Moving On

So once again, I am a huge slacker and am taking forever to update my blog. I'm sorry. But, at least I made it back to have an end of month post for September! So I made a list of what to go through on this post and it's pretty long. I'll just get into the thick of it! CAUTION: Long Rants Ahead!

So, first off, I thought I'd catch up on things I mentioned my last post (on the 8th). So the weekend after my last post was NDK! I had a lot of fun. There were a few small issues, but it wasn't the fault of the Con, but people there. I just tried to ignore it and enjoy what little time I had there! I was able to go to quite a few panels this year! Most of them were costuming/wig panels, but we also got to head to a few others. Also, I went to the AMV contest (like every year I've gone). It was good this year, but I was a little disappointed with the variety of animes selected. I don't know if it was the NDK judge's fault or just what the submissions were like. I did enjoy the ones that I saw though! I also got to finally see Derek and Travis. Oh how I've missed those two boys! Especially Derek! Things have been pretty different without him around. Hopefully we'll get more chances to hang out soon! Since, I have a lot more I could say, but I want to try to keep things short, I'll end my NDK stories here! I did buy a lot of artwork and a couple really cute plushies! If you want to know more just leave me a comment or send me a message and I can let you know more! I also need to upload the few pictures I took off my camera. Yes, I know, I fail.

Myself and 1 of my new plusies, NemuNeko (Sleeping Cat)!

Okay, so I'm going to try to keep this short, and a warning for those that have gotten this far, there will be a lot of fangirl rants later on! But you'll know more if you actually get that far! XD Anyways, continuing on... Before I get too much into the next few rants, I just wanted to to send out a little promo for my Examinations Blog! I'm currently doing a 5000 Question Survey (broken into parts) and would love to have more people check it out. There's a link on the side bar or you can just click above or here! Anyways, I'd love to have more people check it out and let me know what they think. Also, if you have any quizzes or surveys or psychological tests or anything you want to share, don't hesitate to send them to me! I'd love to take them, post my results and share them with my other readers!

So now that I got that out of my system, I also want to do a small rant here. I know this should probably be at the top, but I wanted to say something to all of you! Thank You!! I really do feel happy when I see that someone is reading my posts. I haven't really gotten many comments, but that's okay. I just hope that I'm not boring you too much with all my randomness and weird rantings! There is a reason that I'm bringing this up though! I was messing around in the statistics area of the new blogspot dashboard and found something interesting. As of this morning, I have had viewers/readers from the following countries: USA, Argentina, Philippines, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil! I honestly thought that most of the people reading were in the US, but I feel happy and amazed that people from so many countries have come across my blog! Anyways, thanks to all my readers! I hope that I keep you entertained until I stop writing!

The readers chart from the statistics area!

So there's something else I want to post in my blog, but I think I'll wait a couple more days before I post it. It's the longest rant of all the ones I have planned, and I think I'd prefer to just do a  post about it and not really have it surrounded by other happenings. I will be posting within the next week (for the first October post), so keep your eyes peeled for that! Speaking of October, it starts tomorrow! I'm so excited! I love October! Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. Also, my good friends Billy and Curtis are getting married this month as well! I'm really excited for the weather to start changing (hopefully *knocks on wood*)! I also need to start figuring out what my Halloween costume will be. I'm currently floating between a few ideas, but I need to make a decision fast so I have enough time to make my costume before it arrives!

Okay, so before I start on my Asian Pop group fangirlisms, I am watching a LOT more American TV shows this season. It's crazy. I don't think I watched this many shows before I was watching more Japanese and Korean shows. But anyways, there are a lot of good shows this season, so I thought I'd share what ones I'm watching and let you know my quick thoughts! First off, I'll mention those that haven't premiered (or I haven't watched yet). ABC's Private Practice premiered last night, but I'm still only about halfway through Season 4, so I need to catch up first before I start the new season. Also, one of my favorite shows premieres October 12th! It's USA's Psych! I love this show! Shawn and Gus are hilarious and I can't wait for this show to start back up! Also premiering in October is ABC's new show Once Upon a Time. It starts on the 23rd and is created by the writers of Lost. I watched the first half of season one of Lost and enjoyed it, but I missed one episode and got lost after that (ignore the bad pun). I really enjoyed what I watched though. Anyways, it looks to be about fairy tales and looks really good from the previews. I'll definitely be watching the first couple episodes and then decide from there!

Ignore the date and time! Psych now airs on Wednesdays!

