Good Morning, 2010! The Princess' Diary Intarwebs Edition

[AAA]

There's so many levels of meta nowadays I don't even know if you're really that dense or not. My whole world is crumbling around me!

[Ranmilia]

Pick up VtM: Bloodlines off Steam and play that. It's like ten dollars and it is fucking amazing. Plus, it is the only thing you SHOULD to know to make a good game. Everything else is emo douchebaggery.

This is 100% true.  The new World of Darkness stuff (I assume the MMO is going to be mainly nWoD Vampire) is much more blank slate than the old and can encourage a lot of emo, but still works best when taken with a high dose of quirky snark. 

[Grefter]

There is a bigger difference in vampire lore between Mormon Sparklpires and other mainstream accepted vampire types.  Meyer explicitly states that she has tried to desexualise them in spite of being a "love" story and well, even WoD vampires are pretty much a straight up analogue for rape (So I honestly have no idea how the fuck you even go about desexualising them or how much she succeeds at that).  A huge part of WoD (And Anne Rice stuff) is that regardless of how they feel about it in general, the vampires are predators and they will eat humans, some use them like cattle, some hypersexualise the whole thing (If things are still like they are expect there to be a high chance of running accross some very strong Bondage imagery, very lace and leather type stuff).  From what I have heard about Meyer's stuff is they are... relatively defanged.  Shit it sounds like Bella is more actively a sexual predator than Edward is.

Actually I would highly reccomend checking out Daybreakers for a pretty good representation of the ultimate goals of some of the WoD vampires (Very Ventrue style situation although obviously they don't want the situation to be that bad OR to be ultimately resolved like it is), also it is just a totally awesome movie.  Also you should definitely check out Interview with a Vampire the movie.  Those two should give you a good 4 hourish crash course on vaguely what to expect lorewise really.  They are definitely far more directly from the lineage of Dracula which you are quite familiar with, but not the 5 steps removed like the Sparklies.

Edit - The setting isn't to far removed to make stuff from Bloodlines totally useless Alex?  Good to know.

[metroid composite]

Wait, Meyer says she's tried to desexualize them?  I've never seen vampires more sexualized than they are in Twilight, and I've read Brahm Stoker's Dracula.

Least sexual would be like...Touhou.  Followed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Granted, I'm not exposed to Rice and her Interview With a Vampire stuff.


EDIT: Oh right: landed in Georgia.  Driving here is scarier than California.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I imagine that vampire sexualization normally takes the form of suave seduction or scary rape. Edward is too much of a 13-year-old girl to ever approach anything resembling the traditional form of vampire sexualization. He's just *PRETTY!!!zOMG!*.

[Cmdr_King]

I'm told Atlanta is the worst-planned major city in the US.  When you couple this with the fact that Southerners can't drive, I have to think it's pretty much the worst driving outside Mexico City in the western hemisphere.

[Grefter]

Well I can't speak from experience, but Wiki links to this article with the following statement.

The books avoid delving into provocative sex, drugs, and harsh swearing because, according to Meyer, "I don't think teens need to read about gratuitous sex."[12]

But I am going to go out on a limb and say that maybe, just maybe, she isn't a good enough writer to pull it off.

At heart Vampire myth is incredibly sexualised, more so than even Stoker captures (!!!!!! I know is the immediate response to that, Dracula is a very sexual book).  The very essence of the entire myth is about pretty young women and swapping body fluids, the predator and the victim being entwined close enough so that they can be bitten.  There is sucking and biting going on.  Not to mention of course that it is all about this sex and blood, so you have a strong emphasis on Virgins as well. The suave seduction and/or violent breaking and enterring with taking an unwilling victim are just things layered on top of the very essence of a hyper sexual monster myth.  So yeah the classical interpretation is obviously rape of you girls, but there is more paths that can be taken than that.

But yeah, do yourself a favour and go rent Interview with a Vampire, the movie is really honestly really good.  If you have the time to sink into some trashy novels the first couple of books in the series (Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat from memory?) are not horrible, but there is a lot of eye rolling wank in there.  The movie gets bonus points for an actual alright performance by Tom Cruise for a change, but he gets totally blown out of the water by Brad Pitt, and holy fuck that was a young Kirsten Dunst?  Well anyway, Tom Cruise alright, Brad Pitt awesme, young Kirsten Dunst quite memorable and there is even a small role in here for Christian Slater on the tale end of his late 80's early 90's career where he was doing good movies.  Edit - I forgot to note that good Christian Slater is a good thing and it is a real shame his career went sour.

You can avoid Queen of the Damned, it was wanky and nonsense and the best thing to come out of it was its soundtrack, which was just a bunch of singles off already released albums.

Oh man and going to IMDB to get the actress' names I saw news that Dixie Carter died.  That is a shame, she was pretty good.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

To be fair, they're also played as a posit on the human position on the food chain sometimes.

[metroid composite]

I imagine that vampire sexualization normally takes the form of suave seduction or scary rape. Edward is too much of a 13-year-old girl to ever approach anything resembling the traditional form of vampire sexualization. He's just *PRETTY!!!zOMG!*.

Edward is terrible, but vampires in the twiligt myth are sexualized.  They're all described as inhumanly beautiful, and can send people into uncontrollable sexual lust just by breathing on them.  Also, they have sex, and the subject of sex comes up a few times every book.  (I don't know if the main character ever sees it first-hand, though).  Oh yeah, and the villain who's around for the first three books only hangs around to seek revenge over the death of the guy she was fucking.

