It’s been a long while since I’ve physically gone to cinema-houses to watch movies. Today seemed to be the best time: ate usagijen planned to go; it was a Sunday; and I basically had nothing to do. It was also the final day of the Anime Matsuri and consequently, of the showing of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo.

OH SO VERY CASH

It didn’t start off well. The people I text messaged didn’t reply to me (they actually did, only my damn phone received those messages when it was already too late [eight in the evening]), I got soaked in the rain (it was pretty strong, even with an umbrella), and my foot was wet for the most part since I arrived at the venue. I wasn’t able to meet Ate Jen because of my phone’s fiasco, and I wasn’t able to get a ticket for the 2pm screening.

I had a choice: I could have gone home and dealt with the necessary requirements, or I could have stayed and waited for the 8pm screening. I decided to stay and wait for the 8pm screening, because that was the last showing of the film in all of the anime festivals within the year, and I wasn’t going to let those mishaps ruin what would be (and has become) a most eventful anime watching experience for me.

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is easily one of the best films I’ve seen. It ranks up there, along with my perennial favorite Ocean Waves. I just absolutely loved it, and I loved its very positive and heart-warming ending (which only I seemed to get seeing that my seatmates wanted me to quiet down when I almost-shouted ‘It’s SO SWEET!’ like some faggot). Yes, it has a heart-warming ending, and if you didn’t get it the first time, you should go watch it a second time. It was a wonderful experience for me, and the movie totally deserved all its awards. Plus, I got to know some new friends who also like anime, so the experience, while really having a bad start, had a very triumphant ending, at least for me. It was a really great decision to wait until it was shown in the big screen here in the Philippines. Shit was SO cash. Yeah, I can’t help cursing because it’s SO AWESOME.

Go watch the movie. Now.

The Blogger’s Choice Awards have come out, and I am so glad. I won Gold in the Most Thought-Provoking Category! WOOHOO! I couldn’t have done this without the votes of fellow bloggers (who I’ve coerced in some way or another), and I am grateful for their votes and their support. Thank you, my fellow bloggers and my readers.

While I fell short in the People’s Choice Awards (finishing second), I also thank those who have voted for me there. Make no mistake, Jeff deserves the honor, and I give my congratulations to him. Good work, old fellow!

• 11. Most Thought-Provoking Blog
• Cruel Angel Theses (http://omaemo.dasaku.net/) 14.0% (101)
• Omonomono (http://omonomono.com/) 6.4% (46)
• Hop Step Jump (http://anime.jefflawson.net/) 19.9% (144)
• Anime|Otaku (http://animeotaku.animeblogger.net/) 17.3% (125)
• The Animanachronism (http://animanachronism.wordpress.com/) 4.4% (32)
• TOTAL 62.0% 448 (723)

Statistics were graciously provided by AkaiWolf after the People’s Choice Awards have been released. Thanks!

This post is also dedicated to my online friends that have also won awards: congratulations, Michael, for winning Best Satire Blog. And yes, just like what you’ve said, you didn’t lose!

Congratulations, Daniel, for being the only blogger having fingers (and different awards) in three different pies! Daniel won Gold in Best Editorial Blog, Silver in Best Rookie Blog, and Bronze in the Most Thought-Provoking Blog categories. He’s the only one who did it among all bloggers. ^_^

Congratulations, Impz, for leading THAT to a dominating Best Team Blog Gold medal. Congratulations, Extrange, for winning Silver in Best Manga Blog.

Congratulations, totali, for winning Silver in Best Episodic Summary Blog! /me touches totali

Congratulations, DrmChsr0, for winning Bronze in Best Drama Blog! I VOTED FOR YOU WOOHOO!

And, finally, to everyone else who won, congratulations as well.

I have been writing about literature and not about anime in my previous posts; I thus decided not to write anything unless I watched an episode of anime. Life hasn’t been lenient on me, however: as my close online friends know, I have had to fix my parent’s PCs (I’m pretty versed in the removal of spyware), and that has eaten up a considerable amount of my vacation time: I was not able to watch any anime because of those responsibilities.

