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*

I said I wouldn't, but I did

So I bought books today. On sale mind you. Super cheap. So there. My money, I decide. XD
I bought ten books, nine on a 3 for 2 sale, and one on a 10kr sale. So I got 10 books for 310 kr. Okey, so that is a lot of money. I'll have to skimp a little the rest of the month, but it's totally worth.=D
One of the books I bought was a make book from the eighties. Some of the things in it is outdated, like the hairdos and such, but much of it is still true. What colours go well with other colours is still true, and there is some great tips for face sculpting make up, and I have wondered about that for some time, so that was great=D

Now, I am not afraid of thunderstorms at all. I would not like to be on a boat during one, but this summer there has been some nasty one. Lets all blame global warming. XP
Anyway, this morning at about 10-11 there was a thunderclap that was so powerful a car outside my window had it's alarm go off. Twice. Now, that was a bit scary. It actually sounded like the house was falling down. I actually went outside to check that there wasn't any fires from lightning strikes. Luckily there wasn't any.

I took some pictures of Frank today. I decided to run his tank in the dishwasher to get it properly clean and I put him in a measuring bowl in the meanwhile, and the curve of the bowl magnified him very nicely so I snapped some shots. Isn't he gorgeous?

Coraline on the big screen

Anyone read the amazing children's book Coraline by Neil Gaiman? Have you also seen Nightmare Before Christmas and/or Corpse Bride? Now imagine that book on the big screen in that style. I just can't wait!



Starting to become a few years since I've read thou, so I need to reread it. I am adding it to the list right now=D
Yes, I know I technically should not see it, or at the very least, should not reread to book first, but Neil Gaiman is coproducing, so the story shouldn't be too ruined, and it looks amazing. I'm off to read now^^,

Word of the day:
アニメーション - animeeshon - animation

Okey, so I lied

I was sitting here in my parents kitchen eating my dinner/nigthfood (I came home half past 10 and needed to downwind a bit before making dinner), chatting with V, trying to decide what to furnish my new Neohome with, trying remember the reading for 納豆 (which is nattou BTW), with WinAmp yodeling along on shuffle in the background when this unbelievable drippingly wonderlicious Bertine remix comes along to snake itself sexily into my ears. I goddam freakin' love this song. (FYI it's past twelve and I should be in bed, I am allowed to be enthusiaticXD)
I kid you not, the deeper love remix of Ah Ah is freaking fantastic!
And then, to make matters worse (or better actually), I turn of shuffle and the next song is wonderlicious as well.
I admit it, I love the remix CD. I must have been in a bad mood or not listening closely when I listened to it last time. Or maybe I am just giddy from lack of sleep? Anyway, right now, at almost half past midnight, in my sleep deprived, exhausted from being on the run all day, gloriously stuffed, happyhappy state I hereby declare that I love the Bertine Zetlitz Best of Bonus Remix CD and will listen it all night. I do, however, not guarantee that I will love it tomorrow.
This seems like a good time to go brush my teeth and go to bed. Nighty night goodfolk^^,

Nerd test

I command all of you nerds who read my blog to take this test and score lower than me.XP
I would have scored way higher if it had the answers I wanted. The last naked person I saw not on my 'puter screen thank you very much. *sulks 'cos she was not allowed to skip that one*
And more questions about Pokémon please! They should have questions about game stations. So thereXD

Wild Swans

I have just finished rereading Wild Swans. I started it a long time ago, and then something new and interesting came along. I do that a lotXD
Anywho, I picked it up again a few days ago, and decided I would finish it before reading, and about ten minutes ago I did.^^,
I love this book, I really do. It's an extremely well written and engaging personal version of a horrible period in Chinese history. And a convincing testimony to why communism does not work in practice. I remember the first time I read the book, several years ago, and thought that communism was a wonderful idea, everybody sharing had to mean no poverty or famine. Everybody would be the same and there would be no discrimination or corruption. Alas, as I discovered when I read on, it didn't work out that way in Mao's China. As far as I know no communist regime has made it, I know that there are communist regimes, but as far as I know most or all of them are turning capitalistic. I might be wrong thou, I know very little about communism outside of China. In any case Mao was a tyrant with a need for conflict and destruction, but he was highly intelligent or he would never have gotten as much power as he did.
I find this period in Chinese history intensely fascinating, the way one man could destroy the lives of 900 million people, and how people survived through this horrible period. And to some extent how things are now, how the country is rebuilding itself.
Actually I am starting to contemplate studying Chinese history at the university when I'm done with high school, it's just so fascinating. I think I might go snoop around a bit to see if there are any schools that offer that kind of studies^^, Don't know what I'll do about the Japanese thou, maybe I can do both, if I succeed at becoming an interpreter that would two very useful languages to know...

