My... vacation?

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Has it really been a month since my last entry? Huh.

My "vacation" so far has been moving stuff around and out of the house to prepare for the installation of hardwood flooring. And now that that's done (4 days of noise and dust), the rest of my vacation will probably be moving stuff back to my room... after my parents get done repainting the walls. Not quite the vacation I had in mind. I miss being in my room, but must say that it's awfully convenient having my computer and the TiVo in the same room.

I recently got my test results from the two kanji tests I took in June (９級 and ８級) and I passed both of them! I've been studying kanji for years but I only studied for these particular tests for about 10 minutes total. ９級 was a piece of cake, and although ８級 was quite a bit harder, it was still doable. I just feel a little bad for a guy I know (he introduced me to the tests) because he missed passing the ８級 three times (by 5 or 10 points)!

So with those tests under my belt, I've decided to really dedicate myself to studying Japanese... even more. Which, in this case, means anime. Even before I got the test results I started watching Bleach because of a certain someone and caught up to episode 46 from the very beginning in three or four days. (I was a bit of an idiot here, though... I downloaded the ANBU / Anime Keep batch and after fully seeding that, I saw the better batch by Lunar Anime and downloaded and seeded that batch!) I've made it a habit of putting the more interesting or useful phrases into a Word document, like this gem from 石田雨竜: 「勝負しないか、一護？君と僕と、どっちが優れているのか分からせたい。」

There's other anime, too. I've been downloading Tsubasa Chronicle alongside Naruto but I haven't even seen a single episode until a "DVD quality" version of episode 1 was available a few days ago. I decided to finally check out the episode 1 I already downloaded and I was pleasantly surprised... such a beautiful, beautiful series.

I also decided to check out Daddy Long Legs because it had the same title as a Korean movie I downloaded. Not quite the same, but I'd challenge anyone to view the first few episodes and not cry.

Episode 1 of Shuffle! was released ago and I gave it a try. Seems like a nice contrast to all the other series I'm watching. Reminds me of Tenchi Muyo... (bah, I just checked animesuki and I downloaded episode 1 from Anime Source like an idiot when I could have been downloading up to episode 8 from Froth-Bite!)

And then there's the whole j-drama scene. I have a dozen or so downloaded/seeded/burned dramas of which I haven't seen a single episode, and that includes Densha Otoko. It was recommended by a fellow drama addict, the series was always surpisingly well seeded at d-addicts, and subtitles were coming out mere days after the release of each raw episode. But when there was a topic about it on afighting game forum, I figured it had to be good. I think I'll start watching it... (too...)

And... aaaand... a friend dropped by and handed me FF7 Advent Children. I'll admit that I haven't exactly been keeping tabs on that, even though I beat the game three times. It seems to be all the rage now (and a certain someone is just raving about it), so I'll watch it... eventually.

Last month

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[	mood	|	okay	]
[	music	|	Tekken 5 OST - Formless Like Water	]

First, my mini-review of Best of YesJapan Volume 1:

This thing is SO FREAKING FUNNY!!! And, oh yeah, it teaches you real, practical Japanese too. It's definitely more advanced than the two "Yan-san" series and more accessible than the 新にほんごでくらそう series, both of which I've downloaded and burned to two separate DVDs. I'm pretty sure one of the samples they have on their front page (Techniques to Impress Your Japanese Friends) is the same episode they have on the DVD, so give it a download. I got my copy from JBOX.com for just under $25 (including shipping) and it arrived six days after I sent the money order. Pretty good!


Other stuff:

Three weeks ago I went to the Japanese American National Museum as an activity for the Japan Club. It was a Saturday and despite everyone telling the organizer (Japan Club President Chris) that Saturday was the best day, I was the only one able to make it. He also brought along his Japanese g/f. After a small lunch (which he paid for), we went into the blissfully air-conditioned museum (also paid for). The big exhibition was the Taiko (太鼓) and it was very impressive! After that we all hung out around Little Tokyo for awhile, making it a sort of "3-person date" (actually, it was more along the lines of a real date with me being the loser girlfriend-less tag-along).


School:

You know that paper I did at the last second? I got an "A". Even the smarter, more vocal people in class got "C"s, so I'd be feeling pretty good if it didn't make me seem like a jerk. All I can say is that (1) proofreading is overrated (I just type it all correctly the first time and check right then and there... of course it does take me an hour per page), and (2) it doesn't matter how stupid your ideas are - if you can support them (i.e., pad your paper) with quotes in the right places, you'll get a good grade! So if any of you fine ladies need someone to proofread your papers... yeah. (It was because of my ostensibly high grades on English papers that I wanted to major in English at one point, but it's already too late for that, and besides, literature and reading are also overrated. I'll bet whatever little money I have that I'm the least well-read person in any class... that is to say, I'm not very well-read at all! )

I got a "B+" for my Anthro midterm, yay.

