Niko

Well, I think MediaWest is a bit of a bust for me.

( Cut for gratuitous whining )

Providence Anime Conference: North America's only 21+ Anime Convention
[...]Some of the convention's features will include a keynote address instead of an opening ceremony, a costume fashion show, rather than a contest, and live-action programming based around professional and academic panels. [...]

Vendors looking to participate in the convention will be instructed to bring items that are not normally available at stores or online, while entries for PAC's cosplay skit exhibition will be pre-screened to ensure high quality.

On the upside, I did read a really good book this week:  The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein.  More and more, I find that I enjoy this sort of shorter, perfectly told story more than the longer, epic works that fantasy is famous for.  This was actually a reread from many years ago, and I'm thrilled to find out that she's actually written sequels since then.  Can't wait for the Amazon shipment to arrive.  :)  The book itself is an Arthurian-inspired story that focuses on Mordred (Medraut, in the book) and his relationship with Arthur's younger, legitimate son, Lleu.  Just like with Idylls of the Queen a while back, I love the more intimate story here.  There are elements of the greater Arthurian mythos as a backdrop, but the focus is extremely narrow, giving you a detailed look at one or two characters, rather than trying to retell the whole legend.  I think I'm developing a real Mordred-kink.  His portrayal in these two books is so wonderfully conflicted noble and committed to rightness, but unable to escape the taint of his birth.  It pulls at all my woobly little h/c strings, as well as making for a great story as this strong character is torn between his loyalties to Arthur and Morgawse.

Finished R.O.D. the TV, and am not terribly impressed, honestly.  I'd heard such raves of this show, and I wonder if it's one of those things that appeals to guys more than girls for some reason.  I found the series a bit of a slog throughout, but things really took a nosedive once two particular spoilerly characters arrived.  You could tell that it was supposed to up the stakes and add new tension, but to me it just diffused the situation so that the plot got all meandery and trudging.  I can't say I'm a fan.

One Piece dub:  I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed.  I have a tremendous love for Funimation's dubs, and this wasn't outright *bad*... but it's also not their best work, imo.  In particular, Luffy was just way too generic.  So much of the success of One Piece relies on Luffy's charisma.  Sure, he's a doofus... but his boundless/clueless optimism and excitement is so infectious that you can't help but be drawn into his special brand of idiocy.  It's important for his voice actor to sell that charisma, or the show becomes no better than any other shonen jump fare.  I'm not wailing and gnashing my teeth over a one episode sample, or anything, and I'll be first in line for the uncut sets.  But I do hope things improve for the sake of the franchise here in the U.S.

The Dark is Rising movie has apparently opened... or will be soon.  Heard an interview on NPR with Susan Cooper earlier this week, and any excitement I had for the movie is pretty much dead.  This is one of my beloved childhood series, and it sounds like they did a real hatchet job on it.  *sigh*

Man, I knew that the Borders Rewards program was too useful to last long, but still...  *sigh*

The old program:  For every $50 spent in the store, you basically get a "10% off entire purchase" coupon good until the end of the next month.  Plus some small percentage of every purchase goes into a "Holiday" account to get additional $X.XX off of purchases made around Christmas.  So if you're like me and spend a lot of money on books & manga, you can stop in once a month, spend $60 (some of which comes off from the 10% coupon), earn next month's coupon, and also earn a little cash towards a bigger discount at the end of the year.  Decent deal, and one that made me change my buying habits from sporadic binge-shopping at whatever bookstore happened to be handy, to a steady budget that was all directed right at Borders.  Even during months when I only had $30-worth of books that I really *needed*, I would usually throw a few more on the pile just to get up to that $50 target.

The new program:  A single $5-off coupon for every $150 spent in the store.  Period.   For my $50/month habit, that's a fair drop from the $15 off I would've gotten with the 10% discounts.  Not to mention the loss of the holiday cash bonus.

They just completely killed any brand loyalty they had built with me...