Because I am a lazy college student who has historiographies, creative writing theses, and research papers upon research papers to write; a national poetry magazine to edit; a chapbook to publish; a boyfriend to entertain; a cat to raise; a home(Japan)sickness to remedy; and slowly-depreciating sanity to salvage, I would like to take this five-minute window of leisure in my life to thank those of you who continue to favorite, comment upon, and otherwise support my amateur work. I apologize for my continual neglect to personally thank you for it, which, given the time and frame of mind, I would prefer to do, and also for the ridiculous length of this sentence and the one preceding it. Obviously, I need to seriously reevaluate my life and ask myself if a BFA (from which I am a mere 3 months) is really, really worth all this misery.

Thank you.

back in school. i. am. a. college. senior. NOW. it really hit me when i saw graffiti that read: "welcome, class of 2012!" 2012? that's not a graduation year, that's a sci fi film title! i feel old, yet, as always because of my asian (read: small) stature, i feel...well, small. and yet, i'm so ready to graduate. just get out, go out on my own, write my books, starve or thrive as an author/artist, and just do it. i'm so sick of waiting. just gotta knock this year out and have a hell of a time doing it, i guess.

the point of this note, originally, was to thank friends and sometime visitors who support my work, and also to apologize to them because the said work will be on hiatus for a while. i've got some interesting pictures from hiroshima on the anniversary of the bombing, more japanese nature shots, and the like, but it'll be a bit before i find time to post them.

in the meantime, i hope everyone's summer is going splendidly, and that global warming will slow in time to let me graduate before i collapse on the walk to class.

Not like anyone reads these anyway, but I figure it'll do me and my inner peace (or lack, thereof) some good to write out frustrations. Fortunately for the unfortunate soul already reading this, I have only the patience for mentioning my photography-related concerns:::

1) the smudges on my camera lens or somewhere in the obscure, mechanical labyrinth inside my baby PowerShot. I've dabbed the lens with appropriate cloths, and still they persist and taunt me on Photoshop.

2) my persistent lack of an SLR. College is a money-pit, but so is Japanese propriety/modesty. My father has offered to get me an SLR for months. Foolishly, I hide my clenched fists inside my pockets and say, "Naw, don't blow two thousand dollars on a hobby for me, Dad," to which he replies, "...two thousand?" And there, the conversation ends. If only he were a bit more insistent, or if I were a little less proud.

So.

I'm back from Europe, where I studied abroad for 3 months in a limbo-esque wonderland. I've learned much, and in so doing, only learn that there is so much more to, well, learn. Going back to college in a middle-of-nowhere American town is going to be difficult when I've been treating Verona, Cinque Terre, Assisi, Naples, Florence, Venice, and Rome as practically weekend trips.

More to the point:

I have a butt-ton of pictures to edit and post, so it's still going to be a while before I'm an active Deviant again. All the same, thanks for your continued support

-L

Finally, tomorrow, I will be lifting off and visiting my third foreign country (well, second, I guess, seeing as neither Japan nor America is technically foreign to me, although I'm still in continuous culture shock. Being born and raised 18 straight years in Japan will do that to you). Anyway, I will remain in Italy and travel randomly across Europe for a semester to study topics in creative writing and history, and, to say the least, broaden my horizons. I won't be taking my laptop or have much access to computers or Internet services, so I'll be MIA on DA for a while. On the other hand, I will be bombarding the online community with a ridiculous plethora of photos of my travels during winter break and, I suspect, a long time thereafter.

Bon Voyage.