Epic

I have read more than a few manga ever since I discovered just how awesome it is but there are few that have really made an impact. But, the other day when I was stuck on a shuttle for a few hours I was reading some and I came across another one that just makes you sit back and go "whoa..." Now, that doesn't happen very often. Bleach and Naruto have had a few moments that get a close reaction to that, especially recently. But I think that there are only a few that can really say they had the "whoa..." factor going. One would be One Piece. Not the whole thing mind you, just a handful of chapters when Luffy's brother, Ace, is captured and the Navy tries to execute him. Luffy comes to save him, and the chapter after Luffy has set Ace free and the two of them are trying to escape was good enough to deserve the "whoa..." in addition to a "holy...." I just stared at it for a while. And there haven't been very many manga chapters that have done that except for Ichigo's Mugetsu chapter and the flashback chapter about Naruto's wicked awesome dad fighting Madara. But it's important to remember that those are only about one or two, possibly a handful of chapters within the entire series that's good enough to warrant that. One Piece has so many chapters now I don't even know how high it is. Just the epic chapter that had serious "holy..." going on was number 574 and it's still going. So, I have to wonder if Naruto and Bleach can pull it off again. Bleach has failed to seriously interest me or impress me since the Mugetsu chapter but Naruto is making a noble effort to see how many characters can have epic boss fights and that's good, but still lacking the "whoa..." or "holy..." factor in any degree of significance. At the top of my list for any manga and certainly for the "whoa..." factor would have to be Fullmetal Alchemist. There were plenty of chapters that had the "whoa..." or "holy..." factor, but the final chapter had both with a generous dose of "gggpoiehpotviutpjqoklpaojkmnkaoerhggppyyytthhhickkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was just that good. I was at a loss of words and that does not happen often, anyone who knows me can tell you that. But the last chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist was just so epic it reduced me to gibberish. Rurouni Kenshin had a pretty epic ending too, but didn't have the "reduce to gibberish" factor. Still, overall, Kenshin and Fullmetal Alchemist are the best shonen manga I've ever read. As for shojo, well, I rarely read it and usually grow very tired of it. But, still, there has to be a best of what I have read, and I think that's Fruits Basket. It has good balance between the romantic comedy/drama without getting melodramatic. And it ended the way I wanted and that gives it serious brownie points. Some day I will finish reading Tsubasa and make a call on that one, and I get the feeling it will get some serious "whoa..." "holy..." and "oh wow..." points. At any rate, it's pretty much one of the best shojo just because there are so many swords in it. Can't go wrong with swords.
Now, I understand I've left some out, more than likely because I haven't read them yet, but this is my take on the ones I have read. Death Note doesn't make it up there just because it was more of a mind trip than anything. Plus it ruined the ride when L was gone. So, there it is. We'll see where the chips fall after this.

Odd thoughts for today

It's interesting, being in college. You hear and see much more interesting things as you walk to class. For instance, today a bunch of people were dressed up for Halloween. Including a Mr. Incredible, the green teletubby, a witch, a teddy bear, Naruto (^_^), Dorothy, a girl with her pants on backwards, and Mario. It makes your day much more interesting. Plus, there's the interesting perk of walking through the bookstore and hearing two white guys who are obviously American speaking fluently and happily in Chinese to each other. You can substitute in Spanish or a half a dozen other languages for that too. It's interesting that way.

And a fun quote for today, courtesy of my roommate:
"Mmm, it smells like cookies! ..... Oh my gosh, I'M making cookies! There's like ten seconds left!"
It's been a fun day. :)
I spent a good chunk of the morning/afternoon with the author whose manuscript we've been editing and it was a blast! It's so much fun to just sit down and talk to an author and have fun eating lunch together and laugh over how awesome Firefly is. Nerdiness never felt so good. :D

No Resemblance

I have come to the odd realization that I don't look much like my younger brother. Before now I always thought we looked pretty similar, considering we're siblings and all, blood related, etc. But ever since he came to school and people saw the two of us together they keep saying how we don't look a thing like each other. Is it because he's blond or something? I know, it's his beard, right? I don't get it. But maybe it's because I've seen him for years and years and I see more resemblance or something. Either way, it makes for fun conversations with people.
JP: So, what's your name?
Me: Alison.
JP: Where are you from?
*I point to my brother*
JP: Uh.. wha? I don't...
Daniel: She's my sister.
JP: I really don't see the resemblance.
Me: He's got the defective genes!
Daniel: I'm not defective! I just got the BEST genes.
Me: You're blond! And your eyes are the wrong color!

