MILES to GO || before I sleep

For some reason while I was trying to get to sleep tonight, I was struck with a thought: The Little Mermaid and Grease really are a lot alike. Both of them feature a pair of people that fell for each other shortly after meeting, and don't think they'll meet again. But circumstances align such that they do, and the girl ends up changing herself to be with the guy.

Of course, there are some huge differences too, the least of which is the fairy tale vs. real world settings. I thought perhaps someone might have discussed this somewhere else, but a quick Google search didn't reveal anybody linking the two, so here goes.

( Part of Your World )

For reference's sake, the lyrics to Alan Silvestri's "The Legend of Mythica, Part 6," a.k.a. "Feel The Love," sung by Suzie Benson.

[Intro]
It's the beating of our heart
It can lead us from the dark
It's the beating of our heart
And it's been there from the start
*Repeat

There's a rhythm that's inside of us
That we need to feel, we need to trust
Join the rhythm, let it feel your heart
Calling us to make a start

It begins with you, begins with me
Joining gentle hearts in majesty
Feel the magic in us resonate
Calling all to celebrate

Like a message in a bottle
From a far and distant shore
The words of love have washed away,
But the sound we've heard before

[Chorus]
(Feel...) It's the beating of our heart
(the...) To lead us from the dark
(Love...) The rhythm of the heart
(From...) It's the beating of our heart
(A...) It's been there from the start
(-bove...) Sent here from above to guide us!

We can call the realm of fantasy
When our voices sing in unity
We can find a place that's ours to share
Let the wonder takes us there.

It happens in a moment
In the blinking of an eye
The sea of darkness fades away
And sunlight fills the sky.

[Chorus]

(Diamond Goddess in Japanese/Spoken: Let us not forget the rhythm. Everyone can awaken this power inside them. And so, this is our story. The Legend of Mythica will continue on, for eternity.)

Like a message in a bottle
From a far and distant shore
The words of love have washed away,
But the sound we've heard before

[Chorus]

There in your heart
That's where you start
Join us in harmony (Join us in harmony)
When we unite
Everything's brighter, you'll see (Brighter you'll see)

It begins with you, begins with me
Joining gentle hearts in majesty
Feel the magic in us resonate
Calling all to celebrate

Like a message in a bottle
From a far and distant shore
The words of love have washed away,
But the sound we've heard before

[Chorus x 2]

Uh, the Japanese was translated by me, so consider it VERY rough. Though I do think I got the "gist" of it.

Ah, I'm finally back in Northridge, CA, a.k.a. my home for the past four years (or so). And hopefully I'll soon be back in my "real" home of San Francisco, CA, but first I'm trying to work out some online courses through CSUN, so I'm still covered by my health insurance, still keeping busy, and still getting financial aid. :P

In leaving Disney, I found out that I don't ever want to work for a mega-corporation. Maybe it's Disney's sheer size that made it so impersonal-- despite the few friendly faces that I saw every now and again, I felt treated like a tool, a number-- a non-person, more or less. I don't want that from any job I take on in the future.

I also found out that, rather than the housing owing me $636, I owe them $113, because August has 5 weeks in it, and though we pay at the end of the month, it's a weekly fee of $159. It's horribly unfair that I should have to pay so close to the 5-week total, since I left early (2 days only, but still), but moreso because I went almost 2 straight weeks without work. How do they expect me to pay for those two weeks when I was living in the housing, working my tail off, spending what I did have to go up to Northridge to get new doctor's notes, call Kaiser back and forth, etc.? It's not like I was messing around-- I did my best to get more specific, legible notes, but then they decided that something that had been on the FIRST note (about not bending and twisting) was impossible to accommodate, because apparently working in stores involves bending and twisting, no questions asked. It's a bunch of hooey, because I saw people from Transitional Duty in stores all the time-- I couldn't have been the only person with back and leg issues.

Oh, I should state for the record: being part of the Disney College Program has driven me further into debt than I have ever been in my life. In order to make rent on time, I've maxed out my only two credit cards, and while they don't exactly have astronomical credit limits ($1500 and $2000, respectively), that's still a lot of money. I lived in Japan -one of the most expensive countries to live in the world- for 6 months and managed to accidentally run up a $900 phone bill, but I still didn't come back as in debt as I am from 3 months of working for Disney. And it's not that I'm a crazy spender, either; I rarely went out, got the $1.99 lunch as often as possible (and made my lunch on days when I couldn't get it), and only ONCE "splurged" on a necessary computer repair. Even then, Disney sucked me dry of money, motivation, creativity, and very nearly my happiness and general well-being. For a company that claims to own the "happiest place on Earth" and places safety as its first "key," they didn't seem to practice what they preached.

