December update

If you've been paying attention to my Facebook or twitter accounts, you already know that I was diagnosed with pneumonia on Sunday. If you really only flow my blog, then apologies for not posting the news sooner, but the illness has really punched me to the ground. It's taken no time at all to let me know it is far more hardcore than the constant colds I get. I suppose I should have predicted this, given the constant weak immune system I have, and the onslaught of toddler cold season during the winter. But I certainly didn't see it coming.  Had a chest x ray, catscan, and strep swab at the ER, and was prescribed Zithromax antibiotics. It's a very powerful drug, but the pneumonia is still kicking my butt with coughs and shortness of breath at nights. Word on the street is that this is not a flash in the pan thing, but rather like the siege of a castle, it will take a while to resolve itself.  The baby is going to the dr's later today to ensure that he isn't at risk for it. Fingers crossed.

 

Despite this point of I'll health I managed to finish what I might call my most ambitious editorial illustration to date during the illness, all the while listening to the audiobook version of 1q84 (which I have yet to finish.)  Just yesterday I wrote roughly 3 thousand words in the novel, and surmounted a huge plot point. The novel is picking up steam, though I don't know if it will be ready for publication by the original deadline I'd set. 

 

Finances wise; donations and illustrations assignments left over should pay January rental least, February is still up in the air. I'm pondering things, but at the moment am pretty sick as is.  I did leave the donation button up in the leftmost column of the blog, and donations do get a free thank you gift illustration ( will have to change it for repeat donations.) so if you donate to the rent and diaper fund, thank you, I appreciate it regardless of the amount, whether that's $1 or $600. 

 

I had more to say a minute at but one of the symptoms of pneumonia is a lack of clear thinking, so I guess I'll just have to let it go for now.

 

Tanks for reading, donating, and sending well-wishes and prayers, I appreciate it.

Excerpt from the work in progress -draft 1

She sighed and suddenly jammed the controls of the Sabercycle downward towards the ice and snow. Instead of the jarring crash she was half expecting, the hovering bike corrected itself and disappeared in a flicker of light just before it would have crashed. Rei was thrown forward before slamming through the windshield of a taxi cab.  She’d have laughed if it wasn’t for the intense pain she felt. After a few minutes, she stood up, brushed herself off, and swiped her hand in front of her to bring up the UI again. 

She equipped herself with the same armor and weapons, and when everything was ready Rei stood up, selected the multiple target weapon system. She felt the rifle in her hands melt into liquid chrome, before reforming itself fluidly to become a multibarreled launcher. She smiled, looked at the looping scene around her and opened fire on the street full of cars and people. 

Streaks of missile vapor exploded from her hands as dozens of fist sized sunlight bright stars blossomed forth and spun crazily before impacting the buildings cars and street. Missiles streaked and curled away, sailing up into the sky, down the street and into the cars and pavement below. 

Fireballs and chunks of white hot steel enveloped the street. Cars began popping as they exploded with loud ground shaking thumps, the charred wrecks flipped into the air like cards before a hurricane wind. Slagged pieces of vehicles and chunks of buildings rained down into the street crushing other cars and bodies of the pedestrians with sickening realism. Within minutes the missile salvo she had loosed had decimated two city blocks, and further down the avenue buildings toppled over into the street and each other, hurling bricks, glass, steel and burning bodies on the street.

Being courted by advertisers?

I recieved this email via the contact page, and thought I'd poke them to see what the process was, out of pure curiosity. I rate these type of "offers" right up there with Nigerian Prince Bank letters.  My responses are (in brackets)

Bredman

Your Email: removed 
Subject: Interesting in text Advertisement
Message: Hi
Actually I am interested in buying a number of text links on your web blog http://marikurisato.com.
Let me know your interest. I can tender you a reasonable price for it.
My links are free of porn material.

Waiting for your answer.

To which I replied:

So how does it work?

And they replied: 

Thanks for reply,

We have a network of webmasters and publishers. We are working on the behalf of requirment of both webmaster and publishers.

(erm. what?)

Webmaster add links in sidebar/footer and earn money in the return. The links may be relevant or irrelevant depend on the willingness of webmaster and publisher.

(see my last comment.)

