1sheep

I keep wondering why I have nothing to listen to despite the fact that I have intensely loved innumerable varieties of music over the past 16 years (I started being obsessed with music almost 17 years ago), spanning a serious ton of styles... but Jack got André Rock Band 2 for his birthday, and hearing older songs that I used to listen to sort of seemed to reveal something. It seems as though after part of life drops away and a new part begins, the music that I used to listen to sticks with that past and doesn't come with. I suppose when I hear that old music, it gives me a feeling of a different time. And I'm glad to say that over time I become more and more of a person, and less a formation of uncertainty. I guess my subtle inner workings object to being connected to the former times in my life when I was invariably less than I am now.

It makes me feel less confusion about why all my musical loves fade away. I wondered before what could possibly explain such a thing and I felt almost like a traitor to myself in a way. But now I see that it's a sort of positive thing, with the negative side affect being the gentle yearning for a lost love. Another element of complexity is that fact that I felt a little deadened by the fact that I haven't related to any new (to me, at least) music for quite a time. I suppose now I see music as a little bit of a need (for me - various people are stimulated in different ways) rather than a hobby. I can't force myself to like something, or endlessly pursue the next thing. It's just not enjoyable for me. People sometimes recommend music, but I only fail to care unless I happen to hear and like the music.

I guess it's always been that way. Even when music was abundant, I never sought it out. I just didn't realize it because there was always so much to love. But now I have the idea that music won't be lost on me forever, as I'd feared. It will just get on over to me on its own when there is something available that I need. A few things have resurfaced from the depths of time, namely The Rentals and Frank Black. I can't name why those two specifically, but I suppose I needed them again.

I do love to sing still, even songs that don't mean as much to me... but one of the biggest hits to my happiness has been my jaw trouble which prevents me from singing fully. I can barely physically open my mouth, and I can't seem to get an answer from any practitioners that gives me hope for a good solution. I have to first get out my wisdom teeth before a jaw specialist will work with me, because they are pressing against my jaw somewhat. The next step is for me to schedule the surgery, but I have put it off because it is something of which I am scared. I don't see it as a minor undertaking, especially not after being traumatized by the brain surgery in my past.

But I desperately want to sing again, so please tell me all your wonderful stories about oral surgery is the greatest thing ever. :)

Also tell me if "innumerable varieties" is a proper expression.

And on a third thought, I just want to know that I am still connected to you guys even though I am not really communicative. So if you do still feel a connection, just drop in to say hi. For moral support regarding all the shit you've heard about. So many livejournal friends reached out to me when I wrote about all my ongoing health problems, and though I failed to respond, it made me feel good. Thank you for that. :)

I'm so frustrated because I want to order something from a Korean website, but I can't find any Korean shopping service that is functional. DX Why is this?? There are plenty of Japan shopping services. It's just so frustrating. I guess I shouldn't look at Korean websites if I don't want to be irritated.

But on the off-chance... has anyone heard of a Korean shopping service that is functional? Or, if you can write Korean language, will you translate a letter appealing to the company to ship something to me in the US? 8D

It's unfortunate that my last two posts are just asking for help with things. I just have nothing in mind that I would be pleased to talk about. Well, there is one pleasant thing in life, but it's still in the works...

I haven't posted any updates for a while, due to the abrupt halt of my taking of daily photos and other personal things that happened around that time. I think I'll start up again, but maybe not as consistently.

I am back from Wicked Faire~ (an alternative lifestyle and renaissance fair + fashion convention [and much more] in New Jersey). We met some great people, and it was great fun to see REPO! with a shadow cast and to sing along to the movie with the other viewers. I was very pleased~ We also got to see lots of steampunk wearers and wares, which was very enjoyable and inspiring, and indeed dress up ourselves in our own style and enjoy that to the fullest.

We met Terrance Zdunich from REPO!, and he was totally taken with Veronica and her hair. ;D I was too nervous to make any sense, but Terrance was nice enough to talk to me anyway. Note to self: try and stop being such a nervous wreck. Seriously... I need to relax. I get nervous even around people who haven't done anything special to inspire me. So I need to get over that asap, because it makes me sick. XP

Here is my little animation of Veronica and I, all dressed up for our date night at the Opera (not really at the opera, but I liked to call it that since we had watched REPO! earlier that weekend). She let me be her boyfriend for the night.



I realized that I really feel worlds more comfortable in men's clothing... though they be fashionable, feminine men.

{ I wrote this for facebook, because I've been talking about the movie "REPO! The Genetic Opera" there a lot lately. But I wanted to share it here. XD }

I usually don't like movies... why do I like REPO! so much as to talk about it all the time? You, yourself, may have wondered this many times. I've compiled this concise explanation to help you understand the facts about my obsession with REPO!

