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First a bit of shameless plugging for my singing organization’s Christmas releases =) This season we’re going full-out with a full set of six Christmas releases: one from each main group (Paratoile and ValeriA did a cross-group collaboration), plus the promotional mini-album and the deluxe 23-track Christmas album. I’m totally psyched for this year’s releases because it’s sounding REALLY good from what I’ve heard thus far. If you bookmark Sekainomelody.com, you’ll see the “coming soon” images replaced with the actual album covers as they are released, and new features will pop up on the main page as the days progress. This is seriously one holiday series you don’t want to miss!

In other news, what have I been doing lately? I’ve still been settling in - visiting people, going on random outings, and mixing songs for the SnM album. On Friday I participated in my [former] Chinese dance class; we practiced the dances that we’d be doing for the First Night Austin performance. It was a little weird to join in again because since then, our class has merged with another so my former positions were taken by the girls from the other class. I had to do some quick improvising, and even so I felt like a bumbling ninny at times. I need to practice dance more at MIT, but I seriously don’t have any idea of -where- I could do so. I’m too lazy to go to Mccormick all the time. Will muse over this later.

Yesterday, I marched up to my [former] high school to visit my science research mentor and AP biology teacher. A few others came in as well to work on their projects, and John had also dropped by for a visit. We chatted for a while (including discussions of college, complaints of chemistry, and me cajoling Mrs. Mann into letting me borrow her Campbell’s Biology 8th edition) and then Mrs. Mann and I (along with her son Michael) went out to lunch at Chipotle, followed by a Target shopping excursion. Interesting to say the least, and I feel fully caught up with the VRHS happenings. Once Mrs. Mann started explanation all of the research with which everyone was getting involved, I felt at once in awe and appreciative of our science department. We might completely fail in every other department (except Mrs. Bickling’s AP English Lang/Lit, since she actually teaches it properly), but our science research is amazing. We might not be interns at huge labs, but the ideas that we have are innovative, thought-inducing, and very applicable to modern-day society. I can’t wait until I get to judge the projects and hand-pick those who will go on to compete for ISEF qualifications.

That is, in short, pretty much the only thing that I really miss about my high school. There were many fun times in other classes and activities, but science research was where I felt I truly belonged. It was a nerdfest, I will admit it. We loved our projects and didn’t mind outright obsessing about them - I’m sure we heard quite a bit about soil from Jessica, game theory from Chris, yeast from Tanner, genetically altering fruit fly genes from Lillian, and Fourier analysis from me (in addition to many more). In a way, I miss that kind of lifestyle, where we would go as far as to “hang out” in lab after school and discuss research because we didn’t have anything better to do. It was our little slice of prestige - the one area of our school which could be equally comparable to higher-leveled institutions. Science research at VRHS is not to be messed with - you think some of our projects sound petty but then we kick your butts. The participants don’t do it because it’s status quo or expected or prestigious - they do it because they truly have a curiosity for their area of investigation. Since all of our other classes were easy and boring and carried low standards, we poured our ambition into science research, and that is why we soared.

I had expected my life at MIT to be more like that, to be honest, but I find that it’s falling slightly short. Sure, we have camaraderie; sure, we get through together and suffer together and make nerdy jokes about fictitious potentials. But it’s still not the same. I don’t feel the same passion, the same excitement, the same inquisitive spirit. The past semester, I just struggled with the core material - I definitely didn’t have time to go around asking questions and coming up with new and innovative ideas. Perhaps it will change as we progress through our undergraduate career (getting a UROP and moving into major-specific classes may play a role), but that’s probably the one thing that I realised I missed most about high school.

The past few days, I have also been going ice skating. My siblings were taking some lessons, so I tagged along to practice. And I must say, with only 1-2 hours of practice each day, I’m making considerable progress! The first day I could barely skate without having to hold onto the wall every few seconds, but today I managed to build up speed and stay fairly stable. Something just clicked, and once it did, everything made sense. I didn’t even fall…. okay, so I -did- almost stumble, but I caught myself and instead spiralled gracefully into a sitting position. From afar, it probably looked like I was try to execute some strange figure skating sit-spin, haha!

Chao mentioned Pandora a few days ago in his Facebook status, and I decided to revisit the site. I remember stumbling upon and using it while it was still in its early stages, but I ended up disliking it at the time. Nowadays though, the interface is beautiful and non-laggy, and the song sequencing is so much better. It’s a pity you can’t search for a song and listen directly, a pity you can’t go back and listen to past songs in full, and a pity you can’t skip around within a song. Other than that, it’s giving me some good recommendations and I’ve already found a few new artists to listen to. Will definitely be making use of this when I’m Athena clustering back at MIT :D

After many months weeks days of nonstop work, I finally have the Xmas album complete and ready for release! All of our members sound so amazing in all the tracks; I’m excited to let everyone hear it. I’ll probably post it up here later today, after all the festivities. Until then, a bit of sleep before Christmas  breakfast and unwrapping presents~!

P.S. The title is completely true. I no longer dream of gyroscopes attached to blocks sliding down inclined planes in elevators; YES.

