shut up and let me see your jazz hands

1. I'm not getting some DW comments. ;_; I got one comment + one notification of an edited comment (not from the same person as the first comment was) to my last post, but when I went there, there were a total of five comments. So I was missing four notifications. I hate when that happens.

2. Kaleidoscope reveals have happened, so I can now link to the 20th Century Boys icon set I made. I'm really glad my recipient said they were okay with non-fic stuff, too, because I signed up hoping this would pull me out of a months-long writing slump (haven't written anything since, I think, June), and then all this stuff with my mom happened right in the middle of it, so I just couldn't even begin to think of writing anything, but I was able to make icons. I had originally hoped to be able to write something short in addition to the icons as a treat, but that didn't happen. I had fun making the icons, though, and I'm pleased with them on the whole.

3. Speaking of writing slumps and things I usually use to try and pull me out of one, I did not sign up for Yuletide this year, and I have to say, after reading through 25 of the 40+ pages of Yuletide letters, I'm really glad I didn't. There are hardly any fandoms I could write, and I think had I signed up I probably would have been matched on Community or Parks and Recreation, and while there are a few of those I have bookmarked as possible treats, there are also a lot where I would be really bummed to receive them as an assignment (like the Community person who said they liked all pairings, but were clearly using "all" in a "only heterosexual people exist in my universe" sort of way).

Or there was a Dark Tower request where the person wanted any combination of Jake, Roland, and Eddie interacting, but no mention of Susannah anywhere in their letter. (I would find Dark Tower really daunting to write anyway, but I am still clicking on those letters just in case something is really inspiring, but "let's pretend a major female character who is inextricably linked with these three guys doesn't exist" is not my idea of inspiration.)

Anyway, so I am feeling happy with my decision not to sign up for Yuletide, but I have been writing fic for Yuletide (whether assigned fics, pinch hits, or treats (and sometimes all three)) since 2004, so I really want to write something this year.

1. I have a new default icon. It's made with the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator. :D The fullsize pic is here. (I also downloaded a wallpaper of it.)

2. So I think everything went pretty okay with the doctor yesterday. I have an appointment on September 15th to go over the results of my blood tests and hopefully get my prescription.

3. While we were walking from the bus to the center, we passed a cupcake store called Frosted. They weren't open then so we decided to come back after, and we did, and I got a red velvet cupcake filled with vanilla ice cream. *_* They also had so many delicious looking flavors of regular cupcakes. They're pricey (of course), but it's not like I'm going to go there very often seeing as they're in Hollywood, so that removes the temptation. :p (I will probably stop in every once in a while when I go to the doctor, though.) We also stopped for lunch at a Greek place and had yummy lamb gyros.

4. I mailed two books today and only had to pay 30 cents thanks to the uncancelled stamps I got from those packages the other day. Woohoo!

5. We stopped in See's while at the post office and tried their new flavor of the month, black forest truffle. It's soooo good. I love that they are introducing all these new flavors, but so sad that they are all limited edition!

Daily Happysong:

The Sounds - Living in America
So catchy!

I meant to upload this icon the other day. It's from a recent Sinfest. I just colored it myself. It seemed appropriate. :D

Also, why am I hungry again? I just ate, damn it.

ETA: Man, and right after posting this, I saw this article about a couple of trans kids who were on Oprah. While it's overwhelmingly a positive article, I just...why is it always the same old bullshit?

Jake's younger brother Jason was 13 when [Jake] transitioned. Jake says Jason has helped him become more masculine. For example, Jake still referred to things as "cute" after he transitioned. "And [Jason would] be like, 'No, you don't say [cute],'" Jake says.

Yeah, God knows, guys never say anything is cute! *eyeroll*

I played Wii tennis and bowling and got all sweaty and telesilla reminded me of this awesome Penny Arcade, so I made an icon for use in Wii posts.

Tonight I decided to check out the weather for our trip and it looks like there's no avoiding at least some storms. >_< WTF, man. It's summer! I was expecting sunny and clear skies! Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin are all on my shit list right now! Probably Indiana, too, though we're not actually going there first, so I didn't check on their weather. Meh.

In unrelated news, we went to Book Off(s) today. I got a few random volumes of Beck and Meitantei Conan that were on the $1 shelf as well as One Piece 48. I'm trying to decide if I should take any manga with me on the trip. I probably will, since we're taking the car and I can just toss a bunch of them in the back seat. I should take a novel, too, and try to finish one of these three partially-read ones that have been sitting around for ages.

We stopped at Marukai, too, and there is a new katsu/curry place in where the yummy Korean place used to be. I am still sad the Korean place is gone, but omg today's lunch was soooooo good. Bruce just got tonkatsu a la carte and I got it with curry. Of course there was enough curry and rice to share, so he had some as well. The pork was so soft and juicy and the breading was crunchy and delicious. I have had a lot of tonkatsu that was tough, thin, gristly, and just generally not that great, but this was sooooo good. We'll definitely be eating there again. And I finished it off with an eclair cream puff at Beard Papa. ♥

We went to Target, too, and got me a pair of headphones so I can translate porn without scandalising the in-laws. Also got a medium-sized cooler. We have a tiny one that's pretty much just lunchbox-sized, and then a huge one, which we actually did take last time we drove to his folks', but it takes up half the back seat, and we don't need one that big. This holds 24 cans of soda (though we're also taking bottled water, so it will be less) and is just a nice size.

I made some icons today from Garfield Minus Garfield. There's the one on this post, plus this one:



This is the strip it's from, which may be my all-time favorite so far.

