Happy AIcemBA!!

Ohisashiburi Minna-san!! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in almost a month! (I haven't posted on my Examinations blog for a few weeks as well, but I'll do that later today.) Things were pretty crazy starting around Thanksgiving. Thankfully they've calmed down a bit lately, so I finally have time (and the motivation) to write a post! Anyways, first off, Happy December!! (I'll explain the title later!) I hope that whatever holiday you celebrate will be wonderful this month and that you're ready for the New Year!

One of JYJ's Lotte Duty Free free wallpapers for December!

First off, I hope those in America enjoyed their Thanksgiving break and holiday!! Thanksgiving for me was a little hectic this year, with plans changing last minute...once again. It was good to see some of my family though! I actually spent pretty much all day Wednesday cooking. I ended up making two pumpkin pies, two cheesecakes and my Aunt's recipe of twice baked potatoes. I really enjoyed cooking all day, although I just love cooking anyways. Especially when it's for a large group of family (or friends)! Also, my Mom was pretty happy because all she had to do was pack things Thanksgiving morning before we headed over to my Grandma Brown & Aunt Mary's place. Although, since I didn't help her, she forgot quite a few things. She's so EVIL sometimes! Anyways, it was fun, although I was pretty exhausted by the time it hit 2pm, and by then I was very close to  being in a food coma.

The Cheesecakes and 1 of the Pumpkin Pies I made for Thanksgiving!

Continuing on, I went Black Friday shopping again. It was at least the 7th year I've gone, but now that I think about it, maybe it was the 10th. Anyways, it's something my Mom and I usually do every year and make a big thing out of it. This year the stores kind of screwed us over. In previous years we've been able to come home around 10pm and go through the ads and make a plan on where we want to go and what we want to get at each store. Then we'll usually head to bed around midnight or 1am, get one or two hours of sleep, and then head back out to be in line for the store to open at 3/4am. This year though, a lot of stores opened at midnight, with some opening at 9 or 10pm Thanksgiving night. This year, by the time we quickly went through the ads, it was time to leave and head to Target to stand in line. It was crazy, and a lot busier this year. It changed the whole day, and I'm not sure if they really got the results they wanted. Before, people were able to get a bit of sleep before hand, so people would show up around 3 or 4am and then spend the rest of the day shopping. This year, each line was a lot longer and busier, but because of the time change, people were done shopping pretty much before 5am. It really emptied out pretty quick. We ended up being home around 3am and just heading to bed. I saw an interview with some store manager person, and he was talking about the time changes. He said they made the times earlier because customers had mentioned that they wanted the sales to come earlier. My response: "I'm pretty sure by earlier they meant as in days or weeks, not hours." Anyways, I spent about $120 and didn't really find any Christmas presents or anything besides DVDs. I ended up with a pretty good load thought for that price. A small list to show the great deals I found were particularly for the TV Shows on DVD. Beside the 10is movies I got, I also got X-men, X2 and X3 for $5 on Blue Ray (Yay for PS3), and the first 4 seasons of Psych as well as the first season of True Blood! I was pretty happy with my spoils, but it's a little sad that I was only really into the movie sales again.

One of the True Blood Season 1 ads!

The only other really big even that happened since Thanksgiving, was the weekend I spent up at my Dad's house. I love going up there, and this time I went up to house and dog-sit. I was a little sad that Dad and Diane weren't there for most of it, but they weren't on vacation as long as I thought they would be, so it was nice to hang out with them a bit. Plus, Jack (the Puppy Monster) was pretty excited. I'm pretty sure he thinks the only reason I came up was to play with him. If he wasn't sleeping on me, he was trying to get me to play with him. Such a freaking Puppy Monster, but he's so cute! Anyways, I always love going up to their house. I don't really have phone service and they don't really have much for Internet service, but it's nice to be able to escape from everything for a bit and relax. Plus it's absolutely gorgeous up their. Especially since it snowed the day I went up, everything was covered in white and really pretty. It was freezing though, but they have a fire place, so it was nice to keep that roaring away! I always love the smell of fireplaces. Especially when there's some good smelling wood in there!

