Don't drink that poison! It costs four dollars a quart!

I get a kick out of older movies, and watching Turner Classic Movies today really improved my mood. Earlier in the day they aired Casablanca, a definite classic even if I know those who dislike it. Having seen the film only a couple times in its entirety before, I took the viewing today to concentrate on the background characters. They were all very entertaining and well acted, at least to their small roles in the film.

Post-Midnight, TCM aired a second movie I had to stay up to catch some of - A Day at the Races. It's a Marx Brother's film from the 30s, and the source of the quote above. The funny thing about the films (Not the ha-ha funny parts) was the musical numbers. The Marx Brother's films tend to have large musical numbers placed into the film at two or three points. They are all well done, and one can assume that in earlier films this was common practice. I guess that it was just something films needed - even Casablanca has a few moments where they stop to sing a tune or two.

We had some family friends over, and I sat with my parents and the guests and chatted with them for about 6 hours, which included time I spent working on a Sudoku High Five and a full dinner with dessert. I've always enjoyed talking with guests. It isn't rare of them to find my degree of speech fairly well developed. My little brother stayed quiet during the time he was at the table, looking around the room and peeling the logo from his beer, while I talked and listened with my parents and guests. Of course, I don't think I'm on equal grounds with the adults. They have far more life experience than I ever will. I mean, I can't really match them when they start talking about things that happened in the 60s...

Anyway, I have things to do tomorrow, so I'm heading to bed. Overall today hasn't been half bad, but I'm certainly tired.

Amazed

So, the stuff I was dealing with last week? All gone. Fixed. Good as new, as far as I know.

It doesn't 'cure' the past week, but what can you do?

I wish I could make a bigger deal out of this, but simply put: Haruhi is getting a second season. That's right, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu is going to be airing a second season starting this fall. Which means that while I will still be on campus at least 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week, I will still make time between reading about Asian culture and contemporary literature to watch Haruhi.

The only thing I lack is friends to celebrate the news with. I wish I could drop by a friend's place and go: "Did you hear about Haruhi?" and they'd go: "What? No." "They're making a second season!" "Oh, awesome!" And then we would probably play a video game or hang out or talk about KyoAni or look up news on Haruhi season 2.

Yeah, that'd be nice...

Anyway, that's all for now. I feel like microwaved hell after working outside all day on the gardens and hedges, so I'm going to try to lay down and sleep without sweating through my sheets until I can't sleep at all.

Night all.

Dealing with it

Yesterday's lunch went well, but a combination of bad sleep and long travel times left me feeling a little tired by the late afternoon.

Then I was given some information and presented with a situation that easily soured any possible good mood I could have.

So I'm trying to deal with that.

If I don't post much for a while, it's because I'm dealing with that.

Wish me luck.

Appointments to Keep

Just a little update on how things are going.

I've spent a couple of days reading the blog of a very interesting blogger. I won't go into details right now, and I'd rather not send the two people I'm sure read this over there. Reading some of her material though is very... Enlightening. In a way, I guess.

Also, tomorrow I'm going to be going out to lunch with other graduates from my class. So, that's bound to be interesting to some degree. The biggest challenge will be making it down there in time for lunch. I'm not really a morning person and with my parents out the house is basically silent until the afternoon unless I get up early. So wish me luck.

I was thinking about writing a few things that are a little revealing and pretty depressing for myself, but I'm not quite sure of if I should bother again. This technically being my second blog, I'd like to try to escape from the ranting and bitching that was predominant on the first one. It also has a lot to do with the past, something I'd be a little happier to leave there.

Anyway, I hope all of you are without insomnia and doing well. That's all for this update.

Music Appreciation

You got the touch! Dun dun, dun dunn- You got the Power..... Yeah!

That's pretty much all the lyrics I know from that song, and it's also everything I know about the song, except that it's from the early 80s at the latest.

I think of two things when that song comes to mind - and by coming to mind I mean I suddenly think or sing those exact lyrics to myself for no reason. The first is AMV Hell, which had an Evangelion themed AMV to the song using footage from The End of Evangelion. It's the part where people turn to goo. It's pretty good since those are also the only lines the quick snippet-sized AMV uses.

