Martian Eggplant

I’m too angry to post anything worthwhile. I am nobody’s slave. Will post more when I stop freaking out.

Okay, the background is this: I live in a three-bedroom apartment with two "suitemates" that were randomly assigned to me by the people in charge of the building… I’ll call them A and B for privacy reasons.  Suitemate A goes to MATC and is a cosmetology student (and just out of high school and away from home for the first time ever, to boot), Suitemate B goes to the UW and is a Spanish language major. I have no issue with B; in fact, I’d say she’s probably the best roommate I’ve ever had, and I’d love to be her roommate again next year if she wasn’t planning on studying abroad in Spain next fall.

Suitemate A, on the other hand, has been driving me up the wall since the day I moved in. First she forgets what day roommate B and I are moving in (August 30) and leaves her clothes strewn about the apartment to air dry, including in our bedrooms on our beds and furniture. Later she has an explosive fight with her mother (in person and later over the phone) over a boyfriend she wants to sleep with. Then a boyfriend (I’m not entirely sure if this is the same boyfriend or not) cheats on her.  Now she is letting a boyfriend (possibly the same guy, or equally possibly some random other guy) live in our apartment with her. Not cool.

This is especially not cool because Suitemate A cannot clean up after herself, let alone two people. This resulted in the rotting bananas mentioned earlier in this blog, an additional bunch of rotting bananas that thankfully Suitemate B was kind enough to dispose of for me, and miscellaneous moudly breads. Also, as I mentioned to Katie A last Friday in class, I went to take out the trash that fateful Friday only to discover that A or her boyfriend had thrown away a bag of raw chicken between one and two weeks prior to that date, and carefully hidden it under other trash so the waste of food wouldn’t be obvious. Unfortunately, we don’t have any real garbage bags (as no one but me is willing to buy any), so the garbage can had only a large shopping bag in it for trash, and when I pulled it out, the juice from the meat leaked onto the floor and all over my hands. I didn’t clean it up. I don’t know if Suitemate B did, or if anyone ever will. I’m not going to ask. But I’ve been suspiciously ill since Friday afternoon. I can’t pin it down to that incident specifically, but it makes me wonder…

Then today (12/5/2006) they threw away four cans of spaghetti-ohs, instead of putting them in the recycling (which is right next to the trash can).

Boyfriend has been here three days straight now. I asked at the front desk how long guests can stay, and was told to email the leasing director. But my rulebook says (and I quote): "A guest may not stay in your bedroom for more than one weekday or one weekend in any calendar month. Prior approval must be obtained from your roommates and the manegement office for guests wishing to extend their stay." Considering I don’t even know boyfriend’s name, I don’t think I gave my consent. Luckily this means everything will be resolved in my favor when it gets resolved.

So I’m in a much better mood today (except the damn runny nose) than I was last Friday. And my new harem pants are almost done, too! Hopefully they will be done enough to wear to dance class on Wednesday if I’m well enough to go.

I mentioned Phantasy Star Universe in a post a while back, and thought that this week I’d explain a bit about it - since it’s become my latest addiction and is absorbing all of my time that I don’t spend working, doing homework, attending classes, and sleeping. I played its precursor, Phantasy Star Online since 2002 on the Nintendo Gamecube (I have yet to cancel my "Hunter’s License" but will be doing so before the end of December), and since early last year on the newest revamp of PSO: Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst.

PSU is still a "wow". I was prepared for an upgrade, but man, what an upgrade! Granted, I deliberately avoided reading up on the new game in the gaming magazines so I wouldn’t have any expectations to be shattered (unlike some of my friends, who are now sulking about it). Still, it’s nice to give my character, Aerin, new life - and one that I can more closely control, at that. Character creation in PSU is a joy - so much is customizable. Everything from body/facial proportion to the amount of eyeliner the character wears can be customized to exactly how you want it. It took me nearly three hours to get Aerin the way I wanted her to look.

In previous versions of the game, Aerin has been a HUnewearl. This means that she specializes in bladed weapons, has high skill with magic (being a newman/elf), and is female.  However, this time around, Newmans have had their stamina reduced by a lot (I’ll get to that later when I introduce Demi), so I went with the new class for Aerin: she is now a Beast. Mwah.

Here I will take the time to introduce my main comrades in battle: Demi, my sister; Samber, my Quebecois friend; LaReece, a friend from my early days on Gamecube; and Scejntjynahl (pronounced Sentinel and otherwise known more simply as "Sen"), my ever loyal partner. In this picture, Scejntjynahl is on the left. She is a CAST (cyborg) that specializes in both the use of guns and single-handed bladed weapons. She is a good companion if you need a Ranger or a Hunter, and especially if you want to see someone use Traps competently. Aerin is in the middle, and Demi is on the right. Demi is also known as "The Green One" as she is one of the few characters in the game that wears green. She also enjoys hats. She is a Newman (note the pointed ears) and a Force, making her our main healer and spellcaster (since none of the rest of us can use TECHNICS yet).  Not pictured are Samber, a male Hunter, and LaReece, another CAST.

