Things to read

First off:

Books of 2009, as of 27 December
1. Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil - Inga Muscio
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
3. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
4. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Opposite of Fate - Amy Tan
7. The Joy-Luck Club - Amy Tan
8. The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
9. Takarazuka (Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan) - Jennifer Robertson
10. The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan
11. The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
12. Cunt - Inga Muscio
13. Beyond Heaving Bosoms (The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels) - Sarah Wendell, Candy Tan
14. Killing Rage - bell hooks
15. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
16. Polite Lies - Kyoko Mori
17. Looking for the Lost (Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan) - Alan Booth
18. Lost Japan - Alex Kerr
19. Geisha: A Life - Mineko Iwasaki
20. Women of the Pleasure Quarters - Lesley Downer
21. The Faded Sun Trilogy - C.J. Cherryh [it's an omnibus, so I'm counting it as one]
22. The Loved Dead - H.P. Lovecraft
23. Idoru - William Gibson
24. Looking for Jake - China Mieville [a volume of short fiction]
25. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. Dune - Frank Herbert
27. World War Z - Max Brooks

Now I'm on to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clark. It's a long book, so I'll probably be at it for a week at least. It's sort of alternate history meets fantasy, which I love: 19th century England with magic, more or less. I've only just started, so I don't have an opinion yet, but I think it'll be a fun read. And, if you like zombies at all, read World War Z because it's awesome. It's written as an oral history of the zombie apocalypse - interviews with and first hand accounts from people who survived it (soldiers, politicians, normal people, etc.). Brilliant stuff.

Outside of the realm of books, but still related, I've fallen deeply, passionately in love with two web comics. I wasn't into web comics for a long time, to be perfectly honest, but recently I stumbled across a couple and started reading and am now completely engrossed and waiting for them to pick back up now that Christmas is past.

The first one is Trying Human. It's a sci-fi romance predominantly about a woman who gets abducted by aliens (who look sort of like stereotypical UFOs) and eventually falls in love with one of them. Then there are subplots, mostly about other attempts at inter-species romance. The title comes from this thing the second alien species in the comic (reptilian) have, the Trying Human circuit, which lets the alien wearing it take on the appearance of a human. So, if you like sci-fi, it updates every Monday and Thursday.

The second one is Beauty and the Beast. As I'm sure you've guessed by the title, it's a retelling of the fairy tale, with a somewhat unusual take on the story and great art (very distinctive and nothing like the Disney film). The Beauty character is a little too perfect, but considering the nature of the story, it's forgivable. This one updates 5 days a week.

Yes, it's Christmas break, which means it's time to catch up on my reading.

Almost Done

First of all: I will be back in Seattle December 20 (that's next Sunday, for the record). Actually, I might be back Saturday night, but I'm getting a ride from Alex like usual, so it depends on whether he wants to leave after his last final on Saturday, or wait till Sunday morning. I'll be around till mid-January (like, the 16th or 17th), so if you want to hang out (and why wouldn't you? I mean, seriously), we can definitely work that out.

I'm also getting my wisdom teeth extracted at some point, because one of them has been actually causing on and off pain since, oh, October, but awesomeness needs to go down around my first ever experience with dental surgery.

Actually, speaking of my wisdom teeth and pain, how lame is it that I don't have dental coverage outside of the state of Washington? I was so mad when I learned that a couple months ago. I am in pain (minor and not all the time, but still) and I can't deal with it until I leave Oregon for more than a couple of days.

Putting all that aside, it is cold in Salem. And I don't mean cold like 'maybe I should wear an extra sweater today,' I mean cold, like 'oh, wow, my arm just snapped off and shattered like an icicle on the floor.' We're reaching such blistering high temperatures as 28 degrees during the day and it's getting down to the low teens at night (it's 18 degrees right now). Salem is almost never this cold. The stream running through campus actually froze last night. To make matters worse, my apartment has 1920s windows with no insulation, so there is a constant draft. And, just to add insult to injury, it's really dry, so I'm getting little annoying nosebleeds about 5 times a day and there's not even any snow to make up for the suffering.

So:

Dear Oregon Weather Gods,

If you're going to subject me to painful cold, the least you could do is throw in some snow to make me feel better. This whole dry cold thing? Yeah, I don't approve.

No love,
Me

And, just to close up another of my habitual all-over-the-place blog entries, tomorrow and Friday are Christmas in Hudson Hall (the big Christmas program the choir department does every year - readings and carols and... stuff), classes end on Friday, my only finals are next Thursday and Friday, which means I have plenty of study time should I need it, Annie and I are hosting a Christmas party on Saturday, and I am all but counting the hours until this term ends. So burned out. So ready for Christmas and relaxing for a few weeks.

Actually, I'm ready for it to be May. Graduation is looking pretty good right now.

Sci-Fi Nerd Post Ahead

Okay, so it's no secret that I love science-fiction. The novel I'm still writing for NaNoWriMo¹ is sci-fi, my favourite TV show of all time is Babylon 5, my favourite novel is Dune, and I've watched at least some of every incarnation of Star Trek (my favourites are The Original Series and Deep Space Nine). It's probably safe to say, in fact, that sci-fi is my favourite genre. So, I want to take a moment to talk about Star Trek. Not the new movie, which I can enjoy as long as I pretend it has nothing to do with any other Star Trek and overlook the plot holes big enough to drive the Enterprise through, because I've already discussed my issues with it and more or less moved on. No, I want to talk about the fact that, in all these years, they still haven't had queer people and the few times they've come close, they've managed to cop-out at the last minute.

DS9 is an easy example of where they totally could have gone there... and didn't. You see, right at the very beginning of Season 1 the character Garak is introduced. He comes up to Doctor Bashir, introduces himself and proceeds to hit on him in a slightly sketchy way for the duration of their short conversation. It's totally there. In fact, it was supposed to be. Andrew Robinson, the actor who played Garak, has said so. However, the show's producers saw that first meeting and told him he was playing the character too gay and needed to knock it off. The hitting on Bashir thing doesn't totally go away, and Garak gets all the best lines, but it does lighten up and I'm pretty sure the fact that Garak and Bashir have fewer conversations as the show progresses is due largely to the fact that there was a lot of chemistry that could be easily interpreted as flirting. Then, because Andrew Robinson is awesome, he wrote a Garak novel (there are a lot of Star Trek novelisations, if you live under a rock without used bookstores and hadn't noticed) that says straight up that Garak is bisexual. Lovely man, Andrew Robinson.

They also almost went in the queer-friendly direction in Enterprise. Originally, one of the officers (I don't remember which one, I'm not a huge fan of this series) was supposed to be gay and there were going to be little nods to it like references to a past relationship and whatnot. It wasn't going to be a focus, or an issue within the show, just a positive inclusion of a queer character. Then they decided not to, gave him an ex-wife or something like that, and ditched the whole thing. And that annoys me so much. Just... fail. So much fail. Babylon 5 went there back in the mid-90s, with a lesbian sub-plot for part of the series, because JMS is bad ass and does things like that (the Pope is also a woman), but out of all the Star Trek series and films and novels (except Andrew Robinson's), no one will include a visible queer character anywhere.

I still love DS9 and TOS, and Voyager and TNG are also awesome (Enterprise is so-so), but it bothers me that they could pretty easily take that one step and just won't do it. I hold out hope, though, that one day they will.

Related, but on a different note, if I look half as fierce as Nichelle Nichols when I'm in my 70s, I'll be ecstatic. And, if you watch TOS, you'll notice that Uhura's legs are in the background of so many shots on the bridge. I'm pretty sure they framed shots specifically so her legs would be visible, even when she has nothing to do with the interaction in the foreground. I'm serious.

I'll just go back to rewatching B5 (albeit slightly out of order, because I wanted to watch The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father and that's from season 5) and keep my fingers crossed that Star Trek will get with it.

But first, I need to go turn in my application to graduate. That'd be a smart thing to do.

---

¹ National Novel Writing Month. I wrote 50,204 words between November 1 and 29, winning the challenge with one day to spare, but the novel is still only 2/3 of the way through. I'll get there eventually.

Almost registration time

As in, I can register for my final semester of classes tomorrow at 9:30PM. I met with the head of the department the other day (because I no longer have an adviser - long story) to discuss my classes and she ended up talking me into taking a full course load. I don't have to - I need exactly one class to graduate - but she told me that I shouldn't let myself graduate without taking a class with Ricardo de Mambro Santos, so I'm going to take one of his art history classes.

Anyway, this is the class breakdown for my last semester:

.Humanities 497: Paradise Lost Seminar
.English 456: Apocalyptic Literature
.Politics 374: Asia and the International System
.Art History 263: Baroque and Neoclassical

Paradise Lost is the equivalent of my thesis. Since I decided not to write an independent thesis (English majors here don't have to), I'm taking the humanities seminar instead. It's taught by Hobgood, one of my favourites, and I'm really looking forward to it. Actually, I'm really looking forward to all of them - Apocalyptic lit sounds amazing, I like international politics and the professor teaching that course, and de Mambro Santos is apparently one of the awesomest professors on campus. I'll also continue Voce, of course, which will mean I'll have been in a Willamette choir every semester I've been on campus. I just hope Christine comes back. I miss her.

