MILES to GO || before I sleep

Since I have to return my Yahoo! BB modem tomorrow, this will probably be my last entry from Japan. *emo!tear*

I suppose I could wax about how the experience has been for me, but to be honest, I think that's best saved for when I'm finally back at home and re-adjusting to "my real life," or at least "my other life," back "home" in the States. Besides, I've been doing entries here rather regularly, so I think people that keep up with my LJ have at least a general idea of what it's been like for me, or what I've been thinking/feeling, for the most part.

But, as some of my parting thoughts on all things random:
-I need some sort of app. for iTunes to better manage all my songs. My biggest irk with iTunes is that when I delete a playlist off my iPod, it doesn't delete the associated songs, so I have to FIND the associated songs and delete them manually in order to save space. I wouldn't need to do this if I knew exactly what was on my iPod (seriously, what is that "other" stuff?), or if the Sync Manager told me when I selected playlists that wouldn't fit on my iPod. I *ONLY* put Playlists on my iPod (that is to say, not random songs that are NOT somewhere on a playlist), so this irritates me. Does anyone know of an option?

I started reading 51 Days of PGSM over at AFSM, and I found a link to Ryuusei's fansubs of the PGSM Oshiokiyo! DVD extras... I downloaded them all, and they were pretty funny. And the episode recaps had me thinking of something I could do for WAFF Day. I know I said something like that before (because I have that idea that would work well for TAFF Day, or WAFF vs. TAFF day, or just a SM fic in general), but maybe if I worked on it a little, that would be good. I know I've said that I want to stay in Yu-Gi-Oh until I finish WDKY, but maybe the reason why 25 is so hard for me to finish isn't just because of the difficukt subject matter, but because the story as a whole seems tiresome by now. If I work on something else for a little while, think about other characters and situations, when I go back to 25, it'll be refreshing (I hope), and then I can finally work on the arc that made me excited about WDKY to begin with-- 26-28! The thing is, the SM fic idea (not the TAFF one) is a First Season romance of sorts, but with an idea distinctly borrowed from the drama-verse. But the anime, manga, and drama are pretty different from each other in their own distinct ways, so if anything, I'd probably have to write it as an anime-verse fic borrowing some ideas from the drama.

I'm hoping I'll manage to cram everything into my suitcase-- it's pretty much full at this point, with everything except my pajamas and tomorrow's outfit in there. I'm thinking I'll just have to give Daniel my leftover Cream of Wheat, but I can get rid of the juice, cookies/macaroons, oatmeal, and hot cocoa tomorrow or Tuesday. And since they're small packets, I might be able to cram them into my backpack, even though it's already so heavy... but at least with Holly's help, we seriously reduced the weight of the package I'm going to send back to the States. Because of the snowman figurine I got for Xmas, I still can't fit things into a shoebox or a smaller box than the one I have, but hopefully the weight will be the primary thing that lessens the cost. Plus the things in there now are things I can live without for a month, so I can still survive off Surface Mail (boat).

I'm still worried that the airport will call me on my suitcases being heavy (plus the extra bag... I can't afford two charges, I really can't, so I hope that all my bags are under 70 lbs. each-- they should be!), or that they'll rail on me for the blanket/Toro-kun bag. Holly doesn't think they will, and I hope she's right. I ended up leaving more things for my roommates than I originally intended, but I hope they put them to good use and don't think I'm just unloading stuff on them to make my life easier (though that is part of it). I wish I could take my nice wooden hangers with me, or my Dove body soap, but I guess those are things I can get in the States, so I shouldn't think about it so much. Same goes for the hand sanitizer... I'm totally an abuser of that stuff, but in all the time since Mom sent it to me, I only used the 2 mini-bottles and about half of one of the larger 8 oz. bottles. I still have an unsealed one left, and I packed that one, but the other one I guess I'll leave here to save room... for my sneakers, or my razor, or something more important. :P After that, it's just my purse, my daily meds, and my mousepad... actually I think I'll probably take that off now.

I should go to bed soon anyway-- even if there's no formal meeting or anything tomorrow, I want to wake up in order to enjoy breakfast, meet my tutors and share my cookies, and maybe go out to lunch with Holly at the meat place near school before I go to the post office and possibly the bank to exchange my money.

Wish me luck!

I've been repeatedly trying this week to budget out the money I've got-- I got less than I expected today, so I have to really work with what I have. I'm torn between being sensible (using the money only for things I need, and the things that fulfill that need without being expensive) and wanting to have a little bit of fun for the last few days I'm here (getting my hair done for cheaper than in the States, going bowling tomorrow with my tutors). But it's hard! I still have to send ¥500 and batteries to Bonnie; I have the 10kg box to send to myself, a smaller, hopefully CHEAP box to send to my grandparents (though if it gets down to it and I have ANY room in my suitcases, I will rip that sucker open and just give them their presents by hand, even if I already addressed the box), and my last, large suitcase to pack with my clothes, a few random toiletries, and whatever else I can think of to cram in there.

What pisses me off is that while I've been on a cleaning/packing spree, I've managed to become horribly disorganized-- I had 4 bus passes for going from school to Mito Eki (valued at ¥800 total), and I CANNOT FIND THEM. I swore I either put them in my wallet or in some drawer/safe place, but I can't find them no matter where I look... ;_; I've gone through 3 bags of trash, 2 of my suitcases, my entire wallet, 2 of my purses... nothing.

If I can sell my roommates my leftover stamps (which I would feel a bit bad doing, but... I'm GIVING them so many other free things, and the stamps are actually worth MONEY), then it won't be a big deal, because it would be enough bus fare to get me to Mito Eki and back (once, rather than twice, but oh well). But I still wish I could find it NOW, because if I were to unpack in the States and find them in some "obvious" place, I would be really pissed at myself-- especially since I wanted to go to the Post Office tomorrow or Saturday to mail everything off and get it out of my way. I also wish I could sell them my phone... I paid ¥4000 for it, and there's NO reason why I needed it! Admittedly, I have used it for the rare occasion of calling a Japanese number, but for the most part, the phone serves no purpose, and I wish I could get that money back, especially now that ANY amount of money would help. I just HATE asking for money... Besides, I doubt either of my roommates would have any use for a phone; they both already pay for cell phones, and if they were to use the landline, they'd have to pay to get it reconnected. I wonder if I could sell it to someone else? Meh.

Oh, I got my grades today-- an 87.86% grade, which is an A here at Tokiwa, but a B back home at CSUN. Either way, pretty good. I got some parts of the final exam wrong, but nothing monumental, and I did rather well on my speaking test, too. I have yet to find out about any of my other classes (we had a test in Criminology today that was set up SO weirdly, but I hope I did well on it. It was all true or false, but there were lots of trick questions and question sets!), but generally speaking, I'm done with school-related stuff for now.

At least I have chocolate and Cola-- my bestest inanimate edible friends.

And now for something interesting I just thought of (which has probably been done before):
Below is a list of 10 things about me; 5 are true (but are you sure?) and 5 are lies (but which ones?). Can you figure out which is which? If you wanna copy this and do it yourself, please do!

I've committed a crime at some point during my life.
I'm bisexual.
I'm allergic to asparagus.
One of my worst health fears is becoming lactose intolerant.
The weight listed on my California ID card is accurate.
I'm not allergic to fish, I just don't like to eat it.
My least favorite genre of music is rap.
I've never been suspended from school.
My first fandom was Sailor Moon.
My worst habit is biting my nails.

I AM STILL IN JAPAN.

This means I am 17 hours ahead of the Pacific Standard Timezone, 16 ahead of Mountain, 15 ahead of Central, and 14 ahead of Eastern.

IT IS A BIG DIFFERENCE. Likely the only time when I'll really be available to call/chat is my mid-morning (11am or so), which is the evening (6pm) on the Pacific seaboard, and... well, you can calculate the difference for other timezones, whichever is applicable to you.

I HAVE *BEEN* IN JAPAN SINCE SEPTEMBER. If you are reading this and did not know that, get with the times. Sorry, but I don't like having to explain myself over and over again. Besides, I'm leaving in a few days (on January 23rd).

I am also extremely busy this week, so on occasion, I will be online (i.e. making LJ posts, changes to my websites) whenever I can, but that doesn't mean you can pound me with IMs (unless they're urgent, and by urgent, I mean someone I care about is in some sort of danger or needs to talk to me).

Also, you may notice I am always online. That is because here in Japan, I have no reason to shut off my Internet nor any reason to shut down my computer. That's because I tend to download things while I go to sleep. Saves me time. :)

I use Adium, the multi-client instant messaging application. I am almost always on AIM, YIM, Jabber (LJ), GMail, and MSN, barring some sort of connection problem (my Wireless does go down on occasion, but I also have the computer hard-wired to Ethernet. Still, sometimes you have to manually tell it which connection to use or it just sits there being stupid). However, if I am set to any sort of "AWAY" one/all of those clients WILL TELL YOU SO! Even if I have a fancy custom message, ANY basic instant messaging client can recognize when someone is away.

On AIM (back when I used to use the official client which IMHO sucks), a little yellow post-it pad will appear besides an Away person's name. Sometimes their name will also be italicized and greyed out, perhaps with (0:00) --the time that they have been away or idle. Usually that's a pretty big hint NOT TO INSTANT MESSAGE THE PERSON. Sure, maybe you have some people on your FL who sit there in "Away" mode but are really there, but figure it this way: if you IM me once and you get an Autoreply Away message and I do not respond within 5 minutes, I am not there. I am not available, too busy, or not even IN the freaking vicinity of my computer.

I set all my away messages to be relatively accurate, too, so if you ever DO wanna know what I'm doing, my Away message will almost always tell you. EC is over, but I also have essays to write, bags to pack, and other important things to do, so please don't be upset if, within these next few days, I do not IM people, or respond to IMs, or change my Away status. Point in fact, the only reason why I am not signing off of the messengers all together is so that people CAN reach me in an emergency. Got an emergency? THEN FREAKING POUND THAT INSTANT MESSENGER RELENTLESSLY. I will take notice. Even when I'm absorbed with gaming (ah, my precious weekend relaxation!), I will notice if someone is urgently and repeatedly IMing me.

