Transcribed 2016-01-19

host didn’t kill us thank god.

aint really much to say outside of that.

shit is tiring and i’m tired. i haven’t slept in a minute

rescheduled therapy for next monday.

dad got $0.75 an hour raise so i got a huge steak

fixin external shit.

spouse issues have been resolved or at least brought up to them.

Transcribed 2016-01-14

hey yall, been awhile since i got a chance to update this thing. only really doing it now cuz i dont got nothing else to do and shit needs to be said.

therapy went fine just basic questions tho i got the feeling shit is gonna get real ugly real fast.

spouse has new job so money should be less tight…

system wise shit is hitting the fan faster than a frog on a log or some shit. gatekeeper dealing with new memories + all of us are having a hard time adjusting still.

anyways i got a new watch. the fucker is pink unfortunately but i’ll live. it tells the time so it’s not like i can ask for much more.

got to get used to “releasing” destroying feels different now. not that i don’t still love it

later fuckers

Transcribed 2016-01-12

hey there, I haven’t gotten a chance to write in this yet. So I decided to write in it while I get the chance.

things have been sooo… crazy!!! Anastasia isn’t feeling good so the whole system broke today!

oops I need 2 lines lol. sorry!

so anyways, there’s so much messing up now, it’s scary!

i’m talking to natalie and she is so cute + nice!! I love talking to her I want a kid sooo bad, but I guess this is the closest I will ever get… buuut 大丈夫, LOL

ttyl!

Transcribed 2016-01-06

honestly i feel disgusting. im tired of my life being ruined. im completely fucking done with this i swear to god.

i just want to die, i don’t want to go on like this any longer. i just want to put a bullet thru my head or something because this is getting to be too much for me.

there is nothing more disorienting than coming back and the kid was talking to one of my friends for two fucking hours and the little mermaid is playing.

out of everything that’s happened thus far, somehow this is the most disorienting yet. i don’t know why. maybe because i’ve spent most of my life avoiding childish shit only to constantly have it shoved in my face now.

hoodoo put a disgusting picture of me on the fridge, good. hopefully it will keep us from indulging and we can finally lose some weight, especially before elias’ visit…

he shouldn’t have to see me like this.

i want to die. fuck.

Transcribed 2016-01-05

The spouse got a new job. They have to wait for the drug test to be processed, so it may take a few days to fully see exactly the details. It is full time at the very least, which takes away plenty of the financial worries that were abound.

The only real worry now is that there will most likely be a gap in paycheck due to the new job holding back a week. And right when we need it too starting therapy and Best Friend Birthday at the end of the month.

We will have to buy gifts with this pay check simply because waiting until the 22nd will be too risky, we wouldn’t get the gifts out on time. We are already cutting it close as it is; if we purchase gifts next Monday, then send them out the following week, most likely they will arrive right on time.

Being friends with a system definitely makes gift holidays more awkward and expensive. Though, alters generally don’t want material goods so much, I am too selfish to not give Raven a gift that will benefit us both.

Transcribed 2016-01-04

god i am tired of being tired which probably seems like a paradox. strange that i’m back around more and more often. guess things are settling down.

i could complain about a million things, but honestly i don’t even have the energy to do so.

since i have been gone for a month, everything has changed. and as usual, i just get really truncated versions of what happened and trying to dig up memories is working about as well as it ever does.

hoodos has a job interview tomorrow which is exciting. maybe i’ll get to celebrate with them at some point if i’m around in a timely manner.

will have to choose a present for elias + that’s about it i’m guessing considering our finances…

i don’t feel like i have an identity anymore.

going to bed- have been up around 2 hrs. pathetic

Transcribed 2016-01-02

I am not very big on writing in journals, but Richard is, so I wanted to get him a nice one rather than the one he chose to burn.

I will have to transfer over the system list at some point as well, or at the very least, have an insert of such. Digital copies are nice, but physical copies are more satisfying.

Also need to journal regularly to keep the host up to date on important events.

Noah has been a pain in the ass. He is in bubble land until I figure out what to do with him. Just generally causing system havoc.

