While the party is now on their way to fight with the traitorous Marquis Eldershade (whose true identity as Voltemand Cormaeril has now been revealed), I gave them a very long series of encounters to go through so they’d be prepared for whatever they’re going to meet at Dragonsgate.

The big problem I have now is that we might never even get to the end of Act II, so I was just thinking of making this adventure as epic as possible so that they’d be left with a feeling of satisfaction when they finish the last encounter.

As such, Chapter 4, The Seeds of Change, might really be the last. At least the campaign will end with a sense of closure. If we finish too early, I might run The Eyes of the Lich Queen instead.

In any case, The Black and the Purple has been very enjoyable thus far. I just wish we’d be able to finish it all the way to the very end, but that really seems unlikely.

Chaotic Evil

I was never really fond of Chaotic Evil villains. They just seem so unsubtle to the point of being predictable despite their chaotic nature. I always preferred Lawful Evil and Neutral Evil villains, as they are capable of depth and have plausible motives.

The typical D&D CE villain is short-sighted and uncoordinated, which leads to failures. He also likes executing his lackeys for no reason. He’s also often a lumbering brute who simply tears stuff apart. There’s no psychological depth, no pathos, nothing chilling or truly disturbing. As such I couldn’t really appreciate Chaotic Evil villains.

That is, until I saw The Dark Knight. The Joker there is the embodiment of Chaotic Evil. He’s without reason, without pity, without ideology or cause. He doesn’t care if he dies, has nothing to lose, and is completely flexible. He’s smart, and his plans are savagely unpredictable. His attacks are more psychological and strike a primal chord in the hearts of his victims, so much so that it’s not his aggressiveness that makes him dangerous. It’s his ability to rip apart the fragile worlds of his victims.

If I were to summarize his character into one sentence, it would be:

The Joker is so wrong as a person, but the things he says about human nature are so right.

As such, I award Heath Ledger’s Joker this motivational poster:

I love Italian food. Absolutely. My consumption of mass amounts of pizza and pasta is probably the cause of my difficulty with my weight (though thankfully that has been arrested by regular trips to the gym), yet I somehow cannot bring myself to pass up a good Italian meal.

I was pleased to discover a new Italian restaurant, thanks to Mom.

Amici is located along Tomas Morato avenue, where California Pizza Kitchen used to be located.

While the restaurant is not particularly cramped, we went there on a Sunday night and thus had to wait for a table. We didn’t have to wait long, however.

We ordered the following:

-Penne alla Arrabiata

-Pizza Romana

-Risotto Alla Osso Bucco

-Gelato (various flavors)

I’ll discuss the dishes one by one later.

The restaurant uses semi-self service: One has to place an order at the counter, then wait for the dish to arrive. Condiments, utensils, and napkins are all available at a side table. This is similar to the method of service seen in other deli-style restaurants (Almon Marina comes to mind). This is different from semi-fast food restaurants such as Sbarro and Chef d’Angelo Express, however–the food is only cooked upon ordering. Semi-self service allows the restaurant to cut down on costs related to full-service restaurants: the actual service charge, along with service water and table settings (which cost money, whether disposable or washable).

This style of service, when coupled with the generally crowded and noisy dining area, makes Amici a rather informal restaurant, so I don’t really recommend it for intimate dates. It would be perfect, however, for barkada and family dining.

Now on to the good part: the food.

PENNE ALLA ARRABIATA

Price: Php 160

Serves: 1-2

The first to arrive was the pasta. (No pictures, unfortunately.) Arrabiata sauce is tomato-based, and includes a good amount of fresh red pepper in it. This of course, makes it very spicy.

The sauce was thick and chunky–an indication that it was made from fresh tomato, and not pre-packaged tomato sauce. However, despite the menu’s claim of the sauce being “devilishly hot,” it really wasn’t. There were moments of heat, but the pepper flavor didn’t really work itself into the whole batch of sauce. Furthermore, my brother commented on the lack of the tomato’s acidity. He was looking for a sour edge in the taste.

The pasta noodles were firm and chewy; they were at the right consistency. This is where a lot of pasta fails: either the noodles are too stiff and rubbery, or they are soggy and pasty. Amici got the consistency right.

