Listening to: "The Fly" by Sarah Brightman from her "Fly" CD.

Oof, once again, I forget to blog for many days. I feel guilty ^_^; Then again, it's not like anything interesting has been going on for me. I'm still job hunting, but as usual, I am not finding much. I'm probably gonna be some cheezt admin assistants omewhere, just to bring in some money... how depressing. I need to go back to school.

I am glad that I finally have my computer all set up. It was not fun having to use my dad's computer. I have all MY stuff on MY computer, so I'd rather use it :) It took us a few days, but we finally got the new computer desk set up, and man, it is cool :) Maybe it's because I am used to using crappy folding tables or rickety old desks for my computer. It's nice to have something actually designed to be a computer desk :) There is plenty of desk space and some drawers and a cd rack, etc. I am a happy camper! Now all I need is a new chair....

I recently changed the format in Okashina Okashi from a 4-panel layout to a full page. Man, the new format is sucking the life out of me. I kinda like how it looks, but the new pages take SO long to draw! There are a lot more panels to do. So now almost all my waking hours are spent drawing. Fortnately Kourin is helping me out with scripts now. Things go faster when I don't have to spend forever deciding what direction to go in! Thank you Kourin~~

I am a bit depressed though. Before I left SF, my webcomic was making 3500 or so hits a day. Then I moved, soe there were no updates for a week or 2. But now I am back, and it looks like all my readers have run away! We've dropped down to about 950 visitors a day. Which, while a lot more than most of my other pages, is a big drop ;_; Where did my readers go~~~? Is my hit counter messed up? Wah, I want people to come back, especially as I am putting so much more effort into it. ;_;

I am continuing my effort to enter all my manga into a new list and organize it all. I am on tankoubon #966, and I know I have a few more boxes of manga in the garage. This is really scary. I need to take a picture of this once I have it all sorted out. Maybe I could make some money by renting out manga to manga-starved fangirls here in Austin. That reminds me, I need to update my info over in the right-hand column. :P

Of course I need to update the layout of this blog entirely. I can't think of anything interesting to do though ;_; *looks at her manga and artbook collection* I have no idea what image to use this time. I'll have to keep digging through my stuff. Maybe I'll do that HanaKimi layout I've always wanted to do. I dunno. *sigh*

I'm behind on blog-reading again. Gotta go catch up on that!
Added: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 02:59 p.m.

Listening to: er, nothing actually. Gotta find a CD to put on...

Hmm lets see, if my life in SF the last few weeks I was there was boring, then my life in TX now can only be described as dead ^^ I haven't done a whole lot. I really want to get a job and move out of here as soon as I can, but the job market is really awful. I am having a terrible time even finding stuff to apply to >_<

I have also been feeling a bit depressed and lonely because I miss SF and all my friends there. I don't really have any close friends here, so I don't have much to do or anyone to talk to. I miss having a group to go out with and do stuff and sl0re over manga and anime with ^_^ *sigh* must be patient.. will make friends eventually....

All my stuff has arrived at my house, and sits in my garage in a mountain of boxes. I have been slowly lugging stuff upstairs and unpacking it. It's kind of fun to go through all my manga as I unpack it. I am now thinking of making a few more web pages. Man, I am such a web page h0! I want to make a smutty shoujo manga page (as opposed to my random shoujo manga page ^^) and I want to make a Yoshihara Yuki shrine XD I guess I'll just add this to the long list of pages I need to work on. As soon as my computer is set up, I am gonna continue working on the Harukanaru toki no naka de page, since we have made a lot of progress on it. I need to get more sites on piffle princess online and running!

I got a new computer desk this weekend, and my dad and I have been putting it together for the last few days. Man, this thing is complicated @_@ I can't wait till it's all set up though. Then I can get my computer set up on it, and be back in business! Now if I can just convince my dad to get DSL....

Ah, my blog entries are so boring -_- I think I will make a new blog layout when I get my computer set up, so that even though my entries are boring, at least my layout may be interesting XD

Ahhh Kya-chan! I have been following your housing in Japan saga in your blog, and I really feel for you! That must have been an awful situation! I have tried emailing your cellphone a few times, but it always bounces back to me ;_;

OK, I better get back to unpacking!

Added: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 02:59 p.m.

Watching: VH1-Classic (80's Music Videos!)

Hahah I couldn't resist, I too the What Kind of Robot are You? test ^_^ And here is my result....

Cool :P

Okay, I talked to the movers again, and my stuff has arrived, and they are delivering it to me on Saturday morning. I am glad to have my stuff, but slightly annoyed. The UT Anime Club is having a HYD Marathon. I wanted to go to that -_-;

I want to work on my web pages! Arg, I hate not having my computer will all my files! *whine* And I want to make a new blog layout~~
Added: Friday, October 12, 2001 12:07 a.m.

Listening to: "Folly Fall" by Yoko Kanno, vocals by Maaya Sakamoto. From 'Napple Tale'

Oof, I am tired. I have been in TX for a few days, but I just haven't felt much like blogging. But now I guess I'll fill everyone in on teh thrilling details of my life for the last week and a half. I know everyone is just dying to read my ramblings :P

Anyway, on Friday the 28th of September, the moving dudes showed up with their big wooden 'container' into which they were going to load all my stuff. The guys showed up 2 hours late, and I was getting pretty cranky (such a stressful week!) but I was happy to see them arrive. Unfortunately, the container thing was smaller than I expected, and they couldn't quite fit all my stuff into it. (I have a LOT of junk ^_^;;;) so after they left, I still had like 11 boxes, a couple small pieces of furniture, and some other random stuff. Oh joy @_@ I had to figure out how I was gonna transport that stuff to Texas. My rental car I had reserved to pick up on Sunday would not fit all that. Anyway, after the moving guys left, I cleaned up a little, and then went out for a sort of 'good-bye' party over in Richmond. 17 people, one delicious hot-pot restaurant. Yum~~~ I LOVE hotpot! There MUST be a hotpot place in Austin SOMEWHERE! After that we sang karaoke like genki fools for 3 hours. Great karaoke place. Their song books even had a section for anime songs. My only complaint about it is that their karaoke video for X-Japan's 'Forever Love' (our customary last song of the evening) isn't the rock-climbing karaoke video. That is a ture cinematic masterpiece, and is not to be missed :P

On Saturday, the people from 1-800-got-junk were scheduled to come by and pick up my old bed and other misc bags of trash. Unfortunately, THEY show up 2+ hours EARLY, and I don't have all my stuff ready for them yet. *sigh* they took a lot of stuff, and it was cheaper than I was expecting it to cost, but after they left, I still had more junk I needed to get rid of. Arg. That night I went over to Terrence's place to use his computer to look up information on rental cars. I wanted to see if I could upgrade my rental car to a minivan or SUV type of vehicle so I could fit all of my leftover boxes. This was very frustrating. A lot of the rental car places were running special one-way rental deals where they totally waive the high car drop-off fees that you have to pay when you drop the cars off. Unfortunately, the deal was only available for passenger cars, and NOT SUVs or minivans. *grr* My reservation for my car had me set with a $150 drop-off fee. When I looked at rental rated for a SUV or minivan, all the sites suddenly had *$2000* drop-off fees listed. ACK. $2000? Uh, no, I can't pay that.... I hoped that I could get a SU for my reservation drop-off fee of $150 o.o

On Sunday I went to the rental car place and, oh thankyouthankyouthankyou, they let me upgrade my reservation from a passenger car to an SUV, and keep my drop-off fee at $150 and not $2000. Of course, it cost me $95 to upgrade, but at this point, I was feeling so nervous and anxious and stressed, I didn't complain ^_^;; When I got the SUV home, I loaded it up. that was NOT fun. It felt like it was 110 degrees outside, and I had heavy boxes. My SUV was not parked near my apt either. I was ready to drop after that. I managed to get all my boxes in the SUV, as well as misc things like a framed painting and other random household goods, but there was still some stuff I had to leave behind in my apartment because I simply had NO room. UGH! I had to leave my nice, black TV/media stand that I got at IKEA. How crushing! and my wooden Ikea chair... man, So annoying! I wonder what my landlady thought of the misc. furniture I left. I left a note saying she could do whatever she wanted with it... Also, monday morning was garbage pick-up day, so I filled up the trashcans and put them outside, and piled the other bags of trash that I didn't have ready for the junk guys next to my cans. Stupid trash collectors emptied my trash cans, but left the other bags of trash right there on the sidewalk. Well crud. Not much I could do about that, I had to be out of the apartment and get on the road. So I left it all there. *sigh*

