Sunday, October 1, 2006

Okay, got it
I've finally come up with a sticker design I would be proud to display, if I could. Depends on if the teachers would allow me to show it or not. XD

Anyways, here's the unofficial catchphrase/logo for our band's New York City trip.

And with that, there are 38 days until New York. =)

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By the way, that stick-figure movie I was telling you guys about two posts ago - I presented on Friday, and it was a huge hit. XD What happened was that the class was so entertained, people didn't even take notes. At the end, when it was my "recap" time, I made the frames go too fast (to write, not to read), so I had to go through and pause it at the frames. ^^;;

I've been trying to upload it to YouTube (with some slight credit modifications, of course), but three times, I've received an "INTERNAL ERROR 500" message. -_- Even their monkey joke isn't amusing me anymore. ;\

After I presented, kids in the class were ashamed of their presentations, and the ones who hadn't gone (half the class, really) said they wanted to go home and re-do theirs completly. ^^; Aiyanna went after me, saying "There's no way I can compete against Kat..."
Haya wants to know how to make the kind of movie I made. Oi. o.O

While I was setting up the computer, our teacher asked what I used to make the movie. Photoshop, my graphics tablet, and Windows Movie Maker, of course. Aiyanna piped in, "Yeah, Kat makes websites", to which the teacher replies, "Really? How much do you charge?'

o_o;;
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Thursday, September 28, 2006

Wootness!
Today during band, Struyker announced the Broadway play we're seeing in New York.

"Tickets for 'The Lion King' were, like, $165 a person, adding more money onto your trip. So I said thanks, but no thanks.
"'Les Mis' was sold out, since that weekend is it's opening weekend."

Clarinet player: "Come see ours in the spring!"

"Yeah! So...we're going to see..."

Band: *on the edge of their seats*

"...'The Producers'."

Fangirls: "YAAAAAAY!"

And yes, I was amongst them. XD It won't be the same without Matthew and Nathan, but it'll still be awesome to see it. =D
My oboe protege was like, "What's that?" All I had to do was sing, 'Springtime, for Hitler, and Germany~", and she knew what I meant. xD

40 days until New York.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Wooh, art
It's the third day of homecoming week, so today was class color day. Sophomores were green. And I wore the magical green jeans. XD

What was great about today was that any emo kid was a freshman. Freshman color was black. Heh.

I'm currently working on my first video-animation-thing for AP U.S. History class. I'm comparing colonial art to today's art...hopefully.
So, until Tuesday, I had no idea how to present it. But then I was inspiried by "The (Condensed) Count of Monte Cristo", which bellpickle had up on her myOtaku last week...or something.
Which means I'm drawing up stick figures. -_-;;;

My humor is bad, though. I think. Or not. XD
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Sunday, September 24, 2006

This will soon be the longest post since my ACen '06 report...
_________________________

Sangome sayz: "I'm loved? I'M LOVED! BY GUM I'M LOVED! MY LIFE HAS MEANING NOW!

"...Granted, I insult alot, though it woulda been nice if you read a comment where I was MEANING to be sarcastic. *cough*

"But, wait, Ichigo said he loved me...but what about Katana?

"Oooooh, I smell a duel."

SomeGuy repliez: "It's easy to love Sangome. She's just cool like that. She gets five million bonus points for getting a comment read and for it not being a "look at teh n00b omg lolz" comment reading."

Lady Katana addz: "Ichigo is a player. He loves you, me and so many others, Sangome. A heartbreaker, that one."

Wolf Demon Akuzmi insertz: "Now there's a love-triangle-ish-thing! IchigoXSangome WilderX Katana! This is going to be good... *grabs popcorn and front row seat to watch what happens*"

Katana spamz: "He loves me more, obviously. I came first, I had more comment readings. And I'm just awesome like that.

"...Wooh, I smell another crack anime parody coming up! HERE WE GO!

"Ichigo, a normal guy in his twenties... Sangome, an English teacher... Katana, a freelance writer... Their lives collide one fateful snowy day...
--Many hours of rambling episodes later...--
Who will Ichigo choose? His first love, or the second?

"'cept this time, neither one of us is dead.

"AND, the correctly triangle would be Sangome X Ichigo X Katana. I'm not into the whole "yuri" thing, and neither is Sangome."

--Updated--

Sangome sayz: Katana: He loves me more, obviously. I came first, I had more comment readings. And I'm just awesome like that.

"The proves nothing. How? I have a perfect example...ladies and gents, I bring you the Trisha x Hohenheim x Dante love triangle! As Hohenheim vehemently states in the anime, he loves Trisha, and only Trisha, even though he had that fling with Dante, and had a kid with her! But oooooooh, he loves Trisha more, and had TWO children with her! (Both of which are chased after daily by fangirls). So, who's pwning who now, hm?