Basically, it's like this:
My parents both have dark brown hair and blue eyes. I have four older siblings, all of whom have brown hair and blue eyes. My older brother has hair so dark it's black. One of my older sisters was born blond, but it went dark by the time she was three. I have the brown hair and blue eyes too. Add to this that we all sunburn. We'll tan eventually, we just have to get burned first. A lot. Both my dad and I are pretty inflexible too. Inflexible to the point I can't reach my left shoulder with my right hand. Can't scratch my own back either. And that is REALLY annoying.
Then, there's Daniel. Blond hair, green eyes, so double-jointed it's almost disturbing, and has a perfect tan 365 days a year. Seriously.
So yes, he looks different, but I didn't think it was THIS different. Not so different no one can tell we're related unless we tell them. My roommates agree as well. Genetics are so funny.

Rice Crispies

They're the most pointless cereal ever created. Other than sticking the stuff together with marshmallow, they have no great purpose in life. The only real substance you get when eating a bowl of the stuff is the milk you put with it. Lame, that's what that is. Stupid excuse for a cereal. Gimmee back my Golden Grahams.

Summer: An ode to how much I loathe you, you worthless, horrible, miserable excuse for a season, why won't you die and stop making me so miserable?!

I am bored. In fact, I have been bored ever since I got out of school back in July and have become exponentially more bored as time has gone on. At this point, I'm down to about two weeks and all until school starts again, but still, I'm bored. And I hate summer. People tend to give you strange looks when you say that, but I LOATHE summer. It's hot, miserable, sunburn-inducing, and there's noting I can do about it except hide in my "lair" with the air conditioning. My brother calls my room my lair. I like the sound of that.
But, back to the subject at hand: loathing summer and the boredom it causes. The long break between semesters is too long to make me happy and too short to get a job and be productive. No one hires you for six weeks unless you're a ninja assassin. And I retired from that years ago, so I'm stuck for seven weeks with nothing to do but read comic books and catch up on the writing I didn't do during school due to stress, misery, and sleep deprivation. I want to find whoever had the idea to institute this and kick them repeatedly in the shins. Two weeks is fine, I can handle that, everyone can. But seven? What am I supposed to do for seven weeks?
I've even resorted to watching old episodes of Star Trek! The old one from the 60's where you have episodes with titles like "Spock's Brain." (His brain got stolen and they had to get it back. Science Fiction doesn't get any better than that.) Don't get me wrong, they're entertaining and I like them, but you have to have a lot of time on your hands to decide to devote your entire afternoon to watching them. They got shot into some wonky alternate dimension thingy at the edge of the galaxy by some nutter on their ship and my brother aptly dubbed the colorful vortex they got launched into "the seventies." Swirly purple and pink place, yup, good name for it. Still, Spock and Kirk are the best thing that happened to Star Trek besides Riker's beard and splitting the Enterprise in half. And Data, because adding an android makes nearly anything better. But, overall, besides the entire season of Star Trek I found, I have been bored out of my mind. Had a nice roadtrip with Goober and that was fun :) but the problem with that is that afterwards I had to come home again. Lamsauce. The trees here are lousy and there are only two seasons: summer and something that's somewhat like what everyone else considers fall but we call it winter. And sometimes we're lucky enough to get two weeks of spring. Lousy stinking miserable desert. THIS is why I hate summer. Who could enjoy this? Nobody enjoys heatstroke! If it weren't for Netflix I'd have gone out of my mind by now. -_-'
Fourteen days...

Bad Influence

My mother claims I am a bad influence on people. I called her today to inform her that I'm getting a ride home with a friend of mine, and she said it would take 12 hours. I disagreed and said it would only take ten, because not everyone drives as slow as she does. Then, of course, she started talking about how my friend shouldn't drive too fast and I had to assure her that Adam doesn't do that because he's too mellow. He's about as laid back a person as can be. But then my mom said if you put me in a car with someone, there's no telling what I might make them do, that I'm a bad influence on people. I tried to argue with her, but Beth went and agreed with her. My own friend turns against me! And offered evidence that I was a bad influence on her.