So monday morning I pile load the cats into their catcarriers and load them into the SUV and away we go! I ended up leaving at 7:30am. I had wanted to leave earlier, but the last minute stuff I crammed into the car took longer to load than I thought it would. But I was THRILLED to finally be on my way. I have been so amazingly stressed about all of this. My Spike and Vicious-nekos behaved very well on the trip. They meowed back and forth to each other for about an hour, but by the time I got to I-5 which I was taking down to LA, they quieted down. Driving suck long distances alone is kind of difficult. I talked to the cats a bit, and tried listening to CDs, but after a while, the road just gets so boring and quiet, it is hard to stay focused. Fortunately, I had bought an audio book (Jabne Austen's 'Northanger Abbey') and listened to that on the way down. That worked wonders at keeping me alert. And I drake a lot of caffeine of course ^_^;;; On the first day I made it from San Francisco to Blythe, California. Blythe is right at the border of California. I stayed at a motel 6. The cats were so suspicious of everything in that hotel room :) It was funny to watch them investigate it. Too bad the stupid hotel didn't get WB. I wanted to watch Angel! Wah!

On day 2 of my drive, I started at the same time in the morning. Most of my drive that day was across Arizona. Spike and Vicious meowed all the way across Arizona @_@. Arizona landscape is so flat and barren though! I was having serious problems staying focused, so in Phoenix or Tuscon (I forget which) I stopped at a bookstore and picked up a couple more audio books. (Bridget Jones's Diary and a set of Anne of Green Gables books) Those kept me genki all the way through Arizona, New Mexico, and into Texas. That night I stopped at another Motel 6, this one in Van Horn, TX. Man, this place had EVERY channel EXCEPT UPN, so I missed the season premiere of Buffy ;;_;; WAH! Once again, the cats had much fun investigating the hotel room :)

Finally, on Wednesday, I made it to my parents place near Austin. Got here around 3pm. My cats have been freaking out ever since we got here though :) For the first day or 2, they stayed in my room, under my bed. They would come out for me, but my parents scared them, and the unfamiliar surroundings scared them. Poor Spike was traumatized by the sight of a moving cieling fan ^_^;; Spike eventually got a little braver and would venture out to let me pet him, and he let my mom and dad pet him. Vicious is not living up to his name. Instead he has been cowering under my bed all day, only to come out at night and run around knocking things over, as is his usual manner. Spike and vicious have yet to really meet my parents cats, Silly and Gabby (both girls). I think the girls know that the boys have arrived, but all of them are being very wary and they aren't trying to investigate or approach each other ^_^

On Friday, my dad and I went car-shopping, and he bought me a used 1998 mazda protege. Not the most powerful car in the world or anything, but it sure as heck beats walking or taking the bus! I have been SO sick of MUNI and my bad luck with busses! I love my car. It's a lovely dark green color, and it has a power sunroof, great AC, power windows, CD player, and great speakers. Runs good too. I need to think of a good name for it. My old blue geo metro was the "Soyokaze." Must think of something good for the new car!

Friday night I went to a club meeting for teh UT Austin anime club. Man, it is very strange being there. So much is exactly the same as when I left the club in 1997 to move to SF. But it's depressing being there because I miss being an officer, and being in the thick of things. I was in charge of deciding the screening schedule every meeting, and I loved being useful. It was a lot of fun introducing the club to new and strange series, etc. Now I go to the club and I am just another random attendee. I can't even be a member or club officer any more because I am no longer a student. I feel left out ;_; But I must remind myself that this is just my first meeting back, and I'll slowly get back into the thick of things, I know it ^_^ I just need to be more outgoing and talk to people. A lot of my friends from the club from before I moved are still there, and it was fun to see them again :)

Hmm um, that's about it really. I didn't do much over the weekend, and I am still waiting for all my stuff in the moving container to arrive. The moving company says it should arrive this week. I really want my computer! I have been using my dad's computer all week. Must get my own back! I haven't been able to work on OO since I left!

