So I don't know why I was not paying attention all those years... I never watched sitcoms much at all because the ones I sampled always seemed so base, or boring, and played up the most inane situations and personality traits for laughs. But I just discovered Frasier and it's classy and awesome. I just want to watch more, and more... I've found my niche!

Niles cracks me up. I already simply luff him. :]

Okay, now I'm watching a bonus disc that contains a 10th anniversary special for Pokemon. "Mirage Pokemon" or something. Look, it's Misty! And Professor Oak! Plus, the story is more coherent. This is the Pokemon I remember... :] (Except the voices are all different, and they really suck in comparison. T_T)

Oh FTW. Now they're ditching May and Max (the new kids) so it's just Ash and Misty again. :DD

EDIT: ROFL this special is like "Pokemon becomes Digimon." The virtual Pokemon die and split apart into data like 99.5% the same way as in Digimon. It feels like I AM watching Digimon. XD

I was feeling nostalgic so I tried to watch one of the Pokemon movies. I rented Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. Man...it's boring. It's incoherent. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for it, but it's kinda awful. X'(

Lots of stuff just happens with no good explanation. It's supposed to sound cool and magical, but it doesn't add up. The characters are like "Oh, it's because they're understanding Aura" or "Oh, it's because Mew and the Tree live in a symbiotic relationship." "This little thing here allows you to look back in time." What?

Was Pokemon always like this? Was it? I used to love Pokemon. X'D *sob* Was it always like this and have I just grown up?

I ended up messing around with paints, then actually going and doing the dishes while the movie played.

This is why Digimon (=science fiction) > Pokemon (=arbitrary magic). At least Digimon makes some attempt at internal logic and tries to explain itself. Maybe my overly rational mind can no longer parse magic. #_%

Recent research indicates that pigs may be capable of recognizing themselves as individuals in a mirror. This would put them among the select group of creatures (including dolphins, elephants, and some primates) that are also known to be this intelligent.

My bf found an article in Spiegel and translated it to me from German. It references a study from the English journal Animal Behaviour which did show at the very least that pigs understood their position in relation to the mirror so that they could orient themselves to find (odorless) food correctly.  (The journal may require access, which I've got through my university...)  I'll post more English sources as I find them.  (Gotta do some homework first, then I'll investigate this further.)

I was already making an effort to eliminate pork, beef, lamb, etc. (all mammal meat) from my diet.  Now I vow with even more conviction never to eat pork.  I'm also making sure not to buy any pet food that contains pork or beef.  (Oh man!  Cat food is a whole other topic to be concerned with!  Recently I found out that most brands of cat food are absolute garbage, and some get away with price extortion to a ridiculous degree.  Don't be fooled by Science Diet.  Buy grain-free food for cats if possible.  Another post, later maybe.)

Oink Oink!

Holy smokes, I just -- Finally -- got around to watching The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (時をかける少女) and it's fantastic.  I didn't think there was much of anything for me in anime anymore, these days.  But this film really hit a nerve and recalled many of the great things the medium is capable of.  I adore the main character -- so rawly and honestly herself, and what a hilarious range of vocal expression!

I was expecting it to look like the Digimon movies in style (same director), but I was really surprised that a few motifs were very clearly directly borrowed.  I don't mind, though... I'm happy to see them recur, and it felt kinda like I was in on some kind of inside joke... :]

The director has another film out this year, and it'll be on my viewing list for sure.

It's been like 5 billion years (10+ years) since Digimon came out and I still love it.  This time of year makes me want to watch it pretty consistently (at least every couple years) and I'm not sure why.

I found out that this 13-episode Digimon DVD I got cheap at Toys R Us many years ago is now listed for hundreds of dollars on the Amazon marketplace. I wonder if people are actually buying it for that much. :o (A sign of demand for DVDs? I think so.)

EDIT: I also went on JPqueen (doujinshi sales site) for the first time in a loooong time.  They have only 5 Digimon items.  There used to be several pages.  How depressing. :'o

I found a couple of videos that absolutely everyone needs to see. No questions asked, unless for some reason you hate music or you hate existence. (In which case, please explain yourself.......android?!)





This Youtube user is brilliant. These videos made my mom cry. I guarantee you'll be moved... Unless you ARE an android. ;)

Looove it.

I saw the film on Saturday.  Aside from a questionable music choice or two (and my ambivalent opinion in general of Rachel McAdams), I was _so_pleased with the adaptation.  Nearly all was exactly as I'd pictured it when I read the book 2 years ago, and not just because it was set in Chicago.

This is the first film for which I have ever had to physically struggle to choke down sobs in the theater.

I'm not ashamed.  It presents itself like a chick flik drama (movie posters ruin good books serially), except it's actually not drek.  (For those who are interested.)  For the whole evening afterward I felt pure and cleansed and real.  I cooked good food and drank a bottle of wine with my boyfriend, who had also cried.

