In a message dated 6/21/2002 9:54:37 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
andreasona@msn.com writes:

    AHEM.

HEM-HEM-HEM-HEM! ^_^

     First of all, I would like to apologize for that earlier email. My
 computer, in a fit of electronic malevolence, sent it out before I had
 gotten very far.

It's okay. We're all entitled to a little leeway when it comes to errors
of this sort. Especially when we're running Microsoft products, eh? ^_-

     And I bet you just thought I was a man of few words.

Hmm...

"*ga"

I was about to take it as a question and respond with something to
the effect of "Ahah! My words exactly. I'm glad you brought that up!"
and go on a long explation of the need to be able to cause strong
reactions from the written material in question.

     At least, coherent ones.

Well, coherent is always a relative term here...

     In any case, what I MEANT to tell you is that after a long, long, LONG
 time... I finally managed to read you fic. Between annoying little

All righty, then! To be honest, it's been a long time since I read it all the
way through, and I _wrote_ the thing...

It's an awful lot of text to wade through. While it's not as big as, say,
Undocumented Features, two megabytes of plain text is a rather daunting
task.

 distractions (ranging from the smoke-detector in my room going haywire to
 accidentally setting my garbage on fire--don't ask--) I finally got it 

read.

There's always something...

     And you know what? It was even worth it.

It was? Spending long hours paging through the files, groaning through
all of the bad puns, slapping your forehead at the pointlessness of it
all? Glad you liked it! ^_^

     It's been a while since I've ready anything that had the kind of scope,
 daring, and almost total disregard for angsty stuff that NETTG does. I've

Angst has its place, but I'm of the general opinion that no story should
take itself too seriously.

Of course, one of the major side effects is that whenever I try to make
something dark or angsty, I have the uncontrollable need to add a
punchline at the end. I mean, even when the subjects are something so
unfunny and serious as death and human suffering, I keep remembering
the heavy-duty fantasy element and try to take it as such.

...Which is one of the problems with trying to write ultra-serious fan 
fiction,
especially with the Ranma and Love Hina series... (Brian, don't worry!
I think you're doing a passable job! ^_-) It seems that, on the average,
one has to parody every other scene to stay true to the original material...

That's my theory and I'm sticking with it. ^_-

Of course, there are a few ultra-serious works out there that I absolutely
LOVE reading. Unfortunately, I'm not very gifted in that area, so I stick
with humor writing. Comes more naturally.

 never seen a fic that steals so blatantly and brazenly from other 

works--and

 still managed to make go really well. I've lost track of the parts that 

made

 me damage my chair from falling over laughing.

I typically write scenes that end up looking like things I've seen in popular
fiction. I suppose this stems from the fact that all the completely original
has been taken, and all we can hope to do is rehash it in a way that hasn't
been seen for a while.

Some people want to come up with something truly original and then
feel they have to stop and rethink the whole thing when they find out that
something similar has already been done.

Then again, there are others that just redo the same thing over and over
again...

So, it's a difficult formula. I figure, as long as I'm taking material from 
various
sources, I might as well be honest about it--If anyone catches the reference,
so much the better! Since there's nothing truly original left, we'll just 
have to
get out the chainsaw and take the bits we need and try to get away before
anyone can respond to the alarms. ^_-

     I just want say: Sir! I salute you!

(salutes back) Thank you very much! I'm glad to get a bit of public C&C
now and again. It gives me a chance to calmly rant a bit... and if I've 
changed
my mind since my last rant, it gives me a proper venue for a retraction or
two. ^_^

     *CLANG*
 
     Owie...

Pink ArbyFish(holds up a sign): 6.0! All roight!!!

     AJ Andreason

Right. Later, then!

-------------------------------
Benjamin A. Oliver
boredcollective@aol.com

    "We are the Bored. Lower your shields and surrender your fics.
     We will add your standup and slapstick comedy to our own.
     Your humor will adapt to entertain us.
     Resistance is and always has been: Futile."

Collective works available at:
http://rakhal.com/florestica/ben-oliver/index.html

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