To-do

Kinda annoyed with myself for my avoidance in fulfilling a few key responsibilities these past few weeks, but I'm hoping to get a few of 'em out of the way tomossy. *knocks on wood*

Firstly, I really need to send my friend, Ben, a letter - 'cause bless him, he wrote to me all the way back in June, and even sent me a Christmas card a fortnight ago, and I still haven't had the opportunity to write two words to him in months.

Secondly, I need to contact my university about an important matter regarding my Masters course, but I've been putting that off for the better part of a month. Baka. It's a situation that can be easily resolved too with a little punctuality, but I'm fairly certain my procrastination's going to come back to bite me in the booty.

Thirdly, I really really need to get these SJA contest packages sent off to their new owners. But I have a reason for putting that chore off, I've been waiting for payday! After buying all that SJA shiz off Sam Watts recently, I've been proper skinto for the past month. No monies means no package sendyness. On top of that, I owe my dad like four hundred pounds, eek! So I'll be skint again this month by the looks of it, but atleast I'll be debt/obligation-free.

Fourthly, I need to send the SJA cast Christmas cards. A bit late but, I've been sending 'em one for the past two years - and I wouldn't really want to break with tradition. *dork*

Fifth...ly? I was intending to organise a birthday pressie for Tommy Knight's 17th next month...but...I'm in two minds. Last year, I wouldn't have given a second thought to getting him some custom drumsticks with his nickname on it, but this time I'm starting to wonder if it's a little...eh. Y'know? My fascination with his on-screen character's fading, as is my interest in the show *gasp* and this would've been okay, I guess, if there were something to fall back on - like Tommy Knight's personality/charisma? But y'know, my interest in that's waning too. If you've been a Tommy Knight fan for as long as I have, you pick up on a few things. And if you break past the somewhat guarded exterior, you notice a few recurring quirks that make you wonder 'Why exactly am I fan of this guy?'

Easy answer for most teenage fangirls but, this past year I wanted to know him better as a person. And y'know, after all the times I've seen him - I don't really think there's much going on below the surface... He's lovely I'm sure, but certainly not idol-worthy. Imho, his brother's actually more interesting than he is(!) Did I mention I found a video of the elder Knight going to Japan today? Lucky fook. Talk about a fuh-reaky coincidence. A fellow Japan-enthusiast in the Knight household, who'da thunk it?! I want to ask him about his experience!

In other news, I'm looking into enrolling into the University of Manchester's Japanese Studies course in 2011. Stay tuned!

Embarrassing?

You know how you go to some minority countries and learn the local lingo to communicate, and the native speakers are really flattered that you made any attempt to speak their language at all, despite any slip-ups you've made in pronunciation and grammar?

Yeah........I kinda have a feeling that isn't the case in Japan.

I don't want to visit the country until I'm a fluent speaker. There's no room for shades of grey for me, I want to be able to comprehend the language as much as I do my own.

I've been checking out some students on la Youtube who've studied Japanese for years and have even gone off to the country to teach, and most still weren't anywhere near fluent and struggle to express their thoughts without processing delays.

For me, that's totally unacceptable - and it's just so...embarrassing. I can kinda see how foreign people must feel emigrating over to English-speaking countries. In their mother tongue, they can articulate themselves well enough to pass for elegantly-spoken poets! But the moment they try to speak English, they sound uneducated and get looked down on by society. And I'm scared that's what awaits me in Japan. I really don't want to look thick. >_< I want to wow and impress! But as it stands, a Japanese tot is more fluent in the lingo than I am at present. Lucky bastard. Practice makes perfect, though.

As it stands, speaking Japanese is quite easy. Structurally, the order in which words are spoken is quite similar to my own native language. Plus, Pimsleur is INCREDIBLE. It's helping me to develop a skeleton of the language, which'll allow me to communicate and acquire more words as and when they come up. Exactly how a baby learns. It's the 'teach a man to fish' approach at its finest. =D

Constant reinforcement!

That's what you need if you want to learn Japanese. It's so easy to put off your lessons for another day 'cause you're bogged down with other stuff [in my case a Christmas get-together with friends last night] but now I'm two lessons behind :( Must. stick. with. it! Otherwise I'll fall into a rut of leaving stuff till tomorrow too often... That's the problem with self study, you have to force yourself to follow a strict regime. But as long as you have a picture in mind of what you're striving for, it kinda spurs you on to learn faster. In my case, I've now decided that I WOULD like to move to a Japanese suburb in the middle of nowhere after all :P It's a lovely environment to start out in, especially if I get to have cute little houses like this:

The guy who's filming that is in the same boat as me. Lucky fook's gone to Japan to teach English and he hardly knows anymore Japanese than I do at the mo'! And that little house only costs £100 to rent a month! Well...it might be a bit more now due to inflation. But yeah, totally striving for something like that now :D

Watashi-wa ai nihongo desu!

I'm quite engrossed in learning Japanese at the moment. Random yus but...I've just been watching THAT much anime lately. And they say anime inspiring you to learn Japanese is the worst reason to want to learn it, but I've always loved Japan, honest! The culture, the food, the customs, the lifestyle and of course, the country. And the only thing holding me back from flying off there now is learning the lingo! By the time I finish my Pimsleur CD course on learning Japanese, I'm hoping this won't be the case. I've got over a thousand pounds worth of learning tools at my disposal thanks to la torrent, so I'm hoping I can get a grasp of the language by 2011. It'll be my New Year's resolution and all, I'm just starting a little early :) I'm going to focus on just speaking and listening for the time being, I don't need to learn the 2000-letter Kanji alphabet just yet...!

All this self-study at my own pace stuff should prepare me well if I ever sought to take Japanese at university, which I'm considering... I may not go through with it, though. I mean, I don't need another degree to reassure me that I understand Japanese - when at that point I hopefully already will. Furthermore, universities place all these deadlines on you to force you to digest the subject - and may suck the joy out of learning for me. I'll keep it firmly as a hobby right now, but I wouldn't mind getting a few private lessons when I'm more further along and need to refine my fluency. I'm not paying someone to teach me the basics. I'd pay them to supplement and compliment what I already know. Kinda like having driving lessons.

I am thinking of doing the JET Programme, though. It has EVERYTHING I could possibly want to do. There is a risk it could send me out to the middle of nowhere, but I don't mind. I think avoiding the big cities for my first trip to Japan may be a good thing! But I won't even think about doing this until I get reasonably fluent...and save up lotsies. I could stay there for a maximum of three years! <3

Grand Day

I'm so unbelieveably happy! My 16-year-old neice got a scholarship to Rugby School today! *squeeeeeee!* Well, a half-scholarship, but it's still fan-bloody-tastic. She has the majority of her costs covered, but I'm going to try and pitch in with the other half, I'm so psyched! She's getting an experience I'd totally kill for, going to a prestigious private school and living out all her Ouran High School Host Club fantasies! Though, I need to get her into the series first :P

Speaking of which, I finished watching the final two episodes of Ouran the other day. The ending was nicely rounded off and it did make me incredibly weepy, but you could SO tell the story went on from there. So I did a little digging and found out that Ouran is still an ongoing manga series in Japan! Huzzah! Need to have a catch up on all the back issues pronto. Can't wait to see Tamaki again!

Saying goodbye's hard...

I've watched a few anime shows in my time: Death Note, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, Elfen Lied, Hellsing - but the show I've recently been indulging in, Ouran High School Host Club, is on another level of awesome! 26 episodes of pure unadulterated kawaii that's enriched my life for the better these past few days, with its emotionally resonant writing and surpremely well-characterised leads. Well, technically I've only watched 24 episodes so far. I'm watching the last two this evening...and I'm not looking forward to it one bit. >_<

I've laughed, I've cried...I'm inappropriately shipped :P

And in just under 12 hours, my week-long journey through this amazing show is going to be over. And I'm feeling the tingling feeling of loss already. :( I don't want it to be over(!) I've been tempted to not watch the last episode, saving it for my deathbed or something. But I hardly have the patience of a saint, so I'm going to spend the day at work trying to prepare myself for the inevitable. That way I hopefully won't have much grief afterwards.

Yeah, I'm going to be mourning anime. *dork* But I love this show and its characters that much. The world's going to be a bleaker place without it, I can feel it in me bones! And I doubt I'll ever find a show that can take up its mantle, not even SJA... But still, I'm glad the show found me. T'is better to have loved and lost and all that shiz.

Vampire shows are so frickin' emo...

What is it with vampire TV shows and killing off really interesting characters just when they're starting to get...well...interesting? They did it with Claudia in Interview With the Vampire, they did it with Godric in True Blood...and now they've done it again with Lexi fom Vampire Diaries! I'm close to shedding a tear over this one, Lexi was genuinely awesome! And then Damon had to go and be a BITCH >_<

I guess it's more shocking if you get attached to the character, but still...this was just...brutal. Even for Damon. Hope Stefan and Elena don't forget what happened to Lexi in a hurry.

Gah, need to write

'She Wolf' is a bit of an acquired taste [heck, it took me three listens to actually enjoy it] but once you're into the song, it's hard to get it out of your head...! :D Feels like I haven't had any decent music to listen to in forever. I'm just...not that current anymore, I think. When I get into a song, the cool kids are usually already over it and onto the next big thing. I'd probably pay more attention to musical trends if half the stuff out at the mo' wasn't so shite.

But there are a few gems out there. And just 'cause I'm not that into music doesn't mean to say I'm not into shows like X Factor, which I'm thoroughly addicted to at the mo'. Especially after this past weeks 'Rock Week' performances; they played 'Don't Stop Believing' by Journey!!! *squee!* I swear to god, I screamed at my telly the moment I heard those first few familiar notes being played - and I totally mimed along to all the words. *sad* Wasn't the most passionate rendition ever, but the fella who sang it has potential.

Anyhoo, I'm gonna start having a marathon of Dead Like Me in a minute, and Eerie Indiana over the weekend if I have the time. I'm on a retro kick at the mo'...anything to help me ignore my rather mountainous pile of errands. Fortunately I have the weekend off work, which should make up for lost time. Speaking of which, I need to try and book two Sundays off work this month, and get a quote on a limo as well as pop along to Salters to reserve a suit. Busy Busy.

Scarily true...

T'is like having a mirror held up against my own obsessions :P Erm, minus the tampons. Totally have an SJA box, though! *dork*

LAWL

I think I'm officially obsessed with this viddy/song:

*dork* It sounds so much better with a rocky guitar riff, eh? And as a friend of mine pointed out, the animation's superb!

In other news, I've got the latest episodes of Eureka, Defying Gravity and True Blood sitting on me desktop - along with District 9, G-Force and G.I. Joe. And I still need to get through the entire series of Hellsing and find a subbed copy of the new Higurashi episode. Dorkily busy day of viewing ahead of me, m'thinks. Seems so lame compared to the awesome time i had in Skegness over the weekend:

They even had small-scale theme park rides, and for a mere eight quid each - my nephews and I got to go on all of them as many times as we wanted! The only one we left off was the water ride, but the rest were brilliant! The Waltzer was my personal favourite. Jebus H. Christ, I've never felt so dizzy coming off a ride in my LIFE. Skegness has to be, quite possibly, the most fun I've had in a long time.

Why is it always the pretty ones?

As someone who prides himself on being desensitised to any level of violence and gore, I found myself close to frickin' TEARS watching Godric die on True Blood last night... It's been a half-hour since I've finished watching the episode, and I still have a lump in my throat. :(

So Godric's basically this wise 2000-year-old teenage vampire, and he committed suicide because well - he saw no purpose to his life anymore...I think? Age old cliche of emo suicidal teens, but you don't really think about that when you're watching the eppy:

What makes the scene all the more emotional is Eric. Horrid, chauvinistic, uncaring Eric - in tears. You have to watch the show to appreciate how rare and powerful that moment is. He unconditionally loved Godric - as a father, brother and son according to the show. But I'd like to think of their relationship was a little more...intimate:


God, they'd make a gorgeous couple. I'll really miss him. Off to find some Godric/Eric slash to cheer myself up. :(

Guilty Pleasure... :P

Caramelldansen, ftw! I blame my friend Kristen >_<

Back

Fear not! I haven't died or been a victim of some nefarious kidnapping plot. :P I've just had a full plate lately!

I had a superb fortnight abroad, where I got to ride a camel [yaay!], but a rather horrid week back home - where I've had to nurse my dad back from a suspected case of swine flu. Eek! On top of that, my brother's just had spinal surgery, my sister practically cut her finger off cooking and my nephew's really ill, too. :( All recovering fine, though - not to worry. :) In fact, I don't even need to babysit my dad anymore. Meaning I have more time to do dorky stuff like this:


T'is all the SJA stoof I've acquired since becoming a fan(!) *dork*

I used to have so little when I first started out. And now, I'm fairly certain I've beaten out all my former fandoms by miles!

"I have no doubt that the future has many more [obsessions] in store for me. And I also have no doubt that it'll probably be just as tight on my wallet(!)"

I wrote that all the way back in July 2007. It's freaky how right I was!

Jetting off

This'll probably be my last entry for a while, as I'm off to Dubai with me family in a few hours, woo! And not just my immediate family, but my brothers family, too - meaning I'll have a 9 hour flight with my nephew and teenage neices! Yaay! They're coming to our house in just under an hour, and then some big taxi van's going to take us all to Birmingham airport. We're setting off from home sometime after 6pm, but our flight isn't till 11pm - so we're in for a longgggg wait.

I've spent the day packing and repacking and trying to get me hand luggage weight down. Wsn't too hard on previous vacations 'cause they only lasted a few days, but I'll be in Dubai for TWO WEEKS so really have to take enough to last me. I'm not washing ANYTHING until I get home. Gawd, my laundry's going to reak. :P

Anyhoo, better go off and finish getting dressed - they'll be here any minute. If for whatever reason I die or something whilst abroad, make sure they choose a good Facebook picture of me for the news articles! And er, invite the SJA cast to my funeral or something :P T'would be awesome and make my afterlife complete. =D Toodles x

LAWL

I was having a chat with a guy called Lewis today about Sarah Jane's house, and how the family who live at 13 Bannerman Road [irl] get packed off to a nearby hotel when the Beeb are filming the show.

Their house gets a proper makeover to look like Sarah Jane's place, and then reverted back to normal before the family who live there return. I commented on how if the Beeb ever madeover my house for free, I certainly wouldn't want it reversed back to the way it was. To which Lewis responded with a hilarious little 'what if' scenario of the BBC wanting to shoot SJA at my house, and me refusing to leave!:

BBC OFFICIAL:
but its a five star suite Mr Nabu,

NABU:
yeh I'm good...

BBC OFFICIAL:
all expenses paid?

NABU:
nope, I'm ok.

BBC OFFICIAL:
I don't understand, why not?

NABU:
(watching various SJA props being lifted into his home)
I just..Don't want to..

BBC OFFICIAL:
Wait a minute...
(BBC official flicks through paperwork)
Oh my god...you're THAT nabusan!
GET THE STUFF BACK IN THE TRUCK! RUN!

NABU:
(falling to his knees in the dust of escaping trucks)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Probably not all that funny, but hey - it made me smirk :P Anyhoo, off to watch new Torchwood. Day Three, baby! They are coming...today!