Layout: Screencaps of PoT from here The title of the episode is Compilation stories "TenniPuri". ^-^ The girl in the picture is from Magna Carta taken from boyis while the background is from webshots. Edited in Photoshop 7. The snowflake pic is from this site

Name: =)Kat

Pets: Fishes.
I currently have 7 aquariums ^^;

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01/20/03 - 02/20/03

Blog by pitas

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 @ 08:31 p.m.

*Special First Year Anniversary Fanfic*

Kat: It has been a year since this blog had been created. ^-^ I would like to thank those who had come here frequently and well, those who lost their way ie. looking for some information on search engines.

Kat: Anyway, thanks for dropping by for the whole year. ^-^ We are having a little party here. Sanji and Tats are cooking for us. Luffy, Zoro and Goku are devoring what they can see. Tsuzuki is eating the desserts and those two *Ban and Ginji* are gorging at the sushi bar. Let’s have a toast! *opens the champagne*

Luffy: What kind of hospital is this?! Oh well, since we are here. Do you guys have any money on you? Ours [Luffy and Zoro] are with Nami.

Ban: *sprouts evil Ban hair thingie* I know why don’t we beg around for the money. Maybe there are some nice and guillible people who are willing for part with their money.

Kat: Guys, why don’t we just go home. I kept trying to tell you guys, it is just a mild reaction...the redness. It isn’t an allergy or anything.

Kat: I had been trying to tell you!!!

Luffy: Don’t worry about him. He is aspiring to be the world’s greatest swordsman. He should be able to handle himself. I’m going to close the lights now. Gomu-gomu stretch!! *closes the light*

Note: Gomen, this is really silly and stupid. ^^;; I’m in a rush so it might not be that funny anymore just when I thought of it. Regular blogging will return tomorrow.

Monday, January 19, 2004 @ 08:44 p.m.

We got the tv fixed today since there is some loose connection in it that the sound is ‘squeaking’ – not right term ‘paos’. I’m lazy to look at the dictionary for that. Hehehe It was easily fixed via home service. The vcr was taken though since it had to be fixed at the store. The display is defective that I cannot set it.

In PoT, the team are somewhat dreading the impliecations of Tezuka leaving the team except for Ryoma who doesn’t seem to care. Tezuka wanted to make Oishi the new team captain but Oishi declined. He did agree though to be the acting team captain until Tezuka returns. During practice, Tezuka played a bit with Fuji using his right hand and Fuji seemed to have noticed something. After telling the team that Oishi would be their team captain for now and that they should do their best for the nationals, Tezuka wanted to play with Ryoma. Ryoma managed to win the first set when he was serving. When it was Tezuka’s turn [still using his right hand], Tezuka managed to use Tezuka zone [making the ball return to him as if in a whirpool] against Ryoma who was shocked. Well, he is not the only one who is shocked...everyone is for Tezuka can still do his trademark shot with his right hand. Hehehe, the nice thing about being ambidextrous.

Today is the start of the 24 hour anime channel. At 5pm, it is Kuro-chan the cyborg cat who is balancing being a cat of an old couple to fighting other cyborg cats and those who want to rule the world. It is Nobody’s Girl at 6pm which is about an orphan who had to go away from her stepmother since the father tried to sold her. She is now living with an old man [a gypsy, I think] and his animals. I think this is a classic for there is one much older and the lead was a boy. These two anime were shown in local channel already. They are English dubbed.

Next is DT Eightron. It is about a perfect society wherein kids eat at the same time, the same food, etc. I forgot the US movie on something like this that starred Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Somehow, some kids including Shu managed to break away from the system. They wanted to go outside to know what it was for they are always inside. Unfortunately, all were caught except for Shu who managed to get out. He met a pretty girl, a dark-skinned short girl and a crop cut guy. Then, he was caught again by the city. He was asked if he met the Returners but he didn’t. All of those who escaped, those who are still alive, have been ‘reset’ So, Shu had forgotten everything and went back to his ‘ordinary routine’ life.

Ultra Manica is a fun shoujo and it is quite fast paced. Ayu [ordinary girl] had a bestfriend who is a witch, Nina. It is a secret and Ayu always reminded Nina not to use her magic but Nina with good intentions always use her magic. Unfortunately, Nina isn’t a very good witch, let’s say she is an amateur so things always don’t become what she hoped it to be. Ayu had a crush on Kaji so Nina tried to give him a love potion in a form of a chocolate candy but it was Tsujiai [Kaji’s bestfriend] who ate it. Tsujiai tried to chase Ayu. Ayu then was given a ring by Nina. By the way, Nina had to change into her witch uniform before doing the magic. The ring electrocutes any boy who touches Ayu. Tsujiai got electrocuted and forgot why he was chasing Ayu.

There was a nerd guy, committee guy who is chasing Nina so that he can prove Nina is a witch but Ayu electrocuted him to make him forget. Ayu wanted to go home as many boys are getting electrocuted accidentally. On her way out of school, she met Kaji. She lost her balance on the stairs so Kaji saved her and he got electrocuted. In the clinic, Ayu peaked into Kaji’s ward and seemed to want to kiss him but Tsujiai caught her in the act. Tsujiai didn’t mention anything about it but was just looking casually at Ayu who was badly embarrassed. In the end, the ring broke since Nani’s magic isn’t permanent. Ayu tried to make Nina promise no to use useless magic again. Nani said yes but to herself, she will try to make more useful magic for Ayu. Nina had a very cute cat. ^-^ I wonder if he is the Haru or Rave look-alike in the ad today at the newspaper – because of the collar.

Next episode will be on Yuta who is also a ‘witch’ or rather wizard from Nina’s kingdom. Oh ya, the kingdom is very pretty. It was shown briefly at the end where a man was watching Nina. He was infuriated that Nina isn’t doing well yet. Next is GTO – the ex-gangster who wanted to become a teacher. The students assigned to him are of course, delinquents and he do have some lessons to teach them. After that it will be Chobits, GitS:Stand Alone, Urusei Yatsura then Technolyze. I do want to check Technolyze out since I don’t know what it is. Some ads that weren’t there before are Cyborg 009 – some cyborgs have gone out of their program to save people, I think [I think it is an update of an old manga just like Astroboy] and Ailes Gaires [not sure on the spelling], it is about girl angels who live the lives of what they had dreamt.

Sunday, January 18, 2004 @ 10:01 p.m.

I had a haircut today then shopped a bit and well, bought some fishes then went back home. There was a funny incident when we went off the wrong floor in the parking lot. We don’t want to wait for the elevator since it is just one floor below. There was a guy who told us that we could take the stairs. We went and to our surprise, the doors don’t open from inside. Sis immediately went back to the other floor and asked the guy who told us that we can use the stairs to open the door for us or else, we would be trapped. I was amused since there was a scene in Meteor Garden like that. ^^; The guard at the elevator told us that it was because of terrorism that they closed the stairs since there is no cameras there to monitor that place in case a bomb is placed.

The beautician today is better than before. I did already tell her that my hair is thick which many beauticians tend to give consideration to. They say that cutting hair before the New Year can remove bad luck. I don’t know if it is a Chinese or Filipino tradition but then, we cheated and consider the Chinese New Year as the New Year to cut. Hehehe At the petshop, I bought some small fishes – white clouds and cherry barbs and a small pleco to help clean the algae. I learned there that there is really a light-colored flower horn. I thought it was just the dark kind. You see, I thought there are something wrong with the other two when they became golden white. I guess they are a different kind. Then, I bought two new cactus. Hehehe Only now I know that bulb that my dad gave me. It is a Trumpet/Easter lily. I am wondering why the seller said that it will grow on water when from I read in Western sites, it can be potted in soil. It is of Japan origin. That is my clue since my dad told me it is well known in Japan. He only knows the Chinese word for it.

I forgot to tell what happened in SGRan. ^^; Anyway, it is about fortunetelling. Ran’s life was turned upside down when her fortunetelling are starting to become bad and worst, they come true. She had just registered to a fortunetelling service in the cellphone. The latest one is to avoid monkeys from a certain place in Japan or else, he would be in danger. She associated it with Tatsukichi and since she was avoiding him that day, he thought that she broke up with him especially since she is hanging around with Yuya. In the end, it turned out to be just a delivery truck for monkeys from that place that almost hit her. She decided to stop the service and Tatsukichi was relieved.

The platinum arc in GB had ended. In Yugioh, Malik and Jounouchi’s match had started – it was a dark game. Each monster is attached to them so if a monster is destroyed, they will be killed. In OP manga, they have accepted the game. It is three different games of different kinds – donut race, groggy ring and combat. If a group of pirates lost, the other group can get anyone he wants from the other group and the flag of the defeated pirates can no longer be used. Luffy joined since they might get a shipwright from the other pirates. This could be a way to make one of Luffy’s group to leave them.

Saturday, January 17, 2004 @ 06:31 p.m.

I’m back at the store after a long time of not going there. Business is a bit slow since usually during this time, there would be a lot of customers. I managed to eavesdrop a bit on the presidentiables from a supplier. I was pretty amused when he said that from all the presidentiables, there is none that is good and that it would be like closing one’s eyes and put the name of the probable ‘okay’ candidate. Then, there was that murder of a kidnapped Fil-Chi businessman. I don’t quite have the details but it must be the worker or something. The kidnapping wasn’t for ransom.

Last night, I managed to watch a Taiwan game show. They call console games as TV games. There was a short clip of FF12, which was most probably from the preview. I also a certain DNBlack[? – hehehe, didn’t quite get the name] with lots of pretty girls like angels. The lead boy looked familiar, I think from DNAngel – short red hair but this one had a cool, scythe weapon. I think it is also a bit of a dating game. It is in Japanese though. There is also a nice PC online game called Linage II that is called ‘Heaven II’ in Chinese. There are parts when it looked like FF but then, there was some different scenes are not. The ad for it made me thought it was an ad for some vampire movie. Different people meet each together to form a group and then change into the characters of the game. There are a lot more tv ads on online games that sometimes I don’t get the connection of a certain scene to a game. ^^;; Anyway, the last game which got me perking up is Full Metal Alchemist. I know it is a manga and iirc, they are making or have already made an anime of it. It got me interested to check it out – in Toriyama. The lead is boyish looking but someone who looks okay in a red strenchcoat plus what seems to be a cool-looking weapon ought to be checked out. Hehehe The game is somewhat a platform adventure game then I learned it is also in Japanese. ^^;;

In Gundam Seed, they got Kira back and he was delirious of fever which is not because of germs but the fact that he had to make Anthrun his enemy. Most of episode is on their flashbacks and the shock of becoming enemies, etc. The ship had landed on the planet. And, Fflay’s revenge had started. She break off with Ssigh since their relationship was just determined by her father and since he is dead, it is off. Ssigh was very shock. She plans to help continue the war so that maybe it will increase Kira’s pain and well, die while fighting. Then, she showed him the origami flower that the little girl made, Kira was crushed since he wasn’t able to protect the girl. Fflay then tries to comfort him with those sly eyes then gave him a kiss on the lips ^^;; as she told him that she will be there to protect him. Outside, a band of ‘rebels’ are spying on their ship and Orga[? Really have to check the names] was there. When I watched the opening more closely, my hunch is right from the last episode, it does seemed that Raww had some relationship with Mwu. About Orga, I saw him/her being somewhat close with Kira and seemed to hate Anthrun.

Hai..hai..

Friday, January 16, 2004 @ 10:25 p.m.

This is a late entry since I was cooking the whole afternoon. I had making my white ‘mice’ quite full already that they can no longer eat dessert. Good thing it is just ice cream. I had more or less able to do that cream of pumpkin soup. I’m not quite satisfied with my spaghetti sauce yet – it needs something but it was way better now than before. I guess it just all needs practice. In drawing, I had just drafted the ‘goddess’ picture in GB. The picture was not that clear enough..the background with leaves and all. I really have to set a time to do that.

I wasn’t able to do that much since I’m itching to finish the gb sums already – 7 volumes to go and lots more of guessing what is happening. ^^;; This weekend, I would have to finish the new blog picture. I decided to no longer theme it to the seasons like last year. Well, maybe a bit. In short, anything goes.

It is the start of the three last episodes of Tezuka still in the team of PoT but before that, yesterday’s episode was a bit on Kaidoh. It must be a weekend for everyone was not doing much. Ryoma escaped so he will not be with his bum father and met with Kaidoh. Kaidoh was almost caught petting a lost cat. The owner thought he was going to harm the cat. I noticed that Kaidoh tend to hiss to release his tension. Then, Ryoma and Kaidoh run together to pass over each other when they saw some boys saying that a certain guy is better that freshman Ryoma in the magazine.

They all thought that Kaidoh was Ryoma because the reported put in the wrong picture. The other guy turned out to be Momoshiro. Eiji was there and tried to make Kaidoh play as Ryoma in order not to disappoint a boy who was Ryoma’s fan. Eiji even made a short story to make Kaidoh agree – Kaidoh isn’t really mean and tough as he looks. Everyone was trying to make act and play like Kaidoh that he ‘sucks’ really bad. With so much teasing and letting down the kid, he snapped and became mad as he used his trademark snake serve until he defeated Momoshiro and wreck the net. The kids realized that he was not Kaidoh and everything turned out well since they became his fans. ^-^

Today’s episode was everyone was surprised that Tezuka is back though he seem to be coaching everyone and talked to the freshmen when he doesn’t before. It turned out that coach Sumire told him to get his arm checked in Germany. [That’s what I understood] Unfortunately, it will take a long time for it to heal and Tezuka said he understood and agreed with her. The reporter Inoue saw the brocheur on Germany and had realized that Tezuka had damage his shoulder and told Shika that Tezuka will be going soon.

