Hello everyone!

We’ve enjoyed this past semester and now that were back fr0m AAC finals have come around …  We dont have time to do any more blogs but we’ll come back late January with new members (hopefully), new anime, and Anime Boston!!! We’ll see you then until then….

even gaara will miss you

So, many people in the anime world who live in the New England area have heard of it but few take advantage of it. Cheaper than Anime Boston, with much MUCH shorter lines, AAC is definitely worth the trip and the money.

Cosplayers came out en masse to enjoy the party, showing off old costumes or debuting new ones before larger cons like Otakon, Portcon and Anime Boston, others just milling around with cat ears and taking pictures. Either way, it was a fun time for all and a time to meet many new people!

I lost the game (by the way, you just lost the game) and got Rick Rolled more times than I can count, just in the two days I was there. Registration was a breeze and I was out and about in minutes. The panels I did go to were well done and the lines for VA autographs, which at Anime Boston you could spend HOURS in, went really fast. If I was in line for more than 10 minutes it was because some otaku couldn’t help but ooze fangirl for a little too long.

There were some organizational problems with the Con hosted operations, such as the Dating Game (18+ Yaoi, Yuri and Regular) and the Anime Idol and Masquerade. The Yaoi/Yuri Dating Game started late because of technical and setup issues and was horribly handled. Every time the contestants attempted to answer a question they were often interrupted by the hosts for several minutes, requiring repetition of the question. Mind you, the interruptions were funny, but it made the Dating Game run past schedule and made it difficult for the contestants. Not to mention the Bachelor and Bachelorette were not informed they were asking individuals questions of the SAME gender, causing some minor discomfort.

Suggestion for next year, AAC? LATER DEALER’S ROOM HOURS! So a certain Otaku who was waiting until the end of the day to stock up on ramune before she left doesn’t get there to discover she was too late and has to wait until next year.

p.s. Yaoi fanservice for the win!

Fairy Tale is the one of the newest animes to appear on my list of favorites. The Main character is a teenage girl named Lucy Heartfilia who is in the world of wizards and guilds.

HIAAA

She comes to a small costal town looking for a guide to a famous guild called Fairy Tail and finds new friends. Her friends are Natsu Dragneel, a wizard withdragon like powers, and his friend, Happy who is a talking cat. The show goes on about various missions for Fairy Tale.

This is one of those club records that never really got the attention it deserved when it was released, in 2002 on Turbo Recordings. Strong pastel coloured themes;).

International Education Week is comming on Nov. 16 – 20.

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

We encourage the participation of all individuals and institutions interested in international education and exchange activities, including schools, colleges and universities, embassies, international organizations, businesses, associations, and community organizations.

The dates for IEW 2010 are November 15th – 19th. The dates for IEW 2011 are November 14th – 18th. (from official website of International Education Week 2009 http://iew.state.gov/)

So, Franklin Pierce University – International Club will present International Education Day event to think about other countries’ cultures and problems educationally. The event will be held on Nov. 16 (Wednesday) 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm. We will display some countries’ traditional things at Pierce Hall, and have some time to discuss about international things. If you are interested in the foreign cultures, welcome to join in our discussion !! Also, if you have something to display for this event, welcome to bring it too !!

-Great Wall-
The Great Wall concept was revived again during the Ming Dynasty following the Ming army’s defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu in 1449. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper-hand over the Manchurian and Mongolian tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the desert’s southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Huang He.

-Ninja-
A person who uses Ninjutsu is a ninja. Ninjutsu is not a martial art. Ninjutsu is an independent art of warfare that developed mainly in the regions of Iga in Mie Prefecture, and Koka in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
So, do you know what kind of job ninja were doing?
Most people imagine that ninjas flew through the sky and disappeared, like Superman, waving ninja swords around, sneaking into the enemy ranks and assassinating generals… This is a mistaken image of the ninja introduced by movies and comic books.
The jobs of a ninja are divided into the two main categories of performing espionage and strategy. The methodology for performing espionage and strategy is Ninjutsu. Espionage is similar to the job of modern spies, wherein one carefully gathers intelligence about the enemy and analyzes its military strength.
Strategic activities are skills that reduce the enemy’s military power. Ninja did not fight strong enemies by themselves. Ninja fought enemies after they had reduced the enemies’ military power. In times of peace, Ninjutsu was called an art of “entering from afar”, while in times of war, Ninjutsu was called an art of “entering from “nearby”, wherein ninja would constantly gather intelligence concerning the enemy, thinking of ways to beat the enemy, but not fighting the enemy directly. Ninja who thought rationally thought of war by intellect as great, and war by military strength (weapons) as foolish. Therefore, ninja who swing their ninja swords about can be called the lowest of the ninja.
The Ninjutsu of Iga-ryu and Koga-ryu stem from the same source, and are said to be the highest of the Ninjutsu.

