Juxtaposed in Japan

Wednesday, February 28th

So much going on..

Current Sounds: Ranma Opening - Mou Nakanaide

Despite my general disdain for Starbucks, their green tea latte (iced) is really good. I'm drinking one right now as I type this, which isn't too important, but worth noting.

It's been really hectic and busy lately. I have some certain issues ('drama' is a good way to put it) regarding my current semester, but alas, I can't really discuss these issues too much, since this is technically public. I don't mean to be cryptic, but things have taken a turn in ways I never quite expected, and it might be a bumpy road for the rest of this semester. Gah.. definitely not what I was hoping for.

On a different, more positive note, I go to London in 11 days. Getting all my papers printed up today, got my passport in order, and I need to start most of my packing this weekend. I'm also incredibly nervous about this trip, but I tend to get that way about nearly every time I have to go traveling. I actually dislike traveling, but I like being in different places (as long as it's relatively short-term.. living in hotels can be rather depressing). Fortunately, I don't get sick on trains, boats, planes, or automobiles, but I still don't really care for the concept of sitting in one place for an obscenely long period of time. The trip should be fun, especially catching up with people, but still a drastically different experience from what I've done in the past.

So, pack the basics this weekend (buy some stuff like batteries, etc), make sure I have all my papers in order, and then pack all my clothes and such sometime next week.. then, I go. Gah.. nervous.

Now to figure out what trains I'm taking and how to actually get there! Then to find out how I'm going to entertain myself for the 14 hour travel time from here to London. Fortunately, ipods and other such things should help. Should probably pick up a book before I go, while I'm at it.

Anyway.. I've rambled enough. Kinda distracted, too, so I should probably go. I'll write later, probably while I'm supposed to be packing this weekend.
Jason on 02.28.07 @ 03:56 PM JST [link]

Wednesday, February 14th

No, I don't know what today is

Current Sounds: ZOE - Beyond the Bounds

"Two scoops. TWO SCOOOOOOOOOPS!!!"

You know the sun mascot from the "Raisin Bran" cereal? The one that hold "two scoops of raisins"? He flies outside my window at way-too-early o'clock with the sole goal of waking me up and preventing me from any further sleep. Every. Single. Morning. This is not only unfair, but it's getting really old. What's even more ironic is that when we moved into this house, I explicitely stated that I would have the inside room that did not have a 6 ft window. Yet here I am, with a 6 ft window, waking up nearly every morning to the sun, imagining it screaming "Two Scoops" at the window. If this doesn't make any sense to anyone but me, I blame the lack of sleep.

For what it's worth, everything else is pretty much all right. Busy much of the time nowadays, but it's not so bad. After I'm done with this, I need to do reading for tonight (Japanese lit, Japanese history, and Chinese history), shouldn't be too much. Unfortunately, I'm tired most fo the time now. This is the one thing I just can't get past. I try to sleep more, but if I go to sleep earlier, I just wake up earlier. Somehow, I'm conspiring against myself.

One month until I'm in London. Ironically, as it gets closer, the more hesitant I am to go. It's kinda stupid, when you think about it, but I guess it's mostly a fear of the unknown, an aversion to something I know absolutely nothing about how it's going to go. I've never actually been east of Texas.. anywhere. Unless you go clear around to Japan, but I think we'd all agree that's west of here. In short, I have no idea what to expect, how it'll go, etc. I think it's pretty well aknowledged that I worry a bit much, though. I'll start packing about a week before I go.. so until then, it does me no good to worry.

Oh, and for anyone who may consider the safety aspects of London (it's really not that bad, so no reason for worry), I won't actually be in London. I'll be staying outside of there and in a small outlying city (though I will be spending alot of time in London). I had no idea that this was important, but the person I'm staying with said the distinction matters.

Anyway, I need to get around to reading, then pretending to read, then watching a movie while I pretend to read, before ending up in a half-asleep state as I make sad attempts at immitating reading. This is very important, you see.
Jason on 02.14.07 @ 06:38 PM JST [link]

Wednesday, February 7th

[Library] Waiting for time to 'fly'. I'm having fun, right?

Current Sounds: Rie Fu - 2cm (and some talking, talking, and more talking)
Currently Feeling: Tired

z_Z

See those two z's and the underscore? Those somehow get across my tired-ness. The addition of a capital 'z' is also significant, I think, though that little nuance is less important. Alas, I'm just not really able to sleep nowadays. Sleep for a bit, wake up, roll over and go back to sleep, repeat the process until I wake up about an hour to half an hour before my alarm goes up and stay in bed until it does, or get up and shower. At this point, I'm mildly disgruntled over the whole not-being-able-to-sleep thing.

