Tuesday, December 5, 2000
12:23 a.m.
Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem. *

Ah, what a week. I hate it already. Maybe it's because I have a paper and two lab reports due today ( Tuesday ) and a Chemistry exam Wednesday, a med school interview on Thursday, and an 8 am anatomy practical on Friday. Imagine my joy.

Deshi called me tonight quite out of the blue, and we talked for a good two hours. At first we ranted about the end of Bebop - which I *did* show you, you wench! You and Chiriko and I were all in one bed, and you were asleep and Tommy and I were watching. Well, I suppose all-night karaoke will do that. ^^ Yes, at ACen2K the #fushigiyuugi-gumi got together and karaoke'd all night Sunday night. Of course, I had gotten a total of four hours of sleep since Thursday by that point, so I was totally incoherent. Man, that was so much fun!

Oh, right, and then I 'forced' Tanzy to watch pr0n over the phone from several thousand miles away. *violins play in the BG* That was so bizarre. XD As she watched Cool Devices and provided a running commentary, I finished cooking chicken curry, ate dinner, cleaned up, baked blueberry muffins, and provided my own snide commetary with the cordless propped between my ear and shoulder. That had so many bizarre quotes; I can't even remember any though! ;_; But I do remember my comment on the Oompa-Loompa music in the BG during the caged-girl scene. And we suspect Shinichirou Miki did the voice of the voyeur in love with his sister - he vaguely reminds me of a grown-up Tomoyo if Sakura were her sister XD

krisit - ack! Next time, you can grab a nap at my place if you really need it! O_o I don't want you to crash! And no, I never said that my DJ's were exceptionally smutty; it's just one was really tame, and the next was a few degrees higher on the danglyometer. n_n

I have a headache and I gotta work on my lab reports. Augh. I'll blog more later. ^^

Now Playing: Nu Schooz - I Can't Wait ( 80's pop! XD )

* = 'In the good old days, children like you were left to perish on windswept crags.'

Sunday, December 3, 2000
01:14 p.m.
R. D.

I would like to join juri-nyu in saying: AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!!!!!!!!! THE END OF THE BIG-O!!! DAMN THEM!!!!!!! I would hafta agree with Greg that that was one of the best ( and most unexpected ) endings to a series that I've ever seen. Right, Juri? Even if it was THE most frustrating ending I've ever seen. >_< You thought the end of Esca was frustrating? That has *nothing* on this. *rant, rant, mutter* If you're curious about why exactly it was so frustrating, without giving away the actual *plot* of the last episode, ( yes, I can explain why it was so frustrating without spoiling the series - but the ending is kind of a surprise! ) highlight the following SPOILER SPACE --- or skip to the end of the spoilers if you're on a text-based browser.

[ Okay, that was a diabolical ending. You know how most series end with some kind of two-part climactic battle? Where all the big secrets are revealed, where characters die, and so on and so forth? Well, the Big-O had that too. It started out totally fucked up, and was explaining a hell of a lot of things, and then when the other giant mecha started rising from the sea and advancing on the city, we get the 'to be continued'.

And that's IT.

Yes, the show was cancelled between the first episode of the ending and the second episode. It ends before the conclusion of the story.

And Juri and I were ready to kill things. It even ended after an absolutely sparkly moment between Roger and Dorothy - Roger was getting ready to pilot the Big-O, and he'd gotten shot in the arm so his left arm was bleeding, and Dorothy was in the cockpit. So she did one of those inhuman jumps and landed just inside the circle of his arms, and put her hand over his left hand on the controls to help him pilot. And he gives her this *look*, and she just stares expressionlessly back at him. It was a sparkly moment. *kusu*

But I have hope. O_O Here's a picture of the Roger and Dorothy dolls made by Chiaki J. Konaka, the Story Editor of the Big-O. ( He did lain too; check out the rest of the site for his lain dolls! XD ) Dig the subtitle? Since this is an official site, there's hope. *___*

I hope nerrie sends me all of the Big-O on VCD; I need to get an audio file of that fucking scary ' ROGER----!!!!' scream from R.D. That episode was actually creeping me out at the beginning, even though I thought I knew who R.D. was; that made it even creepier. ( Krisit; you need to watch the whole series. ) ]

There, that felt good to get it off my chest.

