Life's short and boring...

Work was tiring today too, so I think I'm going to go straight to sleep after this.

Yeah... I've been ordering a lot of stuff lately.
Only a few days ago, I received my new AAA cds and the Naoya cards that won't seem to leave me alone... The day before that I got a KH: Birth by Sleep Keyblade necklace in the mail. And you know what? I'm expecting another package next month filled with AAA concert merch and goodies. In two weeks I'm expecting a package from Korea, I ordered another Zoid, the one I've always wanted (my dream Zoid), the Soul Tiger. I've also got one more package from an anime shop, which includes a "Soul Eater" plushie and a wallet with the characters on it.

Ha ha... I actually got a package today too!
My Chibi Gundams came in today!!!

I can't wait to build them tomorrow morning before I go to work!
And of course I'll put up pictures.

Good night!

I'm currently working on the next comic for Attack All Attackers.

OHHHH!
This morning, I finally got my new AAA cds in the mail. As for the collectible cards. I GOT NAOYA AGAIN?! I swear, I keep getting Chiaki and Naoya cards, it's driving me insane. I have all of the cards(from different singles), but the ONLY card I don't have is Shinjiro's card. I have all of them except his!!! What luck! I just keep getting piles of Chiaki and Naoya cards with every new cd I buy. It's like there's a surplus of Naoya cards or something.

I didn't have class today. I still had to go, but all I had to do was print out my test results in the computer lab. I then ran into one of my friends in the cafeteria, since I had nowhere to chill after finishing. She had to leave, so I hung out with her friends who were staying late. One them draws mini comics like me. I was working on something for the web-comic and he saw me drawing. He asked me about it. Actually, I didn't disclose any information about it. His work is pretty interesting. But his stuff is all about ninjas, assassins, and demonic powers! So violent. He draws things on a smaller scale with such fine detail. He's one of those "one-shot" artists. Meaning, he goes straight into inking without really planning ahead in pencil first. It's an amazing talent, but it's poor technique. His stuff is really good too. If only I had my sight back, I would be able to draw like that again.

That reminds me, I've been working on a lot of tributes.
There's Nishijima's tribute coming up next week....
Then... there's Shinjiro's special homage in early October!

Hahaha! I'm free.
Since I'm done with the one a day comics for now, I get to sit back and relax a little. I can take my time for the next upcoming one. Attack All Attackers is going to be so quiet the entire week without me.

This morning, I woke up a little early and I baked a pizza...
I dunno, I was in the mood for pizza?

I played on the computer for a bit and then went to go work on a Gundam model I had bought in Japan. After I only built the feet, I was dragged off to a Laosian temple. I don't speak Laosian, although most of our language was rooted from it. I had to pin money on the "money tree" for donation. It's a tradition to place money on fake trees to make it look like leaves.

The lady is putting more money on the tree. While on the right, that's just a close-up.

I got to work and worked.
There were a lot of customers today.
I just love it when customers write stuff of the receipts they give back.

This made me smile:

I KNOW I'M AWESOME!
It's from a few days ago, but I didn't have time to put it up.

But you know what isn't awesome?!
My strange fear of centipedes!!!!! No seriously, I hate centipedes!!! They coil and they crawl with all those freaky legs!!! I think I'm CURSED with bad luck today. In the middle of the day, after I got off the phone with a customer, I noticed something moving on the ground. I looked again..... and I saw a long thing with tons of legs... I started freaking out in front of all the customers. I'm not the kind to scream, screaming is rude and disruptive in a restaurant setting. Instead, I took a pen and used the blunt end to pin the centipede's hind legs so it couldn't go anywhere, I didn't want to kill it.

I had a combination of bursting into tears and laughing hysterically from being in shock and fear of being so close to the centipede, seeing as I'm still pinning it down with the pen. I started yelling for help from the employees. Instead... everyone ignored me and continued their own business. (you guys suck!) Then a nearby customer asked me what was wrong. I told him to go sit down because I need an employee (who is ignoring me) to help me. He then noticed the centipede I was pinning down. He then suggested that I lift the pen and he'll squash it. I immediately screamed, "NOOOOoooooooooo!!!" I told him I didn't want to kill it. So... he picked it up with his bare hand and tossed the centipede out the door... Problem solved... I wasn't expecting the customer to be that brave, did you know that most centipedes are poisonous?

