baby, be my mafia boss, I'll be your right-hand man

I am posting this from little_ribbon's hostel - she is REFUSING to allow me to watch Merlin until I finish this post. SO I WILL MAKE THIS QUICK. ... for a given value of quick.

Last year lacewood, cynic_in_charge and I went to visit the Night Safari's Halloween Horrors, and that was FUN. This year, the both of them having ABANDONED ME this country for CANADA, I went with rei_kurasaki, little_ribbon and Kimberly.

BEFORE the trip they had all been over my house and I had HAPPILY INFECTED THEM WITH MY NEW OBSESSION: TALES OF SYMPHONIA 2: DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD / KNIGHTS OF RATATOSK. I love Emil, and to my great surprise and shock, I really really really like Richter. Richter looks like the love-child of Jade and Asch with Dist's fashion sense, and Richter is my hero ♥ He's smart and really cool and distant and TOTALLY NOT AT ALL THE KIND OF CHARACTER I NORMALLY GO FOR (cough cough Emil: small and blond and cute and with the biggest puppy eyes ever). BUT YES. ( :D )

ANYWAY THAT WAS SUPER FUN, because then we went for dinner and SO MANY THINGS BECAME ALL RATATOSK-ESQUE'D - we were talking about having oyako-don and then Kimberly said, "ARE YOU A DOG OR A MAN", and Sam said, "I DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" and... and then Kimberly pushed up NONEXISTENT glasses and said, "COURAGE IS THE MAGIC THAT TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITY". oh god and then I laughed SO HARD ROFL. Even when we were waiting for the tram, I leaned on a different side of the railings from the others and was, "LOOK I'M DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF YOU" and it turned into YET ANOTHER "WE DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" moment. We were standing at another long-tailed bush rat exhibit and somehow the conversation turned into, "You let your Uncle Alba push you around" and more COURAGE BEING THE MAGIC happiness.

oh but the part that made me laugh so much is that now when we're apologising, we're channelling Emil. And right at the end of the night when we were having Ben & Jerry's, this SUPER CREEPY (but very pretty!) freaky extra-mouthed gothic Lolita girl came up to Kimberly, and STOOD THERE FOR A VERY LONG TIME JUST STARING AT KIMBERLY WITH REALLY HUUUGE EYES (Lin can still see her when she closes her eyes)... and Kimberly hunched over and went, "... I'm sorry..."

... oh god and then Lin and Sam and me burst out laughing.

ANYWAY BACK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY BEFORE IT WAS DERAILED BY RATATOSK: Night Safari's having a Return of the Halloween Horrors, and it is AMAZING. IT IS SCARIER THAN IT LOOKS ON THE VIDEO OKAY, because, it is AT NIGHT, and it is IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST. Which ALWAYS makes the Malayan horror aspect REALLY REALLY TERRIFYING. ANYWAY! I thought the Night Safari had been done up really beautifully: they had a giant animatronic horror pumpkin-head tree at the visitors' entrance, which would rise up and roar with unholy laughter, and they had LOADS of costumed horrors wandering around: the Tin Man who'd taken his quest for a heart to the extreme lengths of looking for REAL human hearts, bloody!Cinderella with a very real-looking glass slipper in her forehead, a creepy, creepy dim-sum seller with... REALLY SPECIAL FRESH DIM SUM, a psycho farmland Ronald McDonald, Nightmare Before Christmas-esque gothic horrors... together with the usual suspects: Scream!masked caped mysteries, creepy crones, butcher-knife wielding maniacs, caped vampires (DO WE DAZZLE YOU)... and MORE.

We went for the scary-fied Forest Giants Trail - the suspension bridge had been turned into the Bridge of No Return, complete with freaky people and freakier props. And the rest is cut (in case you want to go and be surprised) for the ( TERRORS OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST. )

Also, the ride that's REALLY worth your money? It's the Train of Terror and Gate to Neverland. It's just three dollars extra to get onto that train, and in all our opinions, it was MORE THAN WORTH THREE DOLLARS. On the train of terror, you get taken through the Night Safari with CREEPY COMMENTARY. Such as when the ordinary guide would tell you, "A pelican's beak can hold up to 30 gallons of water", the Terror Train guide would cackle and tell you in a veeeeerrry witchy voice, "A pelican's beak is big enough to hold a human head... or two." There would be SPECIAL EMPHASIS on the bite strengths of various predators and just what would be lurking in the looong grass.

BUT THE REALLY FREAKY PART is the Gate to Neverland. (BAD ENOUGH THAT IT MAKES YOU THINK OF ENTERING MICHAEL JACKSON'S DOMAIN). This year's theme was TWISTED FAIRYTALES.

( CUT FOR SCENES OF EXTREME GORE AND HORROR )

AND NOW I MAY HAVE MY MERLIN.

Caught Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds with Kura & family yesterday (it was great to see everybody!! :), and it was SMOKIN' HOT AWESOME PURE AURAL AMAZING. Nobuo Uematsu got on stage at the end to sing with the chorus for One-Winged Angel, and he was adorable. Totally into the music (and bouncing up and down, beaming beatifically, in a way that made me realise I didn't realise older men could be so endearing). hackney_ed wrote an amazing (and friends-locked) review here. ♥

AND NOW! ON THE AVATAR FRONT...

( DUN DUN DUN DUN )

The Avatar First Look photos are up on USA Today for Aang and Zuko.

My thoughts on racefail can be summarised as: "Please go watch Ember Island Players." (spoilers) ( It's like this. )

My personal (Zuko-centric) views, by contrast, are quite simple.

Dearly Beloved Zuko, I would love you regardless of the colour of the skin of the actor playing you. I fell in love with your character because you were 200% FLAMING EPIC LAME, EMO, ANGST AND FAIL in the manner I consider Deeply, Intensely Amusing. I would love you whether you were played by the (blond! and blue-eyed!) Jesse McCartney, whether you were played by Dev Patel, or any other Culturally Correct Casting Choice.

And that is all.

So on Monday I turned up at work, and after feeling progressively worse, went off to a clinic, where I was told by a very sweet elderly doctor that I had a fever I wasn't aware I was running. He greeted my surprise with a disapproving, "You mean you didn't know?" At which I recalled this instance last year when the country was hit by a shock following an earthquake in a neighbouring region, and at which several of us young pupils felt ill. Which we responded to by thinking 'We must be working too hard' and went right back to work.

ANYWAY! I WANT TO SAY A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO firestorm717 for the lovely gift, which had me beaming from ear to ear, and also, ONE DAY I HAVE TO TAKE YOU OUT FOR DINNER AND DRINKS, YOU BEING ONE OF THE PEOPLE ON LIVEJOURNAL WHICH I AM UTTERLY CONVINCED I WILL MEET ONE DAY. ♥ :D :D :D BEST WISHES IN YOUR CHOICES - I can actually imagine you as this amazing Professor Emeritus one day, and that'd be just ONE of your stellar academic achievements. :D

Also! The Supreme Court is throwing a massive open house next weekend, from the 14 - 15th of March. Check out the Website Here. It's called The Living Courthouse. This is pretty cool because the Court is never open on weekends, ordinarily, so it is a FUN TIME TO GO AND TAKE A LOOK. There will apparently be a series of short, informative and light-hearted court enactments, but honey I have got to object to that description because you're re-enacting bankruptcy, personal injury claims, seizure of property, and breach of contract. There is absolutely nothing light-hearted about that.

And now I simply must pass on the link that anyasy gave me:

★★★ The Live-Action All-Female Phoenix Wright Musical, as performed by the Takarazuka Revue. You remember the Zuka Club in Ouran High School Host Club? Well, the Takarazuka Revue was the Zuka Club's inspiration!

I've never made a secret of how I feel about Phoenix Wright, but even I have to say that the ten-minute preview here is utterly compelling. Phoenix and Edgeworth are especially noteworthy. You are never in doubt that they are played by women, but both their actresses are incredibly charismatic, and they are amazingly good at being masculine. Watch it, you'll see what I mean.

Hello from Kansai International Airport! Yes, Tenth, I'm stalking you again.

There are only two things better than discovering Japan, and that is discovering Japan with others, and watching others discover Japan. Watching someone giggle with delight over tiny instant noodles may be one of the best things ever!

Baseball twit, all the postcard shops are closed. But I found some anyway.

El, I wish you were here!

So arrch put up this personality test that I absolutely could not not do, clearly: go have fun with it!



I DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT REBORN CHARACTER THIS IS MOST LIKE LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU I DON'T HEAR ANYTHING.

( they actually have more detailed results! )

THE SECTION ON LOVE? ( THIS MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD )

A very early Happy Halloween post, everybody (look, Livejournal's already switched the viewing in anticipation), as the next four days are quite literally going to be hell for me, and I don't expect to be able to be on very much, if at all:

Last night, lacewood, cynic_in_charge and I celebrated Halloween by venturing into the Night Safari for the special Halloween event (so scary, people wrote in to the national newspapers to complain). Jack-o-lanterns and skeletons greeted us at the entrance, and the Forest Giants trail had been decorated in suitably macabre fashion with dismembered limbs, bloodstained ghouls, and all manner of the dead and departed. We were not greeted with the more extreme and interactive forms of terror worthy of writing in to the newspapers for, but I will freely admit I am very easily terrified and did actually consider the Malayan jungle horror walk unnerving on some level. However, I was not afraid, as I was with lacewood, who was concerned that she would accidentally punch anyone leaping out of the bushes to scare her, and cynic_in_charge, who rightly paid more attention to the flying squirrels and absent giraffes than the forest freakshow.

( ... and that's how you know I really *can* link everything to Reborn. )

ANYWAY! ON TO THE REAL SHOW:


download ( note )
Darren Shan Manga Volume 8 preview scans
(13 pages (Happy Halloween!), 5.37 MB, 200 dpi)
[ps! manga + extras = 188 pages, this is just but what I bought it for a little of it.]

The most important thing you need to know
about Volume 8 of the Darren Shan manga is:
WARNING: EXTENSIVE IMAGE-INTENSIVE PREVIEWS
( STEVE'S BAAAAACK (and so DAMN pretty) )

( And Darren doesn't look half-bad either. )

( well, you know what's coming. )

( HIGHLY dubious bonus )
Other Amazing Things About Darren Shan

☠ Did you know that we're getting a Darren Shan Movie in 2009? Here's the IMDB cast list! VERY NOTABLE MENTIONS:
★ Ken Watanabe as MR. TALL
★ WILLEM DAFOE as Gavner Purl
(The Green Goblin in Spider-man, the voice of Gil in Finding Nemo, I COULD GO ON AND ON)
★John C. Reilly as Mr Crepsley (WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING)
★ Selma Hayek as Madame Truska
I'm kinda blinking a lot in shock here, guys. Excuse the incoherency. This really is official, you can see it on the Darren Shan website.

☠ The Darren Shan manga has been licensed, and is to be released by Yen Press, in 2009, in time for the movie's release. The author himself was proofreading the US adaptation of the manga as of September 2008.