As for shows that have already started airing, and I've seen I'll just do a quick run through. When I start the shows mentioned above, I'll be watching a total of 11 American shows this season! I don't think I've ever watched that many before. Anyways, I'll do this by days. I am watching three shows that air on Tuesday evenings. My favorite of the three is CW's new show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (I love her) in Ringer. I am really addicted to Ringer. It is so freaking good. Plus, I'm really happy to see Sarah Michelle Gellar active again! She's one of my favorite actresses. It is really good. I really recommend this show to a lot of people. Anyways, I'll stop ranting about Ringer and move on. The other Tuesday shows that I'm watching are Fox's Glee and New Girl. This is the third season of Glee, but honestly, I'm only watching it for Harry Shum, Jr. He's such an amazing dancer! As for New Girl, I'm really enjoying this odd comedy. Zooey Deschanel is awesome (as always) and I'm really loving here character Jess! If you are into comedies, definitely check it out! Moving on, the only Wednesday show that I watch (until Psych starts) is the CW's America's Next Top Model (ANTM). We are on Cycle 17 (I can't believe I've watched 16 seasons before this) and Tyra has finally decided to do an allstars season! It's been interesting so far, and I've been loving the photo shoots! The last one had the models on stilts! So crazy! Thursdays leave me with new episodes of ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS's The Big Bang Theory (and eventually Private Practice). Both shows are two of my favorites! The Big Bang Theory is starting Season 5 while Grey's Anatomy is currently in Season 8! The only other day that airs shows I watch are Sundays! That leaves me with Discovery's Storm Chasers and CBS's The Amazing Race. Both are really good shows, but completely different. For those that don't know, Storm Chasers is a series that follows meteorologists and storm chasers during tornado season. The Amazing Race is a reality show where there are teams of two and it's a race around the world. What I really enjoy about Amazing Race is that they get to participate in cultural activities, that sometimes leave me feeling so jealous. So those are the shows that I'm watching this season. I've linked all them to their websites (if you didn't notice) in case you want to learn more! I hope I've helped you a bit with Fall TV line-up! Feel free to comment below and leave me any recommendations!

Well, keeping on with TV Shows, but jumping to Asian ones, I'll start off talking about the Korean Drama Protect the Boss. I honestly can't remember (and don't want to backlog) if I've mentioned it before, but I love this show. It's one of my favorite Korean dramas hands down, and definitely my favorite of the year. The main actors play really childish characters and there's so many funny moments. I've gotten several people hooked to it, so have seen up to episode 10 at least 4 times already! The last two episodes aired this week, so by the beginning of next week the English subs should be up so I can finish it. I'm sad it'll be ending, but at the same time I'm happy. Some American shows go on WAY too long. Also, with Asian TV shows, Skip Beat! the Taiwanese live action drama has released an airing date. I've heard two different dates (December 18th and 24th), but since they're both in December, I'm pretty sure that it'll start then. I'm sad because it's still a couple months away, but then again I've been waiting over a year for this, so a couple more months won't hurt! Plus, I know that it's already been filmed!

Keeping with the same thought train, the new chapter of Skip Beat! was released on the 20th! I can't believe we're already on Chapter 180! So this chapter started out with a flashback. We see Ren back when he was Kuon in an alley (presumably in the States) beating up some Americans. Suddenly...I think his name is Rick...runs up and tries to convince Ren to stop fighting. While thinking about his flashback, Kyoko appears and is confronts him about his reactions (more specifically the smile) during his fight with Murasame-san. I'm excited for this because we are learning more and more about Ren's back story. I can't wait until it's all revealed! Also, Ren is super cute in this chapter. Most of the chapter takes place in their hotel room, and Ren is like huddling under the blanket. The end of the chapter leaves us with Kyoko stepping out of an elevator (she went to the convenience store) and Ren in front of it draped in the blanket. As a side note, I was talking with Pri about Skip Beat! earlier, and she mentioned that we haven't seen Sho lately. I wonder what he's up too, but guessing off previous frames, he's probably sulking somewhere picturing Ren and Kyoko on dates! The next chapter comes out on October 20th, so we have a little bit of a wait. I don't mind though. It's more normal to have an update monthly, and it's way better than the two month streak we had a little bit ago.

Okay, so now I'll start the more serious fangirl things. I'll start off slowly though, which means the smaller rants! I'll also be starting with my Japanese fandom, Arashi! It has been released that Arashi will be singing the theme song for Sakurai Sho's new drama Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but it's a new Japanese drama! It starts airing for the Winter Season (I believe) and stars not only my bias from Arashi, Sakurai Sho, but one of my favorite Japanese actresses, Kitagawa Keiko. If you've watched any Japanese dramas before, she was in Buzzer Beat (with Yamapi). She's also in the Japanese Movie adaptation of Paradise Kiss (which I really, really want to see). I just hope to finish the last drama Sakurai-san was in before this one starts (Tokujo Kabachi). Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty behind overall in Arashi dramas since My Girl.

