Thanks everybody for the birthday wishes (and fun virtual gifts)! 28 has been good to me so far -- I had donuts and coffee for breakfast while watching SpongeBob Squarepants. :D

My most memorable concert was probably the first Coachella concert in 1999. It was my 18th birthday and my parents not only bought my ticket and paid for a cheap-ass room at the Motel 6, but let my friends and I drive away with the minivan, and gave us money for gas and coffee the next day.

The headline acts the day of my birthday were TOOL and Rage Against the Machine, my favorite band at the time. Since Zack de la Rocha's voice was hoarse, Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of TOOL, came out and did some songs with him and Rage. Not only did we hear songs that they've recorded together, but we got some amazing duets out of it, too. Oh, and the crowd, all rocking out in the hot night, was enormous.

It was an amazing weekend that was in no way dimmed by the autumnal heat wave (it was 100+ degrees), or by the fact that my recent ex-boyfriend still tagged along. When we got to our crappy motel room, there were eight of us gals and guys sharing two beds, the floor and I think someone slept in the bathtub. It was pretty hilarious.

The next day, we all piled into the minivan and made our way back to San Diego after a much-needed coffee and donut break. We were so glad to get into air conditioning and away from the hot mess that Coachella had become. Of course, we did nothing but talk about the amazing concert the night before. It was truly unforgettable.

So, I got my media pass for Comic-Con finalized a couple of weeks ago, got time off approved from work for Comic-Con today and the schedule is slowly going up this week. It's all coming together rather quickly, isn't it?

This is what I've already seen for Thursday (the only day available online so far), and I'm already finding myself wondering how I'll make it to every panel I'm interested in, let alone the ones Tony may want to go to...( Choices, choices )

What's a girl to do? I guess it'll all depend on whether hubby accompanies me and if I'm asked to cover any manga panels...Only time will tell!

For all my American f-listers, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend! For all of my international friends, I hope you had good weekends, too, of course!

So, here's this week's obligatory i ♥ manga blogging list:
Black Jack, vol. 6
Me and the Devil Blues, vol. 1
MangaCast Review: Sayonara, Mr. Fatty!
Land of the Blindfolded, vol. 2
Dororo, vol. 2
Chapter Review: RIN-NE, chapter 10
Land of the Blindfolded, vol. 1
My Heavenly Hockey Club, vol. 1

As you'll see, I did review one non-manga book this week -- Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! Half memoir, half diet handbook, Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! relays the story of how Toshio Okada, founder of Gainax (best known for the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime), lost more than 100 pounds in one year using a simple record-keeping method. Since I've been working at losing weight the past couple of months, I found this book inspiring, motivating and helpful. If you're a geek or nerd like me, looking to lose some weight, this is the book for you!

And owing to my three-day weekend, I did read a lot of other good stuff and picked up even more series to delve into! So, look forward to more reviews of Land of the Blindfolded, Millennium Snow, the second volume of With the Light and the first volume of Fairy Tail in the coming week!

For anyone following along, here's the manga I read and reviewed for my blog, i ♥ manga.

• Apollo's Song
• With the Light, vol. 1
• Dororo, vol. 1
• Good-bye
• Chapter Review: RIN-NE, chp. 9
• Skip♦Beat!, vol. 6
• Parastye, vol. 1

This week, I'll review the second volume of Dororo, several volumes of The Land of the Blindfolded, vol. 1 of My Heavenly Hockey Club, vol. 1 of Fall in Love Like a Comic, vol. 1 of Millenium Snow and vol. 2 of With the Light.

I actually wrote this yesterday right after the news came out, but LiveJournal was all wonky, so here it is now.

With Michael Jackson's just-reported death fresh in my mind, I thought I'd share some MJ-oriented memories.

( He scared me in his Thriller days... )

Of course, I eventually fell in love with his music, especially since I'd grown up listening to it. So much of his music in the '80s and '90s served as a soundtrack to my life. My favorite songs by and/or with Jackson include:

- "Thriller"
- "Can't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"
- "Billie Jean"
- "Bad"
- "Smooth Criminal"
- "I'll Be There"
- "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
- "ABC"

Granted, Jackson went through tough times in recent years, falling into what some called a "musical mediocrity." Obviously, there's also the court cases and accusations. But, I'm not here to badmouth a dead man, especially since he was planning a comeback with his concerts in London next year and beyond. Whatever demons he may have been haunted by, here's to hoping he's finally experiencing some peace.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jackson...

