I am not kidding

I'm sure that those of you who, like me, spend the majority of your day on the computer have, like me, confused the two realities. Saying "LOL" out loud, for example.

Well, I've got you beat.

Just now, I dropped a pile of laundry on top of the dryer. Then, wondering why I hadn't simply dropped it into the laundry basket, I decided I would do that...and for two full seconds I tried to figure out how to hit Control-Z so the clothes would be back in my arms.

Superman and Spider-Woman

I watched this whole thing. And now I must pass on the horror!

Update: Lyrics!

Spiderwoman: tu mera superman,
You are my superman
Superman: tu meri lady
You are my lady
Spiderwoman: ho gaya hai apna pyaar already
we’ve fallen in love already
[ostensibly referring to the fact that they were hot for each other before her superpowers]

Spiderwoman: mehsoos karoon mehsoos teri… bahon mein(x2)
I experience the experience of you in your arms
Superman: mein naaz karoon chale saath tu jab rahon mein(x2)
I am glorious/proud when you walk the paths with me

Spiderwoman: tu mera superman, mein teri lady
You are my superman, I am your lady
ho gaya hai apna pyaar already
we’ve fallen in love already

Chorus: super...super....super...super superman(x2)

Spiderwoman: hamdard hai to kamzoron ka...hai sahaara(x2)
You are one with/sympathise with the weak…their help
Superman: tujhe mereliye ambar se gaya hai utaara(x2)
You have been brought down from heaven for me

Superman: mein tera superman, tu meri lady
I am your superman, you are my lady
ho gaya hai apna pyaar already
we’ve fallen in love already

Spiderwoman: tera sunke naam aajaye chamak aankhon mein(x2)
I hear your name and it brings a sparkle to my eye
Superman: mere dil ne chuna hai saath tera laakhon mein(x2)
My heart has chosen your company from amongst hundreds of thousands

Spiderwoman: tu mera superman,
You are my superman
Superman: tu meri lady
You are my lady
Spiderwoman: ho gaya hai apna pyaar already
we’ve fallen in love already

Drive-thru etiquette

Tactical Grace over at Radical Bacon (why two names? I don't know) currently works in fast food, and she has posted a list of drive-thru etiquette suggestions.

Most of them were things I'd thought of before--I try to be very pleasant in the drive-thru--but the last one surprised me:

6. This is a personal preference, but if you're going to thank your order taker while at the speaker, say "thanks" rather than "thank you." Over the speaker, "thank you" sounds like "fuck you."

I would never have guessed this. I say "thank you" in a very cheery voice. I could see someone mistaking the way Sean says "thank you", because he kind of does it in a cursory way, but hopefully my way is safe.

It's also possible that this is a dialectal thing that happens where TG lives and not here. But I don't know where TG lives, and I've never been on the receiving end of a drive-thru speaker, so I can't argue that one way or the other.

(The Chick-fil-A people seem to understand me--they almost always respond with "My pleasure." It's actually become a game with me to see if they say it or not. Yes, I need to get a life.)

Another awesome Richard Moore quote

"Look, this job is chicken soup. Don't try to change it into lobster bisque."

I'm into season two of Case Closed, and I'm still a fan. The only thing that bothers me is that they didn't switch to the new OP. You hear it in the Detective Conan sub during the episode preview, but then it (jarringly) switches back to the first OP. (In the dub, they just play the first OP the whole time.)

This is very annoying, especially since it means I won't get to hear "Nazo". I was pretty interested to see how they'd sing that in English. But it's also just a great song...yes, even better than "mune ni doki doki DAKE".

Oh well.

At least the dub is fun! Any episode with Richard in it especially, but I also love Jimmy and Conan's voice acting.

It is irritating, though, that I can't own a legitimate, truly uncut release of Detective Conan without buying Region 2, untranslated DVDs :P

Re: Smallville season finale

OMGWTFBBQ on a popsicle stick...!

This season kind of blew in general. While I don't want to say that cliffhanger made up for it, it certainly made things interesting again...

(Although this new series of events makes me wonder if Clark will ever become Superman...click here for spoileriffic picture that demonstrates why you shouldn't use ThumbsPlus to create a jpeg from two pngs. Jaggies!)

Bellydance photos

Here are the photos I took of Alchemy dance troupe this morning.

We started off at 8th Street under the arbor and along the old storefronts, then moved to the Riverwalk staircases and amphitheatre overlook, and finally went over to North Augusta to get some shots along the Greeneway.

Here are the shots I like the most:

This one is my absolute favorite :>


This one didn't come out as centered as I wanted, but that's what cropping is for.

Alchemy will be selecting one photo for use in a calendar of bellydancers. That photo will probably be color enhanced, cropped, and possibly otherwise manipulated. It should be interesting to see. I'll try to get a copy of the final version they use. If I do, I'll post it!

I've got a "gig"

Tomorrow I need to be up ridiculously early (which is why I'm up late, natch) because I'm meeting a group of bellydancers for a photo shoot.

And I'm the photographer!

This is more than a little crazy, and I'm more than a little nervous. I think my technique has improved, but I still mainly take detail and landscape photos.

Here's hoping I can use some of what I've learned to capture the beauty of the dancers. Right now that seems like a pretty monumental task!

So yeah, maybe I should go to bed already...

"I've been denied everything...even my revenge!"

My Gargoyles season 1 two-disc set arrived the other day, and I've already watched all the episodes plus the commentary on the first five. Good stuff.