I trust you to use your good judgment in deciding WHAT is an emergency. Not everything in this universe *SHOCK!* needs my input. No, seriously. I wish I had time for debates or fun discussions or community decisions or whatnot, but I really don't.

I'm sorry, but I hope when I get back to the States, I'll have more time to chat with people.
With that said, I have class now WITH A TEST.

Today sucks already. I don't want to be like "Oh, it started out terrible, so the rest of the day must be going to hell, too." I'm a realist, not a pessimist! But to begin with:

* My alarm clock didn't go off (stupid cell phone. I must have accidentally disabled it sometime last night, but the damn indicator icon was still on, so how the fuck was I supposed to know? I'm seriously considering seeing if T-Mobile will let me trade in my RAZR v3x for one of their new RAZRs that's actually supported. None of this European gibberish funktastic broken-but-not-really crap).

* Because of that, I woke up 5 minutes before I was supposed to be in class. Reeking, I decided to take a shower. Hungry, I decided to eat breakfast. Hopefully doing the somewhat-smart thing (even if it meant missing a vocab quiz, no matter what), I decided to ditch class in favor of working on my monstrous essay for Mass Media-- the class that won't count for anything at CSUN except 3 units.

* The essay which I've already written the bulk of... on Spider-Man alone! So I redid the outline, printed it out, and will start writing a more organized (hopefully) essay as soon as I'm done venting in this entry.

My sleep schedule over the course of the winter vacation and this past weekend has been horrible. So it's no surprise that when my back started hurting horribly yesterday (yay, sciatica), I also happened to run out of painkillers. So I decided to slam some Midol (hey, they have acetaminophen AKA Tylenol in it!) and sleep... and sleep I did, for several hours. And obviously while sleeping, I did not eat. Thus, when I woke up many hours later, I was a complete fruitcake.

And nobody likes a fruitcake.

Well, so I tried to get things done, tried to eat, blah blah... but then when it started getting late, even though I KNEW I should sleep, I wasn't tired. My mind just kept wandering back to all the things that I have yet to get done. And excuse after excuse poured into my brain about why it hasn't gotten done. I hate making excuses.

I also hate having to vent on my LJ because I have no one I can really tell all this to in person, get some honest, IRL feedback from. I hate sticking myself in my room all day and really porking out in front of my computer, because even when I'm at work (school; CSUN) doing it, when people come into the walk-in center for help, it's a breath of fresh air! It's not just mindless-Mer staring at a computer screen, clacking away, even if it is somehow productive.

And my chest has been hurting so much lately, I wonder if I'm setting myself up to have a heart attack. Shit, it runs in my family. It's not like I eat fried food all day long, but I'm not exactly Miss America, here. Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, and the occasional veggie platter do not a healthy cardiovascular system make.

At the very least, I'm a ball of stress, and I'm worried that I won't get anything done, or I'll get everything done half-assed with people mad at me, or some mixture inbetween where I'll end up doing damage somehow. I had such a hard time sleeping last night.

I really hate complaining though, instead of making any changes, so I'm back to working on my essay... which, by the way, crashed about 5 minutes ago, but at least Word makes use of the Recovery feature. So I guess that's one LESS thing to be stressed about.

Okay, so today was essentially a good day. Holly made me silver dollar pancakes topped with a cute strawberry, as promised, and we took the earliest bus/train possible from Akatsuka to Nippori, and then the Yamanote Line trains in Tokyo to Shinjuku first, then Hamamatsucho (to the Ryutsu Center via the monorail), and then back to Shibuya. We accidentally took the "long route" to Shinjuku, so we got our time messed up a little, but we had fun-- as soon as we exited the station, we looked for a place to eat, so we decided on this small cafe/restaurant that had apparently JUST opened that day (it was pretty busy, and there was a "GRAND OPEN!" flyer on the cashier) called "Ducky Duck." I had a Foccacia pizza and a blueberry bagel (with blueberry cream cheese), the latter of which I got at the train station because I was so ravenous, and the former with a thoroughly lemon-soaked Coke.

After that, we wandered around Marui Young looking at the Gothic Lolita clothes; we'd gone there for a few minutes before Ducky Duck, but I was so hungry I convinced Holly to get grub so we could do some power shopping. While I find the various Lolita styles interesting, I can't really see myself wearing anything except maybe the most tasteful and plain (i.e. as few bows and hearts as possible) dresses. I saw one gorgeous Santa-inspired red coat with white fur trim, but it was over $315! Yeah, WAY out of my budget. But Holly found lots of things she liked, and we found out that if you spend over 10,000 or so yen at Marui Young and are a foreign visitor, you can get the consumption tax (5%) back! So we did that, and then went to look for Okadaya, a craft store.

We finally found it after some wandering, but it was a bit of a disappointment to me-- floors 4-6 were mostly about sewing, with things like rick-rack, buttons, small bolts of fabric, yarn, and the like everywhere. Not my cup of tea, to be honest. Floor 7 had some magazines and books, but they were all over-priced; floor 3 had some cool makeup and wigs, so I bought some nice cheap nail polish and some Victorian-style scrapbook stickers. I also bought some things from the other floors for Baba and Joyce. Floors 1 and 2 were all about beading, and while I was totally tempted to get some things, they were way expensive, too. I might have been reading the signs wrong, but I'm pretty sure the signs had a price "per bead."

Next up we headed to Hamamatsucho; the monorail was a very interesting ride, and it took us through Tennozu Isle, the same place that inspired Infinity Island in Sailor Moon S. I even saw the building that inspired Infinity Academy! :D I just read about it the other day in one of my new books: Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon, so it was pretty cool actually seeing it in person, even if it was just for a few moments.

The antique fair was pretty easy to find, and it was nice that it was all indoors (I thought it might be outdoors based on the description and warnings from the PaperLantern.net page). But everything was so expensive! I was hoping I would find things for both my Dad and Scott (and maybe Grandpa), but of all the incredible things I saw, only one thing "called" to me as being perfect, and that was a present I snagged for Dad. The guy I bought it from even gave me a small discount! I think he was just surprised that I was being so picky and interested in what he had to offer. I thought about getting Scott a Buddha statuette, or maybe some Japanese ukiyoe art, but with prices running in the low thousands for STAINED stuff, I said no. Besides, nothing "called" to me as being perfect for him. I'm hoping I think of something soon, or see something in Hong Kong. I feel kind of guilty having not gotten him anything for his birthday or Christmas yet, save the one small-ish, kind of silly thing I already bought (which I hope to mail this week, along with the other boxes and cards).

Holly and I split up through most of the fair, and even though the exhibition hall was large, we found our way through the whole place pretty quickly. It was mostly housewares (plates) and genuinely antique-y stuff like samurai armor, swords, prints, toys, and things like that. EVERYTHING was very expensive. One Buddha statuette I looked at was 10,300 yen (over $90 USD, about)! And it was barely the size of my palm!

We ended up leaving before the fair actually ended, and we headed back to the monorail to go to Shibuya. I wanted to go to the NANA 2 museum and cafe "Lotus and Strawberry," but we didn't have a whole lot of time; we were also hungry, so we stopped at a Royal Host and had dinner (I had Mexican tacos along with some honey & wild berry ice cream). After that, we tried to find our way to the Jewish Community Center, but because we weren't coming directly from the station, the directions we had (and the lousy map) weren't very useful. We asked for directions at a koban (police box), and managed to make our way there, but only after TONS of walking. And according to the hours, they were closed on Saturdays! I found that hard to believe, given that synagogues and the like are usually OPEN on the high holidays, and the front door was open, too. Another guy came up and asked us if we were there to see the movie; we said no, we just wanted to see the place, we'd come from Mito, etc., and sooner than later, a guy working for the JCC came and let us in. I saw they had a table of goodies set up-- alas, the dreidels (glass) were too expensive, so I ended up buying matzoh and coconut macaroons instead. YAY! :D :D :D MATZOH! IN JAPAN! :D :D

But all that walking took so much time, so we had to run to catch a bus (flat rate of 170 yen, how cheap!) and get back to Shibuya so we could take our train to Nippori and then back to Mito. But my stomach started hurting on the bus, so at Nippori I found a bathroom and stayed sick for a good half hour. :( My stomach was still finicky when we finally boarded a train, but thankfully it was a Rapid train, so there was a bathroom (which was surprisingly clean). I'd taken a Pepto from Holly back at Nippori, so my stomach started to feel a bit better... but I think the fake Mexican tacos did that to me. :( I'm still feeling kind of queasy.

The guys at the JCC told me about a Hanukkah party going on tomorrow at some Otani Hotel, but there are LOTS of Otani Hotels in Tokyo, and I can't remember which one/where they said it was! I want to go, since the whole point of me trying to find the JCC was to do something Hanukkah-y, and plus you get free food and a free menorah! But since I'm not feeling well *AND* since it costs extra money (plus even if I use another day from my Seishun 18 ticket, I'd have to buy another one for use with Bonnie when we're in Tokyo! It's totally worth it, since it pays for itself if you spend more than 2500 yen or so in a single day, which I do just coming from Mito, though), I might not go. I'm waiting to see if anyone emails me back with the exact address, or there's no point.

I also want to try and start writing more for my scholarship paper/the book. It occurred to me that there are LOTS of books on anime, but not very many on manga, it seems. Mine wouldn't be the first, and perhaps not even the first to explore the connections and dissimilarities between manga and Japanese novel writing, but I'd like to give it a shot.

Anyway, since my tongue is brown and my head is achey, I think I'll get to sleep now.

I'm not sure there's anything quite as funny as someone responding to "Wassup?" with "I'm not gay!" and a bright morning smile. Seriously, the Japanese can be so funny, without even trying. We have a few gems of people here at the dorms; one of them just said that to me and Holly as we were walking back from class.