And... yeah, a little less than six months till graduation. Craziness. My JET application was mailed off on Friday, I've decided to apply for an internship at the Carnegie Endowment in DC because it would be very cool (not getting my hopes up, but it can't hurt to apply, right?), and I've basically settled into a general plan of applying for whatever catches my interest because the worst that can happen is they say no.

Oh, and I'm supposed to take the GRE sometime this year, to get it out of the way. I'm excited about that, let me tell you.

I'm just glad this semester's almost over, really. I'm tired of math, tired of biology labs, and Victorian Poetry is not my favourite class ever. I am more than ready for my last semester, filled with classes I actually want to take. But it's almost Thanksgiving, which means home with my family and my dog, and then very soon after that it's Christmas. I've made it this far, I can definitely handle the last three and a half weeks.

Long time no post

October has been a crazy ass month. I'm so happy it's almost over, you don't even know.

To recap, at the beginning of the month Yasu died and the university held a memorial service, which I attended. Then I got sick. In fact, I started getting sick the day of the memorial service and it just kept getting worse. Monday, I was told that I had a virus and should stay home for a couple of days. It started getting better on Tuesday, then got massively worse on Wednesday, so I dragged myself back out to see the nurse. Turns out it's flu. In fact, turns out it's swine flu. So I spent the rest of the weak utterly miserable and sicker than I've been in years. It sucked and I missed a full week of class and had ridiculous catch up to do.

But I survived, got an A on my second math exam (no idea how, considering I only studied for an hour and a half before giving up, but I'm not complaining), wrote a crap paper about Browning's "Caliban upon Setebos" (but apparently everyone sucked, because the professor is making all of us come in separately for private meetings about the sort of analysis he's looking for - at least I have a reason my paper was terrible), and my two biology quizzes weren't too bad.

Unfortunately, Voce, which should be a nice constant because I love choir, is also problematic right now because Christine had to take an emergency leave of absence for the rest of the semester. Something happened to her son, involving brain damage, so she's taking time off to help take care of him. We're all really worried about her, and this is all totally understandable, but it resulted in us being handed over to Dr. Long, the head of the choral department and conductor of Chamber Choir. I have some issues with DL, and have for quite some time, mostly related to the condescending way he talks to Voce, like we're little kids who shock him every time we perform well. It really gets on my nerves. But he's a very good conductor and the only other concert this term is Christmas in Hudson Hall, which is his big program, so it was going pretty well. In fact, after two weeks I'd made peace with the fact that we were going to be working with him and, while I seriously miss Christine, it was cool.

Then the university powers that be decided that DL can't have that additional 5 hours a week. So, they brought in an outside conductor to work with us Mondays and Wednesdays, with DL keeping our Friday rehearsal. It's... interesting. And so far from ideal it's ridiculous.

I'm just praying Christine's son makes a good recovery and she's able to come back. If we're stuck with a situation like this next semester, I'll cry.

In happier news, I've figured out what I'm doing for Halloween - there's a group of people going up to northern Portland to this sort of Halloween theme park, with all ages trick-or-treating and rides and haunted houses and other awesome things. And I'm going as Lucheni, from Elisabeth. It's an easy costume and my love for Takarazuka is well-established, so it's perfect.

In case you're not sure on character names, Lucheni is the one in the black and white striped shirt:



I would totally go as Der Tod, except that costume would be crazy difficult to put together. Lucheni is doable.

Oh, also? The fact that everyone who's watched my Elisabeth DVD thinks Mizu is ridiculously hot both amuses me and makes me happy. It's like proof that it's not just me.

It's been a long week

It started off pretty normal, stress and quizzes and the upcoming choir concert for parents and family weekend, but got really bad really fast when, on Wednesday at about a quarter to five, an email went out to the campus that a TIUA student, Yasuyuki Sampei, died that morning. Yasu was my friend, even though I hadn't seen him much since last semester, and it managed to get just that much worse when the report from the medical examiner came back and confirmed that he'd killed himself.

So now, rather than just have a chill weekend with my mum and sister, I'm also going to a memorial service on Sunday. Yasu's parents, who TIUA brought from Japan, gave the university permission to have a service more or less as we see fit. I'm grateful for that, as are a lot of us, because they didn't have to that, but it's very kind. It's going to be open-casket, which will be difficult, but good in a way, too. We need the closure. I personally am not planning to speak, but two of my friends are - Alex as a Willamette student, and Atsushi as a TIUA - and it's finally set in that, yes, this really happened. At the meeting at TIUA today, which a few of us WU students went to because we're part of this, too, a lot of people, including the dean of students, broke down, and that was what really drove it home. When I went up to check in with Lorenzo, the TIUA coordinator, I finally started properly crying, too, rather than tearing up and stopping myself, and he and I hugged for about two solid minutes. It helped more than I thought it would.

And that's where things stand. The loud, outgoing, outrageously funny guy who came with us to Genderfunk dressed in Annie's lolita skirt and a blonde wig, who made up a long, nonsensical version of happy birthday for me last year (complete with air microphone), who would shout my name from a block away and wave like a lunatic just so he could say hi, who carried a camera everywhere and took awesome pictures, is gone.

I'm glad I knew him, even if things ended like this. He was a really great guy.

JET To-Do List

• Ask Bette and Gale for letters of recommendation
• Ask Christine for letter of recommendation
• Send/give letter of recommendation form to Bette, Gale and Christine
• Send physician's form to Dr Zhou
• Fill out self-assessment medical form
• Write Statement of Purpose
• Request official transcript
• Request JSP transcript
• Request registrar's letter verifying my graduation date
• Fill out application
• Copy pages 1 and 2 of passport
  
• Make 2 copies of everything and send it all to DC by 24 November
  

It's on now. I'll be sending the forms out today and tomorrow, so I will be confident about the whole getting-them-back-soon thing, and then I move on to everything else. I like keeping to-do lists going - it's very satisfying to cross things off as I complete them.

And so it begins

The JET application is supposed to go up online today. It doesn't seem to be up yet and if I don't see it today, I'll call the consul in Seattle tomorrow (I default to Seattle because I'm a Washington resident and that's the consul I've always dealt with). Someone there will know what I need to do and, anyway, it's not like I've never called and harassed them before. My JET to-do list is massive and daunting (and everything must be in triplicate, because Japan is like that), and I have about seven weeks to complete all of it. But I can't start anything until I have the forms, which is why they have till tomorrow to get everything up online before the annoying 'yo, what the hell' phone calls begin.

If JET doesn't, for whatever reason, work out (though I have some qualifications that should give me at least a bit of an edge, so I'm tentatively optimistic), all hope is not lost and I have other avenues I can pursue. But it would be so nice if this just would be it. JET people, you better hire me, because I am awesome and deserving of a job.

Just saying.

While I'm on the Japan subject:

Dear Economy Gods,

Please to be returning the exchange rate to something nearing my favour before I leave the country again. Right now it's 84 yen to the dollar, which in terms of buying power means Japan is owning us. Last August it was 103 yen to the dollar and I was happy. This 84 yen thing? Not Cool.

Peace out,
Me

By the way, according to Yahoo!Finance, it's ¥89.87 to the dollar and, while that may be true in theory, in practice it's a lie. No one is ever trading as high as Yahoo!Finance says they are.

Also, I'm onto another book (The Difference Engine by William Gibson in collaboration with someone else - steampunk this time around, and awesome). Book number 24 for 2009. So I know I will have made it at least half-way through my intended 50, because I will definitely read at least one more book after this. That's pretty sweet, considering how crazy everything is these days. I'm also on internet restriction again, because I acquired a couple of Asian horror movies (one, Alone, is Thai and about the surviving half of a pair of conjoined twins getting haunted by her dead sister (or something), and the other, Kwaidan, is Japanese and classic). I've been meaning to see Kwaidan forever - it's from the '60s and is four stories based on old legends/folk tales, and it's supposed to be really good. So sometime soon, we'll have to have an Asian horror night.

Finally, since I never actually talked about this semester's camping trip up in the Cascades (can't say where - it's sort of protected and most people aren't allowed to go there), have a picture. It was raining and cold and we got soaked through on our hike up to this cliff, but the lake was still gorgeous.

Such a beautiful place, even in the rain.

ETA: My media blog actually has 6 whole entries in it now! With some variety and everything! Now to remember to update it more than once a month. That'd be pretty awesome.

Somewhere on the outside

First of all, time to update that books list I've sporadically been keeping. My reading has slowed down again with the onset of classes, but there are still additions since July. Go me?