Because we’re all hot for genderbent Tieria
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I think I know a good deal about physical suffering. But this is the worst of all, to feel your soul dying. -Malcolm Lowry

I didn’t like Under the Volcano as much as other casual readers or critics did. But with a line like that, I could recognize its status as a classic of 20th century literature.

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I never intended to write a blog post, but this is a personal blog as well as an anime blog, and I believe I have something to say.

I didn’t really want to write here: I initially planned to write a review on Amazon about Absalom, Absalom!, the novel I just finished reading, but they had a new policy disallowing reviews unless people bought from them. For shame. I know that for many people Faulkner is difficult: he’s very difficult for me, too. I think I possess, however, something that most people do not have when it comes to reading: I have patience (yet also haste). The Sound and the Fury took me four tries to finish, but I finally did complete it. Absalom, Absalom! was the same experience. (more…)

This is a light post.

Anyway, zaitcev linked to #animeblogger (and has posted about it) regarding the Google trends of searching for ‘anime, hentai.’ If you check it out, the people who top the list are …

You guessed it right, Filipinos.

I had a good laugh over it, really. Oh wow.

I’m very sure that no one delights in disease or sickness unless one’s a crackpot, which I assume no one reading this blog is. (My mind’s stoned right now, I think. I feel very high.)

Having said this, I realized that it is a boon when your mind and body are in a pyrexic, intense, and excited state with regard to writing. Perhaps the heat allows the nerves to conduct faster, I don’t know. I totally understand why my professor said he loved Finnegans Wake back when he was sick with a high fever, though. As for me, I just notice that the words come out more freely. Like the madeleine found in Swann’s Way, a reminiscence triggers the remembrance of another memory, and in this case I thought about Seth’s post on You Have to Burn the Rope. (more…)

Three days ago, before I got sick, I had a choice: I could either purchase The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst or some expensive lavender shampoo. At first glance the two seem to be disparate from one another; of course, they are. However, they shared two attributes: first, they were both involved with lavender (The Folding Star had a lavender cover); and second, both were expensive enough that I could only purchase one of them. (more…)

I’m truly and honestly sorry for my protracted absence and silence from this blog. Aside from the plethora of exams I had to study for (because I study now), I still have a lot of exams for the following week. I’m sorry I couldn’t post earlier, but I have avoided dallying around the Internet so as not to waste time. Aside from the fact that I’ve had to deal with Emmanuel Levinas and microbiology, I’ve also had to deal with Kafka.

Oh, and Kimikiss remains to be awesome.

Saturnine linked to an article of his trying to promote community among the anime bloggers on IRC. I do not read his blog, reasons stemming from his demeanor on IRC to his general treatment of other anime bloggers. I clicked that specific post of his, however, and I was filled with horror.

I do not write troll posts: I deem myself somewhat more intelligent than that, but this occurrence simply filled me with bile and with disgust. I felt that it was like Adolf Hitler promoting community within anime blogging. One may ask: why do I compare saturnine with Adolf Hitler? His demeanor in that post of his was highly contrary to any altruistic or benevolent behaviour in the IRC channel of animebloggers hosted under Maestro: the channel is located at #animeblogger on irc.irchighway.net. People can check us out there. I am quite jovial and facile in the channel, and yes, sometimes I reach extremes of being quite stupid, but I enter to chat and to joke with my fellow bloggers, and sometimes discuss matters that are relevant to our interests, not be in an English class or a class of manners. Saturnine, on the other hand, is a curmudgeon who offends many people’s sensibilities. (I say this without vitriol; I cannot find another more fitting word.) I believe he has trolled everyone except a few regulars of that channel, and I believe that those regulars can attest to this.

I speak of this in all honesty: saturnine lashes with harsh words at almost everyone, and I find that a character like this cannot ever promote community. Can you imagine someone like Adolf Hitler talking about the union of the human race? I sure cannot. This is similarly the reason why I can never believe that he wrote that. I would highly promote what he proposed in that post of his if Jeff Lawson wrote it; right now, I feel too surprised that he even had the gall to write a post like that.

I wish most of you people will listen to me. I believe that if you follow his exhortations, you will just be like Hitler’s people: it will probably merely be a confederacy of dunces.

I am inviting a lot of flak from the community, imagined or otherwise; feel free to heap your insults with your comments.

Have a nice day.