So Here's A Rant, Now That My Journal's Fixed...

[redbrunja]

So I’ve been trolling around livejournal in a brand-new fandom....



Seriously, I've heard so much bashing about fanfiction.net and how everything there is badly-written junk by teenie-boppers, but you know what? Livejournal is not that much better. Quite frankly, it looks like I’ve gotten spoiled by Supernatural- when I started to read lj’s about that tv show, it seemed like articulate, vibrant lj-ers dropped into my lap. I've been looking around trying to find some good Fullmetal Alchemist journals, and it's hard work. I keep clicking links around and running into sites where people don't say anything and just gibber on and on and on, or are completly off the wall. For example, I checked out this Ed hater's site, and I'm thinking, "I'll fit in there. I mean, I really feel there's legitimate criticism of Ed" and it's all, "My cat is better than Ed" and I query "How does that follow? Your cat's a cat, not an anime character who needs to learn how to see Winry as a person."

And what is with all the Friends-Only journals? What is the reason for locking your journals like that? I know some people do to make sure their boss or whoever isn't reading their lj, but at this point it feels like a popularity contest. I thought the point of livejournal was to reach out to other people who share the same interests, not make it impossible for people to read your journal unless you deign to let them past the velvet ropes.

So, now that I’ve got the bitchy out of my system, anyone writing good FMA fanfic? Or any good wallpaper sites?

Comments

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

"Some people just want a place where they can share their thoughts with just people they know and trust in real life."

Yeah, that makes sense, but it still drives me batty when I come across someone with great icons and I can't even ask her where she got them or if they're sharable because she won't let non-friends reply, and on her "will be friended at my discretion" post, she doesn't have a place to reply! (As you can tell, a nerve got hit. Just a small one. But I'm letting it go now. I'm letting it go...)

I'll be sure to check out the lj's you suggested. Right now, I'm all about Roy/Riza, so I'd love some good fic about them (gen or romantic). Even though she's seen once, I have a soft spot for Psiren, the thief, as well as Maria Ross. I'd love some either Al/Winry fic, or Ed-Grows-Up-And-Realizes-That-Winry-Is-Actually-A-Person fic. But really, I'm willing to read just about anything that's well-written and not slash. (I don't have anything against slash per say, but in most shows I just don't seen it, and the author doesn't take the time to show me how she sees it, so I'm left going WTF?)

It'll probably be a little while until I start really reading FMA fic, just because I haven't finished the series yet and don't want to be spoiled. So this is preemptive fic-finding so I don’t get to episode 51 and then go into severe FMA withdrawal.

I don't know if you're interested in wallpapers, but http://www.fullmetal-alchemist.com/ has some nice ones in their gallery.

Also, who's your favorite character? (I have my suspicions and want to know if I've guessed right.)

[mzminola.livejournal.com]

Friends-locking original-fic is to keep ahold of "first publishing" rights or something. Friends-locking fanfiction, however, is, as you said, stupid.
If they have icons and don't say not to take them, it's usually safe to yoink. Maybe say where you got the icons. I know on my icons page, I say where I got icons from. If I don't say, then I made it. I personally don't care if people credit me or not, as long as they don't say they made the icon in question. Hope that was semi-comprehensible.
I myself don't tend to read much fanfic, sorry, but as for seeing slash onscreen...any interaction that could be seen as flirting/ lusting/ crushing/ hitting-on etc will be, no matter the sex of the characters. There's about as much on-screen tension between Riza and Roy as, say, Hughes and Roy. In Harry Potter (also for example) it's as "obvious" that Hermione has a crush on Ron as Ron has a cruch on Harry.
Brother and I just finished the most-recently-released disc. And since we don't trust fan-burned copies, we're waiting for the next one to come out...if you're looking for another anime to watch in the meantime, along with reading fanfiction then I recomend Saiyuki.
Sorry for hijacking this comment thread

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

See, I wouldn’t feel comfortable just taking icons without asking. If I made icons, and I came across someone just using them with asking, I’d feel a bit annoyed, so I’m always really sure I take icons from people’s icons-posts, where it’s clear they made the icons to share and I’m sure to credit. The fact that the person who probably made the icons that I *really really really want* doesn’t even want people to *comment* makes me thinks she isn’t amenable to having her icons snagged. Which, makes me sad, but what can ya do?

