Long Post is Long

I should really update this more. So much to say and I keep forgetting to note it down. Not sure where to start, so I'll just go randomly I guess.

YFC Europe DVD
I love it I love it I love it! I love seeing so much downtime and all of them all relaxed and having fun. It's a nice balance to the constant exhausted reports and seeing GACKT collapsed after a show. Some great moments there - like the one lady in France who was checking him out (or his backside, rather XD), Taya trying to hitchhike (knew that wouldn't work) and him getting admonished by G afterwards, girl-seeing in Spain, eating in Spain, both times Taya and CRAZY D were forced to eat spicy stuff, getting stopped by police in Munich, and of course G's english. Compared to the TIFF event it was a far better example of his skill, though to be fair he was pretty nervous at TIFF (still pissed that NO ONE aired any of the interviews he did!!!!). YOU's french was pretty good too, and I still chuckle over the idiot translator's french fail. He's not saying "jutem" even though it kinds of sound like it - he's saying "je t'aime". Translator, google basic french phrases next time.

Plannar
I got my 2011 diary from shinimegami21 awhile ago! I made a booboo and realized I gave her my old addy by mistake, but the post office misplaced the package. Wasn't worried about getting it but the lady at the post office was just as perplexed that it wasn't where it was supposed to be, especially as the computer acknowledged that it was in the office and filed where it was supposed to be. She found it later that night, and I picked it up the next day, but I was worried for a bit. But now it's in my possession where it belongs :) I am using it, but very carefully. I put it on my keyboard drawer which is slid under the desk to protect it from getting wet (my desk faces the kitchen counter, so I sometimes get sprinkled by water). And instead of writing in it, I got little stickynote pads which I use instead. I use the week by week section, so there's enough space for them. I make it work :) And when the year's up it will go on my GACKT shelf with everything else ^_^

Broke it
I broke two toes last Sunday. OMG it was the stupidest thing in the world XD My mom had JUST left to go visit her sister, so I was home alone. One of Dalila's toys was beside my desk and I thought I would kick the toy away to start a game of fetch. Well my aim was more than terrible, because I caught the desk with my right foot, specifically the two last toes. And I really put a lot of power in that kick. Now, I usually have a pretty good pain tolerance - not that I don't feel pain, but I get over it pretty quickly and can tolerate it without much obvious discomfort. This had me doubled over in pain on the chair for five minutes. It just would not subside. Swelled up really fast, and throughout last week changed all sorts of interesting colours. And walking? Oh fun times XD Just taking Dalila for a pee saw me hobbling along behind her. I think though if Mom had been home, we would have been laughing ourselves silly because it really was that stupid. She's pretty sure both those toes are broken now, but they don't look it so I'm not too concerned. Right now only the little toe sort of hurts, and it pops funny when I try and flex it. Otherwise I'm pretty much back to normal state now. Note to self though, no more toy kicking unless I am away from stationary objects.

en francais?
I started my new project! Inspired some by the YFC DVD, I decided to pick up french again. We had to learn it in school but I stopped after it was no longer mandatory and now I wish I hadn't. So I thought hey, why not translate G stuff into french and learn that way? So I did: gacktenfrancais. I have so much stuff planned to translate I think I'm good for the next five years lol. I'm going to tackle all of his blogs and the GACKTionary, and possibly song lyrics as well. I have to finish translating the profile into french too. And add some tags. hanachan007 has graciously offered to check my french for me until I start improving my skill. So far my writing skill is about 50%, which is better than I thought it would be. Grammar was always my demon.

