Mt-Maigetsu: Issue No 13

This month's banners brought to you by MapleRose
CONTENTS
Mai-chan, what's going on this time?
A/ What's New in Minitokyo:
Do you want to write for Mai-chan?
B/ Ask a Mod Mai-chan's Mail bag!
Mai-chan loves mail!
C/ The Adventures of Popular-chan
They'll never know, right?
D/ Play that Funky Music!
We love Cyndi, yes we do! We love Cyndi, how bout you?
E/ Get to Know Your MT Staff!
What Euna's been doing
F/ Staff Picks
Art that needs more love
G/ Competitions and Projects
Are you missing out on the fun? Join in :D
H/ Group Ads
Looking for a new group to join, or to make new friends?
I/ Have your say!
Mai-chan wub wub wubbbles PMs <3
J/ The Usual Stuff
The enlightening links to Minitokyo Zen-dom...
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A/ RECENTLY IN MINITOKYO...
**ATTENTION faithful readers! The MTM staff are looking for some aspiring journalists who would like to join the MTM team! If you are interested, please send in a sample piece by PMing it to Mai-chan's mailbox. We are particularly looking for a potential anime/manga reviewer and/or a music reviewer. However, those are not set in stone. If you've got an idea for a possible new section, send us those articles too! :D Also, if you have computer skills and can make banners, that would help us out a lot! Thanks in advance and hope that you'll enjoy this issue!
Signature Guidelines
A note about your signatures. According to the MT Policy:
Quote: The signature image has a maximum size of 468x60 pixels. Signature images may not exceed this size. All signature images must be uploaded to Minitokyo. You may not use externally hosted images for a signature. In cases where you use text for you signature, your signature may not exceed four (4) lines of text.
Please do not use the image tag to display images uploaded to imageshack or photobucket. Use upload your signature image to MT (go to Control Panel -> Personal Options), and use the [sigimg] tag. If your signature image is too large, or not on MT, it will be removed by a moderator. We also ask you not to put too many group buttons in your signature if you already have a signature image (use links instead). It's to keep signatures clean and not over-crowded.
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B/ MAI-CHAN'S MAILBAG
Quote by Naomi-chan2612Hi Mai-chan!
I have this question (and sort of suggestion): Will MT accept collaborations? Meaning will there be a way to credit both artists (other than putting both usernames in the description) like at Animepaper?Thanks in advance!
<3
This suggestion has been brought up before. And Sheqel, the site admin, said that "Minitokyo had that before, but almost noone used it, so the extra strain on the database was not worth it." But perhaps in the future if there's more demand for it, it might be put back in.
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C/ THE ADVENTURES OF POPULAR-CHAN
What Not to Do in MT
Disclaimer: This was written purely for entertainment purposes, no offense is intended in any way. This is a work of fiction; any resemblance to real actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Part XIII: They'll Never Know
You stare at your computer screen in disbelief. In your browser window is your Minitokyo profile page. There, at the top, beside your name, the words "Restricted member" stare back at you.
"Restricted"!? Why? Why you?!
Well, okay, the moderator who restricted you told you why. You were restricted for "ripping" a wallpaper, ie, submitting a wallpaper that you did now make. Okay fine, you did as she accused, but still... it was only one wallpaper... Besides, how did they find out you didn't make it! You even put your signature on it and some stats (even though they're made-up, but other people don't know that, right?). You thought about replying and arguing and file a complaint. But ultimately decide against it, because the moderator linked to the original wallpaper as proof, and you don't want to cause more trouble for yourself.
Still... how did they find out? The MT gallery is huge! Someone must've tipped off the moderators. Yes, that must be it. You have enemies on this site... They're probably jealous of your popularity. Hmph!
Being restricted, there's no point in learning to make wallpapers, since you can't submit them anyway. You decide to see what you can do as a restricted member. Well, you can still make posts. You decide to start a thread to complain about your new status, hoping to gain some sympathy from your friends (and other random people passing by), so that they would rally on your behalf.
In the middle of writing however, you changed your mind. Instead of complaining about how unfair it is, you decide to sound really apologetic. That way, the moderators would also sympathize with you, seeing how responsible you are and that you regret what you did (which you do regret, but only because you got caught), and then they can unrestrict you, right?
Okay, not really, as you discovered a few days later. Your awesome plan didn't work. The moderator told you to just be patient, you'll be unrestricted eventually. Well, you were muted before and unmuted eventually... But "eventually" is waaaay too uncertain, probably at least six months, and that's waaaay too long. People will forget about you by then, and you'd have to start over.
Then, you got a brilliant idea!
What if you just created a new account! Yeah!
You did think of creating a new account back when you were muted. You didn't want to back then, because that meant you'd have to start over with adding people to your friendlist, and your post count would have to start at zero again.
But now that you're restricted, and you'd have to wait six months to do anything to increase your gallery popularity (just posting stuff in forums is no fun, because you're already fairly popular in the forums), you might as well start over. Plus, you can use your new account to increase your number of faves on the few things you already submitted as POpUlaR-cHaN.
