Right. So, no entries since shortly after my wedding eight months ago. I've found most of LJ land also follows me on Facebook, so I confess to keeping random snippits of my life up on my Facebook wall instead of LiveJournal. You know, cause it's easier to be snappy and interesting.

Here is the laundry list of what has happened:

• Successfully completed my MA in Japanese Studies, got a Merit on my dissertation (a bloody 68! I did not fall flat on my face!) and on my degree program on the whole.
  
  
• Went to my graduation and got said MA on a lovely piece of paper.
  
  
• Went back to America soon after my wedding to visit family and friends who couldn't attend, which was a massive whirlwind tour but still VERY fun. Also returned in January to attend Anime Los Angeles, where the convention had invited The Spoony Bards to play as Musical Guests of Honor. It was, officially, my last concert with the band. And it was AWESOME. We were treated like kings and queens, I met some really awesome people in Los Angeles, caught up with some old friends and saw palm trees. Palm trees, man!
  
  
• I applied for and successfully got an extention to stay in the UK for two more years, on the basis I'm married to Stuart, as well as the right to work in the UK.
  
  
• When I came back from America in January, I started a diet based on a book I found there: The Glycemic-Load Diet Cookbook. Basically, after cutting out solid starches and sugary drinks from my diet, by mid-April I had lost about 30 pounds without starting serious exercise to complement it. I've dropped two clothing sizes, and also got a new haircut: a short blunt cut that I've always wanted, but been afraid to get because of my formerly 'round' face. Like'a this.
  
  
• From the end of January until late April, I did nothing but look for work. It was an emotionally exhausting, demoralizing and frustrating time, but I am thankfully clear of it much quicker than I was the first time I was unemployed. I have small anecdotes from the period, some of which are funny and some of which were very frustrating. Took approximately three months to find a job.
  
  
• I now work for Enterprise Rent-a-Car in its administrative offices in a town called Aldershot, providing administrative support to a team of salesman who sell on former rental cars to car dealerships across the UK. My co-workers are about my age, incredibly nice and supportive, and so far my job is pretty darn cool. Very clerical/administrative and not super focused on customer service. The format is exactly what I was hoping for to serve as a 'bridging' job for my lengthy record of customer service positions.
  
  
• In a funny twist of fate, Enterprise's global headquarters are in St. Louis, MO. I knew this coming into the interview, but it certainly made the "What do you know about our company?" question in the interview a cinch to answer.
  
  
• Stuart and I are facing possible eviction from our house, as it's currently on the market to be sold. It's owned by Stuart's brother, who is now expecting a son to be born late this year. It's not big enough to house him, his fiancee, and the baby, so they need to sell it. If the house sells by the end of the month, we may be very quickly shuffled out into Stuart's parents' house temporarily while we save up enough money to put down a deposit on a flat. If not, we'll be allowed to rent at a higher rate to Stuart's brother. It's an awkward situation, as I want Stuart's brother to do well and have what he needs for his new baby, but I really don't want to be kicked out of the house at the last minute just while Stuart and I are about to recover financially from the slump induced by my continued unemployment.
  

And now, for not so serious things, in no particular order:

• I've played Aion and Star Trek Online at their releases since the year began, and abandoned both. Aion had brilliant potential, but turned into a grindfest at level 20. Star Trek Online swayed me because it was Star Trek, but it wasn't the MMO I had hoped for. Space combat isn't my favorite aspect of the game, and the away team missions were rubbish. I just wanted to be a Medical Officer, sit in a sickbay, and heal people.
  
  
• Stuart and I are officially back on the EU servers of World of Warcraft, exploiting the Refer-a-Friend system to create a host of level 60 characters in all the classes we want, and then cherry pick the ones we want to progress. Saving a couple classes for fresh starts when Cataclysm comes out.
  
  
• Temporarily played Final Fantasy XI again for a while with powermitch and xell, but had to cancel it due to financial difficulties. Enjoyed the mechanics of it immensely again. Found it very hard to will myself to play on my own, though. Not a game for the faint of heart, which is rather refreshing.
  
  
• My friend Ron said, "You would give up your firstborn to get in the Final Fantasy XIV beta." While he's not exactly correct, he is incredibly close. I have been looking forward to XIV with ridiculous anticipation. Like, the kind of anticipation some people have about Starcraft II, or Diablo III. That's me with FFXIV.
  
