A Day in the Life of Penguins Quack

Both my beloved Zella (Grammatically Motivated) and Scott (Ergo) have written "A Day in the Life of..." articles on their blogs and I have been inspired to write one of my own.

May day's are pretty irregular. Because I broke my leg I've had to postpone Uni and I can't work so most days are spent bludging around the house. Except on Wednesdays and Thursdays I go with my mum to the school she teachers at as a volunteer. So here's a typical Wednesday/Thursday in the life of Penguins Quack.

6:45 - my alarm doesn't go off. I forgot to set it again. Instead I'm woken by mum's alarm going off in her room. Screw it. I'm not getting up.

6:50 - I realise mum will kill me if I don't get up but still can't be motivated to get out of my warm, comfy bed. I turn on my CD player. My theory says the Alkaline Trio will help me get up. For some reason Birds of Tokyo starts to play and I doze off again.

7:10 - Mum charges into my room telling me to get up. I tell her I already am, I just finished rubbing bio-oil on my scars. She leaves and I start rubbing bio-oil on my scars before putting on some jeans and my periodic table T-shirt.

7:15 - I stare into the fridge, then the pantry, then the freezer. I complain that there's nothing to eat for breakfast. I don't eat cereal and we're out of raisin toast. And bread. And milk. In the end I settle for mum's crumpets.

7:45 - Mum comes into the kitchen while I'm still eating and asks if I'm ready to leave. I'm not. I spent half an hour chatting to my brother, O'Malley, instead of getting ready. I run to the bathroom and brush my teeth while also brushing my hair and putting shoes on.

7:50: Mum makes me drive the 20 minute drive out to the small Aboriginal school she works at.

8:10 - We finally arrive. 10 minutes late. We go to the library where mum, the teacher-librarian, turn on the computer and sets up the borrowing system while I read picture books.

8:45 - School starts. All 23 students line up for morning notices and nose-blowing. For some reason we have to teach the kids how to blow their noses, and for some reason I have to participate. The kids then do two laps of the oval. Luke once again manages to get away with only doing half a one.

9:00 - Literacy. I take the slow learners out of the class. We do Look Say Cover Write Check with their spelling, I give them a test and then we do readers. The most boring stories ever written that i must read through about 4 times each day.

11:30-ish (I don't really know the school bell times) - Recess! Ramsey's about ready to thrash me with his reader and Maylan is asleep. The bell rings and the three of us enthusiastically run outside. I eat while chatting to the teachers. Someone asks Mr Nayler to peel their orange.

11:45-ish - Numeracy. I play snakes and ladders with the slow learners. The aim is number identification and counting forwards and backwards from a number. I lose the game, having gotten no closer to 100 that 20 the entire game.

1:15-ish - Lunchtime! At last! Escape! I flee from my horror, pledging never to play snakes and ladders again. Someone asks Mr Nayler to open their can of tuna.

1:45-ish - I have a choice. Take the infants for library with mum, or take the primary class for information tech. with Mr M. (the kids can't pronounce Reece's last name. I can't spell it). I take information tech. because Maylan wants me too. They're writing picture books for the infants class. Maylan and I spend all lesson trying to draw an alien on the un-oriented smart board.

2:30 - Mum returns and we do HSIE (human society in its environment). She's teaching "communities" so everyone has to draw a building in their community. At Natalie and Brianna's request I participate. I draw the doctors surgery. Then Brianna makes me draw a dolphin.

3:00 - Finally school ends and we head straight out to mum's friends place. He has a spa/hot-tub which I use for physio. Even when using it for physio, a spa is super-duper awesome.

4:45 - On the way home mum and I buy something for dinner because there's never any food in the house. When I say buy something for dinner, I mean a BBQ chicken.

5:00 - Finally home and I go straight to the computer. Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, Sparklife, Manga. On good Thursday afternoon's all the Shounen Jump manga's could be out. Otherwise I spend all evening refreshing the One Manga home page.

6:30 - We eat the BBQ chicken. Mum asks O'Malley how his day was and he gives an average answer. Mum and I then go and eat our dinner in front of the TV. O'Malley somehow manages to eat while playing TFC online.

7:00 - O'Malley and I wash up while mum goes for a walk. I then check Facebook and One Manga.

7:30 - after reading all my Shounen Jump I skype my twin brother, the Chairman, who is at a college in Canberra and whine about the latest Bleach to him. We then analyse everything that happened in Naruto to the point that an English teach would be shocked. We have nothing but praise for One Piece. I then complain that Skip Beat hasn't come out for three weeks and the Chairman hangs up on me.

