Just got into a fight with a ill-mannered, foul-mouthed neighbour who thinks he owns the block and all its parking spaces. While my neighbour to the right has a birthday party for his kid and parking spaces naturally get filled, is it my family's fault that we have to park in front of that miserable guy's house? No. Obviously we'd want to park in front of our own house, but unlike the rude guy, we don't tell people, "Hey, park in front of your own house." His son came over to offer an explanation (but never even a semblance of an apology) and said at the end, "Let's leave it at that. He's frustrated because of how often it happens." To which I said in my gentle voice, "But sir, you know who we are. You know we wouldn't willingly park in front of your house."

The nerve of people. I can't even understand it. All the son could say was about how much his dad is frustrated with the increasing number of tenants who park in any and every person's space. That, and "You have to understand where my dad is coming from." Actually, no, I don't need to understand your dad's frustration. I don't speak unfounded rage, thanks.

CN.
Sounds shitty dude. Just tell him to call the cops and walk away next time. It works.

Me
The dude's son IS a cop. I don't know what kind, but he's all, "I'm well aware of the parking rules and you basically can give people 3 hours to park in front of your property before you're allowed to call a tow truck." WTF kind of rule is that?! If that son is a cop, he either knows that his dad is totally wrong and wants to save him OR he's a moron who really doesn't know parking rules in residential areas. Thanks though.

ES.
Probably a combination of both. Don't want to be stereotypical, but cops are hot headed and arrogant due to the undeserving "power" they have over every day civilians like us. But great way to handle the situation, way ta go! It's so difficult to keep your voice calm and be level headed when you are up against that kind of stupidity *shakes my head*

Me
E, thanks. Haha, I think the best way to go is to kill with kindness and speak gently. If you show that you aren't blowing a gasket, you're probably more threatening because the situation isn't affecting your ability to rationalize. The dad and son are both total liars saying that they're very friendly (they look at all people walking around on our block, including us, as though we're criminals). BTW, the dad calls the cops on people he deems "suspicious" like my brother's friends because they parked in his spot once when they came to hang out at my house and the dad even called the police to say that my neighbours might have a grow op. He's a total menace.

I just spent a crapload of money this month. It's only mid-July, too!

Quick list

• Canon Powershot G12 (34,645 from Amazon)
• Doraemon multi-pouch (849 from Rakuten) but I really wanted this for a long time
• 酷くしないで ① and ② (600+ from Amazon)
• shorts (1100 from Rakuten)
• 10 balls of fingering-weight merino yarn (2200 from Pierrot)
• rent (61,929 at Shizugin)
• Ghibli museum tickets (2000 at Lawsons)
• sent a box home (7990 at JP Post)
• BOE leaver's enkai (5550 at AOI Tower + 600 at Jourdan Beer Garden for nijikai)

That is a lot of money and I'm sure I spent more in all kinds of other places.  Not only that, but I still have stuff to buy, bills to pay and things to ship home.  Argh.

I haven't been writing much lately, mostly because I've been absorbed in getting this Japanese into my head for the JLPT which I wrote today with Joyce and Anthony. Uh... not prepared would be the best way to summarize my state going into the exam. Obviously, I know I didn't study enough 1) because I couldn't make up my mind about taking it or not, and 2) because I got distracted so many MANY times while studying.

Luckily, the thing I'm grateful for is that ultimately, I'm doing this for my own benefit. If I fail, it's because I didn't work hard enough and I don't think it'll crush me because looking back on it, the amount of times I was stumped because of a question were too many to count. If I pass, I'll be really surprised. The listening section was easy; I'm sure I only got a few incorrect but that's because the first 2-3, I was trying to figure out the best way to write notes and find the answer and there was one where I missed the first part, so I didn't even know which answer fit. Otherwise, bacchiri.

The reading, grammar and kanji... was a nightmare. The kanji was bad. I don't think I knew any of them and I really just guessed based on process of elimination. Some I guessed because I couldn't reason out any of the choices. The grammar wasn't too bad. Thank goodness at least I focused on that when I was studying so it wasn't like "I have never seen this grammar before." Reading... was awful. It wasn't even the reading but the QUESTIONS that were awful. I think every passage that I read, I could understand the gist of it, which was great because they only put furigana on obscure kanji. The questions for the passages, though... oh my goodness. I didn't even understand the choices, so I had to muddle my way through. In the end, I literally sped-read the last 2 passages, answered maybe 5 questions (partially by guessing) and left the last 3 because I ran out of time.

