*sigh* I always say that I'm going to update this thing more, but I never do. In my last post I said I'd post a long post 'tomorrow'... and it's what..? nearly 4 months later? -_- I think part of the problem is that I feel a little silly talking to 'nobody' as I'm quite sure no one reads this. But then I check my sever logs and I see that people do at least look at it... why I wonder? Anyway... What has happened since Shoujocon? Well, I've been busy with work, the Bank who shall not be named has moved me around in a couple departments. But I'm hoping for a move to yet another sometime in the future. I'm hoping to get into a department that helps decide internal procedures, if I do it'll mean opportunities to travel to Brussels, London, Tokyo and NYC. Spiffy. It's a major longshot though. I've been trying my hand at selling on Ebay some of the fanart crafts and things I make. I've been pleasantly surprised with how well they've been received. Of course, my best friend Shelly pointed out this is just another reason why I should be focusing on my original characters and stories. Then I could have legal rights to make whatever I wanted with those characters on it instead of just skirting around the issue. That does make a lot of sense.

Well, I got home from Shoujocon 2003 Sunday night but I was so tired from having so much fun that I didn't have the energy to blog about it. -_- I spent tonight fighting with my gallery, blog and such to get everything up that I'd taken of pictures up.. and now I'm too blog again. But, I will have a nice long post....tomorrow... I hope. Until then, if any of you fun people who were at the Fruits Basket panel are reading this, HI! I enjoyed talking with you and am very annoyed with myself for not getting your names >_<

