Appa's Thoughts

My sister was helping think of a research proposal. It started by trying to think of a way to combine different suggestions my teachers have had, and it ended with a proposal to find the Jusenkyou springs in China, locate the spring-of-drowned-boy, drop a rat in and pull out Yuki Sohma.

*dies*

My dear Oneechan... hahaha.

----

I got two suckers--I mean, new students into FY. ^^; We had fun last night watching about ten episodes or so from the first season while attempting some ancient-china hairstyles. It's so amusing to listen to their reactions to jokes I've heard over and over but are still funny each time. And man, that episode when Yui takes Miaka into the shrine of Seiryuu? Still one of my favorite drama scenes ever!

----

I met someone today in an unusual way. We were both running away from the same wasp.

----

If I disappear sometime soon, it's probably because one of these freshman guys has kidnapped me. o_o;;

----

I still wish I could just drop everything and go become a mangaka or a seiyuu. Both ideas have been suggested to me in the last week, without my even having to mention how much I'd love either one. There's a part of me that is both overjoyed and full of grief when ever someone suggests either of the two. That's six or seven years of my youthful daydreams, after all.

----

We finally figured out how to make Asian style karaoke bars a hit in America: ADD ROCK BAND!

I had a dream earlier this week about Kodomo no Omocha and Gakuen Alice, and something about Sana and Mikan being twins or their mothers being twins... and you know what? It could work!!

And then this week I met a new student from China who asked if I liked Gakuen Alice. *cheers* I want to read more of that eventually. But in the meantime I'm just waiting for Haruka and Boku-Tsuki...

Aaaaand I got a freshman to start watching FY. She had good reason to like it, I wasn't forcing it, really!! I watched a few episodes with her earlier this week, and I'm glad I stuck around long enough to see her reaction to Nuriko. :D Should she choose to watch more, I shall do my best not to give her spoilers (or at least no more hints). It will be fun to see her reactions~~~

Public Service Announcements(??)!

1. If you're able, get a flu shot! Seasonal shots may not protect against H1N1, but don't forget how many deaths there are from the regular flu every year. You cannot get the flu from the shot, and even if you're not completely resistance, it still can help a lot if you have to fight it. You're not just protecting yourself when you get one, but you're protecting those around you.

Or so I reminded myself as I got mine this morning. I do so hate needles, but at least I've matured a lot about getting them. One of these days, I will donate blood... >_< *shakes fist with determination*

2. Have you heard anything about the Hmong persecution in Laos? I'm not surprised if you haven't, as their government is trying to cover up the rape, torture, murder and kidnappings. I hope more people in first world countries are becoming aware of the situation in Burma at least, but it's a single group getting singled out in Laos right now, and I would at least like people to be informed.

</ real-world>

*sweatbead*

( Appa goes real-world here )

*bigger sigh* This is what the creators had to expect would happen as the fandom got bigger. And yet I still enjoy the heck out of it. You really can't tiptoe around everything in life and expect not to offend anyone. People are different and that's why people can find anything to take offense to. But it's because people are different that something like Hetalia is funny, isn't it?

Yet I still find America lovably accurate. XDDD

And would you have guessed, after reading all this, that I would never, ever want to be a politician?

A page of one of my thesis drafts must have been on my bed, because I woke up with a big block of my abstract imprinted on my leg.

What really makes me a dork is that the first thing out of my mouth when I notice text all over my leg was "Well, that's certainly not a mark of Suzaku."

I am very tired. It's been a tiring week and this promises to be a tiring weekend. I think I'm crazy, thinking "I have so much homework and have too many club obligations. I just want to do some more art for the art auction or translate Haruka. Heck, I just want to sit here and watch Zenmai Zamurai on YouTube. ...I think I'll find myself job!" Money minded as usual. XD As long as my GPA stays high, I can get as wiped out as I want, so long I'm not stressing about money on top of everything else!

As I was on the phone with my parents tonight and just generally sounding tired and telling them about the other job I picked up, my dad said sympathetically, "well, I hope you have a nice, relaxing weekend."

I burst out laughing.

For a good thirty seconds or so, I just laughed and laughed at the notion of a relaxing weekend. I felt like laughing longer, but I got myself under control and thanked him for the chuckles.

Okay. Now to crank out a three page essay and then maybe edit chapter two of the Keisuke & Tetsuya story to put up on FF.net tomorrow. The thing has already been written and edited before. Plus, a little creative activity sounds nice while it looks like I won't have much art time or translating time for the next two weeks.