The rest of my day...
I had some deliveries, the Olsons gave me a good amount for tip as they usually do. Today, Alex stopped by, the bartender from O'Briens(the bar next to us). He always orders something to take back to the bar. I always give him a big discount(cuz he sends his customers over to us every once and a while). Yay! Alex gave me a 3 dollar tip today! While I was talking to him, he told me that business has been pretty slow at the bar. But Tusk seemed to be packed and busy, unlike his place. I was thinking in my mind, "there will always be a higher demand for booze than Thai food." It was strange because that bar is always packed.

Now I'm in Chicago.
Bedtime!
I'll start working on the next Attack All Attackers comic soon.

I wanted to draw all day, you know I really do.
I got stuck going to the dentist this morning.
After being tortured by the Novocaine syringe and getting cavities filled, we went off into the suburbs...

I wanted to stop by Mitsuwa, just because I was super hungry!
Well... I like hanging around the bookstore. I went to the usual ramen place I liked as a child located in the food court. I got my usual shio-ramen and I got an additional side dish of "natto."

It was my first time eating natto... Seriously the texture and smell are super intimidating!!! I HAD NATTO FOR THE FIRST TIME! It's a real taste bud shocker, it is! It's hard to get pass the fermented stink and the slimy gooeyness, let alone the putrid bitterness. It's not bad, it doesn't hurt to try new things. What do Japanese people see in this. To me, I was only able to get it down by holding my breath. To be honest, it was gross. But believe it or not, I finished the whole bowl.

Hehehe... I so gotta e-mail Miki about my natto experience. She's been traumatized out of eating fermented soy based items because of natto.

After Mitsuwa was school.
After school, I went to a friend's restaurant to get some dinner for home. Then while I sat and ate, I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Yeah... I was watching for quite a bit. I was watching it and nearly forgot to finish up today's drawing.

But I still got the drawing up.

Miki got me a really nice Venus Fly Trap for my birthday and I really love it. It's beautiful yet freaky at the same time. It looks very prehistoric.There's something about carnivorous plants that make them really cool.
This is the one sitting in the kitchen.

I just think Venus Fly Traps are awesome! They hunt their own food and their complex jaw snapping system makes them even more amazing! It's as if they're alive.

I even drew a picture of me and my wonderful plant, because I love it so much!


Anyways, yesterday wasn't a very fun day at work. I was busy because I was on a lot of deliveries. There were a lot of dine-in customers too, but I had one crazy food delivery adventure I won't be forgetting about in a long while.

So okay, there's one house on a usual street which we deliver to once every other week or so. It's a really nice family. They stop by to eat too, but they mostly get take-out or delivery. They ordered food yesterday and I went on the delivery route. The house I was delivering to has a big guard dog. The dog is on an invisible fence. You know, the dog has a sensor collar that prevents it from crossing over a digital preset perimeter barrier. After I got out of the car, the dog in the yard sees me and starts growling and barking ferociously. I walk closer to the house and the dog paces back and forth at the border of the invisible barrier. When I was several yards away, the dog started to shake his head really fast. As the dog shook his head... the invis. fence collar slides off the dog's neck and plops onto the ground... My reaction was: "OH SNAP..." The dog began to growl and walk towards me... Then the dog began to chase me all over the yard. He was snapping his jaws at me and didn't want me to escape. I had to run all over the yard, hoping not to get attacked/mauled while still carrying the delivery food. I could not wear this dog down, it would not give up. The owners could probably hear me screaming, "NO, NO, NO, NICE DOGGY, GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  I made it to the doorstep. Eventually, the dog jumped on me when I rang the doorbell.

I delivered the food and told the owner that the dog was currently biting my pants and the collar had fallen off in the driveway. How strange that the dog's collar fell off when I was there.

My back and arms are hurting a bit, I'll figure out what else to write tomorrow.

I woke up to the sound of food today....
Is it strange that while nothing else appears to wake me up, the smell or sound of food makes me wake up immediately? I heard the sound of Miki rustling through a box of crackers this morning. That's what woke me up.