Seems like all I'm doing these days is reading manga -- it serves as a nice diversion from worrying about whether or not I'll have a job in the next few months.

Anyway, here's what I read and reviewed for i ♥ manga this past week:

• Mars, vol. 1
• Kitchen Princess, vol. 1
• Monster, vol. 1
• Blank Slate, vol. 2
• Sexy Voice and Robo
• Chapter Review: RIN-NE, chp. 8

This week, I'll have that long-awaited review of Parasyte, vol. 1; Dororo, vol. 1 and 2; Skip♦Beat!, vol. 6; and With the Light, vol. 1; plus a few other surprises.

So, I belatedly realized that I hadn't shared my manga blog reviews. Here's the list for the past two weeks:

• Swan, vol. 1
• Skip♦Beat!, vol. 5
• Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 1
• Backstage Prince, vol. 2
• Blank Slate, vol. 1
• Chapter Review: RIN-NE, chp. 7
• Skip♦Beat!, vol. 4
• Gankutsuou, vol. 2
• Skip♦Beat!, vol. 3
• Gankutsuou, vol. 1
• The last issue of Shojo Beat
• Chapter Review: Children of the Sea, chp. 3
• Skip♦Beat!, vol. 2
• Chapter Review: RIN-NE, chp. 6
• The Palette of 12 Secret Colors, vol. 4
• Skip♦Beat!, vol. 1

I really enjoyed several of these, and highly recommend Gankutsuou, Skip♦Beat!, Fullmetal Alchemist and Children of the Sea, which you can read online legally, or read in print when it's published later this month. I also wrote a post on getting the most manga out of your library, with information culled from my personal experience.

As far as future reading goes, I'll review vol. 1 of Monster, vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess, vol. 2 of Blank Slate, Sexy Voice and Robo and vol. 1 of Parasyte this coming week, so be sure to check i ♥ manga if you're interested in any of these series.

Super quick post before I head out to a drag queen show for my BFF's bachelorette party -- I won the entire series of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha from a giveaway on Largehearted Boy!

SOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME! I'm super stoked to read this series, especially since I've been eyeballing it for ages. ^______________^

Of course, I'll be sure to chronicle my thoughts on my manga review blog.

Seems like it's "hip to be square" this week. Not only did we get a list of pop culture's 10 greatest nerds, but U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu proudly called himself a nerd at Harvard University's commencement ceremony today.

And, being a self-declared nerd myself, I was surprised that there is a difference between a nerd and a geek -- geeks don't have that redeeming quality of intelligence, a la Napoleon Dynamite.

Of course, it got me thinking -- how much is the designation of nerd a personal identity statement and how much of it is thrust at us because of society's social norms? Now, I'm not comparing this to cultural identity or sexual identity (both of which, I think, are more serious issues for people who experience crises on those fronts), but more of as a "it's somewhat like this."

Did we choose to become nerds, or is it something we're assigned based on our interests, intelligence, social skills, etc.? And, further, does it even mean anything in the larger context of who we are as people? Sure, I'm a nerd, but I'm so much more than just that. And, lastly, do we choose to label ourselves as such simply out of the desire to be part of a larger group since we're often in the minority?

Lots of questions, I know. Oh well, I guess a nerd is the only type of person who would ask this kind of stuff...

It's cold, "rainy" and cloudy in San Diego. Which is fairly normal up until about noon, but then the clouds are supposed to go away so the sun can come out. Unfortunately, the sun hasn't been visiting for the past four days.

So, what have I been up to? Partaking of my favorite pastime -- reading manga. Since it's not nice outside to begin with, I feel infinitely less guilty whiling away my day on the couch reading.

I started a manga review blog via Blogger, just to use a different platform (I've been using Wordpress for work and am not as satisfied with it as I'd hoped to be). It's nice to keep track of what I'm reading and less limiting audience-wise than LiveJournal is.

