#34 - These are my accomplishments (for lack of a better term) as of late.

Figured out a working melody line for "Triskaidekaphobia" and did minor adjustments to the lyrics based on it. Haven't any idea what exactly to do with the motif I came up with. Am mildly frustrated that I seem to be going for easy chords when constructing the overall feel of a song and then have to keep reminding myself that I don't even know what most chords beyond single-letter ones are. Also, that I am still a n00b at this whold thing and that in fact it's okay to have just simple chords, because one of my favorite video game songs of all time is built on simple chords. Wishing I could make "Queen of Denial" not sound so...ugh.

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Despite the fact that I've been totally slacking on my Japanese homework, I still managed to help vyctori with composing some questions in Japanese! Go me. Sort of.

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At Borders today, I bought a bunch of manga, because I'm a geek like that. Stash included: Black Cat 3 & 4, Death Note 1 & 2, D.Gray-Man 1, and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne 2. Also, I bought Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman. Seemingly the oddball out, but rather fitting considering that Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and D.Gray-Man deal very vaguely with Judeo-Christian themes. (The idea of Yahweh sending out a magical girl to save the world instead of His only son, though, cracks my shit right up.)

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I wanted to do a "The Things Reileen Reads" column for January, but then I realized I didn't read enough then to warrant a column. Also, I am very lazy. I guess I could've co-opted stuff I read from December, because I did manage to finish a couple of books over winter vacation, but it's been so long now that I can't remember my thoughts about them aside from "liked/didn't like/indifferent." The plan for this month is to read books that deal with romance in some way, shape, or form. Not Harlequins, mind you, although I think that would be great just for the giggles. But current candidates include Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (okay, this is technically a re-read, but I've been meaning to re-read this book anyway), The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. There was something I had by Edith Wharton on my bookshelf at home that I thought about adding into the mix, and then I thought to myself that it would be a big accomplishment to get even one book read this month. I thought that my schedule this quarter would allow me to get massive amounts of personal stuff done because of the type of classes I'm taking and how they're scheduled, but I haven't wanted to do anything lately except sleep, massacre my brain cells on the Internet, and maybe play video games. It's a total lose-lose situation: I don't feel like doing anything when I'm busy, and I don't feel like doing anything when I'm not busy. Fucking a.

ETA: Also, why the hell is the melody/accompaniment for "Triskaidekaphobia" manifesting itself in my head as a tango-ish type thing? No, no, no! "Triskaidekaphobia" is supposed to be creepy and haunting and this logic is not Earth logic aaaaaauuuggghhh. (It's because it's in the key of D-minor, isn't it? Isn't it?!)

-Reileen
ambitions like ribbons worn bright on my sleeve