The only time I ever enjoyed being in that room was listening. Hearing people talk about it afterwards is amazing. It's sad to see how people's listening skills don't match up with their otherwise high-level ability to read and understand Japanese. Lots of people picked the trick answers. I told Anthony this, but being fluent in English is a bonus here because it made note-taking SO easy. I think I basically wrote down every point of conversations and I didn't get stuck unless I actually hadn't heard something. This dude sitting in front of me was furiously filling in his sheet when it was time's up and the female proctor had already begun collecting pages. She told him to stop twice, then gave him a yellow card. AT THE END OF THE EXAM, NO LESS. Wow. Just... wow.

All kinds of people. Seriously. That was a good experience, though. Now I know that I can probably do 2kyuu, but I definitely need to study more kanji.

I just found stuff to make me super happy.

I have a love/hate relationship with travel. I love seeing places, but I loathe airplanes.

However.

I really feel like going to the London this year and it turns out that in the beginning of November is their low season, so a round trip through Air Canada is $800. WHAT! SHYEAH I'll go. But who will go with me... I doubt mom would want to go (and dad wouldn't let her) because she's planning to go to India at the end of September (and dad wants to tag along even though she clearly said that he's going to be a huge burden).

But I have to go. Who knows when I'll get the time to go. I won't have classes because duh, I took them all. I won't have practicum because I think the short one finishes at the end of October. If I have a part-time job (I may or may not... but probably will because mom is annoying), then hopefully I can take time off.

I wonder if Troy will go with me. Doubt it! What will he want to see there? I'd go purely for my love of Shakespeare and all other great UK writers. He... haha, he just wants to go to Korea to buy idol stuff (and probably see for sure if Korean people really are ugly as I say they are).

So, okay, I've been living in Japan for nearly a year now.  Not too much has happened because I happen to live in a place that is the perfect mix of city and country all in one.  Yes, my city has LV, Prada, Hermes, etc. stores, but it's also a city in which, for example, my junior high school has a small rice field across the street from it.  My city has people growing mandarin oranges in their backyards (a surprisingly large number of people do this... I guess it makes sense when you find out that my city is famous for mikan) and green tea growing on the hills just half an hour outside of the centre of the city.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how much I've changed in let's say the past 3 years.  In some kind of order:

• was absolutely bananas for JE but not anymore (2005-2008)
• studied Japanese (2007-2008)
• graduated university (05/2008)
• started the B.Education program and QUIT IT because I hated it (09/2008-02/2009)
• became depressed (slightly?) and cried a bunch
• floated around with part-time jobs
• applied for the JET Programme (11/2008)
• interviewed for said programme (02/2009)
• got accepted into said programme (04/2009)
• moved to Japan (08/2009)
• got my first official paycheck in a foreign country (08/2009)
• maintained an on-and-off cold for like FIVE MONTHS (08/2009 - 01/2010)
• exclusively switched over from jpop to kpop
• skin went from the occasional breakout to "WTF is wrong with my terrible skin?!" status (10/2009-present)
• got my first Japanese credit card! (11/2009)
• learned how immature young, Japanese guys can be and
  • vowed not to be stupid about them in the future (02/2010)
• went to Korea for the first time and had a blast (12/2009)
• had a serious fight with my mom about staying another year in Japan (12/2009)
• juggled boy problems, family problems, skin problems all at once
• experienced traditional Japanese New Year with the Japanese equivalent of my family (01/2010)
• recontracted to stay until August 2011 in Japan (02/2010)
• bawling, left my junior high school because my stupid Board of Education likes to move ALTs around (03/2010)
• went to HK to visit my dying uncle and my extended family there (04/2010)
• patched up things with my mom! (04/2010)

Basically, that's everything that's happened up until now.  Not much, but there are some major turning points in my life that have led me here and I'm grateful for everything, even the stuff that stressed me out, threw me into depression and made me cry.  I'm better because of all of those things and I don't think I could have ever grown up in such a short period of time had I still been at home doing goodness knows what.