☠ You can still read the first five chapters of the Darren Shan manga scanlated on onemanga right here, though. (omg. reading this while reading Volume 8 is a real headtrip)

☠ Check out the (fanart) by the scanlators of Darren as Spider-man and Steve as Venom. ♥ (must re-read Volume 1, I swear I have seen it before)

... oh god I haven't posted in forever. Have been literally eaten by life: on the highly dubious upside I finally got the Millefiore/Spanner case I always wanted, in early August -

And it has, true to form, kept me chained and handcuffed in the basement for the past two and a half months. And looks set to keep me there for more! I took 70 megabytes of documents home to work with over the weekend, am trying very hard not to think about them now (and obviously, failing equally hard). (Had to turn down morning with adorable dogs today because I am genuinely exhausted and need to conserve energy T___T)

That said! tinted_glass linked this hilarious It's Always Sunny video, and it made me laugh so hard because it contains a great deal of hysteria about not reading contracts before you sign them. *still laughing*

( TRUE COLOURS )

( obviously I am Mieu. )

mangy_mongrel is travelling Europe and is very sweet and sending postcards from all over (much love!) ♥ - also this is probably a measure of how used my family is to me; my Dad was going through the mail, found a postcard from Italy addressed to 'Gokudera Hayato', and without blinking passed it to me with an unconcerned, "This is yours".

maiki! The Rolo doujinshi arrived! ♥ IT MADE ME SO SO SO HAPPY. ♥ Thank you for the gorgeous and lovely Rolo stickers! They are making me smile in a most disturbing manner! ♥ It is so clear which your art is (I want to take your Rolo home and love him forever)! milk_of_lime's artwork is also incredibly distinctive and also makes me smile like anything. Thank you so much for putting the book together, every single page and word and line of it is made of pure love. ♥

Had an immensely fun time yesterday with hemera_oneiroi (BEST SHIFU EVER), julineci (♥!!!), snowykiss (thank you so much for everything, and I really hope your feet feel better~), kateriya (pretty lady! ♥ *is shot*), chiiyo (omg why are you so cute when you look so sad), haruko_o (AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHER), and aslah (THANK YOU SO MUCH for MAGICALLY FINDING THE book! ♥)

Amazing Things of Note
☆ TALES OF THE ABYSS ANIME: I really need to make a separate post for this BUT WHERE IS THE TIME? D: Suffice to say it is amazing and lovely and is gradually giving me the culmulative WANT to replay the game (oh god no, I gave up 100 hours of my life to this game and I don't want it back; but I ALSO do not wish to give up any more)
☆ TALES OF THE ABYSS MANGA VOLUME 5: why so cute and so excruciatingly adorable GUY/LUKE LOVE UP 100%.
☆ DARREN SHAN MANGA: FINALLY! FINALLY! ADULT!STEVE AND DARREN MEET AGAIN in the September '08 release of Darren Shan! ♥ I have only been waiting since December 2006 for this (... wow. In comparison I have only been waiting for Gokudera and Tsuna to reunite since February this year). Adult!Steve looks AMAZING. ♥

First things first:

To every wonderful teacher on my list:
( HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY! )
haha. And it's kind of really silly, but I felt like saying this: so this week has been a real nightmare on every imaginable front, and I really do mean every imaginable front. I was staggering out from the office tonight and thought I should ring one of my teachers to wish him Happy Teachers' Day (I've got my teachers' home numbers on my cellphone, and now I've started working I wonder why on earth would they give their home numbers to me, when I was in school I assumed it was something all teachers did). This was my previous form teacher, who taught me history. So I called, and I happened to get his voice mail, and there was something in just hearing that familiar voice, so unthinkably clear as if time had never passed at all, saying,

"This is [HIS NAME]. I think I've finally fixed this thing so you can actually leave a message after the beep.
that made me feel instantly, completely, better.

It's not only around Teachers' Day that I think about my teachers and how I simply wouldn't be here without them. I think my time with them, although it was just two years, as, simply, a time in my life where my intellect made the greatest advances and developments. Crazily enough, even university didn't measure up to that. And you could argue that I learned the most in university, but dear God, for sheer PSYCHIC TORTURE BREAKING YOU IN THROUGH TO NEW AND AMAZING HORIZONS YOU NEVER THOUGHT YOU WERE CAPABLE OF, and making you so much FASTER BETTER STRONGER SMARTER MORE THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT YOU COULD BE, nothing could beat my junior college; nothing.

Except maybe my job.

In other words, torture is essential to effective learning.

SO TO ALL TEACHERS ON MY FLIST! HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY.
lots of love to those of you working @ 萌え. < / iamsolame.>

Words cannot express my extreme sadness at being unable to attend Teacher's Day at my old school this year. Since I left in 2002, I've attended it and/or visited the school around that time every year until... now. And it is such great irony that I can't attend this year because - guess what? I'M BEING EDUCATED. There's a seminar on the use of and new trends in expert evidence testimony which I simply cannot miss, which is a great tragedy because, work, you know, I could take leave for, but a one-and-only-seminar? Can't be missed. The timing clashes BEAUTIFULLY with the teachers' day celebrations, too. HENCE MY EPIC HEARTBREAK.

also in stupid news:

Q: "What is that sound?"
A+Q: ... "Silence. Why?"
A: "It's the sound of someone no longer paddling up that old Egyptian river."

Behind the cut is the most pathetic thing you will ever see in your entire life.
( why I found Inoue Suguru's blog so fun. )

Warning: THIS POST IS 屑, 屑 and THEN SOME MORE 屑:

ahahahaha today I created a document chronology until I made myself quite sick from all the document-to-screen-to-document, and I brought more of them home. BUT I was going to say something:

There was this story my Mom told me which I found hilariously funny. My mom was talking to her technician one day, and her technican was telling her about how she despaired of her little boy, who was about five or six years old, and according to his mother, demonstrated (in her opinion) negligible conversational skills, especially when talking to other people. But that wasn't all. "I hope he'll be all right," she said, to my Mom, "He wants to be a mechanic when he grows up. He's already wandering around the house with a spanner trying to fix things."

And all this at the age of five or six.

Younger inclinations don't always lead to the child's future profession, but sometimes, it is said, you can just tell. I am not entirely sure this sort of career prediction-based-on-childhood-predilictions worked with me, but just maybe...

