Listening to: my tv, tuned to the olympics

Oof, is it already Sunday? The weekend goes by so quickly ;_; You'd think, now that I am working, that I would have more to blog about, but I find that I am too tired after work to blog. Three days a week, I have to immediately start working on OO as soon as I get home if I want to have it done in tim eto post it on schedule. So I forget to blog. Ahh well ^_^

Last week at work was very nerve-wracking, but I survived. I really have no idea why I went and got myself a job doing phone support/service when I have phone phobia ^_^;; Seriously, I have a horrible time when it comes to calling people. I can call close friends okay usually, but calling casual friends or coworkers or businesses is really difficult for me :) I can't even call to make doctor's appointments or ask for directions, etc. Well, I can do it if I force myself, but if there is a way to avoid it, I will take it. Like, I'd rather go do something in person than do it over the phone. I guess I thought it would be easier to GET calls than make them. And this is true, I guess ^_^

This was my first week on the phones, and unlike everyone else in my group, I didn't have the chance to take a buddy call last week, so I went into this by myself. I think I did okay, all things considered. I spent most ofthe first day asking for help. But I got through a decent number of calls. I wish we had more pacesetters watching over our group to help us out. All of us are still trying to figure out what the hell we're supposed to be telling callers, it would help if our 'coaches' could answer our questions. Our trainer is still new himself, so he is usually as clueless as the rest of us. My days this week were all pretty good. I had one awful day where in several hours I only took *2* calls. This was mainly due to my computer freezing and crapping out. It's really hard to help someone when your computer is frozen the whole time. One of those calls took FOREVER. It killed my scores for that day. They time how long we are on every call, how long we take between calls, and they monitor our calls, etc. Basically they are Big Brother watching our every movement and everything factors in to our performance stats. bleh. This job is too much work for too little pay ^_^

I have made a new blog layout that I will probably be changing to sometime this week. So I will really try to blog more this week!

Anime, anime... I watched Read or Die vol 3 yesterday. Very cool! The ending was a little predictable, but the events that led to the ending were really cool. Once again, I must say that Yomiko kicks ass XD I loved what she did with the money. XD I need manga volume 3! Considering how much effort it took me to get vol. 1-2 when I was in JAPAN, I hope I have beeter luck finding volume 3 here.

I also watched Alien Nine ep 4. Like before, this anime is cute and seriously fux0red. But even with how messed up it gets, the anime STILL ends before the point in the manga where the story gets REALLY strange ^_^ If you like the anime, I highly recommend getting the manga!

I have also been eying the japanese dorama VCDs for sale on ebay and yahoo. It's kind of sad that they are cheaper on Yahoo *UK* auctions than on ebay. And that's including shipping. It's pretty cool how many new dorama series are being released with English subs. Now if I could just find a decent, watchable copy of Long Vacation. I have crappy VHS subs, but the last episode is cut off before the end. -_-;;

I've been watching the olympics today. I kind of hate how the olympics are broadcast here. I wish they would show events live, or if they won't show events live, at least show ALL of an event. For example, I was watching the live broadcast of the pairs figureskating last night, and xio in Canada was watching the same event on Canadian TV. The Canadian broadcast showed the entire event, all the skaters (or most of them, anyway) while the US broadcast would break away to show reruns of events that happened earlier in the day (and anyone with an internet connection and looked at the nbcolympics.com website would know the results of already) and I would miss seeing some of the performances of the pairs skaters. I don't like NBC choosing which skaters I want to see ;_; I know some of teh events are being shown on other NBC stations, but that wasn't much of a help either. So I missed seeing some of teh skaters Xio got to see and comment on. Wah ;_; Oh well....

Anyway, I need to go do some laundry now :D

Added: Sunday, February 10, 2002 02:13 p.m.

Listening to:

Man, WTF! niko-niko.net is down ;_; And I don't know why! I am getting a bunch of forbidden messages, and can't login to my FTP. This is why all the images on this page are down too. If it is still like this in the morning, then I am going to contact my web host to see what is going on. I want my site back~~~~~!

