For the first time I think I like an anime ending better than the manga ending. Pretear ended in Asuka 8. It was the first thing I looked at after I tore off the shrink wrap. I think I was in denial until I laid eyes on the chapter. How could a story that built up so much tension end? Spoilers in the *-ed section below. Here are my observations of the last chapter of Pretear.
* Its different, while the anime had a nice concise ending dealing with Takako, Sasame and Hayate, and making Himeno's family a secondary story, the manga had loose strings all over the place. For one they never resolve Mawata's feelings for Sasame, nor do they really give any resolution for Himeno & Hayate (but then again its implied so that's kinda moot). I wonder how Shin returned (I'll have to read it in depth more on the plane. ^^;;) And somehow Himeno suddently hugging her step-mother and accepting her is a bit abrupt. But once that's all said and done, its well done and for its anti-climactic ending its not bad. I hope they do side stories to solve unresolved plot threads. ^^*
Anyways... that's about it. Tomorrow I will blog one last time and then its silence. Tho who knows? I may get some internet access somewhere and blog a bit. If you don't hear from me then the lines of Nazca sucked me into an alternate world and now I am fighting my former kendo teacher. ^_~
Tomorrow I will be in SF forabout 12 hrs @_@ I hate day trips into SF. I prefer to at least crash in my bed and go home the next day.
Kooldown lasted long into the wee hours of the morning. We did lots of things (swim, toss Ed into the pool, etc) and were told lots of stories (some falling in the TMI range ^_~). I still have 1/4th of the choco keeki that Eileen gave me. Its like a huge truffle *_* its chocolate overload. And we didn't run out of food (drinks were another story). ^^;; Thank you to everybody who came and thanks for not running in fear of Dom and Ed's Yatta! karaoke after the burning of the Live Action Weiss Kreuz art book (which we happily roasted marshmellows afterwards ^~).
I'm glad everybody had fun at Kooldown and met other people they have probably been talking to online but never really met face to face. Thankies to Pete who was God of Cookery and grilled all the food. =D And Kyo for making Liquid Genki (which had an accquired taste but it required no alkie since it was mostly grenadine, Mt. Dew, and 4 cans of Red Bull ^~). And Alana and Flo's wonderful DJing. =D I'm glad I got to see Phing and TamaTama again. =D And I wubbed Michi's croquettes and lumpia. *_* Thanks for cleaning up btw.
Real clean-up wasn't as bad as I thought, it was the 5 1/2 hrs of sleep. ^^ I didn't get into trouble at all for the late hours, if anything my parents were pretty impressed with the noise level we maintained at that hour. ^^ (or they were dead to the world since they had to help at a swim meet ^^;;) either way I'm sure they were prepared for it to run that late (sometimes family parties run that late anyways, call it Peruvian time ^_~).
Things found at Kooldown: Hank's DDR Pad (thanks for bringing the PSX.)
And here is a quick recipie for deep fried cheese wontons:
1 part Edam Cheese
1 part Mexican Cheese (also known as Queso Fresco "Fresh Cheese") (or any meltable cheese is fine)
1 pkg wonton wrappers.
Cut edam and mexican cheese into small strips 1" long lay horizontally on wrappers and fold the top over the bottom so that they overlap. Seal ends by pressing a fork over the ends. Deep fry. I suggest using thicker wrappers or doubling since I noticed that they would blow up in the center and then burst and the cheese would burn up leaving just fried wonton wrappers. ^^;;
Various things are happening this weekend and I've been working around the clock. One of them was calling Fandango.com to get 10 tickets to see FF:The Spirits Within on opening night. 5 hrs later I got the tickets and we got 11 people in on 10 tickets. ^_~ FF:TSW isn't a bad movie, and I am still awestruck at the cg. =D Granted the last line in the movie made people either laugh or go "..." ^^;; but oh well. I'm off to see it a 3rd time with Emi. XD I can say that watching it a second time cleared things up.
Kooldown is tomorrow. I will write a report on it Sunday night.
