#「i imagine our students must also look like samurais」

[karmagrind]

When your inner weeb starts imagining Mahoutokoro uniform designs.

[saskhal]

On Division

After moving from Mexico to the United States, Elena began to lose her children to the American culture. Her worst fear is that she will not be there for her children when they need her most, because she cannot learn English. Vamos a pedirle dulces a mama. Vamos.They no longer need her. Elena slowly becomes dumb. If she doesn’t lock herself in the bathroom with her English book every day, she will become deaf.

           I wasn’t sure if it was because times are changing, or if the world was always so blocked off. People protest and rally for freedom in a place that claimed to already have it. After the nation had its first black president our idea of freedom was still not fulfilled. People are still divided in as many ways as water can be shaped. There will always be people who cannot adapt. There will always be people who cannot hear more than one thing.

           My parents have been separated for most of my life. I have only two short memories of my mother and father together. After my dad got full custody of my sister and I, my mother would ask me the same thing. What did I do wrong? She said it for years. All throughout junior high and high school. What can I do? sorry mom. We’ve told you many times what you did. She would cry either right before we left or right when she picked us up from our dad’s. I felt awkward. Tight and strained. I wasn’t a human anymore. Instead I was outside the car looking down through the windows and sort of through the roof of the car.  I was look at myself as I stared at the floor waiting until my mother would stop crying. Eventually it would just be me in that car. My sister no longer has a relationship with our mother. My sister and mother also divided. She grew stronger than me, but she never learned to forgive.

           Middle earth has always been harsh and unforgiving. Different species, races, even families clash. The One Ring is pure evil, and holds the ultimate power. Mankind easily gave in and became servants of evil. Trapped with and evil that cannot die. The Ulairi are covered in all black robes. The hoods are thick and shape the head of nothingness.

           I opened the door to my Nazgul’s lair. The young adult smell no longer exists; instead there is sweat and marijuana. The shadows felt more awake, because of all the trash and bottle caps. The bedsheets were navy and mint. The air was like winter, but smelt like summer. A small clutter of medicine was in the corner. It was purchased last night says the receipt. The cough he didn’t have must still be bothering him I bet. He is lost forever now. Divided from his family and his consciousness. Lost all his power of will.

           Tucson unified school district, in Arizona, had once realized that 50% of their Mexican-American students dropped out of school. They attempted to fix this by implementing ethnic studies classes. There was a huge improvement, and about 90% of the students enrolled in these classes graduated high school. Imagine being a student, and no longer feeling like your school system was trying to get you to drop out. In ethnic studies, students learn about their culture and others. Teaching values that allow unity between different cultures and idea.            The statistics were showing that marijuana was good for people and their health. It was legal and seemed like everyone was smoking it, even if they were under aged. I never had a problem with it. I never smoked. I had responsible friends who were going to college and always had better grades than me who drank and smoked, so why would it be such a big deal? 

         My Nazgul has had issues growing up, but he was the only one with substance abuse problems. His younger brother was doing good in school and even took harder classes. I spent the night at my grandparents one night. I couldn’t sleep. The alarm clock read 3:13 in black letters with a slimy green glow. The light was bright enough to hurt my eyes after I lowered the blanket from shielding my eyes. I heard the basement door shut. I could hear my grandma’s chanclas smack against her feet as she walked outside. I looked out the window and thought the same thing as I always do, why is the sky so bright even in the middle of the night? It was summer. And I was afraid of lights, because I knew I wasn’t going to sleep. I need darkness in my life, so I can rest.

           The sun was hot on my way to school. I dressed accordingly. The cool air came in and caused a storm which brought rain and wind. I was soaked walking home. If it is nature for opposites to fight and cause destruction, then it makes sense for humans to do the same.

           During the industrial era, feudal Japan wanted to become a more civilized nation and become a strong and united nation like many western countries. The Japanese Empire fought against smaller territories. When one battle was won, the rest of the losing side would accept their defeat and kill themselves, but Tom Cruise kept fighting. Accepting defeat was not part of his American culture. He learned more about his opposition while in captivity. He was one of the last samurai. The Last Samurai holds the bridge somewhere. What can bring one side and connect it to the other? Whatever it is, war is part of it. 

         It was in the late 2000′s when I played hockey against the Canadians. Tacoma versus Vancouver. We fought hard for 90 minutes. The temperature was freezing for obvious reasons. But our bodies were creating so much friction that we couldn’t keep cool. I had sweat that stung my eyeball like salty peppers. I sat on the bench for the first time in 15 minutes of nonstop moving. I saw the twinkling white lights as everything started to dim. One streak of lighting across my eyes after another until finally it stopped, and the world became bright again. This was just a game, but sticks were still broken. Skates sliced the slippery ice. Whistles blown and cracked like a whip. We even hunched over after our stomachs where smashed by a big hit. All this was for fun, but we fought only because we were on different teams. We shook hands and said good game afterwards, but we never shake hands before we battle.

           Even my younger cousin started feeling the quake of my Nazgul’s dysfunction. The Nazgul isn’t a bad person, it’s just that he trapped himself in this disassociated state, and now my younger cousin has to live amongst the hate and separation within his household. My cousin is having a harder time in school now. He is physically sick because of mental stress. Our battles hurt everyone not just ourselves.

           The Tucson districts abolished its ethnic studies classes because it divided children by their race. In class they read books based off communism that had ideals written by dictators and fascists. The children were taught that the American history was filled with bloodshed and hatred of other cultures. The politicians who helped ban these classes never even attended a class. And the one time they did, they did not listen to the positive and look for every opportunity to bring it down. The film Precious Knowledge was released in 2011 to inform people about the struggle in Arizona, and how media can totally manipulate what is true. Many other school districts followed the message and make their own ethnic studies classes to help educate kids, and even made it a required class. However, it wasn’t until August 2017 that the law was deemed unconstitutional by the supreme court and the Tucson unified school district was free to hold ethnic studies courses. 

         My grandma saw it one way and one way only. Weed is a drug and drugs are bad. They are a terrible way to “have fun” and will lead to worse drugs. Alcohol is bad. For the Nazgul at least. He cannot handle it, and everyone can see. But maybe she was right. As of now she is right. Evil cannot die. He is forever a servant of the dark lord.

           He believes that everything is someone else’s fault. He is in jail because we won’t bail him out. He believes that he doesn’t have to pay if he steals. He believes that downing cough syrup won’t have a bad consequence. Maybe he should fight the people who keep giving him more chances to make bigger mistakes, because it’s their fault for letting him out of that cell.

           People will always have a different stand on a subject. The good thing about conformity and socialization is that there is less conflict when everything is the same. The bad thing is that those who are different are viewed as sickly and handicap. An open mind helps people stay free. An open mind helps people work together. The reason we teach art majors calculus is because math helps with problem solving. People need to adapt and build bridges and roads. The only divider would ideally be something that connects those two things together.            The Ethnic/ Raza students at Tucson high were dangerous to some people. Those people did not want Latinos to be educated. They wanted to keep using second grade students of color data to know how many prisons they’ll need in the future. What makes a person want to shut down a program meant for all ethnicities and for all students? Why would a person think that students graduating school and enjoying education was a bad thing? The division of power was being threatened. New ideas where not accepted because order keeps us alive. We do not know what will happen if there is change.

           I learned that I cannot expect anything to change unless I was willing to lose something. I did not know what was going to happen to me when I started working at panda express. I could have worked at a company where I got money and never built any relationships with anyone and played the game safe. Instead I gave up my comfort and I was placed a workspace with people who cared about me. I gained confidence and could speak. I will volunteer to speak with younger people and hopefully they will be better than me. I can become a leader now. 

         I have been to a counselor before. The first few times it was required by law, because of my parents. The next time was because I wanted to. I wish I was diagnosed with something just so I had an excuse for being how I am, but I was never tested or went in for something like that. I looked up my problems on my own. I am not what people call antisocial, because that would mean I have no morals and I act against society and its laws. I am not avoidant because I do not like to be in my room by myself. I prefer to be with others, although I do act awkwardly at times and fear rejection. Maybe I just have rubatosis. I can always feel my heart. I ask around and everyone says they feel their heart too and it’s normal. But they don’t know what i’s like I’m sure.   

Jackson, P. (Director). (2001). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

 Mora, P. (1985). Elena.

 Palos, A. (Director). (2011). Precious Knowledge.

 Thorne, Craig R., and Richard R. DeBlassie. "Adolescent substance abuse." Adolescence 20.78 (1985): 335.

             Swartz, Marvin S., et al. "Violence and severe mental illness: the effects of substance abuse and nonadherence to medication." American journal of psychiatry 155.2 (1998): 226-231.

             Zwick, E. (Director). (2003). The Last Samurai. Warner Bros.

[athyrabunlord]

LLSHP 9 - Christmas Banquet

Arc1: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]

Arc2: [Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13] [Chapter 14]

Arc3: [Chapter 15 -  Under The Black Lake (TBD)]

Interlude: [Carbonado (1)] [Carbonado (2)] [Of Feathers and Wind] [Delphinus (teaser blip)]

[Brief note about School Term] [other LLSHP AU stuff] [YohaMaRuby concept arts] [ChikaYouRiko concept arts] [KanaDiaMari concept arts] [Hogwarts Staff]

[FFN link] (finished the interludes!) [Pixiv Link]

A/N: (ง •̀_•́)ง Yup still keeping up this update schedule of 1 chapter every two weeks! Still slowly editing previous chapters though XD; Anyway, this feels more like a long filler chapter tbh, but it’s full of fun stuff! I enjoyed writing it, so I hope you’ll enjoy reading it too! Words: 8,073

Yoshiko grins at her reflection in the mirror.

How can anyone look so flawless? So utterly bewitching? How can such a perfect human being exist? Ah, no mere mortal could be this beautiful, that is the truth. She, the great Yohane, is a fallen angel after all!

For the umpteenth time, she smoothes the non-existent crinkles of her raven-black velvet dress, her silk gloves brushing over the grey ribbons and white frills. The dark magenta rose imprint along the hem only accentuates how majestic the wearer is.

She is so, so ready for the Christmas Banquet!

Chuckling huskily, she takes one step towards the grand ornate mirror and lightly touches its shiny surface. The last time she used a full-body mirror, the Mirror of Erised, she was filled with unpleasant sense of inferiority and downright confusion of her own identity. But now, this ordinary mirror shows her who she truly is, and she is pleased with herself.

Why desire to be a pristine angel, when her current self is even better?

All the challenges she's faced and the possibility of her soul being damaged only make her stronger.

That incident with the colony of Acromantula caused her to become wary of even the tiniest spiders for days, but since then she has been faring better in those practice duels against the older witches. Her improvement was the only reason why Dia lifted the tickling Jinx she set on Mari. Still, the blonde is banned from coffee and lemon pie until further notice, much to her horror. Taking pity on her, the rest of the group manages to convince Dia to disregard this rule just for tonight's feast.

The Christmas Banquet is an end of the first term celebration where esteemed guests from outside the school would attend as well. The astounding feast, prepared by House Elves and staff members together, is actually not the main attraction of this event.

The spotlight is the Yule Ball, which was originally part of the famed Tri-Wizard Tournament that used to take place between three magical schools. Nowadays, it is a ballroom dance competition that was started by some of the professors back when they were still students. Considering Hogwarts' long history, this is a fairly recent tradition that's been gaining popularity over the decades. The dancing pair not only have to be the best in their waltz, tango or other types, but also boost the flair of their performance with magic. Yoshiko heard rumors of explosive fireworks, dancing leprechauns and even actual storms in the past.

Chaotic, yet incredibly thrilling. What better way to end a term with a blast?

Of course, she did consider entering the competition and enrapture everyone in her fallen angel charm, but there is one teensy bitsy setback she just can't seem to overcome.

She's horrible at ballroom dancing.

And also, she has no partner.

Alright, not one but two setbacks in total. Her confident grin slips into a scowl. Before Hogwarts, she's been an avid follower of Muggle hip-pop, rock and rap, and she knows all the various choreography by heart.

However, ballroom dance is a whole different matter. Riko had been kind enough to try teaching her, but she's stepped on the older girl's feet one too many times. After she fled the Room of Requirement in mortification, it took Hanamaru and Ruby a lot of convincing for her to even attend the Banquet at all.

Yoshiko shakes her head. Her two best friends are correct - all she has to do is look pretty and enjoy herself. There's no need to force herself to waltz or whatever!

Now that her confidence has returned, she steps out of her room to join the rest of her Slytherin housemates so they can head down to the Great Hall together. Whispers of praises and even friendly greetings make her tilt her chin high. While she isn't particularly close to any of them, they've all been civil to her and respect her wish for privacy.

"Nice dress, Tsushima-san!"

"Ku ku ku, I made it myself! I hand-picked all the materials and accessories~"

"That is fascinating! And the ribbon in your hair matches everything so well."

"Oh and your earrings..."

Truth be told, Yoshiko is rather taken aback by all the attention she's been given. Is it because she's dressed all fancy and could probably pass for a noble Pureblood? Or, perhaps, they have truly acknowledged her as a true Slytherin seeing how her grades have improved leaps and bounds under Dia's tutelage? Yoshiko hasn't really paid much attention to her housemates the past few months, so focused on her training and spending time with her friends.

She makes a mental note to be nicer to them. It doesn't hurt to make more allies, especially amongst those who share the same House as her. She searches a crowd for a familiar face, and quietly asks a wizard nearby.

"Erm, does anyone know where Dia-san is?"

The Slytherin prefect, whose aristocratic features imply he must be from an ancient Pureblood family, informs her that Dia is currently with the staff and guests, as the Kurosawa's representative.

Yoshiko pouts. Since she does not have a 'date' or partner, so to speak, she is hoping that she could stick to Dia's side until they reach the Hall at least. Alas, it looks like she'll have to make it there on her own. The rest of her Housemates look like they have partners already, and she isn't comfortable with the idea of accompanying someone she isn't close with anyway.

She quietly trails after the other Slytherins, glad to be distracted from her thoughts by their praises and curious questions about her fashion. Hushed murmurs then reach her ears after they step out of the Dormitory, and she blinks in surprise when the people in front of her part ways to allow a familiar girl to get through.

Yoshiko can't help but whistle in wonder. "I almost didn't recognize you! I thought I'm supposed to meet up with you and Zuramaru just outside the Hall?"

Ruby smiles shyly, clearly uncomfortable at how every pair of eyes seem to be on her. The shorter girl is clad in a dress robe of ebony and ivory hue, though the cape is adorned with the Hufflepuff bronze. With her hair tied in a ponytail, she looks rather dashing yet retains her characteristic cute aura.

"Um, Hanamaru-chan said she'll meet up with us later… she's having some trouble with her outfit, but when I tried to stay and help, she asked me to pick you up," Ruby twitters. "Hehe, you look so pretty, Yoshiko-chan!"

