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So she sayeth...
Thursday, February 28, 2002 07:12 p.m.
Hmm. Well. I don't think I'll be blogging for awhile. Many things are going on right now including a whole bunch of school work. We have 8 days of class left plus weekends and that means two papers, three finals, and the honors project are all vying for my attention. Japanese Club and Chinese Club are trying to go to Chinatown, Chicago this weekend, but it looks like bad weather, so we may not. Bah. We'll have to see though. ... There is one other thing though which I'll probably blog about this weekend. I don't want to talk about it until everyone who needs to know first knows--just in case there's the miniscule off chance he finds and reads this thing. -_- Sorry for the teaser, but it's been a week since the last entry. I'm not dead yet. Anyway.
No thought.
Thursday, February 21, 2002 08:26 p.m.
Mood? Swinging. Tomorrow's Friday. I got a [small] chunk of my paper done today. I was going to work on it more tonight, but then I realized I hadn't finished The Left Hand of Darkness for class tomorrow. Oopsie. I also appear to be upseting people today for some odd reason...I'm not doing anything on purpose...maybe I'm just being paranoid...eh.
You all should read this new comic. About the wonders of software development, gaming, and whatnot. (Yes, btw, that's my Matt. :]) There's not much there right now since, as he says, there's an infinite crapload of work he's doing over here. I know this too well. It's contaigious apparently. ¬_¬ When the heck IS spring break again? *grumble...grumble...* Too soon! Not close enough! Spring break means break as well as finals... Argh. Well, soon there will be more characters, content, and comics at Code Rage, so stick with it please!
I've been rewatching EVA this past week. Wow, I really liked it before, but it's so much more interesting now! I first watched it during freshman year--which was also my first year of Japanese. I understand a lot more of the cultural nuances and jokes (ie: Japanese bureaucracy and just how disgusting the idea of putting curry in a cup of instant ramen O_o; Damn, Misato. Just damn.) And of course, I can understand more of the language, but not well enough to watch the whole thing through without using the subtitles as a crutch...or two or three crutches. I like all the characters more this time around since I know them a bit better having seen the thing once through--and I know who their voice actors are. XD I recognized Kotono Mitsushi and Ogata Megumi back in the day because they are both VAs on Sailor Moon, but I also notice now that Koyasu Takehito and Tomokazu Seki are in EVA too, although it took me a minute or two to notice that it was Tomokazu Seki because his character speaks Kansai-ben. People will be horrified/pleased to know that Shinji doesn't get on my nerves at all--I'm only on episode 6 though...but I don't think he will much though.
I've been listening to "Saviour Machine" by David Bowie a lot tonight...It's quite a disturbing song, but in a good way, I think. Here are the lyrics:
President Joe once had a dream
The world held his hand, gave their pledge
So he told them his scheme for a Saviour Machine
They called it the Prayer, its answer was law
Its logic stopped war, gave them food
How they adored till it cried in its boredom
'Please don't believe in me, please disagree with me
Life is too easy, a plague seems quite feasible now
or maybe a war, or I may kill you all
Don't let me stay, don't let me stay
My logic says burn so send me away
Your minds are too green, I despise all I've seen
You can't stake your lives on a Saviour Machine
I need you flying, and I'll show that dying
Is living beyond reason, sacred dimension of time
I perceive every sign, I can steal every mind
Don't let me stay, don't let me stay
My logic says burn so send me away
Your minds are too green, I despise all I've seen
You can't stake your lives on a Saviour Machine
I have this bad habit of admiring things that are deliciously disturbing ^_^; and this is one of them. Maybe I like this song because I've spent way too much time in sci fi/science class this term. Anyway. Back to the novel.
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "It all returns to nothing; I just keep letting me down..." -- Komm Susser Tod, EVA
Thursday, February 21, 2002 12:06 a.m.
AHAHAHAHA! This makes me happy; very happy indeed! Three cheers for you, David Duchovny! XD
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "So you're refusing an assignment based on the adventures of 'moose and squirrel'?" -- Fox Mulder
Tuesday, February 19, 2002 10:38 a.m.
