Tuesday, August 21, 2001 // 09:58 p.m.

"Anemone," L'Arc~en~Ciel

Uwaaa~~ I love my new Laruku CD, yes I do. *nadenade* It (Clicked Singles Best 13) was the extent of my purchases last Saturday at Japan Town, since a) I only had $17 left after buying it, and b) I couldn't find Easy Listening. >_< According to the guy at the music store, there were no shipments from Japan last week, so they'll probably have it in sometime this week. Unfortunately, I'm back in Washington and have only the vain hope that Kino's will break its trend and actually carry a Sakamoto Maaya album. *hopes* Neechan, expectedly, got the next two volumes of HanaKimi. XD (She's found another Sano to sparkle over! Take cover! XD;;) Unfortunately, she also received the agony of discovering that she'll be in town for Yaoi Con but will most likely not go. We were in Kino's and just happened to see the little pink (fitting, wot? XD;;) flyer on the window advertising Yaoi Con, and then, wondering where the Radisson was located while walking through another mall, turned a corner and found ourselves facing a door marked "San Francisco Radisson" or something to the effect. If it didn't cause neechan so much pain, it would be funny. ^_^;;

So Saturday was somewhat loot-less, but still fun. I liked walking through the Japanese mall -- someday, if I have both the money and the nerve, I'd like to go into a karaoke bar. XD;; Also worthy of bouncy happiness was that I got to finally play(?) a bit of FFVIII. Mostly neechan and my cousins took me to various FMVs they wanted to show me. My favorite was the one where Squall freed Rinoa, if only for his soft eyes. *_* I also really liked the Ragnarok scene, which produced lots of romantic and semi-angsty sparklies. (Perhaps I should mention that neechan likened the pair to Aoshi and Misao. XD)

Sunday morning was spent watching RuroKen episodes with my little cousins. Upon viewing the scene where Aoshi gave the imprisoned Megumi her tanto so she could kill herself, one of my cousins (ten years old, but adorable as anything) remarked, "He's a nice cold guy." XD I love episode 11 so much~~ Oh! the angst. <3<3<3

That night was another cousin's sixteenth birthday party. It was about 120 people (about 100 of which were relatives) at a Chinese buffet. I barely got to talk to the actual cousin who the party was for, but I did see all my relatives who live in California (which is pretty much everyone on my mom's side). It'd been several years since I'd last seen most of them, and also the only such opportunity for the entire time it was there. Quite a fitting send off for me, as my flight was the next night. Okay, so it was technically my cousin's party, but, hell, she's named Dora too, so I figure I can steal a little of the spotlight. XD;;

That was the last night I saw neechan, as we went with different relatives to different cities; she had to go to work the next day, and I needed to be close to the airport. Me being an overly emotional dork, I had to keep from crying when I said goodbye to everyone. It really hit me how long it'd been since I'd seen them all, and how much I'd miss them -- especially the little hoodlums. ^_^; Monday was subsequently anticlimactic and quiet; I spent it with my two cousins and their older sister's daughter. I have since determined that I like being with kids -- but only older kids. The company I kept during the week ranged from 7 to 13 years old; my cousin's daughter is 5, and my gawd, is it tiring to be with her. Sure she's cute, and has a bewitchingly coy look she doesn't hesitate to use on anyone who she wants to do her bidding, but it was always, "Play with me. Let's go play, Auntie Dora. Come play with me." @_@ So it's older kids for me. (Or babies. Babies are okay; they have needs, but you just get make cooing noises and watch them look cute until they spit up or some strange warning odors arise from them, at which point you hand them off to the parents.) Anyway, we went out to watch Rush Hour 2, which is an entertaining movie; but I thought Rush Hour was funnier. This one was more of an action oriented flick, plus it lacked the humor of culture clash that the last one had. The coolest part had to be when Zhang Ziyi did her hair with one hand. XD

And that was my trip. More fun than I expected -- much as I looked forward to spending time with neechan, I have to admit I didn't look forward to seeing my relatives as a great benefit; probably because I didn't think I'd be comfortable with them after so long -- and less productive -- all I did was finish reading Pride and Prejudice. It didn't help that I enjoyed the book so much I didn't want to finish it. Now I have to write a 3-5 page essay, read Grendel and keep an "active dialogue with the text" in my journal, read the first chapter of my Comparative Government textbook, and become familiar with the current events in major countries, which I've been neglecting in favor of feeding anime to my cousins, by September 5. And I wanted to write FTA 3 before school started. Damn.

