Enter a villain

So. I don't know if you've been following my comic or not, but I've been trying to update it twice a week. Due to a combination of laziness and trying to prepare for my move, I sorta fell four comics behind (eep!) That's a lot. Anyways, I'm making it up this week with four new comics, which means one per day all this week. That's... also a lot. ^_^

I was trying to figure out why I'm so obsessed with writing this. It's a lot of work, and I don't even know if anyone reads it besides my mom. (Thanks mom! ^_~) I guess I just like to finish projects I start. So here's Kyra's Grand Plan: (not to be confused with 'Denny's Grand Slam', which is probably tastier!) I've written about 50 pages now. I'm aiming for ~ 100 pages (whenever the end of the major storyline is), and then through a nice independent publisher like lulu.com I'm going to make it available as a physical comic book.

Just imagine... cute little Gemini on my bookshelf...Wouldnt' that be cool?! Haha. So basically, keeping up an update schedule is a way of making sure I finish it all the way to the end of the story.

Kyra's Grand Plan #2: Hopefully the experience I get from making this comic will make me a better artist. I've already noticed I'm getting faster at drawing them and have been more comfortable with drawing backgrounds. Hehe, with my new skills, I will then take over the manga market in Japan!! ... ok.. maybe that's thinking a little big. But you gotta think big! Just ask Denny's. At least I'm not offering a 700 calorie breakfast a new low price. ^_~

Also, my friend Peet has started writing a comic with her sister Joyce. There's a link to it from her blog (link on the right of this page).

Frankie Flood

Man, this is so cool. This guy named Frankie Flood made some pizza cutters in a sweet biker-style!

Makes me really want one.. but if I had one, I'm sure I'd order pizza almost every day just for an excuse to use it ^_^.
Note: these are works of art, not commercial products, unfortunately it looks like they can't be bought :( *sniff*.

Check out the whole collection at: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/22/pizza_cutters_as_art.html

Japanese Resume - Complete!

Hey! Thanks to my very helpful friends Taka, Eiko and Keiko, my resume has been translated into Japanese! Thanks, guys, you rock! ^_^
Ok, I haven't handwritten it yet, and my picture's not on it, but anyways, it's done! Woo hoo! It looks so cool, too, laden with delicious kanjis I don't recognize. ^^

Amusing points of note:
* my elementary, junior and high schools are all on there, as well as LMU
* special interests/skills include having a brown belt in judo and writing comics ^^
* I put my name as "Shinkai Kaira". Yeah, girrrrrlfrieeend, I went there. *snap*! haha. I think Shinkai Kaira looks cool in kanji + katakana , but "Kyra Shinkai" in western letters looks pretty weird. Dont ask why ^^

If you want to see it, it's posted here!
So.. if anyone happens to know somebody looking for programming/web help in the Tokyo area, feel free to pass along the link, ok? ..Alright, maybe not much of a chance.. but it can't hurt to ask! ^_^

WORD OF WARNING!
When I was googling about for help writing my rirekishou, I noticed there was a 'translate' feature on google. How cool! I thought, and translated this page:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.sun-inet.or.jp/~sien/sinnsotu1.htm
Down at the very bottom, next to the picture of the smiling lady, I noticed this curious statement: "* You write lie absolutely!" ...Huh? Wow, that's pretty brazen for resume advice.
Curious, I went to have a look at the Japanese version. It was: "* 絶対にウソは書くな！" Which means... the exact opposite: "Whatever you do, don't write lies!" heh. I suspect the trouble was with translating 'na', which can serve as a positive emphasis in manly, informal speech. In this case, it was a conjugation of 'kaku'. 'kakuna' means DON'T write. ^_^ hahaha, so look out, googlers! The japanese translation tool still needs a little work.

Take care, and write me! I'm only gonna be here for one more month!! (plus another 5 exclamation marks for emphasis). ^_~

These are a few of my favorite games

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on... heheh, never mind.

