*** DIARY ***

2003 8/4 (Mon) Notes from the underground

The following story is a snapshot of my daily rounds in the land of hoagies. Having lived in the city for years﹐ I often wondered whether I've stepped into some psych ward﹐ but this one truly takes the cake. Anyway﹐ if you need a few laughs﹐ read on. If not﹐ skip to the next post.

Tonight I came home and almost ran into a 6 ft-tall monster. The monster was quickly determined to be the belated Snow White fridge﹐ posing regally with its cardboard hat and plastic veil in the middle of the living room. A few steps into the kitchen﹐ Cinderella (on crack﹐ shall we say) fridge stood defiantly in front of the sink and gas range﹐ leaving a trail of scratches and stains from the new spot to its old home in the kitchen corner.

So﹐ what am I supposed to do? (sigh)

Here are the events leading to the case of the two fridges.

7/24: PM - Discovered Cinderella fridge was not cooling. Called property office and left message.

7/25: AM - Follow-up call to property office; could not reach main contact and left message with other contact.

PM - Discovered footprints in front of Cinderella. Called property office and left message with main contact.

7/28: AM - Follow-up call to property office. Was told that maintenance guys had visited 7/25 and pronounced Cindrella "unfixable"﹐ so Snow White had been ordered and scheduled for delivery on 7/29 or 7/30.

7/29 - 7/30: No sign of Snow White.

7/31: AM - Called property office and left message with main contact.

8/1: AM - Called property office. Was told that fridge had arrived and was waiting to be moved by contractors﹐ est. 8/2 or 8/4 (more likely).

8/4: AM - Called property office; after being on hold for 5 min﹐ gave up and decided to wait.

PM -- Came home only to find 2 fridges. No other signs of communication given.

Does this mean the contractors will come back tomorrow and finish the job? From past experience﹐ I can only assume so. Apparently﹐ some people just can't do more than one thing at a time.

I guess all of this wouldn't have been so bizarre had I not noticed a flurry of ongoing construction around the building﹐ including a broken lock on the front door. This is something I just wasn't looking forward to after spending another 14-hour day with feisty﹐ jet-lagged clients﹐ hyper-caffeinated boss﹐ and other random personalities.

As Maya from GnK sings﹐ "if you dream﹐ you can do it!" I'm dreaming now ...

2003 4/ 7 (Mon) Obsessing

This post is divided into 2 parts: serious and chatty. In "serious﹐" the webmaster explains some of her concerns about maintaining this site﹐ in hopes of getting people to behave. ^^; In "chatty﹐" the manga fan talks about some of her recent obsessions. Feel free to skip either part or read both. Comments are always welcomed.
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*Serious*
Just did some routine maintenance on the site﹐ when I realized I haven't updated for months. Checking links and such don't count -- that's what I do almost monthly anyway. I mean stuff like posting new comments﹐translations﹐yada yada.

Why? Besides the usual work and life duties﹐there's the nagging feeling that some people just keep taking stuff from this site without permission. The images are less of a concern﹐ since most are not copyrighted to me anyway. It does﹐though﹐ bug me to see something reposted elsewhere﹐ either as part of the webmaster's gallery or linked directly in some chat/forums -- both are dispectful of my time and money spent in buying the originals﹐ scanning and adjusting graphics﹐and paying for website space and bandwidth.

As for the translations and other text﹐let's just say that the idea of obtaining permission is lost on some people -- no matter how many times I've explained it in FAQ﹐ web pages﹐ and e-mails. Simply posting a translation and citing this site's URL are not enough. In the FAQ and pages containing translations﹐ I have specifically asked people NOT to cite any part of the translation without my explicit permission. If you would like to cite my translation﹐ just make a link back to the original webpage or this site. It can't be that difficult to cut & paste an URL﹐can it?

At this time﹐I have only given permission to 2 sites for posting translations from this site -- Mangafish and Love in Versailles. If you see stuff elsewhere﹐there's a 99% chance that I have not given permission. (There is one rare case of cross-referencing romanization with another site﹐which I won't name because of the long﹐convoluted story involved.)

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*Chatty*

A quick list of some manga series that made me jump up and down lately. Note: my tastes run from historical fantasy to psychological/occult horrors﹐with a special fondness for intricately plotted﹐angst-ridden stories that unfold very slowly.

1. Kashou no tsuki (1-11﹐now serialized in Lala)
A historical romance set in the Kamakura shogunate period. Exorcism﹐supernatural encounters﹐ancient folktales﹐legendary half-man﹐half-fox/cat creatures ... throw in a few struggles in the unconscious and flashbacks from childhood and previous lives. Voila! I must add that the anime is simply beautiful -- the images﹐voice-acting﹐and music are among one of the best I've seen. Drama and music CDs are also available.

...Oops﹐time to sleep. To be continued ...

2003 1/23 (Thur) Kafka moment

Update on my luck meter: water problem is mostly fixed﹐but now there's a hole in my bathroom ceiling.

Apparently what happened was that the plumber *forgot* (!?) to clear out the water residue from before﹐so when the water got turned on again﹐the residue came pouring down all at once through the ceiling. By the time I got home﹐my bathroom floor was already submerged in piles of wood splinters﹐white boards﹐ paint﹐and foam.

The hole is about 2 ft long and 1 ft wide. It's been 3 days now﹐and so far no maintenance guys have shown up (due to valid reasons but still irritate me to no end). Oh﹐did I mention that the dust and fume from the hole above are making me sick?

All of this just seems too surreal to be true. Yet every bit of it is. Somehow it reminds me of "The Metamorphosis﹐" and I can relate to the protagonist very well.

This morning I called my landlord again. Now I can only hope. *crossing my fingers and toes*

2003 1/20 (Mon) A bit frazzled

After a full 3 weeks of non-stop shopping﹐eating﹐and visiting random people﹐I've returned to the daily grind. Eeehaa!

As the old saying goes﹐you only have so much luck each lifetime. Of course﹐my luck meter dips right after a very lovely vacation. Just a few examples ...

* maintenance guys and neighbors came in and out of apt for 3 days straight to check on random things

* water supply line in building bursted due to frozen pipes ... most of which went right onto my bathroom floor

* tried for the past 3 days to call a relative who is scheduled for emergency surgery﹐but couldn't get through

* caught a bad cold and am still feeling dizzy ... the fact that the landlord set the heat to 60F doesn't seem to help

* came back to office and found myself scheduled to work 60-70+ hrs/wk from now till mid-March

As for the good news﹐I finally got all the books and goodies that were shipped from Japan 3 months ago. There will be another large (16kg!) box of books coming in another couple of months. Now I just need to find the time to read the books.