The many trials and errors of a young christian woman trying to serve God, love others, and get good grades. Mostly mindless blathering with the occasional witticism or word of wisdom.
Hey guess what?
Summer's over. Fall quarter's nearly over. And I haven't posted one word.
I wish I could say it's because I've been so busy, but mostly it's because I hate writing about myself when I could be writing fantastical fiction.
So yeah. Sorry.
So much has happened that I have to give a quick summary:
Looks like I'll be studying abroad at Kobe University this Spring/Summer
I loved my summer job, though the loneliness was tough
I want to look into more tourism/museum jobs because I loved it so much
I would also like to work at an embassy or consulate at some point to see what it's like
I want to also potentially give tutoring in english to Japanese, but that could probably happen while I am actually in Japan
My classes ate me alive through the first half of the quarter, though things are finally starting to look up
Fourth-Year Japanese is impossible to 4.0, even if you're a Developmental Bilingual in Japanese, who one of the people in my class is. (Developmental Bilingual means that you grew up speaking two languages, in this case English and Japanese)
I am hopefully not failing fourth-year, but the jury's still out on that one
I won't be able to take fourth-year next quarter so I'll be making my own little Japanese study based vaguely on what we've been doing in class this quarter.
I do, however, love my fourth-year Japanese prof. She's great. And nicer than third year's prof. I had the best TA ever for third year though, which made life tolerable.
I am sort of keeping my life under control, though the same cannot be said for my desk space and bed.
I have not had as much time to cook as I would like
My best friend and another really good friend are up here in Seattle with me now and it makes my heart sing.
I wish I had more time to write. I would threaten to do the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where you aspire to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November), but it's already the 19th and well, no. It's not going to happen.
I finally showed someone besides myself one of my songs that I wrote the lyrics to and also came up with a tune. Now I just have to figure out how to guitar and keyboard and drum it (synthesizer?) and record myself (and autotune so it sounds reasonable) and then possibly I will put it somewhere for people to hear.
I have other songs. I would like to do something with them at one point but not now.
This is the most convoluted bullet point list ever because it's basically a stream-of-consciousness list at this point.
I probably should have skipped the bullets, but it's too late now.
I'm just glad I didn't number this list or things could have really gone south.
ANYway.
I can't think of anything else at the moment
So there you have it. My most recent post, in all its lameness. Sorry for the long wait, and I know this totally wasn't worth the wait. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, bloggy blog.
Hey there bloggy blog! I'm back after a month at my summer job; I just got my first paycheck and I suddenly feel so rich even though it wasn't super impressive. I LOVE MY JOB. TO DEATH.
I'm working at a state heritage site in a small former gold-rush town where I lead people through a historic building and interpret the historical significance of the site to the visitors. I also get to tell stories, and be excited about history! (Which, as you may guess, is so hard for me to do.)
My boss is amazing, my coworkers are even more so, I get to work on developing a program for school kids in the fall, and I get to meet all sorts of interesting people and interact with original artifacts from 1866-1948 AND GET PAID TO DO IT.
Since I've only really ever done volunteer work, the opportunity to do all of this great stuff AND GET PAID TO DO IT is really tons awesome.
In case you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of exhausted right now, brain dead. Partially from work, but mostly because I couldn't fall asleep last night. So this is a really lame blog post. I apologize for that.
This will probably be my shortest blog post ever. I am pretty exhausted...
So I guess I'm calling it. More on my awesome job of amazingness later...
It feels as though it's been years since I touched you, my dearest bloggy-blog, and so much has happened. Wow. Where to start? I'm out of school now, first of all. Also, I can now reveal that I engaged in an amusing (if somewhat juvenile) prank with a good friend of mine, where we managed to convince most of our collective friends that we two were dating. (The fact that my best friend Kristi was on board served well - we never would have pulled it off without her backup.) Amusingly, my younger sister did not even find out about the fake "relationship" until the week before we called it off and told everyone the truth. So for most people it lasted a month, but for my silly and rather oblivious sister, the prank only lasted a week.
I must confess that I don't think I'll ever do anything of the sort again; lying to everyone really killed me inside and made me feel super guilty. I can't even really enjoy the prank, because it still sort of makes me feel a little bit sick inside.However, the resulting inside jokes that emerged between this good friend and I as a result of our false relationship make up for the ill feeling for the most part.
In addition, I have applied to the UW study abroad program. I'm hoping to be in Japan next summer. But what about this summer? What could possibly have me so busy that I have neglected my blog for such an extended period of time?
...A summer job. Yes, a summer job. Also a dying laptop. But more on that later. First: I am currently working for Oregon State Parks at a State Heritage Site as an Interpretive Intern, and I am thoroughly enjoying it thus far. I love being able to take people around the site and tell them about the importance of the site and how it contributed to Oregon's heritage and history. On the downside, the heritage site is approximately 7 hours away from home, and so I have a summer far, far, away from all of my friends to anticipate. Additionally, I have no idea how I'm going to see "The Amazing Spider-Man" premier with my friends since I can't take any days off except for my weekends. Pardon me whilst I bawl, since I have been looking forward to this movie since I heard about it just under a year ago when they started releasing production photos, etc.
Spider-man has always been my favorite Marvel super-hero (He's almost neck-in-neck with my all-time favorite superhero, a DC character known as Brainiac 5). I really love Spidey, and I really wanted to see this film with my friends. Movie premiers are no fun by yourself...
"The Amazing Spider-Man" premiers soon. It is much more
accurate to the comics than the last 3 Spider-Man movies.
This is Brainiac Five. He is awesome. And a Genius.
But mostly just awesome.
