Which, incidentally, is a good thing.

Here are some things to expect, to know, and to cherish:

• Lots of broken links at the moment. I think some of this will go away when the old domain is properly mapped, but I’ll be on the lookout for stragglers. Sorry for the bother in the meantime.
• Damn near every Super Fanicom tract of yore and quite a few pontif.us screeds can be found here, with a few notable exceptions. Such as all the audio content. And, most unfortunately, the Strike Witches posts — that’ll be a long-term project (had I tried to include them today, I’d be far from done). I actually do still have the raw materials of the eight(?) we never did finish, though…
• Wonder of wonders, we have post ideas! Or I should say that I have one post “idea” (which…well, you’ll see), and otherwise Cuchlann and I have a few post aspirations. Maybe some video sorts of things. Since the last time we tried audio I’ve procured a better headset and a hard drive that doesn’t lurch violently every three seconds.
• If your name isn’t on the authors list to the right, rest assured that I’ve credited you for your posts in-text, and probably tried to get you signed up here properly; just shoot me an email with your WordPress.com username if you want that straightened out, and watch for the subsequent invite.

Tired. More anon.

Thekittymeister took this.

Oh yes, for three years ago the beard was born!

(Three years and one day, actually).

In the time since our last gathering together to celebrate, it has been whispered in certain English departments that this beard contains within it the souls of all people alive on this planet — verily, that shaving even one hair would slay a person; one inch, dozens; a goatee would doubtless depopulate a continent.

Neither do I know where its groping, hirsute rampage will end. But those faithful few of us will know it forever beneficent.

Below the cut you may gaze upon its splendor, as well as the photo from one year ago illustrating its vigor then, and its increased power into the present day.

My current state

Lo, it is true that my beard is fearful, but anger it not, and it will withhold its smiting follicles.

My state one year ago.

Celebrate! For its power is devoted to you! The beard nurtures and protects SF.c.

If you would like, you may post pictures of your own facial states, as homage to the beard, either in comments or your own shrines (twitter, blogs). Link here and remember the #bycuchlannsbeard hashtag.

Yes, it’s been hard, and like any relationship ours has gone through its share of rough patches, but we’re still together after a year.  It’s remarkable.  A lot of people said it would never work.

We’re here to celebrate my beard.  It’s a fine beard, really; a little thin around the edges, but strong and upstanding, moral and virtuous, where it really counts.  It’s SF.c’s mascot, remember, and only the finest of folicle growths could possibly represent this finest of blogs.

On the first of August, in 2008, I shaved for the last time, so on the second my beard was born.  No, it did not spring, fully-formed, from my brow, as legend says.  It did not drag with it, into its existence on this lower plane, brimstone and clouds of fury, as the Hindu tradition has it.  It was truly an American dream story, starting with a lot of itching and ending, as ordained, with righteous patriarchal power.  Some say I look like Jesus.  It is only right.

For the edification of those unblessed with personal experience, I provide pictures, both before and after the ascension of my face:

That is all.

As happens sometimes your genial host Pontifus and I were chatting just a while ago.  Here’s what happened.

Cuchlann:
And apparently, according to [name redacted], I am probably “one of those students who are great but may not look like it on paper.”
O_o

Pontifus:
hahaha, i feel like that’s my problem
maybe because i don’t put a lot of effort into things i think are fundamentally pointless…like gre tests

Cuchlann:
Well, I did pretty well on my GRE. I think it has more to do with my weird ideas.
Which means you may very well be in the same boat. We both share a lot of ideas on the dissemination of theory, the study of lit., and so on.

Pontifus:
true
fuck
lol

Cuchlann:
We’ll just build up the SF.c empire slowly, until you can found your own digital university.

Pontifus:
yeah, or just make universities obsolete

Cuchlann:
I’ll be dean of twitter messages.

Pontifus:
and establish a learning commune sort of thing

Cuchlann:
You have to have an eye toward the money. We’ll need to eat.

Pontifus:
hmm
ghostlightning can do that

Cuchlann:
Yes.
Good call.
Owen is our first satellite campus.