Books of 2009, as of 27 September:
1. Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil - Inga Muscio
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
3. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
4. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Opposite of Fate - Amy Tan
7. The Joy-Luck Club - Amy Tan
8. The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
9. Takarazuka (Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan) - Jennifer Robertson
10. The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan
11. The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
12. Cunt - Inga Muscio
13. Beyond Heaving Bosoms (The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels) - Sarah Wendell, Candy Tan
14. Killing Rage - bell hooks
15. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
16. Polite Lies - Kyoko Mori
17. Looking for the Lost (Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan) - Alan Booth
18. Lost Japan - Alex Kerr
19. Geisha: A Life - Mineko Iwasaki
20. Women of the Pleasure Quarters - Lesley Downer
21. The Faded Sun Trilogy - C.J. Cherryh [it's an omnibus, so I'm counting it as one]
22. The Loved Dead - H.P. Lovecraft
23. Idoru - William Gibson

So, hey, I'm up to 23, which isn't bad at all, given how much I have going on most of the time. As you can probably see, there are some trends in my reading this year, a couple of repeat writers, some similar themes. I get mini-obsessions every so often and my reading habits definitely reflect that. Although the Japanese studies thing is more of a long-term interest that just got a lot of attention this past summer. I'm on a William Gibson kick right now.

In other news, I met my language partner, Keisuke, and he's very, very pretty. Also, unfortunately, the variety of Japanese person I can have a bit of trouble conversing with. Very quiet and subdued, leaving me to do most of the talking. So it was an okay meeting, the work got done and he was definitely easy on the eyes, but I'm hoping he'll warm up to me a little, or subsequent meetings are going to be a little bland.

All of that aside, I've been crazy busy lately. My Writing Center job resulted in having to meet all 14 of my freshmen about their first paper, over the course of several days. It made for a very long week, let me tell you. It was interesting in a way, figuring out what they're interested in (or not interested in) based on what aspects of the film they paid attention to, and also getting to know them a little bit in general. One kid is kind of an asshole, with that hipster 'I'm too cool for this' attitude. But he lost the argument we had over structure, which made me smile because he totally thought he could BS me, and overall they're pretty cool kids. So, really, so far so good on the job front.

And, as a final note in this scattered blog entry, tonight Annie and I (plus Alex, as often happens) ate left-over spaghetti (really left-over, as in we originally made it over two weeks ago) with a side of mushrooms from the Saturday market that we sauteed in butter and garlic. It was delicious and wonderful and we were very happy because we like good food. Then we went to watch a few episodes of Avatar (yes, that cartoon that ran on Nickelodeon - it's better than you think)... and forgot to turn the burner off. So the sauce we'd been keeping warm while we ate ended up sitting over low heat for, oh, an hour too long while we were in Annie's bedroom at the back of the apartment. So now my kitchen smells kind of like overcooked lasagna, and a burnt sauce-encrusted pot is soaking in the sink. But on the plus side, the spaghetti's finally gone!

I need to start keeping a log of Alexis and Annie's Domestic Adventures. We're pretty awesome.

I can be a bit of a fangirl, yes

I finally, despite having had it on my faithful external hard drive for some time now, watched the Takarazuka La Mariposa. It's Snow Troupe, starring my most loved Mizu Natsuki, and it takes place in some unnamed Latin American country complete with a song or two in Spanish. It also features a possibly unprecedented number of scenes with Mizu in a fierce suit looking pimp. So, really, how could it not be awesome? It doesn't have a ton of music, unlike the big Zuka shows like Elisabeth, so it's very dialogue-heavy, which could make it difficult for a non-Japanese speaker to follow. Except it's so full of sexy and Takarazuka-ified machismo that it'd probably be enjoyable regardless. It also has a plot!

In brief, Nero, a night club owner, smuggles political prisoners out of his unnamed Latin American country, and does other smuggling operations to fund hospitals and such. He and his friend Escobar do this because, apparently, they were part of a revolutionary group that failed. Anyway, Nero teams up with a plantation owner, then falls in love with the plantation owner's daughter, Selia. Selia's brother then clumsily aids an assassination attempt made on the president. Turns out he's part of a rebel group and he goes missing. While this is going down, there's a mobster from Miami just sort of around trying to do business with Nero, an American journalist hangs out annoying people, and finally a showdown happens. The end.

How's that for some summarising skill? I'd share video, except there's nothing on youtube. I looked. So, instead, I'm going to make note of something, complete with visual examples.

If you are Mizu, you get to wear fierce suits and hang out with your best friend drinking beer, discussing the CIA and just generally looking badass.

If you are Kimu, on the other hand, you get to look slightly ridiculous standing next to a suave Mizu.

That is a very unfortunate suit. But I guess that's what happens when your character is a college student/night club singer. Kimu just isn't cool enough to get Mizu-quality costumes.

In related news, I finally gave in to almost a year's temptation and bought Elisabeth. I'm not going to say how much it cost me through the very nice, convenient shopping service, but rest assured that it will be awhile before I let myself buy another Takarazuka DVD. When I do, it will probably be Lucifer's Tears. Either that or The Brothers Karamazov. They both look pretty fantastic.

This is an expensive hobby. I love it, and there's nothing else quite like it, but the cost hurts. If any of y'all ever want to watch some of my Zuka, just let me know. As soon as my DVD arrives, I'll have a collection of three (two were given to me in a trade, so I didn't pay for them) and I will happily share the awesome.

Back in Salem!

Yes, I have made my return to Salem, which means I've moved into my apartment! If you don't know, I'm living with Annie in Haseldorf, which is one of the university apartment buildings. So, I pay everything through my tuition/room and board and don't have to worry about monthly bills. However, despite it being university housing, Haseldorf is pretty sweet. It was an apartment building in the 20s that the university bought some number of years ago, so it has really cool architecture and high ceilings and hardwood floors. Unfortunately, it also has some problems, what with the age. Today, for example, we had no hot water. And I was not pleased.

Anyway, to your left, you have a picture of half my room, and below to the right is the other half. I have the smaller room, which doesn't have built-in closets, so I also have the huge closet in the hall. Because this apartment used to be issued to four people (even though the bedroom I'm in is not big enough for two people to share comfortably), each bedroom has two beds. I was annoyed by this initially, but then just decided to get a cheap comforter and turn the second bed into a makeshift couch. So it has a big pillow and a couple of blankets and is actually kind of nice to have. Annie, in the bigger room, pushed the two beds together and got a mattress topper to make a king size bed.

The one really weird thing about this apartment is the hall light that doesn't work. Well, that's a little unfair to the light, which might very well work. The problem is that there's no switch. At all. A bit of exploration and investigation led me and Nikki to the conclusion that this apartment is actually the combination of a one-bedroom apartment (101) and half of apartment 102 (the other half of which was merged into apartment 103). So, apparently, sometime in the past, the light switch was lost. This also explains why Annie's room is so freaking huge - it was probably a living room once upon a time.

In other news, classes have started, along with my job as a Writing Center consultant. I am the consultant for one freshman colloquium (this Willamette thing that freshmen have, a class that eases them into college). The one I'm working for is about interpreting visual culture, with a fairly new professor. So, I have 14 freshmen to work with on their three papers. They're required to meet with me three times each, so that's a decent bit of money. Otherwise, I have two regular WC hours a week. It's a small job, but a little bit of extra income is still pretty cool.

This semester, I'm taking math, biology, Victorian poetry and (hopefully) Japanese 430. Annie and I almost went to the first day of Japanese 430 hung-over, but then the class was canceled, so we went back to bed instead. Probably for the best, that. But, as evidenced by Facebook, we hosted the greatest unplanned party ever, so it was totally worth it.

Tomorrow I'll find out if I can take 430 or not. I really hope so, because it would make me very sad not to have any Japanese this year. Fingers crossed.

ずっと ａｌｌ ｒｉｇｈｔ！

地獄のアルバイトしちゃった！今日は最後の日だって何でもは大丈夫だった。本当にちょっとびっくりしたけど、よかった。私の社長は私に Ｓｔａｒｂｕｃｋｓ カードをあげた。それから、私の二人の一番好きな人も Ｓｔａｒｂｕｃｋｓ カードをあげた。そして、私の毎日行った Ｓｔａｒｂｕｃｋｓ の定員は私にコーヒーをあげた！すごく親切だったね。でも，一番大切なことは: 終わった！

今、安堵のため息をもらえる。気持ちがいいよ。

Okay, mini-Japanese language blog post aside, I have finished the summer job from hell! It actually went really well - my supervisor gave me a thank-you Starbucks gift card, then my two favourite co-workers gave me a thank-you Starbucks gift card, then the people who work in the Starbucks I went to every day for the entire duration of this job (they know my name and what I order and everything) gave me coffee for free! It was pretty sweet. I also have been assured that I can come back as a temp at any time (I haven't been terminated, so I won't have to go through the hiring process again to come back), that it was a delight having me, and that I'll be missed. My supervisor also said that I can use her as a reference and/or request a letter of recommendation at any time.