In any case, all three of us were able to get a third of the pasta. The servings are rather large, and if a family orders multiple dishes, each person can get by with a third. If one is on his own, however, a plate of this penne will be more than filling.

Verdict: Not what I hoped it to be, but not bad. It’s fresh and filling for the price.

RISOTTO ALLA OSSO BUCO

(Already partially consumed in this image. Taking pictures only occurred to me halfway through.)

Price: Php 275

Serves 1-2

Next to arrive was the risotto. My mom admits that she never thought of risotto much, her only experience with it being soggy wet rice. However, this dish proved to pleasantly surprise her.

The dish consists of risotto with beef shank in a thick, rich, sauce of tomato and capers. My mom began by eating the risotto and, forgetting what it was, said that “the mashed potatoes are good.” My brother and I were quick to remind her that she was eating rice.

I tasted it myself and was very, very, pleased with it. My brother said that risotto is cooked with Parmesan cheese added constantly. The melted cheese seeps between the rice grains and binds the rice into a fantastic, sticky, gooey mess. This particular risotto was just that–cheesy (and you could taste it was real Parmesan) rice with just a hint of saffron. My brother enjoyed the dish a lot as well, and though he said that he’d expected more flavor from the beef shank.

The beef was commendable–the portion was lean and just the right texture–not tough or soggy, and was cooked thoroughly. However, the sauce did seem a bit overpowering. Still, this dish was at the very least pleasant to eat, not to mention very filling.

For the ingredients involved (Saffron and Parmesan), the price was reasonable, and the serving was big enough for us to split evenly. It might be too expensive to eat alone, but if you split it with a buddy or two, you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Verdict: Very good, especially considering the price.

PIZZA ROMANA

Price: Php 270.

Serves 3-4.

This is the highlight of the meal. The pizza arrived last, but just in time for us to finish the previous dish.

All of Amici’s pizzas are 12 inches across–a commendable size in the age of 9-inchers. The closest comparable pizza in terms of price and size is Yellow Cab’s smallest size (10 inches). As of late, Yellow Cab’s smallest pizzas have already gotten mighty close to the 300 peso mark. As such, this makes Amici’s pizza a good deal.

This particular pizza is topped with capers, black olives, and anchovies and is baked in–get this–a real, wood-fired brick oven. (You can see the oven from the restaurant interior). This seems to give the crust a doughy, flaky texture even though it’s not much thicker than Shakey’s thin crust (which in my opinion, feels like eating a cracker). The edges of the crust were neither stiff and flat nor thick and dense. Instead, they were where the flaky-doughy texture was most concentrated. Good stuff. My brother was also pleased.

The crust wasn’t the only pleasant thing about the pizza–as you can see from the image, the toppings are fairly generous, considering the price of the dish and the cost of the ingredients. The cheese is real mozzarella (though commercialized–the mozzarella that is used in Italian home-cooked meals, according to my brother, is made from water buffalo milk. Hence, it is closer to native Filipino kesong puti than anything else), which is especially pleasing when one is used to pizza restaurants using cheap, flavorless imitation cheese. The sauce is, like the pasta sauce, is rich and made from fresh tomatoes and not from standard tomato paste.

Verdict: Good and solid. Not something you’d expect given the price.

GELATO

Price Php 50 per cup

To finish up, I treated everyone to a cup of gelato each.

For the longest time, my brother, a culinary arts student, has been searching for the perfect gelato. He hasn’t found it just yet, but Amici’s gelato came really close to his lofty standards.

For one the texture was much closer to the traditionally gooey gelato, as opposed to the simple texture of regular ice cream. The cost isn’t bad either, since gelato tends to be extremely expensive. (I usually see Php 100 per dip.)

My mom, brother and I ordered three different flavors: I ordered espresso; Mom ordered mango jubilee (mango base with berries); and my brother ordered chocolate.

The espresso definitely tasted like espresso. It had the rich, almost bitter coffee flavor without excessive sweetness or creaminess. There were also little bits of chocolate. Very good.

The mango jubilee gelato was interesting–while it had the sweetness of dessert, it had real blueberries and strawberries (I think.), giving it a tart undertone.