"Hnff, of course, it's Yohane-sama you're speaking with." As someone who enjoys the spotlight, Yoshiko is starting to find all those whispered conversations around them disconcerting. "Let's go then?"

As if understanding her intention, Ruby nods and holds out her gloved hand in a chivalrous manner. It is at such moment that Yoshiko has to remind herself that, no matter how harmless and critter-like Ruby is, she is still a Kurosawa Pureblood who has a different upbringing than her. Either way, the gesture endears the shorter girl to her even more.

"Heh, it's like you're a knight in shiny armor-," Yoshiko's grin twitches. "Well, I probably shouldn't use the word 'shiny', ugh. But really, why the dress robe? You look really good in it but I'd expected you to wear a dress?"

"Oh, that was my plan but last night, I received a parcel from m-my family. This is the formal attire I used to wear back then during important events. See? These colors represent the Kurosawa family," Ruby's smile softens, prompting Yoshiko to gently squeeze her friend's hand in comfort. "It's the first mail I've received from them since the night we got Sorted. I see they're trying to reconcile with me, so of course I'm more than happy to try as well."

"That's good. I mean, they should've long accepted you but at least this is better than nothing. Although, the Hufflepuff color-?"

There's a mischievous twinkle in Ruby's green eyes. "Hehe, I modified it myself. I'm proud to be a Puff and I'll always be."

Yoshiko chuckles fondly at her friend. "And I'm proud of you, Ruby. How about Zuramaru though? Please don't tell me she's also in dress robes or some… high-class samurai outfit or something."

It may sound ridiculous though she has no problem imagining the brunette wearing that. Hanamaru does love literature, especially romance fiction set in certain historical periods. Or, she could be draped in fancy ribbons and flowy dresses, not knowing how to put it on, while murmuring 'mirai zura' in admiration.

Ah, Hanamaru will probably smack her if she says that to her face. She can try, Yoshiko smirks, tonight, the great Yohane shall not be tamed by a mere little demon's whims!

"You'll have to wait and see, Yoshiko-chan. I promised Hanamaru-chan not to say anything to you because she wants to see your reaction," Ruby's steps gain a bit of a bounce as they walk down the hallways.

Yoshiko doesn't get a chance to protest because a pair of familiar orange and silver pounce on Ruby the moment they round the corner. Unlike her, the Gryffindor duo is quite vocal about their adoration of the handsome little Hufflepuff.

"Piki!"

"As expected of our Ruby-chan!"

"A real noble! A real prince!"

"Look at the fabric, look at the design! It's the real deal! Ahhh do you mind if I borrow it tomorrow? For research?"

"Hehe, you and your costume obsession, You-chan~ Still, both of you look so ikemen~! Kya, aren't we lucky, Riko-chan?"

Yoshiko allows her gaze to sweep over the three Third-Years, amazed by their respective appearances. Riko has chosen a conservative gown of amaranth and wine hue that's decorated with sakura petals along the hem, a perfect outfit that matches the pretty wearer's personality. Simple and elegant, the Ravenclaw chuckles daintily at her friends' antics. No doubt the voted campus beauty will be surrounded by suitors vying for her hand in a dance.

Chika is as cheerful as always, though there is now an inexplicable grace added to her charisma. Her hair is straightened with the signature braid adorned with a white rose. As opposed to her usual bright colored clothes, she is wearing a dark indigo cocktail dress embellished with white satin belt. Admittedly, if it weren't for her familiar laughter and fawning over Ruby, Yoshiko would have thought she is a refined guest from some upper-class family!

"Ehehe~ You-chan styled my hair!" Chika twirls around and winks at Yoshiko, who grins back in spite of herself. Yup, that's still the spirited Beater alright. "Can't thank you enough, Captain Watanabe!"

"Ha ha, 'twas my honor, First Mate Takami!" You salutes back, this characteristic gesture now rather suave given her outfit. Unlike her buddy, the Seeker is dressed in a formal suit that is probably made from pricey material, judging from the way it gleams at just the right angle. The popular witch, combined with her attractive smile, will most likely be chased by her fanclub the whole night.

Noticing Yoshiko's questioning gaze, You chuckles heartily. "I was going to wear a dress too, but ahaha our Housemates kinda bullied Kanan-chan and I into wearing a suit… they prepared this outfit for me, and I can't resist! I'm so going to research the fabric and its origins later! I mean, look at this tie! The gradient color is so pretty!"

"Well, you both look quite nice. Are you each other's dates?" Yoshiko smirks. Even after witnessing the duo's impressive teamwork and display of powerful magic, her opinion of them as dunderheads hasn't changed. Nowadays though, it's more of an affectionate nickname than having any derisive connotation behind it.

"Nope," they reply simultaneously. "We're Sakurauchi-hime's escorts tonight!"

Riko, who is standing several paces behind them, squeaks in surprise when she's promptly sandwiched between the two. It looks comical really, if Yoshiko doesn't know the history behind the three. While the self-proclaimed bodyguards playfully tease their flustered friend and Ruby, two more witches join their gathering.

"My my, everyone looks so gorgeous~!"

Mari, for some reason, is also wearing a tailored suit, her usually wavy golden hair straightened for the occasion and styled at the back with a few emerald clips. Combined with the azure bowtie, dark jacket with peaked lapels, turquoise waistcoat and more, she is fully decked for the Ball. She would have passed for an European gentleman if it weren't for her generous chest area, which just couldn't seem to be hidden.

As if reading her thoughts as always, the blonde smirks at her and puffs out her bosom even more. Yoshiko despairingly glances down at her own and grumbles. "Hmnnff, don't you look excited for the feast."

"You bet I am! I'm dying for my precious lemons," Mari purrs sweetly as she tugs on her date's arm. Yoshiko is pretty sure the implication has flown over the others' heads, and she groans inwardly at the realization that she is corrupted enough to know the Ravenclaw's double meaning.

Mari's lovely date appears just as exasperated. The tall witch has long cascading indigo tresses as dark and flowing as the ocean itself. The gradient plum and purple color of her silken mermaid dress complements her hair and eyes, while the translucent violet shawl gives her an overall mystic quality. Although, she looks familiar for some reason.

"Kanan-chan! How could you! You were supposed to wear a suit with me!" You puffs up her cheeks in dismay.

Yoshiko's eyes almost bulge out of their sockets. Come again?

"Ahaha sorry You," that laidback tone of laughter definitely belongs to the Gryffindor Lions' Captain. "We flipped a coin and I lost, so I had to wear the dress."

Yoshiko could only stare.

"Oh oh oh~ You've ensnared the lil'kitty here in your charms, Kanan~" Giggling, Mari rests her chin on her partner's shoulder.

"What!? No! It's just that, I've never seen her without that whip of a ponytail!"

"She hisses~ Maybe she'll scratch too~"

Yoshiko indignantly snarls at the blonde, almost blurting out that she's the cat Animagus, not her, but manages to remember last minute that You and Chika are present too. Her irritation subsides a bit when the others also agree that they've never seen Kanan with her hair down either.

"Anyways, Kanan and I will so win the Ball this year! We've had four years of practice, it's our turn to finally shine!" Fire blazes in Mari's eyes, though her expression couldn't remain serious for long as a Cheshire grin breaks through.

"But how about your arm?" Yoshiko squints at Kanan's supposedly injured arm, which looks unblemished.

"Mari cast a glamor Charm on it, and for the duration of the dance, I can do this," the older witch taps her bracelet and momentarily reveals strings of magic that blend in with her hair. "This enables me to move my arm as per my thoughts."

"Remember not to overuse it." Riko clearly doesn't seem too happy that Kanan isn't letting her injured arm rest.

"Don't worry, Rikocchi~! That's why I'm the lead, yes?" Mari winks at her junior. "I'm wondering though, none of you are entering the competition?"

Chika waves her hand. "Welp, I'm interested, but not with you two as rivals! Besides, we're keeping Riko-chan away from nasty suitors! Also, protecting our Ruby-chan."

At this, the Gryffindor duo smothers the startled Hufflepuff in a hug. Yoshiko rolls her eyes. "How about this one? I still remember how scary your fanclub is, You-san."

You points to herself, blinking naively. "But I'm with Chika-chan and Riko-chan?"

"So? They'll still try to get to you. Since you don't have a partner, many will try to make you dance with them," Yoshiko explains as patiently as she could. Could this dummy be more dense?

"But Chika-chan and Riko-chan are my partners-?"

Yoshiko groans and facepalms.

"Did you hear that, Rikocchi? Just enjoy yourself tonight," Mari's voice is light and teasing, though Yoshiko could understand the underlying meaning. Riko does appear tense from all the affection You and Chika have been showering her with.

"But I-"

"No buts! Fallo e basta~ That means no Disillusion Charm either." Tutting, Mari holds up her finger like an older sister chiding an unreasonable sibling. "It's a banquet, a feast, a celebration! Come on, Dia must be dying to see our lovely faces inside the Hall already."

"It'll take a while before we can rescue her from those guests though," Kanan smiles as her partner leads her inside, followed by the playfully bickering You and Chika who take Riko by the arm on each side.

"We're gonna wait here for Zuramaru," Yoshiko calls out after them, determined to ignore her growling tummy at all the delicious aroma wafting towards her nose.

She glances at Ruby, whose hair is a tad disheveled from all the hugs she received earlier. She helpfully holds up a pouch mirror as the shorter girl fixes her bangs. "So? Who're you gonna dance with later? Chika-san? You-san?"

"E-Eh? But you said you're not going to dance right? Then I can't just leave you alone," Ruby says firmly.

"Oh I just assumed you gotta dance as a Kurosawa. I overheard from my Housemates that many of them are expected to dance, to present their family or something. Then again, you don't have to, since you're here as Ruby, simple as that."

Ruby returns her grin. "Well, I do want to dance with Hanamaru-chan and you, if you don't mind, Yoshiko-chan."

"... you saw how I stepped on Lily's foot didn't you? She was nice enough not to say anything but I'm sure she had to use potions to make the bruises go away."

"That's because you were under pressure. It'll just be us three, so you'll be fine!"

Yoshiko finds Ruby's smile infectious. "I just gotta do my Rubesty huh?"

"Yup! Starting right now!" Suddenly, the shorter girl turns her around and pushes with strength unexpected of her.

Yoshiko feels her breath caught in her throat at the sight of Hanamaru, who gives her a bashful little wave. The brunette is wearing a traditional kimono of amber and gold shades, extravagant in its floral motif and intricate designs fitting for festive occasions. Even then, the whole attire somehow emphasizes Hanamaru's unique aura of humility and serenity.

She is beautiful.

"Sorry to keep you two waiting zura… it's been a while, so it took me some time to on the obi," the brunette sticks out her tongue sheepishly, gesturing at the elaborate sienna sash around her midriff.

Yoshiko is still zoned out while the two Hufflepuffs giggle and fawn over each other's attire. She only snaps back to her senses when Hanamaru reaches up and prods her forehead.

"Ow! What did you think you were doing, you disrespectful little demon!"

"Because you weren't paying attention zura!"

"No, I'm over-paying attention, Bakamaru," Yoshiko mumbles in embarrassment, hoping her cheeks aren't red.

"Zura?"

"Nothing, and stop giggling already Ruby! Geez, what's with the little demons tonight. It's mutiny, I say!"

"Yoshiko-chan is easier to rile up tonight, ne, Ruby-chan?"

"Mari-san called her a kitty cat earlier, Hanamaru-chan~"

"Oooh, that fits her zura~"

"Grrrr, shorties don't get to talk." Miffed, Yoshiko ruffles their hair using her slightly-superior height, grinning in satisfaction at their protests. "Why the kimono though? You're gonna stand out since everyone's wearing western-style clothing."

"Not true zura. Professor Koizumi is wearing a kimono, so is Professor Sonoda," Hanamaru pouts, "Besides, I don't have any dresses zura, and it's what my grandma sent me when I Owled her that we're having a banquet."

Thank you thank you, may Satan bless your soul, Grandma Kunikida. Yoshiko chants in her head while outwardly appearing as nonchalant as possible. "Whatever. At least you're wearing contacts and not wearing those granny glasses. Let's go in already. I'm starving!"

"Me too," Hanamaru attaches herself to Ruby's offered arm, giggling. "Hehe, we're like your dates ne, Ruby-chan?"

In response, the dashing Hufflepuff bows to Yoshiko like a gentleman and holds out her other hand. The Slytherin rolls her eyes at their expectant gaze and curtsies before accepting it.

Though flustered, Yoshiko finds herself giggling with her friends as they enter the Great Hall together.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Again, that's Miss Ohara and Miss Matsuura with their spectacular performance. Please give them a round of applause!"

The Charms Professor has already used the Sonorous Charm to do announcements, but even then her voice is drowned by the student body's thunderous cheers. Yoshiko finds herself clapping just as hard as everyone else, amazed by what she has witnessed.

Magic really brings a simple ballroom dance to a whole new level, doesn't it?

The waltz started normally like ones Yoshiko had seen in older Muggle movies, with the two witches moving in tandem and in sync. Never would she imagine the jokester Mari and jockey Kanan to twirl and sway so gracefully along with classy music. They were obviously well-rehearsed, but their years of friendship probably enabled them to read each other's movement to make everything flow.

Then their pace picked up, morphing seamlessly to a tango while the sparks and whirls of fire lit up the center stage. With a mixture of levitation charms, aguamenti and most likely some advanced magic Yoshiko knew nothing of, a screen of water enveloped the pair like a dome. Mari and Kanan seemed to be competing, fervently swimming around the arena as conjured marine creatures, the seal and dolphin Patronus Charms, and Transfigured creatures joined their acrobatic dance.

Needless to say, they finished with a literal bang, glitters and all, skating down the icy slope which dissipated into cottony snow flakes.

Yoshiko has to admit, that is one shiny performance.

"Yup, I'm glad I didn't try to enter the competition, at least not this year!" Chika's eyes are practically sparkling. "I'd rather watch the performances! Hehe, and watch Riko-chan playing the piano of course."

The Ravenclaw is seen smiling behind her grand piano, surrounded by Elves and other student members of the orchestra. In a way, Riko is shielded from possible suitors and the majority of the audience's attention during the Yule Ball, which is probably why she accepted the position in the first place.

Yoshiko sips at her strawberry punch, thoroughly enjoying the banquet so far. After the mouth-watering Christmas feast, the long tables in the Great Hall were then rearranged to make space for the Yule Ball in the center. High tables full of desserts and drinks were lined up against the walls while attendees mingled and simply enjoyed the show. The translucent ceiling was charmed to show snowflakes gently drifting in the evening sky, even though it didn't snow at all today.

At the front, the usual staff tables have been replaced by round ones for the various guests. Ruby had discreetly pointed out to her two Muggleborn friends some of the important figures, such as Heads of certain Departments from the Ministry, representatives from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, and even the illustrious wandmaker from Diagon Alley.