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

(I have a really long comment, so I'm going to have to post it in bits. Sorry.) “Seeing the slash” is really what differentiates the slasher from the non-slasher and I’m beginning to think it can’t be taught. (And before we start this dance, I just want to say that I’m not trying to convince you, I’m just stating my position.) The thing is, you’re right there is about as much on-screen tension between Riza and Roy as Hughes and Roy, EXCEPT that it’s already canon that Hughes likes girls. He has a wife he loves and a daughter he adores beyond reason, so an author would have to work really hard and show me a gradual progress for me to even ENTERTAIN the idea that Hughes was into Mustang.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

The same thing with Ron and Harry; we have canon from Harry’s perspective that he likes girls, (Cho Chang, Fleur, Ginny) and none of his ‘missing Ron’ when he and Ron had a fight couldn’t be explained by missing his best friend.

So my issue with slash is that usually the relationship as presented justifies the emotional reactions, so I just don’t see the slash. But if the show itself gives me just that bit more, I’m there, i.e. Jack kissing the Doctor in Doctor Who, or the two main characters in Fried Green Tomatoes (in the movie it was never overtly stated that they were lovers, even though they were in the book they were).

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Also, just to show you how inconsistent I am, I’m much more willing to read and enjoy femmeslash. I don’t know if that’s because it’s much more socially acceptable to have lesbian subtext than male-male subtext, (i.e. Faith & Buffy, which the created described their relationship as Bring-Your-Own-Subtext) or if I just find it easier to believe that woman are more likely to swing both ways that a man. *Shrug at my own gender biases*.

Never apologize for going off on tangents or leaving really long comments on my lj. As you can see, I’ll just respond in kind (which I love to do).

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that studies have shown that women are more likely to swing both ways than men. This may because women are just more inclined to bisexuality, or it could be a product of men being a lot less comfortable with homosexuality/bisexuality. Just an interesting tidbit.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

That really doesn't surprise me at all– and I wonder if part of the reason that woman are more comfortable swinging both ways is that it is seen as attractive i.e. men have always loved the idea of watching two woman with each other, so if a woman is bisexual, she (I'm not quite sure how to put this but) "gains points"? Increases her attractiveness to men while getting to broaden the field with women? There isn't that same sense of cachet with a man saying "oh, yeah, I fooled around with another guy in college." Which ties back into the whole "men being comfortable with homosexuality thing." Gender and sexual politics are so interesting! (And I really wish I had my "Saving Face" icon uploaded.)

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

The study I read about -- and god, I wish I had the link! but it's been ages so I don't anymore -- tested men and women by having them look at erotic images of men and women. The results were interesting in that (if I remember correctly) all of the women were aroused by all erotic images, regardless of sexual orientation, while all of the men were attracted only to images depicting their gender of prefences... interestingly, none of the men were attracted to both genders.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Proof girls really do have more fun!

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

HAH. I found the article.

I forgot a couple things -- the study *didn't* test women, but does mention some other tests about women at the end that pretty much make the point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05sex.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=5a82f18cadf2ad83&ex=1278216000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Researchers have little sense yet of how these differences may affect behavior, or sexual identity. In the mid-1990's, Dr. Diamond recruited a group of 90 women at gay pride parades, academic conferences on gender issues and other venues. About half of the women called themselves lesbians, a third identified as bisexual and the rest claimed no sexual orientation. In follow-up interviews over the last 10 years, Dr. Diamond has found that most of these women have had relationships both with men and women.

"Most of them seem to lean one way or the other, but that doesn't preclude them from having a relationship with the nonpreferred sex," she said. "You may be mostly interested in women but, hey, the guy who delivers the pizza is really hot, and what are you going to do?"

I really appreciated this article when I read it because I very much identify as a lesbian, but occasionally I find a man attractive (mostly Jensen Ackles... *cough*). That really threw me off at first because I vastly, vastly prefer women, but when I suddenly found myself really attracted to this guy, I got very confused about the whole thing, but apparently it's normal.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

That's very very interesting. And honey, EVERYBODY finds Jensen Ackles attractive. I'm sure there are rocks that are going "I'm a rock, so I'm all about the compression and plate tectonics..... but *damn* that boy is fine."

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

That is so very, very true.

And really, he's just pretty enough for him to appeal to me, but he's not so pretty that it makes him non-masculine, because he is a beautiful, beautiful specimen of a man. He's very pretty and very manly. It's a really deadly attractive combination.

My friend and I once stayed up until 5AM talking about how we wanted to sleep with Dean -- which was funny as hell, because we're both queer and like girls.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I would have loved to be there for that conversation! He is pretty, but in a very manly, interesting way- and I'm just a sucker for the kind of characters that he portrays, so I'm sure that plays into it. All hail the Jensen love!

