自己紹介
I added enough new friends in the past couple of weeks that I guess an intro post is in order. I've never done one of these before, so this should be interesting. I don't know that there's a prescribed format, so I'm just making this up as I go.
About This Journal
I'm pyrefly. Most people around here call me Piru or Nara, the latter being my real name. I'm also aengelwynd. Once upon a time, that journal was my "RL" blog, and this one is supposed to be where I postly about fandom-related things, but too many people I know offline (including relatives) found out about aengelwynd, so I got in the habit of posting a lot of RL-related content here, in friends-only posts, away from all the people I have to deal with on a daily basis. I also stopped having time to indulge myself in fandom, so for a while this basically turned into an all-RL journal. I'm in the process of trying to switch back and start posting RL content to aengelwynd, so if you're interested in my daily goings-on, feel free to add that account as well. In the meantime, I'll still be posting some RL stuff here, specifically stuff related to relationships that I don't want the whole wide world to know about. I also hope to start getting back into fandom and posting about that more, but I don't know how well that's going to work out. We'll see how it goes.
About Me
I'm a 5'11" skinny reddish-brown-haired hazel-eyed glasses-wearing 20-year-old half-white/half-Asian heterosexual female. I'm half Dutch, a quarter Indonesian, and a quarter Chinese. I don't know how to answer the question "Where are you from?" I was born and grew up in The Netherlands, and I'm still a Dutch citizen. I spent 2 years living in Munich, Germany before moving to Houston, TX. I hated Texas, so I worked my ass off in high school to make sure I could go to college out of state, so I now attend school at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. I also spent two months this past summer living and studying in Tokyo, Japan. I believe pieces of me exist in all of these places, so I don't know where to consider home. I speak fluent Dutch, German, and English, and I'm getting there with my Japanese.
College Life
As I said, I go to Carnegie Mellon, which is a small private research university with about 5,000 undergrads and 3,000 or so graduate students. I'm working on a BFA degree in Communication Design, which is a merging of the fields of graphic design and visual communications. I did well enough in high school that I could've pursued any number of career paths, but I've always been artistic, and I knew that I couldn't give up that side of myself, even if it means sacrificing wealth. (The starting salary for graphic designers is about $25K.) Though graphic design is now offered even at your average community college (don't get me started, I could go off on many tangents and rant about this) I decided to study it at CMU because CMU has top-ranked programs in fine arts, engineering, and computer science, and I thought this kind of environment would be a good blend for someone like me, who is interested in where the fields of art & design meet technology. For this reason, I'm minoring in Computer Science and specializing in web design, motion/animation and kinetic typography. I'm also getting a second minor in Japanese because I've been interested in Japan since I was about 10 years old. Hence my decision to study abroad there this past summer.
As a top-ranked U.S. private university, CMU is hard, and the Design program is notoriously rough, although the 1st year is the worst for Design majors, so as a Junior, the worst is behind me, and I no longer average 3 hours of sleep a night. Still, with two minors, I've overloaded nearly every semester, and I spend a lot more hours in class than most college students. This was my schedule this past semester and this will be my schedule this coming semester.
I care too much about what goes on around me and I'm really bad at saying "no", so I'm overly involved in extra-curriculars at school. A few things you might occasionally hear me refer to my involvement in are:
I spent the first two years living in a dorm, but this year I live in a two-story duplex house on campus, owned by the school (so I basically pay rent directly to the school like I would a dorm). I have 4 housemates, all girls, who share two double rooms, but I have my own single. We have one bathroom (and only one toilet), a kitchen, a dining room, a kitchen, a basement with laundry machines, and a front porch. It's a really good deal, but between classes, my job, all my clubs & activities, and the time I spend with my boyfriend, I don't really spend much time there.
