Saturday, April 30, 2005

Depeche Mode--It's No Good

I'm here in the office this morning. I had to come in so that I could post some documents to my clas website in prep for the Final Exam on Monday. I'm also going to take the opportunity to pick up Tiger, Mac OS X.4! It should be pretty sweet! On the way in, I bought coffee from Caribou (the usual dark roast of the day), but I dropped it about 100 yards out the door. :( I'm a clutz, and I have to make my own coffee at the office, too. Anyway, it's really amazing, but I'll be able to come around to everyone this morning! Yea!

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Friday, April 29, 2005

Beck--Devil's Haircut

I've been so tired all day long! I got up at 4 AM (after falling in bed at 2 AM), only to work like a maniac on papers that I haven't finished grading yet. I had to give out student evals today. I'm sure my students hate me. Oh well, it's not like I'll be working here again (out of sections to teach--been here 6 freaking years). I haven't posted in the last few days because of the grading and the downloading. I was sent about 3.5 gigs of scanslations on Wednesday, and it took me all day to download them and get them on my primary computer. Anyway, i've already been around to your sites, so I hope you've already updated for the day! I don't know if i'll be able to get back on tonight. :D 'Bye!

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

The The--Dogs of Lust

OK! Alucard is up for all to enjoy. This is the Hellsing WP I've been hoarding for about three months (because it seems similar in composition to some others that I've seen). I call this one "Dogs of Lust." Anyone remember that song? Anyway, I submitted this one just in case you wanted it. Despite having grading to do, I've decided to take a little break and have lunch with a friend. Maybe I can finagle a movie out of her later in the week? We'll see. I'll start coming around, updaters first, then those who posted to my last. EDIT: Oh! and people keep disappearing from my friends list. I'm sure I had more people on it than are there now. If you see you aren't on my list, but you used to be, let me know!

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Monday, April 25, 2005

Finally, and update!

Hi! I'm sorry I've been absent all week! Well, lots of end of the semester crap is happening right now. I've got soooo much grading to do that it isn't funny, but I got some of it done, and I feel I can update without feeling too much guilt. Also, I had to spend all weekend getting my apartment into some kind of decent state. It was so filthy, and maintenance people are coming in today and tomorrow. At least now, I'm only partially ashamed (really need to vacuum up all the cat hair and cardboard scratcher debris). I washed the dishes that cant go in the dishwssher--they've been sitting on my countertop for over a month--AND I wiped down the stove, swept the kitchen and bathroom, took out trash and recyclables, moved furniture, hung up clothes, put away shoes, etc.--so exhausting! I really am a slob; no lie. I feel bad for the change in theme coming up, since you all like Sanzo so much, and I haven't posted since I put him up. Tomorrow, it's Alucard (hot-guys-with-guns month over here--not that the BG I'll post features his fabulous weaponry). Maybe I'll leave May open and do a couple more Saiyuki (goes without saying that it will be more Sanzo). I'd also like to do a Pretear and Fruits Basket BG in May, and maybe a Bakura as well. *dreams happily about the bishies* Anyhoo--I see a few people who posted to my last that I've not seen before. Hi-ya! I'll be stopping by your sites later today. Until then, thanks everyone for not forgetting me in my week long Otaku break.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005

New Sanzo Theme

Well, here's the new theme. I like this silly, romantic idea of Sanzo. The opening of the first episodes shows this frame, and it's so unlike what I think of when I think of his character that i had to work up a wallpaper. :D I'm not sure I like the way the text colors work, though. The text isn't so easy to read. Remember that you can always highlight over text by drag-clicking the mouse. That said, I might change it in a couple of days. Anyway, I'll be around later to catch up with everyone. It's lunchtime over here!

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Monday, April 18, 2005

Depeche Mode--Never Let Me Down

Konnichiwa! I'm super pissed. I just bought a bagel from the campus Y, and they've switched from 1 oz Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese to 3/4 oz Land O' Lakes! Crickey! I miss that 1/4 oz. You can't eat a regular sized bagel with less than a full ounce of cream cheese. I'm so not joking! :( I spent the weekend reading up on my scanslations. Nakama and Hochuuami put out the fourth chapter of Denkou Sekka Boys the other day! Not much happened in that chapter except for the introduction of two completely new characters who look like this other character who seems important but who has only been given one scene so far; however, I still enjoyed it. I feared the manga had been dropped or liscenced (it takes forever for this stuff to be released after it's liscenced). I guess the scanslation groups knew that this chapter wouldn't give any fans a fix. :D Anyway, I was catching up with all of that stuff instead of doing the many myriad things I should have done--like always. Now I'm in a bind, of course. Why am I this careless? Anyhoo--better make the rounds. EDIT: I almost forgot! I wasn't able to get back online in the evening some days last week. If you posted to me late, I'm sorry I couldn't get around to you! That shouldn't be a problem tonight, though. :D

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Friday, April 15, 2005

Freshmen--Verve Pipe (I don't know why?)

Sorry i was MIA Thursday. I took a timeout to finish all the glorious FB manga. I can't believe I have to wait for the next volume! What'll I do? I received the results from my German proficiency examination yesterday! Early! I passed. How'd that happen? Anyhoo--I'm ecstatic. :D I'll be back around later, I hope. Right now, I have about three students coming in for conferences. Blah. I wish they didn't need their hands held. I was easy on them on the midterm. They know they're really gonna get it on the paper, I guess.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Joan Armatrading--Weakness in Me

The Caribou Coffee chick gave me lip this morning! I purchased a pound of coffee Friday, so when I come in this morning, she said "You're out of beans already?!" Coffee-fiend-distort-response: Ex-cuse me? Do we have this kinda relationship? Ah, well. It's just that having no coffee at home is nothing to joke about! ;D I laughed and told her I was just there for breakfast, but now I have to wonder if the folks there are talking up my clockwork bean-buying. Whatevah. GrayUndies gets paranoid. She's probably thinking that she's friendly or whathaveyou. Anyway, I'm enjoying the FB manga thoroughly. I'll be back around later. I posted to everyone's site late last night, but I did make the round to everyone who'd left a comment! So check out your comments--god knows what I actually wrote. It may or may not have been coherent because I was distracted by FB! Oh! And I should know sometime next week about the German exam. It takes the university so long to do all of the trans-departmental paperwork that I will literally be the last to know.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Watching Fruits Basket Obsessively

I just finished posting comments on everyone's sites from Monday. Sorry it took so long to get around to some of you. The Saiyuki disc with clean opening and closing animation wouldn't load on my computer--unexpectedly. I had to capture Sanzo pics that weren't the ones I planned on. I may put up another Sanzo BG next week. I made two of them, and I'm not really sure which one I like better yet. Hope you like this one! If you're wondering what you're seeing in the center of the BG, it's Sanzo's extremely sexy pistol (you know, the hot guy's gun--he gets to caress it and wave it around a lot in the series). I'll update my wallpapers section sometime today, but right now, I'm going to fall into bed (it's 2:30 AM!). Today, I expect to get my Fruits Basket manga in the mail. Here's hoping! EDIT: Number 5's comment has inspired me to explain my interest in Saiyuki Reloaded. I don't know about Reloaded because it has been licensed by a different company than the series. It won't have the same voice actors, and I'm not used to the Japanese dub. Now you all get to hear my opinion about dubbing: it's all dubbing on anime, folks. Japanese voice actors have to do the exact same thing as any other voice actor. The original form is manga (which does not express language vocally, obviously)--NOT the Japanese anime. I hate when others feel the need to reduce the work that the voice actors in languages other than the original do. It takes lots of work and deserves lots of credit when it's done half-way decently. And I don't think many of us native English speakers know Japanese well enough to say that the Japanese voice acting is all that. Those who think they can divorce emotional content from the words that are spoken might want to study up on the subject, and consider the last time a misunderstanding occurred because you couldn't determine how the person speaking to you was feeling from his/her tone or body language. Happens all the time. But then, I am a postmodernist and cultural critic, so my views likely differ from some of you who are strong humanist thinkers (Americans are trained to think as humanists in grades 1-12). Sorry to bore y'all! I've had people come to my site before and vomit all over dubs. I like to prevent that kind of response whenever possible because it makes me angry. The truth of the matter is simply that those people are used to the version they heard first--probably an illegal fansub--and fell in love with the anime that way. That's understandable. To say that the Japanese voice acting is "so much better" when you can't understand a lick of Japanese, though? That's just crazy/stupid. For example, I don't like the quality of voice on the English dub for Son Goku, but that guy nails the acting. I can judge that because I understand English. Now to astound and offend--a list of the two top male and female voices that I absolutely could not stand in the Japanese dubs upon hearing the first lines: InuYasha Tohru First time, mind! Other voices have grated and worn on me, but I really hate these two in the Japanese. List of top two male and female voices I absolutely adored in the Japanese from the very beginning: Alucard (that's one sexy/crazy voice) Kagome There are others, but these are my faves. Anyhoo, that's not saying anything about voice acting ability. It's the voice alone I'm commenting on.

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Monday, April 11, 2005

Divine Hammer--Breeders

Well, I'm back from the usual weekend disappearing act. Not much happened. It went by in a blur. I don't know how the German exam went on Friday, but thanks for all the warm wishes about it. Today will be warm, but at least it's sunny. I wish I didn't have to work today. It's supposed to rain here the rest of the week. What happened to early Spring? Tonight, I plan to work up my Sanzo theme. I hope you all like Sanzo (he's really cold and nasty half the time and he has a firearm, what's not to like?!). Anyway, I'm in the middle of some downloads, so I'll be back around this afternoon!

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