9 weeks since I last logged in. wow. I cannot believe time flies that fast.  Getting older without even realizing it.  Soon I'll be dead.
Ew, that sounded....morbid.

I have a new goal I am working towards, so I don't really have time to blog these days.  Things will be different once I reach my goal. I don't really want to tell anyone about it in case I fail.  But it involves making some big changes in my life. BIG.  Even I am not sure how it will all work out, but i hope I am making the right decisions.  I've got a LOT of work to do before my dream can come true.  That reminds me, I need to get home and start on that...the work day is almost over.

bah, no one reads this blog anyway, i dont know why I bother.

Decided on a Nikon D5000.  Took photography/advanced photography classes in the past so I know a little bit...except we used film SLRs so we could develop our own film and make our own pics in the darkroom. I plan to go out with a local flickr group that meets once a month to shoot pics around the town, and I hope to learn something from them.
I have most of my Japan pics up but I don't want to post the link publicly, so you'll just have to message me if you want to see them.

--ciao

Everyone except ME, that is!  And I don't know why, because I usually happen to have the latest and greatest gadget or gizmo, since I'm in the technology field (read: nerd).  I have been through several digital cameras starting in 1999 when hardly anyone even had them yet.  I currently use a canon s3 and an sd850.  My pictures are nice, but dont look as good as what comes out of a dslr. It seems dslr's are the next craze now that they have become more affordable to the general consumer, with the canon rebel starting at $500-something with kit lens.  Many people I know have dslr's and I'm not even sure they know how to use them.  How is it that I don't have one?? Because there are so many choices that I don't even know what to get!

And I didn't get to go. Unfortunately Acen is always on Mother's Day weekend, and that is not a convenient time for me to pull myself away from family without having a good excuse.  *sigh*
So I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through others' pictures.  If I friended you, it means I like your cosplay and probably found you through coscom (though I hadn't gone there in months..until today!).  Don't worry about friending me back or anything, I hardly write in this thing anyway.  I always  tell myself to try to keep it updated, but honestly I can't find the time, or I live such a boring life that there is nothing to talk about. God I hope that changes...I start fashion illustration class next week so at least that's something to look forward to.

well i was able to sweet-talk my way into totally deleting one of my layovers and going straight to narita like i was supposed to in the first place!  i booked through delta skymiles and they just blew me off. the flight was actually through northwest since they are partners now. called northwest and they totally rerouted my flight so now i have only 2 flights instead of 3. i live in a small city so i have to fly to a major hub before i go to narita. i usually just drive the 3 hrs to the major hub but this time i was lazy and just wanted to fly.
I really hope this works out, I think it's way better because the possibility of flight delays/cancels is so much greater the more flights you have. 

Got my ticket to japan using delta skymiles. turned out the main flight is cancelled so now i have another flight tacked on with a layover so i arrive 3 hrs later than i wanted. and i go online to reserve my seat and there aren't any. they've overbooked the flight. fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu........
now what do i do???? i have prepaid all my hotels and they are not refundable, i don't want to miss a single night.already had that happen to me once on airtran, but never a major airline.

Ok first of all I am not too scared to stay in Kabukicho! But I did switch to a hotel in Shibuya instead, because there is more to do there at night when the trains stop running. I definitely wanted to explore the area around whatever hotel I was in at night, and it turns out doing that in Kabukicho is dicey.  If you aren't careful, you could end up in a bar that charges $100 for a beer or table fee and a nice yakuza bouncer will make sure you are able to pay it.  I didn't feel like taking that risk, and it was free to cancel anyway through hotels.com.

turns out one of the hotels i booked is in kabukicho, the red light district area of shinjuku. i'm not too worried though as it says the area is mostly safe, just seedy. some of the "girls bars" are operated by yakuza. this will be an interesting experience! and sorry to burst your bubble, but used panty machines don't actually exist. however, i know they can be bought in sex shops. not that i would want to, of course!

Today is my annual doctor appointment.  I have to get tested every year because my health insurance requires it.  I am on a special health insurance plan that only covers healthy people.  If you smoke or have a BMI over 30, you pretty much get kicked off the plan.  Well....not really.  They make you go through some special course and if you don't lose weight in X amount of time or something, then you go to the higher deductible plan.  I don't really know since I've never had to deal with that. ANYWAY...I have to get a blood test every year so they can check the cholesterol (another requirement is having low cholesterol).  This is the part I HATE!!  I have a needle phobia. I have to lay down when they do it, otherwise I feel like I'm going to faint.  
When I am there I am going to get a referral for an ENT to see what is up with my ear popping problem.  I think I'll also tell him about my anxiety and being tired during the day and not being able to sleep at night. 

