Hmm I feel better now that I've updated the layout of this journal. Makes me wanna use it more *gasp!*

Right so I've been going out of my fucking mind with stuff I need to do before moving off this island once and for all. But let's not talk about that, nor the love stories professor who is out for blood (aka my grade).

We've finally confirmed all of our hosts from May 25 to about very early July.
First, we're staying in Tokyo for a couple of days with my friend and gathering our wits. Since he will arrive a day after me, we have a whole advanced strategy on how we're going to meet up-- complete with photoshopped map of the train station by moi. All I got to say is pachinko and love hotels baby >: D

Then we head off to our first host in Yamanashi which is a vineyard run by a lone guy in his 40's. So far he seems really laid back and awesome- old dude even has a blog that he sent us the link to. He's also a demon in tune with the technology gods apparently, since he responded to my email within 10 minutes. That's unprecedented, since it usually takes people at least a day or two... sometimes more... to respond back. (Actually, it's been at least a month with no response from this one host....) I bet he'll respond to me again before the night is over- that'll make 3 emails within 3 hours, wheeew grandpa's* going for the gold.

*Yes I realize 40-something isn't really that old, but fuck it, I abuse my right to be politically incorrect

Around 6/6 we'll shove off to Ibaraki prefecture to work on a veggie farm and English language school. The host lady calls herself "Dorothy" (also my late grandma's name O.o) and seems to know English, Spanish, Italian, AND Russian. Whew. They also have 3 kids from 8 to 15 so that should prove entertaining (they're about the same ages as my siblings). Can we say "corrupting the Japanese youth" ? (as if they need any more tainting *snort*)

Next, on 6/27 we go farther north to Fukushima to try our hand at working for a ceramics gallery. The old couple that runs it seem really nice and eloquent (meaning they use kanji that's never seen the light of day since jouyou reforms), but they have some strict rules-- like me and Imochan aren't allowed to sleep in the same room (ARGH!). Though I could understand why, since they have small children and don't really know us yet. We're going to be staying for a 5 day trial period, to see if we can communicate well with each other. They don't speak ANY English, which is beneficial in the way that it helps our main objective of this trip (getting better at Japanese), but puts more strain on me because I worry they'll make me interpret constantly between them and Imochan. We might get kicked out, who knows...

So we don't have any more hosts formally planned after that, though we have some in mind just in case. They're two farms that also make sweets along with arts/crafts. Could be cool.
We'll probably end up traveling around on our own for the last week or two of the trip. We both leave August 2.

Some hosts haven't been so kind to us in the course of emailing though. One host, a cafe, just stopped corresponding with us, I suspect because we're not Japanese/native speakers (no offense to them or anything, just a fact since they listed that on their preferences). That's so Japanese though T_T (just stopping communication). So much for breaking stereotypes.
Maybe it's for our benefit though, since we'd have to go to a public bath house every night.

Another guy, who posted an ad saying he was desperately in need of people, responded realllyyyy rudely to Imochan's email. Told us he had no need for a pair of male/female friends (though imochan clearly stated we're a couple), and that his establishment wasn't a place for playing around since it was full of "hard work" and they used "dangerous machines". So he told us to go search for someone else.
You'd have to read the Japanese to get the full effect of his asshole-ry, but I say good riddance.

The very first host we tried contacting was a junior high in Nagano, and they still haven't even read our emails. Normally, you go to the WWOOF officials to step in if the host hasn't responded in a week, but that wasn't really effective. We resorted to faxing the school after much trouble, and they finally responded saying that all the positions were full. That sucked because it would've been the perfect job for us, but oh well.

In other news, I registered for my classes at Tulane. Most of them have some sort of Latin American focus because they don't really have Asian Studies, and LA studies are their specialty. No problem for me since I'm really interested in those areas. :D
Unfortunately I had to drop my Mayan and Olmec Civilizations class...

Monday:
Digital Media I (art class)

Tuesday/Thursday:
Intro to Latin America
Painting
Social Justice in the Americas
Pre-Colombian Art

No class on Fridays!

