I was listening to the local news earlier, and they reported on what I'd only heard a snatch of the other day:

Grey wolves are moving back into Washington State!

DNA testing was done, and the wolves have been linked back to packs up in Canada, so we're pretty sure they're wild wolves, not those raised in captivity and released back into the wild, like what's been done over in Yellowstone National Park. How awesome is it that the wolves themselves are choosing where to live?

An interesting thing is that locals here seem happy about wolves coming back into the state, whereas in Idaho there's been a lot of stink about killing off the wolves there again. If the wolves were here before we were, what right do we have to kick them out? I doubt we'll ever see wolves where I live, but somehow, knowing wolves are coming back into the state again makes me feel very glad.

Here's hoping we get it right this time, and don't push them toward extinction again.

(Methinks I'm getting too much mileage out of this icon!)

Dang, I just finished watching the new episode of Revolution, and believe it or not, Amelia earned so many points with me. Someone has to look out for nature and the animals! Huzzah for her standing up to not only Lina, but Zelgadis as well! I had to laugh when she held Zelgadis in a choke hold so long that he collapsed. There goes his hide being so tough nothing can hurt or hinder him... (HA!)

I'm ticked at Lina scaring Pocota off. If she'd be calm she might have befriended him as Amelia did. ...eh, sooner or later Lina's better side will kick in...

Hey, secondlina, don't look now, but you were so right. XP

Yesterday was the wedding reception for my younger sister, which went well enough. Kind if crazy that here it is midway through July, and it was only around 70˚F in the sun. In the shade it was downright freezing! I spent the time chatting with old family friends from church (when does the line blur from small child to equal in conversation?), trying to absorb the sun to regain some warmth, and chasing after my other brother's daughter. (Still no idea why I always seem to be tagged as the aunt to babysit.)

Afterward I got home, grabbed my things, then headed off in my car to the gas station before heading out to Bremerton. Nearly the entire way some woman in an SUV rode on my bumper. By the time I was at the gas station I was very irked about it, but went about my business as I pumped gas. As luck would have it, she had even followed me to the gas station, and was just across from me at the station. She had her back to me as she filled her own tank, and I was wearing sunglasses, so I was bold and looked her over, then noticed her license plate holder had Burien written on it.

Burien... That place forever haunts me! The first time I went to Redmond with my youngest sister (back when we got to see DigiPen and stare at Nintendo of America from their parking lot), we somehow managed to drive off the freeway and into Burien, then got lost there for a very long time. Every time I see the name, I always remember getting lost.

Anyway, thought in mind, and car filled with gas, I was closing up the tank and getting ready to return to the driver's seat, when the woman called out to me. She asked how to get back on the freeway, to which I replied asking where she wanted to go. She was heading toward Tacoma, so I pointed her in the right direction. She commented that she "always gets lost out here", to which I had to laugh, then mention how I'd seen the name on her license plate holder, and how I felt her pain since I get lost in her neck of the woods all too often myself.

By the end of the exchange I was feeling much better, and I even felt bad for having been annoyed at her for tailgating. I guess she was trying to follow after anyone who could lead her back to civilization, since where I had been driving is skirting the town I live in. One wrong turn and you'll easily end up out in the middle of nowhere.

Did anyone ever see this anime? It's called Kodomo no Omocha (Child's Toy), but the name's usually abbreviated to just 'Kodocha'. I was introduced to it back in high school, and as with many anime series I saw then, I only got to see the first few episodes into it, but for whatever reason the story grabbed me. A few years ago TokyoPop translated and released the manga series here (all ten volumes!), which I happily bought...even if I have some qualms with letter placement.

In any case, it's a great comedy/drama about a child actress dealing with life, the major event being the quiet guy in class who causes a lot of trouble despite his quietness. Once they get at each other, things just go from there. It's a very fun series that has a lot of nice touches of reality all throughout, so even if I know it's scared off some people from it, I can't help but love it.

...what's more, I just read the entire manga series again this past week, then just a bit ago decided to check eBay to see if I could track down the volumes I was missing. (I started getting the anime right before I headed off to uni for the first time, then never got around to finding what I was missing.) Not only did I find them for dirt cheap, I found out that the second season box set is being released in two weeks. What luck! ...I hope I get the limited edition Babbit plush. ^_-

..now to return to the kitchen to hack apart even more veggies..

