Conversations in a video rental store:

rei_kurasaki: Let's get Twilight! I hear it's a pretty good movie!
Me and thelovemafia: ...........
Me: O RLY NAO
thelovemafia: D-did you hit your head on something?!
rei_kurasaki: ... What?

Hey look, at least we didn't actually MAKE you watch it. Or Hannah Montana either. XD

In other news, am back in Qingdao. WOW FINALLY I CAN SLEEP AGAIN. ... man, that's kind of sad.

imaginarybeasts
Book #18: Winter

Out in stores as of... 2 days ago, actually, ahaha. Anyway, check it out guys! Festive stories! Creepy forest tales! Whimsical city tours! AWESOME ART AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Surprise zombies. It's almost enough to resign me to the prospect of being plunged back into the depths of winter in 3 days. Except not entirely. XD

The sign up post for the next issue is also up, and the theme is Apocalypse/Dystopia. ... Why yes, I WOULD like to start the year on a cheerful note, why do you ask. Ahem.

Conversations had while watching New Moon:

rei_kurasaki: THIS IS DISGUSTING!!!1!
Me: You're disgusting
rei_kurasaki: Yes AND MY BUTT HURTS

Lulz had by one and all (see: me and thelovemafia)! ... Except by rei_kurasaki, or so she says. Ufufu. Now write us Jacob/Alice, woman.

We also watched the second Evangelion movie, You Can (Not) Advance, and it was surprisingly good though at one point/one of the plot changes I was seriously considering whether I would need to kill Gainax. THE ENDING WAS ALSO STRANGELY REMINISCENT OF EUREKA 7 ahaha what is this. But anyway, totally want to watch the third now/have no idea how they're going to end things this time. XD

How did we even end up in a LJ-updating contest anyway, Sam. UPDATE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG, WOMAN.

In other news, have been in Singapore for a week, and have turned into a food monster. I look at everything and go DELICIIIOOOOUUUSSSSS. I smelled cut chilli and went DELICIOO - wait that's not even real food. Admittedly I was kind of hungry at the time. :/

I have a new laptop that I need to set up, new glasses to collect next week, a new house to see, have met many peoples for lunch/dinner, have been looking at tiles/furniture/designs for aforementioned new house, and in the midst of it all, one of my friends fractured her leg while trekking in Indonesia and is now in hospital waiting for an operation DDD: Also another friend got married a week ago, but that went pretty smoothly (mostly because she wouldn't let us haze her groom AS PER PROPER TRADITIONS why u liek dis wan)

What is this, RL. I know I haven't been back in 5 months but my heart can't take all this excitement ok.

1. So I am sort of doing Nano. If by "sort of doing" you mean failing miserably. orz

2. On the other hand, cynic_in_charge is doing Nano-redux again this year, so those of you who aren't already doing Nano might want to check it out. XD

3. FLYING BACK TO SINGAPORE ON NOV 19!!! I demand a marching band at the airport to celebrate this momentous occasion, guys. Will be back until Dec 5, so let's rock. 8D

4. In further exciting news about the weather (it's always exciting to start wondering about frostbite symptoms), it is now pretty much freezing. Fun times! On the other hand, a hat really does make the critical difference between "I am only sure my ears are still attached because I can hear my iPod" and "probably not dying of hypothermia yet". Even if the hat is a dorky beanie, but my dignity and vanity are both non-existent in the face of imminent sub-zero temperatures.

5. Also, because this gave me/half_sleeping a full half hour of hilarity and I feel it should be shared, for anyone who's read Scott Lynch's The Lies of Lock Lamora/Red Skies Over Red Seas, the prologue to the third book is posted on his site.

