Wow, I haven't written anything in quite a long time...and I don't even have any particular reason why I haven't been writing, especially for the past few weeks, since I finished the semester early this year and have just been relaxing and enjoying the break. I suppose it's because I was working so hard non-stop all the time that once I had nothing in my schedule all of a sudden, I kind of didn't know what to do with myself. Of course I caught up with translation requests and stuff, but there was definitely a period where I felt so restless and just plain weird that I couldn't get myself to do much of anything at all. Sort of like I couldn't stand to do anything productive anymore, but conversely was irritated at myself that I wasn't doing anything useful. >_>
Well, now that Christmas is close and the holiday season is in high gear, we've been making obscene amounts of treats at my house. So far we have gingerbread cupcakes with lemon frosting, candied orange peel dipped in chocolate, almond crescent cookies, ginger-lemon cookies sandwiched with apricot jam, and two traditional British Christmas cakes (basically a rum fruitcake with marzipan covering and white royal frosting). Oh, and tomorrow the plan is to whip up a lemon meringue pie and start the preparation of the duck for Christmas dinner. It's insanity. There's only four of us eating all this stuff! And I've certainly not been doing enough exercise to compensate for it since I came back...I've already noticed I'm losing muscle and getting a bit pudgier in places. -_-lll lol Well, it's the holidays, so whatever...
I've actually already gotten most of my Christmas presents because I picked them out myself. One was the GazettE's new DIM SCENE DVD, which was amazing!! The guys were all in great shape and gave a really top-notch performance. I loved the way they used the LED screens and lights and the crowd was just going crazy! There were older people, little children, even BABIES in the audience and everyone was so riled up and excited it was infectious watching it...I wish I could've been there for real, it looks like it was such a blast! Though Ruki's hair became increasingly annoying as it got frizzier from all the headbanging, his vocals were brilliant and I was also surprised and happy to see how outgoing Aoi was...he kinda stole the show (for me at least) with his singing, dancing, little MC, and all those cool moves. And, it was great to watch Uruha play the guitar from 'DIM SCENE', 'Without a Trace', and '13 STAIRS[-]1' live...I've been dying to hear them since the album came out!
Though perhaps some of the performances of older songs on previous DVDs are still slightly better imo, DIM SCENE is a concert I find myself able to watch all the way through without skipping any songs at all, which is quite rare. The setlist was superb and though RCE perhaps had more striking, singularly memorable moments like the opening of 'Gentle Lie', DIM SCENE more than makes up for it with sophisticated, gorgeous visuals, crisp images and good editing where you can see the members clearly, and a frantic, explosive, intense energy that rivals all their DVDs to date.
Since my old watch broke, my parents got me a new one as another present. It's a sleek, elegant Skagen with smooth black leather strap, a very thin, shiny silver case, and crystal indicators. I love how minimalist and small it is. I always have trouble finding watches like everything else here, since I have small wrists, but luckily Skagen makes stylish petite sized watches. : )
Well, as I wait for Christmas to officially come, I've been spending my time watching lots of movies and episodes of a Japanese tv show called Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen. It's the cutest thing ever, I used to watch it sometimes in Japan. It's the perfect mix of cute, fluffy animals, funny happenings and touching moments, haha. ^_^ Oh, I'm also writing nengajo to send to my host parents since the New Year's coming up...2010 is the year of the tiger!
I'll also be working my way translating a good portion of girugamesh's new album 'NOW'. I like the album but similar to 'Music', I think girugamesh are definitely still composing in a style that's akin to dance music in that it's best experienced not listening to the CD, but during a live where you can feel the energy of the beat and move to the music properly. For sure it's not my favourite work by them, but still a fun collection of songs I'll be rotating through for a while.
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