Relationships
I'm currently in a steady relationship with my wonderful boyfriend Austin, who happens to be from... Austin, TX. Yes, Austin from Austin. I sometimes call him "Robot Boy" because he loves robots. He's an ECE major minoring in Robotics, and he's the Vice-President of CMU's Robotics Club. I spend many of my evening hours in the Robotics Club room or at the house Austin lives in with his 3 friends about 20 minutes away from campus. We sleep together pretty much every night, so we go back and forth between spending nights at his house and nights at my house. When neither of us has to be up early and/or we have more free time than usual, we tend to be at his house because there's more space and more entertainment.
I do have two opt-in filters, one for relationship-related posts and one for sex-related posts. If you want to get on them, you should sign up here.
Family & Finances
My family situation's a little complicated but I figured I should mention it because I do bring it up from time to time. I have one younger sister who is currently a senior in high school. My parents got divorced when I was almost 17. I initially stayed with my dad, but once he suddenly brought a girlfriend out of the woodworks (claiming she had nothing to do with his decision to file for divorce), I moved in with my mom, who had moved into a smaller house 5 miles away. Two months after I left, my dad's girlfriend moved in. Half a year later, my sister moved in with my dad, refusing to say why and refusing to speak to my mom for almost a year and a half for unknown reasons. In the meantime, dad's girlfriend's two sons from her previous marriage moved in with them as well. To top things off, for refusing to accept his relationship, my dad refused to help pay for college, even though he has an income of $150K a year and my mom less than $30K. Hence the reason why I've been killing myself trying to juggle a part-time job on top of my crazy school schedule. Most of my school expenses are covered by loans for which I'm trying to pay off the interest, and I also pay for food and all personal expenses.
My dad married his girlfriend in November. I found out about both their engagement and their wedding from my sister, not from him. We're on speaking terms but our relationship is strained at best. This year, he finally agreed to help pay for college, but I have yet to see any money, so I remain skeptical.
Fandom
As mentioned earlier, this is supposed to be my fandom blog, but I don't really have much time to spend on fandom nowadays. When I do, my fandom dabblings are pretty much limited to animanga and video games. Despite my involvement in yuletide, I don't do fandom for books, movies, TV shows (Firefly being the only exception because it's Firefly), or any kind of RPF. For some reason I'm just not inspired to write fic or want to read fic or engage in discussions and communities related to those fandoms. I am, however, open-minded and for some weird reason I do enjoy reading about other people's involvement in fandoms I know nothing about, eg. summertea & bandom and peroxidepest17 & JE/NewS. So basically, even if we're not in the same fandoms, chances are I'll still read all your posts even if I know nothing about whatever it is you're involved in.
As far as my own fandom involvement goes, I don't read fic outside of yuletide and my flist, and I don't really do communities and forums anymore, so my participation is pretty much limited to writing. I don't actively write anymore. In fact, in the past year or so I haven't had the time or inspiration to write anything except during holiday exchanges like yuletide and suikosantaredux. All my writing is archived at sachi and can also be found on FFnet.
I am into BL/yaoi/shounen-ai/slash or whatever you'd like to call it, though my interest has been slightly waning since I started dating Austin. I don't know, there's just something a little weird about fantasizing about gay men when you're in a stable and sexually active male/female relationship? If anyone has figured out how to reconcile the two, please do enlighten me.
Chatting
My laptop is almost always turned on and I'm almost always on AIM and MSN with the screennames Pyrefly tears and lilpenguinhugs@hotmail.com, respectively. I usually forget to put up away messages even if I'm in class or at work, so don't be offended if you don't get a response. I'm not really the type to start IM convos a lot, but I do enjoy them and I certainly don't bite, so feel free to hit me up sometime.
Any questions? Feel free to ask. If not, Happy New Year to all! Still more than an hour to go here in Texas, but I probably won't post again until the yuletide reveal.
About This Journal
I'm pyrefly. Most people around here call me Piru or Nara, the latter being my real name. I'm also aengelwynd. Once upon a time, that journal was my "RL" blog, and this one is supposed to be where I postly about fandom-related things, but too many people I know offline (including relatives) found out about aengelwynd, so I got in the habit of posting a lot of RL-related content here, in friends-only posts, away from all the people I have to deal with on a daily basis. I also stopped having time to indulge myself in fandom, so for a while this basically turned into an all-RL journal. I'm in the process of trying to switch back and start posting RL content to aengelwynd, so if you're interested in my daily goings-on, feel free to add that account as well. In the meantime, I'll still be posting some RL stuff here, specifically stuff related to relationships that I don't want the whole wide world to know about. I also hope to start getting back into fandom and posting about that more, but I don't know how well that's going to work out. We'll see how it goes.
About Me
I'm a 5'11" skinny reddish-brown-haired hazel-eyed glasses-wearing 20-year-old half-white/half-Asian heterosexual female. I'm half Dutch, a quarter Indonesian, and a quarter Chinese. I don't know how to answer the question "Where are you from?" I was born and grew up in The Netherlands, and I'm still a Dutch citizen. I spent 2 years living in Munich, Germany before moving to Houston, TX. I hated Texas, so I worked my ass off in high school to make sure I could go to college out of state, so I now attend school at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. I also spent two months this past summer living and studying in Tokyo, Japan. I believe pieces of me exist in all of these places, so I don't know where to consider home. I speak fluent Dutch, German, and English, and I'm getting there with my Japanese.
College Life
As I said, I go to Carnegie Mellon, which is a small private research university with about 5,000 undergrads and 3,000 or so graduate students. I'm working on a BFA degree in Communication Design, which is a merging of the fields of graphic design and visual communications. I did well enough in high school that I could've pursued any number of career paths, but I've always been artistic, and I knew that I couldn't give up that side of myself, even if it means sacrificing wealth. (The starting salary for graphic designers is about $25K.) Though graphic design is now offered even at your average community college (don't get me started, I could go off on many tangents and rant about this) I decided to study it at CMU because CMU has top-ranked programs in fine arts, engineering, and computer science, and I thought this kind of environment would be a good blend for someone like me, who is interested in where the fields of art & design meet technology. For this reason, I'm minoring in Computer Science and specializing in web design, motion/animation and kinetic typography. I'm also getting a second minor in Japanese because I've been interested in Japan since I was about 10 years old. Hence my decision to study abroad there this past summer.
As a top-ranked U.S. private university, CMU is hard, and the Design program is notoriously rough, although the 1st year is the worst for Design majors, so as a Junior, the worst is behind me, and I no longer average 3 hours of sleep a night. Still, with two minors, I've overloaded nearly every semester, and I spend a lot more hours in class than most college students. This was my schedule this past semester and this will be my schedule this coming semester.
I care too much about what goes on around me and I'm really bad at saying "no", so I'm overly involved in extra-curriculars at school. A few things you might occasionally hear me refer to my involvement in are:
- Undergraduate Student Senate, for which I spent two semesters on the Executive Committee serving as the Communications Committee Chair, and the Joint Funding Committee, to which I represent Senate and which sets the budget for every student organization on campus
- Awareness of Roots in Chinese Culture (ARCC), a Chinese cultural organization for which I serve on the Board. The Board is like a family and one of the social groups I spend a lot of time with.
- HAPAs, the organization for students of multiracial/multicultural backgrounds, of which I am the Co-President
- The Oakland Review, the undergraduate literary magazine, for which I am the Production Manager, the person in charge of designing the layout and cover and putting the book together once all the content has been decided
I spent the first two years living in a dorm, but this year I live in a two-story duplex house on campus, owned by the school (so I basically pay rent directly to the school like I would a dorm). I have 4 housemates, all girls, who share two double rooms, but I have my own single. We have one bathroom (and only one toilet), a kitchen, a dining room, a kitchen, a basement with laundry machines, and a front porch. It's a really good deal, but between classes, my job, all my clubs & activities, and the time I spend with my boyfriend, I don't really spend much time there.
