Sonja Denise's Notebook

http://sonjadenise.dreamwidth.org/

Open Beta started today, and I was eagerly waiting to hand over a measly $3 to open an account, too impatient to wait for an invite code (which I'll probably wind up using to create my fandom journal). I'm still fixing things up over there - I want it to be just right. I'm planning to take advantage of Dreamwidth's cross-posting feature for my fandom journal, but I'm not sure if I'll bother with this account, especially since not a ton of people read it already.

I'm assuming I'll be getting more invite codes, since I purchased an account. I'll gladly hand some out to anyone I know even in passing (ie, part of the same community on IJ or LJ, friended me, whatever).

What I love about them so far:
- Responsiveness & transparency.
- INUITIVE MENUS. If there's something I'm looking for, it's always where I think to look. Using the site is a pleasant experience instead of head-bashingly frustrating like LJ (and, subsequently, IJ).
- Pretty. What? The default layout is cute, but I switched to Celerity, because - green!
- Creating feeds is free. This right here (along with the cross-posting and import-including-comments feature) is what's going to make this place my Internet home.
- Still exploring =)

Since I decided to switch schools, I've been thinking about wiping this journal and starting over, which I have the habit of doing. I've also started reading about the hype for Dreamwidth, which I've heard of before, but I just now get what's exciting about it. On April 30th, I'll probably drop $3 to start a new sonjadenise account over there. If I'm in love, then I'll probably carry over my fandom journal and persuade my sister to get an account since she's not much of a FaceBook type, either.

Still no apology, hmmm.

I e-mailed Amazon to close my account.

"I am uncomfortable giving any more business to Amazon. Though the "AmazonFail" errors are being fixed, the glaring lack of apology to the LGBT community and authors affected shows Amazon does not care enough to at least pretend to be sorry."

Amazon is still claiming it was all an error. An embarrassing error. And I'm wondering, "where the fuck is the apology?" Still haven't heard one. Still not giving them any money (and, damn, I really want to preorder Dollhouse). An apology would, at the very least, show Amazon has enough shame to pretend to care what this looks like.

Unlikely it was a mistake: http://www.afterellen.com/node/48877

People are backing down and saying AmazonFail was overblown. What else do you expect from a country that lived under eight years of Bush and never flipped its shit?

Looks like I'll be deleting my Amazon account come Monday.

Yeah, I can't do another year at Temple. I'll go crazy. And unless something spectacular happens in the next few months, I won't be setting foot inside SCAD, either. Sigh.

I really want to travel. Always wanted to, never have. After my trip to New York, I had a buzz the entire following week. And that was just one day, to New York. A couple of days, I swore to myself I'd build up my savings again, and use some of it to take a trip...somewhere.

And the night I decided that, I had a dream: there was something wrong with my teeth, so I went to my mother. She looked in my mouth, and touched one of my teeth, and it broke it in half. She was pissed. I remembered how she always talked about how teeth are stupid and everyone should just get them taken out and have fake ones put in, so, I decided "fuck this, I'm getting fake teeth!" Apparently, you get those at a train station. I walked out with my new teeth, admiring them, and amazed that it didn't hurt.

Easy enough to decipher. (It also helps if you know that "teeth" apparently represent "power" in dreams...I happen to know this already because I dream about teeth a lot.)

I told my mom about the dream, and I finally talked to her about the fifty ways being at Temple rather blows (I hate Philadelphia; I'm in the same area; it feels like high school; I'm not at my choice school; I'm not working towards any discernible goal). Pretty much got it out in the air that we know SCAD's highly unlikely. We're both on the same page now - looking into a different school; as she told me, "when I changed schools, I didn't decide until August!"

Now, my main problem is that I can't pick out a school without settling on a new major. What the major is doesn't matter, I know - but I need something so I have a particular goal to work towards. (I know I'm interested in copyediting, but that doesn't require a particular degree, so back to square one. I'm vaguely interested in psychology, too...but I'm vaguely interested in everything. Gyah.)

I also want to get out of this area, because I've been hear nearly my entire life. All I know right now is that I'm looking into schools in California, since I've always been interested in living there for a little while. Plus, other side of the country!

...yeah. *returns to research*

Looks like the Obamaniacs are finally waking up...you know, after Obama's repeatedly gone back on campaign promises. Big ones.

Oh, look at this. Yeah, that gives me warm fuzzies.

Good work, America. You were not being hopeful, you were settling. You were so busy patting yourself on the back for electing a black man (who I bet never would have gotten elected if the most recent white guy hadn't screwed up so badly), that you threw all logic out the window. In any other country, we would have gone French Revolution on the government's ass long ago.

Well, everyone's in debt with no jobs...is there really anything to lose?

http://www.examiner.com/x-3569-Denver-Internet-Examiner~y2009m4d12-Online-censorship-Amazon-strips-ranking-of-Gay-and-Lesbian-books
Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy

Long and short: Amazon introduced a policy that would remove "adult" books from its rankings/best seller lists and thus, general store-wide search results (so, when you search "homosexuality," you wind up with a bunch of anti-gay books). Shock and awe, a bunch of non-adult GLBT books (Heather's Two Moms, anyone?) and apparently some feminist ones have been removed, while explicit heterosexual books haven't. Once caught red-handed, Amazon claimed that this is a glitch. Yeah. Uh-huh. Anyone with two braincells to rub together can tell it's intentional.

After reading this, I kept thinking, didn't someone pull similar shit like this, down to claiming "glitch"? And then I remembered - it was LiveJournal.

And I was just about to pre-order Dollhouse on DVD. But I guess Amazon isn't as interested in making money as much as it is in discriminating.

Hikaru Utada's making another attempt at breaking into the U.S. market. And I think the title of the album, This Is The One is exactly right. She might do it this time.

( Music is my business. )

One month, eight days in...

( This is long. )

I love pissy!Obama. I hope he stays very angry for his entire presidency. My critiques of him still stand, but he's rockin' right now and I really want to put an Obama pin next to my McKinney one on my purse.

Seriously. I'm loving this.

If I have to hear someone reduce Michelle Obama's entire being to what she fucking wears one more time, I'm going to punch someone in the face.

I came across the blog All Japanese All The Time (ironically, it's all in English) the other day, and I'm still making my way through everything written there. Basically, the guy became fluent in Japanese in 18 months, studying on his own, never having visited Japan. Last year, I had a similar idea as this guy's, in trying to expose myself to as much Japanese as I could, essentially bringing Japan here and immersing myself in the language. Granted, it didn't last too long, 'cause those were the high school days.

It was also never quite as intense as AJATT, where the idea is to almost completely forsake English. You're supposed to think of yourself like a baby, really - get lots of input (listening and reading), begin understanding, and the output (speaking and writing) will come later.

I want to try it, even though forsaking English (no English websites, no English TV, etc.) seems pretty difficult. But I'll just work up to that gradually; after all, I just got back on the horse less than a week ago by using iKnow - now I'm up to 212 words "studied" and can work at a pace of about 200 words/week (plus it's helping my kanji recognition; I can always go here to get an estimate of the number). When I do yoga in the morning, I put on the news (using LiveStation). Since coming upon AJATT, I've started pulling my J-pop collection back together to listen to as much as possible, and rewatched the first episode of Last Friends last night. Then I switched LiveStation to Tokyo FM, and left it on while I slept. I almost feel ready to start reading again. I downloaded Skype (I could never get either of my mics to work with it on Windows, but of course it's perfect on my Mac), so when I feel ready to talk, I can find some people - maybe even native speakers - to chat with.

Admittedly, I'm not doing the exact AJATT method, which starts with learning the Jouyou kanji using the Heiseg method...I've tried that, it just bores and frustrates me. I'm picking up kanji left and right at iKnow just fine. Phase 2 is kana, which I already know. Phase 3 is learn 10,000 sentences (although he admits he only did 7,500), which iKnow has covered for me, as well, since the official lists have 6,000 sentences (one for each word) so far.

Now for some math...it'll take 7.5 months (late August) to go through the official iKnow lists and learn 6,000 words, 6,000 sentences, and god knows how many kanji (definitely more than the 400ish I know now...) As a low estimate. I should be at JLPT level 2 at that rate!

No pressure. I'm just going to take this one day at a time. Especially considering I have neither started my second semester nor gotten that part-time job I need. But I'll try to update my progress once a month. This should be fun =)

As always, one of my top resolutions is work on my Japanese. I haven't been on Lang-8 forever, but for some reason I was possessed to sign up at iKnow! Username's Sonja there, too. Hopefully I'll actually hang out at both consistently. Meanwhile, I intend to drown myself in J-dramas...I downloaded an entire series overnight (FiOS is awesome), so it's entirely possible now! I've got J-pop out the wazoo, listen to a podcast entirely in Japanese, can watch (or read) news online, have multiple readers, novels, and a good textbook. And, goddamnit, I will take the JLPT again this year! I also bought some kiddie books to read to my nephew, so that'll be good reinforcement for me.

