Just spent an hour and a half or so reading laws from the Sengoku period of Japan. I'm all for history, but laws get rather dry. Even if a lot of these laws pertained to killing people for wrongdoings.

I've taken all of my classes for this semester except for one - that's a night class on Wednesday evenings. I actually don't have classes on either Tuesdays or Thursdays, which is really quite pleasant because I get lots of time to do things such as sleep and write and draw, all of which make me a happy puppy. So does Spring Training, which I have tickets to with soprano_no_eiji! We've got two games now and are hoping to buy two more. The Sox-Mets one, which we're buying next Saturday, is the one I'm looking forward to the most, as when my two favorite teams play there's absolutely no stress involved and I can just sit back and watch and hope everyone does nicely.

Also, tosei_10 got his birthday e-mail from Mim's, a restaurant on Long Island that soprano_no_eiji's father frequents. I was once there with soprano_no_eiji and cootie_10 and was given a slip to sign up for special deals with, so I filled it out with Junta's name and birthday as a joke and he now regularly gets e-mails from them. It makes me giggle.

Finally, Griffon is being added to the list of roller coasters I will never go on.



Totally not in the mood to work, obviously. Yeah.

soprano_no_eiji and I went book shopping today, hitting up both a Borders and a Barnes and Noble. Since I have a small trust fund made up of Barnes and Noble gift cards that I've accumulated over the years, I went crazy, and I ended up with the following bounty:

~ Kyou Kara Maoh! volumes 1-5
~ Emma volume 9
~ Gakuen Heaven volume...2, I think
~ Eight Men Out (I've always wanted to read it. It's stats_be_lurve's favorite book, too.)
~ At Fenway, which I was really excited about until I got back to my dorm room and discovered it was written by Dan Shaughnessy. Ugh.
~ Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train, which I am extremely happy with.
~ The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, which I am also extremely happy with.
~ The Manga Guide to Physics, which was too cute not to buy.

I like books. A lot. Especially ones that have to do with baseball. Eeeee, baseball.

EDIT: Speaking of books that have to do with baseball, this is tempting. So tempting. Meoto for $7? Yes please.

EDIT 2: This man is a badass.

Katsucon is steadily getting worse. This year's con wasn't bad, per se...but the venue was horrible, the events were poorly timed and not spaced out well, and the attendance cap should have been much lower. So nobody I went with, myself included, had very much fun. On top of that, the lack of baseball got to me quickly (nobody recognizing me dressed as Junta did not help) and two of the people staying in our room were quite keen on getting drunk (one of them actually passed out the first night, which was a little nervewracking).

I will list the few good things here, though:

~ I was with my favorite person in the world, so it was all okay. The con was boring in most places, but as long as we were together, it was fine and we were good. I don't know what I would have done or how I would have handled myself without you. You're the best friend I've ever had and I owe you so, so so much. <3 
~ Gakuen Heaven. OH MY GOD. This is a GOOD SHOW.
~ I managed to buy Junta. While dressed as Junta. Without being recognized. Actually, there are these Oofuri phone charms released by Yujin, and the second set contained two different Juntas. soprano_no_eiji found a vendor selling set two and she bought Nishihiro and Oki and I bought both Juntas. I am terrible. But Junta is pretty so I don't care.

( Here they all are! I didn't take many pictures at the con, sadly. )

In short, I cannot wait for Otakon. Something that's actually organized will be very, very nice.

(P.S. - Jed, I love you. I will be coming to watch you play in three weeks and I cannot wait!)

...because it keeps taking me away from here for annoyingly lengthy periods of time. And then I miss everybody so much and I get all sad.

A few bullets, because I have been busy and argh:

1. There is a Yu Darvish on my wall. It is a giant calendar. soprano_no_eiji bought it for me because she is awesome. When I get back from my weekend excursion (Katsucon '09), I will have to post pictures. I like his ERA. It kind of overwhelms me. (And yet that's not what I stare at every night before I go to bed.)

2. I will be at Katsucon this weekend in DC - this year I'm cosplaying Junta because he is a complete genius (i.e. a gigantic loser) and (literally?) is married to his batterymate and is incredibly funny and kind of giggles too much (which is way too freaking cute).

3. Finally, and this is the most important news, hence me saving it for last...

soprano_no_eiji and I will be spending our spring break this year in Florida watching two Mets games and one Sox game. So I'm going to actually be at some Spring Training games, which totally makes my life complete! Does anyone here know how much a radar gun would cost me? I'm going to be scoring and scouting prospects (for fun...and to try to convince people that I am a real scout, not a blogger who likes Minor League ball), and a radar gun would make me that much more convincing...

