Aqua Regia

 I have to admit, I never thought I would admit to unabashedly enjoying a Scooby Doo show.  Prior to now, my only experience with Scooby-Doo as a franchise was catching old episodes on my Grandparents' cable when I was sick as a kid and stayed home from school.

But Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated isn't just good for a Scooby Doo show.  It might be the best thing I've watched so far this year.  I can hear the cries of shock, I know.  You say, "But Ry, Scooby Doo is a weird 70s relic about mystery-solvin' teens and their hungry great dane - not good television."  And before finishing Mystery Incorporated, I would have agreed with you!  Such is the power of this show.

You see, for the first time in 40+ years, the characters actually have character.  Sure, Fred is all about traps, Shaggy and Scooby eat a lot, Daphne gets captured, and Velma is the genius who looses her glasses and says "Jinkies!".  But this go around, the creators were actually allowed to create interpersonal relationships and conflcts.  The show starts out with Shaggy and Velma dating, and progresses to add Fred and Daphne into the mix.  The interpersonal relationships between the characters are never static, and it always takes into account material from the preceeding episodes.  The gang are given parents for the first time, too, and live in a town called Crystal Cove that bills itself "The Most Haunted Place on Earth" and depends on monster tourism.  So when they unmask criminals who could be potential tourist draws, they really are "meddling kids!"  Genius.

This is without even mentioning all the delicious backstory. It starts with another group calling themselves Mystery Incorporated who disappeared in the caves beneath the town twenty years ago, and goes all the way back to ancient Mayan prophecy.  Every episode has a more or less self-contained mystery, but the writers deftly weave the central mystery in and out through most of the episodes.  Suffice to say the climax of S2 is epic and an incredible payoff.  I mean, Velma brings up string theory in the final few episodes.  How is that not amazing?

The show is full of hilarious sci-fi and horror references and great voice acting too.  Fred and Scooby are voiced by the one-of-a-kind Frank Welker, who is an animation voice-acting legend and has been portraying these characters for something like 40 years.  For the Monster High/Ever After High crowd, Kate Higgins (Frenkie Stein/Briar Beauty) voices the mayor in the second season, which was a fun treat.  Patrick Warburton turns in a great performance as the Sheriff.

So yeah, apparently I totally fell in love with a Scooby-Doo show.  I'm actually afraid to go and check out any of the other material produced for this franchise, though, because I know it won't be as good as what I've just finished.  And ye gods, I totally want to get a little bit of merchandise for my toy collection now. >_<

Direct me to it, please?

Well, my hopes were dashed.   Looks like I didn't get a residency like I'd hoped.  Maybe "dashed" is too strong of a word.  I'm not actually sad about NOT having to work super hard for pennies for a year, but I did put a lot of time and effort (and money!) into all those apps and interviews.  Now it all just feels like a big fat waste of time.  And I would have enjoyed the opportunity to learn lots more.

So I consoled myself by picking up the Twilight Barbies and the Princess and the Frog off of Amazon. XD

But in all seriousness, I feel incredibly directionless now.  I had put most of my hopes into getting a residency, and now I'm not really sure what to do.  I'm afraid of retail pharmacy - it's incredibly soul-sucking and tiring - but most hospitals don't actually hire that many pharmacists.  So I kind of see myself just falling into a retail position by default.  Which makes me sad.  I should really look up the contact info for some of my pharmacist friends and see if they can't hook me up with some sort of hospital job.

But on a more fun note, I just finished my fifth rotation last week, and they gave me $125 work of gift cards at the end!  I was in complete and total shock.  And touched, too.  I'm going to miss that pharmacy and its crazy antics.  One of the cards was for the the theater, so I'm definitely going to go catch How to Train Your Dragon this week.  Must support animation in the theaters!

I can't believe that I'm finally finished with all 61 episodes of Avatar. It has been an amazing journey, and I'm sad to see it go. I've had the episodes for quite some time (at least two years if not longer!) and can't believe it's taken me this long to finally watch them.

This series is one of those few cases where - after watching - I think it's deserving of all the praise it has garnered. There is a wonderful, possibly unique blend of action, comedy, and emotional depth that sets Avatar apart from many other animated series. Especially more recent American-made ones. I might be going a little too far (being in that post-series bliss that I usually get after watching something good), but Avatar may be my pick for the best American animated series of the decade.

There are many truly laugh-out-loud funny moments (The episodes "The Beach" and "The Ember Island Players" come to mind), and yet the series doesn't just rely on laughs - each of the characters is unique, with their own personal stories and motivations, dreams and fears.

The presence of good continuity and copious, baggage-filled backstory only fuels my love of this show. The backstory is actually where we discover what drives many of the characters.

So while I'm sad my watchthrough is over, there is at least the live action movie to look forward to. Though I have to admit that Jackson Rathbone as Sokka made me lol.

And also, I'm in the mood for some good Avatar fanfic. If anyone has a good recommendations, I'd love to know!

Well, it's been some time since I last updated. I've been meaning to post about the start of my Rotations for some time, but just haven't gotten around to it. Laziness, your name is Justin.

I'm currently on my second week of six at the Nuclear Pharmacy, where I help out making radioactive drugs for cancer treatment or medical imaging purposes. It's definitely an interesting field, but I can't really see myself going into it as my profession. There's no patient contact and you work behind lead and tungsten shielding all the time. It actually made me miss CVS. Imagine that.

But I've gotten to do some really neat things already, like irradiate a patient's white blood cells so they can be reinjected and then travel to the site of an infection, thereby "lighting up" a previously unknown site of infection during imaging. Cool stuff. But again, working behind leaded glass is annoying. And going to work at 1 AM sometimes kind of sucks.

I also found a place to live up in Sacramento. I've got two rooms in a house about 15-20 minutes from where I work. One bedroom, the other functioning as an office. I even bought a little cheap bookcase at Target so that I can bring part of my library with me, which makes me feel a little more "at home."

Which is kind of the problem - the first week I got a little homesick. Definitely unexpected. I've always liked my quiet/alone time to watch stuff or read, but I think it was with the knowledge that my parents would be home later. Not talking to anyone outside of work threw me, that's for sure. I've been on my phone more in the last week than the last several months! It's amazing how you feel like calling anyone and everyone!

I haven't decided what to bring (or if I will at all) of my toy collection, but a few pieces might be nice. Probably nothing expensive like the Pullips, but figurines would go nicely.

On an unrelated note, if you haven't seen Ponyo yet and are an animation fan, you're really missing out. I also saw Ponyo last week, and it was surprise, surprise another Miyazaki masterpiece.

But bedtime now! Tomorrow after work I promised myself I'd start studying for my first upcoming quiz during our bi-weekly Conferences (where we get together with everyone else doing Rotations in our geographical region), and need the sleep.

Back when I was in elementary school, my friend John (one of the most creative people I know) came up with the idea for a film based on the the classic tale "The Frog Prince" in the classic Disney style. He did lots of character designs, and now that Disney is doing their own version of the story, John has finally taken some rough storyboards and put them together with a soundtrack on Youtube for the audience's viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, they are incomplete, but wonderful still the same.

I remember going through many story discussions with John (even so far back as to remember that the Princess was originally named Rose) about this film, which has always been a dream of his to see animated.

Part 1


Part 2


And of course, I must be allowed a note of nostalgia for myself, as I recall that I was originally going to be the voice of the King (lol, like when he had no other options...:D)

But anyway - Bravo, John! I thought for a long time that you'd set this aside when you started working, but I guess my fears were ungrounded. ^__^