como un lampo de vita...
So this is my week. My uber-packed, uber-stressful start to an uber-packed, uber-stressful month. I will be in joyous raptures when April ends :P
April is the month of papers, readings, performances, group projects, final exams, final papers, final presentations, off-campus plays, off-campus conferences, spring festivals, concerts, job deadlines, conference deadlines, shipping arrangements, storage arrangements, and No Sleep. I don't know how other people find time to party and have boyfriends. I am, to channel Bilbo, "like butter stretched over too much bread." And it's not even April yet.
This week's biggest drama is registering for fall semester classes. I spent my two hours between afternoon classes making two tentative schedules, but I can't do squat with them till I meet with my advisor, and all his office hours are terrible for me. The best I can do is show up as early as possible for his one free hour on Thursday and fight to get in. I reeeeeally don't want to wait until Thursday. At the same time, I don't think my preferred classes are likely to fill up. Also, whutthefrick, fall is a terrible semester for my majors! There's practically nothing that fulfills the reqs I still need. Not a single Education course I need. And I need quite a few of those. Even so - I've managed to pack my schedule with 17 credits as usual. I hate that, though. I want to take at least one non-academic course, like Drawing, which would be fun, but is a 3 credit course and therefore I can't take it. (I suppose I could beg for credit/no credit, but I'd probably be biting off more than I can chew.) Also, I hate that the course on Restoration and Enlightenment Literature isn't running, because this means I have to take Romanticism instead, and I am so sick of romanticism. Really, overall it's a sparse semester for English and Japan Studies... I hope that's not going to become a trend.
I also got accepted to JASC, and I have to tell them whether or not I'm participating by the 12th. Which means I have to figure out how much money I can get from various places like... really fast. It's $2800!! Since I just studied abroad last semester, I don't want to beg for money from relatives when they already gave so much. So I'm gonna hope for scholarships... The question is whether or not I'll have a good enough estimate of how much money I can get in time to send in notice of my participation. I really want to go, now that I've been accepted.
Mon: Work 2:30-4; Berimbau practice 5-5:45 pm
Tues: Meet Akiko for yukata practice 2:30-3 pm; housing lottery
Wed: Work 2:30-4; Berimbau rehearsal @ hand drums; hand drums
Thurs: Register w/ advisor 1 pm; work 2:30-4; meeting with new study abroad students 4-5:30; Berimbau practice 7:45-8:45; Novel Writer's Guild 9:15-10:15ish
Friday: Meeting with Sensei (3?)4 pm
Also have to spend most of my free time this week researching 食育 for meeting Sensei on Friday. Also studying for an exam. And random harumatsuri stuff that pops up. TWO WEEKS AND LIKE, THREE DAYS TILL UASC, I AM SO NOT READY.
... also want to draw/write/read my stuff, which will happen likely when I shouldn't be... I also need to focus on Mack's card (still!!!), 'Lani's present and ASB Ch. 11!
In non-school news:
Latest chapter of ピアノの森 on onemanga.com was awesome! I'm definitely heart-broken that Kai is no longer a little kid, but excited to get to know him and Shuhei as teenagers. I wonder if his claim to Ajino that "[Kai's] teacher is right here in Japan!" was a nod to underrated Japanese strengths in Western-style music/creative arts in general, or an stake in the idea of Japanese superiority. I think the former because I can't think of other evidence in the manga that the author dislikes other countries/cultures or sees them as inferior. Bokura No seemed to take that view more strongly in regards to the U.S., but Bokura No also has layers on layers of meaning to tread through, so I wouldn't make any conclusive argument based on my foggy memory of what happened.
I found another comic (a Western comic!) on the Web recently. I've seen promotional art for it on DA fairly often, but I didn't realize it was an actual story until I stumbled upon a page of it by mistake (can't even remember exactly how atm). Anyway, it's awesome, beautiful, fantastic... and deserves its own post, so I'll reserve more gushing for later!
Finally, this made me smile: Is it Nostalgia Porn? Or the opposite? Would the opposite be "pornographic nostalgia?" LOL.
That said, I more or less agree with the OP's assessment. Another user pretty much summed up my thoughts on X-men forever entirely: they asked if it's acceptable to like a story's premise, but not its writing style, essentially. Exactly, my friend, exactly.
