January 29, 2003

*glerk* Oh, my fragile heart. DV 12 cookie crumbs have been posted. I would squee, but I've lost all ability to coordinate. ::drools and foams at mouth::

Oh, and there are five Furuba calendar scans left, so I suppose I should share ^_^.

The Main Cast - Tooru, Yuki, Kyou, and Shigure.

The Girls - Tooru, Kagura, and Kisa, who looks stoned if you ask me.

Cute couples:

Kisa & Hiro - Because you just want to pinch their cheeks. They look so adorable.

Tooru & Yuki - Don't they look so sweet together. I heart Yuki x Tooru. *cheers*

Tooru & Kyou - Awww, look at them! I heart Kyou x Tooru. *cheers*

I can cheer for both if I want :-p I just can't choose yet.

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

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 23:47 | link |
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January 27, 2003

Who's got a big version of this pic? Who? Who?! Does anyone? I have a spare kidney for trade! Maybe I can commission someone to paint this life-sized on my wall. Oooh... a mural...

*snicker* I couldn't have said it better myself. I feel that way whenever I see anything with the real life members of Weiss in it. Yuuki's always wearing various incarnations of his infamous booty shorts, Miki always seems like he practices posing in different light sources in front of the mirror, Koyasu is Koyasu which inherently amuses me to no end, and then there's Seki being almost normal. It's such a hoot to watch them.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 01:05 | link |
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January 26, 2003

Because I'm in a good mood: scans! Purty drawings and purty colors.

The remaining Juunishi:

Kagura - You don't want to get this little piggy angry ^^;; Her violent side has been a bane of Kyou since it seems she only hurts the one she loves. But *spoiler - hover to read*

Hatsuharu - The mellow cow with the j-rock fashion style. His violent emotions manifest as an entirely different persona, Black Haru. He is very protective of Kisa, is very close to Yuki, and has a mysterious romantic relationship with Rin that has yet to be fully revealed.

Ritsu - The jittery monkey dresses like a girl because he is very shy and nervous and feels less threatened that way.

Rin (Isuzu) - The first of the two manga-only juunishi, the horse basically comes off as a witch. She doesn't like Tooru at all, and has violently demonstrated it. She has a mysterious relationship with both Shigure and Hatsuharu - very ambiguous and full of potentially misleading hints.

Kureno - Um... nothing can be said about him that isn't a spoiler so... hover to read.

And the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Halftime Show thing was unexpectedly funny. The Gollum bit was especially hysterical.

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

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 20:53 | link |
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That sounds like a mighty fine wish list to me. *eyes Molecular Genetics of Bacteria covetously* The last expensive geek book I got was The World's Writing Systems (recommended for language geeks or geeks (like me) obsessed with the art of the creation of writing.) My reading diet has been high in ancient history and language lately, and very deficient in biology. That must be remedied or I might get science scurvy.

Mom has ok'd the Nimbus 2003 idea, so now it's in the tentative planning stages. Don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 19:35 | link |
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Taking a break from the Furuba scans (yes, there's still more) I've got Gouhou Drug scans from the February Asuka. Old news for some of you, but I get my stuff really late. (My Feb Ribon hasn't even arrived yet. It usually comes first - everything's later than usual.)

GD cover of Asuka

Furoku clear file - pull his shirt off, Rikuou, you know you want to.

T-shirt ad - It's got the pic of Kazahaya from the layout, and a matching Rikuou pic. I think that's my favorite Rikuou pic yet.

Close up of said Rikuou t-shirt pic - loosening his tie

Rikuou and the tattoo on his arm

Suggestive tie tying

K & R lounging together in white - pardon the subpar scan.

You know, Gouhou Drug better not just turn out to be some big tease because then I'd have to smack clamp really hard with a big heavy object. Perhaps we can organize a mob and riot if need be.

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

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 12:43 | link |
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January 25, 2003

Avast, ye scurvy varmints! That amused me greatly.

Somehow it came up in conversation, as mom was driving me home, that I should learn how to drive. She said it would be good for me because it brings freedom; and if I ever leave NY I would have to be able to drive around because out in the middle of nowhere there is no public transportation. Mom is right, of course, but still - the idea of me in a car is a bad one. I can't even walk/bike/skate around without banging into walls, doorknobs, couches, tables, parked cars - you name it, I'll bang into it. As it is, neither Steve nor I drive, though he has a long defunct permit; since neither of us has a car, this is no big deal. I did say to my mom that if I had a car I'd road trip. I wanted to road trip with my best friend before, but it isn't very fair when there's only one driver. If I had a car I'd try to go to more conventions, like Otakon in Baltimore.

