Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Phew. The network was down for a few days and it drove me nuts. No internet at all. *sob* At least my grandma kept me busy all day at the mall on Monday. I stocked up on footwear for school, which starts basically the 23rd (two days of orientation). I find it so hard to believe that high school is so close! Where did the time go? I can;t wait though. Even if it's tough... it'll be different, and that's what matters to me after St. John's. 8 stinkin' years, jeez.

I'm rethinking my ideas about college. At first I was figuring I probably wouldn't go at all. But now I'm thinking that maybe I'll do some time at an art and design college, study Japanese, and then go to Japan for some college there. At one of the panels at Otakon I heard about the university in Kyoto (I think it was Kyoto...) that has a course on manga, as well as all the usual college stuff. Also, I think I'll take a year off after high school, to get a job and so forth, and get some rest from school.

Thank heavens for Microsoft Outlook. Now I can function with my email. Yeesh. Comcast really needs to get in shape. The site's slowed down tremendously lately, and there's some kind of glitch going on when you want to send an email... I told y'all about this already, didn't I?

My mom expects me to have my office cleaned up by Friday. This is a problem. Any and all encouraging words are greatly appreciated.

Chinese Sims sites rock. If you're interested, try Chinafan and Sunair. Great anime skins at Chinafan. Hikaru No Go, lovely Inuyasha skins... Count D! Just trust me.
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Saturday, August 7, 2004

I have a truffle. It's part of my retirement fund...
*big stretch* Ah, life is good. Got a new vol. of Gravi, got me some super-awesome models to fool around with (I've added VHD to my ever-so-slowly-growing collection). I finally got my birthday presents, too (what has it been, two months?). I got a $25 gift certificate for Amazon! WHOO! More CDs shall be mine... Domo arigatou gozaimasu, Raisa!

And Nick is back, as EraableArtist, on this site-ness. Just thought you might like to know. Or not, but I told you anyway, so HA HA!

My shading skills are getting better and better all the time. I remember when I didn't know squat about how to shade. I also remember lots of times, vountless times, when I was too lazy to shade. But it's important for color works, so I better get good at it if I want to use my NeoPiko markers often, which I do. They are so cute, with the little kitty! Oh yeah, also got two Tachikawa manga pens from my mom, so no more dipping for me! It's cartridges all the way now! Though I'm still using my bottle of white ink. Duh.

I like tortilla chips.

I'm stuck in Baldur's Gate. In the mines. On the third level. The kobolds with fire arrows keep killing my character first. It royally sucks. Plus I don't always get Xzar's items back when he dies! He's got that mage's cloak! I wanna keep it! Exclamation points!

Here's a little fact I bet you did not know. By the way, please turn your small children's heads away. *ahem* D has a hot ass. Now you can let your kids look again. It's true! You never really see it with the big cloak and all, but... It's there. *small children clamoring, "What? What? What don't you see?" and parents whacking them with rolled-up newspapers to distract them*

Yeah... I'm done with the raunchy now. Done with the news, done with the purchases, done with the drawing crap... What is left to say? Oh yes, emotional drabble.

Well, lately I've really noticed it, that when I'm doing actual physical things, as opposed to computer things, I get this feeling that I'm very detached, like my spirit/mind is standing back controlling the little Tory-body to do things. It's very odd. Also, I've had this habit since I was very small, to silently narrate my life in my head. Like when I feel sick, I'll make up a paragraph about what it feels like to be sick, and when I'm thinking, about how my thought processes flow. I don't know where these things came from. Maybe I'm just weird. I do know they've been around for a long time though, and it's so natural that I hardly notice it anymore.

Yes, now I am done.
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Sunday, August 1, 2004

*deep sigh* I am totally EXHAUSTED after two days of Otakon. But I had the time of my life. ^_^ Thankfully we straightened things out so that on Friday it would be me and my mom, then on Saturday me and Ashley. All right, on to the good stuff.

Cosplay
We got Hana together for Saturday! Yippee! I even got my picture taken twice at Artist's Alley because apparently Hana is a pretty rare cosplay outfit (I also got freebies from them!). Also, on Saturday I had so much fun taking pictures. ^_^ There were two D's, but both of them walked too fast and I couldn't catch up to them, even with Ashley's help. And on Friday there was THE CUTEST RAENEF EVER!! I wanted to take a picture so bad but I forgot the camera! I also kinda wanted to glomp him, but that's a little different. We ran across a huge congregation of Gravitation characters and snapped a couple pics. It was almost like the Shuichis were reproducing asexually or something--they all looked alike, and first there were two, then four... Oh yes, also got a mucho sexy picture of Yohji-kun. *squee* I love Yohji!

Panels, etc.
Well. I went to a bunch of panels... One on Hayao Miyazaki, one on classics, older anime, one on doujinshi... You get the idea. They were fascinating, most of them. I thought I would cry with admiration for Miyazaki during that panel. I mean, I looked up to him before, but thinking about everything he does so wonderfully really put me over the edge. And now I wanna do doujinshi! Hey, it's a way to get into the business, right? And good practice for drawing in the manga format. And if I avoid fan-based doujinshi, no legal problems will arise...

Gripes
Yesterday, Ashley and I went into to watch fan parodies in Video 1. There were no seats left, so we sat on the floor with a bunch of other people. A while later, some security people came through and told us, quite rudely, that we couldn't sit on the floor here for one reason or another (either we were a fire hazard or there was a limit to the amount of people allowed, also for fire reason). So we left, rather dejected, and had to wait quite a while before my dad finally came (we had planned to be watching fan parodies that whole time). I am very disappointed with the convention center staff (not Otakon staff though). Extremely rude people. Harumph.

