Yes...

...I am still here. Also, yes, graduate school is going well. Down to my last semester and the fiery whirlwind that is student teaching: five days a week in the classroom of an experienced Japanese teacher who, to her great credit, has already demonstrated saintly patience by consenting to take me on in the first place*. I offer my advance apologies and well-wishes to both H-sensei and her classes; this will be a profound learning experience for me, and I sincerely beg for your forgiveness when the inevitable mistakes arise. Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu. m(-_-)m

No, I am not entirely done with blogging forever. I am deeply enamored with Weebly for future online publications, however, and I'll be sure to let folks know when I start producing said publications again. (Hint: not likely until May.)

In the meantime, I wish you all a fortuitous beginning to 2014! Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! May all of your own endeavors be successful and deeply satisfying, and your understanding of the universe only ever increase in wonder.

*... as have my two previous IMTs, although they only had to contend with my silliness one day of each week, which should technically have been 80% more manageable. Watakushi no sensei-tachi no mina-sama, itsumo o sewa ni narimashita yo! Made ganbatteimasu! ;_; 

"So a shishi walks into the graduate admissions office..."

(Stop me if you've heard this one before.)

I'm going to grad school, folks. Those of you who saw it coming six years ago, come up and claim your prize. I am, indeed, a born academic, and in the words of REO Speedwagon, "I can't fight this feelin' anymore."

Also in the words of REO Speedwagon, "I've seen hookers dancin' through Times Square with their heads held up so high." But that's another story. What was I going to say again?

Oh, yes: this does not mean the end of the blog. 

"Wait," said everyone, "you mean it's still going?"

Ku looked at Everyone with a tilt of her head. "What?"

"The blog," Everyone said, "Hadn't it already stopped long ago?"

"No," said Ku, visibly perturbed, "It never stopped, really.... I do come along every now and then and announce I'm alive, or encourage you to vote or something, don't I?"

"But you don't POST anything anymore," Everyone noted, "It's been ages since you've put up a new tutorial or photo... let's have a pattern, eh? Like the old days... like we used to."

"You would not believe the things I have on this side of the publish button," Ku replied with a thin smile and narrowed eyes, "Many things. Splendid things... but I will not reveal them until he time is right."

"And when should that be?" Everyone asked.

"Probably after I move into Ku House Tempe," Ku said, casually checking her watch to no benefit whatsoever, "sometime in the new year."

"Oh," said everyone, "damn."

So don't give up on me just yet. >:3

PS: Thank you for voting. :D

VOTE.

Dear US friends, if you have not voted already, GO DO IT NOW. This is your right, your responsibility, and your duty to your fellow citizens.

Whomever you support,

PLEASE VOTE.

Time is Running Out

Here it comes.

Oh boy...

Have you voted yet? :3

Color+: Hama Beads on Headphone Cable

I'm a sucker for color. Also for cheap projects and the peerless elegance of simplicity. This idea has 'em all.

Absolutely brilliant.

From Wooz.DK. Good show, Ms. Andersen.

Melts in Your Mouth, and Pretty Much Everywhere Else

I was going back through old things I had set up to post but didn't for some reason or another and I found this. Nikki sent me a most generous package earlier this summer, and I am still at a loss for how I can ever fulfill my debt of awesome and interesting things to her.

The Astounding Nikki, who I fear shall be an expat forever more, always sends me astounding things. Sometimes those astounding things are made of chocolate, a medium I hold in very high esteem. Delicious esteem, you might say. The local climate, however, is less... uh... respectful.

stock photo of the delicious and delightful "Happy Egg" of Great Britain that Nikki so thoughtfully sent me

aftermath of mailing a Happy Egg to the Arizona desert

I am pleased to report that in any physical format, Happy Eggs are delicious! Furthermore, their twee little faces, even when melted to the window of their packaging, remain perfectly adorable. The outcome of posting chocolate through the desert has never been more endearing (or more comedic) in my humble opinion.

For this and all other delights you send me, Astounding Nikki, please accept my sincere gratitude. I am without the means to thank you properly unless you should need a kidney someday. c: