This second dvd of the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, contains the following episodes:
Sakura, the Panda and the Cute Shop
Sakura and Memories of Her Mother
Sakura’s First Attempt as a Thief!?!
Sakura’s Rival Appears
This time around I watched these twice, once on the dvd with the subtitles and once on the bluray with the dubbed version. I must say, I did not care for the dub. Sakura sounds like a teenager, not a 10 year old, the pronunciation differences are more glaring (“Clow” is pronounced like “Glow”, not “Plow”) and references are more NorAm oriented than strictly Japanese or Chinese. I must also admit, that with my eyes and my old tv, I couldn’t tell the difference between the dvd and the bluray for resolution. It all looked the same to me.
The stories were just as saccharin as the previous ones and that’s why I skipped a month between reviews. Only so much concentrated sweetness I can handle at one time. But they were fun and I enjoyed them and that’s all that really matters when it comes to watching something on the tv.
Next time I will talk about the episodes themselves (hopefully).
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Dragon’s Den Series: The Metaframe War #3 Author: Graeme Rodaughan Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 219 Words: 85K
This is where I DNF the series and add Rodaughan to my list of Authors to Avoid
This read exactly like some mindless action video game, with “missions” and “side missions” that don’t make ANY sense if you give them more than a cursory examination.
In the previous book the Leader of the Order of Thoth (one faction of super humans who are fighting against the Vampires) was kidnapped by the Vampires and this book was all about the main characters trying to rescue him.
Once again, the author just doesn’t know how to write effective, mature leaders. The guy who Anton (the main character, The Chosen One) is following is as effective a leader as one of the Minions from the Despicable Me movies.
The Minion in the middle is the “Leader”…
He doesn’t lead, he doesn’t plan, he doesn’t do anything other than say obvious things like “Ok, we have to rescue the boss” or “Ok, we have to attack the vampires”. When Anton goes off the rails, he doesn’t corral him in any way. At the end, when his wife dies, he just gives up and Anton takes over as leader. We’re not talking about some jamoke with an office job here. This is supposed to be a guy who has successfully fought vampires for possibly decades. And he is a complete and utter joke.
In this same area, the other leaders are as much a joke as he is. There is a military guy working for the Vampires who totally gets outsmarted by Anton, in a helicopter duel. Then the kidnapped leader, while being corrupt, is also monumentally stupid and every decision he makes is bad. And finally, a group of Super Assassins from the Red Empire (another faction of super humans fighting the Vampires) are led by a guy who decides that keeping his word to a Vampire General is the thing to do even when she turns him and his entire team into vampires. They literally become the thing they were created to destroy and they don’t instantly kill each other in a death pact? That’s stupid. That’s beyond stupid, it’s 100% asinine.
Now we come to the biggest reason that I am stopping the series. Anton Slayde, the main character. He’s reckless, impulsive, anti-authority, selfish, self-centered, ignorant (which I can forgive, because ALL teenagers are ignorant, it’s why they have to be taught) but worst of all, he’s stupid. He’s beyond even asinine stupid. I’m debating whether it’s worth it to list all the things that led me to that conclusion.
1) His best friend is captured while allowing the rest of the group to escape the clutches of Shadowstone (the human military wing of the Vampires). So Anton insists on rescuing him with no real plan and puts everyone in jeopardy all over again.
2) His “plan” to rescue his friend involves hijacking a super tank and driving around the compound shooting stuff while looking for his friend, forcing the group to back him up or risking him being captured as well.
3) When that rescue doesn’t happen, he decides he still needs to rescue the guy, this time from an armored convoy that has four military equipped helicopters attached to it. He jumps out of the tank and onto the prison truck, once again forcing his team mates to follow or risk him being captured too.
4) All of this happens WHILE the leader of the Order is captured and being interrogated by Vampires. What’s the best way for a Vampire to interrogate a human? To turn him into a vampire of course, which then means his loyalty is now to the Vampires. Does Anton consider ANY of that, at all? Nope. Operational security, secrets, codes, it can all go take a flying leap because Anton has to rescue his friend, WHO VOLUNTEERED KNOWING THIS COULD HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!
5) Anton’s real goal is to kill the Vampire, General Armitage because she killed his parents. He can barely face a regular vampire, but fully expects to just waltz in and kill the most talented Vampire ever? He’s seen her in one fight, where she killed his mentor, who was about 100 times a better fighter than Anton. He has no idea of her style of fighting, her weaknesses or disposition. He knows nothing but is convinced by Plot Armor that he will be The Chosen One, to kill her.
6) I’m getting myself worked up, so I’m just going to stop.