In other news, I watched eps 1-2 of Rahxephon. It's pretty nifty, though the plot seems very familiar. It has clueless boy who ends up piloting a giant robot, incredible revelations about his main parental unit, a mysterious girl he like and is involved with the giant robot-situation, and alien invasions. There is also a lot of random singing by Maaya Sakamoto, which is cool, and I do love that Maaya/Yoko Kanno OP song. I also like the scenery and the character designs.

I want to cosplay as a character from Mahou Yuugi! That is such an insane anime! Of course I would look stupid cosplaying as anyone, but I guess this is my way of saying I like the character designs and costumes in the show :)

I have finished a 3rd week at my new job. This has been all classroom training. On Monday, my group goes out into A-bay, or Academy Bay, where we will get more training, and will start actually taking calls from customers. I am very nervous. We took buddy calls this week, where each of us was teamed with a partner, and together we would take a call, one person talking to the customer, the other person listening in and helping out as much as they could. Unfortunately, unlike everyone else in the class, I didn't get to take an actual call I coached my partner through 2 calls, but when it was my turn, and I was Available and waiting for a call to come in, we ran out of time ;_; Ah well, I did almost all of the work in my partner's call anyway. He froze like a deer in headlights as soon as he got on the phone. I think he was really nervous (even more than I was) and he was stuttering and gave wrong information ^_^;; I tried to help him out as much as I could and pretty much fed him all the info. However we both needed help from our instructors on what to do for part of it. I worry about answering calls and not knowing what to do ^_^ Bah, I'll get used to it eventually :) Just gotta get over my phone phobia....

Okay, enough procrastinating, time to work on OO some more!
Added: Sunday, February 3, 2002 02:15a.m.

Listening to:

Wooo that WISH sidestory in the WISH artbook *is* adorable! In case anyone is looking for a translation of it, Kya has thoughtfully provided all of us WISH fans with one :) It is HERE. Isn't that story adorable? :) Help, I am turning into a puddle of fangirl goo. (eew!)

Arg, I started this blog too late. I have to go to bed now if I have any hope of waking up in the morning :D Night!
Added: Monday, January 28, 2002 12:57a.m.

Listening to: Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major (Jacqueline Du Pre)

Well, week no. 2 of my new job is over, yay! I am a bit nervous because next week my training class starts taking live calls on the phones, and I don't quite feel prepared to yet. We'll be doing 'buddy calls' where we answer the phones in teams, but I am still nervous! I worry about giving people incorrect info, or dealing with the really angry people, or just not knowing the answer to the caller's problems. Argh, I suppose I'll get better in time ^_^

Hmm I now have an ultra spiffy fast internet connection now, so I have been downloading an episode of random things here and there. This is a good month for new anime in Japan! I took some screencaps of some of the things I've been looking at.

Mirage of Blaze
Ooh, this is very pretty. It originally started as a series of novels that was later turned into a very bishounen-filled manga. Now it's an anime. Yay! It's basically about these people with lots of nifty magical powers who are involved in one of those long, drawn out good-vs-evil Mighty Conflicts which involves lots of reincarnation and much angst. The story takes place in modern Japan, but all the characters are reincarnations of people who fought in the past. And this isn't their first round of reincarnation. In episode 1, a high school guy learns that he is more powerful than he could have imagines. He has to come to terms with his new powers and his place in the grand scheme of things. The original novels were yaoi, but the manga was not so explicit. As for the anime... well, it looks promising :) Lots of nice character designs, lots of angsting, and Meaningful Looks.
 

