Wednesday, 10:00

Yesterday there was this GORGEOUS sunrise, with the pinks extending over what seemed like half the sky. I, of course, was driving to work and couldn't take a picture. ("Just wait, like, 15 minutes, okay?? You're so pretty!!") Instead, I took a picture of the bushes from Day 3 so you can compare the cool shaded color with what they actually look like in real life.


(Tomorrow's picture will be hilarious. Or sad. Disturbing? Somewhat embarrassing. Ummm....Special.)

Today's photo is really a review. Because why not? I'm making the rules here.

Ame to Kiss - Akihira Shiro (sweh!)
Maeda Taiki is an insecure, (supposedly) plain-looking boy who works in a clothing store ("10 Inch Frog"). He has a HUGE crush on Yagii Haruhisa, who works for the company that runs the mall. And they are So. Freaking. Adorable. Together. Unfortunately, the main conflict stems from Maeda's insecurity (and inexperience with relationships), so he can't see how totally crazy about him Yagii is. This leads to a sort-of-fight that I can see being frustrating for people who don't like conflict to come from miscommunication. (Even I am like, "Dude, if your boyfriend says 'We need to talk,' you should probably talk, rather than assuming he wants to break up with you and never answering his calls or texts.) Anyway...YMMV, but I think the adorableness of the rest totally makes up for it. I almost died when I saw the New Years picture (above). The others are clearly selfies, but who's taking a picture of them making a heart with their hands?? "Hey, random person, we are totally not a couple, but would you please take a picture of us?" I'm guessing Maeda is too oblivious to realize how obvious they are and Yagii just doesn't care. He'd probably wear a T-shirt that said "Check out my adorable boyfriend! You can't have him."

If you pick this up, don't miss out on the gags under the cover. Yagii is a squirrel, haha! These guys are Too. Adorable.

Cleaning up leaves on our campus is Serious Business. I wish I had gotten some of the leaf blowers in this picture, too. Have you ever seen a thing that's like a golf cart, but has a giant fan on one side? Yeah, our school has one of those. (It's not the cart you can see in this picture.)

Continuing with the Australia souvenirs (with a thematically appropriate prop for the holiday--and yes, he is still sitting on this pumpkin with the rest of the Halloween decorations).

Confession: the other day (while whining about the hoodie situation) I told mangaroo that my parents aren't very good at guessing what sort of souvenirs to bring back for me. This is mostly true, but then sometimes they get stuff that is perfect. (And I really do believe it's the thought that counts, so I hope I'm gracious about presents they get me.) I think this koala is adorable, and really love the pearl necklace my mom picked out, so between these and the awesome hoodie, I'm pretty sure I'm never allowed to say anything bad about their souvenir-picking abilities again.

Kangaroo hoodie!

Let me share the hilarious story behind this sweatshirt. My parents were two weeks into their three week Australia vacation when I suddenly decided I needed a hoodie from Australia and/or Sydney. I immediately texted my mom and...if you don't have an iPhone, let me tell you that when you text someone else with an iPhone (or iPad), it tells you when the message is delivered/read. So I noticed that my text to my mom wasn't marked "delivered." After a while I realized that they must not have any signal on their cruise, so I had to wait. A few days later, I got a text from my mom and I immediately texted her back, but nothing. A couple days before they got back, I was looking up when their flight left and trying to work out when they would be back in civilization, but still didn't hear from them until they were at the airport. (I guess they went straight from the ship to the airport?) So I'm texting them like, "Nice to hear from you, glad you enjoyed the cruise DID YOU GET MY TEXTS I NEED A HOODIE." (When I get fixated on an idea...) My mom and I texted each other back several times while they were at the airport, but at no time did my mom say, "Sure, we'll look for a sweatshirt." I know my parents well enough to expect that they would look, but still. Anyway, the above is what I ended up with, because my parents are the best (they did not at all make fun of me for my desperate pleas for a freaking sweatshirt). It is super soft on the inside, and my dad said he was going to keep it if I didn't like it. (No way!)

My Awesome Night

9:25pm - Get ready to leave for airport to pick up parents. Car door won't unlock. Huh? Think the remote is dead, unlock door with key (how quaint). No lights come on when I open the door. Realize car battery is dead.

9:30pm - Frantically search garage and basement for jumper cables. No luck. Call neighbor to borrow jumper cables, she lends me her car instead (best decision).

9:35pm - Drive neighbor's ginormous SVU to airport. This car is like three times the size of my car, ugh.

10:15pm - pick up parents (plus other couple they are with, reason for needing large vehicle) from airport, no problems.

11:15pm - Jumper cables, are, ironically, in Dad's car, under the false bottom of the trunk. (What do you call those?) We spend at least 15 minutes trying to figure out how to pry this up (can't open back end of car because it doesn't have a key hole), end up doing it with a crowbar, then suddenly realize it can be lifted from the other end. We are morons but it's dark and late.

