MILES to GO || before I sleep

I should also be doing school work (studying, writing my essay, working on my geology assignment), but I can't. This is weird, because it's different from the very distinct lack of motivation I've had before (like in junior year of high school). I want to do the work, but the inspiration, the idea isn't there.

So in the meantime, I'm perusing CSI: NY fics, and I'm noticing there seem to be a great deal of writers from the UK. I can tell because I'm seeing fics chock full of
kerb
tyre
litre
meter
best mate
torch
and stuff like that. I'm usually okay with that sort of thing, because I know what they all mean, but it's still jarring to see it. Why is it that there are Britpickers who'll come down on anyone writing in, say, the "Harry Potter" universe and not using proper British terms, but Americans don't do the same for decidedly American fandoms like CSI?

Would it make us seem stupid to complain?

Thing is, the particular fic I'm reading is from Stella's point-of-view, so I walk into it thinking "this is a story that I'm reading as if Stella herself were talking to me, or if she'd emailed me a transcript that she'd typed out of her week." So I don't expect Stella, an American woman, to spell "curb" as "kerb," or "tire" with a y. It just comes across as awkward.

I mean, it's not as if any of these words are particularly mysterious in their "American" equivalent. You've got
curb
tire
liter (gallon if it's gas, and other varying amounts depending on what else might be discussed, e.g. medicine, blood)
yards/feet
best friend
flashlight

*sigh* My brain's still all muddled and not much is helping. This sucks.

Another successful day in the city. This was another shopping day with "the gals," this time with Crystal, Eva, and Steph; yesterday was Steph and Mom; the day before that was Rochelle, and I've had a great time on all days. With Rochelle, we covered downtown and Stonestown; with Steph, downtown, and with the girls today, Stonestown and Serramonte. In all cases, I was pretty much out all day, except with Steph, because I supposedly had to be back home for an East Bay dinner with Gary's daughter and grandson... but that fell through due to traffic. In fact, we were supposed to make up for it today by going shopping in Berkeley, but THAT fell through, too. But I was glad to go shopping with the girls-- I got Mom's gift (technically a 2-part gift from Baba & Grandpa, because they have me money to buy her something with), had a nice shrimp primavera at Olive Garden (which my stomach is now apparently revolting against and GAWD I HATE MY ORGANS SOMETIMES), and got myself a cheap "Family Fun" DVD edition of "Anastasia," one of my favorite animated movies of all time. The weird thing is, there were two different kinds of box art, but there was NO REASON for it. One wasn't a special/limited edition, one wasn't widescreen vs. full screen... it was just two different box arts, one which was weird (Anastasia looked like Celine Dion) and one was normal (Anastasia looked like she did in the movie), so I got the second one.

As for other presents (for most people besides Mom, Gary, Dad, Scott, and Special Random Someone), by the looks of things, it'll be "time well spent" and "cookies." I bought M&Ms for my special Spritz cookies that have been a tradition for years now, though I'm sure there have been some years when it wasn't always done. Tomorrow's mini-golf in the evening, so if I get the last of "my" shopping (I kinda want this coat that's at H&M downtown) done, I can bake the cookies in time to meet the girls before we go to MGL.

I've already gotten a few gifts my way, too: Mom got me the iHome dock I wanted, which lets me charge my iPod, play music from it on a nice speaker system, listen to both AM and FM radio, and use any of the sources (radio, iPod, or line-in device like CD/Cassette player) as an alarm. Very nifty. But what ruined the fun is that she was genuinely serious that she had NO CLUE what to get me for Christmas, and she kept asking me and asking me and it was awkward! I never want to feel like I'm selfish and just WANT WANT WANT... I tried to think of something I need, so the first thing I named was that coat, but Mom was already super-stressed from work when she tried to go to H&M to find it, and she had no luck. :( I feel bad for having made her do that. She felt obligated to get me something, but hates shopping downtown in crowds, especially in the holiday season.

