http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:JRock-Prophet&section=today deviantART RSS for by:JRock-Prophet en-us Copyright 2010, deviantART.com Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:49:14 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/24011890/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/24011890/ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:40:02 PDT Reading: Goths Cage.
Playing: Not much... a multi-shot dungeon crawl where I am a red wizard, mostly.
Anime: Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro.
Manga: Kuroshitsuji!
Ye illustrious quote: "I swear I had two arms before Minamicon 15..."
Writing situation: Just finished a deadline for the Anthology we are publishing so I've written a fair bit, in fact.

Recently all my time has been taken up with deadlines and also Minamicon 15 which is now over and I must say that it really does have a completely different feel to it when you are cosplaying properly. Last year was a bit half-arsed for me in terms of cosplay but this year I pulled off a really amazing Grell from Kuroshitsuji. If you don't know this anime you should go and look it up right now because it's epic and I love it so!

You can see the cosplay pictures of me as Grell taking up the space where my new deviations are right now as well as in my ID slot. In fact, along with me finally putting up those pictures of me as Jack Sparrow, my new deviations box seems to be entirely full of photos rather than drawings, which is rather depressing... especially as I keep insisting that I will try to put up more stuff.

Well, once I go home on holiday I can sure as hell get some more done but I doubt it will be an epic amount. For my birthday I got people to contribute random bits of money towards a graphics tablet, which I now HAVE but haven't had the time to actually get used to yet.

I do feel in a really artistic mood right now, though, so this bodes fairly well in terms of motivation but I'm not sure how well in terms of time. As always I have a lot of university work to be getting on with but it realy IS about time that I put up something new and interesting.

I'll see what I can do about that.

Oh, by the way, I really DID dye my hair bright red to cosplay Grell and I'm having fun with the fact that my hair is now rather thoroughly bleached - it will be going purple, shortly, which I'm really looking forward to.

Party on, dudes!
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Go visit my stock account! Yay!



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Clubs:

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/23613473/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/23613473/ Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:46:10 PDT Reading: Watchmen... surprisingly. It was recommended to me.
Playing: WOD. Mage... the most epic game ever......... *sighs with awe*
Anime: Kuroshitsuji!!!
Manga: Gimmick
Ye illustrious quote: "I part the lube!"
Writing situation: Really good but also fairly unfocused since there are a lot of things to work on, especially for my course.

Well, I know I said I was going try and keep up with the drawing and submitting and I've kept to the first part of that but not the second. The truth is that I am saving for a graphics tablet which will make these things a lot faster and easier. Since it's my last year of university I am very tied up with work and whilst I am drawing a fair bit I do still refuse to put up things that aren't really finished.

Currently I'm getting all my friends to give me a pound and if I can get 70 people to do that or even 35 to give me 2 pounds I'll be able to have a graphics tablet. I'm trying to gather enough for my birthday which is on the 15th of March.

In other news, so far this year I have been to see the Relentless Tour, the highlights of which (for me) were Dir en Grey and MSI, though I must say I enjoyed Black Tide immensely too. I was RIGHT AT THE FRONT for Dir en Grey even though some vindictive MSI fans tried to get my awar from the barrier and crushed my fingers and totally ganged up on me. Either way I managed to stay at the front and screamed and danced really loudly. Dai watched me a lot and Toshiya went to the front of the stage and was being REALLY SEXY with his bass right in front of me! Kyo didn't notice me at all but then he didn't notice anything much... not even the bottle that whizzed past his head, whisking a good chunk of hair away front his face - it made me so angry that somebody would try and hit Kyo on the head with a bottle. That's just rude. Especially since he was SO MUCH of form vocally. Very impressive.

Also I'm really looking forward to going to Minamicon now over Friday/Saturday/Sunday the 27th/28th/29th. I'm going to cosplay Grell from Kuroshitsuji (which I friggin' love) and am even having my hair dyed bright red really soon so that I can cosplay him properly. I have already had a runthrough of dressing up as him and it looks great already. I'm also building a chainsaw. It's all very epic and amazing.

Furthermore, I'm FINALLY learning to drive! I really LOVE it! I'm generally doing really well and learning pretty quickly. I have a lot of faith in myself and I'm enjoying it a lot so I reckon (even though I've had only 4 lessons so far) I'll probably have a driving licence before Christmas. It will be really nice to be mobile after leaving university.

Mh... there is little point in me making any promised about submissions since I really don't have much time but it will get a lot more regular after I get a graphics tablet even though I know right now that I can't use one to save my life. Nonetheless, since I've resolved to master it it probably won't be too long before I do. I just hope that enough of my friends contribute to my birthday fund so I can get it. So far I have £30.73... not even half way. Oh well. Wish me luck.
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Go visit my stock account! Yay!


http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/22440539/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:49:43 PST Reading: Irwin Shaw - Rich Man, Poor Man... still.
Playing: Silly buggers.
Anime: Tales of the Abyss.
Manga: Devil may cry
Ye illustrious quote: *Demonic voice* Itadakimasu! (Neuro)
Writing situation: Focusing on writing poems for my creative writing assignment.

Stole some OC meme things from so here they are, mostly featuring OCs from my new no-pressure project that it still in its founding stages with only a few well conceived characters.

Adivar is the exception. He's my long running dnd character from a campaign that is over now... still, I really love Adivar so much that I wanted to include him. ^_^ Here goes.

1.) Choose some characters:
Sereth
Felice (pronounced fell-leach-eh; don’t call him f’-lease or he’ll be piiiiiissed)
Garrigan
Perrero
Adivar


2.) Describe, in full, how your characters would react to being dropped directly into Spain's annual "Running of the Bulls".

Sereth: *-waves a casual hand at the bulls and stares at them intensely and all of a sudden it’s as though they can’t even see him. Sereth smiles.* “Too easy.”
Fel: *-leaps around and panics, hoping his family bribed the bulls or something* “Aaaaah!”
Garrigan: *-casually takes of his shirt and assumes some sort of fighting stance* “Bring it on!!!”
Perrero: *Is impressed with the randomness of it but it’s too worried since he’s immortal* “Well, I guess this an experience ^.^”
Adivar: *Trust in luck. And if that fails, it would take more than a pile of bulls to bring Adivar down – he’s scarily durable*


3.) What sort of animal might your character want as its companion, and why?

Sereth: An owl or an eagle – some sort of noble bird with an intense stare. It just sort of reflects his own personality and/or bearing.
Fel: An ermine because they are dexterous, sleek and intelligent and he can hide it if he needs to. Failing an ermine a cat would do fine.
Garrigan: A monkey so it can hold things for him and maybe pull down people’s hats and trousers for a laugh.
Perrero: ‘coons.
Adivar: Something tricksy. Like a fox.


4.) What sort of school subject would / has your character excell / excelled in?

Sereth: Psychology. It’s already his forte. He sees through people and then makes them his bitches.
Fel: History, Fine Mechanics and Commerce. That was actually the title of the degree Felice has. He got a very good mark.
Garrigan: Resistant materials and physical education too.
Perrero: Mmmh… Perrero is really nosey and a real academic. He’d be good at EVERYTHING. He’s be teacher’s pet.
Adivar: Con artisting?


5.) What made your character decide to do what he / she wanted to do?

Sereth: He’s always been a natural charmer and amidst a community formed of strength-obsessed demons, he soon found ways to persuade people he could be useful – or at least not worth killing.
Fel: It wasn’t really a decision. When you’re born into the Torrenti family you do as they say and you do what is expected of you. However, Felice IS a very talented watchmaker – probably the best in his family right now – and he does actually like to do it. If only he could get out from under the thumb of their expectations.
Garrigan: Good at making things from a young age and fairly strong to boot, it was inevitable he’d join the Vahn war effort like any other fit young man. He suffered for it more than most and is not far away in Yaston, making a living from all sorts of things such as the black market, commission jobs and of course the odd fight.
Perrero: You don’t really decide to become a god. He just got powerful enough. His incessant curiosity about everything led him there, though, I guess.
Adivar: Adventuring sure seems exciting, you get loads of cash, become famous and, y’know, make a difference in the world.


6.) Drink of choice?

Sereth: Just water. His constitution isn’t all it used to be since he got cursed.
Fel: Whiskey. You put in a flask and hide it behind books in your room so your nosy manservant doesn’t find it.
Garrigan: Strong ale.
Perrero: Wine. It’s classy.
Adivar: Wine. Six bottles daily. Holy, if possible.


7.) What's your character's pet peeves?

Sereth: “This curse. If I don’t something about it I’m likely to die within the next 50-70 years. -.- That’s soooo soooon!”
Fel: “Corello. Can’t that goddamn guy j... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/22302048/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/22302048/ Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:40:44 PST Reading: Irwin Shaw - Rich Man, Poor Man.
Playing: Hearts.
Anime: Kuroshitsuji
Manga: None... at the moment.
Ye illustrious quote: NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!
Writing situation: Okidokey pie.

2008 has hereby been christened my personal year of crap but I can't just dismiss it on those terms. Trying as the year has been it had been a year of growth and character-building (no, not the fictional type of character). Either way, I'm glad that 2009 is here and I hope that it will be full of new shiny things.

For one thing I have a new shiny laptop to satisfy all my computering needs for the next however many years. It can play games and opens Photoshop in a snap and everything is smooth and efficient even if Vista is an awkward stumbling block.

I have officially got my creativity back so if I've GOT to make a new year's resolution it's to up the productivity level (not hard after the scarce amount of stuff I've put out this year).

My next plan of action is to start a Tablet Fund sock, which I will wave at my friends and ask for donations for my Birthday present - a nice Wacom Tablet. I have rebelled against one for a long time and indeed I an CRAP at using one but that is mostly because I have not put the effort in at all and because my own one came from Staples, is huge and ungainly and really BADLY calibrated.

I need about £70, this computing catalogue tells me but I bet I could get it for cheaper. And I'm sure I have plenty of understanding friends who will donate some money for the present. I figure that with my time rather scarce, mastering the tablet could indeed be my lifeline to finishing more pictures, even if it is in a scribbly way.

So! I will persevere with life and everything will turn out fine because the year of crappiness is over!

But then... I DID go to Japan... which was the best thing ever. So it wasn't that crap after all. Ah... Japan... *Daydreams*

Happy new year everyone and good luck with whatever it is you're planning to do with it!

*Hugs*
Prophet.
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Go visit my stock account! Yay!



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Clubs: http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/22183510/ Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:13:23 PST Reading: Phillip Pullman - the Amber Spyglass.
Playing: Baldur's Gate 2 - evil bard for the win!
Anime: Kuroshitsuji
Manga: None... at the moment.
Ye illustrious quote: He has sharks for hands! He doesn't need a name!
Writing situation: Hopeful.

Greetings! I haven't written since my Japan journal at all. Hehe, mind you, I guess once you've been to Japan everything else pales in comparison.

Those of you who watch me and keep track of stuff will know that this year hasn't been that productive for me. It's mostly because everything came down on me this year. Notable features include breaking up with my boyfriend of almost 3 years, my grandma dying, a whole bunch of depressing feelings, needing counselling and an extension on my dissertation deadline. Because of all this I became miserable, lazy and fat. Japan sorted me out a fair bit but I feel like I haven't truly been out from under the big cloud until recently.

You may have noticed that I put some pictures up recently and that's a good sign for me. The truth is that I've also been wallowing in writer's / artist's block this whole yeah which, combined with all the other crap I've had, made me feel like death.

But everything's ok now! I'm enjoying doing my Masters in Creative Writing though I must say I feel opressed by some of the attitudes going around. I feel like I need a pet project, something no-pressure that I can keep coming back to when I'm begining to lose the joy. You know, something I'm not trying to complete or to lead anywhere in particular... just so I can have characters who I love and who will always be there for me.

I've started such a project already though I don't know how it will develop. Only Sereth is really very developed at the moment - I can introduce more characters later. But at least I feel like I've taken the first steps towards starting this.

So I'm looking forward to 2009 with a new and brighter outlook. Let's hope all goes well and that productivity will be on the up (that's not hard considering the rut I've been in all year).

For Christmas I got a box set of Hustle (yay!) and a box set of the Monty Python Series! I'm so happy! Well, those are the highlights, anyway. It's pretty much all I wanted... and actually more because I only expected the Monty Python. I will be watching all the shows quite soon and probably getting into a silly mood.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you! May 2009 be full of hope and shininess for you all!

*Hugs*
Prophet.
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Go visit my stock account! Yay!



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Clubs: http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20518344/ Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:50:09 PDT
We went to Harajuku this time dressed up properly because we wanted to look awesome in front of the other cosplayers. Emma cosplayed Nana... she looked soooo much like her! And me and Nat were just trying to be pretty. Nat wore her awesome outfit from Bodyline and looked sooo cute in it, pretty much because of the hat. It suited her so much! I was wearing my blue wig... but do not fear! It was an awesome Akihabara wig and therefore did not look fake and aweful! In factm the style and the colour both suited me a hell of a lot. It was rather strange because I looked like a completely different person... a pretty different person. I wore my jacket from Asakusa and my amazing collar with the dice chain. I looked soooo Jrockish!

Anyhow, on the bridge people took so many photos of us. It was a weird feeling to be on the other end of the attention we mostly give to other people. Emma counted over 30 on herself... so Nat and I can't be far off. We met with the NHK guys who thought we looked awesome and they took pictures of us including closeups of whatever accessories we happened to have on us. We didn't go to the manga cafe with them after all because apparently they couldn't get the filming permission this time... Kiyoshi said he had asked too late. Anyhow we parted ways for the last time and they told us they would send us dvds when they were done with the footage and it was all complete. Kiyoshi told me where to find the stadium where Penicillin were supposed to be playing the day after and later sent me a relaly nice map so I would find it. I said I would go really early to be sure of getting a ticket and he said that he really hoped for me that I could go. I've been going on about concerts to him for so long I think he knows by now how important it is to me.

We wandered around Harajuku and went to Bodyline again where, once again, Emma and Nat seemed to buy out the place. Heehee. I also gave in and bought something awesome even though I was scared that it wouldn't fir me. It was a tails coat in pinstripe... at the front it is rather short but the tails at the back are really long and amazing. There was a skirt that came with it but I doubted very much if it would fit me... besides, even if it did I probably would never wear it since I have plenty of pinstripe trousers that would go well with the thing. I bloody hate skirts. When we got back to Tokyo Hostel where we were keeping our bags I tried on the tails coat and it was... amazing. I was so worried it might not fit because they only have one side of it but in fact it fit me really snugle but only on the bottom buttons which are around the ribs, just under the chest. The other buttons didn't do up precisely because I am not flat chested. However, this was a good thing because it meant I could fold back the lapels to add to the already amazing collar. What I ended up with was a figure hugging jacket with a rather wide neckline and somehow it really suits my shape... it both makes my waist look smaller and my boobs look bigger. All of a sudden I look like a much better version of myself physically! It's amazing! I attached my watch chain to the lapel so I can keep time on the move and also as a decoration. I decided that I would wear this to the concert the next day so I also took it to the manga cafe with me. Ooh, also that day I bought some really nice earphones with pirate symbols on them! They are so cool looking and when I tried them out later I found that the sound quality was good and that the closed shape is relaly good at keeping other noise out. I like them so much!

At the manga cafe I read Jrock magazines... well, ok, I didn't read... I oggled them. Then I chatted on the internet a lot and looked up wheether some of my favourite bands have anything new out. Duel Jewel had a new single out called Iolite... it was awesome. I also looked up LMC because Nat keeps going on about it. Everything was fine and I was drinking lots of drinks because they are free and then when I was really sleepy I moved all my photos from my camera and deleted the photos from the camera... but somehow I left the camera window open and while I was typing a message in another page and not looking at the screen, I must have pressed a button that changed windows and I pressed undo........ so the computer removed all the photo filed from the mp3 player......... it was horrifying. It was basically a shift + delete. All my beautiful photos gone! Of us all dressed up and pretty all day and interesting things we'd seen and ALL my pictures from the zoo and Ueno park... I felt like crying. But luckily Yousef was online and with his super computer scientist knowledge he gave me hope by telling me to download, install and run file recover... or something like that because some of the files I may still be able to get back... I did what he said... which took a while and then I had to run the scans, which took even longer... and all t... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20449772/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20449772/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:53:45 PDT
11/09/08

I went to the Shibuya 109 building as Kiyoshi suggested and I spent a long time looking over the concert catalogue. Penicillin was sold out for the 13th and 14th and the last daz for selling the 15th was the day before. I felt really gutted because I'd clearly just missed it by a tiny amount. I thought that there might be another concert I might see but all the interesting stuff was after we would go back to England and whilst there were a few bands I recognised, there were none that I particularly loved. I mean, I know the Pillows exist but I don't like that grainy singing... same thing for Flow except they are too trendy and pop-like. Whilst Box Wow is cool I really had no idea they were still doing anything and they are rather old so it wouldn't be the same... also it's kind of too western rock... I want Jrock please!

I was kind of sad and resigned myself to not seeing a concert while I was here... but then Kizoshi said that for the 15th they still had some tickets left that they would sell on the door first come first served... I could easily just camp outside the venue from the early morning if it meant that I would see Penicillin! That would be amazing! He has been so helpful and I'm really glad that there is still some chance that I might see a concert... still, because I do not have a ticket in my posession already I am no longer getting my hopes up because that may end badly.

Since I was so disappointed I decided to wander around the 109 building and have a look at the clothes, maybe even find something I liked. I was kind of interested in a certain style of trousers I had seen a girl wearing but I didn't find anything like them... in fact, I discovered that trousers are really scarce in Japan! There are tons of skirts and shorts but trousers come only in the form of jeans and thin tiny things that are only for people with skinny legs. But a girl did pounce on me and tell me that my bag was uber cute (it was the plushie tiger bag I had bought at the zoo). In other words, I failed at retail therapy so I went to Akihabara to meet with Emma and Nat as promised.

I also completely failed to find out meeting point but luckily just happened to see them walking down the road anyway. Emma had won a huge plushy cat thing from a prize machine thing! That's so crazy! But she had lost her lovely umbrella she had bought early that day. I bought a nice umbrella too. It is a clothy lacy black umbrella that is pretty much designed to keep off the sun. Emma's was similar and although we tried really hard to find it, we didn't manage to. That was so sad. It was the wrong day for sun umbrellas anyway since it was raining for most of the day.

We did the usual Akihabara browsing thing and Emma bought Gilgamesh and Kamina and Simon and Nat got Sai from Naruto and maybe something else but I can't recall right now. I finally gave in and bought a Konata... but the most amazing part of the day was that I found a Mikami figure!!! Oh my god! I was so convinced that there were no figures of him and neither would they ever make one because he isn't in the least bit a popular character but there he was! There was a shelf with really minor Deathnote characters on! There was Takada and Light's dad and Mikami! He was standing there just looking at me and when I saw him I squeed! I was so happy! I never thought I would find a figure of him and now that I have it I am so incredibly pleased with myself! All of a sudden, surprisingly, my "figures of characters I have cosplayed" thing is completely up to date since I got that mini Orochimaru figure too! In fact, I'm sort of ahead because I also have a Lavi figure now and I haven't cosplayed him yet! Aaah! I love Mikami so much! It's all because of him that I even have a fringe these days. After I have finished doing that strange experiment with my hair I am planning for February I will just be able to take the figure to the hair dressers and say "I want his hair, please!" They would give me a really strange look but I wouldn't care because then I would have perfect hair forever!

Right... enough ranting about Mikami. We had a good day but got tired quite early and ended up at a curry place. Curry is so delicious and the guy serving the curry was really cute and had glasses (There are those of you out there that know the precise effect that has on me, though he didn't do the glasses THING which was a shame)... still, my eyes became as satisfied as my stomach. It was a good day for bishi watching.

Ooh! Nat bought a blonde wig so she could cosplay Honey Sempai and it is a really AMAZING wig for 15 quid. It's slightly more expensive that our cheapest wigs in England but the extra quality is astounding. And it is pretty much well styled in the first place. Not we are all inspired by cosplay and anime ideas and want to raid a manga cafe for cosplay ideas. If Emma still wants to do t... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20418038/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20418038/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:45:36 PDT
Today we went back to Ueno to visit the Zoo! I was told that it was just like most Zoos... but then Zoos are always great. It was a really lovely zoo and as always everything was neat and tidy and well presented and well spaced out. The enclosured were all stunning with gorgeous trees and waterfalls or other water features. All the animals looked really comfortable and happy with perhaps the exception of the polar bears and the penguins who looked rather hot and tired... but they had made efforts even for them. There were icecubes all over the place in the polar bear place and there was a device blowing cold air on them. They air condition their zoo! How amazing is that???

We saw Elephants and a tiger really close up and a lion from rather far away and plenty of gorillas and monkeys and birds. Nat loved the vultures and I think I squeed the most when we went into the small mammal area and there were feneks and nocturnal cat things and teeny tiny cute mice! We didn't get to the reptiles, though, because that was the last section of the Zoo and it was closing by the time we got to it. There were bats and bears and hippos and giraffes but no giant panda... apparently it was quite old and passed away in late April. There were supposed to be red pandas though we didn't see them which is a bit of a shame because I love those red panda things. But we did see a Sloth in a tree out of its enclosure... it's so slow that it can't get away anyhow and it's an isolated tree so it can't get away from that one tree.

Ooh! Before we went into the Zoo I saw a cat sleeping on a bench and I went over to it and I stroked it and it didn't run away like most of the cats in Japan do! In fact, this cat became all happy and nuzzled me and purred and was really happy!

In the Zoo there were plenty of drinking places and eating places and souvenir places with lots of fluffy toys... they were so cute and so fluffy and so well made and so cheap for what they were that we all submitted to the lure of the plushies. I bought some fox ears on a headband that I have been wearing all day. They are really comfy and so fluffy and cute and they bizarrely suit me. I think I could wear these just casually and be perfectly happy about it! Emma got a monkey hand puppet and a cute lazy looking orangutan for her mum. Nat got a plushy bat and a giraffe purse/handbag. I got a handbag too... it is tiger-like! Usually I would never be caught dead carrying a handbag but it's so small and furry and there is a tiger plushy inside that sticks its head out of a cute little compartment and you can take the plushy out and play with it and the zip is shaped like a tiger tail and the whole thing is so soft and it's the perfect size to fit my camera and my face cloth! I would carry this sort of thing around when I don't have much to carry at all... maybe if all I need is my money and my camera. Heehee! I love it and it makes me squee with happiness!

After we left the Zoo we went into Ueno park which is just on the other side, you can literally pretty much step out of the zoo and into the park straight away. We went to the boats because I told you that we wanted to boat on the lake that day but first of all it was 5.10 and the lake closed at 6 and second of all the row boats took one hour so the last admission for row boats was at 5 so we missed it by 10 minutes! That's so annoying! But we determine to go row boating on that lake some time. It is a wonderful park and we've all fallen in love with it. In the end we just sat in the same stream place as before as a dog played with the water. It was rather hilarious. It didn't want to leave when it's owner started going! It was so cute!

