MILES to GO || before I sleep

Greetings from the Oviatt Library of Cal State Northridge (where I was when I first started writing this post)! It's finally the late afternoon, and Inauguration Day is winding down at last. Of course, I was up at 7:30 a.m. for my 9:00 class, so I missed all the inauguration fun, even though Dad called me at 6:30 a.m. to bug me about watching it. He (and several other members of my family) seem to think Inauguration Day ought to be a holiday, but as for me, I've been looking forward to today as the first day of school long before I knew about who was going to be taking the Oath of Office this morning.

In any case, I've managed to catch up with play-by-plays, fashion reports, and transcripts of Obama's speech, so I don't feel as if I've missed out on much. Of course I'm excited and hopeful, but I also know I'll be able to watch it tonight if I so wish. After all, tons of stations are having Encore Presentations of every aspect of the inauguration, so....

As for classes, it was great seeing Prof. Lisagor for my Food Science Lab course again! She even hugged me! :) I was quite glad just to be remembered, but I immediately got into techie mode because some people couldn't log into the shiny cinema-screen Macs (sadly, with Windows pre-loaded on them; the Food Processor program we use for class is Windows-only. Blech!). We spent a lot of time talking about what the class is going to involve, but we moved onto our first big project: a cultural foods meal plan.

We're supposed to think of a culture other than our own and imagine that a person coming from that culture/country has come to the U.S. and has come to us in need of a dietician. Obviously, my first thought was for Japan! So I'm working with a classmate from India named Mythri (My-three), and we've both got to invent a person and come up with a meal plan for them that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2-3 snacks for two days. Four of those meals have to be cultural foods (that is, Japanese) that are prepared. Everything should be "made at home," not "fast food" or whatever.

...For some reason, the first person that came to mind was Usagi Tsukino. More specifically, the Usagi that's in a very particular fic that I read recently on Aria's Ink, where she's come to the U.S. on a study abroad program.

Besides, it's not as if I don't know all her vital stats: she's 4'11", 99 lbs., 15 years old (well, we're imagining Season 1-3 Usagi here), and leads an active lifestyle-- what she lacks in P.E. she makes up for with Sailor Senshi duty and running like a mad chicken on her way to school. Inputting all that in, I've discovered just how many calories, vitamins, and minerals she ought to be taking.

Bearing all that in mind, now I've got to come up with 4 simple recipes that are Japanese in origin that Usagi might eat if she's seeing a dietician for whatever reason. I'm tempted to watch a bunch of Sailor Moon episodes to see how food appears in it, and what Usagi's eating habits are (other than just "voracious").

After that class, I went to Yoga. A surprising amount of people were wearing jeans, which made me roll my eyes. Really, the syllabus says "wear comfortable clothing," and people think "jeans?" The teacher seems like she's strict but interesting-- she reminds me of a professor I had in Journalism in my freshman and sophomore year where you either loved her or you hated her, but if you loved her, it's because despite the strictness, you learned. I'm hoping that'll be the case here, too.

Work today was pretty cool, too. I only had a short shift, but half of it I worked at the kiosk upstairs in the library, which we've started doing the first few weeks of the semester to introduce campus technology and the IT department to the people milling about the first floor.

Tomorrow I've only got one class-- my Public Relations class. Normally I'd have my long Biology lab, except the professor's postponed the first class session until next week, which is nice, because it gives me time to get adjusted to my other classes, get my textbooks and other supplies (seriously $114 for a biology NOTEBOOK!?!) and get used to the campus life again. I'm hoping I can use the rare extra time (because normally Wednesday would be my all-day session) to work on WDKY26 more. So far, it's coming along quite well... ^_^

ARGH! - Financial aid check didn't go through YET, so I couldn't get my PSP and SO2:SE as planned today, let alone check out the mall for some **free** makeup. Meh, I didn't need it (the makeup) anyway, and I don't need the PSP and the game RIGHT NOW, either. Textbooks are more the priority, anyway. Surprisingly, the bookstore actually has the cheapest rate for some of the textbooks. Some of the other textbooks, unfortunately, simply can't be found on Half.com or Amazon or whatever-- they're those special notebook lab packs. But that doesn't mean I'm out of resources yet!

