During Otakon 2008, my sister and i both paid for our first art commissions. i asked Vivian Lai for Aang and Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender

so cute. and my sister got baby Batman & Heath-Joker

i wanted to make more commissions the next year but the artist didn’t return. i suppose i can always inquire online. i love you, internets

so waaaay back in September, i commissioned an Allen Walker+Timcanpy from NTDevont but forgot to post about it

i really love NTDevont’s chibis but i was slightly disappointed with mine because he looks angry/in battle-mode. i guess i should have specified that i wanted him happy. oh yeah, and timcanpy has no detail ^_^;

he’s still super cute so next time i will specify all details. lesson learned

• Stargate Universe (Syfy): remember the young/hip version of SG1 on ep200? well, it came true in a most horrible way (a half-assed, unpleasant reworking of various SG1 stories)
  • TWO explicit sex scenes in first month on air??!?!?
  • all the in-space camera shots are copying battlestar galactica
  • what is with the paramedic’s pearl earrings and ridiculous fancy updo? is there no military consultant on this show?
  • death by sand in ep106:Water lasted for about a minute…unacceptable
  • the above episode convinced me to give up on this branch of the stargate franchise. and it’s a record! i watched almost all of Atlantis and it hurt my brain the whole time. literally. every episode, i was on the couch/bed groaning and moaning “OH MY GOD this is so boring you suck who writes this crap CORNY why do i have to watch this [so that i could understand storylines overlapping with SG1, and then when SG1 got cancelled, just so i could have some stargate in my life]” having wasted my time on Atlantis helped me to let go of Universe more easily and quickly
  • i’m embarrassed for the creators and their families. needless to say, SGU has been deleted from my DVR
• 오빠밴드=Brother Band (MBC): i read that this show was going to be cancelled before i even watched an episode. and now i have yet another show’s demise to lament. as a music lover, it’s a lot of fun to watch this group of celebrities (6 “musicians” + 2 comedians) forming a band and going on adventures as one. then i saw the 대학가요제=Campus Song Festival episode and firmly believe that MBC is stupid for approving this revolutionary (for korea) premise and then not giving it support all the way. now i want to be in a band, too. keke. anyhoo, i will strive to follow their motto:

젊은이는 늙기전에, 늙은이는 죽기전에
=young people before you get old, old people before you die

• The Swan (1956): The image of Grace Kelly that I’ve had since i was little was that of an ethereal princess. i finally saw her acting for the first time in Rear Window. and she was indeed beautiful and a pretty good actress to boot. but when i watched The Swan, i was so disappointed! she looks really awkward (and not just because of her character) and i thought perhaps this was one of her earlier movies since she looked a lot younger. but afterwards, i found out that this film came out 2 years AFTER Rear Window. what the…in any case, meh to Grace Kelly but Alec Guinness was out of this world. i’ve only seen him in Star Wars, which i will venture to say is probably the case with most people i know, and it was really fun to watch Obi-Wan as a kick-ass prince. overall, boring movie, interesting ending
• what’s with all the lesbian characters in this season’s new series? asian one in SGU, black one in White Collar, and white one in FlashForward. congratulations to the gay community for achieving “token lesbian” status in television. you beat us asians to it

this radio station is always on at work and it’s chock full of trivia/useful info for me. for example:

•i’ve really wanted the recording of Dvorak’s Czech Suite in D Major, Op39 used in Nodame Cantabile but youtube was not helpful in figuring it out. i’m pretty sure i googled it at the time but couldn’t find the answer. on oct.30, it started playing on WQXR!!! imagine my excitement. i (im)patiently waited for the piece to end so the DJ could give me the info. finally the host said “that was Dvorak’s blah blah blah performed by…” and right then, my boss and some other people started talking at FULL volume. i was sooooo devastated. i figured that a classical music station wouldn’t be high-tech so with no hope, i went to their website and was i wrong! you can go WEEKS back to see what they played on air!! and the answer was (drumroll please…)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Libor Pesek
1990 Virgin Classics 90769

they even had a link to the CD. which i am very tempted to buy…
here’s a different recording of the 2 movements used in Nodame:

 

•i never knew that “Once Upon A Dream” from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is actually a melody from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite…

•or that the famous famous song from 모래시계=Hourglass (popular korean drama) is a classical piece, Sonata No12 in E by Paganini

•i always said “Shostakovich” with an accent on the STA but i learned today that it should be SHOstaKOvich

how could you cancel Dollhouse!?!?!???? have you SEEN the last few episodes? i was hoping Eliza Dushku would get an Emmy nomination for ep202: Instinct.

Joss Whedon sux too. he shouldn’t start things he can’t finish. at least Firefly got an awesome movie to tie up things. what are they going to do with a story like dollhouse??

or is google chrome getting worse and worse. i keep encountering new problems left and right! i switched to chrome as soon as it came out so they better not let me down!

woman: i don’t exercise, but they got me on this… W-Wii? they tell me it’s a computer thing

man: oh yeah, i’ve heard of that

(this was actually posted on nov19 because i was DEAD sick in october)

my rating system:
* sucked
** i “picture-go-fast”ed parts
*** fun to watch
**** i recommend it to the world~!!

• Silent Movie (1976)**: one of my all-time favorite movies is Robin Hood: Men in Tights****. after all, robin hood + musical comedy + Cary Elwes = gold. so i thought i’d love Mel Brooks’ other films but they’re all quite boring. [Young Frankenstein*, History of the World: Part I**, Spaceballs**, The Producers*]
  • Bernadette Peters is so cute. she’s how i thought Shirley Temple would’ve grown up
  • this film is actually a silent movie
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)**: this is the 3.5th Kubrick film i’ve seen [the previous 2.5 are: Eyes Wide Shut(psychotic), Full Metal Jacket(bad acting), and A.I.(ridiculous adaptation)] and he’s weird…
  • Peter Sellers is brilliant here in his multiple roles
  • great acting from all
  • i like the silly obsession with bodily fluids
  • the japanese still make some bloody good cameras
  • you can see James Earl Jones pre-Darth/Verizon
• Sanctuary (Syfy)***: SPOILERS – highlight to read
  when ashley poofed away (awesome CG) i wondered how they would bring her back. is there an alternate universe where only teleporters can go? was it a clone? would the sanctuary gather her dust and piece her back together? or did another actress ask for more money? turns out, none of the above. they just freakin’ killed her for no damn reason. now i was definitely not a fan of ashley, but she was part of the TEAM. i was shocked when she was replaced in the opening by the frizzy haired indian girl, who SUXX0RZZZ. moreover, it seems from the shock of losing her daughter, Magnus has lost her british accent in subsequent episodes. or perhaps the hiatus had a similar effect on Amanda Tapping that vacations have on students’ knowledge retention. those spring/summer breaks are killer

some of the movies i saw this month.
my rating system:
* sucked
** i “picture-go-fast”ed parts
*** fun to watch
**** i recommend it to the world~!!

• Oklahoma! (1955)*: BOOO~~~~~~~~~R (k)! ing
• Kismet (1955)**: enlightened me of the existence of white peacocks
  
  aren’t they pretty!?!?!? the eyes on regular peacocks’ feathers scare me, but i can appreciate these white ones without being freaked out
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)**: the ax-swinging choreography in clips of “Lonesome Polecat” i had seen before seemed so ghei, but in context, it’s beautiful. i could be going crazy, but i swear the version i saw on TCM was more a cappella-ish… O_O
• Galaxy Quest (1999)****: i rewatched it to see Tony Shalhoub and i’m glad i did because what a GREAT movie. i feel like i can appreciate it even more now that i’m a Stargate fan.
• Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)***: a wonderful film. i teared every time a familiar song came out and i’m not even patriotic!! i’ve never seen anything with James Cagney before, but he’s amazing. he dances with such precise ease. just once in my life, i’d like to be able to fly around like that. he reprises his Cohan role here 13 years later (apparently for free in honor of Mr. Foy) and i think he kicks Bob Hope’s ass.
• The Tender Trap (1955)***: Celeste Holm (Sylvia) is wonderful and Debbie Reynolds & Frank Sinatra are too cute. Debbie always gets to wear the most gorgeous dresses.
• Step Lively (1944)**: Sinatra can’t lipsynch. i really like the finale (“Some Other Time”) but i couldn’t find a clip. here’s “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are,” another very cute number with Gloria DeHaven (who was only 18 or 19 at the time!!) singing in a bathtub followed by Sinatra’s version.
• Fiddler on the Roof (1971)**: religion sux, poverty sux, being a parent sux. some incredible songs tho
• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)**:
  -life is hard
  -i realized i have no idea what Charlton Heston looks like
  -i love Betty Hutton but she overacts T_T
  -what’s with the shots of bored kids eating ice cream?
  -Buttons’ doggie’s so cute
  -the 2 tiny “elephants” are so adorable!!
  -what’s with Heston’s unibrow towards the end???
• The Little Princess (1939)***:
  -i would’ve given this great movie 4 stars but the ending was half-assed
  -Shirley Temple’s adorable and you can see her dancing with the constable from Mary Poppins!
  -i like that we don’t see much of the bullying from the children. i hate stuff like that.
  -i remember how unfair it was as a child to be brushed off by adults. why do we forget and do it to the next generation of kids? humans are dumb
• The Stork Club (1945)***: i became Betty Hutton’s fan after seeing a clip of her mesmerizing performance of “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief” from this film
• What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)*: this is the only Woody Allen film i’ve ever seen and it certainly doesn’t make me want to watch anything else he ever made
• The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)**: my favorite part in Singin’ in the Rain, released the year before, is Debbie singing “All I Do Is Dream of You” and the same song is a recurring theme in this film

i didn’t know diabolical box came out in freakin 2007 in japan! i feel jipped. how can it take 2 whole years to translate a game?? it’s not like they did such a great job at it either.

here’s a trailer for the 3rd game. i cried:

but eww to 堀北真希=Horikita Maki doing Luke’s voice. i guess Luke was destined to not be blessed with a good voice actor in any language

here’s a japanese chocolate CM with the Kinki Kids & Ozawa Maria from 2002:

and now she’s a famous porn star…

i registered today and after about 3 hrs…..the fun it is supposed to bring eludes me… why are people just sitting in different rooms doing nothing? why is getting fake currency or using real money to buy fake things fun? i suppose it’d be better if i actually had friends on gaia, but w/e. it should be fun regardless

i want an iPhone just so i could get this (fyi, shawn uses it on the show):

this is hilarious!! i had a hard time choosing between Dale & Rick but i went with Mr. Dale. never mind the primaries, vote for Adrian’s twin~

• i saw some fanart of Hellboy today and his enlarged right arm reminded me of Allen Walker’s (D.Gray-man) equally red enlarged left arm. more and more, i feel everything is derivative…
• this is so cool! “hey my friend” is used in pretty much unedited form except in a higher key. don’t know how much beyonce’s song was edited but this is amazing. you can d/l the track on the creator’s website

every semester, i am shocked & appalled by the money i have to throw away on textbooks. this semester is a whopping $550. and that’s with 2/5 books USED!!! it sickens me to see “students” used this way. we go to school to get a degree because society forces us. then they make us go into debt because they squeeze non-existent money from us. what is the point of a professor? if the only great professors are the ones that write the textbooks, and obviously only a handful of students can actually be taught by said great ones, then get rid of all the other professors & just let us buy the textbooks to learn from. OR get rid of textbooks & put the teaching responsibility on the PROFESSORS!!!! that’s what they’re paid for and that’s what we pay for!! AAAARGH the education system makes me so angry!

if all the textbook companies were to be abolished, would the economy be that affected? how dare they release “new” editions with just the numbers changed in problems so that the profs FORCE us to buy the newest edition every freakin’ year!!!! plus, some schools (including mine) have the audacity to slap “custom-made [insert school name] edition” on the cover and have a monopoly over the prices at their damn bookstores. it’s unforgivable. we need Yomiko=Readman to punish these bastards whoring books

if you read my MW post you know how much i waited for the MW ぴあ MOOK. and i finally went to pick it up today. in one syllable, it’s “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” it has WONDERFUL photos of Tamaki Hiroshi that was worth the wait & money. however, if you’re a Yamada Takayuki fan, i’d advise against purchasing this book….he’s quite hideous in it. his movie stills are fine, nothing special, but the promo photos are diabolically hideous. he has the long stringy hair from the BOSS episode he guest-starred in. YUK. i’m a big fan of Takayuki so i don’t use “hideous” lightly.

besides the photos, there are interviews of the two, Tezuka Osamu related info, interview of the director, and one page each of what Tamaki thinks of Yamada and vice versa. i will relish this book for as long as possible. ^______________^

whoa, i watched this in early june & wrote down some notes & it got lost in my pile of crap. so here are some very random thoughts about the film:

• (5:46) on the cruise ship, there’s a room dedicated for people to write letters in! there are stations that include a desk & chair to write in with stationery, ink, envelopes, etc. very cool. i’ve never been on a cruise so i don’t know, but do these still exist on modern cruises?
• the dance number while the boat keeps “tilting” is very cool
• you know how in tv/movies, to indicate that the setting is now in a different country, they show the new city and play a version of the appropriate anthem? i wonder who thought of that great idea
• great revelation from one of the characters who’s a dancer:
  i was so happy that suddenly, all i  wanted to do was to dance. so i figured that if i danced when i was happy, i should be happy if i danced.
  so we all need to figure out what it is we do in our happiest moments & do that for a living ^_^
• i love Jane Powell’s gum-chewing attitude in “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life.” kaka, what a title. and Jane keeps in character throughout the entire number, too! why is gum-chewing associated with disreputable members of society?
• fyi, this is the movie with fred astaire’s famous “dancing on the walls & ceiling of a room” bit

these were waiting for me when i got back from Otakon:

Lee Teuk style capsule earrings

i thought they would be a bit bigger but they’re quite cute and overall, i like them!
here’s how it looks size-wise on my ear.

Hee Chul style 希 necklace and 希 ring

i’m probably going to put the necklace charm on my cell & will wear the ring once i can figure out how to adjust it. it’s too small!


black t-shirt

so this shirt imitates what the boys are wearing in the 3rd version of the 3rd album. i was expecting the shirt to come in a plastic bag, but NO! i opened my package and i saw this:

inside the outer plastic box that says SUPER JUNIOR all over it:

is a gold make-up bag like case! the inside is really soft.

and the shirt:

the tag:

and finally, the “label”:

all this was definitely worth the moola & if the almighty Super Junior ever deems NY worthy of their presence, i will be ready with all my SJ gear including this:

i saw this on animaxis.com today. i want it but with shipping it’s $20!! where can i get it in the states?

BOSS is a Fujitv drama about a former career policewoman Oosawa Eriko (Amami Yuuki) who fell from grace and spent 5 years in the US, purportedly studying criminal profiling with the FBI. after her return, she is made the head of the Special Crime Division which is comprised of five rejects that no other division wants. she was chosen only because she is female as a PR move by the police department. every episode deals with Oosawa and her ragtag team beating all the other stuck-up police officers and solving the crime. She is assisted by Nodate Shinjirou-hosa (Takenouchi Yutaka) (who entered the force at the same time but is now a high-level officer) and the talented medical examiner, Narahashi Reiko (Kichise Michiko).

the only seemingly huge Amami carries the cast well and Takenouchi is HOT. He delivers every one of his lines dipped in extreme coolness. After the 1st episode, i wanted to stop watching, but i kept going JUST to see him. Another cast note: I’ve only seen Kichise in Nodame Cantabile as Elise (Milch’s crazy blonde manager) so it was cool to see her relatively normal. she’s pwitty.

there’s a scene where she demonstrates how to be a truly sexy lady to Oosawa and i felt i had learned something important that day. keke

so initially, i may have stuck with BOSS because of a guy, no, a demigod (anyone like to join me for a 野立会 = Nodate-kai?), but towards the end, i couldn’t wait til the next ep. while you’re watching, time passes pretty quickly. the jokes are funny, the stories are more about the people than the crimes, the overall acting is decent, and the soundtrack, albeit a bit repetitive, is awesome.

the cases in BOSS are nowhere near as complicated as the ones in american crime dramas. but if you want a dorama that makes you laugh with people dying in the background, BOSS might be just rite for you.

random notes on last few eps. spoilers so highlight lines to read:
CASE08:   the end was so intense! i cried inside. and every time i see Konishi Manami, i am impressed by her more and more.

CASE09:   i cried inside AGAIN. what a sad story. CASE08&09 make me wonder about the murder of murderers. it’s not fair that the original murderers can live freely while the victim’s loved ones have to live a nightmare for the rest of their lives.

CASE10:  wow that came out of nowhere and crashed into my brain! i seriously only understood that you-know-who was you-know-what after you-know-who says you-know-who’s name at the very last second of the ep. (hereafter, UNH = you-know-who) even when UNH said “roger, boss” i STILL didn’t get it. i thought UNH would turn around and shoot UNH or something like in other crime/action movies i’ve seen. anyhoo, i kept yelling “WHAA??” for literally 5 minutes. at this point i haven’t seen the final ep but i must say, the UNW plot device was used excellently. at the same time tho, i’m saddened cuz i loved UNH so much.

LAST CASE:  predictable yet 奥深い、なんちゃって. i was so upset when UNW happened to UNH. i’m surprised but at the same time not that they chose to go down the comic route for the ED.