Tokyo or Bust (But Please, Universe, Not really)

Yes, yet again it would appear I have abandoned this blog for months.  But, honestly, when all I really did for the past few months was school, work, and the occasional social-like thing it didn't really seem all that appropriate or interesting to blog about it. Occasionally I'd come up with something to blog about, but then we run into the "I forgot/I was lazy/I was busy" territory of excuses.  So part of me wonders if I should just copy/paste the opening paragraph of my blog every time this happens, but then I wonder if every blog entry would start this way.

However! I am about to do something much more interesting than school, work, eat, homework, sleep, lather, rinse, repeat, etc.  Well, at least I think it's more interesting.  If all plans go, well, according to plan Wednesday morning I'll be boarding a plane and won't be returning for another two months.  And when I say "according to plan" I mean barring computer glitches and national disasters because apparently those things happen a little bit more frequently than I'd like.  So, you know, knock on wood and cross your fingers for me because I'm going to Japan.

I've been telling people the whole thing seems so surreal partially because I feel like I don't usually do things like this, and partially because I've been planning it for so long.  Ignoring the fact that I've been studying the language since my freshman year of high school (so 6 years) and the fact that I've regretted not applying to go on a high school exchange program that went to Japan the summer after my freshman year, I've still been planning this exact trip for about two years.  My entire freshman year of college I researched programs, attempted to figure out dates, went to study abroad fairs, visited the study abroad office and whatnot, and then spent much of this year applying and getting ready for it.  So the fact that I will be in Japan in 3 days is just... wow.

So for the next two months I plan on recounting my countless adventures on this blog.  After all, this place needs some love and the owl gets lonely. I've also got a tumblr I'm planning on posting pictures to.  The idea is I'd at least like to post a picture every day and a blog every now and then (once a week perhaps?).  Maybe I'll get really ambitious and post some video blogs! I'm not entirely sure how much internet or computer time (especially with the energy concerns that are going on over there) but I'm hoping to use the time I do have to post on these things. Beyond the fact that I've had a lot of people say they want to hear about what I'm doing, I'd like a record of what I'm about to do.  Mostly because I feel like when it's done with I won't believe it's actually happened.

Book List

The list of books I currently have sitting next to me I need to read today(Books with a * are picture books):

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

*Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

*Snow by Uri Shulevitz

*The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster Illustrated by Chris Raschka

*Flotsam by David Wiesner

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (only part of it needs to be read today or tomorrow)

Books I've finished reading but need to write about:

Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

Books need to get a hold of as soon as possible so I can get started on reading them too:

*The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

*My Japan by Etsuko Watanabe

Shipwrecked! : the true adventures of a Japanese boy by Rhoda Blumberg

An American plague : the true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy

Various poem books

Various children's biography and non-fiction books

Books for research projects

aaaaaand probably more than that.

Why did I decide to be an English major?

WTWA: Currently it's only about noon, but it is pretty awesome to get to read children's books and call it homework regardless of how much reading it is.

You're feeling strange...

I do realize that it's morning of the 22nd which means I didn't actually post anything on the 21st, but I have decided that this post will do for yesterday's post and then I'll post something again tonight. In theory. Most likely.

Anyway, yesterday was nice because it was the kind of productivity that was definitely useful but it wasn't really productive in a school way. I did go to school early yesterday so I could do some studying in the library before my one class yesterday, but when I came home I worked out, vacuumed, did tons of dishes, cleaned other areas, etc. Which, honestly, all needed to be done so it was productive in that way, but it didn't really make any dent in the mountain of homework that needs to be completed this weekend/the coming week. I still need to finish reading Inkheart, locate and read about five other books (although most of those five are picture books), read a good chunk of Gravity's Rainbow and write a blog on it, study for Japanese because we have a quiz/test thing on Monday, in addition to the studying and researching I've been attempting to do all quarter for all of my classes. And that's just for this weekend. Needless to say I will not be attempting to get through an entire season of Buffy like I did last weekend no matter how much I'd rather watch Buffy and crochet a new hat.

And I haven't even touched Dragon Age in over two weeks. Which is annoying because I wanted to finish this play through so I can have the exact ending I want in order to import it into Dragon Age 2. All very important stuff you know.

