BLOG -- Recap of March

Much of my time in March was spent playing Civilization VI and gathering my tax documents.

Outings / Events in March:

- A friend from the US mailed me a ton of things! I was very surprised but also very happy and appreciative. XD

- Set aside a weekend to do taxes. Make sure to do your taxes if you haven't done them yet!

- Watched Dune 2 in theatres with my sister, her husband, and my boyfriend.

- Had a lunch with parents from both sides for the first time (if you know that what means). I kept quiet while they talked amongst each other.

Exposures:

- (Boardgame): Let's Go! To Japan -- The learning curve felt steep in the beginning but after trying it out a couple times it was pretty straightforward. Overall, I find it fun.

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): I, Tonya -- Great acting but this was hard to watch.

- (Movie): The Wolf of Wall Street -- Well-shot but there was too much drugs and sex for my liking, among other things.

- (Movie): Dune 2 -- This was okay.

- (Movie): Rambo -- I enjoyed this a lot.

- (Movie): Rambo: Last Blood -- Not as good as Rambo.

- (Movie): Catwoman -- I watched it so I never have to think about it again. It was very cheesy.

- (Movie): 300: Rise of The Empire -- Pretty good.

- (Movie): Peppermint -- It was decent for the most part.

Playing:

- (PS4): Broken Age -- It was fun in the beginning but partway through it got hard and annoying. 

- (PS4): World Cruise Story -- I finished this in two days. This was too addictive for me.

- (PC): Civilization VI -- We have finished four playthroughs now, and have started a fifth. I enjoy playing as Eleanor of Aquitaine since I like taking cities without going to war. I'm currently playing as Wilfred Laurier.

Reading:

- (Book): Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements by Mary Buffett & David Clark -- This was interesting and informative. I'll probably refer back to it every now and then.

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS4): Dark Cloud 2

- (PS4): Skyrim
- (PS4): Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered
- (PS4): Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
- (PS4): Yakuza 6: Song of Life

- (PS4): Baldur's Gate I: Enhanced Edition

- (PS4): Dungeon Punks

- (PS3): Borderlands 2

- (PSP): Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

- (3DS): Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

- (Mobile): Bloons TD 6

Watching:

- (TV Show): Criminal Minds: Evolution (Season 2)

- (TV Show): The Goldbergs (Season 5)
- (TV Show): Huff (Season 1 - Episode 10)
- (TV Show): Stranger Things (Season 5)

- (TV Show): The Boys (Season 4)

- (TV Show): Love Death + Robots (Season 1 - Episode 9)

- (TV Show): Bob's Burgers (Season 5 - Episode 6)

- (TV Show): Soul Land (Episode 178)

- (Anime): Log Horizon (Season 4)

- (Anime): Attack on Titan (Season 4)
- (Anime): Pyscho-Pass (Season 4?)
- (Anime): Kakegurui (Season 3?)
- (Anime): Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls (Episode 2)

- (Anime): Gintama (Episode 13)

- (Anime): Tokyo Revengers (Season 2 - Episode 25)

- (Anime): Gurren Lagann (Episode 6)

- (Anime): Chihayafuru (Season 4?)

- (Anime): One Punch Man (Season 2)

- (Anime): Fate/Apocrypha (Season 2)

- (Anime): Junji Ito's Japanese Tales of the Macabre (Episode 5)

- (Anime): Demon Slayers (Season 4)

- (YouTube): StephenVlogs (Day 1061)

Reading:

- (Manga): One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volume ?? -- Chapter 1111)
- (Manga): Berserk by Kentaro Miura (Volume 2)

That's it for March. Here are some pics and screenshots I took this month plus a YouTube video.

All the stuffs that my friend in the US sent! I really love the Tonberry King cushion.

The Let's Go! To Japan boardgame.

This is my 4th copy. Only one more to go!

I had to reach pity (200 rolls) to get this character.

"Hidden cameras reveal how big banks are upselling you (Marketplace)" by CBC News.

Many years ago, when I didn't know much about handling my money, I was sold a number of mutual funds plus a personal line of credit (that I've never used). Recently I've been rectifying those accounts (i.e. selling them off).

Thanks for reading!

As usual, if you have any questions / comments about anything, feel free. 

