my moral standing is lying down

Friday night was cool -- Angelica's birthday, we went to my house, then Uno's, then to play pool. I really love playing pool with friends, but Angelica and I have to make a date to go play pool together sometime 'cause I get so aggravated having to wait my turn. Besides, there's more of a tension between two people 'cause there's a bit more competition going on. ^^ It was me, Liz, Will, Maryann, Raquel, and of course, Angelica. It was pretty cool that Raquel was able to come and hang out. We all had a really nice time.

I was able to update everyone (who didn't already know, namely Will and Raquel) on my new job and training at Nashville. I was also able to ask Raquel in person about coming to Nashville with me. She said she actually might come for a few days 'cause there's a law school down there that she wanted to visit, but she wasn't sure if it's really in Nashville, or if she was misremembering. So it would be really awesome if she actually does!

Saturday -- woke up around noon? The construction guys continued to work on the garage/room. They "painted" the outside of the garage -- the part that frames the new facade, and "holds up" the porch. It's a nice dark grey to match the other greys in the walkway and steps. Went shopping for a new entry door for the house. Doors are fricking expensive! What the hell?! Didn't do much else.

Oh, wait. I did! I watched more episodes of Wild Striker (up to 33, I believe), which is pretty entertaining now. I'm enjoying it very much, although it will never be as awesome as Whistle!, which I've been getting strong urges to watch over. Heh heh. Maybe I can convince Liz to watch it, then I can watch some episodes over while she's watching. =D

Sunday -- went to work at GCS. Barely any business, but I got quite a bit of pricing done. You know, it really bugs me that the record-keeping has almost completely gone to shit while I've been gone. It's really not difficult and it doesn't exactly take up a huge amount of time. I swear, I don't know how Fay managed to own a successful store for over 20 years if this is how she runs her business. It's really ridiculous, I'm surprised the IRS hasn't audited her and found wild inconsistencies. x_x; And how does it NOT piss her and/or Yvette off?! It's their business! Don't they care if their own records are correct or not?! alsjfklsjfs! I suspect it will be a freaking pleasure (in regards to this sort of thing anyway) to work for Russell, a former accountant.

WARNING: There is a lengthy discussion/rant about books ahead. No spoilers, but it might not be interesting to those who aren't into reading.

First, Monday's no school 'cause of President's Day. Well, actually, maybe that's second. First is that Sunday I didn't go in to work because they decided to stay closed this Sunday -- what with there being no business and all. I understand why they didn't want to open, even though I wish they had opened anyway, so I could make my hours. (My paycheck's going to be piddling this week.) But then, Angelica's mom's day off is Monday so Angelica asked me to switch days with her so that she could hang out with her, so I ended up kinda making up my Sunday hours on Monday (although not all of them). So then Tuesday felt like Monday and it completely threw me off for the next few days.

In any case, I worked Tuesday night also (my regular day) and Angelica was nice enough to wait for me (I think... that was this week, right?), so we had dinner together. Then Wednesday I went home pretty early 'cause my classes end early on Wednesday and I don't work... that was nice. I got to start reading the fourth book (which I finally got in the mail!) in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. 822 pages. I finished last night at around 12:30am. I liked this one (Temple of the Winds)... better than the last one (Blood of the Fold) for some reason. I'm not quite sure why, either. And it's funny, because for the first 300 pages I kept thinking, "This is kind of boring, I'm going to put it down in a minute, just as soon as I finish this paragraph (or chapter or page or line, etc.)." And then I'd forget 'cause I wanted to know what was going to happen. And then I'd realize, again, "This is kind of boring... I'm not really in the mood to read this anymore... I'm going to put it down... just as soon as I finish this..." I've never quite felt that way before because... it really WAS a little boring!!! Nothing was really happening, no action or anything. I mean, I'm not a slave to action SF/F -- I've read lots of SF/F where I had to push through some kinda-boring technical explanations, or political intrigues, etc., that, while boring, are part of the plot and I'm so not the type to skim a part just 'cause it's boring. But with Temple of the Winds, it was the first time that I actually had the urge to stop reading and put it down, but then I'd forget.

