Tons of business, obligations, errands and other real life concerns have pulled me away from this blog for sometime, though, as of yet, I don't think I can celebrate a full return. A lot has happened, and is continuing to take place, in the real world, and I find it quite disappointing that as far as my favorite anime & manga are concerned, things are progressing very slowly. Pfft.

While I'm happy that Chapter 132 of Nodame Cantabile is finally out, I'm exasperated with how the chapter ends! It's taking too long for Chiaki and Nodame to talk about what happened between them and where they're going--and if that's really going to be the case, then it would be easier for readers as well if we were just notified that it takes days, weeks, months or even years for them to breathe a word to each other--and skip right into the action! Bummer. Little by little, reading this manga is becoming tiring.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on the other hand is such a thrill. I've been watching the series on Animax for the past couple of weeks now, and I daresay, it's living up wonderfully to the manga. Aside from a few digressions, it's being faithfully true to the manga. The mix of drama, humor and tragedy is just right. At least things are going well on this front.

And for some reason, Bride of the Water God still hasn't been updated. Or has the scanlation project been discontinued? Man, I hope not. Still, I'm going to have to investigate this matter further.

Pride and Prejudice, on the other hand, has not yet failed me so far. I should have known that Fanfiction.net would be a poor source of good stories, and that a book as old as Miss Austen's and with such a huge following would have great spin offs as well, and it's only been a week since I found another treasure trove of wonderful fanfics that have kept me dreaming happily about Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. With this distraction, it seems I'll be passing the time in between Nodame Cantabile releases and Full Metal Alchemist episodes with a much more cheer that I thought.

Rurouni Kenshin is taking the backseat once more as I (re)discover more manga and classic books. So for the meantime, I'm setting aside all fanfiction projects of my favorite series and focusing on finishing the final two parts of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" I've left to read, scouring for more good "Pride and Prejudice" fics (Lizzy & Darcy!), and working on understanding a muddled "Bride of the Water God" plot in my head. The first is food for the brain, the second is pure self-indulgence, and the third is, well, I find it hard to give up on it because the art is just too beautiful. 

And tennis! Ohgod. I can't believe Andy Murray and his sexy-supermodel-type girlfriend Kim Sears have already been together for four years! And they're living together! How could he have ever gotten a girl like her, and why did she ever agree?! XD

This vignette is part of a longer, multi-chaptered story I’ve been planning for some time now, and so far, I’ve only gotten around to writing this bit. A brief introduction of this alternate universe is in order: Kaoru is the daughter of a powerful duke and heir to an immensely wealthy duchy. Her father, Koshijiro, is assassinated as part of a greater scheme to take over the whole kingdom, and owing to his sudden death, she is forced to assume control over her father’s lands. Kenshin, on the other hand, is also the son and heir of another powerful duke (three guesses who), albeit he is just a marquess. He and his father, to fulfill a blood debt towards Koshijiro, swear to protect Kaoru and her younger brother Yahiko against the evil intentions of those who wish to usurp their power.

There’s a richer story behind this, I promise, but as of the moment, this should do. Consider this a preview of what’s to come. The chapters for sure I shall be posting once I finish them satisfactorily, but until they are done, I'll probably just be updating this livejournal.

That being said, let’s get on with this story! I hope you enjoy and do not forget to give me feedback once you’re done reading.

Title: Baptism of Fire
Genre: Romance/Tragedy
Pairing: Kenshin & Kaoru (Rurouni Kenshin)
Summary: After her father's assassination, Kaoru is forced to become duchess of their lands amidst mounting threats of her death and a take over of the entire kingdom. But she needs the protection of a powerful lord. Preview to a larger story of the same plot.
Spoilers: None. Alternate Universe

( Read this story )

This fic is also cross-posted at fanfiction.net.

It's been all over the news, even in a country like the United States that offers poor coverage of one of the world's most elegant sports. Roger Federer has finally won the French Open, his 14th Grand Slam title. Just aged 27, he has matched Pete Sampras' record with a win at a tournament the American had never won, making this feat all the more laudable than a simple catching up of numbers.

As the rest of the men and women are playing in the Aegon Cup, Roger will be taking a much needed rest to prepare for the upcoming Wimbledon on June 22. Here's to hoping that Rafael Nadal doesn't have a serious knee injury to prevent him from playing on the historic grass court. He's much too great an athlete to be bogged down by bodily pain, and it would be a great waste twice over if he were to not play at the Wimbledon final as well.

The rankings are closer now: Roger trails Rafa by just a little over 2,000 points. This gap he can easily close if he wins another grand slam title this year, and for good measure, perhaps another major. But after having just won the French Open, I expect he'll be in no strong compulsion from himself, fans or critics to prove his greatness by closing that gap. He's already done it.

All my anime, fan fiction, and manga have been thoughtlessly shoved aside in light of the most exciting three days at the French Open. All the press, fans, critics and pundits are hailing this year's clay tournament as possibly the heralding of another epoch in tennis history, now that only two of the top ten seeds remain in the draw.

Both notable and regrettable is the absence of world number one and four-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal, who, in all his pink and yellow glory, was forced to bid adieu to the French crowd after a sound beating by Robin Soderling, a man no one thought could. In comparison, world number four Novak Djokovic's surprise defeat in the hands of German Philipp Kohlschreiber (31) was like a quiver preluding the cataclysmic earthquake that was Soderling.

That momentous Sunday, the world stood still for better or for worse. And no matter how much of a Federer fan I actually am, I did feel a staggering loss at Nadal's untimely demise. That event rendered the draw volatile, fostering the widespread, nagging feeling that just anything can happen. It's a whole new twist on Murphy's law, and I wager today's events on clay are but ripples in the sea of tennis change.

But, as a fan, I must rant! Oh what would I have given to have been able to watch Robin Soderling, Swede and seeded number 23 on the ATP tour, demolish the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, and then decimate Nikolay Davydenko, the Russian 10th seed, in a glorious show of bravado.

What would I have given to have witnessed Fernando Gonzalez, the 12th seed from Chile and one-time tennis crush, humble that obnoxious Andy Murray, 3rd seed from Britain.

What would I have given to be at Paris also watching Roger Federer come back from the dead after being down two sets to love, once more raising everyone's hopes for achieving the elusive 14th Grand Slam title.

What would I give to be cheering him on the bleachers later this afternoon at Paris as he goes up against Gael Monfils, 11th seed and last Frenchman standing in this stage of the draw!

Instead, I have to content myself with interrupted source signals from the only cable channel we have that shows Roland Garros matches. And they just have to experience bad reception right in the middle of Roger Federer matches! Pfft.

I'd rant about the women's game too, but theirs is just frustrating compared to the men's. Reigning champion Ana Ivanovic also got eliminated the same day as Nadal, and my best bets Carla Suarez Navarro and Jelena Jankovic all got eliminated by the fourth round. Maria Sharapova couldn't have been expected to go too far with her bad shoulder, which as it turns out, proved to be her demise on the quarterfinal against the diminutively framed Dominika Cibulkova. As for the top seeds, number two Serena Williams is still slugging it out with usual bullheadedness (pun intended), and world number one Dinara Safina was just frustrating when she asked her coach to tell her what to do right smack in the middle of the quarterfinal.

Oh Justine Henin, why did you have to retire? Why?

Exhilirating second round match between Roger Federer and Jose Acasuso at the French Open! I was alarmed during the first half of the game with how close the scores were, and when Acasuso won the second set, I was starting to think that this might be the first time in recent history that Roger will get prematurely eliminated from Roland Garros. But amazingly, he rallied and turned Acasuso's 5-1 lead into a 6-7 tiebreak, and proceeded to win the next set with a convincing 6-2!

