Thursday, March 8, 2007

   Midweek wonders!

Hello Everyone! Well I must apologize first off for this weeks random visits. I'm afraid I was pulled into that silly knee surgery on Monday and I've been a bit loopy with the pain killers this week. Which means I randomly visited sites and if I could focus longer than a minute I commented. Otherwise I tended to find myself spaced out and staring at pretty colors. Pretty good stuff whatever those little blue pills are. LoL So apologize if I missed your site or if I left some strange random comment that made no sense whatsoever. But I'm pretty pleased the little look around inside my knee went really well. He did some minor repairs while in there, without my permission. Apparently it's just like taking my car in for repairs, they just do whatever they want while they have it and I don't get to say anything about it. Hehehe Nah actually there was some torn cartilage and stuff that was apparently restricting movement or causing geese to fly north instead of south or something so he messed around and made it all better. O.o I'm hoping thats a good thing...cause right now my knees is like three sizes larger than it should be an aching like the devil. And I'm stuck in bed again for another 2 weeks. Grr...I should have know it was a trick to get me under the knife...or under the lasers in this case. LoL But in two weeks...or three weeks I should really check my calendar I get to go down to his office again and get started on some lovely strange exercises that should repair the damage done to my knee. Or at least make it so I won't have to whine to you guys about it anymore. ^^ Won't that be a wonderful moment? LoL Oh I have some new creations for you guys to ogle. Apparently pain killers makes me feel creative...who knew? LoL So I made up some new Vampire Knight wallpapers, some new Ouran ones, one from Hungry Heart Wild Striker. Oh and one from Bleach that I am particularly fond of! I'm not a huge Renji fan but he's so pretty in this image I couldn't resist turning it into a wallpaper. ^^ I think there might be some e-cards too...but I can't remember right now when I made them. Or even if I posted them. I suspect I'm still a bit loopy. ^^ Welcome the return of the voice actor and anime word of the day goodies! Though now I'm going to alternate them a bit so they fit nicely into my archives there. And if you're new to this whole thing feel free to check out the archives to see who I've done in the past. And as always I love taking recommendations for voice actors English and Japanese so feel free to ask! Hmm this is actually a short post for me...I should probably wax on poetically for a bit but I think I'll keep you from suffering and just wander off into the distance and try to get some real sleep! Take care everyone and keep smiling!

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Friday, March 2, 2007

   Happy Weekend thoughts!

Hello Everyone! Aww well it's been an eventful week for me. All kinds of crazy doctor visits for this stupid leg and then trying to do actual real work has kept me jumping. But I think I did pretty good on keeping up with the site visits. Sorry if I missed a few of you! I did attempt to time my visits so that I would catch the most updates! Oh I cleaned up my friends list a bit, a few people who haven't been visiting, a few who haven't posted in months or at least given me a leave of absence type post. ^^ If you see your name gone and it shouldn't be please let me know. It's entirely possible I deleted someone by mistake! I'm only human after all! LoL So please smack me if you see your name gone! ^^ Hmm quick update about my leg, cause medical details are boring. LoL I'm seeing a rehab specialist who is willing to help me with the PT portion but only if I have an orthoscopic surgery on my knee to determine the full extent of the damages. *sigh* So I'm stuck with a surgery...thankfully it's a pretty minor one in my books so I'll be ok going into that. It's a pretty quick surgery too so I shouldn't really disappear for more than a few days on here. Still working out scheduling but I hope to do that in the next few weeks. ^^ Thanks again for all the well wishes and advice! I appreciate it all very much! Ok...so theres a bunch of new e-cards to look at if you're interested. I put together about 10 of them the other day when I noticed the e-card area was lacking in submissions. Hehehe Yeah I know I'm weird but I like to boost numbers when I can. And if you checked out my wallpapers recently please note there are about 7 Vampire Knight wallpapers now, over the 2 I had posted at my last post. Hehehe Yes I'm happily addicted. But it is truly such a pretty series, I can't resist playing with it for a bit! And wow a huge thank you for over 60,000 wallpaper downloads! I'm in shock and terribly pleased! It brings a huge smile to my face just thinking about that many downloads! Ghost Hunt! Today's recommend anime series! I just recently discovered this anime even though there are already 21 episodes out. And I admit I fell completely in love with it. The stories are wonderful put together (though a bit predictable to me, but that ok too) and the art is just beautiful. And well the fact one of he lead characters is just lovely to look at and smart and brooding makes it perfect for me to watch! LoL Ghost Hunt follows the adventures of Kazuya Shibuya, the president of the Shibuya Psychic Research Center (SPR) and Mai Taniyama, a first year school student. When Mai accidentally breaks some of Shibuya's expensive equipment, she reluctantly takes up a part-time job at the company to pay for it. Unfortunately, Mai and Shibuya do not get along at all. Mai actually nicknames Shibuya "Naru" due to his Narcissistic tendencies. With the appearances of several different types of psychics and researchers this series excels at variety when dealing with psychic phenomenon. While it sounds like the main cast is only two people it's actually quite diverse. There is Lin/Rin, Shibuya's calm and taciturn assistant who rarely speaks more than he needs to. He seems to get most of the unpleasant jobs, and works through the night. He appears to be an onmyoji. Houshou Takigawa, a Buddhist monk from Mt. Koya, who is also a bass musician. Ayako Matsuzaki, an outspoken Shinto miko priestess. She is confident and proud of her abilities, though her attempts to demonstrate them have almost always fallen short. John Brown, a nineteen year old Australian exorcist priest who speaks Japanese with a Kansai accent. Good-natured and helpful, he helps Mai and Naru however he can. And Masako Hara, a spirit medium with a popular television show and the ability the speak to the dead. Amid a slightly spooky storyline and some definitely creepy action scenes there is a wonderful sense of humor and wit that makes this show completely addicting! Alright that's quite a long post even for me so I'll say goodbye for now and talk to you all later! Bye bye!

