Just a journal to say hello to all and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

What did I get this year? LET ME TELL YOU!

I got...

Green Day 21st Century Breakdown CD
Folklore for the PS3
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories for the PS2
Advent Children Complete on BluRay
PLAY-DOH.
Colored pencils
A series of paintings my mom did for me of the Sanzo party. :D I promise to upload pics. <3
Coloring book~
Some cute figurines of a bunny, and some flowers.
Pajama pants with polar bears on them... I feel suspiciously like Canada now.
A really good smelling bath set from a friend. It's Orange Fig Vanilla, which sounds odd but it absolutely delectable.
An adorable charm bracelet depicting my love of cats...XD; Also from a friend.
A one-year subscription on deviantART from a friend. :)


And some other really awesome stuff.

What did you guys get?

(BTW, Advent Children is...more fantastic than I ever could have hoped. I cried a number of times because it was so BEAUTIFUL, but also because there were many touching and sad parts involving Denzel. I could go into the deep philosophical explanation behind Kadaj's vulnerability and the importance that they properly portrayed his age, but I won't. I also won't complain about them not fixing the mistake they made with the Bahamut summon materia. D: )

Anywaaaaaaaay... Merry Christmas to all! Hope everyone has a fantastic day with their family/friends.

♥ miya

My dad went out today to pay a visit to his friend and occasional boss (dad does work for him whenever he can), Carlos. He just called us, and told us that Carlos was asking about the family and how we're all doing. He was asking about my job and school, and dad told him about my job and that I'm trying to save up for school.

So Carlos told dad that he wants me to enroll in classes for January, and he'll pay for it.

I'm so astonished and in complete shock right now. This guy that I've only met once wants to pay for me to go to school for a semester, because he says that, "You can keep your part-time job if you want, but your education is more important."

I'm about dead right now. I don't even know what to think, ahaha. The only thing going through my head is, "Oh my god, WOW."

So I have to find that coursebook for Longview and start looking at what classes I want to take. This is absolutely crazy; I'm kind of crying.

Ohhhhh gosh. I'm okay, I swear. XD; Just wanted to give you guys a brief update. @_@;;;


♥ Mii

Just wanted to post a little bit about yesterday, since I ran out of energy to do it yesterday. <3

I had work orientation at 10:00 a.m. that ran until about 1:00 p.m.. It was pretty normal, but we had a fun little scavenger hunt in which we had to look around and get familiarized with the store.

When mom picked me up, we got lunch at Arby's and went to K-Mart to look for work shirts for me; I needed a red polo and we managed to find two of them for $8 each. We also got some really comfy khaki pants that I can wear for work AND fun.
Mom and I discovered that we have WAY too much fun shopping together - we spent more at K-Mart than we really should have, and we ended up getting some neat things on sale, including clothes for mom to wear after her up-coming shoulder surgery.

We went home after shopping at K-Mart, and my insurance check from the car accident in May came in the mail, so we went to the bank to cash it. I ended up opening my first checking account (go me!), with $300. The bank is doing a special bonus where they gave me $50 for opening the account, and $50 for every person I can refer to open a checking account with the bank.

I put the $300 in checking and I'll be getting my debit card in about a week. I put $25 in savings and cashed $20 (the rest I gave to mom and dad for the medical bills from the hospital and the crash). Dad sent us a text while we were at the bank telling us to get Chinese, so we went to Blockbuster first to get some movies, then we ran back across town to get Chinese. The Chinese place we usually go to was selling jewelry this time, so I bought a piece for both me and my sister. We're pretty regular customers, and we're kind of responsible for their popularity in town, so when the lady saw mom looking at the rack of jewelry, she told her that she could pick any piece she wanted for free. Mom chose this really beautiful bracelet with big purple quartz beads. I was pretty impressed that the lady gave it to her for free, to be honest. <3

So we went home and had dinner, and after dinner we pretty much all went to bed. It was a really long and eventful day, and actually turned out to be extremely awesome. I think that this new job is really going to improve my mood a lot - I was constantly smiling all day yesterday and I felt absolutely great.

I work tomorrow from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and I'll probably be getting my full schedule for the week tomorrow, and I hope that my hours are reasonable and workable. I don't want anything too late in the evening, but I don't really mind any hours at this point as long as I'm getting paid for them.