...Okay, now, where was I? Right. No movie premiers. Pehh. But hey, at least I got to see "The Avengers," which, while not yet including Spider-Man (Who DOES join the Avengers at one point, though he tends to be more of a solo act), did have some other fun folks we met in a few other great Disney/Marvel flicks over the years. By "other fun folks" I mean:
Thor Odinsson, "Norse God" and hammer-wielder with long golden locks that are usually 'creatively toussled' and/or greasy. An Avenger, and a good guy.
Brother of the adopted Loki, "Norse God" of mischief. Loki will get his own intro later.
Ironman, aka Tony Stark, main inventor and head of Stark Industries, though he did pass the reigns over to his childhood friend and girlfriend (fiance?), Pepper Potts. He invented the suit he wears and is quite a snarky character. He likes to go solo also, but does play a fun part in the team. Plus, because he's a self-declared "Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist," he's the one with the funds to keep a place for the Avengers to hang out when they aren't saving the world... or avenging it.
Captain America, the first avenger, named Steve Rogers. He is awesome and kind and heroic and almost too good to be real. He is also a super-soldier with strength, patriotism, and an awesome shield. He lost the love of his life when he was buried in ice at the end of WWII and was cryogenically preserved until being dug out not too long before the Avengers started up.
From Lto R: The Incredible Hulk
(top left), Hawkeye (bottom left),
Ironman (front mid-left),
Nick Fury (mid back)
Black Widow (front mid),
Captain America (back right),
Thor (front right).
Along with a couple of other fun friends, namely the head honcho of the Avengers Initiative: Nick Fury the super spy, Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), and the Incredible Hulk (Bruce Banner), The Avengers band together to defeat the evil villain of the piece, who I still think deserves more credit and less blame then he tends to get in general circles. On the bright side, Tumblr seems to agree with me, so all of my geeky internet friends that I've never met in real life agree with me. And I've sort of managed to argue my best friend Kristi to at least admit that my point of view was tenable, though she's still mad that he killed some civilians. And I would probably be mad too, if the story were real... but it's not, so I am not mad at him and I think he's a great character with a lot of depth and fascination and I really hope that the writers of coming Avengers/Hero movies work with all the depth and interest in his character, rather than just going with the very two-dimensional "hurr hurr, I'm a bad guy and I'm evil and BOW TO ME and FEAR ME and DIE LIKE BUGS!"... because honestly, he would be a lot more fun to play with than that. But I'm not a screen writer. And if I were, I'd have a hard time not making the story TOO Loki-centric because he is just a fascinating character... but I haven't even gotten to him yet, so...
Loki Laufeyson/Odinsson "Norse God" of mischief and general chaos is the villain of the piece, wreaking havoc on Midgaard (aka Earth) mostly as a temper tantrum/general freak out because he's recently undergone intense emotional trauma, not to mention the fact that he's been hated and bullied for most of his life for what he thought was no reason. He only recently realized that he always felt different from his brother, family, and his brother's friends (he had no real friends of his own) because he actually was different. Not an Asgardian (a "norse god" like Odin, Frigga, Thor, Sif, etc), turns out Loki was actually a runt Jotunn or Frostgiant, the enemies of Asgard, that Odin brought back as a sort of insurance should the Frostgiants ever try to attack. Loki was raised as Odin's son, but since a peace accord was struck, Odin really had no use for Loki anymore, but continued to lead him on, acting as if he might actually have a chance to ascend to the throne. When Thor proved unworthy, Loki expected to recieve the throne, but did not, and this, coupled with the realization that he was actually "the monster people tell their children about at night," drove him mad and he went on a nutso rampage killing all of the frostgiants to prove that he was a true son of Odin (eep). He then went on to attempt suicide by falling into a black hole, but that failed and he ended up on Earth, where he decided if he couldn't rule in Asgaard he could at least rule in Midgaard. (I have no idea how to spell these words, forgive me for not attempting google).
So there we have it. Now, what was I talking about before I got off on a tangent? I guess it doesn't really matter. Unfortunately, my good friend Jirah has sort of developed a celebrity crush on the guy who plays Loki, and she is dragging me kicking and screaming down a similar path. In my defense, Tom Hiddleston (the guy who plays loki) is hysterically funny in his interviews, has a good sense of humor, is reportedly a really nice guy, and happens to play my favorite character in a superhero movie.
We all know I love superheroes.
But thus far I have resisted, though I did confess he would probably fit right in at a family reunion, his humor is almost identical to my dad's/brother's... I want him for a cousin. Because he has a funny velociraptor imitation, and is also really NOT self-conscious, which means he and my brother would probably end up having an awkward dance-off, or bad-joke-off, or something of the sort.
But again, I digress. And since I'm not yet posting half a dozen pictures of him, I have concluded that I just am being fed TOO MUCH INFORMATION, and unfortunately he's not like some movie stars who are stuck up and obnoxious and full of themselves in real life. If he were more like a politician it would be a lot easier to not celeb-crush... But I RESIST! I DOOOOOO!
Or I'm trying, anyway...
We shall see. Hopefully my next blog post isn't a celeb-crush post. That would probably make me cry, and then yell at Jirah for sending me all of those youtube videos and tumblr photos. Peh.
Well. I have finally managed to get to the last item on my post I posted several months back about "not having time" to write at the moment. Well, I suppose I proved myself correct, to a certain extent. However, as the last bullet point on that list was "Writing Buddy," stating that I don't have time to write seems rather counter-intuitive.
That's me, counter-intuitive. I could blame it on the fact that I'm a woman, but it probably has more to do with the fact that I'm me. I guess it might be genetic, but it might just be something unique to my personhood. Or not. Anyway, on to what I was supposed to discuss, and that being my writing buddy. Or 'writing partner'. Though I prefer the term 'buddy.'
