I've started watching Slam Dunk again, without any of the guilt of wasting time that I experienced, for example, when I started watching Bleach in 2009.* I'm free when I'm not at work, so why not? I suppose I could read a book or do something productive, but I could do those after the summer, too. (Incidentally, I'm reading Hollywood by Gore Vidal, a singularly fantastic book.) Slam Dunk will turn twenty this year (if it hasn't already). It's so old, yet people like me (and, I suppose, the countless stultified Mary Sue authors on FFn) are still under its spell, to use loathsome idioms. I've just gotten past the fight with Mitsui, and realized as always that in his days of being a gangster Mitsui didn't once win a fight. He was beaten everywhere he went, which probably contributed to his foul temper during those two years. In the anime alone he was beaten almost
to a pulp with extraordinary ease or otherwise overpowered by Miyagi
twice (once accidentally), Sakuragi twice (again, once accidentally),
Rukawa, Yohei, and Akagi. I could have sworn amidst the confusion that
Ayako and Haruko got a few punches in, too. How did he manage to lead a
gang of thugs in the first place, if he was obviously so bad at
fighting? It's a mystery. It makes one thing clear as daylight, though:
Mitsui was meant to be a basketball player all along. That's right. It
should have occurred to him a long time ago that, if he stuck to
something he was actually good at, he wouldn't incur the embarrassment
of losing miserably so often. When he returned to the basketball team, he was therefore happier than a Yorkshire Terrier in a lady's bag. All the characters in Slam Dunk are charming and likable, which assessment is probably the result of my knowing them for over five years now. Well, they will be my only companions this summer, so fan fiction it is.
On a journalistic note, absolutely nothing exciting has happened to me since my last journalistic entry. There's work/the internship, which is going well, and that's about it. Oh yeah, my aunt and cousin will be moving to Atlanta sometime in September, and they were here a couple of weeks ago. I spent the weekend with them, during which we watched this movie called The Internship, which makes the mistake of showing Google in favorable light. I suppose, in spite of all its sketchiness and morally questionable activities, people do like working at Google.
The Spinda layout did not survive till August, as I had originally planned. But as you can see, I've gone back to something that's much better.
*This is a story that I feel obligated to tell. It so happened that I got hooked to Bleach during the study break before the tenth grade board exams (you know, the ones that we actually respected and feared in any real sense). I flog myself for not having realized it at the time, but my new obsession definitely contributed to the whole grades debacle. Let's not mince words. I didn't say it on my blog at the time, but the fact is that most of my teachers expected me to be the topper in our batch. (Not to sound arrogant, but most of the 44 people I studied with in the tenth grade had just started using stone implements, and literally communicated with gestures and grunts.) And thanks to Bleach (everyone needs a scapegoat, right?) I came fourth in my batch. I almost had to drop my hallowed last name - <redacted> - and adopt my mother's maiden name (which also happens to be <redacted>, but that's neither here nor there) as penance for the disgrace I had brought upon my family. Here is evidence of my growing obsession from blog entries made at the time, for those interested in how the mind of a psychopath works: 1. this; 2. this; 3. this; 4. this; 5. this; 6. this; and 7. this. Ctrl+F "Bleach", and you'll see what I mean.
Or, if you can't be bothered to do that, here are the relevant excerpts from those entries:
EDIT: Holy crap. I just found out Slam Dunk is 23 this year.
I shall conclude with a line from one of T. S. Eliot's venerable critiques of the modern world: "Akira Sendoh is perhaps the greatest of basketball players."
I don't know why I've never done this before, but I seriously encourage those of my readers who are not familiar with this series to go now to the nearest manga or anime website, and jump straight in.
*This is a story that I feel obligated to tell. It so happened that I got hooked to Bleach during the study break before the tenth grade board exams (you know, the ones that we actually respected and feared in any real sense). I flog myself for not having realized it at the time, but my new obsession definitely contributed to the whole grades debacle. Let's not mince words. I didn't say it on my blog at the time, but the fact is that most of my teachers expected me to be the topper in our batch. (Not to sound arrogant, but most of the 44 people I studied with in the tenth grade had just started using stone implements, and literally communicated with gestures and grunts.) And thanks to Bleach (everyone needs a scapegoat, right?) I came fourth in my batch. I almost had to drop my hallowed last name - <redacted> - and adopt my mother's maiden name (which also happens to be <redacted>, but that's neither here nor there) as penance for the disgrace I had brought upon my family. Here is evidence of my growing obsession from blog entries made at the time, for those interested in how the mind of a psychopath works: 1. this; 2. this; 3. this; 4. this; 5. this; 6. this; and 7. this. Ctrl+F "Bleach", and you'll see what I mean.
