interest in me.

If I ever have a clothing line for dolls, I will call it YOFFARTS. Yo, farts!

Nobility Doll comes out with innovative articulation in its Full Operation Nobility Royma. This male doll has a double-jointed neck, so his head can cock and bow as well as swivel. He also has double-jointed elbows and knees, as well as double-jointed thighs. And he has a “genital joint” so you can make his penis go up or down. And something’s up with his nipples. The photos say “press papilla good feel,” which I assume means that they are squishy vinyl, like a Dollfie Dream torso or an Obitsu soft bust.

I really have to wonder…does anyone want these features? When I survey the majority of BJD owners, they list the following among things that they want: more mature male and female sculpts, a wider range of body types including super-emaciated and Rubenesque, poseable hands, bodies that are well-balanced and solid in posing, therianthropic sculpts [including animal heads, articulated wings, movable mermaid lower halves or dragon tails], casual clothes and shoes that real people wear, etc. Double-jointed necks, squeezy nipples and Amazing Swivel Penises [TM] are very low on the list of wants, if they appear at all. Maybe Nobility was just going for as many innovations as possible in one doll. 

Royma looks like David Bowie with the pointy nose and the pissy flat mouth. See headshots, nipple shots and Amazing Swivel Penis [TM] shots below.

I need to give Frank a haircut so his head doesn’t look so large.

Sardonix would like this. It’s an awesome flame bustier. She’d also like these red and black boots.

Even though I have Jareth, Frank and Jennifer at my disposal, I fidget with high anxiety because I want Sardonix to come home.

I’m getting DollHeart’s sold-out Hell Queen outfit from someone on DOA. I bought it with Sardonix in mind [how fitting for a succubus to be wearing an outfit by that name], but I foresee her fighting over it with Frank. Outfits with many pieces seem to be the best investment to me because they can be selected and recombined in many different ways. For example, Frank has already claimed the peignoir and stockings. Sardonix has already claimed corset, bloomers and frizzly sleeves. My BJD universe is uniformly baffled by the single goggle and the ridiculously small top hat.

So I watched Arthur and the Invisibles today, primarily for Freddie Highsmith [luminescent and likeable], Mia Farrow [beautiful and engaging] and David Bowie [all-around kick-ass]. Apart from basking in these stars’ displays of talent, there wasn’t much else to do during the film. Sure, there were roller-coaster battles and chases to watch, but the film had no sense of plot, pacing, character development or emotional attachment. It seemed like a pastiche of disparate elements: live aciton vs. animation; the sexy Princess Selenia [voiced by Madonna] vs. the innocent and prepubescent Arthur [Highsmith]; the fascinatingly detailed Minimoys world vs. the utterly bland story. To give you an idea of how unenthralling it was…the four-and-a-half-year-old watching it with me and my wife wanted to leave two-thirds of the way through.

On the plus side, there was DAVID BOWIE doing a Jarethian turn as the elegant, smooth and seductively evil Malthazard, MADONNA doing a physically assertive and hip-swaying, butt-kicking princess who’s the most active female character I’ve ever seen in a kids’ animated film, plus the Minimoys themselves, who looked like plastic dolls and whose elvin ears fluttered when they were happy.

I want to see Zoo because it sounds like an unusual treatment of bestiality. I do not want to see Teeth because it sounds like a stupid, stereotypical treatment of vagina dentata. I wonder how long I’ll have to wait before Sundance films hit either the theaters [hah!] or the video stores [more likely].

In other news, it’s “BESTIALITY,” people, not “BEASTIALITY.”

In even more other news, I still want to see Casino Royale and Arthur and the Invisibles. I’m curious about The Last Mimzy, which is coming out in March and which has an Escape to Witch Mountain atmosphere, especially from the trailer. Penelope, with a limited release in April, looks interesting, but will probably be a turd because Hollywood couldn’t do an affecting, realistic and powerful fairy tale even if Jack ZIpes walked them through the process. 

And don’t forget Spiderman 3 [hooray!], coming out in early May. And then there’s Shrek 3, the franchise juggernaut for which should be hung, drawn, quartered and pulverized on high speed in an industrial blender because it ran out of ideas and humor right around the end of Shrek 1. Also coming in May is Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which I’m sure will be a ponderous and thunderous headache of a movie, but which contains Johnny Depp and Keith Richards [!], so I might have to see it.

There’s a Nancy Drew [!] movie coming out in June, and it will probably be a neutered PG stinker.

See here. Adaptable for 1:6 and 1:3. Possible with only a gloo gun! Huzzah! Maybe I can make a skirt for Will…

Yesterday I went to see the long-awaited Pan’s Labyrinth, in which 10-year-old Ofelia exchanges the horrors of post-WWII Spain for the equally viscous horrors of her imagination. While her mother dies in childbed and her shinily sadistic stepfather shoots resistance fighters for sport, Ofelia turns to an ambiguous faun, who offers her the prospect of royalty in a dream world if she can complete three disgusting tasks.

