A child of the "cold war", I've been a connoisseur of movies and cartoons since the '50s and a collector since the '90s. SOME anime in my collection. Not as much as say most "otaku" but what I have I consider gold.

Film/anime/cartoon interests include sci-fi, horror, mystery, fantasy, military, historical & theological.

Favorites ...

Anime series: Evangelion franchise, Cowboy Bebop, Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, Azumanga Daioh (Cute/funny, doesn't try to insult the intelligence.), Angel Beats, Lucky Star, Outlaw Star, Haibane Renmei, Hell Girl.

Anime movies: Paprika, most anything by Hayao Miyazaki, Ghost In the Shell, Summer Wars, Wings of Honneamise, Sky Crawlers, Barefoot Gen.

Anime characters: Misato Katsuragi, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley Soryu Shikinami Oleg Gramblepudding etc. etc. etc. of Ulm, Spike Speigel, Faye Valentine, Edward Wong Howe Pepeliu Tivrusky IV, Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon/John Smith, Sakaki, Yomi Mizuhara, Yuri Nakamura, Kanadae Tachibana, Shiina, Konata Izumi, Kagami Hiiragi, Aisha Clan Clan, Suzuka, Rakka, Reki, Hikari, Ai Enma, Honne Onna, Wanyudo.

Horror films: The Universal Pictures "Big Three", Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man and their related franchises. Nosferatu (1920), The Black Cat (1935), House On Haunted Hill (1958), 60s' AIP/Roger Corman Poe films, Psycho (1960), Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Science Fiction films: Destination Moon, the first two Godzilla films, It Came From Outer Space, Metropolis (1925), 1984 (1956), Fahrenheit 451, Robinson Crusoe On Mars, The Last Man On Earth, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Forbidden Planet.

Westerns: The Searchers, High Noon, Gunfight at the OK Corral, The Wild Bunch, The Professionals, McKennas' Gold, Lust For Gold, The Unforgiven (1959), The Good The Bad and The Ugly, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

Adventure films: Jet Pilot, Chain Lightning, Scott of the Antarctic, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, The Adventures of Don Juan.

War films: Sands of Iwo Jima, Letters From Iwo Jima, They Were Expendable, Tora Tora Tora, Behind the Rising Sun, Cross of Iron, Battle of the Bulge, Hell Is For Heroes, The Green Berets, The Last Command, Zulu, The Wild Geese.

Other films: Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, The Fountainhead, Murder My Sweet, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Television: 60s' Twilight Zone and 60s' Star Trek.

Authors: J R R Tolkien (I have no love for what Peter Jackson did, however.), Ayn Rand, Jeff Cooper.

Have been writing anime fanfics for over a year on my blog, and have recently started posting them to fanfiction.net. Specialize in short stories as long ones take time and I have little patience. There is however a multi-chapter Angel Beats fic in the works but completion won't be for a long while (Now done, titled In Gods' Good Time. OC centric but he interacts with the shows' original characters as much as possible. Check it out!).

Am also toying with the idea of a "rewrite" of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series and End of Evangelion from a Christian/Biblical perspective. Would be using the Sadamoto manga as a guideline.

Hope you enjoy my little stories as I certainly enjoy the reading of others.

Take care ...

Originally posted on Jays Tee Vee 4-14-15:

Sweet Haruhi: A Review of a Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Fan Fiction Story

Not a crossover story but think of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya combined with the "gestalt" of My Little Pony Freindship is Magic and you have ... Sweet Haruhi.

I stumbled across this one when about to sign off from fanfiction.net. I usually don't do much reading of others fan fics because, as everyone who reads my works know ... I ... am the greatest anime fan fic writer ever to come along.

Then ... Something comes along to tack the word ... MAYBE ... on to that. Hnnnnngh!

In this case it's Sweet Haruhi by thesweeper1957.

Sweet Haruhi is one of those stories that does just that. No, my ego is not fragile in the least but it does get affronted from time to time.

Having nothing better to do, I read the summary blurb and clicked to the story. After a few paragraphs in I realized I WAS doing something better to do.

Kyon wakes up in an alternate universe where it's, as stated in the Leslie Gore song "Sunshine, lollipops ... Rainbows every where ... Everything is wonderful when ... We're to-geth-er!" (I thought parts of Aaron Coplands', Our Town, to be appropriate in places as well.). Yes, it's like that. And not in just basic, primary Fisher Price colors.

The sky's bluer than blue. The world is clean, bright and colorful. Everyone's generally happy, enthusiastically so. Even in their work. So much so, it's like play. No war, strife or crime. Law enforcement is mainly for crowd control at events and giving directions. Never is heard, a discouraging word, and the sky is ... Oh! I mentioned that already.

Oh yes! Not to mention elves, dwarves, fairies, dragons and unicorns show up. I'm not making this up! ... thesweeper1957 did.

However, if there's one unchangeable constant in any universe that would be ole "put upon" Kyon. The new world Haruhi may have created gets him a bit discombobulated. Of course, he takes the above in his usual snarky stride and resolves to find a way back to the land of normalcy. Wotta' dip!

But ... Something happens. Something or rather SOMEONE appears who really knocks the sarcastic slider for a loop and a half.

She's in love with him. She calls him honey. She wants to be near him always. She's not kicking him around! She's actually ... NICE ... to him. She even makes him lunch!

And that's when Kyon really gets bento-ed out of shape!

This CAN'T be the Haruhi he's known and "loathed". This isn't the Goddess Whackjob he's always at odds with. This kind, caring, wonderful apparition? Imposter!

This grudgingly makes him more resolved to "go back".

Kyon's not really into happy, is he?

Does he find a way back?

Does he make it back to our world?

Is he really that DUMB!?

It's best you find out yourself by reading Sweet Haruhi.

thesweeper1957s' other stories aren't bad either. Check 'em out!

As for me, I'm heading off to Disneyland! ... Sees ya'!

Originally posted on Jays Tee Vee 9-13-13:

OH! NO! ... IT'S ... A GRAMMAR NAZI!

Was looking through the Legacy Story Stats section of my page (C V Ford) on Fanfictiondotnet when I noticed this interesting little "review" by a one Ms. Essential for a story I did called "My Gaijin American Boyfriend". This is quoted verbatim:

Ok here's my view on this, your grammar is ok as your punctuation is kind of out of place.

As you've used ellipsis for hesitation in your sentences quiet a lot or you could have used a comma ( , ) at some parts as commas also let the reader have a pause and then continue reading.

At some parts where your writing is like "THIS is serious ..." Instead of writing This in capital's you could have put in lower case like this 'This' but then put it in bold so it looks like it has more emphasis when the reader reads it.

But the chapter is so far good.

Hmmm ... Call me paranoid but I kinda' get the feeling she was more into "correcting" me than in reading the story. Maybe it's because the actual "review" is only one short sentence long.

I then went to her profile page and found this intro. Also quoted verbatim:

By the looks of it I've got quiet many people viewing my profile and I'm not that surprised about it. If you may have noticed I've been going round writing some reviews on stories that are needed to improve so, I apologize if I do write some harsh or cold reviews but if I do, that's how bad your story grammar is and then you'll need to improve a lot. Ok I'll say not everybody is perfect including me but to just say for authors please type properly in good grammar and literacy if you want a good story. If English is not your first language ok I can go with that but ever heard about the Proofread writing? Were you upload your story document and click to view it and then notice that green tick with ABC above it, well click it to check your writing mistakes it corrects a lot of things and you'll realise how much mistakes you type when you don't even know it!

Looking at some stories I've seen many authors start Fan fiction and mess up with the grammar and writing, they may have started Fan Fiction at a young age who knows? But looking at some stories they type now is pretty impressive how they improved on their typing skills including English grammar in maybe just over a few months or even a year!

My motto: Focus on what you can't do, not what you do

When your typing, write it out on paper before hand if needed to. Read over it before you put the chapter up. It might take time but if you want people to really enjoy your story there's a lot of things that'll be needed to do.

As for her motto, no truer words ever spoken. Think she'll actually follow it? Not quiet ... er... quite.

As an aside, I have been "chided" in the past on fanfiction.net by a one Edhla, a dyed in the wool Sherlock fan (And Sherlock fan fiction writer!), about my use of ampersands (& ... those things.).

As she was so nice about it (And would actually read/review some of my stories!) I do NOT categorize her as a grammar nazi.

For years I used ampersands and didn't know what they were called until Edhla came along. To me, they were just those "and thingies". I will not now & never will use them ever again ... Oops!

