Konnichiwa!

This means hello, that you use during the afternoon. It literally means good day. :P Hi! Well, I'm feeling a lot better! Wahoo! Dad ordered TV Japan for me, and I'm sooo happy about it! ^_^ I'll talk more about it in a bit. ;) Also, we went to Sears to get my dad's new contacts, and I got to have a sample to replace the one I scratched. So, now I can see! Awesome! :D

I watched a lot of TV Japan today, because I'm still slightly sick and we just got it. (TV Japan is NHK's broadcasting channel.) It's on channel 245 here. Crazy number for a channel! I know it goes much higher but I don't usually use anything higher than like 113 or something. (By the way we really don't watch all those channels they just come with the package.) The first thing I watched today was Live From Your Hometown. It's about visiting different areas in Japan, and I think it has a certain topic to each show. Like in this one it was about flowers and gardening. Also, they showed plum trees and then showed the people who make the pickled plums and how they make them. It was very interesting. Although, I couldn't tell where they were. -_- Just after this there was a weird short about music boxes and dolls. I think they were Swiss and something about a dream.

The next thing was a program called Hobbies and Leisure. It's about learning about the hobbies that people have and what they like to do to have fun. Today, was about a pianist. And most of it was lessons on how to read notes and begin to play. It was rather funny, because the host kept saying it was too hard. I understood everything they said in this one, because it was about music. The guy who they were getting lessons from was very good too.

I'm not sure if this was before or after the Hobbies and Leisure program, but I watched a bit of the Business Frontline show. I thought it would be boring, but it was actually interesting. There was business news at the beginning, which they talked a lot about the New York Stock Exchange. Then, they showed how they make yen. That was cool! I think it's similar to how we make dollar bills, but it was still interesting.

Then there was the news. (I might be getting the morning shows mixed up on time, but it still shows what's on the channel.) Which is international. There was brief overview of the recent Japanese election. It was historic, because this is the first time in about 50 years that the Liberal Democratic Party lost to the regular Democratic Party. Everyone, including foreign countries like the US are interested to see what the new government will do. Some of the news was about Korea and some of it was about the US. But, the election was the main topic.

After all this there's a show called World Heritage 100. It's a show that goes around the world and shows the culture and history of the place. It's only like 5 minutes long, which I thought wasn't long enough. They went to Columbia, and talked about the traditional buildings, the history, and Carnival. Not much time to squeeze that many things.

Next, was Fashionable Living. This is about hair, make up, skin care, and clothing tips. Also, they mostly talked about a makeover that they did to someone who was just out for a jog. Kind of ambushed her. :P But, she agreed to it. She looked pretty good at the end, and her husband and kids were shocked. In fact, I don't think her husband could speak until the very end of the show. It was kind of cute.

I watched the show Today's Menu. It was kind of corny, but hilarious nonetheless. Reminded me of Emeril, where has a band and tries to make the audience laugh too. They do different types of ethnic cuisines from around the world. Today, they chose to do Spanish food. They started with a mashed potatoes and anchovy paste type salad. They were trying to be funny at the end of cooking it, and made it into towers and topped them off with olives. The funny thing is they say the calories to everything when they're done cooking. :D Next they made Paella with shrimp and other seafood. For another side they made what they called a mushroom marinade. More like mushrooms in a marinade. But, that's ok. :P

Next, was Good Morning Japan at 6. This is very similar to our Good Morning America. I thought it was interesting that it 2 PM here and over there it was 6 AM the next day. I knew that there was a 16 hour difference, but it was still kind of interesting. So, technically for them it's already September 1st. :P They talked about the Flu (I think the H1N1 flu or 'swine flu') and how schools are trying to sanitize everything and prevent an outbreak. They must have been on a break too for their schools. I think they also said there's not enough of the vaccine for everyone. Hmmm... sounds awfully familiar. (The US is saying the same thing.) Next, they talked about soccer. And picking which teams are going to qualify for the World Cup. Then, there was the weather. Which I have to say looks really weird, but maybe after seeing it more it won't be. The US said on there that they will support the new government. I think the next topic was about how the world's consumption of meat has increased. Also, how the supply of meat is growing thin around the world. (I don't know if that's what they really said, but I know it was about meat and the world and something about it being a global issue.

Next, was J- MELO. This is a very interesting show. It's about showing the world what Japanese music is all about. It's mostly in English except for some of the people they interviewed. They spoke it well too. First they talked about Yokohama and when they opened their ports 150 years ago they let in 'western music'. Most of the western music was actually from America. They showed an orchestra there that mostly plays American composers like Koplin, Gershwin, and more. Next they showed a hip hop duo named Clench and Blistah. They're named that because they seem to clench the mic so hard and get blisters from performing so much. They performed with one of the hosts of the show. It was actually kind of interesting. Next, they had a Jazz fusion band named Unit Asia. The musicians come from Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia. When interviewed the leader of their group said the only way they communicate is musically, when asked about the language barrier. Kind of corny, but I like it. Next they had the duo called Vamps. They come from 2 very popular bands in Japan, but I think they kind of sucked. But, I also think they were to 'hard rock' for me.

Next was Good Morning Japan at 7. This was a much more in depth show than the one at 6. They actually showed what the campaigning before the election looked like. At least on the streets. Some of the people that were doing it looked scary. (A little too into it.) Also, talked about a typhoon that grazed a bit of Hokkaido. There was massive flooding on the streets, even though it never actually reached land. Next, was about disaster plans. Also, how some of the elevators are designed to alert officials of a disaster and if anyone is trapped in them. That's kind of cool. Next they talked about a baseball game with the Eagles.

The Women's Power show wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It's about trying to become more successful and what it means to be a woman at the same time. Also, about the ups (happy times) and downs (depressive times) of life for a woman. That's what I gathered from it. I didn't like it because they spoke the fastest and most slurred then any other program. Like they didn't want you to hear this woman's story and only had a few minutes to show it. I gathered most of this because she drew a graph from when she was 18 until now which she's 42. It had peaks and dips through the whole thing. Well, this channel seems to be more interesting than I thought it would be. Can't wait to watch more. :D

Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

A Benjamin Franklin quote. XD Hi! I'm still feeling pretty sick. Well, the dinner was fun last night. Vivian's cat kept coming out begging for attention. It was cute. We brought some garlic bread, Val and Dave brought homemade pickles for dinner and a jar for us to take, Vivian made salmon, salad, some odd tasting mashed potatoes and the yam kind too, and some squash. I think the only things I liked for the dinner was the salmon, pickles, and the bread we brought. :P For dessert, Val and Dave brought some chocolate ganache with things like marshmellows, apricots, and raspberries to dip in it. Kind of like fondue. That was really tasty! :D Of course in the middle of dessert, I had a coughing attack. I thought that would be it for the night. After trying to sleep, I had a horrible cough. Every once in a while it got so bad I thought I would either throw up (normal) or throw up blood. Eventually these coughs turned into something that sounded like barking. Also, my throat felt like someone stuffed a wet cotton swab down my throat, and at the same time like someone was strangling me. After getting up, I tried to put my contacts in, but they were too painful, so I said I'm going without them today. I think last night one of them scratched my cornea, because it was painful and there was like a chunk of something on it. It wasn't there before I put it in, so it can't be random dirt. So, right now things are very blurry and I might not type very well. Also, I called the consulting nurse this morning about my cough, and she said that I probably needed to go to urgent care. She thinks it might be whooping cough or pneumonia. Sure enough, later I felt much better, and I don't think I need to go to urgent care after all. Today, I also figured out most of the common verb forms for Japanese. All the ones that were on the list from a website. I used the verb 'to meet' or 'au' for each example and what it would be converted into for the many different forms. I think I understand it now. I'm nervous though, because I only have less than 100 days to practice and prepare for the JLPT. :P They actually have a countdown on one of the websites I'm a part of. I also played some games, because my eyes were getting a bit tired. I hope I get the new contacts tomorrow. :D If this lasts any longer I'll feel even more sick. XD

Shabbat Shalom! ^_^

Hi! Sorry for not posting yesterday. My new computer (Dad's old one) was having internet problems. It was rather ironic that it started having having 'issues' when Dad walked into my room. Ironic because he was telling me how the internet connection was so bad when he had this computer and it was working fine until he came in. Pretty funny actually. It's like it knew. :P Well, all day yesterday I was getting rid of these huge programs on my new computer. It's funny because my laptop's memory could only hold at most 2.7 GB. (Yeah, not an even number like the rest of it's series, kind of sucked.) This one has 70 GB. It's so huge! I'm really not used to that much. Now, I can do things like install my games and all those wonderful documents I saved from my laptop and still have a ton of room on it. This is awesome!

