Abandon all your dramatics
And those words I direct to myself. After all, it has taken me over a year to come and post something again in LJ.
I guess there's no point in screaming the "I am alive!" Obviously I have been absent from this scene because...well...I was living the infamous real life.
What have I done so far? Starting from the most recent events and moving down towards the oldies:
-I gave this LJ something of an overhauling. And this is a very dubious term I am using, since I suck at coding and stuff. I keep telling my sister that I would saddle her with this remodeling thing, but she's very busy with her work and taking care of mom and the house...This morning I just shrugged my shoulders and decided to stop dilly dallying.
So now I've got a white-ish LJ with new icons and simpler looks. I rather like it.
-I have happily gone into fan mode over some actors, sporadically and cyclically. Which means I gush over one of them for two months, then I fall in love with the other for three months, then I go back to the first one, then alternate with a new one. And so on and so forth.
Who? The usual ones. Giovanni Ribisi, Alan Rickman, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Laurie and my newest shiny addition Mark A. Sheppard.
I even enjoy watching Glee and had an attempt into really liking some of the actors/actresses...but goodness that fandom is a crazy lolistic thing. I turned tail and ran, coward little me.
-I got very much involved in a new anime fandom, for the Hetalia manga/series. The featured stereotypes are hilarious if not a bit offensive from time to time. But in what kind of world we live in, hm? I like all the nation-characters, but England and Germany are my favorites.
-Every other fandom I was involved with before...has slowly faded into "non-aware" zone for me. It's really weird how once you land in Japan and start living here, things lose that "OMG lookie!" quality of days past. Plus the other series/manga had either already finished or their plots went down the drain. No good plot, no interest for me. And I am quite finicky with plot devices, so I guess I sabotage myself.
-I've gone back to my old books and audiobooks. Howl's Moving Castle, Good Omens, Cyrano, Les Miserables, Neverwhere, Le petit prince, The name of the rose, etc.
And have watched some t.v. series. House MD. is a given. New ones? I already said Glee, made me laugh and kept me entertained until out of left field came crashing in my new shiny actor (Mark) and thus...I've watched the last 2 seasons of Supernatural, the last 2 seasons of Battlestar Galactica, Leverage and Warehouse 13. AAAND I might have watched only the episodes where Mark's characters appear...but this is a bias I am happy to maintain.
-Last but not least (actually this is the last item because it's rather huge) I've been here, living and studying in Japan. My Master is coming along fine. I've had the opportunity to travel around the place. I am planning on visiting Africa and Korea soon *fingers crossed* Food is nice, apartment is small but sufficient, people are weird but fun, language is a mess, and I just skip along and flutter around this place.
Sounds pretty joyous in such simplicity. Of course it's peppered with sad and difficult and frustrating experiences, but so far, so good. Balance and good attitude, right?
That is it, fine long-time-no-see people. My last year in a nutshell.
Now that I've got this recap out of the way, maybe I'll come by and start posting with less gigantic pauses in between.
PS: Hmmm. I guess I should include this here, after all. Yes, the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami was the most shocking and sad experience of these past months. On many levels, as a resident of the country, as a foreigner and witness, as a volunteer, as a student of disaster management, and as a friend of Japanese people who were directly involved and affected by it. What is Japan doing, what should the world do? Learn from it, improve and correct their ways. Chin up and move on, now.
I guess there's no point in screaming the "I am alive!" Obviously I have been absent from this scene because...well...I was living the infamous real life.
What have I done so far? Starting from the most recent events and moving down towards the oldies:
-I gave this LJ something of an overhauling. And this is a very dubious term I am using, since I suck at coding and stuff. I keep telling my sister that I would saddle her with this remodeling thing, but she's very busy with her work and taking care of mom and the house...This morning I just shrugged my shoulders and decided to stop dilly dallying.
So now I've got a white-ish LJ with new icons and simpler looks. I rather like it.
-I have happily gone into fan mode over some actors, sporadically and cyclically. Which means I gush over one of them for two months, then I fall in love with the other for three months, then I go back to the first one, then alternate with a new one. And so on and so forth.
Who? The usual ones. Giovanni Ribisi, Alan Rickman, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Laurie and my newest shiny addition Mark A. Sheppard.
I even enjoy watching Glee and had an attempt into really liking some of the actors/actresses...but goodness that fandom is a crazy lolistic thing. I turned tail and ran, coward little me.
-I got very much involved in a new anime fandom, for the Hetalia manga/series. The featured stereotypes are hilarious if not a bit offensive from time to time. But in what kind of world we live in, hm? I like all the nation-characters, but England and Germany are my favorites.
-Every other fandom I was involved with before...has slowly faded into "non-aware" zone for me. It's really weird how once you land in Japan and start living here, things lose that "OMG lookie!" quality of days past. Plus the other series/manga had either already finished or their plots went down the drain. No good plot, no interest for me. And I am quite finicky with plot devices, so I guess I sabotage myself.
-I've gone back to my old books and audiobooks. Howl's Moving Castle, Good Omens, Cyrano, Les Miserables, Neverwhere, Le petit prince, The name of the rose, etc.
And have watched some t.v. series. House MD. is a given. New ones? I already said Glee, made me laugh and kept me entertained until out of left field came crashing in my new shiny actor (Mark) and thus...I've watched the last 2 seasons of Supernatural, the last 2 seasons of Battlestar Galactica, Leverage and Warehouse 13. AAAND I might have watched only the episodes where Mark's characters appear...but this is a bias I am happy to maintain.
-Last but not least (actually this is the last item because it's rather huge) I've been here, living and studying in Japan. My Master is coming along fine. I've had the opportunity to travel around the place. I am planning on visiting Africa and Korea soon *fingers crossed* Food is nice, apartment is small but sufficient, people are weird but fun, language is a mess, and I just skip along and flutter around this place.
Sounds pretty joyous in such simplicity. Of course it's peppered with sad and difficult and frustrating experiences, but so far, so good. Balance and good attitude, right?
That is it, fine long-time-no-see people. My last year in a nutshell.
Now that I've got this recap out of the way, maybe I'll come by and start posting with less gigantic pauses in between.
PS: Hmmm. I guess I should include this here, after all. Yes, the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami was the most shocking and sad experience of these past months. On many levels, as a resident of the country, as a foreigner and witness, as a volunteer, as a student of disaster management, and as a friend of Japanese people who were directly involved and affected by it. What is Japan doing, what should the world do? Learn from it, improve and correct their ways. Chin up and move on, now.