December 29, 2002

::drowns in a puddle of drool:: I missed a gem in this month's Asuka. The furoku was a little book of postcards, and somehow I completely overlooked the pic of Kazahaya in that uniform looking pretty and playful with cute little glasses and oh he's just the most adorable thing and how can anyone not want to glomp and 'tickle' him?

Wow, that was a pretty fangirlish sentence; but see for yourselves. I just noticed, in the pic he's left-handed. ::is amused:: This is my new favorite image.

Here are a bunch of Full Moon wo Sagashite scans from the January Ribon because I felt like it and I've been wondering about Meroko's past.

Cover of Ribon featuring Mitsuki.

Color chapter page.

December from the Ribon 2003 calendar.

Three sleeping shinigami: Izumi's dreaming of Meroko; Meroko's dreaming of Takuto; Takuto's dreaming of... jell-o? And Izumi's using Jonathan as a pillow which is just typical.

Chibi!Mitsuki and Eichi playing with the birdies.

How often do kids that young kiss that way? And yes, that's Eichi.

The three shinigami react to Takuto's declarations regarding Mitsuki and Eichi.

Edited 03/18/03 - Scans can now be found at my gallery Suspicious Acorns.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 19:34 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 27, 2002

... see, now if I'd been spelling feisty *correctly* it might have helped when checking the online dictionaries. *Smacks self* Some Spanish words that the dictionaries have given me are valiente, batallador, acalorado, and fogoso. Since I've never seen any of these words before, I can't vouch that they express the nuance that I'm looking for. Ah, language, how you frustrate, yet intrigue me.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 17:12 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

I had a massive headache. Not the kind that results from having your brain go sproink over a mind-boggling concept, or from watching the bouncy movement of a home video recording; but more the kind that occurs when your head comes into contact with a particularly dense and swift moving baseball bat. It's less a throbbing than a significant non-specific feeling of 'ow'. No, I didn't really get hit on the head with a bat, but I may as well have for all the good not getting whacked has done me.

But I done killed it! The headache, I mean. With caffeine-boosted aspirin, the all-purpose wonder drug. Go me! Stupid period. Bleh. Sometimes I'm fortunate enough to pass out so I don't feel it anymore; however, I'm usually unfortunate and then my dear aspirin is not wonderful enough. That's when I have to break out the ketoprofen. Please pardon the biochemical wonkiness if I'm weird for a few days.

Oh, and the February Asuka (which everyone else already has, and I won't for 3 weeks) supposedly comes with a Gouhou Drug clear file with Rikuou molesting Kazahaya on it. I want to see exactly how much molesting is going on. *hopeful*

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 16:23 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 26, 2002

I've been told that the character Skids from the online comic Boy Meets Boy is like a male version of me. Hmm... what do you think? ^_^

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 14:42 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 25, 2002

Whee! White Christmas! My first! First since 1969 if I'm not mistaken.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 23:04 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 24, 2002

Someone is being *REALLY* obnoxious outside right now. I want to throw a brick at him. Two bricks. Maybe a house. This is a very Jewish neighborhood. It's quiet (relatively) here. So snot head drives up and stands outside BLASTING music of poor taste, loud enough that the house is shaking. It continues to be loud. And continues. Finally, he gets out of the car and it stops. A minute later he honks the horn. A long very pregnant honk that seems to extend beyond time. Apparently he is waiting for someone. As if whoever it is couldn't already figure out he has arrived by the sheer amount of noise that this man has made. One infinitely long horn blow doesn't appear to be enough so he tries short ones in the rat-a-tat-tat style of a machine gun. This continues. The fact that he is still alive says much for the patience and tolerance of the rest of the people here. Or perhaps it just says something about laws prohibiting homicide.

He is finally gone; good riddance. ::hurls brick::

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 14:56 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

*snortle*

Found via her and her hentai-licious new blog layout.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 11:48 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 23, 2002

So I went out and picked up my January issues of Ribon and Asuka. There is no Gouhou Drug chapter this month. Had I been paying attention, I might have known that ahead of time and saved myself some disappointment. But, X is back. I first started getting Asuka primarily for X - right before the whole eye-in-a-jar fiasco. After X started getting slow again, I was going to drop my Asuka subscription and replace it with something else (like maybe a yaoi mag, or Hana to Yume;) but then they announced Gouhou Drug, so it remained a keeper. I read DNAngel, too, but it's not something I get all excited about.

I want to know what contaminated crack Yoshizumi Wataru was on when she drew the cover page to Ultra Maniac this month. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was and that I really wasn't reading the title wrongly. It doesn't look like she drew it, and it doesn't look like any of the characters. The rest of the art is per usual, so it baffles me.

The color picture of Meroko from Full Moon wo Sagashite is really nice. That is, I think it's Meroko. I'm just going by hair color and process of elimination, since you really can't tell. There's a conspicuous absence of bunny ears. Either way it's pretty. The picture of Mitsuki on the cover of the magazine, however, isn't as well done.

Will read later. Must sleep now. Sleeep.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 13:32 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 20, 2002

'Usa-p-san'? I like it; it's cute ^_^ The 'p' is the intimate suffix and Usa comes from Usagi. It may have had its origin in overzealous newbie fangirl pretentiousness, but my best friend lovingly gave me this nickname so it is special. She thought it was cute, and I cherish it. I respond to it in RL, though she was the only one who called me that. I miss her...

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 12:54 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

Hmm. 8:30 a.m. again. Why is it that I can wake up at 8 p.m. on a regular basis, but not 8 a.m. Genetically disinclined, I tell you!

Anyway, some responses for Len-chan, my fellow Gouhou Drug fangirl.

-- The CLAMP artbooks I was talking about were the newest ones, the North Side and South Side artbooks. They each have a little bit of every series they've done, and South Side, which features the works published under Kadokawa Shoten, has the works from Mick Nekoi: Suki Dakara Suki, Wish, and 2 or 3 Gouhou Drug pics.

-- Am I seme or uke? I am SO uke. I prefer the ukes too.

-- Kazahaya reminds me of Kyou from Fruits Basket because they're both cat-like and they both don't react to teasing very well. I don't think they're alike in personality, really, but whenever Kazahaya sprouts his kitty ears, I always think of Kyou.

-- We did see LoTR:TTT Tuesday night at midnight, first showing. We're geeks so we do things like that. The quality of the film is excellent, of course, but the movie feels like one big middle section, which it is. I never read the books (I tried, I really did - I got most of the way through the Hobbit before giving up) so I don't have any comments about how faithful it was, but I will reiterate something Steve said, "the movie took all the boring out of the book." I liked it, and I continue to be awed by the beautiful armor and weapons. Steve read ahead and informed me that the next big monster is a giant mutant spider. Of course it is. One big unfunny cosmic joke, it is.

Spiders, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 09:01 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 18, 2002

Steve and I went to see the new Star Trek movie the other night. I wrote a big long post about how it upset me emotionally, but blogger ate it and didn't spit it back up. Distraught, I didn't bother to recap.

Then we came across the Star Trek: The Next Generation Movie Plot Generator. I don't know whether it's funny or sad that this is so amazingly accurate. Using our input (mad-lib style), this was the result:

Star Trek: the Finalerer Frontier

Sorta written by: Steve & Jess

The film opens with some really annoying credits that make the audience's eyes hurt. After the credits, we see Wesley knitting a sweater while his mother wears it. This confuses the audience to no end. Next, we cut to the Enterprise. Throughout the movie the ship interiors are filmed too dark to see things clearly. Here we see the TNG crew. They are dancing to a workout video in thongs. This scene is lame. During this scene Picard whines about his shiny bald head. The crew is then interrupted! As a result, the TNG crew must pick up the pizza with anchovies, thus beginning their mission. When they arrive at this mission, Data wears lederhosen and yodels. This scene is embarrassing. But suddenly there is an action scene involving futuristic roller skates and hot air balloons! This scene could have been very action-packed, but is very short, unfortunately. Later on, Picard finds out that Hemorrhoid plans to give everyone in the universe well toned thighs, perfect abs, and a nice new mullet, and thus the plot of the film finally begins. Soon a member of the TNG crew talks to Khan and Professor Moriarity, who are recognized by many TNG fans, though these people don't really help the plot. Then, Hemorrhoid, the film's obvious bad guy, is revealed. But Hemorhoid is not REALLY that bad, because is the offspring of Luwxana Troi and Q. The crew then learns that Ferengenar and the new Grand Nagus Rom is in grave danger! And they must come to the rescue! A few minutes later, there is an embarrassing scene where Data sings 'I've Got a Theory.' The audience groans. And later Worf is even more embarrassing because he wears a bunny suit and is allergic to anchioves. This ticks off many Klingon fans in the audience. Later on, Troi, who had nothing else to do in the film, orders another pizza and 'feels great pain, Captain!'. Unfortunately it doesn't help the plot. A little later, Picard says "Fire at Will" and Worf kills Riker. The audience doesn't laugh, however. Picard and his Away Team beams to the swamp, which looks almost cinematic, but not quite. Crusher and Geordi do absolutely nothing for the duration of the film. Soon, the audience gets a feeling of Deja Vu. Because ONE WORD: WHALES. This seems verrrry familiar... Then, for no reason, someone in the film says 'Bahk'tag!' Nerds in the audience think this is cool and edgy. The crew discovers that Hemorrhoid has a Bow-Flex! This makes things very dangerous! Then, one of the crewmembers says 'Uh-oh better get MAACO!' Even though this makes no sense. In their attempts to stop Hemorrhoid, Riker's body is hollowed out, filled with explosives, and fired at the enemy ship. This looks really cool... but doesn't stop Hemorrhoid. Soon, Riker shoots at his bomb-filled corpse and destroys the enemy ship. But this accomplishes absolutely nothing. There is a final showdown in a nebula called The Rabbit Hole. In a fit of rage, Hemorrhoid attempts to activate his Bow-Flex! Time is running out, so Picard beams over and attempts to stop him. Eventually, Picard violently and mercilessly kills Hemorrhoid by not supplying the life-saving cream in time. Picard is almost killed in the process, but luckily Dr Crusher and Geordi save Picard at the last moment. Later, Picard contemplates on what has happened. As a result of this mission, Picard has resolved his problems with his shiny bald head. Picard then gives a boring speech about the importance of having a great body so you can be a sex symbol to female trekkies. The TNG crew then beams back to the Enterprise, which warps off into space. The TNG theme plays on the soundtrack.

Sigh. TNG movies in a nutshell. And I so loved to watch TNG... sniffle. The franchise has forsaken me.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 08:26 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 17, 2002

New layout! Sure, it's not a hallmark of the great designs of the century, but it serves its purpose. I don't care for this one (don't look too close or you'll see the horrid editing job), so I expect it'll have a short life, but I felt like joining in on the Gouhou Drug layout mania.

I have so many responses for you,Len-chan, but since my brain is burnt out, they'll have to wait until I wake up. I'm on a reversed sleeping schedule again. I have to be sure I get up in time to go see the opening midnight showing of LotR tomor-, er, tonight.

And the only thing more annoying than telemarketers who call at 8:30 in the morning are the telemarketers who call at 8:30 in the morning with recordings that greet you with, "please hold while we connect you to a representative;" and the only thing more annoying than that are telemarketers who call at 8:30 in the morning and subject you to recordings that say, "all circuits are currently busy; please hold for the next available representative." You wake me up and then put me on hold, and I will show you a whole new meaning for disgruntled.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 08:55 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 15, 2002

Notepad just crashed. Notepad.

I think I've finally got this page's code smooth again, so feel free to cause chaos with coconuts when or if you desire. Hmm... 'chaotic coconuts' has alliteration going for it. I adore alliteration.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 02:33 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 14, 2002

Messing around with installing a tagboard on the sidebar. Is 8 in the morning. Have not slept. HTML buggy. Will fix when coherent.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 08:27 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 13, 2002

I accidentally smacked myself very hard in the mouth with an ice-cream bar I was eating, and now my lip is numb and swollen.
Only I could injure myself with ice-cream. God, I'm such a dork.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 03:52 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 12, 2002

Gouhou Drug 101 - An introduction to pharmacy

CLAMP's newest opiate, drawn by Mick Nekoi, confirms the authors' identities as daughters of Satan, or, perhaps, the daughters of the God of Cruel and Perverse Torment. Either way, they are evil.

Ingredients: four boys of typical CLAMP dubious orientation, a pinch of fanservice, and blatent innuendo.

Indication: For the temporary relief of minor aches and cravings related to inadequate consumption of boy raburabu.

Dosage: ~25-30 pages per month, as necessary.

Warning: Side effects include hot flashes, heart palpitations, hyperventilation, dizziness, vertigo, internal hemorrhaging, seizures, spasms, ptyalism, dyspnoea, tingling in the extremities, and death by squee.

