If you can't read the title of this post it says (dun dun dunnnnnnnn...) I went to Japan!*

EXCITE!

So, earlier this month, the orchestra I play in took part in Asia Orchestra Week, an annual event held in Japan, where a few orchestras from around the Asia-Pacific region are invited to perform. This year, there were 3 orchestras: one from Yamagata (Japan), another from Manila (The Philippines) and us (New Zealand represent!). Amazingly, this invitation included all flights and accommodation for the entire orchestra, paid for by the Japanese Orchestra Association. That's huge!

I had a fantastic time - spent mostly in Tokyo, with a trip also to Morioka in the North on the 300kph Shinkansen (high-speed bullet train), where we performed in a combined concert with the Yamagata orchestra.

Clicky below for some photos! IMAGE HEAVY!

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* So, okay. I only know a very few characters of hiragana and can't actually write in Japanese. Google Translate FTW.

A Calendar of Tales

I know there are a few Neil Gaiman fans on my flist, but this is fun/quirky even if you're not. Apparently, he asked his twitter followers a question for every month of the year (like "Why is January so dangerous?"), then used the responses to write short flashfics, which were then illustrated by deviantART users. So there are twelve short, unrelated stories, with gorgeous illustrations. There are even some user-created videos of the fics at the bottom of the page. Plus, Neil Gaiman himself has created audio versions of the fics.

That's a really awesome sort of collaboration.

...it is not officially Winter until Saturday. Please be advised that we do not want to wake up to scenes like the one below until, say, August (and then only once, on a day where I don't have to try to get to work).


(Not my photo, BTW, but pretty indicative of what the city looked like today.)

Yours shiveringly,
lemonrocket

So, the new Star Trek movie screens here in NZ (midnight session) in about 80 minutes. I might've considered going, but I have to be at work tomorrow morning at 7:45, so... yeah, no. I have Friday off work, so I might catch a session at a more civilised hour then. I've read the most spoilery reviews already; I know pretty much everything. But, still, new movie.

In the meantime, there's this:

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Which reminds me... I still haven't bought a new calendar. And I'm not just talking about 2012. I didn't get around to buying one last year, either. The one on the wall says December 2010 (accompanied by an accusing picture of Spock who knows how illogical I am).

I was going to post one of those thoughtful the-year-in-review kind of posts, but I have decided that, given I have to get up and work a long day in what is likely to be 25-30°C heat, getting some sleep would be better use of my time between now and then.

So, Happy New Year, everyone! Good and happy wishes to all.

p.s. My New Year resolution is to post more often.

Stop laughing.

I don't really have anything much to say except thank you muchly to all the lovely people who wished me a happy birthday yesterday. It brightened what was a very chilly, wintery day (come on, weather; it's almost Spring).

And thank you to the lovely craterdweller for the birthday present. *points to icon*

Oh, I almost forgot about my holiday. To Australia (Sydney, specifically)! Next week! My mum hasn't been for about 40 years and I've never left NZ, so we're going to do all the touristy things that newbie tourists do. Hopefully, it'll not be snowing (like it is right now; seriously, what IS up with the weather?) when we're due to fly out.

So apparently, some thoughtful person(s) nominated my Spock/Uhura art for an award. That's kind of nifty.



I think voting went up today over at spock_uhura. There are fics, art, vids and icons all in the running... plenty to look at - and if you're a member of the comm, you can vote. Go and have a look at the other nominees. 'Cause they're awesome.

Goodbye to what was, largely (for me, anyway), annus horribilis.

Let's hope that 2011 proves better for you, me, and the universe's inhabitants in general.

Happy New Year!

p.s. If this post contains any errors you can blame it on a combination of Posting After Midnight Syndrome and my first attempt at using the new iPad LJ app (and the inherent awkwardness of typing on an iPad).

p.p.s. Dear Neighbours, Midnight was more than half an hour ago. You can stop the fireworks display now.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.

A few of you have been wondering how close I was to the 7.1 magnitude earthquake which wobbled much of New Zealand early on Saturday morning.

Well, it certainly woke me up (4:35am, no less) and our house creaked and groaned and swayed for about half a minute. When it was over, I commented to my mother, jeanlucbev, on whether that was a not-so-bad house shaker, or if we had just felt the fringe effects of a real doozy of a quake somewhere else.

The answer came with a panicked phone call from my aunt in Christchurch at 6am. Her house was pitch black, without power, water or, until then, phone. Much of the content of her home was on the floor, including a TV and smashed items from her china cabinet.

We live over 300km away from the epicentre (which was about 30km from Christchurch), so we we much less affected, but nearly all of our extended family lives in Christchurch and they've all been affected in some way.

Because we New Zealanders essentially live on a bunch of faultlines and are somewhat earthquake prone, we have fairly strict building codes which mean that our modern buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes (to an extent). A lot of the damage this quake caused was to heritage buildings - and much of Christchurch's history is now gone.

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Scientists are saying that the magnitude, depth and proximity to a major city are all comparable to the Haiti quake. BUT -- NZ is not densely populated, the majority of Christchurch's buildings were built to earthquake protection specifications, and our quake happened at a time when most people were in bed and not out in the streets being hit by falling bricks and debris.

So... we're okay, my family's okay, and Christchurch will be okay - eventually.

...written by my brother.

Backstory:
My mum (jeanlucbev) has been house-bound recently and a friend has brought some romance novels for her to read. When my brother visited the other day, we amused ourselves very much by reading the blurbs on the back/various random passages from the books which were full of descriptions of the leading man's manliness (one line even read, "He laughed manfully"), his manly name (Luke Powers, Jake Tanner), the leading lady's determination not to be swayed by his charm... but ultimately swooning giving in, and other generic, formulaic romance novel-type stuff.

We joked that the authors always seem to have names that suggest a middle-aged woman with a caring, trustworthy nature - and might turn out to be guys just trying to make a buck. My brother suggested he could be "Barbara Comfort" (he didn't know there's a real author by that name), romance authoress.

Anyway, I got an email today with news on Ms Comfort's latest novels.

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p.s. illariy, icons are coming soon, I promise!