ambers79

I'm rather excited I just got some Gackt cd in the mail yesterday. After resisting for months I broke down and ordered the Gackt calendar through yesasia. I was resisting because I have to admit spending over $30 on a calender is ridiculous but I really wanted one for the last couple of years and gave into the temptation. Since they had a deal going on at yesasia to get $5 back if you ordered over $50 I also added Lost Angels and Setsugekka to the order. I had a hard time choosing which ones to buy since he release a lot of singles last year, but I think these two were great. I already used the $5 back on another order which surprisingly isn't a Gackt item. I ordered Ka-Tun's new single Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki which comes out the 10th along with the Boys Over Flowers OST Luxury Edition.

I just recently discovered Ka-Tun when I watched RESCUE, which is a great drama. They did the closing theme which I loved and the single I order is the opening theme for Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi drama. I couldn't wait to hear the whole song so I ordered the single. I am also curious to see what the other songs on the cd are like as well since I have enjoyed all their songs that I have encountered. As for the Boys over flowers I order it simply to get the acoustic version of I'm Stupid by SS01. I already have the first soundtrack that comes with postcards but it didn't have the acoustic version of I'm stupid which is my favorite song of the soundtrack. By and large I don't like the Korean language, it is way to harsh, but for the soundtrack for Boy's over Flowers I have made an exception.

I have been putting almost all my attention into learning Japanese for the most part. I'm slowly making my way through the course that I bought. I'm understanding a little bit better and catching more of what I am watching in the dramas and animes that I've been watching but I still got a long long way to go. I've got over half of the hiragana memorized although I imagine my handwriting sucks just as much as it does with my english writing. I've filled up one note book already just writing the characters over and over again. I have found that is the best way for me to memorize stuff. I've also bought a couple books which I haven't got yet that are suppose to have flashcards for both hiragana and katakana.

I have to wonder if I'm wasting my time with the writing bit though. I doubt I have the patients to learn all the kanji, there is a huge amount of it. Without learning that I won't be able to read manga, song lyrics, or websites which probably all that I would use it for. I've flipped through the few Japanese manga that I have and I see a lot more kanji symbols than anything else. I haven't given up the idea of learning to read and write Japanese but I do have my doubts about if I will ever be able to, especially at my less than stellar speed of learning.

I decided to go ahead and get a Japaneses language course. I have thought about doing it off and on for a while now. I thought since I watch so much anime and now dramas it might be interesting. I already have found myself partially understanding a lot of words and phrases but after over eight years of watching anime I guess that would be expected. I think my interest in alot of Jrock outside of anime has really given me the final push. I notice unlike anime fansubs, drama fansubs often times don't translate the lyrics to songs and along with Gackt their are some groups like Ka-tun and Arashi that are beginning to interest me some. I think understand the lyrics might increase my enjoyment of the music.

I always did well in language classes except for the speaking part at least. I quit Spanish after my third year and the teacher asked me to continue although I passed just like I did after my second semester of German. There wasn't any reason for me to continue since I wasn't actually use either language which made it hard to retain the knowledge. I was good at understanding what was being said although getting my mouth wrapped around the words was a different matter. Since it is unlikely I will met someone that speaks Japanese in Iowa and I have no desire to actually visit Japan I don't think me being able to actually speak it will be a big problem.

The course I got also includes the written part of the language which would be nice if I could learn as well although I have to wonder how comprehensive the course is.

As for writing I have done a little bit lately mostly on Dragon Boy. The next chapter might be a little on the long side by the time I am through with it. The first day I started working on it last week I absolutely couldn't write. It freaked me out a little since it was the first time I sat before my screen and DIDN'T know what to type. In fifteen minutes I entered one whole sentence @_@ Before I might avoid writing to do other things but whenever I sat down I was able to continue writing. Since then I've been able to start back up but I'm not sure how well I'm actually doing.

 ( New Years Resolutions )

First off HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

It has been forever since I posted anything anywhere online except a thank you here and there for subbing groups and writers. For the last two months I haven't been writing or spending much time online. I have spent most of my time exploring J-dramas and reading. I haven't really felt like writing a lot. I have a hard time forcing myself to sit down and write. The few times I have spent some time writing I have worked on Dragon Boy and The Hawks. New chapters for each are over half done but I just haven't found the drive to finish them. Right now I can't or won't set a time of when I will be back to writing consistently again. I think a big part of my problem is the fact writing became in my mind something I HAD to do instead of wanting to do it. I was forcing myself to update constantly thinking I needed to. One of the worst parts of me is the fact when I think I have to do something I immediately don't want to do it.

