*SpammishRice

That's how they re-dubbed "Jesus Christ!" to air "Hot Fuzz" on TV.

I can finally change my mood! It's the only good thing that's come out of the format change. I wouldn't say it's bad, but I'm not exactly "Holy crap this is so amazingly better than the last version!" because it's not. I had my front page set to display the most recent of my favorite anime characters and crack pairings, and now it's gone. And it looks like DA is REALLY pushing the equal opportunity art exposure because the Daily Deviations are on the front page AND the bottom of my message page.

A bit of disturbing news: Google "rabbit ripper" -- there's a serial bunny killer in Germany. No joke.

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Shikamaru and Sasuke--Random junk I've observed:

- Both have blood type AB.
- As genin, both were 150.8 cm; Shikamaru was 42 kg; Sasuke was 42.2 kg. No one else had stats that match up like this (the closest is Tenten, who weighed the same as Sasuke)
- Both are known geniuses.
- Both have dark eyes and dark hair that defies gravity.
- Typical stance for both: slouching with hands in pockets.
- Both are the only two of the Konoha 12 that have another member of the group numerically behind them in regards to their registration numbers. (Sasuke - 012606 and Naruto - 012607; Shikamaru - 012611 and Hinata - 012612)
- Both are approximately three months older than the group members numbered after them. (Sasuke - July and Naruto - October; Shikamaru - September and Hinata - December).
- Both had best friends who were openly mocked and cast out.
- One was teamed up with a girl named after a flower. The other was teamed up with a girl who sold flowers.
- Both single-handedly defeated an Akatsuki member.
- Both had their mentors killed by an Akatsuki member (thought Itachi really only did Sasuke a favor by finally killing Orochimaru)
- Both are noted to be surrounded by girls they find annoying. Although, girls find one attractive, and the other lazy. Also notably, neither boy has been seen interacting with Hinata. All the other significant females (Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Temari, Karin, etc.) have interacted with either or both boys.
- From ~Warrior-of-Ruin: In the anime, Shikamaru and Sasuke were shown sitting next to each other in the academy. I'm not sure if that was in the manga, but it is mentioned that they were in the same class. Shikamaru actually looked up to Sasuke. [link]

Then there's the fact that Naruto is so hung up on getting his supposed "best friend" Sasuke back, that he doesn't seem to appreciate someone who HAS been a bit more reliable: Shikamaru.

- Sasuke mocked Naruto in the academy. From what we've seen, Shikamaru did not.
- After training with Gamabunta and Jiraiya and being put in the hospital, Naruto wakes up to find Shikamaru at his bedside (Sure Sasuke's busy training, but even Sakura wasn't there). They even go off together to save an unconscious Lee from Gaara.
- Chasing down Sasuke during the Sound/Sand attack at final Chuunin Exam, Shikamaru volunteers to stay behind to handle nine Chuunin knowing he'll probably die, so Naruto and Sakura can go on ahead.
- Shikamaru again was prepared to die (along with the rest of the team members) and send Naruto ahead in order to get Sasuke back during the retrieval mission.
- Shikamaru and Chouji save Naruto's dumb ass the first time we see Sai.
- Shikamaru not only helps Naruto figure out the key to Jiraiya's code, but also talks some sense into him so he can move on from the grief of losing a mentor.

This has just been sitting in my head for awhile. I've never actually fully read the first part of the Naruto manga--I've only read starting at Kakashi Gaiden, and not even that thoroughly. So some things may actually be wrong or missing.

Totally unproductive, but I got it out of my head, and I'm happy with that much.

Nope, not in the least. I'm not irritated though...still can't change that stupid mood thingie!

Kishimoto really can't write a good female character if his life depended on it. Even though he said Sakura was originally supposed to be unlikeable, he switched gears later on, but I STILL have trouble liking her (I'm trying, I really am!). Tenten's got no story whatsoever. And really, I think the only reason why I like Hinata, Ino, and Temari is because they have good background stories and Kishimoto ignores them, leaving me with plenty of room to work out a (likeable) character based on their backgrounds and what little of their personalities we've seen so far.

I'm still not sure how Kishimoto has no trouble with the adult women.

But now there's this new girl from the latest chapters--Shiho [link] She's a nerdy codebreaker who funnily enough, now has a crush on Shikamaru. We haven't had blatant fangirling for awhile in the manga, so perhaps Kishimoto thought we were due for some? And why the hell not, let's have this random chick swoon over the guy who ALREADY has two blondes bugging the crap out of him (whether or not he enjoys it is a separate issue). By the way, I would bet good money Shiho is yet another blonde.

I say, good for Shikamaru, he finally has a girl showing obvious interest, as opposed to the regulars who seem to just nag him, out of the goodness of their hearts I'm sure.

If Shiho ends up being a regular, I hope she turns out to be an okay character. However, Kishimoto's track record of girls crushing on guys is poor at best. Sakura and Ino turned into dumbasses around Sasuke (they probably still would, too), and even Hinata, as much as I love her, gets a bit annoying around Naruto (thankfully, not in the same way as the first two girls mentioned).

On another note, I'm seeing a lot of similarities between Shikamaru and Sasuke. But I'll save that for another journal entry.