Sleep is wonderful! I finally got more of it this weekend (and today. no classes on Tuesday--woo!), which I am thankful for. No more evil mood right now, so disregard all that rant below... Well, the blatently mean parts anyway. Anyhoo, not much up this weekend. Matt and I went out to Target to once over the store for things we want to register for. We found some interesting and necessary things. They have some good deals at Target. Cheap is good. After an hour or so of "shopping" I got really tired again. I honestly don't know why. It wasn't even 9 p.m. and I had gotten up at 11 a.m. O_o; Maybe it's just my messed up sleep schedule or I have some condition. I don't particularly want to go to the doctor about it because he/she would take one look at me and go: "Get a regular sleep schedule and then see what happens." So yeah. Anyway. Matt bought Devil May Cry and was fanboying over it the minute we got back to campus. Not sure if "fanboying" is a proper term yet--I know "fangirling" is somewhat, but he's a guy and that's about what he was doing. ^^ So we (uh, he) played through the first mission. Pretty darn cool, I must say. I think I'll have to play it once I have full access to the PS2. It's his, but one of the benefits of marriage comes the chance to use each other's cool stuff on a daily basis. :D
My oh my. This is from awhile ago, but it still is worthy of talking about. Somehow I don't think the vibrating was the true culprit...although I wouldn't be able to say for sure since I don't often play games with vibration. When I do, I usually turn it off because it always startles me at the wrong times, and it's just annoying. I think holding your hands in one "alert" position (like using a mouse, holding a controller, or typing on a keyboard) for 7 or more hours a day for many days on end would be good enough of a cause to harm your hands, wrists, and arms. I tend to have my right arm ache for awhile if I use the mouse too much. Same goes for wrists and typing. I haven't had much trouble with using my PSX and having my arms hurt. Except when I play BaG2, which I really don't anymore. Then my wrists kinda hurt. I dunno. Maybe it's that particular game he played. *shrug* It would be informative of them to tell us what system he was using... "Computer" I guess.
In other news, my roommate may be "disappearing" soon so I can sneak off with his latest gaming goody. That goody? Sam and Max Hit the Road. He also got the sound to work on his computer. O_O; *drool* I should ask him how he did it so I can tell you! Cuz I KNOW you wanna know. :D I do too, in case I ever snatch up a copy for myself. The other day he was playing Kings Quest 7 too...which I own, so I'm not all drooly over that one. At the same time, I didn't particularly care for KQ7 even though I loved all the other ones. I think it's because Valenice ticked me off throughout the whole game--Rosella too, actually. They were just so...girly! Ugh. You can be a female videogame character and a princess/queen without being overly sweet and whiny. Well, Rosella wasn't really whiny as I do recall, but the queen was. I also didn't like the whole setup of the game with the different chapters and switching back and forth between the main character. It was very confusing--especially when you played it little by little over a long period of time. I'll probably get around to beating it eventually. Maybe I'll try this summer...
Must get back to reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin right now for class. Unfortunatly, it's dry and boring so far...I'm only on page 50, so hopefully things will get better. I really don't want the only SF and SF-related thing we've read this term written by a woman to turn out to be boring and hated by all. Actually, I have more to say about this class later, but time's awastin'.
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "Far in the distance is cast a shadow--symbol of our freedom, will bring us salvation. On the horizon, hope for tomorrow, sweeping across the land to give us unity." Hajimari no Touhi, EoE OST
Friday, February 15, 2002 04:32 p.m.
I found that article about Colin Powell. Enjoy your tasty bit of news. You know, I'm such a geek. I've been thinking about writing an essay or paper or somethingerother about the use of the theme of life as a dream in Japanese literature/anime/etc. I've seen it an awful lot--much more so than in the American counterparts. *shrug* I also desperately want to write a scholarly paper about Revolutionary Girl Utena... It just has so many interesting things in it: women's roles, role of women in Japanese culture, women's language, symbolism, art, psychology, etc. etc. ^_^; heh. Sometime. Sometime.