I have a strict “No Stupid People” policy when it comes to the characters I read. I don’t mind if a minor side character is stupid, that just makes them fodder and I’m ok with fodder in my books. But for the main character to be like this, that’s only ok for 12-15 year olds. Anton is not in that age bracket.
The series has been toe’ing that Line of Stupid ever since book one, but it crossed it completely in this book. So I am done. I simply don’t care how the story ends because Plot Armor will overcome everything and I won’t read more Stupid.
★★☆☆☆
From the Publisher
Synopsis – click to open
IT’S A TRAP! – Anton Slayne knows it’s a trap. One laid for him by his most powerful opponent – Chloe Armitage, rogue general of the Vampire Dominion. The chase is on. Agents of the Red Empire and the Vampire Dominion have abducted Ramin Kain, the Head of the Order of Thoth. Anton and the Mirovar force team are the only ones in a position to act. They know Ramin is bait, but have to rescue him before he’s forced to reveal everything he knows to the Order’s sworn enemies. Will Anton and his friends in the Mirovar force team rescue Ramin Kain, or will Chloe Armitage discover the secrets of the Order of Thoth, destroy the Mirovar force team, and enslave Anton to her will?
Has a spaceship that can kill you. And you. And you. All at the same time.
Likes to kill things, like you.
Bookstooge Cons:
Not a real person (that’s actually pretty big if you want to get nit picky).
Muscles aren’t as big as basketballs.
No spaceship (not a deal killer but it does give the high ground to The Pred)
Predator Cons:
Plug Ugly!
Can only read weapons manuals (no poetry for you ol’ softies).
Also not real.
So, who would you bet on in:
A) A pizza eating contest
B) Cultivating a flower garden for the summer
C) Performing an interpretive rain dance
The fate of the free world rests on your decision dear reader, so vote wisely!
Obviously, with me being able to pump out garbage like that, I’ve had a good week!
Sabbath was a very relaxing, restful kind of day. It was just what I needed to finish off last week.
Sunday was our church’s annual picnic. It’s the one time a year I get to play volleyball and I enjoy every second of it. I pay for that enjoyment the next day, as diving to the ground to save the ball hurts a little more now. But just to be clear, the ground has gotten much tougher, I’ve not gotten softer 😉
That guy would be 100% more awesome if he was bald
I’ve been looking forward to playing some casual volleyball ever since March. So what happens? It decides to rain. It didn’t rain all morning. We set the tents and tables and chairs up between 10-11am and while cloudy, no rain. We started the 3 grills around 11:45 and no rain. People start showing up at 11:55am, and voila, it starts to sprinkle. Then it starts to rain. Everyone huddled under the tents, but they weren’t rain proof and they started leaking. So everyone got umbrellas, under the tents. Funny thing is, the harder it rained, the better my mood! After we’d all eaten and hollered at each other (nobody was doing more walking than they had to), all the young people decided that playing volleyball in the rain was the thing to do. So they did. That is when I realized I’m fully middle aged. I was not even tempted the tiniest bit to go out there and play. So I watched and enjoyed myself.
Middle Age Level UP!
It is good to be reminded of where I am in Life. It is also good to be reminded where others are too. But I’m still going to judge them for not being the Ultimate Pizza Slayer like yours truly.
I just started this and I’ve not even made past the 2nd page and I’m already chortling away, again. I told Mrs B to expect many such chortlings over the coming evenings, that way she won’t ask what’s so funny, because while I find this hilarious, she doesn’t.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Last Contact Series: Galaxy’s Edge #15 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Military SF Pages: 339 Words: 117K
Thankfully, we didn’t spend the entire book with the Legion this time around. But that is the only reason I bumped this up half a star from the previous book. Of course, they immediately do the following and lose that half star.
Urmo is killed by Prisma. Ravi destroys the Dark Wanderer to protect Prisma, and thus the “contract” of the higher beings comes into play and Ravi is out of the picture. Rex is dead. Goth Sullus is dead. Everything that made this Star Wars’esque has slowly been removed and this book really finishes that process. Felt very much like a Scorched Earth way to get rid of elements the authors were no longer interested in.
I am a very disappointed camper right now.
★★✬☆☆
From the Publisher
Wraith discovers crucial intel about the threat that past The Gap, beyond Galaxy’s Edge. Meanwhile, Prisma undertakes and arduous journey and the legionnaires of Zombie Squad search for Masters.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: So Long and Thanks for All the Fish Series: THGttG #4 Author: Douglas Adams Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 224 Words: 44K
This was marginally better than the previous book but only because it wasn’t so stupid. It wasn’t funnier, the plot wasn’t more concrete (still alphabet soup mixed up with mashed potatoes) and Arthur Dent plays a much bigger role (given what a disgusting specimen of wimpiness he is, that’s definitely not a good thing).
