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It is offically Monsoon season here in my little corner of the world. Every other day we have at least three hours of rain, whether it be three continuious hours or spread out over the day. The humidity is hella high, the heat index makes me wonderfully grateful to the person that invented air conditioning, and the mosquities and love bugs (I hate those damned critters) are out en force.
The storms usually blow up out of nowhere, like two evenings ago. It was around 2am and out of nowhere there was thunder, lightening, high winds and torrential rain that lasted about two hours. Two neighborhoods over they lost three Transformers that not only went out, but caught on fire.
This is Natures way of prepairing us for Hurricane Season, I believe. Its coming, and I do not look foward to it. Last year was not as bad for my area as in the previous years, however considering how we are still cleaning up from the one that hit is us in 2004, it has not SEEMED like two years since our Bad Season. The National Weather Service has been warning us that this season is supposed to be worse than last year - if this is so, then I think that I will begin trying to persuade The Family to move. Perhaps Arizona, though I doubt that I would be content to live that far from an ocean.
Monsoon Season wouldn't be so bad if the rains weren't so darned COLD. I remember growing up as I did in NC, that the summer rains were warm, and I used to love to go outside and dance in the rain. I had two friends and an Aunt that shared this love, but even my mother tolerated the behaviour. Now however if you walk outside in the middle of a rainstorm, its like walking into an icy cold shower... so needless to say I don't do that too often anymore.
Ivvory · Wed May 10, 2006 @ 04:28pm · 0 Comments |
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Babylon 5 is the story of the last of the Babylon stations, the last hope for a galaxy without war. It begins in the year 2257 with the opening of the Babylon 5 station. Unlike most television series, Babylon 5 is a single story, completely planned out from day one with a beginning, middle, and end. Each episode is enjoyable on its own, but is also a piece of a larger whole, a chapter in a five-year-long novel for television.
It is the story of the residents - both human and alien - of this Floating UN, a story of laughter, heartache, self-sacrifice, betrayal, darkness, and light. There are 5 major alien races - The Minbari, the Centuri, the Narns, the Vorlons, and of course the Humans. There are hundreds if not thousands of "lesser races" that are just trying to survive.
The Centuri have just ended a 100 year occupation of the Narn homeworld, and the Narn are out for revenge. The Earth Government is about to suffer an upheaval as the current president dies in an 'accident' and his vice president takes over. The Humans and the Minbari are still growling at each other even thought the great war between them ended 20 or so years ago.
The Babylon Project was conceived in the aftermath of the war. Modeled after the United Nations, it would be a meeting place, neutral ground where the powers could meet and work out their differences peacefully.
Heh. Peace? Between these 5 races?
Ah yes, the Vorlons. No one knows very much about the Vorlons, other than they are an old race, ancient, with many strange and wondrous technologies. No one knows what they look like as they go around inside 'Encounter Suits'. Whether this is to keep their native noxious gasses inside, or to keep prying eyes OUT no one knows. At least, not yet.
The first three Babylon stations were sabotaged in mid-construction. The fourth was completed, but just as it was about to go online it vanished without a trace. The Earth government would have stopped there, but some of the alien governments, seeing the value of a meeting ground, offered financial assistance for the construction of a fifth station. Naturally, there were strings attached.
The setting of the show is affected by events in each episode - the status quo isn't neatly restored at the end of the hour, characters actually die, are reassigned, or are forever changed by their actions and those of the people around them. Main characters betray, lie, cheat, and offer great acts of heroism all in the same episode. Character dynamics are just that... dynamic, ever changing, yet the core of them remains the same. Because of that, it's impossible to come up with a single introduction to the series and characters.
The pilot was a 2 hour movie called "The Gathering", and the show spawned 5 "Movies of the Week"... 4 because of TNT, and one was the result of the Sci-Fi channel picking up the show in syndication. The characters, the music, the special effects and the story itself are all works of art unto themselves, however when combined they create a concerto that has never been equaled in Science-Fiction history, and I doubt will ever be duplicated.
Ivvory · Sun Apr 23, 2006 @ 07:50am · 0 Comments |
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Growl. Nothing is sacred. |
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I think that I am slightly disgusted.
Watching cartoons this evening, I came across a Cartoon Network movie. It featured a an almost neurotic Great White pig in a barnyard, and three small writing spider children... Joy (PURPLE hair with a pageboy cut), Areneia (the typical blonde), and Nellie (an unruly redhead!).
I think that I snarfed my pepsi when Templeton the Rat popped on the scene, espouting his opinions on the coming Spring. Which means that this takes place one year later than when the book ended... but... Wilbur looks like he did BEFORE the fair. Only... hairier.
*Growls*
On the one hand, I am glad that someone loved the story so much to try and continue it... but on the other hand I recognize that it was made purely for monetary purposes... the animation, the storyline, the LANGUAGE they use... inuendo more than anything, and even though I know that most of the young kids watching it won't catch it, >I< did, and that cheapened the whole experience.
It is struggling to retain even the barest hint of the charm of Miss White's book. Fern is portrayed as the usual Country Bumpkin, complete with a gap between her two front teeth, and is too energetic, too hyper. *shakes her head*. And this year going to the fair is 'Zuckermans Famous Sheep!'
