Writing introductions is a bit tedious so....just take a look at my first post if you want to know more....

....and if you get curious about the name of this World or my posts, check out the second one.

The Suppression of Darkness

I might be the biggest retard ever. Remember how I was complaining that Wiki got lazy & was only showing half the chapters in each volume of Bleach? Well....apparently there's these things called columns......and now there are two for each volume, takes up less vertical space and all...

I need a vacation.

6 schools, 2 private lessons, and 1 meeting left & I seriously might not make it.

On 2 of the past 3 days I've almost lost my temper at someone I was teaching. The third day, I wasn't teaching anyone, so it almost doesn't count. I like teaching. Mostly. But sometimes......well, Iruka-sensei has the same problem.....

I'm not overly patriotic, but it seems I have less and less patience for people who stereotype all Americans as conceited idiots who think they have to police the world. I'm well aware that some people who think that actually exist. However, I'm getting pretty sick of defending myself as not being one of them simply because I happened to be born in the same general vicinity. And even more tired of having to explain that where I'm from everyone's different from everyone else (and that's not just in the US, I'm pretty damn sure...) and that, no, I don't know what "all Americans" think b/c I can't read minds. If we all thought the same thing we wouldn't be American, we'd be Borg. As we are not, I cannot tell you what "we" think.

I'm also not particularly concerned with whether every single kid in every single class I teach is hanging on my every word, that would be unrealistic, but......I have hardly any patience left for entire classes of 6th graders who talk over me. The entire 45 minutes I'm with them. And even less for their teachers who do nothing about it. Ignoring a disruptive kid to get him to stop is one thing, standing in the middle of a circus and pretending you believe it's a classroom is just stupid. Righteous Iruka-style anger is one thing, Kakashi really isn't something you people want to see me turn back into.....let's try to get our shit together, shall we?

Hell is other people...

Words Just Don't Like You

Something very disturbing has just happened. Apparently there are too many chapters of Bleach for Wikipedia to be bothered about keeping them all on file. They now only list the first 4 chapters of each volume. Because, you know, those extra 4 lines of text were breaking their server and were the sole cause of their new desire for donations. Which means that I now must return to the practice of pulling out the tankobon one by one to find the title I want for my posts. めんどくせええ........

Rukia=Sarah

We dressed up for Halloween & went out in Tokyo. I guess that was a while ago now....I got kinda busy w/Comiket the next day & then right back to work. Nothing too crazy has been happeneing, I'm sure it's just the cold weather that makes me think I'm exhausted all the time. I was trying to be strong against the cold this year by doing things like not using the heater until Dec. 1st (fail) get out my winter clothes in stages (partial fail) & keep the doors off my room till Jan. 1st (epic fail). The heat & the doors both came last weekend, & while I've been slowly working the clothes in & out of boxes it's more out of laziness than actually not needing them. (I know there's a real word for that somewhere....non-need.....)

Lenalee=Katy

I forgot how to talk the other day. Like, I couldn't string words together that made sense. I thought it was just my Japanese was lapsing at first, from too much practice without actual study, but then I noticed it was happening in English too. We sometimes like to blame this on disuse (non-need?) due to living in a non-English speaking country, but.....I didn't think that was it. I tried to explain it to a couple of friends in the car later that week, but they didn't get it. Probably b/c I couldn't say it right.

ANBU=Travis

There's a girl at my office who said some really mean things about cosplayers the other day. I'd like to think she didn't know how insulting she was being b/c I don't think she's very smart. But maybe I'm wrong. I'd also like to think that I'm smart enough to not be upset by it, but.....well, it's not like it's a new feeling.

....this is how she might look when she's a bit older...maybe...less with the wanting to be innocent face....

There's another girl who was asking me a lot of weird questions about myself the other day, under the pretext that she, "just doesn't know very much about me." I didn't like it. It wasn't like I had anything to hide, I answered. It was just weird. And when, in the process of explaining I-can't-remember-what, I told her, "well if you think people are going to be mean to you you tend to be kinda quiet." a few things started to make sense again.

Things that you're able to remember don't necessarily bring happiness...

Alive and Back Here Once Again

[This is sooo not what Tito-sensei had in mind....]

I've been having a lot of reunions with students and teachers recently. It's pretty cool. Schools that I went to last year once or twice, and then again back in the spring are now on their 3rd, 4th, or 5th go round for English this school year. I don't think there's a single school on my schedule this month that I've never been to. It's nice to be remembered. It's also nice when it's been a while since I've gone somewhere but I'm really looking forward to it and things go well.

