I'm in college at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. It's a very liberal school with dirty hippies and treehuggers everywhere. This weblog is about my experiences at the college and my anime addiction ^_^



Info About Me
name: Frank
age: 19
location: Asheville, NC
sign: Gemini

My Sites
Anime DVD List
CD List
Pics!
Links

Contact
farnold@warren-wilson.edu
aim: fjarnold77

Anime
Berserk
Cowboy Bebop
Escaflowne
Evangelion
Excel Saga
GTO
Lain
Love Hina
NeiA Under 7
Robotech
Trigun

Manga
Astroboy
Chobits
Love Hina
Marmalade Boy
Mars

WebComics
8-Bit
Bad Boys of Computer Science
Dominic Deegan
Neo Baka
Real Life
RPG World
Mac Hall
Megatoyko

Gaming
none right now

Reading
No Logo
by Naomi Klein

Friends
Arthur
Tara-Chan

AN Bloggers







Princess in Pain
Loquacious Silence

WebRings

<< Ani Bloggers >>

 
Been a busy busy week. This weekend was Parents Weekend and my family took me out to eat and cruise around downtown Asheville. There are sime nifty bookshops and record stores in Asheville. The city is pretty for being a city, very clean. I watched the last 2 OVAs of Samurai X. Very sad ending but awesome climax and overall a very well done piece of work. I finally watched Waking Life and enjoyed it immensely. It's become easier to go to sleep since I've seen the movie. Isn't that weird? I found a ride to Anime USA!!!! I was so depressed because I'd be missing an anime convention right in my own hometown but I found myself a ride. School is getting tougher. I've had big papers and a huge test to deal with but I've overcome them and think I did pretty well. I've been trying to spend less time screwing around on the internet and more time reading (for pleasure). I need to read more...less gaming and more reading.

music: Belle et Sebastian - "Ease Your Feet in the Sea"
posted at 12:25:34 AM

 
It's been a weird week filled with weird feelings and emotions. I got news that Buzz, the nightclub I use to frequent back home in DC has been shut down. The closing was so unexpected. Shane and I had plans to go to Buzz together every time we were home on breaks from college. So I've kind of been mourning the death of Buzz. :-( I also did a lot of gaming this week, maybe to counter the suckiness of Buzz getting shut down. I downloaded the Unreal Tournament 2003 demo and the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault demo. Unreal Tournament is amazing! I know understand what all these various webcomics meant by how addictive and how freakin' sw33t UT is. I'll have to get it when it comes out next month. MoHAA is good but not as good as the consol games. Playing MoH on the PC just isn't the same. I might get MoHAA when I make a run into Asheville next week.

I also started or am in the process of starting a Dungeons & Dragons game with some guys in my dorm. Joe is the DM and basically teaching Eric and myself how to play D&D since we've never played before. Since it's my first D&D game Joe told me to be the basic Human Fighter, which is fine by me. Eric is a Druid and I'm not sure how a fighter and a druid end up as companions but we'll work it out. All we've done so far is created our characters. Next meeting Joe will explain more about combat and hopefully start with the campaign. After doing some D&D the three of us watched Adult Swim. Inuyasha is getting good and I'm really getting into Gundam 0083. I might even buy the Gundam 0083 dvds eventually and familiarize myself with the story even more.

Spirited Away came out in DC this weekend if I was home I know I'd have seen it. Sadly I am stuck here at Wilson. I'm thinking more and more that I should transfer schools. Warren Wilson is not as picture perfect as I assumed it was. From reading about the school I gathered that the people who attended the college were people who wanted to change the world, people who were free spirits and people who really wanted to make a difference. I'm finding more and more that it's just a bunch of kids who, as John, my coworker at the pool says, "like to smoke pot and listen to the greatful dead." Then again perhaps that's only the freshman class and by sophomore year all the people who aren't serious about the school's message are weeded out. Still, things are not how i like them here. I think I'd be happier somewhere else, or at least more happier. I'm content here at Wilson but I still do not feel 100% at home. Maybe my feelings will change. who know's?

Which Hellsing character are you?

You are vivi You are very shy, yet very powerful. You care about others a lot too. You are a real sweetheart. ^_^

take this quiz!
posted at 1:40:37 AM

 
I'm keeping busy. Havn't watched much anime so far this week but I started playing Final Fantasy VI on an emulator. I played FFVI last spring but never beat it and now I'm starting all over again. I have the FFVI piano collection cd and it's good but the actual music in the series is truly great. For cheesy early 90's keyboard music it's very advanced. I'm definetly getting the official soundtrack on my next AN order. I think I'm going to try to learn some of the Japanese language. It's not offered here at Wilson but my good friend Becky has encouraged me to learn on my own. I plan on taking a Japanese class at community college this summer and why not get a head start on it now, right?

On a bit of a serious note I am very glad that Iraq has allowed UN weapon inspectors into their country. The War on Iraq issue has been huge on campus (whada ya expect we're a bunch of liberal hippies). For a gilmps of what a war on Iraq could do read this New York Times editorial on "Imagining the Worst-Case Scenario." Bush's arguments for war are already weak and now that Iraq has complied with the UN to allow inspectors in Bush's arguments are even weaker. Bush still wants a debate in congress and will probably get one before the November election but at least war is not "a matter of days and weeks."