Finally, the chocolate. Amici’s gelato does not use the typical sweet chocolate flavoring–instead, they use Valrhona chocolate, or something very similar to it. As such, it’s rich and bitter–an excellent and unexpected flavor in an age where every dessert is excessively sweet.

Verdict: Again, given the price, very good. Notice a pattern here?

I find that Amici is generally an ideal place for casual affairs, say, having a party with one’s barkada or a late night dinner after a movie with the family. It may be pricey for some individuals, but given the value one gets, I’d say it’s worth it.

Yesterday I decided to go out and purchase the Diablo II battlechest so that I could play the game once more before Diablo III comes out next year. I also felt the need to play a less cerebral game. As much as I appreciate the intellectual stimulation I get from D&D, I was coming dangerously close to a burnout.

After romping through Act I and playing my Barbarian, GaoGaiGar, from level 1 to 18, I was reminded of my iresponsible high school days.

It’s not a secret that video games are more popular than ever in the Philippines. Almost every teenage boy (and an increasing amount of girls) is exposed to gaming in one way or another. There’s the ever popular DotA (Defense of the Ancients, an immensely simplified and inordinately popular Warcraft 3 map), as well as other popular franchises such as World of Warcraft, Ragnarok, Final Fantasy, Red Alert, and Counterstrike, to name a few.

Of course, video games bring with them the typical stigma attached to them by generations that did not grow up with them: that of irresponsibility and escapism at best, and aberrant, antisocial behavior at worst. Being a gamer myself, I vehemently deny that video games are responsible for any of my faults; the case varies between people, really. Some might have aberrant tendencies in the first place–tendencies which are given a shape and form by video games. Others are able to properly distinguish between real life and the fantasy world of the video game, and as such experience no problems. In any case, this is not my point.

I truly, sincerely believe that video games can be as innocuous as playing Scrabble or Monopoly. Strategy games shouldn’t be any less socially acceptable than playing chess. Roleplaying games shouldn’t be any less acceptable than children playing cops and robbers. First-person shooters shouldn’t be any less acceptable than shooting skeet. (Of course, I won’t defend titles like Grand Theft Auto, which I think  add to the stigma.)

In line with this, I truly, sincerely believe that one can continue to be a responsible person despite being a gamer. In fact, a truly serious gamer must be responsible with his time. When athletes train for their sports, they schedule it properly. Even people who just go to the gym (and like working out) schedule their days properly. There is a start and an end to every session. Immerse yourself in it too much and you begin to get bored or burnt out, nothwithstanding your neglect of other duties and interests.

Most of my readers are students, many of whom also struggle with video game addiction. Thus, I’d like to leave some advice that might be helpful to their continued enjoyment not only of their gaming, but also of the rest of their lives.

Begin with the End in Mind

There should be a start and an end to every session. There are days when you should avoid playing in the same way that the average person shouldn’t go to the gym every day. This helps keep a sense of discipline and anticipation.

There is a time for everything–as such, there is a time for work, and a time for play. Playing all the time, as I’ve said earlier, leads to boredom and burnout, especially given this generation’s short attention span.

Of course, this is not always easy. For strategy games such as Command & Conquer and Warcraft, there are set objectives that one has to meet in order to achieve victory. As such, there is a  definite start and end to each gaming session (of course, you could always play another session). However, for role-playing games, the only end or goal in sight is typically the end of the story. They can be so immersive that they hook the player into playing for over 10 hours straight (I have to admit that there was a time that any game could get me to do this).

Because of this difficulty, one has to establish a goal for that gaming session. Whether the goal is to beat Boss Monster A or to unlock Secret Area X or to reach Level Y, the establishment of a goal for that gaming session gives the player focus. He or she can concentrate on reaching that goal, have fun while doing it, and be able to walk away from the computer with a sense of achievement.

Of course, goals must always be realistic. Unless one is a skilled speed runner, one can’t say “I’ll play from Level 1 to 100 in 30 minutes.” Furthermore, if it’s your first time to play the game and you don’t know what to expect, you can’t really say “I’ll beat the next boss encounter”–it just might prove to be a nasty surprise you aren’t prepared for.

Goals have to be concrete. Your purpose for playing may be to “have fun,” but this can’t be a goal. What if you don’t enjoy the gaming session (due to a laggy connection or sheer bad luck)? What if the game turns out to be a profoundly boring stalemate?

