Tales and Trails

SO! I've been running around to some areas outside of Tampa lately... Especially in late evening. Being in the sunny state and near beaches galour is truly amazing, and one of the perks is the sunsets on the west coast (and I presume the sunrises on the east coast, which I have yet to get to see). But I recently went to Sarasota and Apollo Beach one more than one occassion and it's quite a relaxing experience I must say.. Here's a pretty pic as a sample!



Pretty, huh? I got quite a few good shots this last week (mostly of the sky, lol). I'e gotten into some macrame lately in addition to my hemp jewelry making.working on a small bag currently. Hope it turns out well... I'll get a pic of it when I finish it.

I found a flier for The Clues debut album... Not bad at all, actually it's pretty intriguing! Getting quite attached to it! :)

Wheeewy! This summer is awesums! I haven't had this much fun even when I was a kid I think. Went to Sarasota for the first time ever a couple weeks ago, and I'll say one thing... I'm absolutely in LOVE with the scenery and atmosphere there. If one thing I do this summer, I am going to take my bike, camera, art stuff, and trek all over the place, checking out shops and spending time at the beaches there, because man-oh-man are the beaches there amazing! Took home some sand from Siesta Beach. A whole bottle full! It's so white and fine... *sighs*

While I was there I picked up some cute beads to make some hemp jewelry with n some patches (which I've been wanting some of my own for a good while). I need to go back there too to check out the John and Mable Ringling Museum. The art museum there looks breathtaking and there's also a circus musuem which sounds interesting. But the place is like artsy- and organic-central, at least when compared to Tampa.

On a different note, I heard a new band that I'm interested in via a friend, the Silversun Pickups. They're an Indie Rock band with an awesome sound and lyrics that just draw you in and make you think. Anyways, heres a clip of the singer Brian Aubert doing a cover of Shadowplay by The Killers. (love this clip!)

Whew... Such tiring days in the past bit, but guess what? It's summertime and I'm not taking ANY classes (for once). I'm takin full advantage of the time I got and been living live by the seat of my pants. Anyways, I've been goin on little adventures and searching for new things and places and the like.

Anyone heard of the Hare Krishna Movement? Well, I got a teaching one day from a guy that was kinda out there... It was a bit amusing at times and a bit tiresome as well, but overall a good experience. It got me into the idea of meditation and yoga as a way to reflect on life. Haven't pursued it just yet but found some nice places that give free "lessons" (of sorts) and on one of these days I get up early enough to get quality time to go, I'm headin out!

Also found some amazing antique shops really close to me. There's one that a Green Store too! Everything they sell is either handcrafted or made from recycled products and the like. It's a small shop but adorable. Theres an online store but it doesn't really put across the glamour of the place... ( www.tampastreetmarket.com/site/ )While there I found an amazing antique history book written by H.G. Wells. It's beautifully written, in great condition and first published in 1920. I only had to pay $5 for it too! (Yeah, I'm turning into a weird antique lover, but hey its amazingly cools!) I also found a pretty hip used bookstore right near campus that I need to go back and check out thoroughly...

A friend of mine introduced me to a hole-in-the-wall coffeehouse that is pretty coolios. It's called Sacred Grounds, and it's only open in the evening (which works perfect for me since I'm a night owl). They have events fairly often and theres quite a bit of artsy connections affeliated with them. They're teas are pretty good and the vegan food there is AMAZING! Quite the find I must say.

I've also been looking into some non-mainstream and new music gigs. Picked up a ton of fliers and I found one of my new fav artists, Eric Hutchinson (he sings Rock & Roll and Ok, It's Alright With Me) and I just missed one of his shows in town by 2 days! So upset, BUT I think I kinda like Gogol Bordello, a gypsy-punk band. A bit weird but some of they're songs are cool and they're live performances seem like crazy randomness, so sounds like fun. Might go see them in concert in a few weeks... We'll see!

But here check out his Rock & Roll MV:


Also on a side note, I've been drawing a TON lately, dun have any of it digitized yet though. Hopefully I'll get some of that up soon, lol!