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I've been bad. I haven't drawn anything new lately, and I spent barely an hour on Subjective Humanity this past weekend. Was I too busy with the 4th of July weekend? Nope. I wasn't about to go anywhere with gas prices at $4.60/gallon. I pretty much geeked out and spent most of my weekend playing Mass Effect.

I think the biggest story that came out on Mass Effect, besides it's freakishly awesome graphics, was the possibility of having a lesbian sex scene--it's a roleplay game, so if you have a female character, you can make choices that lead up to having your character hook up with Liara, the asari (as in, NOT human).

I don't particularly want to have to choose who my character hooks up with--as a female, it's either Liara, or Lieutenant Alenko (male). I would much prefer my character just hang out with Garrus, a really awesome turian (looks like a cross between a cat and a raptor). Maybe play chess or something. Ah, well.

I would KILL for some chocolate milk right now. KILL.

I'm slightly irked because I haven't been able to change the "mood" thing for my journal entries for awhile now. Every time I click the Mood button, an empty gray box appears. Everyone's going to think I'm constantly irritated.

I'll admit, the only real reason I'm updating is because seeing my art thief entry puts me in a bad mood whenever I see it. So...let me see...do I ever have anything interesting to share?

Oh! Subjective Humanity pairings! ~PrefectOfHogwarts mentioned it in a comment. There's the obvious ShikaHina, I already have someone paired with Temari (anyone who has read the original journal entry detailing the plot back in April may remember who), but I have no other pairings/one-sided crushes planned. I don't want to make the story a giant pairing party--most of the characters should remain single for the sake of believability--but I'm open to suggestions. Which means I have to give you a list of the characters I plan to have in the story--would this be considered a spoiler?

(Planned Characters)

...she's a big fat bitch, she's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world!

How are accounts like this [link] still up? Seriously. It pisses me off to NO END. And I report that crap every chance I get (which means any time I'm able to provide a link to the original--a bit difficult when people are stealing from Japanese fan sites I'm not familiar with).

Major points to the first person who commented on the main page--s/he provided links to relevant FAQs. But the account holder responded with something like, but as you can see on every submission I've said it isn't mine. Obviously, she did not read the FAQs the poster was so kind to link, or else she would've seen that saying, "This ain't mine" is NOT SUFFICIENT and all her submissions are still considered stolen art. DA is not a scanlation community. Anything submitted to DA automatically gets a stamp of copyright--ownership--to the account holder right underneath the artwork. Translating doujins doesn't give you any form of ownership. It just displays your ability to speak more than one language and the common talent of pasting text on someone else's art.

And I don't understand how people are leaving comments like "post more!" on her page and encouraging art theft.

But this case is quite mild to what I normally come across. At least she admits none of it is hers, even if she does ignore the Terms of Service, Copyright Policy, and Submission Policy. I absolutely cannot stand people who post other artists' artworks and allow other people to believe it's their own work, like [link] . I've already reported something on this account, and it was removed. But I have no idea who the original artists of the other pieces are, so I can't report the others. I just know she ISN'T the original artist. Like that Hinata picture posted--I know it's at least two years old. I HIGHLY DOUBT the account holder painted it when she was NINE YEARS OLD.

Perhaps I'm being excessively bitchy, but I really have zero tolerance for art theft. Why? Because if anyone had the gall to steal my shit, I would hope there was a kind soul out there who'd let me know or bust balls on my behalf. And I don't care if they get upset that I'm pointing them out and linking their accounts. They lost the right to anonymity, privacy, whatever when they knowingly posted shit on the world wide web that's not their own.

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In less bitchy news, I'm thinking about doing a 10K kiriban. I know it's a long ways away, but I want to plan ahead and get some other projects out of the way if I do take on a kiriban. And for clarification, because I'm actually not sure of the definition, a kiriban is drawing for the person who caught the 10K mark anything they want? Because if that's the case, I'm willing to do anything but SasuSaku.

Or I can just draw a 10K thank you and save the kiriban for a bigger number (allowing me more time to improve!)

...when only idiots call the office for legal advice. And the receptionist is out sick. I won't even expand on that...past journal entries are enough.

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So my laptop resurrected itself this weekend! I'm not sure how. My boyfriend just decided to turn it on Saturday morning, and it did so without a hitch! But I had already resigned myself to catch up on my gaming, so I didn't work on any projects this weekend.

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In regards to gaming, I picked up on The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion again. I last played in March of 2007, and when I started it up again, I remembered why I gave it up: because on one quest, I had to find five bluish-white crystals in a circle of deadly snow (as in, my character froze to death if I stayed in there too long). I would always find four, and the fifth was impossible to find. After dying a million times, I just said, "screw it" and stopped playing altogether.

Then I played yesterday, and found the fifth crystal, no problem. Guh.

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I started eating a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios every morning for breakfast last week, and suddenly, the amount of food I could eat for dinner was cut by at least half. What the hell, that makes no sense.

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Did anyone watch the U.S. Olympic trials for women's gymnastics this past weekend? OMG, my boyfriend and I were IN AWE, because the girls were doing some truly crazy stuff on the uneven bars and the beam, and they're built like linebackers but still manage to be very graceful.

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R.I.P. George Carlin, 1937 - 2008