Celebrate good times

Just a quick update. As the title suggests, we should all celebrate good times. So what am I celebrating: Completing all my uni assessments for my first semester. In true spirit, I did a victory lap around the house. Barring some monumental screw up in the exam, then I have passed my first semester! And with this it means I finally have my time back, so I will be able to write more about my happening and what I read and watch, like I am currently doing, but now in more depth as I have more time. Also, I have been putting this off, but I am compiling a list "the laws of shoujo manga". It's something me and my friend have been joking about doing for a while just to poke fun at plot holes and such.

Anyway, for the meantime, here is the Sailor Moon Drinking Game that me and my friend made up, it kind of only works for season 1 though, best to play to the dubbed version, but as mentioned on the link, it can be modified. 

Also, as you can probably see, I have added a 'bonus content' page which I will fill with various odd bits over time. Enjoy!!

Home, Sweet Home

And thank goodness for that. Never ever again will I be doing an update from my mobile, I can't format the blog the way I like it and it doesn't look very pretty. Such a shame, because I had free time while waiting for my friends to meet me so we could do a group assignment. Also, hooray, only two more days until I am completely free from assignments...only the exams!

Moving on! Quite an interesting day, I had to explain why I don't like watching reality television. Understandably given the high caliber of intellectual content I can obtain from channels such as MTV, I think people can understand why I have this view. I just think it's stupid. End of story!

Another few days, another series read. I have been reading Immortal Rain and I don't really know what to think of it. I guess the best way to describe it would be if Scrapped Princess and Ceres, Celestial Legend could have a baby, this would be it. It was tagged as a tragedy, but it didn't really make me feel anything. Maybe it's because I like tragedies on an emotional level rather than an everybody dies/violence level. Or maybe I have become desensitized by reading and seeing so much. Then again, I guess it's based on which characters you like. I found the plot predictable at times, I mean when Rain (Methuselah) died the first time, I knew he wasn't dead, because if he was then the plot would be finished and the next 6 volumes would be meaningless. Also, A good point that someone pointed out in the forums is that technically, Rain is a Pedo. I mean, he is 624 years old and is going after a 14/15 year old. I got a good laugh out of this because I never thought of it like that, so kudos. If you like your sci-fi, supernatural stuff, then get on it guys.

Just to update the footytips, I got a grand total of 3/9. In 3 years this is the worse round score I have ever got so I am bitterly disappointed. Although it's not my fault, all the crap teams won.

As promised, new message board is up, it is a lot cleaner than the previous one, no ads and such so feel free to leave a message and I will get back to you, I'd like to talk to everyone here :)

Also, last thing, I was at a party about a week and a half ago, and now this is a video from it where a gas lighter exploded, kind of. I don't know what happens exactly because I had left at this point, but watch it, and listen to the conversation in the background :)

Up and go!!

Literally!! This is the first time since starting my blog that I have updated while up and about. Not that I am doing anything important, I am just waiting to do a group assignment so I had a few minutes to spare. Anyway, because my phone decided its going to play silly buggers, I guess I'll leave it here for now and do a full blog tonight. Bye

I Wanna

Go to sleep for the next week so I can recover. First off, Happy Mother's day. But it's because of Mother's day that I am in so much pain at the moment. Working in Buffet Restaurant, I had the privilege of working the busiest day of the year. Let's just say spending the day doing heavy lifting has left me temporarily incapacitated.

Moving on, I went to the football (AFL) yesterday - Richmond vs Sydney - I was left bitterly disappointed, as I follow the Sydney Swans, lost. Despite this, it was still a lot of fun, except the people sitting behind me kicking my seat. I swear this happens every time, I have no luck picking seats. I soon got over this loss when I realized though, that along with my team, my footy tips are well and truly in the toilet. I have so far got only 3 right, with the chance of getting 4 if Carlton get up tomorrow night. The only good thing about me doing so bad in my tips is that I am taking everyone else with me.

