Ganked from bottle_of_shine.

( 15 Things About Me, Books, and Reading )

I can't believe I forgot A Song of Ice and Fire and the Temeraire book series. Both relatively recent finds, both reaching the pinnacles of great fannish love.

As long as I'm here, I should probably also mention The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. The first series, particularly, are among my all-time favorite books; I can re-read them essentially without limit. There's another universe I've vaguely thought about writing fic for, although no bunny has ever quite broken through to that level. Also the Narnia books, the Outlander series by Diana Gabeldon, Charles de Lint's Newford series, and Guy Gavriel Kay generally. And the Wild Cards series for awhile, although I stopped reading those around Book 7. The first three are on my re-read pile, though. And I might pick up the new one coming out soon. Another author whose books I read and re-read is Olivia Goldsmith. I know, one of these things is not like the others. But they're like popcorn, or potato chips -- I pick them up, and before I know it I've eaten the entire book. The First Wives Club and Fashionably Late, particularly.

Also The Sandman comics, and Love and Rockets, and Strangers in Paradise (which I should probably have given up long ago, but I can't bring myself to stop. I still haven't read the final volume), and Finder by Carla Speed MacNeil, which is an independent comic that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who loves stories. More recently, I've started reading manga -- I devoured Death Note whole, and am following Fruits Basket and One Piece (in print; I am resisting the world of scanlations because I don't like reading comic pages on the computer, I find it really awkward).

I'm sure I could think of more if I pushed myself and browsed my bookshelves some more, but for the sake of sparing all your Friends pages I'll stop now.

Feels like forever since I've posted anything really meaningful here. Life continues on its merry way. Things happen but nothing ever really changes. That's not a complaint -- I have a pretty good life, I'm content with it for the most part. But when I sit down at the computer, none of it really seems worth writing down.

Yesterday T and I went to the Asian Art Museum to see two special exhibits on Japanese storytellers: the 19th century printmaker Yoshitoshi and the great manga-ka Tezuka Osamu, best known in the US for Astro Boy. I enjoyed both exhibits a great deal. Probably what struck me most in both exhibits was the level of detail both men lavished on their work. I certainly noticed it with Yoshitoshi, but it struck me even more in the Tezuka. Some of his drawings of rainstorms, in particular, were exquisite. I also found the breadth of subjects to be totally fascinating. Tezuka wrote a manga version of Crime and Punishment, and another on the life of Beethoven ("Ludwig B") -- the panels on that one had some of the most dynamic visual representations of music I've ever seen. But the thing that bowled me over the most was the segment on "Princess Knight (Ribon no kishi)", because I recognized it immediately. It had been made into an anime that I watched on television as a kid. I loved the show but could never for the life of me remember the title. I've been trying to recollect for years, but no one I've ever asked has recognized it. And now, 25 years later, I finally know what it is. Of course, you can't get it on video in English, but at least now I know it's out there.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty much spent around the house. We made white chili yesterday; it was good, but I ended up with "jalapeño hands" -- the oil got embedded in my fingertips and burned my skin all night. Now, 24 hours later, it still hasn't completely worn off. Taking out my contacts was an adventure. My other main project has been working on the website. Still nothing ready to present yet, although I feel like I'm at least starting to get a bit of a handle on the CSS. If only I could figure out how to make everything line up the way I want it to. Hopefully I'll have at least something to show off soon.

Wrote a little bit, too, although not as much as I'd like. The Kissing Battle got me rolling (from Monday night through this afternoon I wrote eight ficbits including, um, two for FFXII, I am really not quite sure how that happened) but then I got sidetracked by CSS and the burning fingers, which made it really hard to concentrate on much last night. Still, the kissing ficlets were a great deal of fun. I enjoyed the chance to cut loose and play with pairings and characters I don't usually touch (as well as revisit a few old friends) in a low-pressure situation. I hope to see more fic challenges like it.

Oh yeah, and I got some planning done for my upcoming trip to Chicago for concertinette's wedding! We leave on Friday and come back on Tuesday. That should be fun -- good friends will be there, I haven't been to Chicago in ages, and T has never been, so I'm excited to show him all the exciting architecture (and of course to get a look at it myself). Definitely looking forward to that one.

T's office got a Wii last week, and so he and I snuck down there this afternoon to check it out. So far Wii Sports is the only game loaded, so we played baseball, bowling, golf, and tennis. I'm not quite ready to say that it's the greatest thing invented since the beginning of time, but it was pretty fun. I think I liked the tennis the best, because it was the most interactive; it was the only game that I felt like T and I were really playing together, instead of serially or in parallel. He kicked my ass, of course, in both tennis and bowling (golf and baseball we were about equally bad), but I don't feel too bad about that, because he bowled in college and took tennis lessons through almost all his childhood. I almost had the hang of tennis by the end, although I never did manage to win a game. And I got a real workout out of it.

So we've been planning on getting one sooner or later; this just whets our appetite. The only downside was that my shoulder was starting to complain at me by the end. But maybe that's good in a way; might force me to limit playing time to reasonable amounts!