I went around saying goodbye to everyone towards the end of the day and was hugged twice by this really sweet woman who I really will miss seeing, once by one of the providers (this surprised me - I didn't realise she quite knew who I was) and was told genuinely by, like, five people that my work has been massively appreciated. T and V, of course, did nothing, but I didn't expect them to and wasn't disappointed.

Speaking of T, I had an exit interview on Tuesday. I went in intending to just say a few things about the disrespectful way I was spoken to and treated all summer, only to be caught off-guard by my supervisor pulling out a list of questions. Apparently, enough formal complaints have been made that they are starting an investigation into her abuse of time and resources. So I ended up spending 45 minutes or so talking about what I'd witnessed and observed.

T might be screwed. What I said on top of complaints from permanent staff and the letters two previous temps wrote is definitely enough to take the investigation beyond the questioning stage. I know she'll grieve it with the union, which means she'll have the power to request the names of everyone who spoke against her, but I kind of hope she does ask. She spent the duration of my assignment treating me like a stupid little girl, and I bit my tongue and smiled a lot and played a little dumb and let it happen. You have no idea how badly I want her to know I was smarter than she gave me credit for.

So, in conclusion: I win. I made about $4,000, some last-minute scholarship money came through, so I don't owe Willamette anything, and I walked out of that clinic knowing that I ultimately had the upper hand.

Owned.

Four days to go

And I am so excited, you don't even know. It's going to be a long week, but the end is finally in sight.

Unfortunately, I hurt my right shoulder today taking boxes of inactive files down to inactive storage and then shelving them/reorganising the room to make all the new additions fit, and my mum is insisting that I file an incident report. This is definitely a Do Not Want because that sort of thing is a pain, but I guess it'll give me a chance to give my supervisor some feedback on T. So not a total waste of time, right?

In news not related to the Job From Hell, today I found uploads of Asakura Daisuke's entire Quantum Mechanics Rainbow series, along with a couple of his other solo projects, and some Kenichi Ito. So my DA Family album collection has grown and I now have the two QMR albums that I was missing (Orange Compile and Green Method), not to mention more K.Ito! This brings the album count up to 11 DA, 6 Iceman, 2 K.Ito, 1 The Seeker, and 2 Access singles.

I think I'm good for awhile.

Moving right along, I've finally written a reply to my host family (I say that like it didn't take me two months last time), in which my response to their saying they want to attend my graduation was actually pretty complex grammatically. What I wrote is: 大変な分かっているけど，なんとか卒業式に来てもらうませんか？　みんなくれば、嬉しくなります。でも，無理だったら、大丈夫です。心配しないでください！(Basically: I know it's tough, but somehow could you come to my graduation ceremony? If everyone comes, it'll be happy. But if it's impossible, that's fine. Please don't worry!)

Um, I'm going to pause for a minute for anyone who's interested in Japanese to note that the grammar in that first sentence is really, really, really valuable. Not the first part so much, that's pretty basic, but the question is very practical.

The structure is: nantoka [verb, te-form] moraemasen ka. 'Nantoka' is like 'somehow' and when combined with '-te moraemasen ka' it becomes a way of making a request that you (and the person you're asking) know is probably impossible. So, it's a polite way of asking someone for something, while giving them an implied way out. I tacked on the additional 'I know it's tough, but...' to drive home that I don't really expect them to come, but I'd love to see them if they really want to travel 5,000+ miles.

So, yes, that's something you should learn if Japanese language proficiency is something you're keen on.

Actually, as a final, related note, I'm thinking about doing Japanese entries (or partial entries, anyway) every once in awhile, as writing practice. Reading and writing are still my weak points, so anything I can do to improve is for the best. But, then again, no one is going to be interested in reading anything like that, so maybe I'll make yet another blog just for my continuing Japanese adventures. That way, anyone who wants to take a look can, but wading through text you may or may not be able to read won't be necessary. I'll have to give it some thought.

Just have to share this

The quote of the day came not from one of my coworkers, but rather from one of the countless encounter/visit notes I was filing. Keep in mind, this was written by a provider about one of her patients (for whom I picked a random name).

Ahem.

"Lisa is a vegetation."

This is the same provider who has only the loosest understanding of English punctuation and who frequently amuses me with sentences like this:

"He has filed for custody of the boy's."

I desperately wanted to write in the margin: custody of the boy's what?

I refrained. Barely. These people kill me.

Today Was A Good Day

In fact, it was probably the best day I've had at this job ever. I got down to medical records a couple of minutes late and... no one was there. The lights were still off and everything. So I turned on my computer and my phone and sort of settled in by myself, enjoying a bit of quiet downtime before work really started. Roughly 30 minutes later, V showed up, fully prepared to turn around and leave again. As it turned out, though, T had called out sick and V was stuck. I happen to like it when T's not there (I know, right, who knew?) and it was pretty slow, so V and I had the chillest morning ever in which we did as little work as humanly possible. It was great.

V, though, had a doctor's appointment, so she had to leave at 1:30. There is another temp part-time in records now, a girl who just graduated high school and may be on the verge of termination, so it was all fine.

Except, the other temp didn't show. As in, she didn't call out or anything, she just didn't come to work today. That means, in three weeks as an employee, she's called out twice, left early once and skipped a day entirely. She may not make it much longer.

So, anyway, V left as planned and my supervisor sent down a woman, Z, who I really like. With almost nothing for us to do. I did the Washington Post crossword puzzle, and read online news and enjoyed other such methods of killing time because the work that trickled in from 2 to 4:45 (when I left) probably took an hour total. And, just adding to the overall awesome, A (the main dental receptionist - he's a lot of fun) bought Z and I coffee from Top Pot at 3:30. Just because.

Best day ever. Monday is going to be such a disappointment.

In other news, I was randomly surfing Facebook and I noticed that someone I went to high school with and actually hung out with a little bit senior year (the other Alexis, for... Ashalyn is probably the only person reading this who might have any idea who she is) has changed massively from when I knew her. Like, she used to be pretty Christian and she dated the same guy for a long time, got into another serious relationship when she went to college, pretty 'normal' middle class white American teenager. Well now, based on Facebook, she's out as a lesbian, no longer religious and has gone pretty dyke-y. It makes me wonder how many EW people she's successfully kept up with, taking into account such big personal changes. Pretty awesome, though, if you ask me.

As of, like, the last year or so, I've managed to successfully keep up with two of my high school friends (Dana and Ashalyn). Hannah... dropped off the face of the earth (I don't even know, but I gave up awhile ago) and I haven't really thought about anyone else in ages. But, hey, two isn't bad! That's more than a lot of people, I think.

...What.

First of all, I added a post to my media blog, bringing my total proudly up to four, and... it's gone. As in, it was deleted yesterday. And I didn't delete it. I-I don't even know. I can't imagine my account has been hacked for the express purpose of deleting a single entry in my very insignificant media blog without changes to anything else I have, so unless I've taken to sleep blogging, something Very Odd Indeed has happened.

And, before you ask, my Blogger dashboard shows that the blog was edited on 8/3, even though I didn't get on this site at all yesterday, so it's not that I'm just not seeing the entry anymore. It really is inexplicably gone.

In other news, the following is an example of what not to do if you want me to like you (courtesy of my co-worker V):

Me: *working with a file, the contents of which are spread out on the shelf tray*
V: *comes up to look for a file and stands there silently waiting for me to move*
Me: *steps out of the row and to the side*
V: *shoves my crap out of the way, scattering it everywhere*
Me: Um, I was working with that...
V: Oh, I didn't notice. *finds file and walks away*

Who taught these people how to interact with others? Seriously, what the hell?

Also, and likely related, I have hands down the best customer service skills in this department without trying very hard. I actually get scolded periodically for taking too much time with a client call. Because apparently being courteous and helpful to the people who are the sole reason our jobs exist is not allowed. One of the managers (so, you know, one of the people whose opinion actually matters), though, complimented me for the way I took a call when she was in the records room working through something with T.

I feel like it should be noted that, in seven weeks (give or take a few days), that is the first time anyone has directly complimented my work in this pit.

Thankfully, I only have 13 work days left till I'm out. The end is coming into view.

Still hooked on cellophane

How did I end up with so many clothes? I don't feel like I buy clothing excessively, but I have a huge collection of shirts. And my skirt collection just keeps growing. I think it's mostly that I've bought/been given more clothes than usual this summer. But some of it came from Plato's Closet (a second-hand store), some of it was on sale, and I really needed new jeans. So it's not totally ridiculous, but I think it might be time to do another sweep through my closet to find things to give away. I know there are shirts I'll never wear again, what with the new acquisitions, and some of it must still be nice enough to be given away in good conscience. I also have a few pairs of shoes that could stand to go because I haven't worn them in years.

But, um, because I'm feeling silly, I want to share my favourite new acquisitions. Bear with me here, please.

Shoes! I am not even going to say how much these cost (they came from Macy's), but my grandmother bought them for me because she bought new stuff for my sister. Aren't they great?

The two best Plato's Closet finds. $6 each, yo. I really wish there were a Plato's Closet in Salem - I love that store and I think Annie, at least, could also do well there.

Speaking of Plato's Closet, when I bought the shirts I also saw some really awesome shoes. Now, you may or may not know this, but my definition of awesome when it comes to shoes generally means either kind of old-fashioned, plaid, or spectacularly ugly. The awesome shoes I saw at Plato's Closet fit the last category - they looked like they were made of an old lady's drapes. I really wanted them, but they were a little too big, massively impractical, and $16, which is a lot for second-hand shoes. So I passed. But it was a close thing.

And, hey, while I'm posting pictures, remember how I took a picture of the picture of my host family? (that was an awkward sentence) Well, I did the same thing with the professionally taken JSP closing ceremony picture, which has us in our kimono (or western formal wear, for those who passed on kimono), and am sharing for anyone who's never seen it. What's crazy is that I own that kimono, with every part included (down to the shoes and bag, which match each other). It's very neatly packed up at the moment, because I have no use for it in my daily life, but still. I own that. I own that and the outer kimono is 50 years old. The rest, with the possible exception of the obi, which is beautiful, is newer.

So, yeah, it's not amazing quality here because it's a picture of a picture, but if you hadn't seen it before, that was my JSP group, with the teachers and peer leaders and random TIU staff because any occasion in Japan is a good time for every official even remotely associated to show up. I'm not really sure how I ended up in the front like that (I guess I am pretty short), but I did.

I post a lot of pictures on my blog, don't I? I just like including media - I feel like it adds something.

皆川たちの手紙をもらった！

Yes, I got a letter from my host family! Really, from my host mom, but she updates me on everything and is really the sweetest lady in the world, I swear. I was actually getting a bit concerned, because I sent a letter in May and a little greeting card in June and hadn't heard from them since they sent me a birthday card back in March. But, yesterday I got a cute little letter and all is well. My host parents were sick for a good portion of the spring, so they've been busy.

Anyway, I took a picture of the first page, so you can see both the cuteness and the handwriting:


There's a second page, too, and I guess my reading skills really have improved, because I can read all of it easily. She said that they want to come to my college graduation, in both English AND Japanese (to make sure I understood, I guess?), so... I don't really know what to say because that is a really long way to go to see someone graduate. I'm going to tell her that, of course, they'll be invited, but don't feel obligated. Isn't that crazy, though? I read that sentence twice and was just like '...for real?' They're like my Japanese grandparents, seriously.

Speaking of Minagawa-tachi, I realised that most/all of you don't know what they look like because my only picture is a physical print. But, with the wonders of my digital camera, I was able to capture it. So, if you're curious, this is my host family, AKA Minagawa-tachi/皆川たち:


お父さん (otousan), お母さん (okaasan) and ゆうき (Yuuki). I have another host sister, too, はるよ (Haruyo), but she's married and doesn't live at home anymore. Haruyo is the one who took me to see The Lion King in Tokyo. And that is the dining room (which doubles as primary living area) in their house.

And now, because it's way too hot, I'm going to go collapse away from my computer. I really want the heat wave to end, because this is uncomfortable. And my afternoon bus never seems to have A/C. I've taken to quick, cool showers when I get home so I don't feel disgusting all night. Can it be under 85 again, please? That'd be ace.

Book Recap

Do y'all remember, back in January, when I said I was going to keep track of all the books I read this year (for fun, not for class, because the class books don't really count), with a goal of 50? Yeah, much like my media blog, which has two entries, but a third now in progress, that didn't really happen. But I have been reading, so I'm going to do a little list of 2009's selections to date, in case anyone is curious about what I read when I'm reading for my own sake.

Um, they might not be totally in chronological order. I remembered as best I could.

Books of 2009, as of 25 July:
1. Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil - Inga Muscio
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
3. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
4. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Opposite of Fate - Amy Tan
7. The Joy-Luck Club - Amy Tan
8. The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
9. Takarazuka (Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan) - Jennifer Robertson
10. The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan
11. The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
12. Cunt - Inga Muscio
13. Beyond Heaving Bosoms (The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels) - Sarah Wendell, Candy Tan
14. Killing Rage - bell hooks
15. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
16. Polite Lies - Kyoko Mori
17. Looking for the Lost (Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan) - Alan Booth

Okay, so 17 isn't terribly impressive for it being the end of July, but remember that I did also have 12 books to read for my classes last semester. So, really, I've read 29 books so far this year.

Anyway, looking at the list, you will probably notice that I went on an Amy Tan kick there for awhile. I read her memoir and then decided that I needed to re-read all her novels (except for the one I don't have). Another thing that might be noteworthy is that 11 of the 17 are by women, 2 are by Neil Gaiman, 8 are non-fiction and 3 are about Japan (or an aspect thereof). The book I'm starting next is also non-fiction and also about Japan, but not written by a woman.

All of these books are recommended, but if you're curious about any particular one, I can do little reviews. Just drop a comment and I'll add it to my to-do list.

By the way, I changed my blog title. It's now 我思う故に我あり (われおもうゆえにわれあり, ware omou yue ni ware ari) which is the Japanese version of "I think, therefore I am."

Finger in position on the switch

First of all, before launching into further work horror stories (they never end - it's so awful it's hilarious), I want to share a video. You see, friends, I watch exactly one reality type TV show: So You Think You Can Dance? I have watched SYTYCD since season 2, back in summer of 2006 - it's a piece of my summer. Season 5 is two weeks away from ending and yesterday was the show's 100th episode. As part of the little celebration they did, three Emmy-winning numbers from previous seasons were performed (by the dancers from each respective season). One of these was Ramalama, a group number from season 2.

I searched the internet and found a decent quality video of its 2006 original performance and want to share because it's awesome. Wade Robson choreography + zombie theme + Roisin Murphy = win.



Okay, moving along to My Job, I have two incidents to share. As it turns out, they happened literally back to back on Wednesday afternoon. I was having a good day.

So, first of all, something that absolutely drives me crazy is when people who really don't know much of anything about a given subject act like experts. This applies specifically to Japan, a country I have a little better than passing familiarity with, and that an appalling number of people don't understand at all.

My coworker, V, is one of those people.

It came up Wednesday morning that I plan to move to Japan for awhile after I graduate next year. Later that afternoon, for some inexplicable reason, V and T were sort of mockingly talking about that plan when I was in the room and within earshot. So, I sweetly interjected with a somewhat self-deprecating comment on it, and the following went down.

V: You should go to Dubai instead.
Me: Why?
V: Americans can make a lot of money there right now. And you could probably meet a rich guy to marry, and then never have to work again!

I think my horror was visible on my face, because she moved on to the topic of Japan before I could say anything.

V: You know, I've been to Asia, but I've just never been interested in Japan. I mean, if I'm going to have to spend thirty dollars on a hamburger, it's just not worth it.
Me: ...I've never even seen a thirty dollar hamburger.
V: Well, my friend went to Tokyo and he told me that you can't find meat anywhere, and everything is way too expensive, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to move there because rent is, like, 8,000 dollars a month and you can't really own property anyway. They're so crazy there, and everyone must be really rich to afford it.
Me: Um, that's not really true. I mean, there are places where things are super expensive, just like in America, but it's definitely not the norm. I was there for four months last year and I didn't have that kind of trouble, anyway.
V: Oh, but you must have spent all your time in a foreigner-targeted area.
Me: No, actually, I lived in a fairly small city with a tiny foreign population. Japan really isn't like that.
V: That's not what my friend said.

At which point, I gave up because there is no reasoning with people like her.

Then, just to make my day complete, T gave me another reason not to like her. One of the medical assistants is Vietnamese, loud, funny, outrageous and very gay (I'll call him Ty, which is how his name is pronounced, but not how it's spelled). Anyway, he was talking on Wednesday about his plan to get married next August. T is an evangelist and, more or less out of nowhere, launched into something that really pissed me off.

T: You know something? Ty told me about his wedding and asked if I'd want to go. Can you believe he even brought it up with me? I mean, he knows who I am and that I don't believe in that.
V: What's there to believe in? I don't believe in your church, but I don't get mad at you for it.
T: That's totally different. He can't really get married, anyway, so it doesn't mean anything, but I still can't believe he'd even mention it to me. It's so wrong.

At which point V bitched her out. It was kind of amazing and partially redeemed V in my eyes. But, yeah, I took that as my cue to go on break.

This entry was brought to you by the letter Ignorance and the number Fail.

