wazira_sharira

Today, in my wanderings around UMass, I found a Chick Tract!

For those of you who don't know what a Chick Tract is, they're little "comics" drawn by a crazy fundie in the apparent hope that bad drawings and narmy dialogue will convert people. The one I found is called The Missing Day, in which Mr. Chick tries to convince us that not only is there a War On Christmas, there is a WAR ON THANKSGIVING!!!!!

( So, naturally, I have to spork it. )

Heh. I was so worried about getting this Islamic Art paper done the day before it's due but...seriously, everything's a gimme. We have to identify three out of five pieces of art and there's literally only one that's not a gimme. I opened the textbook and found something nearly identical to one of the pieces I have to identify.

...I post about this class too much. So I'll post some pictures that I hope will explain why I find it so awesome. Just my favorite pieces of Ottoman architecture.
( pictures under here )
Now I need to go back to working on my paper, although it really is almost done

Ugh. I think I just did badly on my Islamic Art exam. I know that I got most of the identification questions right. But one of the things I did is either going to go over really well or really badly.

I couldn't describe a particular way of drawing trees from a particular time period. So I drew one. Yes. I wrote "Trees that look like this:" and then a drawing of the vaguely tree-like shape that was a tree at that point in Persian painting history. A very small version compared to what was actually in manuscripts, but I don't know whether drawing in your essay is going to work really well or be a massive fuckup.

Against my better judgment I'm actually posting my Aladdin/The Mummy crossover on FFN.

...Equally against my better judgment I have an Aladdin/The Mummy crossover in the first place.

Oh, I think it's okay, I don't generally post crap since when I'm writing crap I know it. It's just an absurd idea.

And hinges on the Aladdin sequel not happening, since the premise is basically that archaeologists find Jafar's lamp in the 30s. The Mummy characters get involved because the Medjai have the History of Agrabah, and one of the archaeologists seeks help from them.

There are baby falcons on the roof of the library.

(I've only seen peregrine falcons on campus a few times. Last year I saw the snapping turtles more often than I saw the peregrine falcons. But they're definitely here.)

There was an extreme advertisements post in d_villains. It was hilarious.

( Cut for language that is generally not juxtaposed with Disney characters. )

Just in case anyone reading this is interested, here's a schedule post for this semester!

Advanced Arabic
Islamic Art and Architecture 2
Middle East History 1
American Diversity (I'm kind of pissed off at this class, I'll explain)
The Samurai

Yes, I'm taking an entire class about samurai. And I'm not even a Japanese major. Thing is, it's one of the capstone courses, and UMass makes people in the honors college either take a course or do an independent capstone, and I'd rather take a course that's not even remotely connected to my major than come up with one myself because I have a hard time coming up with writing unless one of two scenarios apply, A. I have a topic or B. it's fiction. I could always propose doing some kind of deconstructionist counter-Orientalist Arabesque fantasy novel for my project, but...somehow I don't think it'd fly. Not like I'm not going to be writing deconstructionist counter-Orientalist Arabesque fantasy novels anyway. I just can't write them for my project.

As for why I'm pissed off about my American Diversity class, which is, yes, another honors college requirement, that would be because I looked at the syllabus and thought "Ain't nothing Arab on this syllabus." At a point in time when hysteria about Arabs and Muslims is at a high point, a class specifically addressing diversity still can't be arsed to find a suitable Middle Eastern American perspective? I realize no class can cover everything, but considerations ought to be made for timeliness.

Just found an article about the Prince of Persia movie. Never played the games but I've been following up on the movie for godknowswhat reasons.

Holy fuck they named the evil vizier Nizam.

He probably wasn't the only person with that name, but it IS the name of one of the most famous Persian viziers. Nizam al-Mulk, who worked for Sultan Malik Shah (his name means King King) of the Persian Seljuks in the 12th century. Also a friend of Omar Khayyam's. Also...not evil.

All I can say for this possible Historical Villain Upgrade is "At least he's not named Jafar." Which is interesting because (at least according to TV Tropes) in the game he WAS. It probably has something to do with Disney making the movie, since having two characters named Jafar copyrighted to them would probably just confuse everyone. Not that they do anything with the one they've got anyway.

