I got the way, the way has got me

!@(&$&@

2008-07-12T14:54:36Z

International Surface Mail from the US not existing anymore makes me angry. In the back of my mind I'd known about this for months, but I suffered amnesia in about May or June. It's not really that I mind paying extra because I'm not sending that much (*cough*afewbooks*cough*), it's that I don't really NEED my things to get to Japan in 2-4 weeks. 2-3 months on a boat would have been just fine, thank you.

Thank goodness Japan still has the sense (or more possibly the financial solvency?) to keep sea mail.

It's all SUPERNATURAL

2008-05-07T15:56:50Z

I think my thesis is done.

Nya?

2008-05-02T17:49:30Z

I'm doing the last story analysis for my thesis (it's about cats...) and I just realized that it takes place on my birthday (9/22) about 123 years before I was born. :3!

Library meme snagged from Jen and Morgan...

2008-05-01T22:19:53Z

(I swear I'm making progress on thesis.)

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.

Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo [I plan to finish it this summer! T-T]
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid- in latin and english
Watership Down [My favorite book. I've read it at least 8 times...]
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

We're in the home stretch, kids!

2008-04-29T00:54:24Z

DUN-DUN. It's the last week of classes. Today would be the last "Monday" of classes, but they're making us do it all over again on Thursday. I've finished all the other class papers as of today, so there's no choice but to work on my thesis(and study for finals).

I played a lot of hanafuda online today, which earned me a hug from Rachel while I was procrastinating on a paper at the LRC. And then I came home and played the real thing with Jen! <3 Hopefully, I haven't learned the rules incorrectly and I'll be ready for gambling night sometime during finals week. The online hanafuda doesn't include tsukimi ni ippai or hanami ni ippai, which is unfortunate because it's the coolest dekiyaku of them all!

It's time for House! :D

...whew.

2008-04-08T21:46:59Z

I have 9 1/2 pages of rough draft thesis bits! (Yes, bits. Most coherent, others not so much. But, they are necessary bits, I swear.) Must not fall into false sense of security. >.><.< Keep writing.

Unfortunately, my computer has been destroyed by a horrible virus and is now being restored by tech. I realized that I completely forgot to make the installation CDs like they told me to last semester if this happened again. *headdesk* Thankfully, I put all my school stuff for this semester on my USB drive and I've still got everything else sitting on my H drive from last semester. I'm just sad that I can't be in my room to do work. ;-;

ooooooo!

2008-04-04T15:32:08Z

I GOT SHORTLISTED WITH JET. WHICH MEANS I'M IN. :D

chigusairo @ 2008-03-18T12:29:00

2008-03-18T16:32:12Z

[insert thesis angst here]

And moving on without much excessive whining/complaining/rationalizing/excuse-making/self-demoralizing...

EDIT: Teehee. Someone wrote an academic article using Sujata Massey's work to talk about Japanese American detectives. My mom and I read Massey's first four books in the Rei Shimura series back in the day. There also seems to be more academic papers about her. I'm kind of surprised.... and completely procrastinating. STOP IT.

EDIT 2: This website is amazing. It basically has everything I ever wanted to know about Okamoto Kido, including CRITICISMS and stuff about HIS LIFE drawn from journals I could never hope to have access to. Interestingly, Kido also wrote Kaidan stories in the Edo-style...which pretty much guarantees that I will be stealing a certain book from Dani. :p If only this whole thing was a published work and not a website. ;_; Still, AMAZING.

more neko-nabe!

2008-03-16T22:39:28Z

I am going to finish this annotated bibliography today if it kills me.

I was amused by this article from Japan Times:
A purrfect place for fanciers of felines

Isn't there a place like this near Shinsaibashi? ...or maybe that was dogs.
The amusement factor for me was that they even have nabe for the kitties! XD;　For more information regarding the neko-nabe phenomena see one of many youtube videos here. Oh, NHK...is there *anything* you can't take way too seriously? LOL.

gburg college argot

2008-03-06T18:27:14Z

I'm going to make a prediction that although "Safety and Security" has changed it's name to "Public Safety" it's still going to be called SnS by the student body for years to come. I do think they were right to change it, but seriously I don't think in casual speech "SnS" is going to disappear easily. Just look at Servo.

Re: Plans for December 7, 2008

2008-02-20T23:29:40Z

I passed 1-kyuu with a 78%!

I'm so glad and really happy that I was somehow able to go from passing 2-kyuu to passing 1-kyuu in one year. I went crazy last semester, but it was worth it.

Having said that...this isn't the end, JLPT. Oh no. We're not through.
Time to get started for taking it again next year!

EDIT: JET interview in 43 hours! I'm really excited.

It's been a long three months of darkness...

