Tuesdays are generally already slightly depressing due to the horrible schedule I set out for myself. This Tuesday is even more so because of the midterm+quiz which leave my mind totally wiped afterwards. If you've never felt the tired and want to just curl up and sleep feeling then you haven't experienced true midterm sickness. Haha, that sounds kind of like morning sickness.

The midterm was fairly fair (multiple choice went well, matching went okay, short answers... not so okay). The quiz being a quiz was short and since I was all busy studying for the midterm I didn't get to study for the quiz. *shakes fist @ anime* Way to distract me!

Currently, I'm sitting in Psychology class not paying attention. Or I might be paying attention subconsciously and absorbing information while I type this blog out. Hopefully it's going in my head.

I was wished sweet dreams last night, but all I had were continuous dreams about the midterm that I did earlier today. Over and over I did the midterm. I also got some images of anime but they were again blocked out by midterms. Please by all means count how many times I've said midterms in this one post and comment because I can't keep track.

This Friday I plan on going on a hike with a club at school. As I'm not very fit as I was when I was younger, I hope I don't pass out or start breathing heavily like a lame person halfway. I strongly hope that I won't fail at hiking. I've heard the view is great when you get to your destination (Lindeman Lake). Hopefully the weather holds up so the hike will be easier.

Forgive me, friends, for I can't make my paragraphs flow well. Ideas just pop into my head too fast and I just jot them down here for you to read. One day, when I am more skilled, I'll be able to make a perfect blog post and when that day comes you can congratulate me! Thanks.

So today Kobato. and Kimi ni Todoke start airing. When I get home tonight I hope to see the subtitled episodes uploaded. If not then I will be doing more cramming for the midterm tomorrow night (yay human anatomy)! Last night I watched the first episode of Tatakau Shishou - The Book of Bantorra. Suffice to say, I was not really blasted out of the water by this (I wasn't really impressed). It didn't seem to have the excitement that gets your heart beating faster and making you want to see the next episode immediately. On the other hand, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun was really good! The schoolgirls were awesome and the characters are interesting. Story/fight scene was good too in the first episode. Hope to see more!

If anyone wants to record the anime/manga they've watched/read, I found a new site that works better (in my opinion) than AnimeNewsNetwork. It works faster and allows you more freedom. Check it out: MyAnimeList.

All I have to say is, today is not a good day. Even though the sun is out and it's a Monday where I have no class, I still feel like /wrist-ing because I'm stuck at home studying for midterms and quizzes this week. Enough of my whining though- I know you're tired of it.

A friend of mine told me about a pianist on YouTube that is so uber he makes me want to practice piano for hours a day again. He arranges his own music. Among some songs are: Super Mario Remix, Caramelldansen Remix, Final Fantasy, and Suzumiya Haruhi stuff. Watching him makes me want to have larger hands (just when I'm playing piano, so that I'm not grossly proportioned wrong) so I can play the sheet music better. So far I've mastered the first sheet of the Mario remix and it's going well. What's more awesome is that in a few of his videos he cosplays to fit the theme of the song. Don't mistake his cosplay, he IS a man. Ha! Anyways, check out his channel here(PianoYN).

For those that watch anime/dramas/etc. I've been reading up on the Fall 2009 animes and quite a few have caught my eye for potential goodness:

Darker than Black: Ryusei no Gemini
Synopsis: In the sequel, Hei and Yin are now on the run after betraying the Syndicate in the previous season. After leaving Japan, Hei encounters Suou Pavlichenko, a 13 year old Eurasian girl who becomes embroiled in the war and politics of the various factions and Contractors vying for power. Meanwhile, Hell's Gate remains standing in Tokyo, after Hei's efforts to stop the Saturn Ring anti-Gate particle weapon from activating. Although Contractors are safe from the danger of having their existences erased, this does not prevent new and old Contractors from abusing their powers. As Misaki Kirihara and her team in the Public Security Bureau deal with the increasing Contractor cases, she also has to keep the Syndicate at bay, who has major positions in the Japanese police and intelligence bureaus around the world. The storyline setting primarily takes place in both Japan and Russia.
The sequel to Darker than Black. Lots of goodness will come from this I am sure, since Darker than Black was excellent and the animation was very nice to look at as well.


