Just another 4 years to go

So, it is the last day of the Olympics, so I only need to wait another four years until Brazil...Seems so long away, but I said the same thing after Beijing and the time just flew by. Congratulations to all who have participated and even did well enough to medal in their chosen events, I know for a fact that I am not capable of doing some of the things they do (especially the gymnasts and divers doing their flips and shit).

Been a busy week, getting back into the swing of things at uni, especially working, something that I wasn't doing last semester, so I have found it very ovverwhelming working as much as I have. Speaking of working, I got a bit upset about a shift I did recently. Someone used the bistro as a location to hold a birthday party. The party was for about 80 people, but what really got me going was the fact it was for a one year old, but the fact that they spent more than $3000 for a birthday party for a one year old. I understand that it is a big deal, but why would you spend that much money, I feel that that money could be better invested in that child, going towards their education or something worthwhile. Also, they made me make them like 50 coffees. I am a bartender, I specialize in alcohol, not coffee, if you want your decaf skinny caramel latte I suggest you go to a cafe, mainly because we have neither decaf or caramel.

I am currently reading Basara, up to volume 15 of 27, and it is rather intriguing, it is full of dramatic irony, so I am sitting here waiting for the plot to unfold. I like how I know things the characters dont, and the reactions they have when they discover the truth. More to come so watch this space. The author of Basara is starting a new series this month, so I will be looking at that one when I get the chance.

Anyways, that's about it for now, until next time :)

Finally Doing It Right!

It is great to see that Australia is finally winning some gold medals! Congratulations all round! I was kind of concerned that New Zealand was above us on the medal tally, but now that that is no longer the case!

I'm finally back at uni, which is why I have been kind of MIA over the last few days, the first week is always hectic getting ready and starting that first week each semester.

I have managed to finish reading Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa. It is complete at 5 volumes, and is also the sequel to Gokinjo Monogatari. The story follows Yukari (Caroline), a high school student who takes her studies seriously in order to please her parents. She is shown to lead a plain life, her only pleasure coming from interacting with her crush Hiroyuki. One day she is "escorted" by a group of  students from Yazawa arts school (lol) and try to coerce her to be their model for their upcoming competition. At first, Caroline declines, but she soon accepts when she discovers that these students have goals and dreams that they are trying to achieve, something that Caroline finds she lacks. Once she gets to know this group of people, she befriends them all, especially Miwako (the younger sister of Mikako from the original) and George, who she develops romantic feelings for. It is revealed that Miwako and Arashi, who were childhood friends, now dating, and Hiroyuki were all neighbours and childhood friends, but stopped talking some time ago when Arashi became jealous. As the series progresses, the three rebuild their friendship. Eventually, Caroline and George act on their feelings, beginning a relationship of sorts. Meanwhile, Caroline realizes that she has a passion for modelling. She decides she will pursue it as a career and fights with her mother as a result, causing Caroline to run away from home. Caroline finally gets her mother's consent to pursue modelling on the condition she finishes high school. Over this time, Hiroyuki and Caroline become good friends, with Hiroyuki developing feelings for Caroline. After the competition is over, George and co try to sell their clothes, but with little success due to the clothes 'avant garde' style. After some persuasive talks with his friends and father, George decides to go to Paris to work in a couture house. Caroline is given the choice to go with him, but she declines, saying she will start modelling in Japan with making it to Paris as her goal. They ultimately break up. The story ends with a monologue from Caroline who is now 28 (so 10 years have passed), who talks about how she enjoyed a successful local modelling career, but was never good enough to reach Paris or reach George, with her stating that them meeting again 'became nothing more than a pipe dream'. The story ends with Caroline getting picked up by her fiance, who is none other than Hiroyuki, who has since become a doctor. The End.

