One of Those Days

Well, today was one of those days.

Single-digit temperatures plus the fact that I went four days without starting my vehicle equaled a very dead battery. I started to notice that my battery was losing a bit of power last week, and despite that realization, still failed to keep my car cranking over the weekend. So, I wasn't the least bit surprised that my car didn't start, but I was quite perturbed by it.

Then, after getting a ride, I showed up to the squadron, having failed to grab my security badge before I left home. Great start to the day ⌐_⌐

No big deal, though. I and a couple of buddies of mine had a fun little shopping trip after work, partially in order to get a new battery for me. Plus, I got to put my new pliers that I got for Christmas to use, what with having to un- and re-install the battery. I also pre-ordered Dead Space 2 from GameStop and bought a cheap but really good cake.

The sister got me a nice shiny new blender for Christmas, but I haven't had anything to blend, so I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow morning for smoothie supplies. I've been stocking up on bananas and milk at the dining facility, since it doesn't cost me anything, which kind of feels like cheating, but I don't care ^__^

New Orleans beat Atlanta tonight, which pretty much kills Tampa Bay's playoff chances. I thought it was completely over for them, but if they beat New Orleans next week, and Green Bay and the New York Giants both lose, they're in. Not likely, but possible.

Former Morning Musume member Nozomi Tsuji had her second child yesterday, so congrats to her.

The AKB48 member that I mentioned as being rather ill the other day, Mariya Suzuki, is out of the hospital now, so I'm quite relieved by that. Apparently it was something quite serious, but she and her agency aren't giving details, and I guess it's none of my business, so I'm just glad she's able to come back.

I'm so glad I'm off work tomorrow. Then, after my half-day on Wednesday, it's another four-day weekend. And this weekend, I'll be sure to turn my car on every now and then :P

On Sunday, I started playing Minecraft. It just recently went from Alpha to Beta, and I finally decided to go ahead and jump in. It. Is. Awesome. Seriously, it's one of the most amazing games ever made, even though there's no real objective or point to it. It's the ultimate sandbox-type game, and truly allows the player to play however he desires. It's kind of a hard to explain what it's all about, but I guarantee I'll be me mentioning it often from here on, and showing screenshots of my progress and stuff.

I'll save a lot of her story and my thoughts about her for my end-of-year musings, but I have to mention that today was Mayumi Uchida's birthday. This girl may be my "person of the year," due to the fact that an opportunity that she didn't deserve was thrown at her, and she took it and she performed so spectacularly well, and so beyond anybody's expectations. She was placed in the front-and-center position for the latest AKB48 single after winning, of all things, an all-48-member rock/paper/scissors tournament. That's a huge deal, as she was certainly one of the lesser-known members at the time, and had a lot of people (all the way up to Yasushi Akimoto, the AKB mastermind himself) doubting her. Long story short, I can't tell you how glad I am that she won. I'm genuinely proud of the kid, and honestly feel that she somehow deserved it more than any of the others. She said on her blog that this is by far her best birthday ever, and that just puts a huge smile on my face. So congratulations and Happy Birthday, Mayuchi!!!


Oh, and since I bought that cake earlier today ^__^...


^_^|/

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well, this seems appropriate today:


The song is °C-ute's "Aitai Lonely Christmas," which translates to "Lonely Christmas, Missing You." :(

Lyrics are basically, "I miss you; I want to see you again; I wish I was able to spend Christmas with you; I've never felt like this before; blah, blah, blah...I smile as I do my Christmas shopping, but my heart is aching"

...you get the idea. Geez, this song is depressing.

AKB48's Christmas song is much more positive. Maybe I'll listen to it instead:


I dunno...Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. I look at the calendar, and it just...seems like any other day. I guess I haven't taken the time to sit back and realize how much I really wish I was back at home right now. I try to convince myself that it's not so bad, but then I start to think about it (and that darn °C-ute song doesn't help), and...yeah...it's pretty lonely being thousands of miles away from your family on Christmas. There are so many sacrifices that go along with wearing the uniform I wear, but...so it goes, I guess.

Ugh...I'm not sure how to lighten the mood now.

Sorry.

Um...here's the dance version of that song:


A bit less depressing ^__^

Anyway...I guess I'll write some more tomorrow.

Happy Merry Christmas!

Target

Sorry about yesterday, but I was really caught up in the story of that DS game I bought the other day, "9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors." Yes, that's the title. It's a "visual novel" game, so the vast majority of it is just reading the story. Every now and then, you're required to make tough decisions that determine the course of the plot, and solve various puzzle situations, but the story is incredibly compelling and the characters are fully-realized and genuinely interesting. These types of games are very popular in Japan, but they hardly ever come to this country. This game did, and I heard it was really good, so I went to GameStop to see if there was a chance they had it in stock, and was really surprised to discover that they did. So, I was very happy. Today, I managed to get one of the many possible endings to the story (and because of some decisions I made, it didn't end well), so now I'm on my second time through, knowing some things that I didn't know the first time, and hoping for the real ending. Good stuff.

Today was my first day of four off ^__^ I actually slept for a solid eight hours last night, which was nice. I spent a good chunk of time writing today, which is always nice and frustrating. I seriously need new hobbies. My current ones either require too much of an emotional deposit, or too much of a desire to pull out my hair. Sometimes I wish I just participated in fantasy football and did awesome things to my car, like every normal 20-something male. Actually, that's a lie. I don't wish that at all. I have way too much fun re-thinking Shakespeare and idolizing 15-year-old Japanese girls ^__^

I am trying to stay busy and involved in things, as this could be a pretty rough time for me if it allow it to be. 28 years old and my first time not at home at Christmas-time. Feels bad, man.

I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight, even though I don't have to. I can already tell that I'm not going to want to get up on Monday. But at least I have next Tuesday off. And a half-day next Wednesday. Then another four-day weekend. The best part? My paychecks don't change ^__^

Ooh...I almost forgot. One year ago today was my last day at Target. Wow, the places I've been and the things I've experienced since then...

Crazy.

I'm going to have a lot to write about for my end-of-year musings, which I need to start thinking about thinking about. Next Saturday's 2011, after all.