8:30 - On Wednesdays I watch Spicks and Specks religiously, followed by Hungry Beast. On Thursdays I procrastinate until How I Met Your Mother at 9:00.

9:30 - I hope into bed and read and listen to music, at some point remembering to apply my bio-oil. I forget to set my alarm.

10:30 - Lights out. Music off.

11:40 - lights back on. Inspiration for something to write.

12:00 - back to sleep.

What do your day's involve?

Stranded

Today, my computer has been confiscated so I write this from my iPod. My iPod would have been confiscated too except that I use it to time my physio exercises.
My mum decided to steal and hide my computer because she thinks I spend too much time reading manga and not enough time doing said physio exercises. I blame midday movies, not manga. (But how can she take it on a Thursday and a Friday? That's when the new Naruto, Bleach and One Piece come out! And Skip Beat is due out on the weekend!)
Oh well. I still have my iPod so I do have a way around it but I don't think I'll be getting on Sparklife *bursts out in tears*.
if mum was really into getting me off the Internet she should turn of the modem for the wifi. It's on the ground so I can't reach it without being totally stranded (I can't put any weight on my broken leg so standing back up is not an option. Although my friend has already suggested using a Jack to lift myself off the ground).
But that's where I'm at. I may not yet be stranded on the floor, under a table, trying to reach the modem, but I am stranded, housebound, without my computer. So no manga, no Sparklife and no writing that story I was working on.
I guess the only option is to do my physio and win mum's trust back.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

An Introduction to my Manga Obsession

So I'm a nerd. I know I'm nerd. Everyone knows I'm a nerd. But if I was to be placed into a stereotype for which kind of nerd I am, things get a little bit more complicated.

I'm an English Nerd. I love literature. I love writing. And I love correcting peoples grammar (but I'm really hypocritical when it comes to this). I'm the school's Grammar Nazi.

I'm a comic book geek. DC pwns Marvel. V for Vendetta is a great piece of modern literature. The Flash is just awesome. Batman too. Ask me a superhero question and it likely I'll know the answer, especially if it's about my fave's. But don't get me wrong. I don't actually read that many comics, I can't, I'm stuck in a small town without any comic book stores (sob). I just know a lot about superheroes.

I may not exactly be a gaming nerd, but I can certainly hold my own against a few of them. Sorry au7is7ic r4bbi but you just got pwnd by Spawn Camper! (Yeah... that's my Team Fortress name...)

I'm a manga nerd. Well, truthfully, I don't think I'm that much of a manga nerd, I just read a fair bit of it. Although my frienemy argues otherwise (it's so funny that I have a love-hate relationship with this dude and my brother has a love-hate relationship with his sister).

So because I'm one of the only manga readers in this one horse town and thus an expert/nerd about the topic and because I want to spread my nerdy manga-loving joy here is a "guide" to the manga I read.

Naruto:

Naruto is the number 1 manga on the One Manga site, where I read my manga. (I said manga three times in one sentence. Impressed?). Twelve years before the series starts the nine-tailed Demon fox, the Kyuubi, attacks Konoha, the hidden leaf village. This is a massive fox, by the way, about as big as the city itself (Konoha is more of a city than a village, despite its name). To stop the demon fox from destroying the town the leader of the village, the fourth Hokage, sacrifices his life to seal the Kyuubi inside a new born baby. This baby is the titular character, Naruto Uzumaki.

I do love reading Naruto. It was the first manga I read because I got sick of only seeing repeats of the Naruto anime. Personally I much prefer the manga; no filler arcs. To put it simply, Naruto is about ninjas. To put it just as simply, it's about a boy with a fox inside him that dreams of becoming the next hokage, wants to save his friend, and says "believe it" too much through the first season. But saying that doesn't really sell the series, does it?

Naruto has action, adventure, drama and humor. It's plot is pretty good. You can tell a lot of thought has gone into it. My one problem is that often the arcs get repetitive. A person fights Naruto. That Person has a sad story. That sad story echoes that of Naruto. The person is inspired by Naruto and with their last ounce of strength redeems themself. Even though this repetitiveness annoys the hell out of me, Masashi Kishimoto still make each story interesting.
I love Naruto and I can't wait for it's release every week. I suggest it as the manga to start with, if you haven't read any before. After all it is One Manga's number 1 manga.

Bleach:

Bleach is the number 2 manga on the One Manga site. I'm not really sure why this series is called Bleach but I think it has something to do with everyone accusing the main character, Ichigo Kurosaki, of having bleached his hair. But this only happens something like twice and is not at all relevant to the plot, so I'm still unsure.

