Disclaimer: This is all Laurelgand and Moonsong's fault. If not for them I'd never be writing this stuff on this page. Blame them and especially Laurelgand for the corpse tea.

Version 16.0 :: featuring Jedi Knight turned Sith Lord Ulic Qel-Droma from Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. Foreground is Ulic on Onderon in Dark Lords of the Sith, background is Ulic at Master Arca's death. Lyrics from I'll Make a Man Out of You, from MuLan.

[ ANIME! // NICHIYOUBI 5.6.01 // GOZEN 1:49 ]

I finished Gundam 08 MS Team today (or is that yesterday?! ^^;;) It's an awesome series. I'd recommend it to any Gundam fan. It's pure Gundam, with little romantic and political subplots that even QS would like ^_~. And of course the animation just gets better and better with each episode. The last ep is simply breathtaking. The ep 10 on my VCD wouldn't play though. I guess something's wrong with the coding ;_;

A friend uploaded all 26 eps of Cowboy Bebop on his FTP, so I guess I'll be watching that next. The only thing you need to know about this series is that the music is composed by YOKO KANNO. Yes, that's YOKO KANNO. You know, the MACROSS PLUS YOKO KANNO. The ESCAFLOWNE YOKO KANNO. XD XD XD Watch it now!!!!! I watched the first episode tonight, and besides the absolutely awesome music, the anime itself seems intriguing so far. It's set in 2071, but instead of the mecha spacy ultra-futuristic setting you'd expect, it's actually very "retro" in its design. I guess you have to watch it to see what I mean ^^;; but the title itself should give you a clue. I mean, how many sci-fi stories have the word "cowboy" anywhere in the title? ^_~

Speaking of Cowboy Bebop, I highly recommend the ending song The Real Folk Blues (hell, I recommend all the music from this anime, but that's cause Yoko Kanno is the queen of anime composers). It's got that "big band jazz" sound, a sultry "swing" style like something you might find playing in a second-rate stripper joint full of smoke clouds and not-so-honest businessmen, yet subtle. At least, that's what it reminds me of. I like the singer's voice too: very dark and husky with hidden meaning, but not too heavy. And she hits her notes! o.O

Going out last night was a lot of fun. It's cool actually knowing anime fans in real life...the guy I got Cowboy Bebop from is in my Japanese class, as if the guy who is going to give me Trigun. We went to Buffet Palace, which is an all-you-can-eat Asian buffet restaurant. And we're talking REAL Asian food. No moo goo gai pan here. All 14 of us raided the buffet lines, made jokes in bad Japanese, emptied the buffet of chopsticks, wasabi, and soy sauce, and generally made a nuisance of ourselves. It was great.

I should be asleep right now because I have to get up at 7 for Honor Guard, but I'm not *ponders watching another episode of Cowboy Bebop* Heh.

I think I'm changing the blog layout tomorrow. Maybe something from Gundam 08...Aina? Lyra, I'll get your layout to you tomorrow too.

Oyasumi, minna!

~Ger

[ OWARI DESUUUU!!!!! // KINYOUBI 5.4.01 // GOGO 4:26 ]

Why is it that the people with the really artistic looking blog layouts also have the urge to make the text the same color as the background? Why??? Whyy???? >< I love reading blogs and looking at layouts, but if I can't read the text, I'm leaving, dammit. It doesn't matter how pretty the layout is. I mean, really! If you have a sky blue background, having light blue text reaaally does not enhance the visitor's viewing experience!

Err...enough about that.

School is out! Strangely, it doesn't seem that it's over...I'd always thought the last day of school would be more....festive? I dunno. But it was the same as usual, students walking around, assignments due, blah blah. The weather sucks today too. Hee.

Took part in the UT Remembers ceremony this morning, which involves the joint Air Force and Army ROTC color guard raising the Texas and US flags on the main mall this morning in honor of all students and faculty of the university who have died this past year. I was a rifle guard. It was a lot of fun and very cool. A fitting tribute, I think.

I'm going out to eat tonight with a few people from my Japanese class and then I think we might go see a movie or something, so don't expect me back until late. ^___^ Ja.

~Ger

[ GUNDAM 08 MS TEAM // KINYOUBI 5.4.01 // GOZEN 1:07 ]

Finally got around to watching my VCD's of Gundam 08th MS Team, and it is a really good series so far. The animation quality is really really good, as it's an OVA series (12 episodes), and the plot is very engaging. It supposedly takes place in the same time period as the original Mobile Suit Gundam, but instead of focusing on the adventures of the newtypes, it's more a nitty-gritty-everyday foot soldier kind of anime. Needless to say, I like it a lot ^_^ It seems to rely on humor more than Gundam Wing, but then again Gundam Wing was a lot less shounen than the rest of the Gundam series. I'm also going to be watching some Gundam X tomorrow (courtesy of Laurelgaaaand) so we'll see how that compares to GW and G08.