Take care and until next time! Be careful of April Fool's pranks tomorrow! :)

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- My Thank You / Good-Bye to Akira Toriyama

When I found out about Akira Toriyama's passing a few days ago, I knew I'd be blogging about it. In some ways, I owe a lot of my childhood and teenage years to the Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z series. 

It was one Saturday morning in 1995 (I think it was a Saturday morning). It was maybe 7 or 7:30 AM. My child self was still sleepy but I noticed that nobody was using the TV. I excitedly took the remote and turned it on. Most times I'd be stuck watching whatever my grandparents were watching, but not this time! 

After flipping a few channels, I stumbled upon a cartoon showing a spikey-haired boy with a monkey tail talking to a girl in blue hair. I didn't know what was going on but I liked it. The animation style was cute, and I wanted to watch more. I tried to catch it every Saturday after that. Eventually I understood the plot. The idea of gathering dragon balls to make a wish was really interesting to me. Another thing I found interesting was how the episodes were serial, not episodic. I didn't want to miss any episodes or I could miss something in the story. It was my first time watching a cartoon like that (for anybody raging that I called Dragon Ball a "cartoon", please keep in mind I was very young and anime wasn't mainstream or known to me at that time).

When it looked like it reached the ending (all the dragon balls were gathered and a wish was made), I was surprised and sad when it wasn't on the next Saturday morning. I was hoping it would re-run from the beginning, like how other cartoons would re-run their episodes from time to time. I checked the following Saturday morning. And the next. And the next. I also checked at different times in case it changed timeslots. It was nowhere to be found. Where did the show go?

From that point, I had this desire in me, wanting to express how much I liked Dragon Ball. Not many kids at school talked about it, though, so I kept quiet most of the time. Through the years I would see various shops in Chinatown selling trading cards and stickers of many spikey-haired guys with monkey tails. I'd look at them longingly, having no money to afford them. Sometimes I'd ask my parents to buy them for me and they would -- sometimes. All the while my desire to know more about Dragon Ball grew and grew. I didn't know much about the internet back then so all I could do was sit idly with the desire.

It wasn't until high school that I joined an anime club and met somebody who also had a love for Dragon Ball. I tried to be calm, but inside I was thinking, Yayyy, another person I could talk to about Dragon Ball, kyaaa~~! XD We bonded pretty much instantly. From there, I would go on to experience a lot of firsts with Dragon Ball:

-buying my first manga (Dragon Ball, volume 1)

-buying my first bootleg VHS tape because I wanted to watch Dragon Ball in Japanese with English subtitles. It was some episode in the Majin Buu saga for Dragon Ball Z. The quality was verrry crappy and I didn't buy any more after the first one

-coming across a fan comic called Little Saiyalings, which was a delight to read

-realizing that websites could disappear when my favourite fansite, PlanetNamek, went down without any warning

-voice-recording one of my favourite English dubbed episodes on a cassette tape so I could re-listen to its audio every now and then. That episode was when Trunks showed up for the first time to give Goku a warning

-coming across websites that offered to record certain sagas of Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z / Dragon Ball GT if you mailed blank VHS tapes to them (imagine wanting to get the Freeza saga all on VHS)

-claiming a character as my "boyfriend" (hahaha XD)

In short, I explored becoming an anime fan -- something that's still a part of my identity today. And it was thanks to Dragon Ball.

Below are some Dragon Ball-related things I still have, after all these years:

Stickers!

Some more stickers!

Some trading cards. There was one card I really loved (the first card I ever got -- it randomly came out of a machine selling Sailor Moon cards), but I gave it away to a friend many years ago.

A cover I made for a container I and another friend used to lend each other manga. I think all the Dragon Ball characters were copied from different panels of the manga.

While I focused on Dragon Ball in this blog, I did experience some of his other works while growing up. That smiley blue slime in the Dragon Quest games will always be cute yet menacing to me. I enjoyed the character designs for Chrono Trigger (I was one dungeon away from beating the game). I thought Cowa! was cute and funny. Thank you, Akira Toriyama, for all you have given to the world. May you rest in peace. *bows*

Many years back I blogged about writing a poem to Gohan as Videl back in my high school days. Below is the link to it if you'd like to read it!

https://ironixgirl.blogspot.com/2015/12/blog-using-my-joy-of-doing-nothing-cards.html

If you have any questions or comments, feel free.

Thank you, take care and until next time! *hug*