Hm ... So, okay, Hyde is pretty hot. XD;; I mean, when I first saw him I found him a tad too feminine for my tastes (although still not as bad as Yuuki Hiro o.o;), but after looking at the CD packet ... Um. Right.

Today I went to register at school. Yay. My schedule was whacked up as per usual, but at least I've managed to wrangle it into a semblance of what I intended. Creative Writing was lost because it's only offered sixth period -- the same as AP Calculus. Damn me and my ambition. >.> That period was replaced with Intro to Art (which is a prerequisite for all other art classes, so I couldn't take anything higher) and Mythology. Anatomy/Physiology, which I'd originally signed up for but since heard was a largely pointless and excessively difficult class made up of essay tests and daily assignments of coloring pictures of organs, was dropped in favor of Astronomy and Meteorology. My original motivation for taking Anatomy was to learn about the skeletal system and musculature for drawing, but since I'm not looking into art as a serious career, I figured it wasn't worth sitting through lectures on bodily functions and chemical cycles. This alternative may not be as "academic," but it'll sure help me build up my reserves of irrelevant but interesting information. My only real regret is about our AP block -- instead of one two-period block, it's now split into two different blocks in an attempt to accomodate Running Start students. I'm now in the second and fifth period "block" -- which I could handle, but everyone is going to be split up among second, third, fifth, and sixth periods. Our AP family isn't going to be together anymore. ;_; (And yes, this is a serious disappointment to me. I know I'm a nerd. Lemme alone.)

Friday, August 17, 2001 // 03:50 p.m.

So I went to my uncle's house to help him move furniture before his carpet was replaced, except the workers had come early, and by the time I got there there was nothing left to move. o.o;; I helped scrub a wall for a little while, but after that I just sat around. Perhaps taking pity on my boredom, my uncle let me look through a bunch of books my cousin left behind when she went off to college; but it seems my cousin was quite the fan of romance novels, which isn't really my style. I can never turn down an offer of free books, though, so I picked out a few that looked interesting, but steered clear of the Harlequins and the like. I just don't go for melodramatic romance with overuse of metaphor and liberal helpings of cheese. Probably because it reminds me too much of my own style. XD;; That's my writing, folks -- like a bad romance novel. Without the sex. Though I don't know if that's better or worse. XD;;

Anyhoo, after I finished with the book browsing, it was off to 99 Ranch for a dim sum lunch. And that was my tough day at work. O_o As soon as I got back to my cousin's house, though, I took a shower, because I smelled of bleach and new carpet and was afraid of what sort of creepy crawlies were clambering over me after I'd shuffled through the boxes of old books. *shivers* Creepy crawlies are fine to look at, but I generally refrain from hands on interaction.

I go back to my aunt's house tonight, from which point we set off for Japan Town tomorrow with my two little cousins. *sparklies* (Am I boring people with the excessive babbling of my family? ^_^;;)

I am now addicted to Pokemon Stadium 2. The mini-games, at least. Pichu's Power Plant is my game, man. XD;; But damn the Gutsy Golbats and their little hearts!! XO

... I need to spend time with people my own age. XD;;

Thursday, August 16, 2001 // 03:23 p.m.

Pride and Prejudice and Pokemon Stadium. An interesting combination, to say the least. XD;; That's what I get for hanging out with my little cousins while catching up on my AP reading. I'm at a good part in the former -- Elizabeth just arrived at Pemberley. And I remember what happens from the movie, yes I do. *niko* Darcy IS the typical anime guy, you know. *sparkles* He's such an ass. I love him. XD

For once, I'm reading more "literature" than fanfic. Part of the blame can be laid on my putting off my AP reading until the last minute and needing to do it NOW if I wanna start off my senior year in decent shape, but there's also FF.Net's continued outage. XP In the meanwhile, I've read my cousin's friend's fic. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake fic, no less. Good God. I think my brain melted. >.>

A~ah! An email from a friend back home just reminded me that I missed swing class last night. :( I know I can catch up -- but still, I only have two more classes after I get back. It didn't even occur to me at the time, though. I was at another cousin's house (this is Cali blogging station #3, btw XD), and I got to see my cousin's son (my second cousin, I think -- I always forget). We were there with my cousin's cousins (first cousins, once removed?), and they had us listen to this song called "Because I Got High" by Afro Man. It's about, um ... yeah, what it says. And the cousin-whose-house-we-were-at was telling us about her father's excessive boredom. He's got lots of time on his hands now since he's retired, and spends it boiling the Brita water and stuff. XD;; Man, gotta love my family.