This season moreso than a lot of others, she seems like a real Grinch, and it makes me sad. I hate to say it, but she hasn't been much fun to be around. I know she's very stressed from work and a bit sick... so I hope she'll rest and think of this as a vacation and time to rest, not time to do things (even though there ARE things to do... like, oh, clean up the living room, which is packed with the dining room's furniture, countless boxes, bikes, etc. and therefore has no room for a stocking, let alone a Christmas tree).

Yeah, we're late in all we do-- at least when it comes to the holidays.

What else? Still haven't gotten my Chase check or any word from my school, according to Baba. Chase last contacted me and said that they were waiting for some sort of certification from my school before they could disburse the money. Well, they probably tried to contact the school as it closed, and my money is "on hold" until 1/2, at least. Technically not a big deal, since the WII representative I've been with isn't back in the office till then, either BUT that obviously presents a problem with:
a) tickets to SF for Macworld (which I can technically only go to if I go to Washington because I have the loan money from Chase)
b) getting tickets to D.C. in the first place, because it's SO LAST MINUTE!

Plus, Bowen didn't get back to me on Monday like she said I would, so I have NO idea about the academic credit! While technically stuff like that CAN be arranged after the semester, that's only what happened for study abroad-- I think for this to count, I NEED to do it beforehand, because I need it to count for an internship AND an independent study. I just hope Bowen's back on campus or at least checking her CSUN email starting 1/2...

I hate relying on just one person to get things done.

( And it made me think about manga )

You know, of the e-Valentine I posted a while back, I think I only got one. It goes to show even when Valentines only involve a simple click of the mouse or a few taps on your keyboard, I am cursed to never have the sappy, romantic, or even merely friendly and chocolate-filled that is so widely adored.

That said, I wanted to post this because it's something that's been annoying the hell out of me for a long time, and I wish Yu-Gi-Oh fic writers would listen to JUST THIS ONE THING, if nothing else. I'm serious.

STOP CALLING JOUNOUCHI 'JOU'!

I think this may have been on fanficrants a while back, but on the off-chance that some otherwise-excellent Yu-Gi-Oh writers on my FL are reading this, and find themselves shameful perpetrators of this BAD, BAD HABIT (you know who you are), let me explain myself so you don't get your panties in a twist.

(1) Despite the dub changing his FAMILY name from Jounouchi into his GIVEN name in the dub, "JOEY," Jounouchi is not and will never be the character's given name. His father's family name is Jounouchi. His mother's married family name was Jounouchi. Shizuka may have even been a Jounouchi at one time, but judging by the character guides, she legally changed her name to 'Kawai' which I assume is Jounouchi's mother's maiden name.

(2) In English, plenty of family names are shortened to be nicknames. Some people (depending on their comfort levels with their own name, their family, or the person referring to them by a nickname) don't mind this. Others do. For example, my mother's first husband had the last name of Smith. To this day, my mother refers to him as "Smitty," not "Michael," which was his given name.

(3) In Japanese, they do not do this. To shorten someone's family name for use as a nickname is often derogatory or downright rude. Sometimes making alterations to the pronunciation of someone's GIVEN name is acceptable-- for example, my name is Meredith, but I had everyone in Japan call me "Meri." As a joke, when I went bowling with my tutors, they nicknamed me "Meririn." That was fine with me. It implies a very friendly rapport between us. "Meri-chan" or just "Meri" was fine, if it was coming from someone I knew and was friendly with. Everyone else called me "Sweet-san."

For example, one would not call Yuugi "Mucchin" ("Mutou-chan" shortened; no one really uses the honorific 'chan' with someone's family name either; that sounds weird), nor would they call Honda "Honhon." However, someone calling Honda by his given name "Hiroto" could probably get away with calling him just "Hiro" or "Hiro-kun," depending on how close they are with him. And considering Jounouchi and Yuugi are two of his closest friends and THEY call him simply by his family name (Yuugi uses an honorific), I doubt anyone outside his immediate family calls him "Hiroto" or any derivation thereof. Were Honda to ever get a girlfriend, she might call him "Hiroto-kun" or even "Hiro-kun."

