mood; tired


ITT, the many things that contributed to my current desire to go pass out and never wake up.

Woke up at eight, which was a bitch for the first ten minutes but then I was feeling pretty good. Went to my 9:30 class, Intermediate German -- this is probably the best thing I could have in that particular slot on my schedule, as it's largely a review of the same grammatical concepts from the previous year of German, just with added vocabulary and more emphasis on culture and whatnot. Also, Kendall is teaching it, and while I've never had him as a teacher (he was in my Japanese class years ago, lol), he always seemed pretty chill to me so I think it's something I should be able to handle as a start to my day.

My stomach kind of started tap-dancing halfway through, which is pretty normal for me in the morning, and I really have no idea what I can do but suffer through it, as I'm trying to give up my usual remedies (read: Coca Cola) and I don't have time to chug a Coke before class anyway, and I can't drink in the building of course. So I'm kind of at a loss for what to do about that besides suffer through it. Three days a week in my easy class, I can surely manage. I start later on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I should be able to get up and suffer through it at home before I leave on those days anyway.

I came home for the two hour gap, but I doubt I'll be making a habit of this, at least not while it's still summer out there, because heat plus humidity equals half-dead Sam. I've already stocked up on snacks I can throw in my bag before I leave in the mornings, which should do me fine on Wednesdays and Fridays (which are shorter) and might get me through Mondays. Worse case scenario, I have to buy lunch once a week, which is kind of ass but it sticks with me longer than snack food. I guess I could make sandwiches the night before or something but I don't want them to get squished in my bag or anything.

12:30, I sit in on Japanese 3123, which I actually took my junior year, but Fukushima-sensei suggested I sit in on for the review, and if I find it's too easy (I don't think that's going to be an issue) she'll find something else for me to do. Luckily I kept the textbook. My speaking and my kanji retention have seriously gone to shit over the year I wasn't taking the language, so this should help, even if I'm not getting any credits for it.

If it were a Wednesday or a Friday, my day would end there, but Mondays, I have my senior capstone at 1:30. For three hours. I am exceedingly glad it's in DAHT 408, which is kind of a stuffy room sometimes but at least the chairs are pretty comfortable (not that that stops me from getting really fidgety, which I really should work on, but I can't sit for fifteen minutes without shifting positions, let alone three hours).

Since it was the first day, not everyone had stopped by the copy shop to pick up the course packet, so after an hour of going over the syllabus, requirements, and discussing academic misconduct and whatnot, he gave us an hour's break for everyone to get the course packet (I'd already gotten it on my way in for my first class, since I always allow myself too much time in transit and there was nobody in line when I passed), and to read the first couple (mercifully short) articles. That was enough time for me to grab lunch, since I hadn't in the two hour gap before, and then we reconvened for the last hour and discussed Executive Order 13233 and why it's totally ass for historians.

I think I'm going to like the capstone, even if it's a lot of work; one of the first points the professor put across to us is that if we all waited until we had an original idea to speak up in class or write a book, none of us would be in that room and most professors wouldn't be professors. That made me feel a lot better, considering I always underestimate my history papers precisely because I feel like I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said a thousand times before -- but what really matters, a lot of the time, isn't the originality of what you're saying so much as your ability to synthesize all your sources and say it clearly and concisely, which judging by my grades so far, I've been doing just fine.

And apparently there's a standardized test we have to take in the capstone on how well we know all the basics expected from our major? lol. It doesn't go on our records in any form -- it seems to be an evaluation of whether the school is teaching us the right stuff rather than what we know, but still. It's mostly European and US history, apparently. I took my survey courses on all that shit like, four years ago, so I really hope they're not pressing too hard on the periods I haven't been specifically focusing on in my upper division credits. Even if my performance technically doesn't affect me at all, it's still kind of a point of pride, I guess.

So. Long day was long, and long day became longer when I stopped at the bookstore after class got out at 4:30. I'm still missing the German textbook, one of the books for the capstone, and possibly a Japanese book because I didn't want to commit to buying the 3223 book just yet (more on that in a moment), but I still ended up taking home an armload. Worth a couple hundred bucks, which unlike previous semesters, I was not able to defer to my bursar account as usual. My savings account weeps.

The Japanese 4223 books have very pretty covers, even if flipping through them was enough to make me go "OH DEAR GOD I'M DOOMED." (Though I do this every semester when I get new language textbooks, so that might not mean anything at this stage. I'm still somewhat terrified of setting foot in that classroom tomorrow, given the way my proficiency level has atrophied.)

As for Japanese 3223: I knew from this summer that I would be taking 4223 (modified by Fukushima-sensei to match my proficiency level, because I need that specific credit to finish my minor in absense of a culture-oriented class), and sitting in on 3123 for the extra practice. She emailed the entire 4223 class, however, and suggested that we attend 3223's first meeting tomorrow (right before 4223), and she said we should feel free to enroll in 3123 or 3223 as well.