This is just a cut and paste from an email I wrote on the Furuba Lemon list and the FruityGroup Mailing list, I wanted to post something in here about otakon, but I've been so busy at work that I didn't have time and I didn't feel like repeating myself. I'll go into more detail in a day or two, but for now, here's what happened Fruits Basket-wise: Hey all! I got back from Otakon last night but my cable was out so I couldn't email then. I just wanted to tell you all about it. First of all, I had a blast! I defintely want to try to go back next year. Second of all, I saw Furuba stuff all over the place! One of the things that delighted me the most was that one of the badges you could select at registration was a Fruits Basket badge! (They also had Azumanga Daioh, Hack Sign, Witch Hunter Robin, Eva, and a couple others I didn't get a good look at) I saw a lot of people wearing the Furuba badge though! There were a TON of furuba cosplayers, and I managed to get a good chunk on film. I lost track of the Kyou's a saw, and unfortunately only got 2 on film, I also saw a boatload of Kaguras I think I got at least 5 on camera, Yuki's and Toorus also abounded, I got 4 different Toorus (one in in the dress from Ayame's chapter/episode), and 4 different Yukis (one in the girls uniform from the episode where Haru suggested the image to the student body council), Some characters I saw a lot more of then I got pictures of, I only got pictures of 2 Harus and 2 Hatori's but I saw at least 4 of each, I only managed to snap one of the two Ayames I saw, I got 3 Momijis (one was even a male, but his picture looks all washed out ;_;), 3 Akitos, I got 2 of the 3 Shigures I saw, and there was even 1 each of Kisa, Ritsu, and Uo-chan! The only two characters I didn't see were Hana-chan (one of the Kaguras confessed she was supposed to be Hana orginally but their other Kagura dropped out and she was shifted over), and Hiro. (And of course, no manga only characters like Rin or Kureno... but thats no surprise really). I'll try to have the pictures I got up soon, but the camera I used was a borrowed one, and the owner forgot to give me the hook up I need to get the pictures on the computer. A bunch of the cosplayers I got on film were from one group, who did a really cute skit during the masquerade. I think I got that on the camcorder part of the camera, and if I did, I'll encode it for everyone to see. They also contrived a really fun game for people to play at the con called "Junnishi Search". Each of them wore and armband that said "J.S." on it. If you found them and glomped them, they gave you a pin, if you could get all the pins and then find Tooru at 11 by the info desk she'd give you a box of chocolates. ^_^ They had a Ristu, Kisa, Kagura, Kyou, Haru, Momiji, Yuki, Tooru, Shigure and an Akito (though they told me their original akito bailed out and they convinced a friend to slap on a black pair of pants and a turtleneck and called him Akito instead). I found and glomped them all, though I didn't get Tooru until 11. I didn't get all the pins though, because Kyou had run out by the time I found him. I did, however, get a box of chocolates. ^_^ And I got pictures of them all (accept akito who wasn't too interested). They said they planned to do it again at other cons. I gave them my card with my email address and I hope they contact me so I can find out when and where. If I find out, I'll pass it along to the rest of you so you can have fun too ^_^ I didn't have much time to spend in the dealers room, and I didn't see too much Fruits Basket stuff. I did get a few goodies. I got some button fasteners/zipper pulls, one chibi Yuki, one chibi Kyou, and one each of them in their cursed forms. I also got a great art collection that had a collection of mid-size poster prints on nice heavy cardstock paper of Natsuki's artwork. It has a bunch of her color illustrations for Fruits Basket, some black and white portraits Yuki, Kyou, and Tooru that were in the manga (between chapters) and one color illustration each from Genie Muso (or how ever you spell it) and Those Who have Wings. It came in a nice plastic portfolio styled yellow case that has a color illustration of furuba on the front and her signature, and has "Best Select Art Collection: Natsuki Takaya" and "Produced by Hana To Yume" on the back (all in English). I also picked up vol 10,11, and 12 from the Kinokuya stand. ^_^ Last con I'd gone to hadn't had them. There was a strong representation of Fruits Basket in artist's alley and the art show I felt. There were a bunch of Fruits Basket peices in the art show, I saw pictures of Shigure, Yuki, Kyou and Tooru in marker, pencil, acyrlic and other materials I wasn't sure of. I bid and won on two of the more unusual items. I won a hand painted sushi set that had the banquet climb on the main dish illustrations of Yuki, Kyou, Tooru and Shigure on the individual dishes (so cool!) and a set of "Worry Doll" styled pins, one of Shigure, Yuki, Ayame, Tooru and Kyou. I got Shigure, Yuki, Tooru and Ayame at relatively low prices, but I had to go up to $30 to get Kyou (I got into a bidding war with one other determined fan, a young girl and her mother. Let me apologize if you're on the list, but I REALLY wanted all of them). However, due to a horrendous set up on the art show I don't actually have them or know for sure that I got them, I waited from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm to try to pick up my peices but then had to leave to get my flight. A friend stayed in line with my badge and bidder number tag and my money and hopefully he was able to get them. If not I'm going to be SERIOUSLY pissed off. If the maker of the pins or the sushi set is here and knows that I didn't get them for one reason or another, I DO still want them, contact me and I will send you money for the items and shipping! *really wants them* In Artists Alley I also got some cute things. I got a set of badges from one artist to hang along with my offical badge. She had quite a few, and a bunch that were furuba styled. One had Kyou on the front saying "Damn Yuki" with mice in the bottom corners, and on the back Cat-Kyou with the legend "Baka Nezumi" with more mice in the bottom corners. Another had Yuki on the fron saying "Baka Neko" with cats and beads on the bottom, and Mouse-Yuki on the back with the legend " and "Stupid Cat" and more beads and cats on the bottom. One had Tooru on the front, with animal versions of Yuki, Kyou, Momiji and Shigure in teh corner and the legend "All she wants is to make them happy. All they want is to make her happy." On the back it had Tooru as a happy rice-ball and human form heads of Yuki, Kyou, Momiji and Shigure in each corner. There are two scrolls going down the side written in japanese that i believe are the same thing as what is written on the front and it says "Honda Tooru" on the bottom. Another had Momiji on the front with Cows in the corner, and a bunny on the back with Haru's in the corners. (I think that was the only one I didn't buy). At another table I bought a pair of laminated bookmarks of Super Deformed Yuki and Super Deformed Kyou, very cute! After that I kind of stopped looking, afraid I'd spend all the money I made at my table. I was selling fruits basket themed keychains (stuffed onigiri and baka neko symbols), and magnets and stickers with fan art I'd drawn, and dolls of Shigure, Kyou, Yuki and Momiji that I'd made. I completely sold out of the magnets and stickers, and Shigure, Yuki, and Kyou all sold. Momiji I still have, and plan to put in Shoujocon's art show. If he doesn't go there, I'll put him up on ebay. I was amazed that he didn't sell, I thought he turned out the cutest of the bunch. Actually... I might just keep him for myself. ^^; I have pictures of the dolls on my camera, but untill I get the cable thingie I can't show them off. mmm... thats all I can think of Otakon-wise for right now. Turned out to be quite a long read, didn't it? wow... ^_^ oh well, it's nice to know how many fruits basket fans there are out there isn't it?

