[KUROZUKIN] Mina in Wonderland

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

KYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH

...Neil Gaiman will be in San Jose this October 16. Just when we will be there. IMAGINE THAT. There's some kind of message from God here, I'm sure of it. O______O

Anyway, watched the Ateneo vs. Lasalle basketball game this afternoon; just about the only time I can get excited about any sporting event that doesn't involve flying broomsticks. About an hour after WE WON, I logged onto Phil. Ragnarok Online and there was some merchant with a sign that said "ATENEO BULOK" (Ateneo sucks). Loser.

Stephen Fry believes that Tonks (from Harry Potter 5) has an accent similar to Jane Horrocks. Ha ha, I was right! XD Though the unfortunate consequence of this story is that my image of Tonks will now be inextricably intertwined with Bubble from Absolutely Fabulous. X__x

I have absolutely no idea what this comic is all about, but I know that that cover looks decidedly familiar. So is this some kind of "homage" dealie, or just a very ill-considered blatant ripoff? I thought only teenage online fanartists did that sort of thing.

Martians attacked at 07:53 p.m.! Where were you?

Monday, September 22, 2003

The reappearance of Professor Snapekin -- best known for his memorable line, "I will teach you to spread mustard on fame, mayo on glory, and even stick an olive-topped toothpick through death!". Have I mentioned that I freaking love Sluggy Freelance?

Martians attacked at 06:41 p.m.! Where were you?

Saturday, September 20, 2003

Just watched Peter Pan 2 on the Disney Channel. Anyone want to explain to me how Wendy appears to be in her early thirties during World War II, when she was a preadolescent during the Victorian era? Maybe a side-effect of her little jaunt to Neverland was an extremely slow aging process? -__-

Martians attacked at 10:43 p.m.! Where were you?

Friday, September 19, 2003

Look sharp ye bilge rats and batten down the hatches, for today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! If me Fiction class hadn't been scuttled for the evenin' on account of our teacher comin' down with scurvy, I might've been there shoutin' "The POV in this story be three sheets to the wind, and the lack of climax be draggin' her down to Davey Jones' locker, ARRR!" as me classmates tossed back their mugs of grog. (Aye, we do actually be havin' grog durin' class.) As it is, I've no one to be talkin' like a pirate to 'cept for me own hearties and me trusty parrot.

Ahrr well. I'll just be singin' along with me MP3 of the Garfield Halloween pirate song. "Sixty men all lost at sea, all of them drunk of except for me! 'Twas I who had to face the storm, with nothing inside to keep me warm!"

Martians attacked at 08:21 p.m.! Where were you?

Thursday, September 18, 2003

So yesterday I went to see a play at my old high school, which was directed by an old high school friend of mine who teaches there now. God. We were both in high school, and now she's a freaking high school TEACHER. I am so old. T__T Anyway. It was an interesting play, one of those weird quasi-symbolic no-fourth-wall dealies written during the Martial Law era. And hanging around the old school is always kinda nice. Heh heh. Old school.

And also yesterday, I read the rest of the manga I bought last Friday. Bleach seems to be lapsing into the sort of tiresomely long drawn-out training/battle sequences that afflict so many shounen series. S to M no Sekai, on the other hand, has become... interesting. Like Utena, only more French! XD No lesbians in it yet, but the thing is co-written by Kunihiko Ikuhara, so you can bet they'll show up eventually. In the meantime, I have found this useful page which explains some of the series' historical references and ek-ek like the Rosicrucian order.

Martians attacked at 09:37 p.m.! Where were you?

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

"RES CUEUR ASSICUS" is the greatest spell ever. Now I shall be so disappointed if Rowling doesn't include it in books 6 and 7.

Martians attacked at 05:07 p.m.! Where were you?

Monday, September 15, 2003

MTV's Wuthering Heights. MT-frigging-V's Wuthering Heights. O____o Those people are... not attractive. Especially that guy playing Edward; he looks like the angry bastard son of Doogie Howser.

And, um... well. I really don't know. But this is rather hypnotic. My favorite part is the one with the badgers.

Martians attacked at 08:18 p.m.! Where were you?

Monday, September 15, 2003

WOOHOO! New Harry Potter parody arc beginning at Sluggy Freelance!

Martians attacked at 05:22 p.m.! Where were you?

Sunday, September 14, 2003

So last night was an interesting bit of cloak-and-dagger. For Carlo's birthday, his girlfriend Des was organizing a surprise get-together of his friends, at the Bubba Gump restaurant in Greenbelt. Mom and I were invited; but in order to get there on time, we would have to leave the house almost immediately after Carlo left, while at the same time not alerting him to our plans. Mom had to start dressing ahead of time, so she made up some story about going off to some community meeting. I, on the other hand, lounged about nonchalantly in my house clothes, as if I was gearing up for nothing more elaborate than an evening of TV and internet. When Carlo finally left, I threw on my clothes and Mom and I were off like a shot.

Long story short, the ruse was a success. It took Carlo a full ten seconds after everybody shouted "SURPRISE" for the look of comprehension to dawn on his face. It seems I have a promising future in the secret agent business, while Des has a promising future in the criminal mastermind business.

