Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Etiquette Hell
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On Thursday, June 12, 2003 at 08:13 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

So I'd like to tell you guys about looking for a house or something similar to rent. I'll start with one I've already mentioned, the pink one with plants growing on the roof. We didn't actually look on this inside of this duplex. Driving by was enough to convince us that we would not be staying there. I think we laughed as we kept right on going.

Now, to make sure that I hadn't been imagining it, I went and looked at the picture the realtor had on-line. In the picture the duplex looks pale beige and the plants are partially obscured by branches from pine trees. I think maybe they greyed the picture a bit to make the color less obnoxious. Then I took a closer look at the picture. On and around the door of this particular place were three pieces of paper. It took me a moment but I finally figured out what these sheets of paper were. Eviction notices! Ah, nothing says class like putting a picture of your property up on the web with eviction notices for the previous tenents in full display.

There was another house we saw an ad for, and called the realtor about. For this one, we didn't even make it out to see the house. My roomie was talking to the realtor. The realtor told her that this place had no central air but it had wiring (!). The words used to describe it were a rustic, isolated cottage. This translates to small dump where no one can hear you scream.. He also mentioned that the house across the street had been boarded up and would soon be torn down, oh and by the way, it's near a hospital. Somehow, that didn't comfort me.

Now we get to the houses we actually looked at. One was a small house behind another house. The price was a little high, but we figured we'd look at it. As soon as we saw it, this house was dubbed the gnome house. When the realtor said it was small, he was not lying. This thing was tiny! It also had a pointy, silver pipe coming out of the top of it's pointy roof. The welcome map was covered in moss and bushes and vines grew up around it. It really did look like a gnome house from the outside. The inside was relatively clean though the only place large enough to put the washer and dryer was in the kitchen. Next...

The second place we looked at was a dump. For one thing, the front yard held a large green sofa with a "Free sofa" sign on it. This thing smelled. Then the yard looked like someone had just clipped everything only a few days earlier. This included grass, weeds, and briars. Most of the yard seemed to consist of briars except for the two large tree stumps to either side of the concrete driveway. The concrete driveway was broken up by the tree roots, so pieces of it were six inches above the other pieces. The car couldn't even drive on parts of it. You couldn't turn around very well, meaning that in order to get out of the apartment you would need to back the car out onto a busy highway. Truly a traffic accident waiting to happen.

Next came the inside of the house. There was a window from the kitchen to the living room. I mean an actual window with shutters and a sill. There was also a porch light sticking out of the wall, and no way to turn it on. The washer was inside the house. The dryer was outside on the back porch. While we were back there the neighbor's dog barked the whole time. The fence between the two yards was a half-ass chainlink fence that was attached to the posts with bailing wire. One good lunge, say after a cat, and that dog was coming through that fence.

The paint job sucked. The carpeting sucked. The entire place sucked. Needless to say, no.

Finally, tonight, we found the townhouse we liked. It's nice. It's really not that much more than what we're paying for now. Each bedroom has its own seperate bathroom. The kitchen is huge, and it has washer/dryer hook-ups. My only problem is the wallpaper in the kitchen. This is not subtle wallpaper. This is the kind of wallpaper that violates your eyes everytime you look at it. It's dark red with beige and blue flowers all over it. This lovely ensemble is completed by the dark green border which DOESN'T MATCH ONE SINGLE COLOR in the rest of the wall paper. Otherwise, it's great.

God, I hope the owner lets us redecorate.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Utena Thumbnail Theater
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On Monday, June 9, 2003 at 06:59 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

It's is another thrilling installment of those wacky referrers! Where Tsaiko goes through her file of really crazy links from search engines and we all wonder "What the Heck were these people thinking?" Let's see what the grab bag has in store for us this time.

BTW, if I find out you are entering these things, I will hunt you down and do horrible, horrible things to you. I'll even borrow my roomie's crowbar to do it. Just to let you know.

dance step to the word cold in japanese: For one thing, I don't even know what the Japanese word for cold is. For another, there's a dance step to a single word? Will the wonders never cease.

animated bowing smileys: How the heck do smileys bow? Do they bend at the nose? The mouth? The eyes? The world may never know...

the lord of the dance yaoi pictures: One has to wonder what the pairing would be?

Manager penis beta honey mother: Okay. What do you say with a hit like this? I hope you found what you were looking for far, far away from my pitas page. I can't even begind to imagine what compelled someone to type this into a search engine. What did they do? Type random works into Yahoo!Search to see what would come up?

I want to know who are the female scientists so i can do a sciene female report: Well first off, I suggest you learn proper English and how to create a complete, logical sentences before you learn science. I also suggest you learn how to use a search engine properly. You need to use "key words" instead of complete sentences, because with what you're typing, you'll just get a bunch of pages that have nothing to do with what you're looking for.

what plains only celibate and do on certain holidays: I have no idea what you are even asking.

Are there any oriental people who's last names begin with a Z": Yes. Zhao, Zhang, Zee, Zhu, Zeng, Zou, Zheng, Zhong to name just a few.

Iraq Marshmellows: What? Our US marshmellows aren't good enough for you?

Doujinshi Balrog: Oh god, I hope they're not yaoi DJ's. Crap. MENTAL IMAGES!

"spell masturbation correctly": Congrats! You succeeded. In the future, might I suggest Dictionary.com?

gay strep throat: Gay strep throat? I'm sorry, but there's not a variety that is just for gays. Geeze...

unknown facts about yu yu hakusho characters: Okay, if what you're looking for are "unknown" fact then why do you think you'll find them on the internet? After all, wouldn't they then be known facts. Maybe you should think about that. But not too hard. You might hurt yourself.

nubile hotdog: Ah, those nubile young hotdogs. Tempting you with their mustard and shiny brown skin, there layers of relish and those plump buns. Beware the nubile hotdogs. Don't let them tempt you to sin!

finding nemo lemon fanfics: YOU! Out of the gene pool!

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: http://www.geocities.com/lunamurphy/azumanga_maneki_neko.jpg
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On Sunday, June 8, 2003 at 04:14 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

You may need to cut and paste the link since it's on geocities. It's Azumanga Daioh waving kitties!

My roomie and I are thinking of moving into a house when our lease comes this fall. We want washer/dryers and a place that will let us paint and decorate and plant green growing things. Which our apartment won't. From what we've been looking at, it seems we can find a place with comparable rent. We've looked at various places. Some are nice, some aren't. One lovely place was pink and had plants growing on the roof. Not seedlings: actual bushy plants. Needless to say that got scratched from the list.

That's what we've been doing all weekend. Nothing interesting at all. And now, we've got to look at another place. Until later.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: the United States of America v. One Stuffed Great Gray Owl.
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On Friday, June 6, 2003 at 02:00 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

In the great tradition of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, I have once again managed to put my foot in my mouth. I will be writing an apology when I get home. One of these days I will learn to think before I write something so that I don't have to feel like a heel afterwards. But obviously, today is not that day. I would say more on this, but I promised myself I would give myself I would not think about it so I could get through work. For someone who writes so well, words can fail me at the most inopportune time.

In a completely different tangent, why do all crackers taste like crap after I eat just two of them? It doesn't matter how much I like the first cracker, after the second cracker I feel like I can't choke back one more without being sick. Inevitably, these crackers come in packs of 6-8. Which is between 4-6 more crackers than I feel like I can eat. It doesn't matter what kind of crackers they are: Saltines, peanut butter, cheese, whatever.

This is really bad because a lot of time when I need to eat, that's what people try to hand me. I don't want to be rude or demanding by telling them "Oh please god, no crackers!" when I'm trying not to to pass out. At the same time, I can't stand them. I need to start bringing grapes or an apple or some piece of fruit to work.

One of my wisdom teeth is cutting through again. Lovely. Now, in addition to it seemingly like the clock is ticking backwards (I swear everytime I look the time is earlier than when I last looked. Will this day never end?), I am in low level pain. And the radio station is playing Rueben's song. Then it'll play Clay's song. I have nothing against Rueben or Clay, but if I hear one more thing about American Idol I'm going to drop kick this radio out the third story window. I didn't care when American Idol was going on, and guess what? I don't care now.

Why can't the English language contain a gender neutral pronoun? We need one. I hate having to guess at someone's gender when I've met them over the internet. If they wanted me to know, they'll tell me and all will be good. If they don't want me to know, then it bothers me that I have to assign one to them in order to carry on a conversation about them. This is especially true when I then find out that I've assumed wrong and have to correct myself. It's very hard to change my speach/though patterns once something has become entrenched in it, not to mention embarrassing when I get called on it.

I've had some people suggest using "it." I'm sorry, but you use "it" when referring to inanimate objects. You don't use it to refer to living things. In the same way I refuse to call nueter/spayed animals by "it" I refuse to call someone of an unknown gender "it." It's rude. I've also had people suggest using "shim" which is a combination of "she and him." I don't think so. Using someone's name all the time or a qualifier like "the person in black" just makes for some really awkward reading/listening. Which leaves me frustrated and struggling for the right pronoun. Sigh.

Strangely enough, I feel a little bit better now. Writing always does that to me. My only problem is I almost never feel like writing when I'm in one of these moods, and when I do feel like writing I can't because of various other things (like work) get in the way.

Three more hours to go. Can this day get any longer?

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Heads Up Users of Cafepress.com's Services!
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On Wednesday, June 4, 2003 at 01:05 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Anyone else having flashbacks to Geocities ToS change a few years back? If I remember correctly, they had so many people leave that Geocities/Yahoo! changed some of the stuff back. I wonder if CafePress will do the same? I'm kind of disappointed because I was planning on doing some T-shirts through them with the new scanner. Oh well. Such is life.