But it felt like Adams actually tried to tell a story instead of just writing drugged out scenes that belong in a Monty Python’esque kind of tv show. Not high praise, but it was enough of an improvement that I’ll keep on reading the series.
★★✬☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
While hitchhiking through the galaxy, Arthur Dent is dropped off on a planet in a rainstorm. He appears to be in England on Earth, even though he had seen the planet destroyed by the Vogons. He has been gone for several years, but only a few months have passed on Earth. He hitches a lift with a man named Russell and his sister Fenchurch (nicknamed “Fenny”). Russell explains that Fenny, who is sitting in a drugged state in the back seat of the car, became delusional after worldwide mass hysteria, in which everyone hallucinated “big yellow spaceships” (the Vogon destructor ships that “demolished” the Earth). Arthur becomes curious about Fenchurch, but he is dropped off before he can ask more questions. Inside his inexplicably undamaged home, Arthur finds a gift-wrapped bowl inscribed with the words “So long and thanks for all the fish”, into which he puts his Babel Fish. Arthur thinks that Fenchurch is somehow connected to him and to the Earth’s destruction. He still has the ability to fly whenever he lets his thoughts wander.
Arthur puts his life in order, and then tries to find out more about Fenchurch. He happens to find her hitchhiking and picks her up. He obtains her phone number, but shortly thereafter loses it. He discovers her home by accident when he searches for the cave in which he had lived on prehistoric Earth; Fenchurch’s flat is built on the same spot. Arthur and Fenchurch find more circumstances connecting them. Fenchurch reveals that, moments before her “hallucinations”, she had an epiphany about how to make everything right, but then blacked out. She has not been able to recall the substance of the epiphany. Eventually discovering that Fenchurch’s feet do not touch the ground, Arthur teaches her how to fly. They have sex in the skies over London.
In her conversation with Arthur, Fenchurch learns about his adventures hitchhiking across the galaxy, and Arthur learns that all the dolphins disappeared shortly after the world hallucinations. Arthur and Fenchurch travel to California to see John Watson, an enigmatic scientist who claims to know why the dolphins disappeared. Watson has abandoned his original name in favour of “Wonko the Sane”, because he believes that the rest of the world’s population has gone mad. Watson shows them another bowl with the words “So long and thanks for all the fish” inscribed on it, and encourages them to listen to it. The bowl explains audibly that the dolphins, aware of the planet’s coming destruction, left Earth for an alternate dimension. Before leaving, they pulled the Earth from a parallel universe into this one and transported everyone and everything onto it from the one about to be destroyed. After the meeting, Fenchurch tells Arthur that, while he lost something and later found it, she found something and later lost it. She desires that they travel to space together, and that they reach the site where God’s Final Message to His Creation is written.
Ford Prefect discovers that the Hitchhiker’s Guide entry for Earth has been updated to include the volumes of text that he originally wrote, instead of the previous truncated entry, “Mostly harmless”. Curious, Ford hitchhikes across the galaxy to reach Earth. Eventually he uses the ship of a giant robot to land in the centre of London, causing a panic. In the chaos, Ford reunites with Arthur and the two of them and Fenchurch commandeer the robot’s ship. Arthur takes Fenchurch to the planet where God’s Final Message to His Creation is written, where they discover Marvin. Due to previous events, Marvin is now approximately 37 times older than the known age of the universe and is barely functional. With Arthur’s and Fenchurch’s help, Marvin reads the Message (“We apologise for the inconvenience”), utters the final words “I think… I feel good about it”, and dies happily.
I must admit, when I think of “Eternal Warrior”, my mind immediately springs to the author Michael Moorcock and his literary creation The Eternal Warrior. I am most familiar with Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon.
This ability later became an Evergreen Ability (meaning it was a keyword with a specific meaning and was not a specific spell like here) called Vigilance. But even starting in Alpha (the very first Magic set), the ability was there, just spelled out. Amazing how streamlined Magic has become over the years.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Sourcery Series: Discworld #5 Author: Terry Pratchett Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 197 Words: 79K
Unfortunately, this is what most people think of in terms of humor when they think of Rincewind the Wizzard. This was slightly amusing but not really funny and almost kind of sad. I didn’t dislike this story, but I really didn’t enjoy myself like I have with some of the previous Discworld books. It was like Pratchett had an off week and churned this clunker out during that time.
If I was just a teeny bit lazier, I’d end this review and not hide the synopis and call it a day. But I’m not quite that lazy, yet. I’m getting there though.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a food comparison for a book, but I think I have the perfect example for this book.
