Friendship Day!

Mood:


Yay! For friends!  What a nice one! I found more holidays for August. They're kind of fun. Normally, August seems so dull when it comes to holidays, so it was nice to find some.  These holidays really make you appreciate things that you might normally take for granted.  Here are the holidays that are month-long: American Adventure, Cataract Awareness, Golf, Happiness Happens, National Inventor's, National Panini, What Will Be Your Legacy, National Catfish, Peach, and National Picnic month. Interesting. I didn't know most of those.  Today's also Lughnasa. Which is a Gaelic holiday. (I'm part Irish/Scottish, so this is interesting to me.) It marks the beginning of the harvest season. Kind of cool. It's also US Air Force Day. 


I went to services again!  My dad joined us, too. Wore my kippah for the 3rd time! Also, this was the first time I actually put my hand over my eyes, while saying the Shema.  It's supposed to help you focus on just the prayer. It feels weird that I'm adding the stuff most people do. But, good at the same time. This time our old cantor led it. She hasn't done it for us for a while. She's so passionate and so into it.  It's really cool. A lot of people showed up. In fact, we have a new family to the congregation. They're from South Africa. Really interesting!  They also have 4 kids.  I wasn't able to talk to them later, because everyone was swamping them. Maybe next time? 


I looked up the World Union for Progressive Judaism. They're an international organization of the Reform, Liberal, Progressive, and Reconstructionist Jewish Movements. (That's how they describe themselves.) It's very interesting. Mom gets their newsletter. I'm planning to also. Kind of cool to see what goes on with other Reform-type Jews. In other countries, we're apparently called Progressives. We're a more liberal branch of Judaism. More interesting stuff! 


We watched the new Alice in Wonderland movie. It was pretty good. Nice and trippy, like it should be. I didn't like how the Hatter had 2 different accents. 1 was so thick I could barely understand him. The main actress wasn't too bad, but she wasn't the best Alice. They did really well with the Cheshire Cat! I loved him! It was too perfect! The bloodhound was cute too. The White Queen was a bit bizarre, but fit right in. Other than the voice thing, Hatter was played awesomely! They made him a bit more 'mad' than a lot of ones I've seen. The Dormouse kicked butt!  For such a tiny thing, she was very bold. The Red Queen was interestingly done. Had a good ending too. 


I found another great forum! It's at: JpopAsia Very cool site! It's devoted to a variety of Asian music. The main ones being: J-pop, J-rock, C-pop, K-pop, J-rap, J-trance, and anime. The main site has a directory of artists. On their profiles they have info, videos, chat, lyrics translated in English and in Romaji, and other cool stuff. They also list the top charts of each genre. There's news, polls, and journals too. The forum part's great! I've only explored one section of it, but haven't run out of looking at and discussing fun topics. I've been making a lot of friends on there already. Most have given me 'Welcome Cakes'. This is part of their 'life' section of the site. You can earn points for things, win trophies, send virtual gifts, buy a virtual house on your fave artist's profile, find treasures, make a playlist, and get matched up with other users on the site too. I could probably spend all day on there.  I've been looking for a more active/interesting forum lately, so it's perfect. I just have to time myself when I use it. 


I played a little of the Sims 2. Man, my Sim gets crazier and crazier! He wants to be closer than just friends with everyone. I found out what they call their 'sex.' It's called Wohoo! Funny! They cover themselves up, and eventually there's fireworks over the bed. A little weird. I also gave him something that's a career path reward. It's a machine that can make meds and viruses. He gets a lot of money for making meds! Haven't tried the virus part, yet.  He still likes to spy on his neighbor, and his neighbor still beats him up. He doesn't learn, does he?  I'm in the middle of constructing his second story. He sometimes goes up there, even though there are walls for just 2 of the rooms, and there isn't a roof up yet. Kind of strange. He got promoted twice, too. Now works with the government on a top secret project. Something exploded in flames again in the oven.  It looked like he was burning up. But, he seemed saner this time, and didn't have a sponge bath in the sink.

Parents' Day

Mood:


Yay, for parents! I didn't remember this holiday until I saw it on my Jewish calendar. Which is sad and odd.  That's the only place I've seen it. I guess it gets really downplayed. Both South Korea and the US celebrate it, and its been observed since '94. (They celebrate on different days.) Crazy!  Do they really need another day, though? Besides, Mother's and Father's Day? I know they do a lot for us, so I guess maybe they do need it. 


I went to services again!  This time Dad came with us.  (Usually, that's kind of rare.) It was the first regular service she's gone to since going full time as a woman. Kind of nice! Also, it was the 3rd time I've worn a kippah! Go me!  Our cantor led it. This time was interesting, because the portion had both the Shema and V'ahavta in it. The most important prayers in Judaism.  So, our cantor made it more participatory and switched up the service a bit. She had her drash in the middle of the service instead of the end. My mom had an aliyah first, and then our cantor called the whole congregation up for an aliyah. Aliyah, this way, just means to be called up to the Torah. Which is while the reader chants the portion from the scrolls. It's considered a pretty big honor. Plus, it's always cool to see the Hebrew calligraphy on it.  By the way, the Hebrew is not only stylized a bit, but also has no vowels.  Very hard to read, unless you memorize the way the words are beforehand. Even then, it can be hard.  That's why we usually have a Gabbai or someone who reads along with the chanter in a book version with vowels. If a word's mispronounced, it's their job to correct them. It's very important to get it correct when reading Torah. We each read a line of that and the Haftorah in English. Also the Decalogue or the main 10 commandments were in it. We actually have 613 commandments, but these are the 10 basic ones.  We also had a new family show up. Hopefully, they'll continue to attend. 


