gintama manga, Up, writing

You know, someone could have addicted me to Gintama a lot sooner by a) not showing me the first two eps of the anime and b) telling me the Shinsengumi were major characters. I was uncertain about it at first, reading the manga, but the obscure bakumatsu references and hilarious characterizations of the Shinsengumi have won me over (strong female characters are also appreciated). Now to see if it develops an actual plot...

Dad and I saw Up yesterday and it was excellent, which is basically what you expect from a Pixar movie. I liked that it was very multicultural and featured some non-typical characters. It even made me cry. Good stuff.

Writing wise, for some reason I've started writing a short scifi story which is good in terms of "if I finish it I can sell it easier" (mags are always looking for scifi because they get too much fantasy it seems), but bad in a "write your book, dammit Ariana!" sort of way. I need to research some agents in Britain and send my evil overlord queries to them (this is based on the idea that Randall, my main character, could be Blackadder's bastard cousin). Only real thing I've accomplished is sending 'The Mountain and the Sea' off to another mag. since I've lost all confidence in all my other short stories. *sigh*