Fairy Tail
Synopsis: Lucy is a 17-year-old girl, who wants to be a full-fledged mage. One day when visiting Harujion Town, she meets Natsu, a young man who gets sick easily by any type of transportation. But Natsu isnt just any ordinary kid, he's a member of one of the world's most (in)famous mage guilds: Fairy Tail.
"If you've read the manga" is all I need to say. This shounen fantasy adventure anime I'm pretty sure will be awesome. It's one of the most read shounen mangas out there, alongside Bleach and Naruto and the likes.


Kobato.
Synopsis: Kobato is sweet and perky girl, but also extremely naive about the world around her. She has a "mission", which is to fill a mysterious bottle of hers with the suffering from people's hearts so her wish to go a certain place that she desires to go can be granted. However, she must not fall in love with a particular boy she works with and whose heart she must heal.
CLAMP! Yeah! Shoujo anime based on a manga. I'm hoping it won't be overwhelmingly girly *cross fingers* but I will still have faith and watch it since it's CLAMP and usually their work is the l33tsauce.



Kimi ni Todoke
Synopsis: This story is centered around a girl named Kuronuma Sawako who is nicknamed Sadako (ghost girl from "The Ring") by her classmates because of her scary face and demeanor. She greatly admires Kazehaya-kun from afar, he is "100% refreshing" and is able to draw in people with his personality. Unlike her facial expressions she yearns to make friends and live as a normal student. Gradually she starts affects those around her, including Kazehaya-kun...
Another anime based on a manga. This is a school romance shoujo manga with the usual storyline...kind of! I already read most of the manga, so I might just skim the anime a bit but if you haven't read the manga you should definitely take a peek.


Letter Bee
Synopsis: Gauche is a governmental employee, given the task to deliver any letter to it's destination. Meeting a young boy who is the letter to be delivered, Gauche makes friends with Lag and inspires him to take up the job. Five years later, Lag Seeing finally realizes his dream, that of a Letter Bee. However, the one who inspired him has gone missing and only there does the mystery start.
In some ways this anime reminds me of Shigofumi. The first episode was touching and I found it really enjoyable. Most people don't have high hopes for this anime but I do! The animation is glowy and cute and the bugs in it look kind of mecha.

Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra
Synopsis: In a world where dead people turn into books and are stored in the Bantorra Library where anyone who reads a book can learn their past. Bantorra Library is maintained by Armed Librarians who wield psychic powers and their enemy is a religious society known as Sindeki Kyoudan.
I haven't watched the first episode of this anime yet but just from reading the synopsis it sounds a bit like Toshokan Sensou but upped a little with psychic powers and fantasy.


To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Synopsis: Academy City. 2.3 million inhabitants. 80% of the students are active in the ‘Brain Development Program’ and out of those only 7 are Level 5s. Meet the civilian protagonist Mikoto and her friend Kuroko, maintainers of peace and order in the University district. Kuroko is a member of 'Judgement'.
I'll be watching this purely because it's a sequel to To Aru Majutsu no Index and should be just as exciting as it.

Winter Sonata
Synopsis: Based on the Korean drama television series about the love between two childhood friends and the tragic events that happen.
Just because it's based on a K-drama I'm going to watch it for the sheer drama of it. I bet it'll be covered with sickness, crying, sadness, and etc.etc.etc. Haha! I love K-dramas so.




So to conclude, those are the animes that I will be watching and if they continue to be good or I find them to be worthy of watching more of... I'll keep them updated on here just as little shout-outs to watch them. If you're into bishounens, try Miracle Train. I love bishounens but this was more of a joke to me. Ooooh a train filled with pretty boys let's get on it and have them talk to me for a whole half hour. I'd run away if I saw a train filled with pretty boys all together doing nothing except waiting for a girl to come in.

A lot of these animes will be streaming on Crunchyroll if you'd like to watch them too. Other anime streaming sites I frequent are AniJunkie and WatchAnimeNow.

Last night I was told by a very dear friend to look outside at the moon. Since it was chilly I didn't really wanted to go outside but I still did. And I'm glad I did, the moon was beautiful. It was not as large as it should have been but the brightness illuminated the streets and yard so much that no light was needed! I could see well without the house lights on, it was incredible. I took a couple pictures of it with my camera which I have discovered does not work well in the night, especially not to capture the beauty that is the moon/light. For those who couldn't see the moon due to blizzards, rain, or some form of cloudiness here you go!

