So sometimes people’s writings make it seem as if being somewhat considered selfless, heroic, or any traditional virtue is alien to them. It seems mildly strange as most people will assist you if you need minor help without much thought so one would assume in writing a ‘good’ character you would tap into that part of you. The part of you who hold the door open for people without think much about it or helps someone carry a heavy load while cursing your upbringing and apply it to larger scale situations. Brought about by minor annoyance at how when a character becomes ‘good’ they seem to stagnate which is odd.

It’s tough when you prefer the villains more than the heroes not because of their coolness since villains should be cooler but because the actaully have development outside of whinning about the unfairness of it all.

Bring in minor thought that if Cecil is King now would the Red Wings be the Paladins or something like that.

In the trend of good news as opposed to "good news, everyone" I came into posession of a Brinkmann barbecue smoker for free from the man himself, Jason Perlow of the excellent food and tech blog Off the Broiler. Seasoned and modified for optimum airflow, I can't wait to start smoking stuff.

This weekend I try my hand at pulled pork... here's hoping.

Triangles is doing a lot better; she's as close to her normal kitty self as that big ol' stitched scar will allow.

I cannot wait to go to sleep tonight. I'm on so much caffeine I feel like I'm in college.

Speaking of college, is anyone else planning to go to the homecoming this year?

This morning I was on the bus heading out to campus to meet j00c3 for lunch and also apply for graduation, and I saw an older gentleman who I sat somewhat close to. I thought little of him, til a few stops later, another gentleman stepped onto the bus. I was shocked because the second man looked so much like the first that I had to check to make sure the first was still there! The two men looked at eachother briefly, then the newcomer sat down and never looked at the other gentleman again.

I've decided that should I ever write a horror story, it will start like this:

"I stepped onto the bus this morning for my daily commute and as I scanned the seats, looking for an empty spot to sit in, I saw a woman who looked just like me. It was as if I had found a mirror, for everything about her, from the tip of the slightly upturned nose I've learned to hate to the way she pulled her hair back was identical, or at least so nearly so that even I was fooled. So I sat down next to her."

I am (finally) graduating from college in December.

I will have a BA in Japanese/Linguistics, a minor in Korean, and an East Asian Studies Certificate.

...no wonder it took so long. Heh.

Srry for the false alarm, but I thought cosplaying as a six-foot-five emaciated mutilated bald gas-mask man would be a bit too ambitious considering this is my first cosplay.

So I picked some of the suggestions I think would be okay for a beginner cosplayer.

(Note - Sweet Snake and Lolicon are ommited from the polls because despite their awesomeness I am not going around London Expo wearing no trousers. Ever.)

Poll #1244593
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Pick:

For Rose I have pretty much the right hair - it's a little too wavy but nothing a pair of straighteners can't fix. I have a similar facial structure to her, too, so it might actually work. I also own her jewelery. If I did Rose I'd need to buy her clothes, including shoes.

For E.E., I own a pair of t-shirts which I can cannibalise. I would need to buy her shorts and shoes - since she has rather unusual shoes I'm not looking forward to that one. I own a pair of sunglasses with no lenses. My hair is a bit long and I don't have a fringe, so I'd have to do some serious wrangling to make my hair look like that (I can fold it to get a rough impression of the right kind of fringe and ball up the topknot at the bottom, but it wouldn't be perfect). I don't have the shorts, and my legs are covered in stretch marks from the incident in April which haven't faded yet.

The obvious problem with Para-Medic is that I have entirely the wrong hair and I'm not willing to cut and dye it just for a cosplay, so I would need to buy a wig, and I have no idea how to, what to look for, etcetera. I own her skirt, stockings and shoes, but not her shirt or cape. The good thing about her costume is that I'd actually have to make a lot of it rather than buy the bits and cobble them together, but I am not looking forward to getting that wig.

I think I'm going to go with Rose. Thanks.

Mmmm, wow. Okay.

Didn't turn on the AC until an hour before I intended to retire for the night? OK, room was waaaay too hot to sleep.

Woke up at 5:30 AM to go to the bathroom and didn't get back to sleep? Woohoo.

Figured I'd go to work early to get extra hours to make up for summer Fridays, only managed to get in 45 minutes early, shoulda taken the earlier bus.

Only other person in the office right now is the guy over the cube wall who loves his oonts music (as in oonts, oonts, oonts bass).

O...

O...

OUENDAAAAAAAN

Edit: okay, now he's whistling a lot.


AGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENTS

mesmerise and xennai's recent efforts to get us caught up on banners have motivated your mod to get off her lazy ass and help out a bit too. XD And if you haven't seen their banners yet, you should definitely go take a look because they are all absolutely amazing. ♥

( For mesmerise, snm_queen, deria_hime, & so_vayne )

We are still looking for one or two more dedicated bannermakers! If you're interested in grabbing a position, feel free to apply over here!

LOL Okay so maybe not morning... XD
The other week I owe will come tomorrow. I'm pooped. XD

( For paopuremix, fantasia 0829, and deria_hime )

ahhhh, gymnastics, I love you. ♥ Although I am really stompy about Nastia getting silver in the bars; I think she deserved the gold. Also am still convinced that no matter what documentation the PRC gave to the IOC, half or more of the Chinese women's team is very underage.

