2010 has had its rough patches for me...a brush with workplace violence, worries about housing stability after living in my current apartment for eight years, a general sense of treading water where I'd hoped to be making more progress. My country's current political climate troubles me too.

Still, there have been wonderful times with friends and family; excellent books (including lots of manga!) to read; times I felt I was making a difference at work; plenty of kitty-cuddling; and more. I'm glad to be alive!

One of my hopes for 2011 is to do more personal writing, including in this journal. (I had to get at least one post in for this year, though!)

Throughout my silence here, I've been following my friends list regularly and even commenting occasionally; you're all in my thoughts. Warm wishes for the New Year.

Well, actually, I nabbed it from chez_maltesers:

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

( She gave me the letter R... )

::sets out a sign:: I've got a whole alphabet of letters here, hand-picked and appetizing! Any takers?

After writing about war and the death of language, I couldn't stop hearing the end of Amy Lowell's "Patterns" in my head.

( So here's the whole thing for you. )

The Rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

I responded to cheeky_duckie's posting of this meme. Her questions to me, and my answers:

1. What is your favorite album ever?

Gaah. I reeeallly can't pick. High on the list are ABBA Gold; American Pie by Don McLean; the Hikaru no Go and Revolutionary Girl Utena original soundtracks 1 and 2; much of Mercedes Sosa's Vengo a ofrecer mi corazón; Water from Another Time by John McCutcheon; If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot; Tracy Chapman's self-named album; Joan Baez in Concert; Peter, Paul and Mary's ten year anniversary recording; and a ton of musicals--Candide, Lost in the Stars, Fanny, Camelot, Music Man.... Also, Leonard Bernstein's Mass. (And I still feel sad for excluding many favorites!)


2. Do you drink tea?

Coffee's my current caffeine of choice, but I used to drink tea a lot, and still do sometimes. I love the ritual feeling of teapot and teacup, of pouring for others and for oneself. (And tea itself is tasty! More calming, somehow, than coffee.) I used to drink Celestial Seasonings' Morning Thunder all the time, but coffee has now supplanted it.

3. What genre is the majority of your book collection?

::Eyeing said book collection:: Er. The proportion of manga to other types has been increasing exponentially, but overall it's probably 60% novels (especially children's books and most particularly children's historical fiction), 30% nonfiction, and 10% manga. That's a very rough and unscientific estimate, however!

4. How do you feel about faith?

I would like to live up to my Quaker beliefs(to live them) a lot more than I feel I do currently. I think my faith may cycle through fallow periods--I hope that's what this is, and that I'll eventually return to a more Quakerly state of being.

5. Monkeys?

OOKIE! (I love the monkeyish character Tatsukichi from SuperGALS, who commands one's respect by the end of the manga/anime for having stuck with the charismatic, temperamental and supremely self-centered Ran through thick and thin. I'm also fond of Honda Hiroto from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, who undergoes a brief but memorable stint as a robot monkey.)

And now: Come one, come all! Reply to this post and I'll pepper you with questions!

Both snagged from tuuli_chan.

Meme the First: List the first sentences of ten of your favorite books. Have your friends guess which books they are!

( Mostly children's/young adult novels here... )

Meme the Second: Are you a book lover? A TV freak? A movie aficionado? Put your mind to the test, and list some of your favorite fictional characters - one for each letter of the alphabet.

( Basically, I stuck to characters in books or plays I've read. )

::phew:: Yes, the letter X has defeated me. ^_^;

Hope you're all well!

I interrupt my regular silence for a brief post. A musical goodie--"Ballad of the White Seal Maid," written by Jane Yolen and set to music/performed by Lui Collins--reposes beneath the cut for your downloading pleasure, provided you hop to it within the next six days.

( for selkie's my nature and name )

I uploaded the song for some friends following a conversation about selkies in general. Coincidentally, I'd also recently read this Prince of Tennis fanfic: "The Skin of a Seal" by kish_t_rethya. I recommend it for its wonderful job of capturing both the nature of the PoT characters and the wistful feeling of selkie mythology.

Not much to report about this summer--it's been up and down, busy and not. A few more fandoms have been added to my repertoire, though I haven't worked on fanfic (or other creative writing) in ages. I'm still at the same library branch. My cat continues lovely and marmalade-colored with smidgens of cream. My parents moved into a retirement community, meaning the house I (partly) grew up in has passed from our family. The singing group I'm part of has worked on some glorious songs lately, including an a cappella version of "Love is a Fearsome Thing" by Judy Small.

::waves a friendly flipper, then sinks beneath the surface again::

sheron pointed out that the Music Library meme below would be even cooler if one shared the songs in question. So, for a limited time (one week to be exact) and for a limited number of downloads, here are the tracks I mentioned! Please, if you like the songs enough, consider (when possible!) buying the official recording from which I've taken them. I mean this post as a promotion of the artists' work.

( Snapshots from my music library... )

And, while I'm at it, here's another music-sharing meme (got this one from tuuli_chan):

Do you trust my taste in music? Pick around three numbers from 1 to 623 and I'll find the corresponding song in my playlist. I'll upload it for you to grab. When you've gotten a song from me, go post this meme in your own journal, replace the number with the number of songs YOU have so I can grab a random song from you.

P.S. Thanks for the ones you sent me, Tuuli! Liked 'em all. ^^

I have fallen in love with mochi--that sticky-rice substance which can variously be toasted, put in soup, shaped into coats around balls of ice cream, and more. This warning label amused me: "Children (especially under three years of age) and elderly people should be cautious. Please chew thoroughly before swallowing."

Apparently, though, the warning is very much in earnest:
Mochi (rice cake)

"Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded into a paste, and shaped into cakes.　...They are one of the essential Japanese foods, and having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them."

Fear the goo. o_O

(But I gotta say--the Mochi*Mochi manga scanslation site redeems the food's image for me! Mochi makes for some very cute credit pages.)

The other night, jobiska and I laughed ourselves silly (-er?) over this site:

Harry Potter - The Musical(s)

A lot of the songs are impressively singable!

I couldn't help but be inspired.

( Draco's Lament )