There are a number of various things that I've been wanting to post here, but they're all sort of queued up, waiting for a day on which I have nothing to say, which may never come. Heh. I'll be so glad when I get my domain up and running, then I'll be able to have more control and a central location to do what I want to do with the Internets. It'll be cool, eventually, but looking at where it stands right now, it'll probably be pretty weak when it first goes up. I confess that I've been spending more time working out the rather complex J-pop pages, than I have on the blogging sort of stuff. I'll be at it tomorrow, though. Hoping to put some good work into it, maybe to a point where I can actually preview what it looks like at this point.

One more thing, then bed.

I haven't mentioned a birthday in quite a while, after a run of quite a few earlier in the month. But I have mentioned the girl whose birthday is today. *SIGH* Just as I was starting to feel that I was done being so moody over her graduation, Eri Kamei had to go and have her birthday, and put herself back in my thoughts ^__^ I kind of feel that I've posted enough pictures of her over the past couple of weeks (plus, she's been on the header picture for this blog since August), but then I realize that there's no such thing as enough pictures of her, so:


Happy 22nd!!!

Not the same without her <_>

G'night.

^_^|/

Can't talk now; gotta get back to this story...

^_^|/

Things Sure Have Changed

You know what I need to get back to doing?

Reading.

I'm still way behind on my comic books, and I need to get back into the Dark Tower novels. Not to mention the fact that I'd love to go back and read through the whole Dune saga again. Hmm...when I do that, should I go through them in chronological order, with the prequels first, or in the order in which they were written?

Work was super-crappy today.

Half my shop was off today, as half of us got today off, and the other half (of which I'm a part) gets next Tuesday off. So I got there at 7:00, and worked on some of my training until 9:00, at which time SSgt Name-Withheld told the other two Airmen that they could go ahead and go home. I guess he couldn't justify sending all three of us, so I was stuck at work all day doing absolutely nothing, with nobody to talk to or anything. Plus, the two guys that got to leave early are essentially getting BOTH Tuesdays off now. I didn't have a happy day. And to make matters worse, I went to lunch at noon, and when I drove back to work, I walked in to find that nobody was in the office. Everybody else was released while I was at lunch, so driving all the way back up there was stupid and pointless. Ugh. I was so frustrated. But I still got out kind of early, and at least I know tomorrow is going to be short (and will lead into a four-day weekend), so I guess it's no big deal. I'm over it.

I ran by GameStop after work today to see if they possibly had in stock a pretty obscure DS game that just came out (they did), and while I was there, I bought my new Wii ^__^ I guess they had just gotten a few of the limited edition red ones in, so my timing was impeccable. That definitely served to put me in a better mood. Now I just need to find a good spot to put the thing.

Hmm...I wonder if we have PT tomorrow morning. If so, then we won't actually be into work until 9:00, which will make it a three-hour work day. Awesome.

No J-pop birthdays today, but a bit of more serious-type news. AKB48's Mariya Suzuki is apparently really sick right now. They're being really quiet about the details, but it seems like it's pretty bad. She's one of the less-popular members, and I don't know her that well, but she's one of my 48, so this whole situation kind of worries me, and I hope she gets well soon.

Today's the 21st, so the days are going to slowly start getting longer. Of course, by the summer, they'll be way too long and I'll be whining about the lack of darkness. You just can't win up here.

Oh dear...I found a kiwi that's been sitting here for...I don't know; a few days. It's a little squishy, and I'm slightly afraid of cutting into it. I'll try it later.

The third Robot Chicken Star Wars special aired on Sunday night, and it was hilarious. The bit with the wampa at the gas station is an instant classic. Surprisingly, I can't find it on YouTube, or I'd embed it here, but...wow; I was on the floor. Funny, funny, stuff.

I was finally able to get my online banking set back up today. First time I've been able to access it all year, so I'm now 100% caught up on my financial records and balance and jazz. Time to start looking at next year's budget. This year was kind of hard to keep up with, with all the changes in pay and benefits, and all the moving around and everything. Next year should be a lot easier.

Heh...I just looked at my post from a year a go. I was questioning decisions that were being made at work, listening to Bob Dylan in my car, and wondering about my own sanity due to my J-pop obsession ^__^ Gee...things sure have changed ⌐_⌐

That's funny.

Speaking of J-pop, I wonder if there's a new AKBINGO tomorrow Last week was a sort of year-in-review best-of kind of thing, so that may have been all until next month, which isn't cool. Apparently Yui Yokoyama and some of the newly promoted girls are going to finally get to be on. Looking forward to that.

Alright, I've written enough.

Bye for now.

^_^|/

Day one of my three days of work this week is done.

Got out two hours early, too ^__^

Tomorrow might also be a short day, and I know that we're getting out at noon on Wednesday, so I'm in a pretty good mood.

Also, the J-pop world has calmed down a bit, after the mega-eventful last two weeks, so my brain is happy to have a break from all the craziness. Between all the new AKB/SKE members, the release of Chance no Junban, the announcements of all the upcoming sub-unit stuff, all the other "normal" things that tend to happen, and then the freaking Eri Kamei graduation...my mind just about imploded. So it's nice that things are more or less quiet right now.

It snowed this morning, which was kind of nice. Actually, it was really pretty this morning; it was very sparkly snow, as if God has decided to sprinkle glitter everywhere.

I got a package of Christmas presents from home today, and there's nobody around to enforce the rules of me not opening them until Saturday.

⌐_⌐ ¬_¬ ⌐_⌐ ¬_¬

But I'll be good and wait ^__^

Yeesh, I'm so tired all of a sudden.

After tomorrow, the days will gradually start getting longer again. For this I am glad.

Later.

^_^|/

***Edit****

Apparently I was so tired last night that I forgot to hit the "Publish" button.

Oops.

Anyway, I'll be on later this evening to write some more.

Until then...

Crash

Wow, Firefox...

Apparently, I'm not supposed to update this thing today.

I wrote a bunch of stuff, then Firefox went and crashed on me.

I don't feel like writing it all over again right now, so I'm going to go to bed and try again tomorrow.

Only five days of work in the next two weeks.

That thought puts me in a better mood ^__^

meh

Yikes!

It's later than I thought.

I need to go to bed.

Nothing terribly exciting happened today.

Tomorrow's Friday.

Might be a short day at work.

Going to see Tron with the gang tomorrow evening.

I typed this in SQL today:

UPDATE 'j-idols' SET 'status' = 'former' WHERE 'last_name' = 'Kamei'

Painful.

I can't wait for the weekend.

I need to catch up on sleep.