Today....not so much with the things-going-well, but it was still a reunion after 3 months with T*****kun, lover of Bleach and giver of popsicles, so me having a cold didn't really matter. I'm always amazed by the way Japanese kids see me. The ones who like me, like me. And that's that. They don't equate "Katy" with the sometimes ridiculously useless things I have to teach them. English class is English class, & when it's over I'm someone they talk to b/c they want to. Nevermind the way they were acting during class, or how they might have felt about what they were being made to do. They'll never hold it against me.

And I'll never hold it against them either.
They're only 11 after all.

Tomorrow is another reunion I've been looking forward to. But it's also a farewell to some of my favorite 6th graders. Their school is already on it's last visit for the year. We're having a Halloween party. Complete with costumes and candy. I'll be going as Lenalee, barring any worsening of my health....

I've finished all the requests, all the presents, and all the posting of old drawings. It's kind of hard to believe. I also have 4 face sketches of characters for "Rainbow's End" among them. So, nothing left to do now but get to work making them look real. Unfortunately that probably won't happen till Saturday at the earliest since I'm sick, have the Halloween party tomorrow, a demo class Friday, & dinner w/Hachi & her family Friday night.
I need more NyQuil...

The Howling Tempest

We had a typhoon last night/this morning. There wasn't much rain, just crazy wind. It woke me up at 5am even though I can usually sleep through just about anything. After all my years of Florida hurricanes and thinking it was no big deal I can't believe it scared me today. Something about that screech against my 6th floor window while it was still dark outside was a bit too much...

My school for today canceled classes so I was stuck going to the city office instead. Boooorrrrriiinnnngggg.......and I couldn't even get there at first! The buses were stopped until 7am and the smaller of our 2 train lines was stopped till 9:30. I gave up on it at about 8:30 though and walked back to the other station since it wasn't raining. By the time I got to work it was blue skies and puffy white clouds everywhere. Typical. I can't even begin to count the amount of times the same thing happened back in Florida, or Louisiana for that matter. Cancel school and you are guaranteed the storm will end with more than enough time for kids to gloat about the free day they're getting.

Recently I can't seem to do anything but draw. At home, at school, at the office, at my friends' apartments....it's kind of scary....I've got a huge backlog of photos on my computer waiting to be posted & my fanart is getting kind of ridiculously full. I finished all the jr.high kids presents & only have one more elem one left to do. Yay! Then I have until the end of February before I get more....ugh....but in the interim I have a couple of stories I want to sketch out and get good character designs done for. Well, at least one of them if I can manage it anyway!

It's October now. I'm starting to get nervous about the weather. I know it won't really be cold for a while, but I can't help dreading it anyway. I am excited about the stuff I get to wear in fall at least. I got a new hoodie with rabbit ears! It's black and wooly. I'm wondering if I can get away with wearing it to the office party tomorrow night. Probably not.....

I seem to be having a character-love relapse lately. For the longest time I was all, KakashiKakashiKakashiKakashi and then I got kind of over him and was whatever about characters for a while. There were a few I liked, but nothing like that. And then out of nowhere it was all HayatoHayatoHayatoHayato for the past 6 months or so, but......

....there's a reason I have this tatoo after all.

Regeneration

"Hating interactions with people isn't the same as hating people."

Being liked by people is unpleasant. Or rather, it's uncomfortable for me. This week was nothing but stress because of that kind of thing.

My heat rash came back this week. It's not hot outside at all. I'm starting to worry about that a little bit.....mostly I'm just frustrated by the fact that I'm distracted from drawing by the itchiness. I'm also a bit annoyed by other people always asking me why my arms are bandaged up. I don't like them worrying, and I don't like explaining.

Tsubasa ended this week. It was kind of ambiguous. I can't say I didn't like it b/c I'm too loyal to CLAMP to do that, but.........knowing what I know now about the way serialized manga works I wonder if it was really the ending/timing they wanted. They're famous enough that they should be able to control that kind of thing by now, but........

Anyway, I got a new drawing pen. It's pretty fucking awesome. No more switching between 19 different varieties of increasingly thinner felt-tipped pens. It's the real thing. It's like when you upgrade your weapons in Final Fantasy. The difference is obvious the minute it's in your hand. Of course I've still got to work with it for a while, but I'm already figuring out how to do things I've always wanted to with it. I can't say it's easy or anything, but, well, it's just like how that cool new sword makes you feel like a better fighter when you really haven't changed at all. The confidence it gives you makes you want to keep training and training and training......

....think I'm gonna need to buy some more ink soon......