Well, things have been busy, busy, busy on my side of the internet. Savin Grey's website is 95% done. Just a few more cosmetic changes and voila, ready to present to the public at large. And I can finally wash my hands of the annoying mess. -_- Though Lynn did say she had might have more jobs lined up, which is good 'cause that means I keep getting money. My best friend gave me a call today and was reading me some letters I'd written her before we both discovered the wonders of email and both stopped writing. Man, I wrote some weird stuff. Entertaining, but weird. I honestly don't remember writing most of the stuff she read off to me, but that's fine... it just meant that I enjoyed it when I heard it. Otakon is coming up and I'm in pretty good shape. I have five dolls to take with me, the makings of some keychains, and I have lots of interesting papers to try out my mascot designs on... I'm really getting excited. Of course, this means I've been slacking off site-wise. Well, I'm determined that both red butterfly AND randomfandom will have updates before I leave for Otakon... so hopefully that will make up for some of my inattention. I do belive that mona's going to kill me if I don't update belated gift soon though.

You are most like... Uzura-chan!

Which 'Princess Tutu' Character Are You Most Like?
brought to you by Quizilla Wai! I got Uzura! She's my favorite character-zura!

Blogger has changed everything around. When did that happen? I ought to keep up with this thing more...

My sexual orientation is:
You are asexual.

What is your sexual orientation?
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Well, it's been a while... and I was on such a good roll to with this blogger thing. But now it's been almost...actually over a month since I blogged. Bad me. *sigh* Oh well, I guess I'll catch up my nearly non-existant readers up on my life. I feel like I've really settled into to my job at the financial institution that-is-not-to-be-named. I call it that because that was a major issue the went through on our hiring back in April and then in our classroom training last month. We are not to say who we work for in any media setting. Not even just that we aren't supposed to talk to the media as an employee, which is par for the course for ANY place I've worked for, but we're not supposed to say where we work in any case. Examples used in class were if you won a radio or if you met someone new that you'd just met. No saying where you work, you're just supposed to say "I work at a Local Financial Institution". They're a bit paranoid because their old location was 500 yards from the world trade center, many of the long time employees (which in this place, means over a two years) where imported in from the NYC headquarters and were actually there on Sept 11th. I suppose they have a right to be paranoid. It's a little weird to deal with it on a day to day basis though. On the book front, once I was finished with all the Kushiel books I had to find something else to occupy my time. I was emailed a couple of suggestions, one being the Anita Blake books by Laurel K. Hamilton. I still haven't read those, and I'll tell you why. I had a series of friends get sucked into them one by one. All said the same thing, they lost like a week or two of time where they read each book of hers one after the other, sometimes having to make emergency runs to the open late bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Nobles to get the next one. I called them Book-Crack. You can't stop with just one. I do intend to read them...eventually. But only when I have all of them, and a weekend to spare to just read am I going to delve into them. 'Cause I know me, nothin' else is gonna get done if they are even half as good as everyone says. So instead I read a book a friend recommended to me a long time ago, a book called "Strands of Starlight" by Gael Baudino. It was ok, but it was too political and preachy for me. The friend of mine who recommended it likes those kinds of things, people who right about high ideals, radical politics, feminisim, etc... personally, I find a lot of the issues in this book were made to black and white. The Church people where Evil, people who didn't respect women were Evil, only elves were good because the worshiped a female god, and come to think of it, most of the humans, if not evil, where portrayed as simple and easily swayed. *shakes head* it was just too black and white for me. I also read a great series of mysteries-comedies by Janet Evanovich, One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deady, Four to Score, High Five, and Seven Up. All lent to me by a very nice lady at work. A bunch of the women at work are passing them back and forth and seem really surprised that I can get through them in just a couple of days. I read all of those in the past month, they're really great. They're just so engaging that I can't not blast through them. They're about a woman name Stephanie Plum, who after she gets laid off as a lingerie buyer for a discount department store becomes a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinny after she finds out that the filing job he'd offered her was taken. There is just something about the way Evanovich writes that is just so funny and suspenseful at the same time... and man, Grandma Mauzer, Lula, Morelli, Bob the dog and Ranger are just such an unbelievable cast of characters and she makes them so REAL. I can't wait for Hard Eight, it just came out in paperback. there is also a new one in hard cover, To the Nines. Evanovich has gotten into a bad habit in the past couple of books though, leaving a person on a cliff-hanger on the last page. Oh, the main story is all wrapped up and everything... its just some little thing that she leaves as a tease on the last page. VEEEEERY good hook, I know it keeps me wanting more. The past weekend was relaxing. Spent my time getting Red Butterfly up and going. Also added my links section finally, now if I can only get people to add links to it. *sigh* Last weekend was crazy. Spent the weekend saving other people. Got my friend Lynn, who started a web design company without knowing how to make webpages, out of the fire by making the band "Savin Grey" a website in a weekend. It's not up to my usual standards, but not bad for two days work. (not even really, it was friday and sat night). Then Sunday I helped my friend Shelly move. Ugh. Oh well, it was one weekend gone. And seeing as it's almost 12 now, here is another one gone... I've been working long enough now that I can say again... but I don't wanna go to work tomorrow. Oh well, it's not so bad. I've had worse, and honestly, the job at the financial-institution-that-is-not-to-be-named just keeps getting better, not worse. Oh well...best be off to bed.

