A Girl's Open Thread

Post anything in the comments or on the blog's face to your heart's content.

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Saturday Morning Otaku
I recently added a couple of new manga to my reading list (when did I become such a manga-nerd?):



'Ane Doki' which is more ecchi-absurdity than I typically care for but the kid is so cutely horrified and there is a sure-handed warmth to his portrayal that is a notch above the typical manga horndog. Click the title/link and you'll find a summary and manga chapters. [pic source: onemanga.com]








'Cage of Eden' is much more up my alley what with the harrowing attempts at survival, bloody deaths and tight friendships. Click the title/link and you'll find a summary and manga chapters. [pic source: onemanga.com]





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Oh, Brandon your blog's address is so cute 'blondemixedblood', hee. Aw, I miss you too! Give me details on how you are doing, what you're doing -- let a girl live vicariously!

Thanks for the recommendation! I added Evelyn Duprai to my playlist of new music! You know you are a creeping f-er: your recommendations seem to work on a subconscious level, working their way up until kablooey full blown love. You are a dangerous person. LOL Speaking of music...

New Music Everyone Must Like Because I Said So!!! LOL, I kid! I don't even know if I like the music let alone if anyone else would, should... pay no attention to the girl with the notebook! Since Brandon dropped me a music suggestion I opened Rhapsody to find this talented artist (and she must be talented if Brandon likes her) and came across a raft of Rhapsody new music/album recommendations:



Shakira. Song, 'She Wolf', isn't half bad! It will probably be a song I love against my will as with that Ciara & Justin song.



Anjulie. Song, 'The Heat' -- this song and I will have a short summer fling, then I'll disavow ever liking it, I can tell. I am an idiot -- I love this song! It's so sultry.

Jordin Sparks. Song, 'Battlefield', is just okay. I have never been mightily impressed by Miss Sparks but what can be done? Very few Idols can pull a 'Kelly Clarkson'.

Maxwell. If you love dulcet soul falsettos as I do, and a damn sexy man as I do, then listen to and drool over Maxwell. These songs off his new album are smooth. 'Stop the World' and 'Love You'. For 'Pretty Wings' I have provided the vid below --




One Republic feat Sara Bareilles. Song, 'Come Home' is a song I think you might really like Brandon; I'm not sure why I think that I just do. I am, of course, open to being wrong.

The Dead Weathers. Song, 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' is okay, very Jack White of White Stripes fame.

Evelyn Duprai. Songs, 'No Ordinary Day' and 'You Can Be Happy'. She's British?! There have been a number of British ingenue-imports flooding the market lately. I pulled a small sample (four songs) off her only available album on Rhapsody and these are the two I like most.

A Girl's Open Thread

Again?! Yes, again. It's meant to mark the weekend, and it's the weekend. I hadn't much to write in the interim days so two open threads in a row.

What has happened this week? Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died. The latter was sadly expected while the former was a shock. If only, in the wake of his death, the only memories we embraced of him were positive, his music for one. Yet the media appears determined to make a circus of his funeral, the welfare of his estate and his children. He did not always make the wisest choices -- who among us does? However he deserves a funeral free of the malicious gawking and self-righteous judgments which marked the later years of his life. Let the man rest in peace. My first real experience with Farrah Fawcett was in a telefilm about a woman who was raped; when her rapist comes for her again, she traps him in her fireplace. It is a crazy movie but her intensity, the rawness of her situation grabbed my attention as a child. She acted the hell out of that role; I believed in her pressure, her overwhelming fear and unbridled rage. For many Farrah is Charlie's Angel; for others she is the woman from 'The Burning Bed'; for me she will always be that broken yet fierce woman wielding a poker demanding justice for herself. /passings

Moving briefly to politics: Sarah Palin announced the resignation of her governorship. O-kay. I am not big on her; I don't like her, but I'm dyed blue and her message is not for me. I can say she did herself no favors neither with her resignation nor with the rambling press conference marking the announcement. /politics

If you are a fan of Moby, his new album 'Wait For Me' just dropped. It's very Moby and a pretty listen. /music

I haven't written about it since it is depressing but my boy, my favorite of faves, Nadal, has been sidelined with tendonitis in his knee. I really miss watching him play especially at Wimbledon which is currently ongoing. However, the tournament is drawing to its close and most of the usual suspects are in the final but there is one welcome surprise. Andy Roddick. He's in the Wimbledon final!!! Congratulations Andy, it's been a long slog! Juan Carlos Ferrero was my first tennis crush but Andy was the first male tennis player I ever rooted for with obsessive zeal (kind of like the way I am with Nadal now). So, he's still in my "stable" and I do a little mental happy dance when he does well. He appears to have found the next level, now he needs to bring it against Roger. Come on, Andy! My girls, Venus and Serena Williams, are in the women's final for the second year in a row. Suck it on it, haters! For me choosing between them is no longer like choosing between children, for the longest time now it has been Venus all the way. Tomorrow is no different! Bring the pain, Venus -- take that title! My girls are also in the doubles final for the second year in the row, defending champions. That's right, they carried twice the hardware out of England last year and I'm crossing my fingers they'll do so again. As it is, they are guaranteed first and second place finishes, as it were, in the single's match. I admit I skipped the first week at Wimbledon due to the lack of Nadal but the second week is typically where all the fire is anyhow. Some of those matches were really sweet! Ooh, good luck to my favorites! Just bring a good fight, the best fight and (hopefully) the rest will follow. /sports fanaticism