Oishi then asked everybody in the team to meet together that night. Tezuka was walking and remembered when he was young when he saw a kid who runs a bit the same as he does and kept on playing even if he is having a hard time. Then, he had a little chat with Inui. Then, they went to Takashi’s dad’s sushi bar to eat some sushi that Takashi tried to make [it had too many wasabi]. Anyway, in short, there were some extra scenes to make the episode longer. That night, Oishi told everyone to go out the city so that they can watch the sunrise. Everyone is not quite up to that idea but in the end, they all agreed.

They rode the subway and played some poker. Tezuka, of course, won. Then, they all watched the sunrise. They took some pictures and when they returned to school for tennis practice, Tezuka dropped the bomb that he will be going to Germany to fix his shoulder and he would leave them for he can no longer play in any of the future tournaments. Everyone was shocked.

Previews can be quite deceiving for in Naruto, a lot of things happened than that silly hitting of Naruto. They woke Naruto up and he was still in shock over things as to what happened when he was asleep. Neji wanted to fight Sasuke after seeing his power. Tenten scolded Rock for what he did while Sakura thanked him for his help to make him a bit braver. Rock promised to become stronger. Sasuke was shock that he manage to defeat the ‘music’ guys when Rock had a hard time fighting them. Ino helped fix Sakura’s bad haircut. Somewhere else, Hinata and her group sensed a different group. The doggie guy’s dog is very much afraid so they decided to peek. They saw Gaara’s group facing guys with umbrellas. Gaara is in a killing mood so he used his ‘sand’ technique to defeat them by trapping them on sand then squeezing them to death. He used the enemy’s umbrella to shield himself from the spraying blood. He can also use the sand to shield himself against enemy attacks.

He then, sensed Hinata’s group. They can just sit duck but it was a good thing Gaara’s teammates had made him stop and not deal with Hinata’s group. Kankuro[?], the guy in Gaara’s team hates working with Gaara because of his attitude. Then, they were in the tower, Hinata’s group was really frightened for they saw Gaara’s group also in there. Later on, the proctor of this second tournament is discussing something with some other guys when another guy showed a videotape of Gaara. I have no idea what they discussed but it was something about Gaara – not wounded[?] or something. That’s it. The preview was Naruto wanted to peek into the scroll as to what is in it as Sakura and Sasuke tried to stop him.

Thursday, January 15, 2004 @ 02:34 p.m.

Sigh, I made a boo-boo this morning with the eload. I hope the customer isn’t that too mad. I’m reminded of why I don’t like business. I don’t like messing with people’s money and I am too concerned with customer service that I’m berating myself for that booboo. Well, they are all saying that I’ll just have to learn from this mistake and at least, it isn’t that much money.

The NOW channel is now missing. There goes gamesauce. I guess our cable hasn’t finished their upgrading since the used to be clear signal channels are blurry lately. Yesterday, the channel that have PoT is having signal problems that I wonder is it raining in Taiwan. It happens sometimes the signal is affected by the weather. The scenes that I was able to watch Momoshiro was asked to go out by Ann and Ann was broadcasting that it was a date. Kamio was jealous while Ibu and Ryoma are talking about the tape Ryoma got before. Then, Yuuta and Hajime came. Ryoma introduced them as the ‘losers’, which irritated them. Then, the other Seigaku players lead by Inui wanted to peek on the date. Inui kept on calling Tezuka to tell him about it and Tezuka kept on hanging up the phone – not interested. The fun part was when Inui called Kaidoh telling him about the date and because of the noise, Kaidoh thought Inui wanted to date him. LoL. Kaidoh’s expression was really something and that imagination. I never knew what happened in the ending. Then, the signal came back a bit. Inui called Fuji about the date and Fuji was at the courts and told them that it wasn’t a date, it was a foursome with all the guys there. Hajime tried to talk with Fuji but he snubbed him since he still ‘hate’ him for trying to injure his kid brother. Hehehe Then, there was a doubles match and that’s it.

The national geographic was changed into discovery. In discovery last night, I managed to watch some classic HK movies by a certain Ren Ren[?] Studio. I forgot but it was quite famous. Most of the movies’s stories revolve around women characters. It is the golden age of HK movies [About 60s to 70s] and it shows. The first ones are center on classic Chinese settings of empress who are strong but can be evil. From the short plot, I somewhat thought that it was the story I read before which is about a concubine/empress who made the emperor pamper her and didn’t care for their people. In the end, to appease the people, she had herself be killed. I think the character was a bit like the empress in Houshin Enji. Then, there was the tragic – the Kingdom and the Beauty. The emperor went to a small town and had a lover. He promised that she will send for her upon his return to the kingdom but he didn’t. She is now pregnant and was scorn by the people. Later, the emperor learned about it and called for her. She felt vindicated and on the journey, she didn’t make it. When the emperor opened the curtains of the carriage, she lay dead.

Most of the stories are tragic but the women portrayed are strong and well, the men are weak as in weak-willed. Another story was about a bar singer who fell for a guy but she fell sick. The guy wanted to marry her since she is dying. She found out about it and left since he is marrying her out of pity. It was too late when the guy decides to chase after her for she’s dead. It seem that there was one actress who had everything who committed suicide. I think her last movie is the Black and the Blue. It was sad because the day before she died, she told her sister that she doesn’t want to go home because she is taken advantage of. Her sister told her that they will talk tomorrow for there is no reason to be sad for she had money, beauty, a husband and children. They have to make a copy of her to finish the movie. I like the way she slaps. It was very artsy – fast and that nice sound unlike the way they do it these days in the movies.

Then, the studio produced ladies in martial arts. They thought she was a boy and tried to challenge her, well, she meet them all. I think it is a classic for I have seen some ads of a girl beating all the men in an old style Chinese bar. I think one of the ladies discovered here was in Crouching tiger Hidden dragon, the older woman who fought with Chow Yun Fat. She plans to make a re-make of the movie with her daughter in the cast. She had already migrated to the US to have a family that she gave up her career. In the end, the studio makes erotic films but it isn’t like the porn today – not that graphic. I think there is one about a courtesan who was bid by men and raped brutally that she swore revenge. Oh ya, there was this classic Chinese Romeo-Juliet story. The girl disguised as a guy so that she can study for before girls aren’t allowed to study. She fell for a guy and they fell in love. He realized that he was a girl and wanted to propose but she was already arranged to marry someone else. I forgot the ending but mom said, the girl died and during the funeral, the tomb opened and the guy joined her. Two butterflies flew [which represents them] as they are now free to live together. Mm..that two butterflies reminded me of the red birds in Windaria where there was also a Romeo-Juliet couple.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004 @ 04:16 p.m.

Well, it turned out that the contract on the automated machines for elections was made void by the Supreme Court so the government are now scrambling to calm the people down that there will be no ‘No-el’ – no elections. I heard some of the argument and I guess it was pretty stupid to go into contract with a company that was formed just a few months before the bidding of the machines and there was some stuff, which was made verbally when it should be written. In short, they just bought machines over a billion of taxpayer’s money to only find that the ‘needed’ machines for the elections weren’t fulfilled. As of now, they are appealing it. I saw a glimpse a while ago and they looked like as if they are going to cry. There are people who wanted them to be impreached for someone or some people are behind it all and benefited from that contract.

The episode in PoT is just about some school sports wherein the gang joined in different sports other than tennis. Oishi and Eiji joined the volleyball team and won. Inui and Takashi are in baseball in opposite teams – I think Inui made it a tie since Inui was so calculating and well, he also take data of other players. Momoshiro is into basketball and after making a dunk, he got hit by Kaidoh who was into badminton. Kaidoh realized that his snake serve doesn’t work in badminton. And as expected, a proud ping-pong player tried to outbeat Ryoma until Ryoma just used his tennis techniques to win. I don’t know if it can really be done like just thinking that ping-pong is like tennis. And finally, the genius Fuji just competed in a sport of tossing a huge sliding rock – I have seen this before, who made it go farthest is the winner. As I wrote, the guy is a genius because no one had joined that contest and since he is the only player in it, he wins without a sweat. ^_~

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 @ 04:22 p.m.

Oh ya, next week is the lunar new year. I remembered to take note on that when we ate ‘sweet cake’ or tikoy last night. I forgot the English name for it. It is just made of sugar and rice flour, iirc. What happens on that day...nothing much except dragon dance and celebration of the Chinese community, which had been lately getting media coverage as many Filipinos are beginning to believe in Feng Shui and stuff. The two cultures are really meshing together. I forgot the term. In China and other Chinese countries, it is a weeklong celebration. I saw a documentary on it before. Anyway, I learned from the news that Vietnam also celebrate it but unfortunately, their chickens have bird flu so does the chickens of Japan. In China, there is another case of SARS. It is really not a good start for the year of the monkey.

I realized yesterday that the actress/singer Anita Mui had passed away. I know something is up about her but well, I didn’t know she had died – of uterus cancer. She is quite famous and there was a clipping that her close showbix friends are somewhat bidding goodbye as she wear a hat – maybe because of chemotherapy. The funeral was yesterday and there were a lot of stars in there including Andy Lao, Jacky Cheung, and others. Okay, they all look great in their black suits. The media people are crowding the places where they would enter. I do not know what is the tradition of washing hands with water and leaves in a basin is all about though. Then, there is the burning of paper stuff like airplane, car, and house. It was believed that these things would be received by her in ‘heaven’ and she will use it. It is a Chinese or Buddhist tradition. I actually like that picture of her that they are carrying. She was quite beautiful in that b/w picture. Honestly, I want to draw it. ^^;;

I get to see the calendar of Ayumi and Hyde in MTV last night. I like Ayumi’s while Hyde’s ah...not very much. I guess I have grown out of the fandom of L’arc. ^^;; Honestly, I’m not even excited over their new album. I guess it could be because of their long hiatus and I had been listening to jpop mtv from jettv day in and out. Hehehe By the way, that segment was hosted by 5566 lead guy, I think he is Tony which features Japanese artists and I heard before that there was once a Japanese singer who had a crush on him. I’m not sure if he is fond of Japanese artist but then, maybe he is or else, he won’t host it. ^^;; Good thing he already cut his hair since he made it pretty long for the drama Westside story. The MTV Asia is just in a small screen of the chat so I have a hard time knowing who the singers are...the lettering are quite small.

It was a bit boring episode in PoT. Everyone is practicing which made mushroom-head [one of the freshmen] thought they didn’t care for Tezuka who haven’t appeared since he is still nursing his shoulder. He then challenged Arai to a game but it was stopped by Oishi. Then, the two [Arai and mushroom-head] gained respect for each other. Next episode, let’s play volleyball.

Monday, January 12, 2004 @ 04:02 p.m.

The news isn’t that cheery with all the politics and there are some doomsday prediction of what would happen if the elections are not clean or didn’t happen. In the front cover was about the Filipino Broadway actress who is now in the US getting married. She has also done the singing voice of Mulan and Jasmine [Aladdin] for Walt Disney movies. I was telling my mother that she is very conservative and she said that it was because it is cold now in the US. The motif is red which was the actress favorite color. Anyway, just like any other famous celebrity weddings here, there will be a video coverage on TV about it. It was quite ironic that when she was still here, she didn’t get that much celebrity status and it was until she won the part of Kim in Miss Saigon that she began to reap the praises due to her talent.

In GB, I thought they will show a longer flashback but it was too short. I remembered thinking that Ban [spiky] and Ban [hair down] is a different person before in some GB official wallpapers until I got the manga. I ought to ask Asher again as to why she thought it was a yaoi manga when I showed those pictures to her. ^^;; Unlike Goku of DBZ, Ban’s hair go down when it is wet and it was like that when he was young. We used to try to think of a theory as to why Hisoka of HxH’s hair is all spiky when dry and down when wet. We thought that maybe it was his nen or he uses gel to keep it up. For Ban, I guess it is the weight of the water. ^^;; There was a part wherein he tried to gel it but they kept on going up one by one – each spike. Hehehe I don’t know if this was in the anime since I had missed that part. The episode was toned down when Akabane poke a scalpel into Ginji. They used the lights of the truck to camaflouge it.

Nothing much happened in Yugioh except, the two duels have been chosen. Jounouchi decided to sacrifice the game he would have with Yugi so that he can play against Malik to free Mai. Kaiba was pretty happy about that. Regarding OP, there are no new trans/scans yet but someone talked about the possibility of one of the crew leaving since the author had mentioned it. At first, it was thought to be Robin but in the last arc, she had already confirmed that she would stay put to the end. [Hehehe..I’m amused that many Nico Robin hair look-alike are popping up. It is the ‘in’ hairdo here lately. Bangs are in and that’s good for me.] There were theories that it might be Usopp. Well, maybe it could be him since his dream is to be a warrior and if he proved himself, he might not go with the crew anymore but he would be missed – though anyone leaving would surely be missed. Sanji would leave if he found the All Blue if it is near there then, his goal is finished. Nami would have to end the journey to draw the map. Luffy is the main so there is no way he will leave. Zoro haven’t found Mihawk yet. Chopper wanted to be an expertise of medicine and wanted to be a pirate. Well, let’s just see.

Sunday, January 11, 2004 @ 05:55 p.m.

Hehehe...I forgot why I wrote about the ‘feast’ yesterday. Anyway, it is that time when politicians have the opportunity to plead to the people to vote for them and well, some pray to it so that they win. Opinion articles are getting interesting lately with the election coming unfortunately, I’m living in the country where all of those are happening...well, Asher, too. ^-^; During one of those ‘jumping frogs’ wherein they are happily accepting an ex-opponent, it was really amusing to watch them. Ex-senator with venom tongue is now saying praises to her new adoptive party/coalition lead by the incumbent president whom she used to call ‘shortie’. I looked at the other people there. They are quite glum and that reaction of the speaker of the house, rolling his eyes as if thinking, what a liar. Hehehe It was priceless.

