anonymous bosch

Attn: New York Folks

jaidajones@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:37:45 GMT

Are you in the New York area? Do you like metal dragons? Would you like to watch me make a fool of myself? Then this is totally the event for you!

July 16, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Park Slope
267 7th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-832-9066

Author Event
Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett: Havemercy

I'm posting this now because the other day my cousin was over, and he said, "Jaida, are you going to actually post about this event in advance, unlike the New York Comic Con thing, which you only posted about about five hours before it happened?" And I thought, "Why cousin, you are so clever, of course I shall!" So yes. If you come, I will be forever grateful. If you tell other people to come, I will be even more grateful. This gratitude might involve cookies alongside the chance to see my skills as a public speaker, which are, you know, they're. Okay anyway.

That being said, impromptu audience poll: at signings/author events, do you guys like readings or a song-and-dance kind of routine better? Trying to decide what to do is difficult.

Note: my to-do list is to 1. reply to some comments, now that all visitors have left the building, and 2. make some more livejournal posts with more interesting questions in them. Once Dani and I finish the second book. Which is due so soon. Oh heavens.

June 24th.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:26:27 GMT

It took us until 8:30 pm to get our acts together and get to a bookstore--the Union Square Barnes & Noble, in fact. On the shelf, ll but one copy of Havemercy were gone:

I told Dani to make a face and this is what she did:

Then a woman yelled at me because apparently you're not allowed to take pictures in Barnes and Noble.

Anyway, Havemercy has appeared in some bookstores. Hope those of you who ordered it/bought it/etc. enjoy(ed?) it! The wonderful and smart search_soleil and splintercat have made a fan community, thremedon, for those looking for more stuff. Whoo!

I'm so nervous I can't even cope. Time to curl up with my cat and watch that Japanese Game Show thing. And maybe go to another bookstore. Uhm.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:54:59 GMT

First of all, for those of you who want a sneak peak at the first three chapters of Havemercy, they've been posted here at Issuu.com. You have to sign in to read them as they are mature content (hooo hoooo!) but it's super quick to make an account. Hope that you enjoy!

/pimp

Now, for the content of this post, which I'm making in response to the slew of video games to which I've been introduced by danibennett, her brother, and my cousin! In any case, some of the heroes of these games are the dark, broody, mysterious, troubled-past types, while some of the heroes are the strike-a-pose, "let's rock!" kind of dudes whom the game is kind of, sort of, maybe a lot making fun of. (But with love.) While the former category--let's call them the brooders--have a certain air of poetry to them, I guess these days I've gravitated towards loving the second category--let's call them the goobers.

So what about you? Brooder or Goober? And, while we're at it, who is the absolute epitome of the deliciously tormented brooder or the hilariously quirky goober?

Or--what category of leading man am I completely missing in this binary division who never fails to win your heart?

Vote away!

View Poll: Male heroes.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:22:38 GMT

Notice: I am completely addicted to pupe.jp and if you join you should come favorite me over here. That is all.

ANYWAY, I was all set to make a big post today about how Havemercy is coming out on June 24th, which is one week from today, and wahoo and eek and all that jazz. So I sat down to start typing and then I realized, well, actually, the 24th is one week from yesterday, and I am an idiot.

So. Havemercy! It's coming to a bookstore near you one week from yesterday--a much less exciting statement than "one week from today!" but nevertheless a true statement. I know that I am biased, but if you haven't already pre-ordered it on Amazon or BN.com or Chapters.com or whathave, you should definitely go support your local bookstore on June 24th and pick up a copy of Havemercy! That is, if the idea of reading about big metal dragons excites you. (And I hope it does.)

And then you should take a picture of yourself making a goofy face with the book and post it in your livejournal or in a comment to me or something (believe me, there will be a post made 6 Days From Now wherein I make goofy faces next to every copy of the book I can find in NYC while danibennett looks on and makes utterly pained faces of utter pain at how embarrassing I am).

It will look something like this.

If you would like to read something unbelievably cool written about Havemercy just yesterday, then check this out.

