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 ._.

Back on campus and back at work. Jetlag has made me pull 2 all-nighters straight. sanxian tells me sunlight helps fight jetlag. Well, yesterday I spent like half an hour outside in 102°F/39°C and mostly direct sunlight on my walk back from work. That just ended up making me woozy, and I took a "nap" from which I did not awaken until midnight. orz

Sort of had a vacation the week prior during which the small brother person finished watching the third season of Community (and I rewatched most of it with him), and I saw Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead for the first time (and he rewatched them with me). The rest of the time, I played Sacred Stones while he heckled all my strategies (he'd beaten it once back in '09).

I'm really tempted to crosspost the photos my roommates sent me from when they were bearsitting for me while I was away, as well as pics of the new bear — a rilakkuma plush — I bought because his ears reminded me of egg custard tarts. But I realize bear photos for me are the equivalent of cat photos for those among you who are cat owners in that we personally derive a great deal more pleasure from them than those who have to scroll past while reading their daily journal backlog. |D

So ahh without further ado, that bimonthly doodle dump I've been procrastinating on:

( 17 new pics under the cut, mostly gintama, gif-heavy )

And finally, it's been about a year now for me personally, but I think pseudo_tsuga and I have been definitively dragged (kicking and screaming) back into kpop thanks in no small part to the usual suspect, ghostdrive. The other parts are credit due to exo-m (so far), and Tao being a criminally cute cutie. Although kpop had been sneaking its way back onto my mp3 player in droves this summer because I like the way Bang Yong Guk raps, B1A4 is fun, and the new f(x) mini-album is their best yet (more Amber is always welcome ♥)... but exo is definitely where it's at right now, I can't lie. /)u(\

pseudo_tsuga and I grudgingly look forward to whatever insidious plans ghostdrive has in store for us, sIGH. ♥

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?

And no, the subject line is not sarcastic. What kind of person do you think I am?

Reactions to The Last Airbender are spreading through the internet like wildfire. There is no longer anything to hide or anything to hide behind.

I say this to all Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, because that is who we are, anti-racebenders and pro-casters alike. I am so sorry about the trainwreck that M. Night made out of The Last Airbender. I hope those who inevitably do go to see it get their money back.

And my deepest sympathies to the young talents of Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, et al. The screenplay was just so poorly handled, the script so awkward, the directing of action scenes so amateur, it made a mockery of everyone's efforts.

This is a victory for no one. I am deeply, deeply regretful of it all.

For once in my life I am terrified of picking up the source material because I know it will be nowhere near as heartrendingly beautiful as the film Q___Q

(I read that the movie was only very loosely inspired by the premise of the original picture book.)

Anyway, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going back to see How to Train Your Dragon again! I honestly cannot recall the last time I enjoyed a movie this much. ♥

( Big spoiler for movie ending - don't click!! )

I've been meaning to do that since... 8th grade. xD Bonus point for anyone with dog ears who can pick up the keening in the background (which would be me vocalizing an octave above my harmony).

Moving on to more important things....

---

I've conducted my first two interviews for my Chinese Media term project. The first one was this past Thursday. I interviewed a junior theatre major with a focus on screenwriting. He went on for two hours, but he was very interesting (having studied a huge spectrum of Chinese movies), and the weather was gorgeous (we did the interview outside). This is the only face-to-face interview I'll be recording. Last night, I interviewed mengxia over the phone. It was wonderful talking to her again after so long. She had a lot of awesome insight to offer regarding the budding genre of horror in China and the importance of female roles and native culture in the direction of future films. Audio was tougher to pick up off speaker phone, but I think editing will be manageable.

Well, so far so good! I look forward to talking with more of you who have volunteered next week. And if I don't end up contacting you for a recorded interview, I hope you won't mind me asking about your experience with Chinese film in writing. :]

before I saw Ponyo:
♥

And this is my heart after:

( Thank you Miyazaki )