tuesday was filled with shoe theft in the morning and franz ferdinand at night

And what a wonderful night it was. I love it when Alex (pictured above) poses like that!

At this very moment the title of this blog entry is also my msn name. So Holly and Yunita here is the story of the shoe theft incident which started my day.

Thanx to Kimmie I've gotten used to sleeping in now. You know, crashing at her place you don't get up till 11 am atleast, even that time is early for her to wake up. I always feel slack forcing her to wake up before lunch. Well thanks to this habit when my brother John came to my room shouting, "You're shoes have been stolen!" I wasn't very pleased. I then had a small heart attack once I realised what John had just said. However, I soon got over that and was simply happy and relieved that I keep my new Converse shoes inside the house. Compared to my new shoes (I RARELY buy shoes) I didn't really care that my grey and orange Reebok shoes were stolen. Don't get me wrong I was annoyed and a little angry, but surprisingly not too much. Well I have to say those shoes aren't my most prized posessions. Then I heard my brothers torn shoes and my dad's OLD orthopedic boots (I don't know if that's what you'd call them) were stolen. I then said to my brother "What f****** retards would steel old shoes?" I mean, who would steal my dad's orthopedic shoes? Those kind of shoes are expensive to get (for the person with the physical disability that needs them) but they only suit the person they were made for. Why not atleast take the new orthopedic boots that didn't have a hole in the side? My brother Joshua did have his brand new Nike shoes stolen a couple of years ago. We bought them in Indonesia and just days after returning home in Sydney they were stolen from the front of our house. What is the world coming to?

Guess what! When Jo-Ann came later that day to watch a DVD and to later go to the concert with me, mum and I mentioned the shoe theft and she asked us if they were the pile of shoes that was in the garden of the place across the street. I thought "WTF?" And sure enough there they were. RETARDS! Actually I shouldn't use that word. WHAT PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING WOULD WASTE THEIR TIME DOING CRAP LIKE THAT!?
Before we found the shoes I did curse the perpetrators and hoped that they would get run over by a car and experience excruciating pain that would make them reconsider doing stupid acts like that ever again. Or atleast lose an arm or a leg. But that's a bit harsh. Even for shitheads who steal crappy shoes. I'm sounding more angry about this aren't I? Maybe I'm not as indifferent to this occurence as I thought I was. It's just another useless act like vandalism that creates great inconvenience. Now don't get me started on graffiti!

I have a theory that there was more than one person involved in this incident because to do something like this all on your own for your own kicks is just too pathetic for words. I think you need a group of idiots to come up with this idea.

Enough about that, now for FRANZ FERDINAND! I love a band so much more after I see them live and this Scottish band is BRILLIANT! (It's sound wrong to not be a die hard fan before you see the band live, but if you've ever been to a concert you've got to understand!)

The band consists of Alexander/Alex Kapranos (lead singer / guitar), Robert/Bob Hardy (bass guitar), Nick McCarthy (guitar, backing vocals), and Paul Thomson (percussion - drums etc.). I looked up their names the morning of the concert and by the time Jo-Ann was at my place I couldn't remember McCarthy's first name, just his surname. Strange. Jo, Holly and I later so a girl's t-shirt with the signatures from the band and saw 'Nick' on it. So we eventually figured out his first name.







After watching 'Princess Mononoke' with Jo (I just introduced anime to her. Woohoo! Another convert!) we left my place to catch the train to Newtown and lined up at Enmore Theatre at about 5:30PM. I was surprised to find that there wasn't too many people there. So we sat down and later Holly found us in the line. However, by 6:45 (the doors were supposed to open at 7:00) the line was indeed very long and we were glad to be near the start of the line. What annoyed me as usual were the people completely ignoring the line, pushing in, and the fact that they didn't check everyone at the door. This means that I could have smuggled a camera in but I didn't bring one because they were so strict for Good Charlotte back in 2003.

