Through the Looking Glass

It's Shake 'n Bake!

2008-05-19T14:47:54Z

So, today I earned myself hella cool points (which is of course the only reason I do anything X3) by tattooing myself for the first time. MUCH harder than I ever expected, and I didn't end up choosing either the best of spots or designs, and therefore the finished product isn't that great. But you know what? I can live with that. Cause it was an amazing experience, and as a complete beginner, I wasn't expecting any miracles to begin with. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. And I strategically did the hardest parts all in once color so I can go over them again and try to sharpen them up once I heal. Which is gonna take a long-ass time, because I kept going over areas multiple times, which you're not supposed to do, and ended up going way too deep and bleeding a lot, which is gonna translate into a lot of scarring. Oh well. Live and learn. So without further ado, here's the ugly tattoo I am now the proud owner of-

And that's it! Unsurprisingly, I barely felt it while I was doing it because I was concentrating so hard. And also unsurprisingly, now it hurts like hell. -___- I only hope that my kids tomorrow don't decide to try and cling to my ankles. For now- on to more Boston Legal! I am sooooo addicted to that show right now. I am in love with Alan Shore. I need him to become real and decide that he, like Denny, has a thing for chubby women and that he's ready to give marriage another shot.

Life is so great inside my head. XD

Sometimes, you have to say, "Hey-"

2008-05-16T16:41:48Z

You know, I know that life's not supposed to be fair, but does it really have to be that unfair?

Sigh.

Bestill my beating teenaged heart!

2008-05-01T17:17:21Z

I found four of the five seasons of Saved by the Bell, and all I have to say is, I don't care if I'm 24 year old, I will ALWAYS love Zack Morris.

And why didn't I know until now that there's a lengthened director's edition of Empire Records? I downloaded a copy like a year ago and just got around to watching it today, and there's all this new footage. I love it. It is wonderful. Maxwell Caulfield does a great job at playing a raging dickhead. And, OMG, "I hope you like the taste of blue cheese"?!? How did that line get cut?

Golden Week has been a godsend. I really needed some time off from the world. And I'm finally almost over the plague.

I think this has to be my last year here. Sometimes the unexpected happens and I love this place, and sometimes the unexpected happens and I hate it, but if I stay any longer than this, I'm never going to work up the nerve to start my real life.

Now I just have to figure out what starting my real life means.

I plant roots quickly, and I don't like the idea of having to pull them up and start over again. I knew that that's what this was going to entail, and I'm prepared for it. But while I've been thinking about doing a masters program in psych, none of the schools that offer it are in New Jersey, and I don't want to have to spend another three years in a place only to pick up and leave again.

Of course, there's no reason I have to move back to New Jersey afterwards. Most of my friends have picked up and left and there's nothing stopping me from doing the same. But it's scary to think of just picking a random place, settling in, and hoping that everything goes well and I end up wanting to spend the rest of my life there. I swear I used to be able to make friends, but I've fairly well forgotten how. It's not so difficult here, because we gaijin are our own little biosphere of the West, and it's impossible not to make friends when the English speaking population is limited. It's another story all together when you move to just another American town where everybody else already has their own friends and you're the 25 year old new girl with all the social skills of an awkward teenager.

I know everything will be fine, and I'll work something out like I always do, but I still can't help but stop and wonder sometimes just how the hell I got here.

Sucks to you, God/dess(es). Sucks to you.

2008-04-23T18:53:06Z

Just when you think, "Man, this month sure did suck. I bet it can't get much worse," God kills a baby bunny.

Hooray for on the job perks.

2008-04-14T14:57:42Z

I re-pierced my eyebrow today. It hurts. I didn't cry, but I did make Eiji hold my hand. Now, this may not be the bestest of ideas, seein' as how ECC has a no facial piercing policy, but Phil wears his eyebrow ring, and he said that personnel told him it would be fine as long as he doesn't wear it on the 8th floor of the main school, and I'm never anywhere near there, so hooray for other people setting the precedent as well. And if it starts rejecting like the last one did, now I have complete access to my very own smexy piercing expert who can help me with it. So if you're gonna shove needles through your face, this is definitely the best way to do it. Other than that, the shop was pretty boring today, cause the owner's in Shanghai again doing more work with setting up the third shop, and Eiji was at the second shop for most of the day, so it was just me, Hiroshi, and Osamu. I drew an evil jack o'lantern and looked up brain teasers on the internet. Hopefully next week I can snag Ryuji for some lesson time.

And speaking of lessons, the new school year starts, for me anyways, tomorrow. I am pretty nervous, cause I have a massively busy day tomorrow, the revamped J-level lessons start and I have one and I feel woefully under prepared, and I have to take Gabriel back to the vet yet again tomorrow morning. But, that should give me plenty of time to get to work hella early and make sure I have more than enough time to prepare. And hopefully Valor Toda has a pet shop, cause I'm just about out of bunny food.

It's the name you want to toooooooouch~

2008-04-11T16:40:48Z

But you mustn't toooooooouch~!

Ain't that always the way?

So, day 2 of my 3 days without sleep is almost at an end. Took Gabriel back to the vet yesterday. He's still sick, now on two different kinds of meds two times a day, and he HATES me. -____-; Every time I open the door to his cage, he cowers in the corner. I am a sad fox. And I think that Mal may have caught the parasites from him despite my best endeavors, so when I go back to the vet yet again on Tuesday, I'm gonna take some of Mal's best work and have it checked out. Please please please, oh great Gods and Goddesses, let him be okay, because if they keep passing these things back and forth I may never be rid of them. Stupid fucking lousy pet shop.

All staff meeting today. Pleasant surprise of having the highest kids resign rate. Which means that, after all of my scheduling BS this year, if I stay another year I will be informing personnel of what schools I will be working at next year. They can deal with it. I feel by then I'll have more than earned my right to be pushy.

Shabu shabu party at the shop was awesome today, I just wish I could've stayed longer. Met a new girl who's a fried of the shop owner's girlfriend, who's really sweet. Landing that gig is the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. So despite the crap I've been wading through these last two weeks, after tonight, I really can't help but feel lucky all the same. I've finished the first design I wanna try on myself, and maybe in two weeks or so I'll work up the nerve to actually do it.

I got a new phone, as Mal bit through yet another one of my chargers in the 2 seconds I had my back turned from him. Jerk. It's mint green. I need to learn how to download ring tones.

But for now, more bunny medicine and what little sleep I have time for. >

kitsunesan @ 2008-04-01T23:04:00

2008-04-02T03:05:18Z

Gabriel the bunny has highly infectious parasites, and God officially hates me.

Fucking hell.

2008-04-02T01:27:02Z

Yup, just got off the phone with personnel, and that's both my Tuesday and my Thursday shift gone. And there's not a thing he can do to change it now, because it seems not only was it changed to accommodate someone else, but there was some big to do with a bunch of mothers at one of the schools (Probably my Tuesday school, I had a minorly troublesome class there last year) saying that they wanted a different teacher this year. So now I have to trek out to a school I went to once and got terribly, terribly lost at, up on the second floor of some shopping mall, and another school at the end of the subway line I've never been to.

This went from being the best year ever to being the worst year ever.

Excerpts from life in our apartment.

2008-04-01T15:50:00Z

Tommie: "I'm the dumb one in my family, I'll tell anyone. My sisters are gonna be rich. I'll be the one dancing on the corner, yelling at pigeons. 'Get off my lawn!'"

Me: *eating an ice cream bar* "I'm gonna be the crazy cat lady."

Tommie: "Oh, so you know?"

Me: "Yeah, I'm preparing myself for it now." *lick, lick, bite*

Tommie: "So are you just gonna own the cats, or are you gonna bathe in their pee?"

Me: *tries to swallow, chokes instead* *cough cough cough* "Dammit, you caught me trying to swallow!"

Tommie: *laughing* "Well it's a legitimate question!"

For those of you who don't believe in the importance of charms and gem stones...

