^because that's apparently popular among my friends now and my batch mate from CCA keeps saying that.

(warning: cursing at the mini rant section)

But!! Our Geography exam is over!! There was also a History paper right afterwards but since I don't take History, I could go eat breakfast with my friends. I feel so bad for those who chose both Geog and History in their subject combi.

I'm going to rant about the exam because I'm still very salty about the allocation of time for each question. Please stick with me. I have song recs and for fans of RWBY, an update of how the new fic is going.

Okay, two questions. One about describing trends and data given in the source provided, one about writing a whole essay about the statement" in disaster-prone countries, education is the most important factor in reducing the damage caused by natural disasters" and whether I agree or disagree with the statement - and guess what, we have to write points and explanations that are against our own stand!!! 

Which essentially means, when I agree with the statement (which I did, by the way), I have to give points and explanations on why I agree, and then subsequently write the next part of the essay about how it is valid to also disagree with the statement. 

For example, in my essay, I had to write about how financial stability and societal attitudes are more important than education in certain instances, like during the Kobe earthquake (because we're supposed to give examples of case studies we read about) and when Japan built an expensive af tunnel that could safely channel floodwater away from the city (in the case of a tsunami).

For the describing and explaining trends question, we had to calculate the data from the graph given, give the trend, numbers, percentages, and then explain all of these. It's tedious work, because we're only given the years where the trend occurred and the types of disasters that the data was about, and that's it. We have to explain using that context.

I don't know about the others, but honestly, having to do all these in just an hour is way too stressful. My pen never left the paper, and even towards the end, I wrote a horrible conclusion because the invigilator told us there was only a minute left while I was scribbling the last sentence of my second-last paragraph. My conclusion was basically:

"Therefore, education may be the most important factor in alleviating the impacts of natural disasters on countries, but in certain cases, other factors such as government planning, financial stability and societal attitudes may be more important."

when we were encouraged to talk about "essential understandings" and macroconcepts related to the topic rather than giving a general summary. Well, if they're going to give us so little time to write, I guess all they can expect to get are short summaries of the essays the students have written.

(also, when the invigilator was collecting the papers, I saw others with nice big handwriting, and when she took my paper, I could see the size difference in our handwriting and promptly felt sorry for the poor examiner marking my paper.)

Alright, exam rant over.

Now, for those who've known me since last year, I think you should know about the situation last year where I took a long hiatus to cope with a personal family matter. This meant that I couldn't go back to school for the last few days before the holidays, and that I couldn't collect my art piece that I made for my art module.

So, after months of telling myself to go to the art room to get my painting, I eventually forgot about it, until my friend, who was in art club, invited me to go to the art room with her to chill till my own training started. And of course, I finally remembered my painting.

I'm now in proper possession of an acrylic painting of a lioness and her cubs drinking water from a lake that reflects the vague shape and features of a face - that my teacher actually thought of calling "Mother Nature".

Well.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I said this in the last part of this book or just said it in my conversation wall, but I've started on a new RWBY fanfic called Metal to the Petal (title creds to Vulpes_Darksider mostly because I couldn't think of another title to match it lmao) (edit: SHIT I MIXED IT UP IT'S PETAL TO THE METAL) and it's multi-chaptered!!! Finally, after months of one-shots and boring YOI works. It's about Qrow and Ruby's backstory, when Ruby was younger and attending Signal Academy, and how she learnt stuff from Qrow. Yeah. I know of certain writers who may be better at these sort of thing (//glances at Hitsugaya/Bleach backstory writers like yemihikari and the author of a really cool backstory I found on ff.net), but hey, I'll try my hand at this to, you know, gather experience :>

Honestly speaking, I have extremely vague ideas on how to write fanfic for RWBY. It's the same when it comes to anime or shows like Higurashi, Cardcaptor Sakura, Noragami, Angel Beats and so on, but for anime like Bleach and YOI, it comes really naturally, like I have a strong connection with them and immediately know what to write about them. It's so weird. Hm.

Also, another mini rant: I dislike reader x character, self-insert and OC-being-the-main-character-hooking-up-with-another-character fanfics, mainly because they seem too weird and not in line with the main story. Most of the time, it's either really shitty (especially when it comes to smut scenes oh my god stop assuming what we like to do with the character), self-centred or cringy. I think that's probably because most of them are found on Wattpad, and we know most of the fics here are like that, probably a solid 70%.