The Professors appear to be familiar with many of these guests, judging from the friendly and relaxed manner of their conversations. This encourages the older witches and wizards to introduce themselves and network among these influential people. Yoshiko notices many of her Slytherin Housemates already making impressions with the Ministry employees.

The most distinguished one is the Head Girl. As the Kurosawa heiress, Dia is dressed in full regalia of ebony and ivory, with the Slytherin cloak charmingly donned over her left shoulder. Various medals and trinkets decorate her garment, while her lustrous long hair, pulled in a fishtail braid, is draped elegantly over her right shoulder. With her austere demeanor and confident smile, she blends in well with the other adults. Yoshiko has almost mistaken her as a guest, a royalty even, and once again she is struck by the weight of being a Pureblood.

Dia isn't here just as herself, but as representative of her family.

Ruby appears antsy as well, unable to go help her older sister since they have to maintain the image of estranged sisters in public. They have no idea who the enemies are, and there is a possibility that they could be among the attendees right here in this very Hall.

Yoshiko downs her beverage and reaches for a different drink. Ruby's anxiousness is rubbing off of her, so she is relieved to see Mari and Kanan heading for the front. Surely, the two would rescue their friend as they had declared earlier. Oh, the pair has stopped to greet a bearded blond man. Judging from the familiar way they act and his uncanny Cheshire grin, he must be Mari's father. It's easy to forget that the quirky Ravenclaw came from a prestigious family too, since she doesn't act like one.

"Aren't you drinking too much zura?"

Yoshiko shakes her fingers at the frowning Hanamaru and takes another sip of her candy cane cocoa. She furrows her brows and puts the drink away before reaching for another one on the table, this time an eggnog coffee.

"Not this one either?" Ruby asks with an exasperated smile.

"Nope. At least, I don't feel any different," Yoshiko glares at the mug. "Just where could it be?"

Earlier, right before the Yule Ball, the Deputy Headmistress had announced that the Potion Professor prepared a surprise - the Felixis Felicis potion was randomly added to one of the many drinks. Yoshiko is determined to find that Liquid Luck. Being plagued by misfortune all her life, she wants to experience how it feels to not be unlucky for once, no matter how temporarily.

So far, no success.

"Maybe I should just go for those-"

"No," Hanamaru pulls at her arm before she could head for the cocktails and wine glasses on the other side. "You're still underage zura! Professor Sonoda stressed that it is for everyone, so they wouldn't have mixed the potion with drinks that aren't accessible to the younger students zura."

"Hnff, what would a mere Zuramaru know-"

"Oh, the next performance is starting!" Peacemaker as always, Ruby gestures at the center where another pair strolls through the floor just as confidently as Mari and Kanan did earlier. Since Yoshiko's feeling quite bloated, she decides to take her friend's advice to give up and enjoy the rest of the Yule Ball.

By the end, Yoshiko finds herself agreeing with Chika, that the competition is quite fierce. Mari and Kanan were good, but so were the others. It would probably be down to technicalities and the popular vote to determine which pair gets to be winners.

"Ok, so what now?" Yoshiko looks around the Hall, puzzled by how no one seems to be leaving. "Isn't the Banquet over?"

"Pfff, this is where the fun starts!" As if on cue, different sort of music starts playing and many students flood into the center stage to dance. Chika opens her arms dramatically. "Come on, who wants to start? Heh heh, Ruby-chan, how about you?"

"E-Eh? I-" The younger witch is gently but firmly pushed towards a confused Hanamaru, who is also nudged by a grinning You.

"Go on, enjoy yourselves!" The Gryffindors say in unison, which seems to give Ruby the courage she needs to ask the brunette for a dance. Both giggling, the Hufflepuffs enter the dance floor with their postures relaxed. This isn't like a performance where practically everyone is watching you, so the two girls are able to dance normally without such pressure.

Admittedly, they look adorable, and Ruby is a good lead! Chivalrously, she twirls the brunette around and her steps are unhurried for the latter to follow. Hanamaru's kimono sleeves twirl with her movements, the ribbon in her hair fluttering a bit as she try to match Ruby's pace. If only there's a camera!

An annoying prod to her side jostles her out of her observation. "What do you want?!"

"Don't you wanna dance too?" Chika pouts, one arm draped around her buddy You. "Come on, ya gotta save You-chan from her fangirls~"

Yoshiko peers over their shoulders and flinches at the sight of many witches staring their way, their bodies tense as if ready to spring into action the moment You steps away from the safety zone of expensive champagne glasses nearby. "And throw myself into a pack of rabid beasts? I think not!"

And besides, these dunderheads are quite transparent. They keep glancing at Riko's direction every few minutes, obviously waiting for the right moment to ask her for a dance. The Ravenclaw is currently occupied at the front, conversing with some of the Elven musicians.

"Yoshiko-chan, would you like to dance with me?"

"Ruby? You've finished dancing with Zuramaru?" Relieved to get away from the Gryffindors just for a while, Yoshiko hurriedly takes Ruby's offered hand.

"Oh, she's dancing with Kanan-san right now-"

"What?!"

Miffed, Yoshiko searches the crowd for the ridiculously tall-and-short pair. Indeed, the two are smiling brightly as Kanan attentively complements her movements with the younger girl. At least, the pair looks more like siblings than a couple, unlike the others around them. Gah, why is Bakamaru giggling so much? Is it really that fun!? What's with the blush?

Yoshiko takes a deep breath. Nope, she is so not jealous. The older Gryffindor has done a lot for them, and she's grateful for her help. Nuh-uh. Not jealous. Zen mode.

"I thought Kanan's supposed to be retrieving your sister from those guests?"

"Yup, Onee-chan's not trapped at the front anymore," Yoshiko follows Ruby's finger and sees Dia and Mari conversing on the side, surrounded by various prefects and students. It would be awhile before they could make their way to where Chika and You are. "Fine, whatever, let's get this started!"

"Okay, so first you- piki?!" Before Ruby could position them in the standard waltz stance, Yoshiko drags her friend around and twirls rather aggressively.

"Ku ku ku, I ain't gonna abide by silly ballroom rules! This is a free for all, Ruby! The music is kinda upbeat too, so I'm gonna do it my style!"

As much as she could in this dress anyway. It is really too bad she can't breakdance, or she's certain that she could impress many fellow students with her awesome techniques. Some of the Muggleborns are familiar with her moves and even cheer her on, while the Purebloods just stare at them blankly. There's curiosity in their eyes though, so Yoshiko happily pulls the squeaking Ruby along with her flow.

"That's pretty wicked, Yoshiko-chan, didn't know you could dance!" You is grinning while Chika welcomes an exhausted Ruby back to their midst. Yoshiko poses proudly, adrenaline rushing in her veins while a brilliant idea occurs to her.

Maybe she should ask Hanamaru for a dance?

She isn't given the opportunity to ask, for You excitedly pulls her onto the dance floor before she could react. Cold sweat trickles down Yoshiko's neck when she hears furious murmurs and disappointed grumbles from the pack of hungry wolves... no, fangirls.

You-san, you dense idiot! You're too close! Yoshiko couldn't help but blush when the older witch pulls her close, so close that their cheeks are practically touching. There are some screams or maybe cheers around them, she couldn't tell the difference, but out of instinct she clings to her partner as if this could save her from fangirls' wrath.

"Eheh, hang on~ Yousorou!"

"Wha- yeeeek!" Suddenly, You picks her up and throws her into the air!

She automatically tries to cover her fluttering dress, but she discovers that she doesn't have to. You must have conjured dancing feathers that hover around her, to block any viewers from seeing her underwear while she is airborne. Several brooms appear out of nowhere, and You tap-dances her way into the air, laughing and bowing as she approaches the slowly descending Yoshiko.

Strong arms easily catches her when You frog-leaps over the assembled tower of brooms. The athletic Gryffindor spins her around for several more paces before gently setting her back on her feet. The spectators' deafening applause overcomes the fangirls' protests as You rubs the back of her hair and hesitantly waves.

Yoshiko breathes raggedly, trying to comprehend what just happened as she leans against the older witch's shoulder.

"That was pretty good! Maybe we could refine it and enter the Ball next year- ow!"

Yoshiko scowls ferociously and smacks You's arm hard.

Again.

And again.

And once more.

"C-Chika-chan! She's punching me!"

"That's just a form of affection zura~"

"What-! Watch what you say, Bakamaru!"

Her ears feel like they are burning when she notices the rest of their group chuckling at their antics. At least, Hanamaru has returned from her dance with Kanan and is now stuffing her face with various desserts. Good, that's the Zuramaru she's used to. Be good and stay there. Keep feeding.

"That was amazing! What about it? Like You-chan said, you should form a duo, maybe called 'You & Angel?" Chika's previously tamed ahoge has sprung back up, swaying eagerly as the girl gives them a hug.

"No! And g-get off! I'm sweaty," Yoshiko pries the exuberant Gryffindors off of her person. Is this what Ruby feels all the time, being crowded by the baka duo? Although, it doesn't feel that bad, it's nice actually, because she can sense that the two witches are sincere in their hugs- no! The great Yohane shall not fall for their charm so easily!

She retreats to the side, huffing and puffing, and rummages through the tables for a drink she hasn't tried before. She glares at a glass of mikan juice, filled with pulp, for a good full minute. Taking a deep breath, she grabs the beverage and gulps down the content in noisy slurps.

Tearfully, she sticks out her tongue and waits for something to happen. Nope, other than a disagreeing tummy, she doesn't feel any special. Still no luck in finding that Felix Felicis potion. She glances back at her friends, noting that Chika and Hanamaru are now busy examining some sort of mikan dessert while Ruby happily eats a cup of pudding. Riko has finally joined them and is nibbling at a sandwich that You brought for her from another table. Kanan and Dia are several paces away, surrounded by admirers and younger students who must be taken by their respective outfits.

Hmn, where's that shiny cat Animagus?

She finds her answer a moment later when something reels her back onto the dance floor. Her vision is momentarily obscured by a top hat, which she scrambles to pull off. Half filled with annoyance and resignation, she blinks at the blonde witch holding out her gloved hand.

"Shall we dance~?"

Her lilting tone is a pitch lower than Yoshiko is used to, compelling her to accept the offer. Grinning, Mari begins to lead her around the other dancers, spinning her away and pulling her back at the right moment. Due to their height difference, Yoshiko is forced to peer up at the smirking witch, whose endowed bosom are rather distracting in an irritating way.

"Why do you want to dance with me anyway? Go back to your partner already." And keep that said partner away from Zuramaru, cheh.

"Why not? It's fun to dance with my cute little kouhai~ Besides, everyone's dancing, no?"

Yoshiko dares to glance around, noticing that Chika and Ruby have entered the center stage as well. You has somehow retrieved Kanan from Dia, who waves off her friend and is still occupied by the other students. It looks like the Gryffindor duo have failed or haven't tried asking Riko for a dance. Hanamaru is keeping Riko company as the two girls exchange accessories. True to her name, the sakura hairpin looks good on Hanamaru, while the saffron ribbon seems to make the hue of Riko's hair richer.

"Worried about Rikocchi, are we?"

"Well, yeah. Since that day with the Acromantulas, I've been watching her and the other two. It doesn't seem like Lily knows about the rumors, but those two bakas should be less obvious!"

"Hmm? Like how obvious you are towards Hanamaru-chan?"

"Yeah, exactly that! Wait what?! No! W-W-What are you talking about!"

Snickering, Mari tugs Yoshiko close and muffles her indignant shrieks against her coat. "Calm down~ Rikocchi is smart. She probably knows already, but doesn't want to believe it, understandably so."

"I see… what do we do then?"

"Now now, don't you worry about her. Just leave it to Kanan and I! We've got it worked out. You just focus on getting your girl~"

Mari smothers Yoshiko against her chest again before she could protest. "You'll see soon enough. It took a lot of convincing earlier, but Kanan and I cracked her down. There's no way Rikocchi would say no, teehee~"

Yoshiko scowls in the embrace and reluctantly relaxes. The hug does feel nice and comforting. While a part of her still doubts Mari due to her wacky ideas, she does agree that the senior is dependable whenever the occasion calls for it.

By the time they return to Riko and Hanamaru, the other pairs have finished their dance as well, while Dia has finally extracted herself from admirers. Yoshiko looks at every single one of her friends, pleased at this little bubble of nine. Her eyes meet Hanamaru's, and she freezes in self-consciousness. Puzzled, the brunette tilts her head and smiles adorably. A small splash of whipped cream is stuck to her puffed up cheek, which Yoshiko exasperatedly wipes away with a napkin.

"Aren't you eating too much, Butamaru?"

Frowning at the teasing nickname, Hanamaru punches Yoshiko's arm.

"Ow, that hurts!"

"Hnff, it'd better hurt zura!"

Yoshiko rolls her eyes. "Whatever, like you said, that's just a form of affection, ku ku ku~"

To her surprise, Hanamaru appears flustered and scoots away, placing a bewildered Ruby between them. Huh, that didn't go well. Time from Plan B.

"Okay, Yoshiko-chan, wish us luck," Chika and You suddenly whisper near her.

She hastily grabs hold of their arms before they could head towards Riko. "Wait, you're gonna go for it-?"

"Well, you're the only one we've told our little secret to, Yoshiko-chan," Chika fiddles with her fingers while You lets out a forceful chuckle. "Yeah, Chika-chan and I figure, it's now or never. We'll see which one of us Riko-chan picks, and we can move on."

"But-" Yoshiko helplessly glances at Mari, whose fiery eyes are focused elsewhere. Likewise, Kanan seems to be holding her breath, her expression intense as she stares in the same direction. Curious, Yoshiko and the two Gryffindors turn to look for what's holding their attention captive.

"Riko-san, may I have the pleasure of dancing with you?"

Dia's posture is slightly tense as she extends her hand towards the dazed girl. Riko's lips are parted in soundless surprise, her eyes wide as she glances between the gloved hand and Dia's earnest gaze. A pretty blush crawls up Riko's neck and cheeks as she daintily accepts the offer. Both smiling, one pleased and one coy, the pair slowly makes their way towards the dance floor. Many pairs of eyes are focused on them, most likely just as taken aback as Yoshiko is. She hasn't expected Dia to ask, or Riko to say yes.

Yet, looking at the two witches swaying to the gentle ballad, it somehow makes sense. They look like a match made in heaven, the way they seem absorbed in each other's presence. There's no need to concern themselves with unwanted attention, for they are already in their own world.

Yoshiko sighs quietly. In a way, she is envious. That's the kind of perfect scene she wants to appear to onlookers, with…

She glances at her friends, seeing how Hanamaru is just as mesmerized while Ruby looks happy for her older sister. Kanan and Mari exchange a quiet high-five, both grinning at how it turns out. Now, all that's left are the two possibly heartbroken duo.

