About ten days into Knowing I'm Allergic To Cats, and I can really tell the various changes I've made are working. I am no longer going through kleenexes like there's no tomorrow. I can breathe with ease most of the time and don't feel like my entire head is stuffed. I don't have inner ear weirdness, nausea, dizziness, etc., from being totally stuffed-up. Keeping the cats out of the bedroom (except Nuala at night) has been, I think, the biggest game-changer, that and the Nasonex.

The weather is hovering on the edge of turning nice, and this evening we got a bit of sun and warm weather after a day of drizzle and gloom. Tomorrow is Wolverine at last, next week is Star Trek for which I've become very excited, and soon after, Up. May will be a great movie month. Yay!

Anime Central is also next week -- I'm hoping that even though it's just started, the new Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series will have spawned tie-ins and costuming. There hasn't been a really big new anime in a few years -- nothing like FMA or even Naruto as far as being the big thing everyone knows about -- so even a resurgence of an old favorite would be good to get the enthusiasm going.

I finally dragged my butt back to the gym this week (rather literally, for when one sits more than one does anything else, it is la patootie that demonstrates this to the world) and have gone three days in a row. I'm trying to change up my routine in several ways, and though it's only a couple of days in, I can already tell its making a difference. For one, I have more energy: I ran errands after my workout and then, after I got home and had supper, I did the dishes, did some laundry, changed the bedding (something I've been lacksadaisical about but which will now become an at-least weekly thing to keep any dander that does accumulate to a minimum), cleaned the bathroom, and took out the trash.

I recently finished reading the arc version of lisamantchev's sparkly wonderful Eyes Like Stars. I've had the privilege of reading several versions of this book while it was in-progress, and I think it's turned out simply wonderfully. And I still think it has one of the best first lines in the history of ever. I hope you've all pre-ordered it. 

Now to finish my semi-annual reread of A College of Magics (so much love), and then I'll likely start Laurie R. King's new Mary Russell novel, The Language of Bees -- in which they FINALLY get back to England! YAY!

*i hate computers*

*i'm going to become a pet groomer*

I had this marvelously snarky critique started and then somehow (probably due to my stupid mouse with the pointless side-clicky's that are NEVER IN ANY WAY USEFUL) the screens backed up two pages and when I came back, of COURSE the entry was gone.  Now if I click over to "post" three days from now after posting nothing, it will helpfully ask me if I want to start from my draft, but did it do that today when it would have been HELPFUL?  NO!  It NEVER does it when it would be HELPFUL.

Anyway, Glass Fleet.  So far, not a good series.  I am, in fact, pretty determined not to pay any attention to any more Anime Insider recommendations ever again, because they are always wrong.  I think the editorial staff at AI just likes shiny things.

Glass Fleet has really good designers who apparently were allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted regardless of whether it made any damn sense in general or to the plot.  It's set in a sort of Space France -- but not the good kind; the bad, poorly thought-out kind.  It's as if it wanted to be Gankutsuou when it grew up but had no idea what made that show really good.  

Well, I'm hooked.  As far as I can tell, Ergo Proxy is the new Cool Thing in anime-for-grown-ups.  And it damn well should be, done by various pieces of the teams that created Samurai Champloo, Gankutsuuo, that bit in Kill Bill, and Witch Hunter Robin (it's nearest predecessor in design and tone).  Finished disc 1, and it is the first series in awhile that's completely captured me.  Great SF story, good, well-developing characters, and beautiful, beautiful design.

Got into a discussion over on

foenix

Ah, the BEST KIND! I finished Loveless, volume 1 (which I'm still undecided on. The anime tracks pretty closely to the manga, so watching and reading is almost unnecessary (one or the other) and the anime isn't available dubbed, so, technically, I'm reading it, too ;-) But it is intriguing -- and short -- so I'll probably just go with it.

Also finally watched Domino (love NetFlix) which was very cool and freaky and TALK about intriguing. I love Keira Knightley (didn't she look amazing at the Oscars?), but besides just her, what an interesting cast -- and a really electric look and feel to the film. Good way to spend a couple of hours.

Anyway, I snagged a meme from mtglass54. Pretty cool one, too.

