Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted?

A month ago, some friends came to visit me from Canada. I have pictures, but I've been too lazy to actually upload them anywhere. I took them to some of the touristy places around Taipei, like the night market, 101 building, the museum, etc. I had lots of fun, but I also seriously tired myself out, and the following week I came down with the flu.

Took two and half days off, then went back to work because if I don't do that, I'd never catch up.

>.> I finally caught up a few days ago, only for my boss to dump MORE stuff on me. *sigh* On the other hand, I got a 2% pay raise, and I've only been on the job for 6 months.

I wish Taiwan believed in more public holidays, because I don't even have Christmas off. Well, I have it off, but only because I'm taking it off using my vacation days.

/flops dead

My mom says I should go back to Canada in another year. I can't believe I'm actually considering it.

( cut for rp stuff )

In the last month, I also have a new obsession. It's called transformers. I thought 3 weeks would be enough to get that out of my system and back to my old stuff, but it's still going on. URGH.

....suspect this sounds much funnier in Hokkien than it does in subtitles, but.

jsnead summarizes an article about various British ex-Jihadis and how they got that way. Good stuff. A few quotes:

{But there was an inhibiting sympathy for the victims of 9/11 -- until
the Bush administration began to respond with Guantanamo Bay and bombs.
"That made it much easier. After that, I could persuade people a lot
faster." }
{"Nobody ever said " you're equal to us, you're one of us, and we'll
hold you to the same standards," says Husain. "Nobody had the courage to
stand up for liberal democracy without qualms. When people like us at
[Newham] College were holding events against women and against gay
people, where were our college principals and teachers, challenging us?"
}
{Every one of them said the Bush administration's response to 9/11
-- from Guantanamo to Iraq -- made jihadism seem more like an accurate
description of the world.}
{But the converse was -- they stressed -- also true. When they saw
ordinary Westerners trying to uphold human rights, their jihadism began
to stutter. Almost all of them said that they doubted their Islamism
when they saw a million non-Muslims march in London to oppose the Iraq
War}

does anyone know of a good lj phone ap? I tried mobitile but it didnt work. Yep the bad grammar here is me typing this post via phone.

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

Aw, thank you, highskyfighter~! This is the first time I've ever gotten a V-gift. ♥

---

Going to the dentist ended up taking 3 hours just for a cleaning, because I didn't have a dental card, and I was pretty sure that I had dental coverage with Kaiser... ultimately we found out after a 1 hour wild goose chase, followed by me having to wait another hour for the hygenist to get back from lunch. She said I had great oral hygiene... o_O; Normally, they tell me just the opposite. What in the world?

---

To escape the rain, I went to the Del Amo Fashion Center and ended up buying some tops from Love Culture in hopes that they would add to my small amount of work-acceptable clothes. *sigh*

Also, I couldnt' help but giggle when I went into Brookstone and saw this. Since you're basically saying, "Hello, hello" in two different languages (English and Japanese). XD I wonder if it works well...

---

I'll have to sleep by 10pm if I want to get up between 4:50am-5am to get ready for work at 6am tomorrow morning. =( (need to leave house by 5:30ish)

...today i forgot my water bottle, my celfone and my lunch at home. all because i woke up late and was hurrying out the door. that and i need more sleep @_@;

but that doesn't matter much because of the lovely snowy pretty cookies that people gave me, THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!! i have NEVER seen snow. EVER. so it's a great substitute :D VERY GRATEFUL, YOU GUYS! THANK YOU!

( Not very secret message to Liz )

--

Thank you to the many more people who've sent me snowflake cookies. You are all fabulous.

All the LJ profiles I've glanced at today look like they have been ravaged by delicious blizzards. If only the snow outside were so delicious.

This entry was originally posted at http://everysecondtuesday.dreamwidth.org/28185.html. If you'd prefer, please comment there with OpenID. (DW comment count: )

Today was both happy and sad. Mostly sad, but there were some highlights of it.