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Monday, February 26, 2007

   Innocent ramblings...

.:Monday Madness:. Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a great week and all kinds of fun! I'm doing pretty good, it was a rough week but I had a pretty relaxing weekend! I kind of decided to submerge myself into some anime and manga goodies over the weekend to forget my troubles. It worked out pretty well actually! LoL Thank you everyone for the kind words and cards about my leg problem, I really do appreciate all the thoughts and well wishes! You guys are just the best and you definitely helped keep myself positive this week. Over the last five days I've been to see three different specialist and they're all pretty much saying the same thing. Unfortunately that thing is total knee replacement...*shudder* Not exactly what a girl wants to hear when looking for good happy news. However I've got another specialist to see on Monday and he's talking more along my line of things with specialized rehab. Honestly I'd prefer a long rehab over a quick fix surgery. I absolutely hate surgeries!! Sounds like fun doesn't it? LoL Anyway a couple of new creations for those of you interested. A bunch of new e-cards. And I made 4 new wallpaper. Two for +Anima and two for Vampire Knights. Both are great manga series I've had the pleasure to read this weekend. So check those out if you're interested! I'm making a few more as well since my fave stress reliever is staring at images of pretty boys! hehehe For those of you who asked I'm also going to talk about Samurai Deeper Kyo this post! Now the manga Kyo is what I used for my background this time around but the images on this post are of course from the anime. Now if you've never read the manga I can recommend watching the anime. And if you've see the anime I can recommend reading the manga. However I don't recommend reading the manga and then reading the anime. It's just setting yourself up to be annoyed. LoL The two stories aren't completely different but they are different enough to make manga fans go a bit crazy trying to watch the anime. Both the manga and the anime combine action with the supernatural, taking liberties with historical personages to create an alternate history of Tokugawa Japan. Although they differ widely in many crucial aspects of plot and characterization, both the anime and the manga follow the story of Demon Eyes Kyo (Onime no Kyō) as he seeks to regain his body after his soul was sealed inside the body of his rival, Mibu Kyoshiro (or "Kyoshiro Mibu" when written in western order). Kyo is joined in his search by, among others, the bounty-hunter Shiina Yuya, Tokugawa Hidetada, heir to the shogunate, and Sanada Yukimura, a famous rival of the Tokugawa. The manga is currently 38 volumes, only 21 are currently available in the US. But I hoping the rest will be out quickly since the series is complete now in Japan. The anime series is only 26 episodes long, which honestly makes it pretty impossible to tell the complete story from the manga. Might have a few spoilers in this section so don't be mad at me! ^^ Plot differences between the manga and the anime!! A major difference between the anime and manga is that Kyo in anime is an artificial construct, born of Kyoshiro's attempt to purge violence and cruelty from himself. While Kyo is sealed inside Kyoshiro after losing a swordfight to him, as in the manga, the settings and motivations differ; Kyoshiro confronts Kyo at the Battle of Sekigahara in order to stop his bloody rampage, rather than to protect Sakuya. Apart from these and flashbacks to his time with Muramasa, Akira and Hotaru, the anime provides fewer details of Kyo's past than the manga. The manga also reveals much more about Kyo's relationship with Akira and his 'band', the Four Emperors, as well as glimpses of his former life when he was friends with Kyoshiro. Yuya, who is often relegated to the background in the anime, plays a much more prominent role in the manga. The manga is more graphic than the anime, containing far more blood and nudity than its television counterpart; kenyou play a smaller role in it, and it introduces characters such as Date Masamune, and the five stars of the Mibu Clan. Nevertheless, the manga and anime share themes of friendship, but the anime develops the idea that some warriors will actually fight to prevent peace. And yeah I admit I didn't write most of that up. LoL Thank god for Wikipedia saying all that stuff. I'm not nearly articulate enough to write that much without taking a lot more time. Honestly though I love Samurai Deeper Kyo, especially the manga. I really can't wait to get the rest of the series! I'm afraid I'm only up to Volume 14 in my collections! I need more! Hehehe Well I'm off to get some work done! I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great upcoming week as well! Take care!

