Eschewed Obfuscation

* I have 3 Dreamwidth invite codes to give out, anyone want? Comment with your email address (comments are screened) and I will update here with the number remaining. ETA: Gone already! That was fast.

* Vermont legalizes gay marriage through a legislative override of a governor veto. seth_dickinson is proud, I'm sure.

* Voluntary Human Extinction Movement!

* Via yhlee and VSL, a neat musical game called BallDroppings.

* On AmazonFail/TrollWin: mac_stone alerts me first to markprobst's post, Amazon Follies. fireriven then points me to rosefox's linkage summary; Dear Author also chimes in. Finally, tehdely points out the traits of trolling, Bantown, and similarity to Strikethrough; over at brutal_honesty, weev claims responsibility for propagating the lulz.

* Via netmouse from racism_101, an illuminating pictorial comparison of AvatarFail. Racebending has also started a petition.

* Belatedly, the first Asian Women's Carnival is just awesome. I've collected a lot of good stuff from that and previous RaceFail fallout; there's enough for one loooong Link Anthology, even discounting the ones I want to discuss in full-length posts. Haven't decided yet whether the discussion will be flocked.

* In non-activism news, an interesting article about linguistics and speech development, courtesy of StumbleUpon.

* Also via StumbleUpon, trees in stitches!

* ZOMG CUTE Tweenbots--little cardboard robots in NYC--via yhlee and others.

* nihilistic_kid talks about how to write a term paper.

Fruits Basket vol. 17
by Natsuki Takaya
~200 pages, ch. 96-101 (graphic novel)
Genre: Fiction/Manga

Furuba is always lovely for me, but some volumes resonate more than others. Volume 16, for instance, with the Cinderella play, gave me hysterics. This one was touching in a completely different way--the Akito/Kureno/Shigure relationship is absolutely gorgeous. The paneling, too. And of course, this volume contains the reveal of Akito's big secret.

I do wonder about gender roles in Fruits Basket. The zodiac is predominantly male, but the Sohma females in general have very little power. Even Ren.

More later, perhaps. I need to think about it some more.

194 pages
Genre: Fiction/Manga

Firstly: I <3 Furuba. And I'm terrible at analyzing graphic novels, even more so than films. For me, all manga is fluff. I like the pretty pictures, but really I'm more interested in plot. It's fun to read other people's panel-by-panel analyses, but I' m just a casual browser.

So I guess I'll talk about more universal things, like character, plot, and setting (the three mainstays of all story--no, theme is not a prequisite). Where was I? Oh yeah. Plot.

Frankly, the first half of this book, where Yuki things about his past, was boring. I'm getting tired of Yuki as the series progresses--15 volumes of wallowing in self-pity is a bit much. But the second half is about the class play, Sorta Cinderella. Tohru is the evil stepsister, Hana is Cinderella, Kyo is the prince, and Yuki is the fairy...guardian. With the last page of Chapter 86 (another loving Yuki-Ayame interaction), hilarity begins. It's the funniest manga sequence I've ever read--I couldn't stop laughing. Totally makes up for the Yuki-angst. It's just...indescribable.