Feel free to recommend stuff to me (especially books, because I want to pretend I'm literate. 日本語でもOK!)

( List of Movies )
( List of Books )

I FORGOT THE ONE PIECE DOUJINSHI EVENT WAS ON NOVEMBER 3RD TT___TT For some reason, I thought it was November 15... nope, November 15 is a Tsubakiya Quartette concert at Electric Lady Land (which also wrings my heart that I can't attend... yuuji-kun ;_;). Can't really say I recognize any of the circles that attended, but it was nice to see that there was more than just ZoroSan available.

And to rub some salt in the wound, my best friend's boyfriend is heading to Japan for two weeks to party hearty before they get stationed in Texas. Not like I could ask him to go in my place or anything, though. I need some RL friends that share my kimoi otaku interests, damn it! Or at least similar taste in Japanese music! Singing Japanese songs at karaoke when no one else understands the song is just lame.

But I digress.

( doujinshi shipment (44 doujinshi, all hetalia) )

I actually have a SMJ shipment coming in sometime soon, but after that I'll probably curb my doujinshi spending until Winter Comiket. Although there were a couple of doujinshi from Spark and the aformentioned One Piece event that I wouldn't mind getting my hands on *gets slapped*

Silly conversation overheard at work today:
Paralegal #1: blah blah blah Philippines
Me: *ancestral country sense tingling*
Paralegal #2: Don't they speak Spanish over there?
Paralegal #1: No... but I think their language is like, a Spanish dialect or something.
Paralegal #2: Like Brazilian?
Me: *headdesk*

Speaking of linguistic follies at work, I kind of wish the computer they gave me had Japanese language support, but that's probably a blessing in disguise. Although I had a minor panic attack at lunch the other day when I opened up one of those mondai taisakusen books and literally went cross-eyed at the kanji.  And That Damn Test is like, what, a month away?  OTL

I don't know how I feel about this yet.  On one hand, I'm neutral about US/chibi!UK.  On the other hand, it's got my favorite circle of all time and some other pretty good ones contributing... yeah.

In any case, it looks like I might actually get this weekend to myself for once so I can work on that backlog of shows... I've been dying to watch Kimitodo at least ;_;

I ♥ Al and I love koni-tan but after listening to the trial version of  "Hamburger Street"... why.


Just ... why.





Speaking of seiyuu, I ran over to Asahiya today during my lunch break (10 Manhattan city blocks? Nothing stands in the way of moe!) and they had one issue of Pash! left (the one with Prussia and Germany on the cover). I didn't realize everything in the store was 1/2 off so I didn't buy it... I think I'm gonna try again tomorrow so wish me luck.  If not I can always just blow my cash at Anthropologie

I can't believe US/Belarus fandom exists?

Someday, my crack!het US pairing will get an anthology too, you'll see!

What is going on with Manhattan weather?! I got poured on today while going home from work because I forgot my umbrella... even though I'm not British, or a gentleman...  Tomorrow I'm going to my first arbitration and lucky for me, the place is closer to me than my work is so I don't have to get drenched this time.  Downside is, of course, I have to be there earlier than normal and they don't know how long we're going to be there. 

Well, work is work.  I still haven't got around to watching anything I wanted because usually I just get home and sleep.  Also, I haven't been studying at all for the JLPT this December, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to fail that spectacularly unless I get my act together ASAP.  Interestingly enough, I just found out one of my classmates from study abroad is going to take the JLPT 2kyuu this fall and he's worried he'll fail.  I call bullshit - he worked at an izakaya while studying abroad for an entire year, has a Japanese girlfriend, and had been studying Japanese longer.  Compared to me (3 1/2 years of college level Japanese and 4 months study abroad) there's pretty much no way he could fail unless he was stoned on test day... this guy could talk circles around me in Japanese two years ago, AND he's certainly had more opportunities to practice since then.

BUT! Today was payday! Just as well, because I finally ordered some stuff I wanted (Three Thousand Noons and Nights, you are MINE) and also got a painful SMJ bill :/  Maybe I can stop my linguistic atrophy by buying and reading more doujinshi? *gets shot*

AH long-winded post eaten by LJ ;_;  Also, why the heck am I still up at 3AM reading former British Empire rock band neta is delicious this is ridiculous.

Anyway, I guess I'm going to have to hold off on my dream of getting an iPhone longer than I thought, because I just got a "friendly" reminder from one of my lenders that my grace period ends next month, including how much I should expect to pay monthly.  If the other two are what I think they'll end up being, then my minimum payments would essentially come out to three weeks of after-tax pay. OTL I can't say I didn't know that this [having loans that add up to more than what my parents owe on their mortgage] would happen, but when I signed the promissory note four years ago, I was kind of banking on having a real job that actually paid me decent wage to get me through until 2013, damn it! 

It could be worse, I guess... my family's healthy physically and financially, and even if my current job pays little it's still better than no dinero at all.  I don't have a credit card so no debt from that, either.  Plus, I just have to meet minimum payments for the next four years, and then my lump sum I get from investments will be enough to pay off everything in one fell swoop with cash left over.  If I don't find a higher paying job soon though, I'll end up having to live with my parents until I turn 26 and that's just... no.

EDIT: Skip Beat 147 - Oh Tsuruga-shi~♥

It's... probably NOT a good sign if the theme songs from Gag Manga Biyori are on endless loop in your head while going through orientation.

..but at least I got through my first day ok?  I don't know if it's my ultra-high tolerance to offensive situations, my juvenile sense of humor, or just the inner nosy bitch in me, but reading the cases was much less boring than I thought it would be.  Of course, summarizing stuff is a different matter entirely. \(^o^)/

NAMIKAWA DAISUKE IS VOICING KAZEHAYA WHAT WHAT WHAT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

For the fall season, I'll probably be watching:

• Hetalia - No brainer. The only anime this year that I continually kept up with.  Sad fangirl is sad.
• Kimi ni Todoke - I've been looking forward to this since it was announced.  nmkw as Kazehaya alone should satisfy my seiyuu geekery, ve~
• Kobato - As long as they keep tsuntsundere Fujimoto, this should be okay.
• Inuyasha - No guarantees on this one.
• Ohitorisama - Alisa Mizuki + Koike Teppei should be adorable and hilarious :9
• Tokyo DOGS - I sat through all of Binbou Danshi for Oguri Shun, damn it, so I should be able to complete this one at least!
• Samurai High School - The premise sounds so cliched but RIGHT UP MY J-DORAMA ALLEY, thanks.  Also, no objections to Miuma Haruma, Shirota Yuu and Ohgo Suzuka!

Part of me thinks I should give Otomen's j-drama a second chance but I'm still hurting at the character/story bastardization of the first episode... also, I should probably finish Call Center no Koibito before I start anything new, but I can't get past the fifth episode for some reason.

Also, no one really cares, but as for non-Japanese TV shows, I currently watch:

• NCIS - I realize I'm getting into this one pretty late, but DiNozzo and McGee are hilarious, Gibbs and Ziva are badass, and the dynamic between everyone is awesome.
• NCIS:LA - I don't know how I feel about this one yet.  I'm not feeling the characters as much as I am with NCIS, but since this show is new, I'll give them two or three more episodes before I drop it.
• Monk - Last season~~
  
• Dahil may isang ikaw - I'm only watching it because my parents watch it religiously (o hai free running translation) and it doesn't make me want to poke my eyes out with a blunt stick nearly as much as Katorse does.

I'm considering watching Three Rivers (Daniel Henney, why so hot?) but the to-watch list is already pretty long.  And two of the American shows I watch regularly (Burn Notice, In Plain Sight) should be returning from hiatus so yeah.  I like how I only watch three channels: CBS, USA, and TFC  \(^o^)/

I MISREAD THE START DATE ON MY EMAIL OTL I thought I started tomorrow but I start Monday (stupid Gmail.)  At least I checked it tonight instead of walking in tomorrow, that would be majorly dumb of me to show up 3 days early.