I also recently got an "A" on my second English quiz, even though it was definitely harder, I thought I messed up more, and I got something like a "B--" on my last quiz. Good thing he graded easier and I loaded up on the extra credit!

I don't know what I got on my Anthro paper, and I still don't know what I got on my English midterm even though I got it back more than two weeks ago (I'm too scared to take a look).

I have another English paper due Monday... hopefully I'll at least finish rereading the story before 1:00 am this time.

A pleasant turn of events...

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[

mood

|

cheerful

]

Well hey, it turns out my week wasn't so bad after all.

That new Gackt single (Metamorphoze) with the limited edition Zeta Gundam stuff? Awesome.

That English quiz I was worried about? Turns out I did get a "B". Not bad for only 10 minutes of last-minute studying.

That English paper? Done. I seem to outdo myself everytime: I finished rereading the story at 1:20 am... got 1 hour of sleep... then 3 hours of sleep. Then I started at about 6:00 am and finished at 10:00 am! Right now I'm feeling great because it's the longest possible time before another paper!

Another quiz that was supposed to be today was postponed until Thursday. Sweetness.

I finally sat down and actually started watching my downloaded dramas. Mars is freaking cool - much better than any of the other manga-based dramas I've seen before, Full House included. And that main guy looks cool (can't say "hot" because I'm a guy)... in fact I'm pretty sure that was the look I was going for with my long hair a year ago:



And last but not least, through some happy coincidence (or perhaps a special alignment of the stars), I bumped into Pearl again, and she looked even better than I remembered... I mean, I knew I missed her (and, uh, the rest of the people in our Japanese class...), but wow. I missed her even when I was with her, looking at her. (It's a good thing she doesn't read my LJ or I'd be in trouble! )

Summer classes

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[	mood	|	angry	]
[	music	|	kagrra - 桜花爛漫（おうからんまん）	]

It's already midterms so I'm going to write a bit about my classes:


Monday & Wednesday

ENGL 305, English Grammar and Usage: This was supposed to be the "easy" class this quarter. The professor is really laid-back, and for the first few weeks we didn't really do anything because the books weren't available yet. The material at first was pathetically easy (come on, I know what the passive voice is already...), but it was a little harder each day - certainly not hard enough to make me want to buckle down and study everyday, though. So when first (of three) quizzes came along, it turns out to be surprisingly hard - I'll be lucky if I got a "B"!

ENGL 200B, British Literature Survey: The best thing I can say about this class is that I now know for sure that I don't want to aim for that double major in Japanese and English, because even though I consciously make sure my written sentences are error-free, and I don't do too badly on written papers either... I don't care about literature at all. That means that I'm just going for the minor in Comparative Linguistics... which also means that I don't even need this class! I'd drop this class too (I already dropped that BS "ENGL 441, Major Critics" class), except I need 12 credits. But it's not just the class material I hate... I hate pretty much everyone in the class! Now, if I may be allowed to make broad, purely superficial generalizations: we have two annoying over-achievers who clearly need to be told that finishing a whole book doesn't prove anything. And then there are these two guys that make me want to tear my ears off - their voices are so annoying! I seriously want to punch them in the neck or the stomach just so they would speak differently, if only for a second. Adding to that, there's another guy sitting next to me that has more hair on his arms than I do on my entire body... SO FREAKIN' GROSS!!! The professor is left-handed and has this odd habit of writing things upward at a 45 degree angle and I'm always having to tilt my head... what the heck is up with that?? (not that I have anything against left-handed people... in fact, someone who I may or may not admit to liking is left-handed...) And as for the rest of the people in the class: I don't know them, but I'm pretty sure they're jerks too. The 40-year-old+ crowd is okay, though. (and I know I'm not looking forward to the paper due on Monday at all...)


Tuesday & Thursday

ANTH 470, Language and Culture: I had this professor before for ENGL 401 and he was great, so taking this class was a no-brainer. I even saw some of my buddies from ENGL 401, so that's cool. The only thing bad is that girl who gets on EVERYONE's nerves (who was also in ENGL 401) by interrupting lectures and asking very tangential questions... it's probably something you could only understand if you spent weeks in a class with her, and you really don't want that.


To summarize: my summer sucks. It's the complete opposite of Disneyland. And I miss my 4-day weekends. The fall quarter can't come quick enough... serenity now!

Tags, Grads, Games, and Grades

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Long overdue, but I was busy and lazy. And I don't know five people on LJ.


List five songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now.