Supposedly I could have stayed on-- or at least waited until 11/30 for the first doctor's note to "expire," since disability had yet to kick in and indicate my sciatica as a permanent condition, not a work-related injury. But that's ridiculous-- miss 3 months of work and classes, not have a place to live, and then come back right to what I'd grown to dislike so much, because I was in pain every day and every night, and my leads and managers refused to help me without a note, and then did more of the same even when I DID get a note? No. Why would I go back to that?

The housing is more of what I'm glad to be free of, though-- the idiotic, immature people in housing setting off fire alarms for fun, the constant construction, the stupid rules, the disgusting lack of a decent recycling program (supposedly that's the City of Anaheim's fault, but why isn't it the property manager's responsibility to contact the Dept. of Waste Management or whatever to make sure we have the bins in place?), etc. Plus, the housing coordinators that frankly didn't seem to care about us as people, just as statistics.

One of them was downright rude to me, and I wish I'd come up with more comebacks to let her know just how much I hated her. I told my former roommate Michelle (we ended up ironing out all our differences before I left, which felt great; I never like leaving a place on a bad note) that I was done being "anyone's bitch," and said housing coordinator said "Hey, there's no need to talk like that in here." *eyeroll* I wish I'd come up with the comeback at the time, "Yes, there is a need, it's my need, after putting up with all the B.S. I have from you and yours in this housing and in this company. I'm sick of being treated like a tool, I'm leaving, and I don't have to listen to you anymore." Plus, when another housing coordinator asked Michelle to leave the room even though she knows EVERYTHING I'd been through, I wanted to say "Okay, then she (the other housing coordinator whom I hate) has to leave to, because I don't want her knowing my personal stuff, and even if she already does and is part of this program or the housing, I just don't want her in here. If you can say that about someone I want present, then I should be able to say that about people you want present." But alas, I didn't, further allowing myself to be treated like Disney's bitch. But now it's all over with....

YATTA!

I got back here to Northridge late last night, slept in most of the morning, and then left to mail some stuff, enjoy some decent Chinese food, and then get some 2% milk at Vons. Sure, the fact that there's not as good a public transportation system here in Northridge bites, but it's just more incentive to walk (and buy some good walking shoes! Today I wore my strappy black kitten heels... that was a mistake) and learn to ride my bike. I'm already enrolled in 6 units worth of online classes; all I need are 2 more 3-unit classes to be full time. Hopefully then I can go back up to S.F. to be with my friends and family, and maybe even find some inspiration for all my projects. In the meantime, I've got a lot of room cleaning to do, and since it is technically the first week of school, some discussions to jump in on and PowerPoint lectures to read....

Wish me luck! :)

Blue Fairy Over San Francisco Back in the day of 35 mm cameras, my mom took two photos: one of the original Disneyland Electrical Parade, with the Blue Fairy (from Pinocchio) "leading the charge," and one of the San Francisco skyline from our old apartment's balcony. The resulting double exposure was certainly a sight to behold!

In order of appearance:

FanLib's going to disappear, as everyone predicted it would when it first made its bright, shiny appearance some 15 months ago (or so). I think it improved a whole lot since the wankfest first started, which is why I bothered to sign up against it, but I'm not crying over the loss. It's not like half the stuff there is any good anyway, whether that's writers or readers/reviewers. Anyone I did bother to read there I knew from other sites, namely this one, DA, and/or Fanfiction.net.

The thing that sucks is that they didn't just come out and say why they're going under, nor did they invite discussion of the topic on their homepage. Everyone on fandom_wank says it's because they're out of their $3 million (srsly!?) investment, which wouldn't surprise me, but since I haven't seen any sort of official statement regarding the "why," I'll take that with a grain of salt.

Twilight - Cause for fangirls of all ages to be bitches, mainly because the poor sap who's playing Edward in the upcoming movie is "hot." Me? I haven't heard anything good about the book series OR the upcoming movie, but my roommate (who is a few months older than me) got into the series via her (14-year-old) sister. She admits that the series is targeted toward a younger audience than even Harry Potter (thus making both her and her sister part of that oddball crowd of fangirls), but she likes it so far, as it's a "simple read." I cringed a bit when reading the back cover, but don't dare to actually explore beyond that (yet?).