( In which case a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet )

(4) In Yu-Gi-Oh canon, you can discern the kind of relationships the characters have with one another based on the names and honorifics they use for one another. In various posts across the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom, I've mentioned the following, which are made obvious throughout canon:

-Jounouchi and Kaiba are two of the rudest characters in the series, often intentionally leaving out honorifics such as "kun" or "san," which would be the most likely for them to use in reference to another person that they respect (but not necessarily someone that is socially superior to them). Kaiba, especially, uses insulting words (like "mediocre," among others) to refer to people, other than any names at all! Mokuba's actually not much better in this regard...

-Yuugi is all-around polite. He uses honorifics properly, and the only time he doesn't is in references to his closest friend: Anzu.

-On the other hand, Yami no Yuugi shows just how distinctly different he is from Yuugi: he doesn't use honorifics for Kaiba (while Yuugi does), Jounouchi (even though they're friends), Honda, or anyone else. He's actually rude in his own right! But in referring to Jounouchi, Honda, or Otogi without honorifics, he's not trying to be disrespectful to them (as Kaiba does when HE refers to them without honorifics, or when Kaiba refers to Yuugi by his given name and not his last name), he's just being blunt.

But no matter how much Pegasus might want to topple Kaiba, or how much Kaiba hates Yuugi, or how much Jounouchi hates Kaiba, they never use shortened nicknames. It's not something they do in Japanese culture (commonly). If anything, the "missing" syllables are added to: Minako (from Sailormoon) might be called Minappi, and that's got the same number of syllables as her full given name! No one would give her the nickname "Mina" without any honorific (that is to say, "Mina-chan" might be okay, but just "Mina" probably wouldn't), and no one would call her "Ai" as a shortened version of "Aino," her family name.

The same holds true for Jounouchi. He may not be as close friends with Mai, Anzu, or Otogi as he is with Yuugi or Honda, but NONE of them would call him "Jou."

And for the record Jou =/= Joe. Shortening family names is not the same as shortening given names, especially if they were reversed from the original to the dub! Sure, call him "Joe" if you're in the dub-verse, and in that, his given name IS Joseph. People call him "Joey" (a nickname of Joseph) all the time, and were someone to start calling him "Joe," he probably wouldn't have a problem with it.

But they do not do that in Japan, with Japanese names. Not once in my whole experience with Yu-Gi-Oh have I ever seen any character canonically refer to Jounouchi as "Jou." The only names I have seen used for him (and I do mean "names," not insults like Kaiba) are:
-Jounouchi (Honda, Yami no Yuugi, occasionally Anzu when she's mad)
-Jounouchi-kun (Yuugi, Anzu, Miho)
-Katsuya (from his sister, his mother, and once by Mai)

Here's a further way of pointing it out:
In Japanese culture, one's family name comes first in their writing. They also write not using Roman characters (that is, the alphabet I'm using now), but Chinese characters. For Jounouchi, those characters are:
城之内

The first character is pronounced "Jou" the second "no" and the third "uchi." However, were you to try and make a nickname from the characters using the pronunciation of the first character, you'd come across a stumbling block: the first character is pronounced "jou" when in conjunction with certain other Chinese characters, like the other ones in his name. By itself, it's pronounced "shiro," not "jou!" That's another reason why they don't have nicknames like that in Japanese; if they can't write them out, they can't use them in speech, either.

It's one thing to write "Mer" in English; I can understand it whether you say it or write it. But you can't write "Jou" as a nickname for "Jounouchi" in Japanese. His name is made up of a particular set of characters, and you cannot use the character pronounced as "jou" on its own.

(For the record, the character means "castle" when pronounced as "shiro". It's pronounced as "jou" when used in place names; so Osaka Castle might be "Osaka-jou." But again, it MUST be used in conjunction with other characters to imply that it's a name and not a word; thus, to just randomly say "Jou" would confuse someone-- because what are you doing, yelling about some castle? The second kanji is the one usually used for "kore," meaning "this," but it can also be pronounced "no," as it is in his name. To make things even more confusing, the third character means "inside, within," but it's pronounced "uchi," the same way the word for "house, family" is. So the meaning is "inside, within," but the pronunciation is "uchi." But "uchi" in this instance doesn't mean what your Japanese 101 teachers have taught you --house, or family. If you wanted to extrapolate a meaning from his name, it might be "this castle within," which would imply he's a very strong-willed individual. Japanese families tend to like names that show strength or prosperity for the future.)

