Hilary Booth... of course!

Yesterday was one of those days when I was stuck in a funk. No matter what I tried, I couldn't seem to get out of it. I really shouldn't do "retail therapy" in that mental state. But I'd been good for awhile, so a combined Borders/Best Buy trip seemed like a good birthday present, right? Best Buy's tvondvd sale means I get to catch up with both seasons of "Eureka". For whatever reason, I went through Borders' mystery section without remembering that Elizabeth Peters has a new Vicki Bliss book! So I wound up with Goodis and Stark instead.

I do miss the Suncoast though, if only for their anime section. I guess I'll have to order "Maria Watches Over Us" because I haven't seen it anywhere.

New Balance has either heard my pleas or just decided for a change. They're coming out with another version of my favorite sneaker in the fall. We can only hope that the 993s fit better than the 992, because I've run out of resources for my old shoes. Ebay brings up EEs or worse a men's 8AA, which will be two sizes too big for me. I'm cursed I tell you.

There is an end in sight for this assignment. I keep chanting over and over "Two more shelves". They still have me until the end of the week, though, so I don't know whether they'll need me to help with the discards and other packing duties.

Chris Butcher at comics212 has yet more photos from his Japan trip, this time the Akihabara district. He's tagged all the previous entries, but considering how massively photo intensive those are, I'd be careful of using that. sailormac, there even appears to be a whole display case of Saint Seiya action figures, if I'm recognizing the armor right.

Musicland picked a rather annoying time to file for Chapter 11 protection. I had preordered the first volume of Macross from the local Suncoast, only to be delayed because of their distribution problems. The local store is very understanding, even willing to give me a refund on my deposit. I'll wait another week before seeking it elsewhere, maybe check the one at Pentagon City to see if it's any better, but I doubt it. They haven't received a good chunk of their new dvd releases, which I'm sure is killing their business. Suncoast has made a healthy living off my dvd habits lately. I'd hate to lose them. And I had just discovered the fellow sf/comics geek on staff. He never blinked twice at my selections. In fact, he usually wanted copies for himself. I wonder what he thought of the "Hikaru no Go" dub since he admitted to having presumably the fansubs.

I also glanced through Dark Horse's Harlequin manga titles. They looked like the standard shoujo artwork. What I couldn't get over was the colored paper. One book was tinged in pink, the other one was tinged in purple. Apparently it's a color code to denote sweet versus sensual. I can understand putting that information in the covers or a logo. But the paper itself?

For no real reason, I decided to see if my old typewriter still works last night. I needed to add some new ribbons, but that was it. It's a Smith Corona CXL4700 with the correctable ribbon and spell check. Of course that means the spell check beep goes off whenever I use a name or place. It's like the red squigglies in MS Word, only more annoying. The correct button gets a little stuck sometimes, but otherwise everything worked as normal.

Bandai licensing news: Apparently they've licensed the Gundam Seed movies and followup series Destiny. Personally I'm looking forward to their release of "Planetes" with all the space program commentary.

Animenation's regular shipment of "Afternoon" arrived today, including a promo card for Rent Anime with a free trial. Two options. One lets you rent one anime at a time, the other three. Sounds like something similar to Netflix only specifically geared to Anime titles. And it's actually run by a anime dealer, so the selection seems pretty good so far.

Last night I detoured to Pentagon City to acquire new anime releases. I felt thoroughly geeky playing with the toy that came with the latest Robotech Remastered volume. So cute... normadesmond will be pleased since I bought the last "Pretear" dvd; if I have time, I'll do a marathon this weekend.

And say what you will about Tech TV & Cartoon Network, it's certainly easier to find the dvds of "Last Exile" and "Witch Hunter Robin" now. Before I had to preorder to assure they'd even get one copy. Now they have them prominently displayed.

The latest "Last Exile" dvd includes a lovely if daunting paper vanship model. I was reminded of the post in gears_and_steam about the Victorian submarine model available for download.

Suncoast is giving away a free Viz manga sampler if you make any anime purchase. The sampler seems to cover some of their newer titles, including Hana Kimi and Angel Sanctuary.

More later. Dentist appt today to put in the permanent crowns. My teeth hurt thinking about it.

I watched the second Netflix title tonight. I had heard about "Millennium Actress" when it was released on DVD. It was one of those "not sure if I'll like it" titles that works perfectly for the Netflix format.

( Millennium Actress review )

In other news, the apartment is continuing its yo-yo effect. I opened up the windows today when it was so lovely outside and then closed it back up when I knew the rain was coming. And guess what? We're back almost to square one. I *hate* humidity. All the places to live...

So "Witch Hunter Robin" debuted on the Cartoon Network. The fandom has been collectively holding its breath to see just how bad the edits were going to be. At least, for the first episode, it wasn't that bad, killing the opening credits and speeding up the end credits. But you'd think it was the end of the world from the diehard reactions. (I'm in distinct minority in that I don't like that opening sequence with Robin fawning over Amon on the tv screen. Gives me a completely different idea about the series for starters.) At least we have the same dub. They might have deleted some dialogue, but it wasn't "Hey, wasn't there a scene there?" type stuff. Nor was it the KoTZ treatment either. I still scratch my head at the "Adult Swim" filler stuff.

Interesting interview with Stuart Levy, CEO of Tokyopop: "The manga man".

Home from the first partial day at my inaugral anime convention. It was certainly... educational.

( Katsucon report, day 1 )