Also, I clonked myself in the face yesterday with my Mac Book. I had so many windows open in Firefox, I didn't want to close it, so I went into the Apple menu and put the computer to sleep. It did that, but when I wanted to check something, I hit the space bar (which normally would bring the computer OUT of sleep), but I saw the "dimmed screen" again. That means the Sleep mode failed or something, and I have to cold-reboot... so I did. I wasn't sure if it turned back on when I hit the button though (i.e restart rather than shut down), so I picked up the computer to listen for the sound of the fan. I didn't hear anything, so I raised my head, and BAM! K.O'd by my own laptop. The corner of my right eye is a bit puffy and sore at the moment.

And yeah, I know I'm a klutz. Shaddup.

I updated the Elegance skin over at Dragonfayth. Check it out and tell me what you think, and if you find any sections with illegible text (too dark text, too dark background, etc.), then please let me know. I'm still working on getting the staircasing effect of the category columns worked out. I could also use some other ideas for color schemes, since Dragonfayth seems very... BLUE. Not that there's anything WRONG with blue, it's just there's a lot of it. Both CSS Zen and Elegance now use schemes of blue. I didn't like the old Elegance skin because it was this kind of pukey green to me; if you have suggestions for NICER color combinations, please send them my way.

Next up on the discussion block: the state of the American education system is inherently responsible for badfic. No, really. ( One of the best of the best Fanfic rants )

I also had a cheesy idea that's probably been done before: The Twelve Days of Christmas, Fandom Style!

For example:
"On the first day of Christmas, (character name) gave to me (something from fandom)!
On the second day of Christmas, ..." etc. etc.

The 12 Days of Fandom Meme
1. Choose a fandom you're involved in.
2. Choose up to 12 characters from that fandom (the song works better if you stick with one character, but then again, no one said you actually had to SING this).
3. If Christmas were celebrated in that fandom, and you were there to receive gifts from the above-mentioned characters, what would you get, and from whom?

Yu-Gi-Oh
On the first day of Christmas, Yuugi Mutou gave to me a Millennium Puzzle piece!
On the second day of Christmas, Seto Kaiba gave to me two Kaiba Corp. card keys!
One the third day of Christmas, Mokuba Kaiba gave to me three parfaits!
On the fourth day of Christmas, Jounouchi gave to me four REBDragon figurines!
On the fifth day of Christmas, Anzu gave to me five DDR games!
On the sixth day of Christmas, Pegasus gave to me six Funny Bunnies!
On the seventh day of Christmas, Otogi gave to me seven Dungeon Dice Monsters!
On the eighth day of Christmas, Sugoroku gave to me eight ancient games!
On the ninth day of Christmas, Mai Kujaku gave to me nine bottles of perfume!
On the tenth day of Christmas, Isis Ishtar gave to me ten prophetic visions!
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Malik Ishtar gave to me eleven slimey slimers!
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Hiroto Honda gave to me twelve Cyber C.'s!

So this one's not really sing-able, unless you take out the names of the people that gave the presents on the day before, and some of the syllables for the longer gifts (i.e. the "REBDragon" part of the four figurines line). But it's fun anyway, ne? Give it a try!

Lastly, I need icons...
* Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter
* NANA
* Your recommendations
Come on, point me at the pretties!

You can't spell "distressed" without "stressed." And I was just as equally tempted to pick "depressed" for my mood, because I'm not HAPPY, that's for damn sure.

Yesterday I thought I'd gotten the whole SDSU application out of my way, but Scott (he did a good thing) went to SDSU and talked to a bunch of people, and they said that I might not even need to "transfer," per se, so much as "visit" SDSU, while still taking classes as if they were from/at CSUN. That means my degree would still say "CSUN" on it. Regardless though, I have to get access to and fill out the Supplementary Application re: my grades, even though my grades won't be official until several weeks into the Spring 2007 semester (at least), because I don't get back until A WEEK before that new semester starts. Plus, I would have to clear with various department chairs about whether the classes they offer at SDSU could be considered equivalent to the ones at CSUN for my major/minors, so as not having to take classes OVER again at SDSU, because SDSU doesn't "officially" consider them equivalent. They have ECON 161 and POLS 155 as pre-reqs for even ENTERING the journalism program at SDSU, but because they're lower div and I've taken so many other journalism classes at CSUN, Scott and I are hoping that I won't need to take those, and I can still get into SDSU's IMPACTED Journalism program with the classes I have.

Oh yea, and then there's the FAFSA. -_- Seriously, I'm beginning to HATE January.

I suppose my day's Tarot is kind of ironic, then... ( The Seven of Chalices )

My horoscope for today: You're in pursuit of excitement and fresh adventure. Try a different path to get your life going in a whole new direction. Daring sports and physical activities get your blood racing and stimulate your mind, too.

Then it makes sense that I went to the gym during 4th period. I even tried out some machines I thought I would never use, and even if I'm the only girl in the group that would be there (assuming I would ever go with the guys; since we have such different schedules, it's actually kind of unlikely; the gym also closes at 7pm), I think it would be good for me... I don't need to get into testosterone comparison contests like the boys. It's very different from an American gym, but it'll give me something to do, and I can "stay fit" and shape up... and if the endorphins really do perk me up and inspire me, all the better.

The main portion of today's concern was about the trip (to Hong Kong) that baine and I are taking on 23 Dec. ( The best things in life are free... but you can keep them for the birds and bees, give me MONEY! )

But that's okay, I don't eat much, anyway! It's better to cut back on my daily Coca-Cola, and spend more time here at the dorms getting things cleaned up and done. Like my scholarship paper. *sigh* Or my paper for Pop Culture. Or my Religious Studies test. (and before I leave, a Mass Media paper, a Modern Culture paper, and a Popular Culture/Image of the Japanese in American Media paper. Oy VEY!)

If it's not one thing, it's always another.

Like my new $121 phone bill. I'm going to wait to hear from T-Mobile about what the hell's up with that THIS time, to see if the charges are legit. Even if they are, I don't have to pay until December 10th, which gives me enough time to get paid (3x) and deposit said money by wire into my bank account, and pay that way. I refuse to have mom pay for my phone bill any more than she has already. But I'm probably going to cancel my $14.99 Unlimited Text Messages (I would have to send 150 text messages a month for that to pay for itself, anyway, and I haven't even sent 85 since I've been in Japan), my Web Access (useless, anyway), and whatever other useless things I might be paying for.

Money stresses me out quite easily, and my brain deals with it by having dreams about Christian Bale doing my dishes (the night before last) or going to strange reunions/graduations where friend's boyfriends are suddenly gay and dating angry, fat white guys and where conveyer belts look like they're made of stone and have water bubbling up from the cracks.

Yeah, I think I need to sleep now, too.

Ah, what a day. I woke up this morning feeling like crap, namely because of the mini-migraine that had been plaguing me since the night before. It probably wasn't a good idea to eat popcorn and sugar stars (the latter being a gift from the Tokiwa High School students when we went earlier in the evening) as I watched a 5-hour "Kimi wa Petto" marathon. (And yes, it was very good. I successfully managed to burn all 10 episodes to one DVD, too, so that makes me quite happy. I don't understand why one can't make a Video-DVD -as in, pop it into your DVD player- from *.avis, but whatever.)

I ended up skipping both Japanese and Religious Studies, the latter being a bad idea just because that class is actually TWO classes, and I think this week's class was the last part of the Religious segment, and next week, we change teachers and begin the Modern Japan segment. I just wish we'd gotten to learn more about Buddhism.

I managed to get up, eat, and shower in time for Pop Culture, where we watched part of Totoro, Nausicaa, and a documentary called "Polluted Japan." Today's class was actually quite interesting, because it pointed out some of the things that may have inspired Hayao Miyazaki's stories. Totoro was probably my first anime (I didn't even know it until recently), and I'd never even seen ANY of Nausicaa before today's class. Even better, the teacher lent out all of the shows he'd shown us thus far, so maybe later I can watch the rest of the apocalyptic movie "Dragonhead."

I'm hoping both my teachers will be understanding about my missing class earlier. Winter is the season for people getting sick, and I certainly wasn't feeling WELL today. Thankfully Wednesday's not a class-heavy day; I have EC with Christine and by myself (but we're going to watch a movie in the EC with Christine), and my kanji packet due; I think that's about it.

I really want to get my butt to work on my project-- that is, the "book" talking about the Women Writers of Japan. I can either do a whole lot of focus on one aspect (writers vs. manga-ka, men vs. women, now vs. historical times, Japan vs. USA) or focus a bit on all of them. Above all else, I want it to read "easily," and not like some boring book. So I'm going to revise my proposal outline, get a "hypothesis" or "thesis" statement working, and maybe spend some time tomorrow at the International Center library, looking for resources. I guess this need to get that done coincides with my boredom... my want to read some BOOKS. Not fanfics (sorry), but BOOKS. I was thinking of buying some things off Amazon.com or Amazon.co.jp, so if you have any suggestions for fiction, non-fiction, whatever-- let me know. This is especially true if you think of any books that can help me with my research. I already know about some of Gilles Poitras' and Susan Napier's, though.

Finally, Scott emailed me tonight! Actually, I was looking at a Borders email when HIS email came, and I realized he must be online. Since I had Adium already turned on, I opened up my buddy list to see if he was there-- and he was! So despite Turkmenistan having bad connections and such, we were still able to IM each other for a few minutes, which made me feel very happy. It's true that I can't see him, hear his voice, or hold him, but... I know I will someday soon. :) I have to stay positive in that respect, and keep on learning and growing on my own. He said he sent me an *EIGHT* PAGE letter, so I'm really looking forward to that. In fact, I think I'll go check my mailbox now... just in case.

