But Mom, I just want to read comics all day!

Most of yesterday sucked. Worked sucked, which is rare. I also pretty much hate my Global Cultures seminar. It being 2.5 hours long has a lot to do with it, as does the fact that there is no lecture component. It's just listening to my peers prattle on forever, and think we all know how much I enjoy that. I think that I've decided that I'd like to do my presentation on media representations of gender roles, as compared by Japanese manga and popular U.S. comics (LOLOL I AM SO AWESOME), though, so that will keep me amused for at the least the next two weeks. The rest of the semester, however, will be spent listening to everybody else's study-abroad experiences. Maybe I can write papers during class or something, and pretend to take notes. We'll see.

Some friends of mine went out after work, but I really didn't feel like walking all the way up State Street again for only 1-2 drinks. So, I didn't. Possibly I'm lame, I don't know. I only ever drink a few, and then I'm done, while most people would rather drink a lot more. And that's cool. I just get bored after a while.

SO! Antoine and I went out for dinner at Vientiane Palace (I feel like I spell that differently every time I type it. I suck.) and it was delicious, as always. In fact, I'm about to make myself some rice and eat it with the leftovers.

THEN, we watched Terminator 2 with Antoine's roommate and roommate's girlfriend. It was pretty damn awesome, although I kept falling asleep and Antoine kept having to wake me up. Apparently, waking up early on Fridays makes my evenings incredibly low-key. I am okay with this. Anyway, I'm now ready to start watching the Sarah Chronicles TV show with all of the spare time I don't have. YES. I'll probably finish Buffy season 5/Angel season 2 first.

Anyway, today is Anime Club, and hopefully I'll continue to blog about Code Geass and Elfen Lied. Elfen Lied better stop being all stereotypical. I also need to come up with a succinct way to articulate why I'm not impressed yet, as I think most Club members will assume that it's because of the violence/nudity, which is totally not the case.

Links

I've never gone, but if you live in Madison, Cinematheque seems like a nice way to spend time. Good, obscure movies for free, on various nights of the week. I actually only thought they showed movies on Saturdays, which is why I've never gone (Anime Club), but looking at their schedule, it seems like there are various nights on which movies are shown.

As you might remember, Bob, I spent a couple of days per week this summer being an intern at Bleak House Books. Several Bleak House books have been nominated for some Edgar Awards (a big deal in the mystery genre). Articles are here and here. I just think that's so cool. I highly recommend Head Games - I think it's probably the best thing I read at Bleak House during my summer there. I corrected a lot of the Spanish from the original manuscript! Awesome.

To nobody's surprise, when the Mystery Writers of America announced the finalists for the 2008 Edgar Awards last week titles from the large New York houses dominated the eight (out of a total of 13) categories dealing with books. But one small Wisconsin press is more than holding its own among the 35 books and five short stories selected as this year's Edgar Awards nominees. Three of the 15 titles released this past year by Bleak House Books in Madison, an imprint of Big Earth Books, have been nominated for 2008 Edgar Awards in three different categories: Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Best Novel), Head Games by Craig McDonald (Best First Novel), and "Blue Note" by Stuart M. Kaminsky from the Chicago Blues collection (Best Short Story).

I don't know where I originally found the link to this page, but I know it was somewhere on LiveJournal. Anyway, a trope-wiki has a list of all of the tropes found in Revolutionary Girl Utena here. Yes, all of those things really are part of the show. PS: You should watch Revolutionary Girl Utena! One of my favorite shows of all time.

Lastly, everyone needs to see why I was excited about Christian Kane's singing in the last episode of Angel that I watched, EVEN THOUGH IT'S COUNTRY. There are only spoilers in this clip if you don't know who makes up the main cast of the show Angel. Please enjoy the cheesy dialogue that is a staple of Angel filler episodes (and sometimes the dramatic ones, too!).