So, I'm rather randomly posting... I was lazy all summer and was fairly MIA. The only things I have been doing regularly is playing DOMO, watching a bit of anime and sleeping... >____> Boy is it hard to get out of that regular habit. Classes started 2 weeks ago and I have to literally drag myself from them to do classwork (especially hard since I dun have books for half my classes - gonna have to play nasty catch up). Aparently I need to go see the oprometrist as well... Eyes must be going bad.

Anyways, I'ma try to get back into my web and icon design hobby.... >____> TRY is the key word.... Too busy aparently. I at least have made a few icons and templates, haha.

(And for any who think I should be paying attention to class.... It's just simple algebra/geometry, which I proved in middle school I could do... =______=;)

Ahh, okies, so it's been a while since I last updated... @___@ But then thats not really that unusual. Hahaha.....

Anyways, classes are OVEEEER!!! XD I so ROCKED! my summer class I had (who cares if it was only linear systems, AKA advanced linear algebra). So, my summer already is amazingly great just because of that. On top of that my mind feels so fresh and alive which means operation REFRESH was a complete success. Ahh, and Jani not sure if you recall me mentioning this guy I had a long distance relationship for like 5 years (it was a LONG time ago) or not, but he finally came down~! X3 So that gets added to the greatness of this summer.

I've even had enough time to play this MMORPG that I'm kinda hooked on called Dream of Mirror Online (DOMO). Apparently its a free game developed by Softstar (i.e. it's originally a Chinese game). It's a social MMORPG so I've actually made some friends. Haha, I met one that lives in Japan and apparently she gets to watch all the cute lil' high school boys walk to school, ROFL, and also a bi guy (theres a lot of interesting peeps). You get to do quests, fly, create lover, teacher/student, and friend relationships, join guilds, dress up in costumes (they have a school girl outfit and kimono that I really want) and the thing I like the most, have pets~! XD~ Currently the Western version of the game hasn't implemented the Final Evo, but here's a peek at their final forms - theres 4 forms (egg, baby, teen and adult).

Since boredom has chased me to playing MMORPGs and loitering on the internet I figured I'd go ahead and join the PT lead... @____@

So, guess what? It says I'm an...
You know, I think it might be b/c I originally wasn't an analyst..? Only became one after college and relationship influences allowed me to grow. So would that make me an adapted SD (haha, I actually went and checked what I used to be! And... still am for the most part... So I'm a mixed breed?).

Mmm, so summer started like almost a month ago, and I have done absolutely NOTHING but laze around~! Ahh, how refreshing that can be at times. Mm, anyways, near the end of April, my sister introduced me to the Shin Megami Tensei trilogy (?) games. My sister was telling me they're a bit hard to find (took her a few months to get hers, after frequent checks at Game Stop), but I managed to get a hold of like 4 of them in 2 weeks miraculously.

On a different note (yet, still on the topic of games), my family recently got some new Wii games too. (Don't have too many of those, many because the plots are very limited, probably due to the target audiences for the system).

Firstly, we got Mario Kart for the Wii and I have one thing to say about it, once you play it Wii it's oh SO hard to not treat any other controller/system like a steering wheel, LOL! I keep turning my DS with I play Mario Kart DS!!! I sit there and chuckle at myself, when I'm playing it. Mmm, but it's much more fun when you have that positive physical mimicry. I play it now and then and apparently I'm not half bad at it.

My mom got Wii Fit, which is quite interesting. It's not for any real heavy workouts but great for like a 20 minute a day light workout in the convenience of your location/your time needs. The whole "game" aims at improving your posture, which will benefit your overall health significantly. And considering my back hasn't been bothering me nearly as much as it had been I'm plenty happy ( >___>)

Anyways, I felt like ranting on gaming, so yeah~! It's not like I do it often anyways....

 OK, so I finally am getting down to my first icon post. I've been meaning to do this. Well, hopefully they're liked... I'm still not that great probably, lol.