And this led to telling my mom that I really want to go to Nimbus 2003, the Harry Potter Symposium. I can't afford it. With the registration, the plane fare, and the hotel, I'm looking at a price with too many digits in it. Mom must have been in a very weird mood because she gave me the "you're only young once; you should go" speech and is considering making a family outing of it since her kid wants to go to Disneyworld anyway...

This could bode very very ill.... but I REALLY wanna go... I must meditate on this. ::weighs Murphy's Law against the lure of a Harry Potter academic geek fest convention::

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 23:40 | link |
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January 23, 2003

I am still feeling life's stupidity, so crankiness abounds. It seems my pals here have been running off with the Furuba pics! Pic-nappers! Naughty, naughty girls: you, you, and you. ^_~ Guess I'll just have to post some more:

Akai no Chou - Young Uo-chan, Tooru, and Kyouko, Tooru's mom, as the Akai no Chou with the red butterfly gleaming from the back of her jacket.

Young Hana-chan - Gazing out at the sunset. She reminds me of someone very dear to me. (Not in this pic particularly, but just in general.)

Santa!Tooru - Tooru in a short cute little santa outfit. I would love to see Yuki's and Kyou's reaction to it ^_^.

Ritsu and Tooru - Looking very pretty in front of a wall covered in Juunishi portraits.

Yuki - looking pretty spiffy.

Kyou - wondering why he looks like he got caught dressing in Yuki's clothes.

All scans can be found at Suspicious Acorns.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 21:51 | link |
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January 22, 2003

Life sucks. I'm having a horrible day. I'll probably be AWOL for a day or two to prevent the venting of my violent emotions on those undeserving.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 17:07 | link |
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January 20, 2003

More scans: the young cute ones

Hiro - The sheep. He's stubborn and not very interested in niceties. While he is often a bit of a brat, he really does care; especially about Kisa, whom he loves.

Kisa - The cute little tiger, she's sweet, everyone loves her, and I want one of my very own. She is very attached to Tooru, much to Hiro's chagrin ^_~

Momiji - While the Rabbit is not as young as he looks, his actions make him seem so. On closer inspection, he has much better insight into everyone than they realize. He seems to be the only one to understand Kyou's true character. He has said to him, after regarding Kyou seriously:

//panel: Momiji looking at Kyou with a gentle look//
Momiji:......You're so kind
//panel: Kyou looks back at Momiji//
Kyou: Ah?
Momiji: Nothing (heart). I'm the only one who knows it.

Ah, Momiji-kun! And he's the only one who stood up to Akito when he attacked Tooru. Yuki and Kyou should be ashamed of themselves for doing nothing... oh wait, they are. Good.

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

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 21:44 | link |
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Bwahaha more pics! Everyone likes pics. I like pics. We can't forget about our main trio.

Tooru - Our heroine, and hopefully the savior of the rest of the cast. She is determined to figure out how to break the curse because of its affect on Yuki, and especially now that Akito has attacked her for being a threat. (Just wait till she finds out what he did to Kyou, and a REAL reason why Yuki and Kyou fight.) Just by being herself she is helping to heal those she comes in contact with. Go Tooru! And perhaps one of them will help her ease her complex with her dead mother, because that just can't be healthy.

Yuki - A literal Pandora's box, his thoughts often center around the metaphorical lid to his dark emotions which he wants to but is somewhat afraid to release. There has been one or two interesting peeks under that lid. *evil smile* He is the prime object of Akito's attention, and Flip knows what he did to him to mess him up in the head so badly. Oh sure, we think we know, but nothing is ever that simple. I suppose the question is what else did he do to him. Poor Yuki! *hugs Yuki* One day he will stop calling Tooru 'Honda-san' and then maybe he won't lose ground to Kyou. Perpetual tug of war there.

Kyou - Orange neko-chan. Hit with a double curse the poor thing is shunned; a hideous monster who feels like no one can love him because who in their right mind would? (As we well know, no one is in their right mind here, so... ^_^) He is determined to beat Yuki, the rat, at all costs. While the reason of 'because my curse is the mouse's fault, and if I beat him I will be accepted into the family' is not untrue, there's evil Akito workings to consider. Poor Kyou! *hugs Kyou* Kyou, though, has grown more than anyone so far, but it's far from over for him. He's finally come to understand what Tooru means to him and how he feels about her, but Akito meddles in everything. (Yuki warned you, Kyou! Tsk tsk! You can't show your weakness to Akito!) *sniffle*

Scans can be found at Suspicious Acorns.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 09:08 | link |
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More from the Fruits Basket calendar. This time portraits of the Mabudachi Trio because they are cool.