Our prices are on the base of Blog PR as follow;

Blog PR Price    /links/            6month No.of links Blog Earning/ Six month

2          $10      10-15                   $100-150

3          $15      10-15                   $150-225

4          $20      10-15                   $200-300

5          $25      10-15                   $300-450

6          $30      10-15                   $400-600 

As your blog Pr3, we offer your $30 per link or Year.Your annual earning will be $300-450.
once you accept our requirments then within 10 days we fill all the links.

All links will be relevant to blog content, no porn and spammy links.

(Didn't you just say that it would be irrelvant or relevant?)

We pay by paypal and moneybooker. 

This is longterm oppertunity, each year you can earn handsome money from your blog.
In future, if your blog PR increase then your link price will also increase.

Waiting for your response.

Keep waiting, Bredman .

I guess I should feel honored that I'm being targeted by the same type of skeezers  that  Gawker and other websites are, but in all honesty I'd rather keep my blog ad free. (And by ad free, I mean, aside from promoting the stuff I like and being paid for it not at all. If people want to know how I make my money (HA!) they can order an art piece, or even just throw some coin into the donation jar for a treat thank you gift. (Possibly involving nudity, but whatev's.) 

 

status update

Sleep pattern: 24+ hours awake then 2-8 hours sleep, then 24+ awake, repeat. Today's was 2 hours sleep. If I keep this up and cross the 36 hour mark awake again my tweets and fb posts will probably get really surreal and annoying very fast, so you might want to /block/mute/ me at that point. No hard feelings.

Drugging myself to sleep at this point is not effective. Going to the ER/hospital means waiting at a free clinic or another huge bill I can't pay. & after the baby's recent ER visit for an infection I've prioritized his healthcare first. This is all stress.  Eviction notice will come roundabout the third of November if it comes, after that access to posting on the net will be intermittent. 

Follow Friday list reborn: Newsjunkie edition

Are you on Twitter? If yes, then check out these people I think you should follow, and why.

Newsjunkies should note:


Lauren Wolfe of the War Against Women Project, formerly of the Commitee to Protect Journalists. Getting actual new from around the world can be dangerous, and Wolfe has been on the forefront of telling the world about crimes against journalists for awhile now. Her track record at CPJ gives me great hope for her work as the Director of the War against Women project for Women's Media Center. She's tweeting cuurently about the horrific rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other very important but not widely known news.

Sample Tweet:

_______

 Hiroko Tabuchi New York Times Journalist based in Tokyo. A thoroughly informative journalist whose work on The Fukushima Disaster and the March 11 Quake proved invaluable for keeping me aware of by the minute changes in the middle of Japan's worst disaster in my lifetime. Her articles for the NYT are worth the site's damned paywall, in my opinion, but her saber sharp wit on Twitter is priceless. 

Sample Tweet:

_____

Octavia Nasr*

Nasr made headlines of her own when she voiced her opinions last year and was summarily fired from her job at an obscure news channel, emerging from the incident like the phoenix of legend, using her unique perspective as a Middle East expert to found Bridges Media Consulting and providing a fresh look on Middle East events without ever compromising her own perspectives for fear of annoying some fuddy duddy network. Full disclosure, I once painted a portrait for her, but that did not infliuence my choice to include her in this list of awesome newsies.

Sample Tweet

 

Jake Adelstein*

Author of the amazing Tokyo Vice, investigative journalist, Polaris Project boardmember, and Hello Kitty Ninja, Adelstein amazed me from the first time I read his book, through when we "met" on Twitter (Let's face it, I stalked him) up until now. Full disclosure, Jake is a current client of mine, but that did not influence my decision to include him in this list. 

Sample Tweet


 

Kizuna fiction for Japan

Taking a moment to help spread the word about Kizuna: Fiction for Japan, an awesome charity fiction anthology edited by Made in DNA 

Kizuna: Fiction for Japan is a mixed-genre anthology of short fiction, most of it 1000 words or under. It boasts internationally-known authors like Michael Moorcock, Ken Asamatsu, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, John Shirley, Shinya Gaku, Vittorio Catani, Robert M. Price, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., and Alvin Pang; genre-authors like Bradley Sands, Jason Wuchenich, Andersen Prunty, and Garrett Cook; and independent authors like Trent Zelazny and Glynn Barrass. An astonishing 76 authors answered the call to help and approximately ninety percent of it is original work written specifically for this anthology. 100 percent of the proceeds will go to helping orphans in the disaster-devastated areas of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima via the NPO, Smile Kids Japan.

