People keep getting mad at me for not telling them what's been going on in my life, so just a couple of major things:

- My brother-in-law DID end up moving to South Korea with my sister after all, so I'm back to living in her house. It's nice and I'm happy to be there, even if I'm not in another state like I wanted.

- I'm going to visit South Korea in a couple weeks (Sept. 19 - Oct. 6). I'm pretty excited about that! Unfortunately I don't think I have the funds nor the time to visit wizened_cynic in Hong Kong, which makes me very sad. I'm going to try, but it's not looking good, Jo. Next time?

Yep. So that's happening. I'm house/pet-sitting for Kim's parents tonight, so I get to watch the college football games on their flat-screen HD TV. The first quarter of the Michigan/UConn game just ended, and Michigan has TWO touchdowns and successfully blocked UConn's field goal attempt. It's like they're an entirely different team! Oh, wait, they almost fumbled as I said that. Haha, that's more like it.

Someday I'll get a job :/

Yoon-Hee: happy birthday!
Me: aw thanks Yoons
Yoon-Hee: =)
Yoon-Hee: you're 24!
Yoon-Hee: TWENTY FOUR!
Yoon-Hee: SIX TIMES FOUR!
Yoon-Hee: THREE TIMES EIGHT!
Yoon-Hee: TWELVE TIMES TWO!
Yoon-Hee: what else is there?
Yoon-Hee: FORTY EIGHT DIVIDED BY TWO!
Me: hahaha
Me: 4! ?
Me: (as in 4 factorial)
Yoon-Hee: ... oh dear, i think you outdid me.
Me: hahhahaha
Me: yay I win geek off=P
Yoon-Hee: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Yoon-Hee: apparently, that was your present!

After I joined the Ruckus, I started getting emails from some publicists about random bands. This morning I got one about French Horn Rebellion. I read this email in a daze this morning on my phone, but that name was still very familiar.

That's when I remembered French Horn Rebellion was one of the first bands I ever worked with/interacted with, waaaay back when I was at Northwestern. I was on a committee for booking activities during Dance Marathon, and FHR was one of the bands I booked for our concert event. I vaguely mention it here.

It makes me want to contact them about their new album to review it for the site just out of sheer nostalgia. It also makes me really miss Northwestern and SEA YAK. Today is Elizabeth's birthday too, so I'm doubly nostalgic.

Anyway. Random.

I made a mix for mugs_fic just now because she "challenged" me and I was bored at my brother's since he was playing NCAA College Football on PS3 and Sonali was sleeping. It's a mix of stuff I've recently gotten into (like Thao and These United States from The Ruckus) and randomness. I tried to avoid Ami stereotype bands (aka Sarah McLachlan and T&S).



Click the picture for the download!

(Speaking of These United States, by the way, I've totally been emailing back and forth with the lead singer/songwriter the past couple days because of the review I wrote over at The Ruckus. Awesomesauce.)

nikkur is back from South Korea for a while, so she came up to Ann Arbor to visit with us! We mostly ate a lot, since Naomi mainly missed Americanized foods while she was abroad. We did go to see Inception, which I really enjoyed. I was super impressed with most of the cast, especially Ellen Page (being serious! who knew). I wish Leo DiCaprio's character was less of a focus, or at least that they'd picked someone else. He just doesn't do it for me, I don't know. But it was a great movie that left me with questions and ~thoughts~ afterwords, which I always appreciate.

My parents and I leave to go to New Jersey tomorrow morning. At 5 am. We'll see how well that works out. We'll be staying with my brother for about 10 days, so hopefully I'll get to actually spend more time in New York. I plan on doing postcards this time. I think I have most of your guys' addresses, but I may need updated ones for people who've moved recently. If that's you, and you'd like a postcard, you should send me an email or something with your new address!

One awesome thing about this trip, besides spending more time in the city, is that I'm going to the Boston Lilith Fair. Heck yeah! Sarah MFing McLachlan. Win. I don't even care if you make fun of me, I'm finally going to see my musical idol in person.