Yep. Less than a week. The only thing that can sum up how I'm feeling right now is a line from Sondheim's Into the Woods, in which Little Red Riding Hood--singing of her experiences with the Big Bad Wolf--recounts, "And he made me feel excited! Well... Excited and scared."

Let's become more trendy with Poupeegirl.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:36:45 GMT

I'm in Canada right now, where it is easily 30 degrees cooler than it was in NYC when I left last week. Of course, I'm completely jet-lagged even though it's only a three hour time difference. Most of my time has been devoted to:

1. Not getting out of my pajamas at all
2. Trying to catch up on 8 million things and failing
3. Working on ending The Second Book That Will Not End But Is Nevertheless Due August First
4. Playing Rock Band for the Playstation 3 with danibennett and her brother, who is top notch on the drums, let me tell you

Rock Band is awesome because it feeds into my love of dressing up avatars. Nothing is cooler--seriously, nothing--than buying fake clothes and tattoos for a fake person whom you've accessorized with fake accessories and whose fake hair you've fake-styled. My Rock Band persona is named Caius and he's about four feet tall with a blond mop and possibly five hundred tattoos all over his pale, scrawny body. He's approximately seven million times cooler than I am--and isn't that the point?

I could seriously spend all day crapping around in fake stores buying fake clothes for a fake person, in the same way that, when I was little, I could just stare and stare and stare at an American Girl Dolls catalog. Mini-clothes for mini-people! It's the same reason why I sign up for every single "customize your avatar!" sites like pupe.jp. Anyone else have this experience-slash-problem?

jaidajones@gmail.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:56:46 GMT

meronine and bonhwa_seong are here, so there has been much exploration of NYC in the past 48 hours. I always forget how crowded Times Square is. In any case, I am just popping on for a brief moment to share THIS --

It is embossed. I keep rubbing my hands over it like a total dweebo. But the best part is taking the cover off and staring at our names on the binding.

This is an important poll.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:44:05 GMT

View Poll: Ultimate Showdown

This is very difficult for me. I don't know the answer myself. I'm going to have to think long and hard about it. What are your thoughts?

Also, if there's a third option you feel I haven't addressed in this either/or scenario, please chastise me in the comments.

ETA: the best of the best.

vs.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:57:18 GMT

I was in a class recently (I will not say which), in which a professor, as an end-of-semester summary, decided to give the students a rundown of How Things Were. Not "How Things Were For Me, The Professor, Speaking," but how things Were, a blanket statement, that indicated How Things Would Be For All Of Us--and that bothered me. T

There is no "How Things Are." There is always an exception. More accurately, there are always exceptions. Which is why I'm generally so awkward when it comes to talking about writing and publishing and my experiences so far--because they've been my experiences but so, so, so not necessarily everyone's experiences.

In fact, very recently, the beginning of the time I had been dreading most dawned upon the horizon. Reviews. Considering I was the sort of person in high school who focused solely on the negative assessments given by teachers--I'm still not the sort who, er, accentuates the positive and eliminates the negative by any means--the idea of "reviews" were very upsetting because, I suppose, of different experiences. Every review comes from a person--a different person with different experiences; every person will come to a book expecting and wanting different things, and every person will leave it with different opinions.

I have stopped being friends with people based on different opinions of books. Opinions of books are serious business.

Naturally, I would like for everybody in the entire universe, including space-time-traveling aliens with green skin and inverted eyeballs, to enjoy reading Havemercy. Getting reviews puts an end to this beautiful and alien-inclusive fantasy. So it was that I, with trepidation and a tendency to focus upon the negative with a dedication and tenacity I only wish I had displayed for actual, I don't know, work--faced this period in my life, braced and cringing and hoping for the best. I continue to face it. In the immortal words of Ned Flanders, I am a "Nervous Pervis," which makes this stuff super hard for me and also everyone around me who might want to use the bathroom that I'm hiding in.

Nonetheless, I'm excited to say that I did not focus on the negative aspects of this review of Havemercy which (and yes, it's one of my firsts, so that means it will always have a special place in my heart) is definitely an amazing thing.