Post these instructions, the artist, and the song in your blog along with your five songs. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

1. Penny Tai - 你要的愛 (Meteor Garden Ending Theme)
   
2. The Tick (1994) - Opening Theme
   
3. Hitoshi Sakimoto - 編成画面 (Final Fantasy Tactics OST)
   
4. Hitoshi Sakimoto - Universe -Stage1- (Gradius V OST)
   
5. Hideaki Kobayashi - Pioneer2 (Phantasy Star Online OST)

Things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it to your journal... and then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs.

1. Working out (It's like leveling up your own body! "HP Up!")... but for stress, nothing beats punching air or walls.
   
2. Watching / reading about old TV shows
   
3. Playing / reading about old video games
   
4. The whole C/J/K drama and movie scene
   
5. Card houses?

Tagged by atozuka

I can't say I have anyone for the meme, though. Well actually I might, but actually posting the name would just be asking for trouble. So forget it!


Grads:

My older cousin graduated a while ago. Now the pressure's on (again) for me to do just as well! Geez. And I know I'll hear the same stupid comments when any of my older relatives get married. 放っておけよ！

I think I'm supposed to go to the (semi-formal) graduation party on Friday. And I may or may not have to bring someone... but uh... yeah. (Free food, anyone?)


Games:

I don't have the time or patience to learn any new game so I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics, which I've had since high school. It takes me back to (generally) happier times... plus I didn't really get the story back then and I didn't get everything so it's like a new game. The FAQs available really make the experience complete.


Grades:

ENGL 301: "A". I was more confident of my "A" for that class than in Japanese!

ENGL 405: "B". Can't complain... this was the "40% homework, 60% final" class. I got an "A" on the homework, but the final was surprisingly hard! Still love the class though. Frankly, I didn't know what I would get for the class.

JAPN 200C: "A". I was half an hour late to the final because of traffic caused by that stupid hostage situation. I happened to be wearing a hat that day, so now whenever I put on that hat I'll be thinking of that damn day!

JAPN 450: "B+". I didn't know what I'd be getting for this class either, but why couldn't I have gotten the "A"?! I wouldn't be so upset if I just got a regular "B"!


I'm not too thrilled about the classes I have now... but that's another post.

Disneyland

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First off, my profuse apologies to atozuka for making the drive home difficult; whatever "poor driving skills" she may have claimed she had is clearly overshadowed by my poor direction-giving.

(I'll edit this post later in the morning...)

-

EDIT: Alright, it's three days later (2005.06.17 / 16:50) and it's not the morning, but I had to do this sometime:


Yes, Disneyland was great fun. I was actually walking around campus when I saw Nadia and her friend, and they said they were meeting with Lina at McDonalds... so I tagged along. We made it to the parking lot exactly 9:00. Funny story, though... we didn't see the rest of our group at the parking lot, but we did see this gang of bikers. Nadia's friend Ami said, "Wow are those your friends!?" Ha, yeah... we have some pretty hardcore friends. ¬_¬

Driving around, we finally saw our group, and we all came at pretty much the same time. We took three cars and I was lucky enough to go with Fiore, Mai, and Kumiko. I was happily recording with Sam's camcorder until someone said "stop filming, stop filming..." and without thinking I pressed stop. Funny how I'd do anything and everything she'd tell me to do. I recorded most of the drive to Disneyland though, including Fiore getting lost... there were also some amusing conversations which I all got on tape (now a 350 mb avi file... it didn't need to be on a DVD).

We sure did a lot at Disneyland! We even went on Indiana Jones twice. Our route was mercifully planned so that when we got on It's a Small World, our feet would be taking a much needed rest. The fireworks show was also very impressive. And insanely pricey food and drinks aside, some points of interest were:

1) Jason eats fast. I thought I was a fast eater myself (I still think I am) but, consider this: I was halfway done with my burger when Jason sat down with his lunch. He was talking all the time while eating and he still finished his burger before I did! Sure, I got the cheeseburger and he got the chicken (or was it fish?) burger, and sure, he focused solely on the burger while I was eating a few fries and taking a few sips of soda in between bites, but that is still fast.

2) I couldn't help but think of The Simpsons the entire time. I was looking for "BORT" license plates, I wondered what happened if I drank the ride water or used flash photography on those animatronic robots, and I was humming "Duff beer for me, duff beer for you, I'll have a Duff, you have one too" the entire time I was on It's a Small World. Speaking of which...

3) When I was riding on It's a Small World, I noticed they wrote 「今日は」 when they had "hello" in different languages. Oddly enough, I understood "你好", but not 「今日は」 ("today?"). Then it hit me: 「今日は」 is a rarely- (ok, never-) used orthographic variant of "konnichiwa". You can even type in 「こんにちは」 and you'll get 「今日は」. (yeah, this is something only I would notice or care about...)

