Well it finally got here. My 20'th High School reunion. More people didn't show up than did, as you'd expect but it looks like not many of us are dead yet at least. I only went to my high school for junior and senior year (thanks Dad) and I was the hated principal's son (thanks Dad) so I wasn't as close to my classmates as they were to each other but it was fun to see some of the old gang.
There were some surprises, one of the women had SEVEN kids, one at a time, no twins or triplets or anything like that. You GO girl! A couple of us were still single, and most had more fat and less hair.
The old stories were flying around hot and heavy, who dated who, who did some things maybe they shouldn't have, things like that. The dance was fun. Us old timers can still do that at least....Ok I was sore the next day so sue me.
Basically a fun time was had by all.
If you are interested here's the flickr link to the photo's I took. Like usual I took my camera and promptly forgot it in the car. By the time I retrieved it the dance had started and the lights and been turned down low, so many of my photos came out too dark or fuzzy to keep. Even those that weren't too bad still had red-eye in them. But I try to enjoy them anyway.
PS: For having 7 kids Leslie looked GREAT! Hell for having no kids she would'a looked great. Color me IMPRESSED!
I've just finished the first season of Cardcaptor Sakura and I must say, I gotta start watching crap anime again, the desire to buy the good stuff is gonna break me. I'm buying all of this series even though I haven't seen all of it. It's that good. It's really too bad that this is sub only. With no dub my nieces won't be able to watch this until they are probably too old to want to watch it. I'm defiantly not the audience this series was made for but I still love it. It's so cute!
Ten year old Sakura Kinomoto is living a pretty normal life with a loving family minus her mother who died when she was three. Sakura is well adjusted, well liked by her classmates, athletic and scared to death of any mention of ghosts. She bickers with her older brother who picks on her all the time but is right there instantly if she ever gets in trouble. She adores her father who is a major part of her life even though he's often busy with his work as an archeology professor. She has really good friends including Tomoyo Daidouji who's favorite thing in the whole world is making Sakura dress up in costumes and she has a HUGE puppy-love crush on her brother's best friend Yukito Tsukishiro.
All the people close to Sakura are caring and kind which you expect to see from a show like this and which I appreciate a lot. If only the world actually worked this way. Well the story would be rather boring without some conflict so enter the Clow Cards. A mysterious book Sakura finds in her fathers basement library contains dozens of magical cards that are released when the book is opened and it is now Sakura's duty to capture the cards or a catastrophe will occur.
Sakura is given a powerful rival in the form of Syaoran Li a cardcaptor from Hong Kong. Syaoran and Sakura seem to be rivals in everything they do but as the series goes on they start helping each other capture cards more than fighting with each other over who gets the cards. They actually make very good partners and as Syaoran learns to trust Sakura their teamwork gets better and better. There is probably something to Sakura's brother's immediate dislike of Li, "He's the one that will take Sakura away from me" he says. Hey, they're only 10 but stranger things could happen.
Sakura gets stronger as she captures the cards and she displays a lot of courage as she has to battle some of the more dangerous cards. The cards basically make this series a 'monster of the week' series, but it's really more of a 'slice of life' series with the card getting captured just being something that happened that week too.
This all sounds like sweetness and light and it is but there is a story evolving here. A rather complex story as well. Adults will like the cuteness of it all, but there is enough going on behind the scenes to keep them interested too.
Rating: Excellent! This is probably the mac-daddy of Magical Girl series and it delivers. Did I mention it's CUTE!
Just finished up Ikki Tousen and I must say this is a horribly bad show.....But I couldn't stop watching because the makers just didn't care how stupid it was, they were by god gonna give their viewers some serious fanservice. As usual per anime tropes the women in this show are supposed to be 15-18 but look more like 25 year old airbrushed playboy models. 25 year old airbrushed playboy models that fight in skirts so short you can see everything if they even take a step much less fighting using superhuman attacks that should kill anyone in one blow but instead simply tear their clothes to shreds. I'm not kidding here it's just a show to give an excuse to strip the women nekked as often as they possibility can. I really enjoyed it. But it is incredibly stupid.
If you are looking for something to entertain your mind find something else this is entertaining a region much lower on the anatomy.
Rating: Good Worth Watching or Horrible beware your girlfriend will laugh at you for watching this.
Human Crossing is the latest series I've viewed from Netflix. HC is a series of non-related slice of life stories. I didn't think it would be my cup of tea because I usually watch anime series hoping for a complex story or at least some interesting storytelling that has a nice beginning, middle and most importantly an end, something I find woefully missing from much of the American TV experience which seems more interested in dragging out a group of characters or situations until everyone is so tired of it that it just fades away. Human Crossing has simple stories but complex characters. And almost all the stories were interesting to me.
The younger crowd probably won't find these stories to their taste but to my more mature personage these were excellent stories showing people dealing with their lives and their loved ones. It was really wonderful to watch as a top boxing champ comes to forgive his mother for an accident that shaped his life, or an overworking Dad realizing he's just like his overworking father. The stories definitely have a Japanese feel to them but even so family is family where ever you go and these stories can basically be summed up with two words, "tearfully joyful".
If you want to see something wholesome and family oriented but not for kids this is a really good series.
Rating: Good. And if you are in the right mood it's excellent.
