Short shift.

I counted down all through work today, waiting for my shift to end since I was again being picked up by my girlfriend, and obviously I was looking forward to it. During my lunch break I quickly went out of the colleague's entrance, around the store to the customer entrance and went in so I could buy roses for her. White petals which blend to a vibrant pink on the very edges. I spent nearly all of my lunch deciding what colour roses to go for since I wasn't too sure which she'd like. In the end the white-to-pink came won since they looked nice and weren't the usual single colour. Once I finally did get picked up at the end of my shift I can only assume the roses were well received, since she said thanks. I'm not sure if she was embarrassed or didn't like them, but I hope it was the former reason. After that we watched the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie, as she was borrowing a copy and it had the dub. The dub was... passable, but not brilliant. Some of the voices were good, but others, like Tifa, were quite bad. Tifa for example didn't seem to have any emotion unless she was fighting. Hmm. Sephiroth wasn't too bad though, and Cloud was passable so that was fine. Then it was dinner, another episode of Fullmetal Alchemist and another of Wolf's Rain. Not too bad all in all.

After I got home I checked the forums, webcomics etc and then went to Tokyotosho.com to check on anime updates. Currently I only have the Fate Stay Night and Inukami updates, as well as the second Naruto movie, to watch. However when I checked what had been released, dear Jesus.... I now need to download - Love Get CHU, Magical Girl Pokan, Good Witch of the West, Yakitate Japan (eps 58 to 60, Tsubasa Chronicle season 2, Ray the Animation, Air Gear, xxxHOLiC, School Rumble 2nd Term, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Utawareumono and Aria the Natural episode updates. That's another 14 updates to get. Hmm, with the second season of Tsubasa around boosting me up to 24 or so new series it looks like I'll be permenantly downloading updates, sheesh. At least it gives me one hell of a varied anime schedule, and I won't really need to download any fully completed series for a while. I'll mostly stick to the updates now as that way I can keep up. Since I have 2 episodes and a movie to watch tonight I'll leave Guild Wars for now. I have a whole day free tomorrow, so I'll probably play it then, as well as watching more updates of course. No doubt those won't end for a good while, and my hard drive is bound to eventually get full thanks to it. Guess I'll have to selectively burn. So then, till next time.

Filling in.

Well work today was the customary blah, so I'll skip it. Once I got home I decided to watch the anime that had piled up recently before playing Guild Wars, and indeed I've only just finished watching an updates. I got through the 12 episodes of Boogiepop and the updates for Naruto, Eureka Seven, Higurashi, Karin, Strawberry Panic, Ergo Proxy and the first episode of Witchblade. (Yeah, I picked up another series...) Boogiepop was well done. It started out as a mass of individual stories which all slowly came together and were interlinked by the end. Though the premise was a bit strange, or rather 'gopd damn strange', it was still enjoyable to watch. Naruto continued on it the slow ebb of the filler arc, and I'm really hoping it'll go back to the manga soon. Eureka Seven wasn't too bad as it had Anemone in it near the end, but it was mostly a focus on how emo Eureka is becoming. Oh well, at least Holland revealed some of his past which helped tie everything together. The next update, Higurashi, confimed how insanely scary those messed up kids are. I seriously pity the main character, if I was in his shoes I'd class myself as being so royally screwed. My mini animarathon went back into 'heartwarming mode' when I watched Karin as that was quite endearing and shows the sheer determination of the characters. Strawberry Panic branches off into a side story about more characters which at least brings the surroundings to life, but I was hoping for more development in the Etoile-sama 'arc'.

With Ergo Proxy and Witchblade I was quite happy. One was overtly gothic, and one had a damn cool transformation and what seems to be a good opening for a decent plot. I can only hope Witchblade focuses on the normal life of the new Witchblade wielder rather than the fighting, as it'd just be a typical series clone otherwise. In Ergo since there was more revelations about Proxy it makes things a lot more interesting. By the time Vincent reunites with Lil something dramatic is bound to happen. Getting through 19 episodes wasn't too bad, and I would have got through more if I'd managed to get more updates. Currently I have the Fate Stay Night update downloading, and I have the second Naruto movie (subbed by Dattebayo) and the Millenium Acress movie queued, as well as the Magical Girl Pokan update and the first episodes for Love Get CHU, Good Witch of the West and Inukami. That includes another 2 new series, which'll bring those I'm following from the new season to 23. Overall therefore I'll be following to 33, though the next episode of Karin will be the last. Dang, I'm following a fair amount... Anyway, now I'm off to check up on the forums, read webcomics and answer emails before finally getting around to Guild Wars. Level 20 shall be mine! Till next time.

Not quite weekend.

The english language exam continued today, the second of the two lessons in which to write 1000 words of a radio script with a specific tone and audience using the source pack provided. Since I actually had the determination to write it today I went away to a quiet room and got right to it. With constant checking of notes, making more and rewriting lots of material I managed to get to 926 words. The only thing I didn't manage to write was the very ending, but the fact that I got so much more done compared to yesterday's meager wordcount shows to me at least that in the real thing I'll be able to do it. Instead of an hour I'll have 2 and a half to plan everything and write it, should I'll definitely be able to finish the real article. The rest of my day, most notably the three and a half hour free, consisted of either Magic the Gathering or lounging around. I did manage to play a few games of Super Mario on my mate's laptop as well, but that was about it. All in all therefore a slightly slow day. Sociology last thing was entertaining, since the exam I did absolutely no revision for came back, and I'd passed the A grade boundary by 2 marks. Not shabby, an adequate A with no actual work put into it. I reckon that's quite handy. If I actually do revision for the real exams I should breeze through them then (if only, heh).

When I got home it was back to Guild Wars, and the completion of a hell of a lot of quests and gaining even more. Unfortunately since I decided to stop before midnight I only got from level 16 to 19, but I did manage to use up pretty much all the gold between my 3 existing characters by buying the best armour for my assassin, though a more expensive design. Stat-wise it was the same as the cheaper version, but since it has a more distinctive look it'll help my character to stand out amidst the others. It does mean however that I really need to knuckle down and build up more gold if I want to do anything else financially in the game. None of the quests I did were bugged which was good, but my death frequency went through the roof. Once off the starting island all the enemies seem to be level 20. Every single freaking one of them, which makes things vaguely difficult to say the least. The whole feel of Factions is that it's heavily focused on the last 2 levels and denizens suited for those levels to kill and therefore actually get experience. I need over 12,500 experience to get level 20, and a single kill of a level 20 Jade Guild person gives me 17 exp. Yeah, 17. This shows that the levelling is nearly purely done by quests, since a typical quest gives between 2,000 and 3,500 exp. That's a hefty amount for what is predominantly walking around or killing a select target. Thanks to Guild Wars I also didn't manage to watch any anime at all, which means it's all saved for the weekend. With the 12 episodes of Boogiepop that are now finally done, as well as various updates, I have 17 episodes to watch. Not too shabby. Till next time.

Factions fractions.

Today started off well enough, got worse, then immeasurably improved. The reasons for this are as follows - I woke up quite tired, but managed to get through the train journey without nodding off. Good. The beginning lessons were fine, but then I had a law mock exam question last thing. Worse. The lesson itself started out quiet, that had 15 minutes in the middle where no one bothered working and just messed around, before everyone went back to work for the last 15 or so minutes. It was quite strange. However once I got home the 'awesomeness' value inherent in the day rocketed upwards. Why? Simple, Guild Wars: Factions finally became playable. For preorder people it opened at 7.01am, though naturally I had to wait till college was over, but it simply rocks. Out of the 20 levels available I've reached level 16 and I'm already a quarter of the way to level 17, and I've not even got near a quarter of the game done yet. Looks like I'll be re-earning level 20 several times then, which means a lot of skillpoints and therefore skills I can simply buy. My character is an Assassin, one of the new classes which is obviously highly popular. I did most of the quests in a group with another 2 assassins and a monk, and everything died really, really quickly. It's amazing how the assassin's can deliver such an insane amount of damage once they reach level 12. The attribute points can then all be put into Dagger Arts and that means the relevant skills simply pwn. Not beat, or own, but pwn.

