MILES to GO || before I sleep

( Fanime )

STUFF FOR SALE/TRADE
* Pretear Complete Series DVD Thinpak (the complete series on 3 DVDs)
* Skip Beat original Japanese manga Vols. 4-13
* Ceres: Celestial Legend anime DVD Vol. 7 (Requiem), still in original packaging!
* THOUSANDS of Yu-Gi-Oh TCG cards
* Hinata 120% original Japanese manga Vol. 2
* Full Moon o Sagashite complete series (vols. 1-7) original Japanese manga
* Shinshi Doumei + (Gentleman's Alliance +) original Japanese manga Vol. 1
* Alice 19th original Japanese manga Vol. 1
* Kare Kano (Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou/His and Her Circumstances) English graphic novel Vol. 1
* Peach Girl: Reverse Side (Sae's Story) original Japanese manga Vols. 1-2
* Inuyasha original Japanese manga Vol. 20
* X-Day English graphic novel, Vols. 1-2 (2 copies of Vol. 2 available!)
* Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden original Japanese manga Vol. 1
* Fushigi Yuugi original Japanese manga Vol. 14
* Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) original Japanese manga Vol. 35
* Gensomaden Saiyuki Tarot Cards still in original packaging!
* Sailor Moon S movie VHS (uncut, subtitled)
* Sailor Moon S anime series (uncut, dubbed), Vol. 1 "Pure Hearts," Vol. 2 "Birthday Blues," Vol. 4 "The Love War"
* Ranma 1/2 Season 6 "Random Rhapsody" VHS "Who Do? Voodoo!" (Vol. 2) dubbed

CONTACT ME VIA COMMENT, IM, PM/TXT or EMAIL IF YOU'RE INTERESTED! If you'd like to trade, I can give you a "want" list so we can work something out.

Does anyone know where I can get a boatload of pretty, non-animated THIN dividers aka separators aka horizontal rules? Preferably no more than 5 px thick, and nothing crazy, like flowers, blood, bomb fuses, etc. Since FanLib strips out horizontal rules, I'm replacing where they used to be with some colorful lines, but my current selection is pretty pithy.

I've been Googling for them, but I haven't found anything that isn't completely cheesy and reminiscent of when people were first getting on the Web and building sites, like, waaaay back in the mid-90s. :P All I care about are the separators, not matching backgrounds, buttons, etc. Help?

Ah well, doesn't look like A|X (not Armani Exchange; Anime Expo!) is in the works for me unless I just do a day pass and grab a shuttle there or somesuch. Which feels like it'd be kind of stupid, but truthfully I'd do anything to make up for the lackluster dealer's room and good showings/panels that were so few and far between. Unless... someone's got a hotel room already (Mom procrastinated on getting the room so much that they were already sold out for the weekend by the time she called... yesterday!); I'd be willing to pay my fair share so long as I had something relatively cushy to sleep on (chair, rollaway, kitty bed).

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

( Glowing praise from work, and a delicious review. )

And everybody say WHEE! Blue Eyes and Apricots, the web's first, official, and ONLY (English) Azureshipping fanlisting now has -count 'em- 400 members! Congratulations to Rea-kun from Malta, who will probably not read this, but who is the kick-buttingest 400th member. I think I should do something special, but what, I do not know. (No, I will not change the layout. Dammit, that layout was hard enough to put together! :P If anything, I can change the colors and the picture but THAT IS IT!)

Spread the word, yo. We've been getting more members than EVER lately, and it makes me so happy! :D :D :D I have some new fanart to put up soon too (from... you guessed it, Rea-kun!) among other things, so at least there's always some new content to check out. I need some more recs and nominations for the Fanfics and Websites sections too, though, so drop me a line, ne?

This is my last week of school before finals. I have four finals, as far as I know:
* Japanese (duh)
* Women writers of Asia (identification... should be easy.)
* Geography (X_X)
* English (X_X;;;)

I finished my term paper for WWA, and I was quite pleased with it-- maybe because the intended length was 8-10 pages, and I ended up with 14. I had to shrink the font and change the font family to get it to fit. :P This is good news though, because I ended up cutting big chunks out, compared to my outline. This means when I actually get around to expanding it and editing it for my scholarship project (which is to write on contemporary writers of Japan, mainly female writers, and in contrast with male writers), I'll have lots of material to work with.

Today I just finished a paper for Geography on symbolic landscapes, and being the urbanite I am, I chose to write about a fourth landscape (this is in addition to D.W. Meinig's list if three from 1979: the New England village, the Middle-American Main street, and Californian Suburbia): the urban landscape. It was limited to 2 pages and a sketch map page, so I hope I did well on it. Prof. Davidson peered over to my paper while I was attempting to draw a lumpy model of San Francisco. :P

I have an idea for my editorial (that is, my second one, because damned if I can come up with another full-length feature piece in less than a day. Bad Mer, bad!) - California is behind the times. Hell, the whole United States is, but California is the worst off, especially here in So. Cal. Now, I haven't heard anyone vocally railing about it on *MY* FL, but that could be due to other reasons... but gas is at an all-time high here in CA. $3.37 is the cheapest you'll find here in Northridge; in San Diego, you were lucky if you saw below $3.54. I saw a $3.61 there, and Baba said she saw a $3.70-something. I realize gas prices as a whole are going up around the country, but CA's always had the higher prices, because we have so many damn people dependent on gas. We can get gas from the South and from Alaska, but somehow, that still doesn't help us. Then you look at countries like Japan, where their public transportation system is RELIABLE and EFFICIENT. I don't know a lot about their environmental policies (they still allow smoking in public restaurants, so...) or fuel usage, but Hummers wouldn't be popular there, and I saw more minivans than I did SUVs while I was there. It's sort of like telling someone they have to cut off their arm to save their life- people just don't want to do it, even if a part of them recognizes it's for the greater good. Are we stupid or just sick?

