Awesome Blog of NON-Procrastination

PROCRASTINATE, PROCRASTINATE, PROCRASTINATE, No I am not a chronic procrastinator and lazy slattern. I need to get back into regularly blogging, eventually daily if only for myself. I'm always at a loss what to write about because I don't lead a necessarily exciting life. I'm always finding cool things and often think different things that I feel merit blogging. There's so much to talk about sometimes, I don't know where to begin or what to focus on. So today I'll make a short blog with two of the awesome things I've recently gotten into and discovered.

Baccano: Great Anime! I've been meaning to watch this for a long time. I've been watching and loving Durarara! which is by the same creator. Hilarious, kinda crazy story, great art style, tons of memorable characters, and rounded off perfectly with jazz music. Fave characters: Isaac and Miria--quirky pair of stupid thieves whose stupid plans actually succeed in getting them lots of money; they typically rob people while wearing costumes. Totally awesome that I can watch the show for free on Funimation's website.




Reduced Shakespeare Company: 3 guys perform ALL 37 Shakespeare plays in 90 minutes! HILARIOUS! One of Dustin's fellow student teachers showed him a clip of their version of Romeo and Juliet. He in turn showed it to me, and we both about died laughing. I had tears in my eyes. The show's a mixture of wit and slapstick that comes together to create the most awesome adaptation of Shakespeare ever!

An Otaku Snow Day!

Dustin and I have been snow dancing our butts off and our efforts have definitely paid off. This is the fifth snowday we've had, but today was the first time we actually played out in the snow. Making a snowman didn't quite pan out the way I thought it would, and we eventually abandoned the idea in favor of other snow creations including a snow unicorn! I was going to originally make a 3-d full bodied unicorn snow sculpture, but there were support and snow packing issues. Instead, I made a 3-d unicorn head mixed media sculpture incorporating pine tree branches and a pinecone in with the snow. Dustin & I made snow angels, and I added an anime otaku touch by adding a Bleach squad captain badge and cat ears to them. We slid down the hill behind our apartment building on our butts since we lacked sleds; Dustin rolled down the hill once. I think tomorrow we may try sledding in one of the parks in "sleds" made out of household things like a laundry basket and big tupperware lid. Posted some pictures.

I have a guest post featured on book blog Tempting Persephone for the Pursuing the Lioness Challenge. You guys should check it out and join the challenge if you love the books.

Valentine's day weekend was full and fun. Friday went on a double date with Dustin's parent's + his grandma to Rafferty's and the movies; we saw The Wolfman. It was the first time I'd been to see a scary movie with a boy before. ;) I enjoyed the movie, and glad it reflected the original old Hollywood B-movie style just fancied up with A-movie treatment. I was genuinely scared and grossed out a number of times--had to close my eyes and squeeze the circulation out of Dustin's arms. Saturday, we went to Shogun (a Japanese restuarant); it was packed, but we snagged a table simply by saying we didn't want to sit at the grill. After dinner we saw Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. It was a fun, epic fantasy movie--just what I wanted to see--with some great twists on traditional Greek mythology. Sunday, Dustin took me to dinner at the local restaurant Avalon on Bardstown road. I've been wanting to go there ever since I first moved to Louisville. It's pricey but not exorbiant. The food is fantastic along with the service. I was disappointed a bit by the plain, modern interior. With a name like Avalon, I was expecting sparkles and Apple trees/garden or maybe something remotely Arthurian related. I'm hoping to go again in the summer, so we can sit on the garden patio with lights all around.

Lan's GLEEful Day of Princesses, Musicals, Battling Beauties and Cupcakes!

I feel like today is a good day for blogging. I completed 4 out of three works for finals. One (and only) test down and one out of four papers done! I'm a little disgruntled about that. It still seems like a lot. I have one more than everybody else, most grad students take three classes. I decided to be academically suicidal and take four. At least I know I definitely passed my history exam with flying colors--or rather one color BLACK because it's on the Black Death and I also wrote in black pen---ahahaha.

I'm excitedly watching behind the scenes of The Princess and the Frog!!! We're gonna go see it as soon as my last final is done on the 15! :) I'm happy that Disney is taking a big step forward, and I'm not just talking about race. Tiana is a very forward thinking and acting princess! She works and has career goals. The actress Anika Rose is the first actress to both do the speaking AND singing voice of the princess. And she has a living and loving family! Though I don't know if she loses them or becomes estranged from them later. I really like that they're making her look like a real person, and "not just a darker colored version of one of the other princesses." Going to let my critical, feminist mind go and be fully optimistic!  Hoping when Baku and I go to Disney World in the summer, there'll be a Princess and the Frog display or show. :)

I think this ties in nicely since before this I was watching Disney's remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Brandy--which I LOVE!!! I've seen the old version too with Lesley Ann Warren--I like it too. Both are a staple of my childhood.  

