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.

Don't Look Back

Somehow, maybe it's just the ingrained routine of childhood, but I always get the feeling that the year begins in September. It's not the beginning of the year. It's not even the beginning of the school year in Japan. But it's just one of those things I can't shake. Things end in August and begin in September. You go back to school and feel like somebody new because something happened over the summer. Or because something different is happening at school. You go back and think you're smarter. You've grown up. Or something like that...

A lot of stuff I've been into for a while now is ending soon. "Shangri-la", "Canaan", "07-Ghost" "Tsubasa" (been waiting on that one for a LONG time...) It's disappointing but what can you do? "Kobato" starts next week so that's pretty awesome. Also, I've kind of become obsessed with "Pandora Hearts" and "Bakuman" and both of those look like they'll continue for a while.

At first I thought I'd really love Bakuman b/c it's about writing manga. A manga about manga. Like my 'play within a play' from so many years ago. (That was a big success....) Like my two favorite TV shows, about making TV shows. But as I read it there were so many things that made me balk about the characters personalities, the way things are done, the choices people made. It was anger inducing at times. But in the end, reading it just makes me want to draw even more. I can't really explain it, but it's made me realize things that might be useful.

I heard about Pandora Hearts, or rather, I saw it, advertised in Animate so many times that I finally downloaded it b/c I was bored. When I realized it had Alice in Wonderland themes I thought it'd be cool, at least design-wise, but it's the characters that I really love. I really can't decide on a favorite, or which one I'm most like from the main three. After catching up to the anime I had to get the manga too so I could get ahead in the story. I thought. And that's what sunk me. The clean simplicity of the characters (the way they're drawn that is) and the way the author's feelings for them come through is something I haven't seen in a while. I've been reading too much mainstream stuff I think...

When things change it's like a breath of fresh air. To speak in ridiculous cliche. You can breathe more easily, think more clearly, find the right path to follow more decisively. Suddenly, things make sense.

"Never look away - not from nightmares or the truth."

Blazing Souls

Sometimes I think about making a post......but then I just don't. I think it's b/c I feel like I only have one thing to say. Like, seriously, one sentence.

So, recently I've been thinking about being creative. Sure, I can draw. Lots of people can draw. So what? It doesn't mean they want to create things. I've always wanted to. It's one of those things that I somehow forgot is different about me. I forgot that most "regular" people don't sit around thinking about how they can make something, or what they're going to make next, or even that they might like to make something.

I like people who can create things. I forgot that too. Or rather I transformed that into "people I like are creative like me" by accident. Not all of them are. Not all of them are dissatisfied with just living. It's strange to me.

For the past 6 months or so my "twin" and I have been working on a DVD to be used in the elementary schools in our city. We had some help from the other people we work with, but it was all from my ideas & he did all of the computer editing. We finished and sent it out on Monday. We were super proud of ourselves. At the same time we decided to send out a quick survey. In order to see what else we could do to help people now that this project was finished.

I'm not going to do what I did back in 2005 again (my dear, dear myOtaku blog of that time is now long gone) but, let's just say life's a bitch sometimes. Long story short, neither of us is going to be interested in helping people for a LOOOOONG time after today.

"...three cheers for tyranny, unapologetic apathy..."

You knew it all along, right?
Right?

What a waste.

"...The world you live in is a world in which only those who can find their own way ahead are allowed to survive..."

Memories in the Rain 2, op.3: Affected by the Night

It's not raining now, but it should be soon. We're supposed to have a tropical storm called Krovanh starting sometime later tonight. I don't like the rain. I always say I don't, but......well, maybe it's just one of those "the grass is always greener" things........I like storms anyway. When it rains and rains for days and you can't get to work without getting wet, then I think I hate it. But right now, I wish it would hurry up and rain.

"...let the rain of what I feel right now come down..."

My first year in Japan we had a pretty bad typhoon. Not sure where on my mental ranking of Florida hurricanes it really fit, but they closed the schools and sent us home in the middle of the day. I went home and stood on my balcony and watched the sideways rain and was really happy. Of course the teachers all thought I had lost it when I told them the next day.

"...the rain always brings our heroes, believe in heroes..."

In the past week I started watching 3 new anime series. Figured I might as well since I couldn't sleep too well. So far "Bakemonogatari" is my favorite. It's got a similar animation style to "Samurai Champloo", but the jokes and storytelling devices remind me of "FLCL" a lot. I can't decide which of the other two I like better yet. "Canaan" is really cool, but it's got a "Wolf's Rain" like sense of dread about it. I just know it's the kind of show in which important characters are going to die. "07 Ghost" I just started watching on a whim b/c there's a ridiculous amount of merchandise for it in Animate recently. It's kind of "Escaflowne" style fantasy I'd say.

I talked to my mom for a while last night. I always try not to call her since it costs money, but it seems I always wait too long and then spend a lot in the end anyway. It always reminds me of where some of my weird habits came from. Like always writing lists in spiral noteboks. Or always being in the process of redecorating my room. Or just always doing something, always needing to do something. Something I thought of, or something I like, or just something to keep me busy. She said my step-dad's the same way so it works out well. Nobody's bored, and nobody's lonely, and nobody's needy, or a burden. Everybody's busy doing what they want before time runs out.

"...I'm still waiting for, you to be the one I'm waiting for..."

Let's Eat the World's End

Recently I've been feeling like my apartment is shaking. We had a really big earthquake a couple weeks ago, maybe you saw it on the news.......It happened at 5am so of course I promptly woke up and screamed like a Hollow was chasing me. Then I took a deep breath and screamed some more. And then I reached for the glass of water by my bed since it was kind of feeling like I had swallowed a razorblade after all that, and realized the water was no longer in the glass, but all over the table. Which meant that a lot of other things were probably all over the floor. And the noises which my sleep-stupidized mind took to be the plates of the earth grinding against each other had probably been my bookshelves shaking themselves away from the walls.

Yep.

Broken glass eeeeeeverywhere. And, even worse, broken Evangelion models. So much work putting those damn things together the first time....I didn't take any pictures, but there was also an interesting combination of vinegar & olive oil on my kitchen floor. I called up my dad in Florida to tell him, "hey this happened, don't freak out." and in the most un-dad-like moment of possibly his entire life he said to me, "well, just throw some lettuce down there Katy & you'll have a salad."

WTF?

So anyway, recently every time I lie down at night it feels like things are shaking. They might be for all I know. We did have quite a few aftershocks the same day & in the ones that followed. But now it's like I can't tell the difference between real shaking, drunk-induced shaking, imaginary-paranoid shaking, and 6th-floor-inevitable shaking. In fact, none of these things may be happening at all........

...I'm sick of shaking, never waking from the hell I achieve...

End of Hypnosis3 (The Blue Fog)

Here it is:

I touched it.

It was a pretty awesome way to spend the day after I said goodbye to my wifey. I took about a million pictures. Kind of weird for me.

"the call to arms was never true"

Just a few days before that we got a private tour of the Bandai Hobby Center here in town.

Also amazingly cool.

Recently I've been feeling like I'm living in between sleeping. It's probably just b/c there's no school so I feel kind of useless. Of course, we're always technically doing that I suppose. That's the only way we can do it. And I always look forward to sleeping.