Music is wonderful. Few things can be as pleasing as listening to your favorite songs. REPO! is in the format of an opera, meaning the entire movie is sung. Unlike a musical, there are no breaks between songs for dialogue. And I love the music! And the fact that all the songs are all strung together as a story, and also borrow melodies and lyric concepts from each other (I LOVE that) draws me further into the experience of the music itself. So it's like listening to a great album that I really love, and hearing a story being told at the same time.

Not only that, but because the actors are not only singing, but also acting at the same time, all the singing is so passionate. It's quite different from even an album where you can hear the passion of the singer, as these songs are sung by the entire cast, making it a multi-dimensional passion which is even more palpable than a regular album with just the perspective of the single (or pair) of vocalist(s).

Thirdly, there are the visuals. The visuals are so my style, and really gorgeous, and through them you get to see the story playing out (as has been known to happen, in a movie). They are a wonderful experience on their own, but beyond that, they focus you into the music. You're no longer just listening to background music, or playing music and thinking about something else. Your attention is devoted to the songs as it is held there by the visuals.

Plus, some of the cast just have amazing voices!

So what I am saying is, I like it because it's like listening to my favorite album intensely, while at the same time being told an interesting story and also looking at the lovely visuals. A movie can offer those last two things, but the passion and likability (in my case, at least) of the music make it so much more than a movie. Of course, these are the same features offered by opera, but I lack interest in opera because traditional opera music isn't to my liking, and the stories offered aren't usually sci-fi/gothic/futuristic/etc.

I hope this explanation has expanded your understanding of my obsession and led you to an even greater interest in further exploring the topic.

lol.

This is the last daily picture I took injuring my camera. It's from August 21st, after I returned to the city from Sag Harbor. I was working on both our computers at once for some reason which I no longer remember, but since I have coordinating Iron Man wallpapers on them, I thought they'd look nice in a photo together. (^__^)♥



Since then I haven't taken photos, but lots of nice things have happened, and so I think I will borrow a few pictures from friends so I can continue to update about those events.

I haven't posted my daily photos for so long because I knocked over our camera and it broke. I was pretty distressed and didn't feel like posting the photos I already had after that, but now I figure I'll at least post those until I get it repaired. ^^ So here is the last of family week.

Violet, Michele's birthday kitten, who I got to meet while in the neighborhood. She scales the wall on her own so she can sit in this little mounted basket!



And lastly, Alec with Charlie on the last morning of their visit.

Next day we had a BBQ dinner by Chris, and My dad, Chris and I all turned out to wearing black and white T-shirts with something nerdy printed on them. Here are my dad and Chris, both in shirts by Thinkgeek.com:



Chris's shirt has a roflcopter drawn on it in ASCII, and my dad's says "There's no place like 127.0.0.1". I was wearing my This is How I Roll shirt. XD

On Monday, my mom and sister and I took Charlie on a short trip around town. We stopped at the Library, which is where my dad works as a network admin (among other things), and I was super taken with his parts organization system:



If you can't guess... I love organized things, and technology. Combined, even better! ♥

~To Be Continued~

On the 15th, my dad and I went to JFK to pick up my brother Alec and his girlfriend Uli, who visited from Portland, Oregon to meet our (now three week old) nephew for the first time! While we waited for their flight to get in, we stopped for dinner at a Japanese and Thai place on Union Turnpike called Kyoto, which looked like nothing special from outside, but which was pleasantly nice once we got inside. Some of our rolls came with a pretty cucumber statue:



I ate it.

The next day my whole family spent the day together at my parent's house! I was there with Panda (AKA André), my parents of course, my sister Lauren and her husband Chris with baby Charlie, and of course my Brother Alec and his girlfriend Uli. That's my family. I mention them a lot, but I thought I'd describe them in list form for supreme clarity. 8D

Alec and Uli brought gifts for Charlie... actually they got him an outfit for each season and the fall outfit included a cowboy hat for his first Halloween (COSTUMES: Close to my heart)! Here it is on Alec:



Uli and I also had our turns with it... which is pictured in the full album: Alec and Uli meet Charlie.

There were several more days in family week, so this is To Be Continued...