It was an amazing match though; both men were just trying to get the advantage by using cleverly executed drop shots, and I figure Acasuso was trying to weaken Federer's game by playing close to the baseline like how Nadal does it. And Federer, for most of the first half, was just playing like he wasn't giving it his all--"uninterested" was the word the commentator used in describing his body language. But he recovered, and they both started playing really close games. Oh, it was indeed one of the better matches in the tournament so far.

Just a couple more rounds to go and then the real uphill battle begins. I'm hoping to see another Federer-Nadal final this year, and maybe, just maybe, a finals upset!

I took a break from writing and studying by watching Maria Sharapova's match against Nadia Petrova, which turned out to be very exciting in the last set and in the tie-breaker. Nadia missed a couple of forehands and finally shot her own outside of the line to officially end the match (6-2, 1-6, 8-6), and despite all the annoying grunting and screaming she did throughout the game, I can't help but feel a surge of happiness for Maria for having gone through another round despite her shoulder injury. 



And since I'm in the mood for cutting her some slack (normally, I don't really like her all that much), I'd like to disagree with what Craig Hickman thinks about her outfit, which he calls "a blue bag with big gills". Funny and irreverent description, definitely, but while watching her in it, I found myself liking it. Snazzy, and something only Maria Sharapova can wear on court. 



As for Nadal, on the other hand, I perfectly agree. Hot pink and yellow are too flashy even for a four-time French Open champion. 

On another note, I've finally been able to start on my first multi-chaptered story for Rurouni Kenshin. I just finished writing the first chapter before watching the French Open, and I've already got some ideas for the rest of the story. I won't be posting them yet, however. There are some kinks I have yet to iron out, and in general, I still have to see if this is going to go somewhere. But for the moment I'm tired, and I've got colds, so I'll be resting first.

I couldn't resist putting into writing my own thoughts about the absolute mess Chiaki made of his relationship with Nodame, and so I made this story in hopes that the actual events in the manga will not turn out this way. This story was finished in one sitting, in a rare display of concentration and direction on my part. It's also my first post in the_s_orchestra , where, for the most part, I've been lurking around taking icons (with credit, of course) and reading other fan fiction. As my first real contribution to this community and Nodame Cantabile fandom, I hope that you all enjoy this story as much as I did writing it.

Title: A Belated Confession
Genre: Drama/Romance
Pairing: Chiaki/Nodame
Rating: Nothing explicit, but generally for mature audiences
Summary: Chiaki realizes that the only things Nodame needs from him are the simplest three words he has found it most difficult to tell her.
Spoilers: Chapters 123 and onwards of the manga


( Read this story )

P.S.

This fic is cross-posted at fanfiction.net too.

EDIT: I forgot to include spoiler alerts the first time I posted, and I realize a lot of people may kill me for this. So my biggest apologies to those who read this and got spoiled! :(

I was never really excited for Rolland Garros, considering that the only player who has ever won it the past four years is Rafael Nadal, and I'm a hopeless Roger Federer fan. And I've long accepted that this is a tournament he will never win; it belongs, undoubtedly, to the undisputed king of clay from Majorca. My hopes, however, have been slightly rekindled with Federer's win at Madrid just a while back. While of course the fact that Nadal had to slug it out against Novak Djokovic the day before factors greatly into his physical strength entering the match against Federer, I'd like to believe that it's still a valiant sign that maybe, just maybe, things may start to bode well for the former world number one. (Andy Murray must not overtake him in the rankings!)

On the other side of things, I finished reading the onemanga scans of Nodame Cantabile until Chapter 129. Despite whatever fatigue I'd been feeling, I just couldn't take my eyes away from the scans--and my heart absolutely shattered at what Chiaki did and continued to do during the last few chapters currently up. It's amazing how he continues to take Nodame for granted, despite all the signs he himself has been showing (and the things he's been doing too) that point towards an obvious love for the strange pianist. And yet he continues to torment her. Hmph, he absolutely deserves that snub in Chapter 129, and many more flat rejections in the future I hope. He ought to be hung upside down and head bobbed occasionally into a tub of water. (Torture!) Weirdly enough, no one seems to be picking this up on the fanfic side of the fandom. I'm thinking of writing something when I start feeling better, along with another RK story I've been cooking up in my head.

