Soup du jour

[nijibug]

"It looks like an accident: a suspension bridge, its cables snapped, a boy tumbling from a carriage into the river. But the wandering warrior Balsa recognizes it for what it is: no less than an attempt at assassination. For the boy is the second Prince Chagum, and the secret he carries could destroy the foundation of the empire. Now Balsa must protect the prince as he delivers that secret - the great egg of the Water Spirit — to its source in the northern sea. But they will find themselves hunted by two deadly enemies: the egg-eating monster Rarunga...and the prince's own father." (Scholastic.com)

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit won this year's Batchelder Award! <3 The sequel, Guardian of the Darkness, will be out in May, according to Cathy Hirano's latest email. And she says it will be even better.

I really want to order the Magatama trilogy, boxed set. I'm completely broke right now. Will have to ask Dad about it later... Crap, and I forgot to ask Cathy how to pronounce 小俱那's name in Japanese when I emailed her this morning... See, I've been translating the Chinese summaries of Hakuchou Iden and Usubeni Tennyo for THE COLOR OF THE SKY, and I have to guess at the pronunciations of a lot of the names, which are all written in kanji. Hmm... If I do get my hands on Hakuchou and Tennyo this summer, will I be too busy reading them to work on SAND DANCE? ^^,

Mm...by rights, I should be whipping up Moribito fanart (to celebrate, you know). I guess I just fail this spring, I fail... OTL

Found another art thief today. Reported her. She was actually on my friends list. How depressing. -.-, And moreover just a pain in the arse. Why can't deviantART have a super-efficient regulation system like RuneScape? dA is all show. I might not have any use for RS, but one must admit it works like a charm.

I remember back in the day when dA's scripting didn't weigh down my computer, and I didn't know art thieves existed. I remember when I thought 98% of animu was really great stuff instead of the other way around - 98% being crap I wouldn't approach with a gas mask and a 40 ft pole. I remember going eagerly with every doodle I made to the school scanner and my art improving in leaps and bounds...

Nowadays...I just pester the dA mods. I hardly watch one anime a year, because good stuff & spare time are too few and far between. My art hasn't improved any since 2007...

Naahh...just thinking in type. I doubt I could be gearing toward quitting dA. If I do, I'll do so quietly on my own time. For now, I need a gallery to host my images, and dA fulfills that purpose.