The second is the 1986 Transformers Movie, the original cartoon one with Omnicron and whatnot. Now, I know almost nothing about Transformers, I'm pretty sure that the series was popular when I was born, and though I had an Optimus Prime at some point I watched more Beast Wars than anything else related to it.

Now, I have no taste for music. I don't know genres at all. When I'm asked for a favorite band one of the names that comes to my head is Fire Bomber, a pretty much fictitious band from Macross 7 (Though I do listen to the band's songs). What is weird though is that I have no problem burrowing away lyrics and musics from many, many songs.

When I take a butterknife out of the drawer to make a sandwich, I tap it with my fingernail rhythmically. To myself and probably myself alone, it sounds like the opening to Rush's YYZ. I will then often 'sing' the sounds of the song to myself, as it lacks lyrics. Recently, I found myself singing a lot because I had to house to myself. I am perfectly content to sit around and never make a single sound for hours, yet sometimes I just have to sing songs to myself to talk to my cats or sing songs to my cats where I make up most of the lyrics on the spot.

This is probably going way too far back into my past, but I used to be quite a skilled singer when I was younger. I was one of the few boys in my school choir, and I was actually quite proud of myself. It ended in ruins of course. Now, I feel like I've completely erased real singing from myself, to the point where my voice probably can't do it either.

This isn't really something that I talk about much. It was just something I did as a kid. Now, it's just kind of funny. A joke. Singing, that is. I have a thing I do for a close friend where I sing her name like it was part of rock song. Think Limozeen. She normally laughs and then shuts my mouth for me. Hilarity.

I really don't know what else to say about this love/hate situation I have with music. I hate it because I don't get it. I don't like criticism about music because I won't understand, and even 'good' stuff often sounds bad. I once found myself enjoying country music, which I know many people revile. But when the contemporary rap comes on, I turn it off. I can't stand anything about it, from the music to the lyrics to the image. I saw 'contemporary rap' because with my genre-blindness I'm sure I've listened to and enjoyed rap at some point.

So while my winamp is filled with songs I don't really enjoy anymore, and is weighed down with Fire Bomber and OSTs from The Slayers and animes opening themes, it doesn't mean that I don't like other musics. Since I don't 'like' music. It's all just kind of par for the course for me. Unless I hate it.

Does that make sense?

Have a good weekend, all.

Death by Summer

Blah! I haven't updated in a while again.

I guess the problem continues to be that I haven't been up to much, but I think I have something else to blame. Just recently, I've gotten back into some forum RPGs. It's fun to have something to do, but I spend a lot of time at the computer waiting for other people to post or responding to posts or whatever. It means that the fun little posts I used to put up about how I watched a movie that I enjoyed just aren't going to happen - since I feel the responsibility of being at the computer all the time I don't go to watch said movies.

Of course, I keep busy at the computer otherwise. Playing games, looking for work and checking classifieds, chatting with people - the usual computery things. I get bored a lot, of course, and I also get tired of waiting for people or waiting on people. But I've been feeling pretty happy lately. Upbeat in a way, I'm just enjoying myself in whatever I'm up to, for the most part.

This summer is going to be busy. Today I had to go out and pressure wash the back porch to clean it for painting I will also be forced to do. Oh, and even better - my parents are away to Texas for a week, and I'm being instructed to do this painting during said week. So not only do I have to do it by my goddamn self, but my parents are skipping town to get out of it!

So I have some plans. I'm calling for help! Even though they don't like me having people over when they're away, I'm not going to paint the whole bloody deck by myself in the sweltering heat of the summer for no pay, thanks or recognition. Particularly not alone.

I'm hoping the summer will go well. I can't do anything about the heat but I can work on what I'm doing in said heat.

That's all for now. I wish everyone a good summer, since it just started officially the other day. (June's weather fails to agree with the 'official start', but that's not really something I can fix.)

Night all.

The Sum of all Fears

Yeah, this is pretty much what I was worried about.

My week has been pretty dull. I went to the dentist, I was forced into some minor clothes shopping, I did some gardening, and... That's about it.

It's been a very boring week. I haven't had any problems to talk about, nothing really good has happened that'd make me want to talk about it... Things are borderline fine. Like stasis. Or the heart monitor during a flatlining.