One nifty thing about the game is that now every hour it gives a reminder of how long you've played, and when it reaches 3 it recommends that a rest be taken. Of course this notion was laughable, but it was still nice to have it there since no doubt it'll ward off some law cases. All in all I managed 9 hours straight, and actually finished at around 3.10am, yet due to my post every day policy I changed the post date to match 'today'. The quests are much of the same, but some of the creatures that get slaughtered look fantastic, and the whole storyline about the plague sweeping Cantha that turns people insane and violent is so reminiscent of zombies that it just has to be amazing. Of course just because I love Guild Wars doesn't mean I'm biased at all. Oh no, not me. Since 'tomorrow' I'll be buying the actual copy of Guild Wars: Factions right after college (as today I was using the preorder key which is only valid for 10 days anyway) I'll soon have a few more nifty effects. This is because I'm getting the Collector's Edition, which comes with more artwork, music and a few things for the character too like a custom emote. It's admittedly not much in the game, but it does look hella cool. A side effect of this game however was that I didn't watch any more anime. True, I didn't have any new anime to watch, but I didn't even get around to downloading the updates since it's an online game and I despise lag. So I've only actually just started getting the Eureka Seven, Naruto, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Ergo Proxy updates. If I have spare time that the game doesn't eat tomorrow I just may watch some anime. It's either that or reach level 20, heh. Since in reality it's 3.37am I'll be off for now to get some sleep, so till next time.

Catching up.

Well today went averagely well. Law was easily [passable as it was mainly revision, and in sociology I spent most of the lesson idely listening in as I drew one of my cartoon characters, The Certifiably Honoured and Verified Reaper, also known as The C.H.A.V. Reaper. You may need to be English to get the joke, but I find it funny so that's all well and good, heh. After that it was off to work, and the associated hassle of changing hliday times. By the time I got the forms my manager had left, but I'd at least cancelled the now pointless 2 days of holiday I had booked. Unfortunately I still have the issue of emergency tax on my first paycheck since I didn't see anyone from Personel, so couldn't get a p46 form to sort it all out. Bleh for hassle and forms. Work itself was fine. The store was averagely quiet by general standards, i.e. dead by ASDA standards, until around 7pm where more people suddenly turned up. Before that there was a constant stream of customers, but no queues. Kinda strange for a large supermarket, and several of the other staff remarked that so far the whole week had been unusually quiet. Oh well, I didn't have to work as hard, so that suits me fine. Unfortunately the last 2 hours seemed to go quite slowly, so it was mildly inconvenient getting through them.

Once I got home I had the joy of a sociology mock exam question. Thankfully it was only for 20 marks, therefore only took 20 minutes. With any luck I'll do well. Since that ate up some of my home time I went straight onto anime, and was deeply disappointed to notice that the Boogiepop series had stopped at an overall 75% Due to lack of seeders. Even now it's idling at 77.8%. Every now and then a seeder randomly shows up and helps out with a rubbish upload before disappearing again. Well, curses. It may be some time before I get that series then. I also caved in to curiosity and downloaded the current releases of Black Lagoon and Ray the Animation. They were quite good, especially Black Lagoon which made me laugh. Hostages, talk of nuclear weapons, torpedos hitting a helicopter and a massive shootout all in the first two episodes. Niiice. Ray certainly had an interesting plot, what with the whole 'able to see anything' eyes. They're like X-ray spectacles, but used to help in surgery. There was only 2 episodes of Black Lagoon and 3 of Ray, which was unfortunate. I also saw the updates for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Zegapain and Kagihime, so in all 8 episodes. Not exactly fantastic, but oh well. Since I have a law mock exam tomorrow (there's an irritating amount of them now...) I suppose I should get some rest. Till next time.

Backlog.

Not much happened today really. I had a mock english language exam about language change and development, and the supplied sources were all about spam. The food and internet meanings. I barely managed to write 2 pages for a 50 mark question since spam doesn't give many openings for language change, aside from the obvious. Le sigh. Other than that it was normal. When I went to Games Workshop after college I quickly popped into Moviezone and bought a 240 CD binder to hold all my anime DVD's,. It'll be able to hold them all and have a few spaces left over for when I burn more, so that's handy really. I also bought a box of labels since it makes it far easier to lavel the binder slips rather than write on the DVD's. I managed a few games of Warhammer 40,000 too. One against the mate I have a winning streak against, and it went up to 13 wins, my lucky number. Pretty funky indeed. Then there was two smaller games with the Kill Team rules for Warhammer 40k, and I was the bad guys for both games. My craptacular brutes massacred the good guys both times, it was fantastic and incredibly entertaining, since in the first game two of my men ran away and the second everyone was a hero. After that it was back off home, to see how the anime was doing.

I was vaguely stunned. The whole Magikano series, 13 episodes, had fully downloaded, as had a few more of Boogiepop as I'd decided to get that series too. This gives me about 16 episodes to watch, and by tomorrow morning all 13 of Boogiepop will be done. Wow, that's some fast downloading. I only started getting them since I didn't have anything else to watch. Looks like I effectively have another 26 to go. I also have The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to watch, as an update for that came out. As today was a late day getting back home, and tomorrow I have work till 9pm and don't get back till half past, it may take more than 2 days to fully watch all 27 episodes, and no doubt more updates will be released in the mean time. This means I'll take a break from downloading any new series once Boogiepop is done, and I'll focus on just updates for the series I'm currently watching for a while. That'll give me an adequate rest I think. Since I've not much else to talk about I'll end it there, so till next time.

Encephalisation quotient.

I merely named the post such because it sounds cool, and because I remember it from an anime. I can't quite remember for the life of me which anime exactly, only that it definitely comes from one. So anyway, on to the post. College wasn't too bad really, and the only notable aspect was the tutor period. Instead of being 11.25am to midday, it lasted till 12.20pm in order for lots of questionnaires to be filled in. There was one for each teacher I had, 7 in total, as well as an end of year one. It was pretty tedious, but thankfully the process itself was quick. I also got my exam timetable, and it screwed me. I now can't go to my mum's wedding in California as I have 2 exams past the flight date, so I have to canel that trip. There's also 2 exams which overlap my working hours, so I need to go to work and cancel the holiday I'd requested for the weedend of the wedding, and change it to the two wednesdays instead. So there's no increase in how much holiday I have, but it's damn inconvenient overall as I need to explain to my boss without annoying them for all the hassle. I'm banking on the reason being exams as a method to placate them and achieve my goal. I also totaled up how many hours of exam for all my subjects combined. 13. Huh, my lucky number (seriously). Such a pity I don't counts exams as overly lucky.

After college I popped down to Games Workshop to say hi, since I needed to buy yet more DVD's from Poundland as I'd run out, again. The new Vostroyan Guard look... damn good. I want an army of them, but since they're metal it's hideously expensive. I'll probably sneak-buy a box and incorporate them into another army. That way I get the fun of painting the models, have a cool army, and it's comparatively less expensive. If only they were plastic, they'd be a lot cheaper. Oh well. When I got the DVD's I also bought a DVD case-thing that holds 48, since I'm running out of space for DVD's in cases. Or to be more precise, I completely ran out of space. Bah. It'll most likely take quite a bit of time writing the labels for 48 discs then organising them. On the plus side it's something to do till I download more anime.

The actual anime I watched today was more than yesterday, which is always nifty. I finished the last 9 episodes of Haibane Renmai and saw the updates to Ah! My Goddess season 2, Kiba, High School Girls and Strawberry Panic. Haibane had a really nice ending. It finished up some of the questions but left a few important ones unanswered. However it really felt like there was enough closure whilst allowing for thoughts on the future. The very last thing shown suggested a continuation on how everything would be, so it left a heartwarming feeling. A!MG was as endearing as ever, since Keichi managed to do something right, and Belldandy was content with him already, so it was something extra she really appreciated. As for Kiba, damn. I want the 5th episode now, jesus. What was shown of the fights was entertaining, and the next episode looks like it's going to be the final for 'The Joust', something which confers the honour of Joust Champion status, as well as some apparantly nifty items. Zed probably won't win, since though he's the main character it's still early on, but if he manages to summon the creature inside him, then the opponent is going to lose so badly, heh. The episode of High School Girls toned down the fanservice a hell of a lot compared to the previous episodes, so that was all good. Last but not least, Strawberry Panic continued the shoujo-ai plot quite well, and depicted Etoile-sama as either having some compassion, or merely being a sucker for a cute face. I'm not entirely sure which one yet. So as that brings it to a close, till next time.

Quality time.

I didn't mind work today at all, and in fact breezed through it. Since it was St. Geaorge's Day all the staff got asked to wear either an English flag wig, or a small english flag paper crown. I elected wig, and was one of only 4 to do so. Still, wearing it rocked and made all the customers smile and chat to me about it, so it worked. In the first 35 minutes of the day I only had 6 customers, so the morning was difinitely quiet. After that I did some computer modules and passed them all, finally finishing up all 4 levels. Then it was back to the tills, helping out with everyone else by filling their lunch break for them. After that I basically did odd jobs till 4.30pm, and that was that. The thought of seeing my girlfriend kept me bouncing through the day, and I have to admit I was really excited to see her. I'm not sure if that's a bit embarrassing or what, but it was a nice feeling. When I did see her she laughed at the wig, which was what I intended, and she liked the free balloon I'd gained. Balloons work, heh. Once I got to her place we watched some anime as I'd leant her a few series, then her family and I played Monopoly. Though I ended up with lots of property, I nearly went bankrupt twice. Not good really. Then it was more anime, and time to part. During the anime I became a very happy cushion for my girlfriend. It was great. (Insert happy smile here.)