  
• Tabletop gaming is still going very strong; the folks who we play with regularly are fabulous folks. Stu and I have gotten very close to a lovely couple about our age, with very similar personality types.

And there you have it, the compuslory wall of text. Nice, huh?

4000 words left of the dissertation before Friday. I can do this. I gotta believe! But I very well may not be able to see my mother off at the airport for me to do it, which has me bummed. I'm pretty sure she'll understand. I don't know what the end result of it will be, but as the case has been with most of my other classes at Sheffield, I'm looking for a pass and not a stellar grade. Wedding + move in to new house + dissertation all in the same 3 months has not been easy.

Speaking of which, Stuart and I were married on Friday. My husband (!) has been so incredibly supportive, patient, and loving since I started this crazy dissertation business back in May/June along with planning the wedding side by side. I love him to bits. I'll post a photo when the photographer is finished post-production. :3


TL;DR: Got married, almost done dissertation. Life is looking good.

I've been really unlucky with illness the past 3 weeks. First a cold at the start of my research in Sheffield, and then just as it ended, a bad case of tonsillitis. Viral, too, meaning to get over it it's had to run its course. No antibiotics. I think it's better today than it was yesterday or the day before.

Dissertation work is slower than I wish it were because of it. Ugh.

So is gym attendance. Argh.

To prepare for Youmacon, and Anime Los Angeles and finally get back in the game, singing wise, I've picked up a voice teacher. I'll start meeting with her at the end of the month. She specializes in contemporary music, and is somewhat close to me. Never been taught any other style than classical, so this will hopefully be fabulous. Will have to monitor finances for this. It could get pricey. But it's something I very, very much want.

Started up a meetup group for tabletop gamers local to my area, and found 8 or so people so far. Have been working on us getting divided into groups for two campaigns. (SO excited about this.) We just need more players for the weekend group. The weekday group is go for launch. We're playing D&D 3.5 first, and Stuart will be playing his first tabletop RPG campaign ever. D'aww.

Have purchased a very, very lovely headpiece and shoes for my wedding dress. When I'm feeling better, I desperately need to take the dress to be altered.

Throat still sore. Going to make potato mash.

So, mini-updates on Facebook (shameless Twitter ripoff, but it reaches more folks I know, so it's won my battle for usage) have comprised most of my life updates as of late. It feels like it's time to get a good old fashioned journal entry in for once.

I've finished the taught part of my Master's program at the University of Sheffield, assuming I don't receive a devastating email in the next couple of weeks advising me to come in and "discuss the results of my final examination" (which would mean I failed it, and thus the module). Even if that happens, I have a final opportunity to retake the exam in late summer. With the first exam, I wasn't entirely sure how I did on it, but I passed. The exam I just took had two sections on which I felt particularly confident compared to last time, but the composition component was quite difficult. I've never really subscribed to the motto "C's get degrees!", but I've had to with this program; it is BRUTAL, though thoroughly educational. Assuming all goes well, I have from now until September 11th to research and write an 18,000 word dissertation.

For my dissertation, I will be examining political cartoons published by Japanese newspapers during the G7/8 conferences from the mid 1970s until approximately the late 1990s, and see if the way in which Japanese depicted themselves in relation to the the Western powers of the conferences in said cartoons is an appropriate gauge for the way Japanese people viewed themselves as a people over the duration of 20-25 years. Arguably, because of the economy booming and then busting in the 1990s, there was a change in dialogue amongst the Japanese at this time; they went from being particularly proud of their economic success and attributed it to particularly unique Japanese only traits (some of which were compiled in a loose body of works known as the nihonjinron: discourse on the Japanese), and into self-blame when the bubble burst in the 1990s. I want to investigate a), if examining this kind of visual media is an appropriate and powerful form of primary source in which scholars can deduce further evidence of this change in identity amongst the Japanese and b) if there is a correlation between these attitude changes as they are understood in Japanese studies literature, and the depictions of the Japanese in their political cartoons of this event over 20-25 years.

Phewh.

So, that's my project over the next three months, and that doesn't even count getting married a week after the dissertation is due, and adjusting to living with my fiance.

I moved (most) of my things down from Sheffield this past Tuesday, and moved into a tiny townhouse in Godalming just today. Stuart and I have spent most of the day putting things away and sorting out the house just how we like it. We also cooked some, bought perishable groceries, and have spent equal amounts of time working and flopping on the bed whilst complaining how tired we are. It's tiring work, but wonderful work. I've only lived with a housemate one other time, and the experience of living jointly with someone you love is exhilarating. We do, however, have our computers in different parts of the house, just so we can still get time to ourselves whilst doing what we love: namely, computer games and web browsing.