Since Expert Types aren’t available yet, we’re all still basic classes (Hunter, Ranger, or Force); and since special abilities such as Nano Blasting and SUV weapons aren’t available till level 20, we started out fighting the easy fights. Even these "basic" areas make for some interesting screenshots. In this picture, Aerin, Demi, Sen, and another friend, Inova, are accompanied by NPC (non-player character) Lou to the underground RELICS area of the planet Parum.

Once Aerin got a little stronger (and gained a little meseta [money]), I bought her a new weapon: a Ryo Bastra. Ryo Bastra is a set of two sabers, and is one of the better weapons that can be bought at the base stores at the Guardians Colony. She learned a powerful Photon Art (special attack) called Rising Crush. Besides being powerful, the Photon Arts are fun to look at. There are lots of different types, which level up and become more powerful the more often you use them.

Perhaps the best thing about Aerin is that she is a Beast, and as such, she can Nano Blast. Nano Blasts are unique to Beasts (the typical barbarian "miner" class oppressed by 2/3 of the other classes), and enable them to transform into various large and impressive Beast forms (which look like cat-girls for the females and massive lion-dog-things for the males). Aerin’s Beast form is red, and grants her vastly improved attack power for about 50 seconds, after which she returns to her more human form. Fancy Nano Blasts are a great way to make your friends jealous.

Aerin recently spent three "rank levels" as a Ranger in preparation for the release of Expert Types, which will allow her, in theory, to use Double Saber type weapons, as well as higher ranked Twin Sabers, Knives, etc. Aerin will become a Figunner (Hunter/Ranger combination) or a Wartecher (Hunter/Force combination).  Sen is currently in Force mode, as she is trying to become the most difficult Expert Type to obtain: a Protranser. Protransers gain high level Photon Arts in both bladed weapons and guns, and gain access to advanced traps, which is perfect for Sen’s playing style. I’m more torn, because in the past Aerin has had strong TECHNIC power and been able to use healing and support TECHNICS, but in this game she is limited to either using the weapons that I prefer her to use or being able to use TECHNICS. There is no in between, and I’m having trouble deciding which one I would prefer more.

The game’s not without its bugs, but it’s been great fun thus far. I have a feeling I’ll be just as addicted to this game as I have been to PSO. It’s hard not to be. Most of my friends from PSOGC have long since stopped playing that game, but in PSU I get to play with them all again, like in "the good old days" on the Gamecube. And it’s nice to once again have a game I can play with my sister without too much bickering - Demi is and always has been played by my sister.

I’ll finish up this already long post by saying I still haven’t finished the pants for Demi’s Tula costume, and with that I’ll give you some of my more fun screenshots from PSU.

So, I’ve known for a while that my sister is cosplaying YURA-sama from the visual kei J-rock band Psycho le Cemu (what the heck, my sister hasn’t sent me a picture of YURA-sama for my new pc yet?!), and I found out recently that her friend Lisa is cosplaying Lida from the same group. Then I find out that another friend is cosplaying SEEK and another Daishi.  Which leaves Aya and no more friends (willing) to cosplay him.  Who gets volunteered? Me.

This might not be a bad thing… were pink not my least favorite color and frilly dresses my least favorite garments on the face of the earth.  Nonetheless, I agreed to be Aya for their PLC group. Probably at ACEN, certainly sometime in the near future.

This is where I need your help, Eng201 class! I don’t know which of Aya’s outfits to do! As I said, pink and frills are totally contrary to my nature, so I’m having a hard time picking one that will look nice.  Let me know in a comment if you have an opinion. Thanks!

Prism

Megatron

Omoide Aruki

Michi no Sora

Love is Dead

Gekiai Merry-Go-Round

Ai no Uta

If you want to hear something by Psycho le Cemu, listen to the second-to-last song on my mixtape that I made for class. That song is PLC’s Gekiai Merry-Go-Round. 

So, what is Eurobeat (and Parapara)? *grins* It’s one of my favorite pastimes.

Eurobeat comes from Europe (obviously), but more specifically it’s an offshoot of Italian disco music with a Japanese audience in mind. It’s associated with parapara dancing, which is different from other forms of club dancing because each song has pre-set choreography that everyone dances together, and was hugely popular in Japan for several years. I’m unsure of its current status, but I do know it is gaining popularity here in the US.