Gakupo Cosplay
I'm really digging the new pic of GACKT for the new singles! I love that the wig is subtle and the whole outfit is more subtle than the actual Gakupo, I just feel it suits more. Like it's Gakupo 2.0. I'll be a little honest though, I kind of get and don't get the disappointment over it. One, it's not the first song he's done that wasn't one he wrote and composed himself and I can understand that taking some of the wind out of the sales, but he's never been the type of artist to bow to any sort of commercial pressure when it comes to music. And really there's nothing wrong with an artist covering a song they like - many of them do it. So I don't really see why some fans treat it as a huge terrible event that he's covering someone else's song - and yes I realize not everyone's seeing it that way :). I can see the disappointment though. I was and still kind of am bummed that the english version of Mind Forest was done by a translator and not him. Though now I wonder how much was the translator and how much was him to be honest, if it was like 50/50 or if it was just a matter of him coming up with attempts and the translator sort of checked it over. I don't know, maybe it's because I love that song so much the idea that he translated the whole thing into english himself really touched my heart and I truly believe his english skills are good enough that he coud have pulled it off. But maybe there wasn't enough time. Maybe he wanted to be sure it was absolutely perfect and brought in a second pair of eyes to ensure that. I don't know and I'm not judging. It's still beautiful and he still sounds amazing singing it, and I pray that he'll keep it in the setlist when he comes to Canada. I'm still very much looking forward to this though, new music is new music :) I'm going to soon need more shelves... And I still find it hilarious that he's essentially cosplaying himself ^_^ That would almost be like Steve Burton cosplaying as Cloud, or Steve Blum cosplaying as Vincent Valentine.

Overachieving Nephew
The little one is 3 and a half months old now, and either is too long for some clothes or too short for others. Baggy looks cuter on him :) His monkey sweater sill fits, and I'm going to try and get a picture of him in it before he outgrows it. It has monkey ears on the hood and a little monkey in the front pocket ^_^ He's still trying to sit up on his own (been trying for a month) and get this: he's walking. Not on his own mind you, but that little turkey is actually taking steps! Already! If you hold him around his torso facing you but at your arm's length, he'll slowly put one foot in front of the other and actually move toward you! Mom and my sis are like 'you're not supposed to be doing that!' but I encourage him. Hey if he wants to walk at five months, Auntie's going to let him! We had an almost fun outing on Saturday with him too. We picked him and my sis up, then went up to my friend's store which I haven't been to in so long. It was nice seeing her again :) Nephew just stared at everything with the biggest eyes possible, and smiled when my friend fussed over him. Sis says he'll always smile at a girl, but guys he just kind of stares at haha. And he does plenty of smiling now. The store is so amazing, and she had all sorts of new goodies to oogle over and wish I had money for. Afterwards we went to William's Cafe by the pier for lunch but that was nephew's limit and after he woke up all he did was fuss and cry. And I laughed at my sister, because I'm sympathetic like that ;) Next time we'll throw a nap inbetween though, he's happier after a sleep and a bottle. Still love being an auntie, and he's not growing up too fast yet. I'm sure in a year I'll be like 'where did the baby go?!'. Enjoy the time while it lasts.

Whoops!

Almost let this blog slip. My apologies!

I forgot about NaNo ML signups this year >.< So officially, I'm not ML-ing for my area but I can act in an unofficial capacity, if it's okay with the girls who are this year. I'm sure it will be, one has been my co-ML for a few years and the other has been in the group probably as long as I have. They're both cool. Even if my involvement is minor, it might be nice to relax a bit this year. 50,000 words in one month can get kind of nuts.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for NaNo. It has to be a new project so that means none of the seven stories I have in progress qualify. Not that I'm short on ideas, haha. I have one idea that I haven't quite fleshed out yet that was inspired by this art:



I couldn't read the title or artist's name (幽魂之地 - 李一丁 if anyone on my list can translate?) but I have a good idea of the 'story' of it. It's an undead warlock, most likely in Andorhol at night. Or it could be a farm in Tirisfal which always looks that dark but none of the silos glow green. It kind of looks like she's taking revenge which is what spurred the idea. Of course, another idea is inspired by this pic:



Not entirely sure what this one will be about either. Either vampire or shapeshifter, but leaning towards shapeshifter. I love vampires but I already have one on the backburner and right now I think the vamp market needs to cool some. Thanks Stephenie >.< Glittery vamps can go die now plzkthx.

