Anime North 2013

Expect many pictures of Anime North 2013 next year. I will be there on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As for Toronto Anime Con, I will be missing it for work. (ノ￣-￣)ノ

To cover for Toronto Anime Con, December will have a post on *spoilers* mall food courts.

Watching People

I have an odd hobby: watching people. I enjoy watching people move, their expressions, their voices, and their reaction to anything. People are fascinating, and as long as they're not paying attention to me, I can watch them for hours while sitting in one spot. I don't mean the people who were captured on video or their recorded voice: it's the in-person experience of watching them that is relaxing and interesting.

Have you ever noticed that everyone moves differently? The way a person walks defines them and tells a story. Every bend of the knees, the swing of the arms, and the lift of the body when they take another step makes me want to stare at the person for hours. Believe it or not, I can recognize some of my friends from a distance by the way they walk. It's quite memorizing.

Also: body parts. Whenever I see someone with familiar eyes, arms, or a nose and I don't know them, I wonder if they are related to people I know who have similar features. How closely are they genetically related? Do they know each other? How would people who don't know each other but have similar looking body parts react when they realize that they have the same feature? My mind is always left wondering about these things.

Which brings me to a related issue: watching people make me look like a creep. If I were a very beautiful person, people may not have an issue with me staring at them, but I'm not. I have people asking me "what's your problem?" and being the anxious and fearful person I am, I can only reply with a "sorry" in a weak trembling voice. Should I just stick with videos?


_{Image from chapter 1 of Watashi Ni xx Shinasai, by Tooyama Ema. Chapter 1 was scanlated by For The Halibut.}

Meep

Why does the college curriculum seem busier than university's? Is it because it is a post-graduate program or is it because most of the assignments are done in groups? Maybe I'm just less productive these days and feel like it's a lot of work. Come to think of it, I have been sleeping a good 6 to 9 hours more often lately-- a great change from the 2 to 4 hours in my university days. I feel more tired during the day though.

Another thing that is troubling me is money. As long as I am a full time student, I refuse to do part-time work that takes up at least 9 hours of my week. I take a long time to read and write, and I need my sleep time. My strategy to counter having no income is to stay on a diet of two slices of bread with two slices of ham everyday for lunch. Water and hot chocolate are the main beverages, and $20 per month is the allowance for lunch and dinner at school. I know I eat a lot (5 meals a day and 2 snack times on a good day) and I'm already abnormally thin, but money. I have been coerced into spending a great amount of money and I can't go back.

I hope this will all be worth it in the end. I've sacrificed my 17-year old coin collection which I kept to my heart since a child. Every time I spend the coins, it breaks a part of me. Sounds stupid, but it's like having your pokémon cards ripped in half in front of you in 1999. Pretty devastating. It will be tough to land a full-time job in January for April and I'm never fully prepared for a big change in life, but I look forward to another world of schedules, activities, and actual money. I don't want to be stuck doing only volunteer work for more than a year though. Interviews are also a steep hill to climb.

Right now, my anti-drug is a compilation of opera, electronica, and classical music with a hint of Gravity Falls and good friends. Am I enjoying the moment? When I'm not thinking about my minor issue with money, yes.