Don't know why I'm so tired.

Yawn.

G'night.

^_^|/

More Alaska Winter Fun

So, this morning was certainly interesting.

I got up, and got ready to go to the gym for PT, and stepped outside only to discover that chaos had descended on the world. The 50 kt winds last night had done all kinds of fun things with the snow. People had tried to drive out, and there were cars stuck, blocking all the exits from the parking lot. There were also cars just kind of sitting in random places, having backed out and unable to go any farther. There was even one (and I have no idea how this could have happened) that was actually sitting on top of a huge mound of snow, its tires not anywhere near the pavement. It's like the guy tried to launch himself over the snow-mound...and didn't make it. Needless to say, I was going to have to miss PT. So I went and put my uniform on, then proceeded to level the wall that had built itself around my vehicle. After a while, and after some of the other cars got themselves out of their predicaments, I managed to power my way through the safer side of the parking lot and find the road, which wasn't in much better shape. Luckily, once I hit the main roads, it was smooth sailing, but goodness...what a mess. You should see the sides of all the roads, having now been plowed. There are literally tall walls of snow on either side, and it's crazy to think that it used to all be on the road.

I can't believe I live in these conditions ^__^

Well...Wednesday's done. Hopefully tomorrow and Friday won't be too bad. I might get off early this Friday, but I'm not 100% on that yet, so I'm not getting my hoeps up. From what I understand, my squadron really takes it easy on the holiday weeks, so the three days I work next week may not even be full days. Have I mentioned that I REALLY NEED THAT BREAK?

Of course, last night was the big Morning Musume graduation concert. I talk a bit about it in the post below this one, but it's hard to really express what it means to me. I'm not gonna lie...it's pretty tough. Even thought the announcement was made back in August that Eri, Jun, and Lin were leaving, it's still pretty hard to deal with when the actual time comes. I need to go into my database and change their status from "current" to "former" but I think I'll wait a while. Yeesh, that's not going to be easy to do.

One of the guys that I chauffeur finally got nice new winter tires put on his car, so that's one down. Actually, maybe the other two guys can ride with him now. I guess I could ride with him for a while, which would assist with him paying my back for all the rides (which he has expressed the need to do). Actually, come to think of it, he owes my big-time. I drove him all the way from Biloxi to Baton Rouge back in July. Granted, it was on my route, but still...Anyway, I don't know that I really want to ride around with him. I sort of like to be in control, and when you're dependent on somebody else's vehicle, you have to adapt to their schedule. Plus, it's good to keep my car active with the wonderful weather around here. Also, I like listening to my music and getting the most out of my AKB48 plates. He can pay me back some other way. He did buy me a Mountain Dew today, so I guess that's a start.

Oh, the new Game Informer came out today. The updated Lara Croft graces the cover, and subsequently, that cover has now become my new desktop wallpaper. Let me go find it...here:


Isn't that just flippin' awesome?

Anyway, Conan starts in ten minutes.

I'm outta here.

^_^|/

亀井 絵里

How can I possibly begin to talk about Eri Kamei?

I watched this girl grow up as a member of Morning Musume for the last eight years.

There are countless moments, countless memories. All of them good.

It's always a challenge to try to sum up a career like this. I can't think of anything, even though I know there's a lot; but I just don't know what to say.

She used to be such a quiet and shy little thing, and struggled for a while to find her place, as the other three girls that came in with her seemed to gain instant popularity.

Her humor, her utter randomness at times, I think, is what finally managed to win the hearts of the fans. She's the type that makes jokes that only she gets, but somehow it ends up being funny anyway.

She's a girl that you just can't say anything bad about, and she never ever gave any reason to say anything bad about her. I honestly can't come up with a moment in which I criticized her. She's the most genuine and sweetest girl you could ever hope for.

Plus, she's just downright gorgeous.

It's impossible to sit here and sum up my favorite moments of hers. The early appearances on Utaban, seeing her personality emerge on Hello!Morning, all the goofy and random little things she did. The photobooks, the solo DVDs, the group special events.

And, of course, the music.

She was never really front-and-center all that much; never had a whole lot of lines. "Kimagure Princess" is the closest she came, and I think I sort of consider that one to be "her song." But her role in the group was an important one. I know some of the other members really looked up to her, and I know it kills them to see her go. Obviously, they'll see each other often, and remain very close, but the idea that they'll never be on stage or on a PV shoot doing their songs and choreography together is a sad thought. Eight years is a long time to be together, especially in their world with what they have to go through. As a fan, it's easy to become very attached, and there's something about getting to see them grow up and everything that makes them feel sort of like adopted sisters to me. So it's tough to see them leave. I'm not ashamed to admit that there have been tears shed over this, and there's no way I'll make it through the footage of last night's final concert without bawling my eyeballs out. It's a depressing inevitability that they will all eventually graduate out of the group. Luckily, it doesn't happen often, especially with girls of Eri's caliber, as there are only a small handful of those.

Wow...so many thoughts, but, like I said, it's impossible to really express the impact that this has on me.

I suppose I also need to mention the fact that two other Morning Musume members graduated last night as well. The two Chinese girls, Chun Li and Qian Lin, are also gone. I'm so caught up, though, in the fact that Kamei is no longer there, that those two leaving is sort of an afterthought. Not that they weren't both amazing, but they've only been around for three years, so the impact is not even close to Kamei's. They'll be missed, though.

So, what of Morning Musume now? It's the end of a major era, that's for sure. The group has been largely unchanged and has sort of had it's own new style and feel since Yoshizawa and Fujimoto graduated in 2007. Now they're down to five members. The last time they had five members was when they were first formed back in 1997, and that didn't last long, as three more were added in early 1998. As far as I know, auditions are currently going on, and may very well be in their later stages, so I imagine new members will be coming in before too long. I imagine any newbies will be 13 to 16 years old, so the look and feel of the group will have to change, as the current five are all a bit older. A 13-year-old performing "Kimagure Princess" would be downright inappropriate.

So, despite the sadness that comes with the graduations, I'm really looking forward to what the future holds for Morning Musume.

I just can't believe it's a Morning Musume without Eri Kamei.

...

Eri...

Thank you.

Eight Years

Heh.

I've started typing this post about 10 times now, but can't seem to find the right words.