Though disappointed, there is also something else in Chika and You's calm expressions. "Well, it's not like we have a chance against Dia-san anyway." "Yeah, it's not surprising that Riko-chan would accept."

Yoshiko scoffs and roughly pulls at Chika's arm, looping it around You's. The two witches blink at her innocently.

"Go on, go dance already. Don't mope here. Didn't you tell me to enjoy myself earlier? Now, it's your turn, both of you."

"Huh? With Chika-chan?" "With You-chan? Eeeh?"

"Shoo, off you go!" Their disbelief is actually heartrending to see, knowing what they used to be, so Yoshiko assertively pushes the two towards the dance floor. You nervously brushes through her hair while Chika awkwardly plays with her braid. After a few moments, their fingers finally interlace as characteristic smiles blossom upon their visage.

"Welp, just as she said, let's just enjoy ourselves, You-chan!"

"Yeah, wanna try an even more difficult stunt, Chika-chan?"

"Oho, you mean with more brooms and possible aquatic additions too, captain?"

"I knew you can read my mind, partner~ Let's consider this a prep for next year's Yule Ball!"

Like a proud parent, Yoshiko folds her arms and gazes after the pair until they blend in with the crowd. Matchmaking success! Whatever happens after is up to the two, but Yoshiko is confident that something good would bloom from this night.

"Hehe, they look cute together, don't they?" Ruby appears just as happy.

"All thanks to Yohane-sama!" Grinning, Yoshiko grabs a glass of water and pretends it's champagne. "Cheers, everyone!"

As they toast to many things, the clinks of glasses and laughter have re-ignited the rush of adrenaline she felt earlier. If the others could pair off so smoothly, surely it isn't that difficult to ask a certain brunette out for a simple dance?

Alas, as decreed by a fallen angel's misfortune, she misses her chance yet again. Hanamaru suddenly grimaces and excuses herself. "I-I need to go to the washroom zura-!"

Kanan blinks. "Oh, I'll go with y-"

"We need to stay to hear the announcement, for the winning pair of Yule Ball," Mari lightly taps on Yoshiko's shoulder. "If I recall correctly, you've drank a lot tonight, haven't you?"

"Y-Yeah, I did. I'll go with Zuramaru then. Ruby, you coming?" Though a little confused, she does agree it's better to go with company instead of alone. For some reason, Ruby shakes her head and makes a Rubesty pose.

"Huh? But-"

"Just go already, Yoshiko-chan!"

Still not understanding Ruby's encouraging smile, Yoshiko shrugs and hurries after Hanamaru. In contrast to the boisterous Great Hall and its glamorous decor, the corridors appears rather desolate and even sinister. Candles valiantly light up the path as she walks past some of the straggler students and into the courtyard. Her heels crunch quietly on the thin layer of frozen snow, leftover from days before, and her breath comes out in fleeting white puffs.

Hanamaru is standing in the middle of the garden, seemingly entranced by the bright quarter-moon and the glittering stars in the night canvas above.

"Hey, are you okay? I thought you're going to the washroom?" Yoshiko hesitantly approaches her friend.

"Hmm? Yoshiko-chan?" The brunette glances at her before returning her gaze towards the scenery. "I was… I felt quite dizzy earlier, so I thought it was something I ate zura."

"Pff, you did eat a lot…"

Hanamaru furrows her brows, though her expression relaxes a moment later. "Anyway, as it turns out, I just need some fresh air. I feel a lot better now zura."

"That's good at least. With the way you ran out earlier, I thought you were gonna hurl, heh," Yoshiko then slaps herself inwardly. She needs to stop making fun of the brunette or else she'll never be able to get that dance she wants!

Thankfully, Hanamaru seems to be too engrossed in this tranquil atmosphere to get upset. "What do you think, Yoshiko-chan? This feels like an illustration from storybooks zura. Isn't it beautiful?"

Yoshiko has always found nature to be otherworldly, an abstract concept to be admired and nothing more. The most she can do is immerse herself in the peace that nature offers. Yes, the icy snow appears to blanket the ground and any vegetation in an artistic manner. Yes, the cloudless sky allows the viewer to search among the constellations for possible shooting stars. Yes, the night breeze, while frigid, is also fresh and cleansing.

She glances at the smiling brunette by her side, savoring how the moonlight gently envelopes her form. "Yeah, beautiful."

"Right?" Hanamaru remains oblivious of her companion's gaze as she spreads her arms. "Sometimes I still can't believe it, being here in the world of magic and being able to use magic."

"Uh-huh, I'm with you on that. Hogwarts is… amazing." Yoshiko reaches out and gingerly takes hold of Hanamaru's hands, turning the shorter girl towards her.

Hogwarts never fails to take her breath away even though she has been here half a year already. From time to time, she would find herself admiring her surroundings, whether it is the Aviary, the towers, the forest, or even her own Dormitory. The ancient and austere magical presence makes her humble, makes her feel so incredibly tiny and insignificant.

But that was the same back in the Muggle world, wasn't it? She was just one of the many faces that passed by the shops, walked down the streets, and simply trudged through each day. She was unable to accomplish anything meaningful, and that had depressed her even though she carefully buried such feeling.

And so, this is the one difference between here and the Muggle world. Here at Hogwarts, she is given the ability to make a difference in people's lives and even her own, no matter how little it seems at first.

The adrenaline from before has calmed down to something soothing, like whispers of encouragement from Lady Luck herself.

"Well then, allow me to make this special scene even more fairytale-like."

"Zura?!"

Yoshiko gallantly tugs her companion against her, slipping her arm around the latter's waist. Due to the proximity, the shorter girl could only nestle her head against the crook of Yoshiko's neck.

"Dance with me, Hanamaru."

The brunette makes an incoherent mumble, her ears reddening. Yoshiko could feel Hanamaru's heartbeat against her, so she's certain that the latter could feel hers as well. Though embarrassed, she's also elated to have finally taken this step. Furthermore, unlike her previous experiences, she has not stepped on her partner's foot, has not lost her wits from unexpected movements, and has not carelessly taken control of the dance with her own style.

No, this is a simple slide and glide dance where the pair sways along the melody. The courtyard may be silent, but Yoshiko can clearly hear the music in her pounding heart.

"Y-Yoshiko-chan, you know how to waltz zura-?"

"Heh, the great Yohane learns fast. You're not bad yourself either."

"... I-I'm just following your lead," Hanamaru mutters shyly, leaning into their semi-embrace even more. Yoshiko stiffens and inadvertently stops the dance, with both of her arms wrapped around Hanamaru's waist to steady her.

Neither move from their position, enthralled by this mysterious ambience that encompassed them.

"So, pretty good year so far I'd say. We got to come here, learn magic-"

"- and I got reunited with you, and we've gained so many good friends zura."

"Right. Fantastic banquet, isn't it?"

"It is. Everything about today is… well, it's been magical zura."

Yoshiko nervously pulls away just a little so she could look at Hanamaru. The brunette's flushed cheeks probably mirror her own, encouraging her to do what her heart yearns.

"The perfect way to end the perfect night."

She leans down and smooches Hanamaru's cheek before backing away. The warmth and softness of the brunette's skin lingers on her lips, so tantalizing that she is tempted to kiss her again.

Should she push her luck? Is this too much?

Blushing, Hanamaru appears shell-shocked, staring at Yoshiko with wide, innocent eyes. Though mortified, Yoshiko returns the gaze earnestly to show that she isn't fooling around.

Hanamaru swallows hard, glancing to the right and then to the left while her arms remain loosely wrapped around Yoshiko's waist. As if making up her mind, she places one hand on the taller girl's shoulder and tiptoes.

Their lips meet chastely, once and again.

"Merry Christmas."

[asksythe]

How were Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura important enough to be placed on a team headed by Senju Tobirama? How are Ninja Teams decided? By tracker teams, Ino-Shika-Chou, Taijutsu Specialists, etc.? What made the two advisers so important that they, who were probably civilians, got placed on a team with important Clan member and brother of the Hokage?

I.

According to canon, there are at least some levels of intention behind genin team composition and design. We have seen that with the Ino-Shika-Cho team (a team created based on clan history and synergy) and Hinata-Kiba-Shino team (obvious tracker team). On the other hand, canon is also notorious for showing us only the exceptions to the Naruto world and not the actual statistical average. Why do I say that? Well, according to numbers during the 4th ninja world war, the allied ninja force numbered at 80 000 ninja and samurai combined. If we disregard unequal force contribution between villages and assume that they all contribute the same number of soldiers, then each village has roughly 13 333 ninja/samurai at the time of the 4th ninja war. 

So… 13 thousand active duty ninja per village. It’s not that much as far as army sizes go, but it is indicative of the number of academy students and genin hopefuls that the ninja academy has to put out per graduating class. Simple calculation utilizing turnover rate. Assuming the average shinobi stays active duty until 30 years old (which we were often told is a very good age for ninja since they tend to die young or be rendered unfit for combat. This number is even lower during war time), and the average starting age is 12 years old, then the average ninja has about 18 years of active duty as a soldier. Which means that every 18 years, the ninja academy has to produce enough actual genins (and not just genin hopefuls who get past the academy test but not the actual test from their jounin master) to replace the ninja population going into either retirement or KIA. That’s 740 genins per graduating class. 

Which again means that the number of ninja kids who get past the academy test and are assigned a team (but have not yet taken the actual genin test from the jounin master) must be above that 740 number. Maybe 800, maybe 1000. We don’t know. Canon hasn’t given us anything solid on that front.

And out of those dubious 740+ number, how many genins were shown to us? a measly 9, all of whom are either clan heirs or have some special relevance to the plot (8 clan heirs including Naruto who is both the son of the previous Hokage and the previous Jinchuriki, and Sakura). 

So that’s what I meant about canon being shit at showing us the actual average ninja child’s experience. We were shown the cream of the crops, the clan heirs and kids who won the superpower lottery, the exceptions and not the norms. We then see that these clan heirs are all grouped up in their own elite teams full of heirs and special snowflake kids. What about the other 731+ average ninja kids? How were they grouped up and what was their experience in the ninja world? Nobody has a fucking clue. Canon certainly did not give us anything regarding that. But considering all the special kids were already separated into their own little niche groups, my guess is that the plebe kids had to hang with other plebe kids. 

So from that observation, I’m extrapolating that just like our real world, the ninja verse group its own kids using two different standards: kids from the rich, influential families, and kids who don’t got shit going for them.

For the rich clan kids, they are grouped into specially designed teams with good synergy that compliments their skill set and promotes their growth (i.e. Ino-Shika-Cho). I imagine there would be some politicking behind the scene too. Parents pushing for their kids to be put on the same team together or getting this or that jounin master, or certain team placements acting as wordless statements from one party to another. Sure we don’t see any of that actually happening in canon, but clans are a thing in Konoha and we know they each holds power and influence (i.e. the fall of the Uchiha clan showed us that there are politicking among ninja, clans, and the village management. Tobirama specifically pushed the Uchiha into a position where they couldn’t jockey for more political power and influence, and their fall depicted how they gradually lost their sway over important village administrative decisions), so various forms of politicking both discreet and not are only logical. 

For the poor kids, the kids who don’t have big clan names backing them up, kids with no special power to speak of, who may stay a genin for the entity of their career, I imagine their placement comes with fewer frills. Because the village is still interested in efficiency and producing quality soldiers and workers, they probably have some forms or formulas for placement, but unlike the rich kid’s custom designed team composition, theirs is a more mass production style format.     

II.

Going from the reasoning above, I think that there is a definite intention behind Koharu and Homura’s placement in team Tobirama. The reason for that? Because their jounin master is Tobirama. 

As you yourself pointed out, Tobirama is important. Not only was he the brother of the first Hokage and the second in command in their newborn village, he himself was a powerful ninja with a bloodline and who would go on to become the second Hokage. Anything regarding him had an incredibly high chance of being political in nature, especially something as important as genin teams under his tutelage. 

The way I see it, there are 2 possible explanations for Koharu and Homura being placed on Tobirama’s team along with Hiruzen who was both a clan kid (small clan) and whose clan was apparently allied with clan Senju. 

1/ Koharu and Homura were also clan kids albeit from very minor clans that weren’t explicitly mentioned in canon. Just because canon did not explicitly state that they were clan kids does not necessarily mean that they weren’t. They could very well be but Kishimoto simply didn’t deign to tell us about it. This wouldn’t be strange at all considering canon Naruto’s tendency for ass pull stuff with no explanation nor forewarning whatsoever (for example, that whole sensor thing. It just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of Shippuden. No forewarning, no nothing. Just one day, pop, it’s there. Deal with it).

In this case, then their being there is similar to Sarutobi. They were there because of clan alliance and to foster a bond between the clans and the village. 

2/ They were actual civilian kids from families with no prior experience in the ninja world. Which means that their placement in team Tobirama is likely a political statement. What sort of statement you say? Well, one of inclusion of course and that even civilian born ninja are important to the village. A sort of ‘even if you are the baker’s son and the maid’s daughter, you may still be taught by the Hokage’s brother!!! So join the army today and contribute to the course!’ political statement. 

Think about it for a second. Out of a graduating class of upward of 740 children, you get maybe double digit number of clan kids and kids with special powers. The rest of them are either civilians or ninjas from small families with nothing special going on for them. Narrative wise, they are nameless cannon fodder, especially in a universe where superpowers are the prerequisite to your having any sort of voice or influence whatsoever. However, logistically speaking, these clanless ninja are the actual meat of the village. They are the people at the ground level, the foot soldiers, the ones doing the million nameless jobs that keep the village running. A ninja village is a pseudo military organization, an army of specialized soldiers and operatives so to say. Regardless of how powerful some individuals are, you can’t run an army with only a double digit number of people. War can be a game of attrition, and in games of attrition, you need numbers. Especially during that tender time when the village was newborn. The ninja were enterring a new era then, one in which their wars would be in much larger scale as they were no longer between clans but between villages. Battlefields and territories would be larger which in turn makes supply chains and logistics that much more complicated and manpower intensive. Death toll and attrition rate would also be far higher than the days of clan to clan fighting. More than ever, they needed numbers. They needed new blood to hold up the clans which had taken a toll after all the years of fighting. 

More than that, there are also social factors to consider. Back in the days of its founding, Konoha was made up of a lot of clans with histories with each others. Some of them were allies. Some were enemies who had laid down the war axe under the new banner. In some ways, the ninja world is a small place. People ran into each other. People knew each other. People had history, had things to settle. That they belonged to the same village now doesn’t make all that go away. So civilian born ninjas and clanless families should also serve as social buffer to gently and gradually ease the clans into living with each other. 

There’s also genetic factors. Despite the fact that Naruto verse seems to function on lego genetics, my guess is that not all bloodlines play nice with each other. The fact that the more influencial clans tend to maintain bloodline purity instead of opting for breeding powerful hybrids (i.e. Hyuga and Uchiha all looking the same and placing heacy emphasis on purity at least in the case of Hyuga. Also, the fact that apparently pure Senju DNA is too much for normal folks as Hashirama’s DNA implanted in 60+ embryos killed all of the fetuses bar one who eventually grew up to become Yamato). Close proximity and the comraderie of fighting for the same side tend to breed passion though. Eventually, you are going to have people from differeny bloodlines bonking each other and probably producing children whose genetics don’t play nice. Best case scenario, maybe they have some health issues growing up. Worst case scenario, they die or are born with horrific birth defects. Neither of those cases are good for a newborn village. So again, they needed the genetic buffer provided by ninjas coming from civilian or clanless families. 

Civilian born ninja maybe weak compared to clan ninja on an individual level. However, on a village or national level, they are vital to the village’s existence. Without them, Konoha would literally cease to be. 

Tobirama, smart guy that he is, should be able to see that from a mile away. With this sort of reasoning, Koharu and Homura, two civilian kids, being placed in the team taught by the Hokage’s brother and second in command of Konoha is an obvious political statement meant to court more civilian families and ninjas. 

[ronaldmrashid]

Perhaps Bribing For Admissions Starts In Preschool

March 12, 2019 is a day I’ll never forget. Not only did the college admissions bribery scandal break that morning, we found out our boy got waitlisted by two preschools. Waitlisted is really just a euphemism for rejected.

The first preschool was a Mandarin immersion preschool I’ll call PooPoo about 20-25 minutes away. We had to go for an initial one hour tour, then a 30 minute parent interview with the admissions director who was hacking up a lung that day, and then a final play date interview along with 11 other kids and parents.

It was an arduous process that we found unappealing, especially given the commute. During our application process, the school canceled its 4-day a week part-time program in favor of only 5 full days a week. We found this to be too much for a 2.5 year old.

The school seemed like it was being run more like a business first, and a school second with its massive $1 million fund raising banner in the entrance and its decision to go 5 days a week in order to charge their full $31,240 a year in tuition.

Given these issues, we were not disappointed when PooPoo waitlisted our boy. We had already decided he wouldn’t attend. Spending $31,240 a year on tuition for a 2.5 year old felt extremely unnecessary. I speak Mandarin and we could use the money to live in Taiwan for a summer instead.

The second school we applied to I’ll call PeePee; it’s about a 15-18 minute drive away. We liked the school because it had a two day a week program that runs from 9:30am – 12:30pm for $8,500 a year. We thought this was a more appropriate transition for a young toddler first experiencing a school setting.

The only problem with the school is that it’s not very racially or socioeconomically diverse. Further, 11 of the 12 available spots for this upcoming preschool year for 2-3-year-olds were already preassigned for siblings. This ensured further homogeneity.

The Executive Director personally reached out over e-mail and told me that 80 people applied for the one open non-sibling position, which meant that they only had a 1.25% acceptance rate.

Given we had no connections to the school, don’t look like the majority of parents, don’t have any status since we didn’t tell them we run this site, didn’t donate any money, and learned the application numbers, we weren’t surprised about the rejection, just a little disappointed.

Bribes Might Start As Early As Preschool

I wasn’t told the application statistics by PooPoo because they didn’t personally reach out like PeePee. They basically sent a blast waitlist/rejection e-mail. But, I’ve got to imagine the application statistics are similarly dire.

1.25% would be the lowest college admissions rate by far in the country. If parents were willing to spend $250,000 – $400,000 on average to get their kids into colleges like USC with a 17% acceptance rate, it makes me wonder what parents would do to try and get them into the most hoity toity of preschools.

The parents sending their kids to the two schools we got rejected from have very similar racial and economic profiles as the 33 parents who’ve so far been caught by the FBI. I spoke to many of them during our interview process and learned their backgrounds: bankers, techies, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives, lawyers, doctors, etc. Preschool could very well be where this entire bribery culture starts.

But then I started to think things through because unlike the college admissions bribery scandal, there aren’t any tests to manipulate or rowing coaches to illegally bribe.

Instead, you just basically contact the admissions director and tell them you are willing to donate a large sum of money to the school for expansion or educational purposes and would like to be a part of the community. You must reach out because preschool is ground zero. That, or the school knows who you are and recruits your family.

With a 1.25% acceptance rate at PooPoo, you’d think I wouldn’t know anyone who sent their kids there. But in reality, I know several parents whose kids went there and they are all extremely wealthy. Donating $100,000 – $200,000 for their kid to play with wooden blocks would mean nothing to them. I didn’t bother to ask them for a recommendation because I don’t know these parents well enough nor did I care enough.

Legal bribery in the form of quid-pro-quo donations has always been around and looks like it’ll always be around.

Also, I realized that because wealthy people can more easily afford to have multiple kids in expensive cities like SF, NYC, LA, Boston, and Washington D.C., the elite institutions starting from preschool through college will continue to be geared towards the wealthiest people in America who mostly look the same.

For those who don’t know, younger siblings basically get preferential admission into the preschool, elementary school, middle school, or high school their brothers or sisters attend, so long as they aren’t a screw up or they meet a minimum academic standard. The preferential treatment gets less with each schooling level, but it’s there, even in college.

Legacy admissions is the biggest affirmative action policy of them all.

But I understand the sibling preferential admissions policy because you want to maintain continuity in the family. The school has also built a relationship with the family and it would be extremely awkward to reject a sibling. But such rejections do happen.

However due to the nature of homophily, people of a certain class and race tend to hang out and support each other. We know that all parents want the best for their kids, so I don’t blame these schools for accepting the same types of children year after year.

Don’t Worry About Us

Although we got rejected by two schools, we got accepted by one I’ll call WheeWhee! A 33% hit rate ain’t too shabby.

The school we got accepted to came highly recommended from my wife’s ex-coworker and one of my tennis students at the high school I currently coach at. It was the first school we visited and applied to a year and a half ago.

What’s great about the school is that it’s diverse, not rigid, super friendly, and is only a five minute drive away. The short commute really is a blessing.

Having to drive to the other two schools made me feel like I was driving to work. With WheeWhee, it feels like I’m just going down the hill to my neighborhood grocery story for a bagel.

The tuition at WheeWhee is not cheap at $1,800 a month for five full days a week. But we have the option of going half days each day or three days a week for $1,400 a month. Further, we can go month-to-month if we decide to go on an extended vacation in the future.

The admissions director told us they get on average 200 – 260 applications a year for 12 spots. Only three of the spots are reserved for siblings. An acceptance rate of 3.5% – 4.5% is still quite low.

Our lucky break for getting in was when we started to get to know one of the teachers randomly at the California Academy of Sciences where we take our son three times a week. We started bumping into him at least every week for at least a year. As a result, he felt comfortable recommending us to the admissions director.

We’ve now got a decision to make.

Do we put down a deposit for the spot or give it up so we can remain free to relocate. We aren’t entirely sold on the necessity of putting our son in preschool before three years old since we are both full-time parents. We also might end up in Honolulu and send him to preschool there if the summer works out well.

We’ll probably put down the deposit and ask for a refund if we change our mind. They won’t have trouble filling the spot anyway with over 200 applicants a year. Besides, the school year starts in August, so we’d have at least two months in Hawaii before having to come back.

The preschool application process requires you to be on the ball. Given the amount of demand, any missed deadline will eliminate your chances of getting in.

You’ve got to interview well, write a comprehensive application, and consistently show your interest by attending events and following up. Even if you do everything right, the chance of admission is still low in many big cities.

But don’t worry too much. Every kid will get in somewhere if they apply to enough places. Some spots open up randomly throughout the year as well. It might not be the ideal school, but so long as the children are loved and kept safe, that’s all that really matters.

It’s just preschool after all!

Related:

Navigating The Preschool Admissions Process

Perpetual Failure Is Why I Continue To Save And Invest So Much

Readers, do you think there’s a lot of legal bribing at the “prestigious” preschools in your city? Why do people care so much about where their child goes to preschool so long as they are safe and learning? Is there any more educational research you would like me to do and write about?

The post Perhaps Bribing For Admissions Starts In Preschool appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/perhaps-admissions-bribing-starts-in-preschool/

[wallkickswillwork]

signal jamming

incoherency is comforting because of the narrative weve been fed our whole entire lives that in order to be palatable media must in some way be complete and have beveled, well-defined edges rather than being a mess of finger paints, bright colors, strange dialogues and verbiage, build trees of moods.

thoughts on: -futuristic anime, 90s anime and the unique sense of mood in toonami shows. they are a very good series of shows for people who are coming of age and who must slowly be forced to reckon with the industrialization and mercenary nature of adult life, as it is increasingly held captive by capitalism. there is also something essentially spiritual about it, especially shows like precure and dbz, where an interior or exterior-made-interior force is responsible for the protagonists' success in the face of an oppressive world-system. under capitalism, it frequently is the case that the entire world or entirety-of-world is against us. heroes must overcome overwhelming odds to leave their mark on a gauntlet of greats. -cowboy bebop, final fantasy 7, metroid as meditations on loss, urbanization, dating back to blade runner. this is a type of meditation that is present in much of cyberpunk, but its also not exclusively cyberpunk, and can extend in nature to non-cyberpunk works.

thinking about necrobarista and how its attempting to "resuscitate" anime, while this approach doesnt really examine what contemporary anime like jojos, precure, and slightly more dated anime like hidaske and nichijou do well. if we get all this tunnel vision for gurren lagann and flcl we can never look forward. i think a lot of the visual work that needs to be done is probably in movies. i think maybe there could be work done to marry cinema proper with its animated counterpart. steven universe seems like it gets it, and there are some anime that really seemed like they got it. i dont think were beyond salvation.

-listening to the whos "tommy" and thinking about how trauma and the humanity of that trauma is experienced and lived-through by the main character in socratic fashion. these stories are discussed by people whose actual, authentic experience of trauma irl is doubtful at best. they are great successes on stage who dont struggle in the sense that an actual victim would struggle. calls to mind how a lot of freuds patients would fabricate csa in order to fulfill the expectations of the therapist. but in other cases, actual patients with csa would repress their experiences or not feel comfortable discussing. so thats how i feel about gurus like meher baba or i guess alan watts. less trustworthy and more like scam artists. i do believe in what they teach, however. i think that a guru can teach the truth even if that guru is a liar. maybe its the truth, but the guru doesnt know it to be true, or else, the way the guru teaches it is untrue.

-for a while i imagined my own autism to be the result of childhood trauma that was repressed, but later emerged that those memories were fabricated, to my knowledge, and was left wondering.

-learning to regard the world with a sense of wonder from media like cowboy bebop and ff7. these worlds are jaded and decaying realities but there is a sense of awe at the vast, uncompromising reality. truly vast, sprawling and yawning cities and vast starry skies up above. beholding these things and beholding the starry skies and huge cities of our own planet surely stirs something in me.

-fantasy anime tends to go the joke route like slayers or else the route of "we are all kids, bro, stuck in an mmo" and i think this is mostly due to the admittedly antiquated setting of high fantasy in european trochets and history which to japanese people probably feel like white person set dressing and as they should, i mean. there are more high fantasy themes in something like inuyasha and japans history can be feudal, edo, the meiji restoration, primordial like princess mononoke, etc, so theres more wiggle room for historical works there. slayers et al is usually reduced to "characters moving around the forest" which is almost like this grand slice of the collective anime consciousness as it stands overlapping with, say, pokemon, to the extent where its one of the cliche anime things everyone thinks about, alongside high school, robots, nurses, etc.

-another thing to which we could probably ascribe the success of something like slayers to is wizardry and by proxy dragon quest. small graph paper monster garden games. the appeal is entirely mathematical so there are only a few directions that anime directors tend to run with it (goofy gag comedy if youre making a show or cut and dried authentic dungeon crawlers with moe characters instead of the usual dbz ones). going off what you definitely learn in japanese history class if youre a japanese student, for starters, there are thousands of years of chinese history, so you have romance of 3 kingdoms type stuff. or you have high school romances accounting for the various fire emblems where the appeal becomes game of thronesy "which of my characters in dragon quest land can i make kiss each other and myself", very good ground to cover as we start asking the important questions. theres samurai stuff as we already know, drawing on years of samurai media, kurosawas films and zen spirituality, art of the blade type stuff, jeet kune do in some instances and reaching so far afield as to probably raise some interesting and important questions about pan-asiatic cultural identity which this author (white) is ill-advised to answer. but reeling it back in, the question mostly being of history, and how a lot of fantasy media draws more from History proper as a codified cultural body than histories being individuated familial experiences. its true that when a work does something unique with history (earthbounds hippy dippy approach to the 1960s, undertales handling of furry culture, yume nikkis south american murals) its tended to be seen as that works "thing" as if because hulk hogan was an all american wrestler that precluded john cena from being same, or at least, embodying a similar if slightly modified niche. nobody can make a hippy dippy rpg now or something because itd just be called an earthbound ripoff rather than a loving homage. and i think thats wrong headed and how genres become stillborn rather than invented and developed upon. we have this vast morass of stuff from the 20th century and we could be developing various 60s, 70s, 80s fantasies. hindsight is 20/20 i guess. who knows, we could see bluff city become something in 50 years time.

i feel this is because of extreme stringent expectations of intellectual property laws and their dissemination into everyday discourse online. i dont really like or agree with monolithic cultural expectations like intellectual property or *shudder* advertising, but only to the extent where i can acknowledge that whether or not i agree with them is irrelevant to their all-consuming scope and the need for marxists to actively combat them. its one thing to say "x is bad" and another to clamor for urgency of fighting x, which is, if you believe what we read every day about global warming, too late, so its not important. nevertheless there are a multiplicity of settings that could be developed into genres and identities and ideologues that rarely are if only because it would be seen as "oh yeah like that other thing". people are fickle and develop dwarflike strange moods when it comes to defining what constitutes original versus hackneyed and derivative. i think its mostly dictated by star signs and the weather.

so lately if you follow me on twitter youve probably noticed im doing sort of a tweet concrete kind of thing where i post plaintext quotes from various media taken out of context. i decided to do this for a while, maybe a few weeks, because aesthetic blogs and the aesthetic style of blogging allow me to pool and channel my energies towards larger and more ambitious styles of writing. i usually get loaded on caffeine during this process and frequently watch large amounts of anime and meditate some. its definitely a process and its geared toward something hazily, vaguely spiritual but with pretentions toward being authentically publishable as theory. the idea also being i would like to make some money to support my livelihood, and i like to write, and am somewhat skilled at it, or at least experienced in kind of a ramshackle homespun sort of way. so if my social media presence is pretty boring and kind of weirdly nostalgic or else contrariwise if you feel it has improved lately thats the reason why that happened.

