I only have five episodes left for Zeta Gundam. Damn, that show’s messed up. Now, I already knew that one of the distinguishing features of that show is that a lot of characters die, but I had no idea that a certain character (who shall remain nameless) buys it during a particular episode. I was actually shocked, cos I’d read the episode synopses years ago, back when anime was first getting a foothold on domestic shores, and I’d either completely forgotten that _____ died, or just overlooked it entirely. Due to my ‘reading ahead’ I have a general idea of what happens at the end, but I don’t know the particulars.. Odhinn bless you, Tomino, for being clinically depressed when directing that show. Wow.

Also, Shi-chan & I did our first photo shoot since, like, February of 2004! We’re pretty satisfied with the results.

All that crap of me going on about ‘logistics’ worked out rather well! The backdrop camouflages the more repellent parts of the room decor, and between the ceiling light and the two ‘klieg’ lights (actually two clamp-on shop lamps), there’s more than enough light. We prefer natural light, but that’s just gonna have to wait until we move. In the meantime, not bad!
Don’t hold me to it, but I’m hoping to have them posted to ‘Kitten with a Whip!’ in the next week or so. I’ve got to sort thru 130 photos, which means I have to select thirty. Hrrm. But it was definitely fun getting back into the photo-taking vibe. Back in the saddle! Or something?

A couple of days ago, I was wasting time on das InfoBahn doing vanity searches for both my name & Sidore’s name, and one of the Sidore-related links was a site called mangoat.net, that had a mini-review of ‘Kitten with a Whip!’, under the title ‘real doll creepyness (sic)’. Here’s the article in its entirety:

01/28/2004 Entry: “real doll creepyness”

Great mother of Snuh?, I think I finally found the worst site on the internet.

I.. I just don’t know what to say. Be careful clicking that at work.

/shudder

Sure, sometimes bad press is better than no press at all — one of the two comments for his post read ‘Woah…she’s hot!’ — but I had to say something. Hence, fueled by a mix of ire & curiosity, I wrote goatman back..

To: Mike Kremkau (mangoat@gmail.com)
Subj: RE.your 28 Jan entry “real doll creepyness”

Hi there, Mangoat!

Davecat here, maintainer of the website ‘Kitten with a Whip!’, and boyfriend to Sidore Kuroneko, the Goth RealDoll. I was doing an MSN Search on ‘KWAW!’ and stumbled across your witty posting. Suffice to say, being called the ‘worst site on the internet’ is a bold statement. What about it did you find bad? Was it the layout? Or was it the content? You don’t really go into specifics, so I’m at a loss, here. Care to explain? We’d enjoy hearing from you..

Cheers,
Davecat

About two days later, the erudite philosopher goatfucker sent his riposte:

To: lamia_doll [at] hotmail [dot] com
Subj: Re: RE.your 28 Jan entry “real doll creepyness”

Dude, you have a site dedicated to the life and personality of a fuckable latex sculpture of a woman. Plus, you really need to drop the tables, or at least make the borders invisible. Also, choose a better font and text color because my wife can’t read the site at all.

So I fired back with this missive that same evening:

To: mangoat@gmail.com
Subj: I guess we can’t all be as clever as Mangoat

Okay, so let me guess:
1) You don’t like fiction, or the development of fictional characters.
2) You can’t appreciate beauty, whether it’s artificial or not.
3) Sex without emotional baggage doesn’t really appeal to you.
4) The simple concept of a person spending their time to create a website around a subject that they enjoy, one which does no harm to anyone, makes you cringe.

As for your table complaints; no, I won’t be dropping those, unless you can come up with a better solution for me. And I happen to like dark colours such as black, dark blue & purple, so the colours are pretty much staying. If they’re too dark for you, I would suggest turning the brightness up on your monitor. Or just do what I do on sites that I think are too dark – highlight the text.
As far as the font for ‘KWAW!’, it should be Arial; if you’re not seeing it in that, check your browser settings. I would’ve used Futura T Light, but not everyone has that installed, and I refuse to use serif-based fonts. In short, if you don’t like ‘Kitten with a Whip!’, don’t visit it. I’m sure you can find other sites to mock.

Shi-chan & I say thanx for your input! We will give your comments the attention that they deserve.

Cheers,
D. & S.