Went to family reunion today - a few pictures were taken - asked Aunt Denise to put them on Facebook - Played Apples to Apples with 1st cousins and aunts/uncles. Tyler got drunk which was obnoxious, but it only truly became unbearable when the extended family arrived. Left at that point.

Don’t think we will be visiting Chris tomorrow, as he hasn’t gotten back with us. Hoo has a job interview next Tuesday, then therapy - first session - a week after that.

Very “busy”. Wonder when the father will inquire about school, or if he even cares. His apathy seems to know no bounds.

metallica dream

i'm leaving soon but i just wanted to write down my dream before i did

lars ulrich (drummer from metallica) and i were really good friends as preteens/teens. it showed a scene of how we met, which was basically my parents (who were together-- wtf?) left me on a dock somewhere and were like WE'LL COME BACK LATER TO GET YOU.

i must have seemed upset because i sat down on the side of the dock alone and looked out into the water and rested my hands in my lap. then little lars (he was my age) came up to me and sat down next to me. i think we were speaking danish? and he said "what's wrong?" and i explained that my parents left. so we talked for some time. for some reason, he asked if i went to bars around here (?? maybe because denmark has a young legal drinking age idefk) and i said no.

so anyway after that there were quick scenes of us becoming good friends and growing up together. then one day he said he had to go to america, and i was still in denmark so i couldn't go with him and for some reason my parents were never around and were poor so. he left, became famous, formed metallica, etc.

fast forward to years later, when i'm like 18 or 19. there were a bunch of girls in a room, and we were all sitting on a circular sofa. everyone was jabbering away. and then i looked up and there was like, a poster for what we were doing? it was a bachelorette type show to win lars ulrich's affections, i think. i don't know if we were supposed to be winning his platonic or romantic affections because for some reason in the entire dream it felt like he was gay, but everyone in the room was a woman.

i was sitting next to sem and holding her hand and it was pretty clear that we were together. a girl i knew from high school named ashley kept taunting me and calling me a slut/whore and finally i got fed up and looked over to her, readjusted myself, and said

"you're lucky."

and she asked why, and i responded

"i would tear you to intellectual shreds, but it would be a total waste of time. judging from your manner of carrying yourself and your uninspired, repetitive insults, someone already got to it before me."

then she shut up. and i think there was a girl who was known for mind reading/having esp because she came up to me with lots of beads and looked like a hippy and was like i CaN ReAd yOuR MiNd! and i responded

"no shit, i'm more open than oprah's legs after a bowl of non-fat ice cream" (???)

so anyway then lars walks in and everyone is just trying to get his affection by being like I HAVE SUCH AND SUCH INTERESTS like they studied him or something and were trying to copy him. it was clear that i didn't really want to be there, but for some reason i wanted to win the game?? probably just because i don't like losing. at the end he walked out and he gave me one last glance before shutting the door and letting everyone start yammering at each other again

and then my alarm clock woke me up

escape dream

i had another weird dream last night. i can't really remember a lot of it though. i remember my brother and i were in a gym, and we were trying to escape the house? i have a lot of dreams about trying to escape houses and stuff. it was like some sort of fun house, and we were just pretending to play along so we could find a chance to run away. that's all i remember, really.

i woke up at like 5am remembering it really clearly thinking "i should write this down before i forget!" but i didn't have a pen and paper next to my bed so i just went back to sleep.

Microblogs - January 2012

2012-01-30, 10:31 PM: fuck it, i'm deleting my plurk. anyone need my contact info?

2012-01-26, 6:56 AM: i think i'm finally ready to start rping on lj again. like everyone moved on though

2012-01-20, 12:19 PM: also i should update and say i'm moving out on my own this weekend.

2012-01-16, 2:30 PM: i feel like i'm in a really bad dream. i can't believe she's gone

2012-01-16, 1:33 PM: i wake up to "amanda might lose her job" thank you, work. i appreciate it.

2012-01-16, 2:41 AM: i guess i'm gonna try to sleep. fuck.