Speaking of music, I'm doing this meme: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Name 5 songs you love starting with that letter.

tiffiny gave me "E"

1. Elsewhere by Sarah McLachlan - One of my favorite Sarah songs, off my favorite Sarah album. the quiet child awaits the day when she can break free the mold that clings like desperation. I don't over-relate to that AT ALL.

2. Evening on the Ground by Iron & Wine - I became obsessed with this song after cheshirepuss put it on a fanmix. I really don't like Iron & Wine at all, but somehow this song completely owns my soul. I used to listen to it on repeat for hours, and now it's in my top 5 played songs.

3. Eye by Smashing Pumpkins - This song is just epic. There is so much going on and it somehow still flows. Sheer Genius.

4. El Scorcho by Weezer - One of the first songs I ever loved by Weezer, which led into a phase in high school/early college of listening to way too much Blue Album and Pinkerton. I still find myself singing along enthusiastically when it comes on.

5. Elevator Love Letter by Stars - There were a lot of other E songs I like equally as much as this one, but this one won out I guess. Stars talks about some of the most random topics that I can't relate to, but I still love them. I'm hoping to see them again in October. They put on a killer show.

So some of you guys already know, but for those of you who do not, What's The Ruckus/tiffiny made me ~official staff~!! This is pretty much the most exciting thing that's happened to me this summer. I would say this year, but I did graduate and all. I feel like that's pretty huge, even though it seems kind of anti-climatic to me.

Anyway! Here are some links to things I've done for them recently, because I am a self-promoting whore.

Thao interview!
Thao and Mirah show review

Of course everything on the website is awesome, so you should just go through the archives already, come on.

But, back to Thao. Guys, she is super cute and I really like her music, and I think you all need to listen to her. A couple music videos to get you interested:

When We Swam - Beach party fun times. Seriously a great summer tune, with a summery video to boot.
Cool Yourself - Amusing animations! Pause on the newspapers, they're hilarious.

In case you couldn't tell by the time I am posting this entry, I am really seriously off a normal sleeping schedule. Oops. At least I don't have a job to worry about! Haha, amirite?! ... yeah.

I really need a job. I'm kind of in that frantic stage of looking where I'm preparing to resume bomb basically any job listing that I could even potentially be qualified for. First I have to fix up my resume though. It's really annoying, and I just want it to be over already. Ugh, adult life.

In other way more awesome news, on Sunday I went to the Thao and Mirah with the Most of All concert (which was Thao and her music, plus Mirah and her music on stage together. Really odd, but really cool). The awesome thing is, because of The Ruckus, I got to interview Thao. My ~first interview~. She was really nice and cute in person, and it was seriously a ton of fun.

I got to go with Megan, so that was also awesome, as it always is to hang out with Megan. And, I know you're curious as to what deliciousness she gave me this time. I got Banana snack cake which has THE BEST frosting ever on it. I usually don't like frosting because it's too sweet, but this was just A+.

Later this month, my parents and I are going back to New York to visit my brother and his family for his birthday. (Here's hoping Sonali doesn't get me sick again...) That should be fun, and this time, if all goes well, I'll have more than just 8 or so hours in New York. There's a lot I didn't get a chance to see the last time. Also, even though it consists of all the kinds of music my brother makes fun of me for listening to, we're going to Lilith Fair in Boston. I don't even know why, but he was all for it, so there you go. My first time seeing Sarah McLachlan in concert <3<3 I may swoon.

Also: The US exploded an H-bomb in space in order to see if they could affect the Van Allen belts. Really? "We just discovered a vast, intricate, finely balanced system of radiation and magnetic fields surrounding the entire planet that likely has been there for eons performing some important function we don't yet fully understand... LET'S SEE IF WE CAN FUCK IT UP!" Good job, USA.

Saturday, as you may well know, was commencement. AKA, I officially graduated!! Fuck yeah, only six years later.

The ceremony was pretty awesome, except for Governor Granholm's speech that was basically "Oh, Mr. Obama sir, you are just so amazing. Please give Michigan more money!" Whatever, Jenny, go away. Obama's speech on the other hand, was pretty fantastic, and I mean that outside my admitted complete liberal bias. The conservative members of my family even loved it and kept gushing about how great of a speaker he was and how he was really striving to reach across the aisle, etc. If you guys are interested, here's the speech (it's 32 minutes long, apparently, but it felt like 15).



I love his little scrunchy face smiles. YOU'RE SO CUTE, BARRY. Between this and the Correspondent's Dinner, my love for him has kind of shot back up again. Off-shore drilling and failure to deliver on issues I really care about? Whatever, he's got a great sense of humor! (Not really, I'm still not ok with that stuff.)

I don't know, I have so many thoughts about the end of my college career and the ceremony and things that happened after, but I can't even put them down. Basically, I'm really excited but really apprehensive about where I go from here. (cue Buffy musical)

Whatever. My next post is going to be about tattoos, so look forward to that I guess.

So about two hours ago, I turned in the last freaking paper of my undergraduate career, came home, took an extremely long shower, and now I'm sitting here thinking about the fact that in two days I'll have a [random paper placeholder for my] degree and I'll have freaking seen Obama give a speech to me, and I will be a GRADUATE.

Ok, I know that probably 95% of you are already graduates and this is not a big deal, but it's kind of been a crazy road for me. Northwestern, time off, U of M Dearborn, and finally University of Michigan. Six years! 2 changes in major! And now I will have a piece of paper that I can frame and put on my bedroom wall that says I spent about 100K to have a degree in a non-marketable field.

AWESOME!

Speaking of which - I'm moving because Michigan is completely devoid of jobs right now and I'm pretty sure I can't live with my parents and their 11pm curfew. Where am I moving, you ask? Well... somewhere. And that's where you come in! Where the hell should I move?

Tomorrow is my last day of undergraduate classes EVER. Honestly, I don't know if I'm more excited for that, or for the Madonna episode of Glee. MADONNA, guys. I love Madonna.

I finished my story from the last entry. Thanks to everyone who helped me, or at least those of you who were big enough pushovers that when I said "please read this, please, just once/twice/eight million times" you actually caved in. I love you guys more than my non-pushover friends. Just kidding, I love you all the same. (Really though, pushover friends, I love you more.) I feel much better with the new ending and all the changes.

On Saturday, I got to see Megan and Katie, who came up to visit! We only got to go out to dinner, but we had a lot of fun. And Megan brought me jam! Also there was this moment where we were walking down the street and some guy behind us yells out "did you just litter? That's fucked up!" to a bunch of frat guys standing outside a club. Then he picked up whatever it was and threw it away. It was hilarious. Maybe more so in the moment, but I'm still laughing just thinking about it.

In other way less awesome news, Kim posted about this the other day, but it's in a locked entry as it reveals our addresses, so I can't just link it to you. There have been a series of small car fires in our neighborhood, which apparently have been going on since the beginning of the year, but have escalated lately.

Since Kim and I both watch too much Criminal Minds, we're concerned about how far this escalation is going to go. There was another fire a couple weeks ago in a house which resulted in someone's death, but they're not sure if that fire is connected to these others. I doubt it is, because it's a different MO, but there's still at least 5 separate fires that are definitely connected. There are also a series of trashcan fires that are likely related. And all of this was within a few blocks of our houses. Scary.

This post was boring wasn't it? Whatever, point is, I'm on schedule again.

So, for my Ancient Greek/Modern Gay Sexuality class, our final project requires us to "contribute to contemporary queer culture using ancient Greece as a vehicle." It can be a painting, a script, poetry, short story, essay, whatever.

I decided, because I'm unhinged, to do a short story. I'm really bad at creative stuff, guys. I stress out about it like you wouldn't believe. The evidence of this fact is that I started an outline and rough draft of this assignment OVER A WEEK before it was due. You know me, that's insane.

I've edited and added a lot since my first draft based off suggestions from awesome friends (♥ you know who you are), but I still don't know if I'm satisfied with it.

