Monday, December 25, 2006

My Right Duck...
I was drifting around the vast expanses of the internet, looking for information on the lyrics to Sephiroth's theme, One Winged Angel, and several times came across people's reactions to the meaning of the lyrics, which are in Latin. Most of them were that they were very fitting for Sephiroth, captured his character so well, etc. After this I realized that most people don't know that almost the entirety of the lyrics were swiped from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff! So here is the breakdown, because each bit comes from a different piece.

"Estuans interius, ira vehementi"
This is a line from In Taberna ("In the Tavern").

"Sors immanis, et inanis"
This one's a classic, from the well known O Fortuna, often used in movies and previews for dramatic effect (also makes a really good techno remix).

"Veni, veni, venias, ne me mori facias"
This is from Cour D'Amour.

And finally, while not full lines, the words "gloriosa" and "generosa" both appear in the song Ave Formosissima.

So, with this and the alchemy thing, I think I'm really starting to get over-analytical of anime. But it's so much fun! I love knowing where things come from. Right now I'm also investigating possible chemicals or chemical reactions that could be mistaken for the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. There are a couple possibilities so far, but most of them are really closer to an Elixir rather than a Stone.

Anyway, that's all for now! Stay smart, and merry Christmas!
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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Oh no! You Stepped Kage!
Ooh, Yuki is just so adorable! She's the little sister I never had. ^_^

So work isn't really working out after all. I slept in by accident this morning because my mom had to go to the kitchens early to help with a raffle and I thought my dad was going to drive me to the office (and would therefore wake me up). He didn't know anything of that plan however. So I woke up at about 10 AM and turned on my cell in case Tracy needed me, and then just vegged out for the day, working on an elaborate fanart I'm doing of Ovan, Endrance, and Haseo in gothloli outfits. It's coming along slowly but I'm such a perfectionist. I could never be a professional manga-ka if it takes me days to do one drawing! Thankfully I've got a lovely gothloli store to help me with inspiration: Baby the Stars Shine Bright, a popular Japanese gothloli brand and store. <3

So, after getting high on Mountain Dew and dancing with Yuki in front of a Mexican restaurant, I think this evening has gone well. I just went back through my old posts to find out the approximate date Exo and I hooked up, which I've been meaning to do for a while. Technically, I think it was yesterday, but we can celebrate tomorrow or Saturday. It's been two years, and how things have changed since the beginning! All for the better, of course. And all my gal pals think we're gonna get married. *eyeroll* It's not impossible, but we'll see. I don't want to go looking forward to something that's not guaranteed. Though I already have wedding plans in my head. Doesn't every young woman? I'm thinking either a traditional Japanese wedding, or a crazy cosplay one, though Victorian isn't out of the question, and at the reception we'll have DDR and Ramune and taiyaki and other traditional festival foods. I can't imagine the cake though. @_@ I'm not big on cakey cake, but maybe a really rich chocolate cake or one of those Carvel ice cream cakes or chocolate mousse...and little sugar roses and anime characters... I'm getting carried away! >.<

Anyway, love to all! I'm in a good mood cuz of that Mountain Dew. That stuff is as bad as alcohol, yeesh. If this is what I'm like on sugar and caffeine, I don't wanna know how I am when I'm drunk!
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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Anata Ni Aitakute, Aitakute
I don't really have a lot to say. I just kinda wanted to advertise a little bit. There's a Japanese nature photography site I frequent, Akio Torikoshi's. His photos are amazing. And the url? Tory.com. For real. Anyway, his newest exhibit, Symphonic Lives (supposed to be "Leaves" I think, but a little bit of Engrish just makes it more charming), is really stunning. Go take a look, you can find all kinds of really awesome pictures there. They're really calming to look at.

Yeah.
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Monday, December 18, 2006

It's a Common Disease Where Children Grow Horns from Trying Too Hard
My first day back at work, and I'm tired as fuck and want to shoot myself. Things, needless to say, did not go well.