2012-01-16, 12:40 AM: well, my grandma passed. i guess the mourning can officially begin.

2012-01-13, 11:51 AM: My grandma is dying. I won't even be touching lj rp for a little while. Sorry. she was fine a week ago...

2012-01-04, 8:28 PM: hey i figured i'd invite everyone to my stream for once

2012-01-04, 11:36 PM: tumblr rp is gr8 ok guys. why do some ljers feel the need to snub it. i've met some really amazing rpers on there

Microblogs - October 2011

2011-10-31 11:34 PM: Now to sleep after my 2 hours of free time. Being an adult sucks and no one understands.

2011-10-31 6:03 AM: I'm eating a lunchables the morning before I start my first serious job. The kid in me likes Lunchables, and the adult in me likes my job! I am such a balanced individual.

2011-10-27 2:15 PM: Job said they'd work around my schedule (I would just come in early on Mondays and Wednesdays). The happiness I am feeling right now is amazing

2011-10-25 12:30 AM: The EOA5 flash was sweet, especially the part where they fix the tank.

2011-10-21 11:45 PM: something in the system glitched and i still have all my userpics from the paid account trial. They're still all useable too

2011-10-19 1:43 PM: Sorry I've been kind of inactive on plurk lately! I promise I read all of your plurks. I don't mark them all as read, I go through and read each one.

2011-10-19 12:52 AM: Something I subtitled has over 400,000 views. my heart is goin doki doki

2011-10-18 11:59 PM: i'm 12 and what is this

2011-10-17 7:59 PM: Proof That Tupac and Elvis Were In Cahoots - https:--www.youtube.com-watch?v=ZjGVGt8XYAQ

2011-10-15 12:37 AM: Ok my +24hour nosleepathon is over and I have woken up fully rested and "asshole Nate" as some people like to call it

2011-10-14 8:13 PM: i just fell asleep sitting up. i guess that's what happens when you literally dont sleep one day and just sorta stay up 24 hours. i was like perusing some site and i just fell asleep

2011-10-12 5:26 PM: Someone is sitting across from me IN PUBLIC, playing her laptop, with Bejewelled BLASTING. that really fucking necessary? You don't need to have your crappy ambient music and sound of jewels and magical fucking sprinklenoises cranked.

2011-10-12 3:03 PM: Just dropped $250 on clothes. I update my wardrobe about once a decade. NOW I FEEL SUPER GUILTY FOR BUYING STUFF.

2011-10-12 12:51 AM: 2 hours of sleep last night woot. Tumblr rp is too entertaining for its own good.

2011-10-11 8:51 PM: I feel like all my older friends are getting irritated at me for being a homestuck.

2011-10-11 1:29 AM: Sorry for being useless and whiny today. I'll try to keep my chin up.

2011-10-10 9:03 AM: new homestuck on the 25th...guess who's staying away from all social media until he's done watching?

2011-10-08 7:27 AM: I should really get on my homework tomorrow. :| There's all the pages in the world I need to read, and none of the time.

2011-10-07 7:25 PM: over 9000 tags to answer

2011-10-06 11:57 AM: I find it hard to believe that I frequent LJ now as often as I did a decade ago. I kind of find it hard to believe it's been a decade at all.

2011-10-03 8:17 PM: back from school

2011-10-03 3:09 PM: Thanks to everyone who took the time to cheer me up today. It really made a difference.

2011-10-03 12:52 AM: fuck yeah going to bed at a decent hour! night~ should be up and tagging around 10am my time 

2011-10-02 7:04 PM: Food times

2011-10-02 4:24 PM: 70 pages of reading due tomorrow for one class and I haven't even started yet. Read ALL of the things??

2011-10-01 3:05 PM: 100 pages later... One part of my homework is done!

Microblogs - September 2011

2011-09-30 8:20 PM: I regret putting off buying homestuck shirts. My size is fucking out of stock on all my favorite characters.

2011-09-30 6:12 AM: [Meridian] my friend just suggested I app Ursela from Little Mermaid

2011-09-29 6:19 PM: ugh the new MM members. no sara? i'm gonna choke a bitch

2011-09-28 3:02 PM: Only about fifteen days until my 3rd plurk birthday.

