Just like a pill

Well, I never thought *I* would be doling out sex advice to anyone. But there's a first time for everything I guess, and in retrospect, it made me laugh.

I took my Japanese Lesson 4 test today; not bad, but the fact that I cut off circulation to my fingers (accidentally, mind you) had be feeling a bit weird about writing. I still haven't turned in my Reading and Writing for Lesson 4; I wonder if she'll still accept it? >_> Probably not, considering we get our grades tomorrow... Ugh.

NO ONE (not a single person) has gone to betasquad and said A THING about WDKY19. With WDKY, I'm very apprehensive about posting without a beta; even moreso for this chapter. Volunteers? Anyone, anyone? Bueller? (Old jokes die hard.)

Scott got back from San Francisco; he supposedly had a good interview and a decent grammar test, so I'm hoping he did well and will get the job. At least, I think that's what I'm thinking. I'm not really sure... see, we don't have an established "relationship" of sorts. It's not exactly platonic, but... Well, let me put it this way: I don't always think of him, I don't always define myself or the things I want to do/places I want to go with him, and I don't always feel some obsessive compulsive need to call him, hear from him, or see him every day. But occasionally, I do wonder.

And while it's nice to know that he really respects and admires me (and "loves" me in that weird way of his), I don't know if that's what I want, or if I can even GET what I want. Imagining scenarios in my head again will only lead to heartbreak, so I'm trying not to. But no matter what happens, he'll be leaving somewhere, at some time, and then what? Argh!

My Horoscope for today: A long-term period of great big dreams has fallen upon us all. In your case, the matter involves relationships, and in particular, on deciding whether a certain platonic or business attachment should stay that way.

Yeah, like that makes me feel any better.

( Ooh, pretty meme with decent questions! )

On the bright side, I did win both eBay auctions for Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and FFX-2: International + Last Mission. Part of me wishes I could see the original Japanese FMV, where Yuna actually turned INTO Lenne, and she sang 1000 Words solo, but! alas, that's Japanese version only. I wonder if some site has it online... I spent much of yesterday hunting around various FAQs sites looking for all the extra data I need to make this New Game + worth it... and that includes getting all the garment grids I can possibly get (I sided with the Youth League again... geez, the attitude of the Yevonites mekes me sick!). So I'm trying to get The End by oversouling all the monsters I can. I have a checklist, and so far, I've encountered all but 3 of the monsters that CAN be oversouled (non-oversoulable monsters don't appear on Shinra's Bestiary list, right?), and I have maybe 20 or so that NEED to be oversouled.

Too bad it's not by Enemy Type... because I have to face Concherer again (evil ugly tongue thing) in Via Infinito. Which means not only do I have to face whatever type Concherer is until I face him/her/it, but when I do face Concherer, s/he/it has to oversoul... which may or may not make it harder to beat. Concherer is a pain in the ass, if you recall my previous entries on the subject.

Anyway, I'm still at 94% complete in Chapter 2... I think that remaining 6% comes from the Den of Woe, correct me if I'm wrong... >_> I also have to get moving on the Publicity and Matchmaking Campaigns. I always forget about those. Publicity: score = 40, Level = 1 - Matchmaking: score = 16, Level = 1.

( Because I'm a nice girl, I'll put this freakishly obvious HPB/Harry Potter 6 spoiler behind a cut )

Yu-Gi-Oh fans, go check out playthedamncard, because someone posted a mini-drama of the Prince of Tennis' Inui (same VA as Kaiba) interviewing TeniPuri's Ryuzaki (a girl with a crush on PoT main character Echizen).. anyway, "Inui" says that when he takes off his glasses (which he doesn't even do in front of his parents) he becomes... Kaiba-shachou! Complete with maniacal laugh. It's great.

On Madonna and angry rabbis: Some rabbis are upset because Madonna's next album features a song called "Issac," which is (supposedly) about a 16th century rabbi. It's against Jewish law to profit off the name of a holy rabbi. Madonna, like many other celebrities, is a practicioner of Kabbalah, a sort of sub-set of Judiasm that's branched off into a whole new sect of its own. It's become a bit glorfied, if you ask me, but I'm sure there are still devoted, true believers out there.

Personally, I think the rabbis are on the wrong. They think that Madonna should be expelled from the community and that she will suffer divine retribution. I think if Madonna felt the need to write the song in the first place, she could say her inspiration came from God, and therefore he wouldn't punish her for telling Issac's story/singing about him. Also, all artists in general have their own beliefs, and they express it in different ways. Did anyone rag on Da Vinci for painting Jesus? (Maybe...) But still, why should someone be expelled from a religious community for expressing their beliefs through their art? How many other people do you know would even want to inform the masses about Issac, anyway? I haven't heard the song though, so who knows?

On Yu-Gi-Oh, paganism, and satanism: It's an anime!!! (I'm tempted to throw "chrissake" and "Geez" out there repeatedly, knowing full well what they mean) I wish people didn't get so worked up over named like "Sorcerer of the Doomed" or the shape of the Seal of Orichalchos (which changed from the original Japanese, mind you!). Kids that get into dueling (and older fans, including myself), regardless of their religion, are not TEH EBIL!

