Links and memery

[oyceter]

telophase has created a Cool Bits story generator. She explains the concept and shares some of the best.

I decided that there should be a Cracktastic Bits generator as well, and rachelmanija is soliciting suggestions. (Although I honestly have no idea when I will code it, if ever. But it is too fun to read! And the best thing is, all of the examples have actually been published in some way, shape or form!)

And now, that three-interests-three-icons meme, from jonquil:

• Heads in jars - I feel this is self-explanatory. Hrm, possibly not for the good portion of my flist who does not actually read manga and fears that I actually attempt to collect heads in jars. Heads in jars (or, in one occasion, a box) seem to be one of those strange, reoccuring images in manga and anime. Variations include: decapitated heads being lovingly cradled in grief (provoking unintentional hilarity), decapitated heads preserved in jars being lovingly cradled in grief, heads in jars being preserved solely so they can be sewn back onto a reanimated body and either a) resurrected and loved or b) resurrected and killed. Every time I get to one in manga or anime, I start laughing hysterically and yelling, "Heads in jars for the win!" because I am insane like that.
  
  Also, I am totally amused that I am not the only person with "heads in jars" listed as an interest.
  
  rachelmanija has a post on The Decapitated Head in Narrative. It is a very serious and scholary work.



• Tang Dynasty - This is actually not cracktastic. I've always had a vague notion of what the Tang Dynasty was; in Chinese school in America and in class in Taiwan, I always had to memorize poems out of The Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty (Tang shi san bai shou). Oddly, this made me adore Tang poetry as opposed to hating it, though I would not recommend using this method on your kids, as the potential for backfiring seems huge. I love the strictness of Tang poetry -- the pronunciation-accent pattern in the forms, the parallelism, the rhyme, the language of images -- and how the poets must work within these strictures to produce absolute brilliance.
  
  I probably learned about Tang Dynasty history back in my Chinese history classes in Taiwan, but as they were all conducted in Chinese, I remember next to nothing. Just to give you some idea: it took me years to realize that "xi la" meant the Greeks. Prior to that, I had assumed it was the name of a random Mongolian tribe that got its name from either making sausages or candles.
  
  My favorite class in college was intro. to Chinese lit. because of the enthusiasm of the professor. And I finally learned about Tang history, about how cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic its capital Chang'an was (for the 700s and probably for much later), the gridlike architecture of Chang'an that Kyoto eventually emulated, the cultural renaissance, the contact with India and the Middle East*, and finally, about the betrayal and fall of the High Tang in 755, the legendary concubine Yang Guifei, the fatal mistake of the battle that should have been in a pass, and the devastation of war and how Du Fu immortalized it in poetry.
  
  * I am forever irked at textbooks and people who claim that China and Japan and all of Asia were isolationist and didn't make contact with the outside. Didn't make contact with Europe and America, yes. But that completely ignores the trade (monetary and cultural) going on for centuries in Asia, including Southeast Asia, India and parts of the Middle East.



• Hsinchu - I grew up here! It is the Silicon Valley of Taiwan!

This is my Joan of Arcadia icon, back when I was still watching. Aww, Luke and Grace are so cute! Strangely, I always forget I have this and never use it even when I am squeeing.



I usually make my own icons, but rilina made this as a present and it is too awesome to pass up!

Parakeet of DOOM! From an episode in Bleach, in which the possessed parakeet is supposed to be very tragic but is instead completely hilarious. Also, as many people have noted (ETA: *ahem*jinian*ahem*), it is actually a cockatiel of DOOM, but the translation in both the subs and the manga have it as a parakeet. Someday I must make one that says "Parakeet Cockatiel Cockakeet of DOOM!"



My icon of general woe, albeit not too serious woe. This is Fuu from Samurai Champloo, who is very pink and very foodie and very funny. I like her a lot, possibly because I am egotistic and rachelmanija once said Fuu reminded her of me.

Feel free to jump in and ask me to pick three of your icons and interests!