July 2004 Archives

Here's a toast to everybody going to Otakon. All my friends have been blogging about it, I hope you guys have a good time. ^_^

Take lots of pictures for me, and if someone sees the cute Knives and Legato pair, give them a glomp and a grope from Skuld. (If they ask who 'Skuld' is, say she's the Legato from Otakon last year and they'll know me.)

To Scott Melzer and the Otakudom group: I hope you guys are mostly finished. O_O;; I know you'll be working around the clock with no sleep to get the new thing finished. Kick ass!

To Joel and the Bemani group: Have fun! XD I really wanted that date with Sherrie, but oh well, that'll have to wait until next year I suppose. Hopefully one of you guys has Isuka already for 2-on-2 melee action, but if you don't, have fun with #Reload anyway. And uh...thumbs up for the Japanese porn panel. ^_~

To everybody going to the L'arc concert: GOD FUCKING DAMMIT! *kick*

To all my other Otakonning friends: have a blast. Play lots of videogames, dance your heart out at the rave, and remember that cons are places to get laid, meet cool people, and grope the hotties who aren't wearing anything.

God says, "Skuld, you lose."

And yes, I do.

So I picked up Gakuen Heaven at the Yodobashi Camera store yesterday, really awesome electronics store which sells videogames. Gakuen Heaven is a boys love game (ie: boy/boy dating game) with character designs by Higuri Yuu (*worship*), which I have wanted since freshman or sophomore year.

Unfortunately, I got screwed over. So the original game for PS2 came out about Nov. 2003 and was rated 18+. The version I've picked up is called "Type B" where I think they've added a few scenes and taken out the pr0n to make it 15+.

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!

I'd take less scenes and pr0n over "Type B" any day.
Now I want to curl up somewhere and cry. ;________; *sniff*

Guess I'll have to sate my 18+ yaoi desires with "Suki na mono wa suki dakara, shyou ga nai." Which I don't own, but I'll probably buy it before I leave anyway. :x Hooray for impulse buying.

In more video game news, I was reading the Guilty Gear Isuka booklet last night and it seems there are going to be 3 more drama CDs coming out soon (yay! The XXX-less void in my life is being filled!) and a new vocal album called "Guilty Gear XX in N.Y." I really hope it's better than "GGXX in L.A." because that BLEW. HARD. =_______= What good bands in NY? :/ *sighs* I wish they'd do a GGXX in Boston. :D

So at the end of the fifth stage in GGBoost mode (aka. GG sidescrolling mode ^_^) you have to fight Sol and Ky. Sol is Dragon Installed and Ky is ...uh... Ky Installed? (or something. This all according to the clone who's been playing Isuka all day.) How can Ky do his little Ky Install thing if he's not a Gear?

This of course, led to hilarious conversations with the clone about how Sol makes Ky a Gear. Of course, it had to do with Sol "injecting his DNA" into Ky, and many sound effects of the "bomchikawowow" nature. >)

For pictures of me in my yukata (finally figured out how to put it on), see this directory.

Been a while since I've been out on the town. Wallabee and I went today, mostly to play medal games and hang out at game centers trying our (bad) luck at UFO catchers. I also stopped by Yodobashi to pick up the newest copy of Isuka. So for this week (including the Tuesday trip with Mel to buy Yukata, video games, and karaoke), here's the loot:

- 3 small Hello Kitty plushies
- 2 deluxe Luffy plushies (one of which was a present from Wallabee. ^_^ Sankyuu!)
- 1 yukata set (complete with pre-tied obi and geta...unfortunately I don't know how to put on the pretied obi. ;___; and I can't find any internet sites that tell me.)
- 1 yukata purse (since yukata don't have pockets, I'll have to use a little handbag thing :/)
- Guilty Gear Isuka (Sol and Ky are so fah-bulous on the cover)
- Angelique Trois (yeah, it's old, but I haven't played it and it was cheap.)
- Gakuen Heaven (finally found it today! :D Yeah!)
- Tamagottchi (present from Kanako :D Never had one before. At least they keep me occupied on the train.)

So...plans for the weekend:

- Friday night: Head over to Mel's and get my Morimura-kun <3 and maybe play some "Suki na mono wa suki dakara shyou ga nai" (Yeah, that was a long title.)
- Saturday: Head over to Wakayama to partake in excellent Buddhist Temple hopping.
- Saturday night: Stay at the shukubo (it's a buddhist temple where you can stay the night) and have some special buddhist vegan cuisine.
- Sunday: Visit Koya-san some more
- Sunday night: dress up in my yukata and hit the PL fireworks

It's full-up weekend my friends! And if my battery charger decides it wants to behave, you'll even get pictures! (Yeah, my charger is not working. :/ This is very annoying and troublesome. ;____;)

This is about what I look like right now.

That's about what I looked like before I cut my long pretty hair. Just imagine some red or blue streaks in there, and that's about it. ^_^

Was playing around with the dollmaker here.

Man, now I miss my long pretty hair. -_-;; Now my South Park self won't look like me anymore. :/

Dear Fuuchoin Kazuki,

After reading the latest chapter of Get Backers, I am seriously going to have to call your masculinity into question. Let's just forget about the nurse outfit you supposedly were forced into against your will. You're wearing a Chinese chi-pao of your own will this time. And it has a slit. A really showy slit.

While I'm sure you enjoy shaving your legs with Nair, during several moments of the fight you came dangerously close to exposing your unfeminine bits. (If in fact they are unfeminine, which I am now seriously beginning to doubt.) Actually, I'm almost certain you did expose your privates, but unfortunately the camera angle did not allow me to fully verify that.

In order to avoid further gender confusion...

please at least try to dress in something that doesn't expose your smooth, succulent thighs.

Sincerely,
Skuld-chan

PS. And tell Juubei to start appearing more.

Did I ever mention that my lab is awesome? So on Monday I was talking with Mikio at lunch, and he said that Sunday night there was a news program that ran a special on anime conventions in the United States, and that they were covering A-kon in Texas.

Today at lunch I was talking and a whole big group of the guys about anime conventions (because Kenji also saw the news special Sunday night) and that got us to talking about Otakon (which is this weekend and which I'm missing...*snifff*) and about cosplay. Somehow, during the discussion of what costumes I wanted to do for next year (I mentioned Ace and Eneru from One Piece), we got onto the subject of who in our group was who from One Piece. XD *grins* Which was a very entertaining talk to say the least.

Doi: So who's Kyoko-san?
Skuld: ...god, that's tough. Nami, maybe?
Seiji: ^_^ I want to be Nami!
Skuld: T_T Eeeee?!
Doi: I know! Kyoko-san's like Kaya-ojou-sama.
Skuld: Oh yeah. :D Totally, totally.
Kyoko: o_o *hasn't watched One Piece*
Doi: Yoshiya is very Zoro-poi.
Yoshiya: I can deal with that.
Doi: Mikio's like Tamanegi.
Mikio: Who's Tamanegi?
Doi: One of the kids in Usopp's Kaizoku-dan.
Mikio: I don't remember him.
Kenji: Who am I?
Seiji: Helmeppo.
Mikio: Who's Helmeppo again?
Skuld: Captain Morgan's son.
Kenji: =_____=

Yes, my lab owns.

I blog too much when I'm bored. Oh well.

Have a meme I ganked from MillyFan.

Hmmm...does this mean that I get Legato as my bitch too? :D
And I definitely get to blow shit up. *dancedancedance* Okay, so when we startin' the party?