I've been up to - brace yourself - Pokemon games. It's something to do, and catching and breeding the little critters is a way to spend my time.

That's all. Really.

Other people are out on double-dates, having fun weekends with friends or doing all kinds of wacky stuff. I'm playing Pokemon and watching Anime. [i]Aren't I living the dream?[/i]

Goodnight. I'll try to do something worth writing about.

Father's Day Weekend

Wow, I don't know what I've been doing for the past couple of days, but it obviously wasn't all important enough to post here.

Yesterday went fantastically, by the way. I got outside, had a fun time, I was relaxed and very little bad happened. POTC3 was good, by the way. Constant and fun.

It's Father's Day today, and since my older brother is celebrating his first real Father's Day, it's fairly important. We're only doing the usual stuff though, having a family dinner, we had brunch earlier, and we've got some small gifts and cards for my Dad.

It's interesting that people complain about Father's Day. They say that compared to Mother's Day, there's a lot less going on. I was chatting with my Dad about that, and he mentioned a possible joke that Father's Day has the most long distance calls with the charges reversed. Even if it's not true, I can still believe it. I know that around my house my Dad doesn't get the same degree of respect my Mother does, so I can't expect that every household celebrates an equal Father's Day as they do Mother's Day.

Anyway, I'm still really drained from yesterday and just trying to get through the day. I can promise a good update this week - my family is visiting relatives for a dinner and I'm going to be seeing two cousins I rarely do, yet share hobbies and interests with.

I'm going to sit back and relax today - at least when I'm not helping my father with something. I hope everyone has a good Father's Day.

High on (someone else's) life!

It was always an interesting situation that I had arise from the depth of my school days. I didn't have a lot of friends, though early on it was tough not to. People just gathered together and the people they talked to at recess or during lunch break were their friends. The one thing I remember about my late years in elementary school was that 90% of my 'friends' were girls. And they loved to talk to me about their problems.

I don't have any idea how it started. My class would have been filled with mathematical, scientific, artistic and literary geniuses. Some of them had no problem picking up French, going to city-wide geography competitions and had expansive projects during science. Yet I always seemed to be steady, mature and completely entrenched in hard logic.

When I got older and I met the 'normal' kids, I just got everything, intellectually. I looked like a genius, even if I didn't know all that much. They wanted me to solve problems and give opinions.

This really shone through during my highschool years. People have to make decisions about you at first glance, after all. I didn't want to talk to anyone in class, I asked questions to the teacher afterwards as if I was equal to them, and I was able to keep to myself and read during any break. The only people who I saw most often were the ones that had problems. Often girls. It figures with my luck in life that I'd attract the most troubled girls who just wanted to talk to me to make themselves feel better. I was like the psychologist for the school. By the time I was in my last year, people suffering from life issues and depression were referred to me. It was like having advertisements around the school.

So I talked to a lot of people. I'd like to think that I helped some of them. People would still come to me to ask what I thought about all kinds of things. Legalization of marijuana, political issues, religious issues. Whatever. I was even interviewed for a small-scale school newspaper. I held no position in the school except for being some kind of incredible logical genius who absolutely hated the school.

Anyway.

I've slowly started to realise that I really enjoy hearing things about people. Nice things, bad things, life-threatening things, dirty things - It doesn't matter. I don't get the feeling that I'm living vicariously though others so much as I'm watching stories unfold. They're not always interesting, my life story certainly isn't, but I really get connected to people and want to hear more and more, and I want to help them be happy.

Sometimes I hear about something kind of creepy and kind of weird, but it's all worth a laugh. I'm not going to come down on someone like a ton of bricks just because they're saying something strange.

Sometimes I hear things that really put me in a corner. I get connected to people and I don't want to tell them my truth. I won't lie to them about the facts as I see it, but it's hard telling someone when they need to better understand what they're trying to follow. Nothing is ever completely right, and that means that sometimes certain things are wrong.

Sometimes, I get so sick of hearing about a person's problems. The only thing I can't stand is when things are going well and someone has to throw a wrench into their own life just to bitch. Worse yet, when they decide that acting vapid and shallow is a response to important moments in their life that mean lots of responsibility.

Sometimes, I hear things from a person and talk back to them, and I feel closer to them. Just knowing them and relating back, it's a real high for me.