Speaking of writing I didn't do any yesterday. Bad me, I'm going to fall so far behind on my target. I've been doing...well not great, but not bad either. I know if I can just get in one 7k day, I can stick to it. The Dragon King is almost at 30k (1,761 words short to be exact), which is sooooooooo cool. I think I'm just going to make it straight out asian fantasy in the rewrite. Well, maybe not completely asian fantasy because I have another story idea set in this world, and nothing of it is asian-based. Watching Fuurin Kazan is providing lots of good visual aid ^_^ Still need a subbed version of the whole show, it'd be nice to know what's going on. My untitled dark fantasy, which is kind of leaning towards Demon King as a tentative title at least, has clocked in currently at 10,433 words. I think I'll finally start working on chapters now that I'm out of spontaneous scenes. Revenant is at 4,056 which I think will be the first one I tackle later today, going for 5,944 words; Redemption is at 6,213 and still has plenty of spontaneous scenes left to write; my untitled historical is back on the backburner at 1,136 words; my untitled warlord story is also on the backburner at 1,000 words; and A Game of Nobles remains at 1,000, which was actually kind of a spontaneous addition. I had two scenes I didn't want to forget, and figured I'd add it to the tally.

So current wordcount total: 65,729. For anyone doing the math, those counts above don't include the 13,652 I added to a three-year-old manuscript back in January. As that story is done now, nothing more gets added to it.

Now for some sleep, then off to the Harvest Festival! I'm debating whether to take Dalila - on one hand the socialization would be good for her, and she loves people. On the other I kind of don't want to divide my attention between saying hi to friends, doing a bit of shopping and calming the nut. Guess we'll see. I'll post later about it either way!

EDIT: so this is the room GACKT is staying in at the Casa Loma. All I can say is OMFG I WANT. I've decided that if I ever make enough money I'm renting this room for a week either monthly or bimonthly to work in. I've never really thought about what my dream workspace would be before, but damn I'll take that!

Bouncing Topics

I haven't forgotten about my blogs. I don't know if it's been the weather or something else, but I haven't had the energy to do much of anything. Totally killed any inspiration, it was like I spent the last week in a fog. It does happen every once in awhile, but I hate it. I lose so much time. But at least I'm starting to make up for it.

Yesterday I pulled out all my NaNoWriMo stuff and started sorting through that. I organize the events for NaNo in my area, which I love doing but I kind of bombed it last year. It was an awful year though, I was pretty sick. This year's going to be much better though. I had hoped to be done by now, but considering NaNo doesn't begin until November I still have some time. Plenty of time, actually. This year, come hell or high water I am not going to be rushing around at the last minute trying to get things together! October and November are stressful enough, and I'm still waiting for my Wrimo-From-Hell year. Seems like everyone gets at least one, and it usually gets handled better when you're not stressed out of your mind. Everything's been cleaned out, I made my list and boy do I have a lot to do. I'm giving some things a revamp also, I think people are getting bored of the same thing time and time again. I know I kinda am. I do already have my story idea for November based on a dream I had last night, dark fantasy as usual. No title yet, but it looks like it's gonna be so much fun. My goal is to finish at least 2 stories before then though. Maybe going into it with that achievement will give me some additional boost. I'm back up to 1667 words a day, almost!

I can't believe the chefs on this season of Hell's Kitchen. I'm no chef, but I know what different meats look and feel like when they're done. These are supposed to be professional chefs - how the hell do you constantly serve up raw food and not know it?! Granted the last four are getting a little better, but they're still pretty pathetic for what are supposed to be professional chefs.

By week's end my EVER cds ship from CDJapan! I'm so freaking excited. Not only is one the limited edition, but both are First Press Editions which have since sold out. I usually miss First Press (thought I managed to snag a First Press copy of Setsugekka, but no such luck). That should be here by next week, whenever the regular edition arrives and they can ship the order. Also coming this week is a $100 gift certificate to Chapters - shopping fun! New GACKT music, new books...yes I be a happy girl.

