all about roaches

Oscar's Blog

2008-08-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

(This, as always, is going to be another long post. To me, this one’s worth it. I will be putting my tips inline with the text to make it a bit more useful for others. PS- the pic is clickable.)

Twelve years ago I was living in Eureka, California in my 2nd year of college. I had 2 roommates, John and Amanda. It was my first real time out ‘on my own.’ Our upstairs neighbors were fun and well connected in the area, and were often downstairs hanging out with us.

We, Amanda in particular, expressed interest in getting a cat, and one day our neighbor just appeared with one on our doorstep. Born a couple hours south of us, we never did know his exact birth-date, but it was sometime in September. He was weaned a bit too-early from mom, this tiny palm-sized kitten with grey and white fur and yellow eyes. At the time, I had just bought a couch for my room at the Salvation Army and had a gargantuan amount of reading to do for school. So I laid down on my couch with my book and Oscar curled up underneath my chin. We stayed that way for the first 3 days almost non-stop. His head under my chin is still his favorite spot.

Tip 1: Get a mutt from someone you know. Pure breeds are idiots and puppy-mills suck.

He earned nicknames like Mountain Climber for climbing up everyone and everything with his claws so his tiny body could be up where the action is. I’m sure being that small and in a sea of giants must make the floor scary too. I also called him Parrot, because he would climb up and sit on my shoulder, and often stay there even if I got up and walked around. Our friend Dru insisted on calling him Tom, since he had the right colorings of the classic cartoon cat. It never quite caught on with anyone but him though.

We always had people over, being college students and such, and everyone always wanted to play with him. He learned early on that he was part of a human family, I was dad and Amanda was mom. Amanda always had far more patients to pet him for hours, but he would always lie around on the floor or on my lap in my room while I was on the computer.

Tip 2: Have your pet (especially cats) meet as many friendly and warm people as possible when they are young. Have them get used to people and they won’t run and hide when company comes over.

About a month after getting Oscar, our neighbor showed up again with another cat. He was an orange tabby, about a month older than Oscar. We gladly took him in, but it was kind of a dirty trick- how can you say no to a kitten on your doorstep? I was given the privilege of naming him, something I am bad at. He was a bit of a pretty-boy and instantly announced himself as king of the house, so I named him Adonis. He turned out to be a huge glutton, and we had to start feeding Oscar separately so he would get food. They never really fought beyond the standard kitten play-fighting though.

Tip 3: The best pet names are out-dated human names.(But not as out-dated as “Adonis.”)

Adonis was good for Oscar in a couple respects, but most notably when we started letting them outside. We lived in what I called a ‘bad cat neighborhood’ where there were many cats fighting for territory. It was also an area of busy streets and our house was on the corner, so we were worried. Even at ~5 months old, Oscar was still very tiny.

The Fence

One of the funniest things I saw Oscar do in his early life was around then. Behind our house was a fence with a board near the top to support it. The board was wide enough for the cats to walk along. Hearing the familiar cat-fight noises, I look out the window to see Oscar, Adonis, and another cat I didn’t know. Adonis and the other cat were facing each other fighting. Oscar, behind the other cat, probably just thought it was play. When Oscar jumped on the cats back and started nibbling, the other cat instantly turned around with a “WTF?!?” look on his face and they all promptly fell off the wall. I still don’t know how Oscar even got on that wall. He had trouble getting on the counter at the time.

Tip 4: Let your cats go outside. Not possible in all areas I know, but it gives them a life and a personality far beyond just sitting around the house waiting for you to do something interesting. You’ll see below Oscar went outside in all sorts of places you wouldn’t expect.

Oscar also enjoyed the finer things in life. Like his dad, he enjoyed dark beer. Well any beer really (just like his dad…) He did not like carbonation though. He would often lick around the mouth of a bottle, can or even glass once someone had drank, and in his young life would always seek out that half-full beer on the table after a party and once it was flat, knock it over and drink it as it poured on the floor. We of course ended up discouraging this behavior.

It was a good thing he was an outdoor cat, because when John moved out and we got another roommate, she had a year old Dalmatian puppy. The dog was big and obnoxious, and for the next few months the times that Oscar and Adonis were in the house they were on shelves, counters, and furniture tops, darting in-between.

That didn’t last for long though, as the falling out in the house continued. We all ended up moving out separately. Adonis was renamed to Max and went with Amanda. I only saw him one time ever after that. Amanda also had Oscar fixed before we moved, because I probably never would have done it. I already knew Oscar’s genes should continue.

I took Oscar to Trinidad to move in with two new roommates, Loren and Dru. Loren was my roommate in the dorms and Dru lived across the hall. Trinidad can only be described as cat heaven. I think of all the places he lived, by far it was his favorite. On top of a hill overlooking the beach, we had a shared driveway that led up to a 2 story house. The bottom story was just a storage room and garage, upstairs was the living quarters. The balcony covered 2 sides of the house and gave a full view of Humboldt Bay and as far up the coast as your eyes could see. There was a stairway down from the balcony, and we left the sliding door a crack open for Oscar at all times except for pouring rain.

Between us and the road was a charming little one story house with a retired woman living there. (Trinidad is mostly a retirement community) Being a coastal area, there was a lot of flora and fauna around. She had put up a bird bath, probably years before Oscar existed, and put it about 6ft away from a large row of bushes that lined the shared driveway.

I don’t have any memory of Oscar hunting before this. But he quickly became amazingly proficient at it. He literally would bring 3 birds a day in. At first he left them there for me, and I promptly threw them away. After awhile he learned that I was going to do nothing but waste them, and so I started just coming home to feathers and leg bones strewn about the house.

His proficiency was amazing; he even caught a pheasant one day. But there are two stories that exemplify this more than anything.

The little yellow birds

Dru and I were out on the balcony one day and there were these tiny little yellow birds on a tree in our neighbor’s yard. Dru said he had never seen them before and wouldn’t it be nice to get a closer view. “Just wait for Oscar to catch one” I said. He said that such a small bird would be quick and there was no way Oscar was going to catch one. I didn’t feel like arguing further because it was just a hypothetical anyway.

About 2 days later I walk out onto the balcony and Oscar is running up the stairs smiling with one of the birds in his mouth. Dru was sitting on the couch just inside. Oscar doesn’t like to be doubted.

America’s funniest

On summer vacation, I stayed in Trinidad while everyone else went home. One day I was on the phone with a friend (still no idea who sadly) and walked out onto the balcony for fresh air while I talked. Oscar came jogging out with me and immediately went down the stairs. As soon as he hit the grass, this bird lost its mind. Shrieking this “Ka-Ka-Kakaka” sound repeatedly, it proceeded to dive bomb my cat. Oscar didn’t quite know where it was, but hit the ground as the bird passed just inches over him head-on.

I am on the phone with my friend in a state of shock. This bird was loud and incredibly brave. As it came around for a second pass, I think its critical mistake was it never shut up. As it came close, this time from Oscar’s rear heading forward, Oscar hit the ground again but this time leapt forward with both claws flying. “Ka-Ka-KakaKAAAAA!” went the bird, and it suddenly got religion. Finally realizing it had no chance in this battle, it went and landed on top of the old-lady’s house which was pretty much eye-level for me. It just refused to shut up after that, sending me back inside so I could hear my friend again. 20 minutes later it was still going.

I know that Oscar probably took his/her mate or something, which is sad and all, but I still think that if I had that video taped, I would have won America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Those are by no means his only exploits, just the two most memorable to me at that time. He even helped me get a bird at one point.

The Oil Spill

We weren’t supposed to have cats at the Trinidad house. (I’m so bad) and they wanted to do an inspection one day. So I had to bring Oscar with me in my van to school, he could sit there while I was in class. (Humboldt isn’t known for heat-waves that get above 75 degrees) Oscar hated cars and always whined for the first hour he was in one. My class ended up being canceled that day, and I had nowhere to go with Oscar. After driving by the house to see that the landlord was still there, I decided to take Oscar down to the beach.

I figured he had heard them since he moved there, but the loud noise of the waves crashing terrified him. He was content to hide in my jacket with pretty much just his ears sticking out. It was also relatively cool that day and the sea breeze was strong. I found a waist-high rock that I put him on, and he looked around very sheepishly. A dog ran up to us barking and the owner quickly followed, not understanding why his dog was acting that way. My cat was RIGHT NEXT to him… Anyway, he proceeded to tell me that there was a duck near the water covered in oil. I hadn’t heard yet, but there was an oil spill in the Humboldt Bay, which they claimed never got out of the bay. This beach was on the other side of the “Head” a large hill that ended the bay.

I took Oscar home and thought about it. I called and found out that HSU was taking the birds in, and I went down to the beach with a pillowcase and wrapped it around the bird. The bird tried to get to the water before I got there but couldn’t really move. I drove 90mph the whole way to the school. I figured I had a good excuse to any cop that stopped me. I gave the duck over and was given an ID # so I could call about his progress, but I never called. I didn’t want to hear if it didn’t make it.

There was also another large orange tabby that lived at the house that had the little yellow birds. The cat was larger than Oscar, and would often come in the house when everyone was away and eat Oscar’s food. Oscar never did get to be a BIG cat; he had an extremely athletic build. When caught of course a fight always ensued, and though to an extent Oscar was out-classed, he always managed to defend his territory.

Another memorable hunt was the time he caught this giant bug. No idea what it was…

The Solar Powered Bug

I was on my own in the house when Oscar runs into the house with something in his mouth and goes straight into Dru’s room. I follow and turn on the light, and immediately this bug that was like the Silence of the Lambs insect flies to the ceiling against the light. I turn off the light, and hear an obvious thud as the bug hits the ground. Turn back on the light, and the bug is at the ceiling again. Oscar just LOVED this game, he would often sit back a few feet away and wait for his prey to try to get away again, but I quickly grew tired of it. He only got about 4 rounds out of me.

Oscar also picked up another nickname at this time…

Pimp-cat

Around this time, there was a girl that was interested in my roommate Dru. It is also when South Park started. Every Wednesday she would come over with a few of her friends to watch.

I guess this is common to cats that are weaned to early, but Oscar liked to suckle. He actually trained me not to sleep on my back because if I did I would wake up with claw-marks on my face.

Amazingly for Humboldt, all of her friends were always pretty cute. Humboldt is famous for girls that don’t shave or shower, so this was a minor miracle. We would have discussions on it after, and sure enough, Oscar would always pick the hottest one and sit on her lap and suckle the whole night. Mind you he had excellent aim… at first they would always say”Oh no… stop” then “oh he’s so cute…” and let him. Damned cat…

All good things must come to an end though, and so did Oscar’s time in Trinidad. The area was beginning to get pretty “fished out” anyway causing Oscar to travel longer and longer distances. I had failed out of HSU, mostly because I didn’t know what I was doing there, and so I moved to Salt Lake City where my friend Adam moved a couple years before. For the first 2 months we stayed at his parents’ house as we looked for a place, and I was a bit worried because his parents had a tiny little cat. She was declawed however, which Oscar had no concept of, so he always thought she was playing and played with her. He was always very respectful when on another cat’s turf.

We found a place, a 2 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor, a very nice place. Still, with winter coming, I wonder how Oscar was going to take it. The first time I took him out into the cold fluffy white stuff he did not seem very happy. I guess he got used to it though because he still always wanted to go out. I don’t really remember him catching anything there, though that doesn’t mean he didn’t, we just couldn’t leave a door o pen for him anymore so he might have disposed of his kills elsewhere. It wasn’t until I was moving out about a year later that I found out a bit more about what he was doing.

I had met one neighbor the whole time I was there, and not till near the end of living there. Everybody knew Oscar. He apparently went into everyone’s home and they fed him, played with him, etc. I guess his life in the snow wasn’t too rough after all.

Tip 5: Don’t believe your vet. The occasional “people food” is good for a pet. Variety in diet makes humans healthy; I believe it is the same for cats. Not to mention it makes them less likely to turn up their nose at food. Besides, if you only ate what was best for you, how happy would you be?

I ended up moving back home to Orange County, Ca to live with my parents while I went back to school. Now knowing it was computers I was interested in, I had direction. Once again I wondered about Oscar, the outside was much more akin to Trinidad than anywhere else we lived, but there were two cats and a dog in the house as well and I knew Oscar hated dogs. Willie, our Daschund, was of course obnoxious, but after a few bats on the head they had established a treaty. The other two cats, Siamese sisters, hate everyone and prefer to hide in closets and such, but on and off they would play with Oscar, one of them even seemed to have a crush on him at times.

Outside, Oscar went right back to work. If he really did not catch anything in Utah, he certainly didn’t loose his touch. For some reason, the community was beginning to have a pidgin problem when I moved back. I saw Oscar almost catch 2 of them. I am not sure if the community did anything about them, but they were soon mysteriously gone. He came very close to catching a crow around this same time, the crow having just enough strength to hop over a solid wall Oscar couldn’t. He didn’t really catch birds too often, but rodents and small reptiles were in large supply. He seemed to just stop hunting the lizards and snakes; they just didn’t offer enough fun for him.

Tip 6: If your cat catches an animal- let him have it. Unless you are going to snap the poor thing’s neck yourself, nothing is so cruel as to let the animal slowly die of disease or starve. If this bothers you so much, look at your own dinner.

Happy Easter

Probably the best was right after I moved back. It was Easter morning and my parents were getting up at the crack of dawn like usual to go to church. Leaving the house, my mother sees a perfectly beheaded bunny on the doorstep. How he does it I don’t know, but it always looked like a perfect cut. She of course was not at all happy. But if you are wondering why you never see the Easter Bunny, now you know.

He had new rules to get used to as well, the #1 being that he couldn’t be out at night. This was new for him and he didn’t much like it. The reason is there are coyotes around at night. Through a system of basically grounding him the next day if he was out all night, he learned. It helped that he realized he liked dinner too. He also had to get used to the fact that people were busier and busier and not around as much. I was working during the day and going to school at night, at first he resented it a bit, but our evenings became our time together. He would often get mad at me if I was at the computer too late. (This was unfortunately often.)

When I went to Japan for six weeks in 2004, he was beside himself. My parents told me he moped around all day and even started to sleep with them at night, kicking the girl cats out of the room. It took him awhile to forgive me, but he eventually did. It was about the same last year and this past summer when I went back to Japan, but he got used to it quicker.

He also made new friends, with all the neighborhood kids. I was a bit worried about this because kids can be too rough; I was worried how he would react. But true to form Oscar patiently put up with it until he could get away. He seemed to have a simple rule: If you’re human, you’re family; if you’re smaller than me, you’re dead; and if you’re bigger than me, you’re scary. It served him well.

Things always come in threes, and another orange tabby was to come into Oscar’s life. Hairy Newman was my sister’s roommate’s cat, but seemed to prefer my sister. They told the breeder they specifically did not want a cat like my parent’s cats, which always run and hide. He told them to lock him in a small area when they were away so he didn’t feel like he had to defend a large territory. Sadly this gave exactly the opposite effect.

Anyway, when they stopped being roommates, my sister’s friend was moving home with the parents to a large obnoxious dog and was going to have to have Hairy declawed. She was planning on only being home for a month, so I said I would take Hairy in rather than declaw him.

Tip 7: Don’t declaw your cats. They are living beings not meant to be modified for your convenience. If you value your furniture more than your pet, don’t get one. Also, if someone ripped your fingernails out, you would never trust them fully again either.

As far as I know, Megan (her friend) is still living at home, and Hairy is now mine. Oscar being as territorial as he is, doesn’t let Hairy on my bed, but he has his own place under my bed where he knows it is almost impossible for anyone to get to him so he loves it. In the cat world it is opposite, so Oscar owns me and “the girls” own my mom. So Hairy is the cat with no one to own and is always kind of on the out-skirts. He is very loveable though and gets a decent amount of attention.

He is bigger than Oscar, but doesn’t seem to know it, and it is very easy for Oscar to put him in his place. Still they get along fairly well together. I also made Hairy an outdoor cat, much to the chagrin of my mother who over-babies him keeping him as weak as he thinks he is.

A little after Hairy came on board, Willie (the dog) died. He was 13 and had lived a long life. On occasion you could see all 5 of them, the cats and dog, sitting in a room hanging out nearby. It was like interrupting the meeting when you saw them, and they’d all begin to wander off on their own.

Oscar slowed down in his old age (of 10) and began to lie around more. He didn’t hunt as much, preferring to hang out in the garage on the boxes and relax. He also began to have a bit of trouble jumping up on the counter to get food, so I started putting a chair out. His ego usually wouldn’t let him use it though and he would jump up and pull himself up to the counter. He still had a lot of life in him though and would catch the occasional game; rabbits seemed to be the one thing he still really liked to get.

Recently, he was just getting over being mad at me for being gone for 5 weeks in Japan again. I have been doing a lot of work at my computer like usual which annoyed him, but I always find at least a few minutes to pet him before I pass out.

He did not come home Friday night. I usually come get him around 10pm and he is used to that, but it is not out-of-the-ordinary for me to be a bit late, especially on a weekend night. When this happens, it is not out-of-the-ordinary that he goes and finds another place to camp out and says to hell with me. Especially in summer when it is hot out but very nice at night. Friday was one of those nights. I went to get him at 11:30, then one more time, then at 1am. At 1 I was exhausted, so I went to bed. I always worry about him when I do this, but he is always at the door in the morning hungry.

He wasn’t at the door Saturday morning. This also isn’t unprecedented. He had been out for over 24 hrs twice before. Once I even put up flyers, I only got 2 calls. One was a lady saying her son was obsessed with looking for Oscar. The other was some bitch saying how I am not allowed to put up flyers. He came back both times, and I theorized he was trapped in someone’s garage. When I went out looking I kept an eye on what garages were open, and it wasn’t many throughout the day. I tried to just keep busy and wait for him to come home, which resulted in me cleaning my brother’s old room.

Sunday I made flyers. I put his name, when he was last seen, my cell #, and asked people to please check their garages and anywhere else he could have gotten trapped into. I put them on the mailboxes on the street above and below as well as mine and on each person’s door from my street. I was worried no one would go to the mailbox on a Sunday.

As I was putting them on the doors, I ran into the kids down the street. One girl in particular is a real animal lover. She took the flyer and was really worried. She said Oscar was her best friend, and always came to her lawn to play with her. But maybe he only came because she had cheese. He freaking loved cheese. You could never have any form of cheese around without him getting his share. She was really hard to talk to at that point.

I also went down to the guard shack to ask if they had any reports of strays. Without a collar I always worried he would get picked up. I couldn’t help it, any collar I tried to put on him would last a week or 2 at max, and I wasn’t going to embarrass him with a harness.

The guard told me that the patrol guard saw 2 coyotes with a cat Saturday. No other info as to when, where, etc. So I gave her a flyer and asked her to ask the patrol guard if she saw him/her. Shortly after I got home, I got another call with the same information. It was a black cat. Oscar is not, but it would have been dark.

Then the patrol guard came to my house personally. It was like something you would see on cop shows or whatever. She told me she was the one who witnessed it, she was following the coyotes and called animal control but they wouldn’t help with wild animals. (“Coyotes? Those things are dangerous! I ain’t goin’ out there!” – aka your tax dollars at work.) They cut thru a cul-de-sac and she had to drive around. When she did, they were at the corner of my street in the grassy area with a cat “matching Oscar’s description” She also clarified it was Saturday morning, I was expecting Saturday night which had me thinking it may not be Oscar.

The guard was in tears by the time she left. She had apparently recently had to put her own cat down. I thanked her for coming.

Shortly after that, I got another call. The wife couldn’t tell me, so the husband came on and said he saw the same thing Saturday morning, and it was a grey and white cat.

Sunday night I bought myself a Chimay Grand Reserve, an expensive beer I use for gifts and celebrations, and I celebrated his life. Thinking of all the memories I have with that cat is what inspired me to write this post. There is no way I want to forget them.

I had a lot to do this weekend, but couldn’t really do much. I did not sleep well Saturday or Sunday night, and therefore I decided to take the day off today. I always feel bad when I don’t go to work, but I don’t know if I would have been able to handle a busy day or just a stupid customer without snapping. I was going to call shelters just to be sure today, but I’m kind of scatterbrained. Maybe I will do it tomorrow. Any chance is worth it.

He lived by the sword, and died by the sword. Somewhere there are dozens, if not hundreds of birds, snakes, lizards, mice and rabbits cheering. I swear I have seen more rabbits run around outside on the hill in the past 2 days than the past 6 months. Eventually something bigger got him.

This sort of divine justice is somehow comforting. I think it would be way worse if he was hit by a car, and as much as it hurts I think it is better than never knowing for sure. Of course old age was always my preferred choice, but it can be difficult too. We had to decide not to treat Willie because it was too expensive, and then we had to put him down. My mom asked if I wanted to be there for it and I said no. I changed my mind but it was already too late, and I still feel guilty about that. What sucks is I have nothing of him. I have recently been cleaning quite a bit, so there are no large stores of his hair around like usual. As I said he never wore a collar and I probably wouldn’t have that either if he did. I do have lots of wonderful memories though, far more than I could put here. Though I tried, and you’re probably suffering for it.

This all may be more than a bit disjointed. As I write (Word says I am on my 9th page, and that’s without pictures) I keep going back and filling things in that I forgot, so hopefully it isn’t too bad. I know it’s a huge cliché, but there really will never be another one like Oscar. The stars just aligned for him. From the bad cat neighborhood of Eureka, to the lush hunting grounds of Trinidad, his experience in the snow in SLC, and back to OC with a family, other animals and people who loved him, he always adjusted quickly and added a new facet to his personality. I guess the most telling thing is that even cat haters loved him. Even my dad, who did not grow up with animals and always jokes about ‘thinning the herd’, was put into submission when Oscar started climbing up on him and sitting on his chest about a year ago. He would even PET him.

I was lucky to have him with me for almost 12 years. It is hard for me to remember a time when he wasn’t around. You have two families in life, the one you are born into and the one you make. Oscar is the closest thing I have to the one I made. I am sure many people might say that I am going overboard comparing him to a child, and I know he isn’t. But if you actually read all the above I think you can see by now just how special he was. He was the one, that when everyone else was gone, was always there. That is a very difficult thing to replace.

Oscar never lost his whiny kitten voice. He learned early on that enough of the ‘I’m dying’ whine was enough to get him anything he wanted. He was always very talkative and we would banter back and forth, especially when I was calling him in for the night or he was looking for me.

I opened the door today to get the packages on our doorstep. I swear I heard his meow. I welcomed him home.

帰る

2008-07-27T17:56:00.001-07:00

(Kaeru - to return)

(This one is a week late)

(This also sets a new record for longest post ever. Hang in there!)

月曜日
Monday - Monday was fairly quiet. After class I went to 北大路(Kitaoji - a subway/bus station in northern 京都) to do some quick shopping. I got myself a decent 浴衣, 帯　and 下駄　(yukata - men's version of a kimono, obi - the sash thats used as a belt, aand geta - the wooden shoes) for a decent price. I also got myself some tasty bread-based treats from my favorite パン屋 (panya - bread shop) and headed back in time for dinner at the 食堂 (shokudou - caffeteria) Hmm, dont remember anything anything too special after that, think we just hung out in the ihouse as I shirked practicing my speech...

火曜日
Tuesday - Tuesday was the last full day of classes After class I had a special treat though! Michelle, Evelyn, Kitty, and Mari were going to see 花より男　(Hana yori Dango - a Japanese Dorama that recently had a movie released more info) We ended up arriving late and missing about the 1st 10 mins of the movie (hard to tell due to commercials) and of course my Japanese isnt that great yet, so I didnt understand a whole lot, but thankfully I had seen the first season so I got a lot of it.

The really weird thing was the people in the theater. This is a drama but has definate comedy to it. However you forgot there were other people even in the theatre. No one ate, drank, laughed, moved, I was honestly not sure they were breathing... We of course tried to be polite but funny is funny and we were chuckling. They probably hated us.

After that, we went to lipton cafe for dinner and caught the last train home. Due to some drama, me and Evelyn returned on our own and had a nice chance to chat.

水曜日
Wednesday - Oh god, its the 発表... (happyou - speech) First we had our last day with おのざき先生 (Onozaki sensei - sensei means teacher :P ) It was kinda sad but we were also all really burned out. I think he knew it, so he had us watch an old anime. However... the anime was entirely in 大阪弁 (Oosakaben - Osaka dialect) which while still Japanese made it basically uncomprehensible to us. The closest thing I can compare it to is Shakesperian.

After class was our last lunch with our CPs. It really began to hit me that we were all leaving so soon and it was a real bummer in that respect. Still everyone was a blast.

But then... oh god that speech... practicing over and over and yet still not being able to read it well was really bothering me. My speech last year was horrible because I had no time for it, and this year I really wanted to make it good. Thing was, I ended up sacrificing badly needed study time for the sake of the speech, and I was STILL BAD! Onozaki先生 had worked long and hard on all of our speeches and had edited mine quite a bit. The problem was since it wasn't my words anymore no matter how many times I read it over I just kept stumbling.

Add to that on Monday afternoon he declared we all had to memorize our speech. I cant do that in English. Oh, one other bonus, we had to answer questions about our speech from the teachers afterwards. My speech was basically translated from wikipedia. What was on my page was all I knew.

My theme was うどん(udon - thick Japanese noodles) my original theme anyway... Tuesday night frustrated I decided to think about doing it the way I would do a speech in English- write an outline and then run my mouth thru the topics.

I quickly wrote (in English) an outline of how I love IJP but I cant stand the speech, that its been the bane of everyone's existance in my 3 trips, and there just simply isnt any time for it in such a busy program. Of course I softened it from that.

Well after going back and forth several times, thats the speech I gave. I had not once practiced it out loud, so it was a challenge, but it went moderately well, certainly better than my other speech would have. Everyone's favorite line was "My real speech is in a bar at 1am." and I closed by saying that "I know I still have a long way to go, and I have made a lot of mistakes here. But I believe you understood me, and to me that is the important part." At the questions part, 岸先生 (Kishi先生）was thrown off and had to think of something to ask me. It was a fun feeling.

The whole speech thing seems to be intrinsic to Japanese education, they are always dressing up in suits and giving speeches to prove they learned something, and I guess I understand it. My problem is there just isn't time for it in such a busy program. Such an off-the-cuff thing was very anti-traditional, and I didn't know what to expect in terms of reaction.

Suprizingly, several people said they really liked it. Both CP's and other Americans. Now I can never quite know if the Japanese are lying because they are just so nice, but I know my fellow Americans would tell me straight. The big casualty was おのざき先生. He had worked long and hard thru this entire program, was averaging something like 3-4 hrs of sleep 3 days a week to come teach us and maintain his other job, and had worked particularly hard on our speeches. I think that this time around he really didnt think I was trying hard enough, and to an extent that may be true. The problem is it is just too important to me to go out and USE my Japanese while in Japan. I cant devote all my free-time to studying. After the speech, he never really talked to me again. I am quite upset by this, and plan to send him an apology email. I wanted to do it in person but he pretty much avoided me at the farwell party.

水曜日の夜
Wednesday night - (that last part was so long I thought I'd break it up) Well, after the speech was out of the way, a huge load was lifted off everyone's shoudlers. Thankfully it coincided with the ぎおん祭り (gion festival, still dont know the kanji for gion) and the night is the best time to go. It is a huge party where the streets are closed off and lined with food stands and everyone walks around in 浴衣. This is what I bought my 浴衣 for on Monday. I had organized a huge group of us to go, and we all had fun.

Afterwards, instead of being good little students and going home, we went to とりのすけ for another round of drinking and having fun. Risa came with us, and a couple of the guys in the bar knew her. They were pretty drunk and speaking in thick 関西弁 (kansaiben - Kansai dialect) so they were hard to understand. I got up to go to the bathroom and ended up talking to a few of the Japanese girls that were sitting at the bar. They commented that it was rare for anyone to wear 浴衣 or 着物 (kimono) at the place, and we both had ours on. One was a French major so I pointed her to Theo, our token French guy, and went to the bathroom. When I came back, they grabbed me again and I ended up talking to them all for about an hour. It is an interesting thing talking to regular people rather than CPs, the CPs seem to "pull more punches" with us, trying to dumb things down to our level. Still, I did pretty well.

It is a wonderful thing that とりのすけ is close enough to walk home from ^^

木曜日
Thursday - This is the morning of the official gion parade. We went to our now familiar (esp to me on my 3rd time) spot to watch the big floats try to navigate down a very narrow street without steering.

But after the 1st big float, Zack and JC were ready to leave. I would have liked to watch a couple more, but since everybody was heading out I decided I would too. We headed off to 寺町(teramachi - name of a street with a ton of shops) for おみあげ (omiage - gifts for people at home) shopping. After a bit of that we headed back to the Ihouse and relaxed, I had a meeting with the 先生s at 5:40 to practice for the oral exam the next day.

After that and dinner we headed out... for 花火！(hanabi - fireworks (litterly flower-fire)) a ton of people came and it was really fun. It was also the first time I really got to talk to Mami, JC's CP. She is tall and thin and does karate! (I was supprized) She also doesnt like fireworks because she was burned as a child. I went over to see why she was hanging so far back (she wasn't cowering, just off to the side) and ended up talking to her quite a bit. She is very nice. Ian didnt come becuase he had planned dinner with the 先生s at a ラーメン屋(ramen house) but it was closed so he ended up eating at the 食堂 with them. He was bummed. His email said "I strongly hate my choice." (yes in English)

Afterwards most people decided to head to とりのすけ again, but Alfa, Kyle and me decided to head back. Alfa is really super nice, and will be spending 2 years in the Ihouse, which is the first time I have ever heard of anyone doing that. We had a nice walk home and then I spent the evening slacking on studying for the oral test. It was kind of hard to study for since we had only a very basic idea of what would be on it.

金曜日
Friday - The day of the oral test. I had organized (as I tried to last year but failed) everyone to hit the computer room around 10 and hang out and trade pics and contact info and such. It actually worked and was fun. I made a Japanese music sampler of 1 album from about 15 artists and gave it to a few people, and got Trevor's music from him. I also started adding people to my newly made Facebook acct. I really wanted to blog and upload pics at the time but there just wasnt any time.

For my oral exam (which was actually just before at 9:40) I did ok I guess. I was mad I forgot the one word I was trying to remember which was a word for servants, but it was a complicated word and I wasnt even sure if it was the right one. I ended up talking around it pretty well. Overall I doubt my grade was good, and I do not feel like I learned much. However I did become a lot smoother in what I DO know, and I have a good place to continue studying from here. Namely, what I need most is a ton more vocab and kanji. I can express myself pretty well, but then I dont understand the reply because they use words I do not know. Overall I am so glad I went and so indebted to all my teachers, especially for putting up with me.

SO then... we went to an お好み焼き (okonomiyaki) resturant that was actually in walking distance of the Ihouse. Ten of us filled the place. When ordering I made it clear that I could not eat fish, meat or bird, and that included the 鰹節（katsuobushi - bonito flakes) that they often put on top, I said this twice.

After waiting over an hour for our meal (it was just 1 cook, and he served a Japanese person who came after us first) mine arrived with the 鰹節 on it. When I told him I couldnt eat it, they offered to scrape it off. It basically melts into the hot dish, so no thanks. The chef (he is the one that took my order btw) got very angry and was claiming I never said that blah blah blah. I realized I had the full capacity in my limited Japanese to tell him off and insist that I did say that, hell we even went over in class just a couple days before how to politely complain, but I wasnt going to be polite so I just decided to leave.

Evelyn, Michelle, and Alfa came chasing after me to make sure I was alright, but I was fine. It's not the first time I've delt with idiots afterall. I ended up going home and making my usual bread pizza which I love, and it came out better than ever.

At 5pm was the saddest event, the farewell party. All the CPs and students were there laughing and having fun. They had all the IJP students give thank you speeches and some of the Japanese did as well. Kae and Mami gave me nice letters, Kae's in the shape of a heart and told me not to read it till I got on the plane. They gave out certificats of completion and おのざき先生 gave me mine, but did not look at me when he did it...

The funny part was as sad as the party was, many were almost waiting for it to end. Afterwards we went to another 飲み放題 (nomihoudai - all you can drink) Yoshiki and Saori made all the plans, for which I thanked them profusely (I had such trouble the whole trip trying to get people together) and 45 of us went out drinking. Mariko wasnt going to come, but I offered to pay for her since I just wanted her there. It was supremely humid down by the river while we waited to go in at 9:30, but it was a nice place inside and was a lot of fun. They started getting slow on my drinks like the other place, so I said screw it and ordered a pitcher. When I got it I was going to pour it in a glass like a normal human, but everyone was so excited about the prospect of me using it as a glass that's what I did. I had 2 of those. ^^

After the 飲み放題 many people went home. The rest of us tried to go to a Mexican resturant that JC wanted to to go, but it was closed. So even more people left. Finally, the last group of us- Kevin, JC, Mariko, Hiro, Shuhei, Yoshiki, and Mariko ended up at McDonnalds till like 4am. We took a cab back.

土曜日
Saturday - I was the first one up from the last group, and bummed around the Ihouse for awhile. I walked Ian to the bus stop so he could catch his flight in 名古屋(Nagoya)

We then all gathered up and went to a temple who's name I forget (there's just so many!) mostly because it was on the way to the Handicrafts Center which is a great one-stop-shop for おみあげ. It was also a rediculous tourist trap, everyone spoke English even if you spoke Japanese to them and there were no Japanese shopping. Still, I got my おみあげ done. Calvin ditched us in the store and forced us to look for him for almost an hour before giving up. Seems he had already left...

Afterwards we went to 寺町(sorry folks, 1 explination per post!) and ate at Shakey's (yes the pizza place) where they have a 食べ放題(tabehoudai - all you can eat) of curry, pizza, salad, and potatoes. After a long night and a long day of walking, that place is life-giving. It was around this time I got a text from Ian that he was late, unsure he was on the correct train, and generally pissed at the world. We had a good laugh. (Dont worry, he made it fine)

Finally it was カラオケ (karaoke) something Trevor had set up, and it was really fun. Natsumi, a girl that showed us around Kiyomizudera and I kept in contact with via email, had said she was going to come. In the end, she wasnt able to because of a party for her club, but she came to the meeting place anyway to personally say so. That was really nice of her. She imediately asked me 'do you remember me?' but she looked so different from 2 weeks before (dressed very differently and wearing a hat) that I stuttered.

Our room was super over crowded, but it was fun. I finally got Trevor to sing "Take on Me" but I had to shoo Zack off the mic to keep him from ruining it. Mariko spent half the time in the hall drawing a picture for Calvin because she had given us all notes with drawings (she drew me as fat and told me to watch my drinking >.>) but didnt make one for Calvin. She said she didnt know him quite well enough to know what to draw. So I told her he always says すげい and めっちゃ (GREAT! VERY!) and she put that in. ^^ (Calvin you're not allowed to read that last part)

Afterwards, everyone else went to go have more fun, but I had to return to the Ihouse by 11 to ask the gaurd when my taxi was coming. Turned out he stuck a note to my door- that sucked. I would have wanted to stay out.

日曜日
Sunday - When everyone got back, we realized we were all going to be up at 5am and it was like 1 and so we decided to stay up all night and pack and such. I was already packed so I pretty much hung out. At 5:10 am my taxi to the airport came, while the other guys were loading theirs up to Kyoto station to head to Tokyo. The one time I leave on time and everyone else stays- no fair!!!

So I went to the airport in 大阪 (Osaka) where they wanted to look in my bags so I had to repack. Then I got to 成田 (Narita - the tokyo airport) where I had to repack into 2 seperate bags or pay 3000 yen for weight, and had a 6 hr layover. I spent my time eating pizza and drinking beer (I wanted to sleep on the flight) and emailing all my new and old friends on my ケータイ(keitai - cell phone)

Eventually I got on the plane and went home. I had an exit row and had my feet up on the safety slide pretty much the whole time. I also slept pretty well.

When I got home, I went to Rubios for something to eat then took a 'nap' which lasted from 12:30-7:30... not at all what I wanted.

Monday I went to work, and have been working ever since. I still have a million things to do like finish unpacking, give people their gifts, tag and upload pictures, and most importantly email all my old and new friends. But I have been sleeping at odd times (mostly 5:30pm-10:30pm) so getting anything done is a bit hard. The good news is with my new time schedule I am awake when Alfa is on the computer, and we have had a couple nice conversations because of it. I almost want to keep the schedule for that reason.

Ok, I'm shutting up now.

Links of the day!

FF12 Potion HOW COME I DIDNT SEE THIS STUFF!!!
Devil May Cry Commercial If American commercials were this good people wouldnt skip em.

ごめん！

2008-07-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

(gomen - sorry)
I am sorry for the lack of updates. This year's program has boasted 0 free time, so it has just been impossible. I leave in just a few hours for what will be a ~22hr journey home. I will have a 6 hr layover in narita and I plan to pay the $5 to get internet access and hopefully tag pics and blog.

I wil be home soon and I WILL catch up. I hope everyone didnt forget about me.

I dont want to leave...

Links of the day!

食べすぎ

2008-07-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

(tabesugi - eat too much)

Another long one.. ごめん

水曜日
Wednesday - After a rather uneventful morning of class, our afternoon involved going to Judo. Compared to Akido from last year and Karate from 4 years ago, this was much more serious. The 先生 (sensei - teacher) was Japan's representative in 1964 and one of his students won the 1988 Gold Medal in Los Angeles. We mostly just sat arround watching, but doing rope climbs and pushups with everyone had us all hurting for several days afterwards. Then we all got to "run" home. I ran about 100 yards then walked the rest of the ~1 mile.

After that, we walked straight into a 七夕(Tanabata - A Japanese holiday where wishes are hung on trees and granted if the night is clear) party in the Ihouse which was a lot of fun. Everyone wearing their Yukattas was nice, I'm not sure why but it really does make girls look pretier.

木曜日
Thursday - After school we went to Doushisha, another college nearby where JC and Kevin are planning to 留学. (ryugaku - study abroad) It is the 5th oldest college in Japan and very nice other than I guess it's a Catholic university. I wouldnt mind spending a year in Kyoto... Afterwards we went to Mos Burger and then returned home to study.

金曜日
Friday - After failing my second test and not being able to read my speech that 先生 'kindly' rewrote for me, I was very glad my 'party' went off well. About 20 people showed up in the Ihouse lobby where we talked, drank and played 鬼(oni - demon, but also what they say instead of 'tag youre it!') at 10 when everyone got kicked out, about 10 of us went down to トリのすけ(Torinosuke - a bar within walking distance) where we met about another 6 people and all had a blast. 6 of us including me did a 飲み放題・食べ放題(nomihoudai - all you can drink / tabehoudai - all you can eat) for 3000 yen (>$30) many others didnt because they said it was too expensive... seriously? I think I got my $30 worth. Anyway it was a total blast, everyone had fun. Kevin drank a bit too much and paid for it, but walked home (and actually led) just fine.

After I put the kids to bed, I was up having a couple more beers and talking world politics with Taka, A German guy and a French guy. Went to bed at 4:30.

土曜日
Saturday - The plan Saturday was to relax and practice the speech, then go out later to カラオケ(karaoke) Which worked out well considering my late nite, not that I practiced much but I rested a lot. ^^; At about 4 we headed off to 四条(shijo - the name of a street (and station) that is the major nightlife and shopping area in 京都)
and ate at the 回転寿司(KaitenZushi - a sushi shop where there is a converyor belt and you just take what you want and pay by the plate at the end, almost eveerything is 100 yen (>$1)

After stuffing ourselves, we went to a desert place to induce diabetic coma. Just wait till you see the pictures (if I ever get a chance to tag and upload them.... sorry) They had over 100 different kinds of parfaits, including a couple GIGANTIC ones meant for um... entire sumo teams...

Then it was finally time to meet at the same 回転寿司 place to go off カラオケing. The place was bigger, nicer, and more expensive than Oppereta which we usually go to, and was a lot of fun. After missing the last bus and having to take the Taxi home from the last station (not that expensive, but everyone always complains) it was rest and study time again.

日曜日
Sunday - YAY! The long awaited day has come, I get to see Nobuko and Minori! Me and Kyle went to 大阪 (Osaka) to meet up with them. We spent a bit of time shopping and then went to eat お好み焼き (Okonomiyaki - A Japanese specialty which I love) Where we once again ate more food than is humanly probable. For 4 people: Some meat+kimchi appetizer I couldnt eat, then 3 large お好み焼き then 2 オムそば (omsoba - noodles wrapped in an omlet) then fried tofu, then 2 more large お好み焼き with noodles, and of course a couple beers. It was seriously hard work near the end. But it was so wonderful to sit there and just talk, everyone is so nice they keep wanting to play tour guide and take us wherever we want to go, but we dont know where to go well and I really just wanted to talk with my friends.

After dinner, we did a bit of お見上げ (omiage - gifts to take home) shopping, which was all waking around not talking. So I brought up the idea of カキ氷 (kakigoori - shaved ice, but the Japanese do it so intracately...) so we went off to eat EVEN MORE and talk more. Sadly after that it was past time to leave, so we had to say goodbye. I miss them already.

There was a fun little game going on the whole time, when we first got there they bought us these deep fried cream puffs that were really good. So we bought them dinner. They then bought us the カキ氷, but before that we had already bought them some small お見上げ. As we left we gave it to them. I gave Minori a clip with Hello Kitty holding a glass of 梅酒 (umeshu - Plum wine) because she ordered some at dinner. Kyle got Nobuko Hello Kitty riding a plane cell strap.

-------------------

So how are you all liking your free Japanese lessons? Hope you enjoy.

I am still hopelessly behind on pictures, but I I did put some new ones up, go check em out.

Links of the day!

The benefits of facial peircings Found this while checking the weather in Osaka.

日本に走ってる

2008-07-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

[Nihon ni hashiteru - Running through Japan]
(I am embarrased to say I am not sure what particle to use, but で doesnt sound right to me for some reason)

Wow, I dont update nearly enough. Every post is long and I forget stuff. The pictures are a good supliment though as I comment on almost every one. Hopefully I will have pictures up in the next 2 days. The program is just super busy, I am just slammed with work since I am covering all new stuff for the first time and I have this darn speech to write... anyway on with it.

I'll start on Sat because it's easier... Dont remember Thursday well and Friday was an early night because of...

土曜日
Saturday - At 7AM we met to head to 広島(Hiroshima)via the 新幹線(Shikansen - bullet train) We arrived around 12:30 and then took a train to 宮島(Miyajima) where I also went 4 years ago. It is a small island they have been building temples on for over 600 years and is most famous for the red tori gate in the water that is in so many Japanese travel brocures. Sadly, we only had about an hour on the island, which is about 1/3rd of the time you need to enjoy it. So we ran thru the major temple and grabbed a snack and were out. We were supposed to have more time but we missed a train previously.

From there, we headed to the 原爆ドーム(Neculear Bomb Dome) and Museum which I also went to 4 years ago. We had more time at the museum and was able to do it all. Then headed to our 旅館 (ryokan - Japanese inn) and FINALLY GOT TO PUT OUR BAGS DOWN. We took a quick shower before listening to 2 women speak who had survived the bomb drop. It was a shame everyone's camera either ran out of space or batteries for the 2nd speaker, so we only have one recorded. Listening to them speak was something very special most foreigners and I would think even Japanese people dont bother to/get to do, so it was a very special part of the trip.

After that, we had 広島style お好み焼き(okonomiyaki - a specialty food of Hiroshima and Kansai (関西）that is different in the different regions.) 広島style has noodles in it. And then went out drinking (of course!) But ended up at a 外人(gaijin - foreigner) bar because that is where Paul went and no one could find anything any better.

日曜日
Sunday - After breakfast, we left the 旅館 and got back on the 新幹線 towards 京都(Kyoto) but got off at 姫路 (Himeji) to see 姫路城. (Himeji Castle) Once again it was very hot and humid and we carried our bags everywhere we went. I can normally walk for long distances just fine, but carying a bag severely shortens my endurance. My legs were aching below the knee by the end of the day. After 姫路 we got back on the 新幹線 to 京都 and bought a few things at the international super market inside 京都駅 (Kyoto Station) before returning home. I passed out at 10pm and got a good night's sleep.

月曜日
Monday - Why is it whenever I get a good night's sleep I am even more tired the next day? I was exhausted all day. Got my test back in which I got a 58 (not sure what it was out of, but probably above 100) and it wasnt the lowest score. After class I did my homework, had dinner, and worked on my speech. I tagged a few pictures before bed but they are not ready to upload yet.

火曜日
Tuesday -(today) Today was すみえれ幼稚園(Sumiere Kindergarden) where we attempted to teach 99 4yr olds "Old McDonald" while they stared at us. There is a Japanese version of the song which people told us they would know... they didnt. Still, it was a lot of fun. I took a lot of video.

After that, we had a break which I utilized to try to get people organized to go out Friday night, and then did 書道(shodo - kanji calligraphy) and now am sitting here trying to think of anything other than my speech to do.

Guh.. guess I'll go do it, I am sure you're sick of reading this by now.

Links of the day!

blah

テレビとお茶

2008-07-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

(terebi to Ocha - TV and(green) Tea)

*PS - New pics up*

Well the pace is getting to this old man. Prob will be in bed just a little after writing this. (It's 8:30 as I start)

火曜日
Tuesday - JC and Kevin went to Shijo but after a long day at school and little sleep, me and Kyle decided to chill. We heard a certain show was on at 7pm ch12 (NHK) at 7pm so... we watched FULL HOUSE IN DUBBED JAPANESE. Admit it, you are all jealous. You just haven't lived till youve seen it. I did take a video of the opening song, prob wont be up till early next week though.

After that we watched an English practice show. It was a simple cartoon in English with Japanese subtitles so it was actually good reading pracitce. After the show became all English we changed the channel...

And found a really cool and funny show. First of all know almost all Japanese tv shows are 'variety shows' meaning all sorts of strange crap happens. First the 2 main guys were dressed as investigators and went to an all girls high school. They had to solve many varios puzzles (I am guessing the girls created them?) from Kanji to word plays to musical challenges etc. One question led them to another and when they got to about 3 they got the code to open a trasure box in the room, which gave them part of a 'keyword' and led them to the next room. It was very interesting to watch them work. It was rather suprizing how much we all understood as well.

After that (same show) they did a "sleeping face" contest... where they woke up like 12 18-25 yr old men early in the morning, make them work out all day, then let them finally pass out at 2:30. They then did before and after comparisons of what they looked like awake and asleep. I have absolutely no idea what the point of this was, but it was still rather entertaining.

After that we turned it off and I attempted to write my speech. I am going to totally fail this thing, but I dont care. As I emailed my sensei yesterday I am basically lost in class, and if I locked myself in my room and studied I could probably learn it all, but I came to Japan to actually USE my Japanese, I can study in my room at home. I will definately do so when I get home, this book does seem to be pretty good.

水曜日
(suiyoubi - wednesday)

After actually not drinking anything at all last night, I woke up absolutely exhausted today. I wasnt the only one, there were a lot of blank stares in class. That's ok. It's all good. This time it's not review. It's all new stuff to me, and I already know I am a slow learner, especially when it comes to Japanese.

After class, me and Kyle went to Book-Off, and I spent about $100. I bought about 8 volumes of manga, 4 CDs: Tommy Airlines (with DVD), Aqua Timez, a CD/DVD I cant read the kanji on (always looking for new artists) and a FREENOTE DUAL CD! - god I've been looking for them forever I also got a few Super Famicom games: Pilotwings, World Heroes, and Street Fighter 2. Oh ya, and a Game Boy Color game just cuz it was Card Captor Sakura.

We are supposed to have our speeches done by Friday, but that is completely impossible. I am about to go to now and everyone is already planning a night out tomorrow. As I said- I can sit at home and study in America.

This weekend we go to Hiroshima, which should be quite interesting. Because of the expense, no conversation partners are coming witch honestly rather blows. Everyone wants Biwako, I honestly think Hiroshima will be just as good or better, except for the fact no CPs are coming.

Oh, I got an email from my parents today that Hairy has a broken leg and several bite marks, and it may or may not be Oscar. Damn cat is getting onry in his old age... just like his master. They are both in boarding as my parents take a few days off for fun. I hope Hairy is ok and Oscar calms down. It's nice to be missed, but missed violently? That's a new one...

Greg - Just saw your comment, dont worry about it, I've already given up.

Mom - I am doing Japanese noodles for lack of a better idea.

Winston - click the pics link at the top of the Blog for all the pics you could possibly want. Tell Ryan Chibi-Ryan is pretty cool and does remind me a lot of him. I keep calling him Ryan...

Till next time- though next time may not be till Monday. Twitter will be updated more often (see right) assuming it's not broken.

Links of the day!

na I want to go to bed. It's 9:07, I feel old.

楽しかった

2008-06-30T03:50:00.000-07:00

(tanoshikatta - fun)

*get comfortable, it's a long one*

I have been looking forward to posting a happy blog for once, and I definately have one. It hasn't really gotten any easier, but I have had a lot of fun. I honestly dont mind getting my ass kicked out here language wise, in fact I kind of expect it. But I hadnt really done anything else so it was grating on me.

木曜日
Lets see.... Thursday night Taka, a friend from last year who is now living in the Ihouse with all the gaijin (foreigners) threw us a welcome party. Was a blast. Up way too late and everything, but hey thats normal here. See, most other students start class like 11am and end at like 2... I dont mind, for a month I can draw up some super powers. Everyone is so wonderful here that I dont want to miss a thing.

金曜日
Friday night was a chill night. We took a test Friday (I got 94/115 others got it out of 111, no idea what the difference is.) And afterwards just had a few beers and hung out doing nothing. A rare and valuable thing, but often feels like we missed out.

土曜日
Well we made up for it the next two days. Saturday was the day trip to Nara, seeing all the same temples I saw last year but still enjoying the company and such. I spent a lot of the day talking to one of Zack's conversation partners Izumi. I have noticed this year the American to Nihonjin ratio on trips and such is rather low this year which makes it hard to pracitce Japanese. I was glad to get the practice in.

Afterwards we went to a bar with Paul (program co-ordinator) briefly. He couldnt really hang out since he has a 2 year old and one on the way, but we happened to run into a group of the conversation partners and they invited us to a nomihodai. (all you can drink) Now they arent stupid, service was rediculously slow, especially for one of the most customer service oriented customers in the world. All you can drink came with lots of food (none of which I could eat) and lasted 2 hours, but it took about 20 mins to get my next drink every time. We ordered a couple rounds of shots that were much more like spoonfulls. Still, everyone was absolutely wonderful, especially Yoshiki who seemed to be running the show. Out late meant walking home about 20 mins from Kamigamo Jinja (jinja = shrine) in the rain, but I didnt mind at all.

日曜日
Sunday - was the best day yet by far. We met Meg (YAY!) and Mariko (my conversation partner from 2 years ago) at Shijo station and went to Osaka to meet Chikara, Isson, Keiji, and Tsu-kun who were all CPs from last year. It was rediculously hot and humid in Osaka, but still just soo much fun to see everyone. Was really just a wonderful day. Makes me wish we could have lots more time to just hang out like last year rather than just make them show us around random places.

月曜日

Monday - like I said, Japanese really hasnt gotten any easier for me. I keep making fun of Onozaki sensei calling him kibishi sensei. Kibishi means strict, and Kishi is another teacher that runs the program but is mostly too busy to actually teach us now. Today we got to have Kishi sensei for the first time, and it was a nice change. Onozaki sensei gives 0 english and 0 furigana. (furigana is the readings so you can at least pronounce kanji you dont know) In many ways this is very good, Kishi sensei actually gives too much furigana, for words that we should have known long, long ago. But the 4-5 word explinations of new gramar in english make everything click. Back to Onozaki sensei tomorrow, who is already in full swing sending us links in Japanese we cant read on our presentation topics. I picked noodles, well... mostly because I couldnt think of a god damned thing. Should be interesting.

Right now I am in the computer lab pretending I am actually studying. Planning on reading wikipedia about noodles.... well assuming I dont spend all night tagging pics. If I do you may see some new ones!

Links of the day!

I have not been at the computer at all lately, so I dont have crap. Hopefully you found this post somewhat interesting.

写真

2008-06-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

(shashin - pictures)

Well.... theyre up. At least some of them. I forgot I cant use "&", "@" etc or the XML freaks out. (sorry non computer geeks!)

Anyway, theyre up. Go look at em and make fun of me. I'm used to it, especially in a country where I dont know the language and a class I am the worst student in. Tomorrow we all get to fail our first test. If only there was a SINGLE sentance in english to explain WHEN and HOW to use the new grammar. Examples alone dont do it for any of us.

I've been so negitive lately. I am having fun. I just really want to learn as much as possible while I am here and I've been feeling like I've been sliding backwards. Oh well, to bed with me!

Links of the day!

Where the hell is Matt Gotta give credit to Zain for this one. Watch the video- it rocks

怒ってる

2008-06-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

(okotteru - pissed off)

Well, looks like no pictures for you. God damned retarded firewall here wont even let me ftp them up to post on the blog. Not sure just how I can get around it other than waste time and money at an internet cafe.

Class is otherwise going well except I have absolutely no idea what to pick for my presentation. If I dont pick something I am interested in, it will show and therefore suck. Last year I had the same problem and had to leave it for the last second and it really showed.

The days are so very short here. Wake up at 7:30, eat, shower, then class from 8-4. After that come back, relax and chat for ~90 mins, and then eat, do homework, and play on the computer a bit before bed. Problem is I cant do shit from behind this stupid firewall, especially with my computers going constantly offline. Unless we have been having power outages at the house due to the heatwave, I am severely dissapointed in eBox.

I'm really not as in bad of a mood as it seems by this. But this firewall thing is just pissing me off. The speech topic also has me very worried. Time for bed.

Links of the day!

GRRR!

疲れた

2008-06-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

(Tsukareta - exhausted.. well not quite that extreme)

Today was the first day of school. I just finished my homework a bit ago and now I am sitting in the computer room sipping on some Oni Kuroshi sake.

Sorry I havent put up any pics yet or blogged much, but I have been busy adjusting. I really want to do as well as I can here. This is the last program, and at some point I have to become a real adult and take on some responsibilities that wont just let me run off to Japan whenever I want.

That said, I have my work out for me. Class entirely in Japanese, textbook entirely in Japanese, (kanji with no furigana) and so far it has been a little difficult. Our main teacher, Onozaki sensei, speaks at a deafining pace. I litterally was physically knocked back twice today while he spoke. Still, for the most part I get the meaining, he seems to give a lot of unneccesary information. Or at least I hope so. ^^;

I hear my friends at work are working very hard without me. Believe me, this is no vacation. I really want to do as well as I can. I am speaking way too much english though, and it seems like everyone is having trouble breaking the ice with their conversation partners this year.

Hmm, not much else to say. I do miss everyone. It is very dificult to call home at a decent time with school going. I really havent wanted to be in front of the computer much either, which is most of the problem with tagging and uploading pics. I had the firewall almost completely defeated the other day, but either my config changed or they fixed my little hole.

Alright, bedtime.

Links of the day!

eh- lazy.

京都産業で

2008-06-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

(Kyoto Sangyo de - at Kyoto Sangyo)

Yup, I made it. Very quiet here right now with just about everyone either not here yet or currently in school, but thats fine. I am doing laundry and have already called my parents and V, who didn't anwser of course.

Today seems like it will be a quiet one, which is pretty fine by me. It will be busy very soon. The best news is I got a hold of my friend from 2004 Kiyomi. Last year I wasn't able to track down her email, but Meg got it for me last night. Thanks Meg!

Not much more to say, I am glad I can finally stop living out of a suitcase and make myself at home

Links of the day!

The great Office War I know it's probably old, but I just found it yesterday.

まだ生きてる？

2008-06-17T23:50:00.001-07:00

（madaikiteru？ ‐still alive？)

sure would be nice to know my parents know I'm alive． I'm begining to think theyre the ones who died in a plane crash．．．

So, in a probably stupid move, heres my cell email: y7df7db47373x__@softbank.ne.jp replace the 2 _'s with my age 3 years ago．（hey I'm not that stupid)

Anyone else who I like and knows the answer feel free to say hi．dont get too chatty tho, it is a prepaid cell afterall．

Tomorrow I enter the dorm meaning reliable power and net access．

Be sure to check twitter on the right side of the page （assuming the baracuda doesnt eat it) as it is updated most often．

京都にいる

2008-06-16T21:07:00.001-07:00

（Kyoto　ｎｉ　ｉｒｕ　＝　Ｉｎ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ）

Ｙｅｓ　Ⅰ　ａｍ　ｉｎ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ，　ｔｈｅ　ｔｒｉｐ　ｗａｓ　ｌｏｎｇ．　ｂｕｔ　Ｉ　ｍａｄｅ　ｉｔ．　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｓｔａｙｉｎｇ　ａｔ　ａ　ｎｉｃｅ　ｌｉｔｔｌｅ　Ｒｙｏｋａｎ　ａｎｄ　ａｌｒｅａｄｙ　ｇｏｔ　ｍｙ　ｃｅｌｌ　ｐｈｏｎｅ　ｈｏｏｋｅｄ　ｕｐ．　Ｔｈｅ　ｒｙｏｋａｎ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｎｏｔ　ｈａｖｅ　ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ　ａｎｄ　ａｐｐａｒｅｎｔｌｙ　ｐｏｗｅｒ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｕｓｅ，　ｓｏ　ｍｙ　ｃｅｌｌ　ｐｈｏｎｅ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｄｉｅｄ　ａ　ｂｉｔ　ａｇｏ．

Ｉ　ａｍ　ａｌｓｏ　ｎｏｔ　ｓｕｒｅ　ｙｅｔ　ｉｆ　ｍｙ　ｐａｒｅｎｔｓ　ｋｎｏｗ　ｉｆ　Ｉ　ａｍ　ａｌｉｖｅ　ｄｉｓｐｉｔｅ　ｒｅｐｅａｔｅｄ　ａｔｔｅｍｐｔｓ　ｔｏ　ｅｍａｉｌ　ｔｈｅｍ，　ｓｏ　Ｉ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔ　Ｉ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｓｐｅｎｄ　５００ｙｅｎ　（～＄５）　ｏｎ　ａｎ　ｈｏｕｒ　ａｔ　ａｎ　ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ　ｃａｆｅ　ａｎｄ　ｌｅｔ　ａ　Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ　ｆｉｇｈｔ　ｍｅ　ｔｏｏｔｈ　ａｎｄ　ｎａｉｌ　ａｓ　Ｉ　ｔｙｐｅ　ｔｈｉｓ．（Ｃａｎｔ　ｓｅｅｍ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ｉｔ　ｔｏ　ｓｔａｙ　ｉｎ　ｎｏｒｍａｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ　ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ，　ｓｏ　ｔｈａｔｓ　ｗｈｙ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｓｏ　ｌａｒｇｅ．Ｔｈｅ　Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅｃａｎｔ　ｔｅｌｌ　ｔｈｅ　ｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｃｅ．）

Ｉ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｒｅｍｏｔｅ－ｃｏｎｔｒｏｌ　ｍｙ　ｈｏｍｅ　ｐｃ　ａｎｄ　ｂｅ　ｄｏｎｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｉｔ，　ｂｕｔ　ｉｔ　ｓｅｅｍｓ　all　ｍｙ　ｐｃｓ　ａｒｅ　ｏｆｆ　ｌｉｎｅ．．．　ｏｆ　ｃｏｕｒｓｅ．　（Ｒｅｂｏｏｔ　ｂｌｕｅ　ｐｃ　ｐｌｅａｓｅ　ｐａｒｅｎｔａｌ　ｕｎｉｔｓ）

Ｔｈｉｓ　ｍｏｒｎｉｎｇ　Ｉ　ｗｏｋｅ　ｕｐ　ｅａｒｌｙ　ａｎｄ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｔｏ　Ｋｙｏｍｉｚｕｄｅｒａ．　Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｈｏｐｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｐｉｃｓ　ｏｎ　ａ　ｄａｙ　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ｗａｓｎｔ　ａ　ｂｉｌｌｉｏｎ　ｐｅｏｐｌｅ　ｔｈｅｒｅ，　ａｎｄ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｍｏｓｔ　ｐａｒｔ　Ｉ　ｓｕｃｃｅｅｄｅｄ．　Ａｆｔｅｒ　ｔｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｈｅａｄｅｄ　ｉｎ　ｓｅａｒｃｈ　ｏｆ　ｍｙ　ｆａｖｏｒｉｔｅ　ｐｌａｃｅ　ｉｎ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ－　Ｔｅｒａｍａｃｈｉ．　Ｔｈａｔ　ｉｓ　ｗｈｅｒｅ　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｎｏｗ．　Ｓｏ　ｍａｎｙ　ｍｅｍｏｒｉｅｓ．　Ｓｈａｋｅｙｓ，ｐｌａｃｅｓ　Ｋｙｌｅ　ｓｈｏｐｐｅｄ　ｆｏｒ　ｃｌｏｔｈｅｓ，ｔｈｅ　ｐｌａｃｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｅ　ＨＵＧＥ　ｓｕｎｄａｅｓ，　ａｌｌ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｌａｃｅｓ　ｗｅ　ｌｏｓｔ　Ｔｒｅｖｏｒ　ｉｎ．．．　Ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ｂａｃｋ．

Ｕｎｆｏｒｔｕｎａｔｅｌｙ　ｍｙ　ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ　ａｒｅ　ａｌｌ　ｃｕｒｒｅｎｔｌｙ　ｂｕｓｙ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｗｏｒｋ　ｏｒ　ｓｃｈｏｏｌ，　ｓｏ　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｏｎ　ｍｙ　ｏｗｎ　ｆｏｒ　ｎｏｗ．　Ｎｏ　ｍａｔｔｅｒ，　ｔｈｅ　ｗｅａｔｈｅｒ　ｉｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｎｉｃｅ　ｔｏｄａｙ，　（ａｔ　ｌｅａｓｔ　ｆｏｒ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｏｆ　ｙｅａｒ）　ｎｏｔ　ｔｏｏ　ｈｏｔ　ａｎｄ　ｎｏｔ　ｔｏｏ　ｈｕｍｉｄ，　ｂｕｔ　ｓｔｉｌｌ　ｆａｒ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｈｕｍｉｄ　ｔｈａｎ　ｈｏｍｅ．

Ｒｉｇｈｔ　ｎｏｗ　Ｉ　ｓｅｅ　ｉｔｓ　ａｂｏｕｔ　９：３０ｐｍ　ｏｎ　Ｍｏｎｄａｙ．　Ｆｏｒ　ｍｅ　ｉｔｓ　３；３０ｐｍ　Ｔｕｅｓｄａｙ．　Ｈｅｌｌｏ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｕｔｕｒｅ．

Ｐｌａｎｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｅｓｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｄａｙ　ｉｎｃｌｕｄｅ　ｆｉｎｄｉｎｇ　ａ　ｂａｎｋ　ｓｏ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｗｉｔｈｄｒａｗ　ｅｎｏｕｇｈ　ｍｏｎｅｙ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　Ｒｙｏｋａｎ．　Ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｔｏ　ｃｈｅｃｋ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｏｍｏｒｒｏｗ　ｂｕｔ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｃｈｅｃｋ　ｉｎ　ｔｏ　ａ　ｎｅａｒｂｙ　ｍｕｃｈ　ｃｈｅａｐｅｒ　ｏｎｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｌａｓｔ　ｎｉｔｅ　ｔｉｌ　Ｉ　ｅｎｔｅｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｄｏｒｍｓ．　Ｈｅｒｅｓ　ｈｏｐｉｎｇ　ｔｈａｔ　ｏｎｅ　ｈａｓ　ｐｏｗｅｒ．

Ｐａｒｅｎｔｓ－　i　ｅｍａｉｌｅｄ　ｂｏｔｈ　Ｄａｄ　ａｔ　ｗｏｒｋ　ａｎｄ　Ｍｏｍ　ａｔ　ｈｏｍｅ．Ｍｙ　ｅｍａｉｌ　ａｄｄｒｅｓｓ　ｉｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｗｅｉｒｄ　ｓｏ　ｃｈｅｃｋ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｓｐａｍ　ｆｉｌｔｅｒｓ．Ｉｔｓ　ａ　ｓｔｒｉｎｇ　ｏｆ　ｒａｎｄｏｍ　ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ　＠ｓｏｆｔｂａｎｋ．ｎｅ．ｊｐ

Ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｎｉｃｅ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ａｂｌｅ　ｔｏ　ｒｅｌａｘ　ａ　ｂｉｔ，　Ｉ　ｃｅｒｔａｉｎｌｙ　ｎｅｅｄ　ｉｔ．　Ｈｏｗｅｖｅｒ　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｈｏｐｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ａｓ　ｍｕｃｈ　Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｐｒａｃｔｉｃｅ　ａｓ　ｐｏｓｓｉｂｌｅ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ　Ｉ　ｓｔａｒｔ　ｃｌａｓｓｅｓ．　Ｗｅ　ｓｈａｌ　ｓｅｅ．

Links of the day!

ＡＪａｐａｎｅｓｅ　Ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ　Ｗｈａｔ　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｆｉｇｈｔｉｎｇ　ｒｉｇｈｔ　ｎｏｗ．　Ｎｏｔｉｃｅ　ｈｏｗ　ｓｍａｌｌ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｐａｃｅｂａｒ　ｉｓ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈａｔ　ａｌｌ　Ｐｕｎｃｔｕａｔｉｏｎ　ｉｓ　ｉｎ　ｃｏｍｐｌｅｔｅｌｙ　ｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｔ　ｐｌａｃｅｓ．　Ｉｎ　ｃａｓｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｈａｖｅｎｔ　ｎｏｔｉｃｅｄ，　Ｉｈａｖｅ　ｎｏ　ｉｄｅａ　ｗｈｅｒｅ　ｔｈｅ　ａｐｏｓｔｒｏｐｈｅ　ｉｓ．

戻る

2008-06-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

(Modoru - to return)

Ive been meaning to write this for awhile, but I have been so busy. Right now is my last few hours to get anything done, and I'm really not sure what to do with myself.

I am returning to Kyoto tomorrow morning. Of course I arrive the following evening... and I dont have my confirmation yet on how to get from the airport to my place... Whatever, I'll figure it out.

Yes I am going back. People keep asking me if I am excited. ATM more nervous. I am not very confident in my Japanese skills and this time it's a 3rd year college course. All I know is I will do my best.

Last nite I saw Hulk, great movie. Tonight going out with other friends, probably to see Indy. So I got to get to work.

Links of the day!

How to stalk me- everything is linked here anyway, including the top right of the site and the sidebar.
Twitter I love it. I will be sending updates from my cell phone and will get replies at night at my computer
DigsbyThat chat window on the right. It is way more than that though, its by far the best IM client I've ever used and it is still in early beta. Check it out.
GalleryWhere my pictures will go assuming I can get it to work. I am so leaving my webhost when I get home. Btw- link subject to change. Ill update the navigation but I might forget this post.

eigo

2007-08-06T07:20:00.001-07:00

(eigo - English)

OK, back to English, though most who read this probably know Japanese better than me... It has been a week and that is way too long for this post, I haven't yet told you about what is quite arguably my best days in Japan.

Nobuko's family were so very nice it was amazing. Her mother and aunt spent all day cooking more than a table full of vegetarian food for me. I cant say I know what it all was, but it was all delicious. I absolutely stuffed myself and they still kept telling me to eat. Every time I took a sip from my beer they refilled it for me as well, with probably my current favorite Japanese beer. (Kirin The Gold) Her mother had asked Nobuko and practiced to say 'Welcome to my home' when I got there which was a really nice thing for her to do. It was a really nice evening where I talked to her family quite a bit. I do regret that I did not get to talk to her dad more, as he went upstairs a bit early and then because of his work schedule I did not get to see him again for the trip.

I could have come with an empty suitcase and her mother would have filled it. She gave me tea, mocchi, snacks that the Japanese eat while drinking beer, gum and traditional Osaka candies. She would have given me a lot more, but there was simply no room in my suitcase. As it was I felt she gave me too much, with all the wonderful things she did for me while I was there. Nobuko and Minor both chipped in to buy me a Junbei, a kind of Japanese traditional outfit that is kind of like a yukatta with shorts. Her mother completed the outfit by giving me Tatami sandals, which is great since my old ones were beginning to fall apart.

The next morning, Nobuko and her mother put out a large spread for me again while they ate coffee jelly and toast... I felt like a king in their home. It was really just too nice. After that Nobuko and I met Minori for a tour of Osaka. Minori had never done this either so it was new to her as well.

First let me tell you that it was about 983 degrees out and humid. Nobuko wore a sweat shirt..... I would have died. There seem to be two schools of thought on beauty in Japan. One is to stay as white as possible (Nobuko's meathod) and the other is to get a fake tan till you're dark brown and then put on white makeup..... I must say between the two I prefer Nobuko's method by far. Minori doesn't seem to care either way. ^^

Anyway, we went for a tour of the rivers of the city by boat and then to Osaka castle. The boat ride was a nice chance to see the scenery around town quickly in the short time I had to see it. I really would like to explore Osaka more. The castle was beautiful on the outside. It really dominates the landscape of the city, even with all the skyscrapers. It was not at all what I expected inside. It was basically a museum of Osaka history with a great portion devoted to the 'Summer of War' when the original castle was burnt down. There were also family histories and the history of the building of the castle. On one of the floors they had many different Japanese generals' helmets you could try on for like $2. I tried hard to get Minori and Nobuko to do it and we could take a group picture, but they refused. They know too well it would go on the web I guess. ^^;

After the castle, we were all starving. There was a fair outside the castle and we walked thru it rather quickly, the best part is when they used an ice machine to 'snow' on everyone. It felt really, really good in the heat. We headed to an okonomiyaki restaurant (probably my favorite Japanese food) and stuffed ourselves. Then we went to the shopping areas of Osaka and had fun looking at everything. I got a couple manga and CDs at Book Off, but other than that I did not shop as I simply had no room in my bag. Osaka is beautiful at night, they light it up almost like Tokyo.

After that it was time to head home, and Minori parted with us. It is really hard to say goodbye to everyone. I really wish I could stay longer, but I guess that would only make it worse. I thanked her, as I thanked Nobuko later, for taking such good care of me from the day I got to Japan till the day I left.

Nobuko and I headed back towards her house, and went to a little festival for the kids where they had lots of kids games. We also ran into her mother, aunt and her aunt's son and his family. The cousins are about my age and have an adorable son. Her aunt bought me and Nobuko shaved ice and we fed a lot of it to the kid. In Japan they often add sweet milk to the shaved ice which I was skeptical about but it is really good. I would have liked to talk to the cousins more as it would have been interesting to talk to someone more my age, but I was just simply whiped out and did not have much Japanese ability.

After playing a few games, (which I suck at) we headed back to Nobuko's house. As we had eaten just a few hours before, we just had beer and snacks and a nice conversation. As it got later, Nobuko and I headed to the computer room (where I also stayed, do they know me or what?) and played on the computer till 3am when we just knew we should sleep. The next morning at 5:30 Nobuko woke me up (did not even hear the 5am alarm from my cell phone, but I had never used that alarm before) and it was off to the train station to leave. It was really hard to say goodbye for the last time. I really didn't want to go. Getting on the train 1 car early because it was about to leave I was an instantaneous celebrity. The whole car was filled with elementary students going somewhere, and they were all saying 'Hello!' to me. I responded to each one then found my seat in the next car and got comfortable. I sent out a goodbye and thank you email (the previous, previous post in Japanese) to everyone, but sadly that used the rest of my prepaid money so I couldn't respond to the responders.

3 hours on the Shinkansen later, I got on the hour train to Narita, and then it was time to go. The plane ride was uneventful, the most exciting things were that my bag actually wasn't over weight (30.2kg 31 is cut off) and I had a vegetarian meal this time. Arriving back in LA, Jeannine and Chrissie picked me up and we had breakfast at Hoff's hut. Then I spent the rest of the day fixing my parents network they broke (broke the power button on my router computer...) so we could all play on the Internet again.

*******

Since then, I have basically been recovering. I promised my body I would sleep when I got home, and it is quite angry at me I am going to work everyday. Still, I let myself rest all this weekend and I hope to be good today. I was all by myself all last week at work which was quite fun, that will not be the case this week. I am fighting hard for my Japanese ability to not disappear, and many of my friends have been emailing me. The thing is I am too brain dead after work to think in Japanese, so I have been lagging a bit (Sorry!)

Actually a funny side note. I told you about having 2 hours sleep the night before leaving. I sent an email to everyone (previous post in Japanese) saying I had fallen asleep on the train and ended up in Hokkaido (farthest north part of Japan) and was now a beer tester for Sapporo.... Almost everyone believed me... The Japanese are so honest and nice it is scary sometimes.

The pictures aren't up yet, I have been lagging, hopefully today. I am going to be moving my server to a new host over this week so there will probably be some outages. Don't worry, my crappy little site isn't going anywhere.

ただいま！

2007-07-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

実はまだアメリカに帰りません。東京へ新幹線で寝ちゃったので、北海度でSapporoビールのテスターに成りました。

（笑）いいかなぁ〜

とにかく、これは私のパソコンのメールです。忘れないでくださいね。もう、皆さんに会いたいよ！寂しいだよ！住所や電話番号や誕生日や名前の漢字やURLも教えってくださいね。（住所は漢字とかなお願い）

日曜日の朝さよならのメールはケータイのお金は全部を使いました。それから、回答はあまり読みません。ごめんね！

私のURL:

ブログ： http://edroach.blogspot.com

写真：　http://edamamebeans.com/gallery/main.php

音楽：　http://www.last.fm/user/eDRoaCH

2007-07-28T16:45:00.001-07:00

今大阪から東京まで新幹線で行ってる。
5週間の前に私達は知らない人達だった。今皆さんめっちゃなかがいいと思う。三年前友達と今年のCP達もIJPに入らない人も皆さんめっちゃ親切だよ。

日本語と英語とドイツ語も（かも^-')言葉が分からん。

アメリカに帰る後で絶対メールを送る！
ほんまに、ほんまに、まいどありがとうございました！忘れないでね〜♪

元気でね！

親切

2007-07-27T06:56:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to take a half second to say Nobuko's family are the nicest people in the world．

More details later, for now I don't want to miss a thing．

眠い

2007-07-27T00:55:00.001-07:00

(Nemui - tired)

Well I must be tired. I have good reason to be, up till 5am drinking sake and then up at 9 to finish packing. I wrote a longer post earlier on the computer but I got distracted and forgot to hit post(-"-;) From here on out its probably ケータイ (cell phone) only which means shorter posts and no pictures till I get back.

It is also quite draining to leave everyone. I made adozen new best friends in just 5 weeks and now I have to leave them．Thankfully many have plans to go to Cali soon. Those that dont I plan on convincing.(o^-')b

Now Im on a train back to ihouse to get my bags and then go to dinner at Nobukos house near Osaka where I will stay till early Sunday morning when I leave. There is very little time left...

I am just glad my dad seems ok．

Nobuko and Minori have a full day of sight seeing planned for me tomorrow．Sounds like a lot of fun, I cant wait.

Till next time.

荷物

2007-07-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

(nimotsu - luggage)

Well, it looks like I am all packed. At least I hope I am because there's damn sure no room in my bag... I do have 2 other bags I am not even using inside it, but I would really prefer to continue not using them. I am probably over-weight (my bag, I know I am over-weight) so I will have to pay at the airport, I dont care.

However I am going shopping with Nobuko today, and I still dont know what I am doing with my bag in the meantime. Also, if I buy anything my bag will explode.... and those of you who know me know I am going to end up buying something...

Last night a bunch of us went out to eat and have a few drinks for my last night in Kyoto. It was really fun, everyone is so wonderful, and I finally got to see Natsumi again and talk to her. Still as kind and cheerful as ever. I have come here twice and both times I have definately been very lucky to have the conversation partners I had.

After dinner, I ended up staying up till 5am with a few of the people from the Ihouse having a few drinks. Then got up at 9am. Such is my life in Japan.

*** I forgot to post this earlier. As I have a chance to wait for the Taxi I thought I would repost it real quick***

Links of the day!

おみあげ

2007-07-25T03:21:00.000-07:00

(omiage - gifts bought when traveling)

I am finally freaking done with omiage shopping. If you dont like what you get, sorry I dont care. Well sorta.... Anyway most omiage will be shipped home in a box tomorrow so I probably wont get it for about 2 weeks, so dont hold your breath.

I also went to Book Off today and spent about $100 on CDs. This may seem like a lot, but Japanese cds, even in Japan, are around $30 new. I got about 10 cds for $100 I find that quite good.

Tomorrow I must pack, pay 'rent' and then go out with friends for the last time in Kyoto before Friday when Nobuko comes to whisk me away to Osaka.

I had an interesting experience today when I finished shopping. I went to a restaraunt in Kyoto station to eat Okonomiyaki, and I had difficulty getting them to NOT cover it in the fish flakes Harry Newman loves so much. So the woman next to me helped me out and we ended up talking for about an hour. It was nice to know I could almost kind of hold up my half of the conversation for awhile. Kind of like 3 years ago at The Hub in Tokyo at 4am.

Right now I should be packing but there is a party upstairs.... so I'll probably pack tomorrow. ^^ I also hope to upload another batch of pics tomorrow, probably the last time this trip. The rest will go up when I get back home and recover.

Dad is back in the hospital last I heard. It is a few more hours before I can call and get the newest details. I really hope everything is ok.

Jeannine, its nice to know you fill in for me making a fool of yourself while I'm away. I can always count on you. ^^ And the pictures are on the 'Gallery' link on the right of this post....

Links of the day!

no. I'm not even using my laptop, and Chinese girls are yelling at eachother next to me...

The great smiley post

2007-07-23T09:00:00.001-07:00

Back on the keitai．．．I think I wanted to do this 3 years ago but never did. Japanese smilies are a wonder to behold and I am going to post all the ones in this phone．Later I will come back and format it．Here goes

1： (^-^) (^-^)v (o^-')b o(^o^)o d(^-^) d(^O^)b (^ヘ^)v (*^_^*) ('ー'#)/ ~ヽ('ー`)ノ~

2： ('◇')ゞ (・ω・)ノヾ(*'-'*) (^-^)/~ (*'-^)-☆ (｀o'ヾ (^з^)-☆Chu!! ('O')/ハイ! d(-_-) m(_ _)m

3： <(｀^´)>エッヘン (¬_¬)ぁゃιぃ（｀ε´）ぶー <<o(>_<)o>> （｀曲´＃） (-"-;) ＼(`o'") こら-っ {{ (>_<) }} o(><;)(;><)o (*'へ'*)

4： (*'o'*) あっ＼(◎o◎)／！ w(☆o◎)wガーン (ΘoΘ;) (*_*) ヾ(^_^; (・ω・;)(;・ω・) σ(^◇^;)。。。 ...((((((^_^;) ┐('〜`；)┌

5： (ToT) (>_<) (-_-；) {{{{(+＿+)}}}} 。。。。(〃_ _)σ‖ φ(_ _)。ｏ○グゥ (=_=) (´〜`) (ρ.-) (+.+)(-.-)(_ _)…

6：＼(^O^)人(^O^)／ ((( ^^)爻(^^ ))) (^_-)db(-_^) ρ(..、)ヾ(^-^;) (；＾＾)人(＾＾；) ヽ(*^‐^)人(^-^*)ノ ♪( ^o^)＼(^-^ )♪ ( ^o^)ρ(^O^ )アーン ☆(*^)(*^o^*)チュッ ☆ヽ(~-~(・_・ )ゝ

7： (^O^)／C□☆ ／(.^.)＼ ( ..)φ (-.-)y-~~~ .....((((*^o^)ノノ ε=ヾ(;゜ロ゜)ノ (^〜^)モグモグ ( ^-^)_旦"" o(^-^o) (o^-^)o♪ (・o・ ))(( ・o・)？

8：オリャ(ノ-o-)ノ ┫ o(゜へ゜)○☆ドカッ＼(`O´θ／ (^-^)/((((((●~* (・_・)ｒ鹵~＜巛巛 ( ^ー^)σ" ポイ (/--)/ ⌒○ (^_^)-c<T_T)キュゥ (^_^；)＼('_' ) (・_*)＼ペチ

9： (((/ToT)/...‖wc‖ ‖wc‖ ヽ( ´ー`)ノ {[(-_-)(-。-)y-]} (*~ρ~)ヨッテマース ( ・_<)σ…---・ U^ェ^U ＾(・＠・)＾（・Θ・） (=^・^=) (^O_O^)

10： ☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡 ∵・∴・★ ◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇ ■□■□■□■□ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ //*/*//*/*// --*--*--*--*--*-- 〜・＊・〜・＊・〜 ☆*:・°★:*:・° └∵┐♪┌∵┘

There, I hope you feel enlightened． Mind you these are just what are in my 安っぽいプリーペッドケータイ（cheezy prepaid phone) I have recieved much stranger．

And now, after a half hour of work, I hope this works．．．

-------

Seems it worked, tho the font is different which screws things up a bit. About half of these are fairly obvious, the rest are just plain rediculous. I love the dog personally. I also often use the 3 faces falling asleep one.

I am not sure how to edit it better without putting each on its own line and making this post REALLY LONG. I also still need to add the topics instead of just #s, but I am too lazy right now at 1:25am.

Tonights dinner went well, about 8 people came and all seemed to enjoy. For once I was actually too busy having fun to take many pictures. I feel bad that I didn't really get a chance to talk to everyone one on one, 10pm curfew for guests just sucks.

晩ご飯

2007-07-23T01:16:00.000-07:00

(bangohan, dinner)

As I sit here a bit nervous trying to waste another hour or so, I thought I would fill you in.

I went to Kyoto station yesterday and did some shopping (still not done with omiage~ argh) and found the international grocery store. First thing I saw was potato gnocchi and right then and there I decided to cook for everyone tonight. Thing is it is finals and it's kinda like herding cats to get any number of people together in the same place. So we shal se if anyone actually shows up... I have more than enough food for all. (I hope) Going to do gnocchi in a pre-made mushroom red sauce that I am adding sliced sun dried tomatoes and garlic to, garlic bread and sun dried tomato pesto bread.

I also saw Meg off from the station to her 1 week job in Tokyo. It really sucks not having her around, she is so much fun. But so is everyone else, and I plan to have lots of fun even without her. Maybe I will make her jealous. ^^ I think she may already be jealous she can't let me cook for her.

Today I went back to Kyoto station and bought a bit more food (the makings of the garlic/pesto bread) and went up Kyoto tower. Not nearly as tall as Tokyo tower but in many ways a more beautiful view. It is a lot greener. Obviously I took lots of pics and will share them with all soon.

As I expected, the last days here are flying by. I still have to buy several people gifts and am running out of time and ideas.... it is really hard to personalize everything so please dont kill me when you dont get what you hoped for. (None of you gave me orders anyway :P) Tomorrow I hang out with Gaccha and Madoka though I dont know where or when, and hopefully I'll finish omiage shopping then. The thing about omiage shopping is they wrap everything, which is nice, cept when I dont know what the hell (hi Meg!) is in it... so when it gets to you all messily wrapped, thats not the Japanese's fault its mine because I re-wrapped it without even having new tape....

Thursday is my last night in Kyoto and it looks like I will get to hang out with Natsumi, my CP from three years ago, which is nice. She seems very busy I didn't think it would happen.

Anyway I guess thats it. Dad I hope you are doing ok and I will see you soon.

Links of the day!

na...

写真

2007-07-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

(shashin - picture)

I uploaded all the pictures up until yesterday, in which I did nothing because I was tired, and now I still am. :P Anyway there is Weekend 3, Week 4 and the Farewell Party up. Btw since no one seems to be commenting maybe I should explain it- if you go to a picture page (where the picture is bigger than a thumbnail) there is a little bubble icon with a + sign. It is above and below the picture so it is easy to find. Clicking on either one will get you to the comment add area. The rest should be fairly obvious. Then again maybe everyone just forgot about me. I know Jeannine doesn't return my emails. :P

Right now I am just sitting here realizing how fast everything is going to go and how many people and things I still want to see. I needed to rest yesterday, but probably will not let myself do that again. My first day back at work is going to be fuuuuuun...

Trevor leaves today (wonder if he is up yet?) and then I am supposed to go to Osaka for electronic toy shopping, but Meg may be able to meet me for lunch before she leaves to Tokyo so I will probably ditch out on the chance that she can meet me. I have several things in the city I need to do anyway.

Thats it for now, nothing too exciting. Be sure to read the previous post, it's more interesting.

Links of the day!

Hey I got one!
BET - Read a Book (language warning) a 'positive' rap video' I can't take credit for this, Trevor showed it to me last night.

めっちゃ楽しかった

2007-07-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

(meccha tanoshikatta - very fun)

Well last night was the goodbye party. Everyone came and it was really fun. Unfortunately Aki, my conversation partner couldn't make it, he just HAD to go drinking in Osaka. (Hey I understand ^^) But Mariko came and wow, she is so amazing. She drew these beautiful pictures for Kyle, Trevor, JC and me and gave them as gifts to us. She even began to cry a little. She is just so very nice. I always make fun of her because everywhere she goes (I mean everywhere) she knows people. But it is easy to see why. She is just an amazing person. She wrote a note to us on the back of it and added 'pease don't forget me'...... how could I possibly forget her.

Actually everyone is just amazing, Meg, Yuna, Mayumi, Tsu-kun, Isson, Taka, Keiji, Yayoi, Gaccha, Madoka, Morimoto, Nozomi... I really should just list off everyone. A bunch of them got us postcards that they wrote all over, they even personalized the picture of the card. JC got a bunch of naked women, Trevor got a cat from a joke he made on the homework, Kyle got a frog (Japanese spelling and pronunciation of his name is identical to frog and 'to return') and I of course got beer. ^^ I honestly havent read it yet, my brain is kind of miswired from everything coming so fast and hard these past 2 weeks.

Thing is I am not gone yet. I still have another week to play. I really want to rest, and today I definately will after being out karaokeing till 5am and then up at 8, but I know it will go by really, really quickly. There is still so much to do. Unfortunately (for me anyway) Meg got a great short term Job in Tokyo that lasts from today till the end of the time I am here (working for the election for $100/day all expenses paid) so I will not have a chance to hang out with her, but everyone else wants to see me and I really, really want to see them.

This morning I got up early and a bunch of the previously mentioned people came to see everyone off. Cept one person didn't leave. My roomate Trevor finally got a chance to print out his itenerary... and he doesnt leave till tomorrow... it was quite funny, esp since he was up so late, even after me, packing.

It really is an amazing program with amazing people. We all put the same thing on our class review- we want level 3! So we can come back next year.

This post may or may not be disjointed. I have no idea at this point. I am tired. I kind of want to call people but all I will say is 'duuuuuuuuh.' Well actually it would probably be 'あのおおおおおお～' (ano- the Japanese word for 'um')

A ton of pics just finished uploading. For some reason the videos are getting out of order. I don't think I will have a chance to care enough to fix it till I return home tho, so deal.

Links of the day!

nope

終わった

2007-07-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

(owatta = done)

The speech was better than before, but not as good as I had expected from the practice the night before. Whatever it is over. I took videos and they will be up if they ever finish uploading and I ever have time to make 3 clicks to do it.

Yesterday at lunch was just hillarious. We decide to go to Family Mart, something we rarely do at lunch because its down a big hill, and I see Mariko gigling with her friend. There is a steaming pile of fresh dog doo right in front of her, and she is watching to see who steps in it. She didn't tell me till I got past it but warned everyone behind me! KOWAI!

Anyway I missed the big bang because I wanted to get in line for the ATM before I had to wait in line for half an hour. Some guy in sandals was the one to kick it. Then someone came along and tracked it all throughout the Family Mart. (Think 7 Eleven) It was downright hillarious, I really should have video taped it.

とにかく、I just took my final exam. Went pretty well. Just a nice conversation with the teachers. In just a couple minutes we are going to go to the school to have lunch one final time then go to Kitaoji to mess around a bit with some of the conversation partners before our farewell party at 5pm. After that we go out for Nozomi's birthday.

Then everybody but me leaves the next morning. It is going to be sad. But its not like I cant handle it. It will be nice to finally have free time to do the things I want in Kyoto and hopefully see the friends I have made and kept from 3 years ago.

In other news, my Dad is doing fine. よかった.

Anyway I am late, gotta go.

Links of the day!

nope

大変

2007-07-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

たいへん(difficult)

I got an email today from my mother that my dad is in the hospital. So far nothing serious but then again people dont go into the hospital to have a picnic. I really hope everything is ok and I am worried. I left messages at home and on my sisters cell about it.

So a quick wrapup of other things... Monday we went to Ginkakujin, a famous and beautiful temple in Kyoto, and after that to Arashiyama monkey park. Both places I went 3 years ago but that didn't stop me from taking lots of pictures. Today we went to the official Gion festival, a parade thru downtown Kyoto of beautiful ancient style mobile shrines. Basically the festival started in the 1100s when to stop a rampant plague a bunch of different cities made portable temples and sent them to Gion in Kyoto.

It worked, and the plague dissapeared, so they continue the tradition and it is 1 of the 2 big festivals in Kyoto and one of the 3 biggest in Japan. It is amazing how they turn these giant wooden things that have no suspension or turning ability on their own. I really wanted to get a video of them turning it up close, but we left all too early so we could go practice our speech. Because I had been out all weekend, speech practice was also the first time I read my speech.... it did not go well. By that I mean disaster. I have been practicing since and I think it will be a bit better tomorrow afternoon when I have to present it.

Tomorrow before the speech we learn causitive form, then Thursday some Keigo and Friday is an individual 20 minute oral test. Then free till the farewell party that night.

I have no idea when I will upload the next batch of pictures, I took a TON this weekend and have no time to label them all. In some ways things will get much quieter when all the IJP people leave on Saturday morning. It will also be a bit sadder, and I still will have a lot left to do.

Anyway, I need to practice my speech, but dad, I really hope you are ok...

ashi ga itain

2007-07-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

足が痛いん
(legs hurt)

Weellll... ya, after dancing till 6am and getting 4 hours sleep the night before, walking semi-aimlessly around Shijo (we had places to go but kept passing all the same places) got old after about 5 hours. Problem was it lasted a lot longer. we left at about 1:30pm and got back around 11:30. Thing is everything is just so damned fun. ^_^

Gion matsuuri (Gion festival, one of the 2 big festivals in Kyoto- think like 4th of July) is in full swing and the streets are packed. The actual parade itself is Tuesday I believe, but the fun parts are all the food and trinket stands and hundreds of people in yukata everywhere.

We went to the Shakeys pizza (all you can eat pizza, pasta, salad and... curry?!?) to refuel me and Kyle from the night before, did a little omiage (gift) shopping, I got more time on my cell phone, and then bowling (I sat out and returned emails, my legs were done) and finally went to The Hub for dinner / beer where I actually had a nice conversation with Tsu-kun since I finally got to sit down and regenerate some energy.

I also ran into KANA there! Jeff's conversation partner from 3 years ago. I saw her sitting over by the stairs and immediately recognized her but couldnt exactaly place her. It is amazing how in 3 years people look different but still the same. It is true of Nobuko, Eri, Minori and Natsumi as well. But there was no doubt I knew her so we talked a bit. Not for very long, but I got her email (so I can give her Jeff's blog) and we plan to meet at school soon.

It is amazing what a small world it is.

Today we go to Ginkakujin temple and then Arashiyama monkey park. After that we come back, don Yukatas and go back into Shijo for Gion again. So my semi-rested legs get to do it all over again. (Did I mention Arashiyama is a mountain? The monkeys are at the top...)

I have a metric ton (Is that a lot? I don't know metric...) of pictures from Thursday on. I have no idea when I will actually get a chance to label and upload them. Hopefully tomorrow.

Gaijin Guntai vs The Typhoon

2007-07-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

(Gaijin Army vs the Typhoon)

We win. But let me start chronologically...

Friday night we went to dinner and then Karaoke with a couple of the conversation partners, including Mariko and her friend Yayoi. (Not sure how to spell) My roomate Trevor and Tsu-kun kicked the rest of our butts. Towards the end of the night they found out I like Shiina Ringo and sang several songs by her, some of which are still stuck in my head. Anyway I had to call it quits at about 3am because I had had almost no sleep the night before....

Oh! Almost forgot! I gained a new nickname. Yayoi had a cell phone keychain of Majin Buu from Dragonball Z. Someone asked her to explain his name, and basically Majin means monster and Buu is like a sound word for big, fat, over-inflated, like a balloon. So instantly I reacted and I am now Gaijin Buu. (Gaijin means foreigner)

On to last night. There was a Typhoon coming and it was raining cats and dogs all day. For one of the guys on the 4th floor it was his last night in Japan, so they were all planning on going to the Gion festival, then dinner then clubbing. Well because of weather it got shrunk down to clubbing, and while I didn't want to sit in the dorm all night, I'm not much for clubbing either. Me and Kyle started playing Pokemon wirelessly and I just gave up on going out.

11pm rolls around and the girls are still here... They weren't going to leave till 11:45. So I decided to go. It was a blast. It wasn't raining that bad when we got there at all, and of course it was indoors. I got Kyle to go with me too and he danced for 5 solid hours. I took a few breaks but otherwise I was out there with everyone too. Neither of us are dancers.

When we emerged at about 5am, the typhoon had lost. There was actually bits of SUN that are STILL HAPPENING. You don't understand I am sure, but this is Japan. Go look at my pics. There is no sun here this time of year. Sure its the 'land of the rising sun' but this time of year the sun quickly runs away.

Near as I can tell, there will be clear (well for Japan anyway, which means not much rain) all day. We had beaten the Typhoon.

We went to McDonnalds afterwards, a tradition they have that left me wanting a couple of red burritos, and then Taxi home. My head hit the pillow about 7am, even though I really didn't feel that tired. Now its 12:24pm. I woke up at 11 and laid there for half an hour before just deciding to get up.

Sleep is for the weak.

I wonder when I will practice my speech and do my homework...

Links of the day!

Hey I got some!
The Ultimate Showdown Oldie but new to me. A good one.
Gaijin Smash I linked this before about a year ago but the URL has changed since. Read what it is REALLY like to live in Japan and laugh a lot too.
Mythbusters results Results from every single Mythbusters test.

I never thought I would spend so much time in a womans bathroom...

2007-07-13T01:23:00.001-07:00

2nd ケータイ post because I dont want to go downstairs and set everything up when Im leaving in 20 minutes...

Last night when I was pretending to study （new pics up) there was a going away party for the 3 german students. It was 11pm so I thought I'd hang out for an hour... well that became a lot longer of course but not for the usual reasons. The party was in the tatami room and it was a blast. It was like the United Nations in there, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Americans.

The german girl （Adriana I believe, I suck at names) (Ok, I gave up on typing on the keitai now) needed some help walking upstairs so I brought her back up to her room. But before that, one of the Chinese girls threw up in someones face... So I laid her down but others decided to drag her to the bathroom, where I guess she was quite productive. I decided to check on things so I knocked on the door and a very worried looking french girl answered saying she just didnt know what to do with her. I asked if she was decent and she invited me in. I spent the next hour or so talking to her keeping her brain moving.

(er out of time, ill edit later. live in suspense...)
(welcome back to the most disjointed post ever)

She was 20 (legal drinking age in Japan) and rather inexperienced. She could answer most questions but didn't know what she had to drink. She never threw up in my presence, do we decided to put her to bed, so we carried her up the stairs and put her to bed. She seemed to be doing better when we got her moving, she was appoligizing and stuff. I honestly don't really know who she was or could recognize her, 95% of what I saw was the back of her head with her face down in the toilet. She should be fine tho.

After that I spent a couple minutes back at the party so I could actually talk to some people. I went to bed at 3:30.

Now, I am my roomate's alarm clock. We have one, but I am the one that gets up to it. I wake up at 7, shower, eat and wake him up at 8. Then we get to class (starting at 9am) with about 13 seconds to spare.

I woke up to a pillow hitting me and my roomate saying "dude- its 9:15" Wheee... So I took a 5 min shower (hey I'm late anyway) and we got to class 45mins late.

I think I did way better on the test than I expected and better than the previous two. I may ask my senseis for it today as otherwise I think I may have to wait till wednesday. Learning in the program is basically done, Monday is a holliday 海の日 (ocean day) and then Tuesday is the Gion festival. I will write about last night later.

Thank you for reading the most disjointed blog post ever. I wonder if you understood anything.

Keitai test

2007-07-11T02:12:00.001-07:00

Since I can never quite remember the address, I thought I would test.

In other news I am talking to Paul about keeping my room in the IHouse till the friday after the program ends. I realize there is nowhere I would rather be than here with my friends. I will have time to explore the city more and can still take day trips.

now that I typed all this on a cellphone keyaoard, I hope i got the address right... It is so much easier typing in Japanese on these things... But Blogger sucks at Japanese and none of you would understand it.
残念ですね

PS I got it wrong again...

I found my place..

2007-07-10T06:11:00.001-07:00

It's in kindergarden.

Those of you who know me probably arent supprized. But today we went to Sumedia (spelling?) Kindergarden and entertained a small army of 3,4 and 5 year olds. It was quite a frightening and fun at the same time.

After the 'entertainment' period, we were split up into groups of 2 and ate lunch with them. That was quite fun. Having 20 kids surrounding me asking me questions like 'what is 'bento' in english?' (there isnt any) 'what is 'basu' in english?' (bus) etc etc etc ALL AT THE SAME TIME AS LOUD AS THEY CAN WITH THEIR MOUTHS STUFFED FULL, and still managing to remain quite charming. After lunch, I got on the floor in the corner and started pointing out things and giving them english names, but that didn't stop them from all talking at the same time (this time with empty mouths at least)...

Er, did I mention I was wearing a cheezy little cat mask on the top of my head? It was made as a prop for the other group's 'Neko Neko, Inu' (cat, cat, dog; changed from duck, duck, goose) Well at this point I lifted it off of my head and re-adjusted it. this made them all instantly realize that it can be moved... They spent the next 5 minutes taking it off, throwing it on the floor, then someone else would place it on my head properly, then someone else would cover my eyes with it. They seemed to be equally divided into 3rds on the opinion of what to do with it...

Then, for no apparent reason, several of them started pounding on my head like a drum saying 'obeka' which means 'being western'... it didn't hurt at all so I just let them do it. I actually couldn't stop laughing.

When it was time to go, about 250kids all gathered all over the place on 2 different floors to say goodbye to us loudly and repeadedly for about 15 minutes. My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing.

After that, we went to Shijo (major shopping area in Kyoto, its the name of a street) and did some omiage shopping and ate at a Shakeys pizza... closest thing to real pizza I have ever seen in Japan.

Right now, the gallery and it seems Picassa are PISSING ME OFF. The Gallery refuses to import 100 of the 175 pictures I took at Biwa and I have just now troubleshot it down to a problem with Picassa, meaning I have nowhere to turn for help. (I know the developers chat rooms for Gallery) How or when I will fix it I do not know, I have no freaking time to worry about programs bought out by money grubbing companies that don't work for shit. Oh wait, I am writing this on one of that companies' sites now arent I?

Whatever...

Links of the day!

still no

Yay filler!

2007-07-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

As I sit here waiting for the rest of my pictures to finish uploading (there is some weird problem, out of the 171 pics I took at Biwako only 75 get imported.....) I thought I would share some side things I keep forgetting. Assuming I remember them now...

I think the most interesting Japanese test I have had so far is 'Shogakuseichan' at Biwa. ( I honestly have forgotten her real name, I need to re-get it.... ) But she decided to tell me at about 1am that she was a shogakusei. (Jr high student) This put me in the interesting predicament of trying to prove her wrong in Japanese. Of course it was pretty much impossible, but very fun. I asked her what school she went to, who her principal was.. but how would I check the answers? I asked when her birthday was and whether she had brothers and sisters and what their ages were. Ultimately I was unsuccessful, but it was quite an interesting experience.

Hmm, what else. It rains a lot, but last weekend was actually really sunny. That ended this afternoon.

OH! Ways to tell you are fluent in Japanese:
1. You can read upside down (the conversation partners often sit across from us and read what we are writing. I can do it but at about 1/4th speed)
2. You understand what people say on loudspeakers here. Thing is I think this disqualifies most Japanese from fluency...
(I want to add more to this list)

Hmm, what else. The Tsuru no Ongaeshi Blooper Special has made a resurgence and seems to be a hit with the conversation partners and I even got 2/3 teachers to watch it...

Tomorrow we go to a kinder garden to entertain 80-100 EACH of 3,4 and 5 year olds. I will be Simon in Simon says for the 5 year olds..... Kyle told me about a joke him and his friends have about if you were given 1 weapon how many 5 year olds could you take out before being overwhelmed... The only weapon I want is a cup....

Gaijin power is quite interesting. It allows one to reserve an entire table at an otherwise extremely busy eating place on campus just by sitting down. It also always guarantees an extra seat or two next to you on the train no matter how busy it is. We are aliens here, and from what I have heard from long term dwellers that never changes. However, Japan is a society of in-group-out-group. That is how the strangers act towards you. But once they are friends they are the most thoughtful, caring people in the world.

I know there is a lot more I want to say, and my uploads are still going, but I am out of ammo atm. Enjoy the update. No one comments anymore cept for H-mac, I wonder if anyone reads. Comment on the pics ppl, that's my favorite part...

Frank- I want to call you and congratulate you personally, but times didn't line up well, I either have to be up way past bedtime to call you at 7am or skip school and call you in the evening... Anyway, congrats.

Links of the day!

what do you think?

BIWAKO!!!

2007-07-08T05:41:00.000-07:00

Lake Biwako just absolutely rocked. I was somewhat sceptic (as my previous posts show) but it was very fun. The lake is the largest lake in Japan. It is no Michigan but you cannot see across. I wonder how it sizes up to say Salt Lake... The water was cool and nice, but if it was Lake Mission Viejo they probably would have it closed to swimming. The only bad part of the whole time is since it is a lake, the 'sand' isn't quite smooth because there is not enough wave action (hey I learned something in Oceanography!) and my feet got destroyed. I always wear shoes so my feet are pretty tender. After a few beers at the bbq, I forgot about it and just ran around barefoot (the sandals dont fit) beating them up even more. (I gained 2 large cuts on the bottom of my big toe)

Everyone was just great and it was a really great time. It was the mini vacation we all really needed and I really didn't want to leave. There are a lot more details in the pictures I am uploading now. Unfortunately school starts again tomorrow..... And I have yet to do homework so I will keep this short.

Links of the day!

na....

oops

2007-07-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I didn't mean to leave such a depressing message up so long. I really only felt like that Monday and Tuesday. Even in just 1 month they can't all be good days.
Wednesday was the fourth of July and I celebrated it by having a few beers at a British pub and then killing everyone who was wearing a red coat.... Well ok maybe not that 2nd part. It was pretty fun tho if not perplexing, and I got to celebrate basically when you were all still waking up. Actually since it was a day off I would bet a lot of you were asleep. For instance it is almost 10pm now and it is almost 6am the same day back in Cali.

Got an email from the fam, apparently the internet got broke again. Yay. Nothing like 10000 mile tech support.... Anyway, I finally got my keitai so I have email. If you want the address, email me at my regular email address. If you dont know that, well then I probably dont want to give you my cell phone email :P

Tomorrow is a test I havent studdied for yet... whee. Saturday we go to a lake which is supposed to be famous but I keep hearing the water is dirty and it is probably going to rain. Thats ok, you know I am not much for swimming. We are not allowed to bring textbooks or dictionaries, but screw that I want my dictionary. Should be fun.

The 1st weekend pics have been up for a day or so, and I am going to start uploading this past week of pics now, they should be added before bed... maybe. benkyo shitakunai yo...

Heather- thanks. youll probably take over my desk by the time I get back so you dont have to carry your water buffalo upstairs... ^^

Links of the day!

ugh

2007-07-03T05:06:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of days, I have honestly been fairly burnt out. 2 subjects I have never been able to master (particles with ageru, kureru, and especially morau and qualifying nouns with sentances where I seem to screw up word order) have come up, and every day its basically school all day, then homework, food, a bit of time on the computer to communicate and tag/upload pictures (uploading as I write) and then bed. And bed is late. I seem to have no time to study other than homework to fill in gaps, etc. And our two projects, entertaining ~300 3-5 year olds and our speech are now starting...

I still really love it here and I knew it was an intensive program and I am getting a lot out of it but I guess I am in a bit of a slump.

The good news is I got a cell phone yesterday and will get practice and such out of it, it will also enable me to update this durring my last week in Japan. I may or may not share the email, it is somewhat expensive, but not really. I am waiting to see just how much use I get out of it.

We also are going to lake Biwa on what is basically a spring break this weekend. We are not allowed to bring our textbooks. We will see how that goes. I want to learn. The lake gets very mixed reviews. It is apparently a very famous place but the water is dirty, etc. Oh well, what is, is.

Links of the day!

should I just delete this? I'm way too lazy

tanoshikatta shuumatsu

2007-07-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Another ep of eD in Japan.

Friday Nobuko, Minori, Eri and Yukiko came over to make me dinner of Okonomiyaki and Inari. It was the most I've eaten since I came to Japan, it was really good and I stuffed myself. It was really fun and my roomate Trevor impressed all the girls to no end by the fact he brought an iron to Japan and could cook. (Ya, we dont get it, but they were very impressed. I was trying to get Nobuko to mary him.) It was a shame the night ended at only 10pm. (When guests must leave the dorm.) But it was really fun.

Saturday the night didn't end so early. ^^ We went for a walking tour of Nara and several of the temples around Todaiji temple. Afterwards Paul, Onozaki sensei, Kyle, JC and I went out drinking to a few gaijin (foreigner) bars. No, no eD, but I had a blast anyway. ^^ I kinda want to go to more Japanese style places but it was still fun. No pics of the night out because my camera battery died. Thankfully today I found the second battery I thought I left in America. Without that my last week here would pretty much be pictureless.

Today was rest day. I spent a few minutes talking to Jeannine and Chrissie till Skype died on me. I had a small hangover and we were all starving (no food from the cafeteria on Sunday) so Kyle, JC, Josh and I went on a nice tour of the side and back streets of Shijo area. (Aka I got us lost for a bit) Once again I got rejected getting a cell phone. This time I had my passport but I didn't know the dorm address.... I will be going back tomorrow after class.

Now, it's 10pm and I still have to do my homework...... it's only 2 pages so whatever. If you are very lucky I will upload pictures tonight.

Links of the day!

Nope!

Shashin ga aru

2007-06-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

First- I have won the war. The first two sets of pictures are up. Expect the next set sometime this weekend if I get a chance. Links at the right, I'm sure you can figure it out...

Today was a little shopping excursion in which we were made to bug honest shop keepers with stupid questions like 'whats the name of your store', 'what is this', 'what is it made of', and 'what do you use it for.' Though good practice, its pretty much a total waste of time for the shop keeper unless you buy something. So I bought a few small food items, and my first omiage. (for Bonnie of course ^^) But seriously, I refuse to ask what an apple is made of and what it is used for...

Anyway, tomorrow is our first test. I should do alright other than the fact I cant spell katakana for anything. Seriously, its a messed up version of my native language I cant spell in the first place. I know all the characters and can read it, but I cant spell. The same level I am at in my native tounge. NEXT!

Talking with some of the year long students from places like Italy and New York, they envy our program and our teachers, because it is so intensive and we are getting so much out of it. They are in the same book as us but just begining to learn kanji from the first book because their teacher sucks. Teachers are gods here, unless they do something blatently illegal they are set for life with a great paying job and lots of respect. (...hmm maybe I should become a teacher...)

Thing is, I wish I could have a little more fun. As previously stated, I want to learn as much as humanly possible out here. But part of that IS going out and doing things that are NOT structured. The trips to the market and stuff are great but a night on the town on your own without a safety net is important too. I should get that chance this weekend however.

We did so much the first weekend I thought to myself 'slow down a bit, its a long time, you have time to do things.' But I dont. Time is very short and I already feel it slipping away. I've decided I dont need to sleep anymore. I got a great night's sleep last night and I was still tired all day. I think I am just not used to sitting in a classroom all day. Also, I fell asleep about 11:30 and from 4:30 on woke up every half hour, my body basically saying 'wth are you doing.'

I found out I cant use my old cell phone here. My pictures are forever trapped in it. I still may buy a new one for ~$60 with minutes, from the practice I got last time it was worth every penny.

Minori, Nobuko and Eri are coming over tomorrow to cook me dinner, should be a lot of fun. After that I have no idea what will happen, but I may not blog tomorrow. Let my pictures keep you busy.

Anyway I should study.

PS- I am glad your giant squid is a female.

Links of the day!

nope, I got studying to do

hi again

2007-06-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Hmm.. I'm not sure about this daily update bussiness, if I post every day it gets boring.

Anyway, today was Skype day, I tried to pick people I thought would be up at 6am. The first call was to ipowerweb.com, because they apparently decided to reset a lot of peoples passwords without telling them, preventing me from uploading pictures... uh, thanks guys. Next was my family- hi mom and dad! (and Andrea) Guess my brother got a job, yay. Then I left a message for Adam and Beverly, and maybe I will call Chrissie after this. I know better than to think Jeannine is up, and Minna is probably still partying with 8 guys. :P

Today was the speech contest, I was extremely tired all day. The speech contest was fun and the party afterwards was a lot of fun too. I met another ton of people who's names I will probably forget, along with new words I have already forgotten. There is just so much to do and see here, even though I've been here before, and I want to do it all. I want to make the most of every second. But I also want to learn as much as humanly possible, and being half-awake all day doesn't help that. Tonight I will get a good night's sleep.

In other news, I won the battle with the school's IT department AND my domain host and the pictures are uploading now. Once done it should only take a few clicks of the mouse for me to share them with you... but who knows, it has been pretty hard so far every step of the way.

PS- please dont post comments annonomously, use the second option to fill in your name. Also, I will respond to comments as neccesary in the same comment thread after I post a new post. I may not respond to everyone, because well, I'm in Japan and I have better things to do.

Oyasuminasai

Links of the day!

Teramachi One of my favorite places ever. Think Irvine's Rectum only not so damned full of its self and expensive. Also a LOT more crowded and some ancient temples thrown in for good measure. We will be there tomorrow for class.

Hi, remember me?

2007-06-26T06:29:00.001-07:00

Well, sleep isnt really happening lately. It is 10:30 now and none of us have even started our homework because the welcome party was right after school today.

The welcome party was really fun though. There is so much to do and learn here, talking with the Japanese is far more educational than any homework in my opinion, but I do know that the homework is important too.

Now for trouble. I cant seem to upload any pictures. The school has locked down everything thats not basic web surfing or email. Sounds like another place I know.... I WILL defeat them, I am working on it now. But as I said, I have homework to do.

So just know I am alive, learning a lot (tho not as quickly as I would hope) and I will try to get those pictures up tomorrow. We have already designated tomorrow night as rest day. I plan to come home, nap, do homework and then get the pictures up and actually talk to my family.... sorry parental units.

Uh... oyasuminasai

Links of the day!

as I said before, here I dont have much

Osaka

2007-06-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Steven from NY and Andre from Italy on the 4th floor (year long students) took us to Osaka today. Tons of walking. I think my legs might fall off by the end of the trip. We went to lots of electronics and game shops, and I BOUGHT THE NEW DS ZELDA. Not out in America till (supposedly) November, so it is definately very nice. (and I know jealous people are reading this... FRANK) I also found 'Mexican' food. I took pictures so you will see. It was good because where we went to eat all the ramen had Pork in it, so I stopped and ate while they hit the arcade.

Went to Super Potato in Nipponbashi, (videos of the Akihabara one are on akihabaranews.com) a place with TONS of video game stuff thru the ages. I got to play a virtual boy for the first time ever. It was a pretty cool Gradius-type game, but the console was rather low so I had to bend over the whole time and hurt my back.

Osaka seems like a big place, lots to do there. We went to Nipponbashi, Shinsaibashi, and briefly in Nanba. Nobuko has promised to take me back when the program ends. Should be fun.

Classes start tomorrow and I am very, very tired. So bye. If youre lucky I will upload pictures tomorrow.

Links of the day!

no, tired

I am reborn

2007-06-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to another episode of me back in Japan.

Yesterday was pretty quiet, most people in the program did not arive till late, so I went for a walk in the pouring rain to get a umbrella, then did a little studying.

In the afternoon, Minori, Nobuko, and Eri (friends from last time) came to the dorm and brought snacks and drinks to welcome me. It was really nice of them. They also said they want to cook dinner for me this Friday, and asked me 23 times if it was ok or not. No, I hate free meals. ^^

While they were there, my roomate came. He was really tired and wanted to take a shower so we headed downstairs and they ended up leaving. Unfortunately, Minori left her cell phone in my couch and I still have it... hopefully she can come get it tomorrow.

Last night, some of the students from the 4th floor (they are the year long ones from various places like Italy, France and New York) invited us to Karaoke just across the street from I-house. (International House- where I am staying) I do not sing, but my roomate is very good. So was everyone else there, meaning I am really not going to sing. But then someone picked a Madonna melody, and no one knew the tunes. I actually did so I filled in on a couple of them. Thats right... eD singing 'Papa Dont Preach.' At least I proved why I shouldnt be singing. (Actually I was going to duet 'Take Me Home Tonight' by Mike and the Mechanics(?) but they didnt have it.) We ended up being there till 3:15am. I fell asleep around 4 and woke up at 8, just in time to miss breakfast. Wheee~~~

Today, we had our orientation and a walking tour of Kyoto. Most stuff I had already seen, but In Kyomizudera we went thru an underground area that was completely pitch black with turns and lots of bumping in to eachother. In the center, is a special carved rock. Completely round with a raised character on it. You pat it and make a wish. When we got out we were told it was supposed to simulate a rebirth experience. (Hence the topic) However, I dont think I had glow in the dark shoes during my birth. We had them in bags we carried with them (shoes off area) but when I noticed them glowing I pulled one out for some fun. ^^

After that, more of Kyomizudera (the fountains were closed because of a leak, isn't a fountain a leak?) I walked between the love rocks with my eyes closed. (again) Gion temple, and several other things. We ended it near my beloved Teramachi.

Everyone wanted to go home, and so did I, but my stomach won out over my sore feet, so a couple of us went in search of food. After a bit of browsing, we settled on a little Kirin bar. (I should have taken a picture, but I ate there before so I am sure I already have one...) After that, a nice little adventure getting home. I mostly followed people around last time, so this time being the guide is a bit difficult. However I got us back alive.

Took a shower and now I sit here. We were just invited by some of the students from the 4th floor to go on a day trip to Osaka tomorrow. I kinda stared blankly rather than reply, as I've had 4 hours sleep and walked probably 8 miles today. (Actually I am having a hard time finishing this blog because my brain keeps momentarily shutting off) I gave a tentative yes but I am emailing Nobuko for her permission. It is her hometown and she has already offered to show me around and I definately don't want to ruin it without her.

I was thinking about uploading the 1st batch of pictures, but I think I will wait till after tomorrow. Besides, I need sleep.

PS- After a good 2 months of testing remote access to my home network, it worked for all of one day in Japan. Now all my computers say offline... Parental units / sibling units, the task is to walk into FRANKS room, hold the power button in on the BLUE COMPUTER by the desk for several seconds till you hear it turn off, then turn it back on.

I plan to call you guys soon, but I cant get a mic to work on my computer (forgot my bluetooth mic...) and therefore cant use Skype, and calling from the dorm is expensive. Plus I dont want to call you just to say 'reboot my computer please' Honestly, I do miss you, I swear.

PS2- Work-people. I can't email any of you because I am considered spam. No email from friends but you can still get all the viagra you want, spam detection at its finest.

Till next time.

Links of the day!

no, I need sleep

I'm alive- sorta

2007-06-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

Well I'm here, I'm alive, if you were worrying- well I'd be supprized but anyway you can stop now.

After 3 days of basically no sleep, I still only slept about an hour total of an 11.5 hr flight. I then took a 45 min train to Tokyo station, then a 2.5hr train to Kyoto, then a taxi to Kyoto Sangyo Daigaku where I am staying.

I am very, very tired. So tired that I'm not sure I can sleep. Both from delerium and the fact that I have to create a bed from a pile of blankets and a matress before I can sleep. Taking a shower probably didnt help either, but it felt sooooooo goooood.

But I also have to eat- one of these days I will get smart and start remembering when I book travel to order a vegitarian meal... so as soon as I am done with this I will go to the Circle K and grab some delicious convinience store food and then hopefully go to bed.

Links of the day!

Dont expect these much while I am here, but I thought I would give a few travel related music videos. Only the first one is in English, but they are all good. The second one is especially funny. 2 planes and 1 train in the mix.
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
Tommy Febuary 6 - Magic in your Eyes
akeboshi - yellow moon

Sayonara!

2007-06-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I leave for Kyoto. Looks like I'll have everything ready to go by 6:15am tomorrow when I will leave my house for a flight at 11:40am.

If all things go well, (for instance, I dont get arrested at the airport for having 18354 electronic gagets in my cary on) I will land in Narita at 3:05pm the next day (11.5 hour flight + timechange) then get on a 1-2 hour train to Tokyo station, then a 2nd 3-4 hour train (if memory serves me correctly) to Kyoto station, then a taxi to the dorm I am staying in. And hopefully I get all this done before 11pm or I have no place to stay. ^^;

Anyway, I am tired and dont have much to say right now. Soon enough I'll be on another planet, but I plan to get little sleep between now and my spaceflight there...

PS- those of you playing along from home, dont miss the gallery link on the right, its where all my pictures will go.

Links of the day!

Just one, but it rocks
Food Veurisim! A kaiten sushi restaraunt somewhere in Japan. Lunch is around 8pm PST so feel free to move the camera around, and dont forget to turn on the speakers! (icon at the top) for some reason this is so enthralling...

I AM GOING BACK TO JAPAN!

2007-06-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's official, I leave on Jun 20th and stay till July 29th. Four weeks of it will once again be at Kyoto Sangyo University in their IJP program, the advanced version of the same program I did in the summer of 04.

I have held off posting it here because I am still scared a meteor or something will conspire to jynx the trip. However at just over 2 weeks away, it feels pretty certain now.

If only I was ready.... I've still got lots of loose ends to tie up and am insecure about my japanese ability. Last time was the beginners program, so the fact I knew any Japanese gave me a huge leg up.

I am trying to test the fesability of blogging from my palm, even though I am not sure my Treo will have internet access in Japan. This post is being done by email because Ublog crashes my palm every time I hit send...

Links of the day!

too much work from the palm. But I have some good ones so maybe I will edit later.

One year old country

2007-05-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

One year has passed and an inept, ineffective government with poorly trained and under equiped soldiers struggle to figure out what to do next. Many if not most of the population still wishes the old regime was in power. Without outside help, the old regime would indeed still be in power, because the under educated, unsofisticated, rural population, most of which live just over the poverty line, either dont know how or dont care enough to do anything for themselves.

It truly is a pitiful state of affairs. It makes you wonder why we even bothered.

Yes, Iraq's new government is a year old as of a couple days ago. But I was actually describing another country- America. I won't say that there aren't obvious differences between the two situations, but I think looking at the similarities is worth some time.

One of the big differences is of course that the war in Iraq was externally stimulated instead of internally. But as much as everyone hates the French, without them we might still be England's property. Probably a lot of other places as well. Our break away inspired a good chunk of the British empire that they could do it too. Which, coincidentally is what we are going for in Iraq, inspiring the surrounding countries to come out of the stone age.

Another big difference is that if Iraq ever DOES get it together, they will be filthy stinking rich. American soldiers were ready to mutiny after the war as the government had no money to pay them (and no ability to collect taxes) and they returned home under threat of debters prison.

I could go on, but instead why not do a little reading and think for yourself? Here is a great place to start: American history: Formation of the United States of America So much of what we read today is so very biased. While Wikipedia isnt perfect, it's quite a bit better than the nightly news, no matter what station.

As I stated there ARE signifigant differences, but we dont expect a one or even ten year old child to fend for itself. We started this, for right or wrong and whatever your opinions we should do it right. One thing to learn from reading just a bit further back in American history is why we were able to break away from Britan. Besides the help of the French at sea, the big help for the colonials was that Britan fought with one hand tied behind their back. Much as we do now.

I dont usually get into politics here, but I do have strong beliefs, and almost wish I was old enough to run for president- because every candidate I have heard is an absolute idiot on at least half of the issues.

Links of the day!

And now for something completely different...
Cop Steals Pot, Makes Brownies, Calls 911 The title says it all. Don't miss the 911 audio.
The Power and Peril of Praising Your Kids. I cant say I HAVE kids, but its an interesting perspective for why my generation is so damned self centered.
Illegal Immigration Counters How could I neglect the only political issue that gets more headlines than Iraq? See some numbers for yourself.

The essence of Humor

2007-02-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

Humor is one of those very elusive things. It is not easily defined, nor is it easy to point out why many things are funny.

However, today an online friend of mine Zain sent me a link that hits funny dead on. It is George Takei's (Mr Sulu from the original Star Trek, and no I am not a Trekkie) response to the anti-homosexual comments by Tim Hardaway. Apparently this was on ABC somewhere but I dont really watch much tv so I dont know what show or why.

Anyway, watch The video before you read more.

The response hits directly at the suposedly secret fears that someone like Tim Hardaway has to make such statements. Mind you I do not believe all 'homophobes' are secretly gay, but there is a level of vigor that Hardaway took it to that makes you wonder.

They didnt even make one joke about his name. I mean, comeon 'Hardaway'....

I'm sure one day soon this video will be pulled making this post worthless, but get it while you can. It's damn worth it.

In other news, suddenly as of today many things are brewing in my life. But I want to wait another day or two to see how they flesh out before I report....

Links of the day!

Speaking of humor... This guy went to jail for it.
Ever wonder what the heck 'Nintendo' means? Find out here.
Apparently Alabama prefers the traditional way of doing things... aka use a relative.

SUPERBOWL & Effort Rewarded

2007-02-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well, my beloved Bears lost the superbowl rather disappointingly on Sunday. The offence was non-existent and people are saying the defense didn't play well, however I think considering the defense was out there THE WHOLE GAME they did a great job as tired as they must have been. I still can't believe they let a dome team beat them in bad weather.

In other news, I got a letter from my school. It seems 12 years of College education finally paid off, I have an Associates in Science: Cisco emphasis. Which is funny because I took the classes but basically remember nothing about the Cisco IOS because I never use it.

Life has been running me down a bit lately, work-school-work-school repeat. Oh well, just got to do it.

Links of the day!

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection I am sure this has been everywhere by now, but it is really eye opening. A must-read for any computer enthusiast.
The 300 Club It never ceases to amaze me the new and exciting ways humans conceive to kill themselves. I would die in the sauna....
The history of video games Wow, someone has too much time on their hands, and I thank them for it.

Happy New Year- Wii!!

2007-01-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

So ya, happy freaking new year. I didn't do much of anything, just had Jeannine come over and watch Superman Returns and Taledega Nights. Both good movies but not much of a new years. December sucked and I got sick just before new years so I didn't feel much like celebrating. I am sure Jeannine didn't either. She is doing as good as can be expected, loosing Dustin was a terrible loss for everyone. She is leaving for Maine on Friday to go check out the University. She is planning on moving there. It will be weird without her, but its at least a few months off.

In other news, I got my Wii replacement straps! They dont really look much stronger than the originals, but I guess its the best they can do with the small hole the Wii remote has. I guess these will take 6 months to break instead of 6 days. But I dont swing the Wiimote around wildly like a five year old.

The new DS Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is an excelent game, only a slight deviation of the previous two, but since I loved both I dont mind.

In a parting shot, I once again have something to blame O.J. Simpson for. Because of him, we can't call Mark McGuire "The Juice"

Links of the day!

MapWii A site to add your Wii code to so you can find others near you on a google map. Kinda cool, I havent added mine yet...
How Ms Nevada lost her Miss Universe Title Warning: Not exactally work-safe, but not too bad.
Burger King 911 Kinda old but hillarious, a woman calls 911 because they didn't take her order.

Dustin Libby

2006-12-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, at 4:54pm as I was getting ready to leave work, I received a call from my friend Jeannine's mother. I answered the phone like the clown I am. She was quiet for a moment then asked me if I was sitting down.

Jeannine recieved a call yesterday morning that Dustin, her fiance, was killed in action in Iraq. He was sniped in the neck while guarding a safe house where his team was sleeping. It was his second trip to Iraq. He had just gone a couple months ago, and he proposed to Jeannine just a little while before he left.

I didn’t know Dustin too well. I met him several times, but the first few times we did not talk much as he is rather quiet till he warms up to people. We did begin to talk more before he left, and he was a good guy.

What I really saw was the impact on Jeannine. I have seen her date a bunch of losers, and even a few decent ones.

I have never seen her as happy as she was with him.

With all her loser boyfriends, she usually kept them kind of away from me. Being that I am always single, and she often was, we often provided a lot of emotional support to each other that others would interpret as something going on. I am also protective of her, and she knew they were losers.

She couldn’t wait for me to meet him. She really wanted to know what I thought of him. And I think was a bit disappointed when we didn’t become best friends right away, because he is rather reserved and I am definitely not. But we never fought; I respected him from the beginning. It just took a chance for us to be in a semi-private environment to get to know each other.

He was a great man. The strong silent type that supposedly every woman wants and part of every man wants to be. Especially me, who is so often getting himself in trouble with his mouth.

Jeannine has pictures of him all over her house. Many of just him, but mostly of the two of them together. Jeannine HATES CAMERAS. She is always slapping my camera phone away if I try to pull it out, even if I am just making a phone call. She looked beautiful in all of them. Everyone commented on her glow before he left, which she jokingly attributed to the sex, but it stayed after he left.

It was gone yesterday, and there was nothing any of us could do to restore it.

At her mom's beckoning, her father, uncle, cousin, Chrissie, me and even Jessica, a friend we haven't seen in awhile came to give her support. Being the clown that I am, I get myself in trouble a lot for being insensitive. But sometimes even I can tell it’s not appropriate, and I really can’t do much else. Last night was one of those (extremely) rare times I was quiet.

As I said there are pictures of him everywhere. Along with wedding planning books and to do lists of gift registries and other wedding related tasks written in lipstick on her mirror.

My first instinct was to take them down. Not the pictures, but the miscellaneous stuff that is just enough to remind her of him. But that isn’t right, she needs them. She said last night, even with what happened in the end, that she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

As I said, I never got the chance to know him really well. But I was looking forward to the opportunity. I still have a T-shirt depicting a silhouette of a marine on a stagecoach with camels pulling it saying “Urban Cowboy.” I am not sure what to do with it. I will probably send it to his unit.

When he left, he asked me to take care of Jeannine for him. He was worried about loosing her to some other guy. I think that is probably a big part of why he proposed to her so early; he seemed as concerned with loosing her as anything he would face in Iraq.

I already knew what I was going to say to him however. And it ended up being the last thing I said to him as well.

“Don’t worry, I will take care of her for you, you just take care of yourself.”

Wii! And holidays

2006-11-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm officially 30 now. So I cant be trusted. That's ok, I never could, but now people know it, which sucks.

Thankfully my birthday present to myself makes me feel like a kid again. The Wii seriously rocks. I cant stop playing Zelda. The fishing mini-game alone is worth the price of admission. I am really hopeful for the first person shooter genera too, but I got my butt kicked on CoD3 in hard mode. Not used to the control style yet I guess, keep wanting to rest my hand, which makes me look at the ground...

It was also my friend Beverly's birthday as well as her husbands coming home party and yesterday was my brothers birthday. And of course Thanksgiving! Its diet time, I am the heaviest I have ever been, and while I wouldn't put myself in any obese category, I know better than to let it get that far.

In bad news, I have resigned myself to failing a class this semester. I simply missed too much and have no idea wth is going on. I also didn't buy the book because he said it was optional... Oh well I will retake it.

I also need to fix this site, it is completely broken in IE7 because of IE6 quirks mode. I just have no ideas for a new design, and even if i did I have no time to code it. I'm too busy playing with my Wii!

Links of the day!

Black People Love Us hilarious and brave
Duh tell me something I don't know. However if they had a measure for insight men would loose.
Stuff you didn't know about me

Vegas!

2006-11-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

Last week was my first trip to Vegas since I was about 15. Quite a different place. I was out there for training for work, from Tuesday thru Friday afternoon so it was not just a big party. Still had fun. Voodoo lounge seemed cool (though expensive, but nothing about Vegas is not expensive) and the rides at the Stratosphere rocked. The sea-saw off the side of a 109 story building was one of the simplest yet best rides I've ever seen.

I am not much for gambling, but I ended up sinking $50 into video poker my last day as I waited for my work-mates to go to the Stratosphere with me. All in all it was pretty fun, I would like to go back for some leisure time with friends some weekend.

The ride home was not as fun. After a delayed flight, I landed in a closed airport and ended up spending 2 hours on the tarmac (or however you spell that) waiting for planes to move so I could get the heck off. Meanwhile they made it easier for us, not by serving us alcohol (stupid FAA regulations about serving alcohol on the ground) but by playing MUZAK. We went from being stuck in an airplane to being stuck in an elevator. Everyone was voting with their attendant call buttons against the music, and thankfully they finally heard.

Sitting next to me was a rather attractive older woman with a British accent. I considered asking her if she wanted to join the 10ft high club for my amusement, but decided it would make the rest of the 'flight' (what do you call it when you are on the ground? Taxi?) too uncomfortable. Links below.

Oh ya, Sunday I get my WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!

Links of the day!

What happened at John Wayne
Arrested least this didnt happen to me. I cant believe how stupid we are as a country sometimes.
Border security non airline-related, but I think the US needs these at the border!

Summers' over? NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo

2006-08-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yup, schools already started, its Labor day this weekend. Summer is over. After 6 weeks of hellish math to start the summer the second half was rather short.

It started out well, with two weekends of successful parties by yours truly, but after that I quickly found myself bored! I had been working so hard in school I didn't know what to do with myself outside of work.

Of course a few weeks later I got used to relaxing again, just in time for school to start last week...
This semester I am taking a Cisco Pix class, a Database Design class, and Statistics, which is hopefully the last class I need to graduate with my AS and my certification to move on to a CSU. I turned in my graduation request form yesterday.

Last weekend, it turned out Minori-san was in San Francisco for an internship that is over on Sept 2nd. So I drove up Saturday afternoon after my math class and spent the night walking around fisherman's' Wharf and talking with her till 3am. I wanted to see Winston (link to blog at right) but shortly after getting to S.F. my crappy cell phone died (I hope to get a new one soon) and it was the only thing I had with his number.

Still, it was really nice seeing Minori-san again. I once again tried to get her to move to Southern California for some extended period of time but sadly I don't think it is in the cards. (That doesn't mean I cant try tho!) Next time I gotta get out to Japan to see her. It is definitely my turn.

I have re-discovered Audible.com and have been listening to some really good books.
A Short History of Nearly Everything and On Intelligence are very highly recommended. I posted the Amazon links because I know many like to read, I prefer the audio books, especially on long car rides. Almost makes me wish my commute to work was more than 10 minutes.... almost ^_~

This weekend is yet another party weekend. Last of the summer. Saturday is to be the big time, and Monday will be a BBQ at my house by the pool. If you know me you should come. ^^

Once again, I am going to try to get myself to blog more often. There's a lot more I would like to post but I can never seem to find the time. I am just never at my computer anymore, which is very, very strange for me...

Links of the day!

The IPod Terrorist Yet another one of those stories that underscores the fact that even though we are combating people who are stuck in the 14th century, we prove ourselves no more intelligent.
Firefox-dog for all you misguided firefox freaks. Go IE7!
The/WTF Mac Store another post for misguided computer users ^^

The Rubios Girl gave me crabs...

2006-07-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

And we havent even had a date yet...

Links of the day!

Stupid Laws Another round!
KillerNIC a "gamers" network interface card. Proving yet again 'hardcore gamers' are idiots with too much money.
A hoax that everyone seems to believe

Christmass in June/Math is hard (the sequel)

2006-06-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

Once again, its been a long time. Oh well, quality over quantity!

A few weeks ago, I was in Gainseville Florida for training on some of my companies products. I expected it to be the middle of nowhere but my hotel was actually right across the street from University of Florida. Still it was summer so all the colege girls were gone and it was humid as hell.

While there, I basically live for free, work picks up food and car and such, I just buy beer. I also got my bonus at work. So I decided to spend it all on sillicon! (And there was no one named Bambi involved.) I decided when I got back I was going to have Christmass in June, and here is the result.

Thats a new wireless router (Linksys WRV200V which has tons of features but I am currently RMAing because the second I launch torrents I loose any reliable connection to the internet. (and I am wired into it...)) A netgear gigabit router, 4 gigabit network cards, a new bluetooth adapter, the battery backup for my raid card, a 120 gb hd giving me 6 total to raid together, a couple japanese books that I will read who knows when, an asus micro-atx motherboard to replace my broken tv comp one (building sff case, ill take pics when I do it) and the sound blaster xfi platinum that started all this because it was on sale on amazon for almost $100 off. Not pictured is the Nintendo DS which I preordered and got the day after it came out in the mail. (It came out on a Sunday.)

The Linksys WRV200 has really great features, its basically a business class router and was cheap. Sadly I have to RMA it because it doesnt handle loads very well, I am truly hopeful its replacement wont exhibit the same problems.

The Xfi platinum... just rocks. I am amazed at how well it can turn an mp3 into surround sound. I previously had an Audigy 1, so it is a big upgrade. Very nice.

The Nintendo DS is just amazing. They fixed the one big problem the old one had- it looked like some 80s kids toy crap. I already beat The New Mario Brothers, Brain Age and Big Brain Academy are great, and so is Metroid Prime Hunters. I discovered this week I can use the ports on the front of my computer the Xfi gives to put the DS into surround sound, and that just rocks.

In other news, while I was in Gainesville I started my online math class. College algebra. Ya, sounds easy, and kinda is, ecept its been ages since I have done this kind of math and it is 17 WEEKS OF MATH IN 6 WEEKS. It is a crushing pace. I bascially go to work all day then come home, take a nap and do math till midnite. Final is this Thursday, and I have to do the chapter test for ch11 then all of chapter 12 and study before that. But if I can get a B on the ch11 test tomorrow, and find time to do the rest of the homework, I can get a 42% on the final and get a C.

My mom had surgery the middle of last month to replace her ailing knee. It was quite nerve racking but 6 weeks later she is doing quite well. Her knee still doesnt extend fully, a hold over from the compensating her body did with her old knee for years. Right now she has to wear this brace that stretches the knee 4 hrs a nite, and it is pretty painful for her. She is doing well though and we are all pulling for her.

I havent mentioned this previously, but I have become very good friends with a woman from work named Beverly, it is strange how well we get along in just a few months time. She bought herself a motorcycle today mostly on impulse, (starting yesterday) and she had a lot of second thoughts about it especially because her mother gave her such a hard time begging her not to. Sometimes you just gotta do things for you tho, even if there are risks involved.

My other friend Chrissie's 25th birthday is tomorrow. She is having dinner then going out drinking. Sadly I can only go to dinner because of evil math. It is so worth it if I pass tho. I plan to take the math placement test the week after the final so I can hopefully test out of my last math class. Anyway I think she will love her gift, about a month ago she mentioned to me in passing how much she wanted a nice jewlry box.... ^_~

Till next time, whenever that might be.

Links of the day!

A good wifi security guide
Duke Nukem jokes are old but still funny
The Tron Guy Truly scary

My Ja4 project- Tsuru no Ongaeshi Blooper Special!

2006-05-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

A bit overdue here, but this was my groups project for Japanese 4 That I turned in two Thursdays ago.

Direct youtube link here

Of course, if you dont know Japanese a lot of it will be lost on you. It also helps to know the original story, which is a famous Japanese childrens tale. The Grateful Crane There are many versions of the story, Ours stars an old man and his wife and the crane, not the young man in the link.

There are also many in-jokes from our class since we have all been together for several semesters now. So I made a translation / notes page together with my group mate Katherine and here it is:
The Grateful Crane Blooper Special Translation
You can watch the video there too.

In other news, on Monday I leave for Florida for two weeks for training in one of our products from work. Not Miami or anything, Gainsville, aka swamp land. It should be relaxing however, nice to get away no matter where it is.

Also, my server is coming along quite nice. I just got the 3ware 9550SX RAID controller for it, and am playing around with the 4 drives I have for it so I can fully understand how to configure and repair the RAID 5 before I buy the other 4 hard drives. My mistake so far was to Format a 745gb array without using quick format, it has been running all day and is only at 30%. ^^;;

Also, I finally got to talk to Minori san on MSN today! She was awake at 3am her time when I got out of bed after her big date that she kept switching the subject away from. ^^

PS: I know I dont update much, but I have been going for quality over quantity. I have been very busy these days, but work and school arent generally that exciting to talk about. Till next time!

Links of the day!

Other links above are the main stars, but Ill give one other
Church Sign Generator I stole this from Katherine too ^^

Ugh

2006-05-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

Its 4am. Im wide awake. Tried getting up and doin stuff. Tried workin out. Tried havin a couple beers. But now its 4 am so am so I'm going to go lay down till I have to go go work...

Nobuko and Minori

2006-02-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

Once again it's been AGES since I have written. Interesting things have happened, including a work trip to Iowa State University, beginning Japanese 4 with a new teacher, my main computer being a pain in the butt, and general hijinks.

But nothing has quite gotten me to blog until now.

A couple weeks ago, Nobuko, one of the girls I met in Kyoto 2 1/2 years ago (so long! T-T) emailed me saying her and Minori (another girl from the program) were coming to my area and wanted to see me.

I was immediately excited. These girls (and many, many others) had sacrificed basically ALL their free time for us, even neglecting their studies, for one month. I was glad at the opportunity to in some small way pay them back by showing them around MY hometown.

So I took the day off of work on Friday, and since Monday was Presidents Day (thanks George & Abe) that meant a 4 day weekend. Friday, I picked them up in Riverside and took them to Newport pier. Was a bit cold to do anything but walk and look, but it was fun. Then we met Thu (another American from the program, see blog at right) for lunch at Rainforest Cafe at South Coast Plaza. Afterwards we did a little window-shopping and I had to take them back to Riverside, which turned out to be a two-hour tour of Riverside because Google local's maps were not quite accurate. Still, they got a big laugh every time I made a U-turn.

We said our goodbyes and they said they would call me, but it was generally uncertain weather we would see each other again before they left Tuesday. (Today, they are probably in LAX right now)

Luckily, they called me Saturday night, saying they wanted to go to Disneyland the next day. I had promised all the Nihonjin (Japanese people) that if they ever came to America I would take them to Disneyland so of course I agreed.

We got to the park about 1pm Sunday and it was very crowded. Even though there is a Disneyland in Tokyo, they had never been before. Minori had never even been to an amusement park and said she was too scared to go on the MERRY-GO-ROUND! Nobuko loved 'jet-coasters' so she was good to go. ^^ Minori ended up being very brave and going on all the fast rides at Disneyland that day, although clutching Nobuko and screaming most of the time. Still I think they both had fun. ^^ We all really enjoyed the parade and hanabi (fireworks) at the end of the night, and left pretty much at closing.

Because I am a 'local' they sold us these '2fer' tickets for the regular admission price that let us go back to California Adventure for free any time in the next 60 days. Of course Nobuko and Minori did not have that long, and I joked we should go back there the next day for some 'real roller coasters' to kid with Minori.

The next morning they wanted to go! So off we went, and California Adventure is pretty cool. It was my first time so I wasn't much of a guide, but it was really fun. The rides are much more 'adult' the first one we went on was Tower of Terror, and after that Minori was very scared of any other ride.

We did the water ride next, which I got soaked, and then Soarin' California which was kind of like Star Tours. We took a break to shop (I bought a sweatshirt rather than go back to the car to get my jacket) and then Minori suggested we go on the Ferris Wheel. I couldn't believe it because it is one of the tallest rides and she is afraid of heights. Near the front of the line, she got major cold feet, but did not run away. When the ride started swinging, she screamed for her life. I told her it was optional weather we want it to swing, and I honestly thought that was the truth, but I was wrong. (^^; sorry Minori!). When we got to the bottom she was all ready to get off, but you get sent around twice. I honestly felt bad for her.

Especially since afterwards, our fast-pass was ready and so we went on California Screamin, the one real roller coaster in the park, complete with loop. Minori was terrified but I think Nobuko loved it. After that it was shopping, Denny's (too late for anywhere good) and home to bed.

I've mostly mentioned Minori, because her fear of the rides was a major topic of the weekend, but Nobuko was wonderful. She taught me lots of new Japanese slang and Kansai-ben to help me fail Japanese 4. (Test tonight I haven't studied for, I am thinking of skipping ^^;) It was really nice seeing them both and it makes me want to go back to Japan EVEN MORE than before, I didn’t think that was possible.

As for my Japanese, they laughed every time I said anything, which made me a bit self conscious, ( ^^;) until I realized they basically laughed every time I said ANYTHING. (^^;;;) Apparently I am 'tension ga takai'

This morning, I left for work about two hours before Frank, another person from the program, came to pick them up and take them to the airport.

They gave me a rubber Mickey bracelet (like the kind that are popular now) and both have matching ones, like friendship bracelets, a Disneyland pin with my name on it (I had been joking around looking if they had any pins with their names on it.) and the sweetest card I have ever gotten, with heartfelt messages from both of them and little drawings of us at Disneyland and at the beach all over it. I had bought them both hats at the park, Minori a leather bomber hat with Mickey ears and Nobuko a Stitch hat with his ears, horns, and fur on it.

I didn't want to leave them this morning. Seeing them again after two years only proves that my memory of them as two of the sweetest people on the planet was not just made falsely rosy by time. They really are wonderful people. All of the people that supported us in Japan were. And I hope to see them again very soon.

Which makes me ask- where are the rest of you? Get out here so we can go to Disneyland too! ^^

Today my feet are a little tired from standing and walking 12 hrs a day for two days straight, but I am not tired. Being around them is very energizing. Nobuko san to Minori san mo meccha iyashikei da yo. Arigatou gozaimasu. ^^

Links of the day!

my lotds are very old too, but that doesnt mean theyre not good.
DS Game!I cant really tell whats going on but I want this game!
Super Mario War Someday I'll have time to play this, I swear...
Seventh Sky To round out the game theme, heres a fun flash game.

Iowa?

2006-01-06T14:20:00.000-08:00

First post of the new year, yay.

Just confirmed my travel plans today, work is sending me to the University of Iowa the week of the 16th, coming home Friday night. It also means I miss my entire 2nd week of Japanese 4, which I have been studying to be semi qualified for again for the past 2 weeks.

Yay?

It should be fun, get a hotel room and rental car and meals and such on the company's dime, but I own no warm clothes at all so I might die. I might have to see what nightlife in Iowa is like, maybe I'll take pictures and put em here. Maybe if theyre nieve enough I'll tell em I'm a casting director and they can warm me... ^^

Actually with my natural space heater ability, it might be fun to walk around in short sleeves the whole time and make everyone wonder why THEY'RE so cold when the CALIFORNIAN is just fine. Bet I could do it too. Low is 29 today and high 47 tomorrow. I can totally swing that.

Im gonna try to buy my Palm TX today when I get off work so I can hopefully get it before I go. I hope the hotel or the University has wifi.

After all, what the hell else am I gonna do in IOWA...

Links of the day!

Futurama! I got the 'Born to be a Beurocrat' song stuck in my head yesterday and googled it up, knock yourselves out.
Akihabara News If you like shinny, blinking, tiny electronics things, heres a news site for you.
Quantum Trickery A long but very interesting article on all the crazy stuff physisits are doing these days, like having the same particle in 2 different geographic locations at the same time...

Work is hard

2005-12-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hard @ work, playin on irc

Somebody stop me!

2005-12-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

The Mask references aside, seriously, I need help.

So I got my first steady paycheck in forever, and got final checks from my two major clients as well, which about equaled another paycheck. Was I smart and put it all away for my next rainy day?

Of course not, I've been on a toy buying spree.

Not entirely my fault, theres just soo many things over the past year or so that I have said to myself 'I can get it when I get a new job' and of course here we are.

So what have I bought? Well I started out smart. Putting $500 into savings and buying some work clothes and nice new belts, and I decided to get a Nvidia 6800 Ultra video card since my friend found a deal on the anandtech forums and its a good time to upgrade, afterall, a faster AGP video card will probably never be made.

Then it got interesting, deals came my way. Last Monday, I found the dell 2005fpw 21" flatscreen for the cheapest I have ever seen it $599 - 25% - 100 + free shipping = $360 shipped. Normally thats to much for me on comptuer parts, but I spent $450 on my 19" CRT 5 years ago and it has lasted me beautifully, but gained a scratch near the center a few months ago. Since I spent less than $100/year on the last monitor, this new one was deemed worth it. I also bought a 6 bottle inverted liquor dispenser on sale for $30 at Linnens and Things on Black Friday.

My Palm Lifedrive is also finally going to go thru. Meaning another big hit to my bank account, but I've been drooling over this forever. (I have wanted wifi in my palm for two years.)

Then came the real toy. Frys had a sale of a Nintendo DS with Mario Kart and 2 crap games (some poker crap and Madden 2005) for $159. So on Saturday I went and got that too.

But honestly, blowing my first paycheck on toys is fine. I have no bills and I deserve to celebrate a bit.

Am I done? Hell no, I have a new game machine to feed. Gonna go get Metroid and Castlevania at lunch today and maybe get up to frys for a Linksys WRT54G (on sale for $30 till tomorrow) between work and class.

Oh and work? I'm there now. I love the place but really wish I was more useful, I have nothing to do so far today. Almost makes me want to whip out my DS...

Links of the day!

theyre hard to do at work, but I have a few on my iPod/glorified usb thumbrive
Sweet Backgrounds of Tokyo and other areas of Japan. Ya it's in Japanese, but pictures are pretty universal.
Alive in Kyoto a photography site/blog/more backgrounds. Didn't have a huge ammount of time to check it out but it seems promising
Military cutbacks shouldnt have to cause this

Funny story of the day

2005-11-25T21:02:00.000-08:00

[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> so funny story of the day
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> actually yday
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> i rebooted after 11 weeks
[20:58] <+thatguy> k
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> and was thinking 'watch my comp not boot'
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> and i get this 'windows cannot access the boot partition' error
[20:58] <+thatguy> ahaha
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> oooohhhhkkkkaaayyyyy
[20:58] <+Tenchi[BOT]> http://data.4chan.org/b/src/1132980345507.jpg fear
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> so i shut it off and continue my phone conversation
[20:58] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> an hour later when i was off the phone, it boots right up
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> then i have a login prompt
[20:59] <+thatguy> nice
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> and i cant remember my password....
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> and i try all these different passwords, then finally just log on as Administrator
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> as the admin acct is loading i remember
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> duh
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> there is no password.....
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> so
[20:59] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> i log off
[21:00] <+Tenchi[BOT]> ....
[21:00] <@Natsuki-Chan> !list
[21:00] <+Tenchi[BOT]> um...
[21:00] <+thatguy> nice.
[21:00] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> but, last time i formatted i fucked up and installed xp home, and put a string of gobledy gook as my registered to name, which becomes login name
[21:00] <+Tenchi[BOT]> ed....for the first time i can actually say it
[21:00] <+Tenchi[BOT]> you idiot
[21:00] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> so
[21:00] lol
[21:00] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> i now know my pword, but not my username, and ive LONG since gotten rid of that retarded welcome screen
[21:00] * +RoTeNdO (~rotendo@Rizon-D58E16.mpls.qwest.net) Quit (Quit: So when I'm lost in a crowd~ I hope that you'll pick me out~ I long to be found~ )
[21:01] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> so i look all over my room for a peice of paper (turned out to be a napkin) that i wrote it down on 2 months ago and finally found it
[21:01] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> then i remember- duh, log on as administrator and i can see the username....
[21:01] <+BeDRoaCH-RiZzZonSuxZz> in short: my uptime was so good, i forgot how to reboot

*And yes, I am BeDRoaCH

Links of the day!

Weird sex laws hey, why not
Cybersex! anybody wanna go out for a burger?
Holliday Lights no its not a trojan, (points to those who get the reference) just some guy with waaaay too much time on his hands

Yesterday was my birthday

2005-11-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

My family all showed up and so did Jeannine, Crissie and Lydia and we went out to Ling & Louies Asian Bar and Grill in the Irvine Spectrum (formerly Taifoon, with exact same menu, they actually think the new name is better)

Many drinks and much spicy food later, my family left and me and the girls went to The Yard House. (also in Irvine's Rectum) The plan was to have a couple (more) drinks then go see Hairy Potter since the bars close early.

But by the time closing time came around, we weren't going to waste time seeing a movie we wouldnt remember, and my friend Greg had called cuz he is down for the holliday from San Francisco, so we went out to another local bar, Patsy's. That bar closed soon after we got there, and it was about 12:30 which would have been a good time for me to go to bed so I could work the next day, but instead we went to Time Out Tavern.. er... somewhere... and I got home at ~2:30am.

All in all it was a BLAST, but today wasnt. Back up at 6am and at work at 8 to my job which I love but would love it a lot more if I knew what the hell I was doing. There wasnt too much for me to do, tho I did get to call a couple clients for simple things. Went home for lunch and lost track of time and got back almost an hour late....... nice work for the end of my 8th day huh.

Got my first paycheck today too, I started work at the perfect time, last Monday was the beginning of the new pay period and I got paid today (Wednesday) for two weeks because I have Thursday and Friday off. Now if the money would just show up in my checking acct....

Anyway I'm headed out tonite to see all the guys at Patsy's again should be fun.

Oh ya- what did I get?
A 60gb Video Ipod engraved from my parents, some shopping money at Nordstroms from my sister and F.E.A.R DVD edition from my brother. And lots of free drinks from my friends ^^

Links of the day!

Ok, so I really am not much on the computer lately, so its getting touger and tougher to get good links.
The Kingdom of Loathing Try out this ghetto style MMORPG and let me know how it is (Ive been meaing to try it for months) supposed to be quite fun
Who needs a gym ya this ones super old, but maybe theyll have clinical trials for humans soon then... I voulenteer.
Darkness Doesnt exactally inspire you to fear that psycho does it?

werk

2005-11-18T22:58:00.000-08:00

Well so much for blogging Monday, thats definately my busy day.
Left for work at 7:30am was home for half an hour, then off to Japanese class. Got home at 10pm. Sleep was more important.

But the jobs pretty cool, after 2 days of reading for my pre-med degree I didnt ask for, I got to do some stuff, most notably translate some Japanese software to English so they could replace a program that only works on windows 95.

Imagine that, I never woulda guessed I'd get hired at a JAPANESE company to translate J->E. You'd think there are far more qualified people.
And there are.. but they're the big-wigs with better things to do, and honestly their English skills may be in question...
Maybe they should just call the vice president of the company every time they want to reprogram an EKG machine...

But ya, anyway, pretty good. Yesterday I was ready for bed @ ~8pm... this whole getting up before dawn thing is new...

This weekend I want to party.. but its Friday night and here I am drinking by myself. Yay me.
Tomorrow I guess I'm invoted to go out to the Inland Empire to get really drunk listening to some band I've never heard of with a few good friednds. But theres a chance I could see Yoshi from my days in Japan- she's supposed to be out here as of Thursday for a few days... but I think she'll have better things to do than call me, esp since it wasn't her that told me...

whatever..

Links of the day!

Not like I'd ever reproduce, but if I did I'd get these
Bush Rocks! you know its true
Your sexual problems and those you're closely related to

Murphy loves me

2005-11-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hi, and welcome to another long overdue post.
This time its not because I have nothing going on in my life, this time its because I have too much.

So rather than a HUGE post lets do the highlights.

Jeannine went to Italy for 11 days and me and her other friend Lydia house-sat her smelly, hyper dogs. The dogs came out of the groomers smelling like a bar of dial the day before they left, and 3 days later smelled like ass for the rest of the time. I am a pet lover mind you, as is evidinced by the fact I still pet them and paid them lots of attention dispite the fact they stunk and I am alergic.

Lydia... is pretty cool actually, I've never really liked her for one reason or another, but we got along quite well. I still dont 'get' her, but I definately like her better.

The big news however, is I GOT A JOB. (FINALLY DAMNIT) I shall be a 'Neurology Tech Support Specialist' at Nihon Koden of America. Basically a fancy title for phone tech support guy for their software/hardware that monitors brain waves, mostly in epileptics, so the doctor can find the offending peice of brain and cut it out.

Career wise its a bit of a step down, but its FAR more stable and pays better than what I do now, and its SOOO CLOOOOSE to home. I was hoping once I got a regular job I could use my commute to listen to my audiobooks, but I pretty much will only have time for 'This is Audible...' and I'll be there.

I told them I needed the rest of last week to finish up my clients, and I did. Leaving them is bittersweet, I will miss them and being a consultant.

I've been doing lots of other stuff too, studying for more computer certs, Japanese, and many other random running around. Also now that I will have a steady income stream, I am playing with my money. ^^

So now on to the title of this. I start work tomorrow morning at 8am, a time I am accoustomed to waking up at, not being at work at. Thats ok tho, I can handle it...

but last nite around 5pm I started feeling weird.. just.. weird. I couldnt quite describe it. I was joking quoting Fry from Futurama saying 'Does everything taste purple?' but ya, it was just weird.

Yup, sure enough, as the night goes on I get sicker and sicker. On the day before my first new job in like 5 yrs. Thanks Murphy.

Links of the day!

Once again, I have a ton.
A parody on the power rangers that is just wonderful
God is living in Japan who knew Japan was a Jewish country? Hey, millions of otakus cant be wrong.
PopStation A video review of what is going to be the PSP killer.
Japanese Vending Machines A tribute to them and the weird things they contain.

After work tomorrow I have Japanese class till 10, but I hope to find time to blog on my 1st day at work. See ya then.

yay!

2005-10-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

Got my Security+, 876/900 for 97.3%.
About 80% or more of the questions were DIRECTLY off the practice test program I used. (Transdumper for fellow students.) So yay. This week I'm gonna relax a bit and update my resume while I make my clients happy, then next week probably go to some employment agencies since I seem quite unable to get a job on my own.

I also finally justified getting my Palm Lifedrive. I found a deal on it late last week for $350, and since my crappy Ipod died and my Tungsten T3 is dying, (SD card slot doesnt work and the screen accuracy is off) This should fufil both roles in one easy package, AND give me WiFi! I really cant wait to get it, but I will have to. Because of the great deal that was offered, theyre backordered and I have to wait a month to get it. T-T

Didnt do anything this weekend and really didnt want to, after studying all week I just want to lay around.... Oh wait, I always want to do that...

Probably gonna rebuild my network a bit too (with the newfound confidence of my new cert) Harden my domain server and get my Astaro router back up and running. (new version 6 yay)

Other than that, my life is as boring as always, but I kinda like it that way.

Links of the day!

How bout some links for dog lovers.
Neuticles Do you love your dog this much?
Dog Condoms I REALLY hope you dont love your dog THIS much.
Ok, enough dogs, how about some
Fruit that sums up every relationship I've ever been in.
Once again tho,
Get Winston an Ipod He's worth it.

Things I learned today

2005-10-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

1. Lord of War is a very good movie
2. Girls dont like very good movies
3. All very good movies must have some lame moral judgement usually typed on the screen at the end otherwise girls would be picketing outside
4. lots and lots of security stuff....

Taking Security+ tomorrow, cross your fingers for me.

Links of the day!

Get Winston an Ipod Winston totally rocks, he really deserves one, come on, be a sport.
While youre at it buy me this.
Another flash game this time a Street Fighter 2 ripoff, fun tho.

But seriously- get Winston an Ipod

A day in pictures

2005-10-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was quite eventfull, somehow early in the day I decided to try photo blogging and heres the result.

First I had to go to school (yes on a saturday morning, 9am-noon T-T) and I saw evidence of the RIAA's new pricing ideas for online music downloads.

(Ya ok, it's not easy to take pics while driving- it says "10 songs for $10,000.")

Then I got to school and saw the image that I just HAD to take a picture of.

Sure, I'm probably going to hell, but what else is new, that's hillarious.

I was VERY out of gas so I went to fill up (for $50 UGH) and check out what I saw.

Then grabbed some lunch at what I think is going to be my new favorite place.

Mmm kung pao tofu and edamame.

Then it was time for a long afternoon of grueling napping, in preperation to go out for the nite. Dinner at Fridays then off to 'the Rocks' with Chrissie and Jessica which turned out to be a blast when Jeannine and her cousin Marie who I never get to see anymore showed up.

Theres a new bartender there, one of the rare bartenders I've met in 'the OC' that is actually FRIENDLY. Poor girl forgot I opened up a tab and ended up giving me free drinks most of the nite. Thanks! I tipped her quite well.

I gave her real trouble when I asked for a manhattan, poor thing had to get the book out. I quipped, "They HAVE to teach you how to make those in bartender school." She responded, "I didnt go to bartender school. You dont have to when you have these."

I'd have to agree.

So then me and Chrissie ended up sitting in her car outside my house talking and listening to M-flo till 4am. Somehow I managed to break her winshield with the ball of my pinky toe... yay me. I really wish I thought to take a picture of it.

Today, I aint doing jack. Currently scheming to figure out how I can get life-recovering food (warrior is about to die) without actually having to get dressed and leave the house. Other than that, its just...

FOOTBALL. I call this 'picture outside of picture' lets hear it for computers with TV tuners.
(Oh and yes, I cheated, that pictures from last week. But you get the idea.)

Links of the day!

Sidewalk art wow, you think its some photoshop trick till you get to the bottom...
Family Mart I miss it T-T
Frusion game How bout another flash game? this ones a takeoff on PunhOut- enjoy.

asexual rant

2005-09-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ok so first of all, Winston rocks. (start after quote) Not only do we share a brain half the time, he has the courage to say stuff I dont.
So ya, I've been getting accused of being gay lately. Not because I like men, but because I'm just sick of women. And while I'm QUITE sure I wont be the first or last million to complain about the opposite gender on the internet, I'm doing it anyway.

I have had many women friends over the years, and always get complaints about guys using them for sex and not calling. (Most of the time the women are just projecting those intentions on a guy they've known for <1 hour.) What is the reason for this? If they bother to state it, its because men are evil creatures from a parallel dimension. Of course it could have NOTHING to do with the fact that women are royal pains in the ass.

There is an amazing inverse relationship between looks and personality. Its almost not their fault, women who are beautiful are rediculously spoiled all their lives. (men too, but to a lesser extent, since women detect the beauty of other women far more than men do men) Ugly people of both genders need to develop wonderful personalities lest they have no friends.

Modern women are also about the most selfish thing I concieveable. I have a good friend that calls herself a 'traditional girl' which means to her that a man should pay for and do everything, and work his ass off to be rewarded with her time. You know what? men arent stupid. The more women assume they are the more they complain about them because they keep getting outsmarted. Its thinking like hers that leads to the natural (tho SOOO politically incorrect) conclusion that you should put out at the end of the nite-- because HELLO, THERES TWO PEOPLE IN THE RELATIONSHIP, and most people arent into being slaves.

Another thing, men arent women. Seemingly obvious, its not. Guys are NOT detail oriented, you buy a new dress and we cant tell, even worse if you get jewlry, it'll take years. Ever see on tv where the guy says 'I like that new necklace of yours.' and she replies 'I've had this for years.'? It's new to him. You guys wearing womens dickies and frilly shirts to show your feminine side are truly to be pitied, not because youre 'gay' but because youve been taught to develop your feminine side because everything around you tells you the masculine is bad.

Women and men also approach human relationships differently. Women will wonder how men can be friends with that slob hes been friends with since high school. It's the same reason he's still with you. Guys take relationships as decisions. They weigh their options, make a decision, and unless something drastic changes (slow constant changes dont count, those are details) he will stay there.

Women on the other hand need constant reasurement. Everything is wonderful in the relationship until youre sitting on the couch one day and she says 'we need to talk.' It's almost more of a cliche than 'lets just be friends' but women do it anyway.
And when you talk, it turns out that shes upset because two weeks ago she told you there was a tv show she wanted to watch tonite and she sat down with you and you didnt turn it on, in a memory test you didnt know you were participating in.
Sounds rediculous I know, (and it is fictional) but the point is 90% of the complaints fall into two categories:
1. The above test of psychic powers. Women for all their lauded skill in conversation, will sit there icy quiet while we watch tv and expect us to pick up on their vibe. Guess what, we're watching tv. Two years later when she DOES say something, its far too late because she wants to punish him for her two years of heartache, which is a natural human reaction except for the fact she brought it on herself. Trust me, we guys will tell you when the football game is on.
2. 'You dont pay enough attention to me.' This is oh-so-fun. Often this isnt even actions, its words. Guys will work their ass off all their lives for a woman. And one day she will say this to him. Why? Because 90% of the stuff you DO doesnt matter. Its far more what you say. But guys you have to meter it! Because it also has to be new and different all the time. If you tell her you love her every morning as you leave for work, she will ask you someday how come you never tell her shes pretty. And if its actually about doing something, then amazingly going to work everyday to a job you hate, buying her whatever home furnishings or clothes she wants, taking her out to dinner, etc, magically doesnt count. Why? Who knows, I'm not a woman.

This is also a good portion of the reason the assholes get the women. See they generally have nothing, so they do little and when they do do something it stands out, and theyre mean to everyone (including her) so when they ARE nice it once again stands out. I guess its all about expectations.

Lastly, women of this area. I generally think of myself as quick witted, but can never really think of the things I want to say when it counts. The bet example is with women of this area. (Orange County, Ca, as seen on tv) Within 5 minutes of meeting, you will hear 'what do you do?', 'where do you live', 'what kind of car do you have', or similar. Most guys just drop these answers to preempt them if they have anything worthy to say. I can never really think of good answers to these, such as 'I'm a displaced aligator wrestler from New Orleans.' when I need them. But its usually because I'm instantly annoyed.

In summation, if you girls wonder where the 'nice guys' are, its as I've always said. Young girls like assholes, and older women like nice guys. So young nice guys become old jaded assholes. But it's ok, I like being an asshole.

Zain has been using me as Cerano DeBergerac (I have NO IDEA how to spell French names, sound it out.) to some girl he found on facebook. I bet after this I loose a customer ^^ I'm actually pretty good at this stuff, but only as a 3rd party.

Ok, I should probably pay attention to my boring Saturday morning Computer Hardware class, one hour down!

Links of the day!

As I said, I'm not at home where the links are, heres one Mina sent me last nite tho. (and I might edit this later for more.)
Oregon Trail go back in time to Jr High with this old school apple emulator, theres a ton more games there too.

I tried to pick up Jesus in a movie theatre

2005-09-04T00:51:00.000-07:00

ya ya its been ages. Not much going on in my life. Basically just studying computers and Japanese and hangin out a bit. Got my A+ in the process, now on to the Security+.

But yesterday I had a religious experience. Saw a good wholesome movie about waiting till youre married for sex (40yr old Virgin) with Jeannine, then afterwards waited while she powdered her nose or whatever women do in the bathroom (since my friend Adam believes they dont poop) and I saw it...

In one of those tomogochi (capsule toys for the westerners) thingies, they had really crappy cheezy light-up jewlry. But on the outside box..... there it was

NEON JESUS!

I had to have it, and spent $6 (thats 6 toys, such a ripoff) trying to get it, even prommised never to take it off again, but as I learned long ago they never put the toys in the picture IN the damned capsules. (Isn't that false advertising?) So the best I could do is take a pic and make it my cell phone background. (Tried to blog this with my cell last nite but cingular email fails).

Tonite is just tv nite, adult swim gets a lot of crap but I love em. This holiday weekend sucks.

My friend in Japanese class also hunted down this,

Its a pic from the Genki 2 book (without the words) in a chapter that focuses on '___ did ___ to ____'. For those of us who wondered whatever happened to Bevis, hes now in Japan molesting innocent looking Japanese guys.

Commercials-

My friend John has a good friend Chef (nickname) that pointed out that in those Sketchers comercials, they eat the shoe and then it slides down their leg and onto their foot. So then the shoes are coming out their......

then I saw another comericial tonight and I could never figure out just what it was about it. Tonight I did.

<@eDRoaCH> apparently the army is desperately seeking people who know how to get to safe mode
<+Sky> safe mode?
<+Sky> WINDOWS?
<@eDRoaCH> youd have to see the comercial
<@eDRoaCH> cops driving around, seemingly asking for leads on a suspect
<@eDRoaCH> then they find him in a group of kids on the street and turn on their lights
<@eDRoaCH> he comes over and the 2nd cop says 'it crashed again'
<@eDRoaCH> he reaches over and says 'reboot in safe mode with f8'
<@eDRoaCH> next shot hes some army radar specialist
<@eDRoaCH> i think the radar only works in safe mode
<+Sky> hahahah sux
<@eDRoaCH> AEGIS- the worlds most advanced weapons syst.. er wait how do i get to safe mode again?

Links of the day!

wow, been ages, theyre all getting old
Famous People Who Were Bedwetters I think theyre cheating on FDR, he had pollio for god sakes.
Galvinize This game rocks litterally, Chemical Brothers game for their new single.
Spore ooooh, me like.

freaky friday

2005-07-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ever have the feeling someone was watching you?

Ever have your eyes play tricks on you in the dark?

The answer is probably yes (for all 3 of my readers) but...

Ever have them both happen to you at once?

Friday nite I went to sleep pretty late. I awoke, sort of, and had the distinct feeling someone was watching me. Even what direction it was comming from. I said I 'sort of' awoke, because I was still sleep paralyzed. The feeling was strong enough to make it worth the effort to me to shake myself into movement so I did and looked in the direction I felt it from.

Straight off to the left of my bed is my desk, with a poster above the side and a light (was off) just below it, then the desk.

I saw a full body of a man in a white dress shirt standing there staring at me. It was 4am. I KNEW what WAS there, and I stared and stared, but could only see the man. Kinda freaked me out, but since I'm not really afraid of ghosts/whatnot (jurys out on wether I believe in them) I just went back to sleep. Later I looked over and saw it again, but that time I might have been dreaming. Ever since every time I wake up at night I look and cant see it at ALL.

Contrast that to Sunday morning, the very next sleep-night, where I woke up durring a dream of being in a circle with my family and a bunch of strangers at some weird outdoor zoo where we were watching some baby hippos on the grass playing. (was I guess the point of this area of the 'zoo') Someone in our group threw something of my brothers into the circle, and he had to go retrieve it, but was being scared off by a baby hippo (was about half the size of what I believe a hippo to be) who seemed playful about it but could easily crush him. I woke up to laughing in my dream as I tried to film the scene with my camera.

Im such a weirdo.

Nothing else going on, I'm poor and studying for computer certifications (A+ hardware test at noon tomorrow) while waiting for school to start.

Links of the day!

erm.. I dont know what to say about this one, cept I've been constantly returning to it for the past two days. Someone needs to make a game about throwing ugly people off tall buildings, it would be addictive.
I still hate Firefox but their videos are cool.
pure conjecture by someone with too much time on their hands. Still, well done

a good day

2005-06-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was fun.

Woke up early and played white knight to one of my clients computer problems. (Oh forgetful windows, thats a network card you have there..)

On the way there and back (far client, bout half an hour each way) I listened to an interesting audiobook about human psycology. Titled 'How to Get Anyone to do Anything and Never Feel Powerless Again' its quite full of itself, but also full of interesting stuff in simple steps. If you have an mp3 player and find it enables you to get sick of music at a rate previously un-imagined, check out an audible account, its pretty cool. (Just check the book lists to make sure they have stuff you want first.)

Got home and decided to lay out in the sun for awhile while I listened to another audio book, 'The Art of Seduction' which is also quite interesting. (Hmm.. a theme in my books, new skill time I guess)

All sun charged and feeling good, I spent some time looking for a job, and called back an interesting offer to be a financial consultant for American Express.
It's probably not what I'm looking for, as I've heard its all comission based, but theres a certification you need that they give you 6 months to get, so if the hourly is good durring that time I may go for it as a tide-me-over. It's also stuff that I would like to learn for my own life. Interview-type-thingy (computer test on 'is it wrong to steal from companies?' and ~45 min description of job followed by possible interviews) tomorrow morning at 8:30am.

At night, went to Hennesys in Dana Point which I loved, big outdoor bar with a huge firepit. Kim and Jessica were there, Jessica just getting back from a week in Costa Rica. (JEALOUS!) Kim invited me to her 4th of July BBQ.

That ended early and we went to Freds cantina (not sure of exact name) on the corner of Main and PCH in Hunnington (Newport?) Beach. If you sample all 50 of their tequillas, you get a free trip to Cabo San Lucas. Couple catches tho, one being you can only do 5 shots a day, the other being the last 3 shots are $50, $85 and $150 each. They said that ya, youre buying your trip, but at least you're having fun doing it. I have to agree.
Marie and Danny, Jeannine's cousins were there, we played some pool and drank too much.

Today was also nice, did a little shopping and because of a 40% off sale, I now have Victorias Secret underwear. (they're boxers you pervs) I bet not too many guys can say that.

I also met a notible moron. Going to dinner with Jeannine, I parked next to a rather large truck with a pair of plastic nuts hanging off the trailer hitch, and of course a Texas liscence plate. We went in and Jeannine spotted him right away eating by himself. She asked what the heck that was, and he yelled out 'Nuts!' in a way that really needed a 'yuk yuk' after it.
Hmm, giant truck, WITH PLASTIC NUTS HANGING OFF IT? I usualy dont make these insinuations, but that just SCREAMS 'My big truck is a replacement for my tiny endowment'

Oh ya, and I didnt even have to use my AK.

Links of the day!

The Horror! I know some people who will be saddened by this, its good thats not my favorite part.
Amazon house party Pretty cool, if I'm around I'll def be there.
Breaking news! Adam sent me this while I was writing this, pretty damn cool but a bit expensive.

Best freudian slip ever

2005-06-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

So last night I went out to the local bar (the one that hasnt burned down) with a few people that I really had only met a few times before, so it was slightly uncomfortable at times yet lots of fun.

ANYWAY, was talking with this girl for a minute and didnt think I had met her before, but with my bad memory I have to hedge my bets. She was attractive but I wasnt all ga-ga or anything, tho I dont think I came off that way... Dialouge follows.

eD: 'I dont think we've met before, I'm David.' (reaching out to shake hand, I'm such a dork)
her: 'No, we havent, I'm Jessica.' (shaking said hand, thinking what a dork I am)
eD: 'Jessica... ok, but I have to warn you I'm very bad with names, so please be with me'

er,,,, bear with me......

we both gigled about it a bit, it was completely unintentional but whatever, I'm sure she thinks it was what was on my mind.

They say the most important skill people learn is the ability to laugh at themselves. In my case its true. If I couldnt I woulda jumped off a cliff long ago.

In other news:
Thanks to Misty, another girl who I met last night and gave me her email, I will soon have one of those trendy rubber bracelets that everyone wears for their favorite cause (or more likely the cause they think will make everyone think good things about them) shes got GREEN ONES (I think theyre green, was a bit dark last nite...) and theyre for wellness, which will hopefully counteract my goodness and badness to even me out. :P

Video game geekiness- I got a GBA in the mail thru a forum trade yesterday. It was an orig Game Boy Advance, a 512mB romcart, and a usb linker, with other fun accessories, for $85 shipped. Mind you the rom cart alone is about $125. So what the hell is all of it? Simple, the linker plugs into your computer like a drive that reads GBA games and can copy them to the romcart which can hold about 4-10 games (Games range in size from 32mB to 128mB) meaning that I now have 1800 new games to play in my bathroom. (Brittneys dance beat in german here I come!)

I also bought Farcry today because my friend has been demanding I get it for about a month now and its on sale at bestbuy for $15 this week. I dont have the hard drive space to install it tho.....

Links of the day!

So sad to see you go.. oh wait, no it isnt.
MMMM Alba
Japanese 101 wonderful gramar site, tho it kinda throws a lot at you to start. (you can do it!)

I spent all my money T-T

2005-06-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

But I got lots of new clothes! ^_^

went to Robinsons May with Jeannine on sunday and spent far too much money. However I got good clothes and I've REALLY been needing to buy some nice clothes for awhile.

Also almost everything I got was on sale.

So now that I'm all pimped out, I need a date :P

Links of the day!

Hmmm I need a vacation too....
MMM desk Not quite what I'd want, and probably a ripoff anyway.
E3 Featuring the only thing most of you care about from the show

Happy freakin birthday...

2005-05-22T02:12:00.000-07:00

Well, if youre reading this in the morning (PST) and the site still looks like crap (well more than usual, with broken images across the top) I might kill my webhost.

You see, today was edamamebeans.com's first birthday, including paying for another year.

Well. It seems they charged my account successfully, but here it is at 2am the day after and my website doesnt resolve........

FTP still works, I'm backing up the website now.

Somebodys gonna die...

Links of the day!

no.

Pilosophy 301

2005-05-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe I think to highly of myself with the '3' part of the title, after all these questions and answers are a few thousand years old.

And before I go on 2 items.
1. Congrats Andrea on your masters degree in HR, your 'new housemaid' that you got mad at me over last nite because I wouldnt tell you what it is will arrive tomorrow. (she needed a vaccum and I'm a geek so...) (gift inspired by Cara, link at right)
2. I GOT AN A IN JAPANESE 3! I swear my teacher cant do math, theres no way I deserved an A, but I'll take it. This gives me my 1st ever 4.0 semester, yay.

Ok.
The other day I realized something about some ultra religious people, although it definately doesnt apply only to them, they just helped me realize it. (btw the people that unknowingly helped me realize this DID NOT fall into this category, and thus had me wondering why.)

It's how you see the world. If you see the world as generally evil, and yourself good, then you're just an egotist when it comes down to it. The other group of people who could see the world as evil would do so to excuse their evilness, also not good.

Targen (link at right, get it yourself) was quick to point out this is rather old philosophy, dividing the world into Self, other, and general. I had heard that before but I guess somehow forgot it, so this was still a revelation to me.

Anyway it inspired some rare inteligent chat in the chanel I hang out in. (#catgirls@irc.rizon.net) I came to some other realizations thru it.

For a long time I have tried to think of what the world would be like if it was 'perfect.' After all, its pretty damned perfect as it is. Sure theres war, famine and other assorted stuff, but I think those things are needed to keep a balance. But there is something everyone spends their whole life looking for, usually without knowing. It's why Bill Gates gets up every morning and fights his heart out, (lol I can hear flames) why people become drug addicts, why people will do anything to get laid, even why we build families and go to church.

It is something only the most successful human beings can hold on to for even a short time.

It is, simply, Joy.

It's beyond happiness, or love, or any other simple (ha!) emotion. Joy is just when everything feels right with the world, and you can accept it for all its faults and lackings. In fact, the lackings are PART of the joy, it helps one see what IS there.

So the new question is, what would the world be like if everyone had a sense of joy? This is a hard one. It's easy to say 'there would be no war, no dissagreements, and everyone would always be happy and play nice.' Would they? Would there not always be something to fight for and against? Would a sense of joy mean everyone had the same opinion, or that different opinions never contradicted eachother? I'm not so sure.

So thats youre homework. If youre actually reading this then comment below on your thoughts or blog about it yourself. But think about it. The easy answers are usually worhtless.

Links of the day!

na, lets stay philisophical

A plea for help

2005-05-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

My life seems to be entirely defined by computer problems.

In work, thats what I do. They call me when something breaks and I fix it. Over the years, I have gotten quite good at that and so theres less and less problems (and $, someone hire me damnit)

At home, I'm just too damned complicated. ~1tb of space spread out over 3 main comps and 2-3 other random ones that are usually on my network for one reason or another.

And its ALWAYS PROBLEMS. TV comp's (hooked to tv, and its WONDERFUL when it works) power supply died about 2 weeks ago, so I have a 300w in there from another comp that cant POSSIBLY hope to handle the 6 hds and 2 cdroms AND ATI AIW it has in it, so most of my data drives are inaccessable to me.

Fine, sucks, but when I can scrape the cash together its easily fixed. But the other day windows refused to boot, telling me its missing some file and to run the windows setup recovery console. Oh yes thank you microsoft for such a useless recovery option. Did you guys miss DOS or what?

And my main comp.... I just do too much weird crap too often so it needs a format like every 3 months... and I'm sick of it.

My WONDERFUL, AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL p2 233 server (1st comp I ever built and I love it to death) NEVER has problems. Running w2k I had it up for over a year once till the power went out.

So I've put 2 80gb drives and mirrored them and I want to put all my critical data on it, which means moving my My Documents folder over and telling windows to look over there.

Well, stupid windows just HAS to 'Sync' the folder, meaning it copies it to the C drive for my convinience lest the server is inaccessable. Nice, but I DONT HAVE THE SPACE ON MY C: for that. I had 0kb free today...

So I had to undo it and put them back on the local D drive as they were before.

So I need help- I'm not stupid, you can shut off folder syncronization- except for my documents apparently, the option to do so is greyed out.

Need fix please...

Links of the day!

MasaMania An internet journalist with horrible english but fun stuff
Ring of saturn Lots of cool geeky stuff here
A JET's life in Kyoto Even if you dont know what JET is, youll find this hillarious (and slightly disturbing)

Thursday the 12th vs Friday the 13th

2005-05-15T02:45:00.000-07:00

So I had this Japanese class end of semester party thing to go to, and didnt want to brave it alone. Not that its horrible, just nice to have a backup plan.

So Wednesday I asked my friend Jeannine on a 'date' because everyone thinks we're dating anyway. She turned me down cuz she had plans with her man.

Thurs afternoon she calls me and she wants to go, man issues (not describing them :P) have her free. So its a date...

and if anything was ever a first date, I this was.

As much as I love lots of aspects of Japanese culture, me being a vegitarian and theirs being a sea-faring nation means I cant eat 90% of their food. So we went to Typhoon (mmm lettuce wraps) 1st.

As I get off the freeway, my car starts steaming profusely, yay. I joked with her I will now do the typical man thing and open the hood and stare at all the crap that I have NO CLUE to its function. Well this one was obvious, as I opened the hood the now trickle of steam was comming out of the GAPING crack in the top of the radiatior. Whatever, we ate, we shal deal with it afterwards, car can cool down anyway.

Of course getting the fabled lettuce wraps (and no I dont have any clue how to spell lettuce nor will I spell check it) the 1st one bursts all over my shirt. Wheee. Well, we'll be switching cars anyway I can switch shirts.

So we go back to my car and I put a 20 bottle of water into an empty radiator (I'm such a mechanic!!) and gingerly drive back to Jeannines to switch cars. From there we stop at my house to switch shirts (me switching mine, not us trading :P) and head off.

The dinner was pretty fun, despite bad service. (We had the 'white corner' and there was a marked difference.) Most of my interaction was with Jeannine tho, and we ditched the after-dinner kareoke. Grabbed a coffee and complained about our problems in life and then back to her house to talk a lil more (just that :P) and bail. Had to stop 3x on a 5 min drive home for my poor car.

So to recap, that was 2 cars, 2 shirts, 2 restraunts. (and prob at least 2lb more on my gut)

FRI- Ok, I hid, got my car fixed (new radiator cha-cha-cha and as a side note JIFFYLUBE SUCKS) (thats not where I got the work done tho) and just hung out at home (trapped) and played the FMA PS2 game I downlo.. er got the other day.

I did test my luck a bit, I pointed a hand mirror at my bathroom mirror. Read in a manga (Urasei Yatsura translated) that a devil was supposed to pop out if mirrors were pointed at eachother on Fri 13th. Obviously nothing happened.

But thats it. I think Fri wins.

Todays Sun, but its only 3 hrs into it so I have no verdict. Yesterday was my sister Andreas birthday but I wont see her till her Masters degree graduation next sat (gift ideas anyone?) Yesterday was pretty cool, put the new tape drive in my main clients server and all went well, and I'm just getting home from Scott callin me up at ~11:30pm to come hang out.

Thats my story and I'm stickin to it, not that you care.

Links of the day!

doesnt my site prove it :P
Anyone who downloaded Opera over this crap should be ashamed of themselves.
Nintendo has grown up, and I like it.

still here

2005-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Yup, didnt go anywhere, lifes been quite boring.

Just got home from taking my Japanese 3 final, think I did pretty good except for the writing part where I couldnt think of anything, so I joked a bit about Link from Legend of Zelda (was supposed to be a biography of your favorite person)

Whatever, its over, and tho I'm still very bad at Japanese, I have gotten better.

Now I shal have time to do all the things I've been saying I will do when the semester is over, like working on this pitiful website of mine and getting some certifications so I can FINALLY GET A JOB.

We shal see if it actually happens...

Links of the day!

Make some money They apparently dont want mine, as I always get a MySQL error (thats geek for their website sucks)
Are you geek enough? I bet you could make some money on ebay with these in a few months...
Kinky! *Note: irivers do this without fancy contraptions

LIFE ON MARS!

2005-04-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

I want to be the first to bring this to you. Life has been discovered on Mars.

No other site will tell you such relevant and important information. Why? Because they lack vision, the kind of vision only growing up in the 80's can bring you.

You see, Link is lost on Mars. I can only theorize as to how this happened, but the valiant yet unfortunate elf boy has apparently had a malfunction of his flute, and is now wandering Mars endlessly trying to find his way home.

Dont believe me huh? I'm not supprized, it is incredible. But I have visual evidence!
Link1
And not just one, but two!
Link2

I was unable to reach Nintendo for a response, mostly because my Japanese sucks and I didnt try. (but mostly the first)

This irrefutable evidence comes from NASA itself. Just look at the URL in your browser for proof. I hereby swear under oath to your god that this is factual, and once again remember, you heard it here first.

Links of the day!

THIS is the greatest LOTD I have ever posted.
A poem that all too acurately explains my life
How cool is this? All you germophobes will love this

Nihon no hon wo yonda, yatta!

2005-04-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Today I am happy. I finished my book.

Now, me actually FINISHING a book (as opposed to starting) is an accomplishment in itself, usually I read about 1/5th to 1/3rd and get bored with it, but this book is special.

Its my first book in Japanese. ^^
Ok, its not a BOOK like er- Stephen King or Charles Dickens,(thx KoshNaranek for solving my brain fart on authors names) but its not See Spot Run either. Its a manga, a Japanese comic for the un-initiated, this particular one is Full Metal Alchemist #1.

It has furigana (pronunciation notes next to the kanji for kids and foreigners like me) and thru using my dictionary as sparingly as possible, and also knowing a fair amount of the story from watching the English dubbed anime on TV, I would say I understood about 70% of it.

Which is fine with me, I do hope that number grows.

At first it was slow going. I'm a slow reader even in English (high comprehension rate compensates for it) but even tho I study Japanese a lot, real world usage opportunities for me are quite low. It had lots of non-commonly used language (the story line is somewhat fantastic, having to do with Alchemy) but I trudged thru it.

Last night, I read an entire chapter (~40 pages) before bed, then woke up and read the last chapter (about the same) this morning. I can see my reading speed, accuracy and recognition increase already, so its quite fun.

On the other hand, I know I've said this before, but I really really really really really (etc etc) cant speak a friggin word of Japanese anymore. I get tongue tied and lost with the simplest things.

I think its a self inflicted curse, because I used to joke that I would rather be able to ask the cute girl what the sign said and understand her answer than learn 2000 kanji. But really, I have no chance to speak Japanese commonly, and the rare occasions it comes up I am WAY shy about it, even in class. There's no Japanese 4 next semester, so I will probably take the conversation class instead and work thru it, or get a private tutor.

For now I'm happy to be reading ^_^

On another note, the blog changed styles again, firefox and IE display the scrollbars different, but both do it well, and I like the look. Hope you do too, because if not, you'll be stuck with it for awhile.

Links of the day!

The perfect case If my friend Adam had an Ipod
Eliminating data securely This site is full of cool things I don't understand
Learn Khmer Long story short, I use ICQ and LONG time ago changed my details and picked funny sounding languages and claimed I spoke them. Literally 4 years later, I get tons of messages from people who can speak them who want to add me (its an Indonesian language I believe, but most people were from Canada for some reason) anyway, expand your horizons!

Douglas!

2005-04-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

Blogs been rather heavy lately, so on a lighter note....

Meet Douglas, the newest extended member of the family. Dougie (not like Howser..) for short, which sometimes morphs to Doggie (how creative eh? calling a dog doggie) he's a full sized Basset hound that my brother got a few days ago from a breeder, and we all think he doesn't realize just how big this dogs gonna get...

Here he is in his natural state. Apparently this is the height of activity for him. Of course, he's only 12 weeks old, and human babies sleep a lot too.

Here he is with his owner, my brother. (The original Mr Excitement)

Then it was time for him to go... He actually cried as he left, think he likes our house better than the bachelor pad he lives in.

On another note, I'm in pain today, got my ass kicked when I bumped the cabinet next to my door last nite and had a speaker fall about 4 ft directly into my chest broadside. Guess I'm lucky it didn't hit me on the head or land with a corner first... but it feels like my lung is bruised.

Links of the day!

The local bar Not goin there anymore...
Perpendicular People at Hitachi should REALLY have something better to do.
Quit whining It's funny.

Farewell to a friend

2005-04-02T23:56:00.000-08:00

The Pope died today.

I take nothing back from my previous blog. Because its the truth, at least as Ive heard and precieved it, and thats all we have to go on in this life.

He was a great man. He went into the world far more than any other previous Pope, but its also true that he had more opertunity to do so than any other Pope.

But thats not the friend I am mourning.

A little over 4 years ago, Im not sure when, I first attempted to use IRC. I went to aniverse. the first few days on #lovehinaparty, where I met someone (unbenounced to me, an ircop) that helped me learn the ropes. Then I forgot the chan I was in, and found #mae. From there, I met friends, I watched the inception of a chan called #RG where 'we hate you, now go away' I found more friends, and overtime, I ended up in #catgirls.

Aniverse is my home on irc. Its the place I first joined, and the place I fought to keep. I watched it grow from a nothing server to one of the top ten irc servers in the world. It was a beautiful thing.

However, the fact they only have one server, no matter how powerful it is, overtime proved its weekness, as they have been subjected to attack after attack by the idiot 12 yr old script kiddies who cant get laid. This proved its downfall.

Two major DDOS attacks made most of the larger channels leave for other networks. Still, I was reluctant to go. I had found other chanels on other servers that I liked, but aniverse was always my home.

I have watched #catgirls slowly die over the months. Pretending it wasnt happening. Slowly we lost people, without any new life comming in.

Finally, I decuded it was time to go. I will still always be on aniverse. My friends in #rg are still there. but I will probably spend most of my time on rizon now, where #catgirls has moved.

I already miss my good friend.

If you want a great irc network, full of good people (not always friendly to newbie/idiots) aniverse is a great place to go. You will meet many good people there. And I will be there too. But for now, the majority of me has moved, and its sad.

Links of the day!

IRC leeching If irc interests you as a place to get files, read this. But if all you do is leech, youre missing out.
Aniverse www they have a great web server too.
Wow I have got to start waking up early and watching tv

The Pope is a hypocrite

2005-04-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

Since I had two people complain about my last post, and I didnt even know two people read my blog, Ill fan the flames.

Ok, now I have nothing against the Pope, the news is full of his long list of humanitarian and spiritual conquests and I applaud him for each and every one of them.

That doesnt mean he cant be a hypocrite tho.
You see, durring the whole Terri saga, the Pope called the people starving her murderers. He even said (and god (tho hes probably on the Popes side huh) I wish I could find the link) that if HE was in that situation, he NEVER wants the tube removed.

Now aside from the fun philisopical concepts of this, mainly that the only way the pope can stop being pope is to actively abdicate the er.. popistry meaning a vegtable living for 15+ years would have a feeding tube in and be Pope...

It also means if hes gonna call people murders and state something so outrageous, and the oppertunity comes up JUST A DAY LATER- he better live it.

He's dying, he knows it, everybody knows it. Even the Italian media prematurely killed him today, but hes close to Jesus and its near Easter so on the third hour he rose again.

But he dosent want to go to the hospital, (can you hear my impression of a small whiny child there?) you know, that place that HAS ALL THE TUBES. Nope, he wants to sit at home and wait to die. And no the situations ARENT the same, because the POPE can still make his own decisions, which is what makes him a hypocrite.

And hes welcome to. Its a right anyone should have. But when you say one thing and live another, thats hypocricy. (Seriously, look it up.)

Heres hoping Cara doesnt kill me.

Links of the day!

MMM Darkside... If theyre going to turn everything into nothing but mass marketing, at least lets make it this good and creative.
Clocky! Id say I really need one of these, but I really dont. If it runs away I can ignore it easier.
Blair Witch This is a website for the town that was featured in the movie (apparently, I never saw it) their horrible web page reminds me of the good old days of the web.

ding dong the witch is dead....

2005-03-31T09:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know people are gonna get pissed because I called her a witch, but seriously how do u know those weren't the moans of some demon that possessed her?

Yup, Terri Schiavo finally kicked the freaking bucket. Give her credit, she was a tough old broad.

And yes, I'm damned happy about it, because now EVERY SINGLE NEWS CAST CAN STOP DEVOTING 3/4ths OF ITS CONTENT TO IT. Seriously, there was a school shooting almost the size of Columbine, a war going on we're involved in (and numerous others we never hear about I'm sure, I know my online friend in Venezuela at least passively fears for his life) another HUGE quake in tsunamiland, and STILL 3/4ths of the news was this woman.

But I'm not the only one who's happy...

The Republicans are happy, they didn't WANT to win this one. They just wanted to put on a good show and placate the whack-job constituents of their party. They know full well that those whack-jobs will say to themselves in a year and a half (next elections) "he fought for me!" while the rest of us (what is it now? Like 80% in polls?) wont be able to even recall her name because WE HAVE LIVES. (btw, there's scientific study on this, that the brain remembers incomplete or failed tasks much longer and more often than successes, but you'll have to take my word for it because I cant find a link)

The Democrats are ecstatic that they can stop getting their sorry asses kicked.

People are sad too tho...

The cable news channels are sad because now their ratings wont be a stable 2%. With the afore mentioned whack-jobs unequally divided between the three of them.

The protestors are sad, because now they have no more excuse not to have a job and or life.

So, since I haven't stated it, some of you might wonder what MY opinion is on all of this.

FUCK OFF

I don't have one. Why? BECAUSE ITS NONE OF MY FUCKING BUSINESS, and none of yours either. This is one of those topics everyone whips out their assho.. er I mean opinions on, even tho it has NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM NOR SHOULD IT.

For the stupid, lets get some things straight.

1. The courts and or the state did NOT kill her. The courts simply upheld the rights of the next of kin as they well should. If they did not, then lots of the legal system would fall apart. Imagine custody battles between a Father and his dead wife's parents, or estate battles between a woman and her dead husbands parents, or (more directly) being denied seeing your dying spouse at a hospital because their parents don't want you to. (Kind of like being gay in America)

As a side note, there was a quite hilarious quote by one of the protestors on the local radio news channel. She said "Well I learned from this that I need a living will because I damn sure am not going to let my husband decide my fate. I will leave it up to my parents if they're alive or my children." Whoohoo- a whole new way to hate men! If he's such a bastard DIVORCE HIM, stop living off someone you despise because its easier. She also shows she's obviously not rich putting it in the hands of her children.

2. This became a war for two reasons.
A. The parents need serious psychological counseling, they need to first see their daughter as an independent entity of themselves (aka her life rather than their life without her)
B. The 'right' saw this as an advantageous political issue. (and as I said they WANTED to lose)

3. Her husband is NOT evil, he could have EASILY walked away from all of this and let her live as a vegetable. (If she is one, and I think 'UNNNNNAAAAAAaaaaaaaAAAA' doesn't constitute intelligent thought.) He fought this for a reason, what exactly it is I will never know (and neither will you because no one seems to care) but I do know its NOT because he is controlled by Satan.

4. This has NOTHING to do with abortion or 'the culture of death.' If you connect the two, you're an idiot. This question of feeding tubes is played out many times every day and it doesn't make national news. Why? BECAUSE IT HAS NO RIGHT TO. My own father had to make the excruciating decision not to put a feeding tube in his mother. He also had to decide NOT to amputate her gangrenous (if that isn't a word it should be) legs just to keep her alive a little longer. Just a day or two after, she died, we all had the chance to be there with her, and it was the RIGHT DECISION.

5. The bible says NOTHING about euthanasia. I'm no biblical scholar, so feel free to comment if you think I'm wrong, but all the nut-jobs quoting stuff never come up with anything that isn't EXTREMELY vague. And if you say this is because euthanasia wasn't around back then- seriously grow up. Its not new, hell even abortion has been practiced for hundreds if not thousands of years.

There, now don't you feel smarter?

Note: this contains more 'colorful' language than my other posts, and for a reason.

Links of the day!

Terri Schiavo's blog
And now ACTUAL OTHER THINGS.
Spore Wow, this game seems INCREDIBLE, and how its made is just as incredible, read it, it just keeps getting better as the pages go by.
Adidas smart shoe I'm sure you've been annoyed by this commercial EVERY SINGLE COMMERCIAL BREAK (which is sad, because it is a good commercial the FIRST 20 times you see it) So I googled to find out what it was... Apparently it falls under the heading of 'everyday stuff we can now slap a microchip in and charge 3x more for'

mmm pagan

2005-03-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

So I'm laying in bed last nite and I realized.

Easter is the spring holliday, oh-so-close to the spring equinox, where the sun- er I mean Son, rises from the dead and begins life anew, with classic images of bunnies (who are known for their spring activities) and new flowers.

Ancient weapons and hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side kid.

Links of the day!

The Segway gets served
Real life Hairy Potter (no not Weirdo)
Hmm, for a few thousand dollars.. I can pretend I'm in Japan.

sigh

2005-03-26T00:02:00.000-08:00

well the last post worked as well as I expected. just 1 mystery married woman.

On another note. An online friend of mine arrived in Tokyo for a week this morning, having me consider seppukku.

He was using some horrible ad filled image host to host pics, so instead I gave him space on this site. and thats the link of the day. If you love Japan, and especially if youve been there before and are too broke to go back like me, enjoy the self torture I do.

Links of the day!

Toro in tokyo
Not TOO much there at the moment, but I think he'll be updating daily.

Personal ad?

2005-03-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

So, while offline, I had lots of time to think and read and realize just how crappy TV really is.

One of the things I thought about, is (well, one of anyway) the reason(s) I'm single.

I'm a vegetarian, conservative, non-Christian, computer geek who likes to party and hates 99.5% of American popular culture (.5% being NFL, but I'm not obsessive, just like watching the games)

As if those weren't enough contradictions, I live in southern California, and really don't care if I drive a BMW/Mercedes/whatever's popular this week or care about wearing the latest fashions or have the money to throw around on them like everyone else here seems to do. Hell, currently I'm barely employed, tho looking for a new job, and STILL living with the 'rents.

So in this age of digital life, probably the one thing I reject is personal ads. Still, the thought has crossed my mind occasionally.

So, I thought I'd try one, in the least public place possible...

namely, here.

But with all of the above, why the hell WOULD anyone want me?

Well, I'm kind, (*watches net friends laugh*) generous, funny (ok, that's often debatable..) and honest. (sometimes to a fault) I like people, and tho I can sometimes take a bit to warm up, I really shine when I have. I'm no Adonis, but I try to keep myself as close to 'in shape' as possible and people are often supprized by how strong I am.

What do I want?

Someone free spirited, funny, interesting, someone with a head on her shoulders (eh- ya, no guys thx.) but not some boring intellectual. Body? Well my friends have all sorts of theories on what 'type' I like but I mostly confound them. What I like is a girl that keeps herself moderately in shape. (not afraid of a girl who could kick my ass but don't expect me to have a 6-pack outside of my fridge) I always say, I like sexy, but its cute that gets me everytime. Mostly I like someone who looks unique, not the cookie-cutter blonde or the stereotypical 'mysterious brunette.'

So anyway, if by some amazing chance you're reading this, in the area (amazing x2) and interested, (amazing x3) I consider that fate don't you? Drop me a comment below.

Links of the day!

just one, but a real gem
Webcollage this is insanely cool. A robot randomly searches the internet and makes collages out of pics it finds. There CAN be adult material so kiddies beware. But it really is just cool. I found it when I saw in the logs they hit my site, man I woulda liked to see that.

boku wa doko

2005-03-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

For those of you coming here wondering if I died, yes, I did.

the digital me anyway.

Cox.net, my oh-so-capeable ISP died in the middle of the night on monday. Took me till tuesday afternoon to figure it out because I happened to be re-installing my router when it died, so I thought it was my fault.

Called them, and did the usual monkey dance ("reboot the router" "oh thanks I never thought of that!" "is the cable light on?" "no dumbass thats why i called you") and they decided to send someone right out at their earliest possible time

Next monday......

assholes, why do I pay you again? This week shal be free when Im done with them. No reason to pay for NO SERVICE.

so thats the story, those of you who have my # can contact me that way.

Links of the day? theyre on my real computer.... im on AOL DIAL UP right now....

title

2005-03-14T20:16:00.000-08:00

As I sit here, eating cookies and ice cream with magic shell, and wondering how I re-gained ten pounds, I thought I'd say...

hi

Links of the day!

This is so funny and Im such a bad person
penisland.com someones a marketing genius, or using the above link for hiring
techie blog this guy puts macs in cars.. I cant tell if thats a good thing

Hypnotic suggestion

2005-03-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

Well lets see, whats new.

A couple months ago, I signed up for an Audible account. I get two (audio) books a month for $20, which is a very nice addition to my ipod. My only gripe with audible is the website, which is horrid. Dont get me wrong, its very easy and intuitive to navigate. But its all java and java sucks.

1st, I painfully discovered that if I give anyone a link, they ARE LOGGED IN AS ME! Can you say incredibly stupid? Good way to get word of mouth purchaces idiots.
2nd, the site loads at one width then shrinks to another, giving one a headache when trying to begin to read a page.
3rd, you cant open in new windows, because java sucks. Making you constanly hit forward and back.
That all being said (and seriously audible, fix it you idiots) its very easy to navigate and has a great selection. Especially if you have an ipod, I suggest you browse their selection to see if its what you like (they have a great selection but limited categories, afterall audio isnt the best way to say, learn programing.)

Anyway, on a whim I decided to get a hypnotic suggestion book, always wanted to check that out. Listened to it in bed last nite and as he was 'dropping me down' I kept thinking "My mind isnt clearing, I still am thinking of other things, this isnt going to work, suck.."

Then I woke up. No idea what the tape said, but I did wake up at the end of it (Probably the classic "you will now wake up refreshed.. etc") and today I've been much busier than my average Saturday afternoon. I finished a book on Japanese. Making Sense of Japanese (formerly Gone Fishing) Short, but a major acomplishment since I almost never read more than 1/3rd of books.

In other news.

I (FINALLY) got my free TV! Thats right, freeflatscreens.com works, albeit very slow. Had a manager apologize to me himself, he blamed Sony, who knows. Point is I got it, now I just need a new video card so it can replace my current tv. You see my current tv has a VGA in, and I use it with a computer for all sorts of fun ^^

What else. Its spring break, but as little as I have to do lately I barely notice. This weekend is rather quiet and Im happy about it, got things I want to do besides party. Jeannine is planning on spending the whole week on the beach drunk, which she constantly says to other people 'ya eD wont be there because he hates the beach.' I havent argued, I dont hate it nearly as much as she seems to think I do but oh well, no need to correct or I'm inviting myself. Besides I'm very much in get-things-done mode.

Finally, two items of website news.
Nanaka Crash is rediculously popular, I may have to remove it for a few days at the end of the month. Its the 13th and I've use 14/40gb of bandwith. 90% on the game itself because the rest of my site is useless.
Thatguy (link on right) coded a bash.org-like quotes database for the irc chanel I hang out in, and I offered to host it. go check it out. But understand its for comedy only, we're not nearly as bad as our quotes may make us seem ^^;;

Links of the day!

Science and the art of female matinence.
Cool art one of the best flashes I've ever seen, just because I love the art.
When ya gotta go.. would you go here? ^^
The best blog youll ever read. Seriously, its the best.

Death by internet

2005-03-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

Well well well. Remember that Nanaka Crash game I told you all about? and how the japanese like to ban popular things from international users and so I put it on my site? Well, a friend posted me to a few message boards it seems. The result is..

(click for full rez)

Wow I'm popular! Nice to be wanted, I just hope my bandwith holds out. I get 40gb/month. Im gonna keep an eye on it and if it gets near the top I'll remove it till the end of the month, but the trend seems to be just under the wire...

The game is quite fun- go play why dont you?

Links of the day!

Once again theyve been backing up, so enjoy special bonus links!
Microsoft, what would we do without you? ^^ I humbly request no one use any of these ever again.
Oh Microsoft! how we love the! Part 2.
ebonics!Since someone bugged me about a tiny detal in the last post, I submit this with impunity.
Y2K just wasnt a big enough flop...
Submitted as a free public service The perfect thing after all those dirty things you look at on the internet. (and yes, this is clea, its the definition of clean ^_^)

Quick quips

2005-03-05T02:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, no more huge posts, just a quick rundown.

Tues- emailed teacher telling her im LOST in japanese, shes incredibly nice, wants to do everything possible to help all her students. Worries its her, I told her I'm just stupid.

Wed- dinner and a movie (Cursed- save your money) with Jeannine. Sometimes its scarry how much it seems like were dating. Was smiling back and forth with a really cute blonde at the bar, but I'm a wuss, I'll take the small victory.

Thurs- er, school. not much else.

Fri- (today) ran around all day doing erands, most of it was driving around lost cuz noone puts addresses on their buildings here- but I'm a liscenced (grr sp) driver again!!! YAY!! While at the DMV (not as painful as I thought) I saw probably the hottest black woman (gah do I have to qualify that? Shes black, I'm orange, its all good damnit.) I've ever seen. Jet black with a BEAUTIFUL face and nice body, real short hair. She caught me lookin on the way out so I winked at her and she smiled. Another small (yes pitiful) victory.

Not sure what else. May be a boring weekend, who knows. Thats ok. I got a job interview monday!

Links of the day!

Apple Product life cycle I like making fun of Apple, but this goes for a lot of things with geeks, especially games.
History Lesson I found this quite cool. The middle has the good stuff so feel free to skip around. I still think if only they made it 'Frog Fries' it would have caught on.
Firefox news The browser I hate to hate.

Mmm Ice Cream

2005-02-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

As I sit here eating ice cream, I thought I'd say hi.

Not too much happening this weekend other than dodging Japanese homework and being mostly car-less. (in the shop till tomorrow but borrowing other cars) I missed Japanese all last week, (2 classes) Im so dead.

Last nite went to go see Meet the Fockers. It was mostly amusing (mostly because I had a few drinks before I went) but honestly a crappy movie. An easy formula to tell if a sequel is good or not is 'Would this be a good movie if the first one (or 8, whatever) didnt exist?' Fockers is a no. Casting was good and it was entertaining, but a movies in trouble when it has to refer to its preqel for jokes...

I also discovered something wonderful. You see, I love music, but I completely refuse to be one of those people (idiots) that puts 'now listening to _____' on the blog, beacuse I know 99% of normal people dont care. (Then again do 'normal' people read blogs?)

Anyway, Audioscrobbler has given me a solution and oh-so-much-more. Not only will it tell you what I've listened to lately, but also my favorite stuff overall. It also has streaming radio based on what I like to listen to AND I can surf others listings and listen to THEIR favorite music, helping me find new artists and such. My Music is now linked on the side of this blog. So feel free to look/listen to it.

Note their poor server is mostly horribly overloaded, so you may have to refresh once or twice in awhile. Its still worth it.

In website news, I fixed the major stumbling block of the new blog layout this week (check the Test Blog link at the right) But still have to tweak the sizes and colors and such. Ive also been working on learning php/mysql for the website. Once I figure this out Ill be able to add to the site much easier and better, but its somewhat infuriating to learn two things that intertwine at once, because if something goes wrong Im not sure which. (although I seem to have an easier time with php)

Anyway, before this becomes another HUGE post...

Links of the day!

Be an artist. This is so cool. Heres my butchering of an online friends work (I did the end) Then she butchered mine (should be obvious) And I even used it to put a smile on a friends face. (and no, I cant draw)
My wonderful sensei's site Too bad I cant keep up...
Finally, someone tell me what the heck this is.

My new superpower!!

2005-02-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

Lets see, since windows doesnt like connecting to my cellphone (softwares fault) no pics, so heres the summary. :P

Spent all weekend with Jeannine, think we're a bit sick of eachother. (At least she is of me)

Fri- went to see Hitch (google it yourself) great movie. I almost never buy movie DVDs, this one I'm buying. Jeannine spent a solid 5 mins laughing herself to tears because a fat guy fell down at the very end (not a spoiler dont worry) which I found quite funny except the fact I had a large rootbeer to unload so it hurt to laugh.

Sat- Off in the limo for someones birthday I didnt know. Jeannine invited me and was the only one there I knew. Still was pretty darn fun, and everyone was really nice, except the limo driver was annoying has hell. He was treating us like teenagers going to winter formal rather than adults. (Btw he should be proscecuted because I swear he stole Norm McDonnalds voice...) Most of the time was spent in the limo since it was pouring rain. (Now 4th ranniest season on record for Los Angeles, was 7th as of Thursday. The whole state is sliding off into the ocean.) Still, being in a limo isnt really something to complain about.

Apparently at some point durring the night I was doing squats or something, because my legs hurt like hell till today. It was also eventful in that I finally got to talk to a Japanese person that found me on ICQ. (yes, at 3am when I got home...)

Sun- Hangover not withstanding... THE RETURN OF PROSPECTORS! I love that bar. Jeannines cousin Marie moved out of the area so we hadnt been there since, but because of the long weeked she came back. Wasnt overly exciting, I've definately had better nights there, but its still Prospectors damnit. Prob wont be going back there anytime soon either... so I stole a pint glass with their logo. *hides*

Mon- was day of recovery (apparently 1 of 2) for what turned out to be a two day hangover. (3 if you count Sunday) It wasnt that I was in pain, but.....

I have a new superpower!!!

Apparently, no matter how late I go to bed, no matter how much I drink, eat, excercize, etc... I'm wide awake at 7:45am. I'm actually really glad for this, except for the fact I went to bed at 3 friday, 4:30 saturday and 5 sunday. Even last nite I was up till 3 sleepless.... so..

Tue- (today) hasnt been too exciting. Took a couple naps and other than that the most exciting thing is the pizza from Chicago we recieved today, love that stuff, cooking it now ^_^

And yes the blog is still naked.

In the mistaken assumption people actually read this thing, I need help on The test blog. Its looking very much like I want it to, but the comments page is just WRECKED. I have no idea why. I dont know how to read bloggers itempage tags.

Even if you cant fix it, I'm interested in what you think of it. I wanted something different and non-linear. Comment here to let me know. ^^
Help wanted!

Links of the day!

Funnest game ever! can you beat My score? (everyone else can)
Voicemail! I'm SURE you've seen Paris Hiltons Phonebook, but have you heard what this guy did with it? ^^
Roleplay Ran into a girl online the other day looking for artists or 'roleplayers' (whatever that is) for this story she has. This is my way of helping her. (since I have no artistic talent)

----- Update -----
Minutes after posting this, I went back to that game. Try beating This score!

----- Update 2 -----
Either they banned forigners (Something the Japanese like to do with popular things sadly) or they exceeded their bandwith- well I can fix that...
Now go play!

Woa, life got exciting!

2005-02-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

Wow I may have to start posting here more often, this is gonna be another long one.

Saturday nite, my brother calls my mom and says hes commin by in an hour to move out... o.O, er ok... nice notice Frank.
Freaked my mom out, and was just weird, but thats just how he is...

Valentines day!
Hate this holliday. Always single. So I think of things to entertain myself.
This time I outdid myself...

Had to go into my client, and decided to play quite a prank on the receptionist.
She has a long-time boyfriend. So I knew I was safe doing this. (we get along but not THAT well..)
So I grab an empty ringbox.....
Now I was gonna just leave it empty, but that wasnt good enough.
So I wrote a note.
"{her name withheld},
I cant resist.
(messing with you)
I just wanted to see
(the look on your face)
I know you have other (real) Valentines, but I am
(definately)the(funniest)one."
Folded up the note and put it in the ringbox.

The point was to see her face when I handed it to her. I expected shock and fear, but she had a look of pure horror on her face. (that I guess put me in my place lol) I was trying to do it straight-faced, but I had to smile to soften it.
Once she read the note she busted up laughing, I had guessed right that she had a good enough sense of humor to enjoy it.

Today she tells me her boyfriend wants to talk to me LOL, turns out he needs computer help ^^ (she did tell him, he made fun of her)

But ya, after a long boring lul, life is speeding up. This Friday might be hittin the bars in a limo for Jeannines friends birthday, and Sunday I'm DEFINATELY goin back to PROSPECTORS!! (a bar I love)

Stay tuned...

Links of the day!

In other news, Naruto (an anime that has many huge idiot fans) got liscenced. Youd think that was a good thing. (I do, I like Naruto but am not obsessed)But no.....
The News
The Petition the retarded fans (known as Narutards) made. Im sig #411 (making fun of them, I wont be suprized when they delete me)
In other links...
More shirts I want!
MMM speed...
A complete waste of time Can you figure out how to cheat?

IM NAKED!!!

2005-02-13T12:47:00.000-08:00

Well no, not realy, I wouldnt do that to you. But the blog is.

Couldnt stand that layout anymore, it just HAD to die.
So i gave it a nice naked look, and it inspired me to actually work on a real layout.

got real ambitious on this so I had a lot of trouble. Spent the better part of the last 2 days on it.

The probs I have left are the comments page is totally messed up, and the stupid blogger bar likes to print itself out doubleize for no reason whatsoever.

Anyway, its on the test blog, you can see im going for something a little different ^^

If you care to, leave comments on how it looks for you, with the browser you use and your resolution. Im testing in IE and Firefox, but im at 1280x1024.

Links of the day!

The Test Blog

dealing with the gov sucks part 1 of ?

2005-02-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

So when I got in my little accident I decided that maybe I should start wondering where the heck my renewed drivers liscence is. It had been about 60 days which it turns out is the time to start wondering.

So I call the ever so friendly and efficient DMV about when I was going to get it in the mail. Amazingly, the menu system was one of the best Ive dealt with recently and I got to a human after about 2 minutes of menu and 2 minutes on hold.

The woman was nice and helpful, she told me that I havent gotten my drivers liscence because the DMV had intergrated with the national social security database, and my Social Security numbers dont match. I would need to come in with a social security card to get my liscence.

So a couple questions came to my mind. I asked her if they were ever going to notify me of this or if I was understood to be psychic. She said yes, but Sacremento (our lovely dirtbowl state capital) had a 8-10 week 'backup' on sending out the notices. (Seriously how hard is that, I bet they dont even have to lick a stamp.)

She was nice tho, so the question I didnt ask was: If your're not going to send me my liscence, WHY did you cash the check? But really, its government, if someone sends them a check theyre DAMN well gonna cash it.

So the problem is: I dont HAVE a SS card, it burned in my fire like 12 yrs ago. So first I gotta get that. Leading me to the lovely 'Ziggaraut' federal building.

!!if windows would talk to my phone there would be a picture here!!