Gargoyles is still one of the best shows I've ever seen. Watching it again really took me back to my life as a teenager, though. The commentaries especially reminded me how much time has passed, and what things were like for me in 1994.

Sometimes I wonder if nostalgia is wanting things to be the way they used to be, or wanting yourself to be the way you used to be. Either way, it's wistfulness over an impossible dream...but it can be such a poignant feeling.

Magazine memories

I recently subscribed to Better Homes and Gardens.

My mom used to get this magazine when I was younger, back when the boys and I all lived at home and I shared a bathroom with Mom and Dad. There was always a basket next to the toilet filled with magazines that I would sit and read longer than necessary, and BH&G was one of those.

My favorite parts were always the floor plans and photographs of home and garden makeovers. I loved seeing the unique ways people would dress up their existing spaces. I still remember a tiny yard with a high wall that was transformed into an English garden, and what a strong effect that had on me. I learned then that you can do a lot with a little...even though it was years before my dreams of living in a mansion transformed into a quiet desire for a small, functional, pretty home.

There is a gorgeous little Massachusetts cottage in the June 2007 issue that was originally a boat house. That kind of coziness and simplicity really appeal to me now.

There's also an 850 square foot California house that serves as the first home for a young couple and their baby. The story boasts a floor plan, much to my delight.

The magazine is bigger than I remember. I don't know if it actually is bigger or if I've just grown accustomed to the size of Taste of Home, which is small enough to be saddle-stitched. BH&G is held together with glue, like a book. It made it a little more difficult to yank out all the advertising inserts.

But the size is a good thing, because it means I have plenty of reading for the basket in my bathroom :)

David Spade does it again

The mashup at the beginning is fabulous. (I also love how Spade knows and employs words like "mashup"!)

Great minds?

So I watched Return of the Jedi the other day.

And apparently so did everyone else! To wit: today's Diesel Sweeties, today's Shortpacked!

:>

(Those comics probably aren't Mom-friendly.)

My mother, ladies and gentlemen

Mom (8:20:33 AM): Dad is playing music
Mom (8:20:37 AM): we both are at computers
Mom (8:20:40 AM): me at old one
Mom (8:20:45 AM): but it is working fine
Mom (8:20:49 AM): and you are at a computer
Mom (8:20:51 AM): a family
me (8:20:53 AM): lol

The new Geoshitties

MySpace doesn't like its profile pages to be legible, so it does everything it possibly can to ensure that they're not.

Right now I'm trying to use the new editor to add a nifty Live Free or Die Hard theme to my profile, but the theme isn't set up right. It puts black text on top of a black background! And when I try to use the editor to fix it, it destroys other parts of the code.

I keep going around and around with it and it's driving me crazy! I'm way too much of a perfectionist for MySpace ;P

A normal yet nonstandard Tuesday

Today was kinda weird and very fun.

Traffic was just bizarre. This morning there was about triple the normal number of cars on the road when I headed off to work. I have no idea why. It made the commute a little more difficult, especially since one of the Bobby Jones onramps was blocked by cones into being a yield instead of having an acceleration lane. That always gets me, because those people are supposed to stop and wait for traffic, but it's a hell of a way to get onto the interstate, so I usually try to get out of their way. This time I was unable to, and I ended up slowing down way too much until they finally got the picture and pulled out in front of me.

Work was good. The nature of my job is shifting somewhat, from content manager-esque with occasional design to content creation and revenue generation. Just since last week I've been able to start three projects I've been wanting to work on for awhile.

For lunch, as my Twitter followers know, I picked up some Chick-fil-A and headed over to Riverview Park to eat at the picnic tables near the baseball fields. On my way there, I finally found the route that I charted out on Google Maps months ago, the one that avoids Buena Vista and the Georgetown apartments. It's pretty simple, but I don't know if it actually saves any time.

It was a beautiful day, hot in the sun but cool in the shade, and I suppose since it's still relatively early summer there weren't any wasps. I did notice a bird's nest crammed into one of the inside corners of the chimney above the large grill in front of the bathrooms. Guess the thing doesn't get used much.

After work I headed over to Mellow Mushroom, where a bunch of people from the station were gathering to celebrate the birthday of one of the photogs. This is a guy who likes to hang out in my office on his lunch break and chat, and he also uses my office as a cut-through quite a bit. He's cool.

(I've been thinking for awhile about rearranging my office--again--so that my back is to the wall. It's really not feng shui to have people walking around behind me all the time.)

Anyway, we had a blast. Several photogs were in attendance, as was one of the sports guys for the beginning of the evening and one guy from production. It is always fun to hang out with photogs and production assistants because they are some of the most "real" people you can find in television.

Most of what was said tonight can't be repeated ;) Suffice it to say it was hilarious. I even made a pretty good joke about some rapper the guys were talking about who calls himself Pimpzilla. (I think this is him.)

I had a portobello sandwich with chips and tea. Several people had pizza, and most people, except of course the photog who was on call, had beer. One guy had quite a bit of beer, and if you know our photogs at all you can probably guess who ;> At one point he was trying to say "theoretically" and it came out "theologically".

Good times.

Traffic felt strange on my way home, too, but it wasn't particularly dangerous, just faster than I expected. Normally when cars get to the construction zone they slow down a little, but today they were blowing through at 60 or 70. It might have something to do with the fact that it was almost 10 o'clock rather than my usual 7 or 8.