Oh! Oh oh oh oh oh but I'm having so much fun translating! :D It's written by such a Neo-Roma fangirl, I love how it feels like reading fanfiction. XDDD I've barely gotten into the Tenma/Yasuaki interaction, but I'm already enjoying her careful descriptions she puts into everything. X3 Stuff any follower of the series would probably already know well but it still needs to be said, you know? Ah ha ha. I'm still wondering how I'll translate a few phrases to sound better, such as "To the Akane who had been made to have an appetite by (the smell of) the ginger, Shimon passed the wooden bowl." Hahaha! I'm such a dork for being so amused by how well that works in Japanese but not in English. Most of the lines don't sound so literal, it's just that one I'm thinking about.

EDIT: Hahahaha! After hours of procrastination, I just took less than an hour to write the paper which is actually too long and needs to be edited down a bit. But I still feel its a great paper. Geez... 'once begun is half done' sure is right.

In Japanese class today we discussed a reading about otaku. Grrrrr. I hate that they give the entire anime fandom such a bad rap sometimes. I was surprised at how unfamiliar most of my classmates were with everything mentioned in the article, and wound up having to help explain a lot of things, like fan work, just for simple clarification. I'm very sensitive about bad things being said about fan work... seeing as I produce so much of it. BUT I AM NOT AN OTAKU!! I have a life! And it's not that cosplayers don't have lives either... can't convention goers (who aren't obsessive with it) be allowed a little escapism?

Speaking of having a life (though you wouldn't guess that given this is my fandom journal)...
The directions are simple. Boldface the ones you've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept overnight on a train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the homeland of your ancestors.
35. Visited an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cooking
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit - several, actually. XD
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

I had explanations with a lot of those, but deleted a lot because some are more interesting with out explanations. Or complete explanations, anyway. I'll leave you wondering, hahaha.

Well, it's midterm week, and to give you an idea how things have been going, I had the experience of attending a Buddhist funeral yesterday. And having no seat on the bullet train for an hour, that too.

But I stayed up late last night making sure I finished up making the CD for the speech contest I've been working on for weeks, and that was fine. I got to the post office today and was able to send it, and they assured me it will get there in time for the deadline. Qutie pleased with myself for having finally sent it, I enjoyed a quiet lunch of cup noodles sitting under a maple tree in a very soft rain.


...and then I remembered that I didn't send the script with the CD, which was required. I am such an idiot.

------

My mind has been retreating in Digimon fandom lately. I keep getting overly nostalgic about how active I was in the fandom back when 02 and Tamers were airing. I started thinking about how many different things I've felt about the characters over the years versus how I feel about them now. I started having little digiworld fantasies again.

It is, after all, thanks to Digimon that I'm where I'm at today. I really, really hope I'm able to get to Odaiba while I'm out here because unlike the digiworld, I can actually get there. Even though I don't consider myself as big a fan of Tamers, and in fact, usually just ignore it ever existed, but while I was in Shinjuku last year I had big rushes of "oh my gosh! This is where Jen had that encounter with Yamaki!" and stuff.

I started getting rushes of Tamers fandom all over again, too. I do love some of those characters, after all. Excluding the digiworld and such chaos, there was a lovable element Tamers had that none of others did. They were just kids and it was just a game at first, not a saving the world thing. These characters certainly weren't your Adventure and 02 kids, who I certainly have deeper bonds with, but they were deep in a different kind of sense. I miss you, Digimon Tamers! I wish I could remember more of your plot...

I randomly started thinking about Sora, too. It always felt like I was never allowed to like her because my sister hated her so much. But once I think about it, no, Sora in Adventure was really cool. She was mature and tried to help others instead of making problems for them, and when she did have her moments, it was because everything was pent up. I think she deserved those moments. Plus, she was the tomboy character, a very nice contrast to Mimi (who is lovable in her own sense).

But I can't say I like 02 Sora much. She lost all of her Sora-ness and just calmed down or something... calmed down and got boring and feminine. What happened to you, Sora? You would have been so much better if you had stayed cool instead of suddening turning all yamato nadeshiko on us!!

What I really can't stand about what 02 did to her is... just... why in the world did she become a fashion designer!?!?!?! How!? WHY!?! That is just... ugh. I can stomach a lot of the rest of the stigmatized epilouge, but Sora being a fashion designer is just... no, I still cannot fathom that. I'd be more willing to accept her and Yamato as a couple than to accept her turning into a fashion designer. That's saying something, because Sorato was one of those things on my list of things I would never draw for requests (no other straight couples ever made that list).

My throat has a very, very sharp pain which started last night while I was studying, kept me up all night, and persists now to make me miserable. It also has brought along it's friends, body-stiffness and runny nose. I blame a certain person who does not realize that it is rude to cough on other people's dinner.

Sadly, Thursday morning I have a late morning class, so I have a few minutes to practice my song for a big karaoke contest. Yeah, when I tried singing today it looked more like the first episode of Full Moon wo Sagashite with the poor little girl getting ready for the day and singing her little song and then BAM!! Her throat starts trying to kill her! I was half-expecting an old lady to walk in and scold me for singing.

But I'm not seeing Shinigami yet. I'm okay.

What makes this really sad? I've got full plans starting tomorrow, including two karaoke trips. *sob* Why can't people realize how impolite it is to cough in other people's food!?! I'm supposed to meet my sempai and sing dramatic Utena music with her!! Well, thankfully, she's also a fan of Full Moon, so she can appreciate the meaning if I try singing a Changin' My Life song and then get into a coughing fit or something. But there are people expecting me to sing lots of YUI music tomorrow... ;___; Oh! And one of them in a Fushigi Yuugi fan, too. They probably won't have any character themes in the database, but oh, if they do---!

I should be typing stuff up in Japanese right now. But meh... it's useless with only this much time until class and my bones feeling this stiff.

*shakes fist* Stupid 5-year-old, not watching where he coughs and loving to get in my face!!!

*frowns* Ah. So that's how it works. I don't pay anything to the Japanese school, I just pay my college exactly what I would get charged there.

Which means having to purchase:
-a meal plan several hundred dollars more than the one there costs
-a few thousand dollars extra in tuition
-international plane tickets on top it, rather than my cheaper domestic flights very semester
-all my day-to-day items at a much higher price with a not-so-favorable exchange rate

The only place I'm saving any money in this equation is the residency, but that won't really make up for the difference in costs between paying my school and the Japanese school. At least, on the bright side, the international studies office was very quick to get back to my inquiry and this is how my financial aid will get overseas with me. Now I just have to figure out exactly how much more I need to find in loans.

Stupid private school education!! Why did my inner-Yukino Miyazawa have to come out when I made my college choices?

...in so many more ways than shall be written here, I am a Yukino Miyazawa. I need an icon for this or something.

....but then again, I also have a major inner-Tamahome. u___u


......XDD Would that imply that I'd someday fall for some strange mix of Miaka and Arima!?! How the heck would that work!?!?! Now that's what I'd need an amusing icon for.

Life-wise I have a full time desk job and I hate it. But I'm not letting summer, my favorite season, run away without me. I went whitewater rafting on the Arkansas river yesterday, and will be going to the renaissance festival tomorrow. Also taking a psychology class and doing 4-credits worth of Chinese self-study and keeping up on my Japanese practice. Migraines are getting worse. Sleep? What is that?

Fandom-wise my friend burned me a disc of new anime to sample. My thoughts so far:

Sayounara Zetsubou-sensei is not one that I'm enjoying. It gave it a couple episodes before I made my verdict, and there have been some funny jokes and unique bits, but in general, I'm done.

Special A was one I liked, just like she figured I would. It's not spectacular, but the basis premise is a lot like Kare Kano (smart, talented girl makes it her goal to top the #1 guy in the school, but is unaware that he likes her despite teasing her), so of course I related to it a bit. The feel of it kind of reminds me of Gokujou Seitoukai, but at least this one has male characters! It was fun and cute, but not really special enough to get me hooked.

Alison to Lilia is nice, but kind of blah to me. It couldn't get me interesting, but it reminded me a bit of Fantastic Children, but I'm not sure why. Now that's one I should see more of...

Kurenai has my attention. I saw the opening some time ago and thought it would be a silly gag-filled anime like Hayate no Gotoku or something, but I was pleasantly surprise by the seriousness and the animation style. I've only seen the first episode, but I want to see the second, too. I love Murasaki!

Nabari no Ou doesn't strike me as having a having a very unique plot, but I love the main character!! He's so sarcastic, but cute (when he wants to be, ha ha!). Funny, the comments my friend gave me on her readme were about the same: '...isn't a very special anime, but because there's a cute boy, enjoy. ^_^'

She also gave me an episode of Soul Eater (only because she wanted me to see one of the characters), but I don't think it's the first episode. Because I told her about it, she also got me the Baccano OVA! Hurray!!! I'm looking forward to that. I wish I could weave stories like that.

