A Few Things...
I leave tomorrow morning early early early (the bus leaves at 6:30) to get a bus to L.A., a plane to Tokyo, then another plane to Nagoya. A full day of travel! But it will be good to be home again, although I've had a wonderful time here in San Diego.
Random things making me happy:
--I started reading Jim Butcher's "The Alera Codex" and am loving it. I'm only partway through the first book, but he's got a gift for creating characters that really seem to live right away, that you start rooting for and biting your nails over. I love Isana and I love Fade--don't spoil me, I don't know a thing and don't want to know yet what his deal is, why he's there, whether he's fully aware of himself or not, but he is awesome. It's like watching one of those Superman stories where Kal is trapped as bumbling Clark Kent and has to save people while pretending to bumble--only "Clark Kent" is a half-wit slave.
--On the more self-indulgent side, I found a manga I'm just in love with. I know it's weird to shop for manga in the U.S. when I live in Japan, but it drives me crazy to be almost fluent enough in Japanese to be able to understand something, but never able to just relax and read it. So I figured I'd poke around and find something I liked here and maybe continue it in Japanese later. Vampire Knight. The story of a special school with a day class and night class--and the night class are secretly all vampires, brought there by a headmaster who hopes to foster peace between vampires and humans. It's just about every vampire cliche ever, executed deftly and rolled into a tasty bishounen ball, and would only be improved more by being actively yaoi, although I like the heroine just fine.
--Oh, do make sure to read and vote for the World's Finest Summer Games if you have the time! All of the stories are really strong--some had me laughing out loud, others definitely turned me into a puddle of goo. :) The voting runs until the 19th, so there's still lots of time to savor the stories and weigh in!
Random things making me happy:
--I started reading Jim Butcher's "The Alera Codex" and am loving it. I'm only partway through the first book, but he's got a gift for creating characters that really seem to live right away, that you start rooting for and biting your nails over. I love Isana and I love Fade--don't spoil me, I don't know a thing and don't want to know yet what his deal is, why he's there, whether he's fully aware of himself or not, but he is awesome. It's like watching one of those Superman stories where Kal is trapped as bumbling Clark Kent and has to save people while pretending to bumble--only "Clark Kent" is a half-wit slave.
--On the more self-indulgent side, I found a manga I'm just in love with. I know it's weird to shop for manga in the U.S. when I live in Japan, but it drives me crazy to be almost fluent enough in Japanese to be able to understand something, but never able to just relax and read it. So I figured I'd poke around and find something I liked here and maybe continue it in Japanese later. Vampire Knight. The story of a special school with a day class and night class--and the night class are secretly all vampires, brought there by a headmaster who hopes to foster peace between vampires and humans. It's just about every vampire cliche ever, executed deftly and rolled into a tasty bishounen ball, and would only be improved more by being actively yaoi, although I like the heroine just fine.
--Oh, do make sure to read and vote for the World's Finest Summer Games if you have the time! All of the stories are really strong--some had me laughing out loud, others definitely turned me into a puddle of goo. :) The voting runs until the 19th, so there's still lots of time to savor the stories and weigh in!