Hope you're all well in your little corner of the world.  I'm doing just fine.  No more wallowing in self-pity.  I've lost weight, my Japanese is getting better, I like my job and I'm saving money.

Impressive?  Arashi's new costumes for Love So Sweet.  I think I really like the colour scheme and dammit I want Captain's sweater.  I want the jacket the kid stole from him in the PV as well.  And I adore the way Nino looks in the PV with his very awesome vest and jacket combo.  MJ... well whatever, I don't pay much attention to him anyway.  I think he'll just be Doumyouji to me from now on.  That way I can pretend that I didn't hear his nasal singing.  Aiba's new hair is so cute.  Ugh, Arashi, even after like five years I still love you guys.

Not so impressive?  NEWS' new song.  Boring.  They're boring.  It's kind of pathetic to see them try to half-assedly come together to sing something new.  It's just not the same with five people and please for God's sake, I'm not encouraging them to bring Kusano back (or even Uchi for that matter), it just looks so strange.  Whatever, why am I even wasting typing space on them?  Gimme back Ryo so I can put him with K8 where he's actually a recognizable person there!  And YamaP is not funny.  I don't know why girls think he is.

Other things... I'm on break right now, except that I have to be back at school on Monday and find out all my midterm marks, so I'm not too psyched for that.  This year's reading break has been so chill.  I went out for Mexican last night with two friends, took care of Troy because he got all four wisdom teeth removed, and read a hell of a lot of manga.  Basically, did nothing really productive.

Has anyone seen the trailer for Will Ferrell's new movie, "Blades of Glory?"  If not, you must.  Go YouTube it and trust me, you'll appreciate it.  I might not like John Heder, but I can't say no to my all-time favourite SNL cast member.  Sorry Jimmy, you're hot and all, but Will's hilarious.  LOL.

Grey's and Heroes is turning out to be even more amazing than ever.  Apparently they're playing Heroes this Sunday instead of Monday, but it could just be for Canadians because I was channel surfing today while watching the series finale of The OC (yawn, so predictable) and I saw the preview for it on NBC, but it still said Monday.  So perhaps Heroes really is only on Sunday for us Canucks.  As for Grey's.  I cried again!  LOL, that show makes me freaking emotional.  I heard rumours that Izzie and George would get together, but I dunno...  as for that whole Addison-McSteamy thing, barf.  I want to see Addison get it on with Karev.  WHAT.  I'm not the only one.

I'm off to read something else and oh, Arashi's new single is really, really good.  My fave?  いつまでも!  I somehow always end up liking the other songs more than the actual single.  But that's only been really recently.

OMG I have French to do.  Damn.  Haha, okay, so maybe no more chillin about.

Haha wow, I haven't made an icon post in a zillion years. I have to warn you that half of these icons are pretty much BLAH. The other half are interesting... to say the least. Since the K8 FTO icontest is over, I can finally post my K8-related ones so here goes.

You know what to do and if you don't...
- no customizing --> none of these are bases
- no hotlinking
- leave a comment if you take and let me know which ones you took
- CREDIT me if you use
- enjoy!

preview:
a.      b.

( the rest!Collapse )

Oh, I thought that would take longer. Just finding the icon urls took long enough!

HAVE FUN AND REMEMBER MY GUIDELINES! LOOOL, this post is going to xposted like mad, FORGIVE ME!

GASP, I like JE and Vision Factory boys? Sure, I don't see why I can't.

Well...

I made icons. (DUH, XD)

1. comment and credit
2. no hotlinking
3. no customization tolerated (I don't make bases)

icon list breakdown:
• Johnny's Entertainment
    - Arashi [14]
    - Kanjani 8 [4]
    - V6 [7]
    - Juniors [2]
• Vision Factory
    - Lead [4]
    - w-inds. [3]
• Japanese actors
    - Narimiya Hiroki [2]
total: 36 (yay, I can do math! XD)

previews:
a. b.

( the rest is waiting for youCollapse )

Yeah, I thought I was going to make more, but then I got sidetracked (read: lazy). This will have to do for now.

*cackles like an idiot*

Have any of you ever heard of the Darwin Awards? Each year, a group of people collect stories from around the world (I think) and put them together to form a book. Ah, what kind of stories are these? Tragic, but hilarious ones. I heard about these awards way back when I was a highschool junior. My physics teacher (I had him for grade 11 AND 12) would always tells us these dumb stories about how people do the stupidest things and either get injured or killed. Sounds morbid right? No, not really. I don't really think death should be looked at as something ominous and scary (depends on the kind of death too), but that's my point of view and well, you can decide for yourself after reading few of these examples.