I was looking to the curry dinner, but I finally rounded up the skit team tonight and wrote the darn thing, then spent a few hours typing it up (because apparently, my typos were rampant tonigyht. Yes, I'm leaving that typo there to illustrate). If they don't practice it or don't show up for any practices, I will personally print out the script, shred it, and pelt them with it. Stupid guys. >___< Arrrgh, and I hate seeing the flyer I made everywhere. Just because I'm the artistic one in the club, they assume that I'm good at making flyers!! With my work on this dinner and the Japanese studies board, everyone's started to see what a frightening dictator I can be when it comes to planning things and getting one people's cases if things don't get done.

And then one of them had the gall to tell me I should be the president of the club next year. HELL NO!!!! Yes, I get things done and I manage others effectively (but not always nicely). But I don't want to actually be responsible for anything. The current president does a good job making sure we do things but that people are still enjoying themselves. Dictators are not good at performing both of those functions. No, I refuse to take a position of responsibility in the Japanese club next year. For that matter, I'm thinking of quitting being a regular member of a couple of the commissions at church, and want to focus on things that look more appealing on resumes like SIFE projects, and I do not want to be in charge of anything. ROAR!!!!!

This is just my angry self who is awake at 2:30 AM because of this stupid skit I'm in charge of and don't even think is fun anymore.

---

On the bright side, I actually saw some new ANIME today. Amazing!! That I had the chance, actually, not the anime themselves. I finally saw the first episode of Ghost Hunt, because I enjoyed the first volume of that manga a while back. It was decent. The other one I liked was Amatsuki. I caught a little piece of the manga a while back and it looked interesting, and the actual story is not what I expected, but interesting none the less. For me, the "modern-day kid getting sucked into another world" plots rarely get old for me. I probably won't actively follow it, though.

Sleep. Now. The unconscious thing. Yeah. But I'm not even sleepy. -__-;; If my roommate weren't going to bed, I'd just stay up and watch more anime or something.

Because most of the campus has gone home for this weekend, my friend and I dubbed today FANGIRLING DAY. To celebrate, I flipped back through some favorite manga, and might I say how much I still love volume 4 of Haruka?

I also dress in my dork gear, as well as dressed up a bit. Pictures are behind the cut, including that Chichiri shirt I keep mentioning. I also spent a few hours telling her four of my original plot lines, and even breaking out the sketches. It's fun to joke about how great it'd be to write manga in Japan and in what order I'd release my series, but it's not a dream to get caught up in. Still, I *love* the ego boost.

Also, I finally saw Advent Children today and had a bunch of FF7 stuff explained to me. OH!!! (And now Bishie Hotline is that much funnier.)

And because I'm celebrating that I'm a dork today, there are also a few pictures of my dorm behind the cut.

( What cut? This cut! )

So there you have it. I usually keep my dorkdom to myself (aside from the Sefuru and Shimon pulls on my backpack), but today I have broken out!

Last night at Tang Soo Do practice I got a fist in the eye, but I was tough and got back into things quickly. And today? NO BRUISE!! It hurts, but the only way people can tell is because it's just a little red and I'm a little squinty in one eye. How lame, I'd take the bruise over been half-squinty!

The guy who did it felt really guilty, but I couldn't be mad at him, as I was holding the pad wrong. ( But speaking of guys, AWKWARD SHOUJO MANGA MOMENT! )

Guuuhhhh. I thought I was over this, but apparently not. Anyway, after the meeting, I came back and grabbed volume 9 of Haruka at random.

It's not quite the point in volume 12 where I really started feeling for Akane, but man, I love this girl way, way more than I did at the beginning. At first it seemed like she had no personality, but now I realize just how refreshingly normal Akane is. She doesn't have any strong personality quirks, and while she's not a total take-charge character, she accepts responsibility well. She's still girly enough to enjoy cute things like Kotengu-chan, unconsciously flirts a little with people she's very comfortable with, and yet recoils significantly when someone makes an advance she didn't want or says something to make her feel awkward. Yet when she has a flame, she's okay getting over it instead of angsting. And that's the problem with Haruka- it's a NeoRoma series, so of course she's going to have bonds with all the Hachiyou, but of course, all of them are going to freak her out with their advances!! There is nothing platonic, be afraid, Akane, be very afraid!!!