2008-04-01T13:50:32Z

...I lost the rose quartz out of my pendant on Sunday, and today I had one of the shittiest days I've had in a long time.

Gabriel, as I've named my new baby bunny, is sick. And from what I've read at the House Rabbit Society website, it could be life-threatening. So I called the International Center yesterday to see about finding an English speaking vet, and they were arbitrarily closed. Called again today, and it seems that there's not a single vet in all of this "metropolitan" city that speaks a damned word. So I got the number to the closest one, and after a lot of hullabaloo about trying to find it that very nearly made me late for work, I managed to do so. Called to make an appointment, and it seems they don't do that, so I have to just go during the 2 1/2 hours they're open ass early in the morning tomorrow and hope I can get in.

Got to work, and had one of those rare days where seven free time lessons in a row didn't make me want to shoot myself.

That came later when I found out that the Tuesday schedule I was promised at that school, with all the students I love and didn't say goodbye to because I was told I would be working there again next year, with a friend whom I love and otherwise never get to see, was taken from me and given to someone else. That was the one fucking day a week that I actually looked forward to going to work. And because of the circumstances surrounding why it was given to someone else, it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to get it back. And if I somehow manage it, it will mean that someone being probably just as angry about it as I am right now. It's an unfortunate situation and it's no one's fault, I understand, but that's really the worst possible thing that could've happened to my schedule. Any other day and I wouldn't have cared. I'd haul my fat ass all the way back out to Tsu four days a week if it meant that I got to keep my Tuesdays.

Life is so very, very unfair.

Motherfucker.

2008-03-29T20:03:40Z

You know, as much as everyone complains about Interlink and especially Freebell, I never really hated the company or this building until now. But you see, I don't care what country or hemisphere you're in, there's absolutely NO reason on the face of this God-forsaken earth, that anyone, anywhere, should have to hike up TEN FLIGHTS OF SPIRAL STAIRS at fucking FIVE O'CLOCK in the MORNING, after being awake for 20 hours, and on top of that literally BLIND and STINKING drunk! I've stumbled home at this hour on plenty of other occasions, and there's always been at least one working elevator. But no, tonight, all three had to be out. There was a note about the elevators being down for maintenance, but they said that it would be some time in the afternoon on the 6th and 25th of this month. If this post is intelligible at all, it's a credit to both my high-functioning drunkenness and my touch typing technique, because I am quite seriously so drunk to the point where I can barely see the screen in front of me, and it's a miracle I didn't fall down those stupid stairs and break my fool neck. I am reminded yet again of why, while it seems like a good idea at the time, drinking an entire bottle of whatever liquor your friend happens to smuggle into karaoke is generally a bad idea. Time for food, rehydration, and then MASSIVE amounts of sleep.

Once my stupid stomach settles.

Oh yeah, add to that thing I said before about drinking smuggled liquor that it should NOT be done on an empty stomach.

I hate my life.

The excitement never ends!

2008-03-28T12:01:52Z

The stork brought Malcolm a new baby brother today!

I was hoping that since they're still so young (Mal's four months, around two months), they would get along famously, but unfortunately that's not the case. I took them out into a neutral room and let them have some time together the way all the experts say. At first they ignored each other, then they sniffed each other a little which was good, but then Mal started getting aggressive. So I separated them, and let 'em go again, separated them, let 'em go again, on and off for a while, then I put them back in their separate cages. With any luck, they'll learn to get along. The whole reason I got this new, as of yet unnamed guy (If I keep with the Firefly theme he'll be Wash, he's a big scaredy cat), was to keep Mal company, since I know rabbits are social creatures and I thought he might be lonely. Well, we'll see how it goes. ^^

I am a bad woman.

