conveniently made to forget

i re-read the entire 18 volumes of monster today because i was procrastinating going to shower. the short bit with martin was still the greatest bit of the series, and that is why he's my second favorite character in monster. grimmer still takes the top spot. though, i couldn't help but wonder why my favorite characters tend to die in the story.

eva's conversation with dr. reichwein in chapter 161 is still by far my most favorite.

"people are strange things... sadness fades away with time, and only the enjoyable memories remain. we're built so conveniently, aren't we?"
"that's how we survive."

currently on break from inking page 3 of the gintama comics, and holy hell don't i need an assistant. i need someone who can draw backgrounds and not complain about drawing them. surely i can do them myself, but the process tends to be profane, and at this moment i'm making good use of the punching bag that my sister's friend got her for christmas.

i wonder, too. why would anyone give my sister a punching bag? has she been beating up boys?

recently i notice that when i make plans to go out with people, there is this slight, late hesitation after the plan's been set, and the first thing that always comes to mind is "maybe i should just stay home." this usually strikes me after the plan's been set, and i don't like flaking out, so i usually proceed with the going out. strange thing is, after i come back home, i'll always feel happy and glad that i end up not canceling the plan. it's like i'm conveniently made to enjoy whatever situation i end up getting involved in. i just noticed this recently, but i realized that it has always been this. does this mean i'm getting more and more anti-social? or am i just the kind of person who doesn't usually get excited over an upcoming plan or event?

you tell me.

HOT DAMN

oh man, gotta use that line one of these days.

bloody christmas cards

i finished writing addresses on the envelopes of 42 people who wanted free reborn prints, including my return address.

and i realized that now i will have to lick 42 envelopes. bloody hell.

home shweet home?

the thing i missed about home is not really the good food. while it is true that the food is good, the goods itself is scarce. it might be hard to imagine being home and not finding anything to eat, but most of the time, that's the case here.

the thing i missed about home is rather the existence of clean spoon. while this seems trivial, my roommate and i only have ONE spoon in the apartment in irvine and when none of us feels like doing dishes, eating became quite a problem. sometimes i even had to resort to eating with forks, because it seems like we have one spoon and a million forks. if the forks are female and the spoon is male, i have to say that it's one helluva happy spoon. however, if the forks are male and the spoon is female... poor spoon.

and then, sometimes we even run out of clean forks. it makes me feel rather uneasy to see that a million forks can all be dirty. when this happens and none of us feels like washing dishes, i had to resort to eating with my fingers like back in indo, or just drinking soup.

my laziness is rather amusing.

i'm giving away my AX reborn prints for christmas. i thought it would be nice to make people happy, especially the ones who like my drawings.

and then i realized that i have to write addresses on forty-two envelopes and regretted my decision immediately. at a time like this, an ipplepen, or simply just five arms, would really come in handy.

CHRISTMAS CARD BATCH UNO

for mkage@LJ for the awesomely vulgar conversations we've had the past few weeks, as well as sending me her recorded karaoke session in mp3. good blackmail material, i say. =D



---
for tsubasa_gaki@LJ for the surprise of a box of home-made christmas cookies sent all the way from the land of canadia. they came at the perfect time too, because i was entirely out of munchies.



---
for tachigonaoki@LJ for the panda socks and the endless gifts she has spoiled me with. a pink shirt, a panda toy, a panda beanie, einstein plushie, taking care of dinner reservations at AX, a pair of panda socks, etc., etc.



---
for conor mooney for being an awesome editor and always being there whenever i need an input.



that is SANJAY the uglier, hairier sanji. i hope he gives you nightmare. he's certainly going to give me nightmares.

---
for shiroro for always putting up with the stupid shit i say, and for always inspiring me to draw things that are hazardous to human eyes.



yes, gintoki and madao are in chopper cosplay. and poor hata ouji, it seems like his sole purpose of existence in the series is just so that everyone can yank the living shit out of his antenna.

---
for SW for being my partner-in-crime in creating visual acid that burns eyes thoroughly, slowly, and painfully. i would never be this far down in the abyss if it weren't for you.



and yes, kondou is most certainly humping the christmas tree, even after he's passed out. yamazaki was actually really fun to draw, and i simply could not resist including typical gintama items such as a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of mayo.

angry brits

british football commentators are always so funny, especially when they're angry towards one of the players. currently watching liverpool vs manchester united, in which the dominant scousers are being stunned by tevez's tap in, which gave united a 1-0 lead. apparently pool's dirk kuyt has been entirely ineffective, and the angry british commentator made his feeling explicitly clear.

20 min: Typically rubbish control from Kuyt when in a good position on the edge of the box. 11 million poundsterlings... scored some great premier league goals this season though...

58 min: Kuyt has time to pick out a pass from the right. He swings over a superb cross which picks out the guy in the second row wearing a santa hat. 11 million poundsterlings. Kuyt. Waste of space.

66 min: Time for a change for Liverpool -- but not Crouch! Harry Kewell is replaced by Ryan Babel and somehow Kuyt is STILL on.

70 min: A challenging ball from the left goes through the box and lands for Kuyt!!!

70 min: Utterly pathetic attempt. No confidence or conviction, and the ball bobbles to Van Der Sar. If he'd really attacked that ball it was a decent chance. He didn't. Get him off.

74 min: WAHAY! Rafa's finally seen it! Off comes the "legend" Kuyt and on comes Crouch to huge cheers.

poor dutchman.

a bucketful of random

i want to try to get back into the habit of posting actual entries to this blog, and by entries i mean stuff you can actually read and not just doodles.

thursday was a day filled with random surprises. i woke up at noon and started grading about 200 final exams, but since i had received a bachelor's degree in procrastination, i did not really get anything done. by thursday night, i was only done with about 1/4 of the exams.



and i still had about 150 exams more to go.



it was probably a good idea to scatter the exam papers all over my bed. that way i would not be tempted to just flop and not wake up until friday.

plenty thanks to aby and shiro for the surprise birthday present. aby got me a pair of panda socks, which fits my feet really well, and shiro got me a colorful mug that says CAFFEINE: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS. the mug was bloody huge that it can fit twice the coffee dose i usually have per day.



for those who are curious, i did try filling up the mug with coffee and drinking the whole thing in one sitting. i turned a bit jittery afterwards and decided to not use the mug for coffee, ever.

next to the mug is a box of christmas cookies that i randomly received on thursday. i felt really special because the cookies were made personally by tsuba and was sent from alberta, canada. one of these days i will go to alberta to get a taste of her awesome cooking.

tsuba's special christmas cookies kept me companied all night while grading. by 4am, there was only one cookie left.



i received 2 early christmas card. 1 from tsuba that came with the cookies, and one more from leha.



i don't know if it was intentional, but leha sent me two identical cards. one with writings on it, and one blank. maybe i should be cheap and send the extra card back to her.

around midnight on thursday, stephanie randomly called me and asked if i wanted to get some food. since she went with me on tuesday on my midnight donut run, i thought it's only fair that i return the favor. it was an impulsive decision, but i ended up going to alerto's with her to get some tacos.

two very bright shooting stars split the sky on our way there.

i did not hear any news about there being a shower that night, but 2 shooting stars within the span of 5 minutes was plenty evidence that there might be some sort of shower going on, so we took our tacos and headed down newport coast to stargaze. it was great to finally have someone to go with me to newport coast to look at stars because at night that place is quite creepy, and the lack of street lights certainly did not help. apparently for stephanie, that was her first time seeing shooting stars, so she got excited and unleashed her inner dorkiness.

we saw about seven more stars as i ate my hulk taco and she her enchiladas. that made my night, even though i had to grade about 150 exams when i got back. i finished grading around 7 in the morning and flopped happily.

dear women,

there's no point in getting your boobs enhanced with sillycone (typo intended), because men of science like us like them natural.

GO DOGGY GO

oh, man. that cat reminds me of david.

also, working on a comic about the past of vongola bosses.

MORIA HOP