Because Someone Nagged Me

Well it's that time again. Time to update this thing.

Well since last I've written, I had taken a month long vacation and returned to work.

My vacation to the Philippines was wonderful. How I've missed the Philippines, not so much for the weather but being able to see people I haven't seen in almost 5 years. Because of my job I had to take it in March unsure of whether or not I would be sent downrange. But luckily I wasn't, but it was still a perfect time to go nonetheless. The weather was good and I wasn't viciously attacked by my worst enemy over there, mosquitoes. They had always loved to eat me up while I stayed over there. I had surely gained some weight over the past few years and from that point I had made it a goal to lose it by the next time I visited. How uncomfortable it was to be surrounded by thinner, younger and prettier females. Made me uneasy hanging out with my friends not to mention the whole language barrier that we still have yet to overcome. At least they had tried. I totally failed on my part. But I find it interesting to see them get excited when you use one word in Tagalog. The Japanese are the same. Since we had a new house down there, I had offered to help out my parents with furnishing the place since I now make some money. And with my mother there, she made sure she used every dollar (or in this case Peso) to its fullest. She might stay there for a while arguing (or what they had called bargaining) for an item even just to save a couple of cents. I don't understand it, but that's how they've always done it. Overall the trip was worthwhile, even if I had spent 75% of it in the house drawing/ watching television or spending it in a car since the nearest town from ours was 30 minutes away. Oh joy.

Then I returned home where I would be hanging out with my friends during spring break. I didn't spend all my time with them, seeing as they have their own lives to attend to and time doesn't stop just because I took leave. It was nice, a little more relaxing except for going to the gym, but it was good for me anyways, so I can't complain. Seen a lot of movies, did lots of nothing, had a car battery die, bought a few things and played old gameboy games. Oh and don't forget drawing. I did tons of that.

Oh and the reason I didn't update in March and April was because my laptop was going through a virus fit. But as you can clearly see, it's fine and running smoothly. This is because I rarely save things onto my actual laptop anymore. It'll now be transfered onto my new lovely external hard drive. I'm just hoping that never dies, for I will be devastated.



This is a picture of me and my friends while I was in the Philippines. I had a really bad camera back then so the picture isn't as clear or nice, but it worked so It doesn't matter.


This was our newly built house. I really like it. It was sorta small but it didn't need to be big anyways. I liked the color of the house but I soon came to realize that all the really nicely built houses around the area were also the same color. XD Taken during our "House Blessing" party.

Well I did return back to Japan. Can't say I was really thrilled. I love Japan, not so much the stress of work. It actually didn't start off too bad. I had even returned just in time for the blooming of the Cherry Blossoms, which I was afraid of missing since this would be my last spring to be able to see them. I had wanted to go with a few friends, but in the last minute my good friend had to go to a mandatory appointment and my other one had wanted to be lazy that day. (Boo on him) But I did get to go with somebody, which is all I wanted. I went with my lazy friend's wife, who was pretty cool. We even bought some flowers together which surprisingly are still alive. And the park we went to was enormous. We walked around for about 2 hours and we still didn't see the whole park. But still pretty awesome anyways.







These are some of the pictures I had taken while I was at Showa Park in Nishi-Tachikawa, Japan around the time the Cherry blossoms were blooming (obviously). As you can see, the pictures are better quality because I finally bought myself a higher quality camera. :D This is the most random collaboration of pictures.




This was actually one of the smaller shrines we went to when a couple of friends and I decided to go to Kamakura/ Enoshima. We had originally planned on going to the beach, but the guys wanted to be difficult and stop at EVERY shrine or temple we saw. And I even forgot to take pictures when we did reach the beach which we probably spent less than an hour at. I was mad. But we did get to throw a couple of people in the ocean even when they didn't have extra clothes. Awesome. :D


This was a fun night. I got to go with some of the Japanese ladies that work with us and at different facilities and had some fun at Karaoke. I thought they'd just sing for 2 hours and it ended up being 4 hours. Man was I tired by the end of it, but it was fun. I wanna do it again sometime.



Here is to prove that even if I don't post online alot that I still do draw stuff. I post little chibi drawings on my door. Some people enjoy looking at them and some people like swiping my dry-erase an hour after I've drawn on it. D: But that will not discourage me because I'll constantly redraw whatever is on there. 'Cause I don't care what they do. But I think they're starting steal my newspaper. Shame on them. The second picture is to prove to D that that really is my room. See! My name is on it! I'm gonna test you to see if you now know my room #!!

But so, nothing new is really happening these days. There was some drama with friends but I wasn't included in it, so it wouldn't be right for me to post it. But overall, I think things will start to look a little better. I'm hoping so for my sanity's sake.

And that's it for now, till next time. I hope you're happy now Diana. Oh and here's a picture of my plant I got from the park.


And you can see outside my window into the parking lot and see my stuffed Pink panther plushie.

PS. This took to long to write and wait for the picture to upload. D:

I haven't quite reached rock bottom, but I'm standing on that rock.

Oh, how the time does fly. And how easily I forget about this thing. Once again, I'm reminded that this should be updated at least monthly. Seriously, I was hoping for weekly, but as you can see, it didn't turn out so well.