2011-09-28 1:11 PM: >mfw next HTML project due is tables

2011-09-28 7:52 AM: I awakennnn. Morning Musume new members are announced today sdlgklskgdkgc

2011-09-27 11:04 PM: I have my app done for Hannibal but now I'm reconsidering a little. Worried about being smart enough to play him, etc. Maybe I should just finish a bunch of apps and sit on it for a week and see which characters still stick out to me.

2011-09-26 11:25 AM: That feel when professor tries to be socially active but just fails. At least he's trying..muh.

2011-09-26 8:57 AM: Body could probably stand to sleep more than 3 hours a night. Oh well, I'm here now. Also tired nate is not give a fuck nate, which means all social anxiety is gone which is kinda nice

2011-09-25 12:10 PM: quick tag and then nap is becoming actual sleep. cannot live on only a few hours :9 Well maybe if I just got out of bed and got the blood flowing..

2011-09-24 4:03 PM: Ugh, so much for a "short nap". 7 hours later...

2011-09-24 8:33 AM: night guys. gonna set my alarm for early so i'm just taking a short nap

2011-09-24 2:59 AM: Okay so homestuck remix makin time. yay :9

2011-09-23 9:54 PM: Gamzee uses punctuation? This is totally new information to me

2011-09-23 10:17 AM: okay bedtime for real guys. nighty night! :9

2011-09-23 9:53 AM: Not in bed yet. working on a project yo! My dad just came in and asked if I was trying to break a record of awakeness. lmao.

2011-09-22 10:16 PM: apparently my girlfriend's building is on fire, fuck. I don't like seeing "brb fire" in my IM :| okay good it was a false alarm, whew

2011-09-22 10:13 PM: backkkkk. I know you all missed me.

2011-09-22 6:34 PM: dinnertime, be back soon :9

2011-09-21 2:46 PM: oh my god i am becoming a homestuck super fan. i should um. look at my life, look at my choices. I'm already far adrift from regular social norms though.

2011-09-19 11:56 PM: what does 'plurk' mean anyway. it sounds like someone trying way too hard to come up with a social networking name. that's probably what it was

2011-09-19 10:56 PM: i still don't know how this thing works well w-e

2011-09-19 03:50 AM: do people actually use this thing anymore jw

Some H!P Confessions

Out of all the people that have ever been in Morning Musume (not counting JunLin), Tsuji was the most useless. She was just dead weight: she wasn't really talented or cute and only seemed to get any attention because of Kago.

I think they should have put Matsuura Aya in Momusu rather than Fujimoto Miki. Miki never seemed to really enjoy her career in MM... I think she was spoiled by being a soloist first. Fujimoto always seemed to be an ungrateful brat to me, and even though she was one of the best singers MM ever had, she didn't ever show any signs of enjoying herself. Conversely, Matsuura seemed like she would have enjoyed herself a lot in Momusu.

Yossie has lost too much weight. When she first joined, I really liked her. But somewhere along the line, she got in her head that she was "fat", and lost so much weight that she looks like a skeleton. It saddens me to see Gaki going this route lately, too.

Why is everyone going crazy about Miyamoto Karin? She isn't that great.

I think that UFA should stop worrying about finding "Maki Goto Version 2" and start worrying about creating a well rounded group.

Maji Desu Ka Ska musically sucked, but had good line distribution. Only You musically rocked, but had shitty line distribution. Why does Tsunku seem to think that only Reina/Takahashi and MAYBE a little Riho (with a bone thrown to Gaki) can handle 'cool' songs?

I usually hate people who try to 'pair up'/make everyone in H!P lesbians. But statistically, there's a great likelihood that at least a few girls are lesbians... And it seems as if Sayu is. I don't know whether it's a new 'character' she's trying out, but she's been creeping on 9th gen (Riho in particular) ever since they joined... Honestly speaking, it seems a lot more realistic than most of the fabricated implied lesbian relationships in H!P (Matsuura and Fujimoto pops to mind).

