Tendencies in present day vampire literature

You know, I am reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. The one Trueblood is based on for anyone who's heard of that, and it occurred to me, in all the present day vampire series the underworld has gone public.
Take the Hollows series, which were the first one I read who did this particular thing, there the underworld (witches, vampires, werewolfs, pixies etc.) have been known since the 60's I think... I always found the idea captivating. What if there really are supernatural beings? I really think that if they exists they should be out in the open.
Anyway this is really a trend, in the Kitty Norville series we get to experience the whole coming out process. The beginning of laws for the supernatural, and legislation regarding them, and supernatural celebrities coming out as celebrities. In the Anita Blake series they are also out in the open (at least as far as I could tell, I haven't really gotten all that far yetXP).


I think I should write a tad about Dead Until Dark, the first book in the Sookie Stockhouse series. At first I did not like it one bit, the hillbilly language drove me mad, and I thought it was told really amateurish, but the story itself was really captivating. I decided it must be her first book, which it turned it wasn't, she has been a published author since 1981, and I guess it's just her style of writing. But I must say, the story is really good, and the hillbilly language really grew on me. And, oh my, she can really write the indecent scenesXD The trick is not to have too many and not to tell too much^^, It really is all in what you don't spell outXP

And now for the Japanese. I am currently struggling with te-form. It's actually the first time I have encountered anything (except kanji, but that just takes cramming) I have found hard. You use te-from when asking someone to do something, or asking if you can do something. It's not that I don't understand it, it's just that it's a bit hard...=j

Word of the day:
ヴァンパイアの本 - vanpaia no hon - Vampire novel

Almost Christmas^^,

9 days left for Christmas Eve. I open my Advent Calendar everyday, and I get lots of cute things. on the 10th I got Grease on DVD, and I have gotten socks and lots of candy. Me and fiancé send almost as much money on Advent Calendars for each other as we spend on the Christmas gifts^^,
I am almost done with all my gifts, I have only Dad's and V's gifts left. Everyone else I am done with, I have even gotten a gift for my cousin's new born daughter. I need to get them all wrapped thou, since I haven't gotten around to that yet^^,
Only this week left of school. Three more days, plus Friday when all the music students give a little concert. I and fiancé got a weekend trip for Copenhagen from my parents for Christmas, so we are leaving on Friday and returning on Monday. We are spending on night in a hotel, I have never been in a hotel with fiancé before, and I am really looking forward to it^^,

In other news i have read some books that I haven't told you all about yet. First off I have read "Kitty takes a holiday" and "Kitty and the Silver Bullet" both by Carrie Vaughn.
I loved them, they are the two latest novels in the Kitty Norville series, about the werewolf Kitty Norville and her radio show dealing with the supernatural. The story progresses great, many authors who write long running fantastical series is that the stories doesn't really progress in a believable manner, but the Kitty books, things move on in a really believable way.

And then I read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, which is about Meggie and her father who can read characters out of books, and all the trouble that follows. I absolutely loved this book, and I can't wait to read the rest of the triology. Cornelia is a really great storyteller, and I could really relate to desire to be able to read things out of books, but after reading this one I don't really want it all that bad anymoreXP
This is mainly a book for a little younger people than me, but I really recommend it for book lovers of all ages anyway. One should never be too old to enjoy good stories^^, Especially not too old to enjoy one who is so well told as this one^^,

At the moment I am reading Dead until dark by Charlaine Harris, the series Trueblood is based on. I will write about it as soon as I am finished^^,

Word of the day:
メリークリスマス - merīkurisumasu - Merry Christmas

I heart this parody (aka. I heart geeks)

I wrote a few weeks ago about the new Britney song, womanizer. And here's the most genius parody song ever!

Now, who does not want a man like this? I, lucky girl that I am, already bagged me one of these=D Now don't tell me you're not green with jealousy, 'cos I know you are=D
I decided a long time ago that I don't like people with no geeky traits. People without passion are just... well, boring.
My definition of geek might vary a bit from the generally know one. I don't see geeks as singleminded dorks with no lovelife outside of WOW. I see geeks as people with a passion. Be that WOW, Pokémon, comicbooks, or football. Yes football, there are at least as many ManU geeks as there are comisbook geeks. A geek is someone who loves something and get all fired up and passionate whenever they talk about it. And I don't like people who doesn't get this way about anything. They're boring. And a bit scary....
Most people come to terms with, and many even start to embrace their inner geek when presented with this definition=D
And if you're not jealous af me and and my geeky fiancé yet, there's something serious wierd with youXP

Word of the day:
大好き - daisuki - to love, to like very much

The post about everything

First of I wanna talk about a very unfortunate man called Christopher Handley who right now is in danger of being prosecuted for owning child pornography. Only problem is; he doesn't. What he might go to jail for is owning yaoi and lolicon manga. Now, I don't know all that much about lolicon, but I know that it is not child pornography. Yaoi on the other hand I have read, and I even own some, and that is not child pornography at all.
You can read more about this case here: Splash Page
Yaoi is homoerotic manga (japanese comics) mainly written for a female audience. It's not really porn, as it most often focuses on the feelings between the two guys, and the tension, and all that emotive business that often sail way over the heads of many men. The point of it is really that the girls who read it can be attracted by one of the men. Many yaoi manga get at least as many fangirls as regular manga squealing over which guy is cutest. And of course there is the occasional more or less explicit sexscene, but no less that regular manga. And as far as I know yaoi characters that have sex have to be of age, which means they have to be 20 or older, and thus does not fall into any kind of definition of a child. It's just the style they are drawn in that makes them seem younger. (I might be wrong about the age thing thou...)

On to less sinister business I saw an amazing movie yesterday. Okey, maybe not less sinister...
I saw Snakes and Earrings, which as you can probably see has a non-existent imdb entry. I'll see what I can do about that.XD
It's about a girl named Liu who meets a boy named Ama, who could be a needle pillow for all the piercings stuck in him. Ama takes Liu to meet Shiba, who could be a porcupine (he has sharp-looking objects protruding from his faceXP), who is a piercer and a tattoo artist. He gets her tongue pierced and decides to get tattoo on her back. She starts a relationship Shiba, even thou she is with Ama, and Ama kills a yakuza to prove his love for her. And all that goes along with things like that.
The movie is mostly about being lost and trying to find oneself. Liu uses bodymod and abusive sex as a way to not lose her self, she only feels alive when she is in pain.
I absolutely loved it. Fiancé was less than impressed howeverXP It's not that he didn't like, it's just not his kind of movie. He said something funny thou, that I usually like movies with "damaged" leading characters. And I started thinking about it, and it turns out, in almost all my favorite, non-childrens movies the main characters are damaged in some way. In Interview with the Vampire, Luis is totally torn, and Claudia is positively frightening sometimes. In Sweeney Todd most of the characters are just about deranged. In Sabrina Audrey Hepburn in torn apart by her love for David, and in Breakfast at Tiffany's she certainly is a bit damaged. Marilyn Monroe is one of my favorite actors of all time, and she certainly wads damaged.
And I started wondering why it is that I'm always drawn to the broken ones? That's one for the shrink to be sureXP But I guess it's because I'm broken myself, and it's easier to relate to the broken ones. I've always been sort of drawn to the underdog, which has landed me with some pretty crappy friends occasionally. (This does not include any of my present darlings BTW, but if you know me I bet you have heard all about themXP)
Anyway, it was a great movie (and it's based on a great book by Hitomi Kanehara), and as long as you don't have problems with needles, nudity or sex I really recommend it.




Oh! And I am skipping a grade in my Japanese class. I just finished grade 3 today, and my teacher told me she really thought I should skip a grade, because I am so talented. Now I must say, compliments are nice, but if you want to really make me happy, tell me I'm really good at something. I don't really care how I look, and I'm not gonna change myself for anyone, but I really like to be complimented on my mind, seeing as I consider that my greatest asset=D
I am really psyched right now=D I'm gonna go home and get my Japanese books tomorrow to start get up to their level=D=D

More movies^^,

I have seen more movies since my last post. So of course I'm gonna write about them.

On Sunday I saw Religilous and Zack and Miri make a Porno.

