I don't understand how she is able to pronounce Ahmadinejad, and not nuclear.

At least I won Palin Bingo!

From one of the many weddings at the Meiji-Jingu every weekend. I wonder what their hands say about their relationship, their personalities? I think hands can be more expressive than faces, sometimes. Hands don't lie.

Happy birthday, ladyivy !

On the island of Shikoku, one of the four major islands of Japan, there is a pilgrimage whereby one travels to the 88 Buddhist temples said to be founded by Kōbō Daishi.

These days, it's more popular to do the trek by air-conditioned bus in large groups of excited pensioners. This new, convenient method can take as little as a week, though the traditional method of walking can take up to two months to circle the island.

This man asked me to take his picture as he was starting off on his trek the traditional way, by foot. I think he was a bit surprised when I asked if I could snap once more--with my own camera!


This is my 13th photo in the 100 Strangers Project.

FACT: It was, indeed, my birthday yesterday, and it was lovely. Especially lovely has been finding all the birthday wishes from you nice people. I was worried the internets would forget my birthday, it being on a Sunday (usually dead) and all, but you guys came through and I am full of warm fuzzies. THANK YOU!

FACT: The rumors are true, Sean and I have, in fact, moved into our shiny new house. We have proper grown-up furniture and everything! It's so exciting. So if anyone needs a place to stay in Maryland/vaguely north of DC (Gaithersburg, technically) we now have lots and lots of floor space!

FACT: This is pretty much my first time on the internet in a week, which is practically surreal. I don't think I've been this removed from a computer since 1996. Supposedly the internet will be returned to our lives tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, it's actually been a bit of a nice break, ha. Hopefully I'll get caught up soon!

"I will go anywhere if you say the phrase 'There might be cake.' MIGHT! Not even definitely, there might be cake!" -- Greg Behrendt

Things are beyond insanely busy right now, so I will post pictures of cake. That makes sense to me! Tried a new technique here called the Orton Effect. Makes things all glowy. Who doesn't like glowy cake?

My aunt-type person, with the new, exceedingly affectionate kitten-type thing.

Well, I haven't had a moment to pick up my camera, so I've barely gotten to all the lovely prompts you nice people posted. But I did take a minute to be self-indulgent and edit this selfie from July. There's lots of Photoshop trickery I've been dying to mess around with for ages, so here it is--faux TTV, textures, various brushes, lots of layers. An excellent way to exercise some of those creative energies I've been ignoring lately.

Some people read before bed to unwind, I like to Photoshop.

The View From Under the Bed


My cousin brought home a most excellent kitten this weekend--extremely affectionate and inquisitive, just as a kitten should be. My current living situation doesn't allow for pets, and I really, really miss having kitties around. Hopefully I'll get to play with this one a fair bit!

Picture Prompt loosely interpreted from here.
( More cuteness under the cut! )

Woohoo, so many great ideas!

First off, this is going to be a bit of a cheater, because I didn't actually take this picture, the lovely alycewilson did. However, it perfectly sums up murnkay 's request, and thus I had to (re)post.

The request: Describe Otakon to me IN ONE PICTURE.

The image:



Cell phone in one ear, radio in the other, surrounded by multiple lawyers, and an old friend I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with. Oh, and I'm in Con Ops, the hub of the whole operation, which I barely left over the weekend. Yup, that was my Otakon!

Remember, I'm taking creativity boosters over here, so help a girl out with some ideas!

I need to get some creative energies out, but I have absolutely no inspiration/motivation right now. I've also been going a little bit stir crazy from being sick (endless) and working at home (which is a Very Good Thing, don't get me wrong, but doesn't encourage much social interaction).

I don't really have time/inclination for 365ing, so I thought maybe I'd do the classic "Tell me what to take a picture of!" thing, thus taking care of two needs in one (Picture taking *and* social interaction! And maybe it'll even get me out of the house a bit!)

So, dear internets, what should I take a picture of? Silly, serious, whatever. Suggest anything, suggest everything, suggest often!

I was going for a hyper-saturated, high contrast, slightly cross-processed look, vaguely inspired by Ocean's 13 (which I could watch repeatedly just for the fabulous photography.) However, I still wanted something that could function for a main-stream audience, without being too out there, in case I wanted to use it for stock. I'm happy with what I got.

Oh, and I discovered I actually like Roulette, once I figured it out. I turned 40 bucks into 80, and walked happily away.

I miss my camera, and my camera misses me...

So due to the wacky timing of Elections this year, I'm actually eligible to run again for President of Otakorp Inc., and a few people have been pushing me to give it another go. I can see the value in some corporate stability, especially after changing horses midstream last year.

On the one hand, I'm not sure if I'm really that crazy. Then again, I don't really have any clue what I'm doing for the con next year...

What do you think, interwebs? Am I really that crazy, or should I get out while the gettin's good? Run again or run away? I'm fairly certain the response will lean towards the latter, but I figured I'd ask y'all for the fun of it :)

Comments screened to protect the insane.

Us at the Tokyo Anime Fair in March, as taken by my friend Mariko

This is the sweet boy that drove to 7-Eleven at 2 am last night to get me NyQuil, so that I could finally, finally sleep.

This is the sweet boy that brought me breakfast in bed this morning, and also developed the wonderful theory that dark chocolate is necessary to my recovery. No really, it's very scientific.

This is the sweet boy that does his very best to take care of me, no matter how hard it gets.

I generally tend to be a fairly independent person, but I feel very, very lucky to have someone so wonderful to depend on.

True story: I had meant to turn off comments on my last post, due to the Emo histrionics displayed. As such, I was pretty surprised to return to all the nice things you lovely people said. I had thought I didn't want any internet hugs, but it sure was nice to get them after all.

Since you guys apparently care about me, (which I didn't doubt, but it's always nice to be reminded of) I figure it's only fair to let you guys know that I did, shockingly enough, actually go to the doctor. I actually have bronchitis (and sinusitis), and he gave me antibiotics, which I am actually taking. With any luck, I might start feeling actually human again soon.

In conclusion, I love you guys, and I'm going back to sleep.

So the "Can't Keep Anything Down" virus from earlier this week seems to have set up an outpost in my lungs, just to add to the fun.

The roof is burning down with deadlines at my "Day Job", the loose ends of Otakon have been sucking every spare minute, and I finally realized today that I'm a whole heck of a lot sicker than I was letting myself believe.

So, in case you haven't heard from me, I might be dead.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Con has left the building.

Otakon, Otakon Otakon.

Otakon?

Otakon.

About 5 people will find this hilarious, and no one else will get it.

Back story: Me, on the left? President of Otakorp Inc, the parent company behind Otakon, one of the largest Anime Conventions in the country. On the right? The president of the SPJA, the parent company behind Anime Expo, and traditionally our biggest rivals. Things haven't always been the friendliest between the two organizations, but I think we're on pretty good footing these days!