I think UFA made a mistake in naming Dream Morning Musume. Would you rather watch ~*~*Dream*~*~ Morning Musume, or boring old vanilla REGULAR Morning Musume? I'm also kind of tired of UFA trying to cash in on nostalgia. But that's a whole different rant.

I didn't start REALLY paying attention to the kids until 2009. I've been a fan since 2002, so I watched as they joined... And were given horrible songs. The first time I noticed them was while watching a Pucchi Best dvd that had recently come out. It had 21ji made no Cinderella on it. I was bored to tears and automatically brushed off the rest of the kids until I started casually following them in 2007 when Tokaikko Junjou came out. I regret not paying attention to them earlier; I missed them growing up because I was too busy being a stubborn ~Morning Musume purist~.

Maki Goto couldn't even begin to grasp the intricacies of "Akai Nikkichou". When they did the shuffle special, it showed her struggling with the tenderness of the song at such a young age. She sang it poorly, and Tsunku chided her-- but the recorded version sounds no different than after he chided her! Proof that she only had the most lines because she was popular.

I feel like there is SO MUCH HATRED in the H!P fandom, and 80% of it is caused by the foreign teenage girls.

Ever again?

(I realized this journal is disturbingly without updates, so I decided to throw something on here. For those not up to speed: my mother has left her abuser of 15 years. I'm 21. My father got me when I was 11~12. If you do the math, you'll figure out my brother and I had to live with him for quite awhile, too.

By the way, I don't enjoy talking about this. It wasn't a 'relief' to get it all out. In fact, it made me physically sick to dwell on it enough to write it. But, these things need to be said.)

I just had a nightmare where Steve and I were little kids, running from Grandma's house because of the terror that is Tim. No matter how much we ran, we just couldn't get away. I think that is a good metaphor for the living hell we were put through as children.

Children don't get to choose where they live. They don't get the choice of running away-- they have to do what their parents say. And what do you do when all your parent wants is to stay with the abusive, terrorizing asshole, with seemingly no care or abandon for her children? Absolutely *nothing*. You can't do anything; you're a child! You're trapped in this world.

I feel like that dream was reminding me that it's not over yet, at least for my mom. It has been over for me since around 2001 or 2002, when dad got custody of us. Thankfully, he didn't take mom's advice and just "forget about the kids". If we hadn't have had him being proactive and taking custody, the nightmare wouldn't have ended until we were old enough to escape. It would have been a mandatory sentence to stay another six years-- something that I, personally, could not have taken.

I harbor a lot of bitterness and anger for my mother for putting us through this. I know she was blinded by abuse and alcohol, but that is no excuse for putting your children through it. We were human beings, something I think she forgot along the line. Even though we were young back then, we were forced to grow up at a disturbingly young age. Even the psychologist said it in those papers-- "They need to learn how to be kids and let their guard down".

It's not surprising that the psychologist would say something like this. We always had our guard up, because it was impossible to not be guarded when we lived with a terrorist. This is a man who thought it was okay to beat our mother up in front of us. A man who is obviously mentally unwell, for whatever reason (I really don't care why, honestly.)

Let me briefly tell you about one little night in what Steve and I had to come up with. I remember it well: it was towards the end of the nightmare, because we were living in Riverside, at the house that was on top of the garage. Steve and I sat in absolute fear as the terrorist chased our mother around the house with a crowbar. Our mother had hidden his gun from him, underneath his car seat, and I believe he was trying to figure out where his gun was.

Does this scream 'normal' childhood to anyone? Probably not. But the answer from us as kids probably would have been 'yes'-- This was our reality. I don't know why I remembered this night in specific, because they were pretty much all like that. Our reality was waking up every day and escaping to school, and then coming back home to someone who terrorized for fun. Even if we tried to hide away in our rooms, he would come and find us. Whether it was to bang on bongos, or to drag us out to the living room to listen to the blasting music, or try to get us to drink at age 10 or 11... We never got a moment of peace.

Unless we were with our dad.