( details after the jump )

I've been thinking about this a lot — mostly because I've been writing fanfiction — and thinking about the motivations for writing it. I tend to have pretty intense and loyal enthusiasms (aka fandoms) rather than flitting from one to the next in quick succession as I see some other people do. I have a website dedicated to the Birds of Prey (and especially Black Canary) that I've been maintaining for almost eight years... seriously, almost EIGHT YEARS (in April). And I started being a fan of the Birds for several months before I started on the site, so I've been a BoP fan for OVER eight years (been a Canary fan forever ;-)

Quite literally. I was watching D.N.Angel and suddenly realized the tornado siren was WAILING! I'd had the sound turned way up on the DVD because the rain was beating against the air conditioning unit so hard, I couldn't hear the TV at normal volume.

So the tornado siren is very loud to begin with, and I live right downtown, so I'm basically under it (well, within a few blocks), and it doesn't go off very often. So that was a bit scary. All over now, nothing to see here.

So, back to D.N.Angel which is excellent now that it's speeding toward the end (I've enjoyed it the whole time, but its pacing can be a bit weird). One more disc from NetFlix, and I'm done. I started watching it ages ago on OnDemand which, then, abruptly dropped it after episode 15. Well, dropped all AnimeNetwork programs. No idea. Another reason I'm dropping Comcast. Having access to that great variety of anime made it worth the money to have the fancy-schmancy digitial cable, but now there's nothing on there to see. Even the AnimeSelects programming is down to only one or two things that look interesting to me. That coupled with crappy service and the fact that it's a lot more expensive than satellite, and I decided to switch.

Speaking of crappy service, I'm sick of Best Buy. SICK OF IT. Every time I go there, they have NOTHING. Nothing. Not recent releases. Not new releases on new release day. Not the particular computer card or iPod gadget I wanted. Nothing. If I'm looking for it, I can guarantee they won't have it. I thought I'd learned my lesson, too. But, no. I wasted 20 minutes of my lunch hour going to Best Buy to finally get Kate Bush's new album, Aerial. Just came out last week. Did they have it? No. Of course, they didn't have it. What was I frickin' smoking to think they would? Gah.

Far less shockingly, neither did Target (which has a shamefully odd selection of music and DVDs anyway -- sad considering they used to have a great selection there "back in the day"). I finally went to an actual record store and bought their last copy.

And I'm listening to it now. And it's great... at least Kate's worth the effort.

I have a message board (plug!) over at my site (plug!!!) canarynoir.com, and I was doing some tidying and spiffing up on it tonight when I SHOULD have been NaNoWriMo'ing. But I am still cooking the story in my backbrain. I know where I'm going; I'm just unsure of the voice, so that needs to burble on low for a bit. I'm hoping Saturday to be able to make some real progress. At this rate, I may not "win" but I do hope to have a nice chunk of story by the end of the month.

All the promised project stuff that's been looming at work for AGES broke loose this week, and we'll be busy-busy-busy through the end of the year now... That's so much better than waiting for it to show up. I hate not being busy at work.

Never read any Diana Wynne Jones until Howl's Moving Castle which I read a couple of years ago after I heard Miyazaki was basing his next movie on it. Then I didn't read any MORE of her work until I was brow-beaten (*ahem*), I mean, URGED to read the Chronicles of Chrestomanci by two friends. And they ARE good. Really enjoying the second book, Lives of Christopher Chant right now. Will eventually read all Diana Wynne Jones, I think. I like her style.

Which is as good a verb as "blogging" for what I'm doing. Nattering on and on about various things. There is too much TV to watch right now. I'm not sure all of it's "quality TV" but I enjoy a lot of it.

FullMetal Alchemist, season two, has finally started back up on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) after several months. I find the week between episodes almost painfully long to wait after all this time. The problem is knowing the whole show is out there already. I want to see it all RIGHT NOW, but it's nice to have it to look forward to each week, too. This can be summed up by my favorite line from Postcards from the Edge (movie, at least... can't remember if it's in the book, too): "Instant gratification takes too long."

Spent most of yesterday moving all my old blog entries which were in two different places here to LiveJournal. I like it here. Flexible, weird, too crowded, a bit grimy... kind of like a large city.

Ran into Drew Geraci (friend and former Birds of Prey inker) at Shooting Stars booth and a bunch of us went out to dinner and talked comics and geeked out and had a great time.

Jim Lee was in my hotel. I walked RIGHT BY Jim Lee in the lobby of my hotel. I was *this*close* to Jim Lee! (me: GEEEEEEK!!!!)

I stood in a criminally short line to meet Jill Thompson (artist: Sandman; artist/writer: At Death's Door, Dead Boy Detectives, Scary Godmother) who was really cool, signed everything for everyone and did sketches. She did a sketch of Black Canary for me which I'll eventually scan in and put in the gallery.