This morning, I heard my dad talking about driving (golf related), so I asked if I could go practice too. I'm quite rusty and out of practice. I haven't practiced ever since I got out of that golf academy my dad forced me to go to. That was 10 years ago! When he said he was going to practice, it reminded me of the 10 years I wasted leaving my golf clubs to collect dust. I went out to the garage and dug through all the junk until I found my clubs. I hopped into the car and we went off to the driving range in Skokie. On my first swing I tried using a 3driver, my asked, "why so big, don't you want to start smaller?" I told my dad that I've always used the irons and wedges, but never the driver. My first swing was excellent! But the swings that followed after were beyond horrible. I kept throwing my balance off, I missed the ball a few times, I smacked the wall, I hit the ball into the ceiling, or I hit the ball but it only goes 1 yard. I'm really bad now. I keep moving out of alignment, resulting in mishitting the ball. Plus, I can't even hit more than 100 yards like how I did back then. I was once able to hit the ball 150 yards with a 9iron. I can't even hit up to 100!!!! I'm getting worse!!!! All my power is gone, my technique is worse. There was this old Korean man who kept staring at me and would occasionally laugh at me. I'm so bad at this now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After I got back, I went to the DMV to renew my permit. I got a full score on the written test... as usual. I got it done pretty quickly. I got home soon afterwards. I then went off to school right away. Today I had psychology class, it sucked! I was the only person who showed up without a textbook. I got to class and everyone had a textbook in front of them. Everyone read ahead too, I didn't have a book. When the professor asked questions, I was unprepared, I've never felt dumber.

After class, my uncle picked me up and bought me a birthday cake. My party in tomorrow, Friday. We'll see how it goes.

Miki quote of the day:
"Ghost poop..."

Running back and forth between Chicago and Batavia this week.
I got dragged back to Chicago yesterdays, just to be abandoned.

I actually don't have time to write. The house is empty because everyone went to Oregon for a wedding. I need to take care of the house and restaurant this week.

Miki came up with this interesting idea of adding "Miki quotes" into my journal entries. A new one each day, because the things she says are just epic! Or sometimes they don't make sense...

Miki quote of the day:
"I hear silence..."

I woke up late today after having a horrible nightmare of my doll being possessed by an evil spirit and massacring all of Miki's dolls. The plastic carnage, you have no idea, I was really freaked out. I would be really scared if my doll ever came to life. I just hope that nightmare does not reoccur.

I woke up and went to the Argyle Asian Town District with Miki. We did some grocery shopping. On the way home, I picked up an ever so lethal "durian."

Familiar with it? Besides the intimidating spikes... It's the most foul smelling fruit in the world. A nose burning combination of rotten fish and moldy socks. Many have tried to overcome the smell and failed. It's something that isn't for everyone. The most infamous fruit of Asia... the durian. If you can get pass the stink, the fruit's flesh has a rich custard-like taste. "Andrew Zimmermn," a traveling food critic/bizarre food eater, described the taste of durian as a mushy rotten onion, then he spat it out quickly. Out of the countless crazy things he's eaten, durian was the only thing that beat him. In our home village, the durian is a real treat because we can't buy it that often.

At lunch, we ate at a Swedish restaurant near home. I ate a Reuben, that didn't seem so Swedish... But I just love corned beef and sauerkraut. Many of my friends have wondered why I have a sense for Polish food.

We then moved the flat screen TV into Miki's room. I've been meaning to move it for a long while but I kept forgetting. So it's always remained in our parents' room. I hooked up the PS3 and we watched a few things. After all of that, We started working on a Taiwanese dumpling soup. It was very good. The dumplings were meatballs wrapped in rice dough. I seasoned and skimmed the stocked while it simmered. I did a lot of chopping too, since finely chopping food is something I'm good at. Who needs a food processor when they got me?

I helped with the soup, then I took a short break. During my break, my uncle came to bother me. He wanted me to revise a brochure for a temple. I read through it... Not to sound mean, but the grammar and syntax was off. It said something like. "What is Meditation benefit for me? What is Meditation benefit for social?" My uncle said, "come on, it's like charity, help me out." I quickly pulled up Microsoft Word and started rewriting some contents of the brochure. I printed it and gave the revision to my uncle who rushed over to whichever temple he got it from and they made new prints.

