Current literature: At the Crossing-Places by Kevin Crossley-Holland, Tai-Pan by James Clavell
Website: the mad aristocrat
Anime / ficblog: fic sushi
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Still in school, dammit:
UNC-Greensboro
Nara Women's University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Posted elsewhere:
Fanfiction.net, Photo.net
Partners in crime:
Diana, Haru, Jamie, joudama, Katie, Leah, Melanie, Michael, N, Writer
Reads:
Andre, Bridget, Cat, Kristin, Lex, Lisa, Natalie, Sabina, Sabrina, Thorne, Twig, Violaine, Witch King of Angmar
Hangs around:
The Japan Times, Ninjai.com, !SuperCat Online, Sekai Seifuku, Passion Fruit, Crimson Tears, The Japanese Flannel, windward, Sequential Tart, Diagon Alley, Shiroi Heya
Webcomics:
Jinks, ADVENTURERS!, Little Gamers, Nine Stitches, megatokyo, Bite Me!, Boy Meets Boy, Sinfest, Spades
Drools over:
Isamu Noguchi, Chanel, Gackt Camui, Sony Japan, Style.com, Heath Ledger, Aiwa, European Furniture Importers, anything covered in toile, matcha, fried okra, Hemmings Photography, yakisoba
Listens to:
Dreams Come True, Ryuichi Kawamura, Hikaru Utada, Natalie Imbruglia, Gackt, Sarah Brightman, GLAY, Enya, Paul Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Travis, Judy and Mary, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Hyde, Chihiro Onitsuka, Garbage, John Mellencamp, REM, Melissa Etheridge, K.D. Lang, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Sophie B. Hawkins, Nicholas Tse
Books & manga:
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, X, WISH, ElfQuest, Transformers, Ah! My Goddess!, You're Under Arrest!, Bakuretsu Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin, Slayers, Weiss: An Assassin and White Shaman, Gravitation, Gouhou Drug
Watches:
West Wing, As Time Goes By, Slayers, Rurouni Kenshin, Cardcaptor Sakura, Inu Yasha, Cowboy Bebop, any Gackt or Glay videos I can get my hands on, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ed, Edd, & Eddie, Just Shoot Me!, Samurai Jack
Spends paychecks at:
EXPRESS, YesAsia, Apple, J. Crew, L.L. Bean, Target, Amazon.com
Archives:
3/11/03-4/13/03(Manchester II)
1/14/03-3/10/03(Manchester I)
12/17/02-1/10/03(Holiday)
11/2/02-12/14/02(Sekirei)
10/3/02-11/1/02(Halloween Elise)
7/31/02-10/3/02(Natalie)
6/12/02-7/27/02(Debauchery)
5/3/02-6/12/02(Fun with mochi)
3/24/02-4/28/02(X pretentiousness)
1/10/02-2/27/02(Home again)
12/1/01-1/3/02(Nara III)
10/9/01-11/27/01(Nara II)
9/3/01-9/29/01(Nara I)
I finally have a working version of Photoshop again. :D I've been gleefully screwing around for the last couple of days, making lots of stupid little things since I'm not going to have it AGAIN until my new computer is in my hands. My beloved monstrous G3 is staying here in my room, and hopefully I'll have my laptop ASAP. *crosses fingers and toes*
Ai came to visit today! It's been two years since I've seen her, and she just got back from her summer in Tokyo the other day-- it was so nice to talk to her in person again. :) She told me and Steph about the Bon-Odori festival in Greenville next weekend, and the giant Japanese supermarket we've managed to be ignorant of these last few years. Prolly just as well, because we'd be sooo broke. But it would be fun to go to the Bon-Odori... oh well. Hopefully Steph will get to go. If you do, I want photos, you hear?! XD
Still can't quite believe I'm going back to campus tomorrow. I want another week at home, dammit, without the working days! It's nice here, and the food is great and my puppy is here, the trees are gorgeous, the air is clean, and Mom and I've got so many books to read and movies to watch....
But I cannot wait to see my friends. :)
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Just now realized that a year ago this week I was in Nara. oO; Specifically, I was at Yoshida-san's house being stuffed with more food than I've ever seen at once in my LIFE. And plum wine.
Shit, I need to finish letter-writing.
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cue dorkish ramble (FLCL)
...So I'm talking on the phone to Sephie last night, and we're watching Family Guy and rambling on, and something (I think it was one of AS's random screens of text) gets us onto their anime lineup. I voiced my desire to see something crazy and on-the-edgeish in the mix, specifically FLCL, because I'm broke and haven't been able to buy cool anime all summer.
What does Adult Swim air, fifteen minutes later? C'mon, guess. XD
I'm a very casual, albeit opinionated, anime fan nowadays (relatively speaking; I don't even watch fansubs anymore unless they literally land in my lap) so up to this point I've only drooled over the production design and some of the ads for FLCL once or twice. So I had no idea what to expect from the show other than a lot of general weirdness, and boy did I get it. My imagination was violently stomped on and tied in knots and I LOVED EVERY SECOND. The quality of movement, the clarity and the energy, left me gibbering ecstatically. Haruko's facial expressions alone gave me fits. Genius! The color palette is responsible for much of my love as well; I live my life in that particular spectrum, dammit. The dub was quite interesting. I can't say whether it's good or bad because I don't have the Japanese track to compare, but I was intrigued (and impressed) by how much they chose to 'leave alone' in regards to the original language and little nuances, like the 'are?' and the honorifics. The cast's pronunciation/enunciation, I guess I'd call it, was very different from anything I've heard before-- more polished, almost I got the feeling they'd tried harder to be authentic somehow, in relation to the original language track. And I'm definitely a fan of the decision to let the ending credits (and sequences) roll unimpeded and unaltered. (The credits for Cyborg 009 gave me a brief moment of wherethefuckamI when the TV Tokyo and Avex logos popped up at the end.)
