Merry Christmas Eve!

I haven't done a sort of "life update" post since September . . . how fast time flies!

Since my last final exam a week and a half ago, basically all I've been doing is watching cute movies and drinking large quantities of delicious tea.  No complaints there.  ^_^  Fall quarter was on the order of "almost bad," but I passed all the classes, praise God!  Most important to me was passing discrete math II, one of those jolly prerequisites for so much else.  (I got decent grades, too, which is still hard to believe.) 

My sister and I usually play a violin/cello duet before Christmas Eve service - this year we're playing Bach's Sinfonia from his Christmas Oratorio.  Our sheetmusic is pieced together from the cello part and a piano transcription; all the notes are original, but the instrumentation makes it sound a bit different.  (I hope we can record it eventually so you can hear it.)

Hope you have a beautiful Christmas week!  Stay safe and warm.  : )

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"Another! No, not to any other..."

I've really been a bad blogger of late - hopefully this post of bullet points will not compound bad with worse!
*  This is week 3/10 of school, and all my classes are incredibly fast-paced.  I haven't had much time or inclination to do any reading, so poor Tanglewood, along with most of my other projects, is indefinitely on hold.
*  Last Saturday was the big day that finally arrived.  I got to see the Met Opera's live streaming of Eugene Onegin with Anna Netrebko and Mariusz Kwiecień.  It was INCREDIBLE, the best production I have seen yet and probably ever will.  So romantic, devastating, and of course poetic (Tchaikovsky - enough said). It will be performed in NY for the next few months; I will try to get up a proper review of some kind later this week.
*  Well, I thought I had a lot of points to write about, but those two are the gist of it. I don't actually have a ton of homework, but I end up spending so much time on it that the net effect is the same.
*   P.S. I moved my art blog to Blogger and have another installment coming up for the OC Origami series...hope to post it soon.

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Change

It came suddenly this year.  Fall in the Pacific Northwest is not always magnificent; the trees are just slowly beginning to turn; the weather, overall, has been alternatively dry and muggy the last few months.  Nonetheless, fall is here and everywhere. It is not so much something you can see - just a thunderclap sense that something has changed.  (Oh, all right, Pumpkin Spice Lattes help...)

*These photos are from earlier this month; we are indeed getting real thunderclaps today!

What a year this has been already!  In a week and a half, my fourth and last year of college begins.  *double-take*  Can it be so soon?

Everybody is asking me what my post-graduation plans are.  Abridged answer is "get a job," but the other day I took time to jot something more thoughtful down in my journal.  Here is the paraphrased version:

• becoming self-sufficient (don't get me wrong, though, my family is the best!)
• pursuing perpetual education (self-taught)
• following God's Will above all
• using my independence, education, ideals, etc., etc., towards the best possible purpose (i.e. previous point)

This summer I had no job, internship, or classes.  It was intensely disappointing, for a variety of reasons.  But ultimately, I realized (for the umpteenth time?) it is silly to compare myself to others.  What was my goal in college?  To get a degree; to get a job with that degree.  So far so good.  It happens I am not a typical comp-sci student and couldn't possibly be.  I have other interests, just as strong and worthy to have majored in.  It's ok.  Comp-sci feels right (I'm quite happy with my choice) but it's not the be all and end all.  There are so many options. 

"The good thing about all of these deliberations, doubts, and possibilities is that I feel something  is changing and happening."  Couldn't say for sure what  is happening, yet, but I'm ready for this academic year.  Wherever you are in your own life, I hope it is a good year for you, too.

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Easter Week

Eating the giant chocolate bunny my grandparents gave me, just cause I'd hate to give you the impression I'm on a diet.

Though I have been eating less.  We went to Hawaii for spring break, where I ate so much food.  So much goooood fooood...honeydew and salads and omlettes and, don't tell anybody, fried tater tots for breakfast alone.  Now this week I'm back - contentedly - to no breakfast, and smaller lunches and dinners.  (I simply cannot eat breakfast; to me it serves as an appetizer for lunch, and that means a net effect of overeating.)  Which means I can eat Easter candy.

School started Monday.  I've vowed to never again take a workshop (i.e. the Dead Marshes), so this quarter my full schedule is Discrete Math I, Computer Ethics & Society, and Programming Practicum (Java III).  That sounds very grand and frightening, but it's going to be manageable.  Math homework is graded on effort/completion, and the ethics class is just a little writing.  Java III is gonna be a doozy, but I can handle one hard class.  Lectures are only twice a week, so Week 1 is already over, yay.