So moving on to Korean fandoms, Brown Eyed Girls made their comeback! They are one of my favorite girl groups out there! Not only are they older than most of current groups, but they are so strong. I really think that they are the Queens of the girl groups. Anyways,  the new song is awesome. It's kind of an onslaught to the senses though with their vocals and the instrumentation, but from the second listen onward I was hooked. This is one of the few songs I rock out to when I have to walk anywhere. These girls are so talented, plus this MV and song is sending a message. What's nice is that everyone can interpret the message differently, but at the same time everyone also understands that it's also sending a message to the censor board that pretty much reads as "Fudge You!" (I rarely cuss. Don't hate!) I really recommend you check out their new song if you like music. Oh, I forgot the most important part, it's titled "Sixth Sense." They've also done their comeback on the music shows, and boy are these girls amazing live as well! I'll give both links to the MV and LIVE here. Just as a side note, I'm going to stop embedding the videos here on my blog to help with the play counts. Please still check them out though!

Quickly, before I get to my main fandom, I wanted to share a little bit of TVXQ and JYJ news. TVXQ has released an album in Japan! I really love the song B.U.T. (Be-au-ty). It's a good one to walk too as well. I'll link you to the MV! Also, JYJ has released their album In Heaven. The songs on this CD are so good. I really love these songs so much. Plus, what makes it even more exciting is that these boys had a hand in each of these songs, with some of them being completely composed, lyricized, and arranged by the members. I am such a fan of this CD that I caved in and bought a copy. I'm not buying at least two of each version (like with Super Junior), but I did want to show them my support. I'm going to have an Asian artist poster on my walls that isn't Super Junior! But anyways, they've released two MVs with the CD. The first is In Heaven which is a ballad song that Jaejoong composed, arranged, and wrote the lyrics for. I just want to give a little background. The story in the MV is about a man (played by Junsu) and his girlfriend that dies. In reality, Jaejoong wrote the song after a friend of his committed suicide. The second MV is Get Out and one of my favorite songs off the CD. This song is also one of the ones on my walking playlist! The music and lyrics were written by Jaejoong and Yoochun. Jaejoong also helped in the arrangement of the song. Anyways, check them out. If I had to choose just one for you to check out though, I'd go with Get Out. It's one of my favorite songs, of pretty much all Korean music. Not many artists other than Super Junior have made that short list!

Okay, so finally to the big boys (hee hee), Super Junior! there is actually a lot of information that's come out with Super Junior since my last post, but I'll just keep it down to a few major happenings. First, Mr. Simple Version C, the repackage has been released! The title track is A-CHA. They have released the MV and performed it LIVE. There were three other songs that were added in the repackage as well. Oops! (featuring f(x)), A Day, and Andante. Andante is another one of my favorite ballads, and once again composed by Henry and Leeteuk. I also really like A Day (which features all of the members). Oops took me a bit to get used to, but the turning point was when I read the lyrics to the song. Leeteuk, Donghae, Heechul, Eunhyuk, and Shindong wrote the rap for the song and knowing what they are singing really makes the song a lot better. But, back to A-CHA! Once you listen to A-CHA, I am warning you that it will be stuck in your head. I though Rokkugo was bad, but A-CHA is at a whole new level! This song is very, very addicting! I recommend you check out both the MV (which I have some issues with) and the live to see some more of the dance! Honestly though, the MV bothered me a bit. The only saving grace it had was that the boys looked amazing in it. Anyways, that's a whole different rant. Just a reminder, if you didn't click them before, check out the MV and/or LIVE of A-CHA!

For a smaller and quicker rant, Heechul has finished his four week basic training. He started his service yesterday. I am glad to see him complete his training and to hear that he's back living in the dorm with our boys, even if he isn't promoting with them currently. I just hope that the fans and reporters stop harassing him and let him do his duty in peace. It was wrong for him to be accosted like that. It also bothered me a bit that they are showing more interest in him now that he's not promoting anything and trying to live as a soldier or citizen and not an idol.

Kim Heechul at training.

Leeteuk, our dear leader, has started Season 4 of Hello! Baby with Sistar. There are five episodes out so far, but I've only seen the first one. I tried watching it when it first came out, but I was so confused and got a little bored not being able to understand...pretty much anything. There has been only one episode released with good subs, so I'm still waiting for more. But, Leeteuk is so cute dealing with the baby Kyumin. He's so adorable! lately, many different things have made me think about having a family and more specifically a baby. One of the things to blame is this show and Leeteuk. Anyways, Leeteuk Appa (Dad in Korean), Fighting!