Being back home with my parents is both nice and annoying. I get along with them fairly well, but after living independently for about 4 years, I have my own way of doing things. It's hard to adjust to having to deal with parental nagging again, etc :) I look forward to when I can move out of this house and get my own apartment again!

WOW, this has been a long and rambling blog! I'll try blog more often again :) Now I need to go read everyone elses blogs so I can get caught up again on what y'all have been doing!

Added: Tuesday, October 9, 2001 05:51 p.m.

Listening to: "Angels" by Enya

packing packing packing packing packing! The movers arrive TOMORROW to pick up my stuff, and I am so totally afraid that the truck container thing they are bringing for my stuff will not be big enough. *cringe* I don't know what I am gonna do if they cant take all my stuff >_< I have too much junk! I am almost done packing. I am really more in the 'throwing stuff away' phase of packing. My computer will be the last thing I pack XD heheheh! Man, I hope I can get all this junk sorted out! I am still feeling overwhelmed! NEVER try to manage a big move from one state to another all by yourself >_< This is SO NOT fun. I can't wait till I get to my new place and get settled in!

So, that new Star Trek : Enterprise show premiered last night. I actually kind of liked it. THat gratuitous fanservice scene was pretty cheezy, and the plot was predictable, but for some reason I think the show will get better. I liked that ship doctor guy, Phlox, and um, whatshername... Hoshi? The Japanese girl who is the communications officer. She was funny. Scott Bakula was okay. I do think they should rethink those uniforms though. Or at least get rid of the yellow lines around his shoulders... ^_^;;

I should be back to blog again next Wednesday or Thursday after I drive to Texas! Wish me luck everyone! I am so nervous!

Added: Friday, September 28, 2001 01:11 a.m.

Oh, Kristen, keep watching Nurse Angel Ririka SOS! It is such a great series! It starts a little slow, and has some of that 'Magical Girl Anime Monster of teh Episode Filler' syndrome, but when the story picks up it gets really intense! That series has one of the most powerful endings that I have seen in an anime, great stuff! And the music is beautiful too! Oh, and if you are a Hime-chan no Ribbon fan, pay close attention! Hime-chan and Pokota and someone else make a cameo in an episode of Ririka. Ep 35 or so I think. It's been a few years since I watched it :D But you can't miss them :) I love that show ^_^

Hmm some of my blog links to the left are out of date or just messed up. I really need to fix that soon o.O

But right now I feel like drawing! wai! wai!

Added: Sunday, September 23, 2001 01:26 a.m.

Listening to: "For Fruits Basket" Fruits Basket OP

Blah blah blah, packed more stuff today. It's amazing some of teh stuff I am finding while going through my things and deciding what to keep and what to throw away. For example, I found letters that my cousin and I mailed to each other dating back to 1984. Man I am feeling old now ^_^ I also found a lot of old artwork that makes me cringe a little bit. I have to laugh at some of my earliest attempts at drawing anime-style. Really scary @_@ Then again, in a few years I will probably look at what I am drawing now and think it's really scary. Gotta love progress ^_^

Did a little web surfing also. Found this interesting Japanese CLAMP fan page. It has a bunch of little flash movies they made using various CLAMP characters. There are little movies for Wish, Tokyo Babylon, X, and Card Captor Sakura. The art is very simple, but teh animation is pretty cool ^_^ Makes me want to dust off my Flash skillz and try something :) Watch out if you go to that page though, it is a Flash page, and there is some background music.

I also did a tiny bit of work on my Kaikan Phrase page. I added screencaps from all four opening animation sequences. The screencaps aren't the greatest, but I tried :) Gotta work on all the ending animation sequences next. Links to these screencaps can be found in the 'anime' section on that page.

hmm more later I think :)

Added: Saturday, September 22, 2001 05:06 p.m.

