I'm going.

SO GUYS.

I have made a momentous decision. It's for real this time and I'm not backing down on it.

I am going to go to the Yoko Kanno concert in Japan on 7/7.

I will be buying a ticket to the concert off Yahoo! Japan sometime in the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours most likely (and if not, the next forty-eight hours).

How I will afford this trip, I don't know yet. I have maybe $30 to my name at the moment. I'm going to sell off part of my collection, do more sales once my next package arrives, skimp on Anime Expo (as in, take no spending money and just pay for the basics--and the only reason I'm still going to AX with this decision is because I promised GAINAX I'd see them there), do petsitting and housesitting jobs, ask my grandmothers if they're willing to put any money toward the plane ticket even if it means I don't get birthday or Christmas money for years, basically do anything I can to scrape together the money for this. I'll somehow figure out how to get a loan if I must. Even if I end up sleeping in cardboard box in Japan and can't spend a penny, I just...have to go to this concert. It's my life dream. I can't let it go like this, and I think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity... It's not just Kanno-sama herself who will be there, but Maaya, Origa, Steve Conte, AKINO, the Macross Frontier girls, etc. I have to go. I don't think I can stand sitting around and missing out on this.

I'm going to fly out of LA probably--that way I can just leave Sunday (or even Saturday evening if I need to) from AX and get there in time for the concert. Hopefully one of my awesome online friends who lives in Japan can help me get to where the concert will be held. I'll figure out somewhere to stay that's cheap.

I think I'll stay for about a week or a little more, depending--that way after the concert I can at least stop by the Pokémon Center (whether I'm broke or not, haha) and GAINAX studios once they return from AX, and perhaps go to Akiba and whatnot.

This is going to be insane, and intense trying to figure out how to do this. I've accepted that I'm going to have to make some sacrifices to make this happen. After all, there's less than a month until the concert. If it ends up that I have to just fly there for the concert and then leave a day or two later, so be it.

I am going to go. I am. Nothing will stop me, and I will find a way somehow or another. I can't just sit on my butt and let my life dream pass me by like this.

If any of you can offer any sort of help--whether it's advice, thoughts, encouragement, anything--it would be much appreciated. :D This is going to be tough, and I'll probably be freaking out all of the next month trying to figure something out. But...it just has to happen.

All right, first on the agenda: Get a ticket to the concert. Second: Gather the money for the plane ticket ($700, which isn't too bad, and is the biggest expense of the trip). Third: Gather money for lodging, food, spending, and other assorted costs.

WISH ME LUCK. Goddamn, I'm going to need it. But I'm going to do this. I will. Absolutely. There's no turning back. I must.

Anyway, I have to deal with bird stuff now (I have a pigeon to euthanize, a heating pad to deliver, and birds to pick up) as well as pet stuff, so I'll do my research on this later and start brainstorming ways to make some moolah.

I'm going.

SO GUYS.

I have made a momentous decision. It's for real this time and I'm not backing down on it.

I am going to go to the Yoko Kanno concert in Japan on 7/7.

I will be buying a ticket to the concert off Yahoo! Japan sometime in the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours most likely (and if not, the next forty-eight hours).

How I will afford this trip, I don't know yet. I have maybe $30 to my name at the moment. I'm going to sell off part of my collection, do more sales once my next package arrives, skimp on Anime Expo (as in, take no spending money and just pay for the basics--and the only reason I'm still going to AX with this decision is because I promised GAINAX I'd see them there), do petsitting and housesitting jobs, ask my grandmothers if they're willing to put any money toward the plane ticket even if it means I don't get birthday or Christmas money for years, basically do anything I can to scrape together the money for this. I'll somehow figure out how to get a loan if I must. Even if I end up sleeping in cardboard box in Japan and can't spend a penny, I just...have to go to this concert. It's my life dream. I can't let it go like this, and I think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity... It's not just Kanno-sama herself who will be there, but Maaya, Origa, Steve Conte, AKINO, the Macross Frontier girls, etc. I have to go. I don't think I can stand sitting around and missing out on this.

I'm going to fly out of LA probably--that way I can just leave Sunday (or even Saturday evening if I need to) from AX and get there in time for the concert. Hopefully one of my awesome online friends who lives in Japan can help me get to where the concert will be held. I'll figure out somewhere to stay that's cheap.

I think I'll stay for about a week or a little more, depending--that way after the concert I can at least stop by the Pokémon Center (whether I'm broke or not, haha) and GAINAX studios once they return from AX, and perhaps go to Akiba and whatnot.

This is going to be insane, and intense trying to figure out how to do this. I've accepted that I'm going to have to make some sacrifices to make this happen. After all, there's less than a month until the concert. If it ends up that I have to just fly there for the concert and then leave a day or two later, so be it.