I was looking up the Touch iPods on eBay today and came across this. Since it doesn't require any payment whatsoever the way I found out, I just went ahead with it. Maybe it'll work maybe it won't, but hey it won't hurt right!

You'll all have to excuse me but I'm feeling rather hopeless right now so I have to do something to help.... Sometimes, I wonder, if I'm just too out there and strange for the norm of people. Normally I don't even pay attention to any of it because I tend to have the eccentric types of friends or ones that at least, I'd assume, find me interesting. It's truly amazing how people view each other and though most times I don't get bored by it, I realize how little many understand me. I just don't see why some people don't try to see from different views. And with a quirky personailty that molds to changes and slides more on the eccentric side (aparently) to only have one set view towards me and my ideas kinda pains me a tad. Ehh, but I guess people aren't inclined to do what thet don't need to, and if they aren't interested in it, you really can't blame them too much especially if they're a stranger. But it still makes me feel like loner... and still very painful....

(This is why even though I'm interested in the brain, psychology would not be a pleaseant career; the scientific approach(nuerology) is probably better for my mood stability.)

Ahh, new round at LIMs! XD I've been having fun cropping and colorizing, but I can't choose which one to use!! O__O What to do....  I guess I'll hold onto 'em until I get some more inspiration, like a theme for them or something... Something that fits the graphics... either way I've got 3 icons coming out and around~!  Shocking from just one picture, at least for me. Taking a lil bit of a different approach. We'll see how it works out!

Maybe I'll be able to do an icon post sometime soon~!

WEWT - WEWT!! Classes start today and guess who didn't get any sleep...! Yep, no sleep. But by the time I was tired it was pointless cause I have to go to the bank, buy some batteries, buy a clicker and get a parking spot early before class. I.E. I have to be leaving the house probably around 8, or whenever the bank opens... (I'm assuming 8 though it'd really suck if it was later cause parking is impossible at like 10 on the first week, not to mention I wanna get a GOOD spot - as in not all the way out in BFE!) But I got all my books ready and my scedule written out, my notebook, scrap paper, pencil case and recorder packed and ready -  heck I even had time to pick out the clothes I was gonna wear today since I had nothing else to do! Just gots to take a shower, change clothes, pack the laptop up and head out when I'm ready!

Anyways, these last few days I've been busy watching an old favorite series of mine, Hunter x Hunter! XD I'm in love with the series again. I went stir crazy and watched the whole series, plus the 3 OVAs and then after that read the Chimera Arc (which comes after the GI Final OVA), or what there is of it. It couldn't have been at a better time because I heard Togashi Yoshihiro is coming back from his sick leave in October! Though the series isn't expected to move very fast, according to a lot of fans.... (However truthful that is I dun really care, but I would like to see the ending - and not a rushed uprupt one). Once the series is done I'm sure the last OVA set(s) will come out on the Chimera Arc, which in my opinion is awesome, at least once you get a good ways in it. The last like 20 chapters were the best in the series so far, if you don't look too far into the art (though the slightly messy art does give it a bit of character) for those aesthetic-oriented people. I will say the messy art did turn me off when I started the Chimera Arc when it first came out but I actually enjoy the art with it now for some reason, lol. And I'm still curious when Gon's dad will show, I mean he has to right? I'd be a tad disappointed if he didn't. I really wanna see hpw their meeting is gonna go, cause I'm really gonna cry if the series ends with Gon and Gin just like standing there staring at ech other and thats it..... They have a LOT to talk about I'm sure! X3

Ahh~ It's been a while since I last posted... Well, not much has happened but a lot has at the same time. >___> Kinda....

