(no subject)

Last night I had to have my car battery replaced... in the cold... and dark... and rain. We shall not talk about it any more. Except to say that afterward, my CD player/radio won't play CDs or radio, but flashes COdE. I'm guessing it was reset rather than destroyed, but how do I fix it? Should I just go to an autosound place?

(Argh! Why did this have to happen when I'm low on funds already?!)

(no subject)

Last night I had to have my car battery replaced... in the cold... and dark... and rain. We shall not talk about it any more. Except to say that afterward, my CD player/radio won't play CDs or radio, but flashes COdE. I'm guessing it was reset rather than destroyed, but how do I fix it? Should I just go to an autosound place?

(Argh! Why did this have to happen when I'm low on funds already?!)

Phantom Dream # 1, by Natsuki Takaya

Tamaki is a teenage boy who has been trained in the family tradition of exorcism. In the company of his peppy female friend Asahi, he learns to use his magic, puts ghosts to rest, and battles spirits born of negative emotion.

This starts out with little to distinguish it from the approximately one thousand other manga with the exact same premise, but eventually introduces some poignant moral and emotional dilemmas.

An earlier work by Fruits Basket mangaka Natsuki Takaya, this fantasy manga is enjoyable in its own right and has promising plot developments by the end of the first volume, but perhaps most interesting as a run-up to Fruits Basket. I noted slapstick domestic violence (treated much more seriously in the later work), an excessively cheerful heroine, inherited magic, loneliness and alienation, and a light touch with dark themes.