A Picture's Worth

Does anyone Stateside or willing to pay shipping want a 32" [81cm] light up Christmas tree? My flatmates and I just realised that while the main decorator is happy to take all the decorations home, no one want to take home the tree.

Working Christmas was actually pretty good; it seemed like everyone was in a better mood than usual. And I had an opening shift, so I got off early enough to go have a nice dinner in Canada with some of my friends. It wasn't what I'm used to at Christmas, but it was nice.

Some of my friends impressed me by giving Pukamon presents. I'll let him tell you about them:
This is Pukamon! We have the best flatmates EVER: They all chipped in to get me a huge keyboard that I can actually use with my flippers instead of smacking keys with a pencil! I'm getting almost as fast as Ash! And Ash's friend got an iPhone, but his iPod Touch was still working so he gave it to me! And he even got me a headset that fits my head because earbuds don't work for me! They're way cooler than those plain white earbuds, too! That's not even all of them, just the best ones.

I'm closing on New Year's Eve. I'm told it can actually be kind of fun because there's special fireworks at midnight, but I'm also told it's very, very busy. Hopefully I'll be sent to France for firework time so I can actually see the special ones instead of just Illuminations as usual. And hopefully they won't be broken like they were on Christmas.

Everyone else have a good Christmas time? Or at least a good start of winter break, proper Buddhist-san?

(OOC: Bracketed bit is used in the Japanese translation instead of inches.)

Yesterday I graduated my College Program. Well, I'm not actually finished yet (I still have three weeks to get fired), but I got my Certificate of Completion at a graduation ceremony! I brought Pukamon along, since he's been here this whole time too (even if he hasn't actually worked beyond making the occasional sandwich).

( But a picture speaks a thousand words, so I'm not going to write a novel. (OOC: Four drawings.) )

So now y'all who haven't met me yet know what I look like. Yes, I know: My partner is cuter than I am.

Apart from all that, I've spent my week freezing. 6C! It's weird: I always hate when people assume Australia's gorgeous and hot all the time, but I guess I felt the same way about Florida. Pukamon's lucky to have blubber and not work outside most of the time. No wonder he likes snow.

How was your week?

( OOC: A few notes on Ash's translation. )

Hi, this is Pukamon*! I went to DAK today and Ash and I had the worst seat ever on Kilimanjaro, right at the back, but on the upside because no one was really looking Ash let me use his cheap camera!

So here are some photos I took! It's kind of hard to zoom with no fingers so they're not very good, but I tried to take out the really blurry ones. Talent may occasionally run in families but it does not run in Chosen partnerships.

( OOC: Twenty 180x240px thumbnails linked to 1024x768px. IC-ly? 720x540px photos. They ARE at least cut IC-ly, though, with generic cut text. )

Animal Kingdom is my favourite park for the same reason I like zoos. Whenever I go, I remember to be thankful that humans understand us. Otherwise we'd probably end up like the animals, cooped up for strangers to gawk at all day long, or fetching sticks on the beach.

That, and it kinda reminds me of the digital world, but artificial.

Like Ash messing around with his hair for the winter formal tonight, trying to make it look like he hasn't been spending an hour on it (she's not going to be impressed, Ash). Another night home alone...

* This is actually Joey, Pukamon's flatmate, typing all this up as Pukamon dictates to me. Ash, as mentioned, is too busy being a girl to do this for him, Pukamon types very slowly (he pokes at the keyboard with a pencil), and I was ready for the formal an hour ago. So Pukamon bribed me with a sandwich, and he makes very good sandwiches.

Silly Digimon, I don't speak Japanese, the Japanese people can Google Translate this.

No, Pukamon, I'm not retyping this in Malay or Cantonese.

Goodbye, friends of Ash, my ride to the formal is here.

It's hard to believe I've only got a month left at Disney. And only two weeks till I graduate! Finally, I'll get the graduation ear hat and meet graduation Mickey and Minnie. My roommate's girlfriend plays Minnie; I will laugh if she ends up working a graduation.

I'm starting to plan my itinerary for after my Program, because I get until February 7th to stay in the States on my visa and school doesn't start for another week after that. Places definitely on the itinerary so far: DC again, NYC again. Maybe LA. Maybe Vancouver; one of my cousins is teaching snowboarding there this winter and Pukamon finds snow hilarious. Pukamon and I have been discussing the Jersey Shore, but all I want to do there is fist pump like a champ, and all he wants to do there is hit the beach, and it's going to be the middle of winter. Probably not. Suggestions? I've been putting quite a bit away, so I might even be able to swing a quick visit to Tokyo once I leave the States.

This week I put in an application for something pretty big, though it's really unlikely that I'll get it so I won't be devastated if I don't (think "I fell down a couple of steps" on a scale of stubbing your toe to accidentally destroying the worlds). I don't want to say what it is in case I jinx it, but wish me luck.

I am thankful for:

My family: Aussie, Japanese, and digital

My friends: Aussie, Japanese, cast member, and Chosen (yes, this means you guys!)

My flatmates, and their friends and girlfriends who are over so often that they seem like flatmates themselves

My Program: Getting the chance, my parents saying "sure you can wander off to another country again", being allowed to transfer to something I'm good at and enjoy... I could go on all day but I'd rather not unless the Mouse is paying me.

Airplanes

Facebook, e-mail, Skype, and Livejournal

Travel insurance

The turkey turning out great, especially for our first time making it ourselves

Jo's awesome pies (and Sam's suggestion of pies!)

The meat thermometer that Jo stole from work a few months ago

My flatmates not minding eating takeaways for a few days because the turkey took up first most of the freezer and then half the fridge (actually, who am I kidding? half of them eat takeaways most of the time anyway)

I'm thankful for one or the other every day, but it's nice to take stock. Maybe I'll make at least the thankful part a yearly thing. I'm not sure Mum and Dad will really take to another turkey holiday, and it's not like I can do it with the guys again.

Who: Ash, Pukamon; Ash's parents and little sisters
When: Thursday November 4th, 0047 (another backdate)
Where: Epcot, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
What: On his family's last night in Florida, Ash and Pukamon spot a digimon around more people than usual.

( In which Ash's family hog the spotlight for half the log. My bad. )

Who: Ash, Pukamon, Maria, and Leormon; briefly NPCing Ash's buddy
When: Sunday August 15th, evening (the most epic backdate evar)
Where: Central Park and beyond, New York City
What: On a road trip up the Eastern Coast, Ash and Pukamon get shown around the Big Apple by a local and meet some Chosen for the first time in America.

( tl;dr )

I've had enough. Maybe Ash is okay just ignoring the Digimon he apparently sees AT WORK, you know, potentially endangering the public, but I'm not. I wanna take this to the SOURCE: To the digital world.

[a little sullen] I'm not just homesick.

KOUSHIROU-SAN - think that was the name Hikari-chan mentioned - or anyone else with a Digiport who knows what they're doing with it. Can it be e-mailed? Or put on a USB stick and posted or whatever? Or I will PACKAGE ASH'S LAPTOP AND SHIP IT TO JAPAN. Totally serious; I WILL do it by which I mean have one of the boys do it; they might get a bit suspicious at the post office.

[While Digimon always seem to be universally understood, Brendan is definitely speaking English, with a New Zealand accent...half-asleep.] Pukamon, what are you ranting about...

[And Pukamon snaps into deliberate English.] Guest safety. Safe-D Begins With Me!

I realize you're a bum and Ash is at work, but some of us clock in at five tomorrow morning.

Sor--

Whoooooa, long time no blog. No real excuse, either. It's been...dramatic. In many ways.

Let's see... My older sister visited me for a week! We stayed at a resort (so good to sleep in a decent bed; I swear I woke up sore my first night back at home), ate out on property, and went to one of the Halloween parties at Magic Kingdom. I am going to kill her for making me dress up as Luke Skywalker to her Leia, though at least she took the lightsaber home so I wouldn't get fired for having it in housing. The rest of my family's finally coming up in a couple of weeks, and my host sister's making noises about coming over.

Work's been alright. For a couple of weeks there it seemed like we had lots of Japanese guests. I got to be useful for once! Usually I'm the idiot trying to find someone who speaks Spanish. It really was nice to put my Japanese to more use than blogging and talking to the girls on Japan pavilion.

Hope that makes up for my long absence!

(OOC: I'm so sorry! RL has been killing me the last month and a half. Settled now, so I hope to get back into the swing of things. Maria-mun, if your computer hell has also settled down, would you like to play out or at least discuss the kids meeting up in NYC?)

It was one of my best friends in this country's last day of work today; he leaves Saturday. Oh. Tomorrow.

My other best friend is out of here next week.

I find it a little ironic that the day I met my partner is in the middle of losing my best friends.