Now for the performances. There was only one band supporting Franz Ferdinand and they were Cut Copy. They were OK I guess (I'm being kind), but it really was too much to listen to an entire set of their music. There were guitars, and drums involved, but there was also a hell of a lot of... samples? I'm not a hundred percent sure that's what you call it. Someone please reassure me. There was just a lot of repetitive beats, you'd think you were in a club. When they sampled 'Around the World' by Daft Punk I was ready to dance, but that ended as soon as Daft Punk ended. I used to find that song so irritating and couldn't understand how it could even be a song, but since it has been years since I last heard I've found a new love for it. Back to Cut Copy, something else I remembered about their performance, their roadie was cuter than everyone in the band. Girls behind us were shouting "Bring out the roadie!"

After a considerable wait the band everyone had been waiting for finally came on. You know that they played all the songs the fans wanted off their 2 albums. Strangely enough all three of us didn't have their first album but did buy their new album. I bought their new album after I bought the ticket to their show. Sadly, they didn't play "I'm Your Villain" one of my favourite songs (from their latest album "You Could Have It So Much Better"), but they played everything else I wanted to hear. They sounded GREAT!! Apparently Gau got a bad impression of what they are like live because of TV, but honestly they really did sound amazing. lol I couldn't always understand them, or should I say Alex, when they talked in between songs but I think that's because of their Scottish accent combined with the microphones. We managed to get up to the barricades thanks to all our waiting so we were really close to the speakers. If you look straight at the stage we were more to the right so we were really close to Bob. Aaaaaaw! He is such a cutie. The crowd at the concert were so well behaved, at least that's what I thought from where I was standing with my friends. There weren't people behind us irritating us, though at one point Holly was getting squashed. When they played 'Take Me Out" so early in the concert I just knew that they were going to end with "This Fire" and what a great end it was. It was overall a brilliant concert, and I have given up rating concerts because I will always be biased and think that every concert I go to deserves 4 and a half stars out of five whilst Muse still gets 5 stars ofcourse. Besides, every concert has something special that will compensate for whatever faults it may still have. I did feel so strongly that Franz Ferdinand should have played longer. Ofcourse if I had my way the band will probably have to pass out from exhaustion before I'm happy for them to walk off from the stage.

Since that fateful night I have become more obssessed and finally bought their first album.

Another thing I thought I should add about that night. After the show my dad was supposed to pick us up. We were all hungry so we told him to come a bit later whilst we went to Domino's and ordered a large Cheese pizza take-away. I decided to include this because I forgot how good a hot cheese pizza can taste like. Ofcourse we did eat the pizza right there and then outside Domino's so it had just been taken out of the oven.

witch hunter robin

I've had the images for this anime series up on my blogspot for quite some time now with the intention of actually writing something about the series. But I've been lazy and once I got back to my blogspot I wanted to write about my manga.

So here is what I've been promising for some time and the blog entry with all the photos has been moved up too (just in case you were wondering why that blog entry has been moving around my blogspot).


Now this has a much more serious tone compared to the other series I have watched (you shall hear about them soon! Check out my blog on "Ranma 1/2" for an example of a far less serious series). When I say serious I mean random jokes aren't made, and the faces of the characters aren't distorted or deformed for exaggeration. This deals with a world where witches exist. Witches in this series have a special power rather than cast lots of spells (though to some extent some do cast incantaions you could say), think of the mutant powers in X-men. For example a witch may be able to manipulate and create water (I made this power up so that I don't ruin any episodes for you). There is an organistion that tracks down witches in an attempt to stop them from harming the general public, and Robin is the new 'witch hunter' that joins the team in Japan. Robin just so happens to be a 'craft user' herself, she has the ability to manipulate and create fire. Amon is the leader of the team (one of my favourites, he is just too cool) and is so mysterious, he's great at his job and takes it very seriously. The relationship between these 2 is quite intense (I'm not saying intense as in romantic). I could go on about every character but I don't have all day. If you've seen this series please make a comment on the characters or even the series itself.

At this point of the blog I went to find a website that had some of the details I had forgotten, eg. what is the organisation called. Anyways, I actually came across the official website and I thought it was really good, it looks great, it is interactive and you can tell what the series is like. I recommend that you check it out and click "Join the Hunt" (don't forget to type in your first name), this is the interactive way of getting into the website. By the way the organisation is called Solomon (STN) , it is based in Europe and the Japanese branch is STN Japan (STN-J).

