I've written a new Interactive Fiction (text adventure) game, and I'm hoping to find a few brave souls who are willing to help me out by testing it. This one is original, not fandom-based, and I'm hoping to enter it into a contest somewhere at some point.

If you're not familiar with IF, you can read about it on my website here. You don't have to be an IF expert in order to help out -- in fact, I'd love to get a mix of different people working on it.

If you're interested, please let me know!

I recently purchased a new Japanese-English dictionary that has been such an incredible help to me, I thought I would rec it here. It's called 漢字そのまま楽引辞典 (Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten), and it runs on my Nintendo DS. While it's a Japanese game cartridge, it's completely compatible with the U.S. version of the DS.

What makes it so awesome is that it uses the DS's touch screen. All I have to do when I come across an unfamiliar kanji is draw it on the screen with the stylus in order to look it up. No counting strokes, no looking up radicals. The dictionary then gives me the hiragana pronunciation, the definition in English, and several example sentences. Plus I can look up words by either kanji or hiragana -- for example, I can write 外人 or がいじん in order to look up the word "foreigner". So it's great when all I know is the pronunciation of a word but I'm not too sure about the kanji.

Another huge plus is that it includes look-ups for katakana words. That's been a big help to me, because while I've got all of the katakana characters memorized I often have difficulty deciphering which English word they're trying to represent. Not sure what ライオン means? Draw it on the touch screen and the Rakubiki Jiten will tell you!

It's also really forgiving of bad handwriting, which is a must because writing with the stylus isn't as easy as writing with a pencil and paper. The dictionary will make a guess as to which kanji it thinks I'm referring to, but will also provide several alternate suggestions that are close, just in case I didn't get it quite right.

The cartridge has several other features including a calendar, calculator, world clock, both Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries, a search history, a bookmarking feature, and (if you're REALLY good at Japanese) a quiz mode. It's selling on amazon.com for around $60 right now, which compared to other Japanese-English dictionaries doesn't seem too pricey to me (especially when you take into account the touch screen technology it uses, which is incredibly convenient and fast). It makes reading Japanese so much easier and more fun because looking up an unfamiliar word takes seconds now instead of several minutes, which means I don't lose the flow of the story every time I have to stop and look up a word. If you have a Nintendo DS (or are thinking about getting one), then I highly recommend giving it a try!

Here's the link on amazon if anyone's interested: Click here

I officially have a case of the mid-week blahs. :/

I have a new partner now at work. He's unusually good-looking and has a bizarre sense of humor (which I highly approve of), and can speak articulately on everything from shoeing horses to marine archeology. He's a huge X-Files fan and seems to believe he's the reincarnation of Fox Mulder, which is kind of cute and kind of irritating, depending on the day. He's also a closet homophobe. There's nothing aggressively homophobic about him, and if pressed on the issue he would probably claim to be open-minded on the subject (and believe it), but the offhand remarks that keep creeping into his conversations are really starting to piss me off. I've tried being assertive about letting him know I don't think those kinds of "jokes" are at all funny, but apparently I am not being assertive enough.

I'm not doing a lot of writing right now. I've got a couple of stories in progress (one Tsuzuki/Touda and a handful of original ones), but it's been difficult mustering up the energy to be creative lately. I think it's just too darn hot. I loathe summer. Hate it. Every day I drive to work and I can feel the sun up there, mocking me.

My Japanese-learning is progressing quite well. I read something online a short while ago that struck me as rather profound. It said that you don't learn how to read Japanese by memorizing kanji, you learn how to recognize kanji by reading Japanese. And it's true! When I first started reading Junai Romantica, I was starting to get discouraged because it seems so much above my reading level right now. But as I'm working my way through it, looking up unfamiliar kanji as I go, I'm finding that I'm looking up fewer and fewer kanji. The progression seems to go something like this:


1. Look at the next sentence waiting to be read and feel overwhelmed by how many kanji there are that I don't recognize.

2. Take a step back and realize there are quite a few kanji there I do recognize as well.

3. Look up the kanji I don't recognize.

4. Two sentences later, look the kanji up again because while they look familiar, I've completely spaced on what the meaning was.

5. A few sentences after that when I see the kanji again, realize that it's become one of the kanji I recognize now without having to look it up!