Smile Kids Japan
Smile Kids Japan and Living Dreams (NPOs / social benefit organizations) are working together on Smiles and Dreams, a program to help the orphanages in the worst affected prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate. From helping with immediate needs, to setting up long term programs to empower the children to dream again and help them realize their goals, Smiles and Dreams is a grassroots project that gets the money directly to those in need.

Kindle Editions:

Kizuna: Fiction for Japan (a charity anthology) > US

Kizuna: Fiction for Japan (a charity anthology) > UK

Kizuna: Fiction for Japan (a charity anthology) > DE

 

________________{from the book's website}

I believe there will be print editions of this awesome work very soon, and do hope you will check out the book's facebook page and website.

 

short of breath

​

​

Sasameki Koto, my favorite anime when I'm sick with colds

sorry it's been a month since my last update. My partner lost her job recently (this being the part time job she got to replace her corporate position of 5 years) and we've just been busy, and lately, sick. Daisuke, almost twelve months old now, got his first common cold, and it quickly spread to his mommies. Thankfully, his grandmother is away in California caring for someone in the "getting really hard" stages of MS, so she was spared.

Lately though, I've been very short of breath. Taking deep breaths, or even regular  lungfuls of air are getting hard, which makes for exhaustion at night trying to sleep.  And hearing little Daisuke cough in his sleep in his crib is just heart breaking, though as always, even at his worst, he's a polite little trooper. Moms' love, and a little bit of Elmo from Sesame street and he gets by. 

Last month was very kind commissions wise, but as always, I worry about next month. I should be freaking out, but I'm just too exhausted. What energy I have left I'd like to focus on positive things, and to thank everyone who still drops by and reads my blog, fiction, and especially to my art patrons. Thank you so much. Let's hope for a heathier September!

(my favorite time of year is the fall )

short short fiction fragment

Laura Davis, Survivor.

Denver:

Ten minutes ago the President went off line for the last time. The City power's been out for weeks, we knew that when we set up the generators. Our bigger problem is the three basics, fuel, food, ammo. Guns we have, everyone has those. Maybe one in thirty people know how to safely use a gun. But only so much ammo.

Last week was the worst. Downtown's gone. Most of the useful parts of the City are, burned up by the Firebugs. But life's going to get real tough for them too. There's only so much drugs, and they tend to make themselves prey to the Eaters.

Most Eaters are not that smart, and if you take a second to think, you can usually use the environment against them. Basic physics knowledge helps. We're walking out of the City today, the fifty of us. No leader, no alpha males yet. Everyone with an ego, a chip on their shoulder, they went down in the beginning days, about the same time as the Frozen.

The fires are making our decision for us. We have to get away from the winds, cause the fires do a better job than the Eaters or other crazies at taking people out. Fires moved really fast. We have maybe a few hours. Me and Kara are moving out first, then the rest will follow a mile off the road. (I-25) In packs of ten. Rifle and ammo with every group, water carriers for all.

Lots of people drove on the road in the first days after, trying to get away. Some made it farther than others. No more gas stations though, so. The road is littered with cars, and further down, the bodies of the drivers. Somewhere out on that road is Joanna, and Deeg.

I've cried enough for them.

I retie my pack. Most of the stuff I got from the Mall south of here after looters took the most obvious stuff. It was an easy if harrowing trip, just take the elevated train line straight down, stay a hundred yards away from anything that moves bigger than a dog.

Socks, twenty pair of those. long sleeved shirts, pants. Extra boots, slightly big. Water bottles, boiling pot. Metal coffee thermos of rubbing alcohol. All the jerky I could find. Fire sparkers. Hand crank walkies. Bullets for the Beretta PX4. Bandages. Super glue packets, a roll of duct tape and scissors. 5 packs of needles and 4 spools white thread. Hand mirrors. Machetes, 3. Walking stick, which is really just a heavy, metal pipe from a chain link fence. That's all I have.

 

Realistically, I'm not going to make it farther than two hundred miles. But I'd rather die out there from sun sickness than be burned alive and eaten. Besides, rabbit looks to taste better than cat, anyway.

So, I'm leaving this note here. If things get back... if things ever become re-civilized, look for me near the dam where Vegas used to be.

 

Castle Rock:

Office Depot Post Collapse seems like a fortress, but instead of soldiers and gated fences there are rows of boxes of copy paper and Xerox machines. Place is amazingly easy to fortify. Drove a van up parallel to the glass sliding doors, and the rest of the store is a big concrete box. No windows. Down from fifty to twelve. Some, like Sarah just dropped dead on the side of the road. Others, like Asher, well. Asher went down fighting. If there's any record of history anymore, put him on the heroes list.

The Eaters run so goddamn fast. Most of the gear I brought from Denver I lost on the run. Still have the guns and ammo, and a couple of the water carriers. I lost the pack. Two days ago, when the pack of those Eaters found us in the middle of the night.

Asher was like a movie star, or something. Guy in his fifties, bald lean and skinny and wrinkled, he was shooting the Eaters left and right, reloading the shotgun and yelling for us to get out of there. I was up on my feet gun in hand just running like an idiot. It took me a minute to realize I was just pounding ground like a scared rabbit, blind with panic. I went back.

People tend not to fly when they are shot like they do in movies. Asher told me why when we were walking along the section of Denver light rail towards Yale station. He said though it was a dramatic effect, when people really get shot there isn't enough inertia, or maybe it was mass, to send them flying. He said that it would take getting hit by something bigger, like a car, or a truck.

I trusted Asher's opinion on this, because he used to be a cop, and if he told me about how guns behaved don't you think I'd believe him?

There he was, standing his ground pumping round after round into Eaters coming into the camp. And he was right, too. Even with the shotgun the Eaters didn't really stop so much as stumble. Asher was screaming at the top of his lungs, shooting round after round into them as they came at him. It gave most of us enough time to get out, to get away. The last I saw of him was blinded by a flash of light as he lit one of those grenades he had kept hidden away.

I will never forget Asher.

 

Fragment from an abandoned novel:

First Dream:

I am standing in this, this huge ocean of a field, a sea of rolling hills and dark shadows that dance like flames underneath the sun bleached knee high grass. There is an itching humidity in this place, and the sun stares down on me from its hole in the sharp blue sky. I am wearing this huge flapping white dress (cotton) and am bare-footed. I look at the dress. It is very beautiful, though it is something I would never buy for myself. I turn, and I can hear my feet twisting in the grass, and suddenly, underneath a distant splash of dark thunderclouds in the sky, there is this woman.

She is both near and far at the same instant, and I can see deep into her eyes, there is so much sadness in them. Her face is a collection of lines and planes in the sun, the wrinkles etching out deep inky shadows across her faded skin. She is wearing a huge blanket, a gray white mass of folds, with these large multicolored flowers looping across the fabric in a circular fashion. Long leather fringe spills from the side of this blanket, swaying in the gentle wind.

There is a storm behind her, a screen of black dusty rain falling at an angle upon the grasslands distant, and there is a sudden chill in the air. The woman’s gray hair though neatly tied back, is tugged at in little strands by the rising wind. She raises an arm, and gives me an impatient frustrated look. I turn to look where she is pointing, and suddenly there is this little girl, in a small flower print dress, crying. I feel the hair on my neck rise as I rush towards her. She looks at me with shocked, wide eyes. She is not more than three or so, and her arms are held out to me. I can take away her pain. Whatever is making my daughter cry, I can stop it if I just pick her up and-

There is a white flash of light and pain, and I grimace as this sudden heat lifts me off my feet and pitches me forward through the air. My heart feels like it's missing, and the last thought I have is the look on that little girl’s face.

Work in Progress

The door from the Nagatake building opened and she stopped in the opening, her head pounding a moment as the city air rushed into the building, light from the sun splashing against her vision. There was a hissing noise, like dim radio static, and for a brief second, doused in the sunlight it felt like that river of white noise was flowing through her. She closed her eyes and held her breath against the sensation, and in that moment the after image of a man and woman walking by were seared into her vision, inverted blurs of light against her eyelids.

  Her heart pounded in her head for a minute after, and the thrumming sensation pulsed throughout her body and down through her feet. It felt as if the earth itself were moving, shuddering in a way entirely unlike the sensation of a quake. As if something made the world around her alive, bend, stretch, as if it were exhaling

 

 

Voice Actress Tomoko Kawakami (Utena Tenjou) Passes Away

川上 とも子

ファンの皆様へ

弊社所属俳優、川上とも子儀　平成23年6月9日(木)16時45分、かねてより病気療養中のところ、誠に残念ながら薬石効なく急逝いたしました。

生前中は皆様に多大な応援を頂き心から感謝申し上げます。
ありがとうございました。


（株）ぷろだくしょんバオバブ

代表取締役　神田百合恵　スタッフ一同

______

Via CrunchyRoll News

The official blog of the voice actor agency Production baobab announced today that voice actress Tomoko Kawakami passed away at 4:45 pm on Thursday, June 9. She had been under medical treatment since August 2008 due to cancer of the ovary. She was 41 years old.

 

Her debut role was a boy in the TV anime Metal Fighter Miku in 1994. She had been playing more than 200 characters in various anime and game titles. Her most famous role are probably Utena Tenjou in Revolutionary Girl Utena and Hikaru Shindou in Hikaru no Go. She was definitely one of the most popular and beloved anime voice actress in 1990's-2000's.

#Quakebook

A lot of press has started to buzz about #quakebook lately, with the latest bit being the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan interviewing Our Man in Abiko.  I see this as a good thing. Some people mentioned my involvement via Twitter, and while the recognition is nice, I feel badly that what I've done is so little in the face of what needs to be done. It's not about me, though, either way. It's probably not about you unless your in the prefectures affected by the Japanese Earthquake and tsunami. I just wish I could do more than what I have done. 

Updated Charity events

 

There are quite a few relief efforts within Japan and outside as well, organized by us 外人 (gaijin) as well. I'm trying to collect some of those that are still ongoing.

 

Socks for Japan

 

“Hundreds of readers in the United States and other parts of the world have asked me how they can help the survivors of the devastating earthquake that struck Japan on March 11. There are many places to donate money, and that’s a wonderful thing to do, but direct aid is also cherished by survivors.

 

My office location is perfect for managing a direct-aid operation because it’s close enough to the primary damage zone that we can physically get there to help, but far enough away that mail delivery is working. So we quickly set ourselves up to run this operation, called Socks for Japan.“

_____

Anime and Manga bloggers for Japan is still accepting donations for Shelterbox and Doctors Without Borders. I believe they are trying to raise $5000 and may be almost there.

 

____

You can also donate just by shopping

J-List will be donating 5% of all orders to the Japanese Red Cross through the end of April up to $10,000. Thanks for any and all support you can give!

 

____

Japanese American Society of Colorado is hosting several Japan Relief related efforts,

As of March 25th, JASC has raised around $24,000. THANK YOU to everyone who has donated. If you have not donated, but are interested in doing so, please visit the donate section of our site. Domo!

 

___

Have Courage Japan Vigil

http://us.greenpeace.org/site/GetTogether?cal_event_id=100641&gettogether=event_main&page=event_main&cal_invitee_id=&cal_activity_id=1021

 

Hopefest Concert

http://www.ropeagoat.com/

Heal Japan, brought to you by Salseros en Colorado, will host an event at Club Fuego in Denver on April 2, 2011 from 7:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. All profits will go to the American Red Cross

 

And last, but not least, you can check out the amazing effort of over 80 people (me including, somewhere) with the #QuakeBook project. The blog is here

http://quakebook.blogspot.com/

 

and we have a twitter page and all that good stuff.

That's about what I have for now. 

Do you have an ongoing charity event for Japanese relief efforts? Please leave a comment and let me know so I can add it to the list!

List of Japan Relief Aid Charitable events

@me on Twitter if you want me to list your charity event for Japanese aid here.

_____


If you have a blog, join us and the other bloggers participating in Anime and Manga Bloggers for Japan. You can write a post explaining why you’ve chosen to participate and why you think it’s important to give to Japan relief efforts or you can just link backto this site or the donation pages. Here are some banner images you can use to post on your sites to help promote the cause.

Donate to Japanese relief effort

 

There has been some confusion and debate about how and who to donate to. 

I personally suggest going through Paypal.

Paypal (along with Missionfish) allows you to donate to an organization of your choice giving relief aid to Japan. That way if you have philosophical problems donating to one group, you can donate to others.


You can access it from 
https://www.paypal.com/
direct link
https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12

Be careful of donation scams. Make sure you go to a relief organization's official website for accepting donations, and verify who is getting your $

Huffington Post also has a huge list of donation Options here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/how-to-help-japan-earthquake-relief_n_834484.html

 

And lastly, not that I want to toot my own horn here, but I will be donation %25 of all commision funds to Japanese relief efforts. So if you order a commision or buy the forthcoming art I'll use paypal's service to forward the funds.