IN CONCLUSION? Locke is a shoujo heroine, guys. There's nothing more I can say. +____+ (Well, actually, there's a lot, but I don't want to ruin the surprise... XD)

Contrary to appearances, I have not in fact completely forgotten this meme. Also, half_sleeping complains a lot. XD

tarigwaemir: ( Top five things that Shin likes about Yankumi )

half_sleeping: ( Top five things Xanxus might have ever felt some modicum of affection for )

On the bright side, the weather has changed its mind and gotten warmer. I... I can actually feel my fingers and toes again!

Holy crap why is it snowing already. Or at least, very very light, almost invisible flakes were drifting down this morning when I got to work.

May I point out that the heat is not due to be turned on for another week. I do not approve of this development. D:

*gloomily puts jacket back on even though she's in the office*

For anyone who might be confused by my glamorously jetsettinglagging life, I am now back in Qingdao. XD The flight back contained no babies that I noticed, and the seat next to me was empty, so that was A+ as things go. I finished 2 books and watched Ashes of Time Redux on the first flight (Oi oi, Wong Kar Wai, it's not wuxia, no matter how pretentious, without more overblown bombastic action scenes. COME ON)

Then I spent something like 5 hours camped in Korea's Incheon airport waiting for my second flight. To be fair, the Incheon airport has very good seats for sleeping like a hobo on, so if you're going to be stranded anywhere for ridiculous amounts of time, I can't think of a better place.

It is entirely possible that HALF my luggage weight actually consisted of books. In my defence, hey, some of them are only borrowed! And I haven't bought any new books since last year and actually, you know what, I'm not apologising. THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY BOOKS.

My time in Toronto was spent imposing on Eve, being cold all the time, doing an excellent zombie impression, getting a haircut so I could stop resembling a boy/lopsided sheepdop, seeing misc fun sights and eating everything EXCEPT Chinese food (well, OK, there was dim sum and other misc HK food). Eve and I + others also headed down to Montreal where we proceeded to eat our way through everything on offer under petronia's entertaining guidance, and with dipping_sauce in company XD

I also finally read the Sandman series! Sadly did not manage to get to the last 2 and the side stories, and Eve would not let me steal borrow hers, so will have/have had to acquire them myself. I am surprisingly fond of Dream despite that fact that he's a brooding emo-tard. XD I think it's equal parts because Gaiman clearly thinks his emo is funny, and I don't know, apparently I can appreciate a hidebound, stick-up-the-ass sense of ~honour~

(I am also half convinced that Dream is Gaiman's self-insert on a really funny level. Though without the personality, unless Gaiman hides his inner emo-kid better than we realise XD)

And more on the topic of Gaiman, I hear that he is coming to Singapore again! When I'm not in the country. Also again. IT'S LIKE HE'S AVOIDING ME!!!11! Fortunately, I don't love him so much that this breaks my heart, but still. XD (Now maybe if it was Diana Wynne Jones...)

And all that said... I should try to finish that meme. Also, change my icons. How long has it been? A year? Ahaha. orz

Arrived in Toronto on Thursday after a 13 hour flight spent surrounded by babies - by which I mean there was one baby in front of me, one baby one aisle and two seats to the right and another baby diagonally across. This is not counting their toddler-age siblings. Was surprised there was no baby behind me to complete the package. Shockingly, only 1 baby really cried during the entire flight. XD

Also, an old Vietnamese lady who spoke no English, Chinese, Korean or Japanese (meaning no one in the vicinity could communicate with her except via sign language) stole my window seat. But I decided that I did not want to start the flight by picking a fight with an old lady, and that having to climb over one person instead of two (gymnastics might have been involved!!11! No innocent passengers were kicked in the face during the production of this anecdote) to get to the toilet was probably a good thing anyway.

Am now camped at cynic_in_charge's, where she has the dubious pleasure of being stuck with me and my jetlagged zombie self for an entire month :Db

BUT IN MORE IMPORTANT NEWS:

imaginarybeasts: BOOK #17 IS OUUUUUT.

The theme is MONSTERS which are awesome, so obviously you should all check it out. :D It has werewolves and manticores and sphinxes and gorgeous artwork!