Now really, how bad an influence can I be? All I did was make Beth watch some awesome movies because she's deprived. No one should go through life without having seen Cinderella Man and Henry V. And I doubt I could inflict my terrible influence on Adam fast enough to make him drive to Vegas faster. I mean, I could try, but come on

16 Hours

2 months and 16 hours. All told, that's how long it took me to first gather my insect collection for entomology, identify all of the insects, pin them, label them, index them, and arrange them for my final grade. 16 hours of nothing but identification, labeling, and pinning. If I don't get a good grade on this, I will be very displeased.

There is one funny thing about all this though. When we were all arranging and pinning our insects we were trading them with each other like kids on the playground.

"Hey, what do you want for your June Bug?"

"What do you have?"

"You want a cricket?"

"Sure!"

or...

"Hey, who doesn't have a Damselfly and wants one?"

or...

"What will you trade me for this weevil?"

Good times, good times.

And just for the record: 11 orders, 40 families. Booyah.

The End of Alchemy

The last chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist came out yesterday. I was ridiculously busy yesterday though, what with tramping through the woods for hours, so I had to wait until today to read it. And considering how long I have been waiting for this last chapter, waiting that last day to read it about killed me.

That being said, the last chapter was absolutely incredible. The entire ending to the series was phenomenal, but the last chapter didn't disappoint. So, basically I have been sitting here on my couch with this nice big smile on my face ever since I finished it. I'm not going to say why because I'm bitterly opposed to spoilers for one thing. For another there are just too many reasons. The entire series and the ending especially just was completely fulfilling and satisfying. I'm content and there is resolution. It's a little harder to explain it better than that. I'm just very happy with the way things went and with the whole story itself. Even Harry Potter didn't please me this much. As for an explanation for that, that would require a blog all to itself.

Anyway, all in all Fullmetal Alchemist: superb story with an incredible ending. Well done, Arakawa Sensei ^_^

Good luck Chuck and First Impressions

So, I have come to the conclusion that I am a strange variation of Good Luck Chuck. Luckily I don't have to do what he did, all I have to do is live with people. Without fail, if I live with people at least one or more of them will be engaged or married very soon afterward. Every single semester this has happened and I have no idea how it's possible. I can easily count how many of my old roommates aren't married or engaged after having lived with me. It's less than ten. Now, for a while I thought my weird streak was broken because no one I lived with last fall had gotten engaged or married. Then Emily announced she was engaged a little while ago, so apparently the streak is alive and well. The best part is that when she gets married she'll be Emily Gilmore. She acknowledges the hilarity of that, which is good, because I'm never going to stop thinking it's funny. We'll see what happens this semester, but I've already resigned myself to the fact that at least one of them is going to get engaged after living with me. I've warned them. They don't seem to mind much. Of course they wouldn't.

I'm noticing something about my first impressions with my poor unsuspecting roommates: I terrify them. I do not do this on purpose, let me just say that right off the bat. I just mind my own business unpacking and such, exchange whatever greetings I find necessary, and in the case of this semester, had a cold. I'm not nice when I have a cold, come on. But I wasn't outright mean or anything and yet still they were scared of me. And thought I was insane. You give people looks that somehow are construed as being glares and abstain from talking consistently (cold, sick, etc.) and they decide you're nuts and terrifying. A couple of years ago I scared one of my roommates upon first meeting her too. We're good friends now, she's engaged, as per usual, but still there was the initial impression of me being scary. And here I just thought I wasn't being talkative. And if people would just ask me what I'm doing they wouldn't have to jump to the conclusion that I'm nuts. It's that simple. It would have cleared things up quite nicely.

On a side note: people look at you funny if you walk around campus with a butterfly net.

The Big Red Button

I have come to the conclusion that curiosity killed the cat and it's going to be the death of me. I'm the sort of person who will see a big red button and will find it only mildly interesting until someone, anyone, tells me not to touch it. Then I will not rest until I have pushed that button and found out what it does. I just love indulging my curiosity. There's a box, let's open it! And every single cupboard in the hotel room. I hope I have nine lives.

