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Lenni Reviews: “Fist of the North Star” Vol. 18, by Buronson & Tetsuo Hara

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

In this volume, Ken faces Emperor Balan, who despises the gods due to his lost love. Then Ken searches for Rin and Bat and after Ken loses his memories, they have to help him.

This really feels like the conflict doesn’t start or actually matter until the main character gets there to fix it. He’s more of a catalyst for the plot to happen rather than feeling like we’re following him on a journey. And Ken is so overpowered, he just punches through or wags his finger at the enemy, and then it’s over. I feel like I know his story, but I don’t know who he is, if that makes any sense. The people around him are more interesting to me as they seem to grow and change, while Ken is pretty much the same. It’s okay I just expected more from such a classic. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Boy’s Abyss” Vol. 10, by Ryo Minenami

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is recommended for mature readers.

While in Tokyo with Chako and Gen, Reiji visits Esemori in the hospital, where he’s dying of cancer.

It seems the misery is cyclical, and I am so tired of this series trying to make me feel bad for horrible people. Yeah, your tragic back story is quite moving, Yuko, but that’s no excuse to, oh, I dunno… Encourage an adult woman’s obsession with your barely legal son? This poor kid has nobody in his corner, and as much as I’d like for this to end in triumph for Reiji, with him breaking the cycle, I don’t have high hopes for that. I get the feeling the sadness will just keep going, and as a reader, the payoff will likely be just the desperate need to go read something more positive. 3 out of 5.

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Today’s Workout: Success!

While I enjoy the intervals because I can take a drink of water more often, I was able to complete the 20 minute run! It wasn’t that bad and remember; I don’t go very fast. I run at only 3.5 mph. It’s just enough to get my heartrate up and I can keep that pace for long periods of time.

Since I got up early-ish, I had a protein shake before my run. I have no idea if that impacted my performance but I doubt it. Lunch was more of that chicken and rice I made and dinner was my Itaki. All in all, a damn successful day! My macros were decent, I topped 7,000 steps, and I got a bit of writing done around my work. I’ll take any win I can get these days.

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Lenni Reviews: “Battle Royale: Enforcers” Vol. 3, by Koushun Takami & Yukai Asada

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is for mature readers.

The various squads of children deal with their deadly predicament in different ways, either embracing the chance to kill, abhorring the violence, or coming to terms with the hopelessness of their situation.

This volume cycles through each group who, as stated, are all handling things differently. I think the group that’s painting their faces and acting super edgy (very The Jokerz) were a bit silly. Even when they’re threatening violence, I couldn’t quite take them seriously. As such, there’s not much battling going on. It’s mostly talking and strategizing with the resident loony character committing the only violence in the book. It’s not bad but if you’re looking for a bloody mess, this isn’t it. 3.9 out of 5.

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Patreon Hiatus

Since it’s the holidays, I’m taking a break from posting to Patreon until January! I don’t have any patrons right now so I don’t need to pause anything but I will refund anyone if they do sign up.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s “Workout”: NYCC Day Two

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Today was a shorter day. My kid wasn’t really into it and again, I wasn’t able to find as many panels I wanted to go to… That weren’t happening at the same time. I did cosplay this time but it was my Luna cosplay from last year. Nothing fancy. Tomorrow, I’m doing a new character that my kid isn’t going also cosplay from this show because he didn’t prepare for this year at all. Usually there’s a point where he’s dressed up and I’m not so, this is a rare reversal.

If someone can identify the character in the second picture, that’d be great. I’m totally feeling the second day slump. I didn’t really eat much. The kid whined enough for Javitz food and I ended up picking at their sandwich and chips (for $16 fucking dollars for a small sandwich – SMALLER THAN LAST YEAR – I better get a couple bites) and I think being out and about all day makes me less hungry because that was fine for me till dinner, where I will freely admit I just ordered some Thai food. I’m exhausted. This is partly why NYCC is always such an expensive weekend.

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Today’s Workout: A Little Much

wp-17291227427055394450536277861737I decided to do the bike earlier today. I had an appointment with a patron that went very well (almost too well? I’m not used to good things happening) but I was still doing other work while biking. I can’t help but multitask. I have a problem. This is why my hands hurt all the time.

I thought I didn’t need breakfast when I got up but once I got to work, I felt peckish. I keep some of the Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Biscotti at my desk for just such occasions. For lunch, I had the Itaki and dinner was a half chicken from Butcher Box and the last of the roasted vegetables. I am not the biggest fan of Butcher Box’s pre-prepped options. The chicken tasted a little too spicy for me and I think I would have been happier with something I made myself. It was kinda… Oily? And I didn’t add any oil when I cooked it. The kid liked it but they love spicy things. To the point where I’ve had to deliberately not buy things like Takis for the sake of my plumbing.

Tomorrow is the first day of NYCC. My diet and activity will be chaotic for the duration, I can assure you. I don’t tend to eat at the con unless my kid is with me because I don’t enforce my eating habits on my kid and the food there is damn expensive. I don’t even ask my job to reimburse me; almost like a punishment for being dumb enough to get swindled. I’ll try to keep updated here but I make no promised. I am technically working. We’ll see.

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Today’s Workout: Old House

Instead of sleeping in, I talked myself into getting on the treadmill before work and it was worth it. I’m sore but accomplished. I probably didn’t need to also do the desk peddler. It certainly couldn’t hurt to workout twice in one day if I have the time and it doesn’t injure me. I’m glad to be running again especially since I actually pay for the Zombies Run app. I don’t need to be wasting any money.

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Here you can see since I started Saxenda again, my weight has been trending down! I don’t have much further to go for my first goal of getting under 200 pounds. I am hoping by putting regular tuns back into my schedule, I’ll hit that goal faster.

For lunch I had one of the Factor meals that I didn’t take a picture of. It was the pork ragu with green beans and I’m kinda shocked that meal was over 500 calories and what I make in the Itaki is less calories. While I do enjoy cooking, Factor does come in handy in a pinch. I don’t always have the time, energy, or ingredients to do big meals.

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Today’s Workout: Glitches

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As the “WTF is Google Fit Doing” saga continues, for some reason my watch was just not fucking working. No matter what I pressed, if I restarted it, it would just not let me see the watch face, much less track a workout. After a bit, I gave up and entered it manually and I guess it was about 40 minutes? Meh, I’ll take it.

As for food, I made my Itaki lunch and was not hungry at all when dinner came around. That ended up being a good thing since my kid left the sink a disaster and I couldn’t make anything more complicated than some popcorn as a snack anyway. It was a decent calorie day considering, still under 1000 and I was active. Still forgot about the damn squats, though!

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Lenni Reviews: “Dark Gathering” Vol. 4, by Kenichi Kondō

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Keitaro is pushing himself too hard after the god squatting on Ai has unbalanced Yayoi’s collection of captured spirit dolls. As they have vowed to defeat this god, Yayoi and Keitaro need to capture a new crop of sprits to be an army to face him.

I was worried that this new mission would mean a bunch of filler but I like the chance to see different types of spirits and the unique ways of acquiring them. The horror is on point with the creature design and the stakes in the story as we get another antagonist introduced. Eiko is starting to worry me though. I wonder how her story will play out. 4 out of 5.

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