If you don't understand why I titled my post "Can't Fight the Moonlight," it's the song that came on my head as I thought of the moon. If you haven't seen Coyote Ugly, watch it now. It's one of my favorite movies (I've watched it probably over 8 times now)!

Now it's back to the slaving away at studying that is my life again. Wish me luck on my midterms, hopefully I don't fail. Why do I take stupidly hard classes just to screw with myself? Ah, life, how unfair you are.

Sweet Potato/Yam Sunday
I didn't start eating mashed yam/sweet potatoes until last year when I went to my neighbor's house. Now it's one of my favorite foods (yeah, I have so many favorites I just love food in general). All you do is steam or boil the yams and sweet potatoes, peel it after cooking, and mash it up. Add a little brown sugar, butter, and maybe some cinnamon if you like to make it smooth and sweet! It's great for mushy days and for thanksgiving - add a little color to your table! Okay, I know that it doesn't look great in the picture, but it tastes glorious.

I know I already spoke of the moon festival. At least, I'm pretty sure I did. But as a continuation, I am now preparing to eat a feast of food in celebration! As a food lover, I made some steamed crab (which were still alive before I put them into the pot- poor things), garlic chives, soup with fish tofu and veggies made from the crab stock, and other yummy stuff!

But continuing on, my task today at work consisted of putting books back onto shelves and... get ready for this... cutting out parts of turkeys! As much as I dislike little kids sometimes, making the crafts for them is kind of fun and an easy way to pass time where I actually get paid. But with everything there is a drawback and now my right hand is sore from cutting several pages together at once with scissors for over an hour.

On a side note I'd like to talk about the weather. As we all know it's fall now but today it was so sunny and warm it was wonderful! Then when I had to mow the neighbor's lawn it turned nice and cool just to suit my needs. Maybe I'm a weather manipulator, what's the term for that again? Kind of like Storm in X-Men! I hope it's sunny tomorrow, I won't cheat and look at the weather reports. Let's see if my hopes come true.

Nothing much more really happened today. I died more times and am even more poor than I was yesterday in Aion, which is a MMORPG (Many Men Online Role-Playing Girls). Just kidding! Though it is partly true. I took that from someone else, so I don't take credit for making it up~ I'm not that brilliant. So since there's nothing really more to say, let's continue to today's food theme:

Sweet & Savory Saturday
What's more sweet and savory at the same time as a Moon Cake! I discovered today that many people don't know what a moon cake even is, so here is an explanation. A moon cake is either a round or rectangular shaped dessert. Usually in the middle there is a salted duck egg yolk (making up the savory portion) and surrounding it is the sweet yummy goodness that is lotus seed paste. The cakes aren't fluffy and light like the normal cakes but more solid and compact. There are also frozen and jelly moon cakes of fruity flavors that are newer to the world but just as tasty as the non-frozen kind. Sometimes these are filled with red bean paste instead of lotus seed paste. Try one soon, you can probably find them at any Chinese Supermarket during this month!

Happy 60th Anniversary China! The Moon Festival/China Anniversary celebration was great, albeit a little boring (yes, I admit it openly) in some parts. It's really surprising how in sync the marches were- to the point where even the people were all the same height. It makes me wonder how much time they spent practicing the march and what would happen if they weren't marching at the same pace. Overall the celebration was brilliant, my favorite part being the marching and the people in the colored hats making up the rainbow and words!


Another happy: Happy Birthday to my blog. Summer took it's time changing into Fall and finally we are all feeling the chilliness. Gotta love the smell of rain, the crisp smell of morning air, and the slightly bright but still mellow weather. But another thing that comes with fall is more schooling. All of a sudden it's October and now it's just the intense cramming of content into my brain to prepare for midterms, quizzes, and all that delightful stuff... not. So, to take my mind off more stressing factors I have given birth to "Idealist's Abode."

Definition of Idealist: Someone guided more by ideals than practical considerations.
Definition of Ideal: A conception of something that is perfect.


Food Friday!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving coming up, I found a really nice apple pie recipe. One of my favorite shows on the Food Network is "Chef at Home" which is hosted by Michael Smith. His recipes are always fairly simple and you don't usually have to go out and buy certain ingredients especially for that dish. I found this recipe really interesting because instead of using normal butter, he says to use frozen butter and grate it into the flour. Anyhow, here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try it out! I am for sure going to make it for next week!
Old Fashioned Apple Pie Recipe