Hey yeah, that's a good idea! And why stop there? Why not create lots of accounts to fave your stuff?
But wait, you remember faintly back when you were muted, that someone said not to create new accounts, because it's not allowed.
You ponder over this for a moment. Well, you're already restricted anyway, what else could they do to you? Besides, you'll just make sure that they don't find out you're the one making the accounts!
So you decide to use your friends' email addresses to sign up. For the username, you choose something random and totally unrelated to "POpUlaR-cHaN", liking using random anime characters' names and random Japanese words ('cause it makes you look cool), adding a few numbers here and there.
Then for the avatars and signatures and userpages, you make sure to make them completely unrelated. And, as a final touch, you go on to Myspace and find some photos of random people and upload them as your photo for your userpage.
There, they'll never find out. They might have found out about your ripped wallpaper, but they'll never find out about this. And even if they do, you'll just deny it. It's not like they can prove it or anything. And without proof, they can't do anything to you. Soon your 10 accounts will be the most popular ones on MT!
To be continued...
Author's Note: This installment is either the second-last or third-last of the Adventures of Popular-chan (ie, there are only 1 or 2 chapters left). If you have an idea of what I should write when this story finishes, or if you'd like to write something yourself, please PM me, or Mai-chan
Article written by MapleRose
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D/ PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC!
Album: We Love Cyndi- Tribute to Cyndi Lauper
Artist: Various
Release Date: July 23, 2008
Tracklist:
1. Girls Just Want To Have Fun / PUFFY
2. Time After Time / Sowelu*
3. I Drove All Night / BECCA*
4. True Colors / DOUBLE*
5. Time After Time / Chara x hanaregumi
6. Product Of Misery / BENNIE K with Yukie*
7. The Goonies 'R' Good Enough / Toki Asako
8. All Through The Night / Tommy february6
9. She Bop / Nana Kitade
10. True Colors / Hajime Chitose
When I first heard that there would be a Japanese tribute album for Cyndi Lauper my first impression was dear lord NO! It is a mystery to me why Japanese artists continue to do tribute albums for Western artists without first perfecting their grasp of the English language. After the near cringe-worthy fiasco that was the Celine Dion tribute album, I was hesitant to give the Cyndi Lauper album a try.
Thank goodness I love Cyndi so much that my desire to hear her songs overrode my prejudice. I love 80's music-- I'm not ashamed to admit that fact. And if you like 80's music as well, there's a high probability that you like/have heard at least one Cyndi Lauper song. While there are still cringe-worthy tracks on this album, I was pleasantly surprised by how many of them I actually liked. (One I actually like more than the original! *gasp*)
The four asterisked tracks above are my personal favorites from the album. PUFFY's version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is also worthy of note, but their voices sound too much like Kids Bop for my taste. (Kids Bop... *shudders*) I have never heard of Becca or Double before, but their English is quite good, which makes their renditions of the songs sound quite good. Neither of them really changes the compositions around much, so they end up sounding almost identical to the originals.
Sowelu does a nice job on "Time After Time". If you've watched the anime for BECK, then you know how good Sowelu's English is. For her cover of Cyndi's song, she makes it a little more mainstream pop sounding. (My little sister says it sounds like the group Aqua-- of Barbie Girl fame...) However, the one standout track that I enjoyed even more than the original is "Product of Misery". Bennie gives the song more of a rock feel and her deeper voice gives more angst to the lyrics. (Something that I feel is lacking somewhat in the original Cyndi version...)
Purchase from cdjapan
Sample of Time After
Time
**End note: firefly is currently in love with Younha's new album "Vol.2- Someday". Go check it out!**
Article written by fireflywishes
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E/ GET TO KNOW YOUR MT STAFF!
Hello faithful readers! This month we catch up with one of our dear retired Mods, Euna! Let's find out what she's been doing...
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+What have you been up to since your retirement?
I've been trying to keep up with my school work and other responsibilities I hold in 'physical' life. It's become more difficult to find time lately for 'modding' due to a busy schedule/workload they give to medical students -_-;
+For those who may not remember, what were your responsibilities as a Mod? (i.e.: What sections were you in charge of?)
If my memory was correct, I started off as a general Arts Gallery moderator until we decided to update the 'moderator-in-charge' page. Then I moved more specifically onto Doujinshi and Abstract Art section. I also did a little bit of work in the Anime Wallpapers section considering that I did wall once.
I think the biggest 'unofficial' responsibility I had was hunting down leech accounts. You won't believe how many we had @_@
+What do you miss the most about being a Mod/MT in general?
I've made lots of good friends on MT since my sign up and I miss not seeing some really active people from the past. We had lots of really good wallers back then as well and I quite miss their wallpapers. As for the moderator's job, I really miss not being able to delete something, especially with mature content scans LOL
+As a former wallpaper Mod, how do you think the quality/style of walls changed over the course of your Modship? Are there any standout walls that you remember, even now?
As for the standard of wallpapers, they have definitely changed over the years. It was more a gradual process and I think my standards were relatively high before I even joined the Moderators team (compared to a lot of other members here). I've first had to get to used to the change in different styles. Back when I first joined MT, vectors weren't really around, and 7 out of 10 wallpapers were scenic. I think the standard of wallpaper have gone up in general in the past couple of years. Mine has also gone up considering that I have had to remove a whole bunch of artworks from my favourites list. And I do go, "Oh-My-GAWD" at my own terrible old wallpapers LOL
There are many wallpapers that i remember were really good. It's hard to name one in particular, but cloudnine's wallpapers were fantastic. It was really upsetting to see that he disappeared without a trace one day, because he was awesome.
+Would you ever consider re-joining the Mod Squad?
Probably. If I find I'm bored during my very long summer break (3 months!) and that MT Mod Squad seems to be screaming for help, then I might consider it.
---Random question time!---
+Favorite Olympic event
Archery (and don't argue with me that it's a boring event)
+Song(s) that you've got playing on repeat lately
Home by Angela Aki
Replay by Shinee
Olympic song (hard to translate from Korean) by Epik High
+Who would be your anime best friend and why?
Pikachu. I can cuddle it all day, and I won't have to worry about the power crisis they go on about every winter in New Zealand!
+What would be your last meal on Earth?
Sushi if I'm not ill, and morphine if I am LOL
+What happens to the lost socks in the dryer? (Y'kno how there's always ONE missing from a pair...?)
I always find it. I just have to get it out of the drier before someone else uses it >_<
+Favorite color?
Blue
+And finally, do you have any last words before we end the interview?
For the people who are still actively walling/vectoring/doujinshi-ing, "Keep up the great work. Even if you don't think you're great, you can only get better with practice!" :)
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That concludes this month's "Get to Know Your MT Staff!" Remember, if you
have a Mod that you'd like to know more about, or would like to submit a question you'd like to ask a Mod, send it to
(fireflywishes) via PM.
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F/ STAFF PICKS
Remnants of the
Fallen v2 by zephryn:
One of those pieces that just makes you go "wow". Everything (background, foreground, colors) just comes together to create one heckuva visual experience. Love the antique look of this piece and the assertiveness of her expression. Chosen by fireflywishes
dothaithanh produced yet another stunning artwork. It's highly detailed and grand, with a touch of magical atmosphere. I simple love the clouds and the amazingly crafted ruins. It's definitely worth fullviewing! Chosen by gaara-no-shukaku
Something about this piece just screams "Manga Cover". Maybe it's the bright colors or maybe it's the cute girl. ;) Well, whatever it is, it definitely has that youthful energy about it. Congratulations on a job well done! Chosen by fireflywishes
Wonderful vector, and done from a PVC figure instead of a scan. The shading is awesome. The background is well-made as well. Chosen by MapleRose
Nice vector; Wonderful shading on her, esp in her hair. The water look good, and I like the calm colours to match the scene ^^ Awesome work! Chosen by MapleRose
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G/ COMPETITIONS AND PROJECTS
(in alphabetical order)
None at this moment
Remember if you don't tell us it's on, we can't tell everyone else. ;)
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H/ GROUP ADS
- Do you draw
with pen, pencil, crayons, tablet or other media? Do you want to improve your skills or share your own talents with
other people? Or do you just plain love doujinshi? Then this group is for you!
-
Love vectoring? Then, join this group! It features high-quality wallpapers and vectors, as well as tutorials for you to
learn.
- A misc group for art and discussion.
- An art group for
vectoring and wallpapering. We're having the "What I Did for My Summer Vacation" project.
- A misc group for member over 18 and out of highschool to interact.
- A group for Kaleido Star fans to gather.
- Vote for
your fave anime characters, check out the different competitions going on!
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I/ HAVE YOUR SAY!
Want to see your group advertised, we now request you send in your group as well as a short summary of it's purpose or current highlights. This will of course become far more useful that an icon alone. Also if you feel there is a group or a member worthy of nomination in the MTM again please PM it. Questions, comments, whatever, simply PM the MTM with the subject MYVOICE.
Remember the MTM is determined by you! ^^
Below are banners: featured member, featured group, a MTM writer and I <3 MTM banner (free for use by everyone).
Feel free to use these banners anywhere you want- signature, group page, userpage or even personal blog/ site! Please
click them to get the hosting link.
Can't wait to get mail from you guys!
From Mai-chan, with love <3
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J/ THE USUAL STUFF
All
about the Mt-Maigetsu: requests, ads and features --> To know how to advertise and nominate your group or member
you would like to see on the MTM!
The Policy --> A must read!
The Userguide
--> For day to day living!
Forum
guidelines --> Keeping it clean!
Common problems and
their solutions --> Got you covered!
Visit HeadQuarters for more juicy goodness or contact your nearest friendly moderator.
Links compiled by LittleJonny100
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reproduced in other publications without prior permission from the author(s). If you wish to share the Mt-Maigetsu,
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