Our dad was the only moment of peace that we were afforded. We could go over to his house and just get away from it all. He would take us to the movies or let us play games without worry. We wouldn't have to worry about him getting drunk and wreaking havoc. We could just worry about being kids, and for a minute, we could just be kids.

But then it was all over: once the few days were over, and we had to go back to that household-- back to being adults trapped in the bodies of children, back to putting our guard up and trying to tune things out.

Every negative thing that I am today, that terrorizing has made me: neurotic, lack of coping skills for small things, easily bothered, self-conscious, withdrawn, anti-social, depressed. I cannot stand even the littlest of things bothering me. I think I used up my entire lifetime's worth of "patience" and "tolerance" quota when I lived with tim and mom. Now that I'm an adult, little things get to me a disturbing amount.

All of these things are not a natural state of mind for a person. There's no doubt in my mind that going through that mental abuse while I was a child crafted me into that sort of person.

My father has always been supportive of my brother and I. We are very lucky to have someone who cares as much as he does.

My mother? She might have been blinded by the alcohol and the abuse, but in my mind, that does not absolve her of all responsibility for her actions. She kept us children in a negative and abusive environment. Not only that, but she personally thought it was okay to tell me that it was my fault she was in jail, my fault for everything. When my father wasn't the punching bag, I was.

Why? It doesn't make any sense to me. I have no regrets; I would never do anything differently. Am I sorry for "getting her arrested" at Van Andel Arena? Fuck no! Am I sorry for the "stairs incident"? Hell. No.

I was finally old enough to view and realize the world around me was fucked up, and I was a child doing what I could to get myself and my brother out of a really bad situation. I only have praise for my childhood self; miraculously, I was strong enough to defend myself. To sit in court and testify-- at the age of 11-- against the terrorist who had been living in our house for more than five years at that point... That takes a lot of strength.

All of this comes back to my first point... Children cannot do anything to get themselves out of that sort of situation. No matter how strong, no one is going to take a child seriously without an adult by their side. They need help. I'm eternally indebted to my father for providing that help when we needed it. I'm also indebted to all the social workers who helped us out when we were in need. That kind of help is making me consider going into social work.

But to my mother? I think I'm going to need a little more time to heal. When I was younger, before my mom and dad split up, I used to call her "mama". In my mind, that person, "mama", isn't here anymore.

"Mama" didn't drink and did her best to raise her kids in as positive an environment as possible. "Mama" was still a young mother, untainted by the physical and mental abuse of that terrorist. But... That person hasn't been here since 1995. I'm not sure if that person will ever be back.

Will mom ever be "mama" again? Time has yet to tell.

The Full Only You PV

My thoughts: The dance is a little boring/noob. The song is amazing as usual, and their outfits are really pretty. I don't like the cheesy overlayed crystal drops. Overall, it reminds me a lot of Hamasaki Ayumi's "JEWEL" pv. I like it a lot. I would like it even more if the dance didn't suck, haha~

So Cute

Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Uploaded image

New H!P PVs

Berryz Koubou - Ai no Dangan
It's released with a resounding yawn from me. I was interested for the first minute and a half or so, but admittedly, I tuned out after that. They're working the outfits, but the PV is very one-shot style; there's no variation. That's not unusual for H!P I guess. The song itself isn't bad. I don't think I'll be buying it, personally.

Maeda Yuki - Busan Hatsu
Excellent! Once again, she is showing off her amazing vocal skills. The PV is visually interesting, as opposed to the Berryz PV. I may or may not buy this, depending on my funds. I'd love for Maeda to make more music.

Morning Musume - Only You
Yawwwnnn. Looks like another close up + dance shot mix PV. The outfits are very cute and the members are cute, as usual, but it feels like UFA has completely given up on giving berryz/momusu/c-ute good PVs. I'll still be buying the single seeing as I love the song, but it would be nice to see them put A LITTLE bit of effort in once and awhile. I remember how everyone in 2005 was bitching about how THE Manpower!!! was basically a dance shot, and now it's par for the course. Oh, how the times have changed.

