This is the second issue of insane rantings otherwise known as MAU MADNESS. Thanks for stopping by. In this issue, I will rant a bit about how summer, or MY summer at least, SUCKS. Then I will discuss the latest new thing in the Sailor Moon universe, the release of the English-dubbed S series.

Summer Sucks

I don't know how you feel about summer, but *I* think the whole season sucks for a number of reasons.

First, it gets too damn hot. I would not survive well in Phoenix, or Texas, but even here in Wyoming, there are days when the temps go up into the 90s, and sometimes even into the 100s. That, to me, is too hot.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could keep my apartment at a nice cool 60 degrees, but by evening, my apartment is running at a not-so-comfy 80, while the outside is cooling down. I end up having my door open from about 10 pm to midnight just to get a fresh supply of cold air in the room.

I also keep my window open. Year-round. It could be December and 30 below, and my window will be open.

So, summer is too hot for me.

Summer is also boring. Right now, I am a college student. I have ONE class during the summer semester, and I am not taking it for a grade, I'm doing it because my boss asked me to. So, this means that attendance is not mandatory. The only reason I come up here on some days is because I need to get my daily fix of the Internet.

There's the peoblem. My computer at home has no Net connection, so when I get home, unless there's something really good on, I tend to get bored real quick.

That plus I got laid-off this summer, so I am unemployed. Do you know how boring it is to have no school, no Internet, no job, and no money for three months? :)

So, when August 28th comes around, I will be the happiest person on the face of the planet because I will have all of the things that keep me going again. That plus I know that the temperatures outside will start to become moderately reasonable again.

Oh, one last thing. One place I go on the Net that is really cool is Utopia. It is a really cool game where the objective is to manage a province within a kingdom. You get to build stuff, fight in wars, all sorts of neat fun. And it's free!

SM S

If you visit the forum at PSO, you will find a place where a bunch of purists gather and speak their minds about the newly-released dubs of Sailor Moon S. And generally, the posts run like this:

Okay, I didn't get to see all the episode because I had to run an errend, but I did see the part where Usagi was talking with Haruka and Michiru which REALLY pissed me off! When she said she was mad at Mamoru in the original, Haruka said that she was attracted to her, but AMARA said that she'll take SERENA'S place and go out with DARIEN! It was really pissy!!!!!!!!

My problem with this kind of attitude is that purists almost never seem to give the dubbers any credit at all when they do something right, and even in those few times that they DO give credit, they usually hedge that credit behind an instance where they screwed up again, or they'll qualify it in some other way.

I for one think that the new dubbed episodes are a marked improvement over the earlier dubs. A lot more of the Japanese culture is being left in, and it really makes the series more enjoyable to see.

My advice for people is to stop nit-picking the dub, and the reason I say this is because if you go into the dub with such an attitude, you will ALWAYS find something wrong, and that's just not being fair.

Sure there are things that I dislike. Sure I get mad at the dub sometimes. But I have watched new adaptations of older things long enough to know that the best approach is to give the dub a fair shake.

I'll bet none of this will reach the ears of the hard-core purists out there, so I'm directing this to the fans of the series who aren't dead-set against the dub.

Give it a fair chance.

Artemis