There was also these lawyers who is now saying that the actor wannabe president is an illegitimate son so he isn’t a Filipino citizen. I looked at the elder one [they are siblings] and from what I see, he was looking down on the table while talking. ^^; I was thinking ah, wasn’t this already being settled before? Well, elections are near and mudslinging is quite active now. Then, there is now that issue of no-el [no elections]. I got what it is all about, I think. There is a bill saying that the elections should be fully automated by machines but it wasn’t as of now for it is only partial. If the president signed this bill that means, no elections on May since the ones handling the elections are not ready. There was this about the machines being not be that good – can be hacked since from some concerned people, they say, it is based on Windows and that isn’t exactly hack proof. There is a case in the Supreme Court to say the bidding was legal or not. Lastly, the ones who would handle the machines have no training yet on how to use the machines.

There was no Kindachi last night and late at night, that channel ‘died’ again for the nth time. Good thing that there is no anime that I need to watch there. Maybe if it returns again, it would have a new sched already. In the ad, it was confirmed that our cable will not have that 24-hour ch since it wasn’t listed in. The first few hours of kiddie anime will be dubbed while the rest will be in Jap + localized dubbing. I doubt it will be our language so maybe in English since it is a partner of AXN, which subs in English – their anime.

Okay, the Grudge. I was it in Jap with no subtitles and armed with the knowledge of its basic plot + mom to watch the scary scenes for me. The plot was going to a certain place where the mom and son was killed can kill them by the ghosts of the two. The story was told in a different way – a name then a scene on how that person was killed. There are a lot of elements from the Ring 2 in it like that sudden twich in the tv that you know something is up, the walking/crawling (I think this is in Ring 0. I didn’t get to finish Ring 2 ^^; ] while there is that creaking of bones and the phone rings and you hear that ghost. The ghost’s sound is a creaking sound as if it was the jaw opening or well, a creaking door.

It was almost at the end when I more or less got the story though I don’t know the reason why the mom + son was killed. ^^; It seem that the grudge place is not limited to the place where it happened but moves to the place where the new victims are killed. So, I think, if there is a newly mover in that house, they have a chance of getting ‘infected’. The girls are scared to death and dies. The first one had a combulsion. The next was the kid ghost kept on appearing then it started following her up to her room. Then, a high school student was chased by her zombied classmates who were ‘victims’ then grabbed at the back. For the guys, they just looked possessed and have this black shadow on their face. They just stay in one place, staring. I think the ghost goes to the men by killing them and using their bodies to move around.

So, what is the ghost purpose? Well, I got a clue when there was a security guard checking the comfort room where the girl saw the ghost. She saw some kind of shadow at the back. Later on, a guy was looking at the video. He saw a shadow with the figure of a woman. So, the woman ghost is trying to make herself alive. The last two victims are friends. I don’t quite get how they got infected though. The other girl followed her friend to the original grudge place and went to the attic. To her surprise, she saw her friend being dragged by something. She got frightened and tried to run away until she passed by the mirror. There was a series of illusions then, some horrid monster of a friend [from mom] wherein the ghost seem to be sucking her blood. There were a lot of flashes again which mom wasn’t able to explain to me. In the end, the man who was possessed [the second one in the movie whom I think was the husband] took her. Later on, there were scenes of the town, which was empty – no people. It reminded me of Resident Evil. And the final scene, which I already guessed – there was a woman in a kimono in the attic. She looked dead then looked a bit bloodied and well, just as I thought, she is now alive with eyes open.

So, the purpose was to come back to life much like Sadako in the Ring. Now, what would Grudge 2 be about? It could be a mom-son tandem for I do remember seeing a woman ghost much like Sadako in some ad, I think in Taiwan channels where it was shown before. Oh ya, their favorite cat is a black cat, which is always around sometimes with the boy. After conquering a small town, what could be next? The city? What would be the purpose then? Anyway, with the popularity of the Grudge here, it is back in some theaters after the all-local-movies-fest, there is a spurge of Asian horror movies lately. There was the Korean one called Remember the Dead/Memento Mori that was supposedly base on a real story of a haunted school. It was after the Phone movie that I didn’t get to know what it was about. There was a Chinese movie called Haunted Office. Another is the Twin Effect, which is not that typical horror for it is humans vs vampires film. I have seen parts of it but the channel where they will show the in the making is dead. It had some special effects in it.

Saturday, January 10, 2004 @ 10:47 p.m.

There was the feast of the Black Nazarene yesterday. The Black Nazarene is a statue of a dark-skinned Jesus Christ, carrying a cross, clothed with velvet robes as if he is going to the Calvary. It is believed that when you wipe your hankie on it, the hankie had powers to cure to sick so they use it to wipe themselves if they are sick or for their loved ones. It is during this day when they have a parade and people go there in droves to just had hankies/towels wipe on it. I was thinking that the ‘power’ is more powerful on the feast day. Many do atest that it is real and there are others whose petitions came true that they became devoted to it. The usual is going there every Friday and of course, the feast day.

In ordinary days, since I had a school report on it before, at the church, there are two statues. Aside from the one I mentioned, there was another one who is dying down. Both are encased in glass and expose just a part for people to put flowers and well, wipe their hankies on it. The special thing about this church is that outside there are many other interesting things of vendors selling herbs and potions for different ailments and even a love potion, amulets with special powers, and many other things. There is also fortunetelling of tarot cards, ordinary cards and now, a bit of feng shui since it is the ‘in’ thing now.

I’ll try to trim down my cooking days to M-W-F. My parents want me to help in the store during Saturdays. I guess the rest of the week would be misc. days which should include drawing and computer = art and well, playing Playstation. Hehehe

The local channel is going to show a new Korean drama. I thought they are going to scrap Eternity but it turned out, they removed Astroboy to Sunday so that would mean, only one anime weekly = Yugioh. The new drama’s actor and actress are the ones in Beautiful Days. It is also the same actress in Winter Sonata. She always plays the poor and bullied girl who is practically wht the new drama is about. Her mother in the drama, is the servant of oh-so-rich family and the rich daughter always orders her around like helping her in the test that she passed and the lead fail [they switched test papers], rich daughter is trying to get the boy who likes the lead and the final one is rich girl is driving with lead girl and they had an accident by hitting the boy crush. The rich girl is conscious and in order to be free of blame, she switched the unconscious poor girl to the driver’s seat. And that is just in the advertisement. The title is The Truth. The rich girl looked kind of pretty. Hehehe

The theme of this episode in SGRan is a bit serious. They have a Physical education teacher who thought highly of himself and liked to push Ran to the limits since she is ‘different’ and doesn’t conform to the rules. She had Ran ran laps as punishment for being late and Ran would even dare him to give her a heavier punishment. There was this girl who was blamed for the failure of this teacher’s sports tournament in his class. He made the other students to not be her friends anymore or else. The girl of course was lonely and went to Ran. She told her of her problem and well, Ran told her if they don’t want to be her friend, she could be her friend. Later on, the teacher told the girl to find out of Ran. The girl followed Ran and her friends. The girl felt guilty and envy Ran and her friends so she stopped taking pictures. When Aya went away for cram school, Ran and Miyu found the girl with other the different colored skinned gals. I’m not sure if it is a dye or something though which is popular in Japan since I have seen a girl in GTO like that, too. They thought the girls are bullying her and it turned out they saved her before she had a car accident. Anyway, with Ran’s urging, the girl revealed what the teacher asked her to do. Ran told her that she should hang around with them. In school, the girl has been hanging around with them.

One day, they had the teacher again in values class since it was raining. The teacher challenged Ran for being different and asked the students that she shouldn’t be in that school and should have no friends, etc. Ran rebutted him that at least, she isn’t like him who was obeyed by his students just because he threatens them. The teacher punched her and Ran was shaking in anger. Everyone including the other class came to see what is happening. Ran shouted at him for being an unworthy teacher then she punched him back. The teacher wanted her expelled and Ran isn’t afraid of him. Her homeroom [old] teacher went in to know what had happened. The teacher kept on telling of Ran’s behavior while Ran told him that the teacher is threatening his students to do everything he wants. The teacher denied it and then, his homeroom students including the girl he likes to order around confessed what the teacher had them do. In the end, the teacher got removed and Ran got suspended a few days. She was made to do a report but was caught by the teacher for cheating since her friends used a difficult Chinese kanji that she shouldn’t know. She had to do it all over again. ^^;

I don’t quite understand today’s episode of Gundam since there are a lot of explanation from Athrun [the Chinese way of calling him is Asth-the-lan] and Raww. One is about the different powers of each Gundam. Unfortunately, the strongest one is Kira’s. Raww knows that Anthrun is the opponent’s best friend while studying in moon[?]. Anthrun plans to try to make Kira come back to them and if not, he will kill Kira himself. Raww don’t believe in it then, made a very long monologue about a certain guy who is pretty unbelievable in everything he does. He became some sort of official but his son was a loser in everything so it wasn’t in the genes. After the guy was killed, the son[?] was bullied. I think the kid was Raww since they didn’t show much the son’s face and the hair is a bit the same. At first, I thought that he was referring to Orger [the blond who pilots a ship and fights with Kira. I really need to re-check these names. The same goes with Naruto.] and somewhat envious of him or something. There is a new opening though – duet of a boy and a girl – forgot the name in the credits. I get to see what Strike Gundam [Kira’s] get to morphed into. ^-^ It was a bit like in Xenogears – the main character’s gears. Somewhat spikes at the back and it is cool looking when lit. I think it is somewhat like a Buddha or those type of god statues’ pose. In Xenogears, it was pretty cool. I should have rec some of those scenes for Asher in her tape.

Hehehe...late post. ^^; I was half-watching Grudge. More about it tomorrow – from what I understand since it is in Jap and well, I kept on looking away from the scary parts.

Friday, January 9, 2004 @ 08:36 p.m.

Hehehe...I’m full. ^-^ I just spent the whole afternoon cooking and it would have been the whole day if it wasn’t for some maid help.

^^; Anyway, I cooked up half of the sukiyaki beef for sukiyaki. I made it too salty. ^^;; Then, the other half for beef kebabs with improvise sauce – it was suppose to be tonkatsu sauce. I also made agedashi tofu and some spinach with tofu soup. There is also California temaki and a side dish of stir-fry spinach. It was too many since the spinach is near dead/wilted and tofu are sold as huge squares that I have to cook all of it [It will not be okay if even tomorrow]. I have to cook the asparagus tomorrow and hopefully, it won’t be too wilted. I was supposed to cook it today but my ‘white mouses’ or gokus are already full. I’m tired already.

In PoT, it wasn’t as exciting as yesterday’s episode. I don’t get the way they play the match since it is already 35 to 36 and whoever lost a shot will lose. Ryoma and Momoshiro went back to watch it with mouth open as well as most of the audience. Keigo missed one and in the final deciding factor, after doing the-be-calm-as-the-sea mood while hitting the ball, Tezuka used his short shot. Keigo managed to hit it and Tezuka shot it back but unfortunately, it didn’t go past the net. Tezuka lost. Since he is sport, both he and Keigo congratulated each other of that great game. Then, the referee said that it was a tie[?] so they would have the last game. I guess if it is a team captain fight, it had more points or something. It is Ryoma’s turn and he was very inspired by Tezuka’s play. I’m amused that Tezuka is sitting at the coach’s seat. Hehehe..maybe later on, Tezuka will return as coach and well, he will make a great one. Ryoma defeated his proud opponent and the episode is finished. The episode used some technique of showing city scenes before returning to the end of the match. I think I saw that in Karekano.

Naruto - Ino and her buddies tried to fight off the bad guys. They had an edge but at the last moment, they lost. Neji and his teammate came to avenge Rock. I glanced somewhere else, and it showed off Neji’s eyes, which Asher talked about. ^^;; Anyway, Neji noticed that he didn’t need to do it for Sasuke is awake, surrounded by dark wave chi. Sasuke woke up when he dreamt of his past wherein his parents were killed and he blamed himself for being weak. Mmm..isn’t that the cliché for most heroes? I was guessing that it was his brother who killed their parents since Sasuke hated his brother. Back to the story, in the dream, a young boy who was Sasuke before, I think, asked real-time Sasuke if he wanted strength. That is the time, Sasuke’s body was filled with black marks as Sakura noticed that Sasuke seem to be like the snake guy. Sasuke beat up one of the bad guys and even went far as to break his opponent’s two arms. Sakura realized that this isn’t the Sasuke she knew and before Sasuke could beat up the masked in bandages guy, Sakura hugged him at the back, to stop him. Sasuke’s marking went back in and he collapse on the floor, conscious. The bad guys gave them their scroll and told them that next time they meet, they won’t retreat anymore. Sakura asked why did the snake guy wanted Sasuke. He said that he didn’t know or why the snake guy put his ‘mark/seal/curse’ on Sasuke but they are tasked to kill Sasuke. Sasuke is still shaking and wondered what had happened to him. Preview: Naruto is awake as Neji get their wounded comrade.

Thursday, January 8, 2004 @ 07:18 p.m.

I had surfed a bit last night. Okay, it wasn’t a bit as I downloaded FF12 trailer which turned out to be a pirate [blurry and I can see people passing through the theater. The late-comers. ] and an update to the player since it won’t play. Well, the characters need getting used to and I read that they were from the creator of Vagrant Story. I can see the similarities in terms of the way they wear their clothes and a fit seem to be familiar faces. The lead looked a bit girly – young innocent girly guy. ^^; Not good but there was a nice-looking guy there who seems to be the leader of the kingdom or something. Some scenes reminded me of the op of FF6 which had soldiers fighting + machinery. There are also somewhat mutants in there in a dark place. I felt as if I had seen that before – something similar to it, that is. Then, there is that lady archer who had huge bunny ears [reminded me of a char in FF9] and had X-men’s Storm’s long white hair. The lead got imprisoned and was in some sort of collesium dungeon with monsters in it. Ah, wasn’t that in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. ^^;; Anyway, the cg still looked good and it could be just a part since what they showed are dungeon scnes and some sort of a parade – a wedding, I think which is a bit like FFX in some way. I was counting that in PS1, they had 3 FF titles in it and this is the third one for PS2 [FF11 is for the PC, I think], I hope it won’t be the last one before they suddenly invent a new console which doesn’t play the new games.