Oh, I picked out a new manga to read. Actually it's a manwha (the Korean version of the Japanese manga) called 'Psyren'. I was randomly searching for 'Veritas' raws and came across a board on which someone stated (paraphrase), 'Veritas' is so good I like it better than 'Psyren' now. I decided to check out 'Psyren' based on that alone since the writer and I shared a love of 'Veritas'; I figured it meant we had similar taste in manwha. Turns out we do! 'Psyren' is great though I also understand why 'Veritas' blows it out of the water -- better artwork, tighter plotting, in most categories this manwha loses to 'Veritas'. It's still wonderful with a compelling the story that seems to have picked up its pacing as the tale progresses. /otaku

I will write a rondeau. It is a poetry form requiring the repetition of the first part of the first line (a refrain) and a rhyming scheme of:
a
a
b
b
a

a
a
b
R(efrain)

a
a
b
b
a
R(efrain)

Not in this post, silly! I haven't started yet but I want to declare my intention. /Friday

A Girl's Open Thread

You know what to do. Comment on stuff. Whatever you like.

Me? Today I made a cherry clafouti and a Mexican chocolate cake with butter-cream icing. I guess I was in a baking mood. Clafouti is a French dessert and it turned out okay. Someone on Saveur -- where I got the recipe -- described it as a cross between custard and cake. I'd go more with custard, like a bread pudding type custard. It's a tea-time snack so I enjoyed a slice with a scalding hot cup of tea which I forgot was scalding hence my now scalded tongue. I am an idiot, ha!

The Mexican chocolate cake (from Real Simple) is quite delicious. It has cayenne pepper in it which, to be honest, is the driving reason behind why I made the cake in the first place. The recipe called for a chocolate glaze but knowing myself and family not to be chocolate people, I decided to avoid a chocolate-on-chocolate disaster and instead pilfered an icing from another Saveur recipe. I now know how to make a passable butter-cream icing. Huh. While I don't feel precisely accomplished, I don't feel precisely unaccomplished, so yeah, I'm good heading into this weekend.

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'allo! Today a few new recommendations:
Regina Spektor, a Russian-born singer of pretty talent. When sampling her work might I recommend skipping her album, 'Soviet Kitsch', and beginning with 'Begin To Hope' -- it has a better flavor of songs in my humble opinion. She recently released another CD, 'Far', and her musical maturity really shines through every song. I'm currently listening to it (via Rhapsody) and so far 'Far' is fantastic! My favorites off the album as of now: 'Blue Lips' and 'Human of the Year' and 'Laughing With' and 'Dance Anthem of the '80s' is a fun little diddy.

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Going through the site, Ffffound, and came across this JPEG; the Rilke quote reminded me of the feeling the pic evokes. "My eyes already touch the sunny hill. / going far ahead of the road I have begun." (Rilke); click on the quote to see the pic. Speaking of evoking feelings, I'd love to have this piece. Isn't it gorgeous?

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"The lover whose soul shaken is
In some decuman billow of bliss."
~ Francis Thompson; The Way of a Maid; c. 1890.

Courtesy of A Word A Day, a mailing group dedicated to expanding the vocabulary of the masses by sharing the wonder and eccentricities of words. The italicized word within the quote, decuman, is A Word A Day fare. Do not be fooled by its noun like appearance -- it is an adjective; its meaning? 'Very large'. What I find so interesting about it is A) it is an adjective and B) its etymology. Rooted in the Latin decumanus, itself rooted in decimanus... decimus... and finally decem... each a variation on the theme of 'ten'. Decumanus was used many times by the Romans in conjunction with waves because they held to a belief that every tenth wave was the strongest. It also referred to the main gate of a military camp; the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed at that gate. Since it shares a root, decimate is also a relation and the word, dean, literally means 'a chief of ten'. Isn't that last part just fascinating?

Did you know atone is nothing more than a contraction of 'at one'? Is that not weird?! At least according to A Word A Day. I have my doubts.

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currently running through my mind: Bertie Blackman's 'Heart'
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Nothing New / A Girl's Open Thread

I have nothing new to report. No music. No TV. No poetry. No reading. Nothing. All is barren in sGland which is sad, but true. I thought I'd write a post though to let Brandon and anyone else curious enough to read this blog know I'm alive and well.

Oh, I'm having some yummy fried chicken! That's new. LOL Sigh, at some point I'll have to stop being so bored. Post any comments here you want, I'll be checking back throughout the weekend. Oh, and Brandon: I haven't received an e-mail from you. The search function turned up nada. Also, any e-mails I send you are being rejected as a wrong address thing. I thought I had corrected that but perhaps I haven't. Let me know what I'm doing wrong.