I went home in atozuka's car with Sammi and I was either too tired or too dumb to put on my glasses so I could see the streets, but I probably pissed her off somehow. I'll spend the rest of the summer trying to make it up to her - but only if she'll let me... -_-

The crazy life of Triple Lei

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Time for another one of those day-by-day reviews...


Monday

I don't remember doing a lot on Monday, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing what I probably should have been doing (i.e., homework and projects). I think I saw the k-movie Arahan (阿羅漢), though, thanks to Pearl back from JAPN 200A! I'm trying to watch all the movies I have now (instead of downloading, seeding, burning, and putting them away without watching like I normally do). I guess it's to make up for my beloved k-dramas that I've been missing... and I hear Super Rookie is really good too... ah well...


Tuesday

Now this was a crazy day. I had the third and final quiz of my ENGL 301 class, so of course I started studying in the morning (the class starts at 11:40, so I thought I would be okay).

More crazy was the fact that I somehow had the good sense to prepare and finish my project for JAPN 450. I woke up relatively early on Tuesday (around 7:00), and I could leave the house as late as 10:20 and still catch the two buses to school, I so thought I would work on my JAPN 450 presentation due "sometime this week." Because, hey, maybe I might have to go on Tuesday (we were at least two days off schedule), and I spent about $4.00 making copies of my handouts just in case... but when several of us gathered at the door, I learned the terrifying truth - we were ALL supposed to go that day! It was news to me and a lot of the class. We didn't have class on Thursday for some reason so no one could do a presentation that day (Sam suspects that the professor didn't show up to avoid evaluations, and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense). Presenting on the day of the final (the original plan) wasn't an option either because the professor gave that day to a guest speaker only she's excited about.

Anyway, I had an especially rough time presenting... I had to go up after a guy who was seriouslyarguing with the professor about his project and the linguistic theory of "monosemy" and the professor basically said "No! You're all wrong!"... fighting words, really... the class was dead silent... so when I got up, I was all "Umm... I'm doing monosemy"... and although it was probably the worst presentation I've ever done, I'm just glad that presentation (which is essentially the final... which is 20% of the grade) is over with. Seriously, everytime I come home from that class, I just want to curl up in a fetal position. Whatever college throws at me now has got to be easier than that nightmare!


Wednesday

What I should have been doing: Preparing for my JAPN 200C presentation.

What I was doing instead: Not preparing for my JAPN 200C presentation; specifically, playing Final Fantasy Tactics. All it took was reading a thread on one of the several forums I lurk at, and before you know it I was hooking up my DexDrive so I could hack my save to give my (Squire) Ramza abilities such as "Teleport 2" and "All Swordskill", both of which are just a handful of the several abilities only available to NPCs and bosses.

I don't really regret it though... FFT had a great storyline, not to mention great music, character design, and, oh yeah, gameplay. All it was missing was a versus mode, though apparently you can use a cheat device to control the computer, effectively making it a two-player game! Sadly, I can't do that because (1) I don't have my GameShark anymore, (2) I play my PS1 games on my PS2, and (3) I probably couldn't use my original PS1 even if I wanted to.

I ended up sleeping at around 3:00 am.

Here's a pic that does a good job describing the day. (I didn't make it, I just stole it from a forum)


Thursday

I woke up at 7:00, started working on my JAPN 200C presentation, and left at about 10:25...

ENGL 301: All we did was get our quizzes back. I got an "A" despite a few mistakes.

ENGL 405: We got something for the final and left. Sweet.

JAPN 200C: I finally got around to showing Fioré the DVD (using Sam's laptop) and I also gave him all 25 episodes of 「新にほんごでくらそう」. As for the presentation...

For someone who, after promising not to do things until the last minute, waited until last minute to write and memorize a presentation, I don't think I did too badly. I know it wasn't the best, though. Mine was probably the shortest (on account of me speaking fast just to get it over with), and I didn't stumble over as many words as I thought I would, though I had to look at my script more than I wanted to. But I never liked these oral presentations... I could speak fine (I think), but memorizinglines is a bit too much. Isn't it enough that we memorized the grammar points?

You might have noticed that I only got about 4 hours of sleep between Wednesday and Thursday. Well, when I got home I turned on my computer and started my BitTorrent stuff (I always seed at least 125%), started my batch encodings on VirtualDub, and opened up WinMX just so I can hope I could download the other Kwon Sang-woo movies I haven't seen, and by 6:45 I was fast asleep... I woke up at around 1:20 today (it's 3:00 right now), I'm wide awake, and I still have to eat dinner, which may as well be breakfast.

It's surreal, but the final days of classes always are.

I'm still not sure when I'm going to Disneyland, though.