“Having fun” depends so much on external circumstances that it can’t be a realistic peg for any gamer’s goal. Since many games quantify a lot of values numerically, it might be best to say “I will gain 2500 experience by 6:00 pm” or “I will complete this mini game by 3:30.” This brings me to my last point: goals should be time-bound.

In order to assess your performance, you need to have a time limit. Now this is probably the least-liked aspect of having a goal. I’m sure some of my readers would be groaning when they get to this part. Many would like to keep playing until they fall asleep. However, this is unhealthy in many ways, and again, leads to burnout. Still, having a time limit is important: you can’t tell whether you were successful or not in achieving your goal if you don’t set a time.

This is corollary to having a realistic goal. Is your goal indeed achievable given your time allotment? Does the speed of your computer hamper your ability to achieve this goal? Are you planning to play more than your schedule allows? Whatever the goal might be, it’s important to keep an end in mind, both in terms of time and objectives.

Ultimately, like in all aspects of life, balance is the key. Doing one thing should not prevent us from doing another thing we need to do. If you don’t find your game fun anymore, don’t force it to be fun. Look for something else to do. If you find your mental processes slowing down because of the brainlessness of your game, go read a book or write a story. If you feel your joints are stiffening up, go out for a jog.If you’re feeling lonely, go out with some friends or have coffee with your parents.

Just because we’re gamers doesn’t mean we’re incapable of being responsible, productive members of society. Our hobbies don’t have to determine our behavior and our growth as human beings.

You be the one to play the game. Don’t let the game play you.

As you might already know, my friend and classmate Ace Vitangcol has began publishing his self-made (with help, of course) manga entitled Love is in the Bag. Volume 1 was out a few months ago, and so far its fanbase has been picking up steam.

Anyway, as a favor to Ace, I’m linking to his blog, on which updates regarding Love is in the Bag vol 2 will appear. It’s still a work in progress, but it will be out soon enough!

Nihongo Class Updates

I was supposed to post pictures, but I can’t find my camera cable for some reason. -_- The class did go very well, however: the students enjoyed it immensely, and Shino-sensei was very impressed by their ability to pick up and pronounce the words correctly. The next session is coming up quickly. Hopefully I’ll be able to post the pics then.

Irony of Ironies

Remember my past rant about call centers stealing recruits from us?

We’ve been able to finally hire an English teacher, and he comes from none other than a call center.

I’ll have to think about that for a while.

Not that my opinion of call centers has changed a bit.

Before I go on to my scathing and vitriolic assessment of today’s job market, I’d like to plug in a few upcoming events.

J-POP ANIME MATSURI AND EIGA-SAI

The Japan Foundation is holding its annual EIGA SAI and J-Pop Anime Matsuri (JAM) at Shangri-La Plaza Mall in Mandaluyong this coming July.

The Eiga Sai will last from July 8 to July 13 (Tuesday to Sunday). The schedule is as follows:

JAM will be held on July 26-27. The featured film is Hosoda Mamoru’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo/時をかける少女）, but there will be screenings of Chibi Maruko-chan as well. The schedule is as follows:

July 26 (Sat)

4:00 pm –Chibi Maruko-chan

6:00 pm –The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

8:00 pm –Chibi Maruko-chan

July 27 (Sun)

2:00 pm –The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

5:00 pm –Chibi Maruko-chan

8:00 pm –The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Please spread the word! 

Okay, rant mode’s coming up, so if you don’t want to see my vitriolic invective directed against a popular industry in the country, now is the time to click off to another URL. However, if you want to see the truth of the matter and the senselessness of this industry, please, feel free to move on.

Call centers. It’s no secret that I hate them.

My dislike of them began in college. When I was about to graduate, I swore that I would not seek employment in a call center. As a bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative Writing), I did not want my talents (however little they may be) to go to waste with me receiving calls from irate foreigners during the Witching Hour.

To my horror, our own university’s job far contained very few jobs that were related to my field. At that time, I was seeking a journalism job (I eventually discovered that journalism had very little in common with creative writing, and getting into journ was not a very good idea.), but unfortunately, all the featured booths at our job fair were either corporate or finance-related—or, worst of all, call centers.