And so far, I’ve not heard anything else from Goatfucker Towers. A tragedy. 😐

Ultimately, I could not physically care less if a person thinks Dolls are creepy, or if they think I’m a freak for owning one. It’s not as if I’m going to leap out of my seat and sell Shi-chan right there and then, just cos I don’t fit into some fuckwit’s concept of ‘normalcy’. Personally, I tend to think a lot of anti-Doll comments (made by males, anyway) are done so out of jealousy. And normally, I’m not a vengeful person — I may make the odd threat occasionally, but very rarely do I follow thru with them. Once in a while though, it’s extraordinarily satisfying to hit back, especially if you know you’re in the right

A couple of years ago, my first ex-roommate Steve & I were sitting around in the livingroom of our townhouse, discussing something or other, and somehow the subject of Androids & Gynoids came up. (With me in the room? The devil you say!) ‘Wouldn’t it be ace if you could put your brain in the body of an Android?’ I remarked. ‘You wouldn’t have to worry about getting sick, or having to eat, or getting old, or at least a dozen other things!’ Steve, in a shining moment of hyper-lucidity, replied, ‘Yeah, but I’d rather put my brain in a Gynoid’s body. Think about it.’ OMIGOD YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES. I would probably never leave the house. *big pervy grin*

Yesterday my parents & I were ransacking the house for disposable items, as today is Bulk Garbage Day for our neighbourhood, and my father decided he wanted to finally get rid of the stove-converted-from-an-oil-barrel that had been sitting inactive in the basement for at least a decade. So, believing I had nothing better to do with my time, he handed me a bucket and a garden trowel, and told me to empty the ash from the stove into that, so we could haul it out. After using a larger implement, like, y’know, a fucking shovel, he decides that it’s light enough to haul it out. I had maybe left about two-thirds of the ash in there, as it was so sedentary over the years, that it had become compacted and dense. Nevertheless, out it was going. Everything was alright until we headed out the door, and that’s when I felt a rather sharp pain in my lower back. I don’t think either one of my parents had ever heard me curse to that extent, so it’s nice to know I could teach them something.
So last night, I went to bed at just before midnight, with a throbbing feeling in my back, and I called into work this morning, as Monday is our nine-hour day, and I wasn’t gonna put up with this shit while at work for nine hours. Yeah.
Now who do I grab by the lapels so I can get hooked up with a Gynoid body that resembles Alyson Hannigan? I DEMAND SATISFACTION!!

Right, back to bed wi’ me, I suppose

I ran across this in a textbook recently, and thought it was pretty spot-on:

Cell phone use has far exceeded practicality. For many, it’s even a bit of an addiction, a prop – like a cigarette or a beer bottle – that you can hold up to your mouth. And each person is meeting a different psychological need by clinging to it.

As I see it, the pack breaks down something like this: Some users can’t tolerate being alone and have to register on someone, somewhere, all of the time. That walk down [the street] can be pretty lonely without a loved one shouting sweet nothings in your ear.

Others are effiency freaks and can’t bear to lose 10 minutes standing in line at Starbucks. They have to conduct business while their milk is being steamed, or they will implode. The dividing line between work and home has already become permeable with the growth of telecommuting; cell phones contribute significantly to that boundary breakdown.

Then there are those who like to believe they are so very important to the people in their personal and professional lives that they must be in constant touch. “Puffed up” is one way to describe them; “insecure” is another.

– Matthew Gilbert, “All Talk, All The Time”

Also of note is a Shiny New Link to atsushi-san & MaRi-chan’s Blog, o’er in the sidebar under ‘Colleagues & co-conspirators’. Not only is atsushi-san a fellow lover of Synthetik femmes, but he also holds Joy division in high regard. Good taste on all fronts!
Unfortunately, seeing as that he’s from Japan, his Blog’s almost entirely in Japanese. Ah well. It’s got some interesting links every so often, though, so give it a look

Well, yes! Kinda. I’m currently grilling Uli & Jeff of Delphi creations as to their Superdoll product, as I’m rather intrigued, and so far, I like what I hear.. Still waiting for part three of my interview with the illustrious Meghan Laslocky. And.. that’s about it, really.

Shi-chan is doing quite well for herself; these days, she spends like 99.9% of her time in bed. Due to our living situation, she’s currently in semi-retirement from being the RealGoth pin-up model that she usually is — I’m trying to come up with a logistical way to take photos in our bedroom, but the surroundings are too bleh for my tastes, but I’m giving it some thought. We’re stuck here for at least three years until we move *grits teeth* but, despite the bedroom decor, I’d like to get some shoots in. I might take the approach of what some of the Japanese doll owners do, or those with similarly limited space, and just restrict the photographs to a ‘staging area’, much in the same way that t-dash-san & Yuka-chan, or atsushi-san & MaRi-chan, work. It’s really about doing a lot with a little, as it were. Besides, people aren’t looking at my pics to check out the background — or so I would hope…

Finally, back in September, Elisabeth, our friend & interviewer from France, met up with Valérie Guignabodet, the director of ‘Monique‘, the satirically romantic RealDoll comedy. (Yes; niche market, I know, but consider what site you’re reading.) A couple of weeks beforehand, Eli told me she would be meeting up with Mme. Guignabodet, so I mailed her the sleeve insert of my DVD copy of ‘Monique’ to pass along to be autographed. And she did.

Needless to say, we’re quite proud!

O, and I still have yet to watch my copy of ‘Love object‘.
Hmm.. am I really in such a hurry to view that one? (cue image of a needlessly jealous Shi-chan coming at me with a Liston knife)