( because younger me always did these things: )

ANYWAY. I HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT contrary to my beliefs, NOT EVERYONE KNOWS THAT ABYSS IS NOW AN ANIME, SO I MUST SAY SO NOW. SO HERE GOES:
- The Abyss anime will have 26 episodes.
- Go check out the Abyss teaser trailer: it has FLAILING SCREAMING GUY RECOILING from the Fabre maids. And PRETTY LUKE. ♥ (but then I am weak to Luke like Rolo is weak to Niisan)
- The Abyss anime PV: which has baby!Luke (goddamn you Sunrise, my heart wrenched), a really handsome Guy ♥, and all the amazing stuff you only saw in game CG coming to life in anime.
- Also raethes made this awesome Mieu icon for this OH-SO-ADORABLE scene in the PV where he's BREATHING FIIIIIRE at Luke's enemies, and doing it in such an adorable YAY!!! MIEU IS BEING USEFUL TO MASTER!! fashion. I-want-to-eat-him-all-up. (I have even more love for the icon and Rae's icon-making skills than Mieu is emitting in this icon, which is saying. A LOT.)
- eternal_rena put up these lovely Tales of the Abyss anime character sketches/previews from the Tales Magazine on the community. It's public, so accessible by all, and so pretty. The Luke character sketches and the Guy character sketches made me laugh the hardest. Oh Guy. You and your priceless expressions.
- Tales of the Abyss scanlated on OneManga! ♥ It's by the Wings of an Angel group (they have always been incredibly sweet when asking permission to use scans, and I would TOTALLY scan more if only I had the time T_T)
- Tales of the Abyss Chapter 13 is up, which makes me so happy, because it's one of my favourite chapters. It's the Asch-and-Luke MEMORIES IN THE RAIN chapter. ♥

Also, milk_of_lime did this ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS ROLO ARTWORK OVER HERE. No spoilers. But omg, so pretty I COULD CRY WITH JOY.

AH, AND, speaking of which, maiki, your Brave Story doujinshi got here! ♥ I've given Kura her copy, and omg. ♥ The cover is gorgeous, and my favourite story is, um, yours, actually. Because Mitsuru totally needed that. ♥ AHAHAHAHAHA. I kind of grinned like a maniac when reading it, so YEAH. ♥ I'm so happy to be able to own doujin drawn by you. ♥

As I wade through forests of paperwork for this new case, I can't help but think about words, and the meanings thereof. It's quite amazing how you can see one letter, and the world will take three different views of it (yours, mine, and the judge's).

But then again, the first let's-prepare-them-for-adversarial-practice and let's-play-at-lawyering exercise we were given in the bar course was one conducted by an actual lawyer, setting you up against a fellow student who'd play counsel for the opposing party. And basically what would happen in the fight for damages would be this. Your lawyer would tell you, "I want nothing less than $8,059." Then he or she would go and tell your opposing counsel, "I refuse to pay anything more than $59,27."

Then you go in for the mock hearing, not realising that the both of you have entirely different figures to fight for. (This happens in practice, only that this time, you know)

And then the judge (played by the same lawyer who gave you the Figures Whose Twain Shall Never Meet) goes :D :D :D, "I AWARD YOU $6,927." (Which means nobody is happy, so the case goes on appeal.)

Speaking of two different views of the same thing: I used to analyse literature in school; it was the kind of arrangement whereby they give you a sixteen-line poem and want you to write a four-page essay on authorial intent and what you think the poem is saying. I suspect that this is why I'm a particular way with commenting on fic; any of you whose stories I've left comments on would probably know.

annotate happened to mention literary analysis (they called it practical criticism where I came from), which made me recall what happened during my first lesson with one of my Literature teachers. He was teaching us how to analyse a poem, and I will always remember what he told us.

"Every poem is about drugs, or sex. Just make sure you get a reference to drugs or sex in, and you'll be just fine. When I say drugs or sex, it doesn't have to be drugs or sex. It can be, preferably, both."

(I can't help but think, now, If Reborn's Shamal was a Literature teacher)

So! Three poems, For Your Consideration:

( Gerard Manley Hopkins' Pied Beauty. )

And this is the stuff I got:
( e. e. cummings, 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' )

Poetry is never one thing to two people. I leave you now with a poem Niisan loves, but one which, back then, I did the mental equivalent of softly scribbling a question mark. I read it differently now, of course (and would totally post it uncut, but it is ten stanzas and approximately fifty lines long.

( W.H. Auden, 'Law Like Love.' )

I started following Code Geass R2 back in June, when Reborn was going too slowly for my liking. And it just so happens that Geass belongs in the category of, "The viewers are but toys in the hands of Sunrise, and Goro plays with us all for sport". Geass should come with a warning that says: Cliffhanger, Playing-Mind-Games-With-Viewers, Constant Heart-Breakage Expected.

I still don't regret it.

I have several very specific character Types I like (they usually come in two categories: the Cute Idiot, and the Cute Overprotective Obsessively-Loyal Character), but the other one I tend to have Instant Love for is the Small, Cute Thing with the Nii-san Complex (see FFAC's Kadaj and GunXSword's Joshua Lundgren). So my Geass favouriite was not only completely unexpected, but also entirely predictable.

Spoilers for Episodes 1 - 19 of Code Geass
Warning for an avalanche of screencaps

( general Episodes 1 - 5 spoilers. )

( TIMESTOP. )

( Code Geass R2 Episode 19 Spoilers START HERE. )

to the people I heart, a lot:

★dorkodile: WELCOME HOME! ♥ ~ AT LAST! ♥

☆ farfello: Do you know I kind of stared at the LJ coding and could think of nothing to type but KAASAN ♥ ♥ ♥ I, HAVE BOOKMARKED DATES OF YOUR RETURN, AND WE WILL SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN!! ♥

♥ rukia and lacewood: I NEVER THOUGHT THE DAY WOULD COME WHEN I WOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR THE BOTH OF YOU FORCING ME TO SIT THROUGH TMNT, but GUESS WHAT. It helped me HELP MY FIRM get into the top five for the Society Quiz.

