laceblade

Last week was International Blog Against Racism Week. I've been saving all of the links to my favorite posts, and will post them soon. Perhaps tonight.

I just want an entire week in which I can sit in my apartment and get the rest of my stuff put away. It's presentable enough that I would allow people to come visit, but there are still a number of things for which I need to find spaces. I'm also really looking forward to getting some pictures on the walls.

I've got my manga shelved (except for the large stack for which there is no shelf!), but it's taking a while to go through my books and figure out which books will fit on my large bookshelf. For the most part, I'm taking out books I haven't read yet, so I'm not THAT GUY, the pretentious one who lines her shelves with books she's heard about but hasn't yet read. Of course, thus far the only shelf that's finished contains books on race, feminist books transitioning into literary criticism and reflections on women's literature, transitioning to 18th century women's literature written by women like the Brontes, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Louisa May Alcott. I have a lot of glee about this shelf, I tell you what.

I was pretty crabby yesterday. I was all set to bake some lemon pepper chicken breasts, and Antoine came over. He unfortunately forgot to bring the xxxHolic movie*, and it completely never occurred to me to take the chicken breasts out of the freezer so that they might thaw.

Thus, I spent a long time alternatively microwaving the chicken and letting it sit in a bowl of water, to no avail. Chicken breasts will be okay if I put them in airtight tupperware and set them in the fridge, right? I have the minced garlic and the lemon slices, as well as thawed chicken, so I think I'm going to try again tonight.

I was pretty disheartened, wearing the heinous green chef's hat my sister got me for Christmas, and my apron. In the end, Antoine treated me to a slice of pizza at Ian's. I am convinced that I will continuously fail at domesticity, but Antoine assures me that the only way to learn how to get better at cooking is to make a bunch of mistakes and then never make them again.

I'm reading Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin for Book Club, and I am loving it. Have I mentioned that I've never read The Handmaid's Tale? I fail at life, but I think I like her a lot! I look forward to reading other stuff by her.


* I feel like every time I get something from Netflix for the purpose of watching it with someone else, it takes at least 2 weeks for things to work out so that we can actually watch it. I think in the future, I'm only going to watch the stuff by myself! I want my money's worth.

So I have been doing more than just reading manga, watching anime, and watching Buffy/Angel, I promise. I just decided to catch up on stuff I had finished a while ago. I think all that's left at the moment is to write about the end of Elfen Lied (it got better, sort of) and how Code Geass is going (awesomely!).

Friday night, I went to The City (a bar) with co-workers to celebrate one of their birthdays. I only had two drinks, but the strawberry martini was hella high alcohol content, I think. I danced, I said snarky things, and I was vigilant against creepy bastards, on behalf of my friends. This means that it was a typical bar night, I suppose, but in honor of my friend, we kept playing Michael Jackson songs (they had a digital juke box) and totally busting it out in our corner of the bar. Amazing! I hadn't thought that I was very inebriated, until Chad drove me, Antoine, and a friend home (best roommate EVER!), and I tried to get out of the car. Holy crap! Getting out of the car was difficult. I didn't fall or anything, but it was more like, "Foot. Lift it. Move it. Put weight on it." Probably the most amusing part of the night was someone accusing me of being drunk, me saying, "I am not drunk, damn it!" and immediately afterward, Antoine bumping my hip with his (he was dancing), and me almost falling over.

On Saturday, Chad, Antoine and I went grocery shopping a day earlier than usual, because we knew that the weather would be bad today. Antoine and I ate dinner at Rising Sons Deli (Really, really good! And I think it's very nicely decorated in there.), and I went to Anime Club. By the time I got to Club, I was pretty damn tired from the night before, and sitting in a dark room reading subtitles didn't help too much. Still, the shows were good last night (or at least, as good as Elfen Lied gets!).

After Anime Club, though, was the most fun evening I've had in a while. I considered staying home because I was tired, but decided to go join my friends from Bleak House (the book publishing company where I interned this summer) to celebrate my former boss's birthday. They had already eaten dinner and cake together, but I joined them for some sledding at Sanitarium Hill, way on Madison's north side. The view from the top of the hill was great - you could see the entire city! Also, the building is supposedly haunted because it was originally a tuberculosis sanatorium, where people went to die. It was such a creepy building! Made of brick with large windows, and french doors on the ground floor. It's pretty much exactly how I imagined the various buildings to look on the high school campus that my characters attend in my ghost hunting story. This page has some black and white photographs.

After sledding (the hill was so huge! It's been a long time since I had fun that way), we tromped through the woods, originally behind the sanatorium. Then, we decided to go to a fort that two of the others had been to. We drove out to the Mendota Mental Hospital (holy barbed wire, batman!) and walked out to a place called Governor's Island, and sat on rocks where Frank Lloyd Wright had allegedly built a house that sank into the lake. My socks were full of snow, as were my jeans, but it felt good to spend so much time outside, and not just walking to work or class.

The way home was mostly good, except that towards the end, the falling rain was freezing on the roads. Despite traveling at a low speed, I almost fishtailed right into a parked car. Within a block of my house, my car could not make it up a relatively shallow hill. I had to put it in reverse and let it slide downhill (Thank you, driving instructor! I never believed you when you said that straight-backing would come in handy some day!) and went around the block, going at it from a different angle. This hill was even more mild, and my car still almost didn't make it. It's on the street now, probably completely covered in a shell of ice. The buses stopped running at 8:30am this morning. I am supposed to lector at 9pm mass this evening, but unless the snow makes it easier to drive (doubtful!), I will probably have to call in. I hate having to shirk responsibilities, but hopefully people will understand my not-wanting-to-die.

Anyway, I am glad that I bought food yesterday. Today will be spent washing laundry, doing some schoolwork, cleaning, and watching some DVDs. And hey, you never know - maybe blogging about anime again. Are my posts becoming too spammy? I feel like I haven't been this prolific since high school.

I guess I could blog before I get so tired that I fall asleep on my laptop. However, I woke up at 5:30am this morning, and that might happen anyway.

I really just feel run-down today. I lost my student ID and bus pass yesterday, which is obviously crappy. I live far enough away from campus that it takes about 45-60 minutes to walk home from where my classes are. It is cold as fuck outside, but I still walked home from my last class yesterday. Let me say: BAD CALL. I had to hug my thighs for a long time before I could feel them again.

Antoine and I went out for dinner, though, and had Mexican. So that was good. I also picked up some needed things from Office Depot, AND we went to Half-Price books. I picked up the Runaways v. Young Avengers comics (I've been following Runaways since it started), and The Beggar Queen, the last volume in Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy. I look forward to reading it. Standing in bookstores makes me feel guilty somehow, though. There are so many books I want to read, and even though I'm reading all the time, it never seems like enough.

At dinner , the waiter set the bill in front of Antoine, and not in the middle of the table.

Glaring and snatching it, I mutter to Antoine, "That was a little presumptuous of him."
"Well, we didn't tell them we were going to split the bill, so they put it all on one."
"I don't mean how they made the bill, I meant where he put it."
"Oh. Well....I do have a penis."

Today at work, I was making a list of homework for the weekend, things I should do for Anime Club, when I should work, how I should get my student ID/bus pass, etc. And I started to freak out a bit. Also because I have intense girl-pain, and because of this mostly uninhibiting diet I have to be on until the doctor figures out what's wrong with me, I cannot take Tylonel. DO YOU KNOW HOW HORRIBLE THIS PAIN IS? The only analogy I've ever come up with is that it's like a wolf came and chewed out my abdomen. Not in a very abstract-metaphor way, but in a very literal "sharp teeth very rapidly separated my innards' cells from one another, and there was a lot of pain as I crumpled into a ball and died."

BUT, in the end I decided to ask off of work on Monday. I would have had to leave an hour early for the Student Org Fair anyway, and I really do need a bus pass and student ID, but felt too horrible physically to do it today.

Is there good news? There must be. For the most part, I like my classes. Although I'm still not sure what ballroom dancing will be like, because we haven't actually danced yet. I kept almost laughing in class, though. Because it is like Princess Tutu! Only real life.

I have a habit of laughing at inappropriate times, really. I always have to stop myself from laughing when I'm in church.

Anyway, I feel crappy, so I'm staying home tonight. Hopefully, my room will become cleaner, I will watch more Angel/Buffy, get some homework done, and possibly see Antoine.

1:53pm: I'm pretty sure I pwned that final like no final has ever been pwned before. The essay that I really wanted to be on there....was. I have now lunched. Now I have time to like, do things. It's pretty sweet. Still have two finals to go, but am surprisingly cheerful.

1:59pm: The display screen on my cell phone is glowing. I threaten it with a violent gesture and a stern face. It stops glowing. I cackle.

6:30pm: OMG, I had a good dinner, and watched another episode of Angel. OMF, I get to go to Antoine's house and exchange Christmas presents soon! I hope he likes what I got him! I swiffered my floor today, and it feels amazing. What would life be like if I dusted and cleared the floor, and vacuumed?! I can't imagine!

11:25pm: So, I went to a branch of the Madison library system that is not the one right by Capitol square today, and holy crap, they have a nice graphic novel section! I thought that all of their stuff was in the teen section, but I was wrong.

Anyway, because I definitely meed more to add to my "to read over break" pile (actually, I don't), I picked up some graphic novels:
Legend of Chun Hyang - CLAMP
Scott Pilgrim, vol. 1-3 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
FRAY - Joss Whedon (etc.) (So excited to read this! In fact, I already read two chapters, and they were good!)
Castle Waiting - Linda Medley (This is actually quite long, literally novel-length, but oh well)

ALSO, Antoine is the nicest and cutest boyfriend ever, and he gave me the hardcover collection of the graphic novel based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower: "The Gunslinger Born." I swear, I don't think that there is a more beautifully drawn/painted comic out there. At least, I've never seen one. Reading this will be like watching a movie. I'm so excited for it!

It'll be nice to read some graphic novels that aren't manga, for a change.

12:13am: AND THUS.....I'll do the take-home exam in the morning. It'll be hokai. After that....I'll be studying for the Women's Studies final at 5:00. I'm not studying much for that one not because I think it'll be a breeze, but because I suck at multiple choice exams no matter what I do.

So....OMG. First of all, yes, I suck at life and I need to study and not do Everything But Study. I could have done other things today! I could have gone grocery shopping! Or, you know, studied.

Anyway, I watched episode 1.08 of Angel tonight, and OMG IT WAS GOOD!

I think next time, I might want to be heinous with Buffy season 5 and Angel season 2, and alternate episodes? Because every time there are crossover events, I'm all, "OMG, I want to go back and watch those two right in a row!"

( OMF, Spoilers )

The last 15 hours or so have been exhausting. Anime Club was nice enough. Lovely Complex had some really good episodes, we played Apples to Apples, and Black Lagoon was ridiculously good (and disturbing). People in the Alt.Room watched some Fullmetal Alchemist, and had a pile of games as well.

After that, I went to a couple of bars with my co-workers, to celebrate a friend's birthday. I was pretty tired the whole time, having gotten up early and just watched four hours' worth of anime. Large bars that are packed are creepy. I don't like them. I looked like hell, and I'm not just being all, "I will say that I looked like crap so that you can reassure me of how beautiful I am!" I was dressed for the walk home, so I had a long-sleeved shirt and a hooded sweatshirt on, carrying a bulky coat, and a backpack. My hair was frizzed out, so I had it pulled into a low ponytail, which can make me look pretty masculine. Whatever. Still, when I'm sitting down with a beer and happen to catch the glance of any guy I don't know, I'm met with creepy-as-fuck up-and-down eye movement and a slow smile. How do these guys score with girls? They're not interesting or flirty. It seems like they'll bang anything that moves, which is about the least-attractive thing ever. I understand we all have sex drives, but good God.

After scoring a free beer from a friend, I hung around for a while, and then bundled up and set out for home. The bus schedule really sucks on the weekends. The only buses that run after 11pm are the campus ones, and they are irregular. I didn't want to stand around just hoping, so I walked. It's 2 miles from where I started to my house, and all of the sidewalks and streets were just piles of snow with a layer of wet ice on top. Every time I put weight on a foot, the foot slid about 4 inches, making it really tiring. I talked to Antoine on my phone for the first half of the walk, and then when I got by his house, he came outside and carried my backpack and held my hand for the whole rest of the way to my house. Antoine is the nicest boyfriend ever! I like him! Everyone should appreciate him.

At least I felt better than some of the people we saw outside.... The female half of a drunk couple on the other side of the road fell down on the sidewalk curb, and started hitting her boyfriend when he tried to help her out, and they threw snow at each other. The scariest person I came across was a girl bundled in a coat, scarf, and wearing a backpack, lying on her side in a parking lot just kind of flailing, yelling, "HEATHER!" The bottom kind of dropped out of my stomach as I was like, WTF, should I call the cops or just try to help her up? Then, a girl in a sweatsuit came running across the footbridge that spans Campus Drive and consoled the fallen girl, helping her stand up, and draping her arm across her back so that she could walk. College students are so WTF. Also, alcoholics. I wouldn't be surprised at all if at least 50% of us were seriously alcoholics.

This morning, the snow had turned to a heavy slush. Louise, her boyfriend, and I used shovels and a snow plow to clear the sidewalk and the driveway of the mess. My car had been on the street, and was surrounded by snow. By gunning it forward and backwards a few times, I almost got it free, but then it got pretty hopelessly stuck between piles of sludge. Lots of rubber was burnt trying to get it free, and we were prepared to shovel it out somehow, when a man and his daughter in a truck came by, and offered to use a rope to pull us free. People are so nice! Now my car is on the other side of the street, looking much more car-like, and less like a trapped animal.

I guess it's time to take a shower to warm up and make myself much less disgusting, eat something good for lunch, and use yesterday's library-work to write this damn paper. I'm not worried about this one (although it and tomorrow's stupid discussion presentation will take me all day), but the genocide paper I have due on Thursday is supposed to be 8-10 pages, and that is scary. I'm going to be comparing the Trail of Tears to Armenia, but I have yet to acquire....any sources, whatsoever. ;_;

It's so hard to work when I have Buffy and Angel lying around, along with so much manga. And such a messy room. Seriously, I can barely stand being in here, :(

I'm feeling quite cynical tonight. It's annoying. Makes it hard to get shit done. My room is a mess, and I don't care. Some bastard egged my car yesterday, so I got to enjoy that at 10pm when I went out for gas. Also, my paper is still terrible, but it's complete enough that I'll be able to tidy it up and print it in the morning. Too bad my thesis sucks. At least it's done. I should have taken tomorrow off from work so that I could actually have time to clean, pack, and tie up loose ends before going home. :/ Hopefully I'll at least get some homework done at work tomorrow.

~Complete shift in mood is due to having written the rest of this entry hours ago~

Holy crap, it's almost time for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving Day will be pretty lol. Antoine (a native of Flint, MI) has told me that he intends to cheer for the Detroit Lions. My family lives in Green Bay. Antoine thinks that this will be hilarious. I think that Antoine really doesn't understand what he's doing. I hope my boyfriend will survive this holiday!

Manga inspires scholarship
I'm now working on volume 2 of the Cantarella manga, and I am so in love! The main character is Cesare Borgia, the subject of Machiavelli's "The Prince." In fact, Machiavelli is a character in the manga! So awesome! So far, I am a fan of Cesare and his sister, Lucrezia. Today, I stopped at Memorial Library and picked up 3 books on the two of them. Not that I'll have any time to read them, but....I'll probably do it anyway, forgoing homework.

Clamp School Detectives, vol. 1-3 (no spoilers)
But today is not the day to blog about Cantarella! Instead, I will blog about the 3-volume manga series, "Clamp School Detectives," by (you guessed it!) CLAMP. Nokoru, Souh, and Akira are elementary school kids at Clamp School, a virtual self-sufficient city of itself. Students at the school range from kindergarten all the way through graduate school. Our heroes make up the Student Board for the elementary school. Each student board has complete control over its students, trumping the PTA, teachers, and the headmaster. What kind of boys does it take to have so much responsibility? Well, I'm glad you asked! Take Nokoru - he is only in fifth grade, but he is so intelligent that he has already been scouted by NASA! Not only that, but he is so attractive that girls at every age level are in love with him and his two cohorts. Not only THAT, but he is filthy rich.

Nokoru's fangirls: Can we take a picture of you?!
Random Girl: I want to put it in my locker!
Random Girl 2: I want to frame mine for my bedroom wall!
Random Girl 3: Me, too!
Random Girl 4: And Me!
Nokoru (surrounded by shojo bubbles and flower petals): Of course. *poses*
Random Girl 3: I'm so happy! I'll treasure this forever, Nokoru-sama!
Nokoru: I'm happy to be of service.
Random Girl 4: Who'd have thought a third grader could be such a gentleman?

Who'd have thought, indeed. Yes, welcome to shojo manga. In addition to their student government duties, the three boys form a detective agency, given that Nokoru has the ability to locate any "damsel in distress" in a two-kilometer radius. Together, the boys work to solve the mysteries that crop up, while also managing to get their student government paperwork finished (and, of course, give lectures in university classes, because hey, did I mention they were smart yet?!). The series is fluffy fun, and amusing because of how ridiculous it is. In the last volume, two of the boys get a little bit more characterization, but even that is so absurd that it's still funny. Somehow, a 26-episode anime series was made out of this. It might be nice for kids, but I think it'd be pretty boring. I might check it out some day, just to see what the voice actors are like. I look forward to seeing the boys in other CLAMP series, and discovering how they grow up.

Okay. So, I fell into my pit of angst on Thursday night, as evidenced by Thursday's blog entry. Thanks for nice comments. I never know how to reply to them. If I figure out what to say, I will (except for Ryan's comment, to which I say, YES, HOT BOY ANIME NIGHT(S) DURING CHRISTMAS BREAK, I AM ALREADY PLANNING SCHEDULES IN MY HEAD! :)

As much as I tell people I hate them, and I would much rather sit by myself in a room forever with all of the books, comics, anime, and TV shows I could ever watch, I am a social creature. This is probably due to spending the first 18 years of my life surrounded by family and lots of friends who forced to me go and do things, whether I wanted to or not. And now when I feel like crap, it's like I expect a group of people I feel comfortable with to just fall out of the sky and take me somewhere fun. Which does happen sometimes! But not usually. I mean, that's so weird, right? I have to like, call people, to do things? Make a plan? Ask them? *le gasp*

So what made my mood so much better? Being with people, obviously. On Friday, I went to a co-worker party (being an hour late so that I could watch the new Avatar: The Last Airbender episode, I am so awesome!) in Sun Prairie. Being a designated driver meant that I had a full proof excuse to not drink, which was good, as I feel that drinking lots of alcohol the day after falling into a pit of angst would not have been good. The party was a lot of fun. During the summer, I used to go out at least once a week with my work friends, but now it's the semester, and some of us (me included) don't like going out on school nights, and have weekends reserved for other friends. So, yay.

Saturday, I hung out with Antoine, went to Anime Club (OMF, I love Lovely Complex and Black Lagoon! Even though the first time I saw the first episode of Black Lagoon I wasn't too impressed. I will blog about them sometime), and then to Gordon's.

On Sunday, Gretchen came over and we watched five episodes of Buffy in a row AND IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME. ( Spoilers through the end of disc 5, season 4! )

Also, she left me with the rest of season 4, the first season of Angel, and season 5 of Buffy. I will show restraint! I will get schoolwork done! .....Maybe. After getting groceries, I then went to Antoine's to do homework. It was awesome! Antoine learned things about the menstrual cycle that he never knew before. :)

OMG, I also had the best weekend on Bookmooch EVAR. Do you want to know what I got in the last two days alone? DO YOU? Fear not. I will tell you.
- Please Save My Earth, volume 1
- Angel Sanctuary, volumes 2 and 3 (I've already gotten volume 1 off Bookmooch!)
- Magic Knight Rayearth, volumes 4, 5, and 6 (I intend to ask for the 1-3 omnibus for Christmas)
- Chobits, volumes 2-8 (I already got volume 1 off Bookmooch).
AND THUS, I AM VICTORIOUS, although I did annihilate the points I had been shoring up. I really need to weed through the books I have with me here at school, and do it again when I go home. It's all for the manga, yo.

Anyway, off to take a midterm now. Let's hope that I don't suck! OMF, tonight I'm watching Heroes with sasha_feather! It's going to be awesome!

For some reason, I feel flustered when surrounded by a lot of people, and I guess I hadn't noticed it until today. I hadn't realized that I felt self-conscious when surrounded by my peers with no hope of finding secluded space ANYWHERE ON CAMPUS until now.

Most of my classes seem okay, except that I had to sit by rude people in most of them. That sucked, :(

It was hot out today, almost up to 90 degrees, and combining this with bad cramps and feeling winded all the time (due to cramp-related issues), it was just bad. I hate perspiring. A lot.

Gordon and I wrote some messages in sidewalk chalk on the sidewalks to advertise for Anime Club. By that point I was crabby and hot again, and felt like dying, so I went to Antoine's. He was having a bad evening too, because his allergies were making his eyes hurt. So we had some woeful cuddling, and I left feeling better.

I also talked to my friend-since-1st-grade Heather for the first time in some months, which was also very nice.

I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow. I like work, and the people I work with, and the fact that I'll probably be able to get some homework done.

Anyway, I attempted to do homework, couldn't, and am now going to bed instead. Let's hope that tomorrow is a better day.

Weekend Recap
This weekend was intense! On Friday night, I went to a bar on Capitol Square with Antoine and some of our friends. It was the first time I had made an open tab with my debit card at a bar....and then I forgot the card there, and didn't realize it until we were half-way down State Street! I borrowed one friend's bike, and another friend's helmet, and booked it to the bar and back. I wish I had my bike here! Even if I didn't ride it to school or work, it would be nice to have for exercise.

Saturday, Antoine and I drove down to Mitsuwa, the Japanese marketplace outside of Chicago, for its annual Bon Odori Festival. Many Japanese Americans were dressed in traditional clothing, and it was awesome. I was a little put-off by the few non-Japanese Americans who chose to show up dressed as anime characters. I don't know. Maybe I'm too judgmental. It just felt really weird. A cultural festival is not the same thing as an anime convention, where it is expected that people freak out and wear cat-ears and dress like what's-his-name from the series Bleach. I don't know. It felt disrespectful, but I don't feel as though I'm eloquent enough to articulate why.

( Other things done/obtained at Mitsuwa )

Antoine and I spent the night at a friend's house in Kenosha, along with 4 other friends. In the morning, we ate doughnuts and then went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. I had picked an excellent combination: skirt (hella hot and humid) and socks/shoe-boots (had recently rained; lots of mud), although it looked pretty ridiculous, I'll admit. I did a good job of not buying much of the expensive, pretty things that are at the Renaissance Faire. I did get a sterling silver necklace, with a Celtic pendant that has an onyx in the middle of it, though.

Antoine and I ended our trip with a dinner at Real Chili, and it was delicious. I came home exhausted, but it was a pretty sweet weekend!

Hello, World.
Also, what the hell, I'm actually going to be in Madison this weekend, and thus far, my only plans are for Friday night (and a possible slight hangover on Saturday). Sooooo....let me know if anybody is up for anything! Gretchen, maybe we could watch the last disc of season 3 of Buffy this weekend!

I have updated my Bookmooch inventory with some of the random sci-fi stuff I picked up at the sale last week. So, if you see anything you like, you should mooch it! Also, if there's something really good in there, let me know, because I haven't read all of them (except for the Dawson's Creek books. I definitely read all of those. Shut up.) In spite of lots of manga being uploaded and mooched by people who are not me while I sleep, or while I'm at work, I still have lots of CLAMP titles that should be coming my way. Bookmooch is a pretty nifty website.

IBARW
It is International Blog Against Racism Week. I will start with some links.

If you have not heard the story about the Jena 6, then you should read about it here, at NPR's website.
And after that, you can go here to watch some footage of the families of those involved, etc. It is an appalling story about how a racist culture is very much still alive.

The terms 'racism' and 'racist' tend to get people all riled up. It's scary to most white people to be called out on their racism, because they don't try to be racist. And thus, here is an excellent article to read, especially if you are white, such as I am. How not to be insane when accused of racism (a guide for white people). The guide is directed at white people, of course, because in the United States as in other places, they benefit from white privilege.

Oyceter had a nice post defining terms, such as "white privilege," and race (as a biologically artificial construct, which has become socially real).

Links are a good place to start. I will perhaps write something of my own wording before the week is out, but for now, there is a bit of work to be done for sleep.