Current theme:
March Comes in Like a Lion

Favourite anime/manga:
Dragon Ball/Z/GT; Kinnikuman; Shugo Chara!; Honey and Clover; Cyborg 009... etc...
Favourite bands:
Field of View; WANDS; Home Made Kazoku; ARASHI
Favourite authors:
Stephen Donaldson; Kazuo Ishiguro; Kaoru Hayamine

Earthquake Update

I'm just summarising all the important things I've read on Twitter so far. (these are things the news won't tell you)

• Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 via your phone bill.
• If possible, communicate with people in Japan via e-mail and Skype first, to keep the phone lines available for other people and emergencies.
• Find people with the following website. It's available in English, Chinese and Korean. http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=ja
• Everyone in Japan is asked to conserve electricity as much as possible.
• Women are advised to stay in groups, especially when looking for a restroom, due to reports of rape in secluded areas.
• All public phones can be used for free.
• For people that are stranded, search for local stores and businesses that are offering help by searching for "○○駅　解放" on Twitter. (enter the station name in ○○)
• Yodobashi Camera is letting everyone use their mobile phone battery charges for free.
• If you need help, tweet your location and condition with the tag #j_j_help

If anyone needs translations on anything like the news, friends' status updates or anything else, please let me know. I want to help in any way I can.

UPDATE

• Risk of liquefaction in coastal areas. In fact, it's happening all over and everyone is asked to be careful. http://photozou.jp/photo/show/1005186/71312722
• People are urged to write their name and contact details on walls with waterproof markers, so family and friends can see them and know you're alright.
• People are also urged to write their name and contact details on their arm with waterproof markers.
• People are urged to evacuate to higher ground and stay there, even after the tsunami has passed.
• People in other parts of Japan are told NOT to volunteer in affected areas for the next 3 days. This is when professionals need to resucue people, and volunteers would just get in the way. People are urged to regain some normality, so people that are rescued have a safe place to go.
• Please stay off the main roads and only use cars in an emergency. This is to avoid traffic congestion for emergency services and Japanese Defense Forces.
• Adults are urged to talk to and help children, and to let them cry, all to avoid PTSD.
• Adults that are able to draw Pokemon and other anime characters are urged to draw them for children, to make them forget about their fears.
• Current death toll is at 1400 people.

Panic

Panic... major panic...

Is anyone watching the news right now? 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the northeastern shore of Japan. Fires, tsunamis, power outages in 4 million buildings...

We can't get a hold of grandma, who lives near Tokyo. I tried calling the Australian consular emergency centre, but I can't get through there either. Dad's saying grandma should be ok... but...

Panic...

UPDATE

Dad just got an e-mail from grandma's nursing home saying they checked on her and she's fine. They're still having small earthquakes, but the building hasn't been damaged either.

I've been checking all over Twitter for live updates until dad got the e-mail, and DisneyLand's flooded... Grandma lives near DisneyLand and mum used to take me there every week when I was little. At least my memories are dry and above water...

Btw, can Mickey Mouse swim?

At the zoo

Screw the negativity of my previous post! >3< Here's something cute to make up for it. X3

I went to the Sydney Taronga Zoo with my friend, Wolfie, last week. Yeah~ two 24 year old girls at a zoo, on a rainy day, during the summer holidays, surrounded by a bunch of families with small children. lol Luckily, the pouring rain stopped by the time we got there, so we had lots of fun. =3

This is just one of 175 pictures I took on the day. *coughs* >.> I love meerkats. XD Cute sunbathing meerkat. The nearby adults were whispering to each other "Is it breathing?" Well, yes it was. lol

The decline of academia

Has academic standards slipped while I was in the lady's room? Because I've flushed things that were better looking than an essay I recently read on theO. Structure, argument, research, grammar, everything needs extensive editing to make it even the least bit acceptable. What's worse, people were praising this essay, saying it deserved an A.

I won't say which essay has upset me so much, but I will say that it is threatening the quality of what is now one of my top 5 favourite books of all time. The essay is on the movie adaptation of the book, and outlines its cultural implications. Yes, it really hit a nerve with me, because they're writing about my culture, act like they know everything about Japan and got it so incredibly wrong.

I suppose I sounded unnecessarily harsh with that toilet flush comment, but I truly feel sorry for that person right now. People prasing that essay was an injustice. Encouraging people is a good thing, but encouraging failure? Mistakes are the most valuable experiences in life, but only when you learn from them. That writer will never learn from empty praise.

The essay was basically just a summary of the research they did. Don't expect a good mark if that's your essay. What teachers want are what you think. They want new opinions, new theories, new angles to consider and new answers. Research should only support your ideas, not be your ideas.

Mindlessly repeating what others say will not earn you good grades in the academic world... Although it seems to be the key to popularity on theO...

Standards are slipping here on theO. I remember the times when I used to spend close to half an hour per comment, and that was because posts were worth that much effort. But now, I'm getting the cold shoulder from people... Apparently, I'm no longer welcome here.

What standards have actually slipped then? Academia, theO or the people?

Happy New Year!

I hope 2011 will be warm, fuzzy and happy like a bunny for everyone. If not, we'll make stew. So it's still all good. =3

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Posting after months is really hard. >.>
Must practice more. <.<