Alexa: wow, that Ayashi no Ceres picture is very.... exciting ^_- It looks like it should be submitted to the !dangly sisterhood :D

As for parents and computers, well... my mom is fairly clueless about them. She can turn one on and play tetris forever, and she does have a like $3000 sewing machine that has it's own computer and scanner, but for regular computer use/internet types of stuff, she doesn't know much. My dad, however, works for Dell Computers, so he knows his stuff. He is the one who I have build my computers for me, and who I call with computer problems :) In general he is more of a hardeware guru than software though.

Surfing more blogs....
Added: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 04:25 p.m.

Good grief! 2 months of blogging by me, and talking about it to my friends, and they all cave in and get one too at the same time! I have yet another blog to add, Mark (aka Yamada-"hayaku ikasete kudasai!!!"-san) has a blog too @_x nifty. I feel so trendy ^_-
Added: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 04:10 p.m.

Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween y'all!

Muwahahahahahah! I am getting more people into the blog addiction :D Not only has Juri become a blogging ho with her Mental Static (^_~), now I also helped suck in Puu with her lovely Basic Black blog, Yuuhi-niichan with his wonderfully named Ecchi blog, and now Kristi has ecchibi!! Oh hohohohohoho!

I am lame, I am not doing anything for halloween. My apartment doesn't even really have a door that faces a street, so I can't even give ut candy. Not that I would expect any little kids to come down my street anyway. I saw a kid this morning dressed as Harry Potter for Halloween.He was so cute! I miss seeing kids in their costumes =) Ah well...
Added: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 01:07 p.m.

Yay! Yay! Juri got a blog! yahoo! Go check it out!

wai! wai! I have cable TV now! I haven't had cable in 2 years! Now I have digital cable, with like 4 HBO channels, 4 Showtime channels, Scifi, mtv, 2 Starz channels, Disney, etc. It's mind boggling! So many choices now ^_^ I had been sick of having only 4 channels that all came in fuzzy. This is so nice now *_*

Okay, so the first video I watch on MTV in 2 years is Robbie Williams 'Rock DJ'. DAMN! What has happened to MTV? ^^;;; I like the song, but that has to be one of the most disgusting music videos I have seen! He like rips all his skin off and his muscles, and throws them around, and there is all this blood... geh! I miss my good old 80's videos!
Added: Monday, October 30, 2000 11:47 a.m.

Wow, they still run Dianetics infomercials. O_o I remember seeing these things on TV when I was little...

Been browsing some blogs. For IRC channel recommendations, I guess I would recommend efnet's #fushigiyuugi channel. Of course we don't really talk about FY anymore, and being a newbie in there can be a little rough (getting used to being such a strange, DDR addicted bunch can be hard) but in general it's a fun place to be. Just be patient, and don't be angry if you feel ignored. Best thing to do is lurk for a little while, get the feel of the conversation, and then join it. Going into any channel and demanding attention is usually a bad thing ^_^

Maybe we could start an anime fangirl blogger channel on IRC?

Added: Sunday, October 29, 2000 01:30 a.m.

Hmm, how frustrating. I am frozen. No, I am not cold, I am just stuck. I can't do anything. It's like, I want to do so much stuff, that I can't decide what I want to do, and I end up sitting here not doing anything ^_^;; I want to draw, work on *all* my web pages NOW, read this book, sketch out some of teh drawings I have floating in my head, work more on my smuty fic, look through some manga, start new web pages, redesign my blog layout, watch the rest of the slayers DVD box set, scan my new artbooks, etc. And I don't kow what to do first. I am in a stalemate of sorts, pulled in too many directions that I end up just sitting here feeling antsy ^_^ Something similar happened to me last year when I was in Japan. I went into a used manga bookstore, where there were rows and rows and rows of really cheap manga. the selection was so overwhelming I just sat there and almost walked out of the store with nothing because I didn't know where to start ^^;;; I always have this problem. Am I making any sense?

I did nothing today. It was kind of nice in one sense. It's raining and gross outside like I said before, so I bundled up, got my nekos to curl up next to me, and I watched some DVDs, like my Ever After DVD, and Dead Again (I love that movie...). I also watched the Tokyo Babylon DVD with the English dub audio on but with English subtitles on too. How amusing to see how they changed the dialog. I did teh same thing with the Sailor Moon S movie DVD.

I have this large stack of Doujinshi I may put up for sale on ebay soon. Most of them are yaoi or shounen ai. Series include YYH, Gundam Wing, Kenshin, Generator Gawl, one that is just kawaii biseinen catboys (^_^), Utena, etc. I saw that one of my gundam wing doujinshi books is part of a set that is currently going for $78/volume on ebay. oro. I will definitely be listing that one :) I still need to list that DNAngel volume 2 I have to sell.

Why are all my male UFO Catcher dolls grumpy? All the female UFOs I have (Jeanne, Fin, Tomoyo, Sakura) are smiling, while the guy UFOs (Eagle, Lantis, Clef, Rui, and Chiaki) look really pissed off. I do have 2 male UFOs taht are happy (Asuka Jr. and Ascot) but they are way outnumbered. I guess the others think they are too macho to be reduced to UFO size ^_^

I am adding more blog links. I am reading more and more of them. It looks like every anime fangirl blog I go to has the same other blogs linked. I think that is kind of cool, it's like a big happy community :D
Added: Sunday, October 29, 2000 12:26 a.m.

Kris, a bunko version of a manga is sort of like a reprinting of it, except that the volumes are smaller, and usually contain more chapters, so there are fewer total volumes than in the regular versions. The contents of bunko manga volumes is the same as a normal volume, except that the paper is smaller, and there will be a few more chapters. I think the scan of Oishii Kankei that I have on my Random Shoujo Manga Page is the bunko version.

Yay, I almost have my november layout done! I have it looking good on netscape and IE, and different versions for 800x600 or larger. Woo hoo! I just have to tweak the content pages a little bit. Whew!

Anyone want to buy 700 volumes of shoujo manga in one big lot? It would only cost ya about $4000.... oh well, I had to try.... My manga overpopulation problem is getting pretty bad. I don't think I would mind selling a lot of it, but I would want to do it in one big chunk because I am way too lazy to write up ebay descriptions for *everything* @_@.

The weather here is still all rainy and icky, so I don't plan on doing ANYTHING this weekend. I think I shall stay in and be lazy. Maybe I'll work on the fics I have been neglecting. I have one cheerfully smutty yaoi one that is crying for attention, and I have another new (and equally smutty) straight fic that I have to finish by a deadline >_< (Yes, I like writing smut, it's fun! ;)

I think I'll go make some hot cocoa.
Added: Saturday, October 28, 2000 12:58 p.m.

Someone named Jen linked to my blog under the topic of 'Stupid Fact'. Um, thanks? ^_^;;
Added: Thursday, October 26, 2000 02:11 p.m.

Hmm this is fun. Browsing weblogs with Netscape. hohohohohoho! See how many of them look all messed up in NEtscape! It's amazing. Everyone designs for IE these days it seems. Granted, I like IE, but for work I have to design stuff to work okay on as many browsers as possible, even crappy Web TV (sorry webTV users, but your browser does make everything look like crap ^^;;;). Like I mentioned in a previous entry, I have a possible design layout that I like, but I am having some problems getting it to look ok in Netscape. And I WANT it to look good in netscape. In general I don't like pages that are optimized for a specific browser, or make me have to do anything to my current browser to make their site look good. I don't want to have to load any new fonts, change my resolution or screen size, or change the number of colors I am using. I'd prefer a browser-friendly layout to one that is really fancy but only looks good on IE. At least have an option to choose which browser version you are using and have a page for each one...

Of course I say all this, but I know I have been guilty of designing stuff like that too. I don't do it that often though, and I am really trying not to this time. I don't mind hitting F11 in IE though. Anyway, blog-surfing with Netscape is amusing.

Ugh, today is rainy and cold and icky. Just the sort of day I would rather be at home, sleeping in or curled up in front of my TV buried in blankets, with my cats with me, and a mug of hot cocoa. But no, I am at work. I missed the shuttle bus that takes me from the BART Station to my work this morning, so I had to wait in the cold and rain for the next one. That was 40 minutes without my umbrella (Brilliant move Emi...) Needles sto say I am very grumpy and damp and cold today. I hope I don't get sick!

I like Ashley's new blog layout, though it looks funny in netscape. Really prety Jeanne picture though! I have the Jeanne artbook too. Lovely *_* Continuing my artbook spree of a few days ago, I went and ordered the E's artbook. The artwork for Espers (E's) is so darn pretty and CLAMP-like. I should get the artbook soon. I can't wait! I'm such an artbook ho!

Reading all these blogs by people still in school, about homework and tests, I am really glad I am not in school anymore. Ugh, I don't know how I would have time to do anything. I am amazed at all of you with all these pretty blogs and websites and still manage classes and tests and homework. I graduated from college in december of '97 and I work full time, and I only barely manage to work on any of my pages. Perhaps it is because I always have so much that I want to do. I want to work on my pages, watch anime dvds for work reviews, draw new fanart, paint pictures, write fanfic, read novels, go out with my friends etc. *breathes a sigh of relief* thank heavens for no more school @_x! Ok, enough rambling this morning, back to work for me!