Summary of our boys:

Kudou Kazahaya - 17 year old pretty boy. Emphasis on p r e t t y. So uke it hurts. He's cat-like in his mannerisms, in the sense that he hisses, spits, and claws at everything. In that way, he reminds me a lot of Kyou from Fruits Basket. He was found passed out in the snow by Rikuou, who took him to the drugstore where they now work for Kakei for room and board. Kazahaya has the requisite mysterious past™ which involves a female childhood friend of his who he is looking for. To earn enough money to find her, he does 'odd jobs' for Kakei in addition to regular work at the store. Kazahaya has the strange ability to see and channel visions when he touches certain things (willingly or not). Sometimes they are glimpses of an object's past, or things connected to it. He is the object of perpetual teasing by the other boys because it's always fun to pick on the feisty uke.

Himura Rikuou - 17 years old, tall dark and handsome. Every uke needs a seme, and here he is. He's not very outwardly emotional, though it's easy to tell when things are bothering him. He, like Kazahaya, is working for Kakei in exchange for room and board. He has the requisite mysterious past™, and, ironically enough, is also searching for a mysterious woman from his past. (No, they are not the same person.) Rikuou is able to destroy things as a supernatural ability; he makes things go boom. Saiga and Kakei tease him occasionally, but he handles it a lot better than Kazahaya does. He likes to rile Kazahaya up, but looks out for him when he doesn't realize it.

Kakei is the beautiful willowy owner of the drug store. He and Kazahaya have similar hairstyles; Kakei's hair is longer and his bangs hang low on the opposite side. Graceful and sly, he oozes seductiveness and sensuality. Always smiling, he finds his boys very amusing, particularly Kazahaya and his reaction to all of his innuendo. He has ulterior motives regarding having Kazahaya and Rikuou do odd jobs for him, and he seems to have knowledge of the women that the boys are looking for and why. Kakei is able to see glimpses of the future. Kazahaya doesn't know this, and it's uncertain if Rikuou does. Kakei's odd jobs usually involve some embarrassing behavior on the part of Kazahaya, and they always require the use of his special abilities. It's still uncertain why he puts Kazahaya and Rikuou through these things, but, as Saiga notes, he does get an element of evil satisfaction out of it. Little sadist.

Saiga cackles a lot. All he seems to do is sleep, tease the boys, and nuzzle Kakei. Of course, the nuzzling is usually saved for private time. He never takes off his sunglasses. Kazahaya suspects that there is something going on between Kakei and Saiga - the way Saiga will use Kakei's lap as a pillow, the significant glances and meaningful gestures. No, you think?

I also scanned the last 3 chapters of volume 2 for a friend of mine which I partially translated. It's the product of self-teaching, so beware: my cracked-out translation.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 04:24 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 11, 2002

I've finally installed Photoshop 7 on Steve's computer. I *heart* Photoshop. I remember the early versions on my Mac... Anyway, here are some more scans. These are better quality now that I could crop and resize them nicely. These are from the June 02 issue of Asuka and the November 02 issue of Ribon.

Gouhou Drug from June 02 Asuka, i.e. the 'Kazahaya wears a skirt, part 1' chapter.

Color chapter page: Rikuou on a leather couch, his arm around Kazahaya who is sitting on the floor.

Two-page color spread: Kazahaya and Rikuou wet in a greenhouse. Keyword wet. Sopping wet boys = mmmm.

Small color pic from the spine of the magazine.

Full Moon wo Sagashite from November 02 Ribon, i.e. the 'Tanemura-sensei missed her deadline, so her art is sketchy' chapter.

Color chapter page: Mitsuki and Eichi.

Enjoy.

Edited 03/18/03 - Scans can now be found at my gallery Suspicious Acorns.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 02:26 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 9, 2002

Blergh. I'm not dead. Just out of it. Somehow I managed to wreck my internal schedule by staying up for over 36 hours. I don't know what day it is, or what time it is. I'll figure it out eventually.

I keep forgetting to install Photoshop 7 on this computer. Blah. I have things I want to scan, but I lack the mental faculties to do so.

