In four days I leave for Taiwan.

I have no medical insurance. I haven't packed a bloody thing. Will it be an epic failure? Only time will tell.

I am not at work today. That's because Friday was my last day of my craptastic Post Office job.

Mother snarling, barely tolerating my presence in her house, but she can piss off because on the 10th I go to Taiwan *__*

Taken from niav:

* Leave me a comment saying "GIVE ME QUESTIONS, MOTHERFUCKER"
* I'll respond by asking you four questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
* Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
* Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

( Questions and answers )

Because the wank is already in progress!

( Spoilers for Shinkenger 39 and Double 10 )

Personal stuff: I have internet access again but will be moving out of Mum's in two weeks and then moving to Taiwan on the 10th. At least it will be nice not to have to keep everything in suitcases.

( Shinkenger 36-37 )

STILL NO PC.

I'm on my sister's computer for five minutes just to rant about a couple of things:

1. The poster on HJU who said that ( spoiler for last night's Shinkenger )

2. Some of the comments on this article, particularly those by "erika." Why would any non-white person want to marry or have a child with someone of their own race when we could hook up with a far superior white person! White people built civilization, y'know, the rest of us just live in it (!)

I miss you all but it doesn't look like we'll have a new PC any time soon :(

Decided to watch Shinkenger just this once because the episode focused on Kotoha and Genta. My shipper heart is now very, very happy. It's nice to see that she doesn't feel she has to be quite so shy around him; she is at least comfortable enough with him to be honest about his cooking. They can get married and run a chain of sushi/curry shops *___*

Short rant: Why do Sentai fans seem to love the ships which give the worst possible messages about what a relationship should be like?

( Under the cut )

I'm sorry I haven't been able to read and comment very often. Our PC was ruined during a power surge in the building (we're in a house converted into flats) so now we've lost everything that was on our hard drive and I'm reduced to internet cafes or the WAP on my phone. It probably won't be too long until Mum caves and replaces the PC, but till then I won't be around as much ...

I made these at this site last night. There are a bunch of others but I'm still playing with them, so I'll upload them another time.

Note: These aren't very clear, but if you wanted to do your own they can always be cleaned up in Photoshop. All ships are of my preference because the canon ones usually suck.

( Shinkenger Babies )

( Gekiranger Babies )

( Rescue Fire Babies )

( Kabuto Babies )

I've also done Double Babies, Decade Babies and Dekaranger Babies. Might post them another time.

( More stuff about Taiwan )

I had another KR-related dream last night. I dreamed that I was in the Cluedo house (Clue, for the Americans in the audience) with Shotaro and Phil and trying to work out whodunnit. Shotaro had rounded up the suspects and was being all detective-y but he kept getting distracted by Phil fiddling with the gramophone and all the other old stuff in the house. I used to have a PC version of the game with 3D graphics, so that's what my dream looked like.

Also found this site which allows you to mix together photos and see what the resulting baby would look like. I did loads of Sentai and KR babies last night (you can see some of them on niav's journal) so I'll post some of them later.

Taken from everlasting_day:

Leave me a comment (let me know specifically if you want a letter for the meme) and I will give you a letter. Then write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal.

I got S.

( Under the cut )

( Rescue Fire 27 )

( Double 5 (warning: not v. coherent, because Keyhole is acting up) )

I was going to do another rant following on from last week's sexism debate, this time about why Sentai seems to think dependency is the sign of a great relationship. But I'll save it. You've been spared.

Is HJU down for everybody, or did I get banned? I'm a lurker and have never posted, so perhaps they banned me for inactivity?

EDIT: It's down! Hooray! Now the fapping fanboys will all have a fit while I go to that nice French fansite for my latest toku-related news/gossip. (That was too many Fs, wasn't it?)

I haven't ever had a serious disagreement with someone over our political opinions. I do tone down certain sentiments in public; I went to a left-wing university and I knew I'd be jumped on if I said I support capital punishment, for example.

I don't want to be friends with anyone who has extremist political views. That includes anarchists, conspiracy theorists, animal rights fanatics and people with strong male chauvinist ideas ("women belong in the home!" "women shouldn't drive!" etc.)

Why are the tags to this entry nothing to do with the question?

Taken from everlasting_day:

Name a fandom and I'll tell you:
♦ OTP
♦ Runner-up
♦ Honourable mention(s)
♦ Crack pairing(s)
♦ Ship everyone else seems to like, but I don't

I used to have these really godawful dark circles under my eyes. They didn't come from lack of sleep. I had used all kinds of eye creams on them and nothing worked. My doctor said they were probably hereditary and that meant they wouldn't shift. He told me I would just have to use concealer. I don't want to "conceal" them, I want to make them go away. And no one else in my family has dark circles.

I went to this herbalist place in town and they suggested I take milk thistle, which is good for the liver. It's worked. In about 12 days the circles have really got better. They're still not quite gone but I'm persevering and I think more sleep would help too. The only drawback is that milk thistle tastes bloody awful, so take it in capsule form rather than liquid.

Change of subject: I was reading Kimisawa Yuuki's blog and thinking about how he always manages to look hot even in crappy cameraphone pics that haven't been posed, when something hit me - he is, quite obviously, one of those "Alpha Male" types. And no matter how sweet or gentlemanly they pretend to be, this is the type that thinks he is THE MAN and wants to dominate women. It's built-in - survival of the fittest, evolutionary and that. I've rather gone off him now. I need a new crush ...

Regarding the sexism in Shinkenger debate - I appreciate that the theme of the series is traditional Japanese culture, Mako and Kotoha are character types that a Japanese audience is familiar with. They're still annoying. No one ever won a battle by being "sweet," "feminine" or "beautiful." It reminds me of a debate I took part in at uni, about whether or not female soldiers should be allowed in front line combat. I was on the "No" side and I assumed our primary argument was going to be that women aren't physically up to it. The rest of the team didn't agree. They wanted to argue that female soldiers on the front line is wrong because it's not feminine, and women are supposed to be loving and motherly rather than blowing people up with tanks.

What the hell?

I admit I tend to think of "girly" female characters as weak. Wanting to look pretty, take care of other people, and be perky and "cute" are qualities I do not respect. In combat, they're a liability. I don't like such traits in a male character either but they're not the things a man is expected to be. TL;DR - it's all well and good to BE "feminine" but not when you're supposed to be saving the world. That's what is, and cultural background doesn't change it. Shinkenger's message (and a few other series) isn't something I'd want my own kids to admire, even if it's only fictional. As for Mako and Kotoha being poorly developed in comparison to the male Rangers, I think it's something you have to accept. Young boys are the main target audience and it's harder to sell girl figures to them ...

The only concert I've ever attended (and therefore most memorable) was an open-air gig in Nottingham nearly four years ago. A friend invited me and I went for the sole reason that I wanted to see Madness; the rest of the acts were shite. As it happened we missed their set because she'd taken *something* hallucinogenic and I spent most of the night in the first aid tent with her. That's the memorable bit - me fuming about missing the show while she sat there giggling!

I'm not bothering with Shinkenger any more. The sexist, nationalistic crap just grates on my nerves too much.

( Rescue Fire 26 (spoilers) )

( Double 4 )