I?m going to hold off on my answers for a little bit until I see some other responses.

Right now, I really like Kimi to Iu Hana by Asian Kung-Fu generation. Actually, I?ve discovered they are awesome all together, but Kimi to Iu Hana is my favorite song from them. I've been going to http://ajikan.sayuri.us/ a lot lately because they have samples to listen to from AKFG and there is a lot of fan stuff.

Well, I hope there are fans of Hajime no Ippo here so I'll give it a shot. Hajime no Ippo is pretty much a modern day boxing manga. It's about a teenager named Makunouchi Ippo who has no time for school activities because he has to help his widowed mother run the family business which is fishing. Due to the nature of the business, he gives off a distinctive smell of worms which makes him a target of bullies. During one of Ippo's routine beatings, Takamura Mamoru, the new Japanese Rookie Champion, sees Ippo getting beaten up and saves him. Ippo then wakes up finding himself in a boxing gym. Since Takamura couldn't stand seeing Ippo pitying himself, he teaches Ippo the right straight and lets him hit the bag. When Ippo successfuly utilizes the right straight, he sends the bag flying and it tears the skin on his knuckles (which shows the sign that he is a power puncher). It seems that helping out at the fishing business carrying so many boxes at once shows that it gives him more than just a distinctive smell.

After that, Takamura takes him to the video room and tells him the story of Mike Tyson and how he was bullied as a kid until a bunch of punks killed one of his pigeons and Tyson goes all on out on the kids. He also gives Ippo some Mike Tyson videos which inspires Ippo to instantly make the decision to become a boxer and be a new person like Mike Tyson. However in the anime, the Mike Tyson story is ommitted for the most obvious reasons and instead is given a video of Boxing Knock Outs. A few days later, Takamura thought Ippo's decision was too rash and decided to give him a test he thought would be impossible to pass. It was to catch 10 leaves falling from a tree within a week. Despite Ippo's hardships, he remembers the movements Takamura does with relaxing his wrists and this gives him the ability to master jabs on his own. Takamura was impressed and thought he was good as gold.

After that, Takamura gives Ippo a training menu to do for a month. Mostly sit ups and push ups and some running. After that was over, Takamura finally gives Ippo a chance to join the gym. The coach, Kamogawa, thought he was just a school boy and decides to put him in a sparring test against another boy his age and in his weightclass (featherweight), Miyata Ichiro. Miyata has been boxing since he was 10 and is under the tutelage of his father, a former boxer who retired after losing his shot at the OPBF title. Despite how badly Ippo loses to Miyata, Kamogawa, and the rest of the gym were impressed with his stamina and fighting spirit and knew that with proper training, he had what it takes to conquer the pro world. He would rematch Miyata in 3 months and this time, it was a more legitimate fight and each got a knock down on almost each round and showed the improvement Kamogawa could make on Ippo. And after that, Miyata leaves the gym in hopes of settling the score with Ippo in the pro world. Thus begins the story of Ippo.

Sorry for intro, but I just couldn't help it since there is some subtle difference between the manga and anime. The only time Tyson is ever referenced in the anime is when Ippo learns his current style, the peek-a-boo guard. Anyway, I love the manga a whole lot more. It's still continuing to this day and volume 72 is coming out next month. I have read up to volume 71.

For those of you who really wanna know, Ippo and Miyata are finally going to fight (I'm expcting Morikawa-sensei to start the match by the end of the year). Ippo has defended the Japanese Title for the last time (against Take Keichi, a man that even Date Eiji feared in his first title reign) and he is going to settle the score with Miyata and Miyata's OPBF title will be on the line. A lot of the fans are expecting a draw because I bet people will wanna see another match (hoping that it will not take another 15 years to do so). However, the match was delayed because Miyata fractured his fists defending the title against this Korean. They were supposed to fight in April in the Hajime no Ippo world (it's currently January) but was moved to August or July. Instead, the fans are going to see a very exciting and grusome fight, Sawamura vs. Mashiba.