ive been getting very hazy and foggy mentally lately. i feel like it has to do with caffeination and lack of sleep. its important to get everything flowing properly, and sometimes depression and anxiety make that difficult to do. theres anxiety over unemployment, something im trying to remedy, and theres anxiety over theory and where to proceed next via theory. for years i was a devout buddhist in some ways, and meditated a lot, almost every day. i prayed to the bodhisattvas and copped to buddhist metaphysics, something which, based around personal life experience, i had every reason to believe was true. lately and in my own, strange way, ive begun to question this ideology and interpret it as part of a patchwork of ideologies, each one which attempts to describe a totality, a totality which is rarely if ever described properly by any ideology. grasping at straws in a structural sense, and feeling nonplussed but with no ground to run to, and im back on the boss level in super mario 64 where bowser smashes the ground to make it fall away. attempts at restructuring as this dissolution transpires only serve to create new protocols equal in scope to pre-existing paradigms. and there are plenty of people who dont struggle this much with religion and probably still go to heaven, or think theyre going to heaven, or something. hows marge and the kids. did jerry get that new promotion. mom just got back from vacation in cancun. smalltalk style concerns arising in every day transitionary speech feel distinct and very distant from these kind of hazy, pie in the sky questions. plato never wrote about the kind of stuff you see in a cheers episode. there are philosophy books that try to merge the two, but they usually get shelved in the comedy section.

so its mostly a matter of trying to absorb and contain new information, which abides in abundance, and trying to corral it into sort of a pointing arrow to direct me where to go, in my hewing, a feat not easily done. probably the endgame is in the crafting and solution of art, but what kind of art, and whether i have the tools at my disposal to even create it, is less easily answered. so for now, i guess, im absorbing, waiting, asking questions, and who knows, and who can say.

earliest memories of religion are of the greco roman religion and not knowing about the mystery religious rites but knowing about an abstract concept of wisdom and the ocean and extrapolating the existence of athena and poseidon in that way. later i have memories of exposure to christianity and buddhism and bahai but none of these things feel particularly useful to me at this time in my life. i can more readily receive a picture, a kind of enlarged image, of a broad religious landscape and some of the questions it attempts to provide answers for, or at least, a way of thinking about. the greco roman religion, for instance, is a presentation of a deleuzian multiplicity, and the monotheistic religions are a monad, but i also dont think either of these things can say the other is inherently undesireable. tolerance seems to be the best method, but also, and likewise, not dwelling specifically in any of them. acknowledging they all exist, but not being any of them. enjoying in surfeit the tension between multiplicity and monad. that there can be many things and one thing. like the album cover of dark side of the moon.

[katrinatravelsthroughasia]

Final Integrative Essay

 At First, K-pop; At Last, Japan:

My Journey of Changed Assumptions with Asian Conversations

I have been looking to Asia since I first stumbled upon K-pop in 6th grade. My interest in the popular culture of Korea quickly grew into a fascination with the language, cuisine, and history of a country that is not my own. While traveling during Interim to China, Japan, and South Korea, I was forced to perform a distinct identity, partly due to my physicality and partly due to my citizenship, and contributed to the “worlding” of whatever culture people viewed me as having. I also experienced the shifting of the visions I had of “Asia,” specifically Japan, before going. In juxtaposition with everything I knew about Asia, especially Korea, my developed concept of Japan was challenged when I actually visited. In this essay I will explore the themes of what imagined community I had in mind for Japan, the preconceived images that have been transformed, and how the linguistic landscape shaped my understanding of Japan, as well as how these have affected my identity as an “Asian Studies” student, all through the trip with Asian Con.

My initial interest in K-pop developed into a committed involvement with the Korean Culture Association on campus. In fact, I am still independently studying the Korean language in my free time, due to many years of interest and involvement. As for the rest of Asia, I dipped my toes into the world of anime a few years after discovering Korea but didn’t really acquire a desire for Japanese culture until I (somewhat randomly) decided to learn the language at the beginning of my time at St. Olaf. Only after visiting China through Asian Con can I now say that I also have a serious interest in learning more about China. My curiosity of Asia has grown slowly yet steadily over the past eight years. However, since 6th grade, I have only imagined Asia through the entertainment media available to me in Minnesota.

After finally getting the opportunity to visit these countries for myself, I realized that television and reality are indeed different. I had the image of an “imagined community” floating around my head about what life in Japan looked like before visiting, and they mostly resulted from comparison with what I understood about the other locations I would travel to during Interim; first Beijing and Shanghai, and later the familiar Seoul. I expected Japan to be much different from both China and Korea. Flying from Shanghai, I expected Japan to be cleaner and quieter, but to what degree I was unsure. Upon returning home, I realized how many similarities could be found between the three, contrary to what I had assumed might be in this “imagined community.” Indeed, people around the world enjoy good food in very similar ways, or interact with social media the same way. I had quite the thorough understanding of Korean culture for an American, so my prior text was significantly more in play there than the lack of prior text with which I went to the other two countries, especially China.

I had a general idea of the overall vibe of Japan and the difference between areas of the city, but I didn’t have many expectations as to how interactions would happen in those spaces. Benedict Anderson defines an “imagined community” as the abstract ideas we have about a certain society and location before experiencing it. “So often in the “nation-building” politics of the new states one sees both a genuine, popular nationalist enthusiasm, and a systematic, even Machiavellian, instilling of nationalist ideology throughout the mass media, the educational system, administrative regulations, and so forth” (Anderson 163).  We have been taught believe certain things to be true, often through media and education, and therefore act accordingly. As an American, I am living with thousands of other people who are supposed to be on my “team,” even though I only know a miniscule fraction of them. This idea of community is conceptualized through concepts like “geo-bodies” and “prior text”—we have a long background of being told that a map or a flag represents “us,” and that we must respect that symbol of our existence. I have somehow learned about “Japanese culture” over the years; things like Pokémon and J-pop, and I already had an affection for sushi and soba, so I did not go there completely clueless, but I did not have a strong “prior text” beyond these basic, “exterior” things. It was perhaps the slight lack of knowledge that caused me to be more open. But my understanding of the Japanese people and how they behave was greatly lacking, because I only had the images shown to me in the media to rely on. Perhaps shockingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, I found the Japanese people to be quite similar to every other person I’ve interacted with in this world. There is indeed a lack of geisha and samurai, and an abundance of very normal office workers.

Benedict Anderson’s idea of a preconceived notion of a society, labeled with the term “imagined community,” describes a phenomenon of interpreting things differently from how they really are. Karen Strassler introduces the idea of “refracted visions” in her book of the same name. According to Strassler, a refracted vision is when the meaning changes depending upon who is viewing the photograph (in Strassler’s case) or otherwise, or what kind of impressions it gives off. She argues that “images become increasingly central to the ways individuals and collectivities imagine and recognize themselves” (3). But these views are not always reflective of the actuality. Pictures, or whatever we view, often don’t show the truth of the thing. This is caused by our own bias, the photographer’s bias, and preexisting ideas that interfere with what could be gleaned from the image. Personally, I was raised and educated with the idea that Asia is very far away and very different from Minnesota. The former has been made somewhat false with modern transportation, and the truth of the latter is debatable, as I have learned through Asian Con.

My experiences in Asian Con are the strongest basis for how and why I now better understand the concept of “Asia,” and Japan in particular. When I was young I saw the strong sumo wrestlers, the cherry blossoms, or the electric streets in pictures and videos of Japan and gleaned that they are perhaps an idealized version of “Japan,” but I now know that they are only a part of a much more complex history and culture. I would argue that a visit to the location in question is absolutely required to fully understand why and how things are shown that way to “outsiders,” and I was hoping my own images would be altered by doing so. Indeed, I changed my own very basic, media-based visions of Japan by traveling to see it for myself so I could attempt to absorb the culture in a non-biased way. Part of this entailed traveling outside of the center of Tokyo, which was done by visits to Nikko and Kyoto, and by traveling to areas not on the “top 10” of every travel book in existence.

A random trip to the somewhat empty town of Koganei was decided last minute when we had only a small amount of time to spare after one of our required interview assignments one day. We took the train just two stops away from International Christian University and wandered in hopes of finding magnificent movie maker Miyazaki’s art studio or the building he used as inspiration for the bath house in Spirited Away. We did not find either. However, we experienced a magical little neighborhood with a brown-grass park and the most delicious ramen I have had in my entire life. This location revolutionized the image I had of Japan. Unlike a place like Shibuya or Akihabara, Koganei felt more like my hometown.  This made me think that perhaps Japan isn’t so very different and that it’s not just a nation of mouthwatering sushi and extraordinary cosplay. In fact, there are dads who cannot get kites to fly, couples who fight, and children who loudly do not want to go to the potty all over the world. My vision was refracted, was changed by my numerous experiences, and I began to see the geo-body of “Japan” in a completely different light.

The “linguistic landscape” of a place is another aspect that changed how I experienced Japan. This concept constitutes any visible written word of a location which can then be characteristically analyzed. My language is perhaps my greatest connection to the country, so it only makes sense that I would be highly interested in the things I saw written everywhere. It was fascinating to find Japanese in all of the little places and work it out like a puzzle; the kanji of the “caution, slippery when wet” sticker in the shower of my dorm room, things written only in katakana on the back of fashionable jackets, and so on. This is what Peter Backhaus calls the linguistic landscape. He mentions that “one frequently comes across apparently English expressions that only make sense when read as Japanese” (Backhaus 120). Reading things in their original context with original intentions still intact has a huge impact on the way something is interpreted. For me, I was given an insight into the Japanese way of thinking because I knew the language. At this point of the trip I realized how much more Japanese I want and need to learn to be as skilled as I want to be, which motivated my learning during second semester. At the same time, I was extremely pleased to discover that I am capable of communicating in a foreign language and can engage with people who might not speak English. It was addicting to use my language skills, which is one of the reasons why I was so eager to find a way to return to Japan very soon.

When I think about traveling back to Japan this summer for my internship, I am very glad I made the effort to make it happen, and that I enrolled in Asian Con in the first place. Without the language basis and cultural background, I do not know how comfortable or passionate I would be to return. I am already searching for a subsequent opportunity to visit, even though I have not yet started the first one. After all of the readings and learning I have done in Asian Con, I can now say that I have a changed and improved understanding of Asia, and that it is not based upon media nearly as much as it used to be. I do not think I could be a qualified Asian Studies student without the experiences that Asian Con has given me. Thanks to this program, I was able to examine the imagined community I had for Japan and transform my image of a place through visits to “normal” locations, all with the help of a language-based understanding of the linguistic landscape. 

I second the motion to rename it Greatest Con, because I have grown in so many ways because of it.

Works Cited

Anderson, Benedict. "Census, Map, Mueseum." Imagined Communities. 3rd ed. London: Verso, 2006. 163-85. Print.

Backhaus, Peter. "Case Study: Signs of Multilingualism in Tokyo." Lingistic Landscape. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2007. 64-140. Print.

Bardsley, Jan, and Laura Miller. "Behavior That Offends." Manners and Mischief Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan. Berkeley: U of California, 2011. N. pag. Print.

Strassler, Karen. Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. Print.

[hentaihunblog-blog]

IDOLiSH7 Episode 1 & 2 [First Impression]

New Post has been published on https://hentaihun.com/blog/2018/01/06/idolish7-episode-1-2-first-impression/

IDOLiSH7 Episode 1 & 2 [First Impression]

First Impression

I am so glad this didn’t air in the fall because I would’ve had to choose between Idolm@ster SideM and this. Back in November IDOLiSH7 had a pre-screening event with back-to-back episode 01 & 02. The 45 minutes special enabled IDOLiSH7 to have an excellent and impactful premiere. If anything, the first two episodes showed us there is a whole lot to look forward to this series, and is brimming with great potential. The pacing and execution of the character introductions were incredibly well done. We were able to learn a lot about them just through the group’s dynamics and the way they interact with each other. The group is filled with a variety of personalities and age, and they were very entertaining to watch.

I am especially excited for the future when we finally start diving into the character’s backstories and motives. I have to give a lot of credit to how they dropped the bomb of Yamato willing to quit on the behalf of the others because he said only doing this for revenge. That caught me completely off-guard, but boy did it reel me in like a fish on the line. I am now super excited to finding out who he wants revenge on, and why! It will also be interesting how he will handle his role as leader (being the eldest member of the group) with such drive in mind.

Among the other characters that stood out to me, -well to be fair they all did thanks to their individual charms, but i digress, was Riku, who caught my attention with how short of breath he was while playing basketball.

The first thing that crossed my mind is perhaps this kid has a health issue of a sort, and that may be one of the main reasons why despite his incredible vocals, he hasn’t been picked up yet. He mentioned of a brother, so I can’t tell if he too is an idol (perhaps the idol who vanished at their prime, Zero) or maybe he’s dead- yes I have the tendency to have an extreme way of interpreting things. I also had a moment where I considered he and Ten being brothers, but seeing the two have different last names, I have my doubts.

Iori was another one of the few I quickly became interested in. His tsundere and ruthlessly blunt nature greatly amuses me, especially when he interacts with Riku. I imagine these two will be butting heads more often than not. I was quite surprised though how he and Mitsuki are in fact brothers, which adds an interesting dynamic of its own. Mitsuki’s situation of having attended multiple auditions in the past, but failed them all until now is quite a big deal. But what’s an even bigger deal in my mind it appears he is regarded in his evaluation as the weakest link of the bunch. We heard he is not particularly good at singing or dancing, but works hard to keep up with the others. This is quite a big contrast when we heard Iori’s review, who is despite only being in high school, is said to be good at singing and dancing. Although the Izumi brothers seem close right now, it wouldn’t surprise me in the future if we see a temporary rift form between them when Mitsuki feels like he is lagging behind.

Despite his calm and kind demeanour, Sogo immediately stood out to me as a soft character. Or at least I hope it is as soft as he appears, that pastel purple does him wonders. He as Tsumugi said is likely to serve as the most grounded member of the group. He is quite rational and steps in when he hears others stepping out of line. He is also quite mature, so I suspect he and Yamato are close in age.

Although the boys had their first performance today, they won’t be debuting anytime soon. First they must gain popularity by having mini concerts and public appearances, because putting together an album is quite costly, and Takanashi Productions is not a wealthy agency.

Then we have our newest addition to Takanashi Productions, our dear Manager, Takanashi Tsumugi, daughter of the president himself. It pleased me to no ends to know she is a mature character and not a teenager or student. She was immediately assigned to be the boys new manager, and what better way to start off your first day of work than being played by the president to cut four of the seven boys from the lineup. I absolutely adore her. She was like, bitch please, “Seven Samurai are cooler than three little pigs”. This girl is fantastic! However her enthusiasm got the better of her when she made an ambitious decision for the boys first promotional concert (one of several they will be doing prior to debut) at an outdoor stadium that holds 3000 people. I knew right off the bat that a stadium that large was going to be very difficult to fill up for a brand new group coming out of nowhere like IDOLiSH7. Furthermore while the website and how many flyers (which the boys helped hand out) were distributed looked promising on the surface, they weren’t able to advertise enough, nor even prep tickets in advance, leaving its distribution for the day of the performance. The president told Tsumugi her efforts were too quiet, and to survive this business she must be louder in order for the crowd to hear them. Better yet, Tsumugi took full responsibility of her errors and I look forward to seeing her grow as a manager in the future, especially since Trigger has indicated it will be an uphill battle where they will not only have to endure the climb, but dodge the attacks of those who try to squash them.