I ended up liking the book very much. There are a few characteristics of Terry Goodkind's writing, though, that stand out in my mind and thus prevent me from naming him as one of my favorite authors (my fave SF/F authors are David Weber and Mercedes Lackey; not that their writing is perfect, I'm sure there's someone who doesn't like either of them for one reason or another). But in each one of Goodkind's books following the first one (Wizard's First Rule) annoys me just a little. There's always something in the next book that builds a new "problem" out of something that happened in the last book, while the last book's "problem" was completely solved by the end of the book. I read the transcript of one of Goodkind's interviews in which he says something about trying to make each book a complete story on its own, and also mentions not wanting to write cliffhangers because he wants the reader to read the next book because they want to, and not just to find out what happened after the end of the previous book. I guess I kind of like his intentions, but for me, it gives the book an "all wrapped up" feel that annoys the heck out of me. Even though I'm sure he plans out his plots so that the "problem" in the next book has its root in something from one of the previous books, it seems to me too much like the next "problem" was just plucked out of thin air. It's too neat and tidy, is what it is.

I guess I like books where the "problem" isn't necessarily solved at the end of the book. I mean, I don't want a cliffhanger that leaves you like... like... like Lara Croft hanging from the edge of that ledge in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation with no idea what happens to her, if she's dead or alive, etc. But I don't like how each of the main "problems" in each of Goodkind's books is always solved completely at the end. Well, I guess that's not completely true. I suppose there is that overall problem of the war between the D'Haran empire and Emperor Jagang from the Old World, but since it's not the same type of direct conflict like in other books (mostly SF, I'd say), it doesn't have the same feel.

I guess this is really complicated, huh? I have to say that one of the things I like best about Goodkind is that he has great character development. From what I've read (and I think I've read quite a lot), male authors tend toward less character development and more plot development. I'm not saying this is how all of male authors write, just that from what I've read, this is the tendency. I like a good plot, but there deciding factor in the debate of plot development vs. character development is that I can read a book with a bad plot but good characters (and I don't mean good as in not-evil, but good as in well-developed and realistic), but I can't read ('cause I get too damned bored with) a book with a good plot but with badly developed (and very unrealistic) characters.

So, back to Goodkind: I like the fact that he has good character development and a good plot, even if it annoys me at certain times. Maybe part of the fact that his books seem to be "all wrapped up" in the end is because they are usually the length of two full-sized books. I really enjoy the fact that they're so long because long past the time when I'd have been finished with another book, one of his is still going (much like the Energizer bunny). But it makes me wonder, if he had split the books into two would it be more satisfying? Certainly, there'd be 14 books in the series now, instead of 7, which means double the amount of money spent buying those damn expensive paperbacks, but... would it have been worth it?

I think I'm thinking about this just now 'cause I just finished the 4th book (Temple of the Winds) and have just started the 5th book (Soul of the Fire). Now that I think about it, maybe that feeling like the next conflict just comes out of thin air is due to the fact that, more often than not, Goodkind picks up the next book almost exactly from where the previous book left off. It doesn't give the characters a chance to rest... and I understand that maybe he can't give them a chance to rest because they're being beseiged by evil, etc., etc., but it also doesn't give the previous book a chance to settle.

I wish I could be a book reviewer. (And get paid for it, that is.) Telling people what I think of books and getting paid to do so. What a dream.

So picking up from before the book rant, today is actually a UN holiday, so since I wouldn't be able to work there today, I skipped classes and went to work (at the UN) on Thursday and I'm working at GCS again today. It's been a few weeks since I stopped working Fridays at GCS, I didn't realize how much I missed it. Not that I miss working almost 12 hours straight with only a half-hour break for lunch every week, but I do miss coming in in the mornings, when the bosses aren't here and not many people come into the store. ::sigh::

