HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!


Surprisingly, I've never actually made specific New Year's resolutions before because I never saw the point, but 2008 is going to be an incredible and momentous year; I can feel it. My 2007 Spring semester was absolutely shit; I think I broke down at least once per week and questioned my judgment on everything related to academia, failed to keep friends that I had made the beginning of college, and felt generally hopeless at any concrete success. This melancoly continued a little bit into summer, but China helped, and then for all the rough patches in Germany my year ended almost perfect, and I refuse to let the cycle start up again. PROGRESS OR BUST; keep moving forward, baby.

RESOLUTIONS IN ESSENCE
Develop a more personal style! Be adventurous in dressing! The thrill of skinny jeans and cardigans have now worn off. Next stop: accessories, leg/arm warmers, knee socks over stockings, shoes, suspenders, innovative usage of scarves. Stop using neutrals in make-up. Master the casual cat-eye!
Be more self-aware! I am notorious for my tunnel vision in public. I can easily zone in on details or a particular person, but I am absolutely terrible at (1) processing multiple senses and inputs at once and (2) looking at people's faces. Don't be afraid to make eye-contact with people passing on the street! Smile more!

RESOLUTIONS IN ACADEMIA
STOP SKIPPING LECTURES.
Excercise for 40 minutes at least 3 days per week!
Aim for bed by 11:30 PM on nights before 8 AM classes!
Keep a well-organized and updated day planner! (Hello Moleskine ♥)
Read at least 2 books per month! Finish unfinished books.
Dedicate each week to listening to an unfamiliar album!
Pick up a copy of the New York Times every morning!
Prep for lectures! Esp. Organic Chemistry & Genetics.
Starbucks only twice a week (this will be difficult).
LIMIT INTERNET USAGE TO 2 HOURS PER DAY (lolol we can dream, right?)

RESOLUTIONS IN MEDIA & BLOGGING
Burn off excess media and pictures on harddrive -- mostly finished, I just need to burn off my Gossip Girl episodes, and I should be back to 80% free space again.
Organize Flickr account -- also mostly finished. I'm still missing descriptions for about half the pictures, but every picture is tagged and sorted properly.
Cull music. This is a daunting task; I keep putting it off. T_T I currently have 80gb of albums and playlists and random songs, and I definitely don't listen to half of it so I really want to do a complete cleaning out of unnecessary music. Wish me luck. T_T
I honestly do enjoy blogging a lot, and I want to make it into a more regular habit after I go back to Boston and start school again. This might require some minor or even major changes; I don't know. I love you guys and the convenience of LiveJournal a lot, but I want to set up a more public type of blog, one that I can potentially link to RL friends and not worry about surprising them with fandom. I'm not sure yet how I'll execute this; I'll keep you guys posted. ♥

THEME FOR 2008: Quality, not quantity! Don't overlook details! Personality stems from personal!

Okay, so it looks like I'm expecting a lot, but I've already started planning how to multitask certain goals together: I can listen to new music while exercising! Carry a book with me everywhere so I can read during breaks! I'll skim the newspaper during boring lectures! Plan out the next day's outfit in my organizer! FINALLY APPLY FOR A BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY CARD! It'll be great, and I will love myself. Repeat, I will love myself.

GUESS WHAT.


EINS I received a lovely German letter yesterday that informed me one of the buildings on campus found kleine Tasche mit einer Digitalkamera und Schlüsselbund verloren. Unglaublich! Wie glücklich! I raced there today after my Sociology final and OMG, I have my purse again! With my digital camera! And keys! And driver's license! I won't even question how my purse found its way into a building that I'd never been inside before, or how I could've probably found my purse weeks ago had I only known what department to go to, because I'm just so relieved to have my camera and keys back.

ZWEI sesame_seed & absenceofmind I GOT YOUR PACKAGE. SCREAM. I can't believe you got me an issue of Popolo, thank youuu! ♥♥♥ The Hey! Say! JUMP spread is hilarious, and there's so much Ryo and NewS. *_* Matt and I pored through every page. *_* The dieting adverts in the back are pretty disturbing, though; I know Japanese girls are more on the petite side, but you have girls boasting how they went from 120 lbs to 90 lbs, terrifying. Oh, Nippon.

DREI Dreams of flying, a photography project by Jan von Holleben. Adorably uplifting; the perfect winter pick-me-up.

VIER Completely finished with Organic Chemistry for this semester. The final was a bitch but the studying paid off, so I'm pretty pleased. >:) I still have Cell Biology and German on Monday and Tuesday and I need to nail both of them, so. It'll be another long weekend. :T

FÜNF Everyone is jetting off after next Tuesday for some last-minute traveling: some to Croatia, some to Italy, some to Poland, some to return home early. I uhhh realized that I WILL BE THE ONLY PERSON IN DRESDEN FOR A FULL 5 DAYS next week, which. . . . is actually kind of relieving? I chose not to go anywhere firstly because of finances and secondly because I need a period to de-stress and recharge, and I'm looking forward to a week of lazy eating, Sex & the City marathons, thrift store hunting, and exploring Dresden one last time. Maybe I'll even finally finish the two books I brought with me (Invisible Cities, The Stranger) and write the fic I've been putting off since September (lolol).

SECHS The weather has been so mild lately; the temperature hit 12 degrees C / 54 degrees F today. Insane. I'll never understand this country, where the temperature drops as the day progresses (e.g. colder at noon than at 7 AM) but gets warmer the deeper we go into winter. Oh Germany, you're so curious.

SIEBEN Every year Dresden hosts the second largest Christmas market in Germany. Caramel apples and Quarkkeulchen and bratwurts and homemade chocolate, omg. I bought arm warmers from a vender; they make me ridiculously happy.

( 2 for posterity, +1 more for the road )

IN 5 DAYS I WILL BE IN SHANGHAI. I AM GOING TO SEE HARRY POTTER THIS FRIDAY. LIFE IS GOOD.

So, since 'bri already tricked me into writing (BY HAND, no less) naruto for her during my trip to China, I figure, HEY! Haven't attempted suicide in quite a while. I know the first time I asked for requests (was tricked into that one by Cathy ¬_¬) turned out to be a disaster (and you know, I discovered PoT, and Harry Potter what?) but this time, I am only doing drabblets. What is a drabblet? 100-300 words, I'll personally chew my fingers off if I try to write over 500 (oh god this is so bad, considering I can't do shit under 600 words). And to top this all off, I am going to hand-write them. HAND-WRITE. I won't have access to a computer anyway.

Come on, people. Request anything. I need fandom, people, pairings (if applicable), and a general idea of what you want/quote/line/etc. I am willing to write for anything I know (which, uh, I guess means I'm open for Harry Potter, Naruto, BDS, DPS, etc etc, other anime series you know I've watched/read/whatever). Please, please keep in mind that this should be under 500 words. Give me a full-fledged plot bunny and I'll personally chew your fingers off. *nibbles :D :D*

Do not make me beg. BECAUSE BY GOD, I WILL. Or at least start chewing on all of you.


edit: Oh yeah. Poetry requests are open too.