Luckily for her, the boys were realistic about how many people were going to show up and set the bar on the floor. They are thankful for the effort she had put into preparing for this performance and appreciate the nine people who showed up to their performance. Instead they have an excellent outlook of the next time they perform there, they hope to be at a point they could fill up the stadium.

It was quickly established how TRIGGER was going to be their rival group. The trio unit came out hot, soaring their way to winning New Idol of the Year in last year’s JIMA (Japan Idol Music Awards) within their first year of debut. However their public faces are most certain different when they are off-stage. In fact the trio seems to be a bit rough in terms of tension amongst each other (with perhaps the exception of Ryu who seems to be the softy of the group). But most importantly, they know it won’t be long before their president attempt to crush them before they can flourish. It looks like they aren’t too happy knowing the way he handle things, especially when they recognize their talent/potential. When that fight starts, man I bet it’s going to get ugly.

As for the animation quality, it’s looking great. Despite their razor sharp chins, the boys’ character designs are all super hot. Their performance animation however is something I am curious to see how it will improve in the future. There is a mix of the traditional 2D animation with the CGI, which I will admit blended in quite well. However the thing that stood out to me the most about the CGI animation was how stiff their dancing looked. Although it would be quite a creative approach to make it intentional as in to highlight how the boys will grow over the course of the series, but I have my doubts they were doing such thing. On the bright side, their voices are good!

Overall this show I feel like this will be a very promising show. With seventeen episodes to work with, a strange number nonetheless to go with, hopefully they will be able to deliver an amazing story. We have a unique set of characters and hell of a journey ahead of them!

Possibility of Blogging: Guaranteed! What better way to start of the Winter 2018 Season than picking up yet another Idol show?

Share this:

Like this:

Like Loading…

[613526362]

Three Days, Three Cars on Fire

"They do this kind of a ring toss, where one girl throws rings and the other catches it in her ass. The things they stick in themselves, you wouldn't believe." Redacted It was getting to be my favorite time of night, the time when the people who get in my care are slightly less......inhibited, in what they say. Some passengers I could convince I was "one of them," especially the 20's early 30's guys. And I would typically work them over pretty good, see what fun I could conjure up in my car. With girls it was always different, especially if they were alone. Sometimes I wouldn't talk to them at all if they seemed disinterested. But if it was a dude, well, I was a dude. "Once a year, six of us rent out this place called the Burrow near [redacted] - which is a perfect name for it, considering it's completely underground - and we get like six or seven strippers. You wouldn't believe the things they do." He also educated me on the best strip clubs to go to, and which gym the strippers all go to. As we drove past it, I was a bit surprised he exercised and probably shouldn't have asked but did - "So you go there and meet them when you're working out?" "Oh no, I'm just making conversation at the clubs, and I'm always like, "You look really toned. Do you work out? And they tell me they come to [redacted]." As we talked I imagined myself working out there, seeing beautiful women and talking to them, telling them I'm a third year medical student. They would flirt with me, not thinking that I knew their secret stripper lives. I would ask them out. On the second date, or third, they would struggle to reveal to me that they strip. I would act a bit surprised. But I would be accepting. It would be something that, was, well, something that we would work through. Redacted "Brokamina?" "Yep, I've been to Brokamina twice, but on my last trip, I got a chance to go east to Bacheau too, over near Genide." I was impressed, but I should have expected that from a top New York TImes reporter. Oh wait, I guess I didn't know he wrote for the Times yet. I'm jumping ahead in the story. "So what language did you use there?" Another cunning question. I didn't even second guess whether he knew that English was not one of the languages spoken in Cado, and that French and Arabic predominated. "I was very lucky when I was in college, and I got the opportunity to study under the professors who wrote the Arabic textbook used by the entire English-speaking world. My french, on the other hand, was very rudimentary, and has since completely dissipated." As I chatted back and forth with the only individual I'd ever met who actually knew the capitol city of the African country I specialize in, I wondered about the pair. Based on the furniture they were discussing before I got pulled into things, I expected she was Afghani, and that would corroborate their discussions of her struggle to achieve asylum. I sensed that his interest was two-fold though. But did she? I was dropping them off at the same apartment, so maybe there was more than I knew. But he didn't seem to know enough about her to indicate they were actually together. He must have been early sixties. She couldn't have been much above 50. After I dropped them off, I got back on Tinder and Bumble. Tinder clearly has gone straight to hell. Bumble has ungodly amounts of beautiful and intelligent women, some of whom I would literally (literally) amputate a toe to have two dates with (but probably not one....she could slip away after just one). The ones who like me back have had unfortunate poundage though. Oh well. On Tinder (remember, hell), I've only had one match. I almost didn't message her at all. She looks kind of like Pandemos - both Hispanic. But she is god awful beautiful. 19 though. Oh god, 19. I would probably throw a clot when my penis even rubbed up against the lips of her vagina...........I don't know if I could actually push it in. Redacted The samurai and the princess were interesting. Not thrilling, but interesting. They ignored me completely, which is fine of course. Granted, when people do that, sometimes I but in. Like the three rich white bitches discussing all the wedding dresses they had just shopped for in downtown Big City when they just dropped into an utter silence after the question was raised, "Which one, well, did you really love?" I couldn't help myself. The two old hens were thinking so hard, I couldn't. I just couldn't. "Ma'am, I think the second dress is the right choice." Despite our class differences and the fact that they were probably a bit disdainful abotu sitting in a Corolla, they did laugh. "Oh! But that was the most expensive one!" Knowing what was in all of their minds, I brought it out for us to all admit - "Yes ma'am, and that's why it's the best." I was actually hoping I didn't get a call to comic con though. I didn't want to fuck with those people. And honestly, the samurai was probably a douchebag. He was trying to use words like "cosmic energy" and "echelon" and "force" as if becoming 12 again was something that would really impress the surprisingly attractive 30 year old princess..... And on a superficial level he was actually succeeding. I think it was due to a reason that wasn't revealed until later in the ride though... "I didn't know you were a lawyer until Pam said so!?" He changed the subject quickly, for some reason. When I went to drop them off, I looked inside the conference center and saw lots of picture taking and posing. It looked boring in a weird, unrealistic kind of way. When everyone is a superhero, it just, seems so ordinary. The samurai snapped my attention back to the fact that the ride wasn't quite over yet. "It won't open. You have the child locks on." What the fuck. What? I toggled a few switches by my left arm, which I thought were only switches for child locks on the windows. How the fuck could this be? He kept trying, and the lever was just limp. Nothing happen when he pulled. "Um.....that's weird. This has never happened before. I guess...." By that time they were already shifting to the other side to get out the other door. After they left I spent a few minutes in awe before I just asked google. Apparently when he stuffed himself in the frame of the door and scraped up against every piece of pain, plastic, and fabric between the outside world and a reasonable sitting position in my back seat, he also managed to hit a small and little known lever on the interal aspect of the door. A child lock. Fucking samurai couldn't even ride a taxi without locking himself in the car. Redacted I didn't know if I would make it. Three days ago I have 43 rides to do. And with hell week coming up - flying to [redacted] to testify on a murder case, ER shifts, final exams - it was now or never to get my first 100 rides with Lyft and earn the $500 bonus. Each day was marked by a burning car. The first day, as I grew increasingly racist, I sat in a car in the middle of a small economically devastated town on the border of [redacted state] and [redacted state] with a black kid. He rocked his dreadlocks back and forth as I turned up the Kendrick Lamar. I'd taken him to Wendy's and back home since he accidentally brought his manager's keys home. He said his mom was a Lyft driver. He said Kendrick's new album had been taken off Youtube, so he couldn't even listen to the damn thing anymore. Well hear it is young man, I ended your ride so you're not paying anymore. Let's have a listen. I didn't exactly want to be in [redacted state]. It was cool that I could see the skyscrapers of the Big City 30 miles south of there, but I would have been okay not knowing that. Nor did I want to be down south the next night, seeing the SWAT team out and about as I drove a super-toasted black woman from a house party to BittyBurgers so she could get her crave on. Of course she chatted and hugged the counter boy as I waited in the car and gave my Man on Fire stare to hustlers in the parking lot. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I thought. I was going to cancel the ride and run, but then I turned around. Yep, she left a bag in the car. Smart bitch. I've never seen myself as *very* racist, even if I know that all white people are a bit racist. But god, this shit made me fucking racist. Although I'd been avoiding it more and more, yesterday was the last straw. I was in Harian at 1am, thinking I would definitely only get college student rides around there. Nope, I got pulled six blocks southwest to the ghetto. It was a mom who wanted me to drive her, a three year old, and a six month old 30 minutes Southwest - deeper into the ghetto. Neither of the children were properly secured as per [redacted state] state law. If we had gotten pulled over, I would have lost my license. If we had gotten in a wreck, the children might have died. I've seen when that happens. You see, The Big City is segregated. Very segregated. And today, when I only needed 8 rides to finish, I told myself, "I'm not even turning on Fucking Lyft until I get north of the 66." And that's what I did. And it was swell. And I'm racist. Redacted My whole life I've always wanted to meet motivated, driven, outgoing, open-minded young people. People who are positive, and aren't afraid to reach out. People who are dedicated, even if they don't know exactly what to. There aren't many. Bree got in and..... I'm a bit tired of writing. Let's just say there was one more rider. One more ride. That I want to tell about. But I think I'll see her again. So, I'll leave the story. For another time.

[samuelfields]

Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income: $40,000 In Manhattan

There are some people who think that only people with high incomes can achieve financial independence before the age of 65. They’ll go on and on about how it’s not fair that other people are able to escape the rat race early, while they’ve got to grind on because they’re earning less than six figures a year.

News flash! Nothing good comes easy! You’re either going to bitch and moan about why life is not fair or you’re going to do something to better your situation. In a world where you can only depend on yourself for retirement, having a weak money mindset is devastating for your financial future.

Let me share with you a story about some dude who was able to save for retirement while earning $40,000 a year in Manhattan, New York, the most expensive place in America. It can be done folks, and I’ve got the budget to prove it.

Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income

Imagine being 22 years old and finally landing your first job in finance. You thought you were going to be rich working at a prestigious investment bank, but nope! They send you an offer letter in the mail for $40,000 a year.

What the heck? $40,000 in Manhattan is like earning $16,500 in Austin, Texas. Here are the cost of living salary equivalents for other major cities in America:

$26,330 – Washington DC Area

$31,893 – San Francisco

$25,554 – Seattle

$24,255 – San Diego, CA

$24,349 – Los Angeles, CA

$20,394 – Chicago, IL

$19,100 – Miami, Florida

$18,766 – Philadelphia, PA

$16,100 – Houston, TX

$16,600 – Phoenix, Arizona

$40,000 is a fine salary, but you’re not exactly living it up when it costs around $1,000 to rent a room and $6 to get a watered down beer at a bar.

When I was making $40,000 a year, a regular day would start at 5:30am and end at 7:30pm. I’d then have to work another 5-8 hours on the weekend. When you add up all the hours a week, a $40,000 a year salary equated to earning only about $10/hour.

Because I realized after two weeks on the job I couldn’t last working such long hours for decades, I logically decided to save as much money as possible to give my future self options.

$40,000 Salary Budget Breakdown

Below is my detailed budget breakdown when I was earning $40,000 a year living in Manhattan. Take a look and I’ll explain more below.

Saving For Retirement

Back In 1999-2000, the maximum you could contribute to your 401(k) was $10,500 a year. After a month of working, I got educated about the importance of retirement savings so I elected to deduct 30% from each paycheck to go to my 401(k). Once the maximum was hit, the contribution stopped.

By taking money off the top first, it was easier to adjust to a $28,000 gross salary. It also felt good that I didn’t have to pay a 28% federal tax rate on the $10,500 either.

With $10,500 a year in pre-tax savings and another ~$2,200 a year left in after-tax savings, I was saving a blended ~31% of my gross income.

The retirement savings mistake I made back then was not also contributing $2,000 a year to an IRA. However, I did end up using all my after-tax cash flow to invest in stocks, one of which did very well.

Was I financially independent while making $40,000? Heck no! But I did the math and knew that if I kept on saving at least $12,000 a year for the next 10 years, by the time I turned 32, I should have at least $150,000 with a 7% compound rate of return.

Housing Costs ($920/month)

While many of my fellow financial analysts decided to rent a one bedroom for $2,100+/month (with the help of their parents) or split a two bedroom for $1,300/month each in a nice part of Manhattan, I decided to split a studio with my high school buddy down in the dead zone.

Our studio was at 45 Wall Street, a 10 minute walk to 1 New York Plaza where I had to get in by 5:30am every morning. The traders and sales-traders would arrive by 6:30am, so I had to prepare as much printed research material about what went on overnight by the time they got in. Oh, how I remember the stress fixing photocopy machines!

By living close by to work, I not only was able to save time, but transportation money as well. I sometimes fantasized by taking a nap back home during my lunch break, but that never happened.

Even during the depths of winter, our utility cost never got much higher than $40. When you’re living in a small space, it’s so much cheaper to heat. Besides, we were hardly ever home.

We didn’t have time to watch cable TV. There was no such thing as wifi or streaming services back then as well. All I did was come home to a mattress on the ground and pass out.

Related: Housing Expense Guideline For Financial Independence

Food & Drinks ($300/month)

A great way to incentivize worker bees is to offer free cafeteria access once you work past a certain hour. Because I didn’t have a lot of leftover cash flow, I would always stay until 7:30pm and gorge myself with whatever was on the menu that day at 85 Broad Street.

After filling myself up, I’d “steal” some fruits and mini cereal boxes to feed myself free breakfast the next day. There was always random free food in the office I could eat. It was part of the culture that if an employee closed a deal or got a big trade to buy lunch for their team or the floor.

Despite the ubiquitous free food that got me fat, I still had a ~$300/month food and beverage bill because I’d occasionally go out with colleagues. When you go out with friends and colleagues, it’s customary to buy at least a round of drinks. I didn’t want to be seen as a cheapskate, even though I had a thin financial cushion.

Vacation & Entertainment ($600/year)

Given I was working so much, I didn’t take any vacations my first year because there was so much to do and learn. If I got an entire weekend off, that counted as my vacation. Only after the second year did I fly back to Hawaii to see family.

During my weekends off, I’d go watch a movie in the theatre, go out for dinner, catch an occasional cheap ticket play, or go to some free event in Central Park.

My firm did have the occasional analyst appreciation outing where they’d take us to watch the Yankees or take us to some restaurant close by. But there was never anything fancy or special.

