A different kind of manga gender swap

I sometimes go down to my local public library and pick up half a dozen "new" manga starting with the first volume. I like to expand my tastes by picking up some random books, and sometimes this nets me a new favorite (like Skip Beat).

One of the good ones from this group is called Otomen. It has a tendency to get zany and play up the girly manga tropes but I think it's still good. The basic premise is about a young 18 year old guy named Asuka who is your classic all around male on the outside. He reads books about the warrior way, studies kendo and judo, and is well respected around campus. But all is not well for our hero, because he secretly loves really girly things like knitting, cooking and frilly sparkly pink things. He hides out pretty well, until he falls for a cute girl in his class and then things start breaking out. Add another pretty guy who mysteriously knows his secret and a famous manga (self referencing it's own genre) that is eerily like his life and things start to get really fun.

Japan and the western nations share a very strong patriarchal past, although it seems to be stronger in Japan now. This seems to be the basis of conflict in this manga, men are expected to be manly and any intrests that aren't manly are looked down upon. While some people know Asuka's secret others put a great deal of presure on him, either on purpose (his evil mom), or by accident (other students). He can't be himself anywhere except at home and at lunch with his friends. It's pretty sad.

I don't think there are any problems for picking up this manga. I've only read the first four volumes but so far the relationship has progressed to holding hands only. There are the occasional fight scenes, and even a run away bull that Asuka has to fight, but the violence seems minimal. All in all I don't think there is any reason not to pick this up, it's smart and self-referential, it has interesting characters, and it has a premise that I haven't seen before. Or and there is soooo much cute. :)

Murray Library at night

Murray Library at night, a photo by keu482 on Flickr.

This looked much nicer on my little camera window, but then I am an amateur. :)

Encyclopedias

One thing I liked to do as a (very geeky)child was to comb through encyclopedias for the weird and wonderful. My grandfather was an encyclopedia salesman so we always had a copy somewhere. As I grew older we bought a copy of encarta which had a game that introduced strange trivia topics and you could explore them as they came, or choose to ignore those you found boring. And now we have Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is cool because it has entries on almost everything. It has an entry on madeup countries and what their flags look like. It has entries on the most obscure animel, vegitabe or mineral. I know that all that is there, but how do I find it if I don't know to look for it. It's like a library of information with out call numbers to sort and organize it. One upside is that you can go straight to the info if you find something online, or even IRL, by typing it into a search engine. It usually pops up in the top three. I guess both ways are good, as long as I have access to the weird and zany.

Lightbox

As I was processing new journals today a quick mention of this site caught my eye. Another way of showing photos (I think you need t o sign up, and possibly pay for services), other than Flicker and Picasa. I went and looked at photos of the devestation in Japan, the numbers are impossible to process but the photos will hit you right in the heart.

Biting off less than I can chew (for once)

So I've been looking at the amount of new stuff to do this week and I've decided to do this in small bite sized pieces instead of a full meal. That means lots of smaller posts when I have time, instead of in a great big chunk.

The first post is about how I haven't even gotten to the photos yet. I have seen Flicker photo streams before (some really wicked cool wedding cakes, for instance) but this time I got to the 365 library days project and I hit a snag, namely the introductions page. Wow, so many different types of libraries and librarians. Some from Pakistan and Singapore! And all of them are promoting their libraries and being engaged. Also someone will mention a specific talent and another person will ask for their help on a project. Or offer advice about something. I haven't seen a single library photo and I can already see the use of this as a collaborative tool and marketing gadget. I'm pretty excited about tomorrow and what I can learn then. Tune in tomorrow boys and girls, same bat time, same bat channel.

Library cat video

I've always thought that having a library cat would be a fun thing. I know it's not really feasible at an academic library but here is a library that has one. Meet Pages, the library cat.

Just like Owl from a Milne book...

...the Owl at Purdue University is very wise. All the way through the last half of my undergrad and my entire library tech class the Owl has shown me how to cite. I had the 2009 version of MLA in book form, but of course I routinely left it at home when I needed it. That's why having a clear, electronic form at your fingertips is a great thing.

If anyone is interested in checking it out they can be found at the Owl at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/