Entertainment - the Week of 13 Jan 08

By far this isn't a comprehensive list of EVERYTHING I listened/watched/read this week. But it is the most compelling thoughts about some of the things my overbearingly large head has absorbed this week, for better and worse:

Cute Is What We Aim For - The Same Old Blood Rush with a New Touch

I've had this album on my 'To Listen' list for...probably since it first came out in '06. It has a compelling name with equally compelling album art. Both of which totally gave me the impression for TWO YEARS that this was an ALL GIRL band.

Tell me, what would you do if you awoke one morning from your comfortable two year relationship with your significant other to discover EVERYTHING WAS A LIE. Key his car? Give her climitia? Well I can't do either of these things because they're an ALL BOY band from Buffalo, NY. Instead I'll just sit in the tub crying and scrubbing myself with steel wool and bleach until I'm committed.

Once getting past this dramatic event, I proceeded to find out that not only was everything a lie, but they're a TOTALLY OVERHYPED band. Their hooks are vastly unoriginal and the singer's voice doesn't stray beyond the melodramatic. It's simply uncompelling, neither venturing to the vocal heights of emo whining nor the depths of...whatever it is that always sings low. Perhaps The Julianna Theory (God they should have broken up long before they actually did)

Chobits - 24 English Dubbed Anime Episodes

Say what you want about Japanese senin series...or any Japanese manga/anime that strays away from Kick Em' Punch Em' anime like Dragonball Z or Naruto...(not bashing those shows BTW, love the stuff...and the term for that is shonen)...but I love this show. It centers around a universe where everyone owns life-sized androids called Persocoms, designed to mimic human emotions. These walking computers (because seriously there are no computers in this universe...it's like there was a mental block when they considered designing a computer that DIDN'T have legs) succeed to look and act so human that one owner, Hideki, falls in love with his android Chi, who is actually an advanced android designed to fall in love in return.

That IS the condensed summary. The fact that I could even condense it is a miracle. Anime is notorious, nay, REQUIRED to have complex often unsolvable plots with more twists than an Eastern Swing Competition. Take .hack//Sign for example. I couldn't explain that show to you without a couple of pie charts, schematics, and a cheap knock-off of Vanna White to keep you interested.

I still like it a lot. I want my own Persocom.

Dragonlance - Second Generation

I'm shamefully proud of my continued subjection to sci-fi/fantasy novels, mostly because I should be spending my time immersed in a category of literary filth that isn't one short evolutionary progression from the dreaded 'romance novel'...the variable primordial soup of literature. Hardly what you'd call the pinnacle of evolution, if you know what I mean.

Yet Dragonlance...and Star Wars for that matter, have and will remain a part of me. I divide my reading 50/50 between actual literature, contemporary and classic, and such filth. As you can see, I'm engaged in filth this week, after having a wonderful affair with my last book 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'

My Trial.

I've been absolutely exhausted this week.

After preparing Sunday/Monday/Tuesday to attend WLC, I arrived and 4AM and was put on stand-by. Which is no big surprise, because just like everything in the Army, you're never guaranteed to go anywhere or do anything until you're actually doing it. And even then, they may pull you away at any second for something they deem more important.

I didn't make it as you can tell. Because if I did I wouldn't be typing right now. I more or less couldn't care either way. On one hand I spent a good deal of money preparing for it and it will help my resume during my tenure with the enlisted side of the Army. On the other hand, January is an exceptionally cold month, and I don't look forward to doing field exercises in that kind of weather. I welcome the opportunity to do it when it's much warmer.

I've been entirely too exhausted this week as a result of two things. 1) Waking at 2AM that morning threw off my sleeping schedule 2) The responsibilities of my position has doubled in the last week.

What I mean to say by the second part is this: As an E-4 Specialist, I have been assigned to an E-5 slot, managing the legal actions of my battalion single handedly. Our battalion holds at least 250 personnel.

This I have been handling since November 2007. It took getting used to, but wasn't exceptionally difficult in my opinion looking back. It also kept me on just the right level of busy in my opinion. Most of the time I had something on my plate, but I could usually squeeze in a game or two of Desktop Tower Defense, the most amazing, and challenging, Flash game I've ever played. When I first discovered it I spent 8 HOURS one Saturday afternoon trying to beat it. Didn't.

Beginning this week I've taken over the brigade legal actions (an E-6 slot), as my current Sergeant Paralegal NCO is preparing for deployment. I've effectively taken over her job AND the job of another Paralegal that worked with her. I can comfortably say that I'm now handling twice the personnel actions and 2.5 times more work than I had to accomplish in the past. Not only that...I'm now in charge of managing tasks I've never done myself.

Take for instance, the court martial I have to prepare this Tuesday that's making me sweat bullets. I have to go pick up a witness from the airport tomorrow and take her to the hotel in preparation for her testimony on Tuesday. I have to set up the courtroom, prepare after-trial documents, and ensure that everything flows smoothly for shipment to the corrections facility.

All things I've never done before.

So these are the things on my plate this week and next, and the reason why after work I eat, plop down on my bed, and pass out for 10 hours before I get up and do it again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm just...acclimating.