Rules:

1.|| Respect me and the fact that this is my journal. I will rant and rave about my girlfriend, videogames, and whatever else strikes my fancy. If you don't like reading long entries, don't bother adding me. I also talk a bit about my lovelife with my girlfriend, so if that bothers/squicks you, don't bother adding me. (Although I do usually put that behind a cut). That said, I won't tolerate flames on my own journal. If you've got beef with stuff I say, that's fine, but if you want to bring it up with me, do so in a respectful manner, m'kay?

2.|| List at least one reason why you want to add me. It's not too much to ask, right? Serial adders aren't welcome here, and I'd like to see that you're interested in actually knowing me at the very least. This will also prove to me that you at least read my rules.

3.|| Common interests help. I won't say you have to have a certian number of the same interests as me, but a handful maybe? More than one or two? It would be hard to get along if we don't even have a few common interests.

4.|| Tell me how you found me/know me. Just because I don't know you doesn't mean I won't add you. I'd like to make friends. In fact, you're free to IM me or send me an e-mail if you'd like to talk to me.

5.|| Please read my profile, either here or on my user info page. I read my friends' profiles, and even check them occasionally to see if anything's changed.

6.|| If I remove you from my FL for any reason, I ask that you kindly remove me from yours as well. Sankyou.

I'm really not a hard person to get along with. I just want to make sure my friends are interested in getting to know me, rather than having me be another name on their friends list. kthx

Also, I'm screening posts by non-friends for this entry.

If you woke up and I was in bed with you, what would be your first thought?

(Now post this in your LJ and find out what mine would be.)

I don't do memes much anymore, but I want to see this. *laughs*

It's been a pretty boring day, but I ish happy that I haven't spent most of it on the computer. W00t. Um yeah...I had to take Dad to work at four in the morning again today, but it wasn't so bad, because I hadn't gone to sleep yet ^^;; Har. Umm...I went to bed close to five and woke up at noon. I think my watch makes a better alarm clock than my alarm clock.

I talked to Sakura-chan today and I found out her name so I can call her (and I'm not telling anyone because dammit, if I had to play the name guessing game, so do you XP) So yeah, I'll probably call her tomorrow. W00t! It'll be awesome to talk to another Harry's person...and this time without murdering my minutes because I get free weekends. So I'll probably call Kate too. Hehe.

So yes...read some CCS manga because Sakura-chan was talking about it with me, lol *huggles Kaho* Kaho is so underappreciated...and most fans think she's a pedophile or something...and kill her or make Eriol break up with her so they can pair him with Tomoyo-chan. ><;;;; *fume* Of course, I'd read something like that if maybe she and Touya rekindled their old flame...tee-hee...but I like Kaho and Eriol better. Umm...I think I'll stop babbling now.

Anyway...I'm going to stalk Kelly because I'm bored and I want to do something with just the two of us. Not that I don't like Sarah and Jon. In fact, I like them a lot, but I also like spending time with my best friend, dammit. Seems every time I try to call her, her phone isn't on. >< So yeah. I don't get to hang out with her nearly as much as I'd like to.

I'm hungry. So yeah...I think I'm gonna go now. ttfn

Addendum (10:03 p.m.): Well, Kelly called as I was driving to her house, lol So I went there and picked her up and we went to K Mart so she could check her schedule, then we went to Taco Bell so I could get some food...and we sat in the car and talked while I ate...and then we left and her mom called, telling her she needed to go pick up Erin. We both don't know why she couldn't have gone herself, but oh wellz. We'll probably hang out and drink wine coolers or something tomorrow. I'm just a-waiting for her to call me...and will probably be bored while I do. I should write or something...but I'm just stuck. ><;

I don't feel like doing a real entry right now, because there's nothing interesting to say. My day has been just like any other. So yeah.