Yesterday I journeyed back to my former high school to visit my science research mentor and discuss the latest happenings in the central Texas education system. One of the items that she mentioned contained enough absurdity to make me execute a passionate facepalm:

Last year, the school decided to instill an amazing AP European History teacher (henceforth referred to as Coach K) for the debut of the course. With excellent experience in teaching history classes and AP training in general, Coach K was arguably the best instructors in the school’s social studies branch. Most of his students went on to receive high passing scores of 4 or 5 (out of 5) on the exam; not only that, he piled them high with enough work to make the class rigorous and as college-leveled as possible.

In short, he was an amazing teacher.

Fast-forward to the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. High school administrative board sidles up to Coach K and tells him, “You won’t be teaching AP European History this year. You’re needed in the atheletics department to train the football team harder.” He was taken from the AP Euro History post, and his position given to a teacher that, from what I hear, is not exactly teaching the class on the same standards.

… excuse me? EXCUSE ME? Since when has the world needed to sacrifice a decent academic education for the sake of tackling bumbling blokes in pursuit of an oblong piece of leather? I understand I live in -Texas- and that football is a part of the spirit of a Texan, but seriously… the last thing any education system needs is the sacrifice of the core academics in return for extracurriculars such as athletics or choir. I completely respect these activities, but there’s a reason they’re called extracurriculars, yes? Supplements to a core curriculum, not replacements?

Not to be a total jackass or anything, but I don’t care how talented you are at running in ellipses or smacking fist-sized spheres or pushing orange balls through hoops - if one doesn’t have a proper academic foundation, I can’t appreciate a person solely for one’s athletic talent. A stupid athlete is still stupid.

*gets off soapbox*

Unintentionally, miraculously, we cross,
And so I meet with you again.
The choreography of the stars can predict
All the love which has come and gone.
Together on the same earth, a miracle romance
~ Moonlight Densetsu, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon

The moment I came back home, I immediately started running through all of the wonderful memories I’ve had of this place. One memory that I landed upon and can’t get out of my mind is the middle-school era. During the summer between the 7th and 8th grade, I basically sat in my room with slow-as-hell wireless, surfing the Internet for Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon sites. I remember stumbling upon the big players - Sailormusic, Eternalsailormoon.org, Wishing Moon, Manga of Takeuchi Naoko, Eternal-moon (whose forum I constantly frequented, to the point where I was one of the top posters), Moonprincess.com, SOS, Manga Style, Moonprismpower… many of those are either closed or defunct by now. In fact, there are very few BSSM sites still alive and running nowadays. This is partially due to the fact that no new BSSM products are actively in production, and that many of the former fanbase is now “growing up” and moving on.

As I flipped through some of my copies of the English manga (which can reach insanely high prices on Ebay - one fan reported seeing one of the volumes for $99), I was hit once again with that beautiful wave of nostalgia. As one of the first series that won over the Western world to anime and undoubtedly one of the most timeless classics ever, once you get past BSSM’s fluffy magical-girl exterior, the storyline and symbolism leaves something to be desired. The plot of the manga is both hauntingly intricate and dark while iterating strong principles; the artwork is gorgeous and Takeuchi Naoko is a freaking genius; and the MUSIC. Oh god, don’t even get me started on the music - I will seriously fawn over it for hours on end. Nevermind the fact that I’m a sucker for Chinese/Japanese pop music of the 80’s/90’s, but really, when you have lyrics like this:

On a map yellowed with age, a stenciled picture of an angel
Points a finger to a Dark Colosseum that awaits our arrival.
The trembling heart still remembers that day’s secret kiss.
No matter how difficult my fate may be, I will continue searching for you.

How does one not read that poetic goodness and say, “That’s gorgeous”?

Anyways, point of the entry: reliving the old days through music is amazing. BSSM has definitely played a large role in my childhood, and the music more than anything has gotten me through so much. I remember singing “Carry On” to myself whenever I was in a pinch, and humming the inspirational tunes of Sailor Star Song and Rashiku Ikimashou whenever I needed it most. I wrote new lyrics for Tuxedo Mirage and Watashi-tachi ni Narikute that eventually won me some literary awards. Looking back through the fansites that are still standing tall, I’m suddenly awash with the most bittersweet anguish; whatever happened to those good old days when the only thing I cared about was keeping up with the latest adventures of one of the most timeless heroines of the animation world? Whatever happened to role-playing by myself at the age of six with my wands and my hand-made tiaras, memorizing every single transformation and attack phrase, and writing elaborate fanfiction with original characters like the “Senshi of Revolution” (yes, that site belonged to me when I was 12 years old)?

In short, I miss my childhood. It’s disheartening to all of these old fansites - relics of the early millenium - drop like flies. The fansite as an artform is in general decaying, replaced instead by fanlistings and blogs. Not that there’s anything wrong with either, it’s just that the continual dying-out of fansites is just all too representative of the changing times and the growing up of the classic-anime generation. Seriously, talk to any kid nowadays and they can’t name any of the classics. They’ll cite cheap modern anime that are all fluff and no plotline, with music that sounds like generic sugar-pop with too many instrumentals and squeaky vocals. What happened to the music of the early 90’s, when the instrumental was just an easy-going soft beat that was all too reminiscent of nightlife music of the 70’s? That’s what -good- music truly is; forget your modern-day synth and drums and heavy effects. Make it simple again, make the lyrics something more than whiny adolescent love, make the music and lyrics fuse together to form a beautiful -poem- with deeper meaning than random vernacular, and then maybe I’ll respect anime again.