Jack a.k.a. Puppy Monster!

Before I get started on fandom related things, Christmas is coming up! I'm pretty excited to head home later today to get the tree and Christmas decorations. I'm just hoping that I can find them easily in the doom that is my Mom's basement. I'm super excited for Christmas though, it always puts me in a good mood. Plus, I have a good excuse to do a lot of baking and cooking for people (which I love to do)! I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping, I just have one more present left to buy and then the ones I make. I'm also going to get Christmas/Holiday cards soon, so hopefully I'll be sending those out by Wednesday next week! So, if you would like me to send you a card, just contact me in any way (comment, twitter, fb, email, etc.)! I'll probably upload pictures as I decorate and finish on my twitter, so you can check that out if you want! Hopefully as Christmas comes, I won't fail as much in posting. I'm thinking I'll have at least one more post around Christmas. Possibly one more before New Year's, we'll see!

Santa Claus, Is Com~ing to To~wn!

Now on to fandom related things! First off, I'm not really a Kiss Me, (U-kiss fandom), but I really enjoy their new song. A lot of Korean bands have been moving over to the Japanese market lately, so there's been a lot of Japanese singles sung by Korean bands. Most of them have been Japanese versions of songs that were originally in Korean. Some of them have sounded odd, but I'm pretty excited with U-kiss's Japanese debut song. Not only is it a song that wasn't one of their previous Korean hits, but really good and addicting. The choreography for the dance is also done really well. The song is called Tick Tack and has a lot of clock like movements. The song is really addicting, but I also really enjoy the dance. The only problem I have is that I keep wanting to call it Tick Tock. Do clocks in Korea go Tick Tack (is that how they sound out the noise since things like that differ between countries and languages)? I don't think the Japanese sound for clocks is Tick Tack, but I could be wrong. When I was in Japan I didn't really learn a lot of onomatopoeias. Anyways, check out the MV here. I think it's the best Japanese debut single to come out of a Korean band so far!

 One of my favorite dance moves from Tick Tack!

I have found myself dragged into another fandom. I watched season 1 of the Korean Variety show Sesame Player and it featured MBLAQ. Well I stumbled across season 2 a couple weeks ago, only this season they featured Infinite. I had listened to a few of their songs before a liked them, but watching this variety show, I got hooked. They quickly became one of my favorite Korean bands (behind Super Junior and TVXQ/JYJ)! I really do enjoy their sense of humor and cohesiveness as a group. They also have really good choreography that's usually pretty in synch. Also, in BTD (Before the Dawn) they have this really cool scorpion dance. I find myself really getting drawn into their choreography and songs the more I listen and learn about them. Also, they aren't too young so I don't feel like a pedophile in saying I like them. Plus the leader is born in 89 and before me, so I'm not older than all of them! Anyways, check them out! Here is where you can find their YouTube channel. I'll like you to their debut song Come Back, BTD, and their latest promotion songs for their first album Be Mine and Paradise. Just a heads up though, I'm linking to a live version of Paradise not the MV because I really like the dance and the MV doesn't show it. Also, if you just want to check out the scorpion dance, here's a compilation made by a fan!

Scorpion dance move from the BTD MV!

Okay, so switching gears a bit, we're moving from music to manga. So the new Chapter of Skip Beat! came out a bit ago! Chapter 183 picks up after Yashiro-san's phone hangs up on Kyoko. She keeps trying to call him back, only to realize that he probably touched his phone with his bare hands. Kyoko, wanting to get more information ends up calling President Rory!! Yay!! Not only do we get to see Yashiro again after a while, but Rory too! Rory is pretty serious in this chapter though (no crazy antics). Kyoko talks to him and explains that she's worried about Ren. In the end, Rory tells her that he won't tell her any details about what's going on because it's not his place, but that Ren's going through an inner battle. He convinces her that she just has to be there for him and not really do anything in particular. We also find out that Rory put Kyoko with Ren on this assignment not only to help Ren get through his issues, but to try to get him to be a "man" and make a move on Kyoko. His ulterior motives are to Ren put Kyoko's trust in men again and regain what she had lost (due to Sho)! About two thirds of the way through, we see back on set for the movie. A couple of the actresses are afraid of Ren and hiding behind Murasame-san. He tries to calm the girl by saying that "he's just a human," but then he makes eye contact with Ren and he freaks out himself. We then cut to Kyoko freaking out because she was sleeping and it's now Noon. She's trying to hurry to the studio to catch up with Ren, but she's also trying to stay in character and walk slow acting like she doesn't care. Anyways, the chapter ends with Kyoko coming onto set with a lot of people bleeding and hurt. The last frame has Ren holding Murasame-san in what looks like a choke hold, possibly over a ledge of some sort. I'm not sure if it's part of the movie or if Ren just kind of snapped again. I'm hoping the first. So the next chapter comes out January 4th, so we will have to wait a bit. Although, with the holidays I think the time will go by a lot faster!

Kyoko's reaction to finding out she slept until noon!

Another small update about Skip Beat! the drama, SM released a preview teaser thing on their site. You can watch it here! I'm pretty excited to watch this and see how they are going to play the different things. I'm also really interested to see how they are going to do Kyoko's little demons and angels. Anyways, it'll start airing here in the next couple weeks, so they'll probably be spazzing happening within the next few posts about that! Oh, and going back to the teaser, you can also hear a bit of the song Super Junior - M sings for the drama! I'm also excited to hear the song Donghae wrote (his first in Chinese) for the drama and his role! Overall, I'm just pretty excited about all the new Skip Beat! happenings!

Donghae gif from the Skip Beat! promo video.

Well, switching gears back to music fandoms, I'll start with Super Junior (since they were mentioned with the Skip Beat! rants)! There's actually been quite a few happenings with SuJu that I want to rant about. First off, the SS3 DVD has been released for pre-order! It comes out on the 21st! I'm super excited, but at the same time a little confused by SM. I think it would've been a better idea to release it a little earlier, so that people can get it for Christmas, both in Korea and abroad. Anyways, it's exciting because it's only going to be like $30, which is so nice. I love Japan, but why are their DVDs and CDs so expensive? The SS3 in Japan DVD is like $80 before shipping. And speaking of Super Show things, it's time for Super Show 4's first world tour stop. The boys are in Osaka, Japan (and I'm really jealous because I really want to go to Osaka again) and the concerts will happen in the next couple days. I just hope that they release the dates for if they are going to come to the US. If not, I would seriously consider flying to a different country to see them. Especially before Teuk starts his military duties. Continuing on with the association, Donghae's solo song from SS4 (with Eunhyuk) will be released as a digital single. Him and Eunhyuk are forming their own unit and going to promote the song next weekend on two of the music shows. If I remember correctly, it'll be Inkigayo and either Music Bank or Music Core (I always get them mixed up).

Eunhyuk (yellow) and Donghae (red) during SS4.

Before heading on to my last rant, there is another small Super Junior update I would like to talk about. On December 4th, Leeteuk and Eunhyuk temporarily said goodbye to their DJ spots on Sukira (Super Junior's Kiss the Radio). They've been the DJs for over 5 years, so it's really sad. I've only been listening to Sukira since I was in Japan (over a year), but it's sad that I won't be able to listen to my two biases every morning. Instead of getting other people to replace them (there were rumors it would be Infinite), the producers I guess decided to keep it as Sukira, so Ryeowook and Sungmin are the new DJs. EunTeuk said that it was better for them to quit since both of their schedules are getting hectic and full lately. As much as it's saddening, I think that it's good for them to cut back a little bit. I hate it when they look so exhausted and like they haven't had any sleep in years. It's a different Sukira with RyeoSung, but they are both such cutie pies, especially Ryeowook. When he gets so hyper I just want to grab him and shake him (I don't know why it's shaking him & a little violent). Anyways, they are super cute and it'll be fun to watch them develop some DJ skills. EunTeuk have said that they are planning on coming back, so I'm sure we'll see them DJing again!

