| Touchaku: Tanegashima |
[Aug. 7th, 2008|11:07 pm] |
Yesterday morning, the twenty or so of us Kagoshima JETs flew out from Haneda Airport to Kagoshima city, and from there were scattered like seeds in the wind to our various new homes. At Kagoshima, my supervisor, or perhaps more accurately my tantosha came to pick me up. We stayed in the airport and made conversation as best we could for a while; I was acutely aware of the limitations of my Japanese ability, and only became more aware of this as time went on. While waiting for the plane, we saw the new JET going to Nishinoomote together with someone from his board of education, so I chatted with him for a bit also. He was taking the same flight we were; I am not sure if there were any other flights to the island that day. We took the 5pm flight to Tanegashima, landing there half an hour later.
At the airport, I sighted the first signs of Tane-ben: a large banner with "Ojarimose!" written on it. Soon thereafter, I saw another large banner, this one held by my welcome reception, consisting of several people from the Board of Education. After taking some photos, I was taken to my new home, which to my pleasant surprise is quite Japanese and, as my predecessor had said, completely furnished. I think by this time I was in travel fatigue/shock and just managed by smiling and murmuring "daijoubu...ii desu" at everything. Then I was taken to a welcome dinner party, with way too much delicious food and the disproportionate attention of way too many people.
Don't get me wrong, I was very grateful for all of the help that everyone has given me. It is just too much, the generosity and kindness that I was shown, that even if I did a wonderful job as an ALT, I am not sure I would be able to repay everyone. I am already especially indebted to my tantosha. The hardest part of it all is my inability to express my appreciation of what everyone is doing for me. At the same time, I am also dealing with my frustration at my inability to express much of anything, in addition to vague late-night bouts of homesickness.
In any case, during the day I am kept busy enough that I am doing alright. Today, I was shown my office at the BOE, my tantosha helped take care of various errands and necessities in getting settled in, and my Supervisor introduced me at the various schools I will be teaching at.
Ashita mo gambarimasu! |
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[Aug. 7th, 2008|12:08 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  artistic | ] |
Finished a new page of Jeepers which'll go up tommorrow. Also found one of my obscure anime grails- The Mask of Zeguy! It went out of print a few years ago, but I found it in a 5 dollar DVD bin today :) And some Flame of Recca. Quite good.... |
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| Change we can, like, believe in |
[Aug. 6th, 2008|01:08 pm] |
Everyone's probably seen this by now, but I had to link it cuz it's awesome:
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[Aug. 5th, 2008|09:40 pm] |
And thanks for the scanner advice!! |
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| Small bit of Clockwerx news |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|01:36 pm] |
According to the head honcho of Humanoids, we're still on track!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080801-HumanoidsDDP.html
From the article:
NRAMA: Can you and/or someone in charge of publishing provide me with an update on the following titles, whether or not they've been published in France, release dates, and any other relevant info?
*Snip
NRAMA: Jason Henderson and Tony Salvaggio's Clockwerx.
FG: First book to be published in French in August, illustrated by French genius Hostache.
Snip*
I will second that Jean-Baptiste is a genius. I think this is one where I am in awe so much I hope the story still holds up. I think it does, but man... wow!
Jason and I started working on book 3, but I have been crazy busy and I need to finish my parts.
Hopefully in the next few days I will have a Psy-Comm update as well.
In the meantime, I have lots of irons in the fire with outside of work stuff.
DoM is going well. We are starting to record again and hopefully that will go quickly. We played a last minute show last Friday (we never got the email telling us we were supposed to headline, until the day before). It went pretty well and we got some new fans I think. It was a blast (thanks Trophy's http://www.myspace.com/trophystx ). We want to rock there again soon.
Hope all is well for everyone.
-TS |
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| smashed! |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|11:42 pm] |
Buh. I had such a full weekend that I feel like I'm still recovering, but I also feel weirdly revitalised!
