DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, so that's not entirely true... there's another week of class left here at IUC, but today we had our 発表会 (awkwardly translated into English as a "presentation gathering/meeting") and now that that's behind me I consider the quarter pretty much over. 要するに my presentation went something like this:
In short, it was about how 60s fashion reflected the changing values of that generation, and how every old generation bitches about the young one destroying the world and yet in the end we somehow don't all fall off the face of the earth. There were also Mad Men pics. I wanted to use this, but perhaps it's not appropriate:
Oh yeah, your computers are in for a world of hurt now because I've figured out how to embed moving gifs into my blog and I'm going to abuse the fuck out of them. I've got a whole folder waiting for use and I'm gathering more and more everyday, like this one:
Happy dance!
There are a couple of tests on the horizon, but they don't seem all that burdensome and I'm not going to sweat them. And I am about an hour away from getting rid of my Ph.D. applications once and for all. Right now I'm taking a little mental break from a book review I just wrote for one of my apps so that I can edit with as clear a mind as I can. Yeah, I know, an hour isn't enough, but that's just how much I procrastinated on this.
I mean, check it: the assignment is to write a review of a book that I believe most shaped my understanding of history as a discipline and demonstrates the kind of methodology I want to take as a Ph.D. candidate. What a loaded question, and I only had 2 pages to write it. And call me a brown-nose if you want, but I ran with Japan Rising because it fits well with everything I say in my statement of purpose and the rest of my application. I had to laugh though because in one part I wrote about a speech Dr. Pyle gave last year about the lack of coverage of the postwar period in the historical discipline, as historians have generally leave that up to political scientists, anthropologists and the like. Half of me wanted to mention that this story comes from an event hosted for grad students and professors to mingle with the accompaniment of wine. As a matter of course, I had a couple at school, and then proceeded to get drunk at a bar afterward. Yeah, that's grad school for you. Not sure it's what the admissions committee wants to read, however. In the essay I make a brief reference to the fact that Dr. Pyle is currently working on another book as I was head-banging and singing along to Sleater-Kinney's The Woods and paused for a second to wonder if this is anything like Dr. Pyle's own writing process. I'm going to guess not, but the image of him throwing some horns got me through the rest of the essay. I've heard he does a killer rendition of "Kimigayo," however.
God it's terrifying that it's already the middle of December. I'm trying not to think about it, but now that I actually have time to take a breath and kick it a little, I can already feel the next crush of responsibility waving its index finger over my panic button. I've already said it here a million times, but just what the fuck am I going to do with myself over the summer? What am I going to do with myself next year? Just because I submitted applications and paid their ridiculous application fees doesn't guarantee me anything. Though I have intended to attend IUC for at least 3 years now (I almost submitted an application the first time I did the grad-school-sadomasochism gamut, but in the end decided to hold off), it's also a bit of a weigh station for me between making decisions. It's always great at the time you figure out how to stall being an adult and taking responsibility for yourself by making a long term plan, but once the sand starts running out of that hourglass you realize you're pretty much back to where you started. Anxious, unsure and without a damn clue as to what to do with yourself. It makes me feel like this:
Anyway, that's the next big project I've got hanging over my head. But in the immediate future, I am going to kick back, try to enjoy this last week of classes, take advantage of the 忘年会 ("end of the year party," but it literally translates to "forget the year party," which is what I plan to do through a liberal application of cocktails) and also bust out my copy of Freedom that finally came in the mail. It's usually about this point in the year that I start to long for a novel, so very ちょうどいい. We'll see if Franzen can kick my heart and head around the way he did the last time. I also wish I could celebrate in style at The Living Room and The Crescent as I heard some of my Japan Studies cohort at UW did over the weekend for Eve's birthday... SO MUCH ENVY. I've got some regular spots I hit around here, but none are like my haunts from Seattle. I guess that just means I need to drink more on weekends.
ETA: I meant to tell a story in my post last night, but completely forgot about it until this morning. I was the first person to give my presentation yesterday, and the room I was assigned to was the computer room. I went in there in the morning to print myself yet another draft of my speech, and they had set it up so that there was a large TV monitor for displaying our powerpoint presentations, and next to it was a tall chest of drawers. It was obtrusive and I wondered why the hell they put it there. When it came time for me to finally give my presentation, I grabbed the mouse off from the top of the drawers and gave my presentation off to the left hand side of the screen. Of course, after everyone else went after me, I realized those drawers were meant to be a PODIUM and I was supposed to stand behind it so that I didn't have to awkwardly bend over to click the mouse at desk level. GOD. I was also amused as hell by the teachers because they also were on rotation to cover every student in their class (they split us up different than we would normally be in the morning) and seeing them run down the hallways to get to the next presentation made me feel a little less foolish.
Also, tonight I was going along through my textbook doing my homework and there were a couple of instances where I got stuck. I realized that the connection between these two instances were the fact that the textbook I'm using right now is *actually new* and the concept of the "internet" and "electric car" isn't something that requires you to have a flux capacitor to understand it. I'm used to my Japanese textbooks talking about a broken tape player, having to make phone calls to the library to find out when it's open (I avoid the phone like the plague, and the thought of having to interface with someone about something as trivial as store hours still makes me uneasy) or the fact that Tanaka-san's shoulder pads make her look like a linebacker (ok, fine, I made that last one up). I've come to think of Japanese textbooks as talking to an old person: just accept what they say as fact because there's no point in telling them that we use iPods now, that you can check the library's hours on their "website," and that perhaps Tanaka-san isn't so unfashionable as she seems because the 80s are making a resurgence. The idea that there's a Japanese textbook out there that can talk to me on equal technological footing is disorienting.
ETA: I meant to tell a story in my post last night, but completely forgot about it until this morning. I was the first person to give my presentation yesterday, and the room I was assigned to was the computer room. I went in there in the morning to print myself yet another draft of my speech, and they had set it up so that there was a large TV monitor for displaying our powerpoint presentations, and next to it was a tall chest of drawers. It was obtrusive and I wondered why the hell they put it there. When it came time for me to finally give my presentation, I grabbed the mouse off from the top of the drawers and gave my presentation off to the left hand side of the screen. Of course, after everyone else went after me, I realized those drawers were meant to be a PODIUM and I was supposed to stand behind it so that I didn't have to awkwardly bend over to click the mouse at desk level. GOD. I was also amused as hell by the teachers because they also were on rotation to cover every student in their class (they split us up different than we would normally be in the morning) and seeing them run down the hallways to get to the next presentation made me feel a little less foolish.
Also, tonight I was going along through my textbook doing my homework and there were a couple of instances where I got stuck. I realized that the connection between these two instances were the fact that the textbook I'm using right now is *actually new* and the concept of the "internet" and "electric car" isn't something that requires you to have a flux capacitor to understand it. I'm used to my Japanese textbooks talking about a broken tape player, having to make phone calls to the library to find out when it's open (I avoid the phone like the plague, and the thought of having to interface with someone about something as trivial as store hours still makes me uneasy) or the fact that Tanaka-san's shoulder pads make her look like a linebacker (ok, fine, I made that last one up). I've come to think of Japanese textbooks as talking to an old person: just accept what they say as fact because there's no point in telling them that we use iPods now, that you can check the library's hours on their "website," and that perhaps Tanaka-san isn't so unfashionable as she seems because the 80s are making a resurgence. The idea that there's a Japanese textbook out there that can talk to me on equal technological footing is disorienting.
Okay, I've got nothing else constructive to contribute here, so I'm just going to dump all the stuff I've found on the internet this week at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!
You pique Maru's interest
But your face scares kitteh
Fly Pegasus!
Fluffy corgi butts make the world a better place.
Grilled cheese birthday cake?? I'll take two!
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?@?!?!?!?!111
This song's been getting a lot of play on my iPod (sorry for the horrible quality, but every youtube video of this song is a bootleg from one of their shows. I recommend buying their albums anyway)
I hope you can see what I tried to do here. There's a meme floating around of Hugh Jackman doing his zip-line from the top of the Sydney Opera House to Oprah's stage just before he smashed in his eye. Ouch. But since he's fine, it's OK to paste his image in ridiculous situations. If I had Photoshop and actually knew how to use it, this would look a lot better. But c'mon, YEE-HAW, YEEEEEE-HAAAAAWWWWWWW.
As expected, sloths are really ineffective swimmers.
Cher is the greatest human being and I will brook no disagreement.
As expected, sloths are really ineffective swimmers.
It's gotten pretty cold here in Japan recently and it may in fact turn into winter eventually. Carly is hosting a Christmas party on Saturday and I'm thinking I may try to make hot toddies because it's the perfect ダブル・パンチ when it comes to warming you up.
That is a BK Pizza Burger. Apparently we will be eating one of these tomorrow. I have my doubts on just how large one of these things is, so I think we should order 2.
So I couldn't find the exact video I was looking for, but if you've ever wondered why I say ワイワイ as much as I do, it comes from this sketch from a show called Vermillion Pleasure Nights. Think of SNL on acid. I forget the exact context for the skit I'm referencing (not that you really need context with this show), but eventually Mikey (the son) randomly catches on fire and excitedly shouts ワイワイ、遊園地遊園地、ワイワイ (yay! yay! amusement park, amusement park! yay! yay!). Yup, makes total sense. I can thank Chuck and Kelly for my introducing me to this quirk. We also studied this onomatopoeia in class and I guess a rough translation is "to make merry."
Le sigh... Take us out, fantastically 90s Mulder
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