Over the last few weeks, I have been reading Love in the Mask. It took quite a while since it is complete at 32 volumes, but I finally finished it the other night. As far as gender bender's go, this is by far one of the better ones I have read. Personally, I don't like gender benders, but this one has changed my mind. I am not going to really explain the plot, summarizing 32 volumes is a tad difficult, so I'll just take the summary from the internet for now:

"Hyun-bin grew up under the cruel hand of street gangsters, selling gum in the subway with her little brother. However, after an unfortunate event, Hyun-bin runs away and is taken in to be trained to become a bodyguard. However, she must hide that she is female, and pose as a man. And so, for eight years, she grows up as a cold, male bodyguard. But is this how she'll be forever?"

I quite like this story for many reasons. First is the timeline of the story. It starts when the main character, Hyun-bin, is 8 and finishes when she is 25 (approximately, except for the last 10 pages which are like an epilogue) but most of the story is set when the main characters are aged between 16-20. I find stories that have a sense of time and the progress of life in a fictional sense entertaining, and I thought that this was consistent for the whole 32 volumes. I also like how it started and ended, with the emphasis on destiny and the future, It made the point that the future is what we decide and destiny is what we have no control over. I agree with this, because no matter how much I try, I will never have control over every aspects of my life, which is where destiny comes in. It also places a lot of emphasis on karma, and what goes around comes around and that with suffering and pain comes greater reward (for the most part anyway). Anyone who has read it, or wants to read it, it is pretty full on- a lot of characters die and there are adult themes, so it isn't for everyone, but it is a great read.

So, that's about it for now, I will be back with more happenings later :)

Guess who's back?

Okay, so it's not like I have been gone for a while, but still, nearly a week with no update is a long time by my standards. I would have liked to have posted again sooner, but my life has been like "You know what Cherry? I don't care if you want to update your blog. I'm just going to keep you busy." So what have I been doing exactly?

Uni work for starters. My weekend was completely sucked up with working on assessments like this massive Essay which took me the best part of two days to finish and a oral presentation. By the way, if you get nervous when public speaking DO NOT PICTURE THE AUDIENCE IN THEIR UNDERWEAR!! I was thinking about this and then it occurred to me: what if someone isn't wearing anything. Needless to say...speech was a failure due to such thoughts. Anyway, 90% of my assessments are done, so i thought I would have some more free time but...that isn't happening. Starting next week I may have a third job, although that should only take up a couple of hours out of my week. And finally I am still trying to get over what i call the 'Autumn hay-fever'. Luckily it seems I am finally getting over it, so I should be back to full power in the next few days.

Moving on...

Recently, I have been reading the manga Kamisama Hajimemashita. I have read to all the English chapter scanslations and I must say, where have I been doing?!? I have been putting off reading the series because I didn't think it would suit my tastes, but boy was I wrong. For anyone who is interested, get on it, it is an enjoyable read. The art is fantastic, the plot is interesting, it is a supernatural themed manga so that is why I guess. The characters are awesome. For anyone who has read it, Tomoe is now my god (pun totally intended), he just does everything like a boss, so good!

A new manga series that has caught my attention is Orange by Takano Ichigo. It is a tragedy, you have been warned!! It is about a girl (Naho) who receives a letter from her future self saying the new transfer student, friend and love interest of Naho (kakeru) won't be with them in 10 years from now and the aim of the letter is to alter 'present Naho's' future (we'll call 16 year old Naho 'present Naho') because she has so many regrets, mainly Kakeru dying. Because only two chapters have been released in English so far, we don't know much about the plot, but what we do know is that Kakeru dies when he is 17 (keep in mind that they are 16 at the start, so we have a time frame for the plot) and that he dies in an accident. We also know that there was a promise between Kakeru and Naho, although we don't know what that is...yet. Also, In the future Naho is assumedly married to Sawo (friend from school who is also one of the main characters) and has a daughter with him. I think the tragedy with this one isn't so much just the death of Kakeru, but the choice she has to make to save him or her future daughter, because if she saves Kakeru, it can be assumed that Naho won't marry Sawo. The real clinger is that she doesnt know about her future life as such (doesn't know she has a family and such). But the way Kakeru died and her feelings for him must be something special if she is willing to sacrifice the life 'future Naho' has in order to change her past. So yeah, it's any interesting one and I'm looking foward to see how it progresses. It's a lot to get your head around, but anyone who hasn't read it and is interested, please do so, you won't regret it.