Word of the day:
中国 - Chuugoku - China

Library bliss

I love libraries. All the books I want, for free. There's a time limit, but that can be extended, and I can always borrow whatever I didn't have time to read later.
I went a short trip to Outland today, and seeing all the wonderful books I could not afford to buy made me a little down. I had to return Becoming Madame Mao today, so I borrowed some new books. I borrowed I book I have wanted to read for a long time: Mao - the unknown story. A brick of a book, but I just know I will enjoy it. Partly because I am very fascinated with the story of China and the Chinese communism, but also because I discovered it is co-written by Jung Chang, the author of Wild Swans, which is one of my favorite books, and the book that got me interested in this particular part of Chinese history in the first place.
I also borrowed Tvillingene by Tessa de Loo. Mostly because the cover is cool, I am kinda visual in choosing what to readXP It has even happened I have borrowed a book just because of an amazing cover. I never (read rarely XP) buy book this way thou...XP
I have decided to get Wild Swans of the list (it's far down at the bottom) withing the week. I have to read 22 pages a day, which will be no problem.

I have downloaded a learning software called Anki. It is flashcard based and uses intelligent spacing of repetition for optimal learning. I am not sure how well it will work for me yet, so that stand to be seen^^, Just thought I'd tip all you learners out there^^,

Word of the day:
図書館　- toshokan - library

SoraCon and other things

So I went to SoraCon in Oslo today. Not terribly exiting, I think we got there around two maybe, and by then they were well into most of the contests. There were some nice cosplaying there and the fiancé took some nice pictures that hopefully he'll let me put up later. They had screenings of the first four Naruto episodes, and we went to the second one, but there were all these tall people in front of me who were blocking the subtitles so I entertained myself (and annoyed D) with telling D what all the kanji meant XP
I think I liked last year's DesuCon better, even if SoraCon had more activities. There were more stands and more things to see at DesuCon, but this was SoraCon's first year so hopefully they will get better next year.
Anyway we tired of it all pretty quickly and went out for thai food, then we proceeded to walk aimlessly around Oslo for a couple of hours. All in all I had a pretty nice day^^,

I am house sitting for my parents for the next week while they visit family further north. Rusket loves all the outside time she is getting and is actually fleeing the scene whenever she notices I am home. Well actually it was okey yesterday, but we are fairly certain she knows her days, because today she just ran. (I usually come pick her up on Sundays.)

I started reading my battered Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell agian. Wonderful book really, can't remember why I stopped halfway through, but maybe I just found something more interesting... That sort of happens...XP Anyway, I'm halfway through, but it's going fast, and if I get nice weather and can sit outside I will probably be done by the end of the week. The forecast is full of black clouds thou, so I might just sit inside playing on the 'puter.

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

Finally finished

I finally finished Becoming Madame Mao. I didn't like it, as you probably have already figured out. XP It was confusingly written, and not all that interesting. I knew the story from before, so there was no really big surprises, and most of the things that were new to me was written in such a way that it made me unsure that was how it happened. There was no speaking markers, so I was not always sure if somebody were talking or not, and the frequent changes of point of view made it all the more confusing. And I still think that many parts of the books have to made up, some of these the author just can't know. To some extent I can understand this, it was probably done to make the persons become real, but the book claims to be a biography of sorts and made up things has no place in biography.
But anywho I am finished now, and have already gone on to read better things^^,

I have removed two books from the list in addition to Becoming Madame Mao; NANA essentials, due to it containing spoilers, and being more a trivia book than anything else, and Watership Down, due to V wanting it back^^,

Word of the day:
書評 - shohyou - book review