"And yeah, Katana's right. Sangome x Ichigo x Katana, for neither of us are into the yuri thing. Or hentai. Or yaoi. *killed by fangirls*

Lady Katana: Actually, Katana, I'm referring to a slip Ichigo made back in my personal comment section on one of my blog posts. So you could actually include me and call this a "love square." XD

"Oh no, it doesn't end there. For you see, I am a fangirl over the afformentioned Hohenheim. Hohenheim had/has feelings for Dante, and of course, there's Trisha. So, now we got ourselves...a love...what's the word for a seven-sided thing? Octagon? No, wait, that's eight...

"Oh, what a TANGLED web we weave. :D"

SergeantTickles reportz: "WAIT! This just came in! Sangome and Katana are competing for the love of our podcasters!!! More on this if I ever feel like it!"

Shanfan blurbz: "Oh, boy this could get ugly...*grabs popcorn*"

bellpickle mutterz: "...So does Ichigo have a harem now? *is somewhat confused by all this*"

SomeGuy pointz: "I think it's only the two of them, so technically it's not harem just yet.

"We're only on the cusp of shounen Inuyashacity; we've still a way to go for full blown out Love Hinaism."

Katana shoutz: "And in counterence of your "Dante and Trisha" theory, I present to you, my OWN theory, based also on Fullmetal Alchemist!

"Of COURSE, Hoenheim and Dante had a fling and produced one baby, but Hoenheim and Trisha had two babies, right? Right.

"Ichigo has only read one of your comments (you Dante you!), but he's read three of mine (I, Trisha, pwn j00!).
"I'm younger than you, too. Major selling point.

...

"One must realize that we're vying for the attention of a man probably about ten years older than us. What the **** are we thinking? o.O"
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

A good thing or just evil?
You know the featured wallpaper for today? Removed.

Why? I reported it for blatant plagerism. (The creator on DeviantArt made the now-famous 'Problematic Children' piece for Naruto).'

I think what upsets me most about this is how bad the selection process for the featured things are. While the fanart is of high quality, the cards and wallpapers aren't. (Cosplay is something I won't get into for the sake of itself.)
It's irritating, annoying, and degrading to see something that a person made in three seconds be the featured piece, while something made by...me...hasn't got a chance. I've put tons of effort and time into some wallpapers, and I try to make the cards look nice. But then somebody comes along with their plagerised items, MS Paint, pixely pices, and get spotlighted for it. Ugh.

I've been featured in that box twice, though. Once for greeting, on Valentine's Day (it was Azumanga Daioh, and a card for friends), while the other was my Haruko cosplay for ACen. Unfortunately for the card, it was up back in the day where you were lucky to have your piece featured for more than two hours. Bleh.
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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Whatta week
Yes, I'm becoming a note whore, just for today...hopefully.

- So...Bleach and Trinity Blood. I'm probably gonna continue watching them, unless they do the turn like s-CRY-ed, in which I stopped watching it at, like, episode 12. >.O I've fallen in love with the music for Bleach, and the character designs in Trinity Blood are gorgeous.

- I've been thinking of cosplay ideas for ACen 2007. After a long chat with Haku, I sorta settled on Hinata Hyuga for now. I could pull her off, if all I need to do is dye my hair purple. XD I'm hoping that new characters will be introduced to me through animes and mangas before the next con. My main goal is to not have to buy a wig this time. ^^;;

- Boo and I were chatting (again) yesterday, and while I was listening to Avenue Q, we made up some parodies of the songs. The first one, based on track 2 "What Do You Do With A B.A. In English?/It Sucks To Be Me" has been cleaned up, and is now posted up in our new cracked thread, OtakuBoards: The Broadway Show! Click if you ph34r.
Songs soon to come (after being cleaned up and edited slightly): "Schadenfreude" and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist".

- School is full of ups and downs. While I'm enjoying geometry (GASP), honors American literature, German 2, band, art, and health (more GASP), I'm really not feeling too hot about AP U.S. history and chemistry. History is one of those "we never discuss, you book learn everything, plus essays, projects, and crap". Chemistry is...just boring. >_>

- Current grades include a 100% in geometry (^^;;), a 98% in German, a 100% in band, and an 82% in chemistry. -___-;;

- Still don't own FMA volume 9. I haven't gone to the bookstore since the carwash with Haku in which I bought D.Gray-man volume 2. xD

- Gonna steal the FMA movie from a friend of mine. He had the booklet with him on the bus, so I got to see anime-fied Hitler. Good times.

- I'm inundated with website/graphic projects. Here's the list thus far:
+ High school band website
+ 'Dracula' playbook cover/posters
+ 'Dracula' T-shirt graphic
+ Upcoming band concert graphics
+ Middle school band website
In the very least, I'm getting free oboe lessons for doing the middle school one. XD

- Dr. Kei, I'm going nuts over the waiting. o_o

- Ah yes, bellpickle. You were the only one who commented on my deleted post. Just remember not to blab it, because thus far, you're the only identified person to know. Got it? ^_~

- 52 days until the New York City trip. =D
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Monday, September 11, 2006

Remberance
Five years ago, four planes were hijacked. Two crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York City. One hit the Pentagon. And the fourth flight fought back - the passengers making their way to the cockpit and crashing in a field in Pennsylvania.

