MILES to GO || before I sleep

Interesting things that have happened as of late:
* Sci Fi Channel plans to change its name to SyFy, to supposedly attract a wider audience (because "sci fi" is still recognized as a derivative of "science fiction," which supposedly conjures images of pimply boys playing D&D in their mom's basements. Well, even if they do, those guys run the world now, so hah! Way to generalize! Also, way to stereotype the audience you're supposedly trying to appeal to! ). Fact is, they want [more crappy] non-sci-fi programming. I think they're going to bomb on this front no matter what they try and explain.

SyFy, meet Song Airlines. Now, both of you go back to the class and sit with the cobwebs.

* 4Kids releases uncut unsubbed episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! on their YouTube channel (a day after littlekuriboh subscribes to them on a lark). Now if only we could get proper subs-- not dubtitles, including for the opening theme song (which should remain unchanged, plzkxthx!). Then put them on DVD and release them in a massive boxed set. Which I would buy in a New York minute.

Tuesday's NSLS Orientation meeting went okay. I goofed a little by not having enough time to finish my agenda before the meeting and print it out, so I was really winging it when the meeting actually got started. The meeting got started a bit late too, because another group was in the room until nearly the last minute. I hardly had any time to set up and figure out how all the equipment worked. I was so nervous, I forgot to do the icebreaker first, and when we finally did do it, I realized it wasn't a great way to sort people into SNT groups-- I had people stopping to talk to one other person on their side of the room (after I asked people to move to one side of the room or the other, based on a choice: e.g. "Chocolate or Vanilla?" where chocolate is the left side of the room and vanilla is the right), but someone pointed out that everyone would talk to at least one person that another person HAD NOT talked to, so everyone would be in everyone else's group! But still, there were enough commonalities for groups to form-- for the most part. The folks that only attended the online orientation or folks that couldn't make the Tuesday one for whatever reason will be assigned by our new SNT Coordinator, June.

Class got out early yesterday, so I came home and relaxed with some CSI:NY repeats until 7pm. I took a nap, fully intending to be awake for the new episode at 10pm, but I didn't wake up on time! I'm surprised Baba and Grandpa didn't come in to wake me up or anything-- I kept right on sleeping until 12:30am! I ended up catching up on the new episode this morning via cbs.com.

( Strange people on CBS.com. Also, spoilers for 5x12 )

I saw another dead animal today. This time it was a cat, which... I don't know how to put it, but it hurts. I love cats, and to see one run over just breaks my heart. It also reinforces the fact that I'll never drive and think a good lot of drivers are complete idiots. That said, yes, I do appreciate getting rides home and things like that, but only from people I trust to be attentive when they're on the road.

At least it seems as if whoever hit the cat (or maybe someone found the cat) brought it to the side of the road-- it was on the patch of lawn under a tree, positioned in such a way that the cat could have been napping, dreaming of chasing a mouse, with the way its paws were kind of twisted. But I realized it was dead when I saw its eyes were blackened and its organs had been squished to one end of its body. Other than that, the cat was surprisingly clean-- a bright orange tabby coat, very beautiful. It didn't look like it had been run over, but still... *sigh* I didn't see a collar on it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't someone's pet. Even if it wasn't, I still feel awful. No animal deserves to die because of some idiot driver.

Career Day for the Journalism department is today. I better pack up my things and head over there now.

Today was Halloween in Japan, and while it's not nearly as big a holiday as it is in the USA, it was still rather fun. Earlier this week when I went to Keisei with Holly, we spotted a group of kids and their parents (presumably) all dressed up and talking with a talk show host about a local Halloween event. The "everything store," Loft, was even having a televised fashion show with all sorts of costumes, and plenty more for sale. I was tempted to buy a lavender cheongsam, but I think the bust was a bit too big for me...

For the past week, I talked about Halloween with my EC groups. For last Wednesday's group, I made pumpkin pie with the help of Christine, Erica, Jaclyn, and Todd. This week Christine helped planned a haphazard, sort of last-minute Halloween party upstairs in the dorm's Party Room, but it ended up panning out in the end-- she got decorations, everyone made something or brought something (candy, drinks, chips, okonomiyaki), and people played games (Twister, Pictionary), and we had music thanks to both my laptop and Kevin's. Christine, Erica, and I all missed our pop culture class (*wail* I missed Animation Runner Kuromi!) in order to get everything done, but since it all ended up so well, I guess I don't mind so much.

Since it was last minute, I didn't have a formal costume, but I did add two paper horns to my red lace headband. With my red tops (vinyl tube for inside, long-sleeved shirt with turtleneck sweater for outside) and leather pants, I was a "she-devil" with bright red lips. Alas, I forgot to have anyone take pictures of me with my own camera, but I know plenty of people DID take pictures of me because of the skanky top I was wearing. Kimchi even took pictures of me while I was playing Twister, but she didn't focus on my face-- she focused on my boobs! :P

The costumes were as follows:
Holly - Lolita, Christine - School girl, Daisuke - Doraemon in a kimono, Daniel - Skeleton, Jaclyn - School girl, Erica - Cat, Todd - Hard Gay (who else?), Kevin - "Spiderman" (he wore a shirt with a spider on it.), John - (Sick) School boy, Yuta - Anakin Skywalker, Ryou - Spiderman/Superman, Wan - The Count of Monte Cristo? (cowboy cat with long blond hair??), Some Guy - Guy with a Gold Mask, Yoshimi - Traditional Japanese Girl (purple kimono)... and a bunch of others that I've forgotten.

