Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.

I was driving home on Saturday when one of the tires on the right side of my car started making this thumping noise. I figured it was the back tire, since the last time I took the car in they said I'd need new back tires soon, and that I'd gotten something stuck in the treads. I didn't even think to check the front tire until yesterday, when I was backing out of the driveway and Grandma stopped me and told me that I had a flat. Turns out there was a giant screw that punctured my tire, and that's why it was making that noise. At least Discount Tire was able to repair it, so I only had to get two tires replaced instead of one.

Of course, nothing can ever be simple with my car. Now it's shuddering while I drive, especially when I'm slowing down, though it's really noticable if I let the car inch forward. And while the "Service Engine Soon" light is on a lot (which I usually let go because there's a short in the system, and it's only something to worry about when it's on for more than a couple weeks), now it's blinking, which means I really need to take it in soon. Of course I need to take it in. I can't possibly have my car working correctly, now can I?

I love this site. I finally get to watch Heroes, the Dresden Files, the third season of LOST, Peach Girl, and re-watch Are You Afraid of the Dark. And I had no idea they had a Xenosaga anime. I'll have to watch that once I'm through with Peach Girl.

I've especially been watching the Dresden Files. I just finished Storm Front, and I'm really disappointed that they cancelled the show. I prefer the books, but it's really fun to watch. I like the guy who plays Harry. I like the guy who plays Bob, too, though I wish there was at least one scene where he was a talking skull. Talking skulls are awesome. And I love the drumstick wand and the hockey stick blasting rod. Random mundane objects as magical tools = awesometastic.

Peach Girl is pretty cool as well. I like it a lot better than I did the Taiwanese drama. The characters are more likeable, and it doesn't spend half of its episodes letting the main character angst all over everything. I still like the guy who plays A Li in the drama, but he's the only reason I would watch it now.

Dad got married today. I took the place of the best man, so I stood up there with him and handed him the ring. (The ring which, I might add, he forgot and had me drive back home to grab it out of his dresser. Dork.) Thank goodness it was a short ceremony, and there were only a hundred guests at the most. One of the guests commented on the way out of the church that they were glad it wasn't a Catholic ceremony, since Mass would have been said otherwise, and I have to agree. Standing up there for twenty minutes was bad enough. I looked like a big fat stalk of asparagus, and I think my underwear might have showed through my dress. D: I got a lot of random hugs when we greeted people as they left the church. I didn't even know most of the people who were hugging me. And half of them kept saying "Do you remember me? I haven't seen you since you were this high!" And of course I didn't remember them at all. I can barely remember his high-school friends. At least he's gone for a week.

I've gotten myself hooked on J-drama now, which are basically Japanese soap operas. Right now I'm hooked on the Hana Yori Dango live action drama. I think I like it better than the anime and the manga - this may have more than a little to do with Matsumoto Jun playing Domyouji Tsukasa. He is just too damn pretty, and he's such an amazing actor as well. I cried quite a few times because of him. And I will happily admit I have joined the ranks of screaming MatsuJun fangirls everywhere. But he's not the only reason I like it. All of the actors were wonderful - Inoue Mao was a perfect Tsukushi! She's so cute, and I love her facial expressions and her reactions. I also like how they cut down and combined scenes from the manga - the three parties at the beginning were smushed into one, characters were either combined or left out, but they left in the good scenes. The only complaint I have is that they didn't include the scene where Tsukasa attacks Tsukushi. For some reason I really, really like that scene, and I have no idea why. It's not a big deal, just a minor disappointment. I can't wait for Robin to give me the second season. And I hear there might be a third season, which would make me so very, very happy.

Speaking of the second season, I was surfing a J-drama bittorrent site, and in their forum they had a thread talking about HYD season 2. It was obviously pretty old, as it started out wondering what it was going to be like. Someone posted that they didn't know if they wanted to see it, as they didn't want the storyline to be ruined. A second person said "Well, there's plenty of material from the insanely long manga to use as plot. I'm sure it'll be fine." And the first person said, "What? There's a manga? I never knew that." I wanted to cry. Typing in Hana Yori Dango into Google is more likely to get you websites on the anime or manga than the live-action drama. How is it possible not to know that the manga exists and like the show? ARG.

Kimi wa Petto was pretty good, though I wasn't sure I liked the end that much. It just seemed like a cop-out: "Let's go back to the way things were!" But at least it showed that they were working on an actual relationship. Also, I feel like a complete idiot for two reasons: first, for not realizing that Matsumoto Jun played Momo until about five or six episodes in, and second, for assuming that it was just me not being able to tell Japanese people apart and figuring it was just a guy who looked like him. I am an idiot some days.

And now I am watching Gokusen, which has, you guessed it, Matsumoto Jun AGAIN! Thank you, Robin, for providing me with enough MatsuJun to drool over for a good week or so. You are truly loved!

Everyone, be prepared for some HYD icons in the near-ish future!

I finally got around to watching the last few episodes of Chrno Crusade. I'm not sure whether I like the anime or the manga better. Story-wise, I think I prefer the manga. It was a lot more open-ended.

( Cut for spoilers. )

Arg, I need to go re-read the manga, and after Robin finishes watching CC I'm going to re-watch it as well. It's been a while since I watched or read it. And I'm definitely going to have to download the soundtrack.

Made a new icon today. (Hint: it's the one I'm using.) They were playing The Shining on A&E today, and I turned it on right as they reached that scene. I couldn't help myself.

Playing X-Men Legends for three hours straight can be taxing on the brain. Especially when you're doing fine, and then you suddenly get your ass handed to you and the Danger Room keeps doing the same, making it almost impossible to level up and stay sane at the same time. Bah! I WILL defeat that game this week, and then I'll get to play X-Men Legends 2. Hooray for video games!

And speaking of X-Men, I grabbed Ultimate X-Men #67 Friday. I'm going to check Nostalgia Ink tomorrow and see if they have #65 and #66. (I need my fix, damnit!)

Got to see Katie today over yummy soup and sammiches (toasted tomato herb bagels and mushroom soup are love). She's been accepted to Western, so with luck we'll be able to room together when Fall semester rolls around. Her mom keeps telling her to stay in the dorm with all of the musicians, instead of in Seidschlag (which is the girl's only dorm where I've already signed up), and now she wants to meet me to make sure that Katie's making a good choice by rooming with me. Seeing as how I have a lot of stuff, and we can pool our resources, and Sied has bigger rooms than Bigelow, I think we're making a pretty good choice here. I HOPE we can room together. At least she's going to be at WMU.

You know, I have never made a very good fan.

I never really expend a lot of energy into joining groups or finding out new things about my particular fandom (even though I have to admit it would probably be interesting and rather fun), not since I was a major Backstreet Boys fan in fifth or sixth grade and spent hours online reading about them, saving hundreds of pics, attempting to chat with people about them (the first foray I made into a chatroom, I was ignored, which kind of sucked -- I may have been a newb who thought "Hey, BSB chatroom means we talk about BSB, right?", but that's no reason to blow me off...). I'm just the most passive, "Oh, yeah, that was cool. Wanna go write half-assed fanfic now?" admirer of whatever I'm into I've ever run into. I don't spend hours looking up stuff on my fandoms (though that might be a good thing now), and to be frank, half the time I don't really care.

I dunno. Does anyone else think I should try and be a better fan?

[Poll #598409]