Mood:
Another classic Beatles song. This one was written by Paul McCartney, and credited to both Lennon and McCartney. McCartney wanted to create a sound that was as loud and dirty as possible. It's considered a key influence in the development of heavy metal. In British English, helter-skelter means in a disorderly haste or confusion, and is a name of a spiraling amusement park slide. McCartney used this song as a response to critics who accused him of only writing ballads.
Posted another county fair rabbit pic to dA and FB. It was one of those giant ones. Looked like it barely fit in its cage. Since the current episode I was on for Ghost Mama was still raw, I decided to watch one of the series I put on hold. That was Mirai Nikki. They finally have it all subbed!
After today, there's only one episode left. So, if Ghost Mama's raw still, I'll finish Mirai Nikki next week. Yay! Mirai Nikki is a pretty crazy series. I wouldn't say it's my fave, but the story's so detailed and complex, it's hard to not finish it. (Almost every episode had some sort of big twist.) Really sucks you in.
Baka to Test was weird. I'm starting to think when the next anime season hits, I'll drop it.
The guys' fixation on breasts, the class being treated as 'idiots' when most of the time they aren't, the girls beating up the guys, etc. is getting old. Oh well.
Kekkaishi was somewhat interesting. Yoshimori went to Uro-sama's world to repair his bed. Once he did, he wanted to ask him a ton of questions. But, if he stayed there too long, he'd forget everything and disappear. Uro was too sleepy to respond, and Yoshimori was starting to forget himself. A memory of Tokine helping him, plus his grandpa hoisting him out of that world, saved him. None of his questions were answered. He wanted to know more about Karasumori, the area around the school that was once a forest, and now makes demons stronger when they wander in. The Kekkaishi have to guard against those demons.
Played my clarinet. Did a lot of Irish tunes. Messed up a few times, but it wasn't bad. Wrote more of chapter 18 of Alliance. The kanji for today was 台 or たい、だい、うてな (tai, dai, utena). It means: counter for machines and vehicles, pedestal, stand, rack, table, support. Finished translating the first page of an article in You Maga. Read in Japanese an article about a landslide that derailed a train, on Asahi's website. 700 people were on it. 7 people, including the train driver, suffered serious and some minor injuries. No one was killed. So, that's one good thing.
Went over another Japanese lesson. This time it was over volitional forms of verbs which express an invitation or a suggestion. The plain form is used mainly by men, where as the polite form is used by both men and women. So, 行く or iku (to go) changes to 行こう or ikou (let's go) for the plain volitional form, and 行きましょう (let's go) or ikimashou for the polite volitional form. Plain verbs ending with su change to a sou ending, ones with ku go to a kou ending, gu to a gou, etc. The polite volitional form is the same as the ます or masu form, only with ましょう or mashou at the end. I thought this one was interesting enough, to write out.
All my answers to the practice questions turned out correct. I'm on the right track!
Each lesson builds on the previous, so the questions get much more difficult as you go.
Couldn't decide on one writing meme, so I'm thinking of doing 2 this time. It looks like both won't take very much time. One has 12 of my characters going on a 'rainforest adventure'. The other, introduces 5 of my newest characters. That second one goes into a lot of detail. But, it'd be even better for character development that way. The first one just looks like it'd be fun. A couple of my characters will be featured in both memes. Those are the ones I don't have much info on, yet.
Mood:
Happy belated Grandparents Day! It was yesterday. They definitely deserve a day, if not more, honoring them.
Took Rosie to the vet on Friday. She was remarkably calm once they were looking at her. Almost like she was playing dead.
On the way to it, she kept crying like crazy. They gave her a few annual shots, weighed her, and shaved/brushed out her matted hair. Weight was pretty good. They said she probably is having problems cleaning the area that clumped up. Mainly because either the weight is keeping her from it, or most likely, she might have arthritis, and it's just too painful.
We just might have to brush it more often for her. Tasha's appointment is this coming weekend. We'll see how that goes.
On Saturday, we picked up my bike from the shop. It looked pretty good. Also, got a new helmet. I wasn't even going to check my old one that's been sitting in the garage for about 10 years.
Dad also got a new bike rack for her car. To make transporting them easier. Biked a bit today. Found out the seat might be a bit too high for me. I could barely get my leg over, and couldn't put my feet down when I stopped.
It was still nice to see what it was like again. I'll have to put something over the handlebars, too. The bugs in the garage started to chew through it. So there's bite marks. They say there's spray on insulation foam I can use for it. If that doesn't work, then duct tape.
Yesterday, we went to the Puyallup Fair. Haven't been to this one in a very long time, as well. Liked it more than the county fair. Has a bigger fair 'feel'. Saw some of the animals. Haven't been on too many rides before, so I tried a few.
