Helter Skelter

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. 

Come Together

Mood:

By the Beatles. This song has been stuck in my head for a while.I love it, but it doesn't make much sense. Maybe that's it's charm? Although, I've read some verses pertain to each band member, and Lennon was inspired by Timothy Leary's campaign for governor of California titled "Come together, join the party" against Reagan. Still, no one knows exactly what the meaning is. Maybe it's just up to the listener?

I've noticed it's been slightly over a month since I got my temporary paper version of my driver's permit. They said to wait at least a month for your 'official' plastic card version. So, I tried to call our local Department of Licensing place. Everytime I did, it was busy.The operator said if I wanted to know when the line was free, I'd have to pay a fee to have them call me back. Lame. So, I tried emailing customer service about it. They said it was mailed to my address and no one's returned it. Oh joy!They said in order to straighten it out, I have to talk to my local DOL in person. I'll be going there tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll do something.

In Hana Yori Dango, Domyoji and Makino became much closer. He didn't actually tell her he loved her, but he showed her through his actions. She was very confused for a while. He asked her out, and she came hours later after the set time. He was waiting in the freezing rain for her. She wanted to make it up to him, by taking him to a cheap tea place. They got stuck in the elevator on the way. Ended up having to sleep together that night. Then, Makino's so called friend set her up. She was invited to go clubbing with the girls from school, and later was drugged by a man and passed out. She woke up naked in someone's bed. She didn't worry much about if she was raped or not. I'm sorry, but that part didn't seem very 'real'. Her 'friend' had taken pics of Makino in bed with that man, and showed it to everyone at school, which included Domyoji. He was hurt to say the least. Kind of sad. But, I know they'll clear it up. 

In Naruto Shippuden, Naruto had a talk with the kyuubi (9-tailed fox). Saying some day he hopes to erase the kyuubi's hatred as well as everyone else's. I think they came to a better understanding of each other. I feel kind of bad for the kyuubi...

In Hitman Reborn, they introduced Bianchi. (She's on the left in the pic.) She's a freelance hitman who specializes in poison cooking, nicknamed Poison Scorpion. And, she's Gokudera's sister. (He's on the right.) As soon as he sees her, he gets sick to his stomach. She tries to kill Tsuna, because she thinks if Tsuna dies, she can go off somewhere with Reborn. They're lovers. I like how quirky the characters have been so far. And, I'm already noticing that there are some differences between the anime and manga. Which is a good thing. 

Played my clarinet. (Yay! Seems like I might get back into some sort of routine with it!) Did some jazz tunes, and some tunes from my advanced solos book. Again, fumbled a few times, but wasn't bad. I'll get back to where I was soon, though. 

I'm pretty much done with chapter 17 of Alliance. Might have a couple more chapters left, and then I could be done with the novel as a whole. Still not quite up to what they say for the minimum word count for a fantasy/sci-fi novel. That's good, because there's still so much more to the story to write, and I was thinking of making it a series of novels. Hoping to end it on a huge cliffhanger too.Might post chapter 17 to dA tomorrow. Not sure if I'm entirely confident about it yet, hence the 'might'.  

日本語

Today's kanji was 親. Or: おや、おやｰ、した.しい、した.しむ、しん (Oya, oya-, shita.shii, shita.shimu, shin). It means: parent(s), dealer (cards), familiarity, intimacy, closeness, friendliness, founder, to befriend, close relative. Also, went over some compounds with the kanji 引 in them. (By itself, it means: pull,  tug, admit, refer to, install.) Here's some: 引見 (いんけん or inken): audience, interview. 引責 (いんせき or inseki): taking responsibility. 引退 (いんたい or intai): retire. 引用 (いんよう or inyou): quotation, citation, reference. I'll do more compounds with this kanji tomorrow. 

Searched for more recipes in Japanese, since I translated the previous one a while ago. Nothing interesting so far.Might find something next week, though. Went over another Japanese lesson, as well. 

Worked on the drawing meme. After this section of the meme, I'm going to fill out a text-based one. It'll give me a break. And, yet I'll still be thinking about my characters. The drawing meme I'm working on at the moment is very long. But, I thought it was a good challenge for me. Good to step away from it for a bit. I can fill out text-based ones much quicker, anyways. 

Typed up more of my index for my very long recipe list. Yes, just listing the things I want to make, it needs something like an index.Can't find anything otherwise. It's become like a book. Hence, why I stopped searching for regular (not in Japanese) recipes for the time being. Going through the list, I got more of an urge to cook. So, I think my shoulder might actually be getting better, and that I might try to start cooking again.Simple stuff, though. Don't want to hurt it again. Nice to ease into it, too. Shoulder still has some waves of pain at times, but those times seem to be less often. So, we'll see.