I am going to go. I am. Nothing will stop me, and I will find a way somehow or another. I can't just sit on my butt and let my life dream pass me by like this.

If any of you can offer any sort of help--whether it's advice, thoughts, encouragement, anything--it would be much appreciated. :D This is going to be tough, and I'll probably be freaking out all of the next month trying to figure something out. But...it just has to happen.

All right, first on the agenda: Get a ticket to the concert. Second: Gather the money for the plane ticket ($700, which isn't too bad, and is the biggest expense of the trip). Third: Gather money for lodging, food, spending, and other assorted costs.

WISH ME LUCK. Goddamn, I'm going to need it. But I'm going to do this. I will. Absolutely. There's no turning back. I must.

Anyway, I have to deal with bird stuff now (I have a pigeon to euthanize, a heating pad to deliver, and birds to pick up) as well as pet stuff, so I'll do my research on this later and start brainstorming ways to make some moolah.

(no subject)

Thanks to everyone giving advice and wishing luck! I really appreciate it, even if the advice is being more realistic/skeptical. It's important to be realistic. Of course this is a big risk and it may not work out, but I'm going to go for it as hard as I can and hope things work out somehow. I'm not naive--I recognize that it'll take a LOT of work and planning and stressing and difficulty, but I figure...hell, why not try? There's no reason not to try. I may regret it forever if I don't at least attempt to make this work.

Anyway, time to talk about birds:

- Transferred my blackbird, junco, and grosbeak to Jan a few days ago. The blackbird and junco now have friends of their species, and the grosbeak went to live with three or four other grosbeaks. :D

- Got in a nest of seven bushtits the same day. Oh man, they were so tiny and adorable! They took forever to feed, though, because they're all so tiny and they eat constantly. I transferred them to Patty because she's worked with them before and she was excited and hoping to get them. :D Yayyy!

- The two quail are doing amazingly well. They're growing up so fast! They're getting real feathers in and are getting taller. They're already afraid of me, too, which is a great sign. I was supposed to get in another two quail today but the lady didn't call me. :/

- Got a call about a mallard duckling the day before yesterday and originally I was going to take it in temporarily but the lady's car wouldn't start so I just gave her Vicky's number. The duckling would be going to Vicky anyway, so it worked out all right.

- Got some weird calls otherwise... A bear getting into bird feeders and bird nests, a completely healthy junco that the lady insisted I needed to examine, things like that.

- Yesterday, got a call on a pigeon with a messed-up beak and a broken foot. I picked it up in front of the vet office my family uses and after examining it more or less knew instantly that euthanasia was the correct solution for that bird. The beak was a complete mess and definitely beyond repair, and with a broken bone and starvation on top of that there wasn't a lot we could do to salvage the bird. I couldn't find a way to euthanize it that late in the evening after all the vet offices were closed and the raptor center's volunteers had left, so I made it as comfortable as I could, gave it some water, and had it euthanized this morning. At least its suffering has been relieved... All the raptor center volunteers and Janey agreed with me that euthanasia was the only solution for that little guy.

- Today, played some confusing phone tag with the Sally, the phone volunteer. A woman said that there was a turkey by the side of the road that was mortally wounded and she wanted us to euthanize it. Then she gave us the wrong number on accident, then called back with the right number. I gave her a call and she had picked up the bird, but she then wasn't sure if it was a turkey and thought it might be a young goose. I advised her to just bring the bird to me and it is, indeed, a wild turkey. A young one, though it's got to be at least twelve pounds so it's not exactly small. And although it's certainly beat up, it's not a bird that I would instantly euthanize. It can't stand up at the moment due to some leg injury or another. I couldn't feel any breaks, but I suspect it could be nerve damage or dislocation provided my feeling for a break was correct (could be, could not be). It also has a wound in its crop preventing and mom and I are going to--get this--stitch up the wound ourselves. Mom has some sutures and she's a nurse, and I've been reading some instructions on suturing up bird crops on the internet (...you really can find anything on the internet). I also got advice from the woman who owns the ranch where mom keeps our horse, who stitched up a chicken's crop successfully about two weeks ago. I think it's important to learn, which is why I want to try suturing it myself. If I'm wrong in how I do it, the turkey will be seeing Dr. Lund tomorrow morning so he can correct the sutures. The turkey needs to see the vet anyway because of the leg issue.

It's a handsome turkey and quite alert--I hope it manages to pull through! It flails its legs a bit and can stand if I support its weight on the one injured leg, so I think there might be hope. I'll just have Dr. Lund euthanize it tomorrow if it won't be able to walk again, but I want to try and do whatever I can for it. I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Clavamox dosage myself! Now to dilute the silvadine.

Our wildlife group has been so busy lately! I'm sad for Janey... She had a Black-Crowned Night Heron that she was so excited about. It was eating fine, walking fine, and the only thing wrong with it was that it needed one wing amputated. Normally we just put down any bird that needs a wing amputation unless it's something we can use as an education bird, but this bird was perfect potential for a zoo to take and I guess the Folsom Zoo was even interested in taking it. Unfortunately, somehow the raptor team heard about this and apparently advised her to have the bird euthanized, and that due to some law or another she could not have the wing amputated. So it was euthanized today. Jan said Janey was pretty upset, and it was the first time she had seen Janey cry. :(

Anyway, I'm going to go get prepared to stitch up some turkey crop!

(no subject)

Thanks to everyone giving advice and wishing luck! I really appreciate it, even if the advice is being more realistic/skeptical. It's important to be realistic. Of course this is a big risk and it may not work out, but I'm going to go for it as hard as I can and hope things work out somehow. I'm not naive--I recognize that it'll take a LOT of work and planning and stressing and difficulty, but I figure...hell, why not try? There's no reason not to try. I may regret it forever if I don't at least attempt to make this work.

Anyway, time to talk about birds:

- Transferred my blackbird, junco, and grosbeak to Jan a few days ago. The blackbird and junco now have friends of their species, and the grosbeak went to live with three or four other grosbeaks. :D

- Got in a nest of seven bushtits the same day. Oh man, they were so tiny and adorable! They took forever to feed, though, because they're all so tiny and they eat constantly. I transferred them to Patty because she's worked with them before and she was excited and hoping to get them. :D Yayyy!

- The two quail are doing amazingly well. They're growing up so fast! They're getting real feathers in and are getting taller. They're already afraid of me, too, which is a great sign. I was supposed to get in another two quail today but the lady didn't call me. :/

- Got a call about a mallard duckling the day before yesterday and originally I was going to take it in temporarily but the lady's car wouldn't start so I just gave her Vicky's number. The duckling would be going to Vicky anyway, so it worked out all right.

- Got some weird calls otherwise... A bear getting into bird feeders and bird nests, a completely healthy junco that the lady insisted I needed to examine, things like that.

- Yesterday, got a call on a pigeon with a messed-up beak and a broken foot. I picked it up in front of the vet office my family uses and after examining it more or less knew instantly that euthanasia was the correct solution for that bird. The beak was a complete mess and definitely beyond repair, and with a broken bone and starvation on top of that there wasn't a lot we could do to salvage the bird. I couldn't find a way to euthanize it that late in the evening after all the vet offices were closed and the raptor center's volunteers had left, so I made it as comfortable as I could, gave it some water, and had it euthanized this morning. At least its suffering has been relieved... All the raptor center volunteers and Janey agreed with me that euthanasia was the only solution for that little guy.

- Today, played some confusing phone tag with the Sally, the phone volunteer. A woman said that there was a turkey by the side of the road that was mortally wounded and she wanted us to euthanize it. Then she gave us the wrong number on accident, then called back with the right number. I gave her a call and she had picked up the bird, but she then wasn't sure if it was a turkey and thought it might be a young goose. I advised her to just bring the bird to me and it is, indeed, a wild turkey. A young one, though it's got to be at least twelve pounds so it's not exactly small. And although it's certainly beat up, it's not a bird that I would instantly euthanize. It can't stand up at the moment due to some leg injury or another. I couldn't feel any breaks, but I suspect it could be nerve damage or dislocation provided my feeling for a break was correct (could be, could not be). It also has a wound in its crop preventing and mom and I are going to--get this--stitch up the wound ourselves. Mom has some sutures and she's a nurse, and I've been reading some instructions on suturing up bird crops on the internet (...you really can find anything on the internet). I also got advice from the woman who owns the ranch where mom keeps our horse, who stitched up a chicken's crop successfully about two weeks ago. I think it's important to learn, which is why I want to try suturing it myself. If I'm wrong in how I do it, the turkey will be seeing Dr. Lund tomorrow morning so he can correct the sutures. The turkey needs to see the vet anyway because of the leg issue.

It's a handsome turkey and quite alert--I hope it manages to pull through! It flails its legs a bit and can stand if I support its weight on the one injured leg, so I think there might be hope. I'll just have Dr. Lund euthanize it tomorrow if it won't be able to walk again, but I want to try and do whatever I can for it. I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Clavamox dosage myself! Now to dilute the silvadine.

Our wildlife group has been so busy lately! I'm sad for Janey... She had a Black-Crowned Night Heron that she was so excited about. It was eating fine, walking fine, and the only thing wrong with it was that it needed one wing amputated. Normally we just put down any bird that needs a wing amputation unless it's something we can use as an education bird, but this bird was perfect potential for a zoo to take and I guess the Folsom Zoo was even interested in taking it. Unfortunately, somehow the raptor team heard about this and apparently advised her to have the bird euthanized, and that due to some law or another she could not have the wing amputated. So it was euthanized today. Jan said Janey was pretty upset, and it was the first time she had seen Janey cry. :(

Anyway, I'm going to go get prepared to stitch up some turkey crop!

Turkey stitches!

I just stitched up a large wound on a wild turkey all by myself. :D

Well, mom held the flashlight and provided the sutures, but I did all the disinfecting, stitching, and so on! I was amazed at how straightforward it was and the wound looked MUCH better closed. Amazingly better. I wouldn't normally do something drastic like that--especially because I know wounds just need some air and disinfectant a lot of the time--but a) the hole was in the crop, meaning everything the bird ate or drank would simply come out the hole and the bird would get no hydration or food no matter how much it ate or drank and b) the bird is almost certainly going to the vet tomorrow, so if I did anything wrong Dr. Lund can correct it soon. It went very smoothly, though! The turkey kicked around a little a few times (reassuring as I was worried it would go into shock, but it remained responsive the whole time) but was mostly quite calm.

It's nice having a mom who's a nurse because, while she's never stitched anyone or anything herself, we have plenty of hospital supplies around the house. I set up a little "surgical unit" on my bedroom floor with a big blue hospital cloth thing, disinfectant, scissors, tweezers, gauze, suture, antibiotics, a syringe, dilute silvadine, and gloves. Now my room smells like yucky wild turkey, but the experience was worth it.

Now let's just hope this guy can recover from his leg problem... If not it's not as though I'm too invested, and I'm glad that I was able to test out such an important skill on him. It would be nice to have my first patient I've sutured survive, though. ^^; Poor guy has had one hell of a day--getting hit by a car, sitting out in the sun unable to walk for two plus hours, finally getting to drink again after being stuck in the sun for all that time only to have all the water run out of his wound, and then getting stitched up in an utterly alien environment. At least he gets to stay outside in a safe enclosure. Good thing we have the dog kennel, as well as the large gold cage I was keeping in the chicken coop.

Anyway, just had to show off my unique accomplishment. :D I can't help but feel proud of myself. Even if I didn't do it 100% correctly because I was just going off of online instructions and improvisation, at least I've tried it out and concluded I'm capable of it.

Stitching up wild turkeys: Something you are unlikely to read about on any blog other than pacificpikachu's!

Turkey stitches!

I just stitched up a large wound on a wild turkey all by myself. :D

Well, mom held the flashlight and provided the sutures, but I did all the disinfecting, stitching, and so on! I was amazed at how straightforward it was and the wound looked MUCH better closed. Amazingly better. I wouldn't normally do something drastic like that--especially because I know wounds just need some air and disinfectant a lot of the time--but a) the hole was in the crop, meaning everything the bird ate or drank would simply come out the hole and the bird would get no hydration or food no matter how much it ate or drank and b) the bird is almost certainly going to the vet tomorrow, so if I did anything wrong Dr. Lund can correct it soon. It went very smoothly, though! The turkey kicked around a little a few times (reassuring as I was worried it would go into shock, but it remained responsive the whole time) but was mostly quite calm.

It's nice having a mom who's a nurse because, while she's never stitched anyone or anything herself, we have plenty of hospital supplies around the house. I set up a little "surgical unit" on my bedroom floor with a big blue hospital cloth thing, disinfectant, scissors, tweezers, gauze, suture, antibiotics, a syringe, dilute silvadine, and gloves. Now my room smells like yucky wild turkey, but the experience was worth it.

Now let's just hope this guy can recover from his leg problem... If not it's not as though I'm too invested, and I'm glad that I was able to test out such an important skill on him. It would be nice to have my first patient I've sutured survive, though. ^^; Poor guy has had one hell of a day--getting hit by a car, sitting out in the sun unable to walk for two plus hours, finally getting to drink again after being stuck in the sun for all that time only to have all the water run out of his wound, and then getting stitched up in an utterly alien environment. At least he gets to stay outside in a safe enclosure. Good thing we have the dog kennel, as well as the large gold cage I was keeping in the chicken coop.

Anyway, just had to show off my unique accomplishment. :D I can't help but feel proud of myself. Even if I didn't do it 100% correctly because I was just going off of online instructions and improvisation, at least I've tried it out and concluded I'm capable of it.

Stitching up wild turkeys: Something you are unlikely to read about on any blog other than pacificpikachu's!