Originally posted on Jays Tee Vee 3-14-13:

Of Fan Fiction & Canonicity: Evangelion & Otherwise

Recently I've been posting some of my already "published" (On my blog.) anime fan fiction on the Fan Fiction dot net web site under the nom de plumage of C V Ford. One of the stories was Small Blue Ecstasy: A Tale of Third Impact.

I knew I would get reviews to my stories, some of them possibly "negative". That's the chance you take when you get on a "public forum" of some kind and I even welcome it. So it's not that my nose was bent out of shape when I received these reviews as it is that I needed some "filler" for my blog that I wrote the following.

On the above mentioned story I got these reviews:

A. Authors' skill aside, this definitely doesn't belong in the Eva section. Blue furred red eyed cats are NOT Evangelion, regardless of how similar they might look to one of the characters.

B. ... Props to the author on their technical skills; the story is well written. The story is also slightly depressing...and the explosions/mind games/awesome Eva action I associate with "Third Impact" are surprisingly...absent. All the same, props to the author, though I can't help but feel like this doesn't belong in Eva fan fiction...just my opinion.

These got me to thinking about "canonicity" in anime fan fiction in general and in the Evangelion Franchise in particular.

1. As FAN fiction is not "official", one could doubt the "canonicity" of any of it. Especially with all the pairing, "shipping", what-ifs, unofficial characters, alternate timelines, crossovers, etc. Those Shinji/Kaworu fantasies, eh ... Yaoi fan girls ... Good grief!

2. I don't think an Eva story necessarily has to be about angst, plugsuits, giant robot fights (Yeah, I know ... They're NOT giant robots ... They're giant mommies ... With Rei/Lillith being the biggest MOTHER of them all!) or a redheaded nazi chick beating up on some poor schnook.

My story is about a suffering little girl finding some brief happiness in an apocalyptic situation. That situ being Third Impact/Instrumentality.

3. Owning/seeing the series and End of Evangelion, I understand Rei/Lillith to be able to assume the form of ones' deepest desire/dread in order to facillitate assimilation. In the case of the drunken jerk, it was that of a deceased spouse/lover. For the little girl it was that of something very precious and lost to her, the missing kitten.

The description of the feline (Blue fur, red eyes.) makes clear that this is Rei/Lillith manifesting her/itself to the girl, setting her up for Instrumentality. I did not feel there was a need to describe the kid going SPLAT! when she gloms onto the kitten. That was to be assumed from the outset.

I guess "canonicity" to be rather subjective to many. As we're not talking theology here (Though this IS Evangelion!), I'm not going to get too worked up about it.

Just sayin' ...

Originally posted on Jays Tee Vee 6-7-13:

Could It Be I've Been ... Trolled?

Homophobia

General definition: Fear of homosexuals/homosexuality.

Actual usage by many homosexuals and their sympathizers:

1. A buzz word for denigrating any person in disagreement/opposition or any perceived form of disagreement/oppostion.

2. Anyone/anything homosexuals don't like.

Some months ago, I started posting my anime fanfiction on the fanfiction. net website (When there, look up author C V Ford.). Thought I'd expand my exposure and I've done OK so far.

The site gives any reader an option to review a story and I've had a few, most of them favorable, a couple less so. Unfavorable reviews don't bother me as they're usually informative/constructive. As for any "malicious" or snarky ones ... well ... That's the risk you take. One kind of got me to wondering.

Some time back I posted an Azumanga Daioh fanfic titled "Not So Oblivious". To make a long story description short, the Kaorin character is "scared straight" albeit in a good way. So far I have gotten two positive reviews and one on the negative side.

The "negative" one was in two short words: "How sad".

Hmmm ... Not exactly a comment made out of unbridled joy. As for me, I'm the sentimental type. I cry when I see no smoking signs.

It got me to thinking. Was this reviewer ... THAT way?

I took a look at his/her profile page and sure enough ... he/she is. Bi and very proud of it.

As anyone who knows me can tell you, my views on homosexuality are less than favorable. I will only say that we are ALL one day coming before the Lord to be judged for something(s) or other and I pray we will all find the surprise to be pleasant.

As for the reviewer in question:

If he's bisexual, why would he think the ending of the story to be "how sad"? If he swings both ways, the ending really shouldn't have mattered, would it?

If he's secure in his "lifestyle"/identity, etc., why would he feel a need to make such a comment?

Was he making a joke? ... or ...

Maybe he really didn't care much for the story. OK.

Or maybe he's just a heterophobe.

Just sayin' ...