The Crackdown

Current System Configuration: Criminal Investigator
BGM: Sarani Tatakau Mono Tachi（更 に戦う者たち）Advent Children Version by Nobuo Uematsu. A hard rocking remix of the Final Fantasy VII boss theme used in the Advent Children movie when Avalanche fights the bug-like Bahamut. Edgy, hardcore and heart rate stimulating.
Breakfast: Muesli with pineapple-flavored yoghurt
Lunch: Beef shawarma and nachos
Dinner: None yet, most likely foccacia bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (If you've noticed, this is the food I eat when I'm too lazy for a full meal)---Actually, I had Yellow Cab Pizza. For the win.

With grades finally submitted and the scholarship committe meetings done, I'm pretty much going to coast along for the last three days before the long vacation we'll be having from October 29 to November 6. Teachers and students alike are stressed to their limits and are barely clinging on to the threads of sanity. (Though some students had no sanity to begin with. You know who you are. <_<) style="font-style: italic;">Non sequitur. Gundam: The 8th MS Team is a great anime. It came out in 1995 (around the same time as Gundam Wing, which might explain why it's not so popular, being overshadowed by the winning formula of bishounen-and-angst) and is pretty much considered a side story. It has no direct relation to the plot of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (0079), which is supposed to happen at the same time.

The 8th MS Team is a well-executed departure from the Gundam many of us are used to: massively-souped up robots piloted by incredibly talented (and often good-looking) young men who easily annihilate all opposition with a serving of angst and reluctance on the side. In the 8th MS Team you instead have an idealistic and oft careless (but incredibly resourceful) team leader, Shiro Amada; a hot-blooded and tomboyish red-headed lady, Karen Joshua; Sanders, a dreadlocked soldier who believes himself to be a jinx; Eledore, a wannabe musician who has a weakness for a particular blonde centerfold; and Michel, a boy who is perpetually found writing to his girlfriend. Their Mobile Suits are still Gundams---but generic, grunt-issue units that can barely fly and never pose flashily (unlike practically everything in Gundam SEED -_-). The 8th MS team does not soar through the blue skies or starry heavens blowing up enemy units---no, they fight in hot, steamy jungles infested with leeches. They get bored while stalking enemy units in the desert to the point of bickering pettily. Their units get trashed, after which they have to actually pull that ejection lever and end up forsaken on some mountain peak in the middle of nowhere, and use their wits to survive the bitter cold.

The 8th MS Team is grittily realistic but nonetheless entertaining. Some people may complain about the lack of continuity when it comes to technology, but really, that's completely fine with me. 4.5 stars out of 5.

Back to reality. Here is a nauseatingly cute caricature of my advisory class, I-Sapphire. (Drawn by Yana)

First Row, starting from upper left: Neon, who appeared in a TV ad for a milk formula for "gifted children"; Mike, who is sleeping with his I-Pod; John; MJ, whose fascination with cattle I still do not understand; Gabby, who loves chess; Zaldy, who is drawing in the grass; Jocel; and Francis, who cannot be seen very clearly. He is standing on the globe and is known for his aptitude in math and Earth sciences.
Second Row: King, who claims to be some sort of universal monarch; Jut, whose soul appears to be trapped in a cellular phone; Kit, who seems to be enjoying himself here; Vince, who was somehow transmuted into a goat; Patti(Cor), who is blooming here; Dianne and Belsha, who are holding hands and flashing creepy grins; and Darrwin, who is erasing the board.
Third Row: The Inseparable Trio/Tres Marias/The Tiger Girls: Inna (the Genie), Trish (the Fairy) and Marga (the Angel); Cesar; Paolo, who seems to have more than adequate funding and an obsession with fish; Manuel and JM, whose souls seem to be trapped inside a Gameboy Advance; Prince, who seems to be more regally-clad than King; Paul, who believes silence is a virtue; Ingrid, who for some unknown reason here is reading a "men's interests" magazine (ahem); Patti (yes, two Pattis), said to be our resident genius; and Kate, who lost her sanity a loooooooooong time ago.

In the lower right corner is Yana, the artist behind this wonderful work of art, and the Syaoran lookalike in the middle is myself. Why she drew me as a Syaoran lookalike I have no idea.

What deeply saddens me is that one of these students is behind the sequence of thefts that has occured since the start of the schoolyear. We have narrowed down the suspects to the 20 boys, as the most recent theft occured in the absence of the girls. (During swimming class---the girls have theirs separate from the boys, for obvious reasons) I'm normally a very merciful person, but I have to say that I will not tolerate thefts in class. Whoever is responsible will have to pay dearly and most likely be dismissed dishonorably from our school. The crackdown itself will happen soon enough. It will be sad to see one of these guys go, but it would be even sadder if he gets all the way through high school, college and professional life without kicking this habit.

May God grant me the wisdom to discern who it is.

さらばだ。