On that note, I'm posting it below in hopes that you guys will give it a read and let me know what you think. The ending in particular seems really rushed and unfocused to me, and it took about a year to think of a decent closing line. I went with funny, but I'm not sure how well it fits. So please let me know if you have any suggestions, see weak points, or whatever. I'd appreciate it greatly.

I've turned it in, so this is basically just here for posterity now. Thanks to everyone who helped me fix shit in it, I super duper appreciate it. I added in a "duper," so you know I mean it.

( American Gods; ~2500 wordsCollapse )



I know I'm insane, but seriously, creative work really stresses me out, and I really could use the input. Give me a 10-page paper on the ethics of euthanasia, and I can crank that shit out in a few hours, but a simple short story consumes my life for a week. Figures.

So last you guys heard, I was on my way to the Tegan and Sara concert. That happened. I've written enough squee about them that you guys don't need to hear another detailed review, I'm sure. They were awesome, as usual, and can seriously rock. I enjoyed one of the openers a lot, Holly Miranda, and I'll definitely be looking into her stuff some more.

I did indeed get some black bean burgers for dinner and even German pancakes for breakfast the next morning. Megan and Jake are basically the best hosts ever, and I wish every weekend were concert weekend with them.

I was supposed to go to the Broken Social Scene concert last Wednesday too, but they up and cancelled the show because of an illness in the band. Day ruiner. I had a paper due, and it was to be my prize. No such luck, and they haven't rescheduled yet. This makes for a sad Ami.

Counting today, I have five days of class left. FIVE DAYS. All I have to do is turn in 3 more papers, and take a final and I'll have a fucking degree. Finally.

This week has gone by so fast, I almost forgot it was time for me to post. I'm actually really glad the week has sped by, because tonight is the Tegan and Sara concert in Royal Oak! Megan (rainbowbrite227, her boyfriend Jake and I are all going and it is going to be so much fun. Megan is also going to make me ~black bean burgers~ for dinner AND since I'm spending the night there, I will totally be getting some amazing breakfast too. Basically Megan is awesome, guys.

Apparently people are already lining up outside the venue, even though doors don't open until 7. If you thought I was obsessed, well.

In other news, I have just about one month left of my undergraduate career. This is beyond exciting, but also pretty bad news for my motivation which, as you may have gathered previously, is already pretty low. I have 4 papers, 1 exam and 1 project left of the semester. THIS IS NOTHING. Also, I'm hanging around a GPA right now (if I don't drop the ball) that MIGHT bring up my cumulative, which I really, really want to happen.

I have been playing way too much Dr. Mario than is probably good for me. Like, staying up until 4 am, and playing every spare minute. IT'S SO FUN. Nonetheless, Matt keeps kicking my ass when we face off because I can't set up combos. Alas.

PS. Happy Spring everyone! I hope it's actually acting like Spring where you are, instead of being a weather cocktease like Michigan.

Well, I'm back from my trip to New Jersey/New York. I only got to go into the city for one day, but that day was spent well, meeting grdnofevrythng, going to various shops, visiting the MOMA, and missing trains. I had a really awesome time, and there will be pictures at some point in the future.

For now, have this (illegal!) picture from the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA. It was so freaking awesome. I wish I could have taken a million pictures, but it was prohibited so I could only sneak a few. This entire room was dark with black lights, so everything was all glowy. It was hard to take pictures of, but so cool in person. The bottom of this piece was rotating, like a carousel, which is why it's kind of blurry.



I have done approximately 25 of the 400 or so pages of reading I have to do this week, so I should get back to that, I suppose...

I've been grossly sick since this weekend and people, let me tell you, it has sucked. I was a little unwell last week too, but I thought I had gotten over it, until Saturday rolled around and I was a complete mess. It's the worst week for it too, because I had a presentation to give on Wednesday (I coughed so hard through the whole thing I had to stop multiple times, get a cough drop, and get water and the class was just cringing the entire time, because really, that's so gross), and a midterm on that day as well. And tomorrow/today I have 2 papers due (but they're both pretty short). So that's happening. I'm getting better though, I'm on the recovery stage, I think. *knocks on wood*

Apparently NYC is going to get something like 14 inches of snow tomorrow, so we're not leaving like originally planned (we were going to drive). HOPEFULLY we're still going on Saturday, but I'm not holding my breath. Family.

In other news, my sister and I have been messaging each other lately, and we had this conversation today: ( I'm sure most of you couldn't care less about sisterly bickering.Collapse )

Basically, I love my sister.

For Spring Break this year (in two weeks, because Michigan thinks the first week of March is Spring for some reason), I'm going to be going to New York! Mostly to help my brother move into his new place, but psh, I'm so going off to do my own thing. If anyone lives nearby, maybe we can meet up. Or, if you have any suggestions for things I must see/do, let me know! I've never been before, so even the most obvious tourist traps are new and exciting for me.

I've been looking up some concerts I'd like to go to in the next few months. There are a lot, but only three that are even possibilities. One I already have tickets for: Tegan and Sara on March 27th. Kaki King is playing in Ann Arbor on May 5th, which I'm pretty sure I can attend as it requires no car.

However, Spoon is playing on a Tuesday, March 30th, in Royal Oak, so even though I REALLY want to go, I have no form of transport. Plus the show conveniently starts at the same time my class does (6pm). This is my awesome Anc. Gk. Sexuality class, so I kind of don't want to miss it, but if I magically procured a car and someone to join me, I would totally go.

Recently I was going through pictures on my camera and found this one from right before Christmas. It's Sonali imitating her Aunt Ami, and doing a hilariously accurate job. All she needs is a laptop, and that is my holiday break in a nutshell.



(Don't worry, there was no actual Dr. Pepper left in the can.)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA is going to be the speaker at the University of Michigan's Spring 2010 Graduation Commencement.

As in, ~MY COMMENCEMENT~

I knew there was a reason that I switched schools halfway through and took 6 years to get my undergraduate degree. It was all part of my plan. (...)

Oh man, the president is going to wish me luck on my future and shit. Although, seriously, aren't there better things to do in the country than come to UofM, Obama?

I've never been one to cook. I can make myself some pasta or grilled cheese sure, but if we get recipes involved, shit gets rough. I took Home Ec in 7th grade because I wasn't in band and it was required. It was awful in all respects (I was so bad at sewing, my teacher undid my entire project one day after school and fixed it herself), but cooking especially blew. We worked in partners, and to this day I feel really bad for my friend Kristine. We had to make this cake once, and somehow I ended up putting in twice the flour and no sugar. Our cake could have been a new alternative for rubber. In fact we tried bouncing it and I'm pretty sure it got at least two inches of air.

Since then, I thought I had gotten a little better at least, but usually I have supervision so maybe that was it. Today I made myself some macaroni and cheese from the box, but tried to get a little creative by cutting up some vegetables and adding some spices. It was tasty. High off this minor success, I decided I would attempt a full-on, recipe required, substantive dish.

( Failure.Collapse )

Whatever, I think I'm just going to stick to pasta from the box from now on and leave the cooking to the professionals.

In an abrupt change of topic, if you read my Twitter, you may already be aware that my roommate Margaret is amazing. Some proofs of her awesomeness:

> She accepts and even accommodates my unflattering addiction to the Disney channel by watching it with me and buying me a Wizards of Waverly Place calendar;
> When I wake up at 6:30 in the morning to finish my paper, she makes me blueberry pancakes for breakfast

But not only is SHE awesome, her boyfriend Matt is equally awesome. They're kind of perfect for each other. He also makes pancakes for me (and Margaret, of course) or homemade potato chips (lightly salty and so delicious). He joined me at the arcade the other day while I was killing time between classes and played air hockey with me. In my eyes, playing air hockey together means friends for life.

He's also really sweet. For instance, he got flowers for all three of us for Valentine's Day.



I don't know flowers at all, but the white daisies are for Margaret, the purple ones are for Kripa, and the pink/orange ones are for me. :D

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I hope you all enjoy yours. I'll be spending mine at a brunch with friends from Caribou I haven't seen in a while and delighting in various homemade sweets (made by this awesome lady, and NOT by me, and therefore safe). I'm pretty confident it will be awesome.

