Amezri's other journal space

Hey Avengers fanfic writers!

I am loving all the fics. Really. This fandom has eaten my brain and it's been a long time since one has done so. However, there is one thing that shows up in fanfic sometimes that is driving me nuts.

Hawkeye does not use a compound bow. It's a recurve bow. Yes, it's a fancy flip bow that doesn't really exist, but it's a recurve.

This is a compound bow:




This is a recurve bow:



This is a Hoyt Buffalo and it's most likely the base model for the bow that Hawkeye uses in the Avengers.

So there you go. If you must specify, it's a recurve, you guys, a recurve.

Also, one more thing that's directed at the fan artists: This has mostly stopped but, Jeremy Renner is a left-handed shooter. He holds the bow with his right hand and draws with his left. Which means he's wearing his arms guards (two Beiter arm guards on fours straps.. IDEK) on his right and a shooting glove on his left.

If you're drawing movie Hawkeye - bow goes in the right hand. If you're drawing comic Hawkeye, it's in the left.

(I'm actually mostly tweaked about the left/right thing because I kind of wanted to be a left-handed shooter, but my instructor sight tested me, found out I'm right-eye dominant, and now I'm a right handed shooter. Boo.)

Custom Fangtasia ID cards available at Commissioned Credentials! They also have pre-made ones with characters from the show. I love the Pam one, too.

This is the one I ordered. I can't wait to get my card :D Especially since I designed this card.



They also offer cards from many other fandoms (Stargate, BSG, Bones, Supernatural, Doctor Who, etc.) and will take custom orders from fan groups. Unlike some other companies offering fannish cards/IDs, Commissioned Credentials prints theirs on 30mil PVC cards and are sent with a rigid badge holder.

Voting for round 2 ends March 8, ~1pm EST

VOTE DANA SCULLY! (Sorry, Dean.)




It looks like the Donna votes are going to bury Eric anyway, so I voted for him.

And... there was NO ONE left in the Teen bracket I care that much about, so sell me your vote.

The f_march_madness Office Pool entry is up, so last night I spent some time making my predictions. I realized I had two sets - one chart for who I thought fandom was going to push through and a chart for who I wanted to win.

Chart the First:



The above chart is how I think fandom is going to vote. I had a look at how many people were voting in certain categories and tried to make guesses based on fandom popularity, which is difficult as I've been out of fandom for... well.. a while. Based on the craziness of its fans, I think Dean Winchester is going to crush the competition and win. That is, if the fans of the OTHER fandoms don't all pool together and vote against him as there seems to be a huge anti-Winchester segment. But then, I also have Dean vs. Damon Salvatore, which could be interesting as the Vampire Diaries fans seem nearly as enthusiastic, shall we say, as Twilight fans, except for the fact that no ambulances had to be called to the Hot Topic appearances.

I am not sure how I have Liz Lemon winning the left side brackets, but somehow I do. Could be the popularity of both 30 Rock and Tina Fey. I could be wrong and Chuck could sweep the whole thing.


Chart the Second:



This is how I would like the voting to go. I'm sure it won't. Clearly, I want Eric Northman to win. I know, right? Out of everyone in the right bracket, I love Eric the best. Somehow. Don't ask, it's not rational! I mean, I have him beating MAL, but I also have Mal beating Kara, so that's already wrong, I'm sure.

In my mind, we'll get a Barney Stinson & Jon Stewart face-off for the Comedy bracket, with Stewart winning because, let's face it - he was suiting up for TV before Barney. And he's less of a jerk. Sydney Bristow wins the Drama bracket because Daddy!Bristow has her back, especially against Neal Caffrey. He's not letting his daughter lose to some con artist punk. One oversight, I feel, is that Burn Notice wasn't in this year's prelims. In that case, I'd have wanted Michael Westen to make it through the drama bracket.. and beat Jon Stewart. Then it would be a tough call between Michael and Eric... I'd probably still pick Eric.

While filling out the brackets on the right side, I discovered some pretty awesome crossover pairings. Pacy Witter/Maria DeLuca would be sort of awesome (teenage snark ftw!), but not nearly as awesome as Damon Salvatore/Maria DeLuca. She'd make a kick ass vampire, but either way the snarking and the bickering would be fabulous!

So, over the next few weeks, I'll look forward to seeing how completely wrong both my charts are!