I was flipping channel late at night when I saw a cg show in wowow. It reminded me of FF the movie but then, I don’t recall that scene. It then dawned to me that they are showing Animatrix. I just looked at the pictures since it is dubbed in Japanese. Since I didn’t watch any of the matrix movies, I have no idea what the heck is happening in there. I can just enjoy the eye candy and guessing if it is a work of a Japanese or Western animator. It was already really late that I didn’t finish it.

I’m really cooking a lot more these days and it is when it is already night when I thought I should be drawing something. I also need to come up with a new blog pic since it is already after the holidays. We have been eating veggies a lot these days as I try to cook what seems to be a 1-kg spinach though my father said that it is half kg and 3 bunches of 150g of asparagus. I’m looking at the cookbooks in our house to cook them in different new ways rather than to the easy way out – cream of ‘veggie’ soup. Well, at least, I’m of some use here. Hehehe Just realized that the gift veggies before weren’t spinach but Chinese broccoli and I cooked it like spinach. ^^;;

Pot today is really something. I cannot believe that I’m bothered so much by Tezuka’s sacrifice that it got me thinking last night. If he lost this game, I don’t think they would lose since they would have won 4 out of 5 games. So, I guess it would be pride and give his teammates the ‘will’ to finish a game no matter what. Geez, and this guy is just a fictional character. Well, it wasn’t the end episode for the match. I assumed it when it said, the last ball – something like that as the title. So, the game continued from 6-5, iirc with Tezuka leading. Everyone believed that he could finish it until Tezuka’s shoulder gave way that he had to kneel down in pain, clutching his shoulder.

He had already decided to finish this game no matter what as he was playing that he would just had Oishi be with the team to the nationals. Everyone was very worried that they rushed toward him. Tezuka quickly told them to go back since the game isn’t finish. It was really an almost win because he just needed to get a shot in and he would have won the game. Tezuka wanted to go on even if the others said that he should not do it at the expense of his shoulder. Oishi knew he was very sure about it and that he is doing this for the nationals so he let him go. Up at the bleachers, Takamura had arrived and was cheering him on. Sumire cannot do anything to stop Tezuka from doing what he want. Ryoma left the bench since the coach had returned. He told Tezuka not to lose to anybody else and Tezuka said he won’t.

Ryoma went away and was followed by Momoshiro to practice. I was thinking either he cannot bear to watch it and pretending not to be bothered by the match. Keigo managed to catch up and it is 6-6. It is a very tight game since it is the pride of team captain that is driving them. Keigo thought that he had underestimated Tezuka who doesn’t seem to be giving up and managed to have that straight face all throughout. Everyone is all perked up now – even from the other teams as they watch the game – the final set. Keigo managed to get a hit in, iirc then there was another ball going towards Tezuka and he was staring right into it. Off court, Ryoma and Momoshiro could hear people cheering and that’s it. The preview is everyone looking shock and then a scene of Tezuka’s new(?) technique.

I had browsed through some of the PoT episode short previews and tried to find the names of the characters of the next team fights. Well, after this, it will be a lot of fillers, which included, I think, from what I read, a filler match with a team that seem to be very bad and weird – Jousei. Then, it is near the 100+ episode when it went back to the storyline of the manga. I think most sites tend to be more focused up to this part. Oh ya, while surfing, I find it amusing when there was a forum whose topic was characters are better in the manga than the anime. There are about two posters who said that an example is Kaiba and Makuba who are much evil in the manga. Makuba was even tried to kill Yugi for defeating his brother. I guess, they did toned down the ‘evilness’ in the anime for the kids.

Wednesday, January 7, 2004 @ 03:19 p.m.

I had spent the whole night typing GB that I’m begin to wonder why it is taking so long. I noticed that I tend to dwell more as in sum a bit in detail of my favorite chars and scenes. Hehehe Oh well, I hope Asher will not get bored reading it. I wrote it in paragraphs so that it won’t be confusing. Also, another reason is the authors really pack a lot of things in each volume. That is why the drawings are so tight that it made me dizzy before. I plan to sent it all as a whole so it might take time.

Sis is also asking me to type something up so I might do that first. This afternoon, I cooked since tonight it is mom’s turn – si but. It is somewhat of a herbal soup. I don’t like the idea of the main ingredient is ‘black’ chicken though it can be beef or duck. The soup is somewhat medicinal and is known for making one healthier – help blood, etc. I tried to cook all the veggies today so that they will not just decay in the ref. Let’s see – a ‘cheat’ soup since the base is one of those instant soup – nido soup and just add whatever ingredients I get to find in the ref which I can put in, stir-fry green beans with mushrooms and three kind of stir-fry chicken which doesn’t like like three different kinds. ^^; I still base a lot of my cooking on recipe books then just add different ingredients that I think would taste good. When I said to my father that I’m testing a new recipe, he says that I’m making them as their white mouse – experiment. ^^;; I tend to make them in small quantities.

Our cable has been re-channeling again. Alas, TTV is not there. There goes my One Piece. I think if ever they will return it, it will be like what they did to AXN that took months to return and I practically lived without it that when it returns, I’m not that excited about it anymore. But then, that is because the anime they kept on showing are reruns or ones that I’m not really interested in. They decided not to make wowow and ettv movie into premium. Yay, but it is a bit blurry today. There is still no animemax. Mm..I would have to remember the new channels again. Sigh, the downside of this cable. Oh well, cannot have everything.

News here is as always politics. There seem to be just two major parties and the others who are put aside because of their either no party or not popular enough. The political parties here as said ad nauseum had no principles and the people composing them likes to play ‘jumping palaka [frog]’ by going to parties which are popular and well, have higher chances of winning even if going to their one’s enemies. The two previous ‘revolt’ or what we call Edsa [the place where the revolution] took place seem to be just a waste since all those who were oust and involved in those scandals, etc are back in full force as they fill the senate candidates in both the two major parties.

What happened to Arnold in California is nothing new here since there are a lot of actors/actresses who are running for office from the top position of presidency down to counselors. I think it would be hard to choose as to whom to elected these days. There are a lot of ‘I-don’t-want-to-vote-for-this-guy-and-that’ that in the end, I might just vote for the next hum-hom. I wonder if it would be an invalid vote if I didn’t chose in some categories. ^^; Anyway, there are some people who are saying that the elections might not push through for reason.

It is a bit amusing that everyone seem shocked that Britney Spears got married early in the morning then wanted a divorce in the afternoon for the reason, ah, I think she was shock over what she did. ^^;; That isn’t really news and isn’t that shocking since famous people tend to do such things. The one I did remember is that basketball guy, Rodman. Here, it isn’t that rampant yet since divorce isn’t legal but there is a thing called separation. I’m not sure how it works though and I actually thought it is also like divorce since actors/actresses here can get separated then, later on, get married again.

The Jap drama of My Little Chef is starting to bore me since nothing much is happening in the plot. She just kept on helping other people’s problems with eating food and it somewhat solve it. Then, I think at the end is the reconciliation of her real mother who had left her to the father since she didn’t want her to get involve in her debt problems. This drama is ending though by Friday. I heard rumors of a new fad, Indian drama-soaps after the fad of Chinese-Kor dramas. I actually heard this first from Jen [the other] but I thought it was really far out and she did mention that she somewhat like the drama. I forgot what she told me about dancing on the stairs by two lovers meant. ^^;; Then, I read two articles hinting about it. My theory as to why Jap dramas are not shown locally is because it is too short and they cannot drag it.

Edit at 6:15pm: Okay, I can already guess the reason why Tezuka went to away, I think in Germany. His opponents really like to bully the guy. The score is already 3-2. The scenes of the competition looked like some photo layout. ^^;; Not much action but then, what is happening is already tense. Keigo had a specialty to hit hard that can knock out the opponent’s racket as noted by the red uniform guy with a cap who looked somewhat bsho. He was with another closed eyed character – like Fuji. So, Keigo started doing that, which makes Tezuka, had a hard time. Not only that, he noticed a weakness in Tezuka, which was his arm, and even though it seems okay now, it is still injured. He planned to drag the game up to Tezuka break his shoulder[?] bone and can never play tennis again. The Seigaku team is quite angered about it and it is very unlikely Tezuka to give up. Oishi remembered that the doctor had warned Tezuka not to play too long nor kept on using his short shot. Then, Keigo noticed that Tezuka’s shot isn’t getting weaker. They realized that Tezuka is giving it all for this game. Oishi realized that Tezuka is willing to do whatever it takes for Seigaku to make it to the nationals even if it is at the expense of his arm. I think if he lost this game, it is over for Seigaku. There was another flash of Tezuka’s former coach – looks cool. ^^; Everyone began to watch intently regarding the outcome. Preview – It will be the last episode for this match. There are a lot of scenes with the two then, someone just dropped his racket...is that blood?

Tuesday, January 6, 2004 @ 07:45 p.m.

I didn’t do much today except writing GB sums. It wasn’t as detailed and yet, it seems to take a lot of time. ^^;; The food last night was okay. Mom said that the white sauce was a bit dry and I did notice it. Weird, before it wasn’t that dry. Is there a difference when using imported pasta? I did notice that it seem quite heavier like I estimated that each serving of pasta is about 50 gms and last night, there was a bit of leftover. The soup was okay though mom thought it was potato. Well, there is a potato in it but there is also cauliflower. The experiment pork balls were too hard. I guess that is because of lack of egg. My sweet and sour sauce was a disaster. The coconut cookies were too soft. That is because the oven heat was too hot that it was browning too fast that I have to get it out before it turned. So, my rating would be about just passing grade. ^^;;

I wanted to experiment on making shabu-shabu though mom wants sukiyaki. I guess I’ll just half the beef for both. I’m still thinking of other Japanese dishes for a Jap theme dinner. My father isn’t fond of sukiyaki...he said it was too sweet. I also wanted to try some dessert bars but I would have to be careful of the sweetness. My parents might blame me if they got diabetes since their sugar level might go up. Yes, I’m itching to cook lately because of the Sanji bug. I really need the Usopp bug, too since I should do some drawing already.

Ya..ya...someday, I forgot about Kindaichi. Well, in the first case, it was about a heir to the inheritance. It turned out that it was his mother. She revealed that she and another woman was the wives[?] or siblings of the guy and the other kept on bullying her. She was shocked that they were pregnant on the same day and she exchanged the babies so the one she killed wasn’t her real son. The woman had died and she cannot stop herself from killing her adopted son since he looked like the woman she hated. It was ironic that her real son had loathed her and treated her very badly. He was quite shock at the extent that her real mother did in order to ensure his future. She committed suicide as atonement to her sins. As she was dying, she begged for forgiveness and it was only then, her real son shouted for her in anguish. The second case is a classmate of Hajime who is in love with a girl. Hajime is teasing him. Then, they learned that the art teacher was injured and the girl was the suspect. Hajime solve the case. The culprit was a girl who loved the teacher but he said he already had his ‘venus’ as he sketches the Venus sculpture. The girl was momentarily outraged and just when the teacher tried to grab the sculpture, he slipped and the girl had thrown the sculpture on his head. The teacher accepted her apology and told him that the ‘venus’ he was referring to wasn’t the sculpture but his fiancé. The girl that Hajime’s classmate like was also sad about it. I guess, she liked him, too. The classmate would later on try to impress her with an abstract painting, which reminded me of the RK filler of a painter drawing Kaoru. Hajime and Miyuki tried to stop him from showing it to the girl.

I also forgot Gseed. ^^; I caught Fflay faking to care about Kira and why he didn’t go away. I didn’t get to watch it from the start. ^^; Then, lots of fighting between the natural and coordinator that I thought I’m in for a boring episode. Kira got permission to fight on, as Murrue was shock that he returned as well as his friends. Natarle told him that he could fight on. Yzak was waiting for him and attacked him. Kira’s group ship manage to make one of the Gundams plunged into Earth[?] but the Coordinators got most of the ships they were suppose to protect destroyed. Kira is getting serious with his fight as he kept on pushing Yzak’s Gundam to the Earth’s atmosphere. Yzak retaliated by firing. Kira tried to save the ship that he was suppose to be on and the kid who gave him the paper flower was on but it was useless. So, three Gundams plunged into the Earth’s atmosphere. I’m not sure if they will burn off or not.

In PoT yesterday, there was the chibi episode. I didn’t get the overall plot but I did understand the short silly plots. I think it was cut since I have a screencap that wasn’t in the episode I watched. First, a Godzilla controlled by Hajime[?] was causing havoc and chibi tennis players came to save the day. Poor Kaidoh, they just have to get him fried. I’m amused with Kaidoh and Inui whose juice saved the day. Second, it was Snow White theme. The tennis players are chopping wood and as usual, bullying of Kaidoh. Takamura’s technique was amusing. The witch had Snow White grabbed and her goons dropped her in the forest. The Snow White was Sumire. ^^; She bullied the drawves and made them their slaves. They only got to eat a bit from what they cooked since Snow White was eating everything. The witch came with the apple and the dwarves fought over it. ^^; There was an intermission of Inui making a juice. In the screencap that I saw, there was Inui watching the witch as the juice was beside her bed. I don’t know how the witch was and it could be also Hajime. The last story is Fuji being happy to have defeated Hajime for bullying his younger brother. Ryoma challenged him and lost then there was a re-challenge and Ryoma won. They became friends. There was a short one on Eiji and two other guys drinking by the inui juice unknowingly.

