(no subject)
Went for a walk today and got into a staring match with a squirrel. It's amazing how they can dig into the bark of a tree with their tiny claws and hang on. Especially when they're upside down.
There are some problems with the hindquarters, but considering that I never draw animals, it doesn't look too bad.
And oh, I updated my vocabulary list, mostly to fix some errors. Reibaishi is actually written 霊媒師 - got that last character wrong. Also added the word for 'murder' since they used it so often and I didn't know how to pronounce it.
PS: I read several mystery novels by Miyuki Miyabe (the author of Brave Story.) They're pretty good! I think I liked All She Was Worth better than Crossfire, which is a bit uncharacteristic for me since the first is a straight murder mystery and the second has psychic arsonists. La Librairie Tanabe (read that one in French) was also good - I like Miyabe's heroes. They tend to be very ordinary, straightforward people, but still very admirable. The old man and his grandson in Tanabe were especially charming detectives.
What is interesting for Maiki the Brave Story movie fans on the flist is the slight reference to that series in Crossfire. One of the characters has a pet cat named Vision, which is the name of Miyabe's fantasy world. ;) Since that character is a bit odd (he can control people with the power of his miiiiind~!) and has had a sad life, I guess it fits. (I read the book wondering if the famous Mitsuru was at all like him.)
Also took out a few volumes of the 'Guin Saga' in English - apparently this series has run for 108 volumes in the original Japanese! (You'd think the author would want to try something else after a while.) Having read the first volume (each is quite short), though, I'm not too impressed. It's fairly well-written and the pace moves fast, but there's zero characterization (it doesn't get much beyond 'Guin is a mighty warrior and manlier than you'), all the characters pontificate instead of talking and the book ends on a pointless cliffhanger. From flipping through the others and looking on the Net, it seems like the point of each book is to lead up to a dramatic cliffhanger so you have to buy the next one.
Essentially, it's like a bag of potato chips, only you have to pay for each chip separately. I can see why it would be popular, but me personally I'd get too annoyed after ten volumes to keep reading. ^^; I like long series, but not when they drag on pointlessly. So Guin Saga is the Japanese Wheel of Time*, maybe! XP (Except each volume is not the approximate size of a brick.)
...Wow, the postscript is longer than the actual entry. Oops.
*The neverending stooooryyyy~ lalalalalalaaaa~~~~ No, I used to love that series, but that was before it turned into the endless story of Rand al'Thor and his harem. I think he had four or five girlfriends by the time I stopped reading, and that was six volumes ago. He's up to volume 11 now, says Amazon? I wonder if he'll finish in my lifetime :P
There are some problems with the hindquarters, but considering that I never draw animals, it doesn't look too bad.
And oh, I updated my vocabulary list, mostly to fix some errors. Reibaishi is actually written 霊媒師 - got that last character wrong. Also added the word for 'murder' since they used it so often and I didn't know how to pronounce it.
PS: I read several mystery novels by Miyuki Miyabe (the author of Brave Story.) They're pretty good! I think I liked All She Was Worth better than Crossfire, which is a bit uncharacteristic for me since the first is a straight murder mystery and the second has psychic arsonists. La Librairie Tanabe (read that one in French) was also good - I like Miyabe's heroes. They tend to be very ordinary, straightforward people, but still very admirable. The old man and his grandson in Tanabe were especially charming detectives.
What is interesting for Maiki the Brave Story movie fans on the flist is the slight reference to that series in Crossfire. One of the characters has a pet cat named Vision, which is the name of Miyabe's fantasy world. ;) Since that character is a bit odd (he can control people with the power of his miiiiind~!) and has had a sad life, I guess it fits. (I read the book wondering if the famous Mitsuru was at all like him.)
Also took out a few volumes of the 'Guin Saga' in English - apparently this series has run for 108 volumes in the original Japanese! (You'd think the author would want to try something else after a while.) Having read the first volume (each is quite short), though, I'm not too impressed. It's fairly well-written and the pace moves fast, but there's zero characterization (it doesn't get much beyond 'Guin is a mighty warrior and manlier than you'), all the characters pontificate instead of talking and the book ends on a pointless cliffhanger. From flipping through the others and looking on the Net, it seems like the point of each book is to lead up to a dramatic cliffhanger so you have to buy the next one.
Essentially, it's like a bag of potato chips, only you have to pay for each chip separately. I can see why it would be popular, but me personally I'd get too annoyed after ten volumes to keep reading. ^^; I like long series, but not when they drag on pointlessly. So Guin Saga is the Japanese Wheel of Time*, maybe! XP (Except each volume is not the approximate size of a brick.)
...Wow, the postscript is longer than the actual entry. Oops.
*The neverending stooooryyyy~ lalalalalalaaaa~~~~ No, I used to love that series, but that was before it turned into the endless story of Rand al'Thor and his harem. I think he had four or five girlfriends by the time I stopped reading, and that was six volumes ago. He's up to volume 11 now, says Amazon? I wonder if he'll finish in my lifetime :P