rodo's journal

☞ The Mary Sue debate is back again. This got me thinking about what I define as a Mary Sue, and I think I finally got a bit closer to what defines a MS: a MS is, for me at least, an id character that takes up a lot of room. More often than not, s/he is part of idfic. I have no idea what makes a character an id character, though. It's just this nagging-to-icky feeling that I get while reading, even when I like the character and the story. An example would be Harry Dresden in later books. It's one of the reasons why I won't touch other Butcher books; I'm afraid the protagonists will be id characters as well, and that unlike Harry they won't appeal to my id.

☞ I took a look at the books that I've stored under my bed. There are some books there that I didn't quite remember owning – three Hohlbeins. Some that I've never read – a 1951 translation of Dream of the Red Chamber. And books that I wish I didn't own – the Eric Lustbader book that calls him "master of the orient" on the cover. The weirdest book by far, however, is Raiders of the Deep by Lowell Thomas. In a German translation from 1930. Entirely in blackletter. It's about submarines in WWI, I think. Well, at least it's Alte Rechtschreibung and not the one before that. I always have to fight the urge to add random Hs to Ts and to replace every K and Z with a C after I read one of those.

☞ Is there a resource site or helpful program for vidders where they can look for footage without watching episodes? The main reason why I'm really slow at teaching myself how to vid is because I'm mostly not in the mood to look for the footage I need. I wish there was a site where I could just use tags to find a scene with a)Dean Wincester b)eating c)a hamburger or a)River Tam's b)feet (c)naked).

☞ I hate spring. It's time for my annual cold, for one. I always get them in spring because immune system doesn't know how to deal with a virus on top of all my allergies. I really loved this winter because I was allergy free for entire months, which is rare. Snow and temperatures below zero are vitually the only guarantee for me being allergy free (damn mould allergies). Also spiders. They are big, black and everywhere. At least the April weather is amusing. I don't think I've ever seen hail in bright sunshine before.