The Setting:
The Wilds of the Freest State in the United States of America
The Characters:
Two manly men who have worked hard all day doing Big Important Survey Things that you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to you.
The Story:
After a hard day’s work where thousands of calories were burned doing Very Important Survey Things, McStudley and MacManly were driving back to the office. They were starving. In fact, if they had been soccer players, chances are one of them would have doused the other in bbq sauce and devoured him on the spot. Thankfully, for our story, they drove by a Wendy’s fast food restaurant. MacManly decided to get a Biggie Bag, because it had the word “Big” in it and his hunger sure was big that day. It was advertised as a double cheeseburger with bacon, fries, chicken nuggets and a drink. The chicken nuggets weren’t crispy at all. The fries were lukewarm at best. The icemachine wasn’t working so his diet vanilla coke was room temperature. The bacon was limp, the burgers overcooked, the lettuce was wilted and the bun looked like a sad clown. All in all it was a pathetic excuse for a “meal”. But MacManly still devoured it because he was starving.
The Lesson:
The ingredients can all be there but if they are not prepared right, it doesn’t matter because I was starving and I would have read a cereal box. Ok, so I mixed up my metaphors there, sue me. But you get the idea.
Faaaaaaaake!
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
Death comes to collect the soul of Ipslore the Red, a wizard who was banished from Unseen University for marrying and having children. Bitter over his exile and the death of his wife, Ipslore vows revenge upon the wizards through his eighth son, Coin. As the eighth son of a wizard who himself is an eighth son, Coin is born a sourcerer, a wizard who generates new magic rather than drawing it from the world, effectively making him the most powerful wizard on the Disc. At the moment of his death, Ipslore transfers his spirit into his wizard’s staff, which is passed to Coin, preventing Death from collecting Ipslore’s soul (since damaging the staff to do so would kill Coin) and allowing Ipslore to influence his son.
Eight years later, Virrid Wayzygoose, the Archchancellor-designate of Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork, is murdered before his induction by Coin, who then forces his way into the university’s Great Hall. After Coin bests one of the top wizards in the University, he is welcomed by the majority of the wizards. Rincewind, The Luggage and the Librarian miss Coin’s arrival, having fled the University shortly beforehand after the foreboding departure of all of its magically-influenced pest populations. While they are at the Mended Drum, Conina, a professional thief and a daughter of Discworld legend Cohen the Barbarian, arrives holding a box containing the Archchancellor’s hat, which she has procured from the room of Wayzygoose, and which possesses a kind of sentience as a result of being worn by hundreds of Archchancellors. Under the direction of the hat, which sees Coin as a threat to wizardry and the very world, Conina forces Rincewind to come with her and take a boat to the city of Al Khali, where the hat claims there is someone fit to wear it.
In Ankh-Morpork, the wizards are made more powerful due to Coin’s presence drawing more magic into the Discworld. Under Coin’s direction, the wizards take over Ankh-Morpork—transforming it into a pristine city and turning the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, into a newt—and make plans to take over the world. Elsewhere, Rincewind, Conina and the Luggage end up in the company of Creosote, the seriph of Al Khali, and Abrim, his treacherous vizier. The trio are eventually separated; Rincewind is thrown into the snake pit, where he meets Nijel the Destroyer, a barbarian hero in training. Conina is taken to Creosote’s harem, where the Seriph has his concubines tell him stories. The Luggage, having been scorned by Conina, runs away and gets drunk, before killing and eating several creatures in the desert.
Coin eventually declares Unseen University and the various wizarding orders obsolete and orders the Library to be burnt down, claiming that Wizardry no longer requires such things. A group of wizards then attack Al Khali, with the sheer amount of magic created by their arrival temporarily putting Rincewind into a trance and enabling him to use magic, allowing him and Nijel to escape the snake pit. They join up with Creosote and Conina, the latter immediately falling in love with Nijel, and they encounter Abrim, who had put on the Archchancellor’s hat hoping to gain power from it, only to be possessed instead. Having the experience of many previous Archchancellors, the hat proves an even match for Sourcery-empowered wizards, fighting off a group of them and enlisting others to its cause. As this takes place, Rincewind, Conina, Nijel and Creosote find a magical flying carpet in the palace’s treasury, and use it to escape the palace as it gets destroyed by the possessed Abrim building his own tower.