Also I have 40 hours of community service to do (which corresponds with the Social Justice course) because Tulane has a service learning requirement since Katrina.

Whew! And there you have it people! Don't expect any updates over the summer since internet access with be sporadic, though I probably will post a long account of things when I get back.
I have 18 days left in Hawaii, so I'm off to spend them as memorably as possible. Jya~

No updates because I've been mind-numbingly busy. Ceramics and its hellishly unorganized department can go suck a cock. I'm never enrolling in another ceramics course here at UH again.

I have to go again today to finish up my vases and hopefully start my lidded form. All must be completed by Monday. FUCK.

Not to mention my wood project of personal furniture has to be done. It's a Mario power-up mushroom. Hell yeah.

Umm... I'm feeling incoherent. There's still a lot to take care of before Imochan arrives (in like 9 days.. holy shit). I'm running somewhat low on money. Not like I'm gonna get kicked out of my house low, but it's not like I can afford to show him Hawaii in full-blown high rolling tourist fashion (art projects can be expensive to fund). That's probably not going to be a problem though, as he isn't hard to entertain. We'll probably be going beach hopping and hiking more than anything else. Or the likes of Chris's Rock Band game provides hours and hours of amusement >: D

Hopefully the money situation will improve next semester when I have my job.

Oh, and I might try learning guitar. And no it isn't because Imochan plays, although he'll probably assume that's why. The other instruments I want to play either aren't portable or require expensive lessons (piano and violin), so guitar it is. I told my mom that's what I want for Christmas, so we'll see if I get one hehe.

I was talking with Kazuki yesterday about art related things. He told me I should start entering my stuff in juried exhibitions really soon- such as Artists of Hawaii. So I have to plan all that out. @_@

Okay, time for a shower, maybe clean my disasterrific room, and then off to the art building ... again.

GODDAMNIT!

Those bitches down the hall just won't quit!! Whenever the internet screws up, we have to reset the main router. So I just now walked out into the hall to unplug the power cord which lets it reset, and decided to take a piss for 30 seconds (b/c it takes at least 15 to re-cycle the power). I heard those Chinese girls that are in the next room freak out, because apparently it threw them offline *gasp* so I expected they would just plug the power cord back in. That's fine, saves me a backache.

I go to my room, and try to get online. Nothing. I recycle the power to the wireless router. Nothing. I plugged in my new wireless router. Nothing.
Why in the world couldn't I get back online?

Then. I saw it. I stared down the hall and noticed that those FUCKING BITCHES had unplugged our router cord from the back. For those of you who don't know how this system works- the internet connection wasn't able to run from the main router to the wireless router, which me and Travonte use. FUCK THEM.

I mean, I know they unplug the router sometimes as well, but for no good reason at that. Which pisses me off, because they have an annoying habit of doing it while I'm talking to Imochan. But I don't get so pissed that I sabotage their connection.

What pisses me off even more is that neither one of them pay to stay here, because they're the landlord's daughters. The room they occupy is just a study area with computers and stuff, so they are mooching off the connection we tenants pay for. GRRRR. This is a huge house, they can take their asses downstairs and use the family's connection.

Plus the fact that I already have rage against Chinese women-- especially ones that speak Cantonese, which they do-- intensifies my anger a thousand fold. I can't walk past a Chinese woman now without wanting to bust her in the face. So it's taking all my self control to not burst into their karaoke session and throw a monitor through their skull.

Getting evicted isn't good.

Being sick sucks. I just realized I haven't posted since I came back to Hawaii. Well, I've been pretty fucking busy-- it's hard to believe that I haven't even been here a whole month yet. It feels like it's been a long ass time.

Ceramics is going .... okay. I think I'll focus on painting / drawing after all, because realistically I can't get as good as I need to be in such a short period of time in order to major in ceramics. Plus I gotz painting in ma' soul. The official professor teaches the lecture on Mondays, and then we split up into our lab groups the rest of the week. My TA is Shige, an old Japanese guy. He's pretty cool and laid back... sorta flirts with the ladies. Me and Krispy ninja our way out of lab when his back is turned to get munchies from the cafeteria. He never notices (or rather, he probably doesn't give a damn).

