Soundtrack Lachadek

I was supposed to finish up my master's thesis for my program in San Diego over the summer while I'm in Guam, but for reasons why were completely expected, I've barely worked on it.

There are too many important things to do on Guam to worry about finishing up a silly master's thesis whose only direct effect on people will most likely be paper cuts. There is injustice to fight, dominant narratives to contest, consciousness to build and yes absolutely, errands to run, relatives to kiss or visit (or in my case paint things for) and put i matan i eriyan i gima'n i grandparents-hu, there is plenty of weeds pull and trees to trim.

As my summer winds down, I am looking more frantically at the lists I always make for myself, and seeing the many things I have crossed off already as esta munhayan, as well as the things, which are less in number, but nonetheless insist more persistently that are trabiha munhayan.

The thesis is by far the largest and most cumbersome ti munhayan na item.

With only seven days left in Guam, a 12 hours layover in Osaka, and then a week in Hawai'i before getting back to the states, I think its about time dust off my secret weapon: anime soundtrack music.

Each person who has had to do extensive writing should know this feeling of arcane secret system building, whereby we create the lore through which we can re-create our best writing environments and moods.

For some there must be no noise. For others, no smells. For some, nothing to look at. For others there must be activity or else they'll go mad and end up not writing anything. What are the things that relax you, make your brain click together in such a way that writing doesn't feel like taking an ice cream scoop to your grey matter? Pets? TV? Incense? Food? A new friend of mine, who is a anti-base activist and an ultimate fighter says that blowing bubbles is what gets him in the right frame of mind.

Most people like to work with music, but what kind of music? Is there a particular genre that makes you write faster? One person in my cohort always writes to music with lyrics she doesn't understand so she can't get distracted by them. One of her favorite writing aides is Urudu poetry set to music.

That leads me to my secret music weapon for writing, which I intend to use to get this blasted thesis done before my third year of school starts. In nearly every soundtrack there is at least one song which is faster paced than the rest. It moves faster and is intended to get your blood pumping, flowing, spraying. Right now, I putting together a CD of a number of these tracks, most of which don't have words, but are just instrumental, and plan to play it over and over while I'm writing. For some reason these fast paced songs get me to write faster than usual. Take this post for example, look at how much I've written and I've only been writing for five minutes.

Here's a list of some of the songs I'll be using:

"Katayoku no Tenshi" (One Winged Angel) - From Final Fantasy VII
"Decisive Battle" - From Neon Genesis: Evangelion
"Katana Suite" - From Samurai Fiction
"Vagrancy" - From Samurai Champloo
"Terra's Theme" - From Final Fantasy III
"Kaneda" - From Akira
"Fumoffo Theme" - From Full Metal Panic! Fumoffo!
"What Planet is This?" - From Cowboy Bopeep/ Cowboy Bebop