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

   I'm back again!

.:Welcome Back:. Hello everyone! So I promised I'd be updating sooner this time and here I go! So much has been happening lately that I hope you guys won't mind a really long and rambling post from me. LoL Not like that's very unusual eh? Well most of you know this but since there are a few new faces I'll explain again. A few months ago I was in a serious car accident and ended up breaking my left leg pretty badly. It broke in two places and I was in traction for a long time. Since I also messed up my chest and broke my collarbone it was pretty depressing to be around me. ^^ Well everything has been going great and last week I finally got the okay to have my cast removed from my leg. Now I knew I hadn't been using that leg for nearly half a year so I expected the muscles to be pretty messed up. I was prepared to deal with lots of long term therapy to get back on track. However, I wasn't prepared to learn that the tendons and ligaments in my knee and ankle had not recovered from the damage. Even after multiple surgeries and so much time being held secure. My leg is pretty much worthless...I can't bare any weight on it alone, not even just standing weight. I have to use crutches to even stand up. I almost wish I still had the cast on...at least then I could walk faster and not have to worry about the leg giving out on me completely every step I take. It's been enough to pretty much drag me down into the depths of despair...the leg is messed up enough that I can't even do the exercises the physical therapist wants me to so I can regain muscle back in the leg. But I'm not giving up yet. I'm way too stubborn to let something like this get me down for long. Later today I'm meeting with one of the top specialists in the area and I'm going to get him to help me out. If I can teach myself how to walk again after breaking both my legs I can surely fix myself when only one is messed up right? ^^ So wish me lots of luck guys, I can use all the help I can get! Now I've also been happily trying to distract myself from this kind of thinking which means I've been reading a ton of manga and animes. LoL See never let anyone tell you that having distractions is a bad thing. When life hands you a bad moment you can always find a good one in a book or video that can make you smile again!! And I'm the kind of person who keeps a running memory of my fave moments so I happily flip through episodes to find those silly spots again and enjoy them over and over again until I feel better! Naruto Fillers are Over!! Whoohoo! *happy dances around the blog* I have never been so happy to see the end of a filler stretch. I normally don't have too much trouble with filler episodes but come on...who makes 85 filler episodes! That's longer than several seasons worth of anime! It's enough to drive a person insane! But oh well at least I can be thrilled that Naruto Shippuuden has started. So far it looks great, everyone all grown up after 2 1/2 years of absence is great to finally see on the screen. Though I'm a bit confused about why they chose that particular opening scene. I mean it's great to see Sasuke again so quickly but that scene isn't one that we'll get to see in completion for months. Really why the teaser? Half the folks watching won't even have a clue who Sai and Yamato-Sensei are. Oh well I guess they just wanted to drag some folks in head first and let them know the kind of storyline they'll be seeing up close and personal. ^^ Do you like the pictures? A friend of mine told me that people might be more interested in the anime and such I recommend if they could see first hand what type of style it was. So I figured she was probably right, since I've watched more than one anime based just on images I've seen. LoL So if Imageshack is working correctly you should be able to just click on the image and see it larger. If it's not then hmm you won't. ^^ Well I think thats about it for now it should at least have kept you busy for a few minutes! I want to thank everyone for the compliments on the new theme! I'm quite fond of it so I'm glad you enjoyed it as well! Oh and a few of you asked to know more about Samurai Deeper Kyo, so I'll do a rundown of that next time! I don't have any screen captures done of that series yet so I'll make some up so I can show it off too! Well take care and chat with you all later! Oops I almost forgot I made some new e-cards earlier today so check them out if you want a laugh!

