Just breathe.

Ah, okay. Having a good sleep, not having classes (or packing, or grades, or papers, or money) to worry about (so much) is good. Plus I got to talk to Scott, and I think he's my good luck charm, because shortly after I talked to him, I decided to give my search for the lost bus tickets one last try, AND I FOUND THEM! In the big trash bag, thank goodness. I didn't pack them away into a tiny crevice or crumple them up and throw them somewhere nasty, like with the compost. Good thing the tickets are PINK, too, else I wouldn't have spotted them.

I also finished (I think) work on Dragonfayth's Site Map. It's not officially live on the site yet (that is, I have yet to alter the skins so that it appears in the menus), but as far as I can tell, it includes all the relevant links. Can a few people check out the Map and tell me if they think anything important's missing? I want to make sure people have a "one stop resource" for finding things on the site, regardless of which skin they like best.

I've also updated the Rules and the FAQs to reflect some new issues: inappropriate "tags" in summaries, and how to include a profile image. Also, how to upload images for your stories! (Yes, that means you can include fanart, "promos" and other similar things-- as long as they relate directly to your fic, aren't explicit or otherwise inappropriate, and don't take up 75%+ of the screen space.)

I've also been submitting a few discussion topics to WikiMoon. I admit, when I first saw their list of acceptable common character names, I was a bit surprised-- I wasn't aware Sailor Moon was so rife with controversy over nomenclature. But I can understand where it comes from, and the topic makes me all the more eager to get Epiphany up and running so I can start ranting fandom-style and including interesting articles from my point of view. (If you want to know my personal opinion on certain names, I think that Naoko may have intentionally picked the foreign/loan-words for certain things/names-- i.e. Diamante for Diamond, Seiren for Siren, and so on. But what it boils down to is that THE WORD MEANS THE SAME THING. It would only be tacky if you had one standout character-- that is, Prince Diamante, but Emerald, Rubeus, and Sapphire. That would look strange. Naoko intentionally chose her names in sets: that goes for the Shitennou, the Black Moon Family, the Amazon Quartet, and so on. But if fic writers choose to "translate" those terms to actual English, or to more "commonly accepted" terms, I think that's fine, and nothing to whine about. To be honest, I see more "Prince Demando" (the Japanese pronunciation in the anime) and "Prince Diamond" (dub-verse) than I do "Prince Diamante" or "Prince Demand".)

I think I should close up shop here and head downstairs-- I'm supposed to go bowling with my tutors and Kevin today. Kevin owes me ¥1300 for the bike license and using my 'Net when he's never paid me before (grr), but at least I don't have to worry about that money being used for things where I previously had money/savings, like my bus passes. I think I'm getting a bit better with this budgeting thing, since I've figured out how much to set aside for the next NTT bill, but the next two Yahoo! bills still need working out.

Ja!

Before HYD2x3

I've got about 10 minutes before Hana Yori Dango 2, episode 3, and not all that long ago, I got back from a fun day with my tutors, Kevin, and Kevin's tutors. At 2pm we met up in front of the Senbai dormitories, then we headed off to a bowling alley not all that far from here. We broke into two teams, one with me (Meririn), Hiroyasu (Tokotoko), Misato (Misa~), and Chisato (Chisachisa), and the other with Kevin, Noriko, and Hiromi. The other team did much better than us, but I had a great time anyway, bowling in my usual funny way and trying to think of Sailor Senshi attacks to go with each frame. ^^; My hand was killing me by the time I was done (even though I only used a 6 lb ball, I think), but I had a great time after 2 games. They were showing TV on the lanes with unused scoreboards, and I got to see a bit of Dr. Slump and some other strange shows.

After that, we headed to Aeon-Jusco first to take some purikura at You's Land Rainbow Dance (the game center), then to grab some dinner (we had buffet at the same Family Buffet that I went to with Holly, Erica, Daisuke (?) and Dr. Kerhoff). I wanted to see if Jusco had some chocolate chips for cookies that I want to make tomorrow, but they only had a really small, expensive bag. I'm hoping when I go to Akatsuka tomorrow for Access Moon (I *WILL* get my hair done, dammit!) I can swing by the huge Daiso (¥100 shop) and grab a bag there. I did end up getting my bubble-wrap/cushion envelopes from Miriya Shoten (the bookstore), though. They didn't have Yu-Gi-Oh! R vol. 4 yet, and I would have bought it despite my money situation if they had, just because buying manga retail in Japan is SOOOO much cheaper than importing it from any website, be it Amazon.co.jp, Kinokuniya, or Sagusa Books.

While there, I saw a bunch of manga and movie adaptation books with MatsuJun on the cover- advertising his new movie that's coming out soon, Boku wa Imouto ni Koi o Suru or "I'm In Love With My Little Sister." o_O Whoa. I'm not one of the types that finds honest familial incest hot or anything, but MatsuJun must be a pretty damn versatile actor to commit to all the roles I've seen him in. WOW. I really respect him. :D

All in all, I didn't spend a ton of money (bowling was cheap; ¥900 for 2 games and shoe rental), I had a great time, and I even got some presents (chocolate from Hiromi and a cute purse and card with a cat on it from Chisato). Today was good. :)

ETA: Oh. My. God. HYD2 Episode 3 was by far the best of them so far, but I expect Episode 4 to be EVEN better. Check out my post on hanayoridango when I make it a bit from now.