Today I'll be writing about VIDEO GAMES!! It looks like my landlord is in the process of selling the apartment to a new manager, so he's been having various inspections for mold/termites, etc, about once a week, for the last three weeks. He's a nice guy, but it's really messing up my sleep schedule (I work a graveyard shift). But this post is not about my graveyard complaints.
So, the manager came in the other week and noticed "You guys are *always* playing games!" and then looked astounded at the DVD rack full of Mike's collection. I found myself thinking.. "what, it's not ... normal??" Lamely, I replied, "well, Mike works for a video game company..."
Of course, that explains HIM, and not ME. Oh well. So .. what about me? I guess when you're in college, video games are the best way to kill time if you're not into things like "parties", or "homework" or "having a life". I just... haven't gotten out of the phase yet, I guess.

Anyways, I've realized that the era of games is about to end, as I'm moving and getting married and finding a 9-5 job. you think I would try to slowly ease myself away from my addiction, perhaps get a patch or something. But as any real addict would, I'm taking this opportunity to CRAM AS MUCH gaming as I can into my last month in the happy land of few responsibilities. ^_^

Here are the games I've played JUST since graduating from LMU:

Final Fantasy X		I like Spencer's description: "Think Final Fantasy 8 in Hawaii." Beautiful and cool, but not as fun and quirky as some of the others in the FF series.
Dark Cloud 2		Customization central! an RPG where you travel in time to rebuild the world. Tres cool and fun.
Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories		For those of us who couldn't get enough of Kingdom Hearts... (Disney meets Final Fantasy in a cool way), there's a gameboy advance game that bridges the gap between the first and the sequel, which comes out this year. (So looking forward to it!!)
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker		the Uber-Cute legend of Zelda game. It was much too cute for Mike to handle, he would hiss whenever he saw it and run into his room and shut the door. Hee hee.
Beyond Good and Evil		Kyra's super recommendation. Sweet spy/infiltration game on beautifully rendered world teaming with life.
Animal Crossing		Hm, how to describe this game. You're a cute little guy who just moved into town, and you try to make it better. You do this by making friends with your neighbors, contributing to the museum, planting trees, etc. It knows if you've been playing or not, and your neighbors get sad if you don't play for awhile. I haven't played since February, and I'm afraid what my town will look like after so long.. ^_^;
Smash Brothers		My favorite fighting game. All the nintendo characters (pokemon, too) fight each other in a giant, chaotic melee battle. Nice bonus: Peach and Zelda aren't helpless anymore, they can fight their kidnappers! ^^
Pikmin 2		Have you ever wanted to be a slave driver? Well here's your chance! Grow and command your own army of little slaves to do your bidding and help you make money. It brings back fond memories of the old game "Lemmings"... Heheh.
Tales of Symphonia		My favorite RPG in a long time. Why? It's funny! It has a strong story, characters you care about, and the battle system rocks. Mmm, so delicious. Bonus: the character design is done by Kosuke Fujishima (creator of "Aa! Megamisama")
Katamari Damacy		This game has eaten my soul. A quote from CNN: "Put simply, "Katamari Damacy" is this generation's "Tetris". It's a game that cannot be described in terms that convey the sheer joy that you feel while playing." I couldn't put it better myself!
Fullmetal Alchemist		It's fun to alchemize weapons out of stuff laying on the ground, but there's nothing really exciting about it. watching the anime is much more worth your time.

Mmm... so delicious... so many varieties... so much like crack... (what?? wait, that's not right!!)
In other news, clever Computer Science kids create a program to write silly nonsense posing as a scientific paper... And it gets accepted!! Good job, guys. ^_^

Judo!

All of my blood, sweat and tears paid off! I got promoted to a brown belt in Judo today! Hee hee. Normally the above would just be a figure of speech, but I can think of many times when I've been sweaty, bloody, and teary-eyed because of this hobby. There's probably better ways of working out, but... I just can't get myself to run on a treadmill, hamster-like, for the hours on end that other girls do. Ah well, I always have been a bit of a tom-boy. ^_~ The only thing that takes the fun out of this promotion is knowing that they're going to laugh at my little wimpy american brown belt in japan... *run away!!*

Sugar Freak!!

