Tonight, me, takadainmate and cienna made our way down to the West End to see John Barrowman in a production of Le Cage aux Folles. So, not only did we get to see (from FANTASTIC seats, fourth row, near to center!!! which we bought just last night and are really not clear on how we managed it, especially for the price, but well...gift horse and all that...) John Barrowman singing and dancing, but it was in the musical which one of my favorite movies, The Birdcage, is based on! ^__^ 'Course, after all the glitter and sparkles, not to mention corsets, I'm not sure I'll ever quite see Captain Jack in the same light again! (I mean, sure, I don't think Jack would have any issue slipping into a dress...but at the same time, he's rather...manly, and the character of Albine is, well...NOT. In the slightest!)

The performance was great, everyone was brilliant, JB seemed to be having the time of his life, and all the cross-dressing dancers had AMAZING bodies. There was certainly no lack of eye candy, not to mention happy, sweet, adorable, gay kissing at the end, w00t! And, afterward, as part of the Children of Need charity drive, JB was in the lobby taking donations, so I was able to get a pic from quite close. (Sadly, to actually get a pic with him, he was asking for 20 pound donations, and being the totally broke grad student that I am, plus the 28 pounds I'd already spent on the tickets, couldn't really afford it...did empty all the change from my wallet though. It is a really good cause, after all...) But, still, did get to come face to face with him, so...happy days! ^__^



...and I just realized I'm totally lacking in Jack/JB icons...that's just not right! :-p

So, cienna and I , both having time off, as we're students and share the same reading week, but also, both being students, were strapped for cash, decided to take a nice, fairly cheap, daytrip to Brighton this past Wednesday. And we had a marvelous time.

( Rocky beaches, Royal Pavilions and cupcakes galore! )

So, over the past few days, in between classes, homework and a party, I've been doing something I've been meaning to do for several years now: catch up on One Piece. (For the last four years or so, I've only been reading it intermittently...often while standing around in a conbini, flipping through the latest Jump and Shonen Magazine and oh look, another thing I miss about Japan! :-p) And now, 250 scanlated chapters later, I've just caught up and just...asldkjfalkdjfalkkdj!!! HOMG...the sheer epic-ness of it all!!!

( Large amounts of squee, caps, and of course, spoilers galore, up through chapter 562 of the manga... )
So...to sum up, I love Odacchi, my soul once more belongs to him and oh, can we have the next chapter NOW, plzkthnks!?!?!?!?


...also, I totally need to make some OP icons!

So, I've spent the last few weeks so busy settling in/attending classes(which I'm greatly enjoying so far)/penny pinching until my student loan money arrived, etc. that I haven't had overly much chance for exploring. But, things have settled a bit, and the money came in (w00t...still a poor, poor grad student, but now have at least a bit of solvency \o/...however temporary it might be :-p) so I decided a little exploring was in order. However, a lot of the main touristy sites of London itself I saw back when I visited utopiantrunks in 2005, so for my first short foray, I decided to do a day trip to Windsor Castle.

( Castles and planes and birds, oh my... )

One of these days I'll remember to actually take my camera on the way to class and get some pics of the campus, the area where I'm living and even my dorm itself. Really...really I will. ^_-

So here I am in jolly old England, settling in, classes just starting up (something I do plan to write about soon, I swear...) and in between the socializing, studying and exploring, I find myself watching quite a bit of TV. This is happening in part because I always watch more when I live alone (something to do when relaxing before bed or while eating dinner, etc) and partly because while I'm studying, I often use TV as a reward for getting work done (write another page on this essay, and you can watch another episode, etc). Good motivation for a horrible procrastinator like myself ^_-.

Anyways, my request: I'm looking for series to watch. (Just got through all of Criminal Minds, need something new...) It can be new or old (and by old, I mean whenever. Keep in mind one of my most recent fandoms was Man from UNCLE, and if that's not old skool, don't know what is...^_-) Any genre, whatever. If it's one of your favorites or just something you think'd be fun to watch. Just gimme a brief description, maybe why I might like it...(bonus points for anything with hurt/comfort, teaminess or siblings being cute)

Thanks flist, I'm counting on you! ^_^

ETA: As a reference to those who are reccing things, a list of what I have seen:

( THE LIST )

Not that most people would notice, considering how terrible I am at keeping up with the internets and LJ and all, but I may or may not be incommunicado for a bit. In a few hours, I'm hopping on a plane to London to begin grad school at the University of London, SOAS. I'm hoping I'll be able to get internet in my room relatively quickly, but no guarantees. So if you hear even less from me than usual, that's why.

In related news, I know at least several of my flist are in the London/UK area and I'd love to get together with any/all of you if people are interested. Feel free to respond here or drop me a line at gninek at gmail dot com and hopefully we can work something out. ^__^

And now...off to finish packing. *whimper* This is the third time I've packed up/moved all my stuff in four months! *groans*

To paraphrase utopiantrunks, when she posted her most recent fabulous fanart, Yay photoshop! It can just be so much fun playing around with it, and I always miss it when I go a while without doing so. And thus, in that vein, I did a muncle fan art in my detailed style (which always takes *copious* amounts of time in photoshop. Especially when the layer count gets high enough that doing anything takes the computer a few seconds...or *minutes* to process! :-p)

So, for my next fan art offering, as well as a little blatant h/c indulging (...I really can't help myself when it comes to h/c ^_-):

Preview:



( Full pic below the cut... )

So after nearly a month in Seattle, xparrot and I are settling in nicely. While we're missing quite a bit about Japan (first and foremost our friends and our Sat. night fangirl group, the fantastically convenient public transport, hearing a foreign language all the time, and yes, even teaching, etc.) there's a lot to be said for living with our bro. Besides the obvious joy of having all sibs under the same roof *does happy dance*, there's numerous other bonuses. Like their new house's amazing view:



And their adorable cats:



( More on the views, the cats, and how we've been keeping 'busy' Stateside... )

Sadly, despite copious amounts of glorious free time, I've had a bit of an art dry spell...but, did finish one pic recently! Just a quick Man from Uncle sketch, touched up a bit in Photoshop.

Preview:

So, after a whirlwind two weeks of sorting through everything I owned in Japan, trying to get rid of much as possible (then throwing away even more stuff away when I kept realizing just how NOT feasible it was going to be to get it all home! :-p), packing, packing and more packing, going to the different sayonara get-togethers and (hardest of all), all the good-byes, xparrot and I have finally made it to Seattle safe and sound.

And the bro has been very good to our crazily-sleep-deprived, totally-exhausted-from-carrying-multiple-bags-all-just-at-the-weight-limit selves, and took very good care of us on our arrival (and will continue to do so by putting us up at his new house, yay! \o/). So, greetings from Seattle and now that we're here, hopefully things will settle down a bit and I'll have time to get back to more...creative pursuits. (ie, in this case, Muncle vids/art...^_-) Though this respite sadly won't last for too long, 'cause in September I get to do it all again. Joy :-p. I do love living abroad, but the getting there and back? Not so fun! :-p)

So, I started drawing this a while ago, and then travel, and vidding distracted me, so I'm only just now getting around to posting it.

( MUNCLE comic: 'The 'Not Again' Affair' )

So, while I've accepted that however much I might *say* I'm going to keep up on regular updates, I know in my heart of hearts it’s a filthy, filthy lie (oh procrastination, here's looking at you, kid!), I've decided to make a go at posting when I travel. Not only is it one of my favorite things to do (and my biggest money sink, hands down. Stupid air/train/bus fare being the very opposite of cheap! *grumbles* :-p), I also have a tendency to take a ridiculous amount of photos (waaaay more than I ever post, much to everyone's relief, I'm sure ^_-) and it's fun to share 'em.

So, in keeping with my newfound resolution, a brief summary/photo log of me and xparrot's day trip to the town of Naruto, in Shikoku, and the spectacular whirlpools that they have there!



( This way to our day... )

For those interested, a few more pics can be found here.

Hm, apparently spring really is my time to vid. It's weird, the vids I've started any other time never seem to get finished...:-p

So, the brief story behind this goofy little MUNCLE vid. There we were, on the bus back from Ha Long Bay and I'm happily drowning myself in music, trying very hard to be blissfully unaware of how much time our bus spent occupying the oncoming lane of traffic, when xparrot leans over, all excited, with the 'best' (or was that 'worst') idea for an Illya music vid. "There's gayness and Russian lyrics, what could be more perfect?!"

