Boredom

So, here I sit on this wonderful Friday, trapped within the confines of a cubicle. Staring blankly at the computer screen attempting to find something to pass the time. Why is it that when we are most bored it is hardest too find something to keep us entertained? It doesn't help that where I work blocks out many of the more entertaining sites. Fortunately, I have blogspot, to rant and rave to and subject the masses to my will. Well, unless of course you stop reading my blog.

Anyways, what does one do when the work place is quiet, and you have caught up on all that you need to do? I can't subject myself to much more news. It is way too depressing. The world we live in is comprised of all sorts of people that all experience a roller coaster just like everyone else. That is the final derivative after much contemplation. It is pointless to even try to fathom some of the heinous and vile crimes we see. It is entertaining to hypothesize just what makes the difference in the mind of a criminal and the mind of someone who is not. To try to explore the inner workings of the mind. All that it is, however; is speculation at best. It would be fascinating to study though, but constantly bumping into unexplainable walls would probably drive me crazy after some point. So, no more news.

It would be nice to catch up on some television episodes or something, but I did that last weekend so there are no new episodes for me to view on the sites I can access. So I suppose I will sit here and continue to stay lost in thought. Pondering the meaning of things and attempting not too wander to far into my mind for fear of being lost forever.

So you are probably wondering what is the point of all this? Didn't you read the title? I'm bored.

Later days...

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

I am at work. I am bored. I finished an anime. So, the logical step? Blog about it before I delve into work related things. Of course...

I am angry and well, here's why. I've been watching an anime called Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. It was originally a game released for PS2 that was an RPG of sorts. Players were given the option to follow their own paths, but all choices led to one of two major plots. Anyways, the story was truly intriguing. Lots of plot twists and turns. The characters are well developed. The art is gorgeous. The fight scenes aren't anything miraculous, but still artfully done and well presented. The music is really quite fitting. I love the intro Karma by Kokia. The final ending theme is also awesome! So sounds really great right? It was... up until the end.

I don't mind the psychological thriller that plays with the emotions. It isn't anything new. I've had my heart torn out by anime more than once, and lots of times in movies. That is the way of entertainment. This just really made me angry though. I was way too attached to the characters. You feel their pain, their emotions, you bond with them. You watch them suffer and you suffer too. You question the sanity of the world. It is a beautiful thing. Things look like they may end well and then, it doesn't. UGH!!! The utter anguish. Sure fine, it's a writing masterpiece, but it still infuriates me to no end! Why would you want to do that? And it doesn't even really say if it goes one way or another. You are left to draw your own conclusions based on the clues given, which would be fine, but there is not happy ending to draw from them. I like my happy endings. Especially when I've devoted much emotion to these fictional characters. How could you not? So my overall thoughts?

The show is brilliant. I will give it that. To those of you who get emotionally attached to your characters, however; I recommend you only watch up until they reach the field. Do not... I repeat do not... watch beyond that. The story really is brilliant, but my emotions are too crushed to fully appreciate that at the moment. A good watch, most definitely. Worth the time, if you can appreciate it, yes. I just wished I would have stopped with my happy ending. Oh well, such is the way of the real world. And that folks, are my thoughts.

Until we meet again my friends,
Later days....

Outlaw Star and Glass Fleet

Sorry for the lapse in posts, but things have been crazy as of late. Within this crazy period, however; I was able to complete two anime series. One I just recently started and the other I watched off and on as time would permit. For some reason I have no witty banter for this particular excerpt so... BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! Anyways on to the veridcts...

First we'll go to Glass Fleet since I just finished it literally like 3 minutes ago. My thoughts? I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mind you there are some parts in the story that make you (or me rather) a bit uncomfortable. I watched the last few episodes this afternoon, one of which took an expected (and yet not expected) turn that had me blushing. Mind you, I am currently sitting at my office so that was rather awkward to say the least. It is hard to say exactly how it can be an expected and unexpected thing all at the same time. It was like I figured it should go that way, but I didn't really think the creators would actually, show things progressing to that point. I mean you don't really see anything bad and plenty is left for the imagination I just wasn't expecting it to actually let your imagination go. Anyways, enough of my amazement at that one point lol. There are other scenes that can make you a bit uncomfortable, but once again they leave enough for the imagination to run wild so that may have just been me. :) The music is great. It fits really well with the overall workings in the show. I love the way after the intro how there is always some sort of semi-poetic speech. It's great. The story in general is also really intriguing. There were several points where I thought I had things figured out only to discover that I was off. If you can get passed some of the random uncomfortable elements it really is a great watch. The characters are personable and well developed. All in all I'd say go watch it.