Besides that, I'm reading H. G. Wells, enjoying the rain, dabbling in various writing projects, and feeling miffed that Seattle Times online has switched to subscription-only.  So much is going on at the moment that I have nothing to blog about, or that's how it feels anyway.  What's new with you?

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Call it "segueway"

Waiting in-between classes on my last day of winter quarter.  The other day I realized I don't have any warm and fuzzy sentimental feelings about the end of this quarter - now that is progress.  That means I have learned something.  That's what's important today.  It's not the end of anything, just a segue to the next adventure.

There are only two and a half weeks left of Lent as well, which makes me a bit sad.  Not that I am not looking forward to finishing the self-denial part of Lenten discipline (I gave up Owl City, Sky Sailing, and Summertime's End, which hasn't felt easy!), but it is has been my first time really observing Lent, and very good for me mentally and spiritually.  I resumed reading the Bible (right now, the Old Testament) regularly and felt ashamed of my rusty - in some cases, absent - memories of some parts of it.  I've tended to find the Old Testament (apart from Psalms) often difficult to instantly connect to, but the book of Daniel was an awesome, moving read.  What Christian today has not felt his sense of isolation and the constant tests to his conscience?  There is nothing new under the sun; Sunday school teachers do not teach you about Daniel for nothing.

On the other hand, though I will be wistful when Lent ends, the end of Lent means Easter, Resurrection.  It is a sobering thing to remember life is always worth living because the perfect, sinless Man died so we can live.  I believe I have blogged that before, but it's something I repeat to myself whenever I struggle with depression (something I try not to blog about).  Resurrection is life, and life is victory; as much as possible, I try remember I'm on the side of victory and should live under the realization of every glory, beauty, and responsibility that means.  It's a great responsibility; that Victory is not only something worth dying for, but something worth living for.

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Life and times, vi

• So this blog has been getting a crazy amount of spam comments lately.  Hoping it is just a phase.
• My family and I have just discovered the brilliance that is Laurel & Hardy movies.  I was not at all expecting to like them (i.e. slapstick humor), but they are truly hilarious. 
• Also rediscovered the epic jazz/swing music of Django Reinhardt (see below).
• I did my Java homework in one sitting today, to my utter astonishment.
• History class is going stupendously.  And next Tuesday I will be performing part of a Jacksonian era play with the other students in my group.  This is literally the first time in my life I've tried drama (outside of home videos), and I like it quite a bit.  Sure beats presentations.
• Oh, and by the way - "Jedi mind meld"??  No comment. 

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Pain and Posture

My mom always told me to sit up straight.  My violin teacher always told me to relax my shoulders.  Now that things have come to a painful (pun intended) turning point, I wish I had given it some more thought, years ago.

This quarter I have had classes only twice a week, which means that, on those days, I am sitting for almost ten hours straight.  And who'da thunk, it hurts.  It hurts pretty bad.  I'm not one of those enviable people that can sit in a sort of trance; I have to move around and change position constantly.  It doesn't help that chairs are designed for taller people.  Naturally, the one sitting position that becomes the most painful is sitting up straight.  My upper back aches, my tight shoulders want to curl forward, and my neck invariably begins to feel rigid.  (Yes, I'm a wimp.) 

It is always more comfortable to slouch, but I don't want that anymore.  Pride (the healthy type) and pain have stepped in and made me realize that I don't want to look or feel horrible if I can help it.  I'm determined now to build up my strength until good posture feels more comfortable, like it should.  I also want to correct my "forward neck" while I still have a chance.  Better late than never.

Incidentally, these issues have become part of the stereotypical image of a computer programmer, hunched over a monitor.  There's a lot of truth in it, though; when I spend so many hours obsessed over code, it is easy to be distracted from watching my posture.  (Fortunately, I'm a creature of habit, so once I get a good habit started, it should become subconscious.) 

I guess what this post is about is my recommendation that, if you have posture problems, don't postpone correction.  You can put up with the physical unattractiveness indefinitely, but the physical pain that will come in these situations - whether you sit in lectures, at work, or at home on your laptop - is another thing entirely.  Take pictures of yourself, look at yourself in the mirror, etc., to identify your posture problems, and build up stamina when it is still relatively comfortable and convenient to do so.  You just don't want to wait until pain becomes your motivation.

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This is my normal life

And I love it. ♥  

Yesterday I got my computer science major declared LIEK FOR REALZ (that is, officially).  Java II ain't easy, but for sure, I'm happy with how things are going.  It just feels right again.  Everything feels right. 

