I haven't felt the urge to do anything productive lately. Had my Chinese exam yesterday morning, went to Clayton to hang out with Mishka for a while, then had dinner at Nana's place, where we watched last year's Kouhaku Utagasen, played with her new dog Shiro(nosuke) and cat Tama, ate omurice and rhubarb crumble. And then I didn't shut up until 10:30PM and felt bad about keeping her and Miyuki up so late. On the upside, in the almost-decade I've known Nana, it was the first time I'd heard her shout at anything. Ahhh... new experiences.

... Oh, and I got a parking ticket. Fuck.

Started watching a couple of dramas:

- BOSS
This series revolves around a group of peculiar detectives in a new division created to fight against an increase in atrocious crimes. Osawa Eriko is a beautiful career woman who has just returned from training in the U.S. and is appointed as the "boss" of this division. But despite her intelligence and capabilities, she can never understand a man's heart, so she remains unable to find a husband. In fact, her assignment in the U.S. was really a demotion after she ruined her career track over a man. So why was she chosen as the boss of the new division? Even though the detectives are talented, they all have some kind of issue or flaw, and they are considered to be the "problem children" of the police force. In the end, the division's true purpose is just to isolate these problematic detectives. --Tokyograph

- Meitantei no Okite
The original writing is a short mystery collection that takes a humorous approach to many of the genre's cliches. Matsuda Shota stars as the "famous detective" Tenkaichi Daigoro, while Kashii Yu plays the female lead as a rookie cop.

- Atashinchi no Danshi
These days, the term "homeless" has taken on new meaning. There are youths referred to as "net cafe refugees," who have neither a job nor a place to live, but who find themselves hopping around internet cafes. One such refugee is a 20-year-old girl named Chisato, who lost her mother at a young age due to sickness. She spent her youth trying to escape from the huge debt her father left her, and her battle with the repossessors unfolded every night. However, her life changed after meeting one man named Shinzo, changing her views on the meaning of "family." Shinzo comes from a rich family tracing back to the Edo period, and he adopted six good-looking sons with the hope of one becoming his successor, but all of them have strange personalities. Shinzo promises to free Chisato from her debt if she marries him and becomes the mother of his sons. However, a life with these six guys under one roof will not go smoothly...

So I've been busy enjoying myself since the exam period started (and my one and only exam isn't until the end of the month). Went shopping with Kwee and bought a very nice pair of shoes (The pair at the top: It's red! And white! And black! And grey!), and a wide red belt to (finally) wear with my floral-print dress that Kwee hates. And also a DS Lite. In BRIGHT GREEN (so of course I also had to rush to get an R4 to download a bunch of games *cough*).

And then hisashiburi ni went karaoke-ing with the girls. At last! I needed to get that out of my system XD And work as always with the kid, who was hilariously cute yesterday while I took him out to the skate park, and told me that I was kinda-sorta his friend (Me: "Awww!", Him: "That's what the last girl said when I told her the same thing >_<").

Also been helping out Zed with her fashion folio work (well, if you count standing around while she adjusts the material and stuff on you "helping") and went out to the beach to take photos yesterday. She got a $300+ hat made and sent over for it, and sure enough, the hat was fabulous! We spent a huge amount of time "ooh"-ing and "ahh"-ing over it. Zed's outfit was great too, as usual, even though she'd been running into trouble after trouble the last few days, and got locked out of the house for half the day the day before, so she couldn't finish the bustle on time for the shoot. A pity, because it would've been awesome to have it streaming behind me in some of the pictures.

Soul Eater/general anime marathon tomorrow with the girls~ Had to dig up Shin-kun because he has a bigger resolution than the Acer, buuut... he's old and running a bit slow, so even video lags and doesn't match up with the audio. Oh dear. That's what I get for getting the high-res episodes.

I can finally relax! I drove out to submit my late essay on two hours of sleep yesterday, then went to get my folio work printed. Met up with some classmates there, one of whom gave me a dollar for the print card, because the machine requires exact change, and I was exactly one dollar short (40x280cm print for $75.50). In return, I helped her with Photoshop. Made it home safely, even though it was really wet and rainy on the roads, and I couldn't see clearly out the windscreen half the time. So all in all, good day.

Should probably write up the folio brief, so I can put my work up for assessment tomorrow. I would've done it yesterday, but the second year painting people still had their stuff on the walls, so...

Haha. I didn't realise Nakama Yukie (Yankumi in the Gokusen drama, among other things) used to sing. I actually heard her songs years ago when I got the 'Haunted Junction' series. She wasn't that bad a singer at all.

Back to babysitting and tutoring this week.

