angikate

Today I finally got the book I've been craving. The one that's been sold out of EVERYWHERE. The one that they aren't reprinting. And now I has it. In Hardcover. Like the rest of my set.

XD

Also signed up to win a Designer Diamond. Doubt I'll win, but at least I've tried.

Today is the first day I make a post that actually has content. ^_^ "Recently Viewed" will contain information and reviews of interesting books, manga, anime, and music that happen to cross paths with me and that my friends might find useful. (i.e. this is a warning that I will be posting more of these.)

Thank your public library for carrying more anime and manga! I recently read the first 22 volumes of Red River by Chie Shinohara. Basic plot: Japanese school girl is magically transported to the ancient Hittite empire where the queen plans to sacrifice her so that her son will ascend the throne, but pretty-boy Prince Kail rescues her by making her his sole concubine. One thing leads to another, Kail and Yuri fall in love, the people claim that she is Ishtar reborn, and cute Japanese school-girl becomes the Helen of the Hittites. There are plenty of pretty boys in this series, lots of ecchi encounters, royal intrigue and scandal, and a cast of characters that even the most historically illiterate will recognize. I've got 4 volumes left to read, waiting on 9 other people to finish reading them, then I'll know if there is a happy ending or more death and destruction. On a side note, there are several dresses that are cosplay worthy! ^_^

Another thank you goes out to my dear friends at Funimation for allowing their anime to be available at hulu.com! Just finished watching Mushi-Shi yesterday and I really liked it. This is an episodic anime, so there is less of a plot and more of a formula. Ginko is a mushi master, one of few people cursed with the ability to see mushi, living organisms that affect people in supernatural ways. He travels from village to village helping to cure people who are affected by them. What I like about this series is that it takes a story (for example, there once was a young couple about to have their first baby, but instead of a child, the mother gave birth to a green slime that fell between the cracks in the floor and disappeared. Six months later, they heard a baby crying under their house and raised it as their own) and gives it a scientific twist (the slime was a mushi, which grew beneath the house into a large fungus, and in order to grow and multiply, it created a sporophyte in the form of a baby which it knew the humans would raise as their own) add an element of danger (another baby arrives under the house every 6 months, and after a few years, the oldest baby grows ill and coughs up spores when he dies so that the mushi reproductive cycle continues at the cost of the people living with it) then Ginko finds a way to save the day. Some episodes give hints as to how Ginko came to live this life, but most are mystery-of-the-week campfire stories that kept me watching to see what would happen next. The storytelling was a lot more tame than my usual fare but fun to watch.

While you're on hulu, check out Ghost Hunt, an action packed series about a team of supernatural investigators who try to scientifically prove the existence of ghosts and exercise the dangerous ones. This one was more my speed than Mushi-Shi, very immediate action and reaction where science meets strange phenomena. The main character is a high school girl who is just beginning to learn of her own ESP abilities (dream-walking) and through her curiosity to explore the old schoolhouse gets coerced into working for a Ghost Huter. Not all phenomena are ghost related and it is interesting to see how natural occurences are blamed on active spirits. Several of the ghosts in the series are classic Japanese haunts: Hana the bathroom ghost, the ghost in the broadcast room, the woman in the well, the haunted picture of Beethoven who plays the piano when no one is there! Woooo!

That's all for today. Gotta finish Death Masks before the library gets uppity.

This year has been really hard. I get email reminders, facebook reminders, myspace reminders, every website I go to is really loud about the holiday this weekend and every time I see the reminder, I get teary of not downright crying. I don't remember the last two years being this bad. I may just have to boycott the internet until next week.

Everyone: if you still have your dad, let them know how much you care about them. You never know what the future is going to send your way.

I don't mind the sound of jackhammers, but that's only when I'm the one wielding it! I particularly dislike being woken up by them on my only day off. Goodbye dreams of sleeping in. :(

I scored Phillip Pullman.

More interesting than that, they said that my exact opposite is Tolkien. Yeah, I could have told you that. ;)

Happy birthday to haamel! YAY!

Life in general is pooping on my friends. I'll never get used to this being "adult" thing. Job losses & death, bills, taxes, etc. Sunshine just isn't enough...

Let's just remove it and get it over with. Daily headaches and migraines are not my cup of tea. In fact, tea isn't my cup of tea anymore. Sad, really.

It's official: I'm going to be a panelist at SpoCon this August! The programming schedule should be up in the next couple of weeks so check it out! www.spocon.us

Just announced R.A. Salvatore is the writer GOH. I haven't seen Bob in a few years, so it will be good to catch up! ^_^

While holding a golden for a forearm blood draw, my wrist went pop. Then I had to pop it back into place. At urgent care, the rads looked great, which means soft tissue damage. I see the Dr. again on Monday. Until then, major pain and no animal restraint and handling, also no lifting.

