OK, so it's been what, 4 months since my last news post?!?
Man, I've lost track of time.

Anyway, I've got a lot to report on, so grab a snack and a cold beer from the fridge and sit back; I might be here a while:
~ By a scratch of a miracle, I got let back into school.
~ I got a copy of Shugo Chara! Amu no Niji-iro Chara Change for Nintendo DS and its accompanying CD single in the mail.
~ My aunt died of a stroke.
~ I went to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.
~ AbsintheClock kicked me out of the Clock Crew for no apparent reason.
~ I got rid of Safari and replaced it with Google Chrome.
~ I got the DVD box set of Azumangs Daioh at Half-price Books.
~ Several other menial accomplishments I can't think of off the top of my head.
Oh yeah, I saw the entirety of the first series in the Shugo Chara! series, and I liked it.

I'm working on another Phoenix Wrong counterpart; it might be out in the next few months. (I'm gonna have to do a bit of sprite editing for this one.)

Catch you on the flip side!

%u2606Hibiscus

EDIT (2/26/09): Chrome stopped working, and I had to replace it with Opera. No problems yet.

I know it's a few days late, but here's the story...
It all started 2 years ago when I transferred into this podunk school for ADHD kids. I don't even have ADHD (not that it exists, anyway), so I was immediately cast out. Things overall went smoothly until last year, when I was placed in class with a certain teacher(the one whom I have highlighted as a potential rapist), who intimidated and ridiculed me in front of everyone and used the sneakiest of tactics to cover his tracks.
Now that was only the TIP of the iceberg...
This year, I was placed in Mr. Rapeface's class again, this time with only two other students, both of whom have been out to get me since they met me. We were working on a precalculus problem which I was having trouble with, so when it came time to review our answers and correct them, I turned up with some off-the-wall numbers. I tried to go back and fix my mistakes, but the two jackholes and Mr. Rapeface were yelling at the top of their lungs about the then-upcoming Student Senate elections. Then Mr. Rapeface saw my inability to focus and screamed, "Do you have the answer yet?" and when I tried to answer "No," he would leave me be for a bare sliver of a second and then burst in at the speed of light with the same pervasive answer. He nearly gave me a heart attack at least three or four times, and the other students were laughing their heads off! It was clear they were getting enjoyment at my expense, so I stormed out of the room and headed down to the principal's office, not knowing I was being followed. I tried to explain the situation to the administration, but they refused to believe me (by then Mr. Rapeface had finagled his way in and lied away) and I was expelled for dissent. I have repeatedly tried to take my life but my sissy Yggdrasill-esque mother stopped me, took me to a string of doctors and got me pumped up on drugs in an effort to get me to forget what happened.
And ironically, Poozy locked the school pet peeves thread the same day for absolutely no legitimate reason! I swear I will kill the people who conspired to have me thrown out of school, as well as Neo-Bigbadron here!
MARK MY WORDS!

It's my birthday! (Look to the left for my age.)
Here's what I got:
A bonsai tree
2 sets of pajamas
2 pairs of pants
A shirt
6 pairs of underwear
Margot's Word Brain
some jewelry

I also have a copy of Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan DS in the mail. It should arrive sometime this week.

See you!

~Hibiscus

Hi, I'm still alive (for now) and here to report on the current lull in my online activities. School started today, and I'm not yet up to my eyeballs in homework but expect to be within the next few weeks.
I'm taking a guitar class to fulfill my fine arts credit requirement, and don't expect to stop there. It's not clear whether I'll ever make it to the point where I'm recording stuff and posting it in the Audio Portal; all I have is my dad's old Yamaha G-230 classical guitar, no electrical instruments or mixing equipment whatsoever.
I picked up Tales of Symphonia a few weeks before school started and am less than enthusiastic about the sequel. (The first game was censored and butchered beyond belief; I don't expect Namco Bandai to do any better this time around.) The reason I mentioned this is because I decided at the spur of a moment when I was playing that I would make a fanflash parodying the game; yet most of the sketches I can think up revolve around Zelos' antics. The Flash will be called Tales of Stupidity, and I'm willing to take suggestions for sketch concepts (primarily featuring characters other than Zelos, if you please). There is no release date I can present considering my fickle schedule.