It's late. It's fucking late, and I know it, but I can't help it. Is it possible to feel guilty, and yet still so apathetic about this essay? I even started earlier (well, sorta) than usual! And it was due Friday! I've never handed in an essay this late!

But at least I have my folio work done now. All I have to do is print it tomorrow at uni, and write up a few words to explain it.

Almost there, almost there...

1000 fucking words to go...

I'll get this bitch done by noon even if it kills me.

Dear Lain,

Yes, I know that Monkey game on King.com is very addictive, but please get a move on with the essay due Friday. You've made a start already! The (arguably) hardest step is over, so get this handed in so you can focus on getting the folio photos ready for printing... Only a week more to go!

Also, get some sleep. For my sake.

Love,

Your Brain

In other news, Darker Than Black 2, whoo!
Capped Internet again, not-whoo!
Can't replace my icons with some new ones, sadface.

All conked out from baby-sitting tonight. Took the kid out to Uzu to introduce him to takoyaki, only to find out that he's actually vegetarian (what the-), got him an agedashi tofu instead, took him to the skate park again and spent an hour and a bit wandering and chasing after him, then took him home to get changed and then to taekwondo. He's a good kid, really, but where the hell does all that energy come from??? D8

Think I'll turn in early tonight and catch up on my missed sleep. Assignments will have to wait. Again.

LOLWHUTDAFU-

Servants FTW!

Two of the guys in their Chinese oral presentation today did a skit about a married couple fighting over money,which leads to talks of divorce. The "wife" slaps her/his husband, then collapses due to stress and reveals that s/he's pregnant. The couple reconcile and reaffirm their love for each other. Makes more sense in context, but I liked saying "male pregnancies, lotteries and slappings". XD

I am now dustbunny@dreamwidth :3 It's probably going to be largely fandom-based, so I'll keep my dumb RL ramblings here. That is all.

I just counted the number of journal accounts I have lying around:
Lainex@LJ (primary 2003~now)
Conclusions@BS (old primary ~2003)
Lainee@IJ (for fandom)
Lainex@WP (for amusement)
Dustbunny@DW (for fandom)

Peter was kind enough to come by today to help me reformat my computer and reinstall everything. He even brought along food (something I would've skipped, probably). Thank God I actually know some people who don't mind helping me out when I stuff up my computer every couple of years. Now my C drive is like 90% free and it feels like such a fresh start, even though I know it's not. I should clean out the crap in my backed-up files before I move them back into the computer.

Spent most of tonight lusting over cameras I can't afford to buy. It would be asking too much for a well-made, reasonably compact, wide-angle, mega-zoom bridge camera with full manual, decent presets, and a hotshoe for expandability... well, that's really asking for too much. The Canon PowerShot G10 looks like the best one out currently (and Kwee's dad's one certainly made me drool), but I'm rather attracted to the tiny, tiny size and style of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 (it's so prettyyy...!), despite it's tiny, tiny zoom. From the reviews and images I've seen thus far, it'll take better image quality across all ISOs and a better zoom range to make it my perfect bridge camera. Maybe if there's ever an LX4... or if Nikon ever gets around to making a good bridge camera... >_<<<

Small class discussion paper for Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl tomorrow. Read through the graphic comic only, and it was a bitch to find good published analysis and criticism from credible sourcs. Pain in the arse. Wish I could've done one on Where The Wild Things Are instead...

And in completely irrelevant news, I rewatched Baccano!. Again. For the nth time. I (still) lovelovelovelovelove Claire.

OH EM GEE. WTF. Someone used my Madam Red fanart for their eBay auction pic! Why didn't I know about this! And why mine? O_ooo I'm torn between amusement and annoyance.

What I mean is, it's not the greatest reference pic, and I probably would've said okay if they'd asked before using it anyway. Also, screencaps, anyone? There are plenty of those!

Edit: All over! X3

I really do envy the people who can just write without feeling the need to bash their heads in on the nearest brick wall. I started on the 1sentence (Kuroshitsuji, Sebastian/Ciel, Delta table) thing during the holidays and I'm still not even halfway through. It's for 50 sentences. 50. I'd rather draw the damn thing, I reckon.

In other news, got a friend coming over tomorrow to help me reformat my computer, because it's starting to die and I want to wait until I can get a computer with Windows 7.

I'm pretty sure my previous suspicions about my brother stealing my socks is well-founded at this point, because I've been slowly losing my plain black socks, but have consistently gotten my pink stripey ones back after my brother does the laundry. A quick sneak through my brother's drawers have recovered a few pairs of black socks that seriously can't be his size, but I could only actually get one pair back because he's stretched the other ones out of shape already.

Note to self: BUY SOCKS FOR THE IDIOT. Also, more socks for me. Again. Argh.

