Today I was feeling a little burned out on onigiri (おにぎり) so I am going with a tortila rollup. It is lowfat wheat tortilla with laughing cow cheese (チーズ) sliced turkey (スライスされた七面鳥) and avocado(アボカド). The avocado (アボカド) wasn't quite ripe but I am hoping it will soften by tomorrow (明日). For desert I have mandarin oranges (マンダリンオレンジ) and these yummy looking sesame rice balls. I believe they are called Daifuku (大福). I picked them up at Gelson's this weekend and haven't tried them yet. I will let you know how they are tomorrow.



As for the Japanese I have picked up "Japanese for Busy People (Kana version) Vol. I" It is pretty good so far. My kana was stronger than I expected. I'm going to start unit 2 right now (it's shopping so it could be very dangerous ;-). Thanks to everyone who helped me out last week.

きよつかれたです
明日わたしはおにぎりとパインとごまかしを食べる


こちらはわたしのかわいいひるごはんですのほ

わたしのかわいいひるごはんですか?


Thanks to everyone who has been helping me with my grammar. I will try and have some more variety in next weeks lunches.

Today (今日) I wanted to finish off the salmon (鮭 - さけ) because I did not know how long it would keep for. Next time I will buy a smaller pouch as not much fits in the rice balls (おにぎり) or the rolls (まく) I went back to the brown rice (げんまい) as it was much better than expected on Tuesday (火曜日 - かようび). I used 2 layers of seaweed (のり) as the sheets were a little thin last time. I filled my cute little fish (かわいく小さい魚) bottle with low sodium soy sauce (しょうゆ) as I seem to be having a lot of it lately.

On the side I have edamame (枝豆 - えだまめ?), or soy beans, shucked so that they fit better.

For desert I have fresh pineapple (パイナップル or パイン or パイナツ) and white(白) and black(黒) sesame bark (ごまかし と 黒ごまかし) which I found at the wonderful Famima!!

ここにわたしのかわいいおひるごはんある


いただきます!

わたしのかわいいおひるごはん

The brown rice (げんまい) rolls (まく) worked out much better than expected. Today I tried grilled rice balls (やきおにぎり) I filled them with the same salmon (鮭) from yesterday. I basted them with Soy Sauce (しょうゆ) and grilled them on the George Foreman Grill(フォレマンジョージさんのグリル). The first one didn't work out so well. I lowered the lid out of habit and the weight squished it. I ate it for dinner it was yummy (これはおいしいありました)... not pretty(これはきらいありませんでした) though. I added a little circle of nori(のり) to the center of the flower (はな) for a better presentation. On the side I have a dozen (十二) almonds (アーモンド). For desert I have strawberries(いちご) and Koala's March Cookies(コアラのマーチ).

I am trying to use my bento blog to practice my Japanese so please feel free to point out any errors.

Today was yummy and very filling so I thought I would try it again tomorrow.



Tomorrow's lunch will feature an almost sushi (すし) concoction made from genmai (玄米 or げんまい) a Japanese brown rice, nori(海苔 or のり)an edible seaweed I got out of an kit from Annie Chun and Bumble Bee® Prime Fillet™ Lemon & Dill Salmon Steak It's cooked fish so it isn't too adventurous. The Japanese word for salmon is sake (鮭). Unlike the drink you put the emphasis on the first syllable instead of the second. The cutest (一番可愛い) part of the meal though is the little fish shaped bottle I filled with soy sauce(しょうゆ).

On the side I have Arare (あられ) a rice cracker mix including Wasabi (わさび or 山葵) Peas.

For desert I am doing mixed frozen fruits(strawberries - ichigo/いちご, peaches - Momo/もも and Pineapple - パイン or パイナツ) and Koala's March Cookies(コアラのマーチ) again. They were very good in today's lunch.