Federer is winning his first match, so I can rest in peace and just read about the game tomorrow instead of watching it and staying up late. I'm tired.

One of the consequences of unemployment is the unhealthy amount of time you could spend doing things other than looking for a job and becoming productive. I remember promising myself that I would spend my days reading a good, informative book that can flex my analytical muscles and reacquaint me with the world's most profound philosophies, but instead, I ended up worrying and losing sleep over why Chiaki Shinichi wouldn't just come to terms with the fact that he was falling in love with Noda Megumi. 

So in short, I've been hooked. I've finished all eleven episodes of the second season as well since I finished watching all twenty-three episodes of the anime's first season last Saturday. Admittedly, I would've been done if I didn't heed the entreaties of my real, worldly life and beloved friends I haven't seen in a long time, but grudgingly I must concede, they did take away valuable time I could've spent fussing over Nodame and how she can win over Chiaki with that insensitive pump of blood he calls a heart. It also doesn't help that Chiaki's voiced by no other than Tomozaku Seki, who also happens to be the living man behind Escaflowne's Van Fanel, for whom I've harbored an ardent love for ever since I first watched the series four or five years ago. And after I finally finished that Rurouni Kenshin story sitting in my hard drive for over three months, I find it refreshing to be happily thinking about another anime for once before I go to sleep. 

And now that I've finished both anime seasons (and am earnestly looking forward to the third season slated for release in Fall of this year), I've been busying myself with scouring the world wide web for classical music and renewing my interest in the genre, after having given up on immediately after the six years I played the piano. I remember quitting lessons partly because I got bored with it and I wanted to play pop music, but my teacher didn't really recommend it, so I decided to make more excuses and not continue at all. Watching Nodame Cantabile again fills me with some pangs of regret, but more than that, I feel like I'll be ready soon to start picking up the music sheets and, gasp, deal with those dreaded notes after almost a decade of not reading them. If Nodame can overcome that hurdle and still play good, maybe, I can too. 

What disturbs me, however, is that this amazing series doesn't really have much good fan fiction. Not that I've been able to look around much; my fanfiction source is still, hopelessly, fanfiction.net. I've found a few good pieces that I loved, but it's definitely nowhere near my Rurouni Kenshin list, which takes up a whole folder in my Safari's bookmarks section. Boo. That, and I'm also wondering how I can download this series' manga. The IRC downloads at NCIS are giving me quite a headache too. 

For the meantime, I'll happily listen to the Maksim Mrvica albums I have and revel in the lovely sounds of piano music. Then gradually, I'll move on to more authentic classical sound. I probably should download the official Nodame Cantabile soundtrack sometime soon too. 

I'm thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying the anime Nodame Cantabile, whose first season I just finished watching this afternoon. Chiaki Shinichi and Noda Megumi make a wonderful pair, though I must admit, I was taken aback with surprise by the former's sudden confession of affection in the final episode. I never really thought he had it in him, especially with the way he was treating Nodame through all the episodes before then. 

At this moment, I'm eagerly awaiting the first episode of the second season to finish downloading. I'm hoping to watch at least one more episode tonight, before I go to bed. For the meantime, I'll be contenting myself with Nodame Cantabile fanfiction. 

The BBC allegedly believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

How do your reading habits stack up? [Bold those books you've read in their entirety, and italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.]

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Glad to know that I'm not "most people". This reminds me, however, that there is still so much more to read--aside from the queue I already have which includes Gunter Grass' "The Tin Drum", Henry James' "What Maisie Knew", Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children", D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love", Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", and Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park". 

Remember that other story I posted a couple of weeks ago? I've finally gotten around to finishing it! That part I left hanging because I didn't know what to make of it has now been changed with what I believe to be a better, more conceivable issue between Kenshin and Kaoru and true to the original vein of "Kill". I've just finished posting it on fanfiction.net, though it's probably going to take four to five more hours until it starts showing up on their search engines. However, it's already on my profile page, and well, if you're interested in checking it out there, click here.

