niji to the bug

I'm actually backreading my twitter feed right now so I can do a synopsis of my new york trip!

So on new year's day, I took the greyhound with artemis_elric to new york, got there on the 2nd and met up with sonicorca and eggtrolls. We went to see the hobbit (a second time for me) and then got the hobbit breakfast at denny's afterwards. We all got hobbit trading cards and I traded all of mine for artemis's thorin card hehehehehe....

The next day we went to the met and then sonicorca's mom took us out for korean bbq for dinner:

( photos from crappy camera phone )

Walked over to the kinokuniya bookstore after dinner. They had these big wall displays for Vagabond:

( photo )

Everything was super expensive. I made artemis buy me a notebook with rilakkuma and kiirotori on it hehehehehe....

On the train back to sonicorca's; everyone was super exhausted:

( My bear says hi )

When the train stopped at its last stop for the night we were the only ppl in the last car. the lady on the PA gave her usual spiel but ended by saying, "And to the four little princesses in the last car, have a safe trip home." /)u(\

The next morning we set out bright and early to visit doctor who filming locations in central park. First stop was bow bridge to play pooh sticks:

( photos photos photos photos )

And then we walked to book off where I made artemis buy for me got Maaya Sakamoto's Yuunagi Loop, Ayaka Iida's Minna Sora no Shita, Amano Tsukiko's A Moonchild In The Sky, and Zabadak's IKON ~Tooi tabi no kioku~. (I wanted Maaya's Shonen Alice album but it wasn't on sale ;;)

We went to see Sleep No More that night and it was amazing! (To give a short description, the play's an immersive film noir adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set on several floors of a renovated hotel where the audience can follow actors around and be in the scenes. The sound design was p h e n o m e n a l.)

The next day we went to some more bookstores and I got terry pratchett's snuff and tan twan eng's garden of evening mists (which I'm reading right now). I also spent a lot of time crying in front of rilakkuma plushies I could not afford.

On our last day in ny we visited the museum of natural history and I bought (or made artemis buy) all the plushies I wanted. A good last day all in all:

( photos photos photos photos photos photos )

Aaand now we're all back in Ann Arbor dreading school tomorrow morning BUT SUCH IS LIFE. How were y'all's holiday breaks. even if you didn't go anywhere hope you were all well rested and if you had to work I hope you made a lot of money d(' v ')b

and gosh is it time for another bimonthly doodle dump already /holds head
I'll make that post next once I've uploaded all my doodles to photobucket and organized them ._.

I'm in Toronto right now with a couple of my roommates, sonicorca and eggtrolls. We'll be hitting TCAF in the morning; I'm excited to meet lalage and buy her book. ♥

Time for that bimonthly/selected art dump. About 50/50 Gintama and Legend of Korra with a sprinkling of crossover. Chronological order (where we left off in March → newest):

( 22 pics under the cut, no warnings apply. )

I'm staaarving from the long train ride. Going to eat all the food in Toronto in the morning. Count on it.

Picked up small brother person from school after an embarrassing bio lab incident in which he had an allergic reaction. Got him some ice cream. He's eating ice cream and playing tf2 (loudly) with his friends right now. He plays Scout. For lunch, I've made myself some noodle soup out of leftovers. It's funny, I really like spicy food now (even though I still can't eat really spicy).

Yesterday and the day before I spent on jury duty. The judge looked exactly like Hugo Weaving. I just thought of him as Elrond or Agent Smith the entire time. The prosecutor reminded me of every high school boy I'd ever debated against. He was so nervous, his voice kept rising higher and higher until he was pretty much squeaking towards the end. I wanted to tell him to sit down, breathe, have a glass of water. Believe in yourself, kid!

This week was spring break, but I had so much to do it didn't feel like break at all. I'm still struggling to have everything done this weekend. Miyako has next week off (everyone seems to go on break later! when I'm back at school!), and I've set aside thursday afternoon to hang out with her. We have not seen each other since sophomore year in high school; we're both juniors in college now, I think? idk how college works in japan. But anyway, it's been ~5 years. I hope we can still recognize each other. Actually, I wonder why I'm not more worried about if we'll have anything to talk about. Maybe because even back in high school we were never into the same things, per say. We just really liked to listen to each other complain. I hope I'm still really great at that, since she's driving up to Ann Arbor (I don't have a car). I'd feel bad if, for instance, I just wouldn't shut up about gintama. (I really need to shut up about gintama.)

I'm watching episode 20 of Wakfu right now. I want to finish the first season before I head back to school. It's a really nice show. I've heard friends call it "the french Avatar: The Last Airbender", but personally I find it a lot more similar in both tone and setting to Jeff Smith's Bone. With elements of Portal and Legend of Zelda. You gotta like Bone (unless you haven't heard of it). It is like the Calvin and Hobbes of fantasy comics. My favorite character in Wakfu so far is the stingy old treasure-hunter, Ruel. But really, I just love all of the Brotherhood of Tofu. Wakfu makes me wish I hadn't let my french rust away. I would love to see Wakfu get a decent English dub, if only to expose more kids to it (the target audience is ages 8-10). I downloaded the mmorpg when it was in beta but didn't really have time to play it much before the official release came out (and I had to uninstall it). tbh I think I love the cast of the tv series a lot more than I'm invested in the World of Twelve itself, and I've never been able to actually get into an mmo before, so I doubt I'm missing out on much in terms of Wakfu. Though I would really love to get my hands on the OST for the tv series; I poked around for a bit this morning and downloaded the game soundtrack. I don't think there is an official tv album?