And I also made one out of the last panel here for Bruce, but he doesn't appear to have uploaded it yet.

It seems like all my icons are from webcomics these days. I downloaded a few Sinfests last week, but haven't made icons of them yet.

Anonytroll interrupted me while I was making icons, but now I am done! N'aww, cute ickle devil.

It's from the new Sinfest. I couldn't resist. The "Jesus-licious! Woo!" panel is awesome, too.

(*kicks Semagic* Why won't my icon list update? I had to post this from the web.)

Today's Dinosaur Comics is hilarious.

Also, I made an icon from today's Sinfest:

Well, actually not so much, since I turned on the fan in here. Much better. But urg, before I was just sitting at my desk here completely covered in sweat. It's not actually that hot, according to Yahoo, just 77. But 58% humidity! I know for some on my flist neither the heat nor the humidity is a big deal compared to where you are, but it is here! I live by the ocean! 58% humidity is NOT ON, yo!

In other news, I found there is a Nancy Drew snark review comm on LJ, titian_blonde. I haven't started reading it yet, but I anticipate it being good times. Sadly it looks like they're doing newer stuff so far, so it's not anything I'm familiar with (old school Nancy Drew, represent!), but it should still be fun. I'm enjoying the Sweet Valley snark and I never even read those.

In other other news, urg, I really don't know why I'm dragging my feet so much with these Garnet Crow translations. They're not really hard or anything. There's just so many of them (double best album).

And now, more Rihanna!

Bruce downloaded all three of her albums for me the other day and I've been listening non-stop.

Music of the Sun is her first album, and I think her weakest. Favorites off it are Pon de Replay (her first single) and Music of the Sun.

A Girl Like Me is her second and my favorite. My favorites off this are Unfaithful and A Million Miles Away, both of which are ballads (and SOS, which I already uploaded and rambled about before). And let me ramble a bit about Unfaithful, because I love it so. I don't think I've ever seen a song that's about cheating rather than being cheated on. I might just be forgetting something, though. But I really love this, both the music and lyrics. Take a look. Why yes, it does make me want to write fic. *headdesk*

( Unfaithful lyrics )

And last, but not least, her most recent album, Good Girl Gone Bad. This has Umbrella, and my two other favorites after that are Push Up on Me and Don't Stop the Music.

I'm glad Umbrella and SOS were the first songs I heard, because I don't think I would have immediately become such a huge fan if my introduction had been her first single. I'm really loving her, though.

Also I made a new Sinfest icon for Bruce:

So today was my high school reunion thingy. I really had a lot of fun, but I'm totally exhausted. I got there around 12.30 and got home at 5.30, thanks to being one of the last few hanging around talking, and then chatting with Yash for ages in the parking lot afterwards.

It wasn't a huge crowd, and because it was people from the past twenty-five years, there were some people I didn't know. But I knew about half of them, I guess. From my own class there was me, Yash, Joe, Sam, and Sarah. From the year above me, there was Cristal, Neal, and Mickey, and from the year below me there was Leighanne (her class had only like seven people in it, so I'm not surprised she was the only one who showed). The only people there who I've kept in touch with at all over the years are Yash (of course) and Tiffany (who was two years above me and is now teaching there). I haven't talked to Tiffany in a couple years, though, but we caught up today. I also chatted quite a bit with Stephanie, who was one of the organisers and who I'd hung out quite a bit with when I was in 7th and 8th grade, even though she was in 11th and 12th at the time. Everyone was quite surprised and impressed about me being a translator, which was fun. XD Stephanie even said her husband is a big Digimon fan when I said that was one of the shows I'd worked on. Small world.

So many people looked exactly the same. A lot of people didn't recognise me right off because of my hair, though, so it's good we had name tags. (Not only was my hair longer, but it was still blonde when I was in high school, too.) Yash won the award (a WLAB t-shirt - exciting!) for least changed. A lot of people brought their kids, including Yash, of course. They showed a slide-show thingy of pictures from the past twenty-five years, and Mickey's older daughter was at the table right behind me, I think she was about seven, and every time there was a photo with a black girl in it (which was like, every other photo), she was like, "Is that you, Mommy?" She was really cute.

They also had a tribute to one of the teachers who had been there almost since the beginning (and was actually principal for the last ten years or so, too). He's retiring from teaching and going to concentrate mainly on fight announcing (if you know anything about boxing, him and his dad are pretty famous announcers, Jimmy Lennon and Jimmy Lennon, Jr). He used to do announcing when he was teaching, too, and we had substitutes a lot. XD He was my class's homeroom teacher from 8th or 9th grade to 12th, and I also had him for history, photography, and yearbook. He was probably my favorite teacher.

After that they had a computer mockup of what the new school is going to look like after they completely demolish it this summer and rebuild from scratch. They said it's due to be finished in 2009, so I'm not quite sure what they're going to do for the year before then. Maybe it will be partially completed and they'll just use what's done during the construction. They're going to expand and make the campus larger and make it actually look like a school. Right now you kind of can't tell unless you know it's there.

Anyway, it was really fun. They're trying to get an actual alumni association going and have other get-togethers, so I gave them my email. Now I am all full of nostalgia.

*

On a completely different note, I decided I wanted to make an Amuro Namie icon yesterday, but when I went looking for pics, I found so many good ones, I'll probably end up making a slew. This one I'm using now is the first one I made, though.

And because she is seriously the cutest thing ever, I had to share my favorites of the pics I downloaded. These are all recent pics (like this year and last year), but I might look for some older pics, too, because she has always been super adorable.

( Much cuteness within. )