Nearly at the end of the 2-ep flashback of Norland's visit to Jaya. I like Norland and Calgara. Vids look a lot better now we have a new monitor. I got it, in company with an aged computer, at a garage sale on Saturday for five bucks. The computer (christened Amazon, for the old woman on Skypiea) is in my room, but it won't be running until I procure a working keyboard. There is no Internet, so Amazon will mainly use Microsoft Word and the calculator. My brothers keep lifting the monitor cable, since that's one of the connections Mom is in the habit of taking.

Been reading Heyer's Royal Escape, which I got at the library on my birthday. It's one of the historicals, not romance. I don't think I'll finish it today, leaving it in company of only My Lord John. Bonnie Prince Charlie is the main character. La Grand Georgette is very much a Royalist. Anti-Cromwell, and all that.

I wish Norland hadn't had to tell his King about the City of Gold. Bloody kangaroo court, it was. They hired a false witness, didn't even have him swear that he was telling the truth. Bastard wasn't even one of Norland's crew. And Norland never saw Calgara again, the Shandians were driven from their homeland, general misery. At least I get to watch Enel get beaten soon. I hope he gets beaten on the moon, too. So far he seems to be doing just fine. Grrrrr. (Been looking at manga chapters 435 through 459. Chapter beginnings show Enel on the moon, just like Buggy after the battle and Coby and Helmeppo with Garp.) Just in passing, you probably shouldn't read this blog if you don't like spoilers. Come to think of it, I doubt anyone does read this blog. It's more or less something to do while they're loading.....
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Such a pity that lighting is immortal....I can't imagine what it must be like to have to wait a weeek for each episode....
And in Chapter 159, looks like a skeleton named Brook is going to join the crew--the Thriller Bark arc is such fun. Cerberus is kinda cute. Oh, yeah, landmark--Robin called Usopp and Chopper by their real names. She only started doing that with Luffy on Enies Lobby. Zoro will come last.

Friday was one of my best birthdays ever. Mom took me and Owen (couldn't be helped, and she didn't trust him at home without her) to town and we went to a bunch of used-bookstores. A Novel Idea had Unfinished Tales I and the Book of Lost Tales (Tolkien), plus The Hero and the Crown, The Blue Sword, and Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. Bluestem Books had Beric the Briton, cheap for an old Henty, but Mom didn't have enough. Yellowed Pages was the best. There was a hardbacked volume containing Mairelon the Magician and Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede; I've read Magician's Ward but not Mairelon. They're Regencies. There was The Gray Horse by RA MacAvoy. If the library had it I wouldn't get it, but oh well. And there were the Heyers. I didn't have enough for all of them, but I got They Found Him Dead, The Convenient Marriage, The Toll-gate, The Unknown Ajax, Regency Buck, Lady of Quality. Out of all those, our library has only Toll-gate and Lady of Quality. Cool, huh?

Still on Skypiea. Nami is in difficulties, and Luffy is catching up to Enel. Wiper is incredible--nearly as durable as a Devil Fruit user.

Oh, man. The end of 182 is above price. Enel, learning that Luffy can't be hurt by lightning and that he can be hit--whooeeeeee. Too much.

YAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

We found out what a Skypiea Class-1 crime is! Evading the Punishment of a Priest! Anyway, yeah, we're on Sky Island. Cool possibility: Gold Roger may have been to Skypiea and been friends with Gan Fall.
I'm compiling a list of really good eps. 119, for Zoro cutting steel; 160, for Zoro receiving misdirected inspiration particles that should've hit Tarzan; 163, second half, for general hilarious ownage; 49, for meeting Tashigi and the phenomenon of Zoro taking out the trash (literally and figuratively) at Loguetown Marine headquarters. 53, also in the Loguetown arc, has some bits that are equally funny. 56 and 58 are really good, what else? 94 in Arabasta. Two names: Smoker and Tashigi. Oh, forget this. Go here for a guide to the episodes.

Extremely interesting fact: Gold Roger (Gol D. Roger, we're told), Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace, and Blackbeard (Marshall D. Teach) share two things: black hair and the D. initial, which we are inclined to believe is a surname, since it's all that Luffy's and Ace's names have in common. Relations? Seems that way. C'mon, Oda-sensei! Tell us before volume 500!