Either the Spammer's are getting better or I'm getting enough traffic to warrant attention on someone's part. In the past week I have recieved two emails about linking or participating in sites which just by the words, let me know that they never even looked/read any of my stuff. One if a paleontology site, the other a gaming site.

The Paleontology site basically says he has looked at my page (and has linked to one of my rants about bad paleontology stuff on Discovery) and thinks it would be a good match for a link from his site. The site in question is paleontology resource page with books, mailing lists, and other helpful paleontology resources on it. Personally, I think they plugged "paleontology" into a searh engine, harvested the sites that came up, and then emailed them about this. I'll link to this guy, but somehow I doubt the people who visit this site will want to wander onto my journal and read about gay sex in fanfics.

The other interesting piece of spam is from a message board for gamers. Now the email says that I was found via my fanfiction on FF.Net and that after reading my fanfics I was personally invited to join the message board. The only problem is I have absolutely no fanfics about any kind of console or computer game up there. None. Zip. And while I do enjoy RPG's and computer games, there's no way for this guy to know this by reading my fanfics. So once again, while I don't mind sharing a link, I don't think I'll join. I am not much of a message board person anyway. Thanks, but no thanks.

Again, within the past week (why am I attracting these people lately?) I recieved an email from a person asking for an LJ code. They claim to be really entertained by my LJ, but then in the process of the email call me "man," "dude," and "mate." Normally, I'd be more than happy to give out a code or two. However, I'd prefer it be to someone who I actually know or, at the very least, know something about. So if the person who emailed me (you know who you are if you're actually reading this like you claim) could kindly send a little more info. on themselves to me, I'll look it over and consider it. Otherwise I'm afraid you'll have to look somewhere else.

And now, a bit of good news. As some of you may or may not know, I have a real hard time getting any kind of feedback on my fics. Part of this is my fault. While I do write a lot, it takes me quite some time to actually finish something. I work on stuff when I feel like working on it. Consequently, I start a lot of stuff and never finish it and thus never post it. However, some it I simply don't understand. I'll send stuff to mailing lists and never hear anything back. Not a peep. I usually chalk it up to me not being very well known, and move on. It still bothers me though.

Recently, I posted a peice of... something, a fragment of a Digimon story that I still don't know where it's going, to my LJ. I got feedback from at least three authors I respect in the Digimon fandom and someone who I know doesn't read Digimon pointing out some flaws. Talk about making my day. Even if they were doing just to be nice, I appriecate it. I think this is the first time I've gotten so much immediate feedback for something (as opposed to FF.Net where I get a comment every couple of months or so). Given the fickle nature of my writing I don't know if it'll happen again, but it's still nice.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Days of the Week
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On Tuesday, June 3, 2003 at 06:46 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I love this site. I was looking for something exactly like this a couple of months ago. I wanted a way of plugging in a date and finding out what day of the week it fell on. They even have the little saying and picture for each day of the week. For those who care, I'm a Thursday child. I have far to go.

In the boring world of mundanity, my apartment is now clean. Nothing like guilt at having a couple of people over when the apartment look like a pigsty to get me cleaning. The carpet is vacuumed. Stuff is more organized. Life is good. Although the cats were giving me odd looks when I started cleaning. They're not use to me actually doing it. That alone should tell you how much I love the job (bleck).

While I was cleaning a show came on the Discovery Channel. Now as most of the people who have been reading this for awhile know, I am a big Discovery Channel/Animal Planet person. That doesn't mean I agree with them. Heck, a lot of times I wind up ranting and raving at the screen with some of the misinformation they put on it, but that doesn't stop me from watching it. Since nothing else was on TV on Sunday I switched it to Discovery. What did I find starting? Why a program on a haunted house! Let's watch.

Now I should really know better than to watch these things. Sometimes, they're not that bad. I'll watched them, be entertained by them, sometims be amused by them, but they remain just fairly entertaining programs. Then there are the other kind of paranormal programs. The ones that use camera tricks and music and special effects and scenery and mood in order not the just inform you about the events that happened in a haunting but also to creep the ever-loving shit out of you. This unfortunately was one of those programs. And since I'm sensitive and paranoid about paranormal stuff to begin with, these programs usually wind up freaking me out.

Which was where I was Sunday, all creeped out and trying to not be creeped out by cleaning. I couldn't just stop watching the program. I know from experience that if I don't find out what happened to the people, my mind will create all sorts of possibilities that will be even worse than what actually happened. This meant I had to watch it till the end and promise myself that I would so something between when the program ended and bedtime to distract my mind. Otherwise, I'll never be able to sleep.

I might as well not have bothered to make that promise to myself. The program killed any creepiness it could possibly contain all by itself. Let me explain.The family that was living in the house that use to be a morgue and was haunted by an evil spirit had an eldest son. The whole reason they moved into the house was because the eldest boy was recieving cancer treatments at a near-by hospital. Eventually, the evil spirit of the house "possessed" the eldest son (who was about 14 or so) and caused the following changes in him.

He started spending more time in his room listening to loud rock music. He demanded that he have a room all to himself and wanted his younger brother to move to a room upstairs. He started fighting with his father about what he could and couldn't do in the house and whenever they fought, he retreated to his room afterwards. He started writing angsty poetry. He argued with his mom. He began to wear dark clothing and became more bitter and angry towards the world.

Tsaiko: Holy cow! He's been possessed by the demon known as puberty!

Needless to say, I could not take the show seriously any more. I laughed at it. I cracked jokes at it. I made complete and utter fun of it. I mean, come on. I agree that some of the other stuff the show mentioned was frightening and I would have ditched the house because of it long before this family did. But what was happening to the kid? I'm not so sure about that.

But I could be wrong. Who ever heard of teenagers arguing with their parents or listening to loud music, wearing dark clothing or wanting to be alone? Perhaps puberty is all just an illusion. It's really demonic possession. I've discovered the truth!

Yeah right.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Screentone Tutorial
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On Monday, June 2, 2003 at 07:03 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I am lazy, lazy. So if you want to be entertained, go to my LJ and read the Digimon fragment I just posted. Comments and suggestions of where to take this are appreciated. And now, I shall entertain myself with the WWW.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Honda's New Accord Ad
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On Sunday, June 1, 2003 at 08:54 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Who has a new scanner? I HAVE A NEW SCANNER! Well, actually, my roomie has a new scanner since she wants to scan her DJ collection to share. I plan on scanning and drawing now. Since my biggest stopping point for drawing was that I couldn't show it to anyone. I write for myself and not neccessarily others, I draw for other people. I have a scanner. I can try and draw again. WHEEEEEEEE!

I finally went and saw the Matrix:Reloaded last night. Oh lord, that was the most self absorbed, pretensious movie I have ever seen in my entire life. The only good parts were the random bits of humor. Everything else just made me have flash backs to self-important novels from my HS English class. I had been warned about the ending. Even knowing what was coming, it still sucked.

I had not been warned about the giant rave/orgy part inspersed with scenes of Trinity and Neo. They love each other. I get it. You don't need to BEAT IT INTO MY HEAD with the scenes of naked skin to make me understand that. And I will agree with someone else's complaint about that movie. The fightscenes were not written to fit in the plot, the plot was written to fit in the fightscenes. They were cool but they were so obviously just slapped in there to show off the special effects.

In other words, I was not impressed. I'll probably see the last movie just to say I've seen the last movie. I wish I had gone to see "Holes" or some other movie. Maybe "Finding Nemo." Is that out yet? I hope so.

I would like to give Comedy Central mad props for playing Dogma at 9:00am on Sunday morning. That is all. Time to go eat before I pass out.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Chileans report new dinosaur species
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On Friday, May 30, 2003 at 01:04 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

So it appears that my idea for a fanfic panel is a big hit based on the number of comments I've gotten in my LJ and over AIM. Twig suggested starting the panel off with the question that everyone loves to answer "What is your biggest pet peeve in fanfiction?" and then letting it go from there. My only concern with that is the lack of control. I like control, and I'd rather people learned something from the panel (kind of like the Origami panel or the cel painting panel) rather than make it into a gripe session.

Of course, the best would be if it were an interactive demonstration panel. But really, how do you interactively demonstrate writing? "And now, per the audience's suggestions I shall type out a romantic interlude between Relena and Duo compelete with flowers and candles while making it completely in character. Everyone watch the screen as I perform MAGIC!" Somehow I don't think so. I'm good but I ain't that good.

Found the picture of me on the first day of the con, before I upgraded to a better sign and a seat at the TAAS table. In case you can't read it, the sign says "It costs $1 to ask me what I'm writing, unless you want to discuss YAOI!" Not the best picture of me, but okay. I know others exist. I had to have gotten my picture taken at least a dozen times. To see more Animazement pictures, go here. If you spot any other pictures of me from Animazement 2003 on the web, let me know.

And now, to entertain myself since I can't enter anything into the system because it's end of the month. Looks like I'll be working some more on the fic set in Sugah's universe. Until later.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Reading Rainbow fights for survival
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On Thursday, May 29, 2003 at 02:37 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I think I have officially gone insane. I am considering doing a panel next year during Animazement on fanfiction. Someone asked me about it during Animazement, along with two other people who asked about a yaoi panel. The only thing about doing a yaoi panel is that I know it would get scheduled at like 11:00pm at night. This is about two hours after I normally go to bed (night owl I am not). I do not need to be tired drunk and talking about yaoi. Things would get way too interesting if I did.