Religilous

I'm a bit ambivalent about this movie. On the one side I found it funny, and it had some good points, on the other hand I find it really offensive. The title kind of says it all, it's a mix between the words "religion" and "ridiculous".
It was a good documentary, Bill Maher had made his research and all, and he made some great points. Like the way many pre-Christ religious myths has all the exact same traits as the Christ-myth.
But then he in the last 20 minutes of the film he went on to say that we should rid ourselves of all religion, because it is all bad, and it will be our doom. This I found offensive. Not because I'm religious, because I'm not. I found it offensive because I have seen with my very own eyes the way religion helps many people. I don't really like organized religion, or any of the many monstrous things that some people do in the name of religion. I loathe people that push their religion on other people, just because it's helps you, does not mean I'm interested. But the world is a very cruddy place, and for some people the only way to get through the cruddy times is to believe that a bigger being has a plan for them, and that when it ends they are going to a better place. I think that is a good thing. And not for themselves, when someone is sick or dies it helps some people to believe that when their sick loved ones pass on they will have it better where ever they go. How on earth is that a bad thing?
So if you feel like being provoked I would recommend this documentary. Actually you should see it anyway, it has some really great points, and if you don't care to be provoked you don't have to see the last 20 minutes.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

First of: This is not a childrens movie. It has boobs and sex in it. So noone under the agelimit for this one.
But a great movie. Really funny. I want this on DVD!!!
It's about Zack and Miri who are best friends, and roomsmates, and who are broke. So decide to make a porno movie to raise some money, and all that entailsXD
One of the things I absolutely loved was that both Traci Lords (who played Bubbles) and Katie Morgan (why played Stacey) used to play in actual porn movies.
Oh my, this sounds a bit like a dirty movie doesn't it? That wasn't supposed to happenXP
It's actually a really sweet romantic comedy. (But if you are offended by bare boobs, this one is not for you=j)



On monday there was Café Isobe and RocknRolla.

Café Isobe

This was a really sweet movie. A bit wierd at times, but what movie isn't, ne?
It was about Sakiko and her father who opens a café. They hire waitresses, one of which the father gets a crush on. Actually kit wasn't really about anything, there was just a few people and a café, but it was good anyway. Reminded me a tad about Shunji Iwai's movies. Just really cute=D

(I could not find a trailer for this one. Swowy=j)

RocknRolla

Could have been shorter, but it was perfectly fine. It's apperantly the first movie in a triology, and you can kind of tell. Guy Ritchie spends most of the movie mapping out the characthers, and there really isn't much of a story. But it was a cool movie. It was never boring, not really, just a bit long. Thadie Newton was awesome.



Tuesday (i.e. yesterday) I saw Parkin and Sword of the Stranger.

Parking

It's supposed to be a comedy, but I would not call it that. Apart from a few gag elements it wasn't really funny.
It's about Chen Mo who keeps getting parked in, and isn't able to get home. There's a lot of little subplots that really did not make all that much sense to me. It came over as little messy, and most of the sideplots were really disconnected and seemed sort of redudant.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either.

Sword of the Stranger

It was a great animemovie, really detailed. But I had the same issue with this one as I have with many animemovies, I kapt feeling there was more story, story the didn't tell us, but that I wanted to know. Like why Kotaro's blood had those magic qualities, and the full story behind NoName. I kept thinking it was based on a book or manga, but ofcourse I couldn't find anything about it, so it seems it isn't.
It was a great movie, the animation was great, and it had a great story, I really enjoyed it=D

Oslo International Filmfestival, and we're off

And we're off. As of yesterday actually. I have seen three movies thus far, and I have plenty more on the program=D
I am a volunteer this year, so I get to see as many movies as I want for free=D

Slumdog Millionaire

The festival started yesterday with a bang. With the exception of the audience on the closing film at London International Filmfestival we were the first in Europe to see it, which of course was awesome.
I went into it expecting a violent, but ultimately unengaging movie, and I could not have been more wrong. It was a moving, spectacular love story.
It's about this boy, Jamal, who wins the grand price in Who Want's to be a Millionaire, and is suspected of having cheated, who tells the story of how he came to know all the answers to a police officer, and thus we come to know his life. From his start in the slum, his brutal older brother, and his love for Latika. I must admit it was both violent and brutal at times, but it was done in a way that it didn't seem pointless, it all drove the movie forwards. All the actors were good, and I was particularly amazed by the children, who managed to play the roles very convincingly.
I really recommend this movie. And I really want it on DVD=D

Lorna's Silence

I was amazed at how much I enjoyed this movie, seeing as I don't usually like this kind of movies, but this one was captivating.
It's about a girl from Albania who has married a junky to get a Belgian citizenship, but the movie doesn't offer much in the way of explanation of anything, so I kind of had to piece together what had happened from very little information.
One of the criticisms it got on IMDB is that it was hard to understand the motivations of the main characters, but I think this added to the realism of it all. It seemed more like a fly on the wall thing, than an actual movie, and in real life you don't always understand the motivations of those around you (at least I don't). I think it became this way because of the lack of explanation, but again, I think that added to the realism of it all. It was one 100% cronological, and then of course things become confusing sometimes.
I would recommend it mostly for those who like slow beautiful movies, that are not at all in any way main stream blockbusters. It was art, to be honest, more art than movie, and I loved it.



(I could not find a subtitled version of the trailer, but you get kind of a feel of the movie. Even if it does seem a tad like a scary movie. It's not. At all)

W.

I was expecting great things from this movie, and honestly, it did not deliver. It was boring to say the truth. I think it's mainly a movie for people who are really into American politics. It was sort of interresting to see how Bush became the man that he is, but it's a movie, so how much of it can I trust to be true.?
I thought it would be a rather harsh criticism, but it fell kinda flat on that point. To me it ended up being a movie about a man who craps on his leg multiple times and eats a lot. There was lots and lots of eating in this movie, closeups of eating, which I found not only pointless, but really gross.
Fiancé like it much better than I did, but he is really into American politics, so it was way more interesting for him than for me.
I won't say that it was a bad movie, it was just not for me. It dragged out and could very well have been at least 20 min shorter, but I can't really say what to cut. Maybe all the clips of him lazing around watching sports.
I recommend this movie for those who are into American politics. Or those who want's to learn about George W. Bush.

New glasses (again)

I wrote about my purdy new glasses a few weeks ago, and how they made me seasick. Well, I have gotten the new lenses now, and I look hot in them without getting seasick=D I love them, they are just so purdy=D All powder pink and purdy=D=D I am pretty now=D
I will try to get up pictures soon=D
And everything looks so crisp, it's almost a bit unnerving. I have had the old glasses since 2003, and have gotten to everything further away than 10 meters having fuzzy edges. And I can see everything now=D=D It's great, but it's gonna take some getting used to=D=D

Word of the day:
修正 - shuusei - amendment, correction, revision, modification, alteration, retouching, update, fix

Womanizer

So Britney Spears has just released her new single:

Warning: Partial nudity in this video.

I have come to the conclusion that Britney makes cool music these days. Actually, I have come to the conclusion that she has been making cool music for quite some time. I was just too "cool" to notice XP
This new song thou, I don't really like it all that much. It's a cool song and all, but the chorus is annoying. It's all repetitive and generic.
One thing I like about the video thou, is the fact that she has become so much more versatile after she shaved her head. She takes on different persona much more effectively when she can use different wigs, and she is using that for all it's worth. Even if they look a bit like helmets thou. They are obviously synthetic. She needs to get a better wigmaker.

Sooo... I just felt like talking a bit Britney=D

Word of the day:
音楽 - ongaku - music

(PS: I'm thinking about taking requests for WotD, seeing as it's a little hard to think of one most of the time, and I sometimes feel it's better to leave them out entirely, instead of having something boring or odd. So requests for WotD are very welcome=D)

Video games can be really sad and really nice

I just felt I had to blog this comic: Animal Crossing
I read it the first time about a year ago, and then this artist on DA talked about it, and I think it's nice, but kind of sad.
So this is just me saying to everyone I love and care about: I love you all a lot, and if you ever die on me I will be sad about it forever.
And to everyone who reads my blog, but doesn't know me in real life: In a way I love you too, because in a way you find me interesting enough to keep reading about me, even when I only ramble about movies and books and games, and Rusket, and stuff like that. It makes me happy that some people out there care even if they don't know me=D
Love you all=d *great big huglings all around*

Word of the day:
愛 - ai - love

Economicsmono!

Just to explain the title:mono is a japanese suffix you can add onto any word to make it bad or rude.
Further explanation of the title: I do NOT like my economics class today. My classmates are noisy, and the air is stuffy and hard to breathe, even after I opened a window rigth behind my computer. This makes it hard to think. And on top of that, when I ask for help, and when my teacher comes over and discovers I have made an error he sighs in this really condescening way, like he's saying "oh, my. What is this idiot doing in my class", which of course annoys me out of my head. But what on earth is logical about the taxes you are supposed to pay going in the "incoming taxes" account?! I despise things that don't make sense, they screw up everything, making everything muddled and stupid, and when all he says is, "but that is just the way it is", with out offering the slightest explanaition of any kind on way the system works the way it does that infuriates me. Just a tad. A great big hunk of a tad. I DO NOT like my econimics class or my economics teacher today. I do NOT enjoy being made to feel stupid, no one does, and he made me feel like I should be in an effing special class for kids with learning issues.
BLAH!!!
Rant end.
(and if anyone can make economics logical for me, I will hunt them down and kiss them)

Sad, sad times

My betta Frank died on Thursday=( I was really sad, but I have come to the conclusion that I shall wait to get new fish until I can have a large tank with a filter, so that it/they won't die from me not being able to wash the tank as often as I should. Even thou I don't think that is what happened, 'cos I had just cleaned his tank a few days earlier. I think maybe he was ill, because his gills had been a bit pale for some time.
Well, anywho... I am gonna go curl up on the couch now...