Added: Thursday, October 26, 2000 10:51 a.m.

Continuing my drawing spree, I have two more pictures I drew today. This one and his older brother. Whee, fun with bishies ^_^

Hmm this is a pain. I have been working on a future layout, and I am having some browser compatability problems. Gotta hammer those out. I DID decide on a picture for a November layout (good thing, since it's already coming up so soon!) I just have to do something with it O_O Wish me luck!

Hmm my kittens have been asleep all afternoon. This worries me, because it means they will be up and running around all night long. Oh Joy ^^;;;

Does anyone have Candidate for Goddess manga translations?

I made brownies today. They are a bit on te choco-gooey side, which is fine by me. They are a bit messy to eat though!

Looking at my access logs, I see Kouhaku, Diana, and Sarah have linked to this blog. Wow, thanks! :)

Maybe I will try some Harry Potter fanart next?
Added: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 09:33 p.m.

Whoo, I drew a new picture tonight. It isn't a MAG picture, but at least I finished something. Here it is. I don't really know who he is, I just drew him ^_^

OK, time for me to watch some of the stuff I need to review ^_^
Added: Monday, October 23, 2000 11:09 p.m.

Well, I did make some small progress in cleaning my apartment yesterday. I made the main room somewhat easier to get through. Tonight I work on my kitchen. Oh joy ^_^

I have a new layout I am playing with, as usual, it's pretty plain compared to everyone else, but I kind of like it. I am not sure what I will use it for though- blog layout or niko-niko layout.

These artbooks are so pretty. I absolutely MUST make a skin or two out of something from them! My scanner has almost been behaving normally in the last day or so. I only had to reboot a billion times before it decided to work -_- But I am happy it's doing anything at this point :D

The thing about artbooks is that I not only love them for the ART, but I also love them because I can stare very closely at all the art pieces to see what materials were used to make each picture. I am a total art supply ho. I LOVE going to art stores and staring all starry-eyed at colored pencils and pastels and paints and brushes and pens and pencils and sketchpads, etc. Looking through artbooks and seeing what mangaka use makes me want to run out and buy it all! I get a lot of great ideas from seeing what mangaka do in their color work. I LOVE it!

I have been too busy to do much web surfing lately. Maybe tonight, after I finish writing up my IGN reviews :)
Added: Monday, October 23, 2000 01:23 p.m.

Ooh, Kris, I look forward to your finishing that ISBN page, I would like to link to it from my Random Shoujo Manga page :)

I'm trying to clean up my apartmenttoday, but as usual, things are going slow. It'a hard to straighten things up when Spike andVicious are racing around knocking things over again ^^;;; I need to look for some new bookshelves. This is getting ridiculous. 800+ volumes of manga may be fun to have, but damn if they do NOT all fit in my tiny studio apartment. I keep complaining about this, yet I always buy more. I also can't find my darn trash bags. And I have so much I need to throw away. Arg, back to cleaning! ja ne :0
Added: Sunday, October 22, 2000 02:48 p.m.

Yummy!
Egads, I spent way too much money today! Er.. yesterday? Saturday ^_^ That's it. Someone PLEASE stop me from going to Kinokuniya again! Gah, I knew what would happen when Thea and I got to the San Jose store. I was killed by artbooks. Wah! I bought three! I picked up the second Angel Sanctuary Artbook (damn, it is so gorgeous!), a Gravitation artbook (more bishounens!), and finally I got a nice hardcover artbook by the author of Saiyuki filled with lots of great color Saiyuki art as well as art from the author's other series. I shimmer just looking at these. I also bought the 2nd bilingual volume of CCS, the first 2 volumes of Yukiru Sugisaki's 'Candidate for Goddess' manga, and finally two random shoujo tankoubon. Ugh, this is so horrible! I am NOT going to kinokuniya again for several weeks! *vow vow vow*

Hehehe when I saw that image on the page I link to up above, I couldn't resist adding the words below it. Come on, doesn't it fit the picture? ^_^

Now I must sleep!
Added: Sunday, October 22, 2000 03:06 a.m.

Yup, as expected, my IE crashed. Ugh, I hate my piece-o-crap computer. *soon I will have my new computer, soon soon soon...*

I think I will attempt to participate in the MAG (Monthly Anime Gaijin) fanart contest this month. I like the look of the characters for this month's subject. I'll give it a shot and pray I can get my scanner working long enough to scan in my entry. Wish me luck! ^_^

Gah, the Shinesman DVD is delayed. How annoying! I love that OVA (and the manga series!) I hate waiting for the DVD! But my Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box DVD set DID arrive today. Yay! I watched the 3rd disc of supplementary stuff, and it is so cool! I wish I could work for Pixar ^_^

I am going to the San Jose Kinokuniya tomorrow with Thea. This will be quite an adventure, as neither of us has a car. So we'll be public-transporting ourselves from San Francisco to San Jose. Woooo fun! I like the San Jose store's selection of manga much better than the SF store. Of course the LA store beats them both, but I will make do. As if I needed any more manga...of course I do! (Maybe I should start selling some of my collection on ebay. I really don't have room for all of this...
Added: Friday, October 20, 2000 10:47 p.m.

How can Diana not like Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb? That's blasphemy! ^_- Ok, I admit it. I used to hate it too. Then I lived for about 8 years in Texas... and, well, I think it may be impossible to live in Texas for any amount of time and not acquire a taste for the stuff ^_^;;

Alexa has a very nice looking new layout on her site. I love Arina Tanemura's art style, even if all her characters look teh same. The detail is still so amazing ^_^

Gah, my browser is going to crash in a minute, I can tell. I'd better post this and continue in a few minutes....
Added: Friday, October 20, 2000 10:28 p.m.

Hehehe so much for 'more later' ^_^;; I fell asleep after getting home from the laundromat. Then I got too busy at work yesterday to make an entry, and was once again too tired to do much last night either. Arg, One of these nights I need a good 14 hour block of sleep ^_^ Too much caffeine for me! (but I love it so....)

Hmm lets see... I ordered the Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box 3-DVD set. It should arrive today. I am so looking forward to it! I loved those movies :)

I have been too sleepy to blog, but I did manage to start a winamp skin I may actually finish. We'll see. I also have been experimenting a little with some text stuff for a november niko-niko.net layout. I still am not sure what image I will use (I do want to avoid stuff I see used all the time, like clamp and jeanne artwork, though that is all so beautiful) so finding stuff I like may be difficult. I have a few ideas though. ^_^ Any suggestions?
Added: Friday, October 20, 2000 09:52 a.m.

Ooh, I like Katherine's new blog layout. I love that picture. The page feels very warm to me ^_^

I am so peeved that I missed Buffy and Angel again last night. I ended up falling asleep kneeling on the floor nextto my bed while I was petting my kittens who were asleep on a blanket. I had this really bizarre Star Wars dream o.O and woke up with sore knees and drooling on the blanket ^^ I would have much rather have watched Buffy and Angel *sigh*

At least I have some genki soda ^_^

More Later :)
Added: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 07:08 p.m.

Arg, I was too sleepy last night to blog again. And I had anime reviews to write. I did get some cute cute manga though, that I will try to mention in my manga diary.

Ah, I see people are looking at Japanese Harry Potter fanart. Hahah this is funny :) About a month ago I went on a huge Japanese website search for Harry potter fanart. I found quite a few sites and lots of cute pictures, including the site I am seeing linked in a few blogs right now (I would link it too, but I am feeling lazy right now ^_^;;). I'll have to check my browser history and see if I can find those sites again, and post the links. There is a lot of cool anime-stlye Harry Potter art. And yes, the books (at least the first 2 anyway) have been translated into Japanese. I have seen them at the Kinokuniya bookstore here. I have almost been tempted to get them too :) There is even some Harry Potter stuff for auction on yahoo japan.

Hmm I think I'll do some more moderating. I am a moderator on the IGN Anime Bulliten Board. People there can get a bit rowdy. And there are also several newbies. But it's fun seeing people learn about new series and stuff.

Hmm I see Alexa, Diana, and Margot are all talking about coca-cola and beverage prefrences. (Do any of these people know me? Er not really, but I read their blogs anyway, heheheh). As for me, it doesn't have to be Coke. I like Pepsi better actually. I am happy with anything that has caffeine in it :) I love the taste of root beer, but never drink it because most of it doesn't have caffeine :) Ah, sad addictions... I LOVE Chocolate-brownie Frappuccinos at Starbucks though. Or Dr. Pepper... even better, Mr. Pibb.... Heck, just get me a caffeine IV and hook me up :) THIS is one of my favorite places to oogle caffeine products. *drools*
Added: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 04:12 p.m.

RAR! I was just told to stop working on the project I have been working on for most of the day because the people I am doing it for have changed their mind and have decided not to do it how they told me to. Grrr! Isn't work fun? ^_^

Oh well, it's time to go, and I am off to Japantown (again!) to return the videos I have that are very very very late >_< I do NOT want to see what the late fee is gonna be....) I tried to return them twice last week, and teh stupid bus got me to J-town too late both times, the store was already closed. Man, I need to get a new car. I miss my old Soyokaze. One of tehse days I should write out in this the saga of the Soyokaze, my brave car that I finally had to give up last March. maybe I'll do that tonight, I think the story is mildly interesting. Anyway, off to Japantown with me! Lets see how much manga I'll get this time ^^;;
Added: Monday, October 16, 2000 04:56 p.m.

