The current crap weather is like a taste of what is to come for us in the next 3 weeks. On Wed, we will head out to good old Frankfurt and the forecast says: dark, cold, depressing weather.
But heck, it’s pouring here and it’s quite cold, too. Meh~
But - I revamped my homepage - yet again. But now it’s much more colorful and I like it. I only I was smart enough to find a way to avoid damn frames.
The past 2 weeks or so, I was in HEROES land. Instant Netflix now works on Macs so I took the plunge and watched 2-3 episodes per night. What a ride! This show is awesome. I had avoided TV for years now, imagining Twin Peaks to be the only show to ever impress me. Wrong, Heros is great.
The funny thing is that my two fave characters are one with (almost) no powers.
Mohinder Suresh
and
Claire’s Dad
I’m sure to be one of the few remaining people that is such a Heroes noob so I won’t post more of stuff that others have been into since 3 years lol. I just think it’s pretty effin’ cool!
I have acquired new music, and -as if it wasn’t the perfect match- it is Tak Matsumoto’s “The Hit Parade” and the new Morning Musume album “Cover You”.
OK it’s time to admit that I didn’t even know the concept of “The Hit Parade” but had I known, I would have gotten it earlier. T, as Candies’ main fan in the world, approved the cover version of “Sono ki ni sasenaide” and OMG this CD has one of my favourite songs “Purple Town”.
Morning Musume’s album is same old MoMu stuff but it never seems to get old. I confess to having listened to it a LOT. Esp. Shiroi Cho no Samba.
-
In other news, I held the annual winter shopping spree last weekend and bought all kinds of clothes for the boyz. We need to be ready for snow! One more week and I’ll be in the deep, dark winter…still not enthusiastic about it. But we’re going. I always say that “oh next year we’re not going!” then we always end up doing it.
However, the freelance illustration scene is really grim right now. It’s this stuff that gets cut out of any ad agency’s budget first. I may really not be making that extra $$ for next year’s trip!
On Monday, at about 2 pm, I realized that my knee-high stockings were mismatched. One was opaque black and the other was more transparent with a pattern. Normally, not a problem, but that day I was wearing a SKIRT. Everyone must have seen it but me. Because the bedroom is very dark when I get dressed and I just didn’t notice that the pair must have gotten folded up wrong..arghhh.
I realized it finally when I was about to adjust them in the restroom. I got so mad that I took them off and threw them away. Grrr!
On Tuesday, I wore a belt that recently decided to have a mind of its own. I am standing at the counter with some client and caching! The buckle springs open. Since the buckle is quite heavy and the material very slithery, the buckle consequently started pulling the belt right off and was about to land on the floor. I could barely grab it and quickly fumbled things back together, praying it would stay put.
So much for Miss Sixty.
So today I am wearing a fool proof, secure outfit!!!
Just like my recent fave Kurokawa no Techou, Warui Yatsura is based on a novel by Matsumoto Seicho. There are two more doramas known to me based on his works which I plan to also watch. One is Suna no Utsuwa and then there is Kemonomichi.
What stands out is that Kemonomichi, Kurokawa no techou and Warui Yatsura feature the same main actress, Yonekura Ryoko. I really became her fan now even though I did not like her in another dorama I watched on TV a while ago (Fushin no toki).
Some elements of Warui Yatsura are a bit…well…far fetched to say the least but it is an exciting, dark dorama with lots of twists and turns.
A nurse in a small hospital, Toyomi Terajima has a crush on her boss and finds herself doing …things…for him that she would have usually never done. Soon, everyone tries to blackmail each other, people die and it just gets one big mess that keeps you wondering - who will make it out and who will go down. It’s interesting till the end and has a cute lawyer in it.
See here:
Thanksgiving Thursday~ wow, we never celebrated it. But this year, we came close: long story short - we ate at Marie Callender’s and they had turkey. That was as close as I ever got for TG. I ate some mashed potatoes and tried to keep the spirit up. But it was easy cause I was able to pull through with a 2+ hours run before that, weee!
Black Friday:
I have it, my new bebe. Made in the Czech Republic with German parts. Yes, I did have to pay by CC..errr I mean it was put on T’s card! And yes, this is why world economy is fucked up. But I did just finish paying of my sewing machine so why not? I have played it a lot since then and now playing is 5 times the fun.
So fun, that two other people here decided to rekindle their hobbies.
Saturday:
We did another 2 hour monstrous workout run during which T almost had a bad accident with the running stroller. That was baddd…but nobody got hurt.
