then there are blackbirds

What a four-year cycle this has been. I had to revert to news blackout last week and will continue to do that to recover my function, but survival is a talent, right? We made it to the next round. I'll fistbump to that. ♥

UPS just added an extra layer of fuckery to my phone replacement headache: today they sent me an email claiming that I had to pay them C$174.50 in import fees, more than 30% of the phone price! Being suspicious, I of course turned to google, and it turns out UPS has been trying to scam people into paying exorbitant brokerage charges since at least 2010. After calling UPS, who denied that there were any fees included beyond duty and taxes, I went to the local Canadian customs office to check for myself. Turns out there ARE no duty fees for shipping a smartphone, and the provincial taxes that I'm actually supposed to pay are approximately $80. That's a ~$90 brokerage fee of dubious legality that they tried to pretend didn't exist! If you see suspicious charges for UPS or another private shipping company, heads up: it's definitely possible (if bloody inconvenient) to clear the package with customs yourself and not have to pay the broker fees. At least this is the case for Canada; I'm not sure about the rules/procedures in other international shipping contexts. >:|

In happier news:

1. The lady at the customs office was also disgusted, and spent a long time on the phone with UPS trying to help me resolve paperwork so I wouldn't have to go through the hassle of rejecting the package, getting it sent back to the warehouse, and coming back to customs to pay the taxes. UPS hung up on her, so I'll still have to do it, but I appreciated all the time and trouble she went to to give it a shot.

2. Swung by Chinatown on the way home and picked up bakery treats, baozi, fan tuan, and a few grocery items. :9

3. Practice with S tonight! Probably we'll be reviewing the choreo instead of finishing it, but hey, either way I get to dance off my frustrations.

Well! I finished my comp rewrite yesterday morning and my friend R finished hers earlier today, so I'm hoping we can do a mutually congratulatory brunch in short order. If not, we have a friend's farewell party this evening, so there will be lots of celebrating to do.

So far the Daily Yoga app has been very helpful in making me go ahead and just do it. It helps that their sessions range from 5-30ish minutes, so even if I'm busy (or in the middle of comps) I can take a quick break. It was also quite helpful for me in putting aside the cluster of school-related anxieties that I woke up to this morning. (Zouk has a much quicker effect, but it's nice to have an alternate solution when practices and socials aren't conveniently timed.)

In other news, I've just spent a lot of brainless fluff time watching interviews and cast/director commentary for Justin Chon's Gook, a very timely film about the LA race riots. It was released yesterday in theaters in various cities; Angry Asian Man has a list up. I'm hoping I'll be able to watch it here as well, as it was apparently a hit at Sundance! In the meantime, if any of you decide to go see it, I'd really appreciate your comments/thoughts. :)

\o/: My coursework for this term is now officially in! This marks the end of my (required) classes!

/o\: HOLY HELL ONLY A MONTH AND A HALF LEFT FOR COMPS REVIEW, SO BEHIND ON READINGS.

On the plus side I can now spend the rest of the month reading and whiteboard-ing everything away, except for the time I need to spend on grading for my TAship (but also the weekend I'm spending at friends' wedding in a couple weeks, so...!).

♣ Back from my dance weekend (so worth the massive sleep debt) and back to work! The dance post will have to wait until later this week, but I haven't forgotten about the meme prompts.

♣ Not having participated in any of the marches, I was still super happy about all the updates my friends and family were sending me this weekend. Must figure out a photo post, but for now, the best sign I've seen (c/o my sister): "SUPER CALLOUS FRAGILE RACIST EXTRA BRAGGADOCIOUS", and the best link I've seen: protest llama!

♣ Lunar New Year is coming up this weekend, and I'm not sure how I'm going to celebrate yet! Well, I've already figured out when I'll get my preparatory cleaning in, but that's about it; I don't know if I have the time or energy to do a dumpling party the way I did last year. We could go to Chinatown for dinner or something but I'm guessing it'll be crowded and possibly a bit more expensive. Maybe a potluck or a dim sum brunch...?

♣ I've lost track of a number of links from private conversations, alas, but I've updated my resource list with some additional organizations.

♣ Roomie got some perfumes and essential oils on her family vacation, which all smelled nice but were completely perplexing. My nose is not accustomed to this many different things! The lavender oil she gave me relaxed me into a puddle of contented sleep yesterday though. \o/ :D

I've spent the entirety of winter break in quiet: partly finishing up the last of my fall work before next term starts, but mostly unwinding at home. This is the first time I haven't visited the city- yet, at least- or tried to meet up with friends while on break, which feels a bit odd and which I may regret later. I just felt, somewhere below the level of conscious thought, that I'd like to spend the last of 2016 gathering myself and restoring my energy (read: hermiting) rather than spending it all outwardly.