*would rather finally watch what anime she does have of the series*

Chalk this up as an odd activity to engage in:

Picking through Jelly Bellies to take out all of the coffee flavored (*cough* I prefer 'tainted') candies in preparation for the sister's wedding reception.

My mom and I are totally saving so many people from breaking the Word of Wisdom! (Yes, that's a joke.)

Still, what a world we live in. Whatever happened to the good old days when candies were flavored after fruit?

Okay, hilarious little moment earlier this evening around the D&D table:

As a quick setup, I watched the 'first' OAV (when Lina met Naga) with some of the guys, to much amusement. Anyway, game was to start, so I turned off the t.v. and DVD player, leaving the disc in the DVD player.

So then a bit later one of the guys decides to turn on some music, so he turns on the DVD player, fiddles with it, then music started playing...followed by Lina bellowing (in Japanese) "Diru Burando!" (Dil Brand, of course.)

I of course couldn't help but laugh and joke that we were all dead from Lina's attack. It was such a random but awesome moment.

Nothing like waking up nice and early with the hope of farming netherdrake eggs (for rep, whoo) to find that other people had the same idea, so there were no eggs to be had...at least, until some Horde rogue was parked on a ledge where I like to be to get those dratted relics, so instead I went to the Dragonmaw Hold on the off chance the eggs hadn't been farmed there. What luck! I found two eggs! It was just enough to hit exalted, have my life on the line, but in the end...



I got my pretty netherdrake mount, finally! (And yes, I missed the new episode of Slayers Revolution. But oh well. It'll be available for download within a small amount of time anyway.)

I just wish this wedding reception were over so I'd have time to work on more things (like cleaning up more scans that are suddenly turning into a competition) instead of cleaning and tidying. Oh well..

Seems I'm falling behind! I wanted to do this the other day, but I am without my scanner right now, so at first I thought I was doomed for failure. Then reality smacked me upside the head. Hey! ameban's excellent at drawing, it's true, but there are so many ways to use talent, some of which I've dabbled in a lot. So, I decided to give this my own personal spin (hee hee, pun intended).

What you are about to see comes from a seamstress/writer with some Photoshop skills. Good thing, too, since the file was too big, so I had to hack it to pieces. Now I'm hoping I can paste it together and have it still look decent:

( Ichiban Victory's response )

see more dog pictures

Yes, it's a doctored up picture, but when I saw it it was too adorable and really good! Poor little puppy Fox McCloud...

Anyway, I never posted about the video game session the other day, so I shall now. Friday was all kinds of awesome, even though just a select few of us local peoples got together to play. I'd like to track down more steering wheels for Mario Kart Wii for the best versus sessions ever, but it probably won't happen before I leave for Florida. Also, choosing a random character and a random stage in Smash Bros. Brawl is the way to go! I don't want to brag (much), but when all was said and done, I'd gotten nearly 100 KOs to my name, which was more than the three other guys. I hope you all will still have rematches with me, anyway. It was a lot of fun!

I also played a bit of Puzzle League against my younger sister when she was home the other day, and more often than not she kicked my butt. Video games always were the great equalizers in our home...

I'm finally playing Mario Kart Wii solo to unlock more courses and characters, and I'm finally getting better at steering. I've even figured out the tricks, so it's been even more fun. Now I just need a reliable internet connection so I can race against people online again!

But now, time to focus on more spiritual things, and better yet, use the day of rest to catch up on my lack of rest - after I get home from church. Good thing it's a gorgeous day outside... ^_^

Wouldn't it figure that not being able to fall asleep for the longest time and not being able to sleep in wouldn't matter due to one dream where I was petting my beloved cat? Man, I love her cameos...

I just went by The Lolcats Site and this greeted me at the top:

more cat pictures

My cat looked a lot like that, so it was a bit spooky. Puff had a better evil look though, and the face isn't quite right...and yet pretty on par. Ze kitty invades from ze other side.