Kushiel's Chosen was good. ^_^ Just like the first one the story was very complex and had so many layers and threads in it. It had everything, conspiracies, kink, pirates... I did occasionally want to boot a few characters in the head for being stupid, but that's part of what makes these books good. None of the characters are 'perfect', they all have their blind spots. I'm about to start the third one, Kushiel's Avatar. The only thing that bothers me is that besides Cassiel, Naamah and Kushiel I can't keep the other followers of Eula straight. That made things a little hard in the second book, not 'cause you really needed to know it, but because it kept distracting me. So Cassiel was the Perfect Companion, Naamah was basically the goddess of whores, and Kushiel was the punisher of the heavens...what where the other followers? I know there was Camael, and Azzah...I think there were six, but I have no idea what they did. Except that one of them makes their descendents smell like ripening apples. It's little touches like that that make me really like these books. I also like how each book pretty much stands on it's own. When one ends a complete story has been told. If the author never writes another you're not going to cry, well..maybe you will, because she writes so well, but you won't be crying because you have no idea how the 'story' ends. At the same time, each book follows the other seems like a logical follow up, never a book just to write a book in that world like some other authors I could mention *cough*Mercedes Lackey*cough*. And now for Merrow's recommended reading! *does her imitation of the end of Reading Rainbow* If you liked Kushiel's Dart and Kushiel's Chosen by Jacqueline Carey you might also try: The Samaria Trilogy, by Sharon Shinn. All three take place in the same world where true angels fly through the skys. With their songs they control the elements on the world, deciding where rain falls and does not fall. Once a year all humans and angels must gather together and sing of their peacfullness to the heavens, otherwise Jovah will destroy the earth. The song is lead by one human and one angel, the Archangel (who can be male or female) and his/her spouse. The spouse of the Archangel is determined by Jovah by a glittering jewel 'homing device' that leads one to the other. In the first book the new Archangel-to-be Gabriel finds his destined wife-to-be to be a young slave girl named Rachel who wants nothing to do with angels, court intrigue or being the new angelica and leading the chorale with her amazing voice. Tigana (or anything else) by Guy Gavriel Kay. In Tigana, when the Sorcerer King Brandin's son was killed as he tried to take over the city-states that peninsula called the 'Palm' he set down a fearful curse. A small band of travelers try to lift the curse and free the Palm from Brandin's tryanny while keeping it out of the clutches of Brandin's rival Alberico of Barbadior. This book is rich with characters, displaced princes, wandering musicians, scheming dukes, masters of disguise. The settings and plotlines are varied, it goes from the inner seralgio (harem) of Brandin to battlefields that may or may not be just a waking dream. All in all... good stuff! Merrow

[edit].

