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Category: Diary
Tags: Manga Time

Martian Days

There's a manga I own, Aria, which I absolutely adore. It's an exposition of the boring daily life of gondoliers (Undines) living and working on Mars, who navigate (in both their professional capacity and private lives) Neo-Venezia, a city which is the terraformed red-planet's doppelganger of the Earth (Man-Home) city Venice.

The manga is of the Iyashi-kei genre of anime and manga meant to heal the heart and soothe the soul. And Aria does it so well. If you have never read or watched or even heard of Aria I urge you to check it out: an excellent English translation was published by (formerly) ADV Manga and (currently) Tokyopop, though the original run of the manga concluded in 2008.

I have been pressed, squeezed recently of my time and life; so many (unimportant) things weigh demands on my schedule and they have numbered so many that I could care less now about doing anything about them than I have cared about any insignificant, irrelevant thing before. Honestly, when someone hits me up about (pick one:) senior design projects, careers, job opportunities, etc. etc. I am only irritated and eye-rollingly amused at the deliverance of more unchewed "task".

And to aid in curing my mild deperssion and sharpening cynicism I have prescribed a routine of taking it easy i.e. setting aside time to relax, reflect, read and write: one of those activities is reading Aria. This time is (for me) non-negotiable and necessary to keep a clear head; because I have been struggling with some things internally I prefer to keep this time around as (exclusively) a rejuvination and regeneration period for my mental facility.

I am not sure if everyone needs something like this: I certainly do, in a landscape where school never quits and I can't either. I hate, hate, hate it but there is nothing I can do, save swallowing the pill (and crying a little) and learning to live in the gap.

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