This dislike has been steadily growing as of late. It’s been more and more difficult for us to hire English teachers because people with the necessary communication skills are ending up in call centers. I don’t know if they’re doing it for the money (though it is highly likely) or doing it just because they have no choice (not likely). Whatever their reasons, the call center industry has been taking potential recruits from schools. Communicators are few and far between to begin with.

I reached a boiling point yesterday, when I was climbing the escalators to Trinoma’s top floor. There was another job fair being held at the activity center, and to my utter horror, discovered that there was nothing in it but call centers. Seriously, are call centers the only employment opportunities left? Is a career pushing buttons and faking accents the only thing the Filipino college graduate can do? PLEASE.

It’s already bad enough that the education industry has become subservient to the foreign job market. Just how many schools started offering nursing courses when we realized that Western countries needed nurses? (And just how good were the courses that came up?) Now, the local job market is focusing heavily on outsourcing. What gives?

I just hope that we can find a way out of this trend. I don’t think it’s fair that the only job opportunities that are given to our graduates are jobs they are overqualified for.

Thanks for bearing with my rant. I do expect to be able to speak about more interesting things within the week–our Nihongo classes begin this Friday!

Earworms: Last of the Wilds by Nightwish

The Japanese Foundation people finally met with us today and told us about their program, which involves holding Nihongo classes (more of an interest group or club, actually) weekly at our campus. A lot of students have expressed interest so far, and Martin got me involved in a supervisory role.

The classes will be held twice during our Universal Break, each accommodating 30 students (Yes, PSHS students, we now have room for 30 more, so sign up!) beginning July 4. I really would love to brush up on my very rusty Nihongo skills, and I think this would be an excellent opportunity for the students to expand their horizons.

Earworm: The Gate of Magus ver. AQUASTYLE by AQUASTYLE.

SERIOUSLY? Galaxy-shattering mecha in high fantasy?

Well, this isn’t your Escaflowne or Rayearth. See this video.

This is from Gurren-Lagann parallel works, and seems to be one of a series of “what-ifs” with the characters outside of the original Gurren-Lagann universe. This seems to be a spin-off of what goes on in episode 26, where the characters are trapped in alternate realities.

Anyway, in this video, Viral seems to be a knight of some sort, and his wife (the imaginary wife he has in ep 26) is present. Simon and Kamina are warriors (what else?), and Yoko has levels in Monk and Swordsage. (She can flurry with a quarterstaff.) What appears to be Lord Genome is a huge brute of a Blackguard with really creepy armor. Nia is a princess in the castle.

I don’t really have any details beyond this, but it sure looks interesting.

Earworms: Ocean Soul by Nightwish

Sustenance: Pancakes with chocolate chips and peanut butter; Breadtalk’s Moshi Mushroom; Sizzling beef steak @ Yamato Beef Steak (Trinoma)

Just a flatliner. Got this in an email from Fil.

25 reasons to become an English teacher when you grow up…

Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays in order to have them published and sent out for the amusement of other teachers across the country. Recent winners:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled around inside his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the kind of wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who goes blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of  those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like the sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. travelling west at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. traveling east at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River .

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing their kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

I’d post stuff my students would say, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone. ^_^;

Anyway, I’m looking at going to the Toycon at Megamall tomorrow. Thankfully my pay came in and I actually have money for spending. Furthermore, I want to redeem myself from failing to get a pic of Alodia at Mangaholix. (lol, kidding)

Still, since she’s going to be there, might as well.

Earworms: The entirety of Nightwish’s Century Child and Dark Passion Play albums.

Sustenance: Whole wheat bread with orange marmalade for breakfast, Mac n’ Cheese for lunch, Breadtalk’s Tornado. Mmm, black pepper.

The first five days of the school year have passed, and I am already stressed.

It isn’t the students. This is probably my best lineup of classes ever.

It isn’t the subject matter. I’ve taught all of this before.

Is it the schedule? Certainly.

I have a 4-Gauntlet on Monday, and horror of horrors, a FIVER on Thursdays. I’ve experienced four straight classes already (The CreW elective starts next week), and it’s the first time I’ve ever been stuck in front of a class unable to say anything. Neural short.