My story is here. It has princesses and wizards and curses and I tried to start the story SIX TIMES and was pretty much resigned to beating my head on a wall and giving up (I even tried writing a different story ... That would also not talk to me wrrrrry) Then a voice bit me out of nowhere and the final result is nothing like planned and my judgement is totally shot and I can no longer tell if anything I write makes sense askdhgkhff but at least it's done orz /pointless arteestic grumbling

Soul Eater 65: ( I only really have one thing to say about this chapter )

And in really exciting Soul Eater news, apparently Ohkubo BLEEDS for his ART.

Suddenly I feel this explains half the cast of Soul Eater. Most notably the adult half.

tarigwaemir: ( Top 5 Galileo fic ideas )

A fic rec: Pretty Maids All In A Row where The Secret Garden... meets Buffy. It. It's like everything I never knew I could want from a Secret Garden sequel. *_____* (And goes some way to wiping "Return to the Secret Garden" from my brain. Why did I read that again. Why did I FINISH it. The worst fanfic is the kind that's published wqeflkjglkhn)

And tomorrow I leave for Toronto. Still so much stuff to do orzzz

Part 2, both from thelovemafia XD

( Top 5 series/fandoms/THINGS you would like us ALL to get into, RIGHT NOW )

( Top 5 fandom peeves/dislikes )

I... like how half the "Top 5" requests are for shounen manga. XD HEY I DO KNOW WHAT SHOUJO IS, GUYS. Sometimes I even read it! A shocking revelation, I know, but true. +___+ My Top 5's are listed in no particular ranking order, because that is how I roll.

milchstrasse: ( Top 5 shounen manga heroes )

incandescens: ( Top 5 shounen manga voices of common sense )

lilacfield: ( Top 5 Kekkaishi ladies (Possible spoilers) )

And on another totally random note, I am re-reading early Naruto for reasons even I cannot fathom, and I had totally forgotten that ONCE UPON A TIME I actually did quite like Sasuke! Man, those were the days.

Alright, I feel like posting but don't actually have the brain space right now to write any of the pimp posts I've been thinking of doing. So here, have an old and kind of mouldy meme done by practically everyone by this point:

Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

Yes, I haven't finished the AU meme yet but uh. I appear to be writing a 5,000-word fic for one of those requests so. Never let it be said I do not AU with a vengenace, why did I ever think that was a good idea omg. D:

Thrilling sequel: I came home at 9.30pm last night after a conference call at the office and now found myself locked OUT because a completely different part of the lock had now broken! A+++ My inner door now has a small hole in it from where the lock has been hacked out and completely disembowelled from it. Since my most excellent landlady refuses to pay to fix stuff, I am leaving it as it is. XD

I AM DUMPING MY KEYS IN THE MAILBOX WHEN I MOVE OUT AND SHE CAN WORRY ABOUT IT THEN.

(How mature of you, Pei Yi, you say. Well, look, I am really tempted, ok)

The weather here has also taken a nosedive into what should actually be October temperatures, though that's mostly tolerable since I spend most of my time indoors anyway. XD And it should get better by the end of the week, or so I'm told.

In news not involving My Exciting Adventures With My Door, I'm heading off to Toronto for 3-4 weeks for training/learning about projects/general meeting of people. So I'm not going back to Singapore after all, until maybe November?

And on Kekkaishi 273: ( Vague spoilers )

I am currently locked in my house because the lock has jammed and won't unlock?! Wtfffff.

Why do these things always happen on Mondays. (A couple of weeks ago, my kitchen pipe got a leak - also on a Monday)

This is kind of amazing. -_-b

ETA: FREEDOM! For a price.

Attn: frogdance

I have seen the first 3 episodes of Gintama. As per agreement, HA! HA! HA! MAKE YOUR TIME! READ KEKKAISHI.