Y'all oughta come over more often; DDR'ing in Unison is fun! Hella confusing, but the 'Oh Nick' performance we put on was amusing, wasn't it, Juri? And I BET you're sparkling now :P NYO NYO NYO! XD

Okay, enough about yesterday. No, wait. Yesterday I got TRIGUN MAXIMUM #1-4 and Alichino #1-2. Trigun Maximum - well, upon reading it, I begin to understand why there's so much slash written about Trigun. In the manga, it's Wolfwood and Vash wandering the country together as demented sidekicks, and Milly and Merle show up once or twice in the volumes I have. Wolfwood on his motorcycle, Vash in the sidecar eating donuts, shooting things together, getting beat up and lying in hospital beds side by side...where the heck are the girls?!

Alichino is something else; the artwork is so lovely and gothy, and everyone looks depressed AND stoned. Lots of languid gothy bishounen doing bishounen things. n_n

Okay, I need to work on a damn paper. I'll bbl. Ja~~n!

Now playing: Cloudy, with occasional rain ( lain CYBERIA MIX CD )

Friday, December 1, 2000
03:18 p.m.
o/~ She falls into frame with a professional pout, but the Polaroids ignite upon seeing their subject... o/~

Well, the doujinshi whose cover you see on the left finally arrived! It's called 'Dolce Distino' ( Sweet Fate? ) and it is my smut-fest for the week. It's graphic yaoi. *kusukusu* and unlike the cute shounen-ai Trigun doujinshi I got yesterday, Wolfwood is the aggressive seme, and Vash the semi-reluctant uke. Boy oh boy, is this smutty! XD It seems that Wolfwood is trying to convince Vash it's not his fault for something that Vash is guilt-tripping himself for ( he DOES that, doesn't he? ) - so he relieves his...*Rocky Horror pause*...tension...instead. In the shower. *kusukusu* Actually, Nicky's a pretty nice seme; Vash is the only one getting anything XD Twice! I'll scan it in tomorrow...later...whenever I can.

So let's see. What have I been up to? Not much, really; school, the usual. My poor Comparative Lit TA must be so frustrated with me; I never show up for lecture, and it's a 50/50 chance that I show up for discussion, but I always turn in my work on time and I always get an A. *kusu* I am the lazy-ass bane of TA's everywhere.

'Bane' is an interesting word; it's got scandinavian roots, and originally meant 'killer' or something similar. Therefore, in the Lokasenna ( the Malicious Speech of Loki, or something like that - a 'senna' is like a major smack-talking session ) Loki accuses some goddess or another of marrying 'her brother's bane' who of course would be her brother's murderer.

That's enough random stuff for today...no, dammit, it isn't! But before I go on, here are my results from the Clamp Series I Would Fit Into quiz:

# 1 Clover
# 2 Tokyo Babylon
# 3 Gouhou Drug
# 4 X/1999
# 5 Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
# 6 Soryuuden
# 7 Suki dakara Suki
# 8 Angelic Layer
# 9 Chobbits
# 10 Magic Knight Rayearth
# 11 20 Mensou ni Onegai
# 12 Card Captor Sakura
# 13 CLAMP Campus Cop Dukylon
# 14 Wish
# 15 CLAMP Campus Detectives
# 16 RG Veda

Hm, looks like the angsty series are high on the list, and cute ones are low on the list. Most excellent.

