I did nothing this break. Not even the necessary things. I am going to rushedly pull together my homework tomorrow and then face the rest of the semester with all of the stoicism and grace of a chicken with its head cut off. I can see it already.

But you know what? I think I needed this. If I have learned anything in my 18.9672 years, it is that March is never a good month for me. I should just stop fighting it. Better to have taken the week off and pretended the March of my academic calendar didn't exist, than to have flirted with insanity like a desperate Regency debutante, which is what I've done every other year of my life.

That last sentence should make it clear what I've done with my break. I re-read Cotillion and got two books farther into the Bridgerton series (An Offer From A Gentleman and Romancing Mister Bridgerton). I think before I sleep tonight I will finish re-reading The Viscount Who Loved Me.

I should probably mention that I bought those two Bridgerton books on a shopping trip with my mother, who offered to buy my not-insubstantial stack as an early birthday present (convenient, really, as I most probably won't be home for the actual date). She flipped through them as I handed them to her, saw the two romance novels, and exclaimed, "Julia Quinn! My daughter is reading Julia Quinn!" Then she started making a big deal about it. Would not shut up about it all the way home! Once we got there, she pulled down some of her old favorites and insisted I take them back to college with me. SHE DID NOT GET THIS EXCITED WHEN I GOT MY FIRST PERIOD. WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT MY FAMILY?

I also battled a sinus-whatsit. My trademarked Changing Of The Seasons Commemorative Cold. I'm so sick of these already and it's only been four years. I will tell you bitterly that I hate mucus more than I hate any other fluid in the world.

Bright spot was seeing The Pillows on Friday with splintercat, which was just, unaccountably awesome. Great first general admission experience, definitely. Although I have paid dearly for it with a relapse. I also have aches that have nothing to do with illness to add to the unending party that is my tissue-strewn dorm room. Yet I do believe it was worth it. I hate to say this, but does anyone know where to illicitly download their discography? I really need to catch up.

I'm going to go back to Viscount now, and avoid facing my responsibilities for a few more precious hours. Happy Easter/Spring to all, and to all a good night.

Okay, so there is this Youtube project that I have been obsessed with since May. It is called Brotherhood 2.0. They have a website.

Brotherhood 2.0 is a video blog shared between, you guessed it, two (nerdy) brothers: John Green, the YA fiction writer, and Hank Green, maintainer of ecogeek.org. They decided to ban textual communication between themselves all year, and are now limited to phone calls, occasional visits, and alternating weekdays of posting a vlog to the site.

What results is something far greater than their original intentions. In-jokes have developed, challenges have been leveled, punishments for violating the ban on textual communication have grown steadily more hilarious, and perhaps best of all, the fan base has proliferated under the unifying term, Nerdfighter (because we are legion, and together, we could probably save the world).

Their videos are often informative, inspiring, and astoundingly creative. They are always funny and will never fail to brighten your day.

Take for instance, today's video. John talks about types of nerdfighters he likes, and the topic comes around to child nerdfighters. This leads to what may be my new favorite Halloween anecdote of all time:

There was this little six year-old nerdfighter who was trick-or-treating and he came up to my door and he said, "Trick or treat!" and I said, "What are you dressed as?" and he said "L’État, c'est moi!" And I was like, "Are you Louis XIV?" And he said, "Oui! Trick or treat!" Little nerdfighters! So cute!

I GET STUFF LIKE THIS FROM THEM EVERY DAY. PLEASE SOMEONE GO AND WATCH THEM AND THEN COME BACK AND FLAIL WITH ME.

P.S. Don't forget to be awesome.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

KURO-SAMA, ILU SO HARD.

YES. YES IT DOES.

THE WORLD IS A WONDERFUL PLACE.

Finished The Tipping Point yesterday. My God, it was probably the most engrossing read I've had in a while. Seriously, I'm no businesswoman or entrepreneur, but I am a sociology/psychology/history fangirl and this book just took all of those things and wrapped it up in one big ball of AWESOME.

In the meantime, I'd like to bring attention to a theory that every student can relate to. I've always called it the Finals Phenomenon and it states:

At the same time that a high school or college student is preparing for exams, there will invariably be an upswing of interesting things to do that have absolutely nothing to do with studying. This is a phenomenon that is fed by both internal and external factors.

1. Midterms and finals are so stressful that anything even remotely interesting to the student will seem far more interesting during exam seasons than during ordinary time.
2. Midterm and final seasons also happen to fall at incredibly busy times of year. Midterms take place in the Christmas rush/after-rush . Finals take place as the summer rush gets its start.