Using L inux

Lately, I've been using Linux. I haven't been using the noob versions either (Ubuntu, Mint). Actually, I've been using a version that is half noob, half not. It's called Crunchbang Linux. It's pretty much a Debian mod. I thought about installing Debian, but I wanted a faster distro for my laptop, so I installed Crunchbang instead.

It's really cool. I've been taking baby steps towards actually learning how to use Linux rather than just relying on a GUI interface to edit everything. What's cool about Crunchbang is that everything is customizable through basic code. I can customize the taskbar completely, whatever color I want, whatever borders, font, etc. The shell/launcher is where I open up all the programs, and that is fully customizable as well. As someone who loves customization, it's working out great.

It isn't all hand-holding and GUI though. There's also some terminal stuff that is required. I've never seriously used a terminal before I installed Crunchbang. It requires you to use the terminal to update or use a lot of Linux programs. The biggest hurdle I found was trying to install a gelbooru downloader (this one, if anyone's interested). It's entirely command-line based, which was new for me. Everyone has to start somewhere though. I used a guide to help me get it running and I felt really accomplished after I'd finished.

I only have two complaints
  • Taskbar buttons don't blink, so I had to edit IM windows to steal focus every time I get an incoming IM.
  • Battery life is dismal compared to Windows 7.
Besides those two issues, it works fine for what I use my laptop for-- browsing the internet, occasionally editing pictures, talking on IM, etc. I will never change my desktop from Windows 7 however. I need games on there!

Morning Musume 10th Gen

TOO FAST. I can't handle there only being someone in the group for a few months and then announcing a new generation. I realize that Tsunku is trying rly hard to do a golden age of MM again, but... nope, can't do it.
I gotta stop paying attention to Morning Musume for a bit. I'm sorry. I'll still listen to their songs, but C-ute and Berryz Koubou (and to a lesser extent, s/mileage) are my new lovers.

Only You Preview Released

It sounds really good. It sounds like we're going back to Reina/Ai fest bad ass sounding songs... Which is totally fine with me. It seems like Tsunku was like, "oh, Maji Desu ka Ska! sold like shit, so back to the same ol same ol!" I don't like that Riho has so many lines. She seems like she's being prepped to be Ai-chan version 2, which I really hate.

Oh well... I can deal with the line distribution so long as the songs sound good (which this one does.)

I WAS RIGHT

The wota are reporting that the line distribution for MM’s 46th single is as follows:
Takahashi Ai : 23 lines
Tanaka Reina : 22 lines
Sayashi Riho : 14 lines
Niigaki Risa : 2 lines
Michishige Sayumi : 2 lines
Mitsui Aika : 2 lines
Which means Mizuki, Erina, and Kanon receive 0 solo lines, and Riho is the only 9th generation member with solos.

I love a chance to gloat, so... I was so fucking right!

(editor note: this linked to a page called "pushing riho" which isn't available on the wayback machine, but i assume i was talking about sayashi riho being pushed in MM)

Chisato was "fat"

Breaking news! Chisato was "fat". Um....Well, I guess it's not really breaking news, considering she wasn't even really fat.

I wish I was as "fat" as that.

The hairstyle is ugly, but still... I can't believe anyone would consider that fat. Apparently she's lost weight, but. I don't know. I don't think these girls should be subjected to pressure to stay underweight. It's just... weird, and the fans clearly don't care: Risako is arguably the most popular member of Berryz Koubou and most people consider her to be 'fat'. So...why the pressure? I don't get it.

How I Got Into H!P

In 2002, one of my friends at the time recommended Hamasaki Ayumi. Being young and impressionable, I took pretty much every music recommendation completely seriously and I started getting into this Hamasaki person. After that, I started entering stuff like "jpop" into the KaZaA search engine. I liked some of the stuff I downloaded, some people stayed one-hit-wonders in my mind (like Namie Amuro and her song Alarm--I love that song, but I never could get into Namie.) Some people I was really into at first, and then just sort of stopped (like Nami Tamaki; I watched her video 'Prayer' way too much to be healthy.)

