I watched more Fruits Basket today. Nice, light-hearted, feel-good anime. Makes me feel good about life.

I’m a little socially drained.

I’m off to Portland, OR, in a few days for RailsConf with one of my co-workers. I worry about him sometimes, because I think he might be fighting off depression. He’s mentioned going through some hard times while he was in college, and he seems to still be struggling. I just hope that he’s doing alright. I think it’ll be a fun trip though.

Yesterday I skinned my knees playing ultimate. Bloody knees FTW.

Starting a couple of new anime this week, Basilisk and Fruits Basket. Also, I finished Shadow Puppets last night and will be starting Shadow of the Giant today or tomorrow.

Shart.

Elfen Lied (which I affectionally call “elf pr0n”) was good. One of the better anime I’ve seen. The music was great, too. Hence, my desktop wallpaper is now from Elfen Lied. Generally if an anime makes it to my desktop, it means I liked it (or that there are boobs in it… or both). I mean, I spend 8 hours a day looking at my desktop, after all.

I’m always in an introspective mood after watching a good movie or anime. I have the desire to be epic, just like a character in the movie I just saw. I felt that way tonight after Elfen Lied. I did some reflecting and realized that life is more epic than any story. My life might not be epic to everyone else, but it is to me. I guess that’s what counts.

It’s hot in here. I hate sleeping in the heat.

When I first started watching the series, the nudity in it seemed gratuitous. But it’s more than just physical nudity. It’s about emotional nudity. Being naked means having nothing to hide. It’s about the need to connect to people, the need to feel included. The human condition.

Some anime touches me more than others because of my personality. The ability to tell a story that has a profound meaning underneath is art. Art expresses ideas that cannot be expressed in words, and that inspires me. Awes me.

Sleep.

Time to go to a recital.

I used to hang out with a group that included Zach during my first year and a half or so at Belmont. I was only just learning about myself then. When I met the guys in Pembroke during my second year, I stopped hanging out with the first group more and more, until I didn’t hang out with them at all anymore. I think that was a mistake.

We finally started watching Berserk again tonight. I’ve got a new anime in queue as well. Hooray.

Sleep time.

Saturday I also watched the first 5 episodes of Berserk, and aside from the opening and closing songs (which don’t really fit with the plot and are sung in poor English by a Japanese guy), it seems pretty good. I’m probably gonna watch the rest of the series.

Oh! Tonight after Nate got back we went to Walmart for various things. For the past 3 years I have faithfully looked in the soup sections of grocery stores for my favorite flavor of ramen: cheddar cheese. Today was no different, and I haven’t found any for at least 2 years. Until today. I looked routinely in the ramen section, and BAM! My jaw dropped. There were 11 of them. I bought 5. And once again… it’s A-OK.

Sometimes I find myself thinking about mistakes I’ve made in the past. It overwhelms me if I let it. I think of the people I’ve hurt and the regret of wishing things were different. At random times embarrassing events replay in my mind, and it makes me cringe. I’ll laugh awkwardly to myself or try to shrug it off, but they always come back. Some of these events happened years ago, even when I was in high school.

It doesn’t happen often enough to make me dwell on these resentments, but it does make me feel shameful, sometimes deeply so. I don’t like to latch on to the Type 4 description as much as I used to, but this sort of thing just screams, “Romantic!!” It’s not that I’m trying to change who I am as much as I’m just trying to grow. It’s hard to grow if you try to conform all the time.

Time to turn the night into day again. The light of dawn breaks on yet another week of routine.

I rode my bike today through the chilling air, but it was fun. I just need some gloves and some wind glasses and I’ll be good to go for the fall. Hopefully tomorrow morning it won’t be so cold outside that it hurts like a bitch to catch frisbees, as the second fall ultimate league game happens then.

New anime en route; trying out the Berserk and Last Exile series. They’re rated high, so we’ll see.

Last night Matt and I DDR’d for the first time in a few weeks. Good times.

Friday.

So all the Belmont folks are back now, updating their Facebook profiles and getting into college life again. Looking at it from this point of view is different, this being my second year not in school. Different and interesting.

I used the rest of my gift certificates from work to get Cowboy Bebop stuff: two CD’s and a poster for my office. It was my first time watching the series all the way through, and I haven’t totally absorbed the shock of the last episode yet. I don’t know how it ranks in my list of favorite animes, but it’s definately up there. If I had to put them in order, I’d probably still put Kenshin first, then Evangelion, then Bebop maybe. Blargh.

I got free chocolate today!

Bang.