My awesome writing buddy and I have started writing some fiction together. I say 'some' not because we also write nonfiction, but because we both write our own fictional works in addition to this fictional work that we have begun writing together. However, I have noticed that having a writing buddy is extremely helpful for keeping a regular schedule for writing. In the past few months, we have written something around 12,000 words. Yes, 12,000. That's with a full-time school schedule, and also general busyness on both our parts. Needless to say, I don't get this much writing done on my other fiction. Which is something I have been lamenting lately.
She and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing together, and I also spent some time picking the brain of a close friend of mine for insight into how the male mind thinks. Not because I think that men and women are from different planets, but because I know that there are ways that men and women look at things that may not be as obvious to a member of the opposite gender. So that has been tons of fun.
On the downside, my fanfiction writing has taken the heaviest hit, I have not written a single chapter in any of my fics for months. Additionally, some of my stories are also suffering. I have, however, worked on editing one of my particularly favorite stories. And I am re-writing for the fourth time a story centered around a character that I first invented when I was 14 years old. So kudos to me for sticking with my character. The classes I have been taking in school have all helped me develop these stories, and I am particularly fond of this character that I invented 5 years ago. The classes that have helped me the most with his story:
International Relations
I took this Political Science course last quarter, and it helped me develop a lot of the cultural systems and interactions between the planets, as well as setting me on a vague course for how and why the interplanetary war in this tale takes place. The story is about a young man who is a member of the ruling class of his society, and learns about how his planet and its culture is contrasted with other cultures of surrounding planets. There is a deep and somewhat painful history between their people and some of the other people groups. There are also some deep-seated prejudices towards different peoples, and it is interesting to see how different perspectives can affect how countries will interact. Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" work was particularly interesting in this regard.
Communication and Difference
This is a class I am taking this quarter, and it explores the impact of Power and Privilege on people, and how denial and systems are set up in cultures in such a way that people often cannot even see their own privilege. It is an extremely eye-opening class, and it got me to thinking about the insecurities and stereotyping that is rampant in our society, and how that would carry over into cultures that are obsessed with genetic engineering and the physical representations of pure genetics. There is also the differing cultures of what is considered normal in which culture, and the differences in patriarchal societies, matriarchal societies, and perhaps societies with social structures that we don't have any comprehension of. It is interesting to develop cultures that dismiss some cultures as 'crude' simply because of how their culture has developed (ie: "You mean your people don't genetically engineer your children to have the best chances in life? How...interesting.").
And I guess that is all I want to talk about right now. I should really be studying for my Japanese test. Bah. How has Japanese helped my writing? Not really very well. It hasn't done much. My intro to linguistics course, on the other hand, has done wonders for helping me decide what I'm going to do to develop a distinct language for my "aliens." I'll probably recycle it for my fantasy stories, and then fans who read both my stories can have fun realizing that both languages work in the same way and use identical vocabulary. I think it might be kind of fun. Of course, if the Editor wants me to change it, I guess I won't have much of a choice...
In the meantime, I'll keep editing my story about genetically engineered orphans. Which actually has nothing to do with the above story, aside from the fact that they are both written by yours truly. Ha!
Mwaha! Just when you thought I was never going to update this poor dear, the nagging finally wore me down! Ha! Yeah. I'm just great at updating this thing... NOT. Alack and alas.
Anyway, now that I've said nothing of import, I'll get to the interesting stuff that you probably have been waiting forever to hear about (well, forever being approximately one month): My week of man "date". And also officer elections.
First things first: What is this "date" and why is it in quotes?
Well, 'Week of Man' is an insane event that the UCU men's house puts on every year to determine who the "manliest man" is. Which basically boils down to guys doing a bunch of crazy stunts, not showering, and throwing up a lot. Yeah. I was very impressed... not.
Be that as it may, one of the things the guys can do during this 'week of man' to prove their manliness is ask girls on dates. Fortunately, no guy is callous enough to ask out a girl who's already dating someone... however, they have no qualms about asking every other girl in the house to go on a date with them... even if they ask multiple girls at once.
Well, I had two guys ask me out. I was probably difficult to locate for most of the week as I tend to hide out in my room like a hermit and cackle at anime, do homework, stalk Japanese celebrities (>.<), or write. Anyway, one guy was a dork and asked me on a date by standing on the table in the middle of lunch. He asked the other girl at the table as well. There were about six other people there, and the whole thing was awkward. He still hasn't actually taken me on that date, though he assured me and a few other girls that he'll get to it. But since he asked out like 12 girls, well... haha, his wallet can only take so much abuse.
The other guy that 'asked me out' is in the creative writing major, and wrote a story with him and myself as the characters. He sent it to me via facebook, and that's pretty much how we discussed everything up until the date. The story ended with his character inviting mine to go out for coffee or something. Not wanting to read into the story, I told him it was pretty funny. He told me there was a purpose behind writing it. I asked if he was trying to use nonverbal communication in the story to express attitudes and thoughts. Or if he was working on description. He said it was more like a moral, something to be learned at the end. I told him I was sorry but I didn't have a clue... to which he responded: "Week of man date? :D"
To which I replied that I would love to go for coffee or something and that I am a total moron. We had a good chuckle about that one. I felt really stupid. Anyway, we went and got some bubble tea together and chatted about writing, and also the upcoming officer elections, and how school was going, and just life in general. Long story short, we talked for about 3 hours. 'twas tons of fun.
And that was the week of man "date". The other one has yet to occur, but I hinted that I wanted sushi, so maybe I'll have him take me to the new donburi place on the ave and try their salmon donburi instead. I hope it's yummy!
Well, after week of man, the women's house held officer elections. For people who don't know (ie, everyone except me or a house member), there are five officer positions at UCU:
President - does tours, works with intra- and inter-house relationships, works with the alumni board, etc.
Vice President - spiritual leader of the house, works with bible studies, leads worship nights, plans outreaches, etc.
Secretary - takes notes at meetings, etc.
Treasurer - collects dues, etc.