Now if puppy would learn to occupy herself I'd be even happier...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Woo, today's my birthday. Pretty quiet, I'm holding off really 'celebrating' until next week when my mom's on vacation. Hard when the day is during the week. I did get cake though:



Ice cream cake rocks so much. Of course it melts fast, so it's kind of beat-the-dessert.

Well The Dragon King is all nice and caught up. I feel so much better about the connection between Amaya and Celios, he's such a charmer. So now I'm going to write another scene later in the book before jumping to Fallen, writing up some scenes for that and see where I go from there. Might be chapter 4 of Dragon King, or perhaps starting my historical. I love Liquid Story Binder, but the one fault it has is that if the computer shuts off due to a power outage or a reset you lose any updates unless you turn on the 30second update. The only problem is that it messes with your system. So Microsoft Word is my first processor of choice.

Next week I hopefully get to do some birthday shopping, though I still haven't decided where. I could use a stack of new books, but I'd also like to do some shopping on CDJapan (for GACKT stuff, of course :) ). Of course, what I'd really like is those photocards from the YFCz concert - not the sex ones, the other ones. Wish I knew someone going to a show, and how much it would cost to (hopefully) get an entire set.

Now to catch up on blogs!

Happy Early Birthday to Me (sort of)

I sort of gifted myself with an early birthday present today, even though technically it won't get here until early August.




The release date isn't until the 28th of this month, but I wanted to order early. The first disc is a special edition version and I didn't want to run the risk of it selling out. I can't wait now!

Coming Soon and Week One over

Was real excited to see this:



Weeeeee I'm so excited! It's finally coming!

There are many reasons why I admire this guy so much - beautiful and powerful vocals, moving lyrics, a hell of a lot of creativity, and the fact that he's not afraid to say what's on his mind (even if it's to tell someone off, which he's done many times). This concert is just another reason to add to the list because it just goes beyond that of a simple concert - it's an event. Well, all his concerts seem to be events (the last few, at least) but this one topped them all I think. Early praises perhaps, as I haven't seen the whole thing yet (some of it was on YT for awhile after WOWOW aired it) however this preview and what I saw on YT before it came down is enough to satisfy me on that point. A bunch of lucky Japanese fans got to see RRII in theatres today (or maybe it was yesterday considering the time difference) and Tessa, Colleen, Maya and I have to be content with imagining how much fun that would be. We mused about the idea back when it was just an idea but in our case there's two problems with that: 1.)we all live miles and miles apart, as in we'd need trains or planes to visit each other, and 2.)one of us would have to die and the others use the insurance policy to pay for it. Yeah we have great and wacky conversations - when we're not confusing each other that is. Which seems to be a little easier than it probably should :)

I managed to survive the first week, though this sleep schedule is making me nuts. At least it's regular, get up at the same time and go to bed at the same time. Dalila's pretty much crate-trained now, she's only had a few accidents in there but she doesn't whine or anything when she's in it. Big plus, because I want her to recognize it as 'her' space. She's about 95% housebroken now too which is another plus. I take her out every morning but trying to catch her before she wakes up is hit or miss. My hope is that with consistancy she'll learn to hold it until we get outside; she's quick to pick up how I praise her, and that when I don't it's because she hasn't done something or done the wrong thing. We're not having any major issues, which is good. Overall we're doing well.

I really should get back to writing instead of working out other summaries...

The End Cometh

Just the end of the month, to be specific :) I still have Christmas presents coming which haven't shipped yet. One of the items is the RRII dvd I've blogged about before, and unless Gackt announces yet another deadline pushback my order will ship on the 31st of this month! Another pushback is unlikely, he's pretty much done now. Or at least done enough that there won't be another delay. The wait's finally coming to an end! This is the bigger of the two orders I had made, and the eagerness is not only that the dvd is coming but also the Setsugekka single, RE:BORN, and the December edition of ARENA37 (no I can't read it, but one day I hope to) that's coming along with it. I'm not sure if I managed to nab a first pressing of Setsugekka before it sold out, but I'm hoping. RE:BORN is the one I'm most looking forward to after the dvd. Bah, the release date can't come fast enough.

