*ow*

I was putting clothes into the washing machine when the cat jumps up there. I was expecting this, because the doors to the utility niche-thing in my hallway are kept closed all the time, ever since the cat jumped down into the space between the side of the dryer and the wall and got stuck there. She eventually jumped out, but she's gotten fatter and a bit less nimble over the past year and I'm not entirely sure she'd be able to jump out now. Anyway, the doors are kept closed so they are the HOLY GRAIL and she must try to jump up on the washer and dryer every chance she gets.

There's a shelf above the washer and dryer that taller people presumably keep detergent on, but I stuff things I don't need much up there because I are short. She likes to jump up there and look imperiously down on me.

Today her lack of nimbleness meant that she didn't get a really good grip on the shelf when she jumped there (not entirely sure why - it's less than the height to the bathroom counter, where her water is, and I've never seen her miss that jump), and fell backwards, twisting, onto the dryer. I'm standing there loading clothes in, and of course my natural instinct is to try to CATCH THE FUCKING CAT.

I shall spare you the gory details, but I think I've gotten off lightly. There is one long scratch crossways across the top of my wrist, which means that I look like an exceptionally incompetent suicide, and the cat stalked around for a while freaked out that some MYSTERIOUS FORCE had obviously thrown her down on top of the dryer because she couldn't POSSIBLY be that clumsy, and has now completely forgotten about it and curled up in her box lid asleep.

(no subject)

Dorian over at Postmodern Barney has reviews of Death Note 1, Ghost Hunt 1, and The Wallflower 5.

Interesting technique

A quick manga observation right before I go to bed. DUnno how many of you read Tramps like Us (Kimi wa no Pet), but volume 6 is out and the mangaka does something interesting for part of chapter 32.

She follows along a day in the life of the main character Sumire, but for a good part of it through the eyes of the other characters. It starts with narration by Momo, Sumire's "pet,"* as he talks about how he gets to see a side of her that her boyfriend doesn't. Then the narration switches to her best friend, trying to work out what's bugging Sumire and musing on how she's been like she is since college. Her boyfriend then picks the narration up, pondering what she's not telling him, and then a romantic rival of hers picks it up, and puzzles over why Sumire doesn't seem to be much into her boyfriend, and why she doens't try harder to make herself appealing to men. (And then the chapter concludes with Typical Manga Plot Twist.)

The change in narrators is signalled by a new page and scene, and each thread of narration starts with the narrator musing that there's something about Sumire that they just don't get. (And I ahvne't gone thruogh and re-read all the scenes yet, but I'm wondering if maybe what each person doens't get about SUmire is answered by another person?)

I don't have much to say about that, no deep analysis, because it's past my bedtime and I'm sleeeeepy, but I figured I'd throw it out there and see if anyone else thinks it's a nifty as I do. It'd be annoying if it were overused, but it seems to be a cool way to contrast different sides of Sumire and how she's different with different people.


* Momo is a young male ballet dancer who is living in Sumire's apartment and acting as her pet. I fully expect that not a single one of you blinked when you read that, because you're all used to manga by now, and you probably wondered if he was kinda hot, and you already have figured out that there's romantic tension occurring. Yes. You should read it. I couldn't do justice to how he ends up in her apartment.