Mason is currently reading a book called BLOODY JACK: A Curious Tale of the Adventures of Mary "Jackie" Faber, A Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer. He's positively giddy about this story which is about a kick-butt, cross-dressing girl in the British navy during the time of pirates. I'm always pleased at the extent to which the gender of the story means absolutely NOTHING to Mason. He'll read any book that interests him, and completely defies that old publishing adage that boys will only read stories with boy heros.

In fact, one of his favorite series was the DEAR DUMB DIARY books which are about a girl, Jamie, who has a whole lot of boy trouble in middle school. Those books are also really hillarious and written, interestingly, by a man.

The one area in which his reading tastes run more "boy" is when it comes down to a preferrence between Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. We have far more Hardy Boys in the house than Nancy Drew, but, I have a feeling that once he's torn through all those Hardy Boys, Nancy will look a lot more interesting. :-)

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say about this except that I think it's amazingly damaging to keep insisting that boys need boy heros. I'm all for more girl-power books (and if this belief is the only thing fueling all those books, well then I'll put up with it,) but I think that boys will read those too, if given a chance. Certainly my boy will. If the story is good, he's there.

When I mentioned this on Facebook my friend and middle-grade writer Kurtis Scaletta suggested that boys will read books about friendships and romance "in SECRET." I told him that I hope that the e-reader can do for young boys what it's done for erotica and the middle-aged woman, which is to say, make reading whatever the hell they like less "shameful" since no one can judge the e-reader by its cover, as it were.

I have a bit of fan art to share today. When we got home from LaCrosse, we were all so wiped out that all Mason and I wanted to do was watch Bleach. But, Netflix pooped out on us after episode 112 or something, like that, so we've been forced over to Hulu. Which means "limited commerical interruption." Thus, during the commericals I've been inking and coloring old pieces.

Here's a surprised looking Byakuya Kuchiki:


My boy Renji Abarai:


Renji with Zabimaru:


Hollow Ichigo:

Originally posted by mmerriamat Sky-Tinted Waters ToC #1 - Tutivillus by Lyda Morehouse

I almost feel like that's all I need to say:  "OMG. The Garden."  But, I suppose it needs a little explanation. 

Shawn took the day off Friday and we took our semi-annual trip out to Shady Acre's Herb Farm.  You wouldn't think we'd need to go so often, but I'll tell you the truth.  I'm a terrible gardener.  Also, the spot we originally chose to be our herb garden has gone from partly sunny to ENTIRELY shaded.  So, over the next several years, Shawn and I are hoping to transform that garden into a contemplative, Japanese-style shade-garden.  Given my skill level, wish us luck.  Probably I'll be able to put a bench out there and grow a few attractive weeds.  But, then again, that might be all we need.

Anyway, after making a ginormous purchase on Friday, we spent Saturday and Sunday PLANTING ALL THE THINGS.

I am sore, but content.  There's only a little more to do before all the weeding and matenience starts. 

Sheesh.  Is it any wonder I finally confessed to hating gardening? (I love gardens, mind you, just not the work.)

This weekend, while Mason and I were up at the cabin, it was very rainy. We decided that the best way to spend a lazy, rainy day was watching a little more Bleach. Imagine my surprise when we came across this scene:

In which Kenpachi Zaraki decides that he can no longer fight in his usual wild (though massively affective) style. Instead, he has to use the one form that the Head Captain insisted he learn. Guess what it is?

It's dropping the f**king sword, just like we did over and over in bokken class.

Seriously.

Now, if sensei Jon had said to me, "You know, Kenpachi uses this to defeat an Espada. It's worth knowing." I would have totally signed up to learn Aikdo forever.

I finally saw "The Avengers" last night with the usual crew.  Stop now if you haven't see it.  I know, I know, I could put this under the LJ cut, but I'm lazy and I don't want to.  If you haven't seen it and you don't want spoilers:  AVERT YOUR EYES.

Okay, so there were a lot of squees from the nerd herd about this movie when it first opened.  Thus, I ended up having a lot of expectations going in.  Plus, all the previous movies more than met my expectations.  And, in the case of "Thor" easily surpassed them. 

So... I liked the Avengers a lot, but I didn't love it.

I think the Hulk ended up being the star of this show.  He and the Black Widow had, by far, the most fleshed out backstories/storylines. Banner's big reveal about his anger was the weightiest and most awesome part of the entire film.  Also, Cap's order to "Smash" and his line about "Puny God" were the best "money shots" in the entire film.  (One of the thing I loved about Thor is how Kenneth Brannagh had the sense to give Thor fans everything they wanted.  The twirling hammer, the lightning flashes, the flying with the hammer out front, all the visual candy we'd been craving.)  Whedon failed the money shots.  There wasn't even one moment when Captain America shouted, "Avengers Assemble."

WTF.

