As of Thursday morning I had turned in my last paper and I was officially free for three weeks!  I’m still waiting to hear back from most of my grades, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have four A’s and a B.  Hm…so three weeks to spend relaxing, with friends and family =)  Wait….I got a job!

About a month ago I got a job as a substitute teacher and things have been going well.  I’m trying to work everyday that school is in session.  The money isn’t bad either and it’s a blessing to have a job in todays economy (I just hope it stays and hopefully leads to better things).  I’m studying to be a teacher, so this is also a great experience though I won’t be teaching for another two years.

 

When I was at college, I didn’t really spend much time reading manga, playing video games or watching anime.  I did play video games with a couple of friends and had two anime nights, but that was pretty much it.  On Thursday I logged onto Crunchyroll and looked at some of the shows they had running online.  I’ve started watching Chi’s sweet Home: Chi’s new address (too cute btw ^_^), Kaa-san (pretty funny), Miracle train (smooth, relaxing show that isn’t slow paced unlike some shows that are calming), and I’m continuing Shugo Chara.

I haven’t had much time for manga, but I’m going to be writing some reviews and sending them over to mangacafeblog.com soon, so keep an eye out.   I have picked up a couple of books thanks to paperbackswap.com and through the Green Valley bookfair ($2.50 manga, though their selection varies a lot).  My collection is almost on eight shelves spreading two bookcases too, yikes.

Video game wise I’m playing through Dragon Quest IV.  I’m at the final boss so right now I’m leveling up before I face them.  I haven’t beaten it yet, but it’s been a great game.  It has some flaws (like being repetitve and slow towards the end and being a ‘been there done that’ aspect, but overall a great game worthy of any RPG fans collection.  I’m not sure what I’m going to tackle next, but it might end up being actually beating Chrono Trigger. I stopped at the final boss over the summer and just never beat him.

That’s all for now.  I just wanted to update and expect some more blogs soon ^_^

It feels like only yesterday since summer started, but it’s already drawing to a close.  I’m anxious to head back to college though and I head back on the 28th of August to help with freshman move-ins.  I also need to get my schedule in order, go to some meetings and set up two of my classes as honors classes. 

I spent today with one of my good friends and we got her an engagement dress for her party on Saturday.  I was so happy, she asked me to be a bridesmaid!!!  It’s still 2 years away but I’m so honored   I have a feeling though, that I’ll have another wedding or two to attend in two years or so…and then more down the line.  Hm, maybe I’ll be engaged by then too, fun fun   Mass marriage hysteria!  But it does seem young…

 

On other notes.  I’m heading out to do some shopping with my grandmother tommorrow and I have a list!  One thing that bothers be about shopping is that the clothes for sale are targeted as clothing for females who are 5′8+ and have no figure.  So, what about women like me who are short, skinny and have a figure?  I think I can find some good bargins tomorrow.  On Tuesday I’m heading to visit one of my friends and we’re doing a story hour at the library and I can’t wait!  I love working with kids and it’s one of my best friends so how couldn’t it be awesome ^_^

 

Other than that…I’m doing my finals this week for class and I’m going to be working on my friends birthday presents.   I have four friends with b-days around the time we go back (or shortly before) and I’m really excited about what I’m giving them   My sewing skills grow and my mom might get me a sewing machine since I keep borrowing my aunts on sunday afternoons. 

 

My cousins are also moving up after I go back to school.  My cousins wife is going to live with us for most of August, and then he’ll come up after I go back to school.  I’m really excited they’re moving up here and it’s going to be fun having them around us. 

 

So…helping my family move, finishing up the garden, canning, finishing my many sewing projects, working and some odds and ends.  Summer just got busy…busier.

I went to a local bookfair near my college yesterday and I wasn’t expecting to find anything. Then, I saw there was manga in the childrens section and my friend pointed it out. “ARGH!!!” I only saw some minor Tokyopop titles (i.e. Neck and Neck and Threads of Time-which I did get into then got rid of, don’t know why, it’s a fairly good Manwha series). So we went into the literature section. I should mention, GreenValley Bookfair sells a lot of books from publishers for dirt cheap, we’re talking 3/4 or more off the coverprice.