Anyway, the schedule may change if we complete the English unit. We’re short a teacher, and this lack is the reason our schedules are so messed up. I predict imminent burnout if we don’t hire soon.

Nevertheless, I do look forward to the rest of this school year. I’m particularly happy about the classes I’m handling now. I just wish they weren’t so scared of me. o_O

To be honest, I really don’t know what to write about right now. It’s one of those nights that I just have to write for the sake of writing something. I’ll let my brain wander and take the reigns of my hands.

School, as everyone knows, is coming up real fast. Classes begin on Monday, and I just received my section assignments yesterday:

2010:
-Cesium
-Magnesium
-Rubidium
-Sodium
2012:
-Opal
Elective
-Creative Writing

It’s my heftiest load yet due to our lack of an eighth teacher. Everyone in the unit is overloaded, and that’s not a good thing. We reeeeeeally need another teacher.

In any case, things to look forward to this year:
-The resurrection of Inkwell (hopefully the last it will need in my care)
-Nihongo lessons! (Thanks to the Soc Sci unit; I’m actually just supervising as a teacher.)
-The continuation of The Black and the Purple. I really want to at least finish Act III here. (Though that means we will no longer get all the way up to the epic finale I had planned.)

I’m really excited. I really like handling Batch 2010, and I hope that this will be a very fruitful and enjoyable year for all of us.

Macross Frontier
I’ve been watching Macross Frontier alongside Code Geass R2, and I’ve found that it’s definitely one of the good series that have come out this summer. The CG and art are top-notch; I tend to prefer this style of anime to the “BESM”—Big Eyes Small Mouth—stereotype that was popular in the mid 90s. The music is also top-notch, with the OP, Triangular sung by Maaya Sakamoto.

The ED and the first insert song, Diamond Crevasse and Sagittarius @ 9 pm, Don’t be Late (射手座＊午後九時 ~Don’t be Late/Iteza Gogo Kuuji ~Don’t be Late), are sung by May’N. They’re both lovely songs.

Diamond Crevasse

Sagittarius @ 9 pm, Don’t be late

Macross Frontier continues the premise of the original series: due to an alien invasion of Earth by a warlike race of giants (Zentraedi), Earth has begun looking for other planets to live on. Although the Earth-Zentraedi war concluded peacefully thanks to the magic of music (which the cultureless Zentraedi call part of the Protoculture; the race that engineered them), mankind continues to meet vicious threats in its journey through the stars.

Macross F tells the story of one such wandering colony, Frontier. The protagonist, Alto Saotome, is a bishounen (so much so that he’s called “Princess” due to his feminine appearance) student who is another instance of the “Accidental Pilot” trope that so often appears in Real Robot anime. The two main love interests are Ranka Lee, a 1/4 Zentraedi schoolgirl who wants to become a singer, and Sheryl Nome, a pop star known as the “Galactic Nymph,” whom Ranka idolizes. Sheryl is a typical tsundere, giving most of the people she meets a diva attitude (though she does seem to have soft spots that both Alto and Ranka reach.)

The series is up to its 9th episode, and so far I haven’t had any disappointments. Here’s a screencap from the latest ep, featuring the Zentraedi pilot Klan Klien (as a child), holding her friend Michel Blanc.

Insanely cute, isn’t it?

Mangaholix 2008
It was worth the trip to MoA. I was able to claim my lovely print of Alodia. I was able to take a picture of her sister Ash, but alas, I failed to take a picture of Alodia herself (she was in a Lili costume <3) It’s just too bad technology failed me and all my cosplay photos became Koko Crunch while I was transferring them to my HD. Oh well. ~_~

There was a disturbing amount of crossplay, though. *shudder*

I met up with Ace, my college classmate (and author of Red Boots, to my students), as well as Ryan. Both of them are working on a self-produced manga entitled Love is in the Bag. (with the loony premise of having a girl who, when excited, turns into luggage. I’m not kidding. It’s available at National and Powerbooks.) He revealed to me that he turned me into a character!

…who gets killed in the background every so often. What a way to show appreciation.

In any case, that’s about it for this entry. I do hope that I’ll continue to update even with the beginning of the new academic year. Godspeed to all my students and co-teachers.