I found this story quite amazing. It is classified as a tragedy, and I am blown by how sad the story is without a tragic event occuring (death etc). I feel this is a very realistic look on love in life, because although Caroline and George did nothing wrong, they couldn't end up together, instead both choosing to go after their dreams. It shows how not every ending can be happy, although I did find it bittersweet, because there is nothing wrong with Hiroyuki either. I actually wouldn't mind seeing more stories like this. I admit, I was on the verge of tears at the end because it does show how one of two choices can have an adverse affect on our lives and how the choices show their results over time. I would deffinately read this one again some time.

Next on the list is Basara, so this one could take a while 

Anyway, that's about it for now, until next time :)

Nothing to Say

Umm...I wish I had more to talk about...but there really is nothing...

On to the Olympics. Have to say that I am rather disappointed in Australia at the moment, only 1 gold medal. We are crazy good at getting silver, we have 9 of those, if there was no such thing as gold we would be nailing it! In all honesty though, the fun has gone out of the Olympics because its America and China, then a huge gap to the rest of the world. I think those two countries should have their own version of the Olympics, just to make it fair on us other countries, who, if we lose, 90% of the time is to competitors from these two countries. On the flip side, Australia will nail it in Rio, a lot of up and coming athletes which should be ready to go come four years time.

I have also read recently the first 4 and a half volumes of Rasetsu no Hana (because that is all that is scanlated). I was kind of hesitant at first, because it didn't look that great, but looks were deceiving. I found the story quite refreshing to a typical shoujo manga. It is somewhat dark as it does deal with death and the afterlife but it's not sad as such.  The story is about Rasetsu, an 18 year old woman who is cursed to be taken by the demon on her 20th birthday due to his mad obsessive love of her. There is a way to stop the demon from claiming Rasetsu and that is if she finds someone who mutually loves her before this same deadline (typical shoujo ploy lol). We are introduced to two male leads to form the love triangle, Kuryuu and Yakou. The story focuses on these three as they work together, all of whom have spiritual powers to help exorcise rogue spirits. The format is set out so it is one spirit per chapter sort of thing, but some spirits (the really bad ones, get two/three) while all in the meanwhile Rasetsu tries to figure out her feelings, as Kuryuu likes her but she likes Yakou more, Yakou is um....how do you say...DENSE!! Anyway, it is a good story, depending on which character you like, it may be considered a tragedy (I know the ending, one of the main three characters die!)

At the moment I am slowly making my way through Paradise Kiss, which is the sequal to Gokinjo Monogatari, so it should be an excellent read!

Anyway, that's about it for now, until next time :)

I'm on a bus...

Still watching the Olympics, but I am having trouble staying tuned. This is mainly because of the commentators. A lot of the commentary is done by personalities rather than experts, especially with the free to air television (thank goodness I have pay television). But I am also having trouble because of the timezone. Although live action starts at 6pm Australian time, the good events and medal events also don't start until about 1am AEST. Also, my hopes of Australia doing will are continuously shattered as someone from somewhere else always seems to be better on the day. Oh well, there is still many more days and many chances for the Aussies to claim victory.

Yesterday also saw me use a bus for the first time in ages, so now I present to you the first ever BUS CHRONICLES entry. I boarded the bus expecting a fairly uneventful journey, but I was wrong. On the way to my destination a little old lady thought the best method to hail the bus was to stand in the middle of the road to attract the driver's attention. Although she did move before the bus would have hit her, I was rather dumbfounded as to why she would stand in the middle of the road to start with. On my return from running my errands on the bus, two girls who appeared to be 13/14 years of age sat behind me. They cracked the shits and started yelling for the bus to, and I quote "stop stopping". Clearly they don't understand the concept of the bus, and clearly also need to go back to school, as being a Monday, they were obviously wagging, they need all the help they can get. Nearing the end of my journey, the bus stopped at a stop about 250m from the train station. A gentlemen sitting in the back of the bus started screaming how this other guy getting on the bus was a 'dead set wanker' and 'fat c***' for not walking the 250m to the train station and board the bus there. This same gentlemen proceeded to deboard the bus at the very next stop, only about 100m from the train station. Oh the Irony. Thus ending my journey on the bus.

In other news, I got attacked by a bat today...at work. Considering I work for a catering company, it is probably one of the last things I expect when I go to work. So I was working, minding my own business, when a bird like creature descended from the rafters of the factory I was working a function for. This creature started circle me from above. At first I didn't mind because it was posing no real threat to me. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this creature was in fact a bat, at which point I still really didn't mind, until it started swooping me multiple times, like a magpie before finding it's exit route and escaping. 

In terms of reading, I am currently attempting to read Trinity Blood, but I may give up because I am finding it difficult to get into, probably because it is kind of similar to Angel Sanctuary, which I just read 20 volumes of, except instead of Angels and Demons, it is about Humans and Vampires.

Anyway, that is about it for now, until next time :)

Angel Sanctuary and Olympics

Oh my Tacos!! The Olympics have finally started and I am so happy. I have already become a recluse for the next few weeks, as living in Australia, all the best stuff is in the middle of the night. However this is not a problem for me seeing as I am usually up all hours of the morning anyway. A few kudos I have to say, Congratulations to the Women's 4x100 Swimming Relay Team, for not only winning Australia's first medal of 2012, but also Australia's first Gold medal, what a great strike rate. And I also have to say congratulations to Vinokurov from Khazakstan for winning the road race before he retires at the end of the year. A gold medal is a great way to end any career. People were a bit disappointed when he one because he was caught and banned for 2 years for returning a positive drug test, but unless he turns in positive samples at the Olympics then I think there is nothing wrong with it.

Onto Angel Sanctuary by Yuki Kaori, I finally finished it, and I am glad I stuck with it and finished reading it. It is pretty violent, a lot of the characters die, and there are a lot of moments where I sat there with absolutely no clue what was going on. The story is about Setsuna and Sara, who are brother and sister. The first few volumes set up the story, where Setsuna is told that he is a reincarnation of the organic angel Alexial who hold the key to stopping the impending apocalypse that will destroy Earth.  At this point, one of the Antagonists, Rocial, the inorganic Angel and Alexial's twin brother awakens after being sealed within the Earth for centuries. Rocial immediately starts to look for his sister in order to fulfill his plan. During this time, Setsuna and Sara decide to act on their incestuous feelings for one another (yes, it is an incest series) by running away. They decide to return home, but on the way back, they encounter Katan, one of Rocial's servants (more like hitman). They try to kill Setsuna in order to kill Alexial who is dormant inside him and continue the cycle that all of Alexial's reincarnations suffer a short life and painful death, however, Sara breaks this cycle and changes the future by covering for Setsuna, being killed herself.At this point, Alexial awakens within Setsuna, causing a large scale demolition of the world. Adam Kadmon, the Holy Hermit, through an astral projection, descends to Earth to freeze time in order to delay and hopefully avoid the apocalypse.

The next arc is how Setsuna puts himself in a state of temporary death (basically he committed suicide) to battle through the ghouls of Hades in order to reclaim Sara's soul and bringing her back to life. Once in Hades, he meets  Katou, a senpai who was killed by Setsuna through a series of events. Together they battle through Hades until they find Uriel, the angel of Earth (element, not the planet) who works there on the reincarnation process. He informs Katou and Setsuna that and Angel from heaven has already claimed her soul and taken it with him. This means Setsuna must return to Earth before his body ends temporary death and actually dies, however just before he returns, an accident causes the sword in him to be removed, meaning his temporary death ends, leaving Setsuna's body in a state of permanent death. Fortunately, Setsuna's soul transfers into Alexial's original body.

The next arc follows two stories. The first is Kirai, an evil princess (evil is species of demon, not the adjective) who falls in love with Setsuna. This part of the arc deals with her feelings for Setsuna and what she would do for him to ensure his happiness. Kirai ultimately chooses to sacrifice her freedom and marry the demon lord Lucifer in order to give Setsuna a chance to return to his original body. The second part of this story is how Setsuna goes to hell to get Kirai back, because he believes everyone should be happy. The other part of the arc focuses on Sara's soul awakening in heaven, being heard by Metatron who has the ability to read dreams. Eventually, Sara's soul finds it's way into Gabriel, the angel of water who had been in a state of slumber for many centuries. The two tangents of the story meet up when Gabriel/Sara, along with the wind and fire angels, Raphael and Michael help fuse Setsuna's spirit back into his original body after he and Kirai return from hell.

Anyway, I think I will leave it there and continue another time, but that's about it, until next time :)

Nothing Much Doing

So, I'm still waiting for the start of the Olympics, seems it can't come quick enough. In the meantime, I have had very little entertainment, well, not completely, like 99% of people, I have seen the new batman movie. I must say, without spoiling it for the few people who haven't seen it, it is surprisingly good. You know when your friends see a movie before you and they build it up about how good it is and then when you see it, it doesn't live up to the expectation that your friends made you believe it was? Yeah, that totally didn't happen, it was as awesome as everyone says it was. Also without giving away too much again, I think that after the release of the Superman movie in 2013 (yes, because the last one was just oh so successful, anyone even remember the guy who played Superman in that one, I sure don't) that the producers of these films will probably look at expanding the batman series by making a film about Robin. I don't know, the ending was kind of open from that perspective, leaving the possibility that perhaps in the future, there will be more movies in the franchise.

So other than batman, my life has been kind of dull. I mean, I am still working heaps, which means my bank account can't complain! In terms of Angel Sanctuary, I am only half way, or 10 volumes through. It is quite a slow read, it does have a lot of text and the plot line is somewhat complex and intricate so it takes a while to read a chapter. I am kind of getting what is happening at the moment, but still a bit confusing. I feel that the main story has kind of been overtaken by the sub plot at the moment, the main story being Setsuna's quest to search heaven and hell for the soul of his sister Sara, but for the last 2-3 volumes it has been  more about Kirai, who has been assisting Setsuna and her story. I guess this is her arc, but it's still going, and for not even being a protagonist as such, I feel 20 chapters is way too long. The arc also doesn't look like it is going to end anytime soon either. Oh well, nothing I can do to change the story.

Anyway, that's about it for now, until next time :)

Withdrawl Symptons

Now that the Tour de France has ended, my night times no longer have any decent sport for me to watch...until Friday when the Olympics start. I know complaining on the lack of sport which will last 4 and a half days is pointless, but I have no idea what I used to watch at this time a night. After the Olympics end and the US open has been played in August, I will be seriously screwed. At that point I might just crawl into a hole for the next 8 months until Wimbledon 2013 starts.

Speaking of the Tour de France, courtesy of the SBS coverage, I had to sit through the most painful montage of footage of Bradley Wiggins and his yellow jersey and his awful sideburns accompanied to the worst song ever made=Yellow by Coldplay. I wish I could unsee/unhear this

In terms of other stuff, nothing much has happened lately, other than plenty of working and a night in which I vaguely remember watching the Lion King while intoxicated, just so I could sing a long to the songs...for the record, I actually don't drink all that much, mainly because I am a broke uni student

In terms of reading, I have been reading Angel Sanctuary, which is taking a bloody long time! It's just a lazy 20 volumes long, which I am only up to volume 6, to be honest I would be surprised if I finish it before the end of this week. Thus far, I have found it rather confusing because there are so many characters, and because of the storyline, a lot of them look like each other, so half the time I have no clue what I am even reading. It is quite a mature read, it has a lot of religious context (such as the concept of heaven and hell and sinning) war and incest (an interesting trio combination if you ask me). I did find the first few volumes painfully boring to read and nearly gave up, but it does get a lot more interesting after the first story arc ends, which is about 2-3 volumes in.

Anyway, that is about it for now, a rather short update, until next time :)