la_vie_noire: (Wicked Cain)
la_vie_noire ([personal profile] la_vie_noire) wrote2008-10-05 06:20 pm

(no subject)

I have been trying to run Portal on my PC since like three days ago (I have been loading it since like a month ago), and don't know how to solve the error I'm having. Apparently it has to do with this other game, Half Life 2, that I have to install too to make it work ('solutions' found in Google haven't work). I hope I'm successful with this. *sighs* I seriously will cry or something if that doesn't work either.

I was watching some vids (even if they take forever to load for me), and found this one: "Gloria", of The Sarah Connor Chronicles fandom. Amazing I tell you, and great song too. It amused the hell out of me because they made Sarah/Cameron. A vid about Sarah and Cameron that seems almost plausible, and hot as hell. And because AHAHAHAHA THAT'S MY NAME.

Because Tsubasa spoilers blew off my mind, I am re-reading XXXholic. ... What?

You know? Watanuki doesn't even think twice when he sees TRC!Sakura and Syaoran for the first time at Yuuko's shop. He is all, 'the kids came out of the sky!' and all that jazz. He doesn't look like he is in front of people that look familiar to him.

But we don't even know when Watanuki gave off his memories about his parents as a price to Yuuko because it happened off-screen (which I think is a pretty unusual way to play with Watanuki's POV), but we know he still remembered them back then because CLAMP made him talk about his father's cooking (or at least, remember it). So really, weird and complicated and confusing are all understatements.

I'm thinking right now that maybe XXXholic's universe isn't the same as CCS's. I think Yuuko mentioned once that the shop wasn't even in XXXholic's world (maybe she was talking about something like an astral plane, but I don't care). Of course, we are supposed to think that CCS's Sakura and Syaoran are TRC!Syaoran's parents, and CCS's-world-isn't-the-same-as-Holic's wouldn't exactly explain anything; but it would make me feel better about Touya's cameo in Kobato (which I'm pretty sure takes place in XXXholic's world). ETA: Oh, forget it. Yuuko just said to Watanuki "in the world where we live exist two persons called Sakura and Syaoran who are Clow's descendants"* (emphasis mine). God damn you. Hm. I would like to know if that was in present tense in Japanese.

Daughter of ETA: Watanuki: "Does that mean that I exist in other worlds too?"
Yuuko: "Exactly." What, Yuuko? What .......

Grand daughter: Yeah, Watanuki calls them by their names. Still. doesn't. make sense, Clamp.

Holly hell, Aren't we just jossed every week with this manga? ("We" includes Ohkawa. Maybe.)

I just re-read the arc about the lady obsessed with her computer. I laughed. The Internet-obsessed housewife touched my buttons, even with all that 'is pathological!' thing. I forgot how unusual of a female character Yuuko is, and I think I like how the moral in this particular story worked. I liked the "it doesn't matter what your son, or your husband think; what matters is what you want to do" thing. What I did not like was that she has to decide between pleasing her family, or pleasing herself. But whatever. (Oh, I know some people will tell me 'she wasn't pleasing herself, she was an addict!' well, people don't exist in vacuum and housewives who are neglecting their families because of Internet are... well read as neglecting their families because of Internet. What I mean with this is that when the only hobby of a housewife that doesn't have anything to do her family is portrayed as pathological because it keeps her away from 'family obligations,' I won't like it.)

*All those quotes are my translations from my scanlations in Spanish if you want to know.

[identity profile] chiba-yuriko.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
I'm with you on wondering what the hell at the spoilers and how they plan to make this fit within the canon they've already written. Seriously, I'll buy it if they explain it/make it fit. XD;

As for Portal and Half Life 2, it may have to do with the fact that Portal is literally packaged as an expansion pack game of Half Life 2 within the Orange Box set. Maybe you have to have the Half Life 2 part on there to make it work. ^^;

[identity profile] la-vie-noire.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, exactly. I just want an explanation, no matter how cracktastic it could be. That's all.

I knew that, but it was weird because other people told me it worked for them without the other games, so I was hoping that it wouldn't come that (my internet sucks). Damn. XD Thank you!

[identity profile] kaitou-marina.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
About the housewife: It isn't as though CLAMP hasn't presented it from the other end in other works. In Chobits, a husband begins ignoring his wife in favor of a computer.

