( The first holiday request is under the cut! I'm sorry for the wait. )

Also, good news: my applications for graduate school are all finished, save for the one for Cornell! I'm glad that I can finally enjoy my break.

Here's hoping everyone is having a good winter or summer thus far!

I can't focus on my work. This calls for shutting the laptop down and getting started on my Japanese drills--and possibly the Russian dialogue I have to memorize, which entails me being a helpless American who can't find her friend's house in Saint Petersburg.

It's interesting how the Голоса (Golosa, or "Voices") textbooks are structured: while our grammar studies proceed at a well-designed pace (the simple prepositional and accusative cases came before the more complex genitive plural, for example), it took us a while to learn how to say things necessary for every-day survival. We knew how to say "I study international relations and the Russian language" and "I saw an avant-garde artist at the bookstore" long before we knew how to say "I'm cold" or "Where is the hospital?". We just reached the imperative, so we can finally call for help!

( Holy war is on the phone,/Asking to please stay on hold. )

I'll postpone the meme results until I get some more questions, so please consider taking a look at the post below!

More importantly, here's some more information on the recent 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile. The death count is in the hundreds, there are many more people wounded or displaced, and damage costs will be anywhere from 15 to 30 billion USD. Thank God the expected tsunami only left minor damage; I'm amazed that the shock of the quake was strong enough to send 2.5-foot waves to the Kuril Islands, well over 10,000 miles (over 16,700 km) away.

Quake, tsunamis kill more than 700 in Chile (Reuters)
"2 Million Displaced After Chile Quake" (The New York Times)
"Officials Breathe Sigh of Relief as Tsunami Passes" (The New York Times)
Photographs of the damage (BBC News)
Eyewitness accounts of the quake (BBC News)

『the STRONG and weak point icon-meme』

All told, I managed to walk away with 45 initial comments and 58 watchers with this first icon post--that's good enough, considering that I'm probably the least-known iconmaker in the fandom! I'd appreciate it if you could give me some criticism with suggestions on the above thread.

There's an original sketch I'm working on, as well as three music recommendations, behind the cut.

( The traveler stands before the sea. )

Today is...yard-sale day. The front yard has been filled with complete strangers since 7:30 AM, and I still have to go to work at 3:00. Even so, we've apparently sold a lot of things, which is all the better for us, right? I folded seventeen cranes, four luna moths, and two tigerwing butterflies to sell, both to get some more money for textbooks and to note the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (The moths and the butterflies are there as a technical accomplishment, since they were designed by the astounding Michael G. LaFosse. Hopefully I'll be able to take pictures, should they not sell by the end of the day.)

( On August 9 64 years ago, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. )

( On a much lighter note, I finished the costume design. )

It's done! Which one do you like the most, and what changes do you think I should make?

( Three more revised versions under the cut. )

The sun was shining strongly and brightly throughout the day, and this was what rolled in this evening. (I took two photographs and stitched them together, in case you thought part of the cloud formation looked strange.)

I've completely revised the lineart of that drawing of Clow, and have started up a new illustration of Yuuko--in case the Clow fanart doesn't work out, or another $200 are donated to the Fanbook project.

( Please take a look--I'm quite pleased with it! )

( And now for something completely different. )

I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

( Fanbook submission and other, miscellaneous things behind the cut. )