I feel like I'm in college studying for exams again...

Meaning...I find every moment to procrastinate to keep myself from studying.  After hours of plowing through IP material (and I'm still in the middle of this one book), I still don't have a good grasp on it.  I've been reading through IP laws, IP valuation, intangible asset creation, IP laws in Japan, The Bayh-Dole Act, IP case studies in America, brand equity and IP relationships.   All these IP signs are floating in my mind, and I have to hurry and absorb and assimilate it by Monday to make it seem like I'm knowledgeable about IP and patents and rights for years and not just spewing out knowledge absorbed from reading nonstop about it for 3 days.  Ok, maybe 2 days...or 1 full day if I keep procrastinating like this.

I swear, all this job-hunting and preparing will have gained by 5 pounds by the time I'm done with it (and I hope to be done with it soon).  I have the tendency to eat nonstop while reading or studying anything remotely academic...and all of it is super fat food (like the 2lb bag of almonds I'm munching on right now).  Sometimes I wonder what I'm even doing.  I should really get back to reading soon; I have a feeling that if I go to sleep tonight, I'll dream about IP related stuff.  *shudders in horror*

So Mr. IP, you better get interesting fast and soon, and in a way simple enough for me to understand before I throw you out the door and head into the interview with absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.  I wish there were audio-books for these type of things.  Preferably done by a narrator who has a sexy voice...like Yusa Kouji or Hirakawa Daisuke.  Except they wouldn't be speaking to me in English, so that may be a problem since everything I'm reading about right now is so technical and difficult to understand already.  Ok, Hirakawa Daisuke lecturing it to me in English, even if it's in an adorkable Japanese accent...well, at least a girl can dream.  I think all seiyuu should start recording for textbooks.  It'll greatly enhance the learning process for students.  Imagine Luffy from One Piece reading to you!  Or Panda from Shirokuma Cafe.  Anyways, I guess I should stop writing this and go back to tackling IP.  Here I go!

Hapi Mari novel: Update 8

Not a terribly long update, but I figured it would be better for me to post it first instead of keeping it stuck in my computer for ages.  I had originally wanted to make sure it covered at least one chapter...but I guess it's not happening for a while since I'm stuck reading about IP valuation books for my next interview.  

Chirp, chirp, chirp—Ah, I can hear the twitters of the birds outside.  Is it already morning…?  I rub my half-closed eyes as I sluggishly get up.  The rays from the sun are so bright that they almost hurt my sleepy eyes.  Just what you would expect of the tropics.  I yawn and look at the neighboring bed to find it empty.  The sheets are messy, so Hokuto must have slept there last night.  The beds may have been twin-sized, but they were very wide.  I really wanted to sleep together with him.  I wonder where he went?  Perhaps the living room?  I move to get off the bed when I notice something out of place.

“..Eh?”

It’s my clothes.  Why am I wearing a bathrobe?  I’m sure this is the one the villa provided us with.  It’s amazingly comfortable, but why don’t I remember changing into it?  Wasn’t I wearing the new dress Hokuto bought for me…?  I begin to dig through my murky memories when I suddenly realize…I don’t remember any of it.  None of what happened after dinner…did I possibly…?

I run to the bathroom to look in the mirror.  Kyaa, my face!  My makeup has completely disintegrated, and I don’t know whether it’s because I rubbed my eyes earlier, but my mascara has turned runny and I look like a panda.  I knew it.  I didn’t take off my makeup nor showered before sleeping last night.  I remember all the events until drinking that delicious wine, so I must have been quite pissed after that.  Hnn?  That must mean Hokuto carried me back here and changed me out of the dress after.  I open my bathrobe to find that I’m wearing different underwear as well.

“Oh my god!”

I can’t believe I fell asleep in the middle of such a romantic evening!  And he even had to change my underwear for me!  Oh Hokuto, I wish you had slapped me awake instead of going all the way to do something so embarrassing.  I hate myself.  I instantly pale when his grumpy expression floats up to mind.  Did he get so exasperated by me that he went off somewhere by himself?

“Hokuto?!”

Hapi Mari Chapter 39 Spoiler

Ok, I'm totally not done with translating, but it's late and since I am probably going to post something of a similar length of a spoiler anyways, I decided to go ahead and do it first.  Again, I'll only send out the full summary to Minchi for bxsmanga, because she's the one who sends me the raws every month.  I respect her for all the hard work she has done, and I feel lucky being able to read it first hand (I'm predominantly a fan, a translator second).  I will finish translating summary tomorrow, so it may take a little longer for Minchi to update it.  Remember, no badgering her!

Picking up from the last chapter, Hokuto enters the Mamiya household to save Chiwa from being dragged out.  He smiles down at her shocked expression and says, “Sheez, you’re reckless as usual.  I didn’t think I would see you here.  I’m glad you’re as peppy as ever.”

The Mamiya relatives, especially grandpa, are stunned by Hokuto’s appearance while Chiwa continues to look at Hokuto in disbelief.  “Is that really him?” she thinks.

Souma, who has appeared by Hokuto’s side, explains, “I’ve received contact from Hokuto-sama a few days ago, but I was told to keep quiet since he doesn’t want anyone to interfere with the events today.”

Hokuto calmly begins, “Well then, I really had wanted to take this slowly, but if I can’t just go home without realizing my goal.  My goal of finally settling the problem I’ve struggled with for twenty years.  What Chiwa said just now was the truth.  I wanted to find my mother’s murderer by climbing to the very top of the company.  And what’s irritating was that investigating from the outside was actually more effective to finding the answer than from inside the Mamiya family.  If the mastermind behind this only ran my mother over twenty years ago, I probably wouldn’t have found out.  But thanks to her also going after me and Chiwa, I’ve finally singled the perpetrator out.  The person who plotted everything behind this is present right now, but I have no intention of naming her here.”

Chiwa listens intently, still confused by Hokuto’s appearance.

“What the hell!!  Don’t screw around!” angry cousin butts in.  “There’s probably no such person to begin with!  Isn’t that right?  Who do you think you are?”

Satoru and his wife are also worried that even Hokuto is spouting such nonsense.

“Is it money?  Do you want to threaten us?” angry cousin asks.

“Threaten?  You’re wrong, it’s simply business.  I’ve gambled everything to pin down the perpetrator.  You’ve also staked your everything and come this far, haven’t you?  You also have something you don’t want to lose, right?  It’s the same for me.  I don’t want to lose Chiwa.  That’s why I ask you to back off from us.  I just want to live a normal life with her,” Hokuto states.

To read more, please click here

It amazes me how Hokuto is always so straightforward and ready with his proclamations of love for Chiwa.  I want a husband like that!  Ok, obviously not the leave-me-alone-for-6-months-without-telling-me-where-the-hell-you're-going-after-you-just-promised-to-be-with-me-forever qualities, but everything else seems alright.  And for those who can't take the suspense, the villan is Satoru's mother.  If anyone wants to hammer Enjouji Maki for tying this murder mystery that spanned 39 chapters with such a flat climax, I'm totally with you.  When I skimmed through it, I was like, "WTF??? (*&#@KJHASKDH@)#"  I haven't read her explanations yet, but no matter how good they are, I don't think it justifies anything!  Certainly not 39 chapters of angst all for a stupid unknown, unnamed villan!  

Just got HM raws

Report start.

Villan revealed? Check.
Ring? Check.
Proposal? Check.
Hot reunion sex? Check.

I am definitely going to squeeze the translations/summary into my schedule today after skimming them. Villan was a bit anti-climatic, but whatever. I can only tell you it's not Souma (thank goodness) or grandpa. Just someone we really haven't gotten to know or heard about in the big Mamiya family. Oh, and Hokuto changes his last name back to Miura...hmm Miura Hokuto...doesn't really stick right now, but I guess when I re-read the manga for the 50th time in the future, it might start to sound natural. The author also said that in the last chapter, the thing we (the readers) have been longing for will make an appearance...I wonder what that could be? Marriage ceremony? (I mean, its title IS Hapi Mari.). それとも...赤ちゃん？？？. Cannot wait for the great big sappy ending to tie up all the ends; the cheesy ones where everyone gets a happy ending and is all smiles and makes the viewer just feel like hugging a huge teddy bear with a sigh of relief. Oh come on, you know you want it too.

Report end.

Baby? Probably coming on the way.

News Update

I know I've been bad at updating lately... the aliens have infiltrated my life and taken over, my puppy demands that I spend an inordinate amount of time playing with him (ok, he's 11, so not really a puppy but that's what I call him anyways) and the evil documents known as resume and cover letters are killing me. How do people even write these things? I would rather write a 20 page exogesis disseminating the relationships of God and John that can be extracted from only two sentences in a passage rather than pen one word of any sentence in a resume or cover letter (and I'm not religious, so that's saying a lot. Exogesis papers are absolutely torturous too, I regretted taking that class. The professor should totally have written "Needs to read the Bible and a whole lot of other boring critiques" in the course description, not just "examine aspects of love in literature". Examine aspects of love, my ass). Anyhow back to what everyone wants to know. WHERE ARE THE NOVEL UPDATES? Soon, and I promise to do the chapter summaries on schedule, usually in two to three days after I receive the raws.

Hapi Mari is ending the issue after the one that just came out (on my birthday too!) and it will become the main cover page. I've never seen a series on the magazine cover twice in a year between such short periods of time... ok, maybe shonen jump or something, but that doesn't really count. Meanwhile I'll go back to tackling the evil monsters known as resume and cover letter as I listen to my new Honeymoon CD (Yusa Kouji, yum yum) and hopefully make one novel update before the end of the week.

Love,
whisperpuppies