Once I did get home I realised I had a fair amount of anime to watch. I managed to get through another 2 episodes of Haibane Renmei (not Renamei as I previously thought) as well as the xxxHOLiC and Utawareumono updates. Not too bad considering the time. Utawareumono continues to rate well on the 'sleeper hits' chart, and will probably gain a cult following from what everyone else I know is saying. They're all following it out of interest for how it'll develop, as am I. xxxHOLiC rocked, since Watanuki is entertaining to watch. Poor guy, he overreacts so much. In Haibane Renmai it was good to see how they worked, since in the workplaces they were treated strictly, but it was obvious their employers really liked them. From the looks of things the rules are strict, but the people are protective of the haibane anyway. It's nice to see. I still have the last 5 episodes of texhnolyze to watch, as well as the Straberry Panic update, plus by the time I watch those the next two episodes of haibane Renmai will be done. I'll most likely leave Haibane and Strawberry Panic till tomorrow, as when I finish Texhnolyze it'll be past 1am and I need sleep. Such a pity really, if I could adequately function without sleep with no detrimental side effects I think I'd definitely enjoy life more, heh. I'd manage more anime, gaming and work that way. Since the end of Texhnolyze most definitely beckons, till next time.

A few anime's more.

Work. Blarrrgh. Blaahaarrharrgh. If those two onomatopaeic 'words' don't sum it up, then I guess I'll need to elaborate. It started. Well, so far so good. It kept going. Fair enough. It kept going some more. Hmm, I could've sworn I was due a break. Oh well. It kept on going. Seriously, what the hell? My break did arrive eventually, but 40 minutes late. It wasn't that much, but it was still physically painful, since for the whole morning nearly every single customer was buying charcoal. Huge heavy bags of charcoal, just because the weather was nicer. I spoke to several of them specifically about the charcoal, and they were all planning get togethers and barbeques. Christ, do thay all know eachother or something? My second, and final, break was an hour and 30 minutes late. That was definately not enjoyable, at all. By the time I got the break my back was in immense pain. It's probably due to sitting at a computer too much, having a bad posture and slouching at home, but I'm prone to back pain. Oh well I guess. Thankfully I'll start work tomorrow, then after an hour I'll be going off the checkouts to do more computer modules based on the store and stuff I should have learnt. Security, policies and such. Then after work I'll be going around my girlfriend's place, so that's simply just... schweet. Of course that isn't as refined a word as the situation deserves, but still... schweet.

I ate my way through an average amount of anime. 6 episodes of Texhnolyze, 2 of Haibane Renamai, and the updates for Fate Stay Night, School Rumble second season and Air Gear. In reverse order then - Air Gear had more of Simca, and her 'reward' was one I'm sure all guys wouldn't mind receiving. The concept of the Parts Wars was nice too, so it'll be good seeing more of it next episode. School Rumble made me grin some more, since it finished off the cultural festival fight for which option could be done by the class. Harima was armed with 2 guns, and fought with Hanai. They both looked like they were using Gun-Kata from the film Equilibrium, and harium grabbed his guns and reloaded them in the same manner was Preston in the film. In other words, it was a god damn cool episode. The fighting in Fate Stay Night was ended rather quickly, but it definitely showed just how much arse Shirou can kick when he quite literally sets his mind to it. Tracing magic may be 'a half-assed' magic, but he makes it work well. How? Well for example, imagining Excalibur and using it to chop Beserker's arm off. Heheheheh. Haibane Renamai certainly interests me, but the way the Haibane are treated is atrocious. They're not fully treated as people, but rather tolerated. Not allowed to own anything first-hand, nor possess normal money. It's most likely to really stress the point that the Haibane are different. Texhnolyze is getting better as it moves to the finale. There's only 5 episodes to go as the series only has 22 overall, and it looks like things are going to break out into a massive fight. I also managed to get the first 6 volumes of the Air Gear manga, and from what I can tell most of the seventh volume too. That'll be good to read whilst more anime is downloading. Hopefully by tomorrow all of texhnolyze will be done, as well as a few more episodes of Haibane Renamai. I can but hope, heh. Till next time.

A fistful of anime.

Today was a long day. The starting lessons were fine, but the 3 and a half hour free was, as always, a period of the day in which time seems to keep going without actually getting anywhere. I played so many games of Magic the Gathering it was insane. The good thing was that I won all bar one, and not just with my own decks. For variety I borrowed a few of my mate's decks, most notably a water 'Counter' deck. It's a powerhouse of mana and ridiculously evil cards, since there's only 45 in the deck rather than the usual 60. There's a danger of running out of cards to draw and therefore losing, but by then the opponent should be long dead. After that I had the joy of another sociology mock exam. or last thing on a friday that's just cruel. Since I leave lessons at the end of the day 5 minutes early to catch a train, and since the exam was going to overrun and finish at 4.15pm instead of 4pm, I had to do the 1 hour and 14 minut exam in 55 minutes. That wasn't really fun, but I still finished in 50. In all likelihood I'll do 'passably' at best, since did no revision and didn't take much time with it. Oh well. After college it was straight to the Medical Centre in Polegate to get a shot for Hepatitis A and Typhoid, since I'll be going to the Philipines in July. My, that injection was fun. Meh.

When I finally got home to relax, I started watching anime straight away. I finished the last 9 episodes of Loveless, another 4 episodes of Texhnolyze, and the updates for Karin and Ouran High School Host Club. I wasn't overly keen on Loveless, since it didn't have an ending per se, it left loads of the main character's questions completely unanswered, and seemed to have an outlook shift for Yumiko, who seemed to go from liking Loveless to liking the other guy who hangs out with them, who also likes her. The shift was sudden, and in one episode. hough it wasn't much, she invited him into her house and was friendly, whereas usually she didn't notice him. How odd. Since it had many shounen-ai moments no doubt my girlfriend will like it, though the ending, or lack of one, may annoy her. Texhnolyze is good, in a slightly slow-paced way. Though there's violence, the plot seems to move along relatively slowly and with a large emphasis on long quiet dramatic moments. Several of the episodes I've seen so far don't have much talking in them. At all. I guess it cuts down on needing to read subtitles. The Karin update pulled the sympathy vote for both Karin and Usui. The next episode title, mentioning 'Goodbye' continues the trend, but now I really am wondering how they'll change it around for the ending. Probably a double confession. Ouran was just as flamboyant as before, so no changes there. I'm still in the process of getting the updates for School Rumble second season and Air Gear, not to mention I'm still downloading Texhnolyze and I've started getting Haibane Renamai, a recommended series. Looks like I've still got a lot to watch. Till next time.

More scribbling.

College was again marginally tedious. The customary few games of magic the gathering were played and I didn't do too badly, winning and losing a game each. Sociology wasn't too bad either, since I zoned out for the most part and drew a random zombie person to alleviate the tedium. I know it's bad for me to find college inanely boring now and then, but I suppose it's just one of those things that tends to happen every now and then. Thankfully I still do the work since I can force myself to go through a lesson. It just isn't that enjoyable. After college itself I decided to get some rest, and instead of watching anime straight away I effectively went to bed for a few hours just to get rid of a headache and rest my eyes. Since it was a bright day, and since my eyes are sensitive to bright light, it'd been quite painful and had started the headache. Le sigh. After that it was the usual forum, webcomic and anime torrents rounds, then onto the anime itself. There weren't many updates for today, and the only notable one was Ouran High School Host Club. Since I'd chatted with my girlfriend on MSN about anime, something she likes too though not as fanatically as me, I'd offered to download the Loveless series for her, since she likes the whole catboy thing, as well as shounen-ai. For those of you who don't know what shounen-ai is, it's basically male with male romantic relationships.