I didn't even remember it was fat tuesday and forgot to get packzi's or make crepes.  Not sure if the packzi's are just a regional thing, I think they're a polish tradition??
Scuba Diver Girls friended me and something she re-posted from somewhere else made me think. "It's not all about who's following you (regarding twitter), it's who YOU follow." and then it went on to talk about certain smart people you should be following and the knowledge you can glean from it.  if you have lots of followers, what are you offering them? 
Then I was in a meeting the other day with a certain advertising company who had the opposite opinion- "there's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's NOT being talked about!"
No, there isn't a point to this blog entry. sigh.

I'm so excited to get rid of this klunker and get my new laptop! They said it was on backorder until the 24th but it just shipped today!  Now I can do my graphics work and not have to scroll my way around a 1024x768 screen. I'll have 1920x1080 of sweet space to work with.  Although I could have hooked up an external monitor to my existing laptop...

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm losing weight and that I'm too skinny. I weigh the same as I have since high school, between 95-98lbs. The difference is that I am now wearing clothes that actually FIT.  Where I live, they don't sell clothes my size unless I shop in the juniors department.  So I went to Chicago where they actually carry size 24 jeans and bought a few pairs.  I need to move.

What an ordeal.  Turns out I'll be in kyoto on a weekend during prime cherry blossom season, so nearly everything is sold out.  Well, anything that's decent.  For example, I thought one hotel sounded good but then I read a review about roaches.  I understand that Japan probably has a significant roach population if it's anything like Hawaii.  I was just in Hawaii in January 2008 and they were everywhere.  Well not EVERYWHERE, I'm making it sound like there were swarms, but there was one in the car, one in the karaoke place, etc.  The climate is prime for them.  So anyway I found this one hotel that I thought would be too pricey, but in the end I found it for $280 taxes included.  That's still a lot, but I didn't have much of a choice.  The only places available were either really low-end or really high-end.  I read all the tripadvisor reviews first.  It's not that I'm totally opposed to low end, it's just that the reviews were really bad...and I would rather spend more money and have a nice vacation than deal with bedbugs or something.

I am SO sick of all these Apple nut-swingers.  I'm a PC!

Well I booked one hotel so far in Tokyo, and already I can feel the weight coming off my shoulders.  I feel like this is a lot to plan and I don't have much time until I leave, so it needs to get done asap.  The hotel is in Shinjuku and was only $129 for 2 people, which included breakfast too.  Now I need to book a hotel in Kyoto, and I want to spend one night in a ryokan, preferably with an onsen (or shared bath), with a kaiseki dinner.  I found this one place that is really expensive.  It seems most Japanese hotels/ryokan/etc charge per person, not per room.  It was around $250-$300 per person for the cheapest room.  I'm sure it would be a great experience but I don't know if i want to spend that much, so I'm going to see if i can find something cheaper first.

I made a bunch of extra money last month, so I have decided to buy a new laptop since the current one I have is from 2003 or 2004 and is bulky.  Also it only has a 1024x768 square (4:3) screen.  I decided on the Sony Vaio FW series with the 16.4" widescreen and fullHD resolution. If I buy it from sonystyle.com I have 30 days to return it, no questions asked.  I'm going to order it today.  I checked it out at Best Buy but they didn't have the one with the fullHD so I'm glad there is a good return policy.  Unfortunately I will be custom-ordering it so it will be on backorder while it's built.  I hope that doesn't take too long.

I bought a milkshake pink wig from cosplaywig, and this is the softest wig I have ever owned.  Love it, but kinda worried about the tangle-ability (lol) of it.  I also got my DuWop lip venom and smeared it all over my lips which now burn fiercely.  But I'm sure they look really plump, haha.

Pulled the trigger and bought tickets to Japan (narita airport).  Now comes the fun part...all the research that goes into where to stay, what to do.  I better get on this STAT.

I'm currently on the Delta skymiles website, trying to book a flight to Narita in April.  I read a report that the cherry blossoms will be early this year, so I'm kind of hesitating on which dates.  I am thinking that March 29-April 8 will be good.  Too bad skymiles kind of sucks with the layovers, but it will be a free awards ticket so I guess I really can't complain.  Unfortunately I only have enough miles for coach. 
I also need to prepare my itinerary, get a rail pass, and brush up on my Japanese.  This is proving to be a lot of work, so much more so than going to Costa Rica 2 months ago.  That was a piece of cake.  I am my own travel agent! 

From Acen 2007.  Was just a walk-on but we decided last minute to re-enact a scene from the anime where Kikyo trips, and they kiss.  Yes, I know it didn't happen in the manga.
I also won novice craftsmanship on my Kikyo costume at this con (I completely made both costumes but I could only enter one).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHjDa1h1OIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmB3VetuGx8

I haven't been to a convention since.  I'm trying to get back into it but I've been really busy.  I can't wear that costume anymore unless I get a wig, since I cut off all my hair.  Everyone thought it was a wig though.