sarasusa: (Default)
2020-12-09 03:40 pm

Checking in with a question for fanartists

Wow, ten years since I last ambled the byways of LiveJournal! I miss the active fannish days of yore!


I don't know if any of my LJ crowd still keep tabs on new posts, but just in case, I wanted to ask if any of you all are still creating fan art (2D or 3D, it's all good). I'm doing a video-blog with a library colleague on anime, manga, and allied fandoms, and we've come to the point in our series where we'll talk about fanart. I myself recollect only creating one piece of fanart ever (a Yu-Gi-Oh! one), but I know there have to be longtime fans who are still active artists, as well as newcomers. 


Here are some of the questions we have in mind:


When did you first start drawing fan art? How long have you been drawing fan art? For what manga/anime/other series?


Why do you create fan art?  Has the reason changed in any way from what it was when you started? 


What is the current series you’re drawing fan art from? Which series have you created the most fan art for? What prompts you to create a new piece?


Is there a specific fandom you follow or refer to? [and do you enjoy creating crossovers?]


What has been a memorable moment from your experiences as a fan artist?   


Have you ever been involved in Artist Alleys at a convention? 


Have you considered taking your fan art into your career path(s)? 


Read more... )
sarasusa: Icon made by me from Kokoro no Naka screencap, Yu-Gi-Oh! (kaiba trying to read)
2020-08-15 04:11 pm
Entry tags:

Behold, a meme!

*Instructions*: Post a photo you have taken along with an image description. Next, share the title you'd want displayed with it if the picture were selected for an exhibition.

*Image description*: A large rectangular mirror criss-crossed by cracks small and large (particularly toward its lower right-hand corner) sits propped against a pile of bags of trash toward the edge of a sidewalk. A portion of the bottom is entirely missing. Parked cars are seen to the left. The mirror reflects a clouded sky and power lines in disconnected segments, as well as a chunk of a nearby building. The mirror is dotted and streaked with raindrops.

*Exhibition Title*: "Our Trash Reflects Us"

A large rectangular mirror criss-crossed by cracks small and large (particularly toward its lower right-hand corner) sits propped against a pile of bags of trash toward the edge of a sidewalk. A portion of the bottom is entirely missing. Parked cars are seen to the left. The mirror reflects a clouded sky and power lines in disconnected segments, as well as a chunk of a nearby building. The mirror is dotted and streaked with raindrops.
sarasusa: (Sappho)
2010-12-27 05:02 pm

Wishing you all a gentle turning of the year...

2010 has had its rough patches for me...a brush with workplace violence, worries about housing stability after living in my current apartment for eight years, a general sense of treading water where I'd hoped to be making more progress. My country's current political climate troubles me too.

Still, there have been wonderful times with friends and family; excellent books (including lots of manga!) to read; times I felt I was making a difference at work; plenty of kitty-cuddling; and more. I'm glad to be alive!

One of my hopes for 2011 is to do more personal writing, including in this journal. (I had to get at least one post in for this year, though!)

Throughout my silence here, I've been following my friends list regularly and even commenting occasionally; you're all in my thoughts. Warm wishes for the New Year.
sarasusa: (YGO Shall we dance?)
2009-06-19 07:11 pm
Entry tags:

Waving a tattered flag, and blowing the dust off a meme

Whew! It's been over a year since I last posted...but, m'dears, I do check the friendslist daily and am grateful to those who write more regularly than I.

Work wails )

But enough of that! Last month, I espied this meme in [livejournal.com profile] lediz's journal:

Comment to this entry and I'll pick three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
03: Favourite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?


I petitioned her for a selection of three fandoms of mine; she chose Bleach, InuYasha, and Yu-Gi-Oh (the latter being our primary shared stomping-ground).

So, here goes! )
sarasusa: (Default)
2008-05-11 10:07 pm
Entry tags:

Meme a little meme of me...

Well, actually, I nabbed it from [livejournal.com profile] chez_maltesers:

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

She gave me the letter R... )

::sets out a sign:: I've got a whole alphabet of letters here, hand-picked and appetizing! Any takers?
sarasusa: (Sakura goes aieee!)
2008-02-26 06:21 pm

Crypto-kvetching

It feels odd to post after such a long silence when it's just to rant; on the other hand, I need to let some of this stuff out and lack a punching bag, so: gyaaargh )

On the much, much brighter side, I visited Pittsburgh again for the first time in years. I fell in love with the city when I was there for grad school in 2000-2002. It was a flying visit, literally and figuratively--I caught a plane there on Saturday evening after a full day of work, then flew back Sunday night.

