Fiddle-Dee-Dee, Said Scarlett

Feeling better than I was yesterday, but there are heavy dark clouds overhead and that unpleasant pressure that means more rain. The weather channel agrees with that prediction.

I've been reading Desperation. I can't say it's grabbing me or sucking me in, but it's an interesting read. For some reason it reminds me of Insomnia, even though the plots are entirely dissimilar. It's just a feel of sorts. Or maybe it's simply some convoluted way for my mind to tell me it thinks I'll like Desperation about as much as I like Insomnia. (Which is to say, something to read, and certainly has its good moments, but nothing I'll read over and over.) Of course, I know the plot and have watched the movie - albeit not paying terrible close attention. I remember the theater in the movie reminded me of the theater in SH:0rigins, though....

I'm feeling Mexican food today. I'm really tempted to try some grilled burritos and tacos, if I can conquer the cheapest, least-flammable charcoal in the world. My Chinese food cravings have been assuaged, and now it is Mexican I desire.

So, Dreamwidth. I'm terribly spoiled. I was slightly interested until I discovered you only get six icon slots. I'm all about the icons, and having as many as possible. You know, I should see if there's a way to double-post to LJ and IJ, since I do like my IJ and have a lot of folks over there who aren't here. And...I haven't updated it in over half a year. :/

Another weekend's come. Oh! We finished Rune Soldier yesterday (adorable series, very much a D&D campaign/RPG game style plot and characters) and watched Slumdog Millionaire. Very glad we rented that one - and that we watched the credits! :D I need to find the list I was keeping of 'movies we need to rent'. But hey, I finished an anime series! And nijawial offered to lend me the Bleach manga, since I like the characters and whatnot, but the filler crap chased me away from the anime.

I really miss RPing.

I have comments and emails to catch up with, and I promise I will get to them as soon as possible!

Wow, so!

I've actually got a hell of a lot to post about, it's just hard getting it all sorted out.

I'll just start with today, since that's freshest in my mind!

I was up ungodly early once more, to go to Wal-Mart. We were just going o pick up stuff for my younger nephew's birthday party, but my father mentioned going to the gardening section. Just to see.

I now have a pot of strawberries, some German Thyme, some Oregano, a gorgeous Ichiban Eggplant plant, and oodles of tomatoes and peppers. And we may be going back tomorrow. So, my garden is well underway! Also did the usual Wednesday cleaning, though I'm still sort of in the middle of that.

I'm nearly done. :/ I'm halfway or so through the final book. I don't know what I'm going to do when it's over. Other than, uh, seek out the fandom most likely. I was mentioning jokingly to t3h_toby_chan that it looked like I'd be back online just in time to plunge headfirst into a new fandom.

It looks like it's not so much a joke anymore.

Uh...what else? Oh, working on costumes! Three for me and so far two for nijawial! We're cosplaying Rune Soldier and Inuyasha for Sabo, and then I have one I'm working on just for photoshoots. Well, technically two. Because I really don't see the point in wearing book/obscure comic costumes to anime/video game cons. But I still want to do the costumes.

Computer is...on its way to functioning properly. It desperately needs RAM, and I've got it defragmenting. Also still needs cords, but whatever. I can use it for at least small periods of time. And it's been enough for me to check my Flist, make some headway on my email, and make a new LJ icon. ;)

I'm looking into some new (to me) anime. I caught a bit of Darker Than Black, which I'd like to see, and a little bit of Vexille. Which was pretty and then highly recommended. And there was one other, but I forget the name. It was being advertised on the program, and was compared to Twelve Kingdoms.

I've finally rented Nightmares and Dreamscapes, though I haven't watched it yet. I've heard that Crouch End is just terrible, which I can understand. I don't think it would make the transition from text to screen very well. Speaking of...I read the first few stories in After Sunset, and I have to admit, I'm not impressed. After reading the forward, I was forewarned (King himself admits he's not sure if his recent short fiction is good or not) but...it wasn't so much bad writing or bad plots, just the fact that of the stories I read, King had already written on those subjects in his novels. It was very regurgitated. I don't think I'm going to bother buying the book until I find it cheaply used.

Alright, this computer (tentatively named Walter) is making horrific grinding and wheezing noises, so I'm going to give him a little break.

IT IS GOOD TO BE SOMEWHAT BACK! I MISS YOU!

We were going to go out to dinner tonight, but my mother once more changed her mind. We're getting Burger King. This...is wonderful. I've been craving Burger King so badly for weeks. Especially since I've been playing video games again, and for some reason those two things are linked in my mind.

But video games come later. I played some SH4 last night. Or, to be completely fair, I made Henry run around and do various things to music. But I somehow managed to actually advance the game as well. Still in Building World, first time. Got a little caught up and missed the first part of the 11 o'clock episode of InuYasha, but that's alright. I can barely remember the second half.

I am, however, still coming to terms with the fact that Kagome is in middle school. I thought she was in High School, and was happily enjoying looking at her and her amazingly long legs. Now I just feel a bit like a dirty old woman. Again.

I'm pretty sure I've reached Bleach's filler arc. I have a good deal of 'wtf?' moments in Bleach, but lately, every episode has been full of 'wtf?!?!?'. Even beyond Bleach's normal wtfery.

I just can't get into Code Geass. I've been trying, but it fails to hold my attention.