So after commenting on our dislike of Shakespeare, my friend pointed to some books under the tables and said “Isn’t that manga?” My eyes lit up and I had such a nerd moment. It was chock FULL of Del Rey books (which are $10.95 a pop) for $2.50. Immediatly I found Vol. 1-5 of Kitchen Princess and looked at my friend and said “Uh, sorry…don’t tell anyone about this!” Ehee…that was embarassing. So we continued on and then I found a ROW of books on the table. *blinks* Oh nooo nooo! There shouldn’t be manga here! I just wanted a history book or two, maybe a devotional, not this!!

So I found a couple of series I am interested in, but not enough to buy at the time (i.e. Ghost Hunt, Gehshiken). They had Life vol. 4 too, but I was hoping for Vol. 3 or 5-9 (though Tokyopop abandoned the series…) So I only have 5 books, not terrible…then I saw a shelf full of The Wallflower, xxxholic and Tsubasa. *looks at friend helplessly* “Ok, you look I’ll just go on”

So a few minutes later I’m going down the stairs red with an arm full of 19 books to get a basket. So if you can picture a tiny girl who looks around 15 (though she’s not) I guess it creates a funny image. I tried to hide my basket too, but I was caught and I didn’t find any other books I wanted. (Yes, I am embarassed about my hobby and try to hide it though all my friends know and don’t think bad of it-I don’t get it either, i’m just embarassed by my sometimes geeky ways).

Needless to say, my friend took a blackmail photo of me (thanks Cashier for giving him the idea lol!) So I walked away with 19 books that would’ve cost me $208.50 for $49. Not a bad day, but no more manga or book binges for a loooonnnng time.

In the last two weeks I’ve taken on the job of Manga reviewer. I have a list of my 3 reviews so far on my Manga reviews page, or you can head to http://mangacafeblog.wordpress.com/ to read them as well as the blog-masters reviews. I’m hoping to get some more done today and right now I have two other completed manga reviews and I have a couple others that are work in progresses.

I applied as a volunteer at our local library last week since I saw they were offering opportunies to create summer programs for children, but alas they had already met their goals, if only I had turned it in sooner. But the lady was very nice and said I had an impressive resume. Oh well, once college starts again in 55 days I can start doing more volunteer work at local elementary schools.

Speaking of college, I’ve already started my back to school shopping. I managed to get a loft to save space in my suite (sharing it with my two best friends!) so now all that’s left is little nick-knacks and an excuse to buy more clothes. A girl can never have too many right? And after the $7.50 jean sale at Aeropastle I’m a happy camper…but I still have a list *evil grin*

I also get giftcards from a few websites I’m on and I looked into my amazon account and realized I had a lot of money just collecting dust so I bought some manga for my collection (cause amazon sells Del Ray, Yen Press and now Tokyopop manga for $8.xx a piece instead of $11+ and they have a special on viz and tokyopop manga of buy 3 get the fourth free). Next I think I’m going to buy a movie, probably Sword of the Stranger or a wallscroll.

I joined a website called paperbackswap.com a while back.  There, you can post books and other members can request the book from you.  Once they recieve it you get a credit for the book which you can then use to get another book.  They have tons of books in every genre-including manga.  Since I started in early March I’ve gotten 40 manga books from trading books I didn’t want anymore.  Sometimes the books come at random (for example I now have High School Debut Vol. 8-no others) and I’ve been able to start some series that I probably wouldn’t have started for a while otherwise.

I took a look at my bookshelf and I noticed a lot of my series are unfinished (all the books are released, I just need to buy them).  I only need 1-2 more volumes to complete quite a few too like Rurouni Kenshin, Absolute Boyfriend, Confidential confessions DEAI, and Full Moon.  Some of my series are still ongoing and I’m far behind in and some I just need to get the rest of the series. 

With the ending of Shojo Beat this month (last issue) I started looking into reading Yen Press.  I checked out some of the series they’re releasing after I learned they’re releasing Yotsuba and Azumanga Daioh.  I saw a number of titles from them that really caught my attention so now I’m making a list of series to check out from them.  It’s great to see they’re releasing several manwa series too (now if only they pick up sweet and sensitive and full house…and Life since tokyopop dropped the series). 