Something that I've noticed while watching various incarnations of Gundam is that the lead male characters all look the same. Heero, Shiro, and Garrod all have the same facial structure, hair, and eyes. The only difference is that Heero's eyes are blue, Shiro's eyes are brown, and Garrod's eyes are green. Oh, and Heero's hair is a lighter shade of brown. ^^;;

Exar, I got your package ^____________^ hwwhww Knaths for the wolves!

Tin, thanks for the compliments on my blog layout! I actually pick layouts rather sporadically and randomly, so we'll see what I come up with next ^^;;

I know I haven't been around much this week, but things are crazy with school and ROTC. Tomorrow's the last day of school, so expect me around a lot more from then on.

SnK Act 5 Part 2 is posted. Go read right now! Shoo! Shoo! XD

~Ger

[ ICE CREAM! // SUIYOUBI 5.2.01 // GOZEN 10:21 ]

ICE CREAM!!!!!! XD XD XD I finally scrapped together some money and went and bought some ice cream. It's Ben and Jerry's uh..."Kaberry Kaboom" which is basically strawberry and blueberry ice cream combined with little white fudge covered nerds or something. ^^;; But it's really good ^___^

It looks like SnK is going to be posted on time this week! *high fives QS* Good job! I haven't written Atsuki yet, and from the way things are looking she'll be written tomorrow sometime at the earliest. But I write fast ^_~

Uh...not much going on. There's a small party at Shannon's apartment tonight so I probably will not be online. Neesan, gooood to see you! XD

QS....what was that message you left on my IM last night? About Hide? Hide died a long time ago....I'm not sure if you misread or something. He died in 1998.

Uh, I need to go write my essay now. ^^;;

~Ger

[ THE END // KAYOUBI 5.1.01 // GOZEN 1:24 ]

Have I ever mentioned I love this song? I first heard it last summer sometime and it's been one of my favorites ever since. ^_^

It's the first day of May and a PT night and I really should be going to bed...but I was working on my essay a little bit and felt the insane urge to blog. School is almost out and I guess it's time to reflect. It's strangely fitting, in a way, since this marks the end of my status as a GMC, an underclassman, in the corps of cadets. When I come back next year, it will be as an upperclassman.

I've done many things these two years. Some I'll never forget, some I'm ashamed of. Some I don't really care about either way. Overall, I think college has been a wonderful experience. The one thing I learned is that "the more things change, the more things stay the same." Sure, some things might change, but at the same time if you don't change along with the circumstances, the same old problems are going to keep haunting you until you face them and DO something about them.

I'll never forget:

:: Summer Leadership School 2000, the best thing I've ever done.

:: Alpha Flight spirit missions

:: Florida with Shannon, Josh, and Kelley

:: Meeting my online "family," Midnight Revolution (thegroupofpeoplewhowritebetterthanyou.org) Neesan, Laurel, QS, Lyra, Jen, Mearl, you guys are the greatest

:: Discovering Final Fantasy and anime. I need to thank my aniki for that XD

:: Sainan no Kekka. This goes out to QS

:: Jrock with neesan

:: Josh, Kevin, Amber, Susan, Kelley, Shannon, and Brent

:: The candlelight ceremony honoring those who died in the A&M bonfire.

:: ASSIST at McGuire AFB, with Aaron Dabney. "Like, so totally way!"

:: Arnold Air Society Missionaries pledge class 2000

:: Operation Shock 2000

:: Brad Schneider

:: Being GMCA. That one semester taught me far more than I ever expected about leadership, responsibility, and the Air Force

:: Marauder Flight (ongoing soap opera included)

:: United States Air Force ROTC Detachment 825. Through it all, I wouldn't trade you guys for anything.

It hasn't been a perfect two years, but I think I've learned a lot about myself. I'd like to think that I've become a better person, and hopefully will be a good example as a cadet officer when I come back in the fall. I want to be someone with a clear sense of direction, who doesn't get bogged down in the details, who can accept praise without it going to my head and yet at the same time who can acknowledge making mistakes. Easier said than done. Something to work on in the next two years.

AMERICA'S AIR FORCE: NO ONE COMES CLOSE!

~Ger

[ ULIC // GETSUYOUBI 4.20.01 // GOGO 12:34 ]

Yay! New layout! I'd toyed with doing a Star Wars layout before but I wasn't sure what. I really like this picture of Ulic. I don't know if any of you have read the Tales of the Jedi comics before, but in my opinion they are the best Star Wars comics in existance (and probably the only ones worth reading ^^;;)

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Ulic Qel-Droma was a Jedi Knight who turned to the dark side and initiated the Sith War about 4,000 years before the original Star Wars trilogy. He's a very tragic character who has always been one of my all-time favorites (as you can see if you look down on the "Favorite Non-Anime Characters" list on the left.)

Err...anyway, I have to go to class now. >< Ja mata!

Oh, and uh...if you don't know what "eoe" means...then the message wasn't meant for you. So don't worry about it XD

~Ger