You may be wondering why when you see students from foreign countries they tend to stick together instead of joining you and your friends or talking to strangers. It’s not usually out of bad manors or fear but more of understanding and akwardness.

I’ve asked a few internationals tudents some problems they face socially interacting with American students and it is mostly due to speed of speech and feeling akward speaking a foreign tongue. They would love to talk more to english speakers but the speed at which english speakers talk is a bit too fast for students new to America and they also feel that if they speak their accent will be made fun of. 

Admittidly there area  few people who would make fun of their accents (because theres jerks in every country) but overall many english speakers have said they accept foreign accents and even like them. If asked they would talk slower to accomodate the foreign student until they were better fluent in english.

So the main problem is not with the foreign stduents but the American ones. Go out there and say hi to a foreigner, who knows you might get treats! (^-^)v

Marzell “L” Barker

Regional cultural differences vary greatly within China, giving rise to the different styles of food across the nation. Traditionally there are eight main regional cuisines, or Eight Great Traditions: Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Zhejiang. Sometimes four of the Eight Great Traditions are given greater emphasis, and are considered to be the dominate culinary heritage of China. They are notably defined along geographical lines: Sichuan (Western China), Cantonese (Southern China), Shandong (Northern China), as well as Huaiyang Cuisine (Eastern China), a major style derived from Jiangsu cuisine and even viewed as the representation of that region’s cooking.

Have you ever had a weekend that was great but left you exhausted?  That would sum up mine.  Rhonda and I cleaned out our basement and closets all day Friday and into the night getting ready for the Financial Peace yard sale on Saturday.  We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies coming into the church parking lot Saturday morning.  We had lots of stuff that was priced from $1 to $5.  When our alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., I prayed that God would help us sell all that stuff because all the money was going toward the pledge Rhonda I made to by bicycles for the kids in Henry county who would not get anything at Christmas if it were not for the people of SCC.

We made $358! Praise God!  It was a miracle.  We came with my Envoy loaded from front to back and floor to ceiling along with a small trailer.   But at the end of the day, we left with two small boxes of stuff which we took it to the Haven’s House thrift store.

After we left there, I was so tired and wanted to go home and crash, but Rhonda reminded me that someone had given her tickets to Tribulation Trail.  I must be honest, I didn’t want to go because I was so tired, but I was so glad I did.  Rhonda, Katelyn and friend, Georgia and I walk through the trail together.  I was very impressed with the program, but more than that, I could sense the passion of every volunteer.  You could tell every person from the parking lot volunteers, to the trail guides, to the people who acted out every scene, to the people that prayed at the end, believed they were making an eternal difference.

I must say I was thrilled by the fact that I saw at lest 10 to 15 people from SCC there volunteering.  As a pastor that said to me that we really are a community church.

The most impactful moment for me was when my daughter and her friend said, “I want to volunteer next year to be apart of Tribulation Trail.”

So, I would like to say to all those who volunteer in our community, “Thank you for making life better for people you will never meet.”

Hebrews 13:20-21 (NIV)   May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

poster for the anime

Saishuu Heiki Kanojo is an anime based off a manga that is both a love story and an apocalyptic fiction. A war of unknown origin, which remains mostly unexplained throughout the course of this anime, has broken out between several countries in the modern world. Japan is being bombed by several foes. Earth has begun to destroy itself. People are starting to lose trust in the world they live in. The only hope left for this world lies in the hands of an insecure high school student, Chise.

The story takes place in a town called Hokkaido, but the entire anime itself is a flashback of the memories between Chise and her boyfriend, Shuji. In the first episode, Shuji and his friends are walking around on a seemingly normal day, when suddenly their town is bombed and attacked, causing chaos and destruction all around them. In the midst of the battle, Shuji runs into Chise, who has suddenly grown enormous metal wings and weapons of all kinds on her back and arms. She then, effortlessly, destroys the planes bombing the city in the blink of an eye. She later explains to Shuji that she has become an ultimate weapon, and is the last hope for saving this world. It is never made apparent why Chise was chosen for this task or how it was done, but there are subtle hints in the anime that suggest the Japanese government was behind her transformation, and chose her because of her ‘compatibility’ with the weapon systems.

