An Amusing Observation

I noticed something pretty amusing when checking out the stats on my blog's counter. It seems that a lot of people have dropped by my blog in their search for pictures of Tsukasa and Mimiru cosplayers. I figured that if I mentioned it some more, it would attract (and disappoint) many more people. :P Okay people, keep clicking my link - I want to come up on top of all your Google searches. *evil laugh* Well, for all my ardent fans (who am I trying to kid?) who want to know about .hack//SIGN cosplaying, like I mentioned yesterday, there's a possibility of my cosplaying as Elk, who looks pretty much like Tsukasa (except in blue). Let me tell you though, I never considered Mimiru - she doesn't wear enough clothing. I think I'd get cold. ^_~

Anime class today was really nice. We had "Learn to Draw Anime Day" today and it was nice - forced me to draw for two hours straight! *still in Heaven* ^^ Sarah laughed when I mentioned that and said that I draw every day in class. But that's just doodling. It doesn't count as real drawing. :D I started off with copying a bit of stuff from Violinist of Hameln - a very cutely drawn manga - and then branched off into dark elves. The person who was running the drawing session mentioned that I draw with Takahashi proportions. It surprised me, to say the least - Rumiko Takahashi drew Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Inu-Yasha, among other things, and her female characters tend to have a very shortened torso, which I guess I sort of emulate. I certainly wasn't aware of the connection though. It was a weird thought. Oh well, at least I don't draw Sailor Moon-style. Then I'd have to make the legs three times longer, and the necks three times skinnier! I gave Yin (the person in charge of today's class) some of my drawings because she offered to scan in her stuff and email it to us. Well, works for me. I hope I get the originals back. Other mentionables from that class - Yin probably criticized our teacher the most (it was pretty funny - he's not the best artist :P), someone at the table next to me drew Tsukasa (wasn't bad, but you could tell it was copied, ah well....), the girl across from me was obsessed with Alucard from Hellsing, but only drew him once, then started going into catgirls and stuff (she draws quite well - even uses all that proportional stuff that I can't stand - the circles and guiding lines and stuff), and well, I think more people copied than did original work. *shrugs* Well, I guess you have to learn the style before you try doing your own stuff with it. Goodness knows that's how it worked for me.

In anime lab we watched Video Girl Ai - a 6 OVA series. It was quite good - a weak-male lead shoujo series. The protagonist, Yota, looked quite a bit like Vash the Stampede from Trigun (it's the spiky hair, I think). The last episode, was, of course, weird and surreal, as these tend to be. I didn't like the conclusion all that much - it is sad. And the red guy annoyed me. This series was rather predictable though - it's fairly similar to Ah! My Goddess - shy guy + bold girl(s) = several happy episodes, then random plot thickening near the end, all culminating in a weird last episode that sort of spoils the storyline, at least for me. Oh dear, I wonder if all anime in this subgenre of shoujo anime follows the same formula? *shudders*

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Cowboy Bebop - Cosmic Dare
Current mood: *trying hard to keep my eyes open*

Reflections

Well, vacation is finally over, but it sure was nice while it lasted. I got so much sleep, it wasn't even funny. I remember when I would automatically wake up at 7:00 in the morning on weekends. Alas, my internal clock has been ruined, and I ended up getting up closer to 8 or 9, depending on which alarm clock I had or hadn't remembered to set. Although I did absolutely no schoolwork, my vacation was still fairly productive. I made ten clay dragons - this brings me up to a baker's dozen ready for Old Home Days (though most aren't glazed yet, and I left them at home, sadness!). I hope to make about three dozen more - I had only two dozen last year, and it wasn't enough. Four dozen would put me well over, and I'll hopefully have a surplus. My mom thinks that after I'm all set with the Old Home Days dragons, that I should start marketing to my dojo. Actually, her proposal sounds quite promising. I can make karate-themed dragons with different belts and stuff and market them as being excellent promotional gifts. I'm sure Hanshi would jump at the idea - he's always looking to make a little extra money. :P If I lower my price a bit, then he can also sell for a decent profit - I won't be making quite as much, but it's still an outlet for my creativity. Of course, I guess this means I have to stop adding in shells and stones... Well, it's something to think about, after I make a bit of headway.