Or, if you can't be bothered to do that, here are the relevant excerpts from those entries:
February 22, 2009:
I’m just... so into Bleach all of a sudden that my daily schedule has been absolutely deranged. I mean that in a good way, though—I’m on study break right now, so I have all the time in the world, save for around 5-6 hours to study. So far I’ve watched 30 episodes on YouTube—18 of them just today—and it’s by sheer willpower that I drew the line here for today.
--
I’m just... so into Bleach all of a sudden that my daily schedule has been absolutely deranged. I mean that in a good way, though—I’m on study break right now, so I have all the time in the world, save for around 5-6 hours to study. So far I’ve watched 30 episodes on YouTube—18 of them just today—and it’s by sheer willpower that I drew the line here for today.
--
February 26, 2009:
Finished 107 episodes in Bleach—that is to say, a lot. The Bount Arc is just so boring. Kariya’s a motherfucker, and the other Bounts are just deplorable creatures that don’t deserve to have ever lived.
--
Finished 107 episodes in Bleach—that is to say, a lot. The Bount Arc is just so boring. Kariya’s a motherfucker, and the other Bounts are just deplorable creatures that don’t deserve to have ever lived.
--
March 1, 2009:
Anyway, my Boards start tomorrow and here I am watching Bleach episodes on the computer. So far I’m done with 130 of them. The fillers are a waste of time. There’s this one shitty pseudo-arrancar that has nothing to do with Aizen, and for the past four episodes or so the bastard’s been wasting Hitsugaya’s time.
--
Anyway, my Boards start tomorrow and here I am watching Bleach episodes on the computer. So far I’m done with 130 of them. The fillers are a waste of time. There’s this one shitty pseudo-arrancar that has nothing to do with Aizen, and for the past four episodes or so the bastard’s been wasting Hitsugaya’s time.
--
March 5, 2009:
I’m done with 155 episodes of Bleach, and I’m in the process of downloading the English dub of the movie—Bleach: Memories of Nobody. I’m planning to watch it today. I’m also a full-fledged Bleach-fic writer now. I’ve realized that you get a great deal in return for posting up a fic in the Bleach category.
--
I’m done with 155 episodes of Bleach, and I’m in the process of downloading the English dub of the movie—Bleach: Memories of Nobody. I’m planning to watch it today. I’m also a full-fledged Bleach-fic writer now. I’ve realized that you get a great deal in return for posting up a fic in the Bleach category.
--
March 10, 2009:
I messed up the last fucking sum in the math test (which was on the 9th). ... I’ve finished watching 209 episodes in Bleach and reached the Turnback the Pendulum Arc, but voila! There ain’t any more episodes on YouTube. I guess I’ll have to adapt myself to the black and white scenes of the manga if I want to know what happens next.
--
I messed up the last fucking sum in the math test (which was on the 9th). ... I’ve finished watching 209 episodes in Bleach and reached the Turnback the Pendulum Arc, but voila! There ain’t any more episodes on YouTube. I guess I’ll have to adapt myself to the black and white scenes of the manga if I want to know what happens next.
--
March 13, 2009:
Anyway, I watched that Bleach movie I downloaded (Memories of Nobody), and I even watched the second Bleach movie (The DiamondDust Rebellion) with English subs on YouTube. ... Let’s see... apart from that my life’s been pretty dull and monotonous. Then again, one can’t help but become vapid when they’re only in the middle of a one-month-long exam thing. This so pisses me off.
--
Anyway, I watched that Bleach movie I downloaded (Memories of Nobody), and I even watched the second Bleach movie (The DiamondDust Rebellion) with English subs on YouTube. ... Let’s see... apart from that my life’s been pretty dull and monotonous. Then again, one can’t help but become vapid when they’re only in the middle of a one-month-long exam thing. This so pisses me off.
--
March 20, 2009:
I finished reading as much of the Bleach manga as has been made to date—that is, up until Chapter 350. Or at least that’s the latest on Onemanga. Anyway, Ulquiorra looks like an emo whore in his second resurrection, and throughout his seemingly one-sided fight with Ichigo, there was a miasma of despair that had nothing to do with the fact that Ulquiorra loves the word or the fact that his ugly, black cero pervaded the whole sky.
--I finished reading as much of the Bleach manga as has been made to date—that is, up until Chapter 350. Or at least that’s the latest on Onemanga. Anyway, Ulquiorra looks like an emo whore in his second resurrection, and throughout his seemingly one-sided fight with Ichigo, there was a miasma of despair that had nothing to do with the fact that Ulquiorra loves the word or the fact that his ugly, black cero pervaded the whole sky.
EDIT: Holy crap. I just found out Slam Dunk is 23 this year.
I shall conclude with a line from one of T. S. Eliot's venerable critiques of the modern world: "Akira Sendoh is perhaps the greatest of basketball players."
I don't know why I've never done this before, but I seriously encourage those of my readers who are not familiar with this series to go now to the nearest manga or anime website, and jump straight in.
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