Okay, so there is one more small thing I want to mention/rant about before I leave you. Our Shindong's birthday was on the 28th of September. I sent him a small message on twitter that day, but I wanted to say a small message to him. I know that he most likely won't see it, but I still want to write it out and post it on that small chance!

To Shindong:

Happy Belated Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day! I did see the celebratory message and picture you shared on Twitter. I just wanted to say thank you! You've made me so happy to call myself an ELF. You really are someone that has had a rough time being in Super Junior, but I and ELF love you. I know that I've said some things about your surgery, but I honestly don't really care. You will always be the same Shindong to me! Whether you lose 15 more pounds, or gain it all back, I will always support you! I wish that I was in Korea to send you things, or spoke Korean well enough to send you this message and hope that you see it and understand it, but I'm happy knowing that I can still do my small part from America to support you and the Super Junior family. Forgive me for rambling on. I just wanted to say Happy Birthday! and Thank You! You really have given me hope and laughter and can always brighten my day when I'm feeling down!

One of the photos Shindong tweeted. He's with the other Super Junior members!

Okay, so you didn't really have to read that, but I just wanted to get it out. Anyways, I'll leave you with the customary gif! This week's gif is the birthday boy Shindong!

Shindong from the A-CHA MV Teaser.

Ja ne~

Stasi

September Love!

Hello my dear readers!! So I was going to do a quick small post today! I have a few things I would like to share as well as a an update on the new Skip Beat! chapter! Woo Hoo! So lets get started!

So first off, I want to say that yesterday was such an amazing day, until I stopped at the ATM. The night before I had deposited my return deposit from my previous apartment. I was super excited to get the $250 check, especially since Nan Desu Con (NDK) is this weekend! Well, I waited for a day to withdraw the cash (since I'm going to make NDK a strictly cash event for myself). Last night, I pull up account on the ATM only to find that the $300+ I had in my checking account had magically changed into a $4 and change balance. I completely freaked out. I then proceeded to call Wells Fargo and try to figure out what happened. To make the long story short, they filed a claim and told me it would be resolved in 10 days. I then proceeded to freak out again since that was my NDK money and it was this weekend. Thankfully though, when I checked my bank account this morning it was all there. Now I just have to call them and see if they can remove the fees that they charged me. It's not my fault your system screwed up. I'm just happy I printed out a receipt (I usually don't and will from now on). I've checked it a few times today just to make sure that it doesn't disappear again. I guess I'm kind of freaking out a bit!

Anyways, since I  already mentioned it, NDK is this weekend! Woo! I'm super excited for this year, but it's sad that the people I've gone with the past couple years aren't coming this year. Anyways, I'm looking forward to completely geeking out this weekend! Plus I'll get to buy some Japanese goodies, albeit overpriced goodies. Hopefully I'll remember to charge my camera and take it with me this year (last year I pretty much failed). This year I'm not really planning on cosplaying (due to money and time constraints). I did dig out my Rangiku (from Bleach) cosplay, so I'll bring that along and might do it on Saturday. We'll see. Anyways, if you follow me on twitter (@busy_bee44) I'll most like be updating all weekend! So, if you don't follow me and want to see my fun updates (I'll try to update more this year), then go ahead and follow me!

My self as Cooking Mama & my friend Dan as BJ from Soul Eater at NDK 2009!

Okay, now on to Skip Beat! chapter 179!! Can I just start by saying that this chapter was intense and amazing and awesome and I can't wait to read more. We pick up at the beginning of Ren (as Cain Heel as BJ) and Murasame-san's fight. It changes from the choreographed fight into something completely new, different, and real! Suddenly Ren gives this creepy smile and comes after Murasame-san. The director calls cut when Ren is holding a knife to Murasame-san's throat and Murasame-san is about to break Ren's arm. Then we get to see Murasame-san freak out in his dressing room and give us some hilarious panels. Kyoko doesn't show up until the chapter's almost over, but when we do come to her she's contemplating what she saw. She then begins to question who was fighting. She felt that it wasn't Ren's, Cain Heel's or BJ's character. Basically we're all wondering what in the world took over Ren's body! I'm sensing some amazing Ren backstory information coming up soon, and I can't wait to read it! I love Siwon, but I'm glad they filmed Extravaggent Challenge when they did. I'm not 100% sure he could pull off some of the more recent chapters. Who knows though? Siwon's acting has really grown since A Battle of Wits (Chinese movie starring Siwon and Andy Lau {I love Andy Lau ❤}). The next chapter comes out on the 20th (of September), so I'm happy we don't have to wait two months again!

Ren's creepy smile & Murasame-san & Kyoko's reaction!

