Orange Juice, Anyone?

I forgot to mention the crazy dream I had last night. It was long, and most of it was fairly uninteresting. The part I wanted to share was near the end when I changed from myself to Winry from Full Metal Alchemist. Don't know why that happened, but at one point I was no longer myself, but Winry. Anyway, I/Winry was looking for Ed for some reason (but really, when is she in the show and not looking for Ed?) and I ended up in an indoor jungle (don't ask me, I don't know either) and I saw Riza and Roy and some General guy sitting under a palm tree. Roy and the General were sitting at a table and there was a fruit juicer on the table between them. (I know that this showed up simply because I had been using a juicer instruction manual for reference on a project I worked on the day before). So, all the anime characters were in 3-d, but they still looked exactly like anime characters--same proportions, etc. Did you know that anime characters are extremely freaky when they're not flat? I seriously couldn't even look at Roy very long because he totally freaked me out. But I just found it really amusing that the whole time he was talking to me and sucking up to the general, he was sitting there juicing an orange. This was the fancy model of juicer that has a pulp adjuster on it too, so I'm sure Sheridan would have been pleased. He could set the pulp adjuster to hella lotta pulp. That would have made his day.

Yeah...random.

What's Outside my Window

Please forgive me for not knowing how to use this camera (it's the one from work) and not knowing how to make it focus manually. But I just had to share this. I've never seen such a big praying mantis so up close and personal. Scale is difficult to discern from this photo, but it was a little bigger than my hand. Thank God it's on the other side of the window from me. It gives me the jibblies...

I think I'm turning Brittish. I really think so.

I have been reading a lot of books by Brits lately between all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books and Harry Potter. Add to that the fact that I've been watching Monty Python's Flying Circus and I think I'm a bit of a lost cause... I'm starting to use Brittish slang (at least in my head) and I'm having a hard time resisting speaking with an accent. Brings me back to the days of pit band (yes, pit band, not orchestra--I went to a rather small high school) and My Fair Lady. "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." I was constantly tempted to speak with an accent during that time as well.

So, anyway, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is one of the best Harry Potter books so far. Can't decide if I like it better than the third one or not. It had everything I'd wanted, some I didn't want, but predicted, and extra surprises to boot. I laughed, I cried, I cursed. And I read it in like two days. Yeah... It's over....wah!!! I want the next one now!!! And from what I've heard, she's already written it too. I won't go into spoilers since I promised this post would be spoiler free, but it is tempting... Okay, I'll spoil one itsy bitsy tiny thing. U-No-Poo. I won't explain. You can just imagine what the hell that's about. The only thing I'll say was that I totally cracked up when it was mentioned.

On a complete sidenote, I have to admit I've gotten addicted to Neopets. It's silly and childish and an awful lot of fun. I have a green Ixi named Stifremin (Jalapanous for "it's fresh and minty) and he is delighted at the moment because I've spoiled him and played with him a lot. He's also full because I just fed him an orange bat cookie for breakfast. Yummy. I'm kinda pissed though because I didn't realize you were stuck with your neohome where it is after you'd signed up for your account and I totally didn't pay any attention to it because I thought it was changeable. So, I've got a neohome in the most boring place of all--not where I wanted to be. Oh well... They say that someday they plan to offer the option of changing your neohome.



Yeah, so I'm easily addicted. Don't look at me like that...

Maybe my pet should be Brittish?

This time I mean it

Discovery has reached orbit. Good luck, and come home safely.

Stay tuned for my spoiler-free commentary on Harry Potter in my next post...

Just kidding

So, the launch of Discovery has been called off for today because of a sensor not functioning properly. No go for launch. Better luck next time.

Return to Flight

The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch at 3:51 p.m. EDT today. You can watch the countdown until liftoff on NASA's website: Return to Flight

It's been two and a half years since the Colombia disaster, and now, finally, NASA's sending another shuttle into space. You can prepare and test and inspect and double check all you want, but nothing is ever 100% safe, especially something as risky as space travel. There are simply too many variables and unknowns. But the astronauts are willing to put their lives on the line in the name of science, so if they are willing to take the risk I say we should let them. There are still so many things in the universe we don't understand, so much territory that has never been explored.

So good luck, Discovery, and come home safely.

Happy Shish Kabob!

My friend, shivaindis said that this comic needed to be made. I have fulfilled my duty and made it. It's brief and brilliant. Well, maybe not brilliant. It's rather stupid, actually. But at least it is brief.

