On Flames (Part I)

I'm trying to avoid writing my essay, which is due Monday and constitues 20% of my grade. Since I don't know what to write (or I do, but don't know how to put it in words), I've decided to finish up a blog post I've been meaning to write, to see if I could stimulate some thoughts. So here goes.

My recent thoughts on flames generated from the quoted reviews. When I was again mindlessly browsing around FanFiction.net I encountered a horribly written story. Out of some weird human instinct to fit in I went to read what the reviewers were saying, to see whether the revieweres shared the same views as I did. As expected, most reviews were negative, but one of such review caught my eyes. Note: since I didn't ask for permission to post her review (in the same way that people did not ask for permission to post and mock other people's stories. See various live journals specifically dedicated to bash Mary-Sue fics), I deleted all the words that might indicate the fandom, fic, and reviewer (although in contrast, the live journals did not obscure these things...).

believe it or not, i was trying very, VERY hard to be nice in my last review. now, i'm not gonna be nice. so listen up, bitch, because i'm going to be very very blunt and very very cruel. THIS FIC- SUCKS. it NEEDS to be deleted! at the very, very least, fix the goddam GRAMMAR! did you learn nothing from all those reviews people sent you saying you need to get rid of this shit? no, they were not jealous of how *wonderful* you are, they were RIGHT. I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT ANY DESCRIPTION OF THIS [character name] CHARACTER HAS ANY TRUTH THAT IS REPRESENTED IN YOU! SO DELETE THE GODDAM STORY!

oh, and by the way, chapter [number] looked suspiciously, exactly IDENTICAL to chapter [number]. ?

and one more thing.

[silly name 1]?

[silly name 2]? (and it's [correct form of silly name 2], not [silly name 2], moron)

[silly name 3]?

[silly name 4]?

[silly name 5]?

[silly name 6]?

[silly name 7]?

[silly name 8]?

[silly name 6]?!


[Aayla's note: In actual story, the bashed original character suggested some silly names for her daughter, and those names apparently made the reviewer want to strangle herself. Don't worry; I'm sure she wouldn't.]

okay, i realize that some bad things just happened here, but i can't help it that you can only get some in a mentally challenged fanfic. and i shouldn't blame the fic, because, well, a wise person once said

"DELETE IT, BITCH!"

feel free to respond angrily to this review, and prove me right that you are a dumbass mind-slut bitch.

ta

~[reviewer name]



Intrigued, I decided to follow the thread and see what the reviewer regarded as "trying very, VERY hard to be nice". This is what I found:


wow...i mean, like WOW. okay, i made a list of all the reasons why this fanfic ROCKS:

...

and here's the list of why it SUCKS:

1. here in the modern world, we've got lots of cool inventions. like the quotation marks. you know, these things->" you put them around dialogue, and it magically makes it understandable. a gift from me to you. USE IT.

2. keep the characters IN. FRIKIN. CHARACTER. [canon character name] just does it on the first date? no. that's sick and wrong and just not [canon character name].

3. and then [canon character name] gets pregnant and he's HAPPY about it?! NOT IN CHARACTER!

4. that attempted rape scene in chapter [number] was sO STUPID! i truly and completely WANT my computer to get a virus right now, because it has been tainted with the retardedness of chapter [number].

5. you are obviously using your friends in real life as characters in the story. DON'T, RETARD. it's dumb. if you write the story right, then having a live-acting model for your character helps, but if you don't, then it just sucks.

6. Me: Captain Obvious, what do you think?
Captain Obvious: [character name] is the character version of the author, and she's using this story to make her moronic fangirl fantasies become fanfic realty. and she's either: (a) got very low self-esteem, (b) is really ugly, or (c) fishing for compliments from friends who read this, because the way she describes [character name] makes her perfect and gorgeous and popular and, of course, A MARY SUE.

7. i don't know about the chemically-altered town YOU live in, but where I come from, people don't walk around saying "LOL", "LMAO", "fetch". and they definitely don't in hogwarts.

8. and lastly, here in the modern world, we've got lots of cool inventions. like the "delete" button. you know, the thing you click on to delete a story, and it magically makes it go away. a gift from me to you. USE IT. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, USE IT!!

~[reviewer name]



Wow. If she tried "very, VERY hard to be nice" and the review still ended up like this, I can only say that double-standards were at work. The insultingly patronizing language (repeated "a gift from me to you", "lots of cool inventions"), the name-calling ("RETARD"), the overwhelmingly sarcastic tone...all those things made the review not something what a normal person would regard even "polite", let alone "nice". This made me (again) think on the whole concept of "constructive criticism" and "flame". I will post more things when I have more time to think about it.

Info Page Updates!

I've updated "About This Person" page and added the list of my favorite games! Hooooraahhh!

