this what happens when you don't post for months on end: the omnibus
this is, quite literally, a huge mess of feelings and happenings. you've been warned.
it seems that every time i post to lj, i'm either a) sick or b) stressed-out because of school work. well, this post adheres to both of those requirements! i woke up on friday with the worst sinus headache i've had in months (two-day affair, basic motor skills impeded, unable to keep my head up or down without wanting to be sick, etc). coincidentally, it also coincided with the worst snowfall regina's seen over the course of one day this winter: 18-20cm of awful, blowing snow. my parents told me not even to both going to school, meaning i missed four classes. i'm hoping my english prof (who i have for my two most work-intensive classes) is feeling charitable and willing to go over the assignment due next week again/take my homework. you never know, though, because being from saskatchewan means that you're used to dealing with this shit and won't let a little (or a lot) of snow keep you from your daily life. IT'S MADDENING. i'm hoping for the best.
i did roughly around six hours of homework yesterday, four of which were for a single english class; six chapters of hard times, five elements of victorian literature, and a 1840 king's college lecture. i'm actually surprised i got through all of it. german was the same way. the business class i'm taking is more work-intensive than i previously thought but i sped through the busywork we were assigned, mostly because i didn't actually do the reading? my other german class was mostly english, so. easy. i've got a one-page write up to do today and i need to spend a healthy amount of time working on my russian homework.
SO, MY RUSSIAN CLASS. i'm really excited that our university actually had the numbers to offer the class this semester and that i had room in degree to take it. i've wanted to learn the language since about halfway through my german instruction, when i felt i was at a place where i had the tools i needed to make learning another language easier. i feel that way now, too. however, there's two things that are seriously fucked up about this class: 1) we don't actually have textbooks. a small shipment is supposed to arrive on monday (a quarter of the class will get them) and the rest are supposed to arrive in two weeks. we currently have the workbooks, but they are pretty much useless without the textbook. all the pertinent information that you need to do the exercises is explained in the textbook (german was the same way; the textbook i used for my introductory courses is by the same publisher). we also have a set of audio CDs that accompany the textbook, not the workbook (which are online). this is totally frustrating, especially because you immediately start using the cyrllic alphabet. which leads me to 2) we've had two classes and have only had one class of real instruction. i'm supposed to know the alphabet, be able to use it to start practicing greetings, and write a introduction about myself. WHAT. i understand that because of the day and time this class is scheduled at that it is more learning intensive than say, a class three times a week for less than an hour. I GET THAT. however, almost all the students in this class only know latin alphabet languages and have not had experience with a different one. it's really hard for me to associate characters that, as of now, are abstract with specific sounds competently in less than a week. i don't have a lot of time every day/night to review and in order for me to be master a concept, i have to memorize it. this is why i find that, at an introduction level, native-speaker professors can be problematic because they don't understand the challenges that non-native speakers face. i'm incredibly thankful that my german professors are native english speakers because they're able to elaborate on grammar usage in a way a lot of native speakers can't. (fact of life: english is the same way. i know to do something, but i can't always necessarily explain why i know it.)
tl:dr, other alphabet languages are hard.
i haven't been able to watch an arsenal match live in quite some time, but i did get to watch the arsenal-manchester city match this morning. i've missed watching live soccer so much. the outrage! the fraught panic! the relief! THIS MATCH WAS A DISASTER OF THE HIGHEST ORDER: arteta's training injury, koscielny's red card ten minutes in, missed penalties (okay, good thing), lax defence, subbing off oxlade-chamberlin. this sport is so awful. i love it.
NURI SAHIN HAS RETURNED TO DORTMUND. i'm not actually invested in dortmund, but this is delightful news to me. i genuinely enjoy sahin as a player and the bundesliga is the only place i'm really willing to watch him (well, if he had signed that loan deal with arsenal, everything would have just been tops). i read both the english and german articles from Deutsche Welle and like, the english article totally undersells his joy at being back.
english article
"'I am happy to be home again," the 24-year-old said at a press conference announcing his arrival. "I hope I can help the team as soon as possible."
german article
"'Ich bin überglücklich, wieder zu Hause zu sein, eigentlich wollte ich immer wieder zurück nach Dortmund', erklärte Sahin auf einer Pressekonferenz in Dortmund.