(I also think the person who made this quiz should've had "rubber chicken" be one of the options. XD Always good to bring a little humor into your life.)

This list will probably be modified sometime in the fall. I"m not actually sure how many schools to apply to grad schoo, but probably fewer than the 8 I applied to for college.
Let's just say 5 or 6 for safety's sake.

- UCSF
- UCLA
- OSU
- Columbia
- Johns Hopkins
- MIT

Yeah, this doesn't look too shabby for what I want to do. Top choice is naturally UCSF, but I don't know whether or not I'm going to get in. I wonder also if I'm going to get into Johns Hopkins, or whether I should just forget that entirely. I really ought to be pulling my grades up if I want to be bumming around in JHU or any of the other top schools. D'oh, I'm only apply to top schools.

Backup plan: Bum around for a year at a hospital near MIT and do research there.

Doesn't sound too shabby.

Okay, now before I forget and fall asleep or something, I ought to go and buy a real not-food bowl for my fishes. Yes, they are swimming around in what I usually eat my Mac and Cheese in. =_=

I had the coolest dream last night.
Okay, well, it would have been cool if my alarm hadn't gone off, waking me up right before the coolest moment.

So the dream starts out and I'm in Japan with my family (okay, that part of the dream definitely is not cool), and I'm bumming around with my friends in our house reading Shounen Magazine. I see an add for CLAMP Kiseki (their little 12 issue magazine thing commemorating their greatness) and the ad says that CLAMP will be on the August 12th ANA flight from Osaka to Tokyo.

I think to myself, "Holy crap, I'm going to be on that plane!" and I run around all crazy.

Dad takes me to the airport and I'm all excited, with my X16 in my pocket (because I want them to sign the "boku wa...kimi wo..." scene XD) and I walk up the ramp to go into the plane and sit down, and I spot a group of four japanese fangirls who my head tells me are CLAMP, and I'm about to go and talk to them before my alarm goes off.

*sobs*

Death to all alarm clocks.

Anyways, I think that CLAMP may be at this year's Comiket. There was actually an ad in Shounen Magazine, but I can't read it because of massive amounts of kanji. I suppose I can try later before I take it off to Seiji to translate for me. But dude...if CLAMP does end being at Comiket... O_O;; I don't care how long I have to wait, I AM TALKING TO CLAMP. Or at least getting SOMEBODY to sign my X16. Of course, I don't actually have X16 here with me, but you can bet it's not that hard to procure a copy, and that I will have X16 with me if CLAMP will be at Comiket.

I almost don't feel so bad anymore for missing Otakon. ^_^

Comiket! *bouncybouncybouncy*

Talking to Omi just made me kind of angsty.

(Hey, look on the bright side, at least all my angst/drama involves just me and a select handful people instead of everybody and their friends on the entire fucking planet.)

Omi knows exactly how I feel. E-fucking-xactly how I feel. To the T. There is not one feeling I am feeling right now that doesn't Omi understand and hasn't gone through. And I feel really bad for him because I'm the one that made him feel like shit. I was doing it for the entire two-something years that I was going out with him, and I don't know how I managed to miss how I was fucking him up so badly. But yeah if his future girlfriend/boyfriend/wife, hates my guts, I'll totally deserve it.

I will never be able to make up the debt that I owe Omi, but he's still a nice guy, and he's still willing to have me as one of his best friends, and that at least makes me happy somewhere inside.

So yeah, listening to Big Top Vertigo right now, and feeling that my life is somehow still off track, and that I wish some things had never happened to me, because they cause more pain and give me more sad memories than happy ones.

spinning so slowly
she cries out, "I'm lonely"
there must be someone here
who can ease my fear
that this gravity
is simply killing me
the drinking increases
she's falling to pieces
at night when nobody can see
she takes of her clothes
and she stares at the holes and the fragments that didn't used to be

Luckily this song comes with its own inspirational message.

don't give up
this road is far from over
don't give in
you're only in a tailspin
over and over again

Okay, I'll stop wallowing in self-loathing, guilt, and self-pity now (I'm sure you guys are so sick of me talking about my personal problems), and get my ass to bed, and head off the store to buy my cute little fish a real fishbowl to live in.

The moral of the story kids, keep your ex-boyfriends you fucked up, because they know how you feel. And always tell them how much you still love them. ^_^

Happier posts to come, promise. Maybe more on kintama and kendama. ^_~ *big grin*

Here's something to watch out for when you see something on your professor's desk.

Kintama = testicles
Kendama = this

Don't get them mixed up.

Now your car can be ^_^ >_> O_O too.

scoped out Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and UCSF's webpages today.

So far the only school I really really want to go to is UCSF. Columbia has an interesting Biomedical Engineering department, but unfortunately I really don't have that much experience in either of those fields. Not entirely what I really want to do (I just want to do brain and spinal cord regeneration...why is this so hard?), but I might apply anyway. I just want to be let in somewhere.

The clone has suggested OSU (yes, the clone is very non-biased party here ^_~) but I'll scope it out anyway. He did find faculty that are doing exactly what I want. Gonna scope out JHU, Penn, MIT (don't really have to do much scoping here, I pretty much know who's doing what), OSU and Case Western (:/ Why can't Silver be in not-Ohio?) next, after I finish my work.

Did I mention that I currently have the world's most terrible headache? I just want to go home and sleep and let my fishies swim around in their bowl for yet another without food. (The gold one's really hyper and I'm always afraid he's gonna jump out and suffocate.) Okay, gonna finish this up really quick so I can get my ass out to the hardware stuff for the proper fish care products. Man, I never knew I was in for so much pain-in-the-ass when I was catching these little fishies at the Kingyou-sui. -_-;; *sighs*

Oh, and Cocoa, you wouldn't happen to have a white trenchcoat, would you? >_> Just wondering. :x (cosplay ideas just never leave my head.)

You heard that right.
I have fishies.

I won them at the Kingyou-sui thing they had at the Tenjin Matsuri/Festival they had tonight. I got a goldfish and another black one with bulgy eyes, which I named Nemo and Dory. Naturally after getting them, it only took about five or ten minutes for me to do something stupid and spill Nemo (the goldfish) into my backpack.

Sam had to fish him out (*^_~) and put him back into the bag, whence I ran back to the Kingyou-sui place and they gave me more water. ^_^ Now they are happily swimming in a bowl on the windowsill. I hope they last until morning, at least, and that my labmates don't kill them by accident or something. :/

I should put a little sign next to the bowl that says, "Lisa's memorial fish. Please don't let them die." XD

So Tenjin Matsuri was awesome. Me and the rest of the guys had a blast, and it was great viewing the hanabi (fireworks.) American hanabi truly cannot compare to the Japanese hanabi. They had kitties! Kitties, I tell you!

Thanks to everybody and their kind words during my period of angst. ^_^ Especially my clone, who has been very helpful talking things through. *love to you all*

I suppose the situation has mostly resolved itself. Compromises happen. I hope I can trust the people I care about. I haven't been betrayed yet, but I'm bitter and cynical enough not to be surprised when it happens. *shrugs*

Oh well, the BoA music and Tenjin Festival today will cheer me up.

Saw Steamboy last night, the new Katsuhiro Otomo movie. I never knew that Steampunk was a genre, but I'll believe Mel when she tells me it sort of is. ^_^ <3 I thought the movie's plot was kind of weak, but I didn't care. It was pretty.

REALLY PRETTY.

