Down In The Dumps

I've been feeling a bit off lately. I feel so tired when I get home from work that all I want to do is hole myself up and do absolutely nothing and talk to absolutely no one. (Well, I'm okay with talking to Princeton.) I want to switch my brain off and just enjoy watching anime or reading a manga, and that's exactly what I've been doing these past couple of weeks or so to fight off the feeling of "down-ness" that's been overcoming me.

I don't like weddings. I don't remember the last time I attended one. I think it's been more than two years now, maybe longer. The having to wear uncomfortable clothes and being in a crowd drains me. Come to think of it, I haven't attended social events or parties that require formal attire or otherwise for a long time now.

I wish I had expressed my true feelings about going out with Princeton's friends after our wedding dinner instead of just going along yet resenting his friends for their insensitivity and feeling bad that Princeton didn't tell them that he would rather spend time alone with me at the end of our wedding day. I should have told them that all I really wanted to do after that emotion-packed day was to sit quietly with Princeton and fondly talk about the day's events, to process our feelings and imprint that once-in-a-lifetime event into our consciousness as a happy memory. But I didn't. And I know that it was me who made that decision not to say anything. So I'm responsible for my own feelings. I know I can also choose to focus on better-feeling thoughts instead of dwelling on this negative-feeling one, but right now I think I'll allow myself to wallow for a bit.

I will be fine though, that I'm certain of. In the meantime, I'll just allow myself to be.

My Article Has Been Plagiarized!

Today I found out that one of my original articles on HubPages has been plagiarized. It was copied word for word from start to finish (including the title, by the way) and republished on another person's blog as his own. It infuriates me to think that something I worked hard on was so easily stolen. I've been earning good money off that article for a year now, too. And now this person who copied my article is stealing a portion of my earnings! Argh!

So I guess that makes me an bona fide author now. Haha. It's the first time I've had to file an official DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) complaint with Google, Inc. I had to do it because the one who plagiarized my article didn't allow comments and didn't put any contact information on his site. There was no way for me to contact him directly and politely ask him to remove my article from his blog. He did however have many Google ads there so I hope Google bans him from Google Adsense for plagiarism and he can't make money off of other people's original copyrighted work. Hah! The kitten has claws!

In case you're curious, this is the article I'm talking about:
Useful Facebook Tricks People May Not Know About

Turning Japanese

I have been fascinated with everything Japanese for a long time now, - their language, their culture, their food, and most especially their very distinctive animation style called anime.

I bought two or three "teach yourself Japanese" books and a Japanese-English dictionary in college just so I could watch my favorite anime (at that time) Rurouni Kenshin in its original language. I didn't get far with it though. It was too hard. Now I'm at it again, this time with Pimsleur Japanese audio CDs. I like it much better since I can hear the correct pronunciation of the words. So far I've gotten to Lesson 9 and I'm learning to construct my own sentences, which I find really exhilarating.

I find Japanese culture and way of life quite interesting and would like to live in Japan to experience it sometime, which is quite ironic really. How I, a freedom-loving, free-spirited, liberal-minded person, would be interested in Japanese culture which puts more importance on modesty, deference, and maintaining harmonious relationships with others, baffles even myself. I blame it on anime.

Ah, anime! I cannot begin to express how much I love anime. I'd become an anime character if I could. :P I'd like to tour around an anime studio in Japan and see how anime is created from conceptualization to voice recording. I'd like to try my hand at making anime as well. I just need to learn how to draw first. Hah!

My "Japanization" is almost complete. Oh, did I mention that I like Japanese music as well? :)