Category: general

So Haruhi makes just as much sense (if not more) in its “true” order as it does in the order it aired! As those who have watched are aware, there was plenty of foreshadowing for the events of episodes 13 and 14 (Haruhi 5 and 6) in episode 4 (H7)–actually, there was foreshadowing for several episodes in that one. Watching in order, some of the foreshadowing still holds (and is a little easier to follow), and, of course, some of it plays out as references to things that have already happened.

And there are some great ones, too, like in the baseball episode where Haruhi considers giving Mikuru a ponytail, then looks over at Kyon’s ga-ga face and immediately changes her mind.

The only real problem is that when played in Haruhi order, while there is a feeling of resolution, there isn’t really a climax. But maybe that’s purposeful. Maybe it’s meant to be expository…to lead up to season 2! :>

I’m really hoping for that, because I realized today that I still have questions!

For starters…a talking cat?! “Shamisen” just kind of shows up in episode H11, The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru. And then we never see him again! (Except in the ED, with little sister.) Where did he come from, when did he start talking, and when did they all find out about it?

Speaking of the movie, why did Yuki jump on Mikuru after the Mikuru Beam?

Did they ever save all the students trapped by the data life form that came out of hibernation when Haruhi drew the emblem?

Is Kyon’s sister Mikuru as a child? (I know, this is gross, but there are clues: future-Mikuru and little sister both knock themselves in the head with their fists the same way; little sister and Mikuru’s eyes are the same color, their faces are the same, and their hair parts the same way in front; and Mikuru and little sister get along so well. The one thing throwing it off is how outgoing little sister is, and how timid Mikuru is. But she might have grown timid due to all the restrictions of time travel. Plus, Kyon even says to little sister, “If you don’t eat properly, you can’t grow up to be like Asahina-san”…I mean, come on, that’s priceless foreshadowing right there!)

Can Haruhi read Kyon’s thoughts sometimes?

Did Kyon tell Haruhi, as he stated he intended to in the last episode (H6)? It sure seems like she knows in the island story, and is even afraid of what she might have caused to happen. And the movie’s plot seems like it would be way too coincidental otherwise. But then in episode H13, Kyon implies that Haruhi doesn’t know about Yuki, so…

Why was Mikuru staring at the maid, Mori-san, on the boat?

What did Haruhi create on the island? Is it still there?

Why was Koizumi staring at Kyon’s mole?!?!?

What is Kyon to Haruhi? Why does she ask him “Have I met you before? A long time ago” in the first episode? I’m rather hoping he is not something she created or drew to herself, but someone who appeared randomly and stays of his own will–someone existing outside the influence of Suzumiya Haruhi. Sure, she “chose” him, but maybe there’s something more to it.

Will that couple in the green gym outfits get back together? ;)

Kitaaaaaaaaaaaa! [The] Second Raid! Left-back Ace!

Yeah, I can’t believe I just watched them all in a row. And I’m up way too late, to boot. Time to sleeeeeeeeeeep…

I was in the right-hand lane on Davis Road where it intersects Pleasant Home/Boy Scout and turns into Walton Way Extension (yes, that is a confusing intersection), waiting to see if I wanted to zip straight forward and merge with the traffic to my left or just turn right and go to Bobby Jones, when I spotted it in the left turn lane across the way.

“What’s that?” I thought, even though I knew what it was. I watched it turn in front of me. “It’s a Yaris! A liftback!“

All thoughts of going straight abandoned, I headed after it. As it was forced to slow down when the car ahead of it turned into the Sam’s Club parking lot, I shifted into the left lane and sped up to flank it.

It’s different in person. As expected, it’s pretty tall for a small car; I was in the Corolla so I couldn’t compare, but I’m sure it’s much taller than my Subaru. But it’s skinny and stubby and cute, just the way I thought it would be.

If you listened to my audiopost from last week when I was headed to Kentucky, you’ll know that I’d been thinking more and more of late about forgetting the Yaris and trying to convince Sean to drop twice as much money on a Prius. They’re more environmentally friendly, after all. And they’re kind of neat looking. And Tycho drives one!

But no. Despite all those things that make the Prius attractive to me, it just can’t compare to my first love.

After all, I don’t go into a frenzy when I see a Prius on the road.

