The Last Hope

Hope. A beautiful word with a beautiful meaning. Hope is what drives some of us, hope is what pleases some of us. But with beauty comes ugliness.

Many times I have experienced hope only to experience the ugliness of it faltering. Disappointment always seem to rears its ugly head when I am in a moment of hope. Hope hasn't been good to me and disappointment usually fills in the hole left behind. By now I should be filled with disappointment and hopeless but I ain't. I guess that is the beauty of hope, no matter how many times I get disappointed I still bounce up and strive again.

Hope. An ugly word with an ugly meaning. Hope can disappoint some of us, hope can depress some of us. But then with ugliness comes beauty.

The Wedding Planner

As described by many people, it was like a wedding production, and as I mentioned to Kim, only I could pull it off. Was it as elaborate as a wedding, I think not but probably the biggest thing planned by any of us. And why the fuck not, it's a landmarked age, being a quarter of a century.

The day started off with me waking up geared up for a morning of cleaning, a quick trip to Albertson, and food preparation. It turned out to be a morning of swifting dirt under the rug, a visit to Albertson with Kim, and watching food preparation by Mom. By 12:30 no one would noticed I had started later than I wanted to. The BBQ was a hit, everyone enjoyed the food, I socialized with as much of you as I could. I do feel I was not a good host to my close friends, but I figured I would be spending majority of the night with them. It felt good a few of my co-workers could drop by and see me in my environment, even though they commented I am exactly the same at home and at work.

When I initially planned this day, I figured I would end the BBQ and give me a couple of hours to rest before my trek up to SF. That did not happen at all, it turned out right after the BBQ, it was time to head up to SF. I arrived at the time I had planned to arrive though I might have come off as "early" to everyone who traveled up to SF with me. As expected people showed up late, even with all my reminders stating to be there at 7pm. People are probably assuming I make reservations after my designated time so feel they can arrive late. If that is the case, I am going to do something different next time, if you are going to diliberately annoy me by being late, I am going to deliberately annoy you by doing something else. And don't dare try to talk you way out of being late with saying "It's not like the reservations are at 7 anyway," because that's just arrogant and rude. Well enough on my tangent on tardiness.

7:30 arrives and it is AsiaSF time. What a wonderful time it was indeed. Excellent show, excellent food, and most of all excellent company. Though the drinks were way over priced and weak as heck, I didn't care because I wasn't paying. Mwahaha. I was shocked at the bill's total but as stated earlier, I wasn't paying.

After dinner, it was off to GameBoi and boy was it dead. At first I thought it was just early but as the night went on, the club didn't get that packed. But at this point I didn't notice because I was too drunk to realize or care. By the end of the night I probably had consumed 12-15 drinks/shots and in the processed took off another couple of years off my liver (making dying at the age of 65 or sooner a reality). Thank you all who helped me with puking and getting home.

At the end of the day, I had one heck of a Bday Bash. Yes it was crazy of me to ask you to spend the whole day with me, but in the end it was you who made the day worth spending. I've already said my thanks to all of you for attending, so now I will say thanks for accompanying me through this thing we call life.

miru no ga suki des

Jack has his j-dorama, I have my anime. As of late I have engrossed myself into 5 animes and 1 in the process of being "acquired". Here is my quick recap of the ones I am watching.

Fate/Stay Night

This anime is the reason I started watching anime all over again. During my trip to Japan, this anime had posters all over and I was curious as to what it was. As soon as I came home, I found the anime and acquired all 12 episodes available. Much like Jack I spent nearly half my Saturday to watch all 12 only to find out that the 12 I got did not represent the entire series. Apparently the anime is still on air in Japan and I had just caught myself up with the viewers across the Pacific.

When it comes to anime I don't think I am hard to please. Just provide me with some humor and some action and I am good to go. Fate Stay Night does just that. I actually really like the set up of the story and the internal conflict between what the main character, Emiya Shirou, wants to do versus what he has been forced to do in order to get what he wants. All the characters are likable and the animation is beautiful. Every Saturday I wake up knowing a new Fate Stay Night episode is waiting for me to acquire.

Shakugan no Shana

I stumbled upon this anime while surfing around for another anime to fill in the time while I waited for the next episode of Fate Stay Night. At the beginning I did not like this anime as I found it hard to follow and the main female character, Shana, to be annoying. Out of shear boredom I continued to watch the anime and to my amusement kind of enjoyed it. Shana, as the story progresses, becomes less annoying and I found myself liking her. After watching Fate Stay Night and Shakugan no Shana, I did notice one reoccuring theme between the two main male characters, they always have this urge to prove their worth. In both animes, they complain how useless they feel and want to help out in battle, as both the main female characters are the fighters. I would later discover this theme in another anime, it is getting kind of annoying. Shakagun no Shana is a decent anime and was good enough to fill in while I waited for another episode of Fate Stay Night or another anime. I completed the series, kind of a lame ending but still nice.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I discover this great anime news site and found a "Spring 2006 Anime Review" article. It was this article that I found out about this absolutely hilarious anime, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I absolutley love this anime as much as I find it absolutely hilarious. The characters are eccentric and the story sometimes makes no sense, it is brilliant. The animation is crisp and clean and quite colorful. It is a fresh anime that just premiered in Japan, so all I am left with is 4 episodes. After merely 4 episodes I fiend for the next. I want number 5 already, translate faster you fan subs groups. Absolutely recommended.

Jigoku Shoujo

This anime was also within the "Spring 2006 Anime Review" article. It is a horror style anime, about a website people can log onto to seek vengence on their antagonist. The deal though is once vengence has been fulfilled you enter a contract with Hell Girl and you are to spend forever in Hell once you die, "never to experience paradise." In this anime, each episode tells the story of a different character and their choice to seek vengence. After watching several episodes, lets say it gets repetitive. Pretty much, someone does one wrong, they log onto the website, find out about their choice, the antagonist upsets the person seeking revenge and causes the person to seek revenge. Some scenes are shown in each episode which makes it more repetitive. I only watch this when I have no anime to watch, even then I rather re-watch an episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Blood +

I don't remember how I stumbled upon this anime, but I am glad I did. Probably out of all the anime I've watched, this has one of the most intriguing storylines I've watched. It is far too complex for me to write a quick synopsis of the story. After watching nearly half the series, 25 episodes, I don't think this anime would fit well on American TV. The story places focus on the US military and how they seeded "monsters" in all the big wars that has occured throughout the years, making them look like bad guys who are war hungry and has no respect for anything or anyone.

Once again in this anime, there is the theme of a male character feeling useless as he cannot help fight battles and this particular character, Riku, I find extremely annoying. I am hoping he dies in a tragic storyline. The only downfall I would say about Blood+ is the animation is no where near the same quality as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but what it lacks in animation it makes up in story. Even with the annoying side theme, I am so engrossed I am constantly looking for the 4 episodes I know have aired in Japan but has yet to be translated by a fan sub group, I've yet to find them. I highly recommmend this anime.

Trinity Blood

I am currently in the process of acquiring this anime. The only thing I know about it is there is a vampire who hunts other vampires. There is of course a mysterious women who befriends the vampire. I will let you know how this one goes, as I am acquiring the complete series.

So those are the animes I've been watching the past few weeks. Hopefully by the time I post this entry a new episode of one of my animes will be available.