Easter was fun. I have a very cool family I must say. ^_^ My grandmother played DDR with me. She wants to practice so that she can really dance on the pad. I told her they call that 'tricking' (I think). So now she wants to practice so she can 'trick out' as she put it. Bet if she does practice that she's able to beat me pretty quickly. -_- Hehe, but now I can tell people, My Grandmother can play better DDR than you! and mean it. ^_^ *sigh* I've got to write. I've neglected ALL of my fanfics, even the hentai ones. -_- and since I sold my soul to Mona over the japanese auction, I *have* to write. >_< Currently she's asking for a black Haru x Tooru story. I can do that. Originally it was an Akiru, or Akito x Tooru story, which I could have done, but it wouldn't have been pleasant. It most likely would have been non-consensual, and a very bad experience for Tooru. Since Mona considerately wants the poor girl to have some fun too, she changed her mind. Akito is a sadistic brat, what other way could I get him and Tooru together? I idly thought about an AU story, but that just would have been an excuse to tone down his character. It's a challenge I might take up someday, if I can think of a likely senario. But I don't do rape... I've come damn close in Belated Gift, I admit... but despite all that Shigure has done, and all Tooru has been hurt there are still layers that make it more than just someone brutally hurting another just for the fun of hurting someone. It doesn't justify wat Shigure has done, or excuse it, but it's still better than some bastard raping a girl just to crush her spirit. I wouldn't have enjoyed writing that story. On a side note, on the topic of Kushiel's Chosen a great book I'm reading. I knew it! I KNEW it! I'm so proud of myself. I guessed where Melisande was pulling the strings from. As soon as the 'clue' was mentioned I knew that was where she had to be. Ha! (I know this last bit makes no sense, but I don't want to ruin it for anybody) Merrow

Okay, so I got my first paycheck today ^_^ yay Besides making me feel all offical (even more so than when I got my very own stapler, pens, paperclips and other desk supplies) it brings to mind all the things I've deprived myself since I've been out of work. Okay, I didn't deprive myself that much. I still managed to pick up my box of comics at the comic store (4 weeks of Rajin, Shonen Jump, Super Manga Blast, Animerica, Animerica Extra, Spiderman, and whatever else interesting things are out there that they want to stick in my box). But there are things that I really, really wanted to get and couldn't. Bunches of manga tankbutons (that's probably spelled wrong, I should just say graphic novel, thats what they are). And dvds of Fruits Basket, Spirited Away, Laputa (sorry, Castle in the Sky) and Kiki's Delivery Service! On DVD! Subbed even. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. I want. Sadly, if I bought EVERYthing I wanted right now I'd spend my paycheck, which I can't afford. The problem being, in a nutshell, Tokyopop. They keep coming out with SO MUCH STUFF!! They are killing me. Now it looks like Viz is going to get into the picture with it as well. They've got HYD (one of my all time faves) and now they've got two issues already up for pre-order on some sites. AUGH. I will never be out of debt this way!

So the thing about working a regular job that I'm not used to yet is the regularity of it all. I work everyday, (mon-fri) from 8:15-4:30. I have every weekend off, every evening free. Wow. That is so impossibly cool. You have to have had a full time retail job, or something like a watchman's job or a nurse to understand how very neat this is. For the past 7 years I never knew when I was free. I never knew if I'd have a weekend or a night off, or if I was going to be able to use the vacation days I had off. Oh! Vacation! I actually get to take a vacation! and it doesn't HAVE to be centered around a holiday 'cause *gasp* I get holidays OFF. Wow. Before I could be working from 9 to 5, 5-1 am, I could be working all weekend, I could be working all week. I could be working 50 hours, I could be working 4. You never know. You think you know, you get a schedule and you think ah, thats what I'm going to be working. Then someone calls in, or business slows down, or someone gets sick or some huge project comes up and your schedule goes to hell. But not any more. YAY! And I'm getting enough used to my regular schedule that I'm not exhausted when I get home anymore. I'm not falling asleep at 8 and waking up at 3-4, I'm going to bed at 12 and waking up just fine at 7. It's very cool. Soon I'll hopefully have enough energy to re-pick up my hobbies.

Well tomorrow I go get my id badge made for my new job. I'll be doing bonds processing for a bank (i.e. data entry). I start on the 7th. I really, really, can't wait for my first paycheck. I'm so tired of being broke. ;_; I've also been very proud of my web skills of late. I've figured out how to use bits of php, something which has been always out of my grasp before. Now if I could only get a hold of using it with databases and the like I'd be really happy. I really want to make a 'live' website that doesn't require quite so much for me to run. Ahh... I've been so busy. I've edited a chapter of manga (cleanup and typesetting) for Shoujomagic. (A chapter of Never Give Up, a manga I've wanted to read for a while.) I've also completely redone the buy stuff page on my manga site, researching every online anime store I could find for Fruits Basket Merchandise. I updated my manga links too, setting up one scanlator with their own website so that they could offer their scans to more people. I've also made my page of stuff to buy that I've made, maybe I can actually get this site to support itself. That'd be cool. I've also almost finished a new music video, something that's not Fruits Basket even! I think I'll have to wait a bit before I can put it up for download. I don't want to get hammered for bandwith usage. But I still feel lazy because I haven't updated any of my fanfictions for a while. I've got to get on that.