Yaris Liftback, I’ll be seeing you in December!

(Now all I have to do is figure out if I want that Bayou Blue Pearl color I originally picked. That red Prius was pretty sharp…maybe that color would be nice on the Yaris too! Off to play with the Color Selector at toyota.com…)

I decided to wear shorts and a T-shirt to my second job today, for various reasons. I feel a little scummy, but what can you do? The comfort is worth it.

When I arrived, no one was working the office. I opened the door for two drivers who were waiting outside, then headed to the back room to set up my laptop. As I was opening the blinds, I heard one of the drivers, Shane, calling the boss on the Nextel walkie-talkie to ask who was supposed to be dispatching.

“Is anyone in the office?” Robert asked.

“That lady who works with you on the computer,” said Shane.

I must be getting old if I can wear shorts and a T-shirt and still be referred to as a “lady”.

And it’s cute and sweet and funny and lovely!

It’s called Saiunkoku Monogatari, and Conrad‘s in it :D

The characters are fabulous. I love Ran Shuuei, and his dynamic with Ri Kouyuu is hilarious. Ryuuki is also awesome; I love how he is with Shuurei, and how he’s not perfect, and how he’s very smart and skilled but also a little shady. And yet he’s so innocent in some ways!

Shuurei is kind of like a very refined Chidori Kaname. Hell, she even looks like her. (I love the in-joke about her dad’s horrible tea!)

Ah, palace intrigue, mysterious pasts, bishounen out the wazoo…this show is shaping up to be pretty damn awesome :D

He hardly needs me to link to him, but I wanted to share MM’s latest posts with those of you who don’t read Somewhere on the masthead. As you know, I am a huge fan of MM’s writing; if I linked to everything he ever wrote that I enjoyed, I’d be linking almost every single one of his posts. I link now because added to that brilliant writing is a tale with gripping urgency.

For the most part, Magazine Man’s stories have been about events that happened in the past, things that we know are resolved and must have turned out decently, as he’s still here to write about them.

Lately that’s been different. It started with MM’s investigations into a young man he saw driving through the neighborhood who turned out to be a sexual predator…and it’s during the course of that tale that the seeds for the current story are sown.

I want to call it an “adventure”. That word feels cheap these days. But that’s what it was–an adventure, a drama in which the outcome was truly unknown until the end. And though we don’t know much of the middle parts of the story, what we do know is enough.

It’s a tale of love, devotion, heroism, and bravery.

I invite you to share it with me.

In Which You Aren’t the Only Ones Tired of Cliffhangers…
In Which We Learn the Fate of One Good Dog…
In Which the Masthead Goes Radio-Silent for a Bit…
In Which We Review the Butcher’s Bill…
Fetching Blaze, Prelude…
Fetching Blaze, Part 1…
Fetching Blaze, Part 2…
Fetching Blaze, Part 3…
Fetching Blaze, Part 4…
Fetching Blaze, Postlude…

There was quiet, strangely soothing elevator music playing as I crossed the street between the parking structure and MCG‘s South Entrance. People sat outside on benches, smoking and chatting. Doctors strolled by in deep discussion. The doors yawned and folded open automatically before me, and it felt like going home.

I rode the elevator up to the fifth floor and followed the signs to 5 North. Then, to my left, I found it: MCG’s Bone Marrow Unit.

The nurse led me to a room which felt strikingly familiar. It was an odd cross between an extended-stay room, a storage room, and a waiting area. There was an adjustable table, but no bed, and there were two large, round hospital chairs, and sample vials and various other medical supplies were stacked in boxes near the window. A TV hanging from the corner was playing some sort of inspirational program. It wasn’t the same as the rooms in Markey that were my home for six-odd months…but it had the same feeling.

I sat and waited for someone to come, and my eyes burned.

The nurse came back and took my weight, temperature, and blood pressure. “Is it usually this high?”

Eventually a physician’s assistant arrived and led me to the end of the hall and another room, this one laid out like an extended-stay room but occupied by a round meeting table and three chairs rather than a bed. I sat at one and stared at the bank of cancer brochures on the counter across the room. After awhile I got up and used the restroom, and I wondered if the bathroom in my old hospital rooms was like this. It had a full-size bathtub, which seemed odd. I never took a bath in the hospital; I always took showers. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a bathtub. I actually can’t remember. But I do know that my rooms were much bigger than the rooms at MCG, and the layout was different, so maybe that’s all it was.