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

Without going into an uncomfortable amount of detail, we came up with some really interesting scenarios. I'm definitely more attracted to his characters than to him though -- after all, I don't know Jensen. Dean, on the other hand, I know very well, and they have the same pretty, manly, disgustingly beautiful face.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'm not attracted to Jensen per say, but I feel lusting after an actual person, who has a life and doesn't know me from Eve, has this slight stalkerish vibe. Lusting after a fictional character, however, is completely normal, and, as you mentioned, we know the fictional character better than the actor. It's like when you find out that the person who plays a rugged bachelor character has a wife he adores and three kids and lives in the suburbs. I just don't want to know that. (Which is why I never read magazines that are about actors lives. Interviews, yes, but not "He broke up with whoever! Extra, extra, read all about it!")

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

I only read the trashy celebrity gossip mags when I'm waiting for an appointment, and then never about the actors that I actually like, mostly because -- man, I just don't care. And it infringes on my fantasies about their characters. Interviews are different because they get to choose their own words and it's not from a friend of a friend of a friend. It's not infringing on their privacy, either, because it's information they have chosen to divulge. I just thank god I'm not one of those girls who freaks out whenever Jensen gets a girlfriend -- again, I don't really care. I think it's great, hope he's happy, blah blah blah, where's Dean so that I can lust after him, please and thank you. ;)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

While I school, I was able to *hem, hem* acquire through the school’s downloading program all 51 episodes of FMA. They’re good quality, with nice subtitles, so if you wanted, when I catch up to you (what episode are you at, anyway?) we could get together and watch some.

I don’t think I’ve heard of Saiyuki. What’s it about?

[mzminola.livejournal.com]

Don't know the episode number...thanks, we'll have to see about that. Are you going to be swinging by Writer's Group once summer starts?

Saiyuki is a (very loose) retelling of the Journey to the West but none of the characters are actually animals (except Hakaru, the small dragon who can turn into a Jeep)
According to Wikipedia, Saiyuki is
Gensomaden Saiyuki deals with the fortunes of four fighters - the monk Genjyo Sanzo, the monkey deity Son Goku, the half-demon Sha Gojyo and the demon Cho Hakkai, who have been dispatched by the Sanbutsushin (The Three Aspects of the Buddha) to India to investigate the reasons behind the recent insanity among the demons. Demons, who have formerly coexisted peacefully with humans in Shangri-La, are going berserk and turning against them.
I don't want to give too much away, but I will add that Goku isn't really a "diety" quite, and everyone is more awesome than the blurbs amke them sound.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. Yes, I'm going to be at Writer's Group this Friday- I'm really looking forward to it. Is it at 4:00 or 4:30?

[mzminola.livejournal.com]

4:00, and we've got a new librarian.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I'll be there.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Really? Envy? That would not have been my first guess, but I can see that considering your preferences. ;-) I actually would have thought of Ed (that isn't an insult) because I thought his Napoleon syndrome and massive amounts of power and attitude would have appealed to you. I just don't know you as well as I should! *Sob*. I admit, I really enjoy Ed when he thinks someone’s called him small, or when he’s evading doing what Mustang has ordered him to do. (I love the scene where he’s getting off in the Water City, and Al is all “I feel like we’re being truants!” and I’m like, “that’s because that’s exactly what you’re doing!”)

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

I've found a lot of great fic on FF.net -- some crap, too, but that's the same everywhere.

As for the whole flocking thing -- I'd rather not flock my journal, but when my mother started bitching at me for things she couldn't possibly know about without reading my LJ ("Why were you spending 6 hours on the phone with your sister?! You should have been studying!! No wonder you failed your exams!"), I had to lock it up.... annoying, but what else can I do?

Unfortunately, I can't help you out with FMA fic because ... I've never even heard of it, but... anyway... It's 1:30 AM and I'm avoiding sleep.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realize there's some really good reasons to f-lock a journal, and frankly, your reasons are the best I've heard so far. At the point I wrote this, I had been trying to find other journals with an interests in FMA and I seriously clinked on eight different journals in a row that were all f-locked, and instantaneously, I was back in high school getting shut out by the popular kids. *Giggle* I have the feeling that their lj's wouldn't have been that interesting in the first place.

I too, have found some great stuff on FF.net, but you do have to wade through the dross, I have gotten so, so spoiled by Supernatural. It's like every journal that talks about the Winchesters I read either writes great fic or recs great fic, so I'm like, "I have a new fandom and now I actually have to search for stuff?!?! On my own?"

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

I totally understand it when a person has some kind of a job -- I know a few people have lost / been at risk for losing their jobs because they made not-good comments on their public blogs, but I work in a clothing store, so I'm not really all that worried about it. If only it weren't for my mother!

There's something about Dean and Sam that attracts good fic -- I don't know what it is. I've only read one dud. It was well written but had a rather unforgiveable case of Mary-Sueism that I just couldn't overlook. I've been fortunate that most of my fandoms seem to attract decent fic -- except maybe Pirates of the Carribbean. There's a lot of rather scary self-insertion fics -- including some written in second person, which is just so wrong it isn't even funny. Something about porn and choose your own adventure books just doesn't work for me. *shudder*

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it has to be a really, really good writer to get me to read second person, even without the self-insertion and the porn.

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

I did second person stories when I was in, you know, grade two, in those "choose your own ending" horror books. I always ended up dead. Go figure.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Same here. It's because of the lack of shotguns. Was it ever: You are investigating a mysterious house. You bring a cell phone (pg 32) bring nothing (pg 16) load up on rock salt and get ready to flambé the bastard (pg 101).

[wishforhome.livejournal.com]

Never. I totally would have picked option #3!

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

Hiya ^_^; I wandered over here and was scrolling through your LJ, hope you don't mind a comment on an old post.

The FO journal bit stood out to me. It's not always a popularity contest. Used to be, my journal was not only public, but open to even anon commenters once upon a time. Anon trolls ruined that. Then I had to switch off allowing registered uses to comment (unless they were friended by me) after some wannabe-Something Awful goons decided it would be fun to harrass me, make fake journals and pretend to be me, and leave threatening comments in my LJ like "I hope someone cuts your head off." O______o;; Considering I tracked the IP of that comment to a city 3 hours from me, yah.

Then after they seemed to have forgotten about me, I went back to registered-commenting. Still mostly public. Then I realized some ex-friends who did everything in their power to stab me in the back AND twist the knife were still reading my LJ some...what? 3 years later, I think it was by then, and throwing hissyfits over a vague comment I made in a post and flooding my LJ and I get creeped out by them again 'cause they wanted me gone in the first place and they're following my journal and then go look for me in other places to comment to me when I ban them from my LJ. At that point I just went "fuckit, I give. I'm FO now." XD;;

Not everyone goes FO to play a popularity game. Some of us just got so sick and tired and fed up of being harrassed for shit reasons.

And once again - thank you for kickstarting my fluffbunny back into play. ♥ ^_^

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Feel free to comment on old posts. It reminds me of what I've written ;-)

Yes, since I wrote this I've had more than one person tell me horror stories of what lead them to make their journals friends only, and it's.... really appalling. In your situation I probably would have started friends-locking long before you did. It's really too bad about the ugly side of lj and fandom- I've yet to come across it myself and from the things people have told me, I can only be grateful.

My rant was spawned by running into roughly six journals in a row that were all friends-locked, and just the way they did it (and I'm totally making a snap judgment, here) gave me the feeling that it they simply wanted to have a closed circuit with just them and their friends, which frustrated me, because part of the reason I love lj is getting to interact with people I would never meet in real life through shared interests. But that isn't what all people come to lj for, so.... I guess the moral is never add logic to your rants, it really spoils the rhythm.

No, thank YOU for letting your fluffybunny back into the game. I can't tell you how nice it will be to have some fluffy Roy/Riza stories in my memories.

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I fully understand. (I also recognized me in another comment which prompted me to explain - I was in an aggressive "you wanted me gone? fine, I've BEEN gone, now just leave me alone already, christ!" mood when I went FO, and I also didn't like the implied obligation on other banners "add me, I add you back! :D" I usually do add people back but I check them out first and make sure they're not trolls or sockpuppets. Any doubt, I don't add back.)

because part of the reason I love lj is getting to interact with people I would never meet in real life through shared interests.

That's why I stayed non-FO for so long. I've made some truly awesome and incredible friends here over the... how long now? May '01... last five years I've been on LJ. I used to go on interests hunts and search through comms for potential new people to meet. I do once in a while but that's been cut back a lot more due to time constraints. Most people who add me first, they either run into me in a comm and ask, or they just add me and I know about it within a day's time. I liken it more to shutting the doors 'cause the weather's crappy, but if somebody makes themselves known at the window... I hated going FO. To me, that was a form of surrender. But my give-a-damn got busted at long last. I even password locked an open RPG fic archive I run because they used to be in the RPG and I found out they still came around to read fics there. XD; (It's since been unlocked again but...)

<_< ... ^_~

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was an interest hunt that spawned this rant- I was looking for FMA journals to help ease the pain when I finished the series. I kept running into journals that were FO and since *none* of their entries were open, I couldn't tell if I should go to the trouble of asking to be friended or not.

I think going friend-only is one of those things that totally depends on motivation and can be either annoying or appropriate.

Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I came across your journal in an interest search. I remember being really happy, because you had a nice long page of FMA fic recs, and I was glad that I would have something to read after the finale.