Work story time!

This is a pretty good one, too, just to show off how ridiculous my lead really is.

The set-up: It was the very end of the day Wednesday. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I saw a midnight showing of Harry Potter with Dana (go see it, it's great), got home at three and had to get up at six to go to work. So I was pretty much a zombie and, by four, was at the giving up point because, honestly, I really don't care that much.

Anyway, M (the light duty person who actually had her last day today) asked me why I looked so out of it, and the following exchange occurred, involving T (my ever-loved lead):

Me: I am pretty tired, yeah, I saw a midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie. It was kind of a stupid thing to do because I had to work today, but I've been a Harry Potter fan for about ten years, so it was worth it.
T: Why do you like that stuff? It's so satanic.
M: It's not satanic, just harmless kid's stuff.
T: It is not harmless!
Me: ...Right. I'm just... gonna go over here now. Yeah.

I couldn't even make this stuff up - she's so crazy. She also was under the mistaken impression that, now that M is gone, I'll be working in medical records full-time (rather than just from 7:50-2). She said at one o'clock today, and I quote, "you can go upstairs early today, because this is the last day I'm gonna be able to let you go up there."

I just kinda went smiled and nodded... and went straight to my supervisor to ask her about this statement. Supervisor said, no, I will still work upstairs from 2-4:50 because that's part of my job. T does not have the authority to 'let' me do anything. So, um, she's gonna get a little bit of a surprise on Monday when I pack up and leave records at 2, same as usual. I'm probably a little bit too happy about that, but she's so vile I can barely stand it, so I've decided I'm entitled to my tiny victories.

Unfortunately, due to potential monetary troubles in my near future (my family may not be able to give me the money they have in the past), I have had to extend my work plans to 21 August. So, I'll only have a week off before moving back to Salem, but it'll get me another thousand dollars, which can only help. But I was looking forward to quitting on the 7th, so I'm a little sad about that part. Oh well, it's only another two weeks, right? Right.

Stay tuned for further updates in the crazy.

Also, Ashalyn! When are you gonna be out here? Even though I'll almost certainly be working, we'll have to hang out.

Today's waste of energy

This is another one of those annoying events that really happened.

T: *on her computer making a church flier*
Me: *working*
T: Alexis, would you run up to the fourth floor and bring down records for me?
Me: *grits teeth and sets down work* Sure.
T: *goes back to misusing resources*

Up on the fourth floor:

Me: Hi, K! Do you have any records for me to bring down?
K: I brought them all down about 15 minutes ago - T checked them in. Is she looking for any record in particular?
Me: ...No. Thanks, though.

So, yes, I got to disrupt the flow of my work and run up and down two flights of stairs looking for records T had all but just checked in, while she devoted her morning to stuff for her church. Not cool. On the plus side, I'm getting plenty of exercise.

In other news, I'm reading Cunt by Inga Muscio and, if you're a woman and you haven't read/aren't currently planning to read it, you should put it at the top of your to-read list ASAP. And then make sure you read it on a bus, or in a like public space, to get the added bonus of disapproving and scandlized looks. It's pretty awesome.

After an unplanned hiatus...

I have work stories! Specifically, work stories of horror and woe. If you don't know, this job is brilliant for the money and the no-weekends thing, but otherwise completely horrific. The lead (I'll call her T, because it's a bad idea to use names here) is a stupid bitch who makes everything massively more difficult than it needs to be and speaks to me in that condescending tone reserved for children and very stupid people, the other permanent person (I'll call her V) snaps all the time, and the other temporary person is also kind of nasty. The personalities clash, I'm always the one blamed for problems, and it's pretty much the worst work environment ever. I've never been treated so badly in my life.

My supervisor (G) is great, and the people I work with from 2-5 every day are awesome, as is pretty much every other person in the clinic, but the people I work with most of the time? Yeah, they suck.

So, have some Real Life Events that will hopefully show just why this job is turning out to be hell.

---

Today's theme: Computers

1. I didn't have a log-in until last Monday (I started on 15 June). Finally, though, G came by in the morning when I was the only one in, because everyone else is chronically late, and told me that the log-in was ready and I needed to call MIS to get the temporary password and do the set-up. I knew I'd have to call MIS, because I had a county job last year and you always have to call them first, so I told G that I'd do it sometime that morning, after everyone else was in. All fine and good.

About a half-hour after the lead got in, she and I had the following conversation:

T: Alexis, have you logged in yet?
Me: No, I still have to call MIS.
T: Well, I'd like you to log in now.
Me: Okay, just let me put this file away and then I'll call MIS.
T: No, don't do that, just log in right now, please.
Me: Um, what? G came by this morning and told me to call MIS first, for the set-up. Gimme a minute and it'll be ready.
T: Well, G sent me an email and told me to have you try logging in. Don't argue with me, please.
Me: o.O Okay. What's my temporary password?
T: You don't know your password?
Me: ...No. Because I haven't called MIS.
T: You better call MIS first, then.

Yes, this really happened.

2. Again with the log-in issues. The people in medical records share their log-in info, because the computers time out after 15 minutes and you need a password to get back in. I picked a really simple, easy-to-remember password with the idea that, since a computer had been designated mine, it would only make sense to let them have the info. Otherwise, when I'm not in the room, the computer will be locked and useless. V told me not to give it to her, because I should have my privacy. I said something facetious along the lines of: I don't even have an outlook account - I have nothing to hide. She insisted that, no, don't worry about it, it really won't be a big deal. Then, the next day, I got the following:

T: Alexis, honey, when you leave the room make sure you log out. We don't know your log-in, so it's really inconvenient for us when you forget.
Me: Do you want the log-in? I can give it to you, so it'll never be an issue.
T: No, you just need to be more careful. You've forgotten to log out every day and it's getting to be a problem.
Me: I've only had a log-in since yesterday... Um, okay, I'll do that, then.

Then, a little later:

V: It is useless to have this phone turned on when you're logged in at this computer! Don't even bother next time, because it's really annoying.
Me: o.O Right. I'll remember that.

3. Sometimes records get misfiled. When there are hundreds of records, it happens. We're as careful as possible, but numbers just start looking alike after awhile, you know? Anyway, a file was missing last week for a couple of days, no one could fine it, and when it was found it was in the 27s (the file itself was a 40-something). My guess? The patient's birthday is 1927 and whoever filed it looked at the birthday rather than the medical record number (on the labels, the birthday is listed without spaces or slash marks, just like the MRN). Apparently, this potential confusion had never occurred to anyone else, but it makes sense to me. On Thursday, another file was missing and T told me to look for it.

T: Would you try to find this file?
Me: Sure. Have you checked by the last two numbers in the birthday? 'Cause we found that one file in the 27s, so it could have happened again.
T: No, I haven't.
Me: Okay, I'll try that first, then. *sits down at computer to look up the birthday, because it's not printed on the out card*
T: *like I'm an idiot* Why are you getting on the computer?
Me: ...To look up the birthday.
T: Oh, right.

This woman? Yeah, she's gonna drive me to screaming insanity. I can't stand working with her.

Iran

دنیارابگوییدچطورآنهاانتخاباتمان دزدیده اند

Tell the world how they have stolen our election

If you somehow don't know what's going on, there are mass protests in Iran right now. On Friday, millions of people voted and, even though Mousavi (who is progressive and stands for change and positive relations with the rest of the world) was winning by two-thirds, all of a sudden the results changed and Ahmadinejad (who leads the oppressive existing regime) had 68%. The election was stolen.

But, for the first time in a very long time, the Iranian people fought back. People almost immediately took to the streets, shouting 'Death to the dictator!' and 'Allah o akbar.' They came together to protest peacefully. The police started attacking, but they didn't let that stop them. Riots started, the shouting kept going all night. Test messaging has been disabled, information-sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked, satellite is down. At 5AM Arabic-speaking soldiers from Lebanon (Arabic is not the Iranian language - that's Farsi) stormed a major university in Tehran. Five sleeping students were killed, many more were injured. 192 members of the university faculty have resigned in protest.

Mousavi requested that a peaceful protest be allowed, but the request was denied, so a lot of people thought it wouldn't happen. However, at first a few thousand people showed up on the streets of Tehran this morning, and at this point it's estimated that between 1 and 2 million people are out there. Mousavi spoke, the police stood by, and at first it was peaceful.

Now people are dying, getting shot and beaten in the street. People in Iran who have found a way to access Twitter are sharing photos and news. The Green Revolution is on.

If you're out of the loop, check it:

Pictures
News

I started my job

Today was, in fact, my second day. I'm working at a clinic, as I said, in medical records from 8-2, then I'm working on a more specific records-centric project from 2-5. I get an hour lunch, which is both awesome and lame because it means I don't get home till almost 6 if I'm lucky enough to catch the 5:05 bus. Yesterday, I failed, today I was told that it's okay if I leave 10 minutes early, so it was all good.

