How tired was I today? When I was skimming my friend's Senior Paper rough draft, I didn't even notice that four pages were missing from the middle of it. O.o She doesn't know how it happened, because she grabbed the thing straight off the printer and ran with it. But it's okay; luckily her monitor is ... well, suffice it to say she's the sort of person who isn't terribly concerned with that kind of thing. ^^;;

Anou ... neechan, I said D&D, not DDR. ^^;; Would you like to try it? And as for the HP book ... it's checked out. Every single volume in the series is checked out. _o_;; I might still get it by Wednesday -- and trust me, you won't need till Friday. It's just that good. Sorceror's Stone is the shortest book in the series, anyway. (Ooh, and I see someone was lured back into rereading the books by some of my recent obsessing. *niko*)

Oh, one more day till Friday~~~

~phoenix went blind at 07:18 p.m. on Thursday, November 15, 2001

Owa-TTA!! I did it I did it I did it! XD

... And I know I should be going to bed instead of blogging, but I'm to psyched too be tired. Plus, I need to do something while this 15-page puppy prints out. ^^;;

~phoenix went blind at 11:25 p.m. on Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Ya-haha! I caught today's Rosie O'Donnell, which was an hour with the Harry Potter cast. *niko* Daniel Radcliffe is adorably shy -- actually, he's just plain adorable. I thought that in the Dateline special he looked too boyish, deeper voice notwithstanding, but that seems to have been the effect of the glasses and robes. After seeing this ... yikes, give him a couple of years and he'll be positively sparkle-worthy. XD;;

Ugh. My shoulders and neck are sore, though I'm not sure why. When I woke up this morning I felt as if I were on the edge of getting sick -- you know, the vague, headache-y not-quite-thereness. It's probably the result of recent deadlines and the like ... I just need to last through one more week. Hopefully till Thanksgiving. *crosses fingers*

Speaking of the holidays -- neechan, what day is your train? ^^;; The guys were talking about having another D&D session that week (though it depends on how I like the one this Friday as to whether I'll go ...), and wanted to know if you'd be here, and if you'd like to try. XD

Lili-chan, thanks for getting up the form! People, go vote for RuroKen fics. You don't even have to nominate your own choices -- they're all already there for you! XD Oh, and I've never had a problem with my hip and desks -- but get me around a set of double doors, and I simply lose all reference of width. This is especially the case when one of the doors is closed and locked in place -- at which point I seem to believe it would be better to go through *that* one instead. XD;;

Down to the last sub-section of my Senior Paper! And it's on SLASH. *evil, evil grin*

~phoenix went blind at 07:50 p.m. on Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Page 7 of my Senior Paper, and I've only got one major section left. W00tage. XD And this is the part where I deal with copyright issues and slash and get to lay the smackdown on nasty corporations and narrow-minded prudes. *rubs hands together* The only bad thing about my paper is that, being a rather obscure subject, I have to spend a bit of time explaining the whys and wherefores before getting down to real analysis, and my thesis is accordingly "dumbed down," in a sense -- I don't feel like I'm making any huge insights about fanfic, from the perspective of an insider. Not to say that I haven't learned anything ... but hopefully, after I've had time to read through Textual Poachers, I'll have some new information to add to my final draft.

Uf. I've been stressing out over all the things I have to do -- Senior Paper, applications, etc. -- but now that my teachers are being nice and lightening up the load so we have time to work, I'm paranoid that this will make me to "soft" and I won't be prepared for college. _o_;;

Looks like I won't be able to watch the Harry Potter movie this weekend -- apparently advance sales have booked the tickets for all three days. o.o A friend and I -- the only friend I know who would want to see it ^^; -- talked about going on Thanksgiving weekend, after the current storm of deadlines had calmed down. However, that would mean you'd be here, and I don't know if you want to see the movie that much. You really should read the book first, anyway -- it's just so fun imagining it all in your head first. XD If I could check Sorceror's Stone out from school, would you read it over the holiday?