The PEZ Museum! How could I forget? Last Friday some coworkers and I went to the great PEZ museum in Burlingame. Sort of a long lunch break ^_^ I have never seen so many Pez things in one place! It was mind boggling. One of my coworkers collects PEZ stuff, and he needed to get some more stands to hold it all. To get an idea of how much PEZ he has, look at this or this, or even this! See? ^_^;; I caved in and bought a few Pez dispensers too. I got a sleepy Garfield, Snoopy, and a Stormtrooper, all of which are sitting happily on my shelf above my work desk, right next to the plush talking Mokona, the talking kerochan, the non-talking kerochan, the chibi Totoro, the 2 Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanner figurines, the plush Kodama, the Magical Emi figure, 3 Urusei Yatsura figurines, and a psychotic cat figure holding a gun). Whee!

Ok, gotta get back to work....
Added: Monday, October 16, 2000 10:07 a.m.

Yes I live in the Bay Area (San Francisco to be exact). Is this a bad thing? ^^;;;
Added: Monday, October 16, 2000 12:52 a.m.

Well, even though my scanner isn't working, I have still been feeling artistic. So I tried to draw something directly into the computer and color it there. Bleh, that is too difficult for me to do @_@ This is what I ended up with. Bleh. I miss my scanner ;_;
Added: Sunday, October 15, 2000 11:40 p.m.

I tried working on some winamp skins today, despite my sucky monitor, but I didn't have much luck. I am not happy with ANYTHING so far. The images aren't doing what I want them to, and everything just looks too cruddy on this monitor. Fortunately I will be getting an entirely new computer in a few weeks. I have been talking with my dad, and he tells me if I can give him the cash for half of a new computer now, he'll put it on one of his credit cards, and I can make the payments. I tried getting a credit card for the place I am getting the computer through, but I was rejected for the reason of 'unable to verify home address and phone number'. O_o What's up with that? My salary is very good, and my credit is fine. Stupid place. Feh. Anyway, I have enough for half of the computer now, but I am going to wait a couple more paychecks anyway. At any rate, my new computer will be a hell of a lot faster than this lame P166 with it's 4GB hard drive. I am going for something around 850MHz and 40GB, with a CD burner and a DVD drive. Now that would be quite a step up for me :) I just need to get DSL ^^
Added: Sunday, October 15, 2000 05:02 p.m.

It's just past 4am and I am still awake. Ever since friday night I have been sick. Or at least feeling very vile. I ended up sleeping most of Saturday away, and now my sleep schedule is all messed up. I should try to go to sleep again soon, or it will be very evil for me on Monday morning!

Hmm I changed the look of my web diary. Not all that big of a change really. Who knows how long this will last. Like before, I am using a picture from Hanazakari no Kimitachi E. This is Nakatsu and a neko. Kawaii! Nakatsu is so funny :)

I watched Saturday Night Live tonight/last night, and laughed myself silly at their Laverne and Shirley skit! They did an entire 'Laverne and Shirley' skit in Japanese ^_^ It included the opening song sung in Japanese, credits in romanized Japanese, and even a commercial in Japanese for what looked like some sort of cockroach snack cracker, complete with blindingly cute animated mascot. Muwahaha, I couldn't stop giggling. Their Japanese was pretty funny. the new SNL cast member had good pronounciation, but the host and everyone else sounded very forced ^^ "Boo-boo kitty! boo boo kity! Doko desu ka?" hahah. Instead of an "L", it looked like Laverne had a hiragana "yo" on her shirt. Damn that was funny, I wish I had it on tape. It was evenbetter than the Japanese game show skit they did a few years back with Alec Baldwin speaking Japanese.

Does anyone actually read this? I wonder sometimes ^_^ I mean, I have looked at my access logs, and I see that I am getting hits, but I still can't imagine anyone actually reading this. A few people have linked this blog, so I guess I am being silly (thanks for the link!) but I usually feel like I am talking to myself. Probably because none of my friends keep a blog or online diary, so I can't really talk to them here :)

Ok, sleep time for me! My head hurts still ~_~ I hate being sick!
Added: Sunday, October 15, 2000 04:11 a.m.

*listening to: Belinda Carlisle - Runaway Horses*

Happy Friday the 13th everyone. Not only is it Friday the 13thm but it's OCTOBER 13th, which makes it seem all the more creepy just for the closeness to Halloween.

I hate when I feel creative while at work. I have these urges to start drawing or writing, or working on my web pages (on my lovely fast computer here, with the T3 connection and non-dead monitor) , or I want to make winamp skins or something. It's awful ^^ I have all this work to do, so all I can manage are some pitas entries and some random surfing. Bah! Heheh you know I like complaining.

For any one who reads this and who read my IGN Escaflowne DVD review, Esca DVD vol 1 has *4* episodes on it, ok? Yeesh, everyone has been asking me that. For some reason it seemed obvious to me or something. I guess that is why I didn't mention it in my review. For my next DVD review I did mke sure to list the episode count.

Whee, what DVDs shall I get next? I want the Shinesman DVD NOW! WAH! It will be released soon.... In the meantime where the heck are my Escaflowne (er, I have another copy of vol 1 coming that is a gift to a friend) and my Jubei-chan vol 2 DVDs? They shipped a while ago, but have yet to appear. I am also still waiting for a CD I ordered too. GRR!

I think I will get a new sketchpad today. I think I have used every available inch of blank space in my last one. Since I can't really do CG with my crappy computer at home any more, and the monitor is too dim to do anything well anyway, I might as well put my lovely set of copic markers to use again.

OK, enough babbling, back to work! Ja ne...
Added: Friday, October 13, 2000 11:24 a.m.

I doodled a picture of the Typo Oni today. The Typo Oni is the little winged bishounen demon boy who sits on my shoulder and causes me to type horribly. All bad spelling and frequent occurences of 'teh' instead of 'the' are the Typo Oni's fault, not mine. Really! I understand English! Tye Typo Oni doesn't though, so me makes me type strange things. Anyway, The Typo Oni is a bishounen (I would tolerate no other type of Oni around me!) and he has small black wings on both his back and his head. He has a black devil tail, pointy ears, and long black hair. His eyes are normally shiny purple, but when he makes me typo, they glow red. Oh yeah, he has fangs too. He is normally dressed in black pants with boots (thigh high or knee high boots), and a tight black shirt with random cool-looking buckles and zippers on it. Over that he will sometimes wear a high-collared black trenchcoat, with his wings somehow sticking out the back. Why yes, it is scary that I have a Typo Oni and know what he looks like. ^_^ Too bad my scanner is dead, and I can't scan my picture darnit!

I just realized that without my scanner I can't add more shoujo manga summaries to my RSM page either. Hrm. Next paycheck man, new scanner and new monitor! (how many times will I say this? Everyone is no doubt sick of my raving over my computer ^^;;;. That reminds me, I named my computer 'Access Time' a year ago. (yet another little winged person, hahaha).
Added: Thursday, October 12, 2000 04:26 p.m.

*listening to: Be My Valentine, by Leo Ku*

Hmm I noticed that my CLAMP name is the same as Caroline's over at Otaku Girls. Interesting O_O I wonder how that name generator works.

Hmm my eyes really hurt this morning. They are red too. Perhas I should switch out my contacts (they are disposeables) later, or wear my glasses tonight. Too much staring at a computer screen, bleh. Maybe it's my bad monitor at home.
Added: Thursday, October 12, 2000 09:33 a.m.

CLAMP Name Generator

Aww, I ran my name through the CLAMP name Generator and got "Kouhaku Tenshiko". Awww kawaiiiiiiii~~~~~ ^_^
Added: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 09:10 p.m.

*listening to: 'Once in a Blue Moon' by Takashi Hasegawa (Yutaka Takenouchi)*

Ah, I love 'Once in a Blue Moon'. It's a piano piece from the japanese drama 'With Love'. 'With Love' is sort of like a Japanese version of the movie 'You've Got Mail', except it ran on TV, and has like 11 episodes at 1 hour long each. It's basically about the relationship formed between a shy girl who works as a bank teller, and a handsome, popular advertising music musician. He writes music for commercials and makes lots of money, but he is unsatisfied in his work because he can't really be the creative musician he wants to be. He tries to write beautiful music for commercials, but teh advertisers always want cheezy, catchy tunes instead. One day he is sending one of his beautiful piano pieces through email to his manager. But he types in the email address wrong, and it goes instead to the shy bank teller, who almost deletes the strange email, but decides to listen to it, and falls in love with the music. She writes back to the sender with a thank you. He gets the email and realizes his mistake, and just trashes her reply. But she was so touched by the music, that she keeps writing to him, telling him random observations. At first he deletes the emails, and then he starts reading them. He has no idea who she is, she lies and tells him she is a bank teller in Paris. Finally he replies and they start up a series of emails to each other about various things. He lies to her, and tells her he is a music teacher at a middle school. Meanwhile, in real life, they both work in the same building. She works at the bank branch on the first floor, while his ad agency is near the top floor. They run into each other in person, but he pretty much ignores her (he is distracted a lot by his beautiful radio DJ girlfriend) and she is usually shocked by his behavior and she gets the wrong impression that he works at an adult video film company. ^^;. So anyway, they hate each other in rl, and have a different relationship in email. 'Once in a Blue Moon' is a piece of music he wries in the series. It's soft and lovely, I like it :)
Added: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 02:08 p.m.