For 99.9% of the movie, I liked it.

I ended up ditching the Zire/Palm keyboard combo in favor of a Clie + Clie keyboard, a cheaper set [$75 for both, including Documents to Go, which is the portable version of Word] with more technological advances. On the Clie, there is also a hard plug-in connection between PDA and keyboard, as opposed to the fiddly infrared sensor on the Zire/Palm keyboard set-up. Thank you to Super Todd, my landlord, who sold it to me.

Since last night I have been experimenting with data entry onto my new mini-‘puter. The cramped keys take some getting used to, but they’re responsive, requiring no pounding, so they’re not too hard on my hands. If I type quickly for an extended period of time, my wrists hurt, but they do that anyway with laptop or desktop boards. So far, my mini-‘puter appears to satisfy my need for light, compact, quickly accessible and comtaible word processing. Further updates as I continue testing.

Annette Curtis Klause has four weird, romantic YA fantasies to her credit. I especially like her first, the 1992 Silver Kiss, in which a mopey mortal gets it on with a broody vampire well before BTVS. [Check out the pallid beauty of the cover art. I’ll take a framed edition, thank you very much.] Later came Blood and Chocolate, a very sensual tale about a werewolf girl in love with a human boy and therefore in conflict with her pack. Great concept, right?

Not if the producers of Underworld [crashingly boring trilogy about vampires vs. werewolves] get their paws on it. Blood and Chocolate is now a movie, pusillanimously debuting in late January because the makers KNOW it’s a turd. Oh, it smells like a rotting carcass already…

Well, we know that crosses and garlic repel vampires, and silver bullets repel werewolves, but what effectively wards off evil film adaptations of good fantasy novels?

Used Palm Zire 31: $60. Thank you, craigslist.

Palm universal wireless keyboard from provantage.com: $48.48.

Total: $108.48.

Result: something better and more compatible than the Alphasmart Neo for less than half the price. Take THAT, Alphasmart! I thought you were cheap, but your prices are clearly inflated. Look at my smart little back-lit cheapo computer with several MB of memory and more than 4 lines of text and an almost laptop-size keyboard. You are not as good as that. Weep for shame. WEEP!

Alternatively, I could get a portable folding keyboard [Pocketop] and a cheap PDA. Pocketop keyboard for $20 here. Cheap, universal, but has small keys. Palm universal wireless keyboard here at $40. Keys small for extensive typing? More expensive infrared keyboard for $45 here. Nice size, but more small moving parts, stupid non-locking hinge.

Introducing the latest tag, “writing,” which covers my Sarah and Milly story [formerly tagged “nanowrimo,” which it no longer is right now] and any other dreck I spew out.

I have a novel to write, but I dislike typing it onto my home desktop computer. First, I spend all day at my job at a desktop, so spending more time in front of another desktop is the last thing I want to do. Second, the large screen size of the desktop monopolizes my vision, allowing me no chance to look at anything interesting or restful besides the screen. Third, the desktop limits me to one place, at my desk, in my chair. It’s not portable.

I have several alternatives. One of them is a notebook, a regular paper notebook. A notebook is good because it provides variation [not staring at another big screen], no monopoly on my vision and portability, it increases the amount of time I spend writing because I think have to transfer the writing to the computer by banging it out on the keys. So basically handwriting only staves off the inevitable suffering of using the desktop. I don’t want to stave it off. I want to avoid it as much as possible.

Another alternative is a laptop computer. A laptop computer is good because it provides variation, no monopoly on my vision and compatibility with the desktop. However, I want something light and easy to carry to work and on trips. A laptop is too heavy and fragile, not to mention uselessly complicated. I don’t need huge amounts of memory or great programs. I just want to enter text and then transfer it to my desktop.

Another alternative is a handheld with a fold-out keyboard. This would be good because it provides variation, portability and ease of use. But it is too complicated and fragile, and the screen would be too small.

The final option, the Alphasmart Neo, is what I want to go with. It’s a small, light, durable word processor with a full-size keyboard and a 6-lines-of-text screen. it has a small amount of memory and can communicate with my desktop via USB cord. It doesn’t figure my taxes or connect to the Internet. It just holds medium-sized text files. That’s all I want. I don’t want to handwrite my stories. I’m saving manuscript for my diary [except on those rare occasions when I forget it and have to type up and print out an entry, then paste it in].

Lookit how cheap they are!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must return to manuscripting my latest outline because I do not have an Alphasmart Neo yet.