What was I babbling about now? Oh right. Today's rsecond andom factoid: the origin of Cerberus, to keep this related to anime somehow. ( Vaguely. )
Three heads, fifty heads, depends on your source. Bad doggie, no biscuit. The 'source' of Cerberus - or a suspiciously close analogue - are the two great hounds of Yama, the Hindu god of Death. One was Syama ( 'black' ), and the other Sabalda ('spotted' or 'brindled'), and they were said to have 'four eyes' ( i.e. they had a spot over each eye. ) Let's have a random textual quote:

10 Run and outspeed the two dogs, Sarama's offspring, brindled, four-eyed, upon thy happy pathway. Draw nigh then to the gracious-minded Fathers where they rejoice in company with Yama.
11 And those two dogs of thine, Yama, the watchers, four-eyed, who look on men and guard the pathway,- Entrust this man, O King, to their protection, and with prosperity and health endow him.
12 Dark-hued, insatiate, with distended nostrils, Yama's two envoys roam among the People; May they restore to us a fair existence here and to-day, that we may see the sunlight.

Rg Veda, Book X, Hymn XIV – Yama

Tuesday, November 28, 2000
12:30 p.m.
o/~ We don't have to be stars exploding in the night / or electric eels under the covers / We don't have to be anything quite so unreal / let's just be lovers... o/~

Finally I have time to blog! Turns out my Wash U interview is December 7th, my first interview - *nervousnervous* At least I have a suit I like now. That'll help. Still need to buy shoes. Why are interviews such an expensive pain in the ass, hm? I hate buying clothes ( my parents hate taking me shopping because I'll just grab some clothes, try them on, and just buy whatever fits me and want to leave as fast as I can.) Clothes-shopping, for me at least, is incredibly boring, unless you're with friends.

Oh, right. At this point I would like to extend a formal invitation to all the blog-gumi who read this: If you're going to be in IL during Winter Break, you're invited to my house for New Year's. That means all of you! n_n Kya-chan and Ka-chan, if you're in Chi-town, try to get down to Champaign-Urbana for New Year's Eve! I'll put any out-of-towners up for the night. We can party, and stuff! It'll be fun! Fun fun! And since I was a ho and couldn't make it to the Mitsuwa, I want to meet y'all! And yes, bring friends, bring friends of friends - within reason, of course, my house isn't THAT big, but I can cram 20 or so people in, no problem.

Juri, you're a shameless hussy. You know that, right?

Added more blogs - I'm so behind the times.

Oh, I put up a new layout for genkiland - Juri's fanart is so cute! n_n

Hmm...that's all I really wanted to say - wanted to invite everyone for New Year's.

My favorite Xanth books were....uh--- let's see. I liked Man from Mundania too...Centaur Aisle...Crewel Lye...and now that you mention it, deshi , I also read the Oathbound/breakers series too.

And I have a job for winter break! O_O Yay. o.o It's in the library, so it'll be warm but boring.

I want my doujinshi to arrive, DAMMIT!

*ponders Jimmy John's, and suddenly remembers she has a $20 in her wallet* Bonus. n_n

Final thought for the day: " ONE thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten's fault entirely."

Now playing: dis ( Mugen no Ryvius OP )

Sunday, November 26, 2000
10:02 p.m.
Niisan! Keep Necro-boy away from my Juri-chan!

Yes, we were discussing the Thin H Line, and Niisan's Shiunji voice was acting up again. XD

Speaking of dreams. :P I have discovered a fundamental truth: never DDR and read Patricia Highsmith* novels before going to bed. You get fucked up dreams. Example - and lemme cut-and-past from IRC:

PuuCHIKO> julie, i dreamt we ddr'd together!
PuuCHIKO> i'm afraid we were ddr'ing to 'do it all night' in unison...'another', i think _O_
PuuCHIKO> except it was in this big auditorium like a omnimax theater..
PuuCHIKO> and we had to fight our way to the front, since everyone was trying to rush the stage when each dance was over...
PuuCHIKO> and then it changed to some dream where i was this guy, and i killed my wife with an axe, and there was this race of huge sentient bees that made me do it...
PuuCHIKO> but i remember clearly we WERE wanting to dance 'do it all night.'
PuuCHIKO> i'm positive about that.
PuuCHIKO> and the sentient wasps. that half of the dream was full of this great surrealistic imagery of insects and decay o.o PuuCHIKO> the wasp nest was shaped like a human face o.o

Doroshii> .......
Roger> O_o Well, her HANDS are warm...
Doroshii> Roger.
Roger> @_@
Doroshii> You know how I can crush steel with my bare hands?

Saturday, November 25, 2000
10:02 a.m.
Hey, that kind of tickles...

Man, I'm tired. Was up too late last night burning CDs of stuff to take home. I wish I had a DSL connection at home, dammit!

Right now the chances of me getting to Mitsuwa are looking slim unless my parents have a sudden change of heart :P They're like, " it's too far out of the way, blah blah" but hopefully in the next three hours I can change their mind. Right now I'm near Logan Square, if that means anything to anyone. Come rescue me! O_O

It was a nice weekend, really it was, but late last night I realized why my older sister got on my nerves so. She's 8 years older than me, so she's never been really a *peer* per se - and, even now, she still has the habit of acting like she has to keep me from misbehaving in public or embarrassing the family. You know how when you're little, if you're screaming and jumping up and down and running around the tables, one of your parents will give you the *look* and you'll quiet down? Well, my sister still tries to give me the Look, the 'Stop being so noisy' look, or 'Behave yourself' look. Which is okay when you're nine, but somewhat insulting when you're nineteen and doing nothing but participating in the conversation, for example. :P Or she'll tell me when to go to bed, or what to eat, or so on. She has the unfortunate habit of still treating me like a disobedient child who needs to be disciplined in public. It used to irritate me to visit her, and I had no idea why until last night I suddenly thought, 'it's because she treats me like an 8-year-old' which I'd known subconsciously but never really articulated. Well, now that I know, I can stop being annoyed and start flicking her off if she does that unneccessarily. ^_^

Kya-chan - well, here are more spoiler thoughts on Bebop, highlight to read, etc etc. [ Yeah, I agree it would have been a little too sappy if Faye and Spike had gotten together, but I still think I woulda tolerated it, mostly because it never would have degenerated into the Miaka-Tamahome love-love sap-fest. Faye, especially, would die before openly confessing anything to Spike - she phrases things in a very emotionless, matter-of-fact manner, or in a hella weird way completely. For example: " I just wanted to see you before you left because we might not see each other again. :P" Or: " Don't tell Spike about this email - er - " Or: Holding a gun to his head when she thinks he's going off on a suicide mission. Or when she charges to his rescue in her ship during Pierrot le Fou. So I think even if Faye *did* get Spike in the end, it would be one of those relationships where they insult the hell out of each other in an affectionate sort of way. Because she isn't the type to wear her heart on her sleeve if she can possible help it.
Spike, in the series, is being deliberately obtuse, now that I think about it. He refuses to take anything she says in any possible romantic light, such as his reply to Faye's " I wanted to see you before you left" line. " Oh, so you're finally leaving? n_n " Of course, that's because he already *has* a woman, I guess. He's still carrying a torch for Julia, and after three years, she's damn near Saint Julia in his mind. Of course, I'm sure a girl in a tight vinyl bodysuit would be enough to fry any young gangster's mind. XD
The ending to me, is...it's difficult to articulate my feelings on that. The last eps seem to underscore the idea that life was a never-ending dream ( or nightmare ) for both Spike and Julia, and Spike just wanted to die so he could escape it, or 'wake up.' Or, if you take a different view, the pleasant days with the Bebop-gumi were like a fun daydream for Spike - until he was jolted again into the harsh realities of his past with the Red Dragon. There's a lot of 'life is but a dream' things going on here. But Spike definitely had something of a death-wish going against the Red Dragon. Julia was dead, and he just wanted to kill Vicious and die afterwards. Imagine if he HAD survived - what would he do? A lot of the - purpose - of his life would be gone. His obsessed-over woman was dead, and his obsessed-over enemy was dead too. He needed *something* to keep him going - whether it was the wish to see Julia again or the wish to kick Vicious' ass - and with both gone, what would he do? I imagine that if he'd survived, he would be so totally burnt out. In his mind, death was a mercy.

Julia - hm. I got the impression that Julia actually *was* Vicious' girlfriend first. ;;^^ Which would explain why she slept with him. But then she wanted to run off with Spike. That's the only way it would make sense. Why would Vicious be so cruel to Julia if she was just Spike's random girlfriend? If it was just Spike wanting to elope with some girl, Vicious would have gone after Spike, not both of them. But if Vicious' girlfriend was planning to escape the Red Dragon with his best friend - well - his action make more sense to *me*, at any rate. So she had a legit relationship with both men - but after Vicious cornered her and she kept quiet to let Spike escape, she was kind of trapped. If she'd known Spike was dead, I think she probably would have killed herself, but she knew Spike was *alive* - he'd escaped, and she hadn't met him at the graveyard and shot him, and Vicious hadn't told her he was dead, so she knew he was alive, so I'm thinking she kept on going simply because she knew she had to survive. Which involved being Vicious' personal chew-toy for three years. I dunno, Vicious sounds like the kind of guy who could make anyone obey for fear of their life. Julia to me seems more *sad* than anything else. Usually the 'mysterious woman that the hero dreams of' annoys me, because she's *so* not worth all the fantasizing, but in this case it seems that Julia has been waiting and enduring until she can see Spike again. It'd have been *nice* if Vicious and Julia were better fleshed-out, but I get the idea that Vicious feels betrayed by both of them, and Julia is sad, kind of caught between both of them. So I don't mind her, even though I like Faye for being better fleshed-out as a character.
So where was I? Oh yes. I'm not sure Bebop could have ended in any other way. It's the direction the series had been building up momentum in, and to have a happy ending would have been a cop-out. But in a sense, Spike would have thought his death *was* a happy ending...for him at least... ]

Blah blah blah. Way too long. OK, I'm gonna take a shower and hope my parents have a change of heart. >_< If not - well, let's see--- I dunno, during Winter Break we can all coordinate something again, shall we?

Now Playing: Pure Snow - the Hikikoden OP

Friday, November 24, 2000
09:20 a.m.
Won't you ease my mind? Reasons for me to find you?

Kya-chan - finally, someone else sees the end of Bebop! Wasn't that awesome? But I was also screaming and throwing things at the screen. And I feel bad for Faye. Because, if you think about it, it sucks for Faye too, right? Yes, Bebop is one of my favorite shows of all time. But dammit, I NEED MORE TRIGUN! My VCDs haven't shown up after 3 weeks, and I'm starting to get grumpy. Granted, they were shipped from S'pore, but the seller promised 8-14 days >_< Oh well! I sent her a tiny poke yesterday, and hopefully when I get home tomorrow night they'll be there...all shiny and new...*sparkle*

Oh, I picked up the McFarlane Vash figure at the local cool video store ( the one with the literal wall-o-anime. ) I looked up, went "! ....I'll take that too, I guess." Dammit! I didn't MEAN to buy it! But since it was THERE and it was the only one....XD Now he's guarding my computer along with Sailors Uranus, Pluto, and Dr. Evil. Oh, and Darth Maul.

Ka-chan - yes, the omake are better than the actual OVA 1. But yes, the omake in OVA 2 are downright hilarious. Some are just plays on the original scenes, with different dialogue, and there's a recurring one which is a seiyuu war - Ishida Akira, the voice of Renhou, vs. Kyouda-san, the voice of Taiitsu-kun. Ishida-kun, the 'young' seiyuu, mocks Kyouda-san, the old seiyuu, and it always ends with Kyouda-san promising to 'TSUBUSU!' Ishida-kun. XD

...and we're going to the Field Museum to see Sue the T-Rex so I'll blog more when I get home. Hm.

Tuesday, November 21, 2000
03:49 p.m.
Your dance is so great, it's like sunshine on a cloudy day!

Or whatever that guy says. My parents think the heckler on DDR is created solely for the amusement of the audience. Now my parents join in. " Boo! Are you a MONKEY?" At least I'm pasing Afro-Nova on a consistent basis :P On a sour note, my DDR first mix STILL isn't working - jurinyu, can you burn me a copy of yours? I'm hoping it's just the CD.

Darnit, I really need fansubs of the first half of SMSS. I need to hear Ishida-kun as Fisheye!

And yes, Janaki - the opportunity to visit the Mitsuwa multiple times a week is a blessing, not a curse! XD

And yes, the new picture is of Wolfwood and Vash from a doujinshi I just bought. Doujinshi are the bane of my existence. I have way too many. @_@ But it's so much *fun*! I don't have any doujinshi by the two mangaka responsible for level-C - oh, which reminds me! Thanks to krisit , we now have a new page to ogle!

TWIN CASTLE

....the official homepage of the mangaka for level-C.

I think I'm catching a cold. Dammit. I finished my UMich app today, and it got mailed off. Just gotta finish University of Chicago, and I can relax. Sort of.

Oh, and krisit, icestorm mailed me back and said that we now have 500 MB. Yay! *waves flags* Sadly enough, we *do* need that much space. We're already using 275 MB, and that's after I deleted all my mp3s from all my pages. ;_; It was most tragic *violin music*

Right now I'm watching more Ayashi no Ceres, raw. Dammit, I wish I had access to a CD burner!

Oh, Ka-chan - I also used to read Mercedes Lackey. Strangely enough, I only read the 'Arrows of the Queen' trilogy or whatever it was called, and the sequel. Good stuff. Although my real fantasy indulgence in high school was Piers Anthony's Xanth books. The earlier ones were better than the later ones, maybe because they were a touch less silly. Although I *like* silly!

Uh...let's see, I better go. And Kya-chan - those book titles are hilarious. I ought to look them up. XD GW fanfics...well, my thing is that when I hear a Savage Garden song, I think, " Somewhere, a fangirl is writing a yaoi GW songfic to this song..." and I burst out laughing. I can't listen to them anymore.

Now playing: DAY-BREAK - ~one ( AnC ED 1 )

Tuesday, November 21, 2000
02:34 a.m.
" I don't argue with them. I just wait until they're asleep and pour Drain-o in their milk carton."

I'm ashamed to say that that was me. Tanzy was trying to tell me to join debates so I'd get good at formulating arguments with people I hate, and so I said that. ;;^^

I'll try to get to Mitsuwa on Saturday if I can, but my mom is being bitchy about it ( spend more time with the family, we may have plans, blah blah ) so I'll try! I'll be easy to find: I'll be the aZn who doesn't look like they belong in a Japanese store. ^_^

And now tanzy is trying to get 'Oh Nick' stuck in my head. DIE, WENCH!

I need socks. It's damn cold.

Okay, I have socks! ^_^_v

Today I got an invitation to have an interview at Washington University at St. Louis. Considering that it's the most selective medical school in the country, I'm damn thrilled. *_* Celebrated by DDR'ing like crazy. DDR is good when it's cold; gets the blood flowing. XD

Went back to the shrink today; she thinks I've made progress. Then I got a new prescription for my Celexa and scampered off. krisit , did you call and set up an appointment?

Oh, I suddenly realized not everyone might know who the 'Kokutenko' of kokutenko.pitas.com is. Check out a picture of Kokutenko here - no, the one on top is Shinkouhyou, voiced by Ishida Akira and therefore certifiably weird. No, I don't know what Kokutenko is on. =O_O= But he's from Houshin Engi, a good show and a better manga. XD

If you're in need of some yaoi-esque trauma, here are some scans from Z/ETA , Koyasu Takehito's new thing. He writes the story, and the mangaka for Level-C draw it. I FEAR to hear the dorama CDs or read the manga; with that kind of mastermind, it'll be a yaoi smut-fest XD

Time to read my email. Ja!

Now playing: Chess - One Night in Bangkok