Best part-- it's airing twice! I can start taping when I get to campus, then go back and tape the first four eps when it begins again. :D This rocks so hard.
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Fun fact:
UNC-G's mascot is Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and patron deity of Athens. The university administration refers to her usually by her Roman name, for some reason. Probably because it sounds more conservative. But the part that makes me shake my head and laugh, every time I see a university sweatshirt? Our sports teams are the Spartans. SPARTANS.
That's our university in a nutshell, really.
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So the PvD concert was cancelled last-minute. Sunday concert happened, Monday concert didn't. Trouble is, it was last-minute enough that we didn't find out until we'd driven down, gotten all glammed up, and walked up to the front door of the club. >_< But what the hell, we got to hang out with friends anyway. Here's hoping the /next/ reschedule actually happens....
I finished Good Omens yesterday at work. Few choice lines were jotted down for future reference. And that last Crowley & Aziraphale scene, on the runway? Effing brilliant. I was storyboarding in my head as I read it. (Happens more and more lately; the animation director's POV is like a fungus taking over my brain.)
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This weekend's felt rather weird, for some reason. Maybe because I just realized that I've got two weeks left before I go back to campus, and it's a bit of a jolt. I've been home for four months! Four weeks longer than I was in Manchester, dammit. It feels like no time at all, which is the insulting bit. I want another four weeks-- I've got too many movies I haven't seen yet!
Went and saw Eve 6 at Bele Cher this afternoon. Surprisingly good concert, especially since it was free. XD Definitely sold on their new CD, too. Consumed carnival food (a must) and people-watched; it was even more interesting this time around, because the highschoolers had got wind of the concert and the little minipunkers and preppies were out in force. Not a breed usually sighted en masse at our hippieriffic street festival. You could tell they don't get out much, since the area right in front of the stage transformed into a teensy version of the first ten rows of any major rock concert. Flying shoes, crowdsurfing (they dropped people, towards the end), flying water-bottles (full) because the band members did it first, and gum. Guess they were feeling creative. All in all, we were happily entertained.
And tomorrow, it's off to Charlotte for Paul van Dyk! I've got to scram so I can get my bag together. And read a bit more of Good Omens before I fall asleep.
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Damn you, you have now irrevocably sucked me into Good Omens fic. My only fear is that there's not much else out there as good as what you just recced. (Thank goodness for the Haru!) I mean... wow, that was so much fun. XD
Guess this means I ought to actually, you know, read the book.
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Nara Women's University Guide for Foreign Students
...Well, damn. *is insanely jealous* THAT would have been a great page to have two years ago... especially the bit about the Japanese language classes not being offered for official course credit, you know? But there's a photo of the classroom in there, and lots more of the other buildings too. Right now I miss our dormitory so much it's hard to breathe. A large part of me wishes there was more I could study there, just to make going back a viable option. Just so I could live in that dorm again.
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current music: Fine Young Cannibals, 'She Drives Me Crazy'
Finally saw Chocolat. It was gorgeous and sweet and Judi Dench rocks my world. Johnny Depp: be still, my heart. What is it with me and guys with ponytails? Roux is such a cool name; now I want an excuse to use it someplace.
I was pretty productive yesterday... read all of Coraline, which was incredible. I can't think of a single person I know who /wouldn't/ like it. Can't think of much to say about it, either, because it was so perfect.
Finished Exile's Honor as well, and the ending didn't suck. [Begin rant] Although it damn near made me gag when they got to the bit about the children at the end... I've figured out why Lackey's writing irritates me so much now. She's so damned smug and preachy. She can't let characters define themselves; she has to describe absolutely everything in narrative form and tell you word for word just why they do what they do and why it's wrong or right. It's insulting, really. And it takes all the fun and creativity out of things. I get the feeling she's actually regressed as she writes more about Valdemar-- what she does works for her fans, and so she never tries to improve upon it. That's the other thing that bothers me. I mean, the dialogue is even getting worse! Her characters no longer use oaths or colloquial phrases tailored to their own world, even. I caught at least four /very/ out-of-place similes and it's probably really nitpicky of me, but her writing stands on very shaky legs as it is, so things like that just leap out more. The syntax was insane (says the queen of endless run-ons, here) and I found myself re-reading sentences more times than I could count, only to find that no, it wasn't me, they really were arranged incorrectly-- or were missing entire phrases. Overall, it was horribly awkward and messy. [end rant]
And yet, for all of that, it wasn't anywhere near so bad as Brightly Burning. Thank heaven. I think the fact that Alberich was the main character had a lot to do with it; he's taciturn and enigmatic, and it was nice to get his background story at last. He's probably the only reason the book didn't turn into a repeat of BB's angst-and-retribution free-for-all. The end of this book actually had me all ready to read the Arrows of the Queen trilogy over again (or at least the first book, since I never did like the other two quite as much) until I remembered I'd sold them.
So now it's on to the Anne Perry mysteries! Murder and intrigue in 1890's London, joy and rapture. XD
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My AnimeNation swag shipped out! And some sooner than the rest, apparently, because Kenshin Kaden came in the mail today. Instant mood reversal, whee! XD No, really. Nothing equals instant joy like shiny new Watsuki art. And I can READ THE TEXT, and the print quality is so much nicer. One must wonder, though, why AN didn't just ship it with the AMG! shirt, since they shipped out so close together... but then, I forget that of which I speak. *sighs* Oh well, next up is that Spitz album, because it's summer and the cicadas are out and hell yes.
Mmmm, messy sketches of Shishio. And the /hands/....
The otouto is buying the same AMG! shirt. I'm so proud, in a twisted evil way.
