..an “unfinished” life..
Background Music: “Alumina” by Nightmare
Reading: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
Technically, this is an entry about things I’ve left “hanging”, be it books, anime, j-drama or drawings. I can’t believe my day-off is almost finished (again). I have a “low-key” headache (meaning not an “all-out-stay-in-bed” kind, more like a dull throbbing behind my eyes) due to my irregular sleeping habits.
Cut. I fell asleep just after writing the entry above. Woke up at around 11:30 pm (if I were on the job, I’d be blabbing away).
Let us start with books. Can’t remember all of them.
“Night Watch” by Sergei Lukyanenko - I bought this one last year (November to be exact). Read it on and off for a couple of months. I got as far as the second part. But then rapidly lost interest. Not sure why.
“Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevski – I have nothing against Russians, believe me. I acquired this March(?) last year. It was a truly engaging novel. The protagonist, Raskolonikov was a rather tragic and complex character. I’m somewhere in the beginning (I read the longish preface and the author’s biography before going for the actual novel). The most probable reason why I got stuck was that it was buried beneath a pile of rubbish, I actually thought I’d lost it. Thank goodness my father did some cleaning up. I just need to jump start my interest.
“Atonement” by Ian McEwan – a recently bought title. Made it through about 1/4s of the novel. Then I somehow lost interest (for now). I suspect it will be like The Golden Compass, I stopped reading a couple of pages near the end, but then one day I decided to pick it up and finished the book.
“The Subtle Knife” by Philip Pullman – almost done with this one. Almost 3/4s. I just don’t want to finish it before I get the third book, The Amber Spyglass.
“The Wolves of Calla” (Stephen King), “Jarhead” by Anthony Swofford, “The Little Friend” by Donna Tartt and “Hannibal Rising” by Thomas Harris – All were acquired at almost the same time (sometime during February). Stuck in the “reading limbo”. I’ll probably start at them again, one of these days.
I really have to stop buying even more books. (Not)
Now on to Anime. Most of these were the ones I’m watching at Crunchyroll.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – I started off as a very enthusiastic fan of the series. The first couple of episodes were well-paced and well-plotted, character development was right on the mark too. But then as the show progressed, I began to notice the appearance of “unnecessary characters” – the Thrones for example – (most of whom “died”/”disappeared” in the season finale – but they were so under-developed that I couldn’t care less if they lived or died). In any case, I’m planning to see this to the (bitter-I hope not) end. I liked the main protagonist and some of his comrades (I just can’t stand the too frequent fan service at times, just look at Sumeragi Lee Noriega and you’ll see what I’m talking about). Plot-wise? It’s headed for “bad” (Sunrise seems to favour spectacular explosions to decent writing these days). They are trying to squeeze-in so many concepts at once. I know this should not matter, but the choice of colours were a bit of a turn off as well, pink seems to be a little bit too prominent (even in space explosions??)
Turn A Gundam – Now if you are looking for great character development (and I mean “book” great) and reasonable plot, this series will definitely capture your attention (I imagine those who favour explosions will be bored to tears). It is a while before anything happens (the main character is not a “brooding-type”, he is more like Kira Yamato-minus the excessive crying and other annoying habits. He is “good” without getting on your nerves. The essentially normal, decent fellow.) The animation is pretty old (they still used good -old-fashioned cells), this is the last Gundam Project Yoshiyuki Tomino was directly involved in. Besides Loran (the main guy), I also liked the character of Dianna Soreil (some reviewers even claim that she was one of the most well-written female characters in the Gundam Series – intelligent, mature, reserved and a great leader. I know, I’m getting a bit biased here ;p). So why did I stop watching? I got as far as Episode 35. I’ll just buy the DVD. It’s better that way. EDIT: checked Crunchyroll a few minutes ago. Guess what? The series was licensed, so I won’t be able to watch it there even if wanted to.
On a side note, I miss Gundam Wing (I left both of my copies at home).
TV Series and J-Drama.
“Koshonin” (The Negotiator) – I’m not sure I’ll even get around to finishing this. Having Yu Shirota as one of the main leads is, sadly, not enough. The actress playing the title character, just cannot “act”.
“Supernatural” – I finally finished Season One! I thought I’d be forever stuck. I started a couple of episodes from Season Two. Well, it does get repetitive at times.
Gaaagh! It’s already 1:00 in the morning. Mine eyes are stinging. :p
Skipped work yesterday. I wish I could do the same today, but that would be pushing my luck too far (might as well resign, ne?) Tch! Anyway, I’ve just finished Great Teacher Onizuka (live action). Yes, all 12 episodes + the drama special + the movie, no wonder my eyes are bloodshot! I can’t sleep anyway, because of the (expletive deleted) heat. Excellent series, I can’t believe I’ve been putting it off for so long! This is the story of Eikichi Onizuka, an idealistic former biker/gangster who wanted to be a teacher. He employs some “extremely” unorthodox methods (and that’s putting it lightly), but just the same he was able to reach his students, in a way his contemporaries could not. *Sigh* Makes me wish I had a teacher like him (I wouldn’t have “despised” my early high school days that much, if that was the case).