So I come in real early (so I can leave real early), around 7, and pretty much nobody is there. Tracy left my mom an email outlining what I could do to occupy myself until she showed up since my computer was basically non-existant. There was a monitor, and a mouse, and a keyboard, but it was missing the rather essential computer bit of the setup. So I did letters for about a half hour and then moved on to mystery calls, which is where a team member not well-known to all the stores makes phone calls to each store in the area and asks a question, testing the quality of the customer service. This would be a good job to keep me busy for a few hours except that, uh-oh, I have a phone phobia. I don't know if I'vw mwntioned it before, but I get really upset when I have to make a phone call to someone I don't know very well. Once I was so nervous about ordering a pizza that I went without lunch. So I got all worked up over this mystery call thing and managed to make one call. It went pretty well, but it only served to build up my nervousness. After screwing up my courage again I got through a total of six calls before I just couldn't do it anymore and felt like utter shit because I couldn't accomplish such a simple task. I managed to call Tracy and get a different task.
So I ended up deconstructing ginormous boxes and toting stuff up and down from a closet in the basement to my cube. This took several hours and had me pretty much worn out. Mike, a really nice guy in customer service, was having a little luncheon meeting and offered to get me lunch as well, so I gladly accepted. I gave the folks my order and went on with my work until I was done at about 11:30. Then I sat down to wait, thinking it wouldn't be long before the food showed up. I doodled on a piece of scrap paper. I doodled some more. It was about 12:30 and I had a killer headache and was ready to give up on the whole thing, so I went over to my mom's cube to at least wait in company. About two minutes after I sat down in there the food came, and I went to eat. It was BBQ and turned out to be a little spicy for my taste, but I snarfed it down anyway since I was starving by that point. After lunch, I not only still had a headache but I felt a little nauseous too, so I went to sit down for a bit. I could have helped out one of the ladies by IT but she seemed to be busy and I felt pretty crappy, so I just curled up and napped for about an hour and a half, and then we went home.

All in all, it SUCKED. The manual labor tired me out and then I got that damn headache, which thankfully is mostly gone by now. I really hate this job. I think maybe I just wasn't cut out for the working world. I'm too much of a wuss. Bleh. I am going to go nap now, properly and in a bed.
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Monday, December 11, 2006

And the Winner Is...
Nobody! That's okay, this is a tough game and only one person was actually able to participate. So what was the answer?
It was B) A bundle of paperclips! They're these neat bamboo paperclips that actually don't work very well, but they're cool to look at. Like many of the items that will appear, my mom got them from the sample table where she works in the Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods office. Free stuff is awesome!

In other news, Jenny appeared at school today during an assembly, but she didn't stay to say hi to me. It was pretty devastating. But I will call her if she doesn't come back to school to see me so we can get together for at least a little while while she's in town.

Last night I watched a few episodes of Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, and the first one had this super-creepy doll that had this weird little laugh. I have a doll that looks sorta like it (one of two dolls I ever owned) and at some point during the night I woke up from a bad dream and just lay there feeling creeped out and I heard a little noise, almost exactly like the doll's laugh... I lay stock still and listened for it again. I did hear it again, and realized it was my dad snoring a bit more squeakily than usual. -_- Still creepy though.

And that's all for now, ciao.
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Saturday, December 9, 2006

Bell Liberty All Boys Boarding School...
(In other words, BL high school. Rofflyrofflyroffly.)
I did some heavy duty manga shopping yesterday and finished up all the important Christmas shopping, so I have that off my chest. Phew.

And today I'll start my What the Crap Is That? contest! Sorry, Lisa, you can't participate in this one because I already told you what this item is. But everyone else can give it a try! The winner(s) get(s) a recording of me singing a Christmas carol of my choice. Great prize, eh?

Onto the picture!



Is this:
A) A bundle of matches.
B) A bundle of paper clips.
C) A rolled-up bamboo placemat.
D) A mushroom or bunch of mushrooms.

Get guessing!
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Tuesday, December 5, 2006

I Should Home Go...
Well, well, well. An anime art contest, eh? It's very tempting. I have a religion project involving drawing that I have to do first, but I may just enter... Hey, I've got nothing to lose, right? Every piece I produce is practice on the road to perfection!

I know I said I'd do that fun little "What the Crap Is THAT?" contest, but I still have to upload the photos onto Photobucket and that takes too long for me to do it just now. I will do it though, I swear. I have all the objects lined up and ready to go on my compy.

Hellsing Ultimate was released today, and I am very excited. I might put that and FF: Dirge of Cerberus on my Christmas list.

Oh, and it snowed a teensy bit today! Happy winter times! ^_^
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Monday, November 27, 2006

Warn Fellow Drivers...
Cuz I'm on the road. Muhahaha. Got my learner's permit today. Yaaayyy.

On Saturday I went horseback riding in VA. It was a gorgeous day and the stables were great. I ended up on a horse named Bob who was slow and tripped a lot and tried to rub me off on trees, so I smacked him one. That fixed it. Here is a picture of me, Bob, some lady, and a corgi.

That is all.
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Friday, November 24, 2006

*eye roll*
In case you ever doubted the amazing amounts of stupidity that can be produced by someone who can use a computer:
'Gyrados is Japanese for "tsunami".'
...
...
*sob*

Anyway, I am thinking of starting a little game here. I took a bunch of pictures of really weird looking stuff around the house, and every post I'll give the picture and 4 choices for either what it is or what it's used for. Whoever guesses right will have the satisfaction of knowing they are a good guesser.

Happy day after Thanksgiving, too. Yay.
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I Expect an Ulcer
I think I'll be spending the majority of my teenage years being pissed off at something or someone. Right now it's my dad, a common target of my anger. Why? I'll tell you.

Casey lent Lisa his V for Vendetta DVD, and I'm gonna go over to her house to watch it tonight. I mentioned it to my dad, and he looked quizzical, so I explained the plan. He replied with, "I still don't get why you want to see it." I told him that a bunch of my friends really liked it and it looks and sounds so awesome, I just ought to see it at some point, and he grumbled about how he hadn't heard good things about it. We bristled at each other a bit and then he started telling me that he didn't like a movie where the terrorist is the good guy. I got seriously pissed here. I interpret this as him being afraid that watching this movie will turn me into a horrible person, which he damn well knows isn't gonna happen. I told him this, and he kept saying how it had made some people do protests and junk, and cited a recent incident where people "wandered around downtown in V for Vendetta costumes" to protest the war--this is a bad thing how? People are A) allowed to protest the war and B) allowed to dress up in whatever the hell kind of costume they want as long as it doesn't surpass the boundaries of decency, and even at Otakon people wear more threatening costumes than a mask and a cape! "NATIONAL SECURITY IS BEING THREATENED; TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT!!" Yeah, mmkay. I tried to end it with, "Well, it's a good thing I didn't invite you to see it with me then, isn't it?" but he wouldn't shut it. I tried to convince him once again that watching a movie was not going to turn me into a terrorist overnight, and he said, "No, but it'll make you a pretty unpleasant person--but you seem to have that problem already." That snapped me. I am sixteen and old enough that I can make my own moral decisions and deal with the ramifications (the law even thinks so), thank-you-very-much. I am not five and about to go shoot people because it looks cool on TV, and I certainly know that what I see on television and read in books is not necessarily real, and by no means an automatic example of something to be emulated. I feel very, very insulted. I don't believe I'll share any deep feelings with him any time soon. He can go sulk with his bloggers and his 50's band music while I have level and fair conversations with my mother, free from excruciating bias and utter idiocy. I will not be personally insulted because I choose to watch a movie with my friends.

I can't think of anything supportive he's done for me at all within the past couple of years. When I was breaking down emotionally, it was my mom who helped me decide to work against it. When I became opinionated about gay marriage, it was my mom who duscussed the idea with me. When I feel lonely because my beloved lives in a different state, I go to my mom. When I'm sick, I go to my mom. When I feel miserable or when I want to do something fun, I go to my mom. I tried going to my dad a few times. It did not work so well. He is apparently too busy with his opera and his retro TV shows and his online news sources to do much more than his daily allotted chores. He rarely takes me on outings, or watches something I want to watch with him. He just doesn't seem to care as much about me as he does himself. I wouldn't demand it from anyone but a parent. I would do anything for my parents, but he can't be bothered to do more than drive me to school in the morning or lend me an Orff CD. I don't understand daddy's girls. And I don't know what to do with this man in my house.
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