Why? Well, I went to the Anaheim Public Library tonight after work and finally got myself some other books: two on the craft of writing (one's a standby favorite on the Middle Ages, which I use as a great reference for "The Rose Chronicles"), one dark rewrite of "Snow White" and other fairy tales (love those sort of stories!) and one Myst novel (because I've never read them and I thought it was high time I ought to). Oh, and a High School Musical book.

High School Musical - So, working at Disneyland means I see this High School Musical stuff every day, and I often dealt with (child) Guests who would come up to me screaming about how HOTTTTTT Troy is (If I had to pick between Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson or whatever his name is -even if he was in Harry Potter before- I'd pick Zac any day of the week. The other guys IS somewhat cute and has nice eyes/hair/smile, etc. but Zac just seems... well, more human. And this is my impression of Rob based off an interview where he WAS NOT in Vampire!Mode) and I would have NO idea what they were going on about. I took a glance at the Junior Novel and decided that it sounded fluffy enough for me to warrant getting the movie as soon as it came back into our Clubhouse rentals, so I grabbed it as soon as it did. And... it's pretty darn catchy! The acting isn't half-bad, either, which is saying something, especially when you look at some of the other Disney Channel stuff (*cough*Camp Rock*cough*) So I got the second one too, and I like it a lot! I'm really looking forward to HSM3 coming out on the silver screen in October, and I'm betting I'll get a first-hand look at some of the merchandise before it hits the shelves, too! :D

That said, I'm already half-in the fandom, but in the way a cat might be in a bathtub-- one paw in, hackles raised. At FFnet alone, the tripe level is at an all-time high; people can't seem to summarize AT ALL in the HSM section (and again, this is FFnet, so that's saying something!, and they confuse the real-life actors with their characters, so you'll often see pairing portmanteaus like Zanessa or Zashley. Uh, hello, people? Zac =/= Troy, Vanessa =/= Gabriella, and so on and so forth! Let these people have lives outside their movies, please! Besides, RPF isn't even allowed on FFnet! (If everything that was RPF got taken off there, I'm sure 75% of the section would be gone.)

But for every 100 or so horrible fics, there might just be one good fic (emphasis on the might there). I've already read a few, but usually once I do, I discover one of two things:
* I can get through the author's other good HSM fics (assuming there are any) rather rapidly, even if they're multi-chapter; I'm still left wanting more
* If the author DOES have other HSM fics, they suck, and then I'm back to square one; it's one of those "rare moments of genius" circumstances, and then I don't know what to tell the author that, moments ago, I'd been praising and now want to thwap with a Clue-By-Four

That's a dangerous place to be in, mind, because it's got me thinking "I could do better than these people!" Especially with writing challenges like those of ZAAngels (or something like that), which explore topics that Disney will NEVER EVER do, e.g. how Gabriella officially became Troy's girlfriend (because at the end of HSM1, they were just "best friends," and by HSM2, they were quite clearly in a romantic relationship, broke up, and got back together again in time for HSM3), or Troy and Gabriella's first time. ^_~

Remember that meme from a while ago where I had a list of fandoms, and people put two or more of them together, and I wrote a crossover fic for them? Well, this is a different take on that.

I've selected 10 fandom crossovers. Pick one and write a ficlet for it, either in the comments or in your journal (and link to it in a comment). Then, post a similar list in your journal, featuring AT LEAST ONE of the fandoms from my list, and I'll do the same for you.

1. Indiana Jones x Yu-Gi-Oh!
2. Iron Man (movie) x Yu-Gi-Oh!
3. Pirates of the Caribbean (movies) x Sailor Moon (anime, manga, or live action)
4. Kingdom Hearts x Star Ocean: Till The End of Time (or Star Ocean: The Second Story)
5. Enchanted x Yu-Gi-Oh!
6. Star Wars (movies) x Star Ocean: The Second Story (or Star Ocean: Till The End of Time)
7. Kingdom Hearts: The Missing Characters (introduce characters from fandoms that SHOULD be in Kingdom Hearts, but aren't/are under-represented/strangely missing even though other members of the fandom are there, e.g. Rinoa, Giselle, more of Tifa or Mulan, characters from upcoming Disney movies like "The Princess and the Frog" or "Rapunzel" etc.)
8. Chronicles of Narnia x Any animated Disney film with a Disney "Princess" in it (note: characters like Alice from Alice in Wonderland can count as a "Princess" even if they're not "Princess" in title, or part of the "official Disney Princess" line-up, e.g. the way Mulan sometimes is)
9. National Treasure x Yu-Gi-Oh!
10. Atlantis: The Lost Empire x Yu-Gi-Oh! (or Indiana Jones)

Yeah, I know, most of them are Yu-Gi-Oh, but I wouldn't have done that if I didn't see great potential. I hope at least one of these gets taken up; I'd love to see what some people come up with for me to do!

