Prétear

I've been recently rewatching this complete Prétear collection four DVD set that presents the complete series for a total of 13 episodes.

Shin Shirayuki Hime Densetsu Pretear is a long title which translates into New Legend of Snow White Pretear. 

What makes Pretear anime special is the story. Its a magical girl show, but its part Cinderella plus part Snow White and a dash of bishounens! You will see a lot of fairy tale parallels with this anime series.Created by acclaimed animators Kaori Naruse and Junichi Sato (SAILOR MOON), the magical-girl anime series PRÉTEAR centres around 16-year-old Himeno, who's widowed father remarries and moves them to his new wife's palatial island estate.

On her way to school, Himeno meets a little boy who asks her to take his hand. When she does, she faints and later she wakes up staring up at a dark haired bishounen! The bishounen who helps revive her turns out to be Hayate, one of the seven knights of the earth. They were looking for Shin Shirayuki Hime Densetsu Pretear (the legendary magical girl that can help them save the earth from ruin and destruction). Hayate, the more temperamental of the seven believes that Himeno is the girl they are looking for.

The story is not just about Himeno and the seven knights. It is also about her home life and her father, Kaoru. Kaoru and Himeno are very close to each other. Natsue, Kaoru's new wife, is jealous of the closeness that Himeno and Kaoru share. 

Natsue also has two spoiled daughters, Mawate and Mayune. Her father, Kaoru, is quite enamored with his new wife and the life he lives that he assumes that Himeno is happy too.

With a stern new stepmother and two stepsisters who either taunt or ignore her, Himeno thinks that things can't get any worse--until she is visited by seven mysterious men called the Leafe Knights. Led by the handsome but disdainful Hayate, the knights inform Himeno that she is a magical being with the power to help them battle the evil Princess of Disaster, who is spreading demon larvae in an effort to destroy the world's life force.

Eschewing the genre's typical cutesiness for truly innovative storytelling bolstered by gorgeous animation and exciting action sequences, Prétear is the rare magical-girl anime that appeals to both female and male fans alike.

I quite enjoyed rewatching this as it deals with sadness, the need to be strong facing down one's demons and the magic of loving another.

Minidisc a go-go 2022

Today it must be said hasn't been a great one with much rain and wind and indeed yesterday It even hailed stinging my legs which meant a quick return from the paper shop and brewing a hot cup of tea.

I haven't written much in recent years around MiniDiscs for a number of reasons, one being the demise of my home recorder and issues trying to get a solid reliable working replacement given home decks have been out of production even in Japan since around 2006/7 and lasers don't last long.

Another is because of, the majority of use had been mainly for purely personal headphone based use such as lp records copied to disc which is a faff on computer based systems as the interfaces aren't easy or selections from cd because for whole albums it's easier and quicker to just "rip" to Mp3 or Flac and play from a personal audio player especially as mine have line outputs too.
 

My circa 2004 Sharp MT MD 270H developed issues with the catch holding the disc getting out of alignment so the slightest nudge caused errors so I was able to get a similar era Sharp MT MD 170 that had had next to no use in its original box just needing a new "Gumstick" battery which while not very easy to find can be still bought as new manufactured stock so still capable of holding a full charge.

This works very well with the controls operating the same way with both digital and analogue record levels being able to be set and a button to start charging when the power unit is inserted for mains operation.

Axia made a bunch of Hello Kitty and other Sanriotown banded blank uber kawaii MiniDiscs which are now highly collectable and those go for around £30 per disc unopened

They did so at the time Hello Kitty branded players including a MD Boombox!

Here's some discs together with a Sony portable recorder with inline remote that become common in the very late 90's that you'd clip on your attire for ease of operation.

I will have to say however in my experience Sony's personal recorders outside of the early MZ-R 30/35/50's from the mid 90's had by far the worst ergonomics for the controls of any, indeed those on my HiMD NH600 are an absolute beeping pain to use especially with sub menus that the rotary encoder is erratic at moving through. 

Their home decks were in the main, much much better.

