Technically still on hiatus.  Interrupting said hiatus for a bunch of quotes and random stuff which have become very dear to me:

"All life is sorrowful." - Buddhism, Four Noble Truths

"What we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth." - Azar Nafisi (from Reading Lolita in Tehran)

"The beauty of a rose is knowing that it is going to die." - ?? (I'm sure I got the quote wrong, too.)

"Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire.  These are the things to fear." - Sosaku Kobayashi, Headmaster of Tomoe Gakuen

Live to love.  Love to live.

NYC was good.  Buying tons and tons of manga, good.  Meeting unyuu, awesome.  8DDD  Buying fabric, score.  More later.

Totto-chan made me cry.  T_T  Reading it has changed my life.  Kobayashi was an absolutely admirable and incredible man; I can't help but wonder what he would have to say about education nowadays and the state of the world.
Children are really amazing.  I want to become a teacher more than ever.

This journal's in desperate need of a new name, new layout, new user info, and new intro post.  I'm really sorry I haven't been commenting.

I'm sorry, ichi_san, that I've stolen this from your entry so unceremoniously.  I understand the way you feel; well, I don't really 'cuz that feels somewhat arrogant and somehow insensitive to say.  (I hated when people said to me, "I understand," 'cuz I was like, "no, you don't know, sorry.") ...I will say that I do sympathize with you.


...Anyway, this was written by another LJ'er named dadi, about the joys of learning a language.  It almost made me cry, because this expresses how I feel about Japanese.  The only reason that I'm actually putting this in my journal, is for the sake of being able to go back to it (and also to share it with you all.)

"I was writing about my "relationship" developing with a new language I am learning (Romanian) in my own journal, and thought some of you could relate to this, so I thought I'd post some of it here :).
...
Might you not compare the process of a new language *clicking* in your head with that of falling in love? There is this breathless, awed feeling when you listen or read and discover the beauty in the structure, the elegance in the construction, the sensuality in the sounds you hear. And you want more, you want to be always in the company of that language, you want to continue to hear the music of it, and also try, shyly, to form your mouth around those sounds yourself, a bit afraid you will hurt those beautiful words with your clumsiness, offend the proud, antique grammar with your ignorance.

But, the more you get drawn in, the more you realize that the language is opening to you, wanting you to discover it, caress it with your thoughts, dreams and words, that it will forgive you your errors because it knows you are trying your best to be worthy of it.

And you embrace it, and when the moment comes where you wake up one morning with a word, a phrase, in that language lingering on your lips, and its characteristic music resounding in your brain, you know you have entered into a union, a legacy with it, that will not easily be severed again."

"The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns." - George Santayana

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?" - Mary Manin Morrissey (so totally Furuba)

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength." - Ralph W. Sockman

"Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain." - Leo Buscaglia 

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend." - Albert Camus

QuoteLand.com

Man, I really want to reread the Odyssey and read the Iliad...