I Love It When a Plan Comes Together


Tonight, Dessertvana (or the Operation Dessert Storm, as one friend so beautifully put it) occurred: the turducken of dessert, an apple pie baked within a yellow cake.  It was glorious.

So how does a pcake, pieke, piecake, whatever you wish to call it, come about?  In this case I took the base idea from this article (from, of all places, The Wall Street Journal) and modified it to be slightly less ridiculous.  I mean, this was a first attempt.

The main dinner courses of the evening were going to be cooked from scratch, so I took it as a challenge to bake everything from scratch as well, rather than use cake mix and premade pie.  This is also was a two-day project.

First, the pie.  I used this recipe, with Granny Smith apples and 3/4 cups of sugar.  Next time, there shall be experimentation with different varieties.  If you can get yourself one of these:

…it will improve your experience considerably, as well as be magical to watch.  You stick an apple on that and it goes from whole to crisp, clean slices in 10 seconds!

Another note about the recipe above: when it says “roll the dough,” it means with a rolling pin.  Don’t be silly and just roll the dough around the countertop.  That’d be ridiculous.  You’d have to be kind of dumb to realize that wasn’t what they meant, haha ha ha ha…

So, you have your pie.  You let it sit overnight, and no matter how tasty it looks you do not eat it.  After it has cooled, start on the cake batter.  Here is the recipe I used, but of course your mileage may vary.  Find a cake pan deep enough and wide enough to comfortably hold the pie, obviously.  Pour about half the batter into said pan, gently insert the pie, and then cover the pie over with the remaining batter.  The pie will probably sink to near the bottom but there will likely still be a layer of cake beneath it, enough to have it fully enclosed.

Baking this sucker was difficult.  I was going to bake according to the recipe above (ibid.), but of course that did not quite work.  It ended up staying in the oven for around an hour, rather than just the 20 minutes as stated in those directions.  Even after staying in for so long, parts still seemed undercooked: specifically, the area where cake met pie crust.  If I were doing it again, I would probably set the oven a little higher to compensate for that.

So after it spends an hour in the oven, leave it to sit until it cools.  Then FROST IT.  Mmm, buttercream…  For the frosting, I used the recipe from the back of the Wegman’s confectioner’s sugar package:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened (this is about 5.333/8ths of a stick of butter)
1  1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp milk (or half and half, or cream)

Mix the sugar and butter together, then stir in the vanilla and milk.  Beat it until it’s smooth.  This should make just enough icing to cover the whole cake.

So now you have it.  It is moist and succulent and will consume your soul.   A bite of cinnamon enhances the sugar and apple, under the milder complementary flavor of the yellow cake, with the accent of the frosting to tie it off.

…Oh, and for maximum tasty results, put on an episode (or two, or three) of the classic ’80s TV show The A-Team while baking.  I hereby dub this the Hannibal Smith On The Jazz Apple-Pie-Cake.

2011
04/16
CATEGORY
Kitchen Misadventures
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Classic?

Hey, one post a month isn’t too bad (we’ll count Jan. 31 as a February post…)

Late August/Early September of 2311.  Assuming that the human race hasn’t died from overexposure to nuclear radiation, blown itself up in a war over something stupid, or contracted a hyper-aggressive strain of measles and died, and also assuming that our alien/robot/zombie overlords have not enslaved us all (or at the very least, that they in their benevolence allow us to continue with our ordinary lives), the new academic year is beginning.

There are three whole students (and one cyborg, who only counts for half) entering their final year in Literature Studies, and they have all signed up for Survey of Late 20th/Early 21st Century American Prose.  The professor passes out the syllabus, or at least emails it out to each student’s private wristwatch supercomputer.

What’s on it?

I’ve been pondering this for a while now.  It may be that most of my reading stays in the niche Fantasy genre with dabblings into Science Fiction, neither of which arrest the interest of popular culture to the degree that they become game-changers unless they are called Harry Potter.  Our generation produces more prose than any other, ever, and while I’m totally making up this next statistic, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve written more since 1900 (in English) than we did in the entire period between 1066 to 1899[1].  But how much of it is worth keeping for posterity?

Of the fiction bestsellers, most are either thrillers or historical fiction (set earlier in the 20th century, usually not going before the Great Depression).  If you look at the Young Adult section, it’s almost all paranormal, and by that I mean “vampires.”  A lot of books are clearly derivative copies of previous books which weren’t incredibly great to begin with.  Plenty of books are aiming for quick entertainment (which is fine) rather than lasting impact.