2008-03-10T19:16:50Z

Seriously, if there's a Hell, I'm going there. And the worst part is, I never do anything wrong. It's just that fucked up inside my little head. X3

I am such a loser. X3

2008-03-09T15:45:55Z

I've gotten to the point where I'm at least competent enough in my Japanese to make plays on words that I think are hilarious, even if no one else does. XD Here's a little Japanese lesson for you so I can explain my infinite cleverness. Oh, but first, the set-up. I was in Osaka today with Ayumi, Maiko, and Helga. We went to see a vocal concert for a student/friend of ours, but we walked around a bit and did some minor sight-seeing first. One of the places we were talking about going to was America Mura, which I was curious to see, being American myself. So we decided to go. Now for the Japanese lesson. "行きましょう(ikimashou)" means "Let's go." In Osaka dialect, it gets changed to　"行きまほう (ikimahyou)". So being totally clever, I said,　"大阪にいるから、行きまほう。" The double meanings being 1)- "Since we're in Osaka (as is America Mura), let's go," and 2)- "Since we're in Osaka, let's talk in Osaka dialect." See what I did there? Genius, huh? <<

Life is so simultaneously exciting and dull.

2008-03-04T05:09:50Z

I finally caved and bought me a new Wacom. It's lot smaller than my last one, but it was hella expensive and I just couldn't justify buying th 9x12, especially given the lack of space I'm working with now. It's all shiny-lookin'. Oooh.

And in other news that's completely boring for you but interesting for me, I re-organized my external hard drives so that one's just for TV shows and the other one is for movies and other extraneous things. Turns out I had waaaaay more gigs taken up with TV shows than for movies. Go figure.

And on that note, I'm late for work! *dashes*

Everyday days.

2008-02-29T16:59:40Z

Tommie got a chessboard today, and we just spent the last hour or so playing. As a general rule, I am very bad at chess. I lack the necessary attention span and have never been particularly good at thinking far enough ahead to actually get anywhere. But perhaps all the hours of freecell I've logged over the past few years has helped with that, because I didn't do too badly. We played bit of an open game at first, then after that it was sink or swim. He crushed me so badly the first round that I forfeited before he even finished me off. The second round I started off really strong, captured both of his bishops and a few of his pawns before he even touched me, but then he put out something for bait and I fell for it and he got me in the end. But the last game was beautiful. The longest by far, I worked him down and worked him down and we were almost at a stalemate, but I managed to finagle it so that his king was trapped between one of my bishops and my queen, and I actually beat him. Whee! It was most likely a little brilliance mixed with a lot of beginner's luck, but a thrilling victory none the less. And good practice for the next time we have people over and break out the shot glass chessboard.

In other news, my disease-ridden children gave me the plague again. I actually took a day off yesterday. Since I didn't have enough ALP days to go to Vegas for Jeff and Shannon's wedding, I figured I deserved it. I also failed at getting a new cell phone. Since Mal (renamed Bitey McBites-a-lot) bit right through my charger, I figured I could either buy a new one or just get a new phone for free. But the "English speaking" staff at the store couldn't explain to me just what getting a new phone entailed, and plus I realized that I'd left my gaijin card with my passport in my messenger bag in the apartment (good thing I didn't get stopped by any cops or security because that would've gotten me arrested), I had no photo ID on me, so no new phone. That's fine. The one I really wanted wasn't bilingual anyway.

I need to buy more art supplies tomorrow.

Oh! And I finished watching what there was of Heroes season 2.

Snicker. Molly has two daddies. Repeat after me, self- "I will not write Matt/Moinder, I will not write Matt/Mohinder, I will not write Matt/Mohinder...." Speaking of which- MATT! *ded* I love Matt, I have since the very beginning. And I can't tell if I like this whole him treading a fine line down a dangerous path thing or not. It does make for adding depth to the story, but I'd just hate to see him get into some serious shit and then get hurt because of it. Because he is a genuinely good man, I firmly believe that, but he's in a bad situation and it's easy to keep taking those little moral hits in the name of doing what's "right".

Matt's dad is Bob Buss. Once the world is finally really safe, he's gonna organize the Heroes into a boy band.

Claire, Claire, Claire. I mean, I understand the whole rebellious teenager thing, and I know she's been through a lot and is having a lot asked of her, but damn. She watched her dad voluntarily take a bullet to the gut just to try and keep her safe. You'd think she'd be a little more understanding. And West was so not that cute. What kind of a name is West, anyway? Does he have a sister named North by North East?