Commercial Music

I happen to be pretty proud of my music finding skills. I can usually find commercial, movie trailer, etc. music without a great deal of trouble. But, recently I was defeated. And I was very miffed. I don't much care for being defeated, but the Discovery Channel's Life commercial defeated me. I used all my sources, and we all came up with the same thing: "what is the name of that song?!" Seriously, over and over again, for more than 100 comments on Discovery's Youtube channel. I don't know if Discovery gave them some sort of answer, but my sources gave me one. We'll get our song some time next week. So, why is Discovery so slow on the uptake here? Blackberry and Lincoln figured it out ages ago. You put great music with your commercials and then you put said music on your website. Everyone's happier that way and you'll get a lot more attention on your website that way too. Some day these people will figure out it's smarter to keep people happy and put the stupid music up on their website. In the meantime, I'll just have to keep on doing what I'm doing. And say nasty things about people who don't give me my music when I want it. Of course, sometimes they create music unique to the commercial and that really makes my life difficult. But, I will not be defeated commercials!

Parents

I was reading The Indian in the Cupboard the other day because my professor said to and I noticed something about that kid. When faced with problems, primarily behavioral problems from the indian, he resorts to acting like his parents to deal with it. He does it on purpose usually, using his dad's best "you're in trouble voice" or his mom's "eat your dinner and stop complaining" voice and it always works. But, it got me thinking about how when we turn into teenagers we usually vow never to be like our parents, to never grow up to be like them. I was bound and determined not to grow up and be like my parents when I was a teenager. But then I actually grew up and realized that I had ended up like them anyway. I would be minding my own business when I would do something and suddenly realize I was acting like one of my parents. Despite my best efforts I had grown up to be like my parents anyway. I think it's funny how that happens. We look at our parents and swear we're never going to be like that, but then it happens anyway whether we like it or not. The things we say or do, the little quirks we never really noticed before. The older I get the more I notice things I do that are like my parents. I never intended to grow up to be just like my parents. Don't get me wrong, they're good parents, some of the best, but that doesn't mean that I wanted to grow up and be a copy of them. My dad tells terrible jokes, who wants to grow up and be like that? But I keep discovering things that I do that are like my parents or even my grandparents, things that I didn't even know about them before. Maybe this is nature's way of preserving our legacy without us having to try. I do things that are like my grandpa that my dad doesn't do, or something my mom does that my grandma didn't. So, I'm like some interesting mixture of all of them all rolled up into one. Take little strains of all their personalities and squish them all together to make something new. The best part is that I do it without knowing that it is similar to one of my relatives. My liking for English, for instance. My mom was an English teacher and I knew that, but my grandmother on my dad's side was one too and I had no idea. That same grandmother was good at archery too, but I didn't go anywhere near a bow and arrow until college when I discovered I was really good at it. But, I didn't know that my grandma did archery in college too. I was very fond of picking on people in elementary school, especially the boys, and it wasn't until I was a teenager that I found out that my mom had been exactly the same way when she was younger. So, that whole nature vs. nurture thing, is pretty interesting. I can find arguments for both sides, but really I think everything is a mixture of the two. You can't attribute something to just one or the other because then you'll find evidence that it isn't just nature, it's nurture too, or the other way around. Well, when all is said and done, one way or another we're all going to be like our parents despite all our efforts to the contrary. For better or worse we get to end up like our relatives and the world gets to have another round of our own particular brand of person and personality. And that keeps life interesting. So, maybe growing up to be just like my parents isn't that bad. Between their personalities and mine we got an awfully interesting person out of it. And when I have kids they can all try their hardest not to be like me and my husband. Good luck with that, kids.

