Monday, December 23, 2002
These past couple of weeks I've been working on launching my own design site. It's almost ready to go live! I've been trying to build up a respectable (no pun intended - some of you will get it, other's won't) portfolio, and have gotten a few customers by my own right, networking and such. The only problem with that will be that you must be 18-years-old or older to view my design site and work (Don't worry - sweetusagi.com, punkgirl.org, and sweetcream.net [soon to be snowdive.com] will NOT be effected by this, they will still be viewable to all). You'll see what I mean once it's all said and done. On a similar note, I'll be dropping sweetcream.net and picking up snowdive.com. I'll also be doing some server switching and yada... yada... Things will get a little nutty for a month after the holidays.
In exactly two weeks I'll be 21! Legal drinking age in the good old USA! I'm a good girl, I've only been drunk two or three times in my life so far. So being that I'll be able to drink what, where, and when I want, that number will surely increase with the coming year. Not to worry, I don't like the taste of most alchoholic beverages to begin with. So unless I have -or want to- burn my money on the expensive tasty drinks I prefer... that shouldn't pose any problems. I also don't drive, so there's no chance of my drinking and driving.
A few days ago Michael recieved some packages in the mail. Nuts, fruit, chocolate, filets, and two hefty, large, live lobsters (a suprise holiday gift from an affiliate)! Which we promptly ate on arrival. There's a picture of the aftermath in the cam gallery.
I found a new way to do my hair! With my appointment to get bangs in a few days, along with my array of pink bandanas and hair ties and clips, I should be quite stylish now (also some pics on the cam page)!
When you get older you pretty much know what you'll be getting for the holidays. This year I have lined up a nice collection of clothing, a peacoat, and a cute mint-green dress I'll be procuring from Sara! Who I will finally meet in person for the first time! Ironic, as we lived in the same town for several months after meeting online through a mutual real life friend.
However... the most important gift of all will be the return of my childhood pet to my care! My parents agreed to give her to me, and Michael and our roommate agreed that her living with us will not pose any problems. SO YES!! I get my baby kitty-cat back!
Last on my posting agenda -but not least- Michael and I will have been living together for three months this January 12th. In the beginning we got along great, then recently we dicovered a few clashing personality traits (inherent in both of our characters). I am difficult in some ways, he is difficult in other ways. Even more recently we have resolved, or are near to resolving most of them and things are as wonderful as ever! I won't lie, we were worried for a while, but the good between us far out weighs the few, petty differences. And THAT is rare with most couples. He is my bestfriend after all, and the person who cares for me... and oh-so-many other things. Hurrah, I love him!
Happy holidays everyone! Happy new year too! Wish me a happy birthday! CAPRICORNS RULE!
Sunday, December 22, 2002
All week I've been trying to write a post, just couldn't find the time. I'll write it up soon. However...
Earlier today I was trying to come up with a new layout. I started by making a wiggly square and messing around with effects and such. I did something by accident, and it started to look like something, so I did it again... and again... and *gasp*! I went on and played with it and tweeked it... and morphed it into a masterpiece! From scratch, from literally a simple blob I created...
I've been busy working the past few days. I'll start posting again when things start to pick up again. I also don't really want to talk about my job until things have really gotten rolling. Going to see LOTR with Michael and our roomate at midnight.
I'll be changing my journal layout soon for winter! Perhaps today or tomorrow.
Also, it seems that my imposter from i-e.net is at it again. She's been going around to more sites and posting nasty comments to the webmasters using my name and site link. This is her childish attempt to "prove" that she is not the only one who dislikes me. What she doesn't realize is that even if people dislike me, it's not because of anything I did or said, how could it be? She wrote those mean comments, not me. Three ways you know that posts like that are not from me 1. I do not have time to / nor would I post mean comments about other people. 2. I wake up between 10~11 and then work all day, if I were going to post anywhere (aside from on my own site or the jpopmusic forum) I would do so later at around 6~7 in the afternoon (hehe, of course now that I've said that my imposter knows this and will probably start posting later to make it appear as me, but as I said, I never post on sites that are not those of my friends) 3. If the IP does not trace back to Nashville TN then it would be impossible for it to have been me in any case. The imposter girl's IP traces back to NYC usually.
Someone came here and insulted my site because of something the imposter-girl from i-e.net posted. I'm not mad at that person, they had no idea it wasn't me. But for the record the only brushes used on this layout is the tiny scripture brush on the top left (which is from nocturna.net, which is linked from my sweetusagi.com links page). The stars hanging down I did myself by hand using the built in photoshop brush of a star, the pencil tool, and the 'opacity' slider on the layers menu. Also, the picture is not simply inverted. It was editted to look more 'perfect' (her hair, skin... etc), then solarized, inverted, blurred, off-centered, contrast manipulated... and so on. Also, the smudged edges are not bad looking at all, the effect is supposed to look 'dreamy' and it proved to work very well. Also, I know it's a lot of pink, but this is a PERSONAL journal, so why does anyone really care about that?
Sorry about the imposter from i-e.net, I have no control over her and her choice to not have a life.
Someone asked me if I'm not keeping my personal journal anymore! I am! Of course, but I will also be posting messages at kitterfly.net as an extra! Mostly silly comments, opinions, and rants, like the other girls there. This will always be my personal journal. However, I might be moving it over to snowdive.com and sharing it with Michael, my boyfriend. I'm not positive of that move yet. But yes, I will always have my own personal journal just for me. If I do move I will still be hosting my girlies here on punkgirl.org! :D
listening to: 'ROLLIE' by Shaka Labbits
Hello! Hello!~*
I now post here -- Kitterfly.net
I'll be updating my YUKI gallery with new pictures later on tonight or tomorrow. See you then!
listening to: 'koibito yo' by YUKI
Here it is, my ticket to New York for Thanksgiving! You might wonder why I never mentioned what I was doing for the holiday, or where I was going; There's a reason for that but I wouldn't dream of giving those people the satisfaction of seeing their names on my journal. But I digress...
The flight from Nashville to NYC was about 1.5 ~ 2 hours, so we flew ON Thanksgiving. The flight was very scary for me, as I haven't been on a plane since I was 15! I had forgotten how beautiful it is to fly above the clouds. I mentioned that it reminded me so much of the Falcor scene from Neverending Story, but Michael didn't remember it at all. It was exactly like that! The sun was on the horizon of clouds, so everything was white, blue, and orange! The weather was beautiful, they looked less like clouds and more like a perfect snow covered field.
I imagined that we weren't really flying. That the low pressure and movement was all fabricated by a machine, and that the scenery out the window was a movie. I gazed out the window, yawned and swallowed to pop my ears, and clung to Mike's arm, trying to decided if I was really flying.
When we arrived his parents were waiting to pick us up. I was shy, of course, but they were so outgoing and nice I felt a little more relaxed. Straight from the airport we drove to a town near Mystic, Connecticut were his sister and her husband lived -she was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. The drive took around three hours. Meeting them, on top of having just met his parents only helped to increase my shyness. For a while I didn't talk much, just commented on things, and answered questions. I was probably the shyest I have ever been... aside from when I first met Michael.
His sister had the two most adorable dogs, actually one would still be considered a puppy. His sister made pretty much the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Mike and I did most of the dishes afterward. We slept over and drove just a few minutes away to Mystic. It was COLD, especially on the bridge which I'm standing on in the picture. I wish I could say more, but the town wasn't all that fantastic. The only descriptive word I can come to is 'quaint'. The day we went to Mystic was also the first day of Hanukkah, however we left sometime in the mid afternoon. If she actually lit any candles on the manora she had set up next to the dinner table, I don't know.
The rest of the week we spent at his parents house on Manhattan Beach. The house was beautiful, and the sheer amount of interesting things inside impressed me to no end. I was mostly interested in the pictures, especially the ones of Micheal as a child. He was quite possibly the most adorable kid I'd ever seen! He looked like he should have been some famous child actor, that's how adorable he was.
We went into the city around four or five times that week. Most of the time I wasn't sure were we were actually. Except of course when we went to shops I knew (Book Off and Kinokuniya, which I had been to several times before last year), China town, and Times Square (which, at night, was something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie), which I obviously was already familiar with. The few times his parents were with us, we each pretty much did our own thing. Starbucks was a regular stop daily, which I had no problem with, being that I'm in love with the vanilla latte. We mostly ate out every day. The places I remember are Cafe LULUc, Planet Thailand, and Sammie's... I think those are right.
The last few times I went to Book Off and Kinokuniya (THE places to get manga in the US... if you don't live in NYC, or a city that has a Kinkokuniya, you're pretty much screwed) I spent hundreds, and I do mean hundreds on manga (although I did save $2.50 since I spent $50 last time I was there, judging from my member card I've spent at least $155 at Book Off alone!). This time I decided to limit myself... that and the fact that Michael was the only one with money! Haha... yea. At Book Off I picked up UruQ 2 ~ 4 and three GLAY bio. books (I'll probably sell them on eBay at some point). Kinokuniya had everything else I'd been wanting but I walked away with only Chobits #5. Contrary to what some other people have said they DID have Chobits 6 and 7 there. But they were $7.50 a piece, and Mike only agreed to buy me one. *cry* Hehehe. I'm fine with that, being that a member of my anime club has an insane collection of Chobits manga and goods which he once showed me. I may have mentioned that in a previous post. The cover of #5 struck me as incredibly beautiful, which is why I decided on it.
The day we ate at Sammie's we met Kaitou-senpai on Broadway and walked over. I had met him for the first time last year, and it was great seeing him again! He is, afterall, one of my longest-known internet friends; I've known him for around seven years now. Afterward we walked to China town and looked around the little underground malls. So much bootlegging, it's amazing. I'd been there before, also with Kaitou-senpai, but this time he said they had a lot more than before. Michael bought a couple of Five Star Stories and Cowboy BeBop DVDs. The subtitles sucked horribly.
The day we met Kaitou-senpai wasn't as great as it would have been had the timing not been so sad. The day before, Michael's grandfather -who we visited in the hospital every day that week- passed away. When we got home from Kaitou and China town we went over to his uncle's house for a memorial service. Where I had thought I was only going to meet his parents and sister, I ended up meeting most of his family and friends. I was so tense, nervous, and shy I could barely speak at all. For some reason I felt like I didn't have a right to be there, but his family really is so good at making you feel at home. Just by them being who they are, I felt ok. I've never met a family who's members were all so close with each other. It wasn't sad at all. Everyone of course was sad, but they all seemed to enjoy remembering him and what a wonderful person he was. I, unfortunatly, never really got to meet him. But from all the family and friends talking about him, and the pictures they had there, I got a good feeling about him, and was unhappy that I never got to meet this person everyone adored so much.
Before we left to come home Michael's mother had over heard me talking about my journal, and how long the next entry would be. She told me to please write about the memorial service for his grandfather and what I experienced. I'm sorry I couldn't have made it better. I'm the last person who could accurately write about him, as I never got to meet him myself. I also felt I shouldn't get too personal as all manner of people read my journal. People, sadly, aren't always as nice as we might hope they'd be.
The day after that we flew home. I still wasn't un-afraid of flying. Take-offs are bad, landings are worse! and I had to do them each twice! Michael seemed to think I was overreacting, but I really wasn't. I still don't like airplanes! We watched some of the anime he bought on my laptop on the plane. The landing coming home was THE WORST. It was raining and foggy. I strained my eyes trying to stare through the fog to see if we were close to the ground. The fog wasn't as low as I though, so we had a good minute or two to see the ground before we actually landed. It felt good to be home, especially since YUKI's new single had arrived while we were away. Michael bought it for me too! "I buy you too much stuff!" he says. Really, he could buy me nothing and I would still be the happiest girl in the world.