Wednesday, February 8, 2006

   And so...
Got my end of year exam results a while back, I thought I'd done alright. Though after a constant barrage of what I consider to be insults thrown at me day after day by my mother, I am almost at the point of reconsidering.
I finished watching Evangelion and I have to say I am very confused. To say the least. I honestly did my best while I watched it to soak in every detail, I replayed parts I didn't get and I was sure I had it down. But the last three episodes knocked me off completely, and I'm still left contemplating what I actually saw!
That's about all really. I've come to this conclusion - shorter updates = more updating. Took me a while to work that one out.

Obsess song... Die My Bride - Murderdolls and sort of Song To Say Goodbye - Placebo
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Monday, January 16, 2006

   Well the reason I haven’t been back on for a time now, even with my ‘I’ll-be-on-every-day’ proclamation, is that I recently came out of one of my unknowingly self-induced ‘I-hate-the-internet-and-everything-connected-to-the-internet’ states. This is where I go nowhere near internet for ages... until I feel bad for neglecting it and feel like I have to return. <--- Hence this.
So what have I been up to? At the moment I’m in the middle, or dare I say, nearing the end of my summer holiday, and just last Friday went with my friend to her cousin’s so I could borrow his Evangelion box-set. My being up to episode 12, means naturally now I’m addicted and even now my brain is circulating related words and questions and my eyes are aching, yes, if possible actually aching to watch more.
--Shinji...Eva-01...Asuka...Eva-02...Rei...Eva-00...Angels? Messengers from God? Earth being destroyed? Second Impact... was the first then, when the Earth was created? And of course, the biggest question at the moment, just what are the Angels and why are they attacking Earth? ... And then... what exactly are the Eva’s?--
How exciting... for a second there you got to read my thoughts.
The reason this could happen is because about two weeks or so ago we finally got a DVD player, so now I am fully able to borrow anime DVD’s... and actually watch them! Oh the joy of not just gazing at a DVD case wondering over it’s contents, now, with the press of a button, a swish, the press of another button, I am able to watch what has been hidden from me for so long.
I have also seen the first volume of Witch Hunter Robin, which I really enjoyed and the new video rental store I finally convinced my parents to join (you have to be over 18) has it up to volume 5, and also Escaflowne up to volume 5 as well. Unfortunately most of the others are only the first volumes, except for a few that have 2 or 3 of them.
For Christmas I got volume 1 of Samurai Champloo from my Aunty (which wasn't quite what I wanted and provides me with an interesting collecting challenge considering it's MVM... and what we get here is put out by Madman) and watched it straight away. I'm not complaining though, it was REALLY good. Luckily Ben has the first 3 or 4 I think, so hopefully I can borrow those when I’ve finished watching Evangelion.
And I did finally finish watching Cowboy Bebop, which was great, I loved it into tiny pieces. That final episode is just created for tears, I swear.

So that’s the lowdown on my current anime-related status... sort of. I suppose this is more like me organizing my thoughts than making interesting reading. But I do try, I really do.

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Thursday, December 8, 2005

Hey, you think I'd desert?
Hello everybody...yes, I know I said the first...but for the last week you could say I've been getting over, the fact that exams are over. It's a pretty good feeling as most will know!

