hakkai_sensei: (Ishida Nerdy)

So, there's this new series on TNT that I just heard about called The Librarians, and I watched all of their episodes nearly on the strength of the title alone. I like the idea of librarians. The last librarian I knew personally was a sweet old lady. I loved Rachel Weisz's character in The Mummy, and Mrs. Lesser, the weekend librarian in Diane Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard. Harold Finch, librarian de facto of Person of Interest, purveyor of rare books and guardian of less obscure ones fallen prey to US nationwide budget cuts, is brainy sexy in his tweed and vests. Anthony Head's Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer  is another example, though one I know less of since I wasn't really much for television growing up. There is something infinitely satisfying about being surrounded by so many books, having all that knowledge at your fingertips, and endless excellent company to boot. I think that if I could have supported a family which sometimes includes certain cousins, a mortgage, endless rounds of home repair and improvement, and a decided partiality to cab rides on a librarian's income, I would have considered becoming one. Order on the basis of the Dewey Decimal System is soothing, and the only system more wonderful to me is the periodic table of elements. Seriously, how could I resist?

On the TV show itself, I have fun with the idea of Noah Wyle as The Doctor, as I think the influences are rather obvious. Rebecca Romijn eerily looks like Angela Miller in the animated Resident Evil: Degeneration film, especially in the opening sequence of the premiere; she may be blonde but they decided to go against cliche by picking a romantic interest whose dress size isn't Hollywood-cliched. Christian Kane with short hair is hilariously cute, and his role is pretty much the same as in Leverage, except he is more likely to chime in with bits of art history knowledge than worryingly scary pieces of trivia like how the rotors of different attack helicopters sound like. (In fact, The Librarians is kind of like Doctor Who (John Larroquette's wardrobe and Noah Wyle's well, everything, for a start) meets Scooby Doo (there's a lot of running around as a group) meets Leverage (their Thief is also a Hacker and there are five in their group if you don't count Jenkins) meets Indiana Jones (all their adventures are pretty much related to mythological artefacts or legendary creatures and people).) I like the fact that Lindy booth plays a synesthete (yay for the differently-abled!) and that John Kim's "worst version of himself" character keeps them from being 2D-good. It's silly and fun, and would probably be cute to watch if you had children and have run out of kid-friendly episodes of Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures. I will probably be watching more of it in the future.

hakkai_sensei: (Default)
I blog to keep memories, and sometimes, to stay in touch. (I just don't feel like keeping in touch with many folks, is all). I like taking my time, and saying what needs saying. I like being able to take as many words as I need to take to say something, because taking the time means I am saying something that's important to me.

Which brings us to the fact that Twitter and Facebook are ruining conventional blogging forever.

Most people don't blog anymore. I look at the profiles of my f-list and I see that most of them haven't blogged this year, though it's more than half-over. Or is it just really that people have moved on to other, currently cooler, blogging sites? I liked the feeling that I was part of a community that had this revolving door, no pressures on membership, make your presence felt - or not, where you could just drop in anytime and see how everyone else was doing. Now I look at my Twitter feed and at any given time I can have as many as 300 tweets from the less-than-twenty-five people I follow, and don't even get me started on Facebook. Instead of making me feel more connected, though, it makes me want to scream for all the disjointedness and lack of context. I would rather know that you have the dimsum every Friday evening because it reminds you of that time back in college when you couldn't afford anything better but the food was ambrosial because the company was the best you can ever remember having, than see a menu of all the things you had for lunch today, and all the other days this month or on a random day last year. I hate it that I now see more pictures of people than during the advent of camera phones and that I know more about the little details of so many people's lives, and understand even less than I used to about what makes them happy, what drives them over the edge, what they would fight tooth and nail for, what makes them tick. Who are you, you awfully familiar strangers?



hakkai_sensei: (Default)
Getting my feet wet and muddy is one of the things that rank lowest on my list of favorites.  Divisoria- I don't know what possessed me to turn up there in flip-flops.  On the other hand, I did get  a few nice things there, aside from getting to hang out with family.

I was supposed to spend time with my friends last weekend, but they all cancelled due to commitments which were postponed because of the previous week's icky, stormy weather.  Luckily for me, I had Leverage season three to keep me company.  I am now officially a little bit in love with Christian Kane's weather-beaten good looks, and "Age of the geek, baby" forever!

Two more weeks of class, and then onwards and upwards!
hakkai_sensei: (Default)
Yeah, back home, where my heart is.  Been back for a few weeks, and sometimes it feels like I never left.  The biggest difference is that I'm now in a classroom all the time and I know that isn't going to change for a good long while. 

I've been working really hard and it's great, but times come when I do wish work didn't have to be everything. 

Thank goodness for crack and for InuKai.  I actually feel that I want to re-watch all PoT episodes and even try my hand at watching the Chinese take on Tenipuri, how ambitious is that?  I dunno where to start, tho. *smacks head*  What would Inui think of my pitiful data skills?