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Sunday, February 18, 2007

   I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! ^^

.:Welcome:. Hello! Well it's been a bit crazy in my life lately so I'm afraid I haven't been around as much as I promised I would be. Silly reality getting the way of my fun! I have so much to talk about but honestly I'm running low on time. However I wanted to post since I changed my site theme again. LoL I know I'm an addict, but I really can't resist putting together new themes! And as much as I love Immortal Rain I was tired of that theme. So now I'm featuring Samurai Deeper Kyo, which is honestly one of the best mangas I've had the pleasure of reading. The anime is so-so, it really is completely different from the manga so hard to judge in that way. It's a fun thing to watch once, but I can re-read the manga over and over again and fall for it again and again! LoL Addicted I know! So the featured character is Demon Eyes Kyo, my fave character. And I just love this particular image of him which appeared in Volume 14 of the series. Anyway hopefully everything is readable and you can make out all the words and such on this set up. I've updated a few other things and deleted some stuff as well. So hopefully the site is a bit cleaner to view now. I've got some work to this morning but I hope to have some time tonight to visit sites and get caught up with everyone! I hope you're all doing great though and I really need to get some time to answer your PM's too! Please forgive my lateness! I know I'm a pain in the butt, but I do try! ^^ Please let me know what you think of the theme and I promise to do a real update in the next few days! Oh and for those interested I put up a few silly e-cards for Valentines day! ^^ I know I'm late but I hope you all had a lovely day and gorged on chocolate!

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Wednesday, February 7, 2007

   Work is devouring my brain!

Hello! Wow I seem to be doing this disappearing act more and more lately. This time it wasn’t for any great reason either, just work keeping me offline. I managed to stop in and answer a PM or two during this week but mostly I barely managed to check and see if I had any actual PM’s before getting pulled back on my latest job. Is it bad to say that I find it vaguely exciting when the bad guys give me a good run for my money in locating them? LoL Never fear though, they may be smart but I’m about as tenacious as a pit bull so they’re not going to be able to hide for much longer. And with luck since half of my networks are updating software tonight I can find some time to not only post this message but get to a few sites as well! I’ll apologize now if I don’t make it to everyone’s site, I’ll do my best though! I am also just positively thrilled to see what Frank Miller’s latest movie project is! Hmm if you don’t know who Frank Miller is you’ve made me very sad. LoL He’s an amazing comic artist and writer who recently came to the world of movie making with a amazing debut of Sin City! Now he’s bringing to life one of my absolute fave graphic novel, 300. If you were a fan of Sin City or Gladiator type movies then trust me you’ll be on the edge of your seat waiting for this one to come out! Since I can’t describe it better than he does, he’s what the official movie site lists as the synopsis. “Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, “300” is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerald Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire al of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy. The film brings Miller’s acclaimed graphic novel to life by combining live action with virtual backgrounds that capture his distinct vision of this ancient historic tale.” Now if that sounds interesting to you then please visit their web site and check out the trailers you can find the site by clicking on the image below this paragraph. Just watching the few minutes they show has made me almost drool for this movie’s release! I will most definitely be in the theater opening night! And most of you know I detest opening night showings! I’m tempted to make a 300 theme now…but I’ll wait…a little bit longer. LoL Hmm other than work nothing really interesting is going on in my life, I haven’t even had time to discover any new anime or manga to toss out for you guys to watch. I suppose I could always hype one of the old ones. Yeah I can do that, I still have some time before I can go back to work. ^^ Since I recently re-watched this series I’ll happily send folks out to watch Whistle! This is yet another sports anime and manga that I’ll recommend to everyone! It’s a very sweet story with a great group of appealing characters. The anime moves a bit quick and ends far before I was ready to let go of the characters, but at least it’s nicely put together and doesn’t leave you hanging terribly. The main theme revolves around a young boy named Kazamatsuri Shou, who loves soccer more than anything. His dream is to become a pro soccer player, even though he’s not very good at playing soccer. He was accepted to the prestigious Musashi no Mori Junior High, known for its top rate soccer team, but he was never able to rise beyond the rank of third stringer because he’s pretty small. After transferring to Sakura Jousui Junior High, he can finally play soccer. And, with the support of his new friends and teammates, his strong determination, and lots of hard work, his soccer skills are developing rapidly and setting Shou well on his way to achieving his dream. I completely adore Shou…he’s completely without ego and just plain adorable! He’s got this smile that makes me smile back without even thinking! Which I find very strange for an anime! ^^ Alright so time for me to run away! Take care everyone and chat with you all very soon!