 

...but I shall not let it!

Last year, the offseason did come pretty darn close to killing me. Oh, it made a valiant attempt at it. But I escaped by discovering the oh-so-glorious Ookiku Furikabutte was indeed available for me to watch on Veoh in January. (For those who want to know, Oofuri's first DVD set, containing the first 13 episodes, is set to be released this upcoming January, and I'll try to come up with an official date as soon as possible!)

Anyway, to continue my theme of surviving the offseason with baseball manga and anime, this year I compiled a list of various baseball series on OneManga.com to read, and I'm posting the links here! We could all use some baseball in December, after all. (I have included a summary of each series, as well, so you can see if it's your cup of tea. Every baseball manga is a little different!)

~ Ookiku Furikabutte by Higuchi Asa: Okay, so this is obviously my favorite manga of all time at the moment. The anime will finally arrive licensed in the United States soon, as I mentioned above, and I am way too excited about that. Anyhow, the plot revolves around Clay Buchholz Mihashi Ren, who arrives at his new high school with absolutely no confidence in his pitching whatsoever because of his volatile relationship with his middle school teammates. Over time, though, his new teammates at Nishiura High School accept him, and his growing bond with his new batterymate, Abe Takaya, helps him to build his self-esteem back up. (Of course, my favorite team isn't the main one, Nishiura, but one of their opponents, Tosei - I call them the "crack school" because they're all crazy. And their battery is married!)

~ Daiya no A (Ace of Diamond) by Terajima Yuji: I just discovered Daiya no A (also Daiya no Esu or Daiei) recently, and I fell in love with it. Our main character is Sawamura Eijun (named for Sawamura Eiji, for whom the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young Award is named), a southpaw pitcher with excellent movement on his fastball (because it's a shonen manga, Eijun's fastball gets a long, silly name - 'rainbow curve naturally moving pitch,' which I think roughly translates to 'rising fastball' in realistic baseball jargon). Scouted out of his Nagano Prefecture middle school by a scout from a Tokyo baseball power school, Eijun ends up at Seidou High School - but sadly, we don't see much past his experimental trials there when still in middle school, because the scanlators have only finished the first two chapters. (And although I try very hard not to be shallow, I must say this - the catcher Eijun first works with, Miyuki Kazuya, is sex on legs.)

~ Nine by Adachi Mitsuru: Adachi is a highly prolific writer of baseball manga, and several of his works will appear on this list. Nine is one of the earliest ones, and it's much shorter in length than Touch and H2, which are the pieces that Adachi is perhaps best known for. I just finished reading this one yesterday, in fact, and it's a cute little story about a middle school track star, Niimi Katsuya, and his best friend, Kawasawa Susumu, the middle school prefectural judo champion, who join Seishuu High School's baseball team in order to help cheer up the coach's daughter, Nakao Yuri. The story follows these two, as well as ace southpaw Kurahashi Eiji, as they navigate their three years of high school, complete with romance and plenty of baseball, and save the high school team, eventually making it strong enough to shoot for Koshien.

~ Cross Game by Adachi Mitsuru: This one's still running. Cross Game follows Kitamura Koh and his friendship with Tsukishima Wakaba, who shares his birthday. The two are very close, and Wakaba's younger sister, Aoba, is rather jealous of their relationship. Suddenly, when she is in fifth grade, Wakaba dies in a swimming accident, and everything changes. The rest of the story follows Koh and his friends as they continue to play baseball in middle and high school (Koh initially pretended not to have any interest in the game, but he trained in secret for years) and his changing relationship with Aoba, who herself is a fantastic pitcher. Interestingly enough, Koh and Aoba's high school is also called Seishuu High, and a part of me wonders if this is supposed to be the same high school from Nine some years later or not (Niimi's class was the Class of 1980-81). (If you cannot tell by this horrible summary of the series, I have not started reading this yet.)

~ H2 by Adachi Mitsuru: The third Adachi series I have on this list (there's one more coming up later!). H2 is about three friends who played together in middle school, Kunimi Hiro, Noda Atsushi and Tachibana Hideo. When a doctor misdiagnoses Kunimi and Noda and tells them they cannot play baseball anymore, they decide to attend Senkawa High School in order to escape the game. Tachibana, on the other hand, goes on to play at the prestigious baseball school Meiwa Daiichi, and manages to become a starter in his freshman season. Kunimi and Noda discover that they have indeed visited with a quack doctor, and they work to transform Senkawa's little baseball club into a full-fledged team, eventually challenging Meiwa Daiichi to move on to play in the Koshien tournament. (I should note that Kunimi and Noda are Senkawa's battery; Kunimi pitches and Noda catches. Tachibana plays third base, as star players are wont to do.)