New Sukira DJs! Such cutie pies!

Okay, so on to my last rant, this time switching continents to Japan! There actually isn't too much news about Arashi. Just new dramas and starring in each other's shows and specials. Anyways, to finally explain the title, it's Aiba's Month among Arashians (what I call Arashi fans)! His birthday is the 24th, but Arashi fans tend to dedicate the entire month to the member. Aiba is my second bias, so all the Aiba things being released are pretty exciting! Anyways, one of the fansub groups I follow (AST) has dubbed December AIcemBA! So, that's why the title is Happy AIcemBA! In other small fangirlisms, this means that next month is my Arashi bias' month! Yes, that's right, we see Sakurai Sho's birthday next month (as well as Jaejoong's, my new JYJ/TVXQ bias [Sorry, Sorry Yunho])!

The rare serious side of Aiba-chan. He's so pretty!

Okay, so sorry it was long, but a lot has happened since I last updated! If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope I didn't bore you too much! Anyways, I'll leave with a gif as always! This time I'll leave you with Aiba-chan, our dear birthday boy! This is a popular gif from Himitsu no Arashi-chan (one of their variety shows) where he falls off his chair from laughing!

Ja ne~
Stasi

The End of a Semester

Good Friday my lovely readers!! So today is Friday, and the last day of finals week for the Fall Semester!! I was officially done on Wednesday, but I worked until today, so today is the last day of the the Fall schedule! I get one day off (tomorrow) and then I start the Winter break work schedule. Sometimes it sucks always being this busy, but at least I'll have three days off a week now!! Yeah, so since tomorrow is the day I get off, I'm headed home! We are planning on going shopping! I will get my last Christmas present on the list! I can't wait o be completely done and with more than 10 days to spare! Also, I'm trying to convince my Mom to take me to Shoe Carnival. They are having a sale and I got a pretty awesome coupon, so shoe shopping here I come!!

Anyways, so to update fandom things, I'm saddened. I voted on every single computer I own (and the ones at work) yet Super Junior still did not win a Golden Disc Award. I find it ridiculous that they didn't. From what I've heard, it seems like money was an issue to why other bands won over them. But to try to keep myself positive, I am rooting for SuJu to show whomever controls the awards that they were wrong and SuJu deserved it. Yeah, so I realized the other day that I could have voted using every computer on campus that I have access to (my guess would be at least 350 computers), but I realized it too little too late. At least I know for next year. Yeah, so it was sad to wake up and read all the news going around. Especially with the fans apologizing to SuJu and SuJu apologizing to the fans through Twitter and other social medias. It was a horrible way to start the day. That's for sure.

For the next update, I guess I don't really have anything else. I've been bored at work and have completely fallen into the facebook game spiral. I have to say though that I have not played farmville, just almost every other game by zynga. Oh well. I thing the island one is my favorite. I enjoy frontierville too. Yeah, so that just shows how bored I am at work. Ummm...I also bought the Ariel's Underwater Adventure or something like that for the DS when I was at Target the other day because it was on sale. It's totally targeted for like 5 year olds, but I played while I transferred some of my dramas to disc to make room on my computer for more!! Yeah, so that's pretty much all I can think of. I'll try to update soon, it just depends on what happens. Lastly, I'll leave you with the customary gif!!

Ja ne~~
Stasi

Busy, Busy, Busy Bee

Hisashiburi desu ne!!

 

Hisashiburi means "It's been a while" hence Aiba waving...kind of!

