yeah... so

Okay, I know I said I was gonna do reviews/recaps/whateverthefuck, and I will, eventually. I'm just really slow.

A few things to report, uhh... one of my classmates from elementary school was killed in a car accident in August. I was never really close to her so this doesn't really affect me in any way. So I have nothing else to say about that.

Also, my summer job ended without any major mishaps, and thanks to that I got a ton of new books this summer. But now the paychecks have stopped, so I can't get more books every other week. I got my last books in the mail on Tuesday, and I probably won't be able to buy any new ones until December (when Wandering Son 1 and Tyrant 2 come out).

I was at Wal-Mart the other day and I found Roxio Easy VHS to DVD program, which can record VHS tapes to DVD or to the computer. Awesomest thing ever, now I can finally record my family's home movies to DVD/computer. I've been wanting to do that for years, and now I can. :D It's really easy too, which helps.

I finally got the last volume of With the Light (volume 7) and I finished reading it in about an hour. I am sad. It's over! I can't believe it's already over! Hikaru's only in his second year of junior high! It can't be over! But, it is. The author died so there's really not much else to do on that front. Hopefully, she left behind notes or something so that someday maybe someone else can finish Hikaru's story. I wanted to see him as a happy working adult, now we don't even get to see him in high school.

And the end of the last volume doesn't help either. The last chapter ever is about Hikaru's grandmother-who-I-hate and how she goes to visit a friend and meets someone with ADHD and Asperger's syndrome. Really, the end of the volume doesn't give off a 'and Hikaru's future is looking bright' feeling. In fact, it doesn't even give off a feeling of a completed series. It feels like something else is supposed to happen when the grandmother gets back home (Hikaru and his family are living with her now, bleck). She felt bad about the way she treats Hikaru so you're set up for some kind of resolution, or something. Instead we get the end.

On a lighter With the Light note, Hikaru is going through puberty. This is only really addressed in the beginning of the volume, and it was funny because there was a panel of Hikaru and Sachiko on the snail bus where it explained that Hikaru didn't want to sit next to his mother. I must've giggled for about five minutes. I mean, most of the series is about dealing with Hikaru's autism and how it makes him different than the other kids his age. And then he goes and does something like this, which is something that most normal teenagers do. I had to laugh, gave me a happy feeling.

And then the ending came and the happy feeling fucked off somewhere. I seriously hate that grandmother. She even insinuated that Hikaru should be put in an institution, instead of living at home. All I can do at this point is shake my head sadly. What the hell, Azuma-obaasan, what the hell? But Hikaru did hit her in the face at one point (by accident), so that was cool. Frankly I was hoping that she'd have an accident on her trip and die, which I suppose is harsh. But I just reeeeeeeeeeally don't like her.

I mean, if she feels that way about her own grandson, then how is she going to treat other disabled people that she knows. She was kinda awkward around the person she met with ADHD and Asperger's (which is understandable), but I wonder how she would've acted if she had known beforehand that he was autistic. Would she have treated him the same way she treats Hikaru (like he's a nuisance)?

Jeez, Sachiko's parents are much better people for Hikaru to be around, why aren't they in there more?

On the upside, Hikaru is now in his second year at junior high, and he's starting to take more notice of the people around him and what they are doing. That does cause some problems, but it means that he's growing. Too bad we don't get to know how well he does in future *gloom*.