All I can say is it was a pity of how Hajime no Ippo the TV series ended with just Sendo Vs. Ippo II. Because that match was only the true beginning of the excitement of what Hajime no Ippo offers. Even though the manga has been going on for a long time, it keeps getting better and better. I think it has the best characters that any manga or anime has to offer and most defenitley the best fights.

I got this movie in the mail Thursday night and watched in Friday (with like 10 interruptions from my parents) and watched it again yesterday (without any interruptions). This is defenitley Jackie Chan at his best. He also co-stars with Gen X Cops' Nicholas Tse. Though it's not at all connected to any of the original Police Story movies, it still shares that theme and gives the best Jackie Chan has to offer not only as a martial arts/stunt man, but as an actor as well.

The movie is about how Jackie Chan fails a mission by losing nine of his teammates and becomes an alcoholic. His new partner Frank Cheng (Nicholas Tse), is there to help him out and to bring him back on the police force. Because of how Jackie is dealing with his failures and losses, the police force does not want him back and Jackie and Frank are forced to be on their own as they uncover the identities fo those who killed Jackie's teammates and what their next target is.

It's a lot more darker than any of other Jackie Chan's movies and a whole lot more intense with the action. Some people will find the villians to be controversial due to their true identities, but even so, I thought the concept behind Joe and his gang of five were really an orignial idea despite how cheesy and unpredictable it was. I strongly reccomend it to anyone, especially to Jackie Chan's fans because this is most defenitley Jackie Chan at his best.

It turns out, when you set your house on fire...parents get real mad at you

So I went for my yearly health exam and found out I gained 15 pounds. Here's the weird thing though - all the pounds seemed to go to one area of my body - the stomach!!! It is a really weird experience for me because all throughout high school and college, I've been the same weight - around 113-115 pounds. I've always wanted to gain a couple of pounds to be a bit more healthy (I'm 5'5) but it never really happened no matter what I ate. Then after college I moved in with boyfriend and that's when the weight gain happened. (No, I am not pregnant ) The same thing happened to a couple of my girlfriends once they moved in with their bf/or got married. But they are very lucky.. because their pounds got distributed throughout their whole body. I hope this isn't an asian thing I bet it's all the rice I eat plus turning into a couch potato.. I got a TV recently and I never realized how many reality shows were going on.. when did this start??? I guess there is more to life than watching anime dvd's and playing world of warcraft...

i dunno about u guys, but personally i don't perfer dvd players that have progressive scan. i have one with progressive scan and a $40 model, i like the cheap one better cuz it just about plays everything, even the disc that doesn't play on the one with progressive scan.

i think its because the $40 player has a less precise thus less sensitive laser, scratches have less effect on it.

hopefully pretty soon? like 1-2 months?

I'm pissed at hotmail right now. It's been about 1 month since I signed in and they deleted my account that i've had for like fucking 8 years. Every saved email, every saved email address for people I havn't talked to in a while - GONE. Bastards. 30 days is bs to delete an account reguardless of how long it's been active.... you'd think after 8+ years they'd figure I was gonna keep it!

[rant]

As the title suggests, I have a rant about the trade lists... why on earth are there more than 1 page to people's trade lists?? I mean it takes what, all of about 5 minutes to edit your trade list and make a copy of it, then delete out your trade list and all of the now unnecessary posts that take up X amount of pages you've traded X amount of time ago, and then restart your brand spanking new trade list by copying it right back... I mean you people must know how to edit your trade lists... can't you figure out how to copy and paste a new one??

I mean look at it this way, think of the amount of space you'd be saving on the forum by not having more than 1 page to your trade lists.... and we all know the moderators don't have the time to go in each one and delete out all the old posts except the last update and the first one with your trade items. Plus, anyone who might actually be interested in your trade list doesn't have to skip back to the first page to see what you have and then skip forward to where they were reading new posts in the forum....

Personally, I keep a coded list of my trade list as backup... just in case... plus it is easier to do whatever modifications on it and then just copy and paste into the forums...

Ah well... maybe I'm just into neat and tidy.... [/rant]