Also, I think CLAMP secretly hates the internets and computers, with the way they always portray them XD

[identity profile] la-vie-noire.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's good to know. XD I'm still uncomfortable by the message, and the way it will be read (you know what I think of gender blindness), but it truly makes it better.

You know, I have big troubles with gender treatment in Holic, but now that I think about it, maybe it's because CLAMP tried to do what could be called a... gender-blind manga, or the opposite of what is traditional: a manga where most of the characters are women (I mean, it pass Bechdel test like whoa). But thanks to that it has other problems: all of the characters who are 'pathological' are women, and most male character are... not bad at all. So in a medium where most characters are male, have big roles, and are glorified... well, you know is not a very good way to read female characters.

That's why gender blindness doesn't work (I know I can't know what CLAMP tried, but whatever XD), but it still better than women treatment in most manga (and comic) because in Holic women exist not only for male characters.

[identity profile] kaitou-marina.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 05:17 am (UTC)(link)
CLAMP has said though that they wanted Watanuki and Doumeki to be the only male characters because they thought they would be OVERWHELMED by any others and they really wanted them to stand out, especially Watanuki. Plus, Holic runs in a seinen magazine, whose primary readers are male and want to read stories with cute/beautiful "girls" (in quotes because some of the characters in Holic are spirts and thus neither technically XD) in them. Even if a lot of the readers ARE female, there's still the marketing genre to consider, and trust me, I know their editor has considered it and no doubt made suggestions. There isn't a "gender-blind" magazine out there to run things in, especially in Japan, so it's always going to be targeted at one gender or the other. I seriously doubt that CLAMP is sitting around saying "everyone who's female is insane." They're just designing cute girls and fitting them into their plot.

[identity profile] la-vie-noire.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I understand there isn't such a thing as a gender-blind magazine. I was just theorizing due to the number of female characters, and because the manga's arcs are all about female troubles, that is very unusual for something 'male-targeted.' XD And yeah, it's male targeted, but heck, almost everything (even in Japan's media) is 'male-targeted.' (Compare the number of male fans who read shoujo/josei, with the number of female fans who read shonen. I'm not saying men who read shoujo don't exist, but shounen/seinen is definitely more 'mainstream,' or that's what I get, maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it.) And, well, I don't want to oversimplify anything, but 'male targeted' doesn't have to necessarily mean 'negative female-depiction' (even if, well, what can you ask for in a industry that thinks the only 'good' female character for a male audience is one with big boobs). Something like... something doesn't have to be 'male-targeted' (like shoujo isn't) to have sexist elements because our societies are sexist, and sexism impregnates all.

Oh, no. I know CLAMP isn't thinking that. Well, I don't know, but that doesn't really matter. The important thing is how it will be read in a sexist, male-dominated society. And heck, XXXholic isn't a bad manga at all. I have problems with it, but I like it more than that. XD (And heck, I didn't know they said that, thank you for clarifying it. XD)

Damn, this was more ramble than anything, and I'm sorry if it bothered you. ^^; I'm not insulting Holic or anything, but I definitely think it has issues, like most of the things (and good things even) out there.

[identity profile] arkray.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 10:08 am (UTC)(link)
Con TRC/XXXHolic yo es que me descojono ya de lo absurdo y rocambolesco, ya es un manga tipo Dr SLump, todo es posible y nada tiene sentido, pero al menos Arale era mas picara que Sakura....

Y como te han dicho arriba, necesitas el Orange Box para jugar al Portal y probablemente el HL2 tambien, el Portal es una expansion, un 'mod'.

[identity profile] la-vie-noire.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
Sí, es que es díficil saber que pasa ahora. A mí me sigue gustando un montón como es. XD

Y sip. :/ Gracias! Es que son muy pesados esos juegos para mi pobre conexión. XD

[identity profile] makotomitsunari.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
pero yo vi con mis propios ojos como se instalaba el portal que te envie, sin ningun juego adicional del orange box! T_T y lo hacian en una duo core o core duo XD nunca lo recuerdo! XD
tiene que andaaaaar! T_T debes jugarle!!!!! T_T buaaa
XDD en fin....saludos...

[identity profile] la-vie-noire.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
XDDDDDDDDDDD ;____; Lo sé, Mako, te creo! ;__;

[identity profile] suikascented.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Dejé de intentar entender Tsuabasa. Ahora estoy más cuerda =D

[identity profile] la-vie-noire.livejournal.com 2008-10-07 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
Jajajajaja, haces bien, che. Haces bien! XDD