With sections on vampires, werewolves, demons, etc., Queer Horror [http://www.queerhorror.com] appears to be a comprehensive overview of queer characters and themes in various media, well worth a long look when I have some time. Mmmm, queer vampires…

And he plays an evil arachnid. Arthur and the Invisibles is animated, but previews show that the Malthazard character maps very well onto DB’s facial expressions. Whooooooooo hoo!

Read gory stories of crime and mayhem here at http://www.crimelibrary.com. My favorite case, the 1955 matricide perpetrated by Pauline Rieper and Juliet Hulme [inspiration for the movie Heavenly Creatures], has a nice overview on this site. Lots of fun reading for vacation…

My 1:6 collection is drastically reducing. I successfully got rid of 90% of my parts bin and some miscellaneous food this week. Later I will get rid of some pink [gaaaaack] furniture and whole dolls. If all goes well, I should have <15 dolls hanging out at home. [I’m not including dolls at work. Maybe I should bring more to work. I currently have 4 1:6ers and 1 action figure.]

My 1:3 population is planning to increase. If all goes well, SARDONIX [remember her?] will be back. I should be getting a 2006 Luts Juri head [picture], which I want to put on a Domuya Flexi girl body [picture]. This time, I plan to leave her unpainted and unwigged so that I can show off her construction and articulation. In this incarnation, she will be less of a hellish succubus and more of a devilish cyborg. She will have antennae coming off the points of her ears. I’d also like to put a small watch in one of her eye sockets and a “control panel” in her abdomen.

Coming out on January 5, 2007, Happily N’Ever After contains an interesting premise — a fairy tale rewrite in which Cinderella leads resistance against her evil stepmom who’s trying to take over — as well as two people we know to be talented actors, Sigourney Weaver and Sarah Michelle Gellar. But it will be horrible.

Do you know why it will be horrible? Well, first of all, the presence of both SMG and her husband Freddy Prinze Jr. tells you that it will tank. Despite possessing talent, the two have no business and career acumen, as evidenced by their previous collaborations Scooby Doo I and II. [In fact, SMG’s entire movie career, like Tim Curry’s, is pretty much a string of disappointments, and I think they both need really smart agents to get them in showcases for their special gifts, but I digress.]

Second of all, the producers of Shrek are behind this one. Now, for all that I laughed when I saw Shrek I [not II or III so much], I don’t think that it was as attractive or subversive as people claim. The franchise tries too hard to be clever, but it just ends up reinforcing stupid gender and sexual stereotypes. I smell the same problem emanating from Happily N’Ever After, particularly in its problematic recycling of characters from Shrek. That purple cat thing in HNA looks like Donkey, while the blond prince in HNA looks like the blond prince in Shrek, and even Ella in HNA reminds me of Fiona. Such uncreative recycling cannot be saved even by the flamboyant evil genius of Sigourney Weaver and any acting talent SMG may happen to evince.

I feel sad for SMG. BTVS provided such a star vehicle and showcase for her, but her brainless career choices since then slide her further into disrepute. I respect her acting talent, but I can’t respect her as a person because she’s really not that smart. She strikes me as someone with talents who doesn’t know how to use them, rather than an artist that has knowledge and craft of his or her art. She stands in opposition to David Bowie, who [besides having way more experience than she does] just emanates wit, intelligence, insight and a dry sense of humor in relation to his art. He would be a perfect example of an exemplary celebrity, except that he smokes.

In further explication of my thoughts on season 5, I have to say that I started watching BTVS with season 6. The first part of 6, during which Buffy tries to deal with her resurrection, has always fascinated me for its nuanced depiction of her grief cycle. People tell me that The Body is the single best BTVS ep about grief. I wouldn’t know; I haven’t seen it [yet], but I have to say that all the mooding, brooding and grieving in the early part of 6 sound psychologically convincing and revealing notes. As we watch all the characters deal with Buffy’s death, absence and rebirth, the specter of death, always a presence in a series about the undead, becomes real, substantive and irrevocable. For such a fantastical premise [dead one comes back], this story arc is the most realistic and compelling of all the BTVS arcs for me, which probably demonstrates more about me and my preoccupations with death, mourning, grief, maturation, cemeteries, memories, vampires, ghosts, epitaphs than it does about BTVS itself.

So, if 6 is the high point for me, I like 2, 3 and 4 next best, but I really dislike 1 and 7. 1, a short, experimental season, provides only glimmers of the juicy richness that the show would later develop into. Plus there’s no Spike, so I ignore it. And I am currently refusing to watch 7. I don’t want to see Buffy as a motivational speaker to the Potentials; I don’t want to see Willow basically squashed, mousy and regressed after 6’s drama; and I don’t want to see Spike die. I don’t care that he comes back in 5 of Angel. I don’t want to see him die! I’m just pretending 6 is the end, okay? La la la, I’m not listening to you….

