Blue Be-Bop

Mood:

By Rip Slyme. They harmonize amazingly in this one. Although, they're usually pretty good about it. They sound better and better with every song I hear from them.Their songs and vids always have a comedic flair. And, they seem to sound like they're always having fun. Usually their songs have a positive message. (From the lyrics of this one though, it seems like it's after a break up. But, he's slowly moving on. So, that's a positive thing.) One of my fave bands.

Went to bed pretty late last night, so I slept in. I didn't want to, but only having a few hours sleep is not good.I am feeling much better than I have been at least.

Went to group last night. Had a really good turnout. Interesting discussions. At the end, a group that helped set up ours wanted to shoot a commercial for all the branches of it. (Ours being included.) It was a bit awkward.We started with the whole group together, with the shorter people in the front, and the tall in the back. Almost like we were doing a pic together. But, it was video, and we had to say something. I didn't realize how short I was compared to the other people...I must be either the 2nd or 3rd shortest. Funny, because normally I'm just a touch above average height. I'm technically 5'5" and a half, but doctors have told me to round up to 5'6" when I tell people. That isn't short...I used to be the tallest in elementary school. People started to catch up to me towards the end of junior high. So, it's weird to me. And, I kind of felt like one of the taller people behind me, was teasing me a bit. Anyways, after the group 'shot', they asked people to volunteer to say a phrase while looking at the camera. I didn't go up there, but there was one phrase that may have fit me the most. That was 'to be with family'. I'm a bit weary around cameras.Whether their taking a pic or it's a video. Even if I know I look ok, I still feel weird. 

After group Dad and I went to Applebee's. Normally we go to Shari's with the rest of the group, but we didn't feel like it.We were going to go to Red Robin, but they were closing just as we walked in. (I swear we've been there later during a week night...) So, we decided to go to Applebee's instead. I've just noticed that they're adding more and more bacon-based entrees.Even adding it to things that didn't used to have it. Heck, their mac and cheese has bacon in the sauce...And, most of those things are like that, since it's in the sauce you can't tell them to leave it out. Its already been made. It's sad, because I remember not too long ago that there were more options for me. It's turning out to be worse options-wise than Red Lobster...I mentioned this to our waitress and she felt the same way. She doesn't eat bacon, either. Anyways, I ended up getting their 4 cheese grilled sandwich with tomato basil soup. The soup had chunks of tomato in it, and 3 big croutons on top. The bread was nice and crunchy with a buttery taste, like it's suppose to. It was all very good.The sandwich was a bit heavy and rich, but good comfort food. Could only eat half of everything. So, even if I wasn't doing the eat a certain amount (half or third of) of every meal thing, I would have had a hard time finishing it. Made for a good brunch. 

Someone found my Hetalia Heritage Meme on deviantART, and decided to leave comments. (It's been up for a while now.) We ended up talking a lot about our families and where they came from. Surprisingly, we may be related. Kind of creepy in a way, actually.But, she also has a very interesting background with her family coming from many different places. I'm just surprised anybody wanted to really talk about that stuff on that site. Yeah, I know I basically illustrated where my family comes from Hetalia style, but didn't think people would go further other than saying 'cool', 'interesting', or 'that's not what we say!'. Had one person tell me that one of them wasn't saying a traditional greeting, and yet everywhere I look it up, it says what I put up. Maybe they were a troll.Each 'mochi' version of the countries says a greeting, and has at least one symbol. Either from the anime, or like a national flower, or sport. Thought it'd be fun for people that way. I made myself up as a mochi with a symbol, my clarinet, and a greeting, Shalom, at the bottom of all the others. Kind of like saying this is the product of all these countries...

I managed to do a few things the last couple of days, but sleeping in kind of cuts down on my time. Also, the motivation isn't up to par when you're feeling like crap. Or, just lethargic.Like I mentioned before, I'm doing much better now. So, tomorrow should be much better. I now know why I felt the way I did, and it had to do with a 'natural' thing. (Which has been far from natural lately.) Later, I'll make an appointment to see my new doctor about it. Hopefully, she can help me. Don't want to go through this every time. Maybe my IUD is malfunctioning, too. Great. I'm supposed to replace it soon, but have been putting it off. It keeps me from hemorrhaging out.

