The top shelf of my walk-in closet collapsed.

The top shelf of my walk-in closet collapsed.

My mom and I heard a colossal crash downstairs, and went to my room to find all my fucking clothes from summer to winter wear on hangers plus seasonal bedding stuff in disarray on the closet floor. The shelf is dangling from its bottom buttressing rails and the nails that were keeping the inner edge of the shelf to the wall have been ripped clean out of their holes.

THANK YOU CALIFORNIAN HOUSING.

THANK YOU ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS I.E. WALLS MADE OF REINFORCED CARDBOARD AND NAILS THAT ARE ABOUT .5 OF AN INCH LONG.

THANK YOU WHOEVER BUILT THIS HOUSE AND USED TOO FEW OF THOSE NAILS ON THE WALLS.

Fuck it all I'm going out for cheesecake.

Wow this came to me as a complete surprise. A few days ago I turned in a job app to an optician shop, cuz my parents, when at the shop to order new glasses, reported they were hiring extra help for the holiday season. Preferably recent graduates fluent in both English and Mandarin.

I was a bit apprehensive since, 1) I'm studying for the GMAT in late December and I'm not completely confident I can manage my time properly 2) a job in the service industry usually entails weekend shifts and working on holidays. Still, I turned in the app and spoke briefly to the manager. When she mentioned they were actually hoping for a full-time worker, and we parted after "the higher-ups will review your resume, we'll give you a call soon" I knew my chances were as good as dashed. I was actually a little relieved. That meant I will have ample time to prepare for the GMAT, keep looking for a proper full-time job, and work on my two comic projects.

And then, this morning I receive a call from them asking me how many days I could work, if I could work weekends, and if I could start training tomorrow.

Sooooo YAY EMPLOYMENT! \o/ Sure, I'm not gonna make much money out of it working only 3 days (though it won't be less than what I earned doing web design at Beagle Books), but it sure beats working 5 days and having almost no time whatsoever for anything else. Hell I should just be glad they're even letting me work there part-time. Nobody bloody hires part-timers who work less than 5 days a week now.

The catch is that my weekends are gone 8D;;; FMLLLLL

For a TOP SECRET creative project I'm naming badass fighting/militant special forces characters after historical badasses, amongst whom are Alexander, Charlemagne and Julius. Napoleon is in consideration, but I just can NOT get over the stigma of SHORT MAN SHORT MAN screaming in my brain.

Please help prove to me that it's just me and my stupid biases DDD:

Poll #1482815
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

Which is a better codename for a fictional badass militant/special ops character?

Poll #1482816
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

Also, to use Julius or Caesar as a codename?

Also, any super cool badass historical figures you know and love just throw them in the comments. I love historical badasses \o/

Stole from evanae's post for posterity. This may be a repeat post to some, sorry y'all D:

Place: Liquid, Japanese restaurant in San Mateo
Time: app. 7pm, Saturday of Y-con
Sakebombers in question: lachraine and me
Cameraperson: evanae

My Photoshop is now named Rachel and my Picasa web upload application is now named Tina. NERD ON.

me: holy shit my photoshop's been feeling suicidal lately
Aki: froze? o_o
me: yeah it keeps going "photoshop has encountered an error. it will exit now."
Aki: ... als;kdjf
Aki: sorry
Aki: it just reminded me glee rachel's diva flouncing
Aki: "you have not satisfied me. I will exit now."
me: HAHAHA
Aki: your photoshop is diva'ing XDD
me: SRSLY
Aki: STOP BEING A DIVA, NAT'S PHOTOSHOP.
me: yeah omg it must think i've been ignoring it
me: having been away so long
me: "YOU'RE IGNORING ME. YOU'RE PUNISHING ME. I QUIT."
Aki: LOL
Aki: omg
Aki: you should call it rachel
me: HAHAHAHAHA
Aki: you can totally be will
Aki: "Rachel. This isn't about YOU. Okay. Not everything is about YOU."
me: yes LOL
me: oh boy if i actually start using the picasa web uploader to /edit/ the photos
me: rachel really WOULD quit on me
me: and i have to be like
me: RACHEL OTHER APPLICATIONS NEED A CHANCE TO SHINE TOO
Aki: LOL
Aki: TINA
me: A;SEIJF
Aki: picasa web uploader is TINA
me: omfg
me: i need to make a post about this
Aki: XDDDDD