Me, I'm horny don't you know, my love I want you so...
At least, that's how "Rapture" by iio sounded to me, until I bothered to check the lyrics. :P My mom has this book of misheard lyrics called "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" (the real lyrics are 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky"). Pretty funny read.

Anyway, I'd say right now, I'm about... oh, 98% done with my packing for Disney? If you don't know, I'm "moving to Disneyland" in two days-- on Monday morning (EARLY Monday morning). I'm actually moving to the dorms/apartments nearby, because I will be working there until about 3 January.

I won't be dressed up as a character; in fact, all I know about my role at the moment is that I'll be a "Store Operations Cast Member," which means I'll be selling something somewhere in the park.

Packing is a pain. On the one hand, I am moving my whole life for about 7 months. On the other hand, two humongous suitcases plus my wheeling bag seems a bit much... o_o Originally, I was going to try and cram all my clothes into my smaller suitcase, but that just can't happen. Clothes for 7 months do not fit in a weekend-sized suitcase. So I'm leaving that suitcase, packed and ready to go for Shaina's wedding on Memorial Day weekend. I'm going to try and come back here to Northridge from Anaheim via Amtrak on Friday night so I can take the shuttle to the airport with Baba and Grandpa.

The idea is that I'll visit them often enough so that when it starts to get cold, I can trade out my "summer" clothes for winter ones, thereby saving me the trouble of trying to cram three seasons' worth of clothes into one suitcase (no matter how large). The only problem is, Disney's got a "Look" which is essentially "winter" in feeling: all collared, short or long-sleeved blouses (and most of my collared blouses are long-sleeved), non-denim pants, no leggings/shorts, skirts or pantsuits, and NO t-shirts, tanktops, sundresses, etc. Goodbye, summer wardrobe!

Hopefully I'll be working indoors, where it's air conditioned, so things like jackets or long sleeves won't bother me so much. I get that I'm supposed to look professional, but it's tough when you're sweating like a stuck pig in the sort of heat we get here in SoCal. (And this is when someone from Arizona reads this line and rolls their eyes. Go on, do it.)

I went to the mall today to pick up a few things, since I had gift cards to all these stores... Plus, I got some gifts for the ChixFlix blog gals (one of them is Margeaux, who recently had her birthday, so I got her something a bit bigger), the latest Shojo Beat (I really should just subscribe already), and a bunch of hair accessories from Claire's. One of them is the Hairagami, which I cannot figure out for the life of me. It works like those old snap bracelets from elementary school. I managed to get it twisted in my hair somehow, but either my hair's too short, too layered, or I'm just too stupid to figure out how to get it to work. :P

It's hot and I'm hungry... and I already finished the last of the milk! AAAAH!

I got an A+ on the "female professional interview" that I did with cutieme4u for my "Women and Leisure" (RTM 330OL) class! Hip-hip-hurrah! The fulltext, along with my professor's commentary, follows.

But before that: I got into the Disney College Program! I mentioned this on my Facebook and have told a few people in person, but what this means is:
a) I will be moving to Anaheim! (I won't be completely moving "out" of Northridge, mainly because I HAVE to come back, but also because there's no way in heck that I'd be able to have ALL my stuff at the Disney housing)
b) I will be working at Disneyland from May until early January!
c) I will be making more money than I am now!

The role I got was "Store Operations Cast Member," which I take to mean working in one of the stores. Which store, I'm not sure, but since merchandising is something I'm well-familiar with, I don't think I'd mind any store. In any case, my icon's never been MORE appropriate. :)

Thirteen more days until my birthday. No joke. Just letting you know. :P

I'm amazed that things have been working out so well lately. I've been feeling a lot better all-around, been able to be creative and studious (I managed to get my second essay for my "Writing about Literature" class revised and reviewed by a Learning Resource Center tutor today, all EXTREMELY close to deadline), and have some REALLY understanding teachers. I'm hoping that things work out similarly well for my other classes, like my Journalism/SCENE magazine class, because I've been feeling lousy about how it seems like I'm not contributing anything, and my attempts to do just that have sort of flopped (e.g. articles with people that don't want to work with me anymore... :P). But I sent a huge-long email to the prof and the managing editor with some mini-proposals, so let's see if they get back to me tomorrow morning in class. I think I can work well under deadline, and I don't want to get a lousy grade in the class for not having done anything, not have gained SOME experience from the course/process, and of course, NOT want to have to retake the course!

