Real Estate - Green Aisles

I feel calmer now.

The house meeting with Sally just ended. To my friends, and the people who care about me: It went well. An eviction notice was handed down.

the pillows – I Think I Can

Its a great two part song. Inspirational anthem in the beginning, and emotional ballad at the end give it a great one-two punch of anime-inspired j-rock by the pillows. If you want your heart strings tugged at like Weezer’s “My Name is Jonas
” then hit up some FLCL and listen for the tunes from a rock band that has found a place in many anime-lover’s hearts, alongside Yoko Kanno, Tsuneo Imahori and The Seatbelts.

Who knows why the J-genres: J-pop, J-rock & J-indies are so endearing and approachable. “I Think I Can” is not the only anime tune that appeals to me so . It kinda reminds me of Joe Hisaishi’s themes for the Studio Ghibuli films, such as Mononoke Hime (Main Theme), Laputa (空から降ってきた少女 [The Girl Who Fell from the Sky] ),.
Listening to the Totoro theme – 風の通り道 ) [Kaze no tourimichi], I am still brought to tears by its beauty.




Its no coincidence that this song is about the wind, whose fleeting nature is perhaps the epitome of the Japanese concept of あわれ (a-wa-re). The song is also connected with memories of my Aunt passing away as a child, and is a sad, yet inspiring and hopeful reminder of nature’s—and life’s—transience.

PS: I don’t plan on starving, or burning in hell

Don’t laugh.

A testament to the medium’s inherent wackiness, you find the most interesting things searching for anime on google.

Go Rubberman.

“Naruto vs. Sasuke: The Valley of the End”

Is what really got me thinking about this. Having someone to overcome, to challenge, to strive towards and against.

A friendly, but fierce battle between two souls.

Inspiration.

That’s what I need

So here’s some more pics, not as pretty, but whatever. Here’s the statement I wrote for it:

When I first found out about this weeks assignment, I already had an idea in mind. I wanted to do something silly along the lines of this: http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/mall/plazaprank.html. After scouting around La Jolla, I found a few potential targets (I thought about putting eye patches and weird hats on the dolphins at UTC), but quickly came to realize how bad something like this could end up (especially in La Jolla), and decided to do something a little less drastic. I couldn’t come up with anything until last Saturday, when I went up to L.A. to visit a friend. While there, we went to a few malls, stores, etc (Christmas shopping), and I was struck at how many Salvation Army bell ringers there were (though I’m used to seeing them at home, I thought it was a phenomena not as pronounced here in SoCal). There were even a couple dressed up as Santa! (Something I haven’t seen since I was little). That gave me a nice little surprise and I dropped some change off. On the way back home, I had to stop by school. When I got to the corner of La Jolla village dr. and Villa La Jolla, I saw a couple of homeless people looking for money and jobs. Now this wasn’t the first time I’ve encountered the less-fortunate around school, but seeing so many “Salvation Santas” in L.A. put the scene in a different context. It was then that I noticed that I haven’t seen a single bell ringer in La Jolla since I’ve been here. I went around searching for one, but the closest I could find was a small change drop box at Vons. This led me to the idea of making one up to atone for this, and setting it up at my original site, UTC. I also wanted to make some kind of statement with it to help shed light on how lucky Americans really are. I did consider making a real figure instead of a painting, but realized that if I did (and did it a real-life scale), it would be too hard and heavy to get to the mall. I didn’t really want to do anything that I’ve done before (drawing, water colors, pencils, etc), and figured that it would be a good opportunity to pick up and practice some painting skills so I used acrylics. I’ve never really painted before (well, not since I was little at least) with acrylics and wanted to see how I’d manage with them. In my opinion, it turned out very well (which prompted me to do another painting for the extra assignment). At first I had a little bit of difficulty coming out with even brush strokes, but I got the hang of it and had a lot of fun with them I really wished that I would have started using them earlier, as I like them much better than water colors and pastels (mixing colors is easier and more fun for me with paints).

           Going back to Santa, at first I wanted to find one that I could use as a subject, but I didn’t even see any Downtown (maybe they were on break though, I went there 2 days ago and heard quite a few bells). Wanting to get started, I decided just to sketch out the ringer, and turn him into Santa while painting. After doing a couple rough sketches, I became satisfied with one of them and went home. When I got around to painting, I googled up a few popular Santa images (my main source was the Coca-Cola Classic Santa), and referenced them for my own. I chose not to put the traditional Santa hat on him because the one that originally inspired me was quite bald (and proud of it).

           I chose the words, “Are you helping?” solely to instill guilt upon its reader. UTC being such an extravagant and excessive mall, I felt that it was quite an appropriate reminder to others that there are many only less fortunate people. I also didn’t paint the words on, because I felt it could make a nice and friendly Christmas poster without a heavy handed moral getting in the way.           

           I had trouble with 2 main parts with this assignment. First of all, I didn’t know what to do for the eyes. I don’t consider myself to be a great drawer, and didn’t feel like ruining a nice happy face with strange looking eyes. Not wanting to risk it, I borrowed some happy-looking anime style eyes. Secondly, I had a LOT of trouble with the collection bin. First, I didn’t know where to place it (I originally wanted to depict a hanging one, complete with the Salvation Army Sign, but I felt that it would have blocked too much of Santa. After finally figuring out a place for it, I sketched it out and it seemed all right. When It came to painting it though, I could not for the life of me figure out how it was supposed to look, and was very frustrated (I finally felt like I got it right towards the very end of my painting).

I still have a few more things that I wanted to add (like a few concept sketches), but that’ll come tomorrow. I’m sooooooo beat right now… I hit a lotta traffic in SD and LA, and driving I-5 North all the way up during the night is really boring and tiring.

g’night

“Anyway,” “definately”, “yeah yeah”, and my catch-all response, “That’s crazy.”.

Which leads me to my next point (as well as to my next post, and the next, and the next).
Anyways, forgive me once again.
I guess you could say I’ve beenliving my life “one day at a time”.

I think only a few people have the above excuse.

Those who are fuckin’ down & out. Those who lived before us, back when you had to use your own 2 feet to get around. Those who have no quarter, no roof, no property. The persecuted innocent.

I’m just a quote-un-quote military brat (not really)

Then there are those who have just turned 21…

Anyway, I have ideas for the new layout.

Grayscale Clouds Round Simple Kanji OKAY YEAH!
These words describe it, yes they do.

Once again, you can thank this Shocking New Development in Terry’s life to Clockw0rk.

Or more specifically, my good friends procrastination and the bowlings.

My new mantra: “Get your act together.”

So… on a more popular note,

Who’s keeping up with Bleach, Naruto and Samurai Champloo?

I’m up-to-date when it comes to Naruto. I’m liking where the manga and the anime are going. Though the anime’s filler sidequest was kinda stupid, I didn’t trip cuz I had other shit to worry about.

(I feel sorry for those Naruto addicts (and believe me, Naruto is a drug) who have nothing else to endulge themselves into. Luckily, I also am into Bleach. I’m around ep. 4 on the anime (I totally think Chad fucking kicks everyone’s ass. I’m curious as to his depiction the the intro though… he looks hella hollow…….. I’m also catching up on the Manga (somewhere in Vol. 4). I’m likin’ it. It’s about a dude who’s in touch with the spiritual world and is helluva tough. One day, he receives the power of Death (skeleton+black robe entity). Interesting.

Anyway, I’m getting tired and I have hella work to do.

Jah matta.

P.S. I need to connect with people. Today Kaia introduced me to Alicia White, and we 3 talked about the state of things. Anyway, the return is complete, and the away message is gone. I announce my return to AIM to noone in particular, cy’all there. Oh. And I guess there won’t be riots in the streets. Americans don’t give a fuck anymore and will not rise up against an unfit king. You know ‘the fuck I’m talkin bout.

P.P.S. Where the fuck’s Gaara?

But its a new year soon. Time to put those fears to rest.

Ooh… that sounds so… decisive. Just some dramatic rambling.

Big-O:
Have you seen it? If you follow the series, then you know how stupid it is.

It has a really cool premise. Mankind exists in a future with no past. 40 years ago, “something” happened, which erased all of mankind’s memories. The hero, Roger Smith pilots an artifact of the past, Big O (typical anime giant robot) and uses it to fight crime and shit. The story goes along, trying to explain what happened so long ago. Blah Blah blah.

Originally ending after 13 eps on a super confusing cliffhanger that explains nothing, Cartoon Network revived the series, creating 13 new eps. The 2nd season builds upon the interesting plot, throwing in clones, mad scientists, misguided visionaries, etc etc. + more staples to sci-fi anime. But what’s the catch? the catch is that it makes no sense. I figure that they original creators left it at that cliffhanger cuz they realized how ridiculous the story would become. Cause the plot just goes crazy and shit starts gettin confusing and doesn’t make ANY sense. Oh. And the 26th ep? Ends on yet another cliffhanger, this time twice as confusing.

Some questions and considerations:
Why ARE giant robots so predominant in anime? Why not in american toons? Giant robos are cool. I like giant robos. I don’t like big o maybe.

I like everything about the show (well almost, the dialogue’s pretty weak/forced sometimes), except for the fact that it makes NO sense. That just pisses me off. Investing all that viewing time and etc into the series, HOPING that at the end I’ll go “OOOHHHHH!!!!! DAMN I GET IT!!!” … but no. I’m just all “DAMNIT!!!!!!” I mean, its cool to end on a such a dramatic (and dare I say cliffhanging again?) note, but having it not make sense pretty much ruined it for me. Imma stick with Bebop. Hell, at least Inu Yasha makes sense. I wish I had the $ to just buy some good anime and watch it in Japanese or something. But thanks to the craze, its waaaaaaay to spensive. But hopefully some kind soul out there’ll buy me the Trigun box set.

Oh yeah, they used to run Trigun on CN. That’s my fav anime. I first fell in love with its wackiness, and from what I’ve seen of the latter eps on CN, its story is rather crazy as well.

Well, I gotta go to sleep. And I don’t feel like posting anything worthwhile. Actually I probably shouldn’t sleep, I’ll never wake up in time. Being nocturnal sucks.

Oh, I’ve been listening to new purchases Bjork’s Telegram and Pink’s Obscured by Clouds. Gotta nice Yellow Sub poster too.

Well, tomorrow’s a big day. I gotta take a family picture (that’s what I gotta “wake up” for), see if I can face my old friends, and oh yeah, New Year’s Eve.

Don’t Drink & Drive.

So yeah it is. It’s my 1st one ever. And I dunno what to do. Any help?
(And fuck it might rain wtf)

Yeah… I’m like 3/4 through Train, around right after they get all the $. And for Requiem, I’m somewhere after the kid finds out about his mom’s drugs. Halfway about I guess. I REALLY hafta finish those haha.

Fuckin’ ACED that shit I know. I would be getting it back today… that is… if I went to class instead of doing my blog.

Yeah… he’s all bald now. It’s crazy. But it sucks that ppl always be givin him bad looks and shit like he’s some thug or somethin… fuckin’ stereotypes.

So yeah… this new white guy has moved in. He’s not NEARLY as bad as the 1st guy… but he’s HELLA 6th college (for all you non-ucsd ppl, that means hella geeky). Anime freak, Trance freak, Computer geek, Car lover, etc. etc. He doesn’t like Kimchee and calls it stinky, he didn’t make lemonade when he drank all of it. etc etc.

BUT… although he’s a little anti-social (at least towards me), he’s not that bad. He can be cool I thinks… AND… he has a CAR…

muah!

So Adry got in a snowboarding accident 2 weeks ago (some lil’ kid crashed into her from behind)… so her right knee was all yuky and she needed crutches.

She sure did make one of the cutest cripples ever… but haha hella crippled!

Oh well, she’s fine for the most part now… just can’t put too much stress on it… tee-hee-hee.

Yup, that’s about it for now… time to clean house, clean comp, dl songs, etc etc! lates