Honestly? This is the most laid back work environment I've ever been in. I can wear whatever I want, as long as it's not skanky (or open-toed shoes, technically, since it's a clinic that will soon also have a needle exchange), I was explicitly told that it's okay if my lunch runs a few minutes over, no one cares, and they're letting me duck out early so I don't miss my bus home.

The work itself is mindless, but there's a ton of it so the time goes by pretty fast, and I'm getting a fair amount of exercise because I'm moving all the time. The elevator is out and a lot of my job involves walking, crouching and reaching, so I'm not just sitting at a desk all day.

Unfortunately, the people are problematic. The personalities of the three permanent people clash, they're snappish and not always very nice, and it's just kind of an unpleasant dynamic. There's also that horrible bitchy two-faced bullshit women sometimes pull - the head of the department and the woman who actually does most of the work act really sweet when they're both there, but when one is out of the room, the bitchy comments start up. It's awful. I don't like the lead, myself, she doesn't do much of anything, but tells everyone else to work more, but still. The fakey friendship thing they've got going on bothers me. It's one thing to be friendly and civil, but they're over the top with pretending to really love each other. I don't know, I feel like I'm going to get really sick of the environment really fast, but it's good money, so I'll handle it.

And... that's all I've got! I'm liking being downtown during the day, that's really nice. I'm not sitting around bored anymore!

More of the same, really

First of all, I've found a 60-hour online TEFL (synonymous with TESOL/CELTA/the 20 other acronyms that all amount to the same thing) course that I think I'm going to register for after I get my second check. The first check will be next Thursday, so I'm going to wait a little longer before doing anything that costs much money. It's $310, accredited, and is a 40-hour basic Teaching English as a Foreign Language certification course plus a 20-hour extra grammar course that will up my overall qualification. Considering my total lack of practical teaching experience (and my inability to change that before I'll be applying for work), this is the best I can do to make myself more competitive. I'm planning on calling the school that offers these online classes when I get closer to registering to ask some final clarification questions, of course, but I think it'll work out well.

Can you tell I'm getting a little anxious about this? It seemed so far away for so long that I wasn't really thinking about it, until I realised that, if I do want to go back to Japan, I'm going to have to start figuring things out in September. Almost a year before I'd be leaving. And right now I'm in a sort of liminal space, waiting until I can do something.

And, you know, it's kind of funny - I'm putting all this work into being an English teacher when it's only a short-term ambition. I have no intention of teaching forever. Really, I (like a lot of other people) am planning on using teaching as a means to something else. Basically, this is my skillset: I'm very fluent in English, I'm going to be fluent in Japanese, I can read, I can speak well, and I can write. I still want to do the graduate program at TIU, but that's just more school, nothing permanent. Actually, what I'd really like to do ultimately is write books about Japan in English. Not travel books or books on subjects that have been done to death (because, really, do we need another book on geisha?), but rather English language books on things that don't get much attention. There are so many topics that foreigners, for whatever reason, just don't touch and I want to take them on.

I want to take pictures of the things travel writers and tourists don't really look at. I want to write about teenagers and the elderly and the assholes at immigration. I want to go to towns 95% of the foreigners who go to Japan have never even heard of and document them, or take the long way to Kansai from Tokyo, rather than the shinkansen, and write about the people I meet. And maybe no one would buy the books, but I would have so much fun writing them that I wouldn't even care.

It's kind of crazy how motivated you get when you realise that, actually, you do have somewhere you want to end up. And it's just vague enough that it will drive my mother nuts worrying that I'm going to finish school and not know what to do with myself.

Haircut!

Yes, I went this morning to the salon I've been going to for about a year now, and got my hair cut. I based it on the picture I posted here and the stylist (who used to live in Japan, oddly enough) loved it enough to keep the picture when I left, in case other people are looking for inspiration for a short cut. It's much shorter than anything I've had in... ever, but it's really light and cute. I'm really happy with it.

So, you all get a picture taken with my Myspace-style photography skills. I couldn't get a good one showing both sides, okay?


Cute, huh? I'm really pleased.

明日 の Ｒｅｓｏｌｕｔｉｏｎ

Yeah, I'm listening to Daisuke Asakura again. This happens kind of a lot. I mean, the title of this blog is the first line of Orange Tea Time (aru hi fushigi na kuni e itta no - that day I went to a strange country), which probably says something about my love for this man and his heavily synthesized music. Oh, DA, one day I will see you perform, either solo or, more likely, with Access. With Kenichi Ito is probably way too much to hope for.

Anyway, generally speaking I continue to fail at life. I finally called Nikki back, at 2 o'clock Sunday morning, when I was coming back from seeing a concert at El Corazon downtown (it wasn an awesome concert, for the record, even if most of the other attendees were pretty wasted). I was expecting her not to answer and was all set to leave a conversational and rambling message (I'm at least somewhat known for this skill), when she picked up. So I talked for a minute, assured her that I still love her... and then didn't call her back like I said I would. Because, as established, I suck. It's worst during the summer when I just forget about my phone for days at a time and check it to find that I've missed, like, five calls. So, on the to-do list for tonight and tomorrow: call Nikki and then call Annie. And then call the loan people because they seem to think I've graduated and want me to start paying them back in November. Yeah, that's not gonna happen, guys.

In other news, as probably no one remembers, back in January I made a vague and short-lived attempt at a media blog. As in, I made the blog and posted one recommendation before completely forgetting about it for about six months. But now I think I am going to try to resume this project, because I like reviewing and recommending things. The link is in my sidebar, if you want to peek in on it. There will be music and book recs (and possibly TV and film, depending on my mood), with samples and my opinion. Because I know you all value my opinion so very much.

All of that aside, I ideally start work next week. I'm pretty much set to be put in the float pool for the county, which really means (since I don't drive) that I'll be working medical records at a clinic. However, my mum found out today that the jail may also need float pool people, so I might be partially back at the jail. Basically, I'll be spending the next two months or so in some of the sketchier parts of downtown being a temporary public servant.

I'm actually looking forward to this, partly because I'm getting bored and partly because I'm tired of not being able to buy anything. I keep seeing books and stuff that I'd like to have, but can't afford because I have no income. Also, I saw a black and white sort of retro dress today (it has a layer of tulle under the skirt and everything) that I very much Do Want. I'm kind of digging dresses and skirts these days.

And... I really don't have any other news. I'm just trying to keep this blog somewhat updated so everyone knows I'm not dead. Keep an eye out for media posts from me. Hopefully I'll actually get that off the ground properly. I've got some obscure Japanese music and some awesome cyberpunk fiction to recommend. Oh yes.

Updates

I might have a job at a clinic. It'd be in medical records as an Administrative Specialist I, which was my job class when I worked at the jail last year. I guess they keep losing their medical records help, probably because it's mind-numbingly boring, and they're just now looking. So I submitted an application via email and my mom says I have a good chance at taking it because I've worked for the county before and did really well. The clinic is down in the sketchy part of 4th avenue (makes sense, given that these clinics are intended for people who don't have health insurance or money for other health care), but it would pay similar to what I made last summer and, since I don't need a bunch of money for Willamette, would leave me with a decent amount of money to save and spend. I really want this job.

In other news, I'm trying to get it together and really work on my Japanese. I know someone who's trying to sort of teach herself from the basics and it's good motivation to further my own skills. I really want some money, though, because I was down at Kinokuniya and they have these grammar dictionaries that would be really helpful, but they were, like, $40 each. Then I saw a guide to Kansai-ben, which just looked like fun.

Continuing on in my book of practical kanji, here are the kanji of the day (with one reading each):

軍 (ぐん, military), 理 (り, reason/principle), 玉 (ぎょく, jewel), 取(る) (とる, take), 用 (よう, business), 支 (し, branch/support), 市 (いち, market), 位 (くらい, rank/grade), 政 (せい, administration), 毛 (もう, hair), 戸 (こ, door), 近(い) (ちかい, near), 野 (や, field), 不 (ふ, negative/un-), 平 (へい, level)

So, yes, those are today's 15 new kanji to learn. I like this book a lot - it has all the Japanese readings, the Mandarin reading and example words to put the character in context. According to the book, I'm at kanji 136, but I know more than that because I wasn't taught in this order. But, in addition to the kanji, I need to also work on my grammar. This is helping my vocabulary, but grammar is also 大切.

I'll just watch more Takarazuka. It's actually really helpful because I translate bits of it for the friend who's starting to study Japanese, so I'm picking up new things all the time. Seriously, music in your foreign language is really good for listening comprehension. I highly recommend it.

Off to make more tea and study. At least I can find ways to keep myself busy, right?

Not my best week ever

I've been kind of sickly this week. Not full-on sick, but iffy. And yesterday I had the world's worst migraine. I ended up taking three painkillers and going to bed at 2:30. I slept till about a quarter to 5 with the blankets over my head because everything was pain, then I got up and took more ibuprofen and was mostly okay. Mostly, I've taken to just chugging herbal tea.