Kristina - I got Shounen Ace 4 in the mail. Thanks =D and yes that short story is adorably cute. (Especially for someone who rarely gets to see snow ;_;). Anne Freaks looks smashingly psychotic as usual and I'm hooked.
Speaking of phonebooks, people living in the SF Kino area who wish to get their hands on the August Asuka (yes *that* Asuka with the X postcard furoku) it will arrive Tuesday (and may not be shelved until Weds... tho they're good about shelving the day it arrives, with manga its another story @_@). My suggestion is calling them and have them hold it for you. (I did the same for Amy's Asuka 7 ^^)
Did I mention how much I love LaLa? I will write a comment about it in the manga blog when I have more energy/time. Now if someone can explain to me what the plot for Haruka Naru Toki no Naka De (Wherever you go I am inside?) I'd luv them forever.
For the CFFML 1-hr challenge fic I wrote this piece of non-sense. Its a Kotarou POV from Angelic Layer. I've been watching Angelic Layer with my sisters and re-reading the manga and trying to get the Angelic Layer page bunny to smack me upside the head. ^^;; Its kind of jumbled, its really two stories in one... two different messages in one story. I don't think I was meant to write short stories. Fic can be found here. Its untitled and probably needs to be run through the "scrutiny" seive a few times.
There is a fic I want to critique but I'm afraid that whatever I write will come off as negative so I'm afraid to critique this fic. But I like the concept, its the execution that makes me go >_<. Anyways I'll just leave it at that.
1) I have two sizes for this layout, but I think I'll just make the 600x800 public the other one won't. ^^;;
2) Netscape hates fixed backgrounds. Unless I can figure out how to make fixed backgrounds for netscape the pretty feathers go bye-bye. ^^;;
3) what a headache. x_x
My parents got a 16" monitor to replace the one that died a few days ago. They set the settings to 600x800. To a person that uses their 13" to 1024x768 everything is HUGE. o_o Oh well.
Becca created the Kakimoji Webring. Kakimoji means "sound effects lettering" in japanese. We thought this was appropriate since we couldn't decide on what version of the word onomatopoeia to use for the onomatopoeia webring. ^^;; (That's a hard word to spell x_x). This webring was created for onomatopoeia-ed urls. Granted there aren't many but with the growing interest in manga and anime (especially for pokemon sounding urls) the ring can grow. ^^
Kooldown is 6 days away.
[Kero-chan] . . .
[Steph] *pat pats Kero* its okay its all a bad dream Kero-chan
[Keroberos] There can only be one Guykura!
[Steph] Here have some keeki it will all be okay.
Above is the beta image for Doki-Doki August. Emi says that it looks evil. Not bad, the final version has been bumped up a bit in contrast and the links at the bottom are vertical instead of horizontal so it looks like its coming out of his hand. (Its easier to mouse over too.) Since I have no time between now and Kooldown and vacation, I wanted to get this up before I leave. ^^
The person in the image is AMAKUSA Takara from Cross Oneself which was scanned from my 3 year old Asuka Mystery DX. (July 1998!) Cross Oneself was one of the first manga I picked up as a result of phonebooks. Its one of the oldest phone books I've owned and the first phonebooks series I've picked up. (I know I'm scary, I collect phonebooks. ^_~).
Anyways, Takara is actually a bishy priest who fights evil sinful demons with holy water, some nice karate moves, and a cross that pops out of his forehead. Don't make Takara do the sign of the cross on you (its not holy I assure you). He's actually a Mahou Bishounen! ^^
TamaTama~ Waiiiiii chapter 5! *^^* Oh this is great. *sparkle*
And like a pheonix SotH Beta III will be up by the end of the weekend. Note change in url. I'm trying some new way of seperating the real fic site with the beta site. I need to type up some scenes and redo the html for the chapters and we are good to go. ^_^ Chapter 7 is slowly being molded into something coherent.