I've returned from the Far East! \o/

Though it's more like a mix of \o/ and ;; cuz I hated for my vacation to end and I had such a great time in Japan with the various people I met there. And then I watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Gokusen the Movie on the flight back and listened to GReeeeN and Angela Aki and The Best of Chage & Aska so there was generally a lot of BAWWW. God I can't believe 2 weeks in China and 3 weeks in Japan went by just like that. But at the same time, holy shit I was out of the country for over a month! It's a very conflicted feeling :C

Anyway, an extensive travelogue will follow and I'd better fucking do it cuz I need to preserve all my memories in detail. Time to process my 1000+ photos l-lol x_X

[ETA] Oh and despite being jetlagged I managed to crash Saturday of Ycon with a halfassed last-minute Chase Stein cosplay (for Jo Chen's booth, with cursedinanime as Victor; JO CHEN RECOGNIZED US A;SDFJ ahh she was so cute and nice) and a Mikage rewear. Then there was yummy Japanese dinner at Liquid where lachraine and I had our very first sake bombs. Also where Joey was dedicated the epicest of epic birthday songs. FUNTIMES 8>

I'M STILL REALLY SLEEPY RIGHT NOW OTL

WITH JUST 2 DAYS LEFT

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN

I don't wanna go baaaaaaackkkkk XC

I AM IN OSAKA \o/

IT IS POURING oTL

How I fail, let me tell you the ways:

- didn't think to call AMEX before coming to JP and had a brief panic attack when I couldn't initially use my card for cell phone rental
- forgot to bring my umbrella cuz I have excellent foresight
- and I forgot to bring a plug adapter so I'm running on battery power of which there is

/checks

15 minutes left.

I AM CONSTANTLY AMAZED WITH MYSELF.

In bullet points! Cuz it's late and I'm ready for bed lol

- Shenzhen is like Shanghai, but newer. The humidity and heat is awful, however the food is great, people are fashionable, window-shopping is amaaaziiingggg

- briefly experienced the most excruciatingly painful headache ever

- got my hair cut! And colored! For 100 RMB! Ah I love this country

- bought one item of clothing: a plaid flannel multi-purpose shirt... jacket... thing. It's muy cute, I'm gonna wear it in Japan \o/

- and then it started raining a lot; yay for cooler weather, nay for being rained in at home

- came down with a cold OTL though it's about that time of the year that I usually get sick anyway; but getting sick on vacation is just annoying and FML

- went to a fine art musuem and a design museum; the design exhibits were really cool and made me miss my days of graphic design at Cal Poly :C (lol I would've become so out of touch with GD by the time I find a job ._.)

- saw The Founding of a Republic (建国大业) which is a historical docudrama on the Communist vs Nationalist Party civil/political struggle before the People's Republic of China was finally set up. STAR STUDDED CAST, high production values, good movie. I love history lessons 8)

- and just saw The Message (风声) which is about ferretting out a Chinese resistance spy within the Nanjing counterinsurgency office (which is part of the Chinese puppet government for the Japanese during the occupation.) 1940s China, spies, torture, suspense, etc. SO GOOD! Great cast, cinematography, soundtrack. And I do love spy movies :D (I was disappointingly faint-hearted during the torture scenes, even though they're brief and really not that bad. Makes me wonder how the hell I managed to sit through Audition.)