I have this whole holiday carefully planned - it's about eight and half weeks which is the longest holiday I've had in my entire life. I've looked up all the how to draw manga and anime sites I've heard of, but until now didn't have time for....and I'd love to get the Art Of Otaku, but I don't have fast internet >_<. Oh, so if you guys have any useful drawing sites that you know of? Tell me, tell me....so I can be perfect by the end of my holidays! Hah, not perfect, but on my way at least!
I’m going to be practicing my guitar more, I just know I could be excellent if I put the time in. I’m one of those people that pick it up really easily, and are good without practice...so imagine if I practiced! I picture myself as a master shredder some day...one day... But that sure ain’t going to happen if I don’t try at all.
*Shrieks* I just found out my Aunty is buying me something anime-related for Christmas….and I’m scared. I don’t know what it is! I told her to ‘look’ and gave her some titles for ‘REFERENCE’. Now what part of that says ‘buy it now and don’t even find out if she likes it’? Ah……I get hardly any Christmas presents as it is…my parents, two sets of Aunties and Uncles….and now I probably gone and wasted one with my stupid suggestion. I had a look at the site they got it from and in my eyes it is WAY overpriced. I could buy the DVD’s in NZ, which have been imported form the US for less. And from a physical store, not bloody online. I am so scared. I simply can’t afford to waste a Christmas present…*Wails and runs in circles* It’s probably a series I don’t even need to own…..one that I can borrow....*Crosses fingers and madly hopes it’s Cowboy Bebop* <---- So far the only complete series I’ve seen and would like to own.
Ah yes, I’ve seen almost all of that now...my friend burned hers so I could watch it on my computer, because of my lack of a DVD player. And at Armageddon in October I got to see the first two episodes of a few series. Armageddon is like a gaming, comic and anime con......but it’s really minor compared to the rest of the world. But the biggest, and the only one here. It’s a pulp culture expo, so there’s lots of other stuff as well. I saw... FMP Fumoffu ep 2, Haibane Renmei ep 1, ep 2, Gunslinger Girl ep 1, ep 2, Midori Days ep 1, ep 2, GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) ep 1, ep 2, His and Her Circumstances ep 1, ep 2...
I love His and Her Circumstances, it’s one I marked to watch AGES ago...and it did not fail my expectations. Sure, I found some parts lame, the whole ‘mask’ thing goes on a bit too much in the second one, but it was good. And the FMP Fumoffu ep I saw was hilarious.

Anyway, I’ll write more soon. Plenty to catch up on I’m sure. I also thought I’d start putting my ‘current’ song at the end of my posts. You know how there’s always that one song at any given time, the ‘obsess song’. And it can be anything right?
So currently,
Creep – Radiohead. And I’m gone.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005

   Hiding Away.....
Yes...I haven't updated in a loooooong time - but that is beacause my finals are coming up as well as all that damn art!
I had a terrible experience with truancy officers today and I would expand except I am so angry I do not believe I could write the words.
So basically you won't hear from me until December the first - when I finish my last exam. And then I will be here all the time - trust me XP
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Sunday, September 25, 2005

   So....
I watched Blood: The Last Vampire, X, and the first part of Tokyo Babylon, which I liked enough to go and rent the second. Which I then watched and enjoyed, only slightly annoyed that each part was only around 50mins long - having had to spend the same renting cost as if they were full-length films. Oh well. Of course it sucked that I liked them, and that there are no more parts...just as I was beginning to wonder about the characters pasts, and what could happen in the future. In part one I found the whole spirit inhabiting the bad guy weird...I thought the spirit was going to kill him? Or was this all part of the curse-gone-wrong combined with the protection this guy had? Meh, still liked it. I thought Blood was okay. The mix of 2D and 3D in the animation was beautifully done, but it was far too short for a feature film and I found the plot somewhat lacking. X was confusing, possibly it would have been better to have seen Rayearth first? But despite that I loved the weird dream sequences and the blurring of reality....And the whole concept of the Dragons was pretty cool - I think I'd be a Dragon of Earth myself. The only thing I found a bit strange was how readily Fuuma accepted he was going to kill Kamui, his childhood friend. Even though the evilness had taken him over or something, I had thought there would of been a scene where this was made evident, him fighting himself or something. And him killing his sister was a bit whack. But aside from all this, I really enjoyed it anyway :P

I've recently been told that if I get spectacular marks in my finals we will get a dvd player. So I'm now split between focussing on exams hard-out = dvd player....or, focussing on what I love = Extended knowledge, but no dvd player. Tomorrow I hop to get my dad to join the other video stores so I can get their collection watched. Then once we have the dvd player, it will be on to Ben's where he will hopefully still allow me to borrow Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop etc, etc.....Though I'll have to talk to him soon otherwise he might just forget me.
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Friday, September 23, 2005

   Life
Today was the last day of term three for me...which is always a pretty decent day in my book. Of course I've got all this artwork to do over the two week break, but I'll survive. As I predicted, my search for anime at my local video store was a failure. Their whole rental collection consisted of I think, five different titles. So I rented - Blood: The Last Vampire, X, and this one I've never heard of before....Part One of Tokyo Babylon? And Part Two was there so if I like it I’ll come back for that one too. The others were Slayers: The Motion Picture [which I’ve seen] and Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie. So my trip was pretty much a waste of time, except that while in town I bought my friend a birthday present. It was her sixteenth and she had this small ‘gathering’ at her house. It was really fun actually, just the six of us watching movies together – Mambo Italiano and The Blair Witch Project, which - despite all warnings of it being terribly lame - still managed to freak me out.... Anyway, on the topic of anime videos, I suppose I’ll go to the other two stores in town now and check them out. There’s no chance they can be worse than the first one, so it should be fun if it works out for me. As I said last week, I think my search may be severely hampered by the fact that in my household, there is no DVD player. I’m predicting considerable problems when it comes to playing DVDs, believe it or not. Of course to add to my troubles, my friend’s cousin has moved, and no longer lives a five minute walk from her...meaning that it’ll be a lot harder to visit him again. And the fact that he is now living with his friend, they’re both about twenty, will mean that my mother will probably freak at the idea of me going round to their place. But I’ll manage...somehow. On a completely different note, a few days ago I finished the fifth book of The Wheel of Time, and have the sixth and seventh waiting for me to collect at the library. I’m so excited...can’t wait until tomorrow when I can pick them up at last! Today I spent this afternoon at my friend’s house doing not much more than enjoying the family atmosphere. She’s the only girl of four children, but I think it has to be better than having no siblings at all like me. I’m spending more and more time around there now and I never want to go home. As soon as I do I’m yelled at and have a hundred things I should be doing, or should already have done. While I was there, I showed my friend a card trick that needs two people, and we then proceeded to baffle her three brothers with our psychic powers, even her oldest one who finishes school at the end of this year. We also watched some of the first Harry Potter movie, and marvelled at how young all the actors were...realising that at the time, we’d been that young as well! Of course, we had to rewind and play a few parts over again, mainly bits where Snape looked incredibly funny and not scary at all. There are some hilarious expressions in that movie if you watch closely. And playing Professor McGonagall on slow motion when she’s lecturing a student is pretty funny as well. My friend and I are both huge Harry Potter fans; I have been a fan since the beginning, though it became more intense after the third book. My friend has only recently joined the obsessive part of the fandom since the release of the sixth book and the beginning of what I’m sure is to be a long crazy obsession with a particular character. Severus Snape. I won’t go into detail, but she is very much in ‘love’...for lack of a more appropriate word! I plan to move onward with my Final Fantasy quest after the finals this year, borrowing games, and probably ending up not having enough money to get a PS2. So I’m thinking I’ll wait until the PS3 comes out...just because I’m one of those people that wait until the best one is out, wait until it comes down in price – and then realises there’s now a new one. So I wait for that one to come out, and go down in price...... You get the idea. My poppa was like that with getting a computer. So he died before he could get one because he always wanted the best one available at the time. It was so sad...I’ll have to do my best not to fall into that same trap.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Today being Thursday
Having a great day today - I'm on study leave....and I don't have an exam today! But even better...my parents are at work. ALL DAY. I'm free! It's such a wonderful feeling.
Anyway, I have my Music exam tomorrow morning – only two hours instead of the other’s three – and then it’s all over. Until finals, and of course my huge art folio has to be finished by the end of next month. Oh well..... I’ll have to start music revision soon, but for now, I won’t think about it.
Ahah! I’ve just remembered what else I intend to do today, and that would be practice my singing. Or more appropriately, screaming. You see there’s no way I’m going to practice my screaming voice when there is another living soul within twenty metres of me. It’s just not fair. I would probably lock the cat and dog into a soundproof room – if we had one. So naturally, the perfect time for practice is when I’m alone. It’s no that I suck *ahem ahem*...it’s just that it takes me a while to warm up, and I still need a lot of practice.
Anyway, more on my quest for anime, manga and Final Fantasy related things, I have come to the conclusion that this Christmas/Summer holidays, when I get two months off, I'm going to borrow Ben's FF games - he has them all - and go round to my other friends - who has a PS2 - and play them all. Finally.
I may have to buy a PS2 though, I'm not sure she'd want me there so anti-socially for that length of time. The only problem with that though, is when the PS3 comes out the PS2 will be pathetic in comparison. I'm thinking I should wait for the PS3 to come out and then get that?


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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

And today was...
English! Oh yes....and there was so little time I barely finished, and I think what I did do sucked.
Oh well.
I'll do better in finals...*Cough cough*
I should be studing for Science and Spanish tomorrow...but I'm one of those people that can only concentrate on things they want to do, or don't need to do. Like today I downloaded the trailer for Final Fantasy XII: Advent Children at last [the subtitles on it were pretty wack though]. I *really really* want to see that, but I have no idea when it will get over here. If it ever does - there has been no mention of an Australasian release. *Sob*
Though I can't talk, considering I've never played the games and don't know the story - I only know the characters. But that's enough to know I need to know more. Phew. Confusing sentences today.
Ah....Cloud. *Sighs*

Well, there we go, I've managed to waste even more of my last-minute revision time. Go me.


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Monday, September 12, 2005

Blerrrgh.
Joy of all joys. Today started what will be a week of late night studying, early morning studying, lunchtime studying....and every-other-scrap-of-spare-time studying. This week began my second set of mock exams in preparation for the finals in November – which I am not looking forward to – and also marks the time that I begin to get serious about exams. Of course maybe getting serious before the previous weekend might have been a good idea, but better late than never right? Yes well, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing....*grumble grumble*
Anyway, today was my maths exam – the only one I’ve actually prepared for before now – and it was so incredibly hard, that even all the people like me who are good at maths, were skipping questions.
I swear, I stared at this one question for about fifteen minutes or so, and I couldn’t write a single thing.....and maths is my best subject. Why do I get the feeling this doesn’t bode well?
So on to English tomorrow, I suppose I should be learning my quotes now...and practicing the essays...writing down some themes. We did To Kill A Mockingbird – which I highly recommend to everyone. Really. It’s not my type of book at all, but it’s just put together so well and if you can get through the first few chapters where it does seem boring, you’ll be very glad you did.
I do wish I had something to report, but right now my life is pretty mundane...but on Friday, when I’m all finished with exams, I’m going to scour the three video rental stores in town – and I will find anime! I will! And then I’ll get on to my friend about meeting up with her cousin again so I can borrow Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion off him. Oh yes – at LAST.
Of course not having a DVD player may hinder me in carrying out these operations, but I am optimistic in the face of my imminent disappointment.

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Thursday, September 8, 2005

   Hello.
So finally I jump back on the anime horse again. Hypothetically speaking of course, seeing as real horses seem to hate me.
A few years back I was really into anime,it all started after watching, now when I think about it, pretty mundane programs. But then I didn't watch for the story as much as I did for the art. I watched the anime that most people around me reserved for 8-yr old boys...but I honestly don't care what people think, I enjoyed watching it, and I still do. Maybe not quite as much as I did, but I like it all the same. I'm talking mainly about Yu-Gi-Oh!, that was an obssession of mine for about two years, and also Pokemon, Digimon, Megaman, Duel Masters....and if I go far enough back, Sakura Cardcaptors [not included in my 8-yr old boy part]. So maybe, in fact, I have been an anime fan for longer than I think....longer than I can properly remember for - considering I was pretty young when watching Sakura, and can't even remember what school I was at then!
Of course, you'd be wondering why I haven't seen Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion....*breaks into long, long list*
But that’s because it’s not on television, we don’t have Adult Swim, and if you walk into a video rental store and ask about anime…half the employees stare at you as if you’re talking a foreign language. Which I suppose, in a way, you are. After ringing every store in town and being greeting with the same, “Can you say that again please? Aaaaneeemay? What’s that?” it just gets plain frustrating.
The only other thing to do is go to a video game store, right down the back to the single rack of anime DVD’s, and see if you can possibly piece a series together. Maybe volumes 3 And 6 will be there, if I’m lucky. But they will almost definitely not have the series I’m looking for. Of course, even if they had the one I needed, thirty, to thirty-five dollars per DVD is simply money I don’t have.

I know.....that probably sounded incredibly whiney, but all I'm doing is trying to piece together a picture of why me knowledge is so limited. And it’s not *all* my country’s fault, I’m sure the fact that my city is pretty small [for a city in NZ even] has something to do with it. Maybe Auckland or Wellington would see me fare better, though I’ve shopped there. And the best thing I found was a comic store [there’s none in my town]. That didn’t sell manga.

Oh....manga. Don’t even get me started on that one.

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