~ Mr. Fullswing by Suzuki Shinya: This is complete and utter crack. Our main character is Saruno Amakuni, who joins the prestigious Junichi High School baseball team in order to impress and get closer to the team's manager, Torii Nagi. Saruno has absolutely no baseball skills whatsoever and barely understands how to play the game, but he's a natural hitter. Sort of. It seems that even here he is inept, only being able to get his bat on fastballs - breaking balls and off-speed pitches give him trouble, as he's a beginner. Over time, though, he and the other first-years grow in skill and are able to keep up with the upperclassmen as Junichi shoots for Koshien. (My favorite character is first-year second baseman Tomaru Pino - he's got the mentality of a five-year-old and is obsessed with his GBA, but he's extremely fast. He's just way too adorable.)

~ Rookies by Morita Masanori: This is far more serious than Misufuru. Futagotomagawa High School receives a new Japanese teacher, Kawato, who sets out to reform the suspended baseball club, whose members have been banned from school competitions for a year due to a brawl they started during a game. Although at first the players appear uninterested, they eventually become inspired and are motivated to shoot for Koshien once more. (I have not really read this one yet, either. Waaaah. But I started it about two minutes ago to confirm the name of the high school!)

~ Stripe Blue by Moritaka Yuji and Matsushima Yukitaro: As much a romance manga as it is a baseball manga, Stripe Blue's plot concerns a love triangle between Ozawa Abo, an ambidextrous pitcher, and two girls, the spirited Eguchi Hana, a pitcher herself (who gets even more attention as a ballplayer than Ozawa), and wallflower Asai Noriko. In addition to deciding which of these two girls he prefers, he also has to decide which hand to throw with - as a left-hander, his control is impeccable, but when throwing right-handed his Maddux-like control goes entirely out the window and he becomes a fireballer. (I have not started reading this, so I really can't add any more to this at the moment. Sorry!)

~ Touch by Adachi Mitsuru: And finally, we arrive at the most famous Adachi manga of all time - Touch follows a pair of pitcher twins, the Uesugi brothers (Tatsuya and Kazuya), and their friend and next-door neighbor, Asakura Minami. Tatsuya possesses natural talent, but is lazy, whilst Kazuya has to work for everything, but has the work ethic to succeed. Tatsuya declines to directly compete with his brother, even letting Kazuya and Minami get together as they get older although he loves Minami too. Interestingly, Minami secretly prefers Tatsuya. Tragically, in high school, Kazuya runs into the street to save a young boy from being hit by a truck and dies. The rest of the story follows Tatsuya as he picks up where his brother left off, helping out the baseball team as best as he can and becoming the team's ace in Kazuya's place. Touch really isn't for the faint of heart, but if you're looking for a great, engrossing story that centers around baseball and the memories of a former player bringing everyone together again, this is the one. (Random, more lighthearted tidbit - Kazuya is the namesake for Miyuki Kazuya of Daiya no A.)

That's everything I have access to at the moment - the people scanlating Daiya no A are scanlating Major, as well, but they did not start with the very beginning, and if I'm going to take on that epic, which follows the career of Shigeno Goro from kindergarten to the Majors (both in Japan and America - he even participates in the Baseball World Cup, which is essentially the World Baseball Classic disguised a little bit), I want to start from the very beginning. This should keep me busy for months, anyway.

Just a quick post before dinner - I will get back to comments later, since Yahoo! is not being kind enough to let me check my e-mail at the moment. Sorry - I'm not trying to blow anyone off!

Found some footage on NPB Tracker (where I was reading up about Tazawa and trying to get a better look at his stuff) of Tsuyoshi Shinjo, one of my first favorite ballplayers. He homered in the first game I have memories of being at, although that was overshadowed by a Piazza walk-off against Atlanta that day. In this video, he's still with Hanshin - he homers, moves defensively to second base and performs well, and then tops it off by hitting a pitch that looks somewhat like an intentional ball (but could just be a pitch way to the outside) to drive in a run and win the game.

(Also, check out the page of links where I found it - there's some footage of 18-year-old Daisuke Matsuzaka throwing around 97 mph, too.)

EDIT: An Oki Caramelldansen? For serious? I love it. (Note: Oki from Oofuri, not Okaji.)

Tosei Mafia. I'm serious. (They show up about halfway through...)