From this random searching, I found BoA. After downloading some BoA songs, I realized I really liked the song Kimochi wa Tsutawaru. I proceeded to download every single file labeled with Kimochi wa Tsutawaru. I found a file called "BoA in elevator with Morning Musume". It was this video-- it had Kimochi wa Tsutawaru live at the end.

Since it was KagoTsuji, I thought it was the most adorable thing ever. I thought Morning Musume was just these two girls, so I searched for Morning Musume on KaZaA. I was surprised when the stuff downloaded, because it wasn't just two girls singing. I found Minimoni and I totally loved them too. I was more into Minimoni than Momusu at first, but gradually I got more interested in Momusu. I listened a lot to golden era Morning Musume, and I know a lot of the b-sides to the earlier singles because they were tagged with "Morning Musume" and I pretty much downloaded every MM song file I could find.

(I also remember having some Ayaka's English Lessons on my computer. I downloaded and watched the Kago ones over and over again. Kago was always my favorite member.)

Those were the dial-up days... So I really replayed the songs that I did manage to download (stuff like Happy Summer Wedding and Koi no Dance Site). When I finally got DSL in January of '05, that was when I started following them more seriously (because I had a DC++ hub full of friends with high def Musume stuff, and I could actually download it faster than one video every two weeks.) I remember THE Manpower!!! being the first high definition PV that I downloaded.

My fandom fades every now and again, but I always come back to H!P. I wonder why that is? Probably because of the music. It certainly isn't much because of the idols... I can't enjoy the full experience. I don't know Japanese well enough to watch every release that comes out (and understand it that well, that is). I'm starting to get more into the idols that actually sing the music, so if you ask me...

2002-2004: Casual listener
2005-2009: Listen for the music
2010-2011: Start to pay attention to the idols

Something like that.

"Only You"

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"Only You" is MM's next single. I don't know what style it is, but judging from the outfit, it might be a ballad. There are other blog posts with images, too. As for what I want next in a MM single... well, a ballad would be nice. I wouldn't mind another cool type song, either.

I don't think the song is going to be Maji Desu Ka Ska style, judging by the outfits. But outfits have steered us wrong before. Remember the Aruiteru outfits? Those were about as least feel-good-ballad-y I could think. They seemed more like they were made for the b-side (Morning Curry).

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The true life episode "I'm Passing As Someone I'm Not" is all sorts of transphobic. The first part of the episode is about a black woman who claims to be costa rican despite not having any costa rican blood whatsoever. She says she does it because being hispanic is "hip" where she lives.

However, the second part of the episode is about someone whose is transgender. Using the theme of the episode, you'd think it was talking about a cross dresser (someone who dressed as a woman despite not identifying as one as all).

However, at the beginning of the episode, Domaine says "I'm a woman trapped in a man's body". That would signify a transgender individual, right? But the entire episode, she says things like she's "deceiving people" and "you don't know the real me". That would suggest that she is just a crossdresser...? Since she is transgender, it's really offensive to say things like "I'm passing as someone i'm not" and "i'm not who you thought i am" the entire episode.

If she was just a crossdresser, it wouldn't be as much of an issue. The problem is, she identifies as a female yet she continues to use language like "I'm not who you thought I am" and "I'm a man".

In the episode, she says she's transgender. Domaine's question answers in this interview show her problematic way of thinking of things. Saying things like "Sooner or later, the world will find out about the real me." (emphasis mine) flat out says that the "real" her is a man. Usually, when one talks about their "real" self, they aren't necessarily talking about their body, they're talking about who they are to the core, especially in the transgender community. When she says "They'll find out about the real me," she's undermining all trans individuals everywhere that struggle to convince people that our gender is the *real* us.

I can understand being nervous about people finding out about having a penis. But the entire episode is filled with problematic language... When coming out, she says "I'm a man. I'm a transgender." The two of those are completely different concepts, and I don't think it's a good idea to make an episode about someone who is confused about terminology.

Also, whoever made that show is super-offensive-man by titling the episode "I'm Passing As Someone I'm Not".