I got a comment on the last chapter I posted on that forum I like! He said I'm such a tease with each chapter, but that makes him want to read more.  He liked this one a lot. There seems to be 2 people who regularly comment on the story. They've all been positive ones. Lifts my confidence a bit for it. There's 2 more people who comment off and on, on dA. It's not as much as on that forum though.  Speaking of forums, I found a great new one at: AnimeCrazy Forums The themes are anime, Japan, J-drama (and other Asian dramas), and just general stuff. They're big on the J-drama. In fact, their site DramaCrazy is where I watch a lot of it. 


I finally tried searching for a psychiatrist through our insurance's directory. Most of the ones that sounded helpful were in Seattle. But, I'm pretty much stuck with trying to find a more local one at our behavioral health center.  I tried to set up an appointment online, like you can normally. Apparently, you can't do that unless you've seen the person.  So, I called. They said if it had been a year without one, I would have to do all the paper work again.  Luckily, its been 9 months. They looked through the schedule to see who had the most spots available at the moment. They stuck me with someone who I'd probably have a hard time pronouncing their name. So, I set up an appointment with her on Thursday. I didn't realize until I looked up her name later, that she's a psychiatric nurse practitioner. That's not technically a psychiatrist.  But, I'll see her anyways, and maybe she'll recommend a good one for me. Plus, maybe a good therapist too. I kind of feel I need one again.  Even though they never seem to help me. If anything it will be nice to vent, I guess. 


Dad told me that at some point, we might go to Fry's to get me a new mp3 player. (I think, maybe one for herself, too.) Mine right now, is a Zen Stone with 2GB. It's really not bad, I just, would love to get one with a display that shows at least the title of the song. Maybe it can allow me to make playlists too. The 'plus' version of the player has essentially the same thing, just with the screen. Sounds like a good candidate.  The Zune looks good too. I can't really tell what I want from the selection online.  I would love to have one with the same speaker, too. That way I can still listen to it without the headphones. So, I don't think I'm really asking for much. 


I'm done with reading Plato. Well, I read most of it.  It got real dry in the last section where Socrates is about to die. So, I started the first Dune book. I read it a long time ago. I want to read the whole series, so it's best to start from beginning again.  It's good so far. I was thinking about reading A User's Guide to the Brain, but it seemed very dry. I was thinking about starting the Dark Descent. Which is a huge anthology of famous horror stories.  (Which is right up my alley!) It seemed a little too much for me though. The whole thing's over 1000 pages.  I'd probably get sick of it 600 pages in. So, I might read those 2 books in the future. They're pushed down to the bottom of the list for now. 


I watched Mr. Brain. It's really getting good!  Sad, since I think I'm getting close to the end of the series.  Even Mr. Brain's having a problem with the case, this time. I knew that dirty cop would come back! They might have killed off the 2 main police officers. I like them a lot!  One is young and almost a sorry excuse for an officer, named Rinda. The other one, Tanabara, who's older seems very uptight and narrow-minded at first. They make a funny team. Tanabara, relaxes a lot more after becoming friends with Mr. Brain and his partner. They were caught in a bomb blast, but I hope they made it out. 


I just found out that Onemanga's shutting down.  Or at least, they're clearing all of their manga out. They say they'll have the forums open still. Some publishers told them some scanlator groups were making money off of it, and were pressing legal action. Onemanga's one of the ones I like to go to. There are some other sites that are shutting down too. So far, the biggest one, Mangafox, is still safe. I use that a lot too. To people who can't afford all that manga, and might not have those titles sold in their country, those sites have been their only outlet. I think they're almost like ads for them, too. Some people get into manga after they've seen scans of it online. It's just very sad.  I understand that making money off of it is not the way to go. But, why not press charges against those people, instead of making it so no one can read them? Kind of seems drastic, no?  One good thing that might come out of this is, there's a new site that's launching soon. This one says it will provide free scans to fans, and at the same time pay publishers and authors/creators. If fans want to donate, they can. This sounds like a wonderful idea! Now, we just have to wait and see if it will be any good.


I watched a Canadian movie called The Barbarian Invasions. It's based in Montreal. So, it's mostly in French.  I understood a lot of it! It's very good, but sad and funny at the same time. A man has a terminal illness, and his son does all that he can to make him feel comfortable. Even though, they had a horrible relationship before. He also brings together other family members and friends. He and his friends' sense of humor is hilarious! He's a bit randy too. 


I also found a lot more songs! I'm so happy!  Now, it's about 27% full. Not very much, even though I have so many on there now! Well, look forward to some of them!