It's been slow going, but it's worth it because it's such a fun story. I adore Akihiko and Misaki so very much. ♥

I'm also playing Gakuen Heaven (the PC game). It's quite different from the anime!! The anime was cute and quite a lot of fun (which was what prompted me to hunt down the game in the first place), but it was extremely G-rated and the game most emphatically is not. @_@ I highly approve! Naruse's was the first ending I came across when playing (which I think is the easiest one to get to, because he's constantly throwing himself at Keita and he's really, really hard to say no to ^_^), but my favorite ending by far (at least so far) has to be Nakajima's. There's something to be said about handsome young sadists, ne? Dear lord, that scene with the pen....

I'm wondering just how many endings there are in the game, since there are so many characters in it. Can Keita be paired up with all of them???? It makes the game even more fun because there's so much replay value in it. *loves*

I've updated the recs page on my website (http://www.slashcity.org/rushlight/mangarecs.html) with a new manga review:

Legacy of the Dragon
Mangaka: Senju Kitasato

---

Once again, Rushlight finds herself utterly and delightfully charmed by a manga. This is a fairy tale of a story about Tenran, demon lord of the eastern lands, and his servant Asagi. Asagi is half-dragon, half-human, with the ability to shift between the physical forms of a dragon and a human but without any of a dragon's magical power.

Throughout the story, Asagi wrestles with feelings of inadequacy because of his perceived weakness, believing that a half-dragon with no powers is not up to the task of being the lord's protector. Tenran, for his part, is determined to keep Asagi by his side no matter what (and get him into his bed, although Asagi's low self-esteem is getting in the way of that as well). Both characters are wonderfully fun, from Tenran's childlike enthusiasm for just about everything to Asagi's sternness and unwavering loyalty toward his master. The love they both feel for each other really shines through, even when they're bickering and scolding one another.

There are three volumes translated into English that I know of, each one a self-contained story of its own, with the relationship between Tenran and Asagi growing and deepening throughout each one. There are powerful demon lords and vicious monsters, humble villagefolk and talking rabbits, frightening soul-eaters and magical battles. All of the characters are beautifully drawn and characterized, from the palace architect to the delightfully quirky Aegir (self-proclaimed dragon expert and master dragon breeder, who is constantly trying to convince Asagi to come mate with his female dragons).

It's a great manga to read when you're in the mood for fantasy stories that are low on the angst and high on the cuteness. ^_^

Download Link: http://www.mangatraders.com/manga/series/1915

Do you ever have days where everything you see, everything you hear, pisses you off to no end? And 99.9% of the human race seem to be absolute morons who don't deserve to live? I'm having one of those days today. I'm not sure what it is exactly.... It's not anything specific that anyone's said or done. I think I'm just a lot more sensitive today than I am normally; I'm taking things personally that ordinarily I wouldn't blink an eye at. Which means yes, I'm perfectly aware of the fact that it's my perception of the world that is seriously out of whack today, and not the world itself.

But I'm still pissed off.

It's taken me a while to reach the conclusion that being in this kind of mood is okay. We don't all have to be sunshiny happy people all the time. Giving myself permission to feel like crap and be absolutely furious with everyone I see is healthy, right? At least for a while.

Right now I just want to lock myself in a room somewhere and not talk to anyone. Or have to look at anyone. I want to bury my head under the pillow on my bed and spend some quality time trying not to scream and pretending the world doesn't exist.

Or better yet. Why should I lock myself in my room when I feel like this? What I'd like is to sit all alone on top of a mountain somewhere, on the edge of a cliff looking down over the world. It's all so far away down there, and from this distance it actually looks kind of pretty. There's a forest somewhere behind me -- all thick and dark and beautiful -- and the air smells spicy and green like some of the evergreen trees in New England do. There's a nice cool breeze sliding by, ruffling my hair against the side of my face. And my dog's here with me, just kind of lying beside me in the grass. That way if I start to feel lonely, all I have to do is reach over and scratch his ears a bit. That makes everything better, some days.