Oh, and yes, Lyra Belacqua.

Touchdown!

Jan. 2nd, 2010 05:12 pm
hakkai_sensei: (Kaidoh Approved)

So, it is now 1:35 AM Central, and I am in Illinois, in a hotel room my company reserved for me.  I am typing away on a company-provided laptop, and a couple of doors away is another trainer who will be my neighbor for the next eight weeks.  I am freshly showered and slathered in lotion, and I am looking to two days of getting used to being here before I go to work Monday.  I had to go through the insanity that is airport security, and live through the longest January first of my life (that's because I lived it twice - in Manila and in Japan/Missouri/Illinois), but hey, I did find out that yeah, snow lives up to its reputation by being cold, I got to eat a mountain of shrimp, and discovered that here, their version of 7-up is called "Sierra Mist."

Is this the life, or what?

Sorry for the whining.  Birthing (or is it growing?) pains.  Now that I'm here, I see my company's done a pretty good job of taking care of things for us.  The people who received us here also live up to the company spirit that I've seen from our visitors back home, and it's overwhelming, not to mention very comforting now that the people closest to my heart are very far away.
hakkai_sensei: (Inui Illogical)

At seven this evening I decided to leave the office so I could go home and get changed. (I arrived at work around ten... the previous evening. But that's another story.) It took me nearly an hour to get a cab because every joe out there, plus seventy of their kith and kin, has designated tonight a shopping night in celebration of the Labor Day weekend. And apparently, I'm the only one who didn't see the memo.
Tonight I concede that seven in the evening is way too early to be walking Makati Avenue. The street is one long parading ground for drunk or stoned ex-pats, thugs, pimps, prostitutes, or worse. You really get the feeling that you don't belong there. Sad to say, no air of danger unnerved me, but the sense of being an alien, of other-ness, did.
But then again, maybe that's just my paranoia talking. Not all thugs look thuggish, and it's not like prostitution's a communicable disease or a communicable anything. I might just need to get out more, see the seamier side of life. You tell me.
And anyhow, I did find a conscientious, elderly cab driver who had hung around outside a bank because, he told me, he was headed the same way I was but thought it was a waste of gasoline to drive there by himself.
hakkai_sensei: (Hitsugaya-Taishou)


I was invited to go join [livejournal.com profile] coffeebased  and her cousins at the SMX for the Shizen Orchestra con last Saturday.  Since we're nearing the end of the month, there are about twenty million things that need doing at the office.  On the one hand, you have work, my pride and the source of my livelihood, and on the other you have Hope and Lian and Ina ( including, I discovered later, the charming Nadine and their pretty and refined Tita Cathy;  I also got to see [livejournal.com profile] limextreme  and JM, and I also met JM's Ron for the first time), plus a few LJ people.     Being the mistress of prioritizing that I am, I of course stayed at work for the usual twelve hours before taking myself off to the MoA area.  (The work didn't get finished - sometimes I think it never will - but I can kill myself getting it done later this week.)

On the cosplayers who were there:  Hard Gay had nice legs, and Hard Geisha was too disturbing for words.  We had some great characters show up, but not many that I recognized. Sailor V was there, and a guy who wore an Urahara hat. (where, o where shall I find a Kaidoh-bandanna? *insert wailing here*)  There was someone else wearing a Seigaku jacket, but like me, I don't think he'd meant to cosplay anybody. And no, Ina, Lian, and Nadine were not cosplaying for some obscure fandom.  Especially Nadine.  Should anyone inquire.

One reason I have found to appreciate the cons: DVDs.  Painless way to snag good copies of series you wanna watch.  I kinda suck at it now, since I do want to watch but dunno where to start, and I'm too busy to work the downloading into my schedule.  But I figure the Avatar, Bleach, and Gravitation should help - I haven't seen Gravitation in eons, it feels like.  I have the official Gravitation release which had subtitling made of equal parts Chinese and abomination.  Very pretty container, but only helpful should I finally learn me some decent Japanese.

As far as the merchandise went, it wasn't too bad.  Aside from the DVDs, there were neat things too.  Mostly to do with hats and hat accessories, and teeny-tiny things for the discerning fangirl.  I got a pair of bear earmuffs, and a pin which says "Anime: Drugs would be cheaper."  Incidentally, Hope got me a pin with the Hitsugaya's picture, the one on my icon, that says "Shotacon: The reason he's the most popular character in Bleach," which killed me to no end.  Next con I shall be getting myself a hat.  And definitely more DVDs, as soon as I figure out which ones I want to melt my brain over.

But what takes the cake was the maid and butler cafe.  And there hadn't even been any cake.  Nikki-chan was the awesomest maid (*pats Nikki-chan's head*) and Gyo-chan rocked!! ^____^  They were such fun, and the 45 minutes spent there were the absolute best.  I have absolutely no idea how maid/butler cafes are supposed to work, but the service there was excellent, and I would totally understand why they're such a big deal if what we saw was at least a fair imitation.  What I adored about the whole thing was how there was so much care and thought involved, and how beautifully it turned out because you know that these people you're talking to are fellow enthusiasts, amateurs in the original sense of the word.  By the way, did you know that the word amateur originally came from French and Latin words meaning lover and  to love, respectively?  Inui is leaving the building now, kthnxbye.

When the crowds became too much for us (and the trauma of repeatedly losing her cousins in the crowd became too much for Hope), we went out and sat down outside the doors.  I took this as a fortuitous time to write a letter to Hope's okaasa.  Unfortunately, I belatedly recognize that all the brow-furrowing and staring off into the distance that I did, thinking of things to tell her, made me look like some sad emo person.   ( I had approximately two hours left at this time before Des was scheduled to pick up the lot and shuttle them to a padasal, which is, for Foreigners, non-Catholics, and you Young'Uns, a period of nine days when the family of a recently deceased person come together every day to pray for the soul of their loved one.)  But I really hadn't seen Des in literally, forever, and I miss her like you wouldn't believe.  Which is why I looked like some depressed zombie when [livejournal.com profile] moehoshi and her sis turned up for the con.  I'm SORRY, Moe-chan!  My brain was pretty much fried at the time, having been awake for eighteen hours on little food and lots of worry.  I hope that seeing DenKen made up for my spazzzzzzzz.  *hugs you*  I couldn't even introduce you to everyone because at that point I had trouble remembering my own name, never mind half of theirs.

When I was starting to think that a photo of my letter to Des should be pasted beside the word 'illegible' in the dictionary, we went looking for the Starbucks where Hope's mom would be picking us up.  At last, a blessed table and a frappe!  I went back to writing with gusto, and the kiddies were like, Hakkai, what're you doing? to which I replied that I was writing a letter to their aunt.  I got a second goggling-over, and I had to explain that I was friends with their auntie before I was friends with their cousin, to which they said, "But how old is Tita (Des)?" and "She's old, isn't she?"

Oh, child-RRAAAAN.  *sobs quietly in a corner* 

It will probably take a decade, on the inside, for them to realize that their aunt is a severely cool person to hang with.

Anyhoo, the day ended with me getting to see Des for like five minutes.  Am now officially back to missing her.  And [livejournal.com profile] limextreme is made of equal parts of coolness and style, because he stayed with me until I found a cab to take me home (never mind that I'm older and putatively have my shite together).



On a side note:  My boss just sent me a message about courage.  It actually made me a bit... apprehensive about going to work.  Was it her way of telling me that there's something I need courage for when I go back to work tonight?  LOL.

Ii data.

Apr. 21st, 2009 08:43 am
hakkai_sensei: (Inui Glasses Sexy)
(In which Hakkai watches some more BL anime, enjoys the rain outside her window, and learns how to figure out her phone bill, among other things)
Minna-san! This is me trying to post from my phone. Kira-kira confetti to mini Opera which makes this possible!
So, okay, earlier this afternoon I called up customer service to get the lowdown on how exactly it is they charge me for my phone use. I have discovered that a) it is always important to read the fine print, only sometimes it's not available anywhere so you have to call people up, and b) I have lots of service resources that I am paying for but not using. (Gods, I can almost see Inui peeking at my data over my shoulder.) But this is only my second invoice anyway, and the first complete bill. Right now I am preoccupied with thinking how much additional browsing time and text messaging that translates to and how excellent that is for someone who doesn't get to go online as often as she would like. You'll just have to forgive me for the formatting, minna.
Junjou Romantica is a (compound) word that means eye candy and flail and rabu-rabu. I do feel a little shortchanged though, since I would like some more Egoist and Terrorist action. But it did say Romantica, not either of the two above, so it looks like if I wants more Hiro/Nowaki and Miyagi/Shinobu I will have to do some manga reading.
And Prince of Tennis! I know, I know, I'm made of several kinds of lame for not having finished the series before this weekend, but honestly, a lot of people have been into it way longer than I have, and while it's great that I can rush headlong into it without the serialized agony that comes with being up-to-date, I also want to savor it. Time will tell if I came upon PoT during its twilit moments, but no matter how seriously behind I am on much of the canon and fandom stuff, I'll take it as slow as my pitiful excuse for an EQ will allow me and relish the experience. Maybe in a month's time I'll graduate to DramaPuri. Maybe. For now I'll wrap my arms around InuKai love and bury myself in it like the especially-WAFFy blanket that it is.
For those of you who have been requesting some rain as a respite from the unrelenting heat of days past, isn't it phenomenal that you'd get your wish two days in a row? I don't have clear windows so I can't watch it, but I do love listening to the rain pattering outside, and it's almost as cool as if it were January. It's like an Indian summer, only in reverse.
Ok, Hakkai is starting to lose her words so I think this would be a good place to stop. I'm going to keep exploring this totally portable way to keep in touch with the digital world, and hopefully it'll be made of as much brilliant, awesome, and indestructible win as I'm hoping. Oyasumi nasai!

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