I am more outgoing on the internet than IRL. I haven't grown any bolder online, but apparently my reputation is that I never talk. I thought it was just my dorm friends, but then I got that from my Chinese teacher, and everyone in Chinese class laughed in agreement.

... So I guess I'm like everyone else now? ^^; Well, in as much as I'm "bolder" on the internet. Which means I talk when not explicitly bidden to and not roleplaying. Great.

(I swear I know how to talk guys no really)

I'm actually kind of glad school started again.

Sure, I enjoyed the break, especially getting to see my old friends and my family back home. It was kind of scarily low-key for the holidays, but hey. I enjoyed it. And the week at school was pretty cool, too ... except.

I don't consider myself to be acting shy when I sit in the corner of the common room, because to me being shy would be staying in my room. I have less of a social impulse than most people; the solution to a problem that involves asking someone else often doesn't even occur to me until late in the process, and I don't often choose to make an opportunity to see people unless they're very close friends of mine. So anything that causes me to be around people I'm friends with is social to me.

Which is fine, until I realize that doing that, days go by where I may only speak a few words. And that's kind of creepy. (I wonder if I come off kind of creepy because of it. *shrug*)

Back to school means mealtimes at least some of which are coordinated with friends and dormmates, conference classes where I have something to talk about, and it also means my D&D group meets every week. So I'm glad.

Also, my classes are not bad. The same as last semester, really, but I'm excited anyway. I have a Chinese dictionary now! Foreign language dictionaries fill me with squee.

On a final note, I have updated my comic three times in the last week and a bit. I only missed one day since last Monday of the three days a week it's supposed to update. For me, that's very good, considering this is the comic I stopped drawing for a semester because I was too obsessed with D&D getting used to college.

Well.

It's 2010.

2009 was a pretty good year. There were some pretty painful bits in it, but also a lot of awesome things happened, and it definitely ended far better than it started for me, so I have to forgive it.

I just had a lovely, fancy dinner at a very nice restaurant with my family, and then we came home and have been watching Torchwood, with a quick break to celebrate the new year. It's been a lovely evening and I hope everyone else's has gone as well.

So happy new year. =)

... PAS is the nickname of my D&D character, Ashra. It comes from an article in our school newspaper in which the character (a mindflayer ) was referred to as a "psychic anthropomorphic squid".

I was trying to write about that, and then I translated it to Japanese by looking up "psychic" "anthropomorphic" "squid" and using the first character of each.

Unfortunately, thanks to the interesting construction of those characters, I ended up with "超人烏", or "super-man-crow."

... Yeeeeeah.

FEAR MY LAZY TRANSLATION SKILLS.

。。。PASってあたしのアシュラというD＆Dのチャラのあだ名。そのチャラ（実は<a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illithid>mindflayer</a>)が「超能力で人間型の烏賊」と言われた私の大学の新聞の記事からきた。 私はそれについて書きたかったけど日本語に訳そうとした時「超能力」「人間型」「烏賊」を調べて初めての字を使った。 でもその３字で「超人烏」についた。 。。。。あああああ＾＾； アタシノスゴクライダナヤクハスゲエジャン。

I feel the strange urge to post something here. But I really don't have anything to say ... heh.

Well, I have five pages of comic, so I can start updating again. That will last a week and a half. Pitifully short.

And I'm doing the bilingual post thing iclexica does, but I don't know if I'll keep it up. For my intended major (linguistics) I have to know (at least) two languages other than English, one with first-year college proficiency, one with second-year college proficiency, so I have to relearn my Japanese and take a test in it someday. Well, I hope they let me do that... hoo boy.

It's weird how linguistics is my major, and I know that, but I can't take any classes in it until sophomore year. Ah, well. If I don't like it, I'll change, but I think I really love it... I say things certainly because I like that, but really I'm pretty open-minded.

There is no D&D tonight, my life feels less empty than you'd think but still kind of empty oh dear. Also my laptop is at lowest screen brightness and looks very bright in this dim room. Yay for IRL low-light vision...?

I also should make more icons. Haha I should make a PAS one. But right now I'm in my friend's room watching him play vidyergames, so that'll have to wait for when I get back to my tablet.

'kay, enough ranting now.

--
わけ分からないけど、ここでなんかカキコしたかった。でも言う事はあまりないね。。。（笑）

まあ、コミックは五枚できたのでまた更新し始めるはず。一週間半のコミックがあるよ。可憐ほど短いね。

iclexica らしく二言葉で書いてる、けどいつまでか分からない。私の望んでいる専門の為に英語じゃない言葉が二つ（以上）できなきゃならない。（一つは大学一年生ほど、他のは大学二年生ほど）だから日本語をまた勉強して、試験を受けなくちゃいけない。まあ、それをさされるといいね〜あらまあ。

可笑しいよ、言語学はあたしの専門で、それを知っていて、なのに二年生の時までそのクラスを受けてはいけない。まあ。気に入らなかったら変わるけど、大好きだと思う。。。好きだから決まってるように話すのに事実はあまり決まってはいない。

今夜はダンジオンズ•アンド•ドラゴンズがないな〜命は思ったほど空じゃないけどまだちょっと空で大変ね〜。それにラップトップの画面はできるほど暗いのに明るいに見える。すごいな、本当のローライトビジオン。。。？

もっとアイコン作りたい。うふふふ、超人烏のを作ろう〜でも今友達の部屋でからがゲームをしながら私は見てるからグラプィックタブレットの所に戻るまで待たなくちゃならない。

じゃ、それでいい。

I've seen lists like this on Facebook, etc. many times, and I'm annoyed at them every time. This time I actually felt like responding, but didn't want to do it to the girl's face because we don't know each other that well (ah, facebook) and I didn't want to start a bitchfight. I'm not annoyed at her personally, just at the general "all girls want this from their romantic partners" excessively broad brush.

( List and how it'd apply to Chi Megumi, (birth)certified owner of a set of ovaries, assuming you were her romantic partner of either gender. )

Okay, so Icy (no way am I remembering how to spell that vowelless monstrosity) mentioned something about how I should show her how I make icons. I decided to record the process by which I made this new icon you see here. I am NOT a great icon maker (and I'm a little disappointed with the text on this one) and the real description of the process is "do stuff until it looks cool, then save it". But, since there was curiosity, here's my process anyway in the hopes it'll prove useful. I use Photoshop CS2, and I don't know where these functions are on any other program, sorry. ^^;

It's also worth noting that I've omitted the stuff I tried and disliked. There's a lot of trial and error in my process, and it's also useful to remember to check the real size version if you've got it zoomed up, so you can see how it looks as a whole.

( Onward to the screenshots! )

I got into the college where I wanted to go.  Woot.  Moving to another state (for most of the year) is kinda daunting, but I'm really excited to go!

... I'm not really going to prattle on, because the only three people who currently read this already know.  I just felt like "Well, it's a blog, I should post this sort of thing on it." 

I know everyone thought the old one was cute (so did I!) but I was getting annoyed with how inefficiently it squeezed everything into the middle of the screen.  If I get any long comment-threads, they'd have been ridiculous.  So I changed it ... I think I like this one better.  ^^;  

I have icons now, too!  All the ones I currently have up were done by me.  I might make more if I get bored enough, though I also have some serious studying to do. (But I'm just discovering the wonders of photoshop brushes, so... xD)

1. Why did I make this thing?
2. What, if anything, am I going to do with it?
3. How much chocolate milk have I consumed today?
4. How much more chocolate milk will I have consumed by the end of the day?
5. When will I get a chance to use the computer with Photoshop and get some decent icons together?
6. When will I get off my ass to study?