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July 19th, 2007
01:38 am - meme
I had to try this after Merula posted it on her lj.
Your Score: Linear B You scored
You are Linear B. Even those who can follow you think you're all Greek to them. Which, after all, is true - Linear B being the first known text for written Greek. To most people, you're incomprehensible. But what do you care? You're tough, hard, long-enduring and have greater nobility than most. Naturally, you don't admit to borrowing extensively from your brother Linear A.
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June 1st, 2006
07:50 pm - Japan - Day 5 -
Ann is a goddess. She gave me a foot and calf massage this morning. I did not feel at all well when I got up. My calves were so tight, it hurt to walk. We took the morning off and planned to go out after lunch.
Went to lunch at - yes, yes, I know - Wendy's. The five or six block walk to Wendy's just about killed me. I told everyone that I just couldn't make it to Tokyo Tower. They convinced me to at least try and promised to walk slowly, but by the time we made it to the subway, my ears were ringing and my feet and calves were tingling/numb. I said forget it. Ann wasn't too happy either, she has the same calf/knee problems I do, and we decided we just couldn't make the trip. We went back Michael's, where I proceeded to sleep for the next four hours. I got up for dinner and a little while after, but I went to sleep before 10:00 p.m. despite the nap. We leave for our Kyoto trip tomorrow. I hope I'm feeling better then.
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May 31st, 2006
06:53 pm - Japan - Day 4 -
Michael is a sadist. I've got bad knees, rolling ankles, swollen feet, I'm four or five inches shorter and I probably outweigh him by close to 100 pounds. I cannot walk as fast as he can at the best of times. In this heat and humidity... *sigh* The least he could do is find out BEFOREHAND where we're going so I don't have to walk 10 blocks out of the way just 'cause he can't freaking ask directions! Men!
Today was our trip to Mount Fuji. Michael had said it would be a twenty minute walk to the hotel where we were to be picked up. We said, make that at least half an hour. Michael didn't quite believe us, but when we started out, and I was limping inside two blocks, he figured it out. With my rolling ankles, my calves take a lot of strain...if I start off slowly, it gives them time to warm up, but of course Michael had us going at top speed. He decided we weren't going to make it at the pace we were at, so we hopped the subway for one stop and then took off for where he thought we were going. Turns out we walked almost all the way back to the station we started at. We were late, but fortunately they hadn't taken off yet. But I was panting, my legs and feet were killing me, and I was not a happy camper. What a rotten way to start the day. *sigh*
Turns out the bus from the hotel was taking us to the tour company's station, so we had a short wait while we checked in, etc, and we switched buses. The bus we were taking was much more crowded, and we were assigned seats. There was the WORST American family behind us. Two whiny girls and their very loud parents. Well, the father, David - I know 'cause his wife said it way too loudly at least twenty times - wasn't too bad, but the rest of the family...They were the stereotypical picture of the ugly American tourists. *sigh* Marissa and Sarah, the girls, were just annoying. Sarah kept singing (off key) too loudly, and her mother would just say over and over, "Sarah, soften your voice, please." Of course, she was facing AWAY from the girl when she said it, so she'd say it WAY too loudly. Yeah, the kid's really going to learn to keep her voice down when you're talking like that, lady. The girls fought, loudly of course, over toys and games, and at one point Sarah had a huge tantrum. "My feelings are hurt!!" Yeah, well, my ears are hurt you stupid brat! Shut. Up. Ann actually tossed some water over her shoulder onto the brat when her mother left her in the seat while she was screaming. Did I mention the "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" questions? Cripes, I wanted to strangle the whole family and toss them off a cliff.
OK, aside from that, the trip was pretty nice. Mount Fuji is beautiful, and it was much, much cooler on the mountain. We stopped at a visitors' center at the base of the mountain for a little while to get pictures, then up to the 5th station (2305 meters), which is the end of the road that goes up Mt. Fuji. People can make the hike from there to the summit (3776 meters) during the summer, but someone falls and dies every year, we were told.
After a while to take pictures and buy souvenirs, we went to a hotel at the base of the mountain for our included lunch. From there, we went around the side of the mountain to Lake Ashinoko in Hakone. We had a short site seeing boat ride to the Hakone National Park, where we took a cable car ride up Mt. Komagatake. Ann did NOT like the gondola ride. We're both acrophobic, and it was very nerve wracking to be suspended by cables. It swayed every time we passed one of the support towers, and once up, Ann just wanted to go back down. We tried to get into a different car than the annoying family, but they got on just before we left. *sigh* Of course the girls fought the whole way down. "She's pushing me!!" "Get off of me!!" "Marissa, Sarah, behave!" It was a very, very long 7 minutes.