( WHERE SPENDING YOUR LIFE ON THE INTERNET ABSORBING TRIVIAL INFORMATION PAYS OFF )

☆ warmperky: CONGRATULATIONS ~ AND CELEBRATIONS! ♥ *THROWS CONFETTI!!* ♥

♡ cynic_in_charge: DINNER SOON OKAY. ♥

★ seki_yumizu FOR THE MOST AMAZING SPANNER-TSUNA COMICS AND CHIBI TSUNA IN A JUMPSUIT EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WILL USE ICON FOREVER.

♥ risax: I MISS YOU! ♥

♡ little_ribbon, SEE YOU VERY, IMPOSSIBLY, INCREDIBLY, AND I-CAN'T-BELIEVE-IT'S-ALREADY, SOON ~ ♥

TO THE REST OF YOU: PLEASE MODERATE ALL THIS FILLING MY FRIENDS-LIST WITH SPANNER SPANNER AND MORE SPANNER AND THEN SOME MORE JUMPSUITS, IT MAKES ME KIND OF SIT HERE LIKE AN IDIOT GRINNING AWAY AT THE COMPUTER LIKE A MANIAC AND I CANNOT STOP OR WIPE THE STUPID SMILE OFF MY FACE.

... more QUIZ EVENTS ROFL! So basically, it was WHOLE BUNCH OF HILARITY AND MORE HILARITY, especially where people DID NOT KNOW THE ANSWERS and therefore started MAKING UP THEIR OWN. HERE ARE SOME OF THE BEST:

All names involved have all been changed to protect the identities of those involved.

MC: "On which day and where is the Society Dinner and Dance Held?"
Famiglia X: "Friday, at Gokudera Hayato's house."
Millefiore Conglomerate's answer: "Irie Shouichi will sleep with anyone to win this question. Just say the name."
The Poor Victim, I assume, to the General Uproarious Laughter and Universal Mockage: "WHO WROTE THAT?!"

[In the Cartoon Category]: MC: "The next question... I know some of you are of A Certain Vintage and may not be watching these cartoons, but you may have children who do."
An Eminent Lawyer: *STANDS UP* *points to one of the lawyers at his table* "THIS IS MY SON!"
MC: ".... Name all the eight official Disney Princesses."

And when the answers for the Disney Princess question came around:
MC: "No, 'S.P.G.' is not the right answer; 'Aladdin's girlfriend' is not her name; ... and... who is this Gokudera Hayato person whose name keeps appearing all over the place?"

( the answers within bear no resemblance whatsoever to the truth. )

So, okay, I got ABRUPTLY VOLUNTEERED FOR this legal clinic on Wednesday. It was on Thursday night, and then they were HERE YOU GO THE CASELIST ♥ and that's when I realised I had to prepare seven entirely new cases between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening. I went into PANIC LOCKDOWN and then I thought Hell, if I can do this, there is going to be so little that is going to scare me after that.

( so sad, so sad, it's a sad, sad, situation. )

BUT PLEASE I MUST ADVISE YOU. If you are ever attacked by someone with a can of insecticide, please do not under any circumstances open your mouth.

Ladies and gentlemen,
( WELCOME TO MY JOB )

( the games people play )

( I AM THE ONLY PERSON WHO EVER LOVED YOU. )

Also I got these amazing quizzes from adayume:

GUYS YOU HAVE TO TRY Wordle.

( ... god my results make me look like such a Reborn geek. )

So once I wrote this fic, which had, essentially, Spanner as the boss, and Gokudera as his right-hand man, with the both of them raising chibi!Tsuna. THEN I CHANGED ALL THE NAMES, but anyway, ( this is what the fic looks like when put through the FANCY WORD MAP PICTURE-MAKER )

ALSO THE NEXT ONE. I am always of the opinion that these seme/uke classifications never put me in the right place, ever, but in particular I demand a retrial for HIS ONE Seme/Uke quiz. I tied so perfectly in my result that the quiz had to give me a tiebreaker question to settle it once and for all, and EVEN THOUGH MY PERCENTAGES STILL WERE PERFECTLY EVEN, AND STILL I GOT:

( THIS MISERABLE EXCUSE OF A RESULT )

From narugami, That OTP Meme:

Name a series and I'll tell you the character(s) I would:

1. Bake cupcakes for:
2. Trust with the keys to my car:
3. Put thumbtacks on the chair thereof:
4. Have a crush on:
5. Pack up and leave if they moved next door:
6. Vote for President:
7. Pick as my partner in a buddy movie:
8. Pair up:
9. Vote off the island and into the volcano:
10. Wheedle into fixing my MP3 player:

Adi asked me about

( The Dresden Files )

AND JUST BECAUSE: ( RATAL )

Of course, there's the other OTP Meme that everyone's done:

( EVERYTHING I DO I DO IT FOR RATAL )

( so this was how this post started )

And then I realised that if I began that way the ENTIRE POST would be all about law and it was VERY VERY SCARY and there really, really is something else I would rather talk about.

Reborn Chapter 202
...oh, my God. Amano hasn't made me this happy since Chapter 187.

ohgod, world. You can keep your Hibari, I only have eyes for Spanner.

( no, wait, I have one 山本 comment )

so where was I - oh yes.
( YOU ARE MY UNFORGETTABLE FIRE )

also. while I'm on the topic.
Why did no one see fit to inform me that Graham Spectre (or Spektor) of Baccano
IS, BASICALLY, SPANNER -
AS A RAVING PSYCOPATH

Okay, fine: this is probably because not many people watched Baccano, to begin with, and Graham only turned up in Episodes 14 - 16, which were released on the DVDs, and therefore not part of the 1 - 13 arc that was Baccano proper. BUT STILL.
Listen, does this sound familiar?

wow image explosion in here, guys
( blond Mafia mechanic in a jumpsuit with a wrench )

( very very into the kidnapping of others )

Also when he really likes someone, he shows his love by telling them that THEY CAN USE HIS WAREHOUSE ANYTIME. He's like my visual Spanner until Spanner gets animated, but I don't know if Spanner will get animated as PRETTILY as Graham did.
( ... what the. )

AHAHAHA. I SHOULD, YOU KNOW. SLEEP. So that I won't be Largely Unconscious Tomorrow. But THIS COMPLETELY HAS TO BE WRITTEN DOWN otherwise I will never write it. If I even thought that Day 1 couldn't be topped by Day 2, I was so wrong.