I give this series 3 and a half stars. At the beginning it is a bit slow because the episodes are mainly about kill-a-witch-an-episode but once the story gets more complicated and involves secrets about the organisation and the people within it it's brilliant. The ending leaves you wanting more which made me give it 3 and a half stars instead of 4 because I'm one of those people that gets really frustrated if the ending isn't right. It's a good ending but the series is left so open that I'm wondering were they thinking of doing another series. Don't get me wrong nearly everything you watch these days have an open ending, but you'll understand what I mean if you watch it (if you still don't understand talk to me about it, I'm trying not to give everything away here). My deepest apologies if this last paragraph ruins the ending for you but I think I've stayed quite vague, enough not to ruin the series for you.

Witch Hunter ROBIN

Robin Sena

Amon












Miho Karasuma

Yurika Dojima












Haruto Sakaki
Michael Lee

instructions for reading manga feat. "aishiteruze baby"

When reading manga be aware that the order things are read may be backwards. For example in this excerpt from "Aishiteruze Baby: Chapter 1" you start from the box in the top right corner followed by the one under it and then to the space to the left. And then... down to the bottom right corner, then the box to the left etc.

Just remember the front cover is considered the back cover (quite obvious if you have ever seen manga in its original form). Its insides are read from right to left, and top to bottom. The images can be arranged in numerous ways so that I still confuse myself sometimes (but only on the odd occasion, I'm much more experienced now).

Feel free to explain "how to read manga" in your own words.

naruto, sasuke, sakura, and lastly kakashi

naruto was pushed from behind, originally i think Naruto and Sasuke were just having a death stare match

the manga I bought after Animania

Yes I went to "Kings Comics" less than a week after Animania and bought more. I bought Volume 1 of "Naruto" and Volume 1 of "Imadoki". I mentioned these two in my previous blog entries. In case you were wondering where "Hana-Kimi" comes in Yunita bought her Volume 1 at this time. Which I borrowed from her the next time I saw her.

I COMPLETELY agree with Yunita that "Naruto" is better in manga form than anime. For one thing it is A LOT faster as a manga. One volume of Naruto spans over several episodes which I suppose could be because they need to create the suspense and fighting scenes as well as characters saying lines takes a lot more time. Plus one volume really does contain a number of scenes within it when you thinking about how much can happen within 7 chapters of a volume. Anyway, I love this manga it goes on forever though and since I do prefer the manga to the anime (I got the anime from Bianca's friend) I've been a bit wary when it comes to buying more volumes because I will end up broke... again. I don't watch the anime though because it'll ruin the manga. So since volume 1 I've bought volumes 2 and 4. I didn't get 3 because I already watched what happens in the anime. This is a great adventure ninja series with hilarious characters. The main character is ofcourse a young boy called Uzumaki Naruto who always causes trouble and in volume 1 has problems just graduating from Ninja Academy. Naruto actually has something powerful trapped inside him which makes most of the adults despise him. The children of the village have also learned to despise him from the adults without knowing the reason. I don't know what to include because I'm afraid to give away too much, so google "Naruto" if you want to find out more, but it's best if you just read it. I give it 4 stars for the manga, less for the anime (I won't specify how much because I haven't seen a lot of the anime).

Now for "Imadoki". As I have said this is based in a high school, that is Meio High School and is about friendship, love, family, and flowers. Tanpopo Yamazaki is an energetic and happy high school girl who goes to Tokyo to attend school. She takes a look at the school the day before it starts and crash lands while riding her bike into Koki Kugyo, he just happened to be planting a tanpopo (= dandelion) at the time. She believes she has found a friend already and will make many friends when school starts tomorrow. However things are very different the next day. The other students consider her a country bumpkin (not too sure about the exact meaning of that, I just thought it was a good description of her) and completely out of place at the elitist school full of rich kids. Plus the 'friend' she made the day before pretends the they never met. Well this is just the start of things but from here you can guess that her first mission at this school is to make Koki her friend. If you want to know where the flowers come in read it. Flowers definitely play a large role in this manga, sounds strange huh? 3 and a half stars I would have given it a higher star rating if I hadn't read so much manga already.