In between the work, actual leisure reading (!!), and bouts of gaming with my sister (Fallout 4, Civ 5, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect 3), I've been thinking over my one-word intentions. I started with connection in 2014, moved on to communication in 2015, and last year I was working on generosity. This year is going to be the start of many challenges, so I think it needs something else. I've considered follow-through, clarity, blaze, sustain, and open, and I'll probably go for one of these in future years, but after 2016 I need to re-center. I want to rediscover the things that will keep me grounded, that will anchor me to myself and to what's most important.

Happy new year, everyone! Let's write ourselves a better 2017. ♥

♣ In an ~epic moment~ of impulsive 30th-birthday genius, I decided to attempt the free Windows 10 upgrade. I didn't particularly like the new interface and was distinctly unenthused by the built-in OS activity tracking thing (are we not sufficiently tracked already??), so I decided to revert to Windows 7. HAHAHA. Hello, endless startup loop with total repair failure! Hello, 3 days of aggravation and off-and-on troubleshooting attempts! Hello, unsubtle reminder from the universe that I really need to improve my system backup habits! (I'm super paranoid about schoolwork, current/recent research, and resume-type things, but my equally necessary mood-equilibrating/happy memories stuff? Not so much.) I have still not managed to block out time to actually fix things because I need to finish my endless lit review first. /o\

♣ Officemate didn't believe me when, in our mutual exchange of birthday-almost-twin wishes, I told him I'm 30. Buddy, I realize that you're trying to compliment me but... have you never met any other Asians our age??

♣ Last night must have been the first time I've managed a full REM cycle in a while. Most of the time I don't dream even when I do get decent sleep, but I woke up this morning with very perplexing half-images of a NYC dance friend, what seemed to be a toy koala bear (?!), and pretty but nondescript cityscapes with parks and buildings in my head. What even. 0.o

♣ My family is coming to visit this weekend, and I don't think I have enough time to actually hang out with them because WORK WORK WORK SO MUCH WORK (and also a previously-organized trip to a cabane for dinner). Non-overlapping spring "break" schedules are the devil.

♣ A friend of mine in NYC really wants to become a copyeditor, and is generally seeking information on careers in the publishing industry. Does anyone have ideas or recs for info sources, or maybe some general advice that I could pass on to her?

+ I've been avoiding Rachel Dolezal bullshit beyond headlines and friends' snarky commentary. It makes my head explode, and right now I don't have the energy to deal with rage or the processing power for comments beyond "wow, dat entitlement doe." Thankfully, life has been full of shiny and emotionally restorative distractions lately!

+ Had an awesome weekend in sort-of-upstate NY with dance friends, cooking, exploring rivers and waterfalls, and generally relaxing. ♥ I need more of this kind of time this summer.

+ Loving the music video for The New International Sound Pt. II by GENER8ION and M.I.A.! ( cut for embed )

+ Upcoming dance weekend!! *\o/* So excited to see everyone from out of town again, hooray :D

+ Also planning to take a day or two (sometime next week or so?) for a mini writing blitz- I miss writing fic. Toss me some prompts, please? Any fandom is fine, though I'm feeling a bit biased towards A:TLA and HP at the moment and I can't guarantee that I'll fill everything.

Hello, 29! It is WHITE outside and getting steadily whiter. On the one hand, I'm tired of snow, and it looks like Narnia wants to stay up in these parts. On the other, weather issues mean I definitely won't make it in to work, so I'm making up my office time tomorrow.

What should I do with all this unexpected free time, you guys??? (Other than baking, that is.) Tell me!

1. She Keeps Me Warm: Saving Face vid from Festivids! ♥ ♥

2. Successfully met up, caught up, and generally nerded around with zouk friend A during his stopover yesterday, despite his lack of a winter coat and the generally disgusting weather. It's been a long time since I've talked music with anyone! We also spent a significant amount of time poking around the performing arts branch of the NYPL (by Juilliard, of course). Must go back to investigate more *___*

3. How Generous Are You Willing To Be? I'm working on communication this year, but I think I've just found my intention for next year.

"How generous are you willing to be? How generous are you willing to be with your whole life? Will you share yourself with us? With the world? Do you dare? Or are you just going to hold yourself tightly in, hold these long arms and legs all to yourself?

"Are you just going to be stingy? Just keep yourself to yourself for the rest of your life? In case you fall? In case you fail? In case you make a fool of yourself? In case we see how imperfect you are?

"OR: are you going to choose to just be generous anyway? To just take up as much space as you actually take up? To be as big, as graceful, as long, as gorgeous, as enormous as you actually are?"

And now, back to work!