In world news, the Northern Alliance took Kabul today, when Mazar-i-Sharif fell only, what, on Friday? Maybe I'm being paranoid, but it all seems too easy to me. Defections aside, the Taliban had the advantage of numbers, and they've got experience and terrain on their side ... Then again, this is all in the northern half of the country, which is mostly minority Tajik/Uzbek; the assumption seems to be that they're consolidating forces in the primarily Pashtun (and theoretically more receptive) south, and even preparing to wage a guerilla war from there, which sounds plausible. And perhaps they simply do lack the power to hold the cities they've given up. Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist who recently interviewed bin Laden, noted that he seemed less soft-spoken and more aggressive (perhaps less confident?) than in previous impressions. Of all things, I think that would be a signal of our progress in bin Laden's defeat. I'm inclined to believe he never thought it would get this far -- notice how he never denied perpetrating the Sept. 11 attacks, yet never acknowledged responsibility. To put it bluntly, he probably knew he'd really piss the world off and wouldn't be safe bragging about it as per usual. Yet part of me insists he's smart man, and that he must have known what would happen, and how to deal with it ... Maybe his loss of control is meant to be an act to bring false confidence to his enemies ... Or maybe I'm just being paranoid again. *sigh* I'd never be good in politics, I tell you. But. The retreat of the Taliban forces, the liberation of Taliqan and Kabul, people celebrating in the streets, blaring music, shaving beards, walking by themselves (if they're women), laughing in public -- these are all real. And even if I'm skeptical about declaring success in any definitive manner, there's definitely some to be found in that.

~phoenix went blind at 06:41 p.m. on Tuesday, November 13, 2001

Ooh, I finished Prisoner of Azkaban last night, and it was so good ... *_* I want to see more of Lupin *soon*, but I know from neko-chan's blog that he's not in Goblet of Fire ... *pines* Nonetheless, I contented myself by reading your ficlet, which I definitely definitely definitely want to see more of. Before that, however, I really need to read GoF, because reading your stuff gave me all these whispers of spoilers. (I didn't even finish "Because" in case there was more of Peter's story I needed to find out first. ^^;)

Impressions on Sirius x Remus? I see potential. I definitely see potential. *niko* I mean, they've certainly got a rapport, even as Moony and Padfoot. It's a lot like KurHiei, to me -- the calm, even-tempered one with the wild side and his slightly more rash partner ... okay, so it's not exact, but it's close. XP

Odd dream I had a couple of nights ago: we were in a shopping center for something that I really needed, for school or the like, when I got distracted by a new store that had opened. A store that I just automatically knew was a used Japanese book store. O.o Anyhoo, I went in with someone -- I think a friend from school -- but couldn't find any doujinshi. I asked the salesperson, and they wanted to know if I was looking for hentai. X_x I said no, and they told me there was plenty of normal doujin in these drawers beneath the manga (which were English-translated, for some reason). As I was going through the drawers, some other salesperson arranging the books just randomly turned into some freaky monster thing (think the vampires in From Dusk Till Dawn ... that's what it reminded me of). But I didn't care because he was on top of the RuroKen section and I wanted to look. Never deterred, that's what I am. XD;;

*looks at single typed page of senior paper* Oh. Damn.

~phoenix went blind at 03:25 p.m. on Monday, November 12, 2001

I saw the Dateline special, and it was fun. ^_^ It was reassuring, the way Chris Columbus was speaking about the books -- almost reverently, and not "Ha ha! This is MY movie now!" The actors seemed really excited about what they were doing -- Ron's actor, Rupert Grint, was a cutie. XD Oh, I can't wait to see this movie ...

~phoenix went blind at 09:01 p.m. on Sunday, November 11, 2001

I don't wanna do work. *shoves away senior paper* Even if it *is* fun work -- I'd much rather read fic than write about it. XD;; I really want to read your snippet, neko-chan -- I only have about a hundred pages left in PoA, and I'm terribly tempted to forgo my paper and finish that first. Of course, I'd probably hate myself for doing that at eleven o'clock tomorrow night ... _o_;; But YES, you should come up to UW! You could always do what I'm doing and go to a school that focuses more on your major for grad; the Writer's Workshop at Iowa, for example, is open only to grad students.