I'm still sick, although I think it might be the tail end. Usually, when I get sick, I end up coughing a lot and sneezing. Like my body is trying to get rid of what's left anyway it can. The hard part is when I sneeze, it's with so much force, I feel like my ribs are going to crack. Hence, why I hate sneezing. Plus, people think that something odd is happening like I'm dying or something. o_O Also, because I'm sick the stupid contacts are having a hard time fusing, so things seem a bit blurry.

We went to the Friday night service, our congregation barely ever does a Friday night service. There were only about 7 people that showed up. The 2 stories Laura (I think that's her name) talked about were interesting. One was about a painter who was painting a boat and noticed a leak and fixed it. He didn't charge for it because he didn't think it was a big deal. Later, he finds out that the owner of the boat thought that it still had a leak and had let his children go off fishing or something just before. When the owner realized the kids were fine, and the leak had been fixed, he gave the painter a bigger paycheck than what he was expecting. Of course the painter didn't know why and asked. The owner said since you saved the lives of my children you deserve something more. That was a cool story. The other one was about this couple who had bought a huge chandelier. It was too big to be just hanging from the ceiling, so they made a hole that went up to the attic and tyed a large rope around it. A guy who was invited to their house was in the attic looking for a string and saw the rope. He decided to take a little of it as string. Low and behold the whole thing fell and broke their table. (Not to mention it almost killed the people below.) These stories are how the smallest acts can become either huge catastrophes or saving peoples lives. That no small action is too little to affect things. Kind of an interesting concept. Also, there was a dessert potluck afterwards. We had bought a cookies and cream cake, someone made blackberry empanadas, oatmeal raisin cookies, and something else that I can't remember. All of which were very good. I can't believe the High Holy Days are coming up next month. I don't think I'm ready. :P

After that we watched Eureka. This time it was about these things that I think were called memory balls. They were supposed to be used by projecting your memories into these balls and have them recorded for a time capsule. But, of course something had to go wrong. (That's why I love this series, it would be boring if things worked the way they were supposed to.) Fargo did something that erased the memory of everyone who had used the balls. This was rather hilarious at times. One being the chef didn't really know how to make his specials anymore, people didn't know where they were, they also didn't remember what they just said. It was like that goldfish analogy, where the goldfish goes up to like a fake plant and goes oh that's new. 5 seconds later goes back to the plant, oh that's new, and it keeps going. :P I liked the part where the pregnant lady (Allison ?)who runs GD (Global Dynamics) looked at her belly and said 'when did that happen?'. That was hilarious! XD It was surprising, in this episode eventually Fargo saves everyone's memory. Of course, Carter really saved everyone by accidentally leaving his pager somewhere and calling for help. His daughter and Tess found it and helped them. He always seems to save the day in some way. In a way I think he's smarter than all those scientists in common sense.

We watched Psych after that. This one was about a priest who believed in demonic possession, and that a student at his Catholic school used that against him. He had Parkinson's and therefore had the meds for it. His student had given another student these meds, but since she didn't have Parkinson's it made it look like she was possessed. Eventually, that girl killed herself by jumping off a building. The one that planned the whole thing was just trying to get the girl who died's boyfriend. In order to pull it off though she faked being possessed, so the priest would see. Kind of a crazy story, but there was a ton of the Exorcist parodies. It was great! XD

Today, I got rid of some programs again. I also put some of the favorites I had up before on here. I just tranferred what I had on my flashdrive. So, that's really nice. Now, I just need to redownload some of the photos I had on image hosts. It's getting closer to what I want it to be like. ^_^ I watched the new episode of Naruto Shippuuden today too. Not much to say about this one but there was a ton of cool fighting scenes. I thought it cool that one of the jutsus of Deidara is one where the little bombs are inhaled and attack the body on a cellular level. That was awesome! It looks like Deidara at the end became a suicide bomber. He said his ultimate art was turning himself into art, and blew himself up hoping to kill Sasuke along with himself. But, we don't know if either of them died because they just showed the explosion. Also, yesterday we bought a Japanese bread called Mushi pan. We got the brown sugar version. They describe it as a steamed bread with like an egg custard mixed in. It's also usually flattened. It's very good, kind of soft but very good. My mom and I had some as a snack today. ^_^ Tonight, we're going to Vivian's place for dinner a long with Val and Dave. All are pretty close friends of ours. Should be fun. :P

Youtube:

Feeling sick :(

Hi! Today I got up early for my dermatologist appointment. He looked at the mole and said it was cancerous looking, and he'd have to take it off another day. Apparently this was an appointment to just show him it. He looked at the rash in my armpit, which the other doctors kept telling me was some sort of fungus thing. He said it was exzema. He said most likely it was an allergic reaction to fragrant deodorant, and that I need to switch to something isn't. I was just happy he said it was something else. ^_^ He also prescribed an ointment that will make it so it doesn't itch, therefore I won't scratch it and it can heal. We'll see if this works, sounds like it will. (Also, a while back I made a typo. When I said 'minion', I met to type it as minyan. I knew how to spell it before, just wasn't thinking right at that moment.)

I'm feeling more sick than yesterday. I'm sneezing all the time, head hurts, sinuses feel full, heart burn, throat feels really scratchy (similar to after you throw up, that sensation, only I didn't throw up.), head feels hot to me, not wanting to eat, runny nose, etc. I didn't feel like doing much today, so I asked Dad if he had anything more to do with his old computer, he can do it today. So, while he did that, I caught up on Psych, watched a documentary about a guy from a Jewish group in Ethiopia make it all the way up to Israel and become president of an organization there, some music videos, looked at some horror movies, watched the animal planet channel, watched a thing on comedy central, and watched some cartoons. It was good I could preoccupy myself because Dad needed the computer for a while. He told me he got what he needed and I can start customizing it. So, yay! I think that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm too tired to do much now, so tomorrow sounds good. It funny when you're sick and barely do anything how tired you get! XD Mom made something I could probably keep down for dinner. It was chicken and rice kind of thing. I couldn't eat much, and she realized this and gave me a smaller portion than normal. I'm really hoping tomorrow I'll feel better. :P

Games lubricate the body and the mind.

A Benjamin Franklin quote. :P Hi! Well, today I have a bit of a cold. The runny nose, scratchy throat, etc. I still decided to try and stick to my schedule. And I did surprisingly. :D I even got in some exercise, even though I really didn't feel like it. We also got our new washing machine, and it works well so far.




I read more of Naruto. Gaara showed his full form. It always looks disgusting to me. It looks more bug like rather than raccoon or 'raccoon dog'. I think the only thing that's like a raccoon with him is maybe the way his eyes look. (Kind of like someone smeared eyeliner thickly.) Naruto realized how alone Gaara felt. He also realized that Gaara's just like him. Only he changed his life for the better.

I stopped reading Inumimi, because the plot seemed a little slow to me. So, I finally read more of Gintama. I love both the manga and anime now! I know they are basically the same stories so far, but it's cool to actually read it. I know at some point the manga's story jumps ahead or speeds up ahead of the anime so much they joke about it in the anime. So, maybe there are different stories. Plus, the characters look a bit different right now in the manga. Maybe it's because it's the very beginning and the author wasn't used to drawing the characters as often? Could be, guess I'll have to see. ;P The first story I read today was about the 'alien' prince's (I can't remember his name, I know they call him baka a lot. Baka means stupid or idiot.) pet Pesu. The prince loves to get really strange creatures as pets. And usually they wreack havoc on the town. This one was an unknown type creature. It most resembles a giant octopus. I liked how before Gintoki killed Pesu he said we're having lots of octopus sashimi tonight. XD The guy that we now know in the anime as Madao his real name is Hasegawa. He was once an immigration officer for the aliens. Things didn't go bad for him until he met Gintoki and took the wrong advice. The next story was about Kagura and how Gintoki and Shinpachi 'bump' into her. XD I love her, she's just too funny. The last one I started was about Catherine. She's a cat looking alien, and loves to steal things.

For Japanese, I tried to get as much as I could for info on verb forms. It's just kind of hard to get because a lot of the time they're not clearly explained. But, getting stuff from multiple sites. it's pretty clear. Also, I was figuring out what the verb 'to meet' would be with a few of the forms. (Translating from the examples that were in Japanese for this verb into an equivalent English meaning.) That was kind of fun.

I decided to stop with watching Neuro. It was kind of boring. o_O So, I finally caught up to the newest episode of Gintama. The first part was about 2 robbers who were planning to rob Gintoki's home. At first they only found his friends doing really weird things. Sa chan was stowed away and hog tied in a draw, which changed everytime someone went through Gintoki's things. Madao showed up and used the place as like his own home. (That was funny to watch.) Then, Katsura showed up and thought the robbers were Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. XD Eventually, Gintoki showed up and asked why everybody was there and who the hell were the 2 people he hasn't seen before. After Sa chan said they were robbers Gintoki threw them hard out the window. :P The next part was about how everyone was losing their hair, even Kagura. They try to regrow their hair with some sort of product but it just makes more hair fall out. Eventually, they find out that some alien spread a virus where everyone loses their hair if they are infected. They are given an antidote to it, but they drop it. Sadaharu picks it up and at first it brings back his normal amount of hair. (Sadaharu is like a giant dog. It's an alien. He literally acts like a giant dog.) Then, all of a sudden there's so much hair that it explodes and spills out into the street. :D I found out what was making the weird noise whenever I watched certain anime. I thought the computer was going haywire, but it was the site's chat box. That stupid thing! So, I turned it off and it was fine.

I almost forgot there was a second season to La Corda d'Oro. This season is called Secondo Passo at the end. I guess I could give some background on this too. I love the story! Hino (the main character) goes to a school that specializes in music. It has 2 types of students, normal and music. The music are considered more elite. There's a tiny fairy named Lili or Riri (depending on how you translate it), who's been with the school since it started. He can't be seen by everyone, and Hino bumped into him one day. (She's a normal student.) Since she can see him, he gives here a golden violin. It makes her an instant master of the instrument. People hear it and she's put into a competition. She's makes friends with everyone, and encourages them to do their best. There's a clarinetist (which isn't in the picture oddly.), another violinist, a pianist (eventually), a trumpetist, a celloist, and a flutist. I think those are the main instruments. That season ended on a cliff hanger where they didn't fully decide on who won the competition. Also, she broke her 'enchanted violin and started to play another from scratch it sounded rather bad. Which surprised everyone because she was so good before. She decides to try and become better on her own. So, this one started with saying who won. The other violinist won first, the flutist next, and the pianist third. A few of the characters changed. The celloist was so short in the season before, now he's pretty tall. (He seemed more in tune with his music last season than anyone. I like him a lot.) Instead of compeating with each other they're going to make an ensemble and learn how to play together for a festival coming up. There's a new head of the school this time too. He's rather harsh on students and to me rather rude. He tells Hino that they don't need her in the ensemble. Funny thing is after she leaves the band falls apart, and they can't blend. There's also a new guy who's a 'normal' student that once played the violin. He was so impressed with her playing before he transferred to the same school, just to be able to meet her.

I also drew a male head. He has headphones on. It's weird to draw headphones when the guy's head is at an angle, but I tried it anyway. I don't think it turned out too bad.

I'm hoping to look at more youtube videos and post them tomorrow. I'm a little scared about my doctor's appointment. I don't want to be carved into without being knocked out first. x_X Hopefully, I won't be sick tomorrow.

I can see forever!

I think this was on an LOL cat picture online. The cat was being held up by the scruff of its neck and its face was tight because of it. The eyes were bulging. I feel a lot like this today. :P Hi! It was actually pretty warm today.

I played my clarinet and had forgotten about the stupid screw to my ligature that needed to be replaced. Also, since I just came back from a walk I was all out of breath. My contacts weren't fusing right either and the notes looked like they were swimming. It was kind of trippy. XD

We went to my optometrist's appointment and he said my contacts looked crystal clear. Also, he made me do the can you read these letters test. Sure enough I could read them all. He said I have 20/15 vision with my contacts. o_O He also said you're almost as good wonder woman being able to see through walls. I didn't think it would be that good. I told him it was fuzzy at times and he said my eyes just need to get used to them and in about a week more I should see clearly all the time. Apparently I have a worse prescription than my parents do. Silly eyes for almost being blind normally. They said they've seen much worse, but it's still weird to me. We ordered the new contacts (that should work a whole lot better) and they should be ready in 3- 5 days. Wahoo! Can't wait.

For Japanese I found an interesting worksheet of 75 of the common adjectives. It has a picture of what it is than the word, and different forms of it. Then, it has example sentences. It's kind of nice looking! Another aid in my learning. :D Also, I'm trying to get all the verb form meanings down.

Tomorrow, we're going to have the new washing machine delivered. Yay! ^_^ Thursday I get this huge mole off my arm. It's so big they'll have to make stitches. I'm a little scared about this, especially considering that it will probably be done in the office of my new dermatologist. He'll also be looking at the weird rash I've had in my right armpit. Nothing seems to work on it, so maybe it's not a fungus like they were telling me. Maybe it's something that resembles a fungus. We'll just have to find out. ;D Friday there's a potluck and service. That should be fun. Saturday night we're going to Vivian's (our Hadassah group president) house for dinner. Also, Val and Dave will be there. Val and Dave our good family friends. So, it's going to be a crazy week! :P

Ma'am you are under arrest. You have hurt this officer's heart.

Sougo from Gintama says this with basically no emotion. It was rather funny! XP Hi! Well, today I was very cold even though they said it got up to like 75 degrees. It was crazy!

I read more of Naruto. I'm at kind of a cool moment of the story. Where Gaara is attacking Sasuke and Naruto comes in out of no where. Gaara is from the hidden village of sand. He's the same as Naruto is, being a Jinchuuriki. He has the one tailed Tanuki, or raccoon dog. It's pretty nasty when it 'awakens' and takes over Gaara's body. The only difference between Naruto's experience and Gaara's is that he only loves himself and tries to prove his existence through killing. (I know later on after meeting Naruto he changes his outlook on life for the better, and becomes friends with him. He ends up becoming Kazekage or his village leader, and trying to protect his people. Quite an about face.) Naruto always seems to change people, usually for the better. ^_^ I end up liking Gaara after his encounter with him.

For Japanese, I went to see if the language bar was set up properly. It scared it first because the keyboard wasn't really aligned. I found the problem and it was fine. So, I started to redo some of the a's after the stuff I printed off.

In Gintama it was the last 2 episodes of the 'computer virus' arc. I loved how when they started fighting the virus army they were calling the names of cleaning products. That was a funny parody. They find out that the virus was really a corrupt security system in Tama. It found ways of tranmitting itself to humans, so Kagura and Shinpachi turned into pixels. Also, Since Ginotki had been running when the virus was trying to shoot him it infected his penis. XD It was hilarious! He said why does this always happen to my penis in this anime! (It's been changed into a screw driver before, just to give an example. They don't actually show but they talk about it. Almost makes it better. Eventually they killed the virus and saved Tama's body. But, the Leukocyte king was dying. Tama fixed him up though, since she created him, she can rebuild him. Also, after they killed the virus, there was an alert from some speakers, telling everyone the battle was over. Also, it said you can begin making babies, and the army of the virus was told to switch to a white suit and making babies too. ^_^ This anime is so awesome it can have you laughing so hard that you can't breathe and like the next minute has you bawling your eyes out. I mean they almost made me cry over the leukocytes! Pretty hard to do. :P

Well, tomorrow I see my optometrist. They told me before that I'll probably get my new contacts at this appointment. But, funny thing is they called saying they probably won't have it, and that this is just to see how I'm doing with the contacts. I'll post more tomorrow, it's not letting me post past this apparently.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

This is a quote from Peter Ustinov. Hi! Today my contacts were a lot better. I didn't have much of a problem during the day, and they didn't pop out. I guess yesterday was just fluke. I still can't wait until Tuesday! They'll be my presription, so they'll be clearer and maybe more comfortable. ^_^ I also felt pretty well as a whole today.

We went to Walmart, Sears, and Best Buy today. At Walmart, we got sunglasses for me. I've never had 'real' sunglasses before, so this was awesome. (Before I would get clip on ones. They clip on to your regular glasses.) My dad said I looked like a rockstar or something. I don't know about that. He also said I look more beautiful. =^_^= We also got more solution for my contacts, some Sudafed, etc. We also found a bag that fit my sunglasses that was at the optical place there.

Our washing machine died this morning. It was making grinding sounds and I think some squeaks were in there too. :P So, it kind of struggled as it died. We went to Sears to get a replacement. We decided on an upright washing machine. (I think that's what they're called.) we had a very old fashioned type of washing machine. Since there's no agitator, we can wash things like blankets easier. It sounds like it will be powerful. I think they're going to deliver it on Wednesday. They'll take away our old one.

We went to Best Buy because there was a computer on sale. We decided that I'll get Dad's old computer and he'll get the new one. It's quite different than my laptop was, but it should be good. Dad still has to transfer his things from this one to the new one. After that I can truly feel like it's mine. I can't delete any of the programs I don't think I need until that happens. I don't think I'll add my documents until than either. Still kind of a holding pattern, but at least I have something to go on. The weird thing was I had to go and use Dad's modem to get internet. His new computer doesn't connect to the internet right now. He has to go to the store and get something extra, but it should work after that. The new computer also came with an all in one printer, which he gave to me. I was rather surprised, but that's really nice of him. Also, my entire desk is filled up with 'stuff'. (The monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer part, printer, and my lamp.) It's weird to go from the laptop built in mouse to an external mouse. This one didn't work on the class that's on my desk and I don't have a mouse pad. So, I flipped over a notepad that had cardboard and worked really great. Funny, in a way. Also, the extra speakers are awesome! I'm not used to it, but it's sounds great.

For dinner Dad made some beef stew over noodles. It was good, just not cooked quite enough. We also had more of the peach muffins. Not enough peaches, but still good. We also watched some of the Monk episodes on demand that we didn't see when they aired. One was about an actress Monk idolized. He finds out she's not who he thinks she is. Plus, she murdered someone. The next one was about a man from Nigeria and finding out who killed his wife. It was very sad. Monk kept getting confused and kept thinking about Trudy when the man talked about his wife. (Trudy was killed too, but no one caught the killer.)

Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.

This quote's by Sophia Loren. Hi! Today I felt pretty good. I still don't know if it's the Lamotragine or things I did today or even just thinking to myself that I'm happier. (Like it's just psychological.) :P Either way it's good I guess. It was actually somewhat cold today. I also had some problems putting in my right contact this morning. I managed to put in backwards or inverted. I couldn't see, and it hurt like someone threw a rock in there or something. So, once my mom came down the stairs this morning, I told her that I couldn't see and could she help me. Sure enough she looked at it and said it was inverted. I didn't think it could do that and still stick to my eye. XD So, I got it in ok. Later though, just as we were going to watch a movie that same contact fell out of my eye. It took me awhile to get it back in with Mom's help. (This is only a couple of hours before I had planned to go to bed. So, great, after putting it back in I'll have to take it back out soon.) Mom said it probably was because the contact isn't the right prescription, and doesn't have the same type of curve as my eye. So, after awhile it would naturally fall off. I can't wait to get the actual contacts with my prescription! I think that's on Tuesday.

I went to services today. Emily was leading it. I still find her a little off in the way she does things. The Torah portion today was about justice and stoning. Justice is cool, but stoning people obviously people have a problem with. But, it's interesting that if there is only one witness to a crime, the accused seems innocent. If there are more than 2 or 3 witnesses than that person is guilty. It shows that just because one person says someone else did something doesn't make it true and the person could just not like the accused. But, if other people see it, then yeah it makes sense (to me at least) that they are guilty. Usually a group of random people don't really have a personal agenda. Kind of interesting. I'm not sure if I'd go so far as stoning the person that's guilty, I'd rather they rot in jail or something. That seems worse, because they are actually being punished for a longer period of time for what they did. Stoning them to death might be a form of public humiliation but the person gets an easy escape in the end. This is just my opinion though. I also saw someone who I haven't seen in a couple of years. We went to the same college, and his mother's apart of our congregation. He finished his journalism degree and is now interning at some newspaper in Lewiston, Idaho. He loves his work there, so I'm happy for him. ^_^ There weren't many people that showed up, but we did have a minion. (A minion is a group of 10 Jewish adults, we can't technically read from the Torah without 10 Jewish adults present.)

Later, we went to Rite Aid, Costco, then the mall. My parents needed things like pain killers, clothes, etc. All common necessities. ^_^ At Costco it seems the TVs are just getting bigger every time we go. It was just nuts! I think I can find other ways to spend that kind of money, maybe on actually living and savings. Seems kind of materialistic to me. XP For the mall at some point I found a comfy chair while my parents went on without me to shop some more. They're the type of chairs where almost as soon as you sit you fall asleep in. Extremely soft and just feels nice. After a while of sitting a Filipino guy sat next to me. (The only way I knew was I think he was speaking in Filipino.) Eventually, I started to fall asleep, and when I woke up he was snoring loudly. I fell asleep again, and again he snored after I awoke. This repeated for a while. Then, his family came over and they were talking in Filipino to each other. I tried to act like I wasn't listening. and then I heard a hello from him. I thought he was talking to someone next to me or something and didn't respond right away. I realized he had a huge grin and was staring at me, no one was near me. I said hi and they went back to talking. It was kind of funny.

For dinner we went to Hakata. It's a pretty good Japanese restaurant in Silverdale. They serve miso soup and pickled bean sprouts at the beginning of every entree you order. We ordered some sushi as an appetizer too. For the main course, I had what they called chickenteridon. Basically, a chicken teriyaki rice bowl, only a really good one. The rice part was just awesome sweet and sticky, I love that kind. Then, I ordered some fried icecream. This isn't like the mexican type of fried icecream. They take vanilla icecream, surround it in a cake that's seasoned with things like cinnamon, and wrap that up in tempura and fry it lightly. Very good, but probably not good for me. ;P

Later we watched a movie called Religulous. (I think that how you say it.) It's a Bill Mahr documentary about basically religious fanatics and debating their views on their religion. It's funny he didn't talk to too many Jews. :P The one Jew he really talked to he didn't let the guy talk to defend himself. Bill Mahr mostly was putting down the extremists in Christianity, Islam, Mormon, and Scientology. I found it funny that none of these people clearly and intelligently described why they felt the way the do. They had blind faith and never questioned their view on G-d. I found it almost sad at the same time that there are people who are so ignorant about their own religion.

When angry, count to four. When very angry, swear.

A Mark Twain quote. :P Hi! I'm feeling a lot better today, although that can be due to a number of factors. I exercized a lot too. I feel so sleepy now because of it. ^_^

I called the clinic today and talked to my psychiatrist. I told her about how I seem to be feeling more depressed and have some of my manic symptoms like snapping at people and being irritated coming back. I suggested to her that maybe I should up my dosage of Lamotragine. She agreed and said it should help, and told me to take 300 mg a day instead of the 200 mg. I did, and surprisingly I think it helped, even though she told me it might take a while. My system usually is quick to react to meds, so I think it did affect me already.

I read more of Naruto. I'm still at the point where the Hokage is battling Orochimaru. Has anybody noticed that Orochimaru's 'new' face after ripping off his old (I know, disgusting.) that he looks like a girl? I wonder if he switched into a girls body, it's interesting. I know he said he was experimenting with all bodies on how to become immortal. I also know later there's like 2 women we get to know pretty well that he said he's interested in tranferring into their bodies. It just seems weird. I love the Hokage's last jutsu, where only the person using the technique can actually see it. It's like this giant ghost chained up, and uses the Hokage (Puts an arm through him) to grab the enemy and can pull the enemy down to hell. (I think that's how it works. It's been a while.) Also the user, being the Hokage, will die if he uses this jutsu. The 'ghost' or spirit looks really cool, kind of hard to describe. ;P

I got to read more Inumimi today too! This time, they actually showed what the 'dogs' (dogs turned into human form, Rino, Elga, and Luna.) made for Yuichiro's dinner. It looked pretty disgusting. XD So, they ate 'unflavored' Udon instead. Eventually they showed Yuichiro back at school and introduced his friend. His friend saved up all the homework and lectures while Yuichiro was in Canada. She suggested she should drop them off at his house. Only funny thing is he didn't tell her about what happened to the dogs. She misunderstood everything and kept calling him a 'hentai' (pervert) because he was 'flirting' with defenseless girls and had them locked up in his house. It was pretty funny. XD (Obviously this stuff wasn't true.) It made it all worse when one the girls, I think Elga, asked if he could bathe her. So, his friend grabbed Elga and bathed her herself. Only thing was she also was bathing and Elga was surprised that human 'females' had the same type of body as her. XD

For my clarinet, I managed to play for a little longer than normal. I made some mistakes, but it's not like I was on stage or anything. I think it's because I haven't been playing much lately and my hands get rusty if I do that. They just aren't as flexible as when playing everyday. Some of the songs today were almost perfect though, so it was kind of a mixed bag.

For Japanese, I went over the first particle they listed. I think I pushed myself too much yesterday, and managed to burn out that way. I forget I learn quickly if I study for little bits at a time. I think I wanted to do so much because I'm nervous about the test in November. But, I just need to relax about it, otherwise I'll do horribly on it. I also wrote out some of the verb forms for the first verb I have. I think I need to make a list again of what each form means, I had made a perfect list of explanations before. Now, I can't get into it, so I have to compile info all over again. The hard part is that there's not really one website that explains them all well, so you have to kind of look at many websites to get the info. Maybe in the future I'll make a website that clearly defines all the forms. But, now I have to make it for myself. :P

I rewatched some more of xxxHolic. These episodes were about a ouiji board type game called Angel and Fortune Telling. The 'Angel' game was creepy. It was gathering people and taking their spirits once they started playing. I loved the old lady who was the real fortune teller. She had quite a personality and loves to drink as much as Yuuko.

I did some of my maze book. This book is interesting, because the mazes turn into pictures. They have some really tough ones too. For some of them you have to invert the colors in order to actually see the picture. It's really a cool book! :D

I drew a couple more female heads for learning how to style hair. One was a short hairstyle with kind of a flip towards the ends of the strands. The other was a high pony tail. I liked the pony tail one more, but I still think it turned out weird.

I also finished the first chapter of my manga story called Alliance. Maybe I'll type it up and post it on deviantArt tomorrow. (Also save a hard copy for myself.) I started the second chapter too, so that's in the works also.

For dinner we had chicken with spinach and onions. Then, some pasta with Basil from our garden, some tomatoes, lemon juice, and other spices. It was good. For dessert we had peach muffins. Ah, they were so good! ;D

Eureka had an interesting episode tonight. People were over producing water so much they drowned themselves. I think they said it was because the radiation got into the 'synthetic' water, and it made their longs and other organs like sponges. One lady drowned in her car, another in the bathroom, and one in a small pool inside that had been drained of water beforehand. Kind of crazy!

So, a lot of things could have made me feel better. Exercising, increase in dosage, drawing, writing my story, my contacts, having good food, watching a couple of my favorite shows, reading manga, playing the clarinet, and doing puzzles. All things that I love, but some things I had to force myself first.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

This is a Erma Bombeck quote. Hi! Well, it was nice and warm today again. I'm getting more used to my contacts. Last night it only took me 5 minutes to get them out. It took about 30 minutes to get them in this morning. This was mainly because I finally realized my fingures were too wet and therefore the lens stuck more to me than my eye. Kind defeats the purpose. :P After that, it was really quick. Plus, my vision isn't as blurry as yesterday. I guess it takes a while for your eyes to adjust to them.

In Japanese today I started redoing the 'system' that worked for me before. Since I know more about where to go to get the info I've been breezing through it. Then, after printing off my work, I decided to go over some of the things I printed off yesterday. I found out that one of the quizzes was way too advanced for me, but it has useful info on the particles. So, I'll keep the info part, not sure about the actual quiz. Might save that for when I'm more advanced. It's nice to have the particles explained, although it was pretty vague. Most of the particles can't truly be translated into English, so I understand that it's kind of hard to explain to begin with. The second quiz/ worksheet I printed, I think was good, but since I had been working none stop on Japanese for like 2 and half hours I was making mistakes on things that I knew. So, I stopped. I like how in this quiz it had little speech bubbles and you had to guess what they were saying right based on the pictures. Now, the pictures were a little confusing because they weren't really clear. ;P It was still fun though! (Even though I was so fried from trying to understand something that was so advanced, and from doing my normal stuff.)

I watched the new Naruto Shippuuden episode today. It was kind of cool! It was about Deidara fighting Sasuke. They showed some of Deidara's past. He was a bomber who worked for what they called 'anti- government' groups. Although, he was into making the perfect type of art. (To him at least. :P) He likes to mold things out of a clay like substance and makes some crazy sculptures. When he releases them, they move on their own and when he says 'Ha!' they explode. He's always saying how the most perfect art is the art that goes boom. XD He's mostly been making birds and these bug like things. It really was looking like Deidara was going to die again but he managed to save himself. It's like he never dies when you think he does. (He's not immortal like Hidan, though.) He made sort of like monsters (that you can't really tell what they are), dragons, and a giant form of himself in this episode. At the end it looked almost like Sasuke was scared stiff. XD The next episode should be interesting.

In Gintama, they set out on trying to save Tama. The funny thing was Tama downloaded a smaller version of herself and put it in her body to aid the group in saving her. x_X They met the real 'leukocyte' king. He looked exactly like Gintoki except he had green eyes instead of a reddish brown. They fought for a while wondering why they looked so similar. Tama said it was because she wanted simulate what was the strongest person in the world to her, and that was Gintoki. Kind of weird for a robot, but she's supposed to be 'highly evolved'. They're on the way to see the Tapir virus. It's really like an rpg! They even had an inn, casino, and a save or restore church type place. It was awesome! I like how their weapons are toothpicks. XD

My dad and I went to our market to get a ready made dinner. I got a chicken burrito with some Mexican rice. Funny thing was they put pasta sauce on it instead of salsa. I guess it's true that people here don't like spicy food. I love it, but for health reasons I shouldn't eat it. (Long story, don't ask!) But, other than that it was pretty good.

I looked online again and my psychiatrist's name is still not on the medical team list that I can contact. So, I went to see her notes about the last appointment. She said in her report that I was advised to contact the clinic if I have any depressive symptoms. Funny thing is I really don't think she actually told me this little piece of info. So, I guess I'll call tomorrow. I'm just feeling kind of weird, and am thinking maybe adding a higher dose of Lamotragine will help. I didn't call them today, because I didn't remember. ^_^" I'm also a little worried that when I turn 25 (on Nov. 7th!) the insurance I'm a part of will drop me. We still have to look more into that to get an idea of what to do if that happens. :(

Youtube:

Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.

An Oscar Wilde quote. It was pretty warm today! Well, today I went for my eye appointment contacts. I'm always scared that I'm going to do the tests wrong, and get the wrong prescription. Apparently, my eyes are so bad they didn't have the presription in the samples. So, we got a the closest one. It was weird when he put my lenses in first. Everything was kind of blurry and I couldn't get it to sit right. After a while it was better. It took me about a half hour to get it out of one eye and put it back in. My eyes kind of feel dryer with these things in. And since they're not my presription, they blur a little. I look a lot different now. Supposedly, people can see my eyes more this way. I have to wait until next week to get my prescription. This should be interesting. I'm going to probably need help the entire time with putting them in and out. I think people who saw me a couple of years ago without the long hair and with glasses won't recognize me anymore. I also think people that I see a lot of will be surprised.

I was really tired (I think because of the eye strain last night so I slept in. I managed to put the Japanese font on my mom's computer so I can see it. She helped with putting the Japanese in the language bar. So, now I can read it and type it. I think what I'm going to do is type up more from the vocab list I have written down, expand on it (find kanji, more definitions, etc.) and then print it out, and erase the file when I'm done. This way it's gone from Mom's computer and I have a hard copy. But, this means almost starting the process from the beginning. Maybe I'll go faster this time. I also found some useful things to print out from the MLC. (Megumi Language Center of Japan. [?]) Things that explain the grammar that can't really be explained in English. Such as the wa's, ni's, o's, ga's, etc. they add to the end of some words. Also, they had some quizzes and the answers to them that I printed off. It sounds fun to me! Well, I'm not going to write much today because of the contacts.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

This a Confucious quote. Hi! Well, I feel similar to yesterday, only one thing's changed. I broke my glasses! :( I just touched it wrong and the top part of the frame broke off. So, mom decided to put a rubber band around it for the time being so I can see. It was very nice of her. Now I have a huge blind spot on my face though. I have to tilt my head in order to really see something. So, my mom made an appointment to see my optometrist tomorrow. I'm hoping to get contacts. Just so tired of holes on the sides of my nose, how heavy the frames can feel, how they never feel clean, and I don't want to end up with another pair of glasses that twist and appear to make the frame crooked. I'm afraid that I might pass out every time I try to put in my new contacts when I get them. I might be fine, but might take a while to get them in. I'm nervous and excited. :P I'll look quite different too. After all I've been wearing glasses for at least 17 years, so most of my life. It was pretty warm today too, so that was nice. I couldn't email my psychiatrist because she's apparently not on the list for the medical team members I can email yet. Not sure what to do now. Maybe call tomorrow and leave a message, maybe she'll get back to me.

In Gintama, the robot Tama (in the picture) had a virus that made her pixelated. She looked like she came from an old rpg. They were specifically parodying Dragon Quest. The actual game was made in the 1980's. The company went bankrupt in 1982 and was picked up again by another company in 1987. In 2003, they updated it, I think. But, it was really a classic. :3 When Tama moves to the side she becomes paper thin, and in fact Kagura sliced a vegetable on Tama's head it was that sharp. :P Gintoki sounded like an old gamer when he talked about how back in the day their video games didn't have CG and 3D rendering. They had to use their imagination. He hates the rpg's that have the long CG cut- scenes that are in the newer games. He says he didn't get it to watch a movie, he got to play! If they don't fix the virus in Tama soon she'll be a soulless robot. The mechanic who made Tama smashes Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi with a huge hammer, and it makes them shrink. Kind of weird. o_O Eventually they were forced into Tama's mouth. (It really looked to me like a parody of the Fantastic Voyage movie.) The 'blood' is rivers of oil in Tama. She has mini humans that act as a Leukocyte army. At the end of this episode one of the leukocytes told the group to find and help the leukocyte king. The extra for this episode was on how to draw Gintoki's dead fish type eyes. The illustration was great! ;P

In Neuro, I watched the episode called Dog. It's about a bomber who bombs buildings that have certain names where when put together into an acronym makes a message. Like, the first message was omen. The bomber leaves a card at each site that has a dog on it. Bomber is actually a mother of 2 children, the youngest being a baby she carries everywhere. Plus, she's happily married. She was bombing buildings because she wanted to satisfy her destructive side. The next demon weapon of the 777 that Neuro uses is called Eye Crushing Eye Drops or Evil Drop. It basically shows the person the ramifications of their actions.

On Primeval I watched the season finale and watched the premiere of the next. It's kind of hard to find online, but I found it on Youtube through imjamesadams channel. There was prehistoric scorpion, that burrowed through the sand and snatched people on a beach. In Lester's lab (don't know what else to call it. The place where he rounded up a lot of prehistoric and future creatures.) Cutter downloaded a virus into the main computer. This shut down the whole system releasing all the animals. The found Rex in all the chaos. Also, the main part of the team got out pretty quickly. The devices that Lester made that controlled the 'future' creatures were destroyed by Cutter, therefore they ended up killing Lester. Also, at the end Stephen sacrifices himself in order to keep the creatures locked up. Just before this he realized Helen was just playing him. That episode ended with many clones of that weird guard/ military guy. It was creepy. Next episode was about what the Egyptians called the Sun Cage. It held the anomaly and could control it. Apparently, Cutter has long hair now, it looks weird. Abbey now has even shorter hair though. There's a new guy called Captain Becker (I think, with British accents it could have sounded like Baker also.) sent to be a bodyguard to the team. A creature by the name of Pristichampus (it's like a prehistoric crocodile.) who's 55 million years old is freed from the museum. Apparently, electricity changes anomalies. The croc attacks a food court at what looks to be a mall. This type of croc was treated as a G-d by the Egyptians. Dr. Page is now a new member of the team, she specializes in Egyptology. Legends from the past like the unicorn, Hydra, etc. could all be what people in the past interpretted the creatures as. Dr. Page is going to help them look at the myths and find patterns between them.

For Japanese, I'm planning to ask my dad if I could print off some of the vocab from my flash drive. Then, I might ask my mom if I could download the Japanese font, so I can actually read it on here. With doing this I should be able to continue what I was doing before that was helping so much. For today I found a Youtube channel from Gimmeabreakman where he does 10 minutes of a lesson on one subject. I looked at genki (characters on top) and sentence structure video. I knew already what he was saying but it was nice to go over it. Genki means healthy or energetic. The sentences were simple and they were these: genki kai? (how are you?) hai, genki desu (yo). (yes, I'm fine.) genki da ne! (You sure are energetic!) genki de ha arimasen. (This very formal. I'm not very energetic.) genki ja nai. (Used a lot more often. Means the same thing as sentence just before.) Sometimes ha is pronounced wa. It's wa when used as an article to a subject of a sentence. For instance "watashi wa"- I am...

I watched my old DVD of amv's on our TV. I think it's awesome that it works on our TV, because it didn't with the last one. The biggest one on there is a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) project. It's about an hour and 15 minutes. x_X A little too long! While that was going I played a game of solitaire. Fun, because the card deck I have is of an anime called Gravitation. Gravitation is an extremely light yaoi (Gay love or 'boys' love'- that's usually written by women for women), between a writer and a singer. It's more about life and finding your special someone, whether they be the same sex or not. The deck has some pretty cool moments on them.

For drawing, I drew the last male head of practicing the facial expressions. After that, I started on the female hair styles section. I don't like the first style they show, but I did it anyways just to see how it was done.

I wrote more of my manga story on paper today. I was going on memory of what I typed on my computer. I luckily have it saved to my flash drive, but I couldn't find my mom's usb port on her computer. :P This time it was about him meeting his advisor. His advisor is a ghost. I won't say too much, but I like this character too, he was fun to write about. If my dad ok's it I'll probably print out the story that I saved on my flash drive. So, at some point I will post the story so far on deviantArt.

If you treat people right they will treat you right - ninety percent of the time.

This is a Franklin D. Roosevelt quote. Hi! Well, I still have those nasty 'brain shivers', but I also seemed to be having a slight tinge of depression. It's probably just because of the withdrawal. (I hope.) After posting I might email my psychiatrist about it, maybe just as a heads up. It was pretty warm today, so that was nice.

I read some more of Poe. This time I read all of the Man That Was Used Up. Kind of funny the way everyone made 'Mr. Thompson' (wasn't his actual name) pissed off. All he wanted to do was find out more about the General. Only, he kind of ended up knowing too much about him. Basically the General is just a bunch of fake body parts made by people. I don't remember is there was one part of him that was still him, but that was kind of disgusting. He lost his body parts in a bunch of wars. I started the story called the Fall of the House of Usher. Sounds like it's about a haunted house so far. Cool! >:)

I played my clarinet today. It was really nice, since I haven't done it in a couple of days. Although, I keep forgetting that the ligature (the thing that holds the reed in place. Reed being what makes the sound. In case you didn't know- now you do!) has the top screw totally stripped. I told my mom and she said maybe we can find a screw for really cheap that can be used for it. That would be awesome! My clarinet's so weird anyways, I have to use a saxophone ligature in order for it to work. XD I guess that's what makes it unique.

For Japanese I went over my flash cards. I kind of made like a 'memory' game to review the vocab. That was actually kind of fun, and I got most of them right.

For anime I watched the On Demand Funimation channel. They had the first 2 episodes of xxxHolic. So, I watched them. I love that anime, but they screwed up a lot of the characters' voices in this English version. Although, Yuko still sounded awesome! xxxHolic is about a boy named Watanuki who can see spirits or demons. He desperately wants to stop seeing them, and ends up in a weird looking shop that grants wishes. The shop is owned by Yuuko who for a price will grant anyone's wish. She offers to get rid of these spirits, but as payment he has to become her part time worker. He does things like the cooking and cleaning. Also, he goes on errands for her that deal with the supernatural. I've seen both seasons of the show. The second is called xxxHolic: Kei. By the way the explanation for the title I think was that there's something everyone's addicted to or collects, like there's an alco'holic' and choco'holic'. She basically helps people with these and many other problems. I've also seen the first movie, it was actually very good. The only thing I haven't watched is the second movie, which came out pretty recently. Tomorrow, I think I'll watch some of my old amv's that I have on DVD and CD's. That will be fun!

Mom made Mac and Cheese with Turkey ham. It was pretty good! Also, we had some of the rosemary flatbread with it. We had Mac and Cheese mainly because Dad wasn't here. (He hates cheese. Just means more for us.)

For drawing, I drew the male heads from my manga drawing book. They didn't turn out too bad. Although it's difficult to draw so many different poses and expressions. It was still fun! Check it out at my deviantArt page! I'm rcmacdonald on there.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

A quote from Anton Chekhov. Hi! Well, for the most part my 'brain shivers' were pretty much like yesterday. Last night was a little different though. As soon as my head hit the pillow, my ears started to pound really hard. It was like someone was trying to get out. It happened everytime those 'shivers' happened. Didn't get to sleep until like 2 hours after I tried to go to bed. Although, I slept like a baby. Weird! o_O It was a pretty good temperature today outside, too.

I went to use my computer this morning and it basically died on me. It didn't let me into anything, the log in screen was messed up and without touching anything it told me it couldn't load the programs. (This is at the login page.) Crazy! So, I couldn't go on it. Mom was nice and let me check my email on her computer after that. We're thinking it might be a while until we figure out what to do about it. So, I just won't be on a computer that often. :( I liked my laptop though. It lasted for at least 5 years. Usually, this type of laptop only lasts 2 years, so it had a nice run.

So, in the midst of figuring all this out I started to get a bit bored and doodled a bit. Then, I thought that I should try to write out all the Hiragana and Katakana from memory as sort of a review. I did pretty well, only had to look a couple of times. The only ones that don't seem to stick often were the ones that aren't very common. Especially some Katakana. (Katakana is like what they use for 'foreign' words or company names. So, they aren't used often anyways.) I was having fun with them and decided to try and figure out what my last name would be like in Katakana. It's something like: makudanarudo. Kind of long but interesting.

I also watched a movie called Dororo. It's an adaptation from a famous manga that was put out in the 1960's. The anime was put out in 1969. The film came out in 2007. They say in the movie that Dororo is a southern term meaning little monster. It's about a guy's father that when he was born, made a deal with 48 demons that they can have pieces of his son so that he can rule the world. So, he was born without limbs or organs or even facial features. He later was found by a shaman who was experimenting in regrowing tissue. So, he took the bodies of children who died in battle and reattached the organs and limbs to the baby. With this, Dororo became almost indestructable. He went on a journey to kill all of the demons his father had made the deal with, and with each one that dies his 'borrowed' limbs and organs fall off and his original body part comes back. The shaman, the man who was most like a father to him, put a sword that could kill demons inside his left arm. Although, he becomes more of a 'mortal' with each body part he takes back. He's also called Hyakkimaru, and uses that more after meeting a girl who's a thief and calls her Dororo. At the end of the movie he had only killed half of the demons. Plus, his mom and father were killed, and all he has left is his brother and Dororo. (Plus a weird storyteller/ musician or what I would like to call a Bard. He just seems to follow them around, retell their stories, and play music at weird moments. Kind of a comic relief.) There's 2 sequels coming out soon to this movie, should be interesting. It was rather hokey at times, but the humor was great, and some of the battles were awesome. The story was interesting too.

Also, when I got on my mom's computer earlier, I finally registered for the JLPT or Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It $40 for the level that I wanted. That was level 4, which oddly is the most basic one, level one is the most difficult. This will be held at UW on December 6th. I'm getting really excited! XD Now, it feels more official. Supposedly, in the beginning of November I'll get my test voucher and test site information. 3 months after the test (in March) they'll send me the results of the exam. That entire time I'm going to probably be so nervous and fret a lot. x_X I think it's a long time.

I also had some time to draw. Today I drew some more expressions. They turned out pretty well. XD Still need more practice, but it wasn't bad.

Later, I figured out that I really can do a ton of things without my laptop. So, it's not the end of the world. I like how my mom is so nice that she's even letting me use her computer to type this up. But, things might also be slightly different for a while. Oh, well that's ok with me. Well, I'm too tired to post some Youtube videos right now, so none today. Sorry!

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

An awesome Einstein quote! I feel like this most of the time. I'm pretty happy with what seems like the small things in life. Hi! Today, I feel slightly better than yesterday, so some progress at least! It was a little warmer today too. Supposed to get to like 89 by Wednesday I think. That's better than 100's or mid 60's, I'll take it. :P I also changed the setting on here to 2 posts per page instead of 7. This way people should be able to look at it more easily. (Including me!)

Today, we went to Paula's Bat Mitzvah. I babysat her a while back. She changed quite a bit. We're friends with her mother Claudia. By the way, Bat Mitzvah is like a coming of age ceremony for when a girl becomes an adult Jew. The male version is the Bar Mitzvah. For men it happens after they turn 13, and for women it happens after the age of 12 or 13. You study your portion of the Torah (our Bible) for several months to get ready. The Torah itself is obviously in Hebrew, but it doesn't have the vowels and it's written quite different than normal. So, you have to memorize everything beforehand. (Think if English was written without vowels, it would be pretty crazy!) Also, a lot of people want to use 'trope' which is a certain way of chanting or saying it. So, you have to memorize that too. Can be hard for anyone, even harder saying it all in front of a usually crowded room. After all that you have to come up with sort of a lecture, talk, or sermon I guess you can call it. So, you have to learn something from that portion and interpret the way you want, so you can teach it to everyone else. A lot for someone at 13 or so! :D

Anyways, she did a very good job and went smoothly. She only forgot a trope for one word but figured it out in the end. Her talk was about Idolatry, what to do about it, and what it means in this day and age. It was interesting. We should value justice over our family ties, friends, money, etc. is what the Rabbi said about it. Paula's family's ancestry comes from Morocco, South America, and the Mediterranean. So, her Grandmother and Uncle spoke in Spanish to her during the ceremony. It was awesome! XD Later, we sang Adon Olam in Ladino. Ladino is a Judaeo- Spanish type language. (Judaeo is Jewish.) It sounds really cool!

For an appetizer to lunch they had lots of samples of cheese, Gazpacho (cold tomato soup with spices), and cream cheese cucumber pinwheels. Also, I was called on to help with passing out the wine. I was so busy giving people them, that I didn't have the grape juice. The samples were interesting. The soup was good, but for some reason it was a little too spicy for me. I hated the pinwheels. :P For the actual lunch there was a Greek noodle salad, Moroccan carrot salad, strawberry salad, and a corn salad. I only liked the Greek noodle salad and the strawberry salad. Those were so good! Dessert was a huge cake. Some layers were like a berry jam and honey filling, some were either a mocha or a some sort of coffee type filling, and the rest of the layers were of the actual cake being of vanilla. The frosting was very thick and rich. What a cake! Very good, but also different than what I'm used to.

I had forgotten that Claudia works in the mental health field, and she invited some therapists (?) that were friends to it. They were awesome! We talked to them about the withdrawal and they knew what I was going through. They told me they were going to come up with a list of therapists in the area that might be able to help me and will be better than the previous ones. Someone who is dating Paula's grandmother sang. He was great! He sang a Frank Sinatra song, and one other that I can't remember. :D

My dad's friend was having a BBQ for his Birthday. We couldn't go because of the 2 hour wait at the ferry terminal. :( So, instead we went to Albertson's to get some meat. (They have some of the best deals on their meat.) For dinner, we went to Applebee's. I got the 3 cheese chicken noodle bowl. The funny thing is there was no chicken in it. :D It was still good, with just being noodles and cheese.

We watched Bolt. It was pretty good! I love Rhino the hamster. He was so funny! Mittens' story was very sad though. I like how in the end, they brought in Mittens and Rhino into their family too. The bonus feature called 'Super Rhino' was hilarious.

I'll post more Youtube videos tomorrow, I'm kind of too tired to post that today. ;)

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Hi! Shabbat Shalom! Today was supposedly a little warmer. Didn't feel much of a difference. :P I'm still feeling my 'brain shivers' although they seem to be turning into constant vibrations. So, much so my face feels more numb. About yesterday's blog, when I said (something along these lines) that I 'want' make money through making amv's, I meant I won't. Sorry, thought I should say that was a typo. ^_^" I did more catching up today with other sites. Also, it made it harder to do things because the internet was slow again. We just got the movie Bolt from Netflix, we'll probably watch that tomorrow. Sounds like a fun movie! ;P

For my website Sugoi Japan, I updated my new fashion section, contact info, and added more links. I think the one type of Japanese fashion I really hate is Ganguro. It's where they try to have really deep tans, platinum and sometimes multicolored hair, white make up, huge platforms, etc. It looks really tacky and somewhat racist. o_O I can handle (oddly) and sometimes like things lolita, maid cafe, cosplay, etc. But, Ganguro I just don't understand. Also, I read that it's not very popular anymore.

I updated my Facebook info. Now it has more accurate info. :P It also has some new quotes. I also looked in the friend suggestion section, and saw people I haven't seen in a long time. Some of them have changed so much, if it wasn't for the name and picture I don't think I'd recognize them. XD

I have good news! ^_^ My mom got the ok for Social Security Disability Benefits. So, the government will pay her a good amount every month. It will give us a nice cushion. :P Plus, it will help with what she's going through right now. She deserves this, I'm happy for her! :D

I hope my dad doesn't get mad at me, for saying what I'm going to say here. :( He makes me kind of angry when he tries to revert everything we say into something about Trans. Things that truly don't have anything to do with it. Also, he seems to be interrupting us more and more. Plus, I hate when we'll be talking and right in the middle of it he'll walk away. >.<>

Quizzes:

Your Feet Say You're Flexible

You are more expressive than most people. You let everyone know how you're feeling - the good, the bad, and the ugly. You are a somewhat passionate person. A few things get you very fired up, but you're usually pretty laid back. You are not a very assertive person. If something doesn't come easily to you, it's not worth having. You take a while to fall in love, but once you do, you stay pretty attached to your partner. You are not afraid of anything. You are brave and courageous, even when most people would be terrified. You are intellectual and philosophical. You are more concerned with thoughts than action. You are an amazingly hard worker. You aren't spoiled and you don't mind getting your hands dirty. You are easily influenced by other people. You're quite impressionable, so you should only be around people who are a good influence.

What Do Your Feet Say About You?

Your Hair Should Be Red

Passionate, fiery, and sassy. You're a total smart aleck who's got the biggest personality around.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

You Are Quite Worldly

You've done a good bit of worldly exploring, and you have an international perspective. And you're definitely looking forward to your future adventures abroad. You've got the passport, the desire to travel, and maybe even the language skills. Now all you need are the means!

How Worldly Are You?

You Are the Heart Chakra

You are loving, kind, and empathetic. You feel for the world, and you truly value peace. You have many close relationships, and you work hard to make them harmonious. You are accepting and understanding. You are tolerant of all sorts of viewpoints, even if you don't agree with them. You are very forgiving. When you love someone, your love is unconditional.

What Chakra Are You?

Your Dreams Are a Warning

Your dreams seem to show that you're very preoccupied with your fears and problems. These bad dreams indicate that you need to spend more time on your issues during the day. Your dreams tend to reflect your insecurities. Your dreams indicate that you have very conflicted feelings. You have a very vivid imagination and a rich creative mind. You secretly want to hide your dreams from your waking mind.

What Do Your Dreams Mean?

Youtube:

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

Another Einstein quote. Hi! I woke up earlier than I wanted to because I heard rustling noises in my dad's office. Kind of weird. So, instead of getting up at 7 I got up at 6:15. I think I needed those extra 45 minutes, but oh well. :P The weather today is just plain nasty. It's freezing, pouring down rain, and there might be some thunder later. I'd take this over the 102 degree weather though. :D Today, I did a lot of catching up on things I haven't done in a while.

I worked on my website called Sugoi Japan! It's at http://shadow22cat.wordpress.com It's a site devoted to things I find out about Japan. Only problem is before today, I hadn't updated it in over a year. XD I'm horrible for letting it stall for so long. I still get tons of people that visit the site everyday. It was funny like 5 of the comments left by people were all in Japanese. It was higher level type stuff, so I didn't understand it. I guess I should try to put them in a translator thing, but sometimes that messes up the meaning. I added a regular post saying sorry to people who actually read it and that I'll update as much as I can today. I also made another anime section, of the more recent ones I've completed. I posted some videos on the culture. (Really on the traditional music so far.) I started another page on fashion of Japan. That's kind of fun. ;P Hopefully, I'll add more things tomorrow. Sometimes it takes forever just to make a page, it slows down while saving, takes time to find the info, etc. But, I still like the idea of it, kind of like my personal stockpile of all things Japanese.

I also might make some amv's, anime music videos, because I just realized I had the tools to make them. These obviously will just be for fun, and I want gain a profit from them. People might donate to me, maybe if I get good enough. ;P The tools being, I forgot that my laptop came with Windows Movie Maker, I have some music, and I have anime. Voila! There you go! All the makings of an amv. >:)

I also posted some of my recent drawings on deviantArt. I'm rcmacdonald on that. So, check it out! I already had one comment and they thought one of my drawings was cool and that the cat was very cute. =^_^= I don't hear too many comments about my drawings so that was nice.

I watched the new Naruto Shippuuden episode. I love Kakashi's ninja dogs, they have funny personalities. They decided to have 2 ninja dogs to every ninja. (Since the dogs can sense danger and alert the others better than a mic.) Except, since Naruto is being saught after still for the nine- tailed fox that's in him, he gets 2 ninjas and one huge dog. Hinata and Yamato were picked to go with him. The dog's name is Big Bark Bull, and he's obviously a Bull dog. Kabuto shows up and talks to Naruto. We find out that after Orochimaru died, Kabuto absorbed him into his body. 1/3 of his body is used up by Orochimaru's body. He now has half his face as his, an arm as his, and other parts we can't really see. :P Tobi and Deidara find Sasuke. Deidara tries to throw his 'bombs' at him, but they don't work. Eventually it looks like towards the end of the episode that Deidara is stuck in the Sharingan technique. (Puts you in a trance and makes an illusion of the user's own world. They can torture the victim for what seems like forever. It's really only a few minutes.) It would be interesting to see if he's as good as Itachi with that.

In Gintama, Hijikata and Gintoki accidentally get handcuffed to each other. Hijikata was in the middle of a police stakeout. Gintoki was half awake and just wanted to throw his trash in the dumpster Hijikata was sitting on. After getting handcuffed, Hijikata realized he didn't have a key to them. So, he asked Sougo to uncuff them. He handcuffed their other wrists together, and said wouldn't it be more fun this way. Before he left he gave Hijikata some of his favorite mayonnaise in a bottle. They looked hilarious walking together down the street. XD Later they find that Sougo slipped some laxatives in the mayonnaise, which both of them had. (Gintoki had it by accident because it landed in his food and on his face.) They tried to figure out how they would go to the bathroom all based on expecting it to be a 'western' style toilet. (They have 2 types of toilets: Western and Japanese 'traditional'. Western is just like any other American or European type toilet. The traditional one you have to squat in mid air and aim within a basin that has like a drain towards one end. It's supposedly much more difficult to use, but some people that swear by it say that it helps with your muscles. Western style toilets are actually more popular now, and you'll only get the traditional ones in old facilities or a traditional town.) After much maneuvering, they figure it out and run out. They steal a scooter, but end up facing opposite directions, and can't navigate well. Eventually they catch up to the people Hijikata had been following and end up working as a great team fighting the bad guys. By the way, normally they supposedly hate each other. Sougo says at the end he just wanted to see if they could get along. That's interesting coming from him. :P

Youtube:

(I feel the same way!)

(Sadly, I know what this is like.)

(One of the best from Dane Cook.)

(Poor Mello!)

(The police of Gintama are awesome! XD)

(How true!)