COMPLETELY AWESOME THINGS ABOUT COSFEST

1. There was a really awesome Spanner.
With everything! Discovered said Spanner (dani3lr), another Shouichi (♥ - sagaraice) and a Leonardo Lippi (xiaobai7988), all with lollipops, minutes after changing into costume. I grinned like a maniac and thereafter was Made Happy by everything in olive green that I saw thereafter, whether they be waitresses at the sushi restaurant we went to for dinner, people who just happened to be wearing clothes in that shade of green, and, yeah. ♥

ALSO. Everybody who turned up as Spanner for this event was a Spanner/Tsuna fan. XDDDDDDDDDDD I GUESS IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY?!

( ahahahaha. )

2. atorii and ariesdraco, who were COMPLETELY WONDERFUL, even atorii WHO SOMEHOW MANAGED TO GET ME ON STAGE for the closing Caramelldansen despite my constant protests of NO I CANNOT DANCE, NO I DON'T WANT TO GO ON STAGE, AND NO I REFUSE, because I cannot say no to her, and also it turned out that it was VERY VERY FUN and I was happy I did it (especially since I managed to wedge self three rows deep and therefore virtually invisible).

3. THE. REBORN. EVERYTHING.

MY GOD. Towards the end of the event, Nia and Viral and I sat at the tables next to sarahcoldheart and just watched the event, and I was fed ENDLESS HAPPINESS by the constant stream of Reborn passing by. THERE WERE SO MANY CHARACTERS THERE I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE COSPLAYED. There was a Gola Mosca (MY GOD ♥) with a TINY HAND-SIZED CHIBI MAMMON, a Lancia complete will ball and chain, a Chikusa, a Chrome with a Muku-owl, a Lal and a Colonello, BASIL ♥, Byakuran and Shouichi, Spanner and Leonardo Lippi and Shouchi as mentioned above, MORE LAMBOS THAN I EVER IMAGINED POSSIBLE (WHAT THE HELL, REALLY, WHAT THE HELL), and a Gokudera and Tsuna I never saw apart (♥). And of course there was a TYL!Tsuna, Hibari with a tiny tiny Hibird, Mukuro, and, and - SORRY TOO HAPPY TO REMEMBER THE REST.

Oh oh oh and one of the best parts was the MASS CARAMELLDANSEN at the end of the event, and Gola Mosca being on stage to participate. ELIZABETH FROM GINTAMA WAS ONSTAGE TO DO THE SAME THING DEAR GOD I DO NOT KNOW HOW IT WAS EVEN POSSIBLE. And then there was the HILARIOUS CONSTANT CONGA LINES (led today by Anon from 4chan what the hell XD), and my favourite lineup included Lancia (WITH BALL AND CHAIN), Belphegor, and Lambo BACK-TO-BACK.

4. FOR SHEER WTF: that. that. onstage skit where Ichigo was the HORRIFIED RECIPIENT of a personal serenade of When You Tell Me That You Love Me from one of the lesser Soul Society arc's enemies. Ichigo reacted by beating the guy up, and I reacted by suffering a horrific attack of SHUDDERS DOWN MY SPINE and HELP MY EARS ARE BLEEDING. STILL WORTHY OF A HONOURABLE MENTION FOR BEST BRAINBREAK-INDUCING MOMENT. (They also got a hell of a lot of applause).

5. AHAHAHA saw mushrooms in Eyeshield! ♥ And despite SEEING THE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE COSTUMES as 80 + 21 shirts, I stared at them for MINUTES before looking away and thinking that I must have had the wrong people, because I was SO DAMNED SURE THAT THE NUMBERS I SHOULD'VE BEEN LOOKING AT WERE 80 and 27. When I told mushrooms this I was conclusively eyerolled and told that she'd just known I would do that. (ohcomeon I love the pairing!)

Had dinner with amarukei, sarahcoldheart, ariesdraco, atorii and kiellne after, and then we went for bubble tea and sketching and laughing at this hilarious OTT Korean drama that was being shown there. On the way home we rickrolled the entire train we were on and OHNOES'd them too.

ALSO dorkodile I MISSED YOU SO MUCH. :((((( We were talking at the table about Gintama cosplay and it's just that there are so many people I saw today that know you BUT YOU WERE NOT THERE. SO WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK FROM GERMANY, OKAY, I MISS YOU. ♥

THAT WAS AWESOME WOULD DO AGAIN. ♥

SO. COSFEST.

Kicked off with me going to change and finding Byakuran and Shouichi in the toilet.

So, being the mature, dignified adult that I am, I went ///////////////////////////// - and ran away immediately.

... it was all QUITE INNOCENT, really, and SO SUE ME it was only because I am always pathologically nervous about dressing up, and for some bizarre reason this is only magnified when I am around people I don't know. (... or think I don't know, as later events would prove)

I waited outside for a suitable period of time and went back in, only to find them still there. So I ran even further and hid on the second level until they left and the coast was clear. Then I raced into the washroom and INTIATED TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE, and then -

Shouichi walked in.

... God I sound like I'm writing bad fanfiction. I WISH I WAS MAKING THIS UP.

UNFORTUNATELY I AM NOT.

If I could have crawled down the sink right then, I would have happily done it. As it was, I stood there quite frozen, which was only exacerbated by the fact that Shouichi took one look at me and identified me instantly.