But a fanfiction panel... that I could do. I'm good and explaing faults in writing. I've been kind of brainstorming about it already. Jotting down notes and ideas for it in my notebook. After some wondering if I could talk about fanfiction for an hour (which is the standard length of panels), I think the answer is yes. Could I make in interesting? I'd like to beleive so. Especially if I did a panel on how to improve fanfiction and what common problems to look for in your own writing.

There's only two problems with this. 1) I have been to a grand total of four panels and two of those were the first year Animazement was held in 1998, and the other two were the next year. In other words, I have no idea how to run or even where to begin to run a panel. Of course, I could always ask people what the best panel they've ever been to was like. Do an impromptu sruvey in my LJ or something. I could take some notes, maybe even attend another con (though not Otakon because that is way too close to the beginning of school) and go to some panels. That problem is fixable.

2) I do not do public speaking well. Ever. I have gotten better at it over time, but I still get so nervous that I get physically sick ebfore speaking. Sometimes that goes away once I'm up there. Other times it doesn't and I wind up shaking the whole way through. Either way, by the end of it I wind up crying, passed out, or throwing up. Let me tell you, the public speaking class I had to pass for my major and any project in school were not fun things for me. Any wonder why I don't like to speak in public?

On the plus side, the more informal the gathering is the better I do. I suck at having to give speeches, am okay at teaching, but do remarkably well when I start to speak and then gather an audience. So as long as I could convince myself that I wasn't actually speaking in front of all those people, that I was in fact just informall speaking to a large group, I might be able to pull it off. It also helps that I would know that the people there would be there because they had an interest in the subject. Unlike, say, when I teach "Rocks for Jocks" labs (Geology 101 labs for all those wondering).

At the very least, if no one else was interested, I know my friends would show up just to hear what I have to say. You people who read this page (yes you, you know who you are) know that I have some strong opinions on writing and how to write. I also have read enough "How to write..." books that I know the advice that's already out there. Some of it I agree with, some I don't, and I think I've found ways around the stuff I don't agree with. So at the very least I have a base knowledge about writing in general to work with.

Then there's all of fanfiction's little quirks to talk about. Fanon vs Canon. OOC-ness. The whole Mary Sue thing. Insta-ai (instant love plot-lines! Just add water! Available in five fruity flavors!). Stories that consist of 14 pages of nothing but the characters thoughts with absolutely NO ACTION WHATSOEVER. The great how to label your fanfic debates. Crossovers.

So right now I'm still waffling. I would like to do this. I could do this. I'm just not sure I will.

This is what happens when you have opinions about something you love -_-.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Azumanga Daioh cast does FF7
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On Monday, May 26, 2003 at 08:58 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

And now, some harccore social blogging for I am so very, very behind in it.

Chanegling, the job has gotten better. Of course, a large part of that has to deal with the fact that Sexual Harassment Guy has been on vacation. This has two lovely benefits. One, I don't have to listen to him. Two, I've actually had enough work to keep me busy. I have decided to stick with this job until July 15th mostly because I realized that there would be no way for me to find another job that would only last a month or so. Oh well. The pay is okay and it gives me time to write.

Rissicat, I hadn't thought of that. However, my mom called me to let me know that yes, they did find the medical records. They were boxed up in the doctor's office attic because I hadn't been there in so long. They have been found though! Which is good. I do not like needles.

Happy Birthday Thorne! And just so you know, I have a entire mouse skeleton in one of my jewerly boxes. It's rather cool and nifty. Of course, if my mom found it she would not be surprised. I also have an Allosaur claw, a fish fossil, dinosaur skin impressions, shark's teeth, several gastropods and brachiopods, and have been begging her for years to get me the complete skull of a smilodon. Nothing would surprise my mom.

This is one patient cat.

Congratulations on graduating.

That is all this early on a Monday morning. Now, I must go write up for Digimon smut.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Sugah's Fanfics
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On Sunday, May 25, 2003 at 07:02 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I have returned from Animazement. I got there around 2:00pm on Friday, and left around 5:00pm today. Of course, I left at night around 9:00pm to go home, get some sleep, take a shower, etc. In between those times I wandered around, went to the art room, went to the dealer's room, wandered around, and had fun. Most of the time I stayed at the TAAS/NASHI table set up in front of Video Room 1 with my laptop typing up fanfics. Following is the highlights of one of the best Animazement's I've ever been to.

First of all, I signed up for 9 hours of watching the table: three on Friday, six on Sunday. I was really there much more, but during those nine hours I made sure I stayed put and that someone was changing the videos at the right time. What I didn't realize was that even though I hadn't gone to any volunteer meetings and was really just helping out the club, I got a T-shirt and $10 back. Sweet!

The Nashi people (which is an anime club from SC) were awesome. There was a guy who only worked in 12 hour shifts all night long (good lord!) and the guy dressed up like Lucky who was very bitter when people stole his lucky charms. There was also the super nice girl who dressed up like a Dark Fairy the second day and helped me do crowd control with the Cosplay line. Very cool girl, and an awesome artist. There was also the guy who was checking out the guy's in tight leather pants and complaing about all the cute jail bait dressed up like the GW boys.

Also found out that the School of Anything Goes Anime Club down at ECU is planning on getting more involved. Alas, their site is down for the moment. The new president knew Robbie and a few of the other people who were in SAGA and use to go to my High School. Smile Robbie, you're famous ^^.

I set up my laptop to start typing but soon realized that people were going to bug me. So I set up a sign saying "Questions about what I'm writing- $1, Discussions about YAOI- FREE!" and started typing away. By the end of the con, I had earned $2, met Raptor Darkshadow from the Daisuke/Ken ML, met a girl who had read One of Those Days, gave out my screen name and website URL to several excited con goers, had my picture taken over a dozen times (you who read this and got pictures of me I EXPECT A COPY), got asked to run a panel at next years con (three times), AND had several great conversations about yaoi. I also got three Digimon stories partially typed up.

In the Dealer's room I cleaned up on the "How to Draw Manga" series. Life is good. Hopefully, next year I will be able to enter some stuff into the Art Auction. My roomie cleaned up on the Hikaru no Go stuff in the Dealer's room. I'm not a big Dealer's room person myself. I like to look, but for the most part I don't buy much. I did get a really nifty silver wire and stone bonsai tree from the Artist's room. It's pink (rhodochrosite and rose quartz) but it was the only one that didn't go to auction. They had a nephrite jade, a garnet, amethyst, and a snowflake obsidian one. Ah well. My pink one is cool (even if it is pink).

While I was sitting in front of the Video Room I gave two impromptu coloring with Photoshop lessons. One was to my friend Light Hawk and the guy from Nashi who looked over my shoulder while I did. That was the longer one where I explained both cell painting technique (which works with line drawings) and the technique that works well with screentoned pictures. The second time was because some random girl saw me coloring a Duo/Heero picture and started talking. So I showed her the screentone technique since that was using. Her friends actually left her there and she was so engrossed in what I was saying, she didn't notice -_-;;.

I met Akiko briefly though she had to run off to dinner. Got a hand delivered 'zine (which I look forward to reading). She didn't look anything like I imagined, but then again, no one I meet from the internet does. You'd think I'd learn not to try and picture them before hand.

My roomie and I stayed around to help some friends break down the art room. It was fun. Physically exhausting what with all the carrying pieces and stuff, but a lot of fun. However, we lost track of time and I started having dizzy spells. Not good. So we left to get some sushi and tempura. Food was good. Now, I am tired both physically and mentally and over all, it is good.

Finally, an explanation for my link of the day. Sugah is a great writer and I've been rereading her stuff like crazy lately. But it is all Sugah's fault. All it took was one comment from her and it inspired a whole scene which then caused me to revamp my whole fanfic. But in a good way. I like this version better.

So yeah... now I can say it's all Sug's fault instead of Miome's. ^^

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Sugah'
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On Sunday, May 25, 2003 at 07:02 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Paleomap Project
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On Wednesday, May 21, 2003 at 06:51 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Tsaiko prepares for graduate school and deals with life. Let's look into her thoughts over the past few days.

- Animazement is this weekend. Reminded manager that I'm taking half a day off Friday. Manager stares blankly, but eventually says yes. Realize manager doesn't remember me asking for it off three weeks ago when she first extended my time at this job. Oh well. Still taking off.

- Hate uterus. Hate. Make up your mind you stupid body part.

- Would still keep uterus if I could get a new digestive system.

- The colors...

- Look at calender. Figure out when July 15th is. Woot! It falls on a Friday. Good timing.

- Get every problem claim possible in a 24 hour period. Can't any of you people pay for your insurance on time?

- Listen to people complain.

- Listen to people complain some more.

- Explain for the 100th time that there is nothing you can do if the police wrote down the wrong insurance company or the person's policy was cancelled because they didn't pay or they got insurance after the accident.

- Make a note to inform people that insurance is not retroactive. If you have the accident on Thursday, you cannot get insurance on Friday and then expect it to cover the costs of the accident. Insurance need to be in effect BEFORE the accident to count.

- Look at calender again. This time look at the month of JULY and not AUGUST. Find out July 15th falls on a Tuesday. Decide to work till July 18th. Bitch that it adds three more days of working at Insurance place.

- Berate myself for continuing to work at Insurance place. Continue to mark days off calender till I can leave.

- Resist urge to mark them off in bright red ink.

- Fill out paperwork for graduate school.

- Laughingly fill out financial aid paperwork. Heck, if they want to give me more money, I'm not going to complain.