THE SAD: I didn't do well on my math test because I can't count, clearly. I forgot my chem binder in my locker and had to run back to get it with one of my two passes for the quarter. I think I did badly on the AP test today because alkjgsksjfg I AM BAD AT HISTORY. I might not get to make castella today because our milk is slightly questionable. Most of the snow melted before I got home from school today, so no pictures. I am almost out of eggplant parmesan. I have no time for anything tomorrow. I have thiiiiiiiiiiis much make up work to do for next week, probably, because we have too many freaking field trips in three days. D:

THE HAPPY: I got a 40/40 on my Civil Disobedience writing. *___* IT IS A MONUMENTAL MOMENT, GUYS. I made curry for dinner. I might get to make castella today if our milk is safe. It is snowing tomorrow, probably. I am good at chemistry and get full points or minus one on nearly every test or quiz we take. I think I know what I'm going to write about for my Maxim paper due Monday.

I am also having fun with Yokocho. I'm going to get Amanda to teach me how to use it one of these days, though, probably over break. We'll make a trip downtown out of it.

Now, to check out our milk and maybe make castella. :DDD

Back at work now after getting only 3 hours of sleep because Kaoru and I were up til something like 3:30 watching TxN and BuriMyu stuff XDDDDD I love having new fans into the same stuff I am to show things too 8D

I don't have a lot of time right now because I have a lot to do, but let me see if I can get some tiny highlights here:

--WAY fewer people than I expected. Our Narita group was about 25 people, so I was expecting the others to be about the same with a total of 80-90 people, because the minimum number for participation was 80 people...but there were only about 40 total! Either the 80 wasn't the real cutoff, or Nagayan really really really wanted to do this ;_; STILL, NOT COMPLAINING! It felt WAY more intimate this way! And you get to know and recognize pretty much everyone :D

--Stuff was soooo cheap at the conbini and stuff. Bottled water was ~40 yen (here: ~150 yen), a full burger set at McDonalds was ~300 yen (here: ~700 yen). I MISS IT SO. Also, they had twix 8D I bought some because dilettantka mentioned it~

--Nagayan talked about so many random things throughout the event: his thoughts on Oshio Manabu (from a film they did together recently, before Oshio was arrested on suspicion of murder), why he didn't go to college (analineblue!!! I didn't even bring this up! It just RANDOMLY came up at dinner!), and how THIS BURIMYU MAY NOT BE HIS LAST. Well, I dunno. He was pretty well drunk when he was talking about it, but he was kind of huddled at our corner talking to our table, and Hitsugaya came up, and he goes kind of idly, "Man, I wonder how long I'm gonna be playing Shiro-chan..." The other girls were all, "uuuhh...we're pretty sure it said this was the last for the original members...?" And he kinda looked confused like, "Huh..." I dunno XD; Nagayaaaan. As Kaoru put it to me later: "I don't want a BuriMyu with Nagayan but without Tuti ;___;" <--PREACH IT, SISTER ;_;

--When Nagayan visited our room (he did everyone's), the first thing he said on entering was, "...Wow, this room smells good!" I sniffed then, as I hadn't noticed anything really...and all I smelled was a faint cigarette smoke smell >_>

--Weirdest most awkward feeling in the world? Front hug with Nagayan >_> The first time at least. The second time I was overcome with so much platonic love for him I wanted to lift him up and whirl him around 8D

--Heheheheeee we talked a little about Takasaki at the show when the girls at our table were all, "ZOMG HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOST RECENT GP?! FIRST CAST SHOULD REALLY REALLY WATCH THEM." I know it was because of the GP medley that included all those songs Tuti and Nagayan sang together, but sdufsifds that it brought Takasaki into the convo MADE MY DAY. One girl even went, "He was saying on his blog that he was a Nagayama-san fan!" and Nagayan's drunken, tired response was: "Of course he is~"

--GROUP DATE IN MYEONGDONG. By which I meant we all walked around with him in a group of about 5 or 6 each at a time, and walked around taking turns holding hands and shopping and doing date-like things with him. Yeah. YEAH. It should not have felt that awesome pretending to be Nagayan's beardgirlfriend 8D

I'm sure I'll remember a lot more and be tempted to write it down as well, but I'll save that writeup with my notes for later ;) For now, Nagayan's safely back in Japan and heading to Fantasia rehearsals, my little group of friends is planning a yakiniku party before the end of the year hopefully, and I HAD AN AMAZING TIME and can't WAIT to tell you all about it!!

