Summer Wars

I sat watching this having bought this about a week ago.
Available on blu ray and dvd as well as a double pack with The Girl Who Leaped Thru Time which is by by the same director Mamuro Hosoda, this is about romance, family life and a cautionary note on putting technologically speaking all your eggs in one basket.
We begin the story with timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso who is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family's Nagano home for a summer job.
Kenji agrees without hesitation. Natsuki's family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they've all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the driven matriarch of the family, Sakae. Kenji upon arriving discovers his summer job is to pretend to be Natsuki's fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki's act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can't resist solving. Little did he realize it turned out to be the solution to the mysterious equation that causes a hijacking of the social networking site through which most of the world's social and business traffic flows.
Kenji and family have the difficult task of putting right this AI created situation.
This is one anime that never lets up to the last minute keeping you on the edge of your seat and is strongly recommended.

Easter Bonnets

Here we go as we enter the last days of Easter and I've an entry for everyone.Easter means different things for everyone from those of us who follow the events  of the Christian calendar taking us to the day of Jesus's death and resurrection to those who are more at one with say the Easter Bunny making his rounds.
For me though there's a memory of Easter that matters to me and it is this:
A Junior High we had art and craft classes and for one of them we were set the task of making an Easter Bonnet from used materials be they fabrics, or whatever was in the scrap box and for this despite a few strange looks I decided to make my own Easter Bonnet from a old straw hat decorating it it some pink coloured felt  with cut out flowers and the odd bit of lace. A bit like the picture at the top of the page.
I thought it was wonderful and was able to wear this in class, one of the few time in formal classes I could be a girl so if this time of year is about rebirth then you could say it was pretty appropriate, eh?

Junior Recess

Whoo-woo! A bright sunny weekend here as I just finish this entry off having gotten the idea during the week just thrown on metaphorically speaking a t shirt and my netball skirt with cute teddy bear socks as it's too warm for much else.

Well this week between Tuesdays chat, a post at ikklespace by someone and a few things I read at GT  this came flooding back to me and I wish to share it.

When I was younger I think about 8 or 9 recess at school got more difficult as the gender divisions in social orders got more obvious and one result of this was I was very marginalized as I wasn't openly adopted by the girls (although they were understanding) and ostracized completely by boys. I didn't have friends who were boys in my class at all even.

Anyway, I used to play a lot with the infants and one the things I used to play with them with was Disney marionettes, puppets you move by manipulating the strings at the top of a set of strings afixed to two crossed over hand controls. I had a Donald Duck and a Pluto like the one pictured below.

That one is from the late 60's and I think mine was very similar being made from plastic although I can't recall if I had it new or if it was a 'hand-me-down' as we weren't well off financially.

We had hours of fun doing little puppet shows in the playground although we had to be careful in the summer and early fall as nearby there were trees and often wasps nested by them or in the old school bell nearby coming around after our candy.

You could say in hindsight it was the first indication of how gender identity effects socialization and also the extend I'd remain a Little Girl.

You know as the weeks go by I find myself thinking more about these things and I could say I don't know why but I think I do. I'm growing down to be feel more like this side of me and I feel good for it. Time for a jammy dodger xD!

Before I forget may I thank Sammy, Kittie (not to be confused with Cat apparently!) and one other for following this blog since it was listed at ikklespace and I think I've solved one embarrassing pop up problem for good.

Girls bedroom edition

Hello readers. I'm feeling better today compared with last week which was painful to put it mildly so I thought I write something.
You know I think I owe you all a debt of gratitude really - honest I do - because whilst being pawley(tm) I realized something pretty important which was I was holding on to something in my bedroom that I really didn't want and the reason was simple: because I'd been in hibernation a lot of drab stuff such as Beavis and Butthead posters and the like had been left up.
Then you see you  reminded me of something that was I had buried things like dolls I've never played with or put up and I wanted to wake up to that!
 'Stamps feet saying "I'm a little girl I want my dolls, teddies and awfully cute things out" ' so with that plus a bit of help, I removed the drab stuff and the process found two completely unopened dust covered  boxed dolls that just for once someone had kindly bought me for Christmas.
You know what I really don't like about Christmas? It's the highly inappropriate drab presents people send me cos for some reason they can't bring it upon themselves to buy the girlie stuff I like so I end up taking things like men's gloves and the wrong type of socks that are miles too big to the charity stores. You see being a little girl I have only UK size 5 feet!
Anyway, I had a magical two hours playing with the white porcelain doll pictured that the manufacturers called Daisy but while sat down on my knees in my charcoal grey skirt and named her Louise after a dear school friend and made a space so when I wake up in the mornings I can see her without moving .
While I was at it those posters were taken down and I put up some Hello Kitty ones instead covering the door with stickers of her too for good measure.