Social Chair - plans events, etc.
House Manager - makes sure the house is running, chore manager, buys cleaning supplies, works with the cook to keep things running, etc.
So, at our house we have combined the roles of secretary and treasurer into one person. And we have two social chairs so they can brainstorm together. Anyway, I decided to run for the position of Vice President. And I won. And thus far, it's been murder. It's a huge learning curve and I feel totally inadequate. I have no clue what I was thinking trying to lead anyone in anything.
Haha, all that to say I'm convinced I'm going to die trying to lead the other people in this house, especially since I struggle to have a regular quiet-time. It's really frustrating to be encouraging people to do stuff like read their bibles and feel like a total hypocrite. It's something I would appreciate prayer for. I can find time to do practically anything except read my bible, and I KNOW it's because my spirit and my flesh are in conflict, which just makes it all the more frustrating. However, the guy's house vice president and I have regular meetings. In fact, I'll be meeting with him again tonight to talk about possible outreaches, etc.
It's nice to have someone else to talk to, and everyone is really supportive, but it's frankly terrifying to have this position, a lot scarier than I thought it would be. I just don't want to lead people in the wrong direction or make a dumb choice.
Well, now I have homework, but I think I'll update my bloggy blog of doom tomorrow. My 'bloggy blog' is how I've affectionately termed this blog, and it's kind of stuck. Not only I, but also one of my friends now refers to it as my 'bloggy blog' as well. Hehe. It makes me happy. Try saying it: "Bloggy blog."
Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? D'awwww, yeah, I know.
And with that, I shall bid you adieu!
Until next month, or tomorrow, whenever I end up updating...
Well, I'll start with what everyone is probably wondering about -- My celebrity crush is gone. I'd like to thank God in his mercy, and also dead week (which allows no time for trawling youtube for more talk shows and interviews). So that's over. I still like his music, but I've moved on to more edifying activities like writing, reading my bible, and listening to the Worldview Academy podcast (which just happens to be hosted by my two favorite speakers, Bill Jack and Jeff Baldwin. (and because I know that Jeff Baldwin and Bill Jack always mock argue about whose name should go first, I've just alleviated that problem. Ha!))
Okay then. Glad that's all cleared up. I also breezed through my finals - Japanese, International Relations, and Intro to Communications. I'm registered for my new classes, and I'm excited to be heading home for spring break. The house where I stay has the girls switch rooms and room mates every quarter, so I'm currently sittin in my room at a super-clean desk with only a laptop and a desk chair. It no longer feels like my desk. There are no knicknacks on the windowsill, the desk lamp is gone, my printer has been packed out, and I no longer have snacks in my desk drawer. So no roasted almonds while I study. Of course, since I've finished with school for the quarter, I don't really need the roasted almonds anymore...
Additionally, I have been plotting all the many -- EH??
Sorry for the outburst, but the mildly depressing rain that had been falling from the ubiquitous Seattle grey skies has just upgraded (downgraded?) to slushy snow. If that causes any problems with public transit tomorrow I will be most dissatisfied, since I have a bus to catch home.
Speaking of public transit, I'm glad that I didn't have to take a bus back down to Vancouver to celebrate the birthday of a good friend of mine -- because he came up here instead! Besides, I had enough bothering me as I attempted to craft a unique birthday present. It didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted, but... well, shall I start at the beginning?
The Righteous Empire of Brendan was turning 21, and being awesome (because all of my friends are awesome), he wanted to spend his birthday with me and a couple other close buddies of whom I also happen to be fond. So, he stuffed his car up with Kristi, Jirah, and my little sister (who is doubly awesome since she is not only my friend but also related to me by blood), and drove all the way up to seattle. This involved waking at an early hour and driving up to get here by approximately 10 AM.
Tragically, I stayed up late the night before and into the early morning hours trying to finish the lovely birthday present for Brendan the awesome. So I overslept, had to quickly finish up the present by printing it, and then take a shower. However, having overslept, I didn't get a chance to blow dry my hair before they arrived. Kristi, Jirah, and my sister came up to get me, and we headed out into the blustery wetness that is Seattle during the winter months.
Here's the birthday present that gave me such trouble:
...yeah. It doesn't seem like it would take awhile, but it took a really long time, and I didn't even get the chance to color it. I'll probably redo it, which will involve fixing the resolution (which I wrote at, like, 3AM and so it is not particularly coherent), coloring it, and making the speech bubbles and text size bigger so that it is more readable. My friend Brendan was the United States, I was Norway, and Kristi was the United Kingdom. The rest of the people were all caricatures of the people from our Model United Nations team/class/club/thing at Clark College that we were closest to. It was sort of like a big group of buddies that did Political Science-y things together and went on awesome trips, and that's where Kristi and I met Brendan, and there are a lot of inside jokes involved with it, which is why I chose this for the present.
Anyway, after the excitement of completely bombing the present by trying to print all the panels on one page (rendering the text so tiny that it became unreadable) and racing out to the car with still-wet hair, we took off for downtown Seattle to explore. First we parked and wandered into a food court area near the Pacific Science Center, and had Subway sandwiches. I also had a small mango peach fruity drink thing that probably had way too much sugar to qualify as a smoothie. After that, we walked towards downtown-ish, with the intent of wandering around pike place.
It was freezing. The wind chill factor was remarkable - and not in a good way. So our first stop ended up being a random Starbucks. Which isn't too bad, I suppose, since they have hot drinks and started in Seattle. Then we headed out again, and I believe (it's been awhile so bear with me, my chronological order could be all shuffled about) we ended up finding an awesome military surplus store. It had a bunch of gas masks, flight suits, bomber jackets, and some fun parachute bags and also medic bags. 'twas fun to check out all the stuff in there, look at the dress uniforms, eyeball the camouflage, attempt to read the Japanese scribbled (calligraphy and scribbling in Japanese are not all that different) on an old flag, and then duck back into the freezing cold, where we saw some people from UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) casing the street.