But last night wasn't for homework. Last night I went to a friend's apartment (same friends as last Saturday) to meet up with this D&D group that we're starting. Which, by the way, is SUPER exciting for me because it was my nerd-related goal for last quarter to learn how to play. We didn't actually play yesterday. Mostly we made characters and then we played this zombie apocalypse game where I totally OWNED the first game while playing the high school quarterback because I killed tons of zombies as I was becoming a zombie myself. The game is supposed to be hard for humans (one person plays the zombie while everyone else plays as humans) but somehow the humans managed to win both games we played. It got pretty close though.

And now I need to go do other homework and figure out how I'm getting to a book store. Which, in theory, should be all that hard except that the bus schedule sucks on the weekends and it's kind of hard to get anywhere.

I Dreamed a Dream

I've gotten a few steps closer to my study abroad application today. My advisor finished the recommendation form (that I dropped off yesterday, crazy productive man) and I ordered my official transcript. With each step it becomes a little bit more real, and a little bit scarier. I'm somewhat adventurous, but admittedly taking off for a foreign country where I somewhat know the language for two months and I'll be more or less on my own is stretching my sense of adventure. Okay, I realize I'm not actually in the program yet, it's only for two months, and I'll have ages to prepare, but still! Really! It's not exactly something I've ever done before. It's exciting and sounds amazing, but still somewhat frighting.

Speaking of things that are somewhat frightening, my dream last night was one of those incredibly vivid ones that are intense to the point of being tiring. But it was also nice because there were a few aspects that I wish would happen (and are physically possible of happening) in real life so I was a little sad to wake up. Then again I was also Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (but I was still me and living my life) which was the stressful and intense part. Really, I'd never want to actually be her. Have her crazy awesome slayer powers? Maybe. Deal with the demons and the undead and the apocalypse every single year? I'll pass. This might be an indicator that I've been watching too much Buffy, but I haven't watched a single episode since last Monday, I swear! Despite the fact that both the people I told this dream to today had the same almost instant reaction that I've been watching the show too much, I'm sticking with my assertion that I don't have a problem...

Back on the topic of dreams, I think dreams like this are interesting because, despite the fantastic dream-like qualities to them, they feel more like real life than other dreams. Dreams like this blur the lines between reality and dream. What is the dream and what isn't? Did that conversation you distinctly remember having with you mom last week happen in real life? Or in the dream? There are some parts in Gravity's Rainbow that slip into and back out of a dream again, and if you're not careful you can completely miss the shift. If you've seen Inception there's that part where Leonardo DiCaprio's character is explaining to Ellen Page's character that dreams feel real when we're in them, and it isn't until we wake up that we realize something wasn't quite right.

Anyway, I just hope tonight's dreams are a little less intense so I don't feel so tired when I wake up. Being the Slayer is tough- even when it was only a dream.

Oh Snap!

I feel like there's some law in the universe that prevents me from reading Gravity's Rainbow before 9:00 at night. I got home around 5 PM, which honestly should have given me plenty of time to start the reading I have to have done by tomorrow. Yet, like the past two times, I found excellent ways to waste four hours of my life before finally starting on it. I realize that doing something three times in a row doesn't necessarily mean it's a law, but I definitely think it's at least a pattern.

But I was tired! I slept horribly last night AND I went to a pilates class today. So I ended up watching youtube videos for an hour, then I took an hour long nap, then I attempted to get Pokemon Snap to work on an emulator for another hour, then the fourth hour was taken up by people getting home and me trying very hard to (not) start my homework.

And you know the worst part? I didn't get Pokemon Snap to work. Fail.

Seriously though, I have so many good childhood memories about that game. I just thought it was the most BRILLIANT IDEA EVER for you to get points for taking pictures of pokemon. Then it had that awesome level at the end where (spoilers! haha, no not really) you take ten million pictures of Mew for the boss level. Except you can't get to the boss level at all on emulators, and you have to do a lot of special modifications to get other parts of the game to work. So, my current plan is to see if my old N64 works next time I go home. That or, you know, play games that came out in the recent decade.

WTWA: While Pokemon Snap didn't work, I did play a Japanese version of Green on an emulator for a while. Due to the fact there's like no kanji (since the reading level is aimed at kids) it was pretty easy to understand. Especially since I've started about a million Pokemon games and the intro is more or less the same in all of them. Still, Japanese comprehension for the win!

Social Media

So I'm posting a youtube video on a blogger blog talking about Facebook/social media. I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but it sure seems interesting.

Click here for the Amazon page where you can get The Young and the Digital. I mean, you don't have to, but I said in the video I'd link to it.

