((is this love?))

So... I have now seen episodes 1-8 of Get Backers, thanks to the lovely Gnine. I would have liked to see more, but alas, I have to work tomorrow and I live around 45 minutes away from Gnine, so... it was 8 episodes. Here's what I think:

WAAAAAAIIIII!!!! XD XD XD

Ban and Ginji are so sleeping together. I love it. I think they should get married, and, um, have lots of sex. No, really, they're just so cute. Ban is such an asshole, and yet such a softy underneath it all (what with his little after services), and Ginji has him so *wrapped* around his little finger. XD And Ginji is cute and angsty at the same time, which is one of my favorite combinations.

Himiko is annoying. Die, Himiko.

Also, what the heck kind of universe is this set in? O_O I like it, whatever it is.

Akabane, you are a creepy, arrogant, malevolent, creepy, psychotic, murdering bastard. I LOVE YOU. YOU ARE SO COOL.

Shido and Kazuki are both pretty cool so far from what I've seen, and I think Shido and Ginji would make a cute couple ::cough:: but Shido's straight and that's okay, 'cause he and violinist girl are cute. I *loved* when Ban made Shido think he'd used up his Evil Eye. XD And Kazuki and the thread things were cool... I want more of Ginji's backstory, damn it! And Ban's! GIVE ME ANGST!!!

Had I mentioned that I love Akabane?

Anyway, yeah, Get Backers is cool. And I don't get to see any more of it until Labor Day weekend, when we go visit Gnine at school... well, somehow, I shall survive. Anyway, it's tired and I'm late, so off to bed I go. ^^

||Listening/ Get Backers OP stuck in my head||

|| true love happened at 11:50 p.m. ||
|| Thursday, August 21 ||

Well, despite the fact that I was annoyed about not getting any replies on 41, WYWM 42 is up on QR, and contains Isaac's weird friends, Ethan making actual progress, and Jeannette Ellison getting buried in a ditch (we should be so lucky).

Our AC has this funny habit of how, if you keep it too cold, ice will freeze in the pipes and it'll stop working entirely. It's done it again for the fifth time. You'd think my doofbrain brother would have learned to *moederate* how cold he keeps the house, but no. ::types in underwear and is still sweltering::

I'm just going to issue a general apology for how bitter, bitchy, and antisocial I've been lately. And will probably continue to be, oh, until I get professional help.

I will, will, will post Otakon pics soon, although I have no idea when-- doing a lot of stuff this week, since all my friends leave for college this weekend and I'm stuck here alone after that. On the upside, my brother is going to Phoenix for a week and I will have the house all to my fecking self, which will be *great*, except, I'm wondering who's going to feed the rabbits when I go to Ithaca for the weekend. Hm, dilemma.

||Listening/ ERA, ''Impera''||

|| true love happened at 11:08 p.m. ||
|| Tuesday, August 19 ||

I KILLED THE EVIL MOSQUITO THAT WAS FLYING AROUND IN MY ROOM AND BUZZING IN MY EAR EVERY FIVE SECONDS! AND I DID IT BEFORE IT BIT ME!!

I AM TRIUMPHANT!!

In other news, I'm absolutely exhausted, rather wonky, and needing bed. I will answer the site email when I have time, which at this point is looking like it's going to be in my next life. Pics from Otakon and bloggage about birthday presents coming up.

||Listening/ blessed silence||

|| true love happened at 11:45 p.m. ||
|| Sunday, August 17 ||

Did the site update. I'm *very* cranky, because doing the site update took me two hours because I had to do all the recs as well as revamp the entire FY page. I wanted to do something else with my evening, darnit. Blar, off to be unfit for company elsewhere.

||Listening/ Wild Arms Theme||

|| true love happened at 10:14 p.m. ||
|| Friday, August 15, 2003 ||

I had... an interesting day. Work pretty much sucked, because it was Wednesday and *very* busy. But we had a thunderstorm that was-- no other word for it-- simply bitching. We're talking simultaneous thunder and lightning, so loud that you could *feel* the thunder in your stomach, and streak lightning, not just sheet lightning. Along with a torrential downpour and winds so strong that the streams from the gutters were tilting. It was awesome, and I was on my lunch break, so I got to stand and watch all of it.

