Selling on EBay!

Well, this week I finally started selling stuff on EBay! Audrey came here and helped me to set the "business". Now to what exactly I am selling... As you may expect, duplicates of my Hello Kitty mascots and netsuke, and other cute stuff, such as mobile phone pouches, notebooks etc...

We have listed only 5 items so far, to see how it works. But, if it turns out to be OK, I will also sell some manga books, DVDs, stationery and other things that became "redundant" down here! Let's see how it goes, let's see...

My stuff is listed here, in case you want to have a look!

Cute pup goes toilet-training

Seriously, who can possibly resist to this??? From YouTube again, from a very fortunate owner of a cutilicious Shiba Inu. The puppie seems to be well trained toilet-wise, but very scared of the results... I want one (the puppie, not the poo, of course!)...

Snap Shots!

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this blog called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site. That's why you will see a little balloon following any links available inside the posts, indicating that preview is enabled.

Sometimes Snap Shots brings the information needed right to the readers, without them having to leave the current blog, while other times Snap Shots enables users to "look ahead," before deciding if they want to follow a link or not, saving them time and effort and increasing their ability to focus on the content that matters most to them.

However, should you decide this is not for you, just click "Disable" in the upper right corner of the Snap Shots bubble and opt-out of it. I believe some people may find it annoying at times!

Animation - "Corpse Bride"

We watched Corpse Bride last night and it is a gorgeous little film.

I love the way Tim Burton has turned "death" into something cute. The characters are so likeable and human, and I think it's great for kids so they can be a bit more understanding of death, maybe. Even us, grown-ups, are not so understanding, but this film lightens up such a gloomy and scary theme. Somehow.

The soundtrack by Danny Elfman is also remarkable, especially the piano solos played by Victor and Emily, and the musical pieces taking place in the world "below", very funny and well-choreographed.

It is also cool to see the contrast between the rigid, grey real-life world and the bright colourfulness of the world of the Dead. As if the Dead guys were the ones "released" whereas their "alive" counterparts are those restrained to a colourless, almost monochrome existence.

The characters of the brides (Victoria and Emily) are brilliantly voiced-over by Helena Bonham-Carter and Emily Watson, who bring emotion and grace to their roles. Victor, as one may expect from Burton, is of course Johnny Depp - also impeccable as the very Brit and shy groom-to-be Victor Van Dort.

Needless to say the animation is superb, and those characters are so pretty (well, the good ones at least!) that you end up by falling in love with them. They have big, soulful eyes and the expressions are perfect, as well as their movements. They seem to float effortlessly and you detect no stiffness or harsh moves at all. Lightly and gracefully. Beautiful indeed.

My favourite characters are the brides of course, and also the corpse-dog Scraps - who used to belong to Victor when he was a little boy. The plot is not only simple (no unnecessary frills here), but very clever and funny, something to be enjoyed by both adults and kids.

Aaaaahhhhdorable...

This was in my Google page today, could not resist to share (from Dog of The Day)! He looks like a tiny Shiba Inu, and it's just too gorgeous. I wish I had one...

Manga to Love - "Inubaka"

Inubaka is a very cute manga released by Viz Media. I found it at one of our local bookshops, bught the 2nd volume by mistake, and managed to get the 1st one some weeks later from Justmanga.

It tells the story of an adorable 18 year-old girl, Suguri, who decides to move from Saitama to Tokyo with her dog Lupin (a lovely mutt, probably with some Akita blood I would say). She expects to find a job and change her life in the big city and, once there, literally stumbles upon Teppei - a handsome pet shop owner - when Lupin tries to have a go at his she-dog, Noa, yet another super-cute dog, this time a pure breed black Labrador.

Teppei gets really annoyed at Lupin's advances and to compensate for that, the embarrassed Suguri offers to work at his pet shop. Reluctantly, he ends up by accepting her offer.