The reason I went was this: Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, a musical based on Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country.

There are some musical works which have, since I was a child, helped shape the way I look at the world. This is one of them. )
sarasusa: (Default)
2007-09-20 12:26 am
Entry tags:

a letter I have hid

After writing about war and the death of language, I couldn't stop hearing the end of Amy Lowell's "Patterns" in my head.

So here's the whole thing for you. )
sarasusa: (The Crusher Reads)
2007-09-19 10:59 pm
Entry tags:

linguistic lifespans and crimes of conjugation

Gah, it's been eons since I've posted. I check my friendslist daily (hi, y'all! ::waves::), but have kept mostly mum in my own journal. Though there's a lot I could talk about--things going on in my life, world issues I care about, fannish matters, library concerns--I don't feel cut out to be a steady diarist or commentator.

Oddly enough, what tends to stir me out of my accustomed silence is language itself. natterings of a glottophile )

linguistic lifespans )

* * * * *
crimes of conjugation )
sarasusa: (Buyo)
2007-07-15 08:35 pm
Entry tags:

The law of the meme declares it!

The Rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.


I responded to [livejournal.com profile] cheeky_duckie's posting of this meme. Her questions to me, and my answers:

1. What is your favorite album ever?

Gaah. I reeeallly can't pick. High on the list are ABBA Gold; American Pie by Don McLean; the Hikaru no Go and Revolutionary Girl Utena original soundtracks 1 and 2; much of Mercedes Sosa's Vengo a ofrecer mi corazón; Water from Another Time by John McCutcheon; If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot; Tracy Chapman's self-named album; Joan Baez in Concert; Peter, Paul and Mary's ten year anniversary recording; and a ton of musicals--Candide, Lost in the Stars, Fanny, Camelot, Music Man.... Also, Leonard Bernstein's Mass. (And I still feel sad for excluding many favorites!)


2. Do you drink tea?

Coffee's my current caffeine of choice, but I used to drink tea a lot, and still do sometimes. I love the ritual feeling of teapot and teacup, of pouring for others and for oneself. (And tea itself is tasty! More calming, somehow, than coffee.) I used to drink Celestial Seasonings' Morning Thunder all the time, but coffee has now supplanted it.

3. What genre is the majority of your book collection?

::Eyeing said book collection:: Er. The proportion of manga to other types has been increasing exponentially, but overall it's probably 60% novels (especially children's books and most particularly children's historical fiction), 30% nonfiction, and 10% manga. That's a very rough and unscientific estimate, however!

4. How do you feel about faith?

I would like to live up to my Quaker beliefs(to live them) a lot more than I feel I do currently. I think my faith may cycle through fallow periods--I hope that's what this is, and that I'll eventually return to a more Quakerly state of being.

5. Monkeys?

OOKIE! (I love the monkeyish character Tatsukichi from SuperGALS, who commands one's respect by the end of the manga/anime for having stuck with the charismatic, temperamental and supremely self-centered Ran through thick and thin. I'm also fond of Honda Hiroto from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, who undergoes a brief but memorable stint as a robot monkey.)

And now: Come one, come all! Reply to this post and I'll pepper you with questions!
sarasusa: (Juri waits)
2007-06-18 10:06 pm
Entry tags:

It's the principle of the thing...

I'm posting the answers to the previous post's meme--if you still want to try guessing 'em, Don't Look! ^_~

Consider the source )
sarasusa: (read with friends)
2007-06-02 08:40 pm
Entry tags:

No coherent personal reflections at the moment, so... two book memes!

Both snagged from [livejournal.com profile] tuuli_chan.

Meme the First: List the first sentences of ten of your favorite books. Have your friends guess which books they are!

Mostly children's/young adult novels here... )

Meme the Second: Are you a book lover? A TV freak? A movie aficionado? Put your mind to the test, and list some of your favorite fictional characters - one for each letter of the alphabet.

