Journey into Mystery

OMG YOU GUYS. I REACHED...

DISC 2! ♥

I need you to understand how important this is. It's a fucking milestone. I've never, ever reached a second disc in any old school RPG game, ever. I have two Final Fantasies for PS1 gathering dust; I've never gone past the first CD with those.



There seems to be a bit of wank regarding the announcement today in the Gyakuten Saiban concert. People were expecting it to be an anime, and we got a Takarazuka musical. Seriously, guys, y so srs. After all, the people behind the series obviously puts Japan as their target audience first, so of course they'd do deals exclusively for them (like all those orchestra concerts) and fitting their tastes. Eh, well. *shrugs* At least there's a big scan of that new illustration with the two generations so I'm good. (It's been how long since the last new image with Apollo-Klavier-Trucy Odoroki-Kyouya-Minuki? I don't even know, there's never been a new one since I got into the fandom!)

Oh, and while people are ranting about Heroes, I'm all over the new season of How I Met Your Mother instead. It's going to be de--wait for it--lightfully hilarious!

My thoughts on yesterday and today's Avatar episodes tomorrow. Some quickies:

1. Bought The World Ends With You on second hand at Game. And as long as the autoplay for the top screen is on, I'm doing fine -about to start day three. Not taking this game seriously, however, since it's Squeenix and Nomura. Besides, Neku and Shiki's character designs are just painful to look at. It's fun to poke and slash at shit with the stylus, so I'll just ignore it. But dayum, and you thought CLAMP characters were anorexic-skinny!

2. Slayers Revolution #3 in two words: LOL JELLYFISH.

3. Suddenly, this week I'm seeing Neil Patrick Harris everywhere. Well, no, only I started How I Met Your Mother and I keep hearing about this Doctor Horrible stuff. But still, weird universe is weird.

4. How did I not see this piece of pure awesomeness before? *_* Apollo Justice characters... wait for it... drawn as Okami characters! ♥ I'm mesmerized by Trucy's hat (so fitting!) and Ema's big drawer of medicines chemicals. ...Thank God Klavier doesn't look that much like Ushiwaka, or I would've needed years of therapy.

I could post about how Heroes this week wasn't that entertaining except for a couple of things (LOL the Haitian and Kensei), or how in The IT Crowd Douglas sucks a lot -in life, in funny, in nudity, ewwww, in everything- and I want his father back next season. I could post on how cool Mononoke 9 was, even if the plot is confusing as hell and leaves more questions that answers, but that happens all the time and that's the charm of the series: it kills ur brain ded.

However, I am le tired. Damn, I should try to be funnier! I'm giving a lame first impression! I'll try to make something funny or cool or amusing in the next 24 hours, but so far I'll be doing more interest meme.

From solesakuma:

Emperor penguins: Penguins. Yes, penguins! Did you know those comic, flightless, web-footed little bastards can grow up to 5 meters tall? Okay no, not really, that's me quoting Monty Python and Takashi Yamazaki. The Aptenodytes forsteri are not only cute, but also badass. Have you seen any documentary on them? It's amazing what they do every year just to breed and stand the winter, man. And they're cute, yeah.

Dukylon: Once upon a time, CLAMP also drew short manga on crack to amuse themselves. That's how stuff like, uh, every CLAMP Campus manga was born, really. And that includes Gakuen Tokkei Duklyon, which is basically a parody to sentai series, very goofy, and very gay (even if, ironically, there's also canon het OMGWTF!) Only two volumes, but I couldn't stop laughing. I'm a sucker for parodies, myself, and there needs to be more Ken/Take and Erii/Kotobuki fanstuff out there.

Ducks: It comes from childhood. We used to go to the park a lot to feed the ducks until they took them away during a dengue epidemics. So they're one of my favorite animals. But looking back, I always preferred Donald to Mickey, Daffy to Bugs. And I really liked Ducktales and Darkwing Duck. I never had a rubber ducky because we had no bathtub, and it made me sad. My favorite duck kind is the mallard, by the way.

Ouran Host Club: Or whatever you want to call it. I like the manga better, and I suspect I'm only there because I grew attached to Tamaki because, otherwise, these days I'm not caring that much. It's still a nice series, though.

Slayers: Oh man, a classic! Based in novels I still haven't read, the anime marked my teenage years with Rurouni Kenshin. Because before CLAMP bribed me with shiny magic or Rowling hooked me to her wizards, there was mothafucka Lina Inverse kicking ass. Trufax, dears, my first real magical fandom. That series has everything: fantasy, action, adventure, magic of all kinds, comedy, drama, good vs evil (...sorta), the whole deal! And in perfect balance, I'd say. You don't know what you missed. The next anime season is lame, so go check this one out instead!

Wish: One of those CLAMP mangas that'll make you diabetic from the sap. While I didn't care that much about poor Kohaku, and I think the first Shuichirou makes Shizuka Doumeki look extroverted (God, that man had the facial expressions of a LOG), the secondary characters are amusing and lovely. Also, see how in this case Kokuyou didn't lose his eye: he knows exactly where he left it! XD Cleanest display of the eye cliché, kids.

Web design: For me it's not only splatter something on Photoshop, because it's more than the graphics. I enjoy coding the HTML, the skeleton of the whole webpages, and see the results on the screen. One of my favorite (or least favorite, if it's a bad coding day) is doing the CSS (do not confuse with CCS: in the latter there is no Clow card called The A:hover), which would form the view. Just by changing one line you get a different look. Man, what a geek I am.

Some of you have seen it already, but Avatar Roku rocks even harder than he already does. Yay flashbacks *_* Season 3 come here faster plz.

And another thing I had to search on youtube as soon as I watched this. ANTIPIRACY SPOOF:


Oh, The IT Crowd ♥

I think I almost destroyed my wrist playing Elite Beat Agents on the extra hard difficulty. So for my own sake, I'll leave the game alone for some weeks.

Catsitting week was officially over yesterday. The fauna turned out okay, but the flora... well. Mom was not pleased at the overall ecosystem management. Anyway, I'll be back home today.

Sorry I was absent and missed a lot of memes.

I started watching Black Books a couple of days ago; I'll post about it when I'm done with season 1. My mom talked me into watching Taken -she got so hooked she downloaded the whole thing, and I'm not going to say no to a show about my #1 fear from childhood: alien abductions! Not even half done with it, either.

Taken from everyone and their dog, is THAT MEME:

a. Post a list of 10 20 fandoms.
b. Have your friends list guess your favourite character and pairing from each one.
c. When guessed, bold the line, include the character name, and write a sentence about why you like that character/pairing.

(okay, if I have more than one, I'll say it so. NP = I don't ship anything there)

01. Card Captor Sakura
02. XXXHOLiC (2C)
03. Tsubasa (2P)
04. Fullmetal Alchemist (2P)
05. One Piece (3C, 2P)
06. Rurouni Kenshin (no real OTP, but 2P)
07. Slayers
08. Fruits Basket (I ship and like a lot of crap, but let's leave it to one each)
09. Evangelion (2P)
10. Twelve Kingdoms (NP)
11. Gintama (NP)
12. Avatar
13. Heroes
14. Matantei Loki (3C, 2P)
15. Okami
16. Zelda games for N64 (2P)
17. RG Veda (NP)
18. Tokyo Babylon/X
19. Angelic Layer/Chobits (2P)
20. CLAMP Campus series (CCD, Dukylon, 20MnO) (3C)

Go nuts. I'll give you the answers later, so repeat the ones that have been answered if you want ^^

In less than a week, I've had two molars removed. The second one couldn't be fixed, so out with it. I'm paying for years of neglecting dental consults with blood, sweat, and my family's cash. Fucking dentists.

On the bright side, I'm conquering my fears. I still dislike the pinch a lot, though.

Oh, and I bought Elite Beat Agents. Damn, so entertaining and weird -not as weird as Ouendan, but what can I do. I've finished all the missions in the easy level, but I'm working on improving my levels and scores before attempting anything harder (the last four songs were bitches to follow, and it was the EASY level).

I've been watching some comedy series recently.

1. Spaced
British, short episodes, two seasons. It's quite funny, and geeky, and cute. It's kind of slice-of-life but with crack. The characters are so quirky, and I like that a lot.

2. The IT Crowd
British, 30-hour episodes, one short season. This one was recced to me by hamsterfactor. It's The Office meets Monty Python meets Internet memes. Even geekier and more batshit than the previous one. Can't wait for season two.

3. Gintama
Anime, outgoing like the Jump shounen series that it is. I've already talked about the manga and that I've liked what I read. So I tried the anime, and it cracked me up as much (and sometimes even more). I've only watched what's been subbed, and it's great. All the characters are great but... strangely enough, I've developed a bizarre crush on Zura Katsura :D Funny: I thought I'd be more into Shinpachi (he is cute, and I'm amused when he's all Watanuki on people, but Katsura is such a crazy dork~).

What else? I've started reading The Count of Montecristo today, borrowed from my uncle.

Also, I doubt I'll migrate any time soon, but just in case you want to friend me I'm kirisame everywhere:

kirisame @ GJ
kirisame @ IJ.

Oh, and I just remembered I'm also kirisame @ Twitter, but I always forget to update it anyway.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
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. And thus the endless cycle of the meme goes on and on and on and on...

