shamanicshaymin | Entries tagged with interesting

'Neopets': Inside Look at Early 2000s Internet Girl Culture

Basically it's about how Neopets fostered an environment that enabled girls to do cool things like learn coding, be graphic designers, build websites and create tutorials for others on how to make them, etc. Many of them are self-taught. Hell, everything I learned about coding and graphic design came from wanting to make my LJ and icons look respectable. :o

Current Mood: fascinated
Current Music: Blue October - Jump Rope

Magical boys save the world, complete with wombat mascot!

Now this is fanservice I can get behind. :D

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Freddy's music box theme

Children with autism show increased positive social behaviors when animals are present.

Well that certainly explains some things about me. :o God bless animals~ ♥

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Yuki Kajiura - Decretum / Decree

5 Things Nobody Tells You About Living in Japan

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Joey Scarbury - Believe it or Not

Speaking of Dahl, I found something interesting. This is one of his "lost" chapters from an early draft of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, discovered in mirror-script (aka backwards) on his desk. There were a LOT more kids to the point where it was impossible to keep track of them all. One of the kids that was cut was a "teacher's pet" named Miranda Piker:

A resurfacing of a chapter intended to be in the book which featured Miranda Piker (a character who was going to be in the original story but dropped later) appeared in 2005, the very year that the Tim Burton movie adaptation was released. Miranda Piker's traits were that of a "teacher's pet", a bit of a diva, and tattle-teller who has never played or laughed. Her father, who may be a wealthy man like Mr. Salt, was a headmaster/principal at a very privileged school that may or may not be the school that his daughter attends. There also was another character to appear in the book, named Marvin Prune, who is only described as conceited, but his chapter, physical appearance, and family has never been revealed to the public yet. Thus, the amount of Golden Tickets given out was originally going to be seven.

Miranda's elimination chapter is titled "Spotty Powder." Wonka introduces the group to a new candy that will make children temporarily sick so that they can miss school that day, which enrages Miranda and her father (as Miranda and her father believe that children should never play or get days off from school). They vow to stop the candy from being made, and carelessly storm into the secret room where it is made.

Unfortunately, two screams are seemingly heard and Wonka reveals that the candy wouldn't work if he didn't "put a few headmasters in the mix every so often." He then reassures Mrs. Piker that he was joking and her husband and daughter are not actually dead, and that they weren't screaming but laughing. It's unclear what eventually became of the Pikers, but it can be assumed that they exited the factory like the other families if revisions to her chapter were made.

You can read "Spotty Powder" here.

Current Mood: indescribable

One day, I discovered a whole bunch of old Raggedy Ann Dell comics from 1946. I didn't expect them to be any good, let alone ever be able to find scans of them, but I liked a lot of the covers and thought the drawing style of the dolls was different, but enjoyable. Nice and simple. Cue me googling about and that's when I discovered several of the RA&A comic strips... specifically the ones by a man named John Stanley.

Rather than taking the sugary, cheery and moralistic route commonly associated with the dolls, Stanley's stories were... dark. And damn, I can whole-heartedly say they're actually pretty good.

Stanley puts these mild-mannered dolls through hellish scenarios in these 1949 stories. One might assume he disliked doing this series, and took it out on the cuddly-wuddly characters. Whatever the case, Stanley's Raggedy stories are the creepiest, most compelling comic book versions of this ever-popular licensed property.

Issue #32, 1949 - Did you know that eldritch abominations existed in the RA&A universe long before the Greedy in the 1977 movie? Meet the One-eyed Wobblies! You know what's a stupid thing to do when you meet an eldritch abomination? Kick dirt at their eyes. Raggedy Andy, you are Darwin's Next Tentacle Rape victim.