SO FUCKING PRETTY. O_____O I kept looking at scenes and thinking about how long awesome it would be to make a layout of said scene. And there were a lot of scenes where I was thinking that.

Watch it, if not just for the prettiness and the kickass music.

(..and I'm missing TokiMemo already, I want to go out on a date with my dearest Sakuya-kun. <3 *lovelovelove*)

Skuld is mackin' on the men. XD
Or rather, she's macking on one man in particular: Morimura Sakuya, who is absolutely and totally adorable. ^_^ Especially when he's all blushy and uncomfortable. *lovelovelove*

So I spent Friday night at Mel's playing GGXX#Reload, which was pretty fun because I think I can finally use a stick (well, my stick at least) with confidence be able to do what I want to above chance levels. XD

Unfortunately I got a little bored with GGXX#Reload ('cause I can't remember any good combos), so Mel and I started playing TokiMemo (Tokimeki Memorial) Girl's Side. O_O And that was so addicting. XD

So hence, the guy above is who I'm trying to snag. He's voiced by Ishida Akira too! <3 *lovelove* I'm also going to create a new save file and run after Koyasu Takehito's character, Himuro-sensei. (Yes, he is a sensei. He's a hardass, unforgiving, strict teacher too. O_o;; But he's kind of cute and he is Koyasu Takehito.... so... ^_^ <3 not like I can give him up.)

Mel's going to go after Miki Shinichirou's character (the pretty playboy), and we'll have to see about getting the rest of them. ^_^ (Except for the sketchy guy who's like...20 years older than we are. O_O I'm not too opposed to megane, but I am not cool with mustache. >.<)

Anyways, gonna try to finish up TokiMemo Girl's Side if I can sometime this week at Mel's place. I'm a little under halfway through! 6 more hours and I'll have my man! ^_^ <3 Fwee!

(Oh, and on the subject of angst, if any of you guys want the long and juicy details, I suppose you'll have to e-mail me. ^_^;; Don't want to post a long rant here because you never know who might stumble upon this place. <_< >_>)

I'm a total ball of angst right now. Can't help it. Honest.

Feel free to ignore this post, if Skuld-angst is not one of your things. :x Also, feel free to mock me and my indecisiveness, and my inability to be able to tell what I really want.

Feel free to mock me because I'm too nice and I'm willing to give up a large part of my happiness for those of the people I care about.

God, this sucks. :/ Bleh.

There are some important questions that I need to work out for myself, some important questions that need to be answered before I can move on to the next stage of my life.

Thankfully I have a year to figure them out, and I wonder if I ever will find the answers.

I keep wondering what it is I want from the people I love, and whether or not it's all right, good, or correct for me to ask for unreasonable things. Or maybe they are reasonable. Maybe I'm just not as cool or as easygoing as other people are. Maybe I just see the world differently and I can't see it any other way even though I try.

I wonder if what I really want is good for me, and if it's okay to still want it even though I know it'll hurt me in the end.

Oh well.
All I want right now for it to be 6:30pm, so I'll be at Mel's place playing TokiMemo Girls' Side and the rest of her games, and busting out my Guilty Gear stick and whooping Kalvin and Sam's ass. ^_^

I don't think things will ever get bad enough that I can't put them out of my mind and pretend to be a different person.

I'm home free for the rest of my stay. I have everything worked out.

I still have to move out soon because of the stupid rule at my guesthouse of not letting guests say for more than 30 days at a time, but hopefully by then I'll have most peoples' packages sent out. (Including yours, Joel.)

So I've got all my hostels for Tokyo booked, I've got my shinkansen tickets (it was probably cheaper to take the plane, but I felt the need to take the shinkansen because you can't go to Japan and not take a shinkansen at least once), and other than tickets to Comiket, I can relax. ^_^ *happy shoujo bubbles*

On other absolutely wonderful news, I have a Knives! I want to jump around on my desk right now (yes, I'm still in lab, and yes it is 11pm), and sing my Legato songs. (Yes, they are Hamasaki Ayumi's "Moments" and "Memorial Address." I can't help being addicted to catchy, angsty J-pop.) Yaaaay! You have no idea how long I've been aching/longing/pining/praying for a Knives to come my way. Yes! Knives x Legato-ness! *happiest KxL fangirl evar*

(Okay, I think I did briefly get some KxL from the clone, but that was for pure comedic effect.)

This brings back memories of Otakon last year. Yes, I will now regale you, my dear readers, of my Otakon adventures last year.

...

Okay, I'll just tell you about the funny thing that Ali-chan and Jen did to me while I was in my Legato costume (which I am remaking for Anime Boston 2005. Otanoshimi!).

So this was back when I was still together with Omi and he was trying that summer to be able to make it to Otakon, but unfortunately he didn't have the funds, and thusly I was a lonely Legato without a Knives. I did spend some time around Ali-chan bemoaning my lack of a Knives (and my boyfriend). I did get glomped by the cutest girl who was cosplaying kid!Knives with her sister, who was doing kid!Vash. I found out that they were going to be Knives and Legato on Saturday, which made me even sadder, because waaaah! Even the siblings had the Knives/Legato thing down. I remember sniffling much, even though the Chai crack from the Starbucks was making me feel pretty good.

Well, as good as one might possibly feel in a Legato costume in the middle of the summertime. (Which isn't very.)

Anyways, so we're chilling outside (if it can be considered chilling, because it was way hotter and more humid outside than inside), and I'm sitting around, totally feeling this strange vertigo because I can't get used to my monocular vision (damn Legato and his hair-covering-eye thing!), and Ali-chan and Jen shove a whole bunch of plastic knives in my hand and go, "Look Skuld, now you have Knives!"

...I wish I had a picture of that. (I do, but it's back in Boston.) I had a silly grin on my face for nearly an entire hour, I thought it was so hilarious. ^_^ It was one of the best moments of this little Legato's life. :D Silly grin and all. (You can imagine how odd that looked.)

Anyways, yes, new and improved Legato version 2.0 coming out for Anime Boston (or maybe earlier if I get it done! :x) so stay tuned. >_>

But for now...it's nearly bed time. O_O;;

I think I can sleep a little easier. I'm a total organization freak. But hey, I gotta be, since I happen to be going to Tokyo when all of Japan will be around traveling home for Obon.

I've got my hostel in Roppongi (I'm in the middle of Roppongi! w0000t!) booked for six nights, and I've already bought my shinkansen tickets. All I have left to do is buy my Comiket tickets and my hostel for the day/night I'm staying over in Tokyo after I return from Beijing...and then I can coast for the rest of soujourn in Asia.

I can't believe it's near the end of July already. O_O Where has the summer gone? O_O Before I know it I'll be back in Boston starting my senior year and wondering where the past few months have gone and where I've been.

Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose. Or rather, time just flies in general. Especially when you're looking backward.

Just picked up the latest Shounen Magazine, so for all of you who are eager to see what's happening:

Chapitre 52 translation!

w00t, my translation career is off on a roll. XD Despite the fact that CLAMP will be taking a couple weeks of break with Tsubasa. *falls over* Man, no Tsubasa and no Naruto...what am I going to do? O_O

And I'm not entirely up on what's going on in Get Backers right now (too much to catch up on and I'm too lazy), but Kazuki just showed up...in a dress.

Yeah, he's actually wearing a dress this time. Nice Chinese chi-pao with a slit up the side. A really high slit.

...dude, Kazuki, no one's going to believe you're a guy now. >_> (Not that I mind, because you're mighty hot in it. :D Now all you need is a pair of tits and my hand will be under that slit in a flash. XD *pervert*)

...okay, that was my moment of hentainess. >_>
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

New layout! ^_^

It's actually het as opposed to my usual yaoi pairings or just plain prettiness.

I suppose this counts as prettiness.

...what is happening to my yaoi fangirl-self, putting up a het layout. O_____o
*gasp*

Anyways, there was nothing interesting that happened last night other than the fact that I stopped by the used CD/Book/Game near me, picked up GGXX #Reload so I can practice at Mel's place (she has a Japanese PS2! Whee!) and used copies of the maxi singles of BoA's Valenti and No.1. (Just wanted them for the karaoke tracks. Yes, I am crazy.) ^_^

So, huzzah! Unfortunately I think the next time I'll even get to karaoke at a con is sometime next spring (aside from what little I'll get in in Japan) around AniBos, which makes me very sad. ;____; *sniffle* Gonna have to decide what costume I want to be wearing for that too. (Something inside me is screaming Legato, and I am very unsuccessful at shutting it up. The other voice is shouting Sol, and that's not really all that better.)

Anyhoo, away with the useless chatter. ^_^ It's Wednesday, which means it's Shounen Magazine! day. :D Gonna go pick it up in a bit, so hooray for more Tsubasa!

I feel like such a pedophile reading Lagoon Engine. >_>
<_< It's about 12 year-old kids. Who are CUTE. Absolutely adorable demon hunters.

...and if it weren't for the fact that there was one very large panel of appropriately placed objects covering a naked Ayato I wouldn't feel so dirty.

...but I do, because I got an eyeful of nearly naked pre-pubescent super cute (I just can't bring myself to use the word 'hot') boy. *falls over*

You know who'd like this manga?
Ali-chan.

Instead of reading the paper in front of me, I am having a silent cow here at my desk over my future plans.

To put it simply, I'm not seeing much in my future after I graduate next summer. Senior year will fly by and before I know it I'll be standing in the hot sun of Killian Court while they read my name to me, and then I'll be an MIT graduate.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

That's just a year away. Of course, by the time that happens I'll have to have pretty much my next 4-8 years decided. O_O;; And I have to start that decision this fall.

My parents are really pushing hard for me to already have a list of graduate schools I want to attend, but I'm having a hard time deciding where to go. Or rather, what sort of place would be good for me.

All I know is that I want to study axon regeneration. Brain, spinal cord, whatever. I don't care. I just want to study regeneration. The question is where should I be doing this? This is something I WANT to do. But where? The only two major regeneration people I know about are Fawcett and Silver, who are at Cambridge University and Case Western respectively. While I like England, I don't want to spend my next 8 years there. Would kind of not be conducive to the move-in-with-girlfriend thing. I also really don't want to be stuck in Ohio, where Case Western is. As much as the clone would enjoy that, I would not. :/

Lisa Spirio, the nice girl I worked with last semester told me that Caltech is an awesome place to go, but do they have labs doing what I want to do? I also have a list of other "really good schools" but do any of them do what I want to? -_-;; *sigh* I really don't know. I really don't know what I should be doing, where I should be going, where I should be applying to...

...augh, there are too many things to worry about this fall (what classes am I talking? How am I going to get my web collective with Destra together? Are we finally going to work on our webcomic? When are the deadlines for grad school apps? When are the GREs? Which GREs should I take?), and I am one huge ANGST MONKEY right now.

Okay, one thing at a time. -_-;;

1) Finish reading paper in front of me
2) Start/Finish reading Lagoon Engine
3) Start/Finish reading Cowa! manga
4) Find One Piece 30
5) Tromp through Rex translation for BWYS
6) Slog through as much of Monster as I can

...
and here I am, being happily and obliviously carried off to hell in a handbasket.

Weekend pics are up!

Osaka at Night and Karaoke
Universal Studios

Cookie to whoever can name the song I'm karaoke-ing to in this picture.

Man, that was one hell of a weekend.
One hell of a weekend, I tell you.
The most fun and most tiring weekend I've had in Japan to date.

This entry's gonna be pretty long, so buckle up, keep your hands and arms inside the ride at all times, and ... itte rasshai! (Yes, that really is what they say to you on amusement park rides in Japan. ^_^)

So the weekend fun started off when I headed out of work/lab early (not like I was doing anything productice anyway) to Ebisu-cho/Den Den Town where I met Mel. She wanted to bum around and buy anime stuff, so we hit the Animate and the Mandarake. I haven't spent that much money on doujinshi in a long time. XD And she spent even more (probably because I convinced her to buy some ridiculously new/expensive HughesxRoy HagaRen stuff) money.

So my Friday doujinshi loot consisted of a few FF7 (all by Pure Hearts Club-F, such classics as "Oku-sama wa 16-sai!" and the collection "Blue Eyes Memory II"), a Gravitation Remix collection (Remix 5-8.5), and some Ma Chaox Zhou Yu Dynasty Warriors/Sangoku Musou doujinshi. (Dude, Dynasty Warriors doujinshi. how could you NOT pick that up?), as well as something that might have been KnivesxLegato but ended being MidvalleyxLegato instead. *sobsobcrycry*

I think I got some other doujinshi too, but I don't quite remember very well. O_O;; *sweatdrop* It's been a long weekend and feels like forever since I've actually bothered to take a peek at my doujin collection.

So after shopping Friday night, Mel and I went to have dinner, hung around on the Hep Five ferris wheel, and spent the rest of the night (and the subsequent morning) doing the karaoke-thing. We started off in Umeda, but that place didn't have as many songs as we liked, so we headed off to the karaoke place I know by Handai (short for Osaka Daigaku). I think I was totally hoarse by the end of two hours, but I bravely kept going because when my voice is gone, it's a lot easier for me to hit the tenor range. ^_^

So I finally got to karaoke to Hotohori's death song (yay, Fushigi Yuugi nostalgia) which I managed to pull off by hitting all the low notes (yay!), as well as sing a lot of X Japan ballads. I found that Mel was able to hit the high notes in Endless Rain, which was very impressive, because I don't think I can even do that when I have my voice. Never found a karaoke track for Hamasaki Ayumi's "Memorial Address" (which makes me so sad), but that's how life goes. (No, my precious Legato song! *cry*)

We headed back to my place at about 3:30am, and bummed around staring at our doujinshi until 4:30 when we crashed. Unfortunately we had to meet up at JR Kyoto station for Gion at 8am, which meant that we had to wake up by 6am and be gone and out of the room by 6:30. Met Joel there (who gets points for being on time), and David who had just come from Tokyo via Shinkansen, but Sam and Kalvin never did show up until later in the day when they had to navigate through Gion-packed Kyoto to find us.

Gion was overall not terribly impressive. The floats (yamahako, I believe they're called) were fun to watch, but unfortunately they moved very slowly (being actually towed by people on foot) and they all pretty much looked the same. Took a lot of pictures on Mel's camera though (because I'd left the batteries at home for my own), so you'll get to see them when she uploads them. Then we had some fun lunch, and went to bum around Kyoto.

This is where Joel really gets negative points. Joel likes to walk. For miles and miles. Which I suppose wouldn't be so bad if 1) Kyoto wasn't hotter than Osaka, and 2) I was running on less than 2 hours of sleep. So we walked around a bit before me, Mel, and Kalvin decided to pussy out, go home, and sleep. I got home right about 6:30pm, and proceeded to crash immediately until sometime around 8pm, wherein I had some combini bentou zarusoba for dinner and went to lab to bum internet.

Woke up at around 7:30am on Sunday so that we could head over to Universal Studios Japan (it's right in the Osaka suburbs). That was definitely a great day. We kicked it off by finding Snoopy ears at the entrance, so Mel and I each bought a pair and proceeded to wear them for the rest of the day. ^_^ Then we saw Rocky and Bullwinkle (yay! ^_^) and some of the Sesame Street characters (Ernie was chasing Bert around and giving him a hard time), which totally made our day.

Unfortunately all the rides were in Japanese, but we had a good time anyway, since it really doesn't take Japanese knowledge to enjoy the rides. ^_^ The highlights of the day were definitely: 1) Sam making hilarious faces for the Jurassic Park picture, 2) getting out asses wet on the water slide, and 3) the Shrek 4-D Adventure thing. The Shrek thing was by far the best, having kept most of the Shrek feel of it, despite being in Japanese. ^_^ Yay!

Anyways, I had a good time, and everyone else did too. We managed to it all the rides and all the shows we really wanted to, so we had a great day that was made even better by having dinner at 10pm at the Mos Burger. I don't know if there's Mos Burger in the US, but they are DAMN FUCKING GOOD. Almost as good as In-and-Out burger (no one will ever be as good as In-and-Out), but they are REALLY FUCKING CLOSE. O_O I need to eat at this Mos Burger thing more often. (They're expensive, but I don't care. They are soo good. ;_; *tears of joy*)

And the best line of the weekend happened in the one-hour line for Jurassic Park while we were on the subject of the intarweb:

Mel: Dude, there's everything on the Internet.
Skuld: Except for KnivesxLegato. ;_;
Mel: ...yeah, except for that.
Skuld: *cry*

Oh, so true.

So...the news for today is that I'm going to Seiji's house for dinner (yay, another ride on his motorcycle! :D *funfunfun*) and that the tickets for the August 9th Asian Kung-Fu Generation concert at Namba Hatch (*insert much sobbing here*) is sold out. (*insert more sobbing here*)

Nooooo~~~ I wanted to see them! *crycrycrycrycry*
I might have to go to Dir en Grey with Mel now! ;___; (Eeeww...Visual Kei is so 5 years ago. :/)

The clone has given the link to an awesome Guilty Gear 4-koma.

I love it muchly.

Too busy to blog right now, as I have to get up tomorrow and I've just spent about two hours bumming around online dealing with e-mails and stupid surveys (damn this obsessive compulsiveness!) ...

Let's just say that I am severely sleep deprived and that I probably won't be able to sing again for another month or so because my voice is so DEAD.

I do so much want to sing "Valenti."

More maybe when I get back from universal studios tomorrow.

My clone has gotten me hooked on bad j-pop. I usually like to say I listen to good j-pop like Hamasaki Ayumi but then I remember that there is no "good" j-pop. There's just "better than the usual shit" j-pop.

So yeah...I'm listening to BoA and I just can't stop. O_______O

I'm also smoking every day...and I can't stop that either. :/
Thank the Japanese for that.

Thanks to Big Hentai Mike (aka. BHM), I've got a cool linky to share with you guys.
Warning though, it's not entirely work-safe. >_> And it might scar some of you who were fond of Sesame Street as a little child.

Behold! The rumors were true after all. XD

So the weekend plans are:

Friday night: Bum around Osaka with Mel: shop, drink, eat, and karaoke. It doesn't get much better than that, folks.

Saturday morning: Gion Festival!

Saturday afternoon/night: Bum around Kyoto.

Sunday/Monday: Cominbation of maybe more Kyoto bumming, Universal Studios, more shopping, and hopefully lots and lots of sleep. ^_^

I like these plans. Especially the shop, karaoke, and sleep bit. :x

This might not be important for some of you, but it certainly is something that is of issue with me.

Check here to see how your senators voted on the Federal Marriage Amendment. Boo on Kerry for not voting :/ Oh well, it was defeat, albeit by a narrow margin, so I am glad. ^_^

On a somewhat gay tangent...I have to say that I absolutely adore Phi because not only is she seriously one of the cutest Sora cosplayers I know (I want to huggle you lots), she does amazing fanart. O_O
Like... Lantis and Eagle.

I should also probably plug her fanart in general because it is seriously gorgeous. O___O *love all over*

So...not much else to say right now, except thanks to Cocoa for blocking the spam on Movable Type. ^_^ Huzzah! *huggles Cocoa*

Oh yes, coolest shirt I've seen yet in Japan:

Front: Usopp's Jolly Roger
Back: Captain Usopp no Kaizoku-dan

Dude, I want be a part of Captain Usopp's crew. :D But since I have my Shirohige/Whitebeard shirt...
I am a member of Shirohige's crew. Yaaaaaay!! ^_^

and because I love Seishirou...

(Yes, I found out that there IS a scanner in the lab, and this is all I have time for tonight. Higher quality tomorrow night, maybe, so I can wank around with it for a layout. If anyone wants to send me your favorite manga scans of Seishirou and Subaru from X...PLEASE DO.)

Seishirou, Splash page of Chapitre 51.

Damn, wish I had a scanner so I could share the awesomeness of the Seishirou splash page. He's got his glasses and he's in the classic "pushing up glasses" pose, and looking for all the world like the older version of himself in X...except of course, he's not.

He's Tsubasa Seishirou who taught Shaoran how to kick ass, and he kicks more ass than anybody else in the manga, possibly with the exception of Kurogane. And he's searching for the secret to eternal life, so he can be with Subaru.

Dear god. *skuldgasms*

Alas, I have no scanner. -_-;; So you guys are gonna have to wait until someone else gets it out.

Until then...

Here's the translation of Chapitre 51, entitled "The Demon's True Self."

(Notes about translation: the word they're using is "mamono" which I have chosen to translate as demon. It literally means "magic being," but I picked "demon" anyway. It sounded better than anything else. ^^;;

Some stupid singles advertising shit just spammed my comments. >( *annoyed as hell* Oh well. They're all old entries anyways. *shrugs*

More moaning from me: god, I get annoyed/depressed/ticked off easily. Some people just know exactly which buttons to push and how to push them. Even when they don't mean to.

:/ I should just stop reading that person's blog and figure that if they have something important to tell me, they'll tell me.

More music crack for me, to make myself feel better. (Damn, J-pop is addictive. Even the bad stuff.)

And...I lucked out today and managed to snag the latest Shounen Magazine. Chapter 51 of Tsubasa's splash page has a gorgeous Seishirou. Oh yeah, baby. ^_^ (Still would like scans though, for archiving purposes...and to maybe wank around with that gorgeous shot of seishirou. XD)

I translated Chapitre 50 of Tsubasa. I can't figure out what the furry things are. O_o They must be from the few CLAMP manga I've never read, or they're actually Wizzu from D.N.Angel. ^^;; *sweatdrops*

Anyways, behold! Skuld's shitty translating skills!

Thanks to Shi for the scans. ^_^ Now that it's midnight, I'm going to go to bed. Without having done everything I wanted to/was planning to. >_>Like write some fanfic. Oh well. *sigh* Such is the life of a manga junkie/translator.

No playing with my stick tonight either. ._. Poo.

Because I was really itching to go around this weekend to Den Den Town and never got around to it, I had a little beginning of week adventure with Wallabee again. He's the sweetest guy around, and he's brave enough to try a lot of things I normally wouldn't do. (He also has 1337er joystick-fu than me, but we'll get to that a little later.)

LOOT
Get Backers: the planner. I couldn't resist. I've never been able to keep using a planner for more than two weeks for the life of me. Maybe staring at Ban/Ginji will make me want to pull it out more often.
One Piece: Finally got around to buying that Whitebeard/Ace T-shirt. It doth rock.
Trigun:more Toshimi Nigoshi doujinshi. Only one this time. And nope, still no KnivesxLegato. I'm beginning to think it doesn't exist except for in my head. O_____o
D.N.Angel: Gorgeous clear pencilboard. Couldn't pass it up.
Final Fantasy X: Finally got some FFX Jecht/Auron doujinshi for myself. Been shopping mostly for Amberlee. ^_^ I'll try to send her package out sometime tomorrow or the next day. :x

WANTED TO BUY
One Piece permanent cell phone decal thing
Pointless Gakuen Heaven idol cards and fans (thank god I refrained)
Random yaoi (I always want to buy random yaoi)
Cute Taiko no Tatsujin pins
More Trigun mini-busts, but I couldn't find the capsule shop again (a good thing, I think)
Guilty Gear Side Red and Side Black Drama CDs (So I can be lulled to sleep by the sound of Sol's heartbroken scream when Ky dies, and the nice little line that Ky has in Side Black, "omae ga ireba, anshin da." I'm having Skuldgasms already.)
Utena manga series (only 300 yen!)
Bronze manga series (only 600 yen!)

FUN
Played a medal game with Wallabee together. Watched him play pachinko. I don't understand the draw of pachinko, but whatever. ^^;; I do understand the draw of medal games though, and I might get addicted if it weren't for the fact they're ridiculously expensive.

NOTICE TO ALL JOYSTICKS IN LOCAL VICNITY
I am giving you the finger.
Yes, all of you.

NOT-SO-FUN
Getting ass whooped at Guilty Gear Isuka. I did manage to get into the dust loop, but I-ho shut me down with a burst. I think that was my only moment of kickass-ness the joystick would allow me, and it lasted for less than 5 seconds. *sob*

Thanks to me posessing negative joystick-fu (which is even worse than possessing no joystick-fu), I lost 11 rounds in a row. Didn't go for the magic number 12 because that would just have been too depressing.

How to remedy such a problem? No clue. -_-;; *sigh* Need to train to achieve joystick-fu, I suppose. :/ Wallabee told me to just break out my stick (my GGXX arcade stick, which stick were you thinking?) and get used the feel of rotating it even when I have no PS2 because it's all about not having to think about your movement. It's all about just doing the movement naturally.

Yeah, time to play with my stick.

XD I pray that it will give me more joy in the future. Like...Isuka skillz. *falls over* Of course, I suppose I was asking for it with Chipp. >_> (Should've gone for more dust looping. :/)

Wallabee has better joystick-fu than me. He started doing pretty well with Ky. I need to teach him the combos I used to be able to do when I was 1337 last summer. I can't believe that was over a year ago. Okeydoke Skuldy, get to work.

(Yeah, write that fanfic and study for them GREs. *head bang against wall* I also have an idea for a thesis. Not sure what to do about that until the summer's over. O_O I'll try not to think about it and let it ruin my fun.)

On the good news, Mel is here for, and we're gonna do some hanging out on Friday as a small welcome party. ^_^ Go Mel! *cheers* She also has internet at home because she's leeching off her neighbor's wireless, which would make me jealous if I had a wireless card. >_> (Well, I'm jealous anyway.)

Currently working on translating chapter 50 of Tsubasa, thanks to Shi, who sent it to me.

Started reading the Gakuen Heaven manga. (Yes, based on the boys love game.) It's abou Itou Keita who goes to an elite boys school called "Bell Liberty." (Which for some odd reason is abbreviated BL. *snorts with laughter*)

:/ The thing that rubs me the wrong way is that the two major heads of the school are called the King (Ousama) and Queen (Jo'ousama). (And the Queen, not only has a very gender ambiguous name, Saionji Kaoru, but given a pair of tits, would make one of the hottest women I have ever seen Yuu Higuri draw.)

Please Japan, can we get away from t3h heterosexuality in our gay? Please? Can we actually have MEN in our gay and not just surrogate women? Please?
*bangs head against wall*

There's also the fact that Keita is blatantly an uke. He's *gasp* younger and smaller than the rest of the cast! Dead ringer for crying uke if you ask me. *bangs head against wall* I am so sick of crying ukes.

Oh well, I guess I can't complain, it's the first time I've seen Yuu Higuri actually draw cock. :x Might consider actually translating it when Destra and I get our spoony website together.

I'll make myself feel better by listening to Raiko/Raico's "Raion" which totally owns me.

I've decided that in the name of all that is good, pure, and wonderfully Tsubasa (yes, I know some of you hate it. ;_; I lurves it muchly, despite how thin its plot devices are), I'm going to pimp out my services for the latest scans.

(Since I still haven't really found a reliable source for the weeklies. O_o I'm stuck on campus most of the days, and if they've sold out, I'm basically screwed. :/)

So here's my first offer:

Give me chapitre 50 in japanese, and I will translate as much of it as I can (usually somewhere around 99% of it) in 3 days or less. (Or at the very least turn out a summary.)
Same offer goes to other issues until I can haul my ass to the manga kissaten around here whenever it comes out. >)

So yeah.
Whoring myself out for more CLAMP. >_> Surprised yet?
(I think it was the Megane!Seishirou that finally did me in. Teenage Seishirou, blind in one eye, searching for Subaru, and kicking Kurogane's ass WITH GLASSES. Oooooohhhhh... <== sound of a Skuldgasm.)

PS. Bryan hates Sol. I'm tempted to make a pun about my soul/Sol crying somewhere deep inside me, but I shall refrain. >)

(ooh, that hurts me right here. *hand over heart*)

Oh yes, and my love has made the cutest little Friends Only banner for our RabuRabu journal. Go see it. :D (No, it's not her art...but umm... >_> It's still incredibly cute. <3)

One last thing...
I'm sick of my current layout, but since I am on a borrowed laptop I have no pretty pictures of my own to speak of. =_=;; I do *amazingly* have a lot of fonts and Photoshop 7 though...so if anyone has a picture they're dying for me to use as a layout, send them my way.

Since Tokyo-Tower.Org was timing out earlier today, I put all my blogginess upon my Livejournal.

Here's the crosspost:

Woke up at about 12:30pm after a nice rest. Can't remember what I dreamed about but..

I'm going to squee about my Get Backers artbook some more. (It's called Tsuiya illustrations or something like that.) It's seriously got ALL the Get Backers gay you've ever seen. I wish my kanji was better, so then I could read what all the comments from the artists and stuff said. Especially on that pic where Ginji is wearing no pants.

Yessiree, you heard me right. There's a picture of Ban and Ginji where Ginji is wearing no pants. As if that wasn't gay enough, his shirt is ripped up, Ginji and Ban are in chains, and Ginji's holding Ban's hand, which is conveniently placed at his navel to give Ginji the handjob of his life.

Fangirl SQUEE. ^_^

There's also the picture from the infamous poster... XD You know, the one where they'd actually be fucking if it weren't for the fact they had clothes on.

Like I said...FANGIRL SQUEE. (This is very quickly going to be my favorite artbook ever. XD)

anyways, today's loot from the K-Books store in Shinsaibashi (apparently the store is only Jouseimuki....XD *dances around*)...