I didn't realize they were listening (as I thought they were talking to each other) but she and Brian Azzarello (Batman: Broken City) overheard me telling a couple of the guys in line about my nightmare two-hour wait to meet John Cassady in a Marvel line the prior year... two hours I waited before I was kicked out because they suddenly realized John was sitting next to you-need-a-ticket-to-meet Joss Whedon so those of us who JUST WANTED to meet JOHN got the boot. THANKS MARVEL! When I got to the part where I was booted from the line, Jill said, "God, for two hours, they should have let you KISS John Cassady!" Which I would be totally okay with as John Cassady is hot.

So that was fun.

I got to see the angry Canary figure close up and it's actually kind of cool. She just looks realllly ticked off. The classic-style Alex Ross Canary figure is frickin' GORGEOUS.

The V IS FOR VENDETTA trailer is terrific

Pocky comes in many wonderful flavors. My favorite is strawberry and I really like to say "Pocky." For some reason, you can't buy Pocky at AnimeCentral, a big ol' anime convention held annually in the SAME CONVENTION CENTER but you can get Pocky at WizardWorld... this is a very strange thing

DC's booth has taken over and sort of spreads into two other, related booths with the animated properties and their paraphernalia. DCs booths rocked. DCs tchotchkes are far cooler than anyone else's tchotchkes.

Marvel's booth sucked like a vacuum cleaner (not that I'm bitter)

Smaller publishers were well-represented and many had very nice booths and strong presences. I have high hopes for Speakeasy as a new, strong Dark Horse-level smaller publisher. They're doing really good work and have a lot of enthusiasm

There were a lot of really talented people putting out indy comics and doing neat work. Got a lovely Black Canary sketch from one of them who's also a friend of a friend. That will also go in the gallery one of these days.

The floors at the Rosemont are hard and my back hurts from all the walking upon them for hours.

The Rosemont neeeeeds a Starbucks. Badly. For that matter, the Rosemont needs a McDonalds. The Rosemont is a corrupt, closed dictatorship of overpriced foodstuffs, and it wouldn't kill them to put in a Starbucks.

The most commonly agreed upon name for the skywalk system connecting the Rosemont and its bazillion offshoot hotels is "the habitrail."

You could, feasibly, spend your entire weekend trying to figure out where all the habitrail goes to and then trying to remember how to get back to where you started on the habitrail.

"Habitrail" is almost as fun to say as "Pocky."

You can't see everything in the dealer's room at WizardWorld in a day. At least you can't see everything properly in a day. I tried and I couldn't do it. It's too frickin' big.

I love WizardWorld.

So, where on earth did the time go? And no London report. And STILL no London report this time, either. I'm just going to clear out some cobwebs in my brain tonight and continue on. I'll come back to London a bit later. Feeling a bit sad and sore for London and the dear Piccadilly Line.

Busy seems to be my default mode, and it's nice that it isn't just work as it used to seem to be. Now it's work and friends and going to the gym and hanging out and going to movies and travel and working on my hobbies/interests and all that fun stuff.

I've become a rather overboard fan of FullMetal Alchemist over the past months and am anxiously awaiting season two to start on Adult Swim this month. I have an INSANE number of FMA tchotchkes. Insane. I counted up awhile ago and had almost 40 and I'm easily over that now... I have gone a bit mad, I think.

I also really love Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent (also Adult Swim). I've been reading more and more manga, now that I've got the hang of it -- and it is something you have to get the hang of, especially if you used to American comic book and animation conventions. All of these things have their own styles -- visual cues that mean specific things that you have to learn or get used to. Anyway, I really enjoy it. I buy some and read some at the bookstores with a coffee.

Movies have been good this summer. I really enjoyed Hitchhiker's Guide as a good start. Others I enjoyed were Star Wars III, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wedding Crashers, Bewitched, Kung Fu Hustle, the Interpreter, Bride and Prejudice, and Cinderella Man, but by far the best films I saw this summer were Batman Begins and Howl's Moving Castle. Coincidence that they both involved Christian Bale? Maybe. Probably not. He brings excellence to all he does.

Coming up good stuff -- Corpse Bride looks great, and, of course, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be excellent.

Speaking of HP, read book six on release weekend, and it was AMAZING. It certainly maintains the high standards of the series and overall is better than book five (which I liked but which was HARSH and difficult which this one is, too, but in a different way...)