Those are the big things right there. Yup. If I ever run across a file hosting website that particularly strikes me, I'll put up the pictures I took. Don't hold your breath. Unless of course you're reading this underwater. Then it might be a good idea not to inhale foreign substances.
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Friday, July 30, 2004

Sleep will cheer anyone up. That and a con. ...And a smoothie. W007!!
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Thursday, July 29, 2004

All right, enough with putting myself down.

Though.

I feel like I no longer have the heart to do anything. Maybe I'm just tired, but since I got a good amount of sleep last night I'm surprised. I've run into a horrible dilemma concerning Otakon. Tomorrow Ashley has to be home by 7. Most of the stuff I wanted to do is after 7. My heart is breaking in two. There's so much stuff... A workshop on fanfiction, Otaku Idol, a yaoi panel... *sob* And I probably won't be able to go to any of it.

So right now I have no stomach. It's gone, and in it's place is a swirling mass of dark cold rainclouds bumping into the inside layer of my skin and making me feel miserable and wet and very, very alone. I really want to cry, but it makes my throat hurt.
Yes, yes, FEEL SORRY FOR ME! You all know that's the only reason I have a blog anyway, to get sympathy, right? *heavy sigh*
I kinda wish my head would fall off. There are several reasons for this.
And you know it's bad when even a geniusly-written fanfic won't cheer me up. Or reading Nick's posts. Or food.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

I was a stupid kid. Really stupid. Really deprived. Really stupid.

If anyone would care to inspire me, perhaps, to write the next chapter of my fic, I'd like it. ^_^ Right now I'm working on some original shounen-ai and a nice house in the Sims... And watching L/R over and over again and helping my mom alter my cosplay outfit. I love L/R. I like Rowe. He's so average in demeanor, but still so cool. Yeah. I love loving stuff. I am a loving person. Grumbling is okay too, when I can't quite love something.

Turns out my second Japanese class is the week before school starts. So I can brush up! I feel so smart when I can just count to ten. Whee. Heh heh. Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyu, juu. GO ME! I ACTUALLY KNOW SOMETHING USEFUL! Sort of. U^_^ I think language is my thing. I'm into grammar, and foreign languages fascinate me, except French. I don't understand French. People say Gaelic spelling is hard to understand, try French. Since when is "eau" (tries to pronounce it the way it looks and ends up sounding like a dying cat) an "o" sound? Since the French. I mean, I can spell "Adenydd" (Welsh) and prononce it, but I can only pronounce the name of that famous museum. Loov. Yup. Adenuth and the Loov.

That's why I love the Japanese ramoaji. An "a" is always pronounced the same way, a "ch" is always pronounced the same way, and you don't even have to write it in Roman letter if you don't want. Take the word "ache" and pronounce as an English word and as a Japanese word (which I don't think it is, but just go with me here).

Another thing: If someone says, "Bless you," you know you're speaking Japanese.
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Comcast as an internet connection is great. It's really fast, and it's as reliable as my network connection, which is to say, in my case, not very. *curses wireless network router* The service is very nice too. When some lines went down across the street, Comcast came two days before the telephone company.
But Comcast as a homepage is a disappointment. Mostly the email system. They keep changing their layout, which is pretty aggravating, and now all of a sudden my email composer won't work. At all. No forwarding, replying to, or composing messages. Which absolutely sucks.

In other news, um, nothing much is happening. 'Cept my mom and I went to the Good Will outlet to look for stuff, walked in, and within moments found a long blue pleated skirt. A few alterations on the skirt and shirt, and I'll be ready for Otakon. I love outlet stores; you can find the weirdest stuff (once I found a gorgeous navy blue trench!). So I wholeheartedly recommend charity outlets and such for finding unusual items.
Why can't I seem to win at Mahjong anymore?
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Saturday, July 24, 2004

Here, for your conevenience, is a list of things one should bring on any road trip over an hour long, regardless of company, car-sickness, etc.
-Music and a headset. People in the car you are also in will undoubtedly have very different music taste than you. Trust me. *is still trying to get "Independent Woman" out of her head*
-Plastic bags, 1 or 2. In case someone throws up, or if you leave with more stuff that you brought with you. Good for trips to other states, amusement parks, banks, etc.
-A small snack. If you feel that those plastic bags are being neglected, I recommend natto, pumpkin Pocky, or something involving lemon butter.
-Extra batteries. In an emergency, the battery acid can be used as a weapon.
-Mints.
-A pillow. Your neighbor's shoulder is never as soft as it looks.
-A cell phone. If worse comes to worst, you can entertain yourself with the games, or play the rings over and over until your car-mayes finally kick you out of the vehicle and you can hitch-hike home with someone who will not play Britney Spears on Rep All.

Hope this helps. Happy birthday, Ashley. How many has it been now? Nine or ten, at least. Wow. Friends forever. ^_~
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Friday, July 23, 2004

If anyone sees the other half of my brain around here somewhere, I'd kindly appreciate it if you could inform me and return it. Thank you for your time.
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Monday, July 19, 2004

Another small note
I've got a new story going on my FF.net account (this makes two, one of which is complete), where my penname is Taka Llusion but will soon be changed. Go check it out if you so wish.
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