Libraniac, I need to swipe one of your LJ icons but I totally can't find it. What happened to the one of Ichigo making a "durrrrr" face with the text "SKOOL MAKES U SOOPR SMRT"? I had a perfect chance to use it in capslock_op while discussing ambergris but I totally couldn't find it.

Things that have sucked today so far:

Getting up at six thirty in the morning.
Not being allowed to eat breakfast.
Going in for bloodwork first thing in the morning.
Standing outside in thirty-something degree weather and rain waiting for the blood lab to open.
Holding up five or six elderly people with my convoluted paperwork.
Being scoffed at by five or six elderly people who didn't think I was sick and that I should wait until they all had their bloodwork done.
Getting seven vials of blood drawn.
Ending up so fucking dizzy my vision went black and purple.
Passing out for the first time in my life.
Waking up on a really cold floor with people trying to stick damp paper towels all over my face and neck, even though once I regained consciousness I felt miraculously better and really didn't need cold wet paper on me.
Being frog-marched back out to the car.
Being reminded that I have to go back for more bloodwork this afternoon.
Being reminded that I have a physical therapy appointment this afternoon.
Being told that I might have to see my therapist this afternoon, if it turns out she gets a cancellation she's halfway expecting.

So I've been reading a TON of manga lately. It's not like I have much else to do since I'm home sick. Fortunately, there's plenty of manga available online so it's impossible for me to get bored. Mangafox.com and Onemanga.com are my two favorite haunts - Mangafox has a lot more titles, but Onemanga has a couple that Mangafox doesn't, and it keeps track of updated titles more tidily.

Couple of manga I've read lately that I've really liked:

Kurozakuro - WOW. Just wow. I usually hate horror with a raging passion but Kurozakuro makes it work, and just when I'm ready to swear off sleep for the rest of eternity it switches seamlessly over to action. The art style is awesome, the plot is amazing -- too bad the series is already finished in Japan! I want more psychotic ogreboy madness! T_T

Samurai Deeper Kyo - I actually tried watching the anime for this, but it sucks. Fortunately, the plot of the anime has almost nothing to do with the manga. I stopped after around 80 chapters straight because the action started to get a bit redundant, but that was more me reading too much at once than anything. It's really good, and I'm surprised I hadn't found this one sooner - it seems sort of mainstreamy shounen, you know?

Yakitate!! Japan - I would never have read this one if I was left to my own devices - it's about BREAD, for chrissake! - but Panzuriel from the 111 recommended it. I was prepared to be severely underwhelmed, but it blew me away. It's zany, mocks shounen tropes relentlessly, and is chock full of bad puns that don't translate well, but there's also a ton of attention to detail in the various types of bread, and there's clearly more thought put into it than BREAD LAWLZ. I'm only a couple chapters in but I think I'm going to end up staying up all night reading more.

Note to self: learn how to stop starting every LJ or Gaia Post with "So." or "So yeah." or "Uhm, Well."

I got bored the other day and started looking for a good anime to waste my time. I ended up browsing Anime-Planet's recommendation database - only to find that I had already watched most of what got recommended to me. Putting in One Piece recommended Naruto, Bleach, GetBackers, Rurouni Kenshin, HunterxHunter, and then a bunch of unrelated gibberish. Ugh. I've tried watching Naruto but I just can't get into it - it's not bad, I can see why people go fanatical over it, but try as I might I just couldn't find it interesting. Bleach was kickass up until that horrible filler, and then I just lost interest, and every time I've tried to pick it up since then I've just been "meh". GetBackers, Rurouni Kenshin, and HunterXHunter I've all watched bits and pieces of, and they all seem pretty good, but I was really hoping to find something new.

I ended up watching Hajime no Ippo ("Fighting Spirit", if you prefer). I really don't know why I tried watching it, because sports stories really aren't my thing. But it seemed interesting enough. Thing was, I hated the animation style - the noses! Dear god, the noses! Every single character was secretly the bastard child of Pinocchio.

So I switched over to the manga instead, which thankfully doesn't look quite so ridiculous. Hajime no Ippo is one of the longest manga ever - it's currently around volume seventy-something I think? I've read the first twelve and it's really addictive. I'm liking it a lot more than I ever expected to.


In other news, my first Eleventyone care package is supposed to be arriving today. I can't wait to open it up - Neyahala promised lots of chocolate! ^_^

At some point, I'm going to have to find some more icons besides this 'i R aN aRtEEst' one, but I'm too lazy for that right now. I want to find a good variety between my fandoms and such, and also different moods, so that I'll have something marginally clever to go along with a wide variety of posts. But that's not going to happen anytime soon. I probably should have picked a more versatile icon if I was going to stick with one for a long time, though. I mean, I'm not an artist at all, not even in a humorously bad sense. I twiddle with pixel art on occasion but that's more out of desperate boredom once in a blue moon.

I wish I remembered what day of the week new One Piece chapters came out. I'd even settle for remembering when new episodes come out, and those are currently filler! I feel like I just failed a fandom check. They're going to boot me to the curb now. T_T

Ehh, in the meantime I'll just catch up in something I haven't watched or read much of lately... like Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, that sounds good.

I tried a new manga today - Great Teacher Onizuka. I read the first four volumes, it's pretty good. I was amused by Onizuka's punkish antics, although it got kind of redundant after volume four. I probably won't read any further, but it kept me entertained for a while at least.

Let's see, what else is there for me to talk about? Webcomics I guess, but that would lead into a giant rant worthy of its own post.

There's always Lyme. Yesterday was the worst day ever. I had a full blown Lyme... episode... thing. I got really really hot for about ten seconds, and then it stopped and I started sweating like hell for no more than five or six seconds - like, I completely drenched my shirt in that short time - and got extremely dizzy... then I suddenly got cold, and then I went numb, and it got hard to think straight, and then my hands and feet started tingling... and next thing I knew I was on the floor. I think I passed out? I'm not sure how long it was. I know I had started screaming once the dizziness hit, but my grandmother is kinda deaf and she had the TV on pretty loud in the kitchen, and my mom was in the basement on the other side of the house and didn't hear either. Once the whatever the hell it was went away I tried to head downstairs and get to mom but I couldn't walk straight... I remember staggering down the stairs and trying to tell her what had happened but I was somehow stuttering and slurring the words at the same time. I really scared her. Scared myself.

I felt a little bit better as the evening went on, but I was super drained. Not even sleepy-tired, just drained. I very nearly fell forward into my own spaghetti at dinner because holding my head up took more energy than I had.

So uh yeah. I made this LiveJournal, which means I should probably use it. Although I mostly made it so that I could comment on my sister's journal (librainiac) and not be anonymous.

But only mostly. The other reasons I made this journal:
-to use this icon. i R an aRtEEst. Arteest I say! XD
-to hopefully join neutral_omens. It's a kickass RP based on Good Omens, except with several dozen other fandoms thrown in for good measure. I read its entire backlog over the course of three extremely Lymedead days, and the witty dialogue and random plot twists were the only thing keeping me from going totally insane. I still need to come up with a character, though... I'm thinking maybe Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban. The RP needs more mundane characters.
-to comment on some One Piece communities. I'M LOOKING AT YOU capslock_opYEAH YOU.