I start watching Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake today. It's from the late 90s so I'm not expecting a lot from it. Most likely it will be super sad and the graphics will be 'meh' at best. But it has Fukada Kyoko and I adore her. There are 12 episodes in the series, meaning it will take me quite awhile to finish it. I'll try to squeeze in a few episodes at home to make it go faster. Sorry!
March Madness
The first half of the month of March is always difficult for me. My daughter's birthday is today and my husband's birthday is on the 16th. Of course, I have to fit the kid's birthday party in there, as well as figuring out something nice to do for my husband. This year, however, my husband's best friend decided to have his wedding in March as well. As a result, the first half of this month will pretty much be a write-off. Currently, my first free weekend is the 17th but that is the weekend of my husband's birthday. It feels like I will never have free time again!
JMovie review: Paradise Kiss
I've never read the Paradise Kiss manga. Nor have I watched the anime. However, I heard good things about the series and, since I like Kitagawa Keiko, I decided to give it a try.
Hayasaka (nicknamed "Caroline") is an interesting character. She goes from a life where she is forced into doing things her mother wants to a life where she does the things she wants. Watching her grow as she is pushed into maturity by Koizumi (nicknamed "George") is a lot like watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon. Of course, this isn't overlooked. There are butterflies everywhere.
Luckily, both Kitagawa and Mukai do an amazing job as the lead characters. My only peeve is that Yamamoto's character is listed as a main character, yet little is done with him. He is there in the beginning as Hayasaka's love interest but then it disappointingly goes nowhere. His character could have been cut from the film with no real consequence.
As a whole, I enjoyed the movie. It was a nice story and it does make me want to watch the anime. (Sorry, I don't read a lot of manga.) I just wish there was a little more meat to the story.
Soon!
I apologize for the lack of posting over the past week. I have had a terrible cold, which is making it difficult for me to do anything. However, I am almost finished Paradise Kiss. The review should be up before the end of the week. And since I am on the mend, I hope to have a few more posts to push out this week as well. Wish me luck!
Movie Review: The Secret World of Arrietty
I adore Studio Ghibli movies. Our DVD shelves are stocked with a variety of their titles - My Neighbor Totoro, The Cat Returns, and Ponyo, just to name a few. So when we heard that Arrietty was being released in theaters, my family was pretty excited to see it. (The constant commercials on the Disney Channel were no help either!) I didn't think we would find the time to see it opening weekend, but we managed to fit it in.
With only a 94-minute running time, Arrietty is a fairly short movie. Unfortunately, the lack of any real characterization or conflict due to the time constraints is noticeable. Most of the movie is spent showing how Arrietty and her family borrow things from the 'human beans.' We don't really get to know any of the humans. As a result, the climax of the movie doesn't bring out the emotions that it should. Instead of caring about whether a character lives or dies, the audience is forced to just float along with the story. But don't think that this makes it a terrible movie. On the contrary, it's a nice journey we are taken on. The lovely artwork and gorgeous soundtrack make the blandness of the plot worthwhile. It would just be nicer if there was a bit more meat on this story's bones.
Doomed!
I should surrender my Geek Badge. I haven't actually done anything geeky in quite a long time. No jdramas, no video games, nothing. I suppose I could talk about the television shows I've been watching but it's been stuff like the first two seasons of Cake Boss. Netflix is my crack. All of the horrible shows I never wanted to watch in the first place are right there at the tips of my fingers. And I am a curious cat. And we all know what happened to the curious cat. I am doomed.
And just to plug myself a little here: I have started a new blog where I talk about all my funky mental junk. Insecure Psyche. I hope you like it.
Ow
As I was attempting to keep my dogs from running out the front door, I smacked my knee on the doorjamb and bruised it pretty badly. I'm OK when I'm just sitting or standing but bending my knee hurts a lot. I wish I had one of those chair lifts that use new jersey electricity so I didn't have to walk up the stairs. That part is the absolute worst. Well, that and trying to step in or out of the bathtub. But I only shower once a day. I have to walk up and down the stairs multiple times. At least it's only a bruise. I should be all better in a few days. Hopefully.
Almost over
Only a few more hours left of this work week. Unfortunately, we found out today that our boss is coming back from his vacation a week earlier than his calendar says. Today has been pretty harsh on my nerves. I'm almost ready to really research small business loans bad credit (though I don't think my credit is 'bad' anymore...I think it's been upgraded to 'fair' or 'good') so I can start my own fitness studio. I'm tired of working for someone else. I want to branch out and be my own boss. I'd also like to do something I enjoy doing, considering right now I hate what I do. I wish...
I wish...
The difficulties of biking
Everyone in my family got bikes last year. However, we've never actually used them. Mostly because there isn't a lot of good biking areas where we live. That would mean trying to buy a bike rack for one of our cars. I'm not sure there are any bike racks that would fit on my husband's PT Cruiser and I think those SUV bike racks that go on the roof look stupid. That leaves us with my car. We'd have to get a rack that attaches to the trunk, though they can be a pain in the butt to use. Exercising should not be this difficult.
Who wants to clean my house?
As I have been thinking about my new furniture all day, I quickly realized that my house is a pigsty and I have no idea how we'd fit the fabulous couch into our tiny space. Even if it FIT, all the junk would quickly amass and you'd never see the awesomeness of it again. It would just be some odd-looking cushions with dogs piled atop. But I am to lazy to clean the entire house myself. And both the husband and the kid are terrible at helping clean. (It usually ends up with a lot of whining.) Therefore, I have decided that I either need a robot maid (hey, shouldn't The Jetsons be coming true soon?) or a holly springs house cleaning service. Somehow, I think the robot would be more likely. No, Roomba doesn't count. The biggest problem isn't actually the cleaning. It's the fact that we have no place to put anything. My house is very tiny and between the video gaming husband, the only-grandchild-on-both-sides-of-the-family kid, three dogs, two chinchillas, a cat, a bird, and myself...let's just say there isn't a lot of leftover space. Ooh, I wonder if I could sell everything and start over brand new. The new owners could keep all the crap. They just can't have the Xbox 360. I use that a lot.