Knott's Scary Farm

[ORIGINAL POST]

[	mood	|	okay	]
[	music	|	Ace Combat 5 - The Unsung War	]

I'm a little late with this, I know...

Friday was the day I went to Knott's Scary Farm with the usual suspects. That day I only had a light lunch at noon and some ice cream at 3:30. I wasn't sure when I would be picked up; maybe I actuallywould enter the hallowed halls of Winnie's house, and I didn't want to be rude by being the only one not eating anything if we actually did have a snack or dinner before going, so I decided I would save some room. Boy, did I soon regret that...

We met at school and left at about 5:45. It took us a long time to find the place, a long time to find parking, and a long time to meet up with the rest of the group. We were probably finally ready at 8:00. I was getting a little hungry.

I don't know who said that the place wasn't scary, but it was pretty scary. Not just for the atmosphere, but for the random people in masks who would suddenly scream at you. Mask-wearing chainsaw-wielding maniacs I can handle; this I can't. Honestly, I get startled whenever someone knocks on my door! The fact that they couldn't legally grab people didn't help me, either!

I was getting pretty hungry after two mazes so it was either go on a ride or do something else. I usually go with the majority, and in this case it meant skipping dinner and going on a ride. Now, had I known the wait would be 90 minutes and the ride would be less than a minute, I probably would have chosen dinner. The ride (Supreme Scream) was actually scary; so scary, in fact, that I'm going to have to come up with an easier way of killing myself. We had to take off our shoes and remove everything from our pockets and we got up really... really high. I thought I could handle it, but it wasREALLY REALLY HIGH. And when we were falling (REALLY REALLY FAST), I was off the seat, my heart beating almost exponentially faster each half-second. It was a great view, though, second only to seeing Pearl in the blue light from the $3-a-bottle Pepsi vending machine. Man, I wish I snuck a picture when everyone else was looking at the map... I bet I could have said "I was just taking a picture of these outrageous prices", too... (hope no one's reading this part...)

At this point we all got back together and... no, we didn't eat (except for a few small pieces of Pearl's bizarrely cute Japanese chocolate candy)... we went on a log ride. At this point I was beyond hungry (my stomach didn't feel empty because it forgot that food was supposed to go there), but I probably would have fainted in half an hour so I caved and bought a $3 Sierra Mist and some more candy. That came out to an even $5 so I didn't feel too bad about the price.

The train ride was nice, if not a little cramped. It was really unbelievable how much I needed to sit down; it wasn't my feet that was killing me, it was my back! I didn't mind the occasional scare because I was luckily positioned so that I could see it coming, and if it did come my way it would only get Sammi... hehe...

The shows were pretty impressive. I saw a little bit of The Hanging which was a hilarious lampooning of some of the other theme parks. Ed Alzonzo's Howl-o-ween House Party was pretty good too, but a little lewd. The Haunted Hypnotist was ok... the crowd was great, but I've never been a huge fan of hypnotism. I think the idea of being powerless under someone else's control is a scarier than anything. It's only funny in sitcoms. Oh well... I guess I had to be there from the beginning.

I was the last to get dropped off at around 4:00 am. I found it amazing that Sam woke up at 5:00 am the day before. I woke up at about 10:00 feeling just fine.

The next time I go to an amusement park I'll be sure to actually eat something, and I'll save my camera batteries to watch dramas when I'm waiting in line instead of in the car.


Things to do:

Monday: japn 300a homework, register

Tuesday: japn 410 test, japn 315 homework

Wednesday: japn 300a speech outline

Thursday: japn 315 test

Ahh what the hell...

[ORIGINAL POST]

[

mood

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annoyed

]

I was watching some videos when the doorbell rang. It was about 9:30 so I wondered who the hell it could be. I peeked through the window and it was a fucking police officer! Now of course, more than a few things came to my mind.

1) Why the fuck is there a fucking police officer at the fucking front door?

2) What the fuck was the matter?

3) Is this shit for real? I've seen shows on TV about people impersonating police officers to get inside a house where they end up butchering everyone. And it's fucking nighttime already.

4) If I close my eyes will she go away?

Usually my dad watches TV until about 11:00... except for today when he decided to sleep early for some fucking reason, so I didn't know what the fuck I should do. At least until she (not so politely) told me to open the door and (not so politely) told me she needed to use the phone. And of course today I wasn't able to find the cordless phone quickly because my parents were moving everything around AGAIN to finish up the hardwood flooring installation. All the while my dad was putting some damn clothes on. Fucking... fuck...

FUUUUCK........

Apparently they got a call from our house so they came by to investigate. No one was using the damn phone, much less calling 911. Oh, but we got some warning anyway. Fuck.