Pontifus:
lelangir will be too busy being the internet, and kaiser will be too busy being…swedish, i guess
yeah, owen handles study abroad

Cuchlann:
Yes, he will likely be busy being Swedish. Haha.

Pontifus:
He does that a lot, it seems, lol

So clearly you should send in your student application now, to the first digital weeaboo university, SF.c!

(Note:  Not actually a call for submissions of any kind; carry on)

Because no one demanded it:

(4:10:04 AM) Pontifus: your epic beard is now the mascot of super fanicom
(4:10:13 AM) cuchlann: Aroo?
(4:10:43 AM) cuchlann: It’s been trimmed down since then, anyway.
(4:10:51 AM) cuchlann: Did you just make that decision, by the way?
(4:11:05 AM) Pontifus: yeah, like fifteen seconds ago
(4:11:28 AM) cuchlann: That’s pretty quick snap-decisions there. I suppose I’m proud to have our mascot, uh, clinging to my face.
(4:12:09 AM) Pontifus: well, i tend to go with my instincts
(4:12:24 AM) Pontifus: which tell me that we need a mascot, and that aforementioned mascot should be your facial hair

Crossposted to my personal blog, because why wouldn’t it be?
Posted in SFCentral ]]> http://superfani.com/2008/12/08/this-is-what-late-night-chatting-does-to-your-genial-hosts/feed/ 0 cuchlann http://superfani.com/2008/11/10/desperate-times-call-for-filler-posts/ http://superfani.com/2008/11/10/desperate-times-call-for-filler-posts/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:56:23 +0000 Pontifus http://superfani.com/?p=1847 ]]>

I have some (arguably) substantial posts in the works, really — in particular, I intend to relate some thoughts on my local convention in the very near future, and I can (and will) probably churn out another half dozen ruminations on Aria before I run out of things to say about it for the time being. My hard drive having been devoured by viruses has set me back a bit, though, so I’ve decided to follow in Cuchlann’s footsteps and run my posts (excepting the Otouto dialogue, for which I’m not fully responsible) through Wordle. The results are as pictured above.

It’s appropriate, I think, that one of my most commonly-used words is “one,” whatever the context may be. After all, it’s my goal — nay, my holy quest to demonstrate that, in the right hands (i.e. all of ours), art criticism can become a great unifier and therefore a more effective means by which to understand ourselves. If this requires the forcible divorce of criticism from clandestine academic circles, then so be it — but let’s not jump to that conclusion and charge in with guns blazing just yet. Also interesting is that I use “hell” more often than weighty terms such as “existence,” “concerns,” and “Socrates.” Clearly, I am the devil.

Speaking of criticism, I recently received my academic adviser’s comments on the essay I’ll be using as a writing sample in my grad school applications, upon which she wrote what is clearly the best comment ever. And I quote: “Derrida is turning in his grave :(” For the record, it was a misunderstanding — in the following paragraph, I proceed to explain why the statement she didn’t like is flawed — but that comment, complete with frowning face, made me lol.

Dammit, this post has nothing to do with anime, manga, or games. I’m done here. Pontifus out!

I got bored last night.  So I made a wordle image from all my posts here at Superfani so far.  I’m not sure how useful it is, but I thought it would be fun, so there.

I notice the biggest word is “like.”  That’s probably me prevaricating when I make statements, alongside my tendency to use similies a lot.  I’ll try to cut down the first, as it’s not good practice in essays.

After that is “people,” which strikes me as appropriate for a self-described populist literary critic.

“Criticism” and “text” aren’t surprising to anyone, I’m sure, not after this post.

Really I guess I’m just here to let you know I’m still alive.  I’m behind on most of the anime I’m watching, except Toradora! And I haven’t thought of much in the nature of critical essaying to say about that one.  I did catch the new Zetsubou-Sensei OVA, but again, not much of superfani-quality to say about it.  I hope to either write that Soul Eater post I keep promising, or some initial thoughts about my video game paper, by the end of today, but I dunno how that’s going to work.  Damn school.  Never mind the application stuff I should be doing.  Sigh.

Wow, this post is incredibly self-indulgent.