This weekend, I read the first couple of volumes of Gankutsuou, based on the anime, but taking a wildly different tact than I initially expected. I find myself enjoying it more than I thought I would, as it's more reliant tone-wise on the original source material, The Count of Monte Cristo.

In case you're interested in reading my reviews, I'll do a weekly post sharing what I reviewed this week and what I'll review next week. ( Make with the clicky to read the list. )

Name five fannish things that never fail to cheer you up.

1 - A new issue of a fav manga anthology. Sadly, there's only one issue left of Shojo Beat, but I've still got Yen Press to love!
2 - Reading manga on a weekend afternoon. Lately, it's been Skip Beat!, but I've got lots of new manga to read this weekend.
3 - Reading spoilers. I can't help it, I ♥ spoilers for some reason and it makes me even more excited to eventually see it!
4 - San Diego Comic-Con International! I'm getting my press pass verification materials together at work right now and I'm beginning to be excited for this year's con.
5 - Finding new graphic novels at my library! My local library is getting increasingly awesomer with their choices in graphic novels -- I found American Born Chinese a month or so ago, and just read Life Sucks last weekend (see my review here.

Or the trials and tribulations of my ever-increasing pile of manga/graphic novels to read...

So, I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but my husband DETESTS any pile of books laying about our house. (I know, I know...How could I, a book lover, ever have married such a bibliophobe?)

Anyway, instead of having a gigantic pile of books on my nightstand, I keep all the books in my bookshelf and only keep whatever I'm currently reading next to our bed. Usually the latest volume of whatever's caught my eye.

But, now, you may be asking yourself, "Why the fears of homicide then?" Well, I've kind of gone on a book requesting binge at our local library now that the semester's over and I actually have time to read whatever I want, whenever I want. And it's not academically related to boot!

Right now, I have about a dozen or so books already at home, waiting to be read. Aaaaaand, I just got an e-mail notification from the library, letting me know that more of the books I requested are ready and waiting for me at my local branch. Granted, I plow through manga fairly quickly and sometimes do a quick reread if I want to review it.

( The reading list thus far. )

Lastly, these will all be posted on my manga review blog, i ♥ manga over the summer.

( Oh, and I'm doing chapter reviews of Viz's new manga, RIN-NE and Children of the Sea, from the new online anthology IKKI )

Considering the recent demise of Shojo Beat, I wonder if there are plans to bring it back in some kind of online anthology format, a la IKKI. Has anyone checked out IKKI? I find it interesting that they decided to create an online anthology of seinen series. I guess their target market are boys that grew out of shonen and general comic fanboys. Looks like no matter what, the U.S. market will continue to be dominated by boys, despite our efforts as readers otherwise.

I have a little sad face right now (like this --> T________________T) because Shojo Beat magazine's last issue will be next month's. I'm a subscriber and really enjoy reading all the series each month (with the exception of Haruka, Beyond the Stream of Time).

While I understand the nature of the business right now (I work in the media and it's tough times all around), I was hoping this was just an unfounded rumor. Anyway, it seems like they'll keep the imprint going, so I don't have to worry about lapsed licenses.

On the bright side, for those series published in the magazine, there may be less time between volume releases, which is nice. For non-subscribers, I'm sure it was frustrating to wait so long to purchase and read new volumes of their fav series. On the not-so-bright side, this means that I'll be shelling out money for series volumes that I've been following in the magazine, like Vampire Knight, Sand Chronicles and Honey and Clover.

What I'll probably miss the most is being the "first" to read (and reread) new chapters (as a subscriber, I usually received my new issue during the first week of the month). I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here, but I usually keep the latest issue of Shojo Beat in my bag, so I can read it while waiting for my daily train ride. I love rereading chapters, trying to pick them apart nuance by nuance, and being able to take the time to really appreciate and admire the artwork.

It's also a part of my public demonstration of reading manga -- akin to the knitting in public movement by Stitch n' Bitch -- I hope to make reading comics and manga more publicly acceptable. (We're not all weird comic book shop guys or squeeing, anime-loving girls, right?) And Shojo Beat, up until next month anyway, has been a part of that slightly deviant activity for the past two years.

