The Olympics Are Over

The Olympics are over, but I've still got the fever. Yep, I'm catching up on all the events that are important to me on the Internet. NBC, in the US, did a nice thing and posted video from most of the events uncut and without commentary. It is soooo nice to watch gymnastics and diving without hearing the useless babble from the commentators. Anyhow, this is a relief because staying up past 1AM to watch the coverage was wearing me out!

Anyhow, ..., on a sorta unfortunate, but maybe fortunate note, I'm out of a job. I have the economy and cutbacks to thank. But this is the life of an engineer. The jobs ebb and flow. Anyhow, I hate interviewing. The nice thing is that this is giving me the opportunity to find a job and a work environment that will be better for me, because, to be honest, I wasn't thrilled in the job I had and I had started working for other groups in the company to relieve my boredom and to feel useful to somebody within the company. It will also be nice to finally get a new set of managers. I was under the same set of managers for nearly 9-yrs. That's an awfully long time and, to be honest, that kind of stagnation is career limiting. So wish me luck because I'm going to need it in this job market.

New stuff -- well, in the US Hino Matsuri's "Wanted" came out. It's an excellent three chapter series that first ran in LaLa DX -- go out and get it! Also released were "Skipped Beat" 14, "VB Rose" 3, "Wild Ones" 4, and "Special A" 6. LaLa 2008 volume 10 should be arriving at my door tomorrow, which means my jobless self can start translating "Kisu yori mo Hayaku" right away! (Okay, not right away -- after my morning job search ... I found 20 potential jobs today, so I'll be very busy preparing resumes and cover letters for the next few days ;p). I've also been slowly going through the most recent chapter of "Ouran Host Club". Although it was "translated" by a scanlation group, I didn't feel they captured the deeper essence of what happened. In general they got it right, and, I really shouldn't complain because Ouran is a difficult read. Regardless, I'm reading it for myself. Tamaki is having so real personal struggles. It's very sweet. Hikaru is being devil for Tamaki's sake, which is also very sweet.

Well, I'm back.

Blog Printing Remove

I don't know if any of you used it, but HP Blog Print has been discontinued and I've been asked to remove the widget from my blog. If you were using the service and thought that it was useful, please post a comment and I will see that it gets to HP.

Olympic Fever

I didn't think that it would happen, but I've got Olympic fever and I feel compelled to watch the excitement every minute I'm at home and coverage is on. So please forgive me as I succumb to the magic of the US Men's swimming team (yesterday's relay was the most exciting sports event I've seen in a while. We watched it again at work. That win by the US Men was so SWEET!!! Even my Dad was talking about it. ) and no doubt the US Men's Gymnastics's Team -- so far the Indian guy is my favorite -- I'm rooting for him whole heartedly! He sounds so sweet and deserving. Oh, and then onto diving and track and field ... sigh ... so ... Consequently, there may be silence from me until the games are over.

In the wee few minutes of time before I go to sleep (after midnight because Olympic coverage goes until then), I've been slowly translating the latest chapter of "Ouran Host Club." From what I can tell the last 10-pages or so move things along quite a bit between Haruhi and Tamaki (Tamaki gives Haruhi an otoro ring and comes mighty close to kissing her again after internalizing that his feelings for her are not familial love -- yep, I skipped to the good part) and then Haruhi gets snatched, leaving the ring on the ground. Poor Tamaki is left looking for her. I was hoping that a translation group would have put this out by now, but Ouran is a tough read so I understand why it takes so long to get the chapters out. Anyhow, if I manage to finish before something comes out, I'll post a summary. Anyhow, the chapter starts with Tamaki dreaming about his childhood when his Dad came to visit. His Dad apologizes for not being with Tamaki and his mother and tells Tamaki that they are alway number one on his mind. Then Tamaki goes to Hatsumode with the gang. He and Haruhi have a cute little conversation about eating New Years mochi and are interrupted by Hikaru. Tamaki then starts to freak out about Hikaru's confession to Haruhi and that's as far as I've gotten in detail -- 1. Hikaru confessed to Haruhi 2. Hikaru said that Tamaki is running away from some kind of trauma via the family analogy.