- Fill out Health stuff. My mind boggles over some of these questions. "If you answer yes, list the year you first started: exercising regularly? wearing a seatbelt? used alcohol?"

- Realize school needs immunization records. Realize school only keeps records for one year, therefore they don't have my records from two years ago. Curse loudly and profanely before calling around to find the records. If I have to get a shot because of this...

- Curse my plot bunnies. Why does work have to be busy not that I have story ideas?

- Remember to read LH's HnG story. Gah, I'm so behind.

- Curse body some more. BIG HATE for my uterus.

- Look up first day of classes once again having forgotten the date even though I've looked at it 4 times before.

- Realize I still don't know what that day is.

- Decide that life sucks and I'm taking a nap. The end.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Paleomap Project
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On Wednesday, May 21, 2003 at 06:51 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Mike the Headless Chicken Days
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On Sunday, May 18, 2003 at 01:48 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

You know what stupidity is? I do. I saw a prime example of it today. So my roomie and I were driving down the street, having a conversation about something, when all words suddenly stopped. You see, a very large SUV was passing by us in the other lane. That was not the amazing part. The amazing part was that hanging out of the SUV's gas tank was a nozzle and about two feel of hose from a gas pump. That's right! This brilliant example of the human race was calmly driving down the road with a the remains of a gas pump clinging to his SUV.

We pointed. We laughed. We laughed some more. It was hilarious. Someone is going to get a big surprise when they get home. My only hope was that the gas station had cameras and caught the license plate number of this person as they drove away. Idiot.

In other news, I've picked back up my first attempt at an entry for the Shot in the Head fanfic contest. In reality, what I'm writing is not a fanfic but Talyais accepting original stuff as well. I've got the shot in the head part done. Now I just have to figure out how to get the sex part in. The plot for this thing has changed at least four times since I've started it. I just wish it would find a plot and stick with it. I only have until June 30th.

I've got another entry which is Hikaru no Go, but I'm not sure I can have both done in time. I like the HnG one. The opening scene is sex and the main plot twist is the shot to the head. As opposed to my original story where the opening scene is the shot to the head, and I have a feeling the main plot twist will be the sex. Sigh... decisions, decisions.

In other news, Sugah (who is a very good and very nice writer and artist) is allowing me to play around with one of her Universes. I'm still in the taking the universe apart and then rebraiding the threads together into a solid plot stage. I've got most of the outline down, I just need to get the stories written. Sigh... story of my life. Hopefully, I'll get a lot written at Animazement when I'm watching the video room for TAAS. I am so backlogged when it comes to getting stuff done.

Finally, note to self. Email Whitecat and let her know you don't mind reviewing more of Lazarus Child. Also change the link in list to the correct link. I can already tell my list needs to be pruned again.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Sex Shop Chain in Court Fight Over Job Ads
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On Friday, May 16, 2003 at 12:47 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Today I get my car back. Turns out the problem was the battery. It was so dead that it wouldn't even hold a charge when my roomie and I tried to jump it. I'm kind of ticked though at my mom. I've been asking her for over a year about when the last time she had the battery changed in my car was. See, she had it most of the time I was in college and was responsible for the maintenance. I wanted to know if I needed to go ahead and replace the battery before it died on me in the middle of no where. She kept telling "The battery is only a couple of years old. It's fine."

I called the towing place recommended by the dealership, waited until they could get a truck to me (the first one they sent broke down -_-;;), and got it moved to the Ford dealership. (Explanation: if it gets fixed at the dealership, my mom will pay for it. Don't ask me why. It's her rule, not mine.) As soon as I found out it was the battery, I called my mom. Her response? "I'm not sure when we last had the battery replaced. It was about time for it to go I guess." ARRRRRRRGGGGG! Thanks, Mom. I'm so glad it didn't quit in Deliverence, GA or Bassackwards, NC and leave me stranded.

The original prIce they quoted me was less than $200 with taxes. That was for the battery, oil change, and state inspection. Which was fine and I told them that I would be by Thursday after work to pick it up and pay for it. Then the Ford Dealership called me back with a list of "suggested repairs" and the strong implication that my car would not pass inspection without them. That came up to over $750 NOT including tax. I was pissed and told them not to touch my car.

For one thing, I know what a State inspection consists of and none of their "suggested repairs" with the exception of the brakes had anything to do with it. I called my mom and we decided to get two of the "suggested repairs" done. One was getting the brake pads replaced and the other was getting the cracked serpentine belt replaced. I've had belts go on me before. It's not fun to be driving down the road and have a belt break. It tends to take out other things in the process.

I hate when repair people do this. Not the so much "suggested repair" stuff since I understand that. It's when they imply that the car will fall apart two miles down the road if you don't get the power steering system flushed RIGHT NOW. If you are going to suggest repairs, then suggest them. Don't tell me that something is absolutely necessary and dire things will happen if they only reason you want to do it is because some owner's manual told you that it was recommended. I'm willing to bet you didn't even look under the hood to see if it actually needed it.

I also found out from my mom that I have towing insurance on my car. This is news to me because as far as I knew all I had was liability on my car. This means if I hit someone, my insurance will pay for the damages to their car but won't pay for the damages to my car. What this all boils down to is that I will probably have to file a claim with my insurance to get reimbursed for the towing bill. It also means if in the future I have to have my car towed, my insurance will cover it. Sweet.

Ooooh. Sekhmet. One of the more interesting Egyptian godesses. Gotta love any one who gets into their work. Ammit is also fun although she looks like a science experiment gone wrong. Though my favorite is still Anubis. Don't know why, he just seemed like a generally nice guy who was just doing his job. Other favorites include Apep, who I've seen pictured as a giant winged snaked so I think he's in the running simply because of the whole "DRAGON!" reaction I have. Set is also a favorite simply for his whole dark, moodiness.

Those Egyptians sure knew what they were doing by sticking animal heads on buff guys and nubile young ladies. Not that I've noticeD or anything *cough*. Right, moving on then...

Work has been surprisingly pleasant today. Not that that is going to stop me from getting the Heck out of Dodge, so to speak. One of my co-workers asked me if I liked this job. I told her that my biggest problem was that I was often bored. She implied that I might want to work part-time here through Grad. School. I swiftly shot down that idea by stating that I would be working for the University during that time. She's been trying to give me more work, which is nice, but it's too little, too late. I've been here for over a month and a half for a job that was only supposed to last four weeks and now they start trying to give me enough work to do. Ha.

The only way I'd stay at this job any longer was if the temp. agency told me they couldn't find me another job to work at for the next two months if I quit this one. Which they might. I'm going to call them today after I pick up my car and ask. At least, that's what I hope to do. If not I will call them Monday and talk with my manager on Tuesday. I may be at this job longer because I want to increase my savings as much as possible before I go to Grad. School and don't want to have to try and look for a job that will only last two months if I quit this one.

Apathy and paranoia, thy are my greatest enemies in ditching this job.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: $14 brooch discovered to be priceless
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On Wednesday, May 14, 2003 at 12:25 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Do you know what the worse feeling in the world is? It's getting into your car, turning the key, and having the car go "click." Not "VROOOOM!" or even that whiny, chugging sound that means your battery is almost dead and you're going to have to get your car jumped. Oh no. Just "click." This is exactly what happened to me today when I tried to go to lunch. So my car is now sitting in the parking lot and I'm waiting to hear from my mom about what she wants me to do. The car is still in her name and even though I'm about to start graduate school, I still call her first when things go wrong with the car. Call it my last security blanket.

I think it's my battery. I hope it's my battery or one of the connections as that is relatively easy to get fixed. If it's not my battery then it's my ignition and that will cost a whole lot more and will take a holw lot longer to fix than the battery.I'm not even getting a connection to power the radio when I turn the key. Please, please let it be the battery.

In other news, I have secured a birthday present for Cneko and bought my roomie's birthday present this morning. As a random observation: the Lord of the Ring's book marks. Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, Gollum, even the Ringwraiths get their own bookmark. However, Legolas shares his book mark with Gimli. Coincidence? Nothing is coincidence to a yaoi fan girl.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Cynical job posting
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On Tuesday, May 13, 2003 at 12:33 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

You know why I think the University that had the job posting got and continues to get so many applicants to this job posting? Because it's honest. None of this polite fiction or glossing over. Every one can feel for and understand the frustration that would prompt the writing of such a posting. I think they can respect that here is a person who is human and not pretending to be anything else. Lord knows, I get tired of all the polite fiction I'm required to express due to "business etiquette." However, I don't think that getting rid of some of the polite fiction is an excuse to be rude. For instance, I don't care how many applicants you have, not sending someone a note letting them know that the position has been filled is rude and leaves the person in question wondering if maybe they will get the job if they wait long enough. I know I've been called as late as a year after interviewing for a position. But I do think there needs to be much less of the double speak so often found in the business world. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Do not tell me "We'll make our decision in a week" when you really mean "We don't know when we'll finish interviewing so just wait for us to call."

I guess I am a little bit cynical about business etiquette because a lot of it seems rather ridiculous to me. Of course, this could be because I've had to write an acceptance letter recently. Before that, I had to write a letter of recommendation for myself and let one of my professors fill in the blanks. Both were as pleasant to do as pulling teeth, especially the letter of recommendation.

What the heck do you put in a letter recommending yourself? I mean, you don't want to sound over confident or like you're bragging but at the same time you don't want to sell yourself short. It's a pain to find a balance especially since so much of the letter is supposed to be personalized by the professor. I guess it doesn't matter because I got accepted. Still, not something I ever want to go through again.

Needless to say, I am slightly bitter about the whole experience.

