Mel

My father downloaded Audacious to his spiffy new computer to help me record an interview for humanities class. I'll see if it doesn't work on my ancient mac... He also downloaded something called record pad that he says is simpler. I'll try that too.

• When you pick up a book, what are you mainly looking for? What gains your attention? Usually it’s the cover at first, but a make a point of reading a synopsis before actually checking it out. (Or buying it.) Lately, I find that I look for specific books instead of browsing. I think that this is mainly because I have less reading time. • What are you favorite genres or writing styles? -When I was younger, I was obsessed with fantasy and Sci-fi. Now, not so much. I still like to read them both, but I find now that I stick to what I know instead of picking up whatever looks interesting. I have also lost my voracious appetite for High Fantasy, mostly because a lot of it seems the same now. (I still am a sucker for shape-shifters, however.) -I like psychological horror, like Coraline. Anyone can chop of limbs and make me want to vomit, but only a good writer can truly scare me. -I like books that make me uncomfortable and cause me to think. 1984 and The Grapes of Wrath still had interesting and genuine characters, but they manage to make powerful statements without forcing them in your face. (This was one problem I had with The Jungle, though I like it in general.) • What types of things don’t you like in certain writings or styles? -“The Nikila effect.” My reading life has not been active lately, sadly, but I see this all too much on these forums. The main character’s love interest (usually female) is killed off so the main character can have an angst fest and blame himself and all that jazz. -Characters that are obviously stand ins for the writer or reader. *coughbellaswananderagoncough* -Characters that are obviously the writer’s idea of a perfect romantic interest. *coughedwardcullencough* -Ridiculously straight lines between good and evil. (I can ignore this in Bionicle, most of the time…) -Really predictable plots bug me, because they have no reason for me to read any further. • How picky are you concerning the originality of a certain story? Is it more about the portrayal and depth of the world/characters/setting that makes it interesting, or the overall plot and freshness? -I am currently reading Watership Down, which might be a questing heroes sort of epic except the main characters are all rabbits. That’s right, rabbits. While this might seem like a gimmick, it was carried off in a way that made it seem fresh and original. -Generally, I believe that individual quirks in characters are far more important that plot and setting, though changes in those are nice too.

Mac 9 had a recording program called SimpleSound, but if you have anything higher, you're probably out of luck. You either have to use Quicktime pro, which costs money and requires an external microphone anyway, or download audio-recording software of the interweb. And I'm terrified of giving my computer a nasty virus and killing it, so I probably won't be auditioning. *sigh* I could see my voice as Tachi's. (Or hear it, rather.)

Oh, wow. I've been taking Japanese for a year now and I never noticed that.

Dang...my computer is ancient and can't record anything, otherwise I'd be more than willing. But that's okay. Yay for procrastinating...I just finished my entry. Good luck with yours. I'm sure it will be epic...

Everybody here seems to be doing either music videos or collages. Could I do something else...like something that involves writing? Because it's not short at all. The deadline extension basically saved my life.

I don't know what those songs are, but I can read hiragana....

I never said that the Administrators did this for homophobic reasons. What I disagreed with was the reference to homophobia, as a "sillly term". I realize it is abused, but just because a term is abused doesn't make it any less really. I really dislike how the term "anti-semitic" is pinned on anyone who questions Israel, but that doesn't make anti-semitism an invalid term. And what I fail to understand about the "this is a kid's forum" argument is this: On this kid's forum, I can stab people in the heart, burn them to death, crush them with avalanches, tern them into living icicles, cut their and kill or torture them in various nasty ways, as long as I don't get into much detail about. Yet, I can't make two male characters hold hand and say "I love you." What makes violence more okay?

So Matt Shepard died because of a "silly term"? I not saying everybody who disagrees with homosexuality is a homophobe. I've always thought homophobia to be very strong and very hateful. Even so, homophobia isn't against the law, but hate crimes are. Our GSA posters get torn down every year because of it. People at out college got hate mail containing real threats because of it. That's like saying antisemitism is a silly term. And if removing this rule wouldn't cause some huge civil war, why have it in the first place?

No, I'm sure most of us are against that. (After two weeks at Japanese camp I never want to here that term again. Uggh.) Heterosexual stories of that nature are banned too, believe me. What the forum people did is ban any story that even mentions homosexuality. And "Homophobia" is not a silly term. People have died because of it.