I think that those two runs really busted my right knee up
Later that day, we went swimming where Yuma vomited in the pool. Well, he swallowed water, choked and then vomited on me. T jumped to get a towel and ran for the showers with Y. I looked back and there was nothing in or next to the pool but I had a lot on me. I hid in the showers for 20 minutes. Magically, nobody seemed to have noticed anything.
The lifeguard MUST have seen it but too lazy to be dealing with closing+sanitizing the little kiddie pool, he turned a blind eye on it.
Sunday: A typical visit to the Long Beach Aquarium. Nothing out of the ordinary… I’m really tired though - I did a lot in the past 4 days. Watched a lot of dorama, ate a lot, worked out a lot.
And already in 2 weeks we’re of to Germany! Where it is…freezing.
But before that there’s two weeks of office GAAAAAHHHH
I’m trying to fill the void that “Kurokawa no Techou” left in my heart by watching Nodame Cantabile. Again, I look like a dork that has nothing to do but watching dorama at night BUT:
Yesterday I spent 3 hrs in the dentist’s chair and after that, 6 injections, 4 fillings, 4 gum shields installed and $800 poorer, I deserve some relax time, right?
Anyways, Nodame herself makes me sick. The main actor - yeah kind of cute. My favourite actor, whose name I always forget cause he will forever only be known as “Aoki san” (from “shall we dance?”) to me
[here an image of his infamous styling]
He, he is playing an obnoxious fool with a very poorly imposed Euro accent
So that part goes on my nerves. But yeah. So far so good.
While I am infatuated with the Abe Sada saga, this movie was not really doing much for me. It is a twisted movie fro the “ero guro” (erotic, grotesque) genre that doesn’t consist of much more than showing the two main characters having sex nonstop and an old dude shaking his walking stick at them. I didn’t even finish the movie cause there was no conclusion to be awaited. Visually, I liked it though.
Kurokawa no techou is a dorama I watch right now. A 30ish woman who has slaved her past 10 years away at a bank digs into customers’ data and finds out who spends what at the Ginza nightlife. Her “little black book” gives her enough power and $$ to open her own hostess club. Various bitch fights ensue, horny old men lose their money, a righteous, hot dude falls in love. Cool!
Dang I watch movies or dorama almost every night recently. No energy for drawing or reading…
I shall now causally incorporate “Karesen”, “Asa banana”, “Arafo”&”Arasa” and “Choriiissu” into my vocabulary.
The word “age age” in the list is probably partially my bb DJ Ozma’s success, too - from the never tiring song “Age age every night”.
In any case this list is a truely insightful recap of the year 2008 in Japan, I love it.
On Saturday we saw a huge smoke cloud emerging where the fires are raging right now. We also drove by a burning car :/ *That* was scary. But the fire was unrelated to the brushfires, of course. Later that day, the smoke had spread throughout the area and all was a haze. Sunday, ashes also started raining down in our area at the sea. Not good to spend the day outdoors.
So we did….more xmas shopping, and I’m done with all of it haha!
When we got home tho, I had left the balcony open and my major spring cleaning last week had gone down the drain. I had taken all the books off the shelves etc. and cleaned but now everything is evenly covered with ashes and dust. Well THANK YOU.
First
Then
長い長い殺人 / nagai nagai satsujin
I was a bit skeptical when I found otu this was a TV production rather than a “real” movie, but I was wrong. This movie has a great storyline with interesting twists and turns along the way. Great script.
It is a story about murder and insurance fraud, there are several storylines that are linked together as the movie progresses. The narrators are the wallets of the respective main character of each storyline since wallets are key elements in the plot.
I love the Kaneshiro lookalike a lot ^^
——
相棒 / aibou (partners)
This is a movie adaptiion of the popular dorama “Aibou”, featuring Candies’ lead singer’s husband Mizutani Yutaka as one of the main characters. The story is also exciting and well written…but very complicated so I needed T’s assistance at all times. Mizutani and his partner are investigating a string of murders that are linked to a mysterious website and open a pandora’s box of events the government was trying to cover up…
——–
Lastly, gotta LOVE that Teru. I don’t think other bands are so closely involved with their fans and actually put their suggestions into consideration. Basically, you could say that “Glay are working closely with their fans”. Just the fact that Teru actually reads people’s e-mails and refers to the fans’ opinion on his blog is so cool.
Last Friday my family left to go back home and we spent the weekend just hanging out and doing some shopping. I am an early Xmas shopper and once again I can proclaim that - most of my christmas shopping is done. The rest of the bunch will wait till next paycheck so the christmas insanity doesn’t eat that big of a hole into my pocketbook.
Today is Veteran’s day and the kids have off, Yuma has a bladder infection and also a cold so he’s been under the weather for quite some days now. It’s quite stressful for all of us cause when Y does not feel well…well, I’d rather not complain but I do wish he will get better.
