I found this video to be touching. Beyond that Door is a song by RD-Sounds based on Alice Margatroid‘s theme songs from the Touhou game Mystic Square. The lyrics and the video tell the story of Alice as a kid, when everyone around her tells her to grow up – however, when none of them can answer her when she asked what it really means. Which is understandable, how does one really explain what it means to grow up? How many people actually know what it means to grow up? Is there really a clear distinction in being an adult? Alice tries to think about it herself, but she couldn’t find the answer. In the end, Shinki (whom many in the Touhou fandom believe to be Alice’s mother, although there is no official word) gives her the key to the door and sets her off on a journey to find the answer for herself.

As a college student on the borderline between a teenager and an adult, this resonates with me a lot. I’ve said many times that I’m not ready to be an adult at all. It’s scary. As for what being an adult means, I agree that in the end we find our own answer and I think I’ve found mine. Being an adult doesn’t mean to stop having fun, or to give up odd hobbies or act a certain way. It means being responsible and self-reliant enough to set goals for yourself and work towards them without imposing too much on others. It means to be able to survive by yourself – you can rely on others sometimes, but not too much – and still being able to be happy with your life. At least, that’s what I think it means. I’m still not an adult yet, far from it. But I know I need to become one pretty soon.

The video itself is drawn and animated in a simple style, which I think is fitting because the message it’s giving is a simple and nearly universal one, yet has a heavy meaning to it. I love the music too. The simple piano notes at the beginning give off a sense of innocence, like a child that still doesn’t know what is out there in the world. The steady beat that comes up and coincides with Alice running gives the feeling of starting an adventure, before the other instruments come into play and the vocals take on a more upbeat style as the wonders of the greater world are discovered. The music feels really grand at the end where Alice leaves, and made me tear up with a mixture of happiness, wonder, awe, and a little hint of sadness.

I really enjoyed this video and song, and I hope you did too.

For those unfamiliar with Touhou, there are two distinct “era”s of the games – the PC-98 era (Touhou 1-5) and the Windows era (Touhou 6 and onwards), and canon isn’t continuous between the two though there are some overlaps. In PC-98 Alice appears as a small child, and the characters you see with her in the beginning are from that era. In the Windows era she appears as a grown woman, and the characters seen after she steps out the door are from this era and are characters she will meet.

This quarter I finally bit and taking Japanese 101, despite the 8:30 class time. When we were starting out with the hiragana we had to write them in a workbook, learning a few characters a day. I didn’t remember jackshit about which character is which or what something is supposed to look like – writing the same character over and over isn’t effective at all (at least for me it wasn’t, I have a really bad memory), except ‘ki’ for some reason. Probably because I kept saying kikikikikikikikikikikiki as I wrote each line. A random string of characters would work better.

Which leads me to: songs! About the only things that are regularly translated to romaji are lyrics, since everything else is directly translated to English for the people who don’t know Japanese, and the ones who do know Japanese can read in the original kanji/hiragana/etc. But songs are for singing so you need to know how they’re said, hence the giant surplus of romaji that’s in relatively random (for this purpose) order.

I went ahead and grabbed the lyrics for Sousei no Aquarion in romaji and transcribed them into hiragana.

Update: I used this method when we had to learn katakana, and it worked like a charm just like it did with hiragana. I don’t have trouble distinguishing between them or recalling the right character either.

Keep looking back at a hiragana chart when you find a word you don’t recognize, transcribe more, look back, transcribe, and keep going. You don’t have to worry about messing up the rules (like using the ‘ha’ character for the ‘wa’ particle instead of the ‘wa’ character), because the purpose is just to practice hiragana. Bonus points for stalking a TA to ask them how to spell words like ‘matta’ or ‘nyaa’ and learning some extra rules of hiragana before the rest of the class.

By the time I was done with the song, which only took a few hours (and it was actually FUN for me) I learned all the hiragana in the alphabet. Other students kept using flashcards and only did the characters that were assigned for homework each time, and took weeks to learn the hiragana and be fluent enough. With this method all it took was one song, and before a quiz I would just pull up the lyrics for another song to transcribe for review and just to make sure I didn’t forget something.

If you’re just starting out with learning Japanese, either in a class or by yourself, give this a try! (I probably should’ve published this closer to the beginning of the school year, but you know, procrastination and laziness).

Filed under: @Anya@ ]]> http://fortyfourfennecs.com/2012/10/06/how-i-learned-hiragana-in-a-few-hours/feed/ 7 PrinceXPrincess aoi teacup 2012-09-22 19.29.50 http://fortyfourfennecs.com/2012/06/02/essay-failure-of-arms-control-and-human-rights-violations/ http://fortyfourfennecs.com/2012/06/02/essay-failure-of-arms-control-and-human-rights-violations/#comments Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:23:49 +0000 Anya http://fortyfourfennecs.com/?p=1860 ]]>

     A while back I wrote a post about Jormungand’s Koko selling arms to countries for world peace, and the Balance of Power rationale behind it. This crappy hastily-written badly planned essay is the flipside to that post, when arms trade contributes to human rights violations and there’s not a damn thing anyone does to stop it. If you don’t know much about the international system, the UN’s most powerful organ is the Security Council, which has 5 permanent members with veto power: The US, UK, France, Russia, and China. Veto power means if the Council tries to pass anything they don’t like they can say SUCK MY BALLS and no one can do anything about it, despite the resolution/sanction/etc having a majority vote. Giving the US, Russia and China veto power is why most of the time the UN never gets any shit done. With that said, enjoy what a wonderful wonderful messed up world we live in!

Many states that are incapable of producing their own weapons rely on the importation of weapons and military hardware from other states for their self defense and to maintain their sovereignty from aggressive nations. However, there are many cases where instead of self defense, the imported arms are used in violation of human rights and humanitarian laws against the citizens of the state. In Sudan, arms imported into the country were transferred to the state’s western region Darfur, where they are used to fight protestors and commit genocide on an ethnic race of civilians. In Bahrain, protesters have been killed or injured by many imported weapons, including riot control weapons from the United States. The death toll in Syria recently rose to over 12,000 in the past 13 months, with most of its arms supplied by Russia (Lynch, 2012a). There isn’t a comprehensive arms control treaty for conventional weapons beyond categories such as landmines, and arms control measures for firearms used in the killing of civilians are decided on a case by case basis. This raises the question, what is the effectiveness of current (or lack of) arms control treaties, sanctions and embargoes on limiting human rights violations?

