This is what happens when I don't update for a week: I have too much to say

[soc_puppet]

Must... update... journal...!

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Saw Megamind on Saturday. Shortest version: Loved it! Longer version: I have some thoughts/observations!

This movie in particular:

* Can I just say that I was positively tickled to see our main villain was textbook a Nice Guy™? Fit the stereotype to a T. On the other hand, I shudder to think of the entitled rants and fanfics real life Nice Guys™ will write because Hal totes should've ended up with Roxanne.

* I almost didn't watch this movie because Will Ferrel was playing a major role. The only other thing I've liked that he's in is Stranger Than Fiction. I assume this says as much about the characters he plays as the type of movies he is featured in.

* Show of hands. Who else wanted Roxanne to end up with Metroman's powers as Megamind's superhero partner at the very end? It would have undermined the theme of the movie to have her be the one definitively in charge (though I like to think she'd be great at it), but I also don't want to see her relegated to "sidekick", and I think equal partners could potentially work out pretty well for both of them. Maybe a sequel? (Hope hope!)

* Wow that was a lot of superhero meta. I totally cried inside a bit for Megamind.

* I actually like that Metroman isn't actually dead. For one thing, it didn't fit the tone of the movie. For another (and this could probably go just as well in the next section, I think), unlike The Incredibles, it didn't gloss over his "death", even if it didn't quite cover all of the potential emotional consequences.

* ...Speaking of that event, when Metroman announced that his "weakness" was copper, did anyone else want Megamind to make a quip about pennies? And then go on to quarters and dimes and stuff? I mean, if it were true, he totally would have ended up only using whole bills ever. That, or carrying around a lead-lined change purse or something. Impractical weakness is impractical!


Dreamworks VS Pixar:

* I should just make this clear right now: I like Dreamworks better than Pixar. This may be subject to change, but for right now, Dreamworks is currently "ahead" in the race for my heart.

* That said, Dreamworks seems to think that 90 minutes is the perfect length for a movie. I could stand to see it pushed more to 100 minutes at least, with possible exceptions depending on the film (either longer or shorter). (They cut out the scene with Astrid and Hiccup at the forge from HtTYD! I was very sad. It would have helped build her character some more.)

* Both Dreamworks and Pixar could stand to work on passing the Bechdel test more frequently. I mean, wow. Needs moar girls/womens with speaking parts, plz!

* I'm pretty sure Pixar has the edge on non-white characters/young and old characters, but Dreamworks has them beat on women in non-traditional roles and amputees. So that's about even, and either one could pull ahead.

* On the other hand, Dreamworks has actually already had a film with a female main character, and Pixar's not getting that for a while yet.

* Dreamworks also isn't out to find new and creative ways to destroy my heart. While I appreciate the need for more emotional depth in media for children, I also am rather fond of not sobbing in grief every time I go see a movie. Dreamworks doesn't exactly shy away from sad or dramatic stuff, they just use a teaspoon or so at a time, rather than a ladle's worth. (I also think Pixar cheats emotionally sometimes. But that's likely a rant for another post.)
TL;DR: Basically, while Pixar is better at engaging emotions (particularly unexpected ones), I think Dreamworks might actually be the better storyteller.


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Making a pair of Squiddles for my brother for Xmas :Db I've got one finished already, and am working on the second. Magnets are involved for Tangle Buddy Action (though they are not electromagnets, nor are they particularly overwhelmingly strong).

In other crochet-related news, I finally have three shades of gray yarn ♥ Dark gray, medium gray, and light gray. Great for projects that require multiple shades of gray :Db

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I totally meant to post about the deviantART GenderFail thing, but then I ended up not posting for a week (again *facepalm*). And now I assume it's all over the web and, IIRC, "all over" in general, so. If anyone's still out of the loop on that, I guess I can let you know the basics/link you to the post in a comment or something?

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So! You may recall me mentioning Steam Powered before. Are there any of you who would be interested in the book but not necessarily the Special Extras mentioned in the edit here? The incredibly enthusiastic fangirl/collector in me totally wants all the stuff possible (SECRET SURPRISE! O_O Do want!), but I don't think I can quite justify buying four copies of the book for myself, and I'm also not sure I know another three people IRL who I could necessarily hand out copies to. (Though - maybe through the Quire? IDK, I'd have to think about it.) If I can get even two people who might be willing to buy one of the copies from me for ~$10 USD (maybe another dollar to take the edge off shipping), I would totally go for it.