That being said I still want to finish the stories I have created and I think that eventually I will start up writing again, although it may be slow at first. I can't imagine just leaving them unfinished, especially since Dragon Boy and SOP are almost finished, although I had planned to do a sequel to Dragon Boy.

I will try to at least be a little more active here and keep everyone up to date with any progress I am making even if it is none at all. I'm really sorry for disappointing people by taking this very long extended break and for disappearing :( Hopefully this new year will bring back my writing spirit and my drive for writing.

I have changed my layout to something a little more brighter and cheerful. I don't really match Yaoidesigns layout but I wanted something lighter and not so dark. I'm not sure if I really like this new one or not but I think I will keep it for a little while at least :)

I just finished watching Boys over flowers the Korean version. I'm not really that much into watching Asian dramas but I was bored and a little curious since Rightstuff just had a sale on YA entertainment which is releasing Boys over Flowers in region 1.

It is a little bit longer than the anime version and quite a bit different although I from what I understand it follows the manga version somewhat, which I haven't read. It has a different feel to it character wise and even story wise. Tsukushi/Jan Di is toned down a lot and isn't as feisty, Tsukasa/Gu Jun Pyo isn't as much of a arrogant prick, and the other two F4 guy aren't really much of womanizers as they were in the anime version. Rui/Ji Hoo played a bigger part which I like and dislike at the same time. The biggest problem I have with the live action version is I ended up wanting Rui/Ji hoo to be with Tsukushi/Jan Di. I couldn't figure out why in the hell she was stuck on Tsukasa/Gu Jun Pyo, other than the fact that he loves her so much and needs her more than Rui/Ji Hoo.

The whole Rui/Ji Hoo is my soul mate and Tsukasa/Gu Jun Pyo is my love is a little screwy. I know where it comes from but in the end I was really hoping she finally dump Tsukasa/Gu Jun Pyo. To me it was frustrating as hell to watch since I knew that she would end up with him instead of Rui/Ji Hoo even though in he is a better match in every way include the fact she spends most of her time with Rui/Ji Hoo. In the anime I didn't feel that way since Rui/Ji Hoo's character was in love with Shizuka/Min Seo Hyun and he never really perused Tsukushi/Jan Di that much, there relationship stayed more friendship than romantic. Shizuka/Min Seo Hyun came back in the anime version and that pretty much ended the whole love triangle but in the Korean version it runs through the whole damn thing clear up to the last few minutes.

Despite that I did like it since it was a different take on the story and there was more character depth including all the characters except Sojirou/Song Woo Bin who for some reason gets pretty much left out. I have always liked Boys over Flowers the anime and I can't help but like this one as well. Hot Asian guys help along with some really great locations/cars/houses/ect. I also enjoyed the music up until the fifth episode then I began to get annoyed by the fact the played the same few songs over, and over, and over, and over.....Until I think I can still hear them in my head. It wouldn't be so bad except it wasn't just like 30 seconds but minutes of the song playing over various part of the show. The acting wasn't the best since it was in my opinion over exaggerated in parts but I can forgive that because of I was to busy looking at eye candy :P

After finishing it up I think I will leave my order for the first part in at rightstuff. For $50 it isn't a bad deal and I wouldn't mind watching it again. The fansubbed translation was a little confusing at times for me so I'm curious what the legit versions translation will be like. I'm probably on of the few people that do watch fansubs that isn't crowing that they are better than the r1 companies. I feel that they sometimes take literal translations to far although the R1 companies do have their faults as well. Like the recent Honey/Clover mess @_@.

Yay!!! There is a DMP sale at Righstuff that includes June and Doki Doki although 801 isn't included. It is just as well since there is soooo much I want from June as it is. I've been waiting for this sale for a while, I figured it was come up since Yaoi-con is this month. With the new lower print runs that DMP is doing I've decided to pre-order almost all their books with this sale. I've already lost out on a couple of titles that went OP a lot quicker than I thought they would. I was really lucky to be able to grab a volume of Only the Ring Finger Knows vol 4 for under $10 used even though it is OP and most sellers where selling it at really high prices. My tactic of waiting until the manga prices get slashed at stores to under $10 or buying used isn't going to work anymore with things going OP :( So this is the best option since with this sale the titles are under $8 which is in my comfort zone for buying manga.