Being foolish and susceptible to pitying folks who are standing out in the freezing cold, I was like "Hey! UNICEF! :D" to which they replied "Yeah! we are UNICEF! let us talk to you for half an hour about UNICEF and what we are doing to help the children in Somalia!" Which, admittedly, is not a bad thing, but the only person who could actually sign up for their "ten dollars a month" deal was Brendan, because he was the only one of us over twenty...
I felt pretty ashamed that I'd somehow roped Brendan into standing on a cold street for half an hour and then getting guilted into giving them ten dollars a month... ON HIS BIRTHDAY. On the bright side, the UNICEF people were friendly, and also funny. So after that, we went about another block and leapt into yet another Starbucks because it was (as I said) freezing outside. So then we bought some more drinks, and then ended up wandering over to Pike Place market. We looked at the flying fish, saw some funny t-shirts, and then after some interesting ventures into clothes shops (Brendan was thrilled at this development... not), we found a really awesome sci-fi comic book shop of awesomeness and probably spent a good hour looking at all the stuff there and posing with the life-size cardboard cutouts of Spock, Dr. Who, and Darth Vader. It was fun!
It was probably more than an hour, but time flew and it's been so long that I really don't remember. So after that, it was time to head back. So we wandered back to the car, stopping by the food court-y thing on our way back to find restrooms and possibly more Starbucks. Then we headed back to my house, and then go to dinner because it was the Women's social and we were supposed to take all the guys from the guy's house out to eat, so I dragged Brendan and Company along. We went back after dinner instead of going roller skating and hung out talking until around 10 PM, which was when Brendan and company departed.
All that to say, it was tons and tons of fun, and I hope that Brendan had a good time because I know I did. And hopefully they will come up and visit me again, because I miss all my friends from Vancouver. While it's nice to make friends up here, I don't have a whole lot in common with most of the girls here. I'm a political science and international relations nerd who likes to learn foreign languages, make stupid jokes, read sci-fi and would rather watch an action-adventure flick than a chick flick any day. Romantic comedies are nice, but I'd rather see some action. (Not to say that I don't want plot, but really... how much more plot does a romantic comedy have?) I guess technically it would be more accurate to say that I would rather watch a Disney animated feature more than either of those, and I also watch anime and read manga. And American comics too. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who reads comics between both the girl's AND guy's houses.
But I digress. I miss my friends, and I hope they come visit me more often. Maybe then I won't have time to develop celebrity crushes. (Yes, I just blamed their absence for my momentary lapse of sanity. I prefer to think of it as "deflection"...)
Well, since my hand is cramping up from typing so much, I should probably call it quits. Hope you enjoyed this post more than my last one. (Which I might be tempted to delete but... well, it's real, it's me, and I guess it's a good way to keep me humble. Even if it is a total embarrassment...)
Seriously, they need to categorize celebrity crushes as some sort of psychological disorder, or at least a disease - because I want a cure. They should put that at the top of the list, and bump down the "find a cure for the common cold" down to #2 on the 'priorities, but not really priorities' list of diseases to cure. It's driving me nuts.
As I rock out to The Phantom of the Opera (easier than one might imagine, I assure you), I decided that with my newfound freedom that is Friday night, I would write in my blog again since I did promise to do so. See, the homework crush really hits home on Saturday afternoon of the weekend for me, so I have to find my freedom early in the weekend or I'll end up not having time to happy dance over a lack of homework. So consider this post my happy dance. I could spend more time youtube stalking my celebrity crush, but I'm really trying to avoid it since it's a total embarrassment to me.
In fact, why don't I just talk about that for a bit. I thought it was silly and a little bit cute when I found out my Japanese professor had a celebrity crush on Johnny Depp. But you know what? AT LEAST THEY WERE THE SAME AGE! That's what really bugs me about having a celebrity crush-- most of the time celebrity crushes affect young people who are not yet old enough for a serious commitment and so they have these sort of far-off ideas of romance and stuff that keeps them afloat until they are old enough to realize that most celebrities are creepers and not very nice and it would be better to find someone who makes a decent wage rather than trying to find that movie star -- especially since they'll probably just end the marriage before too long, since most of them are really messed up by Hollywood. (Apologies for the run-on sentence, I don't want to go to the effort of fixing it since this is basically just a brain barf on a page kind of blog)
The way I see it, you can't find fulfillment without Christ, and that probably hits home the hardest when you have everything but feel like you have nothing. Which is probably why so many celebrities have such messed up lives, because they're going crazy trying to find that thing that is missing from their lives, but they can't find it in other people. As a wise man once said, "Sorry Hollywood, but one needy person plus one needy person equals two needy people. The only way to true fulfillment is through the perfect love of Christ."
But I digress. Most celebrity crushes seem to be an affliction for 13-year-old girls, causing them to fawn over 30-year-old (or older) movie stars. And that, my friends, is just creepy. So of course, I always prided myself in never having fallen for one of those silly celebrities, especially since they were all like 20 years older than me. And then... GACKT (who happens to be 38, making him exactly twice my age... eep!).
It's really frustrating to have a celebrity crush, since I'm not exactly sure how it developed. I've been trying to make it into a good thing, but that's only made it worse. Now I know that there are people out there who will go look this guy up if I don't provide some sort of reference for you guys, so I'll go grab a few of the videos/photos I found while internet stalking this poor guy. (Poor guy because he's a celebrity, stalked, non-christian, etc. Not poor monetarily -- the guy is loaded.)
Aaaaaaaand, did I forget to mention that he is from Japan? Ahaha, I have to laugh at the irony. My Japanese teacher wanted to teach Japanese in America and has an American celebrity crush. I want to go to Japan and help lead people to Jesus and also teach English, and I end up with a Japanese celebrity crush. It's a painful irony.