Also, I have finished watching Earl and Fairy anime. My assumption was right, it was much more enjoyable than the manga, so if you by chance have read the manga and liked it, then you will definitely love the anime. I feel that the anime shows the development of the relationship between the characters better, not just the main characters, but other supporting characters. I felt this was lacking in the manga, especially with Raven, because let's be honest, everyone would have died if he wasn't there to kick butt.

Lastly before I go, my footy team lost!! First time this year, but the swans lost, so I am disappointed. It was the only tip I got wrong as well, so they really let me down this week, but I am going to watch them play this weekend, so they better put on a bloody good show. Also, in regards to my footytips, I am sitting equal 3rd at the moment, lurking, ready to pounce on the two that are ahead of me :)

Anyways, that is all for now, talk to you all again soon :)

I had a Dream

and it was really weird. I mean, thinking about makes me wonder what the hell I was doing when I went to bed last night. Okay, so I guess I will tell you about the dream. So basically I play the lead role of my dream, except it is set in an alternate world where spirits and monsters are freely exist within the human world. Anyway, so there I was, being the main character of my dream, and I'm just there being awesome, when all of a sudden, BAM, I have to move.

So I move, and in this new neighborhood, I can't seem to make any friends, so I am now a loner, until one day, I come across an angry, not violent, but angry spirit guy who I befriend. Once I befriend the spirit man, I find that something makes my cats go berserk (yes my cats make an appearance too), so I begin my mission to find out what happened to my cats. Chasing the cats down the street, I befriend an elderly man and then I learn about the old man's past, which was surprisingly interesting, anyway that is a subplot of my dream, so I will get back to the main tangent.

After listening to the old man's tale, I went back on my mission to capture my berserk cats, this time with the help of my spirit friend because he is in a good mood for once. One my journey, I meet some younger people, around my age, and I am quickly accepted into their group and we are having fun. My spirit friend is angry again because they don't like him. While I am having fun with these new friends, my berserk cats return to me, only to try and attack me. I was able to capture one (there are two) and took it home so it wouldn't escape and reek more havoc.

Once taking care of that cat, I go back to my new friends. My spirit friend has gone off somewhere, leaving me a note (because he is old school) saying that he has gone to take care of some urgent business and not to touch anything suspicious while he was gone (he is a spirit, so he does have powers). Anyways, so I return to my friends, and in the house we have gathered at, there is a mysterious box. My friends convince me to put my hand into the mysterious box because there is something amazing inside. After succumbing to peer pressure, I put my hand in the box to find that there is nothing in there (you can't see in the box).

Afterwards, I meet the old man again, this time, he has a grim look on his face and tells me that my future has become uncertain. I didn't know what it meant at the time but it soon became clear. Soon, my new found friends avoided me and weird and dangerous events started to befall me, each time I barely escaped. Soon, my spirit friend has returned from his business (still didn't know what type of business this was) and said he sensed a suspicious aura around me. He asked what had happened, and I explained everything. When I told him that I put my hand in the mysterious box, he stopped me from talking. The following conversation ensured:

"Then that explains the aura, it was faint but I sensed something, but because you disobeyed me and touched something mysterious, it is now my job to take care of the spirit that is following you"

"Following me? I'm sure it's nothing"

"I'll put it simply then. It's trying to kill you?"

