Ah, the month of love. Or the month where people in love go out of their way to make single people feel like crap. However you want to look at it. I got a new cell phone for Valentine's Day (Yay!) and my husband and I went out to eat at Cheddar's, where I'd never eaten before. The food was good, I love my new toy, and all in all it was a decent Valentine's Day. (I gave my husband a PS4 and two games to go with it. He just about shit bricks when he saw it. He even did a little happy dance.) I bought myself a box of Whitman's Samplers too and didn't hesitate to wolf those delicious morsels of nirvana-reaching bliss down in a matter of days. Let's just say, I like chocolate.
I've been reading a lot of books this month. No really, a lot. I started off by finishing a manga, Death Note Volume 1. I'd been meaning to read this series for years and finally got around to it. I hope to read the rest pretty soon, there are eleven more volumes and I know I'll enjoy them as much as the first. Next, I finished reading the September/October 2014 volume of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction that my brother subscribed me to as a birthday present last year (thanks Kyle!). It always takes me longer to read a compendium of short stories than it does a full length novel because I like to sit back and dwell on each one for a while before moving on to the next. As with most fantasy and science fiction magazines, I found these short stories to be well written and often containing better plots than full length novels I've read. I stayed up an entire night earlier this month to read Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole. It was a great read but honestly, not one of her best. It was hot and steamy, to be sure, but it felt a bit rushed compared to her other works. Her original Immortals After Dark series is better, methinks. On Valentine's Day I finished reading The Walking Dead Compendium 2. Oh, how I love those comics! The drama! The gore! Awesome stuff that I can't get enough of.
And then on the 19th, I read two books in one day. They were pretty short so it was no biggie. I had ordered Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama Volume 6 and it finally came in the mail. This is a manga series I started years ago and adored. I don't often watch shoujo anime but I will read the crap out of a shoujo manga. And as expected, it was wonderful. Funny, cute and heartwarming, just as I expected. The other book I read that day was called Curses and Kisses by Channing Harris. Another sweet, humorous story about Valentine's Day and the poor chick who's cursed to have a horrible one every year. It was pretty short but packed full of steamy fun.
So yeah, lots of reading and the month isn't even over yet. I plan on completing at least two more books before February draws to a close. The shortest month of the year just might be my most productive when it comes to checking books off my to-read list. That says a lot considering I'm also beta reading for someone and editing my own novels pretty much every day. Not to mention those four kids running around raising hell and stealing my heart. I like to keep myself busy! By the way, I'd recommend every book in this blog to you guys. Check them out!
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's anime time! That's right folks! I took a hiatus from anime for a while there but then in December I decided it was time to start watching some new shows. Well, maybe not new but new to me. I'd watched the original Fullmetal Alchemist years ago and I was excited to watch the next series that was kind of a remake: Brotherhood. It had been on my Netflix list for quite some time and once I started watching it, my kids started watching it with me. We got half way into season two when Netflix decided to take it off streaming. The day I was scrolling through my list over and over, growing more and more anxious as I just couldn't find it, yes, I think my neighbors may have heard my howls of rage once the truth finally washed over me like a stinky wave full of seaweed and crabs. It was gone. Who knows when, or if, they'll ever slap it back on there. Feeling dejected, I thought, "Hey, if the kids want to watch with me, we can watch another series a bit more age appropriate." So I went to my anime shelf and pulled out Inuyasha. Now, the only real anime my kids have watched religiously are Hayao Miyazaki movies cause, let's face it, Studio Ghibli is like the Disney of anime. (Probably why Disney bought the rights to their English dubbed movies. They knew it was worth gold.) So when I brought out Inuyasha, my oldest only having vague memories of me watching it when she was a baby, they seemed interested enough.
You may not know this but Inuyasha is a super long series full of filler and almost as many flashbacks as Naruto. Yeah, that many. 167 episodes in the original series, 4 movies and another 26 episode ending series. That's a lot of Inuyasha! I figured a few episodes in and they'd be bored and ready to move on to something else, especially my six year old who has a short attention span. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Every day after school it's "Can we watch Inuyasha tonight?" and "Is it time to watch it yet?" and "When do we get to the movies?" We've watched two seasons and the first movie together so far and I couldn't be happier. You have no idea of the joy I feel to have my kids share one of my "nerdy" hobbies. I could never watch anime with my parents or siblings cause it was "too weird" and "stupid foreign crap". Now here I am watching it with my own kids and loving every minute of it. I love seeing the surprise and joy on their faces with every plot twist. I take pride in explaining any small details the youngest may not have caught. Thanks Inuyasha (and Rumiko Takahashi of course), for bringing me that much closer to my kids.