In my Ancient Greek/Modern Sexuality class, we've been reading a lot of fascinating works (it's the only class I have not had trouble keeping up with). This week we've been focusing on Sappho. In case you don't know, the vast majority of Sappho's work is lost, as they were on papyrus, and that stuff is not resilient. Some poems are so lost that all they have are a simple word, like "danger" [184] or maybe a line: "I used to weave crowns" [125]. There's only one complete poem; the rest are just scraps.

I've never actually sat down and read the works of Sappho before, and considering everything I've heard about her and how prominently she's held as a gay icon, I was really expecting a lot more about her affairs with women, or more explicit descriptions of her desires. There's relatively little of that, especially compared to the work of her contemporaries, who seem almost exclusively to talk about their various sexual flings - many times rather bluntly. (A favorite Theognis poem [lines 1249-52] reads:

Boy, you're like a horse. Just now sated with seed,
You've come back to my stable,
Yearning for a good rider, fine meadow,
An icy spring, shady groves.

Real subtle there, Theo.)

Sappho's work is far more beautiful than I expected, and with the huge gaps missing it felt mysterious and ephemeral. Especially since, in the version we read, the translator would devote a whole page to each fragment, even if it were only a word or line long. This gave it much more of an impact when you saw an entirely blank page except for

[147]
someone will remember us
               I say
               even in another time

Eerie, right? Maybe that's just me. Well, here are some of my favorites: ( Fragments of SapphoCollapse )

Also, one of our assignments for the class was a rather silly poetic exercise in which we take one of the fragments and "fill it out" so to speak, either in our own words, or how we imagine Sappho originally wrote, or whatever. A lot of them tried to be mysterious and write in an over-the-top classical way (like me), but some modernized them and wrote about things like Michigan winters or Angelina Jolie, which was cool to see. I was expecting a lot more bad poetry, but either I'm indiscriminate or my class is abnormally full of sophisticated poets because I genuinely enjoyed most of them.

( Um, this rant kind of came out of nowhere...Collapse )

Okay, yeah, anyway, the point of this post was that Sappho is cool, I love that class, oh and also, Kim's birthday is tomorrow! Oh my gosh, yay BFF, I love you! I still have to go to the *ahem* toy store and get you your present. When I give it to you I'm going to sing Sesame Street and you can't stop me. I DON'T EVEN CARE IF I BREAK YOUR NON-EXISTENT GLASSES AND EMBARRASS YOU IN FRONT OF ALL YOUR FRIENDS, MWAHAHAHA!!

Right, so it's posting time again. Man, I really am not going to like this every week thing. Not much has happened since my last post. Oh, I definitely got into my Philosophy class I was worried about, so I'm still getting my minor. Yay for that.

Regarding the future: I still haven't applied for Teach for America (the deadline is in 1.5 weeks...) or any other programs, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to resort to crawling back to Caribou come this summer. This thought has been so pervasive and anxiety-inducing that I've been having coffee anxiety dreams again, where I'm back behind the counter making endless drinks and dealing with customers and being late for shifts. It's been almost two years since I quit that place, and yet here I am, still plagued by it.

Okay, it really wasn't that bad, but I just... want to move on. Maybe I can get my old job at Alps back, or some other administrative or office-type work (which isn't really moving on, I guess). If all else fails, I'm making my sister take me on vacation all summer to Europe and Asia and South America... Hey, someone's got to enjoy all her money, right? *nudges Prit*

The other day I broke out my old NES after quite a long break from playing it, and now all I want to do is play constantly. I'm trying to still be on top of reading and stuff, but it's like - do I want to read the debate of whether you can commit unfree actions by going against your own will, or do I want to beat the snot out of Bowser in a raccoon flying suit? I think the answer is self-evident.

Speaking of which, my friend Mugs sent me this awesome link: Super Mario Texts From Last Night. Hilarity. One of my favorites: "WHERE ARE THEY GETTING ALL THESE HAMMERS"

For someone who had nothing to write about when I started this entry, I certainly rambled enough. Whatever, see you next week.