Friday, February 15, 2002 09:58 a.m.
Well, happy late Valentine's Day everyone. I don't care if you hate Valentine's Day. Shut up and I hope you had a happy day. :P In fact, I hope today is happy for you too. Hah HA! Yes, I am in a strange mood today. Why? Because people piss me off and my toe hurts. First off, I didn't notice many people unhappy at the fact that it was Valentine's Day yesterday, which is good. It really upsets me that people get upset over Valentine's Day--day of love and cuddliness with your significant other. Personally, I've been in a relationship for over three years, so it's kinda hard to remember what life was like before that, BUT I do remember that I have never hated V-Day. I was never bitter--lonely and hopeful, maybe, but never bitter. Some people have good reasons for being annoyed with Valentine's Day, and that's all right, but the ones who just hate the day in general are the ones who upset me. Maybe it was those FHA cookies that helped me thru it all *weep!* but yeah. (Speaking of which...I could use a cookie right now...) Maybe a big part of it is that it's just another manifistation of some thing that just brings out the jaded feelings many people have for all things too good and pure because they're too good and pure. Honestly, when was the last time you sat down and watched a WAFFy movie and enjoyed it without thinking about how much the movie sucks because nothing like that could ever happen in real life? I know I'm pretty jaded about today's society, so I guess I can't blame some people. Still. Have some hope, will ya? o_o It's not so bad... It's always been my philosophy that life has a lot of sucking-nature to it, but there's always a silver lining around that suckiness. Even if it be small, there's some hope out there somewhere. Nothing is absolute. Which means no absolute hopelessness or goodness. *shrug*
In other news (beware a vicious rant!). People piss me off. Especially politician and government-type people. Damn you all. >_< I hate you. I really do. Actually, I don't hate government people as individuals, but as sums of wholes and their methods of doing things. Democrats for example. You suck. Republicans for example. Well, you suck too. Anyone else read about the sudden "controversy" over Colin Powel's comments on the use of condoms? Well, I lost the link at the moment (yahoo updated...), but he said that he encouraged the use of condoms by people who are sexually active and now some stupid whiners in Washington and other places are putting up a fuss because "Oh no! He's not preaching abstinance! It's bad! It's horrible! How dare he! It's not the Bush administration's policy!" Now, I'm all for abstinance. That's the only for-sure way to avoid disease and conceiving children. That's a fact, but it's also a fact that other people don't see that or don't care. People are going to have sex whether people tell them they should or shouldn't. I'm not going to run out and yell at people to stop having sex if they're not married or anything. Heck, do what you want. Just don't be stupid about it and do something that might cause you to regret. But if non-long term committed/married folks MUST have sex, please, use protection. I, for one, think it's safer that way. And what Colin Powel said was not to go out and have sex but make sure to use a condom. He was encouraging condom use for those who are ALREADY having sex. He's not not preaching abstinance. Having ideological beliefs (whether they're based on your religion or not) are perfectly good, but we all have to accept the realities of life. All people don't share your beliefs. Compromises have to be made. Realities must be dealt with.
Well, my eyebrow is certainly raised. o.^ eheh...bad attempt at humor. Suburban sprawl, huh? Now, I have a beef with the suburbs. Well, not the actual place or all of the people who live there--just some of the people. I've never really lived there, and I don't particularly relish the idea of doing so, having lived in a nice house with a huge yard outside of town for the past 15 years. But the suburbs have spawned a certain type of person that royally pisses me off because of their high and mighty "If it's not in the city or suburbs, it's not worth anything!" attitude. Even though I have met people with this attitude, I still don't automatically hate people who live there, and the fact that if someone I know is from the suburbs doesn't give me any reason to dislike them. I know many people from the suburbs--Chicago suburbs mostly--who are fine and interesting people, and the fact that they DO live in the suburbs hardly ever crosses my mind. In fact, I often have to remind myself of the fact that they do live there when I get pissed off at suburbites. So, basically what I'm saying is, as I try to cover my butt, is that I'm not one of those area-ists who piss me off.
I have two certain friends who just think the suburbs is ALL that (and the bag of chips) and SO much better than where I live (Iowa). At least they come off that way, and when any matter of hometown comes up, I am the butt of their teasing. Say what you will about Iowa. Yeah, it's boring; we have corn (lots of it); we have an ugly iron tree in downtown CR; and I will probably be moving out of state eventually too. We don't have a lot of the things that other states have--it is NOT totally flat and treeless though. Damn you all who think that. That's probably the number one area of teasing I take. I don't hate Iowa, but I don't absolutely love it either. I'm pretty much neutral-good. It's where I live and it's nice--when I'm not at school of course. There ARE good things here. We have good education and places for families to live (ugh. I didn't just say that. really.) Next time you read something by a grad of the Writer's Workshop at the U of I you tell me how much Iowa sucks. Tell me how boring Iowa is the next time they fly your injured self to the U of I Hospital. Anyway, these certain people just have to point out how much Iowa is bad and their suburbs are good, and if Iowa doesn't have something that their town does--OH boy, well, that just proves their argument right there. According to these people, I live "in the boonies" because I live outside the city limits (I do by one mile) even though at the same time I am a ten minute drive from the nearest mall. >_<; Trust me. I worked in the mall for two years. That's how long it takes. Which is about the same, IF NOT LESS than the time it takes to get to the mall from houses in the suburbs. So explain how this imaginary line makes a difference! My friend and her mother just "couldn't believe" the fact I lived outside of town. @_@ Gawd. So yeah. Areaists tick me off, but I'm also over-sensitive to people who attack *my* things. But what makes something *my* thing is another explanation altogether. I guess I'm just tired of the teasing BS which makes me somewhat anti-suburb (or at least prone to it) which is very sad since it's 99.9% based on such teasing. Uh, yeah, so after all that. I do know some people who read this thing live in the suburbs...but be rest assured I don't hate you or where you live. ^_^; All my hate is directed at the teasing of the individuals I mentioned, and they don't even read this.
So, yeah. Chalk up my pissieness to my general state of fatigue and my aching toe. It has a blister on it and I think it got infected. Bleh. I dunno what's up with my fatigue though. I'm tired ALL the time these days--even on the days when I supposedly get enough sleep. So pardon my mean-spirited ranting today. -_- Sometimes we all have to explode a little bit. Ah! And Happy Birthday to Katherine, er, obaasan. Although I'd hope that 22 was still within oneesan status... ^_^; Or mabye that's just due to personal bias... heh. Have a happy day! And I leave you all with this random thought. I know *I* was scarred by it. ^^; *pictures Vicious swatting people down like flies with his sword shouting "respect my authoritai!"* XD Gawd.
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "Now that I've scarred myself for life with the mental image of Vicious sitting on a couch with a bag of Cheesy Poofs..." -- Priya
Wednesday, February 13, 2002 03:12 p.m.
Grar! O_O Read and sign if you have any interest in this show whatsoever. Heck, sign it if you want to support US-based quality animation aimed at a non-child audience. Amusing info about what I've been up to later. I have to go do some of it... o_o Oh, and one...two more words: Surveys, dammit! ;_; Onegai desu~~!
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "Necessity may be the mother of invention, but laziness is certainly the father."
Saturday, February 9, 2002 09:58 p.m.
Ok, unless you want to read about my wedding preparations, I suggest you find some other blog to entertain you. ^_^; Mostly everything that I did today involved my wedding so that's what I'll be blabbering about today.
Anyway, after being dragged out of bed--I felt rather miserable because I didn't get enough sleep AND I went to bed with a bump on my head (it's still there) because I am an idiot and hit my head on an open drawer while trying to stand up after kneeling on the ground playing with my cat. o_o; That hurt a LOT. I've never hit my head that hard before...it still hurts too. bleh. So, yes, with me still woozy from head trauma, first we went out to look for a photographer, but everything we found was really expensive. @_@ I don't like the idea of paying hundred and hundreds of dollars for pictures I'm prolly going to be putting in a drawer in two months anyway. Some pictures are definitely required, but the packages that were offered were not what I wanted. From there we whipped by Walgreens so I could get some film developed. It was quite the old roll. All the way back to last April. O_o; From there we stopped in at another photographer with no luck. We checked out a place for invitations and took home a nice book of them to look at. I've kinda already decided which one I want, but we can still look. :D After some quick lunch (mmm, Arby's chicken sandwich!) we headed to the flower place--Weeds Florists. We decided to stick with them and we got a bunch of things flower-wise. I think it's going to be very pretty. I can't remember all the flower types we chose for things, but they're mostly white and dark purple. We found some neat flowers that were white with purple tips. :D Those were quite neat.
It took quite a bit of time at the florists. There was much to decide and less time to do it in. o_o Then it was on to the dress place. I had high hopes at first, but all the large numbers with $'s in front of them were very intimidating. I didn't see much at first, but I found some nice ones and tried them on. Most of them had trains, which I found out I didn't like, but I did find two that I did like. The owner of the store told me that I should order my dress very soon in order for it to arrive by the wedding date (which we have decided is 7/20/02!) and gave us incentive to buy today by offering $50 off any veil. Soooo, I decided. ^^ I wish I had a picture of the thing, because it looks a lot nicer than I could describe it. However, it's white, sleevless with a strap around the neck that I may get rid of, with no train. The bodice hugs my torso and then the dress flares out at the hips and is QUITE poofy. The bodice and top part of the skirt are swirled with lace-like patterns and parts of it are outlined in silver with a few fake pearls set in the fabric. It shimmers when I move. ^^ I really love it! I also got a veil that matches the dress pretty well. And it was cheap because of the discount they gave us. :D Which makes it all the more better.
So that's about all I did for the wedding today. I also read a good chunk of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for class. It's a really interesting book, and I'm enjoying it. I wish I could read faster though because I really just want to find out what happens. Some of it is fairly predictable, as is a lot of science fiction, but a great deal of it is surprising. It's funny though as I was reading along--the book takes place in 2021, but there's still a Soviet Union--the book was written in 1982. ^^ So I kinda had a little culture shock in my very own home. I think I'd like to talk more about the philosophical and ethical stuff related to the androids in it, but I'm tired to the point of difficulty in thinking, so I'm going to bed now.
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "It's just that I always wanted an owl, even before they all dropped dead." -- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Thursday, February 7, 2002 10:07 p.m.
Ugh. Hissashiburi. It's midterm week, I apologize for my lack of bloggy goodness. Actually, I have a midterm tomorrow at 8 a.m. and I should be studying...but...I'm not. XO I've done enough for now. I'll study in a half hour. Blah! First respondings.
YOU! Delete that last paragraph right now. XP I'm sick of seeing women make strong statements of opinion and whatnot and then (of sorts) "recant" them by sort of apologetically backtalking their position by justifying some sort of personal deficiency that could lead to deficiency in their arguments. I do that VERY often, so I'm not one to talk (ack! I just did it, see?) BUT I'm still tired of it, and I'm trying to break myself of the habit. o_o If I can interest anyone in an article about women and men's communication online, contact me. It's interesting and so damn true, IMO. Anyway, beyond that, I agreed with 100% of your rant/manifesto (whatever you want to call it). I'd love to see a gamergirl-based webcomic drawn by for and about fangirls/gamergirls. I wish I could assist in the creation of one, but I'd only have to contribute ideas 'n stories--I'm a fairly bad artist. The need for adequate representation of a all women gamers is there, and someone should do this. I know that I love shoujo and shounen things alike, although I guess I tend to be more of a sucker for cute shoujo (I liked Sailor Moon and Fushigi Yuugi, dammit, plot holes or no), but then I am also growing quite addicted to CvS2 at the moment. Why can't other girls in comics have balanced interests or yell at the screen when they're getting their butts kicked or kicking butt and comment on the cuteness or lack thereof of the characters, etc. etc. I think, although I don't know for sure cuz I'm not apart of mainstream gaming communications, that people who call themselves "gamergirls" (as opposed to anything involving the words chick, grrrl, and the like...) do like a mix of various kinds of games. I guess this might be the people I know, but again, I dunno, but I'd assume so. The sterotypes you mentioned do exist, but they're obviously not the entire population of female gaming. Yeah, I guess it's hard trying to maintain respect for yourself and your likes in an activity that you're underrepresented in particpant-wise, perhaps even game content-wise too, that the majority of the activity's participants population may not agree with you on or have far different preferences, goals, and mannerisms. But anway, I officially now feel the need to assemble a team of cute male fighers, ogle/sparkle at/admire them, and then proceed to kick someone's ass with them. Or just the ass-kicking part...It's all good. ^_^
As far as MY gaming life is concerned, I'm on my way to a l33ter life thanks to my new madskillz at forward, down, foward/down! Heh. I've been using my new found skills to punch people with fire, kick the crap out of people, and shoryuken my way to better battles. Not that I'm good yet, but I'm a lot better now. Next it's the half circle moves! @_@ oyoy. So, that being said, it prolly goes without saying that I've been playing a lot of Capcom vs. SNK 2 and KoF99--more CvS2 than the latter. Matt ph34rs me with King--my best character right now. ^^ Today he actually was putting together a team, noticed I was doing King by herself and then made this "*gasp*" noise and immediately finished his party with Mai--his best character whom he knows most of the moves for and uses them quite, quite often AND whom he knows I loathe for several reasons. It was amusing. I think my favorite self-made team right now is Benimaru, Rock, and King (the Blond Team). Yuri, Athena, and Sakura (the Cute, Ass-kicking Girl Team) is fun too. And of course we mustn't forget Kyo, Iori, Ken, Terry aka "Blond Duo", and Dan (ok, his moves suck, but it's fun using him!) for their funness. I haven't played much else lately. Too much to do to start or continue any RPGs. Which brings me to a new topic.
My busy life. School work mostly. All my grad applications are in and done now. I had two midterms this week. The one tomorrow is in Chinese history (Hsia Dynasty all the way to the end of the Qing Dynasty-- that's 2300 BC-1922 AD to the non-East Asian-related majors out there. Go me! @_@) I'm going to have to work hard for this one. Ugh. I can't keep everything straight. I study, think I know it, but then it all blends together as soon as I look at the old exam or close the notebook. Aside from that, there's that little wedding we're having come summer...
Two major developments there. We're having it either the 20th or 27th of July. Probably the 20th since Matt's good friend decided that she was going to have her vacation spanning those dates. >_< Who plans their July vacation in January anyway? Grr. I am not amused by this situation. Also, we decided various things about general location, time, and other things. The ceremony will be in the afternoon on one of those Saturdays listed above followed by a reception catered by Someone (unknown at the moment) at Some Hotel. Likely the Sheraton or the Collins Plaza. All of that will be more finalized this weekend when I go home to make decisions. We did decide that we're having one person wedding parties (Maid of Honor, Best Man) rather than those and then groomsmen and bridemaids to boot. Karen has agreed to be my maid of honor. woo! And, yes, a dress is required, but I think you could get away with sneakers IF the skirt is long enough. :P Don't tell my mother.
Heh. I just listened to "Tainted Love" with a flame-wielding Iori winamp skin to go with. XD Oh, I had some other stuff, but I pre-blogged it and stored it somewhere that I can't remember the location of. Ack. Anyway, that'll be posted next time. Time to go cram somemore.
Random Celestial Thought OTD: "Densetsu o misete yaru ze! (Lemme show you the legend!)" -- Dan
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