Nortec Collective

Fiancé is so nice^^, I have had a pretty craptastic day, so he took me to see the opening concert for Oslo World Music Festival. The Nortec Collective was playing. After about 30-45 boring minutes of Åse Kleveland saying the same things over and over the concert started.
Nortec Collective had grasped something that most other bands have not. Visuals can make music better. Not that the music wouldn't be just as good on it's own, but they had a great big screen behind the stage showing different video clips. Most of them were from Tijuana, which is where the band comes from, and for me that don't dance it was nice having something interesting to look at. Now, I love to look at people dancing, and there was this girl dancing right in front of me waving her tush in my face (I was sitting), which was very nice to look at, but even that gets old after a while, and then the video clips were nice to have.
The music itself was awesome, a mix of norteño and techno. If you want a listen just click the post title and it will take you straight to their myspace site. The band were awesome on stage, you could tell that they really loved playing live, they were jumping and smiling and having a great time. For me it's kind of important that people perform love every minute of it. Dancers dragging their bodies around, or singers or actors that look bored out of their minds make my soul hurt. I would give so much to be there on that stage with them, and when they look bored or as if they don't enjoy themselves it's an insult to everyone who would kill to be on that stage. But I am digressing. The audience was great too, dancing and jumping and loving every minute of the concert. They literally screamed for more when the band started to go off stage, and they played three encores.

Election day nerves

I usually have a rule not to express all too much of my political opinions on the web, because many people feel very strongly about politics and I don't like offending people. But today I can not help myself. By this time tomorrow we are going to have a new American president. You can argue that since I live in Norway I don't really need to give a rat's tushie about who will win todays election, but I do need to give a rat's tushie about it, because what happens in America affects the entire globe. Just look at the financial crisis we are having right now, America's economy collapsed, and then the rest of the world collapsed. Or warfare, America decides to attack someone, and the rest of the world are forced to take a stand.
My point is that, as of today, America is the most influential nation in the entire world, and they need to stop effing things up. Which is why I have been urging every American I have met online to vote for Obama. I have met a lot of reluctance thou, Americans seem to think that voting for Obama means America will become a communist nation. I even heard about a pro-McCain senator or commentator (can't remeber which) saying "Do we really want to become like Sweeden?". WTF? How is Sweeden bad? Or Norway for that matter? Why is the welfare system all that awful? And common, free health care? Why is that awful? I really can't understand that these things are all that awful.
In Norway we don't have completely free health care, but it's affordable. For everyone. And lifesaving opperations that will ruin most Americans (seeing as health insurance companies are paying for less and less) are free. Save loosing your job do to illness, falling ill will not ruin you, and it will certainly not indebt you for the rest of your life. How is that bad?
I talked with this girl who said that she wasn't interested in paying for other's lazyness. Fine i can get that, I really can, but what will she say if she ever gets cancer, or some other disease that will indebt her for life, and remove her option of getting health insurance. The way their system is now Americans better cross their fingers and hope they never fall seriously ill. In America I would not be able to get healt insurance ever, because of things that went on in my life when I was 13. Things that I had little to no control over. Things that would have indebted my parents and probably forced them to sell their house and car and just about everything else we owned. How on earth is that a fair system? Or even a working system?
And Palin! The woman scares me half to death. She is completely incompetent, and frankly, quite unintelligent. And she will, with about 75% certainty, become president if McCain is elected, and she will drive the whole world under.
And what does America have against muslims? Do they not know that there is a thing in America called freedom of religion? And that religion and the state is not supposed to have any connection whatsoever? It says so in their beloved constitution. Black on white. I feel sad right down to my core when the question "why shouldn't Obama be president?" is answered by "just look at his name. He obviously has muslim connections. He has to be dangerous." So just because Obama's middle name is Hussein, and Obama "sort of sounds like Osama", he has to me muslim, and must dangerous? I must say that some Americans should not be allowed to procreate. Seriously. They seem to be getting stupider and more narrowminded by the minute. Obama is just as Christian as Palin or McCain, but he is a lot less dangerous.

So I am crossing every limb I have got and hope that Obama is elected president, and that he has the ability to sort things out. America, and the rest of the world too, deserves a levelheaded decent person for president. Some one who can lead them and us into a better future than McCain and Palin ever could.

I appologize for any hurt feelings, but Americans need to start thinking about how their actions affect the rest of the world. They have fought to become as powerful and influential as they have become, and now is the time to start taking responsiblity for it.

SoraCon pictures

Just thought I'd post a notice that the pictures from SoraCon are finally up. You can find them at fiancé's flickr account here.
There were lots of nice costumes, but taking photos at cons are a real drag. First of all the lighting is dreadful, it's either ugly or dark, which means we have to use blitz, and that looks awful. Second, people at cons obviously thinks it's boring to be photographed, and they seem to think that pictures become great the first time every time. Which usually means that they end up looking bored and/or pissed at the first picture, who doesn't get good, and even more bored and/or pissed at the rest. Why on earth do people take the time to dress up if they don't like getting photographed?
We took a lot more than the ones that fiancé has posted, some of which are decent enough to put up after editing, but a very large amount of them are so fugly that he doesn't feel that he can put them up. We have to think about the models as well you know.
So to anyone in costumes as cons ever: learn cool poses and be prepared to look interesting more than once for each photographer, or you might very well end up looking awful all over the internet for the rest of eternity, for onve it's out there you ain't ever getting it down.

Winter wonder slush (rant)

Now, I really dislike winter. In my opinion winter can appear magically on December 1st, and stay cold, white and clean for a month, and then disappear equally magically on January 2nd. But winter does not like me, so it appears magically on a random day in September/October/November/December/January, making everything nice and white and christmassy. And then the very next day it collapses in on it self and becomes slush. Wet, cold, miserable, and in the evening very slippery and icy. In southern parts of Norway, where I currently reside, winter rarely stays either. It rears it ugly head for a few days or weeks, only to disappear again. Only to show up and disappear again. And again. A good way into December/January it stays thou, and stays and stays and stays. (Shorter and shorter each year thou. That's global warming for ya...XP)
And it's cold. And I hate being cold. I really, really hate being cold. I'd much rather be too warm than be any kind of cold. I don't particularly enjoy being too warm either, but it's much, much better be too warm than cold. Oh... Warm baths and sauna. I think I will go take a warm shower now.
rant end

Word of the day:
寒い - samui - cold (e.g. weather)

New glasses

So my dad bought me new glasses=D Beautiful pale pink creation. We went to pick them up, and they were just as uncomfortable to wear as new glasses always are, the edges of my vision being all funny. And usually this evens out in a out in a few hours, but after wearing them for two days I am still getting seasick. Yesterday I took them off and in the first 30 minutes the nausea that I had credited to my cold receded and I was able to eat. Fiancé says he thinks it's because of the strength difference in the glasses (about 0,75), and that that is screwing up my focus, and he might very well be right. It's in the middle part of my vision (as in, the part were my eyes overlap the most, about right over my nose) that is misbehaving the most. It's okey when I keep my head perfectly still, but when I move it things in the middle behave weirdly in a way I can't really explain...
So tomorrow I am taking my lovely pale pink glasses, that make me look all grown up and sophisticated, back for new lenses. And I have to live with out looking my best for another week, maybe two. But at least I won't want to throw up every time I turn my head.

Word of the day:
眼鏡 - megane/gankyou - spectacles, glasses (double reading this time, because as far as I can see this kanji has two readings that has the exact same meaning. I am guessing one is the feminine and one is masculine reading (as in, girls use one of them, and boys use the other...))

Desucon

Just as unamusing as all the cons in Norway I have been to use to be. It was as usual all about the cosplayers, and seeing as I don't really cosplay it was all that much to do. I bumped into a friend from Japanese class and we mostly sped around taking pictures of the cosplayers, most of which didn't seem to realize that dressing up in costumes make people want to snap pictures of you, and ended up either looking confused or bored or something else equally unbecoming. I got to take pictures of the Joker thou, which I thought was awesome, seeing as he isn't an anime character, or at all Japanese^^, He gave me his business card even, a playing card with a Joker face printed out and glued to it^^,
And what's with free hugs girls who gets confused when you wanna hug them? And why is there always so many catgirls (read: girl's with cats ears in their hair, and paws if the want to be elaborate) at these things. Next year I am so totally wearing this. If I can get a hold of the t-shirt that is.
For the first hour I was there it was hot and impossible to breath, but managed to fix the ventilation at some point, so it became breathable after that.
They had of course a Pokémon area, with tons of preteen boys battling it out with their Pokémon cards, but people with DSs were virtually nonexistent, which was a bit sad, since I would have loved to trade and battle.
They had a few cool stands, including a Swedish store called New Nippon which actually had a pretty awesome selection of Japanese music and magazines. Fiancé bought me inspi' NANA CDs for Christmas, one with Anna Tsuchiya inspi' NANA Black stones, and the other OLIVIA inspi' Reira Trapnest. I was adorable until he gave in and let me listen to the Anna Tsuchiya one. And it was full of all sorts of goodies^^,

All in all it was a bit boring, but perfectly fine. I wished there had been more stands or something selling drinks, because I quickly became dehydrated and in time developed a throbbing headache which resulted in me having to go home lie down in a very quiet, very dark room for a few hours while waiting for it to pass. It was however better than last year, and suspect the next one will be better than this one, and so on, until it becomes a great con. It is only the third one ever after all.

