Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Year 2014 in, Year 2013 out

So, once again, new year is  knocking  on my door.  This year, I will be home, listening to the music and reading good fics.

Short recount of Year 2013 -  hot as hell, bitchy, with wins in fics and fails at school life.  Short and sweet, no?

Okay,  what really happened:

Accredited as a proffesional masseuse, have  certificate to  show for it,  even though  it  chomped almost  all my savings to pay the lessons

Got a  CI surgery done,  still have to  go to the fitting, becasue   there's no  definite hearing yet.

Fell in love with Uta no Prince Sama  (anime) and  it's songs. (The cast was a bonus.  Bonus, I say!)

Discovered  amazing song This Love by Shinhwa and Korean unique humor.  (Seriously, Shinhwa, you are  the best.  Keep being so very entertaining.)

Accredited as a Logistics Engineer, even if I am now  wondering if I was even sane when I had switched the courses.  Seriously, what kind of drug I was on?  (The presentation wasn't the best, though the  amount of written work was honestly massive,  both in writing, editing and so on. Next time, I swear I will write only half as thick of  the first thesis. And yes, this still means some 40  pages. (Actually, 70, but ssshh, nobody has to know.))

Rejected my first job interview on the  basis of not having a haul to the  place they invited me to.  (Regretting it now,  and not regretting it)

Massive work outside -  field, garden and orchard (pack-mule capacity too,)

Worked outside in December in short sleeves and didn't get a cold (but man, I sweated  as if there was  summer! And it was  under  zero!)

Began with the workout -  I swear the trainer is  a sadistic ass, and I am  fooled again and again into doing  push-ups (love-hate relationship with them)

Wrote  some good pieces of  fanfiction, was seen as a total douche bag for  biting  some deserving people to death (metaphorically said),  and got to know some awesome people

Participated in biting to death the  SOPA thing. (I have some  life  indulgences and I am jealously  protecting them)

Posted some of my poems on internet

Suggested a new  law in parliament and was politely rebuffed.

Began to learn French of all  languages (correction,  Mum did, I am  here  as a  auxiliary helper and occasional  homework-writer. Merci, mere. )

Overall  taught Mum  the basics of  working with computer (father too,   along with installing  the needed  programs, and   combating that horrifying  Babylon toolbar -  wised up on this one)

Was up until wee morning  hours almost 365 nights -  okay,  with exception of some 30 or 40.  Certified night owl, and still  grumpy bear when mum bitches at me for my late mornings. only two notable  exceptions when I was  too hyper and consequently  risen at the ungodly hour of  3 at morning.   Dammit, my circadian cycles are  messed up!

Found out our dog  had a  mouth cancer and was delegated as a main cleaner of his mouth. (Eww, yuck)

Did some bloody work - slicing cow livers,  hearts and so on for our darling doggy, along with plucking  feathers from some oversexed chicken (details won't be  discussed). Oh, the joys of living in the country

Hm. Looking at the  list, I  was  relatively good this year, even if I thought I was jobless bum at the time. /head meets desk/

Oh-kay,  I would've  written the list of recommendations and life lessons, but I don't really want to, and I really crave   a smoothie.

So,  for the next  year, theme song:

BACK TO LIFE!

If I ever said "Go Home!"
Everybody here would say "Hell, No!"
All we gotta do is just let go...
We can make it through the night -

'Cause if the party is dead!
All we need is candle light!
And a little bit of dynamite!
Everybody will get out of our way!

(3OH!3, Back to Life)











Monday, October 28, 2013

Doing, doing, doing... done!

So here  we are,  surprisingly unenthusiastic about  getting  the   much-coveted  title  of Logistics Engineer (BA).  Looking back, I  now wonder if   all of it was worth it -  I certainly didn't  get in  much effort  sometimes, so  now I am growling at myself  and wishing I could travel back and  whack myself on the head -  if that would have helped, sure - /snarks/ to get different results.

