( Back from Korea/Saiyuki Event )

And I'm copying many other people and posting the exciting visitor info. map -



Create your own visitor map!

Currently hanging out at O'Hare on my way back to London. I forgot that I accidentally got tickets into Chicago at 6 am when my flight out wasn't till 5 pm. Big mistake! At least I caved and paid for internet to entertain myself. I was also exhausted this morning and somehow managed to lose my palm pilot in the space of five minutes. I accidentally forgot it when I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back it was gone. So sad, especially since I had put a ton of fic on it to read on the plane. I guess I will be filing a lost item report in the hopes that someone will turn it in, but I'm not too optimistic.

I had a great time at home, though. Got to catch up with a lot of people I hadn't seen in awhile and hang out with the family. I also saw Sherlock Holmes three times which I enjoyed greatly. I'm now on a huge Sherlock Holmes fic reading spree so if anyone has any recs let me know. I've liked Sherlock Holmes since I was a small child so I have read some of the older fic, but going back through them I realized I missed a lot of amazing ones like these fics by Katie Forsyth. There are so many and they're nice and long and filled with h/c. Just the way I like them.

( I've also been re-reading canon... )

Ack, plane time!

Just hanging out at home today since the Christmas shopping is finished and all the last minute grocery store items have been bought. I still have a few more presents to wrap, but I think I will save that until the last possible moment to keep my procrastination record intact.

I must admit I was very amused by this post over on ontd_startrek today. Only on that community would someone post a pic of William Shatner walking shirtless on a beach and have so many people reply that they'd still do him. It was extremely heartwarming. Never change ontd_startrek!

In other news, I am still working on my Dean/Cas vid, but am kind of nearing the end. I just wish I knew how to do more video effects. It's really a lot of trial and error at this point. I randomly throw stuff in and then decide it looks like crap and delete it. The part where I add clips is actually done, at least. If anyone knows of any good tutorials for video effects in Adobe Premiere please let me know!

( In the spirit of the holiday I thought I'd upload a few Christmasy pics I took in the past few weeks. )

And now I am off to get dressed and possibly watch the first Nana movie if it has finished downloading! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve!!

Finally made it back to the US! Just in time for snow, although it doesn't look like it's sticking quite yet. I tried to change my layout to a Morgana based wintery-theme, but so far have failed miserably. So now I'm using a temporary winter layout, but it may be changing soon. If only I was good at making layouts! I think I need to practice more.

In other news -

Ten Reasons why United Airlines Doesn't Suck as much as usual
1. My flight from London wasn't cancelled or delayed because of the snow, even though quite a few were.
2. They didn't charge me for being 4 kilos over the weight limit!
3. They gave me as much tea as I wanted and didn't make snarky remarks when I asked for it. *cough*Continental*cough*
4. I was on a flight that had the in-flight entertainment center.
5. They had pretty good movies, including Up, which was seriously adorable.
6. I had an aisle seat on all flights including connections.
7. They went around with trays of wine and encouraged people to take some for holiday cheer.
8. Going through Customs and Immigrations in Chicago was the easiest it's ever been. (This doesn't have to do with United really, but I'm feeling generous.)
9. My bag was one of the first three to come down the conveyor belt in Chicago and I waited literally less than five minutes.
10. Re-checking the baggage was ridiculously easy and I didn't have to walk very far with it.

In summary, Yay, United!!

Now I am drinking tea and listening to David Archuleta's Christmas album and soon it will be time for Christmas shopping!

I was kind of supposed to run errands and do some more Christmas shopping today, but it is snowing and my hands and feet are still kind of frozen from when I was out earlier. I did at least buy stamps and port, which are the essentials. takadainmate and I went to a daytime Christmas carol service at Southwark Cathedral. It was fun hearing carols in such an old Cathedral! Great atmosphere, even though all the talk of angels and baby Jesus was quite distracting. I would love to see a candlelight carol service there.

I've been very bad about posting lately, but I just thought I'd stick up the pictures from when gnine and I went to Brighton in November.

( Pics from Brighton )

Oh, and thanks so much ontogenesis and februaryfour for the packages! They were both awesome!! And another very belated thanks to people who gave me pretty snowflakes in my lj profile! They're very appropriate, especially today. And now, I really should pack, but I think instead I'll work on my SPN Dean/Cas vid. XD

I have been very very bad about updating lately, despite all the lovely things that have been happening. Last weekend was Collectormania, which was amazing! Got to meet lots of new fandom people as well as spending way too much money on autographs. Also went to a nice pub afterwards for the mishaland meet-up. Conveniently it was right next to a porn store! Kind of perfect!