The last volume of Kindaichi I bought is Volume 4. It's even better than number one, very intriguing and very clever. I can never put the clues together my self though. 4 stars.

the kindaichi case files: the mummy's curse

Now THIS is the VERY FIRST manga I have ever read. I wasn't sure I'd like manga, or if I did like it I'd end up buying too much so Yunita pointed out some titles when we were at Animania and I bought this one. Which reminds me I should make an entry about Animania though it is almost half a year too late. I decided to buy my very first volume that weekend in keeping with the spirit of things. People at Animania knew so much stuff about anime and manga, so I thought I should broaden my horizons as well.

Yunita told me the best manga she's read is "Naruto", but they didn't have it so she advised me that "Imadoki" was a good short series (about high school and love), and also that "Case Closed" was good too (a detective series). Well I decided on "The Kindaichi Case Files" because it didn't have a continuous story, meaning there was no cliff hanger that would make me buy all the other volumes. "Case Closed" also involved a detective but the story continued throughout the volumes so I took the safer option, it did look really cute though. I wasn't sure about the other mangas out there that dealt with high school and love interests, so I opted for this murder mystery. I like something a little dark plus since I watch all those BBC detective shows on TV it is only natural that I start with a 'detective' manga like this.

"The Kindaichi Case Files" is a serious manga (I'm comparing it with Hana-Kimi) with the clues and twists that you would expect to find in any good murder mystery. Hajime Kindaichi is the grandson of a famous Japanese detective, think of a Japanese Columbo (I didn't come up with this comparison for the grandfather it's in the character description in the manga). Well the young grandson is in highschool and a big underachiever which hides his intelligence that allows him to solve any case. This volume "The Mummy's Curse" involves the mystery behind the six mansions in the town of a classmate. The owner's are mysteriously getting killed one by one.

Overall I do like this manga and I have since bought another one, but after reading a couple of manga series I like the humourous ones more. Yes it appears I like the high school love stories more. I give Kindaichi 3 and a half stars because it is really clever and I like a good detective series.

hana-kimi aka for you in full blossom

This is the first manga series I've ever read (not the first volumes of manga, I'll explain this later). It is by Hisaya Nakajo. Now I warn you I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to manga because I have only been introduced to this recently. So I will merely include a brief intro into what this manga is about and if possible try and put into words what I love about it.

Ashiya Mizuki is a Japanese American high school girl living in America who wants to be closer to Izumi Sano, a high school boy back in Japan. He became Mizuki's idol after she saw him on TV one day competing in the high jump. Ever since then she has collected all the magazines that included him and followed his progress as a very popular and talented high jumper. Now in the first volume Mizuki makes the decision to go to Japan as a transfer student so that she may become friends with him. The only thing is that he goes to an all-boys' school. Well, she does the most rational thing and with the help of her best friend Julia cuts her hair and attends this school. Ofcourse her parents believe it's a co-ed school and Julia is the only one back in America that knows what she is doing. Well, Mizuki discovers she even has the luck of being Sano's roommate. "Now Mizuki must keep her secret in the classroom, the locker room, and her own bedroom. And her classmates-and the school nurse-must cope with a new transfer student who may make them question their own orientation..." This last quote was taken from the blurb on the back of Volume 1.

Now what do I love about this manga... everything. The characters are hilarious. The story is great and there are so many funny situations that arise, which has to be expected when the story is about a cross-dressing girl living with guys. I have to give this 5 stars! I may be biased because it is one of the very first manga series that I've ever read and there are people out there who have read more manga. But I think it is safe to say that in such a short time I have read quite a lot. I've been living off of scanlations. Oh I should explain that I've managed to finish the 20-something volumes thanks to scanlations. I think the bookshops only have up to volume 9, but because people overseas have scanned the images of the rest of the volumes and translated them I've been able to finish reading the entire series.

A special shout out goes to Yunita for introducing manga and especially Hana-Kimi to me. And extra thanks for staying signed in on msn for days and sending me all the files for the volumes of Hana-Kimi. You were very wise not to send me any files during stuvac as study is impossible when you are hooked on Hana-Kimi.