Claire's dad remains awesome.

Sylar! Evil is always so sexy. We needed more of him. Maya was obnoxious and Alejandro was utterly pointless. "My entire purpose for existing is just to be a foil to my annoying sister. Whee! Now I get bashed in the head." And I shoot myself in the head. =P

I can't wait to find out what Angela's powers are.

Peter annoyed me from the get-go, and this season just made me want him to implode. Let's see him come back from that. He does this thing where his lower lip goes off to the side when he gets worked up, and I keep waiting for it to get caught on something. If he made me laugh he'd at least be accomplishing something for once.

Hiro is Kensei. Now don't that just beat all. I still couldn't believe he did something that fucked up to Adam. Being immortal and buried alive is SO much worse than death. Of course they couldn't kill him cause he has to come back, but damn. And Masi Oka is too darned cute to exist. It's the eyes. I've always been a sucker for those puppy dog eyes.

DL! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I liked him. *sniffle* Nikki better be okay, cause Micah needs her, even if he has Super Awesome Cousin in his life now.

A plague? Psh, I jokingly guessed that that would be the new threat this season, and I can't believe that I was right. For shame, idea guys! You can do better!

Mohinder has been relegated to my bad guy list. Even if he was planning on trying to bring him back with Claire's blood, he shot HRG and that is just not allowed! The Company is, was, and always will be Teh Ebil! Even if Molly's in a dream coma, there's just no excuse for putting any amount of trust in them. I'm sorry, guy, but you just got the big seal of disapproval stamped on your head, and there ain't no coming back from it.

Nathan, on the other hand, has been downgraded from "Douchebag that I wouldn't mind seeing punched in the face" (Claude had that right in one) to "Guy I'm pretty much indifferent to", which is a big step for just eleven episodes. I mean, if he is actually dead I won't really care that much, but at least I won't break out the pinata and have a party.

So, in conclusion- Love Matt. Love Sylar. Love HRG. Love Hiro and Ando and all things associated with them. Love to hate Angela. Peter needs to become a classical ballet dancer and move to Paris and leave the story alone, cause it'd be better off without him. Claire needs to STFU and lay off the orange tanner, cause I swear I remember her being much prettier and more human colored in the first season. New York should not be threatened with large scale devastation in every season- come up with something different for once. Maya and Elle should become lesbian potato farmers in Idaho and also leave well enough alone. Nobody loves Lyle. I hope they actually get to do a full run next season so they can introduce new characters properly.

I still love this show.

God damned fucking Futurama...

2008-02-23T11:02:58Z

HOW DOES LEELA NOT LOVE FRY??? HOW, AFTER EVERYTHING HE'S DONE FOR HER??? GAH! *sob*

More sketches.

2008-02-08T17:08:38Z

I really wish that my scanner picked up colors a little better. Ah well. I started drawing this too far to the side of the page and didn't have time for the tail. I'll trace and finish it eventually.

When I was at the tat shop, one of the dudes was drawing this amazing, gorgeous, badass dragon, and I really wish I could do something like that, but I've never done anything like it before so it's gonna take a lot of time. But I thought to myself- what can I do? I can do cartooney and adorable. And here we are!

Pikshurs!

2008-02-05T16:39:58Z

I've been drawing like crazy, so I figured I'd upload a few of them here. ^^

The first one is just a little sketch I did in my vocab notebook during our 7th Sea game, in response to a funny little moment, but I thought it was cute.

This one's just a random fairy I gave luna moth wings. Unfortunately my scanner really doesn't do the color justice.

And this last one is entirely thanks to Michael, who when I asked him what I should draw suggested a short order cook from the lower levels of Hell. Since all of my Mary Sues are blonde, I guess that's my decapitated head.

Updating my resume?

2008-02-01T15:46:31Z

So, I might be ending up with a tattooing apprenticeship.

