The 5 things meme
PSA: It seems like Ainself.net is down/not registered anymore. o_0; I've sent Ryo-san a note, hopefully this'll all get worked out. *crosses fingers*
And now, to the subject of this post...
From subsiding_leaf
1. $20 all you can eat sushi bar at Fuji, now defunct. And really, restaurants in general.^^
Fuji's has a special place in my heart, being one of my favorite restaurants, first with the $20 all you can eat, then with the half-price sushi, and now with the not-half-price-but-still-better-than-the-competitor's sushi. They recently got new management, and the owner's a very nice lady whose daughter is marrying one of the sushi chefs that work there and the original owners were getting pretty old, so it's more of a natural progression than a hostile takeover. It's also a Japanese restaurant with actual Japanese chefs and workers, and they all know me on sight and by order^_^. It's a nice and friendly place, and even though I don't go there every other day anymore (For awhile I was making enough OT that eating sushi every day would've been fine), it's still my first choice if I'm craving something less primal than, say, hamburgers.
In general I'm willing to give almost any sort of food a chance, and if I have a craving it doesn't matter if the restaurant is super expensive (though granted, the highest-end I go is usually paid for by someone else) or a fast food franchise. ^_^ I also tend to be really sympathetic towards the workers/waiters. This comes from having worked at a take-out restaurant for most of my high-school career, and I know sometimes it really is just that busy and they're not ignoring me on purpose.
2. Sinon's Redemption, because duh.
...wow, that's a big topic.^_^;
So in addition to art, occasionally competing with art, and very rarely winning over art, is my hobby of writing. I don't think of myself as a particularly good artist or writer, but it's great fun for me and that's enough. SR was ...ok, SR was not my first original story, but it's a first collaborated effort between me and subsiding_leaf , and it's without a doubt, the biggest one and one I've had the most fun with. I think looking back, the story itself needs a bit of work because it was so haphazardly constructed, a joint effort of feverishly discussing, writing, working into the night, exchanging comments and brainstorms, but I'm pretty proud of the characters and the world, feeling that I've managed to reach a level of variety and depth I've never managed on my other projects.
The funny thing is, SR was sort of an offshoot of another original story, Arcanum, which was just as fun though arguably sparer because SR had a lot of worldbuilding and politics and a larger cast of characters. It's ironic that Bad guy A and Bad guy B from that story became the main characters of SR and spawned this huge thing...
So, I think SR started out as a twisted love story, and somewhere along the line became a real love story with real characters and real growth. It took us out of the little city that Arcanum was based on, out of 'Earth' entirely (but it's not about aliens! :D), and became so much bigger than either of us thought it would be.
3. Twisty-top eraser mechanical pencils.
.....are the most awesomest thing EVER. They are my primary art instrument and I've been using them for....I don't know how long, but years. I always make the mistake of not packing extra erasers when I go to Taiwan though, been pretty much batting 0 out of 3 the last few times. :P
For the record, I also use 2H instead of HB lead in my pencils, just because I push too hard and always go over the lines too much, and a 2H smears less. My secret fear is that they'll stop making the pencils and I will have to get used to new ones. Hopefully at least the 'jumbo eraser' theory sticks, because that is the best part.
4. Anime-Expo.
I have a love and hate relationship with Anime Expo. It was my first convention, and for the most part, my only (I've only attended two other conventions one time each). Most of the time I have fun despite the high cost of registration, the long lines, the mess-up in scheduling. There are awesome highlights - great cosplayers, finding the things I wanted in the dealers' room, screening new anime, being with fellow fans. There are also things that weren't awesome, but I will remember forever - the first few times when I was still in college and there was NO WAY I could afford to stay at a hotel/motel, so I drove there every day (at least an hour each way, for 4 days in a row), that first year subsiding_leaf joined me for the con experience, and then the subsequent times when a: I booked a motel that was 40 minutes walk from the convention center, and we walked because parking was atrocious/expensive, and b: When I parked in a convenience store plaza and was towed and we ended up walking around 10 miles in the middle of a California heat-wave to get my car back. I've also done the art show once, and sold a picture.
I guess my problem with AX is that I am always filled with regrets: what if I had gotten a nice hotel actually at the con? What if I had gone ahead and did all the work so I could have a table at Artists' Alley? What if I wasn't too chicken/plain/chubby for cosplay? What if, what if, what if....
5. Frugality, or else sun-warmed blankets. (They are kind of related! I figure you are drying your blankets in the sun because you don't want to use the drier!)
I'd like to think I've gotten a bit more balanced in the frugality versus comfort thing, but I am still pretty frugal.^_^ My coworkers are aghast that the highest we EVER turn our heater is 55-60 degrees, we don't run air condition in the summer unless it's over 100. We don't use the dryer unless it's raining and we HAVE to do laundry, we don't run the dishwasher, we have the water heater set at something like 110 degrees so that we don't need to add cold water when we shower. We shop for groceries based on what's on sale (My dad and I tend to not buy anything that's over 0.50 per pound when it comes to fruits and veggies) and we've managed to cut out almost anything canned or edible straight from the bag/box, so that is both healthy and cheap. My dad has (get this) fixed the vacuum 3 times, the lawn mower twice, the VCR twice (before it finally died), made our shoe rack , my computer peripherals and our entertainment center peripherals from raw materials, and most of our furniture is second-hand. I don't shop for clothes until it's needed, usually when the item in question has holes in it and can't be patched. I was totally horrified when my coworker told me her purse cost $600 (and it was the cheap one).
My mom said it was probably because their generation and the generation before grew up in the middle of first war, then poverty. Then my family moved to a completely foreign country where my father was the only one making money, and my mother has no marketable skills with two children who will eventually need to go to college. She does admit that my dad tends to be on the excessively paranoid side, with her on the less excessive and my brother on the more normal side. She thinks it's scarred us for life: My bro's set his goal to be a millionaire by age 35 (yeah right) and I'm entirely too risk adverse for my age and time-horizon-until-retirement.
The laundry thing though...I guess we've just never gotten in the habit of using the dryer, because in Taiwan those things are a luxury and everyone just hangs out their clothes to dry. Here is practically clothes-drying heaven - the weather's almost always gorgeous, and the sun feels great. I love sunning my blankets because they smell so lovely afterward, and wonderful for taking a nap in. XD And yes, not having to pay that elevated utility bill is great too!
Majo
And now, to the subject of this post...
From subsiding_leaf
1. $20 all you can eat sushi bar at Fuji, now defunct. And really, restaurants in general.^^
Fuji's has a special place in my heart, being one of my favorite restaurants, first with the $20 all you can eat, then with the half-price sushi, and now with the not-half-price-but-still-better-than-the-competitor's sushi. They recently got new management, and the owner's a very nice lady whose daughter is marrying one of the sushi chefs that work there and the original owners were getting pretty old, so it's more of a natural progression than a hostile takeover. It's also a Japanese restaurant with actual Japanese chefs and workers, and they all know me on sight and by order^_^. It's a nice and friendly place, and even though I don't go there every other day anymore (For awhile I was making enough OT that eating sushi every day would've been fine), it's still my first choice if I'm craving something less primal than, say, hamburgers.
In general I'm willing to give almost any sort of food a chance, and if I have a craving it doesn't matter if the restaurant is super expensive (though granted, the highest-end I go is usually paid for by someone else) or a fast food franchise. ^_^ I also tend to be really sympathetic towards the workers/waiters. This comes from having worked at a take-out restaurant for most of my high-school career, and I know sometimes it really is just that busy and they're not ignoring me on purpose.
2. Sinon's Redemption, because duh.
...wow, that's a big topic.^_^;
So in addition to art, occasionally competing with art, and very rarely winning over art, is my hobby of writing. I don't think of myself as a particularly good artist or writer, but it's great fun for me and that's enough. SR was ...ok, SR was not my first original story, but it's a first collaborated effort between me and subsiding_leaf , and it's without a doubt, the biggest one and one I've had the most fun with. I think looking back, the story itself needs a bit of work because it was so haphazardly constructed, a joint effort of feverishly discussing, writing, working into the night, exchanging comments and brainstorms, but I'm pretty proud of the characters and the world, feeling that I've managed to reach a level of variety and depth I've never managed on my other projects.
The funny thing is, SR was sort of an offshoot of another original story, Arcanum, which was just as fun though arguably sparer because SR had a lot of worldbuilding and politics and a larger cast of characters. It's ironic that Bad guy A and Bad guy B from that story became the main characters of SR and spawned this huge thing...
So, I think SR started out as a twisted love story, and somewhere along the line became a real love story with real characters and real growth. It took us out of the little city that Arcanum was based on, out of 'Earth' entirely (but it's not about aliens! :D), and became so much bigger than either of us thought it would be.
3. Twisty-top eraser mechanical pencils.
.....are the most awesomest thing EVER. They are my primary art instrument and I've been using them for....I don't know how long, but years. I always make the mistake of not packing extra erasers when I go to Taiwan though, been pretty much batting 0 out of 3 the last few times. :P
For the record, I also use 2H instead of HB lead in my pencils, just because I push too hard and always go over the lines too much, and a 2H smears less. My secret fear is that they'll stop making the pencils and I will have to get used to new ones. Hopefully at least the 'jumbo eraser' theory sticks, because that is the best part.
4. Anime-Expo.
I have a love and hate relationship with Anime Expo. It was my first convention, and for the most part, my only (I've only attended two other conventions one time each). Most of the time I have fun despite the high cost of registration, the long lines, the mess-up in scheduling. There are awesome highlights - great cosplayers, finding the things I wanted in the dealers' room, screening new anime, being with fellow fans. There are also things that weren't awesome, but I will remember forever - the first few times when I was still in college and there was NO WAY I could afford to stay at a hotel/motel, so I drove there every day (at least an hour each way, for 4 days in a row), that first year subsiding_leaf joined me for the con experience, and then the subsequent times when a: I booked a motel that was 40 minutes walk from the convention center, and we walked because parking was atrocious/expensive, and b: When I parked in a convenience store plaza and was towed and we ended up walking around 10 miles in the middle of a California heat-wave to get my car back. I've also done the art show once, and sold a picture.
I guess my problem with AX is that I am always filled with regrets: what if I had gotten a nice hotel actually at the con? What if I had gone ahead and did all the work so I could have a table at Artists' Alley? What if I wasn't too chicken/plain/chubby for cosplay? What if, what if, what if....
5. Frugality, or else sun-warmed blankets. (They are kind of related! I figure you are drying your blankets in the sun because you don't want to use the drier!)
I'd like to think I've gotten a bit more balanced in the frugality versus comfort thing, but I am still pretty frugal.^_^ My coworkers are aghast that the highest we EVER turn our heater is 55-60 degrees, we don't run air condition in the summer unless it's over 100. We don't use the dryer unless it's raining and we HAVE to do laundry, we don't run the dishwasher, we have the water heater set at something like 110 degrees so that we don't need to add cold water when we shower. We shop for groceries based on what's on sale (My dad and I tend to not buy anything that's over 0.50 per pound when it comes to fruits and veggies) and we've managed to cut out almost anything canned or edible straight from the bag/box, so that is both healthy and cheap. My dad has (get this) fixed the vacuum 3 times, the lawn mower twice, the VCR twice (before it finally died), made our shoe rack , my computer peripherals and our entertainment center peripherals from raw materials, and most of our furniture is second-hand. I don't shop for clothes until it's needed, usually when the item in question has holes in it and can't be patched. I was totally horrified when my coworker told me her purse cost $600 (and it was the cheap one).
My mom said it was probably because their generation and the generation before grew up in the middle of first war, then poverty. Then my family moved to a completely foreign country where my father was the only one making money, and my mother has no marketable skills with two children who will eventually need to go to college. She does admit that my dad tends to be on the excessively paranoid side, with her on the less excessive and my brother on the more normal side. She thinks it's scarred us for life: My bro's set his goal to be a millionaire by age 35 (yeah right) and I'm entirely too risk adverse for my age and time-horizon-until-retirement.
The laundry thing though...I guess we've just never gotten in the habit of using the dryer, because in Taiwan those things are a luxury and everyone just hangs out their clothes to dry. Here is practically clothes-drying heaven - the weather's almost always gorgeous, and the sun feels great. I love sunning my blankets because they smell so lovely afterward, and wonderful for taking a nap in. XD And yes, not having to pay that elevated utility bill is great too!
Majo