I am  here, on the crossroads again,  feeling as  if I've lost something,  and gained little.  The  five years of  college, studying  kinds of Math I really  didn't  want to -  sure, they were interesting, but I abhorred the  tests and exams  -   writing  reports,  gathering info, and learning something...  new and  now I am feeling strangely bereft and just  not like  I imagined I would after  finishing the college.  Was it  even worth it? i don't know.  On the one hand, when i am reading requirements  for the jobs,  I don't feel nearly  as prepared as I had though I would have after  finishing the college -  I don't think I would have felt prepared even if  I had  done it  with Magna Cum Laude to boot /sour growl/, but that's  the reality. And  honestly speaking, it  sucks.
Majorly.

 I  feel even more burned  because my presentation and  the work itself didn't get the highest degrees  available -  but  in retrospective,   I  did kind of bungled up the presentation -  but come on, telling  everything in research in measly  ten minutes?  Are they  bonkers  or what?!  /incensed  growl/.  Hells to no.   I am   feeling a little  averted  from  continuing  studying,  because  as much as I am tempted to add the  MA  title, I am  seriously wondering  if  it's even worth it.   You learn, you're tested, you got  graded, and  then you have a paper  that you  can do this and that.  /miffed/.   I  am proud that I  did  my  thesis well - for me, it was two  years of work,  with both successes and pitfalls -   I am wondering what would  they say if  they had known  how much work had gone in  those  140  pages   -  nearly getting a heart attack when  I found out that  part of my  questionnaires - a  very important one -   was missing,   missing the  thesis  because the laptop  decided to be  stubborn and missing  chapters  /exasperated groan/, and let's not even mention the massive amount of translating,   checking the resources and  compiling the whole shebang  so  that it  was a  good  fit  with   everything.   Honestly,  I wanted to howl with injustice.  Yup, still  fuming a little over this.   And   part of  me  balking over the   possible continuation of the study  is  the required  writing of  new thesis.  No, thank  you oh so very much.  I've had it,  and   for now, I  don't even want to do  any kind of serious research.   My  brain  was fried with all  the data  I've  gone through.   But   on the other side,  I know  more about   RFID  than anyone aside the  engineers  that actively  work with this kind of tech.  /grouses/  Fuck it, I knew I  should've  stuck through with my  first college, despite  the  OSL  shit they were  putting us through.

Now I am  here, on the verge of the job search  and still with some regret burning  at the back of my skull.   Whoever  said that  completing  college was  an ecstatic experience, didn't have  a freaking clue.   However,   there's  not many engineers -   especially deaf ones, so I suppose  I should be a lil' bit proud  of myself.

Sooo... What did I learn in those  college years?

Plus side:

  • I became  more independent
  • I learned to  read  bus  chart (needs must, and all that)
  • I learned to navigate through the city
  • Got used  to travel via  rail and bus
  • Learned to do the  project documentation (scary  shit, but   hafta do it anyway)
  • Found out that I enjoy  writing
  • Got addicted to  spicy food (Ramen!  And Pizza!!!)
  • If you  are really   needing a kick,  then T-400  is the right choice (the darn thing  caffeinates you up to your gills and over)
  • College parties are something else
  • Happily  discovered the word of manga 
  • Learned to  work with computer  and it's programs

Minus side:
  •  Money  has to be used  sparingly
  • Knowing when the bus comes doesn't  always mean you will also catch it ( winter  is a  bitch),
  •  Winter is a bitch times two -  no, times infinity.   Still  hate  iced  roads
  •  Roomates  can be  right bitches
  • When  you have   a good idea for story, then you are called for outside work, and  you don't get  chance to complain (living on a countryside is not  a  piece of heaven)
  • Waking up  early  is  someone's  preferred  torture  method (Not. Me. I am  the victim here, ya hear!) Drinking  the T-400  the night before   just compounds the  torture
  • Night owl. Me . 'Nuff  said. 
  • Math  in all  shapes sucks
  • Grammar also sucks
  • OSL sucks the worst.  Honestly, the only torture worse than this is Latin. 
  • Still gotta learn. And learn... and learn. It never ends!!!! /howl/
As  you can see, there's not  much positive mentions  of the  school -  well,  I could exclude   masseuse course -   I was  happier to get that done, than I was   upon  finding out that I  passed the examination for BA  degree /sweatdrops/, even if  I did have to contend with  Anatomy  and  other ickies there.   Hmmm.  I think I lean more toward the informal  education than whatnot, than formal -  being pressed into something is not my  cup of tea,  and I was understandably more interested because I invested my time and money in it -  and just  because the heck of it /snarks/.    I sorely needed the change of scenery  from all that   calculating and writing, so this was a good   change, and I learned  much, even if I disliked Anatomy and  First Aid course  something fierce.

Overall, feeling better after getting that rant  out of my   growly,  grumpy little  soul.

Signing off,

Eirenei

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Pre-tech frenzy

This is  crazy.

Today was  dedicated to the final proofreading  of the thesis before it  gets under the  tech review -   ugh.   Just hope it will survive the onslaught.

Had trouble with my  printer /sour face/, but  it was all well in the end, even if  I will probably   have to print elsewhere if the colors  don't stabilize  - I have some kind of  watered down ones, probably because it  was -  probably  -  in the toner-saver mode.  Too damn  lazy to check it right now, but I am  a very happy camper that at least black  color  is  doing well, because otherwise  the entire document would have gone  to  hell.  I also  got the   permission for my  thesis' theme -  yippee -  even if it is  a little later,  but  honestly the  chapters  eluded me  something  fierce /grumbles/.   We have to giver the  disposition into the reading to out mentor and  chief of  our cathedra,   first,  and this is   can  tear  nerves, because there is checking, re-checking and checking again.  /grumpy/. 

I thank all the gods and angels  for   having a good CD  burner program, because  it  saved me  much time with  burning the entire  thing to CD /sweatdrops/.    It's   duplicate  now, and  when it  will be  the defense, it will be triplicate.   Meaning,   the whoppin' 360 pages, and I shudder to think  about the duplicating the  entire thing when the  defense will be over  and done with.  Papirology  of hell.   I just hope   they will be merciful and absolve the poor shmucks of  the  students of it somehow -   we have  hand tablets for reason, for Pete's  sake.  /growls/.   Would it be too  hard for the  school to buy some three of  six hand tablets  as for using them for this purpose?

Right, right,  rant over.   Cross the fingers  the things  tomorrow will   be well.

Signing off,

Eirenei

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Proofreading Ad(Vices) Times 10

Urrgh.  /groans/. 

If there was ever a day when I felt like a  zombie  slash roadkill  it is this one.  Mandatory visit to the doc,  getting the proofreading paid -  yes,  despite of my nitpicking  I am human  who still has  his   own works to  get checked  if  he wants to  graduate -  it's  some kind of a prerequisite, and boy,  I am glad I did. However,  no one  warns the  idiots who write their thesis that they have to  squirrel away  some   cash to  pay the  proofreader with.  Some prices I've  met in the business  nearly gave me a heart attack, and not in a good sense.  Got a  very good proofreader -  my native tongue  can  be absolute bitch  at times, and even if I  am  fairly literate, I was still  gawping at the amount of mistakes made in the document I've sent to  proofreader. /Twitch/. But  with the amount of   written material it was only too easy to lose  the red  strand of  writing  properly, even if in only  small things like  commas and whatnot.  /glares at the  offending things briefly/.  I am very satisfied with  Alexa's  work -  she is professional and blitzingly fast, when you give her enough time -   I gave her  six days, and  she finished  in four, which is  a  very good time,  considering she had to get through  nearly 120 pages of  techno-babble  and a half. Which means  30  pages per day, and considering  the work requirements, she did  fantastic.