So, based on the above, my predictions for the Survey of Blah Blah Prose Course, representing several different genres:

Something by Stephen King.  I’ll say The Shining even though I haven’t read it, because that seems like the most well-known of his books.  He’s consistently popular, and just about everyone has heard of him even though most of them haven’t read his books. (The Gunslinger was creepy, but I’m continuing the series, so whatever)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  I feel dirty for typing that, but it did alter our literary scenery for better or worse… Even though Anne Rice did it first, and better, we can blame the slew of bad vampire fiction on her.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.  This was also an ungood book, for its weak writing and nonsensical plot, but the controversy it drove up put it in the public eye for long enough to keep it significant.

One of those historical fiction novels that are barely-veiled commentaries on modern political society.

Something by Tom Clancy, or a political suspense thriller of some variety.

Finally, one of the rare Sci-Fi or Fantasy novels that did get public acclaim – Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin perhaps, or Ender’s Game by Orson Scott card.

[1] 1066 was, of course, the year the French invaded Britain, infusing the Germanic old English with a Latin influence, which sparked the evolution towards the Modern English we all mangle today.  Hey, anyone want to guess what MY favorite class was in undergrad?

2011
03/08
CATEGORY
Life
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Winter 2011 Season

It’s January!  And everyone knows that the only good thing about January is that it’s the start of a new anime season!  Unfortunately, this season’s pickings seem awfully slim to me; after viewing the preview chart months ago, there were only five shows that really appealed.  I’ve finally had a chance to watch at least the first two episodes of all five of those that piqued my interest.

Level E

Synopsis: Tsutsui Yukitaka arrives in Small Town, Japan to play high school baseball.  He enters his new apartment…and discovers a bizarre blond man wearing his clothes and invading his personal space.  Hmmm…could this socially inept bishounen have something to do with the mysterious spaceship-shaped meteorite that crashed nearby?  Things take a turn when the cute girl next door, whose dad is a high-powered scientist investigating the crash site, discovers his new house guest.  To make things worse, it seems other aliens are trying to find this amnesiac Prince as well, some to rescue him, and some to do him harm.

My thoughts: The most fun I’ve had watching a show this season so far.  The character interactions are fresh and entertaining – it’s really hard not to love Prince and his antics.   There’s something charming about a human hoodlum, a pretty alien, and a kitten living together.  (Taking bets now that the cat is also an alien?)  This is my favorite for the season, at least so far, and I’m looking forward to more demented alien antics (and Takehito Koyasu!!) in the coming episodes.

GOSICK

Synopsis: Kujo Kazuya is a Japanese student studying in a tiny, fictional European country in a roughly post-WWI era.  Ostracized by his xenophobic classmates, he ventures to do research in the school’s tower of a library.  At the very top of this building, he discovers a conservatory full of flowers…and a bizarre girl with long, blonde hair and a classic Gothic Lolita get-up.  Although she claims she is confined to this tower, the local detective apparently makes a habit of seeking her out for advice on mysterious or unsolvable cases.  There appears to be more to this most recent murder, however, and Kujo quickly finds himself roped into the investigation along with Victorique, putting both of their lives in peril.

My Thoughts: If I can ever get over Victorique’s voice actress (Aoi Yuki), who played the loli vampire queen Mina Tepes in Dance in the Vampire Bund last year,  I’ll probably enjoy this a little more.  (It’s the same problem I had with Loveless – it took half the series just to get over Ritsuka sounding like Ryoma from Prince of Tennis.)  While not particularly complex or innovative in the mystery department – so far everything has been pretty straightforward – the show is worth it for Victorique alone.  Mildly tsundere, brilliant yet lacking experience in the most basic things, and utterly adorable, she’s carried it through so far.  Kujo isn’t completely worthless, either, although as a lead he doesn’t particularly stand out just yet.

Hourou Musuko – Wandering Son


Synopsis: Nitori Shuuichi is starting middle school, which of course is a time of uncertainty and self-discovery for anyone.  Shuuichi has things a bit worse than most – he recently confessed his love for his best friend Takatsuki Yoshino and was shot down, another female friend who has a crush on him is feeling burned from her own rejection, and the general atmosphere among his friends is strained.  Even more complicated are Shuuichi’s feelings towards himself: although he is a boy, he feels more comfortable when he acts and dresses as a girl.

My Thoughts: After viewing the trailers, I expected to be really bothered by the art style; everything is done in light watercolor imitation, with prominent glare spots on characters’ hair.  I was pleasantly surprised getting into the first two episodes: the style works.  The delicate touch suits the gentle pace of the story, which is powered completely by character interactions.  There is no real sense of urgency here.  The first two episodes have sort of self-contained plots which don’t take the main focus.  Wandering Son is slow without being bland, but I haven’t latched onto any characters who really suck me in.  Still, I’ll keep watching; at the very least this is a great, realistic portrayal of young kids trying to sort out their identities and growing up, and it promises to handle the concept of transgenderism and gender identity without focusing completely on carnal sexuality.

Fractale

Synopsis: Clain lives in a world dominated by a “Fractale system,” which allows people to live out their lives in complete solitude, interacting with others through “doppels” – kind of a cross between the avatars of Avatar and the character icons of Summer Wars.  Most people find living their lives through their doppels preferable to human company.  Clain is one of the few oddballs who likes to do things for himself.  One day, as he fulfills the one requirement of the Fractale system – a few moments of “prayer” gazing into the sun – he spots a strange girl on an air bike fleeing three bumbling pursuers in a motorized balloon.  He lets her crash at his place, hoping for answers, but finds her gone in the morning, replaced with an odd trinket that releases an excitable, unusual girl named Nessa, who seems to bridge the gap between doppels and humans.

My Thoughts: First of all, see the lovely promo image up there?  Yeah, they anime itself looks nothing like that.  They completely revamped the look of the series from the manga/light novel art (as I understand it, the novel is coming out soon and the manga is based off the anime, even though it was released first).  While it’s not bad in and of itself, having the other artwork there for comparison does more harm than good; I just don’t like the look of the anime.  There’s somehing odd about the animation, too…something just off about the way characters move.  These faults could be overlooked for compelling characters and good story… But those just aren’t there.  Fractale looks like it has some great, poignant things to say about communication in Our Times, but Nessa is just irritating, Enri and her goons are mildly annoying, and Phryne, who could be an interesting heroine, has seemingly disappeared.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?

Synopsis: Ayumu Aikawa died last week.  Since then, the necromancer who transformed him into a zombie has been crashing at his place, for reasons unknown.  Still, Ayumu can’t rest – er, unrest – easy, and spends his nights seeking out the serial killer who offed him.  Instead he stumbles into a chainsaw-wielding “Masou Shoujo” (pun on “Mahou Shoujo” – roughly “magic-armored girl”) taking down a giant bear demon thing.  Somehow or another, her powers transfer to him, and he finds himself stuck in a frilly dress, using her chainsaw and his own powers of un-dying to defeat the beast.  Now he’s stuck with another cute girl freeloading at his house, with the promise of only worse things to come.

My Thoughts: I’ll admit it…I only watched this show because of the title (for the Japanese-uninclined, it means “Is This a Zombie?”).  And I must also admit that I liked this show better when it was called Princess Resurrection.  Clumsy loserboy dies and is resurrected as the servant of a mysterious, beautiful woman, and then has his home invaded by various other beautiful women who are supernatural monsters?  Yeah, happened before, and I may be the only person in the world who preferred Princess Resurrection to KoreZombie.  Ayumu could be a cool lead, but every time he starts to break out of the Harem Lead mold he flips back to total goofball loserface again, and the moment is lost.  Haruna is oscillates between “cute” and “annoying,” the newly arrived vampire ninja Sera has big breasts and not much else to recommend her… Eucliwood Hellscythe, the necromancer, is the most compelling of the female characters and she doesn’t even speak (outside of Ayumu’s warped fantasies at least).  I’ll give it one more ep.

The Cape

Synopsis: Vince Faraday is one of the few remaining Good Cops in an increasingly-corrupt system.  The city will soon be privatizing their police force under the guidance of Peter Fleming and his ARK Corporation.  Unbeknownst to the populace, Fleming is actually the mysterious masked criminal Chess; he has been orchestrating a crime increase in the city to further his own business.  Faraday is framed as Chess and narrowly escapes death, leaving his wife and son to suffer under the stigma of being associated with a criminal.  Saved by the ringleader of a band of thieves daylighting as circus performers, Faraday takes up The Cape to fight for justice, with only a mysterious hacker chick calling herself Orwell as an ally.

My Thoughts: No, it’s not an anime.  Yes, I realize this.  Yet it began this season, and is the only (currently-airing) live action show I’m watching now, thus I am including it in this listing.  Pros: SUMMER GLAU, a really cool super hero costume, and a wacky circus full of thieves.  Cons: cliche dialogue, cheesy enough to induce lactose intolerance, and really “subtle” foreshadowing (I wonder if Summer’s character could possibly be the Big Bad’s runaway daughter?!?!).  The show is very melodramatic and not always particularly logical.  Still, the titular cape, which can be used as a weapon, grappling hook, cloaking device, and probably doesn’t even need to be dry-cleaned, is a damn cool superhero tool.  I’d just like to smack some sense into Vince.  And his wife.  And everyone.

IN SUMMATION, six shows (five of which are anime) isn’t such a big commitment, so for the foreseeable future I’ll be sticking with this set.  The only real sad thing is…Mamoru Miyano, my favorite seiyuu, isn’t in any of these :( I guess I’ll have to rewatch Vampire Knight or Ouran or Death Note for the eight hundredth time to get my fix.

2011
01/31
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LOST

So a good 8 months behind everyone else in the world, I finally finished Lost.  Considering how quickly fads can grow and fade on the internet, let me recap: Show aired between 2004 and 2010.  At the beginning about a motley group of mysterious, unusual, and mostly attractive people whose plane wrecked on a mysterious South Pacific island full of secrets and polar bears.  Slowly things got weird; they were harassed by the natives, who turned out to be mostly Caucasian and not quite so native, and terrorized by a big seemingly-sentient cloud of black smoke.  Unrelated characters turned out to have connections that no one expected.  A linear timeline became optional.  Things continued to descend into trippy confusion, edging dangerously close to “convoluted.”

It was a pretty fun ride, all things considered. Sometimes it dragged pretty heavily, and all of the characters were frustratingly annoying at some point or another; a lot of the time it was an enthralling watch, teasing just enough with the answers to keep you going through the tedium.

I’m not going to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it; I accidentally stumbled across spoilers a few times, and it did mess with my enjoyment.  While it may not be a classic for the ages, it’s clear why the show became as popular as it did and had such a dedicated following: fascinating characters in an unusual situation, slow introduction of science fiction mixed in with mysteries, and liberal use of cliffhangers and clever foreshadowing.  Still haven’t decided for sure if I’m done with it or if I want to watch it again and again.

So, the Best and Worst of Lost, in  my humble opinion:

  • High point: Season 2 finale
  • Low point: Blah blah blah DHARMA Initiative

 

  • Best male character: Hugo
  • Best female character: Sun
  • Cutest character: Daniel
  • Cutest couple: Rose & Bernard
  • Sexiest character: Sayid
  • Snappiest dialogue: Miles
  • Most character growth: Sawyer
  • Where the hell did he go??!?!: Walt
  • Character there wasn’t enough of: Frank Lapidus
  • Character there was too much of: Kate
  • Best dog: Vincent
  • Saddest death: [a couple trapped in a sinking submarine]
  • Best twist: The big reveal about Locke’s condition pre-wreck
  • Most difficult to form an opinion: John Locke
  • Biggest change in opinion of a character: Juliet
  • Thing that never happened that should have: Pan-Island Ping Pong Tournament
  • Best kiss: Charlie and Claire
  • Best crazy bitch: Ana Lucia
  • Best backstory: Mr. Eko

 

  • Music: Awesome
  • Computer Graphics: Mediocre
  • Fight Choreography: Pretty good.  Remember the scene where Sayid killed a dude with a dishwasher?
  • Most overused line: “Are you sure you want to do this?”
  • Most pressing unanswered question: So who built the gorram temple?
  • Best plot twist: The Man in Black’s disguise after the second plane wreck
2011
01/04
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Good Bye, 2010

あけましておめでとうございます。

Happy New Year!

So, I haven’t posted in over a month.  Sincere apologies.  I’m very behind on the sorts of things I wanted to do with this blog.

Resolutions:

1. To blog more.  This includes the four back-logged posts on Natsumi’s Revenge.  Also have plenty of thoughts on intarblags culture that I’m sure you’re all dying to read.

2. To write more.  Hopefully, at least a little bit a day.  I want to get a novel completed, of course, but another hope is to get a webserial of some sort up and running.

3. To read more.  I own 116 books that I haven’t yet read.  My goal is to burn through them all.

4. 日本語の勉強を続ける。(To continue my studies in Japanese).

5. Deutsch wieder zu lernen. (To study German again).

6. To study my dead languages again. I want to write something in Latin, or Old English, or both.  And I want to pick up Old Norse as well – have the book and everything.

7. Move out!  I love my parents, to be sure, but they sure can be annoying.  It’s time to leave the nest.

So that’s that.  Hopefully your resolutions are more exciting than mine; meet you back here in a year to see how much I’ve accomplished.

2010
12/31
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NaNoWriMo 2010 – ehhh

So, haven’t posted in nearly a month. Wish I could say that this is because I was diligently NaNoing, but…no.

Spent the month kind of dicking around.  And I sure could finish…if I wrote 8000 words a day for the next four days.  Yeah.

I will take this opportunity, however, to vow to blog more!  More interestingly.  Better.

It’s been two weeks, so I’m not going to do an AnimeUSA 2010 write-up here.  Suffice to say, it was fun.  It was stressful.  I enjoyed it.

Now, to LOST!  And perhaps to keep writing, since I don’t have the stress of finishing now.

2010
11/26
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NaNoWriMo START!!!

And so it begins.  2045 words as of this post.  I may not have mentioned this before, but I’m posting it on the internet for YOUR reading pleasure.  If you’re curious, go over to http://nanommx.wordpress.com

My friends and I kicked off the event at midnight last night.  This year I feel motivated, maybe because so many other people I know are doing it as well.  Of course, this year I’ve decided to forsake quality for just having fun (and hopefully, quality will happen anyway…)

The story, if you haven’t heard, is about a cowboy, a ninja, a viking, and a dinosaur who travel together through time.  Hijinks will ensue.  At the very least vampires, robots, and aliens will appear somewhere in prominent positions.

As of right now, I’m 2045/50000.  This means that the required quota per day is reduced from 1667 to 1654…no, not much of a drop.  Hopefully I’ll shave more words off in the first week to make up for the inevitable lag in the middle.

So on a scale of 1 to 50,000, how excited are you for NaNo?

2010
11/01
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Natsumi’s Revenge: Session 3

Sorry this took so long to get up; thankfully, it’s much shorter than previous entries, a bit less narrative and a bit more general.  To be honest, I’m worried about the pace of the game; we didn’t cover as much ground this week as I expected to, and one player (sorry, Jenn!) didn’t get much play time at all.  If there’s anything you want improved on, guys, seriously just let me know.  You won’t hurt my feelings.  Feedback, pls kthx.

And seeing as it’s been two weeks since we did this session…please let me know if I forgot anything major important.

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2010
10/27
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Currently…

So, I watch a lot of stuff.  Read a lot of stuff too.  And since no one else reads what I read or watches what I watch, I figured I’d go on and spew my thoughts for the intarwebs to read.

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru: FINISHED – only if you’re bored.  No originality to speak of – the first ten episodes or so are all easily traced to Angel Sanctuary, X/1999, or Mirage of Blaze.  Spends less time on action sequences and more on the characters all feeling sad and guilty about hurting each other.  The bad guys don’t seem to have a goal much bigger than “hurt the good guys,” and also dress like Nazi vampire punk rockers.  Still, the character designs are pretty and there are some cute personalities here.  Also, Mamoru Miyano.  *fangirl mode* He plays a far more delicate, subdued character than his usual roles here, but I love this mature quietness from him.  Daisuke Ono’s in this too, as a gruff hothead (who predictably wields fire…) paired up with Mamoru’s character, and their interaction on its own makes up for all the show’s flaws.

Glee: 4 episodes, and off to a brilliant start – go watch now.  The season premiere completely blew me away, and my only real complaint was the lack of Emma.  The rest of the episodes so far (“Grilled Cheesus”!!!) have been strong, although Britney-Spears-tries-to-make-herself-relevant-again was one of the weaker episodes.  I’m looking forward to how things unfold in the ever entangling web of relationships that this show loves to build.  And although I adore Puck, and love him paired with Quinn, I might just jump ship to Sam/Quinn after their date at the end of “Duets.”

Black Butler II: FINISHED - watch it dammit.  If you liked Season 1, you’ll like this.  Maybe.  There’s not a whole lot to say – it is what it is – but the ending was incredibly satisfying and had a bit of a twist to it.  Most of the season 1 characters got shoved to the wayside, like the trio of useless servants from the Phantomhive estate, to make way for the conflict between Team Ciel/Sebastian and Team Alois/Claude.  This was just fine, however; Alois is a deliciously evil little shithead who was so much fun to hate.  And of course, Ciel was a beautiful and compelling protagonist from start to finish.