Word of the day:
年会 - nenkai - conference, annual convention

Everything you want

I was flipping through the channels and tripped over this movie about this girl and her imaginary boyfriend.
I don't normally like romantic American movies, I think they are sappy, but this one was just beautiful. It was cute and sad and happy. Not quite neonsugarprose, but almost.
I think I need to buy it on DVD and see it over and over=j

Word of the day:
ロマンチック - romanchikku - romantic

Max Payne

So we (me and fiance) went to see Max Payne last night.
I thought it was great, even thou I saw very early who the bad guy was. Fiance thought the movie should have had more shooting scenes, but with the story the way it was I really don't see where they should have put it. As with 99% of movies based on books and movies I think this one was made mainly for the people who haven't played the game, and so I think I got more out of it than fiance who have played it.
I think Mila Kunis did a great job, but I think they did a bad job at explaining her character. I understood that she was an assassin, but the way she always traveled in pack with 3-4 black clad fierce looking men, should could might as well have been a mafia princess, and also, the behavior of her sister Natasha builds up under this theory.
I think Mark Wahlberg at times was a little stiff, but he made a plausible performance, taking into account what happened too his character.
One thing I liked was the colours of the movie, most of the movie had a bit of a film noir feeling, it was always snowing, or sometimes raining, and the colours were made to resemble black and white, with a few exceptions, like Natasha's scarlet silk dress. But the flashback scenes where golden, a bit like in Sweeney Todd, and I think it made a very lovely effect.
The ending was very anticlimactic, you had this building tension nearing the end and it all fizzled out into nothing. Which was very unrewarding.
I am very much looking forward to the sequel, which I and fiance, and the three other guys sitting behind us were the only ones to get a little teaser of=D

Word of the day:
アクションドラマ - akushondorama - action drama

First delivery

So I got the first shipment of Tupperware today^^,
So much fun^^, All these nice new stuff that I get to give out to people^^,
I had of course ordered too much stuff, but fortunately my wonderful mom was willing to take them of my hands at a reduced price, so it all turned out fine^^,
My cousin was here to pic up her stuff a while ago, and it was so much fun to be able to give her all the wonderful Tupperware^^,
Have I mentioned I love my new job?^^,

Word of the day:'
楽しい - tanoshii - enjoyable, fun

Heavy Metal in Bagdad

You all need to see this movie. Even if you don't like heavy metal, because it is an important commentary on the war in Iraq.
This documentary follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda (black scorpion). They are the first ever Iraqi heavy metal band (or so they say), and they face a lot of things to be able to play in an environment that sees them as troublemakers of sorts. The documentary tells of a broken country and how nothing seems to help.
At one point they showed a clip from a concert from back when Saddam Hussein was still dictator and they had to sing this song praising him. And then they tell how for a year after he was gone it became a little better, but after about a year it all went downhill.
This one quote tore at my heart, at the end the band wanted to see some of the old footage, and it got kind of emotional, and one of the bandmembers said: "This is what the world turns it back upon, when they see this on TV they turn it off. We have to live this" (or something like that, don't remember it word for word unfortunately). I felt for them, and I wish I could make it better. The bombing and the war need to stop. And you all need to see this movie, even if you don't like heavy metal.

I bought a book I won't read

Sometimes there's books I just have to have, but that I know that I won't read. Like the book I bought yesterday, a three in one with Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I hate being scared. I have spent a great part of my life being scared of things that aren't real, and quite frankly I do not like it at all. But it looked nice, and even thou I hate being scared, I do want to read these books at some point. They are classics after all, and I have a thing for classics, mostly children's classics, but I have read and enjoyed Kafka's the Process, Death of a Salesman, and Catcher in the Rye. I have plans to read all that Shakespeare (or maybe Kevin Bacon depending on who you are talking with) have ever written. I have a big monster of a book containing all that Edgar Allen Poe ever wrote, but there comes the fear of being frightened again, but I have read the Raven multiple times, I used to know large parts of it by heart.
And all of the OZ books, I really want to read them all, and from what I have been told the later ones really wasn't children's books at all.
I think I will save my newly bought three in one scary classics for lazy summer days. I will not read it before I go to bed. At least I will try not to=j

Word of the day:
古典 - koten - old book, classics, classic

Hana and Alice

I am half way through Hana and Alice. They are showing it on nrk2, which is a state owned, commercial free channel here in Norway. I was kind of amazed, I was on my way to bed and just did a last flip through the channels, and there it was. I haven't seen all that much Shunji Iwai movies, but I lovelovelove Love Letter. And thus far I adore Hana and Alice. It's pretty, and sad, and happy. And genuinely neonsugarprose.
I wish for this on DVD for Christmas. I think I have developed a love affair with Shuji Iwai movies.

Word of the day:
はな - hana - flower (middle of the night, so no kanji tonight)

Proco Rosso

I went to see Porco Rosso today. I have been kind of reluctant to see it because all the people looked ugly on the cover, but fiancé convinced me today, and it was so sweet=D Most the people were ugly, but after a while it stopped annoying me. Yes, I am a little shallow when it comes to animated things, if I don't like the way it looks I most often don't like the movie either, but in Porco Rosso the backgrounds were the usual beautiful Studio Ghibli creation, so that made the ugly people bearable.
But the story was beautiful. Sad and pretty, but I there were questions things that weren't answered, but I guess I'll live.
I really recommend it, to all and anyone.

5 out of 6

Word of the day:
豚 - buta - pig

Vexille

Ooooh... New feature=D Clicking the title of this blog entry takes you to the movie's imdb site.

Soooo... It's a movie festival going on^^, I have no money so, I have been ignoring it. As best as I can anyway. I know there are heaps of great movies that I would have loved to see, so best not to read about it at all.
But I did go and see Vexille today. There is something special about seeing a movie that you know nothing about. Well I knew that it was made by the same people that made Appleseed, which I saw a few years ago.
Anywho, Vexille (or ベクシル: 2007 日本鎖国, which translates to "Vexille: 2077 Japanese isolation), is an animation with plays a bit like a mathematician of computer programmers wet dream. The animation on the water was gorgeously animated, as opposed to the animation on the hair, which was just weird... When they do all the math on the water, and take all that time to make it look amazing they must have had someone on the team with a least a small knowledge of basic physics, but still they manage to have chunky hair that reacts to the slightest breeze, but not at all to gravity. In one scene Maria, who was the only character with long hair, which she wore in a ponytail, sits leaning forward, which in real life would make her ponytail drape down her neck. But not in Vexilleverse, no no, in Vexilleverse they the use so much hair gel that the ponytails stand horizontally behind their heads when they bow them. Jupp jupp jupp...XP
Getting sidetracked here. The story had something as rare as Japan against the world, with Japan being the bad guy. This is overly simplyfied ofcourse, seing as going deeper into it would give away the whole ending.
On the whole the story was interesting, but not really captivating. It was a clear social comment hidden it, but I can't really tell you about it without spoiling you. Bah! This is a bit frustrating, I can't really talk about anything but the visual, because I just feel like I am spoiling you all...=j
But the visuals, I can talk about that=D
All of the things that need math and reality simulating was amazing (except the hair of course). There were these monsters, called Jags, that were made of metal shrapnel, which kept twisting, and sometimes they crashed into each other making these gorgeous shrapnel fountains. They were amazingly done, and probably took a team of mathematician a years to calculate. The people left something to be desired thou. They were stiff and expressionless. This one scene at the end, they did the classic movie trick of showing the mouth of someone speaking in slow motion with music but no voice, but the whole point of that is kind of lost when it is impossible to read their lips. Some of the people, for no apparent reason, had a bend in their knees, the type you see on long time drug addicts. I think they prioritized badly with the budget, because I think readable facial expressions is more important than amazing water, or ultra realistic smoke. If the people all look like puppets being controlled by an extremely untalented puppeteer, even if the main characters moved moderately realistically, the ultra realistic water doesn't do much for me.

Overall I thought it was a good movie, and I would highly recommend it to computer programmers and demosceners. And to people who like science fiction, and to fans of the darker, slightly more realistic anime.

4 out of 6 from me.

Word of the day:
日本鎖国 - Nihon sakuko - Japanese isolation

Step one reached^^,

I got an extra order from one of the ladies who attended my Tupperparty, so I am now definitely over the step one mark (you know, the "key to success"-program I talked about in my last post). Which means I get Bake-to-Basic equipment. A measuring jug (you know, for measuring things when baking), and a baking bowl with sieve and two lids, one air tight and one with a whole in the middle for you mechanical mixing thingy (which probably have a name, but I just can't remember), so that you don't spill when mixing the food.
Have I mentioned I love Tupperware?=D=D

Word of the day:
商業目的 - shougyoumokuteki - business goal

First Demo overwith

So today I held my first Demo. First ever. And I sold in my Demobag. And possibly step one on "the key to success", which is a sale based step-program where I can earn stuff to put into my Demobag. I got ten weeks on this "key to success"-program, and the last step, step 4, lies at 18.000kr, roughly 2900$ or 1700£. Which is a lot of money, but when I got over 3800 today, on my first ever demo, without the handling fee, I do think it is very doable^^,
Anyone in the vicinity of Lillestrøm is interested in holding a Demo, I would be very happy to come demonstrate all my nifty stuff for you^^,
I think I am going to go drum me up some business on the various Norwegian sites I am on^^, I am going for the 4th step. Jupp I am^^,
I paid off my Demobag^^, Whooooohoooo!!!^^,

Word of the day:
目的 - mokuteki - purpose, goal, aim, objective, intention

Wanted

I went to see wanted with faincé tonight. I did not like it. Might have been something wrong with my expectations, seeing as I expected it to be a cool comic movie with at least a half decent plot.
I suspect I would have loved it had I expected a braindead, action movie whose plot I could care less about. Because that was what it was. The action scenes were amazing, well choreographed and entertaining. The plot was horrible. Apparently in the comic they were all supervillains, even the hero, in the movie they took their orders from a giant loom. The logic of this change eludes me.
I must admit that the lack of plotholes in such a halfassed plot impresses me, but even that can't get me to like this plot.
If you plan on seeing it, go see it for the killer gunmanship, do not expect anything but Angelina looking amazing while teaching James McAvoy how curve bullets, because that, plus exploding rats, where all that was interesting about the whole movie. It's an action movie. Think Transporter, with out all the pretty ladies (there was only one), or Shoot them up without all the carrots and gore.
I suspect that when I see it again while in an action frame of mind I will like it better, but tonight I don't. I just don't.

My first sale^^,

I made my first sale today^^, Tupperware ofcourse^^, I'm so proud. My good friend A decided she needed stuff, and so I sold her stuff.^^,
I bought manga to celebrate. Manga that I collect and that I could not afford the last ones of until she paid me^^, NANA 12 and Mamotte Shugogetten 2 to be exact^^,
NANA is my all time favorite manga, even if I hate it to pieces sometimes. Realistic manga are so stupid sometimes, because they act just as stupid as real people do. Maybe a tad stupider for the drama effect, but mostly realistic stupid. And because of that sometimes I hate them all. All the stupid manga people who go around doing the wrong people and saying the wrong things. But if they weren't stupid it would be boring ne? So maybe it's good that they are stupid.
Mamotte Shugogetten is a variation over the classic Oh! My goddess manga. Boy meets goddess/shugotten. Boy falls in love with goddess/shugogetten. All sorts of complications arises. Very predictable, but oh! so adorable^^, Shao is just too cute. Even Ruan is cute, in a really annoying, please-leave-the-heck-alone kind of wayXP

Word of the day:
売る - uru - to sell

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell

I finally finished it. It is a wonderful book but it is not a small one.
I love this book, but I rather doubt I will ever read it again, it is much too large an undertaking for that, being 1006 pages and all. I have spent at least a year at it, on and off. The problem with long books such as this is that because it is the length that it is I find it very easy to get distracted and start reading something else. But I have always returned to it. It is a very complex book, so these returns to it have sometimes been confusing. But since it is a book without a much extensive character gallery, and with scores of wonderful footnotes I always found myself back in the flow of things within a few pages time.
It is highly captivating, and the language in which Susanna Clarke describes the events makes all the highly unlikely events taking place on every page seem almost plausible.
I am not a very good judge of characters, but to me all the characters seems totally believable. Even the gentleman with the thistledown hair seemed real to me.
For anyone with a longer attentionspan than the one I possess I highly recommend this book, and should you be so unfortunate that your attentionspan can rival mine in shortness I would still recommend this book, even if it means you will need a larger amount of will power.
It is a wonderful book in any case. Even if the ending seemed a tad... unfinished... to meXP

Word of the day:
魔法使い - mahoutsukai - magician, wizard, sorcerer, witch

Attacked by the evil door>.<

I was attacked by a door on Friday. I might have gotten a mild concussion, I certainly showed a lot of signs of it (violent nausea, extreme headache, sensitivity to light...), and today, two days later, I still have a slight headache. And a bump on the forehead. Which of course I can't help but poking all the timeXP

My mother is having a pattern giveaway on her first ever published pattern^^,
Go have a look^^,
It's of these adorable little Christmas stockings^^, I told her when she showed them to me that I would like on filled with candy on the mantel piece for Christmas, to which she jokingly replied that she would like one filled with diamondsXD
They are very nice anyway, so go join the giveaway right now=D=D

I am having a Tupperparty Wednesday October 8th, so if anyone feel a need to buy Tupperware products give me a heads up and I will send you an invitation^^, I will be immensely grateful for anyone who will help me sell enough to pay of my startkitXD

Word of the day:
振盪 - shintou - shock, impact, concussion

The curious incident with the dog in the nigth-time

An important book. A really important book.
The story of Christopher who has autism, and who takes it upon himself to investigate the murder of his neighbor's dog, and the places it takes him, and the truth behind it all.
It was a bit scary, because I recognized myself in the things Christopher tells about himself and in the way he reacts to things. My therapist tells me that autism amplifies characteristics that are very common among many people, like responding to things we don't understand with frustration or anger, so that made it less scary.
I think that everyone should read this book, at the very least everyone that is in a position where they are likely to meet people with autism, like people who work in shops, and policemen, and hospital workers, and people who work with public transportation. I could go on and on, it was an eyeopener for me. I knew a girl with autism many years ago, and I just after reading this book understood the way she reacted to things, reactions that confused and frightened me at the time I now understand how I could have avoided.
Read it. Please. It will be good for you.

Bending Water

I don't often write about art. I never have I think, if I need to write about art I usually do so on DeviantArt, but this needed writing about.
Me and fiancé have had the 4 year anniversary for our engagement today. On our way to the train we walked over Tulinløkka, which is a parking lot placed between the national museum and the historical museum in Oslo, and on one of the wall there was this amazing projection on the wall. So me and fiancé went over to the artist and started to talk, it turned out they were doing a test run for this exhibition the are going to run on the wall from October 16th through December 30th. It is called Bending Water and the artist Sven Påhlsson have been working on the thing for two years solid, using the same weather models that NASA uses to predict storms and such.
You can read all about it here: the Norwegian National Museum of Art.
I hope that anyone who has the chance will go and take a look. It's free and I will probably go see it as often as I can, I got this serene feeling from it, like watching the rolling tides or those tubes of water with bubbles traveling up them, so if anyone needs company give me a heads up and we can go together^^,

While we are on the subject of art I would like you to check out this amazingly talented photographer: tiramcsr
I dare say I might be a little biased in liking her work, seeing as she's my baby sister, but she is very talented. And all her skill has been acquired in a year of media school, talk about fast learner ne? I particularly love this picture:
Clicking the picture will take you to the original on DeviantArt.
The model is my cat Tullerusk, and my sister tells me she modeled it very determinately, obviously enjoying the attention. She actually loves being photographed, and she knows all about showing of her best angles^^, My sister captured her gorgeously^^,
So go and take a look, and if you are registered you are very welcome to watch and comment^^,

Word of the day:
芸術家 - geijutsuka - artist

Endless possibilities

So I was at this Tupperware-demonstration today. And I have decided to become a Tupperware-demonstrator. *pausing for shocked exclamations* ^^,
Jupp, I am getting a job^^, And I think maybe I will be good at it too^^, So I will be inviting all of my friends who live nearby (and their moms XP) for a demonstration in the near future^^,
The thing is that with school and everything I have never thought I would be up for a job, but with this demonstrator thing I can regulate it completely myself. I choose when and how much I want to work, meaning I can take time off during exam season, and can I work more when I have more time on my hands^^,
And I can always quit if it doesn't work out.
So if anyone want a demonstration let me know^^,
I am hoping I can earn enough to be able to get my drivers licence and eventually a car. Hopefully^^,

Book report forthcoming:
I have just finished "Er heiss Jan". I must admit that since I am horrible at German I understood about half of it^^, But what I did understand I loved. It is a sad and beautiful story of forbidden love in difficult times. I loved it, and I intend to read it again when I get better at German, so that I will understand it all^^, I rarely like books I have to read for school, because of the simple fact that I have no choice in whether I have to read them or not, and so I develop a dislike towards them during the first couple of pages. I did that for this book as well, but I got over about half way through. I loved it^^,

Shameless self-praise

I just had this overpowering need to brag a bit>.<
A few weeks ago my good friend (and evil tormentor >.<) D talked me into joining this gym, I think I wrote about the evil torture instruments that inhabits this gym earlier. The evil tormentor part refers to him making me lift weights and use the previously mentioned evil torture training machines, he's not actually evil>.<>.< I am terribly proud in anyway thou^^,

Word of the day:
体育館 - taiikukan - gymnasium

The glory of logical learning

I have been struggling long and hard to learn kanji. To me kanji just isn't logical, and I have some problems learning things that aren't logical. That is all changing. Yesterday I made a wonderful addition to my Japanese text-/work-book arsenal: "Let's learn Kanji", (the blue book, number 3 from the bottom of the left pile on yesterday's picture). Suddenly kanji is logical to me^^, Due to the introduction of the radical. I have had a idea of what a radical is from before, because I had to be able to identify the radical to be able to look up kanji in kanji-dictionaries, but up until now I have never understood the significance of the radical on the meaning of the kanji. I have never realized the connection between several kanji with the same radical and the similar meanings of these kanji. But now I do, and now kanji are so much more logical^^, And therefore easier to learn. So if you are having problems, this book is great. I have been contemplating getting myself a heisig book (heisig is a method of learning kanji that bases itself on association patterns), but I will hold of on that for a while to see if this book works better...