Thorne, if you professor won't change his mind you can fight it through your school's arbitration program. Most departments have one specifically for student grievances such as this. I know because I use to serve on one for a department in college. Do you still have a copy of the syllabus? If on there is states that he wanted to final exam turned in one way, then he can't change it. Syllabi are considered contracts between the students and the school and professors can get in deep trouble if they deviate from them. Might be worth a look.

Last week you'll remember me talking about how my air conditioner went out. Well, Friday evening we found out why. It appears that one of the connectors vibrates on a frequency that attracts ants. The ants swarm the connector, get themselves fried, and the connector then procedes to loose it's connection. The repair guy said it happens all the time around here. I was thinking of boxing the little buggers up and sending them to Lunar and Twig. I don't think I will thought. I'd be too afraid to wake up one day and find Petra sitting on my doorstep quietly humming to herself while cleaning a machete.

Elfwood has finally taken down my stuff. And I had a truly nasty email all typed out in my mind...

Finally, a note to myself. Mind you can not write a fanfic for someone else's fanfic. You can't. No, I don't care how nifty the idea is. No. NO. NO! Yes, that is really cool. The answer is still no. I am not emailing them for permission. I'm not. Crap, I'm going to write that scene aren't I? Fine, fine. But it's staying on disk and is NOT getting shared. That's my final word.

Miome, this is all your fault. Sug is going to kill me.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Elvish Name Generator
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On Monday, May 12, 2003 at 08:27 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Dear Elfwood,

What part of "TAKE MY PICTURES DOWN I WANT MY ACCOUNT DELETED RIGHT NOW" did you not understand? I am tired of dealing with you, tired of having to justify myself every time someone gets a stick up their ass, and find it easier just to take the whole thing down. I have my own site now and I like it better, thank you very much. And I can get on with my life and never have to deal or worry about you again if you will JUST DO AS I REQUESTED. I wanted a place to showcase my artwork, not a totalatian regime. Thank you.

Tsaiko
PS- If my stuff isn't down by tomorrow, I am going to be mad and you will hear about it.

In other news, the consensus over in LJ land seems to be to email the owner of the list and apologize. A close second is to just ignore it. I am leaning towards the ignoring part since I am a devout coward about this kind of thing. However, I will give it another day or two and see if I can dig up the courage to write an email where I don't gush and kow-tow too much.

I think that's my biggest problem with people I'm really in awe. I swing between extremes. I either don't comment at all for fear that I'm going to sound like a big dork or I comment way too much and wind up looking like a big dork. So if I've left really stupid comments in your LJ seemingly every other post it's because I'm over compensating for being really, really impressed by you and wanting to be a part of the greatness (yes, there's one instance in particular I'm thinking about and I'm working on it I really am).

That's another thing I do. Make references to stuff that I'm embarrassed where the person I think I've made a fool of myself to can read/hear them in the hope that they will read/hear it and forgive me. That way I get the forgiveness without actually having to confront them in email. Right, right. Big dork.

In other news, I faxed in my acceptance to the graduate department. Also, somehow, the financial aid department got my mom's address and sent a bunch of stuff there. So I now have the financial aid package to fill out. Somehow, with the teaching assistantship, I doubt that I'm going to get anything. Oh well. Worth a shot. Maybe they'll pay for the $500 in fees I've got to pay per semester.

Also, I've found a way to get out of this job come the end of this month. I'm going to tell them that I need to start working part time in order to get stuff ready for graduate school. Which is true. Sort of. That will get me out of the job because they want someone full time at the place. The temp. agency will be able to find me a temporary part time work. I hope. If not, I can live off my savings. I am a penny pinching bastard and now it's going to come in handy.

That's all for now.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is:
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On Friday, May 9, 2003 at 07:34 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I'll also put this on my pitas page since I'm curious. Okay, suppose that you are on a list that is set up for someone's writings. And you look through the posts and see some people have made comments on the stories posted. So the owner of the list posts a story you like and you reply. Only then you realize, after reading the rules like you should have in the first damn place, that the only messages to be sent to the list are the author's stories, meaning that I... er... you broke the rules. Theoretically. The question is: Do you a) just never do it again and never mention it, b) apologize to the list thereby spamming them again, or c) apologize to the list owner thereby letting the list think you are inconsiderate. I'd love to know people's opinions on this. You can comment in your pitas page or over in my LJ

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Anything into Oil
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On Friday, May 9, 2003 at 10:52 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Universe: You know, maybe I went a little too easy on you with the email thing.
Tsaiko: Huh? What?
Universe: After all, the only thing you lost was a T-shirt, and a T-shirt you didn't like at that. I think sending you the news about Graduiate school may have been over compensating a bit.
Tsaiko: No, no, wait. I was emotionally traumatized! Loss of property! Uh... part of my childhood gone forever!
Universe: ...
Tsaiko: You're not buying this at all, are you?
Universe: No. So you know this means I have to shift the scales a bit. Karma, cosmic balance and all that.
*click*
Tsaiko: What was that?
Universe: You're air conditioner.

So now, our air conditioner is broke. Last night was a long, miserable, hot night filled with really bizarre dreams. Though at around 3:00 am I got the sudden urge to work on a fic called "Heat Lightning" (yes, yes I stole the title. Titles are not copyrightable) where Davis and Ken's air conditioning breaks. Naughty things ensue. They break the coffee table. As it is, I still might have to dig it out and work on it. Nothing like pointless smut to brighten my day.

I hope my kitties are okay.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: How's the weather down there?
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On Thursday, May 8, 2003 at 08:14 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Tsaiko: You know Universe, that stunt you pulled last night wasn't very nice.
Universe: I know.
Tsaiko: Even though all the person took was my Dairy Queen T-shirt (good riddance), I didn't get to bed until late and was upset. Really, what were you thinking?
Universe: I suppose I should do something nice for you to make up for it.
Tsaiko: Would be nice.
Universe: Okay then, have an email.
Tsaiko: An email? Okay... what's this about. Oh. OH. OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!
Universe: I thought you'd like that.
Tsaiko: SQUEEEE! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I have been accepted to graduate school for Paleontology. Not only that, my tuition has been waived, I got a research assistanceship which pays me $14,000 for the school year, and I get free health insurance. These people are paying me to come to graduate school. I LOVE THEM! LOVE THEM! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM AT THIS MOMENT. THEY ARE PAYING ME TO DO WHAT I LOVE! THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!

And a bunch of my friends joined me at Outback for a celebratory dinner. Thanks guys, you are the best.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Barcode Mill
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On Wednesday, May 7, 2003 at 08:42 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Why thank you universe, but next time you decide to fuck me over, can you at least wait 24 hours between bouts of anal sex?

In other words, I was doing laundry and I think someone stole some of my clothes. Luckily, I don't think they got any of my nice work clothes. Just an overshirt and a few T-shirts. I'll know when I get my laundry out of the dryer. But thanks to them leaving the washer open so the cycle didn't complete, I won't be getting to bed until later than I wanted to. Dipshits.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Internet invades portable potties
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On Wednesday, May 7, 2003 at 01:06 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I am mad. I am really, really mad. You know what? I don't know why I agreed to stay at this job longer than the original four weeks. I am already regretting it. I want out. As soon as May is done, I am leaving. I am not agreeing to an extension. I am not staying longer. I will find something else because I am tired of this. No job is worth the level of frustration and stress this one is putting me through.

Today the computer system I need to enter stuff into is still down though happily the AC seems to be working. People have been having me do various things for them (copying, filing, putting stuff in numerical or alphabetical order, etc.) because really I have nothing do except when someone calls in a claim. I've caught up on making the folders and am just waiting until I can enter them all. This leaves me with free time on my hand where I'm entertaining myself by reading news articles.

My "manager" comes in with something for me to do. Fine. Then she tells me "If you have nothing to do, you need to ask your co-workers in case they have something for you to do." I saw red, but I bit my tongue, made an agreeing sound, and started working on the project I was doing. I didn't say anything because 1) it was right before lunch and I'm pretty sure my temper was not helped by the fact that I needed to eat and 2) I didn't want to ruin any chance of a good review. But it was still a close thing.

I know what you want, my manager. You me to be working every minute of every hour that your company is paying me. Hell, I'd love to be working every hour that I'm here. In fact, my last job was like that and I LOVED IT. I didn't have to be stressed because I felt like I was taking someone's money and not doing anything. I didn't have to deal with the vague, nagging worry that people were whispering about what a slacker I was behind my back because I was spending so much time in front of a computer doing nothing. And I definitely didn't have to wonder why I was even there or feel like a burden to my co-workers. You know why? BECAUSE I WAS GIVEN ENOUGH WORK TO DO.

I have been given certain tasks to do. They take up about half my day. How much work I have to do varies depending on how many claims are called in. Some days, we get 20-30 claims and I'm busy all day answering the phone and making files (and entering them when the system is up). Then there are days like yesterday where we get a grand total of 6 claims the entire day. I have no control over this. If you'd like me to go out, Miss Manager, and cause people to have accidents or create violent hail storms to destroy cars I will be more than happy to try. Otherwise, I have no control.

As for my co-workers, they know I am here. They regularly ask me to do stuff. Strangely enough, I do it in a more than reasonable amount of time. I don't think they should be responsible for coming up with stuff for me to do. That is a MANAGER'S job, of which I assume you are even though no one bothers to tell me anything at this place. It is also not my responsibility to MAKE WORK FOR MYSELF. Again, it is your job to provide me with stuff to do. Otherwise, why was I even hired? Because let me tell you, it's a question I've been asking myself since I got here.