So, in answer to the comments, I like Spike too anyway, abbagirl, and the icon is hilarious. :p

LoreMistress, I recommend watching well past 4 and into 6, but avoiding 7. In other words, don’t break off. In my opinion, some of the best eps are coming up.

RedCountess, having read tons of synopses and analyses, I agree that you have a point about the development of Buffy + Spike over time. I still maintain that Crush and Intervention crank up the schmoopiness at the expense of the characters’ personalities. I have no problem with them having a relationship; I just wish that the portrayal in those two eps was true to the characters.

And a link to my favorite BTVS site, a critical journal of “Buffy studies” with an archive of meaty analyses of all things BTVS.

I finally broke out the BTVS DVDs last night. Having watched bits of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, but no 5 or 7, I delved into season 5. I wanted to investigate the beginnings of Buffy and Spike’s twisted affection for each other, before it became the season 6 tango of revulsion. To that end, I checked out Crush, in which Spike has one on Buffy, and Intervention, in which the BuffyBot makes its first appearance to satisfy the lovelorn Spike.

Wow, those eps were flaccid! The repartee, linguistic inventiveness and deep emotional responses that I associate with BTVS just didn’t exist in these eps, even though they were supposedly about lerve. The characters appeared brainwashed, with Spike saying, “I lerve you; I suffer for you,” and Buffy saying, “Bleeecccch,” like zombies of pop song lerve rather than consistent, multi-dimensional characters. It wasn’t funny; it wasn’t interesting; it wasn’t in character. It was just really painful and boring to watch.

The only moment in which the true characters surfaced was at the end of Intervention, when Buffy acted like the willing BuffyBot because she was trying to determine if Spike, under torture, had told Glory that Dawn was the Key. So Buffy plays the willing sex slave until she gets the info [e.g., that Spike kept Dawn’s secret]; then she switches back to herself and leaves him. Both Buffy and Spike seemed incredibly sad and regretful in this scene, Spike probably because his dedication got him pounded and plus his robot’s gone, Buffy because she realized the depths of Spike’s infatuation and then played along with it for a bit. Buffy’s ambivalence toward Spike [heartless manipulation and reluctant gratitude] and his ambivalence toward her [slavish crush and violent, stupid frustration] are transmitted clearly without platitudes. The truth comes through: their relationship isn’t pursuing guy vs. retreating girl, but squeamishly fascinated guy vs. squeamishly fascinated girl, a theme developed much better in season 6.

So, anyway, I’ve found the perfect application for the word schmoopy: season 5 Spike. Oh, how drab and disappointing. I’ll take the characterologically consistent season 6 Spike instead. Stereotypically pining vampires make me want to vomit vomit vomit. If I ever write about them, someone please shoot them.

LHF is back! See the latest ep here.

In other news, I have a few more comics to recommend.

Kawaii Not juxtaposes cute little fruits, tuna cans, farts, etc., with silly or unexpected text. It is very amusing.

Wondermark juxtaposes Victorian clip art with digressive, erudite dialog. I enjoy its absurdity, which is a balm to my soul since Alien Loves Predator stopped being funny a while ago.

…are on order [again]. Maybe they’ll actually come this time, and I can hold them in my hands. I don’t really want to watch them right now. I just want to have them in case I want to watch them [particularly the eps where Spike is tied up in Giles’ basement or using the BuffyBot — hilarious].

A Jareth action fig, sculpted by NECA, debuts in March 2007. I saw the news here. Maybe this will compensate for the canceled Palisades 12″; I’ve heard that NECA sculpts are very detailed and realistic. I still wanted a 1:6 mass-produced Jareth, though. No pictures yet, but I’ll post ’em when I have ’em.

I found a great site for some free TV: http://www.dailymotion.com

Over there I’ve been watching many hours of two shows. One is House, which is, of course, about a brilliant asshole doctor, medical mysteries and his untermensch staff. This show really tries to be a medical show or some sort of procedural [like Law & Order in the hospital] or even a drama, but it really is a comedy at base. The stock plot — dramatic falling ill, weird symptoms, doubting co-workers, brilliant deductions by House, diagnoses + fascinating/revealing/icky revelations about the sufferers involved — are so fixed that I don’t notice them, although I do like to see what weird disease cocktail the writers think up next. Plot aside, the show basically consists of House proving what a genius he is and making fun of other people. Since he’s always completely vindicated, despite his momentary hang-ups, his triumphant conclusions are never in doubt, so I just go along for the ride, laughing mostly at the character’s ruthlessness and arrogance. Laurie’s long resume as a comic actor serves him well here, as his expressions add hilarious nuances to his condescending remarks. So basically House is an hour of a magnificent bastard making faces. Being a sucker for magnificent bastards, especially when they make faces, I really enjoy this show.