But I told Yvette earlier in the week that if I come in today I'd only stay from opening until around 5pm. I don't want to stay the whole day when basically, it could've been a day off for me. But I decided I'm only staying until 4... I'm going out with Liz, Louie & Angelica after work to see Queen of the Damned. I've never read Ann Rice's vampire series, mostly because I picked up one of her books to read, Lasher, and it was so horribly boring that I couldn't bring myself to read anything else of hers. A few years later, I picked up Pandora and read it through, and it was good, but not anything that prompted me to go read more of Rice's stuff. Then when Vittorio came out, I borrowed it from the library and read half of it before I had to return it, and at the time I was too busy to read, so I ended up never checking it out again. So much for that attempt. I loved the movie, Interview with the Vampire when it came out in 1994, although maybe that's 'cause I was 14 and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise looked (and still look) oh-so-scrumptious. But it was also a good movie, better probably, than if I'd read the book. From what I've heard of the series, it's something I'd like, but I just can't seem to make myself pick up one of the books. Maybe I will eventually, and then I'll go back to Angelica (who's read them all, or at least most of them) and say, "Wow, that's a really great series!" And then she'll look at me with murder in her eyes like she does when she sends me a good fic to read and I don't read it until a few months later and then I say, "Do you remember this fic? Well, I just read it and it was sugoi!!!" LOLOLOL.

Oh, so... after seeing Queen of the Damned (hopefully it won't be sold out when we get there), Louie will have to go home, but Angelica, Liz and I will probably stop by the arcade in Chinatown where Jason has promised to give us CD-Rs with the DDR 5th mix music burned on it. I can't wait. I felt like wearing my 5-inch-platform/high-heeled Mary Janes today, but I finally talked myself out of it. I think the most convincing reason was not the fact that I'd be on my feet for 8 hours at work, but that if I wore them I wouldn't be able to play DDR after the movie. It's been a while since I've played DDR (at least 3 months, maybe more), but I got back into it last Friday and I don't think I can resist anymore. I was sadly out of practice. It's sad, I think that piercing my ears had replaced playing DDR... at least the benefit was that the money I had been spending on DDR then went to piercing, instead of costing me even more money.

Maybe I should stop here before I overload the server.

Friday was an interesting day.

Opened up at the store… it was very quiet that morning… not a lot of business; not much to keep me busy. I hardly even remember what I did. I suppose Fay and Yvette must have come in around 12? I'm really guessing now 'cause I can't seem to remember. In any case, we'd been talking (or they'd been talking, anyway) about getting a sale sign for the window. So, as soon as they had the address of a sign shop in the area, Yvette and I took a 10-minute walk over to the place and ordered a sign. "SALE up to 50% off! Selected merchandise only." Original? No. But it does the job. In any case, we ordered the sign and came back to the store. I think we got back around 1:30. So I decided to take my lunch at 2, but I ended up getting distracted and not noticing the time until 2:30. So I went to lunch… finished at 3, which is when my sister showed up 'cause we were hanging out later with Angelica (but I'll get to that in a sec).

So, came back to the store at 3. Then went out to the bathroom. Came back 3:10 or so. >_< Told my sister that Angelica and Louie were meeting at 4 at the big clock, so she should meet them there. Around 4, Louie & her friend, Maryann, drop by - I finally got to see the T-shirt I gave Louie for her birthday! It's a really kirei pic of Gackt in his feathered wings from Le Ciel. It's so kirei… and I don't even like Gackt that much.

But anyway, Angelica was late, and Louie and Elizabeth kept missing each other, but they finally met up. Louie had bought a Malice Mizer photo book and a Gackt photo book from Asahiya that afternoon, so I had flipped through the MM book. I believe it was from Voyage sans Retour, or at least it had the photo from the VsR CD on the cover. So when Angelica, Louie and Elizabeth finally got together, they were standing in the middle of the hallway looking at the photobooks (with Angelica's back turned toward me) when I tackled her! Yeah!

So I wasted a little more time there before returning to the store. Then, Yvette asked me to go pick up the sign, so I did. Anything to get out of the store for a few minutes. On my way out, Yvette teased me about not stopping at any Japanese bookstores on the way back. Hey, is it my fault that Asahiya is on the way to the sign place? Anyway, I hadn't planned on stopping… until she mentioned it. Then I thought, oh yeah… why not? It's only an extra five minutes… it's not like they'll ever know. So on the way back from picking up the sign I stopped into Asahiya and was planning just to look and see if there were any new manga out, like Akuma na Eros 4, or Alice 19th 2, or something like that… but I did go and check on the J-rock magazine section, as I ususally do. And boy, am I glad I did! And I'll be forever grateful to Yvette for teasing me about it 'cause otherwise I'd never have seen the Malice Mizer magazine that was there! It's a UV, but instead of being a regular issue with MM on the cover, it's actually a compilation of all of MM's old & new magazine articles/photos/layouts that have been in UV for the past I'm-not-sure-how-many-years.