I'm in a really good mood today, and it's because I love being close with friends and getting to hear about them. It's even better online, because I can meet people who can be comfortable with me without their secrets ever having a chance of getting spread. Maybe this is just my addiction, or my personal misunderstanding of what a friendship is. All I know is that it makes me happy, it makes me sad, and it makes me feel needed.

That's all for today. I'll probably actually DO something this weekend, so maybe I'll have something interesting to chat about. That is all.

Oh what a world, what a world!

It's been brought to my attention, in the past, that I'm very warm and cuddly. This often includes that fact that - regardless of frigid temperatures in the outdoors - my hands remain very warm. Now, I'd love to claim that I have some kind of mystic Solar Hands, but really I think that I've just got a built enough upper body to keep the warm blood flowing.

It's great when it's -20C outside and I have to wander around or do some kind of chore. It isn't when it's 30C and humid out.

The summer is always the worst time of year for me. I sweat, I'm tired, and I'm burning hot enough to scorch my bed. This one is quickly proving to be no different, offering a course of heat-related insomnia, sweat-soaked bedding and an upstairs that is 10 degrees hotter than the downstairs - oh thank God I live downstairs.

Today was a very slow day. It's too hot for time to move any faster, nor for me to do anything interesting. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Goodnight all.

Legos!

That's right, for whatever reason I had the urge today to go and find my big bin of lego and play around for a while. I used basically every 2x4 block and some mountain-side pieces to build a prison which I then stored intact.

It's funny going back through all of the stuff we have stored. I found a box of some of my old schoolwork, including a booklet from the early 90s where I guess I was asked to answer questions. It had some really interesting points in there. When asked who I could meet, if anyone ever, I joked about meeting Elvis or the Aliens who captured him, and then said that I'd speak to Princess Diana to ask her about using her position of power to help the needy and earning a whole new degree of celebrity.

When asked what I thought was the biggest problem in the world, I answered, plain-faced: People.

Man, what a crazy little kid I was. I should really post all of those things up to try and get a little view into my development into the jaded and angry individual I am today.

My brother came to look too, and he really liked checking out the old mecha toys and other playthings we have stored away.

Oh! And I found a bunch of Marvel cards (Before everything had CCGs) and a bunch of my original Pog collection! My slammers are still mint!

Oh damn. I think I just spilled nerd all over my keyboard...

Anyway, it's damned hot out today, and tomorrow is worse. For whatever reason I'm blessed with a high overall body temperature, which is nice in the winter but not when it's 30 and humid.

That's all for tonight. Getting to sleep has been a trial all week with this weather.

It's Fran-ken-steen!

I'm really enjoying some of the movie networks my cable package gets lately. AMC and Turner Classic Movies play all kinds of good, older films, while Action, Diva and IFC occasionally have some rare finds on (though they always conflict with stuff I want to watch).

Tonight they aired Young Frankenstein twice, first it was merely the original version and second they played it on 'DVD-TV', which had the bottom taken out for a pop-up video type of thing that related information about the scene, cast, original script and various other elements. It was quite interesting, and I had to live with it as I didn't have the control over the TV to watch the earlier, unaltered version. Personally, I'd watch other movies with those little add-ins on AMC.

The movie is really quite funny, if mostly in the silly-spectrum. It's quite similar to other Mel Brooks films like Spaceballs (which did Sci-Fi jokes) and Blazing Saddles (which did western jokes), so I'd have to suggest it.

I dunno what's with me lately. I've really been craving the idea of sitting back and watching older films and just enjoying them. I guess it comes from not being able to see all the critically trashed sequels coming out. But I get lonely. I don't want to sit there with my brother or father, but with a close friend who I can just chat with. That's really a big part of the movie experience to me, or maybe it's just my general feeling about everything.

Anyway, I highly suggest seeing the film sometime, and you should check to see what's on TV. You never know what they might be playing when you just need something to watch.

Catgirls make everything better.

Everything.

So yeah, I've been having some trouble getting to sleep lately. Tonight, I was extremely hungry and it's kept me up until 6 AM. I'm not too proud of that, really, but that's just how it works.