Hm, other things of note this vacation... The big thing is that I tested for my full black belt. I received my black belt back in April, but it was a probationary rank - I finally tested for full black belt status, and passed. So now I'm caught up to the rest of my family! I can't believe that my mom's the same rank as us (Alissa and Kelsey hold equivalent rank in the junior system since they're both less than sixteen years old and therefore don't qualify as adults). I'm sad though, that they are all going to be testing for their second black belt this month (in Goju-ryu, the second style of karate that our school specializes in). My Goju rank is still at green belt level. I need to pass through three more ranks before I can test for black belt in Goju. And I think I know pretty much everything I need for that second black belt. -~-

At home, I tried out the new cable modem. It's not bad, but MITnet is better. Still, the wireless network is very nice. I enjoyed working up in my room the whole vacation. And the phone lines aren't tied up anymore! I also got a new battery for my laptop. It is so much better than my other two batteries! I'm so happy. ^_^ While I'm on the topic of computers, I guess I'll mention this computer game that I started playing. My sister Alissa got this game called Rune, and it's this 3rd-person viking RPG sort of game, except it's not really an RPG - more like an adventure, kill-anything-that-moves sort of game. I was a little leery of it at first, but now I'm totally hooked. I've never played a game quite like it before - not only are the graphics excellent, but it's really fun to play. You play as the viking Ragnar whose clan was wiped out by an evil viking who has sided with Loki, the evil god. You start out underground and have to fight your way to the surface, gaining weapons and magic as you go along. The fighting is interesting - you can often make things easier by stategically planning your advance on your enemies. I think finding your way around is the best part. There is only one way to go, but it's not always the most obvious way. If a door blocks your path, there might be an intriguing way around it - like breaking through a weakened hole in the wall nearby. It's a bit creepy at times, and I'm glad I've got the gore filter set on ultra-high, but I'm still blown away by the game. EverQuest, what? :P

Well, this is turning out to be essay-length, but that's what happens when you don't write every day, right? ^_~ Just a few more things to mention though. I managed to get together with Susan for a few hours, which was really really nice. We did some catching up - it was nice to see her after so long.... I think we last hung out together some time last summer. o~o I also spent some time with Kristen. I hope she gets a job soon. And I hope she comes to Anime Boston with me. I'll be sad to go alone. Ha, if she comes, she's going to bring along a costume for me. I'll be cosplaying Elk from the .hack video game. I wanted to cosplay Tsukasa, but Kristen was making the costume, and she only had blue cloth. :P I'm not sure if I'd really want to wear it though - I look stupid in the hat. Ggghhh.... Well, we'll see. She might not even come! Still, I hope she's going to come down here. She needs to get out to a real city every now and then. ^^

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Those Who Hunt Elves - Ponytail Soldier
Current mood: Tired - I'm going to miss getting 10 hours of sleep a night... :P

War and Peace

Whoa.... Cool! I'm looking out my window right now, and there are a lot of people massed on the Harvard Bridge with signs and stuff. Looks like cars can't even drive across the bridge... Well, now that the war has finally begun, the protestors are busy massing together. There was a walk-out today - at 11:30 am. Right in the middle of my physics test. We were taking the test, and all of a sudden, there was this really loud drum-beat that echoed through all the hallways. Very noisy and annnoying - thankfully, they took everything outside. That wasn't the only annoyance though - there were helicopters flying over MIT all morning long. Heck, they're still flying around outside of my room right now. I sure hope they were just busy televising the walk-out and not actually doing 'patrol' or something. Seriously, what are you going to be able to spot from the air? Man, the media must be having a blast.

As for the test? Well, as Sarah said, "Either I passed or I didn't." Same thing here... Either I did things right, or I did them totally wrong. Let's hope it's the former. ^^ Hm, the last question (worth 25 points out of 100 total) had 2 parts, and both seemed to come out to 0. That's always disturbing.... Especially when it's worth a quarter of your grade. >_< But it seems that everyone else got that too. Let's hope it's correct!

Sarah and I walked out after the test and saw there were a lot of people (all the anti-war folks) congregating at the Student Center. So we got lunch from the food trucks instead of trying to fight our way to the cafeteria in the Student Center. There were lots of people with signs and armbands and stuff. There was this frightening George Bush caricature puppet thing made out of paper mache, and some people were holding up word bubbles near him saying "'W' is for war" and "MIT is for peace." Heading back from class today, I saw some students loading the puppet into a pickup truck. They're probably taking it to Government Center for tonight's rally. Most of the signs were pretty standard anti-war signs, but there was one that disturbed me a lot - a sign of the American flag with a swastika superimposed on it. I don't agree with that at all. -_-

Hmm.... The people are walking down the bridge now, into Boston. I wonder how many there are... Well, I've been trying to sort out my feelings on this war, and it's not an easy matter. It certainly seems to me that dimplomacy wasn't going to work any more - hasn't really been working recently anyway. What are we supposed to do? Just leave Iraq alone? Can we afford to do that? Why does everyone seem so against this war? Are there really any better alternatives? If we can get in and get out quickly, I think it would be worth it. Unfortunately, though, the US doesn't have a very good record of fighting lightning-quick wars. It makes me a little sick to think about having 300,000 soldiers all converging on that one little county... But there were more than 600,000 soldiers their during the Gulf War. It's hard to imagine. The politicians sound much too optimistic. How are our soldiers supposed to be able to take over and hold gigantic oil fields the size of New Jersey in next to no time? I think the thing that upsets me the most is the swarm of helicopters hanging around here. The media just love this... They can go on and on about war day and night. Goodness knows, they've been doing that all this time anyway... But now... It will be even worse. I'm also a little worried to be here. MIT is such a high profile school - very well known in the international community. I didn't worry about that at all until just this week. What if terrorists decide to attack institutes of higher education? Likely or not? Still, I'm very disturbed, and I'm glad I've got spring break this week. I don't really want to be around here in Boston right now.

I'm really glad that my 6.001 project wasn't as bad as the last one. I'm actually finished, besides doing some final testing and commenting. So I can devote all of today to my math p-set. Joy. Heck, once I finish that, then I'm all done for the week and I can start to think about vacation!! I can't wait. ^_^

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Savage Garden - Affirmation
Current mood: Sad

Oh, Monday, Monday... Wait, it's Tuesday Already.

I'm so tired and it's only 2am. What's wrong with me? I've got another one of those awful computer projects to do by Friday. While at first glance it appears to be a good deal shorter than the last one, I don't trust first appearances. I've only just finished the second exercise (out of 6) and it took me way longer than it should have. >_< I also asked for an extension on my series analysis for my anime class (yeah, we're presenting analyses of anime...) but I didn't get it. So I've got to give a 15 minute presentation on Wenesday and I haven't even started that yet. Rats. My desk lamp's lightbulb burned out. Third time this year, but at least it's a conventional bulb this time... Good thing I can go home soon and restock. ^_~ Riiiight.... I've got a fizzicks test on Thursday too. Lovely. Somehow I don't think I'm going to have enough time to study. Or to do my math p-set. Not good, not good... Things would be a whole lot better if I could put off that stupid presentation 'til after vacation. Urrgh...

Durn it, I'll leave everything else 'til tomorrow. I need sleep now. Why couldn't I get vacation this week? Today was soooo beautiful. I wore a t-shirt, and it felt so spring-like. I hope next week will be like that too. No more snow!

Hehe, funny story of note. Actually, I have two. First of all, this morning, there was this guy in my essay class who was debating whether he should fly to California or not for spring break, what with the impending war and all - he was worried about terrorists. Professor Wolfe, being the ever-helpful guy that he is, stated that flying to California was probably as safe as staying at MIT since the it's such a prestigious school and sign of advancement and technology. Didn't that make us all feel good? Thanks, Prof. Wolfe. :P Second thing, I just got an email a couple of hours ago - looks like there was a hack! There's a lot of construction going on around MIT, and on Massachusetts Avenue, there's this big old lightboard/sign thingy that tells cars about detours up ahead and such. Apparently, someone reprogrammed the sign to say "Nerd Crossing" and "ILTFP". ILTFP is a play on a famous MIT catchphrase - IHTFP, which stands for "I hate this f***ing place." ILTFP replaces the 'hate' with 'love' - it's also a student group composed of people who are worried about the direction that MIT is heading, especially where dorm rush and orientation are concerned. Heh, anyway, with the email came a picture - it's pretty cute. We should keep our 'Nerd Crossing' sign. ^___^

Okay, enough rambling for now. 'Night folks.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Boogiepop Phantom - Angel in the Dark
Current mood: Zzz...

Of Idiots and Dragons... But Mostly Idiots

Gods above, I'm such an insensitive pig. I guess I shouldn't write all this stuff up where just anyone can see it. That's what the good ol' diary is for, right? Not that I've ever had one... o_O Well, looking back on the last couple of posts, I just feel stupid and selfish. And tired. I just want to go home now - spring break seems ages away, though I'm free after 6pm Friday night.

On a somewhat more positive note, I've started making clay dragons again - I've made two already. They're all baked and finished and everything... except for the glaze. I forgot to ask someone to bring it from home. No matter, I'll get ahold of it when I get back. I hope that I can find my clay tools - they seem to have gone missing. I've had to make do with my paring knife and a hairpin... Which is rather amusing in its own right.

Mrrf, I said I'd finish my essays by 5pm so I could finish my project. I've got only 2 hours left and still an essay and a half to write. Aargh!

Peace, folks. Don't be stupid like I am. Yah.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Delerium - Heaven's Earth
Current mood: ._.

Addendum

Lovely. Now David's gone and cancelled the cooking on Friday because he's upset about his grades or something. *points to yesterday's post* Well, maybe there's more to it than I'm aware of... Still, it's stupid. I'm still bitter. *humphs and mutters*

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Noir - Canta per Me (Japanese Version)
Current mood: -__-

Another Rant

Hm, here's another thing (David-related, even) I meant to write down last night and then forgot to. Please excuse the complaining, but I don't really have anywhere else to write this... Okay, so we have this small cooking group here which consists mostly of people in my dorm - every two weeks, we get together and someone cooks something and we all help to prepare and eat it. We trade off and since there are seven or eight people in the group, any individual person doesn't cook too often. Still, cooking for that many people is a bit difficult - you have to prepare quite a bit of food. Anyway, to cut straight to the point, David (who isn't in the group) decided that he wanted to cook for us and for some other people as well. So he sent out an email to us and the others, inviting us all together for a meal next week. All of which is fine, and I have no problem with that at all, but for this sentence that he put in near the end of the message saying that all the people who weren't on the cooking group's email list (we're 'cooking@mit.edu' - how amusing is that?) probably should have been added. Now I don't know if it's fair of me to be so upset over that - he probably had no idea what he was saying - but that really ticked me off. David is not part of the cooking group... Why should he be criticizing how we work? Maybe he's comfortable with cooking for twenty people, but I think that adding any more people to the group would be terribly inconvenient. When I cooked a few weeks ago, not everyone showed up, and I had barely anything left when we were done. How can David dare to make such presumptions?! *splutters* I haven't mentioned this to anyone else on the email list - I wonder if they feel the same way as me. Or am I the only person petty enough to riled up over something like that? He probably wasn't very serious anyway... He can be a pretty careless person. But I'm still upset. -_-

Well well, enough of my whining. My family's going to take me out to dinner Sunday night - yay! I asked them to bring my clay stuff along - I'd really like to get back into making clay dragons. My mom asked if I wanted to reserve a booth at Old Home Days again this year (I sold dragons there last year... It was great!) and I said that I'd love to, but I haven't made a single clay dragon since August. I'd better get started. :P I hope that I can find enough time to make dragons. I think with my stuff here, I could become inspired. *crosses fingers*

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Those Who Hunt Elves - Round 11
Current mood: Irritated at the stupid fly that's stuck in between the window and the screen so that I can't open the window without letting it into the room...

Changing Times?

A funny thing happened the other night. I had my 6.001 test Wednesday night (which went miserably.... I got my score back to day, and let's just say I'm not in the best of moods right now...) and I was so tired afterwards, that once I finished up physics homework with people in the Concourse lounge, I was very reluctant to start my math p-set. So reluctant in fact, that I blew off the next two hours by drawing on the table with chalk. <_<; I actually really liked it - it's much easier to draw on a table than on a blackboard. The chalk also comes off quite easily - no problems. ^_^ Anyway, I draw a plethora of dragons - they probably took up more than half the table. I decided to leave them there to see how long they would last. An experiment of sorts. ^^

The next day, I was doing some work at another table (there's about 4 or so pushed up together to make one big workspace) and people would keep coming in and see the chalk-covered table and exclaim, "Vandalism!" and then walk over and say "Awww.... That's so cute!" And then they somehow all knew that I had done it. I didn't realize that everyone knew I drew dragons. :/ Maybe they didn't - there was also a picture of me stuck in the middle of them, puzzling over my fizzicks. That tipped off David when he walked in (here's where the odd part that's probably only odd to me comes in). He noticed the picture of me and announced to the room that he knew I had drawn the dragons because he recognized the quick cartoon portrait of myself (with the McDonald's bangs, oh yeah... :P) and announced that it was my "trademark". When I heard that, I wasn't sure whether to be amused or upset. I have never considered my pictures of myself to be my trademark - I've only been drawing myself for a year or two, but I've been drawing dragons since 8th grade. Indeed, I've always thought my dragons to be my trademark. David got it in reverse! It makes me wonder how this came to be - I guess I do draw myself quite a bit... And dragons are usually drawn as doodles during class because they are quick and easy to do.

So I wonder how I've changed so much, so recently for this to happen - I was always the dragon girl in high school. It must be because I don't have time for dragon cartoons anymore, and I haven't made clay dragons in ages. Are my dragons are becoming harder to see, to find? I know it must sound silly, but David's statement has shaken me quite a bit. I am disturbed, and my 6.001 test score hasn't helped the situation at all.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Balligomingo - Falling
Current mood: Tired