After the gondola ride, we took a bus to the train station, where we boarded a Shinkansen (bullet train) for Tokyo. The tour offered a bus ride option, but it took 2 hours to get back, vs half an hour by train. It was pretty cool for the first, oh, ten minutes. Then it was another boring train ride. :P
A very full day. We were exhausted by the time we got back to Michael's place - after stopping by McD's for dinner. Took a shower, then off to bed. We plan on going to Tokyo Tower and Yokohama tomorrow.
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May 30th, 2006
07:58 am - Japan - Day 2 -
Well, I woke up this morning feeling rather badly. I hadn't taken my diuretic since I'm so dehydrated, so my feet were swollen, and I had some bad stomach cramps. We stayed in until I was feeling a bit better, and set out after lunch (at a sloooow pace to save my feet).
I think I now better understand how some of the Asian students feel when they come to UW Madison and are freezing by mid-autumn...and we're still wearing t-shirts and shorts. The humidity is over 80%, and I'm dying from the heat...and they're wearing light jackets. I was all red faced and sweaty, and Michael was seriously worried I was going to pass out or something. I wasn't feeling the best, but I wasn't going to keel over. Still it was good to get a seat on the 20 minute subway ride, and I picked up some Gatorade to drink.
So we went to the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. The street leading to the temple is Nakamise Dori, and it's lined with booths selling all sorts of food and souvenirs. We stopped right away to get some folding fans. :P So we browsed the stalls as we made our way to the shrine. The temple is really beautiful. I'll have to post pictures when I figure out how on Michael's laptop. I kinda feel bad for the people who are actually going to worship...all these gajin tourists gawking while they're trying to pray.
After shopping for a while, we took a short break at McD's. Yes, yes, I know - going halfway around the world to eat french fries at McD's is pretty silly. But we knew we could get drinks and sit around for a while without taking up a table at a restaurant. We decided we were ready to go home, so we went back. Stopped by a grocery store to get some bento boxes for dinner. I got fish and vegetable tempura. Mmmm...tempura. Not as good as the grilled meat dinner we had the night before, but pretty tasty. Ann was more adventurous and got a box that had a bunch of things I couldn't even recognize. She liked most of it, though. Michael had to get some sushi and make us all try it. Hey, I'll try anything twice.
Tomorrow Michael has to go in to work, so we'll be on our own. We're planning on going to the Tokyo Tower and a large Oriental Bazaar. We really want to go to the bazaar, 'cause it's supposed to be THE place to get souvenirs, but it's closed on Thursdays. Wednesday we're going on our tour of Mt. Fuji, Friday we're heading for Kyoto and won't be back until Saturday night. We head home on Sunday. Hopefully we won't get lost!
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May 29th, 2006
08:05 am - Japan - Day 3 -
We went to the Oriental Bazaar today. Large, four story store selling all sorts of stuff - kimonos, scarves, boxes, purses, tea and saki sets, chopsticks, swords, art, even furniture and wooden screens. I bought a bunch of stuff that will make good general souvenirs, but not many things that I've got earmarked for specific people.
We were approached by a couple of school girls in their fuku, maybe 12 or so?, who asked if we spoke English, and if we'd talk to them. They were doing an assignment for their English class, and asked us how long we'd been in Japan, what we thought of it, and what our favorite food was. They were so cute! :P We filled out their assignment forms and they thanked us. It was only five minutes, but it was really neat, and something I'll remember.
Well, shopping wore us out, so we decided to call it a day. We came home and got showers, and I fell asleep on Michael's bed. Woke for dinner, then went back to sleep shortly after. This heat and humidity is killing me. Thank god Michael has AC.
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May 28th, 2006
01:24 pm - Japan - Day 1 -
Well, here we are in Japan. The trip was looooong. Took off about 3 p.m. CST for a 12 hour flight. Very warm on the plane, so I was sweltering most of the time. Met Michael's friend Kelly for the first time. She's very funny. She has the same kind of humor we do, poor thing. ;) Ann's already insulted her about half a dozen times.
We arrived in Japan at about 5:00 p.m. local time - 3:00 a.m. CST. Took forever to get off the plane and through immigration and customs. We caught the 6:45 train from Niagra airport to Tokyo. I had no idea Tokyo's international airport was so far from Tokyo. It was a good hour and a half train ride. It was dark out already, and I slept on the train, so I didn't really see much of Japan. Michael met us at the station with his girlfriend, Katsuyo. Another train ride, a subway ride and a 10 minute walk (hauling our extremely heavy bags), and we got to Michael's place and we could finally collapse. It was about 9:00 p.m. local time - 7:00 a.m. CST. I was whiny (surprise, surprise), Ann was giggly, Kelly was just laughing at us. We were in bed by 10:30 or 11:00 p.m.