So what did I accomplish today?   Ironed seven days' worth of business casual outfits and marathoned episodes of Gundam Wing, that's what.  (Oh, Gundam Wing, my gateway drug. あいらびゅーふぉーえばー)  Nice to know that I can still sing the theme songs from memory and The Scene from episode 48 is still mune-kyun worthy after all these years :3

Irrelevant post is irrelevant.

First:
( cut for my midlife crisis and emo tl;dr )

Second:
They're closing the Asahiya in NYC on October 31 (probably because they're no match for Kinokuniya's shiny), which makes me sad because they were always slightly cheaper than Kino. Anyway, I visited them yesterday and picked up Otomen 8-9, Hoshi wa Utau 6, and Shiawase Kissa 3choume 14. It's been a while since I bought any of those titles and I was pleasantly surprised by the developments in all of them (tsun-sama finally shows some dere! tachibana shows the true power of a mangaka! actual plot in Shiawase Kissa!)

I had time to kill so I ended up going to Kinokuniya anyway, which was really crowded with weeaboos (NYAF, I take it?) so I decided to skip the manga and kill time in the Japanese novels section instead. I found this and this and flipped through the table of contents and the introductions. (They're both written by an English reporter - the first one is his impression of Japanese society, and the second is his impression of American society.) I'm sorry, but seeing chapter titles like "英国紳士とジャパニーズ・サムライ" (English gentlemen and Japanese samurai), "日本のパブはパブじゃない" (Japan's pubs are not pubs), "特別関係" (special relationship) and my personal favorite, 鬼畜米英 (do I really need to translate this?!?!?!) KILLED ME WITH MOE ON THE SPOT... I probably scared the crap out of whoever saw me since I was grinning like an idiot while reading it. I've got a long reading list though so I didn't buy them, although I probably will buy them eventually. Fujoshi-ism is a disease.

Third:
My parents just left for a 7-day cruise today. It was pretty hilarious because as soon as my brother and I said goodbye and got back in the car, we simultaneously high-fived each other and went "Fuck yeah!" One of the porters passing by the window heard this and laughed at us. :3

Hetalia movie version? Is that really a good idea, Studio DEEN?

微妙…

I don't know how, but I just got suckered into paying $32.83 for a hockey game ticket - Cornell vs. BU @ Madison Square Garden.

What is this nonsense.

Putting aside the fact that I know absolutely nothing about hockey... I have no sense of school pride whatsoever.  None at all.
Not only am I completely bitter towards my alma mater, it pisses me off that they've got the balls to charge alumni thirty two dollars for nosebleed seats.  You've already extorted upwards of $115,000 from me in the last four years, the least you jerks could do is give me ONE free nosebleed seat!!!!!  

Well, it was either that or be dragged to an "alumni association meeting" with $15 cover and "cash bar"... I just.  Graduates of the self-proclaimed number one hospitality school in the world (which is a damn dirty lie completely subjective) and you guys do a cash bar?!?!?!?!?!  what kind of tacky disgusting insult is this crap?!

Moving along.  The local librarian gave me the dirtiest look today when I checked out my "research" books.  I know this town is bleeding liberal but there's no need to judge my reading preferences, thanks. ._.  Or would you rather I checked out Twilight or some other sappy chick lit?