>:)

(It probably says something about me that I spent 5 minutes wondering "why do the aliens come in every conceivable design, including Ultraman ripoffs" but given that this series is completely ridiculous, inconsistent alien species is hardly top of the list of crazy. I have since concluded that Japan has probably been conquered by the United Nations of the alien universe and rolled with it)

IN CONCLUSION: This series is batshit, I am reasonably entertained, let's go bb?

I also finished watching Boss over the weekend, and this drama is made of SOLID GOLD AWESOME. omgggg, so great, THEY BETTER BE GIVING IT A SPECIAL AT LEAST? Dramas I like never get sequels so I am not holding out hope there though it would make me SO HAPPY.

Spoiler comments up to the finale below cut and guys, if you intend to watch this series, DON'T SPOIL YOURSELVES. SERIOUSLY. XD

( SPOILERS UP TO FINALE )

In other news, the temperature took a sudden nosedive over the weekend? I was expecting autumn to show up, but not this suddenly. XD Also, I will probably be home in Singapore first week of October? WHOOOOOOOO. \o/

safdsfggfhghj. I have been stuck on this fic for two weeks, possibly more, because I have not been able to figure out how to make the Lussuria fight work. I HATE FIGHT SCENES SO MUCH. Why does everything I write have a goddamn fight scene. Why can't I just be an accountant write pretentious high-falutin' literature. WITH NO FIGHT SCENES.

Anyway, throwing this up so that you can all FEEL MY PAIN while I grumpily stomp off to more necessary things, for example, starting my imaginarybeasts story BEFORE the deadline - yes, I know, what a revolutionary and strange idea. XD

( WHY IS THIS ALREADY MORE THAN 5,000 WORDS )

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, I did not write fic at a pace strongly reminiscent of glaciers out for a leisurely stroll. This is not that happy golden age. orz

I cannot quite tell if I am feeling kind of homesick, or just grumpier and more antisocial than usual. Ah well. XD ( Read more... )

To soothe my grumpy soul, I started watching Boss (a jdrama) and - guys. It's like Japan made this whole drama JUST FOR ME. *_______* Leading lady? MADE OF BADASS AND AWESOME AND HILARITY. Supporting cast? Made of hijinks and dumb and gay! And right after I watch Galileo and demand to know why the universe never gives me antisocial girl geniuses, it delivers - well, Kimoto is not a genius, but she is antisocial and weird and probably the smartest person on the team after Osawa, so I can TOTALLY live with this. <3333

And to top it off it is ALL about awesome ladies in charge who are competent bosses and who make it their personal interest to whip reluctant kids like Kimoto into shape so she can follow in their footsteps of cool and badass. The only other way it could POSSIBLY hit my bulletproof kinks more is if it somehow managed to fit swords and kungfu in or something, but that is OK, I can live with guns instead. +____+

About the only thing I don't entirely approve of here is the mustaches. I NEVER APPROVE OF MUSTACHES, WHY ARE THERE TWO OF THEM HERE. Guys, I love you both and you're awesome but you look like pimps. Why u do dis? :(

Yeah, so after all those years of forgetting that there is this medium, it has MOVING PICTURES in it and you can watch it on this crazy thing people call a television but if you're really that lame, you can just watch it on your laptop or computer instead, suddenly I feel my doom upon me? And that doom had JAPANESE DRAMA written all over it. D:

(I would also seriously like to know why I have a voice at the back of my head insistently plotting Galileo casefic involving beaches and bikinis and perverts and the ONLY THING I need to complete the plotting is figure out how to make someone WALK ON WATER. I REFUSE TO RESEARCH PHYSICS FOR THIS IGNOBLE GOAL)

I went to Shanghai over the weekend, during which I ate everything except... actual Chinese food. XD I DON'T KNOW that is just how my dad rolls. Also he sees no reason to ever leave Pudong when he has a whole bunch of perfectly good restaurants right next door. XD (Well, ok, he'll leave to play golf. But that's about it)

I also finished watching the Galileo drama and special. And then when looking it up afterwards, I realised that Fukuyama Masaharu was ALSO in Beauty or the Beast, playing a completely different type, but with EQUAL AMOUNTS of hilariously awkward UST. Now I want fic, but given that this is jdrama, I am doomed to never have any unless I write the damn stuff myself. ;_; I would totally read the novels, even, if only they were translated into a language I could read.