Now on to Outlaw Star. So, for those of you that have been into the anime scene for a while you are probably wondering what in the world I am writing about Outlaw Star for, it was popular back in 98. Well I missed that boat ok. I haven't really started watching tons of anime until recent years and I just hadn't heard much about it. Thank you to April for introducing me. Outlaw Star is awesome!!!! Yet another reminder of just how far Adult Swim has fallen. Toonami how we miss thee! It reminded me of how awesome it was to stay up and watch shows like Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha when they were fresh. This is not the only reason Outlaw Star is great. It has all the elements of a good action anime. The introduction is awesome (I get that intro song stuck in my head all of the time now) and the story is great. It even has that little love story element that just draws you in and gets you even more attached to the characters. Being a female I suppose I look for that sort of thing lol. Anyways, while you can tell that it is an older anime it still looks fantastic. Even the fight sequences still look good. While it didn't really end and left room for more, it still gave enough of an ending to keep it's patrons satisfied in case the series did not continue. Thank you for the forward thinking producers :)

Here are plot synopsis' for both anime in case you want to have a look:

Glass Fleet

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6544

Outlaw Star

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=423

This is what I do on Fridays when there isn't an outage. A few things here and there but otherwise, tis quiet in the office that is mine. At any rate I am done for now. Until we meet again my friends....

Later Days...

Bleach: Memories of Nobody

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts.. deedl ee dee dee... there they are standing in a row... bum bum bum... big ones, small ones, some as big as your head..."

Cough cough...

Now that we are done with the random song playing on my internal jukebox... lets continue.

At the request of my Jessica I am doing some blogging. My apologies for my lack of posting as of late, but well I've been distracted. I have acquired the next two books in a series that I am working on and well, once I start one of those and I really like it, there's no stopping me. I become completely absorbed until I am finished. It is useless to try and get much out of me unless you catch me prior to beginning my reading session after work and dinner. Usually once I have finished (depending on the ending) I remain completely enthralled in my own thoughts of the book until the next day. Then I sit up, look around, and wonder... what in the world happened here? After a moment of shock, my brain begins to connect with other synapses outside of the ones distracted by the book again and much catching up on chores ensues. I finished one of the books and have not begun the other yet so I have taken this opportunity to write about Bleach and try and straighten up around my bedroom a bit.

The topic for today is Bleach: Memories of Nobody. This movie is the first in the series. Let me just start off by saying that if you are not a fan of Bleach then you shouldn't watch the movie (silly to even look into it to begin with really if you ask me, but of course you can't do that so...) While the movie is not related to the ongoing storyline it does have the same characters, same sort of action sequences, and any other sort of things that you may have picked out about the show that you do not like. This is the case with most anime movies and this one is no exception.

For the rest of you let me just say that... I thought it was sweet! One of the first things that took me off guard was the artwork. Typically the art in Bleach is not something that should be raved on. The movie, for some reason, just seemed different to me. There is one particular scene I can remember from the beginning that has leaves falling to the ground around that shopping square and it was so clear and crisp. It was probably cgi, but it really took me by surprise. It was gorgeous. It wasn't just the leaves falling either. The landscape itself looked fantastic. Trees and sidewalks were bold and sharp. It looked realistic. Don't get me wrong you could tell it was a cartoon, but much effort was put into trying to make it appear as real as possible. You could almost imagine an actual place that would look like this. Another great thing about the movie is the soundtrack. I loved all of the music. I do believe I will see if I can find a soundtrack...

Next we have the story line. I enjoyed the story very much. The bad guys didn't really seem all that scary to me. I guess you would want to save the real baddies for the television show so I shouldn't complain. Otherwise I really liked how everything played out. Even if the ending was a sad one and I almost cried (yes yes I know... I couldn't help it) it still fit perfectly. Everything seemed to have a nice pacing and flow for the allotted amount of time. It definitely did not hurt that my favorite character (Captain Hitsugaya) had a role either! Ichigo's character does exactly what he normally does, it just happened on a faster scale. The new character was also a nice addition. She had a great personality and the two worked really well together in order to bring along the overall story and of course it had the usual comedic performances. I truly enjoyed the experience. Overall, I would say if you are a Bleach fan it is a must see. Just don't look for any continuation on the original story line.

Anyways, I'm ready to bury myself in my covers on the bed and begin my next book so...

Later days!

Today and Movies

Here we are again. It's a Sunday afternoon. Just got done cleaning up the bedroom and doing some grocery shopping for the upcoming week. My roommate is making dinner for me since Tuesday is my bday and we'll all be working. This, as usual, has nothing to do with the rest of the post. It just came out first lol

Here it goes...
Usually on the weekends my friend Barry, Amanda, and I make plans for Friday night to do dinner and a movie. Amanda is away working somewhere else so it has just been Barry and I as of late. Well we are in an outage at work which means crazy schedules and hours. We still managed to grab Nine. I refused to miss that one in theaters lol. My thoughts? It was....
Dramatic pause...