The Black Widow got a lot of really awesome moments as well.  I really enjoyed her bit with the Russian mafia and how that played into her ability to trick the Trickster.  Amazing.  Her pathos around her "red ledger" was nice, though I wondered at her sincerity when she repeated that line verbatum to Hawkeye.  Regardless, that abiguity only served to make her more interesting to me.  I'm glad that they gave Hawkeye a murky past (the Budapest line was a nice moment between them, ie, "I think you remember that differently.") because I always liked Hawkeye's messed up past in the comics.

The focus on Hulk and Black Widow was cool, but a problem because the story ought to have been ABOUT Loki.  Eleanor and I suspect something happened to Loki when he fell into the void, since he looks very beaten at the beginning of Avengers.  But we never learn what that is.  His rage/lonelines has really twisted here, and that's cool, but I could have traded a few explosions for more Loki talking.  More Loki.

Lots more Loki.

I thought there were some missed opportunities in the moments when Thor and Loki talked, because Loki is so very HURT and Thor is so EVER-LOVING.  Thor should not have let Loki get away with saying, "You threw me into the void."  Because we all saw the movie.  Thor is reaching for Loki when Loki lets go.  Thor should have said, "No, my brother, I tried to save you.  You were the one who let go of my hand.  Why?"  THEN, Iron Man should have snatched Thor away, because Loki's answer is always the same ("because I was never loved," yada, yada, yet-still-tragic-and-true.)

So, yes, MORE Loki.

But, I was made happy by the fact that Captain America leads the Avengers.  He ought to and he does.  Thank you, Mr. Whedon.  The other Cap moment I liked was with the police officers who ask, "Why should we listen to you?"  Nice.  I was also made happy by the awesome that is Thor's hammer slamming down on the vibranium shield.  As I whispered to Eleanor, "Yes.  That is how it WOULD HAPPEN." 

But, unlike the rest of you all, I found the storytelling somewhat disjointed.  Probably because I wanted the central character arc to belong to Loki.  Or maybe Nick Fury.  One of the villians at any rate (and yes, I did just say that with Fury in the sentence.)  That's kind of how it works in the comics, and it kind of works here. 

Though there could have been more Loki.

Did I mention that?

Alas, it seems that in order to make room for my new Renji art, I've gotten rid of the little image of the jumping shark to let you all know that I am writing about my fish obsession.  Imagine it there, and skip if you are bored by stories of fish.

This last weekend my family and I were invited to a friend's cabin.  We had an excellent time, though this is a bumper crop year for TICKS.  Mason must have pulled a half dozen off himself nearly every day. (I must not smell right or be too cold.  I didn't even find one.)  However, it was so thick with them that we even saw a wood tick crawling on the side of the cabin.  They were EVERYWHERE.  It was also pretty rainy Saturday and Sunday, and the lake was still too cold for Mason to do any real swimming.  However, we did kayak a lot, which was a great deal of fun... Mason particularly enjoyed the day when the wind was really strong and I was rowing and rowing and rowing and we were going nowhere fast.

Now the fish stuff--

When we came home, we discovered that our shubunkin, Bob, passed away.  I know that a lot of people think that fish are boring pets, but Bob was personality plus.  He might have had a past liffe as a dog or something, because he was really very playful and always met me at a specific corner of his tank whenever I came over for feeding time.  He would wiggle frantically, almost like he was wagging his tail.  Whenever I cleaned the tank and added water, he would swim joyfully in the bubbles created by the new water.  In fact, I knew something had happened to him yesterday because, after feeding the fish in the big tank, I turned and he wasn't "wagging" in his corner. 

Bob has been with us so long that he was far too large for the traditional "burial at sea."  But, I dug another hole in the backyard, next to where we buried Busy Bee (the gerbil), so we placed Bob there, in Mason's garden.  Mason said some lovely words over him.  We had done a rather elaborate ritual for BB, and Mason particularly liked all the gifts we asked for from the Triple Goddess, so for Bob he asked that the Crone take Bob to the summerland, the Mother clean his tank responsibly, and that the Maiden provide him lots of minnows to eat.  The funny part of the last one is that Bob, for some unknown reason got a little canabalistic in his old age (sometimes I called him Dexter fish) and started eating his tank mates, the white mountain minnows.  All well, even sociopaths need their own kind of heaven.  :-)

Gucci, gucci. Bob.  You were a good fish.

I have to interrupt our regularly scheduled program to blather on at great length about Bleach for a moment. So, as some of you know, I've already confessed to writing a great deal of fanfic in this universe, and I'm particularly fond of slashing Byakuya/Renji.

Well, the other day when Mason and I were in our favorite Barnes & Noble, I picked up BLEACH: SOULS, the official character guide. It's really not much more than a retread of the Soul Society arc, with only very little extra information thrown in among all the review. (I did manage to find out, for instance, that Zabimaru was a nue demon, which I suspected, but never knew the specifics of) but the book is otherwise fairly useless for a serious fan because it literally goes episode by episode and, well, I've watched them all enough times that there really wasn't much exciting revelations... except....