In less than 3 hours I leave for SFO and am bound for Shenzhen, China! I will be there until October 7, after which I go to Japan, so I will be out of the country until October 29. MISS YOU ALL, WISH ME LUCK, pray I don't die from the heat in China and/or get lost in Japan, etc. I'll still try to steal wireless/troll internet cafes when I can, but chances may be sparse. :<

SO TO BID YOU ALL FAREWELL here's another sketchdump that I've held onto with the thought of showing them only after I colored them until I finally lost patience with myself. 8/

( RANDOM: Houshin Engi x 1, Gundam 00 x 1 )

( Runaways/Young Avengers x 7 )

TAKARAZUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

TAKARAZUKA MOON TROUPE

"LAST PLAY ~INORI NO YOU NI~ /HEAT ON BEAT!/"

TAKARAZUKA THEATER HYOUGO

10/20 15:00

2ND FLOOR WINDOW 2-6 15TH ROW #70

n-now I just hope that the ticket will get to aatash's apartment with no incident @_@ (almost couldn't verify my credit card on this purchase today holyshit)

Thanks everyone who commented in the last post! I think it's either gonna be money, or a gift card. Money is the easier option, but for some reason I've always felt less thrilled about giving/receiving money than an actual item (unless they're red packets at Chinese New Year 8D). In any case I'll be using one of those fancy wedding envelopes used for money-gifting, and if I do put in a gift card I think it'll be, lolol I dunno CLEVER or something. Like. HaHA! It's a gift card of the same amount as I would've given in cash!

I STILL might give cash, since it's traditionally to kind of like, reimburse the family for the wedding reception? Augh I'm undecided. But a gift card would be a good way for my friend to get more of the stuff she's always wanted (i.e. dining sets, good-looking household items). Though my knowledge of household items stores is sadly limited... these are what I know:

Bed, Bath & Beyond
IKEA
Crate & Barrel
Pottery Barn

Any others I should know about? I kinda wanna shoot for a Crate & Barrel card if they have it... I don't know if $100 would even get you very much in a store like that, but it's a bit nicer than your standard BB&B and IKEA stuff.

In other news, thanks to _hissori I now have my hopes up to actually attend a Takarazuka show in Japan. Though Takarazuka appears to hate me, and the month October in general. The Phoenix Wright 2 musical JUST ENDED, and Casablanca doesn't start until November. The only show (that I know anything about) I can catch is Rose of the Versailles that starts on the 23rd, which is AFTER my JR Pass expires, in fricken Tokyo. The quickest way to travel costs about $80-90 each way, the show goes up to $110, and if I end up going to the 10/27 show I might as well stay in Tokyo overnight cuz the train ride is 2-4 hours, and I leave Japan the next day from Osaka anyway. So that's probably $60-100 for the hotel (cuz this is f'cking Ginza.) THIS TRIP IS GOING TO BANKRUPT ME.

AHH the irony of seeing Takarazuka OUTSIDE OF Osaka. If I didn't want to see Rose of the Versailles so badly I wouldn't even TOUCH Tokyo. Anyone know any other shows that're about BeruBara caliber that I could consider instead?

get plane ticket
book Business Taiyo Hotel room
get Japan Rail Pass
get some ￥s
notify bank of use of debit card in Japan
change PIN to 4 digits
plot out detailed itinerary
pack
GET MI-NE A WEDDING GIFT??

Ok guys I need help. Give me suggestions/ideas/advice on wedding gifts. I'll be attending a Japanese friend's wedding in Kyoto; what's a good but affordable thing to get? I guess I don't have to give it to her in Japan since she's coming back to the US after her honeymoon... is it even important that I give a gift at all?

I DON'T KNOW are there like traditions or conventions around this kind of thing?? THIS IS MY FIRST WEDDING I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO

Obligatory disappearing-for-3-days-on-family-trip post goes heeeere \o/

GRE IS DONE \o/

THE SCORE WAS... NOT WHAT I EXPECTED

:C

How I feel right now is something like: 1 part surly, 2 parts relieved, 2 parts :|, 1 part LOL. I have to say, the score isn't out of my expectations, but finishing the final section of the computer-based test I honestly thought I did better, especially since I felt more confident with the verbal section than I usually do. And now I can't help but feel a little gipped, cuz I keep thinking that if it hadn't been an adaptive test I would surely have done better? Because the scoring standard would all be the same and make sense and not be completely beyond comprehension? I dunno, I don't understand this shit at all and it feels unfair and, really? This is the best I can do?

ANYWAY despite all that I'm really, generally okay with the score, as I was with my SAT score (the scores are off by 20 points LOLLLLL.) There's a very simple reason why some of my friends in high school got 1500-1600 and I didn't. Totally fine with it.