Okay, so lastly is my fandom rants! There isn't too much that has happened since my last post. First, Super Junior is going to be promoting Mr. Simple again this week on some of the Music Shows! I'm excited to see them again, but at the same time it'll be sad without Heechul and Siwon (he's filming his drama Poseidon from what I've heard). They also said that this week they'll be performing Superman again or prerecording it for the Chuseok special. Anyways, it'll be exciting to see them perform it again as well. Also, they've released some photos of Heechul in his training. He still looks like our lovely Heenim, just in soldier form! They also posted that he's doing really well and took first in something. I'm glad that he doesn't seem to be having too rough of a time! As for other fangirl things, there isn't much. I kind of went crazy on Tumblr this morning (and almost every time I get on) and end up posting/re-blogging a lot of things. I just want to say sorry to all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers that don't like it. There are a lot of fangirl things I  post, but there's also a lot of really funny things. I'll post my favorite one (that's not fandom related) that makes me crack up all the time! It's a motivational poster!

This just cracks me up! XD

This week's ending gif is Siwon! On my list I realized I haven't used Siwon as a closing gif, and since I mention him specifically a couple times I'll do him this week. The most iconic of all Siwon's gifs I've come across, Shibrows (Siwon's Eyebrows)!

Ja ne~
Stasi

Snowy Ends

Hello!! So it's the last day of January...and there's only 3 hours left. Once again I am lacking at updating at a more regular basis, but I have a different goal now. To post at least twice a month for this year. I figured that would be a good start until I can get a more regular blogging schedule down. Oh, and it snowed today, hence the title!

 A picture I tweeted this morning after work!

So...I guess first off I should go into what has been going on in my life lately. Well, sorry to disappoint, but it's pretty much school and work. I have watched a few movies and a few episodes of various variety shows, but that's pretty much it. Today my Women Studies class started, so I have another class to add on to the load. As for work, nothing is really new, or really old for that matter. Oh I have been reading a lot lately. I finished a book the other night, and it was book 15 in the past month (since Christmas). There was also 17 comic books/manga, but those go a little quicker than novels. Yeah...so it's actually been really nice being able to read. It's weird. I hardly read for a few months, and then I pretty much do nothing but read. I haven't played my DSi in a long time because of it.

Art from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8; one of the comic book series I read!

Oh, that reminds me, Champions Online went free to play!! I downloaded it and started playing! It's a lot of fun! I really don't need to get addicted to another game now, but what can I say. I love being a Super Hero!! The only thing that I don't like about it, is the names they give their NPCs. So the villain Mastermind in the game is called Dr. Destroyer, while the leader of the league of champions (think justice league) is called Defender! If only the game could have the DC Universe characters! But besides every time I have to talk to them or the story mentions them (I snicker to myself when that happens), I'm really enjoying the game! I've already saved Millennium city from an Alien Invasion, and am now currently trying to figure out the plans of the Purple Gang and stop whatever it is they have planned. LOL

A cap of my Champions Online character before I went to the tailor (before the outfit change).

Hmmm...so what else is there to blog about. Well, I've been missing Japan a lot lately. I went through all my pictures the other day. It's been a weird mood. I really want to go back, but at the same time I always just want to go forward to studying abroad in Korea (fingers crossed)! I was watching an episode of Himitsu no Arashi-chan the other night. While watching it I just had this feeling I had seen it before, but it was the first time it was subbed so I was a little confused. Then I noticed the date on the file, and realized I had watched it when I was in Japan. After VIP room, the next corner was the Ranking Derby. One of the rankings was who did yankees think was the coolest among Arashi. Of course, instead of saying Kakkoi, they said Kakke~. That's when it hit me, I had watched this episode with Naruto! I had asked him what kakke~ was, and he explained that for males, sometimes they change the i kanas to e kanas. He gave me some other examples, but then I had to open my mouth. Trying to show that I understood what he was saying, I said tanoshe~~. Of course normally it's tanoshi~, but Naruto started laughing. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of "That's a word you don't really do that too." Of course Masaki (one of our RAs) came by, and my use of tanoshe~ was spread around for others entertainment!! UWAH!! I have so many memories of Japan, but I wish I could remember more. Oh how I'm getting...Japan-sick (instead of home-sick).

A cap from Arashi Ranking Derby, a corner from Arashi no Himitsu-chan!

So...what else can I update about. Oh I finally found a dining room table! It's a little bigger than what I was planning on getting, but it was on clearance and it's really nice. It's originally a $400 table, but I got it for $170 with tax. It was on clearance because a bench and a chair were missing (I still have 3 chairs which is enough) and then the manager gave me a 20% off coupon that a previous customer had left behind!! Yeah, so I got that right before the dinner party I held last night. I was definitely buzzing (my face was warm and I giggled in the middle of a sentance {I fail to see how the second one is that different from normally though}). But it was a lot of fun. Plus, that morning I met with my friend Micah from High School and we had Breakfast at IHOP and we were there for almost 3 hours catching up. It was such a nice day yesterday!! A good way to start out the week, and a pretty good second to last day of a month! I just hope that I can continue to have these sort of fun days more often. That'll help keep me from getting as stressed as I was last semester.