I ended up spending time watching TV, and for some reason a 2 hour episode of Teen Titans was on. Teen Titans is, of course, the North American cartoon that uses a comic book team in a heavily anime influenced style of animation. The title of the extra-long episode was 'Trouble In Tokyo' and for the life of me I can't figure out why YTV would air a 'movie' episode of a fairly population cartoon series at 4AM.

The story was about how the team goes to Japan to stop the evil 'Brushogun', which I mishead about 30 times before they just spelled the damned thing out. He sends a single ninja to their tower and kicks their asses, so they decide to counterattack by heading to Tokyo to stop his creator. Ends up the Brushogun creates things from ink, yet the extreme weakness to water - explored when the first offensive villain 'disappears' - is never again explored. They fight in Tokyo, I'm pretty sure there are fire hydrants.

While Cyborg pisses off Japanese Chefs and Beastboy's karaoke attracts all the Japanese girls, the show is pretty much what was expected. The only minor shock was the use of actual Japanese, though it seemed to be basic language - I was able to understand parts, but it was also at talking-speed (After doing the whole 'fish out of water' bit at arrival, almost everyone speaks English). They get ready to start the next stage of the story, even though heavy-handed overshadowing has explained most of the plot, and start introducing a small team of evil ink opponents to fight the divided heroes. A yellow chef-bot, a small blue astroboy-thing, a 'scary' black cloak monster and...

...A magenta catgirl.

"Catgirl? Catgirl."

So yeah, maybe the show had my attention for the remainder, even if the catgirl, Nya-nya, was underused. Hell, when they were blowing up guys and beating the crap out of people, the copy-catgirls were mostly dodged rather than blasted. No one can resist catgirl charm.

There was also a good point as she was introduced. While fighting with Beastboy, she continues to talk in simple Japanese. He complained that he can't make snappy comebacks if he didn't know what she was saying. I kind of liked that line. From what I could get from it, she kept calling him cute, saying she liked him and I think called him tasty... One of her final lines, from my vague understand of Japanese, seemed to say 'This is going to hurt' before her big slash attack.

Yes, I was pleased by the stereotypical catgirl with designs drawn from what animators thing catgirls much look like. Catgirls will get me to watch almost anything. Hell, I watched the end of a Chaotic episode because they had a catgirl in it.

Anyway, that's about that. It's past 6 AM now so my brain can only recall the last couple of hours. Hopefully I'll be able to either get some sleep or eat a big sandwich today, I can live with either possibility.

Goodnight, everyone.

Sprung Spring

I'm not really one for manual labour, as much as I enjoy having a lawn out front I doubt that if I owned a home I'd be good enough to keep it very neat. My family - well, my parents - love having a lawn and garden and tend to work very hard to keep it looking great. My mother in particular looks after the gardens, with myself and my little brother there to assist.

Now, of course, this is a little different with my neighbors. Nextdoor lives a little old lady, a widow who has been a friend of the family for some time. After her husband died, my older brother - who was living with us at the time - got her permission to use her garage to park his car. In exchange he was on call for whatever she needed, and at her age that includes things like changing a lightbulb but goes all the way up to cleaning the eaves.

When my brother moved out, she continued to rely on the support of my family. We tend to do the odd things for her - I often shovel her driveway during the winter, help with taking the garbage out for pick-up, and things like that. Nowadays, her older son has returned to live with him. I've only met him on occasion outside, but he's pretty preoccupied with his recent ex-wife and his work (or search for it), so he doesn't get around to doing yard work much. For the past while, it's gotten to the point where my neighbor is more comfortable with hiring a company to mow the lawns rather than wait for her son to do anything.

Anyway, I was once again called upon to help, this time in the form of trimming hedges around the property. It's been a good growing season so a lot of them have grown too far out from where they should be. It took a few hours to get it all cut, but it was what I was doing Wednesday and Thursday. I'm bound to be compensated, my neighbor will often force money onto me for the smallest tasks, but I often try to at least get her to pay me less. Frankly, not getting paid for anything I do around the house makes yard work and the like seem like jobs not worth getting paid for. Her and my mother tend to do these transactions behind my back now. I guess I just can't accept the money for the easy work face to face anymore.

Oh, just an odd side note: You know when a bar you can fill in gives suggestions for prior searches or titles? Well for whatever reason mine is giving me a lot results I'm sure I've never typed in before.