Apparently Syfy plans on doing an American version of Being Human.

OMGWTFWHY?! Leave it alone, you hack network!

Says Syfy president:

"It turned out great as we can now do an American version," Syfy president Dave Howe told The Hollywood Reporter. "We've always been keen on vampires and werewolves, and we loved the originality of Being Human, the fact that the fantastical creatures in it are very young, accessible and charming."

Howe said the Syfy version will not just "slavishly replicate the British version."

This is the comment I posted in reply to the article, which is pretty much all I can say coherently right now:

OH FFS. Could American television please STOP remaking British series?! It rarely, if ever, ends well. The Office was a complete FLUKE and probably only translated well because Ricky Gervais was involved.

"We've always been keen on vampires and werewolves, and we loved the originality of Being Human, the fact that the fantastical creatures in it are very young, accessible and charming." - Howe

Okay. Yeah. That's not actually what the show is about. AT ALL. That's like saying Star Trek was a great show because you love the girls in tiny dresses, the spaceship, and the womanizing captain. Trufax, but that didn't make the show good.

I kind of hope this show crashes before the pilot even gets shot. Like the Spaced remake. And American Top Gear.

I'm having rage right now.

I don't remember if I've written about this on the LJ yet... probably not.

M.Night Shyamalan and Frank Marshall have been producing/filming the Last Airbender movie (not to be confused with the James Cameron Avatar movie...), filming for which has finished this week (or will be soon). The Asian community has been in an uproar over the white-washing (and potential yellowfacing) of the characters.

See: History of Yellowface

(I was talking to someone recently and mentioned the Airbender issue and when I used the term "yellowface" she said she'd never heard it before. I explained what it was and she was pretty shocked and offended.)

Before I get into it, I have to say I generally don't care because people always dismiss the Asians and they're always yellowfacing (because apparently that's still okay to do) and mostly I just can't be bothered. I grew up in an area where my family and one other were the only Asians in probably 20 miles. I didn't get mad at the Asian kids being recast as white kids for 21. I didn't care about Dragonball because, honestly, wtf-ever - they're aliens. The whitewashing of Earthsea (whitewashing Native Americans, in that case) was... well, I never read the books and I didn't know.

My huge problem with the destruction of Airbender by M.Night and Marshall is that the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, spent a lot of time researching the East & South Asian cultures they built into the show. Basically - they didn't pull that stuff out of a hat. If Peter Jackson cast only Pacific Islanders and non-Caucasians in Lord of the Rings, I'd expect people to be upset since it's based strongly in Anglo-Saxon tradition.

Jeff Yang of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote this article:

One reason Asian Americans such as Yang and Kim have been drawn into the show's orbit is that it has hit it big despite - many would say because of - its richly Asian-inspired setting. The core ideas are drawn from Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy; its character names - Aang, Katara, Toph Bei Fong - incorporate Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian phonemes; and its visual identity is modeled on traditional Asian iconography.

Read: MANAA's Response to a Letter from Paramount on the Last Airbender (and its lack of Asians).

And now read this post on the language of casting and how the casting directors of Avatar screwed us Asians over. HI. OFFENSIVE.

Jackson Rathbone (Jasper in Twilight) had this to say about his casting/character in an MTV interview (emphasis mine):

Due in theaters in summer 2010, "Airbender" has already begun to face a bit of controversy over the casting of white actors like Rathbone, Ringer and McCartney to play Asian characters -- a concern the actor was quick to dismiss. "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan," he said of the transformation he'll go through to look more like Sokka. "It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit."

HI. I'm sorry. WHAT?

Dev Patel has replaced Jesse McCartney as Zuko. That's great. You know what the means now? The dark skinned South Asians are genocidal villains who are trying to destroy the peace-loving white heroes. Further information here.

The trailer for the movie came out today and over at Facebook I had another spew due to the awfulness of this film. Below the cut, links, video, and the stuff I posted on my facebook.

( Apparently it's still okay to overlook Asians (media heavy) )

See. Now if you guys won't write it, I'm going to have to! I still can't decide if it's Tony & River or Tony/River. But anyway. Here's some Iron Man/Firefly crossover fic. It's rough and I haven't written in ages. So. Feel free to boo and hiss and whatnot.


