Sweet Dreams

It's Christmas Eve! Yay, presents tonight! For the first time in years it seems, I'm really excited about opening presents. I think it's because I actually don't know what a lot of them are, like I usually do. That means I probably won't get a lot of the stuff I actually want, but the surprise element is rather nice.

Anyway, like I mentioned in my previous entry, every year, I like to watch all the Christmas-themed anime episodes I own, and every year, I have to go through my anime collection, trying to remember which series have Christmas episodes. Well, this year I was smart and made a list of all the episodes so I don't have to go through the headache.

Sailor Moon S movie
Sailor Moon R Episode 78 - Venus Minako's Nurse Mayhem (Christmas isn't specifically mentioned, but there are decorations in the background of some scenes)
Card Captor Sakura (Winter Wonderland) Episode 35 - Sakura's Wonderful Christmas
Card Captor Sakura (Friends in Need) Episode 61 - Sakura, The Card, and The Presents
Rah-Xephon (Vol. 2) Episode 8 - The Dreaming Stone
Paradise Kiss (Vol. 3) Episode 12 - Future
Super GALS Episode 39 - Christmas Eve * Jingle-Jingle * Emergency Bell of Love
Angelic Layer Episode 26 - Angel Wings! Please Guide Me and Hikaru (at least in the very last scene)
Fushigi Yugi (Vol. 8) Don't know which episode exactly, as I haven't watched it in a long time, but I know there's one when Tamahome is in Tokyo.
Death Note (Vol. 9) Episodes 33 and 34
Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy (Vol. 1) Episodes 2-4 - Ah! The Troubled Queen of Revenge!, Ah! I Offer You This Feeling On Christmas Eve, Ah! I Offer You This Feeling on Christmas Eve!
Ghost Hunt Episode 12-13 - FILE 5: Silent Christmas
School Rumble 2 Episode 19 - Here, There, Everywhere Is Christmas! Bravely Moving Forward For Christmas! Shatter, Christmas!
Wedding Peach DX Episode 3 - Reunion ~ We Even Fight on Christmas ~

*glomps everyone in sight*

Ah, it feels good to finally be back on-line again after all this time. You guys have no idea.

Anyway, Ike.

Everything's fine here. Thanks to everybody who expressed their concern in my previous entry. Mom and I did eventually evacuate to her brother's house when Liberty County was added to the mandatory evacuations list (although it took some crying on my part to convince her how scared I really was), but Dad stayed at home because of his horses. (Ironically, the reason why Mom really wanted to stay home -- the traffic -- was no problem at all this time. I guess since Liberty County was added so much later than the rest of the evacuated counties, we managed to miss it.) A side of our porch got messed up, and I now call our front yard the "Graveyard of Fallen Trees," but luckily none of the trees actually hit the trailer, thank goodness, which is more than I can say for my uncle's poor truck. A tree fell and broke his windshield, as well as dented the roof and a door. :(

Mom and I returned back home on the Tuesday afterwards to discover that Dad had actually bought us a generator from a friend of his. We all (even Dad) think he paid way too much for it ($1100), but I have to admit it was nice to be able to make our own ice, turn on a lamp and fan (although we got a cool front and didn't really need it), and even finish my Sailor Moon anime marathon. We actually got our electricity back that Friday, but that's when tragedy struck.

Our computer died.

I'm not really sure what happened. It just suddenly stopped working in the middle of logging on to the computer after the electricity returned. It might have been because in our rush to leave, I stupidly forgot to unplug it, or it might have just been the age of the computer -- it would have been seven years this December -- but thank goodness I was smart enough to back-up all my really important files while I was packing up. I still lost some stuff, like saved emails, links, etc, but it wasn't as big a loss as it could have been. (Still didn't keep me from sobbing for over an hour when I realized what happened, though.)

Mom had to work that weekend, so I had to wait until the following weekend until we were able to buy a replacement. Ended up spending the week really finishing up the SM marathon by watching PGSM and reading the manga, trying to keep busy until I had a computer again. (BTW, somebody really needs to rerelease the manga. My poor volume four is pretty much being held together by tape and staples now, and some of the others are getting to that point.)

The next weekend, Mom and I bought our new computer, along with a new living room suite (we've been needing one), a desk that would hold the new computer's honkin' big 24 in. monitor, a chair to go with it, and a new printer that was Vista compatible. Unfortunately, when the computer was set up, we discovered that it didn't come with AOL software. :( That meant my return to cyberspace was once again delayed while we waited for AOL to send us the software.

As you can imagine, I was getting really antsy at that point. *laughs* Starting a Card Captor Sakura marathon helped a little, but I practically stalked our mailbox, hoping the disc would come in soon. It finally came in today, and after fixing a little installation problem that prevented us from signing on, I am now officially back.

*parties*

Anyway, time to catch up on everything I missed while I was gone. See y'all around!

 

Man, I had completely forgotten how much the ending of Pretear always makes me cry like a baby! 

I started rewatching it for the first time in a long time a couple of nights ago, after I finished Kaleido Star. At first, I was wondering why I had the show listed so high on my list of all-time favorite anime (#5). I mean, I still really enjoyed it, but I was thinking that it probably shouldn't be listed above such fantastic shows as Fushigi Yugi, Card Captor Sakura, Sailor Moon, and Fullmetal Alchemist, and was considering dropping it down a few spots.

But then I got to the last disc, and boom! I remembered why I held it in such high regard.

This isn't the first time I've asked this, but CCS fandom, why do you fail so much? I wanted to nominate sophiap's fabulous Velveteen for the UFO awards, so I went to ff.net to find some other stories to nominate with it. You know how many I liked of the qualified (over-1000 word stories that were completed in 2007) stories? 

Two.

And even those weren't really the greatest. I mostly just nominated them so that CCS would have a chance of being a category in the awards (provided somebody seconds the nominations). *sigh* I think I may go looking for LJ communities this weekend and see if there's anything worthier out there.

On the plus side, I did find quite a few Princess Tutu fics I liked. There are some really great writers in the fandom, even if everybody and their mother tends to write .

As for the writing side... I don't know what it is, but I just cannot seem to get back in the groove of things. I've been working on my entry for .moon's winter challenge for about two weeks now, and it's still not finished, which is pathetic because there's a two thousand word limit. It should have been finished by the second or third day, not the second or third week! I only have about 150 words left before I reach the limit, so I'm definitely going to try to finish today, but that doesn't change the fact that I just plain don't like it. *sigh*

I've also been trying to work a little on my KS multi-part (which definitely needs a concrete title, because I'm tired of referring to it as the KS multi-part). Good news is that I think I finally have a clear idea of where the story is going to go. Bad news is that I'm having the same problem of not being able to write. I'm thinking it might help if I go ahead and start posting the story. The reason I'm having trouble writing it might be the fact that I don't have anybody to discuss the story with -- I only know one other person who has seen Kaleido Star, and I don't have editor for the story -- so if I start posting the story and get some positive feedback, I might get some of my confidence back. I don't know, though... If I do start posting it, it'll mean I'll be committing myself to finishing the story, since I hate it when posted stories remain unfinished (and I don't believe in taking stories down except in a few rare circunstances). I definitely want to finish the story. I do think it has the potential to be one of the best in the fandom, but... I just don't know if I can keep myself interested when I feel so isolated from other fans.

Trying to break into new fandoms sucks. :(

As some of you may or may not have noticed, for the past few days, I have been going through all my past entries in here and tagging them so this journal is a bit more organized. Well, as I was working, I came across this old meme about fanfiction that I thought would be interesting to post again, especially since I only got one reply last time.

[x]Tell me which fic of mine is your favorite and a lengthy explanation as to why.
[x]Tell me which new chapter you are most looking forward to and a lengthy explanation as to why.
[x]Tell me what you think my strengths as a writer are.


Wow, with all those challenge entries, it really makes it look like I've written a lot.

In other news, Ultramaniac is an adorable series. ^_^ It kind of got off to a slow start, but now things are really picking up. I think it has the potential to become one of my new favorites. (For those who don't know what it is about, it is about this teenage witch from the Magic Kingdom named Nina who is sent to the Human World to train her powers and find the five Holy Stones so that she can become princess of the kingdom.)

Also, Against the Rules just reached over one hundred reviews over at ff.net. Yay!

Yay! I just checked on my orders at Right Stuf and saw that they finally sent off all the CCS manga that was backordered from my last order. They sent it off Monday, so they should probably arrive tomorrow. Finally! I'm usually pretty patient, but I have to admit I was getting a bit antsy about it.

Re: my last entry, I have, in fact, decided to write that SuperS/Kaleido Star crossover I was contemplating. ^_^ It's going pretty well, so far, although I keep going back and forth on which villain I want to attack Sora. Right now, I'm using CereCere since she is the trapeze artist of the group, but I keep thinking that it might be more interesting to use Tigerseye, since the Amazoness Quartet's method of looking for Pegasus (just shooting out dream mirrors and looking for a gold one) is fairly boring. If I used one of the trio, then I could actually show Sora's dream as they look inside it. (Plus, I do love the Amazon Trio. ^_^) Still, writing for the Amazoness Quartet could be a nice change of pace, since I already wrote one "missing episode" fic starring Hawkseye ("Hawk's Eye View"). *sigh* I guess I'll see how things go with CereCere first.

Speaking of Kaleido Star fic, I posted my Layla/Yuri fic "Pillow Talk" at all the usual places yesterday. (It'll be up at .moon this weekend in the weekly update.) So far, it has only gotten one review at FF.net, which is bugging me a little because I actually really like the story. :( Ah, well. One of the good things about it being a small section is that fics can stay on the front page for a while, so I might get a couple of more reviews over the next few days. (The fact that it is M-rated might hurt it a little, since it isn't on the default first page.)

Amazingly enough, the latest chapter of ATR has gotten twelve reviews since I posted it on the fourth, bringing it up to 91 all together. When did it suddenly get so popular? O.o I was hoping to get to a hundred reviews by the end of the story, but at this rate, it might happen by the next chapter. It's amusing me how much people really hate Yui (in a good way); I guess I did a good job making her the antagonist. ^_^ Wait until they see what she does in the next chapter. *laughs evilly*

Also been doing a little fic reading, mostly rereading "Sailor Moon 4200", since there's a new update coming soon. I forgot how much I loved that fic! Can't wait for the update to be posted. ^_^

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but Witch Hunter Robin -- which I happen to be rewatching -- has some fantastic writers. I am absolutely in love with Rhiannon B.'s A Death in Venice. She portrays my favorite character, Doujima, perfectly. I hope she finishes it by the end of the year so I can nominate it for the next UFO awards.

Man, this entry turned out longer than I thought it would. *laughs* I was going to post some quiz results, but I think I'll save them for the next entry.

Stupid VCR. I had it set to tape American Idol tonight so Mom and I could watch the new Gilmore Girls, but when I went back to watch it, all I got was a fuzzy screen. *sigh* I should have just flipped back and forth like I usually do. Man, I hate missing Idol. :(

In happier news, however, Mom's giving me eighty dollars to spend over at Right Stuf. Yay! Now I just have to figure out what I want to buy.

Possible Choices

Magic Knight Rayearth - World of DVD Boxset - $53.96
Diamond Daydreams (Vol. 1-3) - $32.97
Card Captor Sakura manga (Vol. 1-12) - $89.88 (Yeah, it's a little more than eighty, but I wouldn't mind paying for the extra myself.)
GALS! manga (Vol. 1-10) - $95.90 (Again, a little bit more expensive, but, eh.)
Paradise Kiss manga (Vol. 1-5) - $37.45
Aishiteruze Baby manga (Vol. 1-7) - $47.18 (Does anybody know if that series is complete?)

I'm almost certain that I'll go ahead and get Diamond Daydreams, since it's at such a great price. Each disc is only about eleven dollars, making it even cheaper than the boxset that was recently released. For the rest, it's pretty much a three-way tie between the Magic Knight Rayearch boxset, Paradise Kiss manga, and Aishiteruze Baby manga, although I must say that I'm really tempted to just go for CCS. I've been wanting that series in manga for a while, and Right Stuf finally has the complete series available, but...

Gah! I can't decide. Maybe I'll just wait and see what the next big sale will be before making any final decisions.