Ichigo has always been able to see ghosts but things only become interesting when he encounters Rukia Kuchiki, a shinigami (god of death or soul reaper). Through a shocking twist of events Ichigo becomes a shinigami himself. It becomes Ichigo's job to protect innocents from hollows, evil spirits that prey on humans with psychic energy, and help spirits to find peace.

I don't really know why I still read this, or why I love it so much. The series is sadly lacking plot and is just one action scene after another. I guess that is because it is a shounen manga, that is, for guys, and guys seem to prefer action over plot. Sad, sad, males...
I have seriously lost all respect for Tite Kubo because of his inability to write a plot and his futile attempt to do so that didn't make much sense. I guess I only read it in the hope that something will one day happen. Either way, I still love this series and will continue reading it until the end.

I'm going to suggest you try it, just to see what you think, but it is second best to Naruto and there are other Manga the triumph it for me.

One Piece

One Piece is the number 3 manga on One Manga (seeing a pattern here?). I'm only about 100 issues into this 500+ (and still counting) series. Although I will get back around to reading some more if it and hopefully finishing it.

Monkey D Luffy dreams of being the greatest Pirate in the world and to do so he needs to sail the Grand Line (the most dangerous ocean in the world) and find One Piece the greatest treasure of all time.

As a kid Luffy eats the legendary Gomu Gomu Devil's fruit and becomes able to stretch. Yes, stretch. Just like Mr Incredible (but he is a thousand times cooler than that lame Marvel character). When he is about 16 (I think) he sets out in a little dingy of a pirate ship and does some pretty heroic deeds for a pirate, make enemies with pirates and marines alike. Slowly he puts together an awesome crew and gradually gets large ships.

One Piece is really quite good despite the anime being less than brilliant. The characters are all quite complex and have interesting back stories. Luffy is actually quite a similar character to Naruto but I wouldn't ever compare the two. Luffy is perhaps more interesting to watch than Naruto because he never really does what you would expect.

Keep in mind I am only 100 issues in so I can't give you much here but I will say that I do have Luffy's and Zoro's wanted posters up on my wall so the series must be reasonably good.

Full Metal Alchemist:

Full Metal Alchemist holds fifth place on the One Manga charts (ha! Take that pattern) and it was the third Manga I read because I had a friend tell me how good the anime was. Well, let me tell you now how much the anime sucks. Okay, well I suppose the anime doesn't suck. I just don't like it because it has a different plot to the manga and I hate things that do that. It is like watching a movie based on your favourite book but it leaves out all your favourite scenes and changes the ending. If you want to watch the FMA anime watch Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood which actually follows the plot of the manga.

I'll explain this series to you the same way my friend did to me "It's about alchemists but they're awesome and do cool stuff!". Okay, maybe I should give it to you in more depth.

After Edward and Alphonse Elric fail to uses alchemy to revive their dead mother Ed looses an arm and a leg and Al looses his entire body (but Ed manages to transfer Al's soul into a conveniently placed suit of armour to keep him alive). The series is about their search for the philosophers stone in order to restore their bodies and the conspiracy they uncover on the way.

I know I should try and be more critical in my reviews of these manga, but I wouldn't read them if I didn't love them. So all I can say is how much I love FMA and I will tell you that I do cry every time a character gets hurt. Yes, I'm that pathetic.

Unlike the previous three Manga which come out weekly, FMA is a monthly manga so the issues are longer and the series is shorter. FMA had just reached its climax and is at about at issue 100. My bet is that the serise will end at 110 and everything is so thrilling at the moment I can't wait for each month. You really should get on board this excitement and start reading FMA!

Claymore:

Out of all the manga I read, Claymore is probably my least favourite. While the cast of Claymore is almost entirely strong female characters it is most obviously a shounen series. You can easily tell that it is aimed at a teenage male audience through the partial nudity that gets worse as the series progresses (particually that scene with Raffaela and her sister. I mean, what the hell?).

Maybe that is the reason I don't like this series as much as the others. Cause I'm a girl and I find that a little offensive.

Anyway, Claymore is ranked number 12 on One Manga and it is centred around Claire a member of an organisation made entirely out of women called claymore after the swords they use. Claymore are half human-half Yoma (demon) and it is their job it kill Yoma, who feed on humans but cannot be detected by them.

I don't suggest Claymore as highly as I do the others on my list but it is still a good series. But if you like fantasy than maybe its a good one to check out.

Skip Beat:

Skip Beat is the only Shoujo manga that I read (that is, manga aimed at teenage girls) and I absolutly adore it! It is cute and quirky. It's fun and heart warming. You're either laughing at Kyoko's antics or crying over Ren's heartache (or flipping off Shou).

