the kangaroo communique --> back-up style!

Went a long time without checking LJ, yet again.

I have a bit of an excuse this time - my personal journal simply wouldn't load on Firefox, and when it DID load, it was way too slow for my taste.

If you suddenly get me commenting on some entry of yours from god-knows-when, this is why. OTL

So, life things. Been keeping up fabulously with my studies. Got a report coming up on Tuesday for World Fiction, and another one on the 11th for Text and Context. Text and Context professor has thankfully moved our class from Saturday morning to Monday afternoon to evening. Never been hot about 4:30-7:30 PM classes, but they're still worlds better than Saturday morning ones. I'm going to miss the novelty of stumbling into a room full of students who are just as sleepy as you are, though. There's some odd camaraderie to be found in that.

On that note, my report for World Fiction is on Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go". Until now, that novel has always been on my Books I Have to Read When I Am Less Busy list, so I'm kind of glad that I had an opportunity to pick it up and just go for it because of class, strange as that might sound. It was a good read overall, but I didn't feel nearly as sad about the way things go in the story as I suppose I should have. Either it just didn't work for me, or I'm too used to reading Japanese literature/manga and watching Japanese series.

Family's been meeting up a lot this week. There was my brother Paolo's birthday dinner, for one, then mother's birthday dinner, then the actual celebration we had for mom at home. Got to catch up with cousins there, and gave a pep talk to one of the younger ones about college. Time flies hella fast when you're not looking, doesn't it?

On another note: Shangrila Plaza and I have become rather familiar with each other. And I got to see mlina for the first time in a long time. Good stuff.

Things are slow and quiet, for the most part. This is a good thing, because I'm finally feeling more like myself again. That means that I should be ready to do what I've got to do soon.

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Now for your usual fic dump.

► COUNT CAIN. // Forever was so many different things.
► GINTAMA. // This broken world we choose.
► GINTAMA. // What brought us to this.
► GINTAMA. // The world is tiny; the heart's enormous.
► GINTAMA. // There's a bird that nests inside you.
► OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE. // And I love you even through uncertainty.
► SENGOKU BASARA. // Feel my heart beat.
► KINGDOM HEARTS. // Tomorrow is something we remember.
► THE SKYTIDES RP. // Return my heart when I am dead.
► D.GRAYMAN. // Burning bridges.

UH.

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY ANSWERS FOR THE PHOTO MEME BUT.

I-I'm working on it, seriously...

On other news:

Personal Stuff; Have worked my way back to a-okay, which is lovely beyond words.

Cat Saga; Gouto likes nipping, Ginkitty likes harrassing Gouto. AND I HAVE MET SHINSUKE, MY FELINE COUNTERPART.

Academic Stuff; got a 25-page paper due for my grad studies tutorial class. Not sure if I mentioned it online, but I know my RL friends are aware of this since I keep whining about it. Got all the sources, and I've been working through the books I borrowed, but I'm starting to realize that I have absolutely no drive to do the paper. I could pin it on simple laziness, but on another end, it might be because I feel like I'm researching for nothing?

Let's quantify that. Since I'm an MA student, I'm expected to work towards some sort of specialization. I've been given the space to do papers that reflect my areas of interest in my other classes, but it does not seem possible for me to do that now. Hence, I'm stuck researching on drama (not my favorite thing, at least on a critical level) and performing a textual analysis using theories that, while I'm familiar with, aren't the ones I'm out to use in the future.

It's always good to read outside of your comfort zone, but given my time constraints and the stuff I'm pulling outside of scholarly work, I feel as though I'm just punishing myself for something whose benefits will only really come out later, if there are any benefits to be had at all.

(I could also be needlessly arrogant about this whole thing. In actuality, I could easily defer the submission of the paper for next semester with absolutely no loss to me, but I abhor the idea of having an incomplete mark on my record.)

I've considered writing up a new bibliography and a paper proposal for an idea I've been tossing around in my head for some time. I'm not sure how it'll float with this professor (she's cool, but very much a member of "the old guard", to quote unsymbolic), but I might as well try, right? If I manage to convince her, I'll have a much easier time.


Phoenix Wright; Just.

Um.

This game series?

It's eaten me alive.

The good: I'm okay. Some of you guys have probably seen the posts from the other folks in my country, and compared to most of those, I was hella fucking lucky. Subdivision where I'm living's pretty much on a mountain, so the most we got was leaky roofs, some flailing over electricity and making sure that everything was locked down and everyone was inside and did not leave.

Definitely much more worried about everyone ELSE out there, because this is probably the worst storm I've seen in all of my years down in the Philippines. As I said on Twitter, Plurk and IM, my house is open. It's WAY out of the way, but if any of you guys are stuck or something, please: let me know.

...For those of you who have no idea what just happened down here, long and short of is a storm named Ondoy came around and kicked all of our asses several ways to Sunday.

If you wish to help, there are sites all over the Internet that can show you how.

The bad: Parents have been delayed in coming home - I figure that it's better that way in the long run, but it's still horribly lonely and worrisome not having them around. Also heard they were hurt in a mishap on the train during their trip. Nothing major from what I gathered, but being injured in any fashion in a strange place is never good.

Back on the home front, some of my friends have not updated me or our other friends of their status for a little more than a day now. Some of my OTHER friends have not said anything at all since this began.

The ugly: Storm isn't quite over yet, and the rains have not quite let up down here... there are vague reports of yet ANOTHER storm coming within the next three days. I really, really hope that isn't going to happen. Flood levels around the metro still have not gone down all that much.

No school until Tuesday according to the news, and I hope to god that people will smarten up and make sure to call off work for everyone else. There are more pressing things to attend to for the majority of the population right now, I believe.


Hard to sort out my feelings on this one. It's a bitter thing and also highly surreal, being relatively unaffected by this on a physical level yet constantly wondering if one's friends and family are truly okay. Misplaced guilt, maybe? Can't really say.

I think I finally figured out why I haven't been able to sleep well at night. I've got roughly 9 days until the end of the month, three of which will be taken up by my immersion in Theology 141, and the lit conference is happening on the 13th of February. There's thesis to factor in too, along with whatever else comes my way in the few weeks I have until this lit major's D-Day.

Am trying to keep my head low and not thinking about it -- just do. That's how I've always managed to get through it. Heck, maybe writing about it here will make me feel better somehow, rather than me keeping it in and politely ignoring the thing going "EEEEEEEE!" in my head. o_o

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Naturally, the way I tend to avoid the thought of Impending Doom is through playing the PS2 (which I've been doing, in pursuit of Dist the Gay) and writing fanfiction.

Heads up to miyachan and macgirl_13: I've fulfilled Mia's request for something DMC (although not quite the longfic I plan on working on just yet), and Jill's request for something Odin Sphere with our favorite Black Knight & Valkryie Princess. ravenel, your P3 is possibly coming very soon.

FANFICTION
Tales of the Abyss. Evensong. [Duke & Duchess von Fabre, G]
Devil May Cry. The apple does not fall far from the tree. [Vergil, G]
Persona 3. God made the distance between me and you. [Shinji & Akihiko, sorta PG]
Odin Sphere. I'd want you beautiful and pale, the way I've dreamed you were. [Oswald & Gwendolyn, G]