Library visit Friday, fruits of: the two latter volumes of His Dark Materials, consumed; The Tin Princess, also Pullman; Lyra's Oxford, which is kinda bonus material to the series; volumes 2, 4, and 5 of the One Piece manga series by Eichiiro Oda, consumed; A School for Sorcery, E. Rose Sabine, consumed.

Mom is demanding the possession of Battleaxe and telling me to go do the kitchen.

Wheeeee! Robin's joined the crew! Vivi is in Arabasta now, for good. Episode 128 has a really good ending, which doesn't occur anywhere else: Family, sung by the Straw Hats--the voice actors for the pirates. Very cool! Radioblog does not, alas, have it. Anyway, we've reached Ruruka Island, and Luffy, Zoro, Robin, and Usopp are in Ape Concert. What's interesting is that we seem to have seen the Pumpkin Pirate kids before--as Marines pursuing the Straw Hats. Marines as old as Henzo is, and they ought to be.

Tomorrow we go to town. We'll have to go to B's first, for two reasons. The first is that Peter and Owen are spending the night there, and we have to pick them up. The second is that the water heater is shot, and since Dad's gone to Montana to work we'll have to pay someone to install a new one as well as buy the heater in the first place. This means that we're heating water on the stove for dishes and baths, and showers are impossible. Thus we have to go to B's to shower. Good thing tonight is Mom's last class before summer vacation. Then no more teaching until July.

Ah. Miss Doublefinger's power is the Doru Doru Fruit, which permits her to sprout thorns from any part of her body. This is occasionally extremely weird.
Sanji has kicked Bon Clay in the head, and Zoro is now facing Mr. 1. To quote "When I beat you, I'll have become a man who can cut steel." Zoro is very good at saying exactly the thing that will rile his opponent most, on purpose. Luffy often does this, it just isn't always on purpose. Smoker said, "He's an idiot." Zoro answered, "Sure, he's an idiot. But that's why he's our captain."
I'm gonna go see whether 119 (Essence of a Mighty Sword! The Power to Cut Steel and the Breath of All Things!) is loading.Man, when does Luffy get here??

ARABASTA!!

Right now Zoro is battling the blade guy, Mr. 1, and Sanji is fighting Mr. 2. Usopp and Chopper have defeated Mr. 4 and Miss Merrychristmas. Miss Doublefinger is going after Nami. The way that woman walks is kinda annoying. It probably affects all females that way, kinda like a nonexistent bra annoys all respectable females. What's really annoying it that there are two sides to the annoyance. The other side is that men are supposed to like it, and do. Bah.
Let's see:
Mr. 1: Cutting Fruit. Miss Doublefinger: I forget, but it turns her into something resembling a human sewing machine.
Mr. 2, Bon Clay: Mane Mane Fruit, or Imitations.
Mr. 3: Doru Doru Fruit, wax. Miss Goldenweek: Painting stuff. If you touch her paint it evokes in you the emotion that it symbolizes, like blue for sadness and yellow for laughter.
Mr. 4: the Number 4 Batter. Miss Merrychristmas: transforms into a Molewoman.
Mr. 5: he can make any part of his body explode. Miss Valentine: Kilo Kilo Fruit, changes her body density.
Mr. 6: never met him.
Mr. 7: this guy got killed when he tried to recruit Zoro. Zoro's conditions were that, if he join the organization, they make him the boss. Mr. 7 tried to kill him, and Zoro "did what he had to do", as he put it. We are unacquainted with Mr. 7's partner. ETA: Looks like someone else got promoted to the position. His partner is Miss Fathersday. They are snipers.
Mr. 8: Igaram. No fruit. Miss Wednesday: Vivi. Ditto.
Mr. 9: No fruit, fights with metal baseball bats. Miss Monday: superhuman strength. Zoro beat her.
Mr. 10: Don't know him.
Mr. 11: captured by Smoker, killed by the Billions. Partner unknown.
Mr. 12: Don't know him or his partner.
Mr. 13 and Miss Friday: The Unluckies. A vulture and an otter. Sanji killed them both on Little Garden.