Personal Log: TJ Dragonblade

The Kakashi Car also has a Tinkerbell decal on the gas cap, so odds are it belongs to a woman. I suspect she works at that grocery store, also, because the car was in nearly the same spot yesterday as when I saw it last time I stopped there.

...especially with all the Kakashi fans I know. ^_^

Had to stop at the grocery store on the way home from work, and I attempted to park in a somewhat narrow space between a pickup and a nondescript dark blue slightly-beat-up old Mitsubishi sedan with a myriad of cracks spiderwebbing the windshield. I thought my Tahoe would fit, and it did, but I would have had to crawl out the back hatch. So, no. As I was pulling back out of the space, however, I noticed the Leaf emblem decal in the upper corner of the sedan's windshield; pulling past it to go park elsewhere, I couldn't help seeing the giant first-stage Sharingan decal on the back window.

My reaction was half 'Hey, Naruto fan!' and half 'Meh, Sasuke fan' and I made a point of walking past the front of the car on my way in to the store; turns out, not necessarily a Sasuke fan after all. There was a Leaf emblem in either corner of the windshield with a bold red 'Kakashi' emblazoned between them. And the license plate? HATAKE.

^___^

It made me grin, which I could really use these days. It's just too bad my jeep is still dry-docked in the backyard, because A) it's narrower than the Tahoe and probably would have fit beside the Kakashi car, and B) if I'm still this deep into the fandom when the jeep is running again, I plan to pursue getting it vanity-licensed as ANBU, probably with a Leaf emblem on the windshield behind the rearview mirror and an ANBU tattoo decal on the driver door. ♥

It's always nice, though, to see Proof of Other Geeks in this town. Had I seen the driver with the car, I might even have gathered the nerve to offer an appropriately-appreciative comment. ^_~ d

I learned fairly recently that Nightwish and Anette parted ways in October. Which is too bad, but c'est la vie and all that. Nightwish isn't hiring a replacement right away, probably won't even start looking (based on a November interview) until sometime next year. In the meantime, they've brought in Dutch singer Floor Jansen to finish out their world tour and other committed engagements. I was curious, so I went looking for videos of her old and current bands to get a feel for her voice. As it turns out, however, YouTube is already well-stocked with smartphone recordings of Nightwish shows with Floor on vocals so I got a better taste of how they mesh than I'd expected. She kind of sits right in between Tarja and Anette, stylistically; I looked up performances of songs from both former singers and she pulls them off impressively, adds a tastefully-balanced bit of her own flavor. And...well. I know she's not likely to end up as the official replacement (even though the way she was introduced in an Australian show a few days ago apparently has rumors flying that she might be), that she's got her own prior committments and projects and her own band and all. But I wouldn't mind being wrong about that; my first impression is that she's a really good fit for the Nightwish sound and style. I mean, when she sings Ghost Love Score with the band and it still gives me the same massive goosebumps despite crappy bootleg sound quality and an very enthusiastic fan right next to the video-taker shouting lyrics along in an off-key monotone? Yeah. I could definitely live with this as a permanent arrangement.

...Also. The Nightwish version of 'The Heart Asks Pleasure First'? Awesome. ♥

I feel compelled to point out that with the publication of 615 this past week, it's now been a full hundred chapters since we've seen Yamato, with no further word.

A hundred.

T_T

Have had this song on loop the past three or four days. Somehow this seemed worth posting about at 3am. In looking up the YouTube link to do so, I discovered that Nightwish--who would probably qualify as my favorite band if I had to pick--has crafted a version of this song, which they included as a b-side to the single they released last March.

Huh.

Too bad iTunes isn't selling the single. May have to go old-school hardcopy on this and buy the actual CD.

So. Fic deadline met, though not as timely as I'd have liked. The fic is still in the polishing process, despite its entry. It was more about setting and meeting a goal, though, than any real hope of placing or prize-winning. So I'm...half-satisfied? I drafted it, sure, which is technically 'finished' according to some, but...it's still not finished to me. I guess that would be the goal to set for myself next time - finish and polish and have beta'd and revise to my own satisfaction by a deadline.

Anyway. This means I've got roughly a month and a half of flist to catch up on, and it'll take me awhile, assuming that I get to it at all. If there are fic or pic postings I've missed, or Posts of Great Interest or Personal Importance that I ought to see sooner than later, I encourage the dropping of links.

Elsewise. Have a couple songs with which I've recently become acquainted, both with a very high Personal Resonancy Value:

===
Assemblage 23 - Drive

Pleasantly pulse-pounding electronic trance music, a strangely-fitting almost-monotone-y delivery worthy of every Heero Yuy cliche you've ever read, and fabulously resonant lyrics:

The open road unwinds before me
An onyx ribbon spreading out
No idea where I'll be going
Sometimes the journey is what counts

Sometimes I drive
To run from all my demons
Sometimes I drive
So I can be alone
Sometimes I drive
To see the world in a different light
Sometimes I drive
For no reason at all

To which I say: Hell yes. Except that the price of gas means that most times, I just drive to work and back. -_-x

===
Nightwish - Lagoon

Feeling lonely and content
At the same time
I believe
Is a rare kind of happiness

I got ahold of some Nightwish early work and rarities while waiting for the new album to be released come the end of the month. This one stands out, mostly because I was delighted to discover yet another Ocean Soul song from them. ^_^ It's very isolated-moonswept-beach-at-midnight in its melodies; the lyrics are sparse and simple, Tarja's voice is very soft, and the rhythms are mid-tempo and lovely. Middle-of-the-road Nightwish style, neither uber-operatic nor uber-metallic, and rather synth-heavy. It's a very good listen, if shorter than I'd like.

Sharing this article, because I found it very...I don't know, some sense of something somewhere between amusement and satisfaction and vindication:

Why Geeks Make Better Lovers