To do:
* See various departments about transferable credit from Tokiwa. Get them to sign the forms now so that when I come back, they can't double-cross me. I should do that tomorrow, since I need the course catalog.

* Finish up my online resume at meredithsweet.com :D (Go check it out. Tell me if I'm missing anything, if anything needs editing, etc. The front page only has a short intro right now, but so far, I like it.)

* FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICS. I'm already 2000+ words into atlantian_magic's Sousuke x Kaname piece, which mklutz, you will be pleased (I hope) to note that it's a continuation/sequel to the fic I did for you, "Counting." :) I never intended it to be so long, but... hey, it's just one of those universes. I've also got a good idea for the Ed x Winry piece geniusgirl wanted, so I'll get started on that as soon as I'm done with SxK. Oh yeah, and WDKY24. I want it OUT! OUT, I SAY!

* She is the one named Sailor Moon! I was messing with my Thunderbird settings yesterday (remember folks: compact your Inbox often!) and decided to haunt alt.fan.sailor-moon for a bit, and found a HI-larious post on the possibility of yet another live action SM movie. With Jennifer Garner as the main villain. Hahaha, yeah right. But still, funny. And then someone posted a YouTube link to the elusive Episode 67, wherein Chibiusa BEFRIENDS A DINOSAUR. That was a cute episode, even if the animation style degenerated by about 2 seasons. But yeah, Sailormoon. So totally into it again. :D

* AX? Who here is going to AnimeExpo 2006? I mean the one in Anaheim. Because (I think I mentioned this before) someone requested I go, and there *IS* a brand-new Sheraton there. Mom thinks she can get me the StarHot or whatever it's called rate, which is TEH UBER CHEAP! So why not? I'd just pay for the pre-reg and the shuttle there (if Mom wanted to erase the rest of her debt by paying for THAT hotel room too. She paid for all of Fanime, which surprised the crap out of me) and whatever I saw and wanted that I didn't get at Fanime. And hell, I'll even cosplay Anzu. :D I just want to do a lot of things before I go to Japan.

>_> I hope I got a decent grade on my English paper/Kate Chopin's 'The Storm,' even if it was late.

Okay, so it looks like I am going to Fanime, cosplay or not. Why? Because I pre-regged a few hours ago, and that's $50 I've just kissed goodbye. Might as well kiss another $400 away for the airplane tickets, a hotel room, and anything else I might be forgetting (food, possible cosplay, dealer's room money, transportation to/from airport, if not provided by hotel).

So now I have to find a cosplay commission or pre-made service NOW, because Fanime is May 26th-29th, which means I'd need the costume in my hot little hands BEFORE then. That's two months away, and the bare minimum many cosplay commissioners give for their work. So I have to decide. A few good-looking, relatively inexpensive, and even reputable places offer some of the things I'd want to do... for example, Songstress Yuna. That'd be easy enough to pull off-- get the costume and the ponytail, and I could make whatever jewelry I needed. I'd say "screw the boots," because I happen to like my knee high-black boots very much, and I think they'd even go better with the outfit. I could also get a mic, or not have one at all, because that might be pushing it a little bit.

OR... there's something original and cool, a'la Maya Amano. It'd be an outfit that works beyond cosplay (sorry, Yuna...), but the catch is that I don't know who'd do it, for how much, or how long it'd take. I already sent a quote request to Akire Designs, and now if anyone knows of any other commission places that are currently open, I'd like to ask some others. I'm hunting for any good cosplay sites at the moment-- props, accessories, wigs, costumes, etc.

As for the other stuff... so, who else is going? You know me, I'm always up for rooming with a few other people. I could afford the $300~ for a single room to myself, but I could get a double bed room for the same price, and have someone pay me $45/night, so we'd split the cost 50/50. I don't know if Mom has a friend at the SJ Hilton or Marriott, since neither of them are part of the Starwood Resort chain, but I could ask her to pay for it FOR me, since she DOES owe me $600 for the laptop still.

Airfare would only be around $118 if I get the tickets soon; they'd be early afternoon tickets on both the 26th (I'd take off work, and leave to the airport RIGHT after Geography class) and the 29th, when I have off b/c of Memorial Day.

I can afford this. Why? Because I get paid enough to cover the costs of coming/going to the con, plus a little on the side for food and even the Dealer's Room. That and, Direct Deposit has officially gone through, so I'll have money in Hawaii: not that I'm planning on spending a whole bunch there, but it's nice to be able to celebrate my birthday in style. :O Speaking of which! I can legally attend 21+ parties at Fanime~ Bwahahahahaha...

(Not that I would. I mean geeks + alcohol = bad idea. Now if only I could drag Scott along...)

So anyway, point me at some cosplay sites! Thankoo.