Caught up on Tamora Pierce years late and am half-way through her Alanna-world books (which means I've read the Alanna and Immortals series but not the other two yet). I just finished the latest Janet Evanovich (LOVE!) and am working on the latest Lois McMaster Bujold (excellent as always). On my to-read pile are the new Laurie R. King (Mary Russell rules!), the aforementioned second pair of Alanna-world series, the new Patricia McKillip, the new Neil Gaiman... lots of good new stuff.

Comics are good right now, too. I'm loving the Infinite Crisis ramp-up, all the stuff going on and tying together and being so frickin' cool. I love that.

I had a birthday, so I'm older now, too. I love birthdays. Mine was good. There was cake. It was good.

Escapism is in excellent shape. Would make you wonder what we're all escaping from if you didn't already know the answer to that.

Geez, it’s been almost a month since my last entry. I think I’m not too good at this whole blog thing. But I’ve been busy! I went to WizardWorld Chicago this weekend (daytripped on Sunday only) and that was a blast. DC has some fabulous Direct stuff coming out this next year, especially the Jim Lee statues and the new-look Catwoman statue which is gorgeous. I’ve already preordered the Death manga statue and would really like the Dream one... must try to figure out if I can afford it before it’s too late to preorder...

Some of my friends are into anime, and I’ve been trying it out. I’m finding that I like in anime pretty much what I like in books — thoughtful fantasy (as opposed to quest fantasy) and Young Adult-type stories (His & Her Circumstances and Fruits Basket are my most favorites so far) and epic dramas and really quirky, uncategorizable, alt-stuff such as Read or Die. For instance (on the epic drama thing), I don’t know the name of it but the Samurai Kenshin OVA thing was really good, but I like the ongoing series less, at least so far, because it isn’t as serious. In anime as in all entertainment, I just don’t like slapstick at all. On the other hand, everything by Oscar-winning [Spirited Away] Miyazaki (sorry if I’ve misspelled that) is excellent, I adored Ghost in the Shell which I saw years and years ago even though I haven’t much cared for any of the mecha stuff I’ve seen so far (Escaflowne was pretty good but I disliked the ending). So this isn’t really a new obsession (which is nice for once!), but it is an interesting new area for me to explore.

On the OTHER hand, speaking of new obsessions, I’ve discovered a marvelous new author! Jasper Fforde, creator of the marvelous Thursday Next, main character of The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book. There’s a third one out in the UK but not here yet... I’m thinking of ordering it from Amazon.Co.UK rather than await it’s US publication... ’cause Fforde’s stuff is just that good.

Movie-wise, I’ve now seen Pirates three times and am considering a fourth go-see, I actually enjoyed Tomb Raider II more than the first and thought it was a pretty decent summer popcorn flick, Seabiscuit is brilliant (I just finished the book, too, and it’s amazing how well they adapted the story), Freaky Friday was wonderfully fun and very well-acted by both leads... I’m looking forward to Underworld, a vampire/werewolf flick starring Kate Beckinsale, which is coming out in mid-September, and I’d better really like Once Upon a Time in Mexico — also due out in mid-September — ’cause I bought the poster (I’m only human, and Johnny Depp looked fabulous).

Guess that wraps it up for now! Oh, and if you aren’t reading Powers... well, I pity you, really ;- ) — You just don’t know what you’re missing.

Busy couple of weeks, though in retrospect, I can’t really remember what all I’ve been up to that’s kept me THAT busy. Work mostly. Organizing my budget around the new car payment. Taking care of some other boring, everyday life kinds of things.

I haven’t been keeping up too well with comics, though I have been reading some. I just decided to dump Green Arrow and Green Lantern — when even the "event" crossover is dull... well, I’ve given both of them enough chances at this point. Too expensive to keep buying them when they aren’t all that fun.

Looking forward to X2. It opened today, but I’m not going until Sunday. I’m also excited about Matrix Reloaded (though I have issues with the ending of the original film), and I really am looking forward to Finding Nemo — Monsters, Inc. and all the rest of the Pixar films are favorites, and I have high hopes for this one.

Okay, even I’m bored by this entry!

I’m trying to get interested in some anime since some of my friends are really into it, but I’m having a hard time. I like some of the movies I’ve seen (Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Ghost in the Shell) but some of the series stuff is just too weird. Now I’m trying Escaflowne which is good so far. So we’ll see.