Appa's Thoughts

The more corporate identities join Facebook, the less I'll use it.

So anyway.

Last weekend I read Endo Shusaku's "Silence" for a class about images (not history or theology, like you might expect with that kind of book!). I really liked it, and I liked that this is bringing the words "tatemae" and "honne" into the class discussion... ahh, it puts me in my element. But it gave me weird dreams last night about being in a position similar to the farm people being forced to trample on fumie. That wasn't the action involved, but it had similar drama surrounding the decision especially in regards to group mentality. In any case, it was an interesting dream and I like having memorable dreams. If anything it's a little sad when I don't have them regularly.

It's so nice to be the kind of person who can vividly remember most of her dreams. <3

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Expect a Chinese Opera-themed entry later this week...

I think I'm a sympathy dreamer. Whenever someone I know well is pregnant, I get very vivid dreams about myself being pregnant.

( Brief babble on last night's dream )

So... why do I bring this all up?

Because Yuki Sohma was in this dream, too. He might have been the father. *dies of laughter*

I was intrigued by a line when I was rewatching Arjuna last weekend which said that the common cold is just meant to make you stronger and that medicine isn't necessary. I thought, "hhm, that's interesting. I'll think of that next time I have a cold, its not as if medicine helps get rid of it anyway."

*coughs*

And I caught a cold. Yesterday it was just a bad sore throat, today I got everything else. But Appa doesn't like being down for the count, so she got up early and walked across campus in the drizzling rain anyway to get to lab. And she gave it her all. And then she burned her tongue on some honey water, and gambatte'ed through some Chinese... and then just gave her home work to a classmate and decided not to go to Chinese class after all. Tried getting some food, couldn't finish it (I do so hate wasting food, I usually force myself to finish), and then just gave up and took a four hour nap.

What's funny is that the entire time I was napping (even when I woke up a few times), I was dreaming about leading a cult of people who embrace having colds and forsake medicine for the sake of communing with the earth. o__o;; And I kept winning more and more happily miserable followers. Weeeeird.

I forced myself to get up a few hours ago and watched some Condor Hero (to make up for skipping Chinese). Yaaaaay, Huang Rong had ***** after all! I was thinking it might just be a ****. Oh, Li Mo Chou... anyway. I'm debating whether I want to try to eat now or if I want to put in the next DVD. I just hope my blood pressure won't be too low for me to get to class tomorrow. But knowing me, I'd probably go anyway. XD

EDIT: I watched a few more episodes of Condor Hero instead. Why is it that everything goes wrong for Xiaolongnu and Yang Gor!?!? Poor Huang Rong, still like her a lot. Hmm... why is it that I can't make myself hate Guo Fu? CHOP! That is one ugly CG condor/vulture.

( Brief dreams )

So apparently, my dreams as of late deny me my humanity? I'm a lizard-person? While I do take great pleasure in the fact that I am a dragon in the Chinese zodiac, I've never made that kind of connection.

Speaking of: 恭喜发财!

I went to a Chinese New Year celebration tonight. Every time I hear an erhu playing a folk song I feel like I'm getting dragged away to my little ancient China fantasy place. I stayed there (in the fantasy) for most of the evening (after having been busy with Chinese all day anyway), until I came back and reminded myself that I had reading about geisha to do. So I had to reluctantly pull myself out of the China fantasy land and put myself back in geisha-mode. A yukata hardly equates with geisha-dom, but the cherry blossoms put me back in the mood for it.

I'm such a hopeless Ancient China/Japanophile. Tee hee, the little sound the fake pearls on my hair piece make is so wonderful to me for some reason. Back to another fantasy land now, full of decorated geisha with thick, flirty Kyoto accents! Ohohohoho~

*blush* I just got a comment from someone who knows me art from way back when I first started doing oekaki when I was 13 or 14 or so. I feel so flattered. It's nice to still keep tabs on her, as I used to idolize her art.

I have been in such a Haruka mood lately. I want the next volume(s!?) so badly.... T___T I still only have through 13...

I've been rereading parts of volume 9 because I randomly decided I want pictures of Takamichi and Shirin on my notebook (the two of them aren't my favorites, but they're so interesting together!). They, especially Shirin, are not characters I'm used to drawing. My gosh, I wish I could draw like Mizuno-sensei. *___* Not only is it delicate and detailed, but she used interesting set-ups, expressions, and seems to have a lot of fun with it.

I've also been in some random moods for Flame of Recca and Please Save My Earth. The PSME stuff shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, as Haruka and PSME are my two top favorites, but it's major Mokuren/Alice fandom lately. As for Recca, I think it's mostly nostalgia and remembering how adorable and satisfying the end of the manga was. ^___^ That was a fun series.

More Haruka... I want more Haruka.... but I should wait on buying volume 14, I should I should I should. >___<

I had a dream I went back to Gifu, but Japan had turned into war zone, and a girl from Denmark and I made instant friends and banded together on whatever side we were on to fight. So I was wearing a bright-white battle outfit and riding an elephant, when next to me I noticed a classmate I had four years ago (he was a very artsy kind of guy. I remember we got along well, but didn't interact much outside of running into each other). We laughed and hugged each other with joy as if we were used to be the best of friends, and it helped that we were fighting on the same side. I don't remember all the details, but I know it was a very serious situation and I was unusually cheerful in all of it. Straaaaange.