Facebook and other addictions

I am so marvelously addicted to Facebook. Why is this? Because Facebook is a genius, that's why. There are more games on there than there are episodes of Power Rangers. This is all well and good, but they are supremely addicting. Seems like everyone is playing Farmville, for whatever reason, and I spend a portion of my day that I would hate to actually calculate playing Bubble Island. Somehow that game is just so addicting, frustrating, and satisfying I can't let it go. Plus is easy and versatile enough to keep my attention. Since my attention span can be very short that's a great feat. Mostly I just wish I was as successful in the real world as I am in Zoo World. I am a millionaire extraordinaire on that game and if it was real I would be wonderfully rich and the owner of the biggest zoo in the galaxy. Bubble Island really sucks me in. I hate losing games, especially if I know I could actually be winning it. This leads me to playing Bubble Island over and over until I have beaten the level I'm on to my satisfaction. And the added bonus of scoring better than all my friends playing just makes it that much more fun. Though, the real question is why that raccoon is following me everywhere. It makes me feel like Dora the Explorer or something. He even wears a backpack from which he pulls out the pieces for me to play, so I can yell at him if he gives me the wrong ones. Just whose side is he on anyway? And when I lose his eyes literally pop out of his head and he falls down dead. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost. But not quite. Not when it's usually his fault because he kept giving me the wrong pieces to begin with, stupid raccoon. I really like Fishville too. I get to name them, sell them, decorate to my heart's content, it's great. And I've managed not to kill more than one or two of my fish too, which is good, because somehow even though they aren't real I still feel a little bad for letting them die. Poor little fishies.

I'm so addicted to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers right now. I'm nearly done with the first season and I just love it! It's hard to say why, whether it be because I haven't watched it since elementary school, the fact that they always win, the monsters are too laughable to be intimidating, or Billy's mysterious fear of fish. Alright, it's not that mysterious, he explains it, but still! Of all the things he could be afraid of they choose fish? But, despite that Billy still remains the coolest nerd ever. And Jason will forever be the coolest red ranger. Basically, there's just no competing with the original rangers from the first season except for the second black ranger. Sorry Zach, you're cool and all, but Adam totally wins. I may be a little biased because it's Johnny Yong Bosch playing the second black ranger, but come on, he's still one awesome black ranger.And as far as addictions go, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers isn't that bad.
It's Morphin' Time!!!!!

It's Morphin' Time!!!

So, if it's morphin' time, why do they scream it to the world? I thought they were trying to keep a low profile here. And yelling out "it's morphin' time!" kind of tells the whole city what you're about to do, including the villains standing five feet away from you. But of course the villain is just going to stand there patiently waiting for them while they all take five minutes to shout to the sky what animal, ninja, space police person thing, they are today and change into their morphin' awesome defeat evil costumes. The villains always do this in these kinds of shows too. Just stand there waiting for you to transform, activate your magic staff or whatever, summon your trusty whatever it is, etc. It's so thoughtful of them, isn't it? What would happen if one of them interrupted? I mean, is there some sort of cosmic thing that will protect the Power Rangers from harm if someone has the gall to attack them before they've finished their heroic shouting and changing of costume? Didn't the villains ever think of that? Just go and whack them over the head while they're busy standing there holding up their, whatever those things are that let them transform, I'm sure they have a name, everything has a name. Ok, I just googled it, they're called morphers. Morphers? That's the best they can come up with?
"What should we call the things they use to morph?"
"Um... morphing things... I know! Morphers!"
"That's brilliant!"
But when you run around in brightly colored tights and helmets defeating evil and screaming out to your arch enemy you're going to transform now, I guess it doesn't matter what the doohicky is named you use to do it.
And if those Super Readers on that PBS show would just combine those things they ride around in like they do to make the megazords, they would be able to solve their problems much easier. Or at least look much more cool doing it. I'm just saying.

Are we friends?

I seem to be having a problem lately with not remembering people I'm supposed to. I know I should know them, I have them in my phone and they're sending me text messages that make it obvious I know/knew them, but I have no idea who they are. Perhaps they've been incorrectly labeled. First name is nice, but maybe if I put in their last name too? I feel like a terrible friend for this. If I went through the trouble of giving them my number and putting them in my phone in turn, I must have had a good reason for it, yes? Either way, I'm going to say it's their fault for not talking to me since last semester and letting me forget them. That makes it less my fault for forgetting. Crud.

Well, this is new

Well, heretofore I have always used Myspace for my blogging needs. And it does work and love how much I can customize it, but Myspace isn't as popular as it once was and my poor blogs are becoming few and far between. So, shiny new blog, here I come! It has nice colors.
Pandora has been infusing ads into my music lately. I have to say I'm really annoyed about that. I like Pandora because, unlike the radio, it (used to) play the music I want without any commercials. Slipping the ads in there is really irritating. Especially since it's the same ones over and over again. I just want music! Is Karma out to get me or something? First my iPod getting senile, now this? I should go help an old lady across the street or something.