5 Guilty Gear doujinshi (mostly SolxKy, one gag from Bombers, which is quickly becoming my favorite GG circle XD)
1 FFX doujinshi (Window of Crow by D-AMB aka. Chitose Piyoko, who is the only AuronxTidus I'll read. >_>)
1 Harry Potter doujinshi (HarryxDraco. :/ There was barely any HPxDM. :x I'm disappointed in you, Japan. You know there's something wrong when there's more SiriusxHarry than HPxDM. I frown in your general direction.)

and 1 Yubinbasya ZackxCloud FF7 post card set. O_o;; Hella expensive, but hella worth it. Should've bought the other one. :/ I bet I could make a profit off it by selling it on Ebay.

Not much to say about yesterday I suppose other than the fact that I met up with Wallabee and we had an awesome day together playing all sorts of games and trying out things we never would have done alone. Pays to have friends in Japan. ^_^ *grins*

Also pays to have skillz, but unfortunately you need to pay to get those. >_>

Anyways, might try to play Isuka more, but since I suck horrendously on the joystick (still have no idea how exactly you guys tell exactly where in the circle you are when you play) I might just head down to Shinsaibashi today for the K-Books.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Oh, and since I'm in a rather dark mood despite the happy music (must be the hunger), here's a little survey thing from DJ Ecstasy.

Yes, it's almost 4am and I still here at lab after having run a movie marathon (the Matrix, Memento, Reservoir Dogs).

Three interesting things that happened to me today:

1) Got ass horribly whooped at GG Isuka. Surprised? No, actually.
2) Gave into my dark desires and bought the You're Under Arrest/Get Backers artbook. Why? It has all the Get Backers gay you could EVER ask for. Get everybody loves the Get Backers gay. *squee*
3) I am now addicted to several types of music games. (Mainly Pop'n and Taiko no Tatsujin. D'oh!)

oh and someone tell me...

How do I approach a guy who's just whooped my ass (who can start dust loops from across the fuckin' screen) and say, "PASS ONTO ME YOUR 1337 SKILLZ, MASTAH!" in Japanese without sounding weird?

And lastly...

=_=
My GGXX arcade stick is lonely. Someone ship me my fucking PS2 and my GGXX or I am going to FUCKING EXPLODE RIGHT NOW! *sobs*

At my professor's behest I am taking tomorrow off. Okay, well, he didn't quite ask me to slack off, but he did say that I might be able to travel more if I took weekdays off. I really ought to start doing that. ^_^ I don't have much time left in Japan, and I am sorely going to miss it.

Anyways, I'm going to bum around Umeda tomorrow, as it seems in the Daimaru Ekimae buildings there are arcades on the bottom floor...and my good net-friend in Toyonaka (soon to be RL friend, I hope), Wally, has found DDR Extreme (oh my god it's been so long!), a bunch of other Bemani games (ParaPara, IIDX, Guitar Freaks, Drummania, Taiko no Tastsujin) and (and and and *squee*) GUILTY GEAR ISUKA there.

I am SO going.
RIGHT FUCKING TOMORROW.
Even if I show up there and act like a Totally Clueless Gaijin (tm), I can count on my cute looks and my girlie flirtiness to get the guys at the arcade to help me out and pass onto me their mad skillz!

w000000000000~~~~~

This is going to RULE. *bouncybouncybouncy*

Oh, and speaking of Guilty Gear Isuka...take a look at the Boxart for Isuka. Okay, maybe it's just me, Ed, and Roni on crack...
but doesn't it look like Sol and Ky are wearing makeup? =_=
(Especially blush and lipstick. O_o This is definitely Daisuke Ishiwatari telling us that Sol and Ky are GAY. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. Or Daisuke's smoking the same we are. Which actually....doesn't change the gayness.)

Isuka tomorrow or bust.
*bouncybouncybouncy*

SolxKy lemon, some experimental second person. (I normally don't like second person, but I think second person works best for stream of consciousness, which I am very, very fond of.)

Check it out here

^_^

That's all for the morning.

I HAVE MONEY! ^_^ Whee! Hooray for fat living stipend!

Who loves nattou?
Skuld loves nattou!

And she'll miss her rotten soybeans (or whatever beans they are) sorely when she goes back to the states. *sniffles*

Hey, anybody want to give me back issues of Tsubasa? I didn't see it on the 31st issue of Shounen Magazine, which was very odd. O_o; I don't think I could have missed it or picked the wrong magazine. (Shounen magazine also runs Get Backers, yarou?)

Anyways, I'm missing chapter 48, and anything 50 or above. (I think 50 is this week?) Someone please hook me up with scans of 48 (Japanese raw preferred). I hate it when I miss issues. >_> (I suppose I could haul my laptop to a manga-kissa and read it there, but I have yet to find one. ^^;;)

Yeah. o____o I need Tsubasa like it is t3h crack.
...wait, it is t3h crack. ^^;;

New Harry/Draco fic you all, hopelessly fluffy because I decided that my Harry/Draco pair needed hopeless fluff for fluff's sake. ^_^ <3 *squee*

I posted it up at the The Pit of Voles but you can also read it at rose.is.rain.

Okay, that's one fic finished. I can't even begin to count how many more I have left...

Here's a little mini-prediction from Skuld about Tsubasa:

Seishirou will die. Subaru will kill him.
The fangirls will cry, and CLAMP will be laughing for a very, very long time.

That is all.

DISCUSS.

Spent all of Sunday not doing much. Talked a lot online with The Lovely before hauling ass off home to read manga and books, and write massive amounts of fanfiction.

I guess I never learn, because I'm in the middle of several fics which I haven't finished yet, and there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to get them done. I suppose I could stay up late, but then I miss my fun cracked out dreams (like driving around in a Mini Cooper through a huge shopping mall with Harry Potter in the passenger side because he was late on a date with Draco) and I miss fun cracked out sleep (in which I have dreams that I'm beating people up by throwing oversized gobstoppers at them), which is very nice in large amounts because I *groan* have to get up at 9 every morning. (Oh, the pain.)

So yeah, finished Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. Hmm...my opinion of it? Not particularly memorable. :/ Kind of ho-hum-ish. Oh well. You can tell he's really jaded and bitter about his experience in Vietnam.

Anyhoo, finished with two books out of the four that I bought, now I'm reading a collection of Hemingway's short stories My Preciousssssss gave me, and trying to decide whether I want to start Ringworld or Foucault's Pendulum. Probably the former, as it is smaller and easier to carry around and take out on the subway.

In the meantime, I will be churning out bits and pieces of fic I will hopefully complete before I leave Japan. (*insert one big YEAH, RIGHT here*)

Stuff to do this week: I dunno, beats the hell outta me. I'm done with my presentation, I guess it's wait until the experimental data comes in.

Oh yes, and despite the fact that my dear friend Asphodel is an HP/SS fangirl (I have to admit that the HP/SS fic I'm beta-ing for her is really fucking awesome...so far =_=), she agrees with me on Remus. (This is probably because we've both ridiculously been influenced by Mauo, and by each other ^^;;)...

but yeah, hah. XD *shakes angry fangirl fist*

And one last thing: Tsubasa 6 drives me insane, because the LAST chapter they have in there is where you finally meet Seishirou (he's kinda been hanging around in the shadows with lots of sakura around him for the previous chapters), which is news that is at least two months old.

They should print the tankubon faster. ;_; Because I"m reading it too fast, and also because I'm fucking behind. >( *sigh* Time to buy the weeklies.

