Little Arcadia

Anime Expo

2008-07-06T07:49:59Z

Anime Expo is happening this weekend at the Staples/Convention Center. That's a 10 minute drive from my apartment! Damn. Times like these, I wish I had 1) a car, 2) anime groupies, 3) not a pressing deadline.

Blade of the Immortal anime!

2008-06-22T06:15:29Z

My favourite manga of all time, Blame of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura, is being animated. I'm filled with anticipation/dread/hope.

What a week

2007-10-25T07:02:18Z

As I was walking across campus today, I noticed little floating particles drifting down. I thought it was pollen, until I realized it's Fall, so it couldn't have been. It was ash, of course, which was kind of spooky. It was miserably hot today (yesterday, tomorrow). The sky was blue to the north, but orange-gray to the south-west. Honestly, what a miserable week it's been.

My theory assignment is due tomorrow and I'm almost done. I'm also getting paid on Friday, which means this is going to be a wonderful weekend!

Flying to Austin

2007-03-27T13:43:50Z

I'm flying to Austin, TX tomorrow. It'll be my first time visiting a southern state; very exciting! I have an one-hour stop over in Chicago. Not enough time to visit anyone there, too bad.

So this is my schedule:

March 28 to April 1 ~ Austin (UT)
April 1-3 ~ LA (USC)

Towards a greener China

2006-12-27T06:30:33Z

I'm preparing to do a mini-Grand Tour of China in the Spring, and I'm trying to be more active in reading the latest news on China. One issue in particular strikes my fancy: China's efforts to have cleaner air, soil, water, etc. When I was last in Beijing, I got the sense that folks in were as anxious as Canadians about the harmful effects of smog, pesticide, and congestion. Then again, Beijingers like to talk big. Maybe environmental reform is their latest, favourite on dit.

The number of news reports on China is staggering. Most of it is entertaining, but misleading. For example, this article on China's environmental woes by Sylvia Yu Chao.

Close, very close

2006-12-14T04:37:26Z

I've submitted 4 out of 6 applications. Will tackle Toronto and UCLA applications tomorrow. From the stress, anxiety, and frustration, and lack of sleep, I had something of a minor emotional breakdown this evening. Bleh.

This is my government? Bleh.

2006-12-12T20:29:51Z

Ontario's government plans to give provincial politicians a raise of about 28 per cent.

Damn it's so cute

2006-12-09T04:57:04Z

Reuters' Pictures of the year 2006: A mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city Lucknow June 30, 2006.

Not the flu after all

2006-11-30T16:55:56Z

I went to a clinic last night, and the doc said I have an intestinal virus, not the flu. I should start to feel better in a couple of days. OK. Too tired to type more.

Rethinking # of schools

2006-11-08T23:44:48Z

I had originally planned to apply to 14 programs....but I think that's too ambitious. I've decided to cut down the number of schools to 10: Chicago, Northwestern, UCLA, Toronto, Texas, USC, Emory, Michigan, Penn, Columbia.

And the ones that have been taken off the list are: Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and Cornell.

I decided not to apply to Vanderbilt because of its location. I can't see myself living in Nashville, Tenn. It's a beautiful, historical city but...I don't think it's for me.

As for Johns Hopkins and Cornell, I took another look at their Renaissance faculty and realized they were not doing the kind of work I want to do (Renaissance drama, Elizabethan & Jacobean dramatic/print censorship, Renaissance cultural studies).

As for Princeton...err...my chances of getting in are very very very slim.

So, 10 schools--seems more doable in my mind. What does everyone think?

Crunch time

2006-11-01T07:51:45Z

I am determined not to panic/stress out. I WILL get the work done.

Wednesday: revise personal statement, project description, CV; write cover letter, instructions, photocopy essays, fax GRE score request to ETS, print out recommender forms, login to SSHRC to figure out how long the damn proposal has to be. Watch new episode of LOST--if at all possible.

Thursday: Final touchups on documents. Mail packages to Chicago recommenders via Purolator or UPS.

Friday: Visit U of T recommender, give her package containing rec forms.

Saturday: Take GRE exam.

Sunday: start e-mailing prospective thesis advisor....

New link of the day

2006-10-19T16:56:44Z

Marxists.org is a website I like to browse when I have time.

It has information on marxist, pre-marxist, post-marxist, Hegelian-marxist, marxist-existentialist, structuralist-marxist, deconstructionist-marxist, post-Hegelian-marxist-existentialist-structuralist-deconstructionist...thinkers.

Cool

2006-10-10T18:57:10Z

Two weeks ago, Tori Amos released A Piano. The sound is incredibly clear, deep, and different. It isn't so much a remix than audio snapshots of her songs from one stage of development to another. While I've bought just about all her other CDs, I couldn't buy this collection. Too expensive. So I...er...downloaded it from Torrentspy.com. FYI. Heh.

I'm trying to get up the nerve to e-mail some profs/potential advisors, by this Friday. I still feel like my research idea is scattered/unfocused, but I also feel like I've delayed too much already.

My GRE Lit study is going well. I scored 99% on the mock GR9064 (year 1989), 94% on GR9964 (year 1999), 82% on REA Test #2 (year 1989). I intend to write at least another two mock exams before the actual exam of Nov. 4th. I'm hoping/praying I can get above 87% on the actual exam.

What I'm watching in anime this month
1. Saiunkoku Monogatari. This fantasy political romance is so easy and fun to watch. This series continues the tradition established by Fushigi Yuugi and Twelve Kingdoms: use the rich historical and political background of ancient China to tell your shoujo romance story.

2. Chevalier d'Eon. This series is bewildering, violent, and so cool. It's set in 18th century Paris, in the same era as the upcoming Marie Antoinette movie.

Rain at midnight

2006-09-03T05:09:52Z

Just came back from watching The Illusionist. The movie was fine. It could've been edgier and more surprising, but over all, it's an entertaining and witty movie. Ah yes, Edward Norton looked damned fine in his silk-necktie and black overcoat. Yummy!

In other news, Mom and I finally came up with some names for the two cocktiel chicks: Hana and Momo. Wow, they're growing so quickly--they get bigger by the hour. The parents, especially the female 'tiel Feffi, are very attentive to their chicks. Chuchu and Feffi have fallen into a routine: Feffi will stuff herself with food (bread, seed, corn), then rush to feed the chicks. Chuchu feeds them too, sometimes, though recently he seems to be more interested in standing guard. We leave the birds alone during feeding time.

The bigger of the two chicks is about 25 days old, while the small one is 22 or 23. At this point, it's unnecessary for the parents to be with the chicks all the time--in fact, Feffi and Chuchu take many breaks during the day. Since we really love these little chicks (they're tiny, colourful, docile, in other words, they're irresistable), we have been taking the chicks out of their nest box while the parents are resting. Chuchu and Feffi don't really mind it if the humans play with their chicks for 5 or 10 minuts. "Play"'s not the right word. We hold them and pet them. They, in turn, squirm and nibbled at our fingers. For the most part, both chicks have adjusted to being handled by humans. When she sees a hand, Hana doesn't hiss or swing her head anymore, though Momo continues to swing his head (a "don't touch me" signal among birds).

Well, a picture's worth a thousand words, and I have 10:

Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?

2006-08-27T05:41:43Z

I yanked this fun meme from arckyosuke. But instead of using my own mug, I used the following...

1. My fanart of Franz d'Epinay of Gankutsou:

2. Utada Hikaru

3. Zhang Ziyi

4. Greta Garbo (Gackt, yes)

Pictures from the Exhibition

2006-08-11T04:09:50Z

I'm back from Otakon. The high points of the weekend include:

~ Finally meeting thisresonance!!

~ Road trip with flying_squirrel and harempresident.

~ Hearing Nobuteru Yuki talk about ParaKiss, Escaflowne

~ Seeing Tateno Makoto draw in real time.

~ Nana Kitade concert and "gothic lolita fashion show".

~ Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the artists' gallery, the dealer's room (where I got a cute San-X pencil case).

I'll make a longer post later.

Woof! Woof!

2006-08-03T00:39:00Z

It's the year of the dog and I'm turning XXIV tomorrow! I'm leaving for Otakon tomorrow morning. It's going to be a minor roadtrip to a major anime convention.

The heatwave has been terrible.

New art

2006-07-21T01:22:09Z

New art! A pretty young man, let's call him "Dorian".

Back to the TO

2006-06-14T04:34:39Z

Graduation, socials, airplane, then, home! I'm back in Toronto, safe and sound. I was exhausted by my flight, and Spring Quarter in general, so I pretty much slept for the last two days. Toronto is more or less the same. My 4 birds are as silly as ever. Mom is mom, just as she should be. I feel a bit strange. I feel different.

Tomorrow, I have to stay home for my UPS delivery. I'll try to make some calls/e-mails to my friends, at the very least to update everyone on my address change.

Home and back again

2006-05-30T06:04:39Z

I leave Chicago on June 11th. I can't believe it! I won't have to go to the Reg everyday, I won't have to take the bus back at midnight everynight, I won't have to spend a small fortune at Hutch Commons, I'll never see most of my friends again (despite what we say about getting together, I know I'll probably never see them again--such is life). It's all a bit surreal.

My teacher said yes to an extension; I will talk to her about it further on Wednesday (hopefully she will be impressed by my idea/methodology, and I can get the research done before leaving Chicago).

This means I can concentrate on my medieval paper.

Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day: it's the final day of classes (Note to self, bring digicam!!!), pick up my graded thesis (at least, I think it's graded), pick up last quarter's essays from ES and BC, meet with preceptor, draft Gower essay.

Before I sleep, I have to ~~finish typing up my summary~~, read 100 pages of Appes, and ~~write post~~ on CHALK.

My day

2006-05-26T07:15:41Z

Today was somewhat atypical. The morning began hectically. My first alarm went off, I shushed it. Ten minutes later, the second one started to blast Tori Amos. Tori at maximum volume is scary. Didn't have time to eat; showered and ran. When I got to the intersection of 53rd and Woodlawn, I saw a small group of students waiting at a bus stop. I suddenly recalled what Tim had told me a few weeks ago: there was a city bus that ran from my area to campus. Could this be the phantom bus? I got on, and was whisked to campus in about 10 minutes.

At lunch, I didn't find my usual group of friends in Hutch, so I went back to the lounge. On my way there, I saw a little finch curled up on one of the stepping stones, dead. It had light brown and gold stripes. I buried it.

After my afternoon class, Jenny and I were walking towards the library. I stopped by the Botany pond because I had heard about a group of turtles who had set up camp there. I didn't see any turtles. Where were the turtles? I did see a family of ducks. For once, the female bird showed more spirit than the male one. She kept ducking her head under water, and flapping her lovely wings. The male one just sat there, looking pretty.

At that point, an Asian woman started talking to me. She asked me where I was from. I hesitated; I said "Toronto." She said, "Oh China!" I nodded. One time in France, I met a woman who asked me where I was from. I told her that I was from Toronto, but she didn't believe me; she was not satisfied until I said "I am from China."

Whereas that French woman had been motivated by a blend of prejudice and curiosity, the Asian woman needed to hear that I was from China from an emotional level. She told me that she arrived in Chicago only a year ago, and that her husband is American. She is from Tibet. So, I sat with her on a bench for a while, and we talked about our immigrant experiences. She revealed that she felt very lonely here, because she didn't speak English very well, and Americans seemed chilly to her. I did my best to comfort her, talking about how I too went through a hard time in those initial years, and that the cultural shock could be overcome with time. She kept telling me that her husband was American, and that she could not understand him sometimes. I didn't understand the full significance of that until she told me that he was 87 years old. She could not have been more than 30. I started to understood what she was NOT saying after this. She seemed like a nice woman, eloquent, pretty, but terribly strained by the situation she's in. We exchanged e-mail addresses.

At the library, I started research on my Medieval paper. About an hour into my readings, my head hit the table. I woke up when Jenny started talking to me. She asked, "want to go to dinner?" To which I responded, blankly, "Did I drool?"

...I do that (sometimes).

She, Meg, and I went to Florian's for dinner. Damn fine food, though the service was so-so. I needed it. I was hungry, mentally and bodily. It was nice to relax like that.

Went back to the library. Watched 1/2 hour of Fellowship of the Ring DVD commentary on my laptop, before I focused on reading Ricoeur's interpretation of Geertz and "positive ideology." Fascinating stuff. I suddenly realized at one point why Bevington's 1982 book was called "Action Is Eloquence." Action is language. Language is constructed from signs and symbols. So is action. Extrinsic symbols, thick description. Oh....

I left the library at 12:50 AM. Because I was distracted by high theory and tired by my day, I got on the bus without really looking at the sign. Yes, ironically, I was thinking so hard about signs that I didn't read the sign on the bus. The bus I was on was the A, not the E. And when the bus started turning towards the lake, I knew I was seriously off course. I asked the driver to drop me off at the intersection nearest to 53rd and S Kenwood. When I got off the bus, I was nearly at the lake. Walking back to my apartment meant that I had to go beneathe the bridge. I hate going beneathe that bridge, even during the daytime. I thought, if I get robbed, at least my library and credit cards are in my pocket, not my purse.

Long story short, I got back to my apartment without incident.

I have a bunch of chores to do tomorrow. Nothing related to school. Hopefully I can get back to my books around early evening.

Last but not least, Sean Bean Is Sexy.

10 Things I hate about books, a MEME

2006-05-24T07:34:08Z

Does anyone know how to switch from smart text mode to normal? Everytime I try to post, I get the smart text toolbar. I got this meme from <lj user="sartorias">: 10 things I hate about [fantasy-romance, fantasy, romance] books. A warning--the peeves have to do with gender and race.

1) Every single character is white. The women are defined by their snowy skin, flaming red hair, sparkling green eyes, etc. I can't remember the last time when the heroine was black haired and swarthy-skinned.

2) The characters are uniformily heterosexual.

3) The fantasy world is a mirror image of an easily-identifiable European society (usually English).

4) The hero is always aristocratic. Ducal heroes are the favourites. Never mind that one is more likely to kiss a unicorn than talk to (and hook up with) a duke. *sigh*

5) The heroine's bestfriend never gets any action. She's there simply to support the heroine, or provide exposition.

6) The main characters are orphans. Even when they have parents, the parents are silent and absent.

7) Bad dialogue. Some of the worst I've ever read was in this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037381111X/qid=1148455423/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-0077988-0744753?s=books&v=glance&n=283155">book</a>.

8) Beautiful man marrying plain woman. This might be the biggest fantasy of all. In real life, people do not usually marry into a totally different aesthetic or social class.

9) Lack of interesting pets. From time to time, a dog, cat, or palfry might appear. They're kind of like the bestfriend. Setpieces, decoration. 10) --

I will...thesis last update

2006-05-22T04:58:45Z

My thesis will be done on time. I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, etc. This evening, I bought huge tube of icecream and a huge bottle of diet coke. Sweets and caffeine. Yeah, my good companions in this last leg of the long and tortuous journey towards the completion of my thesis.

rem_chan @ 2006-05-17T01:17:00

2006-05-17T06:18:39Z

I'm alive. It's thesis week, so I've got a lot of thesis stuff to worry about. However, life is not all bad. In the immortal words of Tony Montana, say hello to my little friends.....

Crappy weather

2006-05-14T04:52:16Z

I like this weather because it's cool and breezy.

I hate it because we haven't seen the sun for many days now. No sun forecasted until next Friday.

Some idiot is playing Ella Fitzgerald (I think) really loudly. A moment ago, I shouted "shut up!!." I feel like going down and yelling at the idiot(s) "shut the fuck up you inconsiderate fucking moron(s)!!!!!!" But I might wake up the other ppl in my building. I guess you haven't really experienced Chicago until you hear jazz in the middle of the night.

I feel the malaise. The loud jazz is not helping. It's unending. Incessant. Oh God!

Edit: at midnight sharp, the blasted music stopped. Municipal by-law? *headache*