Woke up this morning and felt like crap, so I skipped studio. My aunt dropped by for her weekly thing and made me congee. Yum. Thank God for mothers with extreme foresight when leaving her kids to fend for themselves, and aunts who care enough to cook for said useless kids.

Internet is still capped until the 11th, but I've done much better than previous months because I've restricted the upload speed to 1kb for all the programs. The batch 'Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohahoheto' torrent is still slow as, though. I hope it'll finish once the new billing cycle starts. And maybe I'll be able to get my hands on 'Ookiku Furikabutte' sometime...

Went through my manga folder yesterday and reread a few series. 'Yu Yu Hakusho', I didn't realise I'd downloaded most of the series already, so I went to download the rest of it. Yuusuke's proposal to Keiko near the end of the series always give me mixed feelings, partly because their relationship as a couple was never quite made apparent, and also because they're like, 14... or 15. Whatever. On the other hand, it's Keiko's parents' response that made the whole thing great; that Yuusuke "only pulls out that one (marriage proposal/I love you) for the big arguments" means it's not the first time? It's a thing from childhood? It's cute.

Started the baby-sitting thing yesterday, which turned out alright, though I spent most of the time wondering what exactly I should be doing, because his mum didn't say and the kid doesn't have much homework, being in primary school. Oh, and he's a trouble-maker who sneaks into his mum's e-mail account to reply to his teacher's complaint message with "Who gives a crap?". Seriously. He's been pretty good with my so far though, and I get the feeling he can actually be quite smart, if given enough incentive. Judging by his pasttimes and behaviour though, I imagine he'll wind up being a skater-graffiti artist or something in a few years. He showed me some of his drawings yesterday when I took him to a cafe after school - he's really quite good. One of them I'm tempted to ask for a copy to make into a t-shirt or print. I'm debating whether he would enjoy some drawing lessons out in the park next time, but I'm worried it'd stunt his creativity if I make him learn basic life drawing.

I had the freakiest dream this morning about an apartment complex lobby and a resident who leaves their pets running around there. Except the pets are like this weird bird/fish/slinky hybrid and it's slimy, moves quickly and unpredictably and urgh. It had the head of a budgie, and the body of a catfish, and squiggles around on its belly like a snake. And there were like, 5 of them around me. I screamed a lot in that dream. Something like "Get it away from me! Oh my God, make it go away!"... *shudders*

Porn Battle on IJ is back for the 6th time! Whooo smut! I left a bunch of prompts, but am no good at writing, unfortunately.

Anyhoo, reread One Piece from the Water Seven arc tonight, and I think I've burst into tears about 5 times now. I really need to dig out the discs where the old chapters were burnt on to reread sometime. I kinda miss the good old main character-based stories, though the flow of the current arc's not bad either. Judging by how all the crew members got chucked to different places, they'll have their little stories too. It may be a while before they get to the underwater place. On the other hand, hey Ace, old characters, epic new characters, and possibly some more Luffy backstory.

I've done nothing productive this weekend again, and my brother's been abandoning me at home to go out both Saturday and Sunday *sadface* BUT! I've managed to get another job on top of my tutoring thing, for the same kid. I'll be picking him up from school and taking him home, then looking after him for a few hours a couple of times a week. This family seems to have caught me at a good time, and the jobs don't take much out of my week. And a bit of extra money never hurts.

So I decided that there's no big deal in having my journal public, since it's been a while since I've bitched somebody out, and I don't have very interesting things to say. Anyway. I started working on my Photomedia folio project today, and went around asking some random strangers at uni to lie down on me so I could take their photo... while straddling them. Hurhur. One guy came by while walking his dog and asked me to take some pics of them. Then went out with Kwee, Ami, Been and Jo (well, she was with me for most of the day anyway) to Pancake Parlour at Chaddy, where we spent three and a half hours playing Munchkin and very occasionally eating. Came out at 9:40-ish, and I had parked near David Jones but the doors were closed there so we had to circle the shopping centre to get to the right car park. It was cold. and I didn't have my jacket. Good times.

So when I mentioned how horribly my English minor is coming along last time, I decided to try to make it a bit more bearable. So I dropped the unit I enrolled into for semester 2, Grammar & Expression with Baden Eunson (some of you may remember him from last year, the stupid fuck who can't teach), for Shakespeare with Peter Groves (who is obsessed with Hamlet and is pretty funny). All good then, but now I hear that Baden's sick and has taken time off or something. WTF! Does that mean there's a chance that G&E might get passed over to someone who can actually teach next semester, or will it be scrapped altogether? "Only professional writing course in Victoria", my ass. In the English department, you mean, instead of in Media Studies/Communications under "proof-reading"?