Uh, yeah, the dramatic trip title is a joke.  I think.  o_o

My brother and his girlfriend (from now on, I'm just gonna refer to her as A-san, since she's been popping up in my journal entries pretty frequently) treated me to lunch today (which is once-in-a-blue-moon rare, since he's hella cheap) and, just like I thought, there was an ulterior motive involved.  Long story short, I guess we're going to Japan this February.  *gets bricked*  Under these terms, though:

1. Mandatory conditions: The three of us have to treat my Japan relatives to dinner at least twice, which means at least 2-3 days in Nagoya.  In return, aniki and I have to pick up A-san at the airport, because she plans on flying to the Philippines for a week first before meeting us in Japan. (must be nice to have money)
2. aniki's condition: The three of us have to go to the Bandai Museum in Tochigi and GUNDAM'S in Osaka.  Oh, and I have to show him how to play Senjou no Kizuna pretty much as soon as we land on Japanese soil.  A-san can't complain while he plays it.
3. A-san's condition: The three of us have to go to Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo for at least one day, and we have to spend at least one day in Odaiba.  Aniki can't complain if she wants to buy Hello Kitty anything for the duration of the trip.
4. My condition: I get left the hell alone on February 14 so I can go to Gijinka Oukoku III.  Which means that we stay at the hotel closest to Tokyo Big Sight the night before and the night after, and they spend at least one day without me playing tour guide-translator.  (At first I was like, "hmm, more people = divide and conquer" but neither of them know Japanese or doujinshi event etiquette so fat load of good that does me ...actually, now that I think about it, this works out really well since the last thing I want to do is spend Valentine's Day with a couple!)

There's a bunch of different factors that need to be taken into consideration (i.e. parental and Japan-family permission, my job situation, what if aniki and A-san say "screw 7 years" and break it off any time between now and February, what if I fall out of Hetalia fandom by then), but I'd say there is a 75% chance of this happening, especially since A-san is pretty determined to go [aniki is hetare so she keeps complaining that they've never gone anywhere] and aniki doesn't want to go to Japan unless he's guaranteed a translator [i.e. myself].  Half of me is kind of O____<;;awkward-turtle at the thought of traveling with just my brother and his girlfriend, and the other half of me is already in "what the heck do I buy teenage japanese boys that have no interest in English" pasalubong planning mode. 

Of course, this pretty much guns down any notions I may or may not have been entertaining about traveling by myself anywhere in October (*cough*london,rome,hawaii*cough*).  And I haven't even confirmed with my friend about Texas in November yet, I'm such a bad friend orz.   Speaking of, I almost proposed going to Japan during Winter Comike Christmas/New Years, but then I remembered that 1)A-san can't get vacation time during that season and 2)my roommates were throwing around  "New Years 2010 @ Las Vegas Strip" ideas last time the four of us talked, so that idea was shut out fairly quickly... I need more RL friends that share my kimoi otaku interests, don't I.  一人楽しすぎるぜ！（遠い目）

IN OTHER NEWS: I was waiting for happy hour to start killing time at Kinokuniya the other day when I ran across this... Of course, I bought it, since there are some original illustrations done by Shiina-sensei included.  So far, it's... surprisingly easy to read?  (That probably has less to do with my reading comprehension skills and more to do with the book's target audience: 13 year old girls.)  I get crazy ADD when reading in Japanese though so I've only made it halfway through (Sawako, Maru-chan, Ayane, and Kurumi); I'll probably summarize them all once I'm done.  (Damn it Kazehaya, why don't guys like you exist in real life?!)

直参 だ　 と　 ?
Kill me now please. please. just. please. WHY would you NOT show up to the BeiEi only OR Gijinka Oukoku, but decide to show up IN PERSON for Gijinka Oukoku II?! What kind of cruel trick is this?

Also, this is just. I just. Japan doujinshika. Do you enjoy the salty taste of my tears? LOOK AT ALL THOSE DELICIOUS PARTICIPANTS.

Man, I don't even know which one's going to be more awesome, GO II with the above points PLUS 3 uke!Alfred anthologies and Migigawa Hero, or GO III with twice the spaces, the UK/US petit!only and a Russia/US anthology what.

