I think I've survived to at least 3 possible apocalypses in my lifetime. Bring it on, end of Mayan calendar! I dare you!

I had a fun Saturday last weekend. My brothers and I went to the local anime con. It's nothing extraordinary and the name is so embarrassing (really, Expotaku?!) but this year it was a large improvement compared to last year's. More people, more shops, more variety on cosplays, more events, more geekdom. I also tried Street Fighter on 3DS (the 3D actually looks okay, but I go cross-eyed XD) and archery (and I was TERRIBLE!).

Of course, more shops = compulsive buying like a boss.

→ two Suzumiya Haruhi novels, now I'm only missing one from the relased here
→ Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt (I'm madly in love with this book, you guys, it is witty and visually appealing)
→ Captain Herlock: The Endless Odyssey DVD boxset
→ three pins: the FMA cross-and-snake symbol, a pokéball, trollface
→ some fanart postcards for charity
→ a Fullmetal Alchemist T-shirt with Ed and Al which I'm still waiting to see if it shrinks in the drier (it was the smallest man size and I'm a petit woman but I dun curr)
→ a box of strawberry Pocky (tasted good, but wasn't as delicious as I thought)
→ a Boo Buddy-shaped rubber ball keychain (best thing I bought)
→ three cellphone charms: a red koopa shell, a Totodile, a Piplup
→ two Pokémon plushies: a Darumaka and a Sandile. Totally overpriced but I couldn't let them rot in a sea of kawaii blobs. The ones on my team are fierce.

As for my brothers, Ale spent his money on four new video games, but he's not playing them yet. Danny actually bought a fancy State Alchemist watch. As much as an asshole he is and as different as he is from me, I love that he likes FMA (he watched Brotherhood but one day I'll convince him to read the manga). The most amazing thing is that his favorite character is Alex Louis Armstrong. Goes to show that you can love a character who's the opposite of yourself!

Then I spent two days of extreme pain from carrying weight and wielding a bow. And that day of the month. And emotional exhaustion. Sunday sucked as much as Saturday ruled.

Oh, and my copy of Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero came on the mail today. Finally! Also, that bastard of a book is huge like a J.K. Rowling novel. Reading it on ebook first, I didn't realize how verbose Riordan has become.

Al, you're SO awesome ♥____♥

Um, so. I idled out LJ for some reason. Sorry for not commenting lately, I have been reading you guys regardless.

a) Oh, most of you have already heard about a Fullmetal Alchemist sidestory coming up next month ♥ I've seen idiots complaining about Arakawa milking the cow (pun probably not intended) but anyway, haters to the left. I'm so fucking excited! And I'll be agonizing over whom it will be about. I don't care as it's just more goodness, although I'd like to see minor characters or something in Xing. Or both.

b) With FMA and soon Ouran, I'm kind of lost. I need something to look forward to read every month. I mean sure, I have my historical Afternoon seinen, but both Historie and Vinland Saga are going slow and even boring lately...

c) ...So in an attempt to give more excitement to my months without resorting to the inconveniences of shounen, I just had an affair with some American comics. Needless to say, it backfired fiercely. From DC I'm only keeping Booster Gold, I love it and feel so alone in this. And I'm hoping to see Jaime Reyes and the rest of the Blue Beetle peeps one day in something non-Teen Titans (I tried, then got kicked in the balls when I felt safe.) From Marvel I, um, I'll probably finish the Siege event (shuddup, I like Asgard-in-Oklahoma), maybe keep Thor for the lulz, and read spoilers for the Young Avengers... but fuck me if I get more involved with that messy mindfuck 'verse. I just concluded Marvel is the manry, Western version of CLAMP and no one will convince me otherwise.

To show my point? Doctor Strange is a Clow descendant. HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS ARRAY I DON'T EVEN.

d) More news on Okamiden with a new trailer. ( trailer spoilers )

e) Is it me or Sherlock BBC and Inception have eaten the Internet?

e.1) I still haven't downloaded Sherlock, but I'm such a geek I've been reading Watson's blog and Sherlock's website. And I've taken pride on the fact I've solved the three hidden messages on the same day they are released. They're way too easy to me, but it might have to do with the fact I liked secret codes since I was little and I already knew the first and the third system. The second I figured out with Google. Sherlock is right, this stalker is BORING.

e.2) I did watch Inception (at the cinema, even) and it didn't leave me much of a impression. I even disliked the ending. I think I'll just quote what I said to my family yesterday at lunch: "Do you guys realize we're doing exactly what Nolan intended? He left all those vague threads and plotholes hanging so people wouldn't stop talking about his movie. And it IS working." I also believe he wrote Tom Hardy's dialogs with Joseph Gordon-Levitt all slashy on purpose so this would have a fandom. Again, apparently it is working too.