This just adds to the fail of it already being a festival of Fake Nationality, doesn't it? Yes, I suppose it does.

Now updated with A FALCON OMFG, and some Sims from Lost.
( Some photos under here )

I'm not tagging anyone. If you want to do the meme do it.


Tell me of a fandom you know I know of and I'll tell you :

1. The first character I first fell in love with
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't
4. The character I love that everyone else hates
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer
6. The character I used to dislike but don't any longer
7. The character I would shag anytime
8. The character I'd want to be like
9. The character I'd slap
10. A pairing that I love
11. A pairing that I despise

Holy shit, caffeinated sunflower seeds.

I think I want some.

I KNOW I want some.

...I can't wait until there's actually money in my debit account and I can order things off thinkgeek.

An even more demented Cheshire Cat.

Text Box Art.

People take the text boxes you use to prove you're not a robot and make drawings based on the words they get. It's probably the funniest thing I've ever seen on the intertubes.

It's hard to pick a favorite but I'm rather fond of Responsibility Scallop and Battle Mistimed.

No, Jasmine should not have outranked Jafar.

No, it's not just because she's a girl.

It's because you don't fuck with grand viziers.

Time and time again I see "shouldn't Jasmine's orders have gotten the guards to stop LOL" and the usual response "well you know how those darn Islamics don't let their wimminz do anything."

A prince would have had a little more credibility, true. But he still could not have overruled orders from a vizier without talking to the vizier or the king himself first.

Because you don't fuck with grand viziers.

Not only because the fictional ones are all evil. Because all of them were powerful. Even under a strong ruler they were strong backup, and under a weak one--like, I dunno, the sultan of Agrabah--they WERE the ruler. Did the actual ruler outrank the vizier? Obviously. Did his sons and daughters--of which most of them had many, not just one Well Excuse Me Princess--outrank him? Nope.

Some of them would have been further up the line of succession. But in this case? The line of succession and the day-to-day chain of command were not exactly identical.

(yeah, posting this here is kind of preaching to the choir, but it's not exactly a fanfic rant because I haven't seen it in actual fanfic. Yet. Wouldn't surprise me.)

ETA: Arabian Political Science Lesson For Clueless Aladdin Writers!
There was never such a thing as a law that only a prince could marry a princess. Yes, a king would want to make sure his daughters married other powerful people and not street rats, but the idea that a princess has to marry a prince would not have come up. Princesses, actually, routinely married kings (which are sort of the evolved stage of princes, but still), governors of territories, viziers, and other officials as well as princes. In the Ottoman Empire, it was actually preferred for a princess to marry an official in the Ottoman government rather than leave the Ottoman court. In fiction, trying to marry the princess is a sign the vizier is evil; in history, he'd have been told "Go ahead." And probably expected to be even MORE loyal from that point on, since he was now not only the ruler's employee, but part of his family.

Of course, Agrabah is a city where "royal vizier" is a title in spite of the fact that there's no such thing as a non-royal vizier, where one palace can have architecture from several periods of Islamic art history in spite of never having been physically damaged or reconstructed, and where hungry urchins steal baguettes instead of pita bread. By comparison, it almost DOES make sense that their princess has to marry a prince.

My Sims have sunk to new levels of depravity.

I have a Lucius Malfoy/Jafar/Severus Snape love triangle.

Yes, you read that correctly. Although Jafar isn't so into Lucius anymore because he got the shit slapped out of him by Narcissa. He's still very much in love with Snape.

Today when I was playing, Jafar was watching TV before work and Snape was standing around. Jafar got up from the couch and snogged Snape without me even telling him to. It's hilarious.

...I need to take better screencaps. The photo function in the game works like crap. I can't show you hilarious things like that.

Okay, I found some screencaps and tips for taking them, but for now the only pictures available are the ones from when a family is new. So I can at least introduce my Sim town. Oh, and there's one of Jafar doing magic.

( My Sims under here )

I don't feel like writing anything. Just that these fanvids are awesome.