On one hand, I'm not really enamoured of adding something else to my schedule -- although I'll only be formally enrolled in twelve credit hours once I get the paperwork for my honors research pushed through, I'll be doing the coursework for fifteen, which is my usual workload. On the other hand, I get the feeling that the more Japanese practice I have this semester, the better, as I really don't want to die getting through 4223 or anything. So I'm kind of torn.

I'll be going to the 3223 class tomorrow, and probably talking to Fukushima-sensei afterwards and getting her opinion on whether a third Japanese class will be beneficial enough to justify pushing me up to eighteen hours. Capstone is highly reading intensive, my honors research is writing a massive paper so that's going to require a fair amount of library time, and the upper level Japanese classes have always had a fair amount of homework. But I could use the practice, and on some odd masochistic level, I have missed using the language.

The walk home sucked majorly between the heat, my bag being too heavy (because I neglected to remove the ream of paper still in it from last semester's history seminar -- never take a history seminar if you're worried about saving trees), and the fact that I was carrying far too many books. Showering as soon as I got in made me feel amazingly better, but I'm still pretty tired.

Monday is probably the killer day, at least. Tomorrow is just three hours of Japanese, and daunting as that is, I don't think it's enough to completely wipe me out like today has.










mood; mellow
music; baseball bear - dramatic


You may have noticed me mentioning Oofuri here and there in past LJ entries, but since my love for it has only grown with every new chapter/episode, I figured I should formally sit down and make some kind of lame entry about Why You Should Be Watching/Reading It Too. Aside from the 2006 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and the 2007 Kodansha Manga Award, that is.

So. Ookiku Furikabutte, or Oofuri for short, is a sports animanga. It is also kind of gay. Like, the kind of gay where I initially picked up the series after hearing one too many remarks about such on 4chan and going "this can't be as gay as they make it sound, right?" (Believe me, it can.)

But it made me care about the sports side of things pretty quickly, and I think it handles the baseball very well. To compare with Prince of Tennis, which is the easiest comparison for a series about a lot of boys playing sports in a gay fashion: I mostly enjoy Tenipuri (in smallish doses) for gay antics, crack, and boys being stupid. Oofuri, on the other hand, I honestly care about the drama enough to follow it.

Also, Oofuri is probably a lot less ridiculous about physics than Tenipuri. I've heard it joked that in Tenipuri, whenever you get that funny shot of the court with all the color filters, it means the laws of physics have now been thrown out the window. Oofuri, on the other hand, seems to be showing a healthy respect for the laws of physics, and while I am neither a baseball player nor a physics student, none of it sounds improbable enough to make me stop and go "...hey, wait."

So if you were about to give this one the pass because you hated Tenipuri, well, you might not hate this. Really! XD

The main character is Mihashi Ren, a first year who becomes the pitcher for the Nishiura baseball team. Mihashi, unlike many sports manga protagonists, is neither God's gift to his sport nor a cocky little bitch -- in fact, he has serious confidence issues, and while he has impressive pitch control, his pitches are slow as hell. This, in combination with the fact that he was made the regular pitcher because of family connections to his middle school, led his old team to shun him and generally treat him like crap, which has given him a bit of a guilt complex because he feels if he had stepped down, baseball would have actually been fun for everyone involved.

The catcher, first year Abe Takaya, doesn't just see a whimpering wreck with slow pitches, however -- he recognizes Mihashi's amazing control as a serious weapon against their opponents, because while Mihashi's pitches are easy enough to hit if you get used to them, Abe knows how to pick the right mix of pitches to make it so the batter can't get used to them. (Most of the time. Seeing the Mihoshi players find ways around it in the first game was pretty badass.) He thinks Mihashi is exactly what the team needs -- he just has to get the right attitude.

The other players, or the ones who've been significant thus far, are pretty cool -- mostly we've just gotten a lot of Tajima and Hanai in the parts that have been translated thus far, but I'm pretty sure the others get more screentime further in. And Tajima is wonderful, a spazztastic bundle of energy with superb instincts and boatloads of talent (although his small frame keeps him from hitting homers), but you never hate him because he's not stuck up in the least about it. Instead he's the kind of spazz who jumps up on the bus and freaks out about how he forgot to masturbate yesterday. (Trufax. He really does this. Pretty early in, too.)

We also get a decent look at the opponents, as in any good sports manga, and while I shouldn't start in on them lest this post turn out miles long, they're great too. The first game is against Mihashi's old school and most of his old teammates, and while I'm not wild about Hatake, there are not enough words to express my love for Kanou, the pitcher who never got to take the mound in middle school because of Mihashi. The Mihoshi team's newcomer Oda is pretty badass, too. The current manga translations are just introducing us to one of Abe's old teammates, his pitcher, Haruna, who has thus far been a magnificent bastard with hints of something more.