2008-02-18T02:55:13Z

<3 BUT NOW TAKAWIKI'S BACK <3

LET THERE BE THE LIGHT OF THOUSANDS OF CRAZY SEQUINS AND SPARKLES.

J'Lit

2008-02-11T18:03:11Z

Japanese Literature Publishing:
I was lead to this site because I'm reading one of the books they published for my thesis (Ian Macdonald translation of 'The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi). I'm excited that there's yet another publishing place out that that's interested in getting new translators started and helping to fill that gap in translations of Japanese Literature that isn't so well known outside of Japan. I was just a *little* ~~*really*~~ excited that they have Asano Atsuko's works on their to-do list (although they don't mention The Manzai, which is kinda funny since that's the series that made me like Asano...). Not really that pleased that they compared her to JK Rowling, but maybe it's not that far-fetched? I suppose they only meant it in the sense that their stories aren't the same, but in the young adult fiction of their respective countries they rule? Anyway, I couldn't help thinking, "I would love to translate Asano's series...SOMEDAY. I HAVE A DREAM (AGAIN)."

It's too bad I can't wrap my mind around writing a thesis on Asano Atsuko. Talk about picking something you love. However, I'm not sure I could make the jump from loving her works as a reader to critical analysis of it. Hmmmm....similar to this is the reason why I will never write a paper concerning manga ever again. The first time was an experiment that I have laid to rest. I think I'm going to be perfectly content to watch others do it, like Matt Thorn. But not like whatsherface at Duke....Anne Allison? Is it bad that every time I see the word "Freud" (yes, the "word" as opposed to the "name") I think of her?

Moving on....

I really wish I had known about Tsutomu Mizukami's "Umi no Kiba" sooner than thirty minutes ago. Apparently, it's a detective novel, but it's about Minamata disease. I'd really like to know how that plays out.

Amidst all the anxiety about coming up with a thesis statement, I still seem to find time to do things I'm not required to do. Last night I dug out my Kentei Kanji 3 textbooks from Nantan and practiced writing kanji while we watched two episodes of Dexter (I'm gradually starting to become addicted). I finished the first book of "I Am a Cat" yesterday (even though I should have been reading "Hanshichi"...Shhhhhh....). I read a little bit more of "Nishi no Majo," which is a good quick read that I can pick up every now and again. I should work on finishing it soon so I can talk to Sengiku-sensei about it.

I would like to point out that none of the above helped me accomplish my actual course work, although it certainly looked like I was accomplishing something. Yesterday I did read for theory on Wednesday, but I'll probably forget everything by then so it's really a moot point as to whether reading ahead accomplishes anything at all.

AND NOW I FLY HOME TO DEPART FOR...Mansaku and MAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNSAAAAAAAIIIIIIII</a>.
(I'm really hoping he's going to be there. :D <3)

All I can do is wait ;3;

2008-02-09T00:05:51Z

I'm restless. I know JLPT scores are out in Japan, but not yet for those of us who took it in the States. The website says the reports will be sent at the end of February. I'd really like to know before my JET interview if I managed to either pass 1-kyuu somehow or got really close. I'm taking it again next year without a doubt, but...I wanna know! *kicks feet up in the air*

Airoots.organic blog: I was doing research about Arjun Appadurai and happened upon this blog yesterday. The pictures are really good and I like how Mumbai and Tokyo are weaved throughout kinda as a comparison. It shows off the versatility of a good blog. As for the written content, it's interesting, but maybe more so since I know hardly anything about cities.

chigusairo @ 2008-02-07T22:23:00

2008-02-08T03:31:01Z

Happy Chinese New Year (soon)!

Petty little thing-->I completely forgot to go to Servo for the Chinese New Year dinner. Not that I was counting on the food (okay...the duck might have been good), but the decorations I saw them putting up yesterday were quite intricate. The utensil caddy was being transformed into a Chinese-style cart (I don't know what to call it). Oh well.

Yes, I'm listening to Carmen Sandiego. It brings me joy.

I swear I'm pretending to research for thesis ideas...

2008-02-06T22:59:00Z

The Obakemono Project
This is a pretty cool site about Japanese monsters, ghosts, spirits, etc. While the information is a summary of the cited material and the formatting is a bit wonky (at least for my computer), I think the best part is the style of the pictures of the Obakemono. I'm kinda curious about who made this page and where the images came from, but there's no information. I've looked at other sites that catalogue obake like this one, but they didn't have consistent pictures in a similar style. *shrug* If you've got some time to procrastinate...the random button at the top of the page is recommended.

I don't want to go home ;_;

2007-12-14T04:31:15Z

Well, I'm done with finals for better or for worse. Tomorrow afternoon I have to get in my car and drive home, never to return until January 13th. While I'm kind of surprised we have less than a month, I'm still hoping winter break will go quickly. I feel like a slug when I'm at home. I've got to find something worthwhile to do with myself. I've got a pile of books to read, but I've got to leave the house sometimes...I'm already dreading the cabin fever.

