[Kiddiss]

*teehee* Reyo writes about what Reyo knows :3

I just hope for your sake that either the Otaku Culture is known well enough by your teacher/professor or that your teacher/professor has an open enough mind to grade it objectively.

I still have one of my first papers I wrote at university in 1988. It was about the (what is now called "goth") subculture in which I was living, and against which there was a great deal of prejudice and persecution. I got a fucking "C" on the paper for using words like "Gothic" and "morbid" >:[ I NEVER got grades below "B+" in language arts *grrr!* I should have just taken the stupid English AP test pre-college and skipped the 2 years required GE, but nooooooo... I wanted to jump ahead in French (my original major), so that was the AP test I took. No one warned me there would be an aural portion to the AP test... and I have some nerve damage in both my ears... not something a hearing aid in 1987 could help. Now they have devices that help with nerve damage - it's not actually hearing loss, it's not being able to unscramble sounds... like, say, the static on a shitty cassette recorder versus the phases being said by someone speaking in a quiet voice on the tape in said recorder. I couldn't pass the aural (listening) portion of the AP test, so I didn't qualify to bypass the 2 years of GE of Foreign Language. *shrug* I changed my major in my first semester to PoliSci and changed French to my minor, so those GE classes at least counted for something. It was the 2 years of mundane English classes with antique professors that pissed me off so much >:[ Even after I talked to my professor to explain the subculture, she wouldn't change my grade. Talk about driving my point home with her own prejudices - but it all went right over her head.

Now you can walk into a fucking Snot Topic in your preppy clothes and walk out as a "goth" *rolls eyes* I knew the woman, Helen, behind the store that was the original Hot Topic - back then it was called Retail Slut... she sold out and shot the profits up her veins >:[ (yes, the whole thing is very touchy for me).

Anyways, *Kat reels self back in from angry rant*, make sure your teacher/prof understands your subject matter. At least you have ref material you can use to back it up. My paper was not a research paper, it was one written in class... and there was no research to which I could refer other than band and underground magazine names... none of whom my prof recognized nor did she care about them when I brought some of my vinyl to class (including a Bauhaus 12" single of "Bela Lugosi's Dead"- a picture disk with Bela in full Dracula costume on the front. She said it meant nothing to her and my grade would not be changed. *angry glare*). Ugh. Academics are really closed minded, no matter what they tell you.

I think the Otaku Culture has been around long enough and is well documented enough to back up your paper as long as you don't skimp on the refs. Otherwise, the prof may take the term "Otaku" at it's literal translation of "shut-in" and not understand how the culture adopted that word as its own over time... I believe the slang for what they did is called "taking it back". I could be wrong with that, so check your facts ^_~

I wish you the best on your paper. As shown above, I know how it feels to have something about which you are passionate get torn apart and discarded by the closed minded.

So, Serena is prolly out with her bf, and everyone else is either at work, in school, running errands, or otherwise living a normal life right now. It's 12:44pm my time (either Mountain or Pacific - I honestly don't know if Daylight Savings has sprung forward yet??)... anyone here?