Also on the topic of English, had my stupid class test today. Was worth 20% of the grade and I... blew it. I didn't study the right book. It wasn't a wrong book, but it wasn't the right one. Should've known they'd disregard the picture books - BTW, 'Where The Wild Things Are' is still fucking awesome, damnit. Had to wing it by answering the 'Little Women' question, which I wrote an essay for (haha, remember that shitfest?), but didn't actually read. Fabulous. I'm so good at uni it kills me.

In other news, skipped the second hour of the Chinese lecture, then skipped the second hour of the Chinese tutorial. They run for way too long as is anyway. Japanese didn't even need 4 contact hours a week until level 11/12, I swear. Also, I scared one of the girls in Chinese today because I was hyped up and loud on sugar, caffeine and hysteria over the impending English class test (see above).

Been listening to Utada Hikaru's 2nd English album, 'This is the One', on repeat for the last two days. It actually got pretty catchy despite initial misgivings because I'm not big on R'n'B, hiphop and that sort of music. Each song has their catchy and interesting parts, and I like most of them after a few listens. Not the biggest fan of 'Dirty Desire', but the last 30 seconds was quite fun. Utada's funny English lyrics come through again, with stuff like Photoshop, Blackberry, Jpeg files and Godiva chocolates making their way into the songs. Favourites so far: 'This One (Crying Like A Child)', 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI' and 'Apple And Cinnamon'.

English class test on Tuesday. Urgh. I'm really not good at English at all, so it really feels like a self-imposed prison sentence sometimes. And if I get into Melbourne Uni's Master of teaching next year, I'll be doing TESOL. More English! But hopefully better.

Kuroshitsuji ch. 32: Oh mai. Why so awesome, Finny? XDDD

In other news: Came back from Tasmania on Friday. Only really had a brief tour along the East coast from Launceston to Hobart (stopping through vineyards on the wine route, St. Helens, Bicheno, Swansea, and Richmond). The scenery was pretty jaw-droppingly gorgeous everywhere, even though I felt like getting sick a few times while we drove down the Tasman Highway, along the hills and mountains at 100km/hr most of the time. I thought I was going to die in our hired car, a Suzuki SX4, which I didn't think was strong enough to handle the mountain roads. But no, I was proven wrong, because it's Tasmania and all they have are mountain roads, so you'd be fucked if your car can't handle them. All in all, we had a great time, arrived at each destination without much trouble because my brother had the foresight of buying a GPS before we left, and generally had a successful family-bonding trip. Funny, because we haven't traveled as a family since... 2001-ish? When we went to Chicago before my brother's 6-month internship at Bosch anyway.

Chinese written test today that I've done no preparation for at all. I've been telling myself to at least look at the textbooks since 2 days ago and even woke up at 6 this morning to do it, but no. They're still sitting in front of my unopened because I got distracted by manga *sigh* It will ruin me one day, yes.

Also, downloaded a batch torrent of Ikimono Gakari's songs. They have such a good sound, and the vocalist's voice is sweet without being squeaky. They use a harmonicaaaaaaaaaa.

In the time between the last post and now, I can't say I've done very much worthy of note. Oh, well, the Harvey Krumpet thing at ACMI was really good though, and I had some nice one-on-one time with Beenie, which is rare. Went to karaoke only once, which is a damn shame. And I continued on with my weekly Japanese tutoring sessions with the 9 year-old boy (Istillwanttotouchhisfuzzyhaaair!).

Oh. And my parent's came to visit from Hong Kong for the Easter break, so I dutifully declined most invitations to outings with friends in lieu of spending quality time with them. Doesn't mean I can't be a bit pouty about it though. On the up side, I've had more (good) wine in me than I have in the last five or so months.

Big news, or as big as anything tends to get in my universe, we are making a family trip to go sight-seeing. In Tasmania. God knows why my parents thought Tazzie's a good idea, but hey, I can't remember the last time we went anywhere together as a family of four. Still, so far things recommended to me to bring have been: camera, MP3 player and/or some form of entertainment. Looking at the Tazzie site, it mainly recommends outdoorsy stuff, which I really can't imagine my parents doing much of... why are we going in the first place, anyway? Not that I'm not happy we're going somewhere together, but still.

... I may be mildly buzzed from the red wine and dessert wine we had tonight. Mmmm... De Bortoli Noble One (2000). Yum.

In other news, my socks keep going missing. I've lost my black socks and thick woolly socks, and I can't tell if my brother or mum has somehow integrated them into their drawers because, yeah, they're just black and normal-looking. So I had to get new ones from the supermarket. And I also got some stripy ones. In pink. Hah. I'll definitely get those back if it really was my brother being silly.