Weird.

Well, that's all for today. I might put together another one of those anime overviews if I find some good shots.

Magical Chores

My mother is back again, which is nice, but at the same time the general carelessness of the rest of my family is kind of annoying. I don't expect a party or medal every time I do the dishes, but does that mean that not doing them shouldn't bother anyone? Or perhaps that saying 'Thanks' or something is too much?

Around my home, things aren't done - they happen. It's not "I cleaned out the dishwasher and scrubbed the pans" it's "The dishwasher is empty and the pans are clean." It isn't helped by the fact that things aren't generally done - when you see something, that doesn't mean you do it. You leave it for someone else to do it, since you're so busy.

That is pretty much what I've been trying to escape. I want to make my father aware that I know when a task must be done before it becomes a hassle to do it. I want my brother to know that he should be doing this stuff as well. When I finish dinner, I bring my plates up and put them in the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is full, I'll empty it. Then I'll tell my Dad and brother that it's cleaned - or that I cleaned it - so they know it's safe to bring their plates up without having to do the dirty task of letting them sit in the sink.

So far it just means that I clean up around the house more, nothing more. My little brother is too spoiled to think of doing any on his own, and my father doesn't really thank me for anything anymore. I guess the only upside is that without things needing to be done around the house, I get to communicate with my family as rarely as possible. Plus the independence makes me feel good for about 30 second, until I remember that the rest of my family is content to sit back and let someone else do work for them.

Anyway, I've been spending less and less time at the computer, and Disgaea is a good way to waste all of my spare time. I'm about 6 chapters in, my highest level character is 36 - she gained about 20 by accident when she got the killing blow on a high-level opponent. I love naming all of my characters, and I finally have the options to make catgirls - though I still need to reduce the cost to make them.

Well, that's all for now. Who knows, something interesting might happen tomorrow.

Laharl-sama! AH HA HA HA!

I know I had some more interesting things to discuss, but I've decided to go for a quick update on something else.

I haven't been at the computer much, with my World of Warcraft gamecard having run out and all my of RPG forums dead and likely waiting ressurection, I have little reason to wait around at the computer. Normally I'd spend a couple of hours a day just waiting for people to sign on so I could talk to them, but right now that doesn't seem like a great way to use my time.

So I went through some of my Nippon Ichi games, mostly because they are completely awesome. I thought about playing some of the other titles, ones I had left alone for too long and not completed. Yet, down at the bottom of the pile, another game called out. It was Disgaea, the first big N1 game that came out and led a line of releases that I adore.

Nippon Ichi games are all turn-based strategy games. Earlier ones like Disgaea and its precursor La Pucelle (Which came out after Disgaea - The game was so popular the unconnected original was in demand) are done on a simple grid while later ones like Phantom Brave (The second best after Disgaea - that I've played) are done on a far small grid, to the point where movement is technically free within walking range. What makes the real difference is the systems each one introduces. La Pucelle has a summoning square where character appear and path in the dungeons that can be directed and destroyed for equipment-building points as well as damage and area-range attacks. Disgaea again has the start square, but adds coloured sections of the stage that are effected and altered by special items on the stage. Phantom Brave forces the player to summon their combat characters in items on the stage such as swords, rocks and plants - each one provides certain bonuses and penalties.

The thing that they all share though is the flexible creation system - though I believe it starts more in Disgaea than anywhere. You can make a character of a certain type - say a Female Warrior - spend a certain number of mana (gotten from kills) to pick their power levels - 10 mana for 'Incompetant' is a good start, but provides only 1 point to add to them - alter their stats - like Defense or Attack - then name them - I picked 'Konata'. You've got a fresh, level 1 character ready to be equipped with a wide range of items - some which they are better at than others. Now, the real fun is where the system goes from there. Maximum level is 9999! And you can return a character back to level 1, during which they'll save their levels and turn it into more starting points. After a short while, you'll be growing exponentially with the characters you concentrate on - though you have to start them from level 1 time and time again. Even the items are levelable, you can enter dungeons inside each item or weapon to subdue creatures inside it to move to other items, raise its basic stat, or fight power 'item gods' that hold incredibly powerful items you have to steal from them.

