blue_bel

so, apparently, my last post was just before halloween??

the updates:
* i did actually win "best costume" at work, with my crappy gingerbread man costume... which i hand-sewed from top to bottom (including gloves! and cover for my shoes! XD)
* last time i posted, the oldest of my dad's siblings had passed away... a little over a month later, the oldest of my mom's siblings also passed away... she's the one *i* most look like.. and i'm ever so much closer to her than i was with my uncle. i was her favorite niece... she encouraged me to read when everybody else was telling me to stop reading so much when i was younger. i am thankful that my work let me go for a bit... and i am thankful for my husband, chibi_ginn for being so supportive. my mom and i ended up hopping on the first plane we could get on back to the philippines. (he wanted to go, too, but we couldn't afford all three of us...) i'll stop for here now... it's been two months since... but thinking a bit on it still makes me want to cry.
* i have a new title, as of the beginning of the year: systems analyst. i have a new job description, but i don't really think my bosses even know what that means.
* my mom and my sister are on good terms again... although i just got into a fight with my mom over downton abbey... (inorite... downton abbey, wut!? XD)
* have now watched all of doctor who (awesome), dollhouse (got better and better, but short-lived), and better off ted (hilarious, but also short-lived) on netflix... i now know who portia di rossi is, and i think she's gorgeous. ;p am now also watching supernatural (crazily enough, i'm trying it because i remembered kazuki saying he liked the show... XD;)
* i'm behind on katou kazuki releases, all the way back to october.. and it's making me antsy. ^^;;
* MU being down has really put a damper on. quite de-motivating.
* i rejoice that gay marriage is now legal in my state... although now we're waiting for the antis to try to get 120,000 signatures for a referendum to go to the ballot. i hope they don't.
* chibi_ginn is still looking for a job. the market is really tough right now. on the other hand, i'm stressed out... and my entire team is going nuts... but it's good to be needed right now.
* we'll be heading out to hawaii for about 3.5 days in march to witness one of my former dorm-mates getting married. :) (i'll also get to see my cousin so that should be loads of fun. ♥)
* got to babysit my coworker/friend's baby at 6 months... so much different from 3 weeks. but still amaenbou.

been a bit of a moody bitch lately.. and, for that, i am sorry.. in part.

for the most of it, i think i had a right to hold back.. although it's probably unfair that i'm not telling people why i'm upset. ultimately, i feel like my reasons for being upset are selfish... but there are times when the cup of giving overfloweth and i need others to help me pour back.

enough of the cryptic mess.

this most recent thursday, my uncle passed away. my dad's older brother (my dad was second of nine) and the one he looks most like. i'm glad that i got to see him once this summer (last time was about 15 years ago) and that my husband got to meet him... although we'd been out of touch, he's still my uncle and i love him and the rest of my family. i wish i could be there.... there's not much i can do here besides pray and send my love.

to more upbeat things for people out there...

all of my promises for checking previously uploaded files and re-uploading to other ddl sites will happen this week. hopefully, by tuesday.

what's holding me back? halloween.

in past years, i'd always said that i wasn't going to dress up.. and then somebody convinces me, and i end up hand-sewing the crappiest costumes known to humankind at 2am on halloween celebration day.

these last three years have seen me trying to rally my entire team into dressing up, but this year may be a losing battle... what with deadlines, anti-halloween people joining my department, and my department just blowing up from 5 members to 12 members and, this year, to 30 members. *le sigh*

oh, well. the only thing is that our theme this year has been hard to decorate for. i wonder if i'll be able to pull something by 5am tomorrow?

i wish people would just complain about my work directly to my face instead of being all kosokoso about it with others. i don't claim to be an expert, and i always take feedback. the question would be how i could incorporate changes. there are few cases when i flat out say 'no.' i will DEFINITELY fix something if you point out that something is flat out wrong.

i do not claim exclusive rights to do any fanwork. if you want to do it yourself because you think you can do it biggerfasterbetter, be my guest. if you want to find somebody else who will do it for you, be my guest.