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

So I'm sitting in my room here at 10 till the time when I usually leave to take my "leisurely" walk to the International Center where I have my early morning Japanese class. I've gotten used to waking up early (I've even been waking up around 7:15-7:30 the past 2 days), so that doesn't bother me, but it's the little things I always took for granted that I miss here.

A mom or Baba to take care of me when I was sick.
Comfort food like Macaroni and Cheese.
Whipped Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

I'm staying in because I've got a killer sore throat. Jaclyn gave me some Sudafed (the legal kind, thank you very much), and I've been drinking/gargling saltwater like my mother's always directed me to when I'm sick. I'm not feeling any better though, which sucks- because today is actually my free day, with only one class, one tutor session, and one EC session-- compared to yesterday, when I had class, EC, class, EC (EC being English Conversation, or my "teaching," if you haven't picked that up from previous entries).

But obviously, I have internet-- at last. The first two months are free, and since I'm renting all the equipment, there's more of a charge for that... but I don't mind. I'm certainly getting paid enough to handle a measly 2 months after the campaign is over. And if my speed is as fast as it's supposed to be (50 MBits/sec), then they might even send me a BBTV pack, so I can watch TV~ Maybe not American TV, but hey, something's better than nothing. I'd love to see more of the drama we've been watching in Japanese class, "Chuura-san" or the new Hana Yori Dango. Or heck, NANA (the anime)!

I have yet to get the whole printer thing for XP worked out-- need some composite USB device driver or whatnot, and the guy who wrote the Ultimate Guide to Sphere Break may have very well disappeared off the face of the planet. But one can hope things will work out in time-- just like this sore throat, I think things will get better.

I didn't have access to Apple Software Updates or even the iTunes Music Store at first, but I'm good now. Matter of fact, now that I have a Japanese billing address, I suppose I could theoretically even find a way to access iTunes Japan, but I'm not really THAT desperate for any particular song. Sure, CDs are expensive as heck here (unless you find them at discount stores like Hard-Off, and yes, that really is the name), but iTunes Japan doesn't charge 99 yen for a song-- it varies between 150 and 200 most of the time, and I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that THEY would have that a CD store of some sort wouldn't. Unless they have anime soundtracks, in which case, how do I access it?

We're (being the exchange students) are supposed to go out to Tsuchiura and see the formerly-postponed fireworks competition tomorrow night, so I really hope I'm feeling better by then. Especially once I get my paycheck-- which I have to get today, even if I start turning green and spewing flames. Weirdly enough, Erica, Daisuke, Holly, and my Criminology teacher invited us all out to dinner tonight-- we're supposed to have EC until 6:40, and I think he said meet him at his office at 6:30, but if I'm feeling like crap, I don't want to go to either, nice as the thought is (assuming he treats, otherwise, no point).

I suppose soon I'll be uploading pictures and the like for everyone to see. I have postcards in the wings for many people, though others have to wait for me to find the right omiyage for them... yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Gotta-Have-Haruhi!

I'd like to find some sort of Alarm Clock widget, since I'm lacking in a workable alarm clock anyway, and why can't my computer be an alarm if it can do everything else except wash my underwear? I found this Widget that will wake me up, but this morning's test didn't exactly work out- I think I need to figure out how to work the program. But what I want is something that will play streaming radio (via iTunes, probably, or QuickTime) for a set amount of time before I go to sleep (and if possible, dim or turn off the screen in that time, since you can't have music playing with the lid closed/computer in Sleep mode), and will beep or play another song when I wake up. If anyone knows of something, let me know. I'm sick of listening to my air conditioner's whistling to try and get to sleep.

Ugh, I probably should get off this thing and sleep for real... or eat something. Maybe I'll update later if I feel better. At least I got my homework done...

You know, many nursery rhymes are really morbid. 'Ring around the Rosy' really described the Black Plague, and I heard that the 12 Days of Christmas was a day of reminding people about Christ symbolism in a time when certain denominations of Christianity were persecuted. And then there's the not-so-innocent 'It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, he bumped his head and went to bed and didn't wake up in the morning...'

But yes, it is pouring here, and even though I'm hungry (had nothing but an apple cream danish, Coke, and some caramel popcorn for breakfast), I don't want to go outside. I took a shower this morning and had some issues with my razor (I really need to buy more bandages), and as a result, I stumbled out of the shower thinking it was 9:50 when it was really only 9:40. Today the basic and advanced classes combined (in other words, the basic class got to sleep in, and the advanced class was supposed to wake up early) to watch Water Boys- a decidedly good movie that was funny, touching, and all-around a great watch.

Long story short, I thought I was late so I grabbed little food, forgot my boots for the rain, and ended up getting soaked when I found out I DID have time and I went to the campus conbini to get some snacks for the movie. My feet are still wet (Converse SUCK for the rain. I need new boots, but the question is, where to get them???).

At least Mom said she's sending me some non-perishables (though I should have mentioned my need for Mac and Cheese, biscuits and artichokes), and I have a Costco Japan delivery of canned Coke and bagels coming my way tomorrow morning.

I finished getting my phone set up (teh yay!), but Internet won't be hooked up until the 13th or so, when I'm supposed to get my modem and router in the mail. In the meantime, there is the International Center, and I abused the extra time I have today (nothing to do until 6th period, when I have EC here at the university) by looking up things to do on Sunday- Mike (yes, Cooper) will be here in Japan for the next week or so with his brother Dave (YAY!), so we're going to try and hang out. He's staying in Nagoya, which is about 2 hours SW of Tokyo, so rather than me meet him there, we decided on a half-way point: Akihabara. With Mike's help, I found a few Jewish delis, and there's apparently one in Akasaka (note: NOT Asakusa!) near the Tameikesannou Station. With my tutor's help, I even got a Google Map of the area, so I know where to walk from the station to get there.

And tomorrow -if it's not pouring- there's a huge fireworks competition in Tsuchihara. The exchange students are all planning to meet up at 4pm at Akatsuka station so we can go together; I want to figure out how to take better pictures of fireworks.

I've been playing FFX-2 ILM (as previously mentioned) in the meantime, and I desperately wanted the rare and legendary Enterprise/Break HP limit accessory that you can only get by pushing an elusive and cracktastic Tobli into the Celsius' cabin-level elevator. Thankfully I got Johnfred (another CSUN exchange student) to do it for me -using only the analog stick!- so I owe him 2 dinners (I figure pizza at Mito Eki will do. It's really delicious there, and I'm all for any excuse going back) for that. Now if only I can get him to play the Gunner's Gauntlet for me! I've beaten on my own before, but it takes a long time before I get into it enough -most of the time, it's just frustrating. You need 500 points in 7 minutes ALL by getting ammo, shooting high-level (and therefore powerful) fiends, and NOT by breaking your chain by getting attacked and losing HP. Or worse, running out of time. It's a pain in the ass!

I detest the mini-games and sub-missions in this game, especially since I'm lacking a decent English translation for the most basic of things. I can't do any of the PR/Marriage missions; I can't understand what the Ronsos on Gagazet say, it's hard finding out from what people in Guadosalam say where the Leblanc Syndicate is (to get the uniforms; I already got one from the Mushroom Rock/Djose Road, but what about the other 2?), and I may have missed some critical percentage points by not finding Maechen at the Youth League HQ when I was there in Chapter 1. Ugh, I knew I was sacrificing the Perfect Ending/100% by getting Tobli into the elevator, but I'm missing basic stuff, here! Quick, tell me where else I need to go and what to do -I can't go to any game sites to get FAQs! I think no matter what, I'll just do the most necessary things here to get as much percentage as possible, and then just New Game Plus for everything else- done THE RIGHT way.

And now, something I've always wondered about FFX-2: When Leblanc swiped Yuna's songstress DS, it had Lenne's dress and memories in it -but Yuna's appearance. Perhaps Yuna was the first to find the sphere and therefore 'mark' it (since Lenne had it herself, or since it was recorded/imprinted by Lenne, even accidentally), but I never understood how Leblanc was able to make herself look like SUMMONER Yuna and THEN transform into Songstress Yuna. Spheres in general really confuse me.

Greetings from Japan (again). My 'Net in my room still isn't hooked up yet, but I did get the complicated application sent out; hopefully work won't be necessary (I think the phone jack is round), but they have yet to email me with the status of my application.

I apologize for not having any pictures or anything up yet, but I can't really MySpace, IM, Google, or much of anything on these school-networked computers, and that includes uploading things to my LJ Scrapbook. Actually what I'm considering doing is creating a new subdomain on my site that includes pictures and journal entries I've created in iWeb when I haven't had genuine Net access to update here.

On Saturday, all the exchange students went out with their tutors (3 to each person, so 8-9 people per group). We got off our bus in Ueno, then took the train to Asakusa, the historical/nostalgic suburb. We went to the famous temple with the 'Thunder Gate' that everyone sees in pictures; we got our fortunes told and then I offered a quick prayer to one of the local Daibutsu for Scott's safe trip to Turkmenistan later this week.

Then we went to have some Okonomiyaki- I got the idea when I searched for videos and I stumbled across my Ranma collection (amazingly still on my HD). I thought of Ukyou, and how I'd never tried Okonomiyaki, and an idea was born. We went to this small place (can't remember where, but it's common for there to be great shops and things down small, narrow alleys), and we had two orders- I shared a grill with my tutor Hiroyasu. The first was an okonomiyaki of my choice, with beef and lots of vegetables. It was SO delicious, and everyone was impressed with my l33t pancake-flipping skills. I can work even without an 'American' spatula! Ukyou-sama would be proud of me (if she existed)! The second okonomiyaki was one with more liquid; you're supposed to dump the semi-dry ingredients on the oiled-up grill, make it into a donut, pour the liquid in the middle, and then fold and flatten it over and over until it's all cooked. We sprinkled cheese (Parmesean or Mozarella, I think) on top and then ate it right off the grill! It was so tasty- as was the special okonomiyaki sauce (by the way, writing messages in that stuff is HARD!).