There is a tiny chapter called, and I kid you not, "Innermost Feelings: Byakuya's Desire." What is it about, pray tell? Renji. In specific, it's about their massive battle that takes place when Renji (and Zabimaru) decides to break out of the guardhouse to rescue Rukia, even though he knows it will mean taking on Byakuya, his captain (a man he's long striven to surpass.) Okay, this is a series of episodes I've watched dozens of times. It's my favorite for obvious reason, but I will confess to never truly understand what happens at the very end of the fight. After a total pounding (which I've complained about earlier, since I believe Byakuya is a complete cheat because he's actually afraid of Renji's strength,) Zabimaru is broken against... ?? I was never sure, Senbonzakura? Byakuya's manly chest? It's not entirely clear in either the Anime or the Manga, at least not to me.

Okay, get what Tite writes about this moment:

"Byakuya slashes Renji's body with his Senbonzakura Kageyosi [Vibrant Display of Cherry Blossoms]. He tries to stop Renji from rising... It's as if Byakuya is worried about him."

"The Fang That Hits Its Mark:
Renji stabs with the last of his strength... Byakuya takes a square hit and *senses Renji's fervor*"

!!!

But, wait, it gets better!!

"Renji's fang finally reaches Byakuya. Byakuya shows his feelings for the first time as he watches Renji fall. It's as if his eyes reflect the trembling of his heart."

The trembling of his heart? OMG. This makes me so happy. This is like a gift to every B/R slash writer everywhere. Also the CANON implication seems to be that this moment forever changes Byakuya. The fang that pierces him is actually Renji's passion, his strength, and that is what begins to change Byakuya's heart (so that he decides to risk his own life to rescue Rukia himself at the end.)

Thank you, Sensei Tite. I love you.

Last night was my last bokken class through community ed. Sean said to me afterwards that he could almost HEAR my head exploding (though perhaps, more accurately, it imploded,) when sensei attempted to "sell" us on continuing bokken by explaining that pretty much this was it for all of eternity. It never got any cooler, it was all about dropping the sword and "letting go" and then you die -- he seriously said that last part. No. SERIOUSLY. And then you die.

After sensei said that, he continued with a little joke, "Of course, I don't know what happens when you die..." To which I couldn't resist saying, "When you die, you go to the Soul Society and you get a really awesome zanpakto." To which, Tom, the one guy in the class who wasn't Sean, said without missing a beat, "Yeah, Senbonzakura."

Dude. All this time I had a fellow Bleach fan in the class!? If we weren't in the middle of a lesson, I totally would have argued that Zabimaru was by far the better zanpakto...

Sean and I had a talk about my reaction to this whole class on the way home. I'm sure that Aikido is an amazing martial art. In fact, if it came down to a showdown between Sa Bum Nim (my Kuk Sool head instructor) versus sensei Jon, I wouldn't put money on either of them because I have no idea who would win. However, I wouldn't put it past an Aikido 3 dan to be able to kick anyone's a$$ into next week. That's not the problem. I get that Aikido is potentially wicked awesome.

Letting go is not, however, a philosophy I can easily embrace.

Again, I get the significance of the idea. I even think that if I were thinking about martial arts as a meditative, self-improvement path Aikido is probably the best for that. But that's not why I do martial arts. I do martial arts because, for an hour, I can pretend I'm Jackie Chan (or Renji Abarai). The point is, Kuk Sool with all it's yelling, kicking, jumping around and getting whacked by pool noodles is much more conducive to my desire to PLAY.

Aikido is serious.

I don't do serious. Not for fun. And if I'm going to invest time and money, it had better be fun.

Actually, all I've got for you is one bit of fan art:



This is Shunsui Kyōraku, Captain of the 8th Division. He's the Thirteen Court Guard's resident self-indulgent, layabout, wise drunk. Interestingly, he's the character that my friend Kate thinks best matches my personality. Mason did have one complaint when I showed him this picture and that was that Kyōraku usually smiles. I happened to pick his one serious moment in the entire Manga to draw from, so he's looking rather sad here -- as he's explaining to his lieutenant that she doesn't need to kill Chad, as it's both rather nasty business and not really something for such a tender heart as hers, which is only amusing because his lieutenant is rather no-nonsense and you get the impression there's hardly a butt she couldn't kick.

I tend to have him appear in my fan fic when something needs saying, or if gentle romantic advice should be given. He does, after all, write a romance for the Seireitei Communication, the Soul Society's newsletter.

He's also pretty clearly at least bisexual if not gay. He has a VERY SPECIAL friend in the 13th Division's captain, Joshiro Utikake, and both of them are notable for having double zanpakto (the mystical katana of the Soul Reapers, which are supposed to be, in part, reflections of their weilder's souls.) Despite being a complete bear, Kyōraku wears a woman's flowered kimono. So... he's pretty awesome, honestly.