In non-Olympic news, I know I'm behind on my Out of Comfort Zone Meme fics. I'm working on them, but games ate my brain lately. I finished up Puzzle Quest on XBOX Live Arcade today, crossing another thing off my Backloggery list. I am now deciding if I'm going to start Blue Dragon, or just let the 360 wait until I get Infinite Undiscovery in a couple of weeks; I suspect the latter. I'll probably go back to Persona 3 and try to level up enough to beat that really stupid boss.

I've also been progressing like crazy in FF Tactics Advance; I'm almost halfway through the overall mission count (144), and I'm really happy about that.

The women's pole-vaulting gold medalist is way hot, by the way.

Also, exciting news! The NFL opening game is on my birthday - and it's my team! I am excited! Witness my exclamation points!

ohmygod, first_seventhe is here on Friday. I am so excited I can't even say. If only I can get unpacked in time!

Send any and all news or story recommendations to ff.press@gmail.com or leave them in the comments of the most recent issue. Before sharing any links to fanwork, please make sure you have read our listing policies carefully; all fanwork must meet these policies to be listed. For older links, please check the archive.

News
phoenixmonthly: Issue #1 has been published!

Activities
adventawards: "Free for All" - icon challenge
ff_eye_candy: "Star-crossed lovers" - icon challenge
ff_fanlisting: Monday Updates - come add your links!
ff12_awards: "Rotation" - icon challenge
quitethecouple: Prompts

Recommendations
obabscribbler: One FFVII fic rec

Fanfiction

Final Fantasy VII Compilation
Advent Children
obabscribbler: Poetry of the Air (Zack/Cloud/Aerith) (PG)

Final Fantasy XII Compilation
Original Game
wei_jiangling: Those we Know and Those we Don't (5) (Basch) (PG)

Searches and Offers
guiltyred: Fundraiser: Custom fanfic / beta services offered (FFVII, others)

Miscellaneous
messageinbottle: FFVII Compilation fanmix

Poll #1244022 Thinking
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Should I (female, white, shoulderblade-length dark brown hair, pale blue eyes, 164cm, 49kg, 33-26-38) cosplay Psycho Mantis at London Expo?

Suggest someone I could cosplay as instead, just so I have a big decision-pool:

FINAL FANTASY VI UPDATE

- I haven't played since May...I think o.O so it took me about a day to remember what everyone does.
- Sabin is like LEVEL 50 WITH 6000 HP while the rest of my characters are like level 40. There is NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS AT ALL.
- Any scene with Cyan and his family still makes me sob like a little kid.
- have Gogo, will travel
- Locke and Terra and Mog still missing. Will go get Locke and Terra soon. Not sure about Mog because I never ever use him. Kupo or something. Basically I need to go find Locke because I need the Ultima spell and thus I cannot get it without finding him. I'm so sick of finding people.
- I want Gilgamesh but I do not have 500,000 gil.
- FREAKING DEATHGAZE CANNOT FIND HIM EITHER ARGH

Hum. Right now I am under Figaro Castle. FOR THOSE IN THE KNOW: is it worth it to get Raiden, or do you recommend just getting Odin and getting out?? I kind of would like to learn Meteor now.

#1 - phoenixmonthly's first issue is here! Issue #1 - read it, print it, love it! Everybody did an excellent job on this, and I'm pretty stoked about it. It will only get better!

#2 - People who talk to you in restaurants are weird. This is why I'm going to hell -- a little old lady leans over and wants to talk about my sandwich and her pie, and a small part of me just wants to say "Excuse me, but we're eating lunch here, ma'am."

#3 - FFDQ CONVENTION / COSPLAY EDITION!

Without any further ado, here is Issue #1!!

This issue, like all the following issues is in PDF format. If you do not have a reader we recommend that you try Adobe Reader, PDF Escape Reader, or try Foxit Software's reader.


Thank you for reading!

I AM SIGNED UP FULL-TIME IN COLLEGE AGAIN!!!!!
SOMEONE JUMP FOR JOY WITH ME!!!!!
(MAKE SURE YOU WRITE IN ALL-CAPS IF YOU DO, CAUSE IT'S THAT KIND OF NEWS!!!!)

ALL MY LOVE,
VESTER
P.S. I'm back into RPing online, and it's even funner than I remember. D:

P.P.S. Has someone ever worked as a child care provider in a day-care-like setting? If so, how was your experience? I'm thinking of working part time. :D

So I've been wanting to do this for a while and kept putting it off -

REVERSE FRIENDS CUT

Hey, flist! Did you friend me thinking I was ten years older and about to put out and then discovered the truth? Did you friend me based on our shared FF7 interest the day before I played that game with the guy with the bandanna in it and was lost to you forever? Did you friend me on a whim and now have no idea who the hell I am? Are you convinced I'm a homicidal AI?

Or did we simply not click? Do you scroll past my posts enough times because the shared fandom's there but the chemistry just ain't?

NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO ESCAPE.

Leave me a goodbye note or just defriend me and run for the hills, and we can go our separate ways, no hard feelings.



EDIT: Topless Meryl in the comments. Hardly anything I'd be embarrassed about my parents looking at since she's all PS2 polygons, but if you have an especially conservative boss you may want to not look until you get home from work.

EDIT 2 - SONS OF LIBERTY: I find it hilarious that this post derailed from discussing the RFC to discussing Meryl's breasts. Since it's a singularly more interesting topic I'm not complaining. Proceed.

How would you hang up a Codec call angrily?

The best I can come up with is snatching your hand away from your ear and balling it into a fist.

Nnnnnnrgh.

Guh.