After that we headed to Kanda and then took a short shinkansen ride to Akihabara (which the locals call 'Akiba'). The original plan was to go to a maid cafe, but we got a little turned around, so we had to stop and ask for directions at an AU kddi cell phone shop. Then when we finally got to the cafe (Japanese elevators are small!), there was a 2 hour wait, so that was out. Actually, I think that was the case for everyone who tried to go to a maid cafe, except a few people got 'maid fortunes' told by maids. Still, we saw lots of maids, cat-maids, and anime cosplayers advertising their cafes.

We went to Taito Amusement Tower, where I'd been with Pop! Japan Travel the last time I came to Japan and Akiba, but this time I had much more fun-- I got a giant Toro stuffed cat from one of the UFO catchers, and he's my new bedroom mascot slash pillow. I have the matching Pez back home in Los Angeles, and Mom has his Pez buddy, Kuro the black cat. We were going to take 'purikura' (print club) pictures; at Taito, you can also cosplay before you take pictures, but there was a super-long wait for that, too. 'Dame datta!' After that we went to Try Amusement Tower, a small hole-in-the-wall game center with something like 7 stories- I think I'd been there before and thought it was dinky, but I didn't know about the upstairs! They had a floor solely dedicated to Bemani games- including DDR 9th Mix, SuperNova! Dez was right in saying that the scoring is a lot tighter. Aside from trying to find songs I liked (I guess organization bv game isn't available anymore), it was pretty fun, and my tutors all thought I was good-- of course, until a Japanese guy came along and pwned me by playing things like Maxx 3000 and so on. :P But I still had great fun, and it was only 100 yen a play!

Most everyone else then went to a discount store, but one of my tutors went with me to Animate (I wanted to go to Tora no Ana, but we were short on time). Apparently 'for ladies' is synonymous with yaoi/shonen-ai, which, as you know, I'm not into. So I guess I'll have to go to the so-called men's store for my smutty romance fix. Actually I wouldn't mind finding some plain old GEN doujinshi...

Interesting thing I found out- yaoi is not a native Japanese word. It looks and sounds like it is, but it's not, and the average Japanese will not associate it with the abbreviation which most fans know it by: 「山なし落ちなし意味なし」 or yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi - usually translated as 'no peak, no point, no meaning.' But it can be translated other ways- like 'nothing mountain, nothing needle, nothing meant.' Thus, you get YAma nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi and then yaoi. They do that sort of abbreviating with other words, but not those words. The joke version of the abbreviation is 'YAmete, Oshiri ga Itai!' or 'Stop it, my ass hurts!' Both of these so-called meanings make sense, but the first one only in English, and the Japanese aren't crude enough to use the second one. The term they used at all the stores I went to was Boys' Love, which encompasses shonen-ai and male smut.

I have no clue about 'yuri' (lily) though and how that came to be associated with female smut.

And that is your Japan update for today... in a few minutes I have to meet with one of my Japanese teachers to plan for the campus open house, and what we (myself, Todd, and Daniel, all of us from CSUN) will be doing to help out.

This morning I gave my laptop to Maeda-san here in the International Center with the hopes that the campus System Engineer would hook me up with wireless internet. I waited all day, all through class, through two more classes, lunch, a nap... all to be told it's no good, they don't understand Macs. I told them earlier that there's Windows on the machines, but obviously she forgot or didn't understand, because she didn't know later when I reminded her.

At least tomorrow I'm going with Jaclyn to the City Office to get a Residency Certificate so I can apply for NTT/Yahoo BB. Unlike everyone else (it seems) I don't plan on waiting to get our Alien card in a few weeks. I'm too sick of this. Midori (My roommate) said she'd help me return the lousy $22 dictionary I got, and hopefully help me fax the forms for NTT as well (which may cost me... I hate faxing). I have a feeling I'll need to be sent equipment (ethernet cable, router/modem, etc) before anything can happen though. Ugh.

And to add to it all, I seem to have lockjaw or something like it- I know the mosquitos like to nibble on my elbows and ankles, but I don't think I got something from them; still, it hurts on my right side, and I wonder. I hope it's not my wisdom teeth... I don't know about the dental insurance here. I just hope whatever it is goes away by Friday, when we go to Tokyo for a day trip. It hurts to eat and to talk; before, if I kept my mouth closed it was okay, but it's getting sore again, and 400 mg (a pair of pills) of Ibuprofen doesn't seem to do much. Wah!

Apologies to Jimbo, who I've been pestering about activation codes for the software on my computer... the time difference between PDT and here is 17 hours (we're ahead), so it's difficult to find a time when people are awake and available. I try and do texting more than anything else, because I have unlimited texting, and calling is so expensive, and internet access so rare, but if your texting is NOT free, or you never set your phone to silent when you sleep (unlike me), then... yeah, I can understand. But thanks for helping me with everything. It's alleviating the boredom at least a little bit. But I may need to rearrange my room (again) to accomodate whatever stuff I get from NTT.

All the email I've gotten so far (excepting stuff from the Mominator and a few comments) has been junk mail or useless mail. Come on people, talk to me! bored bored bored...

I started my Mass Media and Communication and Criminology classes today; the latter is taught by a German teacher who is... hm, shall we say "energetic"? I look forward to it.

Ja, tsugi o yonde ne!

I AM ALIVE!!!!!

Ah, yes, I made it to Japan okay, and while I'm currently without personal 'Net access, I'm making do with the computers in the International Center. The plan is to meet baine sometime this extended weekend (national holiday followed by school holiday for me). Problem is, she's all the way down south in Sasebo (think San Diego), while I'm in Mito (think San Francisco). And while the trains here are a lot more efficient than Amtrak, 9 hours and nearly $250 (26,630 yen) is pretty pricey. I have the money, but I need a way to get cash from my MasterCard, a way to get from the university to the Mito train station, and a way to get the tickets without ending up somewhere in Hokkaido.

So far, I've been getting accustomed to my new room (small), my new roommates (cute, fun), and my intimidating Japanese teacher (...) I have been calling some people, but at $2/minute, I'm trying to limit my time. Still, if you wanna give me a buzz, feel free. Text messages are better though, and you can text me via LiveJournal; just go to my User Info.

It was rainy here the past 2 days, and Bonnie was saying it might even be typhoon (Taifu) season coming up, but today the weather is very nice. I hope it stays that way for the weekend, because I wanted to go to the Phoenix Seagaia Ocean Dome resort-- an indoor beach. (Understatement of the year, actually. Go look it up.)

Anyway, there's lots to do, lunch to be had, and a few random necessities to be taken care of (more hangers, sticky pads, a folder/binder)... I'll try and update when I can; hopefully I'll get 'Net soon! In the meantime, I'm updating all of my pictures in iPhoto and making them shared in Parallels; I hope when I can finally update from my MBP I can show off some icons or pictures or something.]

Sore ja-- mata na!

I never realized until today just how many cellular retailers there are in the Northridge Fashion Center. I knew of 2 immediately-- one that I thought was Cingular was actually ANOTHER T-Mobile (I already knew about one of the downstairs T-Mobile kiosks); there were no less than 6 that we saw total (for both T-Mobile and Cingular) on both floors of the mall. That's not including Verizon and Sprint/Nextel, neither of whom are an option for Japan.

The spectrum seemed to be crappy toward the back of the mall (dodgy service, stupid representatives), with the cool guys in the middle (though the end-middle guys were desperate, to the point of trying too hard), and the geeky freakazoids (tried to hit on me, thinks he's being original with a "^_^" signature) in the front.

Still, the guys Dad and I spoke to for nearly a half hour from T-Mobile have practically sold me on the silver Motorola RAZR V3. T-Mobile's BEEN an international company, and they just recently came stateside, so they're already well-established with partners in other countries like Japan. I checked their maps, and indeed-- they have high coverage right in Mito, partnered with --yes!-- DoCoMo.

The question then is, is the RAZR V3 a 3G phone, which is required by DoCoMo?

The guys at the T-Mobile booth seemed to insist I would *HAVE* to get a SIM Card in Japan (even though the RAZR already comes with one) and get some sort of a pre-paid plan, but then what I read on some forums, you CAN'T rent a SIM card in Japan-- they don't even use SIM, they use USIM or something like that. And if T-Mobile's got such great international coverage (and the RAZR is a quad-band phone anyway... though I don't know the first thing about how frequency/bandwidth works for phones, let alone internationally), why do I have to get a new SIM card at all?

On the DoCoMo website, it says that any 3GPP (3G Partnership Project) compliant phone will work with them, and I can even keep my own phone number. I'd rather not rent a handset, because it'll be so damn expensive. But then, I don't want to pay exorbitant amounts for roaming if it's not part of my (temporary) plan. I couldn't find anything on their site about renting a SIM card, and while I think they have some sort of pre-paid plan, I'm not sure whether you need to sign up for anything if you already have a roaming-capable phone.

Is there a phone expert in the house, because I am TOTALLY lost here. I'm also a total sucker for salespeople, so I'd like an objective opinion of someone who knows when they're being bullshitted or not. Dad was a good companion to have when I went shopping, as he asked a lot of tough questions, but I really wanna make sure I don't get scammed with all this sweet talk. If it's possible to just have ONE plan, ONE PLACE TO PAY, and ONE PHONE NUMBER, I will be ecstatic. If that's not possible, fine, but I only want to deal with ONE PHONE, period.

The nutshell:
* ONE PHONE for both Japan and USA
* Preferably ONE PLACE to pay (i.e. ONE BILL) for both domestic and international roaming (if not possible, do I need to rent a SIM card? Can't I just buy a compatible-with-the-network phone, select DoCoMo, and pay international roaming? Or do I need to talk to the DoCoMo people first?)
* Coverage in Mito, Japan from DoCoMo (requires a 3G-compatible handset) - partnership with T-Mobile (the DoCoMo website says T-Mobile's only 2G, but who knows how dated that list of partners and confirmed phones is?)
* I'd like a phone that I can download BEJEWELED (the game from PopCap Games) on
* It'd be a bonus if I could get a JAPANESE <-> ENGLISH dictionary (WAP? If I use DoCoMo as my network, does that mean I can download things from DoCoMo, or would I need a Japanese phone with iMode, etc? I don't want such a phone, because it wouldn't be backwards-compatible with the USA networks/features)
* If I can customize the ringer and/or wallpaper, that'd be super-cool
* I want to be able to KEEP my current mobile phone number and phone numbers

Is this possible?