Intro to 3D is .... also okay. This first project is an egg-drop vehicle that we'll unleash from the third floor of the art building. There isn't much "art" about this project really, it's more of a physics thing. I bugged Imochan to help me, and he did lots of nice equations and shit but... to hell with that, I'll pull a hail Mary. But the other three for the semester seem to be cool- sculpture of our hand, a "present" made from silver, and a piece of personal furniture. But goddamn these toothpicks and elmer's glue. I'm a demon with a hot glue gun but noooo... the prof has to make it irritating.
At least he's a cool guy. He showed us how to bend toothpicks using a pipe, wire, and flaming butane torch. Hellz yeah. (for future reference, students can totally use the torch whenever we need to cause havoc)

What else do I have... oh yeah-- Figure Drawing. Which means drawing lots of old naked people. Kalani is in there with me, but the rest of the class is made up of middle age people and random weirdos. The professor knows his shit, and is really nice, but I can't hear what he says half the time. And I completely own in here. Well at least in comparison to my other classes. So far we're still doing basic techniques and poses, so I finish before the others at times-- and proceed to wander around the art building aimlessly until the next pose starts.

Last, I have English Composition. It's supposed to be a freshman course, and I thought I didn't need to take it b/c of AP in high school. Ho ho, silly me. But I don't feel so bad, because most other people in there are also upperclassmen >: D As for the prof, she's a hippy that made us get our book from Revolution Books... an "alternative" bookstore near campus that has loads of anti-Bush banners, books, and pins decorating the store. I ended up getting some cool pins from there, but am not feeling rebellious enough (aka i'm lazy) to put them on my backpack yet. Oh, and I do like going to this class. She's really interesting and we get neat essay topics.... which I'm currently procrastinating on.

So that's it for classes. I don't have a job yet. I'm already overwhelmed with my workload so I'm scared that if I do get one, my studies will suffer.

In more recent news, I went to First Friday this past... well, Friday. It's a monthly art event here held in Chinatown. For some strange reason, most of the galleries are in that district... as are many popular clubs/bars... Even though it's dangerous and has a huge population of hobos. Go figure. Overall, I was unimpressed with the quality of paintings I saw. Someone was selling a painting of fat ladies swimming in a pool... for $10,000. Yes, count those zeroes, I didn't mistype. However, it's been sitting there for the past 6+ months unsold so... draw your own conclusions (although they did sell the rest of the paintings in that series- for about 3,000 a pop).
I really have to get in on this money-making action. Especially when half the stuff that gets sold is total shite. I'm not being a snob or elitist here. In one gallery, it really did look like someone was trying to sell off their student figure studies scratchily done in charcoal. Upstairs was some Hawaiiana-ish work that was going for a ridiculous amount of money (another $10,000 price tag), but had to be the worst looking pieces of the night. If it took these artists over 30 minutes to do these start to finish, I'd slap my mother and call you a liar.

I guess I tend to get rage-ful whenever I think that people are getting shitted out of their money for bad art. But whatever, it's those fools' money to waste.

Not all of it was dregged out of a cesspool, however. As usual Frank's frogs and other metal work was amazing (and even had moveable parts), and some other artists' stuff looked cool. (Like the girl who had the layered "sewn"-together paintings on wood, with magenta wax dripping down like blood... damn I should've taken photos)

We caught a few minutes of a blues group's outdoor performance, and partied the night away back in the dorm. The Chinese national anthem is damn scary, by the way.

I met the daughter of a Korean ambassador, and we had a really insightful (and slightly drunken) conversation. We both share a love for the third world (she is going to move back to Cambodia after college), and it made me wonder why I like it so much. I guess because it has this sense of freedom to it, despite the problems its riddled with.

