my moral standing is lying down

Just finished catching up on House season 4. Episodes 8 and 9 were pretty darn good! =D It had gotten kind of eh for some of those episodes, but these last two really made up for the so-so ones.

So episode 9 doesn't quite end on a cliffhanger -- it actually concludes the "who will become the new ducklings?" arc. BUT. It also sets up the question of what will happen now that the game is no longer afoot. Which is really what I've been waiting for. As amusing as the competition was, it was getting pretty annoying. Too many characters. If this turns into Grey's Anatomy, I'm leaving.

In other news, I'm currently in the middle of Samurai Deeper Kyo volume 25, DMZ volume 2, and I randomly just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I'm just on page 2 or 4 or so, but it definitely caught my interest, so I'm looking forward to getting into it once I'm done with SDK 25 and DMZ 3.

Tomorrow is NYAF. Except I have a whole day of lots of work to get through first. I'm really not looking forward to that. Ugh.

Continuing in the vein of alternating between reading some manga/some novel-type stories, I picked up LKH's anthology of short stories, Strange Candy. Acutally, it is quite the interesting little collection of urban fantasy, D&D fantasy, and lightness. I enjoyed reading the variety the collection contained. The very last story is set in Anitaverse, but I haven't actually read it yet. I'm not even sure it's from Anita's POV, although I think it is. In any case, this was a good read, and I'm (oddly enough) quite relieved that sex was practically nowhere to be found. ^^

After that I went to B&N and, in a panicked moment of "OMG, I've nothing to read!" bought Sara Douglass's Beyond the Hanging Wall, which I had read an exerpt of on her website, and which takes place in the same world as the Wayfarer Redemption series, but on the other side of the ocean or something. I enjoyed it; it was a pretty simple and very enjoyable read, without the drama and epic-ness of her other stories. It was a change to be able to read about a young boy who, although he had special powers, really wasn't so much different than the rest of the world. No amazing leadership abilities, etc. The one who fits that description (because, of course, the typical "hero" must be around somewhere) is actually the one who was saved by the boy and his accomplices. Very satisfying and yet shorter than I would have expected. THE FOLLOWING IS A SLIGHT SPOILER: As I'm coming to see is somewhat typical of Douglass, the girl ends up with the "beast" in the story (who is not the villain). But I appreciate it, because no one else does it, and dammit, the beast is usually sexier than the hero.

I also picked up volume 20 of Samurai Deeper Kyo. I had picked up vol 19 a month or two ago, but wasn't in the mood to read it. Well, I read vol 19 yesterday and am in the middle of 20 today, and OMG, of course it's as awesome as it always is! I love Kyo soooo much. I am both looking forward to and dreading the end of the series. Oh, also, I wanted to mention how Yuya is definitely one of my favorite female characters. Because she's hanging out with a whole bunch of strong, talented, dangerous guys, it's pretty obvious that she isn't the strongest. But the mangaka makes her a strong (and NOT stupid!) character even so. It makes me so happy. =D She's so cool~.

I'm still left off in the middle of Douglass's Druid's Sword, but I'm not so inclined to finish it just yet. I'm still trying to get over the disappointment I felt about it when I first picked it up.

Last, but not least I also picked up Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller. It's very amusing so far, although it isn't as interesting as I'd hoped (so far). I will continue to read it, but it may be one of those books that I read while reading other things as it isn't enough to hold my complete and utter attention just yet.

I spent waaaaay too much today. We went to Ikebukuro, which is the place that killed me last time too. Only this time, they had even more stuff that I was into, but that isn't popular in the US, so that I can't get any of this stuff there normally. Dammit. I bought some Samurai Deeper Kyo novelty items, and the latest volume of the manga which had a furoku CD with it (that has wallpapers on it, I believe), and the artbook. *sigh* Also got some Bleach stuff -- including an awesome tote bag! Ooooh, and I got some prettttyyyy pretttty shitajiki, Elizabeth! One of which is from Shinjo Mayu's Love Celeb, hee hee hee.

More to come on stuff I bought later -- maybe after I come home.

After coming back home from shopping we went back out for dinner and karaoke at the place near the Sayamashi station. It was fun. Buck-Tick has quite a bit on the karaoke lists, including a medley, which is nice. You get to sing about 30 seconds of like 10 songs. ^^

We might just play Silent Hill 4 now. =D

More later!