In other news, I finally read a bit of the manga I bought last Friday. Tsubasa seems a bit... cheaper, in terms of cover design and overall packaging, than most CLAMP stuff. Guess they're really going for the mass-market appeal this time. I'm not entirely clear on the the plot yet; I mostly flipped through it looking for the CLAMP character appearances. "Blah blah CCS characters, seen this part... La la la, XXXholic lady... Is that Tomoyo? That looks like Tomoyo. Hey, Souma! Good to see CLAMP hasn't forgotten their classics... Chii is a catgirl now? HOLY CRAP it's Ashura-Oh! What's that Watanuki kid holding? It's Mokona, and... DARK MOKONA??? Blah blah blah... SORATA AND ARASHI, yay! I see he calls her 'honey' now. Are they officially married or what? Hey, Rayearth. Hey, Miyuki-chan!" And so on and so forth.

Also read XXXholic, which overall I found more interesting. That Watanuki kid is weird-looking, though. He's like no CLAMP boy I've ever seen. It's almost like Mick Nekoi drawing her own version of the prototypical nerdy sad-sack male lead you see in most shounen romance comedies. Only, with a constant sarcastic expression.

Martians attacked at 08:54 p.m.! Where were you?

Friday, September 12, 2003

So this afternoon, before class, I went to the comic store and picked up League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol.2 issue 6. The store had finally gotten their big manga shipment in, so I also bought Tsubasa vol. 1, XXXholic vol. 1, Bleach vol. 7, and S to M no Sekai vol. 2. Still haven't unwrapped or read any of them, however, as I'm still too busy absorbing that last League issue.

*LoEG spoilers and profanity to follow*

In a word? Fucked-up. I don't know if that's actually one word or two, but you get the idea. For those who have yet to read the issue, I present the following handy summary, in the style of Handpuppet Movie Theatre:

CHAPTER 6: In Which Everything Is All Fucked Up

Hyde: Well, since I'm about to die horribly, do you mind if I feel you up in front of your boyfriend?

Mina: I don't see why not.

Hyde: Cool. La la la la... RAAAARRRRRR!!!

Martians: ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP

Deadly Germs: For great justice!

Martians: *die*

Nemo: That's IT. Screw you guys, I'm going home.

Mina: This is pretty fucked up right here. Oh sorry, I mean f***ed up.

Quatermain: Look on the bright side -- at least now we have more free time in which to have sex.

Mina: Oh Allan, I'm really not in the mood. In fact, I think we both need some "space". That's why I've decided to move to Scotland right this minute, without any luggage. Taxi!

Quatermain: Well, fuck. I mean f***.

Seriously, it was a little anticlimactic, but I knew from the beginning that it probably would be. Still fairly cool in a fucked-up way, though. It was fun seeing the MI5 Express (does it stop at Platform 5 3/4?) And Hyde's exit was about as cool as could have been hoped; is it me, or was this whole volume mostly all about Hyde? Sad, though (and kind of pathetic) that Jekyll never even got to appear and say a couple of lines before being fried. I also found it really sad that Nemo left and won't feature in any future Leagues. Actually, the whole ending was pretty depressing.

It's going to be a long wait for volume 3.

Martians attacked at 09:16 p.m.! Where were you?

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Well, it's my brother Carlo's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Carlo! What are you, 25? Better start filling out those forms for your senior citizen card.

Anyway. Been doing various stuff(ragnarokonline). We went to the Bookfair last Sunday, and I got a load of books, including From Hell, and this Comickers book which has illustrations and fancy-schmancy art techniques from all these Japanese artists. And I saw Jessica Zafra and Pol Medina Jr.

Also, Saki kindly lent me her tablet. I've been playing around with it for the past couple of days, and it seems quite nice so far. Though tabletting definitely takes some getting used to.

Martians attacked at 07:09 p.m.! Where were you?

Name: Andrael (aka Andrea L. Peterson)

E-mail: daedalus@icarusfalls.com

Website: Icarus Falls

Age: 21

Location: Manila, Philippines

Material Desires: see here

How Many Roads Must A Man Walk Down?: 42

FAQ:

Q: What the heck is that?

A: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a cool steampunk-ish comic series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill which has several prominent literary characters banding together to form a Victorian-era superhero team. Aside from the principal characters, the series also contains cameos and references to just about every bit of fiction ever written in the Victorian era. This layout features the cover from Volume 2, issue 3 of the series. And now that I've finally read the issue in question... LOOK OUT, MINA! Don't run into any invisible and brutally violent psycopaths plotting to sell England out to the Martians! Oh God... X____x

Q: No, I mean this thing. What is it?

A: Oh. Well, it's my weblog. I write junk in it.

Q: No, THIS thing!

A: What, that? That's a walrus. Careful, they're very territorial.

Favorite Stuff:

Anime/Manga: Akazukin Chacha, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Vision of Escaflowne, The Big O, Lupin III, KareKano, X, Clover, Tokyo Babylon, Chobits, Fruits Basket, Black Jack, Excel Saga, Hellsing, Bleach, +Anima, etc.

Comics (non-manga): The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sandman, Thieves and Kings, Age of Bronze, etc.

Books: Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Holes by Louis Sachar, Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, etc.

TV Shows: Star Trek (especially TNG), Samurai Jack, Justice League, Farscape, Futurama, The Simpsons, Cadfael, Black Adder, Absolutely Fabulous, The Young Ones, etc.

Movies: Chicken Run, Back to the Future trilogy, Disney's Tarzan, Labyrinth, Nightmare Before Christmas, Forrest Gump, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, etc.

Etc: cats, penguins, most kinds of animals, fairy tales, mythology, Green Tea Frappucinos, samurai, Victorian England, robots.