I've been really debating whether to pick up Ai no Kusabi now. I was waiting until all the volumes were released but the problem now is that all of the volumes might not be released. Dmp doesn't have the license for volume 7 and they aren't even sure if they are going to pick it up. I really don't like picking up a series that isn't going to be finished but at the same time I'm interested in it and if by some chance they do pick up vol. 7 then the rest of the volumes will defiantly be OP since DMP has already said there will not be a second print run since it didn't do to well for them.

As for the rest I'm not sure what older titles I'm going to pick up. I have pretty much everything from early 2008 and back but I got out of buying manga early 2008 so there are a lot of titles that I haven't got that I would like to get. Pretty much everything is on order from the Manufacture so whatever I order I probably won't see for a while. If I remember right DMP is slow to restock rightstuff unfortunately. I guess I'll think it over for a couple of days. If anybody has some suggestion of titles they really are a must from this year please tell me. I'm up for anything except titles that are collections of short stories about different characters.

I went shoe shopping today. This is the only kind of shopping that takes more than ten minutes for me. Even clothing takes me only a couple of minutes to locate my size and stick it in my cart. Even my major purchase of a laptop only took me ten minute to pick it out and checkout. Shoes are the only thing I actually take time with mainly because I walk so much at work literally miles each night. I don't care what they look like, the price, or even the brand, all I care about is that they feel good. Actually the pair I got today is and ugly gray and pink ( I really hate pink) and they were over $50 which for me is a major purchase on something that I'm going to wear. My normal clothing expenditures are under $10 if possible since I'm not a fashion queen, $15 if I absolutely must. It took me twenty minute of me trying on about twenty different shoes to pick out a pair of Nikes, now at least I won't have to buy shoes again for another couple of months. I just wish they would last a little longer.

I got the next chapter of Black Heaven back and will be posting it tomorrow. I've run out of energy today and I'm ready for bed. I would like to say the next chapter of The Hawks is done and technically it is almost ready to send off to amanda but... The Hawks is driving me absolutely nuts. I'm in the process of going back and re read the entire story again. I feel like I really need to look at the entire story from beginning to middle and where I'm at now. I've mentioned it before but this last arc of the story had deviated from what I had originally intended to write. I of course had Sunhawk's back story written but I didn't have any intention of bring it into the story as I have. It was to remain for the most part just character back story to make the character and motives more clear to me. Yet I started deviating along the way and have drug more of it out into the open than I intended and it has changed the path of where I wanted the story to go. It isn't a huge deal like it would be for some since I'm not a person that follows a strict outline. A big part of the fun of writing for me is watching the story take shape. Yet I do feel that I need to really rethink the plot now and part of doing that is to look at the whole story for me. So I'm hesitating since this chapter is the second to the last chapter to end this arc of the story. I want to make sure I can feasible to the last arc after what I've done with this one.

I finally caught up on all the episodes Naruto Shippuden. Took me more than a week to do it ^^; Overall I think I liked it a little bit better than the first one. Although I do HATE the fact crunchyroll doesn't sub the damn opening and closings. With such a long series it has its ups and downs I do think Shippuden has a little more of a serious tone than the first one. I do like that Sakura finally became stronger and a more complete character that is at the same level as the rest. I was really tire in the first season where she was always in need of rescue and really couldn't do anything at all. The symmetry of Sauske, Naruto and Sakura being apprentices to each one of the sennien is kind of cool as well.

The next episodes of Shippeden I'm not looking forward to since I've already heard the spoiler from the manga what is going to happen. Jiraya is my favorite character out of Naruto so of course I'm NOT looking forward to what happens. Although with all the new information on the Aktuski and Sauske becoming independent it looks like things will get even more interesting soon.

I also finished watching Nabari Ou on the Funanimation site. This series was one that I watched the first episode of it fansubbed but it just didn't click with me so I dropped watching it. The whole opening sequence of the red rain and shinobonsho just turned me off for some reason. Still it was one of those animes that the premise sounded interesting and when they had the last sale at Rightstuff for funanimation I decided to preorder it to make the $50 free shipping limit. Giving it another go I found out right off the bat I hated the dub. That has only happened one other time with me so it was rather shocking. I usaully watch a show dubbed then if I liked the show I watch the subs as well. With Nabari I watched less than half the first episode and switched over to the sub. The voices for Miharu and his teacher where in my opinion horrible and just didn't fit the characters.