I am trying to catch up with my daily photos, so here is more update! Panda can has a PS3 and he got me PixelJunk Eden and I love it and it's superfun~



So I took a picture of the TV since it was definitely the most exciting thing I did last Thursday. XD

It's a downloadable game and it's very much about the ambiance... usually not my thing, but this is addictive and fun and based mostly on jumping around and sticking to things. It's relaxing and casual, which is what I feel like playing right now. And it was only $10 or so. It's especially great on his nice TV~

By the way, my PSN username is sweet-chunk. If you have PS3, add me or give me your username in the comments please. (^-^)

This picture is from last Wednesday when Panda and I had pho for dinner at Pho32 after shopping Kinokuniya for men's hairstyle magazines (we didn't find any mags with good hairstyles for men with long hair and we ended up looking at visual kei magazines for that instead). For anyone who hasn't had it, pho is a tasty Vietnamese soup with beef broth and rice noodles. This is not a very beautiful picture, but it tasted so beautiful when I ate it. (^-^)~♥



Lately I just want some pho all the time... It's really feel-good food for me, and it helps that it's inexpensive and doesn't contain any of the ingredients to which I am intolerant, which is really nice since I can eat it without any question or wondering what to eat. Comfort me, pho! ♥

Oh, and I love the taste at Pho32 especially, and I also love their kiwi smoothie and of course their shabu shabu.

I am experiencing a bit of a delay in posting my photos... but this one is from last Tuesday... It's my new favorite T-shirt from the Artist's Alley at Otakon. Donna and I got matching ones. XD



Fittingly, since it's a Katamari Damacy shirt, I also finally played Me & My Katamari, which I had avoided forever since I hated the way the controls work. I still thought the controls were awkward, but I finally learned them anyway so I could play through the game.

It was fun for sure, but I was disappointed in how all the levels seem almost exactly the same as each other, and it only took me a couple days of casual play to beat the entire game. I only failed to pass a level twice on my entire course through the game. There is something to be said for games being easy for casual play, but this just surprised me since I wasn't even trying hard to do well. I also kind of thought the layouts of the different sizes of items in the levels were sort of over-simplified, so the progression of gameplay most of the time was forced to go in a certain way. In the previous games, the layouts seemed more like a mishmash of different sized stuff that you can always find a new path through. XP

But it was fun anyway. And now I just need XBOX 360 so I can play Beautiful Katamari! XD

Veronica showed me this vegetarian restaurant, Bonobo's, that has lots of food without any wheat/gluten, egg, dairy or soy. For those who may not know, I have an intolerance to each of those things and it's terribly hard for me to find food at a restaurant that actually doesn't contain any of those ingredients. Especially soy... It's even hard to find items at the supermarket that don't contain soy! Anyway, their food is not only free of the things I shouldn't eat, but also totally delicious and super-fresh!

On Monday I treated my con-hangover with a nori wrap:



Their nori wraps are super delicious and custom made. Mine had their sunflower seed and dill paté, carrots, cucumber, beet, red onion and alfalfa sprouts. I highly recommend visiting this place for lunch or take-out.

Photos of our FF3 job classes cosplay from the Otakon Photo Suite:

      

We are, starting from back left in the first photo, red mage, summoner, black mage, white mage, thief, ninja, and black belt. The thief had made two costumes and was a ranger instead on Friday. That last photo is our thief stealing from the unsuspecting white mage. (^ー^)    I will probably make a gallery of all our best photos later, but I feel too busy and tired just yet. But for now, I have my daily pics to post~


Last Thursday: Hat Collection at the Hotel! Ranger, red mage and black mage hats.



Our day was spent traveling, and then sewing and finishing up our costumes at the hotel... through Friday morning before going to the con... XD

Friday: Weighted Companion Cube!



One of the cosplays we saw during the convention. Even though I much prefer "clothing" style cosplay, I just love weighted companion cube~ (♥-♥)

Saturday: Illustrated Sick Masks!!



These were so cute! There was a ninja selling them in the Artists Alley, and most of us got them... myself excluded because I thought I would never wear it again... But I love them. I am now wishing that I had gotten one anyway. XP

Sunday: Decorating Christine for the ride home...



I'm not sure exactly how we discovered that the fang mask also makes for a good eye mask, but I'm glad we did because I was dying over Christine wearing both of these at once. XDDDD

Otakon 2008 was a great time, because of the great company and our amazing cosplay group! It's my first con in 4 years, but it has left me wanting to go to more cons and do more cosplay, especially group cosplay since it is just so much more fun than individual cosplay.

( read more con-talk... )

The costume is mostly done now, so these pics are now very dated, but I thought I'd share anyway since they are all the photos I have and I am leaving for Baltimore in under an hour! \(^o^)/

...and cause jackt asked about them. XD

( Read more... )

I've been very busy doing last minute work on my white mage costume, but I've taken a few pictures around my neighborhood, Ravenswood LIC, during my travels.

Monday trees and sky:



Tuesday cat:



Whenever we see them, Panda and I love to wander around following all the cats and kittens that prowl around the neighborhood.

