So for the last week or so I've been on vacation to Kono, Hawaii with my family. yeah, i live in freaking San Diego, had tickets to Comicon and didn't get to go--pity me. But I figure I'll tell you a little bit about my vacation. Probably a billion other people are writing about what I missed at Comicon.

Well firstly, we flew from San Diego to LA in the most ghetto plane I've ever seen. It was so tiny, only probably seated like thirty people if that, and it was loud and had no air conditioning. Wasn't that bad though since the flight was only like twenty minutes, though, and I sat next tot his hot-shot looking business man how pretty much sat there listening to his iPhone the whole time, reading some kind of magazine while I read one of my books I brought on the trip. Not so bad.

Now here's where things go south--we get on the plane to fly to Hawaii at about 5:45 pm (it is a five hour flight) in a 747 or something, reasonably comfortable I guess as far as size, but there's still no leg room and I swear to God they design those planes so there is absolutely no comfortable position to sleep, no matter how you twist yourself into a pretzel. So we are on the plane for an hour and I'm watching The Bounty Hunter as the in flight movie (Gerard Butler's American accent is pretty good, but I don't know, I just don't believe it whenever I watch him. It's probably 300's fault), and five minutes into it, the Pilot cuts in and says there's a mechanical problem and he doesn't want to fly across the ocean with it so we are turning around and going back to LA. Everyone is pissed. On top of that they didn't show the rest of the movie and no one came to give food or beverage service like they were supposed to.

Now the pilot also claims we are too heavy to land, so we fly in circles for another hour burning fuel before turning back around. When we get into the airport, it's about 10:30 pm (in case you are counting, yes, that means if we'd just kept flying, we would almost be to Hawaii already at this point). So we land back in LA, and they haven't planned crap for us. We wait in line at Customer Service for TWO HOURS, and when we finally get up there the service people are absolute jerks (not just a little short because people are yelling at them for screwing up the flight, no serious assholes that even a night of sleep and quiet wouldn't cure) hand us some vouchers and arrange for a hotel--in freaking San Pedro, which is a half hour away from the airport, assuming there's no traffic. At this point it is 12:30 and our plane leaves at 8:00 the next morning.

We take a shuttle (the shuttle people were the only one's organized) with a group of other people to the hotel--it's really nice actually, apparently the airlines ran out of room in the Motel 6s. At this point it's about 1 in the morning. In in the LA airport it takes 2 hours to do anything and another hour to get there, so when it comes right down to it, I only got to sleep three hours before the shuttle came to take us back to the airport. Luckily the plane didn't have to turn around again this time, but I was so tired I pretty much passed out in the plane and had weird, hallucinations/dreams about a water landing and turbulence and fish and clouds and as a result I don't really know much about the flight except that it was very cold and I missed the movie.

I think I'll save the rest for a different entry. Just thinking about this makes me angry.

So, I haven't done much with the journal. I don't know if any of you guys read this at all, but I've decided to do little reviews of all the obscure manga and manhwa I've been reading lately! I've got quite a few stocked up, so there will probably be a couple close coming soon and then it will dwindle as I get lazy again. But anyways!


*****Manga Review: Jackals!!!*****

Status:   Ongoing
Author(s): MURATA Shinya, KIM Byung Jin
Artist(s): KIM Byung Jin
Year of Released: 2006
Genre(s): action, seinen
Read Here:           [link]


You might notice all the Jackals stuff around, and that's partly because Nicholi is hot, and partly because I'm reviewing it.

Jackals is a Korean Manwha taking place in a fictional Town called Cicero City in the 19th century. The town is full of immigrants, making it a haven for gang activity and crime, giving assassins known as Jackals ample job opportunities. The plot follows a Jackal named Nicholi (some translate as Nichol) called 'The Alligator' due to his massive weapon like an Alligator's jaw, on his exploits. When it comes right down to it the plot isn't ground-breaking yet, sort of your average action manga, but it's definitely not boring and the fact that it takes place in a European style city is cool and somewhat uncommon. Also, there haven't been any wild declarations that the main character is completely badass, which is always nice.