I've been all about the musicals lately. Glee has also been my obsession. Tonight was the last episode of the season I believe. And more than likely my sister and I will go halfsies on the first season dvd that will likely come at an extorsive priced. I love all the covers of 80s songs, current pop songs, and showtunes. It really feeds the theatre geek in me. As much as I hate to admit it, I live vicariously through one of the main characters, Rachel; she's such a mega diva with an attitude--she's getting better. My school didn't have a Glee club or theatre program, but I was very much an academic snob and thus a geek and on the lower end of the social tier. We did a couple "variety" shows (basically a smashing of scenes from movies and plays, and musical numbers), and I totally rocked those out!  The show's music is so infectious and great; I find myself liking songs I didn't like before--I can only listen to the GLEE cast version though. 

So now, I'm devoting the rest of my evening to the awesome battling beauty known as Utena Tenjou! I'm at episode 15 right now...it's an endurance run to get through the rest of the season and the movie...don't think it's going to happen. I can't possibly write on every episode anyway, my focus will be on specific ones, especially in the Student Council story arc--which I find really compelling moreso than the Black Rose. I'm really creeped out by the Souji and the way he creates the duelists. I'm still going to watch as much as I can, and read summaries of the episodes before and decide whether to watch or skip them. I know that's bad--I promise I'll watch them all later! I have to get this paper done by Friday, and its 15-20 pages. I'm hoping it turns out well and can be polished to journal article standards. :)

Lastly, Dustin and I discovered this new cupcake place. It's a small chain called Gigi's Cupcakes.  We saw a sign out front that said "Free Samples." So of course we went in. They have the most amazing gourmet cupcakes ever! Their menu changes everyday, with a set list of flavors and a daily special. I got the daily special which was a white cupcake with pistachio filling, and raspberry icing with chocolate sprinkles! It was AMAZING! Baku got a chocolate, banana cupcake. They're so rich and the icing is piled high--it's enough to induce diabetic shock I'm sure. 

I'm going to have a meltdown and crash when finals are done. I only have three days between my last final and when I go home to visit my family in South Carolina and North Carolina. I've also got to get Dustin a Christmas present too. Sheesh. Okay, now time to cram as much Utena as I can before my brain explodes. Read the four critical articles I'm going to use. Write a detailed outline, citing all the quotes from the queer theorists I'm using...OMG so much work!!!

Sugoi Con Day 1

Whew, majorly exhausted from our first day at Sugoi. Our original goal was to get up at 8 AM leave the apartment by 9 AM, maybe run a few errands and grab lunch. We didn't leave the apartment until 11 AM, and running last minute cosplay errands took longer than expected. We got to the con around 2 PM, and were glad to know nothing had started. No panels started until 4 PM. So we registered and while in line had a conversation with a mom whose 15 year old daughter was going to an anime con for the first time. She was really uncomfortable with the idea of leaving her daughter by herself mainly because she saw the huge variety in age groups a.k.a. tons of older, creepy looking guys. Dustin and I talked to her about cons and attempted to alleviate some of her concerns. Dustin said the woman was totally trying to push us into being chaperons for her daughter; I totally missed that. 

 
After registering, we ran across to the supermarket to pick up some last minute items needed to help finish or make our cosplay function. Dustin "Macgyvered" his Professor Layton tophat using posterboard and clear packing tape. Note: Gorilla Glue does NOT equal craft glue or work on fabric. We could've used some of Billy May's "Might Mend It." We both changed into our cosplays and then headed to the Ghibli Worlds Panel. It was an interesting panel, though it could've been better if there weren't technical difficulties. Some neat points I took from the panel were: Miyazaki in almost all his films has an environmental theme, and he focuses on strong, female characters because he feels they are underrepresented in Japanese culture and too often relegated to stereotypical, weaker roles like housewife. Following that, we went to Con Safety run by Greg Ayers with his fantastic hair. We had some downtime, and I was going to change into my Mio cosplay, however I realized, I had packed everything but my wig. -_-; Nevertheless, I was content to remain in my Luke cosplay largely because it was so comfortable. Dustin and I got a lot of recognition together; it was really fun when people asked us for pictures. It was really hilarious when one woman said, "Oh you're from that mystery game, "The Mysterious Village." I just solve the puzzles, I don't know the names. It's a mystery."

