Kentuckyscapes

It's not hard to find examples of why I love my home state.  Today, Ben, Manda and I went for a drive south of Nicholasville.  We were searching for an ice cream parlor that Ben and I went to several years ago.  Passing through Shaker Village, Harrodsburg, Lancaster, Burgin, and Danville, we never did find it, but I got some nice pictures.

      

Ruminations

I'm going to redo my journal, I think...break it up into a few different blogs, each accessible from its own area on pixelscribbles.com.  I may even password-protect one of them and leave it just for myself, so I can rant and rave and post it the way I'm used to posting diary entries without the danger of Too Much Information.  (I like the Blogger interface, and I don't really care to keep a separate, local diary.  I don't think breaking it up into different 'blogs' would be as annoying as having to deal with local files versus files on my webserver.)

I think that splitting things off would inspire me to be more careful about how I write.  For example, the post I'm writing now could go in a "site news" area; my long love letter to Fujiwara no Sai could go in an "anime" or "Japan" section; my daily workouts could go in a "health/lifestyle" area, and then I could have one or more blogs just for discussing my thoughts on things.  I think this might inspire me to take more time in crafting...what I do now is little more than a quick ramble and a tapping of the "Publish Post" button.  I would like my posts to be well-written rather than rushed and conversational (Goei showed me recently how beautiful a journal entry can be; when he visited my journal to return my compliment, I was embarrassed that there was nothing of note for him to see).

One danger of splitting things up would be creating too much fragmentation...then maybe one section would get the most posts, or each section would be updated but only once a month or two, etc.  Because of that, I'm going to limit the number of split-off blogs by coming up with very general categories.  A "Japanese Media" category can cover my discussions of anime, manga, j-drama, Japanese music, and more--or I could simply have a "Japan" area, or even a "Southeast Asia" category.  As you can see, I'm not quite sure yet how I want to break it down.

I have been thinking that I would like to create Blogger blogs for all my original site sections, too...get my poetry and short stories up in post form (not that there is much to see in that regard, but it would give me impetus to add to the library).  I could also create one or more photoblogs, which would link to full images in my smugmug account.

The possibilities are pretty endless, but there are problems with this scheme too.  I can't have subcategories, for one thing.  I was thinking that I could use meta tags of some sort to assign categories with HTML, and that is a possibility.  But that kind of leads into the biggest problem...how to present the blogs.

I was thinking it would be nice to have a main page (probably the root of pixelscribbles.com) where a user could define which blogs they wanted to have show up.  The posts would then all load in reverse chronological order (last post first, like a normal blog), all together and easy to read, with the title, date/time, and which blog they were posted to (e.g., "Sai~~~~ (spoilers, if you haven't seen/read all of HnG) posted at 7:47 PM in Anime", or whatever, where the 7:47 PM would link to the post, and the word Anime would link to the blog about Anime).

However, I don't think this is possible with Blogger...or if it is, I have no idea how.

Blogger does have a tutorial on how to include multiple blogs on one page using includes.  As far as I can tell, though, each blog would load in a separate part of the page.  So I could have one blog on the left hand side and one blog on the right; they wouldn't be all together.

The only way I can think of to get all the blogs together would be for Blogger to publish each post twice: once in its standard blog and once in the main blog.  But that wouldn't allow users to pick which blogs they wanted to see on the main page (and plus, Blogger can't do that anyway--I would have to publish each post to two different places manually).

It occurs to me that maybe, with some crazy coding sk1llz, it might be possible to use includes to pull all the blog content in, and then use Javascript or something to hide the blogs that the user didn't want to see.  However, loading it all at once would bog down the server and be cumbersome for the end user, and it seems like a messy solution.  Maybe PHP can do it server-side so the user never sees anything but the output, but even then it might take a moment to pull in all the posts, order them correctly, remove the blogs the user doesn't want to see, and then generate a page.  Plus, I don't know how to code all that :>

Blogger could solve this problem for me if it had user-definable categories and subcategories for posts.  I wouldn't even have to make separate blogs, if that were the case.

I feel like an answer must exist already, though.  Does anyone have any ideas?

Home again

My flights yesterday were all right.  I got up on time, got ready, and caught a ride with my coworker's husband to the airport.  Augusta Regional Airport is very, very small.  I was thinking it would be comparable to Bluegrass Field, but...it's not.  You go in one room and there are some places to check in, and then you go down a hall and through security, and then you end up going outside(!) to get to the gates, which are all in a row in the back.  (I think the outside area is more of a courtyard, but it was still weird.)

Atlanta was Atlanta.  I was sent to the wrong gate by the helpful woman giving directions as I deplaned, ran back to the proper gate, and was apparently too late to board.  I went back to the other gate to wait an hour for that flight, and discovered that the computer thought I was on the flight I was supposed to be on.  That was a little odd.  But they straightened it out and I got on the next flight just fine.  I sat in seat 1C, and there wasn't room for my duffel so it had to be stowed, and I had to stow my laptop bag too because there was no seat in front of me to shove it under.

Our flight attendant, Penny, was a hoot.  She said things like "The FAA says we can't have baggage sticking out from under the chairs, and the FAA is the law, so I'm going to check everyone's seats" and "I've already checked everyone's seatbelts, but the FAA requires that I demonstrate it for you anyway...now I can keep my job!"  And at the end of the flight, when she was debriefing us on flight procedures, apparently someone in the back stood up, because she cut off her droning-yet-pleasant speech to shout, "SIR, SIT DOWN!"  That's not exaggeration; she really did shout.  I about cracked up laughing.

The other great thing about the ATL to LEX flight was the fact that they served...cran-apple juice!  (Brooke knows what I'm talking about...)

I got to AGS at around 6:20.  The flight was delayed until 7:40 or so, and I reached ATL at 8:30.  I missed the 9:08 flight due both to the woman giving directions and to the time it took to get from Concourse D to Concourse C.  I got on the 10:20 flight, meaning I finally got to LEX at 11:30.  Five hours isn't bad; it's three hours less than it would have taken to drive.  And since I used a buddy pass, I only paid $54, which is about 50% less than gas and food.  All in all, it's a great deal, even given the waiting.  (I read Getting Things Done during the between-times...and you can't read a book while you're driving!)

I'm hoping quietly that my coworker will be generous again and offer me buddy passes next year, so that Sean and I can use them to get to Japan for cheap.  In the meantime, I think I can score one more for this year, to give to Dawn while she's here in the States in September.  That would mean she could fly from New York to Atlanta instead of having to take the train.  We'll see :)

I would probably fly a lot more if it was cheaper.  I'd love to take a hop, skip and jump around the country, to see friends and new places.  But actual plane fares are so expensive :X  It'd be nice if we could get those costs down, and if we also had a good passenger rail system set up between cities.  One like they have in Japan, that practically never has problems and is always on time :)  Oh well, man can always dream.

When I got home, Dad made me a "Vidalia Onion Burger".  It was really, and I mean really, good.  I'm going to have to buy some to make for Sean.  Then I went over to AJ and Faye's to see them and Connor and Logan.  Logan is growing up so fast.

AJ said that I shouldn't feel bad if Logan was shy, because he is shy with everyone.  I started to play with Logan and tickle his feet while he was in his high chair, and Logan loved it.  AJ shook his head and said, "Okay, never mind about that shy thing!"  I know it's silly, but it really made me feel good that Logan reacted that way.  I don't have the relationship I would like to have with him, but knowing that he is open to it is really nice.

Meanwhile, Connor is still my buddy :)  He showed me his room--now sans the huge cardboard castle, meaning there is actually room to play--and his new toys.  Then we played with some plastic things that stick together, and Logan played too (mainly grabbing whatever I was making and tearing it apart ;D).  I took some pictures, which I'll post somewhere at some point, maybe :>  Then we all went back to Mom and Dad's, because Aunt Evelyn and crew were heading over.

It turned out to be Evelyn, Walter, Bertha (Walter's mother), and two of the grandkids, Aaron and Sarah.  Sarah is seven months older than Connor, but she's actually smaller than he is.  Aaron is something like thirteen.  The last time I saw him, he was like...four!  (His older stepbrother, Philip, I remember being around 12 or 13...and he just graduated from high school, and is now learning about detailing cars :>)

We all visited for awhile in the living room, then went out back, where Connor drove Sarah around in his little green car (he's really good at driving it!) and then let her take a turn driving.  Meanwhile, the rest of us sat under the canopy and chatted.  At some point, Dad and Philip and Walter went to play pool.  Ben and Dan and Boone showed up for band practice, and we all went inside for a bit.  Then, finally they had to leave to visit someone else.

It was nice to see them all again :)  Evelyn told me to say hello to Sean for her, because "he's a nice boy".  ;>  Sean and Ben and I visited them in Austin once, back when Sarah was 13 months old (she was so tiny!).  Sarah is really grown up now--she's five, and she speaks like an adult!  I was really impressed.

After the visit we ordered pizza for dinner and then I watched a bunch of Angel, Buffy, and Charmed with Mom.  It was nice to do that again.  I like being able to share that with her.  I remember when I was younger, she always got on me for watching too much TV, and now it's totally the other way around ;>

Today I got up at 10:30 and took a shower, and then Connor came over, so he and Mom and I have been doing various things.  Now they're taking a nap, and the boys are having band practice, and Dad is either watching TV or doing something in the workshop (he's so quiet, I can never be sure, but he's usually in one of those two places), so I've had some time to myself.  Being around Connor is sort of exhausting to me, because I'm not used to being around kids.  :>

I'm glad to be home.  I seem to have forgotten to bring a network cable, though, so I'm using the engraving laptop that AJ usually uses at work right now.  I won't be able to use it tomorrow during business hours, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Internet access...I may have to set up a card table in the back room and use the cord back there.  We'll see.

They painted this office the last time I was here, and it still looks good.  It had turned horribly tan/yellow from all the cigarette smoking.  AJ has quit smoking--he stopped on his birthday (which was five days ago, so we'll see).  I'm not sure if Ben quit too, but I know Dad hasn't.  It would be nice if they were all able to quit for good...

That's pretty much it.  Before I sign off, I wanted to mention that I love flying.  The thrill of taking off and landing hasn't dulled for me yet.  It is just so...awesome.  It's amazing that we can force huge metal devices filled with people to soar off the ground.  I love it.

Itinerary

It occurs to me that in the rush of preparation, I may not have actually informed everyone of what I'm up to.

Tomorrow I'm flying to Lexington, Kentucky to spend a week with my family.

On August 4, Sean and I are flying to Boston for a convention and to meet up with some online people.  I plan to check out Harvard and MIT while we're there, if at all possible.  I also heard rumors about going to the beach, but the chances of that are slim considering that Sean hates the beach ;>

After that I'll be home for awhile until we go to AWA in September.

So, there you have it :)

How to be happy

I may have linked to this MSN article before, but I think it's really interesting.  To an extent, you can choose to be happy.  That's something that I feel like I know instinctively, but I didn't know it when I was younger--especially when I was a depressive teenager.  I think it's something that everyone has to learn.

The steps to getting to happiness are: 1) nurture your relationships; 2) exercise; 3) be more extroverted; 4) nurture your spiritual side.  Also,

happiness is associated with characteristics like autonomy, competence, close relationships, and high self-esteem.

One part of the article in particular warns against buying things to be happy.

"The route to sustained happiness is not to change the static circumstances of your life, but rather to change the activities that you're involved in," says Sheldon. "This could mean committing to a new vocational plan, pursuing a new set of goals, or joining a new organization."

One more interesting quote:

One way to steer your life toward happiness is simply to count your blessings, and perhaps even create and make regular entries in your own "gratitude journal." Myers points to research showing that people who pause each day to reflect on the positive aspects of their lives (for example, their health, friends, family, education, freedom) are more likely to experience heightened well-being.

I think that this journal is something like that for me.  I write about my triumphs and feelings of happiness.  I write about bad things, too, and I think I need to work on being more positive here.  But it's a start.

The last paragraph of the article is great.  Check it out.  (I was going to include it here, but I've quoted enough already...)

I really felt as I was reading this article that my opinions on happiness were reaffirmed.  I have thought for awhile now that the happiest people are those who are working towards a goal.  It's not enough to just have a goal.  You have to know that you are doing something every day that will help you reach it.  Working towards a goal makes you feel good about yourself because you are accomplishing something.  In other words, you like yourself more, and liking yourself is absolutely necessary for true happiness.

But you can't be single-mindedly devoted to a goal and be happy.  You have to have relationships, friends.  My husband is a pretty happy person in general.  He spends a lot of time on his computer, but he has really good friends there.  He takes care of those friends, and they take care of him, and seeing them and working with them each day is very important to him.  Sean's goals aren't to start a business or land a high-paying job or what have you.  He seems to know instinctively that working towards something, whatever it is, is the road to fun and happiness.  The things he works towards are for him and for the online communities he is a part of.  It's a different, rather social kind of achievement.

(Sean is the only "gamer" I really know well, so I'm wondering if this is true for other people who play video games.  When playing a game, you're working towards a goal, and when playing online or a multi-player game on a server, you have to work cooperatively.  It gets the social aspect and it gets the working towards a goal in one fell swoop.  And I do think that, in general, gamers are happy people.  I've never met a gamer like the ones you see portrayed in the news.)

For me, the times when I've felt the most unhappy are when I'm powerless to change something that I'm willing to work my ass off to change.  And lately, now that I'm doing workouts and things and taking better care of myself, I've felt better--I'm working towards the goal of a healthy me.  Soon I'd like to start working on the goal of getting proficient in Japanese.  I have lots of study materials.  I want to start saving up to buy those Pimsleur tapes, because hearing it and practicing it is important, but in the meantime I've got books and plenty of online resources.  It's been nagging at me that I haven't done anything, and I think I will be even happier if I start up some self-study.

In a nutshell, it's productive people who are happy.  If you just fall into the status quo, get complacent, and sit around all day doing passive activities like watching TV, then you're not bettering yourself, and you'll start to lose respect for yourself.  But if you work to improve yourself and do the things that you like with people you like, you're on the road to happiness (and possibly other successes, depending on what your goals are).

At times like these, I feel so optimistic :)  I just want to go out and make my mark on the world.

Folly

I spoke with a good friend last night, someone about whom I care very deeply.  I left the conversation feeling, well, upset.

I don't mind if she sees what I think about it, because apparently I haven't been able to present my thoughts coherently in person, but in order to protect her privacy and the privacy of other parties, I won't use her name.  (This secrecy stuff is really annoying...)

My friend's best friend, her closest companion, is a guy who broke her heart.  For months she pined for him.  She still says he is the epitome of attraction, a great guy, that she is so similar to him and that she can understand him so well, that he has taught her so much about herself and how to love herself...so that even while she's joking that he's trying to find her a boyfriend, you get that sense of unresolved feelings.  She will deny this; she says they are best friends.  Back when she made her decision to stop wanting him as a lover, she insisted that she was not going to stop seeing him or being friends with him, because he was too important to her, too big a part of her life.

So, in other words, she consciously chose not to move on at all.  She chose to stay in limbo, to pound her feelings down, to relegate herself to second place in order to be near the guy who won't have her.  It's like saying, "I'd rather have him this way than not at all."

And subconsciously, it's like saying, "Maybe someday he'll see what I'm worth and change his mind."

I won't pretend to understand his side of all this.  He dated her, he broke up with her, he continued to have sex with her after the fact because it was convenient and fun.  And from what I hear, he does care about her.  She seems to think that I think he is evil, but I don't.  I've said numerous times that I think he is human.

The reason I don't think she should spend time with him is not because I think he is a bad person.  I have no data on whether or not he is a bad person.  And, frankly, I don't care whether or not he is a bad person.  What I know is that it is horribly emotionally damaging to cling to someone the way she's doing, to absolve him of all guilt (which she does, even though she claims not to, simply by allowing him the pleasure of her company), to pretend that her strong, overwhelming feelings of a few months ago have suddenly turned off like a light switch.

She's subconsciously leading herself on.  She may have even subconsciously decided that as long as she can be with him this way, she doesn't need more from him--and that she doesn't need any romantic relationship.

She is letting him abuse her by staying near him.  It doesn't matter whether he means to abuse her or not.  That is the end result.  She loves him, she wants him, he won't have her, she lets him have her friendship anyway even after all that happened.  He will never know from this the depths of her feelings.  He will probably assume that she is fine, that they are friends, and everything is hunky-dory.  So he will treat her the way he's always treated her, the way that made her love him in the first place.

They're together, and yet not, by his choice.  Every day is a torture chamber for my friend...one that she jumps into eagerly, because he's there.  It may be beautiful outside, a wonderful world where she can grow and learn and find love, but that doesn't matter because he is down in the torture chamber.  She'll stunt her own growth--and she is stunting her own growth--simply in order to keep him near.

It's not like no one has told her this, either.  But she denies it, vehemently.

Last night she said she felt bad because he felt out of place during a recent get-together with "the group".  I was extraordinarily annoyed by this, though I held myself in check.  I calmly explained that anyone who isn't part of a group will feel left out.  But it seems to me that she wants him to become part of the group, or something.  I've already told her that if he's there spending time with us regularly, then I will have to opt out of those meetings.  I refuse to watch her destroy herself.  She can do that on her own time.

What right does she have to expect us to accept him?  I don't care what kind of person he is, or if I would have liked him in another circumstance, or whether or not he chose to hurt my friend the way he did.  What happened happened.  To me, he isn't a person.  He is a part of my friend's life that she needs to walk away from.  He will never be a person to me.  He will certainly never be my friend.

@_@

Worked a full 8 hours, no break today.  It feels like I work more now that I have "fewer" hours...

Tomorrow's the last day before my vacation.  I don't think I have enough time to get done what I need to before I leave.  I read an article on MSN awhile back about people who have horrible, stressful vacations because they try to do too much beforehand and then spend the whole time worrying about what didn't get done.  I could see that happening to me :P  I even (in a fit of irrationality that I now regret) offered to telecommute while I'm in Kentucky...:P

So, I'm just trying to unwind now.  Ate a late lunch, checked websites, looked for Sailor Moon 40 (not yet...grr...), and now I'm just trying to decide what I want to do with myself for the rest of the day.  Bwah.  A nice nap sounds wonderful, but I don't know if I want to do that.  The possibility of biking also exists...we'll have to see about that.

Speaking of which, I meant to go to a bike shop today, but it totally slipped my mind, what with all the MIND NUMBING STRESS...

DAY 39

One lap, no weights; 5 minutes on stair climber; same routine as Tuesday.

I had to drag myself kicking and screaming out of bed this morning.  I just did not want to get up at all.  But now that my workout and shower are over, I'm feeling better.

Going to have to have another confrontation today, or at least a laying out once again of my limits.  I knew it wouldn't last.  (Hell, it never even really started, did it?)

Bed beckons

Just wanted to post that I've had a nice day :)  Had a lovely time with Sean right when he got home from work, and after that Brooke came over and we made curry.  Then we ate it and watched live action Sailor Moon!  We also had ice cream.

We made it through five episodes, enough to see the introduction of Moon, Mercury, and Mars, and some trials and tribulations for those three.  Much to my delight, Brooke really enjoyed it!  She wants to watch more :)  I'm glad I have someone to watch it with :)

I'm hoping to finagle my way over to Mari and Kelly's tomorrow to see what their house looks like with all their stuff in it.  We'll see.

Work went well today.  I made a training document and worked through it step by step with Wanda, and that really helped.  Today was much calmer, and she seemed to really be grasping what was going on.  I was so relieved.  Yesterday was just evil.

Looking forward to Saturday :)  Flying out of AGS straight to LEX.  That will be so nice :D  Although I think the reality of the distance involved may be cut down with the drive omitted.  (Small price to pay!)

"Reverbiagize"

You just can't make this shit up.  (Well, I guess somebody did...but it certainly wasn't me.  Where I come from, we don't add syllables during the course of normal conversation.)

DAY 38

My back hurts this morning, so I'm not going to do my workout.  The back pain isn't really the real reason I don't want to do it, though; I had a bad dream, and it's made me feel a little shaky.

I'd like to recount the dream here, because it had such a profound effect on me, but it involved people I know, and I don't want them to see this and get offended.  This is the hairy part of having an online journal; how much can you say?  If I was the only one I had to worry about, I'd say everything.  But unfortunately I have to take other people's feelings into account.  ;>

In any case, I'm going to write about the dream and not use names.  There are two characters besides myself in the dream, a man and a woman, so I'm going to refer to them as "the man" and "the woman".

I'm not sure what I was doing in the dream, but at some point I decided to leave the room in the middle of a conversation with the man because I was unhappy with whatever he was saying.  The man then hurled something over the wall of the room.  I didn't see it exactly, but I heard it smash to the floor and break, and I heard the sound of wooden things scattering across the room, and I knew instinctively that it was my ceramic kitchen utensil holder, which for some reason had all my wooden spoons and things in it (in real life, it has the plastic and metal stuff in it.  I haven't had the wooden spoons in it for a long time).

This really pissed me off, but I was also scared, so I didn't run back in there to confront him.  Instead, I stormed out of the room I was in and into the hallway, where I found the woman.  She had heard the sound and was pacing back and forth frantically, wringing her hands and mumbling to herself in a high-pitched, frightened voice.

I pulled her into a hug and tried to soothe her.  "It's okay.  Don't worry about it.  It's okay."  I think she calmed down, but not much.  (It's obvious where this part of the dream comes from.  I've spent quite a bit of time worrying about this person recently, but I haven't been able to do anything to help her.)  By this time I was determined that I had to do something, to make it obvious to the man that his behavior was unacceptable.  I apparently explained the situation off-camera, because AJ showed up with some long socks that said "ALAN" on the toes, and said, "Make him wear these.  His feet will stink for a week!"

This was not the solution, of course.  I wasn't sure what was, but I headed back to confront the man.  When I got back to the room, though, I discovered he wasn't there.  Asking around, I discovered that he'd left completely.

That was pretty much it.  I think the part about him leaving at the end is important because I tend to lose my nerve in situations like that.  If he'd been there, I might have been able to say what I wanted to say, but postponing the confrontation would only make me less able to pull it off.

The man in my dream has never been violent towards me in real life.  He is bigger than I am, though.  One time he was mad and slammed his hand onto a desk.  It made me flinch.

I'm not sure why I had this dream now, but I think it speaks to some sort of issue I must have.  I've always had a problem with strong people hurting weak people.  I can't stand to watch scenes like that in movies (as you'll recall).  I sort of wonder if something happened to me when I was a kid (this is the convenient, Hollywood psychology solution), or if there is some other sort of reason why I'm like this.  I can't really think of a single reason, though I can say that I was frightened of abuse as a child.  Maybe that's all it takes, even if no physical abuse actually occurs.

I feel really uncomfortable right now.  I wish I could just go back to bed.

Yowzah

I stayed a little late at work (as usual), meaning I got off at 3:40--Robert was out of town today so I had to work a full shift.  Things were very, very hectic.  Things kept going wrong; it just wasn't good.

It could be due to the stress, then, that I got home, started the laundry, laid down to read Getting Things Done, and fell promptly asleep.

I love sleeping.

I woke up at 10:30, thinking blearily that I should at least change my clothes.  As I was automatically preparing my clothes for tomorrow, the fog lifted enough for me to remember the laundry.  So here I am, waiting on it, and eating Crunch Berries.

Oh, by the way

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AJ!!!

DAY 37

I had to force myself out of bed this morning.  I stayed up too late watching America's Funniest Sitcom Families or Something Like That on ABC.  It was really amusing.  I especially liked the off-the-cuff remarks by the late John Ritter.  The man was a genius.
 
Anyway, it just kept going on and on and before I knew it it was 10:30, so I hopped into bed finally.  Too late, really.
 
I was supposed to have gotten off work at 11, but as is the norm these days I stayed late, until around 1.  It was fine, though...I had stuff to get done, and I managed quite a bit of it.  Today Robert is out of town, and I will be working on training Wanda to do the stuff I won't be able to do while I'm out of town :>  So today will be a full workday.  Fortunately, yesterday I went grocery shopping, so that's out of the way.  I even know what I'm making for dinner tonight :)  (Last night, we ordered in from T.G.I. Friday's...)
 
Since I got up a little later than usual, and was moving kind of slowly, I made a circuit around the complex and then skipped the stairclimber.  I don't know if we're biking today or not, but my legs may thank me for the reprieve.  I then did my usual routine, same as last time.
 
I don't think I'm going to make Sean's lunch this morning.  I really need to get in the habit of doing that the night before :P  My time in the morning is priceless.

Fansubs

I wish someone competent was subbing Touch.  There are two groups, "Crossfade" and "Genbu & Meisei", and neither of them is particularly good.
 
There was one really embarrassing moment in the Genbu/Meisei sub of episode 16--embarrassing for me, watching, because it's such a stupid mistake on the part of the fansubbers.  Minami has caught a cold/flu, so Tatsuya brings her some lemons (apparently lemons make you well?  I don't know).  Minami says, 　「レモンじゃない！」　("remon ja nai!") .  Genbu/Meisei translated it as, "These aren't lemons!"
 
Now, technically, that is what she said.  "ja nai" is a way of saying "is not".  But this structure is common in feminine speech (slang, if you will) for adding emphasis to a statement without being direct.  It's akin to saying, "Aren't those lemons?" or "Those are lemons, aren't they!"  In other words, it's a rhetorical question whose answer is patently obvious.  (Men use this structure too, but they tend to say "jan" instead of "ja nai", from what I've noticed.  For example, when someone impresses him in tennis, Ryoma might say, "yaru jan".  I think we can assume here that the "yaru" means "to play [a game/sport]"; most of the time Anime-Otakus [who I highly respect as fansubbers] translate it as "not bad".)
 
Given that the phrase can technically mean (with different intonation) "These aren't lemons," the phrase Tatsuya says next, which Genbu/Meisei translated as "What, do they look like pumpkins to you?" makes sense...but Minami's line doesn't, because they are obviously lemons.  Meanwhile, Crossfade, which had Minami say, "Lemons!", didn't bother translating Tatsuya's line at all.  It looks like rather than taking the time to do it right, both fansub groups conveniently omitted things that made the conversation complicated.
 
On the whole, I guess I would trust Genbu/Meisei over Crossfade, though.  From the easy stuff Crossfade's  getting wrong--"ice milk" as "ice cream"?  "Straight" as "strike"?--I have to wonder how much of the story I'm missing.  I may as well be watching it raw.  Don't even get me started on how the umpire is somehow the "crossbreeder"(!).  Unfortunately, Genbu/Meisei seem to have stopped at 16, while Crossfade is up to episode 22.
 
The story is one of those wacky love triangles--this time involving two twin brothers and their next-door neighbor--but it's serious, too.  I really enjoy it, despite the horrid subbing.  I doubt it will ever be licensed, because it, like other quality shows--Miyuki, Yawara--is pretty old.  The animation is outdated and not flashy enough for today's core anime crowd.  Plus, there are no giant robots, and the T&A is pretty tame (gee, a girl in a leotard--and her body is actually human proportions, too).  Good story isn't enough to get something released in the US...yet.
 
And so that's why I want someone else to fansub it.  Or for Genbu/Meisei to catch up--because at least they use a nice big font that I can actually read.  I was trying to screencap some of the latest Crossfade release to demonstrate how terrible it is, but unfortunately I can't seem to do so.  Just believe me when I say that they picked the most swirly, serif font they possibly could, and then made it about three pixels high ;P