Also, it's looking pretty bad for 'Crawler in Second Coming. I am getting worried, finally. Someone popped onto an appreciation thread to say "good-bye" XD Anyway... I suppose if they kill him, they'll do their best to make him a more crucial character when he returns... however long that may be. ;___; That could also be a bad thing, though, if they take the demon!depressing Catholic!carnival freak-slash-anachronistic-gypsy-boy! angle. (For serious, we want more swash-buckling!)
Actually, much as I love to buckle me some swashes, what's always drawn to me about Kurt is his empathy and his quiet strength. Not easy traits to promote in an action-propelled comic book. He's considered weak because he can't blow people up and... tends to get shot... quite often actually... But he's a real gaman suru type - I mean that he endures rather than perseveres - and it's really his optimism and defiance of the odds that makes him a stand-out character. Not so much recently, of course. Not so much over the last ten years or more. -_-" But, initially, that's the message his character was meant to convey - the power of faith and positive-thinking. (Don't laugh - ok, laugh if you must.) Those are his strengths, and those are the attributes I want to see tested. Joe Carey and Chuck Austen and The Dudes on Uncanny way back when took a stab at doing just that; why they ended up failing is... well, mostly it's Austen's fault (I loved Carey's run), but it was also just bad planning. There were several interesting plot points going on (Stacy X, Chamber, Iceman/Northstar, Juggernaut/Sammy Pare) that just weren't fleshed out. Then subplots like Polaris's derangement and Havok's woeful love life blinded everything else, and they sucked, so... I did see a Polaris fan praise that storyline for empowering Polaris, ie. giving her substance not related to her capacity as Alex's love interest. That's totally legit - I still think it doesn't make it a good story. Kind of goes back to the whole "good premise, bad writing" thing.
Well, that was a tangent I didn't expect to bring up again... I care way too much, srsly. When I actually sit down and read a comic, I hate it... LOL. Yet I love what the storylines do to my brain. Siiiigh. It's like a drug.
(BTW, what's the deal with Wolvie and the X-men Season 2? Seems like they've been off the air for ages. Won't kids lose interest?)
... and while I was writing this, House started it. Now the one time I could have actually watched it while it aired, I have missed it. ToT
April is the month of papers, readings, performances, group projects, final exams, final papers, final presentations, off-campus plays, off-campus conferences, spring festivals, concerts, job deadlines, conference deadlines, shipping arrangements, storage arrangements, and No Sleep. I don't know how other people find time to party and have boyfriends. I am, to channel Bilbo, "like butter stretched over too much bread." And it's not even April yet.
This week's biggest drama is registering for fall semester classes. I spent my two hours between afternoon classes making two tentative schedules, but I can't do squat with them till I meet with my advisor, and all his office hours are terrible for me. The best I can do is show up as early as possible for his one free hour on Thursday and fight to get in. I reeeeeally don't want to wait until Thursday. At the same time, I don't think my preferred classes are likely to fill up. Also, whutthefrick, fall is a terrible semester for my majors! There's practically nothing that fulfills the reqs I still need. Not a single Education course I need. And I need quite a few of those. Even so - I've managed to pack my schedule with 17 credits as usual. I hate that, though. I want to take at least one non-academic course, like Drawing, which would be fun, but is a 3 credit course and therefore I can't take it. (I suppose I could beg for credit/no credit, but I'd probably be biting off more than I can chew.) Also, I hate that the course on Restoration and Enlightenment Literature isn't running, because this means I have to take Romanticism instead, and I am so sick of romanticism. Really, overall it's a sparse semester for English and Japan Studies... I hope that's not going to become a trend.
I also got accepted to JASC, and I have to tell them whether or not I'm participating by the 12th. Which means I have to figure out how much money I can get from various places like... really fast. It's $2800!! Since I just studied abroad last semester, I don't want to beg for money from relatives when they already gave so much. So I'm gonna hope for scholarships... The question is whether or not I'll have a good enough estimate of how much money I can get in time to send in notice of my participation. I really want to go, now that I've been accepted.
