Kise, have I told you how much I love you yet? <3

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The new trio dances on DWTS were awesome last night. Donald keeps getting gipped. Hymn does not approve. Also, Tristan looked gorgeous in a business suit. I loved him from when he showed up last season - it would be great to meet him someday :) He's quiet funny and good-natured and so warm and supportive. Oh, and Irish accent :D

Anyways, very easy day at school. Cleaned up my computer desktop some. Worked on the final scene of Part 4 - Chapter 4 (should finish it tonight if I actually try to focus). The irony is that the characters are really unfocused too. I guess that works out lol.

Got home and had more free time than I was used to… so I decided to practice painting my nails (Yeah… skills are subpar). What is equally subpar are my nails picture taking skills. I did my best =.= Anyways, to avoid wasting polish since I'm taking it off before the day is over, I just painted one nail with each color so you all can see what they look like without waiting four weekends. (EDIT: It took a bit of an age to take off and now I feel x.x from inhaling non-acetone nail polish remover which I found under the bathroom sink).

Shiny Dancer is a glittery light blue/silver fusion of sparklyness. It also reminds me of Anderson Cooper now.
Rose Radiance is just a nice metallic pale pink.
Royal Velvet is a sparkly deep blue that shifts to unsparkly dark purple.
Rococo-a-go-go is a galaxy in a jar ;) is a purple wine color with purple sparkles that change to gold depending on the light.



( Eight sort of fail pictures… )

(Left to Right): Shiny Dancer (Sephora by OPI), Rococo-a-go-go (ORLY), Royal Velvet (ORLY), Rose Radiance (ORLY)

Went to ULTA for the first time looking for a few nail polishes that I liked that matched/complimented what I usually wear. ORLY had a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal, which worked out 'cause Rococo-a-go-go was the first to catch my eye (and it is very close to the color of my bridesmaid dress!!) . My brother found Royal Velvet, but he had no idea where he got it from in the store (it was the only one left). Rose Radiance took a long while to find (and hardly ever wear pink in every day clothing (I'm much more blues and blacks), my dresses are mostly pink). Shiny Dancer was from JcPenny's and it was beautiful.

There was this really nice one ORLY that caught my attention, but I don't remember what it was called (I'll check next weekend after rehearsal). However, it was $12 a bottle vs. $8-$10 like the others were, so it was a no go. There was also this sort of frosty pink/silver color (in the Sinful Colors or Nicole by OPI line... I don't remember), but I am probably not going to get it since I have a pink one now already.

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(Click for larger images)
Izuki, Hyuuga, and Mitobe give things a thumbs up. I love these three a whoooole lot!
Kise looking super handsome. Kuroko looking super neutral. Kagami looking super focused.
Kise striking a pose for Midorima. Look at them sexy arms! Have I mentioned I like sleeveless shirts for athletic guys?
Kise... *melts*

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Pretty much took a week off of writing *gasp*. Real life too busy. Will get back into it this week. Today I subbed for HS English. I think the gloomy rainy weather pretty much eliminated any desire to do vocab worksheets lol. Followed by a Lord of the Flies chart (literary devices and about the characters). And it's Monday. Students don't like Monday. I don't really either.

*goes back to playing Angry Birds in Space*

As part of the funpotexchange. It was tough removing myself out of the PoT/FE for a week to attempt to write my first non-canon plotline AU, but I am very proud of my work. :) Also, the amount of shenanigans I had to come up with was quite a lot for me XD Hooray for expanding horizons, yeah? Little step by little step... Links lead to the community.
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Title: Operation Sea Biscuits
Author: absolutehymn007
Recipient: reddwarfer
Pairing: Sanada/Yukimura (small hints of Niou/Yagyuu and Marui/Kirihara)
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13+ or T (rum drinking, a few swearwords, mentions of adult concepts, implied but not described sex).
Word Count: 13,276
Summary: Yukimura Seiichi escapes from his cruel life of being someone else's property and treated like an object with no feelings. Fate leads him to finding himself aboard Captain Sanada Genichirou's ship and his crew of extremely skilled pirates. A turn of luck and Yukimura finds himself working as a deckhand while traveling towards their next destination, but feelings start to form between the stowaway and the Captain, and the crew decides to get involved. Lots of crew shenanigans and rum drinking!
Notes: Please excuse the limited usage of stereotypical pirate speak and my vague explanation of boat rigging.

Chapter 1 - Escape and Capture
Chapter 2 - A Master Plan
Chapter 3 - Treasure Map to the Heart

Kuroko no Basket. Recommended by Sarah. Now fairly obsessed.

- Watched the OP of Ep. 1 and was like… "Wait… I recognize that voice… OMG THAT'S KISHOU TANIYAMA FROM GRANRODEO ONE OF MY FAVORITE JAPANESE GROUPS EVER". It was a good sign.
- In the group shot of the OP, I picked out my first impression favorites - the blond hair guy with the model persona, the one that looked like young Roy Mustang from FMA, the really tall red haired one who looked intimidating, and the green-haired one with megane.
- Kise Ryouta (the blond). WIN. I don't know how to quite explain his personality yet (it's like confident humbleness but has a challenger's spirit… kinda. I'll get back to you after Episode 3). Whatever it is, I am drawn to it and I LOVE IT. It's like Atobe fused with somebody else.
- Kagami Taiga (the dark red haired). Mr. I Will Be Number One and Beat the Generation of Miracles!!!!!!!!!! Hardcore determination - short temper - competitive - scowls/frowns/looks annoyed quite often. I am reminded of Sanada.
- Izuki Shun (young Roy Mustang). He's a supporting character on the main team. Don't know too much about him, but I know I like him. Just intuition. and not because he looks like young Roy Mustang.
- Midorima Shintarou (green-haired megane). Definitely don't know anything about him. However, based on appearances that resembles quite a few of my other favorite characters, I feel like he's going to have a similar personality to a few of them. Another intuitive feeling.



Went image surfing at bit at wifi today. My current top 2 in the SAME PICTURE!!!!!!!!!

- Downloaded 130 chapters of KnB today. Will be reading a bit each day. So excited!

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In other news, bought Kuroshitsuji 9 (the start of this new arc is questions-lead-to-questions, things aren't how they seem, mystery and I LOVE IT), Uragiri wa book no Namae wo Shitteiru Vol 3 (which is really Vols 5 and 6) (Senshirou's abilities are awesome! and Shuusei, my fav, got some awesome panels where Hotsuma interacted with him), and Pandora Hearts 9 (halfway through it… they just met Elliot Nightray again and he's my fav!). And read Ch. 75-81 of 07-Ghost (oh how I have just MISSED reading that!). Got so pumped and nostalgic about it - ended up spending 2 hours on wikia re-connecting thoughts on characters and the plot. <3

Finished Part 4 - Ch. 6 of PoT/FE today. It's… a lot longer than I expected. Story of Part 4 chapters right there. This leaves the (now added even though it was already completed) scene of Ch. 3, the last scene of Ch. 4, the last scene of Ch. 5, and almost the entirety of Ch. 8, and it's "done". There are like six or seven chapters in Parts 3 and 4 that need word extensions (which will easily be done through editing for balance).

Watched a 20/20 special on how Dancing With the Stars is all put together over a week and how the celebrities and the pro dancers lives have been changed. Regarding the putting it all together and all of the stuff that needs to happen quickly and accurately and constantly without mistakes or delay… It definitely reminded me of how I write PoT/FE. Go go go go go. Plus I have a Len inside my head who never gives me a 10 on my work lololol, but I love him anyways. Bruno inside my head amuses me though - he tries to keep my enthusiasm level high while writing.

Yeah, that's it for now. Got some school thoughts to post eventually one or two days from now.
And Kristin & Mark, Donald & Peta, William & Cheryl for the Top 3 in DWTS! But man, Jaleel and Roshon! Too hard to decide.

Guess what was finally completed successfully today?





Joushou Rikkaidai.

Things accomplished today:

- Revision of Resume to include sub. teaching experience
- Getting confirmation from a band director that I have been subbing for to use him as a job reference.
- Quick job search: Positions open that I want to look into include...
1) Middle School Band Director/High School Marching Band Assistant (Randolph Townships School, New Jersey)
2) Instrumental Music Teacher (6th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, Jazz Ensemble, Pep Band Assistant Director) (Fergus Falls Public Schools, Minnesota)
3) Middle School Band Director (5th-8th grade) (Manteno Community Unit School District 5, Illinois)
4) High School Band Director (Ridgefield Public Schools, Connecticut)

I went through 200+ job listings and went with the ones I can teach (no vocal music) and want to teach (no elementary music or anything with suer strong jazz bands or a percussion ensemble... not qualified). Y NO MICHIGAN? Or Wisconsin? Or Pennsylvania? At least Illinois was on there (that's my second choice of state).

Later Tonight/Tomorrow:
- Post a new chapter of PoT/FE
- Look into these jobs and start applying
- Search for secretary/office work jobs
- Write more PoT/FE (finish out Ch. 10, get somewhere with the next scene in Ch. 5)

And I updated my "Classes I have Subbed For" list just because I like to see what I end up more in...

( List here... )

This is a surprise for Azi…



Sorry, I failed at drawing a biscuit! But it was too amusing to try to fix.
I loved how the French Toast turned out though… and the expression to the Despairing Pancake.

Monday night is DWTS night and it was Rock Week (not one of my favorite weeks because some of the music they pick to go with the dance makes it rather difficult for the performers… I mean, Bohemian Rhapsody for a tango??? Gladys did well with it despite the fact that the tempo changes, there's no logical musical connection between parts, and all other sorts of business, but she couldn't showcase anything) (I like "Most Memorable Year aka A Dance Dedicated to Something Meaningful in their Life" week or "Movie" Week or "Instrumental Music Only" Week). Anyways, this season, everyone either all does well or they are sort of do lackluster and the rankings shift quite a bit…

All that aside, if you don't know it already, my favorite dance is the Paso Doble (closely followed by the Viennese Waltz). But UNFF, Paso Doble is male domination, power, intensity, holding frame, passion, RAWR! (and of course, the waltz is elegant, graceful, flowing, expressive, beautiful… now I wonder why i like the two polar opposites?). And tonight…

LD;JA;DKFJA;LKJFLSDKJ
DONALD DRIVER'S PASO DOBLE TO PURPLE HAZE!!!!

Like he said, there's something about football players and doing a spectacular job with the dance. I have a few favorite dances from each season (usually the Paso or the Waltz, but the Rhumba, Tango, and Samba show up once in a while), and that dance is pretty much unforgettable (my preference goes towards Latin instrumental music for the dance, but this one was kind of cheeky yet powerful and engaging) Thank you Donald Driver!

Yesterday, I wrote 2,735 words in a few hours. I'm quite behind today (maybe 600 words?). Back to the PoT/FE universe I go…

- Letter Meme from lucathia will be posted tomorrow
- Still need to put up stuff from bday weekend (make time Hymn, MAKE IT!)
- Work on fixing up resume. Starting tomorrow. E-mail band directors I've subbed for for a letter of rec. Search for jobs. x.x
- Feel successful??? Maybe when I finish my story.

Happy 22nd Birthday Massu!!!
I hope that it was a wonderful day
filled with love and joy with
your family and your friends.
Keep on smiling that
beautiful smile and singing
with that wonderful
voice :)

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Tonight I had band rehearsal and it was the director's birthday (she turned 55! Fyi - she was also my 5th/6th grade band teacher). She was away for part of rehearsal because of parent/teacher conferences so we had plans to all play Happy Birthday in the key of Bb concert when she showed up and gave us the downbeat of the first song she wanted to rehearse.

Well, she showed up way later than she wanted to and we had rehearsed almost all of the songs except two and another song that we skipped the middle 3 movements. So she chooses a piece where only the flutes and clarinets come in at the beginning with this light, happy skippy type tune lol... but we all waited to put our instruments up at the last second so that it wasn't obvious... and the SHOCK on her face when it was Happy Birthday instead was just priceless! There's a video - will post a link when it gets shared by that person.

Mostly Happy Birthday... at the "Happy Birthday Dear _____", some peoples "play by ear" skills went out the window - mine included. Five semesters of aural comprehension has definitely drained out of my system if it can't figure out Happy Birthday. But then again, that was figuring out the song by writing it down on staff paper... I couldn't coordinate it with my instrument on the fly. Aural comprehension was my arch nemesis during university. *shakes Tarundoru Bat at it*

Also, +1000 words exactly after my latest post today. WHOO!!! The end is in sight for Ch. 2!!! And the 65% mark for Ch. 9!

Click to make bigger.

I've been wanting to use that picture of Kane in the upper left hand corner for the longest time and I really just had no idea what. Then, the other day, I was like, "I must make my lj profile look cooler!" and that picture came to the forefront of my mind. There are many experiences I've gone through that have made me make an expression like that - the joyful and amazed smile laugh :D The same goes for the other picture of Baba with the faraway thoughtful dreamer expression.

Thus layout was born. The avatars (from the outside going in)
are Friends | Smiles | Seriousness (I have structure everywhere!).

Then the "Who I Am" column and the "Personality/Skill Traits" row. Threw in two of my all-time favorite quotes to fill up space on the bottom. This is also the first time I've done anything in monochromatic and so I'm proud of the end result.



Made a NaFEWriMo Banner, which I put on my profile underneath my NaNoWriMo Sanada one.

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Today is more Part 4 - Chapter 9 and Part 4 - Chapter 2. Hoping to possibly have them done by the end of the week! Ch. 9 is going to be long omg. Anything chapter that has Niou/Yagyuu in it just keeps going and going and going (either through dialogue or by the events that occur).

Anyways, ori asked how many typed pages PoT/FE adds up so far, and since I don't use a program that counts pages when I write and I still have like 90 written journal pages I haven't typed up yet, it's an approximation. But here we go...

Prologue, Part 1, Part 2 - 82,012 words
Part 3 and some of Part 4 (NaNo) - 100,500 words
Finishing Part 3 and what I have done of Part 4 (NaFE) - 25,807
+500 words so far today = 208819 words total

/ 480 words per page = 435 8.5"x11" with one inch margin pages.
x 2 = 870 pages (like the pages are split in half for book form)

... There are 5 chapters left (plus editing) and each chapter will be in the 5,000-7,000 range. Let's hope there isn't a page limit for printing this.

Concept Art:



There is much rejoicing to be had since…

1) I spent only 15 minutes finding their heads (hooray for PoT Another Story II).
2) Their clothes required zero change of color (unlike my fancy rich Hyotei guys)
3) I didn't have to fight their hair as hardcore to get it out of the background (darn you Kirihara and Yukimura hair)

I like it when I can save 2-3 hours of time.

( Katta Mon Gachi Ya… )

Other PoT/FE news:
- I'll get a final word count for NaFEWriMo (I did write every day! *pats self on back*) and celebrate Part 3 FINALLY being completed. Thank you Baba the Badass!
- I made it through the first scene of Part 4 - Chapter 2 today. Looking to get a ton done tomorrow (I would have more done today, but I subbed for HS Art and decided to try my hand at the project they were doing. Entry about that tomorrow). It's a pivotal chapter in the story and very very emotional. Gotta get it done right!
- Haven't edited Part 3 for a while. Must get back on that too so I don't have to go back a few chapters and re-read again to make sure I remember exactly what connects where.
- As far as concept art, I'm down to just Seigaku… but there are quite a few of them so it's going to take some time and motivation. Not a high priority, but that's where I am. Also, got a great idea for General Sanada (he doubles on swords and a good friend brought my attention to someone when we were thinking about ideas for Tezuka). He's going to look BA for sure!

School tomorrow. Have a good night all! And I need to upload a Shitenhouji icon

Today…

- I sorted a huge pile of pictures and projects on my desktop into their appropriate folders. It's one of my least favorite things to do But of course, I wouldn't have this problem if I saved them to the right folders in the first place. =.= My desktop is one of the only places where I am so disorganized.

- Read Part 4 Chapter 4 of PoT/FE to see what on earth I wrote and to see if I could move the "Reading Books" scene to Yanagi's chapter. Yeah, I didn't remember writing all that I did for that scene and my mind was blown lol. I think I remember everything else I did during NaNo, but that was like "What? There's all that detail and even Yagyuu is in the scene when I thought it was only Sanada and Yanagi? Do not remember!" But it was so nice to sit and read and laugh at the funny moments. And all of the Sanada torture. <3

- Passed the halfway point of Part 4 Chapter 1 in writing. Niou talks a loooooot haha. Yagyuu and Niou discuss their childhood/past - it's a nice change from writing about the past in flashback form. Once that discussion is done, then it's time to push the plot ahead for one of its largest emotional obstacles. Looking to wrap up this chapter soon.

- Watched Atobe's Gift because I LOVE it and haven't seen it in a few months. And I used to watch it like every other week. It was real fun 'cause the first time I watched it, I had only seen like ten episodes of Nationals and almost all of the Fuji and Tezuka and Atobe matches. And then I started getting the inside jokes and figuring out the rest of the characters as time went on and I watched/read more PoT. And this is what Hymn gets for doing things out of order lol. But Hymn enjoys the out-of-order thing. Hooray for spoilers too!


Handsome guy <3 His character is so much love.

( Six Random screenshots… )

Happy 28th Birthday KenKen!
Hope that it was a wonderful day
with family and friends :)

And by randomness, it really is just a set of screenshots primarily featuring Ono Kento ^^

Today was Midwinter Break for most schools (and next Monday too)… so I had a whole day to be productive. Which meant I really wasn't as much since I get more done when I have set things to do in a day =.=

- Watched Shin PoT Ep. 7. I'm not even sure how hell training could feel so slow and not really intense. Need a day to think about how to recaption this one.
- Watched Sekaiichi Hatsukoi S2 Ep 10. Was reminded that the main character is very oblivious/dense/idiotic and that I want to chokehold him.
- Skipped around some PureBoys special just to see what it was about. Some cooking, some of them sneaking around, and a surprise party for Ouji to name a few things.
- Skipped around some Goseigers Versus Theatre clips that I forgot I had downloaded. They're interesting and fairly amusing so I'm going to have to sit down and watch all 29 of them :) Skimmed a bit of the Last Epic as well.
- Spent an hour and a half making a userpic because the picture was too good to pass up (found it yesterday when flipping through screenshots of Tenimyu backstage to answer a meme question). However, most of that time was spent making the picture look better because it wasn't the greatest quality and everything (skin, clothes, background) was this yellowish hue. In the end, it turned out really well! *proud*

-> What I need to do: Edit/Error-Proof PoT/FE Part 3 and do some more writing. I was slacking off today in that regards Now back to it!


Ouji is the hidden fifth chef from Cafe Daikanyama >D

( Ono Kento from the Goseigers Versus Theatre clips… )

♥ To all of my friends -
I hope that you will continue to be
surrounded by love in all different
forms each and every day ♥

Thank you to all of those who sent me v-gifts!!!
I was so surprised when I saw the e-mail notifications
and your thoughtfulness really made my day special. *hugs*





NaFEWriMo

- I got through the Kirihara chapter of FAIL after many days of being angry at it and how much I did not set myself up for success with that chapter. I knew it was going to be really hard so I skipped it during NaNoWriMo so I wouldn't lose my insane pace lol. I was trying to match the general wordcount of the other chapters surrounding it (which they had either a pre-battle scene, post-battle scene, and/or something about their past) and this one had none of the above. In the end, this chapter ended up being just a bit longer than Marui's chapter and Jackal's chapter. //willpower to make it work// After some editing though, the Kirihara chapter will end up being the shortest, but it's okay because at least it's in the ballpark.

- An average of 1,000 words a day is good, but that means I won't be getting 50,000 by the end of the month. Come on February, why are you not 50 days long?! I may have to talk to Baba the Badass about a compromise in plans considering this…

1) There are 8.25 chapters left in Part 4 (I did 1.75 of them in November).
2) The chapters are going to be shorter because I want to end things kind of the way the story started - light-hearted, peaceful, exploratory, humorous, where they are in life, and showing their relationships with each other.
3) If the remaining 8 chapters are 4,000 words each, then the final word count will be 46,000.
4) I haven't really thought about Part 4 in depth and I usually spend a few weeks working out dialogue and scenarios in my head before writing them.
5) The story needs to be finished for this to even be possible.

I'm thinking about about negotiating it down to "Writing at least 1,000 words a day for every day in February" so that way I don't feel so forced to make things happen when I'm not ready for them. And I do want to enjoy this last part because there is not SUPER COMPLEX PLOT going on finally.

Other News
- Finished typesetting Houkago 37
- Got caught up on Recaptions
- In the middle of formatting the GIANT 7 Questions Meme entry
- Subbed for 9th grade and 12th grade English… Apparently, my poetry skills need re-sharpening because reading it and comprehending it to answer the questions was a struggle.

Boy, you took the words right out of my mouth!
-> So, what are these tennis balls made of? Considering they can break apart parts of the cliff, but somehow the weight of middle school boys don't affect the cliff much at all..



Lookin' good there, Fukubuchou! <3


So, lots of animation fail. Probably because of the massive revolt from Episode 5 lol. *shakes Tarundoru Bat at them* But the eagle is so cool and fluffy! He gets pro points :) And there was lots of Sanada :D

( 42 screenshots… )

Just nice screenshots :) I like well-drawn scenes. And Yanagi just looked really good.









Okay, so we all remember the Declaration of War entry and finally seeing what my Tarundoru Bat looked like… which, btw, was forged from the flames of war and the blood of my foes. XD Dear Animators, I still rage at you and your failure to include one of THE MOST IMPORTANT matches. GRRR.

Anyway, very late recaptions. I'm going to try to get Ep. 6 done this weekend so I don't fall more behind. I apologize in advance if they don't sound as clever… some episodes are prime poking fun at material and others are not

( 31 recaptions… )