My new dining table before I had it all set up (I tweeted this picture).

So I'll a couple of other small updates and then I'll end tonights entry. First, we have our atrium room for Nan Desu Kan and I'm really excited. I wasn't originally planning on going this year, but I'm really looking forward to it. Now I just need to figure out my cosplays for next year. Second, the Super Bowl is next weekend, and I think this might be the first year I miss it. I know it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but my Mom and I have watched together for at least the past 10 years. Crazy isn't it. Plus the Steelers made it this year (one of my Mom's favorite teams)!! Lastly, we started the Order of Chaos campaign the week before last! It's the sequel to my first campaign Infinite Order, and I'm really loving it! Derek is such a good gm and always has amazing story lines! Our fist session was pretty much one battle sequence (took just over four hours), but it was still a lot of fun. I'm really liking playing a cleric. I liked playing a paladin, but I think the Cleric is my kind of class. I'm really excited for this week's session. It'll be the second one (Derek was sick with a sinus infection last week, but he's a lot better now) and we'll have our fighter (a.k.a. tank)! Yeah, so I'm thinking I'll be posting later this week to rant about the session!!

Me as Cooking Mama & Dan as Butadaki Joe from Soul Eater at NDK 2009!

So, as always, the customary goodbye gif!! XD

Teukie during a performance of No Other!

Ja ne~
Stasi

Press the Reset, Press Press the Reset

Happy New Year Minna! My first post of 2010!! How exciting. I spent the last night of 2009 dancing at the NDK New Year's Eve Ball! I went with my friends Derek, Erin and Eli and had a blast! I didn't get my cosplay in time, but I had my wig! So I wore that and one of my old prom dresses! I had a lot of fun. The only problem was the next morning. Derek wasn't feeling to well and left early. (I hope you are doing okay. I haven't heard from you and don't know if you got my voicemail.) I got Starbucks for the rest of us, and something felt off. I felt like it was NDK. It was soooo weird seeing the Denver Tech Center so empty. My body was definitely feeling like I had two more days of cosplay and a convention to go to. On the other hand, my mind knew that it was just for New Year's and that it was normal for there not to be hundreds of people milling around at 8:00 in the morning. Oh well. Although, there were some young otaku hanging out where Artist's Alley usually is and it was hilarious to watch them just mill around in the emptiness. It was like they didn't know what to do with themselves without a con. I don't know. It was just really funny!

Anyways, I finally got my My Drama List website up and running. I haven't updated the lists in a while, but I should get a chance to do that here within the next couple of days. It has all the tables on seperate pages, kind of like the spreadsheet I have. The home page has banners to some of my favorite shows and movies, and links to them as well. Yeah, so now that I'm done designing my site, now I just have to update. That means that I have a lot more time at work. I'll find something to do, if at the very least I just end up watching Asian dramas and movies! XD As for other drama-ish news, I have the new blog for my reviews set up. Here is the link: http://thereviewsofanapple.blogspot.com/  I haven't posted anything yet, but I will very soon so keep your eyes open!!

Speaking of creating a new blog, I will get started on creating my blog for when I go to Japan very soon. I'll also set up and special folder in my YouTube specifically for my Japan videos! I'm getting really exctied to go. I have a counter on My Drama List and I have 75 days. I still can't believe I'm actually going. It probably won't feel real until I'm there, or at least sitting at the airport waiting for my flight!

In other news, the new Skip Beat! chapter came out! They are back to the Love Me Department! It was exciting to see the President again because he makes me laugh everytime. It's also nice to have Moko and Kyoko back together again. Oh, and they have a new Love Me member: Amamiya. They were asked about Valentine's Day, and as per the usual Moko and Kyoko, they said something along the lines of "It ruins society." So President has new jobs for them. Kyoko's said dangerous, Moko's said muddy, and Amamiya's said happy. When Amamiya grabbed her's she tried to give it back. I can't wait for Febuary 5th and the new chapter! I want to find out really bad what their new jobs are. Oh, and just a side note, Amamiya fits in really well with Kyoko and Moko, which is a very good thing.