I've got my headphones on, and I'm listening to the Warui Koto Shitai drama CD I've gotten addicted to lately. It's exciting because I can actually understand a lot of what they're saying (my ear for understanding spoken Japanese is still not that finely tuned) and I'm mostly able to follow the story. The only other drama CD I've listened to is Dark Erogenous, which was frustrating for me because Iason keeps dropping into this kind of sex kitten whisper in a lot of his lines that (while insanely sexy) is very difficult for a student of Japanese such as myself to understand. Plus Daryl seems to be trying to set some kind of speed record with his. Enunciate, damn you!

That's about all I have to say. A little voice in the back of my head tried to tell me I shouldn't bother posting about all this because no one wants to hear me whine about what a shitty day I'm having. But then I realized that venting can be a Very Good Thing. So here we are.

I'm going to go spend some time in my happy place now (don't expect me to come down off of that mountaintop for a good long while). Interaction with other people is highly overrated. Maybe I'll get a little bit of writing done later and take my mood out on a fanfic character -- Reid? Tsuzuki? Harry? Cloud? Who's good for taking out frustrations on nowadays? Hmm....

I've updated the manga recs page on my website again!

http://slashcity.org/rushlight/mangarecs.html

Newly added titles:
Anohito to Nitenai Kuchibiru (Lips That Don't Resemble His)
Bedroom Tour!
Casino Lily
Ginchou Kidan (Silver Butterfly)
Honki Ja Nee Kara (Because I'm Not Serious)
Kirai Janai Kedo (I Don't Dislike You)
Okane ga nai (No Money)
Shinyuu Henjou (Give Up Being Best Friends)

Title: Tears of Blood
Author: Rushlight
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Pairing: Muraki/Tsuzuki, Hisoka/Tsuzuki, Tatsumi/Tsuzuki, Tatsumi/Hisoka/Tsuzuki
Rating: NC-17
Category: angst
WARNING: semiconsensual sex
Summary: I always wondered what was going through Tsuzuki's head when he gave into Muraki so easily after losing the poker game during "King of Swords"... and what would have happened if Hisoka hadn't intervened. This is my attempt to answer that question.
Author's Note: Some of the dialogue at the beginning is lifted directly from the manga/anime, since the story starts out during the "King of Swords" arc on the ship.
Acknowledgments: Dedicated to Phaeton for being such an awesome beta, friend, and inspiration! *hugs*

( Tears of Blood - part 2 )

Title: Tears of Blood
Author: Rushlight
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Pairing: Muraki/Tsuzuki, Hisoka/Tsuzuki, Tatsumi/Tsuzuki, Tatsumi/Hisoka/Tsuzuki
Rating: NC-17
Category: angst
WARNING: semiconsensual sex
Summary: I always wondered what was going through Tsuzuki's head when he gave into Muraki so easily after losing the poker game during "King of Swords"... and what would have happened if Hisoka hadn't intervened. This is my attempt to answer that question.
Author's Note: Some of the dialogue at the beginning is lifted directly from the manga/anime, since the story starts out during the "King of Swords" arc on the ship.
Acknowledgments: Dedicated to Phaeton for being such an awesome beta, friend, and inspiration! *hugs*

( Tears of Blood 1/2 )

I haven't posted a poll in a while, have I? I saw this one on a manga website somewhere and thought it was interesting so I gacked it. ^_^

Comment to this entry and I'll pick three of your fandoms. You must (or rather, if you want to) then update your journal and answer the following questions:

1: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
4: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

ldy_bastet gave me Junjou Romantica, Final Fantasy VII, and Yami no Matsuei....

( Junjou Romantica )

( Final Fantasy VII )

( Yami no Matsuei )

This is really bugging me.... There was a video on YouTube I watched a while back that I can't find again for the life of me. It was pretty simple -- some kind of text about "my generation" that was really negative and kind of depressing scrolled up the screen, but then at the end it rewound and played itself backward, and it was really positive and encouraging.... It was really cool and I'd like to share it with a friend, but I can't seem to find it. Do any of you know which video I'm talking about? And hopefully where I can find it?

Edit: Found it!! It's called "Lost Generation":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Just a quick note that I've added some new manga recs to my website:

http://slashcity.org/rushlight/mangarecs.html

Newly added titles:
Cafe Latte Rhapsody
Cut
Empty Heart
Finder no Hyouteki (Finder's Target)
Gerard and Jacques
Hoshi no Yakata (Palace of Stars)

There are more I'd like to rec, but I haven't gotten around to including them yet. I'll be adding those as I get the time....