'I am overjoyed to be home again; I really wanted to come back to Dortmund', Sahin explained at a press conference in Dortmund.
"'Ich hatte zwei bis drei Mal die Woche Kontakt zu den Jungs und habe mit ihnen regelmäßig online Playstation gespielt.'"
'I had contact with the boys two to three times a week and regularly played Playstation online with them.'
"'Nur in Dortmund kann ich mein Potenzial zu 100 Prozent abrufen, nur hier funktioniere ich richtig.'"
"Only in Dortmund can I reach my hundred-percent potential, only here can I function properly."
WHIMPERING. the article also refers to nuri as der verlorene Sohn (the prodigal son). like, WHAT EVEN IS THAT. actually, roman weidenfeller called him that, too (i'm not linking because he's got the wrong adjective ending on 'verloren', so. suck it). LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE.
in other, fic-related news: yuletide happened! i received such a lovely story about alma and artur from turn me on, dammit. i recommend watching the movie if you ever have the opportunity to but tide yourself over with some fic in the meantime!
four times alma gets off and four times she didn't by Age or Wizardry (ageorwizardry)
alma/artur, nc-17, 3394 words
warnings underage
What happens after, in a few steps.
i wrote ferris bueller fic, which is the first thing i've written since july. i'm hoping i'll be able to get some more fic out, although it'll probably be hockey!fic (sorry, bros). i had high hopes for some soccer!fic, but nothing's clicking right now. maybe some nuri/mario in the near future? fuck, man, i hope.
it's time to spend the night away
ferris/cameron, pg-13, 1825
Ferris looks at Cameron later that night, when the sweat's dried to a dull shine and the tense lines under his skin seem to have relaxed. He's caught off-guard, really. It's always the other way around.
so, i've already revealed my hockey!fic intentions. i've been steadily reading fic in the fandom since last april, when soccer!fic seriously started to decline. i'm hoping it'll see a boost with world cup, but that's still a year-and-a-half away. i some pretty solid ideas about teams/people i'd like to write about (they're never the popular ones, i've noticed. i have a really hard time working with characters who have a well-defined canon because i don't feel i have the necessary breathing space to explore them how i want to; i often disagree with their characterization to a pretty vehement degree). this is also the first fandom i've hung out in that deals primarily with canadian characters, and characters who are even from the same fucking place as me (this is still weird). it's strange, then, to see canadians being characterized as americans. first and foremost: for as simliar as canada and america may appear to be, they are not the same country. our mindset and our way of doing things is different. it's hard to explain without concrete examples, but i know when canadian experience diverges from american experience and why. however, because of the similarities, people often disregard the fact that these divergences do exist.
another important factor in canadianism, is the fact that canadian identity is a very weird animal. when you take away the stereotypes, it's obvious that there is no concrete definition of canadian identity. i'm in university studying a completely different language and culture from my own and i can tell you, rather plainly, what makes up german identity. when my german host-mom tasked me to do the same, i couldn't. she also asked me whether i could speak french and was surprised when i told her no and neither do upwards of 75% of the canadian population. in fact, quebec and new brunswick (quebec being the only province with french as its first offical language and new brunswick as canada's only officially bilingual province) are an anomaly within canada. people from these provinces usually identify themselves as french first and then canadian. whereas i, an english speaker from western canada, identify myself as a canadian -- language's not a factor. in order to create a singular identity, language needs to be reconciled as does race and nationality. i'm from saskatchewan, which is argueably home to canada's biggest population of arboriginal/first nations peoples. like people from quebec, they identify themselves as aboriginal first. this practice extends across canada: first- and second-generation immigrants identify themselves as immigrant first, whether that means chinese, indian, russian, etc. meaning, identifying yourself as canadian is typically left to the white population of canada. the essence of what canada is, though, exists because of our french speakers, our first nations, our immigrants. so, to exclude such a large and integral part of canada from canadian is problematic. it's hard to understand canada if you don't understand this. we're not some perfect utopia where everyone gets along; nothing could be further from the truth. god, we can barely get along as provinces. (i won't get into that here. it'll just be paragraph after endless paragraph as to why i hate ontario and the views that some ontarioans have about the rest of canada.) we have our faults.