Another fun update, I recently became addicted to Super Junior's Sorry, Sorry...again. It's no wonder it's one the most popular songs right now. I ended up listening to it over and over yesterday at work. Well there are two reasons for that. 1. It's an aboslutely AMAZING song, and 2. I forgot my Ipod at home. I hooked it up to Kuro (my desktop) to sync and woke up late and...well, it was a whole hullabaloo, but the gist is I forgot it and had to listen to SOMETHING yesterday. It's becoming really bad. I can't stand not having music, especially when it's quiet. My radio in my car wouldn't come on yesterday because of the cold so I had my phone out and I was listening to the 5 songs I have on there over and over. I just can't stand it. Before I remembered I had music on my phone, I was singing along with nothing. I guess the gist of this rant, is that music is in my blood. I need to listen to certain songs when I'm in a certain mood. Lately, I've been listening to Super Junior, as always Arashi, and Alana Davis's CD 32 Flavors. It's a really good CD. I'll post a video for 32 flavors . It's such a good song. Oh, I'll also post Sorry, Sorry. I made my Mom listen to it yesterday and she started dancing in my room and agreed that it was a good song. I was a little surprised, but then again it is an AMAZING song! As for the rest of the Super Junior CD Sorry, Sorry. It's really good. My second favorite song off it is Reset. The title of this post is from the chorus of the song. I thought it worked good for both my obsession and for the New Year! (I'll post a video for that song too!) XD

Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry


Alana Davis - 32 Flavors

Super Junior - Reset

Well, I should probably get started working on some paperwork and school classes plans and stuff like that! I just want to say that I wish you all a Happy New Year! Oh, and it's Sakurai Sho month! He turns 29 on January 25th, so at least expect another blog around then, although it'll probably be pretty short!! XD

Mata ne~
Stasi

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

Get these Mother Fucking Afros off these Mother Fucking Samurai!!

So I'm finally updating again!! I think I'm going to start updating once or twice a month. So I'm getting pretty busy and it will only get worse because things are coming to a close in this pretty busy semester. So first off I'll start with school stuff! I'm getting close to finishing my college research paper. It's about the otaku culture and the positives affects it has on the Japanese culture as a whole. It's really interesting and I'm enjoying researching this because I love Japan!! Also, if you couldn't tell, I like the otaku culture and would be known to be a part of the "American" otaku culture. But anyway, my conference went really well with my professor and so I'm pretty confident in passing the class with an A- possibly an A. Yeah it's lame that she uses the plus minus system. My microeconomic class is going to kill me. We have a test coming up this Monday which we just found out and our Libbys are due next Wednesday. And as per usual, I was procrastinating and totally have only like a third of my libby done. So that'll be a lot of fun catching up on that. As for my other classes, Accounting is going really well. Of course, that is my major! On the most recent quiz I got 100% so that was really exciting. In Japanese, I got 100% on my test again. This time I got my grade from the extra credit I did. On the previous chapter test, I got the same grade but without any extra credit. So overall I'm pretty confident in passing most of my classes with A's. I could possibly have a B in my International Business class, it just depends on how I do on my last test.


Continuing with school, I submitted my study abroad application for Japan earlier today!! I'm really excited and can't wait to find out when and what and everything I possibly can. I am sooo stoked to go to Japan for a few months and go on excursions and just chill and hang out in one of my favorite places!! Hopefully I'll find out soonish if I get to officially get to go!!

Speaking of Japan, Stasi's Anime and Manga update!! So the recent chapter in Skip Beat was pretty amazing and I'm really glad that we are getting away from the latest arc. So it's around Valentine's and Ren's Birthday. Kyoko, the loving ditz that she is forgot about Ren's Birthday. We saw Ren and he clearly is excited to see what Kyoko could possibly get him. It was a pretty good chapter. We also and how he wants Kyoko to give him chocolate on Valentine's Day. Kyoko, being as dense as usual, just retaliates against him. It made me laugh a lot. I also liked that we got to see both Kyoko's and Moko's takes on Valentine's and why they both hate it so much. So yeah, it was amazing and I love Skip Beat and can't wait for the next chapter. Anyways, on to Anime. So lately I've been getting back into Toradora! It was a really cute show I started in the fall and then it kind of got put on hold since I found a few other shows that caught my attention. Anyway I've been watching them when I eat breakfast lately and I only have one episode left. So the next update I do will have my overall thoughts on that series since I'll probably finish it this Friday!! As for other anime, I finished Soul Eater. I really need to catch up in the manga because I want to see how it's different and Dan says it's pretty much amazing. So anyway, I loved the manga. I thought it was a little corny that Maka defeated the Kishin with courage, but it makes sense. Overall I give it a 10 out of 10 and I really enjoyed it!