( Yes, there's more! )

I've never been a big Obama fan. I never believed he was liberal, and always pegged him for center-right. I never thought the election of a black man signified anything except now minorities can get fucked over by our own kind. Maybe I'm cynical because that's my nature, or because I've been subjected to the Bush clusterfuck from the moment I became fully politically aware up until now. But all I ever saw Obama as was More Of The Same - a rich, detached politician who cared more about climbing a political ladder rather than actually helping anyone. Oh, he's smart, but his intelligence won't help us any.

I've been following the Rick Warren drama for the past few days, but haven't really bothered to say much about it, because it's pretty standard for Obama or any other politician without any real convictions. Or a Democrat. I and other true liberals are pissed. Some are getting disillusioned (the more, the better, I say). Then there are those Obamafreaks who think he's God or something, and insist that we all continue to trust him despite him repeatedly showing that's not such a great plan. But this rant isn't about them, or even specifically about Obama.

( This gets long. )

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/12/omg-shoez.html

Bush got shoes thrown at him while in Iraq. Just...look at the video. LOL. Bastard.

There is no one whom I'd wish more to eat shit and die. Literally.

...I just freakin' love my hair.

I finally got some rollers, so I can either put bigger curls in my hair, or make it straight without using heat. I can wear my hair big by not detangling for a few days or picking it out. If I shingle conditioner through my hair, I can define my curls and show a little more length. My hair's almost back to the length it was right before I cut it all off, so I can wear a bun now. I can do braids and twists, braid-outs and twist-outs...I'm sure I'm missing something, because natural hair is so diverse! I love it, I love it, I love it.



And I bowed to peer pressure and got a Fotki account for my hair journal.

That is all for my nappy propaganda today.

It's snowing! In November! It hasn't snowed this early since I was, like, in elementary school!

This is exciting :D

I am late to the party again because there were some issues with tuition payment...but I finally got around to doing course selection for the next semester. Just as frustrating as the first time around.

I was looking for general education (except for Honors Drawing) stuff I could get credit for at SCAD, as well as fulfilling Temple requirements. Classes on the Ambler campus were a no-no, because they're an hour from the main campus, and it already takes me an hour to get to the main campus. I didn't want 50-minute a day/3 days a week classes, because I have one this semester, and, though the class is great, as a commuter, it blows. No classes earlier than, say, 10, because then I would have to get up too early in the morning. I was also in search of honors classes, because they're fun and they make me look good. I was also looking to condense my schedule to 3-4 days a week.

I'm going to try to keep my eyes glued to OWLnet to see if anything opens up (or gets dropped) before the next semester. So far, I have Dissent in America, Gender in America, my required English course, and Asian Behavior & Thought. I was looking to cram a language (maybe Chinese) in there, since, why the hell not? But no beginning courses were open. Poo.

But the schedule looks good, though. Tuesdays 10:00-4:30, Wednesdays 7:00-10:00, and Thursdays 10:00-7:40. I really need to go job-hunting. If that really winds up being my schedule, I might go for full-time, because I want to make as much as I can to make SCAD happen.

(In other news, I'm apparently insane. I started a different novel for NaNoWriMo and have written about 12,000 words since Thursday night. Yes, I am very tired.)

Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions

DO IT AND I LOVE YOU.

I've been slowly making my way through Grey's Anatomy (I'm still somewhere in Season 3); the show is so soapy and trashy and doesn't even try to pretend it isn't, and I have to give thumbs up to Shonda Rhimes for having such a diverse cast. It's the only show I know of right now that portrays a broader range of looks as being beautiful and there's no "Hollywood ugly" nonsense.

Okay, I admit it, I'm mainly watching for Cristina. But I had to point out the positives of the show.

Amid the Election frenzy, I missed out on the news that Brooke Smith was suddenly dropped from the show, and her character, Erica Hahn, is being written out (and rather half-assed, apparently), and it's apparently ABC's doing. Which is not surprising, since I'd have a hard time believing Rhimes would do this. Let's see, what are Erica Hahn's offenses? She's a strong woman, perhaps not attractive enough by some arbitrary standards, and, oh, she's in a relationship Callie, another woman! And on top of that, there was apparently going to be another bisexual character, but the scripts are being rewritten.

Jesus H. Christ, this is depressing to hear after all those bigoted ballot measures passed. It feels like we're really moving backwards in a scary way.

I'm having flashbacks to how The 4400 dropped Samantha Ferris (she played a strong woman, but a rather minor character) without warning or reason. The show got canceled the following season. I'm hoping Grey's ratings drop noticeably so ABC realizes that they fucked up big time.

Here's the best commentary I've read about the situation so far.