....haruka~~~~~

In my city this week, there was both an 'African lion' siting that stirred everyone up and a confirmed bear break-in at a couple places in broad daylight.

Had it have been a mountain lion, I wouldn't have been so surprised, because they have wondered pretty far into the city a couple times that I remember. But everyone was so sure this was an African lion at first. It's like, what in the world is an unaccounted for lion doing wandering in the middle of Colorado, instead of, say, the African plain? However, a photographer that was released later showed that it looked much more like a large dog's behind, and while things have died down, the 'mystery' animal still has not been detained.

The bear is certainly a bear, though, and broke into a large electronics store in a busy part of town, ran the length of the store before being chased out through another window he broke. It was possibly the same bear that was spotted today in someone's garage 4 miles away eating ice out of someone's freezer. Both times he was caught on film, and he's big, yet he still hasn't been found since he ran away again.

And for those who don't live anywhere around bear country, do you have any idea just how big they are in person? See how close you can stand next to a brown bear next time you go to a zoo. It will make you feel small.

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But on a more creative end of things, I had a dream last night about a butterfly. I've had quite a few dreams with butterflies in them lately. Except this butterly was about as long as a chihuahua and had a thorax thicker than my arm, and it had some stubby legs with tiny suck toes, and it's body was very, very, very furry, in striped brown-ish colors. It still had a probiscis but I think it had another mouth under that. I thought maybe it was a moth because of how fuzzy and thick it was, but it had very brightly colored butterfly wings. It was a little shy when my friend and I found it, but once it warmed up to me, it was very affectionate, and wanted to crawl up my arm and sit on my shoulder. I tried to insist it wouldn't so the oil in my skin wouldn't clog it's tastebuds on its feet, thereby slowly killing it because it wouldn't know what to eat, but I concurred that it was not a normal butterfly so it must have been alright, and being that big the oil on my skin couldn't possibly have caused as much damage as it could to normal little butterflies. Come to think of it, it was a pretty ugly looking thing, but I found it very cute.

I still feel bad about the time I stepped on a butterfly some years ago. It went 'crunch' and I had no idea it was there until I looked to see what the sound was. Ironically, I was taking a picture of another butterfly when I did that.

So I had this dream last night. It started with an argument with my dad because he was skipping out on training for his new job and wanted to take me home early from college, and I yelled at him that we had already bought the tickets so it'd waste our money not to use them. I spent most of the dream running from him so he'd go back to work.

( Then Bokurano and Haruka came in )

Kyaa! Sasuga put up volume 14 of Haruka- finally!! Dooooooushiyou? Should I buy it now? Should I wait a few months for them to put up more, or see if they ever put up more of Boku Tama? Better not hold my breath... I haven't even read volume 13 yet because I've been so nervous about leaving myself off at a cliffhanger. ^^;; Who knows, 14 might be even worse! This series was so much more fun when I was still catching up to where they were in Japan. This waiting stuff is not fun.

( ACen and MONEY )

( Oh, I'm playing with a story I got from a dream in which I was a Thanksgiving Turkey )

Ha ha. I'm having so much trouble staying focused on term papers, if you couldn't tell.

First: I had strange dreams last night, including a scene where I was in my backyard back home in Colorado. The moon was low in the sky, between a couple of trees, and it was going through an eclipse. It was moving unusually fast, and the shadow, instead of going from one side to the other, was swirling around in the middle before doing a full lunar eclipse. And then, a bigger moon which if it were a donut would have made the original moon look like it's donut hole, started to encompass and completely cover up the original moon, growing in shapes that mimicked the regular stages of the moon. It didn't emit any light, but was bright and clear enough to make out most of it's small craters. When it became full, it shattered, sending it's pieces across the sky before fading completely.

What I then recalled was that I had seen this before in other dreams, or at least lunar eclipses very much like it. Each time, it's about at the same height in the sky when viewed from my backyard, but at a different place along the horizon.

dreammoods.com says that a lunar eclipse represents some hidden aspect of myself coming to the surface. Hmm. What about an apocalyptic lunar eclipse? *goes off to look up other reoccurring themes*

Oh, here we go: "To dream that the moon in odd in any way, signifies infidelity of your lover and disappointments in business."

Ha. Not really stuff I've had to worry about. ^^;;

Oh, then he POINT of this entry: Bokurano 22. The fansubbers said they didn't like that episode, but I rather did. I'm really enjoying Ushiro-kun by this point, even though some of his radical changes make me go "bwuh"? The two parts I loved most where his reaction to seeing Machi and Kana asleep while he was doing the verbal flashback, and his reaction when his father tells him not to leave so suddenly ever again. BAM! That's gotta hurt!