A few of the guys put on a really good show for us with fake guns and light sabers- Ryou can somersault and grab a gun, but when he went head-to-head with Todd, "Hard Gay" won! There was also a pretty fun expo of the guys having a light saber battle, complete with jumping, Yoda-spinning, bullet-time and other fun things.

We ended up not going to karaoke, which is probably for the better, since the party ended at 10 p.m., we had to clean up, and I think most of us are tired, or will be soon. I was just glad to get all my makeup off, since I've pretty much been working and on my feet the whole day, even during my breaks. At least tomorrow I get to sleep in a little, because we have a special event in Japanese class that involves not showing up until 10:30.

What rounded off this day and made it good rather than humiliating or miserable (as some of my Halloweens have sadly turned out) was the fact that I saw what I have now named The Six Cat Brigade. On our way back from 7-11 (to get condensed milk tubes), Erica and I spotted SIX cats.

The first cat was a skinny and somewhat grumpy white and brown cat with spots-- I called him Spot. We saw him on the way to 7-11 too, but on the way back the dorms, he was much more vocal, and he even swatted at me. :P The second cat was actually a kitten, though it looked like he'd been in a few fights. It was little and white with a brown tail that was stuck straight up-- because the other half was missing! Then I spotted 2 more cats in someone's garage area-- but it ended up being 4. They looked like they could have been Spot's mom and dad, so that's what I called them. They both just stared and blinked. That's it. In the background, I also spotted what may have been Pumpkin, aka Catzilla the Ginormous Orange Cat. But he just sat there and blinked, too. Finally another white and brown-tailed cat (maybe Kitten's older brother?) came slinking up-- but he had even less of a tail! It was very small and curled up against his bum, so maybe he was a different breed-- the kind that's born without much of a tail. So I called him Piglet. :P

I'm so happy I got to see and pet some Japanese cats today! They may have thought "Ugh, foreigner with no fish!" but I was happy just to see them with my own eyes-- real neighborhood cats, not pet-store cats in cages!

I have to write postcards to everyone (co-workers, friends, family) and a letter to Scott soon; if letters really take 3 weeks to get to Turkmenistan and I want it to get there before his birthday, I have to write it and send it soon. I wanted to send him more pictures at the very least, so I'll have to ask around tomorrow to see if someone can give me copies, either via email, CD, USB, or something else. Other people are the only ones with pictures of me, and it would be silly to send Scott just pictures of everyone else! I would take some myself, but I'm already clean-faced and in my pajamas, and there's absolutely nothing pretty about that. :P

Attention dqbunny, mklutz, rhapsody_dragon!
I made you some presents. Sort of.
( Don't eat anything while looking at these. )

If anyone else would like one of these, comment with a list of NO MORE THAN FIVE interests from your interest list, or other things that you like. They should be ONE word interests only, and as specific as possible (except in one or two cases). I will choose a few of those terms and see what cool conceptual art I can come up with! Then I'll post the "gift wallpapers" here for you to enjoy or further tinker with!

Okay, so it's not like I'm having an emotional or mental breakdown or whatever, but it IS quite hard to deal with this. I appreciate all of the advice, whether I end up listening to it or not (^^;;...). I'm really surprised by how many people stepped forward with words of encouragement or ... other stuff. ^^; Even my aunts and uncles liked to add their two cents (more like fifty cents, really) and I'm sort of stuck with this: "It's my decision." I mean, everyone says different things. Dan contradicts his girlfriend Joanne, and David contradicts Neko, and... well, I'll do what I feel is right when things progress more.

Yeah, I haven't heard or seen any of Scott in the past two days, and needless to say it's got me a bit unnerved and sad. I keep wondering about various things-- is he thinking of/missing me? Was/is there another girl? When I finally do get a chance to talk with him (hopefully face-to-face) what will I ask? I kind of know why he broke up with me, but not why he thought he had to give up. Maybe it's my fault for posing an ultimatum when that wasn't what I intended to do. But I did see things as "give up or keep trying" because honestly, what other option is there for relationships in trouble? Let them stagnate as they are, like a piece of bread getting moldy? And then are the questions that I might not want to know the answers to-- does he still love me, are we still going to be friends, can we still hang out every once in a while? I'm sorry if everyone thinks this'll make things worse before it makes them better, but I can't possibly just cut him out of my life altogether and try and suddenly be single and move on. I love him, period, end of story.

Anyway, I need help with something else. This whole thing is sucking away my time and mental energy, so I'd like to ask anyone willing and able to please help me moderate the various communities I own, namely 30kisses (shadow_reality, weren't you my co-mod?). Mamono's covering offtopicon, and I haven't even officially opened ygo_icontests yet, so... that's okay. And I can keep putting off lyricwheel... still, I'd like any help you could give.

Does anyone have any good movies to recommend to me? You know, things that won't keep reminding me of Scott and what's happened at every third left turn? I mean, I can go shopping and all tomorrow, but for the next several weeks, I'd like something to distract me besides FFIX and work.

Oh, with the domain name thing... I'm still thinking. My primary choice sounds too darn cute for me, and I want something with a touch of sophistication... Mamono? *pokes*

And I'm serious about adopting a kitten. Someone point me in the right direction-- what do I do, where do I go, what do I need? I want a kitty.

( I'm not shy and quiet... )