( A little more (no spoilers) )

So I just (fin.al.ly.) finished reading Death Note.  (For some reason I had put it on hiatus for quite awhile...I think I just didn't want it to end!)

I'm just beyond impressed at the caliber of the series, which is far beyond any other manga I've ever read.  Its themes, staging, pace and dialogue rival real film and literature.  Which makes the fact that it has a "fandom" that acts so "otakuish" seem very odd to me.  Seriously, ppl. o.O

I think I'm satisfied with the ending.  (No Spoilers:)  Nowadays I tend to evaluate endings in terms of "Could it have been as effective if done any other way?"  If the answer seems to be "no," I'm pretty satisfied.

There were SO MANY commercials my sis & I laughed at in the 90s. Here's just one that I was able to find: the COOL SHAVIN' KEN doll.



"Oo-ee-oo, shave him again and again. Whoa-oh, love that Cool Shavin' Ken!"
My sister had a Cool Shavin' Ken. She was into Barbie dolls far more than I was. The shaving didn't work as well as it does on the commercial.  What a strange product to sell to young girls. :S

I still haven't been able to find the Barbie Movie Theater commercial on YouTube.  I can still sing part of that one too!

EDIT: OMG, I found the Color Splash Pocahontas doll too.  (My sister also had these dolls.)
The "Dolls do not move on their own" disclaimer made me laugh so hard as a kid.  That type of "Duh!" disclaimer must have been new at the time.

I got back from Germany a few days ago!

Other than some mishaps such as missing a flight and getting locked out of a hostel overnight (which was actually kind of funny), it was a really great time.  I know a little German, but I was also with my boyfriend who speaks fluent German so there we no real problems getting around.

This is the first time I have been to Germany, so here's a quick list of cultural pros and cons that struck me. (These are meant to be taken in good humor.)  For reference, I was in the southern part of Germany.
( The pros and cons of Germany )

This post is linked to a community.

Edit: New song added
"Goodbye, Sweet Youth, Goodbye"
I found it recently and thought it was perfect and that it needed to be here.

Title: the Pieces of gold
Charles/Sebastian + Julia

Cover art by me.  Every part of the image came from photographs I took, and I compiled it in Photoshop.


Track Listing:
1) This is Me (Eddie from Ohio)
2) Come On, Come Out (A Fine Frenzy)
3) A Summer Wasting (Belle & Sebastian)
4) Goodbye, Sweet Youth, Goodbye (Greycoats)
5) Ease Your Feat In The Sea (Belle & Sebastian)
6) X&Y (Coldplay)
7) The Good That Won't Come Out (Rilo Kiley)
8) Late Night Grande Hotel (Nanci Griffith)
9) Gold Dust (Tori Amos)
Bonus: This is Me (Live version)

~*~Notes~*~

1) This is Me (Eddie from Ohio)
I have one of my friends to thank for giving me this song and pointing out that it sounds like Brideshead. The lyrics fit so much to a tee it's heartbreaking. You really must listen carefully to all of it. I figured it makes a good opener because it is Charles standing there in the service, reminiscing.
2) Come On, Come Out (A Fine Frenzy)
The idyllic throwback to an exhilarating beginning. This song is truly a romp, and uses a painting metaphor to boot.


9) Gold Dust (Tori Amos)
Charles revisits the sites he knew so well. It's a ghostly reminiscence.

I WAS HERE
I WAS HERE

Whipping past
the reflecting pool
me + you
skipping school

-- How did it go so fast --
you'll say
as we are looking
back
and then we'll
understand
we held gold dust
in our
hands

If you download this and listen, a comment (either here or in my comm. post) would be much appreciated.  I put more time than I should have into this thing and I'd be delighted to hear thoughts.  I hope you find it enjoyable.

So I decided to rent Twilight and watch it with my sister.  What surprised me was that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  But at the same time, almost every line of dialogue I thought was crap.  How do 2 and 2 not equal 4?  I do not know.

I'll probably wanna watch the next movie when it comes out.  I'll do the thing I ridicule and disrespect others for -- follow the movies without reading the books.  But the writing is so bad (I've tried it) that I feel totally comfortable with this decision. XD

Great.  Now The Fairly Oddparents seasons 1 & 2 are available on DVD at Amazon.  I want them.  I randomly watched an episode today and it reminded me how hilarious that show actually used to be.  I heard they had a baby after I stopped watching the show. o.O  And Cosmo (the man) carried it.  Haha.  Could be really funny or really stupid.  ...I wanna see it.