Before I forget, thank you all for reading last weeks entry as I noticed an awful lot of you did when I saw the statistics today.
Btw It's okay to comment on my blog if you wish or even follow it!

Five CM Per Second

I recently bought this short anime movie and watched it whilst 'Pawley'(tm).
Director Makoto Shinkai paints a breathtakingly vivid tableau of young love, desire, loss and hope. The movie begins with the lyrical image of cherry blossoms falling at five centimetres a second.
Told in three breathtaking chapters we follow the young dreamer Takaki through his life as cruel winters cold technology silence and finally adult obligations and responsibility converge to crush the delicate petals of true love. Finding beauty in everyday objects and moments Shinkai reveals he is a master of animation and haunting beautiful storytelling which is something I really appreciate in a movie.
In some respects it reminded me of Studio Ghilbi's Only Yesterday Fall in love for its beauty truth and innovation and thoughtfully reflective qualities.

Toleration

Next week's going to be a bit busy so I'm working on this post a bit earlier than normally I would to make the most of the time available.
Anyone who's visited a certain site will have noticed that apart from a bright, colourful make over with quicker loading templates and chat clients, some more people have joined outside the usual circle who like us are misunderstood and sometimes even attacked on online communities without justification. This sites owner talked about having a wider group whose interest still the same as the sites (lg&ab/dl) talking about the need for toleration as well as how one group sometimes takes the huff at another.
That's what I'm going talking about this week from the way that I see it.
What do you think 'toleration' is?
I'm sure you've heard people say "I'm a tolerate person" but do they mean by that they ignore those ideas and activities they themselves don't do?
My personal feelings are that many people use their own practise regarding what you should think and do as the arbiter of what is right which is fine as everyone has different ideas on how to live their own lives but what happens when you met someone who does things different shall we say?
Some people are quite open in expressing disapproval sometimes to the point of disassociating themselves from that person (you've no doubt heard of people disowned by family and so on) and at times you can understand it when say a person has injuried or killed another.
Some as I was talking about before say "I'm tolerant" but when you scratch the surface they disaprove of the idea or life of the person in reality ignoring whatever gets their ire so while they may appear to be tolerant deep down their not because they don't accept the vailidity of the other persons ideas and practice.
I'd like to say often these people are good people and certainly nobody is perfect - I'm sure not - but if something about you let's say for me it's be my Lg side it leads to a being at the "OK Corral" in state of perpectual unease around each other is that healthy?
What I try to practise is what I call "Active Toleration".
Let me explain.
I have certain views as to what I feel is right especially that is right for me to be thinking and doing many of which arise from my religious beliefs and some will be different than yours. Unless you're advocating violence, abuse or something of that nature my first step is actually a 'no step' that's to say I do nothing and continue in my relationship with you but the added bit is I try to understand you. Why you do the things you do, why it matters even if I may be a little nonplussed about the whole thing cos actually I love you as the whole person.
I may go to places with you or visit your online community to find out a little more a bit this part of you. You see that's the 'active' part that makes the difference. Understanding.
Sometimes it can seem there's a hierachy in Trans, Lg and the ab/dl circle with the dls and the furries being toward the bottom sometimes being ignored or ridiculed in ways that we ourselves sometimes are by the vanilla world. Well although I'm not ab and/or dl and currently lack a fursuit, I'm not rejecting you as you're fine as you are as people and as you have a 'Inner Child' side I agree with the sites owner.
You should be able to express all of that with us and yes join us for Chat because we have that in common.
Wear your fursuit with pride!
Hugs, Jo