From then on, the book revolves around her new life at the shop, getting to meet new people and new puppies, and showing how the customers interact with the animals, how they choose their pets, how puppies are cared for, and so on. Also, she happens to have an outstanding talent for the job, and her love, dedication and understanding of dogs is something out of this world. At one stage, Teppei even wonders if she is not a dog herself!

It's a very funny and entertaining manga, different from most, because it shows how a pet shop is supposed to work, how breeders do their job and how attached to a puppy anyone can become. Very interesting and extremely well-drawn, the manga is rich in visual details and research.

I read volumes 1 and 2, and cannot wait for what comes next!

Manga to Love - "Blood Alone"

I am back, finally, from my hermit days. Or at least, I hope so! I haven't been up to very much, really. Feeling way too tired most of the time, which is a waste of time, but then again I must accept that things are like that from time to time.

At least I've been reading lots lately, and finding some real gems of my beloved manga genre! This one is called Blood Alone, by Masayuki Takano, and tells the story of a girl (Misaki) who is not only cute and honest and intelligent. She is also a vampire. And she lives with a writer called Kuroe, who is also intelligent and gorgeous, and holds some mysterious connection with her own past. It may sound at first like nothing but ordinary, but believe me this is not just yet another vampire manga. There are lots of intrigue, suspense, unusual characters and romance too. And the artwork may be one of the best ones I've seen lately, very accurate (facial expressions are just amazing) and detailed, extremely elegant. Impossible not to fall completely for Misaki and Kuroe.

For screenshots of the book, visit the publisher's website and select Blood Alone from the list, so you can read it online first. I have not tried though, since I read the books already, vols. 1 and 2 (and back-ordered 3), but it must work!

Le Japon Artistique

My Dad gave me a book years ago, an encyclopaedia of Japanese Arts, when I first entered the University, in 1979-80, some time before he passed away I think... It's an amazing collection of 3 books dated from 1888, by S. Bing, an art dealer specialised in Art Nouveau and Oriental art. It may be the oldest books I have and, unfortunately, way too heavy to bring it home to Dublin. It's called Le Japon Artistique.

When I was younger I used to sit down at a table and copy some of the patterns reproduced there. It's an invaluable reference. I just found out in my last visit that there is even a chapter on "manga", showing old manga reproductions. Not the manga that we know nowadays, but the manga as is, ie, "irresponsible (whimsical) sketches", inside the large section dedicated to Hokusai. The collection is exquisite, and has everything one needs to know about Japanese Art up to some years after the Meiji era. Lots of text, black and white and coloured plates. Hard it is to preserve such an old book. It is in quite good state, however not perfect. Rio's humidity is to blame for its not-so-perfect condition, but still, if you handle it with care and love you'll gain an endless number of delightful hours. A gem...

New Manga: Princess Tutu

Yesterday we went to Forbidden Planet and I bought myself a new manga, which was already in my wish list for some time, Princess Tutu.

It is a very cute story, in the "magical girl" genre, almost as cute as Cardcaptor Sakura, really. The story is very childish, and about a girl called Ahiru who is a ballet student and falls in love with a boy who is also a dancer in the same school. Mytho seems to be a bit too weird, and Ahiru's visit to a clothes shop (of sorts) opens the door of a magical world where she becomes Princess Tutu and no longer the clumsy little girl that she uses to be in the real world. As Tutu she will be able to rescue her beloved (or at least we hope!) from his apathetic and almost lifeless state.

Why did I buy this? The artwork is very pretty, especially the characters expressions and movement. I am not expecting any depths story-wise. Purely for the fun of it!

Back from Rio

I am back from Rio since last Sunday, the 22nd. I miss it lots of course. I had a nice flight back, ate some ice lollies and had a nice chat with some guys I met in the plane. It was OK. I also listened to lots of J-Pop songs while watching the films that were on. Yes. You got it, at the same time. Just reading the subtitles and listening to Japanese songs, which sounds a bit weird. But hey... Life is too short, right?

As Mark blogged about today already, we are fascinated with our new domestic appliances. It was a hard day though. but the house is (almost) spotless now. And we are very, very tired!