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May 27th, 2009
01:31 pm - Anime North/manga in general
Anime North was pretty much the same as last year--40 hours of work in three days, fueled by pure geek. It went very well, considering. And I didn't even get exhausted enough to puke! NotHayama's sick as a dog, though. *sniff* We're getting too old for this kind of lifestyle, maybe.
I didn't get to buy or do much at the con because I was so busy working, but I did manage to nab a Zero plushie for a friend (although the plushie was smiling...which is unnerving, considering Zero) as well as the two-volume Don't Blame Me manga by Yugi Yamada that Casey raved about a little while ago. And you know what? It's as good as she says. It's one of the best yaoi I've ever read, period. Even NotHayama read it and liked it, which is an extremely rare occurrence with her and yaoi. I really have the desire to read more Yugi Yamada titles, like, right now, but I'm at work, so it'll have to wait. (My favorite of hers up until this point had been No One Loves Me...)
I also bought and read the final volume of Flower of Life by Fumi Yoshinaga. I was wondering where the sobbing boys in this story were...but in volume 4, boom! All boys in Fumi Yoshinaga's books are destined to burst into tears at some point. I came for the crying men, and I left satisfied! I also teared up, too, by the way, because Fumi Yoshinaga is one of the best mangaka on the planet and her stories get me right here. *taps chest*
Oh, and I'm pretty sure no one who reads this listens to drama CDs, but the DECOY CD just came out, and it is PURE AWESOME. I was listening to it on my work commute and was so engrossed that it was physically painful to remove my headphones and do my job. Saki Aida, I want to have your babies. Only her S series is available in English right now, but if companies keep picking up yaoi light novels, it's only a matter of time.
Life has been very busy lately, so I can't wait for the weekend. I really want to eat take-out in my pajamas while playing video games. Oh, and I wanna go to the movies! Pixar's new film is coming out, and I MUST SEE IT. It has a fat kid and an old man bitchfight in it. MUST. SEE.
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May 17th, 2009
11:15 pm - Girl games comin' up/cons So the girlish part of me wants to play this:
And the mean part of me wants to play this:
And I already put in my pre-order for the Skip Beat PS2 game, because SERIOUSLY. And I bought this a few weeks ago. And of course I have to have this in June.
I think...I need a 12-step program, because this is getting out of hand.
In other, less shameful news, TCAF was wonderful! Jason Thompson is just so damn nice, and I know I can mention any manga title in English--any title at all--and he will have read it. *lol* That's rare, considering I know a lot of people who run at the mouth about manga titles they've heard about but have never actually read. You do realize you need to read something before loving/hating it, right?
Anime North is next weekend, and I'll be spending it helping the indie comics staff of the Beguiling tend to the whims of teenage otaku WHO ARE ALL UP IN YOUR FACE. I love screaming teenage otaku. I love them! IT IS MY CULTURE AND I WILL NOT TURN MY BACK ON IT. When some hopeful girl comes to my table looking for a manga with both streetfighting and girlish sentimentalism, and she's passed over to me, I'll give her Punch! and we'll both be happy, even if she's never heard of Scott Pilgrim. Otakuism is my roots. See: every single post before this one.
I will, however, be carding for yaoi. And for the 16- or 17-year-olds who complain, you'll get Totally Captivated and you'll thank me later.
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April 28th, 2009
09:13 pm - 5 seconds to help breast cancer research
Would anyone reading this please click here and then click on the big pink button that says "Click Here To Give"? Especially today and tomorrow? Thanks much.
By the way, all six of those click charities (you can see the tabs on the top of the page) are worth visiting daily. It's like you're making a difference without doing anything hard! Like, whoa.
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April 21st, 2009
11:33 pm - Briefly insane with Teh Geek [(new chap of Skip Beat in Japan) + (new chap of Vampire Knight in Japan)]/romantic development in both = ARRRGGGLBRRRRRGLE!
Hakusensha, I am salivating at your magazines. You can do no wrong these days. And I just found out you publish Melody magazine, which is responsible for OMG YES AND IT JUST WON THE TEZUKA AWARD THE OTHER DAY HOLY SMOKES.
You kill me, shoujo. You kill me. GIVE ME MORE FOREVER EVEN IF IT DESTROYS THE PLANET. Current Mood: insane Current Music: the sound of blood rushing in my ears seriously what's wrong with me
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March 20th, 2009
06:30 pm - Quick Religion Post I'm not Catholic, but half my family is, and I tend to get along really well with Catholics. Catholics are an easy target these days, so I usually step up to defend them against really hateful accusations (such as "all priests molest little children" and other such bull...not to defend the horrible beasts who don't properly punish priests who molest children, but to defend the 99% of priests who gave up their lives to do good things and would never dare touch a child).
But I read this article today, and I couldn't help facepalming. Let me show you why (bold is mine):
"Particularly disturbing is the crushing yoke of discrimination that women and girls so often endure, not to mention the unspeakable practice of sexual violence and exploitation which causes such humiliation and trauma," Benedict told an audience of government leaders and foreign diplomats in the late afternoon.
He also criticized what he called the "irony of those who promote abortion as a form of 'maternal' health care." The pope was referring to an African Union agreement signed by Angola and 44 other countries that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is endangered.
"How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health," Benedict said.
You're doing it wrong.
Regardless of how you feel about abortion after rape or incest, there's no way you can claim a mother's life being in danger is somehow not an issue of maternal health care.
If you're 100% against abortion in all cases, and you want to argue it, then you discuss incest, especially rape, and especially life of the mother very, very carefully. You use words like "sad," "sacrifice," "blessed in heaven for doing all you could on earth to protect life." You DO NOT TELL PEOPLE that the moment a woman is a pregnant, her health is no longer an issue, and discussing it is "disconcerting" and simply a matter of "reproductive health." Dying during childbirth is a matter of overall health--you know, BEING ALIVE OR NOT. And you especially don't say these things during a speech where you condemn the discrimination and exploitation of women. And don't you dare you use the word "irony," because you're being the most ironic of all.
This move was about as brilliant as the excommunications resulting from the abortion given to a 9-year-old rape victim. I don't know how often people are excommunicated from the church, but since I'm pretty sure everyone who has an abortion isn't excommunicated, do you really want to make an example of this tiny rape victim's mother and doctors? Seriously? You think THIS is a case where you should waive forgiveness and take a stand?
I'm sorry, but you're doing it wrong. You know how it's stupid for a fundamentalist Muslim to blow him/herself up to protest Islamic oppression? Being religious doesn't give you a free pass for being an archaic idiot. I'm pretty sure God likes it when we think. So let's think before we act and do God proud for a change.
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March 19th, 2009
07:15 pm - I'm an auntie again! + kitties! My brother had his second kid - a little boy this time. I'm going home in a few weeks for the sole reason that I MUST SQUEEZE HIM.
Also, the Funhouse is officially fostering two cats right now - a pair of 6-month-old siblings, one male and one female. They're trouble, and they're cute, and they simply sit there patiently and close their eyes while I squeeze them.
Life is good. And full of squeezing.
EDIT (pictures!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlonista/3354535358/in/photostream/ (Daria, girl) http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlonista/3361758032/in/photostream/ (Darwin, her brother) Sometimes, they just snuggle all day, and they only break their snoozing to nibble on each other. ...Except when one of us humans, ANY of us humans, is eating ANYTHING, at which point the cats jump and scream at us to share. I had one cat licking bread crumbs off of me when I was eating toast, no kidding. I don't know where this insatiable desire for People Food originated. Did their last owners raise them on McDonald's, I wonder?
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January 22nd, 2009
12:13 pm - Itty bitty feminism post This article made me stop for a minute:
Grad student sells her virginity for tuition. The opening line about "making money the old-fashioned way" kinda made me want to spit soda all over my keyboard, but you know what? The statement is completely true.
But regarding the term "female empowerment" in 99% of its common applications...

"You keep using this word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
The thing is, the way they describe this stunt makes it sound like one of those twisty, unusual applications of feminism that it takes a second for one to get his/her head around--like legalized prostitution in general, which has a definitive feminist argument behind it. I wonder what a third-wave feminist would say about all this? I have my hands full trying to reconcile Western feminism with Islamic feminism with a dash of Japanese feminism, and prostitution beyond the early origins of Islam is a definite deal-breaker in Islamic feminism, so I'm not even going to try. Anyone?
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January 11th, 2009
06:05 pm - Quick note: Dead to the world Just wanted to say that in light of my job getting the dreaded "inconclusive data" tag a few weeks before we're up for grant renewal, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to do anything outside of work until early February. That means e-mails, community posts, etc. will largely be pushed off a few weeks. I'm sorry if that includes you. The two exceptions I'll definitely be making:
-Sleep is for the Weak will be updated this week. -I'll be at the ridiculous party at Ben's place on Jan 31st, although I'm afraid all I can offer is my presence and whatever I can buy on my way there.
I'll miss humanity, but them's the breaks. I blame science.
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December 31st, 2008
03:09 pm - New Year's Eve/professional updates 2009 is in less than 12 hrs. Woo! I think Becca and I are making the same resolutions we do every year: be less fat, more successful. Meh, I made that decision recently so it's not like it's any more special today; although it sucks, despite the holidays I've been working hard and watching what I eat for weeks now. (Not including last night, when I got stoned on Gravol/Dramamine and ate a giant swiss cake roll out of its box with a fork.)
I finish the last volume of Fruits Basket in about 2 weeks, which is a big relief. I'm still doing some uncredited stuff for DMP. I'm nearly done or at least caught up to Japan with all of my series, which is kinda surreal, because with the manga industry imploding as it is, this may be my last run as a "busy" freelancer...you know, someone who does more than a single script every few months. I doubt I'll ever stop completely, but even these days I'm only doing approx one book for Tokyopop and one book for DMP every 5-6 weeks. But that's probably a good thing, considering I have 3 other jobs.
Weird professional news: in Volume 7 of Tactics, for no clear reason, my real name was printed instead of my pen name in the credits. -_-; I was flipping through the book, stopped at the title page, and stared at it awhile, not sure what was wrong...until it hit me. It's not like my real name is a secret or anything, it's just...weird to see my birth name in print. My loved ones in real life will probably be happy, since I've been getting the "Why would you pick a stupid name like Lianne Sentar?!" joke for about 10 years now. I made up the name when I was 13, all right? What was YOUR pen name when you were 13? I bet it was something like "Liryanya the Elf Princess of Elynyna Wood." Only with more y's.
Also, I did the script adaptation of the one-shot Koge Donbo manga "Kouhime Soushi" for Tokyopop ages ago and forgot to announce it, and although I heard it came out in the fall, yesterday was the first time I actually saw the book on a bookstore shelf. So yeah, I guess I should update my personal website with that new credit. I also got assigned a new short series, "Bloody Kiss," which showed up on amazon so I guess I can admit to being part of the editing team on it. It's a VAMPIRE MANGA FOR GIRLS, which is pretty appropriate considering I've actually been enjoying some media with vampires in it lately. (Messiah and Vampire Knight, to be specific.) No, I refuse to read Twilight, since my 14-year-old sister already told me it was lame. I also hate hate HATE any story that spends too much time describing how hot its characters are, and that includes prose, manga, anime, whatever. It's one of my only criticisms of Banana Fish, actually. Since I've heard Twilight can't stop its narration from describing Edward's dark and brooding eyes or whatever EVERY OTHER PAGE, that's a deal-breaker. I sorta want to see the movie and bask in the lame, though. Sometimes I like to watch stupid things for fun. Plus, I can't properly tell teenage girls to ditch Twilight and read Vampire Knight unless I experience Twilight more fully. I gave my 14-year-old sister Vampire Knight for X-Mas; I'm looking forward to seeing if she finds it more or less stupid than Twilight.
Speaking of Vampire Knight, I saw the anime finale yesterday, and it emotionally traumatized me. I had to read happy things all day just to get some of those last scenes out of my head. Then I ate that swiss cake roll and realized life is awesome, even if some series finales WANT TO TRY AND KILL ME.
Happy New Year. P.S.--I bought a limited-edition Vampire Knight alarm clock from Japan. Instead of buzzing or beeping, the hot boys from the manga whisper good morning messages when the alarm goes off. This is what my life has become. Current Mood: ashamed Current Music: The hum of lab equipment as I work on a holiday
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November 24th, 2008
02:41 pm - Video game paradise. Only a few more weeks...and then out comes the game you all want, whether or not you know you want it yet.
And it sounds like it's going to kick new realms of ass. Hoooooo boy.
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November 6th, 2008
12:45 pm - Ah, hell--since we're talking about homoerotic vampires. If you're following Vampire Knight, don't watch this, since it's a pretty big spoiler...but I just wanted to show how you can properly squeeze homoerotic undertones into a series that is VERY STRAIGHT. It seems that most anime and manga have been very lazy about this lately, guarded by the thought "Oh, ladies like boy x boy, so shoving incongruous boys in dresses and/or kissing each other means more sales!" Um, STOP. Stop ruining tone and plot for stupid fujoshi fodder. You can do the undertones, you just have to plan them better:
Haha! And in the moment before this clip started, they were angrily throwing each other around Kaname's bedroom and Kaname was heard to say "I hate you...and dammit, you smell like Yuuki."
For the win.
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October 29th, 2008
05:44 pm - Messiah
 OM NOM NOM.
Who here's played the PC game (well, visual novel) Messiah? If you haven't, no, don't look it up. It's not for kids and its blasphemous title still upsets me a lot. The title of the game's artbook is so tremendously inappropriate for anyone of the Judeo-Christian faith tradition that I refuse to type it.
But after ignoring the title (PLEASE DON'T STRIKE ME DOWN, GOD) and playing the game, I loved it so hard that I could hardly believe it. It's about a 20-something boy named Takuto with such a long history of sexual abuse that he has trouble making friends with anybody who represents sex in any way. He smokes, takes the uncomfortably late night shift at work, and is borderline alcoholic. He surrounds himself with non-threatening girls and lives with his best friend, who's proven himself to be a Safe Zone for Takuto...although Takuto DOES discover eventually that this best friend has a gay crush on him, but Takuto hopes ignoring that will make it go away since the friend never acts on it. One day, Takuto finds himself making friends with a foreign man who seems vaguely familiar. This foreign man "grows ill" and asks Takuto to visit him, but considering the oddness of the circumstances, Takuto's best friend/roommate insists on coming with him. They travel to this gothic mansion in their modern Yokohama with nothing but good intentions, and then, bam--doors close, windows lock, and the foreign man proves to be a VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMPIRE. While the vampire tries to turn Takuto into his eternal companion by threatening Takuto's best friend, weeks inside this mansion drive Takuto and his best friend nuts and it forces them to deal with all their unspoken issues before they die or are separated forever.
Anyway, it's awesome and totally intense. I cried no fewer than three times during my first play-through. Even the sequel/fandisc made me tear up, and that game is basically an LSD-inspired Alice in Wonderland adventure through Takuto's tangled psyche as he learns how to get over his baggage and express love for other human beings. When they released the 2-disc drama CD about a month ago (which continues the story after the two major happy endings from the game--end up with the best friend, or end up with the vampire), I brought it to work to listen to it on my headphones during a lazy Sunday in the lab. The CD was so good and distracting that I forgot to look away when opening a bottle of concentrated hydrochloric acid, so I got a great big whiff of 10M HCL that sent me reeling and gave me a headache for hours. Yes, the CD was so good that it almost gave me a chemical burn.
So it's weird that a boy x boy 18+ vampire game would affect me this severely, especially since I'm not much of a vampire person, but Messiah is so emotionally severe and the cast did such a great job that it draws me in every time I play it. And when I recently returned to the Japanese website, and saw the picture above advertising for a new CD following one of the alternate, kinda twisted endings from the original game, I felt the need to write this. I'm sorry. It's just...that new CD comes out on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it.
I love this damn series. I hope they drag it out forever.
P.S.--If you're not at work (there's some sexual stuff in it), you can see the really long trailer here. But I wouldn't blame you for not clicking that.
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October 1st, 2008
01:34 pm - Fruits Basket 22/October will be PURE WIN I have some time to blow right now, since I'm in the lab and I can't leave until my myometrium pieces contract regularly in their tissue baths. This can take as little as 30 minutes. I'm now past hour 2. DAMMIT, SCIENCE.
By the way, Happy Eid to fellow Muslims, and Happy New Year to the Jewish folk. I love when religious holidays line up--then all us minorities can take time off work and party together. Of note is that Ben (Jewish) and I are at work right now regardless. DAMMIT, SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY.
Last night at the wee hours I finished my rewrite of Fruits Basket 22, which means I'm now one volume short of the ending. Considering Volume 22 closes up most major things in the series, I'm not sure how the mangaka is going to fill up an entire final volume with meaningful material. I'm sure it'll be epilogue stuff, along with tying up every loose end the mangaka still cares about (and there are a lot of them, if she feels the need), and gratuitous snuggling between all the happy couples. I assume most Fruits Baskets fans don't read the series because they want something succinct, so I guess people will be pleased. I always feel really strange when I'm getting close to the ending of a series...I start feeling particularly attached to it, and thus the parting is, like, sad. But Fruits Basket isn't like most series. There's this really thick wall between us, since I know I can't play around with it the way I do with most series I'm given, and the narrative and dialogue are so vague and existential that I feel guilty even trying to clarify things for fear I'm losing some point I just don't get. It's a very difficult rewrite. So now that the series is ending, I'm not really sad, just...relieved? Is it bad (read: unprofessional) for me to say that? Maybe I'm just tired.
Anyway, onto geeky things: this season's anime in Japan is girl geek paradise, and it all starts at the end of the week. SKIP BEAT ANIME OMG, Vampire Knight season 2, Junjou Romantica season 2, Natsume's Book of Friends season 2, that thing about The Fairy and the Count, and lord knows what else. Plus Princess Debut comes out for the DS IN ENGLISH (squee!) this week, and a bunch of manga I'm looking forward to will follow shortly. Now that Ramadan and the time-consuming training period of my job are over, I'm looking forward to some sweet geeking when I get home and change into my pajamas.
Tissues are contracting now; I can go home in 10 minutes. Final wait time: almost 3 hours. STUPID SCIENCE.
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August 8th, 2008
10:14 pm - Dancing = awesome Emily's been talking about So You Think You Can Dance lately, which makes me a little sad, since I couldn't watch it this season. But I had no idea they started doing THIS.
Badass. Seriously.
I hate reality TV, but So You Think You Can Dance is pure win. I'm willing to tolerate all of the vast, vast realm of reality crap so that it can air for years to come.
Except for Laguna Beach. I want to set fire to Laguna Beach.
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July 28th, 2008
01:14 am - Rave Volumes 31-33, Hiro Mashima

Hiro Mashima was at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. I've been reading the coverage of his panel and writhing in envy. I really wanted to shake the guy's hand. But since he came on Del Rey's dime to largely promote Fairy Tail, and I'm a lowly Tokyopop monkey who's been working on his lowly flagship series Rave Master for years, I don't know what I would've said to him. (Particularly in Japanese, since my vocabulary is so limited that I'd have to look up the word "editor.") But I still wish I could've at least seen him. He sounded like such a good sport, letting himself get photographed and doing a speed sketch to show how he draws his current shounen hero. Mangaka can be really edgy about public appearances, especially when they're busy doing BOTH A WEEKLY AND A MONTHLY SERIES, which Mashima is. But it sounds like he put on a good show, and I would've loved to witness it. *wipes single tear* I guess I'll just have to love him from afar.
After Rave Volume 31, I have an entirely new respect for the guy. It's one of the best shounen volumes I've ever read, period. I teared up multiple times while working on the script. Totally, totally beyond what Rave usually is, and it has me really looking forward to the conclusion of the series. Strangely, that's soon--I've been on a bit of a Rave Master rewriting run again, thus I handed in Rave #33 last week ahead of schedule. Only two more volumes and I'm done. THAT'S CRAZY.
Sigh...I always get emotional when long-running series of mine head to a close. But my emotions could've been soothed for the first time ever by actually telling the mangaka to his face that he makes me love my job. Dammit! Why does Comic Con have to be a million miles away?
真島せんせいが大好き。RAVEは私の胸の中で。。。
Now I just have to keep hoping that one day, for some reason, I'll get to meet Kasane Katsumoto and put my head in her lap and tell her how much of an influence SHE had on my life. Although she'd probably have me restrained by security for the whole head-in-the-lap thing.
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July 4th, 2008
10:58 am - Real life is awesome. Mini update on real life, because right now I'm totally psyched to be alive.
1.) I'm officially a practicing chemist now. I just got a research position through a local hospital; it starts in a month and involves experimenting on rat and human uteruses with drugs. So not only is it a biochemical research job (and not some stupid industry job where I'd make bleach all day), but it's in drugs AND women's health, which are my favorite research topics. I'm so psyched, I can't even tell you.
2.) I'm gonna be a Maid of Honor for a wedding that will not be mentioned here unless she tells me it's okay to tell everyone. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
3.) Ben and Alex just got a sweet apartment about a half-mile from mine. So now there's going to be a Boy Pad within walking distance of our Girl Pad, and it will be the place to a.) dump in-town guests every once in a while so we don't have 60 people in our living room and b.) play video games really hard, since Alex is a SEVERE gamer. I think we may also be chipping in together to get a Rock Band set that will migrate from pad to pad.
Life is good!
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June 19th, 2008
03:33 pm - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! They're animating Skip Beat! They're animating Skip Beat!
Look!
You see, kids? God listens when you pray!
(Thank you, God!) Current Mood: ecstatic
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June 5th, 2008
08:50 am - R.I.P., Tokyopop staff I lost almost all of my bosses this week in the big Tokyopop lay-off. I honestly can't believe they're gone. Some of those people have been in the company for years, adamantly defending the company online, patrolling message boards to keep fans in the loop, and, obviously, working hard at their incredibly huge regular workloads.
It's depressing as hell, but I hope it's a step in the right direction for those editors. Maybe now they can find a job SLIGHTLY less stressful than working in Tokyopop editorial.
My series for them have already been dwindling to a close lately, and although I'm on the list for new series rewriters, I have no idea what that's going to amount to if series are getting bought less frequently and actively CUT in other cases. Maybe I'll even lose some stuff I'm currently working on (doubt it in the case of Fruits Basket, though). But I'm a freelancer, and that's the nature of the job, and I work for other companies in addition to Tokyopop, so I don't think the news is going to change my life all that much. I just feel for those editors. Putting your entire life into one job for one company and then losing it all must suck so, so hard.
I hope this ends up being a good thing in your professional lives, Tokyopop staff. Onward and upward! God knows you're talented, and other companies would be lucky to have you. Current Mood: sad
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May 16th, 2008
05:17 pm - MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Guess what I just got? My final grades. Guess what I needed to complete my Master's? A 73% or higher in Physical Organic Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Guess what I got? A 73%. Guess what I get to do in less than 48 hours?
Put on a cap and G-R-A-D-U-A-T-E.
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*EDIT: I just found out the craziest thing. My dad told me that in the few brief years he practiced architecture in Canada, he was largely focused on building up a "two-horse town" in northern Alberta that was rich in oil sands. He designed roads, social centers, etc. He even kept the plans on the wall of our old house as a sort of decoration/reminder of how many years he went to school only to get sick of architectural practice almost immediately.
And you know the name of that town? Fort McMurry.
Ana, my father designed Fort McMurry.
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April 28th, 2008
08:49 am - Almost done with many things...thus video games! A week from tomorrow, I think I'm officially done with all schoolwork for my Master's. The only catch is I have to get a B- on one of my finals or I won't graduate. Uh...I'd better f'ing study. (I personally think needing to reach a certain grade on a sit-in, closed-book final at the grad level is stupid, but that rant is for another time.)
Today, though, I'm finishing up the last volume of B't X (16). And instead of getting my butt in gear, I'm fantasizing about being done with schoolwork next week. At which point I will run (not walk) to the video game store and reward myself with this:
I've always loved hot boys on mounted units, but now they can gallop through LINES of guys, PLOWING through them not unlike a, well, plow? My heart is getting all warm at the thought of that. And they say it's for hardcore strategy players only. Ho ho! This is the kind of crazy crap I live for. Well, this and Japanese girl's dating sims.
I'll, uh, do a post of substance soon. Sorry for the black-out.
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