( Collectormania Pic Extravaganza! )

Another highlight of Collectormania was meeting the most adorable child Castiel cosplayer ever! I sat next to him during the panel and our conversation went something like this.

Me: Oh, I like your picture with Misha! (Most adorable picture ever of tiny Cas on Misha's shoulders - over here)
Tiny!Cas: Thanks! My brother's going to be so angry with me! All of the kids in my house are Supernatural fans. The youngest is 3!
Me: Wow, that's great! (Really hoping the three year old's version is edited a bit)
Tiny!Cas: Yeah! (Calls to woman who was with him) Hey, do you think Misha will take me with him to America? We could be best friends!
Me: ... (Can't take the cuteness!!)

Also, randomly, a photo of us with John Barrowman from when we went to see La Cage Aux Folles.

( John Barrowman! )

So takadainmate and I are extremely lazy and are going to attempt to send out holiday cards together this year. If you are interested please comment here with your address (comments are screened). Here are the options...

Poll #1484409 Holiday Cards
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

What would you like the theme of your holiday card to be?

Everyone is welcome and you don't have to send us anything! (Unless you have some extra tentacles you don't need...)

Looks like this Halloween will be kind of Merlin related since we are heading off to Forbidden Planet to see stalk Bradley and Angel. After that it's Rachmaninoff by candlelight, which I think is kind of appropriate. I was also very happy to see the clip from this week's Merlin that everyone's excited about. Could it be that this series is turning itself around? You never know, but I am cautiously optimistic.

My Halloween haul -

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
cienna goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Dean Winchester.
aiwritingfic gives you 14 light blue mint-flavoured gummy bats.
aurora_ren gives you 1 mottled green grapefruit-flavoured gummy bats.
koramay gives you 11 light yellow raspberry-flavoured gumdrops.
omlteaufromage gives you 14 mauve mint-flavoured pieces of chewing gum.
ontogenesis tricks you! You get a rock.
pergamond gives you 11 brown spearmint-flavoured pieces of taffy.
reppu gives you 7 dark blue grape-flavoured nuggets.
takadainmate gives you 15 blue licorice-flavoured jawbreakers.
thehoyden tricks you! You get a wet rag.
cienna ends up with 73 pieces of candy, a rock, and a wet rag.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

And my lovely wordle thingie that ended up being strongly related to Dean and crying faces -

Based on poll results, the prettiest Dean crying face goes to...



Dean's epic angst in 2x04 - Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things! Little does Dean know that his angst then is just a tiny taste of things to come. Poor thing! I kind of want to do a poll for Sam too, but it's just that he cries so much! Or at least looks like he's about to. Sam definitely wins the kicked puppy face competition.

Things here are going well now that I've recovered from my epic illness. I'm trying to keep up with the reading for class. It hasn't been too bad so far, but I'm dreading the upcoming essay. It wouldn't be so bad if that wasn't your entire grade for the course. There are also lots of fandom things coming up to keep me preoccupied. This weekend is Expo with the girls from Merlin! Then on Tuesday Gareth David Lloyd (Ianto on Torchwood) is signing stuff at the Forbidden Planet. Then next weekend, on Halloween, Bradley and Angel (Arthur and Gwen) are signing stuff at Forbidden Planet. Hopefully, Angel won't think that I'm stalking her. (Even if I kind of am.) XD I also have an Indigo Girls concert this weekend! It's the first time I've been in the same area that they're having a concert in about seven years so I just couldn't resist! My very favorite song of theirs is Ghost, and I'm hoping they will play it since Halloween is coming up.

No Supernatural this week, sadly!

I've been kind of sick with some kind of stomach bug for the past day and a half so to distract myself (and to procrastinate doing schoolwork) I decided to make a poll about an extremely important issue that's been bothering me. Dean (from Supernatural) has a multitude of beautiful crying faces so I've just been trying to decide which one is the most beautiful.

( The Choices )

Poll #1471070 Dean's Most Beautiful Crying Face
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

Which of Dean's crying faces do you find to be the MOST beautiful?

Feel free to vote even if you don't watch Supernatural! I think the beauty of Dean's crying faces stand on their own. In my search for Dean crying faces I found this amazing vid entitled Dean Winchester Crying, that helped me find a few I had forgotten about. Also, please let me know if I've forgotten any! I wouldn't want to miss out on any crying faces!

The tiny Japanese girls in my room at the guesthouse woke me up at about 5 am today, packing for their trip to Barcelona. I also woke up to discover that the light in the room had been on all night, which was slightly irritating. You would think one of them would have turned it out! They are super cute though, so I couldn't be too hard on them.