Oh man, someone help me. Normally I'm not like this, but the last week or two I have eaten so much candy it's REDICULOUS! I find myself gravitating towards the bowl of left-over conversation hearts from valentines' day, because it's the only candy in the house. ... but since I'm picky, I just eat the pink and orange ones ^_^; Today's diet:

• See's candy stick
• rice ball
• packet of nerds. Um, you know, the candy, not the people. .. but I do like nerds! ^^
• burrito
• coffee (with extra sugar!)
• english muffin
• approximately 45 conversation hearts

...And now my tounge is numb. I feel like this guy. Preparations... Ugh, who thought moving to another country would be so much WORK! ... what do you mean, 'everyone'?... stop looking at me like that. But seriously. What a pain in da butt. Not only do I have to figure out visa stuff, jury duty crud, etc, I have to figure out what to ship, what to bring in my suitcase, and what to throw out.. And then there's The Rest: stuff that other people would probably like and I can't possibly bring with me. I feel like I have to write a living will.
It's kinda fun, like christmas, only no spending money involved. So far, I'm giving my friend Zach my sewing machine and Ellen my car. Oh yeah, that's more paperwork to take care of at the DMV... registration, etc etc. Good thing there's no such thing as a "Department of Sewing Machines", too, or I'd really be going crazy. ^_^ Items I still have but cannot take to Japan: *Lava lamp *Small sword (I wish I could, but there are import restrictions particularly on swords, you have to get them cleared with the city before bringing them.) *Bicycle *boom-box stereo not to mention furiture like my desk and small bookshelf and dresser. I also have a lot of japanese manga that aint comin' with me. If anyone reading this is in the LA area and interested, make me an offer I can't refuse! (Like: hey Kyra, I'll take your stuff at no charge! ^_~) Resume in Japanese?? Looks like I gotta write my resume in nihongo, I've been to various helpful sites, but they all say three things that disturb me:

1. You have to put your elementary and junior high schools on your resume.
   (?! do they need to check if you dropped out?!)
2. You have to put your picture on your resume, and you can't smile in it. (This way they will definitely see right away all of my non-Japanese-ness glaring out at them!)
3. It has to be hand-written, in Japanese. I'm sure for native speakers this is supposed to show something deep and intangible about the applicant's personality. Unfortunately, the thing that will be most blatantly revealed about my personality is: "I don't write Japanese!"

Oh well, luckily for me I have a few friends here in LA whom I can ask for help. *whew!* Hm, I think next post I will start counting down my days left in the U.S. of A... Later, lovelies!

Kyra Ps. I'm pretty proud of my latest comic, and I put up a guestbook. Please sign it! ^_^
PSS. I just bought my **ONE WAY** ticket!!! (scary but oh-so cool!!!)

Ahmed the prankster

Someone at work forwarded this joke, it's my favorite in the whole world *^_^*

An old Arab lived close to New York City for more than 40 years. He would have loved to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is alone, old and weak. His son is in college in Paris, so the old man sends him an e-mail. He explains the problem: "Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure, if only you were here, you would help and dig up the garden for me. I love you, Your Father" The following day, the old man receives a response e-mail from his son: "Beloved Father, Please don't touch the garden. It's there that I have hidden 'the THING'. I love you, too, Ahmed" At 4pm the US Army, The Marines, the FBI, the CIA and the Rangers visit the house of the old man, take the whole garden apart, search every inch, but can't find anything. Disappointed they leave the house. A day later, the old man receives another e-mail from his son. "Beloved Father, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes. That's all I could do for you from here. I love you, Ahmed." hee hee.

Huntington Beach: the city of sin!