Of course, I'm posting it in this entry. It's much longer than "Kill", and this story is intended to explain a part of Kenshin and Kaoru's history, shed some light on why she suddenly walked out on him that night without so much as a goodbye. This is my attempt at elucidating on what possible mistakes Kenshin makes, though I'm also thinking of taking this down in the near future and editing it again after I've thought things through a little bit more. This is basically a completed version, but well, if it can still be improved on next time, then I'll definitely do it.

Anyway, here it goes! Enjoy reading.

Title: Gravity of Love 
Genre: Drama/Romance
Pairing: Kenshin/Kaoru 
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Rating: Nothing explicit, but generally for mature audiences 
Summary: In light of Kenshin's upcoming wedding, there can only be mistakes between him and Kaoru.
Spoilers: None

Got to do a little housekeeping today. Fixed up my profile page a bit, added some new user icons I found at oro_icons, and added a layout based on a palette I found at Colour Lovers. It's generally been a productive day, albeit somewhat slow, especially since for the most part, I spent it cringing in menstrual pain. Life can be difficult this way if you're female.

I'm looking forward to catching up on some reading. I picked up a back issue of The Economist yesterday, and I was also able to download some K&K doushinji (hmm, let's see how I like this). And while surfing through LJ, I was also able to stumble across some communities with fanfic recommendations on my favorite pairing. I'll definitely squeeze some time to reading the new stuff I found.

And still no progress on this plot in my head. I was about to write something down, but then, well, I realized that it wouldn't really do too well. I'll see next time.

I've been feeling very guilty these past couple of months, since my "real literature backlog", or what I call my bookshelf filled with softbound copies of the works of the world's greatest authors (Gunter Grass, DH Lawrence, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry James, Salman Rushdie, and more), has been collecting dust as I click away in front of my computer, reading RK fanfiction. And not just any RK fanfiction; they've all been about Kenshin and Kaoru. Everything about Kenshin and Kaoru--from short fluff to novels of angst, betrayal and possession. Kenshin as a vampire, Kaoru as a siren, as a king and princess, etc. It's definitely been addicting.

In between studying for the LSAT and keeping updated with both national and international current events, I'm trying to squeeze some time to reading more fan fiction and thinking of plots of my own. In the car, on long drives from an aunt's house back to home, or while stuck in traffic or when I zone off with my iPod, if I'm not thinking of the future and the uncertainty associated with it, I'm thinking of fan fiction. I'm not sure if I should consider this strange, if I need to find a life other than this, but for the meantime, I'm opening this journal and typing short entries here and there and scribbling down the plots I cook up in my head in the hopes of putting such creative energies to productive channels.

Here's to hoping that I write a good story some time soon.

This story is the result of having listened to Jimmy Eat World's "Kill" everywhere I could go with my iPod for months straight. It's climbed up my iTunes charts to be my most listened to song, and the lyrics, each time I hear them, remind me of the plight Kaoru finds herself in when Kenshin just refuses to acknowledge his feelings for her. It's been fun cooking up situations and experiences where this song would be applicable, and I guess all those hours I've spent daydreaming have culminated in this little one-shot.

Title: Kill
Genre: Drama/Romance
Pairing: Kenshin/Kaoru
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Rating: Nothing explicit, but generally for mature audiences
Summary: Sometimes, you only realize you've made a mistake when it's already too late.
Spoilers: None

 

( Read this story )

Hello, and welcome to my Livejournal, "Comfort Food". This little space is where I'll be posting works in progress, actual and finished stories, thoughts and drafts, and pretty much anything that I'd like to say that is anime-, manga- or fanfic-related. Please feel free to drop a comment or two, especially when you're reading a story. I'd love to hear your feedback, both good and bad. That will definitely go a long way in helping me improve my writing. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy!