New layout coming for my journal here, probably later tonight if blogger doesn't have a hissy fit. The next layout will be similar to the old pale pink / inverted-solarized girl in kimono layout from a while back... but a bit more minimalist and a lot less pink.
A few days ago I finally used most of my birthday gift from Michael (a towerrecords.com gift "card") with which I ordered:
The Greatest Hits [album] - Fleetwood Mac
Is This It [album] - The Strokes
Je t'aime Je t'aime [single] - Tommy February6
Then I popped over to cdjapan and ordered:
Sentimental Journey [single] - YUKI
Tommy February6 [album] - Tommy February6
In a few weeks or so I'll put in my preorders for YUKI's 6th single 'Humming Bird' and 2nd album 'Commune'... damn, I can't wait.
Brian and Remi have been talking about how good Tommy Feb is (Tomoko from the brilliant green's recent solo work), so I decided to try it.
I've given Michael a taste for karee rice (my former favorite dish before I discovered Indian [India, not American Indian] food). I've also given him a fierce addiction to the pokemon games for GBC.
I'm too bored and tired to continue... even though I'm sure I have more to say here...
I've been working on it all night... and it's finally ready!
SweetUsagi.com Forums are now online and ready to go. ^_^
I'm on a mission to stay up all night and day today, something I haven't done in about seven or eight months. I just went out for a cigarette only to discover that the old adage "The cats come out at night" is an absolute truism. During the day you only see about three or four stray cats roaming around. At any given time I generally see one or two... or none at all. Tonight, however, I spotted over a dozen. Five had situated themselves around our porch; Mi ("our" stray), her father, brother, and two other cats (one gray and one black) I had never seen before were right there... just a few feet away as I walked out the door. Mi, her father, and brother were actually on the porch when I walked out. Two took off toward the street, and Mi hung around the stoop to see if I had food for her.
Speaking of cats, mine is an odd one. Until I brought her home to Nashville over Christmas she had spent an entire year locked down in the dark basement of the house were I grew up. No sunlight, no light at all... for that matter, no toys, and no contact with any other living creature -except for bugs and the occational mouse, which were promptly and properly wounded, played with, and killed by her. I think this had an extreme effect on her.
Because now, wherever I go, she's there. If I sleep in the bed, she burrows under the covers to sleep with me. If I step out for a cigarette, when I come in she's perched on the couch nearest the door watching. If I'm at my desk, she's sitting in bed or on Michael's chair (her favorite spot) watching me or snoozing. If I'm watching TV, she's there sniffing around, sitting on the couch, or trying to climb into whoever's lap is warmest. If I'm in the bathroom for longer than usual, she's there near the door or in the hallway. If I'm in any other room, she comes waltzing in and finds a place to perch. Right now Michael is asleep in bed and I'm at my desk... where is my cat? Asleep on Michael's chair. She would be in bed, but I'm still up, so she's waiting.
She never used to be like this. She used to run off, hide, play, and do her own thing. But now it feels like her one and only goal is to be with me. She'll run around in a fit of energy, sure... but her starting point is always by me, she's wanting me to chase her. She has toys to play with now, and lots of places to go but she ignores it all. She just wants to be with me. It's so sad. I love that my cat is oddly devoted and clingy to me, but as this is not how I remember her, and it's not how most cats act... I feel bad. She must have been so... so... lonely.
Happy Valentine's Day sweeties and darlings! *kiss kiss kiss*
ADDED @ 2:25 PM:
I've been getting lots and lots of YUKI and Judy and Mary related email recently from all over the world. Some for joining the fanlist, but even more so, people telling me they are fans and that my site is very helpful. Some even said that they checked out JAM and YUKI after visiting my site, and now they are fans. I just want to say... this has far surpassed my greatest expectations for my site. I'm extremely thrilled that there are so many new fans. I don't get anything out of this at all, just some links and the knowledge that my site helped inspire new fans.
Some people think that many webmasters make sites just to show off, or be popular. This could not be any more wrong! I'm one of those people who can enjoy things all by my lonesome... but, I enjoy things even more so if I can share them with other people! This is why I have a public journal, this is why I make sites, to share. The fact that my YUKI site may be the most popular site I've created is even more rewarding as it is the one I work hardest on, and of the topic I care about and enjoy the most! Thank you, and please spread the word about JAM and YUKI!
Ahhh.. I finally, finally, finally cleaned out my inbox. It took about two hours to go through and delete/organize them all, but now my inbox is beautifully organized and weeded out! I feel much more on track. Tomorrow I might go through all my files and do the same. An organized computer is just about as good as my morning coffee.
'44982 VS. 1650' arrived today, it rocks, my Judy and Mary collection is complete!
Michael asked me what I want for Valentine's Day. I said, just dinner, cuddling, and asked him to let me preorder the YUKI stuff that will be releasing late in March. That might seem like a strange request but, since we live together and he makes the overwhelmingly larger half of our money, I have to really ask him before I buy anything. I don't mind, I only buy cigarettes and YUKI related items lately.
About a year ago I was playing Game Boy everyday, hardcore. Mostly it was every cart in the Pokemon series (previously Yellow, and then later Crystal being my base carts. I bought a second Game Boy Color for the sole purpose of trading to myself, hahaha), the Kirby Adventure games... and what not. I also got an adorable transperant pink Game Boy Advance for myself, and some games including Klonoa and the Super Mario Brother's cart. Well, long story short, I've been playing Mario a lot lately on that. I love it mainly for the nostalgia it affords me as I used to be glued to my NES [famicom's american counterpart] when I was a kid. Side note: Kirby's Adventure was my all time favorite video game (Sonic the Hedghog 3 w/ Sonic & Knuckles add-on for Genesis [called Megadrive in Japan] was a close second - I got a Nomad to play it hand held, but not in several years have I done that) but as it is not available in a hand held console I have to settle for the old classics... that's where Mario comes in!
Today I didn't work much, instead I cleaned house and made onigiri (see cam page) for Michael and I to eat when he got home from work. Fun, but exhausting. Which reminds me, anyone who said girls who want to be housewives and mothers, instead of starting a real career, were lazy need to try it out for themselves sometime. I'm niether of those things at the moment, but the little that I do do now is not as easy as you think and it's very time consuming. Going off topic slightly: When I was a kid I remember hating to vacuum and do dishes. But now I enjoy doing these things. The only difference is that back then I was forced to do it (it was a chore) but now I want to do it.
That's all for now. Goodnight!
Puska (my black cat, 13 years old) is finally warming up to Michael. At first, when we first brought her to Nashville over Christmas, she wouldn't let him hold her. He would try and she would meow like crazy and squirm about. Now she sleeps on our legs at night, burrows under the covers, and let's him hold her with no squirming, but still some minimal meowing. She still doesn't like it when he teases her. I can tease her and all she does is get annoyed and give me play bites, with him she get's a little irritated, you can tell. You live with a cat for most of your life and you get to know her personality well enough to know what different meows and gestures mean. She likes "human style" hugs, but still doesn't understand kisses which I give her a lot of and that annoy her to bits.
Speaking of cats, there's a stray kitten we've taken a shine to, and named 'Mi' after the sound of her demure meow. She's all black with a white neck and tummy. We feed her cat food every once in a while. If she sees either of us on the porch she'll come running from as far away as a few blocks to see if we have food for her. I was feeding her today and decided I'd try to pet her. She let me get away with it so I tried holding her but I'd gone too far and she scratched my hand. *weep*
I'm almost finished with my third design project for this week. Of all the professional work I've done I think this one may be the best. It's for an "adult" free host.
Lastly... I've heard that there is a good (or should I say bad) chance of a terrorist attack this week. If you live in a big city (primarily NYC)... I know you want to go out into the city to shop and hang out... but for this week at least try to do more stay at home activities. Have a party, get some work done that maybe you've been putting off, surf some web, and by all means keep a news channel on a lot, or keep tabs on Yahoo. Just be careful. At times like this, I don't care who is who to me... friend or foe, just be careful whoever and wherever you are. Peace.
Yes, I have been that busy. At first I thought my design biz wasn't going to take off that well... my being female... my site being so god damn pink... my being a newbie to selling... but the past two weeks things have set off for me! I'm not completely bogged down, four full projects (and more in line for next week), it wasn't that much of a "boom." But then really, a few for me may actually translate as a "shit load" of work for someone not as quick as me. I'm getting a lot of creativity blocks now that I'm working for people rather than on my own sites. Yesterday I tried to fix up a new layout for this blog and it turned into a jumbled mess. I'm talking "messy, mismatched collage of flowers, nudes, and textures." I won't be using that one.
Now... for some really exciting news! Well... for me anyway. If it arrives all right through our lovely US Postal service my Judy and Mary CD/Book/DVD collection will be 100%, totally, utterly, complete! I finally got that WARP tour DVD... then I got hold of the JAM Book, and after that all that was left to get was the infamously out of print and rare 3-disc live album 44982 VS. 1650. I won it on eBay for $17.51 which, if you haven't done the math yet, is a STEAL! I was a complete nervous wreck waiting for that auction to end. Yuki's 5th single will be coming out soon now as well (her baby will be born in a matter of days, and then it's time for her 31st b-day!). Busy, busy, busy in the world of YUKI!
Now about my sites and email having been down yesterday: Simple, my host switched everything to a new server. Everything is set back up. I'm noticing some lagging... but supposedly the new server is quicker. Could just be me... although I doubt that, as I'm on cable.
I'll try to blog more often. I want to, but for some reason I just can't find the time. I've started entries a number of times this month, and just never got around to finishing them. My cam page and the novel I'm creating are also suffering. My notebooks and cam have some dust on them from remaining untouched for weeks. I also haven't been able to read at all. the last books I read were x-mas gifts 'Asleep' and 'Tsugumi' one from each of my sisters. I'm trying to read 'The Diamond Age' now, as requested of me by Michael. But I've only been able to get in about five pages each of it every few days. Of course all of this is my fault, I'm just making excuses for myself here.
Michael and I are doing fine, still doing the same old same old. We got a rice cooker! Haha... yea, that was pretty much the highlight of our week. Michael mostly works and reads, I work, slack, and smoke. We could go out, but he's not motivated and I'm antisocial. Nashville weather is still as wierd as ever. It snowed for the second time this season yesterday. People say that Michigan weather is the strangest... not so. Having lived there, and here... Nashville weather is just insane. Oh yea, I haven't quit smoking yet. I will and I should. I have another item to add to my list of reasons to quit now, my sister said she had a bad dream about me having cancer in my lungs. Speaking of dreams I had an odd one last night. It was sexual, so I won't go into detail. Hahaha.
My laptop's god damn right screen hinge finally snapped. It still stands up all right, but I can't close it correctly now. I bought this laptop back around Thanksgiving 2000, so as you can see she's lasting quite a long time -I've had her just a month younger than this journal! I guess I should be thankful that she's been in such great shape for even this long. I honestly don't know anyone with a laptop as old and in as perfect -aside from the snapped corner that just occured- condition as Snickers (my laptop).
BUT! In other news... a few days ago my rare and discontinued JAM Book arrived in the mail. Probably one of the most sought-after and hard to find parts of the YUKI/Judy and Mary collection! God... being a collector is NOT easy...