I have a 93 hour game for Disgaea which I haven't touched in ages. The main character, Laharl, is currently level 2950 and has been reduced to level 1 quite a few times. The game really has no end. Even if you get all the way to max level, get one of the final weapons and defeat the final boss, you can still do it with any character you want.

Anyway, I logged a few hours into the game today. Playing through the story is just wonderful. It's funny, clever, and the Japanese voice actors (Yay for JPN soundtrack mode) are really skilled.

Anyway, it's getting late and I've been trying to get on a better sleep schedule, so that's all for tonight. I was able to sleep - badly - at 'appropriate' times like night and I don't feel any better for it. I'll keep you updated, as always.

This isn't Archeology!

With my mother away once again looking after my grandmother, my father has gotten into the same bored attitude he often has in the evenings. It tends to start early, as he never knows what to have for dinner and rarely suggests making anything. It's tough getting along without my mother when meal preparation time becomes either a selection of restaurants or sandwiches and snacks.

Regardless, this is really about the evening's entertainment - my father is always looking for films on TV, I assume it's often an excuse to eat popcorn, not that you need one in my family. After his constant prodding, and a long stream of suggestions he shrugged through, I ended up putting on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, my personal favorite from the Indiana Jones Trilogy.

The film really is an amazing one. When I watch most movies they have long scenes that take away from the action, try to explain things carefully and generally slow down the film. Some recent films come to mind, where you have a lot of favorite scenes and tend to forget about all the crap in-between. The Last Crusade is different. When I was watching it, every little moment was filled with enough content to keep me interested, even if it was a particularly slow moment (Like Indiana and his father taking a quiet moment on the airship) it was perfectly lengthed and set perfectly between other scenes (The 'No Ticket' scene and the airplane scene, in this case).

Now, while I can enjoy films on a number of levels, I have to wonder about why my father always wants to watch movies. Much like my mother, he has a tenancy to fall asleep during movies - tonight it was when the clock started to approach 10 PM and the incredible tank chase was starting. I realise that we're working on far different clocks (Says the jobless insomniac at 2:45 AM) but I still think that some sense of paying attention could be asked for if he wants to watch movies so badly.

If you've got a chance to see an Indiana Jones film, particularly Last Crusade, I'd suggest taking it. It isn't a deep or dramatic film, and it doesn't have the same bang or zip that newer action films have, but it's a film that has been so perfectly polished and balanced out. It's a really enjoyable experience. And hey, if you've seen it 20 times before just pay attention to what you want to. It's a fun film to watch on the side too.

I came up with a new topic to write on, chatting with old friends, but I'm going to save it for later. I'm going to assume that a little post about a movie will be more than enough for tonight.

31 Flavors of Anime

So I finally remembered what I was going to talk about earlier. The downside is that I've been getting small 15 minute naps all day to make up for the missing 8 hours of sleep, so you'll have to excuse me if I suddenly sounds a little insane.

Anime, as I'm sure you've noticed, is one of my interests and probably vices as well. Naturally, like any good anime fan / Otaku, I have to educate others on the wonder of anime. A few months ago, my family was visited by some friends of my parents, which is fairly common. While discussing some of my interests as small talk, one of them expressed recognition as far as anime went. She was a little misguided though, so I chatted with her a bit about anime. She suspected that it was made of two parts - television shows like Pokemon and cinematic movies like Spirited Away. I really have an issue with that.

You see, popular animation in North America is basically split on such a line. You have cartoon shows that are for children, mostly comedy or comedy and action mixed. Then you have the high-quality movies like what Disney has a history of making or like what CG movies are doing today. Sure, adults can enjoy it - the Simpsons or Family Guy are too 'mature' for most children, but they're still comedy shows at their roots. The only thing that pulls away from this are action shows based on toys or games like G.I. Joe back in the day. They're more pure action, but they're heavy in product placement and character recognition.

Now, I won't try and say that Anime is more noble and better than American animation. Anime is a commercial product as well, and if it wasn't for things like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh and Bedamon or whatever it certainly wouldn't be burying so deep into the American market.

What I will say, as I told that woman, is that Anime isn't a genre. When you think 'Cartoon' you might think Bugs Bunny or Ninja Turtles. It's true that not all American cartoons are that, but Anime has set itself up as a medium. Manga as well emphasizes that, the thick magazines they publish weekly or monthly are set towards obvious groups like young boys, young girls, older men (not porn) and older women.