...and I'll miss my suitemates. ;_;

Why are SMAP covers so good?!

2007-12-13T06:09:28Z

Their voices blend so well! I mean, usually, I'm not this pleased with large groups of otokoyaku singing together. The whole thing's cute and joy-inducing in so many ways, but Yumiko is adorable. Kiriyan's hair is so hot. *cough* I think my biases are obvious here. And I think I need to see a new show with Yumiko...soon. I don't know when it's going to happen, but "Silver Rose Chronicle" will be mine someday.

And now that I've ripped the audio, I don't think I'm going to be able to stop listening to this song. It's also adding to the small pile of SMAP covers that I love, which shocks me.

braindead and meme

2007-12-11T08:09:51Z

Go to the Wikipedia home page and click random article. That is your band's name.
Click random article again; that is your album name.
Click random article 15 more times; those are the tracks on your album.

Band name: Lestovka
Album name:Kinross and Western Perthshire

1.Akasinula akasa
2.Naegele springsnail
3.Joe Celko
4. European Railway Agency
5.Massive Grooves from the Electric Church of Psychofunkadelic Grungelism Rock Music
6. Brice, Ohio
7. Al-Jaish
8.Chemical weapons in the Rif War
9. Islip
10.Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival
11.South African general election, 1933
12.James Coutts
13.Olinia
14.Playmates
15.Arvanitidis

If I had any idea what half those things are this meme might be amusing.

meep. [edited numerous times]

2007-12-10T18:46:12Z

Status report:
DONE
Archaeology final
Southeast Asia Take-home final 7 pages
Ryukyu paper: 15 pages Due Tuesday 1pm
Methods reaction paper due 4pm Wednesday
Japanese final Thursday.

Current mental state: :D Happy.

EDIT:...yup. I do a meme almost every finals week.

Seven deadly sins
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Sloth

Sloth

100%

Envy

56%

Gluttony

50%

Lust

50%

Pride

38%

Wrath

31%

Greed

19%

that other thing I had two months to do.

2007-11-30T05:14:38Z

Ethnography:
Total Words: 5,600
Required: approx. 7,500
Current level of sense and coherency: .8%
Due date: Dec. 5th, Wednesday

So, if anything I'll make the word count. Hahaha. -_- I was planning on "sleeping" at the library tonight, but I think I'm going to go home and sleep. I wrote 8 new pages of ramble tonight, but oh man just slapping in snippets of all the little papers we had to write this semester feels really good (professor-recommended practice actually). It needs work with the arrangement and coherency, but the text/words/ideas are there to be rearranged, rewritten, and molded into...something completely different! That something will have a point and actual analysis (oh boy) to balance out all the description.

Brain-failure is imminent.
Library juice is refreshing. This song is on crack. And it was in "Breakfast on Pluto," which made me laugh.

I erased a lot and then I wrote some more.
Current: 6, 108 words
Current level of sense and coherency: .9%
Feelings: Writing is a weird process. Things are getting clearer in my mind as the paper becomes more of a rambling mess. Knowing that it's a rambling mess is half the battle when I get out the red pen to edit.

the dumbest Thanksgiving I've ever had

2007-11-22T20:56:41Z

...okay, break was going reasonably alright. And by reasonably I mean I'm surprised I haven't died. Details excluded.

And now...
I realized that after the wipe, I don't have Office on my computer and my disk is in Gettysburg.*facepalm* So genius. So very genius, Nyssa.

It's okay because if I need to work on something I can just do it on my parent's computer...or not because my mom has a pile of work to do,too.

Departing for Thanksgiving now! Hope everyone's having a blast.

this most important piece of equipment

2007-11-19T20:17:12Z

For the future...I want this

Disclaimer: By claiming I want the new version of WordTank does not in any way, shape, or form change my love for my current WordTank. We're going on four years after the premmature loss of my first WordTank at two years. I hope to make it five. I remember how tramatic it was losing the first one. Never again. The horror, oh, the horror.

...buh wha?

2007-11-15T17:45:36Z

1-kyuu kanji tackled this week: 309

No wonder I can't remember my own name.

I've decided that at the very least I'm going to make sure there's not a kanji I haven't SEEN before on the test when I take it. Reading it and using it is a different story.

I need to put the kanji away for now so that I can study for my archaeology test tomorrow. Which contains such words as enamel hypoplasis, stable isotope analysis, skull height, pelvic brim, tibial bowing, haplogroup, porotic hyperostosis, and...commensualism. *shudder*

...I should eat lunch.

Dear Methods Reading, English please?

2007-11-10T23:43:09Z

Look, it's a portmanteau!

agitprop: agitation and propaganda.