Another ending is the puppy waiting period. Dalila comes home next week! I'm all excited and nervous all at the same time. Two weeks ago we went and actually visited with the puppies - the four puppy litter was five weeks old, and the single pup was six weeks. The four was comprised of three girls and a boy, but one of the girls wasn't growing with the others and she was sequestered to the bedroom. Everyone was very klutzy on their feet, they were so adorable. The oldest pup was a little more adventurous and curious. Unfortunately last week the one girl who wasn't growing right took a turn for the worst and passed away last Friday, the poor thing. This evening we went for another visit, the pups are a lot older and everyone's getting ready to go to their new homes. Our breeder picked up a puppy from a co-litter she did with another breeder, and it's this puppy who's coming home to us! She's roughly the same age as the other pups, same colouring and is just the sweetest thing. A really lovely energy, she sat when I held her in my arms and would often sit beside my legs - not clingy or dominant, just being. I was nervous about potentially taking this pup because she was pick of the litter, and pick of the litter usually means the one who most exhibits the breed which is usually the highest energy one. Shelties are herders, so they can be really high energy. But our breeder breeds more for the beauty of the breed instead of their skill and I just fell in love. Pics to come when she comes home!

Artistic Appreciations

I saw Cirque de Soliel's Alegria on t.v. last night. WOW is all I can say! I knew Cirque always puts on an amazing show, but I admit that was my first time actually watching them. Amazing doesn't even begin to cover it, what some of those people are able to do! I was trying to write while it was on - big mistake. You can't help but be entranced, and the music was just perfect. If someone could get me that music or soundtrack, I'd love you forever :) I still have the finale playing in my head.

I managed to belt out another chapter last night, not quite 5k words but it was 2:30am by the time I ended the chapter, my eyes were literally shutting at the computer and damnit it was close enough. The end got a little awkward and weird but I'll fix it some other time. Not my best introduction of the two main characters, although the setting really worked. It was just the dialogue I crumbled on. Onward and upward. I'm really loving how easily writing's coming to me again, maybe I'll be able to belt out The Dragon King before Dalila comes home at this rate. Still need to get my hands on a damn black ink cartridge! I could edit it on the computer, but that first edit on hard copy is far easier in many respects. Plus Path of the Hunter has some continuity errors and a missing scene - that's a lot easier to fix off the computer than on. I guess in the meantime I could always write the plot points on index cards, tape them up on the wall with the worldbuilding stuff and organize it from there. It gives my walls purpose until I redecorate :)

Gackt updated his blog today (well yesterday in Japan) excited about finally reaching the end of editing the RRII DVD, which made me excited because I have it waiting on preorder. It's always fun for me to read about someone's journey to completing something they've worked so hard on, it gives you a greater appreciation for the finished product. It does for me, anyway. And he and his team have been putting in a lot of effort into making the DVD as good as it could possibly be even to the point of sacrificing many many nights of sleep. Those are troopers. You have to be built for that, because I know me I simply don't function once I've hit that point of exhaustion. Kudos to those who can, because I think we've all at some point wished we didn't have to sleep or had more hours in the day to work on a project. But this, this is one of the main reasons why I love reading his blog (thanks to uranus_sama @ Livejournal for taking the time and effort to translate):

It's something that each respective person has.
Time that is, at best, limited.
Lives that will run out someday.
Even if you do nothing your whole life, your light will go out someday.
And if that's the case, then isnt it best to decide on your own for yourself how you want it to burn
and try and light up your surroundings so they're more radiant than anyone else's?
I think so.

Think I Abused Brackets Just A Bit Here...