I ate the soup... it was good.
My mom also returned home, that's why I'm taking refuge in Miki's room.

And....
IT'S BACK!!!
The "Shuji hair" is back!!!

My hair has gotten long enough to poke my eyes again. So... the Shuji is back. And yes... we were playing Tekken. Miki likes to use Jin, I remembered, in Tekken Tag, which was really old, Miki knew the combo for Jin's ultimate move. It was so cheap, it completely took out the opponent's life bar. The fight wouldn't last for two seconds. The one we're playing in the picture is Tekken 6.

I did build part of a Zoid today. It was like a master grade version for Zoids because it had hundreds of parts. Today I only built the head. That portion alone had 32 pieces to it (an average Zoid head contains no more than 10 pieces). The "Great Saber" is a really detailed model, totally NOT something to laugh at.

I woke up late again.
I needed to do some shopping before work today. I finally bought the paint for the Murasame Liger kit. Everything at the craft store was on sale, I'm so lucky. I didn't get my phone checked out yet, I'll do it tomorrow. We went to go buy some burgers for lunch.

This is a lobster burger. Mmmmmm... it was so good. This one has lobster, strange lettuce, Swiss cheese, butter, asparagus, tomatoes, and black angus beef. I bought one for Miki too and a Kobe burger for the road. The Kobe burger was interesting. It had sauteed mushrooms/onions, Gorgonzola, prosciutto, and Kobe beef (total lie, you can't turn Kobe beef into a burger patty, it's just wrong).

When I got to the restaurant, it wasn't too busy at all. The three of them looked like they can handle it, so I just went back to Lake in the Hills.

I spent the rest of the day watching more Zoids Genesis. I then did some online browsing. I really want a "Soul Tiger" now. I really want Seijuurou's Zoid. I want the Soul Tiger now, it looks so cool.

I wonder what kind of motor it runs on?
This model runs in the $45 range. I want it. I think I'm going to buy the Soul Tiger online soon. Seijuurou is just a really cool pilot too. A very cool ninja pilot?

I wanted to write last night, but ended up not writing.
Basically, I purposely lock my posting entries at around 11:30pm, leave it blank, and I go off to do something else. So in reality, I don't start writing until 3:00 - 4:00am.

Last night I lock the entry around the usual time, then I watched many episodes of "Big Bang Theory." I watched up until 3:30am, I was way too tired to write, which is why I left that very random message in the previous entry.

So anyways, my summer is ending soon, I need to get back to life. But for now, I'm trying to enjoy my time off for as much as I can. There hasn't been much for me to do lately. All I do is sleep in, eat, build the Zoids I got from Japan, eat, watch anime, and sit around the house. I'm loving the Zoids I got from Japan. I obtained some super rare ones. I really am a hardcore Zoid collector. Just yesterday I finished building Liger Zero's custom "Schneider" CAS unit. It's a rare armor upgrade exclusive to Japan. Liger Zero has 4 upgrades (now I own all four), Schneider, Jager, Panzer, and Phoenix. Phoenix was the odd one out, because it was the only upgrade for LZ that was in the form of "Blox." Which are cubic pieces that must be assembled using plastic pegs... so tedious. Normally, most Zoid kits are click and fit, Blox fall apart easily due from instability.

Besides immersing myself in the wonderful toys from Japan, I've been watching animes to pass the time. I just finished "Kuroshitsuji," oh wow was that anime dark, well... it's not as morbid and messed up as "Hell Girl." I haven't seen it, but I heard it's gruesome. Of course I watched some Zoid animes too. The first Zoid anime I ever saw was "ZOIDS: New Century Zero" back in 1999. It takes place after "Chaotic Century," Zoids are used for sport and competition in "New Century." In "Chaotic Century" Zoids were used as weapons of war. Right now I'm watching "ZOIDS: Genesis," which takes place 1000 years after "New Century" and Zoids are used as war machines once again. I'm hooked on the opening song now, I think it's catchy.
It's "Yotaka no Yume," by Do As Infinity.

Tomorrow's a Friday, busy day... always a busy day at work on Friday. Can we fire the other waitress since I've returned from Japan and we will no longer be needing her services? I want to watch more anime, I hope the lunch rush is dead tomorrow.