( cut to spare you A LOT. OF. REBORN. OHMYGOD. )

Later I ran into the other Byakuran and Shouichi and realised that they were dodgerscrubs and natsu_yuki. HI. ♥ IT WAS FUN MEETING THE BOTH OF YOU! We kept. getting. interrupted.by. photographers, but this was clearly because the both of them were very awesome and needed to be completely paparazzi'd.

.... WHY ARE ALL THE SHOUICHIS, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, SO CUTE.
Iwillstopbeingdisturbingnow.

I surfaced and met sarahcoldheart and amarukei, who told me that I'd missed out on a Reborn karaoke event featuring Sakura Addiction, which had Hibari and Mukuro fighting over Tsuna while Reborn rained confetti on them. Hibari, apparently, was also in possession of pineapples.

Incidentally, Rojak Labs has a gorgeous new doujinshi out. Check out the COVER:
( above us only sky )

Also managed to grab a copy of snowyuzuki's beautiful FF7 doujinshi. ♥ A+ ALL THE WAY, and I'll be looking out for her later works!

I think the Most Wrong Dialogue of the Day goes to me and mangy_mongrel. ( Here's Why. )

( oh. my. GOD. )

Then I ran off with mangy_mongrel to McCafe, where we sat with atorii + 59 + 27 + friend and had ice chocolate and stared at Reborn doujin. 59 is a GOKUTSUNA FAN LIKE ME EXCEPT EVEN MORE EXTREME SO THIS WAS 2X FUN.

HI TO EVERYONE I MET TODAY: (OH, YESTERDAY): greatcucurbita, snowykiss (thank you for the wig omg! ♥), hackney_ed, miharukuroda, ariesdraco, atorii, kreznick, dodgerscrubs, natsu_yuki, sarahcoldheart, amarukei, mangy_mongrel (there are more I think but names elude me now omg) AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO DOESN'T HAVE LJ. *grin*

Conversations with the Sibling on Cosfest

Sibling: "What are you going as?"
Me: "An AIR-CON REPAIRMAN."

(when discussing appropriate guns)
Sibling: "A MECHANIC DOESN'T NEED A GUN!"
Me: "THIS ONE DOES!"

And when this brother first set eyes on me in full costume (at the end of the day), he yelled, "YOU LOOK MORE LIKE A BOY THAN A GIRL", and then, because he was Not Quite Done Yet, yelled, "Look at you! Blond! And sitting there in your jumpsuit like the first word out of your mouth was 'TRUCK'!"
This will be the lamest thing you hear all year, probably, but d'you know when I knew that jumpsuit was perfect? When I found out that the only size they had that would fit me was Size 38.

THEN I WENT and had dinner with the family (which was extremely GOOD) and then went to meet lacewood, risax and cynic_in_charge to watch Wanted. IT IS. A BLOW-YOU-AWAY awesome movie that will have you ROLLING IN THE AISLES because dear GOD it breaks all the laws of physics, logic, and YOUR BRAIN. lacewood says it is like Dragon Tiger Gate for the Western world and Eve agrees, but of COURSE Eve would agree, for they are Borg.

Then we went for karaoke and IT WAS HILARIOUSLY FUN (except I AM SURE EVERYONE WOULD DISAGREE because they were not able to force me to sing for as long as they would have liked (because I had to go), but NEXT TIME, FOR SURE. ♥

HI WORLD

HELLO FROM JAPAN XD

Also, Yamamoto: Tenth says I can officially tell the world that I won the right-hand man fight. :D (if this does not make any sense, it is because Tenth said first to Japan gets to be the right-hand man. That means I WIN.)

Also if I had had my way we would ALL have been in Japan together. WHY ARE YOU NOT HERE PEI YI. ... also, because wherever I go THERE THE RAIN GOES TOO, the very day we arrived in Japan, the tsuyu season started. This means it rains cats, leopards, and kangaroos, ETC ETC ETC, FOR two whole weeks. (This also means that you will get perfect weather, Yi, because life is just unfair that way) This also means that I can now write a fic entitled 80 Kinds of Rain because that's how much I've seen over here.

... but here's the crazy thing. Day after I came here, I went up from Kyoto to Tokyo to meet Tenth (because my leave schedule and Tenth's leave were completely not in love with each other and this was so heartbreaking for the both of us, because it meant that when she was in my home country, I would be in Japan). And then I was GODDAMIT AM NOT MISSING TENTH BOTH IN JAPAN AND HOME COUNTRY, so I was TENTH I COME DOWN AND SEE YOU. (this is why the JR pass is MAGIC).

Tenth said it was crazy! Tenth said I was crazy!

Tenth did not, however, say no.

Tenth was very sweet and encouraging! SO I WENT! And we got to go doujin shopping together, which was AWESOME. I cry that I can pick good YamaGoku doujin for her (it was a NALIS cover how can you go wrong), and she found this really sweet GokuTsuna doujin anthology for me.

ALSO I GOT TO BRING HER YATSUHASHI.

AND IT TURNS OUT SHE LIKES YATSHUHASHI, so that made me about 27 times happier. Apparently you can't get it in Tokyo, you have to go all the way down to Kyoto for it - WHICH WAS WHERE I WAS COMING FROM. (lol it was so amazing. Tenth called later to make sure I was safe back in the hotel and I was apologising for bringing it in a plastic bag, and she was, 'Gokudera did that too!' XDDDD

And the weird thing is, since I met Tenth: the weather has been blue skies and sunshine ever since.

Incidentally, lacewood: June appears to be Yamamoto Doujin Event month. I actually really do wish you were here, you would love it. Or at least you would find it very funny. The YamaGoku doujin event is on the 8th of June, and there is a Yamamoto/Tsuna doujin event in late June.