Can you believe tomorrow is the last day of January?  Warp speed!

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journal 1.2 - The frozen days we set ablaze

Source: Uploaded by user via Marian on Pinterest

Like they say - no news is good news.  I had an awesome week.  School is going swimmingly, GMM is back, and Pinterest has taken up way too much of my time (yes, I actually-finally signed up, haha).  Now I think I'll have a nice cup of hot cocoa and read some more readings for school!

{ I really do want to be a better blogger - and actually write, you know, posts - so hopefully that is something I will be working on soon. }

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Fall quarter is OVER

Survived my first classes at uni - imagine that!

And, as Elizabeth said, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is being released in the U.S. TONIGHT!!!  I've been following the production of The Hobbit before Warner Bros. even gave Peter Jackson the "green light" - it's almost hard to believe it is actually here, at long last.  And three films.  And Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Armitage - no less!  I can't wait to see it this weekend!  :)

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My friend in plaid (life and times v)

(Oh, yes, I'm back already.)

• Listening to a lot of Owl City and Hvorostovsky today...trying to purge my mind from that wretched Britpop documentary we had to watch yesterday.  If anything would make me definitely not want to do drugs, it is that show, so bravo for that.
• Ten minute presentation next week, hooray.  I'm cool with public speaking, but my presentations are always dull - poor, poor audience. 
• I can't wait for Christmas.
• My sibs and I are on season 6 of Star Trek Next Generation.  We started with S3 (per recommendation of Amazon reviews), and while it became my brother's instant fave, I didn't warm up to it until the end of S3, with the appearance of the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds".  Since then, I've been able to take it seriously and accept the new Enterprise.  In fact, I'm starting to like it better than TOS, would you believe. 
• Been reading Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables as well.  I like Holgrave and Hepzibah.  I feel like I ought to like Phoebe, too, but she's borderline Mary Sue.  At a glance, she's a lot like Hilda from The Marble Faun, but Hilda is a real loner, a little more human and credible.  It's one of those instances in which an author's character evolves and is perfected in a later version (e.g. John Thurston, Sherlock Holmes).
• I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! 

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History homework and The Hobbit

I just finished the rough draft of my history essay (topic: emancipation of the Russian serfs).  Eight pages wouldn't have taken long, if it weren't for the research and footnotes.  You know, that pocket guide book is everything it says on the tin!  The internet helps, though.  Also very grateful to my English 101 professor - outlining has worked wonders ever since.  Now if he'd only taught us Chicago instead of MLA...ah well, it doesn't hurt to know both!

Remember Zola, Ishiguro, and Forster?  It turns out that my elective course for next quarter (early American arts/lit/music/etc.), includes Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables as required reading.  So that will be four books total from my (official and unofficial) reading lists. I approve.

It's just as well, because all the reading I've been making time for is The Hobbit.  Did you hear tickets for it have already outsold Skyfall and Breaking Dawn pt 2?!!  There's still hope for society (if just barely).  I think the only thing I will "dislike" about the first movie is seeing it come to an end, most likely before Mirkwood. 

This is my second read through the book.  I'm not very well-read when it comes to Tolkien - is there any indication, in any of his writings, that Smaug is another version of Sauron?  Because The Hobbit reminds me a bit of Genesis, in that there's a serpent-like dragon and Bilbo goes from being an innocent hobbit to a ring-bearer, soon to be corrupted.  Maybe it's just me...   On another note, Richard Armitage will be amazing as Thorin, of that I am convinced.  It's fascinating to see how the treasure, more particularly the Arkenstone, reverts the relationship between Bilbo and the dwarves back to one of dislike, and imminent distrust.  Movie-firsters will be in for a shock, that's for sure!

One more thing - Tolkien was very smart and careful not to make the Ring as a "means justify the ends" tool, as many fantasy authors would.  With Boromir, he clearly illustrated that that is unacceptable.  Bilbo, on the other hand, is unaware that the Ring is evil (though Gollum ought to have given him the hint, lol).

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Life and times, iv

sunsets that dazzle in the dusk

 
homegrown


library haul!


(like I have nothing else to do)

Going to watch The Remains of the Day (finished the book!).  Working on my Dracula story (Emiko says it's good so far!).  GMM was hilarious today!  School is frustrating (AHAHAHA laughter is the best medicine).  