*sigh*

( Haruka sequel chara-design rant )

I wonder what will happen first, volume 15 will be released in Japan or I'll finish this semester? I don't want to order 14 until I have a somewhat larger order. >_

In the last week, I've been feeling a little but smothered by this one student from China... nothing against her, but she was getting annoying very fast! *was typing up a nutshell description, but deleted it because it was getting long* For reasons I won't go into, she slept over in my dorm again on Thursday night, and by then I was knew I needed to be firm with her to get her to stop talking so I could sleep. She said she understood, and we turned off the light, and all was quiet for a minute, until she asked, "Do you know about Mao?"

( Brief ramble )

I have been a little fed-up with staying up so late, and it's not just her. I will not go into details about all the other externalities causing me to loose sleep. But last night looked promising for me to actually get to bed at a decent time...

I made okonomiyaki with the Japanese club and then we watched "Howl's Moving Castle". I've seen it once before shortly after it came out in Japan, and remember enjoying it... but for some reason, I got really emotionally involved while watching it last night. I'm sure if anyone had been watching my face instead of the screen, they would have been equally as entertained by my expressions. I guess I should read the original book at some point. (Speaking of books, I'm reading "Shadow Family" right now and will probably post a blurb about it when I'm done.)

Afterward, at about 11 PM, a couple of the girls were going to swing by my dorm real fast just to see it, and while we were just chatting a little, one of them noticed my Juuni Kokki fanart and recognized some of the characters, and excitedly remembered that she had only seen two episodes of it...

...to make this story short, I caused my own lack of sleep last night, even if I did stop her after four episodes and made her leave by 1AM. That's still earlier than I HAVE been going to sleep.

Today was the first time in a long time when I could afford to sleep in. So I slept under 12, and got a horrid headache because of it. And I'm currently taking a break from writing a serious essay (and my last one for this semester!). I should get back to that before my headache returns with a vengeance. But before I go, let me post this link.

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/12/10/marvel-and-del-rey-announce-manga-pact/

.....riiiiight. You all can make of that what you will. I've never been interested enough in Marvel characters to follow it.

I'll make a post in a couple days answering the meme. Maybe I'll be as exciting as Siskin and will post pictures with the answers. Those of you who haven't tried to guess at it should: http://appaku.livejournal.com/74442.html

Hi ho, Appa the frog here. Last week I was visiting family friends in Kentucky, caught a cold from one of the kids, and spent the last two days with an DeviantArt friend and her husband. They were sheer otaku, and I was a little freaked out a bit when I first got into their house. There must have been at least a thousand maneki neko and other cat figurines... and that was just on one wall. o___o;; I did have fun with them, though, and did some voice-acting in Japanese for her to use as sound for her puppet show. Voice acting in multiple exaggerated voices when you already have a sore throat is not, however, a smart thing to do.

Oh!~ And I went to a pirate exhibit at the museum with them. I once had a joke pirate character named "Pink", and I found out that's actually a term for a ship! And the pirate walking around tried to kidnap me.

Well, back here on campus, I'm feeling like crap. Still sick, have a fleeting voice, and had a horrible migraine this afternoon which even made it hard to walk. Sat through class anyway, got some library books, and inched back to my dorm about 2PM. Took some exedrine (sp?) and laid down until 2:45, then had some stomach problems, and then finally got over the head pain at around 3:15. Although I was jittery from the caffeine.

So, for the next 6 1/2 hours, I sat at my computer and worked on my history paper (yes, one of the papers I was agonizing over last week, too). I'm still 666 words short of the minimum word requirement. So what's the point of my saying all this?

I MISS KARE KANO.

I mean, the early Kare Kano, before it got angsty. I'm talking total volume 1 stuff. Yes, I have been listening to the soundtrack over and over for almost 7 hours.

Ha ha ha. Oh my.

I'm taking a break from the term papers to observe a holiday and because I am loaded up on medicine for my cold (the last time I tried writing on cold medicine I wrote "Sounds Perfect". That's not something I would turn in to a college professor).

So instead I'm looking up stuff on a scholarship for studying in Japan next semester. This scholarship is one my adviser recommended, and it's run by the university I turned down. ^^;; They probably wouldn't remember my application, though... but would they remember my stealing the show at the Japanese speech contest two years ago which was held there?

If they do remember me, then I really hope the same people will be judging the scholarship applications. But I can only hope for so much. *shrugs*

*laughs* Still, I find it quite ironic. Of ALL the schools in the US to be handling this scholarship, it's that one. My inner Yukino Miyazawa will be most pleased if my previous performance still had them impressed.

(Haha. Don't get your hopes up, Appa.)

College is about learning new things about yourself. Today I learned:

1. If you have long hair down, it will inevitably get stuck on someone's bag as they're walking past you during an important exam. At least I caught him before he was dragging me completely out of my chair.

