Tolkien Smackdown!
４月１日（月）Poniedzialek Wielkanocny
・18:38
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Music o' the Entry: "OK" album, Talvin Singh
I live, fear me. So yeah, that was spring break. Note to all concerned and caring: when Sho is on breaks from school, don't expect jack for updating. But I'm back now, so do not fret. Or something. Anyway, I suppose I should address a number of topics. First being my break and trip to boyfriend's hometown. Verdict: I was sad to leave. Yup, meeting the parents and various assortment of siblings wasn't traumatic in the least (not that I was concerned, given his description of them). It was actually entertaining, I observed quite a bit of the Food Network (my new favourite television channel, next to that of the Weather. Hush you, Kristina Abernathy and the crew are an all-around rocking group of folk. Seriously, I dig the Weather Channel and the Weather Posse. Of course, this may also contribute to why I find myself an extraordinarily boring person.) and we also traipsed happily about the cities in the area. One particularly interesting feature of Matt's hometown is the sheer diversity of the population; I may have described the highly boring nigh-oppressive whiteness of the population of the city in which I dwell, so when I go somewhere and actually see folk who are a shade other than white, I find it pleasing (seeing as my area of origin is more ethnically heterogenous). The largest minority in this area are Mexicans, which results in something quite delightful to my senses: Mexican food. Good actual MEXICAN food, not Americanized Mexican food. Yes, it pleases me, for I got to enjoy tamales as well as a taco unlike any other I've consumed (and this is a good thing). There's also a sizable and diverse Asian population, so I visited an Asian food store, hoping to obtain the wonder known in some cultures as melon soda, but the store ended up being Thai (as opposed to Japanese or Korean) so I ended up leaving with these interesting little pudding cup as and a can of palm seeds, which resemble these things I ate in Japan. Haven't tried 'em yet, but am hoping that they're the same, will let ye all know about it. Indeed, the only negative aspect of the trip was that we had to come home a day early because Matt had to pick up one of his friends from the airport. So yes, that was my trip. Other than that, the rest of the break has been rather Mattfull, as one might expect given my usual descriptions of life 'round these parts. Ah, one other thing, the 20th was the 18th birthday of Bak-chan, in which I baked her a red velvet/devil's food quad-tier cake which I iced with buttercream icing and performed the absolute most awful job of decorating in the history of mankind as it is known. It's not that I didn't try, because I bloody well did, it's just that it's my first attempt and my raw talent for cake decorating seems a tad on the lacking side. However, I'm considering taking it as a personal challenge and learning how to unequivocally rock at cake decorating, which sounds like an utterly useless skill that could possibly be of entertainment value. Just gotta find someone to eat my practice cakes...
So yeah, that was spring break, which has now ended. Since spring break has ended, spring quarter has began. Classes this quarter include Japanese 203, PE, and English 382: Studies in Epic Fantasy. Yes, I managed to worm myself out of English 170 into something better. At least it sounded that way, myself being a colossal nerd and all. However, upon closer examination I should've figured out that this was a Bad Idea. The intrinsic not fun-ness of this can be conveyed by the title of my textbooks: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and the Atlas to Middle-earth. Yup, the entire class is a study of The Lord of the Rings. Which to some is something that results in a puddle of drool forming. However, I am a fantasy heretic-I do not care about The Lord of the Rings. Yes, I am aware of just how wrong that sounds, given the embarrassing amount of fantasy novels I've devoured over the years, but frankly this series has never interested me, which is very sad. When I was about 12 I tried to pick up The Hobbit and was bored out of my mind, thus my opinion of Tolkien isn't all that screamingly high. Not to mention the professor is draconian about attendence, for each unexcused one you drop a full letter on your final grade, ouch. Oh well, at least there's no class on Friday. Yeah, pathetic, but help me here, I'm trying hard to find things that are good about this class, as it doesn't sound promising. Another large part of our grade are group discussions, which also look not fun: my general strategery in classes to sit down, shut up, and quietly take notes or listen: I have absolutely no desire to be a participatory learner, to draw any unnecessary attention to myself, if at all possible. Yes, dropping has entered my mind, since I have a very *cough* healthy fully-functional well-developed "flee" instinct, but the biggest issue is that I quite literally CAN'T (besides PE, it's the last class I have to take to satisfy my graduation requirements from my miserable high school) and I suppose it's too premature to do such a thing anyway, I should at least give it a chance. Still, not too promising.
In addition to that, the fact that I'm only taking 12 credits is bothering me. A lot. So, depending on whatever the crap happens with jobs, I may tack another class on if possibly, of the Pre-Calculus variety if I can. Yes, a math class, popularly known as the bane of my existence. But why? Well, I've been thinking about it awhile, and by the end of this quarter I will have decided whether or not I want to double-major in geography and biology with a zoology option. No, I'm not kidding, the gleeful little hop back to my original intended major may very well in fact occur, simply because my indecisiveness circuit enjoys working on an all-or-nothing basis. Today I paid a visit to the biology department and the guy I ended up talking to turned out to be an ichthyologist who did research in Japan. Yeah, pretty much an older more educated and experienced guy who is what I want to be (career-wise) to a disturbing degree (well, freshwater, and without the weird cephalopod fascination). Of course, he was also in Tohoku, which is the uber-hick region of Nihon, but I digress. Basically, Sho+Ichthyology+Japan=Good fun for all. Not to mention it appears that several aspects of my first declared major are quite helpful in relation to the potential larger (basically double the credits) major. Still, I don't know what I'm going to do about it, mostly concerned about the math that will be involved...he told me to come and speak to him about my decision at the end of the quarter, so I suppose I should also consult my geography advisor...holy CRAP am I going to be in school forever. But the guy also offered me a chance to do some research work involving salmon strains late this summer, possibly with monetary compensation, so I also have that to consider...
But speaking of my epic fantasy class, it has done at least one positive thing thus far, for now for some inexplicable reason I have this incredible desire to beat down Tolkien, meaning I want to at some point in my life produce a novel that utterly owns The Lord of the Rings. Sounds like a fun task, given Mr. Tolkien was apparently voted Author of the 20th Century or something similar by British readers. Yes, I am nuts. Which means that I'm going to resume work on my stories, and would like to have at least one in potential publishable condition before I graduate from college. Yes, I am completely nuts. I don't how I'm possibly going to find the time to do it, but I have to. Goodness sakes, I'm 18 already, dreadfully behind in my writing. But perhaps it's a good thing, as my writing is, generally speaking, an atrocity at best, but it has steadily dropped on the relative atrociousness index as I've gained more years. Who knows, maybe I shouldn't wait until 60 (provided I make it to that far) when I can perhaps write much better...but I'm sure as one ages, the law of diminishing returns also takes effect...still, can't hurt to try, ne? So more than likely my first work will be The Illurian Wars. It only seems appropriate, given it is and was my first full-scale monster of a story, it needs a ton of work. No, I'm not writing THIS particular novel in an attempt to best Tolkien (I think that may be just a mite presumptuous for a vaguely psychotic 18-year-old girl-child), but perhaps one day...but I have to try. Yeah, and this coming from a geography major. But this isn't looking more exponentially daunting by the second, honest.
But need to run folks, it's dinner time. Yes, I know I basically sat here and babbled about school for a nice lengthy amount of time, not a hint of my ramble on the Xenosaga OST, but that'll be here hopefully tomorrow, see you then. Seven days until Yuri and okaasan come~
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