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Thorne is right, this ficbit is nothing but fluff and will give you cavities-- but after OotP, I think it's just the thing you ought to read, Michael. ;)
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Am starting to get rather irritated with critics giving LXG horrid reviews based on campiness and the cast of characters, as if this was an idea someone cooked up just last year. IT WAS A BLOODY COMIC BOOK. DO SOME RESEARCH.
< / rant >
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I just got hit with the weirdest longing: I miss the funky smell in the stairwell of Cambridge Hall's North Court. So bad it hurts. o_O
Grad school. Will go back for grad school (or work!)
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Saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night. It was all kinds of ridiculous fun. XD I honestly didn't expect to like it beyond drooling over Johnny Depp and cheering on the undead pirates, but I was pleasantly surprised, because it /rocked/. Will go see again, with Mom because she's been dying to see it for weeks and weeks. (And I will never tire of Cap'n Jack Sparrow, never!) Such wonderful, hilarious, gorgeous fun. Made me wish I could have felt the same way about Treasure Island and Peter Pan when I was younger; it seems I lack the girlish enthusiasm my mother has for all things piratical. Doesn't stop me from going all starry-eyed for other reasons, though... *grins* I agree with Sabina-- there's fic potential in spades, even if what gets written isn't necessarily what we want to see. Wish I could offer something of my own, but most of the subject matter is quite outside my sphere, and I doubt I'll have the time to remedy my lack of familiarity with any of it. Although, there is that thick, fascinating book we bought in Beaufort that covers the history of Western piracy during the Colonial period....
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...Damn, I'm starving. I'll have to sneak a snack before bed. And watch some cartoons. Oh, darn. ;p
Mini-vacation was lovely-- very normal-sounding 4th, in that there were fireworks and fried chicken and lots of family members sprawled around, but the devil's in the details. Like my cousin buying and setting off all the fireworks himself, in the cow pasture... and the ten boxes of three-foot sparklers we plowed through... and the insistence of several younger cousins that I entertain them the entire evening, eating or not. Ai-ya, we were all sooty and exhausted and I'm glad we were sleeping elsewhere, for the farmhouse reportedly was hopping until 1 A.M.
Beach time was had, too, which was an unexpected bonus; as well as the consumption of much seafood and Eastern NC barbecue. Played with the poodles (and one boxer who thinks he's poodle-sized, OW) at Bonnie's, and generally relaxed. Verra nice. Now I'm home and goddamn I'm hungry, and I have to work tomorrow. Everything else will have to wait.
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current music: Diana Ross, 'If We Hold On Together'
I'm so full of shit... I slept till noon, then went and hung out with Steph and watched eX-Driver. One episode left, which I'll watch tonight. I adore Kosuke Fujishima-- everything he does is just so incredibly enthusiastic. His style and preferences make things difficult to hold out for anything longer than an OAV series, but it's all good as long as he keeps on doing what he's doing. XD If only eX-Driver was a comic.... Bottom line being, I'm now on an all-out search for merchandise from this series. Speaking of, the shirt I ordered should have been in stock as of May... why is it not available, AnimeNation? Grar.
Next up is Outlaw Star, because the otouto gave me my very own shiny Special Edition boxed set. I think this is the first series I've ever owned in its entirety (commercially, that is). *_* I can finally watch it all in proper chronological order, IN JAPANESE. Oh, the joy.
Must go now... that episode is calling me. Such sweet music it is, too. (Crap, that reminded me... but no, no one will get it but Steph. Maybe the otouto.) Drew, wanna know something cool? Geeky, anyway? The guy who sings a few tracks on the eX-Driver episodes is the same guy who sang so much of the Dragonball Z music-- 'Hikari no Willpower', etc. Name escapes me, it's a mouthful. But it was such a moment of WEIRD.
Really leaving now. Stupid brain.
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current music: Dir en Grey, 'Kasumi'
AAAAARRRRRGH.
I need a good, long yell. But since I'm not in the middle of a field thirty miles from nowhere, this'll have to suffice. >_< Just... too much going on in my head all at once. Eegh.
Tomorrow, will have nice shiny new blog-art. (Bloggart? Wonder what THOSE look like...) And HP rantage. Even ficcing, if I'm lucky. If it's still rainy, actually. Right now I'm too focused on finishing the consolidation of my computer to think of much else. Mom's downstairs watching that Caesar drama on TNT (she said it was a load of cheese and I concurred after about thirty minutes... /yikes/) and everyone else is just loafing about. I've been in a constant Inu Yasha mood for the last week or so, interspersed with the occasional want for Lupin III and Kikaider-- but too tired to stay up to watch any of them. VCR still refusing to acknowledge the existence of its timer. Oy.
Somehow, I think tomorrow will be a good day to start off by watching Labyrinth. O_-; Heaven only knows why.
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current music: Sarah Brightman, 'It's A Beautiful Day' (It's a fine day to see/ but the last day for me/ It's a beautiful day)
Um... Order of the Phoenix spoilers by insinuation? Just to be safe. The really long-winded, semi-pretentious fangirl review won't appear till Steph and I have conferred.
So, I finally finished the beast (OotP) on Monday night, and still stand by my initial response: Somebody should give Remus a hug. And I wanted to give several different characters swift, hard kicks. But mostly, Remus just needs a hug. (Sirius, on the other hand, needed a good thrashing.)
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current music: Travis, 'Driftwood'
Okay, I just had to manually reset the date on this thing. What gives? =_=;
Well, I'm only a bit more than halfway through Order of the Phoenix, and it's a hell of a lot of fun... but I can't surf right now, for fear of stumbling across spoilers. Yarrgh. Less than 48 hours and already everyone's forgotten how spoiler-warnings work. XD
That said, I'm fairly bursting with curiosity over what the fandom's going to look like, once I can surf again. *grins* But I've got more important things in the immediate future-- company comes tomorrow! :D And you're getting ready to leave for Nagoya; I'm soooo envious (also rather envying the fact that you didn't have to work yesterday, and got to read instead!) I hope you have a fantastic time, and I can't wait to hear all about it!