There are videos of the dances for instruction and just to watch (promotional videos), as well as several parapara videogames similar to DanceDanceRevolution (except more difficult for tall people, because the motion sensors are on the floor and only detect motion so far up). There are also lots of fanmade videos and dance mixes.

I started learning parapara about two months before Anime Central 2005, when my friend Uba showed me the routine to Dancing Alone by Pamsy and a couple of other songs that were scheduled to be included in the annual parapara dance party (including Lollipop Banana, which, despite its perverted lyrics is actually a hilariously cute dance). I was hooked! Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to learn many dances before Acen, so I only knew around five dances by the time we went to the convention. But I’ve been learning parapara dancing ever since, and I love it.

I’m currently working on learning a few songs like Kill the Silence by Domino, as well as learning how to dance the ParaPara Paradise Nonstop Megamix, which is all the songs from the ParaPara Paradise videogame plus a few extras. 

I finally got a computer that isn’t falling apart. I’ve had a Dell laptop, excuse me, portable computer, for the past three years, and if you can’t tell already, I’ve been extremely dissatisfied with its performance. For one, I’ve had to have the hard drive replaced twice in three years, and for another, it overheats in anywhere from one to three hours, which renders it basically useless if I have to type a paper/story, make a complicated graphic, or play a videogame. All of this makes for a very unhappy Eggplant Lady.

All that is, hopefully, about to change. I just got a new HP desktop, since I’m probably going to steer well clear of notebook models for a few years at least. And amazingly, it cost half of what my idiot laptop did, and it’s twice as powerful. Go figure. But it has the graphic capability to actually handle my games, came with a media center, and has a nifty 17" LCD monitor. So far I’ve got nothing to complain about except my own idiocy (I accidentally unplugged the keyboard when I plugged in the mouse, for example). Ahh, the refreshing joy of having a computer that works consistently.

I have a computer that can actually handle Phantasy Star Universe! Why yes, that is the sound of me squee-ing with glee. 

I’ve been watching an unusual amount of tv-type stuff lately…

My sister introduced me to the abridged episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh (an anime I normally don’t bother with, but the abridged version on YouTube is hilarious), so I watched all 12 or so of those.  And then I discovered something wondrous.  The musical version of Utena is on YouTube.  Oh. My. God!  That musical is so cheesy, it is love!

It totally puts the song Ouji-sama ga Ii (I’m better off being a Prince) in my head. I disliked a few of the changes (no Miki and Juri duels! And all that’s left of Utena’s trademark pink hair are two pink streaks). And man is it different from the real plot of the anime or the manga… In a strange way, but a very good way nonetheless, at least if you’re like me and adore cheesy musicals.  Ah… I’ll have to watch that again in a few days. *contented sigh*

I normally try not to be a very bitter person, or to hold my roommates’ obliviousness and messiness against them… but today I am not pleased. If they want to be messy, fine with me, so long as I can get through the kitchen/dining room and bathroom, so long as I can reach the sink or the toaster/can opener/rice cooker, etc. But melted, rotten bananas on top of the fridge and seeping into the freezer and onto the packaging of all my food? No way.

And this is not just because the bananas are rotten. It’s because we have uber-ripe bananas in the freezer and in the fridge already. And I don’t eat bananas. Which means somebody’s got two sets of bananas (I’m inclined to ask why, if she’s not intending to make banana bread or something), and let one go rotten. I don’t want to clean the mess up, but it doesn’t look like either of my roommates can be bothered to clean up after themselves… but at least now I know where those fruit flies have been coming from.

I had a migraine last night, too. Bad week, I guess. I haven’t had one this bad since I was at Chichen Itza. Normally I just get intense pain, but every once in a while (once in two to three years) I get a full aura and, for some reason I still don’t understand, the accompanying strokelike symptoms. If you’ve never experienced that, let me tell you that it is scary like nothing else I have ever experienced. The first time it happened I ended up in the emergency room getting some sort of shot that burned like crazy but fixed everything up quickly.  The strange thing is, I’m usually photosensitive, and that’s what sets it off (eg. staring at my computer monitor at work for hours, or being out in the tropical sun with no trees or anything at Chichen Itza), but yesterday there wasn’t anything like that.

I have nothing new to tell, except that I have learned the parapara routine to Horror Fantasy and started on Kill the Silence, and that my schoolwork and my job are catching up to me. So busy…

It’s time to start thinking about Halloween! Hooray! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (go figure) of the year. I love making autumn food, carving jack-o-lanterns, and making and wearing costumes…

This year, I’ll be wearing my Gypsy Queen dress for Halloween. It’s a cross between a bellydancer’s costume and a wench’s costume, all done up in shades of red, brown, black, and (a tiny bit of) pink, and it is probably my favorite Renaissance piece that I own… and considering I’ve worn it to the Faire in Bristol for the last three years, instead of switching to a new costume each year as I’ve done in the past, that says something.