So now we have some sort of fucking record with the police, we don't know how the fuck they could have gotten a call from our house, we don't fucking know if someone really WAS fucking with our phoneline, and if it happens again we're going to have to fucking pay for them coming over.

Fuck.

紀伊國屋

[ORIGINAL POST]

[	mood	|	peaceful	]
[	music	|	世界はそれを愛と呼ぶんだぜ　（サンボマスター）	]

Well, yesterday was interesting.

I went to Kinokuniya (...all by myself...) in search of another origami book and at least one other book. That's right, origami （折り紙）.


On Monday, Sam went to Kinokuniya to buy a new electronic dictionary and I tagged along, wondering if I could / should get a music CD. I was about to leave without getting anything when I sawThe Buck Book: All Sorts of Things to do with a Dollar - Besides Spend It. Maybe it was the catchy title (if I was at least a little bit wittier and knowledgeable about a topic I'd name it something like that), or the free $1 bill they give you ("Instant $1 Rebate"... gotta love it), but I remembered that I really needed a new hobby and origami was one of them, so I bought the book. It really is great; the writing is entertaining and the instructions and diagrams are very clear, making use of the marks on the dollar. The only downside to the book is that there are only seven patterns. Also, the word "origami" is nowhere in the book.

So yesterday (Friday), I got another book on origami: Sticky Note Origami: 25 Designs to Make at Your Desk. This book, like the other book, seemed like a very practical book on origami so I grabbed it. I'm unsure if this book is better or worse than the other one; this has 25 designs compared to 7, and while some of them seem very impressive (those molecules and fold-able cubes come to mind), others are just too simple. The first one was in fact an elephant made from a single fold. That didn't stop the diagrams from being several times more complicated than the ones found in The Buck Book, though that may be because sticky notes don't have the visual aids that dollar bills provide. The book did provide info on origami as a whole, so that's a plus.

It took me a long time to choose the second book. I first wanted a book to supplement my Japanese studies, but I didn't want it to be just a glossary of terms. Some were just too expensive and the rest were too elementary. Luckily I wandered into the "Martial Arts" section and found The Book of Five Rings （五輪書） by Miyamoto Musashi （宮本武蔵）. Not only does this match The Art of War by Sun Tzu, but the English translation is accompanied by the original Japanese text and a modern translation!

I was feeling pretty good until I got back to the bus station when I decided to buy something to drink. I usually don't drink soda except when wolfing down a burger since that's already unhealthy (thanks in part to the movie Supersize Me), but it was hot, I wasn't in the mood for water or an ice cream bar, and I figured that "if I spent this much money on books, what's another $1.25?" I got my Cherry Coke and it turned out to be warm. Hmm. Then when I opened it, it spilled into the bag with my new books! I was seriously pissed off (to say the least). My new books were possibly ruined and I wasn't able to wash my hands until about 40 minutes later. Maybe it was karma for killing a cricket by throwing a rug over it and walking until I heard a sickening (yet satisfying) crunch?

I got home and I was able to minimize the damage; the soda washed off the covers rather easily, and since the books were closed and the pages were thick, you could only see stains on the very top of the books, and only if you looked carefully.


My thoughts on origami:

Appreciation comes when you realize how much variety there is. Traditionally it's about making objects out of nothing more than a piece of paper without cutting or using other materials. Purists will insist that it must only be from perfectly square pieces of paper. That's just limiting, and I think part of my excitement comes from being able to make things from common items like dollar bills and sticky notes.

Fascination comes from simply admiring and attempting your own. Even after making my "dollar peacock," I'm still amazed it turned out as well as it did. Some of those folds are surprisingly complex, and I can only wonder how many objects can be made out of a plain piece of paper, with or without cutting or gluing. It's not for nothing that origami fascinates math heads, too.

Beauty comes rather easily. There's something for everyone; the "less is more" crowd enjoys simple designs and competing for the least number of folds. Others make startingly detailed models. I'm a little of both.

I think this is definitely right up my alley. It's fun, great to look at, and it's easier to show off with than handstand walking (not strong or balanced enough), juggling (not coordinated enough), or unicycling (don't even know where to begin). Card houses are still fun but they're a pain to clean up, and I'm afraid learning kanji will stop being fun once I start tackling vocabulary.

The amazingly talented can draw manga; the adorably cute can knit. That leaves me with origami. Here's what I've done so far:

My... vacation?

[ORIGINAL POST]

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

[ORIGINAL POST]

[	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...

[ORIGINAL POST]

[

mood

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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

[ORIGINAL POST]

[	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!