Skip Beat is number 13 on the One Manga charts and the number 2 Shoujo. Although until recently it was number 1 and still should be. It was unfairly over taken by Vampire Knights because vampires are all the rage now, thanks to S. Meyers. I have read some Vampire Knights and I can tell you it is no where near as good as Skip Beat.

No matter how I explain Skip Beat it comes across sounding lame, but trust me, it is a must read for girls (guys, not so much). It is about Kyoko Mogami who tavels to Tokyo to support the guy she loves, Shou, as he becomes a music idol. But when Shou becomes famous he ditches her and she finds out that he only ever thought of her as a maid anyway. Kyoko decides to get her revenge by becoming a bigger celebrity than him and has everyone fall in love with her on the way up.

Skip beat is on a fortnightly release but it scarily hasn't beein released in the past month and I'm really beginning to panic. Seriously, the cliff hanger it is on is seriously going to kill me.

I hope I have convinced at least one of you to read Skip Beat because you really should. When my friend suggested it to me I was really sceptical, but once I started I couldn't stop and I totally fell in love.

In case I have convinced you to read it I just want to warn you, Yukihito Yashiro is all mine.

Death Note:

Now, if you thought I was enthusiastic about Skip Beat that was nothing compared to Death Note. Death Note is the greatest manga of all time and shoud be number 1 (not all the way down at 62). Death Note is a fairly old series now, and the only one I have read that has actually finished (I blame this as the reason it's rating has dropped so low).

Death Note is about Yagami Light, the number 1 student in Japan, who finds the Death Note. When a persons name is written in this book they die and Light aspires to use this power to ride the world of evil and create a utopian world with him as the god. Thus Light takes on the alias of Kira (killer) and begins using the Death Note to rid the world of crime. The legendary detective, L, is enlisted to try and track down and it becomes an awesome game of cat and mouse as each side try and take the other out.

This is a really dark series and most of the characters scare the hell out of me (except Misa and Matsuda) even L and Near. Expectally Near, actually. Any 16-year-old that plays with toys like him should be feared. Light is probably the most terrifying character in manga.

Even so, I love the characters. L is mysterious and cute and awesome. Matt may be in only 12 frames through out the entire series but has more fan girls than most characters in other manga. And Mello may look like a girl but he is the hottest thing on the planet. (I love Mello!).

You seriously need to read Death Note. Seriously. I mean, you could try the anime, but Light looks like he's having sex eveytime he writes in the death note in the anime so really, try the manga. Really, read Death Note.

So, that's my say on manga. I hope at least one of you got something out of it and that at least one of you is about to go read Skip Beat and Death Note and hopefully one or two of the others as well.

I'm sorry this was so long, but I'm a major manga fan and once I started I couldn't stop. Please go read something and tell me what you think. xxx

I Prefer Guys Who Don't Really Exist

With the approaching release of the next Twilight movie hysteria is once again taking hold the twi-hard fangirls, but now the obsession is not only with Eddie C but also with the gorgeous looking Jacob.

All this Twilight hype has finally made me realise that I'm not actually the only one who has crushes on fictional characters. I know everyone has had one celebrity crush or another but thanks to Twilight it's finally becoming clear that people (besides myself) do fall in love with fictitious characters.

Therefore I've decided to compile of all my fictional love interests for you to laugh at and I hope you'll leave your own fictional infatuations for me in the comments. I'm also very interested to see if any guys have fictional crushes or if its just limited to Megan Fox like with my friends.

Anyway, here's my list, its not exactly complete but I will try to update it:

1. My number one is, of course, Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. This list will make it obvious that I love troubled guys.
2. Gaara from Naruto. This one's kind of embarrassing so I thought I'd get it out quickly.
3. Itachi from Naruto. What I say? Already three troubled guys on my list.
4. Kakashi from Naruto. Alright, this Naruto business is getting a little ridiculous, so lets just finish up with it; the list also includes Shikamaru.
5. Ulquiorra from Bleach. I like my manga, alright, and I like the fact he's nihilistic (told you I like troubled guys).
6. Mello from Death Note. I guess this one's been coming on for a while but I'm only just realising it. Although he is the most feminine character in appearance he's also the only one with real balls and the only character who doesn't scare me (you know, besides Matsuda)
7. Greed/Ling Yao from Fullmetal Alchemist. This is two awesome guys in one, so that's kind of cool, but I suppose the double personality thing could get a little awkward.
8. Nat Eaton from the Witch of Blackbird Pond. Playful, sexy and flirtatious. And he has a cool name.
9. Any character played by Johnny Depp. I know I said fictional characters but... Johnny Depp!
10. Nathanial by the end of the Bartimaeus trilogy. He may be a jerk most of the way through but by the end, love him! (Bartimaeus is pretty hot too)
11. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Is there any character sexier than Atticus Finch? I don't think so. He's a really man. Total heart throb. He's chivalrous and caring and honourable and... I could go on. I also can't wait until Jem grows up (not that that will every happen but still...).
12. The Flash. The world's best superhero who I've been in love with since I was a kid. He's not a pansy like Superman or moody like Batman, he's funny and just plain awesome.
13. Batman. His moodiness is sexy.
14. Pagan from Pagan's Crusade (and the rest of the series). Pagan's hilarious commentary is all I need. I could listen to him all day and happily would, if I got the chance.
15. Martin the Warrior from the Tales of Redwall. So what if he's a mouse?! He's awesome!
16. While we're in the "not-exactly-human" area I'll also mention Nawat Crow from Tricksters choice who was a crow-turned-human
17. And the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. He's so charming and if I were a Disney princess I'd definitely be Belle
18. Artemis Fowl from Artemis Fowl (of course). He's smart and kinda evil, nice with a bad side, and still hot!
19. Demetri from Anastasia. So what if the movie wasn't historically accurate? I love Disney movies and Demetri was gorgeous
20. Indiana Jones. He's an archeologist and he's hot, what more could I want?
21. I'm probably also going to have to add Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist to this list because that automail is really sexy and I love the way he cares for his brother. In fact, add Alphonse Elric as well.
22. Peter Pan, because I'd love to fly away with him to Neverland
23. Dustfinger from Inkheart. That's all I need to say; Dustfinger.
24. The Terminator! That was a joke.
25. Fang from Maximum Ride. Silent, brooding, badboymojo type whose also can be all kind and caring
26. I'd like to add where's Wally just so I can make a joke about him playing had to get.

That's all for now but this list will probable get updated. I really look forward to your replies.

Plans

With my trial exams in two days time and being completely over all this study I've compiled a list of everything I want to do in the summer when this is all over.

When I get out of that exam November 6th I'm running free.

I know the summer should be full of parties but what I want to do is read a book of my own choosing, just for pleasure, sleep in, and complete an artwork.

And i want to go on a road trip with my friends and experience real freedom.

And I want to go on a road trip with my family, for that family holiday.

I'm going to detergent up a tarp and make a slip-and-slide.

I want to watch movies all night and pwn at a lan-gaming comp.

I want to mosh at a concert and get the bands autograph

I'm going to forget everything I learnt

I want to spend a full day at the movie theatre watching movie after movie at an outrageously high price.

I want to write a novel and wear dresses.

I want to pump music and have a 'Risky Business' moment.

I'm going to read Naruto and Bleach every Friday and get up to date on One Piece and Vampire Knight and read Sailor Moon because... well, why not?

I'm going to go swimming with a bunch of mates at the falls

and maybe go camping

The Anarchist and the Oyster

This post was originally entitled "Facebook and Manga" but I found it much to boring, so instead, a Bartamaus reference!

So people tell me "if you get face book say goodbye to your high school certificate" but having recently joined Facebook (yes, only recently) I have to say how wrong they are. Try having a manga addiction! Its a thousand times worse!
New Naruto and Bleach each week, Fullmetal Alchemist once a month. And I'm only about a third of the way through the issues of One Piece and Vampire Knight! Thank god I've finished reading Death Note.
This is a really bad addiction. Its wreaking my life.And sadly I prefer it to my life.
Too bad there's no rehab for the comic obsessed.
That'd be funny, you could have a total nerd rehab centre for people like me and people addicted to things like WoW and Larping and novelty startrek hats.

Oh, and by the way, the new Naruto and Bleach are out tomorrow!

Mello

Mello's my favourte Death Note character. The others scare me. Even Near. Actually, especially Near. Not as much as Light though. OMG he's terrifying.
I like L though. And Matt.
Still, by the end of it all Mello rocks

Death Note!!

Just finished reading the entire series of Death Note and had to tell someone. Man that was intense!

I read too much manga but I don't really care. Although it does distract me from my school work. I'm supposed to doing my extension history historical inquiry and instead I'm reading Death Note and then posting about it.

Drats.

At least now i won't have anything to distract my for the rest of the holidays. No manga that is (until the new Naruto comes out next friday. OMG Danzo has sharingan!!). I'll still have facebook distracting me.

Wow. This is a rambling post but whatever.

I'm going to go cook dinner.

Night!