Hatori - The dragon (or seahorse, as the case may be.) The straight man with the angsty past. And that's 'straight' in all the textbook definitions whether it be seriousness, convention, or preference.

Shigure - The resident sly, sadistic, lecherous puppy bounding with charisma. Flip only knows what he's up to, and he's got suspicious ties to the strangest set of people. He turns the mysterious persona into an art form.

Ayame - The repitilian fashion guru, his cold-blooded snake form is much less cold-blooded than his pretty eccentric self. At least he's confronting his issues and seems further along in his recovery than the rest of the psychologically wacky Souma lot.

Scans can now be found at Suspicious Acorns.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 01:28 | link |
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January 19, 2003

I've got Furuba calendar scans. There's a bunch, so I'm going to post just a few at a time. Today's theme: pics Usa-p drools over.

KawaiSou!Kyou - This color image was the cover of a recent chapter in Hana to Yume and the moment I saw it I just wanted to reach out and hug Kyou to itty bitty pieces because the poor thing just doesn't get a break. He looks so pained with the tears in his eyes and... *sniffle* *waaaaah*

NameThatHand!Akito - This image was also the cover of a recent chapter. It prompted debate over whose arm Akito was fondling. A key to the plot, it is. No, really. Many speculations, but after subsequent chapters there is a general consensus on who Akito's real lap dog might be.

Yuki with his shirt open in a mound of pink petals looking like a model in a perfume commercial.

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

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 16:01 | link |
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January 18, 2003

There's only one other woman in my Friday jazz class. We get along really well. We have tap together and shared classes last year as well. Usually the class is much bigger, but somehow this one dwindled to just us (probably the late Friday night time slot). So she approached me yesterday saying that she really wasn't enjoying jazz, and how would I feel if we got the teacher to switch it to a tap, ballet, or even pointe class. I don't really care; I love them all. I just don't want to be in the class by myself because 1) the teacher'll work me harder, and 2) I probably wouldn't get to be in the recital that way, and I love the recital because I am a dancing ham.

So the teacher is considering it, but it just dawned on me that if it becomes a ballet or pointe class, which I dearly dearly love, that means I have to go shoe shopping. which I dearly dearly HATE. I HATE shoe shopping. Ugh. Blergh.

For good news, I have lumpy strawberry pocky, my favorite! And the Fruits Basket 2003 postcard calendar which is beautiful and I have to see if I can scan it tonight. Somehow I didn't know it existed and I just stumbled across it at Kinokuniya today. Needless to say I could not leave without it. It has my two favorite pictures in it, KawaiSou!Kyou and NameThatHand!Akito. Mmm.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 21:04 | link |
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January 15, 2003

As you all know, there's FINALLY a June 21 release date for the 5th Harry Potter book, and if you didn't know, you live in a deeper cave than I do, and now you know. Details can be found pretty much anywhere, as I'm sure it's the hot topic on many fandom oriented mailing lists, message boards, and forums. And, of course, for an excerpt they choose this:

Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. 'It is time,' he said, 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.'

Sure. Just the quote I needed. Especially with Steve reading it aloud in an overexaggerated prophetic voice. And he, of course, still thinks Scabbers is the coolest thing since sliced bread and that in due time Scabbers will once again show how cool he is when he (insert various scenarios). Steve cute.

He surprised me with the first Care Bear movie and the first volume of KareKano! Care Bears take me back. Sigh. I heart them. And the KareKano DVD is every bit as well done as I had heard. Finally something has been done right. Kudos.

Feeling a bit better. Thanks to all the well-wishers. *schnoogle*

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 22:21 | link |
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January 14, 2003

This site has scanslations of the first volume of Lumen Lunae. If I wasn't sick with brain goo clogging up my nostrils the scans would give me a lusty nosebleed. I'll have to save the hemorrhaging for later. Speaking of which, I have an inordinate affection for the word hemorrhage. I like strange words that no one can spell. Except privilege, since I can't spell it. (Did I spell it right? I'm tired of repeatedly looking it up and never remembering.)

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 21:46 | link |
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January 12, 2003

So a new acquaintance of mine leant me Breath of Fire, the old-school RPG game, for the Game Boy Advance. I figured it's the best kind of game for me to play when I'm sick because I levelslut so I don't have to think too hard during average dungeon battles: walk around, open some treasure chests, auto-fight, nothing too difficult. So I was wandering around and I kept getting lost. I mean all the time. Some of the dungeons are a little tricky in a fun way, but I don't usually have this problem. I tried to convince myself that it was because it's hard to see the screen because it's not backlit and the one lightbulb in the entire house doesn't provide enough illumination, but when you raise 6 levels (19-25. I was only supposed to be about 12th level) trying to get back out of a mere two floor dungeon, you know your brain has simply turned to ooze. Up and down the same hallways because I couldn't remember which direction I was going from one moment to the next. Ugh. It was horrible.