First I have to say the bad news.... My External HD fried on me and it'll cost a pretty penny to get all the info off it. The motor died completely on it and aparently I have to go to a personal PC shop where they'll charge like an arm and a leg cause its some specialized process.... So there goes 250 GB worth of anime......... 250 GIGS!!!! That's.... TT____TT makes me wanna cry.... Well, I got a new one and I'm trying to get it all back downloaded. Got a bigger one too. I won't ever have problems with space, and its got a 5 year warranty so it shouldn't die on me after barely a year! Man, what is it with these HDs nowadays. Makes me wonder if I'm just buying scraps that is camoflogued over mysteriously.... The worst thing is all my BSSM was on there........ =____= I got about 1.5 seasons burned on DVD I thinkn but I can only get it as one batch (all 166 episodes plus the movies, excluding the Stars season). Normally I'd buy the damn DVDs but I sure as hell don't trust the licensed version sold here and there are missing episodes. So I gotta spend forever to get it again.... But on the other note I've gotten a lot of my subs from Shinsen and all my LabuKon. Still got a LONG ways to go though. I dun even remember all the stuff I had on there. Ahh, I'll get it eventually..... I just have to find it all again *whimper*

Ahhh, I've had such a refreshing break from classes (it'd be heaven if it asn't for my hellish job....); playing games, watching anime, redesining my TCG site, tinkering with other site designs, and doing LEISURE cleaning and preps done. Cleaning isn't so bad if you can do it at your own pace. Just got half my clothes washed today~! I bought my domain/hosting, but the domain isn't connecting properly. It might be just my network here (something about the ISP) If you guys could check http://neturetu.net out for me and see if it works ok I'd appreciate it. Cause if it isn't working I have to contact them about it to get it fixed.... 

On a side note, does anyone wanna trade friend codes? I've Animal Crossing and no friends to travel to see. I want FRIENDS~!

OK, so yesterday I told myself I wouldn't spend any money except for the $15 for Picross, which was just release today~! But, my sister dragged me to Dillards to look at the Clearance dresses, thank god they were clearance (they were all like originally $50-$70!!). Even though I actually ended up forgetting my wallet, my sister hd me try on some of the dresses I liked and I ended up buying one.... Well,she bought it for me and I ha to pay her back. =____= She's a horrid influenc on me financially, lol. Anyways, its really cute and PINK~! 

But anyways, the Picross game came out today for the DS and I couldn't hlp but buy it because Pircoss is amazingly fun~! I got through the easy section in an hour but the normal mode gets harder quick~! XD Hohoho~! It's fun fun! But that might only be becuse I'm a nerdy geek...

And yesterdayI saw I Now Ponounce you Chuck and Larry and OMG it was so flipping hillarious! I was laughing a good portion of the movie. And going with a few guys is even better cause their reactions just make it even better! Everyone should see it whether its in the theaters or t home later. But another good note is one of the guys who came was recruiting for the Robotics Team! XD I was so psyched when I was offered to work on a team. I'm super-uber interested in Robotics (among other thigs) so this sould be a great experience. All in all I've had a great few days. I'm just reall lucky at the moment~ <3

Waai~! First of all I'd love to thank soifon for this pretty, pretty icon~! X3 I absolutely love it~! Haha, and I find it so funny cause I'm usually on my comp the most (for leisure) at around mindnight so i suits me soo well. I'm so gonna use it for my midnight posts~! Ok, so its not really midnight but it's late!! And~  now that thats out and since I'm on the icon note... I just missed voting for clamp_lims.... u___u; I wasn't expecting to be at work until like midnight... @____@ poohy~! It was WAY bad there tonight because of low staffing from the morning. I worked so hard that my arms and shoulders are stiff and sore and my feet and calves ache.  But onto clamp_limsagain, lol. It's getting slim over there isn't it? Thats good, it means round 2 is around the corner~! woot! I need something to do.... I mean I had to fill in time spots with cleaning of all things. That RARELY happens, very rarely... Heck I don't think I even PLAN cleaning! But my room does need cleaning and organizing. It gets so out of whack during uni season~! 