We're looking into buying two gym memberships for a Fitness First that's less than 10 minutes walk away from our house. Rumor has it that they are much more expensive than we first thought; Stuart's brother said he believed it to be £500 a year. My own estimate is that it's something closer to £300. Neither is particularly cheap, but I would expect £300 from a gym, as that's about the going rate for the gym in Sheffield if joining as a non-student. Needless to day, if it's closer to the tune of £500, we may just invest in a Wii, Wii Fit, and some healthy eating cookbooks instead.

Hell, we may end up doing that anyway if the money holds out. But that's me being incredibly optimistic.


My wedding dress arrived to Stuart's parents' house on Tuesday, and thankfully it looked absolutely lovely on me. The alterations it needs are minimal; namely, some pinching in on the bust as I was not blessed with particularly large breasts. That, or I suppose I could just stuff myself. xD

A disappointment, though, was the bolero jacket that came with it. While lovely, the sleeves are entirely too long and look goofy as they are. They also don't do much for covering the scars on my arms, as the sequined ornaments on them are on places that don't need much coverage. I have a feeling the sleeve length could be altered if the jacket were ripped apart at the seams along the jacket body, but the material is a very, very fine white mesh. I'll be taking it to a professional tailor hands down, but I don't even know if it's something they could work with, as the fabric is just incredibly fine. Worse comes to worse, I may end up having to bare my arms and all, and cover the rest with makeup or something.

http://kotaku.com/5276066/ps3-exclusive-final-fantasy-xiv-announced !!!






I was not expecting to hear about this, er, ever. But Stuart is now super-excited. I have a feeling we'll be here on release day. We both met in Final Fantasy XI, so there's some nostalgia to it, too. I liked the world of FFXI a ton, but it became too much to play after my return from Japan.

If it ends up being a grind-fest punishing game like XI, then we'll leave. But there will definitely be an attempt on the part of both of us.

Thanks to silvershadows86, more of my childhood has died. I think these are safe for work, but mildly troubling.

As I said to her, "I am not supposed to want Prince Phillip's ass. Nooo."

I've got good news and bad news.

Bad News: I'm killing myself trying to work on the second Classical Japanese assessment, because it is thoroughly evil and awful and DIFFICULT.

Good News: I'm eating Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies while agonizing about said Classical Japanese. :3 An American friend's wife brought them for me when she came to visit said friend a week ago. I shared about half a pack with my British gaming friends and converted about half of them. The other 4 are in my belly, and two more are very happily inviting me to eat them.

If you aren't watching the edit series TNG (which is aptly described as Star Trek: The Next Generation getting the Sealab 2021 treatment), you're missing out on something great.

Case in point, the latest episode. Many of the episodes are more enjoyable if you've seen all episodes up to date, but this one is enjoyable by itself.





Nothing comes between Picard and his flute. Nothing.

Allow me this one tiny indulgence, because I'm super excited about it.

I'm going with Stuart and my friend Rachel to see Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart starring, on July 25th.

Happy Birthday to meeeee!

We also have seats in the third row from the stage. Mwahahaha.

That is all. Thanks for indulging me.

Met ifotismeni, and power-toured London. SO FUN. I wish I could hang out with her on a regular basis; I felt so comfy around her.

Instead of going home from my 'day trip', stuck around and went to Stuart's instead without telling him, surprised him, stayed the night, and high-tailed it back to Sheffield.

Worked on paper due for Tuesday the entire time on the train, making notes and writing paragraphs. 1200 words done out of 3200, and I have all of tomorrow to work, and a plan of what I'm writing tomorrow.

Definitely a good weekend. Will be even better once I finish this bloody paper.


Also! Ben Folds Presents: University A Capella! is very good on the whole. I absolutely hate a few of the tracks on it, but there are a couple gems. Magic, Selfless, Cold, and Composed, Fair, and Army are the best executed, and The Luckiest made me (and Stuart) melt.

I didn't think SC and C could be done a capella, but I was proven wrong, and I am so HAPPY to have been wrong.

Won't touch Jesusland anymore with a 10-ft pole, and the more I listen to Evaporated, the more I hate it.