Another Side of My Geekishness

So, being a bit on the geeky side, I have a weakness for anime. The good kind 🙂 Or, what I think is good anyway.

I’m a huge fan of anything made by Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. Spirited Away is my absolute favorite film of theirs, but Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and Whisper of the Heart come really close.  Of course I like all the others too, like Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Ponyo and many more.

But I’m also a fan of all sorts of anime series. Much of my obsession with it comes from my husband, who hooked me on anime in college.

Anyway, here’s my new favorite series, called Mushi-Shi. It’s focuses on the supernatural and the unexplained, in the form of little creatures called Mushi and Ginko, the “mushi master” (hence the title of the series).

This series is unique in that it’s non-linear–you can come in on episode 12 and not be lost. Each episode is a story in itself and Ginko (the mushi master) is the only character present in every episode.

The next series I haven’t finished yet–I’ve still got more than half the first season and the entire second season to watch. It’s called Saiunkoku Monogatari (The Tale of Saiunkoku) and it’s about the fictional land of Saiunkoku–which is very loosely based on Tang dynasty China (outfits and possibly the way the government is set up). I like it so far. Here’s the intro:

And finally, the one that I’ve watched like four times over and am now watching the English dub on YouTube: Ouran High School Host Club.

This one, I’ll admit, is very…odd, and at first I didn’t want to watch it. I won’t say much about it, only that it’s surprisingly good and very, very girly at parts. If ever I became fan-girlish, this show definitely did it. Sad but true.

I believe most of the episodes are in English on YouTube, courtesy of Funimation. I’m still partial to the original subbed Japanese, but I have to watch it now in English just to say I did. :PI can’t embed the video here since it won’t let me, but if anything watch the intro. It’ll show you the silliness.

There’s lots of other great series out there, like Rurouni Kenshin, Fruits Basket and the darker but addictive Death Note.  And of course there’s some utter garbage too, but that’s like any sort of media.

Well there you have it. You got to see another side of my geekishness.

If I Wasn’t Geeky Enough Already…

I’m joining a Dungeons and Dragons game 😛

Hubby and a friend of ours have been trying to get me to join. I’ve been to a few sessions when hubby played and I was just there to hang out. It was fun following the storyline. Tonight they start a new chapter and my character will be introduced.

I spent the last day or two coming up with my character’s name and personality. It was very similar to coming up with characters for a book!  Perhaps that’s why D & D appeals to me; it is very similar to writing (only I’m not the one “writing” the story or the world that it takes place in, only developing the character).

My character is a half-elf (chosen because I’m loosely basing her off of a character from my one WiP) with a bit of a temper. Well, at least that’s what I have–it may change. No clue what she’s going to be, as I really have no idea about the classes. Hubby has said I should be a bard or a healer of some sort. I’ll figure the rest out tonight.

Her name took me forever to figure out. Since she’s part elf, I decided to give her an Elvish name. Yeah, good luck trying to find one that is even remotely easy to pronounce 😛 But I came up with Ellethwen as her first name (hubby says he’s gonna call her “Lethy”, lol).  I still haven’t really decided on a last name for her (some choices are Autumnfire, Amarathar, Eveningfall and Lightshiver) but I figure I can get the D & D veterans to help me tonight.

Anyway, tomorrow morning I go to my sis-in-law’s beauty institute to have her dye my hair. I’m going brunette 🙂 I’ve got one of those hair colors that is naturally somewhere between blonde and brown, often called dirty blonde or dishwater blonde (which both sound disgusting to me ). I’ll at least be brunette for a few weeks  before the stuff fades away.

Oh and I  believe hubby and I will go out to eat sometime in celebration of our two year anniversary, which is on the 13th. Not sure where though.

What are everyone else’s plans for the weekend?

Confessions of a Geek

I won’t deny it–I’m a geek. 😛

I’ve been a geek since, well…forever. I may not be the typical stereotype of one, but I definitely like to do things that would be considered, well, geeky.

Given a choice, I’d much rather watch an interesting history documentary over much of the stuff that’s on TV now. I’ve spent hours on Hulu watching PBS documentaries (a huge fan of PBS History Detectives!) as well as some other random ones I’ll find.

I’m also a big anime fan, thanks in part to my husband and my little sister, who have been anime fans for FAR longer. Some of my favorites: Mushishi, which is based heavily on Japanese mythology, folklore, and the supernatural (plus there’s a bit of historical flavor to it, which I love), Kin’iro no Corda: Primo Passo, which is about a high school girl who finds a magical violin–with of course a group of wildly talented and handsome young men who all begin to fall for her–the typical shojo setup 😛 (silly sounding, but the show has amazing music and storylines), and the older Rurouni Kenshin, about former wandering samurai in the Meiji era .There’s one I’m anxious to see that’s a fantasy-type setting based on ancient China called Saiunkoku Monogatari. I’ve already seen the intro on YouTube and read a little about it and I really can’t wait to see it 😛

And then I found an Kawaii-Radio, an online radio station my sister and I used to listen to while we worked at our internship. It plays J-Pop and J-Rock–another little obsession of mine 🙂 I like this station ’cause you can request songs (one every 45 minutes). Some of the stuff is a little…um, odd or annoying, but that’s like any music now.

I know everyone has an inner geek. What are some of the “geeky” things you like to do?