EDIT: WTWA: So I forgot to say why today (although yesterday now) was awesome. I think it was awesome because it felt like a Monday but it was actually a Tuesday due to the fact there was no school Monday.

None Whatsoever

I definitely should have done more homework over this three-day weekend. I mean, I'm not necessarily doomed this week but I'm not exactly in the best spot either. From the looks of my Google calendar, this week doesn't look too bad. The problem is that next week I'll be completely dead if I don't get a certain amount ahead. Thank goodness for four day weeks after three day weekends that followed the week of drowning in homework.

The reason for my having next to no homework done right now at 7:38 Monday night after a three-day weekend? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hands down. Yes, I hung out with friends and did things, but honestly. I watched most of season five, and I watched seven episodes of season six today. I would have watched less of season six, but I really really wanted to get to the "Once More with Feeling" musical episode. Which, by the way, is a product of television GENIUS. No lie. Well, that episode was really only part of my need to keep watching episodes. The other large part of inability to focus on productive things today was my Spike/Buffy shipping that's been happening since Spike crashed into Sunnydale. Things keep happening with those two, and I want to keep watching to see more! I mean, I'm ridiculously close to slapping Buffy and hugging Spike with everything that keeps happening. Well, figuratively obviously. If I did either of those things literally I'd probably die because they'd kill me. Or, in actuality, I'd probably be crazy since they're both fictional characters.

Anyway, on that note of crazy I really do need to go read about 90 pages of Gravity's Rainbow and probably a few other things before I go to sleep. AND because I have no self control I'm going to watch the return of Chuck that will be happening in about 15 minutes.

I really have no self control.

None whatsoever.

Why Today is Awesome

So Kayley Hyde of fiveawesomegirls (owlssayhoot is her personal challenge) posted a video today showing her "Why Today is Awesome" journal. For those of you who don't know what fiveawesomegirls (FAG) is, or what that has to do with FAG, it was a channel on youtube where five girls for three years posted (mostly) daily videos talking about their lives, doing challenges, and saying why their day was awesome. Sadly, they decided that they wouldn't carry on with daily videos anymore, basically ending the project, many people have decided to start daily journals to say why their day was awesome (including Kayley). I thought this might be a fun addition to my daily blog to state why my day was awesome. Sometimes I think I forget in the midst of all the craziness and stress and constant busy-ness the little things that do make my day awesome. Like yesterday when I showed up to the class my roommate and I are taking together she handed me a nonfat vanilla latte, explaining that she knew I'd had a rough night the day before and that today was going to be difficult so she bought me coffee to hopefully make it easier/better. So, you know, things like that make my day awesome.

If you want to view the video that I mention, you can view it HERE. As for now, I'm going to sleep because I have to getu p at 6:30AM on a Saturday in order to take a test (in order to be a teacher) that's more of an insult to my intelligence than an actual test.

Why Today Was Awesome (WTWA): My friend Chris came over so we could study for this test we're taking tomorrow (him, my roommate Emily, and I are all taking it) but mostly we ended up eating pizza, making fun of the test, and playing Halo: Reach so I could show him how the grunts explode with confetti and children cheer when you kill them with head shots. He was MUCH more appreciative of this than my roommates were. Which, honestly, is the correct way to react to enemies exploding into bursts of confetti when you kill them.

Lost and Found

Lately I've discovered I've been leaving behind a lot of things. And when I say that I mean like I left my rain jacket at my parents' house when I moved back to college a week ago (and when you live in Western Washington, losing your rain jacket in January really isn't a good idea), or yesterday I left my TARDIS emblazoned pencil case that holds all of my school supplies (and normally my zune, but thankfully that was at home) behind in the library. I may also be losing my mind in the process, but that's incredibly likely due to the circumstances outlined in yesterday's "post" (or whatever you want to call the blurb I made yesterday)

This made me think of other things I've left behind. Decisions I've made to let some friendships weaken in some way or another for some reason or another, or other decisions to forgo certain life paths in exchange for something different. It makes wonder where the never found material and immaterial things we leave behind end up. The Island of Misfit Toys? That space behind the washer where I'm sure all of my left socks ended up?

Regardless, I'm just happy the library has a lost and found. And that someone found my Doctor Who pencil case I've had since my sophomore year of high school for me. I think with everything else that is going on, losing that forever would have been a sign I should drop of out school.