The other show that I’ve caught up on is Heroes. Like a comic book in TV form, it tracks the slowly interlocking story of a bunch of adolescents and post-adolescents who have superpowers. This show leaves me emotionally unegaged [except for the story involving the cheerleader, realistically and engaging played by Hayden Panetierre, and her evil dad] and the creators can’t really create strong female characters. However, I really enjoy the leisurely way in which the stories unfold, then slowly interlock. The show’s structure, suspense and clean use of comic tropes pulls me in. Although they could do without the pretentious beginning and ending narration.  

I also tried watching some Smallville season 6, but so far it’s a big fat turd without much soapiness to make for enjoyably slumworthy viewing. There’s also some Gilmore Girls up there, for those interested. AND LOTS OF SOUTH PARK!

Now I just have to find me some Supernatural [available on dailymotion.com, but in French dub] and, of course, BTVS! 

EDIT: You can find the latest eps of some primetime NBC shows on their Web site: http://www.nbc.com . Beware, though — there’s nothing beyond the latest ep, and each ep appears in 5 chunks of 8 minutes. I do have more success loading NBC shows than I do with ABC shows, though.

First off, my NaNo word count total is greater than 50474. It’s closer to 51272. Would you believe that I forgot to count a whole day’s production in my final tally? Anyhow, NaNo won’t let me update my word count, now that I’ve won, so I’m just making that note here.

Secondly, I gave my opus a cursory read-through (all 110, single-spaced, 12-point pages of it) this morning. So far the characters seem consistent, engaging and well differentiated, each with distinctive voices (very important when most of the story is just them talking). The overall setting (Boston area) comes through clearly, although I need to work on the setting of specific scenes. (I tend to get caught up in the dialog to the neglect of the setting.) The tone, for the most part, is consistent; though the story starts out light and comic, then moves toward a more thoughtful middle, Sarah’s melodramatic, sarcastic, slightly pedantic and wry voice remains the same throughout, which gives the tone some continuity. Despite its small focus on two or three people, it feels like a busy active novel, not overstuffed, but realistically populated with primary, secondary and tertiary players. (All that work on the backstories of bit players in Sarah’s life pays off, I guess!)

In summary, I’m proud of myself for having reached the NaNo goal. I’m also proud of myself for producing a substantive, compelling part of a story that I still like and want to write, even though I’ve been eating, breathing and sleeping it for the past three and a half weeks. In other words, NaNo helped me gain a lot of ground on a promising project, one that I think could actually go somewhere [maybe to a publishing house].

My final word count for the NaNo project is 50474. I’m very proud of me. I’m also very tired. We now return to our regularly scheduled lives, thank GAWD.

Those of you that have given me encouragement, especially damsel_ophelia, twigling, brennil, donals_girl and Rampant Bicycle, I salute your persistent compliments. Far more than any coffee (pictured in the miniature winner’s certificate), the accolades from you guys motivated me, giving me a great incentive to work as hard as I could on this project. Thank you very much! Also thank you to Jareth, Frank, Jennifer and my new computer.

Updates on Sarah, Milly and the hordes will continue because the story is only about half over. Updates, however, will appear on a much less INSANE schedule, spaced out over months, rather than days. For the next few days in November, I’m not writing any fiction at all because I’m freeeeeeeee. I will enjoy a vacation from my cacoethes scribendi until I need to cough up season 9 of Love Has Fangs. [Oh yeahhhhh…you remember that, doncha?]

NaNo counter says I’m at 48704, which means 1296 to go!

Official NaNo counter say 47396, which means 2604 words to go.

I’m at a momentous point in my story. I’ve just finished writing a first draft of the most emotionally charged scene [climax?] in which Sarah and Milly have some sexual action, then break off when Milly makes her not-so-disastrous revelation.

The sexual scene between Sarah and Milly works out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Sexually charged scenes are always difficult for me to write, which means that I often shear off before the characters get too close physically. However, sex scenes can also reveal a lot about the characters because they are in a moment of great intimacy, so sexual actions can be extremely effective tools for character development. That said, the trick is to write sex convincingly.

A 10-year-old article in the Associated Writing Programs Chronicle (May/Summer 1996), entitled “A Sex Scene is Not a Sex Manual and Other Basic Principles,” by Elizabeth Benedict, forms my guide for writing good sex scenes. This is her list of general principles, quoted verbatim.

According to the NaNo counter, I have 46475/50000, or 92.95%. I have only 3525 words left. At the rate I am going, that’s one day’s work if I push myself to the point of hemorrhaging, but three days’ work at the absolute maximum if I take it leisurely.