On top of that I really need to catalogue my manga. I just got my shipment in and I'm still letting it ooze into my mind. I look at half of them each day to absorb them in well, hohohoho~! Not to mention reading Darling wa namamono nitsuki is just hillarious~! I laugh so much and I can't even understand all of it. BUWAHAHA~! But I'm mostly looking at my BSSM parody anthologies, Moon Fight! volumes 1 - 4. Once I get enough of those I'ma move on to the more anticipated ZeroSum Anthologies~! Wewt, smexy art is always awesome! XDD Now to just solve that space problem... I think I'm completely out of shelf room, hahaha.... and theres no room in my room for another bookshelf. >____> *ahem!*

Which reminds me I need ot get my site first before I can catalogue anything. I think I'll get it on the 1st of August. It marks the start of a new year for me, as the new school year starts in August, lol. SO! I'm trying to prepare stuff. But whether its ready or not I will buy my domain and host on the first! X3 Then you'll get to see all my pretties!

Today I also went shopping a lil at my work. I found this dress that went clearance a while ago and we didn't have my size but one got returned. ^^ So I hid it and went and bought it today. I also bought these awesome Patrick Robinson jeans that were clearance too. You can fit like 3 mangas in each side pocket! And they so have style. It's a shame they dun help my figure any, but oh well! And on top of that I got these really cute red flats! Theres not much I have to wear with them, as very little of my wardrobe is cutesy (I just recently got into the cute apparel) But I will find ways to wear them! I will! 

And since this entry is SO FREAKIN LONG!!! Time for some cuts~!

I'm randomly on my laptop at like 6:30 AM by happenstance and I just realized I haven't brought up PhD comics (Piled higher and Deeper) anytime since I found out about it. It's completely awesome! It's not manga that' for sure but they're pretty darn good comics all about the procrastination of a group of grad students. XD You should at least check it out sometime! It's always a good procrastination tool (and reading the new comics is tons of fun) Plus I have a semi alter-ego in the comics. Celcilia, the computer programmer! Anyways for those procrastinators, heres one cute lil nerdy comic all about procastination. (OMG it's some crazy proof that you don't really have to understand!)

PROCRASTINATION: 
              IF NOBODY MINDS, IT DOESN'T MATTER.

click me to go to PhD comics

Exams are OVER~! Wewt! OK, so I'm a tad depressed the semester is over but even though i love my classes I'm sure it's healthy to get a break for once... right...? Ahh, but what to do now... I guess I can finally get my layouts done. >____> Then buy my host and domain.... >____> Hmm, yeah. 

OH, since things have been so busy and hectic, it seems I've been accepted for adopting my first FL. I'm excited. It happened right before exams so all I've got done it the graphical representation of the layout. None of the coding is done, but I'll get on that fairly soon. You'll have to wait and see what the FL is for, but I will say one thing it is for a relationship FL.

 And I finally got the money today to pay for my shipment from JPQueen. XD~  I'll be getting my first anthologies (Moon Fight! 1.4 set and Arcana 1-4 set which features awesome mangaka, like Minekura Kazuya, Kouga Yun, Takayama Shinobu, Miyamoto Fukusuke, Yoneyama Setsuko, Nanjou Tsugumi etc. And~! I'm getting an awesome xxxHolic clear file. I spent more han I usually do per item but thats fine. I'm sure I'll enjoy them all~! AND I only have to wait a few days to get them, cause I paid for Yamato shipping, which is insured and just as fast as EMS. Maybe I'll get it on Monday or Tuesday. A nice way to start my refreshing summer holiday, ne?

And since I should be getting my site up within a month, that means I'll be getting my extensive collection up on the net.  I'll get a FL site up too, plus probably move my TCG colletive there too. I'll have to make a new layout for that too. Hmmm... That mean I gotta come up with a new theme for it, maybe somethihng Fall-ish? Most of my recent layouts for it hve been summery or spring-like. The ones before that though were darker... I dun keep dark layouts much though. Pretty colors are SO nice~!  