No book is perfect (I tell myself, haw-hawing). If you've written the perfect book then what's left to improve upon next time? What's left to discover about yourself, and your writing?

I'm just glad to write anything that can be a part of someone else's experience. Granted, I'd like everyone, including all the aliens, to feel that the pros outweigh the cons--this would be ideal. But IN MY EXPERIENCE, the big thing has been accepting both pros and cons, crying for the good stuff and the bad stuff hand in hand, and making it a part of that experience. That review, for example, has positive and negative things to say and I'm grateful for all of them. The bad makes the good more real; the good means the bad can be improved upon; and Queer Eye for the Sorcerous Guy is a TV show I hope one day to write for.

So that's all for now! Tomorrow I graduate and hopefully don't trip on stage, and after that I try to figure out what to do with this journal.

eta because of my lack of coherence: 1. What to post in this journal, because I can no longer complain about Japanese; and 2. I loved the linked review, I love the linked review, and I will always love the linked review.

You have no idea how long I've been waiting to write this post.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:04:09 GMT

School's out for ~~the summer~~ ever.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:50:49 GMT

So apparently Persona 3 is a game in which you must balance social and academic obligations until, desperate to relieve the stress this imparts, you are forced to shoot yourself over and over to kill the shadow demons that arise in response to these pressures.

Cool. Cool. I can dig it. In fact it's a particularly awesome game to be playing right before finals.

Has anyone else here played this game? Am I the only one blown away by the insane homosexuality that runs rampant throughout it? Yes? No? Why is everybody hitting on my character? How do I avoid offending all these people?!

And another weird question--allergies acting up majorly these past few days for anyone? I have a headache like I have never had before. My brains feel squoze.

ONLY IMAGES

jaidajones@gmail.com — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:07:45 GMT

PSA!

jaidajones@gmail.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:05:58 GMT

Going to NY COMIC CON?

danibennett and I will be on a panel, about which I personally am somewhat terrified. So if you're intrigued, please do stop by so I feel like less of a goober. The information is as follows:

Women in Fantasy and SF
Friday, April 18
Panel Room 3 (1E15)
5-6 PM

Immortal names like Asimov, Heinlein, and Tolkien have defined the science fiction and fantasy realms, but genres which were once shaped by the hands of men are now being molded by fingers with a fairer touch. Spend an hour with some of fantasy and science fiction's leading ladies and learn about how they're re-envisioning the future (and the past).

I know there are some other fabulous names on this panel as well. Come to see them be coherent!

jaidajones@gmail.com — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:50:09 GMT

Okay so here's a question guys.

If say one were to graduate in under a month, and one were to be ready to move out of one's parents' house like last year, and one were wishing to remain in the city of New York or its immediate environs, and one were to realize that this is extremely expensive and pretty apartments that aren't seventy gabillion dollars don't exist, and one were new anyway to this entire process, what advice would you give to...one in this position?

Also, "one" is me.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:24:19 GMT

I've been doing so much schoolwork lately, it has left me no time for actual fun writing. It has, however, given me lots of time to procrastinate vis-à-vis some cool manga, which I am now going to talk about. Get ready.

: This has been a preview of what's inside the cut.

D.Gray-Man: Okay. TO BE HONEST. I was aware of this series for a while and even though I thought the art was lovely, I actually had no interest in it. Some exorcism, some dude with white hair; I was basically like, whatever! But it has also long been known by all and sundry that I tend to like the minor characters, mostly because I like to be thwarted, but also because I like to see them show up again later and be freakin' awesome. I guess that's how I got into DGM! It also helps that I had a vast body of translated manga to steamroll through as people cheered me on. And of course, I love a good antagonist. There are some good antagonists here. As I came into the series biased, I do also enjoy the magical stylings of General Cross Marian, who wears a golden snitch on his head, sports a phantom of the opera mask, and abuses alcohol but never women.

This is Cross Marian. Six foot six, weighs a motherfucking ton. Marian, Marian.

There is also Tyki Mikk. He's Portuguese. I like to call him Tickles Mitch, Tickles Bitch, Tickles McBitch, and a lot of other things, including but not limited to: Tickles Snitch, Tickled Witch, Tickly Hitch, and so on and so forth. He has like, this weird hairband and also, apparently, he was styled after David Beckham. This I don't get, but have some pictures anyway.

Tickles Which?
Tickles McBitch
Tickles Mitch

All in all, D.Gray-Man is just a good story with a compelling and enormous cast, and I love ensemble casts. There's a great roster of villains—the main villain is a giant, round earl who uses a &heart; after every statement he makes. There's a talking umbrella with a pumpkin on it. It uses Biblical history about the flood quite fabulously. Sometimes, it is totally over 9,000. Plus, it's about friendship. I love that.

Thanks also to erewhile for the Cross pictures. If anyone wants to know more about Cross that is the place to go.

Kuroshitsuji, also known as Black Butler: I picked this manga up on a whim during a giant sale at Kinokuniya because the style reminded me so, so much of meronine's that I actually just assumed she had gone ahead, learned Japanese, and published a manga without telling me. This was of course not the case, but the styles are so similar—which is perhaps one big reason why I think Kuroshitsuji is absolutely gorgeous. It's a highly gothic style, drawn by a mangaka who has some background in BL comics, so the men are at times a little girlier than they might be, but I've never been one to complain about this.

So the basic plot, as far as I've been able to glean from my haphazard readings of the Japanese, is: there's a young boy named Ciel Phantomhive. He has a butler. His butler is a demon but also very good at managing the house.

There is, again, a fabulous cast of characters introduced in the first volume, including a tiny gardener who likes to use a lot of hairclips (I love him) and an enormously stubbled chef who reminds me a little bit of Gordon Ramsey (I love him). In the second volume we are introduced to my absolute favorite character, Grell Sutcliff (my favorite character until, I think, I come to the two Indian princes introduced at the very end of volume three) who fits with a chainsaw, accessorizes with red-rimmed glasses, and wears high-heeled side-buttoned boots. Also, he refers to himself as though he were a woman.

Yeah.

It's good stuff.

He likes to give nicknames to his enemies, also, which as you know I'm a sucker for. All in all, it's about DEMON BUTLERS BATTLING IT OUT wearing WAISTCOATS and WHITE GLOVES and wielding BUTTER KNIVES. That's good. That's so good.

This is Grell.

I highly recommend checking out the livejournal community for Kuroshitsuji – which is, in fact, kuroshitsuji – for more lovelies.

DOLLS: This is a manga drawn by an artist team calling themselves "naked ape." I actually don't need to say anything more than that, but because I love this manga so much I will continue speaking anyway.

DOLLS is set in a big dystopia big-brother style future, in which the main characters are hired hands to basically deal with troublemakers, who are no longer protected by the law. They're institutionalized, hired assassins just outside but also within the law itself, and they are a quirky group of deeply disturbed motherfuckers drawn with absolutely glorious style. The three characters introduced in the first volume and much of the second are weird and touching and I love them. One of them has truly bizarre hair but an exciting range of facial expressions which I will now reveal:

There is actually negative information on DOLLS at all online, and this makes me sad. But you can read it at Onemanga.com and I suggest you go do that now, and then be my friend.

That's about it right now, although I'm looking into Amatsuki -- it's about monsters in Edo Japan, which is relevant as always to my interests -- and Nabari no Ou, which I think may be about teachers and ninjas.

What's cool right now that everyone should be into? That's the real question I would like to ask you. BRING ON THE OBSCURITY* GUYS!

*not that D.Gray-Man is obscure. But the other two are. So it counts.

Warning: May Contain Spoilers for Fushigi Fucking Yuugi

jaidajones@gmail.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:07:03 GMT

I've been feeling pretty weird the past few weeks. In fact, let's just say the past month. It was really starting to freak me out, honestly, because I had no idea what it was or where it was coming from. Now I think that maybe it has a little something to do with the slow realization that I'm graduating in May, in way less than two months—that, come tomorrow, I will even be able to say, I am graduating next month. Whether or not I've enjoyed school (for the most part, I've enjoyed aspects of school, but otherwise I've been really unhappy most of college because of college itself) this is still a big deal. If I'd assumed feeling ready to be done meant I was actually ready to be done, that I was above or below actually experiencing anything other than immense relief knowing I'd never have to study for another exam again, then I was so, so wrong. Whatever this experience has been for me, it's basically been the experience for me so far. And there's a definite comfort in the routine.