Oh, and the non sequitur for the day is this: Soujiro's English VA. Ye gods and little fishes, THE PAIN. Gone is the smooth, unruffled and polite manner that, IMHO, is one of the foundations of his character. I can quite safely say, his is the most ill-matched, most galling dub voice I've heard since David Moo in Slayers NEXT. I was happily watching the Futae-no-Kiwami episode on CN last Friday (thirty minutes of almost nothing but Sanosuke; who cares if it's dubbed) and had totally forgotten about that teensy little scene at the end-- I actually yelled when I heard Soujiro speak. >_< Wrong, wrong, wrong... but I'll stop now, because I can feel a bitchy rant starting. I've still got the last two Kyoto arc discs; I oughta just shut up and watch them again. (If you've seen Seisouhen already, watch that last episode of the Kyoto arc again... it's like being suckerpunched. But it rocks.)
Um. Yeah. I'll just go read some more, shall I? ^_^;
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Okay, so Steph and I watched the Escaflowne movie today. Lots and lots of pretty, and nice atmosphere, my only major issues were with Hitomi's characterization and Useless Allen (TM)... but by the time it was over, everything else had been wiped out by the image of Dilandau running around in a Speedo. I guess we just weren't in the mood to take /any/ of it seriously (although I have to say it was probably more fun this way). Suddenly I'm put in mind of the Piers Anthony novel 'The Color of Her Panties'... Dilandau-panties! I wonder if they have the same hypnotic powers?
*ahem* I'll go act my age now. Goodnight.
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I HAVE IT! I can't believe I actually FOUND Susumu Hirasawa's Forces from the Berserk OST... it's so 80's-fantasy it /hurts/. Which is, of course, why I like it. XD Pseudo-nostalgic and cool and soooo weird.
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Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with Slayers should check out Gourrigan's Island... the Funky Fruit still incapacitates me with laughter. Don't drink anything while you're on that page, folks. And of course, Zelgadiss On The Couch is worth reading, too, if only because you'll never find anything else quite like it (or Eugene's art) in Slayers fandom, and it's incredibly fun. Too bad ZOTR won't ever be finished, but I had a sinking feeling QoS was writing herself into a hole on that one from ten chapters in, so it's not like there's much difference. It's been what, four years? Yikes.
I guess I really will always be a Slayers fan. XD Oh well. Hooray for dysfunctional fantasy-- and Rui Araizumi's art! (And Rezo, who is still the prettiest.)
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THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER!
*ahem*
...Am waiting for the otouto to vacate the bathroom. I'm fucking TIRED. Watched 'The Importance of Being Earnest' with Mom, totally by accident, and really liked it. (Mostly because I heard her say Judi Dench was in it-- I think I'm going to end up on some kind of quest to see every single movie she's ever been in. And at least one play.)
Why, Yahoo, WHY won't you load the Watsuki goodness?! It must be some kind of plot...
And speaking of Watsuki, I finally got to see the last DVD of the Kyoto arc yesterday. Drew pleaded and I caved, and we stayed up way too late as a result. I think I actually like Shishio, somehow-- he's just cool. He and Yumi were even kind of sweet together. What a switch, na? Of course I love Saitou, I love him to tiny little bits. And at last I see where the Saitou/Sanosuke fangirls get it from-- I don't AGREE with them, but I see where they got it. We watched the dub outtakes on a whim, possibly because I was in an outtake-y mood since Steph and I plowed through those Lunar bloopers, and DAMN. I'm sorry, the dub still sucks, but Shishio's VA has the greatest, lamest sense of humor... I will never be able to watch that final battle with a straight face again. Read, yes-- watch, no. (ESPECIALLY if CN ever gets around to showing it.) And Saitou's VA came back and killed it all with just one line (and I want to say what it was, but that would /so/ spoil the fun, if any of you have the DVDs. Watch the Kyoto arc outtakes. Trust me.) It was so very, very wrong. I like the wrongness, I guess. Of course, the fact that Steph and I couldn't even sit through three episodes of uncut Samurai Troopers--MSTing included-- probably is evidence that we were in very odd moods.
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*Laughing like the geek I am*
...I also hope this makes it onto the RotK DVD. :D~
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I forgot to watch the Tonys tonight. For the first time in seven years. Je suis une dumbass.
I should be in bed, but have been sucked into roaming the net via The Leaky Cauldron in search of random Potterthings. That new Vanity Fair cover's looking pretty tasty... but then Vanity Fair covers are ALWAYS tasty. And according to Amazon.com, the reading level for Order of the Phoenix is 9-12 years. Um. Shouldn't that be 9 and UP? It's always been listed that way, from what I remember from school and libraries.
Don't mind me and my book fetish. I'll be off to bed now, anyway.
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Thorne, just thought you ought to know (if you haven't seen it) about Gollum on the MTV Movie Awards... I was sleep-fuzzed, so memory's not in full sentences, but at one point Gollum started yelling about no one liking him, Andy said 'Dobby likes you' and he yelled 'FUCK DOBBY! DOBBY SUCKS!'
It's safe to say, it was basically your fault that I collapsed with laughter. My friends looked at me strangely after a few minutes and said, 'it wasn't THAT funny.' I didn't bother to enlighten them, as it wouldn't really make the strange looks go away. XD
Had to share. Sleepy now. (Has anybody else seen Berserker? I want to be able to trade silliness about it, but can't. Sad.)
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current music: Anzen Chitai, 'I Love You Kara Hajimeyoh'
Mmm... margarita-flavored coolers go quite well with shrimp creole. (And I felt totally sober until I started to type, dammit. Stupid brain.) It's gorgeous outside yet again, and so I've determined to go out there and do something, even though I'm stuffed from dinner. I somehow got roped into doing yard work last night after we'd eaten (?!), and was hauling branches to the curb while stifling sneezes for two hours. But hey, at least our trees got a trim. And our sweet (old, grumpy) puppy was so excited to have all of us outside in his backyard, he turned into a bouncy yard-dog-- he even grabbed sticks and wanted us to chase him. I love my puppy. :) Right now, he's barking at Dad mowing the lawn.
Even though I'm working four days in a row starting Wednesday, I'm suddenly very much not-bothered by it, because A: Steph's in town again! B: Rene and I are going to have much fun this week! and C: Steph and I are going to have much fun tomorrow! I suddenly have a real social life once more... rock on. XD I have the coolest friends; I'd probably realize this more often if I could just get to see more than one of them at a time.
Time for walkies. I'm in the mood for writing Slayers-fic, for some reason, too... interesting. Hope it lasts long enough to mean something.
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current music: Pool Bit Boys, 'Sound Track'
...Oy. It doesn't make /my/ eyes hurt, at least not yet, and I was so very sick of that shade of blue. XD Anyway. Now that the scanner's hooked up, maybe I'll get to make a real Kenshin pic next. Yum. In the meantime, Misao makes me laugh.
I'm really going to have to break down and order that Spitz Recycle CD as a birthday present to moi-- I'm very much wishing I had taped it when I had the chance, and now that it's summer I'm missing it more than ever. Ken Hirai will have to do for now. Well, Ken Hirai and loads of GLAY. (Gee, what a horrible thing....)
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CONGRATULATIONS, STEPH! :D :D :D For pulling off the double major, and everything that came with it. You rock.
I go sleep now.
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current music: Sarah Brightman, 'Once In A Lifetime'
Yay for Thorne, who somewhat quenched my thirst for humorous (?) Sephiroth-and-Cloud. Less angsty, anyway. :)
Phantom is eating my braaaaaaiiin. Has it really been THAT long since I re-read the whole thing? Yowza. No wonder it feels like a whole different book; I'm practically a whole different person! And for some reason it's even MORE depressing this time around, which is both lovely and horrible. I find myself wishing Susan Kay allowed Erik's morbid humour to show through more often, especially in his conversations with other characters. I get the feeling he's a lot funnier than she lets on, somehow (and that the book in general should have been twice as long as it is-- it's like I'm reading an abridged version of something bigger.) Haven't gotten to Raoul yet. That's fine, because older me or not, I still hate his guts. XD
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current music: 'Phantom of the Opera' soundtrack
...I nearly forgot, I missed Evo last night. Nuts. XD
And another random thing-- the otouto's computer blasting Judy and Mary reminded me that when I got home from England, the first time I tried to put a CD in the Gateway's CDROM drive, I discovered that my 'Fresh' disc was still in the drive. I'd last listened to it in DECEMBER. Guess that tells us how often our parents use the computer for anything besides e-mail.
Got to watch more Outlaw Star last night (yay!), and since the topic came up (heheh) I found myself wondering why I /really/ like Harry. I mean, he's freaky (well, the first time I saw him I yelled and wondered what Val was doing on cable TV, looking like he'd wandered through an Utena set) and /psychotic/. Then Steph said he reminded her of Reno, which very nearly broke my brain. I have to wonder if I like Harry that much, or if I just like the possibilities he presents. I mean, with a character who's that off-his-rocker, you can do all sorts of fun, evil things....
Then there's Fred. I like Fred because he makes me laugh really hard. XD And to top it all off, I've been watching this show for two years and last night was the first time I'd ever gotten to see it in Japanese. Otouto was right, Gilliam is so much more entertaining. It was craaaazy, but since so many of the dub voices sound odd on their characters, it didn't take me long to get used to everyone else either. < fangirl > TOSHIHIKO SEKI, WHEEEEEE! < / fangirl > ...Yeah.
Now off with me, because I have a lot to do before tomorrow.
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OW BRAIN HURTS.
I think a shot of sugar syrup in the arm would have been faster. Wow. *checks for cavities* And the kicker is... that's not the last arc. Oh, noooo. *whimpers* I don't know whether to cheer and clap, or grab my head and yell in sheer disbelief. XD I think I'll settle for giggling hysterically. It's past my bedtime, after all.
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I'm sorry, this was too much to keep to myself. Surfing FF.net, found this fic summary in the Gravitation section: 'Suguru and his bandmates (and Ryuichi) are adopted by Yuki. Clock Tower fusion. Rated for mild murder in later chapters.'
I didn't realize it was possible to be mildly stabbed to death. Guess you really do learn something new every day. XD
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Note to self: Wine and Harry Potter books go well together. I just finished GoF, so I've got a lot of good things to chew on for the next four weeks. FOUR WEEKS! YES! Tack on a couple of days, and it's countdown to the explosion of the established HP online fandom... should I start building a bomb shelter? XD
'Down With Love' really was great. The thing is, you have to keep in mind that it's TOTALLY tongue-in-cheek, because they do such a good job of imitating the real thing that it becomes hard not to think you're meant to take it seriously. At least at first. Then... well, I really do think you all should see the movie. My parents, of course, had a ball with it. And it /was/ hilarious.
Since half a glass of wine and the end of GoF has me in an extremely pensive mood, my brain latched on to the first thing that popped up: traveling. It's really weird, the places I have been and the places I haven't. I've never been outside of the extreme Southeast US, except for a visit to Chicago and various airports. From Baltimore to Orlando to Atlanta to Lexington, KY (and the coast from Elizabeth City down to Kiawah Island)-- that's about it for me, barring Japan and England. Somehow it's always felt like more, and I finally figured out why. I mean, that's a helluva long way to fly... and since I look out the window nearly the entire time, I've seen just about every bit of the journey, wherever I go. The coast of England and Ireland, a bit of the Arctic Circle and Canadian mountains, glaciers; endlessly flat expanses of gridded farmland around the Great Lakes; the undulating line of the Appalachians; the dusty, jagged land en route to L.A.; the Pacific Ocean and the dramatic topography of Honshu, from Hokkaido down to Osaka.... It's not quite the same as having walked the land, but I've seen all that and a decent bit more. It's weird, and I wonder how often people actually grasp it fully, to think about how all those things are the same. They're connected, one mass, one sphere. I've only been around a quarter of it, and it feels so /huge/. How can I not want to see the rest? I want to know what it feels like to understand what connects the East Coast to France, Italy, Egypt, India, Vladivostok, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Okinawa and Alaska.
I think it's out of my system for now, that thought. It's a nice one to have, somehow. Fits really well with the knowledge that I'm just like everyone else, that ordinary people are fundamentally the same, all over the world.
That said, if this turns out as nicely as its animated predecessor, I will be the happiest girl in the world. Is this the Summer Of Literary Joy, or what? :D~
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current music: Escaflowne OST, ’ポケットを空にして’
I had a very listless, scary moment a while ago. Scared myself right out of it, in fact... so now it's time to fix that resume, before I forget AGAIN. And I got an email from one of my flatmates! Happiness. I think all this nasty, evil rain is just starting to affect my mood. It's been horribly, unbelieveably slow at work, and all that time standing around in silence is never a good thing-- and I seriously miss taking walks.
The otouto is going to Animazement this weekend, and I'm a bit envious-- I'm broke, and on top of that there's not really anything I want to DO at Animazement... but that's not the point, the point is I know/know of quite a few people who are going, and it would have been cool to hook up, you know? I haven't gotten to be properly fangirlish in a group in /ages/, and it would be a nice, refreshing change. Squealing without recrimination! XD But I have requested loot of the Inu Yasha persuasion, so hopefully that will pan out.
Things are slowly getting back on track at the ficblog, and I just remembered something I came up with last night so I better chuck it up before I lose it for good.
*grins* Something about listening to Gackt with a really nice pair of headphones is just so much better than computer speakers... I was reminded why the man makes me weak in the knees, really. It shouldn't be possible for a human voice to be that yummy. Of course, Escaflowne's 'Yakusoku wa Iranai' still gives me shivers every single time I hear it, too. Mmmmmm. Oh! ('Scuse me, I'm just full of random shit today) Last night I stumbled across Lupin III on CN, because Drew and I hung around to watch Inu Yasha. Hot DAMN, I'm still surprised by just /how/ cool that show is. I cringe at the animation in the first few minutes, then I laugh, then it's all violently defenestrated the instant Goemon and Jigen show up. Or Fujiko tosses her head a certain way. That show just has /class/. It's unexpected, but it's there if you pay attention, even in the animation (and the dub's really quite nice, if you can get past Zenigata's voice.) Lovely, lovely and soooo funny. Just the thing to watch on a nasty day like this, for sure.
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current music: GLAY, 'Fatsounds'
I just received a long, detailed e-mail from Naini. That's the fastest response I've ever gotten from her! It's very hard to think of anything that could possibly be better than this letter right now. It's the next best thing to being in the same room with her. :) Happy... oh so very happy.
...And in the same breath, what's up with credit transactions from LONDON showing up on this month's bill? Geez, how slow can we get? On the same day as my last MMU phone bill, too, so it has to be paid first. Garn. Oh well, it's all doable. Just no nights out for me for two months! Plenty of time to catch up on reading and letter-writing, now....
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current music: Atomic Kitten, 'Tide Is High'
Dude. I can't believe GW Addiction is still up-- moreover, it's better-organized and updated almost daily. A couple of hours here, and I'm gonna be right back in the mood for some Maguanac action. XD Good thing I kept that mecha book....
I dreamed last night that I snuck (yes, snuck) back to Japan for three days to stay with my friends, and then my parents showed up, and Japan looked strangely like the center of Manchester... it was a fun dream. And if I want any of it to be real, I better get my lazy ass in gear and write my resume.
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Lazy minions? ...Man, what is it about stairs? XD I, of course, would just fly everywhere.
Just got back from TCBY with Rene. Full of sundaes and Chick-Fil-A fries (hey, it was next door and the yakisoba for dinner didn't go around quite so well this time), and getting sleepy. Beer, then book or Inu Yasha, then bed. :)
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Happy birthday to ME, baby!
Dude, I remember reading this when I was in elementary school. I found it re-published when I was ten, and the sequel with it but never got to buy it. Now I've still not read the others, but I remember every single image that book left in my imagination, right down to the shiny wyvern caves. At last, it will be MINE! (But... no more Michael Hague cover...)
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current music: Hikaru Utada, 'Colors' (damn, but this song rocks)
Dude. I'm gonna be sorry I stayed up so late tonight... but I couldn't tear myself away from this one: Transfigurations is neck-and-neck with 'Lust Over Pendle' for best Potterfic I've ever read. And it /is/ the best one that's managed to keep Harry as the main character, that's for sure. Long and lovely and really damned convincing (if not in terms of characterization, then certainly in detail). My only quibble is that I wanted more conversation out of Snape, but it probably would have thrown things off a bit. Still. I always want more Snape. This monster had me chewing on my knuckles, grinning like an idiot, and even going a bit sniffly once or twice.
The even more amazing part is that I simply don't like Harry/Draco fics. Still not entirely sure why this one broke the mold, although I'm betting a lot of it had to do with the massively less-than-canon characterization. However, it was consistent and enjoyable, so it wasn't a bother. And the ending was fun, and so were the Weasleys and the wonderfully detailed magical workings. Especially those, actually.
Sessha is babbling. Off to bed and my copy of GoF, I am.
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current music: lots of Enya
I used my new teapot today! Michael and I had a blast this weekend; we even got to have French toast for breakfast on Sunday. (That doesn't happen very often 'round here.) I'm getting desperate for some good Japanese munchies to go with the tea, though.
The ficblog's getting lame; I'm planning on rectifying that tonight by unearthing my notebook and typing in a few pages. So the recs I've got will just have to live here instead, because they're all OVER the place:
The Revenge of Lord Vodkamort is one of the funniest things I've read in ages. Short, and I kinda wished that the ending had incorporated more of the running gags... but I still nearly killed myself with the hiccups, I laughed so hard.
"We'll share a house," Harry had said. "It'll be fun. What can possibly go wrong?"
As far as famous last words went, Hermione thought, they weren't quite up there with, "Don't worry, boys, there's no way this idiot knows the Killing Cur---"
But they came close.
I'm still howling. (The carnivorous wardrobe was a definite highlight.) XD I'm also tempted to create a mixed drink and christen it 'Lord Vodkamort'-- it would, of course, contain vodka, and preferably be bright green in color, but could also have gummy worms draped over the lip of the glass.... I'd make you one for your birthday, Sephie, but I know you'd give me a nasty look and refuse to drink it.
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current music: Enya, 'China Roses'
This was sent to me in an email, and promptly freaked me out (because, well, it wouldn't be on the news, now, would it?) I'm not sure how much good the online petition will be, but I'm definitely sending a direct e-mail, possibly writing a letter. Because allowing ANYone to control that much of our media coverage is just. damned. WRONG. I can't believe no one over there re-read the statement 'The rules at issue limit, among other things, a single corporation ... from controlling more than 35% of all TV households in the nation' and thought, even for a second, that it sounded just a /wee/ bit scary.
Good lord. I mean, ouch, man.
AOL/Time Warner, anyone? (I mean, if AOL can suck monkey-butt and still rule half the planet, what does that say about the rest of these contenders?) Sheeeeit. Now I'm just mad. What sucks the most, you know, is that even in all my spitefulness, I can't just avoid stuff like this by moving to another country-- I'd still encounter the same corporate properties every single day. That's what's so frustrtating. *Sigh* I guess I'll just go live in a cave somewhere.
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I caved. I got a livejournal. Mostly so that I could make a cracking LONG friends list (which I will add to later, when I have time to surf again). No longer will I be Anonymous when I comment on your entries!
Inu Yasha has, true to the otouto's prediction, started from episode one. I wanted to scream. But I'd never seen that one dubbed, and it was nice. I really, really like the Inu Yasha dub. But that's for later. Now I've got to fix some dinner so Dad and I can watch Catch Me If You Can. And clean my room some more. Argh.
Random Aside: I've been scouring MyTheme.com for fun IM icons (as if I didn't have a gazillion already), and I've got some real howlers. (Well, maybe just to Sephie...) Still, good fun.
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current music: Nanci Griffith, 'Late Night Grande Hotel'
Well, the computer has finally decided to load images properly once more, so I got to read the tail-end of The Devil and Miss Jinks.
*worships N* You rock. Deb's 'holy shit' face made me laugh out loud. :) I'm gonna miss those guys. And good luck with What Comes Next!
Now, to clean and make a snack.
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current music: the sound of silence (no, literally)
...It's way past my bedtime, and if I'd done what I ought and gone to bed two hours ago, I wouldn't have oversurfed and now be sitting here, desperately needing to talk to certain people who aren't online. One rarely is, the other I'm doubting I'll ever find again, since I'm betting she's changed her screen name. And never responded to any other attempts at communication, snailmail or otherwise.
I mean, I just want a /reason/. I don't even know if there is one, or if I did something I'm not aware of. No one else is forthcoming, so I'm guessing there's been zero discussion of the matter... and that makes me even more hurt and sad about it all. When someone you've had an ongoing exchange with for nearly four years just decides to forget you exist, without so much as a 'go away', it's rather frustrating. And disturbing, because I still consider the other person an immediate friend and valued our conversations, and I fear that it's been a one-sided thing for several months now. I don't want to believe that it's that easy to just erase someone from your world; it makes me feel tired and queasy.
*Sigh* I'm going to bed. I hope I can find someone relevant to talk to about this soon, before it eats up more of me than is appropriate. I'd email, but I don't trust my coherence at this hour.
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current music: Do As Infinity, 'Fukai Mori'
Quick note to self and Twig: the bit concerning Rufus, Turks and Nibelheim-aftermath sounds fun. Must find the rest of my notes (somewhere under the six inches of computer debris and clothing covering my floor).
I'll be good and put most of my babbling where it belongs today, but first there's this bit of joy: I was in Suncoast two weeks ago, buying the Spirited Away DVD, and the guy who rang me up was really chatty (about anime, of course. One drawback to that being the only thing Steph and I buy in there-- they always want to run off at the mouth about stuff we've SO heard before.) I was done with my purchase, and took a second to flip through an issue of Jump, because I hadn't gotten to see the English version yet. He noticed, and started telling me about this promo Newtype's doing with the franchise-- sign up to get two free issues of Newtype USA. Okay, that sounded nice... so I wrote down my name and address for that one. Took a copy of the little postcard, out of habit. Turns out that was a GOOD THING, because upon getting back to the house, I read the fine print and discover that I had just authorized Newtype USA to charge an entire subscription to my card.