Time to carry happiness within while I kick butt at video games without.

*flees*

This is totally the fault of some of the guys in the guild when I was playing WoW this morning. We somehow got on the topic of video games (oh right, I was explaining how a DS game had kept me offline), and so we were all sharing some of our favorite video games. The Wii downloadables came up, and Pokémon Puzzle League was mentioned, and I was doomed from there...

Actually, I had bought some Wii Points cards last month, but then the wireless signal in my house kept getting blocked somehow, so no Wii online. I noticed earlier today that my Wii was glowing blue, so it somehow managed to sneak online without me. I tried out the internet channel, and a few YouTube clips of Slayers Revolution later (still weirded out it loads faster on the Wii than on my computer) I decided it was safe to try downloading more games, only for the connection to die once I paid for Pokémon Puzzle League.

The good news is that if you purchase a game and then can't download it, a message pops up saying you can download the game for free the next time you're able. (Thank goodness!) I was stubborn, so I tried again, and this time I was able to get the game.

Okay, anyone remember back when the Nintendo 64 was out, and people doomed and gloomed it would be the death of Nintendo? Good games were far and few between (but gems, each and every one I ever had or played), but this game was one of the few that I really loved, despite being pretty bad at puzzle games. Those tiles stack up and the brain shuts down. REGARDLESS. I was actually really sad when I bought a Gamecube since I didn't know if I'd ever get to play Puzzle League ever again. (Sure enough, the N64, while cherished, has been collecting dust in my room. Someday I'll have an entertainment center of awesomeness where I can hook up all of my consoles to the television at the same time. It shall be a Nintopia!)

I just tested out the game to see how it plays, and so far it's been the easiest to play with a classic controller to the other games I downloaded. I got really nostalgic hearing the music, listening to the voices...mostly listening to the voices. Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachel Lillis, Stan Hart, Lisa Ortiz, Tara Jayne...all of these people and more put a lot of work into the show, and it just reminded me how much was lost to me when they recast all of the voices for the Pokémon anime. I still can't bring myself to watch it... At least I can take heart in hearing THE James laugh every time I play Team Rocket and get an awesome combo.

This makes me wish I could get my hands on the first few seasons of Pokémon, but for it to be professional and the like wouldn't make it cheap. Maybe I'll just have to subject my nieces to ye olde VHS recordings I got when the show was first airing. Now that will be a nostalgia trip! (The first anime aired on U.S. television that I really enjoyed! Back in the day...)

I suppose I should have waited for the fansub to be released, but it's kind of fun watching the anime completely raw to see what I can glean from it. So, without further ado, some thoughts based on what little I got from the conversation, but mostly from what I saw:

The episode definitely differed from the manga greatly, which I figured it would. Instead of following Amelia and Zelgadis into the woods to catch Pocota, we got to watch Lina and Gourry give chase into the woods, and then proceed to destroy things. (I was wondering where Amelia and Zelgadis had vanished to, until later when we see Amelia healing the troops, while Zelgadis talks rather boredly to that Weizer guy.) I can't blame the direction at all, since animating Lina and Pocota having a duel of magic is much more riveting than listening to the dialogue between Amelia and Zelgadis.

Was anyone else impressed with how quickly Pocota took out Gourry? I don't mean in the sense that Gourry's easy to take down, but Pocota quickly realized what a threat Gourry was and did what he could to get away, while he chooses to play around with Lina, not really doing anything to take her out until he realized she was also quite a force to be reckoned with in a different way. You definitely can't say Pocota's an idiot for seeing the swordsman for what he is. Lina might knock him around a bit, but Gourry could do some serious damage to the strange rabbit.

Speaking of, Gourry the monkey man amused me a bit too much. It felt like I was suddenly watching Gokudo again (for reasons I won't get into) listening to Gourry screech like a monkey while swinging through the trees. Japanese culture can be such an odd thing...

Oh gosh, and something that really surprised me. I need to go back and watch the older seasons again, but I was actually really surprised when they had Lina deck Weizer guy really hard on screen. No quick flash to indicate violence, no offscreen noise to indicate a pounding, but a straight out sucker punch for all to see. Times must be changing as to what is and isn't appropriate to show on television in Japan (at least within certain age groups).