Today’s episode is on Tezuka. Keigo got his school members and cheer girls shout him on cue. Everyone noticed his ‘airness’. Keigo kept on bragging of his superiority and that he can read people’s weaknesses. The first point, Keigo managed to score then Tezuka got the other. Keigo gloated the Tezuka had an injured left arm. Oishi bursted out that it isn’t true since it is now okay. Opps, it was suppose to be a secret. The other teammates began to worry since they didn’t know. It was Tezuka’s dream to bring the team to the nationals. Oishi then told them how Tezuka was injured. During their freshmen, Tezuka is tensai tennis player. It made everyone thought he was like Ryoma when he was young. ^^; Tezuka would always play against upperclassmen. Oishi warned him that he might anger some of them.

While walking home, Tezuka told Oishi that he wants Seigaku to go to the nationals and Oishi promised to help him until the end. Oishi also learned that he was playing with his right hand when he was actually left-handed. After that year, Tezuka was promoted team captain and well, a sempai discovered that he was really left-handed. He felt insulted that he hit Tezuka’s left arm with a racket saying that he doesn’t seem to use it anyway. Tezuka got frustrated that he shouted that tennis playing isn’t suppose to be fighting. Then, there coach, who was also an upper classmate, must have been a graduate, came. He looked quite young – wearing shades and seems to be playful. He ordered everyone to run laps. I guess that is where Tezuka got that idea of punishment. Tezuka said that he is quitting tennis but the coach grabbed him by the back of his collar and said that he cannot quit until he finishes his laps. Tezuka ran and Oishi remembered their promise so he stopped Tezuka. Oishi told Tezuka that if he wants to quit, he would also quit since they are in this together. Tezuka was surprised over what he said as their coach said that it seem that his friend can be his reason to go on and go to the nationals. Everyone then, respected Tezuka more for working hard to get them to the nationals. Oishi told everyone that the doctor said that his arm is okay but he is still worried. Then, the referee announced that Tezuka won the first set. In the preview, Keigo is not going to give up so easily.

Monday, January 5, 2004 @ 04:45 p.m.

I went out yesterday with mom, sis and her hubby. We went to eat at a Jap resto called Izakaya Kikufuji which is at Pasay road, I think it is now called Chino Roces..whatever, it is where there are a lot of Japanese restos. This resto was recommended by sis’ hubby’s dad. I’m amused that whenever they go out to eat, they thought of me especially if it is Japanese resto. Anyway, this place is packed when we arrived at about 1pm. I noticed that most people who eat here are Japanese or Chinese but then, I met a couple of Korean girls in the c.r. Later on, there were some Filipinos from the social class since they are talking in straight English. Well, I was wondering if this is some authentic Jap resto but the cooks and waitresses are all Filipinos.

So, the important part is the food. Well, it was delicious. I ate some potato salad, California maki, sukiyaki and veggie tempura [which is much like an extender when I order ebi tempura in our college canteen before but this one seem to have some fish or squid]. After that, we went to Greenbelt 4. I went to Powerbooks and didn’t buy anything. I wonder why at the children’s book section smelled bad...^^; I think that a kid must have urinated there. Then, we went to shop a bit in Landmark and I bought a pair long gloves with the fingers poking out. It was suppose to cover one’s arms from the sun while driving. I have a feeling that my mother might give it to sis since she said I didn’t need it.

^^;; Then, we went to grocery and I bought some stuff which I might use. Hopefully, I would use them up –this time before they get expired again, much to my mom’s dismay. ^^; Well, I would cook dinner tonight. I’m cooking in small portions – cauliflower soup, meatballs, some pasta in white sauce and some coconut cookies, which until now I cannot perfect but then, my mom loved them anyway. I smell like butter and onions now. I prepared what I can prepare and finish up when they arrive from work.

In GB, I didn’t catch the opening but since I have the manga, I more or less knew what happened. As usual, the chibis are cute but the rest is a bit boring. They did tone down the way Akabane kills, which was a bit gory and bloody in the manga. I begin to think if I know the story, it won’t be much fun to watch it. ^^; Oh well, this one ended with Akabane wanting to fight the duo and Himiko agreed.

There are lots of flashbacks in Yugioh that I thought nothing is going to happen here. Some are new but then, it is more on explaning and stuff then back to the fight. Having a foursome fight is hard since they won’t know who will attack them. It was fun but ended quickly.

Saturday, January 3, 2004 @ 05:08 p.m.

I cooked corn chowder last night as something extra for the lasagna that sis will be bringing. I experimented a bit with the ingredients and manage to get the liquid right this time. I hope I can do it again.

I’ll try...I forgot if I put that extra water. ^^;; Anyway, in PoT, Fuji showed his third special shot. It was really something. He hit the ball then when it was about to be hit by the opponent, it went up and goes near the back court then it returns back to Fuji. Unrealistic but cool. So, he won hands down and as they shook hands, Jirou was ecstatic over Fuji’s different shots. Everyone was surprised since he wasn’t a sore loser while his teammates said that Jirou is like that as always. Then, Tezuka called Ryoma and they played for 3 minutes. Ryoma managed to get some hits in but Tezuka still have the edge. They returned and someone informed Sumire about Tezuka missing for a while. Sumire was saying something about Tezuka’s decision and hope that he knows what he is doing. There was a focus on his left arm. Keigo is quite sure that he will win as his coach told him to not lose in order to upheld their school’s name.

Then, several other teams have arrived at the court – Renkakku, Yamabuki [minus Jin] and this other team in red. I would be in trouble if they fight the red team since I have not found their names and school name. Anyway, there were also lots of college scouts there. The two enter the court – Tezuka and Keigo. Keigo in his usual proud self, claims to know something about Tezuka as he points to Tezuka’s left arm. And that’s it. Talk about hanging then there will be filler in the next episode. I’m not quite sad about it since I had been waiting for this filler. I just hope that nothing happens that I cannot watch it. ^_~

In Naruto, Rock got a damage ear and was made ‘paralyzed’ by the enemy whose powers are sound based. One of them was going to get rid of Sasuke when Sakura tried to stop him. She was held back by the girl who grabbed her by the hair. Ino and her group are trying to decide if they should help or not. Ino even though she and Sakura stopped becoming friends since they both like Sasuke, cannot help but want to help Sakura. Anyway, she hesitated. Sakura decided to fight by cutting off her hair which she and Ino vowed to make it longer since Sasuke likes long haired girl. Sakura can no longer bear being the damsel in distress – protected by three guys – she went to the one who is going to Sasuke. She manage to pull off some tricks of cloning herself then biting to the guy as well as wounding him a bit. The guy was too strong as he kept on beating Sakura to get off him. When the guy was about to hit Sakura the final blow, Ino got her group to intercede. Next episode, Ino and her group are fighting then everyone is surprised with the smoke coming out from Sasuke.

Nothing much happened in SG Ran. They were going to a school fair. Ran and her gang went to a haunted house, ate lots of food, watch a play, Ran ate more food, and stuff. Her younger sister and friend + Tatsukichi tried to sneak in. In the end, younger sister and friend went to a detective movie marathon – their idol. Tatsukichi got caught so was made to advertise/invite girls to join in a contest. Ran and Maki joined with selfish reasons that in the end, it was a tie in last test that they kept on dancing until everyone was so bored that they left. It was already sunset. Only Yuya and Tatsukichi with Maki’s friend were left. Aya went to visit Rei at his dj station then, they somewhat understood each other. The song that Rei played sounded nice. ^-^ Then, Miyu went to meet Yamato who had just finished work.

Friday, January 2, 2004 @ 04:09 p.m.

I had been going crazy over a tablet again. ^^;; Sis teased me what I want a tablet or a PS2. Hehehe I researched a bit on the 24 hour anime-channel and learned that it is based on Singpore and is a partner of AXN. They say since a lot of Asians are ga-ga over anime, it would be cool to invest on a channel like that. It is owned by Sony and there is a channel of the same name in Japan [which started on October 2003] though I don’t think it had the same broadcast for it had a different website and the asian version had an attached Animax-asia. I think it might be just subbed because it is also shown in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asian countries.

They are partners with anime studios - Toei Animation, Sunrise, TMS Entertainment, and Nihon Ad Systems. Sunrise is the one, which produces Gundam anime while Toei is usually kiddie ones. I found a Pinoy message board about it and some guy said that our cable would get it. So far, the top cables of the Lopez got it. It will start on Jan 19. The ones that have schedules already are Kuro-chan, DT Eightron[?], Ultra Maniac, Chobits, Ghost in the Shell [tv series], Astroboy and Getbackers. There are some others in the ad which doesn’t have a schedule yet like Lum[?] the alien and Remi [the orphan girl]. I think the channel mixes with new and old anime usually the ones that have already finished.

The anime shown/to-be shown in the Jap version [somewhat what to expect] are Shaman King, Osomatsu[?], Dragonball, Gundam [? – not sure if this is the first one where the rest is based off], Area 88[?] and Project Midnight Horror[?]. The schedule of the anime can be daily or one a week. Like AXN, it is being rerun so it is 24-hour. There were specials last Christmas like movies [Slam Dunk, Kinnikuman, Inu Yasha, Ranma 1/2, Lupin III, Urusei Yatsura [Lum], Anpanman [Bread-head superhero], Touch, YYH, Metropolis, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Ninku and others. I’m not sure but there is a Vandread – movie or ova? They also showed ova/movie – KOR [Orange Road], Aoyama [drawings like Conan but it seem to be a love story], Yagumo [I think I have seen this in ch. 7], R.O.D [Read or Die], History of Nippon Animation, Fumano Kojiro [fighting adventure], and of course, among others, RKenshin.

Oh ya, Bleach got licensed. Great, just when I was hoping to save some bucks by not buying it anymore and wait for them to catch up. They never got to catch up. Good thing they still had that cover pic of the chapter still up. I downloaded the wrong chapter before and I want the pic for a future blog pic. I had tried looking for a Chinese scanlation for GB since so far, I cannot find a site, which will give me a bit of spoilers as to what is happening. Oh well, there were none and most English sites concentrate on the anime and the characters. I haven’t gone around and summarizing the ones I had yet. ^^; I guess I was not meant to be spoiled about it.

Thursday, January 1, 2004 @ 06:31 p.m.

Happy New Year! It didn’t feel as if it is a new year though just from the news, it seems to be quite the same. There is that usual gory finger-less scenes of people who got their hands blasted away as they lit the firecrackers. The female TV host turned senator had already accepted the decision to be the vice president candidate of the actor. For the pessimists, the worst-case scenario is for the actor and the male TV host to win in the elections since one doesn’t have a political career while the other one had so far, not proven himself in the senate though he had the charisma. Everyone was thinking who ever wins there, the local channel where the two had become famous is the winner and also for the male TV host, wherein some people who think there is some payoff for he doesn’t really need a party to win.

I learned that I’m not the only one who is pestering our cable on the Taiwanese channel that had One Piece. ^^; As usual, they promised that it would return. It has been 3 episodes since the last one I have seen. Oh ya, I had visited the Yugioh scanlations again. I made a mistake. It wasn’t Malik in the Egyptian arc as the main villain. It was Bakura with a scar. ^^;; He is after the dark power which the millennium items had sealed. Bakura warned Yami Yugi that he would have a traitor in his midst. Ah, would that be Kaiba? Aside from the complete millennium items, it is important for Yami Yugi to know his name. He still had amnesia. Geez, I spoiled myself. ^^;;

In PoT, Fuji is using his ‘disappearing’ serve against Jirou who managed to counter the next set with his unpredictable shots. Ryoma was the replacement of Sumire as she brought the injured players including Muneshiro to the clinic. Fuji kept telling Ryoma to observe him play and Ryoma played cute by gesturing with his hands as if he had a telescope. When Jirou was going to do a serve which everyone though Fuji won’t be able to counter, Fuji did his ‘swallow’ shot just as Tezuka said that Fuji couldn’t do other things than the usual ones. Then, at the last scene, Fuji told Ryoma to look intently for he will show him his third and last special shot.

Wednesday, December 31, 2003 @ 08:33 p.m.

There are a lot of firecrackers a-cracking tonight compare to last year. It is belived to cause evil spirits to go away so good luck for the next year, which we would really need with the bad economy and elections around the corner. Our family no longer do this because firecrackers = pollution = bad for health. I cooked a new recipe, Baked Tuna Spaghetti. I was okay. I guess watching cooking shows of nice looking food can make me want to cook. Cooking shows in the Lifestyle Network didn’t encourage me much, I guess I’m not quite used to American cuisine.

There has been a lot of problems lately around the world – the earthquake in Iran, the mad cow disease discovery in the US and the possible return of SARS in China. Here, it is politics again. The controversial senator had filed his candidacy as well as the ex-education secretary and an evangelist. The TV host turned senator agreed to become the current president’s vice-president. It won’t be soon when the other vice-president aspirants will be nominated by the different parties.

Yesterday, we went to a family-relatives [mother’s side] reunion. It is as eventful as it were before. I tried to escape from the party but I have no substansial alibi. I don’t want to go since I don’t want to see the relatives whom I irritated with – so soon. Since I’m a frequent participant in previous programs, I’m asked to do something. I quit singing and it is quite easy to tell a story without reading so I chose to tell a short story and got a few bucks from it. Then, there is the usual ampao [red envelop] for the singles and no income [new option] so I got one, too. I’m unlucky in regards with raffle this time and I have a hunch that I will be.

In PoT, Kaidoh and Inui won. Then, I’m not sure if Kaidoh agreed to play doubles with Inui as Inui kept on writing notes on how for them to improve. The manager of the Hyotei team gave some tips for Choutarou and Ryou to improve. Then, it is Takamura and Muneshiro’s single match. It is power vs power. It is quite uneventful since there are a lot of flashbacks on Takamura’s drive to win – Jin telling him not to lose against Ryoma, Ryoma saying that it is all up to the seniors and he will be training to be a sushi chef like his dad after high school so he wanted for his team to go to the nationals no matter what. Takamura went against the advice of Sumire and hit each serve powerfully even though he might damage his hand – just to win for his teammates. All of his teammates perked up, well, except for emotionless Tezuka. In the end, both players’ hand was bloodied so it was a tie. Sumire flicked Takamura’s forehead then Sumire told the others to get his tennis racket. Fuji [now with open eyes] took the bloodied racket and asked Takamura if he can use his racket.

