It’s been a while, again.
There are two conditions under which I find it difficult to write: when the entire universe seems to be caught up in celestial doldrums and nothing seems to happen, and when the universe catches a celestial jetstream and events blast by without me even being able to process them. As of late, it’s been the latter.
Before we go there, though, I want to express a little frustration about this blog. I prefer to write with a passion, to write about the things I believe in and the things I do at work. I want people to know about what I do and what I think of the world.
Unfortunately, despite my blog receiving at least five hundred hits every week (closer to a thousand in actuality), most of them seem to be hits on my old posts about topics that just happen to have a lot of people interested in them. Most of my hits go to an old Gundam 00 post, as well as that old “Drizzt in Magic” post. It’s more than a little vexing because instead of this blog being my own personal way of communicating with the world, the world seems to say “OH LOL GUNDAM 00! OH LOLZ DRIZZT IS TEH WIIIIIN!!@!@!!!1111111oneone”. Thus it seems that a lot of my endless hours sitting here and tapping away my angsty blather goes to waste. Maybe it’s just as well.
Of course, I’m not the type to move around, closing blogs and starting new ones (completely deleting the older ones in the process). I’m still going to stubbornly slog through hordes of meaningless hits here and continue to write, hoping that someone will get the point somewhere along the line.
In any case, I haven’t really said much about this school year’s end. Let’s begin with that and work toward the viral marketing of anime.
This year was rough. It really was. It was my first time to handle this many classes, and it was very difficult for me to keep up the checking pace. (As you know, checking is the thing I hate the most about teaching.) The students were not really a part of the problem–it was the schedule. Several times during the year, the schedule just exploded, with deadlines heaping upon one another. It was only through the gentle guidance that I received from Mrs. Oblepias that I got to finish my work, and finish it well.
She will be around no longer, however. Maam O retired this year as her son graduated. It was not a tearful goodbye, but it certainly was fearful. We still don’t know who’ll be replacing her as the unit head, and well, it’s really too soon to say anything about what to expect next year.
Maam O was an awesome boss. She took me under her wing and gave me hope that I was actually good at something. She never judged me, always encouraged me, always supported me. She made me believe that I was better at what I did than I thought I was.
She even left me with a parting gift: The Writers’ Ultimate Fantasy Reference. It’s full of awesome stuff that I could use for my D&D campaigns (HOBGOBLINS WITH TWO-HANDED RAZORS, BABY!)
It’s just a same that I won’t have her as my boss anymore, but I’m holding my breath–I don’t really want to expect any great boss in PSHS after her. Maybe I’m being too pessimistic, but I don’t want to really get attached to anyone anymore. As you may know, I intend to leave PSHS by 2009.
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Oh, and about that post where I had to perform an unnecessarily tedious operation which involved the signatures of three dozen teachers: By the grace of God, it’s done. The impossible became possible, the invisible hand of God became invisible, just like that Gurren-Lagann song said: I finished all of those signatures in a day. Isn’t God awesome?
Speaking of God’s awesomeness, I also managed to find a good summer source of income (which really helps, since the Agency isn’t really zealous about compensating us for our work.). It’s a bit of a surprise, so I wont’ really talk about it yet. All I can say is that the events came together so well that I swear on my blood that it was God’s idea.
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Now on to the viral marketing of anime. I’d just finished watching Gundam 00, and I sort of had a love-hate relationship with it.
It began really well despite the ominous pronouncements of naysayers that it was Gundam Wing all over again, and that the Gundam franchise had perished after the unholy mass of blasphemy that was Gundam SEED Destiny. (The SEED franchise did redeem itself, I hear, with Stargazer, especially since Fukuda had nothing to do with it.)
The first episode of 00, as I’ve said in a previous post, was awesome: no stock footage, slick animation, and the ability to remain different form Wing despite the similarities (bishounen cast, small organization vs world, etc.)
However, as the episodes came, they eventually became rather repetitive until the villains were introduced: Graham Aker of Union, Patrick Corlasour of the AEU, and Lt. Col Sergei Smirnoff and Lt. Soma Pieres of the HRL. Lastly, there was Ali Al Saachez. Apart from Patrick, these characters were more than a match for the Celestial Being pilots, each of them soundly beating their share of bishounen at one point or another in the series.
Now for the spoileriffic part:
Continue reading ‘Not Enough Has Been Said’