I was waiting for the elevator a few days ago, perusing the notice board, and I noticed my dream advertisement- a body art shop looking for an English teacher interested in exchanging language lessons for a tattooing or piercing apprenticeship and/or free tattoos and piercings. So despite the fact that I don't aaaactually know how to teach, I immediately (re: two days later once I worked up the nerve) sent off an email and got a reply the next day from the girl who's leaving. Went up to talk to her today to find out about it and it seems really awesome. I was mainly interested in free tattoos, since I have at least one good-sized piece I want done, but she was so enthusiastic about the learning opportunity that, provided I get the "job", I may very well see about actually being trained. There was one other guy who got back to her, but she said he had no art background and no tattoos and she wasn't really sure why he was interested, so it's looking good for me. I'm headed over to the shop Monday, sadly the timing is poor cause I'm gaming that day and we've rescheduled so many times already that I'm just not willing to do it again.

Squee!

Everything I needed to know in life, I learned from watching The Simpsons.

2008-01-24T12:48:44Z

"You tried and you failed. The lesson is-"

(C'mon people, say it with me now)

"- Never Try."

*headdesk*

Ah, life.

girlish squeal

2008-01-23T18:45:57Z

Mal bunny just did the cutest thing ever! On the advise of a rabbit behavior specialist I emailed, I put a stuffed guinea pig in the cage with him as a toy. So I'm laying in my futon reading, and I hear him furiously ripping hay out of the holder thingie. He'd already devoured the food I gave him, so I thought to myself, "My, what a hungry little bunny he is," and kept reading. When I checked the time on my phone, I looked over at his cage to see that, rather than eating the hay, he'd maneuvered the stuffed guinea pig over into the corner and built a nest for it.

Squee!

BUNNY~!

2008-01-18T14:40:17Z

Whee, pet!

2008-01-18T03:54:00Z

So I had every intention of getting a hedgehog. I researched them quite a bit and all that responsible pet owner stuff, but in the end, when I got there, I just didn't feel comfortable with getting one, especially since my Japanese is mediocre at best so I couldn't discuss it really well with the pet shop guy. In the end, I came home with a cute little grey and white dwarf bunny. I've had one before so I know how to take care of them. His name, because I am a geek, is Malcolm Reynolds. I tried to take a few quick pictures for posting, but he's hopping about in curious bunny fashion so they're all blurry. I'll try to get some good ones after work. Yay! I's so happy. X3

And finish I suppose I never may...

2008-01-16T05:11:15Z

I overslept today for the first time in...I don't even remember how long. I'd nearly forgotten how much it sucks to wake up disoriented with someone asking you where the hell you are.

It could've been worse, definitely, since I overslept for meeting people for lunch instead of for work, but still. I really wanted that curry.

In other news, I've settled back into the swing of work quite nicely. After talking to one of my students about Ann Rice books, she brought me in her copy of a manga version of Interview With the Vampire, which I surprised myself by being able to read fairly well so far. It's seriously homo-erotic and I'm enjoying it as such. X3 The new school director at Nishiharu seems nice enough. The poor woman is seriously stressed at the moment, but once she settles in a bit more I wanna drag her out for karaoke. This, friends, is what I do.

Since it's been made clear to me that I have obligations preventing me from staying here for longer than this coming contract term, I've been spending a lot more time thinking about what the hell to do with myself once I come back to the States. The least abhorrent sounding plan I've come up with at this point is to go back to school and study psychology. It seems to be my lot in life to be other people's therapists, so I may as well see about getting paid for it. Still, this opens a lot of questions, like, do I need to get another undergraduate degree or can I jump straight into a masters, where the hell am I going to go to school that's within a decent driving distance from the new house that's not OCC (four year school now or not, I'm never setting another foot there again) or Rutgers. What are the requirements for going to grad school, how do I go about taking the GRE, how do I go about passing the GRE, etc. It's all stuff that bears looking into, and looking into things that actually take work is not something I've ever been good at. I'm much better at playing solitaire.

But, we shall see how it all goes. ^^