The one cool thing is, for my "Pop Culture" class, I managed to get my web host (Surpass Hosting) to cooperate and help me set up a second Wordpress blog for our group's "Chick Flicks" blog. I was pretty gung-ho in getting it set up, and now pretty much all that's left is to develop a theme (yay for Photoshop and CSS!) and start blogging! I'll provide a link here once we get started, but in the meantime, suggestions are appreciated! What's your favorite chick flick? Chick flick actor? Least favorite chick flick stereotype?

( A++++++++ )

Yay, I'm back "home" in Mito, and while I've yet to get fully unpacked and everything (especially considering I should actually START packing a little to go to my REAL home in the States), I'm in a decent enough mood. For starters, though, a question: how the heck do you change foreign coins? When I left Hong Kong, I had some Hong Kong dollars leftover-- not much, just about $12 (a little under $2 USD, maybe), but the exchanger at Narita airport wouldn't take them. And I just visited Holly to give her an omiyage, and she told me that they don't take coins as a rule, because it would cost too much to ship them (presumably back to their country of origin, where they can re-enter circulation). So what the heck do I do with these coins!? I need the money...

Next up:
* Scanning Nana, Ch. 65 for the Nana Takoyakis group
--does anyone know how to get of "scanner burns" on the side of pages, short of re-scanning something over and over? I've tried using the Dodge tool, Levels, and all sorts of other things, but certain parts still look weird...

* Translating some of "The Legend of Mythica," the soundtrack CD to the Tokyo DisneySea water event that I *LOVED* to bits
--The initial prologue (as told by Mickey and the Diamond Goddess) in Part 3 introduces the "Spirits" of various things that, when harmonized, summon the five Crystal Goddesses (Violet, Green, Blue, Red, and Gold). The first one sounded like the "Spirit of Comic Songs." o_O; What? (I'm not sure which Disney character that was during the actual event; I know that Pluto and Goofy switched places -on the CD, Pluto is Violet and Goofy is Green, but during the event, it was the other way around. Then there's the "Spirit of Friendship," the "Spirit of Sincerity/Honesty/Faith", the "Spirit of Adventure," and finally, the "Spirit of Love" (I know that one is Minnie, without a doubt). Mickey is technically the "Spirit of Imagination." The other characters (besides the ones already mentioned) are Donald Duck, and Chip & Dale. Which do you think is which? I'm trying to remember...

I think tomorrow when I'm back and somewhat settled in (and with an organized list of what to do), I'll do a recap of everything that happened the past 10 days or so. It's certainly been an adventure.

By the way, is there any sort of patron god or goddess of transportation? My Muse really needs a name, and as has been happening for the past 6 years or so, I got inspired while traveling-- this time on the Joban-sen while heading back home. Alas, the idea is for "Eternal Dimension" in the later chapters-- a fic which I have not even begun to write, because it's the third and final installment in the "What Doesn't Kill You" series, and I'd like to get PART 1 finished before I even think about Part 3. My Muse loves to torture me so. ;_;

I also posted a bit about the logic of Seto x Anzu on Pearl of a Dark Age's FFnet forum on fanon pairings; check it out and add to the list!

Ah, the joys of Internet. Surprisingly, even in a 3-star hotel such as this one, there are no less than 15 wireless networks in the area. The bulk of them are WEP-encoded and thus I can't access, and some I just couldn't get a stable connection to... so I paid about $15.95 USD for a 24-voucher for access... and I gotta say, sitting right up here in my own bed, typing on my own laptop in my own language is pretty damn nice.

But you don't wanna hear about that, you wanna hear Mer's Big News!

Bonnie has a new boyfriend!
No, seriously. And stellar budding photojournalist that I am, I found a picture of him on the web! Click here to check him out, and then ( Read more... )

I'm sure given time and a more comfortable schedule (and bed!) I could probably think of more to say, but being that we have to be up by 7:30am or so tomortow to walk to a nearby hotel for our tour, I think I should log. :P Catch you in Tokyo!

P.S. If you or anyone else has tried to text message me since I've been in HK, I don't think I've gotten your messages. The network here is called 3, but it's a 2.5G band... while my phone is more than compatible with it (I've received text messages from them advertising their "guide to HK" service), I don't know if text messaging is. And hell knows what T-Mobile might be charging for calls/TMs from here as opposed to Japan! So please email me, and I'll try and get back to you within a few days. I can't really call, even from Skype, because I don't have my microphone... if I did call anyone, it would sound VERY strange (due to the feedback from my internal speaker, I think-- even if I had my headphones plugged in, the internal mic is embedded within the internal speakers).