Okay, obviously cosmic forces are conspiring to prevent me from working on my GTO layout. First I procrastinated forever, which is my own fault, but now, when I am bright-eyed and readyto design, my scanner decides it is NOT going to work any more. RAR! Excuse me as I rampage through a plastic model of Tokyo for a few minutes. GRR! Run you puny humans! Fear Emzilla's wrath!

Ahem.

Now that I have a little rampaging out of my system, I guess I will work some more on the content, even though I don't really have a place to put it yet. So now I need a new monitor AND a new scanner. I suppose I should be glad my computer works at all ^_^;;

On a different note, I watched Buffy and Angel tonight. Woo hoo! I was so upset that I missed tehse shows last week! I really wanted to see the arrival of Dawn. But this week had a couple of good eps too. Considering how badly Xander was ignored last season, it's nice to see him get in some quality screen time this year! Inthe 2 eps of this season I have watched, he has had two major roles/subplots about him. Yay! And he finally got out of that basement and into a really nice apartment! Man, he must make some great money as a construction worker. In San Francisco, that apartment would cost like $3000/month. Angel was a pretty good episode too. I am glad to see the return of the demonic karaoke bar! I hope they keep that, I wanna see Angel sing 'Mandy' again! The 'embarrass Angel' moment for this episode invoved a pink motorcycle helmet. But Angel manages to look macho in pink anyway ^^ What is up with Cordelia and Gunn? They are really being forced together as a new couple or something. Hmm.

Of course now that I have resolved to work on my GTO content, I have this Ladyhawke DVD just sitting here begging me to watch it. Oh the tough decisions!
Added: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 12:08 a.m.

Scifi.com chat with Ikuhara

Oh, I almost forgot. On Sunday I sat in on that online chat with Kunihiko Ikuhara, one of my favorite twisted men of the anime world. In case you have no idea who he is, he is the guy responsible for creating Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Chiho Saito drew it, but Ikuhara created it) and he was also a director on some later seasons of Sailor Moon. This man is so wonderfully twisted. He gives great reasons for the freaky stuff in Utena, I love it. He is also not afraid to wear a skirt! His official web page recently sported some lovely photos of himself and Mamoru Nagano, the creator of Five Star Stories, dressed in drag as Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus. And they scary thing is that they looked better in Sailor Fuku than a lot of the cosplayers I have seen at anime cons here ^_^;;; Ikuhara has also recently appeared in photos wearing a black leather bondage outfit, complete with collar and chain ^_^ Wonderfully twisted, I tell you! Anyway, I logged the chat with him, and uploaded it to the link up above. Check it out, I love his replies to the questions about the leather outfit, and his talk about Tuxedo Kamen ^^.

Hmm my side of the building smells like coffee right now, even further strengthening my feeling that the design of our new building looks like a giant starbucks. I really wonder if we had the same interior designer...
Added: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 04:06 p.m.

So much for working on my GTO page. I ended up falling asleep in front of the computer not long after my last entry. I was so sleepy =_= I WILL work on it this week, I swear!

Anyway, I was surfing some other sites and contemplating my November layout, and I have been thinking. I keep seeing so many sites use CLAMP artwork for their layouts. And all the layouts look lovely. But you know, using CLAMP art seems sort of... *easy*... to me. Maybe it is because I love CLAMP art so much, and think it is so beautiful. It's like, that artwork is SO nice, that you can do anything to it in a layout and it will still look good. Just take a random picture of kamui, blur the edges a little, or fade the background color to match the page background, add some artsy looking cursive script here and there (I see a LOT of sites using lots of cursive script over images as if that is supposed to be original or creative) add a few soft lines radiating from the picture, maybe some geometric shapes or mystery meat navigation, and then choose a totally obscure but romantic sounding name, and poof, instant beautiful layout. Of course I see a lot of sites like this and think they are all really nice looking, so I shouldn't really be ranting. Maybe I should just pick a CLAMP picture and do the same thing. I dunno. Predictable but beautiful CLAMP layouts must surely be better than lame and boring ones like mine ^_^;;; Or maybe I will just stick with working on sites with useful content. Hmm

I must be feeling guilty for not getting much work done on the layout of my GTO page.
Added: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 01:37 p.m.

Hmm today has been a very mixed day. For the most part I was pretty happy. Today was the first day at the new building at work, and I must say, it is a really cool building. It's very... stylish. The interior design is swanky. It sort of reminds me of like a GIANT starbucks or something ^^;; And we have so much space now! We all were so cramed before, now we have loads of room. I love my new pseudo-cubicle. I now have a shelf I can pile anime plushies on (yes I will br bringing a pile to work tomorrow ^^;) and I have a wall to pin posters and calendars and stuff. It's not like I really have anything else to put on the walls. I think the oddest thing about my new desk is the knee-high rolling file cabinet with the build in seat cushion on the top. O_O Okay....

the rest of the day I have been feeling pretty depressed. I know why it is, and I don't really want to go into it here, but I know I shouldn't feel this way, and it is annoying. Maybe it's PMS ^_^

I did get a new DVD today. "And I Hate You So", a hong kong movie starring Aarok Kwok and Kelly Chen. It's a cute story of a girl (Kelly) who is a newspaper columist (she just writes general articles about stuff she observes. sort of like a dave barry or something). One day she is in second-hand store when she comes across an old record album. It turns out that the record was the exact same one she gave to her first boyfriend as a gift when she was younger. It even still has her message to him written on the jacket. Well, the girl wants this albumn badly, considering the sentimental connection she has to it, but the shopowner wont sell it to her because the albumn has already been bought by someone else (Aaron) and is on hold. Well the girl calls the guy and asks him to let her buy the record, but he says NO, and so teir relationship begins. He mentions her (in a rude way) during his DJ show, and she starts writing about him in her newspaper columns. So they are arguing over this record in the public, and the entire city is reading and listening to the battle. This is of course a romantic comedy, so thr sparks fly when they are together. I liked this movie a lot, so maybe I will watch it later. It will make me feel better.

But first I think I will try to come up with a layout for my GTO page.
Added: Monday, October 9, 2000 08:49 p.m.

Ahhh, Japantown yesterday was fun. We went manga-crazy in Kinokuniya again. I really need to do something about this horrible manga-buying. The Random Shoujo Manga habit is killing me. I spend too much money on it, and my apartment is filled with manga. Everywhere I look, there it is. I trip over the stuff. I think I have just about 800 volumes now. It's insane @_@ Anyway, tonight I picked up volumes 16-17 of Legend of Basara. I will eventually get to the end of this series, I swear! I like this manga a lot, but damn, the main characters are totally lacking in CLUE! Talk about Clark Kent syndrome. Sarasa just puts on her bandana thing on her head and she is suddenly Tatara. Yeesh people! But of course you know I will be getting volumes 18+ soon. I also picked up a couple of random ecchi shoujo volumes. I love random shoujo, but random ecchi shoujo is the best! Tonight the ecchi shoujo manga was called "Kare to Kanojou to Garterbelt" by Emiko Sugi. ^_^;;; it's a collection of short stories. The title story was about a guy with a garterbelt fetish, and this girl who would try to please him, but would get mad because all he cared about were her legs in garter belts. He could care less about anything else in the relationship. This left our heroine pretty... unsatisfied ^^ Anyway, it's cheezy and slightly smutty, so I am genki :D

Lets see, we also watched Bishounen tonight. I have it on DVD, and Michi and Thea hadn't seen it yet. Bishounen is (despite the name) a hong kong movie about... well, bishounen ^^ It's a live action yaoi movie, I guess you can say. It isn't super explicit (well, ok, there is a really steamy shower scene^_^) but the guys in it are really really cute. Namely the absolutely adorable Stephen (look! I have dimples!) Fung playing Jet, and the equally yummy Daniel (I'm an American!) Wu as Sam/Fai. That movie has so much eyecandy in it. Who needs yaoi anime and manga when you have this movie! Granted, it is very genkinai, but I love the movie just the same. Dibs on Stephen and Daniel! *_* (excuse the drool :D) I find it amusing that in Gen-X cops, Daniel and Stephen are enemies, who happen to have had the same girlfriend, and are still fighting over her, while in Bishounen they seem perfectly happy to have each other, hohoho ^_- Sorry, I am having a yaoi fangirl moment here.

Lets see, today I am working on cleaning up my apartment *sigh* and writing up a couple more anime reviews for IGN. Wheee!
Added: Sunday, October 8, 2000 02:23 p.m.

Sorimachi Takashi

la la la, I am back from the laundromat, and am now waiting for Michi to show up. She's stuckin traffic, and is running late. In the meantime I thought I would post a link to a nice picture of Sorimachi Takashi, the guy who plays Onizuka-sensei in the GTO drama. Such a cutie. Maybe I will work on my GTO page tonight.

Hmm I watched the first Escaflowne DVD. Very nice. I am such a happy camper. I'll have to write up my review of it tomorrow.

okay, I gotta go!
Added: Saturday, October 7, 2000 04:21 p.m.

Whee, I am going to Japantown again today. What? I know I went there just the other day. But today is Michi's birthday, and while her party is going to be next weekend, she didn't want to sit around and do nothing on her actual birthday, so we are going to have a genki fangirl romp around japantown. We'll do the usual places- Kinokuniya, Mikado, lunch, etc. Watch out when fangirls get together, it is a scary thing. The genkiness hits extreme danger levels ^^

I finally watched the GTO live action motion picture. I love the drama, anime, and manga, and was supergenki when the store here finally got in the movie. I *love* Sorimachi Takashi playing Onizuka-sensei. Not only is he rally cute, but he seems to be having a totally genuine good time playing the part. He plays it a bit goofy, but so endearing ^_^ I was glad he had a motorcycle to ride in the movie! In the drama and TV special he was having a problem with his motorcycle ^^ The movie was pretty good. I just wish that it had Nanako Matsushima in it. I love her in the drama, playing Onizuka-sensei's love interest. I have liked her since I first saw her playing the teacher in the Majo no Joken drama. She is so super cute as the teacher in GTO! (She plays teachers a lot @_@) She goes great with Sorimachi's Onizuka character. Oh well, maybe they will make another GTO series. I can only hope ^_^ I have heard that some GTO drama episodes have been fansubbed. I really need to find them! At least the manga is being published in Kodansha bilingual versions! Gah, I NEED to finish my GTO page! I have been working on it forever, but I am so slow ;_; That is what I get for doing too many projects. I haven't even really started on my somewhat-top-secret-CLAMP-related-page. (bah, and that isn't really a secret either, oh well ^_^)

I also rented a couple of japanese dramas. The first is 'Summer snow'. It stars my favorite Kinki Kid (now that is a scay thought, that I have a favorite Kinki Kid...) Tsuyoshi Dohmoto. It's about this guy who is in charge of his younger brother and sister after their parents passed away. He runs a bicycle shop. His younger brother has a hearing problem, but has an online office lady girlfriend, and his younger sister has a deliquent boyfriend. Tsuyoshi's character is so genki! (It's nice to see, because the last thing I saw him in, the drama 'To Heart' -which has nothing to do with the anime of the same name- his character was so NOT genki) Tsuyoshi's character is so genki, that he actually enters one scene singing 'Chokotto Love' by Pucchimoni. A Kinki Kid singing Pucchimoni...it boggles the mind! If you don't know what 'Chokotto Love' by Pucchimoni is... well, lets just say is is a mind-numbingly genki song ^_^ Look for an mp3 of it through jpop-mp3.com, it's worth it! I also rented the first volume of the 'One Piece' anime, but I couldn't really get into it.

Ok, time for me to get to the laundromat again, or I will have nothing to wear to jtown today! Ja ne!
Added: Saturday, October 7, 2000 12:25 p.m.

this is pretty f*cked up...
Yay, I didn'thave to go into work today. We (everyone at snowball.com, including IGN, ChickClick, and PowerStudents) are moving into a new building today. Our old space was getting very crowded. Now we have a lovely shiny set of new buildings constructed just for us. The Facilities and IT people wanted all employees out of our old building by noon today, so I didn't bother to go in, considering that I would spend as much time commuting as I would working. I look forward to being in the new building. I'll finally have a cubicle wall to hang my anime calendars and posters ^_- Last week they posted a floor map of the new building, and marked off where everyone would be sitting. I swear, it was just like the first day of a new school year when everyone looked to see their assigned desks ^^ "ooh I'm sitting next to you! Hey, can we switch cubicles? Aww, I wanted to be next to the windows!" etc ^_^;; and we are supposed to be adults...) It was fun watching IGN try to pack up all their stuff. Their workspace is already chaotic with movie and game posters a nd figures and piles and piles of videogame.... STUFF. Seeing them try to pack it all up and keep track of it all was entertaining. That reminds me, I need to get some new anime DVDs to review for IGN.

Random thought. I could live off of toast and nutella.
Added: Friday, October 6, 2000 12:32 p.m.

Nieaunder 7
Ok, my monitor problem on my computer at home is getting really bad. I have to stop procrastinating and get a new monitor (better yet, a new computer) soon. It's getting very difficult to view some pages with darker layouts. The text and images are barely visible. And then when I do design stuff, and view it later on one of my work computers, all the blacks are really grays. Feh. Time to start shopping around.

I have actually been in the mood to start making winamp skins again. For a long time I was an anime winamp skin-making freak, churning out piles of skins left and right. Everything I saw would prompt me to say 'I could make a skin out of that!'. But then I lost my old host at yaoi.anime-manga.net, and my sites were down, and I didn't get my skins page over to niko-niko for a few months. I got out of the cycle of constantly making skins. Back when I first started making skins, it seemed like Archen was the first, and then I started making them, and we were very quickly followed by other cool skin makers like Ragabash, or the Intergalactic site, etc. Now there are so many great skin makers and I feel so out of touch ;_; My computer at home is sucking so badly right now that I can barely even play mp3s anyway. Everyone else has passed me up on the skin making skills ^^;; I am sure that all the images I am seeing and would like to make skins of have already been used by other people, and I have this aversion to making skins from repeated images. Whine whine whine ^^;; Gah, excuse me, I'll get over the self-pity in a few minutes :) I do have a lot of images I would like to make skins from though. I am so out of practice!

I thought I lost my cellphone yesterday, I was so worried. I had been helping Thea move into a new apartment on Tuesday, and I ended up leaving my cell in the U-Haul truck after we returned it. I was SO freaking out. Fortunately Thea was able to get it back for me when she went to the U-Haul place again yesterday. *whew*. I would have felt lost without my Nokia with the translucent burgandy face plate, pink hello kitty cellphone strap, blue flashing antenna laight, and CLAMP boys image on the main screen background! It even plays A-ha's "Take on Me" when it rings! ^_^

Hmm ok, lets see, what anime have I been watching lately... I like Gatekeepers a lot, and the DiGiCharat summer special episodes... and Nieaunder 7 has cool character designs (Same person who did the character designs for Serial Experiments Lain), and Boogiepop Phantom is freaky...

I think I'll go to Kinokuniya today and get some more Random Shoujo Manga!
Added: Thursday, October 5, 2000 11:26 a.m.

listening to: o/~ Turn A Gundam OST 1 o/~ Yoko Kanno rules!

I am so obsessed. After fighting it forever, I finally broke down and started reading the Harry Potter books. now I am halfway through the 4th book and am anxious to finish it! Gah, these are fun books. The world in the books has been taking over my brain all week. It's like all I can think about. I am trying to resist the urge to write fanfic >_< (yeesh, I still have more of my Sagittarius Key yaoi fic to write! I can't start anything new!). In my struggle against ficcing, I have been browing Japanese Harry Potter pages and finding some really cool anime-style Harry Potter fanart. Some of it is really nice! *_* So now of course I have to resist the urge to start drawing Harry Potter fanart too. This is horrible! @_@

Spike and Vicious are running around my apartment as if their tails were on fire. Talk about mega neko energy here. *zoom!* *knock over stuff* *zoom!* *knock over stuff* *ooh! manga to chew on!* *chewchew* *ooh! What's over there! ZOOM!* repeat that 3 times a minute and there you have the scene in my apartment. Hopefully they will tire of that soon and go to sleep for a while ^_^

Aww yeah, I just got a new speaker system for my DVD player. It is a 5 speaker + subwoofer setup with dolby digital decoding, so now I can watch my DVDs on a much better sound system. Mono sucks, let me tell ya. I still need to get a @%## 2 prong ---> 3 prong electric socket adapter thing (why are all teh outlets in my apartment 2-prong? WHY! WHY? gah!) but as soon as I do, I'll be testing this setup on one of my Cowboy Bebop DVDs. oooh yeah!

Please excuse the earlier display of ego on my last entry. I've gotten over it now ^^;
Added: Wednesday, October 4, 2000 10:07 a.m.

MUWAHAHAHAAHA! I just noticed that my Katte ni Kaizou page has made site of the week on the Anime Web Turnpike. Yay! I haven't lost my touch! Everytime I add a page to the turnpike, it gets site of the week ^^;;;;; My friends tease me, saying that they should change the names of their pages to 'Emily's (insert anime or manga series name here) page' and that would automatically get them a site of the week award too ^^; I was worried for a bit, with my Kaizou page. I submitted it to the turnpike, and it was finally added to the pike last week, but didn't get site of the week. I thought my streak had broken. But lo and behold, here it is this week ^_^ Ok, I am more genki now :)
Added: Monday, October 2, 2000 10:27 a.m.

I wish I could draw like this. *sigh*
Added: Monday, October 2, 2000 09:59 a.m.