If only my dad hadn't been like "well yeah because obviously you didn't work hard enough :/" AT WHICH I DEIGNED NOT TO EXCHANGE ANY MORE WORDS WITH HIM for the next 20 minutes THIS EVENING.

Yeah whatever fuckitall I'm having Korean BBQ tomorrow and while it isn't exactly Victory BBQ, it isn't wholly Consolation BBQ either. :DDDDD

I haven't watched any anime since Soul Eater and G-00 (neither of which I'd actually even finished); besides the volumes of Shiki I've been buying and reading I've been compleeetely out of touch with my Japanese. Soooo lol in part to prep myself for my China/Japan trip in the next coming month, I picked up a new J-drama to watch.

VOICE IS SUCH A FCKING TEARJERKER OMG. You will cry tears every episode, guaranteed. I'm only 3 episodes into the series but god it's proven to be sooo gooood. The writing, storytelling, acting, all superb. And I rather think this is Toma's best performance and he really deserves some recognition for it. (I know he got Best Supporting Actor for HanaKimi but I think it takes so much more to portray hidden substance under a casual/lighthearted front than a loltastic shounen retard.) Eita's performance is amazing too and everyone has such great chemistry AND ENDOU YUUYA IS IN IT (as a nerdy otaku type AAHAHAHA) I'm so happy to see some of our Tenimyu boys move on to bigger and better things T__T

Gah this is one J-drama I can't watch with anyone else cuz I'm just a blubbering sobbing mess at the end of every ep .__.

Aaaaand in 10 minutes I must leave for my GRE test. MAY DEATH BE SWIFT AND MERCIFUL. (Well, swift it is not, since the thing's like 3.5 hours. /WRIST)

ARGH damn you Persona series and your delicious animated graphic-designy goodness! At this time though I'm pinged on a purely graphic level; I'm still iffy about the weirding and ret-conning of P3 with a female character, though it appears to present itself as a kind of alternate reality where Minato's still present but... not... MC? The trailer flashes words like "butterfly effect" and "chaos theory", and uses visual allegory of mirrors/reflections. Intriguinggggg.

Though lolol the song is TEEERRRIBLLLLE. It opens like a TM Revolution song and the singer needs to... not be this guy. I don't care that he sang the OP for Persona: Trinity Soul (which now - DAMMIT!!!!! - I wanna see), he's awful for this song. Can Meguro Shoji work with people who can sing decently in English plz.

HEY DOES THAT MEAN I CAN DATE JUNPEI?

AKIHIKO?

RYOJI?!?!?!?!

Stop pandering to me Atlus YOU'RE MAKING ME INTERESTED

I FINALLY FINISHED THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

AFTER 5 YEARS AND... HOWEVER MANY MONTHS AND DAYS

I was very sad when it ended :< it was like saying goodbye to a dear old friend.

I CRIED MANY TEARS THROUGH THE SPAN OF THIS BOOK. AND THEN SOME MORE AT THE END. Oh the end omg. I listened to parts of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack during the climatic scenes LOL. And then listened to Lamb's "Angelica", "Til the Clouds Clear" and "Wonder" to the last 2 chapters. SUBLIME.

So I recently rediscovered my last.fm, which I'd forgotten about for years; I almost couldn't find my account anymore cuz I forgot the website l-lol.

But yes! I have it! And I have no friends on it! And I've found that (or have a strong hunch that) some of you folks on my f-list have exquisite taste in music! I'm bluestraggler @ last.fm, come share your treasures with meeeeee

And please pardon the very limited and repetitive library, that stuff and the Top Artists/Songs tracks are seriously from like, my late high-school/early-college days and I'm furiously trying to build it up to include my current preferences. 8D;

LOL watch me make a mad dash to beat my laptop's remaining battery life -- ......which just about ran out between scanning the pages and starting this post because it's a piece of shiiiiit

/connects AC adapter

So I'm finally approaching the end of the 1st season of BBC's Merlin and was subsequently topped by soloproject to draw more for it SO HERE IT IS

( 2 pages; lots of Merlins and one Arthur )

Ahhh I hope Season 2 airs soon!!