Most of the countries I want to visit in the near future are considered "third-world" or somehow substandard. For example, I desperately want to go to India, Cambodia, various places in Africa, South America, Central America, Russia, etc (and of course I'd love to go back to Mexico). For the most part, I don't have a strong desire to see traditionally cool places like France, Italy, England, Canada, etc... even Japan. It's not that I don't want to go, it's just that those places aren't at the top of my list. (However, Ireland is still the at the top of my honeymoon spots list.... if I ever get married, that is).

*cue tons of introspection and deep thinking that I don't have the energy to explain*

Otherwise, I haven't been hanging out with my friends all that much-- especially in comparison to last year. My bike has a flat, and it's so hot that I don't have the energy to walk 20 minutes to their dorm. Or else I am drowning in other homework. And the beach? Pfft. I went once, at night, to Waikiki to Sunset on the Beach (outdoor movie festival). That barely counts.

Ooooh there's an exchange trip to Argentina during the summer.... I wonder if they have scholarships >: D Courses in machismo, tango, and sex/gender roles? I'm sooo there. (Plus I could practice my spanish)
I'll go drop by the Study Abroad center tomorrow. The overall program fee is relatively cheap, and I could get financial aid for it.

Ahem. I should be getting to bed. But I feel a sudden bought of insomnia coming on-- which means more super mario RPG or FF6 on my emulator.

Oyasumi. Buenas noches. Good night.

So, not that much has been going on... well... both yes and no. Kalani and I are still looking for an apartment near campus, since I said fuck off to UH's Housing. Bastards. Long story and it doesn't need to be rehashed. BUT AT LEAST I CAN GET MY OWN PLACE WHOOOO.
The only problem is figuring out how I'm gonna send in my first payment, because I'm still in South Carolina until August 17th. Annnnd... we're waiting for the final decision on that loan. No more extra Sallie Mae bullshit if I can help it.

Hmm... I guess there's not much important stuff going on at the moment. I've gotten back into writing lately, as it helps me cope with certain... things. It's all good.

Yay it's time for my bi-monthly post. XD

I've been really busy ever since I got back from Mexico. I'm spending a lot of time with family, especially since my job is watching my cousins for the summer. I kinda got a late start on the summer job hunting so there isn't much available here. But it's okay. I'm over halfway through with Zelda Twilight Princess as a result of it >: D

Ohhh there's a lot of weird supernatural stuff going on down at my mom's house. She recently moved our trailer down to some property in the countryside. And those damn woods are haunted, I'm convinced of it now. My brothers came to me about the stuff they were hearing and seeing. At first my younger brother was telling me so I thought he might have had an overactive imagination, but then my other brother confirmed it (and I know he's not the type to make up stories). We have a trail in the woods that goes out to the horse pen, and sometimes the boys have to go down and take care of the horse. The trail runs near an old creek. Apparently they were hearing whispering, and voices calling out their name- while our parents were still at work so it couldn't have been them. It gets stronger the closer they are to the creek. Our summers here are very hot and humid, especially during midday, but while walking they'd suddenly walk into an extreme cold spot. My older brother said he could see his breath. Then they were seeing a man in the woods, sitting up in an old deer stand who suddenly faded away. And various other little things.

Well my aunt is really into all that kind of stuff, so I told her about it. She ended up telling my mom who sent my brother back into the woods with her camera to take photos. He took photos of the creek, and got four pictures with very distinct things in them. One was a screaming face and arm reaching up out of the water, another was three faces in the water, and the other two I think were other types of faces. Well my sister and younger brother and a friend looked at the photos and confirmed that they were all seeing the same things on the screen (it's a digital camera). Well, my brother took the camera back up to the house and when he tried to pull up the photos, the (new) memory card failed to read. When my mom got home she wiped out the card and then took a photo of my sister. It came out fine.
So she sent him back down to the creek to take more pictures. He did and came back again, but the memory card malfunctioned again and asked to reformat.