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Monday, January 29, 2007

   Some days...I wonder if I shouldn't have been born in ancient Japan...

Hello! Aww I’m so glad you guys like the new theme and music. I had quite a bit of fun putting it all together. And of course going through manga scans to find scenes that worked together is always a fun activity for me. Yeah I know I’m pretty strange, but hey at least I’m easily entertained! Well I got a bit distracted this weekend, once again manga invaded my mind and tore me away from the computer. LoL A good friend of mine pushed me into starting to read a series that I’ve always been tempted to buy but never have. Vagabond. Has anyone read this thing? It’s like epic Japanese history type manga. I love it! It’s essentially the story of the creation of the Japanese sword master Miyamoto Masashi. Very violent but honestly what story about a sword fighter do you expect to be non-violent. Hehehe So yeah I spent way too much time reading through the 24 available novels and then wished desperately that I had more to read! The art work actually reminded me a great deal of Berserk, which as most of you know is one of my fave mangas so that’s probably another reason I’m so happy. I’m really quite fond of the latest attention to the site by Adam and Massin. The ability to add favorites is quite nice. Especially since it includes e-cards in the mix as well as fan art and wallpapers! Yay! I can’t wait to go through and pick some of my faves so that other folks can know what kind of stuff I like. ^^ Oh this happened a while back but I wanted to say proudly that I have created 200 e-cards! Isn’t that just scary as can be? LoL Like my wallpapers I never actually intended to make more than a few. I originally created them just to entertain myself with some images I loved but couldn’t make into a wallpaper and it pretty much just grew from there. Funny how one gets addicted to stuff like this huh? Now I kind of feel like I’m putting together some strange Anime Book of Wisdom! Just kidding, actually I just love adding text to strange pictures and making folks smile or think for a few seconds. So yeah…200, nifty. Maybe I should go make some more so I don’t have that big old number staring at me when I go to my portfolio. ^^ For those of you who have noticed I’m holding off on adding anime word of the days and voice actor profiles for a little while. I’ve mentioned before that I’m archiving them under the Quiz Results section and well since I’m strange I only add one per day. And well every time I post I fall farther behind. So I’m going to wait until I catch up a bit and then start doing that again. So no educational content on the site unless you count my rambling suggestions of good animes or mangas to read! Another happy thought is the next round of new anime is starting to air now as we approach February so I’m quite excited to see if we have any really good ones coming out. I’ve caught a few previews of the new seasons and there are definitely some with potential! *crosses fingers and looks hopefully at the fan subbers* I need more goodies to watch! ^^ Oh a few of you have asked before so let me tell you officially, you’re welcome to steal any of the icons/avatars I put in this space for pretty pictures. I have no skill in making them so all these are from random sweeps through LiveJournal and Photobucket. And heck sometimes just random Google searches! ^^ So steal away! I don’t know most of the time who created them so I just say don’t claim them as your own and do with them what you wish! Well I’m off to get some sleep before I fall down! ^^ Take care and see you later!

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

   New Theme Time!

Hello! Well darn it I just can’t resist a challenge so here’s my new theme! Immortal Rain! I’m completely into this manga series I admit and if you have no idea what I’m talking about then jump to my last post and you can read all my rantings about it! LoL Well this new bg is actually a variety of images from the first two volumes. I tried to be careful not to include any spoilers so they’re all pretty simple images. But I just love Rain so much it was hard to choose only a few shots of him and Machika! Addictions are good things right? LoL Well I’ve added music to my site, for the first time in like ever. I usually don’t care for this sort of thing but what the heck. I saw an AMV to this song a while back and it’s just stuck in my head every since. And well it matches Immortal Rain in my brain anyway so I thought I’d share it! Just a short post to share the new theme. So you’ll have to check back in another time if you want to hear me rant about something. LoL Or you can just shake your head at me like usual and go hide in the corner!