Wednesday pretty moon:



I saw this lovely moon as I was outside spray painting my mage's staff... though the sky looked much nicer in person. I've no idea how to photograph the early evening sky. (^-^)

PS - That is from tonight, so go outside and look at the moon!

PPS - Tomorrow we leave for Otakon! See you in Baltimore.

Charlie with his Gramma:



I saw my aunt, uncle and cousins because they stopped over on the way to Connecticut from Boston to meet Charlie. It was great to get to see them all since we almost never have a chance to meet up casually like that with so many family members present.


Electronics Recycling day at the Hall of Science:



Anyone who's read my old journal for a while knows that I've been looking for a place to get rid of old electronics responsibly forever! Finally I was able to get a ride to an electronics recycling event with my brother-in-law. It turns out that recycling electronics in NYC is hard even for people who drive, because there really isn't anywhere to take them that is always open. You have to either wait for special events, pay to ship them somewhere, or pay to drop them off somewhere. We opted to wait until the event this weekend. It was smaller than I expected as it was just a single truck less than half full... I thought it was going to be a much bigger deal, but I guess most people are still opting to throw out their electronics with the trash, the way the city actually recommends. XP

My appreciation to the LES Ecology Center for this event! Future dates are on their website.

Here is a pic from yesterday when I met my new nephew Charlie! He's over nine pounds and completely surpassed the newborn size diapers.



Go see more photos of Charlie! (＾ー＾)ノ♥♥♥♥

Tuesday was mostly uneventful, but I did see a lovely cloud with the sun shining out from behind it on the way to my doctors appointment.



That's the skyline view a few blocks from my apartment.

Starting up on my regimen of doctor visits since taking a long vacation is turning out to be very exhausting. The treatments take a lot out of me, but because I am feeling better than I was the before I took the vacation, I hope the pay-off will start to become more dramatic.

On Wednesday I spent the entire day sewing the hood and capelet for my white mage costume. It's based on the third from the left in this image, but with custom changes where I felt like it. Now I just need the shirt and dress part, and hopefully gloves and a weapon if I can manage it.



My pin cushion looks like a sea anemone.

And on Thursday I became an auntie! My sister was in labor for 43 hours or something like that, but gave birth around 5:53 pm to a baby boy named Charlie. I will be going to meet him tomorrow since visiting hours ended before I could get to the hospital. The family is quite excited that he shares a birthday with Harry Potter.

Since he's already born and everything went well, that means I am going to Otakon for sure! But the heat is on for finishing my costume. And everyone else in my cosplay group is in the same situation, too. haha...

While I was shopping for a frog for the capelet, I saw almost naked Rainn Wilson (AKA Dwight Shrute) looking at me from across the street with smoky eyeliner eyes!



I was pretty thrilled, and figured since I didn't have a picture of Charlie yet, this would be the best I could possibly hope for. ;D

Today I stayed home and relaxed and listened to music while playing with internets. It was nice to be able to listen to music because I have been feeling very overstimulated by music as a symptom of some health issues in recent months and unable to enjoy listening. It seems like that's starting to get better, though it's still a bit challenging.

I was also finding it impossible to read for the longest time, but I can read again with ease now. I am very glad for that, because reading the book A New Earth (which I posted a picture of recently) has really helped me manage some of my symptoms.

I also noticed today that our (our refers to my boyfriend and I, who live together) small living room currently has five monitors in it... There's his PC monitor, the new TV, the CRT monitor from my old PC, and then, waiting to be taken to recycling is an old TV and VERY old monitor... The scene reminded me of Mr. Universe, the character from Serenity (the Firefly movie) who works in huge a room covered in monitors. I took four pictures and pasted them together to make an oddball panorama.

Friday was Christina's birthday! A massive friendship conglomerate had dinner somewhere and drinks elsewhere. There we sat in our own little area which was perfect for observing everyone else in the place in their various states of dancing or wiggling, or what have you. And perfect for later converting into a tiny dance party separate from the rest of the bar... and world.



But that description makes it sound like any of it made sense, which it didn't. It was all really hilarious for some reason, and my favorite quote was from Christina, when she said "My birthday doesn't make any sense!"

On Saturday my parents and sister and I went downtown and got tickets for an hour long ride on the "water taxi", which are those yellow checkered boats that take tourists around and show them the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, etc. We went specifically to check out the NYC Waterfall Project which is currently on display, but personally I enjoyed the rest of the sights more. The waterfalls don't make sense to me. That night we also went to see Mamma Mia!, which was nuts, but not in a bad way.



My mom stayed over so that today she could give me a free lesson in do-it-yourself sewing pattern making by helping me work out a pattern for my White Mage costume. That was really great and informative and really expanded upon my previous skills, and I am exhausted now. ♥