So once again, I fail at blogging at a regular interval, but I've been pretty busy lately. So today was the last day of official classes and next week is finals. I really only have one final (the rest aren't tests or exams), but I'm a little worried over the essays on it. Anyway, speaking of my history class, today was a first. I have never gotten aggravated or really disliked classmates with different opinions before. Now though...I don't even know what to say. I've ranted about this to a few people now and I still just can't get over it. Okay, so let's just start at the beginning:

Picture of Tokyo Area because I'm talking about my History of Japan course

So today in History of Japan, one of our topics was ethnic Koreans in Japan and the issues they have faced in Japan. The Professor mentioned at one point that they were being sent to North Korea if they decided to leave Japan or something like that. This girl (that has been grating my nerves lately) decided that it was hilarious and burst out into laughter. I'm still just dumbfounded and can't believe that she thinks that it's funny. Even if it wasn't an ethnic Korean, anyone being sent to North Korea is terrifying and something so horrible that I have trouble coming to terms with something like that. She laughed at a lot of other things today in class that weren't funny, but that one got me really agitated. I'm just glad I probably won't have to take another class with her ever again. After class I was ranting to Sam and Bea about her, and I came to realization. She doesn't seem racist, but there is something there. I believe that she is a white superiorist. As horrible as it sounds, why in the world was she making fun of Japan and it's culture (throughout the course)? Also, if she feels that way about Japan, why in the world is she taking the class.

 Who can resist the smiling Kim Jong Il??

Anyways, I feel a little better and calmer after typing that all out. So on to happier bloggings, it's Christmas time! First I'll do a quick recap of November (since I was missing from the blogging world once again). November started out weird because it went from like 60 degree days to 30. It was crazy fast though. And for the highlight of November, my sister's 18th birthday and Thanksgiving. So my sister's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, but it was still fun. We didn't do too much. She did want to play Tales of The Arabian Nights the board game. This is one of my favorite games and I do believe she enjoyed it too (that's why she wanted to play it). As always, playing board games with my sister, mom and me, we end up with a bunch of inside jokes. For example: [at mom] "43...43...43...?...43!" Bahahahahahahaha...you just have to be there!

I always play as Scheherazade, hence a painting of her in one of her stories!

So Thanksgiving was okay. It was better than I thought it would be, but it still didn't FEEL like Thanksgiving. We had all the food and stuff, but we ate at the nursing home (where my grandmother is for rehab because she broke her femur a couple months ago). I felt that everyone was in an odd mood (for one reason or another), so my brother, sister, and I spent our time goofing off and making fun of each other in the corner. It was really funny because my mom was sitting with the "adults" and we were separated by a few feet. Almost every time I glanced their way my mom would be looking at us almost longingly. We then proceeded to make fun of her because "she looked like she wanted to come here, but she was other there." So we joked around about a lot of random things, the food, made fun of my sister, I threatened them because they were threatening each other with their utensils and I got hit with food, but there was one mattress (tangent) that I believe was the best and will remember forever.

So a little backstory first, the nickname for my little sister is HO. I can't quite recall how it came about, but it's been her nickname for a while now and it just fits. Funny side rant, my mom answered the home phone the other day and it sounded like Ariel. The conversation went like this:
Mom: "Hello?"
Me: "HO!"
Mom: [whining] "I'm not a HO."
Me: Bahahahahahahahahaha...
Yeah...so anyways Pokemon came up and somehow my sister became the Pokemon. Long tangent short, we came up with her attacks. We'd send her out to attack and she'd give the opponent crabs! LOL!! We were laughing so hard when I said this! My brother and I decided that it would be like poison and hurt a little bit every turn. Then as a side effect, the opponent can't attack back because it's itchy. {Forgive me if crabs don't cause people to itch. I've never had crabs and don't plan to. *knocks on wood*} Yeah...oh good times!
 

So, after Thanksgiving of course is one of my top three holidays (it's a holiday in my book haters), BLACK FRIDAY!! We were up at 1:30am and headed to Walmart. We went to Walmart, got to Target around a quarter to 4 and stood in line, went to a different Walmart, then went and sat in the Best Buy/Staple parking lot waiting for Sheila for half an hour! It was a blast as always. And as every year, my elaborate DVD collection pretty much just grows during this time because I bough a lot of DVDs that were between $2 and $6. Also, my big claim to fame this year was a grabbed the newest model of the Wii Fit for only $67!! SWEETNESS!  Yeah, so afterwards my Mom went to work (sucked to be her) and I went home and dug all the Christmas boxes out of the storage closet. By the time my Mom got home the living was rearranged, the tree set up, and 13 Christmas boxes were crammed in to the living room. She was a little frightened I think, but she loves the Christmas season as much as I do so she didn't seem to angry. Just frustrated a couple days later because the house was messy (not dirty).

 L-R: Me, My Mom (in the back), My Little Sister Ariel, & Sheila's Shoulder

Yeah, so now it's December. I am totally on board with all my Christmas presents (and birthday presents). I only have three left to buy. I know what I'm going to buy, I just have to find time to go and get them!! Yeah, so I got our old Christmas tree and set it up the night I got back from Thanksgiving. It's a lot wider than I remembered it being, but it's really pretty (if I may say so myself). I love coming home and seeing the lights on in my window and it lighting up the apartment. Also, yesterday I started making my Christmas presents. Every year I make Christmas presents for my family (and sometimes my friends). I got half of them done and am going to finish them sometime tonight! It's pretty exciting because my counters are cluttered (which I'm not fond of), but they are full of Christmas stuff so it just gets me in the holiday mood even more and doesn't really bother me too much! Yeah, so that's pretty much it for the going-ons in my life lately. I'll try to update soon (and with finals week almost over I'm guessing I'm going to be a little more regular with blogging). So as always I'll leave you with a gif!

 Dino Teuk from a Korean Variety Show!!

Ja Ne~
Stasi <3

Updates Out The Wa-Zoo!

Hisashiburi desu ne! So it's been quite a long while since I've updated! Bad me. *wacks self * Anyways, a lot has happened since I've last posted. The biggest and best part is that I was accepted to study abroad in Japan!! I'll be leaving in late March! I can't wait. I'm really excited and nervous all at the same time. This will be my first time leaving the United States and only my third time on an airplane (The first and second was to and from my aunt's wedding in San Diego the summer after 8th grade). Right now, the most stressful thing is money. My mom finally got a job about a month ago though, so that's really exciting! At least she has some sort of income now, although she's getting less than she was on unemployment. On the plus side, I'll have good insurance again and won't have to have UNC's way too expensive insurance. But anyways, back to the whole money issue...well...it sucks. That's pretty much it. Back to the more exciting topic of Japan, I'll start a new blog under this account that'll be specifically for my travels and life in Japan. As of right now I'm also planning on doing an accompanying Vlog, but I might not get to that, so there'll just be random video postings. We'll see how things go when I get there! The first part is a home stay so I'm REALLY excited about that! I'll try to keep updating until I leave, then everything will probably switch to the other blog. XD

As for anime, I haven't really watched many lately. I saw a few episodes of series I've seen at the beginning of the semester at Anime Club, but then I got busy and couldn't really attend anymore. A lot of other people were busy as well, so the club kind of got put on hold. I have been more into Dramas lately, especially Korean ones. This might be me planning on doing too many things again, but I was considering doing another blog under this same account for drama reviews and updates and such! We'll see. At the very least I'd want to place my list somewhere online for reference. I was looking at some of the sites that are similar to http://www.myanimelist.net/ but I haven't found one that I really enjoyed. Right now I have it all in an Excel spreadsheet. Maybe I'll mess around with some of the free website programs around.

What else is there to update? Oh! Skip Beat! Chapter 150 came out this morning, so I just have to wait for it to be subbed. The last chapter was absolutely amazing!! I was fangirlling and squirming in my chair and most likely was smiling like a goof. Um...I can't remember when I last updated, but the we are still on the Valentine's arc. Um...to sum it up, Sho got jealous of Kyoko not being angry and focusing on her revenge anymore. He brought her flowers and put a piece of expensive chocolate in her mouth. When she wasn't expecting it, he kissed her and "took the chocolate back." As a result Kyoko's first kiss was stolen and hating Sho came right back to the forefront of her mind. Ren tried to calm her down by having her think that it was professional and that if she does, then she doesn't have to count it as a real kiss. She tries, but of course she can't help but brood when having down time. To distract her, Ren kisses her on the cheek (and assume fangirl mode) and thanks her for his birthday present. The last chapter (149) started out with Kyoko being consumed by the kiss from Sho and talking about how he has taken over her body with hatred. At the end, she was confused and consumed by the kiss from Ren; taken over in a completely different way. It was really nice to see Ren finally do something, and I can't wait to see how Kyoko is going to figure this out. After Ren kissed her cheek, Kyoko couldn't even film her Mio scenes. I can't wait to see how she interprets everything and if she finally comes to realize that Ren has feelings for her and she for him. Oh, but then again I could be hoping for too much in one chapter. Before all this kissing stuff happened, this arc was getting a little drawn out. I'm just happy that things are picking back up into what made me love Skip Beat! in the first place. Oh and Yashiro has a wonderful scene with Ren in this past chapter. I wish he would have more parts! Yashiro for the win!! XD