Sometimes, I get on the train in the morning and think it's time to head back to the same school building I attended from K through 12. It's been four years since the last time I did that. I'm definitely a creature of habit.

Anyway, it's clear that I was a big jerk for thinking this would be a simple enough end for me; just because I'll be out of school, and just because I want to be out of school, doesn't mean I'm at all comfortable about what I'm actually going to do once I'm no longer a student. There's certainly a lot I want to do, but will it happen? I'll have to get a job, I'll have to find a place of my own, I'll have to save up to travel.

And perhaps my dissatisfaction with my school experience has me feeling more nostalgic than if I'd truly loved it. Maybe, I think to myself sometimes, I should have done more: activities, readings, clubs. Maybe I should have met more people and availed myself of more opportunities I will, essentially, never see in the same form again. Mostly, I just feel constantly surrounded by the anticipation of change and not the change itself; that hasn't come yet. At last, after all four years of college, four years spent wondering why MS Word always highlights "liminal" in red, I finally fucking know exactly what it means. And yeah. It is a real word, spell check, however abused it may be.

I have a lot of crap to do before the change can actually come, and of course I never like that feeling, either. Between me and the actual change there's all this other stuff, mucking up the works.

So I indulged in a little something this weekend from, perhaps, another liminal time in my life: when I was thirteen years old. (Not a good year, but definitely a liminal one.) I went deep into my closet and dug out a collection of extremely old, extremely bootleg VHS tapes—a gift from my uncle when I first got into "the anime"—of the series Fushigi Yuugi. I watched thirty five episodes in two days, which, given my current attention span, is a big deal. Nonetheless, this show is the fucking comfort food of television.

When I watched Fushigi Yuugi at the tender and confused age of thirteen, one of the characters presented me with my first lesson on having to think about gender and sexuality. In the series, when that character dies, the main character says: "Male or female, it didn't matter. Nuriko was Nuriko."

For whatever reason, when I watched the scene this time around, I could not stop crying. Not to get all "Everything I learned about world-building, character development, and Japan, I learned from Fushigi Yuugi" on anyone—that's for another time, maybe soon if I can actually find some valid sources about freaking Tamerlane—but I had a Moment nonetheless.

One of these days, I want to feel like that. Even if for now, comfort food is just going to have to be enough. In the meantime, I'm going to try to let this other character, an obnoxious red-haired bandit with fangs, teach me how to be a better person. Hopefully.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:15:39 GMT

Took one midterm today; one tomorrow, and one a week from tomorrow. I hate exams and I hate everything they stand for. I think having to memorize seven hundred dates is stupid and I wish more than anything I'd taken classes this semester in which I was required to write essays. Why do I always do this to myself? Why do these classes that sound so interesting always involve exams? Auuuugh. Gastro-intestinal distress! I've been riding that train for the past week.

Of course, I've been spending all my time wasting my time and feeling guilty, because I assume that's how studying works everywhere. This is the first time in the history of all time that I have actually not done reading for a class when it is due. I'll get to it and I feel like a LOST CAUSE but whatever. Not gonna happen. I don't even care. SUCK THAT.