The subsequent episodes focus on Shuji’s and Chise’s reactions to her increasingly powerful destructive abilities, the relationship between the two, and Chise’s fight to remain human, as well as stay alive. There are also a number of sub-plots that keep the story moving, in addition to showing the reality of peoples’ lives in the context of war. This is not an anime for the light hearted; there is a large amount of blood and gore, several people die (including some of the more prominent characters that you get attached to), and almost every episode is incredibly sad.  There are no filler episodes whatsoever, so every section of the anime is relevant to the main plot or sub-plots of equal importance. There are only 13 episodes, so it’s a good anime to watch if you don’t want to take up half of your life watching it (unlike Bleach or Naruto), or want an anime you can finish watching in one weekend. It is an anime that both men and women will enjoy, and I highly recommend that you watch it!

(NOTE: Stop reading now if you wish to avoid spoilers or intend to watch this anime.)

The end of the anime can be confusing the first time you watch it. I would suggest watching the whole anime twice. The first time you watch it, you will understand the plot and the story, but when you watch it the second time after seeing the end, you will pick up on several hints and suggestions that you didn’t notice the first time, giving you a better understanding of what the hell just happened and why. Essentially, the day comes where Earth has decided that humans have become too destructive on the planet, and is now going to fix things by wiping the human race from existence. As this apocalypse unfolds, Chise does everything in her power to try and save Shuji, and ends up sacrificing her physical body to keep Shuji alive. However, Shuji is the only person left alive in the world, and he is surrounded by destruction. It is left up to your own imagination to decide if Shuji will stay alive, and how he will live out the rest of his life. As for what happens to Chise, I’ll make you watch the anime to find out.

The Good:

• No filler episodes
• Relatively short (13 good, story packed episodes)
• Interesting drawing style
• Good voice actors
• It is not a child’s anime (mature and deep)
• Plot twists that you could never have predicted
• The music is very sad, but very emotional and beautiful
• Excellent story line
• GORE = J

The Bad:

• The ending is frustrating and confusing when you first see it
• Emotionally sensitive people will be in tears for the entire anime >.>
• A character that you love dies halfway through the anime
• You have to watch the anime several times before you understand everything on a deeper level

Financial Peace Revisited

You may be thinking, “If I hear about Dave Ramsey one more time out of Simon and Katrina’s mouths, I’m going to go crazy!”  Well I hope you go crazy! I hope you go crazy enough to try Financial Peace University, herein referred to as FPU.   I hope you go crazy enough to learn about “Baby Steps”.  I hope you go crazy enough to budget.  I hope you go crazy enough to tell your money what to do instead of wondering where it went.  For those of you who are not too familiar with Dave Ramsey, or his financial management program, please take a few minutes to Bing him.   While you’re at it, please explore his website, listen to his radio show where he answers questions from normal people like you and me, and lastly you can also find out if he’s coming to your area for a Live Event.

IT WAS A SIGN

It was a routine day in April of 2008 as my wife was killing some time before she had to report to work, sitting in our beloved Leo (our Nissan) in a church parking lot.  There she saw a sign!  Literally.  It read “Financial Peace University, Tonight 7PM”.  She quickly called me to see if I’d be interested in joining.  While I did not share the same enthusiam as her, I agreed to join, and boy am I glad we enrolled.   It changed our life! 

Recenlty married the month before, it was the perfect time to join FPU and learn about money management, with a special, more important, bonus-with a Biblical perspective. 

Baby Steps

Dave’s program includes 7 Baby Steps.  They are as follows:

1) $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund

2) Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

3) 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings

4) Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement

5) College funding for children

6) Pay off home early

7) Build wealth and give!
Invest in mutual funds and real estate

I won’t comment on each baby step named above, however, I will touch on a few.

Emergency Fund (Part of Baby Step 1)

The first step in FPU is to save $1,000.00 as an emergency fund.  This money is not to be touched, it is strictly for emergencies (broken down car, unexpected medical bill, etc.).   Dave says, “Saving money is not a matter of math. You will not save money when you get that next raise. You will not save money when that car is paid off. You will not save money when the kids are grown. You will only save money when it becomes an emotional priority.”