Went on the Sky Ride, which I haven't been on since I was really little. It's like a small cable car that goes over the fair grounds. It's quite an impressive looking fair from above. There was another ride, might have been the Scrambler, where we spun very fast. There was another spinning structure next to us, and I thought we'd hit it. It was fun though. We went on the Ferris Wheel. The part where they were slowly loading people to the rest of the wheel, wasn't very fun. But, once that got going, it was kind of fun too. Dad went a couple of times on the Tilt-A-Whirl.
Towards the end, we decided to try the Starship. I didn't realize how crazy it would be.
The outside has a lot of fancy lights decorating what looks like a 'ufo'. You can't see anything from the outside, other than it spins really fast. There's no seat belts. You just press your back to the wall where there's a foam panel that moves up and down. There's a railing for things like purses. We were spinning so fast, our purses were floating. I felt like something, like a blood vessel, was going to pop.
It was so much force that I couldn't left my head too much. Oddly, I liked it. It was unusual, but fun.
While I was there, had a gyro and garlic fries for dinner. Pretty tasty stuff!
Later, had a strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was really good! Had a scone on the bottom. The scones were being sold everywhere! It seemed every few food stalls was a scone one. Doesn't particularly seem like fair food, to me. But, I love scones, too!Looked at a place that housed some of the venders' products. One lady stamped our nails with cool designs. I got a scorpion, since I'm a Scorpio. Dad got 2 butterflies, since she loves them so much. We might go back to the fair soon, to try more of the rides. The fair itself goes until the 23rd.
In Baka to Test, the school's summoning system went haywire, because someone disconnected the main cable in the control room. Since Akihisa's wrist band isn't affected by the system, he's the only one that can fix it by sending his summoning beast in. (He's also the only one that feels pain through whatever's happening with his 'beast'.) The air vent is too small for humans to pass through, and some of the summoned beasts went rogue. He managed to fix it, but barely had any points left by the time his 'beast' made it back.
Read some of Kekkaishi. Nothing very exciting. Played my clarinet. Did some klezmer and Mozart pieces. Finally decided on a name for my zoo! Now I have to figure out the animals. Ones that aren't the norm. In other words, some that I make up. Have to figure out their names, and what they look like.
Went over another kanji, practiced some, and looked over some compounds. Went over another Japanese lesson in my book. Almost done with a section of an article from You Maga, that I've been translating for a bit. Read an article in Japanese about Universal Studios Japan having a Halloween event. Sounded fun.
In the process of figuring out a better design for my main character from Alliance. He's looking much better already.
Mood:
By D-51. It's also the theme song for Gokusen's 2nd season. A touching and upbeat song. Has a slight reggae feel too. D-51 is a 2 member band from Okinawa. Their music is usually upbeat and has a summer feel to it. They tend to mix pop with reggae and Latin-like influences. Their name was taken from the steam locomotive type D51, which was invented by Japan National Railways and was built in 1936. This is the ending sequence to Gokusen's 2nd season last episode:
This my wallpaper for the month.It's Gintoki from Gintama. Has a matsuri or festival flare to it. Kind of fun. I've heard Gintama might be coming back soon, after a movie is put out. Can't wait!
My herb calendar has a lot of vinegars with different types of herbs in them. Interesting. Not sure if I've tried a vinegar like that.
My Jewish calendar has 3 different parochets. Parochet literally means curtain, or veil, or screen. It's used as a curtain in front of the Torah ark, that holds the scrolls, in a synagogue. Not every synagogue has this. (Ours doesn't, for example.
) They usually change them during big holidays, especially for this time of year. Speaking of that, there's only about 13 more days until Rosh Hashanah or our New Year.
It's coming up so fast! Anyways, the main one's from Lyon from around 1760-1765. Another's from Germany in 1728. And the last one's from Amsterdam from around 1840-1855. Kind of cool to see such old ones.And they don't look damaged.
Here's the month-long holidays: Apple Month, National Bourbon Heritage Month, Chili Peppers and Figs Month, Happy Cat Month, National Chicken Month, National Honey Month, National Piano Month, National Rice Month, Passion Fruit and Peach Month, Whole Grains Month, World Animal Remembrance Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Biscuit Month, National Breakfast Month, National Potato Month. Some are important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Interesting mix this time.
Dad goes back to work tomorrow, and I can tell she's getting really nervous. I would be too, with all that's been going on. But, it gets a bit weird on my end. So, I felt a bit funky earlier because of it.
It was a nice summer with her, though. Got to do a lot of things together. Anyways, I read about a really cool event that'll happen on the 22nd, called Seattle's Night Market and Moon Festival. It'll be at Seattle's Chinatown. There's going to be tons of Asian stuff. Not just Chinese. Some from the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, and more. There's food, music, shopping, performers, and other stuff. Also, read that they'll have a 'JK Pop Dance Night' thing. Apparently, that group meets once a month normally. Sounds like so much fun!
Dad and I had our portraits done on Friday. Haven't had a portrait 'session' since senior year of high school.
So, it was interesting. Dad wanted some for her dating profiles and her book cover. I did it also for my dating profiles and maybe for the 'about the author' section for my book. They made us do really weird poses. A lot of them seemed to be geared towards the dating theme. There were some somewhat cheesy ones. They took a lot of pics, but I only liked 7 of them. Interesting to see the reaction to them on FB. Gotten a lot of likes and comments. Funny how the ones people told me in a comment were their faves, didn't have many 'likes'. The ones that barely anyone commented on, had a lot of 'likes'.So, I went with the one with the most comments for my profile on there. As soon as I changed that pic, I had even more people 'like' it. I didn't think I looked that great.
Also, changed my cover pic to the one I took of the Russian Charlotte Apple Cake I made a while back. Looked interesting for it, and now I'll be hungry everytime I look at it. No one seems to have seen it. Oh well, still cool. FB kind of feels like an experiment sometimes. Let's see what people like/comment about...
Went back to our local DOL on Friday, too. They were confused as to why I never got my 'official' plastic driver's permit card. So, they took my pic again, and said we'll send it out again and see if it gets delivered. Turned out to be a better pic of me, anyways. So, that was kind of a plus. Only downside was waiting for about an hour to talk to them 'in person'.
We got a couple of new cookbooks on Saturday. Dad got an Italian one for herself. And, I found an Asian one for me. It's huge! Has recipes from China, Thailand, India, Japan, and more. Went through the whole thing, and found a bunch of new recipes that I might want to make.
Friday night, I had horrible nausea.Felt like I'd throw up multiple times. On Saturday, I was fine for a while when we went to the mall. Towards the end, I had that same nausea crash down on me. I was very dizzy and sweaty too. Found out later, that it probably was because I haven't been eating very well lately. I thought, whenever we eat out, the next day I'll barely eat anything.Not good. As soon as we got something at Hale's Ales in the mall I felt much better. Had some root beer and a chicken pesto calzone. Not drinking much of anything during the day may have contributed a bit to it too. So, I have to be more on top of that now.
Don't want to go through that again.
Also, during Friday night, I had this weird thing with my ears. Had my earplugs in, and occasionally they ring. Well, this time one had a continuous ring, and the other ear sounded like a loud mournful choir all night long. It was disturbing.As soon as I took my earplugs out, it was gone. Didn't have it the last couple of nights, so I guess it's ok.
Yesterday, we had another night of, as Dad calls it: Cheesy Lobster night. Again, I try to keep a somewhat kosher diet, and she hates cheese. So, we each get something we really love and the other doesn't eat. She had mussels and some clam spaghetti, I had a deep dish 4 cheese 'personal' pizza. It was so good!
And, she said hers was good too. We had mini eclairs for dessert.
In Ghost Mama, they tried to find a home for Miko, a stray cat that lives in a box next to a local hospital. This cat seemed far too docile. At times I thought it was dead...
Besides that, it was a pretty good episode. There was a girl that was very sick who liked to play with Miko while she was at the hospital. When she died, she looked after her. Her parents agreed to take in the cat, without knowing she was actually in the room with them. And without knowing it was the cat she played with. In the end the girl was at peace and went to heaven. Choko's starting to think that maybe she too will leave soon. Feeling that maybe Tonbo is growing up so fast, he might not need her to look after him. After all, he still has his father and sister.
Baka to Test was weird. Funny how on youtube, they consider it 'mature' and block out people who are younger than 18. It's not that 'mature'. There's really nothing graphic, besides the constant nosebleeds from the guys. There's less 'ecchi-ness' than most regular shows that aren't restricted. So, I find it odd. (Unless the series later on gets more mature.) Anyways, this one was about fulfilling Shouko's wishes of some day having a wedding. Just to have the 'experience'. It was cute in a way. Disturbing for her 'groom', Yuuji. He didn't know what was going on through most of it. Since it was a surprise. He suspected something was up, though.
deviantART fave: A Slice of Life I did not make this! It's an amazing pic from Jaffa, Israel. It looks surreal to me.
Mood:
Yay for cupcakes!I like them, just don't have them too often. There's such a variety out there. It's also Lemonade Day. That's always good, and easy to make.
A few days ago, it was really hot. Now, going back into the 70s, feels a bit cold.The forecast says it'll go down into the 60s Wednesday through Friday. That's not very summer-ish weather. Although, it's a lot more bearable than around 90.
Couldn't go to the cafe the day the group decided to play mahj, since it was too hot. We went the day before, and since there isn't any air-conditioning, it was really hot. Almost like an oven. That next day was hotter, so I'm glad I didn't go.
Friday night we went to an outdoor Shabbat service and potluck at someone's place. It was beautiful.
Lots of people came, so there was plenty of food. Dad made koushari, and it seemed to be a hit. I always love that stuff!It's an Egyptian dish. It's mainly made with lentils, rice, elbow noodles, onions, and garlic (lots of it!). Got to catch up with a lot of people. Some I haven't seen since last year. And, some I met for the first time. Had a lot of positive comments about my hair. There was a ton of awesome desserts too. Barely could see what was there, because of the lighting. But whatever I grabbed, most of it was really good.There was some whitish-green plums that looked like candy. There was a berry cobbler, lemon tart, brownies, and more. Had a lot of fun! Only downside, was finding out later that my arms were attacked by mosquitoes. Now I have red splotches everywhere. They seem to always attack me during the summer.
Also, while I was there, I was reminded that the High Holy Days (or Days of Awe) are coming up soon. Just started the month of Elul, which means we have one month according to the Jewish calendar until it starts with Rosh Hashanah. Or our New Year. (It's literally 'Head of the Year'.) I can't believe that!
It'll be my first High Holy Days without Mom. Of course, I did go on my own to High Holy Day services while I was in college. But, we were still able to compare things. So sad.
Although, we're supposed to be happy on Rosh Hashanah. So, I'll try my best to.We usually make something for it, too. Maybe my shoulder would be healed by then, so I can. I've made teiglach before. (These little dough nuggets cooked in honey with orange or lemon rind. Really, a sticky and sweet candy. I love it!
) In the past, Mom's made honey cake too. Eating honey on Rosh Hashanah symbolizes a sweet New Year. So, we tend to eat a lot of it. Maybe I'll try making both? We'll see.
Started playing Grand Fantasia. I was a bit bored with Ragnarok.The style was very old school, and I wanted something a bit more. Plus, the quests were tiring, and seemed like they were all the same. Wasn't sure if my computer would run Grand Fantasia very well. But, it runs pretty smoothly. The characters/scenery seems a lot more 'real'. The quests are interesting and a little challenging. (It'd be boring if it wasn't challenging.) The only problem I had was the fact that the girls start off with such a short skirt.But, that changes a bit. You can buy longer ones in-game. Had a creepy guy keep following me asking if he could marry me. He stopped once I boarded a ship. Managed to find a shirt (looks more like a corset), that will poison any enemy I'm attacking. That's pretty cool. My current sword looks awesome too. And, I'm only at character level 11. Decided to be a warrior this time. I like fighting with swords in these type of games, so why not? We also get a sprite. They can find rare materials, research sword techniques, eventually learn how to fight with you, and more.
Watched Ghost Mama. I think Tonbo is a really cute kid. And he wants to please everybody. This time he was able to help his mom reconcile with his grandfather. Baka to Test was pretty funny. (Still not as funny as Gintama! I miss it!) They were sent on a scavenger hunt to find special 'treasures'. Like tickets to an amusement park, tickets for a lifetime of desserts, etc. Kekkaishi was actually kind of interesting. Yoshimori has to take care of a swamp god. He looks a bit creepy. His bed broke, and it's up to his family to fix it. Once he fell into the lake, where the bed is, he forgot entirely what his 'mission' was. Looked a bit like he was Alice from Alice and Wonderland.
Managed to get some writing done. Started posting the chapters to a new forum I'm apart of. They seem to really like it. I'm not exactly sure where my current chapter is headed.I like it so far, though.
Worked a bit more on my kanji. 強 has a lot of compound words. There's 3 very long columns of the most used ones. It means strong, but there are some compounds that have it, that seem like it has nothing to do with strength. Good that I'm doing this then. Also, still practicing the previous kanji I've worked on. 組 (くみ or kumi) is the 'new' kanji that I went over today. It means set (of items), group (of people), class (of students), company (esp. construction), team. Translated a part of that You Maga article on American life and learning English. Went over a lesson from my book. It was slightly confusing this time, but figured it out in the end. Read an article in Japanese on Asahi's website (Asahi's a popular newspaper), about an earthquake in Indonesia.
Finished part of the original character drawing meme. Tried to draw a tornado, but I'm not sure if it ended up right.The person who made the blank meme said to throw in a unicorn somehow. So, it's being sucked up into the tornado. The next one should be interesting. My main character and I trapped in a room with a lifetime supply of Twinkies and a gun. We're there for a week, and they ask what happened. There's many ways that can go down...