And to make matters worse for myself, apparently after about a month of agonizing inactivity, my FList suddenly picked up starting last week and now I am falling further and further behind in my recs.

Honestly, could people have suddenly started asking about long, chaptered fics one week from now instead of today? I now have a 62-chapter fic staring me in the face and the pull is so strong, but I have to screw up whatever self-control I can muster and wait until Thursday to start on it so that I'm not thinking HOMG, what's going to happen to Harry next? when I'm attempting to not fail my other finals (I failed physics, I cannot even wrap my head around how bad it was).

*le sigh* I'm off to go bookmark stuff in an emergency "Do Not Open Until After Finals" folder.

This week has been plagued by headaches. Hair-induced, teeth-induced, eye-induced, car-induced, stress-induced, you name it and I've had it. It is really starting to get annoying. Right now, I've just got a my-left-frontal-lobe-is-trying-to-forcibly-remove-itself-from-my-skull-type headache and I'm in a right melancholy mood.

For some reason, I read a long, angsty fic today. I do not understand what comes over me when I do things like this. My head says "Oh, this is going to be a bad one" and then keeps reading and eventually my heart goes "Ow! Why did you do that? You are generally cruel and quite masochistic, head!" Goddamn you, Remus Lupin! Why must your life be so all-encompassingly tragic?

To placate myself for this rather unwise choice in reading material, I've spent the past hour looking at LJ icons of Messr. Moseley. I may be an otaku with a 2D-complex, but let it never be said that my hormones cannot be moved in the direction of the living.

/random.

Despite the so-called War on Christmas, my holiday appears to be going as well as can be expected when one is coughing and sneezing and generally still sick. I cannot escape the Christmas music -- it has invaded my very thoughts. I'm quite pleased.

The biggest problem I appear to be having with Christmas is that I want to spend the entire day re-reading HikaGo. It was awesome, I loved it, Hikaru and Akira are the best main characters ever. It was like they blossomed into bishounen right before my eyes! I was sick and they made me feel less like ripping my throat out with my bare hands! I'm very grateful.

First Gackt, and now Hikaru no Go. I fear what will happen the next time that I get seriously sick.

Ah well, I'm off to eat Christmas cookies and avoid the living room because gifts are being wrapped. Happy Christmas!

HOMG, linnpuzzle posted in my comment thread! *promptly explodes*

(For the my RL people who are no doubt scratching their heads, she's the one who drew the colored picture on my custom bookcover. I love her liekwoah.)

The last part of my con report. Sunday [ + finishing thoughts and a full look at the loot because I am a proud fangirl].

Part 1, Part 2

( Sunday )
( The Stuff )

Overall Thoughts

Before Otakon, I was reluctant to use the term 'otaku.' Literally, the word denotes something like 'a person with an unhealthy fixation on some hobby.' In Japan, when used in the context of anime, it connotes a socially-inept, perverted, young man with a disturbing fixation on animated women. When I realized I preferred my men 2D, I reluctantly acknowledged that I was an otaku, but the word had a negative meaning to me.

After Otakon, I realized there are thousands of people just like me. The word doesn't have to mean something terrible, it can be used in the context of 'completely obsessed fan.' I don't think the word should be taken lightly though. It should only be used for the most dedicated and obsessive and no two-bit 15-year-old whose only exposure to anime is from Cartoon Network should consider herself even close to that point. They are cosplayers, fansubbers, AMV-makers, professional artists, dealers and the people who appreciate them. They are people who spend hundreds of dollars on merchandise that they might never take out of the packaging. They are those people who have to buy extra shelving just for their manga collection. They are downloaders, MIRC- and Bittorent-users, who get anime and manga months, even years before it's licensed in the States. Conventions are where they come out to play. I went to Otakon and realized that I could geek-out with the best of them. That makes me an otaku. It's a badge of true geek-dom to wear with pride, nothing less and nothing more. Sure I could use some more sun, but so long as I remember the 22,000 other Otakon attendees, I'll never feel like that makes me any less of a person. So thanks Otakon. I'll see you next year!

Well, that was fun! I kind of can't believe it's over already. Not that you know, another day of that and I wouldn't have been passing out all over the place. Lack of sleep is an interesting thing. Anyway, this is going to be a gigantic post of all of my Otakon hijinks and oddity. There will be a ridiculous amount of pictures. Consider yourself warned.

( Read more... )

Well crap. We've been working on this for nearly three hours and we only got through Friday! It's late and we're sleep-deprived. I think I shall continue this tomorrow. Till then!

ETA: Part 2, Part 3