The little time I’ve had for myself I have spent reading about Shinto. Somehow I got the urge to really dive into it because I want to find out all the deeper meaning behind the rituals, especially those performed at our wedding. I know, it’s kind of late now, but I’ll try! There is a plethora of things to know about Shinto so it’s difficult to find out where to begin but a good book about it literally fell into my hands yesterday when I was actually out to get a book for Y as a reward for being so cooperative at the doctor’s office.
A few days ago, a true friend who took it on himself to sign me up for B’z Party (B’z fanclub) sent me a DVD called “B’z Official Bootleg Hidden Treasure ~Typhoon No. 20~”
I am still, after many years, not a B’z expert but this dvd is the most amazing thing I ever saw, and I’m only 30 minutes into it. It has just about any memorable B’z moment in it. Hotpants, tight pants, zebra pants, crazy dancing, long hair (my least fave Inaba period), short hair, puffy hair, pouty lips, blue guitars, Inaba-Indians, Koko and TakBoss wearing huge frame 80s glasses..heck the list gets too long. Any minute I watch more is another cool moment. Love Phantom live plunge! You name it, you name it…
It seems that “F$@k you baby!” used to be the official battle cry of the B’z live crew for many years lol! I did not know that one.
All I know is:
- I can not take screenshots while dvd player is running on the computer - NO FAIR! I wanna save all this stuff, all of this,,make wallpapers of it and tattoos. I want to have 80s Inaba tattooed on my back!
- B’z are AWESOME!!!!!!!
So…the only time where I have been by myself recently is when I use the company restroom. And even in that case, it is a hit or miss thing.
Can’t believe it! But I think at some point, one gets used to that. Look inward, as the Japanese would say. But inward I see nothing but a long list of things I need to take care of but have no time to do them.
I need to let my family know that 4 weeks of straight visitors time here is not possible anymore.
In other news, tomorrow is my officially favourite US holiday !
Last weekend was the first large family outin since T and I’s wedding in Tokyo. We rented a car that fits 8 people and went up north. First stop was Solvang, and I am STILL not sure why we went there. My sisters already knew it sucked, I know it would suck and everyone I know thinks it sucks. But we went there anyways and found the place is so fake Danish there’s no words.
Fake strawberry decor included:
Windmill 1
Windmill 2
Windmill 3
And this~
I had to hang out in a park while the rest of the family went wine tasting (no kids allowed) and that was actually the most relaxing part.
This photo is about the only time Y had fun (sort of). He was so overwhelmed I think that he just went nuts. In fact, today his voice is hoarse from all the screaming he did throughout the weekend.
Then we jumped back into our ride:
And shopped some more wine on the way to Los Olivos.
As the name indicates, there are olive trees there.
We went to the Los Olivos Cafe as featured in the “Sideways” movie (a movie about 2 losers who go to that area we were to drink and have nervous breakdowns…so basically the same that we did).
Next day, we departed from “beautiful” Motel 6 to head down to Santa Barbara
The Mission church was the only highlight for me as this kind of stuff really interests me.
They had a small backyard were 4000 (yes, 4000) Indians are buried. It’s a really small place so I wonder:
- how did all these Indians die
- why are they buried here
- why are there so many
- did they fall victim to diseases brought in by the foreigners?
- how do you fit 4000 bodies there and why would you do that?
The church itself was holding a mass so we could only really quietly look inside. It’s nothing like European churches but still very impressive cause the style was totally different.
Skullz!
And then we headed home..a 2 hrs drive during which all Yuma did was scream scream scream cause he wanted one of L’s toys and he wouldn’t give it to him. Ah, kids.
What a weekend, I am SO dead.
The photo setting already indicates that Governor Palin and I will never be friends but -I oppose to the bashing and slashing going on. What the F does anyone care about how many $$ her dresses and hairdos have costed this election?
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If she weren’t styled professionally, people would bash that, too.
And has anyone snooped around on how much $$ Obama spent for hauling his family with him (or just his wife) for HIS trips? How about the dresses for his wife? I don’t understand, but I guess at this point in the race, no news are small enough to be left out.
My bottles of green juice are highly unpopular in the company fridge, but should I ever achieve to bring something that actually looks appetizing, I will consider this little trick that prevents lunch theft!
I was sitting at my desk in a very good mood, listening to “Hajimari no uta” from the new SMAP album. Looking to the left, I saw my co workers talking. Being in the good mood I thought “Ah how great we get along every once in a while” ^^ But when the song was over, I realized they were throwing 4 letter words at each other and someone else stepped in to stop them from jumping at each other’s throats.
Ah, SMAP music still sugarcoats everything in my everyday life.