Dandelion

Mood:


By Rip Slyme. I love this song!Has a great beat, makes you feel good, and even the pv's nice. Some of their songs are real hits with me, others I wonder what they were thinking.The lyrics are translated in the vid:



This weekend has been a bit cooler than normal. Hope it warms up soon. Went to services yesterday. The Rabbi led it, without our cantor this time. I didn't particularly like his drash. The portion was on what to do when a person is diagnosed with something like leprosy. It's nasty, but interesting.I think they were ahead of their time, when they quarantined people. The priests would periodically check on the person too. So, they weren't totally alone. And, there was a way for someone who was 'cured' to come back into the community. We had a little thing towards the end for our Temple Administrator, who had to step down from the position. She held it for 5 years. Nice.She got some flowers, someone said something, she said something, and then we had some sweets.The spiced cake was half done, chocolate meringue cookies were a bit weird, chocolate chip cookies were good, and there was a marble cake. 

I started SKET Dance yesterday. SKET stands for Support, Kindness, Encouragement, and Troubleshoot. They're a campus support group. The Dan part just means group. Read somewhere that Dance really was a combo of words, so it doesn't mean to dance like it normally would. The club's devoted to solving any and all problems that the staff or student body might have. There's only 3 members, and they all have their quirks. One named Switch, who talks through a computer. The voice actor for him, is the same for Gintoki in Gintama! He's got a very distinct voice, so it's awesome. Another named Himeko, a 'yankee' who has a soft spot for cute things. (She likes to fight, and sometimes jumps to conclusions.) Bossun is the leader of the group. I like it so far. This anime just started, so it really is new. I'm hoping to start another anime today.

Made this for Friday night. Mom helped a bit since I'm still not used to baking. It's a Russian Apple Charlotte. It was so good!Definitely good enough to make again.It's pretty good with whipped cream. Today for lunch, I made spinach pancakes with a caper hollandaise sauce on top. Both were German recipes. The pancakes came out really green. (Mom said it probably would have been perfect for St Patrick's Day.) But, it was so good with the sauce. That sauce really made it awesome. They suggested a salad on the side, a tomato sauce, or this caper hollandaise. There's still more of the sauce. We could use it for something else easily. 


Looked at our Egyptian cookbooks. There really wasn't very many recipes.Just Koushari (Lentils, Macaroni, and Rice in Oil. We've had it before, good stuff.), and Basbousa or Semolina Cake. Saturday, I looked at our Polish ones. Here's a sampling: Bread Soup, Smothered Carp Jewish-Style, Sausage in Polish Sauce, Potato, Apple, and Caper Salad, Unbaked Chocolate Torte, Date Mazur, Fruit Souffle, Rice and Apples in Froth. Today, I'll look at our Swedish cookbooks. Tomorrow will be Moroccan ones. Should be interesting.


Played some of the Sims 2 yesterday. Taiwan's pregnant again.She didn't have morning sickness with Japan, but with this one it's bad. She's thrown up a few times already. I've also started a 3rd story. At one point, I had to leave it without walls or a roof, because I didn't have enough money. The nanny went up there, and almost fell off the ledge. She had a little fit after that.Things are getting even more interesting. I've never built a 3rd story before. Had problems with the stairs.


I posted the stuff I've made for the week on AF. AnimeForum- yeah, it's a lame name. But, I think it's one of the best forums. They usually leave nice comments/constructive criticism for my pics. I decided to start posting to my anime related art thread again. Haven't posted on that for over a year. If anybody actually sees those drawings, it'll be interesting to see what they say. Because I've changed my style quite a bit. I actually got a comment on my general art thread, as well. That's been up longer, but no one commented until now. And, I haven't done anything 'general' in a while. (Non-manga style.) Maybe I'll have to now.


Youtube:
A funny Spain tribute:

Scar (Full Version)

Mood:


By Rip Slyme. I love this song!It was the theme song to Joker: Yurusarezaru Sousakan. Has a Latin flare, fun, and driving sound. I found a longer full version. Here's the music vid for it. (Kind of funny):

This is my wallpaper for the month. Although, I might change it back, not sure if I like it enough.It has Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Japan from Hetalia. I like Hong Kong's expression. Well, I hope everyone had a great New Year's Day! Welcome 2011!I still feel like it's a typo or something. It doesn't look right.I was just starting to get used to 2010. Crazy! 


These are the month-long holidays: Apple and Apricots Month, Artichoke and Asparagus Month, International Creativity Month, National Clean Up Your Computer Month, National Get Organized Month, National Hot Tea Month, National Skating Month, National Soup Month, Oatmeal Month, Tubers and Dried Fruit Month. Wow! There's a lot this time. I guess it can seem like a dreary time of year, if you don't have anything fun like these. Again, a lot of people take these for granted. So, it's nice to stop and think about them once in a while. Sounds like a food oriented month. Tea, soup, oatmeal, etc. Most of the things I like. Plus, creativity and being organized isn't bad either. 


It's been so cold the last few days. There's ice everywhere. We went to a friend's place for New Year's Eve. Had a lot of fun.Lots of good food. Played one of my fave games, Boggle. Then, my dad and I got tired of that, and played an English version of Shiritori. Apparently, after I explained it, Dad loved the idea. Shiritori is traditionally played with Japanese words. It starts with someone saying a word. The next one has to come up with a word starting with the last kana or letter of the previous word. It was really fun. After that, we watched the fireworks at the Space Needle on TV.And, about a half hour later, they showed some celebrations around the world. Later, we watched the NYC one. We didn't get home until around 2. But, I'm sure a lot of people stay out later than that.


Supposedly, there was services planned for Saturday morning. I find that hilarious.Not many people showed up. From what I've heard. As we stayed home and slept right through that time. They should have made it an afternoon one or something. Just this once.


We went to a baby shower yesterday. I think it was the first one I've been to.Right away there was a game. Where we wear a pacifier necklace, and we can't say the word 'baby'. If you do, you lose your necklace and someone collects yours. So, you win by keeping yours and/or having the most amount of necklaces. It didn't help that someone brought their baby there.There was lots of food. A parmesan twist thing, stuffed mushroom heads (nasty!), caramel popcorn, semi-frozen tiramisu, lemon bars, veggie platter, nuts, little sandwiches, and more. There were contests to see who could put a diaper on the fastest, drawing a baby on a plate above your head, and guess the poop (why? It looked so nasty!). The parents and the soon-to-be sister, opened a ton of presents. The baby's a girl, so there was some pink stuff, bottles, bottle racks, swaddles, and more. They're adopting her. They adopted the other one from Guatemala. They wanted people to give them advice in a journal they passed around. I have no experience with babies, so there's nothing I could put down.There was a lot of people there. It was a lot of fun.

I cut out all the 'posters' from my Naruto Shippuden calendar, and put them up. (I use the pics as posters.) Took down a bunch of the old Naruto calendar ones, but left 2. Mainly, because I think they're funny and still like them. The art in this calendar was a lot better, too. I put up my new Japanese Woodblock calendar. The pic's of this month's print. Although, it seems much darker in color than this pic. Kind of nice. 


I can't believe there's only 23 more days until I leave for my trip to Israel!Really crazy! I was supposed to get a lot of info through the mail about it a month before. And, they were going to make a special group on FB for us. So far, I haven't gotten anything, and there's no group profile on FB.If I don't get anything in the next couple of days, I'll contact them. Just tried on my swimsuit for it. It fits still! In fact, I think it fits better than the last time I wore it. That was a couple of years ago. I don't go swimming too often anymore. I'll definitely have to swim in the Dead Sea!And, they said they'll be times when the group just swims at the hotel's pool. So, I'm even more excited now! The reality of it will really hit when I get that info. 

I started a Jdrama on Friday called Kiina. It was really good. I'm hoping they can keep it up for the rest of the series. It's about a detective, Kiina, who takes on odd cases. The ones that the other detectives think are bogus or goofy. Like this one was about a transplant patient dreaming about her donor's murder. She has a photographic memory, and finds obscure clues everyone else overlooks. Her new partner doesn't believe any of the stuff she comes up with. Like basing things on blood type personalities. But, it ended with her coming up with a concrete scientific explanation. I love how she 'skimmed' like 50 books in only an hour or 2. It reminds me a bit of Psych, and Criminal Minds. 

I started another Jdrama on Saturday called Juui Dolittle. Or Veterinarian Dolittle. I thought it would be horrible, like a rip-off of Dr. Dolittle. But, I was pleasantly surprised. It's about a foul-mouthed gifted vet, who's nicknamed Dolittle. (His name's actually Tottori Kenichi.) It's not that he can 'hear' them talking to him. He just understands them more. He tries to educate the owners about their pets. One of his friends, is a charismatic vet and hosts a popular TV animal show. In this episode, an animal nurse, Tajima Asuka, starts working at his clinic. Since I'm a big pet lover (or animals in general), it was almost an instant fave. This actually made me cry. That hardly ever happens. It's probably because I could relate to it. I hope the rest of the episodes are just as good, if not better.

I changed my Gaia avatar. Most of these items came from events. Like the background (titled Winter Night), the polar bear, the panda with blood dripping from it's paw, the owl, and belt. I might mess around with the other event items next month.First time I actually equipped a background to it. Still haven't gone to the towns or zOMG with it. Kind of interesting. Oh, another person faved the flavor meme I filled out! Yay! And, I found a lot more songs. Some were very hard to find. I wanted a lot of the Jdrama themes. So, you'll hear some of those soon! I'm going to look for more later.