Speaking of tea, anyone have recommendations? I'm enjoying my fruit flavours (all I have right now other than some loose-leaf oolong and green), but variety is also awesome.

My life is still pretty boring. No news on the job front, other than Macy's letting me know that they're not hiring me. Ashalyn, I am definitely interested in getting in touch with your mom and her group to volunteer in June. Actually getting hired by someone is looking less and less likely and the Freedom School thing sounds way more interesting, anyway.

Nikki, I swear I'm going to call you soon. I've just been sort of reclusive lately.

This is a pretty lame blog post. I'm just not really doing anything worth blogging about, unless you want to hear about Pokemon Diamond (I'm about 80% through it now) or trying to work out some Tori Amos songs on the piano. I'm going to get Father Lucifer down, I'm serious.

I think I'm going to go play with the dog. And make more tea.

I have a boring life

No, for real, I do. Right now, anyway. I'm at home in Lynnwood, which is cool with me because I actually have more to do up here than in Salem (I live, like, 5 minutes from a transit centre that can get me a bus to downtown Seattle), and I actually like doing things with my family, but it's definitely not exciting blog material.

I got some good news last week, though: because of my FAFSA information, my financial aid award for next year totals $24,500, half in the fall and half in the spring. Taking this on top of the money I already have from various sources, I will owe Willamette nothing my senior year. I think I have a minor carry-over balance from last year, but even that should fit into the budget I already have. So, I will get out of undergrad with just shy of 15k in loans, which isn't going to be too hard to pay off, and I don't have to stress out about money for the first time in my undergrad career. I've needed to make $2500+ every summer up to this point. I'm still job-hunting, of course, because it'd be nice to have some money that I can spend/save for the fall, but it's not urgent like it's been in the past.

Of course, the job market sucks, so I'm just waiting and crossing my fingers that someone will like me. I've applied at Macy's (I used to work there), Ann Taylor Loft (where, as it turns out, a former Macy's coworker works now), Buckle and Borders. But no one seems to be actively hiring, so we'll see what comes of it. I did my best.

In other news, I've been playing a lot of Pokemon Diamond. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the game at this point and I'm kind of obsessed. It's fun, okay? I've also done some cleaning of my room, studying of kanji and playing with the dog. Well, maybe a lot of playing with the dog. And now I'm reading a book about Takarazuka and modern Japanese sexual politics. It's really interesting, half history and half gender/sexuality studies.

I also found a shirt that will work pretty well for future adventures in drag. It's black with white pinstripes and it's not fitted, so it could be a dude's shirt.

And... I'm planning on cutting my hair again. I need to, because the cut I got back in March is growing out. I think I'm going to go for this:


It's similar to what I have now style-wise, with the heavy bangs, but shorter. I think it'll be good for summer.

Stay tuned for updates on the job-hunt front, and for pictures when I do get around to going to have my hair cut. Maybe I'll just start taking pictures of interesting things to have something to put on my blog during the summer. I'll take my camera when I go to the International District on Monday and see what I can find. It'll be like a personalised tour of the Greater Seattle Area.

立ち上がれ！

Silly title is silly. It reads tachiagare, which basically is like shouting 'rise up!' and has no significance whatsoever to this entry. Well, actually, it kind of does because I'm going to be talking about Takarazuka again and they shout that a lot in Elisabeth, particularly in the parts that take place in Hungary.

Before I dive into fangirl land again (come on, y'all had to know this was going to happen again at some point), I'm just going to say that I am so glad term's out. I got all my crap turned in on time and I got a B on my Japanese exam, which is acceptable. You can really see what I'm good at if you look at this test: speaking and listening got perfect scores, reading and writing demonstrated high-end mediocrity. I'm not bad at anything, really, even the kanji was okay, but it's so obvious what aspects of this language really click in my brain.

As for my papers, the best one was probably for Shakespeare (Foucauldian bio-power in Measure for Measure), the final philosophy one (critiquing an aspect of History of Sexuality) was the worst because I didn't care anymore by that point and, if it sucks, it'll be dropped out of my grade, anyway.

Now I'm chilling for a couple of weeks, then I'll try finding a job. I really crashed at the end of the semester, or I'd get on the job thing a little quicker. I need a break. So I'll watch things, and read things, and do more cleaning of my room, and it'll work out. I cleaned out my clothes today and have a big bag of things to donate because I will never wear them again. And a slightly smaller bag of things to throw out because they aren't in good enough shape to give away in good conscience. What I really learned from this is that I own a lot of clothes. I felt really good about my closet/dresser after putting together the discard piles... then I put the clothes that I had in Salem away and it filled up again. I think I just hold on to things for way too long and forget about them. But I do feel good about how much I'm giving away. The clothes are still pretty nice and I know other people will be happy to discover them in Good Will (or wherever I decide to take my donation).

Anyway, time for me to be a fangirl again because I've been watching Silver Rose Chronicle. It's a Yukigumi production about vampires/vampire hunters/vampire romance that I'm now kind of in love with. It doesn't have my beloved Mizu Natsuki (it ran in a secondary venue, not the Grand Theatre), but Ouki Kaname (aka Teru) is the vampire Christopher and she's one of my babies. Speaking of which, I'm really unhappy that she's been transferred to Hoshigumi, because I don't follow Hoshigumi at all, but it is a promotion and she deserves the recognition. Takarazuka fandom, for the record, is hella complicated. Everyone, and I'm definitely no exception, has that one troupe that they love and follow. For me it's all about Yukigumi, which is not the most popular troupe among foreign fans, and I was so upset when I found out that, yes, Teru really is being transferred.

I'd share a clip of SRC, but Youtube sucks and doesn't have any of the really good ones. The best they've got are focused on Elliot, which makes sense given that he's the protagonist, but I like Teru better than Ayabuki Mao. Anyway, if you read my blog regularly, you've seen Teru before. She was Rudolf in Elisabeth, so that one video I posted awhile back that has Der Tod dancing with Rudolf, Yami ga Hirogaru? Yeah, that's her.

I am, however, going to post a different Takarazuka-related video. You don't have to watch the whole thing, 'cause it's kinda long and full of talking, just watch the first minute or so. It's a clip from a TV thing (the title reads Takarazuka Kageki Tokushuu, which means Takarazuka Theatre Special) and the first part, after some guy talks, is Mizu Natsuki getting up and winking at a girl on the panel, who is basically a walking Japanese stereotype, as a demonstration of the sexy power of otokoyaku (or... something). I don't know what the real point is, but it's funny because the girl just melts. Which would probably be my reaction to Mizu Natsuki winking at me like that, but it's really funny because she doesn't seem to know what to do with herself.



I'm picking up tips on how to be a sexy, slick drag king from my fangirling Zuka, true fact.

One down, three to go

As of 9:40PM, I've officially finished one of my four final papers. This leaves me with 18 to 20 pages to write by next Sunday, in three different subjects. And a Japanese final, but I'm overlooking that for the moment in favour of enjoying the sense of accomplishment that comes with having finished a paper more than 12 hours before it's due.

So, the finals week list stands as follows:

.Paper on Beauvoir's The Second Sex
.Paper on Measure for Measure
.Paper on Foucault's History of Sexuality, Part 1
.Currently undefined paper for Literature and Sexuality
.Japanese Final

The finished paper is due Tuesday, and I have to have four pages of the eight-page Shakespeare paper for peer edit the same day. This will leave me, then, with 14-ish pages to write for Sunday. And that Japanese exam, which I really should study for.

But this is definitely manageable. I just have to be smart about it and work all week, rather than leave it all for Friday and Saturday. In which case I will be up all night and probably fail Saturday's exam. And that would suck, so I'm going to write half of the Shakespeare tomorrow (it requires outside sources, which is time-consuming) and divide the rest up over the course of the week. If I actually put some thought into this, I can save myself unnecessary stress and woe and still get everything done.

I don't feel particularly wonderful about the Beauvoir paper (though I did go off on a minor, but satisfying, tangent about how Women's History Month is lame), but it doesn't really matter, unless I suck at the Foucault. And I'm bound to do better at that one because I had to read the damn text twice in the last month. The class those two papers are for only counts the best three scores, so if one of them really sucks, it's okay. My Marx and Freud papers were decent - I just need to make sure at least one of my last two works out to be set.

It feels good to be so close to the end of a term. I mean, then I have to job-hunt and that's going to be just delightful, but it's nice to finish something. Although, the fact that I'm going to be a senior next year is terrifying. Seriously, where did the last three years go? It does not feel like I've been in college that long. Nikki has secured an apartment with Josh, Annie and I will be living in Haseldorf, and in a few months I'm going to have to start figuring out what I'm going to do with myself post-graduation.

Craziness.