Today we watched Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, UP, InuYasha The Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler, and right now we're finishing up The Orphan.

We also have My Sister's Keeper to watch, but we'll probably watch that tomorrow night after I get home from work, or tomorrow afternoon before I go to work. It really all depends on what my hours will be for the rest of the week.

We'll probably watch some recorded TV after this movie, then go to bed. I'm extremely exhausted, and I have to work tomorrow. :D So, yeah. Just an overview of the past two days, and an idea of what tomorrow is going to be like, too.

No Kuroshitsuji yet. I'm getting anxious. D:

Otherwise, that's all I had to say. Hope everyone's weekend was good and that your weeks all start off well tomorrow/Monday. <3

♥ mii

The first official chapter of the RP-fanfic I previewed earlier this week. Most of the original writing has been preserved, and only some of it has been edited to make a smoother transition from RP to proper story. Grammar and punctuation has been checked, but if you catch anything, please let me know. :3 This has been really fun so far, and hopefully we'll be able to kick out a new chapter every few days or so, depending on how often we all get to posting.

Enjoy!

Title: The Christmas Party
Theme: Christmas/Holiday Season
Authors: miyakai and x_takara_x (for chapter 1)
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Characters/Pairings: Alfred F. Jones (America), Matthew Williams (Canada), Tony (the alien), Ivan Braginski (Russia), Kiku Honda (Japan), Feliciano Vargas (N. Italy/Veneziano), Ludwig (Germany), and Gilbert Weillschmidt (Prussia).
Rating: PG (for mentions of vodka and other alcohol; no actual consumption has occurred yet)
Warnings: Pointlessness. <3
Summary: Alfred is having a Commerical-Holiday Christmas party at his house, including possible festivities such as Secret Santa, gingerbread houses, spiked eggnog, and possibly even some spiked alcohol. (a.k.a. there will likely be lots of drinking involved). Matthew got roped into helping.
In This Chapter: Ivan arrives at Alfred's house for the party, Tony makes his presence known, Kiku wears a sweater, Prussia makes jokes about Feliciano dying.


( It was very rare that something bad didn't happen to Italy... )

Just wanted to say - with much excitement and relief - that I got the job at Toys R Us. :D

Which means a couple of things:

1. I can cancel the interview at Macy's for Thursday.

2. I can start saving up for a car.

3. I can open a bank account to start buying pretty things from deviantArt using PayPal. :D

4. I can get Christmas presents for friends

AND

5. I can pay for cosplay stuff.

= D= I'm soooooo happy right now.

The pay starts at $7.50, and though I don't know what my hours are yet (or even where they're planning on putting me), I still have a job FOR SURE and I'm so excited. :D

Anyway, um. That's all I have to say for right now. xD; My brother is listening to a Stephen Lynch play list and my cat wants attention, so Imma go. <3

♥ mii.

I have two job interviews in the next three days! Yay!

There's a group interview today at 2:00 for Toys R Us. The position is seasonal for the holidays, but "there's always a possibility of staying on longer," she says. I'm pretty excited, actually. A little nervous, but mostly excited. I need this job, since the only other person in the family working right now is dad. Of course we're all looking for jobs, but looking hasn't been proving fruitful so far.

Thursday I have an interview at Macy's for a Cosmetic Beauty Adviser position, which is "part-time/flexible hours & weekends."

I hope I get one of these jobs, and at this point I don't really care which one. They're about the same distance away (actually, Toys R Us might be a little bit closer, since Macy's is out in the Independence Center mall, not the new one out in Lee's Summit. Sigh.)

Anyway, I'm really excited and kind of highly strung, so I'm just trying to sort out all of these EMOTIONS, haha. I still have to go have a shower and drink some coffee before I'm ready to face the day, anyway. And it's already 10:00!

Tomorrow the new Kuroshitsuji chapter should be out in Japan, so that means Friday should have us a new scan. I'm happy about this, since there's no Bleach this week, and I feel like I need my manga fix for the week, haha.

There was a new episode of House last night, but we didn't watch it. It's recorded on the DVR, so I guess we'll watch it when I get home from my interview today. Tomorrow is a new Glee (yay!) and Thursday means new Bones and Fringe, even though we haven't finished watching them from last week yet.

Actually, there's a new Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters Academy tomorrow, too. I haven't seen GHA yet, so I'm kind of excited to. It looks absolutely awesome and I really want to go on the show~~ and should prove to be pretty entertaining. <3

Anyway, that's about all I have to say for now. I'll be refining that RP I talked about last night (the Hetalia one I posted the preview for) and probably start posting it around the internet sometime later today or tomorrow. <3

♥ mii
P.s. Also, it snowed last night. Just a light dusting, and the ground was too warm and wet for it to stick, but there's a little on the rooftops and the wood chips in the gardens. It's really cold out, and x_takara_x is excited because she says it "smells like snow" outside, haha. <3

This is actually my intro for a RP I just started with some friends. I'm just interested to know who on my flist is interested in Hetalia and who might be interested in reading something like this if I were to post it.

Since this is just the beginning (and my first time playing a lot of these characters) it's likely to be a little bit squicky at first until we all get comfortable within our roles. Hopefully, though, everything will go smoothly.

This preview bit here is all by me, and this is also the first time I've really exposed any of my writing to my LJ, so be gentle, please? <3 I write VERY often, it's just rare that I ever complete anything anymore.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Title: (As of yet untitled; just calling it "Christmas Party Fic" for now)
Theme: Christmas! Since it seems to be sneaking up on us pretty fast.
Author:

miyakai

Characters/Pairings: No pairings yet. In this preview: Alfred (America), Matthew (Canada), Kumajiro (Polar Bear)
Rating: For the preview: G
Warning: Possible OOC Canada. I've never played him before.
Summary: Alfred is having a Commerical-Holiday Christmas party at his house, including possible festivities such as Secret Santa, gingerbread houses, spiked eggnog, and possibly even some spiked alcohol. (a.k.a. there will likely be lots of drinking involved). Matthew got roped into helping.

I don't think I've talked much about how awesome Halloween was, so let me take this opportunity to do that. It'll be pretty brief, though.

We had an awesome party with awesome friends and went out trick-or-treating after dinner. We came home and watched The Omen until Dean had to go home, then we sat around and talked about haunted houses.

After Tanisha left, Ari, Taka and I pretty much went to bed right away. When we woke up in the morning, we sat around eating our candy and watching Hetalia. :D We started casting for our future Hetalia cosplays, too. Ari's going to be our Italy, my sister apparently wants to be Japan, which I guess automatically makes me Germany. That's for our "main cast," I guess, because in a different version, Amy wants to be Lithuania and wants my sister to be her Russia. They've both agreed that I would make a pretty awesome America (not sure if I should be flattered or offended XD), and we're considering Nicky for Prussia. D: I'm still not sure about that one, since Prussia is my favorite character and I'm going to be pretty picky about his casting. xD;

Anyway, I'm pretty happy that my TV shows are back on now that the World Series is over. I recorded Glee from Wednesday but haven't watched it yet, but we got caught up on Bones, House, and Fringe from the past two weeks, and now I'm sifting through my recordings of Ghost Hunters, since I have so many of them stacking up. xD;;

I really hate episodes of Ghost Hunters when they don't catch anything, or nothing exciting happens. I mean, I understand that it's bound to happen, and not every place they investigate can have activity, but it's still pretty displeasing when they don't get anything. I'm finishing up the episode where they go to Congress Theater in Chicago right now, and they had a couple of interesting finds and personal experiences.

Guhh, I would so love to work with the TAPS team. *g* I looooove paranormal investigations and it would really just fuel my love of the paranormal to work with them. If I could afford my own equipment, I'd definitely start my own ghost hunting business here in KC.

Oh! I also have a question for anyone on my flist that actually reads my rantings. :) Does anyone know of any good skin care products for helping to GET RID of blackheads? I have a bunch of facial scrubs and so on that are great for PREVENTING them, but not for getting rid of them, and I'm really sick of the blackheads that are really hard to get rid of (especially on the ones on my nose). If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. :3

Have a good morning/day/afternoon/evening/night, flist.

♥ mii.

Does anyone here watch it?

