菊萌 ~ Kikume

Work in progress.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:43:41 GMT

My livejournal is quite the eyesore. I apologize for that - I'm currently twiddling with the CSS and it's taking me some time.

I hope it looks good in the end. :)

OMG RACISM.

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:21:10 GMT

I was helping out Kath with two phrases, and wanted to type Japanese on a computer in the university comp labs, so I found this awesome input website: http://webzhao.com/toolmust/japInput1.htm

However it was from an old forum thread...someone had graciously programmed this and put it up, and instead of saying thanks, the next poster's all like, "Can you change the name Jap Input??? It should be JAPANESE INPUT."

This isn't the first time I've seen stupid people freak out over stuff like this. I think I was watching a Youtube video of a Scary Movie 4 excerpt (if interested see it here), and somewhere in the comments someone was like, omg this is so racist, they are butchering the Japanese language with all these brand names.

WHO FUCKING CARES??????? My whole family was lol-ing their asses off at that video. No one thinks it's racist, it's just plain funny. It's meant to be funny. They did it well, although perhaps at the expense of Japanese people. But most good jokes are at the expense of others anyway.

Also, I don't fucking care if you call me Jap, rather than Japanese. Because, unlike that gross word Chink, it isn't meant to be derogatory.

People are so goddamned uptight sometimes.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:46:34 GMT

It is Christmas and I am currently back at home sweet home! Bristol is a wonderful place to study, but nothing beats being back at home. :D I realize this livejournal of mine has been dead dead DEAD for ages and so I wonder if anyone is still going to read it...?

Currently getting obsessed over gothic lolita fashion again. IIRC, the reason why I kind of ditched it about two years ago (?) was because I thought kuro-lolitas (dressing fully in black) and other lolis looked rather stupid with their big bows and "Excuse me miss, I'm here to clean your pantry, please don't mind me!". But the best thing happened this year: a) I found someone with similar music interests to me, and b) That someone and the bf's roommate's new gf are totally into lolita. They wear the cutesy kind of stuff that makes you think of fluffy bunnies, but hey, they're English and they're cool people, not simpering girls who laugh like they don't have enough oxygen in their lungs.

Yeahhhhhhhh. :D

I'm sure my mother would be happy to know that I'm going to be wearing that lolita stuff she bought years ago for me and I never really touched. *___* Poofy skirts, petticoats, elegant jackets, frills and lace...with a hint of darkness. Can't wait to get myself into all this elegant gothic lolita business!

I reckon I should be alright as long as I stand strongly against putting any big bows on my head and steering very very clear of anything fluffy and happy and sickeningly cutesy.

I wonder what my housemates would say if I walked out of my room all decked in that stuff. xD

On a side note: Now that I read over my entry, it seems that I've used the same adjectives over and over again. Something to learn - being an engineering student (or any student who only uses variables and letters on an active basis) seriously degrades your English.

Something special.

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:04:33 GMT

To my beloved Asian net buddy from all the way across the Earth...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE!!!

Nineteen years old...wow. Any plans for the big day? I hope all your dreams and wishes come true. Heh heh heh.

Where should I start? Well it's been a long time since you asked me to join RTR, a long time since we started chatting together, hasn't it? Times have been great. I'm sorry I haven't been in touch much ever since I came here, as I cannot stop repeating, I'm so caught up with events that I have barely any time to chat with you. But anyway, I guess we shall meet up in the far future!

I'm so sorry about the delay but is there anything specifically you want from the UK? Something small that I can enclose in an envelope ~~since I'm technically a poor university student at the moment who is spending too much on drinks~~ and send safely to you. xD

Japanese culture 101.

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:33:55 GMT

I was listening in to a conversation that my mother and another woman (also married to a Japanese man) when I was suddenly compelled to discuss and reflect on the contents of their chatting up here, on my LJ.

Lesson of the day - If you're going to marry a Japanese man, don't live in Japan.

Obviously you don't know what the hell I mean right now. It's all down to the (weird, peculiar) Japanese culture. I'm pretty sure you all know that a huge chunk of this specific culture is dedicated to chauvinism. What I mean by that is that girls must respect their fathers, wives must wait on their husbands, and mothers are practically their own sons' slaves. Basically a total violation of equality.

I totally have a real life example to back this up. Earlier this summer, our whole family returned to Japan to visit my grandmother. And also my extended family...cousins, uncles etcetc. Anyway, my auntie was in charge of cooking the whole, entire time. I'm not sure about the other men who were in the household at the time, but my father sure knows how to cook. But I doubt he even set foot in the kitchen for the entire week we were there. Besides doing random farm tasks and other things for his mother (okay, well maybe that last bit about equality doesn't always apply)...he just sat around and drank Japanese spirits. Etcetera.

Bad enough that he didn't help with cooking, or washing the dishes, or simply helping me haul them 2349458762 friggin' dishes (Japanese people really should learn not to put every single thing on a new dish) into the kitchen for my mother to wash...but once. I finished hauling those dishes for my mom, and I wanted to take a break...so I walked back out into the tatami room (where we eat) and my father, who was sitting there...practically ordered me to clean the table.

He doesn't really do that at home, here, in HK. A lot of them cocky manly things he does in Japan, he really doesn't do in HK. I guess he's all (forced? encouraged?) to follow the Japanese culture when we're in Japan.

So yes, my dear ladies, if you're going to be that crazy, and marry a Japanese man...don't live in Japan! Unless you want to be his personal slave!

Rabid fangirls.

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:57:42 GMT

I have decided to make this journal half-friends - you know, protecting the entries that need protecting, and leaving the fangirling for everyone else to see.

Anyway, I am back from Japan! And as I have promised, I'm going to write up a concert report for...STACKED RUBBISH [Pulse Wriggling To Black] 01 live! Yes, it was awesome, but the reason it's taking me so long is because I have to make twelve pages of messy notes into something you can read properly. Report-quality. So give me a few more days.

I should also really get down to translating stuff. Life's been so busy getting ready for uni!

On a random note. Uruha looks so much sexier live, through binoculars. I believe watching the live, along with my discussion with Diane and Sarah about Uruha's "little ~~soldier~~ sergeant"...has turned me into a rabid Uruha fangirl. (By the way, I am never going to see Uruha the same way ever again.)

Oh the terror. D:

And I changed my mood theme to Uruha. Initially I wanted to use the Aoi and Uruha one that was posted on gazette_media, but it was too much work to change the filenames...so it's just ~~downright gorgeous and VERY WELL endowed~~ Uruha for now.

Profile pictures!

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:03:25 GMT

Since my mother was out for most of the morning, I decided to get my J-SKANK contributions done today. Maybe it's because I've been doing my own makeup for so many school-arranged proms, but it didn't take me more than half an hour to get it done.

But the actual shooting? Wow...it took ages, especially thinking up of poses! I believe I took two hours just to take 100 pictures because I kept deleting stuff and accidentally not setting the camera on self-timer. Diane, I ended up using self-timer and a tripod, it was easy enough because it was only set on two seconds.

Anyway, you'll be seeing Kiku soon then! Once I start editing them. :)

A transition.

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:27:43 GMT

I have decided to stop blogging on Xanga and come to Livejournal. All of my irl friends have forgotten Xanga thanks to Facebook, so there's no point in blogging there anymore. Plus, my Xanga page is dormant. So hopefully I will have more interesting things to post here instead of just Uruha all day long...

J-SKANK is quite entertaining for my mind whenever I get bored. For the past few days, I've been contemplating on things such as what kind of things I'm going to wear for the profile shots and our deadly sins photoshoot. I've even got ideas on props and poses for the latter shoot. Wrath is so cool...and so me. I have anger management issues. Hahaha. And then lyrics to an angsty song I want to write in Japanese and English...maybe Chinese? Just to practice. Trilingual songs ftw!

I've been putting the profile shots off for the time being because of several reasons. I've been pampered too much with good food at my grandmother's in Japan, so right now I am probably at least 2kg more than I'd like to be. Ugh. I hate it when I gain weight...even though this time it's not like I'm really bursting out of my pants or something. I should really get started on this yoga DVD I bought, although I can never find the time...and then I should also cut down on my fat intake and learn to cook using the low-calorie recipes book I bought in Japan.

I sound pretty weight conscious huh? Well sue me. I know it's totally superficial to be worrying about my weight rather than things such as my horrible examination results, but I want to be able to fit into things like skinny jeans.

This whole diet thing is part of my aim to achieve the j-rocker look. I don't know why but I really want to look somewhat like them. Diane helped me pick out a haircut, which sounds like fun and easy to maintain without going to the salon each month, but it's going to have to wait until my hair grows a little longer. Damn.

Then besides the fact that I believe I am overweight, I have managed to scratch my nose. I was trying to get rid of an old blackhead (or whatever you call them) on my nose since my skin is generally fine and any sudden skin flaws are really visible, but I guess I pressed too hard. Annoying. The cut is this small oval thing on my nose which is really hard to cover with concealer when I go out.

Lastly I can't decide what to wear for my profile shots. I want to wear this vampire-lolita brown-black lacy top I have, but it seems like all the band members have already opted for black lacy tops. I want to promote Kiku-sama (hahaha, it has a ring to it, YES? I wish that would be my nickname) as a badass lead guitarist, but I don't seem to have anything that screams badass. Or even rockin' it. *ponders*

Anyway, I've been listening to OBSCURE by Dir en grey lately. The song is AWESOME. I love how Kaoru's guitar (I think) is whining with those simple notes, it brings a whole new atmosphere to the song. And if you're feeling daring, go watch the PV for the song. I watched it and had to close it slightly after halfway through because I was getting sick.

But how can you blame me? One bloody geisha stumbled across a vast plain, and then reached up to the sky to pick off the baby's head and she started EATING IT. I can't stand anything when it comes to babies, unborn, stillborn, or whatever. Ack. And watching bloody geishas getting a huge metal snake phallus jammed up them, looking like it's killing them and satisfying their sexual urges at the same time...way disturbing. Even more disturbing than the AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS PV. I lost a few lives watching those two PVs.

And is it just me or is Uruha getting too sexy these days? I always thought that drawn-double-eyelid made him look pretty, but now that they seem to be omitting that when they're drawing his eyes (newest Neo Genesis and Arena37C), he's starting to look slightly more masculine. And paired up with everything else wonderful which is Uruha, sometimes I wonder if I'm going to hyperventilate at the live in August. Even though Uruha will appear to be 5cm tall to me.

Meaningless Art That People Showed DVD

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:58:33 GMT

I got it on Wednesday actually, but neglected to make a post on it till now. I'm sure you all know this but NLSG was worth my money much more than this DVD.

If all of them were kinda ill (according to what I've heard) during that live, why did they even bother recording this live for the DVD? I mean, Ruki's singing was not up to usual standards. He couldn't hit some notes, and most of the time he was too quiet. The man should really quit smoking.

So yeah, Filth in the beauty wasn't such a good performance after all. But I loved the opening. Very melancholic. <3

Besides that, I think they did alright though. Even though the live wasn't too interesting overall, it was great to watch them play. I love watching Uruha and Aoi do all sorts of things on their guitar...Uru's HELLION is too pretty. Well, I think it would be unfair if I didn't say some of the performances were good. The new songs were performed well. But the older ones like Maggots and GO TO HELL weren't that brilliant either...

I was willing to accept the fact that I paid a large sum of money for this DVD anyway (Uruha in a tight white hoodie and black tank top is too hard to resist) but Ruki was so damn horny in this live. I can accept air humping, his tongue and even him feeling up his leg, but the whole grinding-the-bar thing was too much fanservice. You could see his mangrapes dragging on the bar. His pants are way too tight sometimes.

Yeah, from now on, I am so against fanservice. I just don't see its necessity.

With that aside...sorry about how long Uruha's Oct 06 SHOXX interview translation is taking. Uruha's ways of speech can be so unfamiliar to me.

And. Summer holidays are so boring. I wish I could find stuff to do...well, Harry Potter (book and movie) coming up! I sincerely hope Rowling did a better job on book seven, book six was annoying to read after awhile.

Ugh and can't wait for Cho Chang in movie 5. Honestly. What was Rowling thinking?! Chinese people just don't go with Scottish accents.

Today is going my way...yay!

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:54:42 GMT

I GOT TICKETS TO GAZETTE'S STACKED RUBBISH TOUR! But I have to wait till 8/15 to watch it in Fukuoka, which means no going to Tokyo, which is a slight disappointment because I was really hoping to visit those VK music stores like Closet Child and get a whole load of VK clothes and maybe even pick up Aoi/Uruha's guitar picks...

...but then again, nothing beats seeing Uruha this summer. Even if it's through binoculars. I guess I have to look more in Fukuoka.

And I can get my hands on tour goods. Oh tour goods. <33 It's so annoying buying them through third parties because they charge SO DAMN MUCH.

I'm on row 33 which is really damn far away from Uruha but I was hoping to be able to yell "Accio Uruha!" and Summon him into my outstretched arms. (Yes I like(d) Harry Potter. Sa, this might be the only way we can kidnap him and Kai...)

Now I just need to persuade myself that a) I am lucky enough to see them in the first place and b) I am lucky enough to be going to Japan, so I shouldn't be too disappointed about not making it to Tokyo this year.

Can you believe it, all the Saitama/Osaka/Kyoto venues were sold out. I guess they're too popular.

AND OMG MY FRIEND GOT ME THE MATPS DVD! And I have three privileges too. Oh my god. THREE. I feel like totally fainting right now. He says it's a bandanna, an A4 poster of sorts and something else. I can't wait to tell mom when she comes back.

It was funny how she told my dad about the delayed date for my brother and I to go to Japan, and she whined about how it was holidays for Japanese people too (i.e. travel expenses increased) and my father just said, "Okay, then go then."

*chuckles*

Chizuru PV.

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:45:02 GMT

It's finally out.

I've been waiting for like...the longest time ever just to watch it. Chizuru is one of my favorite Gazette songs - and the song made even more wonderful (if possible) by the mere fact that Uruha wrote it. <33

But I think the PV is rather disappointing. I think, first of all...Chizuru isn't such an appropriate song for Apartment. Maybe I don't understand the lyrics too well, but it doesn't seem such a great song for a grotesque horror movie. Even the tunes of the song alone JUST DON'T FIT.

Nyah, and it really irks me that there is a lot of the movie footage in the PV. I swear, at least one minute of the Gazemen goodness was cut out. I'm pretty sure people who watch this PV (even if they don't absolutely love the GazettE) will want to watch the band more than the movie...I mean, jeez, you could just go watch the movie in the cinema anytime.

At least Uruha looked too hot in that tight-fitting suit, his HELLION (oh I love that guitar) and the wind blowing in his hair...

All sorts of Uru-related things.

Mon, 14 May 2007 13:13:59 GMT

Eww, there was a shit-colored bug walking under my shelf just now. Gross. I pwned it with my slipper.

Anyway - I'm now a translator at ridetherockers collaborating with whitesongs and djwoman. Finally, there's something for me to practice my Japanese on! So if you happen to be reading this, go join the community and read read read all the Gaze goodness posted up there. [However, membership is screened i.e. you have to wait and see whether we accept you as a member.]

//end advertising

I think out of all the Gazemen, Uruha has the least skinniest figure. Aoi has very nice biceps but a very slim frame. Kai is very very slim (look at those legs! :O)...and Reita is also pretty thin himself.

Well okay, Ruki has titchy legs but pretty chubby arms/torso.

BUT URUHA. OH MY GOD URUHA. *eyes pop out of sockets* I think his SHADOW VI II I is the most seductive costume of his. A shirt made out of black see-through material and those manshorts paired up with garters. Him wearing those can make him as hot as he looks wearing a tank top. (And those tank tops are lethal, they make him very manly and hot.)

I seriously wonder what kind of body he is hiding under those clothes.

...I think deciding to watch the NLSG backstage during studying for math exam this Wednesday was a very bad decision indeed.

So...livejournal.

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 07:40:52 GMT

I got it mainly to browse around at the GazettE fanstuff, but I might as well try posting here.

My more active weblog is here.

Posting around and having fun because I don't want to work on my TOK just yet. TOK is boring, TOK is the most ridiculous thing anyone could study. (Unless you're into philosophy.) It stands for "theory of knowledge". Apparently IB only requires it because France refused to adopt the IB program unless they had a philosophy component so...

Damn you France. D:

I also want to test out lj-cut so here goes.

I just found this on my Photobucket account which has been pretty dead for sometime.

I think I was trying to summarize the looks of anyone working under Mana for his Moi dix Mois project. Hahahaha.