Naruto... has a very strong affecting emotional core layered with complexity and depth

Naruto is often misunderstood.  Frequently and unfairly dismissed as some sort of modern Dragon Ball Z, full of nonsensical battles and ridiculous characters.  Too many assume that this franchise is best left for the kiddies like so many other anime shows.  As any of us who follow this epic saga know, that blind assumption is a mistake.  The series, though certainly colorful on the surface, has a very strong affecting emotional core layered with complexity and depth if you're willing to look for that.

I have not watched a lot of Dragon Ball Z.  The most I ever watched was the story arc where Trunks comes from the future to stop the Androids.  But from what I've seen from comments about this subject, it looks like Naruto seems to have a stronger affecting emotional attachment to it than Dragon Ball Z had and also that it had long drawn out battles that take up episodes due to the too much talking.  Naruto does too have drawn out battles and little bit of talking in between, but not as bad as Dragon Ball Z.  Again in no way should you take offense because I already told you have not watch the complete series.  I'm only basing this upon searches on Google and forums.  Perhaps someday I'll watch the entire Dragon Ball Z series... who knows?

I've decided to talk about Naruto because it seems to have left a big impression on me since I first started watching it three years ago in March 2009 and have since praised it as such a great story.  It's a story about growth, friendship and never giving up and possibly more underlining themes I can not mention right now.  I would without a doubt recommend this story to anyone with an open mind.  The first major story arc of the series grabbed me and kept me in it's grip and forever made me a fan.

You can watch Naruto on Hulu.  You can watch episodes 1-135 while skipping 102-106 and episodes 136 and on until the start of Shippuden if you want to know only major story line plots.  With the Shippuden series, it gets a little more tricky with the filler episodes and so I'd just tell you to look it up on a Naruto wiki page.

If you want a super quick summary of the series and like to play video games, I'd also recommend the newest Naruto game released for Xbox 360 and PS3 called Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations.  It's a simple fighting game and it's pretty good so far in simplifying the story.

I know that attempting to watch 100+ episodes sounds very daunting, so I say just commit to at least watching the first story arc and go from there.

I would definitely talk about this manga/anime series, but I'll leave it for another time just in case I feel like talking about it again sometime in the future.

What now?

So now that I am finished with school, my question to myself is, "What now?".  Yes, I did not plan or prepare myself for what comes after graduating college.  Unfortunately my grades are not good enough to qualify for Grad school.  Unless of course I take all the classes over again at a community college to boost my GPA, but that will just take and waste too much time.  I somewhat have a plan, but I do not think I will share it here.

What I will share is that now that I am out of school for the summer, I now have time to do things in which I did not have before such as catching up with some video games!  Workout! Learn to cook? Pick up guitar again? I do not know yet, but I definitely should pick up some sort of hobby to keep myself busy.  Oh! How could I forget... perhaps I will reconnect with some old friends, but you know how that goes.  Either you have not spoken for too long and it would seem awkward to call out of the blue to say hi and to ask to catch up OR it may not be the awkwardness, but the scheduling in which someone may be too busy =/.

I just realized that school was pretty much my big social networking area other than work.  It was a place to meet a lot of different people and now it's just gone.  Well not gone, just not as available because it will not be part of my life anymore to be going to school and seeing so many new people to talk to or whatnot.

I feel kind of sad and relieved at the same time about graduating.  Sad because I will not see as many people or friends as often as I would have if I were to still be going to school and relieved because I do not have the stress of ridiculously hard class to study for!

All right, I guess that's all I have time to talk about for now.  This was just a super quickie update so peace!