I'm waiting for my new Draco & The Malfoys CD to arrive in the mail.  One of the songs is called "Out of Ideas" and it goes "I shoulda done more stuff in the books, I shoulda done more stuff in the books, I shoulda done more stuff in the books." X3  Yaaay snarky campy self-aware humor.

A couple nights ago I saw the film Doubt with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as nuns at a catholic school.  It was way more awesome than I thought it would be.  I couldn't keep my eyes off it because the acting was sooo fabulous and t the story kept surprising me at its most emotional moments with intellectual challenges.  Apparently it was adapted from a stage play.

You really shouldn't look up a summary first, though.  Meryl was right about that in the interview on the bonus features.  Just watch it if you're interested.

In the new information age, online is almost as good as DVD. At least it's insanely accessible! You know, for when I want to watch this show in public or something... (kidding)...

Apparently Funimation is streaming Official Subtitled Digimon Adventure 02. o.O Why season 2? Maybe the rest will follow..?

Also... evrdream33 (I forgot to mention it before!) will probably find this amusing...A couple weeks ago in my Ethics in Cyberspace class, the topic was "assuming other identities online" and the army guy in class was like "Has anyone ever been to an anime convention?"  Apparently he went one time and was freaked out by the cosplayers.  Everyone in class is pretty cool and I think they already respect me as a contributor in class, so I decided to give my rebuttal (we're not all scary!) and tell the truth about my hobby of making such costumes.  Sigh, I'm going to miss that class.  It's one of the coolest and most intellectually engaging classes I've had as an undergrad.  Hopefully they won't leave thinking I am also a furry in Second Life or something.  XD

I feel like my tongue is burnt from drinking coffee and tea every day.  I've recently increased the frequency of my intake of hot beverages.  I'm afraid I'll destroy my tastebuds this way, or something. >.<'

I can't figure out the last problem on my Python programming final.  It's due at 7pm.  Darn.

I kind of wish there would magically appear before me a shortish anime series that I am actually interested in watching.  I just don't watch anime very much anymore, but I wish something would come along that just grabs my attention instantly.  Kinda like Loveless, which could've been just a gimmick (with the cat features and all) but also had a design, some characters, and an aura that just caught my interest really quickly.

Hm.  I need to go to work now.  Drat.

Ahhh I am in love with Disney's Bolt!  I know I went around saying how upset I was that Disney's beloved "Animated Features" line has been hijacked by CGI, but this movie was so cute.  I am suuuch a sucker for Disney's "fuzzy four-legged animal movies," and I think this is the first one they've come out with since The Lion King.



Seriously, Disney is one of the only studios that still knows how to do "animal movies " right.  Beautiful designs and lots of heart.  None of that "Madagascar" or "Ice Age" crap.  I'm probably gonna buy Bolt on DVD. XD

For those who don't know, Bolt  has been described as The Truman Show meets The Incredibles, which I feel is a fairly accurate description.  Don't be deterred by the fact that it contains Miley Cyrus.  She does a decent job!

Edit: NO WAI, that song in the movie that almost made me cry was sung by JENNY LEWIS.  Happy&<3!  Can't believe I didn't recognize her voice.

Ehyeah two posts in a row. What can I say; I'm enthusiastic.

I've just started having a small infatuation with the German language. I blame it on MUSIC! My TA played a song by Herbert Grönemeyer in class last week and naturally I had to go track it down on the internet because there is a giant polar bear suit in the music video I liked the way it sounded. I ended up buying the mp3 plus some other German music. It looks like iTunes is slowly building up its foreign music collection. (Frickin' no way...They are even starting to sell Utada Hikaru and Ayumi Hamasaki by now! Where have I been??)

Highlight: Juli ('July')
Juli is pop-leaning rock with a lovely female vocalist. To me, they sort of fit in with the Jimmy Eat World/Paramore canon.
"Zerrissen" ('Torn')

I love that skirt, want her outfit...!
I bought a whole album of Juli. <3 (I kind of think iTunes ripped me off though, because they sold me a 128kbps encoding. >_>)

Here is the polar bear video. I kind of don't get it, since it's a very serious song. He wrote it after losing his wife and his brother to cancer. D:
"Mensch" ('Mankind')


I don't understand why everyone always says German is an "ugly-sounding" language.  I think it's lovely.  In fact, I like it much better than French!  I'm glad I told myself I needed to study a little bit of each of these two languages in order to support my studies of Linguistics.  Beyond just "how it sounds," I like that German belongs to the same language family as English...which presents more "interesting" similarities.  Really, the only thing English and French have in common is the massive chunk of vocabulary that English-speakers swiped from French and Latin a long time ago!  Yawn.  Also, for the first time, I am studying a language that is somewhat a piece of my heritage -- I actually have some German ancestry on my mother's side.

LISTEN TO JULI; THEY ARE CATCHY and uh someday maybe I'll be able to understand all the lyrics