The other fun geekiness this weekend was my trip to Alternative Press Expo (APE) with SE and SS on Saturday. My checkbook did not quite catch fire, but I think my credit card may still be smoking a little. And my to-read pile grew. A lot. So far I've read the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, which I found suitably wacky and definitely entertaining -- I'll be picking up the rest. The other comic you should all check out right away is Tea Club. Tea, martial arts, college angst, and a talking bear. What could be better?

( I saw a lot of these today... )

...at Wonder-Con, the local annual comic book convention, which SE and I attended today. I've been to Alternative Press Expo a few times, but I've never been to one of the mainstream cons before, and it was a very different experience -- tons of people in costume, lots and lots of vendors, a handful of publishers, and only a few artists. Probably the most interesting connection I made was with a bookseller, who had a volume I wanted for the library and had been unable to find easily online. Mostly, though, I wandered, browing the selection of bookstores, toy sellers, music and DVD stores... I'm lucky I walked away spending as little money as I did! A couple of science fiction books, an issue of Geek Monthly (a new magazine I'm quite curious to get a close look at), The Dream Hunters by Gaiman and Amano, and some soundtracks: Advent Children, FFVII Piano, and the score to the Death Note live action film, which I picked up totally on a whim. Listening as I type this, and it's a quite nice instrumental set, moody, very Death Note. I kind of want to see the movie now.

Afterwards, ( we decided a little refreshment was in order: )

Samovar is a local tea place with tasty sweets and savories and an excellent tea selection. So we sat outside and ate our cookies and drank our tea and read our comics and it was perfectly lovely. Later, a pack of friends joined us for dinner, then followed me home for creampuffs and Okami. Altogether a more than pleasant way to celebrate my impending birthday, and I feel fortified for the stressful week of work and rehersal that is likely to follow.

I hate losing a battle of wits with the copy machine. Shouldn't I be able to outsmart an inanimate object, even one that has evil programmed into its very soul? Apparently not.

The Architectural History instructor is giving a slide exam in the other room. Students sitting in the dark, staring at pictures of buildings, and biting their pens. Ah, memories.

I worked a long shift yesterday because I had to open the library at 8 AM and then attend a meeting that didn't end until almost 7:30. Fortunately, I knew it was coming and so was able to take an extra long lunch. I ended up running errands (parking, bus pass, music store -- more Neuroticfish whee) and walking around, and in the process walked right past the Six Apart office. I might not have noticed, except the LiveJournal logo caught my eye as I walked past. So if we ever need to storm the barricades, now we know where to go.*

So glad it's almost the weekend. Low-key party tonight, hopefully a day of sloth on Saturday, and Sunday I'm going with SE to WonderCon, a comic book convention that's in town for the weekend. Mostly I plan to just wander around and see what catches my eye, but anyone have any recommendations for artists and titles to look for?

*(P.S. for any LJ staff that might happen to be reading: This is a joke.)

So I started Fruits Basket (just a few pages in, but it's definitely promising). I know people have explained this to me before, but I'm already getting lost with all the forms of address in Japanese. My understanding is that -san denotes respect and -chan denotes affection (and I realize I'm probably missing all sorts of nuances there), but what does -kun mean? Are there others I need to remember?

I have suddenly found myself in the possession of large quanities of manga. First off, thanks to the incredible bottle_of_shine, I now own the first two volumes of One Piece, which I pretty much devoured today. Pirates! Made of rubber! This so should not be my thing, and yet I'm enjoying it immensely. ( Minor spoilers here. ) It's a little daunting, knowing that there are over 400 issues out there, and the series is apparently nowhere near finished, but oh well. I knew there was a reason I had a job.

The other new acquisitions were lent to me by SE: a horror book called Uzumaki (which is fortunately complete in three volumes) and the first five volumes of Fruits Basket. Yes, the high school romance comic. But SE recommended it so strongly that I have to give it a try. Am very curious to get into that, but I haven't had time to crack it yet. Probably tomorrow. Speaking of addictions, there's also Death Note 9, which I believe comes out next week. Must have. Yes yes.

But you know, none of this holds a candle to another addiction I've developed recently. To a certain game that a certain poster (who shall remain anonymous, except it's totally luvmoose) pointed me toward: FizzBall. If any of you remember Arkanoid or Breakout, it's a lot like that. If you don't know those games, think Pong crossed with Katamari Damacy, and you're pretty close. It is complete and total crack. I can't sit down at my computer without turning it on. I'm almost finished with my first play-through, after which I will continue to quest for perfect scores and more efficiency and so forth. T is utterly addicted as well. Not just to playing, but to watching me play -- as soon as he hears the music, I soon become aware of a presense at my shoulder. It's sort of cute, actually. And only fair, considering how much of my life I've frittered away watching him play videogames!

The Tick!

Not the late lamented live-action series. The late, even more lamented cartoon. One of my favorites shows ever. Out on DVD at long last.

As a former card-carrying member of MOAV, how can I resist?

I don't know which is more evil, Death Note or my newfound addiction to it. I think I need an icon of L, maybe defying the laws of physics with creamers or sugar cubes. Any one have ideas about where I can go looking?

( Spoilers for Book 7 (through issue 61) )

I have read comic books for years, since college at least, but I always resisted manga. I think it's largely that I've never been into anime, and I didn't get very far in the one manga I tried to read (Nausicaa).

( For what happens next, I blame Parron. (Minor spoilers for Death Note 1-2 and X/1999 1-5.) )