Listening to: "Country Road" version from "Mimi wo Sumaseba" aka "Whispers of the Heart"

Wow, haven't blogged in a few days. Well, nothing much has happened. I don't really have anything to blog about ^_^ Every day is pretty much the same.... wake up, pack a little, work on OO, pack, watch tv.. go to sleep.... how boring ^_^ I have one week left before the movers come and take away all my boxes. Then I have a junk place coming by to cart off some of the junk I don't need anymore. Whee Whee.

Today I rewatched the UK version of 'Bridget Jones's Diary.' I have read the books and seen the US version in the theater 3 times, so it was interesting to see the differences in the version of the movie released overseas. There are several little scenes in it that aren't in the US version, and the whole ending credits bit is different. (it's not the home movie footage, but interviews with all the characters instead) Bridget's narration is a little different, and there are more comments on the screen that illustrate what Bridget is thinking. I couldn't tell if there were any scenes from the US version missing from the UK one, but I sure did notice the added scenes XD I hope that some of these scenes that weren't in the US version make it onto the DVD that is being released on what, October 9th? I will be very disappointed if they don't. I may end up getting the region 2 DVD for the movie too XD

Hmm, I don't have that much else to say :) I'll be watching Fruits Basket ep 12 soon and doing some more packing...
Added: Friday, September 21, 2001 01:26 p.m.

Watching: "Send me no Flowers" (starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall)

I'm working on Tuesday's Okashina Okashi comic and listening to this movie on AMC. I love the old Rock hudson/Doris Day comedies. They are so funny. I love the writing in them, and both Rock and Doris have such good comedic timimg ^_^ They make such a cute couple, even though Rock wasn't straight :) He was a great actor, hehehee. I had to chuckle a little at the scene that had Rock and Tony Randall's characters in bed together. Hoho. I love old movies!

My day has otherwise been the same as all my previous days... I chased my cats around, slept, and packed more boxes. Man, I have no life right now O_o the only people I talk to are my cats. Oh so sad! ^_^ Oh, I also contacted the SF Parking and traffic people about getting a parking permit for in front of my apartment so that the moving truck can park there. It was easier to do than I thought it would be. nifty!

Man, I have to make my last run to kinokuniya soon. I can't stand the thought that I will soon be back in anime wasteland, and will not have a manga store near by! What shall I do?!?! WAAAHHHHH! I gotta make my last trip count, and buy much random stuff XD Maybe I'll stop at SJ Kino and Mandarake along the way while I am heading to TX, I'll be going down towards LA anyway.... *cough* ^_^
Added: Monday, September 17, 2001 10:50 p.m.

Listening to: "Destiny" by My Little Lover (OP song to the J-drama 'With Love')

La la la la, it's 6:20 am and I haven't gone to sleep yet! I HAVE made a somewhat constructive use of my waking hours though. Today (er, yesterday? ^_^;) I packed a few more boxes, bought more packing tape, and threw out some stuff. I think before I move, I am gonna have to call someone to take some junk away that I am not taking with me. For instance, I am leaving my bed here, and possibly a set of low shelves that I don't think will fit into the moving crate thing. I hate having to plan and orchestrate this move all by myself >_<

I also watched some more anime. Fruits Basket ep #11 was great. The series just keeps on getting better. I found my Fruits Basket manga while I was packing, and I skimmed through it again. I felt warm and fuzzy there for a minute ^_^

Steph is kindly throwing me a going-away party and invited the SF Gumi to join us in much eating and karaoke. I just realized that they probably don't have the same types of karaoke places in Austin that they do here. ACK! Whatever will I do without the psychotic decapitated dancing babrie doll karaoke video for Queen's 'Bohemian Rapshody', or the extremely long and emotionally draining and inspiring mountain-climbing video for X-Japan's 'Forever Love'? Will there be a place in Austin where I can karaoke Morning Musume's 'Love Machine'? Oh how I worry! I DID recently find out that there are a few boba milk-tea places (tapioca milk-tea, pearl tea or bubble tea, whatever you want to call it) in Austin, so at least I won't be without that inmportant snack. Now if only I could convince Kinokuniya to open up a branch there, I will be set... I will miss so many people and so much stuff in San Francisco, I don't want to go! ;;_;; I'll have to make new friends in Austin again!