She stares at the metal suit, tilting her head from side to side, watching the light catch on the polished surfaces. "Tin man," she says before correcting herself. "Iron man." She frowns. "No. Incorrect." She scrunches up her face and leans forward, sniffing the metal plating. "Unknown alloy. Can't exist." She takes a quick swipe of the surface with her tongue.

"Hey," a voice says loudly, startling her. "River, don't lick the suit." Tony Stark walks over to her with a slight scowl. He grabs a cloth off the workbench and buffs the surface dry.

"Sorry," she says, looking at the floor. "She could not identify the material." River frowns as she steps back from the suit and off the dais.

"Gold-titanium alloy," Stark mutters. "Anyway, not important. What is important," he says, pointing at her, "is that we don't lick the suit." He turns away, heading back up to his living space. He's fairly certain she'll follow him and doesn't look back.

She watches him leave, still puzzled. He had answered her question, yet he had not. Earth-That-Was is so different from what she had imagined and she's still trying to work through the data. It was good that she was here; that she was with him. He would look after her, even if he didn't know it yet. With a final glance at the suit, she turns to follow him up the stairs.

"So, River, tell me about the future," Tony says when she emerges.

Seeing that he's pouring himself another drink, she scowls. "No good will come of it."

"Oh come on, nothing serious. What's it like in space?" he laughs.

That isn't what she had meant and she suspects he knows that. He is very smart. "Cold. Dark. Can be lonely in the black. Given adequate vacuuming systems the human body..." She stops, remembering that the Captain had called her morbid and creepifying.

"Can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds," Tony finishes for her. He smirks, genuinely amused, and takes a sip from his glass.

"Not having a 'bad day'," River says quietly.

Tony nods, but doesn't understand her meaning. "Yeah. Been okay so far."

I'm home sick from work. Driving is an issue today. I can pretty much just sit in front of the computer and not move at all, but moving makes the room spin, so driving is clearly not in my skill set today.

Instead, I've been working on some printed items for my shindig -- food labels, raffle tickets, and a label for the Reaver sauce. I'd just gotten things printed and was headed downstairs to get them. Opened the door and saw a mouse sitting on the step. I pretty much just froze and we both stared at each other for a minute. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. If i wasn't afraid of some mouse disease or being bitten, I'd have just picked it up. Didn't have a bucket or anything on hand. Looked around hoping it wasn't going to run off and spotted a small fleece throw thing the dog's been sleeping on. Grabbed that quickly and quietly, snuck back over and threw it over the mouse, which is.. I dunno. probably not well as it didn't really do anything. I mean, it was sort of walking around, but it's not like it ran or anything. Anyhow, I scooped it up, wrapped it in the bulk of the material, and dumped it outside. Go me?

Suppose now I should go find some food and finish up these labels. Have to cut them out. I also want to try and make a lawn sign so people will know which house it is. Luckily, we'd just had our siding and stuff down, so the company's big plastic sign is still on our lawn - it'll make a good base.

After work, I stopped at Lowes to get some painting supplies. Our new windows are being installed. Yay? Actually, they look pretty nice and now we have triple pane instead of single pane.

Made a stop to a dollar store I'd never been in to. It's run by a Chinese lady and it looks like Chinatown threw up all over the walls. Which is good for me because I bought a bunch of giveaways for my Shindig in May. Yay!

I also just bought two Jayne inspired shirts off cafepress: a Fighting Elves shirt and a Wan Nao (Troublemaker) shirt. Sweet.

Time for bed.

I should really be in bed. But I can't sleep.

Met up with queenmaab after work for a quick trip to Joann's. Among other things, we found fabric for the over shirt to go with my River costume. Hurrah!

After dinner, I helped my mom put together a new TV stand. OMG so many directions. Took about two hours. Putting on the top, though, my directions for her to "hold the piece up" didn't really translate for whatever reason and when I lined up with pins, the whole thing dropped and my finger sort of got caught in between planks of wood. Ow. It looks like a tiny, evil elf tried to take a chunk out of my finger.

Right now I'm playing with the Capital One Card Lab. Trying to decide between Atene and Module. Oh, decisions.

OMG. Actually. How BIG of a goon would I be if I made myself a Torchwood credit card? Erm. YES. I totally just applied to have this be my new credit card:



I might possibly be the biggest geek you know.