Poor neglected blog! *pats it on the head* I wonder if anyone is still stopping by here, or whether people have just given up on me ever posting again. Naturally, the latter option seems more likely considering the complete lack of postage lately. I'm going to squarely lump the blame on university. Three weeks back to the grind, and not only have the lecturers/tutors piled on the work and assignments, but they're making me BLOG! For uni! GAH! Trust the university to jump all over trends, thus turning something that was a pleasure into a chore. Boohoo. :-( Woe is me!
Er, yes, and in actual fact I am enjoying being back at uni. I've got some interesting subjects happening this semester that see me studying and creating 3D animation, temporal media and interaction designs. (Yeah, I don't really know what the heck all those words mean either -except 3D animation, which is blatantly obvious- but I'm learning.. sloooowly.)
But to the topic - anime! I spent a good portion of my summer break becoming acquainted with the wonderful world of anime. For some reason I'd resisted most anime up until I attended Supanova
(1) (2) last year, despite the fact the bro' has had a number of anime flicks in his video/DVD collection for years. I think I had an aversion to the mere thought of R-rated cartoons. Ignorant me! However, at Supanova, watching the Cosplayers and Kamehameha Blast-Off'ers, I realised that anime fans are like their own wacky fun society that I had to learn more about. And thus began the Great Anime Quest of Summer '04/'05..
..it all started with a raiding of the bro's anime collection. That introduced me to the thoroughly entertaining "Gunsmith Cats" and "Read or Die", the weirdness of "Akira", and the very cool character Jubei, of "Ninja Scroll". When I grow up I wanna be just like him! Make of that what you will... Also at this time, I worked my way through the local Blockbuster's modest anime collection, checking out a small number of movies, most of which fascinated me to varying degrees (except a film called "X" - it was pretty lame).
Unfortunately, this was simply not enough to satiate my growing obsession with the art form. Alas! It was time to make a few choice investments and begin my own anime collection. Much to my frustration, I discovered that, like fantasy novels (another obsession), anime titles rarely seem to be on sale. You can shop around, and shop around some more, and the prices only drop below recommended retail by a couple of dollars or so. Phooey! To date I have controlled my spending to three volumes of "GetBackers" (all that's available here in Oz so far) - a highly entertaining action/comedy TV series about a couple of dudes who run a recovery service, ie. they 'get back' stuff. It has great comedic moments and some sweet action scenes. More recently I purchased the thirteen episode series "Please Teacher" - a pretty neat drama series about a 15 year (who is technically 18) old marrying his teacher (an alien). There's a vague "erk!" factor to parts of it but otherwise it's a charmer.
Then there's my latest acquisition - volume 1 of "Azumanga Daioh". Like Seinfeld, it's a comedy show about nothing, but beyond that it defies description. Suffice to say it had me quite literally rolling with laughter at times. Detachable pig-tails will do that to ya!
So the point of this post was really a roundabout way of explaining that if it's the last you see appear on this blog in a while, it's because I'm busy with uni.. or watching anime. 'cause obsessions are good for the soul. :-P
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This post falls under the "too good not to share" category. I recently switched brands of sanitary liners (no, that's not the bit I simply *had* to share), and discovered that, according to Libra, sanitary liners are a perfect place to impart useless trivia/facts. What fun! Now when I make a trip to the Ladies, I can have a giggle at the stuff printed on the adhesive backing strip, and the women in the other cubicles can wonder at my sanity. I scanned a couple of these backing strips to share the fun, so go ahead and click on the sample provided (my favourite "odd spot").