*koff* Aoshi with lipstick wearing a coat with fur trim. I love Sierra's art, but sometimes ... O_o

I go to Japan Town on Saturday. Neechan and I are going to be scouring the streets for any used bookstores, you can count on that. And looking for "Easy Listening." I want that album, bad. >_<

Speaking of doujinshi, Lili-chan -- could you send the package soon? ^_^;;; I really want neechan to be able to see it before she goes back to UW ...!

Neechan, you took your writing notebook to work, didn't you? >.> I wanted to read more Nissei whilst you were gone. XP

Tuesday, August 14, 2001 // 01:39 p.m.

This is not what happens when your muse is feeling WAFFy. No, this is what happens when your muse appears in full freaking WAFFPimp regalia -- not to mention with AngstWhore running along behind her and nipping at her heels. This is also what I do, alone in my room at two o'clock in the morning with music blaring in the background -- or turned off because my muse is feeling persnickety and she needs silence, dammit, and don't I appreciate her value? Yeesh. Hope this provides a good distraction for you from work, by the way.

Lili-chan, your trip sounded so fun! XD Tell me more about Anh, yes? This sounds intriguing. How's school for you two?

I'm typing this from the house of yet another cousin. I think I'm going to try to see how many different computers I can blog from within the week. ^_^;; Neechan might be visiting tonight after work, depending. 'Twill be fun.

Monday, August 13, 2001 // 10:41 p.m.

In California right now. We got back from Los Angeles and California Adventure last night. (For more info, go to neechan's blog. I'm feeling laconic.)

Trying to catch up on blog reading and MLs and the like. While I'm glad to be back in Cali for the first time in several years, I hate breaking routine. And my daily surfing routine is very important for my mental well being. XD;; I'm probably not going to be able to keep up with anything for the week I'm here, though. Not until next Tuesday, when I go home. At which point I'll have something of an update on my site, with at least one fanfic and hopefully some new poetry. Maybe a new layout for this page, too.

Daily routine right now consists of sleeping in late (wait, that's not new ... _o_) and playing with my little cousins on Neopets. Though, much as I love the little hoodlums, having them around doesn't necessarily facilitate my perusal of certain pages, such as the Bishounen Diaries and, to some extent, Talya-san's page. To say nothing of Yaoiland. They caught sight of the FFVIII reference and wanted to read. O_o

One little note about California Adventure -- it seems that there's an age requirement for the workers there. Well, not the female ones -- they were generally adult women of various ages. But the males were all young. And often friendly. And, um, yeah, that's it. XD

We've been watching more RuroKen and Recca, too, which is always fun. We're corrupting our little cousins, neechan and I. XD;;

I might be going to JapanTown this Saturday! ^o^ First thing I'm looking for is Saka's new mini-album "Easy Listening."

(Disjointed, yes. Can you tell I'm window-hopping as I write this?)

Enough for now. More later -- including, hopefully, the fic link.

Thursday, August 9, 2001 // 05:32 p.m.

Damn. And here I was going to write out a big, long goodbye entry, but I have to leave in like ten minutes. Ah, well. I'll write more when I get settled in Cali, and find computer access and whatnot.

Neko-chan, I know I can't really say I'll be there for you just as I'm leaving -- but I hope you feel better. Email me (I'll get you my addy) if you want to talk, okay?

Of all the things I'm going to miss for the next two weeks, I think I'll miss my Winamp playlist the most. XD;;

Wednesday, August 8, 2001 // 01:29 p.m.

"Story," Sakamoto Maaya

I started a new fic. I don't know if I'm going to finish it before I leave tomorrow. I do know, however, that I won't be finishing Pride and Prejudice like I'd planned. >.> Ah, this is a promising start to the new school year, when I don't finish my summer assignments on time.