My old email for years was otakuqueen and I used that handle a lot back in the day when I watched several hours of anime a week. The watching may have slowed down now but I still love my Japanese animation. I'm still an otaku and proud of it. And maybe I'll teach my kids what that word means. If things continue on this track, I may have to.
I have to admit it, when I first heard "Chandelier" it kind of got on my nerves. Then I really listened to the lyrics and I was like, "Ah, nice!" I still didn't see the video until a month or two after it came out and I loved that even more. Of course, I was surrounded by people who "didn't get it" or thought it was weird. To quote Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story: "You uncultured swine!" What people don't get is that this is called interpretive dancing. For those with the question marks hovering over their heads, I'll steal a quote from Wikipedia. "It seeks to translate human emotions, conditions, situations or
fantasies into movement and dramatic expression, or else adapts
traditional ethnic movements into more modern expressions."
The little girl dancing is in a flesh colored leotard. Apparently people freaked out about that. Why? Does it symbolize being naked? Probably. Is that really a bad thing? I don't think so. Why must we always associate nudity in art as something sexual? Feeling naked can have a lot less to do with clothing and a lot more to do with vulnerability.
I don't see a naked child running around acting all crazy. I see a lost soul. The trashy rooms are external conflict. The dance is her own internal conflict. She has to deal somehow. I won't go into deep detail about what this video means to me because what I interpreted (There's that funny word again!) may be completely different than what you took away from it. I will mention that the last twenty seconds or so really hit home for me. The fake smiles and bowing at the door. Everything is fine here. Nothing to see. Sia's newest video for the song "Elastic Heart" has the same little girl and Shia LaBeouf dancing with her. And once again all hell broke loose in the media. "It's pedophilia! He's too old to touch her! He must be a pedophile!" I shake my head at you people. Once again, I won't say what I think the real meaning behind this video is but anyone who has working eyes can see that there is nothing sexual between these two. This video depicts a struggle. If she was being molested, why does she keep going back? How about we think outside the box (Oh no!) and see that he may represent like perhaps, I don't know, two sides of her own personality?
I don't see why this rubbed people so wrong. There is such a thing as physical contact between a man and a child without it being sexual. I promise. The fact that people were so quick to cry out the word pedophile doesn't say anything about this video. It's a statement about our sad, sad society. If you had some horrible experience in your past and this video reminds you of that, I'm sorry for you. But raising hell about a music video is not going to heal you. If I was in a horrible, traumatic car wreck, would I be upset every time I saw a car wreck on TV or the internet? Maybe, but would I raise a stink to the world about it and demand apologies for these scenes? No. I would learn to move on and get the hell over it. I'm actually sad that Sia apologized about "Elastic Heart". I wouldn't have. I don't have to explain my art to anyone. If you don't like it, move on.
I joined Goodreads in late 2013 because a friend suggested it to me. The idea of keeping track of what I've read, what I'm currently reading and all the many books I'd like to read, eventually, was appealing. And that was pretty much all I did on there for a while. I listed my own published works so people could check them out. If someone asked for a review of their book, that's where I'd post it. I had like maybe five friends for a long time. I joined a couple groups but I really didn't visit the site very frequently. Recently, I figured hey, it's an entire community of readers and writers, I should really utilize this site to talk about books, make some friends and get some feedback on my own writing as well as help out some other writers. So I started joining groups like mad. I put my two cents in many discussions. I offered to review some books. I offered to beta read some books. I asked for opinions on my own writings. I asked for reviews of my published works. When it comes to Goodreads, what you have to understand is that it is just like every other social media site out there. No, it really is. You have some nice people who want to have discussions and make friends. You have people who just spam all over every post. You have jerks who have something negative to say to everyone. You have overly sensitive people who can't take criticism, even if it's meant to be helpful. It's basically Facebook, with books. But though there is a lot of negativity and I often find myself frustrated, (I hate commenting on a thread repeatedly, trying to start a conversation, and everyone there just ignores me.) there is a wealth of knowledge to be had. If you want to know anything about a book - summary, author, reviews, ratings, sequels- this is where you should go. If you're looking for a local book club or looking to start one, this is where you should check first. If you're having writer's block and need a few fresh ideas, there are people who are willing to help you. So if you can get past the haters and trouble-making kids *shakes fist and grumbles* the site is quite rewarding. All in all, I'm enjoying the experience. I've made some wonderful friends. I've had fun talking about books, movies, music, even Youtube videos. Hey, I even wrote some new poetry and short stories, and I haven't written a poem in years. Goodreads has been good to me.