My Best Friend is infinitygoddess

Our 27 common interests are: amon, anime, art, cds, chinese food, comics, computers, drawing, dvds, evanescence, futurama, harry potter, jackie chan, japan, mp3s, music, mythology, reading, sailormoon, sailorneptune, sailoruranus, sci-fi, tenchi muyo, trigun, vampires, vash the stampede, witch hunter robin

Who is your best friend? Username:

Created by macoto

Popular interests among ashikawayuki's friends

1. anime (16) 11. final fantasy (7) 2. witch hunter robin (14) 12. fanfiction (7) 3. music (11) 13. vampires (7) 4. reading (10) 14. trigun (7) 5. art (9) 15. history (6) 6. drawing (9) 16. japan (6) 7. video games (8) 17. love (6) 8. manga (8) 18. computers (6) 9. cowboy bebop (8) 19. harry potter (6) 10. writing (7) 20. inuyasha (6)

Interests gestalt

My most interesting friend is ashikawayuki who has 19 of these interests, followed by darkenedsakura (14), predestinedlove (12) and infinitygoddess (12).

Normality Index

My friends are 72.37% normal.

Analyze me !

Username: Popular interests created by _imran_

If you were a Pirate! by TheHalveric
Username
Yer Pirate Name!
Name yer ship!
Why be ye a Pirate?	Damned pansy Navy wouldn't take me!Revenge against the establishment!I like booty!!!I'm really good with knots...Cause lawyerin' be too cruel.Chicks dig eye-patches.Buggery on the High Seas!All the rum you can drink!!!
Yer First Mate!	lar_san
Yer Cabin-boy! (or girl)	miuixtli
Ye're chief rival be the Dread Pirate	darkpaladin05
Ye'll be pursued by Admiral	darkenedsakura
Cut to ribbon in a freak cannon accident...	yamiyumetenshi
Yer pirate captive to use fer yer wicked pleasures	intervigilum
Number o'ships ye'll sink and women ye'll plunder!	205
Chance ye'll be hanged... or worse.: 14%
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Okay, I used the names as a joke, but I was supremely amused by the results, so I had to post it, lol

K-Mart and Sears are merging?! I heard that on the news tonight. That's like the fugging revelation of the century to me. OMG. I just...wow. Not that I care much because I no longer shop at Sears, and I don't often shop at K-Mart. But what the hell? My guess is that K-Mart is desperate not to go out of business and shit...but DUDE! I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it is, but my brain just fugging exploded when I heard that. @.@ So yeah. Man...I knew Sears was beginning to look more like a discount store, but this really pushes it over. Maybe K-Mart will look nicer though XP Our K-Mart is fugging old and you can tell. So yeah...wonder what Kelly thinks about this.

( work stuff )

So I went to Wal*Mart and looked at digital cameras because I get paid this week. I saw some nice-looking $20 ones, which is all I can really afford, especially since I won't have a job at the end of the month, which probably means I won't get a lot of money to spend on vacation. Sigh. Another crappy-looking christmas for us. We're losing mom's income from the center, but she still works for the school district. Dad has his job at Home Depot and his teaching, but that won't leave us much in the way of holiday spending. Sigh...we haven't had a really nice Christmas for a very long time now. I know Christmas isn't about the presents and shit, but it would be nice if we could afford to get each other nice presents and stuff. So yeah. We keep saying 'next year will be better,' but it never gets better. Oh well. I'm glad that I get to go to Washington and spend time with teh extended family. It's been a couple years since the last time I've seen them. Aww...I made myself sad.

Yeah, so anyway...I'm thinking I'm going to be very bored after my last day of work.

Shit. I just realized that I was supposed to go get something at the church because I'm going visiting teaching tomorrow and it's my turn to give the lesson. *headdesk repeatedly* Sigh. I better go get it. This is the benifit of being the librarian.

Sigh...still have not checked out mozilla.com to find all of my awesoeme extensions (which I sorely miss) *shakes fist at new!firefox) Yeah. I'm using Semagic until I can find out if I can get my beloved deepest sender back. Semagic is actually less complex than deepest sender, but I like the font in deepest sender better. XD Leave it to me to make a decision on something based on how pretty it is.

Anyway. OMG, I got an account on GJ because they give you all these features that you only get on LJ by subscribing. *babbles happily* I shall someday see if I can do a phone post so anyone who is actually interested in hearing what Jess sounds like (excluding of course, my RL buddies) can. Yeah. Which reminds me. I was going to update my pics, but the STOOPID digital camera is dead. The battery died...so I need to figure out how to charge this muthafugger up because I actually got off my lazy ass to take pictures, dammit! May possibly pick up one of those cheap digital cameras at Wal*Mart or something.

Yeah...anyway. I should be writing. I'm shooting for 29,000 words tonight, which will put me ahead for tomorrow so I can muck around and not feel bad about not writing. The biggest thing I'm aiming for is the completion of chapter five. Snarg. This is the longest time I've gone without an update, methinks. I'm sad because of the lack of reviews on ff.net. I know people have their own lives to worry about and shit, but I am an admitted review whore and like to hear how I'm doing. Maybe once I get to writing more, I won't care as much (as if).

So yeah, I am teh insomniatic tonight, like I was yesterday. I didn't go to sleep until fugging 6:30 a.m., and I only did that because I wanted to get some kind of sleep so I wouldn't be exhausted at work. I only got five hours of sleep, but I was right as rain at work. I wasn't tired at all, and I usually am when I go to work despite getting good sleep for the most part. I will be completely screwed if I end up getting a job during the day like I want.

I'll be spending thanksgiving with teh older sister and her family, which is awesome because dammit, I never get to talk to my nephew anymore! He's only three years younger than me. (My sister was like, sixteen when she was pregnant with him.) So I'm immensely looking forward to being able to talk to him for a bit. I never get to hear about what's going on in his life and whatnot. He came to visit very briefly on Saturday because he was in town (he lives in Parker). His hair is friggin longer than mine, which of course, normally wouldn't be saying much because my hair is short. I told him that he really looks like a hippie now, and he wasn't sure how to take that *giggle* but he'd be the first person to admit that he's a total hippie, so I intended that as a compliment. He looks good with long hair.

I'm waiting for a letter from my younger brother, and I seriously need to write to my older brother. I have serious letter-writing issues, except when it comes to Otouto-chan. I really ought to start writing to my grandma, because I know that she would really like it if I did. Maybe after we get back from vacation in December.

I've not seen her and my aunt's house in Washington yet. They just moved in earlier this year, but they only flew my parents out to move them in. Otouto-chan and I were forced to stay at home. I'm looking forward to seeing the house and more importantly, the family. It's been two years since I've seen my extended family. This is one reason that I want to move to Washington. I miss my cousins and stuff...and I don't think I've even seen my cousin Allison's baby yet. The kid's like three years old or something. o.O

So anyway, I think I've taken a long enough break from the writing. I really want to get ahead, and I want to go to bed before four a.m., which means I have to get cracking, because it's almost three. *headdesk* so yeah...will work on teh camera so I can take a new picture (or two or three) and stuff.

Before I get to teh fun stuff...I KILLZ Firefox!! I updated it yesterday because...I hadn't

Well, today I slept for about ten hours. I went to bed at 1:30 last night, and it was almost noon when I woke up this morning. Stupid me for not setting my alarm clock. I'm trying to get to bed earlier, but it's just not working out as I'd like because I get into talking to people online and mucking around on websites and stuff...including writing. I've never wrote so much in my whole life. I'm serious. I'm about 3,000 words shy of 25,000. I know for a fact that I've never written that much. I guess the reason for that would be is that I've never really been able to think up a plot for a very long story. I used to write mostly short one-shots. My first chaptered fic was a Tenchi Muyo fic called "Change" which didn't even hit 10,000 words. Anyway...I'm sure you're all getting tired of me going on and on about writing. It seems to be all I ever think of these days though.

So immediately after I got out of bed, Mom and I went and got lunch at Quiznos because she was hungry. I wasn't so much. I mean, I had just woken up, so my stomach hadn't had time to realize that it was empty yet. I had a classic Italian sub that was very scrumptous, and then Mom and I set out to find out how to get to Front Range (our community college). I had driven by a couple of times on the bus, so I generally knew how to get there...kind of. We did find it though, and it didn't take long because I wasn't too far off. (Kelly, I will smack you if you laugh at me :P)

Anyway, I wanted to get my PIN number so I could register online, and mom needed to get an application because she wants to go back to school too...but alas, I had forgotten to bring my ID. The lady at the desk wrote down a number I could call when I got home, so it was all good, and I got my PIN and mom got her papers. (Yes, I had been registered at Front Range previously, but I have been gone for two years.) So I renewed my information online and now I need to fill out my FAFSA for financial aid. I'm so close to being able to go back to school (w00t)!

So yeah...at work I put in my notice because I've decided to quit (as most of you probably figured by now). My boss didn't say anything to me at all. Either this didn't surprise her, or she's being a bitch about it. I'm going with the latter. So yeah. I know Nawal doesn't want us to quit, which is weird because SHE used to be the psycho-bitch, and now she's on our side and Marsha's the psycho-bitch. *shrug* Don't know how that happened.

While I was holding one of the kids and he was cuddling with me, it just hit me how much I'm going to miss them. I swear I wanted to cry. I mean, sometiems they're little brats, but I know they love me. They always like me to hold them and play with them and whatnot. So yeah...won't miss the job, will mis the kids.

So now I'm not sure what I'll do about a job. I could get employment through the school and they'd give me discounts on tuition and such, and I'd have the added bonus of them working around my class schedule, but I want to work at Starbucks, dammit! XD Other than the awesome benifits, I really don't know why. Maybe it's because it's a fun place to hang out and fun places to hang out usually = fun places to work. I'll probably try Coldstone too. ^^

But sadly, working and going back to school will = less computer time. I swear I'm going to get in gear and actually do my homework. I would have done better in my first math class of college if I hadn't started slacking off at the end of the semester. I think my teacher told me that if I had gone on the way I was at the beginning of the term, I would have gotten a B instead of the C I got. I just found it amusing that during the first semester, I got a B in one class and a C in the other, then during the second semester, I got a B in one class and a C in the other. Weird. Not that I'm proud of the Cs. Sigh...but it figures that I got a B in English and a C in math >< But yeah...financial aid is good motivation to get good grades.

So yeah...this is getting long, so I guess I'll finish up. Just...w00t to going back to school ^^

Yup...nothing extremely exciting but my friends keep telling me that I need to update. What's up with that, yo? XD

Anyway, yesterday I woke up at 8:30 (or therabouts) which is like, early for me. I had gone to bed at 11 the night before though because I was frickin' exhausted despite having a very good day at work. Maybe it's because of all the long hours I've been pulling with the writing.

Anyway, I'm so thankful to the people that have read it and told me what they think about it. Reviews give me motivation to keep going. I want to ask you Harry's people that read...did you notice that I'd posted chapter four? I edited one of my posts because I didn't want to triple-post. ^^;; I've been working on chapter five and lar_san has been wonderful by helping me figure out the details of my plot. *huggles* I love you forever!

Anyway, I'm still a bit stuck on chapter five, but at least I have an idea of what to do next, and I suppose the rest will just come to me somehow. I'll probably be needing to do research soon because Robin and Amon will soon be leaving Japan. (gomen for the mild spoilers for those who haven't read chapter four) So yeah. I showed dou-dou-chan what I had of chapter five and we got into a random discussion about Nekkid!Amon. Bwahaha! It was teh funneh.

So yeah...I wasn't finished talking about yesterday yet <_< just like me to get off on a random tangent. I went to Louisville with teh parental units yesterday because Dad had to pick up something from their Home Depot to take to our store. I pretty much just went along for the ride. I listened to Shell most of the way before finally deciding to listen to the rest of the CD XD I love that song.

So when we got home, I helped with the housecleaning by vacuuming, sweeping and mopping the floor in the kitchen, and cleaning the pig stye (a.k.a. my room). My room really wasn't that bad. >_> At least I don't think so.

So talked to dou-dou-chan while I was cleaning my room and started working on chapter five because I had gotten an idea of where to go. I wrote six pages. ^^ Current word count: 21955. If I get to 25,000 words by tomorrow, I should be on track. I'll be halfway finished! ^_^ I think so far, it's actually been much easier than I've made it seem. Of course, I say that in retrospect.

So yeah...last night we went to the adult session of stake conference, where Elder Bednar of the Quarum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to us. This is the second time we've had an apostle speak to us at stake conference. Usually, they only come to reorganize a stake when a new stake president is called, but Elder Bednar just came to speak to us. His talk was very interesting.

Yeah...so when I got back, I wrote some more because I had jotted down  more during stake conference. Maybe this will be a chapter I won't have to revise at all...well, maybe just a little. There's always something I can find to improve. After NanNoWriMo, I can take longer writing the chapters and stuff, but right now, I'm in a frenzy to meet my word count.

Yeah...so anyway...today went to stake conference this morning, when I got back I had lunch and got on the computer and talked to dou-dou-chan some more XD so yeah...nothing much more than that. I gotta go and work on stuff...like writing letters to my brothers and finishing my dad's website. :)

Ganked from miuixtli who ganked from meris who ganked from uncreativity XD

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

So yeah. Ask, ask, ask! If anyone else does this, I'll  be sure to ask something.

( Shipping meme )
Ganked from  llamrei

I've been writing like crazy lately. Okay...not so much yesterday, but I'm paying for it now. I need to write about 3,000 more words to get where I want to be. That's not really bad. I'm just hoping that what I wrote doesn't turn out to be utter crap ><;;

Anyway...work hasn't been much fun lately. We just got some new kids from the infant room, and one of them just keeps crying and crying. She'll stop when Mom holds her, but she can't hold her all the time. Mom's going to want to quit if this keeps up...and I'd probably go with her, even though I need this job.

Anyway, this was ganked from misarie 

( Name stats )

I'm in the process of making some color bars. XD  it's all the rage, ne? Anyway, right now, I only have the Amon one. I'm going to do a Sakaki one and a Michael one, then I'm going to do some for the bishounen of Shoujo Kakumei Utena. All I ask is that you comment before you use 'em, k?



Amon is hawt, HAWT lurve.
<center><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/ashikawayuki/36094.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/XOShionOX/misc/amon_color.jpg" /><br />
Amon is hawt, HAWT lurve.</a></center>



Micheal is l337 hax0r <3
<center><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/ashikawayuki/36094.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/XOShionOX/misc/michael_color.jpg" /><br />
Micheal is l337 h4x0r <3</a></center>



Sakaki is love

</a><center><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/ashikawayuki/36094.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/XOShionOX/misc/sakaki_color.jpg" /><br />Sakaki is love
</a></center>

( ) been drunk
(x) kissed a member of the opposite sex
( ) kissed a member of the same sex
( ) crashed a friend's car
( ) been to Japan (I will go someday)
( )ridden in a taxi
( ) been dumped
(x) been fired or laid off Laid off from Sears. Needless to say, I didn't really care
( ) been in a fist fight
(x) snuck out of my parent's house
(x) ever had a crush on someone of the same sex
( ) ever dated someone of the same sex
( ) had feelings for someone who didnt have them back
( ) been arrested
( ) made out with a stranger
(x) stole something from my job Umm...possibly. *shifty eyes*
( ) celebrated new years in time square
(x) gone on a blind date
( ) had a crush on a teacher
( ) celebrated mardi-gras in new orleans
( ) been to Europe
(x) skipped school
( ) cut myself on purpose
( ) been married
( ) gotten divorced
( ) had children
( ) seen someone die
( ) been to Africa.
( ) punched a friend
(x) been to Canada
( ) been to Mexico
(x) been on a plane
( ) seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show
( ) thrown up in a bar
( ) purposely set a part of myself on fire
(x) eaten Sushi
( ) been Snowboarding
( ) met someone in person from the internet
( ) Been moshing at a concert
(x) had real feelings for someone you knew only online
( ) been in an abusive relationship
( ) been pregnant or got someone pregnant
( ) lost a child
(x) gone to college
( ) graduated college
( ) tried killing yourself
( ) taken painkillers
(x) love someone or miss someone right now
( ) walked around on a real baseball field

Ganked from intervigilum I admit it. I've lead an extremely sheltered life. -_- Now...to get back to writing. Sigh. I really need to catch up, even if I have to write all night.

Okay...I'm bad at updating regularly. Here goes teh uber summery of what's happened in the last few days.

Work has generally been pretty good. Parents are picking up their children earlier, which often means that I get to go inside and start cleaning earlier. This is good, as it (mostly) helps us get out on time. On Friday, I had a scare when I thought I might have lost my name tag. Mind you, it's not the name tag itself I care about. We can always make a new one, but pinned to the nametag is a little golden apple that I got for an award I recieved. I love my little golden apple, and so do the kids. Fortunately, I found that I had left it in the car.

On Saturday, I finally bought my GBA. I got The Legend of Zelda (classic) and Wolfenstien 3D, an old FPS. I think it was one of the first. Only having two games is boring, but I'll probably buy more when I get paid next time. I think I'll shoot for Mario 3 or Metroid: Zero Mission. Or the original NES version, so I'll have a legit copy. XD

I'm a little behind on my writing for NanNoWriMo, and I get further behind by the day. It might be time to buy a liter of something caffinated and write until my brain begs for mercy and beyond. By week 3, I'd like to be on track as far as my word count goes, because I'll only have one more week to get my 50,000. By golly, I will try to get as much out of this as I possibly can. Perhaps I should just frickin decide which story I'm using and put the other on the shelf until the end of NanNoWriMo. The other story is getting words that could be going toward the word count of whichever story I'm going to use.

Anyway, if I don't appear to be online, I probably am, but invisible, and probably trying to crank out more words. I'm sure that even though neither story is plotted out, my brain will think of things as I desperately search for things to write. I'm posting my progress on ff.net, for anyone who would like to follow along. I'll post a link once I've decided which story I'm using. Since it's essentially a rough draft, expect things to be changed and rearranged. I would be happy if people could tell me what they like about it, and what they think I can improve on or expand. What I'm saying is: advanced critiques would be highly appreciated/useful.

Ah hell, I'm sure I've already decided what fic I'm going to use, because I'm thinking of Fire and Ice as I say this.  So here's the link. I've uploaded the first two chapters, but for some reason, the second chapter isn't showing yet. ^^;

So this means that SFU will probably have to wait until I've finished NanNoWriMo.

Anyway, it's about time for me to get ready for work. Ta-ta!

Just got back a little less than an hour ago from voting for Kerry . XD There was no line, which was totally cool. But the funneh thing about voting at the county courthouse was that I had to go throught the metal detector to get in. Snerk. I had my CD player, a watch in my pocket, and a jacket with metal buttons. I was just glad I hadn't been wearing my steel-toed boots, and I didn't have my inhaler.

Anyway, now I'm just waiting to go to work. Mom wanted me to vacuum today, but I'll do that after I get home. I just dun been at Harry's a few minutes ago. The Googlebot has been stalking us. haha

Let's see. Yesterday, I did my whole work routine, and it was a pretty good day, although we couldn't take the kids outside because it was too cold. Despite that, they weren't little monsters, so that was good. Donovan kept wanting me to hold him. It was so funny. He was giving me kisses. He's so big. I can't walk around with him because my arms get tired. He doesn't mind sitting on my lap though.

The only really sucky thing was the fact that our vacuum for our room was  broken. >< I told Nawal about it...but I don't know if there's anything she can do about it. Adrian and I think the belt might be broken. It was emitting a funky smell when I was using it and making noises aside from the noise it usually makes when sucking thing up. I'll be so sad if it doesn't get fixed. It's like, the best vacuum we have. We ended up having to share the vacuum with the other toddler room and pre-schoolers. Nawal told me to tell them to let me use it first because I was supposed to get out at 5:30, and they were there until six.

Now that daylight savings time is over, it's going to be dark when I get out from work. It's so weird because it makes it feel like it's later than it is.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. I had to take Dad to work at 4 a.m. yesterday. I had decided to take a nap at about midnight, and Dad woke me up when it was time to go. I was so drowsy. I was more awake when I took the car, but that didn't stop me from running over a curb and blowing a tire >< and I didn't realize I had blown the tire until I was almost home >< So yeah. My dad had to come home to put the doughnut on so my mom could get to work, and then in the afternoon, he took it to get a new tire.

Anyway, nifty stuff:



I Voted... Did You?


You're Saskatchewan. Your life can get a little
boring-or is that a matter of perspective? Some
others would view it as dull while you would
view it simply as a slower pace of life, the
kind you like. You approach life cautiously and
are infinitely patient. You're not hooked on
the latest trends and prefer tradition to rapid
change. You have simple tastes and are not
extravagant.


What Canadian Province Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Heheh...It's been a long time since I've updated. Lessee...I got another cold >_< I'm not very happy about that. What can I do? I have a weak immune system. So that's been sucky.

Work has been okay, but I can never get out on time. Parents are coming for their kids later. We lost two of our kids. They moved up to the other toddler room, and instead we got some new kids who moved up from the infant nursery. We got a new supervisor to replace Nancy. I like her. She's helpful.

Today there was a natural gas leak on Nelson and Price. The line was broken while they were doing some road construction. Some places lost power. This happened while I was working. We didn't get an evacuation order, but we could smell the gas near the entrances to the outside, so we had to move all the kids to the center of the building and Diane and Marsha started calling parents to pick up their kids. The good thing about all this: I didn't have to clean up the room and I got to leave early. I went home and rested for a little while. The cold medicine is working better for me, but my nose is still pretty congested and I have a headache, not to mention I haven't been sleeping well since I got sick. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

I started a Xenosaga discussion board called The UMN Forums.  It's pretty cool. We have 16 members, and most of them are really active, so we already have over 1000 posts from our members. A lot of us seem to come on around the same time, so that helps keep the board active. Kevin advertised at XenoNation and XSF, and I submitted the forum to Google and Open Directory, so who knows? We might get more members.

I was a little worried that things might get out of hand with Waterproof Blonde because I seem to remember that he spammed XSF a lot, but that hasn't been happening at the UMN. In fact, he's been an awesome member. I have two mods that help me out. I know them both from XenoNation. They've been really great mods. I appreciate that they come to me for approval before taking certain actions. I talk to both of them over IM, and they're both really nice. Sakura sent me some songs from the XSII soundtrack. I love them. They sound very different from the music Yasunori Mitsuda composed for episode I, but it's very nice music.

I also got to know Miguel better. We talk on MSN all the time. He's a really great guy, and I enjoy talking to him.

Anyway, I'm running out of things to say, so I'm gonna go for now. I'll try to post more regularly >_<

Grr...subjects suck. Anyway, Haven't updated for the last three days. Not that anything terribly exciting happened. On Saturday, I did what I said I'd do and went out for the day (bus fare is $1.25 O.o I can't believe it!) and went to Borders and bought the fourth (and final *sniffsniff*) volume of the Azumanga Daioh manga. I hung out at Borders for a while and looked at Newtype USA (I want a subscription XD) and finally left around eleven or so. Then I treked over to Ichiban and got miso ramen soup. It was too delish. I read Azumanga Daioh while I was there, and ended up staying for at least an hour while I read and ate my big bowl of ramen. Yum.

Let's see...after that, I went to the mall and walked around for a little while, but didn't really feel like spending more money, and when I went out to go home, my bus was already there, so I didn't have to wait! It's so confusing because they have two 324's. I guess one goes to Kaiser while the other retraces the first one's route. Weird. I did get on the right bus, though.

So I got home and got online for a little while, and about ten minutes after I got home, the parents got home from the temple. Mom and I went grocery shopping because I still felt like running around. I got some rice candy (which is really good stuff) and was disappointed that they didn't have pockey.

Oh, I guess we're getting an Oriental market soon ^_^ which means I need to pick up an Oriental cookbook. My dad doesn't really like Oriental food much, but Mom and I could just make it on those weekends when he's teaching. I want to learn how to make homemade sushi! I've heard it's much better than that store-bought stuff. I believe it. It's pretty good, but I'm sure there's stuff that's much better.

Sunday was just a typical Sunday. Not much to report there. We actually got two letters from Otouto-chan this week, since we didn't get a letter from him last week, so I wrote him and ultra long two-pager. Hope he'll have time to read it, lol.

I started an Azumanga Daioh club on deviantART because I just couldn't fine one. There don't seem to be too many Azumanga Daioh fans on devART, but that's okay I guess. I've got one member, and that's better than none, right? The other person I invited sent me a note back, but didn't tell me whether they wanted to join or not. Weird.

Hmm...nothing too spectacular happened today. I dyed my hair medium auburn, although there's some dark places from the black dye. It's not too terribly noticable though, and some of it will be getting cut off when I get my hair cut, which I hope is soon. Thankfully, though, it's not sticking up in the back.

I also set up an appointment to talk to the Bishop about getting ready for my mission. I've been trying to pray and read my scriptures every day, but it's hard to get into the habit when it's been so long since I've done these things. We did scripture study as a family today, but didn't really get much out of it, so we're using an old Institute manual.

Speaking of Institute, I believe it's starting on Thursday. Mom and I are going. I forget exactly what the topic for study is, but Brother Spencer is teaching the class, and Mom says he's really good. I'm hoping for something as good as seminary was.

I want a new set of scriptures. I have a big quad which is really heavy and I've been using it since my seminary days. I think I got it in my sophmore year because I believe I had a beaten up triple combination that I used for my freshman year. It's a good set of scriptures, but they're very heavy and the binding is kind of falling apart. That's really what you get for using them for seminary, but still. I want a pair of little missionary scriptures. They're not too much bigger than my little purse (which I really love. It's big enough to hold my PDA, credit cards, some money, and has a little pocket for my cell phone and a change purse. It's this tiny thing. It's cute, really) which means that I could just carry them and my purse in my backpack if I wanted to. I know I'll probably get some for my mission. It would really be a drag to have to carry my big old set of scriptures around.

I'm really wondering where I'll be called. It's kind of tough when you are a Sister missionary, because there aren't very many of them compared to the guys. I think the majority of them are called to missions like the Salt Lake Temple Square mission (which tops my list as one of the top places I hope I get called) or other such touristy missions. I think that's cool though, because it's gotta be rough going door-to-door in a skirt and women's dress shoes. I could be wrong, but I think in the "normal" missions, the Sisters usually take investigators from the Elders and do the teaching and such. The Sisters always have to be in the same area as Elders since they can't baptize.

Top Places Jess wants to be called to

Salt Lake City Temple Square mission
anywhere in Japan *^_^* I think they have the Tokyo mission, Okoyama mission, and probably some others. I'm sure there has to be an Osaka mission, considering how  big Osaka is
New Zealand
Australlia (urk...probably spelled that wrong)

Okay...so now that I'm done with that...*^_^* hmm...I want to start learning more Japanese. I'm actually going to go to the BME Clinic and start looking at their lessons. I like how they use examples from Cardcaptor Sakura with their lessons. If I were and English teacher in Japan, I'd want my students to learn English in a fun way rather than from a text book, like using manga. I heard that they use manga to learn how to read (although that was a while ago, and I don't remember where I heard that). At any rate, it would just be more fun to learn from a medium that they're already familiar with.

I don't know how I got off on that, but I think it would be uber fun to be an English teacher in Japan. Nowadays, they're in high demand. Of course, it's got to be benificial to have a native speaker of English (who is fluent in Japanese) as a teacher. Anyway, Otouto-chan wants me to learn Japanese, because that will help him when he learns Japanese. He wants to study in Japan when he's done with school. When I get back from my mission, I want to go to BYU. I haven't frimly decided what I want to do yet, but maybe it'll come to me while I'm on my mission. Of course, I think I'd love to live in Japan, even as crowded as it is.

Heheh...but my major reason for wanting to learn Japanese is of course, so I can watch raw anime ^_^ and read untranslated manga (and the Tenchi Muyo novels, which were never translated into English).

Well, this entry has gotten rather lengthy, as my entries usually tend to get ^^; so I'm going to close for now. Oyasuminasai!