Something just felt unique about today, even though I didn't do anything spectacular. I guess a day doesn't have to be groundbreaking to be a good one :)

Too many kids

I had another weird dream the other night. In this one, AJ and Faye had six or seven children. They were living in this tenement-style apartment building, and the kids were distributed throughout various floors. We used the fire escape to go between them.

I was trying to play with all of the kids and get to know them, and it struck me as odd that some of them had the last name "Mills". "Why aren't they Aubreys?" I asked AJ.

"You're the one who came up with Shelly Mills," AJ retorted. Shelly Mills is the fictional deceased girlfriend of a character of mine from the AMRN who was loosely based on AJ.

"Oh," I said, because this was somehow logical.

"I think we have too many kids," AJ said later. "Do you want one?"

He's said this to me before in real life, as a joke, but in the dream he was absolutely serious. And I seriously considered it for awhile in the dream.

Because I'm a sucker for shot-by-shot remakes

I am becoming a real fan of the Showbiz Show. Too bad I don't have cable...

Frog legs

I dreamed last night that I went to visit an old friend. In the dream she was married but had no kids, which is weird because I think the opposite is true now. Anyway, she lived in a small silver houseboat that was docked at the edge of a crystal lake surrounded by trees that you had to hike up a mountain to get to. It was very beautiful.

At the beginning of the hike was a city with elegant suspension bridges and towers rising to the sky. And of course, since I'm obsessed, all of this was in Japan.

I remember having to take the train to get to the city, and then hiking to the houseboat, but that's really it.

At some point I was hanging out with the Ninja Turtles (natch), and one of them--I think it may have been Donatello--said to someone else, "Can you cut this leg off for me? It's getting to be a nuisance."

The other person came out with a large hand saw and rested it over Donatello's leg. I turned to whoever it was I was with (maybe it was still my old friend) and smiled that they were taking the joke that far.

Then the guy started sawing Donatello's leg off!

Okay, I thought, he's not actually cutting off his leg, just some outer padding thing he's wearing that happens to look just like his leg.

The sawing stopped, and the guy started peeling something back. At first I thought my wild explanation had been correct, but then I saw that he was just peeling Don's Street Frogs-esque jean shorts out of the way.

"What the hell is going on here?" yelled my companion as the sawing resumed.

"I don't know," I said.

Don's leg finally fell off, and he leaned back and we could see up into his shell, and his body wasn't there. He grunted and shifted, and then another leg came out of another hole!

"There, that's better," he said, and another leg came out, so that he had four leg holes and three legs altogether.

In a later dream I was trying to go to the bathroom, and there was a really inconvenient stall at the end beyond the sink, but when I tried to go in there the toilet was a low circle with no seat, and there were telltale signs of men having used it. I wondered (in the dream) if this was what urinals looked like. (I know what urinals look like!)

As I was waiting for one of the other stalls to become available, my phone rang. I picked it up and it said "Joe (Brimstone)" on my caller ID. Joe's an old AMRN friend who, as far as I know, has never had my phone number.

"Hello!" I said brightly.

"Hi there! Are calls always this clear?" Joe said.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe it has to do with where I'm standing? But anyway, how are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm great! How's my best friend though?"

"Best friend?" I repeated. "We haven't spoken in, like, two years!" (I couldn't remember the exact figure in my dream. Still can't, really, though I believe Joe's popped up on the boards within the last six months.)

My old friend from the first dream (and perhaps the second) was standing at the entry to the bathroom, and she gave me a surprised look when I said that.

Joe was quiet; this seemed to offend him. So I pushed on. "I'm doing pretty well," I said as I gave up on the bathroom and walked outside. It was dark out, but there were streetlights. "Wow, there's a big frog out here that looks like a piece of wood," I said, circling it. "Or maybe it's a piece of wood that looks like a frog..."

He still wasn't answering. I didn't know what else to say. (This was all very out of character for Joe!)

I woke up with some blanket under my ear, and at first I thought I had fallen asleep while on the phone :>

Turtle Tracks

Thanks to the stupid recall (so they put some peanuts in. So what? ;>), I can't find Mayfield Turtle Tracks ice cream anywhere ;_; I bought some Banana Split last night instead.

I don't even really know what lacrosse is

I had another weird dream last night.

This time, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue had passed away unexpectedly, and this was bad for Augusta because he supported the local lacrosse team, which practiced in an historic building downtown that was so old it had to be protected by an outer building whose upper half was glass. Let me tell you, that was one cool-looking building--old-style green domes inside a dome made of triangles of glass held together by a metal frame.

(Apparently lacrosse was played on a racquetball court, in my dream.)

I started across a suspension bridge behind some guy I was working the story with. The bridge looked like the Augusta Canal in that there was grass and water on one side. "It's bad for Augusta that we lose the support for lacrosse, but what really gets me is Sonny being gone," I started to say...but the guy abruptly started sprinting across the bridge. I started sprinting too, and held a good pace for awhile, but then I couldn't keep up no matter how hard I tried.

Ahead of me, the guy raised an American flag and kept pounding away at the same speed.

It was around this point I woke up and ran to the bathroom to throw up. It was 4 am.

(I think I've figured out the nausea. Allergies! Mucus! TMI!)

Damn kids

I can't believe a group of kids went and defaced the Miller. What a bunch of assholes.

Endless ribs

For those of you who don't pay attention to my Twitter, or who may be coming across this post in the distant future when my Twitter will obviously either say something else or no longer exist, I went to Tony Roma's for dinner tonight.

I did not know it was Endless Ribs night.