Issue #34, 1949 - I play drinking games with Raggedy Ann books, which includes instructions such as "Take a sip if Raggedy Ann & Andy stop to eat sweets with friends and woodland creatures, especially a mix of soda water/cream puffs/lady fingers." This comic deconstructs this device with a steamroller. Raggedy Ann & Andy get sick of eating candy, and fast. Also, the panel with Andy carving a slice out of a talking marzipan pig is one of the most disturbing things I've seen in a while. D:

Issue #35, 1949 - OM NOM NOM RAGDOLLS ARE DELICIOUS. Good ol' traditional fairy-tale danger in this one! For once Andy's got brain cells and fights to save himself and Ann, so major kudos to that. INTELLIGENT!ANDY IS SOMETHING I'D LIKE TO SEE MORE OFTEN, PLZ.

Issue #36, 1949 - Raggedy Ann & Andy DIE and become ghosts. Nope, I'm not kidding about this. Raggedy Andy is a brainless moron again and he shares pink ~~phallic~~ poisonous mushrooms with his hungry sister. They try to fly their way up to Heaven, and it turns out Heaven has its fair share of assholes, namely two cherubs that pluck all the feathers off the dolls' wings just for shits and giggles.

Issue #38, 1949 - The two living dolls ramble into a quiet existential hell--a highly symbolic castle not easily exited. It's a scenario worthy of mini-comix legend Steve Willis. The loose, spontaneous and quite pleasing artwork strongly shows Stanley's hand--in the layouts, if not in the finishes. At least it wasn't this castle. I'm kind of amazed Raggedy Andy and the 100-year-old man didn't die of dehydration. Pfft at Andy being pissy about his hat getting smushed. :P

In short, creative stuff! Short and worth looking at if you've got a spare couple seconds.

OT: While I was googling for Raggedy Ann stuff, a picture of Kyubey showed up on Image Search. Turns out it was me posting a macro on a friending meme while casually mentioning I was writing a novel about Ann & Andy. I wonder if it's saying something about me.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: Oingo Boingo - Mama

I got a book at Half-Price Books today called Classic Toys of the National Toy Hall of Fame by Scott G. Eberle and the Strong National Museum of Play. Basically it dedicates a chapter of classic toys such as Barbie, Raggedy Ann, the Atari 2600, teddy bears and Crayola crayons into their histories and how they were created, what inspired their invention, and the significance they had for the time periods in which they were played with up into today. Which is exactly the sort of research I'm looking for regarding my novel. :o It's published in 2009 though, so the book is missing its most recent inductees like playing cards, the Game Boy, and the NES. Darnit, I wanted to read about those! ;;

It's still fascinating though. Did you know Candy Land was invented during the polio epidemic of the 1920s-1930s? Eleanor Abbott was a schoolteacher who was an adult victim of the disease, and during her recuperation, she made up Candy Land and other games to brighten up the spirits of polio-stricken kids at the hospital. :o

Teen Talk Barbie, 1991, altered by the Barbie Liberation Organization. In 1993 the BLO swapped the voice boxes in three hundred Teen Talk Barbies for the boxes in Hasbro, Inc.'s G.I. Joe. Unsuspecting customers found Barbies that barked "Dead men tell no lies," and "Eat lead, Cobra." p. 19.

I'm no fan of Barbie at all, but that is incredibly awesome. Most badass Barbie ever. ♥

( Predictably, Puri dives into the Raggedy Ann & Andy chapters. )

Not from the book, but I find these stickers adorable. Stupid fucking ragdolls. It's not like I like you or anything. /tsun-tsun. ~~The "Good job!" one looks like Andy is about to confess to a crush.~~

Jayden's been reviewing Weiss Kreuz episodes and Jax has been doing the dub Sailor Moon series. So I'm feeling tempted to review/screencap the three Raggedy Ann cartoons made by Fleischer/Famous Studios. :o Anyone interested?