There is a new Japanese drama called My Little Chef. It is another somewhat interesting drama, which could have been based from a manga. The story is about a genius girl chef who was discovered by a friend of her deceased father. The girl hanged around with his father so much that she got lots of tips from him. She specializes in French cuisine. The friend sent her to Tokyo to go to his younger brother to train as a chef since she cannot be a chef immediately -- you know, the hierarchy. She went there with her younger sister who is more of her bodyguard since the chef is quite timid at times. The younger brother had unfortunately quit his job because he cannot take the new boss's way of handling things. He wanted to send them home but the younger sister persisted that they have to stay for the night since they have no place to go.

That night, the chef interviewed the brother about this life - his grandmother and his brother then, she whip up something for him since he is hungry. She captured what he wanted to eat and so the brother bet all of his savings + loan of his house and lot in order for them to have a restaurant with her as the chef and him as the manager. The restaurant's name is Little Star in French. It is cute for the chef always closes her eyes when taken a picture so all her pictures have closed eyes just like her dad. It is like a manga since as she was thinking of what to cook, the background flashes with light [something like of a lightbulb effect in comics] then, she whips up something. In the second episode, she was asked to make a menu but she can't for she needs to know what the customer wanted to eat. She failed in the review when the manager wanted her to make a set menu. She was quite depressed until she met a guy who used to eat at her father's restaurant. The guy visited their restaurant and she tried her own menu based on what the guy told her. It was great and he vowed to return again. He was a famous connoisseur. The manager was puzzled then he later on, he realized that she specializes in specialized food depending on what the customer would want to eat -- not based on menu but on experience of the customer.

I think this is made about early or mid of this year since the theme song is by Ayumi Hamasaki’s Voyage. I didn’t like the MTV of this song but when it was played her, I kind of like the song especially if it is instrumental – piano and violin. The bgm of this drama is mostly instrumental. This is really a ‘cute’ drama. I like it.

Monday, December 29, 2003 @ 06:49 p.m.

Well, I’m not over the net limit. *whew* I can still surf for about 2 hours. I went to my mom’s friend doc who is into ENT [ear, nose, throat] to check on my throat since my voice hasn’t fully okay yet. According to him, there is no great harm to the vocal cords. I just need to rest it and lots of vitamins. I’m not quite happy to hear him say that one of the drugs I’m taking for my kidney can cause a coarse voice like a guy ^^;; Oh well, my voice isn’t pretty nice anyway.

For now, I have a sideline job on e-load. I keep on double-checking the cell number if I had pressed it right. ^^;; It is safe since if no one buys, I can just use it. I’m not quite sure if it is really popular since a lot of people seem have an e-load on their sim card. My customers are quite few actually, like one, our maid and a couple from my brother.

I read in the newspaper on hi-tech cellphones called Gphones[?] in Japan. They can now play flash in their cellphones so when they surf, they can see the animated flash. Speaking of hi-tech, sis’ hubby said that there would be a PS3. I wondered if it is PSX, which is somewhat an upper version of PS2 that I read before. SO, I researched on it and nope, it is a new one. From the ‘promises’, it really seems something. It has a new chip that they had invented solely for PS3 since they won’t want to use anything that has to do with Microsoft. It will be a console that doesn’t need a digital video disc to run games for it will be using fiber optics connections. I was thinking wouldn’t I need a dsl connection for it. ^^;; It will involve distributed computing and networked game machines sharing software, processing power and data. The chip will also be “self-healing” @_@;;

Because of the chip, it could be 10,000 times more powerful than the PS2. Since it is always connected, it had some thingies for one to not worry about hackers, viruses or lost connections. With the Web cam, instead of a controller or mouse, players use their hands to show what they want to do. I’m not so sure about it. The Web cam games are not that quite good since it can be tiring with arms raised up all the time. Maybe, they have some thing else in mind to do it. It can hold about 12,800 hours of music and 2,000 hours of video. To pay for the games, it will be through e-commerce. Geez, and I don’t quite trust that. ^^;; So, the plan for PS3 is for it to be not only pure video game console but record TV programs to hard-disk, automatically download new software, perform Tera-flop [what is that?] operations and a variety of other things. They might separate it into two as in one with the nice gadgets and the one is pure video game console. Well, it is really quite ambitious and might be hard to pull it off. It might even flop and the predicted date is 2005.

The channel with OP haven’t returned yet. The channel before vanished. Two days of showing nothing then today, two channels appeared. In the morning, the always-disappearing news channel then later on, some Taiwanese channel where people speak in Fookien instead of Mandarin, which was used by other countries. We paid for the cable again today. We didn’t pay the premium yet since no one is paying yet and well, we are not sure if it will really be implemented next month. The notice at the channel assignment on it hasn’t been showing up lately.

In Yugioh, the foursome game had started after a bit of flashbacks and stuff. Each of the guys are thinking of whom he wanted to fight against in order that in the last fight will be the one whom he want to fight in the finale. Malik wanted to fight Yami Yugi – I forgot if it was for now or at the end and he have to defeat Kaiba to get his god card. Kaiba wanted to finish off Malik and Jounouchi and for the finale, Yugi. Jounouchi would fight off Kaiba and Malik with Yugi as finale – not sure. Yugi cannot decide and he ended up just wanting to protect Jounouchi from the other’s attack as he did when Kaiba attacked Jounouchi’s weak card. Hehehe, Kaiba was of course, furious.

The match continues in PoT. I’m quite frustrated twice. First, the deal between Inui and Kaidoh – I don’t understand it. ^^;; It isn’t clear. Second, there was no sound at the near end then the signal was gone. Anwyay, at least, it was at the near end. Inui had finished his data analysis and from 5-0, they surged up to 5-3. Their opponents are frustrated, as Inui knew exactly where they will hit and the weakness of their shots/serve. Even before this had happened, Ryoma was smiling, as everyone in the team already knew what was Inui and Kaidoh’s strategy. Ryoma teased Momoshiro for being worried then Momoshiro kept on denying it. Everyone else was wondering about the fuss and thought that they have threw away the game except for Keigo. There was a flashback of Inui observing Tezuka. I almost hoped for what Tezuka looked like when he was younger but they didn’t show it.

Inui confessed to Kaidoh that he cannot defeat Ryoma nor Tezuka because he lacked physical strength which Kaidoh have. Inui would want to train Kaidoh and was giving him tips to improve his leg and also, his snake shot. I didn’t get what Kaidoh said about Tezuka and Fuji. Back to the tournament, the recent snake shot he did was quite impressive that Ryoma perked up. I guess the training works. Inui would even tell the referee that it was out by a few cm. ^^; Then, kapoot. No signal. By the time it came back, it was already BURNING Takashi as it is strength vs strength. Ryoma perked up again and that meant something impressive is going to happen. ^-^

Sunday, December 28, 2003 @ 06:20 p.m.

The usage meter is still down because the database guys are still tinkering with it. Let me see. I have used about one hour and a half, not knowing if I went over or not. ^^; Hehehe...I just cannot get over the urge since I’m quite fearful of some pictures disappearing if I haven’t downloaded it quickly. Oh well, the tech service said, it will be fixed tomorrow.

There will be a new 24 hour anime channel though I’m not sure if it will be in our cable since there was no notice on it. Asher told me that their cable had already prepared as to where to put that channel. It seem to be from Sony and from the name of the channel, it seem to be borrowed from a local channel’s ‘cartoon time’. There is no information as to how it was dubbed or anything. There are some old anime there that were shown before on local tv plus new ones like Chobits, Clamp Campus Detectives, Getbackers [imagine my eyes opened wide when I saw their picture on the newspaper, I thought I’m dreaming.] and other unknown titles. In the pictures, there is one that I’m somewhat curious. There is a pre-teen who is somewhat bsho but he looked as if he is from an old anime like Romeo – Black Brothers. He is in all black on a bicycle plus he had small wings on his back and a halo. There is no note on what the title was much like GB had no title on the picture, unless you know who they are. And, they did say that GB had a lot of fangirl service = yaoi which are not in the manga with the main characters. @_@; Let’s just see.

I’m watching this helping poor people and this time it is a pastry shop. Dang, the kind of desserts that I want to make some day. They looked really nice that I actually wanted to taste. Note: I don’t like sweets especially very sweet. The usual case is I don’t eat what I cook. Hehehe The product that the poor guy have to make is a fruit jellyroll. It has to have a nice design when cut as in the fruits will appear so you should know. It is like hotel desserts. The type of bakery that I don’t usually see on ordinary bakeshops but I think in Europe would be more or less plenty since they seem to be European based. It is usually sliced and in small quantities each. During training hard, one would always shave or cut one’s hair short. I suddenly remembered Hanamichi. It is always hard work, pratice and determination to succeed in order to do it.

Hai..hai..Niece is going home today. Bro is going to come here and pick her up later. Her brother is getting envious if she stays for too long. The other one wanted to stay here, too. He sometimes misses her even though they fight always like cat and mouse. When sis-in-law asks if I were like that with my brother, I said we are not though it was a bit with my younger sister. I guess it is because I have spent about 4 years with my bro that I like boy stuff and not much for girls while my sis is more on the social type and wanting to beautify herself and stuff like ordinary girls. Note: I’m not a lesbian. ^^;;

Well, you might never know since there are people equate liking boy’s stuff but not everything like wrestling but then, I don’t dislike everything female stuff. Let’s just say, I can do well in both areas and I’m glad about that.

In Kindachi, the first one is they are again in some island with hot springs. Four people are murdered while they are trying to solve the puzzle as to where some gold or treasure is located. In the end, it turned out to be the son of a dead friend of the four people. The four people killed him since he didn’t reveal to them where the gold is. It is actually located in a hidden cave that opens depending on the color of the arc that changes color because of the gyser. The keeper of the inn then, shot the teen [the son] who was disguised as a girl – daughter of one of the guys. The keeper wanted all the gold but when he touched it, the red demon statue fell on him and squashed him to death. The cave started to collapse. Hajime went back to help the teen. They were shut in. Hajime asked what happened to the girl whom he was imitating. He said that she died. She became his lover but when she learned that her father had killed his, she committed suicide as atonement to him. He was quite angry since he doesn’t want her to die. He went back to avenge his father’s death especially since the father of the girl is planning to kill all the others to get the gold. It was greed. Then, Hajime advised him to forget the past and no longer stay in the darkness but go forth to the light. The guy then helped Hajime removed the rocks and they removed a stone and there was light. It was a nice ending. I guess Hajime is a believer that people can change from their evil ways.

I like the next episode. It was raining while Hajime was carrying some groceries. He lost in their game so he has to do the errand. His wooden sandal broke and his stomach is starting to ache so he quickly go to a nearby house. When he finished, the three girls in the house won’t let him leave since he interrupted their cult – calling a spirit. When Hajime mentioned that his grandfather is a famous detective, they let him solve a murder. The three girls with a guy whom they like went to the house for a vacation but then, after going out, they returned to find the guy dead in a silly pose. They want to know who killed them. Their drawing of the dead guy as manga is actually cute. ^^;;

It was later learned that the dead pose is showing of playing tennis and the one who killed him is left handed. It was the quiet girl. She revealed that he tried to make a pass on her after she told him to go away for they are breaking her friends’ friendship and she went to the trip because she pretended to like the guy even if she don’t since she wanted to still be friends with the others. They hugged and forgave each other, saying that their friendship is the most important than some guy who is really a jerk. They thanked Hajime and when he was about to leave, the girls suddenly looked spooky again as they were at the start. The others started to look for him and he said that he stopped over a house since it was raining hard. They were puzzled since it didn’t rain. The uncle police then asked if he went to the house near the mountains. It turned out that in one rainy day, that house was buried in a landslide. Three girls and a guy were inside, dead. He showed Hajime the place and he started to shiver. His broken sandal was fixed with something like a ribbon and he remembered they said, they were glad that he came by to solve the problem. Hajime freaked out that he actually helped ghosts. Nice short story.

Also, the opening was by Two-Mix. I think they also did a song for Gundam Wing. There is also by Plastic Tree at the end. I remembered someone telling me before in email that it was a good group. Then, there was a Conan movie wherein a building is on fire courtesy of Gin, the one who make him small and some murder at the new building. There are really some cool stunts here especially the end. I suddenly tried to remember what formula the girl was calculating as to whether their car could crash through the window to the swimming pool at the other building. I guess it is on accelaration of a car and projectile. There is the speed of gravity there. Gin of course, escape in order to make the series long. ^^

GB- There are really some random cute chibis here. Otherwise it is a shorten version of the story in the manga. They are helping a beggar who fed them and fulfilled his wish of seeing his daughter. The first time I read the story, I downloaded all of the story/scans available and got hooked. ^-^ hehehe. Oh ya, they tamed the story down since in the manga, it was very ah..PG rated. *episode finishes* Ah, the manga is better.

OP manga – I have read the translation. Gawd, I have a feeling that they might get this new guy in the crew since he is sure very stupid and Luffy seem to be fond of him. I’m amused with the explanation why things are long in that island. He said that it was because the Great Plains and praries of the island makes everyone wants to stretch out and relax. ^^;; Tonjit, the guy who looked like a country guy had a horse, Shelly whom Luffy wanted to ride on. Suddenly, it was shot. It was the foxy pirates who challenged Luffy to a game called THREE-COIN "DAVEY BACKFIGHT" MATCH. Usopp remembered that ship they saw before and warned Luffy to not play the game since he would lose his crew.

Saturday, December 27, 2003 @ 06:47 p.m.