It's worse when they commit the six grave offences of writing: 

- fucking shitty grammar (please for the love of god stop mixing it's/its and their/they're/there up)

- incorrect spelling more than 20% of the time

- bad paragraphing (either each line is separated into single sentences - this is not a play please stop - or everything is lumped together in a single paragraph)

- incorrect or non-existent punctuation (please note that in dialogue, the punctuation goes before the " and not after it - a bad example would be "i dropped the plate", she said, and "where are the towels"?)

- getting facts from the show wrong (like someone not from the Schnee family line getting glyphs as their semblance, in the case of RWBY)

- telling and not showing - basically, there's only simplistic narration and little to no dialogue, and the worst: narrating feelings and emotions

ALRIGHT mini rant done (this is getting much longer than I expected it to be). Now, for song/music recs.

(I'm so sorry if my music preferences don't suit you because I tend to lean more towards electro and not softer songs)

1. Toumei Answer by IA - apparently it's a song for some show, idk I can't be bothered to remember, but it's really sad and catchy.

2. Starry Dream by Osanzi & Tekalu/Starry Dream, Yunosuke Arrangement - both are really good, though I have to say I prefer Yunosuke's remix because of the less jarring/more catchy beat when it drops after the verse.

3.(Vocaloid)  Benzene series by Owata-P - this series is an extremely abstract and confusing series of songs that is still being interpreted by many listeners. Prepare for a long explanation and interpretation at the end.

Benzene is the first song to this series. It's therapeutic at first, with a calming tune (and a longass explanation about what benzene is), but then it gets to the brainwashing part where Len keeps repeating "Rice cakes, sea anemone, benzene, benzene!" in Japanese and that's it. That's the song. The line got stuck in my head once, and let me tell you, that was not a pleasant experience.

Nitrobenzene is the next song in the series. Like Benzene, it's very therapeutic at the start and gives another longass explanation about what nitrobenzene is (really useful in chemistry), but then it goes on to talk about the order of sharps and flats, and later on, "scat", as Len (and Rin, as a backup vocal) sings in that method and sounds like a car horn. (in my opinion, both Benzene and Nitrobenzene are where Rin and Len accept the lack of sense and meaning in life, hence the "therapeutical" and "ethnomusical" in the titles.)

Paradichlorobenzene is the third song of the series. It's my second favourite in this series, and its lyrics are extremely confusing. Len sings the song, with Rin appearing as a backup vocal. The tune is quite catchy, but don't be deceived by the lyrics - if you don't want to be puzzled throughout the rest of your week, don't try to interpret them. (in my opinion, Len wants to be evil, hence the "destructive" in the title, but fails in this aspect.)

Antichlorobenzene is the fourth song in this series. This is my favourite song in the series, and like Paradichlorobenzene, it has equally confusing lyrics. This time, Rin sings the song and Len appears in a small part, with a small bit of Paradichlorobenzene towards the end. It has a faster tempo than its counterpart and in my opinion, is catchier (wink wonk). If you have a strong mind, go ahead and try to interpret the lyrics. If you don't and you try, you'd probably get brainwashed and confused. (in my opinion, Rin wants to be good, hence the "sin-cleansing" in the title, but fails as well.)

Toluene is the last song in the series. It is sung by Luka this time and is apparently the "riddle solving" song to the rest of the songs. I'm not sure how to describe it, actually, but it sounds quite decent and the PV is sort of confusing with all the images and red (as with the other PVs, anyway). (in my opinion, Luka is the third party who wants the Kagamine twins to understand that life has a meaning.)

Overall, the series is really cool if you like weird themes, catchy or therapeutic but brainwashing tunes and confusing/intriguing topics. 

Bonus: My interpretation of this series is that Rin and Len find that there is no meaning to life (with all the repetition in both the songs and by the creator himself that "there is no meaning") when they find that they are going astray from their choice in life; however, Luka says that there is a meaning in life, but also says that the Kagamine twins wouldn't realise that. On top of that, many people have been trying to interpret the series, and all came up with different conclusions and viewpoints about them. Hence, the ultimate conclusion is that: this series is about how every person can have different interpretations of a single thing, including the series itself, and how there is no actual, solid, grounded meaning.

If you read the bonus, wow. Thanks. Here's a cookie.

ALRIGHT I'm done, thanks for reading this shitdump, and have a nice day :D