Relationships
I'm currently in a steady relationship with my wonderful boyfriend Austin, who happens to be from... Austin, TX. Yes, Austin from Austin. I sometimes call him "Robot Boy" because he loves robots. He's an ECE major minoring in Robotics, and he's the Vice-President of CMU's Robotics Club. I spend many of my evening hours in the Robotics Club room or at the house Austin lives in with his 3 friends about 20 minutes away from campus. We sleep together pretty much every night, so we go back and forth between spending nights at his house and nights at my house. When neither of us has to be up early and/or we have more free time than usual, we tend to be at his house because there's more space and more entertainment.
I do have two opt-in filters, one for relationship-related posts and one for sex-related posts. If you want to get on them, you should sign up here.
Family & Finances
My family situation's a little complicated but I figured I should mention it because I do bring it up from time to time. I have one younger sister who is currently a senior in high school. My parents got divorced when I was almost 17. I initially stayed with my dad, but once he suddenly brought a girlfriend out of the woodworks (claiming she had nothing to do with his decision to file for divorce), I moved in with my mom, who had moved into a smaller house 5 miles away. Two months after I left, my dad's girlfriend moved in. Half a year later, my sister moved in with my dad, refusing to say why and refusing to speak to my mom for almost a year and a half for unknown reasons. In the meantime, dad's girlfriend's two sons from her previous marriage moved in with them as well. To top things off, for refusing to accept his relationship, my dad refused to help pay for college, even though he has an income of $150K a year and my mom less than $30K. Hence the reason why I've been killing myself trying to juggle a part-time job on top of my crazy school schedule. Most of my school expenses are covered by loans for which I'm trying to pay off the interest, and I also pay for food and all personal expenses.
My dad married his girlfriend in November. I found out about both their engagement and their wedding from my sister, not from him. We're on speaking terms but our relationship is strained at best. This year, he finally agreed to help pay for college, but I have yet to see any money, so I remain skeptical.
Fandom
As mentioned earlier, this is supposed to be my fandom blog, but I don't really have much time to spend on fandom nowadays. When I do, my fandom dabblings are pretty much limited to animanga and video games. Despite my involvement in yuletide, I don't do fandom for books, movies, TV shows (Firefly being the only exception because it's Firefly), or any kind of RPF. For some reason I'm just not inspired to write fic or want to read fic or engage in discussions and communities related to those fandoms. I am, however, open-minded and for some weird reason I do enjoy reading about other people's involvement in fandoms I know nothing about, eg. summertea & bandom and peroxidepest17 & JE/NewS. So basically, even if we're not in the same fandoms, chances are I'll still read all your posts even if I know nothing about whatever it is you're involved in.
As far as my own fandom involvement goes, I don't read fic outside of yuletide and my flist, and I don't really do communities and forums anymore, so my participation is pretty much limited to writing. I don't actively write anymore. In fact, in the past year or so I haven't had the time or inspiration to write anything except during holiday exchanges like yuletide and suikosantaredux. All my writing is archived at sachi and can also be found on FFnet.
I am into BL/yaoi/shounen-ai/slash or whatever you'd like to call it, though my interest has been slightly waning since I started dating Austin. I don't know, there's just something a little weird about fantasizing about gay men when you're in a stable and sexually active male/female relationship? If anyone has figured out how to reconcile the two, please do enlighten me.
Chatting
My laptop is almost always turned on and I'm almost always on AIM and MSN with the screennames Pyrefly tears and lilpenguinhugs@hotmail.com, respectively. I usually forget to put up away messages even if I'm in class or at work, so don't be offended if you don't get a response. I'm not really the type to start IM convos a lot, but I do enjoy them and I certainly don't bite, so feel free to hit me up sometime.
Any questions? Feel free to ask. If not, Happy New Year to all! Still more than an hour to go here in Texas, but I probably won't post again until the yuletide reveal.