So, the next day I decided to take my camera down there myself and take photos. At first my brother took me around to the different spots around 3:30 in the afternoon. Nothing was showing up in the photos and I didn't hear anything. Then I went down again with my mom as the sun was going down because she had to water the horse. I wasn't getting anything then either.
But then she left to get more water up at the house, and I was alone for about 10 minutes. It was creepy enough being down there as it was getting dark, but I still was skeptical about everything. Then suddenly I started hearing a woman laughing in the distance, behind the horse pen, and a man talking to her. I couldn't make out what they were saying. I just assumed that it was my stepdad's grandpa who lived near us. He has a girlfriend (or two) so I thought "oh it's just them outside talking". My mom got back and I asked her "Does papa live out that way? *points to the direction I heard the voices*" She said, "No, he lives the other way *points the opposite direction*" My brother walked up at that point, and we decided to go down the path towards another neighbor's house, in the direction of the voices.

We were getting kinda far down the path, I was walking behind my mom and brother. Suddenly I felt something poke me hard in the left shoulder. I turned around quickly to see if it was a tree, or my other sibling had come, but nothing was there. I shrugged it off and kept walking, but a minute later it happened again. Turned around, nothing was there but an empty trail. Suddenly I heard my stepdad yelling for my mom really loudly. We turned back and just a minute later we met up with him on the path. He was carrying a crank flashlight and had come because it was getting so dark. I swear he must have been yelling for her at the top of his lungs, and he wasn't that far away either, but yet we only barely heard him. So I still wonder how I could have heard those two people laughing, and we were still about a 10 minutes walk from the nearest neighbor. Hmm..

Anyway, I kept snapping photos on the way back, as it was really dark by then. My stepdad had to keep cranking the flashlight constantly, which he said was odd because usually a few turns makes it last quite a while. We reached the house and I started looking through my photos.

I was really surprised to find a lot of orb photos. They were perfectly round, and often bright. I was kinda skeptical that maybe I'd photographed dust, but if I had I think that the dust would be in almost every photo. In some photos I could track where certain balls were moving from one frame to the next, and some other things. My mom knows a lot about photography, and she did all the explaining of the technical things to me of how it most likely wasn't dust. A lot of the balls were different colors. There is this one photograph that really stands out, in that the ball is extremely bright and when I saw it on the camera while taking photos, I thought there must be a piece of metal in the tree reflecting off the flash, so I took another photo immediately, but in the next one there was nothing at all.

My batteries were dying so I had to charge my camera for a little while. Later that night, me, my stepdad and my brothers went back out around 10:00. I took a lot of photos, and we didn't get all the way down to the horse because large animal tracks have been found there, and my stepdad didn't have his gun just in case. But I still found tons of the orbs in my photos. My brother had taken mom's camera too, and he didn't pick up anything. We went back home and me and my mom went out to take photos at the same time in the front yard, and she didn't pick up anything while I was getting a lot of stuff. It's odd. I don't know if it's a difference in cameras or what. But they are really distinct in my photos.

My brothers also told me that the day after they told me about their experiences. They saw a shadowy black figure in the woods staring at them during the day. It was pretty close to them, and near where they saw the man in the deer stand previously. And it turned away after about 10 seconds then ran away. Apparently those kinds of ghosts are called shadow people or something (so my aunt and grandma says).

I showed the photos to my aunt and grandma. My aunt confirmed that it most likely wasn't dust or something either. My grandma was looking through and saw one of the red orbs. She said "that looks like the one I saw in my house when I was younger", because she had seen a huge one moving in her room once.

The land is very old down there, and Cherokee indians used to live around that creek. Also a man died in his house several years ago in the neighborhood. One of the neighbors said that one night she saw a man sitting at her dining room table after she walked out of her bedroom, and she screamed, turned for a moment to grab the phone, and when she turned back he was gone. During the night, she felt something tugging at her leg, but her husband was fast asleep and had his hands behind his head. The next night, her husband felt it too. My brother feels someone shaking him awake at night, when our other brother is spending the night off.