Word of the day:
好き - suki - liking, fondness, love
(word of the day is chosen because I like the kanji portion, which consist of the kanji for woman and child, and I like the way it implies that women and children are likeable^^,)

Heavy books

These are my Japanese books (sorry about the huge picture, seems I have removed my image editing program, so I was unable to shrink it). We were talking at the Japanese class about how many books we had, and I just thought I'd find out. Each stack measures about 23 cm. Which means I have about half a meter with Japanese books. There are the ones I have bought on the left and the my notebooks, the box under the binder is full to the brim with cuecards. And of course I had to weigh them>.< The left ones weighed about 6,4 kilos, and the right ones weighed about 5,2 kilos.
That's a lot of paper that is>.<

Word of the day:
多大 - tadai - heavy, much

The Time Travelers Wife

Finishing a book is always kind of bittersweet. It feels good to have read a book, to be done, to be able to read something else, but you have to leave this world and these people behind. People that you have come to love, and that always makes me feel sad. But I seldom feel as sad as I did last night when I finished the Time Travelers Wife. It was a wonderful book. I don't really have the words for it. I almost never laugh out loud when reading, but this book made me laugh, and I never ever cry, but with this book I came extremely close. I loved this book, and I will read it many times in years to come, and I will make all my friends read it.

I have this kind of personal genre that I call neon sugar prose. I read the expression the first time on the back of a Francesca Lia Block book many years ago, and it stuck. For me it has come to mean literature and movies and music that leaves me with a special feeling, which I can't really describe. Happy and sad and melancholy all at once. The new additions to this personal genre are very few and very far between. But if I ever found a book that fitted, this is it, and if I never find a book again, this one book was worth it. And I don't have any more words for it, so I am going to stop here with a wish that you all go read it and love it as much as I did.

Oh! Goody! Hellbabies!!!

So I saw Hellboy with fiancé today. So the title of this blog i a very slight spoiler but it doesn't matter, 'cos you find out in the very beginning and doesn't really matter until the next movie anyway. And there I spoiled you some more. Swowy...

It was very good, and I liked that it wasn't LOTR type epic like it seemed in the trailer. And Doug Jones actually got to talk^^, He would be the man inside Abe Sapiens, the psychic water creature. He talked in Pan Labyrinth, but that doesn't really count, since he apparently doesn't speak spanish, and had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but was reading it all by phonetics. He is really an amazing actor, all he characters portray an amazing array of emotion through their body, and I guess this is natural, since he doesn't normally get to speak, he has to emote in other ways. But I love him, he is gifted, that's the best way I have to decribe it.
But I digress. The movie looked beautiful. I love pretty movies. I wish Liz's flames was blue in this movie too, but she is still an awesome character. They are all awesome characters, and they are all played well.
Apart from some plant gore at the start, and some hinted gore, but really poop, before that, this is a very non-gory movie, which probably means that it appeals to a wider audience. Which I think is good, because it means that the next movie (there will be a next one) will have a big budget, and lots of the essential special effects that this movie depends. Which will probably be aweome (fiancé told me over my shoulder that it will be released in 2017, and these things delevop non-stop).
Long monolog short. I loved it, and I am getting prime seats for the premiere of the next one. I recomend it to anyone that doesn't mind lots of violence (non-gory mind you), kick-ass swordmanship (that elf prince, former boyband vocalist of the eighties, rocked my high heeled boots), and scary-hot-girls on fire^^, It was awesome, and I command you all to go see it if you haven't already. Fly my pretties! Fly! *cackles* (it's 2 in the mowning okay?>.<)

Word of the day:
生き地獄 - ikijigoku - hell on earth

Beetle update

So it seemed I was not the one with the Longhorn Beetle, it seems Microsoft are the ones with the Longhorn Beetle in their last security update. The rest of the bugs, the ones actually on my computer were fruitflies caused by a update needed by my mp3 player. But all is good now that the fiancé got out his über awesome fruitfly landing net and removed them^^,

I am making headway with the kana, I am halfway through the book^^, And I am doing my math. I am so good^^,

Word of the day:
黄色猩々蠅 - kiiroshoujoubae - fruit fly

Can someone please take the moth out of my computer?

So Playground has a bug. Something about the size of a South American Longhorn Beetle I think. I can't seem to find it thou, but Playground keep doing things she is not supposed to do. And quite frankly it is making me rather sourly. On top of that the internet decided it didn't like me and stopped working about Wednesday evening, so I have been unable to put Playground back the way she is supposed to be. But now I am at the fiancé's place and he has internet, and now I am doing me best of fishing out the beetle from the depths of Playground myself, and if that doesn't work fiancé will take his über awesome beetle removing landing net (or as normal people would say: über awesome computer skillXP) and go hunting for it. (Or he ain't gettin' anyXP) I will let you know how it goesXD

I started Japanese class last night^^, The other students are super nice^^, I am so happy about that^^, I migth make friends^^, I'm a tad better than them thou, but that's just becuase I am a super nerdy study geek>.< When I am in the mood I can sit with my precious Japanese books for hours on end, so I am a tad good. We got this chart over verb conjugation (present and past), which ofcourse I knew how to do. But about half the rest of the class found it hard, which is kind of frustrating, because that means the teacher spends a lot of time explaining things that I know backwards. But it's fun anywho. And I don't know everything either, I am not saying I am supersmart in comparison. I have a huge advantage seeing as I have gotten to chapter 13 in the book we are using, and the class is at 11, so I literally read from my notes to answer the questions instead of constructing the sentences. Which showed bigtime whenever I had to construct something.
And ofcourse we had to write out all the kana on this form at the very start of the class. Now, I can write and read fluently, there are about 6-7 characters that I have to look up (a rappidly decreasing number mind youXP), and I remembered tham all the moment I started writing, but I couldn't fill up half the form. *grumbles* I couldn have done it 5 minutes after we were done, when I had started writing thou. We are getting the form again next week thou, and I am going to ace it, damn it! (even if we aren't getting gradedXP)

I have joined a gym. Woohoo........... Thus far all I have gotten out of it thus far is achy arms.... But I am going to get in super shape. Yup... Steel abs comming to a blog near you in the near (or very distant) future^^,
This is not really interresting thou, but I just had to write a short note on the appearance of the gym. It had the feel of a well lit, sleek, silvery torture chamber. Not really because of the pain I knew was in store, but high tech workout machines are really scary looking. They look like if you painted them black they would do very well in a dungeon, and not the BDSM kind, the real mideveaval "I am going to pull your fingers apart joint by joint while you are awake"-kind. The device from training the small of the back would look really good next to an iron virgin. I kid you not>.<

I am going off to perfect my romanji to kanji exelence^^,

Word of the day:
金亀子 - koganemushi - scarab beetle, goldbug

The expetations are killing me...

I start Japanese class tomorrow. The butterflies started a week ago, I am so exited. I dare say I am going to be horrible thou, I have not practiced anything much for... Since school started I think, so about two months I think. But I will get good again fast. I hope XP

I should be doing my German homework, but I am so sick of the stupid book that I only understand about a third of. It's frustrating not being good, seeing as usually master things right away. I know I can be good, but it takes so much effort. Blah... But I am trying my hardest. I anyone wanna help me out by being mailbuddies in German I would hugely appreciate it...=D I have a mailbuddy in Germany already, but we've been writing in English so far. I am gonna ask her very nicely if she wanna write in German, but she has her own life too, so I can't really expect her to write as often as I'd like... So if anyone wanna be my German-learning mailbuddy there's lots of virtual huglings in it for you^^,

I have been writing poetry on and of since, well, since I learned how to spell. Mostly in English, and we were supposed to write poetry for this assignment in English class last year, and being the lazy person that I am I brought all my poems to school and asked if I could choose one of those instead. My English teacher is such a doll, so he let me and he thought my poetry as so good so I borrowed them all to him over summer. I went to pick them up a few weeks ago and he said I should try to get published. And I have been wondering about that earlier too, because it would be kind of fun being a published poet. I am a bit uncertain thou, seeing as I would like to start in Norway, but I am not up to translating, and the few one I have in Norwegian are really bad, and noone gets to mess around with my babies, so I have to find some publisher who will be willing to let me publish them in their original form, so we'll see. I'll be sure to let you know if it comes to anything thou^^, Even thou I really doubt it...

Word of the day:
詩人 - shijin - poet

This is what our past was supposed to look like

This is what we were supposed to dress eight years ago. Apart from the fitted telephone they are a bit... off. Watch it, it's cool, and short^^,

We made it=D=D

I hope you all voted yesterday *looks menacingly at all her minions*
The Battery came in as a very strong second, and we are all very pleased. This means they are going to the Scandinavian finals in November, which will win. I have decided they will so they will *nods*
The song that won was my personal favorite of the ten, I love the Battery's song, but to be quite frank I like the BlackSheeps' song better. It's more the kind of music I listen to normally, might have something to do with that. Plus the singer had this larger than life voice and this amazing stage presence. It doesn't really matter thou, because they are both going to Denmark and the Battery is winning that for sure.
The Battery had a huge crowd in audience cheering for them thou, my mother tells me that Brage's mother, who was in charge of the tickets, had ordered over 200, so it was half of Surnadal there cheering them on. We all had bright orange t-shirts and we were loud. We were so many that they had to place us two places in the concert hall (it seemed that they put all of the family and supporters for the different musicians together, so that it would be easy to point the camera at people who are cheering and waving posters), and we could see each other and were having cheering contests and everything. The supporters from one of the soloartists sat between us and were trying their best to keep up, but every time the started we attacked them from two sides and their cheers drowned in our awesome volume. This was all before the actual show thou, since we couldn't very well be that uncivilized on TV >.<
But we were loud under the show too, and I cheered at everyone, as did most of those around me. I must have been fun to watch thou, because the man with the sweeping boom camera thingy kept pointing it at me, and I think he even put me on the screen (I know a few things about red lights and whatnot XP).
I feel sorry for the little girl who misread thou, she was reading the points the for the artists in the super final, and some blockhead idiot grown up doofus had decided that put the total score next to the score she was actually supposed to read. So halfway through she misread, and said the Battery got 17000 points, and we went through the roof, and then it turns out that was the total, and we only got 4000. Poor thing, an 8 year old is not equipped to be able to sort out which column to read from when she is high strung and nervous and is going to be on national TV. I do not understand what the point of having the totals there at all, since nobody read them, and if she was supposed to read both she most likely would have done it right. She read wrong twice. I feel really sorry for her, it's not her fault that grown ups sometimes are total idiots, but I think she did a very good job, she only looked confused (and slightly very panicked), and did not start to cry, as I bet I would have. I think she did very good and was very brave and if anyone who reads this have any connection to her please tell her so (yes I know it's a one in a million chance, but anyway).
I had a great time, and the Battery did great, and will win the finals, because all of you will vote, and because they are great^^, And I so timing my visit to Surnadal next year to one of the shows (if they still play small shows then...=D)
And if anyone is going be a cheer crowd at something like this: white matching t-shirts are pointless, even if they have printing on them, 'cos you can't see the printing from a distance. But if you wear screaming colours, like orange. Everybody saw us=D=D
But sleepytime now

Word of the day:
次位 - jii - second rank, second place

Vote Battery

My second cousin is playing in the MGP junior today, and I am going to go see it live^^,
So if anyone who reads this blog wanna support me and my second cousin you should vote for Battery^^, (My second cousin is Brage: the one rocking the piano)
Full account of the whole thing tomorrow^^,

Word of the day:
表決 - hyouketsu - vote, voting

Wall-E

So I went to see Wall-E yesterday, and I must say, it was hands down the cutest movie I have seen in a very long time. Love stories are one thing, but love stories written and understandable for children are quite another. It was just so adorable, these two little robots both trying to save the world, each in the own way, who love each other.
I have heard that some people was mortified about the environmental message in a childrens movie, but I think that if we are going to turn around this use and throwaway mentality we need to start with the young-uns, as young as possible. But it won't help just to show them a movie, we need to go ahead as good examples as well.
All in all it is a great movie, and an important one as well, and you all need to go see it. And if you don't like it, the pixeled short version at the end of the movie made it all worth it^^,

Word of the day:
ロボット - robotto - robot

Sniffles...

I am home today with a cold TT.TT I hate colds. It's not too bad thou, it was worse yesterday. I was supposed to go have coffee with M but I just had to skip that. And I was supposed to go see Wall-E, which I think I will do, since it appears R already bought the tickets. I hope I will get well tomorrow *wipes runny nose*

I finally finished the Mao biography, and on time too. It is a well written biography, a bit dry at times, but what can one expect. I think it's a very important story, seeing as it's important to know the history of all the major countries. And lets face it, China is growing into just as important a country for the world economy as the US.
I think that this book should be read in combination with Jung Chang's other book "Wild Swans", because then you get both sides of the story: how it was to live in China under Mao, and why Mao made the decisions that threw his country into wave after wave of terror and hunger.

I bought a new collar for Rusket yesterday when I dragged my sick sorry self to the library to deliver the books I had borrowed. The last one I bought her had a felt lining that didn't agree with her at all, so I bought her a reflector collar with a nifty lock that will release on it's own if she gets caught in something. She never have, but better safe than sorry, right? I have absolutely no illusions that a car would be able to reflect anything on the collar when it's hid deep inside all that fur, but worth a try right?XD

I think I am going to try to get some work done. It's my body that's sick after all, not my brain. I have thus far finished a project for my economics class, and I think I will do some math now^^,

Oh! My lovely dad bought me a new mp3 player, isn't he just the nicest. It's got this cutest little animation with little dogs jumping all over the screen when I listen to music^^, I love my dad *hugles dad*

Word of the day:
吐き気 - hakike - nausea, sickness in the stomach

Don't copy that floppy

Oh! My! Piracy!
Youtube is the greatest invention since the floppy disk, there just so much fun out there. Like anti-piracy campaigns from the nineties XD



Word of the day:
海賊 - kaizoku - pirate, searobber

Princess Ai goodness

I should be reading the Mao biography, but I am so sick of it. It's a very good book and all, but I have to be done by Monday, and I have bit over 80 pages left. I don't want to stress read on Monday, so I am trying to be done by Sunday, which means I have to read 30 pages a day (I had a bit over 90 pages when I started today). I have been trying to cram in as much reading time as possible, but the thing is I am addicted to television. It's on all the time, and it's kind of distracting me from reading. I can do homework and blog and surf and pretty much everything with the stupefyingbox on, but I can't read, and if I turn it off it becomes eerily quiet, and if I put on music on Playground it becomes dark, and if I play music on the DVD player all the movement from the screen goes away, and yah, I'm addicted to TV. What I have been doing is reading to MTV (before noon when it actually plays music >.<) or VoiceTV, but then there is an interesting video or the commercial break comes all with all it's stupid, loud, distracting, annoying, obnoxious... *running out of adjectives* commercials that distract and annoy me. Another thing I have been doing is reading in the commercial breaks with the sound off. Anywho, I have too little time to read, and reading in the breaks at school, and on the bus just isn't enough. And I have to do my homework as well. So yah....

Light Princess Ai spoilers ahoy. Again, I am not able to make my point without revealing some of the content. Not much, but spoilers are spoilers so proceed with caution.

What I was going to say was: I should really finish off the Mao biography, but I really needed to read something purdy, so I have been reading Princess Ai today. I am a slow manga reader, so it took me a good 4 hours, after all what is the point of beautiful art if I'm not going to ogle it? I spent probably double the time drooling over Ai and Kent that I spent actually reading...>.<

Realm of spoilers end here^^,

I loved it either way thou. The art is to die for, Ai apperance shift subtly throughout the story to suit her mood, and the things going on. When she is happy and bouncy, she looks cartoonish and ditzy and when she is angry or serious there are much more detail and she looks fierce and dangerously beautiful. The story, thin thou it might be, is very well told. The use of suspence is put in the right places is just the right amount, it holds back without being tedious. The lyrics to the songs she sings are tantalizing, and I have got to find out if some has put music to those lyrics. And if they have, I need to have that album. The characters are faceted and evolves in just the right way.
It's a wonderfully executed movie on paper. And I hope they do make it a movie. I think Mana would be great as Ai. Yes I do know Mana is a man, and I do know he has this thing about not talking in public, but he looks just right, all mysterious and aloof and gorgeous. And he wears gothic lolita fashion already. But I have no idea if he can sing, which would be essential, and I honestly don't think he could be as ditzy and bouncy as Ai tends to be sometimes, and come to think of it he would probably be horrible in that role. But he would look amazing while being horrible>.<

姫 - hime - princess, young lady of noble birth

I like the nice storeman^^,

I cleaned out all my old wallets a few days ago (yah, I collect them, so I have a few>.<) and found several half filled manga bonus cards, enough to get one free manga. Me and the fiancé walked around Oslo yesterday, and we took a trip to Outland to see if they had any of the mangas I read, which of course they didn't, but I found Princess AI ultimate eddition, with all the books in one, and they aren't supposed to give those on the bonues cards, but the nice man gave it too me anyway^^, I have been drooling on that book for a while, it's so purdy, and L said it's really good. I like the nice storeman^^, I also bought the Ladies of Grace Adieu with my store credit slip^^, I will have to wait until I finish Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell to read it, since two characters from that book appears in this one, but it was on sale. So there>.<

Bentogoodness

Lookie the purdy bento^^, (and the giant, sloppy maki>.< I am horrible at rolling maki. The awesome fiancé usually rolls the awesome maki^^,) Anywho, the purdy bento contains one maki with chicken curry filling, one cupcake cup with rice and chicken curry on top, and four giant, sloppy (but yet, tasty) California maki. All put nicely inside my pink Hello Kitty bentobox, with nice little white chopsticks in the lid, that I got from Christmas (I think it was Christmas, might have been my birthday, but I am pretty sure it was Christmas) from team Gacha Gacha. My German teacher was awed by the awesomeness of my awesome bento^^,


This is the cat with her head stuck between my shoes. Apparently she was chasing a teeny frog, which I caught (yah, the cat was majorly miffed>.<) and released to wild (i.e. the landlords gardenXP).

I warned you, do not say I did not warned you, this is the first of the dreaded math rants. This one is about the insufficiency of my previous math classes. It's not all that strange that I don't know how to solve a logarithm when I have never learned it. I looked it up in my mathbook from my first year at senior high and it has one page about logarithm, none of which I can remember reading, so apparently I have not learned it. I think... I just remembered I used to have two mathbooks. Blah! This is why I do not like the idea of selling schoolbooks. I think I will go ask the mathteacher to help me tomorrow. Blah!

Word of the day:
昼御飯 - hotugohan - lunch

Doing grown up things O.o

I am currently defrosting the freezer O.o I am so grownup >.<
Plus I am doing laundry and as soon as I am done writing this I will wash my own frying pan, in which I will cook chicken in order to make a healthy dinner (Chicken Curry), with a side of avocado, which I bought myself, on the trip to the store where I payed with my own money. When I am done eating I will vacuum and wash the floor all by myself. I am so grown up O.o

Sky High and nighttime nerdyness

Okey, lets just get this out there right away. I am a nerd, I suffer from major nerdyness, and honestly I love my nerdyness. And what does a nerd do on a long, lonely Sunday evening? Why math of course. I am taking math this year, and it's so much fun^^, I looked through the book thou, and some of it seemed hard, so expect rants in the future>.< Anyway, they aired Sky High on TV earlier this evening, a movie that I honestly did not care to see, but nothing else was on. And it was adorable. So cute^^, And the one that seemed like the crook in the beginning was so hot^^, He reminded me of Lex from the Tribe, which by the way is a great TV show, and I am so miffed that they canceled it.

Word of the day: オタク - otaku - geek, nerd, enthusiast (We like the enthusiast one best, seeing as that is what a nerd really is, ne?)

About hookers and drugaddicts

This little comic brought me back to my childhood big time.
You see my mom is a quilter, and has been for as long as I can remember. Now the words for fabric and drugs are the same in Norwegian (stoff), and I am sure any Norwegian quilter has at some point humorously referred to themselves as addicted to fabric, or as most nonquilters would perceive it as: drugaddicts. You can imagine the look of sheer horror on the faces of grownups when a wide eyed, innocent eight year old answers the question "so what does your mom do?" with: "My mom doesn't work, she's a fabricaddict (or as they would interpret it: drugaddict". Hilarious. And then the look of sudden relieve when I explained that she was addicted to quiltingfabrics. >_<>.< style="font-style: italic;"> kakebuton - quilt, comforter

I posses incredible self control

I went to see the study guide/counselor man today, because my subjects were still messed up, and he realized he had put me up for the wrong math class, so the book I bought yesterday was wrong. I also can't take English after all=( But I am taking marked economics instead, so I will be fine. Also he told me that I can borrow all the books I need at school, so I don't need to spend a small fortune on books after all=D
Anyway, I went to return my book, and I got a nice big credit slip, and I did not spend it on Japanese books. Ain't I just the pinnacle of self control? >.< I am very pleased with myself. I have rediscovered my love of math. It's so gloriously logical=D And I do so love things that make sense^^,

Word of the day: 自制 - jisei - self control, self restraint

New shoes and good friends

I love my friends. To any friend of mine who reads this: I love you. Just so you know. You make life possible bear, I don't think I would be able to without you, I love you to pieces, all of you. *hugles all her friends*

So I gave up on my shoes today, they get soaking wet from just walking three feet away from a puddle. So I gave up and bought new shoes today.
Aren't they purdy?^^, It became a bit expensive, but I really, really needed new shoes and these will last me through at least most of the winter^^, And I have some shoes left from last year. What I needed the most were waterproof shoes that weren't boiling hot, and the rightmost shoes are just fine for that^^, They aren't superhigh either so I can walk in them without killing my legs, I have a pair of highheeled boots that are waterproof, but I have to wear them with woolsocks so they are really hot, and they're really high so they make my calves hurt.
The left ones are just too cute, ne? I just had to have them^^,

Word of the day:
靴　- kutsu - shoe

Expensive schoolbooks

I have been shopping for schoolbooks today, and I am once again appalled by the prizes they charge for them. My math book cost 598kr. That is almost 600 for a book! They exploit the fact that we don't have a choice,we have to have these books, we don't have a choice, and the prizes totally undermine that senior high is supposed to be free and for everyone. I can get that if we were to borrow books from the school, like we do in elementary school and junior high, they can't update all that often, but I think they should charge no more than 300-400kr for a new book. Tops! I know I can buy used books, but my local bookstore, from which I usually buy my schoolbooks (used if I can find them) don't have books for my grade this year, because we can borrow from the school. Which I can get, but we were supposed to borrow them yesterday, and I didn't know which subjects I was taking yesterday.
I signed up for classes today. They had messed up and signed me up for the third year classes, but I took all of them last year, so I had to fix it. So this year I am taking German, English literature and culture, math, and social studies. I am looking forward to starting my classes^^,

Word of the day:
高い - takai - high, tall, expensive

First dag of school

Yesterday was first day of school, and of course they have set me up for all the wrong classes. I have to go to the study director later to get it sorted out. They have set me up for classes I have already finished...
Me and the fiancé went to a stationary store and bought a new ring binder, because the one my mom gave me 4 years ago with nice Winnie-the-Pooh drawings on it is almost falling apart...

I am over halfway through MAO. The untold story, and its was better than Becoming Madam Mao. Way better. Even if it is a tad dry, but it's a biography, so it's not really surprising...

I better get to school now. I was actually up at 6:30 today... O.o

Word of the day:
伝記 - denki - biography, life story

School nerves

I'm starting school tomorrow. Kind of nervous, but I will be fine. I hope...
Rusket is home again. She was totally miffed when I let her out of her travel cage, and ran straight for the door, hoping I would let her out. No such luck thou...
After sulking for the appropriate amount of time she came to cuddle me, and I got to cuddle her stomach for a nice long time. She has the fluffiest tummy fur^^, But then I couldn't find the remote and had to look under her, which she didn't like and now she is lying on the top of my quilt in the chair and is pointedly ignoring me. Oh, I love that kitty.^^,

Word of the day:
学校 - gakkou - school

Midnight (or rather middle of the night) wishing

It's 3:19 am and due to me sleeping half the day from exhaustion I can't sleep. The fiancé went to bed half an hour ago (I think, I didn't look at the clock), and he never goes to bed before me. Ever.
It's his birthday tomorrow (or today, seeing as it is past midnight), and he is turning older than me againXD I bought his birthday present in Spain and it's sitting beside all wrapped up in Tinkerbell goodness.

So what does one do when one can't sleep? One makes wishlists online. Behold the über long Jbox wishlist: Wishlist
(Yes, I added nearly everything on the site>.<) (Feel free to buy me anything you want >.<)

I have seem to have misplaced my Amazon Pokémon wishlist, so I will have to make a new one. But not tonight, it's rather time consuming tracking down all the games I don't have.
And the Amazon Wishlists I could find were all jumbled and half the things I don't really want anymore, so I will have to clean them up. I could even find things I have already bought O.o So clean up... some other day...

I should go to bed, I really should. School starts Monday, and oversleeping just isn't charming. One needs to be up at least 15 minutes before school starts, it is a 10 minute walk after all >.<
I am a little nervous about starting school to be honest, all my friends graduated this summer so I will be all alone again. But at least I will have something to do all day.
I am starting Japanese nighttime classes in about a month. That will be great, I have missed them these last six months. I love learning, and I especially love learning Japanese^^, Maybe I will make some new friends too^^,

No word of the day today, as I am finally getting drowsy. Better go snuggle the birthday boy. Good night everyone. Sweet dreams to you all *hugles*