Blog revamp again! The old background just wasn't working for me anymore. I like this one, hummingbirds have always been a favourite of mine. Speaking of revamp, I noticed that blogger now keeps the gadgets you add to your blog, so you don't need to uncover their code in the html or remake them from scratch. Thank goodness, it's about time (unless I just never noticed before which is entirely possible :) I guess I really should read updates!). Rearranging the gadgets is a lot easier than making them all from scratch!

Sunday I was beat-exhausted, but for good reason - I'll be getting a puppy (and yes, that is the big news I was supposed to blog about on Sunday)! We visited the breeder Sunday, I only slept a few hours and was so nervous it was setting my anxiety off and I ended up taking a lorazepam. I try not to take those, they're in a very low dosage but they really knock you on your butt, but sometimes the anxiety just gets so high I'm not sure I can bring it down on my own. I do try to use them very sparingly because I could literally sleep the day away on just one. Anyway, I think the excitement was more the cause for exhaustion than the lorazepam alone. The breed I chose is a Shetland Sheepdog, a small breed that looks identical to the collie (think Lassie). The breeder had seven, and they're so beautiful! They all had beautiful temperaments, were very friendly dogs and not obnoxious or wanting to jump all over you. We even got a peek at the newborn pups from a distance, right now they're too young to be held. So now the countdown is on, in 45 days the baby comes home. We visit again in February when the pups are a bit older and we can interact with them more, and I'll take pictures. Hopefully by then I might have an idea of which one is coming home with me!

Writing is back in full swing after a couple lull days (okay, maybe it was more than a couple >.> ). I actually have a full, detailed plot outline of Beautiful Nightmare at last. I had a vague idea of where it was going to go, how I was going to set up things that would happen in later books, etc. Now I actually have the roadmap, though there's been some tweaks. Originally Matsu was going to leave for a time and come back for Adelyn at the end of the book, who he had sent to stay with his Italian friend Lethos so that she'd be safe (reason irrelevant now). That's been shifted to book two, and I've made Lethos a Spanish vampire as opposed to Italian. Twilight kind of ruined that for me, but I think Spain will work out better. Besides, the Spanish language is pretty damn sexy - Antonio Banderas anyone? :D There's been other new changes, but that would spoil future stories >:) Chapter two, here I come.

Gackt updated his blog a few days ago, apologizing another dozen times about the Requiem et Reminiscence II dvd being pushed back again. I really admire his ambition and his ability to work on multiple projects at once, but when you start getting sick and your staff starts getting sick and the workplace starts looking like something out of Resident Evil (his description)...well you have to expect one of your projects just isn't going to make the deadline. Poor guy works too hard, I'm glad he's had some downtime though even if it did come at the expense of the changed release date. But Gackt, dear, it's probably not a good thing when you can't remember the last time you had that kind of downtime ;) We love that you do so much and work so hard to bring us amazing projects but please do take some downtime every now and again. You could do something more relaxing - like visiting the international fans who you wish you could see more of! Perhaps a future Platinum Box theme? That would probably be a lot of fun.

Going to try to write some more before bed, but will probably just procrastinate watching Operation Repo instead. Reality check peoples: it's not yours if you stop making payments!

Words Are A Comin'

Now with my writing folder all settled once again, and Liquid Story Binder all set up the way I like it, I'm finally feeling nice and inspired again. The story with the first words of 2010 goes to The Dragon King, which is looking to be a two part story. It's very asian-inspired, which has been a heavy influence lately. I adore the culture, it's so timeless and elegant and steeped in traditions. And it lends itself so well to fantasy ^_^ I have to make a little shout-out to Cindy Pon, author of Silver Phoenix. I got her book for Christmas after months of waiting and started reading it, and aside from being a really amazing read (seriously go get it!) it got my drive to work on The Dragon King again. So thank you Cindy! And a thank you to Gackt, whose portrayal of Uesugi Kenshin in Fūrin Kazan also helped to inspire the story. Gacktありがとう

Though, I'm really wishing I had a laptop right now.