I am SO exhausted. I helped a friend move yesterday, and I am now so sore I can barely walk. I am in sucky shape to begin with, but after spending hours and hours moving boxes (just 2 girls here, trying to load a u-haul truck... not fun) and then at 11pm starting the drive back to San Francisco from Monterey, and THEN having to come into work this morning... lets just say I will be existing on caffeine today.

The person I was helping move is Thea. She runs the FYML and owns fushigiyuugi.com (I think it's down right now though). She is moving to San Francisco finally, and will be sharing an apartment with Tanzy, one of the people who maintains connection lost. Man, the combined manga and anime collections that will be going into that apartment scares me. Talk about fangirl heaven!

If you were at the yaoi panel at AX this year, you may have seen us. Me, Thea, and Tanzy were 3 of the 5 hosts of that panel ^_^

Hmm I still haven't added more blogs to my link list over there. I will read pretty much any blog by an anime fan. I like reading about what other anime fans are up to. If you're an anime fan (if you aren't, I wonder why you are reading this, heaven knows this is probably boring to anyone else. Heck, this is probably boring for anime fans too ^^;) and you maintain a weblog diary type thing like this, then email me!.
Added: Monday, October 2, 2000 09:38 a.m.

niko-niko.net
Well, it's October 1, and I have a new layout for Niko-niko.net online. It isn't exactly what I was going for, but I gave it a shot. At least I have something new up ^_^; Range Murata's artwork is so cool, so very... deco!
Added: Sunday, October 1, 2000 01:48 a.m.

-Listening to: "I Wish You Love" as sung by Rosemary Clooney

Hmm it's late again. Midnight even. I'm freezing too. Yeesh, it's been hot here for awhile, and now I am shivering. Anyway, I am once again uncertain of what layout I will do for october. I had an idea forming (again) but then found someone else using the same picture I was going to. Doh! I would like to avoid using the same pictures as everyone else. But hohoho I have yet another idea. Lets see if I have any luck with that one. Heheh I am running out of time, it's almost October! I have to stop changing my mind!

I watched the first 2 episodes of Canditate for Goddess today. Such an interesting show! It reminded me of a not-quite-as-psycho version of Evangelion. The anime is based on the manga by Yukiru Sugisaki, the author of DNAngel. This means we have some cool looking characters :)

I also saw 2 episodes of the Di Gi Charat summer special. These episodes are 15 minutes long each (that is LONG for a di Gi Charat episode ^_^;) The summer specials were kind of cute. Dejiko and co were confronted by a cute panda girl (played by Megumi Hayashibara, but she barely gets one line in edgewise). Oops, it's been 30 mins and I almost forgot to post this. I really need sleep, oyasumi!
Added: Friday, September 29, 2000 12:00 a.m.

the !dangly sisterhood ^_-
It's late, and I am still awake. I am listening to the lovely song 'Midori no Hana" by Maaya Sakamoto, from her "Shippo no Uta" CD single. I love Maaya Sakamoto, her voice is so nice. I rearranged this pitas page a little bit, cleaned it up. It looks almost the same, but not as messy. I also staretd adding some links over to the right. I only have three there now, but there are more I intend to add, once I can get to my bookmarks on my web browser at work. I have a lovely image to use for my October Niko-niko layout now *_* Lets see if I can do anything with it now. I ran a personality test on my kittens (one of those tests on emode.com) and discovered that Spike's personality matches Mickey Mouse, while Vicious is like Audrey Hepburn. Hahah how is that for a combo! I also took the test to see what my color is, and it came up as Crimson, for passion and all that. The description was rather steamy. Hohoho, must be my ecchiness showing through. After all, I have to be Crimson after being a founder of the !dangly sisterhood! I am reminded that I have a clique I am starting that I really need to get online. After all the work I put into getting all the names for it... yeesh. Ahem. Anyway, oyasumi! :)
Added: Thursday, September 28, 2000 01:40 a.m.

Hmm not much happened today. I worked from home. Gotta love telecommuting. My company is moving to a new building soon, so when I get back to the office tomorrow, I'll have to start boxing up my stuff. The new buildings we're moving to were constructed for us in particular and look very nice. Now there will be more room so we all won't be squished onto one floor. There will also be our own coffee shop, and the plans for the building also include our own arcade and possibly an exercise room/gym. Way cool.

Spike and Vicious had their first trip to the vet today for their first check up and set of shots and tests. Both of my boys are healthy, if somewhat peeved at me for sticking them in a cat-carrier and dragging them to a strange Vet office. But they handled the trip very well. The vet said they were very brave kitties ^_^ When getting their shots they trembled with fear, but sat still and did not struggle or meow loudly. Good boys! They are very social kittens :) I need to post a picture of them eventually. Right now they are laying together in a neko-pile, all curled up on top of one another and look absolutely adorable. I love my kittens :) I just wish the vet wasn't so expensive ~_~

I took this test to see what type of guy is 'my type'. Turns out my type is the 'Renaissance Man'. I guess this is somewhat true ^^; Then I took the test to see what type *I* am, and it tells me I am a Hopeless Romantic. Now that is very true ^^;; I am such a sap!

Hmm it's dance lesson night. Oh *I* don't take dance lessons. But I live 2 doors down from an Irish dance studio. That means a few nights a week I get to hear lots of young Riverdance wannabes tap their little hearts out to accordian music. Sprightly accordian music. It's not that bad, really. After a couple of years now I am pretty used to it. You'd think they could change the music once in a while though.

Oh well, it's time for this Hopeless Romantic to venture to the laundromat to get some clothes washed. Who knows, maybe I'll meet the man of my dreams there. *snerk*
Added: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 07:20 p.m.

Doki-Doki.org
How do all these trendy web page makers do it? (yeah, I am back to this topic again, gomen!) I mean, I see these people who change their page layouts every month, or every *week* or whatever, and every time they change almost everything about the site design. How on earth do they have the time to do this? And what is the process they go through to create the cool layouts? Does it start with an image that is then edited and cut up? Or does it start with a mood or theme and an idea for cool html layout? I wonder sometimes. My layouts are always pretty generic, and even then I only really change the front page setup for niko-niko. Are the trendy designers using some evil web page builder like Dreamweaver or front page to help them along? Or is it all done by hand coding the HTML? I do all my pages in generic notepad, and due to my job, I usually *hate* stuff like dreamweaver (I spend too much time cleaning up the cruddy HTML it generates). But I am wondering if it may be handy for some things. I am not sure what I am going to do for October niko-niko. I *had* a couple of ideas before, but now I am wavering. Anyone care to comment on my musings?

I am reminded that Steph's new site doki-doki.org is progressing nicely. It will be a sister site to niko-niko when she finishes moving all her pages to the domain and finishes the construction there. I must say that the lovely image she has for her debut layout makes my heart go doki-doki :)

I watched the first 5 episodes of the anime "Boys Be" yesterday. *_* What a cool show! It's like a shoujo series, but it's shounen. Sort of a high school relationships type of series, but from the boy's perspective (well, there are some episodes from the girl's point of view, but the three central characters are guys). I really like this show! It's not bursting with action or fighting or magic. It's about relationships and high school memories. Check it out if you can find it! I need to get the manga now, but there is an ungodly amount of it. Like 40 volumes spanning 2 or 3 series I think. @_@ Ok this will take me a while.....
Added: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 04:10 p.m.

Random Shoujo Manga
Well can you believe it? I went and started yet another web diary. The new one manga.pitas.com, will focus on my ramblings about manga, shoujo manga in particular, and will be part of my Random Shoujo Manga page. I don't know if anyone will care to read my spew about shoujo manga, but you never know :)
Added: Monday, September 25, 2000 12:12 p.m.

Slayers DVD Petition
The Slayers DVD box set came out recently from Central Park Media, and was discovered to have a totally fux0red Japanese audio track. The Japanese audio is phase inverted, and people trying to watch this track have experienced everything from no audio at all, to reversed directional sound, to spacy/echo-ish sounds, to low volume, and much more. In this really LAME press release by CPM, they pretty much say everyone who doesn't have a specific audio set up are screwed. What the hell is up with that? That is not the proper way to make a DVD, and a lousy way to handle the intense custormer disatisfaction! CPM has not yet announced any intentions to replace the clearly defective DVDs, and people (such as myself) who spent money on this set and can't even watch it because of the horrible sound problems are getting pretty upset! In the interest of convincing CPM to start a DVD return/exchange program in which they fix the DVD problems and offer some sort of DVD exchange for people who have purchased the defective discs, a petition has been started. Please sign the petition and help CPM realize how badly they are treating fans! Thank you :)
Added: Friday, September 22, 2000 10:32 p.m.

Sammi Cheng
Random comment time. I really like this Sammi Cheng cd "Ladies First". Why do I like it? Well, I don't really know. I mean, this CD is in Chinese (cantonese). I can't understand a damn word. At least with Japanese music I can usually make some sense of the lyrics, but for my strange HK-pop fascination, there is no real excuse. It's a pure sound thing. And that is strange too! I don't like how spoken Cantonese sounds. It usually sounds loud and angry to me. But cantonese (and the softer sounding mandarin) pop music sounds cool to me. Sammi has a lovely voice. I just wish I knew what she was singing about. I even went to a concert of hers in San Francisco last month, and had a great time even while not understanding anything she said or sang! I know that I like a couple of the songs on this CD because they are songs from two movies Sammi recently starred in ("Needing you" and "Summer Holiday", two awesome romantic comedies) but the rest of the tracks are cool too.

Sammi isn't the only HK musician I like. Other people I buy CDs for include Nicholas Tse (damn he is cute *^_^*), Leo Ku (also cute, in a goofy way...), Grace Yip (she is adorable, and has a good voice! very techno sounding), Leslie Cheung (I don't care if my friends say he is too old! he is cool!), Andy Lau (I saw him in concert too. *drool*), Leon Lai (ok, so he is a bit of a dork...), Faye Wong (last I heard she was Nicholas Tse's girlfriend despite their age differences O_O). And there are more I like too....

Well, one hing I can say about my HK music fetish is that at least the CDs are cheaper than my Japanese ones But then I also have this Hong Kong MOVIE fetish too. Which means more DVDs to buy. *sigh* >_<;;;
Added: Thursday, September 21, 2000 03:36 p.m.

Izumi Sano from HanaKimi?
oof, I haven't written lately, have I? Well, I have been a bit busy with work. Both my regular job, and my side-work of writing anime reviews for IGN. I am still bitter about the Slayers DVD box set. CPM released the set with a totally screwed up Japanese audio track, and it doesn't look like CPM is going to do anything about replacing it or correcting their mistake. RAR! RAR! GRR! So everyone who plunked $80 for this thing and wanted to hear the Japanese audio track are pretty much screwed. *sigh*

I have been a good girl and am working on the restoration of my Magical Girls page. I'll get the darn site up eventually.

Niko-niko.net will soon have a new sister site. Steph is working on moving all her pages to her new domain Doki-Doki.org. Niko-niko. Doki-Doki. Whee! Now all we need is a Kira-Kira.com :) (niko being the sound of a smile, doki being the sound of a heartbeat, kira being the sound of a sparkle or glimmer.). Doh! Wait a minute. it looks like there already is a kira-kira.com Arg. Maybe one of the other kira-kira domain name extensions isn't taken yet. Hmm I can't get kira-kira.com to open. I wonder if it's an adult site. I wouldn't be surprised. -_-

Well, I think I have finally managed to draw a picture of Izumi Sano from HanaKimi that actually looks like him. Well, kind of. Why is it I can never draw my favorite characters? It's so frustrating! At least a friend who looked at this picture recognized who it was supposed to be, so I guess that is a good sign? I'll keep practicing :D

hmm, as silly as Japanese rap usually is, I really like this Dragon Ash CD, expecially the song 'Grateful Days'.
Added: Thursday, September 21, 2000 11:04 a.m.

Well, I finally saw Fight Club today. I think I was the only one I know who hadn't seen the movie, and it was all everyone around me could do to not spoil the 'surprise' in it. I ended up guessing what the big twist was on my own while watching it, but I think this is only because my first exposure to the movie was on DVD, where I could pause it and examine those specific frames that were added :D I had to giggle at all their references to IKEA during the movie, and the whole IKEA-ization of 'Jack's' apartment. Given my recent rush of IKEA-mania, I found it very amusing. ^_^;;; Pretty interesting movie overall.
Added: Sunday, September 17, 2000 10:36 p.m.

*yawn* Wow, Yet another unproductive day. I tried cleaning up my apartment, but didn't get much done. I really need new furniture. I just want to redo this whole place. Ineed a new computer desk too. Arg.

Ahh the Olympics... I have managed to miss almost all of the Olympic coverage so far. I heard the opening ceremonies were interesting. Too bad I couldn't watch it. I also missed the main event I had wanted to watch, the Judo Competition. I wanted to watch Ryoko Tamura of Japan who is known as the real life 'Yawara-chan' finally win her gold medal. I am glad she won it though! The next big Olympic thing I want to watch is the gymnastic competition. I better not miss it! rar!
Added: Saturday, September 16, 2000 09:57 p.m.

My Anime Art
Hmm, I have been SO unproductive at work today. I think I managed to do almost nothing all day. Well, it's' not totally my fault, we are in between big projects, but I certainly didn't go out of my way to find new work today. It's Friday and I feel lazy.

I spent most of today surfing japanese fanart galleries and getting inspired to draw again. I have this lovely set of Copic markers that really need to be used again! I did doodle a cute picture during a meeting today that I think I'll actually try to finish up. I wish my computer at home wasn't so sucky. It's at a point where I can't run photoshop 5.5 on it without it having a hissyfit or getting TOOOOOO SLOOOOW. So CG work for the most part is out for me right now. But that is what my markers and watercolors are for! Or I guess I could use the photoshop on my work laptop ^_^ Now if I could only get as good as these japanese fanart sites! Wah!

Ganbarimasu! Ike Ike Go Go Jump!
Added: Friday, September 15, 2000 04:53 p.m.

IGN Scifi
Okay, that department meeting today was LONG! Sure we had free pizza, but that was gone in the first half hour. This meeting went for 3 hours @_@ I am pretty worn out for it. I submitted a new article for IGN scifi today. My BGC 2040 Vol 7 review is the main feature there right now, though when they publish new content tonight it will go down to secondary article status. Hmm what else. Just general work stuff so far today. I'm looking into some more technical computer training classes (programming classes) to take that my work will pay for. I need to get a better grasp on JSP. Hmm what pages shall I work on tonight? I SHOULD be working on my yaoi fic, the Sagittarius Key. I am being so slow, part three has been due out forever! I also have a Chain Game girl I need to start writing about too. *sigh* So much to do, so little time!
Added: Thursday, September 14, 2000 04:24 p.m.

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
Yay, I made a small update of the hanakimi page. Added some mrerchandise info and some manga scans.

Arg, this monitor I am using sucks. It is a few years old now, and it has started to go dim. I have this thing on all the brightest settings possible, but it's still very dim. It's hard to design anything like this. I work on stuff, only to check it on my computers at work to see the colors are all out of whack. I may have to get a new monitor before I can do any more new pages or any more serious design work. This really is getting to be a pain.

Okay, it's really late now. I will be a zombie at work tomorrow if I don't get to sleep NOW. But hey, there is a department meeting tomorrow, and that means.... free pizza! yay. ^_^

Oyasumi!
Added: Thursday, September 14, 2000 02:03 a.m.

Silly me, I say I am working on my Magical Girls Page, and then what do I do? Work on other pages. Well, sort of. I added my Katte ni Kaizou page to a couple of Japanese Kaizou and Shounen Sunday webrings. Hopefully I'll get some hits on those pages from Japan now. That's always fun ^_^ I also really need to update my Hanakimi page because I have the new volume 12 tankoubon that I should add to the page, as well as the spiffy Hanakimi stationery set and character illustration book. I should also be working on my GTO and clamp-related pages too. Why do I keep doing this? I make too many pages than I can handle, and I can't stop! I MUST work on those GTO and clamp pages though, I bought domain names to go with them, so I am just wasting money if I sit here and don't develop them. *sigh* Emichan no Baka! Maybe I should ask for help with the clamp-related page.
Added: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 08:21 p.m.

Bleh. Just ignore me today, I am wallowing in self pity. I'm looking at everyone elses pages and feeling design-envy again ^_^;;; I changed the look of my weblog a bit this morning. I just wanted a place to use that lovely picture from HanaKimi :D *sigh* now if I could just get out of my webdesign inferiority complex for a little while, arg ^^;; Like I said, just ignore me, I'll get over it soon.
Added: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 10:46 a.m.

Bishounen.orG - Indulge Yourself!
Yay, Janelle, owner of niko-niko.net's sister site bishounen.orG, has recently updated her layout for September. She updates her page in a pattern, like January 1st, Febuary 2nd, March 3rd, April 4th, etc. So September 9th was the debut of her September layout. Cowboy Bebop. YAY! Check it out!
Added: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 04:50 p.m.

Happy Tuesday y'all. Well, I am still recovering from my LA trip. Ugh, so sleepy. Lets see, what's going on... now that I know what image I will be using for October niko-niko, I think I'll wait a while to actually come up with a layout to go with it. I always feel so uninspired when it comes to layouts, I don't know why I make the effort to redesign the front page every month. I guess it's my urge to be trendy. Everyone else always has such cool, creatuve layouts, I always feel mine are so boring, bleh!

My current big project now that my Katte ni Kaizou page is open, is to reconstruct my Magical Girls Page. My Magical Girls page was one of my first web pages. I started it in summer/fall of 1995. Since then it has gone through several different hosts, and I eventually had to take it down. I thought I had lost the page! But I recently discovered all my files for it and uploaded it all again to niko-niko.net. Man, talk about lame web page design. Well, I guess for 1995 it was pretty good, but now it looks really lame. I now have a basic design done for the page revision, it is now just a matter of importing all the information from all the old pages. I have a few new magical girls to add to the page too. Ooh ahh!
Added: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 01:06 p.m.

Hanazakari no Kimictahi e
Yay, I have decided what I will do for an october niko-niko layout. I will probably do two layouts in october. a 'regular' one, and then a 'halloween special' one. Both will feature wonderful bishounens of course :) Well ok, I don't know EXACTLY what I will do for the October layout, but I DO know what image I will use :) Gotta start somewhere!
Added: Monday, September 11, 2000 02:54 p.m.