So of course, once the idea was in my head (and the song playing on repeat for most of the drive back to Hanoi), the rest was unavoidable, really...Apologies in advance to my father (whom my mother will no doubt share this with), for raping his childhood. Blame neechan, it's entirely her fault! ^_-

Title: Malchik-Gey (Gay Boy)
Song: Malchik-Gey by t.A.T.u.
Fandom: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Characters/pairing: Illya/Napoleon
Size: 35 MB
Length: 2:41

( Youtube and download links below the cut... )

Wow, look at me, posting, not to mention actually uploading a large batch of pics, within a day of coming home! Go me! (This reeeeallly should not feel like an accomplishment! :-p)

So, for our last romp through Asia before leaving Japan, xparrot and I took a quick trip (only 3 nights) to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. And I have to say, Ha Long Bay may in fact be one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Ever.



( more trip ramblings, pics, etc. below the cut... )

Been meaning (even promised several peoples, OOPS! Gomen! m(__)m) to post these SGA icons for a while. I did a batch a while back for my McShep chibi comics. These cover the comics I've drawn since then.

( Icons: McShep, team, )

Feel free to take as many as you want, add text/change, whatever, just please credit.

'Course, making these now leads me to the eternal debate: delete some icons or purchase more? Decisions, decisions :-p.

Also, for icon purposes, I colored several images. ( Below are the full-sized color versions. )

And lastly, now that the SGA art Secret Santas have been revealed, I can link mine. I'm guessing for those familiar with my chibi series, it wasn't hard to guess which one I did ^_- but, for those who missed it:



Huge thanks to everyone who commented on it. I'll admit, I'm tempted to do more flash/animated chibis now, it's just ever so fun. ^_^

Anyone who knows me well is all too familiar with my love for musicals (and my unfortunate propensity to belt them out at odd intervals, despite my rather spectacular lack of talent *wince* Sorry guys! ^_-) While my preferred viewing method is most definitely live theatre (which, really, I have so very much NOT been to enough of in recent years, really gotta change that), when a good movie version does comes along, I am always overjoyed.

Mamma Mia is the perfect example. I heard the rave reviews for it (especially the outstanding recommendation from my best friend's father, who's been in the theater industry for years and I usually trust his judgment) over the summer, when I was home visiting. But, as is so often the very ridiculously enormously frustrating case with Japan, it took until this weekend for it to come out here. *sigh* But, with much anticipation, the normal Saturday Fangirl Group trotted out to see it. And LOVED IT!

I had a big silly grin through the entire thing (when we weren't terrify the Japanese audience by out and out laughing. Anyone who's seen a movie in Japan will know what I'm talking about. This was a sold out theater, and, apart from us, it remained perfectly silent throughout. Not even a giggle. And c'mon guys, a lot of the movie was hilarious!) I've always had a weakness for ABBA, and all the wacky hijinks so common in musicals fit so perfectly with their music. Also, the multiple girl-best friend groups reminded me yet again of how much I do love girl/girl friendship, when it's actually given to us and done right. Lastly, it made me reeeallly want to go back to Greece. A week and a half was just not long enough. OMG, so beautiful!

Overall, a wonderful romp, great way to spend a Sunday night and I very much look forward to rewatching it again. (Hopefully with my mother, cause, really, if that ain't a great mother/daughter movie, I don't know what is! Right, stitcher2ficcer? Also, happy early birthday, seeing as it's past midnight here!^_- *huggles*)

So, it's been a bit, but finally got around to finishing another McShep Chibi comic. Haven't done much art recently, feels good to be getting back to it!

In other news, I'm reading House of Many Ways, the new sequel to Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle. Don't love it as much as Howl's (which would be a very hard thing to do, really, considering my level of adoration for that book ^_-) but it's always great to see all the characters again. I'm tickled that it's been 18 years since she wrote the last one, but in book time it's been less then two! ^_^

( Comic ahoy: 'Baby Blues' )

For most of my life, I've never been overly patriotic, but right now, I have to say, I'm awful proud to be an American!