Today is also my last day in the guesthouse! I found an apartment that's not too far from my university and I'm heading over later to sign the contract! It's a sharing type situation with two girls who are also students. I have my own (big compared to Tokyo) room and am sharing the kitchen and the bathroom. One of the girls has her own bathroom so I would really only be sharing the bathroom with one other person. It is a good ten minute walk from the tube station, but there is a bus that conveniently stops right outside. All in all, it is not cheap, so I debated it for awhile, but the fact that is so convenient and all bills are included won out in the end.

I also had lots of fun yesterday looking at angels with sparkly blu wings at St. Paul's Cathedral and exploring the crypt with takadainmate. (this was totally fic research btw) I also paused to admire Lord Nelson's tomb in honor of Jack Aubrey's immense love for him in Master and Commander. Later on we went to a Merlin watching party and drooled over the new episode (Or maybe that was just me. XD) So many lovely Gwen/Morgana moments. It was really great meeting people who have a similar appreciation for fandom. We also watched the episode of DS9 involving tribbles, which was absolutely hilarious. Ah, DS9 it's been too long.

Now there is random taiko drumming going on outside which is very strange. Did I really leave Japan?

I am here! Finally!

The flight was actually surprisingly non-eventful and thanks to the fact that I was flying on British Airways I was not withheld tea this time. I expected that I would have a really hard time dragging my extremely large bags to the guesthouse, but lots of nice people helped me and even carried some of my stuff up the station stairs since there was no elevator/escalator. takadainmate set me up at a guesthouse that caters to Japanese people that is super cheap and nice. It's kind of a do everything yourself kind of place. The Japanese guy who owns the place did give me an hour long lecture about how to do everything. I think I would have preferred the abbreviated version. I was kind of just nodding and agreeing towards the end since I had had pretty much no sleep over the weekend. I think he may have been put off by the fact that I was kind of in a daze, but he got very excited when I mentioned that I used to live in Aizu Wakamatsu. Apparently it's one of his favorite places to visit in Japan. I tried not to say anything negative about it. XD After I finally escaped from the guy I took a short nap and then met up with takadainmate for a drink. Yes, the drinking has already started. XD

Today is my first day of classes, so I'm just trying to work out exactly how to get to campus and what I need to bring. I also need to get some sort of pay as you go phone, and set up a time to look at an apartment this evening. It's kind of irritating how hard it is to meet people when you don't have a ketai. How did people used to manage without them? I tried to look online to see if my Japanese Softbank phone could be unlocked so that I could use a SIM card, but so far I haven't had any luck. Tomorrow, I need to actually enroll. Apparently, late enrollment involves going all over campus to several different buildings. I guess it's a good way to familiarize myself with the place!

Also, it is cold here. Like I might actually need to wear a jacket instead of the tank tops I had been going through in Tokyo.

So the grand total - after 6 years in Japan I ended up with -

12 boxes between 15 and 20kgs (mostly filled with books porn)
2 suitcases (one 23kgs and one 18kgs)
1 backback (haven't actually finished packing this)

The rest of the stuff, and there's a lot, is all going in the garbage. Not time to do anything else with it at this point. The postal people were kind of amusing. There was a long argument over whether I was allowed to take tea. (I knew I shouldn't have written it on the box.) They finally caved and let it go. And then a moment of disbelief on my part when they made me write exactly what kinds of clothes were in each box. I just wrote shirts and pants for everything since I sure as heck wasn't going to open up the boxes and check. I found the whole extremely detailed itemizing kind of ridiculous, and may have largely estimated the amount and weight of books in each box rather than counting them out and weighing them.

Now I really wish I could take a nap while waiting for Kuroneko to come pick up my suitcases, but instead I have to throw more stuff away. It's really never-ending. Who knew so much stuff could fit into such a tiny apartment. Off to meet februaryfour, doubt72, and replicant_rasa for one last dinner at the Indian place and then it's off to London tomorrow!

So it looks like xxxHolic is not ending after all. It now has a new name - xxxHolic - Rou and...

( chapter 186 spoilers )

You can download the chapter over here at clamp_now (must be a member)

ETA: And it's now up scanlated over at OneManga!

I hate ranting about stuff on lj, but I just have to make an exception in this case.

( Why does my life suck? Let me tell you all about it in excruciating detail... )

In good news, I did get the pre-reading material for my course from Amazon yesterday. It all looks really interesting, even the stuff about Linguistics, which I was a little concerned about since my co-teacher almost failed that section when she was doing her masters and it looked ridiculously complicated. But these are basically Linguistics beginner's books so they lay things out in a very straight-forward manner.

