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It's tissue time!
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Apr. 12th, 2007 @ 09:01 am
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I've always wondered what it was like...and now I've done it!
I've passed out pamphlets/tissues to random people in Japan! YAY!!
Actually...it's about as fun as it looks. Unless you're the type of person who likes being rejected or ignored, it totally blows. But I can say I've done it now!
Other than that, things have been going pretty well. I can't believe it's been a month and a half or so. It feels like I haven't really got much done. At least the apartment is looking more livable. Got some posters up and some lights and stuff, but I still think I need something...maybe a small couch. And probably more posters. On a totally random note, Ban emailed me and said that they found the posters I hid above my bathroom when I left the dorm. Awesome, my legacy lives on. I'm now just the weird foreigner who pops into 1BC now and then. The new students are a little confused by me, but everyone else is just "Meh, it's just Ben".
That really has been the most interesting news so far. Other than that just chilling. Rock on, English teaching! |
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Wow, I am a flying tardmonkey
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Mar. 20th, 2007 @ 07:28 pm
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Guess what! I'm a working man in Japan!
So I got here about 3 weeks ago, ready for the training. The first day none of the other teachers had anything, so I ended up playing tour guide (sort of). I took some people to Nagoya Castle, and we walked the grounds. I swear, every time I've been there the weather has been dreary. The one time it was nice, there were cranes up all over putting those dolphins back up. So I've never gotten a really good picture of it. Anyway, after that I went out and visited the 1BC boys and Mama and Papa out in Fujigaoka. It was pretty nice to see them. But then after that, training began in earnest.
It's not that training was hard, but it was looooong. You sit in a chair for 9 hours a day and are expected to absorb a lot of information about teaching, every now and then teaching a demo lesson. There were three in total, but I wish we could have seen more. But overall I thought it was a pretty good training week. I still had to stay on a few more days for kids training, but it was a lot more fun and interactive.
However, training leaves a lot out when you're actually thrown into the ring, so to speak. This is why I wish there were more demo lessons that we could see in training. You're kind of expected to know all the ins and outs of the system, and somedays it's pretty fast paced. I'm getting used to it, but there are days where it feels like I didn't prepare enough. But really all my classes are pretty good. I have aboutu seven kids classes a week, and the rest fairly high level adults. They can all carry on a pretty decent conversation, so communication isn't really a problem. Some of my kids are gushworthy cute. One girl, Mizuho, is in my Grace class (4,5 years old), and is STUPID CUTE. She's just a tiny snip of a thing, and has a pretty small voice, but gets into the class after a while. No one could not like this girl.
So, I've gotten through the first week of classes by myself. I thought I did OK, no major screwups, but there's still a lot I have to do. But after work on Saturday (my "weekend" is Sun/Mon), some students invited me out to eat as a welcome party. That was pretty cool, and it was nice to talk to the students outside of class and not have to use English. And if that wasn't enough, yesterday I stopped by a restaurant after work for some food (they have really good chicken wings) and by total coincidence I saw another one of my students there. So we sat together and had a pretty long talk, while his friends ordered me some food and gave me some drinks. All in all, a good time.
I guess it's also important to talk about where I live. The apartment is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be, which I guess is a pleasant surprise. Also, I have a loft (where I throw the futon and sleep) which makes it seem a lot bigger. I also have internet (FREE!), which was harder (yet simple once I figured it out) to set up than I thought. My cable and internet come in through the same connection, and apparently you can only use one or the other. There's a tuner that you can plug into, and AV cables to plug in for the internet. Apparently all I had to do to get internet working was to unplug those AV cables...not exactly intuitive, but it worked so I'm not complaining. I don't really need three more channels anyway (normal Japanese TV is plenty enough).
Ah! Address/keitai info! So, let's get to it!
Leo Palace 21 Room 201
Japan, Aichi-ken, Kasugai-shi, Jojo-cho 1-39-2
486-0083
(note: not that I'm expecting packages from anyone, but please only send letters, if you're the letter sending type, to this address. I'll be at work when the packages would be dropped off, and then they'd get picked up again and brought to the main office where I'd have to pick it up.)
(note's note: On that note, packages can be sent to the school address)
AEON Kozoji School
Japan, Aichi-ken, Kasugai-shi, Kozoji-cho 3-6-3
35 Ocean Plaza 1F
487-0013
And lastly, keitai info!
080-6916-3940
ichi-ben-chan@ezweb.ne.jp
So that's about all. Now that I have regular internet, I'll try to update far more often than recently...^-^;; Alright, time to explore cause it's a day off! Until then!! |
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The tale of a near dark Christmas
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Dec. 27th, 2006 @ 01:52 pm
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Soo...we unexpectedly had a white Christmas, but it surely came in with a bang.
On Friday almost right after work was done, it was raining pretty good. Yes, raining. Hopes of snow on Christmas were close to being dashed, when around 4:00 it suddenly changed to snow. And did it ever snow. It was really wet, heavy snow, and it kept on snowing all through the night. Apparently the snow was so heavy that it must have broke some power lines or something, cause in the middle of the night the power went off. You'd think it would be no big deal, power goes out in storms a lot, right? Our power was out all of Saturday. Mom was semi-freaking out cause of all the food we had in the fridge and that she couldn't do cooking in advance. Plus the heat was out. So Saturday was spent in limbo, going to friend's houses so we could shower and all that. Fortunately we had a generator so we could at least get the heat going (well, nominally). By late Sunday morning the power was back on, but it certainly was an interesting experience.
Christmas was fine. Except it seemed really fast. Did Christmas really already happen? Now what? Maybe in my old age I really don't notice the passage of time too much anymore. It's just POOF and gone. Hopefully time will go like that for this last month at Mitchell Metals. Hopefully.
I also have to search for a new modem. Don't know how, but for some reason the power outage shorted out my modem and it won't pick up a dial tone (even though I've gotten through on my laptop). It's weird to say but dial-up is still better than absolutely no Internet. Gah, what am I saying?! |
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Must...resist...urge to level grind!
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Dec. 13th, 2006 @ 11:29 pm
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Wow. The past couple weeks have been digital awesome in my face.
A couple weeks ago I decided to rent a 360 to check up on 1) Gears of War and 2) DOA4. I'd always wanted to see DOA4, and Gears of War was getting such good reviews, I thought I'd give it a go. First, DOA4 is bloody amazing (well, if you're a DOA fan...and I totally am). The pace has been upped to a great, fast-paced level (takes some getting used to from DOA3), the environments are great, everything is polished, and characters are better than ever (for the most part). Jann Lee...has been made into a ravenous beast! The addition of one move made him rocket to levels of awesome unknown to man before now. That's right folks, the infamous Bruce Lee One Inch Punch! He's just standing there and then POW! your opponent just flies across the screen. Greatness.
Gears of War is simply...unbelievable. The only shortcoming I can say it has is that the campaign is way too short. Other than that, this is the system seller like Halo was for Xbox. I wish Family Video gave out component cables so I could see this in its true glory, but even without them the game simply looks amazing. Virtually free of an HUD this really feels like you're in a war. The environments are stunning, even if you are shooting them up most of the time. And to top it all off, the chainsaw mounted on your machine gun is sheer genius. Sure, it may not be a very "complicated" addition to a weapon, or something incredibly sophisticated, but it is by far the funnest thing to pull off (if you can...on Casual, read: easy, it's easy enough to do). Plus, they threw co-op into it (which I think any console shooter should do anyway, tip o' the hat to Halo), which really wants me to get a buddy in this. Simply amazing.
Then, this weekend I went over to a friend's house and got to play some FFXII. I've been soooo RPG starved (last one I played was KOTOR/Tales of Symphonia during second semester last year...that's a long time...). Even though I only got to play a couple hours (and didn't really get to delve into things like gambits, or see any mist knacks/quickenings, whatever you want to call them), my doubts have been put to rest. Graphically this game must be pushing the sheer limits of the PS2. It simply looks great. Very expansive, and I think the license system has a lot of promise to it. It gives you even more freedom to develop a character just how you want them to be. With X, the sphere grid sort of loosely locked your character into their grid for a time, and when you got to the proper junction you could emphasize another area, even though you'd just be going down a different characters path. With the license board, you have the freedom to create some really outrageous characters or some really specialized ones. I think it's good, and I hope to mess with it some more. I see now where gambits come into play too, and I can definitely see their usefulness, especially when grinding mobs. My slight taste of an RPG in a long time has only made me more ravenous. MUST PLAY MORE!! |
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At the very least I know I have good taste
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Nov. 25th, 2006 @ 11:37 pm
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Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it was pretty good, for the most part. We traveled down to Chicago to come see my cousin who has just moved into a new house down here. The downside of it is that she has a crazy psycho dog that does not like men. This is pretty much the first time ever I have not gotten along with a dog. Granted, I guess you could call this dog mentally unbalanced, but since I like dogs it's kind of a drag. So over this weekend I've enjoyed a lot of good food, as well as lots of fine wines (my aunt, uncle and other cousin are wine aficionados). I've learned that all of the wines I drank are well out of my price range, so for now the only thing I can do is appreciate them.
Spent the last couple days bombing around in downtown Chicago, mostly meandering and taking pics of the cool architecture and whatnot. Today went to the Art Institute and had an amazing Italian beef. Other than that, haven't really done a lot but relax, which is a good thing since I'm way past the point of being fed up with factory work. The only other thing I've accomplished is mooching off my cousin's Internet and downloading as much junk as I can get my hands on. So I've been pretty well satisfied.
Being downtown and talking with my cousin about Japan has really got me going to get back there and/or really pick up studying. I looked at all her books that she had and really just got an urge to cram in as much as I can. Granted, all the books she has are pretty basic stuff, but looking at them has made me realize how my writing/reading has gone down. I have no problem listening (thanks to my ravenous downloading), but I've really gotta get on the wagon with kanji and whatnot. It's my weakest area right now. So I'll have to browse Amazon or something and try to look for good books. I've already looked at Kodansha's E-J/J-E Dictionary, as well as a kanji dictionary, cause I really need that more than anything. Practice books or something wouldn't hurt though. But when I get over there I'll probably have enough time to study on my own though as well.
And that's about it, the most eventful thing since I caught on fire...which I should probably fill in more details about. The butt welder I was working on that night had a tendency to be sparky, but I really didn't pay it much attention (at this point, if sparks are still something of a problem for you, you shouldn't be in this kind of work). One ring I welded was particularly sparky, but I just moved onto the next one when I smelled some smoke. Apparently a spark had landed on my shirt and caught. Granted, it was only a little fire, I smacked it out promptly, but still...I'll be grateful when I'm in a job that doesn't carry this risk. I've already got enough scars on my arms to provide enough stories, the last thing I need is burn marks.
So that's that. I must say goodbye to faster Internet for a bit now...sigh. |
| » There's a fire in my pants, someone put it out! |
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The most exciting thing to happen in a while just happened today!
I caught ON FIRE!! AT WORK!! YAYYY!!!
Stay in school kids.
Nov. 21st, 2006 @ 12:39 am
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| » Moving very slowly, slowly! |
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Anything new?
Not really.
The most "new" thing that happened within the past couple weeks was that I went and saw Fearless. Awesome. Awesome on a different level than Protector. September truly was an action movie month.
Oh, and after essentially two months of scratch-free-ness, in two days time I wrangle my arms up again, and almost cut my face. Great. Just when you'd think I'd have gotten a hang of this deal bob, fresh wounds ruin the party. Kids, THIS IS WHY YOU GO TO COLLEGE! Everyone should have to do a crap job like this at LEAST once, just to appreciate the education you've gotten.
On that note, I've also started paying my loans. Woohoo, responsibility!
Also, if anyone can direct me to somewhere where they host Mechaike and/or Yaguchi Hitori episodes (preferably of the non-BitTorrent variety), I would practically worship them. Hello!Morning is getting old, although I'll still watch it.
GAHH!!! FOUR MONTHS!
Oct. 15th, 2006 @ 05:01 pm
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| » It's about a man and his elephants. No, seriously. |
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This isn't too much of an update (besides, not much has really changed), rather more of a shameless movie plug.
If you have even the slightest interest in martial arts films, go see The Protector. What Tony Jaa can do is sheer awesomeness. So, here's some reasons to go see it:
1. Awesome acrobatics
2. He takes on hordes of guys and keeps going
3. The coolest application of capoiera I've ever seen
4. He can do the Guile Kick. THE GUILE KICK!!
Seriously, this is probably the best martial arts film I've seen in a while. And it's such a different flavor than all the others I've seen, probably cause it really shows off what muay thai can do. I'll say this, muay thai isn't really a "pretty" style. It's a style that's more geared towards "how can I get my knee to your face" (literally). Simply put, it's brutal. I won't deny that kung fu isn't brutal, but this is so much more...in your face. There's a scene where it's just him breaking a horde of people's bones. No wonder Quentin Tarantino endorses it.
So, go out and see it, and I promise you'll be impressed by what this man can do. He's the next big thing in action.
Sep. 10th, 2006 @ 01:22 pm
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| » Total casualty count |
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I've pretty much done as much damage as I can do here, the rest will have to be done at home. I just downloaded about 9 gigs of stuff, so I should be set for a least a while, right? Six episodes of Hello Morning!, plus volumes 1 and 2 of the Yaguchi Hitori DVD? I love you DJ Waffles.
Sep. 3rd, 2006 @ 03:00 pm
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| » Excuse me whilst I gorge myself on the rich, succulent fruits of the Internet |
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Two days of fast internet is absolutely luxurious. I bombed around for a while when I was setting up my sister's computer in her dorm room (sadly, I couldn't download anything cause it's her computer, but YouTube kept me busy), then mooched off of some guys wireless when I stayed over at Carrie's, and now I'm at Olaf, wallowing in probably the last binge of fast internet. Don't get me wrong, I've got my spots in Merrill, but none are this good.
Which leads me to a confession: I donated to dj-waffles.com just so I could get eps faster, plus more stuff for members. Granted, it was only 10$, but still...my craving for Japanese television has reached an all time high. I'm deleting as much stuff as I can off my laptop so I can haul away more goodies. Wow. Someone slap me.
But fast internet has its advantages. Talked to Oka for the first time in forever while in Dana's room. He was the only one up (Ban and Yoppi=slackers), so it was good to talk to him. He can't believe how close I will be to Nagoya when I get there.
Tangent: I did take the AEON job in Kasugai, with the only caveat being that I start February 23rd. It's a long time, but doable, and especially in such a good location. They sent me a map, and I am literally only three trainstations away from hopping onto the Meijo line, which probably equals 25 minutes away from the dorm (and in the grand scheme of Nagoya, that's pretty paltry). So awesome sauce.
Totally Other Tangent: After staying at Carrie's, I had to go to the Roseville mall to drop her apartment keys off (locked keys in car and she had to go to work, so I just bombed around her apartment till I got my keys out. Anyway...). I walk into Hallmark's, but don't see her, and turn to head out for a couple minutes, when (1st semester NUPACE'rs, brace yourself) I see Professor Herlofsky (the Language/Linguistics/sign language) walk right by! At first I didn't believe it, but I thought about it and then chased him down. Turns out he's here for a while visiting family, but will be back at Nagoya. WHAT??!?!! Why in ALL the places in the US is he in a northern suburb of Minneapolis, and happen to walk by the store I was in. I got his number, so I'll probably hit him up when I get back (I was planning on visiting anyway since I was so close). Weird craziness. A population of six billion doesn't seem like such a big number when stuff like this happens.
Other news: None really. Pretty much everyone from Merrill is gone, and I'm starting to look for more opportunities to make some cash, while trying to minimize my own spending (stuff like locking your keys in your car doesn't help though). And I want to get my Xbox back up and running, but I'm not sure if I shoudl just buy a new one or see if I can get mine fixed somehow. Not sure. Cause I'm gonna need it to speed up these six months. Gotta get back into Halo, cause apparently the rumor is that Ban is "pretty good" at Halo now. Just like Kevin said, they play it a lot when I'm not around, but wouldn't spend the time of day if I was there and wanted to play. I'll show them...
Okay, I got more Hello Morning to download. Can't get distracted! <(^-^)>
Sep. 3rd, 2006 @ 03:00 pm
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| » From the depths of the Midwest comes...BAUKKMAN!! |
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Dial-up is really not conducive to doing anything, even something as simple as journaling.
Really, it doesn't seem like a whole lot has happened since I last updated, but I'll break it down:
Interviews - Had interviews with AEON in Chicago and NOVA in Minneapolis. To put it shortly, apparently NOVA doesn't want me, and I'm still waiting to hear back from AEON. If that doesn't work out, it's back to the proverbial job drawing board.
Graduation party - More of Dana's thing though, but it was a pretty decent turnout. Got some phat lewts (in monetary forms, which is always nice), and lots and lots of good food was consumed. It was hot as the dickens though.
Birthday - Worth mentioning? All I did was go to work. Nothing really big happened, although I suppose that that tends to happen as you get older. Did get a lot of Pringles from teh fam though.
Mall of America - Trip with the youth group (although it was mostly friends my age anyway) which I got back from yesterday. Worth skipping work for, but I've realized that my aversion to rides is getting stronger. After one ride I got a good headache that continued throughout most of the day (but went away until I "decided" to go on the fastest coaster there, and it spins around to boot). It was good just to hang out though. There were many pictures of Dan/Kesh (and at one part myself) flashing some man-boobs at the cameras there. Wonder if you could pull stunts like that at Disney (any help Liz?)...Also finally picked up a Kodansha Japanese/English dictionary, and I'll consider that my birthday present.
Are there any other events aside from stickin' it out at work that are worth mentioning? Not really. That's my life update in a couple paragraphs. I hope AEON pulls through. We'll find out next week. So until then...
Aug. 4th, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
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| » The Ben Schleif version of "The Jungle" |
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Well, lately I haven't had a whole lot of time to actually update at all, considering I'm not really at home much, and the fact that I really just use this excuse of a connection to check my mail, cause that's all it's good for...barely.
Me pretty much equals work. Let me tell you, don't work at a factory unless it's temporary (like me) and you need money (like me). It really makes you say, "Wow, I'm glad I went to college!" It's sooooo mindnumbing. Same stuff, over and over and over. At least I get to do something a little "less" repetitious. But considering that it's Merrill and only for the summer, this is a pretty decent paying job and guarantees me 40 hours a week. More than I could say for other places. Although what stinks is that I work nights. It's not bad overall, but that means I get to see no one, even my family, until the weekend. All my friends (at least, the ones that are around) work during the day, which leaves me to work at night opposite of all them. Sigh, oh well, I'm getting cash!
Consolidation stuff seems to have gotten worked out. Everything is in before the July 1st deadline, which means all happiness for me at a fixed interest rate! Woohoo...?? Now it's just the waiting game to see if my applications got accepted, which I don't think that they won't. Yay for indebtedness.
The agenda for this weekend? Wedding! My friend Karen is getting married, so I'll go and probably see a bunch of people that I haven't seen in a while. After that...not much really. Not enough people are around to really do a lot of stuff. There's tons of graduation parties to go to (albeit through my sister, even though I kind of know these people already), so free food is good. But that's pretty much it, my life up until now. Sigh, time to get back to work soon...
Jun. 30th, 2006 @ 11:10 am
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| » On sabbatical? |
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Not quite, although I have been on quite the hiatus as of late. The last couple weeks have been kind of a blur, what with a whole lot of family and graduating going on at the Schleif household. It all started on an abyssmally hot Sunday...
My graduation was fairly...run of the mill, I guess you could say. Nothing seemed particularly exciting or impressionable, except that it was bloody hot. Mid 90's, humid, and a clear, clear sky. The only nice thing I can say is that it was "nice" weather, and if it wasn't for the humidity and high heat, would have been a lovely day. Compound that fact that graduation was outside, and we were wearing the black robes. I felt like a portable sauna was underneath my robes. So it was slightly miserable, and I was just waiting for the time for my name to be called so I could get my diploma. And then that was that. Not much pomp (and circumstance? And lo, my cleverness rent the earth asunder and devoured the souls of the unrighteous) or fanfare or anything, in one simple handshake my career at St. Olaf was done. It's not that I didn't like St. Olaf or anything (it was a good school and good times), but I was (still am) just kind of like "Meh, I guess I'm graduated now". I don't know if I'm supposed to have some great revelation or something...so suggestions welcome!
So then return home with a barrel full of family, including Grandma and an aunt and uncle, all of whom were staying at our house. Lots of people around, and soon my cousin would be added to the mix. My grandma is here on extended stay, so she's got my room. I'm getting a little miffed at sleeping on air mattresses in our basement, but soon she'll go back and I can have my room back.
Move onto my sister's graduation, which seemed long and lots of speeches, among which my sister did one, but it was nice. Spent most of the time afterwards as her photographer, taking LOTS of pics with LOTS of people she knows. Life's easier when you don't know so many people ^-^;;
Which pretty much brings us to this point...me sitting around and waiting to see if I got a job here in town. It sucks! I've been waiting for a while and this guy isn't too hip on calling people back. Granted, I'm waiting on drug test results, but still...there's one other option I can check out in town which would again be factory work, and hopefully it'll still be 40 hours a week. That's about as much as I can ask for. Also got loan consolidation stuff done (hopefully correctly) and working on the resume so I can send it out to all those lovely English teaching companies so they can get me back to Japan! Yay!
Note: Pity me, for I'm on dialup and essentially crippled. There's some places in town that apparently have wireless so hopefully I can get my YouTube fix (as well as downloads) at these places. PITY!!!
Jun. 8th, 2006 @ 11:09 pm
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| » A moment of silence... |
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Last night we had a mild thunderstorm, but there was a good amount of lightning going on. I was up at Larson, so I didn't witness the event, but apparently the house got a power surge from a lightning strike and it fried the TV (NOOOO!!!) and my Xbox (NOOOOO!!!). Sad, sad times, cause this equals no Halo for the rest of the year. Boo. So please bow your heads for a bit in remembrance of the Asian House's awesome huge TV and my Xbox.
May. 9th, 2006 @ 11:35 pm
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| » I'm a scatman! |
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Wow, I haven't posted since after spring break. Truth be told, right after that Target started to crack down and assign me crazy hours. Granted, I get money for all that, but after a solid week of work I got a bit behind in schoolwork and got pretty tired out. Thankfully things worked out, but I was pulling a couple all nighters to get some papers done. It figures that even though my classes aren't that bad, they all decide to have papers turned in within the same week, and that definitely piles up. But Target is also now done. I stopped this past Sunday, cause I didn't want to have to deal with finals, graduation and work all at the same time. It's nice to be able to relax a bit after classes knowing that I don't have to go to work. However, there's only a week and a half of classes left! HOLY CRAP! It's gonna go by real fast, and before you know it finals will be done. Hopefully finals will go fine, and I think they will. I have one group project and two tests, and truthfully the group project worries more. It's always harder to work in groups. I hope they don't blow it. Talk about my pessimism coming out. Now I'm just on the downslide, happily enjoying YouTube stuff and getting back into translating for some of those people out there. What can I say, the MoMusu communities are ravenous for some translations, and I'm happy to give it to them. GOOOOO TRANSLATION POWERS!! And there's been some good Mechaike stuff getting out too. Instead of reading this, go on over to YouTube and give that a search. Definitely good for some laughs. And that's my life for about now. I am still alive.
May. 4th, 2006 @ 12:38 am
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| » I've been hanging around this town way too long... |
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So yeah...this is my spring break WOOO!!! Stuck in Merrill, with just about nothing to do. I suppose I can get caught up in reading...but who really wants to do that? So far during my break I've split and piled wood (like I always end up doing when I'm home), and rented Serenity. That's about it. With dial-up I'm about at my wits end. I can't watch YouTube stuff or download my dramas...NOOOO!!! That's what I'll be glad about going back to school for is the connection speeds (even though I complain about the speed there as well...but it sure beats dial-up). Although even when I go back it won't be much fun, cause I have to look forward to working at Target the entire week. Soon it will be done though. With another week off for Easter break, I'll only have a couple more weeks there to work before I'm done. Joyous. So I guess that's my short spring break update for now. Perhaps more will happen when people come up to see the musical. Report on it then. Out.
Mar. 29th, 2006 @ 01:39 pm
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| » And to think, I was going to bring out my bike this week... |
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Wow. Did we get dumped on. It went from a balmy low 40's (which is balmy, I guess, according to Minnesota and my standards) back down to the 20's...AND 8 INCHES OF SNOW. Am I complaining? Not really. But I haven't seen a whole bunch of snow drop like that in quite a while, at least around here. So now it's the middle of March and we're back into a pure white winterscape. I've got some really cool pics of the forest surrounding our house simply frosted with snow. They're great.
Lately (and it's getting worse) I've been getting major bouts of senioritis. It wasn't that bad first semester, but now I'm starting to get...tired, I guess you could say, of stuff here. Some of it is probably due to the classes. The thing is, a lot of it I feel that I don't even need to read for. So much of it overlaps (my 202 and 203 classes), or I've studied it before and is pretty simple to figure out (223). The seminar isn't that hard either, considering all we do is read short blips of stuff and sit and talk about it. So I find myself whittling the hours away doing small readings here and there, not really caring if I read the whole thing. Most of the time I'll be looking for things to watch in Japanese.
Speaking of which, I've been hitting the dramas harder recently. Finished Ace wo Nerae, the one I'd been waiting to finish since my first ski trip with the 1BC guys. End wasn't as satisfying as I'd thought it'd be (in fact, a complete lack of an ending, Hiromi goes to America, and her first match is against Anna Sharapova...and that's the end). But it was good to see my girl in action. Also I'm almost done with Kimi wa Petto. It's a little odd, but what drama isn't? Also, I've found a really new drama starring Yaguchi from Morning Musume (even though she's not in Morning Musume anymore), so I'm curious about it. She was my favorite out everyone in Morning Musume, cause she's just a little snip of a thing (literally, she's like 4'9") but she's loud and feisty. Funny stuff. So I'm completely sinking into dramas now. My only justification for it is that I'm not taking any Japanese classes, so I've got to get my Japanese fix somehow, ね？
Mar. 15th, 2006 @ 01:34 pm
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| » Everyone is so untrue |
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I'm still alive. But due to a) laziness/procrastination and b) tiredness I fail to update. All 8 A.M. classes are more draining than I thought, especially since one of them is weightlifting. But that makes me sound like a wimp. But it's still tough to wake up early every day, and then on some days have to stay at Target till 11, then get back and do reading and whatnot, only to have to wake up early again. But I can do it. That's all the complaining I'm going to do.
Semi-good news on the watching of random Japanese shows! I've now expanded my horizons to things other than Morning Musume! The bad thing is I'm still watching them like crazy. I just can't stop. The sad thing is I know when new videos come out on YouTube cause I know the total video count for all the shows I watch...man, what am I doing? But I've found gems among gems. Utaban continues to be a good staple, as well as Mechaike and anything Okamura is in. Mechaike includes the biker gang counting game skit, the "bath house" skit, Stamp 8 (roll a die and the person chosen gets whacked in the head with paper fans, and then face-cracked with a massive one), and Mechaike specials, some of which include Morning Musume anyway! They're all gold. Other stuff I check up on is HEY!HEY!HEY! and occasionally SMAPxSMAP, just to see if they're up to anything. I watch stuff everyday now. But, truthfully, I think my Japanese is improving just by watching this stuff so much. I've even started dreaming in Japanese (dreams like I appear on these shows or something). I'm getting totally sucked in...which is a good thing, I guess, cause I really do enjoy learning the language. I've also been listening to any J-pop I can get my hands on. I've really begun to like Asian Kung Fu Generation more and more, and l'arc en ciel is beginning to sink in too. I still need to expand my music library though. Trying to think of ways to get some Ayumi, Gackt, and BoA...but not sure where to get them.
Anyway, it's time to finally put all those pictures I took to good use. The photo contest is right around the corner, and I've been drilling my housemates about what pictures I should put in. I have some pretty solid feelings about a couple of my pictures, and compared to last year's winners, I have a feeling I could definitely win. Besides, I can submit up to five, so I have even better chances.
As for Target...it turns out I'm allergic to it. Seriously, this is not some pun I've come up with to say that I'm not a fan of working at Target (although this is true). Everytime I walk into the store (and particularly when I'm working in/around the detergent aisle), I get massive sniffles. And it's not like little ones where you feel a little stuffy or something; it's if I don't start sniffling, snot will run out of my nose like water and straight into my mustache. It's literally that bad. Just something else to annoy me.
That's pretty much a wrap-up of everything that's happened to me so far. Pretty normal, eh? So, until next time...FOOOO!!!
Mar. 1st, 2006 @ 09:31 pm
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| » Back to the grindstone |
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Classes have finally started up again. And just at the right time too, cause I was feeling pretty bored. MWF for me is going to be my busy days, with all my classes in Boe chapel. Yup, my entire schedule is composed of religion classes, save one gym class. And, the odd thing is that three of those four classes all share the same book. Looks like I'm going to be overlapping a great deal in some of these classes, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Nonetheless, I'm going to have a lot of reading ahead of me. I also have to reset my office hours for this semester, and get tutoring going again. Plus work at Target. Looks like I'll be pretty busy this time around. Here's to the new semester!
Feb. 6th, 2006 @ 07:50 pm
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| » ファンのみんなへ。。。かかって来い |
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Good news on the addiction front! It's dying down...but only because I've practically watched everything there is to watch ^-^;; But now I'm broadening my horizons and getting into other stuff, like Utaban. I really like the hosts (the younger one is from SMAP), and I have just seen the funniest stuff I'd seen in a while. Sure, Morning Musume is cute and funny at times, but watching Gackt on Utaban...it's in a league of it's own. From hidden meat to crotch splitting to magnums, Gackt is ridiculously funny. And he has the most serious face in the world, probably cause he doesn't think he's saying anything funny. So that's my update on random Japanese TV shows. GO WATCH THEM!
Edit: Forgot a link. Have at 'em!
Feb. 5th, 2006 @ 02:20 am
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