Arashi update!! In early September I got the 10 year anniversary limited edition 3 Disc compilation CDs, All the Best! 1999-2009! It's absolutely amazing. I just wish I could go to Japan to see the tour. I'm finally getting closer to being caught up on Arashi no Shukudai-kun. Only 40-something episodes left. I've seen a bunch of piece of episode 162 and can't wait to watch the whole thing! They have their new Christmas photo shoot out and the amazing ll13jl made wallpapers and icons out of them! Check them out here: http://ll13jl.livejournal.com/8640.html?view=318144#t318144 I have the first few episodes of Aiba-chan's first leading role in a Drama, My Girl, but I haven't watched it yet. I know that it has a lot of drama and that a lot of people cried, and lately I've been in a more comedic mood. For example, I've watched the amazing Korean Drama You're Beautiful about three times through now. The last couple episodes have a more depressing and mellow mood, but the show overall is amazing. But anyway, back to Arashi. Their new single My Girl came out. It has two other songs on it. Tokei Jikake no Umbrella is one and it is the theme song for the mini drama 0 Gōshitsu no Kyaku (Guest in Room 0), which stars a lot of J&E boys. Riida is in the first couple episodes. I really like this song and it is pretty different for the tone and style of most of Arashi's songs. The other song is Super Fresh. It's pretty good as well, but then again I haven't found an Arashi song I didn't like. They also had a song released with their 5x10 All the Best! Clips 1999-2009 DVD that has all of their PVs and special introductions for each. The song is called Attack It! and it is one of my favorite Arashi songs! It was a little odd at first hearing them all rap, but the entire song is full of so much energy and it just amazing! Let's see, is there anything else to update about my fangirlism, oh well my list has rearranged. I was reading about the boys and just watching their various interviews and variety shows and have come to realize that I really like Sakurai Sho. Before he was just king of there, but I've been learning a lot more about him and I've come to like him as a person even more. There are things he says and does that just makes me take pause and improve my impressions of him!

As for other fangirlisms, I've been listening to a lot of FT Island lately as well. The lead vocal Lee Hong Ki was Jeremy in You're Beautiful and sang some of the insert songs. I found their CDs and started listening and I still can't figure out why I just passed over them earlier. Right now my current favorite song from them is "Bad Woman." The music video is really nice and Hong Ki just belts out the chorus. It just sits right with me and the mood I've been in lately. I've also been listening to abingdon boys school a lot as well. My current favorite song that I've been listening to a lot from them is NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Of course, I've also been listening to both of the You're Beautiful OSTs. And all of this Japanese and Korean music has been in between spurts of Christmas Music! XD

Speaking of Christmas, most of my presents are bought and taken care of. I just have to get my dad's (although I know exactly what I'm going to get him) and finish making my Favorite Grandpa's! I also need to start digging out my address book so I can send my Christmas Cards here soon. I already have them all bought, I just need to find addresses and put stamps and names on the envelopes!

Well, I think I have run out of things to update. I should be getting my NDK New Year's Eve cosplay gown and wig soon! That'll be a lot of fun. I'll definitely update after Christmas and after NYE. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (just in case I don't get back on before either holiday XD)!!

~Ja Mata

Stasi <3