Tips when you  search for  a proofreader:

1) Don't over blow your  thesis.  Really, don't.  The more you  write, the more it will need to be proofread, and the more you will have to pay.  Be short and sweet, but still write enough to appease your mentor.   If you know what  you are talking about, and you  have a good mentor, it's possible to whittle  down some pages  from the required amount.

2) Ask around.  Meaning, ask  your  colleagues and if possible, the  ones who had  already  done their thesis works. Good  recommendation can  save  you one  heck of a lot of  gray hair. However,  a warning -  look around for a proofreader  before  you actually need   him or her, because looking   for them  last minute can result in gray hair,  higher  prices and if you are really unlucky a shoddily  done work from proofreader's  side, becasue  they   just had to  catch the  unreasonable deadline you decided you wanted  your work  back.   it's good if  you begin  to ask  before the beginning of the last year of your study course.

3)  Credentials. It's your decision if you will give  your  work into  proofreading  a person or  company who does this professionally  - but  no matter which one you  take your shine and consequently work to,  always  check  if they have their  credentials.   The persons employed  have to be professors in the  language you write in  -  be that your  mother tongue or any other,  or   professional, credited  proofreaders, and ideally, have some  years of   doing  this  kind of  shtick under their belts.  There's also  a matter of  colleges or universities demanding  a  professional  proofreading, and  believe me, it's  within reason. Unlicensed  proofreaders  are rarely  up to the par to the  work  your  thesis  will put them through, and if you  want  a job to be done well,  check and then choose a professional  you trust  them to  do it  well.  

4) Offers  sifting.  You asked  around  for  proofreaders,  sent them your document and you received -  offers  for  the job to be done on your  precious baby of a thesis. This is like  getting a car to the repair -  every mechanic  states the price and then you  consider pros and cons.  However, the offers are just that -  offers. You are not obliged to pay for anything  until  you  decide  to  really  do your document into proofreading to  one or other  person or company.  Take your time,  consider benefits and drawbacks and find the  balance you are  happy with.

5)Deadline.  The  dreaded  D word.  Make sure  you give your proofreader  enough time to  do  your monster right. /Ahem./  That means you will  have to consider the  deadline you have  and the deadline  to which  your  proofreader can finish  checking your work.   So no  last-minute  deadlines -  try to give the proofreader at least  one to two days of additional time in the whole  deadline deal -  for example,  you  have  a thesis  with 60 pages, document only. The  proofreader  can  do some 15 pages, 20 if  they are pressed, per day, but let's  go with 15.   This means 4 days of work,  you add one more day for reserve -  so your  deadline  is 5 days  total, so  you  will say  5 days and proofreader  will  try to stick with that.  The longer the document is, and  if you  want your proofreader to  edit  document,  you will have to  add more  time to get the work done.   
 

6) Additional  services.   Nowadays proofreaders  also  offer   checking the sources, citing,  editing  the document by standards  of your college or university and so on and so forth.   You can get that price down if you  do those things yourself -  and you  will also learn something,  thought  sometimes  Word   can be pretty  stubborn, but  hey,  just Ask Uncle Google.   Saves a pretty penny too, even if  you will find yourself   sometimes frustrated  over  one  little thing or another.  But if you do decide  for  additional services,  there applies the same rule  as  with price haggling -   get the  final price confirmed in writing, with all the additional  services accounted for.

7)  Downsizing. Yes, you read it right.  There's  no  need to  send  absolutely entire document into checking, as it also amps up the final price.  Just send the document that needs to be checked, without  any  tables of content and  anything else. For example, you have  85 pages, and   if you send only  document,  it cuts it down on 64. Pretty sweet, no?