Lots of photos too. o_____o
( Friday: SMASH! dress rehearsal )
( Saturday: SMASH! and Sigur Rós )
( Sunday: SO MUCH FOOD and drawing )
( Monday: work, MORE FOOD )
Which brings me to today! I'm tired. I've decided that I'm going to start using my deviantART account again. The world needs more Suikoden smut. And I need to think of fun stuff to put in the PEONY X JADE FANBOOK AAAA I want to make with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sjen. No I don't have enough projects to work on already, shut up!
tl;dr: my dA account is active again lolz. |
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| Write stories. |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|06:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  glitter vampires?! | ] |
Breaking Dawn was released a few days ago, amid much brouhaha (it's the first series since Harry potter to have television adverts and midnight release parties). That's the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series. I just wanted to say a few words, but I'll put them under a cut. If you read my review of Twilight last year, you already know my feelings on Meyer's writing. But I have something further to say which I think is important.
Beware, spoilers.
( Read more... ) |
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| Socialist Men Under Red Father |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|12:51 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | La-la-lala-la-la-laaaa-la-la-laaaaaaa! | ] |
Am I admitting to a deep seeded need for therapy when I admit that one day ... I'd like to have my own Smurf village diorama?
I mean, just look at that. The little door opens and the Smurfs, they live in there ... sharing all the day's labor and food, getting along and cooperating, taking turns with Smurfette in a gentlemanly, but certainly not bourgeoisie, fashion. Oh, no! Is Brainy Smurf being too pushy again? Hah-ha, oh that Grouchy sure is a stinker.
What's that, Comrade Papa Smurf? "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs?" That's so wonderful. Bless your floppy red hat and authoritative beard in a secular and colloquialist fashion. Now let's go kill that capitalist bitch Gargamel in his sleep and ride his cat into a re-education facility!
"La-la-lala-la-la-laaaa-la-la-laaaaaaa!"
I will ask Trueheart. His friend Mr. Spock must surely know the answer.
-Rikki |
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| famous last words |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|03:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
Remember when I said I'd get to check my email for important ones? Yeah. That was before work exploded and I worked 5 12-hour days in a row, then came in both days of the weekend... I am waaaaaaaaaaay behind, and anything important is buried in mailing lists and spam. If you haven't heard back from me and it is important, try again in a bit and hopefully I'll see it this time.
Anyhow, busy but not bad. Therapy progresses, but was set back a bit when I locked the steering wheel of the rental car in Lordsburg on the way back from getting Rachel home from NM. However, now that Rachel can help me with lifting, writing, and such it is going better. Still not drawing. I have picked up a pencil a few times and it hasn't gone well. |
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| Comic Book Tattoo and Siren |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|05:54 pm] |
Some of you may or may not know that my sister and I contributed a chapter to Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo anthology, published by Image Comics. Stephanie wrote, I illustrated. 7 very large 12 x 12 inch pages. The song we chose was Siren, from the OST of Great Expectations.
I won't post any pages from our contribution just yet until it's had some publicity on this side of the pond.
But I can officially say that our contribution made Tori cry! O_O;;
Tori Amos Inks Her 'Comic Book Tattoo'
I mean, I knew that the scenario that me and Steph came up with was pretty horrific, but eep! We apologise for any distress caused!! XD
(thanks ems for the heads up)
Apparently it's doing really really well in the US! Woot! ^_^ |
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| New NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|01:05 pm] |
The ninth installment of NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR goes live today at SMITH Magazine and we're proud to present Sari Wilson and Josh Neufeld's "The Beekeeper"
http://www.smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor/2008/08/04/story-9/
--Dino
PS -- please be sure to read previous installments and comment, too! Thanks. |
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| Places We've Been, Places We're Going to Be, Places We Won't Be |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|08:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Sea Side by Devendra Banhart | ] |
Above is a picture of Tavisha with her grandmother, who just turned 90. Grandma, not Tavisha. Grandma can be seen here getting fresh with Benjamin Franklin. I think they used to hang out.
