FLYING PIKACHU I HAS ONE

LEGIT MEW I ALSO HAS ONE

There were previous storms that coworkers had referred to as typhoons, but apparently that was just wind and rain from storms that were hundreds of miles out at sea. Last night we got the actual thing. VERY different. I woke up at 2:00 in the morning to the sound of the wind trying to rip my privacy window off. Not too much damage around here other than a few fallen trees and branches, luckily.

But what I really want to know is, if it can blow the roof off a kindergarten in Osaka, why does the giant spider still have its web hanging out over the bike rack?! D:

• CLEAN. I want to use my kotatsu this winter!! (And also the cabinets that it's currently blocking.) I've decided on a regimen of cleaning for an hour every day on weekdays and two hours a day on weekends, but I keep finding too many excuses not to do it. I really need to force myself into that routine.

• Get back into writing. I'm having major mental blocks about it. RP with magicpotion is fine, but if I try to do any actual writing, my brain freezes up. How stupid is that! I'm a prize winning published author*, for crying out loud!

*First prize, Cricket Magazine monthly story contest, 1991

• Artsy crafty stuff. Need to clean first, because now there's no place to work.

• Eat better and exercise more. Apples and oranges are coming into season, so I want to get in the habit of eating more of them while they're "cheap". The pokéwalker has been encouraging me to walk more, but my clothes don't fit any easier yet. :/

• Do more fandomy stuff. This would be easier if every fandom ever didn't suck. Why can't everyone be as cool as (but not cooler than) me?

• Make more pointless LJ entries.

[edit] Oh hey, check it out, new icon.

The higanbana are blooming, and summer is finally over... is the entry I've been meaning to make for the last 3 weeks or so now. I don't know why I find it so difficult to update my journal these days. It's not like I'm spending my time doing anything useful.

Anyway, Silver Week was awesome. Besides sitting around doing nothing, misspaulette and I went to Universal Studios Japan. I can see now why it's so popular: it's made to look exactly like America. Much like Costco, but with thrill rides instead of 24-packs of canned tuna. The buildings of course have that uncanny valley look of theme park buildings designed to look taller than they actually are, but I was really impressed by the details. Poured concrete sidewalks with painted curbs! Trees with metal grates around them! Fire hydrants and blue mailboxes! A trash can next to every streetlight! I'm pretty sure the Japanese tourists were laughing at us. The area around the Jaws ride made me feel especially nostalgic, since it was made up to look like New England.

But OMG the crowds. INSANE. The line for Jurassic Park was 190 minutes. (We went in the singles line for that one.) We only just barely made it to the 5 major rides, and only because we sat right outside Spiderman to watch the parade, so we were able to get in line when it opened again for about 10 minutes before the park closed. It was a lot of fun, though. I especially liked Back to the Future and Spiderman.

The next day, I put Tobin in one of her new Dolpa dresses and took her to Sato. She was incredibly popular, and we had a hard time leaving because people kept asking me if they could take pictures of her with their dolls. But really, can you blame them?



Sato also had a billion tiny baby koi in their pond. SO CUTE.

On the last day of vacation, a big group of us went to Osaka to see Cirque du Soleil. It was amazing. If you've never been, it's well worth the ticket price to see it at least once. It's unbelievable what those people are able to do.

The next weekend, I went to Hirakata Park, which is an amusement park halfway between Osaka and Kyoto. It's a lot smaller and less exciting than USJ, but they have a lot more rides, and you can actually go on them because there are practically no lines at all. They've also got a beautiful rainbow colored Ferris wheel which looked stunning against the blue sky and puffy white clouds. And an alpaca tried to eat my cell phone.

More recently, I got to hang out with rkold while she was here, so now I have a DSi and puzzle games and candy! :D Which also means I won't be having a life for the forseeable future. Plus I have more shampoo and deodorant, which not only I but my coworkers thank you for, Rachel. ^_~ ♥

Sighhhhhhh I need to get off my lazy ass and be productive. >.> As soon as I get over this cold thingy.

I'm not normally a big Salon fan, but this article is the most concentrated amount of win I've seen in a long time.

So, a while back, I asked this question. And it appears the answer is a resounding, "LOL no."

The Prime Minister resigned AGAIN. From the little I understand about Japanese politics, he would have been kicked out anyway once the new ruling party came into power, but seriously, people. This is the third PM to resign since I've moved here. Acting all nicey-nice is so culturally ingrained that no one has the balls to stand up to a little criticism.

Anyway, I finally made my big trading post over at pokemon, and it went pretty well. My pokédex is at 401 seen, 350 obtained now. I also completed my berrydex and got some master balls to finally catch Mespirit and Cresselia, thanks to magicpotion. ♥

I also finally found a Firefox add-on that will block specific websites. I'm hoping I can finally kick the sf_drama habit now.

• The heat and humidity are killing me.
• Going up to Big Nag tomorrow for dollie and gay bar fun with triplepunch + SO, misspaulette, and anruiukimi.
• Had a truly awesome moment at karaoke when I found out you can get this song with the actual video.
• My cell phone is the best cell phone ever, because it now has a matching leopard print tail.
• Really looking forward to the new Pokéwalker, and hoping it will help spur me into both losing the weight I've gained, and getting to know Kyoto better.
• Kakigoori is the greatest invention ever.
• Mint Oreo McFlurries are good too.
• Barney Frank is my hero. ♥

( alphawebz meme )

Sorry, no pr0n.

OMG I HAVE CHEETOS. REAL ONES. T___T I haven't even eaten any yet, just sticking my head in the open bag and breathing deeply.

OMG Star Trek IV lol FOREVER.