THAT IS IT.

Even if you were smash drunk, you wouldn't refer to a friend or semi-friend so rudely. I can't emphasize just how rude it is to do that to someone's name. Because it's not just "personal" when you do something like that-- it's dishonoring the whole family. It's lazy writing. It's mis-characterization (the dreaded OOC shows when you refer to characters incorrectly!).

JUST DON'T DO IT.

Saw "Snakes on a Plane" with Erin on Friday evening... even if I dropped out of the cult-following a few months ago, it was still fabulous fun, and I loved it. It was very much deserving of the R-rating, especially at the beginning of the movie, but it managed to be both suspenseful and unpredictable-- great, considering how many people judge the movie by its title (or its poster). And the band that won the fan contest to have their music video in the end credits-- that song was DAMN good! It's actually sort of stuck in my head! Erin said the band reminded her of the Black Eyed Peas.

What was fabulous was when EVERYONE in the theatre (and this was a big theatre, but not sold out by any means) -except Erin, who had no freaking clue what was going on- said The Line in unison "I've had it with these motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane!" Yes, even me. It was fab. Absolutely fab. And of course everyone started cheering afterward.

( Spoilers, of course )

And now for something completely different...

I really would have thought that the damn "pink is for girls" concept would have DIED by now. First off, I, a self-respecting woman, HATE PINK. Especially cotton candy pink, Chibiusa pink, hot pink, or any derivative thereof. The closest I can come is maybe a deep rose color that I wear for blush or lip gloss. But then you have the freakin' PINK Razr. -_-; But hey, guys are wearing pink now... it looks weird to me, especially seeing ripped black guys wearing those AE pink polos, but whatever. Personally, I just don't like the color. But, to each their own.

Last night I got to cleaning my room, and of course I found tons of notes for fanfics, including WDKY. I had to go back and check to make sure that I'd made the changes I indicated on paper; I also had to add some "references" to the WDKY References page. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with the Changelog (the thing that I use to track all the updates I make to chapters, and what specific changes I make), but I can pretty much guess based on what I've added to the Reference log. I have random references in a lot of places, but at least I'm not Cassie Claire in this respect; I keep track of everything, and invent my own convoluted plot twists and references. I just wish there was a way to get Snakes on a Plane in there somehow. *snicker joke* Well anyway, I uploaded the new version of the References page to the old Darkness Rising (at some point, it will be under the new masthead of Epiphany, running eFiction 3.0), and later on tonight, I'll be updating Chapters 11 and 14 for some minor tweaks on all sites.

More fanfic-wise, I actually got inspired for a Sailor Moon fic. This kind of makes me feel better, considering how unsure I've been re: Only 16. Having a good idea (and getting started on it) would mean I have something to replace Only 16 in terms of Sailor Moon fics under my name; this would also be something dramatic and long, so it wouldn't feel like I'm shafting Only 16 into the oblivion (even though that's where it belongs). Actually, I thought of a way to combine this Very Good Idea with one that I wanted to do for sm_monthly (I never got past Chapter 1 of it, unfortunately, because WDKY has been keeping me on my toes; I don't want to get too distracted. I've already stopped reading the 200 days of Sailormoon posts at AFSM, and I'm backlogged by about 310 posts!). But I don't think I will, just because it would complicate things too much.

Finally, it looks like the next 2 people up for the Astrology, Blood Types, and Yu-Gi-Oh! feature on playthedamncard are...
* Ryou Bakura
* Katsuya Jounouchi
I'll try and get started on some of that now. Yesterday I bought myself the 2nd edition (2001) edition of Parker's Astrology, one of my favorite books on astrology. I've also been using Astrology Source to calculate things like midhavens/medium coeli, imum coeli, decantes, desendants, and other fun things. Takes all the hard calculating out of the game, so I can do more "character exploration." I have the book with me today at work (actually spent the first few hours of work reading it, because my phone was broken and I was on "standby"), and since all the old sites I used are on the previous posts, I shouldn't have any problem constructing Ryou's profile. I'll have to add things (like his Mystical Card number) later on, and I can always include new things each time-- numerology, tarot... ^_^ It's all related! Go ahead and read the last 2 posts on Yuugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba, and tell me what you think!