Basically, I stuck to characters in books or plays I've read. )

::phew:: Yes, the letter X has defeated me. ^_^;

Hope you're all well!
sarasusa: (Akira reflects)
2007-05-18 12:26 pm
Entry tags:

All of Prydain mourns

And Westmark too.

'Chronicles of Prydain’ author Lloyd Alexander dead at 83

Lloyd Alexander's official website [not yet updated with the news]

His works shaped my childhood. He knew how to write pathos in a way that was accessible to kids and adults alike; how to create flawed, sympathetic heroes and lovable side characters (here's looking at you, Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam). (He knew how to write great fantasy about cats, too.)

Sometimes, in later years, I felt his plots and characters fell into patterns--but there was always something to redeem each story.

Farewell, Lloyd Alexander.
sarasusa: (turf)
2006-09-11 09:34 pm
Entry tags:

Selkies, in song and fanfic

I interrupt my regular silence for a brief post. A musical goodie--"Ballad of the White Seal Maid," written by Jane Yolen and set to music/performed by Lui Collins--reposes beneath the cut for your downloading pleasure, provided you hop to it within the next six days.

for selkie's my nature and name )

I uploaded the song for some friends following a conversation about selkies in general. Coincidentally, I'd also recently read this Prince of Tennis fanfic: "The Skin of a Seal" by [livejournal.com profile] kish_t_rethya. I recommend it for its wonderful job of capturing both the nature of the PoT characters and the wistful feeling of selkie mythology.

Not much to report about this summer--it's been up and down, busy and not. A few more fandoms have been added to my repertoire, though I haven't worked on fanfic (or other creative writing) in ages. I'm still at the same library branch. My cat continues lovely and marmalade-colored with smidgens of cream. My parents moved into a retirement community, meaning the house I (partly) grew up in has passed from our family. The singing group I'm part of has worked on some glorious songs lately, including an a cappella version of "Love is a Fearsome Thing" by Judy Small.

::waves a friendly flipper, then sinks beneath the surface again::
sarasusa: (Luna Lovegood)
2006-04-21 12:19 pm

In honor of National Poetry Month: my anime/manga haiku riddles

For those of you who
enjoy haiku and anime,
click (fake) LJ-cut!

I posted them at
[livejournal.com profile] haiku_for_you. Join the group
if you love haiku!
sarasusa: (shyly inquisitive Akira)
2006-03-07 05:54 pm
Entry tags:

At [livejournal.com profile] sheron's suggestion...links to tracks; one more meme

[livejournal.com profile] sheron pointed out that the Music Library meme below would be even cooler if one shared the songs in question. So, for a limited time (one week to be exact) and for a limited number of downloads, here are the tracks I mentioned! Please, if you like the songs enough, consider (when possible!) buying the official recording from which I've taken them. I mean this post as a promotion of the artists' work.

Snapshots from my music library... )

And, while I'm at it, here's another music-sharing meme (got this one from [livejournal.com profile] tuuli_chan):

Do you trust my taste in music? Pick around three numbers from 1 to 623 and I'll find the corresponding song in my playlist. I'll upload it for you to grab. When you've gotten a song from me, go post this meme in your own journal, replace the number with the number of songs YOU have so I can grab a random song from you.

P.S. Thanks for the ones you sent me, Tuuli! Liked 'em all. ^^
sarasusa: (Quakies)
2006-03-02 07:24 pm
Entry tags:

...so what makes you think I'm procrastinating?

iTunes Music Library Meme, gleaned (and slightly altered) from the journal of [livejournal.com profile] akainagi


Open iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.

Number of songs: 544

Sort by song:
First Song: "A Circle Is Cast" - A Circle Is Cast, Libana
Last Song: "Yuu" - Hikaru no Go Original Soundtrack 1, various artists

Sort by time:
Shortest song: "Eyecatch" from Descendants of Darkness Original Soundtrack (9.5 seconds!)
Longest Song: "Drop of Water/Traditional Song" by Dana Lyons from Turn of the Wrench (10 minutes, 23 seconds)

Sort by artist:
First Artist: ABBA ("Waterloo" on ABBA Gold)
Last Artist: individual = Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles" on Be Not Nobody); collective = Various Artists--though actually, I think it's Topol ("If I Were a Rich Man" on Fiddler on the Roof)

Sort by album:
First Album: 1962-1966, Disc 1 (The Beatles, "From Me to You")
Last Album: Yu-Gi-Oh! Sound Duel 4 ("EYES (TV-Size)")

Search the key word and see how many songs appear:
"Sex": none
"Death": 4
"Love": 24
"You": 25
"Me": 14
"Drugs": none
"Hate": none

Search for your own name, how many?: none

Do The Shuffle!
Shuffle your library and list the first five songs. No padding your playlist, you hipster, you. Be honest!

"Yesterday" - The Beatles (1962-1966, Disc 1)
"Confrontation" - Various (Descendants of Darkness Original Soundtrack)
"Deja Blue" - Various (Into the Sky: Vision of Escaflowne Original Soundtrack)
"Eternal Flame" - The Bangles (Love Songs of the 80s)
"Family" - Dar Williams (Mortal City)
sarasusa: (kyoko)
2006-03-02 05:55 pm

Beware the rice cake

I have fallen in love with mochi--that sticky-rice substance which can variously be toasted, put in soup, shaped into coats around balls of ice cream, and more. This warning label amused me: "Children (especially under three years of age) and elderly people should be cautious. Please chew thoroughly before swallowing."

Apparently, though, the warning is very much in earnest:
Mochi (rice cake)

"Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded into a paste, and shaped into cakes. ...They are one of the essential Japanese foods, and having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them."

Fear the goo. o_O

(But I gotta say--the Mochi*Mochi manga scanslation site redeems the food's image for me! Mochi makes for some very cute credit pages.)
sarasusa: (Let Your Light Shine)
2006-02-21 09:08 pm
Entry tags:

Cute li'l' memelet

Purloined from [livejournal.com profile] caitirin:

Make up a title for a story I didn't write, and I will respond with details of those non-written stories. Just think of the possibilities! (If you'd like to include details you'd like, pairings or fandom or something, you can do that too.)
sarasusa: (a little like Shag)
2006-01-31 07:05 pm
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Inspired to Potterfilk!

The other night, [livejournal.com profile] jobiska and I laughed ourselves silly (-er?) over this site:

Harry Potter - The Musical(s)

A lot of the songs are impressively singable!

I couldn't help but be inspired.

Draco's Lament )
sarasusa: (Gushoushin from Yami no Matsuei by Yoko)
2006-01-25 11:13 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

Gack'd from [livejournal.com profile] fish_are_evil, though it's popped up in several other folks' journals since…

Leave a list of fictional characters in your journal that you would love to get a message from. It is your friends-list's mission, should they choose to accept it, to write you an in-character "letter" from a character on that list. Then they post their own list in their journal and the process continues!


1) Fflewddur Fflam or Gurgi (Lloyd Alexander, Chronicles of Prydain)
2) Treebeard or Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings)
3) Saki Hanajima, Tohru Honda, or Momiji, Hatsuharu, Shigure or Hiro Sohma (Natsuki Takaya, Fruits Basket)
4) Mr. Yotsuya or Mrs. Ichinose (Rumiko Takahashi, Maison Ikkoku)
5) The Gushoushin brothers...because hey, they're my colleagues! (Yoko Matsushita, Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness)
6) Sai no Fujiwara (Yumi Hotta/Takeshi Obata, Hikaru no Go)
7) Jaken (Rumiko Takahashi, InuYasha)
8) Daichi Fuwa (Daisuke Higuchi, Whistle!)
9) Shuichi Nakatsu (Hisaya Nakajo, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e)
10) Alphonse Elric, Maes Hughes or Alex Armstrong (Hiromu Arakawa, Fullmetal Alchemist)
11) Mai Kujaku (Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh!)
12) Princess Ishtar (Judal, Vampire Game)
13) Anthy Himemiya (Be-Papas, Revolutionary Girl Utena)
14) Puss in Boots (from Andrea L. Peterson's "No Rest for the Wicked" online comic, or general folklore)
15) Vetch (Ursula K. Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea)
16) Charlotte (Amy Winfrey, "Making Fiends" webcartoon)
17) Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac--Brian Hooker translation)
18) Beatrice (William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing)
19) Anansi (from folklore, but especially as depicted by Eric Kimmel in his picture book retellings)
20) Mr. Bennet (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)