When it came around to actually watching the anime, I got through another 6 episodes of Texnolyze, a Fullmetal Alchemist OVA from the DVD, and now actually subbed, and the first 3 episodes of Loveless since I figured I may as well watch anime I download. Texhnolyze has a damn cool opening theme, and the anime itself is dark and gritty. All in all a good series. Fullmetal Alchemist was of course good as per usual. Loveless seemed to have a slightly rushed beginning. This was probably because it was supposed to depict how Loveless himself was thrust into the situation before having it explained, but it actually wasn't explained till episode 3. That didn't make for a promising start personally, but I figure my girlfriend will like it because the shounen-ai is quite strong. It's not what I usually watch, but the magical fights look promising. Also it was funny to see two fighters get defeated since they were effectively mobbed by butterflies. That's got to hurt the professional pride. Several of the background characters already look supremely annoying however. Due to fast download speeds I'll be able to watch a few more episodes of Texhnolyze tomorrow, as well as the Ouran update and the remaining 9 episodes of Loveless since it's going supremely fast. It certainly makes for a speedy delivery. So then, since that's all the news, till next time.

Yet more updates.

Not much really went on today, since it was a relatively short college day then straight on to work. I accidentally went to my law lesson 20 minutes late, since I forgot that wednesday has a different time table, and that break was from 11.05am till 11.25am, not 10am to 10.20am. As it was, lessons started at 10am. Whoops. Oh well, I didn't miss much, and I finished the sheet before a few people who started before me anyway. Sociology was better, since the topic of research methods is easy, so I spent most of the lesson drawing a generic person one one of the scribble-boards they occasionally hand out in class. That was good enough to eat up some time. As for my free time, I spent it playing Magic the Gathering. My decks are gradually improving as I change cards within them, and now my Orzhov deck is a leeching powerhouse, my Golgari deck, with all Golgari removed, in a regenerating anti-flying monster, and my Rat deck (red and black) is shaping up to be a massive discard deck. Unfairness of the day went to my Golgari deck though, since with a combo of 'sacrifice create for ability' and 'regenerate creature' I managed to remove 23 cards from the game in the opponents deck. That's god damn good considering they only have 60 overall. My mate simply wasn't able to do anything, it was great.

Work passed smoothly enough, and afterwards I came home to my anime. However I didn't have as much drive as usual for watching it, so since I've been in I've only watched - the last 2 episodes of Mahoromatic and the funny Summer Special, the updates for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Zegapain, Disgaea, High School Girls, and the first episode of Magical Pokan. High School Girls vaguely worried me, because if they did anything at all to the level of fan service, they raised it. Oh dear... Magical Pokan was just... stupid, in a slightly cute endearing way. I'll probably follow it just for the characters rather than odd plot. Zegapain and Melancholy were both excellent, and I now really want to see how they pan out, especially after the supposed revelation in Melancholy. The ending of Mahoromatic was quite bad however. The last episode jumped ahead 20 years, and they didn't fully explain Mahoro's circumstances, or how the hell she came back from the dead. From what was said, it was apparently a collection of memories. Shaped like Mahoro... and real.... right. I'm therefore not really going to heed the last episode, even if it is a happy ending, because it seems completely absurd when viewed with the series as a whole. At least the Summer Special was pretty funny. Alas, they'll never be able to hide it. As of yet I've not watched the 3 episodes of Texhnolyze that have downloaded so far, and I also have the updates for Aria the Natural and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I want Higurashi a lot, since it's the murder mystery which is simply appealing. There's also the first 7 volumes of the Air Gear manga to gain, and I still need to get the rest of the Kashimashi manga since I only have the first volume so far. All in all therefore, I have a lot to do. Till next time.

Hmm..

Not a very good way to start the day. Sociology first thing, and it was a mock exam. Urgh. On the plus side we were allowed to listen to relatively quiet music, so I had Blue Man Group help me through the mind numbing boredom. After that I generally hung around a lot, got a few games of Magic the Gathering in with mates I've not seen for 2 weeks, and wandered around saying hello to everyone I know. That actually took up most of the day. After lunch I had 2 lessons, and I couldn't wait for them to be over since I could then go to Games Workshop and see my girlfriend again. Since from now on I'll only really be seeing her once a week due to college and work (curses...) this makes tuesdays more important for me. However the train home was delayed, and when I got picked up the car got stopped by every single freaking traffic light. It was insane. When I finally did get to Games Workshop I had to hurry to Poundland before they closed to make sure I managed to buy more DVD's to burn, since I've agreed to copy a load of stuff like Bleach and Naruto, as well as Gantz, for several friends. After that I met up with my girlfriend and pretty much chatted and hung out, watching other people have disastrous luck. That was pretty nifty.

In the end I didn't get to play any games, but it was ok since I got to spend more time with her. After I got home I decided to start watching anime, and found that the entire series of Mahoromatic had finished downloading. This means I have another 14 episodes to watch, since I'd already seen 2 yesterday. There's also the updates of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Zegapain, the next chapter of Ah! My Goddess manga, and the first episode of yet another new series Magical Pokan. This means I'm now following around 17 new series. Woah. When I go on holiday for 3 weeks during late July and early August, I'll have one hell of a lot of catching up to do. Jesus. I've also realised I have the update for Kagihime to watch. As such it looks like I'll probably be up till 1am or so in order to watch everything, since I hate falling behind. It's more than doable for me, so it's no problem at all, but it does mean I'm likely to develop hideous back pain due to my crappy chair. Oh well. I should probably get round to burning more stuff onto DVD for myself too. There's quite a lot to do, and tomorrow I have 6 hours of work too and I won't really be free till 9.30pm. No doubt I'll have a lot of anime to watch then too, heh. So then, till next time.

A happy, happy day.

I was quite happy this morning, since it was the day of the date. I met up with her at the time we agreed, and we had a really nice day together. I would go into more detail usually, but since we're going out now, and since she's just a fantastic girl, I choose to be discreet about my private matters for once. Suffice to say I really enjoyed spending time with her, and I consider myself a really lucky guy. Berefit of details, this post will naturally be quite short. Onto other news, on the Zebra Girl webcomic Joe, the author and artist, hid 9 wallpapers from his store around the site for a free 'Easter Hunt'. It was pretty cool finding them all, and I managed to get all 9 relatively quickly. The Mr. Chalk one currently adorns my desktop. I naturally went through all the other webcomics I read, and I'm looking forward to the next page of Grim Tales. It promises to be quite special.

On the anime front I managed to watch the Fullmetal Alchemist Chibi OVA with actual subs. That was pretty sweet. Plus I watched the third episode of Kiba, the second of the second series of Ah! My Goddess, the first 2 of Ouran High School Host Club and the first episode of Himawari. AMG continues to be good, as does Kiba, and Himawari simply rocks. A female ninja school. That simply wins. As for Ouran, I couldn't help feel that it's incredibly gay, in the homosexual sense. That was my first impression, till it was revealed that the main 'male' character was actually female and just mistaken for male by the club. That obviously lessened it slightly, but it was still different to nearly every other series I've watched. I'll continue watching it though since the animation is good and it looks like an interesting story. I'd consider being in an 8 million yen debt interesting to be sure. I also watched the first 2 episodes of the second season of Mahoromatic, and it continues in the same endearing vein, so tomorrow I'll have another 5 of them to watch, as well as the second episode of High School Girls, which will hopefully have a tiny bit less fanservice. So then, till next time, and here's to the 200th post!

Tedium.

Ok, so it was Easter Sunday today. That means I didn't have to go into work, I could have had the day off. However one of the important reasons I got the job for was money. Like hell I'm going to take an optional day off when I don't really have anything else to do. As such, I went into work. By midday I wished I hadn't. Since the store was closed, I had a ridiculous amount of small inane jobs to do, some of which were really simple, but took freaking ages. One of these was removing little signs and strips from each shelf for one aisle. Not much really. Dear heavens, it took ages since the price labels had to stay in the same place, yet the backing strips often caught them and pulled them out. Curses. There was also the matter of transporting stock all over the place in aggravating metal cages. The damn things are worse than a trolley to steer, and with the amount of stock in them are liable to veer eratically into a shelf if you go above 'steal' pace. So yeah, walking them along wasn't that fun. On top of all that I had to groom the whole store for stock that wasn't in the right place, collect it all, then sort it into departments so they could be easily returned. That too wasn't a difficult job. However the sheer amount of misplaced stuff was insane. Not. Enjoyable.

Thankfully the working day ended and I was able to get home, although sporting a massive headache which still hasn't gone away. In a bit to cure it I drank a lot of water and watched more anime. Well, I didn't have any paracetamol handy. Princess Mononoke was really good, and the animation was superb. Not bad for a comparatively old anime. It didn't have an CG at all in it, obviously, so it really did evoke the whole traditional anime feel. Though it didn't emphasize gore, it was quite graphic in a few respects. Decapitation for example. I also managed to watch the first 6 episodes of Mahoromatic, and so far it's been an interesting series. Mahoro herself is a nice person, yet relies on her android skills like crazy. So much for being a normal maid. In 25 minutes I'll have the remaining 6 episodes and 2 specials to watch too, so that should while away my evening. After that I'll most likely start downloading the second series, as well as the Kiba update and the first episode release of a new series called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. It's based on a murder mystery game, so with luck it'll be quite involved and have a decent amount of twists. Then I can bust out my Jonathan Creek knowledge to try and work it out. Tomorrow is bound to be a great day too, since not only will it mark my 200th post (doesn't time fly...) but also my date. It's something I've understandably anticipated all week, heh. So, till next time.

Experiments.

Not much happened today, since it was a plain old working day from 10am till 6pm. The only thing of note was that, through lack of staff for the checkouts, I almost missed having a break. Working for Over 5 hours with no break would not have been nice. Hmm. Once I got back though I figured I may as well check what anime updates there were around, and lo and behold! Fate Stay Night was around, as well as the very last episode of Kashimashi, which I was looking forward to. Kashimashi had a nice ending, but the last 30 seconds of non-ending credits partially annoyed me. It seemed like Hazumu was with one of them, finally, then the one he was with said an unfinished sentence, which Hazumu repeated to the other. So it seems like he -may- have switched, or may not. The hell..? Therefore there was some closure, but not really that much of it. It in fact leaves it incredibly open for a second series which I don't think will happen. However since I don't read the manga I don't really know. I'll have to get around to starting it sometime. The Fate Stay Night episode was more coolness, though for a moment I thought it really would follow the route of the game. Instead they kept it mostly PG, which was all well and good. Next episode looks damn cool merely from the preview.

I also managed to get around to reading the manga updates for Naruto, Bleach and Gantz. I was a bit behind on Naruto and Gantz, but considering it was only by a week at most that wasn't too bad. In Bleach things are getting seriously funky, so I'm glad I chose to read the manga as well. Anime spoilers aren't overly desirable, but the manga just wins over all. Not only that, but I decided to watch the whole of Serial Experiments Lain in a row. Since it was only 13 episodes it wasn't that much really anyway. What it reminded me most of was the matrix, with a few hallucinatory drugs mixed in. In essence, it was the Neon Genesis Evangelion of the Matrix world, though without messed up mecha-things. It was worth watching since it had a reasonable amount of philosophy in it, and made me think in such a way as to break the series down. Since I'd previously studied philosophy the series didn't really give me a headache at all, as it did for the people who mentioned it to me, since I'd already gone over the concepts before. It was basically mass idealism with a false mass consciousness. Nothing too heavy really. I think the anime was just trying to point out to viewers that in essence a human is just a collection of synapses and electrical signals, with a solid base mass. Without the mass to hold them down, the signals, or relevant data, could go anywhere. As for what's next, I'm currently getting the first series of Mahoromatic since I actually remembered, as well as the Princess Mononoke movie. Since Mononoke is one of the most well known anime movies (apart from Akira) I figure I should really watch it. So, till next time.

Hanging out.

My day today was mostly filled with a friend, since I called her yesterday and wanted to hang out with her. I realised I hadn't really spoken to her much over the free time, and I was concerned for how she was doing. In the end we both went to Brighton, and we visited various places like Dave's Comics, and a food place that did various milkshakes. It was really nice, so I'll have to remember 'Shakeaway'. After that we went down to the Pier and had a few goes at various games, then we had a nice walk along the beach. Though it was windy and slightly cold, it was still great fun just hanging out with her. I also spotted a crashed kite, and when I untangled it the only thing wrong with it was the lack of a handle. Since my friend had never flown a kite I handed it to her, and it was nice watching her fly it. She looked really happy, and a smile really suits her. Then we moved onto watching a film, and we saw Scary Movie 4. It wasn't as good as the original, but some parts were still pretty funny. After that we made our way home, so all in all it was a really good day out with her, and I enjoyed being able to speak with her again. Once I got home I sorted everything out, since I'd bought a few more Magic the Gathering cards, and then sat down ready to proceed through another animarathon.

I managed to watch the remaning 22 episodes of School Rumble, the 2 episodes of the School Rumble OVA, and the Karin, Utawareumono and Air Gear updates. 27 episodes isn't that bad. School Rumble was enjoyable throughout, so I'm glad I decided to see it, and hopefully by tomorrow I'll have the 2 current episodes of the second season to watch. Utawareumono continued to be interesting, with a large amount of character development and bonding. Now the ties between the characters are strengthening, and it looks like the main character's fully accepted in the village now. Air Gear was as good as the previous episode, and is now one of my most anticipated series for this anime season. The Karin update also introduced a lot of drama, but considering the title for the last episode is quite happy, it's making me wonder how the series will turn around and have everything al resolved nicely. In theory I could also watch the first 3 episodes of Serial Experiments Lain, but I don't really feel like watching too much more today, so I'll leave those for tomorrow for after work. No doubt I'll need the anime then to keep me sane. Smiling at customers is all well and good, but doing it for 8 hours gets slightly... tiresome. At any rate for now I'm going to rest, so till next time.

Nothing much.

So today was a day of mostly quiet relaxation. Apart from the morning. I needed to be up and presentable for 12.15pm, since people were coming round to view the house. As such I planned to get up at midday. However my dad hammered on the door, and pointed out they're turned up early, at 11.50am. Damn them. It was a slightly mad rush to get dressed and tidy my room, but once they'd been and gone I had nothing much to do for the day. In the end I played more Oblivion, and joined the Assassin and Thief Guilds. It's nice being part of both, since it means I can kill a load of people, loot them, then sell everything off to Guild fences. Not bad, not bad at all. Unfortunately the Thief Guild doesn't allow you to kill anyone in the act of stealing, but I can simply kill first then steal much later as a seperate act. It may not work, but it'll be fun trying. Some of the assassination missions are great fun to play, and it reminds me of the 'Thief' games, sneaking around so as not to be seen, to make the deaths look like accidents. There was also a fair amount of random killing I felt like doing, though I had to serve a few stints in jail. Seriously, Guards are not friendly people. One annoying thing about Oblivion is that even when in window mode, the mouse can't go over the window boundaries, and so it's difficult to do anything else on the computer. It's slightly vexing really.

Then afterwards there was the customary anime viewing, though I haven't had much to watch at all. I quality checked the final episode of Solty Rei, and it was a good encode. The only mistake was a missing name, which soon got fixed. I also managed to watch the first two episodes of School Rumble. I felt like watching it since a few people have been talking about the second series and I was wondering what he fuss was about. Judging by the start on the first series it isn't too bad, so I'll be getting the rest of it to watch. Afterwards I'll be getting Texhnolyze and Serial Experiments Lain, another 2 series people enthuse about. The Naruto filler update wasn't too bad, since the current arc is passable, if not nearly up to par as the manga. Thankfully it didn't have ninja cooks, or ninja postmen. Urgh. The only other thing I have to watch currently is episode 35 of Eureka Seven, which will come after this post. I'll also no doubt have the next 2 episodes of School Rumble to watch once that's seen, and by tomorrow morning I'll have the other 22. That then at least gives me something to watch. Overall not bad I suppose, but it's a pity I didn't have an abundance today. Oh well. Till next time.

Updates.

Today was a day or work, and updates. I ended up getting out of bed quite early, since a person was coming round to view the house at 9.45am, and so I rewatched Ghost in the Shell Innocence again. Nifty film, and it meant I didn't mind a random lady sticking her head into my room to have a lok. I almost laughed when she saw me and apologised, since after she left I heard her say 'I won't bother him, he's on his computer. I know how busy that can be.' Hehehehe, that made my morning. After that, since the torrents were kind to me and I'd had an average speed of 200 kb/s, I decided to play the recently gained game, Oblivion. Also known as The Elder Scrolls IV, or 'Morrowind Again'. Though it starts out a bit slow, and in sewers with rats (or dear lord, the cliche...) it gets good soon after. Once out of the sewers you can either go on to do the quest you've been given, or just simply wander around the stupidly massive world and do what the hell you like. I almost immediately went to a nearby temple, ripped apart all the bandits there, smashed apart the ridiculous amount of skeletons, killed the Necromancer, and looted the place. Oh ho ho, I shall be a rich man tonight when I play some more. The graphics indeed look good, and my character happens to be a form of lizardman. Dark red and black patterned skin. He looks damn cool. As of yet I'm not sure if armour can be dyed, but I'm sure it eventually can be. An assassin in bright shiny armour is just stupid after all.

After that it was work, and a similar number of items simply not found by the scanner, or by the store item database. yay for newly placed items. Aside from that it was the usual, so just imagine a whole boring paragraph about scanning items and smiling. Yeah. Now onto another subject, and possibly just as boring for you in you're not into anime, once I got home I set about watching series updates. I managed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 2, Ah! My Goddess Sorezore no Tsubasa episode 1 (now to be known as Ah! My Goddess second season), Aria the Natural episode 2 and Bleach episode 77. All of the series are progressing quite nicely, and Melancholy was the most interesting out of them all purely for 'odd girl' factor, though Belldandy obviously came close. What with being a Goddess an' all. I also have the 23rd, and therefore penultimate, episode of Solty Rei to watch after this post. I'm looking forward to that, as it's bound to be dramatic and have at least 1 good fight scene/pwning. I now however have run out of anime torrents for series I'm currently watching, so it seems I'll have to go hunting for more anime, lest I go into withdrawal. So, till next time.

Fantasticabulous day.

The day started normal enough. It was University Open day for Sussex, specifically for the law subject, so I caught the 9.11am train and got to Sussex University itself at around 9.38am. Yep, quite exact. Good timing too, since people had to arrive between 9.30am and 10am. So all in all, good planning. The day consisted of talks, a few more talks, another couple of talks, a cold tour since it was windy and drizzling, another couple of talks, lunch, two lasts talks then home. Though it wasn't the most thrilling of expeditions, it did at least give me an insight into how the Uni worked, and what it was like to live on campus and so on and so forth. However since I'll be living at home it wasn't that useful. When I came back from the trip I went straight to Games Workshop, and played a game of Warhammer 40,000 against the mate who so far has a losing streak of 11 games against me. 11. Dang. At any rate he got the first turn, and proceeded to obliterate me. I'm serious, in turn 2 he killed over half my army, leaving only a quarter left in various states of damage. Turn 3 came. I got into combat. How whole army died. I scored a 'Massacre' victory, since all he had left was an immobile skimmer pointing the wrong way, and a tank with no guns left. I still had quarter of my army. He was speechless. That's a winning streak of 12 games then, heheheh.

What happened after however was what really, really made today fantastic, or the word I used for the title. Another of my mates there is pretty cute. She's the same age as me, though a year lower in education since I'm one of the youngest of my year. She also looks a few years younger than her actual age. At any rate, I've liked her for a while, as has the mate I have a 12 game winning streak against. I've been talking with this mate about her for a while, and he prompted me to ask her out, saying that I have more cance than him. Since he encouraged me, and since the girl in question is, to put it frankly, incredibly attractive, I did so. I expected her to say no to my invitation for a date, since I'm rubbish at wording such things, and I don't think I have that much going for me really. She seemed happy I asked. She said yes. I now have a date for easter Monday. Zomg. Just... zomg. I know it's probably me acting out of proportion, but gee damn, it was an amazing feeling. The fact that she actually looked happy was just... dang. For a few moments I was just in 'Durr?' mode, and I was quiet. Then I finally realised I hadn't actually failed, and I arranged everything. Just... wow. Happy times indeed. ^^ (Note, I will try never to use any form of emoticon in my posts ever again, but this occasion just demands it.)

Once I got home, and once the euphoria subsided to a level which allowed me to function normally, I set about watching more anime. The only real difference was that I was smiling quite a bit more beforehand. Since I didn't have much new anime to watch, I got through another 6 episodes of Karin, putting me on episode 19. 20 has been released by another group, and since I'm not one for waiting I'll get it then redownload the better group's version. The story itself is going on really well, and I'm looking forward to the ending. The title of the last episode is 'It is Embarassing to be Together Always', which is a blatant spoiler, but it was pretty obvious anyway, so that's all ok. I have the first two episodes of Kiba to watch, and the second episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. They'll be left for tomorrow, before work. I need to be up tomorrow early anyone, since someone is coming around to look at the house, since it's on the market. As such it'll be hurried room cleaning, le sigh. On the plus side, it'll be a day closer to monday, heh. Since that's pretty much all the news for now (including 'zomg' news) I'll leave it there. Till next time.

Breaking the record.

Y'know my previous anime record was 52 episodes in two days? Well now that's broken. Lots of anime rushed in, heh. 24 episodes of Ai Yori Aoshi, 13 of Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi, 3 of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. 4 of Karin, the single episode updates for Shinigami no Ballad, Rec, Zegapain, Fate Stay Night and Aria the Natural. There's also the 4 episodes of Starship Operators. All in all, that makes 53. I only broke it by 1, but it's a new record none the less. Looks like in future I'll have to do my best to watch even more, or simply just have an anime-watching weekend, if I want to break the record again. As for what actually happened today, I had a nice rest till 1pm, then I hauled myself out of bed to go down into Eastbourne. There wasn't any big reason, and I only went down to buy a few more burnable DVD's since I'd used up my stash on all the anime I'd watched. Whilst down there I went into Games Workshop and met one of my mates. He had a few games against other people, and unfortunately lost them all. I guess it wasn't his day. After that I decided to come home, and appropriately celebrate the ability to burn more anime by watching even more.

I finally managed to finish up Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, going through the remaining 13 episodes. Though the series as a whole wasn't overly amazing, the ending was really good, and the lest 6 episodes had my attention like most of the other anime I watch. So I guess it was worth watching afterall. I managed to finish Starship Operators too, watching those 7 episodes in a row pretty much after Daphne. Again it was a great ending, and I definitely understood what several people on IRC said. It was a fitting ending to a great series. Apart from those two however all I've watched are new series first episodes. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was definitely strange, but funny at the same time. The episode started out with a club project video, and the character's acting was suitably bad. The last 5 minutes of the episode really made it, so I'll be following the series. I also got around to xxxHOLiC, Disgaea and High School Girls. The first was good like the previous movie, and certainly explained a lot, the second wasn't quite the animation style I go for, yet I'll keep watching it because the stuff it's based on is popular so it may develop some substance, and the last is ecchi. Very ecchi, to an extent I didn't expect. As such I'll definitely keep watching it, since it was funny in that usual ecchi way. Before I go to bed I'll also be watching the next 2 episodes of Karin, and I'm planning to watch the first episodes of the series Air Gear, Kiba and Utawareumono once they're done. This new anime season is going very well indeed. So then, till next time.

Workage.

Again a relatively early morning to get to work at 10am. It was much of the same as yesterday, with even fewer problems, naturally. Though the store supposedly closed at 4pm, customers were still around till 415pm, and apparantly closing up is one of the main problems the store has on a sunday. That's probably why my hours go on till 4.30pm, just in case. At any rate when I finally got home my mum turned up. She'd decided to pop round to chat with my step mum, go shopping, get some clothing altered, etc etc. I didn't see much of her though since I decided to watch anime instead. Slightly cold maybe, but anime is just... well.... anime. It wins. Plus I see my mum every now and then anyway, and she hadn't come down to specifically see me. We did get into a huge debate about my personality though, and since I'm linguistically better than her in an argument I won. She gave up after 40 minutes since she was getting confused. It's always funny when that happens. Long words can faze her, heh. After that it was pretty much back to the anime really, since I didn't feel like doing much else. I also did the customary updating of the Soul Society forum as per every day, but lately it's been slowing down. Though this means less work, it does make me slightly wonder as to where everyone's gone.

Onto my usual topic, anime, I managed to finish 2 series. I finished watching Ai Yori Aoshi yesterday after my post, and today I watched all 13 episodes of Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi in a row. Plus I watched the first 4 episodes of Starship Operators, and the first episodes of Zegapain and Aria the Natural, the sequel to Aria the Animation which I watched reasonably recently. Enishi was a nice series. It didn't have as much an emotional impact as the first series, but rather acted like 12 miniature stories that were vaguely linked together, moreso at the end. It was basically nice just seeing the 'what happened after' sequence, and how life went on for all of them. Starship Operators is, without question, compelling. Considering I've already seen over a quarter of the series, I'm suitably gripped into what's happening. Politics in anime, not unusual, but still quite hard to pull off without it seeming completely stupid. It's managed well here. Zegapain looks interesting, in that it had mecha, good CG, and doesn't seem overly simple. As such I'll keep watching it. As for Aria, well it seems to just follow on from the previous series in the same 'single episode story' way it manages well. It was a bit of a strange story this time, but it's still Aria and so I'll watch it. That makes 19 episodes. Coupled with yesterday's 32, that's 51 in two days. Almost at my record of 52 for that time period. I don't feel like breaking it, so I'll have a break for now. Tomorrow I'll most likely finish Starship Operators, finish Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, and download more Karin to watch. Since I saw a nice gif of a series called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, I've decided to get the recently released first episode of that too. Quite a lot to watch really. Till next time then.

Oh dear lord my eyes.