Okay, so in light of me trying to find some semi-decent Sailor Moon classic fics, I have decided to peruse Alicia Blade's "First Love: Usagi and Mamoru Beginnings" C2 over at FFnet. First Love actually used to be a pretty massive fanfic archive; it moved around a lot, died, and then was finally reborn in the form of a pretty ambiguous C2.

For me, first impressions come from two major things: the title and the summary. The summary, of course, has much more weight than the title, but it can vary. So I've decided to give myself a bit of an exercise and ignore the title and summary as best as I can, and then just read THE FIRST LINE/PARAGRAPH of the story. If I like it, I'll keep reading. Who knows, maybe it'll be worth it. But you can help me judge.

( To read or not to read, THAT is the question! )

God, is there such a thing as GOOD Sailor Moon fic anymore? No, let me revise that -good Sailor Moon fic, preferably from Classic (because that's the season I'm watching at the moment, therefore the season I want to read), and something I've never read before. Better if it's new, EVEN BETTER if it's finished.

Nominate stuff. Judge stuff. Give me the first line or first paragraph. And pass it on for your fandom.

( Another insane idea that involves coding likely too complicated for my brain )

Baba says I'm supposed to have a "five-check day" (meaning the best day the horoscope doles out) today, and be inspired. The school horoscope told me to watch my finances and consider more education. The horoscope.com horoscope told me that I'll get a romantic proposition that I just can turn down.

I think I'm placing too much stock in horoscopes. I love them to death, but yeesh! Is it bad when I wake up in the morning feeling like I'm going to be busy, stressed, and generally batty, and my horoscopes are BETTER than what I'm expecting?

( Also, a rant. )

The whole FFX universe still confuses me. When I first joined fanthropology, I posted what I thought was the history of the FFX universe. It didn't really belong there, but Fanthropology is a mixed-bag sort of fan community. In any case, no one really corrected me on much, and now I find out new things all the time. new_spira was advertising today, and I went to their journal and the Wikipedia entry on Yevon, and I was like... wha? I think I need to replay FFX (well, actually, BEAT it. I never did, even though I know what happens at the end) and finish FFX-2 again.

I feel kind of stupid for thinking that Yevon was affiliated with Bevelle originally, not Zanarkand. But I'm pretty sure I'm right in that Bevelle and Zanarkand didn't have their final standoff in the Calm Lands; that was Sin and the Summoners.

Other stuff. Why is it that I can feel tired, tell myself "I'll go to bed soon" and then five minutes turn into two hours, and I'm still awake at 2am? It's bad, bad, bad I say! I never did watch my new purchase (the Indiana Jones trilogy) yesterday; I spent most of the night finishing up my translations of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles new songs, "IT'S" by Kinya, and "Kazemachi Jet" by Maaya Sakamoto. I transliterated AND translated the lyrics, listened to the songs OVER AND OVER to pull the kanji pronunciations from the lyrics... and I finally got it done. They're up for review at AnimeLyrics.com, and will hopefully be used by #yugioh! for their subs of the series.

People are visiting-- actually Dan (uncle) visited yesterday, and my aunt Joyce is here with her husband today; hopefully they're going to settle the ongoing dispute with their insurance company re: the San Diego fires that destroyed their home a few years back. I don't mind Joyce and her husband so much; I don't even mind the annoyance that is their dog, Mokie. But Dan kind of got on my nerves when he insisted that Grandpa didn't need a laptop, that he WOULDN'T carry it around from room to room, and that
a) laptops break more often (not true)
b) they're more expensive (true)
c) there isn't really a necessity for it (not true... necessarily)

Regardless of what, I'm planning on getting a laptop before I leave for Japan. Grandpa can get the computer I'm on refurbished with a new monitor or whatever, or he can get a new computer altogether. Whatever he wants. All I know is, I need enough time to clear my stuff off, because I refuse to be away from my email/fanfics/websites for 6 months. :P

Ooh, and guess what? I came up with a new name for my multi-fandom archive. I can start working on it tomorrow (or tonight, if we miraculously get out early and I don't haul myself to bed early like I should). The name... pure irony, right there.