Anyway, I'm just glad to hear I may be able to get a refund, as I'm not interested in switching my subscription over to Shonen Jump. If I wanted to subscribe to Shonen Jump, I'd be doing that already...(Of course, a la Seinfeld, "not that there's nothing wrong with that;" it's just that I don't read any of the series in it, with the exception of Bleach.)

Regardless, I'll most likely use whatever piddly money I get back on either a subscription to Yen Plus, or to buy a volume or two of a Shojo Beat imprint, like Nana or Love★Com.

RIP Shojo Beat magazine...

I don't know what to think of this story in The Guardian.

( In which I wonder why we need an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye... )

In other news, I'm sadly broke, but want, nay need, to buy some manga since RightStuf.com is having a sale on Del Rey titles. I'm so desperate for manga spending money that I've considered getting a part-time temp job over the summer (which is insane considering I already work full-time and need to actually rest during the break, you know?).

Anyway, I think I'm going to give up going out to lunch for the next couple of months just so I can afford some volumes of Sugar Sugar Rune, Kitchen Princess and Nodame Cantabile...

Oh, and since I'm finally done with school for the semester -- with both teaching and grad school -- I will definitely be more active here and on my manga review blog, i ♥ manga. And I might just finally get around to building my online portfolio, too, since, evidently, California's budget is going to hell in a hand basket and that can't bode well for a state university employee like myself...

I'm currently watching the end of Role Models and just realized the last three movies we've Netflix'd had Elizabeth Banks in them: W, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and the aforementioned Role Models. She's fairly funny, but I liked her best as Laura Bush in W. Considering how much I loathed the Bush administration, Laura Bush is pretty damned admirable considering all the "shit about the face" she took constantly (those were my oh-so-eloquent husband's words).

In other news, I finally succumbed to Skip-Beat! and started reading it. I thought I wouldn't like it, especially since it parallels my fav "fame for revenge"-themed manga, Honey Hunt. But, it has a totally different feel to it -- it's comedic, but has a few other elements to it that I really enjoy (particularly Kyoko's demons). I just wish it wasn't SO long -- I feel like it's going to take FOREVER to resolve the story. But, if it keeps on being as entertaining as it is, I s'pose I'll stick around.

I'm also rereading some manga I already own -- since the fourth and final volume of Walkin' Butterfly is coming out (supposedly) in December, I read the first couple volumes earlier today. Reading something the second time around, you really have an opportunity to notice more of the artwork and details in the story. In the beginning of Walkin' Butterfly, vol. 1, the mangaka's lines are really sketchy and erratic -- much like the main character, Michiko. Rereading this series really makes me wonder how the story will be resolved -- will Michiko realize success, or will she constantly spin her wheels, repeating failure after failure? Hm...

I'll probably reread Antique Bakery after that, then Tramps Like Us. I'm also keeping current with Nana, Love♥Com, Honey and Clover, Sand Chronicles, my guiltiest pleasure, Vampire Knight, and the aforementioned Honey Hunt. I'm also trying to finish reading through Sugar Sugar Rune, which just has some of Moyoko Anno's most amazing work -- it's so highly stylized compared to the erratic and comedically insane Happy Mania. I just ♥ it!

I am SO excited -- first, I found out Aurora Publishing finally has a release date for the final and fourth volume of Walkin' Butterfly! I've been patiently waiting for the past year or so for some kind of update.

Now that I know they'll be finishing the series, I'm going to take advantage of their super sale and get the first three volumes for my sister (it incorporates fashion and the whole quarter-life crisis, both of which she can relate to). For anyone interested, Aurora is also having a sale for its yaoi line, Deux, and for its teen love line, LuvLuv.

Secondly, I found out Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo is being released in the U.S. in August! And, much to my delight, the American voice actors are all people I love, so even though it's a dub, I think it won't be too shabby, (I'm old school and actually don't have a preference for dub vs. sub. Dubs are like mother's milk to me -- I grew up on that shit!)

( Check out the poster listing the VAs! )

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! Here, check out an untranslated trailer...Doesn't it look awesome? I heard Miyazaki was pretty involved with this one and elected to draw the waves by hand himself. \(*o*)/