Usagi-chan de Cue!
I had read a manga description for this series, and it sounded kind of funny and cute (if shounen) but after downloading the anime, I was disappointed to find that it is basically 27 minutes of fanservice, capped with op and ed songs. The premise goes something like this- Cute but kind of dorky guy spends most of his time tending to the rabbits in a pen at his school. Two girls like this guy. One girl is kind of cute and nice. The other one is tough and macho and is one of those gang-menber types. The cute girl constantly chases after our hero and obviously likes him. Macho girl hides her affection and pretends it doesn't exist, but amazingly enough, she volunteers to help with the rabbits to be near him. A rival school gang arrives and there is fighting. In teh fray, our hero's favorite rabbit is put in danger. Tough girl sees this and saves the live of the rabbit, but somehow merges with it, so they now share one body/mind. She now has bunny ears and a tail, and acts way too cute. Her looks change changed too. Tough girl is still there, but she has decided to let the bunny personality take control because she feels guilty over letting the danger happen in the first place. Anyway, the anime glosses over the intro from the manga, and before we know it, bunnygirl is living with our hero. Man, talk about panty shots. The school uniform skirts are short enough that every girl has panty shots just standing there. Lots of large chests bouncing everywhere and everyone wears white panties. Bleh. So much for that.
Hmm time to watch the next batch of stuff...

Added: Sunday, January 27, 2002 02:22 a.m.

Listening to: Turn A Gundam OST 1

I should be asleep, I know, I know. But I have been looking through pages of recent anime series and stuff that is coming up, and I am getting so excited! Some things I have been wanting to see animated for a long time are finally being made! yay! yay!

They are making a Tokyo Underground anime! I can't believe it! I am so excited :) I started making a web page about the manga, but I haven't finished it. The impending arrival of an anime series is a great motivator for me to finish that page! It's such a cool manga series, I can't wait to watch the anime :D

They are also making an anime of the 'Cheeky' Angel' shounen manga about the tough boy who, when he was like 12 years old, insults a mysterious gypsy-type lady. the lady, in anger, curses the boy so that he turns into a girl, and as far as the world is concerned, he has always been a girl. The only one to know the truth is his best friend at the time, a girl whose name I am forgetting right now ^_^ The series takes place a few years after the gender-changing incident. Our hero(ine) has become used to being a girl, but still acts like a tough girl. She is now in high school, and has to deal with the lecherous advances of one of teh school's tough guys. This is a very funny manga! It's by the author of 'Kyoukara Orewa!'. Yay!

Then of course, there is the Chobits and Azumanga anime that I have been looking forward to. I hope chobits has good music. It seems like a series that would require good music :)

and there is going to be King of Bandit JING anime! YAY! I love this manga too! The art is really cool, and the adventure is fun! It looks like this is just a tv special/oav/movie type of thing, not a TV series. I am feeling like such a drooling fangirl right now :D

Rahxephon looks super-nifty as well! I like the mecha and character designs, and there is an opening song by Yoko Kanno with vocals by Maaya Sakamoto. Can't go wrong there :)

La la la la la so much to look forward tooooooooooo! Ok, I REALLY need to sleep now!

Added: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 02:44 a.m.

Listening to: "Needing You" by Sammi Cheng

Well, I suppose I should blog, now that I have started working again. It's nice to be working full-time again at last. But those 9 months of unemployment really spoiled me. I have to get up at 6am in order to be at work at 8am, and man, getting up at 6 is HARD. I used to go to SLEEP at 6am ^_^;;; It would help if I went to sleep earlier, and I AM working on that, but that is also difficult -_- I got very little sleep this week. I have sort of been on auto-pilot.

But work is better than I thought it would be so far. It's a customer service job at MCI, and I have 5 weeks of training to get through before I actually start my 'real' job duties. And they really have a lot of information to throw at you in those 5 weeks. However, everyone seems really eager (almost desperate, even) to help you out in teaching you the ropes and talking about how great the company is. On my first day of work, after my training class sat through the usual HR presentation about general rules about the workplace, we had to sit through this set of testimonials from current employees about how great it is to work there. Everyone acts so very upbeat. I really wonder what the employee turnover rate is. But I guess I liked how open and interested in helping you out and how eager they all were to address your concerns they seemed to be. They like to bribe people to perform well by offering tons of cash bonuses and prizes, which is kind of nifty. They have to make up for the sucky low pay rate somehow :) We have a base pay rate (very low ;_;) and then you get bonuses for achieving various goals (those depend on what department you are in) and then the top salespeople or CS reps or producers all get misc. prizes too. They really like to reward people.