However... I will say... even though the goslings look like chicks, the Goose is as snappy as ever *grins*. At least they got something right!
Ivvory · Sun Apr 23, 2006 @ 07:03am · 0 Comments |
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Alright, boys and girls, its class time.
One of the things that I consider an obsession is a manga and anime series called 'Hellsing', written by the very talented Kohta Hirano.
Its premise is based around the Hellsing Organization, started by good 'ole Abraham Van Helsing of Bram Stoker fame. Apparently Van Helsing had a little Creature of the Night Extermination coterie that was formalized by Queen Victoria either shortly before, or shortly after his 'I gaked Dracula' days. Abraham and his boys were Knighted, he changed his name to the Anglican 'Helsing', and converted to the Protestant faith.
But in this version of the story, Abraham didn't kill Dracula.
Oh no. He used alchemy and dark magic (in the series these magic are referred to as 'the Seals') to bind the bloodsucking fiend to the blood of the Hellsings, and then used him to help hunt and eradicate any supernatural threats to Abraham's new home, England.
Well. Time went on. The Hellsing Organization (aka the Royal Order of Protestant Knights) was passed from father to son, on down the lines, becoming one of the great Secret Organizations that Worked Behind the Scenes to protect Queen and Country.
Well, all of that is the back-story, at least. You have to read all the manga to understand the above as it is interspliced with the main story. The manga (and the 'for the fans' anime) pick up in the modern world.
The current leader of the Royal Order is called Walter Hellsing. He is a good and kind man, with a daughter called Integra and a dead wife who was from India. Things are so peaceful, matter of fact, that a few years after he took over the Order from his father, he locked the magically altered vampire creature away in a dark basement. Apparently the man didn't think that the critter was needed, and he was too weak to use the pull of his birthright on the Seals to control the monster.
When Walter died (read: murdered by his brother, Richard), the Organization passed to his 13 year old daughter, Integra. Integra's uncle Richard then tried to kill her in order to get his hands on the prestige (and the Knighthood) that came from being the leader of the Organization. Well, little Integra had been told by her father to run to the basement if she ever got into a pickle too big for her to handle. So, she did, and found the Dracula-critter straight-jacketed and manacled to a wall in a corner, looking like he hadn't had a drink in eons.
Uncle Richard shot Integra in the arm to show her that he was serious about killing her, and the blood splattered over the emaciated husk in the corner. Little Integra's blood woke the monster, who broke his bonds as if they were tissue paper, and laid waste to the men that were with Richard against Integra. Integra impressed the raving lunatic vampire by not being cowed by his creepy appearance and his bloodthirsty manner, and so the monster - choosing the rather cheesy moniker 'Alucard' for this time period - pledged himself to her as the rightful leader of Hellsing. He promised to protect her and do as she said (like he had a choice once she learned to control the Seals). They then gleefully killed Richard together.
Well. Now Integra is all grown up, and the master Vampire loves to torture his human master with offers of drinking his blood, or other sundry things that one can do with such a sensual creature as Alucard is painted to be. She, of course, clinging to her pride, her dignity, and her God-given task of leading the Hellsing Org., against the enemies of Queen and Country merely rolls her eyes, shakes her head, yells at him in such a manner as to make even him cringe, and occasionally shoots at him to get him to shut up.
Add to this mix a crazed Catholic priest who wants to exterminate Alucard and the 'heretical Protestant b*tch', more vampires cropping up to threaten England, and the introduction of 'manufactured' vampires - vampires that are made with a semi-sentient computer chip instead of with the traditional exchange of vitae - and various and sundry Evil Nasties trying to kill Integra, and you have a pretty interesting time on your hands.
Yes there is a sort of sexual tension between Alucard and Integra. With two such strong-willed, prideful and arrogant creatures, how can there NOT be? Integra will never give in, however, just as Alucard will never give up. It keeps him amused.
Oh, did I mention... Alucard uses two HUGE guns. One is an automatic that is chambered for the .454 Cassul ((people in Maine and Alaska successfully hunt MOOSE with a .454!!)), and another that is a custom job, called a Jackal ((personally I think that the Jackal is an automatic chambered for the new Smith and Wesson .500 - from what I have seen on the S&W website, you could hunt small SUV's and motor homes with the .500))
The anime series is full of great music, cool action sequences, malicious laughter and more a**-kicking than one could shake a stick at. The anime paints its own picture, however, and one should really really read the manga for the full Hellsing experience. In the manga a few characters are stronger of will, stronger of brain cells, and Integra actually gets off her business-suited butt and lays a hurt on the critters of the night that her pet vampire is out hunting. There are two anime series.. the original (which was done with the permission of, but not in collaboration with Kohta Hirano), and the new OAV that Kohta Hirano is personally supervising.
So. There you have it. I am a fangirl, of sorts, though I really don't see myself dressing in cat ears and going *Squeeee* without upchucking annnny time soon.
Ivvory · Wed Apr 19, 2006 @ 06:59am · 2 Comments |
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Greetings, fellow Gaians.
I do not promise that this journal will always be intelligent, however it should provide a modicum of amusement suitable for the masses.
Enjoy.
Ivvory · Mon Apr 17, 2006 @ 11:03pm · 0 Comments |
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