Also I decided a couple of nights ago that the most amazing thing in the entire world would be a livejournal-based RP that was like... about the Greek pantheon. (I know, I know, I need to shut up about Ancient Greece.) But it would be. So. Amazing. I don't know what would be more amazing: if it was actually Ancient Greek style, or if it was set in the modern world and everyone lived in like, New York or something, and they all had livejournals, and Dionysos threw crazy parties and Hephaistos worked at a Gothic Cabinet Craft and Artemis was, I don't know, a veterinarian and Zeus owned an art gallery and Apollo was his favorite of all his obnoxious, pretentious art friends and Ganymede lived out of his car for a while like that kid from American Idol who made me really sad. It would be great. I want someone to make this happen for me. I am right. Right? GUYS?!

jaidajones@gmail.com — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:06:15 GMT

In order to tell this story I must begin with the fact that I have not slept like a human being for a month. What it boils down to is that I currently sleep once every three to four days. The other nights I will sleep anywhere from between two to three hours. This has gone on for far too long because I am an idiot who still hopes that my body and my brain are going to sort themselves out. (Hahaha!) Finally, with midterms upon me and a sense of deadened despair only true exhaustion can inspire in a person, I grew sick of my nightly useless concoctions of kava tea and melatonin and chamomile, depressed that I actually had faith in a relaxation tape, hot baths, blah blah blah, all that stuff that doesn't work. So I decided that I would put my faith in the system and go to Barnard's walk-in center, harboring some delusion that they would do anything other than tell me I have mono, which is what they always tell me, and everyone, no matter what the symptoms. (Hey. I could go for a little mono right now, since isn't that supposed to make you sleep eight jabillion years?)

So I go to the walk-in center, I wait in the germ-infested waiting room reading the germ-infested Christina Aguilera's Baby edition of People magazine, I get taken by a nurse, I discuss my symptoms, I do not get told I have mono. This is a good sign. Unfortunately, I have to take a blood test, which sucks, but I man up and I bear it and it's not so bad and she bandaids me up and everything's going to be OK, and we're discussing more possibilities--maybe I have low electrolytes! maybe they abandoned this sinking ship! I wouldn't want to be one of my own electrolytes, either--when suddenly I'm like, why is my arm wet and cold?

And I look down.

And my entire arm is like, gushing blood. It's all over my jeans, all over my favorite white sweater, all over my arm, all over the seat, everywhere. I don't even blame the nurse--despite having told her the medication I'm on, which apparently (now I know!) slows down clotting speed--because this moment in her life was just a byproduct of all the moments in my life that have led up to sitting in that room while the nurse tried to clean the blood off my sweater with those tiny little alcohol swabs.

Anyone have any blood stain cures? Alternately, anyone want to come to my place tonight and smash my head with a mallet? That's my new plan for sleepytime.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:00:34 GMT

I just opened an email from my high school notifying me of the death of one of the students from my grade. He was one of the bravest people I've ever met, if not the bravest. I don't know what to say other than that, but my heart goes out to his family. Rest in peace, Max.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:03:38 GMT

I want to dress like Edmund. I think that Christian from Project Runway could make that happen.

Team Fierce consists only of one.

Uhm why does it look like Edmund is getting all protective on Peter's ass?

Maybe I'm the only person shitting my pants excited about this movie. Who knows. I love it!

jaidajones@gmail.com — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:54:37 GMT

This poll is brought to you by the amazingly awesome lecture I just had that has restored my faith in paying attention.

View Poll: Panic at the Pantheon

I don't know how to include a poll that lists eight billion more members of the Pantheon, so if I have left out your favorite--like, say, Hades or uh...Asclepius--feel free to kick my butt in the comments.

This is the story of a time long ago, a time of myth and legend

jaidajones@gmail.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:03:12 GMT

One of the traumas of my past that I never overcame was both Hercules and Xena being canceled before I was able to fulfill my childhood dream of being an extra on one of those shoes. I could have been a kidnapped daughter or a street urchin, a vendor, one of those people who shouted, ecstatic, from off-stage "It's Hercules!" or "I can't believe it!" Of course, the true dream was to be an Amazon--I was tall and I had long hair, I had high hopes--but fate was not on my side, nor did I ever get to don a leather and iron boob-mantle.

View Poll: This is the story of a time long ago

Seriously, the breasts on that show have not been duplicated since. They were monumental events, aided by mythical wonderbras, worthy of goddesses; now, they are extinct.