* Is overparenting peaking?
* For all the helicopter parenting, sex talks tend to be too little, too late.
* Outrage over teaching masturbation in Spain; article mentions what other sex-ed programs do. Makes the USA sound stuck in the Dark Ages.

* The anti-statism obsession in America
* Cake vs. screamers: increasing marginal utility of 'reliever' goods and the persistence of poverty.

* Obama aims to shrink the war on terror from "terrorism" to "Al-Qaeda", on the grounds that only A-Q is targetting us, plus movements like Hamas and Hezbollah and even the Taliban have nationalistic roots in the people, and can't simply be stomped.
* Palin's fake bus tour, call for the US to dedicate itself to God, and flirtation with the Birthers
* Manual for GOP obstructionism.


*composting toilets progress.
* Christmas defined
* Blood plasma from border Mexicans. US is one of the only countries to allow paying for blood and plasma, and a massive exporter of plasma since other countries don't collect enough. I smell a causal connection, there...

* Ada Lovelace: the Origin
* Evolution of Nintendo controllers

Hello all,

Well, my personal interview with AEON has officially come and gone and now the waiting begins.

One thing that I am positive about is that the "pop lesson" that I had to give was a total disaster. I nailed my original presentation at the group meeting, but the lesson I was given at the personal interview was hard, I didn't understand it and I didn't teach it correctly. The recruiter then went over some of the points and asked if I would give it again. I did, and she told me I did a little better, but I still missed the main points of the lesson. She also told me that the lesson was a harder one as I stared dumbfounded at the page. During the rest of the interview I admitted that I have a lot to learn and improve but I really want the chance.

Did anyone else who was offered a job with AEON experience this, or are my chances slim-to-none? I'm just wondering if anyone else totally screwed up their lesson but was still offered the job. I was so confident because I had made the first cut, and now I am feeling pretty disappointed.

Thanks in advance.

Do you know any Japanese people who file share? What do they use: WinNY, WinMX, or something else?
Thanks. I keep reading that WinMX is still popular there, but it would be nice to have some confirmation.

Me: Good job mom! *smacks her on the bum*
Mom: Sexual harassment!
Me: Considering you popped me out of your ass, I didn't know this would count as harassment
Mom: Of course it is! Just ask your d...
Dad: I take the fifth.
Me: That's cheating.
Dad: No. It's self-preservation.

Happiness is the official soundtrack to Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog.

Whee for early Christmas gifts. Courtesy of my Brian.

Title: Perishable
Series: Hikaru no Go
Disclaimer: Characters are the creations of Hotta and Obata
Notes: Uh... I got stuck on the rumour fic and went to work on my unfinished cliche fic for the last Blind Go challenge. So, yeah, lots of cliches. ETA: And for some reason the fic wanted to be in present tense.
Summary: Going to Innoshima.

( Read more... )

For whatever reason, I just haven't had much to blog about recently. Strike that, I've been really lazy and not blogging recently. My virtual fish seem to have taken priority. That's a problem. But I thought I'd give a quick fandom update.

( Things I'm Enjoying in the Entertainment World )

( Things I'm muddling through when I have nothing better to do )

Otherwise, I'm 40 days away from Dream right now, and that's occupying most of my waking moments. For Christmas, please send good vibes for my tickets. I think my karmic balance should weigh me in around front row balcony. Right, karma? Please? I gave up my car for this.