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

   Long lost me...

Anime Word of the Day

Hashi (箸)is the Japanese term for chopsticks. Chopsticks were invented about 3000-5000 years ago in China and even today most Japanese people use them to eat their meals. Even soups are eaten with chopsticks. Chopsticks are traditionally held in the right hand only, even by the left-handed. Although chopsticks may now be found in either hand, some still consider left-handed chopstick use as improper etiquette. Japanese etiquette Never use chopsticks to transfer something to someone else's chopsticks or someone else's plate or bowl. This is how bones are passed as part of funeral rites. Never stab chopsticks into a bowl of rice, leaving them standing upwards. Any stick-like object facing upward resembles the incense sticks that some Asians use as offerings to deceased family members.

Hello my friends! I am so very very very sorry that I haven’t been around lately! I have for once a really good reason. ^^ As some of you know the weather around my lovely city of Seattle has been a bit crazy of late. Mostly snow and then rain and then more snow. Well some friends of mine, myself included got this brilliant idea, when it started snowing, that we really wanted to experience this great weather. So we went up into the mountains to another friends retreat. Hmm I should say a friends summer retreat…yeah he never goes there in the winter. We now know why. While the lovely city of Seattle got about five inches of snow…we had enough to bury our vehicles. To say nothing of the road to the cabin. And of course since this time of year no one is supposed to be up there no one was going to come with nice snow plows to dig us out. Hehehe Yeah we’re all geniuses aren’t we? Thankfully we’re not completely fools we brought a ton of a food and supplies with us and the house has its own generator so we were pretty cozy for being completely trapped. It was actually pretty nice we just hung around and talked and had snow ball fights and made snow man! We danced to bad 80’s music and reminisced about high school days. And spent a few hours wondering if we were going to have to dig out way out with our bare hands since we didn’t have shovels either. Though Mike did come up with some garden supply trowels we thankfully didn’t have to rescue ourselves. I think it was day six or seven of our absence that the game wardens in the area noticed the smoke from our fire and came to check on us. I really don’t think we were what they were expecting when they broke through the snow buried driveway. I mean I’ve never gone to rescue someone and found them playing monopoly in pajamas at 3 in the afternoon. LoL But still we were all pretty grateful for the help getting out and we headed off the mountain and back to our homes…now here’s where it gets weird. We made it home…had hot showers, ate some food…and about two hours later all got together again and decided it was more fun at the cabin. LoL We were all on vacation time anyway so we packed even more supplies and headed back up there again! We weren’t even up there a day and it started to snow again and we yet again were trapped. But this time even more happily prepared than before. So we again made more snow men…or it a snow family by now. Scott even made some snow pets for them in the end. LoL Oh we warned the game wardens we were up there this time so again at the end of the week they came to our rescue clearing the driveway and inviting us to disappear back into out normal lives. And probably to leave them to their fun in the snowy mountains. So now I’m back! I admit it was quite nice to get away from computers and tv’s for a couple of weeks. Though I did miss chatting with people so I doubt I’ll be going away anytime soon! It’s going to take me forever to catch up on all your sites so please forgive me I miss any! I’m sorry! I’ve got so much anime and manga to read too! Oh a side note: ElvesatmyRamen! I curse you!! Hehehe I spent three days driving around to every B&N and Borders and mini-bookstore in the area gathering volumes of Immortal Rain! Ok you were right…again it is a fantastic story and I’m completely addicted! Hence the Immortal Rain icons in this week’s post. ^^ But honestly for those of you who have never heard of it, you should check it out. It reminds me a great deal of Trigun in the fact it mixes humor and drama into a lovely story! And well it’s just plain beautiful to read too! Great artwork, fantastic writing! Hmm ok the basic story is this: More commonly known as Methuselah, Rain is 624 years old. His immortality makes him famous, and he is the subject of numerous bounties. The cause of Rain's immortality is a mysterious man who appears in flashbacks early in the series. Tending to stay away from violence, he doesn't try to stay close to others because he fears their deaths. Machika is a fourteen-year-old assassin. Her grandfather died a month before the series starts and she is determined to hunt down the one bounty her grandfather couldn’t bring in, namely Rain. However fate is a tricky thing and these two get pulled into each other lives and she makes Rain feel emotions he’s forgotten even existed in his eternal life. And yes this series is licensed and currently 7 volumes have been released in the US, hence my shopping spree hunting down these books. It’s a fairly unknown series but I was pleased that the first Borders I visited actually had four books. I found the remainder at other Barnes and Nobles in the area. Of course I could have been smart and just ordered them online but what fun is that. LoL Last minute plug: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip returns to NBC for the remainder of the season! And it can be seen on Bravo as well so please check it out! It’s a fantastic TV drama! Also uploaded a few lovely new wallpapers for various series. Including Immortal Rain, Prince of Tennis, Peacemaker Kurogane and Weiss Kreuz! I'm going to try to upload a few e-cards I've been working on as well! Enjoy! Alright enough advertising for me! Hehehe I hope everyone has been having a great couple of weeks while I was gone! Oh and I’m pondering a new theme for the site so if you have any requests let me know. I may not listen to them but I’m always interested in what you guys are thinking! Random Question: What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