Let's see...
* Upgraded Dragonfayth and the site-that-will-be-known-as-Epiphany to eFic 2.0.5 with patches from 4/27 and 4/29.
* Added Story Type and LJ Link mod; still need to add Featured Author, Poll, and others
* Screwed around with this new option in cPanel called ClickBe! Made a weird, semi-ugly version of a new layout, seen here. Has anyone used this ClickBe! thing before? I can't figure out how to change the masthead, add my site title, change the name of links, get information to show up on the main page, or get more than 2 links to show up in the links page.

I also talked to Scott for nearly an hour tonight-- turns out he's not so worried about his phone costs, because he accidentally already paid his May bill, and he even had credit leftover! Hah, funny how that works out. It's almost weird that we're talking so much ABOUT so much, because really, we go all over the map with our conversations. One of the big ones is us going up to San Francisco from 7/17 to 7/21 or 22, though, and I'm not sure how we're going to do it-- drive, plane, or train are all feasible activities, with plane just being slightly more expensive and ludicrous compared to the others. It's quicker, too. Anyway, he's still got to find the time off, and I have to get the money from working.

>_> Dr. Lopez hasn't gotten back to me yet about Tokiwa's credit transferring, or whether the courses I plan to take are upper-division or unit equivalent. Prof. Hirota might be able to help, but she won't be here or available until next Thursday! ARGH!

Still need to:
* clean room
* write papers
* play FFX and FFX-2 (I WILL BEAT YOU, VIA INFINITIO!)
* scrapbook
* figure out website crap
* watch Indiana Jones
* stop staying up so damn late when I WAS tired before!

Meeeeeeeeeeh. Lately I just don't have much to say. It doesn't come out right, anyway.

For all the greatness I've got in getting into Tokiwa, I think I'm lacking in the creativity and/or motivational departments at the moment. I seriously need a new layout for my LiveJournal. I hate using some rehashed one ganked from some site- every time I've found one that I liked (rare) and managed to get it up, something's gone wrong. Too wide, too narrow, this not showing up, that not showing up...

...I wonder if I could commission someone? Maybe for about $10? (I'm flexible, but I'm thinking base price, here. If I come up with colors and graphics...) Any takers? (Mer <-- LAZY!?)

GRR! I like the Smooth Sailing Layout and want to customize it to my liking. I've been rummaging through the few tutorials on s2smoothsailing and found myself at the_lj_reboot, but even with resources, there's not much help there for me to "reboot" my LJ into anything spectacular. I don't even have any ideas as to colors, artwork, fonts, etc. for the journal... I've tried about four or five things now, and nothing "hits" me. I've even gone through premade layouts on my comp and thought about adapting them.... but nothing.

Same goes for my websites, which an unusual amount of people have been asking about. I pay $6/mo for the service, I damn well better upgrade everything and make it functional and look good. I should add a counter to all the pages, too. I just wish I could buy bottled inspiration or something.

Well, so Passover wasn't too much of a bomb. Dad and I sorta got along by the end of the week; no more explosive and/or embarrassing fights, but there's still a lot I can't agree with him on, and think he's utterly immature for. Scott really was my godsend; he even helped paint the rec room bathroom when the fumes got to be too much for me. There's still more fixing-up to do-- the air filter in the main hall needs to be replaced, and the mirrors and paintings in the rec room bathroom need to be hung up again. We also need new socket and switch plates, and I need new luggage (Target EMBARK series in Lilac, only $30!) Plus the kitchen's a right mess, and I'd like to move the computer upstairs to my room-- just to test it out. I need to put clothes away, organize my desk, blah blah...

I think I said 3 weeks ago that I'd be done with WDKY24, and it's not there yet. I feel rotten about it, too, but I'm still lacking in inspiration, even if I seriously want to get to the parts BEYOND 24 (AUGH, THE BEST PARTS!) and have the "outline" written for 99.9% of the chapter... of course it's the toughest parts that I keep skipping and not writing. But writers never make promises! :P (Except for implicit ones)

Ah, as for Tokiwa, I'm supposed to go from Mid-September to late-January. Missing Hanukkah/Christmas would be a big bummer to me, but since tuition/air fare/etc. is free, I might be able to swing a plane ride home and back... if I get financial aid. Why would they award me financial aid if a) I won't be at CSUN, and b) Tokiwa's tuition for me is free? Same goes for the Presidential Scholarship... what is the point of having the priority registration, the Matador Bookstore discount, etc. if I go to a school with FREE tuition? That's not to say I won't work on my project for the Scholarship-- better to try and do it IN JAPAN like I originally hoped; maybe some of my professors there can help me better understand female writers of their country. But financial aid is how I survive... even if I would get a stipend IN Japan for teaching conversational English, how would that measly amount help me for nearly 6 whole months? ;_;

Dad never got me a birthday present. :P So I treated myself at Border's, using 2 coupons: I got 15% off Carmen Electra's Vols 4 & 5 of her Aerobic Striptease (Lapdance and Hip Hop. Teh yey!) and 25% off the Back to the Future trilogy. I wanted to get Indiana Jones, but they didn't have it-- not in Action/Adventure, and not in the Boxed Sets area, even though the computer said they had it in stock, and I had the guy (who was a jerk) check the back room. :P

And now... it's Back to Back to the Future. I'm too bored to just keep sitting here. Maybe I'll eat some pie now.

Find your Celestial Choir

Go to Wikipedia. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays, two interesting deaths, and one intriguing holiday or observance. Post this in your journal.

Events
1471 - In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians under Warwick at the battle of Barnet; the Earl of Warwick was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne.
I find this interesting because I've come to greatly enjoy this bit of history because of the Rose Chronicles fanfic that I've been languishing on.

1828 - Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
And thank GOODNESS for that!

1915 - The Turks invaded Armenia.
Yes, it happened.

Births
1336 - Emperor Go-Kogon of Japan (d. 1374)
1977 - Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress

Deaths
1995 - Burl Ives, American singer and actor (b. 1909)
2001 - Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (b. 1927)

Holiday
Black Day - informal celebration day for single people in South Korea

I'm back in black (read: I have money)! Thank goodness for generous grandparents and upcoming birthdays. I might even get to go to the first West Valley Witches Meetup tonight at the Denny's in Woodland Hills, but because Zack would have to go out of his way to take me there, he's being particularly devilish in coming up with a "fee." I wish my 'feminine wiles' (a pout, a certain stance, whatever) worked on him... or maybe not. That'd be bad.

I'm excited about Sunday~! I finished packing already, but I have to do a lot of homework, since I'm going to be gone the whole time. Unless I manage to do phone or email interviews, I don't know how I'm going to get my Feature #2 done. I hate stupid Prof. Brown. If I'd had this idea and resources a while ago, I might have had a head start on it, but there's nothing more than I hate than a teacher that doesn't understand the concept of a SPRING BREAK. We're not supposed to DO anything having ANYTHING to do with school! ;_; I'm going to try and finish my Japanese tonight. There's no Geography (thank god), but my biggest worry is, of course, for Journalism. There might also be a paper for English, so there's that to worry about, and I have to get my research paper started for WWA.

I'll most likely be focusing on Naoko Takeuchi as a contemporary female manga-ka, contrasting her with Kazuki Takahashi for the male. I'll write for Banana Yoshimoto as the female writer, and likely Novala Takemoto (author of Kamikaze Girls) for the male. I'm most definitely open to more suggestions for the expansion of the research paper -my "book" which I hope to write with Prof. Hirota as part of my Presidential Scholarship award stipulation. :D

Oh, and as a note to all the females out there - when some strange guy looking suspiciously like Napolean Dynamite asks you to sign a petition to END Women's Suffrage, JUST SAY NO. Otherwise you are a Dumb Female and do not deserve to have a Vagina. Go away, shoo, shoo.

Whee, Hawaii! Whee, birthday! Beaches and Mai Tais... and I hope it doesn't rain!

So if it was "Miss Independent" running around in my head before (a total Mai x Jounouchi song if there ever was one), now it's "Just Missed the Train," which has inspired me for something for 30kisses, particularly theme #25: fence. It's annoying though, because like I mentioned before, I have all those other 30kisses submissions sitting on my computer at home, they're just unfinished because I can't think of how to end them... well, except for Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to sit down and write that without turning into some sort of tomato!

I'll get around to writing it later, maybe at work. I have my flash drive with me, so I can save it on there and not worry about it.

So, why are all the weird people on MySpace? I mean, there are non-weird people on there, but today I just got a message from someone who says he and his girlfriend are interested in trying out a threesome, and if I'm interested... My face goes: o_O; (okay, I'm totally NOT pulling an Usagi Kou here and taping an emoticon to my face. But you get the picture). Does anybody READ the profiles on MySpace? I'm "in a relationship" or whatever the hell you wanna call it, and even though I'm bi, I won't just hop into a bed with 2 people I don't know and trust because THEY need to add some spice in their love life!

o_o; Geez.

In other news, I'm going to San Diego this weekend. I know my last Amtrak adventure was harrowing (very late trains and the like), but I'm going to hope that it was just a one-shot thing... in any case, my train leaves Chatsworth around 8:40pm or so on Friday night, so I can either ask Zack to take me there straight after work, or I can go home with my grandparents and let them take me. Last time I liked having them there, because the train was very late, and it was extremely cold out. I liked being able to get in the car and warm up while I waited for the train. Chatsworth is an outdoors station, and it's the porn capital of the world, so creepy people are always lurking about...