I want fic of Utsumi solving cases by herself, probably while sitting in Yukawa's lab thinking through 3 million theories out loud while he goes ".........." and asks her why she's there! IN DEPTH DISCUSSIONS OF THE LOGIC BEHIND BIKINIS (don't ask). Her deep dark past catching (65) train perverts while wearing miniskirts coming to light! I MIGHT HAVE TO READ THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY?! (I already looked up a brief summary of it on Wiki asdjhgfd)

What is wrong with me, guys. :(

The drama is also giving me an ITCH, in my TEETH, for a mystery series where the eccentric crime solving genius is a girl. COME ON UNIVERSE. Why isn't there a series out there with a girl!Sherlock yet? DO I HAVE TO DO THESE THINGS MYSELF? >:( I'm constitutionally unsuited to writing mystery, this can only end in tears!!!

And since I am on the topic of STUFFS I WATCHED, about a month ago, I also finished Witch Hunter Robin. I then spent a weekend trawling ff.net for fic, because when you watch a series SEVEN WHOLE YEARS after it first came out, you are doomed to never find any meta or fic for it eveeerrr. ( Random comments )

Spotted on one of those little scrolling signs they have in the rear window of cabs here:

"Qingdao Conan Private Investigators"

Me: ......... Is that what I think it is.

The sign was of course in Chinese, but the characters were Conan were definitely the same characters used for the manga. Which IS available here. So... XD (I'm not sure I'd hire an agency that thought naming itself after a manga series was a good idea, but... XD)

( Code Breaker 52/53 )

( Kekkaishi: Up to 269 )

( Fairy Tail: 146 )

HERE HAVE A FIC REC: Star Trek/mafia AU: I would personally have liked more ensemble hijinks, but Jim's special brand/voice of cheerfully deranged crazy makes it anyway XD

( Random comments on the Star Trek movie, snce I'm on the topic anyway )

PS. Signs up for the next issue of imaginarybeasts are also OPEN. The theme is MONSTERS, which I figured would be a good lead up to the Halloween period? XD

imaginarybeasts
Book #16: Rogues and Scoundrels

IIIIITTTTT LIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEEESSSSS. This was possibly one of the more hair raising issues, thanks to a sadface lack of submissions, and tiny issue is tiiinnnyyy. But we made it anyway? orz

MY SUBJECT MIGHT BE A LITLE MISLEADING. But hey, 2 out of 3 are ain't half bad. XD We have spiez and thieves and girls with guns and a body count that'd do Hollywood proud. Also, SHIT BLOWS UP PRETTY GOOD. By my standards, this can only be A+++

So read! Comment! Pimp! +_____+

ALSO I WROTE A STORY AND IT IS HERE. It has thieves and vampires and is part of early Sangre-verse (actually, at this point I'd say this is the only Sangre story I'd consider... canon? Since by now I seem to have rewritten large chunks of the two earlier stories in my head. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW I ROLL. Oh man, has it really been 3 years since I wrote the first one. I should probably... rewrite it.)

In exciting real life news, apparently I might have appendicitis BUT IT SEEMS TO BE MILD SO FAR so no worries, my future demise is far from imminent and surgery is not necessary. Yet, anyway. The experience was made 100x more exciting (and 300x more boring) because the hospital put me on the drip - but from what I have been told, hospitals in China put you on the drip for everything, up to and including the flu, wtf. I was certainly in plenty of company while I waited the 2 hours for my IV to finish.

At least I can say I have now had the compleat and proper Chinese experience? XD ... No, wait, I haven't seen anyone pee on the street yet. Clearly I must keep looking.