8) Price haggling. Usually,  the  prices are already fixed,  but  if you choose  a  proofreader -  instead of company -  you can still  haggle the price.  Be prepared to barter.  Yes, the entire  experience is terrifying at first, but if you do your document  well, with minimal  grammatical errors and  give  your  proofreader  enough time  to check it over,   the price you two  can come up with can be pretty  reasonable. However, a warning - agree to the price  before  giving the  document into  proofreading, both  sides, so there won't be any misunderstanding about payment later.  The written confirmation is the best, because it counts  as a contract.

9) Checking  the  works.  This is the time  that  warms the cockles of your heart. Or it should have been, at any rate.   Before  you pay the piper, check the piper's work.   Do make an agreement that the  proofreader send you a part of the document  upon the finishing  the  proofreading so you can check over their  work.  Better to be safe than sorry, and if there are any misunderstandings, that they are  solved before  concluding the  transaction -  i.e. putting  the money in their hands.

10)  Do your job.   You got the  proofread document back,  so what now?  Get through the  whole  thing  and check the changes, and  either reject or accept them.  Yes, it is  a dull job, but it's the only one  that really guarantees   your   thesis or research  work will  be  worth both of the time and  money you  put it in.

Whew.  I think I completely railroaded from my intentional  theme, but oh well.  What did I  want to  write  about already? /confused/

Well,  hopefully  this  little tidbit  will be useful for anyone  reading it.

Signing off,

Eirenei



Monday, August 26, 2013

SOPA Idiocy Continues



Well, guys,  today we have an excellent topic to  chew through.   When I  woke up  I didn't think I would  have an email in my inbox  by one of my fellow  writers  warning me about SOPA.   For  those who don't know what SOPA is, it's Stop Online Piracy Act, for more information, look it up on Wikipedia.  God forbid I  should be accused of  stealing intellectual property. /snarks/ And  while we are at Wikipedia,  surely  you guys remember the blackout  day (or night) on January 18th to 19th last year (2012). The Wikipedia staff  blackouted  site in protest of  the  irrational  piece  of legislature  that is SOPA.

The thing is, SOPA is a bane for the  writers  and  artists, even scientists  and researchers  everywhere. Why, you ask?   Because it has severe case of mine-itis,  meaning   it  directly tell you you shouldn't   play with  your  neighbor's toy, even is he or she allowed it. In terms of fanfiction, it means  you could be kicked into  jail just for  writing an oneshot  from... well, say  Bleach, Naruto  or  Harry Potter, hell, let's  add  One Piece  and Fairy Tail to the  bunch, and  don't even mention the multitude of movies and songs  and  whatnot.  Youtube  primarily  houses   the  vids made from  animes and if you recall, it also has vids with lyrics for  the  songs -  I find them  very useful, as I am deaf, and  it's really hard to listen to the   song   without  having  a text along.   Random  song  sites are  good  too, because I can find  lyrics and then save them for a later perusal if I am in hurry.  Hell, even my  thesis and research work  stem   -  because of the  topic  difficulty  and  because I couldn't  find the  research material in  paperback editions – primarily  from internet sources. 

If the SOPA comes in effect, it would shut down the  information  venues mighty quick, just because the  unfortunate schmuck  had to  use the outside sources.  For example, you are writing a research paper on... shall we say, World War 2, and  you found a very interesting site  with  plethora of  useful  data. You are all excited, you get to writing and  really,  your  paper is just a thing of  beauty -  and then, bam, the  cops are at your  door with – 'Dear Sir/Madam  you are guilty of  illegal use of content of this and that site, so would you kindly  go with us to the  jail?   Don't worry, it's only for five or six years. ' What a kind  reception of your work. You should  be jumping  to the ceiling with happiness.... Not. 

You know what that means? The cops would have to arrest  everyone -  from the  primary, to  middle and high schoolers to the students and researchers at the universities because they are using sources without the owner's  agreement -  never mind that we students and researchers have to submit the electronic  copies of our  written work -  thesis and  so  on  for the public perusal, along with slaving over the exact citing of the sources. We rely on our colleagues' research to  get our own  work wiggling and there are not few examples it basically saved our asses when we didn't  know  something. If  we extrapolate  it  further, we  would be  forbidden to   teach the kids  how to  read and write  because oh, no, SOPA forbid it!  An extreme example and  probably won't ever come to fruition, but it's a terrifying possibility. What is the use of  education and knowledge if  we can't (responsibly)  use it for  the betterment of our world?  Go chuck us back in the stone ages, why don't you, pal. 

The worst thing is,  the act like this would have  global ramifications -  just because  we would have to use  a work from an American author, we could be  possibly fined and thrown in jail, no matter our  very pure an innocent  intentions to begin with.   You could  be in  Hong Kong, Sri Lanka,  Netherland, New Zealand, Germany -  any country, and   with  using  the  American author  in your  masterpiece you would  unknowingly   became a felon.  Because  SOPA is  just so misty-worded like this and  it can be -  with a help of  a hell of a  good lawyer -  act like a hammer on our heads.   And consider the  next thing - in entertainemnt,  there  we have Japan, who  also uses ... free  creative license, in the shape of doujinshis -  douijinshi is a manga  drawn by other  artists using the  original characters from another anime.  Not a very good definition,   but let's go with this one, because it would help  with illustrating our point.  So, we have dudes and dudettes who  have  a bright idea that story could be done  differently and  do their thing.  Does anyone complain? No.(Well, except the hard-core admirers of some animes but that's another point altogether)  They  live ever-happily together, and if the  said doujinshi is good, all the better.  DeviantArt is another site that  houses not only original works, but many   pictures  of scenes or  characters from  the movies, video spots or games and mangas. Without them, the place would be very, very bleak.  Additionally, the sites that house anime and manga content would be wiped out. All the hard work of  translators, typesetters, quality checkers and editors would be for naught. Imagine  yourself buying a  book, translating it for  your fellow  fans or colleagues  and then happily uploading it on the 'net, only to  find out  that not only it was taken down, because it was illegal work to begin with – even if you credited the  author and  all -  you even face the nice jail time for your  generous act.  By that logic they should have to arrest the entirety of  Google staff for inventing Google  Translator.  Which is equally absurd.

SOPA is an idiotic, irrational piece of legislature that was written primarily for the benefit of the entertainment  industry, without taking in the account both global and  subcultural ramifications of  actually passing the act. Entertainment industry  depends on the masses of people, and this act is a  sure fire way of slitting its throat. The industry is dependent on people, their likes and dislikes  of their products  - and believe it or not,   some of the main sources are  actually fan-generated, from fans to  prospective fans that interest them in particular movie,  book and whatnot,  and not even once the fans claim it's exclusively their work to begin with -  they always mention  the  source -  Iron Man movie, Chronicles of Narnia  book,  the Star Wars soundtrack, the list goes on -  they only  want to be credited for their own work, be that vids,  remakes or  stories.  They are practically the sixth  force of this industry,  and  SOPA  seeks to cull it down,  punishing them when they  should  actually be rewarded -  some of the works outside are  works of art, and the  artists who  created them more often than not,  don't see a dime  from  it's creating -  they pour in their sweat,  blood and tears,  even exceeding the  original work,  and  for what?  To be spit on by SOPA, just because they had an itch in their fingers to create something?   This is  just like  punishing a kid  who finished  his  daddy's  jigsaw  for  touching it.  Instead of  looking at the kids' accomplishment, you are angry  the kid didn't leave the jigsaw the hell alone, all  thousand pieces of it, even if it wasn't touched for days.  So, time out corner in jail,  then. 

There is protection of the  copyrights and there is  abusing the  said protection of the copyrights. SOPA is firmly leaning  toward  the latter one,  and I don't condone  that.  Not as a fan, not  as a scholar, not as a researcher.  I was born with the ability to  think and  write,  and  SOPA  doesn't have the right to take them away.  You do that, you will have to strip  millions of students and doctors worldwide of their degrees  because they violated the copyrights  when they cited the findings of their  fellow colleagues in their works or arrest the musicians for using that particular  (and well known) song arrangement  and throw the movie directors in jail just because they  made a parody of a well known movie.  