Finally, I’m in the midst of miserable Milly revealing her secret, which is not so miserable, to surprised Sarah. Sarah is puzzled; Milly is convinced that she’s loathsome. Both of them have a lot to learn. I am nowhere near done with this!

…that I’m currently on an even 45000. I wanted to get more than 1989 words written today by this point, but I had to stop for a few hours and do some research. Sarah was telling Milly one of her stories from her Latin-teaching days. Thus I had to research Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Vercingetorix’ rebellion and Celtic/Gallic mythology so I could create a halfway convincing tale for Sarah to tell.

Okay, back to the keyboard… With the research-laden portion of this scene done, I should move a bit more rapidly.

43011 by the NaNo counter!  That’s 86.02% complete.

I have just 6989 words left. I plan to write as much as possible this weekend in the hope of finishing early.

…says that I have 42900/50000, which is 85.8%. With only 7100 words left, I feel as if I am easily coasting down a hill, speeding faster and faster past significant numerical milestones. With each day, I approach closer to the end of the project. I also find it very easy to hit my minimum word count, even to supersede it.  I am motivated not only by exciting scenes that are fun and easy to write, but also by a gigantic desire to hit 50000 words and be done with this project FOREVER. I think the desire to get it out of my life [NaNo, not the novel] provides a stronger inducement than the actual story itself. :p

I’m gonna go write some more, at least making it a nice round 43000….

With 2777 total for today, I’m at 41815/50000, or 83.63%.

Sarah and Milly are talking about Milly’s “drag queen” doll. Sarah correctly perceives it as the most important doll in Milly’s collection, which disturbs Milly deeply.

I have done 2001 words so far today, for a total of 41039/50000, or 82.08%. Right now that leaves me 6 days of 1494 a day to hit the 50000 mark.

Right now Sarah and Milly are having a tea party as a prelude to the Monkey Wrench scene. Speaking as a doll collector, I must say that Milly’s apartment, with a range of dolls from all sizes, countries and purposes, is pretty damn cool. Since I really want to write this scene, it flows more easily from my fingers than scenes that I don’t want to write so much. I have overcome the T-giving lethargy, much to my relief.

I will try cranking out some more words later today so that I can get ahead. I wonder if I could even [gasp!] finish NaNo a day early or so.

Today’s word count is 1322, for a total of 39038/50000, or 78.07%. Tomorrow I write the Monkey Wrench scene.

I’m at 977 words total so far, which leaves me 313 for later in the day after I get back from T-giving festivities.

I wrote 246 words to go toward Thanksgiving’s totals.  I have 1290 left to go for tomorrow. Why is it such a chore?

I’ve been doing my word counting inconsistently. At first I put each day’s output in a separate file, then added the days’ totals up as I went along. But I have also been keeping one continuous document of every day’s output sequentially. Sometimes I have drawn from that for my word counting.

Most recently I’ve been adding a single day’s numbers to my running total, NOT using the continuous document. Just for the heck of it, I decided to paste everything I’ve written so far into the continuous document and check the word count of that.

I thought I had written 36296.

Open Office’s word counter says 38156.

Word’s word counter says 37719.

NaNo’s official word counter says 37716. Amusingly enough, the NaNo Web site says that the official word counter errs on the generous side.

Anyway, going with NaNo’s conservative estimate, I’ve written 1420 more words than I originally calculated. That brings me effortlessly to 37716/50000, or 75.4% complete.

Let me repeat that so that you can grasp the import of this. I’m over 3/4 of the way done [with the NaNo word count — not addressing the entire novel here]! I’m also ahead of schedule because I have 8 writing days (11/23, 11/24, 11/25, 11/26, 11/27, 11/28, 11/29, 11/30) left, or over 1/4 of the time.

I’m not going to write any more tonight because I really don’t have any motivation. I had to force myself to do job-related work and NaNo-related work today. I have lost much of my concentration due to the excitement and interruption of a day off which is kind of in the middle of the week. I will therefore rest my brain until tomorrow, when I may have more energy to tackle challenging and climactic scenes.

Have a happy T-giving, if you celebrate it.

At 593 words for today already (it being a slow day at work), I have currently hit 35321, or 70.64%! 14679 words to do, at 1631 per day [including today] until the end. I must write as much as I can today before Thanksgiving tomorrow.

EDIT, 1:03 PM: So today’s goal is 593 + 1631 = 2224. I’m at 1479 now, which means just 745 more to go. Sarah and Jasmira, finally reconciling after their fight, have returned to their usual snarky banter. On Jasmira’s end, the conflict with her boyfriend Devon deepens. Though Sarah and Jasmira are getting along, soon all hell will break loose in Sarah’s life with the dreaded Monkey Wrench Scene! Why yes, I do enjoy making my characters suffer.

