insaneneko

I can't believe TurboTax doesn't allow online purchase of their program when installing with one of their CD mailers. I called and went through their tedious automated phone system, getting an installation code. Of course the code didn't work, so I sent an email to support. The response instructed me to call during business hours (not much longer than typical business hours, luckily Pacific Time and not something like Eastern or Central). What do I find out when I call? That I basically got the code right, except that I misheard the "D" as "B." I listened to the damn code twice to double-check, too! GAH.

Are there a lot of drama cd translations? It seems like quite a lot of work, in some ways worse than doing a scanlation. It's very nice of people to do stuff like that, since I always wondered what people who didn't understand Japanese do. On a whim I downloaded a translation of Nijuu Rasen 1 (a great drama based on the novel by Yoshihara Reiko and illustrated by Enjin Ranmaru) and it's 19 pages! I laughed at the translator refusing to translate part of a sex scene...I can totally relate. It's a) kind of embarrassing and b) rather silly since half the time it's pretty damn obvious. XD

Lately I've been seeing some real possessive behavior regarding scans. Not scanlations, but straight scans. People who bother to watermark their illegal scans of copyrighted material and go around demanding that people stop sharing "their" scans really drives me bonkers.

oyceter posts about alpha males in romances and starts what looks to be a really good discussion (I haven't had a chance to read past the first one or two comments). Personally, I see too much alpha male bastards raping and controlling their way through too many BL novels to have a generally positive reaction to the word "alpha male." ^^;

Huh...The TV is playing one of those Animal Planet shows about animal welfare law enforcement right now and I happened to look up to see an owner get arrested for animal cruelty. The owner, whose face is obscured by pixillation, asks in a completely bewildered tone, "Why?" The deputy who is to arrest her, after an awkward pause, just repeats that "Because it's animal cruelty." The depths of some people's unconcern re: their pets' welfare is really depressing.

Anyone who can read Japanese and wants to read a really shitty BL series, four complete novels are available for download here. The illustrator, Kusaka Takaaki, is pretty good so the pictures are worth taking a look at. The story, on the other hand? I wasted two hours the other night praying for a coherent characterization and not abysmally stupid plotline to somehow magically appear. I should have realized how foolish I was...

( rant with spoilers )

Reading crap like that makes me want to post about all the good BL novels I've been reading lately (and I've read quite a bit that are probably not that well known). It's just kind of time consuming and a hassle to write up a full blown post with summary, squeeing, and scans. (And I have no idea if people read them anyway.) :P

I randomly put on a burned CD I found labeled "Tenipuri" tonight. It turned out to have a lot of early PoT vocal character stuff, so mostly Seigaku with Atobe thrown in. Wow, not only was it nostalgic, but it was so good. *_* Will "Cross With You" ever not kick ass? Will that song Ryoma sings about his cat ever be not cute? XDXD

I've also just started up doing something I used to do so much but had just stopped for some reason (supposedly because of work, but I think I partly used it as an excuse to do nothing). Rediscovering the joy and the rush I get from doing it is sooo wonderful and energizing!

My damn computer is down, and my friends and I highly suspect it's hard drive failure. Again. Someone, please tell me how in the world a hard drive I've had for TWO MONTHS can fail? Damn Apple, did they replace my failed hard drive with a failing hard drive??

In any case, the jury is still out on the real cause, but whatever the cause of my problems I am computerless at home (I so shouldn't use my work computer to be checking and updating on LJ...I really shouldn't). It's kind of depressing how much of my life revolves around the computer. My house feels...empty, somehow. Been trying to make up for it by reading stuff, and I even bought the first 12 volumes of Black Cat used because I read the funniest random reaction to the first Black Cat anime episode from a total Creed fan and when I feel shitty I shop and it was cheap but everytime I want to quickly check something online or whatever and I realize no I can't do that it just sucks. >_<

One good thing is that I went through my Hikago doujinshi piles and discovered a PoT one I've been searching for mixed in there. Angst is rabu.

I swear I read like the fourth pimp of Honey & Clover on my flist just now and it just kills me that I didn't hear about it before because that show had some of the cutest goods (and some really nice t-shirts) that I almost bought but didn't because I don't buy goods of anime/manga I've never even heard of. And of course I didn't hear about it early enough to ask my friend who's in Japan RIGHT NOW buying loads of crap at Animate and doesn't have email or phone access to buy me some. Sometimes, the timing sucks beyond all belief.

I took a bunch of pics of some of the goods I bought (fangoods! squee!) to share but I can't find the USB cable to download them onto my computer. ;_;

My latest Amazon.com order received a complimentary upgrade to UPS, but it requires a signature so they came to my house but didn't deliver today. I of course came home too late to call and have them deliver to work where there's always someone to sign tomorrow. So gotta wait two days.

And work is disgustingly busy and remain so for months. MONTHS. GAH!!!

I'll probably be terribly behind on comments (like I'm ever caught up?). *sighs*

なんか、すごく疲れた。