Post 190 already? My, how times flies when you throw it hard enough. The main first day of work went quite well. From 10am till 6pm I didn't really have any big problems, and everything that did crop up was simple enough to solve once I'd been told how. The main aspect was the shoulder and back pain from constantly moving items over a conveyor belt. It wasn't crippling, just quite painful. However it was an 8 hour shift today, and tomorrow is only 6 and a half, so it should be much easier to bear. I bumped into a few familiar faces from the previous induction days, so it didn't seem like a completely alienated environment. However due to a lack of money I had nothing to eat all day, and so when I did get home I was ravenous. I completely demolished my poor dinner, and the dessert had a snowball's chance in hell of surviving. I ended up getting home at 6.20pm, which wasn't too bad really. I would've got home earlier, but I actually signed out late due to the last customers at my till. They completely ignored the 'This till is closing' sign and unloaded two massive trolley-loads of shopping. Damn it took ages. Thankfully it only overran for about 7 minutes then I was away, thankful that I could go get home. After all, what awaited me at home was of course... anime.

That's what the title refers to. After work I had a slight headache, but I completely ignored it for 'the cause'. So far, and yes I will be watching more after this post before I go to bed, I've watched 17 episodes of Ai Yori Aoshi, 3 episodes of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, and 4 episodes of Karin. 24, so far. Ai Yori Aoshi is a fantastic anime, and I'm glad I read some of the manga in the bookstore. It really spurred me on to getting a decent series, and I'm glad of it. It's really heart-warming at times, and is like quite a few romantically based series, but actually taken seriously for the most part. Daphne continues to be slightly bland, but with a few 'flashbacks' and character histories it's at least becoming more fleshed out. Karin is another funny series. It's about vampires. That makes it hard to be bad, heh. Since I've only seen the first 6 of Karin I'll need to get the other 14 that have been currently released from bots in IRC. Not a bad plan. After this post however I still have the Fate Stay Night update to watch, the last episode of rec and Shinigami no Ballad to watch, and most likely the remaining 7 episodes of Ai Yori Aoshi to watch. Not ionly that but there's still 13 episodes of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. By the time I go to bed I'll have probably watched the updates and most of Ai Yori Aoshi. Tomorrow, since I finish at 4.30pm, I'll most likely finish up Ai and Daphne, get a few more Karin, and then start watching Ai Yori Aoshi Enshi, the second series. Mwahahaha, the plan is strong! (Shame my eyes hurt now....) Till next time then.

Zombie legion.

Again it was an early morning for me, and I ended up at Games Workshop once more. I prepared a normal Imperial army and fought the Tau, a technologically advanced race with lots of guns. Dear lord, lots of guns. I managed to win the game since I chose my targets carefully and got rid of squad after squad, reducing what could shoot back. My friend instead targetted everything I had, and as such though everything took some casualties, nothing fully died apart from a single squad. Not too bad really. The second game I played involved my rubbish Plague Zombie army once more. I was up against Grey Knights, who are essentially Daemon hunters who kill the bad guys. Even so, my zombies trounced them. Though they had better guns, better armour and better stats, sheer weight of numbers dragged them down one by one. It was beautiful to watch, heheheh. Afterwards my mate couldn't believe he'd lost to such a rubbish army. I have barely any guns in it at all. Those were the only two games I played today, since I spent the rest of my time wandering around Eastbourne, most notably the Game store and a few book stores. It wasn't overly eventful, but winning with zombies still entertains me regardless if there's not much to do. I ended up getting home by 5.30pm, and as per usual moved onto what I usually watch in the evenings.

Anime. I managed to watch the Eureka Seven update, the first episode of Strawberry Panic since it was released, and 7 episodes of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. Eureka Seven continues to be a good show for me, snce Holland is now actually being mature and sensible. It's a good change for him. Strawberry panic was certainly interesting. About a new transfer student who goes to 1 of 3 all-girl schools situated close together, it's definitely not genre breaking. ll the same however it was still nice to watch, and the way it went left some heavy hints about what'd happen next. As for daphne in the Brilliant Blue, well. It doesn't really have anything going for it at all. It seems to be a pretty bog standard normal anime, and I can't quite get overly excited about it. I'm mostly watching it through a lack of anything else to watch when I get around to it. Hopefully what the other people I know have said about it, i.e. it gets better near the end, will be true. As for now though I have the 22nd episode of Solty Rei to watch, then I'll probably have a long relaxing bath. Tomorrow I have work starting at 10am, so it'll probably be good to tone down and relax tonight, since tomorrow I'll have 8 hours talking to customers and maintaining a smile. Right... So then, till next time.

Lots of pizza.

It was an early morning today since I was meeting up with a friend, and so I left the house at around 11.40am to get to Games Workshop early enough. Since I managed to arrive there by 11.50am, and they don't open till midday, I was prepared to wait around outside. However since I'm a regular there I was let in early by the manager, and hung out whilst we had a conversation about the Black Library novels. Apparantly 'The Horus Rising' is quite good, so I'll probably read it later. Instead of just the one mate turning up, 2 did, so all three of us walked to Pizza Hut and decided to have the pizza buffet, as much pizza as we could eat for a moderately cheap price. Between the three of us I think we managed around 2 and a half large pizzas, as well as the customary garlic bread. It was quite a fun time out, and the sheer bredth of weird stuff we spoke about pretty much followed the normal genres of our usualy conversation. Basically it was about anime and manga, though not any that would be suitable for children. There was also talk of genocide, aspect ratios, random games, weird TV, and other assorted strange topics. Entertaining, heh. After that I went back to Games Workshop with one of the two and we both borrowed store models for a quick game of Warhammer 40,000. I only had 11 men, against 19 men and 4 vehicles. Well, dang. Thankfully I got first turn and put 3 of the vehicles out of the game, whereupon half my army was gunned down. That was a bit unlucky, but with the few remaining men I had I managed to completely obliterate my friend's borrowed army, and in the end he had just 3 immobilised vehicles without guns, whereas I had 5 men left and the right guns left to blow those mini tanks to smithereens. It was one of the funniest games I've played in terms of being outnumbered and winning.

Anime dominated my viewing schedule once I got home, which was fair enough. I've so far watched 5 episodes of Binchou-tan and 5 episodes of Kannazuki no Miko. Binchou-tan is generally quite a 'cutesy' series, though since the episodes are only 13 or so minutes long it's very watchable inbetween other shows. As for Kannazuki, well... theres the general plot of two girls who like eachother a lot, another boy who likes one of them, and big fighting mechas. It's a pretty damn good series, heh. I saw the first episode late yesterday and already I have the 7th to watch. Before I go to bed the whole 12 will be done, so I'll most likely watch them all, as tomorrow I'm heading to Games Workshop once more for midday, to start playing in the Easter break campaign. It's a short one, so I assume all the victories will have quite an impact. As such I'm going to use my 'good guy' army, even if it's actually my evil army in disguise. The ability to write army backgrounds and histories is one that shouldn't be overlooked, as it allows me to use Chaos as Imperial. Not many people suspect it till my army open up hell, or uses something they wouldn't assume was connected with it. Anyway, more anime beckons and soon I'll have Binchou-tan 06 to watch. There's only 7 in total so far, so I may even finish what's been aired of that series tonight too. Till next time then.

Till joy.

Checckouts beckoned this morning. Or rather this afternoon, since I didn't need to be at work till 2pm. For the morning I just decided to rest in bed, appreciating the warmth. It was quite comfortable. At any rate when I did get to work I hung around till 2.20pm, then actively went to try and find someone, since no one had turned up to talk with me about the train8ing. Another 5 minutes later and I was on my way. The lady who explained everything (in a total of 30 minutes) had to leave 6 times during the 'training', one period of which lasted 5 minutes. Yes, the explanation was quite rushed to say the least. After that I was paired up with someone and actually chatted to customers and such as I scanned the items, charged the price total, etc. I only screwed up once, because the divider between two different people's shopping was buried under a pile of small boxes, so I accidentally scanned a few items of the wrong shopping. The poor guy had to to customer service to make sure he hadn't been overcharged. Whoops. One other couple said that the service I gave was the best they'd had, and they seemed serious too. That was quite flattering. In the end I learnt all the basics, though the notion of gift cards and phone cards still seems strange, since the tills don't seem to work with them that well. Since I start on Saturday, I just hope I won't have to deal with too many. If in doubt, press the 'help' button.

I got home at about 6.20pm and decided to watch the Kashimashi and Bleach updates. Though the Bleach update was supposedly rumoured to be 2 hours long, it was only the equivalent of one hour. Slightly disappointing, and the fillers are still going on, but that's not too bad. I'm sure even the fillers would be better if depicted in manga form. Kashimashi certainly got a lot more dramatic for a while, though it looks like most the problems and mistrust were sorted out. Now it really all depends on Hazumu making a choice. Since she's naturally indecisive it'll be interesting to see how she does it. Not much anime passed by my eyes other than those, though I did watch the first 3 episodes of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, and I have a 4th to watch tonight should I wish. It seems like a fair enough series, but isn't the most gripping of shows. Whereas other anime tends to reel me in straight away, Daphne didn't quite have that effect. The main reason I'll most likely watch the rest of the series is that my IRC friend said he'd send me the rest, which is a lot faster than my usual torrent speed. I'm currently downloading Kannazuki, and I've started getting the (so far) 7 subbed episodes of Binchou-tan. With Mai Otome finished, Rec, Kashimashi and Shinigami no Ballad all a single episode away from the end, as well as the immanent release of the remaining 4 Solty Rei episodes in short order, it looks like I'll have to do yet more anime series searching. Starship Operators will probably take a back seat, since each episode is over 300MB in size compared to the usual 170MB. As such it's not priority at all. Ah well. The anime news just keeps changing and twisting, heh. Till next time.

Second induction.

The induction went quite well today. It was generally about policies, talking through the handbook, signing yet more forms, watching a ridiculous amount of video clips, and a lot of lunch breaks. There was also the uniform which everyone was given, and I'm sure I'll look excellent in black and lime green. Yeah... At any rate the day wasn't too bad and it was entirely bearable since I mostly chatted with everyone. The day passed pleasantly enough, and I managed to submit the two holiday forms, one for my break during the end of July and beginning of August, and the other for 2 days near the end of June for my mum's wedding. It seems to be all ahead full now, and I also probably should start some revision in a day or two. Not only that but I'm going out to meet up with a mate on thursday, so it seems my social life is getting vaguely chaotic once more. At any rate, back to a generalised narrative, after the induction day I went straight to Games Workshop and had a game of Warhammer 40,000. I tested a 1,000 point army consisting of 90 plague zombies and a Chaos Lieutentant. Though I expected to lose horribly, since zombies are a bit rubbish, I only lost 24 models and annihilated the enemy army. This had me in, firstly, a) disbelief and, secondly, b) jubilation. I've not laughed so much for ages, it was quite uplifting.

Once home I moved on to, yes, you've guessed correctly, more anime. I finished watching the Rozen Maiden Traumend series. I see Rozen Maiden and Rozen Maiden Traumend not as two series, but rather as one normal-sized one since the stories flow on so closely and it didn't seem like there was any break. However the overall ending seemed a bit empty, and though there was some closure I couldn't help but wonder 'What next...?' Unfortunately since there doesn't seem to be any plans for a third series, and as I've not read any manga it may be based on, I have no clue. To keep the anime buzz going however I do have the last episode of Mai Otome to watch after this post, as well as the next episode of Ergo Proxy. Also I currently have the Rec penultimate episode currently downloading, and also the penultimate episode of Kashimashi waiting for Rec to finish. So all in all there's a fair amount of updates. I'll probably end up watching Kashimashi tomorrow morning, and I'm already looking forward to seeing how the dramatic and crumbling love triangle works out regardless of the mistrust that's now filtering through it. Rec will probably have a happy ending, since it seems like a generally uplifting series, so I can pretty much expect what'll be in episode 8. Even still it'll be nice to watch, predictable or not. Since updates beckon, till next time.

Earning gold.

This morning I got up relatively early, at around 10.30am. Compared to normal this must seem like bare daybreak, but I had a valid reason. I wanted to watch the rest of Rozen Maiden, and that I did. Not only that but I watched the Mai Otome update too. Rozen had a nice ending, but not one I considered final. That perfectly suited me since I had the beginning of series 2 to watch too. Mai Otome certainly looks like it's leading up to a large finale. The last episode is going to be released at 3am tomorrow, so that doesn't help me much. At any rate tomorrow I need to get to work at 10am for the second induction day, and that'll go on till 5pm. By the time I get home no doubt I'll have the rest of Rozen Maiden: Traumend to watch. I've already seen the first 4, and I'll have watched episode 5 before I go to bed. I seem to be burning my way through anime quite quickly. After RM:T I'll most likely get Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, since my IRC friend pointed out that he'd simply send it to me, which is fair enough. Other than that the general plan is to get the second Naruto movie too. All in all Daphne and the movie should take 3 or 4 days, then I can start on Mezzo DSA or Kannazuki. Or possibly start getting what's aired of Binchou-tan. So many choices.

The induction day went quite well at work. It involved a lot of listening, and signing an ungodly amount of forms. There was also a fire safety tour, pointing out where to run, or preferably calmly walk, if you happen to be on fire. The canteen wasn't bad, but the video with examples of good customer service and such was almost cringeworthy. Acting that that practically cries out for mercy killing. I can only hope I won't look that stupid when helping a customer. Tomorrow it'll be generic health and safety, policies and a few more videos. Then on wednesday it'll be till training, and I actually start this saturday. Not too shabby really. I'll actually get first paid on the 13th, thursday of next week. That's not bad really, though due to how they work everything out a week in hand, I'll only be paid for this week. Next week, before the paycheck, fits into the next month's schedule. Still, getting paid for around 14 hours or so for an induction week, and quite quickly, isn't easily dismissed. No doubt it'll be handy in starting up my saving project for a laptop. Considering how expensive the damn things are I'll most likely have to wait 3 or 4 months, rather than my optimistic 2. Pity it can't be helped. Since my rambling is starting to waver quite a lot I shall take my leave. Till next time.

Burning.

It was remarkably sunny today, though with an averagely cold yet strong wind. I ended up waking early, and just staying in bed till 11.30am, upon which time I decided to get up since I felt a lot better. For once I actually had breakfast, though I ate it whilst watching anime of course. The remaining 11 episodes of Melody of Oblivion passed by quite quickly, and it was certainly an interesting end to the series. Overall it was a weird one to watch, but worth it. Viva la Monster Union! Since I felt like getting out of the house and getting some fresh air, I went to Eastbourne. Not long after I had a slightly lighter wallet, having bought more burnable DVD's and double-DVD cases. In the past few days, thanks to the speed with which I've been watching anime, I've ended up burning quite a few discs with series in a bit to keep my hard drive nice and clean, and quick to defragment. It only took around 25 minutes to defragment once I got home, which wasn't too bad after a week and a half of leaving it. I immediately went through a few more of the DVD's when I started burning, but I've still got 7 left, so that should last me a while as I'm not overly close to ending too many series. The only ones about to end are Rec, Mai Otome and Kashimashi with 2 each to go, and Shinigami no Ballad which has a single episode left.

Apart from the 11 Melody of Oblivion episodes I've also watched the first 5 of Rozen Maiden. Rozen looks great, and though not much deep plot have been revealed, some has been hinted at. It's also one of the few shows that made me smile for a few seconds before I realised it. There's just something about the show that's quite endearing. It's a bit frustrating to have to wait for more to download, but oh well. I just have to put up with my customary slow torrents. On the plus side I have the first episode of Dai Mahou Touge to watch, which promises a few more chuckles. There's also the Rozen maiden and Rozen Maiden: Traumend OST's to look forward to, which'll both be finished before the next episode is done downloading. I'll probably be able to watch nearly all of the remaining episodes tomorrow before I go for my first induction day at work, since I'm not needed till 3.30pm. Once both Rozen series are watched I'm actually debating whether I should get Daphne of the Brilliant Blue or Starship Operators first. There's also the question of another series cropping up, so I'm now not too sure which to go for. In the end it'll probably be randomly chosen based on which I end up clicking first. Meh. Till next time.

Blarg.

6.30pm. That's when I got up. This morning I did happen to wake early and I felt like death warmed up. Though it's not a sensation I can saw with clarity was exact, I certainly felt abysmally bad. As such I went back to sleep in a bit to get rid of the miserable feeling, and by the time I got up in the evening I did feel quite a bit better, though not quite near normal. I managed to get some sympathy from my dad and step mum, since at first they were trating me quite coldly until I explained that I was ill. They'd just assumed I was being supremely lazy, heh. Once I'd had something to eat I felt a bit more alive and so went to watching anime. I managed to get through another 10 episode of Planetes, which means there's only another 4 to go till I've finished the series. They'll actually be ready to watch in another half an hour or so. Not only that, but my IRC mate finished sending me the rest of Melody of Oblivion, so I have another 11 episodes of that to watch. As if that wasdn't enough I also have the update for Shinigami no Ballad to watch. That's a whole lot of anime to see. I'll most likely only watch the rest of Planetes then Shinigami no Ballad before I go to bed, and watch the rest of Melody tomorrow. I guess by tomorrow I'll be able to start downloading Rozen Maiden. I certainly mow my way through a lot of anime. Since I'm still not feeling great I'll leave it here for now. Till next time.