I thought wrote a review for the Final Fantasy Soundtrack for Amazon however I think it got eatten up by Amazon. Oh well, it was a random rambling about how the soundtrack was a nice blend of "action" music and "soft" music. (And then 3-4 lines about how L'arc en Ciel rocked. ^_~) Hyde really worked on this song, and its not bad, its not like What is Love? or any of the songs on is Ark or Ray cds (which were nice and sort of retro like...) but this was very L'Arc. Not to mention I could hear all his engrish. ^^ Its not like Silver Shining where it took me 4 months to realize that he was singing all of Silver Shining in english. ^^;;; If anything its a L'Arc En Ciel single with 17 additional B-sides. ^_- Its also domestic which kind of rocked my brain for a few minutes. The first song grows on you after a while, The Dream Within falls into some cliche lines like "Dream in peace. Trust love... believe." but when put together with the song and everything its not bad, sort of Eyes on me like.
Listening to: Spirit Dreams Inside - L'Arc En Ciel (no kidding!)
I had most of ep 11 summarized then the compu crashed. -_-
Oh and the Final Fantasy Sountrack has an extra, it has a FFX trailer but its the same trailer that can be found online. But either way at least this one doesn't make me wait 1/2 hr to download. ^_-
Well the monitor that my parents use for the inside computer is broken, the poor computer its had a history of out lasting its monitors (the 2nd one in 3 years). Its a mystery since I use the same exact monitor in SF and it works like a charm. o_o Hopefully it will be fixed by Kooldown...
*Steph whistles* I just point to things I like. People just happen to get hooked on it (and curse me later ^_-) Joy and Tama, Pretear is great, I think Kino has vol 3 of the manga (or at least they are intent on filling my all ready filled volume 3. o_o) Either way I can prolly pick it up (plus vol 4!).
p.s. Tama I should have SotH up over the weekend (where I will be in SF and away from pastel suburbia x_X). Btw my friend Florian (who lives around Milpitas) can give you a ride. ^^
Mona - if you are reading this, the chances of you coming to me is easier than me going to you. I can't drive yet (well not with out inconviniencing someone 25 and over with a license).
FF Movie is coming! Wheee~! I must see this movie! I must!
Drivers beware! I drove all the way to Oakland on the freeway today. Aside from slight veering to the left laneline I did okay. Not that I'd drive freeway often but I think I'm ready. I just need to know how to do a 3 pt turn and I am set to fail the driver's test and then retake it again. x_x
Listening to: Bachlorette - Bjork (I would like to note that: 1) I like this cd, 2) Bjork = Shiina Ringo in terms of music (?) 3) Amazon swore that I'd like this CD and you know... they're right O_O)
Its a Kagerou Nostalgia pencil board! Its beautiful! (a bit too orange but that's okay.)
After August, my sites will move to site5, which ironically has its main offices in my hometown. ^^;; The service looks fairly good (not to mention slightly cheaper). dreamhost while it has good customer service doesn't have good web service (that and I'm approaching half of the allowable bandwith o_O). Since I'm going to start adding MP3s to the sites (like the KKJ page that has no mp3s since xoom killed the said site) I need to move to a place with higher bandwith. I'd like to add sample tracks of the Pretear OST too. Not to mention that it gives me 50 free subdomains, which for keekiland means a lot since its all designed on subdomains. (some of keekiland's pages will get a redisgn too, like the keroshrine. ^^) Thanks Hank for the plug. ^^ This is the first thing I will do after I get back from Japan.
Shape of the Heart is being put up on ff.net faster than on the ML. Why? I'm just lazy? ^^;; Unless you've read the beta chapters, chapter 6 is up at ff.net. I should upload the new beta chapters (current chapter count is 15 I had Emiko come by to pay a visit to her dear son Dai-chan. ^_~)
TamaTama~ waiiiii chapter 4! Saionji and Sakura! ^^ I loved the Kero bit in the fic. *Steph adores this fic*
As for the rest of the fics, they're on the back burner.
Listening to: Yatta! - Happa Tai (what a scary song this is, video looks like its Sesame Street on crack o_O)
Now I never claimed to be a gamer, give me 1 game boy, 1 costco box of AA batteries, and all the tetris games (incl. Puzzle fighter, Sakura taisen columns, and old school tetris) and I am a happy girl.