I happened to be coming out of the Payless next door when the devastatingly delicious scent of ribs wafted over to me. I had been looking for some workout sneakers, but no luck. My plan had been to get shoes, go home, and go straight to bed, then get up in the morning and either bike or go to the gym.

The ribs smelled so good...but I had planned not to eat again today, so I wrenched myself away from the siren song and got into my car, thinking I'd head to Sears in the mall.

I happened to notice Sports Unlimited on my right almost immediately, and changed my mind. This would be faster, and I could get home and go to bed.

They had plenty of shoes, but the ones I wanted didn't seem to come in the right size, and I couldn't find a salesperson to save my life. Never around when you actually want them, are they? ;P So I left and got in my car again...and my mind immediately turned towards ribs. I was in a sour mood because I was hungry, I reasoned. I'd be able to find shoes on a full stomach. And, well, ribs.

That did it. I turned around.

I had ordered a sweet tea and was poring over the menu when my server, Theresa, said, "You know it's Endless Ribs tonight, right?"

No. I had come here specifically for ribs. Maybe a half rack. Maybe with some coconut shrimp. Not endless.

It was like they knew I was coming, and hauled out their most devastating attack.

"Baby back or St. Louis, if you buy a full rack you can have as many ribs as you can eat for the same price."

Oh dear.

I pretended to ponder some more while Theresa looked after other tables. But I knew I had already decided. I was going to eat a zillion ribs, and then blog about my conquest. Oh yes. It would be glorious.

I foolishly ate most of the crusty bread and garlic butter that came out before the meal, and then I ate a few bites of baked beans--delicious--and loaded mashed potatoes before finally tearing into the baby backs.

Oh my word they were good. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me it only took me five minutes to eat that rack of ribs. I downed them like they were my only hope of ever living in Japan ;)

Then I nibbled at the rest of the food on my plate and took long draughts of tea, waiting for Theresa to come back so I could order more ribs. I can do this, I thought. If I eat a half rack, that's getting 50% more food for free. I doubt I can do another whole one, but it's something to shoot for.

But I was already starting to feel a little full, and by the time I had ordered the next rack I was wondering if I was going to be able to eat any of them.

When they came, they looked huge. I don't know if I just had smaller ribs before or if she accidentally brought me St. Louis ribs the second time. I have no idea what St. Louis ribs are, so there's no way for me to know.

I had to use my knife to saw off the ribs, too, which furthers my belief that they were the wrong kind.

Anyway, I nibbled the meat off two ribs and was working on a third when I realized that if I ate any more, I was probably going to throw up.

So I stopped.

I sat there for a long time, forcing myself not to eat any additional food. This is hard for me. If there's food in front of me, my tendency is to eat it, regardless of how hungry I am. I gave in and took another bite or two of bread, and kept drinking tea, like a moron.

By this time I could actually feel my stomach sitting in my lap.

Ugh. I was feeling worse and worse. Theresa brought me a box for the rest of the ribs and a to-go cup of tea and the check, and I paid it and collected my things and "debouched", to borrow a word from Robert Penn Warren, from the booth. (Proposed synonym: Jabbaed)

Ugh, ugh, ugh. "I used to enjoy this," I said aloud as I fought to shove the front door open without putting any additional strain on my overloaded gut. I was only mildly successful, and I felt myself burp. Please, don't let me throw up, I pleaded.

I made it to my car by walking as slowly as possible, and once I had managed to get myself and the leftovers inside, my first priority was undoing the pants. And oh, that felt good. Where before I wasn't certain I could manage to get home, now I felt that I could at least hold out a little longer.

"And my DVDs should be here," I said to myself as I exited the Augusta Exchange and turned onto Wheeler. My Case Closed 1.2 and 1.3 would probably be in the mailbox. "But I'll have to rebutton my pants to get them..."

This idea didn't please me...and fortunately it wasn't necessary. Upon parking at the mailboxes, I discovered that my shirt was just long enough to cover the open buttons.

"Don't look at my pants," I quietly advised the woman sitting in the car next to me (not that she could hear me). Then I got out, opened the mailbox, and lo and behold, there were my DVDs.

I made some sort of noise, a grunt of strain and impatience and fatigue, as I got back into my car and drove the short distance to my parking space in front of the apartment. Then I juggled everything in the car into my arms--there was no way I was going back out there once I made it inside--and wrestled them out and up the front stoop.

"Gnah," I said as the box of DVDs I'd slid into my pink backpack kept banging into walls and corners, jostling my full belly. I threw everything down in its approximate place and bolted for the bathroom...and then, blissfully, I unzipped.

"Ahhhhhhhhh," I said, sitting on the toilet. I made all sorts of ungodly noises as the tea decided to beat a hasty retreat, relieving even more pressure. Finally I was able to change out of my work clothes into my shorts and T-shirt, and then I was comfortable enough to put the leftovers in the fridge and settle down at the computer.

I feel so good now, but it's only because I felt so bad just moments ago.

So. Was it worth it?

Well...that first rack of ribs was damn good...

...but ugh.

Interview

Merujo sent me five interview questions. Here are my responses:

---

1. What do you love about anime? What recommendations would you make for an anime newbie as the best of the genre?

I originally got into anime because it, like other products of Japan, could tell me something about the culture. It was actually my brother AJ who was first interested in anime; I remember being kind of "meh" about it. I had seen and enjoyed Akira on the Sci-Fi Channel, but I didn't pursue an interest in anime, didn't go to Blockbuster and rent various titles like AJ did.