So, recently homestarrunner.com made an amusing toon about the fourth of july called "Happy Fireworks." You might want to view it here before continuing--otherwise you might be kind of lost.

So my friends and I were discussing Final Fantasy VII and character deaths, and how Aeris wouldn't be as popular as she is if she hadn't died since her character is basically a Mary Sue (for non fanfic readers, a Mary Sue is a character who is a little too perfect in every way--there's a bit more to it than that, but that's good enough for now). We even went so far as to say Aeris isn't much more exciting than a piece of cardboard. Then we remembered "Happy Fireworks" and the rest is history. Add to the cardboard thing that it's a common thing in roleplaying games for the main character to never talk though everyone always understands what they "say" and replies to them, and we have a strange scenario.

You can view my mini comic silliness here.

Office Supply Fetish

Is it weird to love office supplies as much as I do? Because I do—love them, that is.

Mom shared a coupon book for Office Depot (or "Office Despot" as my dad is wont to call it) and I found one I thought I could use (a coupon for Sharpies and I had been wanting some of those Sharpie retractables ever since I saw a commercial for them and almost had a heart attack). So, I asked mom if she wanted to go with me to the store (and office supplies aren't normally her thing but I so rarely ask her to go shopping with me that she couldn't refuse).

I was in heaven. I purposely avoid office supply stores because I know they are my weakness (trips to get design projects bound back in school were often more fun than they should have been because I would wander aimlessly around the store finding cute office supplies I couldn't refuse). But, I think the time away from such stores makes my excitement even worse when I actually do shop at them.

So, I got giddy... Over these cool notebooks with elastic to keep them shut (which come in charming "choco-latte" color schemes, btw), a soft Five Star pencil bag that's made to stand up with see-through mesh on the bottom half, and mini Sharpies in a variety of colors. I decided the retractables were not the best idea since they would dry out more quickly and they were also far larger than they needed to be--and the mini Sharpies were just too friggin' cute!!! They even come with hooks at the top so you can put them on your keychain. Is that not the cutest thing ever? Now I can label my burned cds in a variety of beautiful colors.

I can't explain why I get so excited about office supplies. It seems almost wrong somehow. Yet, I can't help it. I just feel so organized and nerdy cool when I've got fresh notebooks, pens, mechanical pencils and organization tools. (But why, oh why can't I find those neat little circular paper clips? They're so much cooler than regular paper clips). Maybe it's because shopping for such things brings me back to the days of "back to school" time when finding your cool folders and notebooks (and trapper keepers) for the next year was so important. Maybe it just seemed more important at my school because we wore uniforms--but no, I think I've always been obssessed with it just because.

Honestly, I think office supplies are one of my favorite things in the universe. The satisfaction one gets from writing with a really good pen that just seems to glide over the paper like butter, or, likewise, of writing on really good paper that just feels rich and textured. The joy one feels in looking at a freshly organized desk with all the papers, pens and pencils, paperclips, postits, etc, each in their own little nook within various organizational shelves and drawers. Ah, it's enough to make me say "ah" again.

So, in conclusion: Office Supplies. Try them. You'll like them. And so will your desk.

Why We Love Tori-san

What a wonderful coincidence. I was planning on posting a picture on my blog today and blogger has just added the upload picture option to their blogs, saving me the hassle of putting it on my ftp server and making a link, etc, etc.

Anyway, I just purchased Fruits Basket Book 10 yesterday (in English—I already had it in Japanese) and I've already read it. It's getting into the part of the manga that was written after the series was made, so it's nice to know exactly what's going on, especially in the scenes with Akito. I really enjoyed the bit about Mayu and Hatori (obviously, since the picture above is from that section) because it gives me hope that Hatori will be happy someday! I was kind of surprised to find Shigure isn't as much of a player as he always acts like he is, and he also made me happy by his lack of evilness in the way he tried to hook up Hatori and Mayu. I mean, he's evil, but not irredeemably so. Akito, on the other hand, is a cold, evil bitch. It's still too freaky for me to think of Akito as a girl...shiver.

I have to proclaim how much I love Natsuki Takaya though (the creator of Fruits Basket). She is my hero. Not only has she written one of the best, most emotional and hilarious stories I've ever read/watched, but I can also relate to who she is in real life. I have to share a couple quotes from her Blah Blah Blah sections:
“Anyway, it doesn't really matter what I write here so—There are times when I cry suddenly, like turning on the lights, without caring what's around me, and times when I can't do anything but cry. Afterwards, I like to happily eat rice.”
--I feel like I should try the rice thing sometime since I've already got the crying part down pat.
“When I was little...I thought that if you swallowed the seeds, a watermelon would grow. I also worried that if I swallowed gum, it would grow too. Thinking about it now, I really wonder why...”

Well, I know there was something else I was planning on talking about in this post, but now I've completely forgotten. So, for now, I'll say adieu.

5 Minute Argument

"An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a definite proposition . . . an argument is an intellectual process . . . contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says."

Yes, I know, I'm on a Monty Python kick this week. I've found a way to make everything somehow relate. That aside, this quote makes a point I feel to be very true.

I enjoy debates—well thought out discussions of a subject, with different people taking different points of view and trying to defend them . . . not because they are truly personally attached to any particular point of view, or because they are even angry or annoyed at all. An argument just for the sake of arguing, not one tied to emotions. I enjoy them, but that doesn't mean I'm always in the mood for them. They can be tiring in their own way if they go on too long or if your wits aren't up to the challenge.

Arguments based on pure emotion though are always exhausting and often leave you feeling weary of the world in general. Rarely are they uplifting, unless they were actually caused by some completely unrelated emotions that came out in an unexpected way. These kind of arguments, fueled by emotions which have nothing to do with the subject of the argument, can be a great stress reliever, but you better not pick your argument with someone who doesn't understand that you truly love them despite it all and that you're just blowing off steam. It's also a bad idea to always target the same person in such arguments without showing them positive attention as well. No one wants to be your whipping boy, and no matter how many times you apologize for your outbursts or how much the person understands your need for them, the constant bashing will wear the relationship down to nothing. In any case, it's always better to avoid one of these arguments if possible.

Now we come to my least favorite form of argument—though I admit I've certainly participated in a number of these kinds of arguments myself—contradiction. It can be fun sometimes, when both parties know it's just a game and are just being light-hearted about it, but this is not always the case. Contradiction happens naturally because not everyone agrees on everything, so, unless they are a yes man who always agrees just to get along, people will have opposite views from time to time. The problem comes in when the contradiction descends into a childish game of opposites where one or more parties always choose the other point of view. This can be a matter of pride, an attempt to squash another's pride by making them feel as if they are constantly wrong. It can be just a childish game with no other purpose other than to piss someone off. Or it can be a simple manifestation of a person's bad mood; they're feeling left out so they're going to be a martyr and always be the one on the other side of the fence whether its how they really view things or not.

I'll admit, I'm no stranger to contradiction. I'm probably better at it than I should be. But I also know how it feels to be on the other side. It, frankly, sucks. Especially when the contradictions are not a one day, bad mood thing. Sometimes people just rub each other the wrong way. I understand this. But it can be very wearying when you are the constant target of contradiction from a single person or group of people. No matter what you say, no matter how much it seems to align with what the other person has just said or seems to believe, they will contradict you. They will say you're wrong again and again and again, and then, or someone else, will turn around and say almost exactly the same thing you said and act like it's an original idea.

Like I said, this is no problem when it's an occasional occurence. You should feel honored that this person feels comfortable enough with you as a friend/relative that they take their life's frustrations out on you, knowing that you will forgive them. On the other hand, if this abuse goes on too long, the "victim" (I know that's probably too harsh of a word, but I couldn't think of a better one) simply gets tired and a little bitter. They become sensitized to what the other person says so that comments which normally wouldn't be that big of a deal build up and small things the other person says instantly bother them. This is why families tend to argue a lot when they've been around each other too much. They are sensitized to each other, so they instantly react to comments which they could easily ignore, or even laugh at in other circumstances.

Anyway, time's up. I'm afraid if you want more nonsensical rambling, you'll have to pay for another five minutes. But I doubt anyone's going to do that. I ramble enough as it is . . .

And now... The Larch.

And now...

The Larch.


I feel about as exciting as a block of wood today. I suppose that's okay so long as I'm not too knotty. HA!

See what I'm talking about? Yeah. I must have had some bran flakes this morning or something, because I feel about as interesting as Sinclair. But, I suppose that's likely to happen if you get up super early to renew your car tag and then get to work super early too. And then you sit there thinking, "Wow, I'm really tired. Why am I awake?" And then you make a post about it so you can share you boringness and exhaustion with the whole world—or at least the two or three people who actually read your blog.

But, if all goes well, I should be going to see Howl's Moving Castle tonight again, and this time I should be able to understand what people are saying, though I don't think I could enjoy it any more than I did the first time in Japan. Still, I think the excellence of the first watching had something to do with the setting...and the mochi ice cream bar I smuggled into the theater. I can't wait until the scene with the bath towel and the slime. It sounds disgusting, but it's definitely my favorite scene in the movie. I would say more, but I don't want to spoil it too much for the tender ears of theCallowQueen.

Anyway, here's to this day being better than the last! If it isn't, I just might cry. wah!


And now...

The Larch.


PS. If you're wondering where the hell the larch thing came from, it's from Monty Python's flying circus, so it, of course, makes no sense. Just imagine it in a Brittish accent. You can't go wrong.

Do You Ever Wonder Why You Even Bother?

Sometimes I do. I try so hard sometimes and it just doesn't make any difference. I'm misinterpreted, people think the worst of me and jump to conclusions that I'm trying to be mean. I don't understand it. Evidently I don't know how to communicate with people very well, or maybe I just have a knack for pissing people off without meaning to. Sometimes I'm just stupid and push people's buttons without knowing they're there—though I suppose I should know better.

Either way, it kind of frustrates me that anyone who knows me would think I would mean to hurt them or intentionally say things to upset them. Do they really know me at all? Anyone who does know me would know that's the last thing I mean to do. Good intentions have rarely done me any good though because people always seem to assume my intentions are bad. Sometimes I just get tired of it. It seems like I just keep trying to get past this flaw—figure out what it is about how I say things that upsets people so I can fix it. I try and try and never get anywhere. Every time I think I've made some progress and everything's going great, I do it again.

So, I'm sorry world. I'm sorry to anyone I've hurt without meaning to. I'm sorry for feeling sorry for myself. I'm sorry I'm overly sensitive about things.

This isn't a cry for sympathy—in fact, I don't really want a ton of comments tell me "was it me?" or "I'm sorry if I upset you" because its highly unlikely the person involved will ever read this and respond anyway. The truth is, I just needed to vent. And I'm experiencing my most special time of the month which makes me extremely happy at the moment. It doesn't help that I've been on the verge of depression for no logical reason whatsoever the last couple weeks either.

In other words, I know I'm overreacting and whining. I'm sorry for that too. But, I'll get over it. Thanks for letting me vent about it though! (yes, she's thanking a frickin' blog) I feel better now... ;)

On a happier note though, I had a great time taking pictures with the CallowQueen, MathBuddha and MathBuddha's mom last night. Lot's of fun. Now I get to see if any of them came out... Cross your fingers!!! If they did come out, I'll have to christen my flickr account with some piccies then I'll have to make a new post with some linkies.

(If you couldn't tell, things are slow at work this morning...)

It's the Arts

This post isn't really about anything in particular. I just wanted to have an excuse to share how much I enjoyed an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus I recently watched with my dad. I enjoyed the skit about a certain little known composer in particular. His name was...

Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-
fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-
thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-
grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-
bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nurnburger-bratwustle-gernspurten-
mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shonedanker-kalbsfleisch-
mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.

It is now my goal, nay, my duty to memorize this name. Let's all do our best!

P.S. I watched two more episodes of Scrapped Princess and I'm thinking Shannon kicks some major ass. Also, upon rewatching some fifth season Babylon 5 episodes, I've realized that Delenn really is a heartless bitch to Lennier. She totally teases him. Bad Delenn! No...no, please...don't make the ugly face!!! But now I can't decide...should I call her Delenn or Russeau? Ah, that's easy. She'll always be Delenn, even when she's playing Russeau. "You have three choices. Run. Hide. Or Die," sounds an awful lot like, "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."

Legal Drug

I wonder how many search engines will pull up my blog with that post title…

Anyway, I'm not talking about CLAMP's manga by the same title. No, I'm talking about caffeine. No matter how you look at it, it's a drug, and the number of people addicted to it is mind boggling.

I think I'm joining their ranks. For a long time, I was picky about how I consumed my caffeine. I liked soda pop (Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb/Root Beer), the really syrupy kinds. I liked Mountain Dew too. I guess I shouldn't use past tense since I still like all of those drinks, but anyway. I started gaining weight and decided to switch to diet so I drink DDrP (Diet Dr. Pepper) and DSL (Diet Sunkist Lemonade) and now I've gotten into all the variety of diet root beers. As for hot drinks, I stuck with the really creamy, fattening crap, ie Frappucino, Cappucino, Espresso. I didn't like tea except for chai (though now I like green tea).

But now, I'm venturing into the world of real coffee. Damn those pod coffee machines that make single cups of coffee so easily. Damn Juan Valdez and his 100% pure colombian coffee, the Richest Coffee in the World™. Damn that fancy Japanese restaurant I went to that served coffee with real cream. Damn the coffee breath I will soon be sharing with the world. Damn damning things, just because I wanted to say “damn” again!

Yeah, so that's it. I'm hooked. I will never sleep again. But think of how much more I could get done…

Summer in the City

So, I'm the first one here at work and there is no air conditioning. And, according to weather.com we'll have a high of 88 degrees with 65% humidity.

Today is going to be a fun day. If I don't cut my head off by the end of the day because of the monster headache I can already feel coming on, it will be a miracle.

I don't want to hear any taunts of "Oh, it's so chilly in my office I had to put on a sweater" now. You will be putting your life in danger. ;)

A Little Advertisement...

Please don't hurt me, Adobe. I don't own you and I mean no harm. It's just a little parody...

Live What You Preach

This sunday, the pastor of our church announced that he would be leaving our parish. His mother is very ill and his duties to the parish were interfering with his duty to her as her son to take care of her. He is leaving for a good reason, but that doesn't make the change any easier.

We have been a part of St Agnes parish since we moved here ten years or so ago. It is not the closest church to us, so technically we should be going to a different one, but we fell in love with the environment, the people...and the pastor. Since Fr. Cullen is not the only priest at our parish, I don't necessarily see him every week, but the lessons he teaches in his homilies are so simple and yet so true and appropriate to my own life that I often feel as if he is talking directly to me. He has a way of reaching people, of making them feel important and loved individually while always reminding us that we are a community and that we are all here to help each other. I have never met a priest who was so down-to-earth and humble who could still communicate to me so effectively on a spiritual level. Unlike the pastor of the Catholic Campus Center I attended in college, Fr. Cullen stays true to the teachings of the church without losing sight of the most important thing: the people.
At many of the other churches where I have attended mass, I've felt as if the rituals were too elaborate and the sermons too metaphorical and out of reach. Fr. Cullen always manages to bring the message behind the scriptures into focus, making it salient for us in our lives now rather than setting it on a pedastal so high no one can see it clearly enough to know how it applies at all. You can tell that he genuinely cares for every person in the parish. He is always thinking of others, acknowledging their efforts and appreciating them for the work they do around the church.

Some priests wear their faith like a badge of honor to be shoved in other's faces. They put it on their chest as a sign of their holiness, but don't ever prove it with their actions. Fr. Cullen lives his faith. He doesn't brag, and he doesn't force it down your throat. He demonstrates what he belives by how he lives, and he shares it with you in common speech, as if you are a long-time friend having a conversation around the dinner table. And, in essence that is what the church is supposed to be about; a group of friends meeting around a dinner table, sharing spiritual food to sustain them through another week.

A church shouldn't be about a priest, so Fr. Cullen's leaving shouldn't change our parish. Still, I can't imagine his replacement equaling Fr. Cullen's impact on my life. He will still be around town, and maybe I'll run into him occasionally. But until then he will be missed.

Adobe Pueblo: The Design Suite of the Future

This is the direction progams are going.

With every new generation (6, 8, X, CS, MX, CS2, etc) the lines between what one program or another can do become blurred. Since Adobe has bought out Macromedia and is now the hog of design program companies everywhere (Quark, you can burn in hell), lets use it as an example.

Illustrator is a vector-based graphics program. You can use it for illustrations and logos and such things that need to be resized without becoming pixelated or losing quality. Photoshop is for digital imaging, like doctoring photos to take off that pimple on your nose, or making multilayered artwork with special effects, drop shadows, etc. InDesign is for page layout and allows you to import various photoshop and illustrator files and lay them out with text for a magazine, newsletter, flyer, poster, etc. These are very simplified descriptions, but they work for our purposes.

So, Photoshop is mostly for photos and images, BUT you can make text in it (useful if you want some cheesy effects like drop shadows) and Illustrator also allows you to use type (which makes sense considering type is vector-based) but it also allows you to import rasterized images (photoshop files) or actually rasterize artwork within it. In other words, if you wanted, you could make Illustrator work as a layout program instead of using InDesign. Conversely, InDesign and Photoshop also both allow you to make some vector-based illustration, so you could use them to a limited extent as a replacement for Illustrator. This is great for people who really only need to adjust their photos, but occasionally might like to add a caption or make a poster out of them. They only have to buy one program. For designers though, who need all of these capabilities, the overlap is useful for working on files from one program to another, but much of the overlap is redundant.

What this all boils down to are two different points. First, Adobe's programs have a lot of overlap, and this overlap has been growing with each successive version. Secondly, at what point will the overlap stop growing? When will we have—instead of a suite of programs—one huge, mega, multipurpose program? The trend suggests that someday this will happen. Still, it seems like poor marketing since, in order to make any money, the program would have to be extremely expensive, and people who only need one aspect of the program's abilities would be unable to justify the cost. So, part of me doubts that this “one program for everything” theory will ever come true. But even so...wouldn't it be freakin’ awesome?

Can you imagine a progam that allows you to do everything from designing logos to laying out a book to editing photographs to making webpages to building animated games? No more “make the logo in illustrator, the background in photoshop, layout the elements and type in QuarkXPress” or “make a layout, cut it apart and export it for web in photoshop, code it all in dreamweaver, add animated intro in flash.” No more computer crashing because you need five programs running in order to do all the steps without opening and closing programs fifty times.

And this is why my friend, neowolf, and I, dream that someday there will be an Adobe Pueblo, a house for all programs. (I'm sorry Quark, you're not invited.) Neither of us will be able to afford it, but wouldn't it be beautiful?

Interior Design Mad Libs

I'll admit, I've watched home redecorating shows from time to time. That's not why I'm redecorating my room. It has absolutely nothing to do with it. Really. I haven't been influenced in the least by all the room makeover programs I just happened to catch in bits and pieces while I my mom was watching. Not even when I sat down to finish watching the episode and find out what the homeowners think about their new bedroom redesigned as a crypt.

So, maybe they've influenced me just a little. But my bedroom was still in need of an overhaul in order to rid it of its extreme boringness. The space is (I suppose I should say was) stuffed full of junk I've collected over the years, and while some of the stuff looks really cool on its own, it gets lost in the eclectic mishmash of crap hanging on the walls, covering the shelves and stuffed in the corners. There is such a thing as an “eclectic style,” but, in my opinion, the eclectic style is the design world's attempt to make disorganized packrats feel a little better about their habits. I'm in need of a clean sweep. The walls—which haven't been painted since the previous homeowners remodeled the basement—are in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, there are dust bunnies hiding under my bed, and I have no more room on my bookshelves.

I'm trading in my white walls and powder blue ceiling (boy was that ever a mistake) for a pale yellow ceiling, two vivid, red-orange walls and two tan walls. My new bedspread is red and I have a throw and some pillows made out of Indian saris. Many of my design elements are Indian, but I suppose it would be more accurate to say theme is Asian theme. I'm going for a rich, earthy feel contrasted against the bright colors and intricate patterns of the Indian fabric.

While you know I'm really excited to see how it turns out, I'm even more excited to get all the objects that were in my room out of the family room and back where they belong. I know that process will take a lot of thought and effort because not everything can come back in, and everything needs organization. In other words, I'm enjoying the painting stage because it's fun to see the walls change color, but I know I'm going to have my work cut out for me when it comes to putting everything back together, so I'm eager to get that part started. The sooner I get started, the sooner I'll be done.

More than anything though, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again. I feel like I'm a guest in my own home. I can't wait until it's done!

The Slide Show Has Arrived!

For those of you who weren't lucky enough to receive my email announcing my extra special, always awesome, four for the price of one, super cool slide show, it's now your turn to be in luck. Yes, the long-awaited, probably overrated slide show is up for viewing on the world wide web. You too can take a photo tour of Japan for the low, low price of free!

Just follow this link: Japan Photo Tour and enjoy!

Couple notes here on the slide show. It is rather large, so it may take a minute to load—just be patient. Also, I did a lot of my research on exactly what I took pictures of after I got back, so I apologize if I have any mistakes. I tried to make sure all my facts were verified, double checked and given a stamp of approval. All done by me, of course, which is why I apologize if I missed anything.

You may post a comment here on this blog if you feel so inclined. Also, here's the link for the slide show on the official tour website: Pop Japan Travel

Let me know when you're ready to go on a real trip to Japan with me. I've got my bags packed and ready to go back. ;)