Also, I hope to attend AnimeFest this weekend. Don't go looking for me.

See you when something significant happens!

~HibiscusKazeneko

That's right, people: school's out. At least for me. Time to relax, visit exotic places and hang out with friends. This post is being made a few days late, I know, but I'll tell you what I've done to kick off the summer:
~I took the SAT Saturday.
~That evening, my family (including my visiting grandmother), a good friend of mine and I all drove down to the local drive-in theatre and watched a double feature of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man (both of which I had already seen, but others hadn't). We didn't get home until 3:00 AM, so I was tired the next day. ;@_@

This past couple of days, I got Flash back up and running (it turned out my issues with features not working was rooted in the settings being thrown out of whack) and I plan to join the next installment of thewax70's Sonic Shorts collab series. I also have another Phoenix Wrong Flash in the works. Keep in mind that I don't put release dates, even projected ones, on my animations anymore (I set up a rigid deadline for a Flash two years ago and it proved disastrous), so you'll just have to wait for further updates to be released if you want to know when my Flash will be done.

I'll post again when anything new happens!

<3 HibiscusKazeneko
(aka HibiscusClock, if you're from the Clock Crew)

I haven't made a news post in a while and I'm tired of looking at my last one, so here's an update:

I've got a few Flash projects in the works. Here are some details:

Project 1
A musical Amy Rose tribute, using a song from one of my fave anime.

Project 2
A Yu-Gi-Oh! tribute, using a 1980s top 40 song.

Project 3
A Phoenix Wrong/Apollo Injustice hybrid.

I may release more spoilers in the future; read my news posts at your own risk. ;)

Oh yeah, A friend of mine passed away. I'll miss her... *sigh*

Peace out (and fuck 4Kids!)
~Hibiscus

This is an official suicide note. Before you start bawling and yelling "Please don't go! I need you!!", think about this:
I am the scum of the Earth. I was born low on the socioeconomic food chain and it shows. My parents and their ancestors before them hail from an area of the country that is famous for its abysmally low social standing. On top of this, they waited nine years to have me, which has led to more than just ridicule by family members (many of whom are now deceased, by the way). I live in an area that is reviled as being "the ghetto." I go to a school that is little more than a half-way house. I was held back in my academics for two years because of "inability to behave." I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age 14 and have been treated like it was my fault ever since. I stupidly sullied my body and therefore my soul at age 15 by not saving my first kiss for my wedding day. One of my friends died because of my inability to pray for his recovery. I consented to having my wisdom teeth removed despite my own moral objections. (I believe it's tantamount to mandatory infant circumcision.) I have been repeatedly denied opportunities to boost myself to a position higher on the social food chain under the guise that it would "ruin the status quo," despite the fact that if I had gone through with the decisions, everyone would be much better off than they are now.
To help myself save face, I have been forced to get my ears pierced (despite moral objections AGAIN), attack people to their faces for not showing characteristics of acceptability (and watch as other people do the same to me and not get punished while I get everything from beatings to ISS), and the worst of all: turn my life around and become a PETA activist and vegan. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, since my whiny-ass hyperconservative parents refuse to sell their leather-seated cars, buy a whole new wardrobe free of animal products, discard all animal products in the refrigerator and stock up on humane foods (and they rationalize it using outdated health studies and obsolete Bible verses) or the most important of all: boycott or send bomb threats to companies known for animal cruelty. I have told them that if we all don't jump on the bandwagon, I'll have to kill them; but they just write me off as insane and suppress my attempts to do good.
But now is the long-overdue time to end this suffering and kill myself. Everybody around me whines and says it's just a "permanent solution to a temporary problem," but as I have stated earlier, that is not the case. I am forced to bear the scars left by my own and my parents' poor decisions, and no amount of consolation, be it material or spiritual, will erase them. I am at the absolute low. Not even God can save me. I am doomed to burn in Hell no matter what I do or say. It is true that Jesus died on the cross for our sins; but even He could not atone for what I have been through. It is my responsibility to end the suffering of myself and others around me. Nobody who knows me truly cares about me; those who say they do do not know what kind of scourge they are dealing with, and for their own sakes, never will.
Newgrounds, you never knew me and I am glad you didn't.
Goodbye. You will never see anything from me again.

EDIT: It didn't work out, and I'm still here, for now. Comments enabled.

And here's what I got:

3 or 4 white mockneck shirts
2 packs of sport socks
a pair of K-Swiss sneakers
a pair of Venezia jeans
a navy blue gym outfit (T-shirt, pants and striped hoodie)
a Mannheim Steamroller book and CD
a Wii (finally!)*
Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2
pink pajamas
a $25 iTunes gift card
a blue crystal choker necklace
a pair of synthetic opal stud earrings
a basket of Mrs. Fields cookies*
a box of candy*
a basket of cat-themed stuff
The Daring Book for Girls
a kitten calendar
a jigsaw puzzle*
a Chili's/Romano's Macaroni Grill/Maggiano's/On the Border gift card
a Panda Express gift card

Items marked with a * were not specifically for me.

Merry/Happy Christmas, Newgrounds!

EDIT: 12/27: I got my ears pierced! Just thought you might wanna know.

It's been a long time since I last made a news entry; so now's the time I play a little catchup. Here goes everything:

Here's a list of everything I got for my birthday:
2 jogging suits
a $25 iTunes gift card
one of those iHome docking station/alarm clock/radio devices
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations/Gyakuten Saiban 3 (the game card contains both versions)
a pair of earrings
two packages of daifuku (Japanese mochi cakes)

I've been playing through the game I mentioned above, and there've been multiple pop-culture references thrown into the English-language version. Here are some of them:
Case 1: If you press the last statement in Phoenix Wright's testimony in the first part of the trial, he states that Dahlia's mini-omelettes are "magically delicious."
Case 1: When Dahlia Hawthorne first woos the judge and prosecutor, Mia thinks to herself "Well, we know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..."
Case 2: When you examine the trash can in "Mask DeMasque"'s lair, you find a piece of paper containing instructions for how to steal the "Mazarin Stone." This is an obvious reference to "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ironically enough, this one even existed in the Japanese version; it wasn't added into the translation.
Case 3: The "MC Bomber" virus is mistakenly called by Maya "MC Hummer." I thought this skirted the edge of the definition of copyright infringement, since the Hummer is a registered trademark of General Motors, and "MC Hummer" sounds like a bad romanization of "MC Hammer." To add to the automobile references, the "MC Hummer" confusion is even followed up by "MC Jeep."
Case 5: If you present a piece of evidence to Sister Bikini in Hazakura Temple's Main Hall, she will call herself an "immaterial girl." Detective Gumshoe follows up by saying she lives in an "immaterial world." See what the localizers did there? If not, it's a reference to Madonna's song "Material Girl."
Case 5: When Larry (Laurice) talks about the feminine figure in his drawing, he mentions she flew "just like the dude with the red underwear." Presumably, he's talking about Superman.
Case 5: During the portion of the trial when Dahlia is channeled, both Godot and Phoenix reference the old Sherlock Holmes quote "Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
More references to be added at a later date. I seem to recall there being more, and I plan on going back through the game and fishng them out.

Oh yeah, I got hold of the trial version of ZenGems from this here site, and I love and highly recommend it. It has almost everything a girl like me could want: sparkly colors, hours of unlockable gameplay, puzzles to solve, and even a sexy mascot, Hoshiko! (He could've stood to have a more masculine name, though...)

I'M EIGHTEEN TODAY! WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Feel free to make me drawings, shout-outs or whatever. Just no death threats, spam or "Tits or GTFO" messages.