So... the next mission is to go at night to the deer stand area and keep taking photos, and some video. One of my close friends is very "sensitive" to those sorts of things, so I might bring her down there just to see how she reacts. I'm trying to keep a rational mind but... it's really really odd down there. There's some other stuff too but... I'm tired of typing. :D

My aunt, uncle, and I will probably go this weekend to the other area.

I haven't slept in... forever. I leave for Mexico in less than an hour. I won't be on my pc much, so leave a message whooooooooo~

Okay... so for now I'm gonna spare the details of my journey home. I spent 2 days out in the middle of nowhere countryside of South Carolina, and now I'm back in Anderson... a relatively civilized area. But, I'm hardly settled.

IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS I GO TO MEXICO, FOOLS! WHEEEE!! I've been waiting -so fucking long- for this trip, and honestly I've been freaking out more and more the closer I get to it. I can't believe I'll get to see him at last. Of course my grandma has started in more than ever about how I'm gonna get kidnapped and she'd rather I not go. But nope, nothing can stop me now. Muhahaha.

Really, I'm beside myself at the moment.

As a quick note, I probably won't be online for the next two weeks. Although he told me I can chat/surf around if I get bored, I think I'd rather spend my free time doing something more productive... like sketching him hehehe (so Titanic... but without the impending doom). I'm just taking my computer to load photos onto b/c I'm too cheap to buy 20 new memory cards.
After I get back, I'll write up the whole trip report... since there's a huge hungry audience for my adventures (well... I guess the main thing most people want to know is whether or not we did the 'horizontal limbo' x.x maybe i'll leave that part out >:D)

Sarah is coming today and we're gonna hang out... finally. Poor girl has been going into fits to see me since I left last Christmas. It's nice to have girl talk, you know? I mean, most of my friends are guys and well.. there's just some things you can't talk with them about. Or you can, but they don't tell you what you need to hear T.T

Okay, gotta get ready! じゃね～

So I've been hanging out with the 3D art kids for the past couple of weeks, and those guys are awesome. I never considered doing 3D before, but after experimenting with it in my drawing class, it turned out to be a great release of pent up creative energy. Then Chris invited me to watch them do metal casting on Tuesday and I was officially hooked. Although I think metal casting is fucking dangerous as hell and therefore don't wish to walk into that injury trap, I think I'm gonna go with ceramics. Kazuki wanted me to do glass but that is too damn expensive (as is metal). So ceramics it is. Maybe I can re-enact that cheesy scene in Ghost someday. Hehehe.

I took craploads of photos and video from the metal casting day, which I will post the link to the albums here after I get off my lazy kiester (sp?) and upload 'em. Staring into a blazing crucible is mesmirizing.

My goal is to become proficient in at least one 2D artform and one 3D artform. I want to do painting/drawing for the 2D, and ceramics for the 3D (maybe I'll pick up glass much later on... not financially possible at the moment). Chris and I discussed the potential art pimping possibilities of ceramics. You can make a shitload of money off it once you get good / established. At least I'll be able to make my own dishes : D wh00t

I met a guy named Hummingbird yesterday. His concentration is glass, I think, and he looks like he's late 20's/early 30's (but I'm shite at guessing ages). He brought in some sort of crazy, tribal tea from south america. Drinking tea together is practically ritualized in the wax room, so me and Chris did partake of it with him. Hey, it wasn't white powder or anything. It smells like tobacco and doesn't taste much better for the first few sips, but then it mellows out and is just somewhat of a strong, smoky flavor. Supposedly it's stronger than caffeine, so we were all pretty wired for the next couple of hours (also it cleans out your system if you eat a ton of meat). I don't know if it was the tea or the stress for me though (my day yesterday was hellish... let's not recount it). So tonight he came back, just as I was making my way out the door, and asked me (kindly) to stay and have another cup of tea. Hehehe. So I did, and I still am not that tired, but I've been somewhat of an insomniac lately.