We grabbed a couple hot dogs and container of nachos and headed into the Duct Tape Sewing Panel. It was more specifically a panel on how to use duct tape to make a pattern that you could later add fabric onto or trace onto fabric and cut out. It was run by two older ladies in their fourties, who were pretty funny and spunky women. It was cool to see the things she created using simply duct tape, tin foil, and newspaper and cardboard. It got a little tedious though and the fact there was a loud, major tool in there didn't help. Dustin left maybe 15 minutes before the panel ended, and I followed him a few minutes after. We went to the concert being held and saw the last couple acts of FICE and stayed for three songs of the band Zetki. I found the girls of FICE absolutely adorable; they had so much energy and it caught on fast. I didn't think I would like Zetki, but I was pleasantly surprised. They impressed me and reminded me of JAM Project. Dustin got so excited when they performed "Desert Punk." I really liked the second song they sang, though I have no idea about the name. 
 
After leaving the concert, we skedadaled over to History of Fandom. This was my favorite panel of the night. I really didn't know what to expect. However, the guy running it, named Mark (I think was his name) was AWESOME! He was so well prepared and only used powerpoint to bring up basic points. He gave a detailed, well researched account of the anime industry and how the fandom evolved. He broke it down by generations, saying every two years a new anime generation/fandom was formed. He talked about when the first anime conventions were formed and how they're different from current cons. He credited the internet with being largely influential in shaping the anime fandom. He was so laid back and funny but his intelligence clearly shined throughout his presentation. Probably his most important point was that now is the best time to be an anime fan because of all the resources we have access to and the dramatic lowering in the cost of anime and manga (as compared to the 90s). Such a great panel and panelist; I'm definitely going to hunt him down tomorrow and talk some more with him. 

Lastly, we went to the Cosplay 101 panel. It was informative; always nice to get cosplay tips. I didn't gain a great deal of new information on cosplaying; what I took from the panel was knowledge about different vendors for patterns and wigs. For me, there just wasn't anything particularly striking about the panelist or the information she presented--since I knew most of it already.  

 

Dustin is uploading video footage. We're going to head to bed soon. Thankfully, the first panel we want to attend starts at 1 PM. We get to sleep in. Plus, there won't be any running around for extra cosplay stuff. Post pictures and videos tomorrow. :)

Pardon My Mess...

Piddling around with a gorgeous new layout I found created by Slayerette. I'm still figuring out how to import all my widgets in. The comments link is kind of hard to see as it borders closely with the title of the previous post. So...yeah...things look a little messy and wonky right now. They'll be fixed soon. Ok the comments thing isn't working quite right yet either...

Edit: Okay so none of that was working right...so once more I'm going back to the no fail create my own header, background and make a layout the plain, simple way versus the fancy, pretty layouts that I can't figure out how to alter so that my widgets and comments work right with it.

New Layout!

Goodness, sakes it takes me forever to make a new layout because I'm so picky about picture, color, and blending! Then I have to coordinate everything else on the blog to match like the background image and the body color and text color, etc. It's a headache. I also tried looking around at CSS coding again to see if I could figure enough it to try making a slightly more customized looking layout. I found some sites that had free, pre-made codes; it still made my head hurt. I decided to stick to the custom header and background formula that works so well.

I really love this image; it's the character Yuuko Ichihara from the manga/anime series XXXHolic by CLAMP. LOVE CLAMP--they're the artist group responsible for Magic Knight Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles (which my last layout featured), along with many more titles. It's very nice fall oriented layout.

I volunteered to go into work today to get some extra hours. Finally got to eat my hot dog and ice cream, though not together. I ate 1 1/2 hot dogs at work which we were selling to make money for the charity Soles For Souls. Dustin made burgers for dinner, albeit very late. I stopped by Meijer to get hamburger buns and lettuce and got distracted for over 20 minutes in the skincare aisle. It's very difficult to find toner or skin cleaners without sacilycic acid in it. The stuff makes my skin dry out fast, burn, and turn red. To make things even harder, I was trying to find things that were non-animal tested. I did find one though--the brand is called JASON and its logo is an image of a koala bear. They're all natural and non-animal tested and have very good products; my sister and I used the facewash, which is really gentle--great for sensitive skin.

ANYWAYS, see there I go getting distracted! I got home ate my burger and then followed up with a delicious ice cream sandwich. Our refrigerator is packed to the brim for the first time in forever! Sooo much food & also two bottles of Arbor Mist and one bottle of white wine. Garrr...okay now I need to print out my reading, get ready for class tomorrow, and go to bed.

She's Got Her Head Up in the Clouds...