Weekly update from "The Dorm"

I'm writing this in the aftermath of Hurricane Aileen that arrived over Tuesday night and rampaged into Wednesday morning here pulling down trees, causing localized flooding and causing a power out that lasted five and a half hours to which I don't known what is worse: being without the power or sheer cacophony of security alarms ring for hours as you try to get some sleep in.
Anyway, we're back up and running, nothing has blown from a power surge although it confused the main tv into thinking it had no antenna for some strange reason that took a bit of troubleshooting and I think the electric kettle's on its last days.

As you know I've always had a thing for Kawaii, almost an obsession even over the cutest of things having shared it on That Boarding School Girl pretty much from the beginning and indeed at one point I even had a very short-lived side blog devoted to 'cute stuff'.
If you'd of asked me in 2008 I could see my dorm looking just like the room illustrated then I'd have to of said yes cos while the cute bits and bobs are there I was very much into cutified technology replacing standard keyboard and mice and might of replaced the monitor too.
In 2017 it's different because of that technology, I use mainly a small Chromebook which is black and an aging Dell Windows laptop for music downloading and copying to files on and they have less customization as in making pink even if do liberally cover them in cute stickers because not needing separate keyboard and mice, I don't have the excuse to toss the supplied boring one to landfill and add something from the Hello Kitty range instead cos I don't like the look of 'boys toys' although I'm not exactly a technophobe.
I have finished with any luck the redesign of this journalling middles blog in conjunction with my middle/littles blog so they do match and have a less busy, more streamlined feel on the theme side.

Bags

I just adore cure airline type bags such as these

Cute fashion

You might ask about fashion because it is a good while since I blogged around that which isn't entirely unconnected with the changes I have been going through recently and that I'm trying to deal with on this blog.

This is more like the kind of thing I like rather more than more obviously for older people  fashions liking pastels and pleated skirts a lot. I'm not much for anything below the knee when it comes to skirt lengths.

Tag hash wednesday

Hello folks from a very warm room today.
I'd like to talk around a few  topics today that have been on my mind for a while.
 I was reading yesterday on Tumblr about an argument between two users whose names I'll keep out of this entry around the use of Hash (#)  tags where one person was saying that they didn't wish another to use the #lolita tag in their posts and the other person responding by saying that they've every right to and if the individual had an objection to other aspects of their life that might be evident from their entries it was kinda tough.
For what it is worth no one person or 'community' owns a hash tag, the only thing that matters is it should be applied correctly so that for instance an  entry  just on lolita fashion or meets should use it as it is an aid to finding entries NOT as a part of a series of unrelated tags.
That's because it's not helpful to people trying to find entries on a service like Tumblr if we mix up all the tags.
It is unfortunate that some (not all) in the #lolita community can be very judgmental taking issue with non brand wearers at meets as well as being transphobic.
It is true we all have different takes on life, how we may present and we may not wish to know about anothers, however that is something on social media is something you can control by choosing who you follow which as the name suggests means you are able to see easily more of that persons entries and if we just dislike an individual (or all their posts) you may have the option of putting them on an 'ignore' list that effectively hides their posts from you.
When posting it is probably a good idea to try to keep mainly to one topic if you intend to tag it so it's clear what your post is about and does lessen any potential to offend even if you personally don't feel it should.
The final arbiter of what is acceptable at sites such as Tumblr, Google Plus, Facebook and so on is them because you accept their terms upon joining and they have reporting systems should you feel a post or entry is inappropriate.

Get your skates on!

The hottest tip apparently in fashion for Summer is skater skirts.

This is a pretty nice example from Miss Selfridge with a pretty floral pattern, and pleats in a 40cm length.

Eviction time

Further to this post of 2012 (NEO: an end of an era ), Uncooked Media and NEO magazine announced with just 7 days notice it was to close the magazines old Forum on Friday February 22nd where some of us had accounts for quite a period, saying they hadn't anyone to look after it.
So not for the first time some us are forum hopping again and can be found found at UK Anime news's forum as most of us have agreed to move other there for now at least and nearly everyone bar me is keeping their old user names.
For posterity here's a picture of the forum for duoinchains, Shadowcat, max, demonix and the gang.