Anybody who knows me should know that I’m not a big fan of mecha anime, the only exception to that (so far) really being Code Geass, and I’ve only seen the first episode of that.

Well, I ordered Burst Angel a few months back so that I could try it and see what it’s all about; it’s one of those titles that I heard about YEARS ago, but never took the time to sit down and watch.

Before I got my Burst Angel DVD, I got a few before it, and they came with Burst Angel promos; thus how I learned it was a mecha. Of course I didn’t shoot it down right away - my policy is to always give an anime a try. I always watch at least the first two episodes (sometimes three), before I really judge whether or not it’s worth watching.

Usually if the first episode doesn’t interest me, I’ll watch the second. If I’m not interested by the second episode, I MIGHT watch the third if I think the series has potential, but usually I ditch it after the first episode.

So now that you know my policy, you can fully understand how I grade my reviews, which are usually based on one or two episodes of a series.

Burst Angel. What can I say about it? The theme song is catchy, and kind of reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop. The opening sequence doesn’t quite match with the theme, but is decent in it’s own right. Within the first episode, we’re rewarded with some pretty awesome background music. The soundtrack seems like it’ll be pretty great, with tones of blues and jazz throughout, but not as heavily blues-based as Bebop was.

One of the first things that crossed my mind when watching the first part of episode one was that I feel like I’ve seen this before; it isn’t exceptionally original, which isn’t necessarily bad, but slightly disappointing.

The characters also seem to be slightly recycled, and the situations aren’t the most creative ever, but the series seems like it would have potential to be pretty awesome, if given the chance.

Do I intend to give it a chance?

…Yes. Yes I do.

And I will leave you with this final note about the first episode:

Cabbage.

♥ miya

Today's Thursday, right? The 29th? That means I missed out on new Bleach this week. Damn.

Oh well. Today is my mom's birthday. :D She's 49. We didn't have 49 candles for her cake (thank god), so we got seven and made her blow them out seven times, ahaaha.

This morning, mom, dad and I had to go for a meeting at the Missouri Career Center, because mom applied for aid for all of us, collectively, and in order to prove to the state that we deserve the aid, we have to show them that we're all actively out looking for jobs.

The job-search program that we got enrolled in lasts for two months, and in reality it's not really that bad. We have to apply for four jobs a week, for four weeks. Then we have to fill each of these in on a form, and after a month, we have to bring the forms back to the career center, have a career counselor sign it, and then go out and do it again.

After the two months, though, we don't have to do it again, which is kind of a relief. I don't want to do this in the first place, but seeing as it's not really that big of a deal, I'll do it. At least then I can still be applying for jobs, possibly ones that I wouldn't have considered otherwise, just to fill in my form. I'm still looking for a job, too, so maybe this'll help a little bit.

On an anime related note, I started a few new series about a week ago to preview them.

Shugo Chara was on that list, and that was certainly an interesting show. I watched the first episode, then had to go watch something more rugged and hard-core to get all of the cutesy out of my brain. Don't get me wrong, I love cute shows; Fruits Basket is one of my favorite series ever. Shugo Chara, though, was a little much for me. It was just so much cute, CONDENSED, that I had to cleanse my palate a little.

So far, though, Shugo Chara seems to have the potential to be a bigger, better Card Captor Sakura. It seems vaguely like the same concept, but I guess it would help if I knew the plot of CCS in the first place. The whole story also seems to have touches of Furuba, too, but the whole thing by itself seems to be a pretty unique concept.

Anyway, I'll have to dope myself up on hardcore rock before I can watch it again. I almost got cavities from the first episode. :/

Amatsuki is another show I ventured to try, and so far it seems a little bit like Fushigi Yuugi. Seeing as I liked Fushigi Yuugi, I'm sure I'll like Amatsuki, considering it also seems (if not only slightly) more mature. Also, the first episode alone just reeks of YAOI. :D

And last but not least, Code Geass. Great show. I hate mecha, but...that might change with this series. I hardly even noticed it was a mecha show. I was greatly and deeply impressed with the whole thing, and I can't wait to find time to watch more of it.

Um, and that's about it, really. I don't have much to talk about at the moment, so that's what you get. I might come back and do another post after I read Bleach, which I'm off to do now. Sooo...g'night, folks. :D

♥ miyakai