Conveniently missed today's nightmare of a game because mydarkloard and I were having a Fullmetal Alchemist marathon at hanachan01's house. Needless to say, the results were less than pleasant to see on my cell phone tonight. Not fun, guys. Not fun.

Realizing that Havoc bears an uncanny resemblance to Shimazaki Shingo of Oofuri fame severely improved my evening, though. Every time Havoc appeared on the screen, I wanted to scream out, "Iyarashingo!" or "Shimazaki!" but somehow kept myself in check. Ohhh, but it was tempting.

And this is the result of sitting around for several hours doing nothing but watching 16 episodes of FMA:


Tomorrow I go to Shea Stadium for the very last time. I was there yesterday evening, but tomorrow is my last hurrah. I just know I'm going to cry...it's a little like losing a good friend. This is going to be tough...

Today's small victory was my mom seeing this picture of Junta and saying he was cute. Hearing someone not in anime fandom say that made me feel better about the ogling.

The line of the day, though, goes to my brother. From a round of Bible Game, when Noah's Ark, a game he's not particularly good at, came up: "Fuck you, Noah." (sees high score board) "Fuck you, Junta."

And whilst I'm on the topic of Takase, why is it that Tosei never fails to provide the crack? Because they always do.

Things I am glad I did not do today:

1. Watch/listen to the Red Sox game. Because from what I am reading, this was a total disaster. Well, until it ended differently than I thought it would. On second thought, maybe I would've liked to hear this one. I take it back! (And Mikey, please get well soon!)
2. Panic despite the fact that I was worried about a bunch of things all morning. Today was just a nervous day, but it seems like everything's worked out.

Things I am glad I did do today:

1. Went with my friend so she could get an MRI. You just don't go alone to those things, and you don't let people go alone to those things - everybody could use some moral support. Now we're just waiting on the results, and she should be fine!
2. Finished the story below - I did the bulk of the writing in the waiting room. Surrounded by old people. Which was awkward, because Mizutani and Sakaeguchi go from licking a whisk to a little bit further and if one of those old people started reading over my shoulder who knows what they would've thought...

(Again, I don't own anybody in here - they're Asa Higuchi's. I wish I were that lucky.)

So between camp and the rain and the Olympics and working in my mom's library and finding out that Charlie Zink is FINALLY getting his first Major League start tomorrow (congratulations, Charlie, you've totally earned it!), I finished a story I started at some point last week. It's just a quick one-shot revolving around the first meeting of the battery that would eventually become the Meoto; here they're still little and in middle school.

Again, I own neither of these kids, as awesome as it would be to own them (Asa Higuchi is the lucky individual who does).

Fanart of episode 16 of Oofuri.

I feel better now.

I think it says how exciting my life is when the most exciting thing to happen to me today (besides finding out on my phone that the Red Sox were winning 8-2 over the Royals) was when I found a website for a Sakitama doujinshi book. This team needs more love, especially since they're manga-only right now. I know the results of their game against Nishiura because I own up through volume 10, actually. And I think they're pretty darn cracktastic, too, especially first-year catcher Daichi Sakura. They're just a ton of fun, really.

So in short, the fact that people care enough about them to write doujinshi anthologies made me a very happy puppy today. Such is my life.

I watched the Mets at my friend hanachan01's house tonight. It was there that I learned of the potential three-way deal between the Marlins, the Pirates and the Red Sox involving, amongst many others, Manny Ramirez. And frankly, I'm rather torn on this one.

My heart first found the Red Sox in the summer of 2004 and never let go. Back then, the enigma in left field had much shorter hair, but still baffled the media and was shaded in controversy. Year after year as I continued to follow the team, he would request trades, and yet the deadline would pass and he'd still be there, fresh and new and ready to help the team make a postseason drive (okay, so '06 was more of a postseason dive). But this time it feels different, like he's really going to leave...even potentially taking one of our beloved prospects away from us, as well. For all of those wonderful memories he's created for Sox fans everywhere, I thank him.

And yet my head thinks that his recent appearances in the media circus spotlight and his various comments have turned him into a stem cell that could evolve into a clubhouse cancer if not properly watched. He's causing a distraction and is making it harder for the players, the front office, the media and the fans to focus on the actual game. Unmonitored, that could start a downward spiral for the entire team, and it does concern me somewhat. I recall an incident in 2004 when a star player who may have very well been on that same path was traded to the Chicago Cubs and the Red Sox went on to win the World Series. I'm not saying that they won because they traded Nomar, nor that this year's team will win by trading Manny - honestly, I don't believe that this team has it in them to repeat at the moment, and even if they suddenly get hot baseball's sheer unpredictability still leaves opportunities to falter everywhere. But for the greater good of the majority, this may just be another step down the road to October that has to be taken. It's a hard situation, and if I were in Theo's place, I'd be agonizing over this. We'll have to wait until Thursday at 4 to see Theo's final decision on the matter. Until then, nothing is written in stone.