Special thanks to damsel_ophelia, donals_girl and LoreMistress for frequent cheerleading as I draw nearer to my goal. A simple comment adds a lot to my motivation.

EDIT, 2:56 PM: I’m at 1935 now. I need to post these updates because I am really not very motivated right now. My goal is to write at least 289 more words today and then even more so I can maybe take a day off for Thanksgiving.

I’m not sure how much time I’ll have this evening, so I’m posting latest stats. I’ve done 1906 today, which brings me up to 34361/50000, or 68.72%. I’m so close to 35,000 (639 words) that I can taste it, but I hit a natural scene break. If I do have more time today, I will definitely hit 35,000, which will leave me with 15,000 left, at an utterly manageable 1,667 words per day till the end of the month.

EDIT, 6:17 PM: 2273!!! 272 to go to 35000! …I ended up leaving 2273 as my total for the day. That means a current word total of 34728, or 69.46%.

My l33t skillz brought me 2262 words today! My total is currently 32455/50000, or 64.91%. The jury is out about whether I will reach the NaNo goal. A lot depends on my word production during Turkey Day festivities. But I feel satisfied with my progress and, most of all, with the amount of work that I have gotten done on Sarah’s novel, word limit or no.

The story feels like it’s around halfway done, maybe a little less. I have 1.5, maybe 2, more scenes before I get to the CLIMAX…or the Monkey Wrench in Sarah’s Happiness. So I’m moving along at a steady clip. I think my word counts are going up because I really look forward to writing the Monkey Wrench scene.

537 words during lunch.

2166 so far today, for 30193/50000, or 60.39%! Sarah and Milly’s first date, partly in summary, partly not, took much longer than I anticipated. They are now done and firmly within infatuation, if they weren’t before.

I may make it to 50000 after all! I’ve been increasingly hopeful as my word counts have increased, but I’m still not sure. Anyway, I have made substantive progress on my story, and I think I’ll write a bit more, since I have the time, just to see how far I can go.

Goal: 1000 more words! I can do it!

EDIT, 8:30 PM: VICTORY DANCE!! I did a total of 3252 today, or 31279/50000, for a final percentage of 62.56%!!

Today I did 1843, for a total of 28027/50000, or 56.05%.

1778 today, for a total of 26184/50000, or 53.63%.

Sarah’s talking to her sister again. Sometimes I think that the themes of sexual orientation, job frustration and romantic prospects are outweighed by the introversion vs. extroversion theme so neatly illustrated by Sarah and Jasmira.

649 during lunch today. Time for some plot-propelling summary so that the story just ain’t conversation after conversation.

And I did treat myself to something nice last night…I went to bed. :p

1776 words today, for a total of 25036/50000, or 50.07%!! I accomplished today’s goal and also finished the scene that really gets Sarah and Milly’s friendship rolling…. I’ve been very busy today, and now it is time for bed because I must have enough sleep to accomplish this weekend’s grandiose writing plans.

594 during lunch today. The conversation between Sarah and Milly picks up its humorous bent, which makes writing easier.

EDIT: Today’s goal is to make it to at least 25000 words, or 50%!

I did 1661 today, for a total of 23260/50000, or 46.52%!

Today the NaNo project concludes its 15th day, so I have officially passed the halfway mark in terms of time. I should pass the halfway mark (25000 words) later this week.

I finally got a thread for Sarah and Milly’s second conversation. Milly’s taking it into some unexpected and surprisingly personal depths…not gushy and overinformative, because she’s a refined lady, but definitely heartfelt.

I did 1318 today, for a total of 21599/50000, or 43.2%.

I also ran into my first block [still no idea for Sarah and Milly’s second conversation or first date], so I felt rather resentful to the story for the first time. My block frustrates me because I need some planning time, but I only have enough time to write, not plan. While I have the questions lurking in the back of my mind, their lack of answer pisses me off because I need answers now. Then I skipped out of the chronological order to start a scene where Sarah asks her boss for more work.

Exactly two weeks into NaNoWriMo, I feel accomplished, but also tired. I can’t wait until the project ends, and I can go back to doing other things besides writing.

I did 1218 yesterday and 1221 today, but my word counter is all messed up, so I should be at 20281/50000, or 40.56%. While daily word limits do give me finite goals, I don’t work best with such arbitrary limits. I work better when I follow the flow and breaks of the story, e.g., stopping to rest at the end of scenes, chapters or climactic points, rather than when I reach a certain word limit. Anyway, I’m not really keen on word limits, so, when this project is over, I will probably retain a low minimum [~500 words a day, you lazy bastard!], but not maximums.