I think I’m getting better now since my brain is working again and I wanted to do a lot of things which include drawing and cooking. Well, the cooking part is mostly to blame the Jap channel, which kept on showing food. They have a show wherein they help poor people by improving their resto’s food. The training is shown and wow, a simple dish really needs practice like cooking yakitori, that octopus balls [forgot what it was called], tamago/rolled omelet, plain rice on a casserole, etc. There are also a showcase of different food like bento boxes, ramen, and that guessing the price of a food then you’ll get to eat it kind of game show. They show that it isn’t the process or technique of cooking that is important but also, where the food came from. For example, a duck with less fat so it is yummy, marbled beef wherein the fat is evenly distributed in the meat not just a huge one at a side, a rare kind of fish and etc.

Niece is still here. She is less demanding now. I cooked with her this afternoon for lunch. One of the food recipes that I can do well, is abalone mushroom in oyster sauce. Then, in the afternoon, she helped at the store. I did hint it to her before and she is willing to do it. Hehehe, somewhat like my replacement.

OS – They are looking for money and fought with a cactus. ^^; Then, they were booby trapped as some gang robbed the jewelry store. With a bit of help from Suzuka and Aisha, they busted the gang. In Gundam Seed, they have went back to the main headquarters. Natarle, Mwu and Murrue reported to the boss. Natarle was a bit critical about Kira since he is a coordinator or his mother was. The boss didn’t agreed since the past is not important but the present. Kai’s friends had been given the chance to leave the ship but they refused since Fflay decided to be an official of the group. Kira was quite eager but after he learned that all of them are staying, he had to choose between fighting for peace and safety of everyone or his own peace. The enemies are attacking again and so, Kira chose to stay fighting in a gundam.

SGRan – Rei is a dj in a music station. The girls saw him with a girl and Aya became jealous. Ran had to snap her out of her misery and told her to have more self-confidence. Aya thought that Rei didn’t like her because of what she did before. I would be clueless about this but then, I have read in a review that she used to be a teen prostitute. I think it is the type who becomes a prostitute to get the things they want with the money. In short, they need the money for their luxiourious lifestyle. I haven’t watch that episode so I’m guessing here and those kind of prostitutes are the ones common among teens in Japan lately. So, Ran is the rebel in the family, Miyu is the used to be gangster and Aya is the used to be prostitute. The other two’s lives were of course, changed by Ran.

Back to the story, Ran made a deal with the teacher to free her from all homeworks in exchange of leading the class to victory in their school sports competition. Ran just told the class that the teacher is dying so it perked her classmates to work hard. Aya joined to improve her self-confidence by being in a relay race [is this the one with pasing the baton to the other player then run to the other one?] Of course, they won but then, the deal is off when they learned that Ran lied to them. After the contest, there is a festival. Rei congratulated Aya and she suddenly cried for she thought he hated him. Rei ended up explaining that the girl was his partner in the station. He cannot believe that he has to explain. So, they are now more or less the couple. Last couple to go – Ran = Tatsukichi or Yuya.

The Jap drama ended nicely. Gomen, I heard the name wrong. It isn’t Megumi but Nozumi. I’m lazy to re-correct the last entry. Heheehe. Anyway, it turned out that the grandmother is just tired. It was already a year since they have lived in Japan. The grandmother gave her permission to leave if she wanted to. Nozumi did left after fixing everything for breakfast and everything. They also sent a letter to the brother for him to return. After a talk, the grandmother let the brother and his wife return for they finally said, they wanted to return to the family and not just plain return. After half a month, everyone is doing okay in their respective lives even though they are a bit lonely without genki Nozumi around. The grandmother found the magazine artile that Nozumi wrote and inside, a paper was Shingi’s translation of the story.

Nozumi wrote of her experience in Japan. The difference of lifestyle since it is based on old tradition and the utensils but there is usually a different outcome with the old. She wrote about the lessons she learned from the grandmother and etc. In the end, she apologized for not being quite to the grandmother’s expectations but she is always grateful for everything. Then, one night, while eating, Nozumi cried while eating pickles from Japan. She was homesick. They had a visitor who wanted to hire Shinji. They learned from him that the grandmother knew all along that in the end, they would want to go back to Taiwan. She was just testing how far would they go for the family and well, they passed the test. During a festival, I don’t know what it was called. It is when they make moochi or rice cakes by beating the cake dough in a huge mortal and pestle. Nozumi came back to visit with Shingi. She went first to the grandmother asking why she came back. She replied that she wanted to come and ‘play’ for she [grandmother] said she can and that she missed the grandmother so much. The last scene was the whole family having fun in making moochi. I came to love this drama even if I still have no idea what is the title in English.

Friday, December 26, 2003 @ 06:39 p.m.

Whew, niece went out with her mother, brother and my mother to watch a movie – Mano Po 2. She is staying here since last night and I’m not good with kids – entertaining them compared to my sister. I bored her to death so with a little push, she is off. She might stay again for the night and her mom said, it would be her last night.

Last Thursday, we went to eat at a Jap resto for lunch with the kids and my sis + hubby. Then, they went to play in a playground. I went to GH mall to see the PS2 there but it seem quite expensive so we will canvass again. I have sis do that since she is good at that. They gave me a Dilbert book since they weren’t able to get a PS2 yet. I told them to wait for it to be paperback since hardbound is quite expensive. The ones that we have canvassed had other accessories and we have to subtract them in case, the one in GH is cheaper. The basic box just has a console and one controller. Bro family gave me a huge Jap bowl with chopsticks. I’m beginning to have a reputation in my family as the one who likes Jap things. ^^;

We visited sis’ house and her father-in-law is there. He made me drink carrot juice with pineapple juice. Well, carrots are okay but I don’t like drinking them or any vegetable drink. I said it was a bit bitter and he said, they’d increase the pineapple. When I left there, I had a feeling that whenever I go there, they will give me a carrot juice. They say it is for my poor health and they kept asking about me. Well, I cannot help it that every time they do, I usually have some sort of health problem. ^^;; Sis’ new family is nice and I’m somewhat treated as my sis’s..ah, leech of some sort. They treat me like I’m my sis, little sister. When they go out to eat, they always invite me. Hoping to get me to eat more.

Yesterday, we went on a mini-reunion outing. It is rare that we get to get my brother to go out since he is very busy especially with his money problems. We ate at a Korean resto then with sis + groom, we went to Tagaytay [somewhat of a mountain resort]. It was bit traffic at some part. Otherwise, it was okay. We just walked around then as the kids went on horseback riding. It was a bit cold there. I was practicing with my digital camera until it went down because it no longer had batteries. The extra ones I brought was already dead, I thought they still have some charge for a remote controller works on them. I need to improve with holding the camera. I kept on moving that the picture is blurred though there are some lucky shots. ^^;;

After that, we ate at a Chinese resto there then went home. It was quite dark on the way home. I guess not everyone had electricity there. It is freaky when I heard some kind of familiar sound. Bro teased that it was a mini-Psycho sound since it was somewhat similar – the shower scene. Niece kept on persisting about wanting to stay and finally sis-in-law agreed. At home, she wanted to do a lot of things then when I teach her one, she won’t last long with it. Today, I put in the disc some of sis-in-law’s family pics so she can have them printed out. My shots are crappy but there are some taken by either sis or her husband which are pretty good. Oh ya, I did get one good one with bro and his wife. Mm..I’m now thinking of blaming the poor batteries for some of the bad pics. Hehehe I think I would need to fix on moving and the lighting but then, I would need to know some camera basics.

PoT – Hyotei’s doubles of Yuushi and Gakuto are quite good that Momoshiro and Eiji are having a hard time. Yuushi manage to copy a shot of Fuji and Gakuto is somewhat like Eiji who is into acrobatics. Later on, Eiji collected his thoughts and thought of Oishi encouraging him. He did his best as well as Momoshiro. They changed their tactics and beat the other team. At their back is Oishi who was cheering for them. The coach of Hyotei is quite strict. He reprimanded the two players and I think he said something like they won’t be able to play for the nationals if they didn’t improve. Keigo doesn’t look quite happy about it. Meanwhile, Ryoma seemed to be quite angry for not being in the tournament for he is in his uncaring self and when Horio somewhat pointed this out, Ryoma hit him indirectly with a tennis ball. The next doubles match is Ryou-Choutarou vs Inui-Kaidoh. Ryou is the one who had a haircut after being almost removed from the team. Choutarou had one fast serve that it was like a comet. There was nothing Inui and Kaidoh can do but just stare ahead as it went pass them. The first point went to the Hyotei team. Then, there was a flashback wherein Kaidoh refusing to play doubles with Inui. In real time, Kaidoh said that he will not lose then started to sway right and left like a snake.

Today’s episode, Kaidoh and Inui managed to get two shots in but the opponent manage to defeat them with Choutarou’s fast serve and the fruits of Ryou’s hard practice. It was already 2-0. Along with this are flashbacks of the two teams. Ryou’s hard work to be able to hit back all the shots against him and improve his speed. Kaidoh’s hesitance to get Inui as a doubles partner but Inui showed him the benefits of teaming me up with him. Kaidoh asked what it is for him. Inui said that he needed Kaidoh’s ‘talent’. Kaidoh was frustrated and told Inui that he will do things his own way. He wantonly hit the shots as Inui just stood at the back. Ryou insulted them especially Kaidoh. It is now 4-0 as everyone wondered if it is already their defeat. Ryoma seem to know something is up. Meanwhile, there was Jirou shom Yuuta and a friend passed by on. Yuuta’s friend pointed out that Jirou was the one who defeated him in 15 minutes. Jirou pointed out to him then went back to his sleep. ^^;

The last scene was Inui telling Kaidoh that they just called him ‘useless’ and Kaidoh looked up to him, then somewhat of a smile, asked, hey, sensei, have you finished your observation and know of a counterattack. Inui said yes. Cool. So that’s their strategy. Kaidoh was just acting about being angry and all that, even that angry toss of the racket as frustration. For now, my favorites are: 1.Kaidoh – even though he is being mean and serious, he always come out funny and nice. He is actually cute. Hehehe 2. Inui for his juice antics. 3. Tezuka for being the perfect bsho. The others haven’t sunked in yet though the next would be 4. Eiji. I like mean 5. Jin somewhat.

OS – Suzuka became a part of them team after she saved them from some pirates who wanted to get the OS ship again. Then, they went to a mini-adventure as bounty hunters only for Suzuka to get the huge bounty. Gene saw the ship that he was after in some contest so they tried to join. They left Suzuka first in some place as they get in. Harry was the one to join. They met Aisha again briefly in a resto but she wasn’t able to get her revenge since the manager made her stop. There was an old man who seems to know OS. I have not watch the other two episodes. There are just some parts that can be boring. A friend from Europe said she had seen it before. Anime in Europe is quite rare but then, they don’t have much TV channels – mostly news. I immediately assumed that it was a pretty old anime. I don’t quite like the black lines on the cheeks of the characters though.

Naruto – Well, Rock got there to help Sakura out but ended up being useless fot they were too powerful. His buddies went out to find him. Ino and her group saw signs of fighting and went off there. That’s it with lots of flashbacks. Asher, I think the Rock group is somewhat like Naruto’s group. Rock is a bit like Naruto being hyper and seem to be dumb while Neji = Sasuke and the other girl is somewhat like Sakura. I guess that is why Neji is always compared with Sasuke. The next episode preview had Sakura being angry for being useless and she went off to attack.

I really like the Jap drama-comedy about the family. Tonight might be the last night for it – the tenth episode. It is so cute. It is really like a shoujo manga story. Last night’s episode had the guy being literally held down by the two aunties as he tried to grab the phone from one of the aunties. Wow, that was really funny and it was like watching an anime. Okay, I’ll brief sum each episode as in a few sentences.

1 – Megumi and her hubby Shingi went to Tokyo and got himself head. Megumi had a hard time coping but in the end, her love for Shinji made her stay. 2 – She is still trying to adapt when her mother came to visit. She was horrified that her beloved daughter was made into a maid. Megumi managed to convince her mother that everything is okay as long as she is with Shinji. She proved herself and managed to get some new things in the traditional house. 3 – Later on, Megumi’s younger brother went to visit to check up on her. He ended up going to different places with the grandmother as she picked flowers. He later on, began to love flowers and wanted to work as a florist for the grandmother showed him the beauty of Ikebana. While, Megumi bonded with the mother as they helped each other after a minor misunderstanding. 4 – Shiji’s ex-childhood friend and lover came back. Megumi was extremely jealous since she is prettier and is a great cook. In the end, it turned out that Megumi don’t have anything to worry about since Shinji loved her the most. The girl was just lonely so she was bullying or making herself look good compared to Megumi after she was fired after having a relationship with a co-worker who is married. The couple reconciled as they bid the girl goodbye and best wishes to her new start. 5 – Shinji’s sister had a relationship with their clan’s mortal enemy. The family was against it and Megumi tried to make them be a couple. It is amusing, as she didn’t put bubbles anymore at the father’s tub that the father was so fond of. Hehehe It turned out that the clan’s quarrel was because of pride and misunderstanding. The ancestor gave a chocolate and he thought it was poison for his nose bled. He later learned what it was but was to proud to admit he was wrong. Well, they got married.