IKEA
Whoosh, what a long weekend that was! Last Friday I attended my Aunt Loretta's funeral. It was a very nice service, and I felt very weepy. I have never been to a funeral before, so this was a new experience. I did find myself a but distracted (and actually giggling a little) at the these three altarboys they had assisting in the service. They looked like they were all about 12 or 13 years old. I found myself amused watching them fidget. They were just so funny, with their huge trendy sneakers sticking out under their church clothes. I bet they were happy to miss an afternoon of school, even if it was for a funeral.

After the funeral, on the way backto San Francisco from Sacramento, my cousin and I stopped at IKEA. Ah, Ikea is like my dream store. I know I am getting old when I drool at the thought of going into a home furnishing store. I swear though, I think IKEA stuff is so cool! So what if you have to put it all together yourself ^_^;; I have been wanting to go to IKEA over in Emeryville for so long! They just opened the store earlier this year, and it is their first location in the Bay Area. I don't have a car right now, so getting there has been pretty much impossible. Anyway, I drooled for a long time in Ikea. It is just so darn cool! I want to redo my entire apartment. I need more money! All I ended up buying was one computer chair. *sigh*

After IKEA, I finally returned home and started getting ready for my Mandarake trip. Steph and I were going to take greyhound down to Long Beach, meet up with some friends, and then hit Mandarake, the wonderful used anime/manga bookstore. I LOVE mandarake! My previous experiences with greyhound have been okay. I had only taken it from San Francisco to San Jose. This was a much bigger trip. We were going to go down to LA friday night, and then come back to SF Saturday night. That is a LOT of bus time. The bus ride down was pretty rough. The people on the bus actually seemed fairly 'normal' (not the scary weirdos we had been warned about) but unfortunately I couldn't sleep the entire way down. Steph managed to get a few hours, but I think I was awake the whole time. The bus from LA to Long Beach was more entertaining. There was this guy next to us who kept applying more and more of this nasty cologne. Steph started coughing because of it, and I had to turn away. Then this guy behind us is like 'wow, that smells great, can I use some too?' and HE proceeds to practically bathe in the stuff. Damn that was gross! Fortunately that was a short bus trip. Upon arriving in long beach, we were greeted by this strange lady who gave us a flyer telling us not to go to HELL and describibg what a horrible place HELL was. Um ok, thanks...

Mandarake! Where to begin! I spent SO much money there ^_^;;; I think after 3 hours of shopping in that store I walked out with 12 doujinshi, 1 cell, 3 UFO catcher dolls, and 66 volumes of manga. Yow! I had like 6 shopping bags full of stuff, It was insane! I have so much manga I need to go through now! I better start writing shoujo manga summaries for some of this for my Random Shoujo Manga Page! I need to update my Manga List too, it's way out of date now! Muwahahaha! at $2 for each tankoubon volume, I couldn't resist! After Mandarake, our friends took Steph and I to Little Tokyo, where we proceeded to spend what little money we had left after Mandarake. We hit Kinokunya, Asahiya, a great Okonomiyaki place, and other random stores. Next, we headed to an arcade where I watched them play DDR 4th Mix and tried my hand at Keyboard Mania (I suck, as usual). Finally we ran over to Tea Station where I got an Ice cream tapioca milk-tea. I LOVE those things! Yum! It was getting late by this time, so we headed over to a friend's apartment to start sorting through our loot and packing it up for the trip back to SF.

Then it was time to take the bus back. I am so sick of greyhound now! I did manage to get some sleep on the way back (considering I'd had about 4 hours of sleep in the last 48+ hours, that is not surprising :) The stupid bus from LA to SF was not an express though, so it had stops all over the place and took forever to get to SF. By the time we arrived home Steph and I were both totally worn out. I felt like sleeping for days. I did take a long nap, but all it did was make me totally disoriented. It felt like my weekend was just one really long day. I feel a bit better now, but I wish I had thought to ask for today off of work :) I want to sleep more!
Added: Monday, September 11, 2000 10:17 a.m.

DDR and Tokimeki Memorial?
Ahh, DDR. Dance Dance Revolution. All my friends are hopelessly addicted to it. To the point of memorizing all the steps to all the songs from 1st mix to solo 2000 to 4th mix. They can play that game backwards and forwards, come up with DDR dance 'routines' and compete in competitions. And me? I suck. I am lucky if I can pass any of the songs with the hand controller, much less my feet on the DDR dance mat. Then again, they all have been playing a lot longer than I have. I have only had my DDR game (3rd mix), mat, and Japanese PSone for a few days now. Watching me DDR is a scary experience I am sure. I am so akward and clumsy. I can only hope that with more practice I will eventually get up the confidence to play it iin public. But for now I will be a DDRing freak in the privacy of my own apartment. The link above is to an article on my work's website about yet another version of DDR- DDR Tokimeki Memorial. Wow, what a combination. They need to make a version with guys in it instead of the Tokimeki girls :) For more information on DDR, check this page out.
Added: Thursday, September 7, 2000 04:22 p.m.

Internet Shorthand
Why can't people type in complete sentences anymore? Or at least type in complete words? I know I am not a grammar genius either, but yeesh, I get so sick of people talking to me like "hi how r u?" "u ok?" "Thankz!" "kewl!" "l8r!" gah. Is it too much to ask for people to use complete words? I'll even forgive mispelling (as I am pretty bad myself) but at least make the attempt! Emoticons are cool ^_^ use them! I can cope with some acronyms, but I think it's getting a bit out of hand. I think I must be getting old. -_- Next think you know, I will be complaining about all those crazy kids and their darned rock music and veeeedeeeooo games. Arg.
Added: Thursday, September 7, 2000 11:23 a.m.

Mandarake USA

Good morning! Well, I managed to wake up on time, despite sataying up way too late last night. I even caught the early shuttle to work. The weather here in San Francisco is SO lovely today. Perfect blue sky, sunny warm temperatures (but not swealtering hot) and just the right amount of beeze. I wish I was outside for once ^_^

I found out yesterday that my great aunt passed away. This was met by me with a combination of sadness and joy. Sadness, because I will miss her very much. She was a wonderful woman who had an amazing life. She knew all of the family history and I loved listening to her tell stories of how this person came to America from Ireland way back when, or who married who. She was a world traveller, who has been almost everywhere, and has friends in every country. Joy because I know that she did live a wonderful, full life, and that she is in a better place now. She was very old, and in recent years she has been in a lot of pain and was suffering from severe memory loss. Last time I spoke with her, she didn't know who I was. Anyway, the funeral services for her are in Sacramento tomorrow, so I will be skipping work to head on up. I'll miss you, Aunt Loretta!

In more cheerful happenings, as soon as I get back from Sacramento tomorrow, I will be heading down to LA to go to Mandarake, a wonderful used anime and manga bookstore in Torrance. (Their website is a bit scary though.) I can't wait! I will be spending much money there, muwahahaha. Gotta get more Random Shoujo Manga to summarize for my page!

Hmm, it is 1:54am, and I am still awake. I have to get up early to go into work in a few hours, but for some reason I am hyper and don't feel like going to sleep. Well, okay, I know the reason I am hyper- I had too much Genki Soda tonight.

Do you know what Genki Soda is? Okay, probably not. Genki Soda is the term my friend Steph and I came up with to describe any grocery store-brand artifically fruit-flavored soda. You know, like store-brand strawberry soda, or grape, or pineapple. The key requirements for Genki Soda are that it 1) must be store-brand or equally unknown brand. No 'label' drinks like sunkist or pepsi. 2) Even though it is a 'fruit' flavored soda, it must have little to no actual fruit in it. 3)The brighter, more unnatural the color the better. Give us that food-coloring! 4) The main ingredient must be sugar 5) It must be CHEAP! 2-liter bottles preferably around 60 cents or less.

Scary isn't it? But all that wonderful sugar and food coloring are enough to give us a sugar rush, and we become really really silly and genki. Thus the name, 'Genk Soda'. You can't drink this all the time because it will rot your teeth and brain :) But every once in a while it's fun!

So anyway, I have this bottle of strawberry Genki Soda, and I have had too much of it. I am feeling very awake. And my 2 Kittens are running around as if they had been into the Genki Soda themselves. Oh, btw, my kittens are both boys, about (wow) 10 weeks old now. They are named Spike and Vicious, after the 2 characters from Cowboy Bebop. They are adorable when they aren't using me as a scratching post.

Anyway, this has been a long ramble. I better try to get to sleep now. Oyasumi.

Well, I decided to be trendy and get a pitas weblog thingy. Will anyone read this? I don't really know. I figured it might be fun to babble about random things here. Today I worked from home. I'm a web production designer for Snowball.com and occasionally I get to work from home. I love it when I can. I get to sleep in a little later, and can have the TV or radio on loud while I work. fun fun! :D Knowing me, I will end up adding updated entries to this thing several times a day. I can be chatty, especialy when talking to myself. You have been warned!
Added: Wednesday, September 6, 2000 04:04 p.m.