Then it cleared up and got really sunny, but after a while it stormed again. Not as badly, but when that cleared up, there was a gorgeous double-halo rainbow that you could see the top of for both halos. It was so cool that everyone in our office dropped what they were doing to go look at it when I pointed it out.

I'm blogging about the weather, which is probably pretty sad, but with weather like that, who can blame me?

I now know two people who have been hit with that nasty worm thing... but I'm immune! ::dances:: The one good thing that having Windows ME ever did for me, heh.

Uhm... I'm *really* gonna try to have a site update done for Friday. ::cringes and runs away::

||Listening/ Gods and Monsters, ''Arise, Clay''||

|| true love happened at 09:47 p.m. ||
|| Wednesday, August 13 ||

...I put up Alec/Skye porn and no one even leaves one single comment. *sulk*

For some reason beyond my understanding, I always get really cranky and depressed right around my birthday. I've never known why. I'm really too young for this shit. Ah, well, I'm twenty-two today. ::waves a little flag:: Bravo for me; I survived another year. Having to work on my birthday sucked, but it was certainly better than the disaster of a birthday I had *last* year.

So, con report!

I picked Karasu-chan up after work. She and her mother were still finishing our Subaru and Hokuto costumes, but we hit the road before too late. There had been a massive accident on one of the highways we were supposed to take, so we redid our route. The traffic sucked, I drove through New York City on I-95 at night, and it was raining a large chunk of the way. By the time we got to Baltimore, we were an hour late and my nerves were shot.

We slept! The sleeping was good. We got up early the next morning and donned our costumes. I have to say we looked pretty darn good. (The film has been dropped off. I'll probably have an entry with pictures in a few days.) We went around the con for a while, snapped lots of shots of other people in cool costumes, spent lots of money at the Dealer's Room. I got a Rurouni Kenshin artbook and the Yami character book, which I've wanted for a while. I also bought the first of the DNAngel manga, so doesn't it just figured that TP has licensed it now.

We watched the music videos, most of which were pretty good. (I particularly recommend the Noir video "Die Another Day", which has really made me want to see that series, and the combo video to "It's Tricky".) Went back to the Dealer's Room and spent more money. I got a *great* Yami thing -- it's this "best selected artwork" folder, it has the picture of Tsuzuki with Byakko on the front, and has eight pictures inside that are all about the same size as a 15x21 miniposter. Those are going on my walls as soon as I find some room for them. I also got a cool Kenshin posterboard that I'm going to make a layout of once I've scanned it in. There was a neat X wallscroll, but by that point I was pretty much out of money, and wall space.

We went to the Masquerade for a while and saw more cool cosplayers... then to the rave, at which point I realized that it is impossible to club dance while dressed as Subaru. It just doesn't work at all.

Then we went home the next morning, which was hell on *earth* -- the drive is supposed to take 7 to 8 hours, right? On the way down it took 9, but the way back was 10 -- we were in stop and go highway traffic for 5 hours. My foot actually started cramping. It was hell. Gnine and her friends made it home before us, and they left over two hours later. -_-

So that was the con. It was fun, although I'm not sure it was entirely worth the gobs of money and the hell that it took to get there. Well, maybe next year we'll be able to go for all three days.

In other news, I'm now going to have a birthday sulk fit, write some, and go to bed. ^^ I'll put up pics of the con as soon as I have them. There were some *great* cosplayers-- I've got Muraki, Soujirou, Schuldig, Toboe -- just to name a few. ^^

||Listening/ Tori Amos, ''A Sorta Fairytale''||

|| true love happened at 09:48 p.m. ||
|| Tuesday, August 12 ||

I'm back from Otakon. The con was fun. Traffic was hell. Pictures will be forthcoming once I get the film developed. Longer dissertation will be forthcoming once I've gotten some sleep.