Need fic where Kirk "retrains" Spock on certain customs. :3

Also happy late birthday to magicpotion!!! *chuuuuu*

I'm really confused now. The Sato event on October 4th is NOT the usual Angels Descending event, but something else. And there's no mention of the Angels Descending event on the October calendar, BUT Sato is going to be closed on the day it's normally held. So are they having it this year, or not??? Damn it Volks, why do you always have to be so secretive?

Also: take the slashiness of Wrath of Khan, multiply it by 9 billion, and you get Search for Spock. :3 Seriously.

Win 1: I ordered a pizza! \o/ This is especially big news for me, because I don't even enjoy talking on the phone in English. It was sooooooo good, too. Either they use real pepperoni, or it's been so long since I've had real pepperoni that I can't tell the difference any more. The bad part is that now I'm going to be tempted to have pizza way more often than I should.

Win 2: Scored some 70% offage at Black Peace Now.

Win 3: Volks is NOT having the Sato event on Health and Sports Day weekend for once, so I can actually go!

Fail: The leopard print glasses that I've been lusting after look absolutely terrible on me. ;_;

In other news, ST:Wrath of Khan is amazing and amazingly slashy. So goddamned sick of the surprise!son trope, though.

Sad face, for I have no more episodes of ST:TOS to watch. *emo tear* The final episode, though... lol forever. XD But I was disappointed that there was no money shot of girl!Kirk and his posse. Kirk and Spock were totally holding hands though, so that makes up for it. (The title also makes me want to rewrite it with Phoenix Wright characters.) Watching TOS only makes me appreciate even more how awesomely awesome Zachary Quinto was in XI. He really did his homework for that role. Oh, I can't wait for the wave of Star Trek doujinshi that I know is coming~~

RL has been so full of fail lately. Between sickness and stress and more sickness and insane humidity and laziness, I can't seem to do a single damn thing right. There have been a few cool happenings, though. I went to a kabuki production of Twelfth Night, which was awesome, and to a Hanshin Tigers game, which was also awesome. I met up with konoha for festivalness and purikura and TeniPuri karaoke, and misspaulette and I wore yukata to the Gion Matsuri parade (and had a really good purikura session afterwards). Yesterday's eclipse was pretty cool too, but of course it was overcast, so I could only catch a few glimpses of it.

In contrast to RL, Pokémon has been going awesome. I finally completely finished LeafGreen and transferred all my keepers to Diamond, and started playing Emerald. Emerald's keeping my interest a lot better, since it's not a rehash of something I've already played. And also because my game file is a Phoenix Wright AU where a Jirachi wish gone wrong has left Phoenix trapped in the body of Miles' Torchic. X3 Speaking of Jirachi... I has one! And yes, it's legit. Yay for Japanese wi-fi presents~ I also got the special Shokotan Pichu which lets you get the Gizamimi Pichu in GS. I haven't gotten movie Arceus yet, but I'll be doing that soon. I just hope that I don't actually have to sit through the whole movie to do it. :P I've also been getting a lot of good trades through GTS lately. Including an Usaring with Pokérus!!!! *throws confetti* So now all my pokes are infected/recovered. I also got a Shuckle named Noodle and a shiny Mew through pokemon. The Mew is hacked of course, but who cares? It's Mew! ♥ OH and they have so many new plushies at the Pokémon Center!! I got a Snorlax and a sleeping Gizamimi Pichu which is the CUTEST THING EVER. I'm thinking of getting a Magikarp next time, just for the lols. The Lapras is really cute, too....

SRS POLL TIEM:
Poll #1433861 pokemans too srs for me
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Which Pokémon game should I get?

As Ilona once said to me, "Whatever you think about him personally, you have to admit, that man can sing." And it's absolutely true.

Crazy shit, man.

I would like to discuss RPF. And by discuss, I mean I only wish to hear opinions which agree with my own. If you don't agree with me, I will attempt to make myself sound smarter than you by overusing the word "elucidate".

OMG, why do people keep saying Murata and Shouri are double blacks? Kyou Kara Maou fandom is so dumb, amirite?

Seriously, I could fill a whole blog with the dumb shit that gets said on fanficrants. (Which is why I read it, of course.)

So, Star Trek opening weekend. So. Frickin'. Awesome. My only complaint is that I wish they had not insisted on shooting like every single scene handheld by a 90-year-old guy with DT. I almost thought I was gonna have a repeat of Blair Witch Project. But wow, so enjoyable, great special effects, and PERFECT casting.

And now, for my thoughts on yaoi.

( minor spoilers )

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about going back on Monday, since that's discount ticket day. How can it be June already?!

In keeping with the idea that watching fucked-up movies will make me feel less fucked-up by comparison, I watched Dr. Strangelove tonight. God, that movie is so brilliant. But it reminds me of my friend who is Jewish and therefore is completely intolerant of anything German (even though her family is of German descent, and what a lol it was the day she found THAT out), who was like "OMG how can you even WATCH that movie don't you know the title character is a Nazi???" And it's like, ummmm, that's the whole POINT?

Anyway, I'm feeling much better than last night, but this cough is a bitch.

OMG I AM SO MISERABLE. IF I LIE DOWN I CAN'T SLEEP. IF I GET UP I'M TOO TIRED TO DO ANYTHING. I'M SUPPOSED TO TAKE MY MEDICINE AFTER MEALS BUT I'M NOT HUNGRY ENOUGH TO EAT ANYTHING. MY EARS AND KNEES AND EYEBALLS HURT.

I'M GOING TO GO FORCE-FEED MYSELF SOME NOODLES WHILE I WATCH CITY OF LOST CHILDREN BECAUSE THAT'S HOW FUCKED UP I FEEL.

So, all public schools in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures are closed due to swine flu. Come on, Kyoto! You can do it!