Thursday, September 27, 2007

Witchblade rocks!!!
Just watched Volume 1 today. I knew it would be good, but it impressed me even beyond my expectations. The plot is interesting, and the pacing is good.

Not a lot of action in these inital episodes, but there is a sweet fight scene in Episode 3 with some wonderful and fluid animation. And the cliffhanger at the end of Episode 4 promises to ramp the action up at the start of Volume 2, as the Witchblade takes on the Cloneblades for the first time.

The dub is an excellent one, and even the comedic moments aren't forced. The soundtrack is also well done. The show is one of those nice complete packages where every facet gels together perfectly.

The "sexy" factor that's always bandied about in ads for the show comes, naturally, from the revealing armor Masane sports as the Witchblade, as well as similar designs from the Cloneblades, and the fact they derive ecstacy from battle and destruction.

As a fan of the short-lived and long-lamented live action American TV version, the anime is the next visual level, telling the Witchblade story the way it was always meant to be seen.

More please!


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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Updating 'cuz Tsubusa told me to =P
Life goes on, dull as ever as I continue the long, slow recovery from this infection.

My mom is right though - I need to have more outside stimulation and interaction with people soon, otherwise my brain is going to stagnate.

The only interesting thing the ever happens is when I get new DVDs or music.

Today I got Vol. 1 of the Witchblade anime; the silver slipcover is freaking sweet. Plus Vol. 2 of Air; at least Best Buy didn't wait a month to finally stock this one.

On the music side, I've been delving more into the classic Progressive Rock bands, the original pioneers of the style from the 60s and 70s. I got "A Trick of the Tail" by Genesis, and "Fragile" by Yes. Hopefully some of you aren't too young to have heard of either of these bands, but this is the real material from before the time they sold their souls to the 80s pop music industry.

If I can ever get a playlist up on this site again, I'll have to put some of their songs up, so you can hear for yourselves.

That's about it for now. I'm off to bed soon and going to listen to that Genesis CD.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Kind of a weird day...
So, I had to go back to the lab today for more bloodwork, making sure the antibiotics and heart medications don't react to each other. After a small problem concerning my standing order not being in their folders, I had another faxed over my doctor's office and things were straightened out.

Afterward, I stopped at Anime Pavilion (our local shop), to turn in some DVDs I no longer cared about.

Weird Day Occurance #1:
Upon entering and having a quick word with Jesse (the guy who works there that I've gotten to know), I find out the shop is going out of business at the end of the month. This has me really bummed out and somewhat pissed.

Weird Day Occurance #2:
For the used DVDs, I was given two choices: $30 cash, or $50 store credit. I looked around the shop, and was on the verge of asking for the cash when I spotted the Kino's Journey box set. I've had several people tell me how much they love this series, so I decided to get it. That and a manga together covered the $50 of credit, so I was able to get them without any extra charge.

Weird Day Occurance #3
Then it was down to Best Buy to get the new titles that were released today. I was able to find Black Lagoon and Noein, but they were missing Red Garden. I guess I could've asked someone to check in the back for it, but my devious side took the opportunity and instead snatched up the Fullmetal Alchemist set.
Red Garden can wait I guess.

Weird Day Occurance #4
This is what led to this being a weird day.
My Dad and I were out getting dinner: sandwiches at MASH Hoagies. As we ordered, Dad notices a construction-paper sign taped to the counter - this Saturday will be their last day of operation before they also close down. Apparently their landlord wants to jack up their rent, and since their lease on the place is about to run out anyway, they chose to close rather than be scammed out of more money.
There is still another MASH around, but 20-25 minutes away rather than 5. Blah

So, that was my weird day. Stuck with a needle, free anime and manga, Fullmetal instead of Red Garden, and two places I love closing down forever.

I think I'll avoid Tuesdays from now on, except in times of needing to go buy new anime or music. Which means I can't really avoid them at all. Damn!
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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Today was a good day
Finally, after nearly a month, I was able to get a copy of Air TV Vol. 1. Took em long enough to get it... Of course when I got to the store, they still weren't on the shelf. I had to ask someone, who then went to the back and brought out about 7 of them. But at least I got one.

I just hope the same thing won't happen when Vol. 2 is released on the 25th.

And darn it, the Fullmetal Alchemist Season 1, Part 1 box set looks so shiny and awsome. But I already have the entire series in individual discs. I don't have a lot of room to work with though, and I get new anime all the time. So the evil, spend-money-like-crazy part of me says "Store the old ones, and buy the new sets to save space, you know you want to!!"