Day 5: That is All

Again, barely posting in time but the post is still here. However, I'm somewhat drowning under large amounts of reading (in the forms of weird theory books that refuse to use words that you can actually understand), studying I still need to do, and work responsibilities despite the fact it's only the second day of school! Plus, if I don't take a break every now and then, I will go crazy. Due to this unfortunate reality of mine, I don't really have an extended amount of time to post anything too substantial.

I will say, however, that I do not like the new Starbucks logo. I'm not a graphic designer or anything, but it looks weird.

That is all.

Day 2 Traveling

It might be 11:14 on day two of my 2011 project, but I'm still going to write something because I told myself I would. I mean, I'm already one day behind, I didn't really need to add another this early into the project...

I won't make this too long because I do need to get to bed at some point due to the fact I start classes tomorrow (which I'm really not looking forward to) but I do have a few thoughts.

I've always kind of looked at traveling between my school home and my parents house as a sort of time traveling. I go home, and sometimes I feel like I'm only partially participating, but mostly observing a world I used to know but has gone on in time without me. I feel like I've traveled back in time two years, and I see a world and a time I don't quite belong in anymore. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I do realize obviously life goes on without me. However, I feel this time traveling so much more over winter break. I helped at the dance recital that I used to perform in, I went to my old church, and I see the friends I used to hang out with almost daily two years ago.

But now I'm back at school, and back in the present. While back in the past I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to go back to the future, but now that I'm here I think I'll be fine. Although, really, only time will tell how things will go.

But really, despite most of us not having blue boxes that are bigger on the inside, or not happening upon black holes, or possess a car that has been converted into a time machine by a slightly crazy long haired scientist, I feel like most of us travel in time in some way or another. And now, I must really speed up time and go to bed.

Wait, it's November?!

Haha, oops. Look at that. October just kind of flew by, didn't it? Well, it did for me anyway. My life got a little crazy with school (and midterms), social life, and just general life-ness. I definitely thought a lot about blogging, but a lot of it came down to not being interesting enough to say, or me not being sure how to put it into words. Meh.

However, this month is November, which means I have lots of things to put into words! 50,000 of them to be specific. For those of you who don't know, I'm doing Nanowrimo (stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth). Nano, during the month of November, is a huge online-based challenge where everyone participating tries to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You can write more than that (or less than that really) but the somewhat arbitrarily picked number by the folks over at http://www.nanowrimo.org is 50,000. You can view my profile and progress HERE at this link. I'm a little behind right now at almost 5000 words, but every year since 2007 I'm always behind the entire month. But then I write 30,000 words over Thanksgiving break. Makes me wonder how much I could write if I had more time to devote to it. I'm going to try and be less behind this year, but since I'm getting The Force Unleashed II and Fable III from my brother this weekend, my free time is going to be a little... divided. Plus, my homework is only building on itself, so what free time I do have is limited enough in itself.

Speaking of which, homework is really what I should be doing. I'm currently trying to write a paper for my Japanese class (in Japanese) about this book called The Pillow Book written in the early 990 in Japan by a woman we don't actually know the name of (it's attributed to a Sei Shonagon, but Shonagon is a title based on her position at court and Sei was gotten from her father, so no one knows what her real name was). I've been enjoying my research a lot as I'm super into literature (especially classic literature, big surprise), but I'm getting a little intimidated by the paper. But tonight I will start to conquer it! Hopefully. Maybe.

This could be interesting.

Videos and Some Thoughts

I posted this video yesterday on the collab channel I share with my first two IRL nerdfighter friends. So, I've decided to post it on here as well. Take from it what you will.

In other news, for the past two-ish weeks there's been all this crazy stuff happening around here because a freshmen went missing the first weekend of school. Lots of people were theorizing on what happened, organizing search parties, raising money so they could have an award for information... etc. Except, they found him today. And, unfortunately, it was his body that was found near the water. I don't really know what to think of it. Some of my friends feel really affected by it, even though no one I know actually knew him (except, my mom said someone at my church was his old neighbor. Either that or a friend of someone at church was his neighbor). Some people I've talked to don't feel affected at all. They feel that it was literally just really bad luck after he got in a bad situation. That bad things happen to good people all the time, and this one just happened a little closer to us than it usually does. As for me? I'm not sure. I definitely am sad for the family and friends, but I don't even feel like I can even really begin to imagine what it would feel like in this situation to even think about how I would sympathize. But on the other hand, I never knew him. The only reason I probably ever found out his name was because he went missing. So, I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. Still, I just felt the need to write out a few thoughts on the matter.