Angela is a sad panda.

Had a 12.5 hour day yesterday. Today is shaping up to be about the same. Running on 3 hrs. sleep. Not happy.

But I am happy.

So confused!

My genius PVC pipe skeleton is working wonderfully, even found the perfect bolts for the joints. Unfortunately, my wrists can't handle trying to saw and drill into the materials. Today is a double-wristbrace day. Which gets quite interesting when trying to restrain animals.

In other news, fellow editor is very impressed with my resume (four whole pages crafted down to one!) and there may be progress on actually getting a job in my field in the future. We'll see how it goes.

Since I can't afford to travel this weekend, I want to go swimming! Who's going with me? (Or even virtually going?)

This has been an extremely busy week. Major concert on Tuesday kept me out until 1 am, last night after work went to a couple clients' houses for keys and pet care instructions, then stayed up until 1:30 getting ready for a lecture I'm giving with a friend at the college this afternoon AND finished my resume and cover letter for the agent to pick up at work today.

Opening the clinic wasn't nearly as blurry as I thought it was going to be.

The one thing I keep forgetting to do is bring in that necklace! One of the clients at the clinic complemented me on the necklace that I made and requested one for he daughter. I finished it last Saturday and haven't brought it in yet. Luckily, the client hasn't been in, either! ^_^

Back to documenting every hour of my day in my planner, as otherwise I would be completely lost with work and side jobs. x_X

Having lots of fun, though!

Viking death metal night! Now I'm starting to get excited! Only 3 1/2 hours until I get off work.....

After my dear husband, in an answer to my stress about not being able to pay bills, told me that no, I can't get a second job, and so I'm doing what I want anyway. This month is Angela, Fearless Cat Sitter. I have at least 3 jobs scheduled so far, and a few more people interested in my services. Another person has requested that I make some jewelry for her, and she was so excited when I said yes that she wanted to know if I had a website with more stuff for sale. Looks like that could be an option as well.

The most exciting job opportunity by far is editing. I've had a long conversation with a local agent and he wants to see my resume. He says that he knows people who are looking for freelance editors and may have some work for me, or can at least point me in the right direction. I have until Thursday to get my kick-ass resume together (since it is mostly done already...) and see what happens.

On the costuming front, still working out what to do for Spocon (cash prizes!) and Orycon. Still want to do cyber-angel. Actually dreamt that I was working on that last night and figured out a really cool way to make the wings portable.

The NKOTB reunion. CD comes out this spring and touring starts this fall. Yes, I was a screaming fan girl in 1991, only I was a little fan girl then, not even in high school.

Cosplay contest by VIZ media April 27th. Still deciding what to wear.

More news and info after work.

Thank you all for the well wishes on my birthday! ^_^

In other news, my cell phone (and only phone) has completely broken in half and is unusable. If you need to reach me, sorry. :( Will try to get things back up and running a.s.a.p.

As of yesterday, I am now 26. Despite family issues, I made a pretty good day of it. My sister and mom called, one of my cousins called, and my in-laws all called. Breakfast was crappy, but we didn't have to cook. I bought components to fix my computer, which should prove fruitful by tonight. D and I went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory, which was overshadowed by the idiot girls sitting at the table next to us. Some people just can't grow out of high-school mode. All in all, it was a nice, quiet day.

I can tell I'm getting old before my time. I like quiet and stress-free time. I enjoy sitting around and doing nothing. The most exciting part of the day was fitting into my "skinny" jeans. I was so happy to be able to fit into my jeans that I wore a shirt that didn't hang down to my knees. For me, that's something major. For the first time in a long time I felt sexy. I could have bought a new dress and gone to the Vampire Masquerade Ball. Instead, my birthday dinner was almost ruined by air-headed bimbettes pointing and laughing that I'd actually left the house. D had to remind me several times that their opinions don't matter, something I'm still working on believing.

Goals to complete before turning 27: actually getting published. I've wanted to work in vet med since I was 14, and I'm there. I may not be the vet that my mom and grandparents want me to be, but I love what I do, and my abilities are constantly expanding. Now I need to accomplish another life goal, and that is to be a writer. Having my laptop in working order should help with that. (Especially since my desktop, with all of my previous writing projects saved, has refused to boot up. I have a nice little light box that says "HP Invent" and no amount of begging will make it load past the opening screen.) I get to start over, a clean slate for new ideas and plenty of crap words to get out of the way on the road to finding them. That, and I'll be able to watch movies in bed. Laptops are so cool. ^_^

Hm, I guess it really is just one goal. But one of my mini goals is to write first, edit later, and to do that I must learn to write without deleting. Might as well take the method-actor approach and just do it, starting now. Or once I get those last few screws to keep my new hard drive in place...