No update in over a month? I'm getting pretty good at this moderation thing.

So, updates. I raided the Barnes and Noble at the mall a few days ago, and got 4 manga. I'll give you a quick synopsis and review at the end of this journal.
As far as my life has been going, I went to the No Doubt/Paramore concert at Summerfest last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought Paramore did better musically and definitely got the audience going, but No Doubt did better in the latter respect. As to be expected, honestly, because they were the headliner. But Paramore played quite a bit of new music and said they're releasing a new album on September 29. Incidentally, one of the band members' birthday. Looking forward to that.
Just got through my endless list of deviations today. I'd been slacking on checking those. Had about 400.
Gonna be getting together with several people at Summerfest Sunday for the Veronicas and the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

...That's about it.
Oh, wait, I signed up on XBox Live recently. My gamer tag is GWENjunkie. Leave me a note if you add me so I know who the hell you are. I mostly play Halo 3 and pick up the occasional demo for games that looks cool.
So, those reviews:

Yozakura Quartet: I think this is my favorite manga right now. The story takes place in Sakurashin Town, where humans and demons live in harmony like nowhere else in the world. The mayor is a 16-year-old demon girl, Hime, whose demonic power is basically superhuman strength. She is accompanied by Kotoha, a "kotodama user" (one who can conjure things by saying them), Kyosuke, another superhuman strength kind of demon (but more powerful than her), Ao, a satori (a mind-reading demon), and Akina, a member of a family which can "tune" humans or demons (more often the latter) into the "Afterworld," and the sole human of the group. The story centers around these characters trying to keep the peace in the town, and a group is trying to invade and tune the Afterworld into the world. Or something like that. It's a little confusing right now, but I think I'll understand it as I read more of it.
Highly recommended.

Ballad of a Shinigami: For those who don't know, shinigami are gods of death (literally named). Y'know how most depictions of the grim reaper or shinigami are of the creepy black-hooded or demonic figures with scythes? Momo is (so far) the sole irregular among the shinigami, in that she wears white and isn't very intimidating at all, but chooses to give advice to those in the realm of the living and send messages from the dead to them. It's a very interesting series with an optomistic view on things. If you've seen Hideki Shoujo (Hell Girl), then this is about the opposite in views but with about the same "episode structure."
Recommended, don't know how highly yet.

Black God: The story is centered around the mototsumitama (whew, took a while to type; pronounced mow-tow-tsu-mee-tah-mah), superhuman beings that look human and are charged with the duty of keeping the balance of Earth in tune, or something like that. Again, not far enough in to understand everything, but so far basically a human has been drawn into a battle between a mototsumitama named Kuro and certain "families" of mototsumitamas. Excellent fights, a bit bloody.
Pretty highly recommended.

Alive: Okay, so this one is pretty creepy. This kid notices on the news that all over the world people have started committing suicide in massive numbers. At first everyone thinks it must be some large-scale religious or cult-based movement, but one person suggests that it is the fault of some kind of "suicide virus." As the back of the book says, "a group of Tokyo teens who have survived the outbreak are wondering why they are still alive."
No idea how to recommend this one yet.