Two fics, Keeping Warm, and Lover's Quarrel, and another two, Maiden's Tears, and Household God, Chihiro/Haku, Spirited Away, by canis_m.

***

I just got a new computer! Well, I got it a few days now, but I've been too busy with RL to even go on the computer, never mind setting it up and stuff. Will post more Hikago comment fic later tonight. Late.

Passed my grade 3 guzheng exam! My score was 72, which actually just counts as a pass, not even a 'merit' or 'good' or anything like that, but I hadn't worked hard enough--not practised enough, so yeah. Also my musical ability is rather humdrum. Anyway, another year, another target.

Taking a personal day because I had to clear a couple days of leave, and suddenly errands are popping up. Christmas cards, bank, library books, groceries... hey, maybe I'll buy chocolate chips to make cookies with...

I've been posting a lot more RL than I ever did before... I'll try to keep them short.

Y'all! *beams* I woke up this morning and--for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture--was feeling rather down. Then I checked my e-mail and made my happy wibbley face because three different people had reviewed three different fic of mine and wordsindreams sent me a fab virtual gift, totally lifting my day. And then, after a wonderful time in Ft Wayne seeing the amazing lizfu, I discovered that in my absence five more of you sent me snowflakes.

Seriously. oxoniensis, anna_luna, heather11483, masterofmidgets, lizfu, and, once again, wordsindreams, thank you so much! I am smiling and smiling. You are all so ♥!

--

Firefox has over 200 tabs open. Ack. This post is mostly going to be linkspam.

--

Some things I am recommending sight unseen (vids unwatched, fic unread) on the weight of other people's recs, past work, and/or THE SHEER AWESOME OF THE IDEA:

-Talitha's "Imma Be", a Leverage Hardison vid. I am still fighting with my computer over codecs and flash since the memory wipe, but I may have to just cave and watch this on the desktop. Talitha puts out quality work every time, and my love of Hardison knows no bounds. I guarantee you will love this if you know Leverage and have anything approaching decent taste.

-Trascendenza's "Reception in the Ball Pit": a Psych Gus/Shawn fic the summary of which is "The one where they get married." I ask you, is there any way this can be not utterly amazing? I don't think so. THE RECEPTION IS IN THE BALL PIT. It's in the title! (If there is not actually a reception in the ball pit, trascendenza, don't tell me. Just write it in within the next night, and not only will all be forgiven, I will never need to discover your secret plot to break my heart.)

-Seperis's "I Hate This Part (Right Here)". Why did no one tell me seperis had written Chuck fic? Why did I have to stumble across this idly surfing Delicious this morning? Internet, you are On Notice.

--

Some awesome things currently ongoing:

-Say it With Flowers International Postcard Project:

Are you a fan of Morgana and Gwen? Want to do something nice for the actresses to show your support and send a clear message to the producers that we'd like the ladies to have more screentime and their own plotlines in the next series?

Then join camelot_fleet, gwenmorganabbc, and drawmelot in an international postcard project to send flowers to Angel and Katie. It's easy! All you do is find or make a postcard (or two postcards, if you're ambitious) with flowers either in the picture, on the back, or mentioned in your note. Then print the address(es) listed below and mail the cards. We encourage you to find cards that represent your local area, just to show the girls how international their fanbase is.

-Fakenews Fanfic's Secret Santa still has wishes unclaimed. I seriously can't claim anymore. I will die. So y'all need to get over there and make off with the rest to save me from myself.

-The Beta Reader Finding Post for 3_ships for those of you who want to participate in some way, but didn't manage to sign up (or did, but want a sneak peek of awesome stories and love betaing).

--

Other links:

-Kialio's review of Princess and the Frog. (Liz, this is the review I mentioned when we discussed seeing this.)

-Winterlive's "Future Legend" from queenbitchfest sucked me in despite being in a fandom I don't know very well (American Idol), and it is well worth the ride. (God, there is something about anything relating to Adam Lambert that makes everything I type sound incredibly fun and dirty.) It's a 52,000 word apocafic. Let me say that again: APOCAFIC. 52,000 words of it! And it has got to be the most fabulously dressed apocalypse ever. Seriously. Read this.

-Why I have taken feministing's feed off my subscription list, and several other excellent resources to add instead.

-I want these shoes so fucking bad. They are red Doc Overdrives and only US$30.00. Clearance shoes are such a temptation.

-Bossymarmalade's how to comment on art when you're not an artist.

-Hth is posting all her SGA fic on AO3, and I don't know if I've ever remembered to recommend this, but 13 O'Clock is one of my favorite SGA fic ever. If SGA fandom had hundreds (or even dozens) more quality Rodney/Ronon fic like this, I would have never been drawn away from the fandom, or at least would have had to migrate back every year to consume all the delicious new fic in a gleeful frenzy.

--

I think those are enough links to throw at y'all in one post, don't you? *grin*

This entry was originally posted at http://everysecondtuesday.dreamwidth.org/28054.html. If you'd prefer, please comment there with OpenID. (DW comment count: )

I should be studying for my chemistry quiz tomorrow... and my chemistry exam Wednesday... and doing that problem set, but I just read this and-- yeah, chemistry? solubility? WHO CARES, THERE WAS QMI AND KYUHYUN HAVING A... CONSCIENCE?

Fan Account of the December 6th Taiwan Fanparty
Cr: cutesungmin @ qmi baidu bar.
Translation mine; note that this is a direct translation, so all comments are the OP's, not mine

At the second fanparty,
When they were wrapping the event up with some touching words,
Kyuhyun cried.

( Kyuhyun darling, does this mean you'll learn Chinese now? :| )

In other news, it will never stop amusing me that the Qmi baidu bar girls refer to Kyuhyun almost exclusively as 囧圭, which is basically 囧-Kyu dsjkfjkf.

Awesome, the tests are over! /o/ Next, I'll have to focus on writing up a personal statement. I have until the end of January for that, but I'd better start on it now.

Just like Ayli said, EVA spoiler in the listening section!! XD

---

Added something else to my wishlist. XD It's not very expensive, and it'll help me out at work later, once I start working at 4am... I'm so glad that we're allowed to listen to music at work. =D

---

On the news the other day, they mentioned that someone came up with a product called Drop Stop. Sounds pretty useful. XD; I know I definitely drop my cell phone down there sometimes...

---

Yesterday, maiki hosted a "Whose Character?" [WC] game on Twitter, and I partook in it, even though I had just gotten back from the LSAT. ^^; It's been so long since I've drawn.. (and colored).

Prompt given to me:
[black mage + rapier, thin + shota + black hair + blue eyes, cape + glasses + shy]

End result:
http://twitpic.com/sdghu

(My favorite part was the rapier: http://twitpic.com/sdgll)

The rest of the prompts are listed in the comments of this link:
http://twitpic.com/s92oo

---

Ultimately, I did go back and beat KH:358/2 before going to sleep before the LSAT. ^^;;; All in all the last two boss battles took me less than 30 minutes altogether. I'm happy I finished it because it's been so long since I actually finished a game. OTL;

---

( List of food I want to eat/food places I want to go to when in Japan this time )

Woo, had a great weekend hanging out with noctaval & co after seeing Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Orlando! :D (I even met up with adamatari for breakfast Saturday first!) The concert was fantastic. And very strobe light-y. XD; And I didn't know they had a second album out! I shall have to procure this. It has some awesome stuff on it! Afterwards there was Bucca Di Beppo's (YUM) and then much Rock Band and Transformers extras and we also discovered we fail at Mario on the Wii. XD We just got back from Orlando around 5:15 and then I went running and watched some Disney Channel and ate delicious jalepeno cheddar Cheetos (those are good!) aaand now I am off to finish up my expanded research interests (thanks to valeriebean!) before Venture Bros! Yay, more job deadlines coming up and I swear that once I get this research interests thing written well I am going to stop and never change it until I have to do it again. :x

BUT before I go, I wanted to wish a very happy birthday to rkold! :D

I refuse to believe that Kyuhyun didn't jump him after this fan party, okay? Okay. Just so we're clear.

Will flail more about the QMi/Zhou Mi (WHAT BIASES) in the Taiwan fanparty after I get back from the second Vespers show. And rofl why do I fail, I'm going to be late for my call. Bye! Come to Vespers!

( full-size + more Zhou Mi in glasses )

For tarigwaemir, prompt: old age. I think the one where Chihiro is finally reunited with Haku after having lived a long, full life is overrated has been written plenty, so this isn't that, quite. ( Lover's Quarrel )

For briar_pipe, prompt: something spring-like, and/or "anything you feel like writing." This is not spring-like, but uhh it meets the latter criterion. XD; In the vein of "Household God" and redundant of certain others. ( Keeping Warm )

Preview of my massive picture spam whenever I finish editing the pictures.


Dinner by ~Yeu on deviantART

And yes, I had a VERY nice seafood meal.

Thanks to all the people who sent me snowflakes! Random presents always make me happy (as do mashed potatoes OMNOMNOM). ♥

THE (_____) TO MY (_____) MEME

...and so here we are. It is 5:32 AM, my name is Rose, I am not wearing any make up in the picture above, and I sometimes dislike myself.

It's not a fun feeling, not being able to think of all the awesome points about yourself. We're all kind of, you know, self-criticizing to what is probably an unhealthy extreme. "I'm too fat, I'm not smart enough, I'm not pretty, I'm not talented"; let's face it: these thoughts run through our heads all the time. We're so busy comparing ourselves to the people we see on TV, on the streets, everywhere and we can pick out their good points and we wish we were more like them. People are just never quite satisfied with themselves.

I'm trying to change that a little about myself. So herein lies my project for the next few months: I'm going to learn to love myself more. I'll still know the bad points and see what I want to change, but I've got to realize that there are some parts of myself that I just can't. So I'm going to focus on what I do like about myself. Each week, two or three or four things about me that I like. It should be manageable, right? :)

( Ready, start! )

That'll be all for this week! I think, if you have the time, it'd be something fun to do. If you're not already doing a giant meme, that is. /D;;

I saw AD-kun on my way home. Lucky the train wasn't full, so I got to sit right beside her and talk sewing. I swear, once I figure out when I can go to divisoria I will so text you; I NEED a white feather boa for my project! The white fluffy things I got are not fluffy enough!

Answering lucathia_rykatu's questions.

The meme!
Leave me a comment saying "rainbow".
I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

( one answer proved to be a bit longer than the rest )

Hats I have cut the base felt for a tiny white tricorne, and I'm currently doing calculations for a full-sized tricorne commission for a War of Succession Prussia outfit. The commission actually came out of the blue from the last time I wore the HRE outfit, where they asked if I knew where to find the hat, and I told them I made them myself. I did a practice tricorne that I brought during Ame Jidai, and it proved surprisingly photogenic. You can see more of it here. Come to think og it, you see more of my HUGE piyo-piyo in the album. He was popular to the point of being birdnapped a couple of times! Tiny white tricorne will serve as practice to see if I can use gold ribbon as bias for the edging, and I think I may decorate it with black lace and netting. ^^;

(un)Official schedule change Work on Christmas Eve and Dec 31, no work on Christmas and New Year. *cheers* I hope they don't change it all of a sudden. Half of the team DO have to go to work on New Year's, so they're planning pot luck or cake to cheer themselves up. Goodness, if they do change this last minute I'm going to cry, and throw a tantrum. Childish, I know. ^^; The schedule is from Sundays to Thursdays, 12am-9am.

Exchanges, and such I've missed commenting on 5 days on Snupin_santa, and let's not talk about my performance in another exchange I'm in. >_> My schedule is draining the life out of me, so that when I get home I would just have enough energy to eat, do a round of checks in the flists then nap till it's time to go to my next shift.

Macross Frontier finished in club. I approve, it was pretty good. The ending was either rushed or densely packed, depending on taste -- a bit like Twelve Kingdoms Youko arcs. I was surprised at how many key elements I'd read on the Wikipedia page showed up in the last 15 minutes.

Which compares rather favorably to Akagi, which I have now dubbed Mahjongball Z, where we spent two episodes watching a few turns within a single hand of mahjong. Very repetitive, with Wachizu cackling and drawing tiles.

Okay, I haven't read a long fic in MONTHS, except for the ones I beta-ed for a friend. I think I read a short one or a couple of drabbles some weeks ago, but that's all. asñkdfjasñljfs. I want to read more, but I'm too lazy to remember the authors I like and see if they've written anything new (well, their entries in my f-list are lost now!).

...

Oh, the paradox. I think I just need to go to bed. XDDD

EDIT: Also, I'm in the mood for old fandoms. Hikaru no Go and Lord of the Rings, to be precise. WTF. XD

I just read Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain. I have no basis to say this but my own instinct, but I think the book would have been better if GDT had written it by himself. I liked it, yes, in spite of all its flaws. It has really awesome things that feel like Del Toro's own. The heart of the book, the idea that vampires are monsters and not horny and tormented gentleman looking for the next maiden to fall in love with, well, thanks for that, because vampires ARE monsters, they are a reflection of our own dark side, otherness all that jazz. And that's the basis and heart of Del Toro's book. Monster. Virus. Blood. All things horrific and disgusting. And that's what's awesome about this book, Del Toro's imagination, his monsters.

About its flaws, I think it's basically that the book feels like your random apocalyptic movie, including the boring stereotypes.

But I do think it's worth reading, and I'm eagerly waiting for the next two books to come out. ♥

That aside... FINALLY I'M ON VACATION!

Well, sort of. I still have Japanese tests next week. Bleh, I'll see my teacher's stupid face on my birthday. But it doesn't matter, I'm freeee!!! :D

HEY COME TO MY CONCERT TOMORROW. 4:00pm and 7:30pm, PICK ONE, ABBEY CHAPEL, DOORS OPEN 30min PRIOR, FREE, LIMITED SEATING / STANDING ROOM ONLY. Just do it. It'll be fab. Christmas Vespers is a college tradition. We [Glee Club board] have to order more than 2,000 programs every year. You should come take one ;)

SJ-M did another radio interview, but I'm translating this one because it's about a million times more interesting.

This interview is extremely long (an hour and five minutes), so I've only translated the first 25 or so. I hope you don't mind. I'll finish it in due time, haha. In the second half, the guy talks to Kyuhyun (who really doesn't talk much -- he sings twice, though), a lot of fans call in, and the marriage jokes start cracking. At one point Geng jokes that all of them are going to leave Taiwan with a wife in tow.

( Transcript Part One + download link )

As you can tell, it's still unfinished. I plan to keep working on it next year. But I hope you enjoy it anyway. :)

Now to write my post-project review. Oh, and eat.

I've completed my animation degree.

On Friday evening we had Industry Night, where all of the graduating students present the films and games that they made to representatives from the games and film industries. Many of the projects were really impressive. Mine was incomplete, as I ran out of time to work on it, but it still got a lot of positive attention from several companies. :D It looks like there's a very good chance I'll get a full-time job in the gaming industry right away when I come back to Australia after the holidays!

Industry Night was really amazing. So was Open Day on Saturday, which was basically the same thing as Industry Night except open to the public. On Friday I couldn't leave my post in case an industry rep approached my stand, but on Saturday I had plenty of time to go around and see everyone's projects. I collected everyone's business cards, too. Not everyone bothered to show up on Saturday so I know I missed some people, but I still managed to collect 45 cards. :D Speaking of which, I made 60 business cards. By the end of Saturday's event, only 13 were left. I'd say that's pretty good. :3

At the end of Saturday's presentation, when we were all saying goodbye to each other, it suddenly struck me that besides Graduation Day, I'll probably never see many of these people again. And, unlike at the end of high school where I hated most people, this thought made me extremely sad. There were plenty of people I hardly talked to who I still like very much. I liked almost EVERYONE. (almost.) I'll miss many of the staff members, too. I'm surprised I didn't cry. I bet I'll cry at the graduation ceremony in February.