Just as we were going down to the station to go back to Asakusa we saw the drawing guys sitting on the steps just as they were the day before and Emma went up to one of them to look at the Einstein picture that was there and the guy told her that he would do a picture of her and Emma for the reduced price of 2000 yen and then said he would do a pic of all three of us for 3000. We agreed since all his pictures were amazing and he looked actually really good. The last time I had one of those done was in Spain and I don't really think it looked like me. This guy was amazing, though, all of us looked just like ourselves right form the beginning and even though he had a rubber he drew everything perfect straight away and only used the rubber a couple of times for making some of his shading a bit lighter in tiny spots. Emma has this great expression where she looks like she is really happy but trying to hold in her laughter. I look kind of smug and Nat looks kind of distracted... pretty much like normal then. Heehee. And I'm wearing my fox ears and look like the weirdo in the picture even though Emma and Nat bought really crazy sunglasses in the morning and wore them all day. For the picture, of course, they wore them... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20402405/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20402405/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:24:54 PDT
We WERE going to go to the Kyoto National Museum but Kogure-san was in the lobby this morning and said that he wanted to go on Torokko (a "romantic train", in other words, a sightseeing mini railway) and that he`s take us too if we wanted. So we all went off to this Torokko place and it was really awesome! The little train ran through the mountains and by the side of a really beautiful river with the water rolling over really big rocks in the river bed. And the trees on either side were relaly pretty too, though of course it would have been better in the spring when there are cherry blossoms blooming. Either way, we were really high up and saw amazing scenery and it was great fun. We came back by train and we said our final goodbye to Kogure-san. He was like an uncle person who showed us all sorts of fun things while we were there, things we would never have found by ourselves.

Walking back from the station was a bit of a long way but I ralised that I had actually walked half that way anyway in my random wanderings and I knew the precise route back. As it turned out those random wanderings I did on our first day turned out to be 100% helpful!

We picked up our bags which we had left in guest storage and went off to the centre of Kyoto where we left our bags in lockers for the day while we wandered around. But first we ate because we`d already been quite busy that day. We ate Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki! Deliciousness! They were the best I ever had and such a big portion too!

We went to a big temple that was partially being refurbished, to the side of this temple, though, a much more amusing thing was happening because firemen were doing drills and yelling really loudly and running about in a really silly way and spraying the ground with fire extinguishers (though from our angle it looked more like they were peeing - Hahaha!). After that we walked towards the river and discovered that there was a walkway right by it so we had a stroll right by the river. This part of it was really overgrown with grasses and there were a lot of fish and cranes and herons and we even saw a fishing eagle! That was rather exciting. We spent a rather lazy day sitting by the river, walking by the river, drinking by the river (I had "Lucky Cider" which wasn`t cider at all but just apple).

Then we slowly ambled back to the place where we had left our bags. Before we picked up our bags we had the most beautiful parfait ever... it was mango and passionfruit and there were real bits of fruit embedded in it along with cakey bits and soft mouse and icecream... and a cherry... It was the tastiest thing ever.

After that we grabbed our bags and sat for a long time waiting for the bus while I listened to music and Emma juggled. I managed to sleep a fair bit on the bus this time but not that much. We were all still shattered when we got to Tokyo and we couldn`t really check in until 3pm at our hostel but we were able to put our bags in our rooms.

***************

09/09/08

To make the time roll by while we waited for 3 o`clock, we went to Ueno Park and wandered around there for a bit. It was very green and interesting, especially the lake, which had a lot of wildlife and greenery. There was a clear part of the lake too where you could go on paddle boat rides! We went in a giant swan! It was super! We stalked ducks with suprising efficiency. Tomorrow we want to come back and go in a row boat instead because you get an hour for the same money in the row boat. We will take lots of umbrellas to hide ourselves from the sun since it`s so crazily sunny these days.

We spent a good deal of our day just sitting next to this fake stream thing that was being fed by an overflowing well/spring and I took off my shoes and socks and walked around in the water barefoot. Emma drew pictures... one of a butterfly that seriously seemed to be posing for her because it stayed nearby the whole time she was drawing it... and a crow that didn`t stick around for so long... and just the general scene. I just spent my time watching the cuteness of sparrows bathing in really shallow running water. There was also another group of sparrows that were nearby but bathing themselves in the dust and making cute little sparrow shaped burrows in the ground. It made me giggle a lot. In the end we came back to the hostel and we`ve been here ever since except when me and Nat went out to buy bentos. I was SO hungry today. I`m also pretty tired but at the same time the itnernet at this new hostel is FREE and I just wanted to write down everything that has happened so far because I knew it would take a long time and I don`t want to leave it for longer than I have to. Now I`m extremely tired... but hey, at least I`ll sleep well. We`re going to Ueno again tomorrow to see the zoo and also to go boating on the lake again.

Exhausted...
Irina.
____________... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20401960/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20401960/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:26:05 PDT
05/09/08

We went to the Kyoto International Manga Museum, stopping off at Doutor on the way, of course. There were huge, long bookshelves of manga throughout the museum and I read maybe a couple of volumes and only in English. It takes me far too long to get through an actual Japanese volume of manga although I hope to train myself to be better... but in my own spare time.

There were pictures all over the place including about 100 manga-like prints of Maiko. There were also galler-like places featuring drawings of interesting things like a fat lady on an exercise bike that opperates a coveyer sushi belt and the chef is at the other side with only a little bit of food and she has to work for it. And there was a triangle of flying ducks being aimed at by the same number of hunters in the same formation on the ground.

There was a display of Anpan man, which I didn`t particularly care about and a small kiddy manga place that looked really fun but nobody old was aloud in there, which was a shame. There was also a stop start animation thing that was rather interesting but kind of odd. Also there was an old fashioned Japanese slide show thing and the lady who was presenting it was really fun because she did lots of crazy voices including really amusing evil laughter as she bounced her eyebrows. I`d tell you the story she told but that would take far too long so maybe I`ll tell you about it in person later if you ask nicely.

We had a really good time buuuut...

06/09/08

The next day as we were walking past the International Manga Museum the astroturf area was full of cosplayers! Noooo! We totally went on the wrong day! We felt slightly gutted and ended up loitering about looking at them all. There was Haruhi and Naruto and Gintama and Ouran Hostclub and Kingdom Hearts and Prince of Tennis and Persona and a whole bunch of other things I either can`t remember or honestly don`t know. And all the costumes looked really good too! I was so impressed! Such a shame we didn`t go on a cosplaying day.

Well, that day we were going to the Imperial Palace because we had heard that Japanese people had to make a reservation but foreigners didn`t! But what we hadn`t been told was that it wasn`t open on weekends to anybody so we didn`t end up going all the way in but instead spent the whole day wandering the grounds. We thought we might come back on the 8th when we were leaving but we never did because it was too much of a long walk to even get to the outer gardens.

The grounds were pretty nice and just as spacious as the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. We saw some super old trees, some of which had to be supported up by beams because they were in such curly shapes. There was also a lake and plenty of black dragonflies, which are gorgeous. We actually ate in a real food place too. I had rice covered in eggs and mushrooms! Delicious! Then we topped it all off with mango flavoured shaved ice. We should have that stuff more often in England. As it stands I`ve only ever had it once (from a Japanese shop in London).

***************

In Japan 14

07/09/08

Rather than going into main Kyoto again we decided to do something a bit more local and so we wandered off on foot towards Arashiyama, where there are a lot of temples and bamboo groves. It wasn`t that far off from that lake I mentioned so my knowledge of that part of our area proved to be useful. As we were going past the lake I wanted to show the guys the mini shrine outcropping onto the lake but there was a lone guy there playing Saxophone which was soooo coool! We didn`t want to disturb him so we decided to see it on the way back.

We went to Daikakuji first but were too stingy to fork up the entry fee so we wandered around the lake that there was there. It was full of giant lilly pads and leaves and some lillies too but not too many. Like I think I said in some earlier bit of writing, I don`t think they are in season. There were random mini shrines scattered around that area and we sat down on a bench and had the lunch that Kogure-san had given us because we had already walked a long way and were rather tired. Then it started to rain and we took shelter under a closed shrine for a while. It was rather nice watching the rain fall on the lake as we sat around all dry and comfy. It took quite a while to wait it out but it gave us time to rest. When we were finally able to move on we found a bamboo grove there and it was really fun! So much bamboo and all of it really fat and tall! It was kind of surreal.

After we left Daikakuji a couple randomly started talking to us and were really surprised to find that we actually spoke Japanese. I asked for advice about reaching a place on the map we were interested in... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20401189/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20401189/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:31:42 PDT
We went into main Kyoto again for the first time since we arrived and we met a nice man called Kogure-san. He was staying in the same Hostel as us and was taking the same bus into town. He is actually from around Tokyo but was holidaying in Kyoto and had been there a few days longer than us or maybe just one day. Either way, he said that he hadn`t entirely decided what he was going to do that day but that he wanted to see the original green tea temple where they started growing tea when it was brought over from China. We said that we wanted to find Gion and wander around there. Coincidentally the two happened to be right next to each other so Kogure-san said that he would take us there because he knew the area slightly better than we did and also because he could ask directions better than us. Not that directions are necessarily vital in Kyoto since everything is grid shaped and easily navigatable.

We had to walk quite a long way, though, even though it looked close on the map. Then again, perhaps it seemed longer because we kept stopping to look at interesting things like shops with Yukata and geta and strange pickled sea vegetables (which were delicious, incidentally). Kogure-san liked to explain things to us that he thought we might not already know about and it was relaly fun and informative for all of us. Because of all our various degrees of Japanese ability and because Kogure-san wanted to be helpful, we all ended up talking a strange mish-mash of English and Japanese and managed to communicate absolutely fine. It was so weird but also kind of fun and we all learnt so much.

Along the way, because it was a pretty hot and exhausting day, we stopped off at a cafe called Doutor to drink various things. Nat had iced coco, which she instantly fell in love with, and I had the Mattcha late (glorious deliciousness!) It was the best coffee shop ever and a mattcha late is just a stroke of genius. Later on when Kogure-san went his own way we returned to have more drinks and some sandwiches too for lunch. We ended up drinking and eating there practically every day from then onwards because we all loved the drinks and the cake and the sandwiches there. We should have a Doutor in England, damnit!

Anyway, then we carried on walking and got to Gion in no time after crossing the river over a huge bridge. The river itself was soooo shallow and rather rocky so it looked like you could wade in it. In fact, cranes and herons were wading in it! It was such a lovely scene! Gion was built like an old style Japanese town thing with a lot of tea houses and other traditional establishments. Kogure-san took us into a tea house just so that we could see what it looked like! There were tatami mats everywhere, as can be expected, but it also had its own indoor well, which I found rather interesting...

The green tea temple was very nice and serene with actual green tea growing there. It had a really nice smell. We didn`t go into the main temple but Kogure-san told us many interesting things about the building of temples. In fact, every time we see him he seems to be telling us about how temples and castles and old building as made so we think he is maybe some sort of architecture nut or perhaps works in construction himself. We meant to ask but somehow every time we forgot. It would have been nice to know what he did for a living. Anyway, he was asking lots of questions as well and we had plenty to talk about.

After that we split up because Kogure-san came for the green tea and was going off to a tea house or something and we were just hungry adn needed lunch. After lunch, though, we carried on through Gion and went into a big temple with a mini market beyond the gate. In the inner bit of the temple there were big bells that people rang before they prayed. Nat met a guy who`s daughter went to East Anglia University or College or whatever and spoke pretty good English. She chatted to him for a while and he ended up taking pictures of her and then of all of us for some reason. But the most exiting thing at the temple was that we saw GEISHAS!

Yes! A couple just randomly walked into the temple and a pile of tourists instantly gathered behind them and I managed to take a really lovely photo of them! How lucky is that???

Afterwards we went into the gardens beyond which were really cool and so peaceful. There was a lake with rocks and a terrapin sunning itself and a weird duck with red around its eyes and tons and tons of fish. Heehee. Sometimes the terrapin scratched itself, which looked funny. There was a stream and lots of pretty grasses and stepping stones! Then we sat down and ate icecream as a lovely end to the day.

Kogure-san was on the same bus back as us so we said hi and later he donated some boiled eggs to Emma and Nat as they were sitting eating dinner. He is such a lovely man! And every day he kept doing such nice thi... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20401019/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20401019/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:04:01 PDT
On the 2nd, because it was the day we were leaving for Kyoto, we basically hung around all day doing various things but not actually touristing at all because we wanted to take it easy and also to be at the bus station in plenty of time.

We went to Ikebukuro because the time before when we were there we didn`t spend much time there at all. We all bought some stuff but we still didn`t get very far shop-wise since we took a really long time in one place. But there were so many interesting things in that place! I got my chibi Yoko and my chibi Viral and a bit more manga and maybe something else that I can`t remember. I do recall that there was tea there in a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei packet! Hooray for Despair Tea! I didn`t buy it but I did think it was genius.

Then on the way back we got cake in an indoor food markey place that was full of amazingly presented cake cabinets. We all bought a slice of cake each and Sabrina took them back to her place because she had a mini fridge. Emma and I needed extra bags to assist us with the packing of various clothes items we had bought so we dropped by Harajuku as I had told her that there was a bag there with "Master" written on it and she wanted it a lot. She got a Master bag and I got a mainly black bag with white and pink doodles on it. It wasn`T very big but it helps me get the spare clothes out of my main luggage. I also got a belt because I`ve actually lost so much belt my shorts were falling off me. They were hanging about all loose and chafing me in places nobody should ever have to experience. Now that I have the belt, though, everything is fine.

Then we went back to Sabrina`s and did a light spot of repacking followed by a cake party! Emma and Sabrina had creaming strawberry cake and Nat had a chocolate cake and I had a mango cake. It was so beautiful and delicious! It was the best way every to spend our last hours in Tokyo. Then we all went to the Bus station an hour or two early and waited about for ages. We just wanted to make sure that we were in the same place. With all our luggage it wouldn`t have been good to rush. It`s not fun to be stressed anyway.

I had thought that with staying up super late at the manga cafe the night before I would be exhausted enough to sleep on the bus but it was very difficult. In fact, I don`t think I slept at all. The air conditioning level was absolutely WRONG so I spent most of my time absolutely freezing and I couldn`T find a comfortable position either. Everybody else seemed to have the same problems so we got to Kyoto absolutely shattered at about 5 or 6 in the morning.

03/09/08

Kyoto is very different from Tokyo in that there are very few skyscrapers... in fact... pretty much none, and hardly anything is open 24 hours a day. Even Macdonalds. There ISN`T a convenience store every few paces or so... everything is smaller and more spaced out but at least the road system is essentially a grid so you can`t get lost. Things started opening at about 7 or 8, I can`t remember which and we were hungry and exhausted and there was nowhere to go and the buses weren`t running (we needed a bus to get to our hostel). So we sat around and waited. I even napped a bit on a stone wall thing and then when shops started opening we ate a bit at Starbucks... yes, how Japanese of us, I know... but we were starving and exhausted and it was the closest open shop with food.

Eventually we were a bit more energised and easily found the required bus stop and got to our hostel which was waaaaaay out of the way of anything. We were literally in the middle of nowhere in the early morning and check in wasn`t until 3! Everybody else crashed out on the sofas and either amused themselves in some way or another or slept. I, on the other hand, felt strangely energetic and decided to go off exploring. First I went up the hill thing into a residential area... the hill was absolutely huge and sooo steep abd it was extremely hot but the view from the top was absolutely worth it. And I met a white manx cat and a brown and spotty cat. When I came down I went left from the hostel, where the bus had come from and carried on walking for a long time. I found an expensive tea house and a cafe and some really small places that might have s... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400686/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400686/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:40:50 PDT
Not that much to report as today was a comparative day of rest. We woke up early in the morning to go get Emma and that went fine except that I was so tired and kept falling asleep. There is really no good reason for me being so lathargic today... my body just decided to hibernate, that`s all. When we got back we hung around in the lobby for a bit (we`d moved out of our old room and had to wait until 1 to check into the new one so we could all be in the same room.

I showed Emma our photos and videos and her and Nat sat around eating. Sabrina didn`t turn up until much later because apparently she overslept, which was slightly annoying but hey, as least she wasn`t lost or ill. After checking into our new room (which is larger than the last) we made our beds and sorted our things out. I won`t be seriously unpacking again because after tomorrow we`ll be checking out of the room for good, staying in a Manga cafe and then going to Kyoto. It will be a couple of days before I have full access to my bag so there is no point unpacking it at all.

We tried to find the Square Enix building but failed mizerably and it was raining relaly hard and I was wearing sandals so my feet got soaked. In the end we gave up and just went into a cafe to eat delicious things. We had the most gorgeous cake ever and I had an almond late too. Nat had vanilla icecream and Emma had an absolutely beautiful mango parfe (not sure how it`s really spelled, I hope I got that right). Anyway, it was slightly on the pricier side of what we`ve eaten but still only around a fiver each, slightly less for Emma and Nat. It was really worth it because the atmosphere was nice and so was the food and we got out of the rain for a bit. It had stopped by the time we got out but now it`s started again.

It`s not as bad as yesterday, though, when there was thunder and lightning... pretty intense too. It was exciting but soaky.

When we got home we shared our amazing purchases with Emma and then I went out to eat because I hadn`t eaten properly yet. Now I am full and happy and I`m going to go to bed early since I need to book our accommodation in Kyoto in the morning and then we are going to Sabrina`s, getting pretty and setting off for Harajuku to see even more cosplay and jrock girls and for Sabrina and me to work out what`s going on with the Phantasmagoria concert. I`m anticipating standing in a queue for a lot of the day but I don`t care because I`ve ALWAYS wanted to see a Jrock concert while I was actually in Japan. Nat and Emma aren`t coming, which is a shame because I know they`d love it. But they want to save their money for buying lots of awesome clothes in Harajuku. I`m not fussed about spending 30 pounds in this way, however... I could maybe only buy one awesome top with that or maybe two... and I`d much rather see and listen to some of my favourite artists live. It will be fun, I know it!

Oh, there was the Samba festival today but it was already in full swing when we came back with Emma in toll. We couldn`t get close enough to the front to see anything but I did manage to take some pictures. It was hard to get in and out of Asakusa all day because of that festival and even the night life was more active than usual.

But basically I haven`t done much today and now I will go dry off, translate some manga and then sleep.

Night night,
Irina.

***************

31.08.08

No Phantasmagoaria concert today... I was so sad... it was all sold out. That will teach me for not prebooking and then not waking up early in the morning either. I have no idea what I was expecting and I have only myself to blame... still, I have learnt my lesson and am going to prebook a concert to make sure that I get in. Penicillin is playing at a live house on the 13th, when we will be back in Tokyo. I found their number and am going to call tomorrow and book. Although I have no excuse to be disappointed at all, this experience has taught me just how much I want to see a band perform live while I am here. Nat and Emma are still being economical so they can spend all their money on clothes so I don`t think they will go with me... but Emma does like Penicillin... I might be able to persuade her to come with me but I am anticipating going by myself. I don`t care... this is something I very strongly feel I should do.

Well, rather than standing in a queue all day we hung around Harajuku again. It was Emma`s first time so obviously she wanted to see everything... but since Sabrina and I had split off from them we didn`t see them again today except when we were walking into a cafe they were coming out of. We were going to try and meet them on the bridge where all the cosplayers were but we never did find them.

All of us today went out looking really cool. We properly dressed for the occassion, me especially since I was anticipating a concert... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400673/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400673/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:37:51 PDT
Damn it! I spent ages writing this section and then the computer restarted and I lost all my writing! Now I have to write it all again! Aaaaargh!

Ok, ranting aside I will start this arduous task all over again but I think I will be more brief as I`m actually tired now. Today we finally made it to the imperial gardens and it was really worth it even though it was raining like hell and as soon as we got there we spent a lot of time sitting in a shelter eating our food and drinking tasty drinks from the vending machine. I had iced chocolate which sounds weird but was actually really tasty. Then we spent ages and ages wandering around the gardens, which mostly consisted of trees and bushes and walkways but there was this one place with a lake and some fish and a bridge. It was beautiful and tranquil and I had lots of fun even though I had to keep replacing plasters on my feet.

I bought some in the morning since I got some geta style flip flops but with leather rather than wood on the bottom. This gave the sore areas on the backs of my feet and on my little toes a rest but I began developing rubbed through patches on top of my feet so I bought some plasters to protect those places... but the plasters kept falling off. It was annoying. I guess that type of plaster doesn`t agree with my skin.

Later I bought a roll of plaster from a hundred yen store (That`s like 50p land!)

We brought bento with us to make sure that the searching for food episode wouldn`t repeat itself. Afterwards we invited Sabrina to come with us as we were going to see the Shitamachi Museum of art and crafstmanship which is literally around the other side of where we are staying. It isn`t even 5 minutes away. But she didn`t want to go all that way and wanted to pop back to Otome road as we didn`T spend that much time there last time we went as it was late. She is going to get me a little chibi Yoko to go with my chibi Kamina hanging charm. I will pay her back. It was only 60p or so anyhow.

The Shitamachi museum was also great, if tiny. There were many pictures and other items of interest such as dolls, embroidery, furniture, models, accessories and mini shrine cabinets etc. I also have a leaflet explaining about all the different things.

Right in front of the museum was the hundred yen store in which I bought that plaster roll and some foot covers to help me fend off rubbed patches on my feet when I wear the flip-flops. But I have to wait for my foot to heal a bit before I can wear the foot covers since at the momebt the place where the elastic comes to rest is right on the part that hurts. After I finish writing this (again) I will ask for a bucket so I can soak my feet. Also I bought some lact fingerless gloves... hell, they were only 50p!

The reason for us being back in so early is because we are getting up super early to go to the Tsukiji fish market, at which I will have to wear real shoes since there is a danger of getting your feet covered in fish guts. I will eat delicious super-fresh suchi for breakfast! But we have to get the first metro train of the day which goes at 5.16... that requires us waking up at about half past three, assuming we have showered and eaten by 4.30 and then got to the station for 5. The extra 16 mins are there just in case we take too long in our breakfasting and morning ablutions. After that we will pick up Sabrina and go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum and after we are done there we will go back to where we are staying in Asakusa and then go to the Onsen nearby us (literally around the corner). That will bo so nice and relaxing... a long soak in some hot water will help us unwind a bit before a potentially hectic day since Nat and I will go to pick up Emma the day after. Also that should also help my feet a bit. Spending the next day almost entirely on a train should let my feet have a break. Sabrina is not coming with us since she doesn`t want to wake up so early and spend a whole day not doing much. She`s also not going to Tsukiji market because it`s too early and she hates fish. So we will catch up with her later, I guess. It`s no problem.

Now, before this damn computer crashes again I`m going to post this and go get my bucket so I can soak my feet.

Here`s to a slightly lazier day tomorrow and a much needed rest at the onsen.

Irina.

***************

29.08.08

Many things to report! We woke up super early to go to Tsukiji fish market and BOY was it worth it! At first we thought the metro wasn`t even open and sat outside this convenience store waiting for it to open. We finally found some FRUIT! Yeah, fruit is pretty rare here and damn expensive but I couldn`t go for much longer without lovely fruity nutrients so I bought 3 bananas. It felt great and my head was clear all day. I think the bananas really helped. Also I ate some satsuma jelly stuff with real... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400651/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400651/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:34:46 PDT
And so the writing begins anew. I was just far too shattered yesterday to do anything other than eat and crash out... also I had to sort out my camera since the memory card was full and needed storing on my mp3 player... but the hostel computers were being annoying and not responding properly. In the end I managed to do it on a computer that only had one working USB... I had to save the pictures on the computer and then move them to the mp3 player.

Yesterday was raining far too much to do a proper touristing thing so we extended our shopping/geeky activities. We went back to Harajuku in the morning because Sabrina wanted to buy lots of things in a lingerie shop. There just aren`t any sizes small enough to fit her in England, I guess... I`m not surprised. Nat and I wandered around browsing because we knew she would be a long time. Well, the problem with browsing is that you want to buy stuff, though Nat actually went with the express desire to buy things as she didn`T have enough money on her the last time we went. I wanted a belt... but I didn`t find one. I did get a really cozy black and white waistcoat, though. I`ve been wearing it ever since. It has a lacy hood! Whee! Also it`s really convenient to wear over my sleepwear in the hostel. You know that feeling when you`re just so hot and tired that you want to effectively wander around in your undies? Well, since it`s not appropriate you can`t do that and are forced to wear real clothes. *Sigh* But this waistcoat thing is long enough to cover my butt so it`s sort of like a zip-up dress that I can wear over anything and then wander around all comfy and stuff! ^_^ Nat eventually bought some dungaree shorts which were really cute and suited her so much. Also we looked at amazing shoes but knew we couldn`t buy them... at least not yet. Because of luggage space etc. We don`t want to lug around superfluous things.

Right, while at Harajuku we of course had to go that lady who told us about the Phantasmagoria concert so we could ask where to get tickets and about how much it would cost. She originally started telling me to get a magazine and read the concert info (and I`m flattered that she thinks my Japanese is that good) but I had to explain that my kanji knowledge isn`t that great. So she had to explain to me and showed me on the map and told us to come on the day because there would be all sorts of other Phantasmagoria fans there who would hang out and then head off to the concert together. It`s so weird that I am at my most fluent when it concerns Jrock or anime. It was pretty freaky that I understood pretty much everything that lady told me.

Anyway, on our way out Sabrina pointed out a Manga Cafe to us. We`re going to be staying in a Manga cafe on the 1st, of course, so we were rather exited to find one in Harajuku which we now know and love very much. After the Harajuku thing we went to Ikebukuro because Sabrina wanted to see Otome Road, which is like Akihabara but more directed at girls. It still has the usual anime and manga merchandise but there are more prettyboys than in Akihabara, especially in terms of females. The selection of male characters in Akihabara isn`t as good as it could be. I never did get my chibi Balthier but if I find him I sure will.

Sabrina got a few things but I can`re remember what. I got a Kamina towel thing that looks more like a flag and a little chibi Kamina decorative charm thing that I`ve attached to the zip of my new waistcoat. Those chibi charms were so cute that if they`d had any from Series other than Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann I would have got another one of another character I like and attached it to the other zip. I love those cute little novelty things - I`ve never seen so many of them together in the same place before in my life. Even at conventions there aren`t that many compared to here. It`s great. Well, both of those things were extremely cheap so I didn`t spend a crazy amount today. Even the waistcoat was pretty cheap by British standards. About 15 poubds...

I keep saying to the Canadians at the hostel that it`s great here because everything is half price and they laugh because they think it`s pretty much the same price. They keep saying that I`d be thinking the same thing about Canada. Heehee.

Well, I won`t go into more detail of our geeking around for now. The most fun thing was when we went to Nekobukuro! That`s right! The cat petting place thing! It was amazing! It was like a cat play-pen house! There were cozy seats around and just normal seats too. There was a TV shaped like a chibi cat face showing a cat cartoon/documentary over and over again. The walls were carpetty so the cats could claw at them and climb... also there were a lot of shelves and things for them to jump up to and run around on. There were also hole... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400642/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400642/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:33:13 PDT
Mini morning update time...
I ate sushi and meron pan for breakfast and made friends with some Canadians who were as geeky as me... but really I was just asking where they got their bottle of mugi cha from (I love mugi cha). Their names were Scot and Rex. Apparently yesterday they were also at Harajuku and Scot said he might have seen me as he recalled seeing a dark haired girl with a Deathnote bag. It could just as easily have been somebody else, though... it only takes one other female in Harajuku to own a Deathnote bag and there would be another dark haired girl with a Deathnote bag. From behing or the sideI really don`t look that distinctive.

Kuro-chan is really cosy to hug... I still woke up really early despite going to bed pretty late. Also on further inspection that cool ring I mentioned is actually extremely dark red rather than black. It`s not directly obvious and it took a lot of squinting from me to figure it out.

* * *

25.08.08

Akihabara today... replacing of broken electrical goods... it`s just as cloudy and humid as ever but hey, I`m used to it now. I can wear my pretty denim/white/flowery top today since it`s dry. I wanted to wear it yesterday but I`d just had a shower and my hair is pretty recently died so the colour hasn`t entirely settled yet and drips in the water from my hair )I`ve only washed it about two times since having originally dyed it so it`s understandable. Unfortunatelly I washed my hair and let it hang down onto the white of my pretty top... black/blue spots started forming and I immediatelly took it off and hand washed it in the sink and it was drying all day yesterday while I was out. But now I can wear it.

That`s about it but the real excitement is yet to come. Perhaps the Canadians will come with us to Akihabara since they say they are going there as well today.


Today was Akihabara! Yeah, pretty much exclusively Akihabara. As I mentioned, we went with Scot and Rex, the Canadians. They were also going to Akihabara that day anyway so we figured it would be nice to all go together. But I don`t know how they were planning to get there as they weren`t very good with the Subway. Already I`ve become a bit of a super navigator. I can really easily find where we are going and get a route. It`s very simple for me to make my way somewhere via the underground. I haven`t made a single mistake yet. Today something funny happened though as we were getting on the train... because after I got on the doors closed behind me and I quickly yelled to them that I would wait at the next stop and for them to get on the next train and I would join them. Heehee, that was a little funny because Nat looked so sad and lost as the train went away and me with it. It all turned out fine, though. We were only a tiny bit late for meeting Sabrina and we had no problems after that.

We went through the electric town towards all the anime stores. Immediatelly I started looking about for a new charger and new earphones. Since my camera isn`t uber common in Japan, neither is it the MOST up to date, I had to go through a few shops before somebody could help me. I was very impressed with myself since I managed to get by in Japanese fine, explaining my problem and asking for what I needed.

In the end this old guy at the Duty Free Shop helped me out. He cleaned the charger a bit more and when he plugged it in to see if it would work the charging light went on. I was so shocked because it hadn`t worked for me at all. But just as he turned around to talk to me the light went off and I pointed it out to him. It never did work again after that, even briefly. He said that he didn`t have any chargers of the same kind since he had more modern ones but that there was the same Duty Free Shop accross the road, which was bigger and better stocked, that might be able to help me. He also had a look at my earphones and told me the name of the type so I would know what to ask. Before that I was calling it `This type of earphone` and holding out the earphones to show them. He was a relaly lovely and helpful old man. Chatting with him made me feel really cool... I always feel great when I manage to hold a conversation with a Japanese person and engage properly. To get to the right place I asked some guys walking down the street and they say all these obviously blonde, english speaking people and ignored the fact that I was speaking Japanese. He started speaking in English and told me it was ok to talk English but I said I wanted the practice and carried on in Japanese. They showed me where to go.

Well, when I went to the appropriate floor of the bigger Duty Free Shop it was rather easy to get the cannon camera charger but then I had to go to another floor for the earphones and the guy looked like he wanted to be left alone and when I asked about the earphones he just said that they didn`t have any. He... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400631/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400631/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:31:58 PDT
24.08.08

Right. The update on my walking around is really nifty. I walked around the whole neighbourhood so I`ve really increased my local knowledge. I tried to look for those comfy slipper things I saw on the day we arrived but I couldn`t find the precise ones. I found something similar but the size was very slightly too small. Ah well, what can you do. With my black hair, short height and transparent brolly I really blended in and nobody stared at me at all. It was great. I went up to the temple via all the little market stalls on the way and I saw so many cute and jingly things! There were little hanging charms of every kibd you can imagine! There were fluffy ones and cute plastic ones and one that was metal and had a map engraved in it but was also a thermometer - the display was some sort of heat sensitive shiny strip which coloured more and more the hotter it was. I now know that it was 24 degrees C this morning but it got a lot hotter later. Remember, this was about 7 or 8 in the morning. Also there was a golden turtle with its shell a mesh and inside was a bell. Also there were ringing Japanese Yukata ladies and obviously `hello kitty`. I saw many fluffy toys also! Even some fluffy totoros and neko buses. And a fluffy dashound toy! Soooo cuuuute! I took a photo of it. Also there were real Japanese school girls! Wow!

When I walked up to the temple itself I could see the big gate and the huge lantern and the layered roof temple that I can`t recall the name of right now. I took a few photos since there was a quaint little buddhist garden but I didn`t actually go in because I didn`t want to cheat the others of the experience by randomly going off and seeing stuff without them. Either way, it was rather busy. In the middle of the square before the actual temple there was a place where incence　was coming out of. The people were walking up to it and waving it on themselves. It smelled really nice. After that I left and went down the other market route, skirting the temple grounds. While going down here I walked into the preliminary area of a garden. It charged admission so I didn`t go any further either but there was a little fountain and a couple of old men praying.

Speaking of old men, I saw a grandpa walking down the street wearing a purple Yukata. He looked so formal and dignified that he really made an impression on me and I wish now I had asked to take a photo of him. He was such an amazing old man...

Well, I bought a little jingly bead thing for mum because she wanted one but I didn`t buy anything for myself. I just looked at all the interesting things. I will have plenty of time to buy novelties at the end of the trip... well, at least that`s what I told myself at the time. Then we went to Harajuku... you`ll find out how that went shortly.

We didn`t go to Akihabara today since　we spent the whole day in Harajuku but we will go to Akihabara tomorrow. I really do need to go because my earphones only half work. Also since my battery on my camera was low complaining I tried to charge it when we got back... but the charger doesn`t work. It must be the shampoo in my bag. It`s a big shame but I do have a spare charged battery and Akihabara is electric town after all. I tried to make sure with the man at reception and he assured me that Akihabara would have a new charger.It shouldn`t be too expensive either but I have a cunning plan to maybe claim on ,\my travel insurance to pay for the charger... and perhaps say that the camera itself was broken too. Well, what the hell did I pay all that money for if it can`t take care of small inconveniences　like there? ^_- Mwahaha!

Nat woke up late and we were slightly late meeting with Sabrina but we did meet a lady along the way with an incredibly cute dog called Yaya. She was so soft and sweet and docile and so well trained! The lady made it pose for us with the promise of sweeties.

All right. Update time. Today was really the best day to go to Harajuku as there was a dance festival. There were so maby troupes of traditional Japanese dancers! It was amazing! We even saw some of them leaving the train as we were changing over to the line that would take us to Harajuku. It was at the Meiji shrine and there were at least two stages erected that I saw. The dancing itself was amazing as were the costumes! I took photos of course but sometimes it was hard to get good ones since we didn`t have the prime photographing location even though we could see rather well. Nat took videos too. I gave her a piggyback so she could get a good line of sight. In each dance troupe there were well over 30 people... some of them I would say even approached 50. So many people wearing beautiful clothes on one stage doing the same thing all at once! It was amazing! The music w... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400613/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/20400613/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:29:19 PDT Reading: Japanese dictionary.
Playing: I WAS playing Final Fantasy 12 before I went to Japan.
Anime: No time for anime... unless you mean the anime figures in Akihabara.
Manga: Detroit Metal City. It`s all over Manga shops in Japan these days.
Ye illustrious quote: Look! It`s litter!

This Journal thing fails because I was going to put up all my journals in one go but together they are so long that DA doesn`t recognise them and it dies so I guess I will do them one by one.

**********

In Japan 1

22/23.08.08

I`ve arrived in Japan!

Everything went according to plan. The plane was on time, the service was good, the food was excellent, as was the entertainment. There were little screen things in the back of the chairs on which you could watch movies and play games. I watched a great documentary-like thing on things to do in and around Tokyo. I got one of the stuardesses to give me a leaflet of the information.

We arrived and went to Asakusa　to find our hostel and we found it fine, though I asked directions a few times just to be sure. I`ve spoken in Japanese quite a lot already and the results have been favourable. Asakusa is a really lovely area　with plenty of personality and character. There are many shops and amusements and many interesting things to see, not least a rather large temple that we haven`t explored fully yet. After checking in I discovered that my shampoo had come open in my bag and left a mess on some of my clothes but the hostel has washing machines and I washed my clothes straight away for really cheap. It wasn`t that big a deal anyhow.

The room is small but nice. It has 4 bunkbeds in so it sleeps 8 and we`ve stuck our stuff in there. After that we all headed off to Akasaka where Sabrina was staying. We saw her safely into a hotel abd went exploring for a little bit. We found a really small cute temple with lovely gardens and gates and wandered around for a bit. Then we went and ate Ramen (noodles). Finally　Sabrina went back to her　hotel and we went back to ours. We were practically falling asleep on the way and I am writing this before going to sleep.

I had about 3 hours sleep before going to heathrow because I was too excited to sleep. Then I didn`t get　any sleep on the flight either because I simply couldn`t fall asleep. Then we did almost a full day of running about, getting sorted and exploring. I feel really exhausted about now and so do the others but at least they managed to get some sleep. Tomorrow when we are all rested the fun will start for real because will will have lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Ooh! I had a rather long conversation with a lady on the subway just as I was making sure we were on the right train. She said she was going to the same place and would show us when to get off. I also asked about getting a map of the ubderground and when we got off she helped us procure one. The rest was just chat about where we come from, why we`re in Japan, the quality of my Japanese and so on. She was a really lovely lady and helped us out with the map issue.

Right. I`m exhausted now and will go to sleep. This keyboard is rather hard to get used to as well since it keeps randomly switching to Japanese so it`s taken me a long time to write this

* * *

24.08.08

I woke up at about 6 in the morning... but I did get a lot of sleep because, to be fair, I went to bed so damn early it`s not even funny.


Today we are going to Harajuku because it is a Sunday and all the cosplayers come out. Also there is some kind of festival so there will be traditional dancing and a flee market! Woohoo! So exciting! I will tell you how it goes later. I has a good night`s sleep in a comfy bed and nobody in our room snored. There are a couple of blokes that I didn`t get a look at properly because I went to bed early but there were also a couple of Chinese girls.

Since I`d woken up so early, I decided to have a lazy morning. I had a shower so I am all clean now. Then I sat about sewing my bag together (it turned out really well and it doesn`t look like it will come undone again). It`s perhaps a little messy but I think that is one of the things that makes it strong. Also it`s not noticable as it is black thread on black bag. Yeah, this is my lovely new Death Note bag. I don`t know why it broke like that. The strap was litterally being held on by random threads. It looked as though it would break any moment. The girl at reception gave me instructions for how to get to a clothes fixing place that might be able to help me. I did go but there was no point fixing it with them. They could only have it done in a few weeks and it would cost lots... in fact, it would cost more than the bag cost me in the first place. The lady I was speaking with said I`d be... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/17150812/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/17150812/ Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:35:25 PST Reading: "How Novels work"... it's for uni.
Playing: Not much.
Anime: Full Metal Alchemist, again, along with others.
Manga: Death Note 13 (the extra volume)
Ye illustrious quote: OVER NINE THOUSAND!
Ye illustrious quote 2: And then... they totally did it! And it was so hot that if I had been there I would have been like... Aaaaaah yeeeeeeeah!
Writing situation: Finished second dissertation draft, am giving in a "Writing the Novel" Essay tomorrow and then will actually have some time to write, maybe, and I actually intend to use it for that purpose unles I start drawing instead.

From Friday to Sunday this week I have been at Minamicon! It was the first time I went and I really loved it! There were a lot of really great people there and we all had such a fun time! There was sushi making and kimono wearing and a maid cafe and all sorts of games and entertainments and snacks and a disco and a karaoke and of course cosplay and stuff! It was so amazing! I've already bought a ticket for next year because I really think it's worth it and I'm already looking forward to doing it all again.

It did get a little painful after a while because two nights in a row I walked all the way home because it was far too late for buses. I think it's about an hour walk... well, certainly if you're trudging after a full day of anime fun and excitable fan-like bouncing. I got a huge blister on my foot and my legs ached so much. Also my neck hurt for a little while after I headbanged so much to the heavier songs.

At the bring and buy I bought a Kadaj figure for only £7! That's bloody amazing!!! Also a little Sasuke plushie, which I bought for the soul purpose of strangling and torturing (I was Orochimaru). There was unusually only one Sasuke cosplayer and I kept threatening her across the room and strangling her and stuff. Ah, good times. I looked pretty cool as Orochimaru though all that white paint was such a pain. On the last day I went as Nekozawa complete with black cloak and Beelzenef puppet. I got a label sticker and put it on his chest with the words "THE GAME" on it so everyone I walked past lost. It was so funny!

Concerning Cosplay, I did intend to make a proper costume like I did that time with Yuna but my dissertation deadline prevented me. I'll get something ready early for next year and am now extra motivated by everyone else's amazing cosplays to resume my efforts at making a Lavi cosplay. There were some honestly amazing cosplayers there and I was soooo jealous. The masquerade was incredibly fun and I especially liked the comedy sketches and various amusing happenings that went on. I hope that me and my friends can put together something fun like that for next year.

Anyhow, I'm sorry, everyone, that I haven't been putting up a lot of work recently but dissertation has sort of been eating my life. Again, it's not that I'm not producing anything, it's just that I'm not FINISHING anything. I have a whole bunch of pictures that are sitting around in sketch form and just mot being coloured because that takes too much time. Hopefull some time soon I'll get around to finishing some of those and showing it to you beautiful people. I'm increasingly aware of my REceding popularity simply because I'm not that active on here anymore but I do keep checking here and answering your comments. My lack of stuff is only because I'd rather have something finished and good to show you, something that I can be proud of rather than just putting up pictures for the sake of putting up pictures. Quality is very important to me, after all. So, if you've read this far I guess it means you're one of the people who actually cares about what's going on with my life and my art... so I'd like to say a great big thank you for being patient with me.

*GLOMP!*
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Go visit my stock account! Yay!

http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/15633411/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:15:14 PST Reading: Do Androids dream of electric sheep by Philip K Dick
Playing: Dnd! Woo!
Anime: Busou Renkin
Manga: No manga...
Ye illustrious quote: Sliver Skin! Another TYPE!
Writing situation: ~Only essays, I'm afraid.

On Wednesday we (the Anime society) went to the Soul Cellar to see Osaka Monaurail, a Japanese jazz/funk/soul band and it was really great! They’re only playing in the UK twice – in Southampton and in London. Hehe, I somehow feel there are more central places to play than in Southampton but hey, I’m not complaining. I feel rather privileged, in fact. All of us had a really great time and I was right in front of the stage too! Rob was on one side of me with his eccentric dancing and on the other side was a hippy-like girl (she had weird clothes and dreadlocks etc) and she was just as enthusiastic as Rob but much better at dancing. The two of them combined eventually squished me out of my spot right in front of the stage but I could still see well until Rob started dancing DIRECTLY in front of me, at which point I got annoyed and tactfully elbowed him out of the way by means of bumping into him a lot. At the end of the show the people at the front, including me, got to shake the hands of some of the members as they were walking off.

Anyhow, afterwards, when a bunch of us went downstairs to buy posters and t-shirts etc, only to discover that one of the band members were running the stall themselves! That was so cool! I got the guitarist and bassist to sign my poster and was then talking to the Bassist in Japanese until a trumpeter and the drummer came along. Then I was talking to the trumpeter and I asked where the others were and he said they were still upstairs and said he would go get them for me - and he did! Finally there was only the Trombonist and the Vocalist I hadn't got and the long haired rhythm guitarist guy went to get them! In short, my Japanese conversation really paid off to the extent that I actually got ALL the band members to sign my poster! It was so cool! I told the Drummer that me and my friends are going to Japan next year from Sendai to Osaka and he said he went to Sendai University and was really impressed. It turned out that the second trumpeter really liked anime too so I chatted to him for a long time about Death Note and Suzumiya Haruhi. It was so nifty! I'm really pleased with myself for talking to them all in Japanese exclusively and they all said my Japanese was good but I said it wasn't that great - it's just my accent that is good.

In conclusion the show was extremely fun! The vocalist sounded a lot like James Brown and kept dancing a lot so it was a really dynamic performance, also the Saxophonist, Trombonist and Trumpeteers were doing little dances with their instruments and the trumpeteers were spinning their trumpets around - it was so fun! I had a great time.

Yee!
______________________________________

Go visit my stock account! Yay!



______________________________________
Clubs: http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/14621070/ Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:46:27 PDT Reading: No reading these past few days.
Playing: Tried to play flyff but laptop can't handle it...
Anime: Seto no Hanayome
Manga: Battle Royale, Blood Sucker, Full Metal Alchemist
Ye illustrious quote: Shindara dou suru??? (What would you do if I'd died???)
Writing situation: I promise I will write soon, ok?

Ok, here's the deal. I told a bunch of you guys that I had tons of photos to put up. But the thing is that there were 95 photos, ALL of which I wanted to show! I could hardly put them here without them dominating the theme and look of my gallery so I went and made a...

STOCK ACCOUNT!

Omg, yes, I'm going to try my hand at stock, those people who have their photos used in all sorts of photomanips and stuff! I don't expect to be very popular but I really enjoyed my photoshoot today so much! I intend to bully my housemate into taking more photos of me! Yay! So cool!

Of course, as my other account is new, it's hardly popular, which is why I'm telling all you guys here to go look at it! They are pretty nifty photos, even if I do say so myself. Of course, if you are the kind of person who needs stock or pose references feel free to use what you can so long as you link to me and acknowledge me and all that common sense stuff.

Go visit my stock account! Yay!



______________________________________
Clubs:

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/14556910/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/14556910/ Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:31:05 PDT Reading: Pandora... still.
Playing: No games... the big computer is broken...
Anime: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Manga: Battle Royale, Blood Sucker, Full Metal Alchemist
Ye illustrious quote: Zetsubou shita!!! (I am in despair!!!)
Writing situation: Haven't written all week so my book is still only almost finished.

I stole a quiz from again... mwahaha!

>1. What time did you get up this morning?
11.30-ish...

>2. Diamonds or Pearls? Pearls, they come in black variety.

>3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Pirates of the Carribbean! World's End!

>4. What is your favorite TV show?
If you mean on British TV... I don't really watch TV... I've been known to watch the Simpsons occassionally. I also really like QI. If you mean JAPANESE TV, though, I currently like and watch D. Gray-man, Lucky Star, Darker than Black, Seto no Hanayome, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei... that's all I can think that's running now though the new seasons will start soon. You really don't want to hear my list of complete anime that I like, though... it could last for a very long time.

>5. What did you have for breakfast?
My parents came to visit and we had tea and onion baguettes.

>6. What is your middle name?
I don't have one! Hahaha! No embarassment here for me!

>7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Japanese.

>8. What foods do you dislike?
Liver and celery

9.What is your Favorite Potato chip?
Barbequeue... I also like those Lime Sensations. Yummy.

10. What CD is in your car stereo at the moment?
No car. No stereo. In my laptop I currently have CD1 of Metal Anthems (Yeah, I bet you were expecting something Japanese but NO! This time I have metal music.)

11. What kind of car do you drive?
Don't even know how to drive.

12. Favorite sandwich?
One with Salami in.

13. What characteristics do you despise?
People who don't do what they say they are going to do! That is my golden rule in life!

14. Favorite item of clothing?
I have a favourite black shirt.

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation?
Japan. Always Japan. And next summer I WILL GO! Yaaaah!

16. What color is your bathroom?
White.

17. Favorite brand of clothing?
Branding is a stupid concept, a mere fiction that exists only in the mind as a commercialistic incentive for you to part with more money than the product is actually worth.

18. Where would you want to retire to?
Haha! I haven't even entered the working world yet! To humour you, though, let's say Japan. Of course. It's always Japan.

19. Favorite time of day?
8pm - that's the time when I get creative. All writing and drawing happens after 8om.

20. Where were you born?
Losino-Petrovski, Russia. (Try saying that when you're drunk).

21. Favorite Sports to watch?
On the whole I hate watching sports. However, if dancing and ice skating can be considered sports, I will watch them. Certainly not team sports.

22. Who do you least expect to send this back?
Because she's the one I got this from. There's no point for her to do it again if she's done it already.

23. Who will respond first?
Who knows. I'm not really a popular artist so not enough people will read this anyway.

24. What laundry detergent do you use?
*Goes to look in the cupboard* Ariel Liquitabs... but the box is empty so I don't know if that counts.

25. Are you a morning person or night owl?
I am equally awake at all times of day but my golden hours are later in the day so let's say Night Owl. I don't have trouble waking up in the morning, though.

26. What size shoe do you wear?
5/6

27. Favorite animal?
CATS ARE THE BEST!

28. Any news you'd like to share with everyone?
My big computer at uni is broken and it had a bunch of recent artwork on that now won't be finished until it is fixed.

29. What did you want to be when you were little?
My first dream ever was to be a cartoonist.

30. Favorite candy bar?
Mh... don't really eat chocolate... I like those Mars Delight things. Don't even know if they still sell them.
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/14451321/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/14451321/ Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:11:30 PDT Reading: Pandora - Anne Rice
Playing: Fyff mmorpg - soon I will get my final job! Ee!
Anime: Lucky Star
Manga: Battle Royale, Black Cat, Blood Sucker, Full Metal Alchemist
Ye illustrious quote: Timotei... timotei... timoTEI!
Writing situation: I started a new book two months ago and it's almost finished!

Hey people. You must all think I'm dead from all the inactivity lately. It's so embarassing how little stuff I've put up. Usually this is because I draw but I can't be bothered to finish colour something and my gallery is only for finished things. However, this time I ACTUALLY have not drawn for two whole months because I started a new book and was so much into my writing that I didn't draw anything.

However, now that I am back I intend to give you all guys some nice stuff to look at! They say you get better with practice so I was expecting to be at least a little rusty after two months of not drawing a single line. Instead somehow I'm coming out with rather good things and my proportions are better than ever! Of course I am pleased... but mystified nonetheless.

You are probably wondering about the title. I just wanted to make a hypothetical quiz. If any of you want to steal it please do and tell me if you do because I'm really interested in seeing what you guys write on this topic. Here goes!

--------------------------------

In this age of technology we all use computers - look you're sitting in front of one now! Amazing how I know these things, eh? A lot of you probably do digital art so your computer is also your outlet for creativity. What the hell wou;d be do without computers?

Imagine one day you are sitting in front of your screen and then a bunch of aliens come along and BEAM UP EVERY COMPUTER IN THE WORLD! That's right. Nobody has a computer at all... and all the computer scientists have been kidnapped too so you can't build any more.

1. When you see your computer is gone, what is the first thing you do?
- Gibber senselessly and grope around, hoping it's just invisible.

2. After that initial shock what do you do?
- Look around for the master thief but eventually go to the university computers... but they're gone too!

3. What's going through your head?
- What am I supposed to do with my life now?

4. What was the most important thing on your hard drive that you are now mourning the loss of?
- Well, all my pictures I have the line art of in real life so I can deal with that... my main point of despair is that I've lost all my novels! *Sob* All gone! All that work! And I never had hard copies...

5. Suppose the aliens had given you half an hour warning (yes, you understood what they said); how would you use your last half hour with your computer?
- Crazily try to move all my music to CD or MP3 player whilst printing out as much of my books as physically possible and trying to obtain Medge's snail mail.

6. How will you get on artistically now?
- I will draw in paper as I did before and colour with watercolour like I did before I got photoshop. I might even splash out on the occassional canvas. The books, however... I'd be so depressed at having lost them all that I'm not sure I'd ever recover from the shock - I may even sadly stop writing for a very long time. I can't bear to write my books on paper either.

7. Now that computers don't exist, are there some other hobbies you can indulge or do you want to take up some new ones?
- Mh, you may think this odd but I'd like to learn Spanish dancing. I tried when I went to Spain and it was really fun! Also I can always read books and manga and watch films... though I'd actually have to BUY my music which would such... seeing as my favourite music is Japanese music and hard to get over here without importing (via ebay) or downloading (also on computer).

8. A year has passed without computers. How are you coping? Have you even survived?
- Barely, the lack of Japanese music sucks like hell and I still burst into tears every once in a while remembering the books I've lost forever...

9. Wait! OMG! The computers are back! What do you do???
- Jump so high my head hits the ceiling! Then I'd pass out... After coming to I would instantly scan all the drawings I've done in that year and some line arts! Then I'd colour them! Then I'd download new anime and manga and watch them all the time! And of course I'd print out all my books and hug them and cry with joy and then desperatelly try to get them published before I lose them forever again (It could happen).

10. In short summarise what this whole experience has meant to you?
- Emotional rollercoaster... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/13443682/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/13443682/ Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:09:54 PDT Reading: Queen of Sorcery, David Eddings
Playing: Various online D&Ds. Also Fable... a little.
Movie: Mrs Henderson Persents...
Anime: Hack Sign
Manga: Alichino
Ye illustrious quote: "I Backstab him with BALISTA!" - The Gamers, available on Youtube in five parts. Watch it! It's genius!
Writing situation: I wrote a ten page fairy-story.

Time I updated this damn journal because it's still hanging around on that "Manga Despair" business. I'm no longer despairing over manga... in fact, I've decided to give it a miss for now and leave it to the people who are actually dedicated to Manga drawing.

However, I have a JOB! Well, it's more like work experience because there's no money involved but this will be invaluable to me! I'm going to be working in editing in publishing - isn't that great! It will be really worthwhile for my job experience and something great to put on my CV! What skills I will learn! I'm already learning proofmarks and all such things. I'll be starting in a couple of weeks. I've also bagged another part time job to provide the actual MONEY side of it that I'll be needing.

Ooh! The editor guy also said that I could do some graphical stuff for them! Of course, it won't be the sort of stuff I have here - it's not editorially salable - it'll be more in the way of adverts etc... but with my photoshop expertise adverts will be a piece of cake. He said I shouldn't get my hopes up that anybody will actually want to use any of my work but I have such ridiculous amounts of faith in myself that I'm sure I can wow people if I try. If I do a great job, who knows, they may even pay me... even if it's just a little bit.

I'm really excited about it all and looking forward to a summer full of productive work-related stuff. Hooray for something useful to put on my CV!

After I come back to Uni in October, though, I won't have any job at all... but Waterstones will be hiring then and I think I have a good chance. Either way, I'll be looking for employment and it sure as hell will be more worthile than the co-op! If I can't get Waterstones, I'll try Forbidden Planet. I think my position as Anime Society President qualifies me perfectly for such a job.

*Does an employment dance*
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Clubs:

Love and watch:
http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/12776628/ Sun, 29 Apr 2007 09:42:27 PDT Reading: The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams… still
Playing: Not playing. Working.
Movie: Rurouni Kenshi is so depressing!
Anime: Chrno Crusade
Manga: Alichino
Ye illustrious quote: "Daruma-san ga koronda!”
Writing situation: determinedly proof-reading!

Somebody told me that my manga that I started looked like Pokemon/Beyblade and that made me despair. Although it wasn’t meant to dishearten me, it did because (no offence to these two animes) but Pokemon/Beyblade in my mind are synonymous with childish, over-simplistic, plot-lacking kakk that is real-manga/anime-wannabe. The last thing I want to be is a wannabe because I hate them with all my might. This is why I felt like giving up because better that than keep at something kakk.

So, before it gets too far… I guess I’m going to start again. This time I will try to make it more my own style. I know I wanted to try something different… but I realise now that if I don’t stay true to myself, this will only make it harder on my in the future. Even if it doesn’t end up looking like manga, I guess I will have to do it this way. But since I don’t want to be a wannabe I will probably make the eyes realistic but on the manga-ish side. Wish me luck.

I will be giving myself a few days rest from this. I realise now that I was rushing it somewhat. I feel like I want to draw it as quickly as I can read it… but that’s impossible, of course. If anybody has any tips, I’d be really glad to hear them. I am still determined to try this manga thing, though… as it really does stretch the way you think about drawing… and you can’t just miss out the bits you don’t want to draw…

*Sigh* I know that to get myself feeling better I should draw an amazing one-off picture… and I definitely need a new cover for Technaffinity. Those of you who know what Technaffinity is – do you have any over ideas? I want it to look professional this time!

Thanks to anybody reading this. My disheartened state is such that it makes me wonder if anybody reads this anyway. I met some lovely people at Recon who really liked my art and were enthusiastic but I don’t feel I’m being particularly productive or even GOOD lately. I need to do something about it… I need to start DESERVING the praise I get. Right now I don’t feel worthy.

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Clubs:

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/12761959/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/12761959/ Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:29:21 PDT Reading: The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
Playing: or rather now... I made a Yuna costume, though.
Movie: Slayers.
Anime: Black Cat.
Manga: Black Cat.
Ye illustrious quote: "For years I wanted to be John Cleese, I was most disappointed when I found out the job had been taken"
Writing situation: determinedly proof-reading!

There are a lot of things going on in my creative world. Firstly, I have new drive to get something published and am therefore proofreading one of my books like crazy. I also intend to draw a kickass cover for it. Then I will have no reason to be ashamed of myself for not bringing a good thing into completion!

Second, I am trying to draw a manga - partially because a guy from Tokyopop said my stuff is really good and I should enter their manga competition... partially because I've never done manga before and completely failed at anything comic-like but I was young and unskilled so I figure it should be something I do to discover some things about me as an artist. I can't draw in boxes to save my life so I'm doing all that via photoshop. I also downloaded a bunch of screentone brushes which are coming in very handy. Anyhow, this is something I want to do for myself, as I've said, as an experiment into something I simply haven't done before. The story I've got for it is quite fun so I want to continue with it... but it takes longer than I anticipated. I see now why professional manga artists have assistants - they could trace and refine things for you and maybe take on the load of some of that pesky shading!

I've made a Yuna costume, of which there will be photos eventually. It took me forever to draw all the patterns on the belt but they look good and are 100% accurate to boot! I went to Recon in it and was probably one of the better cosplayers but I was doomed never to win the cosplay competition because there was a guy there dressed as Cloud who was AMAZING! He's even made his own sword, though I don't know how unless he was an art student or something. It was an amazing costume, anyway. He deserved to win.

I didn't win anything but I met some lovely people and chatted a lot about manga and anime... I also promoted my art a little bit. It was such a tiny convention, though, I doubt anything will come of it. I do want to get commissions, though. I'm beginning to think that advertising on DA isn't a good thing as everybody is an artist and therefore less inclined than the rest of the population to buy art... because they could draw it for themselves if they wanted. So I made business cards and everything! I hope to go to the London Expo too. I've never been to a convention before so I'm kind of excited by all this.

Well, here is a character quiz I stole from and I'm going to do it concerning the main two characters from my manga, Guarden Ex Alia.

1. What is your character's name?
Michi Matello and Mira Matello. They are twins.

2. What is your character's name in another language?
Michi is Japanese for "path" and Mira doesn't mean anything in particular, though if you were grasping at straws you could say that it's the Mizen form of miru, to look.

3. How old is he/she?
They are about 16.

4. What is your character's race/species?
They're human.

5. Do they have a crush?
Mira doesn't, though Michi will develop one later - I don't know on whom as I haven#t created the character yet.

6. Do they have many friends?
Yes, they are rather popular, though not in the obnoxious way. Many interesting people enjoy their company, shall we say.

7. What planet is your character from?
Now, that I'm not sure of. I don't think of it as a planet rather than an alternate universe so I guess it's something earth-like if it was more fantastical. The name of the Kingdom they live in is called Askew.

8. Does your character like to eat?
Everyone likes to eat. Both of them enjoy eating, though perhaps slightly more than the average person.

9. What's his/her favorite food?
CAKE! The twins go crazy for it!

10. What's his/her favorite drink?
Green Tea.

11. Is your character annoying?
Both of them in their own special ways. Michi is annoying through worrying too much and Mira is annoying through being a bit too boisterous.

13. Is your character loved?
They love each other in that nice twin way. They're very important to one another. As for other p... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/11274406/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/11274406/ Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:15:48 PST [link]
or email me at blackc@kittymail.com

Listening to: Tonight Tonight Tonight
Reading: Finished reading... Harry... Potter...
Playing: making my own clothes designs...
Movie: Silent Hill
Anime: None.
Manga: None.
Ye illustrious quote: "Falls off cliff _ end of movie!"
Writing situation: Have a start on the new story! No progress on Rogue Death, unfortunatelly.

Merry 2007. I spent the day/night/morning with , Kirstie and her boyfriend. I had a really nice time, even though the beginning of the day was a rather raw one... what with me having a row with my mum. It's really odd that it had to happen now as we pretty much never argue. It hurt a lot.

Anyway, enough of that. 2007 is in and I hope it will be a good year for everyone. Right now my thoughts are turning to going back to uni and hoping second Semester will go well.

Here's a quiz I stole off

1) How old do you wish you were?
19 is good, 18 was good and all ages before that but nothing less than 13 because I was pathetic before I turned 13. 20 will be good too, I bet. I've always made the most of whatever age I have been.


2) Where were you when 9/11 happened?
School. Didn't know about it until I was wlaking home, though. Jamie's dad came to meet us and told us all about it. I thought it was a joke.


3) What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
I've never had money stolen from me... sometimes I've got more change than I ought to have had so I like vending machines.

4) Do you consider yourself kind?
I think I am.


5) If you HAD to get a tattoo, where would it be?
Somewhere not really visible because I don't really want a tattoo. If I had to have one it would be on the bck of my neck, safely hidden by hair.

6) If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Japanese. I want to be really good at it, I'm learning it now. I want to visit it. I'm hoping to even work there for a bit.

7) Do you know your neighbours?
Yes. Both home and uni.

8) What do you consider a holiday?
Not uni holidays - being at home is a little stressing. A holiday is when I have a period of time at uni when I don't have an essay weighing on my head.

9) Do you follow your horoscope?
No. But I read it for laughs sometimes.

10) Would you move for the person you loved?
Yes.

11) Are you touchy feely?
Yes. Very. I'm huggy.

12) Do you believe that opposites attract?
Mh, better to have stuff in common with people. My opposite would probably be a blonde chav. And I'd be more likely to kill them.

13) Dream job?
Author.

14) Favorite channel(s)?
Whichever AV channel happens to work for the Playstation.

15) Favorite place to go on weekends?
Anywhere with my friends.

16) Showers or Baths?
Showers. Baths take too long and they're usually too hot to get into straight away.

17) Do you paint your nails?
No. Never.

18) Do you trust people easily?
It depends on whether the person is trustworthy or not. If somebody has gained my confidence, it means they're trustworthy.

19) What are your phobias?
Failure.

20) Do you want kids?
One day.

21) Do you keep a handwritten journal?
Yes, actually.

22) Where would you rather be right now?
Uni, with my boyfriend. Everything is all right when he gives me a hug.

23) Heavy or light sleeper?
Heavy. But not as heavy as my boyfriend. He's such a sleepy spirit it's legendary!

24) Are you paranoid?
No. I find it silly...

25) Are you impatient?
Not really.

26) Who can you relate to?
The people I love and trust and many characters in books, both the ones I write and the ones I don't.

27) How do you feel about interracial couples?
No problem. I'm a Russian girl dating a half Chinese, half English guy. Why would I be against it? Hell, my main zone of attraction is Asian men. I don't see why you can't love anybody you want. Just don't slag off each other's cultures...

28) Have you been burned by love?
No. It's a... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/11184002/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/11184002/ Mon, 25 Dec 2006 05:15:04 PST [link]
or email me at blackc@kittymail.com

Listening to: Bryan Adams - The Best of Me
Reading: Anime - from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle.
Playing: Golden Sun on Gameboy Advance
Movie: Saving Grace - we watched it last night.
Anime: Akira.
Manga: None, really... Devil! Yay! But it was in Japanese so I didn't really understand...
Ye illustrious quote: "Squee" - Lemmie sung me a song in the morning.
Writing situation: Writing ideas and character pages concerning the Apostropher's Tone in my idea book.

Hello everyone! It's Christmas! I hope you're all having fun and partying on like goo little children! Here is my lovely list of prezzies that I got:

Double Guitar Stand - Emre and Suzie.
Bath Stuff - Ree - there's another present on the way.
Table Easel - Alex and Richard.
Japan Quartz set: earrings, necklace, watch and bracelet - parents.
Toblerone - Cat.
Swiss Chocolate - Cat.
Eye Pencil - Mum.
Bryan Adams: The Best of Me - Dad.
Shower Curtain - Mum.
PotC: Dead Man's Chest - Dad.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell - Parents.
£50 note! Wow! It's so new and shiny!
Tea dunky device in the shape of a house - one of mum's friends.

Woo! I feel like I've done better this year than many christmases recently! I'm especially pleased with the guitar stand - I set it up in my room in Southampton and it looks lovely! I also bought myself a Death Note bag to treat myself. Emre's present, which got lost in the post, has turned up so that's a weight off my mind. Unfortunatelly, though, I forgot my laptop lead in Southampton so I can't write on my laptop. That's why I'm writing by hand right now, and not really stories either.

Ah, I miss Ree already - how the hell did I cope for the summer holidays? But he says that if he can finish two courseworks he will come visit me! Hooray! I hope he does come to visit because I really miss him and mum is accusing him of being scared. Heehee.

Well, have a lovely festive season, everyone! Please tell me about your presents too!

Love,
iggi.

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Clubs:

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/10634077/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/10634077/ Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:27:30 PST [link]
or email me at blackc@kittymail.com

Listening to: Azumanga Daioh soundtrack
Reading: Waiting for Godot, Brimstone and Treacle, Batholomew fair and Keats.
Movie: Tarzan.
Anime: Tokyo Godfathers.
Manga: None.
Ye illustrious quote: "Shit I can take but fart I won't!" - Hana from Tokyo Godfathers.
Writing situation: Essays... essays... and essays...

Ree built me a new computer! It's amazing and I play Oblivion on it!
Here's a quiz I yoinked off

First, WITHOUT looking at the questions below, fill in twelve of your characters.

1) Arashi
2) Toru
3) Rinkai
4) Anaset
5) Pain
6) Kami
7) Sumiko
8) Tsubasa
9) Ankoto
10) Namen
11) Uncle Stilter
12) aYu


01) Who would make a better college professor, 6 (Kami) or 11 (Uncle Stilter)? What subjects would they teach?
By a very narrow margin, Uncle Stilter because he's a little loony and absent minded and also very clever and a sorceror. He'd teach Chemistry, I think. Kami, however, is a bit of a genius... but I think he'd go into a real profession rather than teaching. Maybe he'd be a detective.

02) Do you think 2 (Toru) is hot? How hot?
He's pretty sttractive but a bit too closed a character to be my type. But of course he IS Japanese, which makes him pretty hot to start with.

03) 12 (aYu) sends 8 (Tsubasa) on a mission. What is it, and does it succeed?
aYu would send Tsubasa to get an amaaaaazing guitar and it would succeed because both of them are Japanese rocker-style bishis who play guitar. It's just that aYu is a famous rock star and Tsubasa is a depressed highschool goth-boy.

04) What is or would be 9's (Ankoto's) favorite book?
Poetry. He's pretty deep, actually. And it inspires him for lyrics.

05) Would it make more sense for 2 (Toru) to swear loyalty to 6 (Kami), or the other way around?
Kami is more likely to swear loyalty to Toru as Toru is older and has amazing sword and martial art skills. Besides, Toru is a central character and Kami and his friends tag along unseen, un-asked-for and out of pure curiosity so he'd just be out to help to main guys.

06) For some reason, 5 (Pain) is looking for a roommate. Should he/she share a studio apartment with 9 (Ankoto) or with 10 (Namen)?
Well, Pain is a bitter and introspective, vengeful death god who used to be a revenge spirit and is especially skilled in pain magic. She's not too talkative or open about herself and she's dead... so she wouldn't be likely to NEED a room, let alone share one with a human, because the other two are human. Buuuut... I think Namen is a good choice seeing as he's mad and has pink hair and is very strange so he probably would find Pain fascinating. Ankoto would probably get angsted up over it and Pain might scare him to death while he was falling into one of his black moods.


07) 2 (Toru), 7 (Sumiko) and 12 (aYu) have dinner together. Where do they go, and what do they discuss?
They'd go to the arcades. aYu would try to hit on Toru and Toru would try to avoid aYu's advances. aYu would play and win motorcycle games. Toru would punch one of those punch bag games and do quite well and Sumiko would play Mario cart and not do too well but have fun anyway.

08) 3 (Rinkai) challenges 10 (Namen) to a duel. What happens?
Oooh! This is a tough one! Rinkai is a gym teacher and assistant instructor to Toru in martial arts and he's won a few competitions but he does have an old leg injury... but he's pretty acrobatic. Namen was a black belt before he went crazy and he's still really amazing while he's crazy. He can do the splits and he's pretty strong. I'd say they're equally matched... I think they'd fight for a long time until one dropped down from exhaustion. Mind you, if you are considering Rinkai in the second half of HIS story, he does become a mortal spirit and mortal spirits are much lighter and easier to control physically and they get tired less. So maybe Rinkai would win if that was the case.

09) If 1 (Arashi's) stole 8's (Tsubasa's) most precious possession, how would s/he get it back?
It would be Tsubasa's guitar... He probably wouldn't know it was him seeing as Arashi is a 200 year old spirit in physical form and is incredibly stealthy and good at concealing himself. Even if Tsubasa knew it was him and wanted to get it back, it would be unlikely he'd be able to sneak it back or fight for it. Maybe he'd ask nicely? Or maybe he'd j... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/10328092/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/10328092/ Sun, 08 Oct 2006 17:23:48 PDT Listening to: Water - Nobuo Uematsu - music from Advent Children
Reading: Still Frankenstein technically - I just can't seem to get around to reading those last few pages.
Movie: The Ring! Watched it at night! Fun!
Anime: Bokusatsu tenshi!
Manga: None.
Ye illustrious quote: "Pipiru piru piru pipiru pi!" - Dokuro chan.
Writing situation: No writing... barely any drawing. Made all the bookmarks and banners for the anime society, though, made arty cakes for house warming party too.

I am starting doing commissions. You can see what I can do by looking in my gallery. I can draw pretty much anything to a pretty good degree of excellence. I mostly do realism to photorealism though I CAN do anime and cartoons too if I must. Media available is line art, digitally coloured, coloured pencils and watercolour.

Now you too can have your own special iggi picture done to request! With watercolours and coloured pencils and line art you can own the original and I can print out digital pictures for you too! Postage will differ, of course, depending on where you are.

Prices are as yet negotiable - if this gets popular they may rise so get your orders in quick while I'm still fresh at this and thus persuadable on the subject of price. More detailed pictures or those that require a lot of time will obviously cost more. I think considering the quality and time spent on my work merits something at least.

If you're interested, drop a message, please.

Best Wishes,
Iggi
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Clubs:

Love and watch:
http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/10188879/ Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:45:10 PDT Listening to: Music by John from the music shop.
Reading: Over the past two weeks I've read, The tale of the body thief (Anne Rice), The Dark side of the sun (Terry Pratchett), Small Gods (Terry Pratchett) and now I'm reading Frankenstein (Mary Shelley).
Movie: I watched Just My Luck in the airplane.
Anime: I was in Russia - where would I have got it from?
Manga: I was in Russia - where would I have got it from?
Ye illustrious quote: "There is never any excuse to touch a person's elbow" - me.
Writing situation: Too many people around me so I can't write stories but I have been noting down my ideas. I have plans for a Pratchettesque narrative but although I have many great background details, I don't have a plot yet. I hope it'll grow one.

Gah! I just lost this entire journal entry! I can't be bothered to write it all again so I'll summerise:

1. Back from Russia.
2. No computers or internet in Russia. The water in Losino Petrovsky is like tomato juice.
3. Am probably fat now because everyone feeds you mercilessly in Russia and it's rude to refuse.
3. Hooray! Can finally talk to Ree after 2 weeks! I haven't even seen him for two or more months!
4. Going back to uni of Friday!
5. Good riddance - I can't do anything worthwhile here because there are too many people in the house for anything creative to take place (Aunt Natasha came back with us) and I don't even have my own room to take refuge in (Aunt Natasha is staying in it).
6. Keeping sane by writing down my ideas by hand in a little notebook. Also writing a kind of diary thing, I guess. I have a lot of pent up thoughts that need letting out.
7. I need to procure books for uni, read books for uni and start thinking about what stuff I'll take.
8. Need to change the fuse in the playstation because it doesn't work - it might be dead. Hope not.
9. Need to ask mum to teach me how to make russian pies and meringues because she promised and still hasn't taught me.
10. Going into town today with Aunt Natasha because she wants to see and know everything - but I can't be bothered to translate everything in the world and I don't know everything she wants to know anyway.
11. If I show her something today, maybe I can have a day of peace tomorrow.
12. Have been trying to hide by looking very busy and unapproachable.
13. So much money to spend when I get back to uni - time for another rent payment, payment to several clubs, payment to Japanese lessons and of course there is food to be bought.
14. Might get a student account. Don't know yet.
15. Still no word from the library but I really just want to work at the library - the co-op is eating my soul! The sooner I get out the better!!! Why doesn't the library take me? I hope it takes me! If there is one person who is RIGHT for working in a Library it's ME! Helloooo! English Student with previous experience of being a Library assistant - lives practically next door to library and VERY enthusiastic!
16. Going to martial arts tonight to try and shake some fat off.
17. Can't be THAT fat, after all, seeing as my clothes still fit.
18. Hope I can still do the splits.
19. Hope I can find my knee support.
20. Hope I get some time to myself one of these days.

By the way, does anybody think I can make some money with my art? If so, how? And how do I go about it? And how much... and stuff... I don't really know about these things so I'm just asking you people.
______________________________________
Clubs:

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9943013/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9943013/ Sat, 02 Sep 2006 17:07:42 PDT Listening to: Steeeeeve Vaaaaai, duuuuuh! (Look at the title Maaaaan!)
Reading: The puzzles looks on everyone's faces.
Movie: Crossroads (NOT Britney!!!! Steeeeeve Vaaaaai, Duuuuuh! Read the title duuuuude!)
Anime: Hellsing. Again.
Manga: Mango.
Ye illustrious quote: "Ooh, I think I'll go up the mountain today! "
Writing situation: Writing this dumb journal entry!!!

came to visit me to day. Ah. Goooooood times. I told her about the wonders of Steve Vai and his strange expressions while playing. My odd mimings weren't quite enough so after my mum had vacated the computer we jumped right in and watched tons of Steve Vai on Youtube.

Many giggles followed and Cat got drink up her nose which began to taste of chlorine - if you want to talk about that goo see HER journal entry: [link]


If you are ever at leisure to study Steve Vai's facial expressions while he plays, please check them out because they are precious beyond words. We looooove him But he'll never leave his guitar and we know it . With his "come hither" eyes staring at the guitar we know that they will never be parted and with his alluring snake-hip moves, he's clearly getting it on with the poor instrument. I'm sure it doesn't mind too much. Steve even went up a mountain to get some magic mushrooms to stone all the fans away so that he could have some private quality time with his guitar. (In-joke as of tonight... said in a very stoned voice - not that we ARE stoned or advocate such practices, children. )

Watch "Bad Horsie" Live NOW and you will know what we mean! He's so badly screwing his guitar and in public too! He licks the damn thing then puts it between his legs and caresses it! To see for yourself look here: [link]
Those objecting to guitar porn stay away. (It's not REALLY pornographic - just pervy).

Steve and Guitary sitting in a tree! K. I. S. S. I. N. G!
First comes looooove
Then comes maaaaarriage
Then comes ukalale in a BABY carriage!

Cat and I have gigglingly suggested to start a Secret Steve Vai Society in which the initiation ceremony consists of drawing this particular scene of the guitar and Steve and the baby ukalale. Cat and I have entered a solemn and binding agreement sealed with fits of laughter, that we will draw that scene!!!!! Yes! This will also fit under my heading of drawing new and interesting things! Yes! Steve and his beloved Guitar bride!!!!!!!!!

CAT SAYS: Is anyone out there medically qualified? Is it possible for a human being to synthesise alcohol inside their own bloodstream? Because I have not had a drink in over 24 hours and yet I am rolling on the floor giggling.

ME AGAIN: Yes, and from us here, just carry on rocking and rolling and falling on your butt overwhelmed with huuuuuge bursts of laughter that almost smother you but make you feel daaaamn goooood maaaaaan.

P.s. Worship teh Steeeeeeve! And teh guitaaaaaaaar!

If anybody else wants to join the Secret Steve Vai Society please tell us and make sure to draw Steve, the guitar and a ukalale in a baby carraige.

We recomend joins the secret society!
I person... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9915144/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9915144/ Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:59:54 PDT Listening to: Metallica - Nothing else matters
Reading: Silence of the lambs
Movie: Saving Grace
Anime: No anime.
Manga: Tsubasa Chronicles
Ye illustrious quote: "She live in a lovely lovely house, I love her."
Writing situation: Inspired but not as productive as I like - having to write in the living room isn't helping - I hate writing with other people in the room. It's just wrong.

Well, I'm back in home again and today I am embarking on the first of my dental appointments. I just want this all out of the way.

Anyhow, this journal has a point (wow, I know, usually it's just mindless ramble about me) - please help me to draw something. I know I've been a little underproductive recently and a part of it is that I can't be bothered to colour the stuff that I HAVE drawn. Today, though, I took a glance at my recent deviations slot and thought, "My god, it all looks so similar - the same kind of thing in the same kind of style!" I felt quite frustrated by that.

I know I have my flashes of variation but when creativity lacks I drop into one of these states where my pictures are good but not amazing and, let's face it, they're not blowing you away. I think I need a change and I'm not sure how to do it so I'm apprealing to you people.

Please give me suggestions as to what to draw and yes, I realise that it'll probably mean getting away from the bishies (the pretty-boys), probably even people all together.

Please give me any help you can spare - show me inspiring pictures, throw reference material at me, show me photos you'd like to see me draw... Anything! I'll try to give credit where credit is due when I draw this but I may combine a few ideas so it might be hard.

Don't ask me to draw your characters because
1. That would just be trying to wheedle gift art out of me when I'm not offering it.
2. It's not any different from what I usually draw - Most of my drawings are of characters (my own).
3. I don't know your characters intimatelly and probably can't do them the justice they deserve without lengthy questioning.

HELP MEEEEEE! Tell me what I can draw to become an interesting artist once again and get out of this RUT! Make me draw animals, weapons, scenery, buildings, crazy angled stuff, technology, whatever it is that you think I should be drawing. All I want is for an expressive picture for once - not just a cool looking guy sitting/standing/lying, whatever.

HEEEEEEEELP!
______________________________________
Clubs:

Love and watch:
http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9756879/ Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:55:02 PDT Listening to: Phantasmagoria - Mikansei to GUILT
Reading: Frankenstein
Movie: Hannibal
Anime: No anime but I want to watch Advent Children again.
Manga: Othello - one book to go and then I'm done.
Ye illustrious quote: "Your dick is going to fall off!"
Writing situation: Inspired but haven't written recently. Want to write today.

Well, I'm back in Southampton for a Party - two friends are having birthdays and a party is approaching on the starboard side. I'm quite looking forward to it. In the mean time I'm having fun and hanging with Ree, watching movies and other stuff.

I started reading Frankenstein because it's one of my books for next year. I've only read two chapters but at the moment it's damn disappointing because a guy is going on a journey to the pole - And it's not even Frankenstein! Geh, it had better start getting relevant soon or I'll loose faith.

I'm going to make belt-holding tags for my pinstripe trousers because no matter how amny times mum takes them in for me they always slide off even when in theory they should be well-fitting. I've decided that the only thing that can save me from flashing my bum is a belt but these trousers don't have belt tags. So I'm gonna sew some on.

Now for something a bit more heartfelt:
Here's a shout out to my lovely friend and anybody else who is getting their A Level results around this time. I really hope you get what you want (or what you need - because they're not always the same thing). I wish you great luck in embarking upon a new step in your life. Set off with hope and enthusiasm in your heart wherever you may be going. If you did a little worse than you expected don't be discouraged because the world is full of opportunities and most of them are self-made. In the wise words of the Barenaked Ladies, "It won't take much from me to show them my life ain't over yet."
Peace out and please tell me how you did because I love you guys and want the best for you!!!

And because I'm having a Spree of listening to God Gave Rock and Roll to you and remoniscing about great times with , here is a quiz I nicked from her:

7 things you achieved in the near past:
1. Learnt to spin two swords simultaneously.
2. Discovered some new Jrock bands.
3. Completed Japanese Stage 2 with flying colours.
4. Became a little better at drawing (I hope I do that all the time...)
5. Talked to some real Japanese people on the internet - in Japanese!
6. 90 Pageviews - I may do a kiriban when I get to 100 even though it's not something I generally do.
7. A pretty good likeness of myself in a recent self-portrait.

7 things you found out lately:
1. You can get duck fried rice at Moon River even though it isn't on the menu.
2. I'm probably not going to make much progress on my book this summer.
3. I left my phone at Ree's house.
4. I'm really quite wobbly (thighs and belly especially).
5. There is a spot on my back that makes me bend over backwards when you poke it but it's hard to find.
6. Siamese cats meow really loudly.
7. I have conversations with cats quite often.

7 goals you want to accomplish:
1. I really want to work in the library (and leave the co-op!)
2. Finish Rogue Death.
3. Be a published author.
4. Get a first in my course at uni.
5. Become pretty damn good at Japanese (So as to better facilitate going to Japan).
6. Eventually become a passably good guitarists (though I know it's hard for me at the moment).
7. Become an even better martial artist than I am now.

7 of your positive features:
1. I'm really open and truthful.
2. I'm ready to try new things.
3. I'm adaptable to pretty much any situation.
4. I learn quickly.
5. I'm polite.
6. I'm reasonably clever.
7. I can talk to anyone and everyone.

7 of your negative features:
1. I'm stubborn.
2. I'm proud.
3. I can be a rather judgemental on certain points and certain people.
4. My natural volume is too loud.
5. I have issues with achievement - I'm a hopeless perfectionist with incredibly high standards for myself - usually that's good but I get terribly cut up if I feel I've come short in something very important.
6. My running is very energy-inefficient.
7. My forehead gets very dry after I wash my hair.

7 manias: ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9639352/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9639352/ Tue, 08 Aug 2006 04:14:32 PDT Listening to: Shakalabbits - Rigel
Reading: Hannibal.
Movie: Down with Love
Anime: No anime, ran out of Naruto.
Manga: Tsubasa chronicles - haven't started reading yet - waiting for first volume.
Ye illustrious quote: "I'm too fucking busy and vice versa"
Writing situation: Woot! I did some writing! Good progress. It's going to get exciiiiiiting soon!

I miss Ree but I won't ramble too much about that because some of you must be sick of hearing about him. Still, it looks like I'll be staying in Southampton next week so I'll see lots of Ree and be happyyyyyy! I'll miss martial arts but that's not really a problem since I don't go downhill from lack of lessons and I'll have more when I come back. I'll go to a party and hug Ree a lot. It'll be fun.

Also I'm going to visit Ree in Londooooon! Whee! We will hang out and it will be groovy! I'm so looking forward to it! That's all the exciting stuff that's happening, really. Life is rather empty except that I'm getting to draw and write, which is great.

I need to take all the beads off the second lamp shade now - we bought a couple at a botfair for my room in Southampton. They're shaped like mini barells and are sewn around in beads so it should be pretty shiny when the light goes through them. Still, the beads are on wire which doesn't look too nice as it's probably old. I have to take all the beads off and then mum will clean the beads and re-do the beading in a more interesting way. She's almost done with the first one and it looks a hundred times better than it did but it's taking longer than we anticipated.

She said that if she'd known how much trouble it would be she wouldn't have started but now that we're so far in she will never ever part with these lamp shades - they will go down in the family as heirlooms and if some descendents of hers dare to sell them at a bootfair or give them away she will rise from her grave and wave spiritual lamp shades at them angrily.

I think it's a rather funny image.


And now here's a little number thing I just made rather than stealing stuff from people all the time.


I have 0: Miyavi CDs
I have 1: Cute kitty
I have 2: Guitars – an electric (Steki) and an acoustic (Kenji)
I have 3: Gold guitar knobs (one broke)
I have 4: Jrock Magazines!
I have 5: Books to acquire for next semester “Romanticism”
I have 6: Real Jrock CDs (2 hide, 2 L’arc en Ciel, 1 Gackt, 1 Janne D’arc)
I have 7: Martial arts belts (white to black)
I have 8: Anne Rice books
I have 9: On the number plate of my house
I have 10: Toes

I want 0: Failure.
I want 1: Nintendo DS – those things are groovy!
I want 2: Faber-Castell black waterproof ink pens in small size (in case one gets lost)
I want 3: Pairs of well-fitting trousers at least.
I want 4: Modules passed with flying colours this year! (That’s all of them)
I want 5: Minutes of rocky goodness.
I want 6: … Pounds?
I want 7: Gackt Albums and then I’ll have them all!
I want 8: Tsubasa chronicles manga books (Right now I have 7 and I’m missing the first volume!)
I want 9: Hours of Ree all to myself.
I want 10: Sushi. Right now!

0 hugs right now – lonely.
1 day until I go to visit Ree in London.
2 more chapters written in my book recently.
3 bands discovered last week.
4 TVs in the house (one in my room, one in the living room, the one that used to be the living room TV and the TV for the caravan).
5 volumes of Wallflower.
6 yoghurts in the fridge.
7 days in a week.
8 pickled eggs in a jar on my windowsill.
9 is 3x3, you know.
10 ageichiban rice crackers left in the packet.
______________________________________
Clubs: ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9530051/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9530051/ Sat, 29 Jul 2006 04:58:34 PDT Listening to: Phantasmagoria - Mikansei to GUILT
Reading: Endless Highway by David Carradine (Yes, I never quite finished it in the first place and now I'm reading it again).
Movie: The Rock
Anime: Naruto
Manga: Othello
Ye illustrious quote: "I feel sullied and unusual"
Alternatively, "Eunuchy eunuchy snip-snip."
Writing situation: Nothing! Nothing! I have a damn block! I want to write now! If only I could get STARTED I'd be unstoppable!

I'm back home now. I tried to get a job but it seems that I was too late since the co-op (where I used to work before) had just hired some new people. However, there may be a new post created next week so I'm hoping that I'll get at least some work because it feels like a bit of a waste since I have so much free time and I could be using it to get money! I haven't been working for the past month or two anyway because I've been back and forth from uni like hell.

Anyway, I've moved into my new house now. Ah! I love it! I feel so free having an actual HOUSE to live in! Maybe also now I'll have the drive to learn to COOK! The parents came down for the weekend before I went home and we painted my room and fixed a lot of stuff as well as varnishing the unit in the living room. The varnish was quite nasty, actually. It looks bright yellow. Weird. Still, as long as it holds the stuff it's supposed to hold it's ok. And the whole living room is yellowish anyway.

My room is beauuuuuuutiful! It's all purple and mum made some curtains for the windows between my room and the kitchen. There still needs to be a curtain for the door but that will come in good time. Either way, it all looks amazing. It's quite clean and lovely. Also the furniture has been moved (Thank you REEEEEEEE!).

I guess everything's ok except that I have a strange amount of free time that I have finally decided to put to artistic use. So far I've been wiling it all away on the gameboy. Speaking of which, I have now "completed" final fantasy tactics but it seems that after the full 300 missions there are even more missions and Judgemaster Cid can join your party! He's so cool! You can break the law all you like with him arround cuz he can put the judges to sleep and erase your yellow cards! My clan level is 91 (and it hasn't risen in a while, which annoys me) but all my clan statistics are 99. Dude, I will do sooooo well in this game! Mwahaha! I'm already ahead of Yoshi and he's been playing for longer than I have! Ha! Take that game-freak! *Pet's Yoshi's head - you know I mean it affectionatelly *

Now! A quiz that I yoinked off about colouuuuuurs! Whee!

*Red*

Closest red thing to you?: My clipboard.
Last thing to make you angry?: Getting banned from a site for an art crime I didn't commit (I just happen to draw extremely realistically! I did not TRACE! )
Do you have a temper?: No. I'm a calm and reasonable person, mostly. My nature was never intended for anger or stress.
Last warning you were given?: My mum warned me not to flush the loo because she's put liquid in it for washing the loo.
Ever been in love?: Yaaaaaaaaay! Reeeeeeeee!
Are you a fan of romance?: The genre? As in films and books? Not really. But I'll take hugs and nuzzles from Ree any day.

*Orange*

Closest orange thing to you?: A pritstick.
Do you like to burn things?: Oh yes.
Dress up for halloween?: Yes, well, I used to.
Are you usually a warm-hearted person?: Yeppy, I'd say so. But not towards chavs or dimwits or criminals etc.
Do you have anything against ginger hair? No, certainly not. I've never met an unattractive ginger GIRL (though ginger guys aren't always so pretty).
Are you usually full of e... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9122422/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9122422/ Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:41:23 PDT Listening to: Nogu Svelo - Unie smeshnie golosa.
Reading: The Ociture of Dorian Gray.
Movie: Die Hard
Anime: Jigoku Shoujo
Manga: Great Teacher Onizuka
Ye illustrious quote: "I am beefy, she is beefy, we are beefy too. Yes I am beefy, he is beefy, and I believe that you are beefy too!"
Writing situation: I'm on holiday now so I'll probably write soon! But Yoshi and I have a project to make a moving Manga! Woot!

Woo! I'm back home for a couple of weeks to see my Sammy who is back from America for a while! Then I have to go back to Southampton and move into my new house.

Another quiz that I nicked off . I like stealing quizzes off her because she has good taste in quizzes. This is supposed to check how girly you are and each cross is a percent. I think a few of the questions are slightly off. I corrected most of the American spelling, I think.

[ ] My fingernails/toenails are almost always painted (Never. Nobody ever sees my toes so there’s no point and my fingernails must be unobstructed for optimum drawing, punching and guitaring)
[ ] During the summer the only shoes I wear are flip flops (Never. Flip flops are an annoyance and I have an aversion to anything going between my toes – which is the way flip flops are these days.)
[ ] My favourite toys as a child were Barbie Dolls (I had plastic toys out of kinder surprise and fluffy toys. Also puzzles.)
[x] My favourite colour is pink or purple. (I like purple but I think red and black suits me more. Besides, it's not a girly kind of purple that I like...)
[x] I did Gymnastics (Yes, in infant’s school, also I liked it when I got to secondary school – I’m rather flexible and don’t flinch at people standing on me.)
[ ] I love skirts (No. Trousers are my perpetual love and comfort.)
[ ] Hollister is one of my favourite places to shop (I’ve never heard of it. Must be American.)
[ ] Tight jeans are the only jeans I'll wear
[x] I love chocolate (Don’t most people?)
[ ] I've never had a real job (Co-op and martial arts instructor.)

TOTAL: 3

[ ] my hair is almost always straightened (It’s usually curly)
[ ] I have at least 8 Myspace pictures (I'm not on Myspace)
[ ] I usually go shopping once a week (Ha! I wish I was that rich! I’m stingy as hell!)
[ ] I love to hang out at the mall with friends (Mall? MALL? Who do you think I am? People’s houses are much more fun!)
[ ] I have a real diamond ring or diamond necklace or earrings (Like I said, I’m stingy as hell. There’s no way I’d splash out that much money on something that useless.)
[ ] I've gone to a tanning salon (I hide from the sun mostly – it makes me uncomfortable.)
[ ] I've gone to the beach to tan - not to swim (Swimming is much more fun.)
[ ] I have at least 10 pairs of shoes (How about 3 or four?)
[ ] I watch either the OC or Laguna Beach (Never heard of them.)
[ ] I change my icon weekly (About monthly… or more.)
[ ] I wear a shower cap (No! I wash my hair in the shower!)

TOTAL: 0

[x] I don’t shop at Hot Topic. (Of course. It’s in America and for pretentious FEMALE teens.)
[ ] My cell phone might as well become a part of me (No. I used to hate mobiles.)
[ ] I wear mascara everyday (Noooo, I don’t wear makeup much at all – eyeliner is about at far as I’ll go.)
[ ] I've been or am on a diet (I hate diets! I will forever eat what I want!)
[ ] Bathing suits are adorable (Kittens are adorable. Inanimate objects aren’t.)
[ ] I don’t know the difference between a sheep and a goat. (I thought this was a girliness test, not a BLONDE test.)
[ ] Big sunglasses are hott (Uh… never.)
[ ] I have gotten my nails done before. (Never will either. My boyfriend is more fussed about his nails than I am about mine.)
[ ] MTV is one of my favourite channels. (Noooo!)

TOTAL: 1

[ ] All I want to do at sleepovers is talk about boys (Music, Japan, Anime, crazy happenings at uni which mostly involve boys because my friendship group is mostly male but that’s not what you meant.)
[ ] I love to have gurls do my hair (I’ll do my own, thanks.)
[x] I give and receive hugs from all my friends (I’m very huggy.)
[ ] I hate bugs (No...some of them are cute and make girls scream! Haha! Sissies!)
[ ] Carnivals are so fun! (For Brazilians, maybe. I’ve never been to one.)
[ ] Summer is THE best season (Too hot.)
[x] My swimsuit has 2 pieces (So what?)
[ ] I’m waiting for my knight in shining armour (Hehe. I’ve got a boyfriend already, thanks. He’s more of an archer t... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9047691/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/9047691/ Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:12:16 PDT Listening to: Penicillin - Nice in Lip+L.
Reading: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Movie: Equilibrium
Anime: None right now... waiting for Bleach.
Manga: Great Teacher Onizuka
Ye illustrious quote: "Yoshimiiiiiiitsu!"
Writing situation: When I go on holiday I will write.

Another quiz that I nicked off . This is answered by skipping to a random song on your shuffled MP3 player to answer each question.

How does the world see me?
Nobuo Uematsu – Beyond the Wasteland (Ok, so I’m… better than nothing? That’s good).

Will I have a happy life?
Barenaked Ladies – If I had a million dollars (Wow! That sure bodes well!)

What do people really think of me?
Gackt – Noah (Maybe I’m holy and they worship me?)

How can I make myself happy?
Bricklin – Walk Away (Walk away… from what? Maybe walk to Japan? That would hurt but it would be worth it. I’ll walk to the plane.)

What should I do with my life?
Malice Mizer – De Merveilles (I should be marvellous!)

Will I ever have children?:
Tsukiyomi ~ Moonphase – “Kissu shitakunachatta” (This isn’t really a song – it’s just a sound file of the voice of Hazuki saying “Kissu shitakunachatta” which means “I just felt like a kiss”. So I guess if I’m supposed to kiss people I’ll probably have children eventually).

What is some good advice for me?
Linkin Park – Somewhere I belong (Uh… try to have somewhere I feel comfortable?)

What do I think my current theme song is?
Miyavi – Senor Senora Senorita (I like the Spanish dudes.)

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?:
Gackt Speaking a few words of English (People think I love Gackt crazily.)

What song will play at my funeral?
Nicole Kidman and Ewan Mcgregor – Come What May (God! I didn’t realise I had that song… I didn’t realise I had that TYPE of song! It’s kind of soppy… still, it’s kinda sweet.)

What type of men/women do you like?
Dir en Grey – Cage (Woah… I guess I like pervs, then.)

What is my day going to be like?
Joe Satriani – Summer Song (So true! It’s too hot!)

Why am I here?
Noir – Killing (Ah! I scare myself!)

What will people remember me for?
Miyavi – Pop is Dead (Yeah! They will remember me for my intense hate of pop!)

What song will I get stuck in my head tomorrow?
Gackt – Last Song (That song is so gorgeous it may well do).

Are there people outside waiting to take me away?
Perpetuum mobile (I guess they are but I’m just too quick – forever on the move and all.)

What will this year be all about?
Hide – Dice (Oooh, it’s a gamble, is it?)

Why was I born?
Penicillin – Gaia (I don’t what it means but it has a lot to do with standing on a mountain playing guitar with Rock and Roll in my soul.)

With the accompaniment of which song I was made?
Gackt – Pappa lapped a pap lopped acoustic 7th night version (I doubt it because that wasn’t around when I was born but it is one funky jiggy song!)

What song will be played on my wedding?
Psycho le Cemu – Yume Kazaguruma (Dream windmill… mh… sounds unlikely but if we all learnt the dance we could do it in the party afterwards – it would be hilarious seeing me do it in a wedding dress!)

Why would I kill someone?
Tenacious D – I’m the only Gay Eskimo (HAHAHA! That’s an AMAZING reason to kill somebody!!!)

What is forbidden on DA?
A Perfect Circle – Judith (Yep. No Judith’s allowed here, I’m afraid.)

What is most precious about my room?
Yui – Tokyo (Wow! I never realised I had the whole of Tokyo in my room! All these years I’ve wanted to go and it was right there in front of my nose???)

With what song do I fall asleep?
Kiss – God gave Rock and Roll to you (Now there’s an ideology…)

With what song I'm gonna lose/ I lost my virginity?
James Blunt – You’re Beautiful (… you know… that may ACTUALLY be it… it’s on Ree’s chillout list in I-tunes… Creepy.)

What will be my last thought before I die?
Enni Morricone – Chi Mai (Yes, that strikes me as a good tune to lose conscience to and review the past.)

What is the best song to describe my school mates?
Gackt – Kimi no tame ni dekitu koto 7th night version (The title means “What I can do for you” so I suppose I have wonderful and helpful friends.)

I feel so...
Nickelback – Leader of Men (I’m powerful.)

Best song to des... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8952744/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8952744/ Fri, 02 Jun 2006 18:18:56 PDT Listening to: Malice Mizer, Gackt piano solo from the Merveilles tour with Kami on drums.
Reading: The Turn of the Screw.
Movie: Uhm... no movie as far as I can remember.
Anime: Hale nochi Guu
Manga: Great Teacher Onizuka
Ye illustrious quote: "I don't suffer from insanity - I enjoy every minute of it".
Writing situation: Still nothing. And I don't think anything WILL be drawn until I'm on holidays again.

Well, you guys have probably noticed that I'm drawing anime recently and with a mouse, no less. This is because I can't be bothered to find a scanner to justify drawing on paper. It was only a momentary inspiration and it seems to have lasted all week. All I know is that for the moment I'm GOOD at this and any window of opportunity while you are good at something should be seized.

Emre liked my picture of Mai so much that he asked me to make a wallpaper of her for him and also for me to draw all the pictures for bookmarks for Anime next year (which we will give out at the bunfight etc). I'm rising to the challenge steadily. I show my pictures to Emre and he has a million criticisms to make about them so it takes a while sometimes and means that I stay up late at night.

I have only one exam to go which is a takaway paper. This will be the worst exam yet because it's for a topic that nobody likes and for a teacher who simply doesn't like how I write (he has issues with my style - I think he just doesn't understand where my mind goes - what other reason is there for him giving me low 2:1s when everyone else is giving me high 2:1s and firsts?).

Ree finishes his Exams on the 7th, I finish on the 12th so we will finally have some time to spend together. Hooray! He suggested we go to London to see a production and maybe go to that all-you-can-eat sushi bar he keeps telling me about! (If it's glose enough). I'll go home on the 17th or 18th so that I can see Sam at home who's coming back from America for a holiday. Until then my mission is to clean my room and put everything in boxes because I will come back on the 1st of July. It's a Saturday so my parents can drive me and it's the the day that I have to both move out of my halls and move IN to my house.

Because I will be coming back on that day I will have the parents and the car to help me move rather than walking over ten minutes down the road over 5 times with heavy boxes, guitars and laptops etc. However, a new issue has risen and we're not sure how to tackle it because everyone has to be out of halls by NINE O'CLOCK on the 1st of July. We'll come up with a plan, though.

Then I will stay in Southampton for a bit longer because the university will be having open days and they hire students to show people around and stuff like that. They pay better than the co-op does and they give you a free t-shirt and a paid lunch break with free food! It'll be great! I will also need to sort out a lot of things with the house like buying a microwave, vacuum and other things as well as setting up the internet and organising a TV license.

After the house is sorted and the work is finished, I'll go back home for the rest of my holiday at the end of which I will go to Russia and when I come back from Russia I'll probably go straight back to uni to get settled in and embark upon a new year of learning! There will also be a new reading list for which I'll need to do a lot of running around.

In my first Semester my main unit will be Romanticism (Hooray! With Stephen Bygrave! Michael Palin incarnate!) and for my smaller units, Drama since World War Two and Drama and Society in the age of Shakespeare. This is very useful because my main unit for Semester 2 will be Shakespeare's Comedies and Histories! My smaller units will be Aspects of Victorian Culture and Research skills, which is necessary for the 3rd year dissertation.

And that's my life as it is and as it will be in the near future.

Look forward to new anime pictures!



______________________________________
Clubs: ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8751731/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8751731/ Fri, 12 May 2006 16:51:59 PDT Listening to: Classical Chillout.
Movie: No movie.
Anime: Mai Otome.

Manga: No manga
Ye illustrious quote: "This car was made by god and it will last forever" - from play "The Car".
Writing situation: Nothing. But maybe I'll have time soon...

Now, I sat down in the middle of the night, nuzzling the coat Ree lent me and thought I'd do something random to fill the gaping hole of boyfriend-lack. Cry! He's so busy I don't really see him these days! Its times like this that I just want to give him a hug. I've been all weird today, looking for him everywhere. Beh, didn't find him. I guess he's working his cute little butt off and not getting enough sleep. That's just not healthy... Poor Ree. But it's partially my fault for distracting him...

Aaaah! Look! Ree's random site with fake Latin and a greeting to me! Isn't it cute??? [link]

Sorry, this wasn't meant to be a Ree rant. *Nuzzlenuzzlenuzzlenuzzle*

AAAAAnyhow!
Too much midnight time on iggi's hands proudly presents the Bohemian Anagram Rhapsody! Initially I tried to make an anagram for each line but they weren't all as amusing as these and it took me too long. So here are the more memorable picks of my anagraming... Even I can't help but laugh aloud at some of them:

I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy: It’s a boa-eyed mojo symphony turnip!

Little high, little low: Hello little twilight!

Mama,I just killed a man: I’m… I’m just a naked llama!

If I’m not back again this time tomorrow: I want Mr Fish to ignite a macro boom kit.

I see a little silhouetto of a man: “I aloft toilet!” aliens shout at me.

Scaramouche, scaramouche will you do the fandango: Hey! I, Coco Hula, a famous tango dancer, hurl mad cows.

Easy come easy go, will you let me go?: Welcome to Yoga, Lee! Am I so ugly? Yes?

Bismillah! No! We will not let you go! Let him go!: Tell him to go, Will! He’s a Gemini! Boo! Lowly nut!

Beazlbub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me: Lizards have bubbles of foam from a timed puree, see?

Nothing really matters to me: Gentlemen, to rash mortality!

Bohemian Rhapsody: Dosh, Brian may hope.

Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon: Randy Bumhole, Terry Nice-Gonad, Rod Creamer and Jo Fairy.

______________________________________
Clubs:

Movie:
Moonchild! Woo!

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8728895/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8728895/ Wed, 10 May 2006 11:03:13 PDT Listening to: The chirping of birds outside my window.
Movie: Empire of the Sun
Anime: Mai Otome
Manga: Flame of Recca
Ye illustrious quote: "Ninjas are a vital part of the eco-bio-deatho-sphere" - from ask a ninja - "how to kill a ninja"
Writing situation: Nothing. Too many assignments to think about.

A quiz I partially borrowed and partially made. Most of this is mine, though. Beware! 75 questions!

1. If I were a country I'd be: Japan.

2. If I were an ocean or body of water I'd be: Loch Tay.

3. If I were a piece of chocolate I’d be: Lindor.

4. If I were a brand I’d be: No brand! Boot fairs and charity shops!

5. If I were an ice cream flavour I'd be: Tropical.

6. If I were a scent/smell I’d be: Vanilla.

7. If I were a disease I'd be: Acne, making the chavs of the world ugly.

8. If I were a feeling I'd be: Bouncy happiness!

9. If I were a president/prime minister I'd be: Maggie Thatcher.

10. If I were a city/town/village I'd be: Cambridge.

11. If I were a colour I'd be: Red/black.

12. If I were a celebrity I'd be: Johnny Depp!

13. If I were a book I’d be: A dictionary/thesaurus.

14. If I were a weapon I’d be: A sword!

15. If I were a cereal I’d be: Tasty.

16. If I were a movie I'd be: Austin Powers

17. If I were a tube of toothpaste I'd be: Half FULL, not half empty.

18. If I were a currency I'd be: Pound stirling.

19. If I were a month, I'd be: March.

20. If I were a day of the week, I'd be: Wednesday.

21. If I were a time of day I'd be: 7 o’clock pm.

22. If I were a planet, I'd be: Earth.

23. If I were a moon I’d be: Miranda.

24. If I were a sea animal I'd be: Lion Fish.

25. If I were an earth animal I’d be: Something feline, I don’t much care.

26. If I were an under-earth animal I’d be: Mole.

27. If I were an air animal I’d be: Kestral.

28. If I were a direction I'd be: Up.

29. If I were a piece of furniture I'd be: Shelves.

30. If I were an item of clothing I’d be: Trousers.

31. If I were a tree I'd be: An apple tree.

32. If I were a flower/plant I'd be: Clover.

33. If I were a musical instrument I'd be: Guitar.

34. If I were a musical artist/performer/group I’d be: Gackt.

35. If I were a sound, I'd be: A tree falling in a forest.

36. If I were a song, I'd be: Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

37. If I were a meal I'd be: Spaghetti.

38. If I were a snack I'd be: Mochi

39. If I were a dessert I’d be: Cheesecake.

40. If I were a video/computer game I’d be: Final Fantasy.

41. If I were a language I’d be: Italian – I don’t know it but it sounds lovely.

42. If I were a martial art I’d be: Chum Kune Do

43. If I were an anime I’d be: Hale nochi Guu.

44. If I were an anime character I’d be: Doraemon.

45. If I were a job I’d be: An author.

46. If I were an item of cutlery I’d be: Fork… or chopsticks.

47. If I were a means of death I’d be: Drowning.

48. If I were a pregnancy craving I’d be: Gherkins in Marmite!

49. If I were a Japanese person I’d be: Miyavi – cute and random!

50. If I were a Chinese person I’d be: Zhang Ziyi.

51. If I were an English person I’d be: Sir Ian Mckellen.

52. If I were an American person I’d be: Johnny Depp!

53. If I were a German person I’d be: Johann Sebastian Bach.

54. If I were a French person I’d be: Alexandre Dumas.

55. If I were an Italian person I’d be: Leonardo Da Vinci

56. If I were a Russian person I’d be: My mum.

57. If I were one of my friends I’d be: Sam.

58. If I were a super hero I’d be: Wolverine?

59. If I were gay I’d have the hots for: Gackt.

60. If I were straight I’d have the hots for: Ree.

61. If I were a mental disorder I’d be: Hyperactivity disorder.

62. If I were a typo I’d be: teh.

63. If I were a question I’d be: Are you familiar with Jrock?

64. If I were one of Shakespeare’s plays I’d be: Much Ado About Nothing.

65. If I were a chav I’d be: Wothless.

66. If I were a goth I’d be: More depressed.

67. If I were a nerd I’d be: Without a life.

68. If I were a facial expression I’d be: Grin!

69. If I were a desert I’d be: Kalahari.

70. If I were a word, I'd be: Why.

71. If I were a b... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8712268/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8712268/ Tue, 09 May 2006 05:49:06 PDT Listening to: Steve Vai. Excellent guitarist.
Movie: Lupin III. Funny.
Anime: Samurai Champloo
Manga: Flame of Recca
Ye illustrious quote: "It's the ciiiiiiircle... the circle of deeeeeath!" - from ask a ninja - "how to kill a ninja"
Writing situation: Nothing. I feel more motivated but there are too many essays to write for me to write creatively for myself.

Thanks for all of you who were kind to me when I wrote my journal about being ill. I'm much better now though eating isn't the best thing in the world even now. I gave in another essay today and I have a Japanese exam on Thursday and Saturday. I hope I can become good at katakana by then.

In other news, it seems that Theatre Group will be doing a workshop on Stage Combat in a couple of weeks and John has asked me to help out seeing as I'm a pretty dab hand in the old martial arts myself and can spin a bo pretty niftily.

However, I won't be able to go to the jrock/jpop event over Sunday because of work, the business of my friends and my inability to get time off work at such short notice. Alas. But Jamie will tell me how it goes.

And concerning Jamie, I stole a little quiz off him, slightly altered for DA (cuz it used to be on livejournal)

1. What does your username mean?
Well, Jrock is the rock music of Japan. It happens to be cool and a particular area of my liking and experties. It is because of this that I preach about its goodness and am widely informed about stuff concerning it. I know more bands that most Japanese people I know. I have, in fact, converted many people to the ways of Jrock. This is why I am a prophet of Jrock and hence... a Jrock-prophet.

2. Elaborate on your avatar?
That sign is the sign of the Shisou, the "shadow of death", that perform a sort of Reaper job in the book I am currently writing called Rogue Death. The little flashy Jrock-prophet with a smilie speaks for itself.

3. Make up a question.
Kore wa nihongo de nan to imas ka? (What is that in Japanese? - In Japanese)

4. Describe your relationship status
Un-Single. I have a boyfriend and he is very nuzzlesome. ^_^

5. What EXACTLY are you wearing right now?
Black shoes, pale blue socks, pale green knickers, blue jeans, beige strapless bra, pink patterened floppy cool top, denim jakcet and a hairclip.

6. What is your current problem?
Approaching Japanese exams.

7. Who do you love most?
My frieeeeeends!

8. What makes you most happy?
Feeling worthwhile, loved and successful.

9. Are you musically inclined?
I play the guitar. Some people said my singing is good too... but I'm not inclined to agree.

10. If you could go back in time, and change something, what would you change?
I din't think I'd change anything. After all, I am the sum of everything that happened... including forgetting how to write "re" in hiragana in the last Japanese exam which was sooooo easy I could have easily got it.

11. If you MUST be an animal for ONE day, what would you be?
A cat. I love cats. They are soft and cute and graceful. I'd love to be a cat.

12. Ever have a near death experience?
Only in my dreams.

13. Name an obvious quality you have.
Talkativity.

14. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now?
My pace by Sunset Swish.

15. Who did you cut and paste this from?
Jamie aka Flos Duellatorum.

16. Name someone with the same birthday as you.
I just looked it up - a bunch of famous people I don't know. Julius Caesar DIED on my birthday, though. That's far more exciting.

17. Have you ever vandalized someone's private property?
No.

18. Have you ever been in a fight?
Only competition fights of my martial arts variety.

19. Have you ever sung in front of a large audience?
When I was about 3, yeah. That was on my own. I've sung in from of a large audience as part of choir several times during my teenage-hood, though.

20. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite/same sex?
Well, if they have interesting conversation is probably the first thing I look for. If you're talking aesthetically, though, I guess it's the... uh... face?

21. What do you usually order from Starbucks?
Hot chocolate. I don't like coffee.

24. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Somebody said I looked like Katie Melua once. I've also been told I look like Rukis with my new haircut but I don't think she counts as a celebrity - just a famous cartoon.

25. Do you still watch kiddy movies or TV shows?
Mh... no.

26. Did you have braces?... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8648705/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8648705/ Tue, 02 May 2006 05:06:34 PDT Listening to: Chi Mai by Ennio Moricone.
Movie: Shaolin Soccer - so funny and cooool! Actually it would have been Silent Hill but we ended up not going because I fell incredibly ill.
Anime: Get Backers.
Manga: GTO.
Ye illustrious quote: "What are you doing here? And why do you look like ET?" - from Shaolin Soccer.
Writing situation: Haven't written anything... too ill. Should really be writing an assignment.

At 6 o'clock on Monday I woke up with an awful stomach ache and feelings of nauseousness. Ree woke up too because I was shivering intensely. I felt really really awful and went to the toilet regularly for some vain gagging. I finally managed to throw up at 8 o'clock and since then it really didn't stop coming. I threw up at LEAST twice every hour after that which means that, according to my estimate, it should have been about 14 times in all. By the end of it I was complete out of it and really disorientated. I could barely take any water into my body even though I knew that I had to, otherwise I'd have nothing to hurl and that hurts like hell.

Ree was lovely throughout. He's my saviour! He looked after me really well and tried to get me to eat ... albeit with limited results. All I ate was an apple, a biscuit and a few spoonfulls of porridge. I'm still feeling incredibly weak and I'll have to catch up on my lectures later. It's been really tough... I can't believe I've been in bed for over an entire day.

Apparently at one o'clock in the morning I woke up and started talking a load of gibberish. Ree said that it was really funny because I was fidgeting a lot and saying a bunch of random stuff. Ree told me that I sounded drunk. I said that his socks looked like Macdonalds and eventually told him that he was the one not "making any understandings". Hehe. Sounds fun. I wish I could remember more of it.

Anyway, I hope I get better soon.
Have fun, all you people in full health!

______________________________________
Clubs:

Movie:
Moonchild! Woo!

Love and watch:
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8500193/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8500193/ Mon, 17 Apr 2006 13:35:38 PDT Listening to: A song by Rie Fu, I don't know what it's called, though, it comes up in computer squiggles.
Movie: Ring 0, Yoshi and I watched it yesterday. Sadako's mum is scarier than SHE is.
Anime: Bleach! At last I'm watching Bleach again! Woot!
Manga: Nope... still no Manga...
Ye illustrious quote: "I used to have fantasies about stabbing people, now I can do it for my country!"
Writing situation: Actually, I haven't written anything since last time. Mind you, last time was only a day or two ago.

I'm just going to set some more questions about me. This time it really is about me and not about my art because I was told (and I thought so myself too) that the percentage questions were a bit... odd... and there was stuff that was hard to guess. This time it may still be hard to guess but it'll be fun trying to figure it out. Party on dudes! No answers at the bottom this time so you have to comment your answers so that I can tell you how well you did.

1. Which of these “femalish” names have I NEVER been called?
a) Cleopatra
b) Esmeralda
c) Ermintrude
d) Desdemona

2. Which of these “malish” names have I NEVER been called?
a) Bartelby
b) Jack
c) Austin
d) Akira-kun

3. When did I have my first kiss? (aaaaaw)
a) 2003. I was 16, it was the new year and I was at a party. A boy asked to dance with me. We danced, then he kissed me.
b) 2005. I was 18, it was November, I’d just come back from work. I stayed at Ree’s house and was so tired I ended up falling asleep in his room…
c) 1993. I kissed my childhood friend Dmitri goodbye when I left Russia. I was 6, he was seven. It was cute.
d) 2000. I was 13 and playing a dare game with some friends; I ended up kissing one of them.

4. Which of these things ISN’T in my fridge right now?
a) Korean Carrots.
b) Pickled Garlic.
c) Milk.
d) Lettuce.

5. How many volumes of Death Note do I own.
a) None.
b) One.
c) Five.
d) Three.

6. Final Fantasy 12…
a) Doesn’t exist…
b) Is another online thing that few people will play, probably…
c) Is out everywhere and you should all play it because it’s amazing!
d) Is only out in Japan because they haven’t translated it yet, damnit!

7. Why do I hate Tidus from Final Fantasy 10?
a) He’s blonde and annoying and AMERICAN!
b) His shorts are awful and yellow is not his colour!
c) Because he gets with Yuna and Yuna would go so much better with Isamu, that really cool random Summoner they meet who is sooooo hot and nice!
d) He looks too much like Gackt. And only Gackt is allowed to look like Gackt. It’s a rip-off and it grates on me!

8. I love…
a) Myself.
b) Girls.
c) Sports.
d) Learning.

9. Which Japanese food I have a craving for right now?
a) mochi.
b) meron-pan (melon bread).
c) sushi.
d) dorayaki.

10. Once upon a time I used to be able to…
a) Make my eyes look in opposite directions.
b) Do a handstand and walk around on my hands.
c) Touch my nose with my tongue.
d) Hold my breath for three minutes.



11. What do you like about me? (one of those “no right answer” questions)
a) My wit and intelligence.
b) My creativity and artistic ability.
c) My happy, optimistic nature.
d) My perseverance and dedication to everything I do.
e) Something else or a combination of stuff in which case tell me...



______________________________________
Clubs: http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8479736/ Sun, 16 Apr 2006 04:07:04 PDT Listening to: Blaze Away by The Trax ("Ima... sugu... tobira NO MUKOU E!!!...")
Movie: Nausica, Valley of the wind (The main character had no knickers, I swear!)
Anime: Same, Nausica was an anime.
Manga: Eh... still haven't read anything...
Ye illustrious quote: "Denshaaaaaa!"
Writing situation: Cool! Around a hundred pages and the surge of excitement has ended so I have to keep inspiration high to continue writing.

Urged on by and his quiz about HIS art, I've compiled one about my own art. Have a go even if you don't know me; guessing is all right because I'm sure there are some questions here that might be difficult for people who do.

On the whole it's just a bit of fun so just enjoy. The answers are at the bottom - please don't cheat. Tell me what you got. Any exclamations at unexpected results are welcome as always. The last question is for my own nosey interest.

1.) Which of these names has NOT been one of my aliases?
a. iggi
b. Toshiki
c. Cheesewizard
d. Doodley

2.) What kind of comment gets me most annoyed?
a. “Check out my gallery!”
b. “Awsome.” (or some other short comment of appreciation that doesn't actually say anything at all -.-)
c. *Deep probing of my work*
d. “She’s cute!” (it’s guy)

3.) How long does a picture usually take me?
a. Anywhere between an hour and four hours, the more complex and realistic works can take up to nine or ten. Sometimes I do it all in one go and sometimes I spread it out.
b. About an hour to draw and an hour to colour except for quick pencil-jobs which might take about twenty or thirty minutes.
c. All my pictures take over 4 hours, sometimes days. I like to pay each picture the attention it deserves.
d. I really have no idea at all… when I’m drawing I’m in another world.

4.) What standard am I in martial arts?
a. Just messing with you, I don’t do martial arts… but I want to.
b. I’ve been at it for a little over a year… I’m a red belt.
c. Assistant instructor, getting my black belt soon, have a few titles and stuff, y’know the deal.
d. I’m an instructor, baby, YEAH! First degree black belt, have a line of trophies and my own class.

5.) Who is top Japanese Guitar God for me? (if you don’t know these people just guess – all of them are close to the top anyway).
a. hide
b. Chisato
c. Miyavi
d. Gackt

6.) What age was I when I started on the digital media? (Ah, cheap photoshop courtesy of Russia!)
a. 13
b. 14
c. 15
d. 16

7.) You may think I like my digital stuff but what percentage of my gallery is actually in DIGITAL media? (Not counting scraps)
a. 50%
b. 60%
c. 70%
d. 80%

8.) What is the name of the book/story I am writing at the moment?
a. Rogue Death
b. Technaffinity
c. The Kenzira
d. Zacarius

9.) What percentage of my work features MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS? (as opposed to real people, for instance).
a. A little over a quarter.
b. A little over a third.
c. A little over a half.
d. A little over two thirds.

10.) What percentage of people depicted in my pictures are MEN? (Even if they look girly?)
a. 95%
b. 85%
c. 75%
d. 65%



11.) What do you like most in my work? (No right answer )
a. The atmosphere.
b. The attention to detail.
c. The colouring.
d. The many exciting characters.
e. Other... (Please tell me!!!)

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Are you ready for the answers now?
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Don't go cheating, now.
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1. d
2. b
3. a
4. d
5. c
6. c
7. b
8. a
9. c
10. b
______________________________________
Clubs: ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8446803/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8446803/ Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:03:58 PDT Listening to: Con te Partiro by Andrea Bocelli (beautiful). Wait... it just finished. Now it's My Pace by Sunset Swish (Groovy Bleach music!)
Movie: Attack on Precinct 13.
Anime: Still between Animes, I'm afraid.
Manga: Yay! I've borrowed volumes 4, 5 and 6 of GTO from Emre!
Ye illustrious quote: "Ooooooooh" - from Ocean's 12.
Writing situation: About page 90... very exciting things have happened... I'm pretty inspired!

Agh! I'm the regular little traveller, really. I've been to Southampton over the weekend from Friday to Monday. It was so nice to see Ree again! I missed him so much! Everybody else too, of course, but he's my boyfriend so... y'know. Heehee.

We watched movies and ate pizza and talked and Emre showed me Final Fantasy 12. It's so cooooooool! On Saturday I did everyone's shopping for them and gave myself card-cut from carrying the basketball set thing from ASDA.

On Sunday we went to Brighton and did so much walking that it hurt my feet. We saw lots of groovy things inculding a Japanese shop in which I got mochi and other things including one of those funky bottles with a glass ball inside. It rocks!

On Monday I went home on the train through London and yesterday (Tuesday) and I went to London! Heehee. We went to Camden and saw aaaaaalll the groovy but overexpensive clothing. I didn't actually get anything from there except for food. After we'd looked everywhere in Camden we went to Leicester Square for Coffee and Hot Chocolate (I still don't like coffee even though I like everything else to do with coffee except coffee itself). Then I took cat to Picadilly and showed her the Japan Centre where I got loads of Sushi (having got a taste for it again at Moshi Moshi in Brighton). I got Hi-chew and a Fuji apple and Fruiche and ricecakes as well as a little book to help me remember my katakana. That night after I got back from martial arts I had myself a groovy little sushi feast! It rocked out a hell of a lot! Woot!

Now, in theme with my new picture of Arashi, I'm doing the quiz I did for Rinkai before on HIM.

Basics

1)What's your character's name?
Kishida Arashi

2)How old is he/she?
Looks twenty-something but is actually about two hundred and fifty something.

3)Is your OC a boy or girl?
Boy

4)What's his/her race?
Human (but a dead one...)


Appearance

1)If this character were to suddenly become part of the 3D world, and ended up in a heavily-populated area, how many stares would he/she get?
A fair bit but not an alarming amount, after all, he is human-shaped. But he does have blue hair and a few other highly distinguishing features.

2)Is your character considered normal in his/her own world?
In relation to living world - NO! He's DEAD and still fully functional! Of course he's not NORMAL!
In relation to the Beyond (spiritual world) - NO! He has too much spiritual energy, managed to take on PHYSICAL FORM and go to the living world - 9/10 of spirits cannot assume physical form. Furthermore he's definitelly a bit of a rebel considering he severely dishonoured the Shisou and did their job even though he was very much rejected from becoming a Shisou.

3)What would be his/her most recognizable feature(s)?
* Dark blue tinged hair - a consequence of high spiritual energy. It used to be black when he was alive.
* Turquoise eyes - same. They used to be grey when he was alive.
* Really smooth skin and barely a hair out of place - polished appearace is due to being dead when little imperfections and details are often smoothed out.
* A scar that stretches horizontally over his nose and cheeks.
* A beauty mark in the middle of his forehead.

4)Would you consider your OC as attractive?
Oh yes, I think he's oretty tasty.



Personality

1)Temper?
I don't want to say that he's a dark brooding hero because he doesn't seem to brood too much - he's a definite REPRESSOR. He pushes turbulent emotions and memories down until even he isn't aware of it. He just wants to be a part of something, I think but he just ends up being alone. He is confident though looking at all the repressed stuff that's also dubious. In one word I'd say he's MYSTERIOUS.

2)Does your character ever get depressed?
Not that much because he represses stuff but there have been times when he did get pretty down, yes.

3)Leader or Follower?
~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8361710/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8361710/ Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:23:11 PDT Listening to: The summer of SIXTY nine! (those were the best days of my life! Oh yeah! Back in the summer of 69!)
Movie: Ring Zero (Ring Birthday) - I got it for my Birthday when I came home.
Anime: Between animes at the moment. I finished Azumanga Daioh yesterday and haven't started Rozen Maiden yet.
Manga: I've finished reading the GTO books I borrowed from Emre. I think I should have borrowed more.
Ye illustrious quote: "You're like a trolly-dolly dancing down the aisle of a plane."
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... please look at my recent pictures, The Disciples and The Right Hands which are probably some of my best works to date.

I'm quite excited because I'm writing again! It feels like it's been a long time. Even while I've had the time at home I haven't always had the motivation. However, after a long talk with Emre about stuff I feel inspired! I've reached a pretty exciting part which I have written differently from what I expected. The consequence of that has been a rethinking of the plot. The result is that I've cut out an entire character. The result of this has been to free up Rinkai's personality a bit. I've thought aobut him some more and he's become a much more exciting character! I love him more and more the more I think about him.

I've also decided to brink Funakoshi back a little bit more. I've drawn a picture of him too. Right now it's in scraps (I haven't coloured it properly yet). I've also drawn a picture of Toru and Rinkai. It's pretty cool, I think. Please check it out.

Seeing as my characters are quite a lot on my mind recently, 's quiz appealed to me quite a lot. However, I wasn't sure who to answer it for. It would make sense to answer it for Arashi since he is the main character but Rinkai is the character who has had the most development in my mind recently. Furthermore, he features in my most recent picture and he hasn't been given any attention in the past. Also this will be a fun exercise for me. So here we go! Character quiz! Woot!

Basics

1)What's your character's name?
Harada Rinkai (Rinkai is his first name, I'm just writing it in the proper Japanese way with family name first.)

2)How old is he/she?
22

3)Is your OC a boy or girl?
Boy

4)What's his/her race?
Human (one of the only ones in the story!)


Appearance

1)If this character were to suddenly become part of the 3D world, and ended up in a heavily-populated area, how many stares would he/she get?
In England people might think he's a bit odd but he's not TOO odd, just a healthy, moderate level of eccentricity, I guess. Maybe only a handful of glances.

2)Is your character considered normal in his/her own world?
Yes, I'd say so.

3)What would be his/her most recognizable feature(s)?
Long auburn hair, earring in the right earlobe

4)Would you consider your OC as attractive?
Yeah, I think he's really cute.



Personality

1)Temper?
He's not easily wound up. He's down to earth and fun-loving.

2)Does your character ever get depressed?
No. He's the BRIGHT character in my story. Depression is for the other characters

3)Leader or Follower?
Inbetween, I guess. A healthy mix of the two. He has to be a leader kind of character because he wants to be a teacher but he's assistant instructor to Toru. Ok... let's say leaning towards leader.

4)What is the main aspect of his/her personality?
He's enthusiastic and open.


History

1)Does your OC have a family of any sort? If so, are they still alive?
He has a father and mother who are still alive. He also has a sister in high-school claled Hitomi. He's living in an apartment by himself. He's finished university and is on a teacher training course to become a gym teacher.

2)Is your character out on his/her own? If so, why?
No, he's a social person. He attracts people to him. He's really popular. He's no loner.

3)Has he/she encountered any traumatizing events?
In university he twisted his leg badly jumping around on the tables in a lecture theatre. He was really worried about his sport because he was out of it for a long time. Luckily it's healed really well.

More recently, though, while drunk he tried to hug Arashi who happened to be sighting a Shisou (a kind of reaper). Being spiritually unaware, Rinkai didn't see the Shisou. He ended up having the Shisou thrown through him forcefully. It was... unpl... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8254619/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/8254619/ Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:52:58 PST Listening to: a random playlist of 537 songs that I have saved on my laptop... I've just had Hi-ho by hide, right now I'm in the middle of My Immortal by Evanesence and next is the live version of Give it away by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Movie: Perfect Blue (we're going to watch it this Saturday too! It's great! It was particularly on my mind when I had to write my Freud presentation.)
Anime: Azumanga Daioh
Manga: I bought two Rurouni Kenshin Mangas in London but I haven't started reading them yet.
Ye illustrious quote: "Tsukurimashou, Tsukurimashou! Sate sate nani ga dekiru kana... Hai! Dekimashita!"
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... please look at my recent pictures, The Disciples and The Right Hands which are probably some of my best works to date.

All right, all my work is done for this term. I've had my last seminar and I've given in my Latin assignment. However, there will be work to do over the holidays too. I hope to play lots of playstation and watch lots of anime as well as doing tons of martial arts. Because I wasn't home for my birthday it seems I'll be getting some presents when I get back too. For now I must tidy my room before my parents come to pick me up because stuff seems to be dumped all over the place. Of course, I rarely actually live in my room so it's understandable that it has become just a place where my stuff is left. However, I'll really need to buckle down and do it tomorrow. Also I'll pack so that I won't have too much to do later. I won't take much. Just my guitar, laptop, some clothes, my gamboy and my PS2 memorycard.

Oh yeah! The guys got me a gameboy for my birthday!

I hope I'll be able to do some propr writing too while I have some time off. Drawing too... possible...
Something tells me that my holiday will be very full.

Now, I'm not generally a quiz freak but I reaped this one from because I just felt like it at the time. Have fun, guys!

[ 1 ] First grade teacher's name: I entered school in year 2 because I wasn't in England when I would have been in year 1. Anyway, my year 2 teacher was Mrs Taylor (fond memories).
[ 2 ] Last word you said: Later.
[ 3 ] Last song you sang: Hi-ho.
[ 4 ] Last person you hugged: Ree. Ree gets lots of hugs.
[ 5 ] Last thing you laughed at: Sam and Matt doing silly things.
[ 6 ] Last time you said I dont fucking remember: I don't say "fucking" that often... so I think I've never said it in that context. The last time I said "fucking", I said, "This is a fucking JOKE!" I wasn't too happy.
[ 7 ] Last time you cried: Monday.
[ 8 ] What's in your CD player: No CD player, only computer with Winamp. It's a really random compilation but at the moment I have Papa Mama ~Nozomare nu Baby~ by Miyavi playing.
[ 9 ] What color socks are you wearing: Black with two thin white lines at the top and a white flower at the ankle.
[ 10 ] What's under your bed: Christmas Wrapping paper, a tub with a towel and shampoo in, sanitary towels, cardboard boxes, plastic bags and the box from my graphics tablet.
[ 11 ] What time did you wake up today: 7.45.. then I thought I could get away with another 10 minutes... I woke up at 9.11... my seminar started at 9. I was about 25 mins late.
[ 13 ] Current hair: Dark brown as usual. The parting is on the RIGHT now, though.
[ 14 ] Current clothes: Black shirt and blue trousers so dark they might as well be black. Socks and underwear, of course.
[ 15 ] Current annoyance: Having forgotten a key plot point that I will need to write about soon.
[ 16 ] Current longing: To hug Ree.
[ 17 ] Current desktop picture: Deathnote.
[ 18 ] Current worry: Whether my parents will let me come back to uni a week early.
[ 19 ] Current hate: Smoking, as always.
[ 20 ] Current favorite article of clothing: Hakama.
[ 21 ] Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex: Face
[ 22 ] Last CD that you listened to: Awake Album by L'arc en Ciel.
[ 23 ] Favorite place to be: The Anime House/ The Committee House (same place)
[ 24 ] Least favorite place: In the toilet wondering if I will be sick or not.
[ 25 ] Time you wake up in the morning: It changes every day depending on when my lectures/seminars are.
[ 26 ] If you could play an instrument, what would it be: I do play. I play guitar but I wish I was better at it. If you want me to say an instrument I don't play... I would love to play the Piano and Violin. Beautiful sounds.
[ 27 ] Favorite color: Black, Red, Purple... I'm not fussy...
[ 28 ] Do you believe in an afterlife: Mh... I don't t... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/7875211/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/7875211/ Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:36:01 PST Listening to: Advent Children Soundtrack
Movie: How about.... ADVENT CHILDREN?
Anime: Jigoku Shojo! That rocks out!
Manga: Death Note Gotta love that incredible "smarter than the average manga".
Ye illustrious quote: "Your fluffy uscles couldn't take it" - in reference to Ben trying to lift a TV and failing.
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... GUYS! If you find some time really read my fics that I've written! Also look at the disciples! The rock!

BEHOLD ALL YE WHO INTEREST YOURSELVES IN MY LIFE! I have procured for myself (and three fo my friend) and devilishly delightful little house for us to live in until we graduate!

Before I continue with this I must introduce the characters in this curious saga:

:!::!::!: Me = iggi = Irina: The evil genius in charge of the house-obtaining mission; the only girl in the group (albeit and honourary man); the only organised one; the only one with sufficient language skills to negotiate, navigate and arrange all sorts of important things; the martial artist; the person who can probably we considered most English person despite technically being 100% Russian. Currently lives in Chamberlain.

:!::!::!: Tetsushi: the Japanese guy who will teach us all how to cook amazing Japanese food and hopefully feed us occassionally or more than occassionally, however with a trade arranged with iggi that she will do the washing up. Currently lives in Chamberlain 3 floors above iggi.

:!::!::!: Wayne: The Chinese (Mainland) guy who hangs around with Tetsushi a lot and does the same course as he does as well as a guy in iggi's corridor. He has been roped into the anime society by Tetsushi and iggi and very much likes Hellsing.

:!::!::!: Ben = Ben Chan = Ben-chan = Fuwafuwa: The Chinese (Hong Kong) guy who is amazingly shorter than iggi! *Gasp* He's actually English but has a rather fluffy brain. Fuwafuwa means fluffy in Japanese - his full title is Eroero kakumeishi fuwafuwa Ben-chan and if you understand all that you can have a gold star and a cookie! He is so called because he has very fluffy hair. He likes really stupid movies. His specialities include gaming for hours on end and complaining about suff in a humorous way.

:!::!::!: Ree = Lee: MY BOYFRIEND! *Cough* Iggi's boyfriend. Iggi has never had a boyfriend in her life but she now has one and isn't she glad about it! At last! A valentines day with some purpose to it! Woot! Anyhow, Ree is a computer scientist and a left handed archer (Just like Ishida who is an amazing character from Bleach and Irina loves! He also happens to look like Ishida) :woot:! The significance on Ree in this fateful tale of THE HOUSE is that he is helping us look around and decide and ask the right questions because he has lived in two houses at the uni in the past.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
AND NOW ON WITH THE FATEFUL TALE!
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

The house is in Bealing Close. It's really close to the University, about 7 minutes from the banks at Highfield and about 6 from the co-op I work at, 9 from the bus interchange and closer to Ree's house too though I haven't timed that yet. It'll be 15 minutes at MOST. I expect it will be more like 13 considering the short cut too.

Bealing Close is just off Burgess road which is where all the co-ops are. If you go beyond the run of takeaways, there is a pharmacy and then Unwins, the wine merchant on the corner, the stree is just right from there. The road is really quiet and cosy - because it is a Close, it is out of the way of everything and nobody needs to walk past your house, especially our house which is right at the bottom so we won't be disturbed by yobs and vandals. All the houses down there are pretty modern and well maintained.

What I love about our house is that it's very un-student-like. It's like a real home and extremely cute. When you walk in there is a small parlour to take your shoes off in before you enter the living room. It's really big. The residents who are leaving will leave their sofa where it is and it looks pretty comfortable. Beyond the living room is the kitchen which is also really big!!! There is a table with benches on either side so you can sit and eat there. There is a lot of walking room in the actual kitchen part and it is well furnished with all the usual solid appliances like a cooker, fridge, washing machine etc. All those are staying but we will need to buy our own microwave. There are a lot of cupboards and the lighting is really cheerful.

Behind the kitchen is a bedroom, the bigest bedroom, which is close in size to the living room but a bit smaller. It's about as big as th... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/7201656/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/7201656/ Fri, 02 Dec 2005 08:35:01 PST Listening to: Rie Fu album
Movie: Rush Hour 2
Ye illustrious quote: "the reader has been diagnosed with a slight hysterical tendency" - an essay by an English student.
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... GUYS! If you find some time really read my fics that I've written!

My Drawing and Colouring Tutorial has received 1000 views! Wow! I didn't think I was this popular!
[link]

Either way, I was offered a discounted rate of getting a prints account so I've given it a go. It might be a failed venture but I think it would be nice to give it a try anyhow.

I know that I have a lot of stalkers on here now so I was just wondering whether you people would actually be interested in buying some prints. Please go and have a look a my poll.

Also, for those of you who already have a prints account (mine isn't active right now but it will be soon) - please tell me how the hell it works!

Thanks in advance for all your help.

p.s. Have boyfriend. Woot! He's amazing and lovely and I huggle him. ^_^ If Emre finally gets around to sending me the pictures that I drew of Lee (boyfriend!) and Yoshi (cool weopon-obsessed dude) you will have some work up from me. I'm sorry I haven't been able to do a lot these days but I really am pretty busy here at uni. I got back my first essay and it was 3% off a first and my poem that I got back was a very firm first.
______________________________________
Clubs:

Movie:
Moonchild! Woo!

Love and watch:
http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/7033477/ Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:32:13 PST Mood: excited!
Listening to: Music from Noir
Movie: The Legend of Zorro
Ye illustrious quote: "Prison changes a man" - the legend of zorro
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... GUYS! If you find some time really read my fics that I've written!

Here in "sunny" Southampton it's doing nothing but rain.
Our Computer science building burnt down. You can see an article on it here: [link]

In other news I've been made the events organiser of the Anime society. They're all a bunch of great guys and I hand out with them all the time. I'm organising a cosplay night after Christmas in which I will be dressing as Rukia from Bleach.
[link]
[link]
[link]
All the committee members are going as Bleach characters. I've got all my items of clothing together now except for ther ed ribbon. Blonde Lee will adjust my clothes for me because the skirt is too long right now and too big for me. Also my jacket is too straight - it needs to go in at the waist. Also the sleeves need to be shorter and it needs to be made shorter at the bottom. It needs a button higher up too. Lee is good at sewing so he will do a great job on it. I also have Rukia's glove:
[link]

Dudes! I went to London!We got a group ticket for all 4 of us which came to about £12 each. We arrived in Waterloo and went on the subway to Leister square. Everything we were going to see was around the same area. We went to all the Japanese shops. First we went to Forbidden planet which is a shop full of Japanese and American comics and figures and books and movies. Emre bought tons of manga and Yoshi bought a couple too. I bought an anime called Tokyo Revelation. That was a DVD for £9.99. We also went to a Japanese supermarket. I bought 5 packets of Hichew (best sweeties in the entire universe!) for 65p each which is cooool because in Southampton the Hichew are 95p each. Mmmmmmh, how I love those sweeties! We went to Mitsukoshi which is a Japanese department store. There were all sorts of things - I found Hyde's solo album and a bunch of other music I know but they were all over £20 so it definitely was not worth it. Emre got cook books from there! Fun! Oh, also some Hello Kitty goodies for a girl he knows. We went to Japanese book shop which was full of manga in Japanese and novels and everything. I bought myself a really simple little one to practice my Japanese on. It has hiragana written down the side of the Kanji so I should be able to manage it though I may need a dictionary. Actually, almost certainly I'll need one but it will get me much better at reading which is what I need to work on. That one was £2. Ooh! There was a music section! I knew so much from it! Haha! I was dead pleased! I got L'arc en Ciel "Ark" CD which is AMAZING! I know most of the songs on it so I know that it totally kicks butt but it's just the fact that it's a REAL CD! Oh my god! I'm so pleased! Either way, I recommended Judy and Mary to Emre, also Bonnie Pink. He liked them so I recommended well. Oh, L'arc en ciel was £14. We went to a shop with traditional Japanese sweeties. I only bought a couple but Emre went mad. And they really are odd... I can't really describe them save that there is a huge use of red bean paste, white been paste and green tea paste. They were quite nice, actually. But Hichew are the best. We went to about three Japanese supermarkets. Emre bought a spicy curry mix called "Lee" so we prod Lee and laugh about it. Heehee. I bought some sour watermelon sweeties called Shigekikusu for 98p and some kind of mix for a desert for 98p. From what Yoshi told me it's a bit like angel delight but grape flavoured. It sounds really cool and looks really delicious and fluffy. We ended up at Ten Ten Tei which is a Japanese restaurant. I had Tempura Udon. Tempura is king prawn in breadcrumby batter and udon are a kind of soup noodles. It was really delicious! I also had some Oolon tea which is yummy too. I can't remember what the others had. Yoshi had a rather small meal because he knew that Emre and Lee had ordered too much and when they started struggling he helped them out. I got to try all their stuff anyway. Mmmmm... sushi... and lots of other things! There was really delicious chicken too. Yum. Everything was great and amazing. A fab end to the day! We also met the guys sitting on the table n... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6718921/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6718921/ Sun, 09 Oct 2005 07:38:12 PDT Mood: Really Happy!
Listening to: Gackt - Noesis
Movie: Sin Sity
Ye illustrious quote: *gets impaled by an arrow* "Hey!"
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... GUYS! If you find some time really read my fics that I've written!

I am now at university! Everything has been going really well!

I am friends with my entire corridor. They are all really different but really fun. I like all of them and we all hang out a lot, though there are usually about 10 of us at most together since it's had navigating a group of 20.

We've been to lots of parties, I've got to know them all pretty well. On the first night Matt made quite an impression. He's really cool and he loves literature but he's doing economics. I talked to him for quite a long time. He's cool but funny and... well, he came from a private school and it really shows. He got a bottle of red wine and said, "I was having dinner with the guy who wrote the good food guide and he gave me a couple of bottles of this divine red." He poured some into a glass and tasted it, then said, "Right, this needs to be left for a bit because when you have a screw top, it doesn't allow air in like a cork so it needs to be left to air." That was just so funny! We call him Wineboy now.

There is a third year guy called Ben who shows us around. We call him Tom Green because he just IS that guy from road trip. He ended up coming to our welcome party even though he said he wouldn't and was so... dunno... drunk/stoned that he did a really bizarre dance, prompting Wineboy to do impressions the next day! Haha!

I have met a Japanese guy. He's really cool and nice and sweet. I seem to make him laugh a lot. I'm really pleased because he knows all the music I like and the anime too! He says he will help me in my Japanese course. I have enrolled for a part time course in Japanese which Iwill do at New College. It's miles and miles and MILES away from where I am but I ended up walking there because I was conned by such phrases as, "It's just down the road". It wasn't. I got the bus on the way back and that was a 20 minute DRIVE. Damn.

Also! I'vemanaged to get Latin as a part of my course! It was hard to get. First I was told it couldn't be done. Then I saw a board that had "Latin" written on it. When I inquired at the office I was told that there were only beginner courses available (no good for me because I am advanced). Then after a lecture on languages I pulled aside one fo the people and told them about my problem. I got referred to the lady who teaches the Latin. She was bowled over by my enthusiasm for the subject and the simple fact that I had even done A-Level Latin (Pretty rare). She said it would be a terrible shame for me to lose it and vowed that she would make sure I got to do Latin even if I was her only student. So I have been enrolled for the Letin beginner course but soon they will CREATE an advanced course just for me. It was really worth trying so hard because I'm getting so much special treatment. I'm really looking forward to it.

Furthermore, I have some Jrock minions - some of Oliver's friends were walking past my room and came in to hug my guitar because it's amazing. Then they saw my posters and I had to explain about Jrock. Then I showed them some and they fell instantly in love. So I have Jrock minions. Also there is an anime society guy I've become pretty good friends with. He's really groovy and excellent and he showed me an anime shop in town! I'm soooo impressed! I promised to show him Bleach and he said he'd show me cowboy beebop.

It's all been really great. One of my Jrock minions is an amazing pianist called James. I've been trying to teach him some guitar. It's been fun.

Ooh! Also we had a fancy dress party in which I was captain Jack sparrow. If you haven't seen the picture yet, you definitelly should. I really look like him. I got many compliments.

I may be running my own martial arts club. There is so much going on it's hard to tell everything but this has been a pretty good overview. I expect there will be many more.

Have fun everyone!
IG.
______________________________________
Clubs: http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6468496/ Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:24:00 PDT Mood: MIGHTY MIGHTY!
Listening to: The Trax - Paradox
Movie: School of Rock!
Ye illustrious quote: "Hey! You can really do that to a log"
"Not know. Never been attacked by tree."
- a little exchange from Karate Kid 2
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: None but... GUYS! If you finf some time really read my fics that I've written!

I have writen some fictions, people! I went out of my way to write that stuff and I think it's pretty effective and powerful. I don't usually put my writing online so I pretty much wrote this especially. There are bishis and action! It's really kickass! Well, it does it for me, anyhow!

HERE:
Rogue death - 1- Him: [link]
Rogue death - 2 - Mixed blood: [link]

PLEASE????? If you have time check them out, huh? And comment too, please, because I'm starting to lose faith in good old fashioned reading. I have a feeling nobody is reading and the reason is that people can't be bothered to read prose. Poetry if fine; you can read it and move on. A picture is fine; you can take it in at a glance. But reading? *Sarcasm* Oh noooo, we can't have that, we'd actually have to pay some attention!

Sorry, I'm not having a dig at you personally, just that I have a feeling that most people can't be bothered with reading. Maybe it's because I live in a stupid nation that doesn't read a hell of a lot - English people don't read a lot. How sad. I'm really disappointed.

ANYHOW! On from the moans!

GOOD NEWS!

I am a BLACK BELT! I have earned my black belt today! Woot! Woot! Wooooooooooooot!

I have been working towards this for so long and it hasn't been an easy trip but I'm here. Oh god! I really did cry when I got it! It meant so much to me! But I really do feel like I've earnt it!

And if it wasn';t just a personal triumph in itself, I have done it all in the record making 2 years and 4 months and JUST in time before I go to university. And not only THAT but I am the first female to reach black belt in my club. No other girls have ever stuck with it this far.

I'm proud. I hope that isn't being big-headed but I just had to say it. I think I have a right.

Have fun everyone!
IG.
______________________________________
Clubs:

Movie:
Moonchild! Woo!

Love and watch:
http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6258853/ Thu, 18 Aug 2005 07:28:13 PDT Mood: Rather pleased
Listening to: Life is like a boat by Rie Fu
Movie: Bleach (I really am watching it now!)
Ye illustrious quote: "I see wires hanging form poles"
(Sam asked me to do a Russian accent so I was staring out of the window and stating the obvious)
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: Nice rings, huh? - [link]

Sam and I went to Spain for a week and I am really brown now. We had lots of fun! We swam every day because her grandparents hae a pool. We went to markets and swam in the sea and got covered in mud from a salt lake that is good for you. I have photos! I will show them to you guys soon. Hehe. Sam and I were hugging a lot so by the end of the holiday her grandparents were wondering if we were lesbians. But we're not. Hehe. I guess Sam being draped over me in the morning helped with that impression.

NOW!

The moment we've been waiting for!

A LEVEL RESULTS!

I got an A in Psychology, an A in English Literature and a B in Latin.

It's a shame about the Latin. I wanted As all round but nobody got an A in the Latin class. I guess it's all right., I still got into my university.

I'm really pleased with Psychology! I was scared I might not pull an A but I did! I even got full marks in one of the papers and 5 marks off full marks in another one!

English was brilliant as usual. I got 100% in two of the papers and 13 marks off full marks in the last one. Since I got 100% in every single paper last year too, that means that over my whole course I got 98%. Pretty damn good. That must be a record or something!

But for some reason my Philosophy results didn't turn up even though that's silly since I had those last year. I'll get it on my certificate, either way.

Anyhow, I'm going to Southampton and that's all that matters. Whee! I'll probably be going guitar hunting later today as well since I wanted an accoustic as well as my stunning, amazing Steki. Then my life will be complete.

Oh! My room has been painted! It's a minty green.

PS. I've just gone guitar hunting and I've bought an acoustic guitar. It's an Encore acoustic and looks just like this:
[link]
It's very comfortable to play and I love it! Yay!

He doesn't have a name yet, though. I bought this one because I was initially looking at one in a shop for £69.99 that was blue and gorgeous. I would have called that one either Mare (sea in Latin) or 69 cuz 69 is just a cool number and it was £69. This one is neither blue nor £69 so I don't think either of those go though I might still call it 69 cuz 69 is an excellent number (People who know about Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure will understand).

If you have any ideas for a name, please tell me! My guitar needs a name!

:!::!::!:UPDATE: I am calling him Kenji, which means "strong second son" since he is larger than Steki and he is my second baby.

Have fun everyone!
IG.
______________________________________
Clubs:

Movie:
Moonchild! Woo! ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6078326/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6078326/ Sat, 30 Jul 2005 14:02:18 PDT Mood: Impressed that the world conspires for everything to go my way!
Listening to: Rhythm Battle LIVE by Miyavi!
Movie: Bleach (Which I should be watching but I haven't... boo me. But I AM watching it now! I swear!)
Ye illustrious quote: "FISH! You are small! You make everything unusual!"

(The translation to the Japanese alternative lyrics I wrote for Wild Thing so that Sam and I can play it and be crazy/cool/odd)
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: Erias: Pool of Darkness - [link]
Please also check out the other Erias pictures.

I have just had a spree on ebay because I found this fabulous seller selling Jrock concert DVDs for about $4.99 each which is about £2.84


OMG!!! I'd have a job buying a DVD for that much in this country!!! Even when you add the $10 postage which is £5.68. That would make £8.52. Try to buy a normal DVD in England for under a tenner and you will SEE!
MG:

As a side note, I also recently bought Dogma on DVD for £4.


Back to the Jrock concerts, then. The postage was $10 with $4 for every extra CD. Initially I just bought two but then I looked more and I saw more things that I wanted and eventually I got 6 DVDs, two of which, admittedly were $6.24 (But it was Hide and Gackt! It was worth it!)

All in all I bought the following:

Gackt Platinum box V
Penicillin concert, Human Doll
Hide concert, Alivest
Gackt concert, Requiem et Reminiscence (I already have the second disc but the quality is not so good and the first half is the BEST!)
Dir en Grey concert, Ugly Kingdom
Hellsing with English subtitles (I hear such good things about that anime!!!)

AND ALL OF THIS BOUNTY (including post and packaging) CAME TO THE SUM TOTAL OF £38.48!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 DVDs for that much! Not just any DVDs, though. FABULOUS JROCK BOOTY DVDS! AAAAAAAARGH!


~~~~

Also it's a bit late to tell you all this but would you believe that I got

4 chicken curries
2 Cornish Pasties
and 1 packet of crisps

all for 20p?????????????


You see, the tills at work are rigged to take a certain price off when there is an offer. The curries were initially £2.49 but with an offer of 2 for 1 so each time two were scanned it took off £2.49. But the curries were almost out of date so they were reduced to 80 something p but the machine still took off 2.49, sending it into minus money! There was the same sort of thing wi... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6064964/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/6064964/ Fri, 29 Jul 2005 07:51:36 PDT Mood: Pleased with myself!
Listening to: Another one bites the dust (and playing the bass)
Movie: Bought Dogma on DVD for £4
Ye illustrious quote: "I look like a Moose!"
"Yes but you're a very cute moose, you make all the male mosses go HWAAAAAAAAA!"

New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: Erias: Pool of Darkness - [link]
Please also check out the other Erias pictures.

It all started on Wednesday when Sam was sleeping around my house and I was so tired and psyched out that apparently I went crazy and said a lot of really random things. Eventually it started coming back to me but I'm still not really sure whether I remember or whether I'm just imagining I remember.

I kept saying stuff about Lemming and pickles of doom and I was poking Sam a lot and I poked her eye about three times. And I was just really random and stupid. At one point I was saying a bunch of random workds in Japanese and said "Fukaku Sakana" at one point which was just hilarious!

Now Sam and I have this weird idea that we'll call our future Jrock band in which we are male excellent Jrockers "Fukaku Sakana". And it got stuck in Sam's head and each time it came to singing Vanilla she's sing fukaku sakana to it! HAHAHA!

(Fukaku = deeper
Sakana = fish)

Sam told me I'd make a good bassist because apparently I have "crazy fingers" and she gave me her bass to play and I was like "I don't play bass. The last time I held one was at Cat's house and I just did random nonsensical things." At the time we were listening to Another one bites the dust and I oddly got the bass to it instantly so now Sam is convinced that I'd be a good bassist. I've now borrowed her bass. I can also do Raison d'etre bass and kind of the Cage bass solo. It rocks. I'm having fun.

We wanted to rock out but we didn't have enough jacks so we went to the Saver centre (dunno if I spelled that right as it might be stupidly mispelled for commercial reasons) - we didn't find any jacks but Sam was traumatised by a giant earwig-like beatly falling out of her hair. It was pretty freaky and we screamed in the middle of Argos but it was also really funny.

We went to Chris' house who taught us really useful stuff about what noted make up the chords. Now I need to practice chord changes. Chris is fab and guitary and amazing! We made him listen to all sorts of Jrock. I think he liked it. We also Showed him the Miyavi concert! The last live at Nihon Budokan - MYV Rocks!

Chris gave us a lift back because it was pouring. We were standing outside the car saying, "Oh, it's not so bad" when instantly it came down super-heavy and we screamed and tried to get into the car but first we couldn't open the door and second when we did open it I dived in at full speed but my guitar got cause on the outside of the car and I couldn't get in and Sam was left to soak while I struggled.

Then when we were there we got a Chinese. Barbecue sweet and sour ribs with special fried rice. And we sat outside a closed shop and ate it but there was a lot. People gave us strange looks. We looked like such hippies sitting there eating out of a little tin thing with out guitars. Then some chavs came and asked us to play guitars but we couldn't because our hands were greasy.

Then we tried to clean up because we really did want to rock out in the middle of the street but the toilets were closed so we wandered around looking forlorn until a chav suggested we wash our hands in a puddle. So we did!

Then we sat outside a church and played "wild thing" like crazy. Then I played my invented song and we make up Japanese lyrics to it - ones that didn't make any sense at all but they sounded Japanese. We did Hakuei impressions a lot. Then we had this great idea to translate wild thing into Japanese and sing it which we tried to do when we got home but it didn't work so well so instead the closest we got was

SAKANA!
anata wa CHIISANA!
subete o tsukimas... mezurashi...

sakana! Omoimas aishiteru...

doyatte surundesu ka!

dakishimete, onegai shimas...

aishiteru...

((Fish!
You are small!
You make everything... unusual...

Fish! I think I love you...

How do you do it?

Please embrace me...

I love you....))

Anyhow, hyped up on crazy Japanese ideas we... ]]> ~JRock-Prophet http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/5983028/ http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/5983028/ Wed, 20 Jul 2005 02:28:18 PDT Mood: Pleased with myself!
Listening to: Smells like Teen Spirit (YEAH! And playing along now too!)
Movie: Bought Dogma on DVD for £4
Ye illustrious quote: I asked if I could take tap dancing lessons and Dad said, "No! No son of mine is ever going make a living with his feet!" Years later I became famous for kicking people with my feet. Destiny prevails.

(David Carradine from his autobiography, Endless Highway)
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: Erias: Pool of Darkness - [link]
Please also check out the other Erias pictures.

Yesterday I played guitar AAAAAALL day so the skin on my fingers peeled off and now they are all hard and shiny - even the grip has started to wear off. But I feel it was really WORTH it! Whee! I learned to play all of Smells like Teen Spirit, even the solo, most of which I had to work out myself because tabs for it are often mistaken. I tried to play and sing at the same time with really odd results. I think I won't do that again.

Also I can now play the tune bit from What if god was one fo us. Also the beginning of All apologies by Nirvana. Finally I learned the woo-hoo song by the 5678s (Kill Bill! Ee!) But I still need practice to get it as fast as in reality. It seems pretty simple but, bleh, it was late and I did it continuously for ages so it started to wear me down.

ALSO, would you believe that chord-wise Rocket dive by Hide is similar to I'm the only gay Eskimo? That's hilarious! OOh! Also I randomly did the stum bits from Miyavi's Rock no Hyakushu where he says "WAAA-AAAA-AAAAR!" - That's all I can do but I got bored of working on the other stuff so I worked that out instead. Dead simple.

OOh! Also know the beginning to L'arc en Ciel's flower! Worked that one out too but speed is an issue. As well as that the beginning of Hide's song Flame is firmly in the works. So you see? I've been REALLY busy!

Of course, on top of that I have been playing the usual (Joushou Gaidou, Luna chords, Luna Solo, Pink Spider intro, Run to you intro, Lazy Lizard, La Romancia, a Bach thing, Yamete yo shite sawaranaide, Night in Girl, Seven nation army, American idiot, Dir en Grey Akura no Oka strumming, Sweet Child of mine intro).

OOH! OOh! I worked out how to play Mizerable by Gackt as well! No tabs at all! Just meeeeeee! Well... it's only the tune thing... alas I do not rock out so much to work out the entire song.

My fingers have become a lot faster now, which makes me happy. Also, of course, I've been playing my made up songs, Densetsu and Abunai. I've been thinking that Densetsu is SOOOOO one of the best things I can play (duh! I wrote it!) so I may even write some words to it. I have a theory that you can only sing and play when you know how to play a song inside out so the person who wrote it has a DISTINCT advantage.

I still can't play while standing up. It doesn't help that my strap just falls off my guitar either. Steki has already fallen about 4 times.
1 - in my room in the middle of the night.
2 - AGAIN in my room but in the morning when I groggily got up and he was so happy to see me that he toppled over.
3 - in the living room when I propped him against the radiator (it wasn't on) while I looked for a plectrum. Radiators are very slippery.
4 - The strap fell off Steky but I caught him in time even though it hurt my fingers a lot. Now my strap is fashionably held together by a leopard-print plaster. http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/5965914/ Mon, 18 Jul 2005 07:25:48 PDT Mood: rockin' out
Listening to: Smells like Teen Spirit
Movie: WAYNE'S WORLD!
Reading: uh... my own stuff
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: ...the scars to prove it... - [link]

You guys may remember my poll thing about what my Jrock alias should be. Well, combining the results of your answers with an Elftown poll and my own gut feeling, I have now settled on Takano Toshiki. It is a name that I am also using on Y!hosting!

YES! I have joined Y!hosting! [link]
Check me out if you like. Actually, the pictures there are pretty much everything here... but also a more pervy pic than I usually do. So pervy that I didn't even try to put it here. Mwahaha. It's called "Loki has his wicked way with himself" so you can guess what it features.

Anyhow, I went to ~DrowElfRocker's house recently and we had a lot of fun watching Wayne's world and Labyrinth. She showed me how to play Smells like teen spirit. It's actually really easy.

I bought some dice earings so I can wander around going "Once and for all dice away"

Also, if you haven't seen my recent pictures of Erias, I suggest you go straight away because he is such a deep and interesting character and I love him! Also the pictures are really great!

Thanks for the attnetion and reading my random ramblings about not much.

PARTY ON!
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Clubs:

Movie:
Moonchild! Woo!

Love and watch:
http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/5896129/ Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:01:52 PDT Playing: Kingdon Hearts
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: Erias - [link]

Mood: Really chuffed!
Listening to: Itoshi hiiiiiiiiitooooo! (Miyavi) :sing:
Reading: Endless Highway
Watching: Once upon a time in mexico

Jamie came to visit me on Friday! He is great and cool! And he brought me little leather coasters and cards and cutouts. He also gave me Bleach, an anime thing. I haven't watched it yet. We were going to the school leavers' ball and there was na adventure with that because he brought his suit but didn't bring shoes. Luckily our neighbour did and he told Jamie he could have them.

When we got to the ball it was rather empty. It soon got better but I still felt kind of left out. Most of my best friends didn't come and those that did come all grouped together and there were only so many chairs around one table. Nonetheless, the food was good and they had a band.

But I was still really angry because Kirstie didn't come and I paid for her ticket. That just made me moody... but I think I was a bit mean leaving a bitter message on her home phone and sending her and irate text. I expect she will find me and and somehow make me feel it was all my fault.

I called Sam to come to the ball because I felt lonely and a bit hard done by and considered that I deserved to have somebody else of my friends there with me seeing as I'd paid for it. Luckily Sam was able to use her birthday as bargaining power to get her dad to driver her there. And she stayed the night!

And the night after!

It was great! We all hung out and had fun and did impressions of Final Fantasy characters - Sam is the best at that! Haha! Her Wakka is crazy-accurate! And her Rikku-run is so hilarious!

I might be going to Spain with Sam in August.

My computer is having trouble with the CD drive.

I've started writing my books again (almost... I've almost finished reading what I've altready written which will help me in writing. )

Jamie did weird impressions of martial arts masters with stiff elbows.

We went to the club and I had my first alcoholic drink in a public place! And they didn't even ID me! Even though I look about 14/15! Mind you... they know me at the club and they know that I am 18. Heehee. They had food at the club for a change! We ate food.

Then we sat outside in the dust and played cards. Then we got dominos and played dominos and some children watched us, then they wanted to play so we each adopted a child and helped them. First I had Ellie who must be about 7, who unceremoniously told me that I was weird and have an evil laugh. She will turn into a chav. Then there was little Lottie! http://JRock-Prophet.deviantart.com/journal/5844326/ Tue, 05 Jul 2005 17:36:56 PDT Mood: Free, enfranchised and at large.
Listening to: Chinese Destroy by Pink Hallelujah
Movie: Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Reading: Endless Highway by and about David Carradine
New deviations that haven't showed up on the page yet: none yet

All my exams are over and I can do what I like! Sam has leant me a chords sheet so I've been trying to learn those.

However, the most interesting recent development is a cunning plan devised by Sam and myself.

We will learn how to talk Japanese fluently, get really good at playing guitar or maybe (on my part) just learn to sing better, then we can strap away our boobs, dress like girly boys (who just look like western women anyway, go to Japan, assume male Japanese names, invent histories for ourselves, talk like men (cuz Japanese women don't talk as coolly as Japanese men) and become rock stars!!!!

So... what should my Jrock alias be? I have compiled a list of 7 that I like but you are welcome to suggest any others.

All names are written in the proper way with surnames first.

Takano Toshiki
Ishida Akio
Hanari Kenji
Saito Masaki
Otani Etsuya
Asai Isami
Nakamura Yasuki
Something else (TELL ME!)


PS.
LOOK! I have a new WEBCAM PIC of my trying to be Jrockish. I also have a few more. Check them out: [link]
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Clubs: