Apparently, I can request Paypal to send the verification deposits again. Yay. So um, kawaiipinay, I'd be paying you around the end of the week. Is that all right with you? I wouldn't mind the 4.65 otherwise.

Also, I am slowly working up my writing/translating brain. It got completely knocked over last week, but I'm trying to get it back online. Should be trying to get something done soon.

And the bois say Hetalia is offensive? My my.

(For those who wish for more information before clicking the link, it's an English news article for an eroge called My Girlfriend is a President. And yes, they have an Obama. Even if she's not exactly...well, I'm not quite sure what to say, honestly.)

Also : Because we synesthetes think seven is coloured green/your favourite colour for seven, or figure that Obama's voice tastes awfully like carrot juice, it doesn't mean we can bend spoons or find your long-lost grandmother/pencil/wallet/dead people. Thank you for understanding.

You know you're off the deep end when you see a truck with 'Daiei' on it and your mind immediately chirps in with 'Teikoku!'.

In other words, sup guys. I am back from Chicago. Their aquarium is glorious.

And on my dog : I'm not fine, but I'll survive.

Thank you for all your condolences. It means quite a bit and makes me feel somewhat guilty for not coming up with any internet hugs when you needed some. I've had dogs dying on me before, of course, but there's a time when a dog isn't a dog. There seriously has not been a day I've spent in the US without thinking about hugging him the first second I step into the house, in December. I'm having a hard time trying to accept that he won't be there and I really don't know what the first thing I'm going to do would be anymore, but anyway.

Will be gone the entire week, to Chicago. Getting new passport. Good thing I made reservations before I heard the news, or else I might have decided not to go home at all.

Yes, those last two lines are the main purpose of this post. I just felt like saying the first paragraph.

So, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that we are now having another Al/Arthur Only Event in October. Wittingly named Nice Joker.

Anyone going?

Also, I believe I just heard somebody firing a gun somewhere near my house a minute ago. WTF, neighbourhood? Aren't you supposed to be safe?

There are people who actually believe the Earth is cooling down. Er. 'Not heating up as badly as they say', I understand. 'The warming is part of a completely natural out-of-ice-age process', I understand. Cooling down? Just. No. Just because you get snow in June in one small part of the world doesn't mean the rest of us aren't going insane just trying to stay out of the heat. While the temperature is pretty much the same in summer, what the temperates find humid is somewhat laughable as far as humidity goes.

/tropical person.

I think a lot of people are underestimating one effect of global warming, BTW. A lot of people say 'the dinosaurs survived the Mesozoic, and it was a hell of a lot hotter then'. True. But if you would note the change in vegetation and, well, fauna. Doesn't affect us because they're a bunch of weeds and animals anyway? Try thinking food crops that are starting to not do so well in the new weather patterns. Try thinking food chains that keep pests and rodents from overrunning towns more than they do today. It's not a save the tree huggers thing. It's not preventing the Biblical Flood thing. It's getting your food on the plate.

And on the life-was-here-life-will-be-here thing : Life will be here. It's just usually accompanied by mass extinctions.

And since we mentioned agriculture, I would like to say this : Those of us in agriculture-related fields and those other people in other fields tend to have very different views of what 'sustainable agriculture' means, methinks. Argued this a lot in Boston. A lot of people seem to think that as long as the resources are not used and Mother Nature is reasonably unharmed in the process of making food, everything is fine, and that is sustainable. We in ag tends to think that the farmers need to stay afloat while keeping Mother Nature reasonably unharmed within the keeping afloat criteria. Because really. Who's going to want to be farming a generation in if they can't make a profit out of it? Let alone farming that saves the environment? The hippies? The government? But we will, of course, bring our own prejudices into the matter. I have mine. But it's interesting how we need to talk about this and come to a consensus if this whole 'sustainable agriculture' thing is to benefit anyone at all.

Guys.

There was a tornado warning an hour ago. I just grabbed my laptop and my passport and ran out in the torrential rain to the nearest shelter----the rain stopped pretty soon after the tornado warning was canceled, but my god that was a scare. I still saw a tornado-pattern cloud not too many blocks away from the house when I walked back. Such luck that it didn't form.

Surprised how many people didn't budge from their buildings, though. What would they do if it actually forms?

Ganked from twistedsheets10, and seriously I should be designing my primers.

List 10 of your favorite characters from different fandoms, and ask people to spot patterns in your choices, and if they're so inclined, to draw conclusions about you based on the patterns they've spotted.

I am very much a fandom sheep. You have my warning. Also I am completely obvious.

Axis Powers Hetalia : England. Duh.
Suikoden : Way too many. These are 108+ characters games we're talking about...but I suppose that if we're going for impact, I still like Klaus (auxiliary strategist, Game 2) a great deal?
Gyakuten Saiban : Miles Edgeworth.
Code Geass : Still Lelouch, although I liked most of the cast.
xxxHolic : Yuuko, actually.
Fullmetal Alchemist : The Colonel. Of course.
Chrono Crusade : Rosette
Violinist of Hameln : This is an almost-tie between Lute and Raiel, but it's obvious that Raiel would win eventually. He's the best friend chara after all.
Aubrey-Maturin series : Maturin himself.
Nodame Cantabile : Chiaki's more entertaining, but Nodame's best.

Bonus for the FYI of the person ganked from.
A Song of Ice and Fire : Bran Stark

I just extracted my RNA and thus have a bit of free time, and so I played a bit of Gyakuten Kenji. And, um, I'm as straight a Phoenix/Edgeworth fan as any (funnily enough, they'll always be Naruhodou and Mitsurugi in my head, but when I think of then in pairing terms it's P/E and not NaruMitsu) but WHY ARE YOU SUCH A WOOBIE, DETECTIVE ITONOKO!?

Er. He's Gumshoe in English, if I recall....and I know he's totally adorable in the PW games already, but when he's with Mittan it's like.....the biggest saddest crush ever. Mittan can so make and kick his world to the curb with a couple of sentences. Why is this man straight, again? I liked his pairing in GS3 well enough, but seriously now. What exactly was he doing in Mittan's office while he was overseas?

And Mittan, why are you so cute when you're trying to be perfectly serious? Do I really have a thing for uptight people with a tendency to have best-laid plans fall flat on their faces?

If you're using the 18th century British Royal Navy as a highly disciplined, sexually repressed social space where no buttsecks ever happens, I believe you're using the wrong setting. You may wish to consider Victorian London.

Yes, well, you wouldn't get to use Pirate!Arthur, but surely Mr.Darcy!Arthur is just as good?

It's been a long time, so I went to see Fandom_Wank just for old times' sake.

And I cannot believe this. People are *still* wanking about Harry Potter!?

Yes. I realize people are still wanking about the *original* Star Trek, but....it's incredible how the power of HP wankage still goes strong. I mean, last I checked, the fandom seemed to have slid down to something approaching normalcy? By which I don't mean 'normal-sized', but still, haven't most people moved on?

Apparently I am wrong. Oh well. I am a fickle man of the world. Hetalia's been staying outrageously long as it is.

I went to see Up! with my friends this weekend. It was wonderful. I almost cried. As in, there were tears on my glasses and I might have sniffed if it wasn't rather unseemly to do so. And, it and the short film they showed before it was gorgeous enough to waver my aversion to CG, too. Sort of reminded me of Spirited Away in that although it's a fun adventure for young viewers, for people a little older, it becomes something else. Bittersweet, sad, and hopeful. And I haven't felt that sympathetic for a truly dangerous villain for a long time.

Everybody probably watched it already, but go do so if you haven't.

Is it just coincidence that I've got a hailstorm of Chibitalia comments today? About five. Impressive. Though if you know what getting Chibitalia comments does to me, you might be somewhat glad, depending on your ship.

I'm trying to get both these things out of the way quickly so I can get on with the other parts of my life, but it's kind of not easy when you realize you've forgotten what your writing style sounds like. *sigh*

I had the following weird dream yesterday, courtesy of tiredness? Who knows? Anyway, it went like this :

Alfred : Science is the best journal ever!
Arthur : Bah! Any bloke worth his salt knows that Nature is the better of the two!
Alfred : Oh yeah? How about the time you rejected Fermi?
Arthur : That was the peer review---
Alfred : And Hawking? Your own man, seriously now?
Arthur : Are you telling me to introduce bias to my science publishing!?
Alfred : Well, it does explain why my journal's impact factor is better than yours!
Arthur : By one point! And my people's prudence means they do not have to retract twenty papers at once!
Alfred : They did print and retract the Schon papers, too, don't tell me they didn't!
Arthur : Oh, but that little stem cell scandal was so rich, wasn't it?
Alfred : At least they're adopting new practices to fight the issue, but yours aren't!
Arthur : And what's wrong with a little tradition? I understand you don't have much of one, but have some regard for people who do!
Alfred : Thick-headed old geezer!
Arthur : Are we resorting to name-calling now, you upstart little twerp?
Alfred : And my folks still own mine without resorting to selling to Germany!
Arthur : That's it. This means WAR.
Alfred's Religious Alter Ego : Excuse me, guys, but when are you going to accept Intelligent Design as a viable theory?
Alfred & Arthur : *screeches* NEVER!

Yes, I know Science and Nature's relationship isn't like this. Blame it on the gijinka boys, why don't you.

Also, this will be the last time I read Nature before going to bed.

I've been meaning to post this since earlier in the evening, but I was dead tired from the surprise planting day and just woke up now, so here goes :

Independence Sky 1 was really, really interesting.

For those of you who doesn't recognize the name immediately, this is Hakka Pink's contribution to the Colonial!Alfred Matsuri that seems to be going on in Japan. I had expected it to contain some angsty porn and not much else, considering the webcomic it sprang from, but boy was I pleasantly surprised. While I can't say how the conclusion would turn out, this is one meaty little book indeed.

( Cut for spoilers, for anyone actually buying it themselves )

............It really annoys me when people want to translate things without having a clue what they're really doing and know that they don't have a clue, but want to go ahead with it anyway. What do they want? Spreading love and joy, even the tiny amount that they could? Internet cookies? Recognition? Practice?

All right.

Fine.

Walking the Freedom Trail Tour gave me the following terribly mixed feelings :

Anglophile!ET : My God, do I really have to listen to this, Dear Program Scheduler?
HetaliaFan!ET : AWWWW ALFRED. *wibble*
HistoryFan!ET : Would the two of you please shut up, can you not see this is way more entertaining than the History Channel?

It kind of amused me though, when the tour turned out to be more like "Actually, England, you were unfair but not really unreasonable and we were kind of, um, both. Sorry? We were boorish pricks, yeah, but at least we were awesome boorish pricks?"

In other words : Dear internets, I am back from Boston. The town is stupidly gorgeous and the oysters were lovely. I also come back to a doujinshi shipment waiting for me at the post office and Hoshi's new glorious thing up at the comm and it hilariously is about Boston. Sorry for disappearing, hotel did not have free internet. How are you?

*My annoyance at The Boston Independence Thing wasn't really because I'm an anglophile. I am not that insane or unreasonable, and no matter how I fan him, I do not agree with Arthur. It's just that every single American thing I read as a kid exclaimed it as the greatest granddaddy of war against tyranny ever and as a person who swears by granddad's grave to always pay taxes properly, it grates. Being an anglophile simply means it doesn't help matters.

พอดีตอนนั่งแก้บารามอสเกิดไม่แน่ใจขึ้นมาว่าฟีลของเนื้อเรื่องเป็นยังไงแน่ (มันนานแล้วนี่) เลยไปขุดฟิคเก่า ๆ ที่เคยเขียนค้างไว้มาอ่านเพื่อรื้อฟื้นความทรงจำ อ่านแล้วรู้สึกขำ ๆ ดีค่ะ เลยว่าจะเอาบางส่วนมาโปะไว้สักหน่อย เผื่อพี่กบมีเวลาว่างมาอ่าน ปกติไอ้การโพสต์ plot bunny กับของค้างคานี่มันค่อนข้างไร้สาระอยู่ก็จริง แต่มันก็นะ บางทีคนเราก็เป็นพวกชอบโชว์? (เฮ้ย) ถ้าไม่ว่างก็ไม่ต้องเข้ามานะค้า อย่างที่บอก โพสต์นี้มันโพสต์สนองตัณหาของข้าพเจ้าเอง

( อย่าเอาไปเผยแพร่น้า มันเขิน(เรอะ) )

จะว่าไปแล้ว คนไทยพักหลัง ๆ นี่ได้คิดถึงหัวใจกษัตริย์กันบ้างหรือเปล่าหว่า?

Aha! So Geno is Gumblar is JSRedir-R. I have been wondering for a week on what that was all about.

I love this book. Everything but the details are painted in broad strokes, of course, and you get the impression that you're looking at a an impressionist painting of a fingernail. Or many fingernails, as the case may be. But when the completely obvious conclusion comes together and you figured you would have bawled if you could still bawl from fiction, there's something incredible in it. It's like hearing about a long, drawn-out heartbreak (all variants) as described by a text-to-speech program.

(In a way, this kind of reminds me of Fandom. I may say a ton of things about W!Fandom, but that's the one thing J!Fandom never does. Hetalia is, after all, about very sad delusions told via lolcats.)

And the next book in the trilogy is supposed to be in the library but I couldn't find it yesterday. Damn. Oh well, third book's checked out and ready to go to Boston with me (did I mention I'm going to Boston this week?), I hope I still retain the fantasy reader's ability to skip books in a series and know what the hell is going on.

Not talking about Roald Dahl, but it wouldn't be that far off the mark.