There are, as mentioned before, boatloads of gay subtext if you're looking for it. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that there is much more to Oofuri than the gay subtext, and there's just a lot of really nice drama about learning to work together and function as a team, and I really care about the outcome of every inning for better reasons than "this team has prettier, crackier guys and therefore I want them to win."

In short: there is a lot to love here, if you're willing to give it a shot. I encourage you to do so. :3

Translations started out pretty slow, but a new speedscan group has started working on the manga, and the subs have picked up a bit lately (when episode 7 came out only days after 6, half the fandom immediately proclaimed that hell must have frozen over). There aren't many chapters out so far, but this is somewhat alleviated by the fact that the chapters are long -- typically only three chapters form an entire volume.

Manga links:
Entropy - the original scanlation group, through chapter 6 at the moment.
raep_time - new speedscan group, done through chapter 8.

Anime links:
AnimeSuki - the fansubs are all only available as mkv, unfortunately.
CrunchyRoll - watch 'em online YouTube style, if that works better for you.










mood; dkldfkdf!
music; blue october - for my brother


AKIRA AMANO YOU ARE A HORRIBLE HORRIBLE TEASE. DX

In other news, gotta love it when you're settling down to go to sleep and one of your RP characters randomly informs you that they'd like to burn their house down tomorrow.










mood; fgsfds
music; linkin park - in the end


i has a kitty :3

Yume is being really sweet lately. She's been sitting in my lap more than usual, and when she does it's been less just sitting there to take up space, and more leaning against me and rubbing her head on me and purring. Of course, we also noticed that the cats don't seem to like the new food much (Rofl threw it up all over the rug, A++), so I'm willing to bet she's just hoping I'll feed her something else, which is hilarious because I'm not the one who feeds the cats and I've never given them treats or anything, either.

But it's still adorable.

I need to fix my sleep schedule, stat, because staying up until four in the morning every night isn't going to do it when I have a nine-thirty class on Monday.

I'm still vaguely tempted to check class sizes and send a frantic email in asking if it's too late to switch capstones so I'll be free to take that one Japanese culture class to finish my minor, instead of the fourth year language class. But...augh. The capstone I'm signed up for sounds more interesting to me and it's much more relevant with the focus of my major and I've always done well in Japanese even when I'm convinced I'm failing utterly (I seriously have gotten A's in semesters when I was expecting C's), so I should probably stick with what I'm doing.

I'm just afraid it's going to kill me.

Anyone on the friends list who's been on the National Merit scholarship package at OU: do you know if the option to defer your textbook payments to your bursar account holds into your fifth year? I know some parts of the scholarship do and some don't, but this isn't really even part of the scholarship so much as one of those nice little extra perks like early enrollment, so, uh, who knows.

I also have no idea if it's one of those things that requires full time enrollment to take advantage of. Which means I have some emails to fire off. I'm not enrolled full time at the moment, but I will be once I handle the paperwork for my honors research.

And I should get a degree check soon because lol. I don't even remember the number to call to make an appointment for that. Better get on that, too.

And I need to go look into taking my GREs like, yesterday.

dfsjlfdskllk.

WORLD PLZ SLOW DOWN I'M AFRAID OF GROWING UP.










mood; accomplished
music; da vinci's notebook - internet porn


Hell just froze over, apparently, because Oofuri 7 is subbed and we only just got 6. If this is a new trend in the subbing of this series and they're going to start coming in faster, I think I may die of fangirly squee.

I have a new desk, but the screwdriver is being stupid so we can't put it together yet -- Crys is saying she'll pick up new tools on Tuesday because we need them anyway, so I don't have to wait forever, at least. And I have a few sectional storage things to piece together to build my dresser, once I move a few things around in my room to make room for it. I might try to do some of that tonight, even, before I go take my shower. I'm kind of icky right now anyway and I'd rather deal with the crap before I make myself clean and fluffy rather than after.

...should sweep the bathroom now that the washer and dryer are out of the way, too.

The good news is that Crys has her vacation next week, so we have plenty of time to put shit together and get our act in gear before she goes back to work and the rest of us go back to school.










mood; hungry
music; sugarcult - out of phase


There is this huge monstrosity of pasta and meatballs and marinara sauce baking in my oven and I don't know if I can make it half an hour until it's done cooking. 83










mood; accomplished
music; hellogoodbye - touchdown turnaround


I finally got unlazy enough to make a shiny layout for this thing. Say hello to Hibari!

All things considered, it's one of the more lazy layouts I've done, but I think Amano's art is rather conducive to being lazy sometimes, so hey.

I'm not jumping ship and moving over here, but I'm probably going to start crossposting my LJ content here, or at least the more meaningful stuff. (Since the OS X journal clients I'm aware of don't let you crosspost easily like Semagic, there are some entries I might not be arsed on, but we'll see how that goes.)










mood; bored
music; lm.c - boys & girls


Because if I ever get around to finishing making that layout, I'm going to need something in here to fill space and make it look good.

:Db