Tomb Raider: Legend PC Screenshots -- Sea Serpent, Part I

Tomb Raider: Legend is the first Tomb Raider game that I have ever played. The game itself was, in my opinion, too short and linear, but the graphics were truly gorgeous and I could not resist the temptation to get some screenshots for this game. I took the pictures by the same principle of taking movie promotion photos -- the scene must be dramatic, as well as artistic in and of itself. Since I took those screenshots myself, I don't think you can find them anywhere else on the web. This post is the first in the series of posts that deliver my own Tomb Raider Screenshots.

Click on the images to view better.


Lara Croft and Her Dual Pistols...against a creature 20 times bigger and 50 times stronger than her.


Avoiding being eaten.


Testing your reflexes.


Dude, try harder next time.


More to come.

A final note: I am not in any way affiliated with the companies that own Tomb Raider, and I don't make money out of screenshots, either. However, if you want to use the images, please credit me.

About This Person

This post is blatantly fashioned to take up a valuable part of cyber space for no reason other than the author's chance of further egotism. People usually don't give a crap about the semi-important facts (i.e. favorite color or favorite ice cream flavor) about some random invisible human being , but what the heck, I will just state them anyway. Not that anyone will be interested, but typing them down and gratuitously revealing themselves make many bloggers feel good. This page, by the way, basically constitutes whatever I can't find place to fit into my "official" Blogger's profile.

Abitrary Facts:
I am a college sophomore double-majoring in economics and philosphy. I like being rational. I also like movies that are meaningful and have moral messages and the prejudice of the filmmakers (if I can detect it) against some groups is minimal (yeah, you are entitled to think of me as a pretentious dope). I like playing PC games. A LOT. I'm also obssessed with Star Wars movies, and my order of preference over the six films goes as follows: (from favorite to least favorite)

1. Return of the Jedi
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Revenge of the Sith & A New Hope
5. The Phantom Menace

...that's it. Ep II sucks.

I greatly admire the comedian George Carlin's work (books and standups). And I consider Peter Singer cool (although I do not agree with all his views, I advise you all to read his books, especially the one titled "The President Of Good & Evil"). He's one awesome philosopher, and he writes about stuff that can actually change things in public discourse, not like the majority of the philosophical community whose works are only read by a very, very limited academic audience.

My favorite movies are already listed in my profile page, so here I will list my favorite games. Usually, I like games that demand some/a lot of creative thinking and keen observation, but not demanding as in reflexes. I like games that have a relatively free environment to explore; I dislike games that are repetitious and linear; I hate games with horrible control systems. Sympathetic characters and involving story lines will be a bonus.

Top Favorites:
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Drakan: The Order of the Flame, Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets

Secondary Favorites:
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, The Hobbit, Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, Tomb Raider: Legend, Star Wars: Kights of the Old Republic

Dislikes:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban

Other Games I've Played (Neutral):
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Longest Journey, Harry Potter: The Sorcerer's Stone

About This Blog

I don't mean to be mean, but Blogger's design of the user's profile page looks decidedly depressing. Therefore, I'm about to write all about myself here: an good ol' post that while has absolutely no CS tech advantage, is totally subject to my whim such that I can write about whatever I'd like to say in whatever format I want. (Whereas The word limit on my "official" Blogger's profile is quite discouraging.)

Purpose(s):
Unlike my FanFiction.net profile, where I attempt to display only relevant information in understanding my stories, this blog is instead a semi-thought-tracing-device where I record my thoughts when they occur (usually when I try to sleep). Hence, as you can see, this blog has two primary functions. First, which is the "intellectual" yet not factual reason for which I started this blog, I want this blog to help me keep track of the trend of my thoughts and beliefs, for I believe that studying the evolution of one's system of reasoning is essential to future rational judgement and thoughts. Second, which is the more worldy reason, is that I want to explore some obscene egotism by screaming that I'm thinking, albeit to an audience that doesn't really care about whether I'm a human being or a mountain goat.

---

Style:
Although I tend to try to keep my writing clear and logical (and hence sometimes quite tedious and uninteresting to casual visitors), I absoultely do not claim that I'm making every single piece of writing a sound/cogent argument. Constructing a sound/cogent argument, nowadays, involves clearifying meanings and definitions and the slight difference between "the property of an abstract toilet" and the "abstract property of being a toilet" for hours and hours (like what I am unfortunatley forced to do in a philosophy paper), which can be, in a manner of speaking, rewarding, but more often it is not only frustrating for the reader, but also highly painful for the author. Hence, in my writing I will always try to be (but granted with failures) reasonable and logical, but in most cases when I present an argument (or a piece of argument) I will rely heavily on common sense and expect many of my implied premises to be detected by the readers.