For those who are interested, I've added a new page to my website with my first wave of manga recs (complete with links to where you can find them) here:

http://slashcity.org/rushlight/mangarecs.html

There will be more recs coming just as soon as I get reviews written up. There's so much awesome manga out there! I would have loved to have a list like this as a guide when I first discovered manga, so hopefully this will be useful for somebody....

I'm writing again! I can't believe it. It's seems like forever since I've opened up a blank Word document and sat staring at a blinking cursor for hours trying to figure out how to string words together. I feel like I'm trying to exercise a muscle I haven't used in years, or pulling that rusty old bike out of the garage and wobbling as I try to ride it down the street with one flat tire and squeaky gears. But writing it is, and I'm rather excited over it.

I think I may have to start up my habit of writing every day again, even if it's just a haiku or a couple sentences of dialogue or a description of some kind. Writing muscles atrophy if they aren't used regularly. :(

On an unrelated note, does anyone know why I'm having trouble creating a custom mood icon set on Dreamwidth? It works just fine for the first sixteen or so moods, but then every image I enter after that just disappears when I save the set. It's really frustrating. It's silly to think we might only be allowed sixteen mood icons to use, so I'm guessing this is a bug of some kind?

Edit: I figured out the mood icon problem! Apparently I'd forgotten to include height and width attributes after the first few, and it wouldn't save the images without it....

After a year-long wait list, I was finally assigned a spot at the Supervisors' Academy, a two week long training program that every supervisor at my workplace is required to attend. This is my first week at it, and I'm already beginning to wonder if I'm going to survive until the end. There are only so many lectures about policy and budget and empowerment and diversity and effective communication that my little brain can take. Not to mention the team building exercises! *shudder* At the end of the two weeks there will be an actual graduation ceremony where we march out on stage to receive our certificates stating that we are now "trained" supervisors, at which time my entire class will be expected to put on a skit of some kind in front of the audience to illustrate what we learned. Lord help me.

Egad! It's only Wednesday. :( I need smut big time right now. Something distracting and immersing with lots of pretty boys in it (preferably in peril). I'm going to go cruise some websites to see what I can find....

P.S. This is my first time crossposting from Dreamwidth. We'll see if it works!

Just a quick note that I've started another new journal (this time on Dreamwidth) for anyone who's interested:

http://rushlight75.dreamwidth.org/

It's a pretty new site, but so far it seems to have a lot of really neat features that LJ/IJ don't have (I really like the crossposting options). Many, many thanks to dancing_serpent for the invite, and for the 6 months paid subscription!!!!

I'm in the process of putting yaoi/slash manga recs up on my website and thought I would share some of them here. Manga has been my passion lately, and it seems selfish to hoard all of this delightful m/m goodness to myself when it's taken me such a long time to find ones I really like. ^_^

Most of these have English translation scans available for download if you google for them (or at least to read online).


( Totally Captivated )

( Junjou Romantica )

( Yami no Matsuei (Descendants of Darkness) )

( Earthian )

( Haru wo Daiteita (Embracing Spring) )

( Under Grand Hotel )

( Wild Rock )

( Tsuki Yadoru (Dwelling of the Moon) )

( Koibito no Namae (Lover's Name) )

Do any of you know how to configure a Vista computer so that it can play Japanese PC games? I used to know how to do it, but that was on my old computer, and the instructions I have aren't making any sense with Vista's menus....

Edit: I figured it out! :)

Do any of you know where I could find "Totally Captivated" to download? I keep finding random chapters of it here and there, but never the whole thing....

I'm not writing any fanfic at the moment, and I'm not really involved in watching any shows on TV on a regular basis. It's kind of a weird feeling. I'm writing quite a bit of original fic, though, plus I've been doing a lot of reading (mostly of manga). My newest love is Junjou Romantica (or more specifically, Junjou Egoist). Nowaki and Hiroki are so much fun! I'm sad that one of my favorite scenes from the manga didn't make it into the anime. :(

( Putting it under a cut tag just in case )

I'm also attempting to read "Junai Romantica", which is supposed to be one of Akihiko's BL novels starring him and Misaki (hee!). It's the first novel I've attempted to read in Japanese, and it's been slow going. But so far so good! Those two are so cute together. ^_^