I'm going because this weekend and next weekend are mine and Scott's only chances to see each other before he goes to Belize and I go to Hawaii. It feels like we've been seeing each other often, but realistically, it's only a few times each month. After living with him for so long, I never thought I'd be able to survive not seeing him for such a long stretch of time, but I'm managing. I have moments when I really wish he was with me, but for now, things are okay. I only hope that wherever life takes him, I can be with him sooner rather than later. :)

And now for more crazy stuff: I have to finish my Gilman application, the Bridging scholarship application, and now I have to send a Financial Aid Award letter (via fax) to the NSEP people in Washington. Which means I have to pressure mom a bit more (already talked to her last night) about the letter of Dependent Verification (which I sent out this morning) which she has to mail back to me with a copy of both mine and her tax returns (she'll do it electronically for me, and have the gov't deposit it automatically in my bank account. Sweet!). I won't be able to get that Award letter until I give all the stuff from mom to school... probably. I should check with them anyway. In any case, the stuff for school is due within 3 weeks, and the award letter I have to fax to NSEP is due by the 31st. YIPES!

What else? I worked a lot on WDKY24 last night; I kind of got inspired for this particular scene that is essentially dropping a big piece of sticky candy in the middle of an anthill. I'm eager to see if anyone will pick up on it (call it a "hidden" piece of candy). Still Anubis' backstory is a tough thing to tackle, but with Kysra's help and some good research, I think I can make this work relatively "realistically" (for the WDKYverse, anyway).

I also FINALLY managed to get the style I got from _premadelayouts to work for my Friends' page, but many things are still out of place, and I'm not sure how to rearrange them so they ARE in place. Is there a way I can make that style public so other people can go "oh, you have your %%blahblah%% variable in the wrong place, which is why your username is way off to the right, and your entries are all indented 20 pixels"? (Also, think anyone can help me with that?)

I got a $20 Amazon certificate from StartHereGoPlaces.com after a survey I took, which is nice. I thought I wouldn't get it, since I'm not a business major (and that was what the survey was about), but I still did, so I'm getting the last 3 books in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, and a book in the Elements of Fiction Writing series (which I'm sorta re-reading at the moment) called Description. I was thinking about buying all the Princess Diaries books I'm missing (Volumes 4-7, including the 4.5 "Princess Project"), but I decided against it-- there's so many, and Amazon sure made it confusing by offering the British versions, too! @_@

AAAAAAAAAND I got Volume 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh! R in the mail from Sagusa Books. How come I've never heard of them before? They're great! :D I realize Jenniyah is already scanlating (crappily, but still scanlating) YGO!R, so souten_scans won't be taking that on in the forseeable future. But I'm still waiting on dm_san to get back to me with whether or not our groups will work together for the scanlations of the Gospel of Truth, since she already has very HQ scans that would save us a lot of time and unnecessary effort.

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow-- a partial weave of highlights (as suggested! ^_~), I still need a wireless card, to do some cleaning, and now catch up on reading for Women Writers of Asia, because if I post *something* on the short story we were supposed to have read by yesterday, it's better than nothing. I also have to revise my English essay and try and get it to my professor before 7pm tonight. So much to do, and yet... I'm not too stressed. Let's just see if I can remember it all!

And now for a 2-question meme whose results are amazingly true:
( I do know how to LJ-CUT, I do, I do! )

I finally managed to clean some junk off the computer; I need to somehow scan my Waseda application to be able to type in it, but short of scanning it to Adobe Acrobat, I don't know what to do. What about Word? I could do it in Photoshop too, but I'd rather not, because it'd take up so much space. Does anyone else have any ideas on what to do when you have a paper copy of something that needs to be typewritten? I can't get a digital copy (as far as I know)...

I tried to scan it before, but I think my Scanner software is being all stupid on me, so I might need to uninstall and reinstall it, along with a security update. But to do that, I had to delete some things-- I think Meteor Garden episode 3 was part of that. So I burned Episodes 1 & 2, but 3's missing, and I have 4-27 now. I also have to burn the HYD J-drama, some leftover Red vs. Blue episodes, Yu-Gi-Oh! (though I might keep Capsule Monsters eps 3 & 4 on my HD so I can upload them to seventh-star.net for anyone that wants them), and... blah, other stuff. I burned some good AMVs-- "The Light You Bring" (Eizou, to the song by Fuel) for Yu-Gi-Oh, "Listen to your Heart" (unknown creator, to the song by DHT) for FFX-2, and Studebunker Studio's "1985" (to the fabulous song by I-can't-remember-who) to Azumanga Daioh. There's a bunch of others. Me loves AMVs. :)

It seems I can't get anything done unless these other things get done first. I have to get Meteor Garden 3 again... though finding the torrent (as I usually don't save them) will be a pain in the neck. ;_; Anyone that has that one episode subbed, I would be much obliged. Then I can download the scant few episodes of Star Ocean EX that I'm missing, because the DVD package is incomplete and ridiculously overpriced, and Soldats did a better job anyway...

I've got so many damn ideas for 30kisses that I started to post one, trashed it (sort of), and saved it as a Private entry so I can edit it later on without ya'll seeing it in its horrific-ness. But on the bright side, if I don't make these all horrendously long, I should actually be able to get most of them done... soonish? I still have to worry about all these scholarships and applications, plus letters of recommendation, work, school work (including getting interviews done for my first news-feature in a week), and everything else.

Just when I thought the stress was over...! This is what I get for having a relaxing weekend. Damn it, I hope I sleep well tonight.

Okay, so I'm downstairs at the ITR walkin right now, putting up with the unfortunately attractive annoyance that is... er, my co-worker. But I'm in a fantastic mood, because:
* I turned in my Presidential Scholarship packet with everything, most of which was done at the last minute
* I gave Dr. Lopez's secretary my Freeman-ASIA form, so she can endorse it by Friday
* I finished my Japanese homework on time
* I ate a decent lunch AND I still have cookies leftover
* My group performed our Japanese skit first, and though I got corrected on two lines, I think we did well-- and better than other groups (though they were funnier-- we had a Spiderman and a Doc Ock, and a NEKO MAN!)
* My interview was much easier than I thought. It was in a small, comfortable room in the involvement center, and I was talking to Prof. Hirota, Dr. Lopez, and one other woman from the CSUN faculty-- that was it. No chancellor, no board of stodgy old men...
* I might be applicable for a $10,000 scholarship from the Japanese government if I get into the SA/Waseda program!
* I took my passport-sized pictures for my Tokiwa application; I'll estimate the dates tonight and get that printed out and turned in tomorrow.

My new shiny, dry-clean only blouse/jacket got completely pwned by a sweat stain as I tromped all over campus (to all the department offices for English, Japanese, and Journalism) and to the post office (to mail my transcript my Priority mail) and then back to the building where my Japanese class was. But it's faded now, and I'll be sure to get it dry cleaned asap. In any case, I'm glad I got this nice new outfit from thar boutique, Cubby, yesterday. I even got a pair of brown corduoy's... o_o If I get an orange plaid shirt, I can be the female clone of Scott! (creeeeppyyy...)

But since I got everything done and I'm in a good mood, feeling accomplished and happy, I bought a pizza. At least this means I'm responsible for my own dinner, even if What's His Face doesn't appreciate it. No one has even noticed my haircut! No one asked why I'm happy! Aw, who cares!? If I can keep this mood up through tomorrow (and score some free chocolate and/or flowers while I'm at it), all the better! I don't need to be some Absolute Boyfriend villainness, trying to steal other girls' boyfriends!

Scott's coming on Thursday night! I'll have PLENTY TO DO! *lecherous grin* Things are looking up! I think I might even write more of WDKY later tonight if I'm in the mood, and if I get an email confirming my payment for my new premodded PS2, things will be EVEN BETTER! :D

Happy Birthday SvelteRose!


^_^ Party hard.

( Snip-snip! )

Oh, and here's a quick reminder of all the communities I own/help mod:
30kisses - Everyone knows I created this as an alternative to 30_kisses. We have several alternative lists, rules that are different, and several kick-ass mods. I update this one the most frequently.
betasquad - The request-to-join community for anime, manga, and video game fanfic writers. I post all my un-beta'd WDKY chapters here, and I'd love it if more people signed up to join the comm. and the forum so I could have a regular supply of interested editors!
delishidoodle - My icon journal-gone-community. I've just recently updated with a few icons, and hopefully more coming soon.
smrff - The SailorMoon Romantic FanFiction Mailing List's official LJ community. If Aria's Ink can update regularly with fics, why can't we? I say we get WAFF vs. TAFF Day started early this year!
titans_go - Co-modded with baine. But we just haven't started it yet. Why can't I find a decent Teen Titans font!?
weekly_ygo - I'm just the editor. :} But I'm also in the news, every now and then... I hope that post I made about Joey the Passion free online duels makes it into this week's edition.
ygo_extend - I never got around to starting this comm anywhere, but it's meant to be a repository for those great oneshots that should be continued- if not by the original author, then fans with evil imaginations. It's also a challenge community for 1sentence and drabble fics to be fleshed out into something longer.
ygo_goodfic - I co-mod it. Why don't more people bounce their recs our way?
ygo_icontests - I own it-- it's meant to be sort of like weekly_ygo, but for icontests. Many of the icontest owners were impossible to get ahold of, though.
ygo_lyricwheel - I'm going to be restarting the next round soon, if anyone's interested. Any ideas for a theme?
ygo_mst - Meant to be the place where you can be inspired by and write MSTs of Yu-Gi-Oh fics. MSTs being "Mystery Science Theatre" style, which is pure satire and humor. MSTs aren't allowed on FFnet, but they're great learning/teaching tools and good for several laughs. Someone send badfic "recs" over here! We need fodder!
ygo_offtopicon - I'm starting up a new challenge this week, and I hope to keep it regular, this time. We never did finish Challenge #9, which is too bad, but I don't want to let this one die. I have a good idea!

