ReaperKing

Yes.  It finally happened!  I have a job again and it is a real job.  Part time though it may be, it is still proper employment and I expect a rather steady work schedule.  Not consistent per-say, but steady.  I know when I'll most likely work and can kinda predict based on that.

So the job itself.  I work for Hallmark.  You know, the greeting card company.  I keep things stocked and organized on the shelves in 5 stores. Not as busy as it sounds, but this is Christmas time so I'm going to be jumping through hoops to get things worked out and keep things stocked probably till Valentines Day.  Christmas through probably Mother's Day are the card busiest times of year if I remember right.  Hopefully it is worth the effort.  I like it so far.

Here's to hoping.

Talk later!

So I'm playing catch up on One Piece. I'm on episode 681 and haven't read the manga in a while but intend to get completely caught up in the coming month.  I'm aware of a little spoiler and to those reading this I want no more.  So the things I'm aware of:  Something, I don't know what, is going to go down between the zatoichi admiral and Akainu, the series has yet to leave Dressrosa and set off back to sea even in the manga, and Rebecca doesn't join the crew. Kinda saw that one coming.  She is too attached to the island to leave it like to a point that I don't care what conversations or offers where made in the series I've yet to get to, she wasn't going to leave the island.  I learned all this by looking for some fan pictures of her and this is where I get pissed off!  What the hell is with people hating a character who isn't able to punch a hole in a mountain in these kind of series?

This is "Sakura is useless" all over again.  I hated that and it is one of, if not the main, reason I don't talk to the general anime community.  In the beginning, Sakura didn't have a lot of talent but I enjoyed her character more often than not.  Then in the Chunin exam she actually stepped up while at least trying to protect Naruto and Sasuke.  Yes, by herself it would have failed, but she had the nerve to at least face the major odds against her for what she can do put up a hell of a fight.  Then it hits her how much she is behind the boys and tries to make up the difference so that she can be more relevant to the team.  I feel like I'm forgetting some thing from the early criticisms of Sakura, something big, I feel like I shouldn't miss it... oh yeah. SHE'S 12!  She is still a child and has a maturity I expect from her age!  Damn you people who hate her for being the way she is!  She grew up some!  Enough to show some maturity but not enough to completely change her personality.  In fact from what we seem to get about Tsunade, Sakura is just like her.  And yet the fact she can do things like cure a poisoning that even the best experts couldn't figure out and the maker of the poison needs the chemical chart to keep making it right, people still call her useless just because she couldn't wrestle a biju to the ground.  Sure her personality type is something that I can see plenty not liking, I don't mind that, difference of opinion, but the accusation that she is useless all the way to the end of the series just piss me off. (Lord I'm gong to get trolled for this one)

So how does this come back to Rebecca of One Piece?  Well I can see somethings that are legit: the crew deals with things that require a minimum level of skill and she doesn't seem up to that, even thought in a face to face brawl she could probably handle a hit better than Nami or Usopp (whose cowardice seems to have come back in full force when he abandoned the Little People while they where waiting for him. Seriously it felt more like guilt that brought him back than principle. I thought he was past this frankly).  When a Straw Hat doesn't have a skill like Nami being the Navigator, Usopp being a crack shot when he will stand and fight, or Chopper being the doctor (who has his points of transformation working in his favor), they need to be a certain level of strong.  Rebecca isn't there yet and based on her personality so far I doubt she'd get there on her own.  She is basically all of Kenshin Himura's pacifism with none of his power.  At this point she needs that to just fall on the crew from out of no where.  I like her character and I feel like after a short time could mesh with the crew the same way Robin clicked in.  Goodness knows Sanji would have approved.  This comes to my main point.  Her lack of strength at this juncture seems to be the fuel for a deep hate that has people talking like she doesn't deserve to join like a xenophobic discussing immigration policy.  I say she can grow and get better and that solves the power gap problem.  Heck the series might benefit from a character like that, I don't know, It is all in how Oda writes it and so far it has been basically all good.  To the growth potential, Nami probably couldn't break a 2x4 if she punched it but she has the climattack so all that lightning is useful in a fight, but she almost never uses it except to be a cannon-fodder wrangler.  Yeah she had that moment with Kalifa but ever since I struggle to think of a time she actually got the better of a one on one fight with what equates to the boss battle.

This hate for a character on grounds of strength is starting to irk me.  I know this is a combat heavy series and in the argument of Rebecca I don't see the story working in her favor to join even if I wanted her to for a time.  The crew is split up, they are in a war with what most likely going to be 2 emperors now, and unlike when Chopper or Usopp joined there doesn't seem to be time to get in that needed training to close the power gap like when it was a whimsical sea fairing adventure where once this island's bad guy is beat we move on and just keep going with nothing to worry about.  Rebecca isn't even really as strong as Tashigi and Tashigi seems to be struggling in the New World so I would have come to the conclusion that joining would be bad to Rebecca's health on my own, but I'm not going to be an ass about it.  There is something inherent in the modern Anime Community in America that is starting to tick me off and this is the greatest example of it fresh in my mind.  The celebratory posts about Rebecca not joining are just so mean spirited and almost hateful that it just really spites me.

I want to be part of a community that likes what I like and talk about it in a way that doesn't end with a spiting in the eye contest and that is what it seems to be boiling down to these days.  Like vicious attack dogs looking for something to hate.  I've seen a friend of mine completely have their love of something destroyed by these people because there was an OC/Canon shipping going on in their work.  I'm just sick of it all.  I still love anime as a broader whole and as an art form, but this community is arguable some of the most reprehensible people I've ever seen.  And I was neck deep in the DmC: Devil May Cry fight!

I'm done for now.  I've burned through all the rage and forgot half the points was going to make.  I know not everyone out there is bad and I'm sure with enough searching I'd find that group of people beyond the 3 friends I have who are civil in their disagreements and don't just hate for its own sake and when they do they voice the disdain civilly with minimal insults involved.  But if I have to dig through a 3 ton pile of excrement to find those gems and pearls, it just puts me off the search all together.

Well.  I've been helping to move around several houses this year.  First was my Grandmommy's house.  Then my Grandmother has her usually furniture arrangement fixation. Now I'm helping Kyuu move her room around so there can be one room in her house that is an entertainment space for us and her bedroom be its own space.  That isn't done just yet and now I'm moving my room around to accommodate some furniture I got from Grandmommy's and Grandma's house moves.

That's all really. I just needed to change my journal on an impulse.  I'll talk about something more interesting in a while.

LATER!

Okay. It is official now that I'm going to help house sit starting on the 24th and will most likely be there the whole month of June.  Now in this month my internet access will be limited.  Her signal is flirty to absent. It has worked the last few days and I hope it stays, but there is a chance that I'll be without internet contact for a while.  I'll try but I don't know what I can do.  Those of you I only talk to on the internet, I hope to get to you at least every so often. Hopefully I'll have to change my habits minimally but nothing is guaranteed.  The reason I write this is that I realize that I haven't talked to anyone much lately and that has been for personal reasons, and now that I'm coming back to normal I find myself moving for a month to a less than reliable internet signal for a month or so. Is that ironic? I think it is.  Anyway.  Talk to anyone when I can.

I have never seen my town this wet in my life!  A 7 year drought had better be cured from this. Seriously, who has seen this chopper rescue:



Now we aren't THAT deep but seriously, Saturday there were ducks swimming in my front yard.  Never been more happy my house in on cinder blocks. But in town I saw houses flooding over their front door's threshold.  It is receding for now but everything is so wet that any new rain that comes in no matter how light could re-flood things easily and most of this week has a chance of rain.  *sigh*  I'm tired of being wet, but I know for a fact that once it is all gone, we'll go back to complaining about not having any rain. Weather in Texas folks!  Oh well. We need this so bad I'm willing to deal with it for a while.