Junko Minagawa’s Biography

Other Names: Family name (in kanji): 皆川 Given name (in kanji): 純子 Date of birth: November 22, 1975 in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan Blood Type: A Occupation: Voice Actor/Singer

A truly talented Japanese voice actress for today’s listing. I think the first anime I truly noticed her in was Prince of Tennis. She did a truly amazing job bringing alive Echizen for me. And I’m actually a bit amazed at how many other shows I’ve listened to her voice act in and didn’t make the connection between the characters. I just love it when that happens! Especially since I’m one of those folks who actually listens for connections like that! ^^ I’m thrilled she’s still a very active voice actresses and in fact I’m currently watching two shows that she’s appearing in. Both Code Geass and Shonen Onmyouji are at the top of my recommendations this season and she’s in no way a small reason for that. ^^ Just a short listing of her voice acting career. .hack//Legend Of The Twilight as Shuugo ARIA The NATURAL as Akira E. Ferrari Black Cat as Female Sweeper (ep 15); Leon; Silphy Busou Renkin as Madoka Maruyama Chrono Crusade as Joshua Christopher Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion as Cornelia Li Britannia Daphne in the Brilliant Blue as Shounen Duel Masters as Hakuoh Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime as Eclipse/Shade Godannar as Shinobu Saruwatari Hamtaro as Edison-kun He is my Master as Yoshitaka Nakabayashi Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori as Shizuko Tenjou (ep 11) Jinki:Extend as Mel J Vanette Loveless as Aoyagi Ritsuka Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch as Mikeru Naruto as Haku's Mother Negima! as Ayaka Yukihiro Shakugan no Shana as Khamsin Nbh'w ("Gisou no Karite") Shonen Onmyouji as Genbu Soukou no Strain as Melchisidec The Prince of Tennis as Ryoma Echizen Tokyo Mew Mew as Young Ryou Shirogane (ep 36) Trinity Blood as Ion Fortuna Tsubasa Chronicle as Ryuuoh

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Monday, January 8, 2007

   It's the end of the world!

Anime Word of the Day

Fan service (saabisu) sometimes written as a single word, fanservice, is a vaguely defined term used in visual media — particularly in anime fandom — to refer to elements in a story that are unnecessary to a storyline, but designed to amuse or excite the audience. In anime/manga refers to sexual hints like breasts showing or panty shots. There is a very large variety in fanservice. Shower scenes, sexy clothes, swimsuits, close-ups, wet see-throughs and many more things count as fanservice. A very commonly used scene is when a girl/boy stumbles and ends up on top of a person of the opposite sex in an indecent position.

Oh just horrible horrible news folks, just impending doom type news. I have just turned 30 years old. *cries at the horror* Oh the world has come to a disastrous turn and we are all lost in the chaos! ^^ Just kidding! Though yes having my big birthday on a Monday has to be someone’s idea of a joke! I am 30 years old…it doesn’t sound like that big of a number. I mean really 30 is pretty small when it comes to numbers. Of course looking at the newly sprouted grey hairs on my head maybe it’s not that number that’s the big change. ^^ I thank you everyone who noticed my birthday was approaching and sent me such lovely PM’s and cards. I’m kind of in shock about that actually. I’m horrible about noticing those things unless someone points it out to me. Actually I kind of forgot about my own birthday until my parents called last week to wish me and early happy day assuming that I’d be out and having fun on my actual day of birth. They’re right of course; I completely plan on spending the day going crazy. And probably drinking a lot of really strange drinks with my friend’s tomorrow night. So wish me luck and no hang over! LoL Sorry I haven’t visited anyone who updated this weekend! I’m afraid I was lost playing a game all weekend and didn’t get a chance to visit! I’m bad I know! But I happily made it to pretty much everyone’s updates throughout the week! Or darn close at least! ^^ I don’t know how some of you guys make it on here every day to update, I’m happy if I can make it here long enough to visit folks who have updated much less have enough time to put together a post that would actually mean anything! Hehehe So forgive me for not visiting this weekend but the temptation of double experience points over this weekend was too tempting for me not to spend my time playing a game! Oh for those of you who remember when I talked about taking part in a Closed Beta a while back the game is now in Open Beta so I can say what it was! It’s Acclaim’s attempt at an online MMORPG called Nine Dragons. It’s a fun game but a bit of an odd one. It’s basically based in ancient china with a myth edge. You can join one of six different martial arts clans and level up your character with different weapons and styles of fighting. It’s interesting to say the least, but not for anyone who enjoy a good long grind. There are currently 216 levels available to characters. I’m currently level 45. I play a Heavenly Demon who specializes in hand to hand with some side skills in healing and chi kung (magic attacks). If you happen to play it my name on there is Chidori. So look me up if you’re happen to be playing! Oh I almost forgot, I made like a dozen e-cards over the last week so if you're interested check those out. There from all kinds of different series so I won't bother naming them all here! LoL Hmm I am so going to spend some of my lovely hard earned money on some manga tomorrow. I so need to get caught up on my manga buying. With the silliness of the holidays I’ve been avoiding stores like the plague so now that they’re all over I can finally go back to the mall and stare longingly at the manga section of all my local bookstores! So many books! So many goodies to read! Now I just have to decide if I spend a fortune on catching up or a fortune on a bunch of new series I want to read! LoL Help me I’m addicted! I also want to say thank you very much to all of you for your very kind words about my friend Scott. I really appreciate the support. It’s been a difficult time lately and you guys really help make it easier! *hugs everyone* I do so love you guys! You’re just the best at putting up with a goof like me! ^^ I thank the gods every day that I stumbled across theotaku one silly day and decided to make an account. Even if it took me nearly a year before I started this blog and really joined. I love you guys!

Mazakazu Morita’s Biography

Other Names: 牧野 由依 Date of birth: October 21, 1972 in Tokyo, Japan Blood Type: A Occupation: Voice Actor/Singer

A fairly unknown voice actor at least for me but one of the voices I’m not likely to forget anytime soon. After all I’ve watched 109 episodes of Bleach now and enjoyed his performance as Ichigo in every single one of them! The vast range of emotions he can bring to this character makes me wonder just how he hasn’t gotten a chance at more lead roles. And of course it makes me grateful to the casters at Bleach for giving him the chance! Morita is highly skilled in Karate and Kendo which led to him working as one of the motion capture actors for the amazing movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He also did a great deal of motion work for the video game Dynasty Warriors. Obviously the man moves as elegantly as he uses his voice! Just a short listing of his voice acting career. Aqua Kids as Jino BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad as Hyoudou Masaru Bleach as Ichigo Kurosaki Bleach - Memories in the Rain (OAV) as Kurosaki Ichigo Bleach - Memories of Nobody (movie) as Ichigo Kurosaki Bleach - The Sealed Sword Frenzy (OAV) as Kurosaki Ichigo Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan as Yamazaki-sensei (ep 2,5) Case Closed as Ryosuke Fukuma (ep 419,420) Diamond Daydreams as Yuu (eps 5-6) Interlude (OAV) as Main Male Character (Nameless) La Corda D'Oro ~primo passo~ as Kazuki Hihara Major as Toshiya Satou (eps 27-) Marginal Prince as Alfred Visconti Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny as Auel Neider Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Special Edition (OAV) as Auel Neider Onmyou Taisenki as Yakumo Yoshikawa Ring ni Kakero as Ryuji Takane Ring ni Kakero 1: Nichibei Kessen Hen as Ryuji Takane Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Inferno (OAV) as Pegasus Seiya Sonic X as Chris (adult, ep 52) The Prince of Tennis as Tashiro Xenosaga: The Animation as Louis Virgil Yumeria as Butcher (ep8); Student A (ep1); Man at Pool (ep4); Young Wrestler (ep3)

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