Original.Tough.Adaptable.Keen.Unique

I love that song. The song by Sugar, Real Identity. It's a really neat song, and the video that goes with it is possibly the most awesome mix ever.

Now then, on to the "elephant" in the blog, Christmas. For those of you who don't celebrate it, or have taken enough crap for it, just wait til next week and the newest post. I'm just here to say that it's not overrated, it's underrated. I'm not talking about shopping or any of the material baggage that comes with it, it's just a holiday whose meaning we have really lost sight of. It's a shame to think we can actually celebrate this holiday without thinking about why it's there in the first place.

Before anyone asks what I got for Christmas, I'll tell them that I got the greatest gift. Peace. Finally after a long time, I woke up this morning and I didn't have a headache, my eyes didn't hurt, my legs weren't sore. I just felt really great. It was icing to the great cake I call Christmas. Normally Hindus and Buddhists like myself don't celebrate Christmas, but it's always been a longstanding tradition in my household to honor those who shaped our country, and yes, most of the world. In an awefully shallow world, I felt like I've had a deep moment. *single tear*

Now on to the great news, Windows Vista finally WORKS!! Yay! After like months of a shiz-nizzy computer, it's finally got its balls in order and Vista is going strong. I spent all day troubleshooting. But whatever, this is a great present to myself. Awesome! This year, I think I've found my own "Real Identity".

Merry Christmas, folks!

Alright, here's a dirty little secret I've kept. I'm a c-walker. No, not a CRIP walker, but a CLOWN walker. Now don't go runnin away, because you think I'm in a gang or something... I know, what type of otaku does this? Well a person who's not an otaku. I'm not OTAKU. Here are a list of moves in the clownwalk, which shall henceforth be known as cwalk. I'll go in the order you learn them.

1. V
2. V Variation
3. V Stepback
4. Shuffle
5. Shuffle Hop
6. Shuffle Spin
7. Shuffle Stepback
8. Heelhop
9. Heeltoe
10. Inverted/Reverse Heeltoe
11. Snake Heeltoe
12. Air Heeltoe
13. Heeltoe Combo

13, yes, baker's dozen moves to learn before you can say you can cwalk. I'm on number 12. Here are 2 videos of me cwalking. It's not like I'm very good in these vids. They were taken a few weeks ago, and I've gotten soooo much better.

After 3 weeks and no new post, by which time you probably assumed I was dead, I have made a triumphant return. To point out some figures, I've got an arsenal of 254 manga now [2 more than when I last posted], 3 anime series, and 30 bucks worth of gift cards in a pear tree. Just kidding about the last one.

Here we are at last in the final run for your money. The last chance to grab those gifts. The last days in which we run around malls for hours on end only to buy like $20 worth of stuff. Right at this moment, I LOVE YOU BABY blasting and all, I realise that it's all worth it. This one day that no one really appreciates. When the procrastinators come out and prowl. December 23rd. A day everybody just forgets. Stuck between the beginning of the end of the holiday shopping season, December 20th [when all the schools let out, too] and the biggest shopping day of the year [face it even the folks who started in October go out this day], December 24th. I personally believe even the procrastinators cover their bases and go out on the 23rd. Well, let's pray that they do. The congestion's killing me.

Well.... yeah, that's what's going on with me. On December 14th [it was a Friday, I believe] I recieved a Christmas present for myself. At $1.99 a pop [plus 3.99 shipping *grumble*] in other words, 5.88 a pop, I recieved vols. 1 and 2 of Suki by CLAMP. Sounds familiar? Probably not this book went out of print back in 2005 I think. Great story, but unfortunately vol. 3 [the last volume] is $6.XX in other words, I'll be spending like $11 on that, which I really don't want to. Even though it's probably totally worth it. I also bought the Deluxe Edition of the Harry Potter 5 movie. Let's see if I can get any manga or anime for Christmas, today or tomorrow.

It's Sunday morning, and I don't think I could be at more peace. But unfortunately, my morning's coming to an end, it's almost noon. And so my day of disaster, and shopping, will begin. Lastly, I leave you with a Merry Pre-Christmas Shopping Bonanza!

Huzzah for non-denominational holidays. It's a shame this isn't one of them. LOL, just kidding!

---BTW, the timing's wrong on the posts, right now it's actually 11:59 AM. Just in time for the morning!

While watching Gone in 60 Seconds, yes that old movie from like 7 years ago [has it really been that long...?], I decided to finally write the Nodame Cantabile review. Nodame Cantabile, a series written by Tomoko Ninomiya revolves around the life of Chiaki Shinchi, a classical music-major college student with an impossible fear of flying which disables him from studying abroad where all the greatest musicians and composers teach. The basic plot is about his troubles with what he should do with his life. He wants to be a conductor, but he's a piano major. He wants to study abroad but he's afraid of flying. He wants to graduate peacefully, but there's Nodame. Enter Megumi Noda, another second-year college student who majors in piano. According to Chiaki, she has no talent nor any direction in life, which is a problem for him, since they got paired up to play a duet. Wait, rewind, I'll start from the beginning. Superstar musician Chiaki Shinchi is the top student at his music university. He aspires to become a great conductor like his role model Maestro Sebastiano Viera and is already on his way by become a great violin and piano player. One day, he gets into a rift with his teacher, the top piano teacher at his university, and gets kicked out of his class. He then gets reassigned to a new teacher who is supposedly supposed to only work with the "problem" students. One of this new teacher's students is Megumi Noda, a weird girl who's a brilliant piano player. In the first volume, Nodame and Chiaki have to play a duet as part of their class... which is difficult since Chiaki's all follow the music.... EXACTLY. And Nodame's quite the opposite, play what you feel! After that whole episode we can see how this story goes, wonderfully well, with a basic theme of music, and a dramatic plotline, that actually has a legitimate basis here and there. Not your usual shojo with big eyes and whatnot. It's simplistic artwork makes the series easily identifiable, but then there are those times when it looks a bit TOO plain. Translation and all is great as is expected from Del Rey. Presentation is really great, I love that glossy cover. Overall, this is a great series if you're not really the uber-romance type.

Here are the pics I promised yesterday. The box itself was pretty heavy [about 18 lbs], but once you took the manga out, it was soooo light. Along with the pictures comes a narrative of my life.

First, the box came. Rather quickly too, only took 3 days to get to my place [from the time of shipping]

Here's the whole set [which was wrapped BTW]

And some extras that came with it [the registration card, a Naruto card & a booklet with the first chapter of vol. 28 & the first one-shot story]

Here's my lucky number [211 of 5000] which is weird since I saw a blog post about 2 weeks ago that stated that theirs was number 25XX out of 5000...

Here are the poster that came with them


The two boxes

And finally the whole set.

I just received the Naruto Shadow Box by VIZ in the mail today [around 2.00 PM]. It has all 27 volumes of the first story arc, a HUGE box, a wooden case, and then an "outer shell". It also has a booklet that comes with an original story & the first chapter of the SHIPPUDEN. Which is great since that comes out in March '08. I'll post pictures later. The Puffing Tom has been been updated too, check it out.