Skye Sweetnam's song "Sharada" always makes me happy for some reason; it reminds me a lot of myself. My friend Sutton once said, "If anyone truly marches to their own drum, it's Lan." Then my friend Matt added, "It's more like 20 drums, like her own percussion section." I love this amv which uses this song for the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It says everything about the main character, Haruhi, which in some again reminds me of myself. She's always looking for the extraordinary things and frustrated with everyday life because it's boring. She doesn't really know how to be normal, nor does she care. However, she's much more aggressive than I am and has much wilder adventures in her such for the supernatural and unknown. My favorite line is during the first day of class when she announces to everyone, "I'm not interested in ordinary human beings, but if any of you are aliens, time travelers, or ESPers, please come see me." I haven't watched all the anime series yet, and I just won the first volume of the manga in a contest. I do enjoy it what I have seen. I know it's wildly popular, and I can see why.

One Week and Three Days...

I've been back in Louisville now for two days. Getting back was a mess. My flight from Columbia to Atlanta got delayed causing me to miss my connection. Luckily the airline was able to book me on another flight at 7:20 PM. I was stuck in the airport for about 4-5 hours. At least Atlanta's airport is nice and filled with lots of good restaurants, though I was not please with the quality of Sbarrao's I ate at. My slice of pepperoni pizza had too few pepperoni's to merit the price, and it was lukewarm to boot. However, I was too cranky & hungry to do anything but eat it.

Dustin picked me up at the airport, and we went to see Ponyo. I ate nachoes; I got two containers of cheese at no extra cost! The movie was adorable! It had some flaws to it and lacked a bit of epicness that was hinted at. I loved Lisa, the mom of the little boy Sōsuke, My favorite Miyazaki film, of the three I've seen, is Howl's Moving Castle--beautiful animation, music, fantastic epic story and great cast. After the movie, I felt majorly tired. We went through White Castle's drive-thru and home to eat. I went to bed pretty early.

It's becoming more real and comfortable being back in Louisville. I almost didn't recognize the place when I first landed. That tells you how disoriented I've been of late. My whole life seems to have existed in SC only the past week. I'm getting back to routine. I went to work today and start class tomorrow. I felt that little, heavy, knot in my chest that I first felt. However, after talking with Trena, a good friend and girl I work with, about stuff I felt better. I love Dustin; he's certainly great to talk to, however sometimes it's not enough to talk to him--mainly I need a girl friend. I'm letting go slowly. Sometimes the knot and a terrible ache will come up, but I find some way to make it go away. I sorely miss my family; I never have wanted to move home until now. My mom would be mad as hell if I did though. And I realize I have a responsibility to myself, to Dustin, to Lily (my cat), and my family; part of fulfilling that responsibility is finishing school and getting a real job.

Trena and I both talked about going back to church. She said she needs it to help her keep from wanting to physically hurt somebody. I think I need it for a little spiritual nourishment. I'm not particularly religious, but there's usually something comforting in church. I always admire people with strong religious faith, note that it's different from zealous religious faith. I generally live by the matra: just be a good a person, do good things.

So, now I'm done blogging. Going to get my stuff together for class tomorrow.

Nostalgia Moment: Sailor Moon

Had a fit of major nostalgia ever since Emily mentioned something on her blog about running around being Sailor Scouts. I and three of my friends all ran around shouting attacks or transformations in public. We formed a group called the S.S.O.A.--Sailor Senshi of America. There were only four of us though: Sailor Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury. I wrote lots of silly fanfiction inspired by my friends which is still on fanfiction.net under the penname sweetsaturn (I think...); I printed off hard copies too. I have a sketchbook full of drawings of sailor moon characters--mainly Sailor Saturn (my favorite senshi). I own all three movies on dvd and a fabulous sailor moon patchwork purse. I still have a bunch of old notes where we talked about going to Japan and what was going on in the Sailor Moon chatroom. And best of all, I have pictures of my 15th birthday where I had a Sailor Saturn birthday cake--best birthday cake ever! I'll post pictures when I scan them...which reminds me...I still need to scan and send those goofy pictures of us during middle & high school to Tamela. And the REALLY BEST of all is that I fell in love with my boyfriend of three years after he openly professed his love for Sailor moon. I spent the last couple of days working on a some pretty, customized banners for my former S.S.O.A. members. I wrote a long memoir on my life history through Sailor Moon on this blog I write on AnimeVice.

You know, a blog is usually kept for personal purposes, but as I said before it's nice to know you have readers somewhat interested in your life. Funny thing is, I know Tamela will always read my blog if no one else does, except maybe Dustin (my boyfriend), and I'm grateful for that. At least she's always got my back in real life and on the net, and lets me know I'm loved. ;) Anyhoo onto pretty banner thingies.