So I bought myself another bento (べんとう) and I am determined to use it properly this time. Last time I used it in conjunction with my "see if I can make all my meals with only 10 ingredients" fiasco. It was an adventure in nutrition that is probably best forgotten. This time I am back to the bento not only for health reasons but because I have been studying Japanese and the conversations in my lessons usually seem to revolve around food. This led to a variety of cravings including a ramen (ラーメン) phase where I samples a wide range of instant ramen varieties, a sushi (すし) phase where I played around with a variety of California Roll variations (I don't have the courage for sashimi (さしみ)), an onigiri (おにぎり) phase fulfilled by the wonderful Famima (http://www.famima-usa.com/), and yakitori (やきとり - fun fact - I think this is what that big banner sign in the opening credits of Ninja Warrior says) phase where all I wanted was chicken on a stick. So I went to this wonderful market (http://www.marukai.com/) Tom and I found on one of our weekend adventures. I bought an onigiri mold (seen here with a chicken filling and almonds on top - It was my first attempt and not really very pretty) The lunch pack was a great bargain. It included 3 containers (1 with a holder for the chopsticks which were also included) a divider, and ice pack and a carrying case. For desert I have frozen peaches, strawberries and pineapple which will thaw by lunch (I bought frozen because I didn't think I would be ably to finish the fresh fruit fast enough as strawberries go bad so fast) and a single serve pack of Koala's March Cookies(コアラのマーチ http://www.lotteusainc.com/productspagekoala.html) which are koala shaped cookies filled with chocolate. So tomorrow is day 1 if I can keep this up for a couple weeks I want to start making Lunch for Tom too so lets see what happens.

Ah the war is over... time to take stock and rebuild. Compared to last week this week seems pretty light.

• Buddy deserves to be happy. Please don't mess it up for him.
• Passing time till Donner's return
• "Hell hath no fury..."
• Dream a little
• Dominating the Dominators
• Black Bolt's rebel yell

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Ok so now I am exhausted and a little intimidated by the sheer number of comics to review this week but here goes.

• So much power in the hands of little Billy Batson.
• Hey I thought this book was about Oracle?
• 
• Yes it did rot my brain... but it would be perfect for my neice and nephew.
• I was hoping for the invisible Jet too.
• Wow! I think I read this one on fanfiction.net
• Whoah! That's not Dick Grayson...
• Well now I understand less about Supergirl than I did before.
• Titans... bringing back members only to kill them off again...
• Way too many key people missing from WW III...
• Layla Miller gets creepier every issue
• Batman has a lot more patience with this Blue Beetle than he did with Ted Kord

 

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The picture to your right shows my best guess as to who makes up the team of seven Legionnaires stranded in the present in the current JLa/JSA/Legion crossover. The clues I used to come to this conclusion are mostly cryptic Starman Quotes from Justice League of America #8::

• Karate Kid: Appears in JLA #7 & #8
• Star Boy: Appears in JLA #8, JSA #1-#4
• Dream Girl: "I know that place. Arkham. That's where they have her. My dream girl." Also she appears at the end of JSA #4
• Dawnstar: "The angel is close. The white angel's screaming." "The angel screams in C-Sharp." Also she appears in JSA #1
• Lightning Lad: "She's screaming at -- (Lightning Lad for the interlac challenged)"
• Timberwolf: "Then the wolf howls-- in B-flat"
• Shrinking Violet: "itsy...bitsy..."

Runners up:

• Cosmic Boy: "C-sharp" "B-flat"
• Spider Girl: "itsy...bitsy..."
• White Witch: "The white angel's screaming."
• Tyroc: all of the musical references.

!++2++!



P.S. I am still writing "The Morning after..." but there were 12 books this week and they were all pretty thought provoking so it may take a while.




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Wow! How can a week get more chock full than this one? I am wondering what possessed DC to release all 4 issues of World War III at once. Just 52 and the 4 War books would have made a pretty decent week but on top of that we have the start of the long anticipated JSA/JLA/Legion crossover, the truth about why Oracle and Nightwing didn't get hitched, the Birds of Prey going head to head with the Secret Six ...er Five, what would have been the finale for Manhunter if it had not been picked up again, the government crossing swords with X-factor, Blue Beetle and Batman Take on the Fatal Five(? wait, you mean from 1000 years in the future fatal five?) and lastly the animated Legion of Super-heroes which I should probably save for a slow week but we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

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So the good news is that Gail Simone has been tapped for Wonder Woman. This is a wonderful thing for Gail's career and I am hoping she can actually move Wonder Woman more towards a character that a female audience can relate too. The bad news is that in order to fit Wonder Woman into her schedule Ms. Simone has to drop Birds of Prey. My first reaction was fear. One of the few books that actually got women and showed female friendships in a very real and relate-able manner was most likely going to get passed to a male writer. (I must note here that I absolutely loved Chuck Dixon's run, but Gail added another dimension to the dynamics) But after a little thought I began to realize that the real issue isn't about whether Gail is writing Birds or not, but why is there only one prominent female writer in comics today? Practically every con you go to there is talk of trying to tap into the female demographic. Heck Didio dedicated a whole D.C. Nation Column to getting women to read that awful Supergirl drivel. Why can't they find a woman to write female super hero books. We know the female fans are out there with blogs like Maid of Might, Occasional Superheroine and of course Diversionarium to name just a few. Somewhere their must be a comic book fan who can write and happens to be a girl. This isn't about who is the best writer or who deserves work, I obviously love the work of many male writers or I wouldn't be the huge comic fan I am, it's about writing books about female characters geared specifically towards a younger female audience. Manga has a huge percentage of female readership. They also have books geared around the experience of growing up female.



