I donated blood at around 7:00 P.M. today, and I'm glad I worked up the courage to go! It really bodes well that I got through the whole process without feeling too dizzy or sick, especially since my first blood donation saw me nearly passing out at the snack table. It's a sign that I'm in good health, and that my anemia is long gone.

That aside, I promised some more information about the CLS program, and more information you shall have...under the cut, of course!

( Please hold the line. )

( Say, would you like another meme for your time? )

Finally, a very happy birthday to mairenn_k! I'm so sorry I'm late, and I hope your day went well!

Hello, everyone! I have returned from my journey home, as well as from all of the surprises that met me when I came back to university (including daffodils, a hurried overview of the life and death of Ilya Muromets, the connections between Russian and Greek epics, an unexpected article in French, and a JSPS survey).¹

Special welcome to baelheit, ianthefira, and kaiyashe, whom I met in the Baten Kaitos thread in a "Small Fandoms" friending meme. If you added me to your friends list because of that meme, and I failed to add you back, please comment here so that I can go ahead and do so.

( A road to the dignified future. )

¹The research coordinator promised the participants a free Japanese handkerchief, retail value 15 USD, with the return of the surveys. They were even designed by a Living Natural Treasure! Wonderful!

I'll be away on vacation with my family for the next few days--to those bastions of American history, Gettysburg and Philadelphia--so I won't be available until late Thursday night. Please don't post anything awesome while I'm gone.

On another note, I've been meaning to post this for a while: The Case of Xu Zhiyong, why it's so shocking, and how it's indicative of a wider trend. I'm hoping to write about this at length when I get back--especially about how United States involvement, or rather the involvement of American companies, could have contributed to this...apparent unwillingness to probe into certain subjects.

( And here's an update on the icon requests. )