nyarlathotep

those of you familiar with the writings of h. p. lovecraft have probably heard of nyarlathotep before. he is an outer god, a messenger to azathoth and is also named the crawling chaos. (if you don´t know who lovecraft is, just wiki him, i don´t have the time or space to properly introduce him here)

as you can see form the above pictures, i´ve managed to summon a small plush nyarlathotep from beyond the stars and bind him to my will. he now guards my home while i´m away and whispers the dark secrets of the universe to my during the night. i have to be careful however as he is always plotting to free himself - you can see him trying to take over the internet using my laptop (but osaka is not afraid)

zettai shonen

it´s time for another anime review. zettai shonen falls in the supernatural mystery, slice of life category; it was directed by tomomi mochizuki (ranma ½, twin spica) and the character design was done by masayuki sekine (mind game, yokohama shopping log) . the story follows the adventures of a boy, ayumu aizawa who travels to the countryside to spend his summer with his father. the plot can be divided into two parts, one that takes place before the cat dance festival, where the main element is the supernatural and the mysterious occurrences, and the second part, after the cat dance festival, where the story focuses on the characters and the relationships between them – let´s call them summer arc and winter arc.

while during the summer arc the emphasis is on the supernatural element and on building up anticipation (you just know from the start that something will happen during the cat dance festival), the winter arc is more about the characters and their happiness or sorrow (this doesn´t turn the show into a generic high school romance though, due to the well developed, and somewhat eccentric characters and the constant presence and involvement of the “material fairies”). another interesting aspect underlined several times in the winter arc is how the advent of modern communication (internet, cell phone) affects our relationships with others (perhaps this is even more acute in japan than in europe).

overall zettai shonen is a pleasant anime to watch in those moments when you're just looking for some relaxation without having to strain your brain cells and you aren´t in the mood for action movies (hellsing, black lagoon). the characters are lovable in their own way (i liked the way kisa kept sending e-mails to her future self) and the ending is also quite satisfying.

towel day

the 25^th of may was is the international towel day, it commemorates the late douglas adams, the author of the hitchhiker´s guide to the galaxy. on this day, his fans all over the world carry around a towel wherever they go. why a towel, you ask, well, a towel is probably the most important item a galactic hitchhiker can carry:

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

i was also proudly carrying my towel around, hoping that people would ask me about it so i could tell them how awesome douglas adams is. but apart from a few inquiring glances on the bus, nobody asked me anything; this might have to do with the fact that i work in an underground lair (read optics lab) and don´t meet too many people. nonetheless it was great fun.

on robi´s blog (link is on the right side) you can see some friends of mine wearing their towels in a bar in cluj, now there are some froods who really know where their towels are.

the 25^th of may is also the nerd pride day and the universal day of the jedi (bleh-desu...)