Mood:
One of my favorite cakes!
This was actually yesterday, but I like this cake so much why not celebrate another day? We don't have any black forest cake, so I can't really celebrate...Black forest cake is layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. And, on top it has more whipped cream, cherries, and chocolate pieces or shavings. Good stuff! Deserves its day. I've had it occasionally as my birthday cake.
Finally opened the envelop with my scores for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Again, I passed every section, but didn't pass it as a whole.
I don't quite get that. I'm thinking of maybe writing to them about it. I did better than last year, at least. I think I was a couple of points away from passing the listening section last time, so it's nice I passed that this time. They keep changing their grading criteria. Makes it a bit frustrating. Hopefully, this means next time I'll pass. At least since I'm getting better. The lowest score was on reading, and I've already changed my focus to it. I'm still studying the other stuff, but I started to really just sit down and read it without looking up things. Sometimes, I get overwhelmed at first when I see a full paragraph of Japanese. I just have to remember to breathe, and just tackle it from the beginning. Other times it's not such a big deal. It's weird. Like some days I'm right on it, and some it seems totally different.
In 11 Nin mo Iru, everyone in the family now knows about the ghost of Megumi. (The mother of all but one of the kids.) Their current mother (also named Megumi) admitted she recently has been seeing her. She's very open and welcoming of her. She even was the one to call a family meeting to tell everyone. Slowly everyone realizes it makes sense. Like their liqueur supply is depleting quickly, suddenly seeing a lot of food made (unsuccessfully, she's not much of a cook
), suddenly having the stereo turn on when no one's near it, etc. Her killer (it was a car accident) had a thing for her, when she visited him in jail. He died of brain cancer, but came to visit Megumi anyways. Everyone thought he was alive, including Megumi.
He later apologized to her, and disappeared.
In Gintama, they acted like it was the last episode of the series, and apologized for all the parodies and dirty jokes. It was hilarious! Felt like they were messing with the fans through half of it. Felt just like it did before they did a year-long hiatus before the '2nd series'. (Really they just added a ' to the name, so Gintama'.) Towards the end, the creator told Kagura to read his letter (out of character). Seemed very sincere and serious. But, it ended with saying it wasn't really the end and that they'll come back 'someday'.
I hope it won't be another year or longer until it starts up again.
They love to mess with the fans. Only problem I have with this series. There's so many unanswered/started things to the main plot, they can't end it yet. Plus, there's probably a butt-load more hilarious jokes from the creator.
I think I'm going to stop reading Host. I'm not liking how things are described, the plot, etc. Kind of boring, honestly.
Interesting idea at first, but there wasn't much to it. So, the next book will be an Anne Rice one. Not sure which one...
Didn't have time to start a drama, but made a nice list of possibilities. Some won't start until mid-April, but there are a few older ones as well.
Now with Gintama over (for the time being), the Phi Brain finale being next week (might drop it after this season...), Kill Me Baby is ending (possibly this week), (I think) Daily Lives of High School Boys might be ending its season as well, almost through with Pandora Hearts; there's a lot of spots opening up for more anime. There's a few I want to try from the new season starting in April, and I found a few 'old' ones as well. Hoping to have only one 'old' anime out of the week again. But, if there aren't enough new ones that I like I'll add more old shows. But, there's a lot of good looking shows coming up: Hyouka (a mystery anime), Acchi Kocchi (Place to Place. A comedy.), Sankarea (A comedy/horror.), Haiyore! Nyaruko-san (Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos) (This one is based on HP Lovecraft's creature Nyarlathotep. Cthulhu appears too. One of the most famous creatures as well. Looks like it has a lot of promise as a comedy, oddly.
), Polar Bear Cafe, Shining Hearts -Bread of Happiness- (Heard the least about this, but it sounds interesting), and a funny looking spin-off of Naruto Shippuden with Rock Lee as the lead, and everyone chibi-fied instead.
The women's seder was nice again this year. I think it was shorter, since the rabbi skipped so much. We just brought some soda for the potluck. (Funny, because I don't drink soda anymore.
) There was a lady next to me who was only 5 years older than me. It was her first seder of any kind. She was very nice and interesting. I think she's in the process of converting, so she had a ton of questions and was a bit nervous.
I brought my clarinet for the 'theme' this time. It was if you were leaving Egypt, what was the one thing you absolutely could not leave behind? It had to be a 'thing' not family or pets. I told them that I've been playing the clarinet for 17 years, and I can't imagine not having it with me. It's kind of like my identity.
I was thinking about bringing my hard copy of my novel (what I've done so far, anyways), but I didn't have anything to protect it and I didn't want to have to worry about it. Plus, my clarinet might be closer/important to me. It's easy to lug around my clarinet, because it's secure in a tiny case. Everyone said it looked like a lunchbox. I've had many people in the past say that exact same thing. Kind of funny.
Went for my bone scan today. It was interesting. Took them a really long time to find a vein, and for it not to 'roll'.
I almost threw up at some point. The guy who worked with me was really nice and sweet. He tried to find a vein for a while, and then called in 2 more people to help him. We finally got the IV in my arm and the guy injected the dye. He had me lay down on a really narrow bed, moved me up in the air (which felt kind of far up), made the machine move over me, flatten part of it until it was close to my chest, made me put one hand under my hip the other out stretched on a table next to me, told me to stay still, and after a few minutes and some beeps the first part was done. He told me to come back in 3 hours, and to drink lots of fluids.
So, we went to the Wal-mart that was close to it. Grabbed something to drink and had it with a snack we brought. Then, went shopping. I got an interesting shirt with black butterflies, and a green background. Also, got some really soft black socks.
We went back to the radiology center, and had the last part of the test done. He did similar stuff, only for longer periods of time, and moving the machine every so often. I almost fell asleep.
I find tight and confined spaces to be relaxing for some reason. Like the opposite of what a lot of people feel. After he took the images, he let me look at them on the computer. It was really cool to see the top part of my skeleton.
My sternum and spine were a really bright color. Which is where some of the dye collects, it's natural. To my untrained eye and having a small image to look at, I couldn't see anything wrong with my left shoulder. But, we'll see what an expert says.
By the time we were close to home, it was already dinnertime. So, we stopped at a Burger King, and took what we ordered home. Had a cheese whopper, and shared half a small fry thing. We don't eat that kind of stuff too often, so it was nice.
Mood:
Most chicken curries are really good. (Actually, I like curry in general. Not just with chicken.) Interesting to have a day for it.
Not feeling too good today.
Throat's scratchy, can't breathe too well through my nose, nose is runny, and my stomach hurts. Yay!I feel like just eating comfort food, and lazing around in bed all day. I can do the comfort food thing, but I'm definitely not going back to bed!
Still have stuff to do. Only really bad part of this is that I'm helping out my mom during the day. She has cancer, so I have to be extra careful when this happens. Oh joy of joys!
Went to the lunch on Tuesday that was supposed to have a few Hadassah members show up. Our president, and a few other members, cancelled almost last minute. We found out that Ichizen, the place we were going to eat at, had moved to another location only 2 days before that.
Good thing we bumped into another member just as we were pulling up to Ichizen, and we agreed to eat at Pho T&N instead. We really like this place, plus it's not too bad price-wise. It was just the 3 of us. But, it was nice. The other member was the one that we were going to say goodbye to just before she went to Cuba. She plans to meet the Jewish community there. At least Mom and I were there to talk about it, and say goodbye. She'll call us when she gets back. I had their chicken coconut curry, by the way. It's become a fave of mine. So good!
Actually managed to play my clarinet the last couple of days. I don't think I will today. Somehow, not being able to breathe normally, and my stomach hurting, doesn't sound like a good idea with playing my clarinet.
Finished reading the December issue of You Maga at the cafe. Started reading the newest issue of Soy Source, and read more of Earth and Host. Earth has been hilarious, and Host seems to be really picking up. Also, got 3 shower gel scents from Avon when we got home yesterday. One that I normally get which is pomegranate and mango. (Really nice!
) And, the other's I haven't tried before: vanilla and cherry blossom. Tried the vanilla, and I really like it too!
Almost smells like I put frosting on.
Not sure about the cherry blossom one yet. Kind of fun to mix it up a bit. (Been a long time since I've had my normal soap, so this is really nice!
)
In Naruto Shippuden, Motoi (on the left) talked about how he once tried to kill Killer Bee (on the right). Just because he had a profound hatred for the Hachibi (8 tails. Which looks like a bull/octopus hybrid) who killed his father, and was sealed inside Bee. Naruto realized he had to confront his dark side, in order to become stronger and control his Kyuubi (9 tails. A 9-tailed fox) better. Turned out Killer Bee only remembers his friendship with Motoi when they were younger. And, still considers him a good friend. Motoi was scared to tell Bee about how he tried to kill him, so when he did, he was surprised by Bee's reaction. Kind of like he's saying 'no harm done, it's all good'. I really like Killer Bee's character. His attitude towards things is great. Although, his rapping was sometimes annoying at first. Kind of grows on you after a while. He seems to be a more complicated character than he let's on.
deviantART fave: Funnel Cakes I did not make this! It's a pic of funnel cakes with some sugar falling down onto it. Nice effect, and looks so tasty! Done by an artist I watch. And, just like she usually does, there's a recipe link in the artist's comments.
Mood:
I love apricots!
Dried or fresh, they're awesome both ways. Too bad we ran out of the dried apricots a couple of days ago.
Apparently, the apricot originated in China 4,000 years ago. Cool.
Started Kill Me Baby on Friday. One of the new anime shows this season. It's been cute and funny. Not as funny as I was expecting, though.It feels a lot like a demented Lucky Star or Azumanga Daioh. But, there's some originality thrown in. Like, one of them's an assassin, and another's a ninja. Sonya, the assassin (at the top of pic), is attending a normal high school. Yasuna's (middle of pic) an airhead who follows Sonya around, and doesn't realize how dangerous she is. Agiri's a ninja (at the bottom of pic), who after hearing there was a ninja club at the school, decided to attend it. (The club had disbanded years ago...) Agiri seems to be the most funny and out of it character.
It's not bad, so I'll continue watching it to see what they get into next. The only thing I really didn't like was the opening song. Very annoying.
The new anime I really want to see starts today, but I won't get to it until Saturday. I guess good things come to those who wait?It has an awesome premise and potential. It's called Another. Hopefully, it's as good as it sounds.
I finally finished Timeline by Michael Crichton!
Only reason it took me so long was because I was a bit iffy about it. The more iffy or the more I don't like it, the longer I take to finish a book.Sometimes, if I really like a book, I'll read it in one sitting. However many hours it takes.
The beginning of this one was dragging, then it got interesting for a while, then dragged again, etc. The ending was great, though. Basically, the few things I remember about the movie, was the end. And, it was similar in the book. It was much more gorey than I expected.I mean things like, decapitations, people on fire, being hacked up by swords, being showered with blood, seeing a flung horse carcass on fire land in a castle. And that's just a few of the many gorey scenes.
I like that the author researched a bit to get a somewhat accurate feel for the time. Although, I felt he went into a bit too much detail. I like that the 'evil' guy, really just ignorant/blase of what he had created, got what he deserved.
So, all in all, it was mixed for me.
The next book on the list is Host by Peter James. I've read the excerpt on the back, and it sounds awesome!
Looks like a good horror/mystery/sci-fi book. Has lots of good reviews.
Went out to the mall yesterday. There was a huge fire pretty close to it. Apparently, a light bulb in a tanning bed at a local tanning salon had exploded.Luckily, no one was seriously injured. Read that the only injury was a firefighter who got a small cut. Not bad. But, the building is totally destroyed. There were a couple of other business who shared the building. Kind of sad. But, it looked weird looking towards it at the mall. Huge smoke clouds billowing into the air, and being all hazy.
After doing some shopping, we went to Applebee's for dinner. We ordered some onion rings for an appetizer. They were good. I ordered a Philly cheese burger. It was luke-warm, so the cheese wasn't melted.
Interesting that they used the patties that normally are for their 'sliders' for the burger. Fries were nice and lightly seasoned. They screwed up Mom's order, and seemed a bit nervous about it. They gave her a free order of fries, made her entree when it came free of charge, and she got a free sundae. Pretty awesome.
The only thing to have to pay for her was a drink. Dad seemed to like her Asian chicken salad thing. Since she got a dessert, Dad and I decided to get one, too. We both got chocolate mousse shooters. So good!And small, so that's a plus. It had Oreo cookie bits throughout the whole thing, whipped cream, and of course, the mousse.
After that we went shopping again at a local store. I got a new scented candle. It's a spring meadow scent. Nice, and not too overpowering.I just like my bathroom to smell good. Got a new flavor of 5 gum. This time a green apple one called Vortex. Kind of fun. Hey, if I have to have gum for a medical condition, might as well have it taste good.
Also, got a new secular calendar. This time it's not Japanese themed. First time in a long time. But, this one really 'spoke' to me. It's an herb calendar. Really beautiful pics.And, along with the English names for each month, there's the French, Spanish, and German ones. So, for the month of January, it also says Janvier, Enero, and Januar. Kind of cool to someone like me that loves languages. They do it for the names of each day of the week too. This month they're showing the common ingredients for pesto. Basil, garlic, parmesan, pine nuts, and olive oil. They're scattered around and in a mortar and pestle. I'm into cooking now, so it's a cool calendar in that way too.
I took down all the Hanukkah decorations. Kind of sad to not see them. Also, Naruto Shippuden finally got back to the story. It's been months since they haven't had a filler, so this was nice.
Tomorrow, I'm thinking of making the Korean chicken thing. Also, for lunch Mom and I are meeting up with a few other members of Hadassah at a local Japanese restaurant. Saying 'bon voyage' to one of them, because she's going to Cuba with a Canadian group to see the Jewish community there. Sounds like it'll be interesting.
On Thursday, I'm going through all my clothes. I think I need to get rid of a lot of them. For the first time, I'm making a list of clothes I need. I always feel that we're shopping just for my parents or something when we go to the mall. I never think about my own clothes until they're tattered, torn, worn-out, etc. I need to be more on the ball with that.It feels like I'm being selfish, but if I feel better about my clothes, I can help people more and feel even better about myself.And on Friday I see my therapist. It'll be our last session, since she's retiring soon. I hope my next one's as good, if not better than her. She's one of the one's that's helped me the most. So, it's going to be kind of a busy week.
deviantART faves: Devil's Food Cake The Candy Corn Accident I did not make these! First, an amazing looking piece of cake made by an artist I watch. The recipe link's in the artist's comments. So, that's always nice. Second, a cute/dark Halloween themed drawing by an artist I watch. I love their cute and demented art.