And then...my alarm went off. So whether i live or die in my dream is unknown. I am pretty sure that i could write this into a multi-book series which will turn into a billion dollar movie franchise, I mean Stephanie Meyer did it so it can't be too hard right. In all seriousness, I might try to write a short story about it, going more into depth about the old man and the cats and the friends and the spirit man and myself. Maybe even a little romance, seeing as that always goes down well. We'll see how I go.

In other news, my Facebook has been inundated with pro-life/pro-choice arguments. Honestly, my stance on this is "I don't give a #@*%" but, what I do care about is people who try to make propaganda that is clearly false. Also, I don't like protests regarding this matter, because more often than not, on my days off when I go roaming the city, they are there with their banners and slogans, shouting there bs facts and parading around town. I go out on my days off to enjoy my time, not to see some douchey political activists making noise. Argh just talking about it makes me angry. This isn't strictly limited to this issue, but any issue. I just think there are quieter more civil ways for people to get their voices heard without annoying countless others. 

That's about all for now, I'm quite pissed right now, so I don't want to write anymore at the risk of offending people. K, Bye

Isn't something missing...

Pun totally intended. Anyways, the series 'Missing' premiered here tonight, it is currently airing as I am posting this and I have found many issues with it already. Firstly, the plot is strangely similar to that of the film 'Taken' which stars Liam Neeson. So my tip is that the son was kidnapped and sold off to an underground prostitution ring. Although that probably won't happen, but I'd bet anything that it would be a similar outcome. Secondly, THE PLOTHOLES!! Nothing makes me more angry than plotholes. There is no way a woman can beat up a former Italian Intelligence agent while wearing mum clothes without the assistance of a weapon. There is no way that you can asphyxiate someone to death so quickly. There is no way that hit men have such horrible aim that they can't hit a single target. There is no way a Vespa can out 'bike' two off road bikes. And the 10 years later and she didn't even age one minute. Overall, I don't think I will be watching it again in the near future, at least not at my own will. 

Moving on from my rage, I have started watching the anime I bought the other day "Earl and Fairy" also known as "Hakushaku to Yosei". Here is a summary of the overall plot:

The story, set in Victorian England, follows the adventures of 17-year old Lydia Carlton, nicknamed the "Fairy Doctor" due to her interest and understanding of fairies. Her life takes a 180-degree turn when she meets Edgar J.C Ashenbert, the "Legendary Blue Knight Count" and his crew on a sea voyage to London. Edgar hires her as an advisor during his quest to obtain a treasured sword that was supposed to be handed down to him by his family.

For anyone who hasn't read it, I will further elaborate. Edgar is actually a serial murderer who escaped death row by switching bodies and now he is trying to get the sword so he can create an identity he finds worthy. Also there is a 'fairy cat' called Nico and he is my favorite character, mainly because I love cats, but he also ads humor to the story, which i find important. The anime is surprisingly good, better than the manga in my opinion, which is unusual, because I like the original text better in most cases, but the high quality of the art, the music and the end credits really win me over. Yes the end credits. I will now explain this...

The end credits is everyone sleeping, but they are all nekked. Don't worry you don't see any bits for those who are sensitive to censorship. But anyways, I have this thing called a 'naked harem'. Basically, the requirements to join this harem are simply that a manga or anime character is a bishounen (pretty boy)  and nude for a short period of time. And with manga and anime you never see anything because of censorship, so it's not like I am offending anyone. Anyway, here are some examples.

 

The above images are from 'Bijo Juku' and 'Barajou no kiss' respectively.

On a side-note, seems like a lot of scanlation groups have been working hard to bring me chapters of my favorite ongoing series. These include Dengeki Daisy, Faster than a Kiss, Kaichou wa Maid-sama etc. So I have some reading to catch up on while i recover from my battle with the sniffles, which is a result of me doing too much Uni work, i think.

Anyways, that's about all for now, hopefully I update soon and by then, i won't be sniffling anymore :)