So long NEO Forums and raised glasses to our new home.

Neko time

I suppose with all the trouble we've had in the last week over here, we could use a little luck so I thought I'd put up a picture from the stock of TokyoJazzPanda of a good luck cat I like. The Kanji on the coin reads "Peace" which is very apt.

Music while you're about

I think the late founder of Sony has a lot to answer for as he popularized the notion of going around with a small personal player loaded with your favourite tunes in the form of the Walkman back in late 1979.
Of course since then we've been through differing formats, cassette tape, cd, minidisc and solid state players as well as things that are multi-functional such as cellphones with music facilities or even the cult iPad.
I still prefer my MiniDisc player for sound as well as general convenience but sometimes the ability to load a file from the 'net straight and cheap download offers appeals so a solid -state player is handy.
Generally I've been more than satisfied with my Sensa Clip+ for the sound quality as well as its ability to accept full cd quality 'lossless' files which you can commonly get cheap from the likes Amazon and Walmart, which I feel is the biggest bargain out there for anyone not bothered about video or photo's.
If you are an avid iTunes user though one disadvantage of this player is short of getting a bit technical and changing it's software, it won't play files in Apples aac format which is the norm for iTunes and to be honest I feel aac and wma are better sounding formats than regular Mp3 if you need to 'compress' your music to load more of it on a player.
Sony do a inexpensive player that will accept acc and wma files which is worth considering and it is the NWZE458P.
It's capacity is 4GB although I think you can get a 8GB version and you just drag and drop files to it so you don't have to use itunes ior windows media play if you don't want to.
What's more it's available in pink!

Almost there

Just days before the BIG Day so we're decorating the tree. Sounds pretty crazy I know but I just love getting out the tinsel, angels and decorating the tree. Mines half a tree cos that Moomin would climb up it if it was a floor mounted model so I have to mount it on the wall!
Don't you just love the colours of the baubles .

Just going to type up the Christmas message on Daytime Office Girl Crisis so if like to see it be sure to pay a visit.
Regards Caroline.

Halloween

Just one more day to both Halloween AND Hello Kitty's birthday so enjoy yourselves and remember as Kitty would say "Make cupcakes not war".
I've got my sweets ready for the little 'uns this year.

Engine trouble.

Having trouble with the running of your car engine, eh? Then this is what we need to lubricate it!

Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a happy Easter as I just break open this egg!
At least your left with something you can use afterward, eh?

Kawaii and I

Something that has always been a part of me is a liking for kawaii or otherwise cute things that may or may not be be linked with cartoons, childrens tv series or the like so I wouldn't collect them in a collecting sense

With me this has everything to do with being a coping mechanism that pulls me out of anxiety and also a part of the child-like brain damaged me that needs to see, feel and play with tactile objects especially small ones as handling them helps me stay 'in the moment' and concentrate on that situation.

I really like the Sanriotown characters such as Twin Stars, My Melody, Chococat and of course Hello Kitty.

Kalashnikitty

....And now for something different! Let's say I've always had a soft spot for things like Hello Kitty, the cultish Japanese iconic character but this un-official pose is one I truly adore. If it wasn't for the 'Gun Talk' rules on a certain website, I'd have it as my avatar. To me it kind of symbolizes the mixture of the innocent with the knowing - the bit that just might have to use force or weapons.

Mikado for the Otaku!

At long last this is being marketed in England!
Cute looking Japanese chocolate on a biscuit stick with a small portion uncoated to make handling a less sticky affair.
Now if we get the fruit flavoured Pokey more readily available here it would be great.

EGL fashion

Just adorable, that's my thought on this example of Elegant Gothic Lolita as worn.

Aww II

More Sweet Lolita fashion

Also today's a important day here so I've been sing visitors for most of the day.

Aww

I have an interest Loita fashion.

This is a very good example of "Sweet Lolita"