I've been on a big PSME kick this past week. Last night I had a dream about it and knew that something was off, but it didn't come back to me until this morning (during class, which was completely unrelated to the content of the dream). I had some Juuni Kokki on the brain too, I guess.

Basically, Kiche=Kirin. That sounds so totally reasonable in many ways: Pure beings with special power, rare, kept aloof from average society, importance on the forehead, generally beautiful creatures, raised by nun-like servants in a paradise-like place, and it helps that Mokuren was blonde.

And yet, in other ways, you just don't want to see that work at all.

Mokuren: *bows before Shion* I swear my loyalty to you, the King of KK!
Shion: WTF?

Ohhh, in many ways that would be wrong and not do justice to either PSME or Juuni Kokki. I love both these series too much to even attempt a crossover because the general tones of each of them are so different.

I had a whacked-out Fushigi Yuugi dream last night (among many other things). I was either reading a fanfic (it had narration), or watching some lost OVA... but dude. Where does my subconscious get this stuff?

The premise: Chichiri and Tasuki were still diligently watching over Konan, and the deceased seishi were to watch over their respective... erm... eggs. They were to hatch out of these large, brightly patterned eggs they were going to reincarnate out of. Miaka and Taka, happily married, and found two of the eggs. Thus, everyone gathered. (Oh, and there was some impending evil. When is there not?)

Chichiri was stuck in chibified form for most of it, but had the serious face the whole time. Whoever was narrating described him in way, waaaay too much detail. "The thin end of his right eyebrow was arched upward, and the thicker, bristled end was pointed towards towards his eyes which were..." you catch my drift.

Chiriko kept talking in Shakespearian style. "It hath not!".

Hotohori seemed to have some anger management issued towards Mitsukake, who arrived late. As soon as he did, Hotohori attacked him, and then whatever big evil it was started attacking, too.

Nuriko, at some point in his life or after life had aquired big, big powers. He could shoot arrows of light out of his hands, summoned some spirit horse to ride on into the center of the evilness, and then he made a Dragon Slave size explosion to do away with it, ths defeating that part of the evil single-handedly. And he sure looked cool doing it, too.

While they were fighting, they accidently broke whatever it was they were standing on all this time (a train docking station, I think), and rebuild it in a hurry, only to find themselves on a rollar coaster. They finally got off the broken coaster safely, and the two eggs Miaka was carrying began to hatch.

They were Chiriko and Tasuki... reincarnated as little girls!

Miaka: How sweet, they get to be sisters!
Tasuki: o_o But I ain't dead!!! >O

Sore wa tada.

I had a dream that I was writing a Fushigi Yuugi sitcom, but it seemed more like a soap opera. The main idea was that Nuriko and Amiboshi were totally in love (!?!?HELLNO!?) and had numerous little upsets (that's understandable). Like, at one point...

Nuriko: ;o; What were you doing sleeping with Tasuki!?!?
Amiboshi: I-I didn't mean to! I was just feeling lonely... after all, you slept with my twin brother Suboshi. T_T
Nuriko: WHAT!? I thought that was YOU!!

*shakes head slowly* Silly boys. I'm not a yaoi fan what so ever, but if I was, I would have paired Mitsukake and Amiboshi instead. Sometimes I wish I didn't have such a big problem with it just so I could have more fun with pairings. XD Ah, such is life.

So, there was also another plot going on, which evolved from a new Harukanaru Toki no Naka de manga that I was reading in the dream. In that, there was an apethetic modern day person back in that world, who because the new miko or something. Akane and the original characters were still there, though. The apethetic miko went off on a journey with Yorihisa while the other characters were doing some kind of big clean-up project at the palace. And there were cameo characters! ^.^

Some of Mizuno-sensei's one-shot characters were there as little children! Matsuo-gimi, Oni-hime, Hikuna, and then characters which I didn't recognize but assumed they were from the same creator (though they started to get more Tanemura-style).

Anyway, Apethetic Miko and Yorihisa needed direction on this great journey, a stumbled across Nuriko, who was packing a suitcase.

Yorihisa: Where are you going?
Nuriko: I'm going the same place you are, duh. EVERYONE'S going there. I mean, uh, OOHHHH! I MUST FIND MY LOVER AMIBOSHI!!
A.Miko & Yorihisa: *sweatbead* Can you give us important direction, then?
Nuriko: Sure, just--

This is the part when Appa steps in and says "No no no no, Nuriko already has a role in this! It's supposed to be about him and Amiboshi anyway. We need to get soem other characters in there!"

Nuriko: You must find a young scholar named Chiriko who will give you direction.

Now Appa nods and says, "much better".

So, A. Miko and Yorihisa continue on when A. Miko reveals, "what, you didn't know I was a boy?". Poor Yorihisa, all this time he had been becoming fond of the "miko". XDDD AND he missed out on cleaning up the palace with the female miko and cameo firends. I don't like him anyway, so I'm okay with that.

As for Nuriko and Amiboshi, I know I had more plans, which I fond hilarious in the dream, but I don't remember them now. *scratches head*

Yeah. I don't expect to write this, so don't expect it. But I was too amused not to share it.