What brought this up is mostly MuchMusic (It's like Canada's MTV [not to be confused with MTV Canada], but they still have music videos), who have been playing BECK in hour-long blocks at least a couple times a week. BECK, you see, is about young Japanese kid who gets caught up in the start of a brand new band that ends up going all the way. The series takes place over a couple of years and expands his personal development with other people as well as his development as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. I watched the anime when it was originally released in Japan and I really enjoyed it, and the dub is fairly good (though it loses a lot of its early flavor since everyone speaks English - originally there was a lot of fun Engrish). Where else could you have that, really? Need a new music series? I can think of at least another high quality series, NANA (Though it concentrates on relationships). Need realistic Sci-Fi? Cartoony Sci-Fi? Re-imaginations of classic literature? Racing? Team sports? Fantasy series? A show about bread? There's an Anime for every possible genre.

Now, filling Turner Classic Movies with Anime films is asking too much (Though they occasionally show some Ghibli works). Anime just seems like it's underused and misunderstood. People see animation and they suspect that it's either for children or, if it's really violent, gory or full of cursing - older boys. If people weren't afraid of watching, they could get into the drama of a series like Honey and Clover, or enjoy the investigative drama of Stand Alone Complex.

One of the big things that I'd like to see change is the realization that while girls watch 'boy' series with action like Naruto or Inuyasha (Though the latter is like DBZ for girls anyway), you might be able to pull in a larger female audience and sustain a male audience with girl-targeted shows. Fruits Basket comes to mind, Zannen.ca always seemed to be pushing for it, and I think it's a series that could really attracted viewers on, say, YTV's Friday night anime blocks.

Right now, I'm watching so many new animes from Japan I can't always keep track of them. It's up and down from the new-style harem anime Airantou to the otaku slice-of-life Lucky Star and the parody-filled comedy Hayate no Gotoku, back to the hyper-realistic, dark Bokurano, up to the mystic Reideen and further to the wackiness of Gurren-Lagann. Then I can watch some Shonen action from new episodes of Naruto and Bleach, then pull back to the drama of NANA or the situational comedy of Lovely Complex. When I'm in the mood, I'll sit through and episode of the developing Darker Than Black or the gory action of Claymore before loading up the next part of Sola or Rocket Girls. Really, with that kind of selection how can you complain? There's at least something for everyone - as long as you can stomach interesting characters and an intruiging storyline matched with excellent animation from some mere 'cartoon'.

That's all I can say really. MuchMusic's programmers really got my intrigued when they introduced BECK but YTV's regurgitation of Adult Swim is getting tiring as well. And could someone explain to me why Teletoon won't play a single anime series, but fills the evenings with Adult Swim's hand-me-down hit-and-miss 15 minute episode series?

That's all for tonight. Thanks for your time for my ranty little attitude today.

Lost to the Ages

I had something profound to talk about. The topic has completely escaped me in the past several hours and now I fear may never return. So just know that somewhere in the aether is a really good post.

Aside from that: Gurren-Lagann episode 09 was good. Good enough for me to keep watching. So I will continue to suggest the series as a wacky Gainax mecha anime.

Movie Night(s)

Well, so today was pretty much a day of rest for the family. With everyone home, my parents wanted to look around the house and make sure that nothing interesting has happened in the gardens, and my little brother is still in a pretty pissy mood, though I'm not sure if that's much of a change.

The really big thing is that my Dad is repeatedly asking to go see Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. The last time he brought it up, he couldn't remember a single thing about the second film in the trilogy. When he got back from his trip, he suddenly remembered having watched it and now wants to go see the third one.

This creates an interesting issue for me. I want to go see POTC3, but I have someone special I'd like to go with. I don't know when I'll get out to see the film under those circumstances, and unless I get busy this weekend, I'll be dragged out (or at least guilted out) to the film.

I really hope I'm able to get out to see the film. I know that if my parents see it my father will try to be funny and ruin the whole damned thing. Naturally, he'll make fun of my bad attitude when I ask him politely to shut up. He gets like that when he's having a good time.

Here's hoping I can get out to the movies.