Eventually the doctor and the physician’s assistant came back to interview me. We played that game where the medical professional tries to guess which medications I’m on based on my vague clues and then I cry out “Yes!” when they finally get it right, and I gave as good a rundown of my time with leukemia as possible. I used to have good records, but they were destroyed in the fire, so now I just have to try and remember everything as best as I can. (As for not knowing my own medications, well, that’s me for you. I need to make myself a little note card or something.)

The doctor kept mentioning graft vs. host disease and how he couldn’t tell I’d ever had a BMT. Apparently graft vs. host leaves some physical signs. Since I didn’t have graft vs. host (I was lucky; Ben’s bone marrow took to me perfectly), I look normal.

I told him that I am pretty much normal except for my heart, which has slightly decreased function, and my ovaries, which don’t appear to work properly.

Finally, after the doctor got as much information out of me as I could remember, I signed a release so they could get the full story from Markey, and then the PA took me back to the first room and drew some blood for a CBC and that-other-one. (“Did you have a catheter?” she asked conversationally. “Yes.” “What kind? A Hickman?” “No…” “Groshong?” “Yes!”) Then I was free to go.

I walked back to my car, sleeve rolled up and cotton ball affixed to my inner elbow with a bandaid, and headed off to work.

Of course, with that ending, I’m going to have to go back and rewatch, because the interpretation will be a leeeeetle different, won’t it?

I’m also going to try the episodes out in Haruhi order to see how they go. But I think the order they were shown in is brilliant, both for the big reveal at the end (not the kiss, everyone with half a brain knew that was coming) and the evolution of Kyon and Haruhi’s relationship.

Good stuff.

(I also think the deal with Mikuru’s mole is funny. They had us thinking Kyon and Mikuru were going to get intimate, but nooooooo…)

Well, here I am! I added titles to all those audioposts below so you can find your favorites later on (you listened to all of them, didn’t you?). As expected, I’m not feeling like going to RiverBlast. It’s not that I’m tired, it’s just that I need to do laundry and get settled back in and make sure I’m rested for work tomorrow. Besides, I saw plenty of fireworks at home; Ben and Dan set quite a few off in Mom and Dad’s backyard on Sunday for our enjoyment, and then the next day Ben set some off at his house for me and Manda. So it’s all good. It would have been nice to see some huge ones, but I’ll live.

It was a good trip, but way way way way way way too short. I only got to see Faye, Connor and Logan on Saturday afternoon/evening and Sunday because they went to Indiana for Fourth of July craziness with Faye’s sisters early Monday morning. It was nice to just have free time to hang out with Mom and Dad and AJ and Ben, but it was all too brief. I don’t start accruing vacation time for a year, either. Bleh.

Oh well!

It’s been all over the American news lately, so I figured I should mention it: Koizumi and Bush went to Graceland together! It looks like Jun-Jun-kun had a great time :)

Also:

Top model gets into ‘Evangelion’ cosplay

That show is still crazy-popular. I don’t really follow magazines; do we have magazines here in the US about the characters of decade-old shows? :>

Public schools making boys and girls strip together

What?

Mainichi headlines = golden.

‘Gutsy radish’ offshoots starting to wither

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I recorded this while driving Atlanta’s I-285. Shortly after I hung up, I hit what I assume to be Spaghetti Junction, where there was a pretty crazy accident the other day. Fortunately, nothing happened today. I am now safe at my parents’ house; I arrived at around 4:30.

This is the least boring of all my audio posts. Before you congratulate me, note that I did not say it is actually interesting.

The post on Penny Arcade that I mentioned is here. I had to read that paragraph a couple of times before I realized what Tycho was saying :> It’s the one that starts with “At that point”.

Aside from the two Priuses I spotted on I-75 today–one which was a gorgeous red wine color, and of which I took a picture that I’ll put up later–I saw one (1) Yaris liftback on I-75, and one (1) Yaris sedan in Lexington. The liftback was the bright blue one (not the blue I want) and it had bikes strapped to the back. My kinda people.

The Prius is like twice the cost of the Yaris, by the way.

Alas.