With that said, I need you, people -  readers, writers,  musicians,  artists,   students, scientists -  everyone, to help  to overthrow the  SOPA  legislation.  I need your voices -  I want them to speak up and  say  stop to the  mindless  encroaching on  our creativity, our freedom of  expression . I want you to  stand up  and  say it is enough.   We  are not mindless  slaves of the entertainment industry -  if anything,  we are the  contributors, patrons, co-artists, and  its  greatest  supporters. 

Stand up! Speak up!  Lend  us your voice!  Let  yourself be heard!  Let's stop SOPA together!

Join me  with gathering signatures at  the petition  site.  It doesn't matter if you are an American or not -  every signature  counts and the more  we have,  the  greater the chance SOPA will be ended  for good.
Thank you and have a nice day, 

Eirenei

PS:  The petition is available at this site https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-sopa-2013/LMzMVrQF  

 The  reading material for  the curious about SOPA - 

Unathorized  Streaming a Felony


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Back To Life

Yipes, time flies when you have fun and work meshed together.   August is  nearing it's end, and   really,   I  almost didn't notice,  except  for sun up  sun down and   carrying milk home /sweatdrops/.

Finished another chapter of Fire And Ice,  another -  Crimson Sagittarius -  in works, and biting my thesis to death -  yay,  it will be finished soon,  but I pity the poor  sod  who will have to get through it in search of information -  oh  wait, that poor sod is me /double sweatdrop/.  I am surprised  the  chapter was so well-received,  but happy, and it makes my  fingers itch to write some more.

Oh, and  besides having new plotbunnies for Uta no Prince-Sama,  I got  into  Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on the Titans) and I gotta say,  this new obsession will probably spawn  some more projects to write out /cringes/.  Hells  bells,  this  will be a wild ride, but when it isn't? /snarks/.  And while we are at that, I discovered  a beautiful  vid on Youtube -  it's superb, because  it  has  very good pictures  and the song just  lodged itself in my  brain.  I was  up half  a night  to listen to this, and   even if I was half-dead at morning, when  I  had to  go to work,  it was fucking worth it /mad grin/.  It also helped  my interest in Levi Rivaille and his dog - ahem,  protege, Eren Jaeger a little too much. /chagrined smile/ .  And I will definitely look up 3OH!3 more, because their song, "Back To Life"  was one of the best I've heard yet. 

Yup, rambling.   And  now signing off... milk waits for no man.

 See ya soon,

Eirenei


Monday, July 22, 2013

CI musings

Well, hell.

First thing first -   sorry for  not updating.   Had a heckload of work to get through first, most notably finishing my thesis (Wheee!),   getting through  fieldwork and being addicted to Uta no Prince-Sama.

/Head meets  desk/.   I didn't update in  what it seems to be  a forever right now /sweatdrops/, even if I do write. But thesis work was a  monstrous project - 2 years of  work,  and  130  pages and  don't  even  start me on editing the darn thing.   After I finished the  paper monster of epic proportions, I was  so  wrung out I   couldn't  churn  out one decent  sentence,   and story  was a no-no.   I did   send  an application for a  job and  I hope  to  get it, because it was right up my venue, but  we'll see.    Fields was  more or less  conserving the  veggies,  cleaning the fields of the  weeds -  gawd, you wouldn't believe just how much  weed-clutter can  gather in  one measly  garden, but it's  true nonetheless -  and generally made myself useful here  and  there.