Otherwise, I'll probably just get a copy for me, and then pine horribly for That Cool Stuff I'm Totally Not Getting - at least until something shiny (possibly the book itself?) distracts me. (Unless I win the contest, which would be beyond cool, but I'm not particularly counting as likely.)

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I'm sooooo behind on NaNo /)_(\ I'm wondering if I don't actually have an inherent words-per-day limit. I mean, yes, I know NaNo is about quantity and not quality, but uh. I can't seem to get quantity unless I also approve of the quality ._.a

Next year I should just do, like. The crochet equivalent instead. Crochet 50,000 stitches - or, if I'm really ambitious, 50,000 blocks/granny squares. Those charming Mystery Dungeon "portraits" are 40x40 pixels, after all, which means 1600 blocks/squares. A November crochet project could be just the excuse I've been looking for.

2772 / 50000
(5.54%)

Comments

[dorothean]

I really want to get Steam Powered, so I'll be willing to buy it off you! Let me know if/how you'd like to work that out -- my e-mail is dorothea dot says at gmail dot com.

[soc_puppet]

Awesome \o/ I've got another person on LJ who seems interested, so it looks like I'm probably doing this thing :3b I'll probably give it another day or two, just in case I get a third, and also so I can figure things out a little better ^^a

[inarticulate]

A bit off topic, but, oh my god, you found the Mystery Dungeon portraits! A while back, I was looking everywhere for those. ♥ Thank you so much!

[soc_puppet]

No problem ^_^ The Spriters Resource is amazing, IMO.

[vitani]

I like Dreamworks better than Pixar, too.

[soc_puppet]

Yay, not alone \o/

[pleonasm]

I think you and I hiveminded on Megamind. Seriously, I was all over the Nice Guy thing, same for Will Ferrell (I can't think of anything I've enjoyed that he's in except The Producers), and I totally expected Roxanne to get the powers, too. And the copper thing, yes! There's a book series I read where the main character's weakness is silver, and he mentions that handling money is a pain in the butt. |D

[soc_puppet]

I would totally love fic about Roxanne with powers, no lie. AU, continuation, whatever.
That wouldn't be one of the Chrestomanci books, would it? But yeah, a copper weakness would totally be horrible. So inconvenient! Though it does add an extra layer to my icon :3

(I think I missed your name change somehow o_O When did that happen?)

[pleonasm]

Me too! It's too bad it's too late to nominate for Yuletide.
And yes, that was a Chrestomanci reference. :D

(Saturday. I accidentally defriended EVERYONE because I am fail. Feel free to friend me back.)

[soc_puppet]

So tragic :( Perhaps there's a fic-com out there for it...?
XD Yay, references!

(*friends back* How does that even work, WTF. I mean, I get how you could remove everyone else, but how could you automatically make us defriend you? One would think it was counter-intuitive, and yet...)

[pleonasm]

megamind_movie, it looks like! Although there isn't much there, yet.

(Well, I chose to remove my Friend Ofs, not realizing that included my Mutual Friends and not just the people who had friended me and I had never friended back. Because they are on separate sections of the profile. Confusing.)

[soc_puppet]

I know Memlu's writing a bunch of stuff for it at the moment, too, though I kinda doubt she's taking requests. Maybe she'll come to the idea on her own...?

(Huh. I had no idea you could do that. It's a little weird to me to think it's even possible, actually.)

[pleonasm]

I'm definitely stalking Mem's stuff. I think she made me more excited about the movie than the trailer did. |D

(I guess it would be nice if you didn't want your old friends to follow you? idgi either.)

[omg-its-fiore.livejournal.com]

Heading out the door, but I'd be interested in a copy of Steam Powered, despite being in England!

[soc_puppet]

Cool \o/ I've got another person who's interested over at Dreamwidth, so it looks like it'll probably be happening :)

[omg-its-fiore.livejournal.com]

Eeee! Keep me posted :D

[soc_puppet]

Will do :3b

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Sweeet! Let me know :).

BTW I got the charms for the bookmarks in today. They're so awesome!

[soc_puppet]

*salutes* You can count on me! Let's see, if I finish up my family's Xmas presents ASAP, I might be able to open commissions and make a little bit of extra money on the side and make up a bit for the chunk I'll be spending on the books...