Okay, having to mail in a card after getting your free issues and telling them to cancel your bill is one thing, but to CHARGE IT TO YOUR CREDIT CARD WITHOUT ANY FOREWARNING is something else entirely. What the fuck happened to bills by MAIL? And I had used my /debit/ card, so Newtype just used the number they got from Suncoast's computer-- they didn't give me a choice. It's a damn good thing there was money in my checking account, because if I had discovered a thirty-dollar overdraft due to some transaction I hadn't even known I'd apparently AUTHORIZED, I would have-- well, there would be blood involved. Not my own. As it is, I really want to call them up and give them hell for false advertising and gross misuse of customer information (because they didn't TELL ME they'd be giving my card info to another vendor, essentially, and giving said vendor the right to use it without my knowledge at a specific point in time). On the other hand, that's not really as easy as it sounds, because Suncoast isn't the company that is responsible (except where that idiot sales clerk is concerned, and we all know how likely it is I'd never even find out the guy's name if I called them)-- it's Newtype I need to deal with. Although, I still ought to call /them/ up and see if they'll credit my account back, since I haven't yet gotten an issue of their magazine in the mail....
Fuckers. I mean, I work in retail, too, and I hate being one of the bitchy customers that plague every cashier's existence, but DAMMIT if you're promoting a special offer, YOU MUST GET THE SPECIFICS RIGHT when you pitch it to a customer. That's one of the easiest ways to get into really deep shit, even when you /do/ explain things properly. Next time I go in there, if that offer is still running, I /am/ going to have a little chat with whoever's behind the counter, about how the damn thing's being advertised.
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...I am absolutely blitzed on awesome cartoonage. :D~
< fangirl >
First, Justice League: *cackles* Flash being Flash, and, well, Batman is just too great for words. Heee. Um. X-Men Evo: BEAST! And Pupp--er, Nightcrawler, but mostly BEAST! DAAA~
But oh, Inu Yasha just finished. (Hey, cut me some slack, I've been a lazy fan for quite some time, not to mention being out of the country...) It's finally reached the point where I started watching the show in Japan, thank heavens. Just a few episodes more and it'll be familiar territory. This one, though... DAMN. >D I never thought I'd melt into goo over Inu Yasha and Kikyou together. (And is Scott McNeil Naraku's VA? It really sounded like him... too lazy to freeze the credits...) I wonder what it means, that my favorite IY moments are the ones that involve Inu Yasha getting stomped on or otherwise flattened by Kagome or Miroku (or anyone else). *cackles*
It's late, I'm exhausted and I know not what I say. Oh, what the heck.
...BEAST! :D :D :D
< / fangirl >
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One thing I never, ever even /thought/ to look for, not even on the most desperate of days, is Outlaw Star fanfiction. And yet I've managed to occasionally stumble across an author or two who write lots of OS, and writes it /well/.
Too bad I can't find them right now. I guess I've got bookmarks on the Mac. ^_^; Same goes for the Kenshin goodness... why must nine out of ten really awesome RK fics be slashy? It's just... for the sake of a /challenge/, at this point (which is silly, if you think about it, it's CANON) I'd like to see someone write a RK epic that's ALL canon pairings. There'd still be slash, but then at least it wouldn't be Sano and Saitou. Or Kenshin and whoever. *sighs* I mean, why mess with something that good to begin with? I guess that's why it irks me-- I'm just too fond of the actual storyline to want much of anything that deviates. Surprise, surprise.
Same goes for OS. But then, Harry and Fred are a trip and a half, all by themselves. You don't NEED to make shit up.
Man, just watch-- I'm gonna have some really fucked-up dreams tonight.
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This really belongs on the ficblog, but I just can't be bothered. *lazy*
I stuck a toe into the Pit of Voles in hopes of finding a decent WK fic or two (hey, it's been four months), and found On the Outside instead. Really fun Gravitation fic-- Tatsuha's POV, starts with him dropping in on Yuki for a few weeks' stay. I'm still on the first chapter, and it's already got me wanting to pull quotes:
"Rule number one."
Rules? Shit.
"Don't bring any of your girlfriends here."
Okay, I can understand that. High school girls make the vein in Eiri's forehead pop out like mad. It cracks me up. 'course, he fails to see the humor about it. I think he still holds it against me the time I brought home about fifty high school girls when I accidentally let it slip that Yuki Eiri, the Yuki Eiri, was at my house.
"Got it. No girls."
He pointed to his stereo. "Nittle Grasper never goes into that."
"What? That's totally unfair! I bet you let Shuuichi listen to them."
"Yes. But the combination of you and him and Nittle Grasper is enough to make anyone want to commit suicide."
Oh. Right. We do get a little ... uh... overenthusiastic?
*grins* Tatsuha's chatty narrative is a nice change. Feels a lot like the way I write first-person, actually. I guess I'm a bit biased, in that case. ^_^;
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Okay... for a second it felt like I was reading my own journal, through someone else's eyes. Why stuff like this happens almost every time I LJ-surf, I don't know. But it's kinda cool. XD
Because it sounded familiar, I grabbed my trusty jisho... 'kare wa ore no emono' means (literally, that is) 'he is my game' or 'he is my catch'. Implying, of course, that Subaru is Seishirou's prey and therefore no one else can touch him. *grins*
Now for the clone-entry: I watched Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi last night. Dubbed, on purpose, because I was dying to hear it. It did not disappoint! I really must have understood more than I realized at the time, because almost every line of dialogue was familiar. I actually didn't notice that it wasn't in Japanese, except for Lin's voice (my memory of her voice was drastically different, which was the only reason I noticed). God, I adore that falling scene at the end. It makes my heart leap. I felt like my imagination had been washed clean and fresh, after the movie ended. I want to watch it again, too-- I couldn't get the scenes out of my head today at work.
I talked to a friend on MSN IM last night, someone I haven't seen in ages, and realized just how horrid my Japanese has become. Not the grammar, that was shit from the get-go (and now it's worse), but my reading and my accent. My accent! My lovely accent is GONE and I sound like an American again! I want to cry. I need a speaking partner, and fast. The worst thing is, Mel's in the same boat, so we can't help each other anymore. ;_; *echoes Bridget* Dareka tasukete....
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