Manga - Codename: Sailor V vol 1 and 2

I thought I had read this comic before, but clearly I hadn't because none of it was familiar at all. It's good I gave it a "second" chance then.

Sailor V was written before Sailor Moon. People liked it enough that her publishers asked her to re-make the comic but with a team of soldiers instead. So basically Sailor V is the proto Sailor Moon.

A lot of it has very similar themes to Sailor Moon and I think if V had not ended in favor of Moon, we would have seen many of the Moon characters in V eventually. One significant difference was that Sailor V has a lot more humor. I preferred that. I've always felt the Sailor Moon manga was too serious, which is why I favor the anime. The humor in V is about on par with the Sailor Moon anime.

It did start to get more serious and more like Sailor Moon at the end, when the series was wrapping up to lead into Sailor Moon. The ending was a little sad too.

Overall, for a Sailor Moon fan it's a good read. I imagine people who are not fans though would find it a bit silly and old school.

Book: Deliverance

I have been trying to read more books outside my usual preferences in order to broaden my horizons. I found a list of 100 Best 20th Century Novels, which I am using to guide me on what to read.

This one was a big miss. I found the book to be terribly dull and the characters completely unlike-able.

The story creeps along, heavily buried in descriptive overkill. I frequently felt myself thinking, "Get on with it already!" It would be one thing if the story was compelling, but it wasn't. I was bored with the story and impatient with the writing style.

And then there were the characters. Perhaps it's because I cannot imagine being a middle-aged man, but I just found no way to relate to any of the characters.

YARR! Thar be spoilers below! (Totally not worth cutting.)

The protagonist was Ed, who is a bored middle-aged man who works in advertising and has a man-crush on his best friend Lewis.

Lewis is a bored middle-aged landlord who is convinced the world is ending and needs to build up as many survival skills as possible before the time comes. The trip down the river is his idea - part of some test to himself before the river is dammed.

Along for the ride are Bobby and Drew. Drew is a bored middle-aged musician who rocks out with a hillbilly idiot savant. Bobby is a bored middle-aged salesman who isn't really into the whole wilderness thing and eventually gets raped by a hillbilly. I found it interesting that the man least interested in the "magic" of the river is the one who gets raped. And horrifically, his friends seem him as tainted and want him to just get over it.

So yeah, this was not a story for me. On the plus side, it was rather short in terms of page count. But the thing took me a month to read. I was miserable. I feel like I am failing in my endeavor to expose myself to new things. But at least I forced myself to read it all the way to the end. That counts for something, right?

Book: The People of Sparks

The People of Sparks is the sequel to The City of Ember.It picks up right where Ember leaves off. Lina and Doon had dropped a rock with a note on how to escape the city down a hole. In this book, the people of Ember had found the note and escaped the city just before the power had gone out and the city was lost to the darkness forever.

Together, the group walked to the nearby town of Sparks. There they asked for help since none of them knew how to survive in this big bright large world.

At first the people of Sparks were willing to help, but tension began to grow. Things went downhill from there for a while, but as it's a children's book, Lina and Doon cleverly find ways to restore goodwill and everyone ends happily.

I'm perhaps simplifying it a bit too much. I really liked the book. DuPrau is fleshing out an interesting post-apocalyptic world that I want to read more about. Luckily there are two more novels in the series. (Remembers when I first learned it was a series and was dismayed at the thought that my reading list growing longer...) I've already taken both out of the library. I'm looking forward to learning more.

(no subject)

My job continues to exhaust me to the point of being unable to even write a lj entry. I continue to dislike this situation.

A couple big items that have happened lately:
1. The horrible supervisor that yells at me has been fired. I don't know the details but I definitely get the sense that this was a long time coming. Especially with the comment from before the holidays that I would not have to deal with her for much longer. Now we are cleaning up the mess she left behind. The most common phrase heard in the office these days is, "What was she doing all day???" She was so far behind on stuff, it was ridiculous. The whole thing makes me feel better. For not just the obvious reason that she can't yell at me anymore. Also, I as constantly behind on projects because she never had time to review anything I needed her to look at. I feel like my complaints have been validated.

2. Ben is being shipped off to Chicago for 3 weeks. We found out about this just a few days ago. We've had a mad scramble to get everything taken care of before Ben leaves. That includes finding a backup dog walker because Mario was unable to fit us into his schedule on such short notice. I'm really nervous about letting a total stranger into my house to care for my babies. Plus the whole living alone for 3 weeks thing. I'm a nervous, sad mess.

3. My birthday was on Friday. I took the day off because I could not stand being at that place on my birthday when I am most likely to cry. I kept myself fairly busy so I wouldn't cry. I got many errands taken care of. Everything except buying new glasses. Perhaps I will do that tomorrow after I drop Ben off at the airport. (I'm going to miss him!)

3a. I received many free birthday food coupons from local restaurants. I shall evaluate them a bit:
Benihanas - 30% off birthday dinner. The most exceptional of the bunch. Although it can only be redeemed Monday-Thursday, it was a very generous deal. It covered my meal, my upgrade to fried rice, and my silly drink (ramune!) with money to spare. The waiter was nice and applied the leftover credit to ben's meal even though he wasn't supposed to. In addition, they took my picture and served my ice cream with pocky and a candle.
Melting Pot - Free chocolate covered strawberries. Since this coupon required the purchase of dinner for two, it wasn't too impressive. However, we had never been there before so it was worth a try.We probably won't be redeeming this coupon against next year as it was a very expensive restaurant. The strawberries were ok.
IHOP - Free Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity. Have yet to redeem.
California Tortilla - Free burrito. Decent offer. Their food is always tasty. I got a no-meato burrito.
Baskin Robbins - Free ice cream cone. Have yet to redeem, but need to do so soon since the coupon expires in a few days. I wish I could save it for summer. Ice cream in winter is a little chilly.
Ben and Jerry's - Free ice cream cone. See above.
Moes - Free entree. Have yet to redeem.