Catalyst Castle

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo is one of my favorite manga series. The title can be literally translated as "His and Her Circumstances", but is generally shortened to "Kare Kano" in both it's Japanese and English publications. The series ran 21 volumes in its American publication, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. There is a slow section in the middle of the series where the story gets sort of derailed as it explores the lives of various side-characters, but these side stories are also enjoyable in themselves, so it isn't a big deal to me. The main plot revolves around two high-school freshmen, a girl named Yukino Miyazawa and a boy named Arima Soichiro, who are both academic over-achievers. Their relationship starts out as a rivalry wherein the two of them compete for the highest grades in their school, but quickly turns into a budding romance.

I'll admit that this isn't a proper review of the manga, and it isn't meant to be. (If it were, I would have to mention that - while the art is beautiful - it is dreadfully dificult to tell certain characters apart at times. -_-;) I'm writing about the series for more personal reasons. To me one of the most powerful scenes in the series comes at the end of volume 9, when "Dark Arima" makes his dramatic and disturbing appearance. This is a personafication of Arima's doubt and self-loathing that gradually lures him into depression and a self-destructive frame of mind. The scene really struck a cord with me when I first read the series as a teen, and in the last few weeks I think I've had a few encounters with my own "Dark Arima". It's comforting (and not too much of a spoiler) to know that Arima eventually overcomes these feelings with the help of loving friends and family and grows up to have a happy life as a husband and a father - even if he does end up getting shot and killed during the series' only action scene. (Again, not really a spoiler - and an intentionally misleading one at that. ^_^)

Every once in a while, I wish that I could experience a normal day. I imagine everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a “normal day”, but for me it would go something like this:

On a normal day, I would wake up when my alarm clock goes off and I would get right out of bed. I wouldn’t roll over and try to pick up my dream again. I wouldn’t stay in bed, distracted by a million ideas, until I absolutely had to get out of bed and rush around in order to get where I was supposed to be five minutes late. I would be on time to work, or service, or wherever I had to be, and my mind would be on the task at hand.

I wouldn’t pause to take a picture of an empty cup holder. I wouldn’t overhear half a second of a cell phone conversation and start imagining the entire context. I wouldn’t spend twenty minutes mulling over the story implications of attaching a time-warping quantum singularity on a mundane alarm clock. I wouldn’t once see a grain of rice on the floor and be inspired to design a card game. When I listened to the lyrics of my favorite song I would just enjoy them as a song, not as the seeds of a sprawling epic adventure saga.

Instead, I would take a walk through a park and just enjoy the breeze. I’d play with a child, and my heart would glow when I saw them smile or heard them laugh. I’d spend an hour in the company of someone I cared for and my mind would be on nothing but her. I would go to bed satisfied, instead of anxious for the next day to come. I would fall asleep quietly, instead of in the midst of tired conversation with an imaginary friend.

To me, that would be a “normal day”. I wouldn’t want to live every day that way, mind you, but just for once it would be a nice change of pace.


Ever feel like you can't experience a normal day? What would constitute a "normal day" to you?

Yeah, I've been watching too much Batman: The Animated Series.

For some reason I decided to burn half my face. Well, actually I snapped a photo with my web cam and did some photo manipulation to create this. I did a Google image search for "burn victim" in order to get some detailed images of burnt skin, then I "grafted" it on to my own face. Altogether it took about 30 minutes. It's not great, but it turned out about as well as I hoped it would.

Having a digital camera on me all the time now, via my phone, has led to random bouts of delusion. I occasionally believe that I am an artistic photographer. So far I've fought the delusions well enough to keep my head and realize that my photos aren't any good, but I thought I'd share a few of them anyway. In these photos I was mainly experimenting with framing and contrasts in lighting.