Epiphany. Hee!

guardian_kysra, thank you! ^^ Yesterday after you suggested I invoke/pray to St. Anthony, I did just that-- and not a few hours later, Mom called to tell me she found my deck box right where I dreamed I'd left it! So she's going to send it to me soon, along with a bunch of my manga. :3

Something that's been annoying me
* People calling Priest Set(o) "Seth." For the billionth time, "Seth" is a Hebrew name. According to ancient history, the Jews/Hebrews and the Egyptians have never gotten along. There's also a controversy in regards to whether or not there really were slaves. I don't mean whether there were Hebrews there or NOT-- I mean that our idea of slaves =/= the Egyptian idea of slaves.

So even if there were "slaves" around at that time in Egypt (and also of note is the fact that neither 3,000 nor 5,000 years ago are accurate representations of the Egypt shown in Yu-Gi-Oh. Yes, the years cited are "canon," but they're not historically accurate. And since there's no "th" sound in Japanese NOR are there any hieroglyphic representations of Kaiba's past life name, we have NO WAY OF KNOWING what his name "truly" was other than what Takahashi told us, historically out-of-whack or not) Seto's father was a high priest- and brother to the former Pharaoh. Even if his wife was a "slave" or a "Hebrew," Akunadin would have had another, main wife who was Egyptian-- and she would have borne him sons that would inherit his property and duties. But afaik, Seto is the only child, and he was born to a high, esteemed life. It's unlikely that he was a slave's son.

During pharaonic times no slave markets seem to have existed. But even if slavery was never as pervading in Egypt as it was to be in other ancient societies, such as the Greek or Roman, it appears that slaves were traded widely from the New Kingdom onwards.

In Yu-Gi-Oh, it's said that Atemu's reign/the start of the AE arc takes place during the 18th Dynasty/VERY beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1295 BCE). But the original manga and anime says 3,000 (considering the series started in 1996, that would be about 1004 BCE) years ago, while the dub opted for 5,000 years (c. 3004 BCE) ago. Who the hell knows why?

Something I noticed was that, AE plot aside, the idea of a Pharaoh being erased from existence certainly rings a bell. Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, anyone? But he ruled from c. 1332-1336 BCE. He may have been Tutankhamun's (King Tut)'s father, but we don't know for sure.

To put it in a nutshell, "Seth" is a Hebrew name; the character we see in Yu-Gi-Oh (based on his, his father's, and his cousin's/Atemu's established past) is thoroughly Egyptian. Pharaohs and even high priests tended to have multiple names, all Egyptian. Even if somewhere WAY THE HELL DOWN THE LINE Seto had some Hebrew lineage, his current family line would NOT acknowledge it. His name would most certainly not be Hebrew, especially if he's considered the next in line for the throne if something were to happen to Atemu (which he is).

By the way, this is coming from someone with a strong Jewish lineage herself. Passover (the celebration of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt) always squicks me, because it's based on traditions passed down from thousands of years ago that may have been rooted in misunderstanding! Just like this whole crazy name thing. Call him Set (because there's a supposed interview in which Takahashi says that Seto's name was based off that of the god, who, if you some research, was NOT a nice guy. Even compared to Death-T!minty-fresh!Kaiba) or call him Seto, but don't call him Seth. -_-; He's not Jewish.

Onward and upward.

I've decided to restart Project: Sailor V. Tokyopop/Mixx lost its right over Sailor Moon. Del Rey/Kodansha is showing no signs of picking up the manga release. Is Takeuchi still having issues with Toei? But that's an anime thing, not a manga thing. In any case, the Sailor V manga has never been properly, accurately, and nicely scanlated.