(Quote in subject paraphrased from Avatar: The Last Airbender)


Old news for some facebook contacts — the inverter (I think?) in my laptop screen malfunctioned and literally burned the screen up. I've been needing to get creative in order to do my programming assignments. Just barely coping so far...... (who am I kidding *tears hair out*)

nijibug In my next life, do not ever let me buy another Toshiba product. Never again.
nota_lone Why your next life?
nijibug Because it's given me enough crap that at least I can count on remembering to stay away from it for the rest of this lifetime.
nota_lone And what makes you think we'll be friends in the next life?
nijibug Bu-but- *wibblewibble*
nota_lone I mean, I could be reborn as a dung beetle or something for all you know.
nijibug Even if you're a dung beetle, we can still be friends! Even if you're a dung beetle, you can still stage a Toshiba-purchasing intervention!
nota_lone Ok cool whatever.

So that would be why no art — your requests or my own — are getting done. My apologies. ;n;

⚀ racebending is collecting holiday gift recs, so if you've got in mind any books, movies, music, clothing, games, etc. featuring characters from underrepresented groups, head on over and rec! I rec'd Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito, translated by Cathy Hirano.

⚁ I've given up trying to wrest my life from the jaws of Fire Emblem, cruel, cruel game that it is. Roommate artemis_elric and I have agreed to collab with betterwithworms and write a song for Ike and Soren expressly so that we can sing their love from mountaintops. ♥

⚂ I'm chipping away at my artblock, starting to return trades and get around to much belated birthday gifts, etc. First chip goes to sleyf and her original character Sckelg:

( Pencil sketch under cut )

⚃ Apparently there is going to be a Lord of the Rings marathon/drinking game up in our quad this Friday after the semi-formal, and artemis_elric is bringing the entire cosplay caravan. I fear for fire safety .___.,

⚄ I got Cathy Hirano's essay, Eight Ways to Say You, included in our course readings for one of my translation classes! (Yes, I'm taking more than one — also the reason I'm not posting many translations lately is because I am doing so much translating for a grade, it kind of puts out any leftover sparks I may have to translate for fun...) Maybe I'll explode with creativity next semester amidst all my engineering classes! :'D

⚅ I should be writing a paper right now. Aaaagh everything is due before Thanksgiving break @___@

I think Shenzhen Airlines was punk'd by their translator......
For the record, jin can be translated to "scarf", "turban", "towel", and "napkin". Along with other things I am not aware of, I'm sure.

Also

This is my new ukulele (it's the one without fur). It has been mistaken for a violin and a badminton racket (in its case). I have had it for exactly one week as of tonight. I can play most things in the key of C now.

In other news, the small brother person arrived in Taizhou today and we went on a 3 hour walk in which we saw Appa (in the clouds) and Phoenix Wright (sitting on the grass talking on his cell).

ETA. Looking through old black and white family photos... when Mom was a kid she looked startlingly like stella8h8chang.

ETA 2. Happy birthday, nota_lone!

And my heart but a helpless popcorn kernel ♥

(Attempting to describe the effect that Phoenix Wright & Miles Edgeworth seem to have on me in a midnight gmail chat with artemis_elric.)

Oh, and this gem of an analogy sallied forth from the lips of the small brother person today: "A snail is to a slug as a euphonium is to a bari sax." (Did I miss out for not doing band in school? I think I did.)

Anyway.

I'm happy to report that this little guy

has found a home with tn. She has named him Ricky, and she loves him dearly. (If you'll recall, tn made me this darling Earth Day card last year. She is quite often associated with acorns with happy faces.)

( Pop pop pop pop )

For anyone who is still interested in following the ugly drama that is the Bleach plagiarism... Nick Simmons released an official statement on the matter and, surprise surprise, he denies the tracing.

Incarnate creator Nick Simmons responds to plagiarism allegations (Robot 6) Great comments on this article. The ever-eloquent Gourley speaks again.
Nick Simmons Releases Statement, Takes No Responsibility (Comics Worth Reading)

You know what? If the kid had owned up to his mistake, I might have been able to respect him for that. As it stands, I am bitterly disappointed and have no more to say on this matter.

You could make demotivational posters out of the things ryouhora says ♥

( The infamous dinosaur book written and illustrated by 8-year-old nijibug & accomplice )

Hey — HEY — Jurassic Park marathon, anyone? :DDD

The poetry of Anne-Claire (French); English translation by me:

( Story of a field of corn )

The last two stanzas... Les mots me manquent. Merci beaucoup, Arthisa. C'est un honneur de travailler avec toi.