I was surveying my collection of incomplete manga recently and I noticed how I have quite a few series no longer being printed. Among the incomplete sets are series that used to be published by Tokyopop like Fruits Basket and Pita Ten. I realized how annoying it is to own an incomplete set of series. Even more so when it’s a series you had every intention of reading and collecting but never got the chance to. It’s worse knowing the publisher has either lost the rights to producing it or in Tokyopop’s case, a company has shuttered and stopped production of several series all together.
Becoming a gamer has opened up a wealth of games I am delighting in getting to know or fall in love with. I’ve already made it known on this blog about my love for Dragon Age more times than I can count. There are some additional Dragon Age related posts I would like to write in the future once I get my ideas for them in order. Before I became a Dragon Age fanatic, I found myself in love with RPGs or role-playing games in general. From open worlds like Dragon Age: Origins to more linear action RPG games like Kingdom Hearts, I enjoy them all.
Over the weekend NYC got its first snowfall of the year. The area I live in got about maybe two inches of snow. Nothing major. We have yet to see if we will get another blizzard this year. I’m hoping we don’t. Whenever it snows or after it snows, there is something that bugs me that I don’t understand during the snow months…how are women able to wear high heeled shoes/boots in the snow?
Someone has to enlighten me on this one because I don’t get it. When the snow falls on the first day, it is understandably soft and powdery under the feet. The chances of slipping in it may be very slim. Once the snow stops and the temperature starts to drop, then the snow becomes ice. Heck, ice may be lurking underneath the powdery white snow. The point is, how can women not be scared to walk the streets with their high heels on and with snow underneath said heels?
I'll take wearing these rubber boots over high heeled shoes in the snow any day!
I am not one of those women who will chance wearing my lovely high heeled boots when there is snow on the ground. I immediately switch over to warm snow boots with a grip or heavy duty rubber boots to get me through trudging in the slush and ice. If the sidewalks are not clear of the white stuff and black ice, wearing any high heeled boots or shoes is not happening for me.
I see a good number of women wearing stiletto heeled boots or shoes in the snow, and this is the day after a snowfall when it typically would be hazardous to walk the sidewalks in them. It’s patches of ice galore! The city of course is always ready to salt the streets and sidewalks during and after a snowfall, but the snow can’t all melt that quickly. Nope. What you are left with is hardened snow and patches of ice spotting the sidewalks in some shape or form. Streets become narrow to walk in when only a small path is carved for people to walk in and on either side of you is the hardened snow. At some point, someone will have to actually walk on the snow and ice itself.
I’ve observed women who miraculously are able to walk on the ice with stiletto heels without slipping and I’ve seen women either slip or try to balance precariously over the ice as they make their way down the street. I always roll my eyes at the women who have to walk super slow on the sidewalks because they decided they want to look good in the snow by wearing shoes with no grip! If you are so worried about falling on your butt, then why aren’t you wearing shoes with better traction? Common sense people. I’d like to meet someone who has managed to walk in high heeled shoes for all NYC snow winters and not once slipped and fell on their butts. If I made an attempt to wear high heeled shoes or shoes in general with no grip at the bottom, I wouldn’t make it down the block. I doubt I would be able to avoid ending up at the hospital to treat a sprain or broken arm.
I always want to look good when I go outside, but if the elements such as snow makes it impossible for me to wear cute shoes then I will dress according to the weather. Snow and ice on the ground? Bring on the snow boots! High heeled boots that look good with skinny jeans? They shall stay home until the sidewalks are clear and safe to walk in them again.
Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine? Why must women suffer for fashion? Why? It’s not like we are walking down a runway every time we go to school or work. We need to be practical I think.
I’ve been focused on manga related discussions in my last few updates so I’m going to switch gears and do a video game review today. I’m going to talk about Nintendogs + Cats: Toy Poodle & New Friends for the Nintendo 3DS.
The Nintendogs game has been around since the Nintendo DS has been around. With the release of the 3DS came an upgrade for the Nintendogs line of games. Not only can you play this game in 3D, but you can have a cat in the game. The DS version of the game only came with different breeds of dogs to take home, love, and care for in your virtual home.
Right now I’m in the process of collecting and reading the last few volumes of Ayashi no Ceres or Ceres: Celestial Legend. I finished reading Volume 9 of the manga entitled Progenitor. If you aren’t familiar with Ceres, read the Wikipedia page here to find out more. As you get further into the series, it gets difficult to stomach a lot of the stuff that goes on in this manga series. Fushigi Yugi also had its own uncomfortable scenes to read too, but I feel that FY hasn’t made me squirm half as much as Ceres has.
I was originally thinking about doing a video game post today, but I decided to do a manga review. I haven’t done those since my review on Sailor Moon, Tokyopop vs. Kodansha. I went back to some of the numerous shojo manga I own and reread Wanted, a one volume short story by Matsuri Hino of Vampire Knight and MeruPuri fame.
Wanted is a pirate manga as Matsuri Hino describes the one volume story in her own author’s notes inside the book. She also mentions how she drew this short story manga at the same time as MeruPuri. This post contains some spoilers so I advise you to read at your own discretion.
These days I find myself having a hard time putting an equal amount of time on the things I love: watching anime, reading manga, and playing games. When I’m not too busy trying to be the serious adult, I have a dilemma in wanting to tackle all the DVDs I have waiting for me to watch. Some will actually be good material for this blog if I actually get around to watching it. There are mangas I want to reread or start reading for the purpose of sharing my thoughts on them.
I think I spend too much time gaming on Dragon Age: Origins. The obsession I have with this RPG is not healthy at all. I only wonder how long it will take before I finally calm down from my gaming addiction on this well-done RPG. I actually finished playing the expansion for Origins known as Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening. Maybe Friday’s post I’ll write about it, but I can say I enjoyed the game expansion if it wasn’t for all the bad game bugs scattered throughout the playthrough experience.
I know I get absorbed in one leisure activity over the other if I get my hands on something with a really great story. I devoured the entire anime series of Fushigi Yugi in the span of a week. Same for Clannad. Once I’m hooked, I can’t stop watching, reading, or playing something until I see it all the way through. Dragon Age: Origins will take me a while to fully put down since there are other origin stories to playthrough to get a different gaming experience every single time. With Awakening done, I need to finish up the other downloadable content that came with the Ultimate Edition of the game I bought. I own Dragon Age 2, and I will play that next, but I feel I may not get into it as much as DA:O. I already heard some not too good things about the story in DA2.
I really need to find a balance between the two though. It’s difficult to give an equal amount of time to two different things you are into. I almost wish I didn’t get into gaming. I would have had my DVDs and mangas read by now. I’m griping now and I couldn’t help but write this random post either. If only real life decisions were as simple as these. I wonder if anyone else has a problem with figuring out which leisure activity they should do first or spend more time on? This obviously applies to someone who has multiple interests instead of just one. Having one would be a blessing I think.
Everyone enjoys a good villain in a story, especially if he/she is a well-written one. Villains cause havoc, do unspeakable horror to other people, and are rarely bothered by their conscience. What makes them intriguing is how a mind of a villain works. Their unpredictability and ruthlessness makes them a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, and standing back to wait for it to happen is what leaves you seduced by them.
A villain who is plain evil without a motive or a back story explaining why they are who they are makes the character forgettable and inaccessible. Once justice is dealt on the villain it just becomes a case of, “Well, he/she had it coming. Good prevails over evil. The end.” If you are like most people, you want your villain characters to be multi-faceted and not one-dimensional. I can think of the Disney villains as being one-dimensional for the most part. They are fun to watch and only serve the purpose of being the foil to the hero/heroine until their comeuppance happens at the end.
Happy 2012 to everyone! Has anyone made any New Year’s resolutions to start off 2012? I have a few on my list right now. Some are to help improve myself and others are more to do-lists for things I have been procrastinating on for a long time now that should be done. Among my New Year’s resolutions is for this blog.
My blog is now two months old since I’ve started it back in November. I really enjoy coming up with things to write about and share with everyone out there in the blogosphere. I’ve probably said this more than once, but I am grateful for the small amount of followers I get for my blog. I hope more people will find this blog, enjoy what they read, and my blog will gain additional followers in the new year.
With that said, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to improve my blog. Writing a post every day is no easy task as I have learned in the two months of doing it. Sometimes I come up with great things I want to discuss and other times I draw a blank. I end up forcing myself to write anything to just have something up for that day. Usually when that happens I end up not liking the post I write or I wish I could have done it better.
As a New Year’s resolution for Simpleek, I plan on taking my time with my posts so that quality will rule over quantity. This doesn’t mean I will take months or several weeks to update. I decided I need to limit my post count to something more manageable. Having a hectic schedule during the week and finding time to do this in between every single day is too much after a while. I plan on trying for two posts a week updates. I’m going to aim to have a post up at the beginning of the week, which is Monday and then have another post to end the week, which is Friday. I’ll do my best to be consistent with the days I post. If you don’t want to miss anything, you know how to follow my blog.
I also want to do more in-depth analysis type posts, which will take some time to write but I want it to be engaging. Those type of posts can’t be rushed and at times require some research to be done. My blog will still have much of the same stuff I already talk about now, but only two days in a week. Considering my interests include video games, anime/manga, and fashion what I write for those two days in a week will kind of be like a surprise for the reader. You really won’t know what to expect week after week.
Limiting the post count and focusing more on how well I write the content will help alleviate some of the pressure to write every single day without sacrificing a potentially good read. It also gives me time to tackle things I want to review and comment on, but never seem to have the time to do it in. I also believe it will reduce the likelihood of me running out of good topics to write about. Sometimes less is more. I hope you all will agree too.
Wanted is a pirate manga as Matsuri Hino describes the one volume story in her own author’s notes inside the book. She also mentions how she drew this short story manga at the same time as MeruPuri. This post contains some spoilers so I advise you to read at your own discretion.
simpleek 