After switching over it took a while for me to become interested in the show. It wasn't until Yoite showed up and the show took a drastic change in plot focusing more and more on Miharu and Yoite's relationship that I truly began to love the show. It was interesting to watch their relationship develop. I'm really surprised I don't see more yaoi fangirl squealing about these two. I really think most description of this show are deceiving since it doesn't focus on ninja's fighting. I was a little disappointed with the ending since this is one of the few shows I would have liked an ambiguous ending to where the viewer could have chosen to believe Yoite lived or that he ended up dying :( I also have to say I've never seen such a useless character as Kumohira. He is a waste as a ninja never protecting or winning a fight. As a teacher since he is never able to explain why Miharu shouldn't use his powers or anything else. And as a protector since he just vanished for part of the show to moan about his past. The character doesn't really contribute anything at all to the show or character development at all.

The stupidity of management sometimes boggles the mind. They pulled me into the office to write me up for my attendance. The only thing is I haven't called in since I got wrote up for my attendance FOUR months ago. Not once. Then they insist that they are writing me up since I called in the beginning of June and that falls within the the six month rolling period. After going back and forth with me say I've already gotten wrote up for those days and them saying yeah but they are in the six month time period they finally went back and look at the write up I received in June and figured out that they were trying to write me up twice for the same thing @_@ The only thing I could think was "THIS is what they have actually running the store?" Dilbert management is alive and well within the walmart I work at *sighs*

On the brighter side all my days off have been approved for the next two month ignoring the fact they were approved by a manager that has nothing to do with my department ^_^; and I'm changing my days off so I'm happy.

I sent off the next chapter of Black Heaven and a small fantasy story to my betareaders today. So hopefully I will have an update soon along with another manga page. I started working on The Hawks tonight and have around 700 words done, at least it is a start.

I've also been watching Naruto alot. I bought the last boxset last time I got paid. I'm still missing 10,11,&15. I skipped 10 and 11 since I was never really into the retrieve Sausake thing and 15 since it was filler ep. I'll pick them all up eventually 10 and 11 soon since they are $14.95 at our walmart now. Since I watched the final episode of Naruto I started watching Shippuden. It actually is holding my attention fairly well. The pacing of the first arc was rather bad, I was beginning to wonder if the fight with Sasori was going to last twenty ep. and I still don't get the opening ep. with Sausuke. I do like the more adult versions of the characters better and I like Captain Yamato. I do know that I'm not buying the singles of Shippuden, I will be waiting for the boxsets and probably wait until they are repriced. I'm not that anxious to watched the dub version and the singles aren't bright and shiny like the Bleach singles where I want to buy them 'cuse they're pretty.

I also bought Big Wind UP and watched it. I hadn't seen it fansubbed since it didn't have any eyecandy I wasn't in a big hurry to watch it and then it got licensed. I still wasn't in a big hurry to watch it until I watched an episode on Funimation's site. I really love the dub on the show which fit the characters really well an although I was altered a lot still was funny. I don't think I've watched a show that has made me laugh so much in a long time. I love Mishahi's expressions and Greg Aryes does a wonderful job with Abe's anger and frustration. The only problem I have is with the packaging which sucks. The whole series comes in two dvd cases each holding two dvds. It does have reversible covers but really I feel more than a little cheated. There isn't even an insert or extras. If I was at a B&M store browsing around I would pick up the single dvd case look at the retail price of $59.95 laugh and put it back. When I first got it I thought I had gotten a bootleg ^^; Quality of packaging and extras has really gone down the drain in the past couple years. At this point there is no reason to buy a show when it first comes out, I might as well start waiting under super cheap collection comes out. Who cares if it has an ugly Anime legend/Viridan bar across the top. The packaging and disc count already sucks and extras are almost nonexistent anymore anyways. As a collector it just isn't worth it anymore to buy series when they first come out there is no incentive to.

Sorry I've been kind of dead the past few weeks. Part of it is laziness and part of it a couple of RL issues that have been causing a lot of emotional and physical problems. I've gotten away from writing for the past few weeks since I didn't have a lot of time and I just haven't felt very creative. I have gotten the next Chapter of Black Heaven done minus the editing which I will do tonight along with finishing up the editing on the non-yaoi story I'm doing for deviantart. I've been trying to sort out the next few chapters of The Hawks in my head to start working on and hopefully I can get back to writing like I use to. It has been a long time since I've took this much of a brake from writing. There where two weeks where I didn't write anything at all because I just couldn't get motivated :(

I'm going to be changing my days off the end of Oct. to Wed/Thurs so I can avoid having to work Thanksgiving and in extension Blitz morning when to truly insane stalk the retail stores. I truly hate being in large crowds of people and forced to stand in the middle of a huge crowd of shoppers is like a nightmare for me. In previous years they use to let us go home when the floors where done but the last couple of years they made us stay until 5am and tried to get us to stay longer. I'm going to avoid the whole thing by simple switching my days off. Because of that my updating might change a little bit depending on how well I do at getting back on the writing wagon.

taken from regisjr

For one week, recommend/share:
Day One: a song.
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic. Wasteland a Ai no Kusabi fanfic by Becca Abbot
Day four: a site.Anime on Dvd fourm
Day five: a YouTube clip.
Day six: a quote.
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

taken from regisjr

For one week, recommend/share:
Day One: a song.
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic. Wasteland a Ai no Kusabi fanfic by Becca Abbot
Day four: a site.
Day five: a YouTube clip.
Day six: a quote.
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

taken from regisjr

For one week, recommend/share:
Day One: a song.
Day two: .( a picture )
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic.
Day four: a site.
Day five: a YouTube clip.
Day six: a quote.
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

Stolen fromregisjr

For one week, recommend/share:
Day One: a song.  Private Truth
( Lyrics )

Day two: a picture.
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic.
Day four: a site.
Day five: a YouTube clip.
Day six: a quote.
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

I was in a really good mood when I got up tonight. My order from Aurora had come along with Breath manga and about five other yaoi managa. I got a wonderful email from a fan with fan artwork of The Hawks that really made me happy. Then I get to work and was told to stock shelves instead of floor work. Now I hate stocking anyway and they aren't suppose to be using us for stocking either. But to make things worse is my back has really been flaring up the past few weeks. Both my lower back and my shoulders have been killing me. My lower back is feeling a little bit like it did three years ago when I had bulging disks. My shoulders are something that I've never had problems with before but lately they have been really tight and achy. Even stretching hasn't been helping. Bending, lifting, stretching in odd angles, getting up and down on ladders and on my knees DOESN'T"T help. I said something so they had me zone which is the same fucking thing except I'm not picking up boxes. So I went home at lunch. I can't really afford to do it but at the same time I can't afford to fuck up my back doing work I shouldn't be doing. I was furious at first now I'm just in pain. What really is a downer was that I was in such a good mood when this whole day started :(

I bought Breath 1-3 on the spur of the moment. I wasn't entirely awake last night when I ordered it but my sleepy mind thought hell why not? It was one of those titles that wasn't a high priority but for some reason it sounded like a good idea at 10:30 last night. Of course that was before my mother said she needed to borrow a couple hundred from me :(, like five minutes after I place the order ^^; I've been on a manga binge lately. I ordered twenty seven titles from Aurora Publishing since they have a huge sale going one. I shall never return for $3 a piece. I picked up most BL titles an a few joesi ones. On top of that Rightstuff has had sales on a few of manga publishers over the past month so I picked up 58 other titles not counting all the preorders. Most were yaoi although I did branch out with Cipher, and Never give up. I also have bought I don't know how many use titles the last couple of weeks. What is depressing is I looked through DMP and 801's catalog and there is at least 60 other titles that interest me.

This last two weeks have been the weirdest writing period in my life. I've been jumping stories like crazy. I know this sounds strange since I have four on going stories at once but I usually sit down and pick a story and work on it until I finish the chapter. I feel like tearing my hair out since in the last two weeks I've been working on four different stories at once and haven't finished any of them except for the Dragon Boy chapter. I really don't know what has gotten into me @_@ I started out on the Dream Master story because the character was really calling to me, but then I started working on a fantasy fluff piece for challenge that I took on over at deviantart. I realized that I was putting off that story because I didn't like the artwork submitted for me to write a story for. I put my nose to the grind stone with that one but my mind kept wondering back to the Dream Master piece so I started flipping between the two. I started the Dragon Boy chapter because 1)I knew that Dream Master was going to take a while and I wanted an update for the site 2)People are waiting for Dragon Boy 3)I really wanted to write the next chapter of that story. Now that was fine but then one night at work the Halloween story for Y!Galley wrote itself in my head and I figured what the hell I might as well type it out. Now I've got four damn stories going at once, of course I'm ignoring the fact I dropped Windchaser and Submission which I had almost got done before I started this whole mess *sighs*