baby, be my mafia boss, I'll be your right-hand man

Full-day hearing tomorrow, so full-time stress-meter on today, much helped by meeting elvaron and M for lunch. ♥

Today is a special day, because it marks my time as a trainee lawyer finally and unbelievably coming to an end. Also noteworthy for the fact that Hibari's birthday fell at some point in the past few days when I was staring non-stop at injunction research. ONE DAY WHEN I GROW UP will I be able to bite people to death all by myself? ♥ One day, too, I will make a post about how my EPIC EMO at my occasionally not being able to do what the boss wants rivals Gokudera's in laughability, but then I tell myself to stop being internally hysterical and to stop kicking myself dammit and to take a deep breath, because I'm still learning and I will have to learn to forgive myself for making mistakes once in a while and not beat myself up viciously about it.

So anyway! All trainee lawyers have to complete this checklist of To-Do Things that are supposed to give us the right grounding and adequate experience in the profession (the checklist annoys me to no end because A LOT of what I do was never covered by the checklist. WHAT KIND OF CHECKLIST leaves out discovery and keeps due diligence in, for godssakes?! A CHECKLIST DRAFTED BY A CORPORATE LAWYER, OBVIOUSLY). So this checklist is supposed to remind you that you need to learn about court etiquette and how to dress and conduct yourself in court and I am: You know, I CAN THINK OF MORE FUN WAYS IN WHICH TO LEARN THAT. LIKE:

( which of these people won't get kicked out of court? )

And ohgod today I laughed so hard at THIS, in America's Sweethearts:

Narrator: Justice never tasted so sweet...
...as in The Bench.

Catherine Zeta Jones, as a wide-eyed defendant: I didn't do it. I'm innocent. Why won't anyone believe me?!

John Cusack (as her attorney): I object!

Judge: You're out of order!

John Cusack: No, you're out of order!
I object to the way my client has been treated.
I object that I've let my professional judgment...
...become clouded by my feelings for her.
I object to the way the room spins when she walks in.
I object, Your Honor, because I love this woman!

Aaaand then the attorney and the witness share a passionate kiss on the witness stand.

... AND THEN I LAUGHED SO DAMN HARD.

and because I HAD TO SAY it:
( your fantasy, my reality: or, why you shouldn't try this in court )

One of the nightmare cases I worked on recently resurrected in a most horrifying manner. When I picked up the printouts at the common printer my blood ran cold AND:

( this flashed through my mind )
Also and when I came home and dazedly told my mom, "One of our cases resurrected." ... she thought I was talking about a patient.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY nescienx!

MAY IT BE A HAPPY MAY DAY FOR YOU ~ ♥

( I have been Smart this week, now please let me be stupid. )

KITTY TIME NOW:

anyasy has a new adorable blue-point Birman kitten. It's the loveliest thing in all the world (this and this are my favourite pictures), except maybe for little_ribbon's Milo. Also, youtube video of kitten antics here. I COULD STARE AT IT FOREVER. lolcat here.

I HAVE WANTED TO LINK THIS PICTURE OF little_ribbon's cat forever: SEE HERE. I swear that the cat should be a model.

Up to my eyeballs in solicitor-ethics lectures this week, which also marks the one month + one week anniversary of my being put intensively on this case which has eaten my mind with its closing arguments. I obsess as badly about work as I do about the series I love, except that I do not obsess about the series I love thirteen hours a day, five days (and sometimes more!) a week. I can't actually seem to shut off about work even when I leave the office, so I could be waiting at a traffic light and find myself thinking, How can I work that case in, How am I going to handle that point, Did I address that issue adequately?

SO! WITNESS THE REBELLION OF MY MIND AGAINST THE CORPORATE MAFIA MINDSET.

★ So, a while back, tinted_glass and I agreed that Franz Ferdinand's Michael would be a great song for Ryan on crack. Except that I am endlessly optimistic and thought he wouldn't need crack for the song to be perfect. And this week, in a perfect timeless moment of What You Do In Fandom Echoes in Reality, check out this post of hers on Michael-Ryan songs. She also has this awesome review of the latest Office episode up here.

☆ shaorankun is drawing for both Reborn AND KKM. ♥ ♥ ♥ BOTH the fandoms I love deeply at the same time.

★ Reborn Chapter 191. Gokudera, I love you very much, but you are topped by Cat, and also eminently mockable. ♥ Also, Ryohei, I LOVE YOU FOREVER FOR NOT BEING YAMAMOTO, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me one more person to ship with Gokudera. More electrical bondage, please. HA! Official Tsuna-Reborn, Reborn-Tsuna cosplay. *SNERK*

MANGA RECS
WARNING: Everything behind the cut was written by a deranged Gokudera/Tsuna fan who can see 5927 everywhere. And I mean everywhere. You have been warned. Please read the manga, do not let what is behind the cut disturb you.

☆ MANGA REC #1: Mirai Nikki: diaries that tell the future and the battle for them.

To my complete shock, I managed to really like the main female lead despite her looking like this and being Generally The Sort of Annoying Manga Girl I Thought I Loved To Hate. I think she's kickass and obsessive, and a large part of this I blame on reading morphaileffect's The Tenth Diary - a Gokudera/Tsuna slanted crossover between Mirai Nikki and Reborn. I'm not sure if I love the female lead because I equate her with Gokudera, but: ( this is why I loved Mirai Nikki more because it reminded me of Reborn. )

★ MANGA REC #2: ULTIMO, the manga lovechild of Hiroyuki Takei (responsible for Shaman King) and Stan Lee. Rec'd by lacewood, here (read for more series information and the creative process behind this manga). I fell in love with it upon sighting the first panel. Imagine it as an Eternal Battle between Sync from Tales of the Abyss and the lovechild of Luke from Abyss and Tsuna from Reborn. If you think this is insane, go read the manga. ♥ Come scream at me if you need to ♥

☆ MANGA REC #3: That Neon Genesis Evangelion MAFIA SCHOOL AU AU. First rec'd to me by lacewood, series explanation by kotomine here. Read this if you are a Shinji/Kaoru fan, and ( this is my explanation of why Shinji = Tsuna, Kaoru = sane+ sociopathic!Gokudera, and Touji = Jounouchi. )

★ bitterwork, whose Reborn icons I love, has made AMAZING KKM ICONS. I'm using one right now. ♥ (THAT SLAP SCENE WILL NEVER. EVER. GET OLD WITH ME.)

☆ Summary and Screencaps for KKM Season 3 Episode 82. This episode involves Greta acquiring a pet bearbee she names, of all things, Yuuram. This episode is basically Gremlins Does KKM. Right down to DON'T TOUCH THE WATER IT MAKES CUTE THINGS GO BAAAAD. Every week, no matter how silly the plot, no matter what other people think of the episode, no matter what, period: this series FORCIBLY reminds me of why I fell in love with it, why I still love it, and why I will love it forever. BECAUSE LOVE LIKE THIS NEVER DIES.

★ anyasy linked THE LAMBO STORE. IT WAS AWESOME AND I LAUGHED SO HARD.

In a move that will probably surprise no one:

new layout!
because Amano's art can be so awesome, and I'll take every chance I get to share it with the world.
with a separate friends-page header, too

Layout coding's by way of cartonage, here.
tinted_glass has a truly awesome Ryan!fied version of this here, along with a whole lot of the latest Michael-Ryan news.

Icon meme from kotomine (hers here!)

( when 100 by 100 pixels speak a thousand words )

chibimazoku and inarticulate have set up an English Kuroshitsuji site here, and it's pretty awesome, so check it out!

Also: Kyou Kara Maou. DEAR GOD I WILL NEVER STOP LOVING THIS SERIES. Also, if I ever had a sister, I would want her to be like faoiltiamatani's: THIS IS WHY.

conrad_wolfram and kingsaralegui were opened in the last five days, how awesome is the love for this series?! THIS IS WHY I CAN NEVER LEAVE.

And the most recent episodes of KKM? Episodes 80 and 81 (summary spoilers)? ... WHY is this series always ALWAYS ALWAYS giving the lie to my idea that I can't possibly love Wolfram any more than I already do?

I have a folder in my Reborn manga stash titled: "THIS MANGA IS AWESOME", and I was talking to narugami and thought it was an AMAZING opportunity to unleash it. SO:

" this manga is awesome "
a Reborn! manga-only special
(spoilers up to the end of the Ring Battles)

( welcome to the family )

( sharp-dressed men )

( three's company )

( it's the things that you say )

( THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR SKY )

( my boss, my hero )

This song goes out to my Opposing Counsel, because it perfectly describes one of the cases I've been on since last December:

First you say you won't, then you say you will.
You keep me hanging on, and we're not moving on
I"m standing still, Jenny, you got me on my knees
Jenny, it's killing me
The Click Five, Jenny

CAN WE GO TO TRIAL ALREADY

It's funny that I was talking to elvaron about just this situation, because today I had a major heart attack when the client called and wanted to talk to me because everyone else coincidentally wasn't in the country.

Also, today I recorded the most billable hours for any day I've worked so far, so this CALLS FOR A CELEBRATION!

Also the way I unwind after an entire day with law in my head is with a lot of pictures.

( altor discovery of capslock worthy proportions )

Incidentally, Altor is EVIL. EVIL. Just three hours with the Mukuro path and still uncompleted, mind you, and already taking the Gokudera path BREAKS MY HEART.

GOKUDERA MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER.

( SEE )

( plus random Hibari and other people )

( Giotto and his Mist Guardian )

( Tsuna + Mukuro )

Dear little_ribbon,
because you are the last person to leave a comment on this LJ


The Mafia Wants You.

with reference to the actual meme, which I'm not doing, because you link me nice YGO icons. ♥

And because it's so easy to rework it,
( this is how the Tsuna-Spanner version would look like. )

... what the hell, I broke my heart writing it.

Speaking of writing, kotomine tagged me for the Handwriting Meme, so now for something ... not so different:

( and the hand I write with comes with no surprise )

I simply must share with you (as linked by kotomine, here): the most beautiful work of copyright infringement I have ever had the joy of setting my gaze on. It's a MTV by a Korean singer that takes absolutely breathtaking liberties with Final Fantasy: Advent Children. I was grinning from ear to ear while watching it. ♥ Ordinarily I'd be happily dissecting how and why that's an infringing work, but in this case I just watched it in complete ♥ bliss ♥. IT DOES NOT EVEN NEED TO BE EXPLAINED.

Here's the official Square Enix press release ("the Company's intellectual property ... is one of our most crucial resources"), but my favourite news article title? Square Enix Summons a Final Fantasy Lawsuit. This part made me laugh the hardest:

"Understandably, Square Enix cast level 100 lawyer magic on the video maker Fantom Entertainment, for half-inching their IP. Fantom was fined $10,900 after the Seoul Central District Court judge Gu Hoe-geun ruled that they had "illegally used 80 percent of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanours from video game Final Fantasy VII."

... how did they decide on the figure of 80%?!

Why Your Job Is Like Working For The Mafia, Unwarranted Comparison #159: When your Boss goes missing, guess who has to take over?

Gokudera's face in the icon I'm using now accurately captures my inner expression when I was instructed to do something at work which no one had ever done before. I mean no one. Not the associate giving me work, not the two partners I work with most of the time. I Live In Interesting Times.

Gokudera's face in the icon I'm using now also captures without words the essence of Clothes Shopping Under Eve's Guidance, which can also be summarised succintly in the single word TOL - ER - ATE. (And me screaming. A lot. What do you mean I look good in this? Why can't I wear that? What do you mean green and purple bring out my colours? What do you mean this looks like couch fabric? ... But I like couch fabric...)

I do exaggerate, really. One of my greatest regrets in life is having reached my present age age and failed utterly to develop any interest in actively shopping for clothes (as opposed to, I seem to have worn everything in my closet for about several hundred times. Some of them are actually falling apart. I do believe it's time to acquire new ones), makeup, or shoes. Shopping for clothes is a little like tooth extraction for me, as both of them can be described as Necessary Evils, and both of whom I am inclined to view as unnecessary and occasionally mildly traumatic and putting one in dire need of painkillers.

So, as you might imagine, Eve really does have an uphill task with me, and I do genuinely appreciate her advice (not to mention the actually bringing me into clothing stores, ordinarily places I do not voluntarily enter), all my kicking and screaming and endless protests notwithstanding.

At this juncture I feel it necessary to leave you with a quote from Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett:

"The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked,
Yo, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear?

And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select."

Or if you are me, the correct answer would be, Whatever Eve selects.

BECAUSE I ACTUALLY HAVE ENERGY TO POST TONIGHT: Thank you everybody for your replies on my last post. I'm going to reply to every comment, it's just that it might take a while due to work (hearing this Thursday, ohgod work is pouring from the skies). ♥ Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments, and I radiate love at all of you. ♥

Linking the Reborn Ranking Meme for amarukei and seki_yumizu! And, um, for atorii (omg thank you so much ♥ ♥ ♥ for last Sunday! ♥) - Mukuro and Chrome's Pineapple Dance (Kufufu. The Prince is so shy). It's the one right at the end, titled "The Lotus and the Pineapple".

Short Reborn fanficshriek moment on the should you/should you not warn for character death in fanfiction debate. I'm of the camp that firmly believes that you should always warn for character death, especially where my favourites are concerned, which in my case means that ( NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO DIE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION )

*grin!* The reason Tsuna and Gokudera consistently rank so high is because I took one look at Tsuna and went, "... small. Cute. AND SO SILLY and adorable and HE MUST BE PROTECTED. AT ALL COSTS. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!"

... and then I went and read the manga and I realised that that the second half of what I thought was exactly how Gokudera felt about Tsuna, so I fell for him too. I mean! He loves Tsuna as much as I do! WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE. But ohGod, really.

( most recent Reborn manga arc )

A quick and easy (literally) guide to What Are My Thoughts on What's Happening to Tsuna: see Gokudera. No, really. Except that I am tiny and don't need three people to hold me down.

ALSO
my work IP address ends with .100.59.
\O/
cheapest of cheap thrills for the made of fail
Also it took a law case to make me realise what the name Tsuna is an anagram for (because I am oblivious sometimes and also because I've only ever seen him referred to in the singular, not the plural). IT WAS THE MOST AWESOME fandom law case I read today because it concerned a Tunas building that not only had the postal code 0207, but was also 27 floors high.

... I also think it was that damned case that would have been really useful to know in my Conveyancing Law exam. It, I think, was the one that decided that people who live in apartment blocks don't have an exclusive right to their parking space such that they are able to assign those rights to other people who don't live in the same apartment.

Dear World,

Though it's hard sometimes, I love my job. I love that I can do what I can do, and I love that I'm learning more so I can do more. I love that sometimes in the middle of what I'm doing I think, Yes, this is where I'm supposed to be, and there are those priceless moments in which I think,
I am here in this world for a reason, and this is my reason.

And hey, I get that not everybody loves this job, and I sure get that a whole lot of people don't love the people who do this job. I get that from my own family often enough, from the relatives who tell me, Go corporate, that's where the money is, from my brother, whom I love dearly, but who thinks lawyers are scum and won't hold back that opinion even from me, from my uncle, who backed away when he heard that I'd be qualifying soon - and even though some of it is in jest, I can't say I'm completely unaffected.

But it's not going to stop me.

I get that most people's experience with lawyers haven't generally been the sort that leave favourable impressions. Hey, I get that most people's experience with lawyers are pretty darn godawful never-to-be-repeated I'll-never-touch-a-lawyer-with-a-ten-foot-pole experiences.

My first experience with the legal profession was an experience like that, after all.

It left such a deep impression on me that it was the biggest unspoken reason I became a lawyer. It's the one I rarely ever talk about. But I know how awful it is to be on the other end of a nasty situation (and I'm not even going to say nasty lawyer, because the situation is sometimes bad enough that whether the lawyer's good or bad makes no difference).

And I'll never forget what it feels like. There's so much fear, anger, and frustration when you or someone you know is on the recieving end of the law or a nasty lawyer. But it doesn't take away the good that lawyers can do, and are doing, in the world. We're not perfect. Nobody is. There sure are a lot of lawyers out there who could be doing a lot better. There sure are a lot of lawyers out there who shouldn't be lawyers at all. But there are lawyers out there who are making life easier for their clients and for the people who can't afford lawyers, by volunteering and just doing their best. And I think that that shouldn't be forgotten.

I've always thought that the problem with the world was that you never heard enough about the lawyers who were doing good in the world. Most of what everybody hears and remembers are, Guess which lawyer ran off with what spectacular sum of money? Guess what they're suing for? Guess who's helping them sue for it?

You want jokes about why hell's got all the lawyers? I've heard all of them.

And I know I'm going to develop a much more robust attitude towards this, but I'm still new to this, and every time I hear of someone who's had a bad experience with a lawyer, however near or far away to my life it is, I can't help but think I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that that happened to you. And I wish you'd met someone else who could've showed you that lawyers aren't all like that, and that it doesn't have to be that way. Just like the way I'm disgusted for hours and outraged on some indefinable level for longer than I should be whenever I read about a misbehaving lawyer in the papers, as I think, This is why people hate us!

But, you know what? There are good people in this profession, too. People who don't forget that it isn't all about the money. There are so many ways in this profession to make a good difference in this world. Sure, we have our share of total bastards. But so does every profession. We have people who make lawyers ashamed to be lawyers.

But we're not all like that.

You can be a lawyer and a good person. I've met people like that: lawyers who are kind, gentle, and completely wonderful people, people who made me think, I want to grow up to be like you. Lawyers who are kind to those whom they work with and to those who they're up against. Lawyers who have shown me that even in the most heated legal battles that there is room for courtesy, and there is room to respect everyone you're dealing with.

And God help me, I'm going to grow up to be like that.
And I'm going to do everything I can to not become the sort of lawyer I'd be ashamed of sharing a profession with.

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to two of the most wonderful people in my life,

elvaron
(YOU. ME. DINNER AND A MOVIE. ON ME. *wink*
AS SOON AS the both of us can be extracted from our offices at the same time! ♥)

AND
clara_swift! ♥

WHY ARE SO MANY AWESOME PEOPLE BORN IN MARCH?
And the people who have the greatest impact on my life, at that!

HAVE A FABULOUS YEAR AHEAD and a VERY GOOD TIME ~ ♥

short and sweet summary of the week


this is my actual phone lol
because MY boss tops all

although omg yamakkun you're the BEST. ♥

Even though we don't have to be cryptic anymore:

yama-kun: I've got bad news.
me: what happened?
yama-kun: bianchi eve's here.
me: ...

ANYWAY, BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN PERMITTED TO ANNOUNCE IT,
cynic_in_charge is HERE! ♥
also, we are thinking of doing a meetup/karaoke session sometime soon, and
EVERYONE IS WELCOME
so do let me know/come if you're interested!
So this morning I woke up canonically wracked with agony - obviously because I was meeting Eve (really, it was because I was doing this yesterday - gods I hadn't swum in ages, and my body made me pay for it. BUT PAINKILLERS WORK WONDERS and soon I was on my way to meet Eve! lacewood joined us later, and we had a great lunch (with LOTS OF DESSERT) and then we ambled over to Kinokuniya (where I bought the first volume of the licensed Reborn manga (of course I HAD TO own the volume where Tsuna and Gokudera first met), and lacewood bought Volumes 13 and 15 of the Chinese translation. LANCHIA SO KICKASS. XANXUS = I WANT TO KICK HIS ASS. ohgod, and we laughed so hard at the Bleach promo poster that had a fabulous view of Renji's ass.).

( and then we forced the Reborn manga on Eve. )

( BECAUSE EVEN REBORN REMINDS ME OF LAW OH MY GOD. )

Work is actually killing me. You get a whole new perspective on life when twelve-hour days at the office aren't enough for everything you have to do. It's 1.49am now and I've just finished up part of something due in tomorrow. *wry smile*

But it's been a very fruitful, if completely exhausting, time. On Monday I was assigned to the Careers Fair (where our task was basically to promote the firm). At the end of the entire event one of the partners asked if she could put my name down for the next day (and the next year), because, apparently, "You did such a great job." ...I suppose if HR tells me that I'm a great salesperson I'm doing something right? Was very amused when said partner asked me halfway through the event, "How many cups of coffee did you drink?! How are you so bubbly and energetic?" NO CUPS OF COFFEE, IT'S ALL ME IN THERE, REALLY. ... and then we all went back to the firm and I stayed til 8.40pm.

One of the law students asked me when the latest I got off work was. I laughed and said, "Oh no! I wish you'd asked me before last week!" Because last Friday night, I left the office at 1.10am. My Dad called to ask where I was, and when I told him I was leaving, he told me I was nuts. DADDY, BOSS'S WORD = LAW, YES?

Today was... my first hearing! Which naturally generated a phenomenal amount of work (and since both parties need to put in more submissions, this means even more work).

This Friday sees the setting-down of trial dates for a matter that - let's just say that when I informed an associate that I'd been put on it, he laughed and said, "GOOD LUCK, YOU'LL NEED IT." ... and I do. These hours I've been doing are all for this one matter. And we haven't even set trial dates yet. I don't want to think about what life will be like once trial dates are set.

But, you know, even as work is killing me: AT LEAST I'LL DIE HAPPY, because:

☆ faoiltiamatani posted these AMAZING RE-RELEASE COVERS of the YGO Ancient Egypt arc. FABULOUS WAY TO END A DAY (or start a morning, as the case may be) that included INTENSIVE RESEARCH on a case that began, "The plaintiff resided in Egypt..."
★ kurot has an AMAZING POST on Reborn doujin, Reborn doujin events, Reborn cosplayers, and Japan. If you're a Reborn fan, it's GUARANTEED TO BLOW YOUR MIND. ♥

Oh, and also, a startling number of leading lawyers have known right-hand men. It was surprising to me, but perhaps it should not have been so, as a fair bit of legal practice is conducted in teams and by teamwork, it only is sensible for every boss to have his (or her!) right-hand man. But to actually have other members of the legal profession able to identify them and say, "Oh, so-and-so is his right-hand man," and recite their entire history together, that did come as a surprise.

Doesn't help that 80% of my office wardrobe could clothe the entire Ten Years Later!Reborn cast. LONG LIVE THE BLACK AND WHITE. (Even if having to wear it continuously does drive me to dress in violent fuchsia pink on the days court attendance is not imminent).

HI EVERYBODY, I WANT TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT:

It is 12 midnight where I am, and I am still in the office (I came in at 8.30am today):

AND I CANNOT YET GO HOME. ♥

It's Chinese New Year, which means Family from all over the country and all over the globe pick the continent or the home with the highest concentration of fellow family members and come to visit. Objectively, I know that my family doesn't constitute the entire human population of the world, but sometimes it sure feels like it. Chinese New Year is the time of year where you can see family members and distant relatives and people you never knew were related to you. Somebody I had never met wandered into the reunion dinner with an adorable little girl, and I discovered he was my aunt's (father's brother's wife's) brother. I didn't even know my aunt had a brother living in this country until he walked into the room. This is also the time of year when one can concievably wander into a total stranger's house, introduce yourself to everyone and have everyone introduced to you, before realising that HEY YOU ARE IN THE WRONG HOUSE. If you think this is incredible, my uncle actually did this once at a wedding dinner. This was at a hotel where seven couples were getting married at the same time, so you can understand him making the mistake, really, or at least, I can. And the amazing thing was, neither he nor anybody around him realised he was at the wrong wedding dinner. He only discovered after the wedding, when he was talking to my grandmother about the food and she said, "... but that wasn't on the menu."

. YOU CAN'T TOUCH THIS

Today, at the Everybody Gathers At My Grandparents' House visit, my dad found the YGO scans on my music device, and went, "What's YGO?"

And then my dad stood at the door of my grandparents' house with my iThingy showing everybody who walked in a picture of Leather Pants!Yuugi and telling them that it was a photograph of my uncle he'd taken with his new camera.

Said uncle: "Thank you, thank you! You made me look so slim!"

This, of course, was the same uncle, who, at an earlier gathering, reacted to my delighted shout of, "LEGOLAS!" when a LOTR commercial appeared on the TV with, "YES? WHO CALLS ME?"

Aaaaand then my cousin (the uncle's son), who was also made party to this imprompt Leather Pants!Yuugi exhibition went, "You read Yu-Gi-Oh?"

Me: "... yes?"
Him: "onemanga.com?"
Me: "YOU TOO?!"

You know how it is when sometimes, to figure out why a person turned out the way they turned out, all you have to do is look at their family, and you go, "Ah."

... yeah, if you want the #1 reason for Why I Turned Out The Way I Turned Out, look no further than my family.

Gatherings with the Other Half aren't free from YGO, either, because we were at another Epic Family Gathering (the kind of epic that involves grand-uncles six years older than me, uncles with whom I have conversations about life in the 1950s, and whose center is my grandmother's brother) ( THIS HAPPENED )

Also, the Other Half makes me feel like an episode of Reborn, because we were watching fireworks this evening, and because my tiny cousin is tiny (think Chibi Gokudera tiny), I lifted him up to watch the fireworks and was holding him so that he wouldn't fall off the windowsill. The fireworks were gorgeous, and tiny cousin, who looks as adorable as Fuuta but actually is much more like Lambo (I really do think he's going to grow up like adult!Lambo, because his elder brother is just like that) and chibi!Gokudera combined, went wild with excitement and exclaimed, "EXPLODING! EXPLOSIONS! BLOW IT ALL UP! ☆__☆ BOOM!"

Not to mention that on the first family dinner, we all raced off to watch the fireworks at midnight, and my youngest brother played this really old Mafia game the other brother calls "Sleeping With The Fishes" with the tiny cousin and the tiny cousin's older sister. And the next day, as I came down for dinner, I found two tiny tiny sticks of firecracker dynamite at my place (small enough for chibi!Gokudera to use).

Which turned out to be full of candy.

... clearly the #1 reason I turned out The Way I Am is MY FAMILY.

download: mediafire | 39.21 MB

( Tales of the Abyss Official Doujin Anthology )

( Colour Art )

Manga and 4-koma samples
( In which young!Van appears, Mieu is clueless and Luke is even more so, and Peony wears a bowl over his head. )

More like "Law so big, my head so tiny, it cannot ALL go in there!"
When the going gets tough, the tough... start scanning. *laughs*
No, seriously, whenever I'm suffering from a bad case of Information Overload, the fastest way for me to get out of it is with a lot of pictures. I don't know why, but somehow when words and text have overrun my cognitive capabilities such that I feel sick when I think about reading and I feel like Johnny Mnemonic with nowhere he can go to download everything that's in his head, pictures fix it. For me, there's something soothing in scanning + editing + cleaning up images, and bright colours and visuals that is a different world from words and helps to somehow fix things inside my head.

For little_ribbon
(who has been awfully patient with this one)
YGO Volume ...35? 36?
(the Millenium World thing reworks all the numbers)
Also known as, "The Millenium Items in 59 KB"
This is The One Where:
( do I still need to warn for spoilers for a children's card game? )
mediafire DL | English | 59.0 MB
full preview view

( All the Pharaoh's Men )

( Jou takes on Bakura )

( this put me squarely in the Atem/Seto camp, and by extension, the Yami/Kaiba one )

( and this is why Loyaltyshipping owns my soul. )

I started this entry at 8.51pm, ladies and gentlemen, and then I had to leave the house and I'm only now reunited with my laptop at 12.33am. And I have work tomorrow, but I have been meaning to make an LJ entry since Thursday, but have been constantly interrupted by life. *laughs* BUT BY GOD THIS IS GOING TO GET DONE TODAY. I feel like I've lived so much in the past five days. *laughing* Which can be summed up in:

Wednesday: The results of the bar exam.
THANK YOU EVERYBODY ♡♡♡! You were all so sweet and supportive and absolutely lovely. *beams*

Thursday: Attending the first Switchfoot concert to be held in my country, with M and W! *beams* It was a crazy day because even though I had to be out of the office by 6pm on that day of all days, I had a partner meeting that lasted all the way until 6.40pm. M and W were so sweet to wait for me, and M bought me dinner ♥, and I felt so guilty because they had to wait because of me, and we were all looking forward, so much, to going to the concert!

At the concert I couldn't help thinking that if I'd never returned to this country I'd never have met them, and how happy I was to be there with them. It was such an amazing concert, and I've loved Switchfoot since 2005, and I never thought I'd get to see them live. And joy of joys, they performed On Fire, which is my favourite Switchfoot song and one I never thought they'd play. ♥ There is absolutely nothing like a live concert, because hearing music as it's being made right in front of you is just the way it should be heard.

( 'cause if you want to be SMOKIN' you gotta be ON FIRE )

Friday: Making submissions all day, but managed to get out of the office to catch T and D for dinner! And then, when I was at Kinokuniya later (because I really wanted to pick up some Reborn), I RAN INTO kyonkichi. *BEAMS* It would totally have made my night on its own, but then I looked into the next row and THERE WAS OMI and THERE WAS TASHIGI and I, being, you know, mature graduate and trainee you-know-what, suffered a short-circuit of pure joy and shrieked with delight.

And then after I told them what I was there for, Tashigi led me straight to the Reborn doujin anthologies. ♥ ♥ ♥ HALF of the doujin anthologies there were MORE than MY ARMS could carry, and Tashigi helped me with the rest and we went to the counter where I think I subsequently walked off with everything that wasn't Yamamoto/Gokudera. (Which was just two anthologies, it wasn't that bad!) kreznick was there too, and it was just really really really fun to talk Reborn and FF13 (because some fantastic new FF books were out). ( Even if I made a spectacular slip when talking about Reborn doujin )

And then aslah came, and and and she put the sweetest Gokudera/Tsuna doujinshi ever into my hands.

*EXPLODES WITH JOY*

That night I pretty much had the most awesome cherry tomatoes ever, because somehow the Japanese varieties taste better, I don't know why! Maybe it's just that everything tastes better when you're having that much fun. (also, Tashigi does the best covers of Reborn songs, ever)

Even though I ship Yamamoto/Gokudera OVER MY DEAD BODY, FATE obviously wishes to disagree loudly and violently with me, because everything I touch turns to 8059. Everything! Do you know how depressed this makes me? As depressed as Gokudera after Jyuudaime has broken his heart.

( Reborn talk )

Saturday: Things I Had To Do (and I saw this adorably cute baby in the hospital and went all gooey over it - and then the nurses asked if it was mine. *cries*) It was so new (just two days old when I saw him, he hadn't even got a name yet!) - and then the requisite clothes shopping. I hate clothes shopping so much - BUT I adore new clothes, and the wearing of.

Also I was distressingly amused when I acquired new officewear and discovered that the size that fit me best was a Ten. (Realistically speaking, I'm probably a 9, but firstly, they don't stock nines, and secondly, I'm not a Xanxus fan) And acquiring an office shirt the colour of the one Gokudera's wearing here (... coincidentally, the exact shade of this LJ layout, or this layout) made me disturbingly happy. (Hey, you'd want to wear some colour once in a while if you had to dress in black and white all the time!)

Sunday Went to watch Rambo 4 with three generations of my family. WAS THE ONLY GIRL THERE!

Also, The Family is here, because it's just about nearly time for New Year, so this means that all my family members from far-flung parts of the world congregate in the country. I was disrupted from the post-writing for an airport trip to pick up my Australian aunts, which turned a visit to their hotel (where the Hong Kong relatives are also staying), which turned into a family gathering. I LOVE RELATIVES. ♥ Two of my youngest cousins, who were tiny when I saw them last, are now nine and eleven (so grown-up!), and I ended up curled up on a couch with one as he was showing me his DS (and his Sonic the Hedgehog drawings, because my Dad went, 'You draw! You draw anime-type things! GO TO aefallen!' because such is my life), but he was so cute and he is nine years old and plays the violin, and we all got a family demonstration; and we were looking at our pictures when we were kids (yay technology!). And my eleven-year old cousin is so fun to talk to (and she reads A Series of Unfortunate Events, and watches Heroes, and loves Hayden Panetteire and knows who Milo Ventilamiga is) and I'd say she was going to grow up to be an awesome young lady, except that I think she is already an awesome young lady.

Also, I demand to know why I am related to so many good-looking/adorable people, it's giving me an inferiority complex.

( SEE. )
Also, why is the CFUD Malik player also playing Basil from Reborn?! IS THERE NO END TO THIS AWESOME?!

I (and the rest of the cohort, all 269 of us) have been freaking out so badly over the past few days), but:





☆ ★ CONGRATULATIONS ★ ☆
TO MY LEARNED FRIENDS
WE'VE MADE IT THIS FAR!
AND WE'RE GONNA GO FURTHER!

TRUE STORY

Mom: *seeing me at the PC* "What are you doing?"


Me: "The same thing I do every night - TRY TO TAKE OVER THE INTERNET."


Sibling: "... and most of the time, you succeed."


Me: *DIES LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY*
Sibling: "... that wasn't meant to be funny."


Me: "... what, you were actually SERIOUS?"



Also I have discovered that, at work, really good teh tarik can work a TOTAL TRANSFORMATION on me. Which can be best expressed as turning me from this version of Gokudera into hyper!bunny-hugging!Reborn!Ouran parody! Gokudera. Sugar and tea and milk in those proportions DO WONDERS for me.



Work this week is a beautiful case of doing twice the work in half the time, as a result of the crash course in derivatives that we have to do this week. Two hours of derivatives! Part of me is deeply and genuinely grateful for it, and the other half of me is going, "But my BRAIN! Can I really absorb all this information AND do the HOMEWORK, too?"


Today when I returned home at 8.30pm (once again, this is even with me starting the day in the office at 8.30am), I was stunned by why the air smelt so extraordinarily sweet, and then I realised that it because that was THE SCENT OF FREEDOM.