I have DSL!!! It's a whole new world for me!

I'm downloading the first Angelique OVA right now. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!! I get to watch Angelique! It's a dream come true....

I need to go to the store and buy snacks to eat while I watch! This is going to be such a lovely evening!

Well, it's taken me long enough, but now I know the lovely purpose of the "memories" function! Woo-hoo!!

I've started building my own personal fic archive. Life is good.

AND....I've managed to finally get my Windows XP program to load. So the next step is to install an ethernet card in my pc...and get a CD burner too....

Once those things are done, I'll sign up for DSL. It's so great that my ISP has a special new subscription rate. (I can afford it!! I hope. I foresee many ramen noodles in my future.)

Still in the afterglow....*happy sigh*

I went to a friend's place last night, and we watched a bunch of Morning Musume. A few videos, but also some TV specials. (I don't know where he finds this stuff. He has DSL--unlike my poor, pathetic, dialup self.)

My favorite video/song was "Sakura Mankai," which has a very traditional sound and look to it. It was sooo beautiful that I got all teary-eyed.

The TV show was called something like "Utabon" or "Utaban." Two comedians torture their guests for an hour, and Morning Musume appears on that. Parts of it were pretty funny, but sometimes they went too far and actually made the girls cry. Granted, the girls were crying because they were scared of large balloons being popped in their faces, but it still made me angry.

But, in spite of that, it was an evening filled with Japanese pop-culture goodness. We finished with a Morning Musume New Year's special, in which the girls hold a kangaroo court and accuse each other of hilarious crimes. For example, little Kago likes to sneak up behind people and scare them. (She was unrepentant, too! "It's fun!")

So, this morning, I'm sipping my coffee and reflecting that I love being a fangirl. I feel so lucky to have found anime, manga, and jpop.

Tonight, I finished gobbling up the first volume of "Gravitation EX." YUM!!

I guess, before I go any further, I should warn about spoilers. Just in case someone wanders onto my blog for some reason....

First thoughts on the cover. Yuki looks very, very pretty and rather sweet. Shindou--I suppose it's Shindou--seems to have sprouted large breasts. Maybe it's just supposed to be shading on his rock-star costume, but it made me wonder if we would be faced with a female Shindou-look-alike. (No. Thank goodness.)

The story picks up right where it left off, so if you haven't read the first series, you'll be mighty confused. Yuki and Shindou are in New York, where they plan to visit Kitazawa's grave. (Kitazawa is the guy Yuki killed in self-defence.) While there, they find themselves made custodians of Kitazawa's young son, Riku.

This, of course, sends Yuki into a tail-spin. He goes off to walk, smoke, and brood--and is accosted by Ryuichi Sakuma. Sakuma warns him not to mistreat Shindou, or he might lose him. (This was a yummy scene for me. I love Ryu-chan when he drops the goof-ball act and turns all sharp-eyed and dangerous.)

So...Yuki, Shindou, and little Riku go back to Japan. Yuki gets crazier and crazier. He's mean to Riku. Meaner to Shindou.

And Sakuma makes his move.

(Whoa. Another toe-curling scene--though I wish the kiss had taken place in plain sight. We only get to see the back of Shindou's head.)

Anyway, Yuki walks in on Shindou and Sakuma necking. He falls apart in the classic Yuki fashion and disappears.

Shindou is a mess, too, of course. And the press is having a field day with their quarrel.

Little Riku finds Yuki, who rather nastily confesses that he was the one who killed his daddy. Riku runs out in front of a semi. Yuki pushes him out of the way, and Shindou turns up just in time to save Yuki. Although Yuki receives a glancing blow to the head.

Lots of crazy mayhem with the press and insane rescues follow. But it culminates in the revelation that Yuki has lost his sight in the accident.

All this sounds rather grim, but Maki Murakami is still clean out of her mind--and the story is filled with that zany surrealism we have come to expect.

Whew. That's a lot of babble about a manga!

There's supposed to be a second volume. I hope we see more of Hiro in it. (I love Hiro! And K!)

Now, off to look for fic!

SQUEEEE!!!!!

I came home from work to find my first volume of "Gravitation EX" in the mailbox! More Yuki! More Shindo!! Yummy!!!

I'll devour it tonight...then post more fangirl squealing. Whoo-hooo!!!

Whew!! I spent most of the day writing a short "Hikaru no Go" story. It needs a little polishing before I post it, but I don't think it's terrible.

I hope others like it. Frankly, I'm nervous about posting it, but reading and writing fic are the reasons I got an LJ account and joined a few communities. So...no wimping-out allowed!

In other news, I also went to class, cursed the crappy white stuff falling out of the sky, and ate lunch with my guy.

Well, back to fic-polishing. Maybe I won't feel so nervous in the future if I can find a kindly beta reader....

...for me, it is, anyway. This is my first entry of my first blog.

Okay. Deep breath. Just type something.

Really regret snarfing down those 16 rolls of 'Smarties'--hard to type when your fingers are quivering from Too Much Sugar.

Maybe I'd better keep this short, because I cannot think of anything to post that doesn't sound moronic.

So, if you've read this far, thanks. I'll update with later. When I'm not suffering from TMS.