11:40pm - Finally get jumper cables hooked up, try starting car. Nothing. Decide to let other car run for a while in hopes it will give some juice to dead battery.

11:55pm - Battery still completely dead. Hook up battery charger to leave running all night. Finally go to bed.

(Before you feel too sorry for me, please remember that my dad just traveled FROM AUSTRALIA, maybe 30 hours.)

This morning, we are a one-car family. (My car is still in the shop, hopefully to be picked up today.) Dad had to get up and drive me to work (I think it will surprise no one that the dead battery didn't charge. When you can't jump start a battery, it's REALLY dead.), and then drive an hour away to his aunt's funeral. Poor Dad was so tired I actually had to wake him up at 6:30 (pretty sure it's the first time in my life I've woken my dad up when it wasn't Christmas morning). I guess I should have woken him earlier (I ended up being about a half hour late to work), but I'm not sorry I let him sleep a little longer. Hopefully he can get a good night's sleep tonight.


Unrelated things:

- License plate seen on red Mini Cooper this morning: MINITOR. (Shouldn't that be Minitaur? Oh, I guess that's probably too long.)

- Recently learned lesson: check US iTunes before buying songs on Japanese iTunes, because cost is $1.29 vs. ¥250 and you never know what's on US iTunes.

The scent of fresh grapes is one of my favorite parts of fall. By this time of year, the grapes have been harvested and the vines are drying up, but there are always a few grapes left behind, so on a warm, sunny day like yesterday, you can still smell them. (I ate a grape while I was taking pictures, and they taste as good as they smell!)

I spent way too much time this weekend watching Magi this weekend. It is...not a great show, but some people keep reblogging amazing fanart on tumblr so here I am. (For the record, this is the picture that made me go, "Okay, I give up, I need to see this show.") You forget, though, when you read a lot of BL, that shipping some background characters in a shounen show can be really frustrating. Oh well, at least I've gotten to like Alibaba and Hakuryuu, the dorks.

In other news, I'm soliciting opinions on two problems ("problems") I have:

1. How do you shelve manga when the author goes by multiple pen names? It's not really a problem for changes like Moto Haruko --> Moto Haruhira, but then there's Ukyou Aya/Sakyou Ayane. Right now I have her stuff all filed under Ukyou (because I bought stuff by her under that name first), but obviously I'm more into her BL stuff so it's starting to seem weird to file her under her shoujo name when that's not really how I think of her. Anyway, I'm kind of curious how other people handle stuff like this.

2. A few weeks ago I went on a doujinshi shopping spree and snagged a bunch of stuff off of Yahoo Auctions, and somehow, a set of Love Stage manga found its way into the mix. I already have digital copies, but I decided I wanted hard copies also, and I got them on Yahoo Actions because I found a listing for a set that included the Animate-exclusive cover. (For reference: original cover) I assumed the book would come with both covers, but it didn't. Here's my problem: I like the original cover better. BUT I love the way the alternate cover is like an alternate view of the same picture, which means I need to have both. So I'm wondering: what would you do?
A) No need to buy the book again, you already have it on your iPad
B) Buy the book to have both covers, keep both books
C) Buy the book to have both covers, throw away extra book
D) Something else I haven't thought of

Thing I am enjoying: taking pictures of a bunch of random stuff and then going through them all at the end of the day to pick which one I like best. This is a bush outside the building where I work. The leaves are more red in real life, but I love how the colors of this picture (taken in the shade) came out.

Okay, here we go. First, let's establish some rules and things:

1. So I'll have the whole day to look for photo subjects and choose what picture I like best, pictures will be posted the following day.
2. No cats! You guys, I take so many cat pictures. I don't need an excuse to take more. However, I may post a bonus VKS (virtual kitty snuggle) in the comments, so those of you who like cat pictures can enjoy those as well. These will not necessarily be from the previous day.
3. I may go longer than 30 days because I want an excuse to include Thanksgiving dinner at the end, haha. We'll see if I can keep finding stuff to take pictures of.
4. This is an exercise in positive thinking, so I will avoid piles of papers on my desk, the spot where the (still missing!) tape should be, and other things that make me feel crabby.
5. I'm not going to bother with cuts (I don't foresee these being NSFW), so if you feel the need, filter my journal accordingly.

Sadly, we're starting with a bit of a blurry subject:



Tiniest woolly bear! When I go for walks, I rescue woolly bears crossing the road, because smashed woolly bears make me really sad. Yesterday, I picked up this tiny little guy. (If you've never seen a woolly bear, they're usually 2-3 times bigger than this.) Funny thing: I thought I took several pictures, and got one in good focus, but there's only one picture on my phone. Maybe the good picture was in my imagination. Hopefully this project will improve my photography skills!


ETA: woolly bear comparison shot (now with actual focus)!

Rio: cute leopard, or cutest leopard? Discuss.

[spoilers in the comments, obviously]