Cap and Gown

Just a quick post. My sister's going to graduate High School tomorrow and my cousin the day after. Good luck to them.

Three Things I've Learned from Yuzuru Hanyu

I've actually wanted to make an article about him for my campus paper. But anyway, this is Yuzuru Hanyu. He is an eighteen-year-young Japanese Figure Skater. He's the current Japanese National Champion and he's got a lot under his belt. So much admiration for this boy (or guy/man? I don't know whatever). I don't really know how I can further describe/give an intro about him so... yeah. 

As the title suggests, here are the tree things I have learned from this eighteen-year-young phenom:

1. Hope is a dream that never sleeps.

(Not so obviously taken from Super Junior's Kyuhyun's song) Before he was the 2012 World Bronze Medalist, 2013 NHK Trophy champion and all that, he.... well was in that March 2011 earthquake that struck Sendai City. I may not understand how it would feel like or what he's been through. Let's look at the present. He's done a lot. Bronze in Worlds 2012, Silver in Skate America, Gold in NHK, Silver in the 4CC and fourth in 2013 Worlds.

2. Stand up.

Remember that 2012 Worlds free skate wherein he was already on fire and then he fell in the middle of the step sequence? What did he do? He stood up and continued his program. I do somehow notice that some skaters lose their jumps after a fall. Surprisingly, he was able to land that Triple Axel-Triple Toe Loop and all the succeeding jumps in his program. That free skate pulled him up from seventh to third place. That free skate got a standing ovation from the spectators in Nice. That free skate (probably) changed his life. That free skate changed my perspective of the sport. That free skate taught me how to stand up. *sentimental tears everywhere*  

3. Dedication + passion (okay + a bit of aggressiveness) 
I don't really need to further explain this. It's already a given and a few quotes I got from his autobiography Blue Flames.

-I started skating because it was so much fun, but as the training became harder I started to hate it. But right after I won at Japanese novice nats (nationals) when I was 10, my home rink in Sendai closed down and I had to train at farther rinks for the next 3 years. Many kids quit skating during this time. That was when I realized that training is so valuable. I started to really love skating. I knew I couldn't live without it.

"(after 2010 Cup of Russia): How mortifying! I don’t want to see EX, I just want to go back to Japan and train now! The most frustrating thing is I, the junior champ, lost to Gachinski, the junior 3rd! I’m angry with myself! Ugh I want to train hard right now!!"  

So to finally, finally end this post with a *bang?* here's his 2012 Worlds Free Skate,and Japanese Nationals Short Program, circa 2012-2013

That's 2012 Worlds. It blew my mind

Probably his best SP by far. 

(Picture courtesy of Tumblr, quotes courtesy of http://taranofsdiary.jugem.jp/?eid=40, videos courtesy of YouTube. )

Spectrum

So apparently, we were asked to do a campus paper for our Journalism exam. Sounds cool? No... and yes.

These were the three titles that I could think of. As you can see,

I pretty much suck at title making.

      Among the tree titles, Spectrum was chosen (thankfully), because A. I've thought of the name for the longest time; B. I already envisioned what Spectrum was going to be like; C. I don't like Polychrome's logo and I don't know what to do with Front Act; or D. All of the above. 

    Being the geeky D.A.* person, I was more than thrilled to work with the paper's layout. First, however, I should conquer my weakness: writing articles. Then again, what's a school paper without articles?

Good thing they got pretty much high scores (except for one news article that I was too lazy to write about. Oops). I wouldn't want to comment further on writing out articles. My brain exploded because of what they called "writer's block" (let's just say I'm a writer for this case).

(Note: When it was our first trimester examination for this subject, I got a comment saying "too informal" for my lead)

After this annoyingly painstaking process of writing down articles, I finally got to layout. Making the layout is probably the best thing about making this paper. ;-) I've always liked making these kinds of  things.

We were given four software (softwares?) to choose from: A. Microsoft Publisher; B. Pages; C. Adobe Photoshop; or  D. Adobe Indesign. I chose D, of course. It's not because I'm an all-out expert with Indesign but here's why I used this  baby: 1. I don't have Pages (and I don't own a Mac or at least a Mac Book); and 2.I thought my 30-day trial with Photoshop was already expired (dun dun dun) as well. I would've used Publisher but then A. it was too limited and B. It was too slow and I hate slow software (softwares?) Thank goodness I was able to figure Indesign out. *cue Angels singing Alleluia* 

So guys, meet Spectrum. Spectrum, meet readers. (Beware of badly-written essays and articles. I'm not very much of a writer, honestly. Haha)

 That's the last thing I had to do for the school year! Sending this paper to our teacher marked the beginning of summer! Freedom at its finest.

Hope you guys have a happy summer as well :-)