And speaking of slacking -- I watched Frasier last night, and it involved Frasier and Niles taking an auto repair class and being introduced to the alien concept of ... coasting. XD Gawd, I love that show. Those two remind me so much of us, neechan. XD;;

Happy day! There's a new part to Too Much Information! Chapter 2 stars Sanosuke and our resident psycho cop ... and he goes to get advice from Aoshi. In the Love Hut. XDXDXD

In other news, I've been here a lot, reading fics and reliving old AmeComi memories. XD I've been reading the romance stories, too, which is odd, considering I'd never been a fan of the pairing while I was reading X-Men. Maybe it's because they've got a dynamic similar to Aoshi and Misao. o.o Different situations, to be sure, but there's that whole mentor/protegee relationship between the older, more experienced and serious man and the little firecracker/weasel who tags along after him. XD However, Wolverine (aka Hannya *snrk*) has it over Aoshi in both angst levels and the ability to deal with said angst without turning completely to the dark side. I always did like Logan; Jean was my favorite character, and for a long time I was rooting for her to dump Scott the pansy (lovable, but nonetheless a pansy XD;;), until I realized that yes, they were really in love, "meant to be," etc. etc. I did enjoy the Weapon X series from the AoA, though ... and I'm babbling. XD;;

Tin-sensei speaks very eloquently about why one should not plagiarize. *nodnod*

Lili-chan, are you not going to A-kon because of your other summer plans? As in "graduation vs. World Cup"?

Had a nice dream last night. Involved me and a basketball player(?) who just happened to do the common-in-movies-but-completely-unrealistic thing of just coming up and deciding to hit on me and stuff. Also included, incidentally, the neat resolution of some of the current conflicts in my life. Naturally, it all went away when I woke up. -_-;;

Monday, August 6, 2001 // 05:21 p.m.

"Ame no Far Away," Slayers

Lili-chan, I would muchly like those lyrics. Even if I won't be able to sing them. XD I figure it'll be kind of like singing to Ayu's Evolution. Or Surreal.

Didn't you feel like bursting into tears at the end of Bebop 24?? o.o I remember seeing the, er, message she left and just being like, "Oh ... my ..." And yeah, I got nothing against Julia, but neechan and I both agree that we'd prefer Spike with Faye. I'm neutral to Julia, but -- if I'm feeling nothing for her and loving Faye, it's a pretty easy choice. XD

Na, neechan, what's this about Enishi? >.> You want we should have him appear at random, a well-adjusted and non-vengeful young man who enters into a torrid affair with Kaoru -- or better yet, Megumi, leaving Sano free to pursue Kenshin? *leers* And speaking of our dear psycho-boy, we're going to have to tell people about FTA's non-Jinchuu AU status. Someone asked about it in a feedback (which I've forwarded to you, btw). And Kaoru's eye color has been fixed on my copy, and, um ... Get cracking on chapter 3. I'm feeling sort of lost without something to write. XD;;

Downloading Iwao Junko music. She's got such a lovely, elegant voice. And deep, in Deep Purple. Which just makes you want gape at her talent when she sings as Tomoyo. o.o

Packing tomorrow. I can't believe it's already August. Here's something to make me want the time to pass quickly. That, and Sakura Con registration. I'm still hoping to get the entire Anime Posse going next year, which would be all sorts of cool.

Monday, August 6, 2001 // 03:15 p.m.

"Never Ever," Hamasaki Ayumi

Yikes, I'm such an idiot. The sound on my computer spontaneously died and I completely freaked out, checking speakers and sound settings etc. (even though I really have no idea what to check ^_^;;) and restarting the computer before I realized that somehow the volume on Winamp had been turned down, which in turn lowered that on RealPlayer and therefore muted everything. -_-;;

In other news ... The fair was pretty fun last night. We didn't go on the rides because they were something like six bucks apiece, and none of us is good at games, so we spent the time wandering around and saying no to the booth people. It's hard for me to say no, anyway; harder still when the booth guy is cute. n.n We went to the art gallery, jewelry stands, and one of my friends got a palm reading. We looked around at the animals, too (my friend is a goat magnet o.o;), including the cow barn at which a rather good-looking cow handler passed by ... but of course we didn't say anything. There were cute guys everywhere, but none of us knows how to hit on people. ^_^;; But it was fun to look. XD

I went to search for lyrics to Porno Graffiti's "Agehachou," and let me say that was a mentally scarring experience I never want to go through again. O_o

Sunday, August 5, 2001 // 03:16 p.m.

"Itsu no Hika," Yonekura Chihiro

I only got six hours of sleep last night, and yet I feel fine. There goes my logic that I really need to sleep in until noon everyday because my body needs to catch up on rest from the school year. XD;;

Last night we watched "Cruel Intentions"; we also rented "Save the Last Dance" on DVD and tried to play it on my friend's borrowed PS2, but the sound wouldn't work. O_o Anyway, "Cruel Intentions" was an okay movie. I found it entertaining, but ... not really a fulfilling movie experience, yes? ^_^;; I mean, there's nothing wrong with a bit of debauchery in filmmaking, but if you're going to do it, at least stick with it; the effect was sort of stifled by the makeshift moral ending. It was neither uplifting, nor cynically satisfying. Actually, the whole thing skirted the edge of satire, what with Sarah Michelle Gellar's almost laughably blatant whoredom ("Why don't you want me? I'm wearing a cellophane shirt!!" XD) but that never went anywhere. *shrugs* I have a feeling I would have liked "Save the Last Dance" more.

Kyaa~~ Neechan, remind me to forward you the feedback we got on From the Ashes before I come to Cali. It's awful nice. <3<3<3 Call me a stereotypical female; I'm a sucker for praise. Especially when that praise addresses issues I'm sensitive/partial to, like description. And flow. And CHARACTERIZATION. *sparkles* Ah, yes, I'm becoming far too attached to this fic. It's my new baby. *snuggles*

Whup, gotta go. I'm leaving for the fair in about an hour. Can you believe I've lived hear for four years and have never been to the county fair? And my friend said there were cute guys there. Hell, any new guys would be nice right now; I'd just like to meet people. ^_^;;

Saturday, August 4, 2001 // 06:07 p.m.

"Hurt," Iwao Junko

This is a rather ... peppy song, considering the title. ^_^;;

I'm in a good mood. ^______^* I updated today, with a new Soapbox, several poems, and! The first two chapters of From the Ashes! XD (I figured it would be easier for you to read it from there; but if you want me to email it to you, I will.) There was a bit of a problem when Dencity wouldn't let me upload the Soapbox, but I fixed it by deleting the Works Cited, which was apparently screwing with the coding. I'm still not sure why; it had to do with having the URLs in there. Even my ingenious solution of linking the bibliography to the relevant sites, instead of typing out the URL on the page, didn't seem to work. Ah, well. Sacrifices must be made, I guess.

Hum. I'm supposedly going to a friend's house for a girly get-together in a couple of hours, but one of the people involved has mysteriously disappeared. From her house, at least. And if she doesn't call me back within an hour or so, I won't be able to tell her the plans. We could have problems. ^_^;;

I was itching to put up a new layout when I archived (it's RENT-centric XD), but had to hold myself back. If I do it now, I'll be stuck with it until school starts in September and I can get my hands on Photoshop to make graphics for the next layout. So ... the RENTie in me must be patient.

Luck! My friend just called, and all is well. Now I just have to pass the time until I leave ... I could do my AP reading, or perhaps a few of the journal entries ... or I could be lazy and surf while eating my Creamy Chocolate Pocky. XD;; Not that Pride and Prejudice is a bad book, but I'm just not feeling inclined to read it. I finished the sixth Xanth book last night/this morning, and it's a marked transition from one to the other. The latter, though well-written in its own right, is filled with such campy fantasy dialogue as, "Oh, Imbri! What shall we do to save the kingdom of Xanth?", and nineteenth century British literature is slightly different. ^_^;;

Maybe I'll compromise by writing a journal entry. My AP English instructor is apparently using these to find out information she considers important about us. Lessee ... "Explain the nature and relative importance of two or three means by which you keep track of time and discuss what these means reveal about the kind of person you are."

Yikes. This looks to be a frighteningly dull year.