Neglected

I am afraid that I have been horribly neglected lately. Miss Caitlin has not been spending much time reading lately. While visiting her esteemed Grandparents, most of her time was spent amusing her cousins, and since returning most of her attention has been turned toward practical matters and spending time with her Father and Brother. While these are all worthy pursuits, it means that she has spent very little time reading or writing. She says tomorrow she might work on her Dungeons and Dragons Campaign, which might be considered a creative endeavor, but is hardly to be considered the height of writing.

Unfortunately, this tend will likely continue when school resumes, as she will spend much time working on the play. Already a sizable portion of Miss Caitlin's next weekend has been reserved for theater activities. I am afraid that this will prove very stressful for Miss Caitlin, as well as taking up a fair amount of her free time.

I suppose I must forgive her then, if she spends most of her time now on less taxing things.

Saiunkoku Monogatari . . .

. . . hasn't updated. Poo. However, I can now answer Cat and Hannah's pressing question. I was able to do a little research to find that the actor who voices Kouyuu does not in fact voice Renji. He does however voice another Bleach character. According to Anime News Network, Nobuyuki Hiyama voices both Kouyuu on Saiunkoku Monogatari and Ikkaku the third officer in the eleventh squad on Bleach. But Kentaou Itou, the actor who voices Renji, does voice a character on Saiunkoku Monogatari. He voices Rou Ensei, everyone's favorite rouge. Cat and I can hear the similarity between Kouyuu and Ikkaku, but Rou Ensei and Renji sound completely different! I guess that means he's a good actor or something . . .

Here's hoping for our favorite fansubs update tomorrow . . .

Back Home

No Saiunkoku Monogatari. Though we did get some Code Geass. That's not as good but it's an otay Christmas present

We went to visit Relatives. That meant Grandparents' house where everyone comes to visit. This meant that Cat and her Bother - I mean Brother - had to amuse her teen-aged cousins. This wasn't too hard because they like anime and they play cards. Cat likes both of these past-times, though she lost pretty bad at cards this time. That's otay, someone has to lose and her luck should change for next time. Supposedly. Sagittariuses are supposed to be lucky, but Cat's never been especially. But usually she manages alright at cards.

Anyway, they watched a lot of Bleach and Hannah (the girl cousin who's like 16 and very sensible) watched Saiukoku Monogatari with us. She liked it. Though she didn't watch enough the decide who she thought Shuurei should end up with. That's really the most important part of the series. It's a romance story really, though it's kinda fantasy too. It takes place in a country, Saiukoku (which means Country of the Colored Clouds or something - we have to take other people's word for it since we don't speak Japanese), that's kind of like ancient China (except not) where a great Emperor in the past united the eight provinces with the help of the Eight Enlightened Ones, who were each named after colors and so that's how they named the provinces and the rulers of the provinces too. This makes identifying characters somewhat easier since the main nobles are all color coded. Anyway, Shuurei is the daughter of a noble who is in charge of the library of the palace. Since his job doesn't bring in lots of money, they're pretty poor. So for a pile of cash to keep her family fed, the bright Shuurei agrees to become consort of the new emperor who is young and not particularly motivated. Her task is to make him an emperor worthy of following and then I guess she doesn't have to be consort anymore (cos suddenly in the series she decides she's not . . . ). Her family's retainer, Seiran, is made a bodyguard to the emperor. And so they go to the palace, meet Ryuuki the emperor and of course he falls in love with her, because she's smart and capable and she's nice to him. But Seiran's already in love with her, but he's really passive about it and she's totally oblivious to him so he's getting no where fast, while Ryuuki makes his intentions pretty clear. But I think Seiran will win out because he's a loyal and they've known each other forever and just because he's slow doesn't mean he doesn't love her - because he does - he relies on her and it makes him sad when she won't cry to him anymore. Anyway, Cat thinks she'll end up with Ryuuki. She sites My Fair Lady for evidence. She says Liza ends up with Pickering cos he needs her more, and it's the same with Ryuuki. I don't know about that . . . Hannah didn't have an opinion yet, since she only saw the first 8 or so.

They watched a lot of early Bleach. Well, middle Bleach. Early compared to the recent stuff. The boy cousin watched that too. Hannah and Cat spent a lot of time wondering if the guy who voices Renji also voices Li Kouyuu in Saiunkoku Monogatari. They still couldn't figure it out. I haven't been able to find anything about either online. Sigh. We may never know.

