Lazy Days of Summer (At Last!)

Today was a really nice Saturday in the old-style, weekend, relaxing kind of way. Hubby just had a short errand to run this morning, and the rest of the day we spent taking it easy, watching anime and playing Nutrinopets on the laptops. Fun!

We finished up the series Planetes that we started last night - one of our very favorites that I can recommend to you highly. Quick synopsis from Wikipedia:
Planetes is a Japanese hard science fiction anime series based on a manga by Makoto Yukimura. The story revolves around a team of space debris collectors in the year 2075. Both the manga and anime received the Seiun Award for best science fiction series. Unlike many other anime and science fiction productions, special care was given in Planetes for a very realistic depiction of space and space travel. Spaceships make no noise in the vacuum of space and astronauts routinely suffer from known space illnesses such as radiation poisoning, decompression sickness, cancer, and brittle bones. One character, born on the Moon, grew to be abnormally tall due to the lesser lunar gravity.
Concepts like momentum in weightlessness are early plot points and are always illustrated naturally. Director Goro Taniguchi stated he learned much about orbital mechanics in the course of making the series. This is seen in showing specific orbital energy, through changing orbits by applying thrust throughout the series. Even the necessity for the retrieval of space debris that is central to the plot is rooted in the serious and growing problem with space debris today.

The central plot is interesting to us in that my husband did a report/presentation in an astronomy class he took some nine years ago about his concerns with the issue of space debris in low earth orbit - we were Green when Green wasn't cool! In Planetes, the characters are all believable and they interact and grow throughout the series in natural and involving ways. The hard science applied throughout as well as the utilitarian style of the animation and the design of the equipment and clothing reminded us of our favorite SciFi author, Robert A. Heinlein. You may remember his name attached to the movie Starship Troopers - if you've read the novel you'll know the movie was a shallow shell in comparison; still we like many aspects of the movie even though the basic philosophies presented in the original novel are sadly missing. Back to Planetes, there is amazing action and wonderful, complex relationships with characters you really end up caring about - great ending too. You'll enjoy it, I guarantee!!

Also today, on Nutrinopets, one of my fun friends with similar interests recommended an amazing-looking movie from Korea called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter,...and Spring. I haven't seen it yet so can't say too much about it other than the trailer looks amazing! So amazing I thought I would share it with you here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2t85ihpMWs

(Tried to embed it but I guess Blogger doesn't support that. Sucky!) The film was released in 2004 and garnered many awards but apparently had limited release to art houses and such since we never heard of it. Just looked and saw it's available at our library so we're picking it up tomorrow! We have found our local library to be a gold mine of DVDs for free - their selection is very extensive and the price is right! Check out your local library for movies and music as well as books.

So, then we spent the rest of the day watching an anime standard that is pretty much a classic, Ah! My Goddess, the TV series. This started as a manga in 1988 so it definitely has staying power - new chapters of the manga are still being published every month! But it's really late right now, so I think I'd better discuss that tomorrow or I won't make a lot of sense. :D

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

I ♥ Target.com!

I currently have two favorite stores for shopping online: Walmart.com and Target.com. Surprised? Well, since I don't get out much, online shopping is the bomb for me! So I've done a lot of it over the years and these two sites are the best for selection, variety, and price! I have to rate Target a little higher than Walmart because they tend to maintain available inventory much, much better. When I find something while shopping I put it in my wish basket to purchase later when I have the funds to budget for it. Trouble is, it seems Walmart is often sold out of some items within a few days. This is also why I quit shopping at Roamans and Lane Bryant - same thing happened with them.

I believe this is caused by timidity. The stores are fearful of any kind of loss, so they do a projection for the quantity of any item they anticipate selling in, say, three weeks or so, then they order 15% less than that. This results in them not having to deal with any unsold stock, but it leaves a lot of consumers dissatissfied. Namely me! However, I really haven't had this problem when shopping at Target.com. They always seem to maintain adequate stock on hand - it's as if they decide what they plan on carrying, and then maintain the stock for each of their lines. I like that. I like it a lot!

So, that's my shopping recommendation for today. More news tomorrow, I hope.

What I Do for Fun!

So this is cool! The website where I spend most of my time is offering bonus points for referring others to Nutrinopets.com. Neat, neh?

Anyway, I used to get most of my amusement from Neopets.com but they have really changed over the years to the point that it's just not fun there anymore. It's hard to make points, they block almost any kind of web code on your personal account pages ( I used to put together awesome stores there!), and each page is covered with ads! Totally sucky!

Nutrinopets.com, on the other hand, is lots of fun with no weird stuff in your face all the time. It reminds me of how Neopets was ten years ago, only better! You can create lots of pets and change them easily. Also, the people there are really nice - I haven't met anyone I don't like! So if you like to play games or do other fun activities online, you really should check Nutrinopets out! Just click the link on the left column and I'll get some extra points. Thanks!

Hello, world!

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