Honey Pie

Mood:


By the Beatles. One of my faves from them. Really fun to play on the clarinet. This and When I'm Sixty-Four. Funny, because I use a Beatles' book that's written for the guitar. And a lot of the songs are kind of boring to play. I also like Wild Honey Pie. Quite a different feel, though.

Well, I felt pretty lousy last night, and manage to cry late at night until most of the day today. Oh, joy.The rest of the day was somewhat ok. I was distracted by it though. Rescheduled my therapy appointment. It's kind of funny. Didn't realize this until later, but most of that week I'm out doing things. I have that therapy appointment, next day I have a Hadassah meeting, next day's the day I go to the cafe, and finally I have my orthopedist appointment by the end of the week. Should be interesting. Kind of like after having a drought, there's a flood.


Toshi Densetsu no Onna has been getting better and better each episode. This one was about the urban legend of what happens when you see your doppelganger. There were apparently 3 of them in this case. You didn't know about the third until the last couple of minutes. The victim was about to get married, but she was tormented by thinking she saw herself or some imposter, and thought she was going crazy. Her fiance had fallen in love with another woman who seemed to look exactly like her. They wanted to confront her about it, on her wedding day. Before that, she was sent a pic of a place she hadn't visited yet with her fiance. But, it looked like she was there, and he was happy. There were a couple of other pics where her doppelganger also showed up. But, it turned out to be her 2nd one (or the 3rd person). They knew because the woman the fiance fell in love with had a mole. The victim didn't, and the 3rd person didn't. Kind of creepy. Going into kind of a fit of hysteria upon seeing the one her fiance loved, she attacked her. But, out of self defense, the other girl grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed her. They wrapped her up in a garment bag, put a heavy angel statue in with her, and tossed her in a nearby pond. She traveled into an underground water tunnel system all the way to a lake. The bride kept saying she saw herself dressed in a black wedding dress, before she died. So sad!


Apparently I have watched more than 4 episodes of Bleach before. I'm still not sure where I stopped watching it in my college anime club. It is getting better with each episode though. I kind of like the story 'arc' at the moment. They have to deal with a mod soul. Souls that were artificially created by Shinigami (Death Gods), and put into corpses. Basically, to work as their army against the Hollows. They can have one superhuman ability. (Like super speed, jumping great distances, flying, etc.) But, they scrapped the project. And, most of the 'mod souls' have been destroyed. Except for some who managed to hide in objects, waiting for a body to come by. It's kind of sad. This one is in Ichigo, and has been wreaking havoc at his school, and around town. He's liking all the attention. People see him, and think it's actually Ichigo. So, his behavior was really weird to them.


Somehow managed to play my clarinet. It's weird when you're crying through half of it.Did a lot of Irish tunes.

Grim Reaper has been better than I expected. (Apparently, the Shinigami/Grim Reaper theme is very popular in Japan. I know lots of anime/manga that have them in it, or reference them.) Yuuka has to fight a Grim Reaper organization called Record, to protect his family and friends. They threatened to not only kill him, but everyone connected to him. The Grim Reaper that saved him from his first fight with them, her father was the one that gave him his 'abyss' powers. She thinks that if she finds him, they can turn Yuuka back to normal. She also plans to protect him for the time being. The pic above shows how weird she is. She's not embarrassed by going around the house naked. But, it's like she's not really aware of it.

日本語

Started translating the first sentence of the You Maga article I'm working on. I've typed up the first paragraph in Japanese, and am going through it now. Today's kanji was: 弱. Or: よわ.い (yowa.i), よわ.る (yowa.ru), よわ.まる (yowa.maru), よわ.める (yowa.meru), じゃく (jaku). It means weak, frail, fragile, delicate, reduce.


Worked a little on the original character meme. The first slot, where Zero's dreaming about what he'd consider pleasant. Got him and his bed better than I thought I would. Made his hair nice and messy, and perspective looks good. At least, to me. I made him drool a little too.I'm going to have a huge thought 'cloud' next to him. Maybe he'll dream about the girl he knew in Greece, and/or flames. Should be interesting, because I haven't drawn her yet. Also, worked on Anzu's face. Almost done with it. Her head, this was unplanned, is cocked to the side. Interesting. Did a lot of editing of chapter 16. Hopefully, I can continue with the story tomorrow.