Stupid microbes are making my head moldy. And whoever is putting walls in inconvenient places needs to stop it because I'm positive they weren't there before. *clunk*

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 17:15 | link |
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January 11, 2003

*sniffle* blah. How is it that I am perpetually out of decongestant? *sneeze*

KareKano is a fun. The anime is funny and sweet, but doesn't really get into the more angsty parts of the manga. Kinda like Fruits Basket. It also just stops in the middle of an arc so it lacks a sense of closure. They would have done better not to start the second arc at all, but then it would have ended at around episode 20 or so (26 episodes in all). Generally, if you get your hands on the first episode or two, you'll know right away whether you're going to like it. The male lead has major issues, but the anime ended right before they would have started to show the uglier sides of him so you only get glimpses. Really, I don't go out of my way to seek out stories filled with characters burdened by major psychological problems, (I like my WAFFy fluff), but when they're done well they're always the most interesting ^_^.

*SNEEZE*
Pardon me. ::grabs tissue:: Out of anti-histamines too. Typical.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 19:18 | link |
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January 9, 2003

I want the crispy clear KareKano DVDs. I have old fansubs, but it is very difficult to read tons of fast moving text on nth generation tapes that have color bled to death. I've been keeping up with that manga off and on. Lately on. Arima is another messed up little puppy.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 22:08 | link |
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January 6, 2003

Gouhou Drug layout mania has officially become a phenomenon.

Furuba is a marvelous piece of work. Funny, serious, and exciting without being an annoying angst fest. It does have angst, yes, but it's not the beat yourself over the head kind. It's the kind that excites you, tantalizes you, stuns you, and makes you reexamine scenes more closely for connections you must have overlooked. I continue to be amazed by the way everything is so expertly connected; the way new threads are continuously introduced and woven in, only to make you realize that they aren't new at all and have been there from the very beginning. Nothing is ever what it seems, and even after you realize this, you still can't be sure. Kyou! Oh, poor Kyou! Yuki! Oh, poor Yuki! Tooru! Oh... oh you get the idea. Everyone is wonderfully multifaceted and layered with ambiguous motives, especially the number one man of mystery himself, Shigure. Akito needs to learn to play nice, but then the evil is kinda fun, so maybe not. And the whole lot of them are deliciously dysfunctional. Individually they have more issues than some entire casts. Psych students will devour this happily. As for me, I've never understood people, so I just watch intently with great anticipation.

And each installment is chock full of fruity goodness! No disappointments there. It's an important part of your healthy well-balanced diet!

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 22:05 | link |
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January 4, 2003

Saw a great deal and splurged to get me a Tanemura Arina artbook. It's not the offical KKJ one, but it's a softcover Chinese version that has Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Time Stranger Kyoko, and some Full Moon wo Sagashite. I don't usually get Chinese copies because I like to be able to read them, and I have no plans to start learning any more languages. I mix them up enough as it is.

But I love it and maybe I'll get scan happy. Not tonight though.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 22:50 | link |
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January 2, 2003

Bwahahahaha! A new year, a new layout! I didn't like the last one anyway. It was the oddest set of colors, most of which I couldn't even name. I don't particularly care for this one either because it didn't come out the way I imagined and I can't draw to save my life. (He's supposed to be on a stamp on a letter, see? Oh, whatever.) But the picture is too cute to resist. Even if my design sucks, love the pic! Love it!

Enetation is being dumb about logging me in so my comments template does not match again. Alas.

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 23:14 | link |
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It's January already. I tend to be rather oblivious to the world; I never know what day it is, and there's a pretty big chance that I'll have to give a moment's thought to what year it is as well. I have a horrible sense of time, or rather, I don't have any sense of time at all. When left to my own devices I will be awake all night, asleep all day, and more or less settle into something like 14 sleeping hours to 24 waking hours. Days get lost in the shuffle.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. I actually visited my mother for christmas and no murder was committed! There was civility. I think that it might have been an elaborate Twilight Zone hallucination, but it was a nice change of pace nonetheless. Mom got me geek books. I'm so easy to buy for.

Steve got me stuffed aminals including a cute raccoon (I *heart* raccoons) and a Care Bear! (I *heart* Care Bears) ::snuggles::

Usa-p internally wept for Kyou at 18:19 | link |
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