Anyway a good time was had by all.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Lots of stuff is stirring at the Family's house. The Family went to Mass at 6:00 to avoid the mobs of people that feel the need to go at 4:00 and the gallons of incense that they feel the need to use at Vigil. Cat says there weren't a lot of people there, but a few people they did know.

Clem's still doing the Christmas Pig thing, a job that now seems to consist of shaking all the presents under the tree, never mind who they're addressed to. Anyway, no one seems to mind and he hasn't been told not to so he's busy playing with presents. I think tomorrow, he'll be busy playing with wrapping paper. And the day after that we go visit Relatives! See, all sorts of things are going on for Christmas.

What I want for Christmas won't fit under the tree. I want a fansub for Saiunkoku Monogatari episode number 24. They put number 23 up on the 11th and haven't put one out since. It's not fair! That's our favorite. And other translators are doing it now, but they've either just started, or they're on like 22. We HAVE those, we WANT 24! So all I want for Christmas is a fansub, but they'll probably not do it for some lame reason like it's the holidays and they're busy celebrating with their family which is dumb. Cause this cow wants her anime. Cat's being a little more patient, but she has other things she can do. You know, she has family things. Maybe I'll bully Snibbly into helping me play a video game. I can't manage all the buttons myself you see. Or maybe I'll declare myself the Christmas Cow and rattle presents with Clem. Hmm. Decisions, decisions . . .

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Gathering

I had the pleasurable experience of attending the annual Christmas Reunion of Cat's old Girl Scout Troop. A finer group of young ladies can nowhere be found. I was disappointed that more of my pig counterparts were not in attendance, but chatting with Hamlet the Younger was most diverting. Miss Courtney showed us an essay she wrote about me and my pig friends among the troop, but she had gotten my name wrong! She apologized profusely, explaining that she had a short period of time to write it, it being for a final examination, so she could neither spend the time to wrack her brain, nor could she contact Miss Caitlin to make sure she had it right. I forgave her.

Miss Courtney, who hosted the event, has a terrible beast of a dog. The girls, Miss Caitlin included, kept making noises over the fluffy white monster like it was adorable and sweet, but really it was vicious, several time proving to be a threat to Hamlet and myself. I do not understand why humans can stand the things . . .

Most of the time was spent talking, though they did play a most silly video game called Dance Dance Revolution, which I of course did not participate in, and Apples to Apples, which I did. Miss Caitlin and Miss Lydia both took many pictures. In general, a good time was had by all. I hope that our summer gathering will be as enjoyable.

Stupid

Snibbly went to a party last night. He said it was only for Cat's old Girl Scout Troop and their pigs. So he said I couldn't come. I thought he was mean. I thought about saying something to Cat, but I didn't want to put her in a bad position if cows really weren't allowed. So I stayed home. Which wasn't very fun because none of the anime fansubs we watch have updated in a while, so there was nothing new to watch. And Snibbly was out playing with friends and Cat's camera. I felt slightly better when Snibbly said that the only other pig there was Hamlet the Younger (not to be confused with the venerable old pig that belongs to Cat's brother, also named Hamlet.). He was only there because it was at Hamlet's Mistress's house. But all the Girl Scouts made it, and they still had a good time. Stupids.

The thing in Kirksville was drunk locals, not drunk college students. Still sad, but not personal for Cat.

Snibbly wants to load pictures so he's making me get off. Stupid.

In All Seriousness . . .

Miss Caitlin's brother pointed out to her a rather tragic incident in the same town as her university. He directed her to this article.

It is terrifyingly vague and has caused her much worry. They do not say, notice, whether the victims were students, nor their genders nor how they died. They do mention that the University is there, which makes me suspect that they are readying to release the information that at least some of the victims were students. Miss Caitlin does know some people, mostly a few of her associates in the theater department, who live in duplexes, though she does not know which of her friends remain in town. The school has not contacted her, nor has she been able to stir up much on facebook. Hopefully, these people were not among her friends, but it is still sad that it happened at all. With any luck, more specifics will be forthcoming soon.

Chirstmasness

Look! Snibbly and I figured out how to set up two logins! Now I don't have to listen to his stupidheadness when I write.And I can write all pretty!