I have RP posts to reply to! I should go do that! :D

Okay, now I've just reached the bottom of pathetic. I can't even afford five fucking bucks to keep up my Lust journal's extra icons. Tamaki's journal is set until next year, Lyta's paid account already ran out last week, and Hughes'... I don't know when that runs out. The others still have plus accounts. Argh.

Apparently there's festivities tomorrow. Fireworks and stuff. I had to be reminded why, too. I'm so fucked up dealing with this stuff that I completely forgot about the 4th of July. I forgot it even was July. Not that I care much about the holiday anyway. It's long since stopped being much but an excuse for overzealous idiots to yell about whatever minority group they feel is ruining the country now, get drunk and be stupid. At least around here.

I don't even like hot dogs and hamburgers.

Speaking of, at the very least, my diet (in the sense of what I eat) is actually in a really good place. Oatmeal and fresh fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch, some kind of white meat and rice and/or beans and raw veggies for dinner. And plenty of juice, water and milk.

And for the love of god, would Adult Swim stop switching things around? Adding Bleach was awesome. I'm liking Bleach, even if every other episode either gives me bad dreams or makes me cry. I tuned in last night expecting Futurama, and got Naruto. Nuh-uh, that's not cool with me. I want my full hour of Futurama back.

Scorpius's CD burner did indeed die. So he's basically a giant hard-drive I can't move anything off of. This is the point where I erupt in hysterical laughter and need to go lie down for a bit.

Anyway! Does anyone have the first season of Avatar that they could send me? I need to be able to get the episodes on my computer so I can burn them onto a DVD to watch in bed, since I can't watch anything on my computer. I can't find another good torrent for it. :/

And I still can't find batteries for my camera.

As some of you know, I have a 12 year old niece. She's in middle school, she's popular, she's at the top of the social totem pole. Earlier this year, I got her the first DVD of Fruits Basket. I didn't know how she'd take to it - she'd seen my manga and some of my anime DVDs, and she knew that lennaofmidearth and I watched anime, but I figured it couldn't hurt. And the first DVD was the only DVD of the series I was missing, so if she didn't like it, it wouldn't be a waste.

Fast forward about a month. She's watching the series over and over again every day. She has it memorized. She's introduced it to all of her friends. They all love it. I'm boggled. Lenna is boggled. We're amazed by this. We start looking around into other anime to show her. I don't bother with manga because I had no idea how she'd take to it. Neither Lenna nor I are big manga readers. And besides, it's easier to get anime than manga out here in Middle of Nohwere.

Last week, I'm out on the deck smoking. D (my neice) comes out. She's holding something in her hand. She walks up to me and asks 'hey auntie, have you read this manga yet?'. I don't even remember the title of the series, I was too busy going 'where did she get this?!?' and 'holy crap, my niece is bringing me manga!' It was a Shoujo Beat title, some middle school romance. And it was volume three....

( Mechas to Mainstream: Anime Then and Anime Now )

So, after all errands, cooking and cleaning were done, I decided to actually watch some of my new DVDs.

( Dub Review - Trinity Blood )

( Dub Review - Tactics )

And those are my thoughts on the Trinity Blood and Tactics dubs. I'll do follow-ups as I see more episodes and reach the introductions of other characters.

Okay, first off? Why is there bone deep pain all through my right arm? From my elbow it makes a burning twisting line along the side to my pinky - flaring at the wrist. I must have slept on it wrong or something, but it's insanely unpleasant.

I need to stop reading things I know will just piss me off. (But I do it every day, so I suppose I will never learn.)

All the emails and whatnot I owe people will be going out today and tomorrow. I know I owe some people stuff from like... weeks ago. I suck.

As Trinity Blood is taking a while to torrent, I popped in Chobits to get caught up. Made it to episode 17. Chii is adorable. I love her white and blue dress, it's the cutest thing ever. I want her white and blue dress. I'm enjoying the series, but I'm at the point where I want to find more things out. Chii being Chii and Hideki being Hideki is adorable and whatnot, but I want to see some serious plot movement. That doesn't involve weird, technically illegal relationships.

I think what's surprising me about Chobits is that all I'd heard is that it was just a silly, goofy show with lots of fan service. And, well, I don't see it that way. Yes, there's a lot of silly fluff, yes there's oodles of fan service, but the core themes of the show are pretty heavy and deep. An old and cliched plot? Oh yes. But it's got a new twist and is presented in an original way.

The theme song refuses to leave my head, however. I thought the School Rumble theme was bad...

Prepare for massive amounts of fic throughout the day. I'm playing Catch Up with my writing!

So, I've been watching Ouran High School Host Club. I just got caught up today. I have to say, I adore it. The theme song has been stuck in my head all day. I love the characters, I love the art, and the story is fun and absolutely adorable. It's been a while since a new anime grabbed me like this. I was getting into Bleach, but since it's being dubbed I've put watching it on hold and am waiting for that. I know this makes me a bad anime fan or whatever, but I do generally prefer watching things dubbed. As long as it's a good dub.

But yes, Ouran High School Host Club wins. Hell, I even like Honey and he's the type of character I generally don't like. I still want to call him Momiji, though. And Haruhi wins. Haruhi wins hardcore. Also? The twins set my little kinky heart a'flutter. Seriously! I died during the physical exam episode.

Anyone know where I can get the music for this series?

Now I need to go look for screencaps, to make an icon!