So maybe I just won't talk about "it" right now. Actually, "it" won't happen for another five or so hours, so I guess it's not even the right time to talk about "it" yet. But I guess I'll have to at some point. But until then...I'll just leave this here:


Eight years. Wow. Gonna miss you, girl.

...

Alright...deep breath. And...I'm good to go ^__^

The breakfast with the Colonel this morning was really nice. I was lucky enough to be seated directly to his left, and he and the Chief, plus 12 E3s/E4s sat and chatted about various topics for a couple of hours. It was a genuine honor to be able to participate in that, even though folks with birds on their collars can be a bit intimidating when you only have a couple of stripes on your arm. It's hard to find that zone where you're able to relax without losing your military bearing and courtesies. Good start to my morning.

Work pretty much sucked, though. I guess it wasn't really work, per se, that was bad. It was...I don't know. My head's just not in it. I think I need that Christmas break, and now that it's coming up, I'm starting to look more forward to it, and therefore, starting to wish it was NOW.

The weather is simply lovely right now. It snowed this morning, so there's a nice new layer of fine and powdery snow, which is wonderful when the super-strong winds blow it around everywhere. Good grief, it's painful. I had to run over and get gas tonight, and made it out of the parking lot with no issue. I couldn't see the road or anything on my way there, as the snow was blowing all over the place, but I made it. Then I had to get out of my car and stand there while I pumped gas, which was frightfully unpleasant. Then, of course...oh...by the way, gas was $3.37, which just makes this whole experience worse. Anyway, I had to drive back through the snow storm, part of the way in the wrong lane, as the proper lane was piled with drifting snow. So, it really didn't take all that long, but once I got back to the parking lot, well...there was no parking lot. In the short amount of time that I was away, a foot of snow managed to fill in my spot. It was crazy, but I tried to pull in anyway. Mistake. I got stuck and had to rock my car back out, then I went to a less snow-filled side of the parking lot.

Alaska's really something.

I keep trying to convince myself that it's almost over. Only five more months of winter to go ⌐_⌐

Bed-time.

The Morning Musume concert is, I believe, 12:30 to 03:30 my time, so I'll be asleep. Hard to believe they're going back to five members; they haven't been that small a group since 1998. Well, I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about it tomorrow.

Good night.

^_^|/

6%

The holiday break can't come quick enough.

Things have really been non-stop ever since I got here in August, and it'll be nice to able to recharge a bit.

Of course, if I would do things in my free time that don't drive me crazy, everything would be so much easier ^__^

It's cool, though. While it's a bit overwhelming trying to name/face match 28 newbies who all have brown eyes, black or dark brown hair, and a similar skin-tone, it's nice to have a fresh batch to get to know. It's much the same feeling when I was trying to learn all of AKB48, and it's hard to remember a time in which I was unable to distinguish between members or get a name to stick. They're all so familiar to me now, and I imagine the SKE48 girls will be that way before too long, but right now...frustration. I probably won't be too involved with SKE or AKB for the rest of the week, believe it or not, which will actually be a bit of a relief. Hurts my brain sometimes.

I'm in the top 6% of guitar players on the Rock Band 3 leaderboards, which I enjoy bragging about. I'm pretty sure I can improve enough to break into the top 5%, but I don't know about going any higher than that. Then I'll move on to the bass parts and see what I can do there. For some reason, my foot pedal on my drums has decided that it doesn't want to work any more, so I'm going to have to get a new one, which is no big deal, but whatever.

I'm going to bed early tonight. I have that breakfast with the group commander tomorrow. Should be cool.

In fact, I think I'm going to go to bed right now.

^_^|/

Sorry

Okay, so I missed a day.

No big deal, though. I went and hung around with some friends last night, kind of unexpectedly. Good times.

I can already tell that this week is going to be a bit rough, and I'll get to the reasons for that when the time comes, but...not looking forward to it.

I've been playing Golden Sun quite a bit lately. The first one should take about 25 hours, and the second one, I believe, will be close to 40, so it'll be a little while before I'm finally able to jump into the recently released third one. It had been years since I've played them, so it's a pretty cool nostalgic journey with all the characters and places that really stuck with me.

Besides the depress-a-thon that's bound to happen in a couple of days, this week shouldn't be too bad. Tomorrow I have a going-away lunch to attend for one of my NCOs. In fact, it's the guy whose house I went to for Thanksgiving. Pretty cool guy. Gonna miss him. On Tuesday, I have a breakfast to attend with our group commander, so that ought to be interesting. Wednesday's payday. And Thursday and Friday are just Thursday and Friday, as far as I know. Then the weekend, and then begins the blessed holiday schedule ^__^

AKB news:

I remember sitting here last Sunday, gearing up for an awesome week in J-pop, really looking forward to the big event: AKB48's new single, "Chance no Junban," being released. I was not anticipating waking up Monday morning to discover that SKE48's Team E had been created, giving me 20 new names and faces to figure out. But it was cool (except for the four demotions). Then, of course, the announcement came that eight of AKB's research students were being promoted. This threw me into a crazy state of worry, not knowing (still not really knowing, by the way) how it would work. What I do know is that it gives me 8 more, on top of the 20, to figure out ⌐_⌐ Throw in a few other random happenings, the weirdness that's surrounding Watarirouka, the fact that there were a few important birthdays, and the time spent dissecting the five PVs that were released with "Chance," and last week was pretty much the craziest AKB week ever. Things should be pretty quiet this week, though. Here's hoping.

I need to trim my hair, then I think I'll run over to the dining facility real quick and grab a bite to eat. Or maybe I'll do that first.

Oh, my burnwash.com site is getting better, but it's still not ready. I've decided to go ahead and go live on it on January 1st, ready or not. More than likely, it'll be not, but that's okay. Having what I have up and running (even if it's not exactly how I want it) will provide good incentive for working on it and tweaking it to where I need it. As far as this page is concerned, I'm strongly considering moving the whole thing over to my own domain, as it'll give me a whole heck of a lot more freedom to do things exactly how I want to do them. But I haven't exactly made a final decision on that yet. Stay tuned.

Time to eat.

^_^|/

Bacon

11:15

I've got me some French toast, hashbrowns, some nice crispy bacon, a couple of hard-boiled eggs, two kiwis, Cocoa Puffs and milk, and a big cup of strawberry/kiwi juice.

The dining facility here is literally just across the street, and the food is amazing. But the best part? I can eat as much as I want and it doesn't cost me a penny. God bless the Air Force ^__^

Oh my heavens, this bacon is superb.