\o/

Due to time differences, work schedules, etc., just got to watch the final ep about two hours ago. And this immediately sprang to mind. Even though I really should be in bed, I wasn't gonna be able to sleep till I drew it. Consequently, it's just a quick sketch. More tags may be forthcoming. (As for my overall reactions to the ep, xparrot summed them up nicely, as usual. I liked it for the most part, but it did leave me feeling melancholy at the end, sad to see it go. And I just couldn't help but think it would work so much better as a season finale than a show one...though that's probably mainly cause I just don't wanna let it go! *clutches fandom oh-so-tightly* At least you'll always be there!)

( Not Again! - Tag comic for 'Enemy at the Gate' )

Oh, but I'm gonna miss my weekly dose of (and inspiration from ^_-) DH. And JF, and all of them, really! Oh Team! *sniffles*

Every year, around this time, I've seen many a flist member doing this but haven't ever done so myself, never having produced enough in any given year to bother with it. But then, having read the latest batch, I was thinking back and realized that 2008, or rather, SGA, made for a VERY productive year (rarely have I done this many pieces and NEVER for one fandom), so:

( My 2008 fanworks: art and two vids, all SGA because it's the ultimate soul-sucker like that! )

Really this entry should be titled "the week of some of the most amazing, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, cooked-to-perfection foods I've ever, in my whole life, tasted ZOMG!!" but that got a bit long ^_-.

But before I get to the food, I first want to say I hope everyone's Christmas (for those who celebrate. For those who don't, hope you've been having a fantastic time in general! ^_-) was wonderful and may you all have a very Happy New Year!

Now on to the FOOD Hong Kong trip and today's quick Kobe jaunt... ( (Description as well as pics below the cut) )

...and now I'm hungry. Oops! :-p Well, I'm off to scrounge up some food. Once again, hope everyone has a very happy New Year, catch you in 2009! *big huggles*

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! Just popping in quick to get in my holiday greetings before we (me, xparrot and the bro *does a little happy dance for having him here and getting to be all three of us for Christmas*) leave in less than 24 hours for Hong Kong, gonna be busy getting ready before then.

Was hoping to do a full Chibi comic for the Holidays, but ran out of time. Did, however, manage a quick one as a Xmas present for greyias. Thought I'd share. *big huggles to all* Enjoy your holidays, wherever and with whomever you may be spending them.

( Christmas Cosplay )

So, finally got around to coloring the Thanksgiving chibi pic. I really had meant to do it sooner, but well, between certain things in SGA making Gnine a sad panda and the frivolous fling that's been NCIS (and by fling I mean short dalliance, cause there's just not enough fic for anything longer. -_- Oh SGA, how you've spoiled me!) I...uh...got sidetracked? Oops. Only two weeks late...ehehe...Um...I've mentioned before that I suck, right? :-p

( The Joy of Family--color verision )

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! for all those celebrating (those not, I hope you're having a lovely Thursday! ^_-) If you *are* celebrating, and especially if you're going the whole traditional route, i.e. with turkey, know that I am exceedingly jealous! Mmmm...turkeeeeeyyy! *sigh* Very hard to come by in Japan, and even if I could, the lack of an oven makes roasting it a unique challenge. I mean, chicken is good and all, but TURKEY! And gravy and mash potatoes and corn and *trails off into incoherent mumbles muffled by drool*.

Annnnyways, did manage to do a Thanksgiving chibi comic, which I hoped to do in full color, but have simply run out of time, at least if I want to post it on the actual holiday. So, I'm posting the black and white version for now, and hopefully I'll get around to coloring it sometime this weekend. Sadly, I'm...bitter enough with the show that I'm having trouble working up much enthusiasm to draw. I think I need to go on an SGA fic binge this weekend, wash the taint of canon unhappiness/disappointment away. :-p

To conclude, hope everyone has a great Turkey day! *huggles to all*

( The Joy of Family )

So, last week's comic got so late as to be on time for this week...um...oops? Sorry! Blame the cuteness that is NCIS...Well, that and my psychotic drive to marathon like crazy when I have eps available. Five seasons and change in under three weeks...which is sadly not my fastest, by a long shot. (That honor being reserved for possibly SG-1 or Quantum Leap...huh, guess Donald P. Bellisario shows are just eminently marathonable. Admittedly, QL came after a five week span with virtually no TV access. At. All. And SG-1 was during a blizzard and we couldn't leave the house for a few days, so extenuating circumstances for both of those. Hmmm...) But now all caught up and wanting more. And adoring 6th season so far. And maybe kinda sorta totally have a thing for Tony. Oops.