And as a welcome home gift, WYWM 41 is up on QR. Night everyone. ^^

||Listening/ ||

|| true love happened at 10:59 p.m. ||
|| Sunday, August 10 ||

Welp, it's official! Tomorrow Ka-chan and I will be at Otakon. ^_^ I realize that I haven't blogged about this before, but our plans were, shall we say, fluid. Eheh. Anyway, we'll definitely be there all day Saturday if you want to look out for us. I have no idea where we'll be when, since we haven't really perused the schedule, but we'll be dressed as Subaru and Hokuto from TB manga 6. ^^

Whee, an 8 hour drive to Baltimore after a day at work... *that's* going to be fun.

Off to get a good night's sleep!

||Listening/ Wolf's Rain, ''Stray''||

|| true love happened at 11:59 p.m. ||
|| Thursday, August 7 ||

And now, because I'm too tired to do anything other than assault random passersby with random crap that nobody really cares about, have some pictures!

From Anime Boston...

Me, looking crappy, and part of Ka-chan's thumb
Ka-chan, doing God knows what (she will kill me when she realizes I posted these)
Our buddy Mark in a funny hat
Gnine! I'm putting up a picture of you! XD

From the wedding, my sister was a dork and didn't actually take any of *me*, so you'll have to wait until the erstwhile bridge gets all the chibi cameras developed. For now you can have...

The bride and groom
and... The bridesmaid, my great friend Kimura-chan, and her lovely Rat-kun ^^

And, randomly....

My sister's cat in a box
Me and my sister's cat being cute
Ka-chan and my sister's cat being cute ^^

Ta da! Off to... find something else to do!

||Listening/ Live, ''Overcome''||

|| true love happened at 09:48 p.m. ||
|| Tuesday, August 5 ||

To anyone expecting to see me OL tonight... I may be late or not OL at all, partly because I have to pick my brother up from the airport at 9h30 (and God only knows how late his plane will be), and partly because we've had thunderstorms getting steadily worse and worse all day. I'll try to be on, I just don't know what's going to happen with it.

In other news, I have other news, but I can't remember what any of it is. I suck. ^_^;;

But I'm running a good ratio. Out of the three things I broke this weekend (keyboard, venetian blinds, kitchen glass), I fixed two of them (keyboard and blinds).

Okay, that lightning was *close*. Going byebye now.

||Listening/ ||

|| true love happened at 07:50 p.m. ||
|| Sunday, August 3 ||

Oh, right, and WYWM 40 is up on QR, despite the fact that I haven't yet answered Hiki-chan's emails. ^^ I have no self-control. Also, I had nothing else to do, because I'm strangely exhausted. Bed soon.

||Listening/ Dead Can Dance, ''Enigma of the Absolute''||

|| true love happened at 10:44 p.m. ||
|| Friday, August 1 ||

So... the following is (sort of) a call for help to anyone who is familiar with the American justice system, whether it be because you're a lawyer, friends with a lawyer, or a criminal. ^_~

Can anyone tell me about how long it takes a regular criminal case like assault and battery to go to trial? There's nothing fancy involved; no weird evidence or circumstances, regular state-appointed lawyers on both sides, et cetera. Can anyone give me a rough idea? I sort of need to know before I go much further with... uhm... a certain story that shall remain unnamed. I'm trying to plan ahead, heh. Either leave a comment or email me if you can be of any help, please. Even a rough estimate would be better than what I have... which is absolutely no idea. ^^ Thanks much!

||Listening/ Wolf's Rain, ''Rakuen, Paradise''||

|| true love happened at 08:56 p.m. ||
|| Friday, August 1 ||

I have internet at the front desk again! Whoopee! ::leaps for joy::

Also, Isaac now has a group of friends that are all *weird* and want to be main characters. I may have to kill them, particularly this guy named Crates. No, really, they call him Crates. It's kind of a long story. ::sweatdrops::

And now, I will procrastinate sorting the filing bin! Because I can!

||Listening/ ||

|| true love happened at 05:37 p.m. ||
|| Thursday, July 31 ||

I answered my email. Except for (you guessed it!) Hiki-chan's. My God, girl, it's going to take me a year to sit down and go through all those emails! I have like 6 in my inbox, let alone what I didn't reply to last time!