Christmas is coming, so the Family put up a tree for it. It looks really cool. I've never done Christmas before. I think it's pretty cool. Cat played with the zoom and flash on her new camera by taking pictures of us and the tree. She took pictures of Clem too (the sweater got put in the laundry so he can't mess with it right now). He's here now and he wants to say that Christmas is awesome, because he gets to be the Christmas Pig. I guess that's pretty important . . . to Clem at least. And he says HI!!!

I guess a few days ago the Family got a letter from a college friend of Cat's Mom and Cat's Dad. They call him and his family the Perfect Family, because in their letter at Christmas, everything's perfect. They have two perfect twin sons about Cat's Brother's age and a daughter a few years older than that. And after talking about Mrs. Perfect breaking her perfect arm in four perfect places, and Mr. Perfect's perfect gall bladder surgery, they talk about Daughter Perfect getting perfectly stung by bees and then they get to the best part. I quote (this is still talking about the Perfect Daughter)

"In Arkansas, she was both stung again and chased by cows."

That's it?! No telling what she did to provoke those cows - probably a perfectly reasonable bunch - into they chasing her?! No vivid description of the chase and how she got away?! No gripping tale of cow revenge?! What kind of letter is this?! It's certainly not a perfect letter! I think the Family should send it back and tell them to fix it. And this time, it should be about the cows, and cow rights. I feel the cows have been misrepresented in this incident. Maybe it was a hate crime, a protestation against cow abuse and tipping! But we'll never know . . . sigh . . .

Only Code Geass updated last night, and nothing updated today that we watch. We're still not sure that we like Code Geass, but they're finally getting past introducing everyone and everything and actually moving on the plot. I guess that's good. I withhold judgment anyway.

Pompous-butt wants to write too so I'll let him. Later.

Salutations

I have the honor to be Snibbly Pig, described by my friends as sensitive, intelligent, and in all ways a true gentlepig. I live with my Mistress, Miss Caitlin, who is currently a student of literature and theater at university. It is her computer that we are using, though we haven't managed to tell her that yet . . . In any event, I hope to discuss great thoughts and works of literature, as well as the other things my Mistress reads. Admittedly, not everything she reads is intellectual in nature, but she does manage to find enjoyable books. Mistress maintains a fair number animals, of which Tipsy and I only represent a few. When this idea was first discussed, our jovial friend Clem also expressed an interest in the project, though he can't type himself since his hooves are too big for the exacting art of typing. Tipsy was going to take dictation from him, but he has decided instead to search for truffles in Mistress's black sweater. It has long been rumored among the pigs of our household to contain truffles, but as far as I know, none have yet been discovered. I have all but given up what must surely be a fruitless search, but Clem is a natural optimist. Perhaps you will understand later. And perhaps he will join us at a later date.

Only today, Miss Caitlin has discussed with one of her friends the possibility of doing a later game! Miss Caitlin has been exerting most of her creative energy on her creative writing class this past semester and on designing adventures for her role-playing group. I am glad to see her attention being focused on a more relaxing exercise. Though she does appear to enjoy the role-playing nonsense. In any event, her classwork prevented her from participating in write a novel month in November. Early next semester, working on the school theater's production of Taming of the Shrew will probably prevent her from working on her novel. But the letter game should provide a creative outlet without getting in the way of her various other activities.

Hi. I'm Tipsy. I'm a cow. I like movies. And Cat lets me watch anime with her. I also watch her play video games. It's cos I usually hang on her monitor, but if I do that while she's watching something or playing games, I tend to block the top corner, and then she messes things up. I read okay, but I don't sneak into Cat's books like Snibbly does. I'm also not as snotty as Snibbly is. I have to read to watch anime, since we watch fansubs and they are always dubbed. Even if we rent or borrow anime, we watch it in Japanese because the dubbing's usually bad. Cat likes music too. Though she doesn't have a radio, so we don't ever hear what's new. She likes folky things and things that are smart or pretty. She doesn't like it if you can't understand the words when you're supposed to. It's okay when you're not, cos the words are in Latin or French or Romanian or something. Now we're listening to 80's music. I think it's funny. Snibbly thinks it's grating. He thinks that about my earing too, so I don't pay attention to him. You can if you want to.

Snibbly says that's enough of an introduction. He also says he's not snotty. Whatever, I'm spunkier and that makes me more cool.

We'll write again some other time.