"Gay ass" is what people who don't like Code Geass - LeLouch of the Rebellion. The problem with this insult is that Geass isn't pronounced "Gay-ass", it's pronounced more like "Geeh-ass" with the G being a hard g. It's actually more like the Indian clarified butter stuff, which is Ghee. Although the ass bit isn't far off.
All of which random dribbling is meant to act as an introduction to the fact that I have been watching Geass.
There's actually a hell of a lot of weird namery in Geass. It kinda suffers from that old problem that a lot of the characters are supposed to be western (The "Britannia" many of the characters come from is kinda supposed to be a warped version of the British Empire) and the Japanese phonetic systems doesn't always cope well with western names.
Throw in the fact that the Japanese often like to pick bizarre names from the western canon (if you can point me to a Steve or a Fred in any anime ever you win a prize*) and you end up with people called stuff like Kallen Stadtfeld. Yes, not Karen, Kallen. Now Kallen is a name, but I've never seen it used as a forename - only as a surname.
And what's more, that's not because she's actually Karen, but the whole pronunciation problem is rearing its head, but both the subtitles and English dub call her Kallen with the l's as well.
Anyway, all of this is really beside the point. I'm finally watching Code Geass and it's just as good as I remember. It's jam-packed with twists and turns and that dash of moral ambiguity I enjoyed when I first sampled it all those years ago.
I've also been ploughing through Matter with some gusto.
I'm now about two-thirds of the way through. Which actually means I've read about 400 pages of the 600, so there's still loads left.
I have to admit I have been flagging a bit just recently. We seem to have reached a point in the narrative that's almost totally devoid of action. Previously, there were several wars kicking about, chases, murders and the regular introduction of new characters, alien lifeform and amazing vistas.
Now the wars are pretty much over, the chases have stopped and it feels like most all the characters have been introduced. I mean, I'm not saying it's bad, it's just some of the story momentum that kept me turning the pages has dissipated a bit so I'm only reading small chunks. Hopefully it'll swing into its final arc pretty soon and I'll be re-invigorated.
The only plan for the weekend is a relatively mundane one - I need to give the place a bit of a clean and do some domestics.
I'll tell you one good thing that came out of last Sunday's "free work" session - it made me realise that if I put my mind to it I can really sit down and get stuff done. I mean, I spent about 8 or 9 hours working on the Sunday and it wasn't because I abandoned doing other stuff, it was because I got my arse in gear and cleared the to do list on Saturday, leaving Sunday free.
It was also because I felt I had to do it. I think often on the weekend I end up drifting a bit, doing an unsatisfactory amount of lots of small things, rather than ticking off the big jobs. So hopefully it's lesson learned and I can start thinking that way more often in the future.
* No you don't.
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