A never-ending explosion entry! Tirrah!

I feel like I’ve been utterly submersed by life for the last couple of weeks. Like, barely even up for air.

There is FAR too much to say, but, a few things:

1. The smile that lights up Jensen’s face when he mentions Danneel and the half of the audience who were really embarrassed by the whole Danneel-hating is like ‘AHH! HE MENTIONED DANNEEL SCREAM ABOUT HOW MUCH WE LOVE HER!’ And he’s all... ‘wow, some fans that respect my girlfriend, YES! YES SHE IS AWESOME!’ Is probably the most heart-breaking and awesome thing to emerge from the Asylum con.

2. Star Trek – let me fall completely in love with you and watch you FOUR TIMES in the last month. (To be fair though, only twice involved the cinema, but I feel justified in my shitty cam copy because I SPENT MONEY ON THE CINEMA! TWICE!) Karl Urban, let me be THRILLED that someone as awesome as you is a Kiwi. (As an aside, I saw someone ranting recently about how southern he is (as opposed to somewhere else in America, I think was the context) and I was like, *snigger*, b/c I think his accent is still really kiwi in the movie.) I HOPE THIS PARAGRAPH’S PARENTHESES ARE ALL IN ORDER!

3. Got all my essays and scripts in! I feel completely stoked by my anime pilot! I’m crossing everything capable of crossage that I’m going to get A-variations on my final assignment’s marks. One take-home test due on Monday (three 1000 word essays) and then this semester is OVER and I have a whole two days to go on a tidying binge before mimei arrives on the 18th! Eee! Prepare for extensive silliness!

4. I’m not reading ANY of the big bangs this week. NO! If you hear me doing it, feel free to JAB ME WITH STICKS! I need to slam this final test.

5. I now have approximately 3,000,572.84 plot-bunnies at the moment. @_@ A teeeeny bit more time, but not much! We’ll see if something happens about any of that.

6. I went to see the post-grad Anthropology academic advisor on Friday to talk about Honours and Masters. I felt extremely excited and completely wrung out by the end of it. It left me feeling shaky all weekend, actually. (see more ranting below)

7. MY BROTHER GOT ENGAGED YESTERDAY! (It’s still only-family knows, but I somehow doubt anyone will be alarmed that I told my flist.... XD) I’M REALLY EXCITED! LIKE, SO MASSIVELY EXCITED! Everyone knew it was coming eventually but... WEDDING! WE GET TO HAVE A WEDDING! *jumps up and down and tries not to plan things on behalf of the bride without asking.* >_>;)



(mimei! This is lieu of an email because I’d end up c&p it anyway!) (...there are way too many vowels in ‘lieu’....)

Okay, so this whole post-grad chatting has brought up some interesting things:

a.) Doing a PhD (in Anth) is apparently like, the stupidest idea ever unless you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be an academic, because there is no job you can’t get with just a Masters apart from being an academic, but LOTS of jobs you can’t get WITH a PhD. And also, apparently, you’d have to be CRAZY to want to be an academic because there are waaaay more people qualified than jobs. (That actually isn’t even really me colloquialising what my lecturer said, except he said, ‘mad’, not ‘crazy’ because he’s English.) So at this point I’m going to try and get to the end of Masters and just see what’s happening. Not getting too set in stone about it either way.

b.) I can do honours over July-July 10/11! Yay! So much less hassle! It is a bit of a pain to do it that way, apparently, but doable, and that’s the main thing. (for American reference, our academic year runs from Feb-Nov, because our summer is in dec-feb)

c.) Need to learn (pretty fluent) Japanese. Easiest way at this point is to try and get into one of the teaching-English programs for a year or so. The question is, when? Pre-hons or post? There are pros and cons to each side. Major pro for doing it after – I can apply for funding for Masters over two whole years and defer it if I get it the first year. Major pro for doing it before – there’s a paper on almost exactly what I want to do my MA on offered as part of Hons which I can’t take because I don’t know Japanese. >:( And I’d like to get this massive scary thing out of the way, but unfortunately the pros for doing it after are winning at this point.

d.) While the lecturer was like, REALLY EXCITED about me doing a MA at Canterbury, I need to be getting A’s to get funding. Which... isn’t unheard of... for me, but is really erratic and I’m really not sure about whether I can sustain that kind of average right through Hons. :/ I’m sort of waiting to see what my marks come back as at the end of this semester. Because while I’m about 75% sure I’ve earned at least A-minuses, if I’ve put in all this work and only get B-pluses I’m not sure I can raise the consistent standard enough. I am getting better at knowing what they want, but I need this year and next year to be A’s, which means NOW, not in another year of improving. If I get A-minuses I can cope, I can buckle down MORE and really push it up for the next wee while, but anything less... I just don’t know if I have the mental capacity to get much busier with Uni than I already am without getting really severely depressed. (again.)

e.) The lecturer said the area I’m interested in has a lot of potential for anthropological development! Which is great!

So, in summary: the thought of going to Japan potentially as early as next year really, really freaks me out. Even though I feel like I know so much of the world from reading, I’ve never left New Zealand, and I feel like I’m having a heart-attack just thinking about it. (I’m a MASSIVE home-body, I got dragged around almost as much as an Army-kid as a child. My great dream is to live in one house for more than 10 years! So far a completely impossible feat!) Meanwhile marks, AH! Meanwhile, omg could this future actually COME? Could my dreams be my reality? I haven’t believed THAT could happen since I was a KID.

P.S. In case anyone is curious to how my brain works, Anth and writing professionally are like two completely partitioned sections of my brain in terms of life-plans. Either can be looked at as a backup of the other failing, but mainly it’s just that I find them both so interesting I can’t pick, so like, on odd-days I’m all about becoming a professional writer, and on even-days I’m all about Anthropology. Or something. I just kind of want to pursue them both and see what happens. Which isn’t very logical time-wise, but I can’t be logical about EVERY bloody detail. Sheesh!

I’d apologise for the long-ness but I don’t care! That’s what cut-tags are for!



Anyway, if anyone want to weigh in on all of that. (tell me what I should doooooo!) you’re more than welcome, I need some input from my friends and compadres about this life-decision!

Meanwhile, more study!