Helen Hugues, an arms trade researcher for Amnesty International, stated that “Governments that now say they stand in solidarity with people across the Middle East and North Africa are the very same as those who until recently supplied the weapons, bullets and military and police equipment that were used to kill, injure and arbitrarily detain thousands of peaceful protesters in states such as Tunisia and Egypt and are even now being deployed by security forces in Syria and Yemen.” (Amnesty International, 2011a).

In Sudan’s Darfur region, there has been a conflict ongoing for nine years between the Sudanese Government, the government-backed Janjaweed militia, and various opposition forces such as the predominantly-Zaghawan Sudan Liberation Army – Minni Minawi (SLA-M) and Sudan Liberation Army – Justice (SLA-J). The ethnic conflict has resulted in many deaths and displacements, with 70,000 people displaced in the first half of 2011 alone (Amnesty International, 2012b). At least 300,000 people have been killed since the conflict began(Lynch, 2012b). The attacks by the government forces and government-backed militias are often indiscriminate against opposition forces and innocent civilians, and some attacks were deliberately aimed towards displacing civilian populations. Traditional leaders and local government officials in Darfur publicly called for the expulsion of all Zaghawas, regardless of whether they are opposition fighters or civilians. At the end of 2010 4,000 Zaghawa civilians moved to the external perimeter of the African Union/UN Hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID), but were continually harassed by the government-backed militia Popular Defense Forces (PDF) operating alongside the government’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). The PDF and SAF routinely conducted aerial bombardments of villages, even if the village consisted entirely of civilians. A displaced Zaghawan civilian described his village being attacked by two SAF fighter aircraft, two helicopters, and one Antonov transport aircraft refitted for bombing missions. The government and the backed militia also raided villages to kill or steal their livestock, and bombed water wells (Amnesty International, 2012b).

The United Nations Security Council has released several resolutions with regards to the situation in Darfur, and placed an arms embargo on the region. In 2004’s Resolution 1556 the Security Council claims “grave concern at the ongoing humanitarian crisis and widespread human rights violations”, condemns “all acts of violence and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by al parties to the crisis… indiscriminate attacks on civilians, rapes, forced displacements, and acts of violence … those with an ethnic dimension” and recalls that “over one million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance” and “up to 200,000 refugees have fled to the neighboring State of Chad”. The situation is considered to “constitute a threat to international peace and security and to stability in the region”. (United Nations Security Council, 2004). With its concerns, the Security Council placed a heavy arms embargo on non government entities operating in the area with paragraphs 7 and 8 of Resolution 1556, stating “7. Decides that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent the sale or supply, to all non-governmental entities and individuals, including the Janjaweed, operating in the states of North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur, by their nationals or from their territories or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary  equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, whether or not originating in their territories; 8. Decides that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent any provision to the non-governmental entities and individuals identified in paragraph 7 operating in the states of North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur by their nationals or from their territories of technical training or assistance related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of the items listed in paragraph 7 above;” (United Nations Security Council, 2004). These paragraphs place a tight and comprehensive ban on all forms of conventional weapons and training, leaving no legal leeway.

Despite the resolution, the conflict continued. In 2005’s Resolution 1591, the Security Council strongly condemned “the continuation of violence against civilians and sexual violence against women and girls since the adoption of resolution 1574” and deplores all parties that “have failed to comply with their commitments and the demands of the Council”. The Council increased the arms embargo from Resolution 1556’s paragraphs 7 and 8 to “also apply to all the parties to the N’djamena Ceasefire Agreement”, limiting even the Sudanese government from transporting arms into Darfur without approval by the established Committee of the Security Council (United Nations Security Council, 2005). The sale of arms continued, and in 2010 the Security Council “reminds all States, particularly States in the region, of the obligations contained in resolutions 1591 (2005) and 1556 (2004)” and decides that all arms sales towards Sudan are “conditional upon the necessary end user documentation so that States may ascertain” that the arms are not redirected towards Darfur (United Nations Security Council, 2010).

All of the arms embargo restrictions have been continuously violated by some permanent members of the Security Council itself. The UN Panel of Experts on Sudan charged with monitoring the UN arms embargo has been reporting since 2006 – two years after the first embargo resolution – that the weapons found to be used in Darfur were imported from primarily from Belarus, China, and the Russian Federation. Amnesty International states that “China and Russia are selling arms to the Government of Sudan in the full knowledge that many of them are likely to end up being used to commit human rights violations in Darfur” (Amnesty International, 2012a). The ammunitions used in small arms in Darfur were found to have ammunition codes 11, 41, 61, 71, 811, and 945, which are manufacturing codes of Chinese arms companies. The ammunition manufacturing codes showed that they were manufactured after the embargo, and often showed up within a year of being manufactured. In 2010 the UN Panel of Experts found 7.62x54mm ammunition with the codes 41 and 09, indicating that they were manufactured in 2009 in China. In 2011, Chinese ammunition manufactured in 2010 were found in Southern Kordofan. (Amnesty International, 2012b). Amnesty International’s report states that the repeated appearance of these ammunition show that “its ongoing supply to Sudan has been entirely unaffected by the presentation of strongly-documented evidence to the UN SC of its transfer to Darfur” and shows concern for “the exporting countries’ willingness or capacity to implement responsible arms export mechanisms” (Amnesty International, 2012b). In 2011, the government-deployed Central Reserve Police raided a Zam Zam camp of Internally Displaced Persons to loot their property, and injured six people and killed one man. The ammunition used were Chinese and manufactured in 2006 and 2008. Large calibre weapons such as the QLZ87 35mm grenades and grenade launchers were captured from the SAF in 2011, and contained markings that indicated they were manufactured by a Chinese company under a contract from 2008 (Amnesty International, 2012b).