I can't put the whole experience it into words properly, but despite how tired I was and how much my legs hurt from being on my feet all day, these two days were two of the best I've ever had. I felt so... accomplished. All the hard work was worth it. I just made one of my lifelong dreams come true. Seven years ago, nobody took me seriously when I said I was going to study animation overseas. The only person who believed I could actually become a professional animator was my 8th grade homeroom teacher, who encouraged me to keep at it. Three years ago, still no one thought I would actually go through with my plan. For some reason, the notion of leaving the country seems all but impossible to most people in Israel. And to do that in order to study animation? You can't make any money doing art!

Even after I signed up for Qantm two years ago -- hell, even last year after I started my degree -- my parents, especially my dad, still thought I would give up halfway and that I'd come back home; that living in a different country all alone and so far away would be too difficult for me.

But I did it. I'm done. I have my degree. I even have at least one solid job offer as an animator waiting for me here after the holidays.

IN YOUR FACE, WORLD! :D

Last night, after about 8 or so "I'm in, I'm out, let's take a bus, no I'll drive, no you drive" kind of back and forth that just about made me wonder why I invite people anywhere, I finally end up going to the "Hajimete no" live down at the NRC with M-chan and Kouhai. Well, first we stopped by Viva Mexico for fajitas and enchiladas (*weeps at the memory*). But then we went down to the NRC.

( Thoughts on a unique and amusing live below )

Moving and trying to sell off everything so I don't have to take it with me. I have a SAI Japanese hardcover artbook on sale for $35 here:

http://peroxidepest17.livejournal.com/391475.html

Please take it off my hands!

Today I passed my driving theory test--again. I kind of forgot about my provisional license and let it lapse before attempting my driving test. And since the exam is going from forty questions to eighty come the new year, I decided it was time to do it again before 2010 arrived.

Now I have to go for an eye test (which will be... interesting, as I haven't had one in about four years) and fill out forms to get my license processed, and then Dad is able to put me on his insurance. If it goes through relatively soon, he might take me on the road for a bit while I'm home for Christmas, weather permitting. I'm applying for my driving test as soon as possible, and I'm going to start lessons sometime in late January.

I might not need a car, or indeed know how to drive right now, but it can't hurt to learn. It'll probably come in useful eventually.


And now I go back to figuring out what this scene in the werewolves is actually about.

I really like this article on learning history. Especially since it's focused on one of the things that I can't do well: memorization of history facts. I've never been good at just memorizing and memorizing and not knowing how things are used or where we can apply them, and so when it comes down to history classes, I'm basically screwed over. I can't say that I'm bad at history because I both am and am not. I'm just bad at facts. Like our quizzes on Newman--all fact, no real understanding of how things work.

( So how am I going to study effectively? )

In other news, I have a camera! I can finally name something and be lame.

...but what do I name it? It's a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS in light grey and it's fabulous. :3 I'm going to take lots of pictures sometime. Maybe I should drag A out downtown and she can teach me all about cameras. /D;;

edit: with the help of jasj , my new camera is Yokocho. I feel so awesome. And lame, but you know how these things go. :3

RL please stop from being too stressful.

( Meme under )

New nation-tans have appeared! Sadly, I was too busy fangirling over Denmark to notice. I need some Denmark icons. And a new LJ layout. I've had the same one for ages now and I'm getting bored of it.


see more Engrish

Found via rain_of_mind. I wasted at least an hour today on that site. Oh well, I needed the lulz. ♥

oh philippines
stop making me facepalm so much

sigh.