I also made some more progress working on the Harukanaru toki no naka de page that Steph and I are working on. The layout idea is very simple, but the page still loads a bit too slowly, I think. I need to see if I can fix that. I worked on some random goods and content. Need to work on the links section next, I think. And do some more scanning!

Oh, Silver Wind - the images on the top of your blog work for me now. I have no idea why I couldn't load them before. Yay, Lucifer! I like them. (both animated and RL. For that matter, I like the oter KP-based band, e.mu also ^_^) Makoto is so cute ^^;;; I have been enjoying watching him in that drama he was in recently. I forget its name.. 'Unmarried Family' or something. He's so adorable when acting outgoing and friendly :) As usual, I should add more stuff to my Kaikan Phrase page. I have more episode summaries to do, and the summaries for the rest of the manga... Wah, I make too many pages.

Okay, enough random babbling for now. I should go to sleep. Or something. Hehehe.
Added: Monday, September 17, 2001 06:20 a.m.

Listening to: "Futatabi" from 'Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi' OST

I finally felt like drawing again, and I ended up spewing out a lot of art that I actually kind of like O_O it's bizarre ^^ Anyway, this is one piece I drew and colored today. Not sure who he is, I just wanted to draw someone with blond hair ^_^

I also came up with the designs for some of teh outfits the Strange Candy characters will be wearing. It will be nice to finally put some clothes on them. Been wearing bikinis too long XD

Added: Saturday, September 15, 2001 09:45 p.m.

Listening to: "Itsumo nandemo demo" from 'Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi' OST 1

Blog surfing-

Silver Wind has a new blog layout. I think it's supposed to be Kaikan Phrase, but for some reason the top images are not showing up for me ;_; Makes me want to work more on my Kaikan Phrase page though XD XD

Ragabash mentions paper plates, etc with flags on them. Wow, I must be living under a rock, I don't think I have ever been anywhere (or seen) where they had picnic utensils or paper products with the flag all over them. I think I must be strange ^^ Then again, I never did much on the 4th of July anyway. Not for lack of patriotic feeling, but because I have a pathetic social life :)

Shiori has an 'I My Me Strawberry Egg' layout. Yeah, that is very pink ^^ I like that series, though I find the female lead, Fuuko-chan, to be annoying as hell ^^;; I really like the cross-dressing guy though. I kind of wish the animators wouldn't go so all out in making im look female though. Some of his realistic curves really scare me XD XD

ok, time to pack more boxes!

Added: Saturday, September 15, 2001 04:53 p.m.

Listening to: "Get Happy" as sung by Judy Garland in "Summer Stock"

Lets see... I have managed to stay away from the news broadcasts for a while, but as expected, I couldn't help watch more coverage. And as expected, the news coverage is annoying me even more than before. They are reporting about all the hate crimes that are going on in the US against anyone who looks vaguely arabic or muslim, and condemning it. That is wonderful! I am glad that they are trying to reinforce the message that senseless prejudicial violence against those communities in the US is wrong. I hate the fact that people are lashing out their anger on people who are just as American as the rest of us and have nothing to do with any of this. So that is a good thing that the news is doing. But then on the other hand, they are going on and on about the suspects and how they lived incognito in the US, lived among us, did their flight training here and blended right in with society. They keep constantly repeating this with their overdramatic newsperson voices. "The terrorists lived right among us" and have been pounding it into our heads. I think this is such a bad thing to do. It fosters fear and mistrust, and makes people suspicious of every arab person they see, who do not deserve this! It's like they proclaim that the terrorists were people who were right with us, they were neighbors. And then the newspeople act shocked when ignorant fearful people start trying to vent their anger and frustration in those hate crimes against innocent people. Am I making any sense here? I am probably not expressing myself properly. I wish people would get a grip of themselves in these tough times and stop the violence against the innocent communities in the US who just happen to be of the same race as the terrorists. They are just as devestated about all of this as the rest of us.

