Fanime was tons of fun this year! capeswirlinggrl and I cosplayed Krahe and Tutu from Princess Tutu. It was so much fun we're planning to do it again at AX. The masquerade was awesome, especially because I know some people in it (Go, Minna no Nur Puppy!). The AMV's were a mixed bag this year, but the winning ones (R0bo7s and Life of a Dog (Part 2)) were definitely enjoyable. We poked our heads in to Nescaflowne and watched some D-Grayman (yay!) and sat in the back of Yaoi Bingo, where we couldn't see anything. I got in too late to see ensuing's panel, but "Cosplay-Overdoing It" was fun, except when one of the attendees keeled over (I think she's OK, she did leave the room under her own power).

Next year's cosplay: Twelve Kingdoms. capeswirlinggrl is thinking about going as Kourin, and I think I'll be one of the sages who raise the Kirin. Also, I promised jennmenchi I'd help her with a Yoko costume, so I guess I'd better start sewing now.

( Princess Tutu Cosplay Photos )

The printer is connected to the computer,
The computer's connected to the router,
The router is connected to the modem,
And the modem is connected to the wall.

When it doesn't work you install drivers,
Reset the modem and the router.
Then you call up tech support in India,
And you throw the phone at the wall.

mood: silly music: What do you think?

I finally got around to watching Princess Tutu, and it's even better than I thought. OK, I'm only one disk in, but it's awesome so far. I guess I set my expectations low because I don't usually like magical girl shows much. However, Tutu doesn't rely heavily on spells, the voices aren't too squeaky, and the dance outfits don't look trashy, so my usual objections are moot. I don't like Mytho's English voice, but the Japanese voices are OK. The characters are fun, especially the eccentric minor characters. The only thing bothering me is: Did the anteater girl drop out, or what? She's hard to miss, but I don't see her in the background. Speaking of characters, I took a quiz and guess what: I'm Mytho. (No way am I cosplaying him, though.)

Just when I think I've seen everything on YouTube, somebody posts educational hip-hop salmon...or something.

It's been a slow week at work, so I've had time to mess around... Mostly, I've been watching Blood+. The characters are excellent, which is something I have learned not to count on in shows with "Blood" in the title. I made the mistake of glancing at fan fiction too early in the series though, and one of the descriptions said, "This is set after ( Spoiler ) dies." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I guess I shouldn't expect everyone to live happily ever after in a vampire-ish series, but man, the character are so good that there are even "bad guys" who I don't really want to see killed. And speaking of unrealistic wishes, I want a Chevalier, preferably a Hagi, but Solomon's not too shabby, either. For anyone who hasn't seen the show, a Chevalier is an immortal bishonen who can do cool things like fly and fight monsters and who exists only to protect and obey some lucky girl. Muahaha. OK, there's more too it, but still.

Also, I've been watching something that isn't Engrish, but has been subtitled to resemble it:
My loony bun is fine Benny Lava

UPDATE: The Nipple Song is pretty good, too (but it has more dirty words).

mood: silly

One of the first CDs that ever fell into my possession was Skyedance by Alasdair Fraser. It's not quite the soundtrack of my childhood, but I've had it long enough to give it plenty of nostalgia value. I never heard any of his other music, though. Yesterday, I read in the paper that he was to give a concert in Sebastopol tonight, so I resolved to go. First, though, I stopped for dinner at Govinda's. As I was eating warm, delicious food, I glanced through the tall windows and across the well-tended lawn. There stood two homeless people clinging to one another as a police officer walked toward them. They spoke to the officer, who made a call. Then, the homeless man suddenly fell to the ground and turned red, nearly purple. "A heart attack," murmured the other patrons. "A stroke," someone said. The lady, his wife maybe, helped him sit up and held him. He collapsed a second time before the ambulance arrived.

Govinda's advertises a "karma free diet" and prepares healthy, vegetarian food that people needn't feel guilty about eating. But I felt like Marie Antoinette, eating while someone suffered nearby. Of course, there was nothing I could do: My first aid training is beyond rusty, and qualified people were on the scene almost as soon as I figured out what was happening. Still, I needed to do something. Then it came to me; I could skip the concert and donate the money I saved to an organization to help homeless people.

The concert was wonderful. I am a horrible person.

mood: guilty

ensuing is a whole year older and wiser! I was going to list famous people like I did with jennmenchi, but I looked on Wikipedia, and there was nobody worthy of sharing with the likes of ensuing.

mood: bouncy

Happy Birthday to geniuses Michelangelo, jennmenchi, and Elizabeth Browning.

mood: happy

The following informational videos are available on YouTube. Anyone desiring to broaden his or her mind while risking serious bodily injury, property damage, and multiple lawsuits should attempt these feats:

*Self defense instructional video
*How to care for your horse
*How to play string instruments
*How to sprain every muscle in you body
*How to lift your car without a jack

Oh, and HAPPY CHOCOLATE-ON-SALE DAY!

mood: hyper

For some reason, I keep seeing weird toasters online lately. Here is a sample:

Panda: Does it come with the sound effects?

Clear: Too bad it doesn't really work...

Hair Loss Remedy: OK, this is getting out of hand.

In other news, I finally gave up on AT&T and got and ISP that allows me to (gasp) connect to the internet. Woo! Sneaking on at work just doesn't work as well as having it at home. Then, I saw a store going out of business, and I ended up getting a laptop with Vista, which would have supposedly made the AT&T connection work. Oh, well, DSL Extreme is cheaper, and it hasn't given me half the trouble (yet).

In other other news, I've been trying all week to decide if I'm sick. I feel like I have a fever, but I checked a couple of times, and I don't. My appetite comes and goes, and now I have a powerful cough. WTF? Maybe I should just get some sleep. Goodnight.

mood: cold music: Rain, heavy, heavy rain

Wow, I have really neglected to post. Hm, I wonder if I can summarize a summer in one post...

School, San Fransisco Pride Parade, school, AX, school, Yellowstone National Park, Geysers, grizzly bear with four cubs, job hunting, Asian Art Museum, Japantown, job hunting, work at school.

Here are Yellowstone pics by a friend.(Mine aren't digital.)

Somewhere in between all that, I downloaded lots of anime including Afro-Ken, which has a dog with a rainbow 'fro instead of a plot, and Sexy Commando, which I have been meaning to finish since MNA ran out of subtitles and stopped showing it. Ani-Kuri15 varies in quality, but the episodes are only one minute, so there's not much to lose there. I downloaded all of Violinist of Hamelin, but only time will tell if I get bored enough to watch it...

Now that I'm employed, I'm thinking of getting a laptop. But having made that decision, one is presented with a plethora of options: Which operating system? Windows would be most compatable with the computers at work which are running XP, but now that Dell is offering one that comes with Linux, I feel like I'd rather support that. I know Mac is good, but I've gone through the painful part of the learning curve with two major operating systems now, and I don't look forward to doing it again. Also, how much do I have to spend on better RAM, processor, etc. so that it won't be obsolete before I can afford another one? That's hard to predict, and probably depends on the answer to the first question. *sigh*

PS: Why is this so funny? Maybe it's just me...Hover Cat and Monorail Cat

mood: chipper

Why does Darker Than Black have to be so awesome, and why aren't there more episodes out? OK, maybe when the novelty wears off it will seem less awesome, but man, I want his coat. And him, while we're at it. Or maybe his powers?

Well, I guess I should say stuff about my life while I'm posting. My car got rear-ended, and I had to get a cheap, half-assed fix because the insurance would have totaled the car over a broken tail-light cover (the bulbs were fine) and a dent in the bumper cover (the frame was fine). Mike, I feel your pain. Then, my roommate lost her job. And THEN I had the greatest idea for a contest where I could win a laptop--the day after the deadline. And my Fanime costume (Raquel from Scrapped Princess) is barely started.

And yet, awsome anime just makes it all seem OK! Wooo!!!!!!11111oneoneoene

mood: enthralled

Ain't it cute? And no maintainance; that's my kind of pet.

location: Work music: Hum of the air conditioner

Long time no update, but I made (ahem, edited) a new avatar, so I feel accomplished anyway. Now all I need is wallpaper for my new operating system, Ubuntu Linux. I feel all 'leet 'cause I'm using Linux, except that I have to get help every time I want to do something. I'll get used to it, though, and if I really wimp out, I still have my Windows drive. Actually, I can access my Windows files, so I could use old wallpapers, but who doesn't want a few new wallpapers? Anyway, Ubuntu has been taking a lot of the time I'm not using to get my car fixed and arrange to move to Santa Rosa and work and all that boring stuff... hence the lack of posts here, email responses, etc.

In other news, I saw the new Superman movie, and thought it was kinda fun. Not the movie of the century or anything, but it got me on a Superman fan fiction kick, and some of it's OK. I'm pretty good at steering clear of Mary Sues and such, so it's been fun. Lots of them are just trying to get Superman and Lois together (and I don't read SupermanXAnybodyElse, slash or otherwise), but I like this story pretty well, too.

On the humor front, I present the following badly formatted web page (Tip: If you see nothing, zoom in lots.)
Important security information

mood: chipper

Ah, internet access. Alas, how many topics I've thought of to write about, but lost for the lack of a decent internet connection. Maybe I'll resurrect some of them later.

Anyway, the big news is that my car got hit while I was coming home from work yesterday. No one was significantly injured, and the car's not totaled or anything, but it's a real inconvenience. OK, details from the beginning:

( Wow, I'm pretty wordy here... )
I guess I'm lucky it wasn't worse, but somehow, that's not very reassuring.

mood: tired music: Tetris theme in my head, for some reason...

Yay, I beat my dungeon:



I couldn't beat ensuing's dungeon, but capeswirlinggrl has an easy one--the only monster you have to kill is me! ;)

mood: Too hot music: Haall om mig (It's stuck in my head!)

Woah, I just woke up from a weird dream. My brother and I were being held at gun point by Draik (sp?) from ROD TV and some 300 pound pasty-faced guy with a famous political blog. Max was getting married to a guy who was a composite of two guys I know named Keith, and we were at his wedding trying to think of ways to escape without getting shot. My brother's car got stolen part way through the ceremony, but I wasn't able to use it as a distraction to get away. I also didn't get to jump through a stained-glass window, although I thought that that would be awesome. I think I actually got away by waking up.

Sorry, Max, nothing personal. I just found out that an aquaintance is living with a girlfriend and not a girl friend, but I haven't met the girlfriend, so I guess I needed someone to stand in for them. Or something.

mood: confused music: Early morning birds outside my window

In the event that the earth is destroyed, the icon below will turn red. In that event, please check with the International Earth Destruction Advisory Board (IEDAB) for furthur instructions. Thank you.

mood: sick

Fanime rocked in a major way, but I'm relying on other people for pictures, because I stink at taking them, and I didn't bring a camera. It looks like most people are still uploading, but here's a shot of me (left) as Maetel, standing next to Queen Emereldas. The hat kept falling over my eyes 'cause it's made of stretchy fabric, but I was pretty proud of my costume. Actually, some lady asked us (Emereldas and I) where we bought our costumes (we made them), which is the best costume complement I've ever received. Next year, though, I think we need to go for characters who have better poses and younger fans ^_^;;

I got lots of swag: pencil boards, doujinshi (clean), manga, sticky notes with two men kissing, bracelets said to ward off stinky guys, star-like candy like Shima gets in the first episode of Stellvia (ingredients: sugar, artificial color...and nothing else) and Hello Kitty sewed to a small couch, among other things. The Hello Kitty stuff might be swap meet fodder of the future, but I'm mostly happy with my stash. I'd scan the pencil boards and whatnot, but I'm too lazy to go to school or bug ensuing.

The programming wasn't bad: The Masquerade was good, although the people behind us booed all the walk-ons 'cause they wanted action, and it did run kind of long. The AMV's were not all spectacular in my humble opinion, but my apartment-mates and I have kind of latched onto Hold Me Now. It's got dancing ducks, evil ballerinas, and a song that sounds good loud--what more could anyone want? I also like the "Stop watching anime and go outside" one, but I haven't found a place to download it. We also watched Nescaflowne (which I highly recommend) and some Host Club. Boo on Fanime for scheduling The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya at 2:30 in the morning--I need to see more of that show. We didn't see any guests of honor, but this year's were not anyone I really was hoping to see, so no harm done.

On an unrelated topic, here's the time-wasting website of the week: Silly Patents

Are you tired or listless? Do you suffer from boredom? These are symptoms of Acute Cuteness Deficiency (ACS). If you think you may be suffering from ACS, talk to your doctor about clicking these smiley links:

^_^

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^___^

mood: energetic