And someone else, who's being mean and not considering coming up here for school (kidding, Lili-chan ^^;;) has a nifty new Penicillin layout. (And Clara-san's got one of Utada Hikaru!) I haven't downloaded any of their songs yet, but neechan says Romance is the OP of Sugoi yo! Masaru-san. XD;;

Speaking of neechan, we did indeed visit her yesterday, and ended up going to the 99 Ranch mall with the nifty Animazing store. At which I got even *more* posters ... But see, I have a good reason -- I didn't have any Bebop posters before, and this one was cool! And, as for the RuroKen one, well ... Aoshi looked good. *_* I've now gone three posters over my "room is full" limit. And can see room for more. XD;; And neechan got for herself a poster of perhaps the most yaoitic SanoKen picture EVER. Not for the actions, per se, but for the situation -- I mean, there really is no other way you can read into it ... XD;; (Okay, so maybe that one in the forest that's way too snowy to be holding so many flaming guys is more yaoitic. Maybe. *snrk*) She also gave me Recca 30, which I haven't read through yet (I haven't really read through 29 ^^;;), but it has Fuuko vs. Raiha and the true, freaky-ass form of the Raijin, and the beginning of Mikagami vs. Meguri Kyouza. XO

Um ... is this a sign? XD;; Just so you know, I don't *always* have to like the cool, aloof type who-so-obviously-must-have-an-angsty-past. Really. Don't look at me like that.

Okay, Vinita-san, now I'm definitely watching the NBC special tonight. XD;; I figure it'll be safe to start sparkling over him by Order of the Phoenix, yes?

Kyaa, don't worry about it, Tin-san. As you can see, I'm so very concerned about it. ^^;; If you can get me your answers within the next few days, that would be great -- is there another addy I should send the questions to?

Okay, enough social blogging. I really should get to work. =.=

~phoenix went blind at 04:49 p.m. on Sunday, November 11, 2001

We've been planning to drive up and visit neechan this weekend for a while now. My mom said the weather would be drier on Saturday than Sunday, so I said I'd be okay going Saturday and missing the anime showing, if my dad wanted to go on that day. "No, no, that's fine! Your dad wants to stay home and rest on Saturday, Sunday will be fine," etc. etc. So now, AFTER I've told all my friends that I'd be going to the showing tomorrow, I find out that we are going up tomorrow. Just because. Whatever.

Neechan, I really will be glad to see you tomorrow; it's just that I have a lot to do this weekend and would prefer to have some semblance of a schedule. I'm a bit ... stressed. >_<

~phoenix went blind at 11:36 p.m. on Friday, November 9, 2001

Not much to tell. Tired. Fell asleep for a couple hours this afternoon. Too sleepy to read more in Prisoner of Azkaban. _o_;; But I'm loving both Lupin and Hermione right now; they're just so awesome. ^_^ And I can't WAIT till the 16th -- or whenever I actually end up seeing the movie; I ph34r the lines of kiddies I'd have to fight my way through to get a ticket. I dunno, do you think it'll be bigger than the Pokemon? Because neechan and I got to see that the day it came out when my loverly mother bought tickets in the morning for an afternoon show. (Yes, I saw the Pokemon movie on opening day. XP) It would be a nice reward for the day after I turn in my Senior Paper rough draft ...

I've been letting my friend read my RuroKen manga (the Jinchuu arc), and she told me about her favorite part in tank 21 -- where Kaoru tells Kenshin she wants to stay with him, despite everything ... I sorta smiled and tried not to grimace. ^_^;; Man, I remember when I used to love the KenKaoru pairing. I still like it well enough now (I better, or the plotline for Ashes would change drastically XD;;), but I've lost most of my early enthusiasm. Part of it is just because I'm usually not that interested in the main couple of a series; but it's also because of the fandom, like Kya-san described. I'm fine with most of it; it's just that vocal minority of "K&K 4eva!!" nuts that bother me. I tend to develop a rabid protectiveness for underdogs -- and I just plain like Tomoe a lot, anyway. Casting her as cold-hearted or insisting that Kenshin has to love one more instead of just differently sorta dampened my enthusiasm. ¬.¬ But enough of that ...

Happy birthday to Riven-san! Love the Spike layout, too. ^_^

Not that I should be talking, but have you written any in FTA3, neechan? I'm feeling all gung-ho about it now and want to get more done soon. XD;;

~phoenix went blind at 10:36 p.m. on Friday, November 9, 2001

Kyaa, so I wasn't the only one Pitas screwed with yesterday? Here I thought it might've had something to do with my poor excuse for an ISP. (56K, they say? Ha! Lies, all lies.)

I think you did mention the Situation to me, neko-chan, or at least the situation with the "she." I was a bit confused by the part with the Rat Bastard. XD;; I like the Cocco song too, though I'd have to say that my favorite of her songs (well, all three I've heard ~_~) is Mizukagami. Don't really know why.

Don't worry about the translations, Vinita-san. (Or about being a perfectionist. I'm probably as bad as you. ^_~;;) I haven't gotten to read KKJ in like a week. And neechan is still after me for leaving two whole volumes of HanaKimi unopened. XD;;

I started working on a new graphic for this page today ... but I didn't get very far before Photoshop freaking froze up on me. Stupid school computers. >_< And it's a really NICE picture of Kaneshiro Takeshi ... neechan can attest to that. XD

~phoenix went blind at 06:53 p.m. on Thursday, November 8, 2001

Ohohoho ... I'm reveling in a veritable literary orgy of good books. XD;; My copy of Textual Poachers came in today, which made me not only happy as a source for good (and scholarly sounding XD) information, but because it's by Henry Jenkins, who is undeniably awesome. I mean, he writes as a researcher AND as a fan. I was reading the introduction and sparkling all over the place. XD;; That, and this excellent essay on, to quote the title, the advantages of fanfic as an art form ... MASSIVE sparklies all around. XD She says things that I've been feeling all along but haven't been able to express ... Of course, that makes me feel anxious because I can't write like THAT and here I am writing a paper about the subject, but that's just me being stupid. ^_^;; And, of course, there's Prisoner of Azkaban -- I got to the part in Honeydukes about the Past of Sirius, and just had to stop a moment to rejoice over the sheer beauty of J.K. Rowling's plot construction. XD I don't think words can express how much I love these books.

Mou, it's all your fault, neechan -- you and your comments on articles. Now whenever I hear a line like, say, "Ne, dakishimete yo" in "Kirara" (a very pretty, serious, angsty song) I think "Hold me, yo." XO

Neko-chan, I know I don't know the details of the situation, but best of luck, ne? ^_^

Oh, and my friends want me to play D&D with them this Friday. >_< I've never role-played before (not even online, yeesh), and I'm sorta nervous. ^_^;;

And, ARGH! How do I always end up wasting so much time online?? I'm supposed to be working on my paper! >o<;;

~phoenix went blind at 09:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6, 2001

The book I ordered for my Senior Project has been "confirmed" at a warehouse in Nevada, and should be arriving tomorrow or Tuesday. Which means, theoretically, I should be able to write my paper then. Then again, I "should" be able to write it now, with the sources I already have. Saying that to myself hasn't seemed to help, though; as it is, I have less than two weeks before the rough draft is due, and I haven't written a thing. Curse me and my procrastinating -- if only it weren't so dang easy to be lazy ... _o_;;

Ah well ... Typing up FTA 3, or, at least, what I've got written. Neechan, there's a gap between what I've got typed up and the point where I started writing in my notebook; you've got the missing part in yours. ^_^;;

I think that's it. Nothing really interesting happened today. ^_^;;

~phoenix went blind at 06:25 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, 2001

Tonight's anime showing was fun. For the first slot, we watched the first two eps of HunterxHunter. *sparklies* I've been wanting to see that for so long. The only problem is, it's got a great, intriguing beginning, but, a la Inuyasha, that's all they're gonna show. >_< There's a certain amount of cruelty involved in teasing us like that. Next was Battle Athletes, which was pretty good, though Akari got on my nerves at times. ^^;; The Initial D episodes were really good this time, I thought. Takumi's father is hilarious -- the scene where he took Bunta driving in ep. 24(?) had the audience on the floor. XD;; And what was that I was saying about not getting the slashy vibes ...? You'll have to forgive me; that was BEFORE Ryousuke challenged Takumi by sending him a bouquet of roses. =X <--That was my face when I was trying not to laugh my ass off since I was sitting with a bunch of guys. XD;;

Other interesting things: I saw V6's "Change the World" music video -- they ... bowled. And switched randomly to synchronized dancing. O.o I also tried this "yogurt soda" thing. It was sort of citrus-y, and pretty good. Only the Japanese would think that up, man. XD

That's it, pretty much. I'm fairly well along in Prisoner of Azkaban, and having a grand old time. :3

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," whispered Hermione at once.

tori-chan: *squeeeeeaaaaaal*

~phoenix went blind at 11:43 p.m. on Saturday, November 3, 2001