Speaking of Soul Eater brings me to cosplaying at NDK this September. I actually have ordered my Cooking Mama and Anemone wigs!! It's exciting and I should get them pretty soon!! I'm really excited about them and can't wait until they arrive!! Anyway, I should probably start working on patterns so that I'm not too behind after this summer. So I'm going to end up making all of my cosplays this year, which is pretty exciting. I'll also be making Jenna's Eureka cosplay since we will be going together as Eureka and Anemone (from Eureka seveN)!!


So that's all for now. If I think of anything too important soon I'll try to find the time to post it. If not, I'll just have to try to remember until I get to post again, at the least next May.



Ja Ne~
Stasi

Catching The Dead Fish

So this morning I was woken up at 9am by the fire alarm in my dorm going off. Pretty much sucked. It was funny though because the Assistant Hall Director was trying to figure out why she hadn't heard about the drill. About 10 minutes later, three fire trucks showed up. It was really cool and I love firefighters and the aura of AMAZINGNESS they put off! So I guess it was something with one of the women's restrooms. I'm not totally sure, but I'm pretty sure that is one of the most lamest reasons for a fire drill...like EVER!
So I kind of fail since I didn't post at all during the month of February, but it's small and I was really busy. So I guess I'll start out with an update on the anime I'm watching. I started Witch Hunter Robin. I'm a little over half way through and it's really good. I think I would like to cosplay Robin if I could find a good way to do her hair. I'll have to experiment. I'm also still into Soul Eater and sad that it is ending soon, but I'm excited to see how it will all end. XD Umm...I started Tower of Druaga ~ The Aegis of Uruk. It's really good and it's like watching an RPG. I finished the first season of Higurashi No Naka Ni in anime club. It was very interesting and very bloody and gorey!! XD Manga wise, I only have one chapter left of Koukou Debut, which is probably up by now so I should check it out. I also started and finished Emma. It was really sweet and I think I'm going to watch the anime. Or at least add it to my neverending list. XD On the basis of cosplay, I have a lot of ideas, but have finally figured out what I am going to do for NDK this September. I am going to do Marie Mjölnir from Soul Eater, Anemone from Eureka seveN, and Cooking Mama!! XD

So I have been hanging out with Dan & Kevin a lot more and I love it!! XD I think that Dan and I get along really well. Kevin and Derek are pretty much twins and both sarcastic bastards (in a loving way XD). Dan and I are alike in a lot of ways so it's kind of funny. I also am getting closer to Corey. Corey is a bit rambunxious sometimes, but I love him!! One of my closest friends Kristi is leaving for Germany to study abroad. It's really sad and I'm going to miss her a lot, but I know that she is going to have a blast! Jenna is moving in with Christen, which is super exciting. I haven't seen Christen for a while plus she lives less than a block away so Jenna is going to be a lot more closer!!

Let's see, what else shall I update on? Oh, I started GMing (Game Mastering)!! It's for a Vampire Campaign but it's still a lot of fun. I actually had to split it into two seperate campaigns because so many people wanted to join!! XD I feel a little more comfortable in GMing than in playing. I am also getting excited because it's practice for my campaign that I've been planning for a while now. I have most of the story line done, well at least what I could get done on it without getting effected by character decisions. I was also able to get photoshop from Derek so I'm playing around with it to try to figure everything out. I was working on a map in Microsoft Digital Image, but Derek was nice enough to share so I can try to make the best map I can. I'm really excited about it and hope that everything turns out well!! XD Jenna also started her Zombie Campaign. We started it a couple nights ago and it was pretty much amazing and I felt like I had been blown out of the water, which leads me to my next little rant.

I have been having really weird dreams lately. For example, the one from Tuesday night. I dreamt that I was sitting on this couch and Jenna was sitting next to me. On the couch facing ours was three people. One was this really pretty Asian boy, a girl that looked familiar but had short red and yellow hair and then some nondescript female person. I was watching the girl with crazy hair because I knew that I knew her, but I couldn't figure out who she was. There was a conversation going on, but I wasn't paying attention too much. Then the girl with the red and yellow hair got up and stood in front of Jenna. I heard her talking and I realized that it was Jen So. After she was done talking to Jenna, she went and sat down. Once I had figure out that it was Jen, I glanced at the Asian boy in the middle and we ended up staring at each other awkwardly for a while. Then I woke up. I don't really know what it was supposed to mean, but it was very odd. Yeah this morning I had a really weird dream too, but I can't really remember what happened. I remembered earlier so I could write it in my blog, but I forgot. Knowing my luck it's because I wanted to remember it. XD

Anyways, I'm going to wrap things up now. I just wanted to do an update on pretty much everything!! XD Hopefully March will be a lot better with most of my family's birthdays and Spring Break '09!! Well I will talk to you all soon!! XD

Love,
Stasi