But I digress. This week's comic is a longer one than usual, so it would probably have been somewhat delayed anyways. (Mainlining NCIS just didn't help... ^_-)

And now I'm up waaay too late again (and will not go looking for NCIS fic after I post this, really I won't) Being rested and awake for work is such a novel concept anyways. Not to mention overrated! ^_-

Thanks, as always, to my sister cum beta, xparrot (who's equally distracted by NCIS cause the family that fans together sticks together...err...something like that? ^_-)

( McShep Chibi Comic: 'Dining Difficulties' )

Apologies for the lateness of this week's comic. Between the crazy joy of the election, the copious amounts of NCIS watching (just started season three) and the fact that for some reason my ability to draw DISAPPEARED this week (I think I redrew half the panels at least twice, and still not happy with 'em :-p) *sigh* *thwacks head repeatedly against a hard surface*, delays were inevitable :-p.

On the other hand, the episode this week? HOMG LOVE! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE! *boing boing* Boys and the cars and being together most of the ep and just *flails* So. Very. Happy.

( Comic: 'Mission Protocols' )

Come home from work (where I was checking my cell phone obsessively for news--while in class, which I'm so not supposed to do, but all my students were very understanding!) and my flist is just a bundle of joyful posts. Well, I just gotta add my bit of glee!!!


w00t!!!!!!!

He did it, he did it! We did it, yes, oh yes we *can* and yes we DID!

We came, we saw, we devoured obscene amounts of ice cream, whip cream, fruit and lord knows what else conquered!

See, Japan is quite fond of its parfaits, a common dessert in many restaurants and cafés here. But this one place, with over 150 different parfaits to chose from, is in a class all of its own. In the entrance to the restaurant, there are display cases featuring far-too-mouth-watering-considering-they're-made-of-plastic replicas of their entire menu, including their specialty: the very aptly-named Jumbo Parfait. On multiple visits, while standing in line waiting to pay, we've gazed upon it, promising each other "someday...someday". Well, our post-Halloween, look-at-all-the-candy-we-*didn't*-get-cause-Japan-doesn't-really-celebrate-Halloween, dang-it!! party turned out to be that day.

Costing ¥10,000 (roughly $100), with a ¥3,000 deposit required at least a day in advance (yes, a down payment...for a DESSERT), meant for 6-10 people, with I don't know how many flavors of ice cream, and a tremendous variety of fruits including strawberries, raspberries, other berries I'm not sure the name of, cherries, kiwi, pineapple, whole slices of melon, mango, and banana(also, usually, oranges, but we had to very carefully explain, repeatedly, that those would kill one of our group if consumed, an extra fun challenge when doing so not in your native language :-p), I give you the Jumbo Parfait:



More pictures, documenting the slow decimation of this amazing, INSANE, dessert ( below the cut. )

Happy Halloween to all and to all a...good...night? Err...umm...And by that, I mean sleep is clearly very much in order! ^_- Stayed up late finishing the comic...again. (Well, that and 'cause I was watching SPN and Big Bang Theory...and um...I really, *really* suck at this going to bed on time thing...oops?)

Anyway, special color comic in honor of the holiday:

( The Costume Question )

Hmm, so there's a chance I might be watching too much TV.

So, apart from the weekly doses of SGA, SPN (liking it SO much more this season), and the recent, fun-filled, gay, gay, GAY joy that is Merlin, I have now seen the first three eps of Life, thanks to the evil, evil enabler that is naye. (And I do mean EVIL, seeing as SGA is. Totally. Her. Fault! With the mailing of the DVDs and all. You have to understand, I'm a fandom butterfly, flit, flit flit. Four to six months is standard, eight months is doing good. But SGA?! Over a year now, and it still hasn't given my soul back! ) Then there's Traders, just finished watching all five seasons of that (oh DH!!)....And as I write this, utopiantrunks is sitting behind me, pimping out Big Bang Theory. God, I love my friends! Even the evil, enabling ones! ^_- *smishes*.

And, as evidence of the continuing *nom nom nom* that is SGA gnawing on my soul, this week's McShep Chibi Comic:

( 'Movie Night Mayhem' )