6 – The sister is pregnant so the Megumi and Shingi was quite pressured to have a kid already. Also, touched here is the ‘need’ to have a son for first born. As usual, Megumi made them think otherwise. The sister had a baby girl. 7 – The grandmother gave them two tickets to Tokyo. Shingi was pressured to have a child again as said by the father. To their shock, the three meddlesome aunts were also there. Megumi is getting angry but held her temper. She later noticed that the oldest aunt seem to be quite lonely so she brought her along as they went out. Later, they found out that her family is planning to put her to the aged home. The grandmother greeted her happy birthday and reminded her the importance of life for she did tried her best to raise her up. 8 – Grandmother’s twin came from Paris but she had a ‘sin’ against her other twin. Megumi tried to befriend her. Later, it was found out that she ‘took’ the grandmother’s bf and ran away. With Megumi, they reconciled. Megumi’s mom went back to her own to reconcile for she, too had ran away before just to marry Megumi’s dad. 9 - They found the brother who ran away. It turned out that he wanted to be a boxer. With Megumi and Shinji, he finally pursued his dream only to find out that he wasn’t meant to be a boxer. He was about to divorce his wife for he was a failure but Megumi told him that she was pregnant. The brother realized his wife’s love for him to even hide the fact that she is pregnant in order for the brother to fulfill his dream. The grandmother collapsed. That’s it.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003 @ 06:25 p.m.

Thank God, the sick fishes before are now doing fine. *sigh of relief* I would still need to observe them just to make sure. There was a landslide in a province, which buried a lot of people in the mud. It was just raining and the water hole [?] on top of the mountain got filled so, it flowed out and the small towns got buried in the erosion = landslide. It is like being buried alive. It was blamed for excessive cutting of the trees though the government said that it was fractured soil. Whatever. As of now, they are still trying to find survivors.

Well, politics is still in the air and a lot of people are getting sick of it. The filing of candidacy for the May election had started and there are a lot of wannabe president ranging from a woman who claim to be engaged to the US president to a guy who claims to be Jesus Christ or the other one who said he was the Holy Spirit. The hesitant actor will now be the opposition party as their standard bearer. The president had moved the death anniversary of the national hero or rather making it a non-holiday in order to make Jan 2 a holiday so that people would have a longer holiday weekend. It is nothing new since she did that to our indepence day.

In PoT, they are going to register for the tournament or rather the first game and the ones who are going to play have to be present. Oishi was still not there. Ryoma joked that maybe he was helping someone pregnant give birth. Momoshiro and Eiji had a minute fun by trying to disguise one of the freshmen as Oishi. Later on, Oishi called Sumire and told her that he is in the hospital with a pregnant woman who doesn’t want him to leave. Ryoma spitted out his juice in disbelief. Momoshiro volunteered to go fetch Oishi to replace him. When he arrived there, Oishi cannot leave since his arm was injured when he caught the pregnant woman from falling down the stairs. Oishi told him that he would replace him. Momoshiro was shocked as Oishi encouraged him that he can do it so Momoshiro ran back as he will be Oishi’s replacement.

Inoue [reporter] told the freshmen that they are in big trouble. Hyotei specializes in doubles. Oishi is missing and they will try a new double team of Inui and Kaidoh. Another is Ryoma isn’t playing since he will be more of a back-up player. The ones playing aside from the doubles players are Takashi, Fuji and Tezuka. It is the start of the doubles match - Eiji and Momoshiro vs. Gakuto and Yuushi. Gakuto is good with acrobatics much like Eiji and I don’t quite know Gakuto but he is also good. Hyotei got the first point. Gakuto then began internalizing Eiji whom he was staring at. I was looking at the spoiler character info I had. Mm...I think Seigaku’s line-up will change.

Oh ya, in OS, they just meet Aisha again who tried to challenge them but ended up losing and have to pay for their meal which Aisha did eat most of it. Next is they went to meet Fred for some supplies. I somewhat like him even though he is gay. He doesn’t look like one and his voice is actually cute. I do find him cute as he hugs Gene. No, I’m not thinking shounen ai. ^^;; It is just well, cute. Then, there is Suzuka who wanted to kill Fred since she was an assassin. Gene stopped it and Suzuka is after him. Gene managed to win over her but then, he almost unrobed her in order to win and she was pretty embarrassed to have herself exposed. They made a deal for her not to chase after Fred. I didn’t understand the deal. ^^;

Monday, December 22, 2003 @ 07:30 p.m.

I was very lucky today. I was surfing on the television this morning and stumbled upon Vampire D the Movie. I thought I had lost my chance to see it. This channel had disappeared before and it seem that the anime was shown before. And now, it is a rerun. I first knew of this title from Unicorn and the plot was somewhat hazy already. Asher just got her copy of it in English dub. I forgot if Unicorn’s is in English or Japanese. The one I saw is in Japanese dub with Chinese sub. Well, it is in a Chinese channel and this channel usually sticks to Japanese dub rather than Chinese sub it. So, if it ever goes premium, I’ll bite. Hehehe

Well, I like the art and scenes here. The characters are okay even though I didn’t get much what the heck they are saying but more or less, I get the idea. The female vampire in red reminded me of Eve in Parasite Eve. D is pretty cool especially with some poses. Hehehe The enemies have nice powers unfortunately died too early and easily but then, this is a movie so they have a short life span. I’m not sure if it is because of my television or what but the characters tend to speak quite soft. I was thinking, well, like who would shout during night scenes. ^^; The voices are okay. D had this thing on his hand, which reminded me of the ‘blackhole’ type of the monk in Inu Yasha. This one talks and he is sure talkative. Hehehe The female vampire had this superior matron voice nice. I was thinking of a vain empress in the Japanese empire though not that the same. I’m not sure if it is because of my television or what but the characters tend to speak quite soft. I was thinking, well, like who would shout during night scenes. ^^; The art is really cool. Did I saw that? This is really movie quality.

The plot is D was hired to get back this girl to her family who was kidnapped by a vampire. Then, this group of vampire hunters is also going that way though I’m not sure if they are after D or the vampire-kidnapper. Then, it turned out the girl went willingly to the vampire since they are lovers. They went to the female vampire’s castle hoping to go to space in order to live in peace. The female vampire cannot help herself and tried to use the girl’s blood for her resurrection which was thwart by D. The vampire still brought the girl to the rocket and went off as D kept on wandering around after visiting a funeral of someone – I don’t know if it is one of the children he saved before just like that old man. The credits are English so I was guessing they just changed the subtitles and kept the Japanese dub or something.

In Kindaichi, the first one is about Sakura, a classmate who asked Hajime and Miyuki to her house to see some paintings. Then, three people died as they try to figure out who did it. It turned out to be Sakura whose father was a painter. One day, he doesn’t contact them and when Sakura was older, she tried to find him. She found him in the hospital with amnesia. After some time of taking care of him, he remembered her as he painted her but at that moment, he died. Later on, Sakura found her father’s painting on display with someone else’s name. She was furious that they had used her father and thus, killed those three people. She committed suicide even though Hajime tried to stop her. She apologized to Hajime and died. Poor Hajime, people were trying to commit suicide as he tries to stop them from doing it. I wasn’t able to watch this fully since I was too engrossed with surfing the net. ^^;; It was in the morning rerun when I saw that it seemed that there is also a phantom thief in this series much like there is in Dnangel and St. Tail. It was a pretty girl though the face wasn’t shown as she trapped Hajime holding a bag of stone in the street since she pretended to be on old woman. The girl seems like one of the girls in Cat’s Eye.

That was part of the old series. It is always a new series the next that consisted of only one episode. It is obvious with the kind of art and color. In this one, Osumi[?] not sure, the young girl who is always with Hajime. I think she is his cousin and her father is the policeman whom Hajime is always seen with. I still cannot hear their names clearly. It was spoken a bit fast. Anyway, Osumi went to a province with her teacher and her classmates for a field trip. Then, there was a group of teens that are quite reckless and even throw trash at the river. Then, later on, one of them died. Osumi was devastated for it was her teacher whom she looks up to. The teacher had a son and he drowned. The male teen could have saved him while fishing but he didn’t. The teacher saw him again that day when the teens almost ran them over. He couldn’t control his anger that he killed the teen. The policeman brought his daughter back and she looked quite sad that Hajime offered his MD player, which she already took. It turned out that she was faking and was happy to get the player and Hajime isn’t quite happy about that. Oh ya, the policeman had a bad jinx regarding vacations since he always bumps into Hajime and this time, his daughter wherein there is always a case. So, in short, he never gets any vacation.

In PoT, they were picking out the teams who will play in the tournament. I think they got Hyotei, a team, which they don’t want to play against since they are quite strong. I think top 5 before. Everyone started practicing like mad since it could be their last game if they lost. The curly guy before who went to challenge Tezuka was from Rounkakku school, he is Akaya. In the manga, I have seen this guy as he and another guy glare at Ryoma. I haven’t browse the manga much until I know how much net time I had left. Anyway, back to the story, Momoshiro is pretending to be Inui as he gets data from their opponents. He told Ryoma that they shouldn’t lose to Hyotei. Fuji borrowed an English dictionary from Tezuka. Fuji said he wanted to play against Jirou who defeated his younger brother. Tezuka told him that he seem to really care about his brother. Fuji asked about Tezuka’s left arm for it hasn’t completely healed. Tezuka didn’t answer him. I was wondering if it would be the cause of his hiatus from PoT. I’m not sure but I think he played against the team captain before, Keigo though I’m not quite sure who won. Inui gave some tip on how Kaidoh can practice his technique. Then, at the end, he asked Kaidoh if he wanted to be play doubles with him. I’m not sure as to what their coach was planning about the double team of Oishi and Eiji. Meanwhile, Hyotei group are practicing hard and a player, Ryou almost got removed from the team by the young coach but after vowing to try hard and cutting his hair, Keigo took him back.

I had put in a new screencap layout of PoT. I searched the whole night for them. I put them in parts when I’m in the mood. I cannot wait to watch those episodes. They are so kawaii. ^-^ It is a bit big than before though.

Monday, December 21, 2003 @ 05:31 p.m.

I was surfing the whole afternoon. I cannot check my online usage since the site is down. I hope I haven’t exceeded yet. ^^;; I learned that GB vol. 23 in Chinese is out. They sure translate fast, just one month after the Japanese came out. I noticed that their Rave manga is still continuing then I thought, could it be that it haven’t finished yet? I don’t recognize the characters in the latest cover. I tried to find some sites on Rave but there were none in English. It turned out that Rave isn’t in Jump. ^^;; Okay, it is serialized in a Shonen magazine where GB is also serialized. I guess that is why Rave anime stopped abruptly. It was much like Shaman King, HxH and Flame of Recca. The manga haven’t ended yet. It seemed that Oh My Goddess, Shadow Skill, Inu Yasha, Conan and Hajime no Ippon [the boxing story shown before in the local station] is still running. Oh ya, I saw in the Jump preview, a somewhat promising title. I don’t know the English title though but it is somewhat like Silver Cloud or Ghost. The characters in the preview are three – a white haired guy who seemed like to be like Enishi, a pinkish red-haired girl and a Harry Potter look-alike in somewhat Japanese robe clothes as the girl holds a paper-made umbrella. The main [white hair] character’s weapon is a wooden katana with some writing on top like a katana on the metal, iirc in RK.

There are three colored pages in OP of a short omake. ^-^ They are trying to get some fish through music. They managed to get some huge multicolored eel-like creatures in rainbow colors hence the spread is entitled The Colors of the Rainbow So Pretty in the Sky. Cool. The concept of sea monkeys is huge creatures with monkey faces that cause huge waves. ^^;; They found an island wherein all the plants and creatures are elongated. Only Luffy, Usopp and Chopper went on shore to explore hoping to find their ship wright. They saw a bamboo, which moved and since it hit Luffy, Luffy naturally attacked it. It broke and out came a white bearded man with a hat. At the shore, a much larger ship came as Zoro asked what they want. The ship belongs to the Foxy pirates who wanted to challenge them to a fight. I wonder if they look like foxes or well, sexy women = foxy.

I saw some preview Jap scans of the Yugioh manga. So, after the foursome battle, there will be the duel then somehow, Malik replaced Kaiba who I think gave a card to Yugi. Yugi realized that Bakura is gone since Malik had the millennium thing [compass?] of Bakura. Then, the next volume is Yugi’s dad going to Egpyt. It is quite weird that all of Yugi’s ancestors have the same hair. I wonder where does Mai fit in since she does have the same hair. Next volume, Yami Yugi holding a mummy, his dad[?] and there was a covered face guy whose eyes look like Yugi’s grandfather. There was also Malik who had a scar on his face. There is a picture of Pegasus. Next is the present guys – Yugi, Jounouchi and Hiroto going through what happened in the past. They saw Egpyt Kaiba with a group of people and there was a dead girl whom he called White Dragon. Then, inside, Kaiba talked to Yami Yugi and Kaiba isn’t quite happy with what Yami Yugi said. Then, there was a bald guy in the group, I was thinking he was Malik’s brother. Next volume, Yami Yugi and present guys were attacked. They got separated as Yami Yugi faced a creature with some kind of different millennium item. Yami Yugi got hurt. Outside, on a cliff, Malik on a white horse, is grinning.

The anime will be getting to the foursome battle as they finish this filler arc. Everyone hurried to the transportation machine to bring them back to reality except for Yugi who was asked by Noa to help bring Kaiba back as a request from Makuba and Kaiba who wanted to finish his game against his stepfather. Kaiba won and the stepfather in monster form tried to attack him. Yugi helped him out. Noa got them out. Noa returned Makuba’s body to him as he said goodbye. Noa held his stepfather back as the rocket blasted them to kingdom come as the others escape. Malik was glad that the game will continue as Kaiba announced that the game will continue.

GB anime – The opening is okay but the art really need getting use to. Ban’s hair seem to be too poof. ^^; Akabane doesn’t look that scary in the opening. The Chinese voices are okay as I try to think where I heard them before especially Ginji’s. The chibis are cute as they compete for a pizza. It is a filler of they helped Natsuki get her cat cellphone chain back. She later became a waitress in the Honky Tonk Café where they hang out. It was okay. I have read that the anime is leaning on shonen ai as girl fanservice. I’m not quite thrilled to hear that. The really good arc was said to be the LENS or Mugenjou arc. I cannot wait for that. It was really fun in the manga. I’m not sure if it was because of this arc that I bought all of the GB even though I haven’t absorbed the first few volumes of GB that I bought.