But Final Fantasy games always facinated me interms of story and design. Which was why I wanted to play FF8 because of the the story and now FFX for the story and the guy with the impossible blue hair (which nearly gives me hair envy and that says a lot). =D And Tidus looks like my friend JR!
Hmmm rented Dune today. I read the book and I found that the movie jumps around but explains the story well enough. I love how Sting and Patrick stewart is in the movie. XD
Today I went and got travel shots, normally I don't do this kind of thing, but since I'm literally continent hopping between July 18-Aug 19th I thought it'd be a good idea. So I got a physical, blood drawn, and some travel shots. ^^ My left arm has been poked about 3 times and was out of commission most of the day. I got typhoid and yellow fever shots. They wanted me to take malaria medicine but since I am not aiming to trample around the lovely but slowly diminishing rain forests in Peru I am not worried about it. ^^;; It took the nurse about 30 seconds to tell me what the side effects for taking that medicine was.
[Nurse] you need to get this malaria medicine.
[Steph] o_o
[Nurse] *ignoring Steph's face of shock* launches into her dialouge about the side effects of the malaria medicine... may cause some hallucination... more words.
[Steph] O_O
Needless to say I did not fill that prescription. ^^;;
TamaTama - rofl! I have to agree with you on the Sasame costume change. Tho goth Sasame was popular with fanartists. ^^;; My question to you is: how did you get all the knights to line up like that on your blog? *_* Its so pretty.
Grand Admiral Hank. - thanks for bringing war (Axis and Allies) on Sunday, I had a lot of fun. And curse you for getting me hooked on two series just before I leave for Japan. I will now be looking for random LoGH and Rose of Versailles stuff. (tho mostly LoGH, they must have LoGH figurines that'd be neat to have lined up on my shelf... next to Black Vash. ^^;;) watching the LoGH movie was kind of like watching very serene war. But in a way it was really neat since it was almost (if not really) a battle between two good strategic minds. I love stuff like that, like when I read Ender's Game and saw how Bean and Ender were well matched war minds. (okay so it all comes back to Orson Scott Card books ^^;;;)
Congradulations Jurliy~ ^^ The world is much more sparkly.
Ordered Bjork's Homogeniccd used from Half.com. I loved the song Bachlorette which was also done nicely to a Movie Utena music vid. (Which I saw at Kourin's house. And yes Kourin that was a very interesting rhyme ^_~). I think I will pick up her other cds at Ameoba after I come back from vacation. Especially if I find her Bachlorette single (which has at least 4-7 remixes depending on the cd). I also want her song It's oh so quiet.
Its really hot here, but then again I shouldn't say much since I'm wearing fleece pants while writing this blog. Didn't I tell you I was weird? =P
Okay I sent these to the DNAngel ML but to no avail.
neglibile spoilers (if any but don't say I didn't warn you)
In volume 2 of the manga Daisuke notes that Dark mentioned that he and Daisuke were rivals (I'm guessing its over Riku) but later in the series Dark seems to have changed his mind and let Daisuke pursue Riku. ^^;; My question(s) are: what happened to Dark's feelings? Were they Daisuke's? Why was there a rivalry? (or was that a plot point that got changed? ^^;;;)
Also hypothetically, if Dark did like another girl that Daisuke didn't like (I guess we could say it was the Risa/Riku situation) what happened to his feelings?
Also what happens when Daisuke tells the girl he likes about Dark? ( I know that's not covered in the manga yet but just guessing would be cool. ^^)
They're sort of important since they're nagging questions that sort of poke at the plot of SotH. ^^; (Which is 90% done most if not all is written just need to connect stray dots and throw it at some poor beta reader for things like: grammer, spelling, typos, wtf!) ^^;
Kourin~ Kourinkon was lots of fun, somehow time sped up and I don't think I got to do a lot of anything (except watch Battle Royal which is one BAD movie. No I'm not scarred for life, I'll go watch CCS Movie 2 and be okay.)