Anyway, my first 3 weeks of training are in a classroom. My class is small, only 10 people, and everyone seems pretty cool. The material is very dry though, and I have a hard time concentrating on it without spacing out. @_@ The stuff isn't difficult, just new to me. I look forward to when I am not new to all of this any more! My first paycheck for this job is on Fri. 1/25. Yay! I can make some bill-payments! Woooo hooooo! I think I might also cave in and get some dorama VCDs. I am soooooo tempted right now!

Hahah, I am watching Conan O'Brien, and he is making fun of telemarketers, especially the pre-recorded ones. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Damn, that was funny XD I am so glad I'm not doing telemarketing. I can't take that sort of rejection :D

We're FINALLY getting cable modem service! The guy from Roadrunner is coming over on Monday to do the install. I am SO happy! It MUST be better than connecting at 24 like I do now -_- I wish dsl was offered in my neighborhood, but I will happily settle for cable! I can't wait! I can't wait!

Hmm, I can't think of much else to say at the moment.... I am looking at Japanese dorama sites, and I found this one. It's pretty cool! It has summaries of some of the newer series I have been wondering about. Now I know what series I need to go get!

la la la lala la la lala la la
Added: Thursday, January 17, 2002 11:27 p.m.

Listening to: my TV

Happy New Year everyone! Woo hoo 2002~! Lets see how long it takes me to remember to write 2002 on my checks now...

Man, all day today, Food Network has been running a marathon of their show called "Unwrapped". It basically goes behind the scenes and shows how all sorts of foods are made. From Ice cream to movie theater candy, to hotdogs. They compare brands, talk about the history of the product, and find places that sell unusual varieties of things. I love this show. Right now the episode I am watching is showing how Twizzlers and Junior Mints are made :D But watching this is torture! Now I want all the fun types of soda pop, candy, and ice cream that they are talking about on these shows ^_^; However, as I am broke, I shall just stick to surfing the web for related links. Here are some ofthe fun things I have found:

*Soda*

Listening to: "Sorrow" from the Noir OST 1

Bored bored bored!

So, did everyone have a good Christmas? Mine was good. I got a shirt and some earrings, and a pair of comfy flannel pajamas, so I am really genki :) Seeing my cousins was cool. They both look so much older now! (well DUH ^_^;;;) One of them has the same English teacher in high school that I had 10 years ago. Freaky! But now I am boreeeeeeeed!

I've been running around doing errands for my mom for the last several days, and tomorrow I'm meeting up with Becca for much genki running around the drag at UT. Whee!

But right now, this very moment, I'm restless and bored ^_^ There is nothing interesting on TV, none of my books are holding my interest, I'm unable to draw anything I like very much, and there is no one online to talk to -_-; RAR! Don't you hate that feeling? Maybe I should go to sleep early. That would be a change :) Ok, enough whining. I know that everyone can't be interested in me rolling around aimlessly ^_^ Maybe I should do some blog-surfing again. I haven't done any of that in the last few days. I should also be working on my web pages. Blahblahblah.

I saw Kate and Leopold the other day. It was okay. Utterly predictible, but I didn't think it was awful. It was sort of like a romance novel without the sex. Then again, doesn't everyone read romance novels FOR the sex? Er, ahem. *cough* Anyway, Hugh Jackman looked *adorable*. Excuse me while I drool buckets. Ahh, so very good looking. The accent was nice too. I like his Australian accent too, of course. Meg Ryan was okay, but wow, she was looking old in that movie. It startled me for a moment. I rewatch Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally way too many times. I forget that time has passed since then :) I was very distracted during the film by the obvious difference in ages. He recently turned 33, while she recently turned 40, and it shows. I kept thinking through the whole thing that he looked too young for her, which is kind of silly, because they always have movies with older men and younger women, and I don't feel that way. Silly double-standard I have XD