And...as for the "it doesn't have sweating" complaint...honestly it has more than enough detail already.  I remember horrifying details I don't want to remember from Twilight's soft-porn scenes.

[Lady Door]

I really hate moving. Finding an apartment, negotiating rent, actually physically moving objects...

This stupid process, more than anything else, makes me want to become a complete minimalist and live out of a backpack.

[Grefter]

Edward is terrible, but vampires in the twiligt myth are sexualized.  They're all described as inhumanly beautiful, and can send people into uncontrollable sexual lust just by breathing on them.  Also, they have sex, and the subject of sex comes up a few times every book.  (I don't know if the main character ever sees it first-hand, though).  Oh yeah, and the villain who's around for the first three books only hangs around to seek revenge over the death of the guy she was fucking.

And...as for the "it doesn't have sweating" complaint...honestly it has more than enough detail already.  I remember horrifying details I don't want to remember from Twilight's soft-porn scenes.

That honestly sounds pretty tame for Vampire lore.  Anne Rice stuff has such a high level of eroticism that 2 guys sitting down and eating dinner is practically straight up pornographic. Compare what you have from Twilight with scenes with Vampire Lilly from Dracula.

What you are describing in Twilight is pretty tame sounding.  Reducing the sexuality of vampires so that they are just like horny teenagers is pretty piss weak for vampire lore >_>

[Anthony Edward Stark]

(I don't know if the main character ever sees it first-hand, though).  Oh yeah, and the villain who's around for the first three books only hangs around to seek revenge over the death of the guy she was fucking.

She never sees it, because the one time she bangs the vampire dude, she's passed out and he's like "Oh, well then."

[Grefter]

What the fuck, he rapes her when she is passed out?

Well apparently it is a lot closer to vampire myth than I had been lead to believe.

Edit - Note how totally believable I would have found it for a character in these books to fall in love with someone that raped them.  Because this shit is classy like Ayn Rand.

[Taishyr]

Because this shit is classy like Ayn Rand.

brb choking on own bile

[Idun]

I went to get McDonald's breakfast this morning because I was going to deposit three checks I haven't deposited in my bank. I needed energy at 9:30 on a day when I never wake up around that time. My mom tagged along because she was going to pay a bill. I got in an argument at McDonald's because I said I wanted the #3, but no drink. It didn't make sense right? I said, "I would like orange juice as long as it isn't an additional charge." They kept asking what type of drink. So I said no drink. Got up to the window and some lady was helping her out - I said I wanted orange juice but they always charge me $1.99 for it, even though it's a meal. And I don't want coffee or a soft drink in the morning. Needless to say, that was my pump fist to McD's because you should not ask for what drink, and someone gives you an answer, then there's a hidden fee on the receipt fuckers.

Apparently karma came back to me, because my mom started to choke on her muffin while I was driving. I immediately pulled over, got her out the car and was doing the heimleck (sp?). Apparently it worked! Before, I prefaced it with a long "oooh God," because I didn't know if it would be affective. Cops pull over in a matter of seconds asking if there was any help, but I had saved the day! Yaaaay. Still kinda shaken up and don't want to talk about it. I'm already worrying about her excessively.

So to make up for my "I SHOULDNT PAY 1.99 FOR ORANGE JUICE FOR A MEAL" at McD's, I signed up for int'l for my card at the bank, signed up for a new card, signed up for a credit card (student) - was going to wait longer for all of this, but apparently they don't do "secured" anymore.

Anyway, onto paper due tomorrow.

[Cotigo]

Zenny hates being artificially nice to people, being a good little groveling peon in the capitalist system.  Zenny had to do that all day.  But it paid off, and now Zenny is tired.  Zenny may or may not be yelling on the internet for the rest of the day.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

This was a conversation that happened as my work shift ended. This was with my immediate boss (I have another boss, who's my official boss - the one in this conversation is just the coordinator and is about a year older than I am):

<Boss> I was just wondering if I'd have to pick up my brother's polearm to smack you into leaving. (Context: the company has a pretty strict policy of avoiding staying past your shift times and break times - i.e. coming back from lunch before lunch break is over and staying past your designated shift. Labor lawsuits risks and whatnot)
<Snow> Wait a minute, what?
<Boss> Yeah. Once, I had to bring the polearm with me to the airport so I could get it back to bro. The lady asked if I had any more cutting objects with me and I answered "yeah, my daggers". (Context Deux: she -does- have a pair of daggers. She's a trained daggerslinger)
<Snow> You know, you could use the daggers too.
<Boss> The polearm'd be so much easier, though. It even has the right length for me to poke your head with the blunt end from where I'm sitting.

Working in a place with insane people? Kinda awesome.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Hot. Are you sure she's not hitting on you?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Nah. She usually reserves the mug-tossing to the guy who sits next to her. That and she's just a complete clown. It comes with being born in the Northeast.

[Cmdr_King]

... what a terrible joke.

"Even if she has a long stick to poke him with, I doubt Snow'd be into his female boss".

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

That was the underlying aesop from the beginning.

[Grefter]

Snow, giving the world aesops about lying under long sticks since 1985.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I wish I had just turned 25.

[Idun]

One more research paper. One more. YES.

[Idun]

Freaknik.

In Atlanta.

That shit was banned.

Needless to say:




NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!


When you sit in one spot in traffic for an hour. . .  and have moved maybe 24 feet. . . . something is very, very, very wrong. Either way, I'll be using my wits since roads are being shut down for this bullshit so I don't get trapped in the GSU bus like I did before.


Ugh.