....::weeps::

So, um, the net result of that is that I'll try to do it this weekend, and I'm not posting any more WYWM until I do, because then Hiki-chan will send me another email and I think my computer will break under the strain. ^^

Um... no, really, I'll post more soon.

So if Hisoka is Jesus... does that make Tsuzuki God, or Mary Magdalene?

||Listening/ Rurouni Kenshin, ''Painful Memories''||

|| true love happened at 10:23 p.m. ||
|| Wednesday, July 30 ||

Mm, pastries at work today that a drug rep brought in. XD ::loves Panera and Risperdal right now::

Does anyone else think it's ironic that I saw a cop today that had set up a speed trap... while waiting in the parking lot of a Dunkin' Donuts? ^_^

||Listening/ ||

|| true love happened at 03:13 p.m. ||
|| Wednesday, July 30 ||

I've come to the conclusion that Hisoka is Jesus.

....this made perfect sense at nine o'clock this morning. Basically, Kimura-chan and I had been debating whether or not Evanescene's lyrics could be considered religious. She said that they could be, particularly for Bring Me to Life, and I had basically, well, blown it off because I like the song and don't like religious music. (If I'm ruining the song for you, I'm sorry, but I like to share misery. ^^)

Technically, okay, a lot of their songs can be taken in religious context. Particularly My Tourniquet... (Lyrics: "My God, my tourniquet, return to me salvation...") and a few others, like Give Unto Me... and then some really can't at all. Anyway, my point is that this morning I was listening to "Missing" on the way to work... and I thought it would sort of be interesting if it was supposed to be Jesus singing, wondering if anyone missed him back on earth, and the line "Though I'd die to know you love me" refers to God himself... I dunno, putting Jesus in a very human aspect.

Of course, I wrote the songfic for Missing about Hisoka, so... at nine thirty, somehow this made me think that Hisoka = Jesus. Obviously, I should not get up early in the mornings.

....right. Back to tormenting Isaac now.

||Listening/ Eve 6, ''Inside Out''||

|| true love happened at 10:18 p.m. ||
|| Tuesday, July 29 ||

Well, well, well... I had a very productive day. I got up fairly early... got lunch... went shopping and bought lots of groceries... tried to learn to drive stick so if my brother gets a new car I can have his, and that was hell, believe me... made tea and cleaned the kitchen... wrote a whole bunch... did a fic site update... washed my hair... (and for me, that's a project)... and am now doing laundry and working on making tapes to play in my car, since it has no CD player and everything on the radio blows. And working on the Weiss fic. Go me!

And HangedMan, don't feel bad about making me type the whole thing... I could have been more brief, but I like talking about my stories. ^^

||Listening/ VAST, ''Blue''||

|| true love happened at 10:00 p.m. ||
|| Sunday, July 27 ||

Sooo.... home from the wedding. It was... well, it was fun at times and grueling at other times. But all went well. Both the bridge and groom showed up and were appropriately married. The photographer and caterer were both late, I hurt my foot running back and forth between the reception and the church getting set up, and then the caterers tried to leave before the cake was cut and had to be bribed so they wouldn't take away all our silverware.

...then they continued to refill our water pitches, despite having taken our glasses away. It was a real struggle not to dump the water pitchers over their heads.

Also, new layout! Because I'm in a romantic mood. Well, not really, I just adore this picture of Tsuzuki and Hisoka, heh. It's just very pink. ^^ I know I haven't been blogging much lately, but I plan to rectify that. The good news is that the reason there's no Internet at work is because one of the computers caught a virus and we've been taken off... so at least I'm not in trouble, heh.

