{ ganessa.org }

Sweetie, I won’t even pretend to have been there. I don’t have anything that will make this easier for you, and I absolutely have no right, absolutely unqualified, to give you words of comfort, but know that I’m praying for you and the little cutie. Wherever he is, he’s fine now.

When somebody dies, a cloud turns into an angel and flies up to tell God to put another flower on a pillow. A bird gives the message back to the world and sings a silent prayer that makes the rain cry. People disappear, but they never really go away. The spirits up there put the sun to bed, wake up the grass, and spin the Earth in dizzy circles. Sometimes you can see them dancing in a cloud during the daytime when they’re supposed to be sleeping. They paint the rainbows and also the sunsets and makes waves splash and tug at the tide. They toss shooting stars and listen to wishes. And when they sing windsongs, they whisper to us, “Don’t miss me too much. The view is nice, and I’m doing just fine.” — Ashley Rice

I was busy fangirling over *cough*Freestyle*cough* so I totally missed the release of Dong Bang Shin Ki’s 4th Korean Album, Mirotic during the last week of September. Before I got too busy with other things, I was really looking forward to the release of this album — their promotions weren’t helping the fans’ energy one bit, what with the guys sporting the nearly-naked, hot, metrosexual look.

Ami's Album Rating: 8.5/10

And before anything else, let me tell (warn?) you that my thoughts are a little all over the place at the moment. XD

. . . . that it’s almost damn creepy. T_T Sometimes, I just want her to do all the decision-making for me, no matter how irresponsible that seems.

Damnit. My life’s so messed up.

I have long tagged myself as a serial domain killer. I can’t remember how many domains I have acquired through all the years — perhaps more than 5. God forbid if that says something about how I handle actual relationships. I envy Hotohori, the mistress of Sablay, who is a total one-domain-woman. XD

So look what I have now — another potential victim? When I took hisai.org a year and a few months ago, I told myself that that would be the domain I’d be keeping forever. Apparently, I lied.

Should I still explain what Ganessa means, except for the fact that I love this name? Anyone who’s been long enough in the Jrock circle would know who Ganessa is, but for those who don’t, here’s another way out. Ganessa means luck in Hindi. I really don’t believe in luck though, but I do in love, and I love this name. Pretty much a good reason to get this domain and dedicate it entirely to blogging, right?

Link me, kiddos. <3

ZOMG. My manga (pronounced as “mang-ga”) arrived at the house today. Excuse me while I curl up in a corner and die.

I ordered it from http://jpqueen.com. Yes, it’s not the prettiest website (it could use some major makeover) but the fact that it’s in English gives it one million bonus points for Non-Japanese speakers who’d like to buy manga, doujinshi, novels and other Japanese collectibles. Browsing is a breeze too - I’m just not so sure about how reliable the keyword tagging is, though. XD

The truth that I overpaid a few pesos will sink in later probably, but right now I will go huggle my books. They’re so shiiiiinnnny. <3 I can’t even believe they’re second-hand manga, considering how they’re all in mint condition. Amazing. <3

I will post a more helpful entry to those who’d like to order Japanese manga through this shop, experience and all — but right now I’m just incoherent. XD

Oh look~ I found a new online bookstore for my Japanese manga! ^_^

It’s BK1, and the prices are cheaper that my other alternatives *coughamazoncough*. Searching is a breeze too, unlike some bookstores I know of *coughyesasiacough*.  As far as I’m concerned, the major difficulty really is the fact that the whole site is in Japanese! That’s what’s making it a tad difficult to navigate — I’m sure I’m missing some of the nifty sections (or promos.) Babelfish helps, but I think the English of the translator tortures my brain cells more than the effort of reading the characters. XD

Well, as I don’t want to throw in a good word for the site yet, I’ll wait until my books arrive. I went through with ordering/ purchase, and the books should be here in . . . three weeks, I guess. Until then, I’ll keep my fingers crossed. ^_^;; Also, that’s only the time I’d recommend the site to anyone. Luck to me. *runs*

In my attempt to hold on to my rusty Japanese skills (the rustiness of which has been bothering me for quite some time), I finally took the courage to apply as a translator for some of the scanlating groups out there. The Japanese language is one of the things I never want to forget. If it’s even possible to fall in love with a language, then I’m totally, absolutely, unconditionally smitten by it.

So, I figured that if I’m going to hurt myself over remembering all my Japanese lessons, I might as well enjoy it. So why not join a manga scanlating group? If you don’t know what scanlation is, Wikipedia defines it as:

the scanning, translation, editing and distribution of comics from a foreign language into the language of the distributors.

I believe that scanlation is a labor of love ^_^. These scanlating groups do not receive any monetary compensation for the time and effort they devote to scanlating manga for the benefit of non-native Japanese speakers. In truth, I’ve only read scanlated manga up until now!

Anyway, the need for translators out there is big, believe me - it’s like one huge market. Although it’s easy to advertise your translation services to scanlation groups, most of them require you to take their translator’s test to determine whether you’re fit for the job. As for me, I was given four *_*. But I only took two. These took time, you know, since I can only translate when I get home and after work.

Luckily, I passed the translator’s exam, so . . .yay! I got my first assignment already, which is a historical shounen-ai (I mean, duh, really — did you expect something else?) story. Bingo, my cup of tea.

In the end, I still remind myself that I’m doing this because I need to sharpen my Japanese skills. Although I still think that remembering/ understanding most grammatical patterns (particularly the formal ones) would need more than working on the manga (which uses conversational/ informal/colloquial Japanese), I’d like to think that I’m off to a good start. Er, hopefully. XD

So, I ended up going back to Wordpress after all. XD

Just when I wanted to go back to blogging, Limited Edition ends up being inaccessible. I’m having second thoughts about keeping it. Someone please adopt me?

Why I’m going back to blogging is a story without complicated reasons. Having resigned from my four-year job, I guess I have enough free time to go back to maintaining a blog. My current assignment’s keeping my hands full too, but well, that’s still different from working two jobs in a day.

»» This was supposed to be called Rounin Blues