erinptah | Entries tagged with fandom stuff: sailor moon

The guide to AO3 tagging that I wrote in 2013, and last updated in 2017 was wildly out-of-date! Who could’ve guessed?

Just finished giving it a significant rewrite. Fixed a bunch of links. Updated some technical and policy references. Should hold us steady for a while.

(I put it in a series with the new AO3 upload of the Metatag Survey results, that’s what prompted the revisit.)

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Speaking of revisiting older works…

A few weeks ago, I got through a reread of the two main fics of Republic of Heaven Community Radio. When I was posting the last of it in 2015, it was right around the time I dropped the canon, for being deeply upsetting in ways that I finally realized weren’t going to get better. Spent a lot of time not revisiting even my own fic, because the reminders were too unpleasant. So…this is the first time in 10 years that I’ve actually reread it.

Book 1 holds up really well!

Book 2 has so many pacing issues. There are elements I introduced but never did anything interesting with, that should’ve either been expanded or dropped. Scenes that should’ve been explicit foreshadowing/buildup for other scenes later on. At least one conversation that happens after a fight, that I wish had written happening before the fight. A few moments that would’ve felt solidly, thematically linked if they all happened in the same chapter, but they’re spread out in a way that feels scattershot and disjointed instead.

If canon hadn’t been such a kick in the teeth, I would’ve done a rewrite of this years ago. I can see the outline of a better version, the way all the parts would’ve been reshaped into a stronger whole.

…Which still doesn’t mean I have the interest or motivation to actually do that whole rewriting project. Just feeling wistful about the alternate universe where I still had the drive to do it in 2017.

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In happier news, I just recently started a reread of The Dark Lords of Nerima. (Or rather, I’m having a TTS app read it to me. At work, mostly. Needed a change of pace from podcasts.)

It’s the first of 3 parts in a long, involved crossover, in which the Ranma 1/2 crew get involved in the Sailor-Senshi-versus-Dark-Kingdom conflict when they take in a fugitive youma, get mistaken for a powerful new enemy by both sides, and realize their safest move is to just…play along. Shenanigans ensue.

The writing of Rumiko-Takahashi-style comedy is sublime. I remembered it was good, but not how good it was, or that it was on-point from the start. At the same time, it puts so much thought and detail into making the Dark Kingdom an ancient, terrifying threat that everyone takes seriously. The plot-inciting youma is a well-drawn OC, who starts off just playing both sides and looking out for herself…but then, wouldn’t you know it, the Power of Friendship starts to get her.

So that’s going much better!

Highly recommended, even if you don’t know both series. It does a lovely job of (re)introducing all the characters and helping you keep track of them, even the massive Ranma ensemble, plus it fills out the ranks of the Dark Kingdom with other original youma who fit right in.

…also, hey, Netflix has the 2024 Ranma anime remake? This might be what pushes me to check it out.

“Yes, plants need sunlight, but some need less than others, and indeed get stressed by too many photons. Shading those crops [with solar panels] means they will require less water, which rapidly evaporates in an open field. Plus, plants “sweat,” which cools the panels overhead and boosts their efficiency. ‘It is a rare win-win-win.'”

“Running Tide and other carbon-removal companies are discovering what it means to take carbon seriously. It’s still very possible that kelp itself won’t end up being a feasible approach to removing carbon from the atmosphere. Still, the company is a preview of a future in which “net zero” is something more than faraway corporate promises.”

This cat’s skin glows fluorescent green under UV light! The gene is in his living cells, so it doesn’t show up in his fur…they should’ve shaved him for the news segment.

“These days, ‘Ata is considered uninhabitable. But “by the time we arrived,” Captain Warner wrote in his memoirs, “the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.” While the boys in Lord of the Flies come to blows over the fire, those in this real-life version tended their flame so it never went out, for more than a year.“

“Simply enter your text and see it transform into visual retro-futuristic wave.”