Uh, where was I?
::collapses into sleep::

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 20:06 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 6, 2002

It snowed! It snowed! It snowed! WHEEEE! Me gusta el nieve! Yuki wo suki! I like snow! Snow is fun! Snow is snowy! Ahh, snow. Why will no one go sledding with me? Recapture your childhoods, people. And if you didn't go sleighriding as a kid, you poor deprived child! Got pictures of me at 2 years old going down the big hill at Owl's Head Park in an empty diaper box! Come, join me for a merry adventure speeding down the hills into trees. Hone your artistic skills building snow castles, even snow kingdoms, and then attack your neighboring fiefdom with a pelt of snowballs. And if it happens to be cold, once your face goes numb you won't even feel it. Come out and play. Please?

Everybody sucks because they won't play with me. ::blows raspberry::


I have a fondness for flatworms. Not that I want to be hosting any... Parasites are quite fascinating. They're such hardy little buggers. Growing up, I always thought I would be the one to wipe out the human race with a mutant laboratory plague. Alas, I not even motivated enough to leave my house. So much for ambition. Maybe I'll decimate the population next week.


Quoth Steve: "I think the problem with most of the people on this planet is that they spend too much time with other people."

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 00:21 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 4, 2002

Because Steve is cute when he rants:
[edited for punctuation because he is the modern day e e cummings]

So I'm reading the ENworld message boards... and realize that they have a whole board for off-topic, but related, discussion, where all the D&D geeks can talk about Buffy, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.

THEY'RE ALL IDIOTS.

Some things I've found out so far:

1. "The extended version of LotR is better because it clears up things that are fuzzy." Some guy who didn't read the books and saw the movie in the theatre, then just watched the extended version said, "OH...I SEE... ARAGORN AND ARWEN ARE IN LOVE? I MISSED THAT"

2. "The extended version either (a) makes the movie way too slow and plodding and over-explains everything and adds nothing of value or (b) completely changes the movie from average to amazing. It adds so much character development and explains all the hazy things."

3. When asked if 2002 is the best year ever was movie geeks someone says NO. Further reading shows that he is the ONE person who didn't see Spiderman.

4. Someone is doing Christopher Columbus bashing. Says he cant wait to see HP3 by a REAL director: "I havent seen any of the guy's movies, but I hear he's really good."

Here's the winner so far:

5. "Harry calls the old guy at the end MALFOY. But he always calls the little blond kid MALFOY. How could the editor not catch that?"

argh
Am I the only person who can juggle more than one hobby with any success?

The only good point I saw...was that while Lochkart in the movie is hysterical... he's immediately revealed as a fake... where from reading the book, it probably takes a bit longer to figure out that he's a fake and not just an arrogant schmuck.

I'm reading the HP thread and am amazed by the people who refuse to give the books the benefit of the doubt at all. They can't understand the concept of stuff that makes little sense now being fleshed out in future books because they just assume there is no depth at all to the books.

people.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 17:50 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 2, 2002

OH MY GOD!

In the name of all that is holy!

::runs around like a chicken with her head cut off::

Christmas came early: Draco Veritas chapter 11.

She wrote this, too, a couple of weeks ago. I was too startled by the impact to remember to gush. Darkly erotic in an emotionally despairing way.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 22:27 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

December 1, 2002

Those who do not bring me chocolate must die! Those who do bring me chocolate will be ravaged, and THEN die! BWAHAHAHA!

Hmm... perhaps I should not be allowed to post for a couple of days...

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 03:47 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |

I'm cranky and I need chocolate. I grumble and growl in your general direction. Grrrr. If I wasn't being tempered by the sound of the tush-load of Baroque oboe concertos enqueued in my winamp, I might just lob something large, oh, I dunno, maybe that way ::gestures vaguely:: I love the oboe. I should start playing again. I'm digressing. I'm lucky I'm stringing two thoughts together that are even moderately connected. I hate cheese. And she's right: I say we mow down the poachers and skin 'em, or better yet, feed them to the carnivores. Blerrrghhaarr! Ok, so maybe the oboe music isn't tempering me as much as it should. I should inspire a protest! Be nice to cows! The owls are not what they seem! The Reindeer Conspiracy. And llamas. Llamas get no love! LOVE THE LLAMAS! I hate you, moon! Curse you and your newmoonyness and the biological processes you symbolize! And cheese! Curse cheese for it is moldy and smelly and not chocolate! Eww.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 03:21 | link |
Suspicious Acorns | Magically Delicious |