And on another note, I have managed to keep up with some anime, this week despite spending all other time studying for my 4 tests and 2 final projects. @___@ (I really am insane with my course load all that crap in 3 days) I saw the most recent Capeta, and OMFG! That anime still has me sitting in front of my laptop with my eyes glued to the screen, sitting on the edge of my chair from anticipation. I get so into that anime it's not even funny. And it's just on kart racing, lol! But this last episode was awesome, and full of emotion and action and just, excitedness! I can't wait for the next one to come out, as usual. I also watched Claymore, which is getting very ineresting. I like the direction its been going. I really liked the characters that came into this episode too. Seirei no Moribito, although it seems to have slowed a tad bit looks like it'll be picking up pace really soon. Hoho, and isn't it nice how the history they've been told and known their entire life is wrong. Oh, that seems so much like some history lessons in real life, don't it? They tell us what they want us to beleive, so biased. *shrugs* It's all a plot~! xP And finally I've managed to watch the episodes that made me lose interest in the seres. And after like 2 episodes t gained back my iterest almost full blast. So I;ve been scrambling to catch up, lol. I'm at like episode 103 (watching it via YouTube). And one last thing to say Opening 4 (tonight tonight tonight) and Closing 8(movin) are AWESOME. I've been listening to Movin' for like 4 days. Takacha's music is SO interesting. The blend is SO addicting~!! XDDD

OK, so I haven't touched LJ for over a week. The reaseon: UNI. Plain and simple. Last week I really really wanted to compete in the Comeback challenge at clamp_lims and because of work, class projects and all the freaking exams I have this week I wasn't able to even try. It's been so crazy and hectic, you wanna know what I feel like. I drew a pic of it on my Graffiti wall on Facebook. Here's the pic:

         

That is how I feel and have felt since yesterday. I had review and right after worked on a final project I had... It took 9 hours! 9!! It was horrible. We did not expect it to take that long and because of that I didn't have much time at all to study for my test today. *sighs* I didn't know how to do 2 out of like 10 of them... I did a wild 'figure it out' attempt. Dunno if I got it right, but hey it's better than blank. If I did horrible on it I guess I'll have to drop it and take the final. *shurgs* But yeah, thought I'd update it. I gotta last until Thursday. Up to Thursday evening. I still have 3 more finals and a final lab project to complete. So once that lab project is done I'm crashing~! XDD

OK, so I ended up going to the Metrocon. Friday my sister dragged me out of bed to give me a guilt trip cause I didn't feel like going, so I said I'd go (it was gonna b free so why not I guess). So since I was going, and since I had said this before, I had to wear my yukata..... 

But anyways, a guy from work has been bugging for me to come cause I've never been to an anime convention and all (my sis too, but since I'm headfirst into anime practically he emphasized that I HAD to go more). I haven't gone because I know how a lot of American "otaku"s are like.... and it makes me wanna cry... But my sis dragged me there solely to see the vendors, lol. We spent all the time I had Friday down in the shops and a lil time in the artist alley. I got some nice deals and some cute stuff too~!
Now I actually did go to one event... The Human Chess Match.... and ummm.... 

But yeah thats my SUPER long post on Metrocon. I might go next year just for the vendors... Most of the anime they were showing was stuff I've already seen, lol. And the events... I'm still incredibly wary of. >___> We'll see, it's a year away.

Now that thats out, lol. I've been seriously considering buying another shipment of manga, and possibly some manga anthologys and SM doujin. I'm thinking about my bank account and not having any room and all, but I think I'ma end up getting them. LOL. They all look interesting, too and I think I won't get bored with the genre's they come out of easily too. All the more tempting to get them. But that also got me thinking that I seriously need to cataloue my manga, artbooks and all. Cause I have a ton of manga and if only for emergency urposes I might need to know what the hell I actually have. You know if it floods r hit by a hurricane, or theres a fire or something. That way I'd have a list of all my pretty lil assets lost/damaged. You have to have records of them I'm presuming, and thankfully al mine are online. (Ah, the benefits of online buying) Anyways, I was thinking about making a custom DB for manga, but since theres MangaDB I dun think I really need to. I can deal with a lil' limitation on features. Plus I can make a spreadsheet if I really need more for emergency purposes. *shrugs* Having it online will just help me know what the hell I actually have. (I have so much I can't keep track, probably close to 450 manga, *__* ) 

OMG I might be buying my first doujin!