( man goes fishing, dies of electrocutionCollapse )
*
( man commits suicide, dies of hypothermiaCollapse )
*
( man dies of being pooped onCollapse )

I don't have any more death stories, but there are ones that still show how stupid some people really are.

( man said he always wanted to flyCollapse )
*
( gas is always flammableCollapse )

If anybody knows other stories, feel free to share. I loved all of these ones and hence have remembered since I was... 16.

This is probably the second smallest batch of icons I have ever made. Eh, I'm not feeling very creative these days and I'm not about to start copying other icon-makers styles just for more comments from people.

• comment and credit (in icon keywords) for the icons you've taken
• no hotlinking
• no customization
• enjoy!

preview:

a. b.

( click for allCollapse )

Icons for the flist will be up this week and I guess so will episode summaries. I won't be doing any summaries of the summer dramas, so I'm just going to finish up the spring ones and leave it at that.

That's because the anime ones aren't even done yet. Neither are the ones I promised my flist. SORRY flist. If it helps, I *heart* you all! Hmm... is this post considered fangirly? Possibly, but they're just icons...

Yep, I abused the following
- use of gradients
- Kozuka
- exclusion layers
- Migraine sans

• comment and credit if you take (or comment if you just feel like it!)\
• I don't make bases, so please don't customize these icons. If they're textless (they're probably not), they stay that way
• enjoy

list break down
• Arashi [9]
• Kanjani 8
   - "Osaka Rainy Blues" PV [15]
• L'arc en Ciel
   - "Jyojyoushi" PV [5]
• various JE idols [4]

preview:
a. b.
( click for allCollapse )

Hmm... I need to find a job. Preferably one NOT in fast food.

Yeah, I made icons. None for the flist yet - I still haven't received everyone's images.

Icon rant before I begin. I don't get why people make icons with ONE word, followed by a semicolon. That isn't how you're supposed to use a semicolon. I know, that's very anal of me, but I'm an English major and one word doesn't even count as a sentence fragment. Just because it looks good doesn't mean it's RIGHT. Anyway. Onto the list of icons and the cut.

1. comment and credit if you've taken any
2. I never make bases so don't customize the icons (i.e. use a program to stick your name/username on the icon)
3. don't hotlink - my photobucket account is getting pretty damn full
4. ENJOY!

Anime:
• Sousei no Aquarion [2]

Jpop: a HELL of a lot here
• Ayumi Hamasaki: "STEP you" and "Is This LOVE?" PVs [3]
• KAT-TUN [7]
• Kanjani8 [6]
• Imai Tsubasa [1] --- sorry, no Tackey this time
• Nagase Tomoya [1]
• V6: "Cosmic Rescue" PV and random images [12]

Japanese Celebrity
• Koike Teppei [1]

Miscellaneous
• Panasonic SV-SD100V D-Snap MP3 player [1]
34 in TOTAL

preview:
x. y.
( the restCollapse )

x-posted in many communities.

Hee.

I blame it on my lack of sleep... which ironically enough, is intentional. I'm a bunch of paradoxes - lemme alone!

( story time, childrenCollapse )

And this is my last week of school. I probably won't be making very many posts (I shouldn't be making ANY at all) from Friday until April 26 because I've got final exams. Exams which I cram for but nevertheless NEED to study for since I tend to fall behind in readings during the semester. If I comment, which I will try to keep to a BARE minimum, it'll be to let a select few know that yes, I AM alive and that I haven't killed myself yet because the stress is too intense.

After exams, I'll be working on these:
- hot!boys icons ---> a MatsuJun one for you, tripping_fruit.
- icons for anotherstraycat ---> Got your email!
- LJ layout for jamalov29 ---> I'm doing this because I WANT TO, not because I feel an obligation to you
- constructing reiku's fanfiction site ---> sorry I kept putting it off!!! It'll definitely be up and running this summer. *ravish*
- catch up with hang_nga_79 ---> because I MISS MY WIFEY.
... and catch up with my flist who still wants to talk to me even though I am deluuusionaaal!