MadameCaligula

Hello, all you curious people! I'm a writer by trade, and a dedicated crafter/exerciser/reader by choice. Or nature, your pick. Very into Japanese culture and media, but extremely interested in learning about people from any nation/race/planet, etc. Love exchanging handcrafts and those little things you can only get locally in Tibet or Norway or Prague or Australia or wherever that people a million miles away from you can't.

Anything by Natsuo Kirino, especially her novel "Out", a murder/thriller/dramatic rendering of the lives of so-called Average women.

The satires of Terry Pratchett, the elegance of Lisa See, the depth of characterization of Ellis Peters...

Reading a lot of manga these days. Mostly shoujo. Fruits Basket, Devil Does Exist, Sandland, and my absolute favourite, Land of the Blindfolded. (Too bad it ended...weeps)

All across the board on this one. J-Pop, 80's heavy metal, dance, goth, classical, soundtracks...

Currently listening to Within Temptation, Red, Evans Blue, Gackt, Hyde, Breaking Benjamin, Miyavi, Seether, Angela...

First favourite movie was Jaws, which I saw when I was a kid. Yeah, I know it's cheesy as hell, but I still love it. Then Audrey Rose, Neverending Story, anything that ever crawled out of Hayao Miyazaki's brain, Shinobi (live action version of the novel Kouga Ninja Scrolls/manga and anime Basilisk), The Promise, lots of Asian Horror you might not have heard of, and a ton more Japanese and Chinese historical/myth films. Lone Star Stat of Mind, no matter how many times I've seen it, NEVER gets old, or any less hilarious.

Anime like Mushi-shi, Fruits Basket, Paranoia Agent, GetBackers, Speed Grapher, Dragonball (original series with little Goku), Fullmetal Alchemist, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Boogiepop Phantom, and against my better judgment, I've become a fan of Naruto.

Didn't get into Lost when it started, but have since rented the first season dvds...now I'm hooked and trying desperately to keep up. And my current guilty pleasures are America's Next Top Model and Pussycat Dolls Present Girlicious. Yeah, I know, reality tv. Never indulged as a rule, but these two shows...the catty bitchiness, the underhanded ruthlessness, the shallow pools of vapid self-interest...best comedy on tv. Also just got seriously hooked on The L Word after receiving a season on dvd as a gift.

Long letters, strange knick-knacks, anime themed anything from keychains to tshirts, magnets (can't see my fridge anymore for the fullbody magnet coverage), journals, postcards, the smell of coconut and vanilla anything (candles, candy, tea, lotion, soap--just vanilla or coconut scented/flavoured), Godzilla, flavoured tea, charms (phone, backpack, bracelets, goth paraphernalia (evil fairies, skulls, small animal bone jewelry, etc.), Japanese culture (kawaii, manga both horror and shoujo, music), strange and exotic oddities from far away places, anything related to TaeBo and the Billy Blanks way of life, British cozy mysteries, survival horror video games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, as well as the addictive strangeness of Katamari Damacy... I'm into weird, and I have a dirty sense of humour. I also have a Master's in Medieval English Lit, and a nosering, posters on my office wall of the Get Backers, novels by Nora Roberts and Angela Knight as well as collections of Chaucer and Richard Matheson. I laugh at Shakespeare's comedies because I get the joke, and I'm a big fan of Beavis and Butthead. Let's just say, I'm eclectic.