(no subject)

Had fun at the ren faire! I kind of wish I'd eaten more, and it would have been nice if I hadn't almost fainted near the end, but overall it was fun. I bought a couple of things, including a rune for inner peace (that might just replace the silver cross da bought me, as far as my talismans go) and a gorgeous leather-bound journal that I'm moving my Inoue Chronicle outline into stat because it's just too pretty a journal to not use. (I probably should have bought a bigger one, but I didn't want to spend too much and I didn't like the look of most of the larger ones.)

Caught up on my soc reading, mostly! I have to do the supplementary readings for chapter three (there are two for this one, unlike the last two chapters) but I did finish reading chapter two and then read all of chapter three. I don't remember what the supplementary readings are; I still need to download them. ^_^; I'll probably do that later, though.

I spend a lot of time working in AVID class; mostly stuff I should probably actually be doing at home. It's actually helpful when doing physics homework, because I can't just decide, "Well, this blows; I think I'll go play with the cat" or something (though I can and do decide, "Well, this blows; I think I'll check my email" or something; thanks, Lancelot!) and also because I can ask our other tutor (I honestly don't know his name. I think it's Jeff, but I don't remember for sure) for help, since he's also in my physics class.

At the same time, though, I think I actually do better work at home, or at least not in AVID. AVID class is loud and busy, and I've found that it's a little harder to concentrate now that I'm not the only tutor, because now I have someone to distract me. I also miss being able to listen to my instrumental playlists while working; they tend to be quieter than my lyrical playlists, so I can't hear them over the noise in AVID. It's a shame, because they also tend to be less distracting, since I'm not trying to follow along with the lyrics, so I can focus more easily on, say, my soc textbook.

Of course, I also only tend to really get work done at home when people aren't bothering me for whatever reason, which usually only happens when there's no one around to bother me... but still, at least I have that opportunity at home, whereas I don't in AVID.

Also, random thoughts of the day: I just finally realised that media is the plural of medium! (Also that librum is the plural of libra, but I think that one's more easily excused, as the only time someone ever uses either word is when talking about horoscopes.) And I also realised that I have an irrational dislike of the "such as" construction, as in, "In other countries, such as Vietnam..." I think it sounds stiff and unnatural and I will never ever use it, even if it is a perfectly valid construction.

(no subject)

Greek mythology, why so interesting D:

I'm doing way more research for arc 5 than I would have liked, particularly since I'm still only about halfway through arc 4. I think I finally found something I like that works with the story of it, though. Mao can't be Nyx, because there's just no correlations between the two; she can't be Hemera for the same reason. I was thinking about Aether, because "the upper sky, the universe, and heaven" goes quite nicely with travelling to other worlds, but I wanted a goddess, not a god. Most of the rest of Nyx's children don't work, either, but I think I can spin it if she's mistaken for one of the Hesperides. Nymphs are rather care-free creatures, which meshes with Mao's eventual personality, and one of them is named Lipara, meaning perseverance, which certainly describes Mao as she is at that point in the story.

Or I could go the easy route and have her mistaken for Ladon, but that would kill the Nyx link I want to keep.

re: portrayal of darkness in birth by sleep

I just finished Disney Town in Terra's story (on my beginner playthrough because fffff not trying to 100% while trying to story, thanks) and I realised I've got some beef with how they treat darkness in this game. I think part of it's just me and what I think, but I want to get this out there anyway, because there's no such thing as too much fanon!

So we start the game, and Aqua and Terra are taking the test to become Keyblade Masters. Aqua passes. Terra doesn't - because, according to Eraqus, there's too much darkness in his heart. (Not a spoiler; we should all know this by now.) This was demonstrated to us, the players, when he almost uses ~*~the powers of darkness~*~ during the test. Key word there: almost. He starts to, and then he stops. Eraqus seems to interpret that to mean that Terra doesn't have control over his darkness, but I disagree. I think it means that he does have control, because even though he does lose control for a moment, he quickly reins it back in.

We then spend the rest of Terra's story watching Terra learn that darkness is not the only way. It's true, darkness isn't the only way. But that doesn't mean that light is, either. Everyone has darkness in their heart, except for the Princesses of Heart - that's everyone; even Eraqus, even Aqua. Terra doesn't need to learn to stamp out the darkness inside of him in order to become a true Keyblade Master; he just needs to be able to know when it's okay to use and when it's not okay to use. Sometimes you do have to fight fire with fire - that's what King Mickey and Riku do, during KH2, after all, and nobody's arguing that they're bad or evil. Don't Sora and Riku even argue with Xemnas, that the darkness isn't inherently bad? (I think they did, anyway, but I might have picked that up from fanon :/ ) The darkness is a tool, just like the light is; it's what you do with it that makes it either good or evil.

Certainly it's easier to do bad inside the darkness, because people don't see it like they do in the light, but if you know yourself and you can say, "This is where I draw the line," in regards to your actions, then your power won't go to your head. Terra can do that, and we as players see that he can, so I don't get why everyone considers him tainted by the darkness. He's definitely still learning, but he knows how to do the right thing. Whether he uses light or darkness to do that shouldn't matter.

(There's a spoilery version of this that goes into the plot more, but now is not the time for that version. Maybe after I beat the game...)