I would appreciate any people interested in helping mod/update these communities. Comment if you can lend a hand at least once a week.

( Snip again-- with a dictionary!? )

Coming up:
* Finish up my Freeman-ASIA scholarship form. Get the hardcopies sent in to IIE, and give the copies to Dr. Lopez in the Study Abroad office.

* Presidential Scholarship? Professor Hirota DID agree, and though it only needs an unofficial transcript from both CCSF and CSUN (I can print both from the web), it also requires Prof. Hirota's signature. -_-; Her office hours are only on Tuesday and Thursday before class, and the thing is due on MONDAY. Geeeeehhh... There goes a potential $5000 down the hole, all because I didn't prepare enough in advance. I could TRY and find her on Monday, but there's just no guarantee. And I refuse to forge.

* WDKY24 - I write more of it last night, and I only have bits and pieces to go, but this is looking to be another difficult chapter. I'd also like to get beta volunteers NOW, so that I don't have to worry about scrambling to find them once I'm actually finished. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

* WikiFic - The Ultimate Yu-Gi-Oh Encyclopedia is slowly but surely being updated. I managed to get through linking the Shipper's List F-M, but there are still tons of pages that need to be created. I'm also trying to get as many pictures as I can, but I'd like people to tell me which ones would be relevant for the pages in question. What information is necessary? I'm also translating pieces of the Gospel of Truth for WikiFic. More members!

* Get my Tokiwa application finished - I need to estimate some dates, or else ask Mom. Then I need to go to the photo place on campus and get a few photos taken, passport-size.

* Blah blah, websites. - I need a new name for what was formerly Animanga Collision. The site will be another eFiction archive, housing all my fics, rants, essays, etc. from every fandom EXCEPT the Azureshipping Yu-Gi-Oh stuff (which will remain on Dragonfayth, just for the sake of things). But what to call it?

* Can't win, will duel - Okay, so I'm no deck-construction maven or anything, but I still play JTP Online even though I can't seem to win any duels. o_o At least in this, I don't have a level to intimidate me into backing off completely, and for the most part, everyone still seems pretty polite even when I lose miserably. I've seen some great combos, and I want to write them down for future reference. A lot of great duelists post combos and strategies on yu_gi_oh; they could find a good home on WikiFic or elsewhere (with permission, of course). Few actual Yu-Gi-Oh fics actually make use of duels! I think maybe I should ask for more advice in constructing a deck that works... though from what I've seen a good Exodia deck is pretty damn good. Joey himself pounded me with one (HEY! He shouldn't have Exodia!) even when I had over 10,000 LP!

Er... yeah. I'm done for now. :)

According to jacksonslam I have made my first (special) guest appearance in the Daily Sundial here at school. They took some pictures of me working at the "Peacock Room" of the bookstore a while back, but I didn't think they'd use them. I checked the website, but I guess the way they've got it streamlined now, they don't have all the articles, just a few of the headlines and some of their photo essays. But how do I get my hands on yesterday's paper? Easy... I hope-- I ask! :P

Also, to anyone that may be able to answer this question, but especially to cutieme4u -- how would we find out the dates that we attended all our schools? I don't mean estimates-- I know I attended Lafayette from September of 1990 to June of 1996, Presidio from August or September 1996 to June 1999, and Wash House from August 1999 to June 2003. But I need more exact dates, and I wouldn't even know where to start looking. Any ideas? (Oh, and I need quick results-- this is for the Tokiwa application, which is due by Feb. 24!)

Due soon:
* 2 References for NSEP application (worth $20,000!)
* Tokiwa application, with 3cmx4cm photo and lengthened essay
* CCSF Transcript (already sent Rush request; hopefully it'll get here before the 8th)

IMPORTANT! You know, there are a lot of people on here that I consider my friends. I know and I trust you guys. You know me pretty well, and I hope you trust me to some extent as well. Considering I'm in a bit of a bind here, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in writing a short (2-3 paragraphs) letter of reference for me for this scholarship. If the references are good and I get the scholarship, my trip to Japan would be practically PAID for. I would adore you for life, too, and if you ever needed a good connection in Japan or in the journalism business, I'm all yours.

So please, please, please... consider it. Tell me if you'd like to, and I'll send you the PDF. All you have to do is print it out, write the reference, and mail it (RUSH) by 2/8 to my professor (Aki Hirota) at CSUN OR you can type it up as a word document (or something) with the appropriate information and margins in the PDF file, and then email it to her. All the info can be obtained from me... so let me know if you're willing to help me out. And I do mean HELP me out-- it is SOOOOO super-necessary that I do this. I'm not asking my friends here as a last resort; I'm asking because you guys know me SO well, have known me for SO long, and know DAMN WELL how much I want this.

Comment if you can lend a hand. Thanks. :)

Okay, so I just got back from a short workshop on campus about one of the school's scholarships, called the Presidential Scholarship. Sounds fancy, huh? Well, it kind of is. $5000 scholarship, textbook discount, the works. I attended the workshop because it was mandatory, but according to the woman in charge, few people have attended so far, and there's only two more planned sessions left. I was one of the only two there, and the other guy was already a Presidential Scholar, so I don't know if he was applying again, or just there to talk to me about what the application process was like.

In any case, you don't get that kind of moola without proving you deserve it. The catch-22 for this one is that you have to work on a project for an entire (award) year with a faculty mentor, show significant progress throughout the semester, and have a project to present at the end of the year.

Now, while I would love to get this scholarship regardless of if I make it into Study Abroad or not, the primary reason why I'm looking is because of the high costs of Study Abroad. $5000 would offset a LOT of my concerns, especially if it was scholarship money and not a loan. Since Study Abroad through the IP counts as residential units and is THROUGH the CSU program, I could feasibly be awarded that money and do a project off-campus.

Obviously, the thing is that the application, complete with a project proposal, is due by mid-February, just after the semester starts. The scholarship is geared toward students that already have an established relationship with their teachers, and while I do know my journalism professor (Salido) pretty well, I'm not taking her courses this semester, so unless I approach her and ask her if I can work with her on something (journalism from abroad?) it would be pretty silly. So I'm leaning toward Japanese-- either Takase-sensei from Japanese 102/C/L, whom I've known for a semester already, or Hirota-sensei, who I will have for the first time this semester, but I have interacted with before. She's also the department chair of Japanese at CSUN, plus the JET program representative for LA. Working with her would be fabulous.

But I need to have a project idea already in mind for whatever professor I approach. Here's the hard part. What could I possibly do? It has to be something that relates to a field I'm interested in and passionate about; the professor has to be related to said field (that is, I can't ask Professor Hirota to have anything to do with a journalism project; she's a Japanese teacher). I was thinking, if I do get into Study Abroad and I'm in Japan, why not apply it to what I'm going to learn in Japanese and Women Writers of Asia this semester?

Baba's always been pressuring me to write The Next Great American Novel, which in her mind is the next great Harlequin Romance. I don't think so. But I could write non-fiction about Japan. But WHAT about Japan? Even from the anime or manga perspective, what hasn't been done before? What could I only do with a good sum of money (to take me to Japan, allow me to go places and meet people) and would somehow be significant not just to myself, but to the community somehow? I don't mean a volunteer project or anything like that (a sociological study of Japan sounds cool, but alas, I'm not in sociology anymore :P). I mean something that would be USEFUL to someone.

For those of you that read books like Gilles Poitras' "The Anime Companion" or Patrick Macias' "Crusin' the Anime City" what is missing? What more do you want to know about Japan, whether you plan on going there or not? Or would you rather have a non-fiction account of someone's experiences in Japan? Or perhaps I could try doing a study on authors in Japan, like my favorite author Banana Yoshimoto (who happens to be acquainted with the author of Kamikaze Girls) or manga-ka... like I could ever get an interview with them. But I would TRY!

( The Women Writers of Japan: Are they getting their due? )

So am I talking out of my ear here, or do I have some interesting ideas? I'd like some feedback and possibly more ideas if you have them. :) You could be my saving grace.

( Ten things you never knew about me )

Okay, so I'm awake at this ungodly hour on a holiday because... I woke up with Seto x Anzu on the brain. I went to sleep with it on the brain. I have a guilt complex for not working on my iconfiend100 and 7sinvirtueicons claims more often. I'm not that great at manipulations, and there doesn't appear to be a whole host of fanart for SxA out there aside from what Kysra, Lin, and a few other people do... but I'm making do (due?).

I'll work on my claim later.

The primary thing I got up for is applying for study abroad money. I'm filling out the National Security Education Program application, but of course, the essay requires a lot of thought. I have to relate my reasons for studying abroad to the objectives of the NSEP as they relate to homeland security. I know it sounds like "o_O Whar?" but if I land this scholarship, my year in Japan would practically be a free ride. That's right down to the cost of the shinkansen! So yeah, I'm going to do it. There are a lot more scholarships I have to apply to, but as always, I appreciate any pointers in the right direction, essay help, etc. I know I'm not the only grammar Nazi out there! :D

( Here's the question I'm having some trouble with... )

Huh... so I overwrote my old StuffIt that was FREE (that is, it never bugged me to register, and it always worked) with the new version, which will expire in... 27 days. Is there such a thing as a freeware, all-purpose unzipper out there? I suppose I could try and find a crack, but that's bad and I also don't want to get porn/spyware on my computer as a result. I need to be able to unzip the massively massive file that is Stepmania, and afaik, I downloaded a perfectly good copy through BT, though I suppose I could direct-download it and see if it matches up size-wise. I think changing the extension from *.smzip to just plain *.zip affects the file size. Should it do that?

WDKY23 is up for beta'ing at betasquad. A reminder of the user name and password to access the forums is given. With joining and posting made SO easy, why not help out now? New members are also welcome to join the community. Just drop me a line with why you need a beta or can help out as a beta, and you'll be approved shortly! Join the fun, the madness, and the helpful nature! Join betasquad!