I think my weeaboo is showing (or, I really love anime merch, sometimes more than the source material itself)

Today's unexpected good luck: while buying bus tickets, I saw Old Dutch Jalapeno & Cheddar chips.  And there was a two for two dollars sale.  These are my favourite chips and I have only seen them in stores once since I was in the sixth grade.  They are so delicious and spicy.  One chip is enough to make me start coughing and my nose start running.

I got the last package from my September haul (lol SAL) and my October haul package today.  I spent an hour opening/playing with everything. Mostly opening because damn Amiami loves tape. I took pictures, but they came out shitty.  That was very annoying because my phone usually takes very clear pictures.  I have no idea why these ones were randomly low-res and grainy.

Anyways, onto the loot:
September Haul (only the AmiAmi ones arrived today): figma Kyon, from a /toy/soldier through the BST, because it was one of my grails; figma Haruhi (Winter), from AmiAmi, because now that I have Kyon I need a Haruhi for wacky hijinks; figma Yui, from AmiAmi, because I have the rest of HTT and they make a good back-up band for Miku and they make for good wacky hijinks poses; and the best item (and my most expensive figure to date, but I still paid significantly less than it's known to sell for), Kotobukiya P3 Protagonist, from MFC's sales.

 K-On and Haruhi figmas come with a nice reaction faces, so with a few Re-Ment/Orcara/MegaHouse miniatures, I like posing them in silly dioramas.  ATM I have the K-Ons acting as a band for my Miku figma, but once Luka shows up I'm rearranging them.  I must say, though, the detailing on the K-On instruments is amazing.  Mio's bass and Mugi's keyboard are exceptionally gorgeous.

Protag is gorgeous.  You can see his (fully painted) watch up his sleeve, you can read every letter--and they're less than 1mm in size--on his headphones, you can see distinct zipper teeth.  My only issue:  for some reason, the printing on the SEES armband had the seam between the two Es, so they don't line up exactly. I have him posed with the back half of the armband towards the wall, so it's not too noticeable.  I need to get Akihiko (and whenever I think or say that name too quickly it ends up being Kiko, so that's what I'll be calling him from now on) to complete the Protag, though, since his base has a cutaway for Kiko's.  I've got Kiko on backorder from AmiAmi.  I know HS has it in stock, but I have pre-orders at AmiAmi so I'm hoping it'll come in and I can save on shipping by doing that.

October Haul: Nendoroid Black Rock Shooter, since it was on sale for 1100 yen at AmiAmi; and Revoltech Yotsuba, also from AmiAmi.

I have learned that I do not like Nendoroids.  Since BRS was so cheap, it was a test purchase (I was on the fence, since I'm not all that crazy about their proportions) and because my other two October pre-orders were delayed and I didn't want to waste EMS on Yotsuba alone.  I am 90% sure I will be selling this thing at Anime North.  People always said figmas were fragile and Nendos were so sturdy, etc.  I look at this thing the wrong way and her pigtails fall out.

I've got it in the cartoonish battle damage pose at the moment.  The cartoonish bangs?  Do not fit the head's cut.  Gaps all around the face.  People bitched that the BRS figma was so flimsy and fragile, but that feels so much sturdier to me than this does.  And Nendos need to include a storage container like some other brands do.  So many extra parts.  I want to be able to store the box in my closet until I sell it and not have to deal with digging it out if I want to partswap.  I can't believe that my local anime store has the gall to sell these things for $70.  The only good thing:  the long pigtail has a peg separating the long and short locks so they can be posed separately.

Yotsuba's fun, though.  My first Revo, and even though I knew about the ratcheting joints, they were still a bit weird at first.  Not liking all the swivels, though.  More real joints, please.  The swivels are so loose, too.  It's hard to get them to hold a pose.  Currently I've got Yotsuba beside MC using her watergun to mimic his pose.

Shit that should be coming in in November:  figma Itsuki, from the BST; figmas Luka, Mari, and Aigis, from AmiAmi.  Kiko's coming whenever he comes out of backorder.  I kind of want figma Metis for Koromaru, but I dislike Metis.  Didn't play FES, and her design is ugly so I don't really want a figure of it.  Well, I can always hit up the BST to see if someone's selling Koro loose.

...Wow that was longer than I'd expected.

I also have my new glasses now.  I can see, plus the frames are thinner and the lenses are a higher RI than my old ones so they're a lot lighter.  Hopefully those bruises will go away soon.

In other news: my Classics prof still doesn't know how to use microphones, tall brunette in my Genetics tutorial still doesn't know how to answer questions, I am still colouring my Franziska wig and it is slowly making me insane, and blah school I wish we had a fall reading week like a certain nearby school.

Oh, speaking of school, the bookstore sells GIANTmicrobes in the medical section now.  I didn't get any because I couldn't decide which I liked best and Moyashimon's microbes are way cuter and the plushies are bigger so they wouldn't really fit in together. :(  I do want one of the ants (I know, not a microbe) but they didn't have any.

FREEDOM

I have no exams or assignments due this week.  I am free. It's a nice feeling.  I also have no Genetics lecture this week.  Prof has a conference to go to.  Why am I happy about missing that class?  It's a two hour lecture with the most uncomfortable chairs on campus.

I got my mark for the first midterm I did this year: 80%.  I am quite happy with that, considering I'd been slacking a little in that class.   I've been checking Portal like a madwoman for my other marks.

I've been playing Project DIVA 2nd since yesterday.  I like it more than the first PD.  Better songs and costumes, and it's easier to unlock costumes.  My only issue is that some songs are the same as PD and I still try to enter the key sequence from the previous game. --;  I've been putting off finishing Roxas's Ven's route in BBS, since I don't want to see the bad end a third time.  That and I'm at Neverland, and I've always hated Peter Pan.

I got a lot of money for my birthday.  I was not expecting that.  I'm not too sure what to do with it.  I think I'm going to save some of it for a 3DS, get more sweaters, and buy figures with the rest.

I do need sweaters, though.  It's getting cold and my clothes keep disappearing.  I blame my mother, since they usually turn up in her closet and by that point, they've been stretched a bit so I can't really wear them out anymore.  I've got to go return a shirt at Forever 21 this week, so I'll buy some sweaters then.  My pants and skirts don't go missing since they don't fit my mother at all.  Just my shirts.

I get my new glasses next week.  Since I can't see shit with my current glasses (there's about two diopters difference between the old and new prescriptions), I'm very happy about that.  I still need to order new contacts, though.

My Persona 3 Gekkoukan patch came in the mail last week.  It's gorgeous.  I want to commission the same person to do the patch for my Miku costume, but I'll need to vector that first since the reference image is shitty.  I'm having issues with that because my image software is being a brat and failing if I try to crop images or use vectors.  Time to acquire some new software.

Blah

So I had a post written, but it got erased.  The gist of it was:
-midterm this morning was easy
-birthday dinner with family; drama ensued
-relatives ordered me drinks since it was my 19th
-the alcohol did nothing
-got money from relatives; will buy nice things now
-very tired, will sleep for a long time now

Midterm Hell

Hey guys, I read all your blog updates, but I didn't really have time to comment.  Tomorrow's midterm is number four of four midterms in less than two weeks. It's also half the length of all my other midterms but has over two times the amount of questions. ;_; They'd best be easy questions.  I'm also up to 17 pages of summary notes.  This is supposed to be the "easy" elective!  I was able to summarize everything else into less than ten pages.  I have four more chapters to summarize, but can't do them now because the course website isn't loading properly.

I've been skipping lectures all week to get my studying done.  I've only been going to my mandatory classes.  It's paid off, though.  I didn't have trouble with the last three exams.

Someone from UTAMA (my uni's anime club) is doing a circle lens group order.  Going to get two pairs for my upcoming cosplays.  I'm going to get a red pair and a blue pair. I'm not giving her my order until later on tonight, though.  I have an optometrist appointment this afternoon, so I'll get my updated prescription.

I'm very happy about going to optometrist.  My glasses are a few years old, and I can only see a few feet ahead with them.  My eyes like to stay stable for a few years, then suddenly become much worse. D:   My contacts are more recent, so I've been wearing those more often.  I need to stop soon, though.  They're uncomfortable in cold weather. I want to see if I can get prescription lab goggles.  My current goggles are so uncomfortable to wear over glasses.  No contacts in the lab*, so I can't wear those underneath.

*The polymers that the contacts are made of can react with chemical vapours in the air and melt onto your eye, blinding you.

I'm kind of disappointed that we didn't have to watch the ridiculous UofT lab safety video this year.  It's wonderful--giant fireballs, vats of bleach jumping onto unsuspecting students, etc.

Anime - General

So, since most of the people coming here will probably be anime fans, I thought it would be good to let you guys know what I'm a fan of.   Here's my MAL profile.  It'll give you an idea of what I've watched, but not really of what I like since I usually don't bother to rate most of my entries. --;

My all-time favourite anime is probably Moyashimon.  It's cute, funny, and taught me everything I know about fermentation and I remember microbe names easily now.  Okay, I draw the Moyashimon version of the microbe beside its name in my notes in order to remember.

Eureka seveN and Simoun are pretty high up the list, too.  E7 was just amazing--the plot, the characters, everything worked together beautifully.  Yeah, the Anemone/Dominic thing was a bit of a cop out but it was so cute.  Also, vaguely creepy when you remember that Dom is older than he looks. Simoun had wonderful character development and beautiful art and music.  Shame people always write it off as yuri fanservice.

This season I'm watching Star Driver, Togainu no Chi, Panty & Stocking, and OreImo.  Star Driver is great, but the recycled animation is getting annoying.  Fish Girl's song, too.  It's a beautiful song, but do we really have to hear it every single time they enter Zero Time?  I'm watching Togainu no Chi because I have some of the figures and I feel like watching it will "justify" the cost.  That and TnC is one of the few yaoi series I like.  I have a love/hate relationship with PSG.  When it's good, it's great and when it's mediocre, it's horrible.  It's more often great than horrible, though, so I'm okay with that.  OreImo is...I neither like it nor dislike it.  I do like that it's less "I want my hot sister" and more "Yay, I'm being treated like a big brother again!" if that makes any sense.

Intro

Hey, I'm Larissa.  I'm a second-year university student majoring in Cellular Biology and Human Genetics.  I like watching anime, reading manga, sewing, cosplaying, baking and playing video games.

I'll probably be using this blog to review anime/manga/games and to talk about my other interests.  I'll post any interesting tutorials or recipes I come across as well.

For the time being, I think this is all that's relevant for my introduction.