With the orders no longer around to keep the wizards in check, wizards across the Discworld go to war with one another, threatening to destroy the world completely. Upon hearing Creosote express anti-wizard sentiments, an angry and humiliated Rincewind abandons the group, taking the flying carpet and making his way to the University, where he learns that the Librarian has saved the library books by hiding them in the ancient Tower of Art. The Librarian convinces Rincewind to stop Coin, and he goes off to face the Sourcerer with a sock containing a half-brick. Back in Al Khali, the Luggage, blaming the Archchancellor’s hat for everything it has endured, forces its way into Abrim’s tower. Distracted by the Luggage, the possessed vizier is killed by the Ankh-Morpork wizards, with the tower and the Archchancellor’s hat getting destroyed in the process.
Despite his victory, Coin becomes concerned when he is told that wizards rule under the Discworld Gods. He traps the gods in an alternate reality, which shrinks to become a large pearl, unknowingly causing the Ice Giants, a race of beings who had been imprisoned by the gods, to escape their prison, whereupon they begin strolling across the Discworld, freezing everything in their path. Rincewind confronts Coin soon after this. The Sourcerer is amused, but unthreatened, by Rincewind attempting to fight him, prompting Ipslore to try to force Coin to kill him. Rincewind eventually convinces Coin to throw the staff away, but Ipslore’s power is channelled against that of his son. The other wizards leave the tower as Rincewind rushes forward, grabbing the child and sending both of them to the Dungeon Dimensions while Death strikes the staff and takes Ipslore’s soul. Rincewind orders Coin to return to the University and, using his other sock filled with sand, attacks the Creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions as a distraction to ensure Coin’s escape. The Gods are subsequently set free, stopping the march of the Ice Giants. As the Librarian helps Coin escape, the Luggage charges into the Dungeon Dimensions after Rincewind.
Coin returns the University and Ankh-Morpork to the way they were before he came. After Conina and Nijel travel to the University looking for Rincewind, Coin uses his magic to make them forget him and live happily ever after together. Recognising that he is too powerful to remain in the world, Coin steps into a dimension of his own making and is not seen on the Discworld again. The Librarian takes Rincewind’s battered hat, which was left behind when he went into the Dungeon Dimensions, and places it on a pedestal in the Library. The narrator states, “A wizard…will always come back for his hat”.
Long ago, a human lord went into voluntary exile. Many thought he had somehow displeased the current Elven Emperor but this was a long term plan between them because of the Ancient Prophecy that warned about the Chartreuse Madness. The first unmistakable warning was the blooming of the Tree of Day and Night. With this, the Hidden King knew that one day his power would be needed. He went into exile to keep an eye on the Forest Castle where the Tree was growing.
WarriorArchmage
As the centuries rolled by, the Mad Chartreuse Emperor began his sweep of the land with his horde of Warriors. The Hidden King found a diamond in the rough with the last surviving member of the Steampunk tribe. She became his Archmage.
Garden’s True Spirit
When the Spirit of the Garden’s power was co-opted, it was another sign of the Prophecy. The Hidden King was a gentle soul however and he was not sure if he could do what would need to be done. Could he commit that act that would stain his soul for all eternity if it meant stopping the Chartreuse Madness?
I grew up with a large extended family. My mother and her sisters were all very close and as such there were times we all got together for several days to a week. Nothing is better than a Thanksgiving with close to 20 people in a big old house capable of holding twice that.
There was a pond with a homemade slip and slide that must have been close to one hundred feet long. In the summers it was the best thing ever. Running as fast as you could and throwing yourself headfirst while screaming as loudly as possible the whole time was the epitome of fun! And trying to break the speed record of the older cousins always gave it purpose!
My uncle and two of my cousins were hunters. The deer they shot put food on their table. I remember one Thanksgiving seeing three dead deer hanging in the yard from trees, by their hind feet. I asked my uncle why they were hanging there and he patiently explained the whole process of draining the blood and why it was so important. To a nine year old, that was big stuff!
Once I hit my teens, our families moved away from each other. But each summer I would go and spend a week with one of my cousins. We would wile away the days playing games, doing chores and reveling in the fact that we were old mature teenagers and everyone had to treat us seriously now. One game we played was Pass the Pigs.
We learned the game from one of our older cousin’s boyfriends. He had a pony tail and a British accent, so of course he was the coolest person in the whole world. Well, he liked Pass the Pigs, so we liked it too! We would use candy skittles to bet too, until “somebody” spilled the beans to her parents and we were forbidden to gamble any more. I still have my set 🙂
So family has been important to me my whole life. Which is why Mrs B and I bought plane tickets this week to go to Georgia in the fall to help celebrate my Mom’s birthday.
Who knew that buying plane tickets would unlock such a welter of good memories? I know not everyone has good family memories and I don’t take mine for granted. I have been blessed.
