Simply Ridiculous.

I've told you all about my voracious reading appetite and how it's been sated only on manga lately. Well, manga and anime, if you think that subtitles count (which I don't). But I don't think this is a really clear picture of the absolutely ridiculous amount of time I've spent on this endevour. To clear this up, I present the time I've spent in this pursuit, according to MyAnimeList:
9 3/4 days' worth of manga has been read. That would be if I sat down for nine days and sixteen hours straight reading. In other words, I would be dead.
Even more ridiculous is the 13.1 days of anime I've watched. No lie. This is where my summer is vanishing to.
But really, I'm being unfair by saying that. I have spent so much time out of the house this summer versus last. Obviously I'm not including holidays in that, because no summer will be comparable to last summer's holidays (Japan and Mediterranean Sea, in case you don't remember). Really, though. Thanks to the brilliant thing called a driver's license, I can actually visit with my friends at my leisure.
I also like being able to go to the library whenever I damn well choose to.

Literarily yours,
Murphs

I WISH I WAS BORED.

Daaaamn I haven't written anything in a while. I guess there really just hasn't been anything to say. I've been doing about what any of you would expect, right? Watching anime and reading. My god, have I been reading. A couple nights ago, I read the entirety of Lirael in one go. I am being totally serious. Seven hundred and five pages, in one sitting (more or less.). I can't tell if that's a good thing, or a bad thing.
See, I would say I was SO BORED, except then I can't really blame the boredom on anybody but myself (One can never blame boredom on anyone but oneself.).
I know what I can introduce you all to! This is Synthonym. He's a steampunk too, (England-based) and we've been talking online for a bit. When the mood strikes, I can't get enough of his stuff. It really makes me wonder what Joel would think of it.
Well, I'll leave it all at that. Maybe something exciting will happen to me soon, or I'll leave the house where I reside. I haven't done that in a while...

Lazily,
Murphs

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, FINALLY.

I've managed to keep this from my blog for the past seven months, but now that my mum's court case is over, I think I'll post all the little details here, where all the world c an understand how much I loathe the American legal system. For starters, don't get me wrong. We've a pretty good legal system, but how great can any legal system be?

Starting point: Sunday, January 18th, this year. Chaos, Henry and Ruby, the family mutts (read: I'm a cat person.) maim a moose. Mostly Chaos and Henry and it was a calf, but still. These dogs brought down a moose. I think that gives any of you who haven't met them an idea of their size. Roughly 180 and 150 pounds, if you want actual figures.
Anyway, the moose is dispatched (A term used far too much in the proceeding days) and for two days we think all is more or less okay. Sure, we expect a fine, but what else?

Three days later, SCRAPS arrives at the house where I reside for what my mum thought was to take statements, but was, in reality, to cart away the three trouble-makers. The SCRAPS officer manages to lift and take away Henry and Ruby in his large vehicle, but finds himself unable to convince the largest idiot (Chaos) into the truck. Despite how angry she is with the officer (and my youngest sister home sick), my mum volunteers to take Chaos in the family mini-van to the shelter. She couldn't get up the driveway in the van, so she took him the next day after dropping me off at school.

You know what she did every day after dropping me off while they were in there? She went and visited them, everyday. Don't tell her, but one suspects she likes the dogs more than her offspring. I mean, really! She really did visit those dogs every single day. (This is also the period of time wherein my mum got into heated disputes with Nancy Hill, SCRAPS supervisor, about the treatment of our dogs, but that's a whole other can of worms, which I shall seal shut.)

So we had to fufill all the county requirements for owning a Potentially Dangerous Dog and two Dangerous Dogs (Ruby is only potentially dangerous, because all she did was bark at the moose.). This means a multitude of things, including but not limited to: keeping the dogs in a kennel with a roof (They could jump out!) pr the house at all times unless they're on a leash with a muzzle. Being walked by somebody fifteen or older (What the hell, really!?). This last bit was the most irritating as it left exactly three people in our house able to walk the damn mutts, my mum, my dad and me.

