Ridiculously Busy Day

Today is Thursday, my busy day. I started it off with a trip to the library to return some stuff (my drawing Manga and some of Mason's Bionicle books). Now, I'm in the relatively lull period before I have to head back to Mason's school for volunteering, first in the classroom and then at chess club. After chess club, will be kuk sool wan. We're going to try to make it tonight because it's sparring, which Mason loves (and has special gear for). Then, I'm off to Wyrdsmiths.

Normally, I also try to clean the fish tanks and any other number of household things done as well (hey, at least I already got the recycling out)... but probably I'll end up reading my Wyrdsmith homework and not doing much else. Though I do need to have dinner pre-made or there will be no hope of anyone eating tonight.

Last night I had my second hula hooping class. It was a lot of fun. I was smart this time and brought my own music because... well, I'm old, and I don't appreciate that NOISE that passes as music these days. Having my own beat to hoop to helped quite a bit, though I'm still not getting the "hip thing" as everyone calls it. I was told by the instructor, though, that sometimes that's the last thing that clicks, particularly for adult students. I did, weirdly, totally rock the trick steps. (Again, I think I blame my martial arts training for this.) My shoulders have been sore since Tuesday's KSW, because we played a "game" that actually involved a whole LOT of push-ups -- and one of my goals this year in KSW is to actually do REAL push-ups (not "girly" ones from the knee, and also ones where your chest actually nearly touches the ground.) I suspect my entire torso is going to be sore, sore, sore by seven o'clock tonight.

So imagine me running around the Cities today with achy muscles.

Much Maligned "Bount"s

I have yet to meet a Bleach fan who hasn't rolled their eyes when either Mason or I explain that we're currently in the middle of the "Bount" arc. A lot of people have told me they skipped it because other fans told them it was so bad.

I think that's not exactly bad advice, HOWEVER...

If you seriously saw none of it, you're missing a few vaguely interesting bits. They're not worth suffering through all the literal sitting around in Urahura's shop staring at each other scenes (or the comic debasement of the noble Renji Abarai), however, in this arc a character is introduced who is a deserter. Given how Byakuya Kuchiki deals with Renji's (ulitmately kind of minor) insubordination in the Soul Society arc, you wouldn't think any one would be ALLOWED to walk away from the Imperial Guard (Gotei) Divisions alive. Seriously. But this guy deserts. Why? Because Kenpatchi Zaraki lets him.

As we all know, Zaraki is the only captain to have gotten his rank by... well, essentially murdering the previous captain of the 11th division. Technically, he challenged his commanding officer to duel in front of two hundred witnesses or something like that, which is all quite legal in the Soul Society's Imperial Guard rules.

The deserter was loyal to the previous captain and is, quite rightly, utterly horrified at the idea of having to serve under a madman like Zaraki who killed his beloved commander in such a nasty and kind of *unfair* way. Certainly, it's not TRULY honorable. Espeically since the deserter claims, at one point, when he's making his case to someone else, "the Soul Society *needed* someone like [his former captain.]"

I am a big fan of Kenpatchi Zaraki under most curcumstances, because... well, as long as the fight is good, he's on our side. He's seriously bad ass in a fun kind of way. But, what I liked about this tiny thread is that it made me actually consider what it must have been like to watch some punk (because really, you don't get much more low life than Zaraki) SLAUGHTER a presumably perfectly capable and decent captain and walk away with the captain's haori slung over his shoulder, his sword still dripping with blood....

Whoa, right?

I find the idea of a Soul Reaper deserter really fascinating, especially since he seems to have at least been a seated officer (he can call out his zanpakto) -- and it's kind a shame that he appears in this otherwise fairly useless arc.

Here, for once, is a traitor who has a sympathetic back story. He's not a power-hungry megamanical freak like Aizen. Power at all costs, blah, blah, blah.... Okay, so I haven't gotten Aizen's back story yet, but I have a hard time imagining it to be nearly this sympathetic. Unless somehow they're going to reveal something utterly corrupt in the center of the Imperial Guard that would make Aizen's actions seem justified.

At any rate, the other thing that I find myself thinking about while suffering through the Bount arc is how sociopathic Urahura really must be. I LOVE Urahura. "Hat and clogs" rules! But, the guy *is* responsible for a number of rather ethically dubious research projects. Though it's not stated outright, it seems clear that Urahura was in charge of the Mod Souls project which was shut down because it was seen as too awful. Kon is supposed to have been the last of his kind.

I say this because, here, all of a sudden, out of Urahura's shop pop three Mod Souls, each of whom, seems to have EXTRA super-human powers (which Kon does not possess, and never hinted at having -- which you know he WOULD because he's that guy) AND wonderfully/creepy designed gigai. Which would lead one to believe that, if somehow Urahura did NOT engineer the project, he's certainly not above restarting it... with "improvements."

This project was supposed to have been shut down because it was seen as VERY WRONG to take what is essentially a human soul and imprision/transform it into a killing machine. Yet, so far, not one of the shinigami who have appeared in this arc (and there are far too many cool people who end up trapesing through this mess) ever once turned to Urahura and said, "Ai! What are these??!! Where the hell did they come from???" And Matsumoto actually watches the transer of a Mod Soul pill from a gigai into a doll -- I would grant that not everyone knew about this project, but Rukia did, so...

*shrug*

On a general note, I just want to say that I've always been a little creeped out that Urahura seems to be the go-to guy when a Shinigami needs a body. I mean, like, what's his back store room really like, you know?