No Retreat, Baby, No Surrender
-So, I'm home safe and sound. Trip went rather smoothly, except for the fact that I had to get up at 6. The flights weren't toobad either, The first one we were on, from Baltimore to Chicago, was playing The Office, so that kept me occupied for an hour. Chicago to Edmonton was just really long, but on the plus side I did finish two of the books I brought and managed to figure out where my Bigbang project is going. Sort of.
-We wandered around Washington D.C. before the concert, because that's where it was. The National Mall is huge. And the Lincoln Memorial is quite spectacular. I wish that we had had more than a day, so that I could explore the Smithsonian with a bit more depth. We only got to the museum of Air and Space.
-The concert last night was AMAZING! Bruce was late, like usual, but when they finally came on stage, they just broke into Badlands and then went straight into No Surrender, and it kept going from there. He did a version of The Wrestler which was just beautiful. And I liked the requests he chose to do. Out in the Street and Blinded By the Light were great. Boss concerts are just so much fun. The only thing I regret is that he didn't do Thunder Road, and he always seems to do it the concert before the one I attend. Still, I'd go again. Even if it means following him all the way to Europe to do it. And my Dad managed to get his information wrong, stating that neither Patti Scalfa (Bruce's wife) or Max Weinberg (The drummer) would be in attendence. They were both there. It was great.
-100books needed an update.
100books:
1. East of Eden - Jonathan Stienbeck
2. Jingo - Terry Pratchett.
3. Watership Down - Richard Adams (School)
4. Interred With Their Bones - Jennifer Lee Carrell.
5. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe - C.S.Lewis.
6. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway.
7. .hack//A.I.Buster- Tatusuya Hamazaki
8. .hack// A.I.Buster 2 - Tatsuya Hamazaki
9. .hack//Another Birth/Infection - Miu Kawasaki
10. .hack//Another Birth/Mutation - Miu Kawasaki
11. .hack//Another Birth/Outbreak - Miu Kawasaki
12. .hack//Another Birth/Quarentine - Miu Kawasaki
13. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Land of Sand - Makoto Inoue
14. Watchmen - Alan Moore.
15. Fables Volume 1: Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham
16. Fables Volume 2: Animal Farm - Bill Willingham
17. Fables Volume 3: Storybook Love - Bill Willingham
18. Fables Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers - Bill Willingham
19. Fables Volume 5: The Mean Seasons - Bill Willingham
20. Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 - David Peterson
21. The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett
22. Fables Volume 6: Homelands - Bill Willingham
23. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Abducted Alchemist - Makoto Inoue
24. Fables Volume 7: Arabian Nights (and Days) - Bill Willingham
25. Fables Volume 8: Wolves - Bill Willingham
26. Fables Volume 9: Sons of War - Bill Willingham
27. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Valley of White Petals - Makoto Inoue
28. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Ties that Bind - Makoto Inoue
29. Fullmetal Alchemsit: Under the Faraway Sky - Makoto Inoue
30. The Skystone - Jack White
31. Star Trek - Alan Dean Foster
32. Prince Caspian - C.S.Lewis
33. Gundam Seed: Divergent Strike -Liu Goto
Reading:
Gundam Seed: The Desert Tiger - Liu Goto
Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett
Fables continues to be awesome. Although it sucks that the next collection hasn't come out yet. Because I'm behind and I want to see what happens next and apparently there's some crazy crossover going on now and damn it, just come out with the next collection so I can keep going.
The last of the FMA Light novels that Viz put out. I think that there's more but they have not appeared. They remain on the not bad side, but really do read like average fanficiton. (They aren't terrible. They're just really quick reads)
The Skystone amazed me. It's one of those big thick books that I have this habit of reading, and at first I wasn't all that into it, probably because I was distracted by school and stuff. But I was reading it on the plane, and just flying through it (It's like 500-600 pages, and I was about a quater of the way through. I finished it in about 2 days). Because it was really good. It's a historical fiction retelling of the Arthurian legend, which has always been an interest of mine, so it's really cool to read. I may just have to read the rest of the series.
Star Trek, there's not much to say, except that it was your typical movie novelization, and that it was a plane book. Nothing really spectacular. I did like that the Beagle that Scotty transported was brought up again though. I really want more of the new Star Trek, I've realized. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the old series (I watched the iconic episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" the other day and found it absoloutely hilarious) but still, the movie was just so good.
Prince Caspian. Maybe it was because I read it so fast or something but I wasn't incrediably impressed. I think my attachment lies with The LWW. I still enjoyed it though.
Gundam Seed: Divergent Strike. I went through a phase where I really liked the anime Gundam Seed, and when I saw that light novels were available I jumped on them. I found it really interesting, because it was another interpretation of the characters that was different from the manga or anime, and really got inside the character's heads. The only issue I have is that only three out of five novels were released because Tokyopop is stupid.
-My Bigbang project is officially underway. I finally settled on writing a Final Five Origin story. I managed to get a rough outline today on the plane, and was working out various ideas throughout my trip. One of the things that I love about BSG is that the main theme is "all of this has happened before, all of this will happen again" so I basically have a bunch of templates, and I get to show the before part. It worked out rather nicely.
The only problem I've run into is one idea. We know that Cavil was created in Ellen's father's image, so I figured, could that be true for the other human models. So I've created a bunch of characters that will be the templates for the human models, and they'll interact with the Five. My issue? I like them too much. But they have to die because of the canon. I've barely written anything, and I'm balking at killing characters already. So it's not a huge problem, it's more of an aversion.
-I finally got around to watching the season finale of The Office, which I somehow managed to miss on Thursday. That was a good episode. I liked the end. I still think that it's getting stale though. The prank at the begining was amazing.
-I've developed an obsession with the song Spaceman by The Killers. I borrowed my brother's ipod on the way to the airport, and listened to it like 5 times. I don't know what it is about it, but I really really like it.
-And now I'm going to watch anime and relax.