I don't like quitting on good ideas. I didn't really have the means, motivation, etc. to work on the manga before, but I sure as hell can now. I have PSCS, a good grasp of Japanese, and there are already textlations out there (by Alex Glover). Other projects include:

* getting ahold of the Infinity Artbook's 20 page parody manga, as it was never hosted on mahoushoujo.net, and of all the other places with the Infinity artbook, none of them seem to have it as well. I wish I could find a place that was selling the actual book; for once I would actually pay the astronomical price for it, even though it was never intended to garner a profit. But its rarity is what makes it worth the $300+ price tag. I'd also like to do "embedded" translations, a'la the Materials Collection, if that's possible, and translate what all the people wrote in the artbook.

* translating the Parallel Sailor Moon manga from the back of the Sailor Moon: Materials Collection artbook. It's already been scanned by Sailor Venus, but not translated. The materials collection has been partially translated at The Oracle, up to the Sailormoon S movie/Luna turns into a human arc. I'd like to finish what The Oracle didn't, and get the rest down. This includes liner notes from the back of the book.

* scanlate the Yu-Gi-Oh! Gospel of Truth character guide. False Memories hasn't scanlated this, and Jenniyah is about as unreliable as it gets when it comes to well-translated, available scanlations. I've already done bits and pieces here and there; if I had a team of fans to help me out with editing and translating, I could easily do the entire book. (This is less of a project_sailor_v thing and more of a Yu-Gi-Oh fan thing, but I'd hate to start a new Y!G for no reason. PSV could be considered my Scanlation Group! :P)

* Yu-Gi-Oh! R ... was already started by False Memories, and possibly another group (not sure), but they never finished the whole volume. Janime.info has summaries, but that's never enough! The reason why I like R! so much is for it having Anzu as the only one in danger, which adds to the tension and drama with her (and the other boys!). Kaiba also gets some good duels in. The problem is, it took me forever just to find Volume 1 in stores when I was in Japan, and the manga is serialized in a monthly Shonen Jump magazine called "V-Jump" which is just as impossible to find. If there were a way for me to find Vol. 2 (if/when it comes out), I'd say yes to this immediately...

Everything else
* Update the Animanga Collision eFiction installation
* Update Dragonfayth (and later, Animanga Collision's) mods
* Update the various skins; see if I can get WritingPlus from Calic0cat so I can make a speshul skin based off pgsm-fanfiction.net's silhouette skin, which I like oh-so-very-much!
* Link to all these amazing SM sites I've been finding lately
* Update or write some Sailormoon fic, because I wanna
* Write a guide for Sailor Moon: Another Story, because there don't seem to be any definitive sites for it anymore (with images, media, etc.)
* Remember the Midis: I used to love SM midis. I want them back! :O Was there ever a SM:AS midi site? I seem to remember so. I'd love that OST. I need more Sailormoon albums. I miss my Orgel Fantasia! ;_;
* Finish WDKY23 (it's almost done~!)

( It's not goodbye, it's 'We'll see you soon!' ... and more weird dreams. )

HEY, MAMONO! ONLY 3 MORE MONTHS UNTIL YOUR BIRTHDAY! (thought I forgot, didn'tcha?)

I am now the proud owner of a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Whoo! rhapsody_dragon, get ready to duel! My dragon deck is getting an official overhaul now, and I'm gonna pwn you! And I can't wait till next month, when I get Exchange of the Spirits and I can make either an Isis deck or an Egypt deck!

And I've also gotten into the Christmas spirit at last-- I suppose it makes sense, given that things are going pretty good, it's freezing cold, and I want presents. :P So I want everyone to point me in the direction of Seto x Anzu Christmas fics so I can make a post on setoanzulove and at Blue Eyes and Apricots. So far, I know of two submitted on yuugiouxmasfic:
* From Socks to Shoelace-tan
* From Mickle to Socks
But the second one isn't all that Christmas-themed...

What else? I might not have done 100% as well on my Japanese test this morning, but I did get my letters of recommendation for both Waseda and Tokiwa; I have to get Blumenkrantz's letter for Tokiwa, finish up my essays, have Hirota-sensei check them out before Dec. 8th, and then have them turned in and ready by then! ^_^v I'm getting all excited!

I think I did well on my mythology exam today, even though I missed 2 classes within the past week or so. But I guess I'm just well-versed in mythology, so I'm not too worried about missing much on the exams. They're always so easy...

