Irksome winds...

The wind picked up in the last hour. It's that hot, stuffy, claustrophobic kind of wind. Wind is one of those things that I'm obnoxiously sensitive to. It's akin to that damn scratchy tag in your shirt that feels like it's stabbing you every two seconds. Except it's all over my skin and constant. Wind gives me a headache, makes me itchy everywhere, and makes my eyes and nose hurt, even if I'm not outside. Something about the atmosphere changes. Barometric pressure something-or-other. It makes me feel crazy. I want to peel all my skin off. Rip my hair out. Beat my head against a wall. Like... crazy crazy.

Wind like this makes it impossible to sleep and that makes me feel especially crazy crazy.

Illustrated a baby shower invitation for my sister-in-law. Here's a little thumbnail. Beach themed, obviously. Sandpiper and a sand dollar there. 'Twas fun. Good test for my fingers after not doing much since the new year. Taped them up thoroughly. No problems so far. Though the nails have grown out looking all warped and discolored from the last time they blew up. Lovely.

Oh yeah, Champions League... *cough*

...

Ahem, speaking of irksome. -_______-

Things were going splendidly in Madrid there for a while. Mesut even got a couple of braces in their last few games. Then the first leg against Dortmund happened. Mourinho made kind of an odd starting 11 choice and we lost spectacularly 4-1. Ouch. Barcelona lost 4-0 to Bayern, too. Bigger ouch.

2nd leg was this morning. A 3-0 was the required scoreline to advance to the finals. The game was 0-0 for freaking ever. In the last 20 minutes or so, Real scored. Mesut assisted. Then scored again.

We had the momentum. We were one goal short of the finals.
Of course, Dortmund was smart and time-wasted, fouled, had a player stretchered off with an injury, fouled, time-wasted some more, aaaaaaaaaand...

That was it. Real Madrid won 2-0, but lost on aggregate. *sigh* La Decima?
Not this year.  
waaaaaahagainwaaaaahhhhh.

WE WERE RIIIIIGHT THERRRRRRRRE.

Really bummed for Iker and Sergio and the rest of the dedicated Club players.
Distraught for Mesut.
But... my teams, in order:
1. German National Team
2. Real Madrid
3. Borussia Dortmund
4. Bayern Munich

I love me some Germans. Barca's 2nd leg is tomorrow. If Bayern can crush them further, the Germans will have pwned the Champions League. This would please me greatly. If it can't be Mesut and Sami, at least it can be a bunch of their teammates.

I just keep thinking of the power of the German team for the World Cup next year and my mood improves significantly. They. Are. Beasts.

Go away wind!
You aren't wanted here!

What a week...

What. A. Week.

Boston bombing and manhunt. Bombing in Iraq. Texas fertilizer plant explosion. Earthquakes in Iran and China. Of course, deadly things are happening all the time. It's inescapable. But it still feels like a week of especially strange deadliness.

I followed the mayhem in Boston closely. Reddit was always up. The police scanners were always running. I know a couple folks in the area. And my dad ran the marathon just a few years ago with the local running club, so I know what kind of effort and special planning is required to take part. There were 14 locals there this year. A handful of them had just finished or were a few minutes from finishing at the time of the explosions. Eerie.

Reddit really was quite incredible. A blog post was just put up, which summarizes what happened there. I didn't really participate, but it was fascinating to watch it unfold in real-time. I was grateful to the site as the traditional TV news media is increasingly abysmal at reporting during such incidents.

Many Youtubers weighed in on Boston, but I liked mickeleh's video the most.


Now that days have passed, I'm noticing more how unsettled I am about Boston and the suspects. I know I'm not alone in this. Many are vengeful in their reaction. Execute him, skin him alive, make him suffer for the rest of his days. But many feel like I do.

I can't go there. I simply can't. This 19 year old kid (as far as can be assumed with what we know) was responsible for at least some of the carnage. The bombing victims, the murdered officer, the firefights, and the potential will to cause more harm with stored up explosives. Yes. All of that. He's the scum of the universe for his part, whatever it was. But I desperately crave the 'why'. This kid's Twitter feed could easily be one of my own friends. The bits of his life recorded to the net over the years build an image that is the polar opposite of what he did in Boston. For this... I want to know. I want to understand. I can accept that he might be a sociopath. His persona carefully orchestrated. Sure. But this feels too easy. Too simple. There is more story here. The brother. The broken family. The isolation.

If not the sociopath, then what? What pressure? What threat? What desperation or fear drove him to do this? I'm eerily reminded of an episode of LOST. Sayid's backstory in season one. Weird.

I wonder if he'll provide answers... silently if his voice never returns. Maybe he will answer. Maybe it will be all lies. But I want it. I want to know what justification, what reason, was in his head. Whatever it was, it will be wrong. But I want to know it. The craving for it lingers with me. Enough so that if the answer never comes it will bother me for a long time.
It shouldn't. But I can feel that it will.

Assortment of Finals...

KPOPPY:
Finally, posted the link to the kpop subreddit, which was my intention since early on in the process of making the site a 'thing'. Got a tremendous response, so I'm encouraged to keep it updated and keep working on the code. Added a whole 'More...' section to the Music page that took forever, but I'm happy with.
It's nice to have an ongoing thing to work on. Although, I'm frying my retinas from staring at code all the time.
@_@

FANGIRLING:
A fan streamed VIDEO from the second two nights of JYJ at Tokyo Dome. That was rather wonderful. The concert was seriously impressive... on a global scale, not just a Jpop/Kpop scale. Apparently, Junsu is the one that suggested Jaejoong sing 'Glamorous Sky', which is a song I've loved for ages--written by Hyde and performed by Nana Mikashima. And supposedly Hyde was in the audience for the finale show. Wild. As someone who got to Kpop THROUGH Jrock... that's a mind-eff. Jae did a lovely job. Really a spectacular show.

FOOTBALL:
Real Madrid had a brilliant first half of their second leg against Galatasaray and then went to sleep for the second half. Gala scored 3 goals rather rapidly. I started getting Germany-Sweden flashbacks. In the end, their excellent performance during the first leg 3-0, kept them afloat with Gala winning 3-2 in the second. Oh, and between those games they played Levante. 5-1. Mesut scored two goals in the space of like 5 minutes. That was cute. He almost looked apologetic when it happened.

More importantly, the results are in...

Well said, Mes. Well said.

Champion's League semi-finalists: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, and Real Madrid.
RM have already played Barca so many times this season... hopefully they'll draw someone else. No idea what will happen though. Bayern is incredibly strong. Dortmund is young and creative. They could surprise everyone. Barca is methodical and patient. Real is totally unpredictable this season. Sheer genius one minute. Absolute crap the next. But they want La Decima and they want it bad! Certainly, they'll be exciting games. whatever the draw is!

EDIT:
3:40am Friday. The UCL draw just finished. Happens to be the most favorable draw for Real.
1st leg...
Bayern (home) vs. Barca
Dortmund (home) vs. RM

2nd leg at home for us. Woo! And still... if tragedy strikes and we lose--I love Dortmund, so it's a guarantee that one of my favorite teams will be in the final. ^^

Diminishing distance...

The Red Ocean returns to the Dome in full force!

I should be sleeping.
Juventus v. Bayern and Barca v. PSG in the morning. Big UCL matches.
Really want to see Zlatan and Messi going head-to-head.  
BUT...
Instead I'm listening to a live audio stream straight from the Tokyo Dome.
JYJ have returned after 4 years of hell to play a series of sold-out shows.
It's Day 1 and a very dedicated Chinese fan is streaming it.
I love technology. It makes the World so small.
I also love Japanese fans for being so reverently quiet during performances and dialogue bits.
Jaejoong just riled up a gender war. Called out the fanboys to yell. Then the ladies. Hilarity.

The feelz though... the feeeeeeelz. It's an event of special magnificence.
I started crying as soon as the feed started. Eep.


Ahem.
Real Madrid's CL match against Galatasaray on Wednesday.
That'll be... fun? Terrifying? I'll hope for fun and leave it at that.


Oh geez~~
They're singing Fallen Leaves now.
Seriously real-time feelz.
Save me, Kleenex!

I'm going to wetly hiccough myself to bed... after the encore. ^^

JYJ 愛してるよ！！！