Moving forward, to March-ish. My mum loves to call this bit the time when we've been 'railroaded'. The dogs were, as she puts it, given an unfair trial (it wasn't really a trial, but I've forgotten what it was officially called.) and declared dangerous/potentially dangerous. This is the part my mother hasn't finished fighting 'gainst, but we're close enough to the end of the tunnel that I don't really care anymore. I got to actually attend this part as it was right after school and I couldn't yet drive.
This was actually the most embarrassing event for me, because my mum berated the prosecutor afterward and all I could do was stand there awkwardly and attempt to blend into the walls. (For the record, it doesn't work to press yourself against them and think beige beige beige.

Finally this week, my mum's trial came time and about three hours ago, came to its thankfully Not Guilty ending. FINALLY. I can stop hearing about this goddamned case. I'm sure that moose has already been reincarnated by now! Maybe I'm being a little selfish about this whole matter, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I don't know if I can stand to hear about it anymore. And now that the whole messy matter's been documented right here, you won't have to either.

Now you should go read something actually interesting, like Ms. Miles' account of Japan so far. She's a far classier act than I.

Blissfully,
Murphs

Melonpan!

Today I made Melon Bread. Sort of. The recipe technically called for melon essence (or pineapple extract), but there was none to be found in the house where I reside nor the local grocery store. So instead, I bought orange extract and replaced half of the recipe's lemon zest with dried orange peel. My family says they taste very good, despite the lack of melonness. I wonder where in Spokane one can purchase melon essence. Surely somewhere? Oh well. Here's two photographs of the completed buns: One Two.

Shoot me an email if you want the recipe!

(Or comment, for god's sake...)
Murphs

EXCITED.

So I just got my Nintendo Power (having neglected picking up the mail yesterday) and I have to tell you, I'M SO DAMN EXCITED NOW. I mean, even three hours ago, I was not feeling so great, but NOW... Now there's things to look forward to in life. Things like this. That's right. We've been waiting three years, and we're finally getting teasing art. That's it. No name. No info on the girl. No reasoning as to why Link's hair turned inexplicably more yellow. NOTHING. みやもと-さま hates gamers. Or he's a sadist. Because this is all we get.

Now that I'm done banging my head against the wall (because it's hard to convince yourself that won't make time speed up), I'll tell you about all of Nintendo's other shenanigans I'm excited about. For starters, I'm really looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, due in September. But really, who wouldn't be? Super Mario Galaxy 2 seemed to catch the attention of the Nintendo Power people, but I'm always hesitant to accept a sequel. The grand Muramasa: The Demon Blade caught my attention in the previous issue, but I'm glad that at least we now know it's coming out sometime in Autumn this year.

But what I'm REALLY looking forward to (Besides this enigmatic Zelda) is the new DS Zelda, Spirit Tracks. (Really, it's called Spirit Tracks.) And hey, guess what? It's on a train. But that's not coming put till around the holidays, so it has nothing, absolutely nothing on the new Professor Layton. The one I saw in Japan but decided not to purchase? COMING TO A DS NEAR YOU THIS AUGUST. Or rather, a DS near me. This is the time, friends, to ChaCha, even though I loathe it, so I can buy Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (I still think they should have stuck with Pandora's Box.)

じゃ ね!

Murphs

Cookies

You know how in most of those slice-of-life anime/manga, they're always making those checkered cookies? You know what I mean, right? Why is it always those? I mean, they're kawaii and all, but they're ridiculously hard to make. And there's refridgeration involved! How can a home economics class have time to chill dough on three seperate occasions?! ...I suppose that they could be using a different recipe, but that wouldn't make it any easier to bake.
But I'm expecting too much out of my entertainment again. It wouldn't be entertainment if it was all historically/scientifically/physically possible, I guess.
In the mean time, I guess I'll just have to keep practising. That is what people who really like something do when they're bad at it, right? Practise?

Murphs