But mostly I like his voice, because he has a great one. So now I shall show you what I mean. (Warning - he sings rock music, and some of his stuff is pretty heavy.) Seriously, he has a really good voice. I'm posting a live video to prove it, because if you can sound good live then of course you can sound good in studio. I love the strength and clarity of his tone, and I love his vibrato. He stylizes occasionally, but I also just really like the overall sound of his songs too. I tend to like stuff that's on the almost metal-y end of the rock spectrum, so I really like listening to his stuff.
He also dances! (and he's way better at it than I am) (PS: the following song is one GACKT did for the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. The song is about being a cyborg and how he doesn't want to be controlled by the machines in him)
And he acts! He recently played in a movie that was done here in the states called "Bunraku." It was rated R for violence (and I think 1 swear word), but I thought it was a really, really well written movie. I've only ever seen 1 other rated R movie, and I liked this one better. Then again, the other R movie was Black Hawk Down and it did not have a happy ending, so maybe I'm just doubly biased into thinking this movie was better than it really was. However that works, the fact remains that I was impressed. They managed to hook you and keep you interested in a story that had two protagonists, and you never even learned the name of one protagonist. (It's like a huge no-no in movies to have more than one protagonist - it confuses the audience. it's also a big no-no to have a protagonist that's hard to relate to - ie, a guy with no name) But it was still a great film! Plus it had an interesting premise - Post-apocalyptic world where guns are outlawed so everyone fights with fists or swords (hence the violence - it's a lot more up-close and personal).
But I digress. Or, I could show you a movie trailer...
And I just really loved this scene in the movie. These guys come in right after Yoshi (played by GACKT) has showed up at his uncle's Japanese restaurant. They're messing up the place, threaten the uncle, and then make a pass at his cousin. Yoshi (GACKT) has had enough.
(Oh, by the way, JIN is one of the 7 ways of the samurai. It means trying to keep from fighting until it becomes necessary.)
And I mentioned earlier that this was a celebrity crush that I was trying to turn into a good thing that just turned into a worse thing, right? Yes well, I was starting to get really interested in what was going on with this singer GACKT dude but I didn't want to get too obsessed because I have vehement distaste for the whole celebrity crush thing. It's childish, in my opinion. So, in an attempt to keep myself from turning this into a crush I decided to pray for him, since he is not a christian. Now, I don't know if God has decided that GACKT will be an 'object of mercy' (Romans 9:16-ish and onward) or not, so I'm just praying that if Gackt is one of the people whom God has selected, that God would just put people around him who would lead him to a relationship with our savior. But to my dismay, I discovered that apparently praying for someone is not a good way to stop thinking about them, and so I ended up just liking the guy more -- and praying for the guy just makes my feelings stronger. NOOOOOOOOO!!!! So now I officially have my first celebrity crush, and it's all because I decided to pray for him. I'm not going to blame this on God, but I am a bit disgruntled that this happened.
Oh well. Who knows? Maybe my prayers will end up working, or at least get something moving in the heavenlies. I mean, even if God can get some christians into Japan's music industry I would be happy. They have no christian music, which makes it sad for me because I would like to listen to uplifting, christian Japanese songs but they don't have any of those, unlike in the US. Besides, God knows the Japanese people need all the prayers they can get. Their country has the highest rates of Manic Depressive disorder in the entire world AND they have the highest suicide rate of any country. Only 5% of the population claim to be christian, and the culture is very, very secular. So lately my prayers have gone a little something like this:
"Dear God this is stupid but I have a stupid celebrity crush and I pray that you would bring people who know you around GACKT, and that if it is in your will that you would soften his heart towards you God, and I pray for the rest of the people of Japan that you would bring more of them to you and that you would strengthen and encourage your believers in Japan and lastly if you could help me a little with my stupid homework I would appreciate it..."
I'm just glad that God isn't a grammar freak or I would never make it past the pearly gates. I swear most of my prayers are mental run-on sentences.
So there you have it, folks. Another filler chapter (update? post? whatever these blog thingies are called) that I wasn't planning on writing. But hey! It's the weekend, and I'm FREE TO WRITE (blogs or otherwise) for another few hours and then I will disappear into the abyss that is sleep and then I will get up, do some writing or drawing, and about mid-afternoon Saturday I will reluctantly begin my homework.
...really? Wow, I just have no life...
...Sorry. Sometimes I just look at myself and laugh at how pathetic I am. This, my friends, is one of those times. Well, this unfortunately celebrity-crushed girl is going to try and find something to do that does NOT involve youtube stalking a certain celebrity for more of his talk-show interviews...
Yeah. Definitely not.
At least, not for TOO long...
...'cmon guys, that was a joke. You're supposed to laugh, not stare at me and "heh" awkwardly.
Well, I said I would not put these in any particular order, and I feel like it's time to begin ranting about school since there are only two weeks left in the quarter. (I have such impeccable timing... not.) I really just wanted to post this so I could say "School is murder... oh yeah, and dead week is coming up soon, so watch out!" Yes, I have an odd sense of humor. I blame my father.
As for school, my complaints are as follows:
I just got over the stress of giving a 5 minute speech in Japanese class, only to learn that i have a speaking test next week and a final the week after that.
I have to put together a video for my Communications class group because apparently I'm the only one who knows how to use Windows Movie Maker.
...I can't think of anything else. Yeah. Well, those two things seem like enough to me. I really don't have the time to be writing this, but I wanted to get my stress off my chest and make you all feel bad for me. ("You all" being the 5 or 6 people who actually bother to read this thing.)
So, first Japanese: I was a dork and procrastinated. The whole stress issue was really my fault. I just hate talking in a foreign language if I'm being graded. It's not bad if I'm just trying to communicate, because people tend to be more forgiving than someone who is giving you a grade based entirely on how well you can communicate in a language you've only been practicing for about two and a half years.
In other words: "I'M GONNA DIE!!!!!" (My famous phrase that I frequently utilize rather than say "I'm nervous" or "I would rather not do public speaking in a foreign language" or even "I don't really like getting up in front of my Model United Nations team and giving an impromptu speech about China's opinion on Least Developed Landlocked Countries (LDLCs).")
That's like grading a FIRST GRADER on their speech-giving skills! Most of the time when first graders give speeches it's "show and tell" and they get a big ribbon even if all they did was stand up on the stage and twirl their hair for five minutes! When we have a vocabulary (approximately) equivalent to a first grader, why can't our speeches be graded along a similar curve? I mean, yes I am not a first grader, but if I only have the ability to talk like one, can't you cut me a little slack? I may mess up some grammar. I may accidentally use the wrong word. But aren't I cute? Watch me twirl my hair!
Okay, enough of that. On to topic two:
COM 201 is a media studies class and we were assigned to do a group video project. My group has 4 people in it including me. I volunteered to make the video, even though it will probably take me between 5 and 7 hours to complete, plus I will be narrating the poor dear. (Trust me, the quality WILL be poor.)
As if this weren't bad enough, none of the other group members knew how to convert their own videos (add another hour of video conversions and downloading youtube videos or google images to my list of time-consuming activities). But hey, at least they would show up to the meetings and wrote their scripts. The last group member has dropped off the grid without leaving so much as a line of script for me to use in narration, and I don't have any vidoes or pictures from them. And even that much wouldn't be too huge of a deal if it weren't due TWO DAYS FROM NOW.
Yes. Let the stress begin............... Now, I know you're probably wondering why I would be writing this when I should be working on that video of doom and despair, but I kind of have stress up to my eyeballs and I need to release some tension somehow, and I've actually found this blog to be rather cathartic. Now, I don't put all of my thoughts here, (I usually talk things out with God and he and I work through most of my struggles together) but I do enjoy talking at the people who take the time to read this, and I wasn't particularly specific about why I was so busy in my last entry. And yes, I know it's only been about 2 days when I'd waited an entire 2 (or was it three?) weeks before updating last time.
But I never claimed to have a proper schedule, so I guess that's all right. Then again, if I gave myself a proper schedule I'd be more likely to keep it. But that would take all the spontaneity out of my blog and then I'd probably not have as much fun writ(rant)ing in it.
So, there you have it. School is murder, and other tales of woe. BEWARE THE DEAD WEEK!!!!
Signed,
That person who irregularly updates her blog, the infamous and ineffable Rahib*.
*Apparently "Rahib" is what my first name looks like in my signature. This nickname was bestowed upon me by my kind father two winters ago. He felt obligated to parade about the house demanding who "Rahib" was and why they had signed our Christmas cards... the rest is history.
No, seriously, it should be history by now. But somehow it stuck...
That seems like a horrible thing to say to my blog. "Sorry, but I just don't have the time right now."
...It's kinda' true. As things stand, I am trying to finish up homework and I will then begin writing with my writing buddy, and then I will go to bed and get up at 7:30. Meh. I just love morning classes. (Breathe in that delicious scent of sarcasm, boys and girls. Ain't it lovely?)
And there is so much that has happened since I last updated, so I feel a little overwhelmed. I shall attempt to devote a post to each-ish (depending on how much I end up writing) but for now I'll just give you a teaser of what is to come (in no particular order):
Awesome Birthday Weekend With 'Couv Buddies
Week of Man "Date"
School is Murder and Other Tales of Woe
House Elections - My New Officer Position/Responsibilities
Writing Buddy!
So yeah. Lots and lots to talk about and precious little time. Until next time, you shall have to be satisfied with the statement that I have officially almost reached the fangirl stage with a LIVE HUMAN BEING. I know, I know, It's shocking, since most of my fan crazes are focused on fictional characters.
He's an amazing singer, and he is Japanese. He sings Rock music, and is part of the style known in Japan as Visual Kei, which basically means that he plays anything between soft pop-rock and hardcore rock, but he changes outfits and hair like most people change...normal clothes? Anyway, the outfits are really ridiculously overdone (which I'm not a huge fan of, personally...), but what I'm so excited about is his voice. And I'm also jealous of the fact that he's like 40 and still looks 20. I don't know if it's plastic surgery, or makeup, or just his Japanese genetics, but I am jealous.
Anyway, that is all I have to say. The end.
Oh yes, and thank you friend (you know who you are) for reminding me to update. I was going to a few days ago and it slipped my mind like a greased... egg... on a... yeah, you know what? I'm just going to end here.
I titled this post "Youtube Music" because that's exactly what I'm going to talk about. See, I love music, many different kinds of music. Living with a bunch of other college students in seattle, I have been feeling ever so slightly put off by the music that is usually playing around the house. I don't have anything against "popular" music for the most part, but I am just not a huge fan of hip-hop or *shudder* dance music.
However, I have found some silver linings to the dark clouds of songs like "Rolling in the Deep," "Party Rock Anthem," and "Grenade." And that would be a precious few glorious Youtube Artists that cover songs like these in a fun, fresh, and sometimes better way than the original artist. (Sorry to any Adele lovers out there...)
That being said, I have two Youtube Music Artists that I like - and I will be showing a few movies from each of them for your listening pleasure, please do take the time to enjoy their hard work!
#1 - Chestersee
This guy is a little rough around the edges, some people may not like his voice but I really like the quality of his voice. He also does some comedic sketches. The one downside is that I can't listen to some of his songs because of the profanity -- even in the titles of some of his songs. Still, the songs I do listen to are often very good. He writes a lot of original pieces in addition to doing some fun covers.
This is a good representation of him because his voice has a pretty good tone even when sick. Also, it's funny...
#2 - The Piano Guys
Probably one of my favorite things to do on youtube is find songs by these guys. Their variety is astonishing. Personally, I'm a big fan of Steven Sharp Nelson and his AMAZING Cello covers. I didn't realize how much I truly love hearing the cello played until I got a look at some of his stuff. I love how versatile his covers are: everything from hymns to Beethoven to popular music. It's beautiful and worth hearing! In addition, their videos are visually stunning, they have some really great editors and cameras, not to mention great locations. The video is every bit as much a piece of art as the song, which just makes the experience that much more enjoyable. These guys enjoy making their music and it is an absolute joy to appreciate the fruits of their labor.
Well, hope you were able to enjoy something from all this! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to the song "Memory" from the Academy-Award Winning film Departures. That's another beautiful cello piece, in case anyone wanted to know...
...Of course, I could always put that one here as well. I think I will.
Haha, today instead of doing homework I distracted myself by drawing two pictures for an OC Double meme I'm doing with a friend of mine. ("OC" means "Original Character," in case anyone wanted to know) I was quite happy with how they turned out, though I'm not sure about the language of the meme, I might end up censoring it after I finish it. Although, my OC had a smart remark for one of the swears, so now I'm ever-so-slightly conflicted... anyway, here are the two pictures:
mwahaha, I tried to draw him for this "intro" spot three times before I decided on this pose. I ended up using a reference picture from google images to get the back and shoulders/chest/head - basically the entire pose - right.
And... I used another google image reference picture for the face because I've decided I'm no good at figuring out chibis by myself. I really liked the sweatdrop, personally. I've never done an expression like this before, so I was happy with how it turned out.
And now that I've got that out of the way, I got tired of drawing after finishing these two and went to make sushi, which was incredibly yummy and fun.
And then, after sushi, I discovered yet another way to keep myself from doing homework. It was totally unintentional, I'd meant to get started on my homework, but a friend of mine sent me a link to a Japanese song on youtube, and I explored some of the related links, and stumbled across this funny parody song about "hikikomori."
Since a lot of people don't know about hikikomori, I'll give a quick run-down of what hikikomori are here. A hikikomori is a "shut-in." This psychological condition of hikikomori is uniquie to Japan. Basically, a hikikomori is a young person who locks themselves in their room and refuses to come out for school, work, or much of anything else. A lot of times these hikikomori will only leave their rooms to shower at night when no one else is around, and they refuse to communicate with the rest of their family. A lot of them are thought to live virtual lives through the internet rather than bother with the real world, and many are thought to be "otaku," (which basically means "nerd" or "geek" in Japanese) people who love anime and manga and play video games. I'll post a quick picture of an otaku's room for an example:
yeah, it's pretty much insane.
And a picture from an article on Hikikomori:
Anyway, so this parody song was about hikikomori. And it sounded funny, but I looked around and I couldn't find any english subtitles, so I didn't know exactly what it was saying, though the parts I understood sounded funny. So, I decided that I would translate the song.
Well, three hours later, I finally finished translating the song. As you can see, the song had the Japanese subtitles in the video, but the kanji were really hard to read and so if I didn't know them then it was very difficult to look them up in the dictionary, and like with any singing, some of the words were hard to discern the pronunciation from the song. I probably spent twenty minutes on one kanji because it was eluding me. Another problem was the language, since it's extremely conversational and informal, so it's hard to know exactly how to translate it to get the right feel, and I probably failed in some places though I really tried. In the end, I ended up with this (admittedly rough) translation, which I have decided to post here so you can watch the video and read along if you want:
The World's #1 Hikikomori "World is Mine"
I am the world's #1 hikikomori,
and so you should be aware of how to treat me... right?
First, one should not enter my room without permission.
second, just the right amount of light would be nice, right?
third, bring my dinner up tomy second-floor room,
and don't you realize that vacuum cleaner is too noisy?
Because none should question my whims.
My parents, from the bottoms of their hearts, are quite concerned．
I am the world's #1 hikikomori,
one might notice 'hey, hey, what about work?'
but that's out of the question．
do you think that I am garbage,
that I should get a job soon or just get tossed out?
Get up?Was it wrong to be sleeping until 11 AM?
Excuse me, you should be listening to what I say.
-hold on…-
-oh yes, and then?- Oh, were you bothered by why I phoned you?
You should come here to meet me
from the convenience store (even though) it’s only 30 seconds away.
Honestly, you really shouldn’t question my whims.
After all, after walking just a little bit, I end up rather short of breath.
I have one room in the whole world that is mine alone,
one might note, ‘listen, listen, you should do some cleaning.’
my figurines are overflowing a space of (approx.) 11 meters (six and a half jou).
please be careful – clean up in here, quickly!
My parents absolutely do not understand the value of my figurines!
Limited edition anime goods!the latest notebook computer!
Everybody, everyone, don’t be so patient!
Don’t think of me as an impatient child,
just because I don’t regret living in a house I didn’t buy.
It’s natural, therefore I am--
The world’s #1 parasite!
I receive all sorts of things from amazon unexpectedly.
If my cell phone randomly stops working,
I’m like, “wha-?” “Shouldn’t you pay the bill?”
say my caring, penny-pinching parents.
But I absolutely do not want to work!
Yes, I am inordinately proud of my accomplishment of spending three hours just to translate one measly song. But it's my first time translating something that WASN'T in a textbook, so I am quite pleased with the result. I just hope it's accurate, or else I will become disheartened.
Anyway, that's my update for the week-ish, I suppose.
God bless, all! ^_^ *anime smile*
OH OH, on a final note, if anyone was just dying to know, Here is the original song that was parodied:
