I really haven't been updating lately mostly because I don't have much to update about.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving (though it doesn't really feel like it). I have decided to try and make this cake for Thanksgiving. I hope I don't screw it up too much.

I bought Heart no Kuni no Alice last Friday. They still haven't shipped it yet :(

Yesterday my mom and sister went shopping. When they came home, however, they had a brand-new TV. It was a LCD HDTV but after getting it all hooked up today, were returning it. The picture looks like crap. It looks so grainy. The old non-HD one we had set up before getting this one looks a lot better. Apparently the PS2 games look like crap on it too.

Ami also bought me some new speakers which is good because I really needed them. I was going to ask for some for Christmas but forgot. For the past couple of months, the right speaker was completely out.

My mom also bought me season 4 of The Office and a new coat.

We also dropped our old phone/internet and TV company and switched. Our old TV didn't work for the longest time, not even local channels (because we hadn't installed the converter box) since I hooked up the PS2 even if we hooked everything up to how it was before, the TV wouldn't work. Now we have TV again. The internet seems just about as fast as it was.

I have to work from 5:30 AM - 1:30 PM on Friday. Eww. At least it'll go fast but I'll be so tired once I get off work.

Oh and Ami taught me how to do manga-coloring so I've been doing a lot of that. It's nice since like no one makes Angelique, La Corda, & HnKnA icons. Now I can make my own.

AMI MADE ME A NEW LAYOUT!!

I've been thinking about getting a new one this week since I'm not really comfortable using Japanese fanart so now instead of having a VOCALOID one, I have a La Corda one using official art.

Lately I've been interested in Heart no Kuni no Alice which is weird since I thought it was the dumbest thing I've ever heard of when I first saw it. I've been looking at fanart and watching videos for it (while trying to find a walkthrough or something idk). It looks really interesting. I was hoping LJ would have a comm or something I could join for it but no such luck.

I was going to buy it next week until I found out it costs $75 for the PS2 version so that will probably be waiting until AFTER Christmas. It supposedly has a manga which I didn't find out about until like 10 minutes ago. I'll have to look for it.

EDIT: I FOUND IT!! I FOUND CHAPTERS 1-9 ALL SCANLATED!! HELL YEAH!!!

I'm thinking I should lay off reading Helter Skelter for a while.

Helter Skelter is about the Tate & LaBianca murders that were carried out by members of the Manson family in 1969.

For people not familiar with the cases members of the Manson family entered the Sharon Tate residence in August and brutally stabbed and shot her and 4 other people who were at the residence. A day or two later the same thing happened to the LaBianca residence, leaving 7 people dead.

Right now I'm about 200 pages into the book. Last night, however, I had a horrible nightmare in which a very scary man tried to break into my house and stab everyone. It was very realistic but thankfully I woke up before the man had a chance to get into the house.

It was very scary. I never have nightmares, either.

The wake & funeral is set for this Sunday and Monday meaning I'm going to miss two out of three days of pay. I hope they let me off work. I'll probably have to work next weekend now too. I probably should go in kind of early tomorrow.

I'm not sure of how this is going to work. It sounds like we might leave Saturday night (I work from 3-10 on Saturday and come back some time on Monday. So now I have to talk to my dad about taking the dogs until then which he already said he would do. I still feel bad though making him watch them.

It also sounds like we'll be staying at a relatives house which I also hate doing more than anything. Part of me almost wants to tell mom that I'll pay for a hotel room up there as long as we don't have to stay with relatives. It's always way awkward staying in someone's house especially if you don't really know them.

I also spent $60 buying new clothes since I do not own any dress clothes.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for 4+ hour car ride. I kind of want to bring Helter Skelter to read but I feel that it is not really appropriate. I'll have to find something to do because it is very boring up there.

Plus the appraisal wasn't canceled, it was just moved back to Thursday. It seems like a long time until you think we'll be gone until Monday.

I'm seriously stressing out. I suppose I should organize my CD collection or do some cleaning or something to stop stressing me out.

Edit: I found my credit card that Wells Fargo has sent me over a month ago finally in the exact spot I thought I put it. I had already looked there like three times and didn't find it so I was panicking. This takes some stress off since if for some reason I go over my Christmas budget I always have that credit card as a back-up. Though I will avoid putting anything on it unless for some reason I really have to.

My Great Grandma died today.

My mom just called about an hour ago, crying. I feel horrible because I don't know how to make her feel better. I basically let her talk and then offered to buy her some lunch since Ami and I were already making a trip into town.

It sounds like the funeral will be either Monday or Tuesday so for now the appraisal is canceled. That being said, I still should try working on the house some more this weekend.

My Great Grandma is not doing to well.

Yesterday my mom came in to work to buy some stuff for our house and found me doing returns and said she had bad news. I thought maybe something happened to either the cats or China and Corona. She started crying and said that something is wrong with Great Grandma and her kidneys are shutting down. I don't really know Great Grandma so I'm not as upset about it as I would be if it was someone I was really close to, but my mom was really close with her. So my mom seems to be planning on going down there (maybe this weekend?). I feel so bad for my mom though. She really loved Great Grandma.

In other more positive note, I have no idea what I'm going to post for Dokimimi today as I only have one song picked out and wasn't even looking for new songs because I've been busy working on the house.



I'm also in love with this song. I might buy his CD tomorrow.

The house is going well though mostly because of Ami. I don't get how she can stand painting all of the time. I tried painting the hallway and I got sick of it so fast. The painting is almost done everywhere except the kitchen so we can start the flooring soon. The appraisal has been moved back to this Monday.

Someone posted an interesting discussion on why Western fans prefer female vocals in jpop when in Japan, they don't seem to have a preference. Many of the answers were on there were quite stupid. People said men were vocalists were generally horrible singers that don't have much talent.

Seriously that annoys the crap out of me. Are these people only listening to JE or something (and I'm not bashing JE, I do like some music from JE)? Japan has very many worthwhile vocalists, both male and female. What about Hirai Ken, Moriyama Naotaro, Kubota Toshinobu, etc. Are they not worth your time because they aren't on covers of fashion magazines month after month and generally avoid the spotlight? That's not even groups. Seriously what about groups like Gospellers, CHEMISTRY, Dragon Ash, Mr.Children, ORANGE RANGE, Southern All Stars, KICK THE CAN CREW, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kobukuro, Yuzu, Porno Graffitti, etc (and these are just ones I'm naming off the top of my head). idk I just don't get it when people refuse to give someone's music a try based on the singers gender.

This has bothered me about jpop for a long time but why do fans of female vocalists sit and trash the other ones. I remember years ago when I was into Ayu there were fights between the Ayu fans and Koda Kumi fans, fights with the Otsuka Ai fans, fights with the Utada Hikaru fans etc. I kind of forgot about it until I went to Meg's profile on last.fm and saw people bashing Aira Mitsuki's fans. Aira Mitsuki's fans were also doing the same to Meg's fans. I don't get it. Are you only allowed to like one female vocalist or something? You can't like both Meg and Aira Mitsuki? I'll never understand this.

My mom wants the house appraised and she planned to have a person come out the week right after deciding it.

So we have someone coming here on Thursday at noon.

Basically I've worked all week since we found out so when I come home I am tired and exhausted and don't feel like cleaning. Anyways today is my day off but I'll have to spend all day cleaning. Between today and tomorrow my sister and I somehow have to do like 20 loads of laundry, put the hardwood flooring in, finish painting, finish cleaning the basement, finish the dishes, clean the end closet out, etc. Ami and I pretty much have to clean the whole house today and tomorrow. I also have to rip up my carpeting, put hardwood flooring in, and paint my own room. Plus I have work tomorrow so once again I'll probably tired and exhausted. Seriously, I hope she moves this back because obviously we are not going to get this all done.

This sucks.

Edit: It got bumped back to next Wednesday at 3 PM. That gives us plenty of time.

Just lately I've been thinking about starting my own online radio station.

I think it would be really fun to run a Japanese oldies station (or maybe a VOCALOID one). I don't think I would as interested in Japanese oldies if it weren't for J-Fan Radio's Oldies Hour every Monday night. I got to hear many different artists that way. Of course everything I would play would be from my own personal collection.

I was looking up how to put one together with this one site and it sounds like you listen to it on iTunes or Winamp and it plays but I don't want to be stuck only listening to Japanese oldies and I want it to always play even if my computer is off. I was looking at live365 but I'm not sure if you pay for that one or not. Maybe you do if you don't want ads or something? Anyways, with them it sounds like you create your own playlist and I don't think you have to be listening to it for it to play.

Yesterday something scary happened. Each time China and Corona are good dogs and go potty outside, they each get a bit of hotdog as a treat. Last night I gave them their treats and China started acting odd. She ate her portion of the hotdog too fast and started choking. She kept trying to get up and falling over and I was trying to rub her throat and hit her back to get the hotdog out. Luckily my mom heard me screaming that China was choking and ran over and managed to get the hotdog out. Still it was so scary. I kept an eye on her all night to make sure she was alright. Luckily she is perfectly fine however I have not gave her another hotdog since then and have been giving her lunch meat instead.

I got back home yesterday. Luckily I took today off work too because I'm exhausted. I really missed the cats and dogs so it's nice to see them again.

On Saturday Ami and I went both to Kinokuniya and Book Off again. I bought 16 CDs at Book Off. The clearance CDs I bought this time were Tahara Toshihiko's DOUBLE "T", Hikaru GENJI's (333) Thank you, B'z's BREAK THOUGH and MARS, Nakayama Miho's Merry Merry, Hamada Shogo's EDGE OF THE KNIFE, FATHER'S SON, CLUB SURF & SNOWBOUND, and WASTED TEARS, Sugiyama Kiyotaka's realtime to paradise, Yamashita Tatsuro's ON THE STREET CORNER 3, Matsutoya Yumi's Delight Slight Light KISS, and LOVE WARS, and Moriyama Naotaro's Aratanaru Koshinsho o Motomete. They were all only $3 a piece. Not bad since they would cost me $30 new or $20+ if I had to buy them off Y!JA.

I also bought Ozaki Yutaka's SEVENTEEN'S MAP. That was not clearance but it cost me only $10. I've always wanted to own that CD. I also looked everywhere for Yamashita Tatsuro's RIDE ON TIME but they did not have that one.

I still wish I would have bought more. They had several more clearance CDs I should have bought. I left some FLAME and Lead CDs, some Nakayama Miho, some TUBE, Yuuyu's Collection Best, Onyanko Club Best, some Kiyotaka Sugiyama, some Porno Graffitti, some Yamashita Tatsuro, some B'z, some Matsuda Seiko, some Ozaki Yutaka, some Matsutoya Yumi, etc. I could have bought more but I was having trouble carrying around 16 CDs as it was. I guess I'll have to pay more for those online later then. I also forgot to look for more Jackson vibe, Sakura Merry Men, Kariyushi 58, and Thmlues. People who live in New York and California who have access to Book Off at any time are so lucky :(

I'm having a lot of fun in New York ♥

We arrived here at 3 PM or 4 PM our time checked into our hotel and walked around looking for the Japanese bookstores. We forgot the addresses at the hotel so we only managed to find the Kinokuniya. I got to see Parson's school of design. We got Chipotle for dinner and went back to the hotel. I was having trouble sleeping because I was looking forward to going to Book Off (yes, I was looking forward to going that much).

On Wednesday I got like 5 hours of sleep and Ami & I went to Book Off where we spent an hour and a half. I barely looked at the regularly priced CDs because I felt kind of rushed. I did manage to find Kubota Toshinobu's THE BADEST II, Checker' Blue Moon Stone, WINK's Twin Memories, Moritaka Chisato's ROCK ALIVE, Tunnels' Gamushara, Ishikawa Hitomi's Machibuse, Watanabe Minayo's WILL~MINAYO SELECIONS~, Ozaki Yutaka's THE DAY volume 2, Watanabe Marina's SUNNY SIDE, Kawai Sonoko's Dancin' In The Light,2 Otokogumi CDs (don't know the names yet), Jackson vibe's Jackson vibe, Yamashita Tatsuro's ARTISAN and TREASURES album. I managed to get them for $3 a piece. I wanted to buy more Yamashita Tatsuro and some Matsuda Seiko, TUBE, Sugiyama Kiyotaka and a couple more but I didn't want spend all of my money at once.

We went back to Book Off yesterday and I still felt rushed but I bought Kubota Toshinobu's BUMPIN' VOYAGE, GROOVIN', and BONGA WANGA and Southern All Stars' Sakura and Young Love.

Today we went to Mitsuwa. I didn't buy much but it was fun. I had curry for lunch. Went to Kinokuniya but didn't find anything.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Book Off and Asahiya to take my time looking and make sure I get anything I want before we leave on Sunday. I still have plenty of money left so I can get many of the things I want. I'll post more about the rest of the trip later when we get back.

I GOT A TWITTER.

I never thought I'd get one but lately I feel like updating about stupid stuff/updating with 1 liners so it may actually be perfect for me. idk. I've only had it for like an hour and I already have someone following me though I don't even who this person is.

Actually I'm just posting so I can post my to-do list for both today and tomorrow.

★ FINISH DISHES
★ POST YOU ARE MY IDOL 80'S TO BLOG
★ POST WINK'S MEMORIES 1988-1996 ON BLOG
★ E-MAIL MOM ADDRESSES
★ GO THROUGH REMAINING VOCALOID SONGS & RENAME/DOWNLOAD
★ ORGANIZE MY MUSIC
★ ORGANIZE BOOKMARKS
★ FINISH REMAINING LAUNDRY
★ SWEEP LIVING ROOM, KITCHEN AND DINING ROOM
★ BUY/PUT TOGETHER BOOKSHELF (?)
★ UNINSTALL & REINSTALL FIREFOX (?)
★ CLEAN OUT FRONT END CLOSET
★ GIVE CHINA & CORONA BATH
★ BRUSH CHINA & CORONA'S TEETH
★ CLIP CHINA & CORONA'S CLAWS
★ E-MAIL AUCTION WINNER
★ TAKE CAT LITTER OUT OF CAR
★ RE-WASH CARRY-ON(?) BAG
★ TAKE OUT MONEY FROM BANK
★ ORGANIZE PURSE
★ FIND DOG COLLARS
★ HANG UP CLOTHES
★ PAY CREDIT CARD BILL
★ PAY STUDENT LOAN BILL
★ GET DOG FOOD READY

I'll probably add a bunch more to that but that's what I have for now.

On the 10th in New York a lot of the stores and boutiques will be open until 11 PM in honor of fashion week. It also sounds like you have a chance to meet some of the designers. I think that's cool. I'd really love to see the designer for Christian Dior. Seriously, I love Christian Dior ♥

I slacked-off on my to-do list yesterday since I was so tired from work. I have today off so I hope to get a little more accomplished.

★ DO 2 BLOG POSTS TODAY
★ GO THROUGH LAUNDRY IN ROOM
★ DO TWO LOADS OF LAUNDRY
★ CLEAN OUT DOG CRATE
★ FOLD SEVERAL LOADS OF LAUNDRY
★ CLEAN LITTER BOX
★ DO 20 DISHES
★ PULL OUT DRESSER
★ PUT FOLDED CLOTHES AWAY
★ START PACKING CARRY-ON
★ TAKE OUT GARBAGE
★ TAKE PUT RECYCLING

Ami & I went shopping today after work and I found the cutest Vespa notebook. It's orange and it says "Vespa" across it and shows a Vespa scooter. I was dumb and bought it but I decided it to keep track of things in New York.

We go to New York a week from Tuesday and I'm starting to really look forward to it. I still can't believe they let me have the weekend off from work. It turns out we will be there during fashion week and the hotel is kind of by Times Square and several Japanese bookstores.

I'm mostly looking forward to the Japanese bookstores and bakeries and visiting Little Italy. It sounds like we might go to New Jersey to go to Mitsuwa.

My dad will be taking China and Corona for the week and my aunt Lana will be coming over to take care of the cats. Though I know they will be fine I'm still nervous to leave them alone for that long. Because of Lana coming over we have to really get the house clean. I also need to do inventory of what to pack.

Anyways...

( TO-DO LIST )

My to-do list is rather small because I am probably forgetting a million things right now.

I should probably look for my portable CD player if I still have it so I can listen to any CDs I buy.

I just won $5! SWEET!

I bought some Fruit Roll-ups at the grocery store because they were discounted for $1 and I hadn't had any in a long time.

I finished them today and was going to throw the box away but I noticed something that looked like a debit card inside. Then I read the side of the box that says if you got a card you are a winner and if not, it'll say "try again" or something.

I'm still kind of skeptical but if I really did win $5 then that's just awesome.

I'll have to read more about it.

Anyways I never win anything so yeah ♥

So I've been playing Fatal Frame II lately but since the memory card didn't have enough room on it so I couldn't save it. I'd always got to where I got the first time I played and stop because what is the point in going further if I can't even save it.

Anyways at 10 pm tonight I got fed up with that since I want to be able to save and go further in the game. I get home ready to play and then Fat-Man gets out of the house so Ami and I spend a hour before we are able to catch him. Then finally I get to play and I get to the part where the ghost is behind the door and you just have open the door (and if you are fast, get a picture of it to get some points). I try taking the pic but my aim was off and then I couldn't get through the door. It kept alerting me that a ghost there but it wouldn't show up in pictures no matter which type of film I used.

It's odd because the first time I played it I didn't get a picture of the ghost at all but it still let me through the door. I wonder if I forgot to select the easy game.

I should try it again. Anyways the first part of the game isn't all that scary anymore since I've seen it like 5 times. I've even been playing with all of the lights off too. Not that it is that big of an accomplishment since you are pretty much forced to play with the lights off because any lights on nearby reflect on the tv screen due to the game's dark graphics.

lmao I sound like a gamer.

sockkiah tagged me!

Firstly: If you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question.

Secondly: Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.

( Meme time )

This post is for me to keep track of CDs/musicians to look for when we go to New York. Honestly though I'm not expecting to find much of it.

This will also be a place for me to keep track of my music blog requests.

**indicates requested.

-Sakura Merry Men (サクラメリーメン)
-Thmlues (スムルース)
-Yosuke@HOME (ヨースケ@HOME)
-Kimaguren (キマグレン)
-Kariyushi 58 (かりゆし58)
-Ikeda Kouji (池田幸司)
-Kuno Shinji (クノシンジ)
-Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ) / KICK OFF
-Okada Yukiko (岡田有希子) / Jyuugatsu no Ningyo (十月の人魚)**
-Oginome Yoko (荻野目洋子) / 246 Connection (246コネクション)**
-Okamoto Maiko (岡本舞子) / Fascination (ファッシネイション) & Heart no Tobira (ハートの扉)
-Qlair / Sanctuary, Citron, & Les Filles**
-Ozaki Yutaka (尾崎豊)
-WINK**
-Yamashita Tatsuro (山下達郎)
-Matsuda Seiko (松田聖子)**
-Saito Yuki (斉藤由貴)**
-Chiba Mika (千葉美加)**
-Yellow Magic Orchesta (YMO)
-Sugiyama Kiyotaka (杉山清貴)
-Hayami Yu (早見優)**
-Tunnels (とんねるず)
-Honda Minako (本田美奈子) / Cancel**
-CHAGE and ASKA
-Anzen Chitai (安全地帯)
-Hikaru Genji (光GENJI)

I'll keep editing this when I think of more.

Wow, I'm updating like crazy lately.

I found very few of the songs so it'll look like I'll have to track the singles down.

But I found something amazing!!!! I was looking for Kitayama Takeshi clips on YouTube and found the first performance that I had ever seen of him.



I remember downloading the 2005 Kouhaku Utagassen and was watching it until I got to his performance of his single Otoko no Defune (though I don't remember the other people in the background). I loved both the performance and song so much that I kept rewinding the video to rewatch it. I must have done that at least 15 times. Shortly after bought the single which was the first enka single I've ever bought.

Anyways is that Kitajima Saburo behind him? I can barely tell because the crappy quality. Anyways I've been neglecting enka artists lately :(

If I can find even 1 enka album or single while in New York's BOOK OFF, I will die a happy woman especially if it's Hikawa Kiyoshi, Kitayama Takeshi or Komura Miki ♥

Sometimes I forget how awesome Nico Douga and Nico Sound are.

I usually just use both to download VOCALOID and UTAU music but very occasionally it occurs to me to look up stuff I have been looking to download forever and never managed to find.

Like I adore this one Yosuke@HOME song but can't find it anywhere and I finally thought to search for his music on Nico Douga and the PV came up. I was tempted to download it but since he isn't all that popular I decided to wait and buy the single instead to support him.

Now I was sorting Music Stations 111 summer songs and found SMAP's Aoi Inazuma which made me think of searching for Hayashida Kenji's version on ND and sure enough it was there and I was able to download both that and his version of $10. I had been looking for those two songs for at least a couple of years.

Now I'm thinking of other songs I've always wanted and never could find like MiyaBi's Daitan Suteki, Sano Motoharu's SOMEDAY, Minami Aoyama Shoujo Kagekidan's SWEET AND TOUGHNESS, Aladdin's Kanzenmuketsu no Rock 'n Roller, anything by Kitayama Takeshi, Tamao & Nakagawa-ke's Osaka Paradise, Komura Miki's Yappari Osaka, and Hashi Yukio's Hanabi Ondo and Wakamo no Komori Uta.

I especially want this song:



I hope I can find them all. Wish me luck!