But I randomly took a Japanese culture class in college, and that really piqued my interest in Japanese history and society. There was a girl in my class who brought in a huge book of manga and explained the anime/manga phenomenon, and I remember feeling a little snobby towards her, like there was something wrong with her because she was interested in that.

But as time went on and I took more classes, both language and culture, and my professors actually used manga and anime to help them get their ideas across and to share the culture with me, I started to have a greater appreciation for it. I joined AMUK--Anime/Manga of the University of Kentucky. It was there that I first saw shows like Please Save My Earth and Yawara.

After awhile I stopped going to the meetings, but I was always grateful for the windows into Japanese culture that the club offered me.

(AMUK is now defunct. After some drama, the newer members took over, kicked the old-school members off the listserv, and renamed the club "UK Anime". As an observer, I don't know the whole story, but it seemed like a good move to me. People who weren't even at UK anymore were trying to have a say in the club, which seemed a little backwards, in my opinion.)

I continued my research into the anime/manga phenomenon online. It was then that I discovered the world of fansubbing, which opened up a million opportunities for me to see anime. By this time I was pursuing a Japan Studies minor and had been to Japan on a six week trip (and AJ's own interest in anime had flagged). Anime was the most convenient--and, I'll admit, the easiest--way for me to keep a flood of Japanese culture coming into my life. After I graduated, this became even more important, because I had moved to another city and was no longer surrounded by Japan resources. (I never realized how many Japanese people lived in and around Lexington, Kentucky until I moved.)

So in a way, asking me what I like about anime is like asking me what I like about Japanese culture. And it's hard to describe. I think part of it, honestly, is an interest in seeing US culture refracted in the lens of a culture that existed long before the US. Here is a land with so much history, so many things that are incomprehensible without detailed study, and yet English (in derivative forms) is everywhere, US music and movies abound, and certain ways of doing things are obvious imports.

But as you keep going, you realize it's not just the US. Japan imports, and often improves, facets of every culture it comes in contact with. It is just fascinating to see. As a linguistics major, I studied how languages interact and change one another and evolve over time. Linguistics is just one branch of anthropology, which is the main lens through which I like to observe the world. I'm always wondering where certain traditions came from, why people dress a certain way, where a certain way of thinking came from.

In a way, Japan is an extreme cultural melting pot, and that is fascinating to me.

But there are inaccessible things about Japan, things that have been a part of the culture for so long that it's not easy to trace their roots. Things that, as an outsider, mean there are always surprises, no matter how much you think you understand.

Japan is inaccessible in many ways, and I think that makes it attractive as well. Even as you are invited in with open arms, there are so many closed doors.

So I enjoy watching anime partly because it was not made for me. I like trying to understand why it was made the way it was, and what it says about the people who wrote it. I use it as a means of better understanding the culture and practicing my comprehension of the language.

I especially enjoy high school comedies and dramas because they are abundant...because this idea of "seishun", youth, is such a driving force. High school is so important that people around the country watch the national high school baseball tournament, which takes place at the largest and most famous stadium in Japan, Koushien Stadium in Osaka [Koushien is not actually in Osaka]. One of my all-time favorite anime, Touch, centers around three high schoolers as their baseball team tries to make it to Koushien.

What's intriguing is that Japan is not unaware of how it idealizes the high school experience. There was one short series whose name escapes me that dealt with life for a group of friends after high school. There was a love triangle, of course: two girls loved the same guy. One of the girls had been a brilliant swimmer in high school and looked to be on her way to being a professional swimmer. She loved the guy, but was best friends with the other, quieter girl who loved him, and so she cheered the two of them on and kept her feelings to herself. One day the quiet girl was waiting for the guy to show up for their date and she was hit by a car. This left her in a coma.

The story starts with everyone around 20. The guy is in college and working part time, and the swimmer girl has become an office worker. They have ended up dating each other, but aren't happy about it because the other girl is still alive, albeit in the coma. A feeling of unfinished business permeates the story, until finally the girl comes out of the coma and everyone's feelings are resolved.

What struck me most about this, beyond the thoughtful exploration of how people would respond to such horrible circumstances, was how small life seemed to be after high school for all of them. All they had to look forward to was work, and perhaps the comfort of each other. It wasn't like school where their opportunities seemed limitless. It was interesting to see this actually shown, and striking to me that I haven't seen it very often.

This gets to why I started enjoying anime beyond a tool to help me learn about Japanese culture. The stories are so rich. There are series that are nothing but fluff, obviously, and those have their place, and can be really fun. What I realized, though, was that anime was simply another medium for storytelling, and there were plenty of really good stories being told.

The reason I love Touch, for example, is not because it is so revealing about Japan's love of high school and/or baseball, but because it has enduring, believable characters who all grow and change as they deal with both normal and extreme events in their lives. Something happens in this show that you will rarely see in a US series, but I won't tell you what it is because I want you to watch it!

As far as recommendations...

There are just as many genres of anime as you would find in any other storytelling medium. Maybe more, since Japan likes to categorize things to the extreme. I have found myself drawn to the "sports" genre, which is essentially a story where the main character works and gets better at something, competing with a broad cast of various personalities and going through tests of skill. As you can guess, an actual sport is typically involved, but this can also cover things like board games, or fighting, or magic.

I also love the "high school comedy/romance" genre. The "mecha" genre, which involves giant robots that are piloted by people, can be good if done well. But as you'll see below, I don't trap myself within any genre. If the characters are real and the story is compelling, I'll even watch an anime about, say, baking bread!

