An actual update (for once)

[citrus_cactus]

It's been a month since the move, and I'm gradually getting settled in to my new life and a new routine, which also means a return to fangirling. I realized I really hadn't played any sort of video game since a "delightful" trip to the DMV in February (so much fun, I got to go back the next day! 9_9), so it was fun to pick up Pokemon X, change into

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[citrus_cactus]

Part 1, Long comment is long :|

I KNOW I KNOW-- don't revoke my otaku card! orz At least my Collection is all out in the open now... in the safety of the bedroom ^^; I'd say I've acquired about 70% of this stuff since 2012-- before that, I kept telling myself there wasn't very much out there I wanted! This is what I get for living the life of a fangirl hermit-- and missing out on the flood of doujinshi, artbooks, and other stuff from the shows I really care about from 15 years ago, I guess? XD;; I'll just uh... sandwich Utena #3 in there, that way the numbers are sequential. D.N.Angel probably could have used some swordfights, tbh... wait, what do you mean, "that's not how it works??" ^^; My "want" list is ever-expanding though.. that shelf isn't going to be large enough pretty soon! Ooh, the BEST thing would be to have a secret room hidden behind a bookcase-- you press a button and boom, there's your Collection and yes, that means I think you should totally do that, rotfl

Yeah, so GoT might suffer from the same problem as "Lost." There are soooo many characters (with half-ridiculous fantasy names, of course-- I'm sorry, but "TYRION" and "TYWIN" are way harder to remember than "TYRONE" so they will always be Tyrone and Tyrone Sr. in some part of my head XD) and stuff is always happening to the characters with very little actually happening to the plot, making it feel like nothing ever really gets resolved, if that makes sense. But it hasn't gotten old yet, and there are definitely some good dramatic payoffs. I watched a few episodes of "Breaking Bad," but similarly it didn’t really grab me... and then I switched to "Malcolm in the Middle" for goofydad!Bryan Cranston, lol. And, well... Medabots does amuse me, whatever that's worth. It plays a lot of its tropes for humor/maximum ridiculousness and doesn't take itself too seriously (except when it DOES, and it doesn't do that too horribly either-- it's actually possible for a battling robot to have a tragic backstory, who knew?). I was just listening to the original opening the other day, actually (and paired with the animation it's really cute and catchy aaagh). The dub is kinda poorly acted but can be clever and definitely has its charms (a Scottish tabloid reporter named Seamus MacRaker, I see what you did there X3), and there was a whole episode that revolved around octopus balls (actually called that in the dub-- not donut holes or anything!). That said, I don't actually think I've seen this DVD set all the way through, or know if it's even possible to get the complete series (faaaaaail) XD;

[citrus_cactus]

Part 2!

You know, I haven't read any Le Guin... since CATWINGS, and that was a reeeeeally long time ago (I don't...actually remember it? But as a wee lass, I know I was transfixed by the cover. Cats with wings really ARE amazingly cool!), and that excerpt makes her sound like an excellent person to hear lies from (I'm definitely not a fan of the 500-pg-appendix style of high fantasy either)! I read some Mercedes Lackey once, which moved quickly, even if it wasn't terribly profound. I do want to read more Diana Wynne Jones at some point, and Neil Gaiman. Urgh, the evergrowing list of ALL THINGS... >_< Have you ever read Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn?" If not, I recommend it-- a fantasy book (and short-story sequel) that is short, sweet, and beautifully written (Also contains this exchange: "Why won't you help me? Why must you always speak in riddles?" "Because I be what I be. I would tell you what you want to know if I could, marm, but I be a cat-- and no cat anywhere, ever, gave anyone a straight answer!" -- OK, I might be paraphrasing from the movie there, but the author wrote the screenplay, so I'm sure it's in there somewhere) :3

Yeah, for whatever reason, the apartments I've lived in have always had electric stoves (we had one with a glass top once. It was awful). Not this one, though! And if you ever see separate "high altitude" cooking instructions listed-- yup, elevation can matter sometimes (although maybe that's a humidity/air density thing? *shrug*) :) Really though, I'm just making excuses-- I just need to buckle down and learn how to harness the POWERRRR OF FLAAAAAME (and small appliances) :D

And work is still good, although I just spent two unnecessarily long days doing software installs, so ask again when the memory isn't as fresh and I'll be a lot more certain of that! Aww, Eeyore. I brought a calendar of demotivational posters to work several years ago, but they were often more true than funny, so it seemed better for my own sanity to move on to other subjects XD;

Plants... petted? But really now, after all that you can't just leave me hanging-- you have to share YOUR plant's name, too!! ^_^

[lelenmargyle]

Yeah, I had no idea when I was a kid that Le Guin wrote mostly for adults. I loved Catwings (of course, how could I not, at any age?), but now I'm glad that I've circled back to her and discovered what else she has to offer. I've read all of her Earthsea books already. They're all good, but the social commentary of The Tombs of Atuan was particularly interesting to me. I really, really appreciate her brand of feminism. I guess I'll admit that I'm a little bit of a snob when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy -- There's so much of it out there that I have a hard time slogging through the ones that are "merely" entertaining (Although I do make exceptions -- Actually, this one probably has something to do with her being a woman writing in a genre that was a man's world at the time, so n/m? Norton apparently influenced Mercedes Lackey, and I'm pretty sure they even co-wrote something together eventually.)

Funny you should mention The Last Unicorn. I've definitely seen the animated adaptation (which I remember thinking is a bit odd, but reeeeeeeally prettttyyyy). There was a recent graphic novel adaptation of the book, which also looks reeeeeeally pretttttyyyy. I actually picked it up awhile back but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Yes, all of this, and I have not read the original book -- But the biggest draw for me has been the prettttyyyyy unicorn (so sue me). X3 Maybe if I really like the graphic novel, I'll read the original too, to see how faithful the adaptation is.

I'm tempted to get a Dilbert calendar at some point (next year, I guess, at this point), because Dilbert is so bone-cuttingly true sometimes that I can't even. X3 (I remember how boring I found that strip when I read the comics page as a kid, but experience goes a million miles in this case. Oh, have I seen the light (/darkness?)!) But yes, I'm not sure if it really makes me feel better (because I'm not alone) or worse (because universal truths are universal and mostly unchanging). I currently have this comic pinned to my cubicle wall, because it absolutely applies right now. (Is it a bad sign that I found it in the bottom of an old cabinet that we cleaned out? Evidently someone else in my group (who is no longer with the company) thought it applied at some point in the past. And it still applies. Hm. I shall proceed warily. XD) It's taken me months to get all of the access permissions and software that I need to do my job, so I share some of your frustration, I think. ("Did you put in a ticket?"/"Yes I did, and here's the ticket number."...6 weeks later: "Do you still need this?"/"Yes, I do." -_-)

Ahahaha, well, as I told you, I *would* probably name my plant if I didn't have animals to fill that spot in my family. But for the heck of it, I asked my husband what he thinks its name should be (since he's the one who bought it), and the first thing he said was "...Sansei? Sensei?" -- So, sure, we'll go with "Sensei." :D (What we can learn from that plant, I'm not certain... How to be resistant to cat bites? :) )

[citrus_cactus]

Yes ooh the graphic novel is good (I um... REALLY like The Last Unicorn, if that isn't about to become painfully obvious XD;;;). It's certainly a more faithful adaptation and it really does justice to the poetry of the book's prose, but I do have great fondness for the movie too (maybe since I grew up on it. One of my friends with kids actually asked if she should rent it for a nine-year-old's sleepover and even loving it as much as I do I couldn't in good conscience recommend it because... well, it IS odd, and there are scenes I know she (the mom) would find objectionable. Sigh-- those girls are never going to know what they're missing out on, though, come to think about it, I could recommend the book to them too!). The DVD release actually cuts out the (three) swear words that were in the VHS version and it makes me sad, mostly because it really lessens the impact of the lines they were uttered in. Oh, and I really like this song, which (given the context in the movie and the overall themes of the book) is SO MUCH about transition from girlhood to womanhood I just ergh WOW ANYWAY I'll shut up now, but you should definitely sit down sometime and enjoy the pretty unicorns because, seriously, PRETTY UNICORNS (and Molly Grue-- she's the best!) <3