Also: new icons! Yay. But I still need more for some of my other fandoms. There are also some I can't bring myself to get rid of even though I rarely use them. But hell, I've got nearly 200 userpic slots, so what does it matter!?

It's Miyazaki night over in Northridge... actually, all over the world. Today (er, yesterday, as of 20 minutes ago PST) is Hayao Miyazaki's birthday, so Turner Classic Movies channel is showing Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. I already watched the latter; about to watch the former. I've seen Princess Mononoke before, in both English and Japan, but it's always great to see Miyazaki movies, over and over. I can't wait until Howl's Moving Castle comes out on DVD-- it's already out in Japanese/Japan DVD. I also want to read the original book of HMC, and the sequel, too!

In other news, I'm searching for a private loan (or something) to fund my potential Study Abroad. I know it's stupid to try and take out a bunch of loans, but I need a "guaranteed" source of funding; I can't put "scholarship" money down because I'm not guaranteed to get it. Study Abroad students for Japan (and I'm the only applicant from CSUN!) can get a grant from the Japanese government once they're accepted, but as I said, there's no guarantee.

So I've looked at MyRichUncle.com, but I don't think Japanese schools are covered. So I went to edvisors.com; there are a bunch of private lenders that use them as a secure redirection source. It looks like no matter what, I'll have to get a co-signer (I'd like it to be grandpa, since I don't trust my mom or dad's credit), but I still have to find out if my address and employment information will be invalidated just because I haven't lived here in Northridge or been employed at any one place for a 2 year minimum.

All this confusion aside, does anyone know of any other sources of money I can look into for an $8,100 payment for Study Abroad?

Also, I had this random idea... kind of stupid, but hey, who knows who'll be into it? Kind of a girl's only thing, though. So I've always been very much into fashion and makeup, but more from the outsider's POV than someone who knows every brand name, ingredient, etc. One of my favorite books back when I used to want to be a fashion designer is "Color Me Beautiful" (dorky, I know), but it really reveals a lot about how your hair, eye color, complexion, etc. can determine your best colors. But of course, it's kind of dated. I keep up with some fashion magazines, and I could easily combine what I know now with the great tips from the books. There are four seasons (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer) that apply to people of varying complexions, hair styles/types, and colors. Add that to the latest trends for fashion and makeup, and I could have a pretty comprehensive feature article right here on LJ.

Anyone interested? ^_~ I'd post info on each season- 30 colors that suit the season best, what fabrics/styles are best for certain body types/frames, today's trends, and so forth. I could make it a four-parter, for simplicity's sake.

( Memes. Don't trust them. They're just for fun. )

I also posted recently to fanficrants about the "Millennium Tauk." In short: there is no such thing. It's a bad romanization. You can read the rant and the full details over at the comm, but you can also check out this image I scanned in from the Gospel of Truth... The kana on the left side (bold text) says "Sennen TAUKU no mitoo seshi chikara" which means "The power of the Millennium TAUKU is that of prediction/seeing into the future."

Now, the kanji is that of the word meaning "necklace" but the katakana beside it, for the word 'torque/torc' is wrong. It should be TORUKU. And just because Takahashi spelled it that way in the manga does NOT make it "canon." It's like claiming that "cannon" = "canon" because you spelled it that way in your book. NO! Even in Japanese, a misspelling is a misspelling. I don't think Takahashi intended it; most Japanese wouldn't know what a torque is, anyway (do you? It's a kind of necklace. But then again, DUH!) hence the use of the "necklace" kanji. And loan words from other languages are always tricky when it comes to Japanese kana-izing, and eventual romanization (back) into English.

But please, people... call it a necklace, or call it a torque/torc. Not a TAUK. There's no such thing.