Rearranging stuff, I spent some time around half a month before looking through my older (mostly hardcopy) comics, acquired back when they hadn't cost so bleeding much and the unstable internet situation made it difficult to read scanlations. That thing they say about "dark history"? It is very, very true. Either ikka had horrible taste in stories then, or those mainstream stories that are still running have gotten increasingly bad. Perhaps it's a combination of the two, for some. When did you turn into Dragonball, Bleach?

( babble cut )

Okay. End babble.

I WANT A LIFESTYLE LIKE THIS.

On an unrelated note, Hime Yuzuriha appears to be making its way into canon (if those 660 henshin pictures are for real). Guess someone on the MSLN staff roll decided to take a leaf from ZUN's book or something.

Went out yesterday, and had a pretty nice lunch. Due to my bad habit of not bringing tissues or handkerchiefs along most of the time, coupled with being something of a stickler for hygiene (well...in only some cases), I decided to head over to a nearby fast food place to use the washroom for cleaning up.

Upon entry, the first thing that registered was one middle-aged lady, who appeared to be a member of the (cleaning?) staff. From the look of it, she was someone that one had to use "excuse me" towards when reaching for the soap dispenser, rather than just allowing you to sidle over by moving away for you to pass...note that this washroom in question has, as far as ikka can recall, always been incredibly cramped to the extent of having more than 3 people waiting in line being the equivalent of a need to open the door for space.

Only after a few moments did she tell me that she'd thought I was in the wrong toilet because of the hairstyle and dressing. What could one do in this situation, but attempt to smile and get out asap - made difficult by there being 2 other people choking up the area?


tl;dr: WTF AUNTIE, JUST BECAUSE IKKA PLAYS ERICA HARTMANN DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD MISTAKE HER AS MALE SO EASILY.

OK, so I'm a bit lacking in the overall figure department, but this is the first time since puberty that something like this has happened... )'^´(

Hope this Christmas was nice, my family doesn't celebrate the occasion but I did phone an aunt (who does) for well-wishes.

Been having weird dreams for 2 nights/early mornings straight. If it happens tonight again...aughhhh...|||orz

For those who'd care to know,

( brain breaker count 3...2...1 )

...there were no lottery numbers in the dreams. What a waste.

Went looking for a couple of simfiles and tested them out. And I messed up during DISCOTHEQUE due to distraction from the background, which was playing the PV. Dangit, Nana-chan, why you sparkle so?! ^^; After playing Stepmania for so long, ikka finally understood why some people don't play with moving backgrounds *headdesk*

Next post should have something less...rubbishy OTL But awfully belated, too.

Mizuki Nana's father passed away on the 29th of October - last Wednesday.

It comes as rather a surprise, not only because she had shown little indication of how serious her family situation had been earlier (incidentally, her blog entry of the 29th had a "*smile*" in the title), though there was a significant lack of update since then...until her post on Sunday, 2 November, regarding the issue.

A fan whose blog ikka visits on occasion mentioned how he had just talked about her unhealthy updating times (2~3 am Japan time) with another person, and that it had been out of the norm for her to have such a gap between new posts. It was after this, he said, that the news broke. One part of that entry I agree with especially: she really had no need to apologize [about not updating], with all the hectic things and stress that would be coming up soon, updating could wait. As fans, everyone would certainly be understanding about that.

The entry can be found on her official site here. Translation available at j1m0ne-san's place.

( personal experiences - need not read if you are not interested )

I felt a responsibility to pass on the message to whomever might come across this, seeing how it resonates with personal experiences, and the knowledge that there are fellow fans on the f-list who may not yet have heard of it.

It would be rather shallow to wish that Nana-chan can feel better, for this will not come quickly. As a fan, the stance I adopt now will be the same as that of certain others, that is, to support her in what she will be facing from now on, with such a significant figure in her life gone.

Home desktop sent for repairs. After the dearth of the optical drive, everything went down the same route rather quickly...though one might admit that it may not have been a good idea to try fixing it on my own (which may perhaps have actually made things worse -_-|||).

This is being typed at an internet cafe claiming to be "the cheapest" at $1 per hour, under great stress to ikka's sanity (something to that effect, anyhow). The lack of privacy as compared to the safe confines of surfing on one's own is NOT A GOOD THING...for me anyway. It does not help that the monitor faces the entrance and the proprietor is sitting very close on my right and that everyone and anyone could see what I'm doing WTF *starts babbling*

So anyway, due to laptop absence (it's not arriving till end of this month? Why?), chances are that no updates and presence from here will remain until the week after next, or so my estimate goes.

Pants: I so understand how you feel now...

...which Takarano Arika's fulfillment of her end of the Animelo 2007 promise wasn't enough to give. Was actually banking on her choosing on a more edgy (?) kind of song, or something archaic/elegant like Hime Murasaki...hmmm.

Actually wanted to finish up a humorous (I hope) take on Jack and the Beanstalk with Linith-shishou as the cow and Precia-kaasan as Jack's (...>_>;;?) mother...among some other things. Unfortunately, those plans were derailed after watching 12 Lotus last night. *makes small noises*

For a movie that can be summed up as "tragedic drama with Bollywood-esque (!) song and dance plus wafer-thin plot", it left ikka with a horrible feeling inside, mostly because of the Downer Ending. Won't reveal too much spoilers, though perhaps watching it at night contributed to the melancholia as well...or maybe I'm a sucker for that kind of story. To think that I read a few reviews that leaked bits of plot beforehand, too...

Effects:
-gloom!ikka T_T
-a desire to dig out Hayashiya Shizuru's work or anything Aria-related for their therapeutic (...) purposes
-"I want to watch that *points at Wall-E model*" -quoth ikka after exiting the theater
-seriously weird dream-that-wasn't-quite-a-nightmare...where ikka fired a live round at some kind of parade for VIPs...WTF?! o_0

Going to nicovideo for some laughs now. *runs*

Got knocked down by a taxi at the crossroads near my place just now. Nobody was at fault, really...the pedestrian green light was on, but it's not illegal for cars to make turns there. I think. And I was running, so the driver probably thought it was fine to accelerate. Well, it wasn't.

It's probably by a stroke of luck that I can still be typing this with only a handful of abrasions from the encounter. Hit the side of my head and jaw on the traffic island, and no concussion too (so it seems)...could even pick myself up and walk to the other side ._.;;; Left hand and arm tremble when stress is put on them though.
This incident also proves that auto accidents are not as fatal as they are made out to be on TV (here's looking at you, Mediacorp). Just a comment.

Kind of upset that the taxi quickly drove off when it was apparent that I was fine, though. There was some honking, not sure whether it was the driver or some other road user who had witnessed the whole thing. If I died on the spot, it would have been a hit-and-run, too. Hopefully there'll be someone who had caught the license plate number. IIRC the color of the taxi was blue...but since the memories are hazy, it could have been any other color of any other company, so no point jumping to conclusions or getting paranoid.

Chinese saying: 大難不死，必有後福。
English saying: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
If these have any stroke of truth in them, ikka will do well in tomorrow's test and hit a perfect game at the bowling alley...yeah, right.

Took place this Wednesday, the pictures were taken around 10AM or so. This post is not for those overly grossed out by small insects.

Folks from the area (who? xD|||) might know that ikka's school is currently using a holding campus while the "old campus" undergoes expansion and renovations. It's not that bad a place, actually, just takes some time to get used to.

This incident, however, made me wonder if what happened was due to the campus being old and rickety, the pupils of that specific classroom's doing, or the magic powahz of Mother Nature, scary woman she can be.


Real life can be more interesting than fictional accounts sometimes, no?