This weekend was nice. After spending time just hanging out in the back yard, Maryann and I drove into the city to meet up with Liz and Juliet and eat. We had falafel from that yummy St. Mark's place, which is open til 4am, OMG! We walked around the village for a bit before sitting in at the 24-hr Starbucks for a while. Then drove back home. Sunday, did nothing much.

I've been reading Jennifer Fallon's Hythrun Chronicles series, and although Wolfblade (the first book in the second trilogy, which is a prequel to the first trilogy) is out in hardcover, the third book in the first trilogy, Harshini, in not yet out in paperback. This is damn frustrating. I read through her Second Sons trilogy really quickly, but I like this series better and it's annoying that I haven't really been able to get my hands on that third book. It seems that it came out in hardcover, but it's been long enough since then that you can't find it in bookstores anymore (not that I'd buy it in hardcover anyway), but it hasn't come out in paperback yet either! =(

I picked up Steven Brust's Agyar from the library about a week ago, and was just able to start it today. It's intriguing so far, although I'm only in the very beginning. Brust certainly does have a way of catching your interest and curiosity and keeping you reading. There are many books I've read that I've been interested in, but few, I think, that have made me curious. A fine and hard-to-define distinction.

I finally bought Samurai Deeper Kyo volume 17 and read it. OMG, I love SDK soooooooooo much! I need more, it comes out tooooo slowly. *sobs* It isn't fair that it's already up to volume 30-something in Japan, and that I can't read it. T_T I like so many more of the secondary characters than I usually do in this type of story (and most definitely than I did in the anime) -- I ♥ Akira, and Bontenmaru, and it's only about half-way through the series so far! *dies*

New topic -- the next two Friday nights. Angelica suggested getting together on Friday the 24th, I think. I was interested in that, but my coworker Matt is having a party that night that I definitely want to go to. We can still hang out for a while, though, because he said that probably people won't start showing up til around 11pm. So there's definitely time. I think I might be dead tired by then, but I'm still going. =D I forgot exactly why Angelica specified that Friday -- was there a specific reason? Can we move it up to this Friday instead? Aside from that, does anyone want to do something for this Friday?

Also. This Sunday I have to attend the AnimeNEXT Staff Meeting in NJ. eyoko, are you going to be there? I wonder if there's anyone I can meet up with to get there, or car pool/etc.

Amazingly, I'm getting internet service in my room right now. I live in the basement, and there's usually no service on my bed. Heh heh. That sounded really hentai, but it's not what I meant.

Anyway, after some of my posts yesterday, I went back to watching anime. The first 6 or so episodes of Genshiken, which is kind of slow, but very entertaining. It's something to see the characters' thoughts and reactions to manga/anime/cosplay, which are much the same as my own. LOL. I will definitely go back for more, but probably not right away.

After 6 episodes of Genshiken, I wanted a change of pace. I couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to give in and skip those 3 episodes I still haven't seen of Wild Striker (34-36, I believe) and just start watching episode 37. It's really good and exciting and cute, and I just finished watching episode 46. So I only have 5 or 6 episodes to catch up to what's out now. =( What will I do when I'm all caught up?!

I've been trying to get a hold of Samurai Deeper Kyo manga volume 16, but haven't seen it at any of the Barnes & Nobles that I've gone to recently. Although I do admit that the ones I went to aren't ones that have a whole lot of manga selection. I just haven't had time to go to my usual haunts. =( I did pick up volume 5 of Othello, which was good, but mostly filler chapters. It's too bad, I do like the story and hope that the mangaka doesn't go volumes upon volumes dragging it all out.

And I am bringing the GTO manga, that Victor so kindly lent to me, with me tomorrow. I'm going to finish all four volumes this week so that I can return them to him and borrow more! =D

I also have to get my ass over to the library to return some books (that are overdue), and take new ones out! Mercedes Lackey's latest in the elemental mage series, The Wizard of London, is something I definitely have to read, as well as David Weber's newest installment in the Honor Harrington series, At All Costs, which comes with a CD that I believe has the complete Honor Harrington series on it! I am so tempted, but it's $26 that I don't really have to spend on a book I can borrow from the library and just buy when it comes out in paperback. Although I should mention that one of the things I love about Baen books is that they completely allow you to copy and distribute the CD as long as you don't try to sell it. They're so cool.