Everyone knows I have hundreds of profiles on almost every social network there is on the net.
But I opened my inbox today and received a kind of message that I haven't gotten in (literally) years.
Used to get about 10 of these a day, but I guess I'm just being more selective about who I add. (＝⌒▽⌒＝) Anyways, since I don't know this person well yet, I wont post their name, photo, and I'll censor out the name of the site this came from, but here's what it said:
"So, I'm gona be honest, I really only use ------- for the quiz function. So addicting.. perfect for narcissistic little poofs like me.
That is to say, I never message anyone or bother trying to meet anyone I come across on it.
But you, you seem different somehow.. Can't put my finger on it.
I was drawn in by your picture at first, beautiful, but I'm sure you're very aware of that.
But beauty is common, dime a dozen really.
Your profile threw me completely off wack though, I'll admit.
Mostly because it was completely the exact opposite of what I was guessing judging by your look.
I was expecting a dark, sadistic, devils advocate, blow rails of meth in a shady shinjuku alley type chick that 'just don giva FUCK'
BUT NOOO
You're this bright bouncy hyper spastic corny little dork ;)
which is just fine by me, absofrigginlutely adorable
And now I stand intrigued for some reason, and I want to know more.
You're profile said, message me if you just want to chat.
So that's exactly what I'm doing :)
Talk to you soon! "
...................................
..................................
Dark - once upon a time, and every now and again
Devils Advocate - You called?
Meth user in a shady Shinjuku alley - Never been, never will be
Dont give a fudge - Depends
Bright - From what I hear....
Bouncy - None other! (^____^)y
Hyper - Thats my word
Spazzy - Knows me to a T
Corny - Yep
Little Dork - Hey watch it! We chibis are tougher than we look!
Absofrigginlutely Adorable - once upon a time in a far away land
Now those of you who know of my message history with people will know where this is going, so I'll leave it to you guys to enjoy, and the others to be baffled. xD
I came to Japan as a typical American = overweight, odd fashion sense, no sense of status (sorry guys, but its true), and voila! What happened after living here for about a half year now??
First I'll start off with a little history:
-Junior High: Pants size was around 11-12
-High School: Shot up to 14, slowly came back down to around 12
-First year of College: Dropped to around 10-11
-Living in Japan: 7-8
.........
Well what the flopping fudgebunnies...... it's a miracle.
How do I know??
Went shopping today with Kumiko-chan (and her cute pomerinian puppy, im surprised you're allowed to walk them in malls......) and there was a shop called American Import Oshare. Went in to try on some American fashions (the majority of which, to my own surprise, didn't favor at all) but I figured, "Hey, I'm here, I might as well get some pants guaranteed in my size."
But then I remembered, "Wait..... I've dropped 10 kilos (20lbs) since moving here..... maybe I should try them on." and lo-and-behold! Dropped around 3 American sizes! ＼(゜□゜)／
I was truly shocked!
I know my Japanese pant size but..... I had never bothered to convert it......
Quite a shocking discovery really.
Kumiko and I shared a dressing room and she pointed out that I had paled considerably when I noticed the pant-waist being a couple inches too wide.
It's amazing what the Japanese diet can do to a person. (ﾉﾟοﾟ)ﾉ
Anyways, since I'm talking about little dilly-dallies of life right now, looks like I'm gonna be cleaning the apartment for the next 3 days just to make sure I pass the fire, pest, draining, and fire alarm safety inspection on the 19th.
Also I've been hooked to watching Discovery Channel's Storm-Chasers, and an infamous news webcast The Young Turks (running strong since 2002 and linked to msnbc).
Oh yes, and a fast, jumping spider was on one of my plants that I brought in and has been running around since last night. I named it 'Cleverous Maximus' (wtf right?) because I've been trying to catch it and it keeps getting away.
It's somewhere under my bed right now......
One of the last places I want it to be at the moment......
Anyway.
I didn't do any excercising today because when I got home I couldn't breathe very well. I figured it was from the heat. I was inhaling normally and sometimes dramatically because I wasn't getting enough oxygen (at least, thats what it felt like. I'm not quite sure....) and it felt similar to when I couldn't breathe during the Akihabara incident, so I figured I'd just lay down and relax and pump myself up tomorrow incase this is all from heat exhaustion.
Even though it's late, and I'm tired, I'm still having trouble breathing and the air conditioner has the whole place at exactly 16 degrees celsius. My legs and feet are feeling the cold but my chest still feels constricted. After I finish this blog post I'm going to look at the altitude of Tokyo on Google to see if that plus the heat and humidity is affecting my breathing, then drink some warm milk in a cool bath while reading a new book I picked up.
I already finished the book, and it drove me through every possible emotion: happiness, laughter, bitterness, sadness to tears, drama, suspense, fear, lovie-dovie, exhausted, insane, frustrated, estatic, the works people.
Well, I'm gonna stop here and get on with what little plans I have left for the night.
A photographer I had met in Shinjuku about a month back had emailed me with a very interesting offer. A female friend of his who is working through an internship as a makeup artist/photographer is interested in doing a collaboration with me for my MiNEstone Designs website, as well as for my own portfolio, just as long as she can keep copies of the original shots for her class assignment.
Sounds intriguing. o(・ω・)o
She'd be handling the make-over and set design, but I really dont think I'd mind too much, considering she does hime-kei and gyaru makeup (see photo).
Btw this page is a scan from the magazine she interns at. (*^ . ^*)
Though there's a huge difference between Gyaru and Hime-kei.
This is a broader contrast:
These are Hime-kei girls
These are gyarus (a sub-style of ganguro)
And this is the infamous ganguro
Hmm... I think I'll stick to normal (or visual-kei) hairstyles with the hime-kei makeup please. (^_^;)
But we'll see.
I sent my photographer friend a reply and he'll forward it to this intern who wants to do the collaboration.
Speaking of crazy fashions.
I've always been into Visual-kei (as everyone knows), but lately, not only have I been picking up J-Rock magazines, but pop-fashion magazines (like the one this intern works for).
This one is my fav
It has a lot of cute stuff in it
But of course, I still cant resist the allure of a VK boy band on a rock magazine either.
You know how they say the difference between genius and insane is a fine line?
Well today assisted in clarifying that phrase.
In a good way of course.
Today was the longest recording session of my new life in Tokyo. 7am sharp until about an hour ago (6:40pm). I was working with a six-piece rock band and an actual quartet they had insisted on bringing in for the string arrangements of their song.
Among these 10 musicians was Tsuyoshi-kun, someone I hadn't met before since I had only worked with their vocalist prior, who as it turns out is the mastermind behind their lovely songs.
So what does this have to do with the insanity and genius thing?
Yeah, he's a hyper-nut like me and all
But.
He has a disease that causes his responses and reactions to be delayed by about 6-7 seconds. Without it, he would seem to be a normal person (despite being unbelievably hyper), so it kind of breaks my heart that he's been struggling with it for over 10 years or so. (I think I interpreted that correctly....)
But he's a great guy and has an awesome sense of humor. (≡^∇^≡) I really look up to people like that since, even though I'm from a country that's kind of in despair right now, I really can't imagine how it feels to have heavy burdens on my shoulders. My father often complains that he felt bad about his behavior back when we lived in Florida and how he worries it might have bothered me, but to be honest, I really never noticed. Yeah, he was often disgruntled, but I always figured it was typical stress because he never failed to amuse me when he had the time. Even if I interupted him while he was working in the engine room to see the (horribly-done) magazine my cousin and I were trying to make～ (´∀｀);
Nevertheless, though it's something he won't agree with, to me, those were good times.★☆
Of course I have memories like that with my mother too. (*＾ー＾)ノ I don't think I ever told her why, but I chose to spend my senior year in California because I felt bad that she had missed out on a lot of my life (even though I'm a total pain-in-the-ass, especially when it comes to school-work haha). I don't regret many things in life, but the one thing that bugs me the most is that I didn't visit her more often. Out of 12 school years I've only spent 2 with her. She's missed a lot of birthday memories and events and celebrations, and I regret most that I wasn't more knowledgable to be considerate of that fact.
But there really are wonderful times.
For example, and many of you will laugh but, our little fake-quarrels of using funny nicknames and such always bring my spirits high, since it's an opportunity to joke around like nothing else matters. o(^▽^)o I'll never forget the glint in her eyes when I first started doing the "HI MOM!!!!" and the "Yokohama-mama-sama" things!
Whether intentional or not, they've always covered up the hard parts of life convincingly well, and so I never felt exposed to hardships......
While I'm on the topic of famliy (even though originally this was about the genius-insanity thing),
A lot of you have asked about my 'siblings' and such,
And I'm quickly losing track of who's been informed while furiously trying to figure out who I forgot to explain it to (haha).
Well, to be simple, I'm an only child. But when I was little, I often heard a female voice on my right side, behind me, about from a foot higher than whatever height I may have been, and the voice was perfectly articulated. It wasn't mom's voice, and it usually called my name whenever I wandered too far from Mom and Dad. I remember how the voice was confirmed, when running ahead on the long stretch of the beach, playing tag with the wave on shore as I ran back to the car. I heard the voice, turned around, and saw that Mom, Dad, and the Dogs were farrrrr behind, and that there was no way it could've come from them. I even ran back to ask if they had called me and they simply answered "No.".
It was from this that I was convinced that I had a sibling, somewhere.....
Ah, see? I'm getting back on topic with the insanity and genius part! And here you thought I wouldn't! **grin**
Anyways, for sometime after, I thought maybe it was the Dogs, using some sort of instinct power or something to keep me from wandering off (and it worked pretty damn well too). Though eventually the voice became more..... full of life, and I regarded it as my sister. Though she had no form, she often taught me languages and told me secrets, and sometimes would tell me stories about life in the wilderness, without the heavy weight of society.
She went through many names. The first name I gave her was Kelsey, after my first best friend. The name still suits her, even though the voice is gone. Kinda sad really. She disappeared around the time I became depressed in Junior High, so somewhere between age 11 and 12. I really wouldn't mind if she showed up again. Interestingly enough, when I lay my head onto a pillow, sometimes I hear the crash of a cymbol or some sort of metal sound right beside my ear (the one on the pillow), and even though it disturbs me, I like to think that my sister is playing the drums in my head, wanting to help compose my songs while I sleep, so as to surprise me the next morning with a sudden wave of creativity. (^ε^)♪
Besides that, I don't hear her at all anymore. And Tsuyoshi-kun, in his cute delayed responses (yes, I find it cute.....) said it must be amazing to live on every planet and every realm and be able to talk to someone from those dimensions. It took me a minute to register in my mind what he meant, until he pointed out that having a vivid mind is one of the most wonderful (and sometimes difficult) thing to possess.
but it's still so hot that I'm not sleeping with any covers f(^_^;)
I finally got around to getting a Japanese cell phone yesterday and it works great! JP phones really are ahead of the American ones. It even has a barcode reader O_O I always wondered why websites would post nothing but barcodes....... it's really cool (and waterproof).
Today I was supposed to meet with Takakura-san, but I sent him an email notifying him that we had accidentally scheduled our meeting on the one day of the week that his office is closed. (≧▽≦);
Looks like I'll be taking it easy today since I don't have any planned recordings, though I have to meet with Tomohisa Tanaka sometime this afternoon to schedule my language classes in Shinjuku.
Maybe I'll have lunch at Hanamaru and head to a public garden to relax.