I can't expect that everyone in the world is as obsessed with learning about Japanese culture as I am, so there are some series that are brilliant but might not quite work as "gateway" anime. Too many jokes that don't make sense, etc. So with that in mind, here's what I would recommend:

1) Cowboy Bebop

This show takes place in the future and spans the solar system. There are interesting projections of various cultures into a radically different world from the one we live in. I think this makes it pretty accessible, because it's familiar and foreign at the same time, but you don't have to know anything about the universe before you start.

The story centers around a group of people who are forced through various circumstances to come together and become bounty hunters. Each has his or her own issues to deal with that affect the lives of the others.

Plus there's music by one of the greatest, most versatile composers in the world, Yoko Kanno, and the art and animation are stunning.

It's just 26 episodes long--that's a standard series length, though variations include 13, 12, and 24. There are other series that run far longer.

This series is licensed in the US, so you can Netflix it or buy it at the store or online.

If you're not into reading subtitles, the dub isn't bad.

2) Detective Conan (Case Closed)

If you like detective stories, including murder mysteries, and can handle the weirdness of having a group of elementary school kids who occasionally solve them, then that's all you need to enjoy this show. Heartwarming and hilarious, it's got a main character who might need to be taken down a peg or two--and boy, is he ever!

The main plot of the series is that high school detective Kudou Shin'ichi (Jimmy Kudo in the dub) is force-fed a pill that shrinks his body so it looks like that of a child. He spends his time solving mysteries as Edogawa Conan (this is a Sherlock Holmes in-joke name) and trying to find the crime syndicate that did it to him.

At first the plot centers around Conan, his love interest Ran, her father Mouri Kogoro, and the aforementioned group of junior detectives. As the show continues, more characters are introduced, each with their own issues that may or may not have anything to do with Conan's.

The characters end up visiting many cultural spots in Japan throughout the series. Some episodes are hour-long or two-hour-long specials that often involve a discussion of Japanese history/legend. So in this way the series is good for learning more about Japan. But someone uninterested in this might find these episodes rather dull.

Another thing is that while it is possible to guess who the criminal is, most of the murders are absolutely ridiculous. For me that's part of the fun, but someone who is an avid mystery fan might find that annoying.

The show's been running in Japan since 1996! But the episodes are slowly coming out on DVD here in the US, under the name Case Closed, and you can get them at Amazon.

As I mentioned previously, the dub for this show is amazing. It's not a literal translation, and they did add some jokes of their own, but the general feeling of the show and who the characters are absolutely comes through, which is what I want from any translation.

You'll want to keep in mind that names are changed, both character names and place names. So Mt. Fuji is called Mt. Fincher, or something.

3) Touch

The previous two series I've recommended are both licensed in the US and pretty much universally appealing. Touch is neither.

It isn't licensed, so you won't be able to rent or buy it anywhere. And it's a story about Japanese high schoolers and baseball...so it might not engage you if you're not interested in those things.

But it has some of the best character development I have ever seen in any series, anime or not. This show made me want to learn about baseball! If good storytelling floats your boat, do not pass this series up.

The tale centers around Uesugi Tatsuya, his twin brother Kazuya, and their next-door neighbor and childhood friend, Asakura Minami. Tatsuya is naturally gifted at many things, but doesn't try hard at anything. Kazuya has some talent, but has had to work very hard to become the brilliant pitcher that he is.

The main conflicts/crises are how the brothers feel about each other, how they feel about Minami, and what all three of them are going to do with their lives.

There are 101 episodes in this series. There are also some movies, but I haven't seen them and don't plan to. The series stands on its own; the movies are, as far as I can tell, rehashes. (Even the one that takes place after the series just seems to cover old ground instead of doing anything new.)

4) NANA

This is another one in the amazing character development department. It's ongoing and just started last year. It hasn't been licensed, so there's nowhere to buy it with subtitles/dubbing. (You can buy the movie, which only covers part of the story, and the manga, which is where the story originated.)

This is the story of two girls with the same name. They meet coincidentally on a train and become friends. At first their lives are completely different, but then they grow together. And then complications arise...

It's a brilliant exploration of the relationships between women and other women and women and men and what people expect out of life versus what they actually get. I can't say enough about this series. I eagerly await each episode.

5) Rose of Versailles

As you might guess, this is historical fiction based in France. It begins a bit before the French Revolution. The main character is a fictional Royal Guard named Oscar Francois de Jarjeyes...who is a woman who was raised as a man.

I love that.

You might also guess that this story ends tragically, and you'd be right. But it is brilliantly done. It presents Marie Antoinette from a more sympathetic perspective, but still manages to show how how she fell from glory and ultimately ruined her country.

This 41-episode series is not licensed. It was made in the 70s, and that leads me to wonder if it ever will be. Manly women don't seem to sell in the US anime market. (We love us some girly men, though; see below!)

6) Kyou Kara Maou!

Once you've gotten through the anime above, you might want to try this one, which happens to be my all-time favorite. It's often quirky and silly, yet it also deals with themes of prejudice and war. I think the real reason it appeals to me is that the main character has such strength and such a sense of honor and justice. He seems naive, but the truth is he makes an active choice to believe in people. And in this series, that approach to life has some amazing results.

So this show speaks to my eternal optimism :)

The basic premise is a Japanese high schooler named Yuuri (who happens to love baseball) gets flushed down a toilet (I told you it was silly) and into another dimension, where he is told that he's the king of the demons.

There are some funny cultural things, like how they eat with sporks in the Demon Kingdom, and how hardly anyone has black eyes and black hair (this is cute because the opposite is true in Japan), and how when Yuuri first arrives one of the demons calls him a "foreigner". What a role-reversal for a Japanese person!

By the way, demons in this series look like humans, only they are typically flashier, with more varied hair colors. There are other things about them that get revealed as the series goes on. But basically, the main difference between them and regular people is that they have natural magic from making a pact with the elements, while humans have to pray (to something undefined in the series) whenever they want to do magic. Human magic is weaker and contrived, which has caused resentment and fear between the two groups. Now the demons all live in their own country, and many of them despise humans as stupid, lesser beings.

The characters are great. My favorite after Yuuri is Adelbert--I can't explain why without discussing his plot in detail, but suffice it to say he gets a lot of character development. Then there's Conrad, who is simply fabulous.

One thing you have to understand is that this series is made to appeal to people who like looking at handsome/pretty men. There are many homosexual overtones. There also aren't a whole lot of female characters, and most of the ones who do exist have really weird personalities. I think this is a lot of fun, but it might be off-putting to others.

Other than those, I definitely recommend Hikaru no Go ("sports" anime about playing the board game go), Initial D ("sports" anime about illegally street racing cars on twisting mountain roads), Vision of Escaflowne (fantasy in which a girl with prophetic powers is transported to a dimension where people fight inside giant robots), and The Prince of Tennis (an absolutely ridiculous "sports" genre anime about playing tennis, with extreme special effects. The characters are fabulous).

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2. Let's say you just won a tidy sum on a scratch-off ticket and you have two weeks of vacation time to burn. Where are you headed and what will you do/buy?

My answers to questions about what I would do with a million dollars always involve traveling around the world, experiencing as many different places as possible. (My way of experiencing places is usually going to restaurants, wandering the streets, going to performances like plays, operas, or classical music concerts, and visiting museums, by the way...I'm not much of a partier.)

If I only had two weeks and a few thou, though, there are a few places I'd consider.

First, Japan. I've been there twice already, but there is so much I have yet to see, and so many bloggers over there I want to meet. My next (non-theoretical) vacation will hopefully involve both.

Then there's Wales. My dad's side of the family, the Aubreys, descended from Wales, and I've always wanted to see it.

England, of course, because Brooke's there. I considered visiting back when it was just David there, too, but I'm not an Anglophile or anything.

One thing I have really always wanted to do is take a road trip around the United States, and stop at all those weird tourist attractions along the interstates.

I'd also like to visit all my far-flung friends and family, but that would probably take longer than two weeks.

All of the above assume I have time to plan. If I don't have time, I might very well chuck the majority of the money in savings, spend some nice time off at home (or perhaps in Kentucky visiting the immediate fam), and then run off to the beach. I'm not the type to "lay out", but I love playing in the waves, and beach culture fascinates me. Plus seafood is damn good! So I could definitely see myself slipping away to Myrtle Beach or Savannah for a few days.

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3. What is your dream profession? Is it really "a dream" or something you are aiming for as a life goal?

I like to joke that my dream profession is "rich man's wife" ;) Basically, I want to be free to pursue my interests, so my dream job would involve doing that.

The closest thing I've found is the job I hold currently: web content manager. I get to find cool things to put on the web or link to, and design things. It's diverse enough to keep my interest and it involves stuff I do in my free time anyway! Hell, I even take photos for the site sometimes.

But I'm always thinking about what I want to be doing. Part of me still dreams of living in Japan for a few years, so I keep my mind open to possibilities there.

I like the idea of owning my own business, but as my parents own their own and I know a few small business owners, I'm quite aware of the sheer amount of dedication it takes to get anywhere, and the costs involved. I don't have any product or service that I feel excited enough about to give up my free time and financial security for.

I also like the idea of living off investments. I want to do more research into how I could achieve that, because then I would have plenty of time for travel and learning new things. But so far I haven't done anything. ;P

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4. You have come through a genuine life/health crisis victorious. What advice would you give to anyone facing real adversity like you have?

Be cheerful to everyone around you. Don't be demanding. Focus on good things in your life. Be appreciative of people's efforts on your behalf.

There may not be anyone around you who understands what you're going through. But they're trying. And this situation is not their fault.

If you're negative all the time, they won't want to be around you and will stop helping you, and loneliness is one of the hardest things when you're already dealing with so much. Having people near you will help you stay positive.

That said, let yourself be angry. Cry. Express yourself when you need to. Let the emotions roll through you until you're exhausted...and then move past them.

Dedicate yourself to something tangible. Work hard. I spent my time in the hospital learning web design. You never know how what you focus your attention on in the hard times might affect your future--now my career is all about the web.

That's really it. All you can do is decide to beat it, whatever it is, and then do it. You have to somehow accept that you can't control what's happening. You can only endure. You can control your own reactions. You can decide to drive people away or draw them to you. You can keep moving forward in your life, or you can stop everything and feel sorry for yourself and accomplish nothing. No one can take those decisions away from you.

Merujo, the face you show to us on your blog is the face I tried to show. You are suffering, and you share that pain when it gets to the breaking point, but you come back later with a joke, and you keep moving forward. You're not letting it beat you. It's hard, especially with no end in sight...but you have to keep it up. You can win. And you will.

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5. Chocolate: evil device of Satan or one of the best things in the world?

Whoa, okay, that's a total 180 question :)

I would have to say: both. ;)

Seriously, at this point, I don't find chocolate anywhere near as much of a threat to my health as I do the fast food I eat regularly for lunch and dinner. There was a time when I ate a candy bar every day, but I haven't done that in a long time. I think chocolate is just like anything else in this world: good in moderation, bad if you let it control you.

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Would you like to be interviewed? If you want me to send you a set of five questions to ponder and answer, follow the directions below:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." (And make sure I have your e-mail addy so I can zap you the questions!)

2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions. I get to pick them, and you have to answer them all.

3. You will update your blog (or comment here if you don't have a blog) with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

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If anybody else wants to interview me, use the comment form here to send me questions :) I'm all about stuff like this (as you well know).

Mom

The more I see how other people interact with their mothers, the more I realize how amazingly lucky I am to have the one I've got.

There are some people whose mothers don't care anything about them. Then there are some people who can't get their mothers to go away!

My mom is in my life just enough. She's there for me and she's always interested in me, but she doesn't smother me.

I can only think of a handful of times in which she has "butted in", and she was right at those times, so I can hardly protest ;>

I love you, Mom.

If I were the type to make MVs...

...I would make one using Harry Potter footage and the piece "Keiyaku" from Fate/stay Night.

Spider-Man 3 = awesome.

I'll wait awhile to give my full report, since I know my friends are going to want to see the movie and they wouldn't want me to give anything away.

Here are some general, non-spoilerrific notes:

Fabulous opening titles.
Amazing visuals.
A lot happened. I mean wow.
Lowell got old.
Yay for more Spidey characters!

I really want to say something about something that happened to Peter...but I'll restrain myself.

Ugh (TMI)

Is nausea, to the point of having bile come up into the back of your mouth, a symptom of being out of shape?

I've had nausea at various times of day, often in the morning, intermittently for awhile now.

Sometimes it happens after I've eaten something, but it's not the kind of nausea you get when you've overeaten. And usually I haven't overeaten. I haven't overeaten in quite some time.

Sometimes it happens hours after I've had anything to eat, and it's kind of like the nausea you feel when you're hungry, but more pronounced.

Lately it's gotten to where no food sounds appetizing, and I both really want to eat and really don't want to eat.

Like a fool, I took a pregnancy test, and it was of course negative. I think the chances of a person whose eggs have been fried by chemotherapy all of a sudden getting pregnant are about zero. But I don't think my heart will give up on the idea until I'm maybe 45. ;P

Help.

Why do I keep checking MySpace, and making tiny little tweaks on my profile, and hopping around to my friends' pages in the hopes that they've posted something new? I have never cared about it before. What's different now?

Holy crap

I just watched the opening gambit of Case Closed, episode one. And by Case Closed, I mean the Detective Conan English dub.

This is the best dub I have ever seen.

Seriously. This show has better voice acting than some shows that were made in English!

Intonation that makes sense! Voices that don't sound like people trying to sound like something else! Meguire (Megure)'s accent is a little weird, but it works.

I am so impressed I think I'll watch the whole episode like this.

This is one of the most surreal experiences of my life. :>

Edit: Jimmy (Shinichi) just said "Huh?" -_-

Edit #2: Rachel: This isn't an office, it's a pig sty! No wonder you haven't had a case in months!

Richard: You're wrong; I just polished off a whole case!

XD

Edit #3: I like Rachel's voice acting, though the timbre of her voice seems a little too mature sometimes.

Conan's voice actress is pretty good! Maybe a little too cutesy.

I'm getting a kick out of all the accents in this show.

Edit #4: One thing I don't like is that I can't skip past the end credits to see the final scene and the next episode preview. If I hit next, it goes to the next episode. Bollocks! Edit #11: I need to stop editing this post. But I wanted to mention that I can skip to the preview on my regular DVD player. Still can't skip to the final scene though!

Edit #5: I do like how they did the OP and ED! Same music, reorchestrated and played, with English lyrics that seem to match the originals, albeit they're not direct translations. The singer isn't bad, which helps. (Of course, I don't get to hear a guy yelling "mune ni doki doki dake!!!") I wonder how Nazo is in English...guess it'll be awhile before I find out :>

Edit #5: Another like: they say "Next Conan's Hint!" :D

Edit #6: Meguire: Got the cause of death?

Random Cop: We're pretty sure it's the knife in his back, sir.

Edit #7: Amy (Ayumi): What do you think Conan is doing?

George (Genta): He's been doing it for so long I forgot he was even here!

Mitch (Mitsuhiko): Maybe he's figured out the hidden message!

Jimmy (thinking): Why can't I figure out this hidden message?!

(Note: They actually use Jimmy's voice for his thoughts, which is interesting. Makes for a more clear separation between him and Conan.)

Edit #8: Okay, here's a major dislike. When watching the Japanese version, I want to see all the signs and titles and things in Japanese. But the episode titles and various things you're supposed to read in the background have been edited to be in English. That's annoying; it means I can't watch a "pure" version of the episode.

Also, the Japanese version of the OP isn't the original version, either. The timing of the music is off, and at the end they put up the Case Closed logo instead of the Detective Conan logo.

Oddly, they leave the Detective Conan logo in for the eyecatch...

Edit #9: Richard (Kogorou, asleep): No, sir, I'm sure I gave my math homework to the pink monkey in the golf cart. He said he was the new football coach.

XD XD XD XD XD

That was not in the original...:>

Edit #10: Client: It's really a beautiful painting. Do you follow the arts, Richard?

Richard: Ahh...no.

I swear, Richard's voice actor is spot on. The man is brilliant!