It was great! I was a bit skeptical due to the length of the movie. It is only a little over an hour long. This isn't too surprising since it is animated, but I thought with the previews it looked like it would be very hard to pull off what we were seeing in a short time slot. It wasn't a problem at all. The story developed perfectly. It started off with a few introductory details and such, but after that it was off and running. Not only that, but there wasn't too much. You know how on occasion movies try to put too much into a short time slot? This movie had just the right amount of story line to balance out the amount of time and still hold ones attention. Not only was the story well laid out, but it was well written too. It is hard to explain without saying too much. I will just say that the story had enough in it to get the little hamster in my mind to rolling on its wheel. It is a little odd because it reminds me of a time set up around World War II (yes I know it isn't, but that is what it made me think of) with an application of its meaning for today and the future. It was very clever. A review on IMDB.com called it "refreshing" and I totally agree. Tim Burton and Shane Acker make a good pair. Great job fellas... and everybody else that had a part in it :)

Now that I've raved about the story let me move on to the art. Holy cow. I simply sat and marveled at it. The art left you with the ability to appreciate the beauty in the detail. The beauty of the destruction (yea I know that sounds weird, but it was). Everything was taken into account. You can see each and every fiber in 9s sack body. Each finger crafted with the wood grain where you can actually see it. It was beautiful! All of this destruction and you can't help but see what care the creators put into their world. The art was so good that one of the creatures actually creeped me out. I mean really creeped me out. I won't give away too much, but it's the one with the doll head called Seamstress. Ugh! I still get shivers thinking about that thing. Anyways, if you are looking for a great story 9 is a great movie to see! Go watch it... now. Really. I mean it.
A nifty film synopsis:
http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/9/synopsis

Later days!

Rearranging Day

So this blog isn't going to be about any particular thing (no worries though more anime stuff is on it's way. I'm working on closing up two brand news ones here shortly). I just thought it would be fun to post some pics of the new bedroom design.

After much deliberation( about an hours worth yesterday) I decided to rearrange the bedroom furniture in the room I'm renting. My previous layout left me with very little walking space at all. It felt very cluttered and cramped with the bed smack dab in the center of everything. It did not make for a comfortable living space, but this is the way it has been for some time now so I just left it (I suppose a bit of my laziness was showing).

Anyways, I am proud to present the new layout (that would be the picture located below).

So the new design is a bit roomier with some walk space in the middle. I know you are probably wondering what's the deal with the night stand right on top of the bed? Well I needed somewhere to put a lamp and my alarm. And I kind of like the funky sort of nest it created around my bed. It feels cozy. Like my own little personal hiding spot or something. Weird? Yes. But totally something I would do. There are a few other nifty little changes that were made that you can see in pictures below. Of course... I guess the only people that will know this is a change are the ones that have seen if before lol. I realized after I started typing this that I don't have any pictures of the old bedroom layout other than the ones in my head. Anyone notice the worlds best dog sitting on her pillow? And of course the anime sitting on the corner. A small chunk of my favorites brought with me while I'm working. That and a few new ones.

Another nifty little change was the relocation of my laptop. Before it was stuck in the corner right next to the bed. I didn't really mind it being there except for the fact that I spent a lot of time on the floor. This new layout provides space for a chair (preferably one that folds) meaning my rear end is a happy one :) So there you have it. A few changes to help lighten the spirit a bit. It is nice to have a change in here. Helps the creative juices a bit. I do believe the stale layout of the other room stifled them slightly. Oh and just ignore the pile of clothes. I'm going to be washing those at some point this evening.

Anyways peoples have a great day and....later days! PS Inuyasha drawing is from one of my most favorite people in the whole world... my cousin Jessica. Isn't it awesome?

Too much

This picture has nothing to do with today's blog. It's just funny :)

So... today's blog is not concerning anime, music, or movies. I just need to get something out in the open and thought I would do so via blog. That way, only a few people can fuss at me :)

Here we go. So I work in a group where my co-workers and I interact a lot. I even share a cubicle with one lady. It sort of reminds me of a rat maze because of all of the cubicles. Only those with offices can see the great outdoors. This doesn't really bother me too much. What does bother me, is the insistent complaining of said co-worker that shares the cube. Don't get me wrong. Our jobs can be frustrating and make you crazy. I understand that there are times when there is plenty of pressure and a need to blow off steam. This, however; goes above and beyond the normal need to relieve stress. Anytime anyone asks her to do anything outside of the usual simple tasks we perform she complains. "I shouldn't have to do this." "I can't get anything done." "This isn't my job." At first this didn't bother me too much. People get upset. I understand. I get upset too. You can't possibly do my type of job and not get aggrivated. This goes way beyond the norm. It happens on a daily basis. I just don't see what exactly this person thinks their job entails? I think perhaps that they want to sit at the job, do nothing, and collect a paycheck. Well wouldn't we all. This, however; is not how things work in most cases.

Perhaps it is just me. Maybe I am feeling a bit more angsty or something. I just don't think so. Am I nuts for getting aggrivated at this sort of thing? It is quite possible. It is just very vexing to see what little this person wants to do in comparison to how much really needs to be done. I suppose I shouldn't fuss. Just keep doing my job the way I do it and leave this person to themselves. This is what I have done and will continue to do. If it bothered other people I'm guessing she wouldn't be there anymore. I know this is a stupid thing to blog about, but this was just annoying the tar out of me. I guess I should remind myself that there are things that I do that annoy people too I'm sure.

So that is it for now.... Later Days