Finally, I do not think it is right to go and interupt my co-workers, make them think of something for me to do, and then make them show me how to do it. They are busy. It is not their fault that I am not. Especially when you've repeatedly told me one of my job duties is to watch the phone and in order to go annoy my co-workers I have to leave the phone unattended, thereby making more work for my co-workers when they have to answer calls. I do not want to add to their workload.

I especially do not appreciate the implication that I am not doing anything while at work. I work hard when I can. I keep myself entertained and out of people's way when I can't work. If you want me to work more, then by all means, give me something to do or fix the computer system so I can do what I was hired to do. Otherwise, don't complain. I am not working here after this month. I should have gone with my first instinct and told you I couldn't stay for any longer than the original four weeks. Thank you for teaching me this lesson. I have learned it well.

Less than four weeks until I get out of here.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Odd round rocks linked to big meteorite
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On Tuesday, May 6, 2003 at 12:44 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

The air conditioning is broke at the place I work. The computer system is down (again). I am sitting around checking out websites and writing. I think I could get use to this being paid to write thing if the AC was actually working. It's way too hot in here.

I was having some difficulty posting to pitas this morning. It would let me log in, would let me edit or delete entries, yet every time I went to add an entry, I would get booted out to the login screen. Oh well. Seems to be fixed now. Otherwise I'd be a small puddle of goo in front of my desk right now. Boredom... boredom... it is the smart person's greatest foe.

I was going to do a intersting rant about my (least) favorite GW doujinshi of all time. The rant was because Cneko gave me two incredibly wonderful Yami no Matsuei doujinshi and while I was oohing over pretty, pretty Hisoka and Tzusuki, someone mentioned the DJ from Hell. The one that caused me to rant for over an hour. However, the link of the day that I want to go with it is on my computer at home. I shall have to remember to email myself the link so I can do the rant. It was a good link to about a law professor's take on the copyright infringement of doujinshi. It will have to wait.

Instead, I shall talk about a VH1 series called I love the 80's. I love this show. What it consists of is going through the 80's year by year in one hour blocks talking about all the pop-culture that occured in that year. And then, there are the commentators. They get everyone and anyone to give comments. I've seen actors, comedians, musicians, producers, and inventors all giving thier insights onto the 80's. It's great. Words cannot describe how funny it is. I highly recommend catching an episode or two if for no other reason that you can remember what the 80's were like in America.

Ah... sweet nostalgia.

In other news, I have got to cut my nails. They're not scarily long, but they are longer than I'm use to. When I was doing a lot of geology or gardening, the work itself would keep them relatively short. Or, if not the work, I'd rip them off during class when I was particularly bored. Either way, my nails stayed short except during the summer when they'd grow out. And now that I don't take classes or do geology or garden that much (damn apartment living) they are getting so long that I fear for my safety.

Tsaiko: *poke* OW! Dammit...
Doctor: So Ms. Tsaiko, exactly how did you injure yourself?
Tsaiko: Well, you see my finger nails are really long...
Doctor: Your fingernails?
Tsaiko: It's not as strange as it seems? See this 3 inch cut on my leg? I did that with them a week ago. It really bled a lot..
Doctor: I see. *furious scribbling on paper*
Tsaiko: What are you writing down? It was an accident!
Doctor: So you accidently stabbed yourself in your eye with your fingernails?
Tsaiko: I wear contacts! I was trying to take them out!

So yeah, time to trim my nails.

The Digimon Emperor stories continue. I think in addition to being one of my favorite characters, it helps that a lot of the parts are written first person. I always write faster (if not neccessarily better) in first person. Though I have to be more careful about mistakes, which is why these entries are littered with them. First person. But it can get annoying when your character goes on and on and one in first person and all you really want them to do is GET ON WITH THE SCENE ALREADY.

Not that I'm talking from experience or anything. And now, I go to write some more. Bye all.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Wife won't cook dinner, husband calls police
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On Monday, May 5, 2003 at 04:22 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I am updating this from work. The way I figure, if they won't give me enough to do, then I have every right to find ways to entertain myself. Besides, as long as I don't actually check my pitas page for mistakes they won't be able to connect me to it. So if anything is screwed up, let me know, and I'll fix it when I get home.

Thanks to all the people who asked about the fanfic over in my LJ. No, it wasn't sent to my personal list. That means eveyone's email is working fine ^^. It was a Digimon fanfic and I know a lot of people on the list don't read/watch Digimon. So I try to keep the Digimon fics sent to that list to a minimum. However, I really need to send the last part of the Snow Spirit (NaNoWriMo) story and start sending the next part. I especially want to see people's reactions to the last part mostly because I am evil like that.

One of these days I'm going to get over the small panic attacks that accompany me sending fanfics to ML's. And no, I don't mean my own ML as I know the people on it and know that they are there because they want to read and comment on my stuff. It's the other lists. I have confidence about my original stuff (sometimes too much as I have to stop myself from pushing it on people who really don't care -_-;;). However, I seem to lack the same confidence in my fanfic writing abilities, which is why I tend to send out first drafts even though I know I shouldn't. It's easier to just finish it and send it off. Less stress for me and less time talking myself into sending it.

I wonder if it's because I'm newer to writing fanfics, though this year now makes the 6th year I've been doing them. Or maybe it's because I'm working with someone else's universe. That's a lot less control over the world and characters than I like. In reality, I think it's because when I write fanfics I know that people are going to read them. I know that people will actively seek out fanfics and when they find mine I always wonder "What do they think? Are the disappointed? Disgusted? Amused? Did they think they were worth sending to their friends?"

I guess I just want feedback so I can figure out what works and what doesn't. I've spent so many years writing for myself, improving my writing by judging it against my own internal standards, that I still get nervous when I realize others are reading it. Sometimes I miss the vacuum in which my writing developed, but I realized that I could only grow so much without the comments and criticisms of others.

I like to think it's different when you publish something in book form. It's sent out and millions of people read it and if you'd like, you can retain a certain amount of anomity if you'd like. I suppose you could do the same for websites. I would like to do that for my website, but I'm not sure my peace of mind in the short term is worth not knowing in the long term. I wonder if published authors ever worry about what their fans are thinking?

Oh well. More proof that in my heart I am still a devout coward. Sending out fanfics will remain a personal challenge for me, but as long as I continue to get up the courage to hit the send button, they'll remain a personal triumph for me as well. Kind of like making phone calls for me even though my last two jobs has dulled the edge of panic when it comes to them.

Maybe in order to feel better about my fanfics, I just need to write more and share them. Now there's a thought.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Hawaiian Name Translator
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On Sunday, May 4, 2003 at 03:35 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

So... it's been awhile since I've written. It looks like I will be staying at my job for longer that the original four weeks (they've told me "for an indefinite period of time"). It's better now that I actually have work to do though I spend an extroidenairily large amount of my day entertaining myself on the computer. Mailing lists have become my friend. Sexual harassment guy is still the same (in the three weeks I've been there he's referred to woman as "scantily clad", "running around in their underwear", and my personal favorite "the pantyhose brigade.") I will be glad to see him go when I leave.

I also seem to be continuing to achieve the great honor of getting the least number of comments on my stories when I send them to a ML. My latest one has garnered a grand total of zero (0) responses. I would be more upset (heck, I am a little disappointed) if it wasn't a first draft. I know of at least four things I need to change on it. I was just hoping to get some other perspectives on it before I did any editting.

However, I refuse to be one of these people that gets up and begs for comments. The last time I did that, well really asked for more in depth comments, I got a story of mine ripped to shreds. It was a very humbling and humiliating experience especially since I thought the story in question was really, really good. So if people want to comment on it, they can. If they don't, they don't. I'm not going to get reduced to tears again just so I can get some input. I'll just try to make it better next time and worth someone's time and effort.

Still, knowing whether people even read the story would be nice. Maybe the reason no one said anything was because I've been so active on the list lately. I know I've been carrying a few threads that are really OT for awhile. It's just been so boring at work. I know I shouldn't use the list to releive my boredom... but I can't help it! I guess I need to remember what it's like to be getting a bunch of emails in my inbox that I don't care about. There's a reason why most of the ML's I'm on are now set up so I read them on the web instead of getting emails sent me.

My application for graduate school is being reviewed by the faculty. It's nice to have professors at the school who are willing to let you know the status of you application. It's kind of like having a network of spies in you department.Now let's hope they decide to give me lots of money to go there. I have to have my transcript sent though it's tempting to write "To receive my transcript: 1) get off your ass. 2) Walk twenty feet to Records and Registration. 3) Ask for one." instead of sending Records and Registration $10 to mail one to the office that RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THEM.

I got my official scores back from the GRE this week. I got a 670 on my verbal, which means I did better than 94% of the people who took the GRE and a 720 on math, which means only those pesky engineering students are doing better than me. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to do better in Math than in Verbal. Got the highest score possible (a 6) on the writing part. My confidence in spitting out a decent paper in less than 45 minutes has been restored.

Thank you to all the people who sent me birthday wishes and gifts. Itland the books and the Scrabble game arrived safely. For some reason known only to Amazon, the Oriental cross-stitch book arrived seperately from the rest in a really mangled box. But the book is fine and has already been put to use. Thank you!

And now, back to typing up Digimon 02 fanfics.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is:
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On Saturday, April 26, 2003 at 09:20 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Nothing to see here... move along...