I can't ask you stuff right now, sorry. After finals I'll get to it.

nyaabo's questions:

1. Favorite CCS card!?
...One? I like the elementals, although especially The Watery and The Firey because they're like pissed off fairies. I like The Light and The Dark, but they have so many fans it turns me off. For the anime-only, I loved The Create.

2. How'd you come up with your username?
I actually didn't :P Ame warashi is a character from XXXHOLiC, the rain spirit (see icon). I wanted to rename a while ago, so I thought of cool fandom names, and I remembered her. She's my kind of character. Besides, my nickname is written with the kanji of rain and means drizzle. It was adequate.

3. Favorite Mushishi story?
That's a mean question D: I love several. Like the traveling swamp, the guy who chased rainbows, the bamboo family, the one with the boy who slept through winters, the painter who moved to the city, the blind girl, Tanyuu's story... but I like most of them.

4. If you were to be turned into a stuffed animal, what kind would you want to be?
The first gut reaction is being my penguin plushie. He's all velveteen and soft :3

5. Would you rather have a mohawk, pompadour, or afro?
O_o Honestly, none. They all need awful amounts of hair gel, and I loathe using that shit. I'm too low maintenance when it comes to hair. I procrastinate over combing. Besides, they'd look awful on me.

* * *

Now haruhara's:

1. Favorite CLAMP series?
XXXHOLiC, actually XD I've been here in the fandom right since the series started in Japan. I've been here before the crossovers. I've been here before there was buttsecks subfandom. I'm like the fandom's cockroach. But regardless of the fandom, I love the series' premise and the paranormality of it all.
I'm pretty attached to CCS because it was my first CLAMP fandom, and I'm still writing for it. But since it's in HOLiCverse, sometimes I can get away with it and say they're the same canon :D ILU crossover precanon metastories~

2. What kind of music do you like?
I guess you could say I'm into rock, because that's what I listen to the most. I don't like a particular subgenre of it: a little bit of everything, including oldies and new stuff. I like some pop, but not the moronic mainstream kind. Still, I probably like loose songs in other genres, unless I really loathe it.
I listen more to music in English. Most music in Spanish, my native language, is boring pop and/or Latin-styled (I hate salsa and reggaeton), do it's not my kind of thing.

3. Describe yourself with images. Not feelings. ("I'm like a feather in the wind" instead of "I'm a pretty energetic person")
...
...
I'm the old, smelly Reader's Digest magazine you found at a waiting room, and you stole it when nobody else was looking, because you wanted to keep reading that article about the man who survived an attack of club-wielding baby seals at the Arctic, and try the lemon cake recipe. LET'S GET DANGEROUS! XD
.......................... ¬¬U
(sorry for the bad metaphor, and for the childhood impulse to quote Darkwing Duck)
How about "I'm like a flipping coin, as uncertain about the statistic outcome as Schrodinger's cat"?

4. Are you fond of sweets?
Sometimes. One day I'm in the mood for chocolates or cookies, the next I want chips or Doritos or anything salty. I don't like cake that much, though.

5. What's something that'll make you smile like a loon?
Buying a new manga of a series I adore, or watching/reading/hearing something funny, or a package of something I imported or bought online arriving, or raw scans of mangas (especially FMA) getting out. Some cute animals. Dunno, lots of weird stuff. I think this shows I have no life.

* * *

ETA: In one of those TDT channels, Clan TVE, they're broadcasting dubbed Doctor Who! O_O And it's the first episode of the first season! Nine!!

It's been ages since I last used Photoshop or coded CSS. How nice it feels.

I've been rereading random manga parts just because.

- I had forgotten how cute and sexy Kazuhiko/Oruha is. And Suu and Oruha's friendship was so "aww". But most of all, the hidden "cameras" or whatever popping out occasionally freaked me out. I'm hoping that, when/if CLAMP finishes the two Clover volumes left, they develop more on Oruha's killer and whether Kazuhiko could find him/her/it.

- I think I've developed a couple of theories about Hohenheim, but I'll talk about that some other day.

- You know, in early CCS volumes, sometimes the similarities between Fujitaka and Eriol are too much. And I've noticed that when I write about Clow or read the Soel to Larg translations, I imagine his facial expressions and fanon traits like a mix between his reincarnations. Let me tell you, I would've PAID good money to CLAMP so they'd drawn a Clow with a kinda!evil!Eriol smirk or a surprised!Fujitaka look on his face XDDDD Because that'd be TOO hot.

More interview meme answers, this time for Laurus.

( About Howl's door, childhood cartoons, web design, Harry Potter, and pirate vs. ninja! )