Debt (Part of Baby Step 2)

Early on in FPU Dave touches on the fact that there are many things we as Amercians accept as “normal” or “that’s just the way is”.   One of these is the notion that debt has to be part of our lives.   Does it?  Well, everyone has a car payment.  Everyone has credit cards.  So on and so on, right?   Well, it simply doesn’t have to be that way.  A simple message, yet so many Americans refuse to break out of this “normal” lifestyle.   I won’t go on much more on this point, Dave can make a better case for it, however, I would challenge you to consider how your life would be without any debt. 

Budgeting 

Telling your money what to do instead of wondering where it went.  What a concept. Yet how many of us can look back and wonder what we’ve done with our money?  I know I’m guilty of it.   One of the biggest benefits we reaped from FPU is that we started to plan how we spent our money. 

Giving (Part of Baby Step 7)

In FPU, the lesson on Giving was the final but one of the most, if not the most, inspiring of the 13-week series.   In summary, when you have your financial life in order, you allow yourself to be in a position where you can bless others. 

Well there you have it!  Snapshot of FPU.  Now it’s up to you.  Check it out!

————————– 

For more information including a preview, check out www.daveramsey.com or Dave’s book Financial Peace Revisited which will guide you on how to:

• Get out of debt and stay out
• Use the principle of contentment to guide financial decision making
• Build your emergency fund
• Create your own Envelope System
• Communicate about money with your spouse
• Manage your money as a single person
• Instill good money habits in your children
• Deal with debt after death of a spouse

Tomorrow is city-wide garage sale!!! The Live Event Family will be up and at ‘em early. We love to garage sale.

Sport Track, especially, loves the garage sales. You know why???? He gets to spend HIS money.

That’s right, I said HIS money. He works hard for it.

Many people pay their children an allowance. I, personally, did not grow up getting an allowance.  So, when looking for ideas and ways to encourage Sport Track to pitch in with chores around the house, Nerd and I turned to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University Jr.  (FPU Jr.).

In short, this is a system of rewards and fines. It works much like the “real world”. Your child does a chore, s/he gets paid a commission. Your child disobeys, your child gets a fine.  Over the past year, we have worked on several different methods of using fines and commissions. We have FINALLY found something that works for us.

Sport Track does certain chores around the house (and yard) and he gets paid. Immediately.

After trying lots of different amounts and ideas, we found that immediate reward worked best for Sport Track. He didn’t do well with marking things on a chart and getting paid once for the weekend. He has to see the immediacy of it all. So, when he does a chore, he gets paid immediately. When he gets fined, he pays immediately.

Wait, let me back up. I need to explain a couple of things. First, Dave Ramsey says there are only three things one can do with money: give, save, or spend. So, his FPU Jr. kit comes with three adorable envelopes and on those envelopes there are the words GIVE, SAVE, and SPEND.  This kit also comes with some books, as well as a calculator, a dry erase board chart, dry erase marker, and other goodies.

The chart has each day of the week on it and you list the chores that a child can do to earn “commissions” (money).  There is also a column for the amount that each chore pays.  At the bottom, there are three lines for “Fines” or behaviors that you wish to discourage and how much each fine is worth.

Dave’s basic thought is that, much like a grownup job, the child works each day and then gets paid at the end of the week, minus any fines. This sounds like an incredible idea! It didn’t work for us, though.

Enter, the big jar and the little jar.

Big jar, little jar

In the big jar, we have all the quarters that Sport Track can earn. In the little jar are all the fines he’s accumulated. EVERY chore is worth a quarter. Every fine is worth a quarter.

We also have a pattern that Sport Track MUST follow in filling up his envelopes. It goes Give, Save, Spend, Spend. While I realize that this is not 10% in give, it is teaching him to give first and we’ll worry about the math later.

So here is a typical weekend at our house:

Sport Track arrives and we love on him. It’s my favorite part.

He mentions that he wants X, Y, or Z. We calmly say, “Well, let’s see how much is in your SPEND envelope.” Normally, it’s only a couple of quarters. We pay for very little of Sport Track’s “wants”.  If it’s a want that will benefit the entire family or that we were going to buy him anyway, we may pay for it. However, this is rare and he normally has to wait until we can get it in the budget.  We do, however, pay for all of his needs. For instance, he needs a new helmet because his head is getting too big for his current helmet, so Nerd and Free Spirit (Daddy and StepMom) are going to get him a new one.

He looks at a list of things he can do around the house to earn quarters. He does a chore (with minimal prompting/prodding) and he gets a quarter.  Right then, right there. We keep a log of what he’s done and where it goes (or sometimes we just leave the next envelope out on top of the refrigerator). We also keep all of his envelopes for him. He’s just not quite ready for that responsibility. We have a cute little basket on top of the refrigerator that has his big jar, little jar, and envelopes.