"A cow?" - Amelia seeing yet another strange tank. Enough said. I hadn't heard that word since high school...

I think I'm liking the newer look more and more. There were quite a few shots that looked very good (including one of Lina that screams to be iconized), but Zelgadis does still seem pretty flat. Have to say that's part of how his character is. What I really noticed is that Amelia's lost some of that 'cute kid' look she had in earlier seasons. One shot she even looked....*gasp* like a young woman. Very shocking, but I like it!

And we got to see Prince Phil for two seconds, so hurray. He's just as scary looking as he should be. ^_-

I wasn't too impressed with the animation when Amelia's showing a map and a letter to Lina though. All they did was slide the cel with the image across the screen, so it looked pretty cheesy. Shortcuts in animation aren't always worth it.

Thoughts?

Got to love the classics... I had a hankering to play through Hotel Dusk on my DS again the other day, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time around. Finally managed to win the prize from that silly vending machine as well, which doesn't impact the story, but it made a little girl's day, so it was worth it. I'm about to play through it a second time to get the best ending...



Afterward, I need to play through Trace Memory again, as I've really loved Cing's games. The art alone compels me to look at it!

I was also wondering if the company was working on anything right now, then came across an article mentioning they'd announced a game for the Wii, tentative title about a king's life. I think there was an article in Nintendo Power about it last month as well, and it's been getting a lot of praise and hype. Sounds like Cing's working with some other small companies to make the game, which ought to be fun to see. If they put as much care into the new title as they did the last two DS titles, no doubt I'll fall in love with the characters all over again. (Seriously, how often does one find endearing characters in video games anymore? They even made me care about a little bratty girl, for crying out loud!)

Time to get back to sleuthing to see if I can get that secret ending...

Yesterday was a really great day, in many ways. The main thing being that I got out of the house and spent a lot of time with the local friends, and even got to spend time with friends and associates I'd not seen for years. That's something I love about old friends. It doesn't matter how much time goes by; when you see each other again, the time apart doesn't matter. Far better to enjoy the (present of the) present.

We had a great view of most all of the people lighting off fireworks in Bremerton, and a small fire was even started by one of our crew who had a tendency to overshoot his target. I think the most amusing part for me was when the neighbor behind had their fireworks go off right over our heads, so we were bombarded with ash and such. I even felt some touch my eyelash, which was a bit much. Ah, fireworks. The lesser bombs of the world...

I've also decided not to play Twister against people a lot taller than I am, as I felt endangered any time I was in a position underneath someone else. It even brought back memories of hurting my leg when I was a kid, which I do not want to happen before I head off to Florida, so it made me wimp out on getting too involved. Oh well. As it is, I'm still recovering from that pulled muscle I got in May.

On a more random fandom note, I finally read the second scanlated chapter of the Slayers Revolution manga last night, and... I actually find Pocota kind of cute. If something can get along with Amelia that quickly, it can't be too bad of a character. (I'm really wondering if the next episode of the anime will follow the manga as closely. I'm hoping it follows this one, at least. I also like seeing Amelia and Zelgadis working together.)

That said, Zelgadis still fights dirty with putting poison in bait. Shame, shame! Maybe he figured it was okay since Amelia'd be able to get rid of it?

We had a storm roll in last night, resulting in me shutting down my computer. When I got up around 9 this morning, I was greeted with a very loud rumble, but then it was quiet for a time. WHOA. And lightning just struck. Looks like I better be rolling out NOW! o_O

First off, yes, I did watch the first episode of Slayers Revolution earlier. Already people seem to be coming out of the woodwork because of it. I logged on earlier to ask a local friend what was happening tonight only to be jumped IMed by some random person asking if I had any Slayers Revolution news. How they found me, I don't know, but as soon as I linked them where they needed to go, they fell silent.

Weird...