A Simple Life Was Just Fine

Even though my budget looks pretty boring and maybe even a little sad, I was simply too busy at work to spend money on anything else. To pay up for a nice apartment felt stupid because I was hardly there. To go clubbing or get bottle service at a fancy lounge with my fellow analysts would only limit my options in the future.

Yes, I wanted to go to the Hamptons during the summer and go on European vacations like my colleagues. But I wanted to reach at least a 50% savings rate before I partook in such festivities. I had my whole life ahead of me to enjoy. There was no rush. Besides, may of my classmates had family money.

Yes, $40,000 back in 2000 went further than $40,000 does today. If you want to adjust the numbers into today’s dollars, you can increase the salary and all other city salary equivalents by about 30%.

But I argue that earning $52,000 in Manhattan is still quite lean. You’d probably have to move to one of the outer boroughs to save money for retirement. However, when you have to get in at 5:30am, spending an extra 30+ minutes commuting could be unbearable.

I knew that the rough times wouldn’t last forever because there was upward mobility. If I could just survive in the industry for 10 years, I would make more because the normal trajectory in finance and in most occupations is for people to get promoted over time. So long as I could stay frugal while I made more, financial independence was an inevitability.

There is no sacrifice when the reward is 1,000X.

Related: How Much Do You Need To Save To Retire Early

Advice For Modest Income Earners Wanting FIRE

1) Live in a crap box. Be honest. If you have an entire room to yourself, you are living large. In US colleges, most students have dorm mates. In China, each college dorm room has bunk beds for 4 to 8 people. If you are a family of three living in a two bedroom apartment or larger with more than one bathroom, life is pretty comfortable. There is no reason why you shouldn’t continue living like a college student until you can save at least 30% of your income, if not 50% of your income.

2) Work so much you don’t have time to spend money. Your 20s are for learning, your 30s and older are for earning. There is so much to soak in that if you’re working 40 hours a week or less before the age of 40, you’re leaving a lot on the table. People everywhere around the world are outworking you because they are hungry to improve their quality of life. Don’t believe me? Go to any major city in a developing country and witness their work hours for yourself. Taiwan is already a developed country, and only in 2016 did they put into law to limit work days from six days a week (48 hours) to five days a week.

3) Don’t confuse yourself with someone else. This is a common phenomenon I don’t get. If you only work 40 hours a week, how can you compare your salary to someone working 60 hours a week? If you are 30 years old, how can you compare your net worth to someone who is 45 years old? If you work at a nonprofit, why are you comparing your income to someone working in the private sector? If you dropped out of college, it’s not rational to compare yourself to someone with a graduate degree. If you aren’t a regular Financial Samurai reader, how can you compare yourself to those who have been reading FS since 2009? If you must compare, then compare yourself to people with similar backgrounds. If you want to aspire, eliminate the jealousy and learn from others who are doing things differently.

4) Max out all pre-tax retirement accounts. You will adjust to your lower gross income because you will find a way to make things work. We get in trouble when we decide our lifestyle expenses first, and then figure out how much we can save after. If you max out your 401(k), then you’ll always know that you’re building at least that much for your retirement. In 10 years, I promise you will be happy you did.

5) Ask yourself what’s wrong with making more. Unless you are a terrible employee with low self-esteem and a disability, your earnings trajectory should be up and to the right along with inflation. You don’t expect the stock market or the real estate market to stay the same price forever do you? Neither should you expect your salary to stay stagnant with more experience and expertise.

If you can’t make more from your job, find another job. If you can’t make more by finding another job, freelance after work. If you can’t make more money freelancing after work, start your own online business. If you can’t start your own online business, be a rideshare driver. If you can’t be a rideshare driver, be a Tasker. If you can’t be a Tasker, go to Upwork or Craigslist. If you get shut out at the thousands of online gig jobs you can do, find a wealthy partner or tell him or her to get hustling!

Saving for retirement and achieving financial freedom is tougher with a lower salary no doubt. But the good thing about having a low salary is that you have more upside! This is where having an abundance mindset really helps.

If you can control lifestyle inflation, you’ll do just fine. It’s those who keep spending at the pace of their income increase that get in so much trouble.

Instead of complaining about higher income folks achieving financial independence sooner than you, expend your energy trying to improve your own situation.

Related:

Sweet Dreams Of Being A Millionaire Once Again – When people say you are lucky, prove them wrong by doing it again.

Maybe It’s Your Fault Why The Wealth Gap Continues To Widen – Some wonderful feedback from folks since 2009 who said my 1/10th rule for car buying is ridiculous.

Readers, if you have a modest income, what are some of your strategies for achieving financial independence sooner, rather than later? What are some of the reasons why people who want more wealth don’t do everything possible to get it? What are some limiting beliefs about yourself that you’re trying to overcome? Salute to our Veterans today. Thank you. 

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Achieving-financial-freedom-on-a-modest-income.m4a

The post Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income: $40,000 In Manhattan appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/achieving-financial-independence-on-a-modest-income/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ronaldmrashid]

Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income: $40,000 In Manhattan

There are some people who think that only people with high incomes can achieve financial independence before the age of 65. They’ll go on and on about how it’s not fair that other people are able to escape the rat race early, while they’ve got to grind on because they’re earning less than six figures a year.

News flash! Nothing good comes easy! You’re either going to bitch and moan about why life is not fair or you’re going to do something to better your situation. In a world where you can only depend on yourself for retirement, having a weak money mindset is devastating for your financial future.

Let me share with you a story about some dude who was able to save for retirement while earning $40,000 a year in Manhattan, New York, the most expensive place in America. It can be done folks, and I’ve got the budget to prove it.

Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income

Imagine being 22 years old and finally landing your first job in finance. You thought you were going to be rich working at a prestigious investment bank, but nope! They send you an offer letter in the mail for $40,000 a year.

What the heck? $40,000 in Manhattan is like earning $16,500 in Austin, Texas. Here are the cost of living salary equivalents for other major cities in America:

$26,330 – Washington DC Area

$31,893 – San Francisco

$25,554 – Seattle

$24,255 – San Diego, CA

$24,349 – Los Angeles, CA

$20,394 – Chicago, IL

$19,100 – Miami, Florida

$18,766 – Philadelphia, PA

$16,100 – Houston, TX

$16,600 – Phoenix, Arizona

$40,000 is a fine salary, but you’re not exactly living it up when it costs around $1,000 to rent a room and $6 to get a watered down beer at a bar.

When I was making $40,000 a year, a regular day would start at 5:30am and end at 7:30pm. I’d then have to work another 5-8 hours on the weekend. When you add up all the hours a week, a $40,000 a year salary equated to earning only about $10/hour.

Because I realized after two weeks on the job I couldn’t last working such long hours for decades, I logically decided to save as much money as possible to give my future self options.

$40,000 Salary Budget Breakdown

Below is my detailed budget breakdown when I was earning $40,000 a year living in Manhattan. Take a look and I’ll explain more below.

Saving For Retirement

Back In 1999-2000, the maximum you could contribute to your 401(k) was $10,500 a year. After a month of working, I got educated about the importance of retirement savings so I elected to deduct 30% from each paycheck to go to my 401(k). Once the maximum was hit, the contribution stopped.

By taking money off the top first, it was easier to adjust to a $28,000 gross salary. It also felt good that I didn’t have to pay a 28% federal tax rate on the $10,500 either.

With $10,500 a year in pre-tax savings and another ~$2,200 a year left in after-tax savings, I was saving a blended ~31% of my gross income.

The retirement savings mistake I made back then was not also contributing $2,000 a year to an IRA. However, I did end up using all my after-tax cash flow to invest in stocks, one of which did very well.

Was I financially independent while making $40,000? Heck no! But I did the math and knew that if I kept on saving at least $12,000 a year for the next 10 years, by the time I turned 32, I should have at least $150,000 with a 7% compound rate of return.

Housing Costs ($920/month)

While many of my fellow financial analysts decided to rent a one bedroom for $2,100+/month (with the help of their parents) or split a two bedroom for $1,300/month each in a nice part of Manhattan, I decided to split a studio with my high school buddy down in the dead zone.

Our studio was at 45 Wall Street, a 10 minute walk to 1 New York Plaza where I had to get in by 5:30am every morning. The traders and sales-traders would arrive by 6:30am, so I had to prepare as much printed research material about what went on overnight by the time they got in. Oh, how I remember the stress fixing photocopy machines!

By living close by to work, I not only was able to save time, but transportation money as well. I sometimes fantasized by taking a nap back home during my lunch break, but that never happened.

Even during the depths of winter, our utility cost never got much higher than $40. When you’re living in a small space, it’s so much cheaper to heat. Besides, we were hardly ever home.

We didn’t have time to watch cable TV. There was no such thing as wifi or streaming services back then as well. All I did was come home to a mattress on the ground and pass out.

Related: Housing Expense Guideline For Financial Independence

Food & Drinks ($300/month)

A great way to incentivize worker bees is to offer free cafeteria access once you work past a certain hour. Because I didn’t have a lot of leftover cash flow, I would always stay until 7:30pm and gorge myself with whatever was on the menu that day at 85 Broad Street.

After filling myself up, I’d “steal” some fruits and mini cereal boxes to feed myself free breakfast the next day. There was always random free food in the office I could eat. It was part of the culture that if an employee closed a deal or got a big trade to buy lunch for their team or the floor.

Despite the ubiquitous free food that got me fat, I still had a ~$300/month food and beverage bill because I’d occasionally go out with colleagues. When you go out with friends and colleagues, it’s customary to buy at least a round of drinks. I didn’t want to be seen as a cheapskate, even though I had a thin financial cushion.

Vacation & Entertainment ($50/month)

Given I was working so much, I didn’t take any vacations my first year because there was so much to do and learn. If I got an entire weekend off, that counted as my vacation. Only during the second year did I fly back to Hawaii to see family.

During my weekends off, I’d go watch a movie in the theatre, go out for dinner, catch an occasional cheap ticket play, or go to some free event in Central Park.

My firm did have the occasional analyst appreciation outing where they’d take us to watch the Yankees or take us to some restaurant close by. But there was never anything fancy or special.

A Simple Life Was Just Fine

Even though my budget looks pretty boring and maybe even a little sad, I was simply too busy at work to spend money on anything else. To pay up for a nice apartment felt stupid because I was hardly there. To go clubbing or get bottle service at a fancy lounge with my fellow analysts would only limit my options in the future.

Yes, I wanted to go to the Hamptons during the summer and go on European vacations like my colleagues. But I wanted to reach at least a 50% savings rate before I partook in such festivities. I had my whole life ahead of me to enjoy. There was no rush. Besides, may of my classmates had family money.

Yes, $40,000 back in 2000 went further than $40,000 does today. If you want to adjust the numbers into today’s dollars, you can increase the salary and all other city salary equivalents by about 30%.

But I argue that earning $52,000 in Manhattan is still quite lean. You’d probably have to move to one of the outer boroughs to save money for retirement. However, when you have to get in at 5:30am, spending an extra 30+ minutes commuting could be unbearable.

I knew that the rough times wouldn’t last forever because there was upward mobility. If I could just survive in the industry for 10 years, I would make more because the normal trajectory in finance and in most occupations is for people to get promoted over time. So long as I could stay frugal while I made more, financial independence was an inevitability.

There is no sacrifice when the reward is 1,000X.

Related: How Much Do You Need To Save To Retire Early

Advice For Modest Income Earners Wanting FIRE

1) Live in a crap box. Be honest. If you have an entire room to yourself, you are living large. In US college, most students have dorm mates. In China, each college dorm room has bunk beds for 4 to 8 people. If you are a family of three living in a two bedroom apartment or larger, life is pretty comfortable. There is no reason why you shouldn’t continue living like a college student until you can save at least 30% of your income, if not 50% of your income.

2) Work so much you don’t have time to spend money. Your 20s are for learning, your 30s and older are for earning. There is so much to soak in that if you’re working 40 hours a week or less before the age of 40, you’re leaving a lot on the table. People everywhere around the world are outworking you because they are hungry to improve their quality of life. Don’t believe me? Go to any major city in a developing country and witness their work hours for yourself. Taiwan is already a developed country, and only in 2016 did they put into law to limit work days from six days a week (48 hours) to five days a week.

3) Don’t confuse yourself with someone else. This is a common phenomenon I don’t get. If you only work 40 hours a week, how can you compare your salary to someone working 60 hours a week? If you are 30 years old, how can you compare your net worth to someone who is 45 years old? If you work at a nonprofit, why are you comparing your income to someone working in the private sector? If you dropped out of college, it’s not rational to compare yourself to someone with a graduate degree. If you aren’t a regular Financial Samurai reader, how can you compare yourself who has been reading since 2009? If you must compare, then compare yourself to people with similar backgrounds.

4) Max out all pre-tax retirement accounts. You will adjust to your lower gross income because you will find a way to make things work. We get in trouble when we decide our lifestyle expenses first, and then figure out how much we can save after. If you max out your 401(k), then you’ll always know that you’re building at least that much for your retirement. In 10 years, I promise you will be happy you did.

5) Ask yourself what’s wrong with making more. Unless you are a terrible employee with low self-esteem and a disability, your earnings trajectory should be up and to the right along with inflation. You don’t expect the stock market or the real estate market to stay the same price forever do you? Neither should you expect your salary to stay stagnant with more experience and expertise.

If you can’t make more from your job, find another job. If you can’t make more by finding another job, freelance after work. If you can’t make more money freelancing after work, start your own online business. If you can’t start your own online business, be a rideshare driver. If you can’t be a rideshare driver, be a Tasker. If you can’t be a Tasker, go to Upwork or Craigslist. If you get shut out at the thousands of online gig jobs you can do, find a wealthy partner or tell him or her to get hustling!

Saving for retirement and achieving financial freedom is tougher with a lower salary no doubt. But the good thing about having a low salary is that you have more upside! This is where having an abundance mindset really helps.

If you can control lifestyle inflation, you’ll do just fine. It’s those who keep spending at the pace of their income increase that get in so much trouble.

Instead of complaining about higher income folks achieving financial independence sooner than you, expend your energy trying to improve your own situation.

Related:

Sweet Dreams Of Being A Millionaire Once Again – When people say you are lucky, prove them wrong by doing it again.

Maybe It’s Your Fault Why The Wealth Gap Continues To Widen – Some wonderful feedback from folks since 2009 who said my 1/10th rule for car buying is ridiculous.

Readers, if you have a modest income, what are some of your strategies for achieving financial independence sooner, rather than later? What are some of the reasons why people who want more wealth don’t do everything possible to get it? What are some limiting beliefs about yourself that you’re trying to overcome? Salute to our Veterans today. Thank you. 

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Achieving-financial-freedom-on-a-modest-income.m4a

The post Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income: $40,000 In Manhattan appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/achieving-financial-independence-on-a-modest-income/