Hello dear readers! I trust this finds you well.
I went to huntington beach this weekend to visit friends, but mostly to see SIN CITY!! Woo, I loved this movie! It was very stylized and cool, and looked as much like a black and white comic book as a movie possibly could. Very high contrast, and a lot of stylized violence. Some people hated it and walked out of the theater. But hey, *I* liked it. But as a black/white comic author, perhaps I'm biased. Look out for the Gemini movie in the future, folks! ^_~
I just got my confirmation for E3, I finally get to go this year because I'm "in the industry"! ..oh, E3 is a video game showcase- industry run convention that's not open to the public. But then, supposedly, neither is Costco, and everyone seems to have a friend or an aunt with a membership. Well, I was the aunt-less E3 outcast last year, where EVERYONE I knew went but me. *sniff*. Anyways, I will be going this year, and for those who won't be, I'll be sure tell you all about it! It'll be the last week I'm here in LA. I would like to dispell the rumours that I have extended my stay in the US specifically for this convention, it was just a happy coincidence that Ayumi's wedding (May 28th in Tokyo) is after E3. (the jury is still out whether I bribed her to postpone her wedding ^_~).
Speaking of weddings, a few of you were wondering about mine and Takeshi's. When is it, you ask? Where will it be, and am I invited? Hahaha, you ask me as if I know! Well, my dear friend, I hate to tell you this, but the actual wedding ceremony won't be for some time yet. We have to save up for it, because weddings are f*!@%#... er, not cheap. ^^ Should it me in the US for my friends and family? Should it be in Japan for his friends and family? Ugh, what a headache. Maybe it will be in Hawaii, a happy compromise because it's equally inconvenient for everyone. You decide and let me know! ^^

alright, enough blogging for one day. Except for this link: http://members.cox.net/sciatica/images/sizematters.jpg hee hee.

Oh you guys with blogs/ live journals/ whatever, please send me your url and I'll put a link to you on my site!
Peace out!

Not there yet

Hi! This is the continuation of the blog I used to have called The Little Gaijin in the Big City when I was a study abroad student at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Ah, those were the days, rambling around the streets of Japan without a care in the world... except for, you know, not speaking the language or knowing where the heck I was or being squished by hundreds of sleepy salarymen on the train... but I digress. This time it will be MUCH different. Because THIS time, I'm actually *moving* there! This time, I don't know when I will be coming back to America. Wow, that's weird. Weeeeeeiiiird.
You know what else is weird? I have a fiancee! And my name is gonna, officially, be Kyra Shinkai! Weeeeeiiiiiiiiirrrrddddd!!! Haha, ok, that's not that weird. Takeshi (mr fiancee) and I have decided we won't take any more of this long distance relationship nonsense and will finally pick a country and live in it, happily ever after, about two years ago. So, even though his english is much better than my Japanese, his major was Japanese Law, which is not very marketable in the US, I'm afraid, and my major was Computer Science. That computer B.S. is needed everywhere! ^_~ Also I must confess I'm pretty partial to Japan, even though I do look different from the locals, luckily I am small and have dark hair, and can blend into a japanese crowd like a ninja. *tries to convince herself of this*
Anyways, the main important facts you should get out of this blog is:

• I'm Kyra. (nice to meet you!) um. I mean, Kyra Weaver, soon to be Kyra Shinkai, by an odd twist of fate. If I ever say 'my husband' I shudder. I have a boyfriend! Husbands are for OLD people!! Not me!!! (oops, too many exclamation marks there).
• I'm moving to Japan in the end of May, and I need a job. Eep. But at least I'll be living with Takeshi, who gets a very nice apartment paid for by his company. Niiiice.
• Everyone should read my web-comic, the url is http://gemini.keenspace.com. Go go go~! ^_^
• If you're feeling lonely, email me at kyraweaver@hotmail.com . Even if my name will change, that will be my email address for the end of time. Or, at least until hotmail kicks me off.

And here comes the signature sign - off:
Jya Ne!