( I'm walkin' in a spider web... )

Another email exchange: smrffers might know about the people that dare to write sequels to the infamous Sexylyon's SEXY (of course) "Interlude" Usagi x Mamoru first season hentai. It was one of the best fics I've ever read (when I first read it), even if upon re-reading, some parts were purple enough to color my world. Nonetheless, even when people get permissions to write said sequels, taking the original author's so-called style and mocking it is enough to peeve me into next week. And when fangirl Japanese is thrown in? Ugh...

( The fic: Togewonuku. The author: Arashinobara Jikkankakyoku. As if that doesn't tell you everything right there. )

I have the opportunity to go to Egypt next summer... whether or not the whole Japan Study Abroad thing pans out. I think it'd be a great opportunity to get additional travel in, though it does cost $2747, which is likely the bulk of my financial aid check for either Spring 2006 or Fall 2006. But it's only a $95 reservation, and if I really wanted to pull that off, I could, especially with some sucking up to my mom (^^;) Alas, the cost DOES NOT include:
* $570 room supplement if 23 years of age or you turn 23 before or during the tour (huh?)
* non-cruise lunches, beverages, and tips (estimated at $125 per person)
* private bus fee (depending on the size of the group, up to $145)
* CSUN tuition and fees (paid for, no worries there)
* mandated travel insurance and books (only applies to students earning 6 units of credit).

Well, of course I would want to earn the 6 units of credit; 3 from the Independent Study unit in Spring (would bring my total up to 18 units, just under my cap of 15. I don't know what the course would count for-- maybe upper division something-or-other?) and 3 from the tour in Summer.

Anyway, I have to think about tomorrow... er, a dialogue for memorization for Lesson 9 (memorize in the morning, like always), and possibly a critique to do for Creative Writing (which I can do during the break up in collaboratory; I can bring my laptop to work on my PowerPoint and Study Abroad essays as well, since it's an hour and a half long break... if/when I need to print, I can just email it to myself or something, unless Scott gives me back my flashcard by tomorrow).

Finally, sometimes after the insanity dies down this week (likely Thursday or later), I'm planning on:
* Updating WikiFic with more of Viz's insane translation (and other) errors from the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist volumes, plus Millennium World Vol. 1
* Making a winter-themed layout for whatever I feel like (BEA or Dragonfayth)
* Posting Girl's Club (Seto x Anzu; #11: gardenia) for 30kisses, along with the tentatively titled Red/Like A Virgin (#19: red).
* Making some more edits to WDKY22 and seeing if luvinaoshi and any other beta volunteers have anything to say about it...

>_< This is the third freakin' time I've tried to post this... it was either my computer or FreeOpenDiary fritzing on me.
Anywho, ever noticed how today's advertising seems to be going a bit...
D
O
W
N
?
You know what I mean, it's getting sloppier, stupider, harder to understand, and not making people buy whatever.

Case in point: Diesel jeans. So I'm bored at the airport two weeks back, and I pick up "Teen Vogue". Next to some of the most ridiculously priced hats I've ever seen ($500 bucks for a designer RIP-OFF!) I saw some pretty weird ads for Diesel, featuring wax-like people, and a little blurb at the bottom saying "Save yourself/Don't have sex"

Hmm. Selling jeans by protesting the procreation of mankind. Interesting. Original too.
Okay, so these "people" supposedly born in the 1800s, "Saved theirselves" by not having sex. They look all glassy eyed and perfect in their disel 80s-ish clothes, like a pair of Ken and Barbie dolls in the life-size.
So, me and the rest of my female friends are bewildered, and I take it upon myself to check out the site at saveyourselfforever.com. More weirdness, glassy eyed wax-dolls, and "Save yourself" tips and guides.

It doesn't stop at the protest of procreation, oh no, it says "Save yourself"...

Drink Urine/Avoid the Sun/Inhale Oxygen/Don't Breathe (Contradiction, anyone?)/Sleep... the list goes on and on. NO explanation, either, but there is an area where you can submit YOUR saving tips.

If anyone gets this so called ad-campaign, please tell me. I mean, what do wax-people and weird messages have to do with SELLING JEANS?!
*Sigh*