Stress!!

It's a good thing I'm crazy, because right now it is the only thing that's keeping me sane.

Always the optimist, I'm going to give you the "glass half-full" view of this week's events.
The good news is...

*Since Dan stayed home sick from work last weekend, I was able to take a couple of my daughters up to Kinokuniya in Seattle to pick up everybody's manga. While there, I was able to put in an pre-order for Yoshiki Fukuyama's upcoming "Fukuyama Fire!" CD.

*Pain can be your friend. Because Dan was having a lot of pain in his back, we were able to convince him of the need to call the clinic nurse, who told him to go to the emergency room and he was able to receive proper treatment before the pnuemonia became too life threatening.

*While sitting with Dan in the emergency room, I got a good long start on what's turning out to be a very nice crocheted blanket for our bed.

*We finally got medical insurance a couple months ago.

*I had enough gas in both vans to make it through most of this week.

*Both Dan and I have very understanding bosses... and a little sick leave saved up.

*Finding out that my son not having the "funding waiver" I'd been trying to apply for for months had again kept him from getting something he needed was finally the catylist his case worker needed to finally get the application started.

*Dan only spent three days in the hospital.

*I was not personally involved in that accident that backed up traffic for nearly 10 miles on I-5 yesterday while I was on my way to work. When the traffic jam became to much for our little van and it overheated, I was at a place where there was enough shoulder for me to pull over.

*Of all the people who decided to try beating the above mentioned traffic jam by using the shoulder of the road as a traffic lane, only one of them hit me... and he spared me the inevitable unpleasant conversation with him by immediately ducking back into the real traffic lane and driving off... and he didn't do too much damage to my van (fortunately)... AND my boss was very understanding when I told him I'd be over an hour late.

*Cranberry juice is good for overwhelmed and painful kidneys (not mine - Dan's)... and the nurse was on call at 03:00 this morning to tell us so... and Safeway is open 24 hours!

*Today is Saturday and, for once, I have no meetings or major errands to go on. Yah!

Sakura-Con was a lot of fun for me this year. ^-^ My kids are finally old enough that I was able to sit through a full event there... FOUR full events, in fact! Opening ceremonies, the guest reception, the angela concert, AND closing ceremonies. It was amazing! I think I like having teens and pre-teens! ^-^

For the first time in the many years that I have been involved in Sakura-Con, I actually got to go to the guest reception. It was a very enjoyable experience. Dan and I sat at a table with a girl from a "professional cosplay" group. She went by the pen name "Michiru". It was a lot of fun talking with her. I did my best to to try talking with her directly without going through the interperator...

We asked her questions about herself, what she did, and how she got into cosplaying. She asked us questions about ourselves also. When she asked about what anime we watched and I mentioned that my favorite anime was Macross 7, I learned that she was also a fan of Fukuyama-san. ^-^b

The angela concert was cool. ^-^

It started with Kumiko Kato as opening act. Kato-san was small and cute and even if she had never uttered a word, the guys would have still gone wild. However, she did open her mouth to sing... and she danced! I found myself extremely impressed by her muscle control as she danced. She sang well and she was beautiful - in more ways than one.

angela was next. angela is the duo of atsuko, on vocal, and KATSU, on guitar. atsuko-san spoke a fair amount of English and mc'd for the group. KATSU-san managed a few words of English here and there. He got quite a reaction by using the "phrase he learned for the concert": "She's a babe!"

They played songs that they had done for the animes, Stellvia... and I forget the name of the other one. (Sorry.) Their music was high energy and a lot of fun. KATSU was especially fun to watch! He has a cordless amp connection on his guitar, so he was free to prance all over the stage while he played! He may not speak much English, but he communicated well with his music. After a couple encores, the audience left the room very excited and satisfied.

The con got it's money's worth this year, to be sure!

Kato-san returned to perform during the closing ceremonies. That's when I found out that Kirk actually does look at the magazines before he shreds them. He was carrying around his backpack and his con bag with him like a security blanket during the event. As soon as she stepped on the stage, immediateley, he pulled out his program book in excitement to show me her picture. He'd never seen her before, but he know who she was. She was that beautiful girl in his book! He talked about her for days after the convention!

One new thing this year: programming brought in a comedy improv group called the 404's. One if their specialties is working the audiences at anime conventions. Bringing them in was a brilliant move on the part of programming! Always at events there are the inevitable stall for time periods as a performer or speaker gets ready to go on stage. The 404's were just the ticket for getting us through those tough times. I hope to see them again next year. ^-^

By the way, Sakura-Con 2006 will be in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, March 24-26th. Planning has already started...

peace

Real quick! Before I head out the door to work...

I was looking at the links on Yoshiki Fukuyama's official site this morning and found a site I hadn't noticed before. It's an anime music site in Brazil called Anime Songs Net.

There is an article with an interview with Fukuyama-san on the site. Based on the content, I'd say the interview was the beginning of last summer... It's been translated into Portugese (of course) and, for the English speakers out there, there is an "English version" of the interview. The English isn't perfect - but if you've ever been to an "English version" of a Japanese site, it's about the same. Odd at times, but readable. I rather enjoyed the article - in both languages. (I dabbled a little with Portugese a few years ago when my sister-in-law went on a mission for our church there. ^^)

One thing I found very interesting was the article above the interview. Apparently, they did their research on the internet to write it before interviewing him. The interesting part is that, except for one mistake, it all looks like it came off the profile page of my Fukuyama site...

And the mistake? They say he is from Tokyo instead of Kamakura (which is near Tokyo... in much the same way that Tacoma is near Seattle... about 45 minutes away by car).

I gotta go... see you later. ^-^

peace

PS Just one week left until Sakura-Con 2005!