Birthdays and Bouncing

Fun week! Monday was my birthday, so all this week and the days leading up to it was distracting with the excitement. It's funny how it always seems so far off, and then BOOM! All of a sudden it's there. This year though it sort of extended all week. Sunday I saw my dad for coffee, had a nice visit and ran into a couple of friends I haven't seen in a long while (and was admonished for disappearing from Facebook, haha. It's a habit, what can I say). Monday was dinner with my mom and my aunt as well as the largest cake I think I've had yet. All chocolate, very creamy and sweet with HUGE fresh strawberries inside and on top. My only complaint is that the strawberries on top would have been more enjoyable had they been dipped in chocolate instead of whatever they had been dipped in. Still, it was very good. Sweet Paradise certainly earned its name. Tuesday I had the whole afternoon and evening to myself. It's a lot easier to focus when no one's home. Wednesday I got the first of three packages from my lovely friend Tessa who lives in the US. I didn't realize the true scope of the 'few things' that she bought and sent to me until I actually saw them.

This first package contained two magazines from Japan, both with Gackt Camui on the cover and one of which she told me about when she actually ordered it. Most of the mags she orders through a guy from Japan named Koji, who buys and resells them for a reasonable price. She's one of his most frequent buyers, and a few months ago he sent some original photos he took when Gackt made a reappearance as Uesegi Kenshin at the Kenshin festival in 2008 as a thank you. So nice. I can't read kanji (yet), but the images are nice and hey, it's incentive to get on the ball to learn Japanese. It's funny in a culture-shock kind of way the difference between our mags and some of Japan's mags. The Out of Music magazine reads much like ours in that its from left to right. The second I can't read the title of, but it appears to be a weekly mag. This one you have to read from what we would consider the 'back' of the magazine, only it's the front in this case. Yes it's a little odd, but anyone who's ever read mangas from Japan would probably not find it quite so strange since they read right to left. But you read the text in this magazine from left to right just as you would in a Canadian or American mag. There's also a map of downtown Tokyo in this mag, which will be VERY useful once I can read the names LOL

Along with the mags was a book Tessa also told me she ordered, and what I got was not what I pictured. It was BETTER. It's a beautiful hardcover photobook of Gackt as Kenshin, many which look like they were shot on the set of Fuurin Kazan. The beginning has an interview with Ogata Ken, a very well-known actor in Japan who also appeared in the drama and sadly passed away last year. It was really nice to see, Gackt always speaks very highly of him and respected him a great deal. Interspered with the many wonderful photographs is a 9-part interview with Gackt, which in true Japanese fashion you must read right to left. And the text goes from top to bottom, instead of side to side. And yes, you must read the book from 'back' to 'front'. Doesn't detract from my love of the book though, so now I just have to find an appropriate place to display it where it won't get banged up. Unfortunately the top of my only bookshelf is comprised of all my Tolkien books at the moment. I need more furniture. The last part of the first package was the booklet from the Diabolos live tour DVD.

After that, it was sort of downhill so to speak, but no less appreciated. Thursday came a stack of burned cds containing a great deal of music, a bracelet made with onyx beads and a stretch bracelet made with blue tiger's eye beads, green tiger's eye beads, onyx beads and an amethyst bead with silver spacers between them all. And today came a lovely folder that I have no plans on using from the Requiem et Reminiscence II tour as well as the single Kimi no Tameni Dekiru Koto (What I Can Do For You in english). A nice way to end my 'birthday week'.

So now I think I shall head back into Liquid Story Binder and do some more story bouncing. I keep going back and forth between Darkstorm and Redemption which is kind of weird, but hey as long as productivity happens that's ultimately the goal. There's more actual writing going on with Darkstorm however, but my main characters seem to have fallen silent. Let's hope they have some more to say once I get some points out of the way for future Redemption scenes. I think, to motivate myself, I'll match my daily productivity with the wordcount of my last journal entry. 913 words should be easy enough. Until next time!

Music of the Moment: Storm - Gackt Camui