But since I promised that my next post would include some info about a costume I’m currently working on, I’ll tell you a bit about Tula. Tula is from a cartoon show from the 90s that most people seem to have never heard of: The Pirates of Dark Water. This particular show happened to be my sister’s favorite cartoon show of her childhood and Tula was her favorite character, and so I am making her Tula’s outfit (and hair, via a wig) for a Christmas present. It won’t be much of a surprise, since I have to do some sizing on her (especially where the wig is concerned… we are the same size, but she has a lot more hair than I do, so any wig sized on me will be too small to accomodate her hair), but it has a lot of sentimental value for her and I know she’ll really like it.

Since in episode six (yes, I’m such a geek that I know this), Tula says she made herself a new outfit out of some silks she’d found in the Wraith, I bought some bright pink silky material to make most of the costume, and I bought some green cotton for the contrast, since the contrast has to be stiffer to make that belt/waist cincher she wears. I already had extra peltex (peltex is interfacing used to make things like hats and handbags stiff) to make the armor/top with, though at the moment I don’t have any bias tape for the edges or paint for the armor. Overall, it’s a simple design (for someone who’s made a nearly identical outfit for a friend before), and I don’t anticipate it taking me very long, with the exception of the jewelry, and the gold bits in the wig.

I’ve recently rewatched approximately 2/3 of The Pirates of Dark Water, and I’m sad that it was never finished… sad that it wasn’t finished, but glad that my sister kept her tapes of the one-time Cartoon Network PODW marathon… Being a total sci-fi/fantasy cartoon geek, I think it’s one of the better American cartoons ever made. I wish I could find out the end of the story, but by now it’s probably a lost cause. 

This post would not be complete without an eggplant recipe, so here is a link to one for Eggplant-Spinach Curry, since I love curry. Especially curry with eggplant in it. 

Probably the most common question I get in regards to my costumes is "How long does/did it take to make that?"

The best answer I can give is this: a long time.  It is heavily dependent upon the amount of detail in the costume, the fabrics and materials the costume is made from, and whether I can buy any of the parts pre-made or whether I’m making a Masquerade level piece and everything has to be handmade.

A duelist jacket from Utena takes roughly three hours to put together, from the time you pin the pattern to the fabric, to the point where all the pieces are sewn together and the lining and collar are installed. After that, around 20 hook-and-eyes must be hand sewn into the front closure, ribbons must be hand sewn on around every edge, cuffs must be made, false pockets applied, cords made (I’ll explain in a minute), and epaulettes made and attached.  Only once all that is done can the jacket be called finished - and even then it needs a few finishing touches (the duelist rose and rose-holder, for example).  The cords (technically each of these cords is an "aiguillette" but since I can’t even say that, I’m going to leave it at "cord") are made by attaching one end to the appropriate epaulette and super-gluing a brass lamp finial to the other end; then they are pinned into place with the rose and rose-holder.

I can honestly say I have no idea how long a rose holder takes to make, because Llama makes them all, but I do know that they’re made of painted sculpey with a pin attached.

The epaulettes, on the other hand, are a wonderfully amusing story. I will only discuss Juri, Kozue, and Miki’s epaulettes for the moment, because I have no decent pictures of Utena, Nanami, or Touga handy.  Miki’s epaulettes were the easiest to make, because they are simply fabric and craft foam cut into the proper shape and attached with buttons.  Kozue’s are far more complicated, because they involve attaching a flat piece of wood to a sphere with a hole in it (for the seafoam fringe, which is also handmade, to come out).  Juri’s epaulettes are one of our most interesting, because they are made from wood and pvc pipe. (Un)Luckily for us, in each of the art images, Juri’s epaulettes look different; in some images, the lines on the side are etched into them, in others the lines appear to protrude from them, and in still others, the lines appear to be drawn on. So our craft master (aka Uba’s dad) carved the lines in because it was easier than the other designs. All the epaulettes except Miki’s are fully removable so the costumes are washable; since Miki’s epaulettes are fabric and buttons, they are already washable and don’t need to be removed for any reason.

The other thing everyone asks about is Kozue’s (and Anthy’s) crown. How did we get it so perfectly round? How did we get just the right shape? The answer is more pvc pipe. Uba drew the pattern up, and we glued it to the pipe and cut it out before painting it gold. Voila - instant and durable Rose Bride crown.

I promise my next entry will have something to do with a costume I’m currently working on or will include an eggplant recipe.