Asdklfjsld! Do want DD: *makes grasping hands at the computer screen*

(As long as you're here, I've been meaning to ask about payment methods. That is, uh, what are they? ^^a Oh, and I wanted to double-check that you saw the link to the TOC announcement post go up on Okazu a couple weeks back, too.)

[dagronrat.livejournal.com]

DeviantArt what?

[soc_puppet]

GenderFail :( The full write-up is here.

Basically, a while back, deviantART removed the "other" option from gender choices for new accounts, and people were forced to choose between "male" and "female" only. A user complained, and was treated to not just one, but multiple horribly non-binary-phobic dismissals. The reporter (who identifies as Neutrois and prefers the pronoun "it") went through as many channels as it could think of, and when responses remained pretty much the same, went public with the entire mess.

DA responded first with continued rude dismissals, then slightly less rude dismissals and changing "gender" to "sex" (which helps in no way what-so-ever), and then finally adding an "other" option to the newly re-classed "sex" choice - after the internet has blown up at them.

DA has backed down pretty well by now, and reportedly will be offering a "gender" option with more than two choices in the near future. (Though it still insists that knowing what's between a user's legs is important. I can't imagine how, except in the unlikely event that one paints with it (It's not that kind of brush, people!) - unless it has to do with advertising, which means that it's the ad companies as well that are conflating sex with gender.) However, this whole thing leaves many with a bad taste in their mouth, and some have left the site for good over this, even after DA's apology and promise to include the "gender" category.

There's another good summary (probably better) here by Megan Rosalarian Gedris, and her damn fantastic essay on why she's leaving DA is here.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Oh! this! Yes.

Yeah. Yet another reason I'm not a fan of DevArt. Stopped using them when they claimed that anything they hosted was their property and they could use your artwork for their profit without permission.

[soc_puppet]

Yeah, this :/

Makes me glad I never started in the first place. I gave it some thought occasionally, but I've held an unreasonable grudge ever since the times when clicking on a link there would make my internet go out for a couple of minutes, and it's become more and more reasonable a grudge with every fuckup.

[dagronrat.livejournal.com]

... For a company whose revenue comes entirely from their service to Artists (bad or good, mostly from advertising at them I suppose) for them to even think being so strict about the gender thing was ever a good idea is beyond me. I'm fairly certain there are a lot of artists out there that campaign on gender issues. Don't most services these days at least offer an opt-out?
Totally expect it's to do with the Advertiser's too.

Thanks for the explanation. This completely passed me by. 0_o

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Show of hands. Who else wanted Roxanne to end up with Metroman's powers as Megamind's superhero partner at the very end?

YES. Totally Yes.
Was actually kinda bummed when Hal got the powers. But, it worked out in the end. I like the fact that the hero got a chance to explore and learn who he was.

Kinda OT3-ing Metroman/Megamind/Roxanne. ^^;;

... I'm with Dagron. DeviantArt What?

[soc_puppet]

It definitely made sense plot-wise that Hal got the powers, but I still think it would've been cool if Roxanne got them after they were removed from Hal. ...On the other hand, who would want something that's been that intimate with Hal's DNA? May as well just mix up a new batch, since they know where Metroman is now :3b

X3 I don't particularly ship that myself (for once), but I can definitely see it working!

...Go go vaguely superhero-related icon!

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Someone needs to do an AU where Roxanne got the powers, and she and Megamind start having this rival/flirtatious relationship. With Megamind being Bernard at the same time, then Roxanne is torn between the two of them.

It'd be hysterical!

It's not so much the 'intimate with Hal's DNA' part, it's the whole nose thing. Power boogers!

Not seeing them as an OT3 in a romantic sense, but as a 'they're each other's best friends' sort of thing, Metroman giving Mega tips when he's starting to get burnt out, possibly helping behind the scenes when Mega's over his head, Mega and Roxanne keeping Metro from being too isolated as he finds himself and providing a sounding board, Metro giving Roxanne a place to vent when Mega's social dis-functionality gets too much.

^^;; It was either Kabuto or Kaiba. After all, if the difference between a 'Villain' and a 'SuperVillain' is Presentation, then Kaiba's got that in SPADES.

[soc_puppet]

Yes, that would be great! And then they would simultaneously be trying to finish up early for their dates and stuff X3

Yeah, that too >_< Do not want!

Oh right, that way; I can totally see that, yes. And Metro and Mega having snarking matches for old times' sake :Db

*cough* I think this is my only other superhero-related icon.