I STILL need to see Lord of the Rings. I'd like to read the books first. I like the pictures of Legolas though~. Help, I'm such a pathetic fangirl @_@ I discovered that when BEauty and the Beast is released on IMAX screens in 2002, it won't be playing in my area. *sigh* I'll have to go to Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio if I want to see it. Gah! Not fair, it plays in all the notable TX cities BUT Austin! Hey, we have an IMAX too, ya know! Waaah. I'll just get the DVD later, I guess.

[random]I was flipping through the channels on my TV the other day and noticed Ben Stiller on Sesame Street, dressed as a block of cheese. [/random] I have the Amazing GHEI TV.

Okay, enough boring rambling. Happy New Year Y'all :D
Added: Saturday, December 29, 2001 10:38 p.m.

Listening to: "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone :) I hope everyone is having a decent holiday time! I'm feeling better than I have been in the last week or two. My Christmas will be somewhat boring, but that's ok :) I'm staying home with my mom and dad, and my aunt, uncle, and two cousins are coming over for dinner. That should be fun. I haven't seen them in about 4 years. It's pretty bizarre to think how old my cousins are now. When I first moved to TX, one of them was 5 years old, and the other was 11. Now they are 16 and 22. Yow! The younger one is older than I was when we moved here. It's so freaky. Time flies, I guess!

As you might notice, I have a new layout. It's pretty simple. I wish I could have done some thing fancier or cooler, but I am feeling pretty uninspired. I love the image that is featured though. It's a picture of Sai from Hikaru no Go. The picture was done by Hisaya Nakajo, author of HanaKimi. I got a clear file as well as a big pad of stationery with this image on it in this packet at Hisaya Nakajo's table at Comiket this summer. The packet also included some tissues with a cute Sai drawing on them, and a clear plastic circle fan. I love doujinshi stationery sets! I was so glad I made it to her comiket table before she was sold out! This picture deserves a better layout, so I may use it again eventually ^_^;

My neighborhood has become infested with reindeer! Not real reindeer, of course, but with these glowing ones... they are made of some sort of wire frame and have lights all over them. I guess it's the Christmas decoration fad this year, because I don't remember seeing them before. But now there are dozens of glowing reindeer nibbling on lawns all throughout my neighborhood. Some of them even move ^_^;

Hmm, TNT is running a marathon of 'A Christmas Story' again this year. They are showing this movie non-stop for like 24 hours. That's a LOT of Ovaltine n.n I love this movie though, it's a great classic XD I'd like to see a deluxe dvd treatment of this movie, with outtakes and commentary tracks and what the actors are doing now, etc. That would be cool :) I doubt it will happen though, they keep releasing bare-bones DVDs of all my favorite movies. Now where is a Black Stallion DVD, eh? GRR!

I was surprised today when I got a package. It's the Cowboy Bebop Knockin on Heaven's Door Movie book. It is basically a billion screencaps from the movie, along with the scrip/dialogue in Japanese, and some interviews with the seiyuu and Yoko Kanno. I was surpised to get this because I had forgotten I'd ordered it! I think I ordered this back before I moved back to TX. Like, last August, I think. That's what I get for ordering from TokyoPop. This book was released the first week of November. I had ordered it back in August. And I get it TODAY. o.o I hate TokyoPop as it is, but this slow service does not encourage me to like them any more. The book is really cool though n.n I wish I could afford it ^^;;

Gorillaz slash? Oh man, I am afraid, very afraid O_O Maybe I should suggest that they review that Tony the Tiger/Crackle slashfic I saw once. That seems like something the fic bitches would... enjoy.. or something. I am reminded again why I hate fanfic o.O

I am out of hot cocoa! *alert! alert!* This is Not Good! AAARRRGGHHH! I guess I'll make coffee...

Added: Monday, December 24, 2001 05:58 p.m.