Uta no Prince-Sama  is an anime   that grabbed my  attention because it  was  harem-based /yup, shameless/,   it   had interesting twist  and  there was  music.   Although I do admit I likes  some elements from manga better than from anime -   in fact,  the leading lady,  Nanami Haruka   doesn't seem to  progress  much  through the series,  while the boys  solve their little troubles  via her help. Sure, she does have some of her  moments, but   still, it could've been better.    However, it was worth watching anime, because I got a plethora of new songs to listen to, and the  cast's antics  were hilarious. Kurusu Syo - the  short (don't call him that, or else /reminded of a certain Fullmetal  shrimp/)  blonde  was especially  funny, what with his...  diminutive - -ahem -  stature and his  quick temper,  not to mention  how easily he  was baited by Shinomiya  Natsuki (the  green-eyed  bipolar roommate),  be that in the past or present.   While we are at  Natsuki,  I gotta admit I love  his alter-ego,  Satsuki, if only   because of the  song  Orion de SHOUT OUT,  because  it  reflects me  just as well.    Bipolar people  for the win! /evil grin/.  Jinguuji Ren (blond-haired,  blue-eyed  sex -   ahem, I mean saxophonist)   also has a good   song :  Sekai no Hate Believe Heart,  but   Satsuki just grabbed me with his intensity.   Ichinose  Tokiya,  alias  HAYATO, called   unfeeling  perfiectionist,  interested me with the  Nanairo no COMPASS , and because he's  a  tsundere to the  end of the   universe and back /snarks, amused/, His other song, BELIEVE☆MY VOICE, is also wonderful, because it's so sensual.  I would have expected that from  playboy  Ren, but   Tokiya was a total  surprise.   Ittoki Otoya,  redheaded puppy  of the group  was  cute, and his  beginning song,  was  also  a great one -  hard to believe that  he could come up with the lyrics  for BRAND NEW MELODY  just on the fly,  but   if he was infatuated,   I can... somehow.   And I like  him for ruffling  Tokiya's  feathers -  them being   roommates is just a  bonus.  Hijirikawa Masato, the  singing samurai,   also enchanted me  with his song Knocking on the mind, even if  he  is  so old-fashioned it  hurts  Otoya's brain and he has some kind of a phobia   with embracing a  female.   In a bid  to help him to get prepared for audition,  Tokiya had  played a woman -   kimono and all -   and that still didn't help -  but gotta admit  Tokiya was a superb player in that one,  even if  I do find  his HAYATO  alter ego   annoying.   And then,  Cecil Aijima.   His song to Haruka was simply enchanting -  I liked the melody  of Eternity Love, even if it  was a bit cheesy  at the times.  But  I love  cheesiness, so, this is  a  plus /sheepish grin/.   As  for writing,  I am seriously  contemplating  to  write   a harem story  again   and this   colourful  cast of characters  could prove    a challenge, because they  are  so different   from each other they literally  make a rainbow  when  matched together /snarks/, but   while we are  at that, I seriously  can't  see them in  homoerotic  relationships.  They   give  off too  strong  vibe of a friendship, and while I admire  fanfiction writers that dared   to tread  in those waters with  those characters,  I personally  can't see myself  attempting something like  that.   Which is strange, because    with Bleach, it's everything goes,   but   here, when  the  boys are  like that.... kind of awkward and  likable, with  well-developed backgrounds, I sort of don't want to deviate  from the   main storyline.

As for  CI -  was frustrated because  even if it's   a month  already,  no  sound yet.    Some buzzing,  squeakin'  bats in ear, but nothing else.   Today I also had a fitting, and   the doc said I just have to  be patient.  I   wanted to say  screw patience,   because i waited long enough, but  even I know  there are some things that can't be hurried up no matter  how you wish them  to be.  Until then, I will be entertained by   new  songs and  making new stories -  gota get some of my  old projects  kickstarted up again, before   the cog  wheels in my  brain rust too much to get them going. 

And   while   we  are at it, there is an excerpt from one  of  my  pet projects,    a  crossover  between KoF and  Harry Potter.   Yup,   went   to the  dark side.   /nods self-importantly/  Happy  reading!