also, there are reasons for why i say, "do not repost. do not use for hardsubbing. do not use for streaming." first of all, i want to control the sources. i do read through some of the stuff i've worked on in the past and fix them if i realize there were mistakes. sometimes i need to distance myself to find out how something could be better. when i fix something, it's embarrassing to see my old crap floating around. in fact, it's embarrassing enough to have anything floating around beyond what i know. second of all, i do not want to be prosecuted for something that is gray area. i am translating without prior permission; i do not want them to be packaged with a product. it's just supposed to help fans who have access to the product. (it's fine if they're in the same post or folder... i do not want them hardsubbed. also, you can't *fix* hardsubs... you replace them.)

with that in mind, i finished transliterating a series. 5800 lines' worth (that makes it about 58hrs transliterating, 18hrs of first pass editing, and maybe another 9 hours of second pass editing... and doing all those closely together means that i may become blind to my own mistakes).

it was exhausting. i learned some stuff... and there are some stuff i know need improvement. i'm going to take a break... and then maybe get back to it later to do some fixing.

it's a good thing that i do this mostly for myself, instead of for others.

wow, it's been a while since i've posted about life... about something not fandom-related...

let's see... since april...

• work owns my life. from the time we got back from the philippines up until about two weeks ago, i was just ALWAYS working. even when we would go out bowling with friends, i'd be working. sometimes, when we're out at a restaurant, i would still be on a work call. whenever there was a chance that my hands would be idle, i would be on my laptop. i can talk to people while i type. -____-; there was a time when i would sometimes work from home, and i'd have the tv on? now, i can't 'watch' tv without working. until i had to go under oral surgery, and got all groggy. i still checked my emails, but i started playing plants vs zombies. which is now probably the only reason i don't work all the time. if i'm not gaming or sleeping or being kept too busy by friends, i'd be working. ANYWAY...
  
• i have completed the subs for all but the last episode of honboshi... i'm STILL looking for time to finish it.
  
• i have flown over to pittsburgh with my mom... and met up with my sister and her boyfriend... so we could watch my husband (chibi_ginn) go through the rituals of a phD graduation from carnegie mellon. i wanted him to do all 3 walks (1 for department, 1 for hooding, 1 for all school).. but since i had to do a red eye, i was so sleepy... i think i was falling asleep through part of his graduation... while holding the camera. i regret to say that i forgot to bring my long lens and took blurry shots at best. :( we also ended up skipping the third ceremony, but i made him wear his cap, gown, and hood while watching the graduation stream online. also sad to say that we don't have a picture of him with his hood accepting a diploma, because of the way the ceremonies were scheduled this year.
  
• after NINE LONG YEARS, i finally got to go back to the philippines to visit my dad's grave... and chibi_ginn got to greet my dad. we also met up with both my mom's side and my dad's side of the family... although we didn't get to see all of them. school was starting for most (we went in june), soooooooo........... my husband got to see manila (mostly makati proper and fort bonifacio), bulacan, pampangga, silay, bacolod, iloilo, and boracay. we did the tourist-y stuff and went through the national museums, the air force museum, intramuros, visited "the ruins" (the bernardino-jalandoni house) and balay negrense... we took a 7-hour bus ride from iloilo to caticlan... snorkeled and island hopped in boracay... we drank a whole day away (in between drives) with my dad's side and ate all over with my mom's side. XD; i super miss my cousins and my aunts and uncles.. and nieces and nephews... i'm hoping it won't be another nine years until we go back again.
  
• chibi_ginn finally got to defend his thesis... although batman almost foiled our plans. the room that was booked for his defense got double-booked for the batman movie filming. -_______-; (so, yeah, those batman comments weren't part of the whole inside joke.. the were 4RLZ, yo). i made him come back right afterward, though, so we could celebrate our 2-year wedding anniversary.. which means he missed christian bale's arrival.. and the arrival of the bat mobile. d'oh.
  