which leads me to actually talking about hockey: the sport. if you weren't aware, the world junior championship took place in december. huge fucking deal in canada; endless news stories, front-page cover of every sports website and newspaper, people talking about it everywhere. that sort of thing. i mainly participate in hockey fandom at a arm's length away through tumblr. one of the things that bothered me throughout the tournament was the american response to canadian zeal. now, i'm not excusing canadian fans who are being assholes. if you're being a douche about being a fan, then you're a douche. simple. what bothers me, though, is that there is literally nothing in canada that brings together a huge number of canadians and groups within canada (be that language or otherwise) like hockey. this is what makes hockey special for canadians; it unites people who don't typically have ways of expressing their unity through pride by giving them one. so, when an american tries to make someone feel bad or trivializes someone's way of showing pride for their country, it pisses me off. yes, canada can be/is overbearing in its love for hockey. however, when a country that oftentimes will take the opportunity to be obnoxious about their pride no matter what it concerns tries to make me feel bad about my own, i have issues with that. especially if my pride can only be expressed in an acceptable manner through one tangible outlet. you have to understand that it's almost un-canadian to be outwardly proud of being canadian. so, if i let out all my obnoxious canada feelings out through hockey, don't tell me that i'm not allowed to, especially when your own country doesn't have to deal with the same constraints. i'm not saying this applies to every american because it does not and i don't want anyone to feel that they can't be annoyed when faced with teaming amounts of nationalistic pride in the context of sport. do so, if you want. you have that choice.
to round this all out, please enjoy these pictures of things i've bought recently.
six-strap suspender belt and underwear from kiss me deadly.
cervin non-stretch and gerbe stretch stockings.
high-waisted suspender underwear and convertible bra from made by niki. i'm also probably going to get this suspender belt because it is actually ruining my life.
underwear by parfait by affinitas via modcloth and shape underwear by rago via modcloth. although, secrets in lace has a much better rago shop.
it seems that every time i post to lj, i'm either a) sick or b) stressed-out because of school work. well, this post adheres to both of those requirements! i woke up on friday with the worst sinus headache i've had in months (two-day affair, basic motor skills impeded, unable to keep my head up or down without wanting to be sick, etc). coincidentally, it also coincided with the worst snowfall regina's seen over the course of one day this winter: 18-20cm of awful, blowing snow. my parents told me not even to both going to school, meaning i missed four classes. i'm hoping my english prof (who i have for my two most work-intensive classes) is feeling charitable and willing to go over the assignment due next week again/take my homework. you never know, though, because being from saskatchewan means that you're used to dealing with this shit and won't let a little (or a lot) of snow keep you from your daily life. IT'S MADDENING. i'm hoping for the best.
i did roughly around six hours of homework yesterday, four of which were for a single english class; six chapters of hard times, five elements of victorian literature, and a 1840 king's college lecture. i'm actually surprised i got through all of it. german was the same way. the business class i'm taking is more work-intensive than i previously thought but i sped through the busywork we were assigned, mostly because i didn't actually do the reading? my other german class was mostly english, so. easy. i've got a one-page write up to do today and i need to spend a healthy amount of time working on my russian homework.
SO, MY RUSSIAN CLASS. i'm really excited that our university actually had the numbers to offer the class this semester and that i had room in degree to take it. i've wanted to learn the language since about halfway through my german instruction, when i felt i was at a place where i had the tools i needed to make learning another language easier. i feel that way now, too. however, there's two things that are seriously fucked up about this class: 1) we don't actually have textbooks. a small shipment is supposed to arrive on monday (a quarter of the class will get them) and the rest are supposed to arrive in two weeks. we currently have the workbooks, but they are pretty much useless without the textbook. all the pertinent information that you need to do the exercises is explained in the textbook (german was the same way; the textbook i used for my introductory courses is by the same publisher). we also have a set of audio CDs that accompany the textbook, not the workbook (which are online). this is totally frustrating, especially because you immediately start using the cyrllic alphabet. which leads me to 2) we've had two classes and have only had one class of real instruction. i'm supposed to know the alphabet, be able to use it to start practicing greetings, and write a introduction about myself. WHAT. i understand that because of the day and time this class is scheduled at that it is more learning intensive than say, a class three times a week for less than an hour. I GET THAT. however, almost all the students in this class only know latin alphabet languages and have not had experience with a different one. it's really hard for me to associate characters that, as of now, are abstract with specific sounds competently in less than a week. i don't have a lot of time every day/night to review and in order for me to be master a concept, i have to memorize it. this is why i find that, at an introduction level, native-speaker professors can be problematic because they don't understand the challenges that non-native speakers face. i'm incredibly thankful that my german professors are native english speakers because they're able to elaborate on grammar usage in a way a lot of native speakers can't. (fact of life: english is the same way. i know to do something, but i can't always necessarily explain why i know it.)
tl:dr, other alphabet languages are hard.
i haven't been able to watch an arsenal match live in quite some time, but i did get to watch the arsenal-manchester city match this morning. i've missed watching live soccer so much. the outrage! the fraught panic! the relief! THIS MATCH WAS A DISASTER OF THE HIGHEST ORDER: arteta's training injury, koscielny's red card ten minutes in, missed penalties (okay, good thing), lax defence, subbing off oxlade-chamberlin. this sport is so awful. i love it.
NURI SAHIN HAS RETURNED TO DORTMUND. i'm not actually invested in dortmund, but this is delightful news to me. i genuinely enjoy sahin as a player and the bundesliga is the only place i'm really willing to watch him (well, if he had signed that loan deal with arsenal, everything would have just been tops). i read both the english and german articles from Deutsche Welle and like, the english article totally undersells his joy at being back.
english article
"'I am happy to be home again," the 24-year-old said at a press conference announcing his arrival. "I hope I can help the team as soon as possible."
german article
"'Ich bin überglücklich, wieder zu Hause zu sein, eigentlich wollte ich immer wieder zurück nach Dortmund', erklärte Sahin auf einer Pressekonferenz in Dortmund.
'I am overjoyed to be home again; I really wanted to come back to Dortmund', Sahin explained at a press conference in Dortmund.
"'Ich hatte zwei bis drei Mal die Woche Kontakt zu den Jungs und habe mit ihnen regelmäßig online Playstation gespielt.'"
'I had contact with the boys two to three times a week and regularly played Playstation online with them.'
"'Nur in Dortmund kann ich mein Potenzial zu 100 Prozent abrufen, nur hier funktioniere ich richtig.'"
"Only in Dortmund can I reach my hundred-percent potential, only here can I function properly."
WHIMPERING. the article also refers to nuri as der verlorene Sohn (the prodigal son). like, WHAT EVEN IS THAT. actually, roman weidenfeller called him that, too (i'm not linking because he's got the wrong adjective ending on 'verloren', so. suck it). LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE.
in other, fic-related news: yuletide happened! i received such a lovely story about alma and artur from turn me on, dammit. i recommend watching the movie if you ever have the opportunity to but tide yourself over with some fic in the meantime!
four times alma gets off and four times she didn't by Age or Wizardry (ageorwizardry)
alma/artur, nc-17, 3394 words
warnings underage
What happens after, in a few steps.
i wrote ferris bueller fic, which is the first thing i've written since july. i'm hoping i'll be able to get some more fic out, although it'll probably be hockey!fic (sorry, bros). i had high hopes for some soccer!fic, but nothing's clicking right now. maybe some nuri/mario in the near future? fuck, man, i hope.
it's time to spend the night away
ferris/cameron, pg-13, 1825
Ferris looks at Cameron later that night, when the sweat's dried to a dull shine and the tense lines under his skin seem to have relaxed. He's caught off-guard, really. It's always the other way around.
so, i've already revealed my hockey!fic intentions. i've been steadily reading fic in the fandom since last april, when soccer!fic seriously started to decline. i'm hoping it'll see a boost with world cup, but that's still a year-and-a-half away. i some pretty solid ideas about teams/people i'd like to write about (they're never the popular ones, i've noticed. i have a really hard time working with characters who have a well-defined canon because i don't feel i have the necessary breathing space to explore them how i want to; i often disagree with their characterization to a pretty vehement degree). this is also the first fandom i've hung out in that deals primarily with canadian characters, and characters who are even from the same fucking place as me (this is still weird). it's strange, then, to see canadians being characterized as americans. first and foremost: for as simliar as canada and america may appear to be, they are not the same country. our mindset and our way of doing things is different. it's hard to explain without concrete examples, but i know when canadian experience diverges from american experience and why. however, because of the similarities, people often disregard the fact that these divergences do exist.
another important factor in canadianism, is the fact that canadian identity is a very weird animal. when you take away the stereotypes, it's obvious that there is no concrete definition of canadian identity. i'm in university studying a completely different language and culture from my own and i can tell you, rather plainly, what makes up german identity. when my german host-mom tasked me to do the same, i couldn't. she also asked me whether i could speak french and was surprised when i told her no and neither do upwards of 75% of the canadian population. in fact, quebec and new brunswick (quebec being the only province with french as its first offical language and new brunswick as canada's only officially bilingual province) are an anomaly within canada. people from these provinces usually identify themselves as french first and then canadian. whereas i, an english speaker from western canada, identify myself as a canadian -- language's not a factor. in order to create a singular identity, language needs to be reconciled as does race and nationality. i'm from saskatchewan, which is argueably home to canada's biggest population of arboriginal/first nations peoples. like people from quebec, they identify themselves as aboriginal first. this practice extends across canada: first- and second-generation immigrants identify themselves as immigrant first, whether that means chinese, indian, russian, etc. meaning, identifying yourself as canadian is typically left to the white population of canada. the essence of what canada is, though, exists because of our french speakers, our first nations, our immigrants. so, to exclude such a large and integral part of canada from canadian is problematic. it's hard to understand canada if you don't understand this. we're not some perfect utopia where everyone gets along; nothing could be further from the truth. god, we can barely get along as provinces. (i won't get into that here. it'll just be paragraph after endless paragraph as to why i hate ontario and the views that some ontarioans have about the rest of canada.) we have our faults.
which leads me to actually talking about hockey: the sport. if you weren't aware, the world junior championship took place in december. huge fucking deal in canada; endless news stories, front-page cover of every sports website and newspaper, people talking about it everywhere. that sort of thing. i mainly participate in hockey fandom at a arm's length away through tumblr. one of the things that bothered me throughout the tournament was the american response to canadian zeal. now, i'm not excusing canadian fans who are being assholes. if you're being a douche about being a fan, then you're a douche. simple. what bothers me, though, is that there is literally nothing in canada that brings together a huge number of canadians and groups within canada (be that language or otherwise) like hockey. this is what makes hockey special for canadians; it unites people who don't typically have ways of expressing their unity through pride by giving them one. so, when an american tries to make someone feel bad or trivializes someone's way of showing pride for their country, it pisses me off. yes, canada can be/is overbearing in its love for hockey. however, when a country that oftentimes will take the opportunity to be obnoxious about their pride no matter what it concerns tries to make me feel bad about my own, i have issues with that. especially if my pride can only be expressed in an acceptable manner through one tangible outlet. you have to understand that it's almost un-canadian to be outwardly proud of being canadian. so, if i let out all my obnoxious canada feelings out through hockey, don't tell me that i'm not allowed to, especially when your own country doesn't have to deal with the same constraints. i'm not saying this applies to every american because it does not and i don't want anyone to feel that they can't be annoyed when faced with teaming amounts of nationalistic pride in the context of sport. do so, if you want. you have that choice.
to round this all out, please enjoy these pictures of things i've bought recently.
six-strap suspender belt and underwear from kiss me deadly.
cervin non-stretch and gerbe stretch stockings.
high-waisted suspender underwear and convertible bra from made by niki. i'm also probably going to get this suspender belt because it is actually ruining my life.
underwear by parfait by affinitas via modcloth and shape underwear by rago via modcloth. although, secrets in lace has a much better rago shop.