Extremely-cool color visualization tool. Upload your art, see what kind of 3D value waveforms it makes. (Check out this long demo video to see it in action on a WIP.)

“I got bored during this quarantine season so I made a nostalgic personality quiz! Take it and find out which of six common Otaku Senshi tropes you fall into and get gently called out!“

Turns out there’s a simple and easy step you can add to basic shoelace knots to make them twice as strong. Suddenly, my laces don’t come undone by themselves while I’m in the middle of a walk anymore! Bless this website owner whose special interest is “tying your shoelaces.”

The intro meme at findingfriends looked fun and substantive, so here goes!

Is there an interesting story behind your username?

I was 10 or 11, I was coming up with Sailor Moon OCs, I flipped to the “list of mythology topics” page in what must’ve been the family World Book Encyclopedia, and picked half a dozen names basically at random. One of them ended up being Sailor Ptah.

…you want to see some art, right? Of course you do.

Classic!

(This was drawn on the back of…some kind of school worksheet, I think? I wasn’t getting sketchbooks yet. You can see the backwards text through the scan.)

So I was “SailorPtah” everywhere for a lot of years. Eventually swapped the “sailor” part for my first name, and now I’m “ErinPtah” everywhere.

( Further questions + photo of cats behind the cut )

This CBS New York article lays out some specific criteria for Governor Cuomo starting to lift New York's lockdowns and relax its stay-at-home orders. In short:

Hospitalizations have been on the decline for 14 days

At least 30% of hospital beds and ICU beds available

Ready to do contact tracing, with 30 tracers per 100,000 people

Positive tests are on the decline even when a lot of testing (it doesn't say exactly how much) is being done

Each individual business that wants to reopen must present a plan to keep its workers safe, and industries with lower contact risks will reopen first

Different parts of the country are in all different places pandemic-wise, so you'd have to hold each state or city up to that list individually and see how it compares. Take this article about Texas' plans to enter the first stage of reopening on May 1:

Hospitalizations have "held steady" (for 17 days? It isn't clear)

Hospitals aren't filled to capacity (doesn't say how close they are)

Ready to do contact tracing, but even with the number of tracers they plan to add, it's only about 7 tracers per 100,000 people

Infection rate "has been on the decline for the past 17 days" (doesn't say how much testing there is)

First stage of reopening includes "restaurants, retail stores, movie theaters...museums and libraries", apparently all of them, limited to 25% capacity. State-licensed healthcare professionals, too, "can reopen offices with precautions." Childcare and summer camps are still closed; next phase of reopening can only begin after "two weeks of data to confirm no flare-up of Covid-19."

So...not as reckless as they could be, but not as cautious and well-prepared as you might hope for, either?

And the order of business reopening seems...odd. For another comparison, Ohio is doing non-urgent medical services first, followed quickly by manufacturing and construction; consumer retail will be held off for 2 weeks, presumably more if infections flare back up; and restaurants are being saved for even later. Libraries in particular are designing their own reopening timeline, where the first stage involves staff providing limited on-site services (e.g. reference calls, interlibrary loan, shelving returns from the drop box) without being open to the public at all.

Ugh. I really hope we can thread this needle, but it's not going to be easy.

Anyway, have some links. (I pulled out the good-for-the-soul ones and saved them for the end.)

[caption id="attachment_5350" align="aligncenter" width="714"]

Officials on the Council to Reopen Crystal Tokyo[/caption]

( so I stopped buying the shampoo for itchy scalp and dandruff and can you guess I have now? Can you predict what currently afflicts me? )

humanist + humorist

THOR'S INSPIRATIONAL SPEECHES ARE NOT ADMISSIBLE IN COURT

Entries tagged with fandom stuff: sailor moon

Three AO3 things make a post (more tagging, RHCR, and Dark Lords of Nerima)

End-of-year link cleanout: Happy fun uplifting things only

Getting-to-know-you questions meme from findingfriends

Health guidelines for reopening, and other April COVID links

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