Now that I think about it, a friend at my old work recommended the graphic novel series "Fables" to me, which I guess is about a bunch of fairy-tale characters living in a modern city. It still sounds kind of intriguing, so I might have to seriously consider looking into it...

And oh yes, I forgot your plant wasn't meant to have a name. Well... being a loving cat mama is no excuse! (...just kidding) But thanks for giving it one anyway. Now I can sleep easy :)

[lelenmargyle]

Ah, back in the day, I collected DNAngel up until about...volume 7 maybe? But then I guess I lost interest. The premise sounded promising, but I thought it moved too slowly and spent a little too much time on tired shoujo tropes. I recall that one of the volumes focused a lot on his rival, and that one was pretty good. It's been years since I picked it up. I have so many manga books that some of them are in boxes in various places - Maybe storage, my parents' house... ^_^;; I intend to weed through them eventually and sell or donate the ones I don't care about anymore. (But I'm kind of afraid that I'll never be able to part with enough of them, once I start thumbing through. I'm halfway tempted to give DNAngel another try, now that I'm talking about it. X3; )

As for my collection, I am in full agreement with you there. Unfortunately, I'd either have to be a homeowner, or be fortunate enough to rent a place that happens to have a secret room built into it already. (Maybe that should be one of my requirements for my next apartment hunt: "Does it have a secret room? A secret closet or cubby, maybe?" LOL.)

I remember back when Medabots was on TV. I always made fun of the previews for it. It could've been a fine show for all I know (I have to remind myself that I initially made fun of Digimon *gasp*.) But I never did watch any of it. Here's my ridiculous story about it, though: My sister and I had a small yellow/black/white vacuum cleaner that vaguely looked like a transforming robot to us. We called it "Metabee" in jest, after the commercials we were were always seeing for that show. XD;

Okay, I watched the opening theme that you linked, and not only is it sorta cute, but THAT'S GOMAMON. I was pretty sure, just based on how the voice sounded. But yep, I've verified that the song is indeed sung by Gomamon's voice actress (Junko Takeuchi), so SQUEEEEE. I wonder if she performs a role in the show? Also, Takoyaki are gross, IMO. Maybe I just had crappy ones -- They were from a fast-food court in an American Japanese mall, so maybe they weren't the best, but... XP

[citrus_cactus]

Yeah, I thought DN Angel had an interesting premise (and pretttyyyyy arrrrrttttt), but the story isn't really there to back it up (the anime isn't very good either, I watched maybe half of it?). I seem to recall that the manga only went up to volume 7 or 8, and it still remains unfinished, so given all that, I ended up giving up on it. Now it seems popular to re-release manga as "double volumes" anyway, so it's going to be really hard to fill in the gaps for stuff like CardCaptor Sakura and Ranma. Blarg.

A vacuum named Metabee though-- bwahaha, I love it!! And yup, totally Gomamon-- I think she voices Metabee in the show (in that exact same voice? Doesn't seem like it really works for a robot, but idk. I like what they did in the dub by making all the 'bots sound kinda hollow). Never had takoyaki, but man, that was a good episode (also: the main character yelling "OCTOPUS BALLS!" all the time; my inner 12-year-old gets a kick out of that) XD Let's see, what else: the RubberRobo Gang gives Team Rocket a run for their money in terms of campy villainy... Henry is a cutie (and totally NOT the Phantom Renegade, OK? Why would you EVER think that??), and The Guy Selling Chicks (pictured in icon) turning up randomly to offer enigmatic advice... good times, good times ^_^