Daily Adventures

Uhm. Right. I think that that is my general opinion as I'm catching up with the Bleach Manga as part of my preparation for Twin Souls. It does my heart some good to see a few things that we've done/planned for Winter War are backed up with what happens in canon, but... still... WTF?

I think I'm realizing that part of why I love One Piece so much is that Eiichiro Oda stays true to the characters and to the themes he sets from the very beginning. Every single HUGE REVEAL he's ever done fits into what has happened, characters don't do a 180 without some really solid visceral need/want/wish that stems from exactly what they've been all along. It's integral, it makes sense, and he sets the groundwork (or uses the stuff he DID to make up the new stuff in such a way that it *seems* like he set it all up to start) so early on that I can re-watch every episode AGAIN and go "Oh, wow, he knew THAT from this point HERE!!!"

All of which plays well with Robert McKee's idea of why the big reveal, that closing of the gap between what has happened and what caused it to happen, can be so darned satisfying and is kind of the gold at the end of the rainbow for storytellers. And why the unanchored/unconnected SURPRISE! can be so off-putting.

Tokyopop is closing their doors.

I never knew they were in THAT much trouble. Whew.

John's parents are here. They arrived Wednesday in preparation for John and I going to Mississippi on Sunday to rebuild houses, they're staying at the house with Jet, so he gets to go to school, have his friends, do his usual things.

It's also Jet's Spring Break, so there's no reason to have an alarm in the morning on the most part, and I've been sleeping in. The odd thing is that I don't really want to get up, and I feel like I've been fighting a cold most of the mornings. This morning, in particular, I had absolutely no desire to get up out of bed, at all. I felt exhausted, depressed, and just out of it.

( I actually did get up... did a 4 mile hike, got my allergy shots, and helped Jet cook an <i>Iron Wok Jan</i> dinner. )

Don't feel like being short today. *laughs* So I'm just putting it all behind a cut for folks' flists...

( Meanderings about childhood memories in Taiwan, recovery, really enjoying the last of After School Nightmare, and really liking US-made Dramacon manga, published by Tokyopop. )

Though I probably should be doing more of it, but John had meetings all day and Jet really, really wanted to go sledding and play with some other kids for just a little while. He's much better now, even as I think I've bottomed out. We walked out to the sledding hill and stayed until I couldn't anymore, and Jet was great about coming back then and working on his costume for tomorrow and for Halloween.

The snow is nearly a foot deep, fluffy and white, but it got warm enough today that it started to pack pretty well, so Jet had a fun time throwing snowballs and making snow angels, and it really was just too beautiful to stay inside all day. But I was very tired after that little outing, so I am definitely not all well, yet. Lungs still seem to be clear, even though the upper respiratory tract is pretty gummed up.

Jet has decided to call all the stuff he coughs and sneezes up, "Gack." I don't blame him. *laughs*

John gave me a little time yesterday, and I read books 2-8 of After School Nightnare, and finally finished the second Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex series. Mixed in with all the Avatar: The Last Airbender that Jet and I have been watching, and I've been having interesting dreams.

( Random natterings about the inputs and a tiny bit about the last chapter of Bleach. )

I've mostly been in input mode lately.

( Bits of Avatar, Whistle, Ghost in the Shell Stand Along Complex 2, and Tsubasa RC. )

I am... uhm... officially functional, so far as my lung capacity goes. I finally went over the 70% mark today, which isn't as good as fully-functional lungs in an adult female human being my size and weight, but it is much better than I was a year and a half ago, when I started my whole allergy thing. It has the additional feature of being classified as "functional" again, which I wasn't before. Dunno if that'll be of any help with respect to insurance, but that's life. I'm still on all my meds and shots and stuff, but there's more indications that I can win back more breathing space for the long run, and the exercise is good for me anyway.

( Details of doctor stuff, finishing FMA anime, and other manga reading, including Bleach spoilers for 375. )

When we were browsing the bookstore at Uwajimaya I found a manga that was so down my alley it's amazing. It's Oishinbo, the Viz English translation is the "A la Carte" edition, with small series stories thrown together by type of food. The original has hundreds of chapters, so they're distilled for the Viz audience. I saw it by accident, and saw that there were "sake", "sushi", and "ramen and gyoza" volumes. Intrigued by volumes titled by foods, I impulsively picked up the "Ramen and Gyoza" one. We'd just eaten ramen, so it made sense.

I'm in love.

It's about a young food writer for a newspaper. He's arrogant, cynical, entirely unmotivated, but his love for and knowledge of food is intense and detailed. He has a very nice lady co-worker who is the one that eggs him on to help people out. Jet and I have been reading the stories together and we're both intrigued and fascinated by the sheer detail of exactly how he goes about finding the perfect dishes of Chinese style noodles. *laughs*

It's a real delight. I shall find more.

( The other thing I discovered isn't nearly as fun: I actually don't like coding for coding's sake. )

I've watched The Watchmen, Kill Bill 2, read five books of Fullmetal Alchemist, and spent nearly two days playing Onimusha 2 before I realized that the latter is something I usually do doing depressive cycles, when my brain won't let go of something in the background and some part of me is desperately trying to overlay something else on top. Violence and adrenaline or endorphine-charged usually works best, and that worried me a little...

Until I woke up Wednesday morning with a really bad headache and it just got worse... okay, I was a little hung-over from the Mom's Night Out on St. Paddy's day and I never do THAT either; but Jet had had a cold in the previous week where he got a big fever and headache for a day and then just coughed and hacked his way through the rest of the next week. I was so relieved that it was just a cold that I couldn't believe it. MUCH better just feeling physically down from a cold than the depressive cycles.

I celebrated by watching four episodes of Haibane Renmei and Spirited Away and reading old issues of Scientific American. I guess it wasn't depression, it's just that I'm in full-speed input mode and knitting and biking on the exercise bike as I watch and read.

( Some reviews, no spoilers. I was okay with Watchman, loved KB2 again, love Fullmetal Alchemist, and am enjoying the game. )

I'm reading the second series... and I'm really starting to like Badou...

( Cut for spoilers. )