Take the Rurouni Kenshin Quiz by xceres.

Simply knowing you are there gives others a sense of security and continuity. You are a woman of few words and much wisdom, and the capacity to see beyond the surface that others are distracted by. However, you tend to find distractions for yourself to keep you from thinking about the bad times in your life. Try to solve your problems as soon as you can, so you can live life in genuine happiness. Which Love Hina Girl Are You?

I know I'm not a girl....but Love Hina is one of my favorite series so I couldn't resist.

music: The Pixies - "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
posted at 12:34:53 AM

 
I can honestly say I've just watched my first complete session of Adult Swim ^_^ I'm actually enjoying Gundam. It's not bad..and I had some friends around who knew the series to help explain and give me some background. We watched Adult Swim in the basement common lounge and there were some loud obnoxious assholes playing pool right beside us but eventually they left. I'm amazed at how loud some people can be and be totally oblivious to people actually trying to concentrate on something, like watching a show. Gundam isn't so bad. I watched some of the Endless Waltz movie over the summer but couldn't get into it. I like Mobil Suit and 083 though. Not the best shows around but very entertaining to watch and why not since it's free on tv.

I watched the first Samurai X OVA yesterday. Very violent! I remember on the AN forums someone posted a question about whats the most gory anime and Ninja Scroll and the Samurai X were ranked pretty high. Even though it's very violent the show is good. Ninja Scroll in my opinion was violence for the sake of violence whereas in Samurai X the violence changes Kenshin...well I'm assuming since it's a prequel type thing to the TV series. I love the music in the OVAs. I must get the soundtrack! I have the second OVA dvd here at college with me too (I planned ahead and bought them both ^_^) so I'll probably watch the rest tomorrow.

music: Future Sound of London - Dead Cities - "Antique Toy"
posted at 3:08:37 AM

 
Work today was terrible. One of the underwater lights shattered during a swim club practice and every little piece of glass had to be picked up from the bottom of the pool. It was very stressful. I was very worried that a little kid would step on some glass and that we'd have an emergency on our hands but luckily everything went smoothly. The kids in the pool were actually somewhat helpful...they picked up most of the glass since they were already in the water. The whole ordeal was still very taxing on me and left me drained. I had a big paper for my southern labor movement class due today and although i'm not as happy with the paper as I wanted it's still done and as good ol' Mrs. Ruff from AP US History says, "done is good." I've been listening to a lot of emo and indie rock lately. I think it's cause the weather is getting a little cooler and fall usually brings emo type music. I welcome the cooler weather though. Fall is going to be amazing here...probably unlike anything I've ever seen before. I must remember to take many pictures to hold on to the memories of autumn in the mountains.

music: Cursive - The Martyr
posted at 12:57:38 AM

 
I've been very busy. The combination of school and working at the pool has kept me constantly doing something. I'm not too busy, just busy enough. Today I went over to UNCA (University of North Carolina in Asheville) to hear a speaker on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The van ride over was organized by my Global Justice Movement class professor who also happens to teach a class on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The speaker was a Palestinian-Arab man born in Israel who later became a christian and a priest at that. He has since returned to his hometown and tried to forge unity between the peoples there, helping to found a school for both Arabs and Jews and all religious denominations. His speech was very inspiring and he spoke of the commonality between people, saying that both Arabs and Jew are children of God. For many of my classmates who went along on the trip it was there first experience learning about a lot of what goes on over in Israel.

I am very impressed with His and Her Circumstances. Gainax has done a job well done in crafting a story that is so real and true to what people really go through in a relationship. I also watched some Hellsing. I'm not much into vampire anime but Hellsing is very good. It's kind of violent and gory but Berserk is much worse on the violence scale. Hellsing is very entertaining...I'm surprised I like it so much.

music: Deep Dish - Live @ Space (in Miami)
posted at 11:08:58 PM

 
I spent most of the weekend either watching Evangelion or downloading AMVs. I discovered animemusicvideos.org and spent most of friday night/early saturday morning going crazy downloading movies. I also discovered Dub This, a nifty webcomic purely about anime. And to the girls who go to my school and discovered my weblog (you know who you are) leave a comment or something, make me feel popular and special. Or else the flesh eating zombies will get you! (or F.E.Z for short [inside joke]). For those of you who are left in the dark these two girls from my college heard about my weblog and tracked it down and followed one of my links to Megatokyo and read the entire archives. Pretty crazy, no?

I watched the first two episodes of His and Her Circumstances and it's a very interesting and comical show. The animation is sort of childish at times. You know how in shows like NeiA Under 7 when a character gets mad the animation gets all crappy and different and weird? Well there's a lot of it in His and Her Circumstances and it doesn't have as much of a comical effect as in NieA. But it's definetly a different show. It's like one long interior monologue from the girl characters perspective and I'm sort of guessing what's really going on inside the guy's head. I also like how the previews for the next episodes are shots of the VAs doing them. It's neat seeing VAs in action.

I also finally got around to joining the Ani Bloggers webring. I just have one question though and Ray I think you can help me out. At the ring hub webpage there is a little graphic of a thumbs-down symbol right by the link to my page. Does this mean I have an inferior weblog? Is it just cause I'm new to the ring? I'm really curious.

music: Love Hina OST1
posted at 11:30:59 PM