Spending money I don’t really have. x_x

Hm, on Tuesday I went to Lane Bryant and ended up buying 2 wide-leg slacks and a burgundy button-down shirt. I didn't really mean to go in and spend money ($100) that I don't really have, but I figured I'd take advantage of the sale they had going (buy $75, get $25 off) and buy the wide-leg slacks just in case I can't find them again. I got one black (of course), and one gray – the gray looks really cute, I like it a lot!

Then I went down the block and saw that The Wiz there is closing, which means, of course, that they’re having a big sale. So I went in to see if there were any good deals. I went over to look at the digital cameras and they had a Fujifilm FinePix A101 digital camera whose list price ($180) was marked down to $135. That’s a pretty good price for a digital camera. And Fujifilm isn’t a bad brand to have. So I called my mom at work and asked if she wanted to buy the camera and split the price with me. The only bad thing was that the camera would be “as is” – the one on display, with no hookups or extras, etc. – not even the instruction booklet!

Well, apparently my mom had a comparison of digital cameras (we’ve been thinking about getting one for a while) bookmarked on her computer at work, so she accessed the page and saw that it had gotten a 3-star-out-of-5 rating (which wasn’t bad since none of the cameras got a 5 rating) and a “fair” rating on overall. Of course, the Sony CyberShot cameras got a 4-star rating and a “very good” on overall. But the only Sony they had there was marked down to about $220, which isn’t so bad, but remember—no hookups or anything. That means I’d have to buy the USB connection from camera to computer, a memory card… and whatever else I might need.

So she was unsure whether to get the Fujifilm camera, so I said I’d call her back after classes. Well, after classes, on the way home I decided to stop at Best Buy to see if they had any good/comparable deals – if they did, it’d be so much better ‘cause the merchandise is returnable with receipt, and you’d be getting it new, with all the hookups and stuff it’s supposed to come with. I saw that they had a few Sony CyberShot cameras so I started looking at specs and prices. They’re all pretty expensive and even though I’d be splitting the cost with my parents, I don’t have a lot of extra money right now to spend. The least expensive one was $220. That’d be $110 each – almost the cost of the Fujifilm camera in total, and about $40 more per person.

So I called my mom and told her what they had and she said she’d rather go with the Sony. I had to agree with her – Sony’s just better. But I was very reluctant to give up that $135 deal. ::sigh:: But in any case, I did go and buy the Sony DSC-P31 CyberShot. Granted, it is the cheapest one there, but it’s still pretty cool. It’s not like we’re going to need a really amazingly high-tech camera. So. It was $220 plus tax. It comes with an 8MB memory card, but I thought that might not be enough (especially thinking about the five rolls of film I developed from this year’s Otakon), so I bought an additional memory card – 32MB for $35 (on sale). So, with tax and everything, it came out to $276. Ite. That’s $138 each. ::sigh:: Much more than I really wanted to spend. But at least it’s a pretty good camera, and Sony’s a good brand.

So when I got home I took out the instruction booklet and read it. I don’t think most people do that. Usually they just play around with their electronic device and fool around with it to figure out what does what. I do that too, but I usually (this only applies to electronics, though) read through the instruction booklet. Then I fool around with the device to see what does what – except that since I’ve read the instructions, I actually remember what does what! It’s an amazing process! ^_~ So after I read through the instructions and found some batteries to put in, I started to fool around with the camera and OMG – that thing is so addicting! It’s a lot of fun ‘cause… well, it’s always fun to take pictures, but usually you have to pay to develop them so you don’t usually go around wasting film for fun (not to mention you have to pay to buy the film). But with a digital camera, it’s developed right there before your eyes – on a little itty-bitty screen, yes. But then you can transfer it to your computer and see it in all of its 640x480, 1280x960, 1600x1072, or 1600x1200 glory!

So since then I’ve been going around snapping photos of anything I could think of. Also, I’ve finally gotten a good, up-close photo of the earrings (on my left ear), and the tattoo on my back (star), and the tattoo on my left leg (shinigami no koibito).

And as soon as I make some money on ebay (see my auctions) or through NTP, I will go and get my right ear pierced! And then, of course, I’ll post a picture!

New music!

Hm, I’ve been in sort of a depression with music lately – there hasn’t been anything new lately from my favorite bands (or even bands whose music I can listen to over and over), so I’ve just been all over the place with what I’ve been listening to. That happens a lot, actually. …Maybe “depression” isn’t the right word – it’s more of a “trough” than a “depression.” ‘Cause “depression” implies a sort of bad feeling about something. Whatever.

In any case, I’ve been listening to completely random stuff, like the English Initial D CD I have, Aucifer, Gundam Wing image songs… stuff like that. It was getting to be ridiculous. But then Louie gave me a copy of her new PIERROT CD, Private Enemy, and I really like it! I’ve been listening to it non-stop lately – I was very impressed by it and I’m really hoping that this particular album doesn’t happen to be the fluke. As in, I hope the rest of their music sounds as fresh and interesting as this album does. It’s not pop (thank god), but it’s not heavy rock (although that’s not necessarily a bad thing). But what I like the most is… even though I can’t really understand what they’re saying, I get the feeling that it actually means something… none of the songs have a stupid chorus that they sing after each new verse, etc. I guess I mean that the lyrics don’t seem to be formulated, which is a nice change of pace.

One of them – track four, MASS GAME – is sort of darkish, and I completely fell in love with that one as soon as I heard it. Five (AGITATOR) is catchy but cool. But six (Fukinshin na koi) really snuck up on me! At first, I liked it a lot, but I soon started to look forward to it every time the CD went around. And although the lyrics are sort of beyond my ability to translate, the title means “Indiscreet Lover” or thereabouts, and so intrigues me every time I hear the song. I have to find a translation one of these days…

Research and reference.

Bought some Japanese reference books from a friend recently. Kodansha’s Kanji Dictionary, and a book of 501 fully conjugated verbs. Now all I have to do is get bitten by the bug to translate/transliterate and I’ll be all set. It’s sort of difficult, though… ‘cause I’m not really in the mood to transliterate, but actually translating stuff (like manga, which I’ve been really into lately) is way too time-consuming for my present state of affairs. I always seem to be hovering between two places. Pleh.

Speaking of my trip into manga-land recently… I stayed up late one night on IRC downloading chapter upon chapter of scanlations. @_@ I was nodding off at the computer, but I couldn’t go away and leave it to download because they’re not like episodes – they’re only about 5-6MB on average and since I have a cable modem, it only takes a minute or two to complete. So I downloaded up to volume 4 (40-something chapters) of Chobits (which is amazing – I wish there was more; I’m so impatient), 15 chapters of Fruit Basket, 50 chapters of Hikaru no Go… I wonder if there are scanlations available for CLOVER, Hana Kimi, Akuma na Eros, among others… Although translations would be just as well – I don’t mind reading the text alone. I’m going to have to go back on IRC soon and check to see if there’s anything new. (Although when I’ll have the time is anybody’s guess.)

I got my long-awaited tapes from Kim the other day. So I saw some more of Hikaru no Go, which is really awesome – Hikaru’s getting so much better it’s scary! (Although when Angelica and I started to watch it on Friday night, she put in tape nine instead of tape seven, so we had no idea what was going on and I only realized about 7 minutes in that we were probably on the wrong tape. Baka.) Then! Last night I started watching tape eight, and realized at the end of the 3rd episode that the 4th episode was missing! But I was on a roll, so I just shrugged and moved on to tape nine. Can you believe it? It’s only been two days since I got it and I’m one episode away from the end of the last tape that I have. And then I’ll have to wait for more to come out! I hope it’s a nice long series, though. There have been too few long series that are actually good.

Speaking of which… we also saw the first episode of the Fushigi Yuugi Eikoden OVA. It was okay. Mostly it was just setting up the story for the next episodes, but it was cute to see the old charas again. I love Tasuki’s new look, but… it almost seems that Watase Yuu’s been using Tasuki’s new chara design frequently in her new series (starting with Ima Doki!)… so it doesn’t seem all that special… even though it looks great. Sorta disappointing. But I try not to think about it all that often. Mostly, I succeed.

Hmm… I also saw the first seven episodes of Ai Yori Aoshi, which was really good. The first three episodes are amazing! They’re so sweet and touching and wonderful and just… kirei!!! But the next four episodes are so disappointing in comparison. They start introducing the secondary characters (who are really cool, but the sort that you completely sweatdrop over) and so they’ve been kind of episodic. I really want to get back to the main story, but I know that there are a few more characters to introduce, so I don’t know how long the episodic-episodes are going to last. And then… maybe when it finally gets back to the main story, it might not be so good anymore ‘cause the obnoxious-but-funny secondary characters may get in the way of what seemed to be a really interesting, profound plot. I think that’s why I end up staying away from a lot of comedies – or at least, the ones that are supposed to have a serious plot, but have those sort of comedic relief characters that just get on your nerves. Well, I suppose I’ll just have to get more Ai Yori Aoshi if/when it’s available and see what happens. Hopefully it will be good. It has real potential to be a sort of older version of Kare Kano and Kodocha. But we’ll have to see.