The weekend is here at last. Our NCOs actually let us out an hour early today, so that was cool.

I'm debating on whether or not I should go to bed early and catch up on some sleep, or stay up and continue working on some stuff.

AKB news while I'm thinking about it:

A bit of a false alarm yesterday. The two members being added to Watarirouka Hashiritai are just a temporary thing for their 7th single. Still a stupid idea, but at least (hopefully) I'll have my regular group back after February. But now I kind of feel bad for Misaki Iwasa, because the positive thing coming out of this was the "fact" that she was finally getting a major spotlight. Well, at least it's something. Hey, wow; I found a picture!



The two on the ends, standing up, are the two new additions (Iwasa's on the right). Cool. I'm assuming these are their get-ups for the single. Darn cute. I am now looking forward to this.

Have I mentioned that this bacon is basically perfect? Well, it is.

It started snowing this afternoon, and it's coming down pretty hard right now. Apparently it's supposed to last all day tomorrow, so it looks like we'll be getting a few more inches. I can't imagine how crazy it's going to get as it keeps piling up. The plows put it in gigantic piles, which are only going to get bigger, because the stuff can't melt, as it's never above maybe 20 degrees around here.

Alright, I'm going to finish eating, then I think I'm going to head to bed. Check out the video on the Sakiko Matsui post below, if you haven't. The explanation for it is provided below, as well ^__^

^_^|/

Sakiko Matsui

Wow.

There have been some really good birthdays lately, but this looks like the last one I'll be freaking out over for a couple of weeks ^__^

Let the record show that Sakiko Matsui is among the girls that I liked and decided to support way before 90% of the AKB fans knew her name or face. Now that she's becoming a bit more popular, she doesn't feel so..."mine" any more. Heh. I both love and hate when my underdogs start to become well-known.

I don't know what it is about her. She's just somehow extremely captivating. She seems like one of the more mature members of the group, both acting and looking her age, and she's amazingly talented.

A display of talent is what got her in the spotlight and into the hearts of fans back in July. The final show of the big summer concert weekend opened in a very non-traditional manner. After the upbeat and fan-hyping usual overture, the so-called curtain opened on Sakiko alone on stage at a piano:



An AKB concert opening with a Chopin etude? Crazy. But brilliant, especially coming from a girl who was not really well-know at the time. Good grief, I can't tell you how excited I was to see that. I wish that video had gone on a bit longer, because right after the Chopin piece, she played a small arrangement of the (then) new single, before jumping into the actual piano intro of "Ponytail to Shushu" as the senbatsu members took the stage to sing it and start the real concert. Absolutely fantastic, and one of the best moments of a momentous year.

So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAKIKO!!!

EDF! EDF! EDF!

I opened up the spreadsheet for this month's work schedule, and it made me very happy, because the fact that I have two consecutive four-day weekends coming up became real to me ^__^

So, after next week, I'll have three days on, four off, Monday on, Tuesday off (for a comp day), Wednesday on, another four off, then it's 2011 and back to a normal schedule.

I just remembered that I forgot to go to the comic book store today. For some reason, today felt like Wednesday. Don't know why.

I got voluntold to represent my section at next Tuesday's Airman's breakfast with our group commander and squadron leadership. Should be pretty cool.

When I went to the BX yesterday, I meant to buy Inception so I can watch it this weekend, but then I got distracted by...something, I'm sure...and forgot about it. Meh...I need to go to the comic book store tomorrow, so I guess I'll get it while I'm out then.

Earth Defense Force 2017 is amazingly terrible, but terribly fun. "The bugs are spitting some kind of liquid. Is it some kind of bodily fluid? ARRGH! It's melting my armor!" The dialogue is horrendously wonderful ^__^

**Sigh** In the middle of trying to make sense of this whole eight new AKB member thing, news came out this morning that my favorite AKB48 sub-unit, Watarirouka Hashiritai, is adding two members (Mika Komori and Misaki Iwasa) before their upcoming February single. I adore this group, and seven members is too many for a sub-unit. I honestly don't mind Iwasa being there, as this will finally give her a chance to hit the spotlight. She hasn't had a whole lot of opportunities, and I've kinda been rooting for her, so win-win. Komori, however, does not need any more exposure. She's had a huge push by the management over the last few months, and has become remarkably popular. I have nothing against her, but neither she nor Watarirouka need the extra popularity boost, so I don't really understand the decision to include her. I'm sure the new single will end up fine, but...meh...not too thrilled about this move.

Strange thought: It's been weeks since I've seen grass. Like, at all. How bizarre is that? Everything's just white; and will be for quite some time. Looks like more snow's on the way late tomorrow and all day Saturday. Heh...a few of us came back from lunch today and grabbed some giant snowballs and piled them all over one of our fellow Airman's car. I don't know if he thought it was funny (he left work before I did and I haven't seen him since), but I sure found it hilarious ^__^

Man, I can't wait until all my free time off at the end of the month. I need a break. Of course, now that I think about it, it's actually my free time that's stressing me out (AKB, I'm looking at you...⌐_⌐).

Heh.

What a strange life I lead ^__^

^_^|/

Yui Yokoyama

Her birthday was actually yesterday, but I wanted to be able to give her and Aika Ota a bit of equal opportunity, and since nobody's birthday is today...

Yui Yokoyama is the newest AKB48 member (I can't even count the eight new ones that were added yesterday; not until I know a bit more about what's going on with them), having replaced Erena Ono on Team K after she graduated in...I want to say the beginning of October.

Unfortunately, she hasn't done a whole lot outside of the stage performances, but I imagine she'll be on AKBINGO or Shukan before too long, and possibly (if she's amazingly fortunate) in the next Senbatsu (or at least the Undergirls). I did see her in the Team K b-side of Chance no Junban today. Very cool PV, and she's heavily featured in it, though she looks very different than how I've ever seen her.

(from the Team K PV)

She seems pretty cool from what little I've seen of her, and she's a good fit for the team she's on. I wish the best for her in the upcoming year ^__^

Happy Birthday, Yui!

AKB56

My data storage problem has been taken care of.

I had intended to buy a 2 TB HDD, but 1) the BX didn't have any in stock and 2) the 1 TB drives were $40 off the normal price. I'm glad I decided to wait until this week to purchase it ^__^

That was win number one.