The artist is a wonderful and versatile, (as you can see), with easily understood action sequences and fully drawn backgrounds. Sometimes you get artists that just put white behind their characters (*cough* Gokusen and Dogs: Bullets and Carnage *cough*) for whatever reason, leaving the pages a bit unfinished looking, but that doesn't happen here. Not to mention the artists whose characters are basically carbon-copies of each other with slightly different hair or something--that's not the case in Jackals, either. Characters are distinctive and different with their own looks and personalities. Concurrently, there is always the trouble when reading graphic novels with action, that it sometimes get's difficult to figure out what the hell is going on, but Jackals is pretty straight forward. So far the 'battles' haven't stretched overly long to the point I get bored and say 'fuck it, I don't care anymore,' (*cough D.Gray-man *cough*), either, which is great.

So far the manhwa is only eleven chapters long, but they are good-sized chapters and more is expected to follow!

Male Super-Hotties: Nicholi, Huya, Hollow
Female Super-Hotties: None so far, but I'm sure they'll show up.

Rating: 4.3 of 5.

Jackals Stuff:
Wallpapers: [link]
___________________________________________________________________________


Real-Life Buddies:

I am a member of the !Fairy-Tail-Club !

Hey everyone! Long time no journal writing! Well, I don't really have much to say. I'm working on my Anita Blake fanfiction as much as I am able. Just submitted the eight chapter for posting, and I'm working on the ninth. Haven't made a wallpaper in a week or so, I don't think. Is there anything anyone wants in particular? I don't really have any fandom I'm especially interested in right now, so anything I've heard of, I'll just make a wallpaper of, if I feel like it and you ask.

Anyone have a good manga for me to read? I'm totally dry on manga right now, there's nothing I've read that catches my fancy right now. I read a lot of manga and the occasional manhwa (korean version of manga), but I need MORE. I wait around all week for my shounen to update, read them in like five minutes and I'm left with loose ends. What are you guys reading that you would recommend to me read?

Besides: Naruto, Bleach, Rurouni Kenshin, Fullmetal Alchemist, BLAME!, One Piece, IGPX, Hellsing, Trigun, .Hack//SIGN, Ghost in Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Tsubasa: Reservior Chronicle, xXx Holic, Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon, FAKE, Trinity Blood, Mieru Hito, Zetman, Zombie Hunter, Ares, Psychometrer Eiji, Freesia, XS Hybrid, Claymore, Jiraishin, Fairy Tail, Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man, D-Grey Man, Holyland, Kekkaishi, Ouran High School Host Club, 07 Ghost, Love Hina, Card Captor Sakura, Deathnote, Chobits, Angelic Layer, Furi Kuri, GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, XBlade, Mahou Sensei Negima, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Tenjo Tenge, Zombie Powder, Gantz.

Those are pretty much all the manga/manhwa that I read/have-read/tried-to-read-and-failed-due-to-crappiness-creepiness-or-corniness. Examples of three said manga are D-Grey-man, Gantz, and Mahou Sensei Negima respectively. In my opinion. You guys like them, power to you, but they aren't my thing and I don't think you guys want to hear me rant about why they suck.

Anyway PLEASE someone give me a title, I am in DESPERATE NEED of a new Manga to read. I prefer, cool and unique stories, especially with some fighting, with a minimum of fan-service if possible. Preferably fantasy, science fiction or psychological, or crime oriented, or at least funny (but low on the romance if it's funny. I usually don't like funny romances. Ouran High School Host Club being the exception).

So yeah. Also, I found a place where you can watch Anime for free! Click on this! If for no other reason than to get me points, please!

I am a member of ! The Fair Tail Club!

I downloaded some Kick ass Arcane brushes awhile back but I hadn't really used them much.

Until Now.

Yeah, kind of went a little wild. Maybe. Just a Tad.

So as you may or may not have noticed, depending on how attentive you are, I changed my Deviant Art Id and Theme. AGAIN. Get used to it, I change my wallpaper every other day, it oughtn't to be a surprise that I change my deviant art ID every couple weeks.

My theme is sort of like...well, Magic. And magic is Awesomely cool. I don't think the fact that I'm an extensive reader of Fantasy Novels helps to tone down my imagination. I wouldn't be too surprised if there is an influx of "magic" wallpapers in different colors. I haven't done an Anime wallpaper in like a week or so (only a week she says?), I think I'll mess around with Zetman next. A really bizarre but cool science fiction-ish Manga that is badass to the extreme. Read it. Enjoy it.

Also starting tomorrow I'm on Spring break for a week. If I make more stuff than normal, that's probably why: I have too much time on my hands. Although I might be spending a lot of that time working on my Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter fanfiction on the Pomme De Sang website. If you are familiar with AB:VH, check it out! If you're not familiar with AB:VH, read it! My name on PDS is NoirGrimoir, and my fanfiction is Psychic or Psychotic? I'm also usually skulking around the forum, so you'll see me there.

As always you can use any of my wallpapers for your personal use without asking, but a comment is really nice! If you want to put it on your site or link to it, please ask, though I'll probably say yes, it's just so I know what's going on and whatever. If I don't know what's going on I get confused and start  freaking out. You. Don't. Want. That.

In closing, I challenge all of you to use the phrase "Magic is Bitchin'" in a conversation. Whoever does and tells me about it gets internet cookies!

Also I'm part of the Fairy Tail club! Yay!

I am ill. As in I have the flu. It doesn't really help that it has been raining off and on for like three or four weeks straight. Which is bizarre because the climate where I live, is like, semi-arid. I mean, I love rain, but when you're coughing and sneezing, it's just not nice. At all.

But anyways.

I've ventured into a new medium: Photoshop brushes. You may have already noticed, or you may not have, but whatever. I made three brush sets:

Sasuke's Sharingan:[link]
Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan:[link]
Kakashi's mangekyo Sharingan:[link]

Don't really expect me to be making brushes all over the place, because I'm only going to be making stuff when I need it, and can't find it on here. But, I mean, you might see some stuff on here from time to time. And if you want to request a set of brushes, I'll see what I can do. And you can bet anything I make will be usable. I hate it when people have brushes and they look all nice in the picture but the actual brush is tiny and is all fuzzy and mostly transparent...you know what I mean. If you download brushes a lot you have probably got a dud somewhere along the way and know what I'm talking about.

So, yeah.

So, as some of you may or may not have noticed, it looks a little different around here. AGAIN!

Yes, that is right. i just can't possible leave my deviantART theme alone of more than a week or two before changing it to something. It's sort of my excuse to make stuff, you see. So anyways, this time around it's Kururu. I found a place with High Quality Scanlations of AirGear (the place I usually go to for Air Gear Manga has low Quality Scans...Wah! Disappointment!). This being so, I decided to pillage the site of it's pictures and have been on a rampage making Kururu stuff. Do not think I am done yet. I have only used like three or four of them, I have many more, so doubtless I won't be able to stop until I've used all of them at least once.

In other news, I am using my break before College classes start again to power-write Anita Blake Fanfiction. If anyone wants to take a look at that it's right here: [link]

And what the hell, here's my fanfiction.net page too: [link]

Read people! It's good for you! Especially when it's by me!

Just kidding...but not really.

Nothing much, just changed my theme from the wondrous L from Deathnote, to the as yet unnamed male lead character of FF13 Versus. The game that I would Murder someone for. But don't quote me on that. I don't want to be suspected of anything...just kidding.

I just recently became addicted to an online Flash game called Flash Flash Revolution. I usually suck at these sorts of reflex games but I can do things up to 'Tricky' level on this game. Its pretty much like dance dance revolution for your fingers. Plus it has Lovehatehero and Scary Kids Scaring Kids songs. I've been playing it two days straight, and after I play a couple songs, the things on my screen start moving around and I look away and my vision stretches. I think it's from looking at flying arrows too much.

You can find flash flash revolution at [link]

Login and cite Noirgrimoir as the one who referred you. I think I get something. That would be cool anyways.

So I've had this account now for a long time but I really had only one piece of graphic art I made during high school. I've been making myself wallpapers FOREVER though and for some reason it only occurred to me now that this is art that someone might want to look at. So I've decided to put all my wallpapers up here for you all to enjoy!

Feel free to take as many as you like and slap them on your desktop! If you put them on your website, link here and you're all set! I make a couple every month, just because I feel like it, so I expect that my gallery will start filling up a bit instead of being so lonely like it was before. I also made myself a new avatar and deviant art ID featuring the ever so lovable L (LUV!). I am so proud of myself!

Also if you're looking through here and want to request a wallpaper, I'm always looking for excuses to make more, so go ahead. Make sure you tell me what pixel ratio you need though, otherwise it will be in 1280x800, because thats the screen size of my laptop.

I love deviant art!