We're thrilled that she's still with us. She was born in 1918, and though she doesn't have a very good short term memory anymore, she can still tell us stories about her time in concentration camps in Kansas and Colorado during WWII, she can tell us about Angel's Flight in Los Angeles, about Little Tokyo in its heyday, about skipping out to see the movies on Saturday instead of going to Japanese language school lessons ... . It goes on and on and we're so happy she goes on.
But here's why I'm writing today -- on to the list:
Places We Won't Be
Tokyopop:
Tokyopop, as part of their massive restructuring, has cancelled ShutterBox and they will not be printing Book 5, though it is finished. I know that this is an impossible thing to ask of the Internet's denizens, but please don't lash out at Tokyopop over this. That doesn't help us or them. This is just the way publishing goes sometimes. We own our copyright and we have a termination clause and our manager is going over it with them. Tokyopop is responding very kindly and we have a sense that everything will work itself out in the end. We apologize to our readers. I know you're waiting for this volume, and we ceratinly want to give it to you. We are in the process of finding a new publisher and as soon as we finish figuring everything out I'll post an update here. It may take a while, but we'll get around to it.
Places We're Going to Be
Moving:
We're moving back to LA county sometime this month. Looking forward to better access to Beard Papa and his amazing legend.
Conventions:
Tavisha and I are attending the following two conventions as guests this year:
Anime Weekend Atlanta 14
September 19 - 21, 2008
at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel
and Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia
and
2008 IZUMICON
November 21-23, 2008
at the Sheraton Midwest City
and Reed Convention Center in Oklahoma
And finally ... .
Places We've Been
Comic Con in San Diego:
Every year we plunge into San Diego with little in our bank, our car on fire, no sleep, and somehow end up meeting with people who make more money in a month than we have in our whole career. This year wasn't much different except that we didn't see much of the con itself. We drove in each day from our house in Lake Elsinore, parked in Seaport Village and then passed out at the Marriott lounge every time. I think it was about 3:00 PM on average whenever we did see the dealer's room. But whenever we did make it to the Con everyone was so nice to us we started to feel like grandparents ourselves. But then a man panhandling outside Vons said, "God bless you sir. See you in heaven." So that must be it. Everyone's so nice because they're waiting for me to die. That's so sweet. I'll get around to it eventually, don't you worry.
Et Cetera:
What else, what else ... ended up in a few show pitch meetings. We had a very nice meeting with Henson Studios for a show we were pitching with Eric Trueheart. Of all the people we met with, Henson Studios actually asked us how the mechanics of the character's faces worked. That sort of thing is very exciting to us, and you almost never hear that sort of talk from producers. Usually trying to talk with producer type people is like trying to talk to steam in a sauna, but Henson really cares about the characters. So that was nice. They didn't pick up the show in the end, but still it was nice.
Otherwise, we've spent most of our time either taking care of Tavisha's mother or preparing new novel and graphic novel pitches, thinking about packing, or going for long walks with wild rabbits and quail. I can't think of anything else. I know there was something, but it's not coming to me. I guess that's how it begins.
Still haven't seen that movie where that bat punches a clown. We'll get around to that eventually too. Just like everything else.
-Rikki |
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| What I'm currently working on |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|09:56 pm] |
I can't believe last month went by so quickly! I had a whole month off from working on Sabrina, but I still kept myself plenty busy. It took me about a week to move into my new place. I'm living back up in Altamonte Springs again. The rent is more affordable, and the location's great. It's just a bike ride away from the bookstore, Best Buy, a number of grocery stores, a nature trail, Target, and more. I've been doing a 2 mile bike ride every morning since I got here. Only bad thing is that I live on the second story, so I have to lug my bike up and down steps every time. Ergh~!
Also last month, Jared and I got a contract for a new how-to book, so we dove right into working on that. It's a how-to draw book on anthro characters and fantasy animals. I'll probably start posting some teaser art from it in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to share some of the new color art I've already done for it.
Of course my penciling duties on Sabrina the Teenage Witch continue. I just started working on issue 98 today. Basically, I've got my work cut out for me this month. ^_^ On the topic of Sabrina, issue 95 just came out, written and drawn by Tania Del Rio. It's part one of a three-part story, of which parts two and three will be drawn by me, so be sure to check it out if you dig shoujo-y magical girl comics. You can find Sabrina at most bookstores (on the comic stand) and comic book stores.
One final note, I forgot to mention I have a twitter account. Here's the link if you want to follow my mini-updates there. |
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| Calm before the storm |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|07:54 am] |
Managed to see Dark Knight and Speed Racer last week. I liked both a lot but I think Speed Racer pushed the right buttons for me. It had a lot of real heart to it. Sure I would have tone the color down a notch but in general it feel right and fun. Out of the two films it's the one I most want to see again right away.
Print version of Issue #3 is available now if anyone is interested. Blade Kitten Issue #3 print version
I'm in the process of fixing up the first issue to compile them all into a big book and look for a publisher or distributor in the US. It's not at the top of my list of priorities so I'd not expect much movement on that front for a while. |
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| Touchaku: Tokyo |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|11:01 pm] |
It is now a little past 11 pm on my first night in Japan. I am at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, having arrived by bus from the airport at Narita. It's currently 7 am in California, and I feel like I pulled an all-nighter, although I did get quite some quasi-sleep on the 13-hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo.
That may explain why my grammar is currently so odd.
After having been bombarded with so many sights, sounds, and smells, both familiar and not, it is difficult to shape coherency from this sensory overload at the moment. The last time I was in Japan was almost six years ago, and that was a one-week vacation in Tokyo. The pace at which this city changes, is perhaps the one thing that does not change. The flashing lights, organic skyscrapers, and city traffic are the same; but I do not recognize any signs or sights I knew from before. It is fitting to say that this is the first time I've been to Japan, because it will certainly be the first time I will really be a part of the country, at least for a full year.
Already I am astonished by how little I know. I do not understand what most of the kanji on signs and stores mean, and my ability at reading them is considerably lower than my understanding. I am beginning to realize how even simple tasks could become exceptionally difficult. For instance, after we checked in at the hotel, showered, and settled in, JK and I went out to find dinner. We went to a noodle shop where you insert money into a machine, then press a button to obtain a ticket for the menu item you want, then present the ticket to the person at the kitchen counter to get your food. After you eat, you put your tray up at another window. If I hadn't been watching someone else put their tray up, I would not have known what to do. There was a sign on the window, which might have said something like: "Put your tray here," but I would not be able to read it anyway. (By the way, the food was delicious. I ordered a tempura udon bowl, and JK had zaru soba. Both were delicious, and in total the meal cost less than 1,000 yen. You could not get such a delicious meal like that for the price in California. But I digress.)
Re-learning how to live and thrive in a completely different culture and language, like taking your first steps again, is going to be a challenge. With a little sleep, I think I can meet that challenge.
First though, I have to get ready for the start of a whirlwind week of orientations, moving, and settling in.
More after this. *zzzzzzzzzz*
// jennifer.tsai |
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| Has no one else seen this creepy trailer? |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|02:03 am] |
Wow, it looks like the movie won't skip over some aspects of the book. Also, Not-Quite-Old Dumbledore is the Wizarding World's Little Dot apparently |
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| <--Not too good at bargain shopping |
[Aug. 2nd, 2008|02:26 pm] |
Is there a good way to get an 11x17 scanner and not pay over $1000 on it? I saw one cheap one I might get (by some company called "Mustek") that's like $175, but I'm assuming the quality is horrific. Other than that, I've found a couple refurbished ones around $800, but I dunno if I can trust that...
I'm mostly using it to scan pencils, but I'm sure I'd find more use for it if it were nice. |
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tired
tired
excited