Sometimes, I hate myself. What would any of you do in this situation? (Seriously, I'd like to know).
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Monday, September 3, 2007

Overdue Update
I was going to type this up on Friday, but I didn't feel like sitting at the computer for too long.

I'm finally on the antibiotics, been taking them for a few days. I don't know if I really feel better yet, too early to say, although I hope to see more improvement over this week and next. I'm not coughing as much as before, but still coughing up all the junk from my lungs as it begins to break up (yeah, nice imagery there).

The serious issue at the moment is that one of the antibiotics can have a reaction with one of my heart medications, stripping away what the body uses to absorb the medication, thereby increasing it's levels in the body (possibly to a toxic degree). For now, the sollution has been to only take a half pill every day. Tomorrow I'll have to go out to either my doctor or the nearby lab for a blood draw so they can check the levels. This is something that needs careful monitoring, so I imagine I'll be in for more frequent bloodwork.

Took down the imeem player for now. It turned my song into a 30 second clip, which I am not happy about. If I can't get that sorted out, I'm giving up on imeem and closing my account. I want to share songs, not clips.

So, that's it for now. I'll pop back in with a progress update soon.
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Starting the treatment at last
It took awhile, much longer than I've been comfortable with, but this Friday we'll head back up to the hospital for another consultation with the doctor, ask some pertinent questions, and then fill out a perscription for the antibiotic treatment.

My biggest concern is over possible side-effects, but that's one of the questions we'll be asking.

So now I can finally start to get over this whole nightmare. I'll still feel like crap for awhile as the drugs take time to do their thing, but it's better than sitting around wondering when I can even take them.
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Friday, August 24, 2007

This could've been over so much sooner...
Well, the reason this culture was taking so long to grow was because the sample sent to the state lab wasn't large enough.

However, the hospital still had the rest of their sample which was larger and already fully cultured, so the doctor sent that off to the lab for them to analyze.

The question is: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY SEND IT BEFORE NOW???

Also, I appologize to those whose sites I haven't gotten to in awhile. Once I'm better it'll be easier to concentrate on making comments.
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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Still alive... kind of
Just a small status update.

This last test they're running, a fungi culture, is taking the absolutely longest time possible, leaving me to sit here in misery day after day.

We can't start the treatment until the'yre done running the test, but I'm at the point that I don't care that it's simply taking time.

I'm tired, miserable, frustrated, and angry. The sollution is dangling in front of me, just out of reach.

They better be done soon.
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Friday, August 17, 2007

Random post to fill time
So theOtaku is having issues. Thumbs and submissions aren't working. Avatars can't be changed. And a few of us are filing into the OAF cage as if it was Noah's Ark, so we can wait out a potential Otakulypse.

**RANT**
And why do people think it's so cool for Naruto and Pokemon to be high up on a recent poll of internet popular searches?

Naruto and Pokemon = the dregs of anime. They do not even come close to equalling what the genre is truly capable of. There are far more shows out that that exemplify what anime is all about. *points to the Favorite Anime list on the left*

And Best Buy is still dragging it's heels on both Air TV and Higurashi. What gives people!? They'be been pretty consistent with releases, and then suddenly they fall flat on their faces. I was told to check back next week, hopefully they'll have some in by then.

They better, because this is starting to wear thin on my nerves.

**END OF RANT**

I've also been thinking about getting the Tekkaman Blade collections. It was dubbed back in the 90s and released here in America on TV as "Teknoman", but the new Media Blasters re-release is the original series, cleaned up and subs-only. It's kind of old school, but I did start on Voltron, so it's not all that weird to me. The thing holding me back is that it IS subs-only, and I'm a pretty solid dub fan.

And we're still waiting until the doctor has the final results on my tests, so we can begin the antibiotic treatment and knock back this bug and clear up the pneumonia. I'd like to be able to breathe better than I'm doing these days, which isn't always very well.

That is all for now.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Not amused...
I go to Best Buy today, it's 5 PM... and there was no evidence they'd even stocked anything in the anime section.

What gives fellas? Huh??

I'll go again tomorrow, and this time they better have the DVDs on the shelf. Yeah, yeah. Ranting like this at my age isn't very becoming or mature, but dammit I need my anime fix! =P

Not to mention, I still don't have Vol. 2 of Higurashi. There was no sign of it being stiocked either, and it came out last week. I seriously hope Geneon isn't falling into the pit they did a couple of years ago where certain releases were showing up in the store a full month after the official release date.
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