A moment of silence at school sent many into tears.

It's a painful day to look back upon. The world has evolved into something amazingly different from a mere half decade ago. It's an event that, for people in their teenage years, has changed their lives and shaped their futures. We lived half our lives before that day...now we've lived half more.
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Sunday, September 10, 2006

Of Tablets and Dracula
I finally got my graphics tablet yesterday. *squee* I came home from NIU Band Day, and there the package was, right on the kitchen table! That made my day.

It's made by Manhattan, and measures out so that the active tablet is 8x6. I remember, while researching for tablets, to be careful as to how big the tablet would be, because sometimes the measurement meant the entire thing, not the active area. But this wasn't the case~! The whole thing is probably 12"x12", give or take.

And besides an annoyingly stupid incident (on my part) that involved cracking the top casing on the pen, it works perfectly fine. After a few minutes, I was able to synch up with Photoshop quite easily. Agh, I love it.

'Dracula' is the upcoming autumn play at my high school. While last year I designed the playbill cover/posters for the fall play and spring musical, this year I've been weighted with one more thing...designing the T-shirt graphic. o.o As told by my junior friend Erin (playing in the now-female role of Dr. Van Helsing), the senior girls who ordered the shirts from previous years are gone now, so it's been unofficially decided that I design the graphic for that too. It was secretly known that people generally hated how the shirts looked, since the graphics were often lame/boring/overused.

And when I say 'unofficially', I think a commitee of two or three people, with no knowledge to the higher-ups, decided I should design it. >.O

And when I say 'higher-ups', I mean the chorus teacher and my band director. >_>;;

I have a rough idea for the playbill cover: "Dracula" with his cape billowing off, overlayed with a black layer, and the information inside the cape. And so far, the best image I found is one of Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. XD
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Thursday, September 7, 2006

o\~Everyone's a little bit racist, it's true, but everyone's just about as racist as you~/o
I've accidentally gotten Haya hooked on Avenue Q. Whenever we walk together in the hallways, we sing some song or another. Popular choices include "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist", "Purpose" and "The Internet Is For Porn". We've also began singing random lyrics from "If You Were Gay", particuarlly the parts that go Because you see, if it were meeee, I would feel free to say - that I was gay - but I'm not gay. XD Just because we can.

With the exception of AP U.S. History, I'm doing quite well in school. (Not much has really happened in history, though we had an awesome debate today.) I never thought I'd say this, but I'm loving geometry (GASP!) and health. Honors American Literature has been a bit slow, but I'm glad that we're out of "The Scarlet Letter". Dear gawd I hated that book.

In band, I was afraid of losing my first-chair position to the freshman, Lauren. But after a week, I'm doing fine. I also managed to strike a deal of free oboe lessons from the new middle school director - an oboe player herself. =D On my side, I just have to put together the middle school website. Basically, if I can get the content, I can make the site.

I just forgot everything I was going to say.
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Sunday, August 27, 2006

Rant, Rant, Rant
Because three is not enough. I've also been bumped to be Ichigo's favorite commentor. =)

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Rant time. Warning: The following was written in a time where Katana couldn't think to well. So yeah.

I've noticed an annoying and I suppose disturbing trend in greetings and wallpapers. A lot of the ones I've seen (in other words, the "featured" ones) have been full of fanart.

The sheer amount of pieces that use fanart is disturbing, because it is quite obvious that the fanart isn't the creator's work.
For example, one of the wallpapers featured last week (or so) had a whole slew of Naruto and Hinata fanart. The main focal point was a fanart seen everywhere across the internet. Now, either that person is everywhere, or people are just ignorant of palgerism.

I find it incredibly amusing that the sections Adam is aiming to make the point of theOtaku - the art and graphics sections - are the ones full of palgerism. Wallpapers and greetings are just full of them. Remember, there is a difference between "stock pictures" and "fanart".

Could you plagerize an article? It's nigh impossible.

Back in the day when fanart wasn't pouring in by the thousands, I would go through and look at some things...if I felt like it. I remember reporting quite a few pieces that had been ripped from somewhere else. At one point, one of the fanarts was over at InuyashaWorld.com, and it was either a winner or a runner-up in a contest.
Now, before going report-trigger-happy, I investigated this person's myOtaku and everything. Not a word was said about them ranking high in a contest at a popular website. So I reported the piece.

Greetings, although not a major offender, are still littered with plagerized fanarts. Wallpapers are by far the worst.

I've gone through pieces where a person has gone, "I've got permission from the original creator", but those are faaaaaar and feeeeew. You know what I found the most hilarious? When a person posted up another's fanart, saying they had permission to do so. >_>

What is one to do? I want to know what you guys think. =3
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