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Guide to Britian for the confused
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On Friday, April 25, 2003 at 09:15 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I HAVE SUBMITTED MY APPLICATION FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL! I HAVE PROFESSORS WHO LOVE ME AND TOLD ME THEY'D DO REFERENCES FOR ME IN LESS THAT 12 HOURS FROM WHEN I ASKED! TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY! I'VE GOT NEAT, NIFTY ROCKS! MY CATS LOVE ME! MY ON-LINE FRIENDS LOVE ME! PEOPLE LIKE MY WRITING! AMAZON.COM SELLS SEX TOYS!

Erm.... ignore that last one there.

Moods swings? ME? Why do you ask...

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Down To The Old Pub Instead
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On Friday, April 25, 2003 at 05:56 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

My highly offensive link of the day. I found the song vastly amusing. Of course, I've been wanting to dig my uterus out with a rusty spoon for the last two days, so my sense of humor is a little warped at the moment. If it's not your cup o' tea, just deal.

Eslington, the birthday present you sent for me as well as the card came in today. A whole day before my birthday. THANK YOU! I like the card (I think it's just as good as the last one and will be framed as well) and the piece of malachite is beautiful. As is the pretty bag that it came in. Rocks! Shinies! Life is good.

So I finally wrote my "personal statement" for my graduate application. Yes, yes I am well aware I should have had this thing done a long time ago. But I swear writing that thing was like pulling teeth: slow and painful. However, it is done and life is good. I heard back from all three of the professors I asked to do references and they all said YES! Which means this sucker is getting submitted today or tomorrow. Now all I have to do is get the forms to the professors for the references and my transcript. Only a few more hoops to jump through...

My job still sucks. Today the database we use was down. Now, why was it down? Let me explain. We have this system where we enter insurance claims. It's seperate from the system that takes insurance policies. Why, I'm not so sure. This results in the wonderful thing of the claims department's system not matching the insurance companies system. So we'll get calls from people who are system says had their policies cancelled for not paying (even though they've paid everything), policies showing the wrong car, or even that they don't have a policy with us because our system hadn't been updated.

Now I was wondering, how exactly do they update this system? I found out this today. What they do is make a CD back-up copy of all the information on our system. Then they request a CD of updates from the main insurance company. We wait around for a few days unable to enter anything. When the CD arrives we update the system. They do this every couple of weeks or so.

Am I the only one who thinks this is the most bass-ackwards way of doing things? Why are these sytems not linked somehow? Why do we have THREE seperate systems that for some reason unknown to me, cannot exist on the same computer? I swear, I don't understand this place. I don't understand how these people can function with this much disorganization. I don't understand.

But anyway, the CD we got with the update on it had some corrupted files. So everytime we tried to enter anthing the system would throw an error and crash. They'd bring it back up. They'd tell us they fixed it. We'd start enetering. Error. This happened all day long. I wanted to scream.

Two more weeks... two more weeks...

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Daydreams- An AU GW fanfic
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On Friday, April 18, 2003 at 07:53 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

My job... still sucks. Although, it doesan't suck quite as much as it did those first few days. I now have a cubicle where I may do stuff without having people looking over my shoulder every few minutes. I have a very lovely, large paperweight on my desk. Most people refer to this as a computer. At this point, without a login ID or password it is a paperweight. The lady (who I still assume is my manager not being able to get this confirmed or denied) wasn't even sure she wanted to let me on the computer. Luckily, my co-workers quickly disabused her of this notion. They want me to have the computer.

I also don't have the codes I need to send faxes or to make long distance phone calls. So there goes any usefulness in that arena. I am bored out of my skull. At first, I had about 2 hours of boredom to every 1 hour of work. That has gotten better. Now, the boredom:work ratio is closer to 1:1. One hour of boredom to every hour of actual work. If this job lasted more than a month I'd go insane.

Today, I finally broke down and started writing. I wrote five pages of the Digimon Emperor story called "Study Hard. Be Evil." This was in between daydreaming while watching the phone not ring and reading whatever was around. I now know how to set-up a company in the Peachtree accounting software. I also have read the bulletin for the company. Typical middle management "We are people oriented! Really! We care!" kind of stuff. Otherwise, it wasn't any better than the previous days.

At least now I'm answering the phone. There's not nearly the amount of calls that there were at the last place I worked. Most of the calls are "Can I speak with blah?" where I then transfer them over. In fact, I've taken one claim since I've been there. They keep telling me it will be busier next week because bitter guy (who expounded today about his political beliefs for about a half an hour) will be on vacation. Good. I'm already bitter enough about this job. I don't need any help.

I'll be gone this weekend for Easter Break. No updates. I'll update this when I can, but because of the full work day and no computer access, I don't know how often that will be. 8 more days until my birthday. I'm going to need the pick-me up by that time. Until later.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Academy
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On Wednesday, April 16, 2003 at 07:39 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I am so glad that this job is only lasting one month. Three days into it and I am already counting down the days. This has to be the worse place I have ever worked at. Ever.

To start off with, I'm not working at a bank. Oh no. I'm working for an insurance company that is owned by a bank. There's nothing like being told to pull a bunch of files and then realizing your pulling a bunch of death claims. Creepy, creepy. Of course, pulling files (along with shredding 2,200 pages and putting loose change into coin rolls) was the absolute highlight of my three days of work. I mean, it sure beat staring at the copy room wall trying not to be bored.

That's right. You see, these people didn't even have a place for me to sit for the first three days. On the first day, I stood up for eight hours straight. By the time I got home, I was in agony. On the second and third day, I sat in a chair at a table in the copier room. The lady who was in office where I'm supposed to be didn't leave until today. So I was shoved over to one side in the copier room. I have no computer yet. No codes to make phone calls or to fax stuff.

I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to do yet. I've been basically begging people for stuff to do to keep myself from going insane. I go from cubicle to cubicle asking people if they have anyting they want me to do. My manager (or at least, the lady who I was told to report to) hasn't given me any specific duties other than "You'll be taking claims over the phone next week." My training has consisted of a packet of badly written, incorrect, mispelled instructions, and people sitting down and walking me through stuff ONCE before letting me do it on my own. They don't check behind me. I have to go hunt them down for clarification, which is often because I don't know the first thing about insurance.

Some of my co-workers are really nice. Then... there are the other ones. The lady who use to work in the cubicle I'm now in gave me an ugly look everytime she walked by me. At first, I thought it was because she thought I was taking her job (I'm not). Then I found out she gives everyone that look. At least she's gone now.

Another one of my co-workers is a sexual harrassment lawsuit waiting to happen. I just hope that I'm not around when it does. I've listened to him have a phone conversation with someone about using a bottle KY jelly a day, and I've listened to him and another co-worker complain about how hot it is in the building. I will agree, it is hot in there. However, I would never say that we can't turn the AC on because "All the barely clad women would start complaining about the cold." Yes, this was actually said in a work environment. He also cusses and calls the clients "morons, druggies, and psychos."

The other co-worker I mentioned above is just cynical. I mean really, really bitter. All three days I've been there he has gotten into a sniping match with someone else. Of course, he's mirroring the sexual harrassment's lovely work ethic. At least he doesn't cuss.

I cannot wait to get out of this job. I'm sticking with it for the month, and then I'm going. Good-bye. Adios. No amount of money is worth this. The "I hate my job" attitude, the bitterness, the having no specific tasks given to me: these are the reasons I began to hate my first job right out of college. I'm taking my money and I'm running.

Just remember Tsaiko... 26 more days.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: GW Fanfic- Stationery
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On Monday, April 14, 2003 at 07:48 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

The sequel is much better than the story I linked, but doesn't make sense unless you read this one first. It's not bad... just silly.

Nothing silly or witty today. I am in pain. I spent most of today on my feet and now my back is one mass of twisted, burning muscle. I will try and do an update tomorrow. I'll give you an idea of what I'm doing (as soon as I figure out myself) and give you guys an update on how the GRE went.

Just think Tsaiko... you only have to do this for one month.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Encyclopedia of Silly Sex
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On Saturday, April 12, 2003 at 05:17 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

One guess as to what is wrong with this picture. The things you find while looking through a classical art gallery...

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Baby and the Beast- Flash Game
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On Friday, April 11, 2003 at 08:09 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Now I lay me down to rest,
A pile of books upon my chest
If I die before I wake
That's one less test I'll have to take.

I take the GRE tomorrow. I feel so unready for this test. I've been working on Math and vocab. and stuff for the past couple of weeks and I still suck at the Math. I mean, really suck. I've had lots of people offer their help, but it's not really anything people can help me with. I am incredibly slow when it comes to math and wheni have to be quick about it (ie during tests) I make stupid mistakes and screw up. My only saving grace is that the right answer will be somewhere in the choices. So if I get none of the answers (which happens way too often) I can just try again. I hope.

This is so going to suck.

In other news, I wish my mom would stop pestering me about my application for Grad school. Hello, I lost my job AND am taking the GRE this week AND start a new job on Monday (I GOT THE JOB! I GOT THE JOB! WHEEEEEE!). Right now the application just has to take a backseat. It's not due till June 25th and while I know I need to get it in sooner, being asked and lectured about it everytime I speak to my family is not encouraging me to do it. I'm tired of it. I really am. Just leave me alone and let me do it on my own time. I am so not looking forward to Easter Break.

The writing craze continues, though it's now tempered by the mad reading binge I've been on the last couple of days. Mmmmmm... smut. The funny thing is I found a GW lemon archive and started reading it. The only pairing accepted was 1x2 (or 2x1) and it was by invitation only. Which is one great way to find out way too much about someone's personal tastes in fanfics, let me tell you. The fanfics were for the most part okay: not the best I'd ever read but not so bad it made me want weep or laugh hysterically to prevent myself from weeping. A lot of them were AU, but I can live with that. Overall, I was beginning to be rather impressed.