Slept until after 10:00 this morning. We're hanging around the apartment this morning. We were trying to decide if we wanted to go out, but even after almost 12 hours of sleep, we're not very motivated to go out. Michael said when Zach and Jake were here, the go, go, go pace that they set made them not want to do anything by the end of the trip. We're going to relax and go out to dinner tonight. Tomorrow we'll start our real touring. Wednesday we're going on a tour to Mt. Fuji. I'm looking forward to it.
More updates tomorrow!
--- Later ---
We went out to dinner with Michael and Katsuyo at a restaurant where you grill your own meat at your table. The place gave us what I thought at first were napkins, but turned out to be bibs/aprons. Heh. I guess they do that at a place where you cook your own food. Katsuyo chose a bunch of stuff for us to try. The salad was good, as were the two tofu appetizers, but there was this...thing, that I don't ever want to see again. :P It was rather gelatinous looking. Katsuyo described it as kind of like a potato - I wonder if it's a tuber - and it was relatively tasteless. But the texture was just...gross. Chewy and rubbery. Bleh. *shudder*
The meat came to our table raw, of course, with a bunch of vegetables. Two kinds of beef that we grilled, and a large pot of some sort of stew-like stuff. I'm pretty sure the meat was marinated in something, but I couldn't tell you what. It was very, very good, though. You could eat it wrapped up in large lettuce leaves, with some spiced onions that were very hot. That was pretty good, but I liked it just dipped in soy sauce best myself. The stew cooked on a burner which they brought over (the grills were set into the center of the table), and it was good too - rather sweet, but I like sweet sauces on meat. It was beef and mushrooms and ... noodles? Or were they sprouts of some sort? Anyway, it was very tasty. We had a good time, and Katsuyo is very nice. It was awesome having a native speaker with us, too. She's going to try to join us out on Thursday, she said. :)
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May 5th, 2006
02:53 pm - Reality Manga!
I've been looking forward to Worth 1000's next Reality Manga competition since I started competing, and it's here! :) I spent a lot of time over the last two days on my Reese Witherspoon entry - I had so much trouble with her left eye...it just didn't look very good enlarged, 'cause her head's turned slightly and it's partially covered with hair in the original picture, and copying and flipping her right eye made her look cross eyed. I finally copied the right and had to move the irises on both eyes to have them looking in the same direction. I'm very pleased with how her hair turned out, too. I very carefully masked it out, so it would cover all the stray hairs and spikey ends, then added a gradient color from blue to purple. You can see my entry here. As I post this, it's at 12th out of 125 entries. The competition ends at 11:00 p.m. tonight.
In between I worked on two other pictures (another Reese and a Liv Tyler), but the pictures just didn't work well. You need a really clear, clean source picture to do a good, realistic job on it, at least without a ton of extra work, and I don't think they were good choices on my part. Since neither of them turned out, after I finally fixed the first Reese, I grabbed a nice, clean picture of Sandra Bullock (the same one I used to make a marble bust of her in Modern Ren, actually) and did a very quick anime job on her. I didn't have much time left before the deadline, but I'd worked out a lot of kinks in the process by doing the others. Despite spending under an hour on it, I think it turned out pretty well. Only colored a single lock of her hair red for variety (her hair's such a mess in the pic it would have taken forever to mask it all) and colored her eyes green. It's currently 23rd. Not too bad. It's already got a score over my "Patriot" Hair Donts entry. You can view that entry here. My first comment on it? "Green eyes? Untidy black hair? OMIGOSH it's Harry Potter. Sorry, couldn't resist.. :-D" Ha!
Can't wait to see how the competition turns out. :)
Current Mood: accomplished
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May 2nd, 2006
01:59 pm - A trophy, a trophy!!
OK, I'm rather pathetically pleased with myself. I finally got a trophy on Worth1000. My Seven Deadly Sins entry, Greed, won the bronze trophy. It was actually fourth in the contest, but the third place entry wasn't paid for, so it wasn't eligible for a prize. (It costs 10 Worth credits, $1, to enter the contest for prizes. The winner gets a graphic trophy and 100 credits.) To see my shiny new trophy on my mantle, go to my account on Worth - TeaseMe.
*does a happy dance*
A trophy!
Current Mood: accomplished
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January 21st, 2006
09:50 pm - Firefly Personality Quiz
Heh.
Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)| Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) |
| 75% | | Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) |
| 65% | | Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) |
| 60% | | Inara Serra (Companion) |
| 50% | | Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) |
| 45% | | Wash (Ship Pilot) |
| 40% | | Derrial Book (Shepherd) |
| 35% | | River (Stowaway) |
| 35% | | Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) |
| 20% | | A Reaver (Cannibal) |
| 20% | | Alliance |
| 15% |
| You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.
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Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz
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August 28th, 2005
04:23 pm - It's not easy being green...
I'd rather have been a darker green, but this one is nice. ;)
you are seagreen
#2E8B57 |
Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days.
Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen.
Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.
| | the spacefem.com html color quiz |
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