Mon: Work 2:30-4; Berimbau practice 5-5:45 pm
Tues: Meet Akiko for yukata practice 2:30-3 pm; housing lottery
Wed: Work 2:30-4; Berimbau rehearsal @ hand drums; hand drums
Thurs: Register w/ advisor 1 pm; work 2:30-4; meeting with new study abroad students 4-5:30; Berimbau practice 7:45-8:45; Novel Writer's Guild 9:15-10:15ish
Friday: Meeting with Sensei (3?)4 pm
Also have to spend most of my free time this week researching 食育 for meeting Sensei on Friday. Also studying for an exam. And random harumatsuri stuff that pops up. TWO WEEKS AND LIKE, THREE DAYS TILL UASC, I AM SO NOT READY.
... also want to draw/write/read my stuff, which will happen likely when I shouldn't be... I also need to focus on Mack's card (still!!!), 'Lani's present and ASB Ch. 11!
In non-school news:
Latest chapter of ピアノの森 on onemanga.com was awesome! I'm definitely heart-broken that Kai is no longer a little kid, but excited to get to know him and Shuhei as teenagers. I wonder if his claim to Ajino that "[Kai's] teacher is right here in Japan!" was a nod to underrated Japanese strengths in Western-style music/creative arts in general, or an stake in the idea of Japanese superiority. I think the former because I can't think of other evidence in the manga that the author dislikes other countries/cultures or sees them as inferior. Bokura No seemed to take that view more strongly in regards to the U.S., but Bokura No also has layers on layers of meaning to tread through, so I wouldn't make any conclusive argument based on my foggy memory of what happened.
I found another comic (a Western comic!) on the Web recently. I've seen promotional art for it on DA fairly often, but I didn't realize it was an actual story until I stumbled upon a page of it by mistake (can't even remember exactly how atm). Anyway, it's awesome, beautiful, fantastic... and deserves its own post, so I'll reserve more gushing for later!
Finally, this made me smile: Is it Nostalgia Porn? Or the opposite? Would the opposite be "pornographic nostalgia?" LOL.
That said, I more or less agree with the OP's assessment. Another user pretty much summed up my thoughts on X-men forever entirely: they asked if it's acceptable to like a story's premise, but not its writing style, essentially. Exactly, my friend, exactly.
Also, it's looking pretty bad for 'Crawler in Second Coming. I am getting worried, finally. Someone popped onto an appreciation thread to say "good-bye" XD Anyway... I suppose if they kill him, they'll do their best to make him a more crucial character when he returns... however long that may be. ;___; That could also be a bad thing, though, if they take the demon!depressing Catholic!carnival freak-slash-anachronistic-gypsy-boy! angle. (For serious, we want more swash-buckling!)
Actually, much as I love to buckle me some swashes, what's always drawn to me about Kurt is his empathy and his quiet strength. Not easy traits to promote in an action-propelled comic book. He's considered weak because he can't blow people up and... tends to get shot... quite often actually... But he's a real gaman suru type - I mean that he endures rather than perseveres - and it's really his optimism and defiance of the odds that makes him a stand-out character. Not so much recently, of course. Not so much over the last ten years or more. -_-" But, initially, that's the message his character was meant to convey - the power of faith and positive-thinking. (Don't laugh - ok, laugh if you must.) Those are his strengths, and those are the attributes I want to see tested. Joe Carey and Chuck Austen and The Dudes on Uncanny way back when took a stab at doing just that; why they ended up failing is... well, mostly it's Austen's fault (I loved Carey's run), but it was also just bad planning. There were several interesting plot points going on (Stacy X, Chamber, Iceman/Northstar, Juggernaut/Sammy Pare) that just weren't fleshed out. Then subplots like Polaris's derangement and Havok's woeful love life blinded everything else, and they sucked, so... I did see a Polaris fan praise that storyline for empowering Polaris, ie. giving her substance not related to her capacity as Alex's love interest. That's totally legit - I still think it doesn't make it a good story. Kind of goes back to the whole "good premise, bad writing" thing.
Well, that was a tangent I didn't expect to bring up again... I care way too much, srsly. When I actually sit down and read a comic, I hate it... LOL. Yet I love what the storylines do to my brain. Siiiigh. It's like a drug.
(BTW, what's the deal with Wolvie and the X-men Season 2? Seems like they've been off the air for ages. Won't kids lose interest?)
... and while I was writing this, House started it. Now the one time I could have actually watched it while it aired, I have missed it. ToT