(I've also been watching scenes of Aladdin in various languages. And by scenes of Aladdin I mean Prince Ali Reprise. So far, Spanish Jafar is a bit of a disappointment, but Hebrew Jafar is kind of awesome.)

None, because even when I can manage to stop disliking vampires I still would not want to BE one.

I do however have a favorite vampire, who would not bite you even if you asked him. Otto von Chriek, photographer (yes, photographer is a bad choice of jobs for a vampire) for the Ankh-Morpork Times starting in The Truth, one of my favorite Discworld books.

aleysiasnape gave me a letter and with that letter I have to list 5 fictional characters and give a brief account of them – something I like, something I hate, that sort of thing. I got the letter "S." If you want, I will be happy to give you a letter too!

1. Sam Vimes (Discworld)
He's not my favorite Discworld character, but he's up there. I like that he claims to hate everyone, but obviously cares about keeping order in the city anyway. And that no matter how big a case he's working on, he runs home at 6 to read Where's My Cow to little Sam Jr. Actually, if it wasn't for Vetinari, he probably WOULD be my favorite.

2. Shrek
I think that even with the gross humor and snide pokes at Disney, the Shrek series is one of the most brilliant pieces of animation I've ever seen. Shrek, in spite of being a different species, is as human as most human characters and more human than some. He wanted to show someone he was more than a big stupid ugly ogre, and it was his brains and heart far more than his big scary ogre-ness that carried him through. All I can say against him is that the third movie was kind of a train wreck and I pray there won't be a fourth. Shrek's a cool guy but the franchise is looking a little zombified at this point.

3. Severus Snape (if there are two S's does that count twice? Nah, I'll play fair)
I admit I liked Snape more before the last book. He looked like the only character with any hint of anything vaguely resembling complexity and then HE turned out to have a sappy simplistic backstory just like everyone else did. Of course he couldn't have been revealed to actually be evil, because that would just prove Harry was right and the people you think are evil just because they're creeps turn out to actually be evil. But switching sides because the side you thought you wanted to be on just hurt someone you loved? It's been done. A lot. It could have been seen a mile away. Which isn't that it wasn't well done. Tropes can be done well, even when you know they're coming. Then again, even with that trope (and the fact that he APPEARS to be going through the Heel Face Revolving Door but is actually ON THE SAME SIDE THE WHOLE TIME), Snape is still one of the HP world's smartest, bravest characters. And he's Alan Rickman. That always counts for something.

4. Susan (Discworld)
Susan is like the Anti-Sue (which is amusing because her name IS Sue.) She has powers, randomly changing hair, and is generally right, but is likeable anyway. I just like that she uses the kids' logic. Telling them the monster doesn't exist doesn't help. Beating it up? Does. And that she takes a remarkably pragmatic attitude to her powers. She doesn't think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, but she's not an I Just Want To Be Normal either. She does what has to be done. I do hate that she seems to have dropped off the face of the Disc though, doesn't look like there'll be another Death or Susan book.

5. Sayid (Lost)
I just started watching Lost a while ago and omfg, where has Sayid been all my life? I didn't even need the whole first episode to decide how awesome I thought he was, let alone the whole first season (which I'm still not done with yet). He's hot, he's a BAMF and he insults people in Arabic. What's not to like. I'll let a metaquote speak for me: Do not mess with Sayid Jarrah.

...Wow, that turned out to be exclusively why I like characters. Except for Snape and even then I like him more than I dislike the fact that I saw the trope coming a mile away. I just can't write about characters that I have reasons to dislike, because I'd rather focus on the positive.

Troper's Note: Search is down, but two of the phrases in this entry are tropes, I Just Want To Be Normal and the Heel Face Revolving Door. I just wasn't going to look for them without search because that takes forever.

LOL. One of my Sims fears becoming a witch, but it's Draco Malfoy.

(It's still not quite as good as my favorite, which is why it's not my new favorite. My favorite is when I checked the aspiration panel of an NPC on a date and she had "Fear: Marry Jafar." I guess even his fellow evil witches don't like him!)

How cute is this, seriously? This is about the cutest drawing I have ever seen.


Reptile Party by ~DuoRadon on deviantART

Squee!