It is unfortunate that my internet service has been forcefully terminated since last week (a common occurrence in this house). I won't get any internet usage until my new service provider sets it up for me next week. Everyone is probably wondering how it is possible for me to post this, well I am using temporary internet access elsewhere from my laptop. I've been hanging out in multiple Starbucks(I don't even drink coffee) and McDonalds.

For the most part... WHY IS FREE WI-FI SO UBER SLOW?!?!?! Many users on one line causes speed issues. I don't like public places with horrible internet. And then I have internet at work, we have a private network to keep moochers and freeloaders away, yay!!! I am using my aunt's internet connection right now at her house.

I won't be online all the time until next week.
But until then... I restarted my Persona 3 game (in my first playthrough, I got to the last month in the game where you prepare to fight the final boss). In my first play, I played as the male character(MC) Minato (my current icon). I started a new game file playing as the female character (or FemC). With my new game I can date Akihiko and Shinjiro. I can now prevent Shinjiro from dying, I cried in my first game when he died protecting Ken(10yr old kid). It was so sad when they revealed that Shinji had accidentally killed Ken's mother and Shinji died happy knowing that he was at least able to protect Ken till the end. I think Persona 3 is one of the darkest games I have ever played. Most of your main characters die a horrible death. Poor Minato, sacrificing his soul and body to prevent the apocalypse caused by mankind's self-destructiveness. There's an evil Jesus in the game too.

Knowing me, I'm going to spend over 100 hours playing my game... training my characters... *Akihiko pops up* "who said training?!" tch Akihiko= training obsessed protein junkie.

See you next week I guess.

I am the origin of catastrophic incidents!!!
It began four days ago...

Four days ago, because of our house repainting... no furniture in the rooms. I had gotten a new bunkbed (its only the beginning) and I assembled it all on my own. However, during the building process, I dropped the 50 pound bed frame RIGHT ON MY FOOT!!! Therefore, stubbing my toes and bruising my foot.

Three days ago, we were planning to go to Ikea, the Swedish home store. We own a mini-van. As everyone knows, you can pull the seats out to transport large objects. As my dad and I were lifting the seats out through the trunk of the mini-van, I exerted too much additional power from my right arm... thus I ended up pulling some muscles in my right shoulder-blade and arm. Now I can't move my arm, it hurts too much!!!

Two days ago, Miki and I were watching "Grease." We were watching on my bunkbed. My new bed has a full bottom bunk and a twin top bunk, more room for me. Anyways, my new mattress is really springy. I plopped myself down to sit and I ended up bouncing backwards really fast where my head collided with the top bunk railing. I smacked the rail really hard, I felt the sharp pain upon impact and my head rattled a bit. Then it numbed out so I thought it was okay... From then on afterwards, I've been having horrible headaches. It was suggested by my aunt that I should get checked out. You know, to make sure I don't have brain damage.

Yesterday... I was carrying a large stack of bookshelf pieces with my dad into the house. I wasn't looking where I was going... and I... I broke my dad's favorite... priceless wine bottle that he had been saving for over 30 years. Well my thoughts on it are that it should not have been on the kitchen floor where my clumsy feet can kick it. It was supposed to have been in my parents room since that's where they keep it. I was an interesting wine bottle, it was 3 feet tall, the base of the bottle was shaped like a giant snail shell, and the neck of the bottle was the snail's body. I feel really bad for breaking it. It really hurt me when I saw dad's reaction. I could hear him muttering, "30 years... 30 years... 30 years... gone... all over the floor... 30 years... and I didn't get to taste it..." There were many sighs and head shaking from my dad. I feel really bad for breaking the bottle. He loved that bottle so much.

Also, since my muscles still haven't healed from the car seat incident, I now hurt even more from carrying the bookshelf.

I thought I would be writing more since I'm still on break, I guess not.
I still haven't even updated AAAttackers, I'm still working on the stuff for it.

I've been working like crazy ever since getting back from Taiwan. In and out of work constantly. When I'm not at work, I'm cleaning out my room because our mom had the sudden urge to repaint the entire house. I had to move all of my belongings into the basement. The only things that haven't been taken out is my furniture,(tables, bed, etc..) and my extensive manga collection (good luck with that). All my cds were put into a crate. *pout* When we were picking colors... at first I wanted a vibrant yellowy-green, but my mom screamed no. I was thinking about orange because I like that color, but then I realized it would be too traumatizing since it would make me think of work (my workplace, the restaurant walls are painted bright orange). I just went with a super pale forest-green color. Miki still hasn't decided yet on her color.

I had been working on a Reborn! jigsaw puzzle I bought from Taiwan. It only took me a little over an hour without cheating (I did not look at the completed picture while working on it) to complete it, seeing as it was only 300 pieces. I was surprised that I only bought the jigsaw for $7 at the animate store in Taiwan. It's official Reborn! merch too. Before going on my trip, I saw another puzzle online and it was like nearly $100 and it was a 1000 piece set. I really wanted that particular one, but of course I never found it, however when I walked into that Taiwanese anime store I assumed the puzzles were expensive and they aren't. Anyways I spent a lot of time framing it. Actually, you know what happened? After I completed the puzzle the first time... I took it apart and put it away. A few days later I finally went out  to buy a frame. I had to put it together again when I was framing it. I put it together and glued it to a posterboard, then I framed it. I will put up a picture when I have time to snap a photo of it.

When I do get breaks, I watch random movies or shows with Miki. I got to see "The Proposal," it was funny and reminded me of a Chinese movie called "Contract Lover." Just yesterday we ended up watching "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." I haven't seen that musical movie since Catholic school. I only remembered bits and pieces. It was so cheesy and I laughed through their choices of music genres. But it was still a good musical. Elvis Pharaoh...

I started working on a miniature building model. It's really cool. I bought it from Taiwan and it's a model kit of a Japanese bakery. I finished gluing the main structure of the building, but I still have much more to do.

That's pretty much it, I work all week and I build when I rest.

*grumble*
That flight was too friggin long! Taipei to Tokyo to San Francisco to Chicago.

We had an hour and a half to chill in Tokyo, which wasn't that bad... and I picked myself up a new wind chime. However, It was San Fran that really killed us. We had to wait 7 hours for our next flight! There were so many earlier flights available, but no... our travel agent had to book the latest flight. It was so boring and long. My flight anxiety was making me nauseous and dizzy (only occurs after I get off a plane for some odd reason).

All we did was eat at the food court... Californians are crazy about healthy food selections. After we ate, we went to our gate to wait another 6 hours for our flight. You know how the chairs have multiple seats? Both me and Miki sprawled ourselves across the seats and slept like that for the next 6 hours. It was really funny because people that would walk nearby would just see my feet dangling over the armrest on one side and see Miki's feet way over on the opposite side. Fortunately the chilly a/c woke me up just in time to hear an announcement about our Chicago flight that will start boarding in 6 minutes.

We got on the flight... 5 hours later, we were at O'Hare Airport in Chicago.
We arrived here at midnight and no one wanted to pick us up because it was so late. Our parents still picked us up though. We left for Taiwan with 4 bags, we came back with 6 bags. Bag in a bag method, it helps you bring back so many souvenirs.

I'm more than happy to be on the ground... and to be home.
Pikus was craving attention right when I walked through the door.

Not much happened today...
All I did today was assemble the toys I bought from Taiwan (no different than what I did after I got back from Japan).

Aww... I'm down to my last week in Taiwan. It didn't really feel like a vacation because I'm here for a month. It felt more like temporary living. We hit up tons of awesome food places, did a LOT of walking, and we constantly got lost.

Yesterday, we went up Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan, no joke... They have absolutely no tall buildings here... except Taipei 101. Soooo... you can literally see Taipei 101 from EVERY angle, no matter where in Taipei you are. For example...... in our area, the "tallest" building is our apartment... which is 14 floors. Since other buildings don't seem to exceed 15 stories, Taipei 101 is always super visible.

Today, we went to a famous restaurant that is hidden behind a brewery... Really creepy place. The brewery is owned by the government. So, this restaurant sits behind gated government walls... and is well hidden behind a crate stockyard. Yeah... it looks like one of those places where mafia dealings go down... open warehouses... crates of bottles stacked high... lots of delivery trucks parked around... dimly lit. After you walk past the crates of beer bottles, warehouses, and trucks, there's a beacon of light... a string of blue x-mas lights arranged to spell out three simple numbers... "346." The name (which is also the address) of the restaurant is "346." People go there to enjoy the food and the entertainment, as well as the beer. You can get a mug or a few... you can even have an entire keg brought to your table. Today, we had deep fried pig intestines, fried chicken kiel bone, bacon veggie stir fry, and blackbean fried chicken. I don't need to tell you this, but of course I did NOT drink, everyone knows I detest the smell and taste of beer. We were allowed to get coke instead of beer, yay!

We got lost again on the way back, we didn't know where the bus stop was... typical. So we ended up walking all the way back to the apartment.

I haven't shown anyone my updated shopping stash.
I went Gundam crazy here!!!

I don't have much to write about yesterday.
Besides waking up at 4am from jetlag and getting lost around the SOGO shopping district, nothing interesting happened.

Well... we did go to "Breeze Center" which is a large western-style mall. It was because when we were making our usual round of buying water at the 7eleven near our apartment, I saw a girl carrying a bag  with the "Tokyu Hands" logo on it. Which Tokyu Hands is the best store in Japan EVER!!! Except the logo didn't say Tokyu Hands it said "Hands Tailung." I yelped and told Miki that we must find the Tokyu Hands look-alike. I fortunately found the Tapei locations on google. We got there just fine, but we got super lost on the way back. It was because we decided to hit up a nearby night market. We wandered inside on of the SOGO buildings, exited, then we forgot which direction we should go to get back to our apartment.

We figured it out eventually. But we were really tired from wandering aimlessly.

So today, we woke up really early to go to the weekend flower and jade market a block away. It's the largest outdoor market for both objects. There were so many amazing flowers and plants in the flower market. I really wanted to take a mini bonsai home or even a baby cactus in a pot the size of a tealight candle. They had a lot of pretty orchids too. The jade market which was just across the street from the flower market was amazing. There were so many varieties of jade. There were many rings, pendants, carvings, and sculptures. I wanted a jade ring, but I'll probably buy it next week if I still have a lot of money left. I want more models to build!

We attempt to go see the Dragon Boat Festival today... We took the right bus and everything. We count the distance by stops, since we can't read Chinese. It was 9 stops and we needed to get off so we could hop on a different bus to take us to the river... I think we got off at the wrong stop because the bus we needed to change to wasn't listed at the terminal. We were in an unfamiliar place in the city. Feeling so lost and hopeless, we decided to try the festival tomorrow. Next big issue "HOW THE HECK ARE WE GETTING BACK?!" We figured it out from reading the destination list for the bus routes (thankfully that part was in English).

On the way back, we got off the bus halfway because there was a cool farmer's market on the side of the road. I bought some delicious syrup glazed olives. They are super sweet and delicious. We got some wild boar sausage, YUMMY! We also got some grilled meatballs.... reminds me of Thailand. We also wandered into the electronics market, man it looked a lot like the electronic market in Akiba. Then we finally got on the right bus that dropped us off in front of our apartment.

We ate all the stuff we had bought outside for our dinner.
This sounds sad and makes me feel very awkward, we had to eat our durian in the bathroom bathtub. Durian... the nastiest smelliest fruit in the world which we would've gotten complaints from our neighbors it they had known we snuck it into the apartment. We had to eat the durian in the bathtub because it is the ONLY isolated room with a big window for ventilation. And my friends ask me, "what did you do in Taiwan?" my response, "oh... I ate durian in the bathtub..."

*groan*
I'm so tired from walking so much.
It's more tiring to wander around lost then to know where you're going.

Status update on my trip...
I rode on three planes!!!! I thought I was going to die!!!!!!!

I was in Japan 5 hours ago!
Now I've arrived safely in Taiwan! It's like 10:20 pm right now. I'm settled in my new apartment. I'm off to explore the wonders of the night market.

I'll update soon!

Only 22 days left until ACen...
Ohh I can't wait!!!

I finally got my "Hatsune Miku" Pullip I've pre-ordered since last year. I went all photoshoot crazy on it because I was so excited about my limited edition Vocaloid Pullip.

Notice the icon...
I've become a huge Spanner fan...
Technicians are so hot....

*ahem* I'm still slowly recovering from classwork. Believe it or not, I stayed up Sunday night and lost a days worth of sleep working on my workbook assignment on the "Roman Empire" for my Humanities class. There were so many questions! Roman history is so screwed up in terms of government. Being firm believers in Democracy, they killed, replaced, killed again, replaced, killed yet again, then replaced pretty much every king and emperor they ever had for several decades. The only good one they every had was Augustus Caesar and he was a smart one. I lost all interest in my prof's lectures since he puts 3/4 of my classmates to sleep which is really sad.

I've been working on updating the AAAttackers site, it's going to be so awesome now that I've refined my skills. I finished all of it, I'm putting it up today. I changed the character pictures and the layout, it's going to be good.

Oh yeah, I went to a sauna with my family last week (we got a discount). It was lots of fun! The place gives you funny looking pajamas to change into, then you can just walk into any steam room you want. They've got the weirdest rooms... the first is the experimental room, which is to adjust your body to the dry heat for the other rooms. The other... this is just wacky, this room's walls are lined in one million dollars worth of amethyst, a steam room filled with raw amethyst. Then there's a salt room were the walls are lined with mineral rock salt. Then another room with walls made of charcoal (hello carbon-monoxide poisoning!). Then... I kid you not, a room lined with real gold bricks on the walls and ceiling. The next room is made from yellow clay. AND... *drum roll* The hottest room in the facility... the FIREROOM... designed like an igloo oven, low doorway included, maximum temp is 200F... a household oven's minimum is 300F... Right when you walk into the fireroom, you see a circle of old men seated indian-style and clutching their feet while they're in extreme meditation. Once you sit down in there... you'll understand why. Not too long after walking in with my dad and taking a seat on the floor, I too clutched my feet, shut my eyes tight, tried to take my mind of the heat, and control my breathing. It felt like my face was melting off. As for the difficult stuffy air, it felt like someone was shoving lit charcoals up my nostrils. Humans aren't meant to be exposed to that high of a temperature. It was still fun and I felt so refreshed after leaving.

I got lots to work on regarding my web-comic site.

Yesterday I took my cousin Nutt on a small tour of my old high school, yeah alumni class of '07! She wants to study abroad here in Chicago. I will sponsor her as her host family as she attends Taft High School. So she needs to get her paperwork over here in August because enrollment is around that time and she needs to take a English proficiency test. Then she will join the other members of my weird family that have become international students. But the main issue that needs to be taken care of is the student visa that they need to request from Thailand. High schools don't give out student visas for their abroad program.

Anyways, my cd problems... I forgot to write about this when it happened, but when I received my Paradise / Endless Fighters single, I got Naoya cards again?! I propose that there may be a possible surplus of Naoya cards in the batch of cds that yesasia sells. Yes, my bad luck in Naoya cards.

Another thing, I was actually going to ask everyone what the deal was with the new AAA single plus album that was going to released next month. I had known about it for a while as "title to be determined," but then I had some clarity after finally looking at the fan comm (which I haven't looked at in months). I now know the names of both cds, however, I was dying of curiosity over the first press / limited edition of "Buzz Communication." What makes it different from the regular version? It's like $86, why is it so pricey?! Then I found out from another source that it's because the first press comes with an extra dvd that has 90 minutes of bonus footage. If it's just one extra item, that still doesn't justify the price, give me more Avex! I need more details on that.

Now my main conflict was contemplating whether to buy it or not. I'm a total sucker for super limited editions (I think a lot of people are). I want to buy it because I'm an avid music collector and I really want it. But it costs so much! I compiled all the cds I wanted for this week in my cart and it comes out to $150!!!! I'm about to spend $150 in AAA cds in one go!!! My buying record for cds in one purchase is $180 for Dir en Grey cds, this is pretty close. I usually buy both A and B versions of their singles (I get them for the dvds), that's why I always blow a lot of money on them. I'm about to spend my salary, no, five weeks of my savings on cds!

I was originally saving my money to buy a guitar... Being inspired by Beck and K-ON, I've always wanted an electric guitar. I found a good deal on an ESP (electric sound products), which is a famous guitar brand in Japan. It's Japan's equivalent to what Gibson is to the US. The model I wanted is in the thousands range, but I found a really good deal for $250. It's a modded version so it's not see-through and the fingerboard is a little different. It's based off the guitar that Daisuke Ando uses. Saying the word "similar" would be an overstatement, it's like comparing a super-model with a body-builder. The guitar I want just looks nice and is okay for playing as to Daisuke's guitar is designed for quality sound and power.