The SAF regularly uses Sukhoi-25 Frogfoot, Mi-24 Hind and converted Antonov transport aircraft to conduct aerial attacks on both military and civilian targets in Darfur. 36 Mi-24s were delivered by the Russian Federation between 2007 and 2009. Although it hasn’t been verified which of the helicopters were transported to Darfur, they compensate for the loss of Mi-24s used in 2011 operations. Amnesty International claims that the continued replacements of the Hinds allows the aerial attacks to continue, and stated that a photograph taken in St Petersburg airport in May 2011 shows a new Mi-24 painted in SAF markings, ready to be exported (Amnesty International 2012). The UN Panel of Experts had reported that a Russian company provides maintenance for Sudan’s Mi-17 and Mi-24 attack helicopters, and that Sudanese military personnel were trained in Russia at Torzhok’s Combat and Conversion Training centre (Amnesty 2012). Maintenance and training for military hardware had been explicitly prohibited in paragraph 8 of the Security Council’s Resolution 1556 from 2004. 15 Su-25 attack aircraft were supplied by Belarus between 2008 and 2010, and at least ten of them were sighted in Dafur by UN and other observers. The Su-25s and Mi-24s operated in Dafur have been sighted and photographed carrying rocket pods for firing S5 57mm and S8 80mm air-to-ground rockets, which are manufactured in former Soviet Union countries. These rockets were found left over in the aftermath of aerial attacks in Southern Kordofan and Firga in 2011. Amnesty International states that neither Russia nor Belarus acknowledge that they have violated the arms embargo, despite public evidence that the aircraft were rapidly transferred to Darfur. Amnesty International said that the continued supply shows “the inadequacy of current international controls on arms transfers, and the complete ineffectiveness of the embargo on Darfur established by the United Nations” (Amnesty International, 2012b).

The SAF and the PDF have been documented to use BTR-80A armored vehicles and 107mm multiple rocket launchers in their Darfur operations. The last publicly reported export of BTR-80s were from Belarus in 2004, though Sudan has continued to import armored vehicles from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. National reports to the UN Register of Conventional Armaments show that Belarus exported seven BTR-80s and one BMP-1 in 2004 and two BTR-70s in 2007. Ukraine exported two BTR-3s in 2010. Russia exported 15 armored vehicles in 2009 and 45 in 2010, though their precise type are unknown (Amnesty International, 2012b).

In addition to being completely ineffective in stopping the violations, bodies of the UN itself violate sanctions and provide conflicting, potentially-corrupted reports. A report by former UN Panel of Experts members Claudio Gramizzi of Italy, Michael Lewis of Britain, and Jerome Tubiana of France resigned over disputes and lack of faith in the Panel’s coordinator and released their own report that conflicts with the Panel’s report. In their report, the former members stated that the rebel field commander Jibril Abdul Kareem, nicknamed”Tek”, was under a travel ban from the Security Council Resolutions but was given a travel document by the United Nations-African Union Joint Mediation Support Team(JMST) to travel to Qatar for peace talks. However, travel ban exemptions could only be given by the Security Council’s committee on sanctions, which did not receive a request for such an exemption. The former members stated that “Should access to Darfur, and more generally cooperation from member states, United Nations and African Union bodies working in or on Darfur, as well as the general ability of the panel to provide accurate justifications for individual sanctions and monitor them, not increase in the future, the very existence of both the panel and the sanctions mechanism should be seriously reconsidered.” The mere creation of this shadow report by former members highlights serious flaws in the UN’s treatment of the situation and the waning of interest in the region (Lynch, 2012b). The Tabarat Massacre was reported by Reuters to result in 39 deaths and 50 people injured, but was not mentioned in the official Panel report. The Panel decided not to investigate, and may be a sign of a conspiracy with UNAMID, which has a base nearby in the area but chose not to investigate the massacre. The shadow report describes many of the same aircraft sightings and attacks as Amnesty International and describes the ethnic cleansing of the Zaghawa tribe, but the official report gives only a few weak conclusions of embargo violations and doesn’t confirm deliberate targeting of Zaghawas. The official report states that “there has been a clear and relatively positive change compared to the [security] situation in the previous years” whilst the shadow report states that the situation is rapidly worsening (Reeves, 2012).

With the ineffective and possibly corrupted new Panel of Experts providing false accounts and the flow of arms completely unaffected by embargoes, the UN’s arms control measures in Sudan utterly fail to stop the human rights and humanitarian violations in Darfur.

In Bahrain, weapons that have been imported from many European countries and the United States were used on protestors of the 2011 Pearl Roundabout Protests. On February 14 2011, thousands of protesters gathered across the state to walk to the Pearl Roundabout in the capital and demand greater freedom, social justice and political reforms. Security forces quickly resorted to overwhelming force, and killed seven protestors and injured hundreds of others within a week. Live ammunition, tear gas, batons, shotguns and rubber bullets were used at close range to break up the protesters, and medical workers who were treating wounded people were also targeted and wounded by the security forces. At least 34, including at least two policemen, lost their lives as a result of the protests and hundreds were arrested. Arrested protesters were ill-treated or tortured during their interrogation, and four people died in custody. Many were tried in courts that didn’t meet the international standards for fair trials, and over 2,500 people were suspended from their jobs because of their participation or support of the protests (Amnesty International, 2011b). The arms imported into Bahrain from 2005 to 2009 were categorized as Military Weapons from the United States valued at $1,549,864, and non-military firearms from France ($532,783), Germany ($222,000), and the UK ($117,438). Cartridges for shotguns were imported from the UK valued at 280,284, and tanks and other Armored Fighting Vehicles were imported from the United States at $5,296,285 (Amnesty International, 2011b). Some of the ammunition collected after a February 17 raid of Pearl Roundabout showed US-made tear gas canisters and 37mm rubber multi-baton rounds, and French tear gas grenades and rubber dispersion grenades (Amnesty International 2011b). Because of a lack of a proper arms trade treaty to prevent sales of arms to states known to repeatedly use excessive force on their citizens, Bahrain was able to import a lot of weapons. Although France, the UK, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands have revoked licenses or canceled shipments of arms to Bahrain in the aftermath of the protests and Amnesty International’s request for governments to cease all sales, the United States continues to sell arms and proposed the first foreign military sale since the Bahrain government cracked down on protesters. This shows that goodwill alone will not be enough to prevent the sales of arms to countries that violate the rights of their citizens (Amnesty International, 2011b).

Syria was ruled for almost five decades under a state of emergency, which was lifted in 2011. However, the use of extreme force worsens, and within a week of March 18 2011’s largely peaceful demonstration, security forces killed at least 55 protesters. Tanks and artillery were used to fire rounds and shells indiscriminately into civilian areas, and snipers were used to target people that try to help the wounded on the streets (Amnesty International, 2011b). A recent massacre in Houla resulted in at least 108 civilian deaths, a third of which were children. The United Nations Security Council condemns Syria in response, but takes no further action. The Council’s effectiveness is eroded by Russia, whose envoy said it was “difficult to imagine” the Syrian government behind the massacre and claims that both sides had a hand in the killings (Lynch, 2011a). Although records of Syrian arms imports aren’t made public, Amnesty International claims that Russian exports to Syria account for up to 10 percent of all Russian arms exports, and Russia supplies Syria with missiles and missile launchers, anti-tank missiles for the T72 tank, and MiG fighter aircraft. The General Director of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-owned arms manufacturer, was quoted as saying “As long as no sanctions have been declared yet and as long as there have been no instructions and directives from the government, we are obliged to comply with our contractual obligations”. The Russian government is unlikely to allow an arms embargo to pass, as it is estimated that Russia may loose US$4 billion if an embargo is placed on Syria (Amnesty 2011b). In addition to Russian exports, between 2005 and 2009 Egypt supplied $618,685 worth of military weapons and $296,785 non-military firearms. France supplied $1,254,580 worth of munitions, and India supplied $1,132,320 worth of tanks and other armored fighting vehicles. These sales were despite the fact that Syria has a long history of extreme force on its civilians (Amnesty 2011b).

Because of a lack of a proper arms embargo on Syria, as recently as last weekend on May 26th 2012 the Russian cargo ship Professor Katsman turned off its transponders to dock in Syria with what is reportedly a large shipment of heavy weapons. Russia defends its sales by claiming that the Syrian forces need weapons against the opposition that receive arms from other countries, and also claims that their weapons sales do not violate any international law. However, the reason there isn’t any international law is because Russia and China, themselves permanent members of the Security Council and large arms exporters, have veto power against any embargo that the Security Council may place on Syria (Charbonneau, 2012).

From these cases, it is clear that with major arms exporters as permanent members of the Security Council the likelihood of a proper arms trade treaty or even case specific embargoes being passed is extremely unlikely. Even in cases like Sudan where embargoes have been placed, they have practically no effect on arms trade and human rights and humanitarian law violations repeatedly occur from the imported arms.

Bibliography

• Amnesty International. 2011a “Arms trade to Middle East and North Africa shows failure of export controls.” October 19 http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/arms-trade-middle-east-and-north-africa-shows-failure-export-controls-2011-1
• Amnesty International. 2011b “Arms Transfers to the Middle East and North Africa.” http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT30/117/2011/en/049fdeee-66fe-4b13-a90e-6d7773d6a546/act301172011en.pdf
• Amnesty International. 2012a “Darfur: New weapons from China and Russia fuelling conflict.” February 8 http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/darfur-new-weapons-china-and-russia-fuelling-conflict-2012-02-08
• Amnesty International. 2012b. “Sudan: No End To Violence in Darfur” http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR54/007/2012/en/c1037da2-0f54-4343-8325-461d80e751c2/afr540072012en.pdf“
• Charbonneau, Louis. 2012. “U.S. condemns reported Russian arms shipment to Syria”. May 31. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-31/news/sns-rt-us-syria-arms-russiabre84u0wy-20120531_1_professor-katsman-russian-arms-shipment-russian-cargo-ship
• Lynch, Colum. 2012a. “Security Council condemns Syrian massacre, won’t punish” May 29. http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/29/security_council_condemns_syrian_massacre_wont_punish
• Lynch, Colum. 2012b “What’s the point of U.N. sanctions in Darfur when even the U.N. flouts them?” April 30. http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/30/whats_the_point_of_un_sanctions_in_darfur
• Reeves, Eric. 2012 “Former Members of the UN Panel of Experts for Darfur Offer a Damning Alternative to the “Official” Report” April 30. http://www.sudanreeves.org/2012/04/17/former-members-of-the-un-panel-of-experts-for-darfur-offer-a-damning-alternative-to-the-official-report/
• United Nations Security Council. 2004. Resolution 1556
• United Nations Security Council. 2005. Resolution 1591
• United Nations Security Council. 2010. Resolution 1945

Happy Birthday to me…… I’m alone like that picture. Minus the pretty dress and the cake. I WANT CAKE. Maybe I’ll celebrate by going to get a decent dinner, though I’ll probably stay holed up in my room and order pizza as usual.

What does a birthday mean? A day where a bunch of people on Facebook that haven’t talked to me in years start saying Happy Birthday. (With Twitter it’s people I actually talk to quite often.) Celebrating getting older and closer to what some call the Christmas Cake Age (25 and unwanted)… well I’m still young (just turned 20) so I don’t mind stuff like that. Age doesn’t matter as much anymore anyways, the Christmas Cake is nothing more than a joke now. Besides it’s nice to have a day where you can feel special, even if it’s like the above picture.

Oh well, might as well review what’s been going on with my life lately. And a little birthday request at the end. 

Social Life: Nonexistent, there’s only once a month when I’m NOT sitting alone eating by myself. There are only a few people in my college I can sort of call a friend, though I rarely ever get to see them and conversations last 2 sentences. That’s probably gonna drop to zero next year when the few people that talk to me all graduate/go on study abroad. If I didn’t have twitter I doubt even antidepressants can keep me from falling to complete insanity. Okaaaaaaaaay moving on.

Academics: Somehow I ended up majoring in Political Science. Now I don’t know what the hell I want to do with my life, I keep changing goals/interests around. I used to be all PHYSICS4LIFE, then I switched to Computer Science, then over to Political Science, and now writing? What do I do with my life? And I’m having another case of lethargy this spring quarter again, and ragequitted one of my classes that I’ll have to retake later. Not doing so well in my other classes either. I’m just so tired of school, I need a break. Seriously, one week spring break between quarters in a quarter-system college is NOT enough.

Blogging: Yeah…. I ended up dropping Smile Precure because blogging it didn’t feel fun, and I have a bunch of other post ideas that I’m supposed to write about that I procrastinated forever too. Need to really continue to do those Gunpla posts too, though I haven’t built a Gundam ever since I picked up drawing and increased the writing on my novel.

Oh and I got addicted to Mahjong over the past week, so play with me! RIICHI!

Sweets & Steel 

(It’s a temporary name for now, might change later.)

The novel and things relating to it are pretty much all I focus on nowadays, to the expense of schoolwork. If you follow me on twitter (or anywhere), you probably have a few weird ideas of what it’s about with all my talk about trap fapping and a teahouse full of lesbians.

Sweets&Steel is about some mecha pilots of a Private Military Company, a lesbian teahouse owner and her partner, and a transgendered high school girl. They have their own problems, some dealing with unconventional sexualities, while the gears of the world keep turning. Violent protests in various nations, nuclear sales to a rival state, and a hostile international arena threaten to creep into their lives. Flan becomes intertwined in two worlds between their everyday lives and her duties as the pilot of a mechanical exoskeleton, and has to deal with the increasingly dangerous threats. Threats to their country, their well-being, and the ideals that brought them all together.

At the time of writing this post the novel is at approximately 34k words, with some more written down that I haven’t transcribed onto the computer yet. It’s moving along rather nicely, though I still get stuck at some parts and I’m not able to write as much as I’d like due to classes and stuff. It’s rather hard since I’m usually alone and don’t understand how people interact with each other that well. Due to the nature of some of the issues involved, I have to write about things I have absolutely zero experience with (e.g. the female body, war). I think I’ll have a finished first draft manuscript sometime this summer, though it’ll take a long time to edit. I doubt such a niche and weird novel would be accepted by a publisher, so I’ll likely self publish when the time comes. Need to find a good editor somehow. And I use too many fucking commas.

I also started drawing, with my first chicken scratch picture in my sketchbook exactly 2 months ago on 27/3/2012. I tried to draw everyday, which was an easy goal at first when I was just practicing with small pictures and just faces but over time when I moved to more complex pictures I end up having several days in between pictures. A month after I started drawing, on 26/4/2012 I drew one of my favorite pictures of Aoi (the teahouse owner). Two months after I started drawing, yesterday I drew my latest picture of Flan in her formal military dress uniform.

I still have a long way to go, but I’m pleasantly surprised by how far I got. I mean, before this I couldn’t draw JACKSHIT. I was the absolute worst at art stuff, I barely took any art classes and although I love pictures I kept myself from drawing for almost 20 years because each time I tried the result would make me want to grab an electric drill and pierce my brain.

It’ll probably take me a long time to reach the level of the good stuff we see on the internet, but hey at least I have something to show people if I want make a collaborative artbook (a goal for if my novel gains some traction in the anime community). Drawing the characters made their appearances clearer to me, and the process also made me think of various ideas that probably would’ve never came to me otherwise.

I thought about making a page either on this blog or create a new blog to explain and introduce the novel, but I should focus on actually writing it first. I need some way to build up interest on the story but since there’s no preceding work there’s nothing to draw people in yet. Any ideas?

A Wish/Request

It is my birthday after all! I want a hug in real life. But obviously that’s not gonna happen, so please listen to this request.

The note of the current compilation of the story is at

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s38/sh/2ec8070a-033a-4e51-996d-8ee36c43731d/dc119f1b169be8fda0aff9cfb2f27aa0

and I’d like some thoughts on how it’s going. It’s a first draft so there’ll be typos and grammatical errors, but those are fixed in the last stage of editing. I’d like to know what you think about stuff like realism/believability, character depth, story progression, and the balance between the everyday and the macro world. I want honest opinions with the bad stuff pointed out to me about why you didn’t like it, and what parts felt wrong to you.

Or if you really like it then also tell me that so I know it’s not a lost cause ^^” and spread some hype about it if possible :3

Please leave a comment here, tell me about it on twitter, or email me at anya.fennec at gmail. Anything is fine!

Maybe if you’re an artist you can make me a picture of one of my characters ^^” apart from the aforementioned Flan (usually her hair’s down like this) and Aoi there’s Claribel, Megumi (with eyes open), and Alice (her pictures come out worse than the others for some reason). My Twitter and WordPress avatar is cropped from a picture of Aoi that @MoldyKeyk made for me and I really like ^^.

Wow this post came out longer than expected. I think I said everything I wanted to say? How many of you actually read this far? Anyways I’ll see you on twitter or next time I feel like blogging on a whim!

Hyouka had one of the most interesting mysteries I’ve seen in a while, and the visual direction of the revelations and analysis were beautiful. I really liked how the final result made sense. It’s a compelling story of a Sekitani Jun who took on the burden to lead the student body against the school authorities and was the only one to ‘scream’ out. Because he was the only one to do so, he was the only one that was sacrificed unwillingly and forced to leave the school.

The story is even more compelling when you think about how there’s the protests of OWS and the Arab Spring going on, though the stakes at hand and the sacrifices are far larger. Sekitani is a very mild version of the street vendor who set himself on fire, the sacrifice that sparked the people of the middle east to oppose their regimes.

Although it takes place in a school and the sacrifice is only expulsion, Sekitani’s story gives the same message: under oppression someone has to act, but because of the costs of doing so the vast majority will prefer to live in safety. Having a school setting for this story probably makes it more relatable to the viewers, and more likely to make them actually think about it in terms of their own life.

Now that the mystery is solved, the real story begins. I think that Sekitani Jun’s story is the foreshadowing of Oreki Houtarou’s life. Oreki has been set up to follow in Sekitani’s footsteps by his sister.

Oreki talks a lot about not wanting to do anything, and keep on living a gray-colored life. But Sekitani also had a gray-colored life before he was coerced into rising up as the leader, and sacrificed as a hero.

What will be the oppression that Oreki has to scream against? Would it be the school government again, or possibly a larger authority or issue?

But most importantly, I wonder what the circumstances of Oreki’s heroics will be. Will he be sacrificed against his will, forced by the inaction of the masses, or will he willingly do so and live a rose-colored life?

Another 2DT word prompt! “Strange brains ferment sex like pickles”, he’s making us FICTION HARDER. Luckily for me, it fits perfectly as dialogue for one of the scenes in my novel that I planned for a long time (and almost reached that point in my writing too). So I guess this is a bit spoilery for the novel? For spoilery context, Megumi (20) and Aoi (28) have been dating for 2 years, but when they tried to have sex Megumi ended up in shock. The image is a drawing of Megumi that I just drew today. Please enjoy and leave a comment about what you think!

Apparently it’s mother’s day in the U.S. and some other countries. So mom, if you see this, then I guess Happy Mother’s Day from another country?

A motherly relationship, whether the characters are actually related by blood or not, is one of my favorite types of character relationships – even more so after the conception of the character Aoi in my novel. The relationship is one that I don’t really know how to define, I guess a character that takes care of another, either in raising or with emotional issues? An advice giver? It’s a relationship that just “feels” motherly to me. There aren’t really any constraints. The relationship can “feel” that way to me even if they’re not related by blood, even if the age gap between them isn’t significant, even if the “daughter” character is completely capable of taking care of herself.

(Note: Blackholeheart wrote a great article on father figures in Gundam over at Altair and Vega)

Unfortunately, parents are often missing/abroad/perpetually-at-work/dead in anime and manga, or are just furniture for the background and don’t have much involvement, likely because:

1. Most parents won’t let their children do the stupid shit we see so often, or

2. Since parents are a restraining force, stories targeted at a younger audience show a life that is free from the parents.

I’m always looking for examples to help me with accurately portraying the dynamic between Aoi and Flan, so if you have any anime/manga suggestions please send them to me!

Some examples of mother characters and/or motherly relationships from anime that I liked (imperfect list, since I have a bad memory and my anime harddrive went kaput):

Zetman – Akemi

Akemi was the reason I really liked Zetman when I first saw it. She took Jin in after his guardian died, and taught him about death, warmth and hope. The part where she took him in and the part at the end of the first episode where he found her alive in the hospital were both really emotional moments for me. Unfortunately he’s forbidden from seeing her after he decided to train to become Zet, since she might become a potential target for his enemies. Really sucks, now we rarely get to see her – and I’m pretty damn sure she’ll be targeted later anyways.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san – Yoriko

This is a show that includes a silver-haired moe cthulu god, a RED HAIRED FUNNEL-WIELDING FIRE-USING HORNY LESBIAN (!!!!!!!!!!), A SUPER CUTE TRAP (!!!!!!!!!), and my favorite character ends up being the MOTHER. WHYYYYY?!?! I dunno, though she’s pretty badass with her forks. She just started appearing, so the relationship between her and her son aren’t shown often. I guess I like her because she gives off a cute-yet-mature calming feeling?

Mouretsu Pirates – Ririka

Ririka and Marika don’t seem that close, and Marika even calls her by her name instead of as mother most of the time. It seems to me that Ririka cares a lot about Marika in her own way, but isn’t able to express them in a normal manner. I suspect that having to work to make ends meet as a single parent raising a child (I assume the father didn’t return often considering how Marika didn’t know that he was a pirate) lead to the gap in between them. She still provides guidance and advice to Marika, teaching her to fire huge beam weapons (BADASS) and watching over her from a distance.

Puella Magic Madoka Magica – Junko

The late night talk between Madoka and Junko is one of the best scenes, IMO. Junko is a strong independent woman, and she taught Madoka that the world isn’t all candy and rainbows. It sucks, and sometimes you’re gonna have to do some sucky things to get through it. It’s very evident how much she cares about Madoka, and was rather heartbreaking when she had memories of Madoka erased.

Precure Franchise

The Precure franchise has many good episodes that center around the mother, but apart from that they’re usually gone from the series. Those episodes are golden though (Smile Precure just had a mother’s day episode but I didn’t watch it yet because I… sort of dropped/put the series on hold…). Hibiki’s mother in Suite Precure spent most of her time abroad, and quickly came back to watch her daughter’s piano performance. They were able to spend some time together before she had to leave again, and Hibiki put on a strong face and smile so that she wouldn’t worry about her. Before they had to separate, Hibiki asked to be selfish for a moment to hug and cry about how much she misses her mother. It was a very touching moment, and I wish I had a screenshot but URGH STUPID HARDDRIVE.

Heartcatch Precure’s Mother’s Day episode involved a girl in the same class as Tsubomi and Erika, who lost her mother at an early age and has to take care of her younger sister. She takes on both the roles of an older sister and a mother, which really puts a strain on her since she also misses their mother but has to be strong about it. In that episode she breaks down and rampages around as a Desertarian (the monster-of-the-week), and in her tantrum her sister begins to appreciate just how much she did for her.

Now it’s nearly midnight and I have an assignment due tomorrow that I haven’t started yet. Welp. Need to collect a bunch of reliable sources about arms sales and nuclear proliferation.

It’s time for Sai Mecha again! What is Sai Mecha, you ask? It’s a tournament where we nominate our favorite mechs and they fight, and they fight, AND THEY FIGHT UNTIL THERE IS ONLY ONE LEFT STANDING! Submit your nominations of 10 mechs by following the instructions in that link! It’s due by tomorrow (April 29), but you only need to choose a few mechs and don’t have to make a whole post like me. Even if you don’t nominate your favorite mechs in time, you can still vote in the polls to advance the robots you love!

These are my AWESOME mecha nominees!

RX-78GPo3D Dendrobium (Gundam 0083 Stardust Memories)

The monster designed for AREA DOMINANCE is composed of two units, the Stamen mobile suit and the Orchis weapons platform. It has a fuckton of missiles, and when it launches all of its weapons its like Danmaku in space. Think Touhou girls have the most firepower? WRONG! Watch this short video of Gundam Evolve 4 featuring the Dendrobium, it’ll be the coolest thing you see all day.

HOW AWESOME WAS THAT!??!?!?!?!?

The Dendrobium is my favorite thing to come out of Gundam. Ever.  NOMINATE AND VOTE FOR IT!

NZ-666 Kshatriya (Gundam Unicorn)

It’s big and bulky but still BADASS. Nicknamed the quad-wing for obvious reasons, the Kshatriya has 24 mind-controlled funnels that fly around and rip apart the enemies. Any enemy lucky enough to survive the funnels will then have to deal with its Mega Particle Cannons at close range, its beam sabers, and its sheer BRUTE FORCE!

RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Gundam Unicorn)

Think your funnels are so awesome? THINK AGAIN! The Unicorn’s Newtype-Destroyer system will take over their control and USE YOUR OWN WEAPONS AGAINST YOU! Watch this sexy red-white beast tear apart the Kshatriya in the third Gundam Unicorn movie!

So hot, I want to be her >.<

GF13-017NJII God Gundam (Mobile Fighter G Gundam)

 THESE HANDS OF MINE ARE BURNING RED! The upgrade to the Shining Gundam, the God Gundam is even more epic with its shielded hands, force multipliers and those six rods at the back that form a circle when it goes into full powered mode. It will stick its fingers into your dark places and HEAT END YOU! SEKIHA! LOVE LOVE TENKYOKEN!

RGM-96X Jesta (Gundam Unicorn)

You’ll see a lot of my entries come from Gundam Unicorn, and that’s because the series has some of the most beautiful mech designs. The Jesta is one of the most military-looking robots, and gives off a very SWAT/Special Forces feel. While the previous model Jegans (and even many mobile suits in the spotlight) had plain and boring leg parts, the Jesta’s legs have a lot of details that makes its entire design unique and menacing. It’s a part that’s often overlooked, but it’s really impressive when building the model kit. When I imagine the Devastators in my novel I tend to think of them as modified and shrunk Jestas in a way.

MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam)

BELIEVING A SIGN OF ZETA! It’s the titular suit of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, one of the best Gundam series out there. The Zeta Gundam was designed by its pilot Kamille Bidan (KAMILLE IS A MAN’S NAME!!!!) and is the first Gundam that can transform into a jet. Also it looks freakin awesome and he can LET DEAD NEWTYPES USE HIS BODY.

MSN-06S Sinanju (Gundam Unicorn)

This sexy motherfucker goes THREE TIMES AS FAST as normal mobile suits! Its head looks very menacing, and the “wings” of thrusters it has are so freakin awesome. Also, ALL THE RED! HELL YEAHHHHH!

MSN-001A1 Delta Plus (Gundam Unicorn)

This badass guy has the most awesome looking Waverider transformation mode of any Gundam ever. It actually looks like some of the modern military fighter jets.

The Master Grade model was very fun to build, though its joints are kind of weak and hard to pose without a stand. Also, unlike the ReZEL, it requires two parts to be added to turn into Waverider mode so I think of it as an imperfect transformation. It’s also sort of my “heartbreak Gunpla” since I was building it after getting rejected lol ^^”

Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. (Code Geass R2)

Say what you want about Code Geass R2, I still loved the series and think it has a lot of awesome mechs. The Energy Wings on the Guren SEITEN are the coolest flight system of any mech, ever. Its right arm is a freakin claw that melts enemy suits with radiation bursts, and since it’s red it goes THREE TIMES AS FAST!

EX-5 Devastator (Sweets & Steel [temporary name])

It’s from my still-unfinished novel so it probably doesn’t count and will never be nominated by anyone else, BUT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT so here it is. Huge giant mechs are unpractical and only look cool, so the novel uses mecha exoskeleton suits. Think something like Iron Man, but bulkier and less hax-overpowered. Devastators are primarily armed with an electromagnetic railgun, and its secondary weapons can be swapped between a variety of machine guns, grenade launchers and close-ranged mass-impactors. They’re as fast as tanks, can leap long distances or jump on top of buildings, and can be very agile depending on the skill of the pilot. Of course, Flan works on their development and absolutely kicks ass in them XD.

So! What did you guys nominate for Sai Mecha? AND WHO DO YOU WANT TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?!?!?!?!

A (very late, everything I do is late nowadays) writing prompt from 2DT last week, “how the angel drowned my spark“. This time it’s using the characters from my novel again, taking place about half a year before the novel does (though the small part at the end is set during the novel). It’s told from Claribel’s point of view (though I’m not sure I’ll make it canon, not sure the mindset in this story fits with her character) and is related to a previous prompt, The Curse of the Reaper that was Flan’s backstory. 

Again, please read, enjoy, and leave some feedback!

I guess you could say I’m almost perfect.
My grades were always at the top without even trying, and my parents were always pleased with everything I did.
You can throw any sport at me and I’ll be pretty decent at it too.
I had a happy life, and whenever a little problem came up it would sort itself out somehow.
Until I joined Anaheim.

“The hell is this?! Doc said he found a good test pilot, but you’re no better than any of them.” The red haired demon yelled as she opened the hatch of my Devastator exoskeleton. She’s barely older than I am, yet I have to be her subordinate? And all these older people follow her perfectionist whims.
“It just tipped over-”
“Of course it’s gonna tip over if you land clumsily like that!”
I hated this bitch. Who the hell does she think she is? I’m in a freaking hunk of metal and she expects me to dance around like a ballerina?
“Why don’t you give it a try then?!” I wish I never said that. She quickly slid and inserted her limbs into the mecha’s slots, settling in behind the closing hatches. In a blink she had darted off across the field, unpredictably switching directions with each step. The gun roared, and a paint bullet striked the target. She jumped around a few times, painting a dot on each target. It was as if the heavy exoskeleton was all a natural extension to her body.
She had humiliated me in front of all the engineers on the field. It didn’t matter that it was my own retort, I hated her for being so damn perfect.
I hated how the angel drowned my spark.

After talking with a few engineers, it turned out that I was actually a part of a very small minority that hated her. Most of them had a lot of respect for her. The genius that took over her father’s division three years ago, completed the electromagnetic railguns and refined the Devastators to a point that they were useable on the battlefield.
She was always all about business, and demanding to the point of being called the Scarlet Reaper. I heard there was a deeper meaning behind the Reaper name, but I didn’t care. I hated her guts.
One day I became careless and let my thoughts about her slip in front of a colleague.
“She’s far from perfect.” he said. “In a way, you can say that she’s broken. Time stopped for her. You know how soldiers that saw a lot of death have a distinct aura around them? Not even the most battle worn veterans come close to hers.”
What a bunch of crap.