*singing*I got the job, I got the job, I got the job, I got the job, I got the job!

La la la la la I had a job interview today. I started at 2 and I didn't get out till 3:30. I think thats a good sign, don't you? Everybody keep their fingers crossed, this one sounds interesting! It sounds like a good entry level position, something I'd be interested in trying. In other news, I tried to organize my comic books and mangas. I took them all out, spread them all around and then let them sit there for a week. I did get my Wizard magazines, Animerica, Animerica Extra, Super Manga Blast, and other magazine's straightened out. In fact most of my mangas are in some sort of order now. But my mainstream stuff is still completely disorganized. I simply didn't realise how much stuff I had. I wonder if I have anything thats worth a lot of money?

Hey! I will have you know I posted *twice* in Febuary! At this rate I could have 24 entries in a year! (Or at least 23, since I only posted once I think in January) And Sarah, I'm so glad to hear from you! You buying Takuto was one of the few high points of my Katsucon trip. ^_^ I still have the Robin doll, even though I saw a lot of people cosplaying as her no one seemed to be very interested in her. Eventually I think I'll put her up on ebay. I've also got a few other odds and ends I'm trying to get up for sale of the site here, I am getting closer to that. Right now I'm trying to decide who to make next. I have a ton of fabrics but I just can't pick a character. I've thought about writing more about Katsucon, but I don't think I am. From the little I said it's enough to give an idea of what happened. To rehash it now seems to be wallowing, especially so late after the fact. So, *claps hands* I'll just leave it in the past. I've gotten some good news, initial estimates on my car's worth was about $600 (after the $250 deductible from the insurance company). Now it looks like it will be more, closer to 2,000 (I think that's before deductible though). Either way, that means I can actually afford to get a new car with the money rather than using it as seed to save for one. I'd like to find another geo metro. Not only did it get great gas milage (I went from Syracuse to DC on 1!! tank of gas), but it had some great side impact. You couldn't tell inside the car how crunched the door outside was. Merrow

