I donated blood at around 7:00 P.M. today, and I'm glad I worked up the courage to go! It really bodes well that I got through the whole process without feeling too dizzy or sick, especially since my first blood donation saw me nearly passing out at the snack table. It's a sign that I'm in good health, and that my anemia is long gone.

That aside, I promised some more information about the CLS program, and more information you shall have...under the cut, of course!

( Please hold the line. )

( Say, would you like another meme for your time? )

Finally, a very happy birthday to mairenn_k! I'm so sorry I'm late, and I hope your day went well!

And now for a genuine personal post! There's even a new icon post over at momoizumu, too, like old times.

( About Middlebury... )

( ...and about school right now. )

( Also, a music meme! )

Fortunately, I've gotten myself a Pixiv account! Unfortunately, I've also started uploading things to it, which clearly means that I am going to lose sleep for the next few months over whether or not the (mostly) Japanese fandom likes my digital scribbles. I shall consider myself successful when someone on LJ finds my fanart on Danbooru, crops them, and posts them as artsy icons.

More seriously, though, I'm beginning to regret it, as I now feel obligated to post captions in Japanese...when I still can barely write in Japanese. Our classes are centered around Professor Eleanor Jorden's Japanese: The Spoken Language, which -- as the title suggests -- doesn't focus on the written language at all; as such, while conversationally we're ahead of students studying at the same level with different texts, we're very definitely illiterate.³ That said, I feel that the textbook's grammar explanations are remarkably clear and illustrative based on what I've heard about other people's problems with Japanese. At least everybody seems to fully understand the difference between "wa" and "ga!"

¹ No, seriously, Spicy Kimchi Noodles and Spicy Kimchi Noodles alone gave me my first kidney stone. They contain the average human being's daily allowance of sodium, and possibly the average horse's, too. Do not eat these noodles.

² What's ironic about this is that the weather is not a good subject for small talk in Russia. It's too boring and pointless.

³ Thus far we only know a chunk of the katakana syllabary, which Professor Jorden started off with in JWL (Japanese: The Written Language) on the basis that it would provide us with many more words to read and write off the bat. (I myself was pretty dubious about it at first, but if you think about it, what can we do with hiragana at this point? Write out particles and the copula over and over again? We need kanji to make it work!)

As many of you have likely read, International Blog Against Racism Week is currently underway; the reason why I'm posting at such an ungodly hour is because I've just finished tagging everything in the del.icio.us inbox and all of the entries posted here. It's more my fault that I had to stay up so late to do this, but it was worth it--take a look at some of the entries (or all of them. There are many remarkable pieces in there.) Thank you to everyone who contributed today!

Now, so far as the icon requests are concerned: I'm going to be taking one more requester before I close the requests post, as I've finished several of the icons already. Also, asherfoxx, and kyoy: you haven't chosen your images yet, so please try to do so as soon as you can.

I'd like to post an idea concerning xxxHOLiC here, but I've got enough to say that I'd rather wait until tomorrow. It's not particularly important, nor is it mind-bending, but I think it has some merit. On another note, I don't appreciate a certain someone calling a certain character a "Don Juan." He's been proven to be nothing other than a kind and responsible man, unless Ms. Ohkawa decides to do what I fear she's going to do.

( Of course, this meme is entirely mind-bending. )

I finally sent in my submission for the Fanbook, so I can get started on the icon requests soon. I'm sorry for the wait, everyone!

I also finally received a letter from my school stating that I made the Dean's List for last semester, which was a great relief even though I knew my GPA not long after I returned home. In May. Over two months ago. I shouldn't be whining about something so minor, though.

( Setting that aside, here's another meme! )

First, here's an icon meme from ju_jei! (I would've translated it into Russian for you, but it's beyond my ability at this point. I'm sorry, I should be keeping up with my Russian more!)

( I'm sure you've all seen this before. )

And here's another meme, taken from mairenn_k, which I'm sure you've also all seen before:

Give me a fandom and I'll tell you:

1. The first character I fell in love with.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates.
5. The character I would shag anytime.
6. The character I'd want to be like.
7. The character I'd slap.
8. A pairing that I love.
9. A pairing that I despise.
10. Favorite character.
11. What my five favorite things about the fandom are.
12. What my five least favorite things about the fandom are.
13. Who my five favorite characters are.
14. Who my five least favorite characters are.
15. What my five favorite pairings are.
16. What my five least favorite pairings are.
17. Which character I'm most like.
18. What my deep, dark fandom secret is.

Finally, I have 85 92 icons ready to go. Unfortunately, I've fallen short on my promises--this was supposed to contain a much larger number of Fay, Kurogane, Fujimoto, and Eriol icons than it does now. I'm thinking that I'll set up a requests post soon to make up for it...

...regardless, the next post will definitely be the second icon post.

( Concerning the progress of the next icon and tutorial posts, a visual meme, Tsubasa, and a day at the Arboretum. )

I thought it would be best to keep this outside the cut--I haven't written much about myself, so we can consider this my introduction of sorts! (That is, if you take the time to respond. Respond, you bums.)

So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about, or something you've always been curious about but have never asked, or something completely silly that you'd like me to answer for kicks. No limits on the range of questions, either: ask me anything you want to know about, whether it's a fannish opinion or a question about a fic of mine or trivia about my real life or my thoughts on events in the offline world.

Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you!