See! Look! I have excuses!

Oh, blog. I feel I have neglected you. But my schedule has been crazy! Seriously, look at this awkwardly screen captured picture of my schedule!

Not to mention the increased travel time it takes to get to class compared to last year, increased time for food making and chore doing (dishes, etc), need for alone/me/fun time, a social life, early morning trips to the rec center, and then pile on mounds of homework and you've got quite the full schedule. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage nine (eight? I can't remember) more weeks of this, but I'm sure I'll manage. I always seem to.

But, October just started and I LOVE October. That slight chill in the air, pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, increasing ability to drink tea and wear scarves, impending holiday season starting with Halloween, and the fact that it's Nanowrimo preparation month! Yes, I know. I'm crazy. I have officially declared October to be "Prepare for a month of crazy noveling"-month. I feel it's necessary, even though the preparation is more mental as I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm writing about this year. It's actually a sequel to my first Nanowrimo novel, so it'll be interesting writing a sequel.

In other news, I really enjoy walking. Yes, it does take at least 30 minutes to get to my classes from my apartment due to the fact my classes are in school buildings about as far away as they can be from my apartment, but I enjoy those 30 minutes. The weather has been so nice lately, it almost seems ridiculous not to walk (if I have the time). There have been a few mornings where there just would not have been enough time to walk, so I took the bus. Still, I'm hoping to keep up this walking habit while the weather decides to keep up the nice-ness of it.

And, I realize this is another quick post, but I really do need to go read some Native American poetry for my English class. I admit that I spent all day yesterday playing Halo and watching TV and movies instead of doing homework, doing laundry, getting groceries... so now I'm paying the price.

And I forgot to buy aluminum foil for the recipe I wanted to make for dinner. Fail.

I'd rather be... playing Halo. What a surprise.

Why hello, Blog! And the internet! And any other piece of my audience that still doesn't feel that they're being addressed! Hello to all.

Yeah, I don't know where my brain's been at in the past week either. Probably being rattled about in my head after getting killed by SO MANY headshots in Halo: Reach.

Anyway, this past week has been a week of crazy. I feel like last year the first week of school was not nearly so busy. Of course, neither my job nor volunteering has started yet, so this coming week I'll have at least eight hours of more things to do. Which, makes me a little nervous. I moved in last Sunday, and that day was filled with hauling things into my apartment, shopping for new things, and attempting to figure out how to feel myself (it is harder than one would think). If you'd like to take a look at a little tour of my apartment, you can view my WeThreeChallengirls video from last week HERE. In theory, I'll post another video on that channel on Monday or Tuesday so subscribe if you'd like to see those. I'll probably show my newly decorated walls since I finally decorated the walls in my room now.

As for my classes, they seem pretty good so far. My Japanese class seems INSANE. My early American lit class seems interesting (the teacher is the embodiment of what you'd think an English professor should be) and my linguistics class should also be interesting. Actually, I should probably be doing homework right now, but I wanted to post a little update. Hopefully I will post again soon if my ridiculous schedule doesn't swallow me whole!

Start of something...

Tonight is going to be the last night in the house I grew up in for a while. Not that I mind this. Last year it was harder because I knew only a few people who were going to the same college I was, and I had never really been away from home for more than a week. This year, however, I have friends I'm excited to see again, a place I fell in love with and made my second home, and a good list of exciting new things to look forward to as I move back to college. Still, I'll miss my lazy summer mornings where I slept in until 10, worked out whenever I wanted, played video games without having to worry about homework, and saw my family (in person) every day. I realize that a weekend visit home, Thanksgiving, and then winter break will come sooner than I expect it to, but I really do love my family so I'm going to miss them.

But why, oh why, does moving involve so much packing! When I moved back home for the summer I literally threw everything I owned as quickly as possible into the crates I had, shoved them into the van once my parents got there, and that was that. Heck, I even had time to go volunteer for an hour and have lunch with my parents. Moving back to college, however, has been considerably more complicated. I've spent at least two days this past week shopping and compiling things I felt I'd need to bring. Then today, I woke up at nine and spent nearly the entire day packing until around six or seven. I did take an hour break for lunch and some Halo multiplayer, but still! I packed for the ENTIRE DAY. And I still have a few things left to pack and I'm sure I forgot lots of things.

Anyway, I've been up longer than I planned to, and I'm sure I'll post again soon with pictures and tales of my first days back.