Today was week 6, so there are five weeks left.  It turns out I have not officially declared my major (comp-sci) yet, but that is coming up, and it is more or less set-in-stone.  I was a bit down in the dumps yesterday, feeling that maybe I'd have made different choices if I'd had a better understanding of the way things were going to be.  However, at the time, I'd made decisions I really believed were the right ones, and that's all you can do, right?  It's way too soon to be regretful. 

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Art

[But first I'd like to say thank you to KatySue at *~Not All Who Wander Are Lost~* for awarding me the Liebster tag!  I'll be posting it very soon.  :) ]

One of the things I really miss in my life is drawing (pencil and digital).  It kind of went the same way as my violin-playing--just when I was reaching a high point, school became time-consuming and music fizzled out of my life.  There's nothing more pathetic than unintentionally quitting something; the only optimistic side to it is that I don't have to admit I quit (sort of equally pathetic, though).

With digital art, I used to be pretty active in an internet forum several years ago, but as my objectives changed and the forum changed, I stopped progressing and, if anything, lost some technique.  Pencil sketching was something I did on my own.  I've long had the goal of combining the two and making use out of my digital graphics tablet, but it's still just a goal.

Website design is another art-related hobby I'd like to revitalize.

This is all a symptom of a bigger problem, my trouble with balancing school and real life.  It's easier to blame school, but the fact is I can do better personally.  With my hobbies, I'm not good at thinking outside the box or trying every possible solution to make the time and opportunities for them happen.  I'm bad at rationing out my energy, too, so that if I spend it all on school I have very little left over. So obviously this is something I need to work on.
 
I think the first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was an artist, and on a broader scale this is still true.  German has a good word for this: Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total art."  Artists (even amateur ones like me) have a strange challenge, in that they have to create work for themselves.  That's not something you think about when you start creating art (of any kind), but it becomes a very real thing when you have to have a legitimate reason and outlet for your art.  One would think that it'd be easy to find an outlet for "total art," but this involves its own problems, maybe greatest of which is losing focus.  You can get swallowed up in what you feel are the separate nagging demands of each of the art forms, losing the common ground they all have.  It's worse when you juxtapose this with school, where the common ground is simple: get good grades.

I don't have an answer for this right now, but it's at a point where I need to start working on this seriously, and making priorities instead of letting them evolve in negative ways. 

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Life and times - informal edition

I have no photos, and I should be asleep by now since I have to get up at 5:15, but OH WELL. One just has to make time for important things.  That's how I eked out some more poetry today while on the bus, which sounds romantic but it really isn't. The thing is, I have all these posts in draft just sitting there and getting stale, and that's not a good way to keep a blog alive.

My mom is doing really well, thankfully!  Praying that it will be a quick recovery for her. 

It started raining again, which is worth mentioning.  We had had an alarmingly long dry spell, but now that that's broken it feels like fall has started all of a sudden.  Today was so bright-eyed and pretty, though--sunshine is lovely in the fall!  Tomorrow's the same, and then rain the rest of the week.

It's almost midterm (already, by one professor's standards), and I feel like I'm just staying on top of things.  There's a considerable amount of reading material in the history classes, apart from textbooks.  Reading the textbook for Java class is essential.  Basically, reading a week ahead for all classes is not a bad idea.

I think I've run out of things to say, and it's definitely getting late.  Till next time...  XD

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I ♥ Thursday

• The "Flourishing Owls" persona for Firefox.  It's so happy and cheerful!

• Hornblower.  Archie.  BUSH.  My sister and I just had the "Who pushed Captain Sawyer?" debate again, and now we want a Hornblower marathon!
• My new Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer in Rhubarb, nice everyday color.
• No lectures on Fridays!
• Feeling happy and overall stress-free.  :)
• Writing poetry again--makes my day!  (Also started my version of Dracula, but really, I don't expect anything to come of it, lol.) 
• The Hobbit!  Which I'm very slowly re-reading.  I'm starting to see how it can be a long 3 movies.  There are all sorts of little mini adventures, even before they reach the Trolls. 

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Passage to India - rambling thoughts

So I need to write a book review for E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, which I just finished reading today.  It ought to be an easy assignment, but I hadn't been counting on this being a hard book to review.  It's about a whole SLEW of topics, and I feel inclined to take it every direction possible, which cancels out any one, focused direction.

For example.  It makes references to several major social topics, plus a rather uneven portrayal of three religions (Christianity getting the most negativity and least credence, of course), on top of a lot of mystery and weird goings on and paragraphs that are either philosophical wonders or horribly contrived rhetoric.  Set in India.  I guess what I wonder is how Forster, a Brit, can really give an Indian's perspective of the British Empire in India, but then, I don't know if that was his intent.  I get the impression that the character of Fielding is a Gary Stu, but the prose itself doesn't limit itself to his perspective.  Oh, and the whole "caves" incident is either much worse or much sillier than written, and I seriously doubt Mrs. Moore would have been portrayed as she is if the book had been written by a woman.  My personal opinion is that characters of the opposite gender ought to be heavily based on real people...well, maybe Mrs. Moore was based on a real person, but I'd have to look it up to feel sure.

Anywho, I'm determined (as is often the case) to write my review before I read other people's.  A huge loathing of mine is to write a review and feel someone else's opinions breathing down my collar.  So tomorrow (today I just figured out Chicago formatting) I'll write up the skeleton of my review, and then find out if anybody else on the internet understands this book better. 

The most lasting impression it left is the characters' sense of pessimism.  There was a lot of doom and gloom, and it was chiefly of the characters' own doings.  Nobody seemed to end up in a better place in life, all because of decisions they made that, rather than being dramatically terrible, were just plain old mediocre.  I admit I haven't read many books like that.  It's hardly inspirational.

Also, none of the characters lived up to their full potential, for good or evil.  This is pretty realistic, I think, but if we're talking fiction, it doesn't hurt to have a few strong characters.  Good characters have something to live for and to die for, preferably greater than themselves.  The characters in A Passage to India struck me as sort of existentialist, without the rebellious streak that you find in Kafka's characters. 

Tomorrow I will do some more research on Forster; that ought to (hopefully) give me some hints about the point of this book.

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School starts Monday

By Visitor7 [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

I'm rather excited.  No, really!  This summer has been beautiful--so many little things accomplished, brilliant afternoons reading outdoors, fun get-togethers.  But overall, I feel more than ready to go back to studying and the like (well, except for waking up at 5:15 am!).  The last half year has given me so much new perspective and time to reassess things, and I know it will help me this school year.

On a bookish note, I just read some really short stories by Kafka (from ManyBooks.net).  If you have just a half hour, I highly recommend them.  The first one is actually, I believe, an excerpt from his novel The Trial.  I'm not saying I totally understand them, but the style/format is really intriguing.

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It all works out

I was just commenting somewhere that I would be adding Zola to my reading list--and what do you know!  His book The Ladies' Paradise is one of my "required" books for the 19th-century European history class I'm taking this fall.  Timely, I'd say. 

I don't know if we'll be reading the whole book or not.  As it is 480 pages, I feel it would be better for me to start immediately and err on the side of caution.

My other history class--20th-century Britain--involves a book called Writing in History.  This should be interesting!

Third class is a newbie programming class.  I'm kind of glad to start at "level 1"; it should keep everything fresh in my mind for the next two years. 

School (quarterly schedule) doesn't start up again until the 24th.  In the meantime, I'll be battling Kindle formatting and finishing 20,000 Leagues and (hopefully) reading Robinson Crusoe.  And starting Ladies' Paradise, whatever that entails.  O_o

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Dreams coming true

You know one thing I hate about college?  The shock that comes right after spring finals (especially your last finals at a particular school).  Finals week, you study and study and get all angsty about getting an A on all of your tests or finishing your gargantuan essay or whatever.  Then you take the tests.  Then, all of a sudden, your life feels like a vacuum, totally hollow inside because your life has been bloated with studying and being a diligent student, and now there is "nothing" more to do for three months.  On top of that, if you're unsociable like me and there's suddenly no more, like, tons of people around, you get the feeling you're turned inside-out and kind of really miss the people.  It's really, really unpleasant.

However. . .

Now that I've recovered from the shock, I am in the process of formatting my poetry book for self-publishing (via Amazon/Createspace)!  My schedule is roughly as follows: Interior - 1 week, Cover Design - 1-2 weeks, Anything Else - 2 weeks, and then publishing, while simultaneously working on the book website.  Pretty excited!  I was kind of dreading the formatting, but it is actually fun to be working on what the book will really look like.  BUT THERE'S TOO MANY CHOICES.  What font?  What style of page numbers?  And again, what font?  (I'm leaning towards Georgia). 

I don't expect the book to "go viral" by any means--this is just a start, a way to learn about self-publishing and gain some self-confidence by publishing something I'm actually proud of.  If that's all I accomplish, I'll be happy.  :)

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