I posted a nice long thing on QR about why Skye doesn't appear more in WYWM, and since it amused me, I'll post it again here. Well, and because I feel it's vaguely important and I want everyone who reads the story to see it. Heh. Also, I like starting new layouts with a nice long entry! I suck.

HangedMan said: "Just a suggestion, I kind of feel a little more disconnected with Skye than the rest of the characters. He doesn't seem to have as large a role as the rest of the characters. If I may use a bad analogy, Lucian, Bren, Isaac, Alec, and Ethan kind of feel like family, and Skye is more of the cousin you never see/ the next door neighbor that's friendly but you don't really know all that well.

*shrugs* Maybe it's just me. Or maybe you can add more Skye-centric scenes in the revisions. >

And here's my explanation ^^

Heh... I'm going to reply to this, because there's actually a reason for it, but it's likely never going to come up in the story. Since a lot of people have commented on how Skye doesn't really seem to be a main character, I'm going to address the point here on the board.

Here's the thing. Technically, Skye is not a main character. Action simply doesn't center around him the way it does around the other five. He remains on the fringes partly because he *is* on the fringes. But as to why he doesn't appear, since other characters with much more minor roles probably appear just as often (like Anna in particular), this is why: it's all Alec's fault.

See, Alec is the narrator, so as such, I'm sort of bound by the limits of his observations. I love writing his first person, because it gives the story a much-needed personal touch, but it does limit me in some ways.

Generally speaking, the story is about Alec as much as it's about the others, perhaps even more so. The *plot* is about Bren and Lucian, at least to date, and will be about Ethan for a while, and then will be about Alec and a little bit of Skye, but I think the story is about Alec, and I'll tell you why. (You're getting the author's perspective, whee!)

This story has two themes. (I thought I'd never use stuff like themes, so it's kind of sad that I find myself doing it.) I'm glad they got across, which I know they did, since a few people have commented on them, heh. The first is the whole "is love enough?" question, which is never really answered. This is echoed in allo the relationships in the story, particularly Lucian/Bren, Isaac/Ethan, and Alec/Skye, but also in some others such as Lucian/Alec -- let's face it, out of all the functioning couples in the story, they have one of the best and most equal and honest relationships. They don't love each other, but who knows if it matters?

But the other theme, which is not so whack-you-over-the-head as the first, is the question of redeemability. Other than the one discussion Ethan and Alec have about this, it doesn't generally come up as blatantly as whether or not love is enough. But it *is* a big part of the story. Should Lucian be forgiven for what he did to Bren? More importantly, *can* Bren forgive him? What about the way Ethan has treated Isaac? Et cetera. This is, in my opinion, the more important theme, and it comes up over and over again, but nowhere more than with Alec. Let's face it, Alec's done some pretty bad stuff over his lifetime. (I will take this back to the question about Skye eventually, I swear. I'm building up to it.) And whether or not he can be forgiven, particularly by himself, is a question that he continues to ask throughout the story. It's going to come up again with some other stuff later (Skye's stepfather is going to make an appearance, for one thing), but the real theme lies with Alec.

Here's my point, heh. In many ways, this story is about Alec, even though his personal part of the plot doesn't really kick in until near the end. But *Alec* doesn't realize this. He thinks he's telling the story of Bren and Lucian, with Ethan and Isaac on the side, and I haven't disillusioned him. Therefore, he only puts in what *he* feels is important -- and since he hasn't acknowledged that the story is also about himself and Skye, he *doesn't* put in stuff with Skye unless it directly relates somehow back to the "plot" -- generally by affecting his (Alec's) behavior, which in turn affects other members of the cast.

This was a very wordy explanation for the following fact: Skye seems distant because Alec *feels* distant from him. And because I like having Alec's unique perspective, despite the fact that it'll probably never be explained in so many words in the story, Skye is going to remain a minor character until he becomes important to what *Alec* thinks is the story. Which he will. ^_~ So remain patient.

....and now that I'm done with that, I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm wiped out.

||Listening/ Ani DiFranco, ''Loom''||

|| true love happened at 11:21 p.m. ||
|| Saturday, July 26 ||