Anyway, a thunder storm rolled overhead soon after, so I shut down my computer and headed upstairs. A short time later my mom spotted a deer (yes, a female deer) resting in the front orchard, so she fetched her camera and trekked outside to take pictures, while I watched through the front window. How I wish I'd gotten a shot of the deer once my mom was done taking pictures! She'd been acting pretty cool during the shooting session, content to chew her cud in peace, but afterward she shot my mom a look (after my mom had turned away, so she missed it) as if to say, "What in the HECK were you doing?" She then spied me watching her from inside and stared back for a moment. The opportunity too good to pass up, I ran to fetch my own camera.



I was standing on the porch to take this, since I didn't want to startle the deer more than necessary. Her ears were back since my mom was still standing nearby.



The deer was finally unsettled enough with the attention from my mom that she stood and started to amble off, but she stopped for a long scratch. I thought it looked pretty cool. It would have been nice from another angle to use as a drawing reference.



The deer made the mistake of nibbling on my mom's plants, so she shooed the deer over the fence and into our field, only to find...another deer! (We think this one was a young buck. They might possibly be the twin fawns we had the other year.) I'll leave you to find the second deer in the photo.

And no, still no sign of the new baby deer. I sure hope this wasn't the mother.

I was upstairs making potato salad and watching The Fairly Odd Parents (such a naughty show, but the humor is so clever), when a commercial came on for this:

The Princess Bride Game

At first I thought I was imagining things, but the longer the commercial played on, the more in shock I was. It would be sooo tempting to get it just to see how it is...but seeing how I have no money in my checking account at the moment (and I'm far too paranoid to put more in), I'll have to try the trial instead.

Still, how cool is it that The Princess Bride can still generate something like this, despite being two decades old? May this classic never die! ^_^

*sneaks off to finally watch Slayers Revolution*

Pretty, isn't it? It looks like they pulled in a lot of characters from the novels as well (the assassin, the tiger-man), but I have NO idea what the story is based on. I'm downloading the first episode right now, but it'll probably not be done until tomorrow, the way things are going. (Weep.) ...only now it's stopped completely. Better go with the low quality version...

What really has me stoked? They were finally accurate on Amelia's design! What was previously only seen in the novels and in a manga, will now be in the anime as well. Maybe the next time I cosplay with that costume, people will finally connect the dots. XP

->insert grumbling about being woken up early here<-

My mom and I just did some more sleuthing to check out the locations where this thief spent my money. Mississauga and Scarborough are very close to each other, for starters. Next I pulled out a bank statement to see all the places I had used my card, and only two came up:

The Labyrinth Books
Boston Pizza

I was in the presence of my card the entire time at the book shop, so I moved in on Boston Pizza, checked out it's location, and guess what? It is smack dab in BETWEEN Scarborough and Mississauga. I don't want to go running off on the wrong leads, but it seems pretty telling to me.

secondlina, I'd really like to find out more about your own incident this weekend, and if you haven't already reported your own to the police, you really ought to.

It started off as a quick run to the grocery store to prepare for the barbecue later this week, but ended very far from that. Groceries in hand, I went to the checkout only for my check card not to work. I was directed to an atm, where again my card was denied. Somewhat bothered, I told the cashier I would go down the road to the credit union to find out what was going on. One glance at my transactions later I knew...

Someone in Canada stole my card number and had sucked my checking account dry!

Whoever it is frequents gas stations in Scarborough, likes to treat friends to McDonalds and Burger King, make big purchases at Mac's in Wasaga Beach, and in general bought too much gas in the past three days than any sane driver would. They spent over $500 of MY money before the card was blocked, leaving a piddly $40.00 left to my checking account's name. (Turns out that call I got the other week was legitimate, hokey as it sounded.)

Man oh man, did it set off my righteous ire! The good news is that the credit union I've been with forever was really good about it. A woman filled out paper work that I took down the street to the police department so they could get a case going on it, and I'll be refunded all money lost. (Again, THANK GOODNESS.) It would be so tempting to head back up to Toronto and track down the scumbag myself, but I'll leave the police to do that.

Still, how stupid do you have to be to think you can get away with stealing money from someone else's account? This makes me all the more glad I don't have a credit card, and that a mere number on a cash card does not give one access to the main savings account. THANK GOODNESS.

Whoever thought you could get away with living off my hard-earned money, I hope you get what's coming to you.