A few weeks later, I saw her sitting alone with a knife in her hands. She wasn’t really doing anything with it, just… rubbing it, caressing it, twirling it around. There was a long scar on her left hand and arm – was that self-inflicted?
As I looked into her eyes, I was entranced. I started to understand what the engineer said. And I wondered. What affected this person? What was hidden in her past?
She noticed me, and for a moment our eyes connected. Through some unknown reflex, I felt something well up in my chest and had to run away. I broke down crying when I was alone. I wasn’t feeling sad, but I felt sad now. But it wasn’t my sadness. It was hers. The tears that were flowing out weren’t mine, but belonged to the girl who couldn’t cry anymore.
After that day, she didn’t seem perfect anymore. I wasn’t as intimidated, and she seemed almost human – just almost. She didn’t seem to have a heart.
I took an interest in her, and stuck to her closely. I wanted to observe her. I wanted to know more about her.

.

.

.

“Hi Aoi!” I said as I skipped into the shop.
“Oh hi Claribel!” Aoi replied.
I saw her sitting at the bar. Stretching out my arms, I ran to her. “Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan-ack!” Her hand reached out to meet my face, stopping me from getting towards her.
“Why are you being so clingy again?” Flan asked.
“Aoiiiiii Flan’s being mean!”
“Come on Flan, let her cling to you once in a while.” Aoi giggled as she said so. “I know you like it!”
“What, no, I don-” Flan let her guard down, and I quickly went in to hug and cling on to her. She looked away as she resigned herself to her fate, and Aoi smiled her approval. Even if you say you’re the reaper, I’ll spark some life back into you, Flan.

Some people may laugh at Koko’s claim that she’s selling weapons for world peace as just a ridiculous quirk from our favorite psychotic arms dealer, and it does seem counter intuitive.

While Koko’s methods and true intentions are debatable, the reasoning behind the idea isn’t that ridiculous. In international politics there are a variety of paradigms for looking at the world, and each has its own method of bringing peace and stability to the international system. Here’s a brief explanation of Liberalism and Realism, the latter of which Jormungand seems to follow.

Liberalism (EXTREMELY SIMPLIFIED)

Collective security is advocated by Liberals (the liberal paradigm in international relations isn’t the same as what is commonly used with domestic politics), where if country A invades country B, every other country C D E etc will all attack A. This is how the League of Nations and its successor the United Nations is supposed to function, but oftentimes there isn’t approval to invade a country when Russia or China choose to veto it in the Security Council. In some historical UN-backed deployments like the Korean War, usually the bulk of the forces come from the United States – which raises the question of what would be done if the U.S. decides it doesn’t want anything to do with a conflict.

Realism (EXTREMELY SIMPLIFIED)

The other major paradigm is Realism, which advocates balances of power as a way to keep the international system stable.It won’t remain stable forever and there will be conflicts, but it will keep the stability for long periods of time. Realists say that it is in the state’s best interest to obtain more power, as stronger states will boss you around and you never know when another state will turn hostile. In the words of my professor, “There’s no 911 to call” in the international system. You can’t always rely on other countries to help you out of goodwill if you’re attacked or threatened into disadvantageous treaties. When there’s a balance of power, the states will be reluctant to go to war but will be likelier to cooperate and negotiate because they know that in a conflict neither will come out in good shape.

Jormungand

In the first episode of Jormungand, Koko helped create a part of the balance of power by upgrading the unknown country’s MiG-29 Fulcrum squadrons. The people who tried to stop her were likely the country’s intelligence agency or interior ministry, who probably thought that the neighboring states would become more aggressive when they see a buildup of forces. This just shows how there’s no clear cut line on these matters. Since there is no way for states to know the true intentions of another state, a buildup of power could be interpreted as a sign of aggression.

I’m merely explaining (in VERY brief terms) a few of the paradigms (there are others), and I’m not claiming that Jormungand is enitrely accurate either. The second episode had a balance of power between the Russians and the rebels, but for the Red Bear to be deterred by such a small force it would probably have to already be occupied and have their forces tied up by fighting with both the Chinese and Japanese. However, in the show’s canon and ignoring real military levels, the principle of Realism is there in how the region stabilized after a build up of forces to a comparable level. 

Personal Thoughts

What am I? I’m a realist. Liberalism sounds cute and pretty, but it’s not how humans and the world work.

(Warning: Tangential ramblings coming up.)

My ideal system is one ruled by a single Earth Federation. One where there’s a single federal government for the world, and countries are semi-autonomous sub-states that have different governments for people to choose. Ideally the federation would have a set of core universal inviolable human rights, that all the countries have to respect. There would only be one military, and disputes would be settled by the federal government. Existing states would lose their sovereignty, but as individuals we would be more free. There would be no oppression, discrimination, and we won’t be as confined by borders and problems of citizenship. Of course, that all hinges on how liberal (ideology, not paradigm) the federation government becomes. If an oppressive regime takes control then things will be even worse since there’s no place to run to.

I think we’ve seen a steady concentration of power throughout history, from the many powers of Europe, to a few strong states (U.S., U.K., U.S.S.R.) between WW1 and WW2, to the bipolar system of the Cold War. Now that the Soviet Union dissolved, the U.S. is easily the strongest state in the system. Maybe the U.S. will take over the world, or maybe some other state will rise up. It’ll take decades, maybe centuries, but I think we’re headed down this path. 

I’ll also say it’s necessary for the world to be united under one government. Issues that individual states can’t solve by themselves – or that other states won’t let them solve – could be handled better. Global warming. Space. The human population would overrun the earth, and we’ll have to expand to other planets at some point down the line. The universe is constantly trying to kill us too – at some point an asteroid will come our way, and if the current world system is in place everyone will probably be bickering about other states launching something to stop the asteroid as a pretense to put weapons in space. Or something.

Well that’s my two cents. What are your thoughts?