• my tooth cracked during a work meeting. a week later, my glasses broke in half in the very same place. i am now using my boss's glasses until i can schedule an eye doctor appointment and get my prescription. (how lucky am i that somebody else had a prescription that was close enough?)
  
• a friend's baby turned one, and one has to marvel just how fast time flies.
  
• i am finally living with my husband... but we're still trying to find a job. but after two years of marriage, i am happy saying that we're now together. lol.
  
• another friend has had a baby... and we had our first experience babysitting a 3-week old. we also had our first petsitting experience the week after. o_____o
  
• got really into women's basketball this year (stemming from last year)... go storm! got to watch a tilted track roller skating bout. going to watch my first live hockey game next week. :D
  

in any case... yay! for finally being able to post something 'substantial' (to me, anyway)... but now we're on our way out again. and i have to pack my work laptop. :x

my wallet cries...
but, still...
they have arrived
*squee*

1. MEN-tertainment DVD
2-4. K.K. Bestsellers CDs
5. FIVE -inside of K- (which comes with photo book, interview archive, special documentary dvd, talk event postcard)

(advanced happy birthmonth, kazuki.... i guess this is my birthday present to myself this year as well... haha. XD owwwww....)

glimpse of kazuki as a bridegroom in mye's pv for "chikai no uta", posted to youtube by EMI Music Japan... i'm curious about the entire video now. XD;



was also watching the video when sakamoto shougo gave kazuki a ukelele.. and how cute was that!?

oh, my... with a trip out to see chibi_ginn (yesterday was the celebration of our 100th month together! since we started dating... not since the wedding ;p ), i didn't think i'd really accomplish anything besides hanging out with the hubby and watching a couple eps of kamen rider.. haha.

but... i was able to finish the subs for honboshi ep3... AND we watched kamen rider ooo eps 9-18, and kamen rider w hyper battle. XD;

in any case, ooo continues to be entertaining :) a couple of things to note, though :
- i realize that i like watanabe shu's hair fluffier than when it's slicked down (re: halloween episode)
- ( ankh is spending more and more time away from izumi shingoCollapse )
- ( date akiraCollapse )
- ( gotou-sanCollapse )
- love that satonaka actually likes spicy food. XD;
- also love the eiji-provided back story for ankh... LOL.

anywayz.... :)

p.s. OMG, that's accel in gakudori with katou kazuki... hahahahahahahahahaha.

blue_bel is from beldaran... which has been my irc nick since 1997? "beldaran" was taken on lj so i had to use something else (and i didn't want to use my other two online handles at the time). "blue_bel" was actually a joke on irc.. when we noticed that the most active chatters on #esc during one time period all had a color in their nick... the rest of us altered ours to a "colored" nick, as well... although temporarily. btw, "beldaran" was riva's wife / polgara's twin / belgarath's daughter in david and leigh eddings's the belgariad and the malloreon series.

horafuki is from the book "horafuki usotsuki monogatari"... i haven't actually finished reading the book.. but i took a liking to the the word... which actually means someone/thing who/that exaggerates a lot. XD it's the only new handle that i've had in about a decade? i was going to use "kansilay," which i have also used and isn't taken... but i thought that would be just too typical of me.

if i were to change it........ i don't know... i've been using all my nicks/handles for so long, it's a little hard to think of something new that i'd be fairly sure barely anybody else would be using.

finished translating episode 1 for honboshi (which sounds like a japanese "lie to me")... a first for me.

i've translated streaming video before, but not as a timed script... i didn't time this one, either, since the poster kindly included japanese subs.. which means i had an easier time of it, what with the timing and the original script.

610 lines for 45 minutes... task seemed daunting, and i'm a little surprised i'm done (and it's on horafuki).

i only wish indigo no yoru had the same kind of resource. (i even picked up the dvds, hoping it would have japanese subs... but, alas, it was not to be so.) kazuki-love just shouldn't stop.