All the old magazine issues that we've been dying to get… all right there in ONE $28.00 issue!

It's the stuff that dreams are made of. For MM fangirls, anyway. I swear, I was high on the triumph of that purchase for hours.

But that's not even the best part of the night.

On Thursday morning, I came into work with an overnight bag of stuff 'cause I would be staying over Angelica's house that night. That afternoon I felt like doing a search for something online, but I couldn't decide what. So I opened the Yahoo! Search engine page and remembered, Oh yeah! I wanted to search for the name to the song that was playing during the ending credits of the first episode of the second season of Queer as Folk (Sunday nights at 10 ET, Tuesday nights at 11 ET). So I stumbled across their offical website when I did the search - I didn't even know they had an official website. But anyway, I was looking around on the website and I clicked on something about Cast signings or something. And guess what? Apparently there were 4 locations were select cast members would be doing signings - of course, this coincided with the DVD box set release, no da - there were 2 locations in Illinois, one in California, and one in NYC.

If I was a neko, my ears would've perked up, as it was, it was pretty close. I live in NYC! I looked at the date, and to my immense surprise, I hadn't missed it! With my luck, it would've been the week before or something. But it was actually the next night! Can you believe the luck? Not to even mention the insane coincidence and the lower than slime possibility of this actually happening? Finding out the day before the signing?!

But it did. Kakkoii, na?

So Angelica, Liz and I went to it Friday night. It was at the Tower Records at Lincoln Center, from 7 to 10pm. I usually work until 7:30, but I left at 6 that night. We got there around 6:25. I'd say that it almost wasn't worth the four-and-a-half-hour wait, but it was! The three main cast members were at this particular signing (of course, it IS New York City). Brian (Gale Harold), Justin (Randy Harrison), and Michael (Hal Sparks) were there. If you think Brian is sexy on TV (which I did, but not to die over)… well he's even BETTER in person. He has an amazingly sexy 5 o'clock shadow - even though it was 10:45 by that time - and he did this smirky-smile that made me stutter mentally. It was so kirei. Bastards. They're all bastards.

Michael looked much better in person, too. Not more sexy 'cause I just don't think he's sexy, but his three small silver hoops in his left ear looked great. Too bad Michael can't wear them on the show, I'd have a little more respect for him if he did… maybe.

Justin looked older. (I hear he's really 25?) He was wearing glasses, so that helped. And he has a really sweet smile; he was thanking everyone for waiting so long outsideinthefreezingcold. (I'm not bitter about that, really.) It's just that Justin's not my type - he's too blonde. I'm not big on blondes. I really like long, dark hair. And then, if not long, at least dark.

So when we were done it was 11. You'd think after 4.5 hours on line outsideinthefreezingcold I'd be ready to go home and hit the hay, right? Nope. I was starving. I'd gotten to that point where you've stopped feeling hungry because you're so hungry. I hadn't eaten since 2:30 remember? Almost 9 hours. I suppose we could've stopped at an all-night diner or something, but what I really wanted was Malaysian food, specifically my usual: Hainan chicken on rice, and some beef Satay. So we went to Chinatown. We made it there about 11:45, with 15 minutes left before closing. Whew. I would've been really disappointed if we'd missed it.

So I got to have my Hainan chicken and beef Satay. It was gooooooooood. I was happy.

It took us, uh, a long time to get back to Queens, but it's okay 'cause I slept the whole way on the train. We got to Continental around 1, I think. Angelica took a cabbie home (I assume, 'cause I don't think she wanted to wait for the bus, although she could have, if she wanted to.) Liz & I could've waited half an hour for the bus, and then walked home, but it was easier to take a cab. We got home around 1:20 am.

Not bad for a Friday night out on the town?

>_

Well! It's been quite a while since I last posted. To inform you on what happened with my wallet… well, I never found it. Surprise, surprise, I'm sure. So I canceled my cards and all that good stuff. Lost $50.00. Not too bad. Could've been worse. The only thing I'm annoyed about, I suppose is that I lost some photos and things like that… oh! And my Book Off membership card. Grrr.

But enough about my wallet… I've certainly talked enough about that subject. Hmm… let's see. Since then, I started working at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It's a temporary job, and I'm just doing clerical-type work, filing both hardcopy papers and using a digital scanner to upload those same documents to the office's shared drive for easy access. I started at the end of October and will be leaving at the end of December, just before Christmas. It's an 8-week thing. I'm working 8 hours a day (including a one-hour lunch), 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday). Not bad. Some nice, easy money. I'm still working at my sales job in Grand Central Station. Which is kind of tiring, considering that means I'm working a 6-day week. But I think the money's worth it. It's only for 2 months, anyway. After that, I'll sleep for a week. Although I guess I have nothing to complain about, most people do this their whole lives. (I hope I won't have to, or at least that it'll be something I like so I won't notice how tired I am 'cause at least I won't be bored.)

That first week it was difficult beyond belief to go back to Leeper Kids (that's my sales job) on Friday. I mean, besides the fact that I was pretty tired from getting up early to leave for work, working all day, then getting home late and going to sleep late, it was also like abruptly having shit shoved in your face after spending the rest of the week smelling the roses… if you know what I mean. I've always hated my sales job, and the people there (except for you, Angelica, of course) don't make it any easier. [read: understatement of the century] But going back after having the whole week of a nice office job was torture. I pleaded some excuse and cut out after half the day. Yes, I'm bad. Yes, I probably could've used the money. But it was beyond me to stay there longer than I had to that day. I would've just gone (more) insane from the "culture" shock.

But since then I've worked my Fridays all the way through. I don't want them to start thinking they can get rid of me. After all, it is only a two-month job at UNDP. It's not like I can count on it.

Hmm… what else has been happening lately? Not much. I got a few new things from Asahiya, Book Off, CD Japan… but that's not unusual. Ah, I know. I've been watching anime a lot more now that we've moved. My anime tapes are A LOT more accessible than they were before so I'm more inclined to get off my lazy ass and go put a tape in the VCR, even if I do have to go upstairs to do it. >_<

I've been thinking about getting a computer for myself with some of the money I'm getting paid, but I went to www.dell.com and www.gateway.com and put together a computer I could live with and Dell's comes to $996 and Gateway's comes to $1038. Dell's a better buy, not even because it's an amazingly $40 less, but because it has a few extras that Gateway's doesn't for that extra $40. That $1038 is just about half of my pay for the two months, so I'm double-thinking my computer purchase plan. Maybe I should just get that TV that I wanted instead…. Oh, for those not informed, I don't have a TV in my room, I use the one that's upstairs in the living room (on the 1st floor) for my anime- and hockey-watching purposes. Although I do have 2 VCRs in my room so that I can copy tapes. >_< It'd be cool if I got a TV in my room, then I could actually watch anime even more! I wouldn't have to wait until 11pm when my mom's finally done watching Judging Amy, or that Max Bickford show, or The Practice or some other stupid program that's gaggingly unrealistic and tries too hard. And then, by that time I'm too tired to watch anything or Angelica wants me to talk on the phone with her (not that I don't want to, too), and if I want to have any sort of sleep I have to go get in bed, so I never get a chance to watch TV unless she's coming home late that day or is watching in the only other room we have a TV in, which is in my parents' bedroom, except that my father's always watching TV or sleeping in there, so that's practically a moot point anyway.

Maybe I should just get the TV.

But I really would love to have that computer…. 40 Gig hard drive, 1.4 GHz processor, 250 MB internal Iomega zip drive, 48x variable CD-ROM drive, 16x/10x/40x CD-RW drive, Windows XP Home Edition OS, and it comes with MS Works Suite 2001… the only thing I'm worried about is, does that include Word? 'Cause on the Gateway site, they specify "MS Works Suite 2001 with Word" but on the Dell site, they specify "MS Works Suite 2001 with Money 2001"… does that mean that with Dell I wouldn't get MS Word? That would really suck.

So, I suppose I'll have to make a decision soon… especially, to hmm, maybe take advantage of the upcoming sales? I guess I picked a good time of year to get some extra cash coming in.

In other news…. Here check out some of my auctions. Have fun.

ladyreianan's ebay auctions

And go check out some of the new anime I got recently:

Nereid Trading Post: Fansubs

Hmm, and if you're in the mood for Weiß music (along with some Zetsuai 1989) I'd suggest this station:

o fortuna: a japanese pop, rock & animation station

Oh yes! I can't believe I almost forgot! I'm sorry, Louie, it's 'cause I'm at work and I keep getting interrupted. Last Saturday was Louie's birthday party! (Tanjoubi Omedetou!) We went to a karakoke bar in the city - it was cool. And it was a cosplay party, too, so there were some kawaii outfits. Not a lot of us, just about 10, I think, but it was nice. My sister and I went as Cyprine and Ptilol from Sailor Moon S (you know those twins from the Witches 5, one has blue hair, one has red…. Look). Angelica went as Mana (the evil nurse Mana from Malice Mizer, from the Gackt years). There was another Mana there, too; she was the Beast of Blood Mana from recently - she was quite good if I do say so myself. >_< There was a half-hearted Sailor Moon. And Louie was Gackt (from Malice Mizer… before Merveilles). Hopefully if I get some copies of the photos that were taken, I'll scan them and post them up.

Okie, well, I'm done for this session. I'll try not to neglect it again, because, apparently when Angelica's bored she goes and reads my LJ and she gets a trifle annoyed when I haven't posted anything new for her reading pleasure.

::sweatdrop:: o.O*

[Closing Statements:] Rangers are on a 5-game home-win streak and a 8-game point streak! Kakkoiiiiiii! ::whips out sign:: I love you Leetch! ::puts sign away and whips out another:: I love you Richter! ::puts sign away and whips out the last one, honest:: Sammuelson, you're so kawaii!

::grumbles:: Devils, guys, what happened?!

[Reading Recommendation:] March Upcountry and March to the Sea by David Weber and John Ringo (I've been suffering from a lack of new Honor Harrington books and this has temporarily filled the hole.)

Mata na!

...never writing here until Sundays come around... when I'm bored to death at work with nothing else to do. Today's a bad day again... it's dead here at Grand Central Station. (Sounds like a paradox, doesn't it?) In retaliation for it being so dead in here, and me with nothing to do (even after I fixed all the racks, put the clothes in order, made everything nice & neat, etc., etc.) I've been tying up both phone lines. LOL. One is used for the modem (to make credit card sales), but with no sales to run through, I've been using the internet... AND talking to Angelica on the phone line. LOL. Although I wouldn't do that unless it had call waiting, but since it DOES... I don't have to worry, now do I?

I've been really into Malice Mizer this week... listening to the merveilles album all weekend, especially. o.O*

Hmm... jeez... does my life sound as boring to you as it does to me? (Don't answer that Angelica!) Did nothing interesting that I can think of... oh, except for finding another Zetsuai 1989 CD at my local Japanese discount bookstore! Yay!

Well, will write more later when I can think straight (or I get bored again, whichever comes first.)

...isn't very professional. But when you turn out the lights at work and no one can see you... it's irresistible! LOL. Today was a good day at work, even if it is the day before a holiday. I made enough to justify my working today (which is what I was a bit worried about) and -- aside from the few people who came into the store -- it was quite dead. So no one came in to bother me with "What? This is how much? Isn't that kind of expensive?" I really hate that. o.O*

So... I spent the day online. Isn't that horrible? ::snicker:: Didn't feel like reading (or writing) fics, didn't feel like doing much of anything, but somehow I ended up transliterating a few of the songs on my new Koyasu CD "STELLA". And then I uploaded them to my website [http://www.geocities.com/koyasunomiko].

I'm in a good mood. I'm surprised. I mean, I was in a good mood earlier, but now I feel even better. Do you think it's because it's closing time? Maybe. Also, the phone call from Angelica cheered me up a bit. (I feel like it was a bit of noblesse oblige because I kind of complained earlier that she never calls me back, but... you take what you can get, ne? ^_~)

Okay, off to Chinatown. Ja na!