I’m at 20000+ words, but I’m nowhere near 40% done with the story. In fact, when I look at my outline, I’m just about 20%, maybe 25%, of the way through. Either my story is a big one, or 50000 is a small novel.

Sarah is gearing up to talk to Milly for the second time in prep for a third and juicier conversation. I’m trying to figure out what they are going to say to each other….

I did 1513 words today, for 17842/50000, which is 35.68%.

Sarah is talking to two of her friends who live in the same building, so we have an expose on her squalid garrett and her eccentric friends. Everyone in the story is eccentric, which, interestingly enough, makes it more realistic.

Good thing I wrote a lot during lunch because I’m busy tonight so I will not have time to write. I accomplished 1262 words today, which brings me to a total of 16329/50000, which is 32.6%.

Sarah is walking home, which means engrossing and depressing description of her small, expensive apartment and apartment building. Conversation with her non-Milly friend and the non-Milly friend’s boyfriend later about, of course, Milly. Everyone except Sarah appears to be paired off in this story [well, except her boss, but he’s too obnoxious to rate a significant other]. Sarah should find this nauseating…

I did 1003 words during lunch, which is great because I’m bizzy this evening.

Only 1245 words today. That’s 15067/50000 total, or 30.13%. I would like to spend more time writing tonight because Sarah is talking to a secondary character who, unexpectedly, developed a personality and a plot-futhering purpose, but I have two overdue book reviews, so I will work on them now and maybe do more intensive writing this weekend [hahahah!].

I must investigate this more thoroughly when I have time. Apparently there’s software out there that will take much of the layout, wailing and gnashing of teeth out of constructing LHF every week.

Comic Book Creator. For PCs. 

Comic Life. For Macs.

1331 words total today!

That’s 13822/50000 done, or 27.64%. I’m consistently beating my 1200 goal!

I’m still working on the scene at Sarah’s work where she basically mopes. It did contain just a lot of dumped information about the company, but I added a narrative hook in the beginning where she argues with her boss about the menial and tedious job she’s doing. I think her boss is overdone in his flamboyant annoyingness. However, it’s just a rough draft and therefore a chance for me to express my own frustration with any past bosses, so there. :p

Yay, 423 words during lunch today! 777 more to go for my daily goal.

Now that I’m getting into the meat of Sarah’s job, I find that I need a basic Latin textbook. In her job, she is doing light edits on a first-level Latin text, and I need one for guidance…also because most of my Latin has evacuated my head. 🙁

1395 words total today!

I have a total of 12491/50000 done, or 24.98%.

My new goal seems to be working well. “How about upping the stakes?” as Jareth would say. I’ll try 1200 as a goal for a while longer, through Friday. Then I think I’ll increase the daily goal to 1450 or so.

I’m just coasting right now on material largely developed before NaNoWriMo starting: description of Sarah’s workplace and coworkers. Since she spends a lot of time there, I need some sketches of more than just the queer coworkers. Plus she’s brooding, which is a good excuse for her to wander around and procrastinate…

528 words!

I have decided that my new daily goal is 1200 words, so I’m 672 shy of the day’s goal.

And now back to the other work…

I took a leisurely amount of time yesterday to read everything I had written so far. Despite earlier misgivings, I discovered that Sarah did NOT come across as critical and negative as assumed. While whiny, melodramatic and pessimistic, she balances these traits with a very dry sense of humor, keen pyschological observations and an appreciation for beautiful details.

I also worried about the style of this story. Unlike everything else I’ve ever written, this story digresses. As narrator, Sarah is constantly telling stories aside from the main one. Her digressions may be just a sentence long, but they usually run for paragraphs or even pages. I feared that her speechifying would kill the forward momentum of the plot.

Not so. In fact, Sarah’s stories seem to work to positive effect. Because she interprets even the simplest lines of dialog, you get a clear idea of how her mind works, what she desires and what her social world is like, though she is interacting with only a few characters. All of her stories contribute to the development of the cast and the situation so, in my view at least, they make her more sympathetic and more interesting.

1331 so far today for a total of 11906/50000 = 23.8% done. Thanks for the input, Loremistress of Rampant Bicycle. I too think that a smaller quota would be better for me, my characters and my family. 😀

I’m at 9765 words, which is 19.5% done. It’s also 150 ahead of schedule.

I’m very ambivalent about the project right now. Almost 2000 words a day takes up almost all of my time. Writing becomes a chore that I resent, rather than an exhilarating project that challenges me. Well, meeting exigent word limits challenges me, but my excitement and creativity suffer greatly.

I am seriously considering dropping my word limit to something more attainable, but still challenging, like 1200 words or so, for the month of November. I clearly won’t hit 50000 words, but I will participate in the mind-altering fun of NaNo, but without self-flagellation.

Any opinions?