EDIT: After re-reading the last paragraph, it must sound like people are slipping shit in my drink. Really people, it was just tea. The labels were all in English

I picked out the courses for next semester that I wanna take:
- 4th level japanese reading (part 2)
- Intro into 3D composition
- japanese literature in translation - modern
- language in japanese society
- Intro to ceramics
I really have a lot more class to complete since I'm a double major, so I might end up going to summer school next year.

Oh I also met a guy named Wolf (another one of chris's compadres). He looks like he's late 30's, and embraces his native american blood. I think he does metal casting. Really chill kinda guy, works for campus security. He leads a group of people that re-enact battles (like with foam bows and arrows, swords, etc.) and have a type of renaissance fair in the summer. They want me to come out and participate since they need more artisans in the fair, but I won't be here this summer Also, they go camping as a group occasionally, so I'm thinking of going with them after next term starts. He also teaches a women's self defense class, which I'm considering taking.

Oh, as a last piece of good news, my family all knows about my trip to Mexico this summer and are (mostly) cool with it. >: D *continuing my evil scheming*

Ohhh, and an art professor from another university came into my art prof's office and saw my piece with the screaming kid's face (the one from the previous post), and said it was "extremely powerful". Yay Mission accomplished.

The end of semester projects are piling up. I got one to present tomorrow, so I should end this here. Next post will (hopefully) be links to various photos i took.

*makin' pancakes b/c the store downstairs ain't taking credit cards*

School is hectic. The final art project is a triptych (meaning 3 pieces) with the theme of identity. I think the 3 major themes I will choose will be art, japanese, and sex. Hehehe.

*throws out half the pancakes* Damn I can't cook for shit.

I'm thinking about reviving this journal, mostly because my myspace is more of an art-centered thing instead of a day-to-day one.

So right now I'm super stressed because of this art project. The subject matter is hard enough - cubism. But the concept I have behind it is personally distressing, which is a friend who killed himself last year. My prof is really excited about seeing my piece, after telling her the entire idea and backstory behind it. But I can't work on it unless I have a certain plug-in for photoshop that I get today. ;.;

I was reading about procrastination. Turns out it's not from laziness (usually), but from perfectionism. Which... sound more like my case. I really have a problem with art procrastination, or even finishing a piece. But there's a lot of other stuff too, so I'm thinking of getting one of those self-help books. >.> (never thought i'd see the day...)

I have a few other projects I have to do for other classes too. Japanese 401 is killing me. I mean, I understand everything but it's still a lot of work. I'm glad I didn't go anywhere for spring break b/c I've been sooo busy with this shit.

At least I've been getting support from some friends about going to Mexico this summer (yay natchan and alisha). I still haven't told my family that I'm going... but it's more b/c I don't want my mom to know about the money I got from my settlement. I think I should just come clean about it, but I'm gonna raise hell if she starts trying to make me pay for the entire cost of my plane tickets. It's not like she helps out financially with much already, that's usually covered by my grandparents. At least she can keep helping with the plane tickets.

I've had an extremely stressful year and a half, like people wouldn't even believe. In fact, I barely believe it. So I'm taking this trip to meet up with an awesome person, see some awesome stuff, and just bask in the awesomeness of it all. In a way, it's like a 自分探し。 It's not like I usually have the money to do this anyway, so I'm jumping at the opportunity.

Meh, I'm gonna go read some cheesy romance stories to get my mind off things.

OMG, I found out today that I PASSED JLPT level 2! That's so crazy! I didn't even study and I almost skipped out on going to it altogether. Mwahahha I guess the lesson is don't even try and you shall be rewarded >: D

One more level until world domination...

I'm converting my myspace into an art blog. It's easier to post images and stuff there, plus more of my friends are on there. My livejournal has been pretty dead for a while anyway, I update more regularly over there. Here's the link http://www.myspace.com/silly_froggy Just click on the blog part. I'm trying to make public my art entries.

Ja ne.

I'm back bitches.
But now the rules of the journal have changed!
It's Friends-Only from here on out.
So if you want a piece of the hot J-man action, you gotta pay up sucka'~
(or just request to be a friend)

じゃ、ビヤッチズ
Shannah