Oh course no offense is intended towards Mr. Sean McKeever who will be taking over the book. I really enjoyed his Mystique Mini series and if we had to have a male writing he is an excellent choice.


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The list this week was dominated by a pair of crazy Morrison acid trips and was surprisingly Marvel heavy.

• Is that a Metal Man in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
• Jimmy Olsen Rocks!
• Mattie Franklin is a bit of a "Bad Girl"
• Pass the marshmellows it's ghost story time at Xavier's
• Wait this isn't my past... sorry my bad... carry on

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Unfortunately due to Earthlink letting me down in a big way. (It is a long story that spans the globe and involves the wasting of many hours) I will not be able to write a full "The Night Before..." this week. I am writing this on my work computer and trying to get it out before anyone catches me slacking off ;-) They are sending a technician to my house tomorrow (nearly a week later) to check the wires and see if they can figure out the conundrum. The best I can do is post my list for this week and a few quick notes. Surprisingly considering my general dislike for Marvel lately it is a big week for the "House of Ideas."
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This week was awesome! Here is a quick rundown.

• She put on the mask! Four Horsemen... Firepits... Anyone smell Darkseid?
• Nobody likes Hal.
• The 50's were weird.
• Somebody please take the crack away from Joe Kelly.
• Wow! For the first time this series Cosmic Boy is cool.
• Is that Pink Canary... er Bunny?
• Ok Mr. Whedon that was pretty darn acceptable.

Click the read more link or the image for the rest of my random thoughts.




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Today I needed to get out of the office for lunch so a coworker and I walked over to Hollywood & Highland to poke around the shops and ran right into "The Donald" getting his star on the Walk of Fame. I am there in Hollywood every day and most of the time it is just the place I work, as ordinary as any other place I've worked, but sometimes it is just bizzare. Today was one of those days.

Ok, I am stopping my nomadic ways for a while. I am going to try and start walking regularly to Meltdown. on Comic release day so I finally sat down with Tom and worked out a pull list for them. I get 10% off all items on the list and they hold copies for me evey week. There is alimit of 15 books so I had to be selective. I can still get other books, but these will be at a discount.

1. 52 (For a weekly book this has been extremely consistant)
2. JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA (this is getting astoundingly good lately)
3. RUNAWAYS (on the edge of my seat after last issue)
4. ALL STAR SUPERMAN (This has been head and shoulders above everything else in both writing and art)
5. SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF THE SUPER-HEROES (This is intricately crafted with incredible character chemistry. I am addicted!)
6. X-FACTOR (Solid writing and of course Quicksilver)
7. BIRDS OF PREY (Gail Simone is a very talenented writer. Oracle is one of my all time Faves and now Big Barda!)
8. ASTONISHING X-MEN (Joss Whedon and John Cassiday! Great character insights and top notch art.)
9. CHECKMATE (Super powered espionage! Black Ops! Amanda Waller. This is definitely not a kid's book. It continues to surprise me.)
10. MANHUNTER (The grass roots campaign to keep this book alive has been out of control so I am back to reading it. So far I am loving it.)
11. SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL (This has been a great study on what makes superman a complex character... trust me Singer has no clue how to deal with this character )
12. ACTION COMICS (Wow 4 super titles on this list... How did this happen? The super family used to be so boring. This book is being written by Richard Donner right now and you get a feeling it is his response to how Singer messed up)
13. NEWUNIVERSAL (I don't have much experience with the New Universe outside of the Exiles arc but it has been intriguing so far)
14. INCREDIBLE HULK (Tom's Addition. Very much The incredible Conan since the Planet Hulk started. Interesting, but very macho)
15. New X-Men (Tom's Addition. I hav't been into it lately but it is amusing and there are some interesting subplots.)

Runners up
-----------
ETERNALS (only 1 issue left in this miniseries)
WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY (Not ready to commit yet.)
ULTIMATES 2 (only 1 issue left & it isn't out till March)
SILENT WAR (This is a mini and it hasn't started yet. )
ALL STAR BATGIRL (This wont be out for almost a year.)
YOUNG AVENGERS (This is on hiatus for another month or so at least)
ANNIHILATION (This is a miniseries with only 1 issue left)

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http://www.gold-secrets.com