Well it's been a while...mainly because I have to post about the whole Katsucon mess and I really needed some distance on it before I could. But first, since it is a new month, new magnetic poetry! (Aren't you lucky... the two people who actually read my blog writhe in pain) The lightening beneath the blooming garden above a universe turned by time I dream darkly of spring Okay... so Katsucon...yeah. Well, I believe on focusing on the positive, so I'll start out with what went well! On Thursday Marcus, Shelly, and I drove up to DC to stay in our friends apartment. It was a pretty uneventful trip, especially since I slept most of the way. Marcus wasn't able to put everything I'd made on the table because there wasn't much room. But what was there was generally well received. Takuto sold in roughly 15 minutes of being put out on the table. Whee! (Thanks whoever you are!) I sold all of my Onigiri keychains and all but four of my Kyou keychains. A lot of the window clings went as well. I've been dragging my feet on getting the rest up for sale. Off of my page. Lazy, lazy me. It was cool though that people seemed to have fun with it. I got flowers on Valentines day (from Shelly, but still I appreciated the thought). I saw some really cool music videos, my favorite being Kusoyaro's Sappy Self-Indulgence. There were a lot of really good videos overall, and I have to say I didn't hate any of them. (That's pretty rare.) My friend Shelly is not an anime fan, she's not into the "scene" at all, I got a chuckle out of one video over that. There was a romantic Angel Sanctuary music video that we were watching that at the end of, and before the next video, I leaned over and whispered. "By the way, Those two...They're brother and sister." LOL, Shelly's face was priceless. I got to see Piro of MegaTokyo speak, and saw some cool cosplay. I watched some anime, most of which I'd seen but I got to see .hack//Sign which was more interesting than I'd thought. On Monday I had a really good spinach and goat cheese pizza. So that was all the good. Now the bad... I'll have to go day by day on this. Day 1 Thursday Feb 13th: The ride up...Nothing went wrong. Day 2 Friday Feb 14th: Thursday night I knew I was getting sick but I didn't want to admit it. I felt like I had to get up like every two hours to go to the bathroom. (I'm sure you SO wanted to know that) When I finally woke up for good in the morning I knew it for sure. My throat hurt and I felt really warm. My face was flaming with a bright blush and my face was giving off so much heat that my glasses were fogging up. Shelly'd had strep, and had a problem where she had it, thought it went away, but it hadn't. I'd been around her during her contagious period, so I was pretty sure that that was what I had. We looked in the phone book and found an urgent care place that took in walk-ins w.out insurance. And one $120 doctors visit later we confirmed what I already knew. I had Strep. It was Shelly's nasty won't-go-away-with-regular-antibiotics strep, so the medication was expensive. Shelly paid for it, and I still owe her the money for it. I hate owing people money. -_- We went back to the hotel to update Marcus (who we'd dropped off on the way) on the situation, and register for the con. I was contagious, and I really tried not to breathe too hard on the people in the registration line. Then we went back to Shelly's friend's apartment where I slept for the rest of the day... mm... it's really late... I think the rest of the days are going to have to wait for another post to go into detail on, but here's a quick rundown: Day 3 Saturday Feb 15th: Nothing much went wrong, I actually had fun. The only bad thing was that I fell asleep way early and missed out on all the fun evening and night activities. Damn illness... and there was the strange guy Shelly and I met over lunch who told us about his lesbian squirell comic... Day 4 Sunday Feb 16th: It snowed. A lot. Couldn't drive to Shelly's friends apartment, no cabs were running reliably, and Marcus and I missed every shuttle to the metro. Got lost on the way to the metro. Took us an hour and half to get to metro station in wet, driving snow, waited 3 hours in the metro station for various trains and exchanges. Day 5 Monday Feb 17th: I don't remember monday. I think I was sleeping. Or moping. But I did get good Goat cheese and Spinach Pizza. Day 6 Tues Feb 18th: Got in a car wreck. Car totaled. Big accident, girl died in another car behind us. Didn't get home until Wed. And thats all I have to say about that...for now

Why yes, it is Belated Gift 2 (the sequel to Belated Gift) which has reached over a 100 pages. Currently it's at over a 120 with no ending in sight. On average, each chapter ends up being about 44 pages. At this rate I've effectively written a book! Perhaps I should switch over to writing original stories, something I could actually get published...nnaaaah, way too productive. ^_^; Well, it's been only about a week since I last blogged, so I'm at least on the right track resolution-wise. Also, I've been on a couple interviews so the "finding a new job" resolution is in progress as well. However, on the "Manage Time Better" I am still failing miserably. It's 4:30 am and just three and a half hours before I'm supposed to leave for Katsucon, (the con I can't afford to go to). I managed to finish 2 dolls, a collection of window clings, and some plush keychains to try to sell in artists alley. I have not yet managed to pack nor clean out my car. >_< I just finished putting up my plush page, so now my plushes have an official home I wonder if anyone will actually commission me...

Okay.. well I certainly didn't keep to the daily thing... But, on the upside, it's only been a couple weeks between entries instead of months! That's an improvement isn't it? I finallly set up my magnetic poetry calender a couple of days ago. It's time to change the month so I'll also change the poem I wrote with the little magnetic tile thingies. I suck at poetry but I'll share my monthly magnetic poetry efforts here. If nothing else, its an excuse to get me to update my blog. So, here is last months efforts, untitled: The moon is as full and green as an acorn promising a shining dream Sounds like a jpop lyric where they try to sing in english doesn't it? In other news. Still no job. I have a lemon that is over a 100 pages. Still unable to commit to going for coffee (the non-relationship drink of choice). I am also going to a con I completely can't afford. I will be bringing plush for sale as well as trying to sell my patterns. That is... if I can get anything finished. -_-;

New Years Resolutions 1) Find a new job 2) Manage Time Better 3) Finish Book I Started in High School 4) Update Fanfictions more 5) Post in Blog more frequently Of the five above, which do you think is not going to happen? I'm going to try to write at LEAST a sentence or two everyday in this thing. Don't expect it to make sense.