... also, WHY AM I COMPLETELY COINCIDENTALLY IN JAPAN FOR THE GAKUSAI YAMAMOTO-GOKUDERA EVENT. WHY. (some evil and also masochistic part of me thinks it would be fun to watch from a distance)

(happiness except for the part where the first thing I did upon getting Internet access was check my work email to discover that I've been given several new files, one of which is Client Disputing Bill. NOW THAT SHOULD BE FUN)

So risax and I are in Tokyo at last! It has been a whirlwind week: we landed in Kansai on Monday morning, took the train to Kyoto, and were based in Kyoto for the past few days. On Thursday we went up to Nara (save your senbei [deer crackers] money! we went on a day when HORDES of Japanese schoolchildren were visiting Nara, and watching the tourists feed themselves to the deer was even funnier (and FREE) than the actual deer-feeding. The screams of YADA!!! and ITAI!!! (oh come on, the deer is only pulling at your clothes, not gnawing at you) are - excruciatingly funny. Clearly we also are sadists but that is a story for another day). And then after Nara, we went up to Osaka and walked the Shinsaibashi. And then we took the train back to Kyoto. All in the same day.

And then the next day, we came up to Tokyo, which is where we are now.

GOD I'VE GOT TO RUN BUT I WISH YOU WERE ALL WITH ME.

It feels really strange and crazy if I think about it too long, but:

I'm a lawyer now.
Over two hundred of us were called to the bar yesterday morning (the Victoria Concert Hall was specifically designated as a court yesterday for that purpose, because apparently, we all cannot fit into the Supreme Court).

And the judge who presided over our call quoted Shakespeare. ♥

The night before we were called, on our last day as trainee lawyers, some of the associates took us out for drinks by the river (which was really great of them, and I hope to be able to do this for the new lawyers when they come in next year!). And then all of a sudden this artistic spectacular with fireworks, fire, and theatrical artists suddenly happened on the river right by us. We had no clue what was going on (see, lawyers in the abyss of work - turned out it was the arts festival), but the surprise made it even more magical.

One of the senior associates yelled, "WELCOME TO THE BAR!" as the fireworks exploded overhead, and I really can't think of any other way I'd want my time as a trainee lawyer to come to an end.

Just in case you think it's always a fairytale, though: while the emails were being sent around asking if we were free for drinks, one of the associates asked if we weren't very excited about being called. And one of us wrote, in reply, "With great power comes great responsibility."

I cracked up, and then I realised that the lawyer's version of that would probably be, "With great power comes great liability."

I am so sorry I haven't been around much: I know I owe several people things, fic and coding and mail and comments among them, I think. There is an insane amount of paperwork and bureaucracy involved in the business of making lawyers out of people, and it is completely exhausting.

So, what I'd say to anyone who's thinking about becoming a lawyer, on my thoughts on the whole becoming-a-lawyer business?

... It's insane. It's crazy. It will eat up your head and nearly all your free time, your work-life balance will occasionally (if not frequently) consist of work = life, (... although, this does depend on what kind of work you choose to do and where you choose to work, so this is not a given).

It will change the way you look at the world and the people you meet. It will make you aware of so many things you never knew existed before, and it will make you care about so much you never even gave a thought about before. It will drive you up the wall and through the roof, and it will be fun in ways you never would have imagined.

DO IT ANYWAY. +

It will change your life. It's still changing mine.
+ I do have to warn you that this is coming from the person who insists on giving the law interns a honest answer when they ask about the horror stories about the long hours. My take on it is that if they're thinking about it, they might as well BE PREPARED. And from the person who used to force herself to go for mock advocacy trials even though they intimidated her to no end because she thought they would be good for her. (It turns out they were).

Full-day hearing tomorrow, so full-time stress-meter on today, much helped by meeting elvaron and M for lunch. ♥

Today is a special day, because it marks my time as a trainee lawyer finally and unbelievably coming to an end. Also noteworthy for the fact that Hibari's birthday fell at some point in the past few days when I was staring non-stop at injunction research. ONE DAY WHEN I GROW UP will I be able to bite people to death all by myself? ♥ One day, too, I will make a post about how my EPIC EMO at my occasionally not being able to do what the boss wants rivals Gokudera's in laughability, but then I tell myself to stop being internally hysterical and to stop kicking myself dammit and to take a deep breath, because I'm still learning and I will have to learn to forgive myself for making mistakes once in a while and not beat myself up viciously about it.

So anyway! All trainee lawyers have to complete this checklist of To-Do Things that are supposed to give us the right grounding and adequate experience in the profession (the checklist annoys me to no end because A LOT of what I do was never covered by the checklist. WHAT KIND OF CHECKLIST leaves out discovery and keeps due diligence in, for godssakes?! A CHECKLIST DRAFTED BY A CORPORATE LAWYER, OBVIOUSLY). So this checklist is supposed to remind you that you need to learn about court etiquette and how to dress and conduct yourself in court and I am: You know, I CAN THINK OF MORE FUN WAYS IN WHICH TO LEARN THAT. LIKE:

( which of these people won't get kicked out of court? )

And ohgod today I laughed so hard at THIS, in America's Sweethearts:

Narrator: Justice never tasted so sweet...
...as in The Bench.

Catherine Zeta Jones, as a wide-eyed defendant: I didn't do it. I'm innocent. Why won't anyone believe me?!

John Cusack (as her attorney): I object!

Judge: You're out of order!

John Cusack: No, you're out of order!
I object to the way my client has been treated.
I object that I've let my professional judgment...
...become clouded by my feelings for her.
I object to the way the room spins when she walks in.
I object, Your Honor, because I love this woman!

Aaaand then the attorney and the witness share a passionate kiss on the witness stand.

... AND THEN I LAUGHED SO DAMN HARD.

and because I HAD TO SAY it:
( your fantasy, my reality: or, why you shouldn't try this in court )

One of the nightmare cases I worked on recently resurrected in a most horrifying manner. When I picked up the printouts at the common printer my blood ran cold AND:

( this flashed through my mind )
Also and when I came home and dazedly told my mom, "One of our cases resurrected." ... she thought I was talking about a patient.