WIX

I'm still a bit shy so I am posting this here on my blog. Originally posted on wotmania. This has been stewing in my brain for days. Much has been made by fans, writers, cast and crew about the truly hideous pronunciations the actors have when they attempt to speak Mandarin. However, I am here to defend their terrible pronunciation. As the premise of Firefly is that it is set approximately 500 years in the future, and that the two remaining superpowers, China and the US have merged, is it so unusual that the way Mandarin is pronounced would mutate? I don't think so. Language is constantly changing, morphing, picking up tonalities and vocabularies on a daily basis. Slang leaps around the world (shiny!) (moo juice!) at faster and faster rates as we move towards a fully linked global culture, thanks to the Internet and mass media. In every country in the world, you will find a myriad of different accents, dialects and slang terms used by countrymen and women. These accents and dialects can vary wildly from towns not very far removed fom each other. Just think how easy it is to tell someone who is from Queens from someone who is from New Jersey! For another example, the British Isles has a wide variety of distinctive dialects, among them Cockney and High British. For these reasons, I believe it is entirely plausible that the 'bad' Mandarin spoken by the characters may be more realistic than if they were able to speak flawless Mandarin. The odds of any language staying pure when two cultures meld is historically and practically implausible, if not downright impossible. Thanks for reading. I can sleep now. Volunteer: Battle of Serenity Valley Zoe: "Sir, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing."

PINBALLWIZARD

The good news: it's and unusually warm Febuary in New Hampshire. The bad news: it's and unusually warm Febuary in New Hampshire. We can all look forward to having our maple syrup early from Vermont, but whenever one looks up at the sky, one can only worry about how much ozone is left up there, or if he'll ever get a chance to whine about the cold in the future, or if (God forbid) snow days become a thing of the past! No more snow days?!!!! THE HORROR!!!!! WHAT HAS MANKIND DONE?????!!! answer: f:censored:d up

MPHILLIPS

Still workong on it and I'll post 'em as soon as they're presentable..I'm trying something different as to the look...I think I'll do several pages and take the whole shebang to Kinkos reduce 'em and then scan them..I tried this with some "Conan" sample pages I was working on and they came out pretty good looking..Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to look at and compliment my stuff.. Oh, yeah I Still haven't heard back from the guys at Summer's site, so I guess it's the waiting game..I'll let you all know what's up with that deal as soon as I do...

LONEWOLF7

well, section 4 is on the site, and 5 should wrap up the story, unless there are enough requests to continue the storyline, or I decide I've had enough fun so far. Then, I may convert this writer's block-breaking project into a side pet-project, just for fun. Not sure what I'm gonna do as of yet...

LITTLEALBATROSS

So I was procrastinating and realized that not only have I never fly-logged on this account, I haven't written about a peculiar bit of tv programming I recently came across. I was flipping though the onscreen programming guide late one night and came across the following lineup on NTV (a Newfoundland station). The Inside (yes, [i]that[/i] one) The Insider Inside Edition This can't be a coincidence. I found it again the next week (I think it's Monday, or Sunday). Usually really early morning (1:30amET/3amNfld). But if it's not a coincidence, how do you explain a crime investigation show, followed by some entertaiment news show, followed by a news magazine. Someone was having fun with the schedule. (And on The Inside still airing after being cancelled last year, NTV is an independent station and tends to continue to air episodes after a series has been cancelled - not sure if they get the rights to whatever eps have aired and then just air them when they want to or if the get the rights to a certain number of eps and then just repeat whatever has been aired already to fill in the gap. They continued to show Firefly after it was cancelled, though late at night, and only the aired episodes. Just in case anyone was wondering if I was hallucinating the whole thing :tongue:).

SHINYTALENT

OK as everyone who talks to me or reads my blog should know by now I'm shifting to Vancouver- from Australia- to be with my sweetheart. Well I have been toying with the idea of going over to study- probably welfare- but I'm scared, I haven't done anything like that since I left high school, I just haven't felt ready (I graduated in '02) and now everyone says that it's a good idea and I *want* to do this, but I don't know if I can. I guess basically I'm just looking for some encouragement more than anything- any other 'coats out there do anything similar, any Vancouver coats out there willing to give me some advice or inspiration?

XANDERLHARRIS

Andreas Katsulas died just recently and he will be missed by everyone. I loved his character on B5 and of course the Fugitive.

KAELE

Yes, that's right. Mercedes Lackey, the creator of the Valdemar books is a Firefly fan! My favorite author (Anne McCaffrey comes a very close second) is a fan of Firefly. What an awesome writer with such an in-depth look into the human phyche, and she likes Firefly too! It's right there on her site:

2X2

Starting silk screening a new shirt today... this one is "Canadian Browncoat" themed... three colour application... basic design is the silouette of Serenity, with the Independent's flag filling in the shape of the ship, and the star replaced by a Maple Leaf (for us Canucks)... it's coming along well... I've started a new technique for my templates, I'm using clear acetate (such as overhead projector sheets) as my pattern, so they can be A) seen through to line up multiple colours much more easily than solid paper and B) they're Reusable once you wash the paint off... helpful if you plan to do more than one run of the design... I've also decided that Yellow sucks!!! It allows too much of the shirt colour to bleed through it, so it looks faded and doesn't stay bright or crisp looking... I think it will only work well on white or similarly very light coloured shirts.. don't even think about black, as I discovered when I tried to do a Serenity Logo shirt on black... just didn't work well, colour wise, everything looked washed out, plus, I tried a stippling method with the paint, but not at all happy with how that turned out... but I'm learning new things all the time... Today's lesson: when screening a multi-coloured shirt, start with your weakest colour, and progress to the strongest colour... I'll post a picture when it's done if it turns out okay...

CERIL

Got my Serenity Visual Companion last nihgt. flipped through it for about 30 seconds, looks pretty cool. Still waiting for my Australian DVD Tin to arrive.

GYPSYLIFE

So today begins my very sad countdown. I am moving in eight days...and alas there will be no internet to the far recesses of the planet where I am going....grandmother's house. I have resigned myself to the fact that a gypsylife is truly my calling. I will be back sporadically, but as of seven days from now, it's bye bye fff.net for a while. It saddens me, yes, because I have made so many friends here, but I will come back...soon as I can. So...eight and counting.