But seriously, did anyone else watch these shows religiously on Saturday nights? It was one of the most substantive ways my father and I actually bonded when I was thirteen and spent the rest of my time being sullen and/or embarrassed.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:13:06 GMT

Heath Ledger found dead. Probably everywhere right now but I feel as though I'm actually going to throw up. So talented, so unexpected, so fucking sad.

jaidajones@gmail.com — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:48:07 GMT

Wow--I haven't posted in forever! This is mostly because I'm so super boring I don't want to inflict myself on my inbox, much less on livejournal. Nonetheless, I had my first day of classes of the semester this morning. It looks like it's going to be pretty sweet:

Monday
10:35 - 11:50 Religion, Myth, Ritual: The Greek City State
1:10 - 2:25 The Arts of Japan
6:10 - 8:00 Intro to Fiction Writing

Tuesday
9:00 - 10:50 The Mongols in History

Wednesday
10:35 - 11:50 Religion, Myth, Ritual: The Greek City State
1:10 - 2:25 The Arts of Japan

I've been trying to get into this Mongols course since my second semester freshman year, but it's always closed out before the first day of limited-enrollment course sign ups, which is only for seniors, so this is the first time I even had a chance. And the first lecture was awesome.

Even though school itself fills me with enormous dread, I actually got to choose courses this semester based on what I thought would be inspiring and exciting and fun, since I don't have requirements left. This is also the very first semester I haven't had Japanese exams hanging over my head every two seconds. I wonder how that will work for me. I like to pretend I'll be less stressed, but of course this is a lie. And finally: FOUR DAY WEEKEND. My weekend begins at 2:30, Wednesday afternoon, and lasts through Sunday. Small blessings.

I really wish I had taken more ancient Greece type history classes during the past semesters though. It's my secret passion. Ancient Greece (I want this book so much--"sexy tyrants, potent pathics, and seductive perverts" is essentially the trifecta of shit I love); The Scarlet Pimpernel; and Jack the Giant Killer. Yep. That about sums it up.

What are you super into right now? Let's have some excitement!

Haunting Scenes, Anyone?

jaidajones@gmail.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:05:27 GMT

Wow.

I can't believe that I was so moved by the ending of a video game. A video game! Me! How crazy is that? But there was this one moment in Tales of the Abyss wherein you're fighting the final boss (for the third time, I might add; the dude will not die) and you get to a certain point where you've beaten him, but the fight keeps going for long enough for one of the main characters to finish casting a spell by singing to the end of her song. She's been singing parts of the song during fight scenes to cast her spells throughout the entire game, but during this final battle, she finally knows the entire song the whole way through. The battle stops counting--you and your enemy are whaling on each other like crazy, but no damage registers--it's just so that the song can be completed. For some reason, this moment is so lyrical and bittersweet: it's the culmination of countless hours of playing, of all the characters' arcs, of their hopes and dreams and losses, and the juxtaposition of the wild, mad-dash fighting with the swelling of the otherwise slow-moving, delicate melody is absolutely stunning. It absolutely gutted me for reasons I don't even understand. Maybe it was liking the characters so much, coming to know them so well; maybe it was that it was my first real video game (wow); maybe it was not sleeping or eating properly for days on end just to get to the resolution... Whatever it was, it was a truly lovely, moving moment. It lasted about 30 seconds and it made my heart hurt.

I know it's silly, but it definitely goes on my list of "Most Moving Scenes of All Time." I have to pack for Canada now, but I've been wondering what scenes are on your list (if you have a list). What scene from a book or film or tv series or whatever chewed you up and spit you out? I must know! This particular scene has left me bizarrely haunted for days. What did that to you?

jaidajones@gmail.com — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:18:22 GMT

2007 was pretty good to me. Here's hoping 2008 is even better!

I was going to make a long rambling introspective entry about all the new things I've done and the great things that have happened, but then I realized that it all comes down to this: for the first time ever, I had someone to kiss at midnight who wasn't my mother. Not that I don't love my mother, because I do, but I was starting to wonder if I would ever have someone to kiss at midnight who wasn't my mother. It's a milestone. I done kissed a non-relative after the countdown.

Happy New Year, everyone! I really hope 2008 treats you well--I hope it's treating you well already.