After multiple attempts at playing different CDs/DVDs to no avail, plus the failure of more technical troubleshooting methods, ikka is sad to announce that the optical drive on her home PC has shown just about all signs of having gone kaput.

Were it some other time, this might not have been a major problem - most of my stuff now resides on an external hard disk anyway - but the issue now is that I just got a new mobile phone and its PC suite comes on a CD. *headdesk* ...had it been a SE phone like my previous one, MyPhoneExplorer would do for file transfer and other tasks, but no, this is a Nokia phone and the installation CD is crucial. Problem much?

I suppose there are a few ways to get out of this: bring the CPU casing for respairs (highest success rate but a big pain for transportation); install a new optical drive by hand (which may or may not work depending on how poor my luck turns out); find a USB optical drive (mostly designed for laptops and more lacking in specs); or wait a couple of months for a laptop to arrive...long story there. None of these seem to be a easy way out.

Technology, how we love you so.

10-hrs-later edit: Found a download for the Nokia PC Suite on their website, which kinda makes sense as it would probably be quite troublesome for more absent-minded or accident-prone folks to misplace or damage their installation CDs. This makes things somewhat better, but it doesn't change the fact that the state of my optical drive remains the same...

Explanation for ikka's lack of sleep/free time/ability to do anything much the past few days - X-site 2008

If the team does get past the opening round, I'll post a link to our website. Compared to what other teams have been doing (or so ikka has witnessed), that's not very likely, though. There's a public voting component, too, but it might not be very, uh, ethical to ask for support here, is it? ^^;

Going to get some well-deserved rest now, all those readings for non-CP subjects can wait till tomorrow methinks |||囧

The OOC is strong with this one.




ikka babbles:
Please fill in XXX and OOO on your own. :D

Know how some things seem to just spring up when you least expect them? That was the feeling I was getting when the common tests turned from being an event in the distance to suddenly being just there. Before knowing it, everyone was caught up in a frenzy of hyper-paranoia, mugging, nerves and all that jazz. It was seriously mad. The whole situation was like suddenly waking up and being told that you'd just done something really incredible (take in either positive or negative ways) that you couldn't remember at all...the situation that, in the above short, Fate-chan found herself in. Except for me, it wasn't a setup but rather, more like "WTH HOW DID TIME FLY LIKE THAT. GOT ROCKET BOOSTERS OR SOMETHING?!" lol

The plot isn't entirely ikka's, and neither is the concept for the image (though it was indeed badly drawn by yours truly), plus, as said before, the OOC is strong with this one. Just take it as you will. If it managed to provide some entertainment, that's good. If not, I'm OK with it because finally having that drawn has satisfied ikka quite well, hahah... 

ikka would easily admit to not being all that enthusiastic about karaoke - my singing is meant to be inflicted upon people that deserve suffering, not the well-meaning folks around me who enjoy dragging others along with them.

But this "afureco" (lol nice name choice) may well change things. xD Imagine shouting "STARLIGHT BREAKER!" at the top of your lungs. Or doing magnificent script screwing a la Lyrical Party. *cackle*

I first saw this in a magazine iirc (can't find the article now...), then was reminded of it when it was shown some time back on the news. There was footage of this man doing lines from an ancient Gundam episode, if memory serves.

Wonder if it'll come over to Singaporean shores...

Just thought I would write something since I usually update at least once a week.



"I will rise from the operating table...and become the NEXT DATE MASAMUNE!!!"



Um, no, this is not a Kyu-chan-pimpin' post, as much as it may look like one. orz

As those who have ikka on MSN will already know, she went for surgery on Thursday (the 6th) to remove her naevi (birthmarks). Although not as great an operation as, say, an organ transplant, it was significant as it involved removing 2 rather prominent features (<-???) of my face...
( details below...perhaps not for the squeamish? )
In any case, ikka shall get back to posting the usual random and rubbish as soon as possible.

Masamune-in-training, over and out.

*note for historical accuracy: the actual Masamune lost his right eye.