Skuld's Saturday:

LOOT:
- Raico Alive single
- GGX AnjixChipp doujinshi (had to get it because it was called "Kiss My Ass" which I can totally see Chipp saying. XD)
- One Piece id/pass holder (it was cheap! I couldn't resist!)

WISHFUL LOOT
- Taiho Shichau Zo/Get Backers artbook (done by same anime artist, obviously the manga artists are different. I was TRYING SO HARD not to drool at the picture, but they put EVERY SINGLE gay Ban/Ginji picture in there...including several ones I had never seen before. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, I WANT IT! ;___;)
- Get Backers shiny Ban/Ginji poster. (Yeah, that one that sold out within a week of first publication. Dammit, I can't get a poster because I can't take a poster home. If it's still there next time I'm going to get it and send it home in a tube or something.)

Somehow, I managed to spend less than 2000 on loot today. How fucking amazing is that?

Skuld's Day
- bummed intarweb off lab
- went to Umeda, bought Spiderman 2 premiere tickets
- went to Shinsaibashi, found the Book Off but not the K-Books
- went to Den Den Town, bought stuff
- went to Umeda and watched Spiderman 2
- went home, bought some bentou noodles
- went to lab, hung around and discussed jouseimuki and danseimuki, cosplay, and sailor fuku fetishes with labmates
- blogging now

Happiness fulfilled
- Good Music: Raico Alive single CD.
- Good Company: Discussing things with labmates
- Good Food: Well, I guess the bentou noodles weren't so bad...and I only paid 300yen for them.
- Doujinshi: GGX AnjixChipp. XD Haven't looked at it yet, but it's AnjixChipp, which is pretty hard to find.
- Merchandise: One Piece id/pass holder. ^_^
- Sol Badguy: hearing Dashboard Confessional's "Vindicated" at the end of the Spiderman 2 movie. That song is such a Sol song, as the precioussssss Roni introduced it to me about 2 weeks ago.

SPIDERMAN 2
The Good: Tobey McGuire is amazingly cute. He's so perfect as Spiderman. Of course, I have never seen a superhero with that much angst, but I guess that's why I like him so much. I'm a sucker for conflicted heroes. (And for conflicted anti-heroes who despire heroes...like Grendel. XD) All in all, it's a really awesome movie. Oh yeah, and Bruce Campbell is still in it, of course, which made me want to cheer when I saw him. Go Bruce Campbell!

The Bad: Dear Sam Raimi, whoever you and your producers hired to work out the science in your movie needs to shot in the balls. Next, said person needs to be dragged into a dark alley and shot multiple times in the head. Get another science advisor, preferably me. While I don't have a physics degree, I do go to MIT which is infinitely better than whoever you hired to your shoddy work for you. I can most certainly can tell you everything you need to know about Dr. Octavian's tentacle-rape-arms and about the necessary brain anatomy and function which you completely fucked up. I also know better ways of putting out a nuclear fusion reaction, and I think you're interpretation of a large scale nuclear reaction was completely silly and unscientific.

The Ugly: The take home lesson - Remember kids, whenever you need to stop a nuclear fusion reaction, just drown it in water. Grab your hose and have a field day.

Coolest moment of the day: when "Vindicated" came on. I got total Sol vibes. This moment is also tied with "Tobey McGuire in glasses <3 ...he looks like a grown-up version of Harry Potter. XD ..." and then you don't want to know where the thoughts went from there. This moment also ties with "O_O Ban/Ginji LURVE.) If it weren't for the fact that MIT hasn't payed me my living stipend for this month, I would so have that artbook and poster. RIGHT FUCKING NOW and I would be huggling it and wuggling it.

And now I leave you with the following words:

この傷を無駄にしないで
笑って歩ければいい
この悲しみも風に変えて
強く進んでいければいい。

I am a simple person. Simple things make me happy.
Observe:

Sol Badguy = Happiness
Good Music = Happiness
Good Company = Happiness
Good Food = Happiness
Doujinshi = Happiness
Merchandise = Happiness

Since I have none of these at the present, I really should go remedy that. God, I'm whiny. Someone come and smack me upside the head.

So the presentation didn't go too badly today, but aside from the powerpoint slides I was actually very unprepared with my talk, so I think I could've done better there (but was too lazy to. ^^;; Go me, for half-assing important shit -_-).

Loving a cool Boston band called "Six Day Slide" right now. They're mainstream-sounding, but I love their lyrics. ^_^ I was listening to them last night when all of a sudden I got huge Sol vibes from them. O_____O *lovelovelove* So the Sol bunny has resurrected and is currently bouncing about. It has unfortunately made me inspired for a long Sol fic, and as everyone knows with the ongoing projects of my Naruto fic (where the Naruto bunnies go? Nobody knows.), my Legato fic (Legato bunny comes back and makes appearances occasionally), and other things I'm doing...I REALLY do not need a long project I may never get finished. *falls over* =_=;;

Stupid muses coming and going...and never coming back.

Omi, now I know how you felt.
God, I am so sorry. ;_; Guess it's a little too late for that. ^_^
*hugs*

AkaiSakura just invited me to a Gackt concert, but I don't think I'm going to be able to go. -_-;; It's Friday, and I don't think I'm going to be able to go all the way from Osaka to Yokohama since I am a little short in the money department since MIT hasn't payed me yet. >( Dude, where's the rest of my living stipend? O_o I need money now. ;___;

Gomen to Janet, no Gackt for me. ._.

Oh well, nothing much planned for this weekend, but it seems the next weekends from here on are gonna be busy. The 49 Oyakushi temples that Sam, Kalvin, and I are trying to hit are gonna cost a whole shitload of money...especially since I think I've only been to like...4 or 5 or something. =_=;; *sweatdrops* Not to mention that two of them are at Koyasan in Wakayama prefecture, and pretty much require an entire weekend's trip. There's also the Onsen in Hyogo prefecture, which is once again a weekend's trip. >_> That's two weekends out already, not counting this one which will be devoted to amusement parks on Sunday, and probably nothing on Saturday as I am way to poor to go out much. (Still might make a trip to Den Den Town though, because I just can't resist the temptation of more doujinshi.)

Kinda feel melancholy now, really disconnected from everyone. I guess it can't be helped. I wonder if things around me really are falling apart, or whether it's just because I'm so far away here in Japan. Sometimes I do things, like really try hard to keep in touch with everyone, but I'm always wondering whether or not what I'm doing is right, because after I finish, it just all felt wrong and I'm left back at square one.

Called Roni today, and I'm glad I got to hear her voice. ^_^ I've missed it so much. Much love today also goes out to Destra, who is definitely one of my best friends. I missed her last year, but she'll be rooming with me next year, and that is going to be a blast. She knows what I'm going through, and I think she's weathered a lot of the same doubts that I have right now. She's always been a great support for me no matter how sad or bratty I'm being, and I really appreciate her unending cheerfulness, porniness, and always, her smile and her wonderful company. She's always been the first to tell me, "You're pretty" when I'm sad, and always the first to give me a hug, and I really appreciate her as a friend. ^_^ *hugs Destra* (Will e-mail you later tonight after I finish panicking over my presentation. ^_~)

And to all my friends, and all the people who I really want to get to know better, here's to my senior year, where I will be once again killing myself with classes. Except this time, I get to kill myself over grad school too. ^_^ Huzzah.

Huggles for everyone who still cares about me, everyone who still tries to keep in touch despite how shitty I am at things like that.