Eden of the East: FINISHED – completely recommended.  Conspiracy theories, weird twists, Johnny hunters (hahahaha…) and a lot of commentary on the youth of today and their lack of a place in modern society.  Fun to watch, while posing some deeper questions.  And what-not.  There are two movies needed to complete the story, which I haven’t yet gotten to – will give them a look later on.

Togainu no Chi: 2 episodes – watch if you like cute boys.  It’s a bunch of hot guys fighting in the slums.  What more do you want?  Not sure if I’ll like this all the way through (…yeah, right) but it’s been enjoyable so far.  And has Jun Fukuyama and Hikaru Midorikawa.

Otome Yokai Zakuro: 2 episodes – watch if you have time.  Might drop this one; conceptually interesting (humans and spirits coexisting in Meiji Era Japan) but not showing real strength in execution yet for me.  Relationship are starting to build and it looks like the character interaction will be fun to watch.  The male lead (played by Takahiro Sakurai, who I’ve never especially liked) may not be strong enough to carry the show evenly with the really awesome female characters.

The World God Only Knows: 2 episodes – give it a try, seriously.  Against my better judgment, really enjoying this. It plays on all of those cliches that every anime fan hates, especially fans of the bishoujo genre.  A boy who spends his days with dating-sim-games ends up stuck with a demon who needs him to make lonely women (real women, not 2D ones) fall for him.  Wacky hijinks ensue.  So much fun to watch.

Shiki: 12 episodes – go watch now.  Small town murder mystery, following all of the rules of a certain mythical creature that lately have been, er, taken rather flexibly.  (No sparkling here!)  A mysterious illness rips through a small town, leaving its victims anemic and listless before killing them in a matter of days.  The atmosphere is tense, the characters fairly well-rounded although there are plenty of shallow ones, and the story keeps moving strongly forward.  Also, the way the eyes are drawn bugs me a lot.  Still, the absolute best thing I’m watching currently.

The Light Fantastic: FINISHED – do you like British humor? Then go for it!.  Pratchett for some reason is always slow to get going for me, but ends up being a fun ride to the end.  Continuing from Colors of Magic, Rincewind and Twoflower stumble around the Disc as imminent doom looms over the world.  Dark comedy and riffs on the fantasy genre follow.  Death and his three friends (and his adopted daughter…) make some appearances, and the last third of the book prominently features Cohen, the eighty-year-old hero.  He’s a great play on the stereotype of the wandering warrior that plagues the genre, not in the least because he also is a source of old-people jokes.

Ouran Koukou Host Club/Ouran High School Host Club: FINISHED – wonderful.  And with that, the manga is done.  It was long, and it was a very cute and acceptable ending.  It would be nice for long-running shoujo to end without everyone leaving for America, though.

Dead Like Me: FINISHED – give it a try at least.  George (female) gets hit by debris falling from a space station and dies.  She then gets saddled with the thankless job of a Grim Reaper, taking the souls of those about to die and helping them move to whatever lies beyond.  Very smartly written, and has a good balance of humor and gravity: some of the deaths they deal with are damn funny, but the ones that need to be serious are treated with respect.  The cast is great, and the character growth is the best part to watch – George grows from a petulant ball of worthless to a strong, sassy, competent person.  The show is split between watching the Reapers go about their “lives,” dealing with their assigned reaps and the interpersonal relations among the tight knit group, and George’s surviving family, who struggle to cope after losing the daughter who had grown very far apart from them.  Still, the show isn’t quite as smart as it tries to be, and ends up cycling back to the same points (“I don’t want to take souls!  This isn’t fair!  Blah blah blah”) long after they should have been overcome.

And that’s the round-up for now.  Hope to do this semi-regularly.  Out of curiosity, does anyone care?

2010
10/22
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Natsumi’s Revenge: Session 2 Cosplay Edition!

Session One events available here.

We decided last week that our next session would be cosplay-riffic!.  Thus, this entry opens with our beautiful pictures.

Splendid.  This session included an in-character game of Truth or Dare, which was an interesting exercise in character interaction.  I also liked it because I could just sit back and watch the antics.  No, we did not LARP (live-action role play) the dares; for one, I think Andrew would have some trouble if Mitch tried to sit on his shoulders.  The events of the session:

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2010
10/04
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