Oh, what to say, what to say.

Really. It's been kinda depressing since the last I updated. Someone I really like had finally left and it has me feeling kinda lonely. REAL lonely. I heard that he had liked me back, but by the time I had found out, I guess it was kinda late. Heh, I kinda wanted to tell him several times on the phone, but I lost the courage to. At this point, I don't think he would think the same about me anymore even though I still think about him a lot, even when I don't want to. But we talk. And that's all I ask for.

I'm sure that he will find someone else and hopefully I will find someone as well. It was seriously a lot more fun hanging out with him than I realized. Our four-man cell is now being lazy and somewhat irritating. Seriously. I think one of them is hiding something from me and the other is getting on my nerves for different reasons. Really though, I think everyone is just splitting up and doing their own thing. So many of them are getting married or are already married, so a lot of their focus is on their families, and I guess I can't complain. But does it really hurt to just hang out for a while?

People change I guess. You grow out of things and nothing is the same anymore. And I'm still living in a fantasy world that still thinks that the old times still exist. And when I slowly begin to realize that this is all happening and it has happened, I'm filled with despair. It will not be the same. Being separated can either bring people together or tear them apart. And with the friends I have made here, it feels as if our bonds are almost torn apart. But then again, maybe I'm just trying to hard to hold on. But one thing is for certain, I feel better knowing that the bonds with my friends back home are still strong. And that's all I could ever really want.

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But on a lighter note. Or not so lighter note, I have a messed up sleep schedule. I hate that I have training, therefore, it requires me to get up early to go to it. I hate that some shifts end up being short manned and I am the one helping out causing more sleep problems. Really, I should be moved to a different position. As soon as this past team has come back, I think they want everyone to be rotated around. And if they want to do it, they should, just don't make me the one that has to be flexible. Keep me in one area and let me do that certain shift. This is why I end up being cranky Every Single Day. Seriously. I don't feel like being a B**** when I work; I really don't.

And also, my computer is retarded. It lags real bad on and media (video & audio) files and it even messes up the welcome tune. D: I very sad day indeed. But it also just lags period. I don't really know how it happened, but it did and I don't know how to fix it. I'll probably just erase everything and reinstall everything. Which will suck, but it's better than waiting for my computer to load up my settings for 20 minutes when it usually only took about 5 before. D: Why must my electronics die on me?

Yesterday was Valentines Day. I got roses from my guys friends (just the 2 I normally hang out with), candy from a friend and a card from another friend. And I helped serve (actually I more or less just sat around) the Valentines meal at our facility. But hey, I made the pretty sign and did a darn good job on my menus, if I do say so myself. :D And I got to drink a lot of good freakin' sparkling cider to boot. I need more of that stuff, seriously. I thought me and my friends were going to do something and we didn't. Boo.

Also, 14 days till I take leave.

Till next month,
Steph

And it won't let me upload my pics.... lovely....

A New Year, A New Post

So a friend of mine told me, I don't post enough. She's right. I don't forget these things either. Sometimes I wish they were here to beat me up. Put some intimidation into me. Let's hope 2008 can do better than 2007, because in all honesty, it really REALLY sucked. I don't really want to start the new years off like this, but it'll have to do.


Hmmm.. Nothing like posting art. This is new for me, sorta. I don't like posting unfinished pieces of art, even to friends. I find them very personal to me, and I don't like being judged. But maybe I just need to come out once in a while and take a beating for once in my life. Actually D told me to post and she might be me up if I don't. D: But she'll get hers, I'll make sure to eat the last meatball! (haha I look like Gin! :D) And to be honest, I laughed at that whole conversation we had about it on AIM.

You know what sucks? The fact that I draw really lightly and that even though it looks clean on the paper, it doesn't when its scanned and it's not very clear. But I'll just have to deal with it.


Some random sketches of characters. Some practice with anatomy, which I think I fail at sometimes. Do you ever think that something that you just made looks really good and the next day you just then realized all of the mistakes you had made that you seemed to overlook the day before? I think that all the time. These are okay. I don't they're my best but I just like looking at my sketches. Maybe I'll improve.


I liked this page a little. Still some problems with anatomy but that's okay. My favorite is the one on the way right. It was fun to do. I think I draw better in my Japanese class than when I'm at home sometimes. But then again, I try more harder at home than in class and it's difficult to draw sometimes when you're thinking about it rather than just letting your hand do all the work.

I'm rather pleased with this. Ashina's (left) anatomy bugs me a little but I think Amira (right) looks okay. I found out I really like hair. P:

I was going to make "Extra" pages for my manga explaining a few things about Majestic and the such. But I got lazy. I still wanna do it, but I somewhat lack motivation. Watch as Ashina (back) points out all my mistakes.
And just some more practice with characters. I tried to give Kobochi (top) some winter clothes because who the hell goes around the forest in the winter in a MINI SKIRT? Only my characters I guess. Hey, I figure if I can run outside at below 50 in shorts, than so should someone in a skirt. XD Oh well. And other than that I think I did a decent sketch of Miyami (bottom). So their.


Things have happened this past month. Some were good, others were bad, but there is no regrets at this point. What happens, happens and it a new year. Lets try and make it better than 2007!