effing textbooks

An update, finally.

Since the last post, I have moved from Japan to Georgia and then from Georgia to Virginia, without much pause or even slowing down in between. I'm pretty tired now.

The journey up to Charlottesville and my first few hours here were not that much fun, but since then, I've been having a pretty good time. The C'ville area is really pretty and the weather is so much nicer than Georgia and an amazing improvement over Japan.

My apartment is almost together. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but I like it a lot. The hardwood floor downstairs is very pretty and I have nice big windows. I also have a washing machine and dryer and a dishwasher! I'm so happy about that!

I have yet to finish putting all my clothes away, so my bedroom is still a mess, but I'm pretty much finished with the living room/kitchen area, and it looks really nice. I'd post pics, but I can't find the cable that connects my camera to my computer. It's probably somewhere upstairs in a box or a suitcase. My living room looks a lot like one of the little showcase rooms at Ikea, except not quite as nice. But it's close. Once my clothes are put away, my bedroom will look nice too.

I got my new computer last week, and it's really nice. Unfortunately, I don't yet have wireless access at home (thanks a lot, Comcast), so I can only use the internet on my old computer, but whatever. I can use it at school, which is the important part.

My parents left on Sunday, but Ali was here from Saturday to Tuesday, so I haven't been too lonely. Seeing Ali was great, as I hadn't seen her in about a year and a half, and it was just like old times. Except that she reads the Twilight books now. (Thanks for the e-card, btw.) I just wish she lived closer! But I'm going to try to make it out to Albuquerque before they move.

Since Ali left, I've been chilling by myself, running some errands and watching a lot of TV. Mainly the Olympics and movies on AMC. I bought my books for this semester today, and they totalled almost $700. I wanted to cry when the guy told me how much it would be. At least he was nice. I also met a girl in my section. Julia. She was there with her parens. Seemed nice, but it's hard to tell.

I rented some movies from Blockbuster (Hellboy, American Dreamz, and A Prairie Home Companion), so I have something else to watch other than Red October and The China Syndrome on AMC.

I can't believe I'm starting class in less than a week. I finally figured out that my class schedule was posted on the school student information system, so I at least know that much. I have the standard 1L fall semester: Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Writing, and Torts. I have 3 classes a day Monday through Thursday, but only one on Friday, and it's not until the afternoon.

I was going to buy my train ticket for Thanksgiving, but after spending most of the rest of my money today on books, I'm going to wait until my loan money comes in to do that. Alas. In the meantime, I will try to avoid spending money.

noah's ark

Via the JET wankfest that is Big Daikon, I have found perhaps the worst site on the internet. How I didn't find it on Encyclopedia Dramatica, I'll never know, since that's where I usually find these things.

Anyway, this internet abomination is FurrsFurChrist.com. I refuse to link to it, but feel free to Ctrl+C & +V. It's a forum for Christian furries, complete with bad poetry and ridiculous "theological" discussions.

Here's a quote, so you can see what kind of shit these "people" talk about without sullying your browser history:

"So my hatchday is coming up next month, & since I'm both in college and saving up for a fursuit, is it wrong to ask mostly for money as a gift? My first instinct is to pray about it, of course, but....I dunno. What do you think?"
I'm assuming "hatchday" is like a birthday for dragons. My favorite part is definitely "My first instinct is to pray about it, of course." LOLZ IT'S A FURSUIT FFS.

Anyway, I hate furries more than terrorists, and I've been especially intolerant of Christians of late, so the combination of the two just proves that there is no God. At least not a just one. Though maybe there is a God, and he has put these miserable creatures on this earth for my amusement. Either way, I think they are an abomination.

Aside from wasting my time at work on such sites, I've been playing the taiko game a lot. I've gotten quite a few on the demon level, which is quite an accomplishment, as that shit is hard.

I've also been watching Hairspray almost every day, which is fine with me. Any day with a little Corny Collins is a good one. But it has made me dream about civil rights. Not that I'm complaining, it's just a strange thing to dream about.

I found out that I'm leaving on July 23. Less than a month, yay! Unfortunately, I'm flying on United AND I'm connecting in San Francisco. Ugh. I hope that doesn't fuck me over.

The new girl finally contacted me and was very nice and gracious, so I'm feeling a lot more charitable. I hope she's nice, for Catherine's sake.

Now, every time I see the word "sake", I think of the drink. Thanks for that, Japan!

say aha

Today has been a day spent vegging on the couch. I had intended on doing some serious cleaning, but cramps nixed that idea. I did get up long enough to sort some of my clothes into "trash" and "Goodwill" piles, but that's about it. Alas.

I've been playing the new taiko game, and it's super cute. I love dressing up the little drum. I think my favorite outfit is the ebi-fry. He has a fried shrimp suit with a little fried shrimp hat! It's adorable.

I downloaded this album Santogold from the artist of the same name, and it's pretty interesting. She reminds me of Tegan and Sara, M.I.A., Gwen Stefani, Le Tigre, and Nelly Furtado, which is an odd assortment, I know. It's hard to describe, but I like it. I also really like the new Ashlee Simpson album. Fuck the haters.

I made a new Gmail for myself, mainly for online shopping purposes. I know that Gmail has like 6GB of storage now, but my main account was feeling a little cluttered, so I made another and moved lots of stuff into that one. It made me feel productive.

Ugh, I don't feel like going to work tomorrow. Why can't it be Memorial Day here, too? But I think I only have 17-ish more days of school left. I still have more work days, but a lot of that will be at the office, which will thankfully be air-conditioned after June 1, so I won't mind so much.

I am so ready to go home.

tgif, bitches

Yay, it's Friday! And where am I? Having the life sucked out of me at the office, of course. I'm so terribly bored. At least the weather is nice.

I spent a little time looking up Mythbusters episodes to see if they had done anything on whether or not it's safer to jump when a car is about to hit you than just stand there. They haven't. I think I might submit that, because I would like to know, preferably before I leave Japan, as I am more likely to get hit by a car here than at home.

I really wanted yakiniku tonight, but Lauren has an enkai, so no go. Why does Catherine have to be a vegetarian?! I can't just go by myself, that would be sad. I'll just have fish. Again.

Jesus. Not even 2:30. Maybe I'll find something interesting on Wikipedia that will keep me awake for the next 2 hours.

meat and rice

I went to graduation today at Isato and got surprisingly emotional. Everybody else was crying, and seeing other people cry tends to make me get all weepy too. Plus I've known the four kids that graduated for almost two years, and I go to Isato the most, so it was sad to see them leave.

On the way back into town, I talked with the principal and told him about the shit that went down at the office yesterday. His first response was, "Is that a joke?" When I assured him it wasn't he said it was "nonsense" and I totally agreed with him. Then he said how the office will be much better when my supervisor is transferred. Yes. It warms my heart to hear Japanese people say stuff like that, because it means that I am not just some crazy gaijin who doesn't understand Japanese people. An asshole is an asshole, no matter what country you're in.

Cat and I wrote notes to each other at the office today like fucking 12-year-olds. Ugh. I think she should teach me sign language.

We went for a walk with Lauren on the sea wall today after work since the weather was so nice. And then Lauren and I went for cheap yakiniku, after dropping off Cat, since she's a veggie. Alas. But it was delicious and cheap. I love meat!

I think the pain in my face is actually a toothache. This is an unfortunate development, since I really don't trust Japanese dentistry, given the state of the teeth I've seen here. But if it keeps hurting, I'll go to the guy that Emily liked, Satou or Saitou, and see what's up. I'm not looking forward to it. Fix yourself, tooth!

Also, WWII in about 2 minutes. All you need to know.

that's a lot of money

Today was a fun-filled day of sitting at my desk at the office. I was going to surf the Internet all day as usual, but after I read an article about personal workspaces, I was inspired to clean my desk. I had lots of papers piled up and stuff I didn't need in all the drawers, so I took about two hours and cleared it out. I even wiped down the desktop. It looks much better.

In the second half of the day, I was much less productive, but I did read an interesting article about ship salvagers (High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas). Might be a little tl;dr, but it's a good read.

Catherine and I were going to go to the gym, but Lauren texted us at the end of the day about going to Mosburger, so we did that instead. I was starving. Perfect timing. We will gym tomorrow.

I got home and saw a letter from George Washington waiting for me. They will give me $20,000 my first year (and for the next two years if I maintain a 3.0) and give me free on-campus housing for my first year if I go there. Wow. The potential to save $60,000 on my education is very tempting. But I'm going to wait until I hear from the other schools before I make any decisions.

I really want to play with my DS now. My parents sent me SimCity and I've been playing that almost constantly. It's so much fun, just as much fun as I remembered. Oh video games.