Win number two came when I decided to stop by GameStop to grab the new Golden Sun. I checked out the used games and lo-and-behold, there sat Earth Defense Force 2017. I couldn't believe it. It's like a cult classic...cheesy as all get-out, but really fun and addictive...and near impossible to find. But I finally found it ^__^ So...win.

24 hours ago, everything was nice and happy in the J-pop world. I was excited about Team E, excited about today's Chance no Junban release, excited about some of the upcoming birthdays...you get the point. Some exciting stuff going on. Then this morning occurred. Today happened to be the 5th anniversary of AKB48, and they had a big performance with some of the former members making an appearance. Cool stuff. Then an announcement was made that the eight 9th-generation Kenkyuusei (girls who are basically reservists, hoping to someday find the spotlight) are to be promoted into full-on AKB members. My initial reaction was , "WHAT?!?" which soon turned into, "oh %$^&" because it occurred to me that with new members coming in, old members might be going out. No explanation could be found for what the management planned to do with these newbies, so I was...concerned, to say the least. Still no word, by the way, on where they are going to end up, be it spread amongst the three teams or on their own team (what's next? Team 4? Team 8? heh). But it looks like everybody's staying where they are, so that's a relief. So...yay! Eight new members...⌐_⌐

You have no idea how hard it is being an AKB48 fan ^_~ It's the biggest emotional roller-coaster ride :P But there's definitely never a dull moment.

Sorry. I had to get that off my chest. I'm just glad every day isn't as eventful as today (and that's not even the only J-idol story of day 9_9...but I've ranted enough).

What's going on at work? Hmm...not much, quite frankly. All I've really been doing lately are some really painfully dull computer-based training things. I'm supposed to get signed off on a few tasks tomorrow for my upgrade training, so that's coming along. I can't wait to hit my 5-level so I can start looking at college classes and get moving toward my next stripe. I'm still not sure when I'm officially moving down to my real job, but I feel a lot closer to it now that I'm getting my training done down there, and meeting with my supervisor regularly.

I'm glad I decided to sign on to the AT&T website today. I recently signed up for the automatic bill payment, but apparently it doesn't take effect until next month, so my bill was overdue. Kinda wish they had told me about that. Actually, they probably did, and I just didn't see it. But no big deal.

I think I may go to bed super-early tonight. Which is, like, 11:30.

Two days 'til the weekend. Hooray.

^_^|/

Aika Ota

Hmm...what to say about Aika Ota...

The kid's adorable.

That crazy dimple of hers is entirely too cute.

I don't know why, but it seems like I could sit here and talk about her more than I could talk about any of the other girls. She's absolutely a favorite of mine, and if memory serves, ranks 7th on my AKB ranking list. She's the type of girl that can seem like the sweetest little thing one minute, and like "don't mess with me" the next. And she's not afraid to let it be known exactly what she's thinking. Like if somebody is on stage or whatever talking and getting long-winded, most of the girls would be standing there with a typical J-idol smile, and Aika's rolling her eyes and looking frustrated. It seems like she has a bit of an attitude (typical, I suppose, for a girl her age), but I love it. She also seems a bit...I dunno how to describe it. Not air-headed or ditzy...just...sort of unintentionally goofy. Like having one stocking shorter than the other in Watarirouka Hashiritai's "Gyu" PV ^__^ Yes, she's that girl. Anyway, she's pretty much awesome, and today's her birthday, so...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RABUTAN!!!

Cold and Dark

I need a new hard drive.

I keep finding ways to shift data around to free up space, but I'm now at the point where I'm struggling to find any more creative ways to move it. Since I'm down to my last 4 GB between all my storage devices, I think it's time to invest in a 2 TB HDD, which should last me a while ^__^

Maybe that'll be my Christmas present to myself this year.

Dude...the new Golden Sun game came out last week, and went totally unnoticed by me. I thought it wasn't coming out until early next year, so now I need to jump back on the old games and replay through them, then I can go pick the new one up. Awesomeness.

Speaking of video games, I still haven't really touched my Xbox all that much since the day before Thanksgiving, and haven't played Fallout or Call of Duty at all. I guess I've just been busy doing other stuff. One of those other stuffs that I need to get back on is my violin. I spent some good quality time with it last week, trying to figure out a couple of songs, and promised myself I'd record some stuff this past weekend, but...didn't. Hopefully I'll remember to do it this weekend.

I honestly think that a big factor as far as me being in an "I don't feel like doing anything" mood is the fact that it's always so cold and dark here. It can really mess with your mind. The sun rises at about 10:00 in the morning and starts to set when I'm at lunch, and it's dark at around 3:45. Crazy. It feels like the day is already over when I get out of work, so any motivation to get out and go do anything is gone. It's going to be like this for a while, so I'm sure I'll get used to it, but right now it's sort of a shock to the senses.

At least I have a very strong anti-depressant, in the form of about 150 Japanese pop-idols ^__^

And while that part of my world is doing a stellar job at keeping me happy...

A return to the more basic side of spiritual matters, as I mentioned the other day, is doing a stellar job of keeping me grounded. I've never lost faith along my journey this past year or so; I've never forgotten how I got to where I am today, and I am constantly thankful that God has set me on and continues to guide me along His path. But it's never a bad thing to go back and reestablish the basic concepts of faith and redemption. You can't perform complex calculus equations but forget simple arithmetic, you know? That's more or less where I feel like I've been lately. It feels good to just read through books like Ephesians and the Corinthians, and to pick out and remember those simple truths. It's just what I've been needing. I do need to go find a good local church, though. I've watched some television broadcasts, but haven't been yet. Soon, though.

Which reminds me: I need to take some things to the dry-cleaners. I won't let me forget.

And...it's 11:30. Sleep sounds like an excellent idea right about now.

Tomorrow's Wednesday. The new AKB48 single is out tomorrow. Awesome. This is the one where the participating members (and their prominence in the song/PV) were decided by a rock-paper-scissors tournament, in order to give all 48 of them a fair chance. It's usually decided by a fan popularity vote, so now we're seeing a lot of girls that haven't had an opportunity to be in the spotlight, which is really cool. And I'm a big "root-for-the-underdog" type, so I'm happy to see some of my favorite "unknowns" have a chance to shine.

Didn't I say something about sleep?

G'night.

^_^|/

Proceed With Caution

I'm going to do something silly tonight, so bear with me.

Stream-of-consciousness writing is something I do a lot of. I have piles of notebooks, and always have a blank page nearby, ready to be filled with whatever I feel I need to write down. That sort of writing doesn't really work on a computer, as I can't convey the true emotions I can through various writing styles, doodles, and other various "text-formatting" options that can be achieved via pencil-to-paper. But, today was a busy day inside my head, so I thought I'd share a bit. Of course, it's all J-pop related, and you really won't understand a word, but this is a little slice of my brain, so...proceed with caution ^__^

TEAM E!!! Finally. I called it. I did. I knew that it was bound to happen immediately following Yoroshiku. Of course, now I have 20 more girls to learn, so there goes all my free-time for the forseeable future. 20? Yes, 20. 16, of course, were promoted into Team E, and 4 more were promoted into KII, which means 4 of the original KII members were DEMOTED. Ouch. Didn't see THAT coming. As happy as I am that there's finally a Team E, I feel reeeeeeaaaly bad for the 4 that got kicked out. While I didn't really have any emotional attachment to any of them, Shiori Iguchi seemed pretty cool. Harsh, man. Real harsh. But so it goes. The idol world can be pretty cut-throat at times. So. SKE48 is now actually 48. That is, like, the biggest news since...hmm...I don't know, but it's a huge deal. I can't wait to sit down and start putting names to faces. I know all the members from Yoroshiku, plus a handful more, so I have a long way to go until I learn all of them, but I do believe they are all present in the two Yoroshiku B-sides. Waiting for the official profiles to show up so I can add them to the birthday database ^___^ But it looks like Jurina may not be the youngest any more (gasp!). This is, like, earth-shattering stuff. But it's good to see a lot of younger ones moving in. We need to start getting that next generation active. Same with Morning Musume. When Eri, Jun, and Lin grad out next week, it'll be really interesting to see what direction Tsunku decides to take his girls. I think an infusion of youth is inevitable, which means we'll be looking at a very different sort of MM. Maybe a semi-return to the style of their glory days. I can't belive Kamei is graduating. I was watching Yasuda's graduation concert earlier and was getting teary-eyed. And that was 7 years ago. Right around the time Kamei was coming in, actually. I'm dreading the moment that I'll have to go into my database and change Eri's status to "former." Ugh. But I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds over on the H!P side of things. Yasuda's 30th birthday was today. Crazy. The poor girl put up with so much crap during her years with the group, and I loved every moment of it. She's sort of a closet favorite of mine. Always will be. Chance no Junban is cool. I've been listening to the A version in the car. I'm trying to convince myself to like the Christmas song, but I really can't. The chorus melody is just...not good. Plus, from what I've seen of the PV, I'm not a fan. The stupid cartoon birds and stupid wine glasses or whatever floating around is dumb. The Chance PV I like, though I was trepidatious at first upon hearing of the intercut Janken Tournament footage. But it's really not too bad. I'll withhold my judgement on the three Team PVs, as all I've seen are the short previews from AKBINGO. Team A's song is okay, though. Not really what I expected from A, but...OH! Katayama. My Katayama ♥ The senbatsu was on HEYx3 earlier today, performing a Ponytail, Rotation, and Beginner medley, which was kinda funny because HR lasted, like, 15 seconds. Anyway, I was super-extremely excited when I saw that Sakiko Matsui was subbing for Mariko. I love this girl. She's in contention for my "moment of the year" with her Chopin performance at the concert back in July. Brilliant. Of course, I liked her even before that, but, sadly, nobody will ever believe me. Just like with Takajo. She was my favorite before she was remotely popular. Now she's a high-percentage favorite, and I'm like "I saw her first." Not fair. Sashihara too. What was I talking about? Oh. As happy as I was about Sakiko, I about fainted when the camera landed on Katayama and her newly-shortened hair. I like it. Generally, I flip out over hair-cuts, but it suits her. And if it gets her a little more attention and screen-time, then hooray! She was subbing for Sae, and the absence of Sae was already reason enough for celebration. So, yes. A rare Katayama sighting to add to the happiness of my happy-day ^__^ Team E. Wow. Still can't believe it. Oh, man, I was watching bits of the summer concert last night. So good. The only downside, really, is the fact that their outfits during the big marathon of recent singles are terrible. I actually had not yet seen the Janken announcement or the Ono grad announcement. Amazing. Great reactions from everybody.

And...time.

Besides, if I get started on those concerts, there'll be no stopping me.

Anyway, that's pretty much what a partitioned-off section of the inside of my head sounds like all day ^__^

I went to the doctor about my ankle today, by the way. He says I'm tearing fibers in my achilles tendon and that I need to take it easy and let it heal, basically not to push through the pain, but to ease off when the pain starts. Also, I think new shoes will help. I may go get some tomorrow.

Right now? Bed time.

^_^|/

Basics

Interesting day today.

I'm starting to remind myself of Job's friends. Not a good thing.

I feel like I tend to believe my beliefs about God rather than believe His Word about Himself.

If that makes sense.

Often, I get so caught up in waxing philosophical about the Word, which is not a bad thing, but I really feel that the best thing for me, moving forward, is to take a few steps back.

A return to the basics.

It's like my metaphoric spiritual house is well-constructed, but somehow floating above the ground, it's owner thinking that he is better than the other houses because of that, when, in fact, the house is in danger, having removed itself from its foundation.

I need that cornerstone, that solid ground, back.

...

Now I'm trying to think of a way to segue into lighter matters, but can't seem to do it ⌐_⌐

So I guess that's all for today.

^_^|/

15 Characters

I always enjoy going back to my old posts to see what was going on exactly a year ago. I just read my December 3rd post (a year ago yesterday) and discovered that I had changed my banner picture on that day, which I also just so happened to have done last night. Weird.

Speaking of weird, Anchorage seems like the best spot in the States for really bad local commercials. I happened to find one on YouTube. Check this dude out ^__^



In my younger years, I remember kiwis being a food item that I would not go near. I don't know why; maybe because they're fuzzy. But I've recently discovered that I really like kiwis. Yum.

I did a "15 Fictional Characters That Have Influenced You" thing on Facebook, and, to be fair, tried to keep them to one per source. Otherwise, I think they all would have come from The Lord of the Rings. Or the Marvel universe. Or possibly Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anyway, I couldn't let myself get away with less than two from The Lord of the Rings, so I sort of broke my own little rule, but otherwise it's fairly diverse. Also, as a stipulation, the rules mentioned to do it quickly, rather than to sit and put a lot of consideration into it. So...here are 15 of my most unforgettable, influential characters:

01 - Allen Francis Doyle (Angel)
02 - Boo Radley (To Kill a Mockingbird)
03 - Calvin (and Hobbes)
04 - Desmond Hume (Lost)
05 - Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings)
06 - Kermit the Frog (The Muppet Show)
07 - Leto Atreides II (Dune)
08 - Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
09 - Sado (Majisuka Gakuen)
10 - Samwise Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings)
11 - Severus Snape (Harry Potter)
12 - Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)
13 - Steve Rodgers (Marvel Universe)
14 - Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
15 - Zelda/Sheik (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

It's pretty easy to psychoanalyze a person over a list like that. I've put more thought into it now, and might make an expanded list with some of the important ones I left out.

Ever since I did that thing, I've been in a major Lord of the Rings mood, which is cool, because it seems like it's been a while since I've delved into some Tolkien.

It is officially after midnight now, so I think I'm going to head to bed.

^_^|/

Bad Mood?

It's 15 minutes 'til midnight. I made it here just in time, as to not break the pretty good consecutive-day streak I have going ^__^

It's snowing right now, but there's no wind, so the predictions of a blizzard were downright wrong. No complaints from me.

I might run over to the dining facility in a minute; I'm kind of hungry, and there's no reason to go to bed early tonight.

Wow, I can't think of a whole lot to talk about.

My head hurts, which isn't cool. It's not as bad as it was earlier today, but it's still bad. Lately, I've been feeling, not really sick, but just...blegh. I think the cold and dark have a lot to do with it. My joints are always stiff, and I'm always in a weird I-don't-feel-like-doing-anything mood. I haven't even touched Call of Duty or Fallout since the day before Thanksgiving, so that should give you an idea of the severity of the mood I'm in ^_~

Also, the whole driving situation is going to make me crazy. I'm sick of being late (or, rather, right on time) somewhere, when if I were just driving myself, I'd be there 15 minutes early.

Sorry about these depressing topics, but there are no birthdays to mention today to liven things up, so it looks like I'm stuck in the doldrums. I'm going to change my banner picture to a different photo of Eri Kamei, because I just realized that there are much better ones than the current one.

...And it just hit me that she's graduating from Morning Musume in less than two weeks!!!

Now I'm depressed again.

<_>

An Obligatory Post

I almost went to bed without getting on here and updating this thing.

I went to Target this evening to buy wiper blades. It's so weird being there, because it looks exactly like the place I worked for five years. I get all nostalgic when I see certain areas of the store, then I remember that the memories associated with that particular aisle or whatever actually belong to a similar (read: exactly the same) looking location thousands of miles away. It's a bizarre feeling. But I got my wiper blades, so I'm happy.

The weather forecast is predicting a blizzard tomorrow. Sounds like all kinds of fun.

We're getting released from work at 1415 tomorrow in order to have a big squadron get-together up at the chalet. Since we have PT tomorrow, the workday is going to start late as it is. Add the early release, plus free food and drinks, and tomorrow's looking like it should be a good day. Also, it's Friday, which is always good.

I'm getting sleepy, but first, the arbitrary J-pop birthday...

...hold on...arbitrary is not the word I was looking for. Crap. I can't think of the word I meant to use. It means, like, to do something because I feel like I have to...

...

Obligatory!!!

The obligatory J-pop birthday. Only two girls of the dozens I follow share the exact same birthday, and both happen to be with AKB48. Miku Tanabe and Haruka Ishida. Neither are particularly noteworthy as far as my favorites go, but they've both had one or two noteworthy moments. Also, they both happened to make the current senbatsu (from the janken tournament) for Chance no Junban (which is out next week), which is really awesome for both of them. Ishida is actually in the #2 spot for that (Yuko Oshima's normal spot, crazily enough), and I'm not entirely sure where Tanabe ended up, but I know she's already had a pretty good year anyway, with a decent role in Majisuka Gakuen. Wow. These two are so low on my J-Idol echelon, and I can still go on and on about them. But, I'll stop now, post a photo of them, and I'm off to bed. Good night.


^_^|/

PUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDI

I've been out all day, driving around Anchorage.

I'm starting to figure this place out, but I still hate city driving. Especially at rush hour. In the dark. On icy roads.

I managed to make it over to the comic book store, and now I'm thinking that it's probably best to wait until Thursdays, as they seem to get their shipments in late in the day on Wednesday. But I picked up some of last week's books, though I think I may be looking at quite a few doubles that my old comic shop more than likely pulled for me already. Better safe than sorry.

It's December.

That's hard to believe. November really flew by.

Of course, December 1st means that today is my father's birthday. I can't really find an excessively cute picture of him to post, and I didn't spend the afternoon watching my favorite appearances of him in various videos. I really hope he can forgive me for that ^_~ Anyway...

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Every day, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to finally moving into my real job. My supervisor has pieced together my training plan, so now I'm starting to get a bit more focus as far as what I specifically need to be learning and studying, both for my upgrade training, and my actual job duties.

Tomorrow's Thursday. Only two more days until the weekend. I love weekends. At Target, I didn't really have weekends. I had days off. But now that I'm working a 7 to 4, Monday through Friday job, I'm remembering just how good Saturday and Sunday are. And, as much as I love football season, I'm glad it's done, because that gives me one less thing to worry about and to occupy my time on Saturdays.

Michigan State lost to Duke earlier this evening. I was really hoping they would win, but it's scary how good Duke is this year.

Have I mentioned that I love my AKB48 license plates? I seriously can't help but grin every time I walk to my car. I guess the next step in proving that I'm their biggest fan is to get a tattoo.

I'm kidding, Mother. Calm down.

^__^

I drew something funny (to me, anyway), but I'm too lazy to scan it right now.

It's -2° outside right now. We're supposed to have a high of 14° tomorrow. It's cold.

Oooh...speaking of cold...This morning, I was outside and I guess, if the temperatures were "normal," it would have been foggy. But since it was in the single digits, I could literally see the air around me crystallizing, like, instead of falling from the clouds, the snow was forming just a few feet off the ground. It was kind of trippy.

I'm going to watch this week's AKBINGO and go to bed.

^_^|/