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

The family's discovered unopened presents sent from seven years ago from the Dolans and my late Grandma Ag. :o Here's what I got:

- A hairbrush and a set of hair ties.
- A pink short-sleeved sweater-like shirt that fits me perfectly. :o
- Chicago: Original Broadway Cast (Holy shit, and I still haven't even seen the movie)
- A pretty lilac journal (96-lined pages)

I know my 16th birthday's long been over, but... thanks Grandma Ag. ;;

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Executive Meddling hadn't gotten in the way of making certain movies? Did you think how awesome it would've been to watch The Spirit as an animated movie directed by Brad Bird? If Thief and the Cobbler* had been finished on time and released uncut? If Ralph Bakshi had made that animated horror film he wanted instead of That-Godawful-Atrocity-That-I-Hate-That-Should-Burn-In-Fucking-Hell-It-Does-Not-Deserve-Breathing-Space-And-Makes-Me-Spit-Vile-When-I-Mention-Its-Name aka Cool World?

Or if you're just a film fan who likes to ponder the "What if"s. What if the roles of Carrie Fisher and Sissy Spacek were switched between Star Wars and Carrie, and Carrie Fisher played Carrie White?

That's just what Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt is about. It's the most interesting short story I've read in a long time. :o You can also listen to the podcast/audiobook version here. Found it via one of comments on the 80's Dan Halloween III episode at Brad's site. :o

*I don't think it's a great movie, even with the Recobbled Cut, I'm just using it as an example.

Current Mood: fascinated
Current Music: Goddammit Silver Shamrock

( My Little Pony: Season 2 opening! Cut for spoilers and those who want to avoid pony hype. )

And now, you know what I'm going to discuss? Atari 2600. You know your novel's awesome when your research consists of you playing Older Than Nintendo old*sk00l games. If I can't get my hands on the system IRL (unless I go to the "Play It Again" store here in town, but that requires cash. D:) I can play it for free on the Internet and ROMs. And what better way to start than the classics? Like E.T. and Pacman, of course.

( Let's refresh my memory about what sucks about E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial. OH BOY. )

I can't comment on this game anymore. It's hurting my brain. D:

( Now for Pacman. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG )

Then Puri downloaded Pitfall and began to feel better. Oh my god. D: Hell, just replaying those two awful games to refresh my memory left me hedgehog hissing. Later I played Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween for the lulz. All of AVGN's complaints were true, but at least I got a kick out of showing pixellated gore to my friends. And the lulzworthy egotistical ads:

( The ads themselves are better, but what can I do. /Kanye shrug )

Now I want Repo! The Genetic Opera for Atari. I WANNA PLAY THE REPO MAN AND REPOSSESS ORGANS FOR POINTS. Dammit, I'm torn between using the funny Graverobber icon I found or a matching icon. D: IT JUST FEELS WEIRD TO PUT ANOTHER CHARACTER IN AN ENTRY QUOTING SOMEONE ELSE'S THEME SONG.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Repo! The Genetic Opera - Thankless Job

Like video game creepypastas, but want something more mysterious? Tired of gratuitous blood and gore meant to shock you (and fails)? Do games like "Polybius" excite you? Allow me to introduce you to Invisible Games: A Brief Exhibition.

James introduced me to the following three articles:

Killswitch
What Happened to Agent Small?
The Pentintytär Arcade

Happy reading~ ♥

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: AVGN episodes

Since a large portion of my House on the Rock report got chopped off (goddammit LJ/Semagic/computer), here's the rest of my photos.

( The Organ Room and the Carousel and more. Especially the Motherfucking Carousel of Epic Win. )

I hope you all enjoyed my pictures~ I know you'll love being at House on the Rock even more~ ♥♥♥

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Pinkie Pie - Pinkie Pie's Singing Telegram

So um... stuff. My cousin's wedding was a success! It was fun and light-hearted, and not your traditional wedding either, according to my Mom and relatives. There was boogie-ing down the aisle and later everyone had a nice party and dinner at the recession. When it was time for the bouquet toss, Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" was playing as the signal. :o

House on the Rock was so worth it! Mom and my brother and I had to hurry so we could have the full tour before it closed, but what I got to see was wow. I'd totally go again to catch what I've missed! Like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. :o There was a room where newspaper articles of major disasters like the Hindenburg Disaster and the sinking of the Titanic were hung on their own frames. It was kind of spooky, especially when you were surrounded by happy, lighthearted aircraft memorabilia. :o

( Tour of House on the Rock beneath the cut! Photos inside! :D )

Edit: And after spending an hour organizing my pictures, nearly my entire post got cut off. D: dhgkjsghkjdsghkjdgh I have more House on the Rock stuff though, nom. Apparently I'm lacking sleep because I don't know how the hell I suddenly lost half of everything. D:

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: Johann Strauss II - The Blue Danube

Why Strong Female Characters Are Bad For Women

I always wondered about that. We get a lot of so-called "strong" female characters "full of attitude," but in the end they're not well developed, and you just don't connect to them at all. :/ It's not enough for a girl to "kick ass." I mean yeah, that's nice, but it's not a necessity to be a likable and respected character. What makes her truly awesome is she's got some goddamn humanity, not that she was a cardboard poster child to be gawked by sleazy nerdy fanboys about how awesome she is ~*FOR A WOMAN*~

I dunno, this paragraph says it better than me: This Super Strong Female Character is almost like a Mary Sue, except instead of being perfect in every way because she’s a stand-in for the author, she’s perfect in every way so the male audience will want to bang her and so the female audience won’t be able to say, “Tsk tsk, what a weak female character!” It’s a win-win situation.

It's like people think in shallow terms regarding what "strong" and "flawed" means. Strong only applies to bruisers, of course! You're a flawed character if you fall over a lot and people laugh and find it endearing. That's Hollywood for ya. And recent books with so-called "independent heroines" and video games. MICROWAVE BEAM AQUIRED. MAKE DINNER FOR ADAM.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Alanis Morissette - Sympathetic Character

How much did your kid cost?

&

Perfection: A beautiful fairy tale that always leaves you hating yourself.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Here's a unique game to play in your spare time."

You're a psychiatrist taking care of abused and mentally ill stuffed animals. Have fun! :o

Puri has a new computer~ ♥♥♥♥♥ You know the saying, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone?" For me, it's become, "You don't know what you've got until it's back." It's been eons since I've used Winamp and downloaded so many skins for it! *_____*

It's good to have a home again~ ♥

Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

I'm so glad I finally saved up money for a Corruption Orb~ Now I can finally hatch a Demon Groudon, nomnomnomnomnom~ ♥

To make my post not entirely useless, it's Artistic Nudity in the Park Day! :D

Current Mood: busy

We The Giants is an interesting little game that'll take only about five minutes to complete. It'll get you quite thinking, too...

Here's my favorite bits of wisdom, which I don't recommend reading until you've played the game yourself. :P

( I am a giant, not so big but very wise. Before I go please hear my advice. )

Current Mood: facinated
Current Music: Emilie Autumn - Misery Loves Company

Butler = George
Diane = Maria

Butler = Scientist
George = Scientist

Queen Mary = Ethereal with blonde hair and carnival-like palace.
Diane = Beautiful with blonde hair and carnival big-top.

Magicant = Pillars
Faunz = Pillars

Guy who went psychotic and lost what he loved: Butler
Guy who went psychotic and lost what he loved: George

Just like a pup: Giegue
Just like a pup: Jirachi

Meteorite/Onyx Stone: Giegue/George's Melody aka Gravestone
Meteorite/Onyx Stone: Jirachi

Powered by Machine: Giegue
Powered by Machine: Jirachi (being part-Steel)

Electricity to Save the World: EVE
Electricity to Save the World: Reversing the weird machine thingee to suck back Demon*Groudon with Jirachi's help

INVINCIBLE JUGGERNAUT: Giegue
INVINCIBLE JUGGERNAUT: Demon*Groudon, powered by an unwilling Jirachi

MACHINE OF DOOM (Until PWN'D By Sacrifice): R7308XX
MACHINE OF DOOM (Until PWN'D By Sacrifice): Demon*Groudon

PWN'D by Melody: Giegue
PWN'D by Melody: Jirachi (in this case, Jirachi likes it and wanted to hear it before going back to sleep)

Take a Melody, Simple As Can Be: 8 Melodies
Take a Melody, Simple As Can Be: Chiisaki Mono (Small One)/Make a Wish

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Patrick Wolf - Magpie

So Puri couldn't sleep and was innocently rereading the Annotated Lolita. Cue big giant footnote regarding the origin of John Ray Jr.'s name. So the original John Ray was known for his systems of natural classification. "His system of plant classification greatly influenced the development of systematic botany (Historia plantarium, 1686-1704). He was the first to attempt a definition of what constitutes a species." It's important to know that Vladimir Nabokov is a lepidopterist and has a giant passion for butterflies. Ray's system of insects, set up by Methodus insectorum (1705) and Historia insectorum (1713) is based on the concept of metamorphosis. So Ray Jr.'s name isn't a coincidence at all. You know who first pointed that out?

Diana Butler in "Lolita Lepidoptera," New World Writing 16 [1960], p.63.

Here's what's interesting. At the end of the 6th movie, Diane and Butler stay at Fauns to rebuild the damage caused by the demon Groudon and to research plant life. Diane may or may not have mentioned that plants were her dream. Butler was a scientist himself, was he? What brought Nabokov great joy was the awe of capturing a rare and beautiful butterfly. Genus Lycaeides Scudder: The Orange Margined Blues. The recent work of Nabokov has entirely rearranged the classification of this genus." To which the author of Lolita pointed to the description for a friend and said, "That's real fame. That means more than anything a literary critic could say."

Butler loved to make other people happy. But Team Magma jeered him away and his obsession for power and proving them wrong cost him dearly. Whenever he was a magician for Diane, whether she be his audience or assistant, are those excerpts from Nabokov's poem, "A Discovery", the type of joy he sought and thought he could find in capturing Jirachi?

I found it and I named it, being versed
in taxonomic Latin; thus became
godfather to an insect and its first
describer--and I want no other fame.

Wide open on its pin (though fast asleep),
and safe from creeping relatives and rust,
in the secluded stronghold where we keep
type specimens it will transcend its dust.

Dark pictures, thrones, the stones that pilgrims kiss,
poems that take a thousand years to die
but ape the immortality of this
red label on a little butterfly.

Why don't they have this stuff on Bulbapedia? Still, I feel super finding this out on my own. Gosh, I feel super excited in knowing one of my Pokemon OTPs is associated with one of my favorite authors! :o

Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Various Yume Nikki tones

Wish Fulfillment? No. But Dreams (and Sleep) Have Meaning

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.

( Discussion! Yume Nikki Spoilers and Lots of Questions Regarding Darkrai & Cresselia )

Dammit Darkrai. What ARE you?

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Yume Nikki - Dream Life

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Puri

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Page generated May. 25th, 2025 02:14 pm

All art is at once surface and symbol

Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril

Entries tagged with interesting

This is a really cool article. :o

(no subject)

Got this from guardians_song

Hey placetohide! I read this and thought of you.

Lost chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I live in the world of spirits and I talk to the walls // Deliver me from this little hell

I took the stars from my eyes and then I made a map

X more days 'til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

It's a thaaaaaaaaankless job, but SOMEBODY'S got to DO IT!

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House on the Rock(s)! Second shot!

House on the Rock(s) anyone?

Now here's an interesting article.

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Show me the wisdom of the world

Geez, no wonder I loved this movie.

First Baron Alberto Franchetti, now this! :o

Ganked from shidoikarji26

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May 2025

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