Ahem. Anyway, I packed MORE boxes, and then paused to watch a movie, "Summer Stock." This is one of my favorite movies. Judy Garland was really good, and I LOVE Gene Kelly in this. *drool* *cough* I love Gene Kelly movies in general, hehehe ^_^ Everyone in this movie is good. I wonder if it's out on DVD? I have an old tape of it recorded off of the Disney Channel in like 1988 ^_^;;; Must get better copy eventually....

I keep finding stuff while I am packing that I want to stop and watch again or look at again o.O I need to stop that, it's slowing me down. I have to remind myself that I can still look at this stuff when I get to TX. Hmm this move means I will have to delay Okashina Okashi again. Eeep o.O I think I will put up the comic from Tuesday again, I dunno. Right now I have the front page set to a black background and a request that people donate or give blood. Hmmm.

Added: Saturday, September 15, 2001 04:16 p.m.

Listening to: "Rehash" by the Gorillaz

Hmm I returned to packing up my stuff today. Yesterday I went and bought MORE boxes, but I think I will have to go yet AGAIN! I can't believe I have so much stuff in this little studio apartment! I have packed almost 20 boxes, and I haven't even made a DENT in teh chaos in my apartment ^^;; I still have MORE manga and tapes to pack, too o.O Man I bought a lot of crap in the almost 4 years I have lived in here.

My cats are slightly traumatized by my packing. All these boxes being piled everywhere changes their landscape to run around in. They have enjoyed sleeping on top of some of the higher stacks of boxes, letting their feet or tails hang over the edge (looks so cute ^^) but the tall stacks also give them access to new places that they should not be snooping around in, so they are getting into more trouble as usual XD

Well, considering how messed up all the flight schedules are right now, it looks like I won't be flying to Texas after all. I was checking ticket prices, and my one-way ticket from San Francisco to Austin, plus the $75 charge for each of my cats, would cost more than my roundtrip ticket to Tokyo was last month @_@ Arg. I don't really want to be flying now anyway, so it looks like I will be driving myself and my cats from San Francisco to Texas. Oh joy.... I made a reservation for a car at a rental place. With the high demands for rental cars these days, I hope I actually get it! I don't really look forward to driving across several states by myself with 2 howling nekos. Anyone wanna come with me? ^^; I don't know how you'd get back though ^_^;;;;

I finally stopped watching the news. All the reporters were finally starting to really annoy me. I realize that they have been on 24-hours a day continuous broadcats with no commercials and everything, and they have to fill up time, but I get weary of hearing the same things over and over again. I think I will just periodically check the news websites in order to keep up with info.

Added: Friday, September 14, 2001 06:17 p.m.

Amazon.com is accepting donations for the redcross disaster relief. please donate

Listening to: BBC News

Well, I did manage to go out today. Sitting at home and watching the news for too long was seriously getting to me. I met up with Steph at the mall and we actually did some shopping and managed to talk and laugh and take our minds away from the disaster for a while. But of course when I get home, it all comes back again, and I have been watching the news for the rest of the day and hearing more of the individual human stories from the attack, and my heart just aches.

Reading Lucy's blog was especially chilling. I cry reading it. I feel so awful, and I am on the opposite side of the contry. I can't imagine the grief and feelings going through the people at the scene. My heart goes out to you.
Added: Thursday, September 13, 2001 01:07 a.m.

Listening to: CBS News and CNN

I tried to watch a movie last night to cheer myself up and rest my mind from all the worrying and aching, but I fell asleep right away, and ended up having nightmares all night. It was pretty horrible. I decided to make a new blog layout in yet another attempt to take my mind off this, and here it is. Of course it would help if I turned off my TV, but I can't seem to do it. I'm still so upset and sickened, but I want to follow the progress of the rescue efforts. I hope they get to the people they suspect are still alive in the basement areas of the towers. I think I will go out soon and try to do something productive, so I am not stilling here all day feeling ill.

Added: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 11:30 a.m.