In happier news, I started more fanfiction today - it's Mizutani/Sakaeguchi, and it's nowhere near done because I didn't have all too much time to write today. It's on its way, though, at the very least. But I also succeeded in getting artistic at hanachan01's house today...

This is one of those things I'm going to look back on and ask myself, "What the fuck was I smoking when I wrote that?" when I rediscover it years later.

To make a long story short, the Meoto goes to a popular DYI toy retail store found in malls across the world. And no, they do not take it very seriously. I wish I could say I owned these two, but they belong to Asa Higuchi, who originally created them. Bless her for doing it, too!

Yes, they're still there. Oh, Space Farms.


More will probably turn up on the roleplaying LJs (at bmu_athletics) very soon. Because there's a lot more suited to their interests...

EDIT: Two Oofuri things I found on DeviantART today...

1. I kind of love Junta too much, but you don't have to love him (though how could you not?) to find this adorable. And the comments on his personality also made my day especially since the Sox lost.

2. HOLY SHIT. SQUEAKING. ACTUAL SQUEAKING (COMPLETE WITH PINNING AND EVERYTHING). THIS IS TOO WEIRD: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Totally just wasted time on YouTube reading comments to videos using music performed by Noriaki Sugiyama just to see if anyone would mention Junta Takase. Nobody did.

Of course, this is because Non-tan has also voiced Sasuke from Naruto and Ishida from Bleach, both of whom are fangirl magnets (especially the former, going by the comments) - and not as many people know who Junta is yet, anyhow. And knowing this, I fruitlessly looked anyway. I almost wonder if when Oofuri does make landfall in the United States officially if the fangirls will pick up on this and flock to him for it. ...Of course, Riou might actually win here, as he shares his voice with Tamaki of Ouran fame, but either way...Fandom works in weird ways in general.

And really, even if Junta didn't have Non-tan as his seiyuu, I'm sure the fangirls would pick up on him anyway. Because - and I don't say this about most people - he's pretty. (Of course, I didn't notice this until he got the giggles in episode 16 - I have a severe attraction to easily amused people/characters [see Lowrie, Jed], and when Junta cracked up over Mihashi's face and couldn't stop laughing I was kind of sold.)

Hooray, Tosei has eaten my life! Not that I care or anything.

The quest to get this hat done was a tad interesting, however. See, when I first attempted to initially purchase the hat I was going to use, I tried two different malls containing three different Lids stores total (living in northern New Jersey makes this incredibly possible), and none of them had the shade of blue I needed. I had to jump on the internet. A week and a half or so later, the hat arrived in the mail, and I was thrilled. I waited a few days until I had some time to take it to the embroiderer in the mall with the single Lids store, but apparently they did not have any fonts with an upward curl near the top of the 'D' (all of them spiraled downwards) and they could not customize it. I then drove to the mall with the two Lids stores and tried the embroidery kiosk there, only to find that they were in the same boat (although I could have a custom order made for $75). As a college student who cannot afford to spend such money, I then went straight from the mall to Pearl Paint and just did the damn job myself.

Just got back from seeing The Dark Knight with mydarkloard tonight (it was already her second time seeing the film, as she'd also been at the midnight showing yesterday), and it's a fantastic film - rather dark, but that was to be expected. I really think it lived up to the hype, honestly. I don't see too many movies, but this one was worth it.

Even if it took me half an hour and more than an eighth of a tank of gas in my car that gets 36 mpg highway to find a parking space at the mall. I do not like malls, no.

Also, this film made me come to the realization that I am truly back in fandom again. For a few years, I had gotten out of touch with fandom, mostly because I was focusing more on original writing (I had sort of stopped writing fanfiction for some time). Back then, when I saw the Joker I would have thought of Londinium antagonist Montgomery Houghton - and when they mentioned that one of the small-time criminals was a paranoid schizophrenic, I did, because Monty is also a paranoid schizophrenic (and is therefore misunderstood by the Victorian society he lives in and is declared to be mad).

But when he delivered that line that stated, in a nutshell, that the crazy people like himself just enjoy messing up the schemers' plans, I wanted to stand up, point at the screen and scream, "HARUNA!" Oofuri is absolutely eating me alive.

(You know Haruna does enjoy messing around with schemers' heads, too. Schemers plan everything out from start to finish. Doesn't that sound a little like Abe...?)