I am also very very excited about new Supernatural and Merlin! They're both coming so soon! Not that I'm counting down the days or anything...

I read a really amazing Supernatural fic recently that is novel-length and gen, but kind of like Dean/Castiel pre-slash. It's an alternate take on Season 5 and is really really amazing and in character. I've found that a lot of the Dean/Castiel fic is extremely ooc, especially where Castiel is concerned, but this fic really nails the characterization. It's called Summer of '09 and starts here.

Also, takadainmate had a theory that it was written by two people writing the characters of Dean and Castiel. This was kind of proven, when the authors went through and replied to all the comments IN CHARACTER! So freaking adorable! I was particularly happy when Castiel replied to my comment! Check out all the replies over here. I loved how some of the people they replied to just didn't get it.

On Saturday I met up with pergamond to see the giant Gundam in Odaiba. This was the last weekend to see it, so I knew it was going to be really crowded. And I was not mistaken. I have never seen so many people in Odaiba in my life! (with the exception of summer comiket) XD The statue was pretty impressive. It moved and lit up and generally looked like it was going to take over the city.

( Giant Gundam Pics )

I had a great time last week in Osaka! Managed to see two Takarazuka shows. Phoenix Wright 2, which was highly entertaining and Russian Blue which was just bizarre, but in a kind of entertaining way.

( Phoenix Wright 2 - Spoilers )

( Russian Blue )

( Fire Festival Pics )

I somehow managed to wash my Japanese electronic dictionary with the laundry. (don't ask) Does anyone have any recommendations for electronic dictionaries? I know there are a lot of people studying Japanese on the f-list. I've had this one for five years and it has been perfect. It is a Canon IDF-4600. I'm sure it would have lasted forever if I hadn't washed it. XD I know the new ones have kanji hand-writing recognition software and other useful features, so maybe this isn't such a horrible thing. Although, I guess this will mean that I will not be buying an e-book reader anytime soon. Priorities, priorities.

Also, I got my class schedule and pre-reading list for grad school! I was surprised that amazon.jp had almost every book I need. I appreciate it more and more everyday. Of course, textbooks are very expensive so that part isn't so much fun, but I'm looking forward to taking a look at them. The schedule looks pretty good. Let's just hope I can make it there by enrollment, which is on Sept. 22nd.

Today I'm off to try to get day of tickets for Rent with Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp. I would have bought actual tickets when they went on sale, but at the time I didn't know if I would still be in Japan at this time. And then I kind of forgot about it until now so it is only playing for three more days. Still, I think I have a pretty good chance for today's show since it is a weekday matinee. ontogenesis and I tried to do the lottery for Rent tickets to the Japanese version awhile back and failed miserably. Hopefully this will go somewhat better.

So despite my failure in updating, I am finally back in Japan. The trip back was a lot better than the trip there and I may actually fly Continental again at some point in the future now. At least I was not denied tea this time! That was a serious crime!

Unfortunately, my apartment was kind of a disaster when I came back. Fruit flies were everywhere and Yuki had decided to make things even messier. I got rid of most of the fruit flies by cleaning out the drain in the kitchen, but the rest took awhile to clean up. And since I started unpacking I now have that stuff everywhere. I think the problem is that my apartment is just so small, that there is nowhere to put anything! I fear to think where I will put the boxes when I start packing.

Since I came back I've mostly been working on grad school paperwork. I found out I got into another school that I would rather go to like a week ago and then subsequently had to redo all the paperwork I had already done. Such a pain! I think I have the financial aid side of things worked out now, but I'm a little worried about the housing situation. The housing application on time date was June 30th. Before I had even applied! This makes me less than optimistic about getting anything, but we'll see.

Anyway, at the moment I am not thinking about paperwork because I am in Osaka to see Phoenix Wright! I decided to come a day early to go to Osaka Comic City. (their version of comiket)

( Osaka Comic City Details )

After the event, I lugged my huge bag of books and backpack, back to our usual hotel. I tried to read for awhile, but then somehow managed to fall asleep at 4 and not wake up till 2 am!! So not a good thing! But at least it led to me finally updating my lj. XD Now I just have to work on not falling asleep during Phoenix Wright tomorrow since I'll be in the 6th row.

I've been pretty much over Tsubasa/xxxHolic for awhile now, but seeing everyone's reaction to the newest chapter of xxxHolic made me read it out of order. So beautiful and angsty and wonderful and horrible at the same time!

( xxxHolic chapter 185 spoilers )