So I think I’m going to work on finishing up some of the series I already have before getting into some new ones.  I do have an official list of my manga here: http://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=34761 .   I would like to start reading One Thousand and One Nights, White Light, Goong, Zombie Loan (read it, but no books), Pig Bride and a few others.  If anyone has any lesser known but great reads I’m welcome to suggestions. 

How many series are you currently reading/collecting that are incomplete and do you wait to finish one before starting another?

I have a lot of games, movies, books, manga and anime in my backlog so I finally have a chance (since its summer) to sit down and enjoy all the things I put off when I’m at college.  One of my friends loaned me 3 complete anime series; The Third: Girl with the Blue Eye, Vandread, and Somedays Dreamers.  I started all 3 and so far I’m on episode 5 (it’s a slow series, so its great to watch when I’m folding laundry ).  Vandread and The Third are two I’ve heard a lot about, but I haven’t really gotten into yet.  I did start Ouran Host Club (thank you Funimation for putting the entire series on Youtube!!!))

This is easily one of the best anime I’ve seen in a long time and one of my favorites.  I just wish funimation had released the series normally in one boxset with all 26 episodes instead of two parts for $40 a pop, ouch.  Guess I’ll have to wait until a better one comes…or bootleg it X_X

I started Shugo Chara the other day and I’m only on episode 3 but I love it!  It’s a really cute series and it reminds me of CardCaptor Sakura, only different.  I’m really surprised this hasn’t already been licensed.  Speaking of Cardcaptor Sakura, why haven’t they rereleased it in boxset format?  The DVD’s are all out of print and some are hard to find.  *sigh* Bootleg…

 

I’ve gotten some more manga this month for my collection.  I get most of it from paperbackswap.com (I trade in books I don’t want for free manga ^_^).  I first came across Wild Ones earlier this year when one of my friends bought it.  I wasn’t sure about it but after reading it I loved it.  Not your sterotypical Yakuza girl or shojo.  I also have Genbu Gaiden Vol. 2 and FMA #6 in the mail.

Well I’m off to feed chickens and do some more studying before my history class. 

Ja Ne until tommorrow!

I’m taking one class over the summer for ten weeks partly for my history minor and for fun.  History has always been one of my favorite subjects, if not my favorite.  The class I’m taking now is soley focused on the history of the second world war.  It’s been really interesting so far, though there’s a good bit of work involved (aka 300+ pages of reading a week and a paper due every 3 weeks, plus an oral presentation on a figure from the war).  Last night we watched parts of “The Triumph of War” and a look at the dictators of World War II-Lenin/Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini.  At the close of class our professor said, “If you have a WWII vet in your family, go home, thank them, hug them and give them a kiss” .   One of the guys in class then responded, “What if your grandfathers were Nazis?”   -Silence-  The professor then responded by saying, “Go home and just say “thanks…”.

I’m almost fully German myself, but 1/4 of americans can claim to be German descendants.  However, my grandfather on my moms side was Scottish (and according to family stories, 9 brothers came to the US and settled here).  My last name is German, albeit the shortened form of the real German.  My German is to the point where I can read and understand German and hold a basic conversation, but I’m still working on it.  Ok, enough rambling.

I drove to my college yesterday and met with my adviser.  I really want a minor in history.  When I first got there I wanted to major in history, but the department head turned me down stating it wouldn’t be beneficial for an elementary school teacher to major in history.  Ouch.  So I was put into FCS, where I take some classes to help me with my major (elementary ed doesn’t count as a major technically in the state of VA, thus I have to major in anything else).  I’ve only had two classes (almost done with all the family and consumer requirements) that really fit in with ‘education’.  So instead of history, which I will teach in the classroom, I take classes like textiles and historic costume…I still haven’t figured it out either.

So I met with my adviser and we redid my entire schedule to make my history minor fit.  Part 1 of 5 done.  I even talked to another professor, and she agreed to let me do a class my appointment!  So I emailed my history adviser and I’m not sure…since she won’t meet with me until the fall about it, but I need to contact my financial aid about it, talk to the register, finalize my new schedule, talk to another adviser…and its a little stressful.