Until I hit this one fic. Reading this fic was like reading the single embodiment of all the fics that had driven me out of the GW fandom. It was supposedly not AU. It was supposedly in character. The grammer and spelling were decent. There was nothing there that would warn me that this piece of literaure was going to have me in hysterical laughter for the next 20 minutes. The sad thing was, this was not a parody piece. But the plot... oh god, the plot.

Normally, I try not to make fun of people's ideas. New ideas, especially in a fandom as oversaturated as the Gundam Wing fandom, are hard to come by. This will have to be an exception. I also know that someone is going to recognize this plot if I describe it. I'm probably going to get at least one email from someone saying "I really liked that fic! How could you say there was anything wrong with it?" And you know what, I don't care. Because this plot is just so bad I have got to share it with you.

To start off, Heero is going undercover as a police officer to weed out corrupt officials. Duo is being sent to a nudist colony (they never really explain why, or if they did, there explanation was so pathetic it didn't even stay with me). While driving a convertible towards the nudist colony on a deserted stretch of road, Duo starts to think of Heero and gets excited. So what is a braided boy to do? Why STRIP while still driving the car. He throws the clothes into the backseat but forgets that he's riding in a convertible. Ooops! There go his clothes. Everyone wave bye-bye!

This leaves us with one naked Duo driving along at high speeds and getting a little to happy about it. Suddenly, sirens! Oh no, our naked, horny braided pilot is going to get pulled over! How ever will he explain this to the police officer? Duo is wondering the same thing until he realizes that Mr. Police Officer is none other than *surpise*surprise* HEERO! Wow, we didn't see this coming from 10 miles away. Duo starts babbling, because isn't that what Duo does in every situation he's put in, and Heero starts reading him the riot act. Mr. Perfect Soldier obviously has become Mr. Perfect Police Officer. Right up until the point that they have sex.

That's right people. Heero handcuffs Duo and then leans him against the HOT METAL CAR RIGHT NEXT TO THE ROAD and proceeds to do inappropriate things to him while in uniform. And did I mention the night stick? The night stick gets used on Duo in inappropriate ways. Everything feels good to him. It's all so wonderful and kinky that he can't help but enjoy it. Isn't it great that Heero is sodomozing him in public with a nightstick while in uniform? Doesn't this show how much Heero really loves him?

Blah blah blah... best sex ever.... blah blah blah... they finish up and Duo merrily goes on his way. Only now he's got these wonderful memories to keep him nice and warm and happy until he and Heero meet up again.

Why again did I decide to read this? Oh yeah, it was because I was taking a break from studying for the GRE. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to sudden urge to learn the meaning of the word derisory.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Random Masturbation Synonym Generator
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On Wednesday, April 9, 2003 at 04:58 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Albus Dumbledore has a brother. No, I'm not making this up. They mention him in Chapter... 24? 23? of Goblet of Fire. His name is Aberforth and he was persecuted for putting improper charms on a goat. Charms that he refused to be ashamed about.

I have a whole new level of respect for Rowling.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Kendama Flash Game
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On Tuesday, April 8, 2003 at 12:33 p.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I MAY HAVE A JOB!

I have to go pick up some forms today and take a drug test. If I pass, I get to work at a bank as a Admin. Assistant for $10/hr. It would only last a month or so, but that's fine. General officey type stuff. Money is money, and if it's full time, then I'll be making more than I did at the last place for at least a month. Life is good.

Thorne, now Steven Hawking is sitting in his wheelchair trying to lure Zell closer with a hotdog while his mechanical computer voice is saying "Come. Here. Little. Boy. I. Promise. It. Will. Not. Hurt." then after a long pause "Much." This is not an improvement.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: Kindness Phase by midorikou
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On Tuesday, April 8, 2003 at 09:05 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

Pretty, pretty Ken (from Digimon 02) art. So very prettty...

So if we're playing the name game, mine actually makes sense. My first name means "Lily" and my middle name means "Meadow." My last name means "Idden's ley" or "Idden's meadow" which is the name of some place in Scotland, at least according to my grandmother. So put all together, my name means "The lily meadow of Idden's ley." It's a nice lyrical meaning. My only problem is that the word for lily in Japanese is "yuri" which also means f/f love. You cannot imagine the horrible jokes this inspires in my friends about the meaning of my name -_-.

You know one of the things that irks me? A personal pet peeve of mine? People who ask for help on homework on a mailing list. Specifically people who say "I can't think of what to write so I want you random people to give me your random opinions on a topic so I can write it down." It just annoys me to know end, because I have an instinctive urge to help them. And I hate that they are taking advantage of nice people because they can't think of something themselves. Or are too lazy to think of stuff themselves.

Now I don't mind people coming into a channel or mailing list and saying "I have been trying to find an article or a page on X and am having no luck. Can someone help me?" I will go out of my way to try and find something for them. They are not looking for someone to do their work for them, just help in finding a source of information they can use and will probably reference. But asking people for their opinions so you can pass them off as your own? That really annoys me. Not only do I doubt these people will say "This is not something I came up with," what would they put down in their bibliography as the source? "Reflexor23455, #randomchannel?" At least the first scenario implies that the person is putting a some effort into getting their grade instead of mooching off of others.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just bitter that I didn't have access to the internet when I was in HS. I had to look up all my sources in books and magazines. If I had to do it, dammit, so do these other people.

I think I just accidently tortured the Hell out of one of my cats. I was scooping the litter box out and Nadia kept walking by and looking and me. Then she'd walk around the room, come back by, and look at me. I think she was waiting for me to hurry up and finish scooping so she could use the litter box. Poor kitty. I tried to get through the job as quickly as possible. I don't think she was satisfied as she started meowing and looking at a few random cardboard boxes very intently. When I was finally done and had put fresh litter in she practically bolted for the litter box. I could almost hear her saying "Thank god! Does it always take so long for you people to use the litter box?"

Twig, for me, anything is edible if you put enough soy sauce on it. Mmmmm.... soy sauce.

Why thank you Thorne, I must now sing in my best screechy opera voice to the techno remix of the Phantom of the Opera. And as a side note, Vel, should never have compared Zell to Sting. Because now, one of the voices in my head is saying "Zell Dinct could be having sex... RIGHT NOW" and another voice is saying in response "...with Stephen Hawking." Then it provides mental images.

I hate you all very much right now.

Tsaiko's neat, nifty URL of the day is: The Web Gallery of Art
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On Sunday, April 6, 2003 at 08:23 a.m. Tsaiko was slowly going insane. This is why:

I really love this page. All the old paintings are so cool. I only have one problem with it. IT SINGS! IT SINGS AT ME! PRETENSIOUS MIDI MUSIC! And you all know how much I love webpages that sing.

Two days after losing my job and I have gone on a mad art rampage. Yesterday, I painted a wooden tray in preparation for doing some moasic on it. I worked some more on a cross-stitch sampler I was doing to commemorate her first year anniversary. It's also some much needed practice on judging whether patterns I want to do will fit in the space I have. I'm rather pleased on the way it's turning out, though I need to go by a craft store and pick up some different colored red thread. I have the darker red for the shadows, but the lighter red I have is too saturated and orange. I want this sampler to remind people of an early summer garden, not look like a color-blind gardner went berserk.

I also managed to lose my embroidery needle. It's somewhere around the couch. Hopefully, I will not find it like how I found my roomie's sewing needle. That is with my foot in the dark. Ouch.

However, what I'm most proud of is my sketch. I use to do a lot of sketching and drawing in my notebook when I was at school. Since I've gotten out of school I find I do less and less drawing. I've been trying to pick it back up lately with mixed results. Pencils have just never really been my thing, though if you sit me down with my water colored pencils I can come up with some beautiful work. The scans of those do not do the originals justice. However, I still have a lot of problems with shading and drawing with regular pencils especially when it comes to drawing anime style.

Whenever my roomie and I have been waiting to watch the Hikaru no Go anime on her computer, I've been doodling. She has this black sharpie that I've been using. I can't erase any mistakes I make, but I've gotten pretty decent at managing to cover them up or working around them. All the picture have been on scrap paper or on the backs of envelopes. Overall, everything I've done has been good. The people all look like people. The quality has been pretty consistent. The style has all been anime. It's been a wonderful boost to my ego.

Yesterday, quite randomly, I decided to actually do a sketch with the sharpie. I got my sketch book out, grabbed the sharpie, and then grabbed the nearest anime book I saw to use at reference. It was a Digimon doujinshi. Opened it up to a random page, picked a character, and started drawing. About 10 minutes later, I had one Motomiya Davis on my sheet of paper. Now Davis is not the easiest character to draw. His hair is enough to give just about anyone trying to draw him fits. Somehow, I managed, and it looks like him. I didn't even need to tell my roomie who it was supposed to be. She took one look at the picture and knew.

This makes me unbeleivably happy. I am not known for being able to make the people I draw look like the people they're supposed to be. I'm so happy with this sketch. I wish my scanner actually worked so I could so it to people. Alas, it doesn't. I think I shall try to get my hands on some thick tipped markers (or maybe some more sharpies) and play around with them. I hope to get better at drawing. I hope to pick it up again because I've really missed doing it.

Maybe that's what I can do at Animazement while helping watch the TAAS video room. I think I'll sign up for a few stints, since I spent a lot of last year relieving people so they could eat and use the bathroom. Heck, I might as well have volunteered. Though for some reason, I've been told that they will not have the gong at the table or if they do, I am not allowed to touch it.

I can't imagine why. ^_^