2. If you use them, teachers tend to recognize you by your metaphors. I never even realized just how many I make.

3. It's okay to laugh out loud while running back to your dorm at night with out a coat. It keeps you a little warmer, keeps your spirits up, and hey, there's weirder things people could hearing you do instead.

4. It does no good to think about how smart you are if you're thinking that while you're reading, and therefore not even absorbing anything to make you smarter after all.

5. There are few better applications to be honest on than housing forms.



Now... I could be good and get started on an essay I have due next week... or I could write fanfiction. *goes off to flip a coin*

It's one of those migraines that doesn't hurt much unless I'm laying down, but it is interfering with my ability to think. At my advising appointment today there were many long pauses along the lines of "and then I'll take this...... econ class..... interme..... sorry. Intermediate something or other economics. .....Macro."

On the flip side, this kind of migraine makes me highly sensitive. I notice everything, from
"who knew there was this much dust in the air?"
"That's a very long spider thread. Better stay to this side of the sidewalk so I don't rip it."
"wow, that wallpaper has way too many stripes"
"doesn't anyone else hear that buzzing? It's louder than the air circulating after all"
"does my sweater always smell this bad?"

I couldn't finish my food at lunch time because the textures were just too weird and unlike I thought they should be. And then there's been these swarms of ladybugs, and one of them flew into my temple. That was the weirdest sensation of the day, coupled with the little vibrating orange wings zipping everywhere.

It's kinda cool to have this kind of sensitivity, though. Despite the slow thought process and poor recollection coupled with it, I can recognize people from a ways away with out even seeing their face, and I can appreciate puffy clouds or colors in the leaves that much more. It's like walking through a detailed painting. The sound part can be cool, too, but that part is more likely to drive me up the wall. So many voices, euunnghh!

o______o;;; Today was one helluva day. At some points it felt like I was on top of the world and laughing manically, and then it would feel like someone threw a cinder block in my face. Up and down and up and down, all day long.

I had to watch Farewell My Concubine this evening for my non-western theater class. While the Chinese costumes and settings always get me excited.... unnghh. Wow. I never want to see that movie again. I mean, it's not so much that the poor, adorable gay guy with obsessive problems got to me... but the sheer... the sheer...

I can't even say "depressing". I've seen good, depressing movies. This is not one of them. The way my classmate put it earlier is really the best way to describe it: It's a slit-your-wrists kind of movie.

I dare not even say "emo" with that. But some other stuff about that classmate, we'll call her 'J'... we have two Honor's courses together, one of the same majors, and we frequently walk out of class together and discuss things, and we usually wind up with the same impressions or essay topic ideas. And those shoujo fans I was so happy to meet weeks and weeks ago? They didn't really pull through for me. -__-;; I've barely heard from them.

Today I wore my Chichiri shirt to cheer myself up a bit. Before class this morning, J said from across the classroom, "I love your shirt no da!!"


*beams*

There... there is another Fushigi Yuugi fan here!

Well, I haven't really made any really good girl friends here, yet, though I am getting along with them. Guys, however, have taken lots of interest, maybe more than I want them to. As said before, my fandom feels very, very lonely here. I feel self-conscious about my love of anime/manga/shoujo and even though I usually proudly take delight in my little anime things on school stuff, I've been making an effort to hide it 'cause I'm feeling shy and it's like "OMGOSH THE PEOPLE HERE ARE MY AGE WHY AM I SUDDENLY ACTING LIKE A HIGH SCHOOLER."

But, some of those things can cancel the others out. I was hanging out with the Catholic students, which was great, but one of them was really heavily flirting-nothing inappropriate- and wouldn't leave me alone. When it was quiet again as we waited for others to come back inside, he asked, "So, what else is there to know about you?"

"...I speak Japanese. I'm heavily into that."

"Interesting. Why so?"

"My uncle studied Japanese, and married a Japanese woman, so..."

"Oh, I see."

"But that's just the nice excuse. The real reason is the cartoons."

Him: *headdesk*

Bwahaha. He didn't seem as interested after that. Of course, this does just make my fandom feel even lonelier. I'm afraid to go to the Japanese club when they start up, because while they advertised that they watch anime together, every club member I've met has been a guy. I'll check it out, but if the ratio is unsettlingly uneven... well... my fandom will probably continue to be lonely.

At least my advisor wrote her thesis on shoujo manga. I want to talk with her more. Too bad I don't have any classes with her yet. T_T So loooonely....