Check it out:
A forum post on XeroCreative (makers of Yu-Gi-Oh Virtual Desktop)
Yu-Gi-Ho!?

The latter page infuriates me, not just as an ardent fan of the show and anime in general, but a pagan. I hate people who identify paganism as the worship of false idols or false gods. That definition comes from YOUR dictionary, not mine, BUSTER! And who's to say your gods are any truer or better than mine!? I have friends that are very religious or very unreligious, and while I love a good debate, if they say something that doesn't sit well with me and it DOES NOT require my commentary, I will withhold it. Religion does not have to interfere with friendship, having fun, or watching anime. -_-;

Anyway, I've been neglecting Driver's Ed, so I'm going to work on that for the next 50 minutes or so, until I have to go to Mythology. Quiz 2 tomorrow, which means I have lots of reading and note-taking to catch up on. No gym for me today; I think I'll try and see Marta in the Studies Abroad department, and then walk home. X_X It's going to be got though, so that means I'll need to take off my sweater... And...

I'm not wearing a bra. Ooh, I'm a rebel!

(no subject)

zOMG Happy Birthday starrienite!

I would just like to state for the record that, while I enjoy the Yu-Gi-Oh dub and try to watch it regularly, I don't approve nor like the stupid changes they make. Whenever possible, I try to stick to the "would-be-accurate-translation" of things like characters, places, and card names.

For example... Ishizu is wrong. It is Isis, always has been, always will be.
Marik... also wrong. I'm actually considering changing all instances of his name in WDKY to Malik, because it's simply more appropriate that way.
And no matter what some massive duel screen says in the dub, it's Seigfred, not Siegfried (only slightly more acceptable), Sigfried, Zigfried, or whatever else you can think of. His alias is Lloyd (with Leon using "Wilson") and his real family name is "Von Schroeder".
Once upon a time in fandom, people differentiated between Yami no Yuugi and Yuugi Mutou as "Yugi" (dark Yuugi) and "Yuugi" (little/normal Yuugi). That is wrong. So is using "hikari" for the vessels (Ryou, Malik, Yuugi).
There is no Yami no Pegasus, Yami no Kaiba, Yami no Shaadi, or Yami no Isis. You CAN hold a Millennium Item without going batshit insane, and you can also be batshit insane and carry a Millennium Item.

When a card exists in the anime and is known to (or will eventually be) exist in the English TCG, I will use whatever name the TCG uses. Sometimes the anime gets it wrong, or the name changes. Most of the time, the dub tries to stick to cards that have been released in English already, or that have approved names already on the table. Some cards in the anime may have been released as promo cards in Japan,  but they're "broken" by today's TCG standards, so they're not sure if they'll release them in the English TCG. In that case, I use whatever name the dub calls them by.

For example, "Exchange of the Spirits" is the name of the card Isis uses to flip-flop her and Kaiba's graveyards with their decks. The original card name was "Reversed Worlds," but when the card was actually released in the TCG, it kept the name we know as the dub name! In "Prophecy Girl", I happen to think "Reversed Worlds" sounds a lot cooler, so I use that. In WDKY, if that card were to appear, it would be as "Exchange of the Spirits", the name it's known by in the English TCG (I believe it was released as a sneak preview to Cybernetic Revolution or something).

And sorry, Domino is not in California. -_-;

And I hate how they remove perfectly spelled and grammatically correct instances of English from the show... for example, Joey's "Type 6" machine monster, or the symbols on Kaiba's keyboard at Kaibaland. WTF? Geez.

Also... I'm a terrible procrastinator. I haven't really written (or even tried to write) until today, and now I find myself having woken up from a nap that lasted too long (missed GX! damn!) and with a shitload of stuff to do. I already finished one analysis for Creative Writing (e.e. cummings's "Buffalo Bill's"), but I still have a few more to do, plus a 5 page minimum/20 page maximum short story for our Fiction workshop, which starts tomorrow. And of course, Professor Lopez volunteered ME to do it.

I didn't want to submit my Family Story, because it's lame. I could rewrite my play ("Point and Perfection") into prose, but I don't really want to do that, either. Somehow, it would take away the "feeling" you get, as you would if the play were actually performed (which it never will be). So I thought of the two "original fiction" stories I've tinkered with in the past, "I'm Listening," which is a sort of suspense-mystery, and "Wandering Spirit," which is a sort of supernatural fantasy. I'm working on "I'm Listening" now, and it's already at 6 pages, but it's nowhere near sounding/feeling "complete" (even chapter-wise; no one said my story had to be "complete" I think... but if it's supposed to be a short story... >_>) And there's always my almost-original-fiction "Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?" which is currently residing unfinished in the Dance Dance Revolution section of FFnet. But it's pretty long, and it's unfinished at 4 chapters.

So now I'm not really feeling inspired to write "I'm Listening" at the moment, and I keep getting distracted by, "Well, what if I told the Final Fantasy X/X-2 story?" Yeah, no, copyright infringement or whatever.

Unless I didn't use their names.

But still, some people are bound to recognize things. I could change all sorts of jabberwocky (airships, spheres, etc.) into modern things, or other things, but it still wouldn't be my story to tell.

GARGH! Stupid Professor Lopez. I don't want to submit poetry or my play, but still! Why me!?