Plus, my army friend just revoked her Columbus Day invite to St. Louis, and told me to come down to Texas for a week in November and help her house-hunt (I think that's where her final station is? I don't know how the army works, I'm just a dumb civilian.) Which kinda leaves me free the 10th. But damn, my brother and his girlfriend are already planning February dates even though I haven't given them the OK yet. (Damn it, why is everyone planning stuff for me in the far future as if I'm going to be free the rest of my life?! 無職ってホントにキツイわ←黙)

Oh, and on a kind of related but not really note: Here are 3 sure-fire ways to get me NOT to read your Hetalia fic:

1. mpreg. Why is this popular? I don't get it.
2. Referring to UK as "Iggy". This is a fic breaker for me. I don't know, it's just really annoying.
3. Unexplained inconsistency with country/human names. Refer to him as America or Alfred, but don't use both in the same fic... unless there's an actual reason to. (Ex: I read a doujinshi where nation-tans called each other by human names in public and country names in private, because they didn't want to expose their identity to normal people.)

... this is the part where I go hit my head on the wall repeatedly for admitting that I looked through the kink meme orz 無職ってホン（ｒｙ

OH MY GOD

I'll be in the corner here, slowly dying, kthxbai.

actually this is kind of cool too i'd totally ship nagoya-eki with tokyo-eki and there's a special place in hell for me isn't there.

I keep typing オートミール (oatmeal) as オートメール (automail).
...Are you trying to tell me something, subconscious?!

I was watching The Filipino Channel during lunch when Phil Younghusband showed up.

HALF ENGLISH HALF FILIPINO THERE'S HOPE FOR ME YET
To be honest, he's all right looking, not really my type (although bonus points for the Brit accent and being my age). I mean it more in the "score, at least one British guy has shown interest in a Filipina!" sense.  Though seeing his segment reminded me of a conversation I had with my roommates about what would be the hottest mix ever.  I voted for Filipino-Italian, because seriously? The food in that household? Would be AMAZING.  (Also, an Italian-Filipino wedding would be like, the most crowded and most bad-ass wedding ever. I'm just saying.)  I've never seen someone that's Filipino-Italian yet, but the hottest guy I've ever seen in RL that wasn't famous was a Filipino Australian half who had an awesome accent and was studying for his GMAT... yeah.

My "read one book each day" plan failed after I realized that "oh snap, JLPT monster is less than 3 months away".  So now it's a "study JLPT related material for at least 2 hours a day if not more" plan OTL.  I even ordered the Jitsuryoku UP kanji/tango drill book from Sanseido (which is going to cost more than what I'd like to pay, but the damage is done.)

Gave myself an ultimatum yesterday after a mini-epiphany of sorts:

1. Get a job by October 1, economy be damned.
2. If (1) fails, then buy a ticket to ANY ONE of the following places and travel there for a week:
   
   • London - Get drunk in a pub and take pictures with the guards at Buckingham Palace, in true American tourist fashion.
   • Rome - Admire all the beautiful architecture.  Also, eat delicious pasta, gelato, and drown in a winery.  Mangia!
   • Tokyo - *cough* Gijinka Oukoku II *cough*
   • Hawaii - One of my college friends lives in Waikiki.  Drunken beach hijinks are GUARANTEED.
   • St. Louis - Free ticket + military discount + men in army uniforms? This could work, too!
3. If for some reason (2) fails, then buy a ticket to Tokyo for February 2 - 16ish, 2010 and act as sarcastic tourguide/translator for Gundam-otaku older brother and his Sanrio-obsessed girlfriend (she offered to PAY FOR HIS AIRFARE/RAIL PASS WTF must be nice to have cash money).  *cough* Gijinka Oukoku III 2000 spaces of fujoshi glory *cough*
   
   • Definition of "failure" for #2:
     
     1. I am in the late stages of the interview process by October 1.
     2. Family/friend emergency occurs that magically prevents me [physically/mentally/financially] from traveling for the month of October.

I might be wiping away my life savings but technically I don't have to start paying my student loans (oh god so many zeros) until November anyway.  Besides, most people I've talked to have suggested the travel bit, and even my friends/parents have noticed that I'm going stir crazy.

Oh yeah, and I still can't fix my running time after Friday's freeze. 9:36 for one mile is just... depressing.