Anime Roundup

Figured I'd take a break from writing recommendation letters to list out the anime that I've watched in the past year. I keep saying that I don't have time to watch anime, and yet, I've got quite a list going here... I blame the weekly anime club showings. :P

Anime watched since my last such post on 5/16/03:

.hack//GIFT: 1 episode *completed*
Chrno Crusade: 20 episodes *to complete as soon as the club gets the rest of the episodes*
Cowboy Bebop: 7 episodes *discontinued again - just can't seem to get into it*
Di Gi Charat -nyo: 6 episodes *discontinued due to liscensing*
D.N.Angel: 26 episodes *completed - this show was a total disappointment*
Dokkoider: 13 episodes *completed*
Excel Saga: 26 episodes *completed*
Fruits Basket: 4 episodes *currently watching*
Fullmetal Alchemist: 26 episodes *52-episode series - taking a break from it for now*
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!: 13 episodes *completed*
Galaxy Angel: First two seasons, 6 episodes in the third season *will eventually watch more*
Getbackers: 3 episodes *discontinued*
Gravitation TV: 13 episodes *completed*
Gravitation OAV: 2 episodes *completed*
Gungrave: 4 episodes *discontinued*
Kino no Tabi: 4 episodes *would love to continue someday*
Last Exile: 26 episodes *completed*
Lost Universe: ~18 episodes *to be finished eventually*
Matantei Loki Ragnarok: 14 episodes *discontinued*
Midori no Hibi: 6 episodes *hopefully to finish sometime*
Naruto: 74 episodes *currently watching*
One Piece: ~33 episodes *discontinued at present*
Peacemaker Kurogane: 26 episodes *completed*
Pitaten: 26 episodes *completed*
Platonic Chain: 26 episodes *completed*
Puchi Puri Yuushi: 5 episodes *discontinued*
R.O.D. TV: 9 episodes *currently watching*
Rurouni Kenshin: ~55 episodes *will eventually finish up the Kyoto arc... someday*
Saber Marionette J: 3 episodes *discontinued*

I'm sure that this list is by no means complete. It sure looks longer than last year's list, though I know I forgot to mention lots of series last year like Record of Lodoss War and Macross. Oh well. I'm sure I forgot plenty of stuff from this year too.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: J.D.K Band - Where the World Ends
Current mood: Dulled out by the weather

It's Over!

Wow, I slept for thirteen hours yesterday (I set my alarm clock for 10 pm instead of 10 am, whoops) and I'm still feeling really tired. All the girls left Saturday morning - it was really sad to see them go. Just wait until I get around to talking about the people who have replaced them. Grr.

Well, yeah, as I've mentioned up above, WTP has finally finished. It was a great program and I'm sad that it's over. Maybe just because I don't want to go back to school. XD This coming week will be both good and bad. Good because I can relax and not worry about late nights. Bad because we have to write recommendation letters for people, and that will be a bit annoying. Good because I pretty much have the 7th floor back to myself. Bad because of the Democratic National Convention.

OH MY GOODNESS! The DNC people suck already and I hate them. My birthday was on Friday and I have come to the realization that turning 20 makes you old and bitter. WTP girls are high schoolers, but they are all so cool. The junior statesmen staying at our dorm are a different matter altogether. They are all snobby little rich kids, and I hate them and I wish they would all go back home. o___O; Seriously, I don't think I've ever felt such innate dislike for a group of people, ever. I don't like how McCormick has suddenly become the 'junior statesmen dorm'. What are they thinking?! Maybe it's a good thing that I'm going home in a week.

Tonight we had a staff dinner to celebrate surviving WTP at the Cheesecake Factory. That place is great. :D Although they always give out waaaay too much food. Oh well. Leftovers. One of the greatest things about WTP is the option to get out and do stuff. I walked all over Boston so much in this past month. I went to read in Borders three times in one week. I went to the North End. I went to the Aquarium. We went for dim sum in Chinatown in one huge horde. I walked down the Esplanade more times this past month than I ever have in all my time at MIT. Boston is an awesome city - I don't think there's anywhere in the world quite like it. There are so many young people here - makes me wonder what will happen to me when I become old. Surely I won't be here my whole life...?

Jim reminded me of the existance of the New Media Center, which is totally exciting because it's on campus, accessible to MIT students, and has scanners! Whee! I went and scanned a couple pictures yesterday, which was great. I've been kind of behind on the whole scanning/updating website thing. I did a biggish update the other day, and I'll do another one once I get more pictures scanned. This makes me so happy. :D Guess it also helps that my family's going on vacation to Canada in August and I get to go along. I don't know, I don't think I've ever been excited to spend two whole days in a car, driving up through Maine. XP

Mike finally came back from "the Southwest", so evenings are a little more interesting now. Not that they weren't interesting before... It was just different. It's just too bad that the sound for his computer's broken. He cannot fully appreciate the excellence of Domo-kun and Daikenkai... Even if the combination of the two was originally his idea.

It's weird - I've been drawing Thraxxin and Jesper together a lot lately (well, lately is a lie - they've always been drawn together). But I've always insisted that they come from different dimensions, and shouldn't even exist together. Sadly enough, I'm starting to think that they make an awfully cute couple. Mostly sad because they are both guys. Well, everyone thinks that Jesper is a girl, but, uh, yeah.... My barely stifled love for shounen ai is manifesting itself here. o_o; Perhaps I shall have to make up a new story which includes both of them. Or something. How troublesome. Reminds me though that I should get back to development with the Del'bren'shazoren sisters. That was an interesting project that I was thinking about last summer. *sighs* Oh well. I guess thirteen hours of sleep wasn't enough for me to recover. Back to the land of unconsciousness goes I. Laters.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Ayumi Hamasaki - Vogue 'Groove That Soul Mix'
Current mood: Rather tired

It's Rainin' Fun

Well, I'm halfway through WTP (Women's Technology Program), and I'm having a fantastic time. It's true what people say - if you're in a bad mood, you are much more likely to write down your thoughts and frustrations than when you're having fun. So, the forty girls are here, and they are all cool, well, some have personalities that conflict with my own (and everyone else on staff o_o;). Work during the week is stressful and tiring. I have to help the girls with their programming - they really need to learn how to debug. Some are better at it than others. I'm usually exhausted at the end of the day, but I really enjoy what I'm doing. And on the weekends, we do all sorts of fun things - the sorts of things that any tourist to Boston would be doing. Orientation weekend, we went on a Duck Tour, which was great. There have also been trips to the various museums and even to Haymarket. Today, a couple people are walking the Freedom Trail, and later on, we're going to Revere Beach. We were supposed to go to Walden Pond, but I guess they don't let buses in during the weekend. Oh well. It's an excuse to swim, or at least to splash around in the water!

Last night was Karaoke Night and it was awesome. I sang "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" with my tutor group, and we sounded, uh, excellent. :D Tess is an awesome singer, actually. Then, us CS staff tried to sing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and were only partially successful. I wished my sisters were here to back me up, since they know the song inside and out. After that, I found a bunch of people who would sing "It's Raining Men" with me, and then we had to merge with another group that wanted to sing the same song. I was the only person who knew the song really well though (that's what comes of going to every single Chorallaries concert ^^), so I was kind of the star of the show. After that, I found a bunch of people to sing "Love Shack" with me, which was hilarious, although I had to be the guy because no one else wanted to voice his parts. All in all, it was a lot of fun.

WTP has kept me terribly busy, but during my free time I hang out with my friends. We've made mini cheesecakes, smoothies, and even banana bread (baking is yay). We've gone out to eat, gotten together to watch Buffy and Firefly, and did July 4th on the Esplanade again. July 4th was great as ever, and we couldn't hear the music again, but that was okay. We also went and listened to the Boston Pops' dress rehearsal on July 3rd. We actually got into the Hatch Shell area! Yesterday we went to the Burlington Mall, and ended up in the Barnes and Noble across the street for several hours. :3

The only reason I actually pulled up the blog and started typing was because of the interesting minidrama that I just witnessed. MIT has a resident hawk - it's huge and it's usually seen flying about or perching on the school buildings. Today, it landed on the opposite tower's penthouse railing and was sunning itself. I was marvelling at how massive it was, and how it probably got nice and large by catching squirrels. Then this mockingbird landed - it was about 1/10th the size of the hawk. Now, I know from watching the birds back home, that mockingbirds are fiercely territorial. This one was no exception, and clearly thought that the penthouse was a part of its domain. So all by itself, it started screeching and hopping about. At first the hawk just stared at it with a "What, I'm ten times bigger than you, what do you think you're doing?" sort of look. But then the mockingbird got too close to it, and the hawk took off. Was the hawk annoyed? Actually scared off? Or did it note feel like it was worth tangling with the noisy little mockingbird. Even as I continue to look out my window as I type this, the mockingbird keeps coming back to patrol the penthouse roof, probably to make sure that the hawk doesn't return.

Anyway, I need to grab stuff so I can go the beach. Laters!

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Onegai Teacher - Shooting Star
Current mood: Excited