( 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!

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.)

College has been very busy lately -- I ought to be doing Russian homework now, but wanted to get a post out to prove that I haven't been done in by fencing practice yet. (I'm not quite sure why our instructor thought it was a good idea to have us start practicing the balestra, quartata, and other "advanced" techniques so soon, but at least they're good for building up muscle! It's too bad that walking down stairs has become mildly painful.) I've likewise been working hard with the Chorale: our performances of Carmina Burana will be this weekend, with our last rehearsal tomorrow. We have dual Steinways, five timpani, a giant base drum, and other percussion for accompaniment, and the overall sound is...overpowering, to say the least. Hopefully someone will tape one of the performances and upload it to YouTube, but if not I'll upload it from the CD.

It's ten more days until Halloween, but as some other people have been posting their candy already, I figured it would be better to get this over and done with!

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!

( Alternate candy and spoils of war beneath the cut! )


In other news, I finished four out of the five illustrations from the 2009 Christmas requests, which is shocking. rhap_chan and mina_akira's have been posted on Pixiv already, since they both have accounts there, and rainmage and laury_kos's are waiting in the wings, which leaves only makwui's. I'll post all five here as a set when the last one is finished, but if you'd like to see a preview (and request changes), please feel free to ask!

This is something of a "state of the union" post for momoizumu. As for my state, my vitamin levels are now normal, my schoolwork is under control, and I got fourth place in that Russian competition. If I had only performed better on the "reading aloud" segment, I would have had a chance at making second: I scored fourth in that and second in both the poetry and monologue competitions. (What's strange is that the text I had to read aloud was apparently about Peter the Great's daily schedule, including his magnificent lunch of many different kinds of sausages and cheeses. At least my reading comprehension is all right?)

( It is so much easier to make previews than it is to make completed products. )

♠ If you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new question.
♠ Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.

( It is also much easier to fill out memes on the Internet. )

I'll tag mairenn_k, jlarinda, lavender88, lady_kikyou, vegetas, countersparking, baelheit, and ianthefira for this one.

( But wait, there's more! )

I'm not skilled enough to write about what's going on in Haiti right now, but at least I can help direct other people to information and ways they can help.

A BBC report on the amount of aid that has been pledged and received thus far in Haiti, as well as current death counts. (The Red Cross estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 civilians died, and the UN has stated that 36 of its personnel are confirmed to be dead.) The homeless number in the tens of thousands. It's difficult to estimate how many people are trapped and still alive.

A New York Times article on how survivors are getting increasingly more tense about the slow arrival of aid.

Another BBC report on the situation on the ground in Port-au-Prince. Keep in mind that the article itself, not just the accompanying video, has some disturbing scenes.

Eyewitness accounts of the aftermath of the earthquake.

A short reflection on the international reaction to the Haiti earthquake.

ETA: More via la_vie_noire, whom I'm cribbing too much: "America's Debt to Haiti." Read her post for more, but be prepared for some rage-inducing history.

And, finally, here are some ways you can help. Note that if you're in the United States, you can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting "HAITI" to 90999 and having the amount charged to your cell phone bill; the organization has managed to raise over $3 million through text messages alone.

Here on LJ, a fandom auction is being held at help_haiti to help raise money, and la_vie_noire linked to a more comprehensive list of trustworthy organizations. It's horrible to think of someone taking advantage of the situation and scamming would-be donators, especially in light of how many people are in dire need of help in Haiti, but it's all too real a possibility.

( Also, here's a preview of something that's been long in coming. )

This is the first half of the requests that were supposed to be done by Christmas, but were postponed to New Year's Day. I know, I haven't been using as much time as I should have been to get these done.

Unfortunately, the five sketches (for mina_akira, rhap_chan, laury_kos, makwui, and rainmage) are going to have to wait until this weekend. I'm actually working from Friday to Monday, but since I'll be manning the store alone and there are almost no customers to be had due to the miserable weather, drawing and preparing the lineart should be a breeze. I can't sweep and rearrange the inventory for seven hours straight. :/

All of the icon and colored scan requests are done, though! Everyone (except for kencana_kencana, who very considerately asked for icons made from two pre-colored illustrations) has a larger colored image, as well as at least five icons. Please make sure to tell me whether or not they're shareable, or if it's possible for me to display them on the upcoming colored scans post at momoizumu.

( With that said, move on to the icons! )

Also, here's to a happy new year for everyone! Let's see if I can't fill out some of those year-end memes.

ETA: I almost forgot: countersparking and nrstar, you haven't made your requests yet. The offer will be open indefinitely, so please don't feel rushed.

After over two months, the requests are finally finished! If there are any changes you would like me to make, or if you see any mistakes with your request, please tell me.

The icons are arranged alphabetically by the names of those who requested them, with the exception of icons no. 6 through 14 (hebba18 and laury_kos requested the same image) and icons no. 118 and 119. Note that icons no. 19, 45, 46, 54, 55, 62, 83, 84, and 99 are nonshareable; they've been marked in green. If you want your icons to be nonshareable as well, then don't hesitate to tell me! Please keep in mind that if you received a large amount of icons, some of them by necessity will have to be kept shareable (as no one should hoard icons).

On to the requests!

[06] After School Nightmare
[07] Bleach
[09] Cheon Hang Gi
[07] Chobits
[20] Kobato.
[13] My Girl
[07] Tokyo Babylon
[08] TSUBASA RESREVoir CHRoNiCLE
[05] Vampire Knight
[10] X
[05] xxxHOLiC
[06] Yasashii Ryuu no Koroshikata
[16] Miscellaneous (Angelic Layer, Code: Breaker, Dogs: Bullets & Carnage, Gakuen Alice, La Corda d'Oro, otona・pink, Pandora Hearts, Scuro, and Skip Beat)

Preview:



( 119 icons beyond the cut. )

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! )

I'll be away on vacation with my family for the next few days--to those bastions of American history, Gettysburg and Philadelphia--so I won't be available until late Thursday night. Please don't post anything awesome while I'm gone.

On another note, I've been meaning to post this for a while: The Case of Xu Zhiyong, why it's so shocking, and how it's indicative of a wider trend. I'm hoping to write about this at length when I get back--especially about how United States involvement, or rather the involvement of American companies, could have contributed to this...apparent unwillingness to probe into certain subjects.

( And here's an update on the icon requests. )