we are only made of air and dust

warning: spoiler for the first 10 minutes of SBY

the only reason I watched this film honestly

Ah, summer J-dramas. I always come back to you, no matter how long the flirtation with other media is.

First up, Arakawa picspam. I can't really explain it. The manga/anime is so weird and the characters - well it's got this space alien/outsider POV/crazy cosplay/bizarre children's television program vibe about it.

Short version: the heir to a company falls into debt to a odd girl who saves him from drowning. When he asks her what she wants as a reward, she tells him to come live with her underneath a bridge. HIJINKS ENSUE.

It's a very short drama - it's barely half an hour long, so you can zip through it pretty quickly. It's a delightfully deadpan/punny jewel of a show, and I only hope it gets even better. The world of Arakawa seems so fascinating to me already.

Oh, obviously - SPOILERS for the first episode of Arakawa after the cut
( like the little mermaid on acid and what the cast of Original Hana Kimi have been up to )

This is why we can't have nice things, Kdrama.

meganbmoore and calixa I most likely will not be around for the City Hunter watching as there is a food truck festival in town and I must eat with two hands the most carnitas, tacos, bacon thingies, Filipino fusion food, banh mis, that I can. Because being stuck out in suburbia, food trucks are more of a city thing and I'm not traipsing off to LA just to stalk the kogi truck.

FOOD + SAFF = MOST GLORIOUS OTP THAT EVER GLORIED, YEAH

in other things: I watched all of Misfits, and after some random rewatching last night along with Green Wing - Nathan is the writerly baby of what you get if Sue White and Guy Secretan had a baby from all the hate sex. Seriously. The hair, the eyebrows, the hilarious inappropriateness, the annoying factor.

Robert Sheehan on his own looks like the bastard lovechild of Shia LeBouef, James Franco, and Cillian Murphy, and possibly a Jonas Brother. This is not a bad thing though.

He definitely had all the funniest lines, but he took so much away from the rest of the cast and the storylines (I preferred Season 1 over Season 2, definitely). It was an ensemble show, after all.

Simon still looks like a serial killer in training to me, but well done to the actor for bringing that kind of intensity to it. When he's being himself and Welsh - oh my god the hotness.

I will say episode 3 of series 2 - the way both Simon and Nathan were drawn and performed in that episode? Brilliant. I can't recall laughing that hard at scripted television in a while.

and the blasphemous reboot of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e's first episode FAILED to bring in the so called built in fanbase of the lead, so perhaps they and the rest of Japan realized...we've seen this show already, AND IT WAS BETTER THE FIRST TIME. OH SNAP.
(continue to FAIL, SHOW.)

something weird happened Wednesday night and so I'm in the library checking email on the free wifi. calixa D: - I haven't had a chance to watch episode 10 of City Hunter yet, and I won't get my new modem/router from AT&T until next week (that is a post for another time) and there was a huge screaming match in my house over it just prior to me calling customer service.

This is why I hate being tech support in the house - if anything goes wrong, it's automatically my fault.

Happy Birthday to pocariporii! May your day be full of fannish delight and ice cream. Or cake. Or pie. Basically something sweet, is what I'm saying.

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You kind of dropped the ball during that entire 'adolescence' thing, didn't you? Finally, a reason behind all that idiocy. And also, you couldn't have made me taller?

I remember when my best friend broke up with me - it was a slow gradual withdrawal from conversation, from hanging out - I could be in his room burning mix cds and he would not speak to me. It got so bad that I started hanging out with his little sister just because he was always busy or had something else to do. We got along well and we had some good conversations, but she was in no way a replacement for the friendship I had with her brother. (Also, for further clarification - our friendship had always been platonic and there was no sexual attraction on either side as he was gay and I disengage from romantic feelings.)

But all the while, he was slowly but systematically figuring out how to extricate himself from my life - that when it ended, I was reduced to writing an almost Dear John letter - asking all the things that scorned/scared people do - what's the matter? Why won't you talk to me? Why can't you talk to me? Is it me? What did I do wrong? What the hell is wrong with you?

We had been friends for almost eight years when it ended in an unsatisfying missive of vague passive aggressive hurt.

I still don't know why he stopped talking to me, and our friends swallowed the distance between us awkwardly but swiftly. (In the end I kept all the girl friends and he kept the mutual boy friends.) Oh, and the sister said she didn't feel comfortable talking to me either afterwards.

I've had people drift out of my life and I've done drifting on my own. I've been called out for being secretive and aloof and pretentious and condescending (which are all character traits I own up to) and I know realistically that some people are only meant to be in my life for a brief moment. Different interests, different cities, different places in life goals and ambitions. You can only hold on for so long but people leave.

Tonight I just felt the great sudden absence of - everything. Of conversations, of comfortable silence that isn't really comfortable anymore and more along the lines of I don't know what to say to you. I'm no longer interesting or our vocabulary has changed to the point where I'm behind or talking another language completely and small talk seems even smaller and more forced.

And I thought - is this it? Is this the point where we say good bye? I should be used to it.

"Yes, you are nosy," said Howl. "You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all."

"But it's a pigsty," said Sophie.
"I can't help what I am!"

"Yes you can," said Howl. "And I like my room the way it is. You must admit I have a right to live in a pigsty if I want. Now go downstairs and think of something else to do. Please. I hate quarreling with people."

- Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

Rest in Peace.

Diana Wynne Jones

It's lunar new year here in SoKo (back home it would be Chinese New Year) so tomorrow is the start of my vacation. Technically today should be the start of my vacation, but because my boss is Dilbert's boss, we're coming in today so we can give advancement exams for the students. Nevermind that we were supposed to do that last week and so we're going against HQ.

It's okay! I'm almost free! Lots of exclamation points!

( the sole reason I actually wrote all that text up there )