Here are some examples of things Sport Track can do for quarters:

• Help put a load of laundry in the washer (including dumping the detergent)
• Help move laundry from washer to dryer
• Help fold laundry
• Help put away dishes
• Help load dishwasher (when we had one)
• Vacuum (we have 1 room that can be vacuumed, it’s about 15 square feet)
• Hold the dustpan while an adult sweeps dirt piles into it (he gets a quarter for each pile…our whole house is tile, so it’s generally a dollar)
• Pick up sticks from the yard. 10 sticks= quarter
• Pull weeds (with supervision) 5 weeds= quarter
• Swiffer WetJet the tile (it’s really more of a game for him and he only does the hallway…if he does more, he gets more than one quarter)
• Anything else that strikes our fancy.

Notice that only one chore he does all by himself–vacuuming. He’s 8. We don’t want him to get too frustrated or hate the process. Right now, we just want to instill the foundations of work ethic. As time goes on, we’ll help less.

He gets 2 warnings before getting fined. If he is told a third time, he gets the fine. The big one around our house lately is back-talking. He also used to get fines for jumping on furniture, throwing a drama fit, or yelling in the house (especially at people).  However, those behaviors have stopped nearly completely.   They, oddly, stopped in about 2 weekends of “fining” him for doing them. So, I say that this process works for our little guy.

We also have things he does for free (without getting paid).  We feel it’s important for him to contribute to household life. Those freebies are

• making his bed
• cleaning his room
• taking his laundry to the laundry room
• setting the table
• putting his dishes in the sink after eating
• cleaning up his toys in the house

Notice also, that his list of opportunities for earning is much longer than his “freebie” list. I think this is also very important. In order for a child to really want to earn, they have to have lots of opportunities and it has to be fun!

Some final thoughts: We don’t force Sport Track to work. However, we let natural consequences fall where they may. If Sport Track doesn’t work and he has no money in his SPEND envelope, then he doesn’t get to buy anything. It’s a really tough thing when at the store, but it’s even tougher when at a garage sale. The people at the garage sale generally want to give him the item for free, but Nerd or I step in and let them know that we are teaching him about working for money and he chose not to work. That normally stops them up short. Who really wants to teach an 8 year old to mooch??? If it doesn’t stop them from giving him the item, the entire family puts down everything we were going to buy and walks away. It’s that important to us.

So, anybody want a quarter????

Sport Track voluntarily vacuumed near Sun and Sky's cage for a quarter

Today’s Blog is a first in a series about the wild and wacky world of cosplay!^_^

As a cosplay newbie (having only doing it once and basically in one night with horrible lighting and no forethought) I did alot of research after my fiasco and have found some common do’s and don’ts to cosplay.I plan on making a long list before the year is out with a do, and dont every week.

DON’T! try tostand out to the extreme and be the cosplay jerk of  the year by putting a bunch of random things together and thinking everyone is going to praise your rebellion.Creativity is loved in the anime/manga/gaming/fantasy community, but the same community that created yaoi and yuri paddles is also cruel and very judgemental.

I give him points for his guts but as far as cosplay goes more effort would have been apreciated...kinda looks like a S&M ninja turtle.

Thought not considered cosplay...or good this guy gets points for awesomeness and for beaing able to do this. He probabbly got some digits after the con.

DO! be creative. I’m not by any means saying that you should only go as mainstream characters or as a clearly recognizable character. It’s great to go with a theme or to give your interpretation of a character. but if you do plan on going that road please expect criticism. Constructive or not it’s going to happen. Either accept it or continue what you want to do and try to wow people whether they like it or not. All in all try to take it and think on it but by no means change immediatly or give up cosplay forever. It took even the greatest and more recognized cosplayers a long time to get where they are.

Though by most standards a bad cosplay this guy has a fanbase because of his ability to laugh at himself

Mainstream yes but made to look easy to do

  We have an international dinner coming up on the 29th which should be alot of fun. I’m making some gnocchi (Italian) and perogies (Polish). We’re also going to have French desserts, a variety of Asian dishes, and some more Italian food. As a lover of food, I am very excited for this. =D

  We also have a movie night coming up. It’s on the 30th. It’s going to be all Asian horror movies. I’m kind of scared about that actually haha. I’m definitely going to go though. I hear that Asian horror is alot better than American so I have to atleast try it out. Might be too scary for me but I’ll give it a go haha