Holiday Requests 2011
Comment with: a day, a fandom, a pairing, and a prompt, and I will do something* for you, to be posted on the day you claimed. Any fandom you know I'm familiar with is fair game, though I reserve the right to ask for a different prompt if you pick something I don't feel comfortable with, or a fandom I haven't been into in a long time.

*"Do something" here can mean "make colored icons," "produce an uncolored drawing" (to avoid the two-year-long Christmas debacle!), "make a music mix," or even "compose a MIDI ditty."

( Please feel free to read more or make a request under the cut! )

This is my last week of the semester, and I have the following to do before I can go home in any semblance of self-respect:

1) Write a twelve-page paper on textile and garment industries in contemporary China by the 13th.
2) Take a grammar exam for Japanese on the 14th. (It's not a real final, thank goodness!)
3) Write roughly 4,000 words for a take-home final exam.
4) Go to my last voice lesson on Tuesday. (Okay, this will be fun.)
5) Recite a poem at Monday's Russian dinner.
6) Complete five graduate school applications by the 15th. (Cornell, thank you so much for having a January 1st deadline. Harvard, curse you for using such tiny spaces on an online application.)

Finding myself with free time and a large box of miscellaneous confections, I think I can post something today! There hasn't been much time for anything other than scattered comments ever since my spring vacation, as I've been pretty busy with the CLS paperwork, major and minor audits, class and housing registration, and upcoming final exams. (It's strange to think of it, but I only have one full week of classes left before "reading week" and finals -- where did this semester fly off to?)

For those whom I didn't already tell, I found out that I'll be going to Vladimir this summer, and will be studying at the KORA Russian Language Center. It's a remarkably beautiful city, and is either over 900 or 1,000 years old, depending on what foundation date one goes by; I don't know where exactly in the city I'll be staying, but I do know that the program has many cultural excursions planned to local museums and theaters, as well as to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. I'm both excited frightened at the prospect of being in an entirely different country for seven weeks, but hopefully my excitement will get the better of my fear before I leave.

School has been going relatively well this past month: I managed to see both a very silly production of The Pirates of Penzance and an amazing taiko performance/fundraiser for the city of Asahi, which was badly damaged by the Tōhoku earthquake. My own Japanese-language professor is from Asahi, and she herself performed in one of the pieces -- she looked so amazing!

( Here's a clip of this particular taiko group's 2009 performance in my area. )

I also went on tour with my choral group at the beginning of this month, which was a tiring but overall enjoyable experience. (Unfortunately, it seems that we will never be able to attend that one hotel in New York City again.) We just completed our recording sessions for a new CD, so hopefully I'll be able to upload the pieces we sang here for your benefit -- so long as you want to listen to them, of course!

( On an entirely different note -- har! -- here are some more previews! )

Finally: to those who celebrate it, have a happy Easter! To those who don't, enjoy the onset of spring or fall!

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)

I only have about 500 more words to write on the longest essay, so I'm taking a break. Happy Halloween!

1. Create a graphic (200 x 200 max size) to represent your personal "candy". It should have your username on it, but otherwise can feature whatever you want. Make it something special since it's self-representative.
2. Make a post with the subject "trick or treat?". Put your "candy" somewhere in it, and be sure to repost these instructions.
3. Then, go around other people's LJs and reply to them with either "trick" or "treat". If you reply with "trick", they will give you an LJ dare that you have to perform before taking their candy. If you're too wimpy for that, simply say "treat" and take their candy.
4. List all your collected candies in your original "trick or treat?" post to show off your collection, being sure not to direct-link!

To be honest, it seems like it's too late for anyone to comment, but here's my candy:



( The Halloween of the Future! )

I and the other students in our World Politics class received notice from our professor today about the contents of our take-home exam due on November 6th. It consists of two essays, the first being roughly 1,300 words long and the second being roughly 1,800 words long.

I already have a 1,600-word historiographical essay due on November 5th. Assuming that I finish the outlines, bibliographies, and most of the unrelated weekend homework by Friday...

4,700 words ÷ Desire to get a decent grade ÷ 7 days = HIATUS.
I'm sorry, everyone.

Only eight more to go! Trying to complete these while staying on top of school turned out to be more difficult than I thought.

( We look up the hill of dreams,/ The crest is in sight! )