Ah, I still haven't made a coherent post to say Fullmetal Alchemist good-bye. How about this, for now? I'm sharing some songs that I mentally link to the series. I can't really say it's a fanmix or anything, as I don't really feel like doing a cover or uploading the songs separately. It's something really informal, but the fact I can think of so many and that most of them are positive says a lot.

( Music inside! Cut for text, not ending spoilers )

So it begins. Guys, if any of you puts a Fullmetal Alchemist spoiler outside a cut, I will cut you.

Measures taken by me:

1. Avoid raws. Only read scanlations to keep the suspense to the MAX.


2. Take hagaren_manga and every FMA comm off my Default View filter. For those who don't know, by creating this filter, anyone who's not in it doesn't make it to your friends page. I don't normally take anyone from it except spammy comms, but this is alert state.


3. Download Firefox add-on to block websites. The one chosen was LeechBlock.


4. Add hagaren_manga/*, fm_alchemist/*, FM-A Forums/* to LeechBlock filter. So I don't run off to check them out in a moment of weakness.


5. No matter how bored, must not check friendsfriends page. It's a jungle out there!


6. Sacrifice a goat to Zeus and pray so no one on my flist blabbers out. (Disclaimer: no, I'm not a new pagan and no, I don't kill off animals; I've just read too much Homer this month.)


7. Refresh OneManga and MangaFox every half an hour.


8. Scroll down like a maniac at the slightest hint of a reaction post, even if spoilers are under cut or it's just vague "OMG OMG OMG". Because I'm weak and I'm likely to click on it. In case it fails, temporarily remove the person from Default View until scanlation is out (sorry in advance, guys.)


9. Flail a lot at the uncertainty.

By the way...

Late FMA reaction post is late. I've had the chapter opened in a tag for days, but TMI happens and I'm like "fuck it, I have cramps".

( Probably nothing you haven't seen/said yourselves already )

→ Can't say a lot about the FMA raw that isn't YAAAAAAAAY! YAAAAAY! WHUT? YAY! NOOO! NOOOOOOOO!

→ The Okami storybook arrived! It's about Amaterasu and Oki hunting for the monsters that scare Wali (the Oina guy who thinks he's cursed and gives you the area's list?) off. Except the dude sucks at drawing and they have no fucking idea and they ask around. They get to a cave and fight a fishy fish ayakashi, then stumble into Waka. Then I wondered if any of those "monsters" was maybe him, but I can't read the text. There's an sad lack of Oina people, but there's a doodle of birds eating from Samickle's mask leaves and I like that!

→ This should've been a very fandom-squeeing day, yet I spent most of it studying and installing software for my final project. It was Java EE, Eclipse, Apache Struts/Tomcat/Malve, MySQL. And yet I couldn't program a shit because the plug-ins gave me problems: Tomcat doesn't start up, Malve doesn't like my Java. Ugh, what now.

Maybe I should give up, install Linux, and do shit easier. Except then I would've lost my precious "free" day today and >:|

→ Seriously, my 16 year-old brother actually dropped the control in the first minute of gameplay of a 2005 PS2 game (in this case, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones) because "the graphics suck" and "look at the polygons" and "the first!XBOX games didn't look so bad" and "my eyes!!" and some more bullshit. Then he proceeded to play the previous game of the series (2004, BTW) in the 360 to prove his point or whatever. I just... this kid is an elitist asshole. He knows it's an old-ish game and a PS2 one to that. What is he expecting?

His idea of good graphics in this generation? FPSs where almost everything is brown or gray. Not all those games are bad-looking, of course, but most of them seem bland to me. Color use should be a factor in good graphics, I say.

Not that it matters to discuss with him. He's the kind of idiot who think his word is a fact, and if he doesn't like something then it sucks. Incidentally, flist, he hated the Bayonetta demo and whined his friends into not buying it because OMG it was bad and overhyped.

I can't even say I'm free, even if the final exam was presented and the assignments were handed over. It'll take them AGES to mark those pending things, and I have absolutely no idea if I have a chance to pass yet.

( FMA 104 quick conclusions )

THE CHARACTER ASSOCIATION MEME

Geeze, guys, all your spazzing outside cuts had me scared. ( *insert Saint Seiya jokes he--* I MEAN, FMA 102 )