Stuck on campus for another 2 hours today, because (for some reason I'm not totally aware of) I'm going to be attending some sort of "meet real-live Japanese people" event, since a group of Japanese university students have come to the school, and I was asked by my teacher to attend. I actually have a feeling of foreboding about this, and I'm pretty confident something's going to go horribly wrong today, but not much can be done about that at this point.

As it is, today has that dark-cloud feeling lurking over it, just waiting for something to go insanely wrong. It's actually done its job quite well so far, nothing's really working out today and things are actually pretty miserable, but I can't imagine that's all that's in store. I don't believe in premonition, but I also can't help but realize that when things start out poorly, they rarely seem to improve.

So, instead of studying for my test tomorrow (psych[ology] of lang[uage] development), I'm sitting here at this computer in the library and typing away. I'll probably write up some e-mails I've been not writing for a month now, read some articles for the test tomorrow, and then probably get on my way and waste some more time before heading out to my teacher's office.

That's about it for now. Still alive, still kicking. Just kinda blah.

Oh: And I'm well aware Valentine's Day is next week. People need not keep reminding me. Gah.
School on 02.07.07 @ 01:06 PM JST [link]

Saturday, February 3rd

A lazy Saturday.. Macgyver-style!

Current Sounds: Tongari Kids - B-DASH

Slept 8 hours today, attempted 9 but didn't really quite make it. For some reason, my body's internal clock has a really keen sense of time and when it hits those critical hours after when I should be up and preparing for classes (0745 or 0945/1015, depending on the day), I start waking up every 30 minutes or so. I suppose this is a good thing, or at least better than easily sleeping through classes.

Today's been a pretty laid-back day. I prefer to put all the actual 'work' off for Sunday to try to at least salvage some semblance of a weekend. Not too much to do, so it shouldn't be too bad. Japanese homework, a little Japanese studying, and that should be about it. As for what I did do today, it wasn't too bad. Spent a few hours in the kitchen teaching my younger brother and sister how to cook some basic dishes (and how to cook a little more efficiently), explained the physics (heat transfer, freezing and boiling points, elements that will lower and raise said points) behind some basic cooking, baked some cookies, taught them how to make some basic candy, then watched a movie (Princess Mononoke). I also covered some "necessary" life skills, such as how to make a cup out of aluminum foil for melting things.

Remember, kids, you can make anything out of aluminum foil. If you can't, then you're just not trying hard enough or don't have enough foil.

Realizing that I only have one year left of school has been weighing heavily on me as of late. It's still a whole year to go, but I have a lot to do in that time, particularly in my senior year. I need to start applying for grad schools, scholarships, companies. Lions, tigers, and bears.. oh my! Fortunately, I should be taking the bare-minimum 12-credits for my entire senior year (instead of the 18 I'm doing now), so I don't think time considerations will be so much of an issue. If I play my cards, right, I should be able to work through my senior year while I'm at it. Why would I do that? I really have no clue.. just kinda seems like something I should be doing.

That's another thing that's been getting to me: I just don't feel productive, like I should be doing so much more than I am. Most of all, I think it's a fear of slowing down. I see so many people around me settling for mediocrity, accepting a standard and willing to live with it, but that's not what I want. Slowing down is a step above stopping, and I definitely can't be having that. I'd look into working now, but it feels like I barely have enough time to do my school work as it is, so that's not such a wise idea. Looks like this summer has potential, though.

Alas, not much can be done about all this now. Just some more stuff to keep in the back of my mind over the coming months. Right now my priority is to get better at Japanese, learn some new things, and get up and go to school.

Off I go!
Jason on 02.03.07 @ 07:23 PM JST [link]

Friday, February 2nd

If you pretend to study long enough, you'll actually get something done!

Current Sounds: Full Metal Alchemist - Kesenai Tsumi

Another week passes, and I've made it through again in one piece. Not sure if this should be noteworthy and counted as a significant achievement or not, but at least I'm pretty happy about it. For some reason, I'm still not really sleeping as of late, no matter how tired I try to make myself. I'm suspecting it's a sort of sick conspiracy against myself.. started, maintained, and run by me. On the positive side, all the classes that involve critical thinking or actual work are in the mornings, but it also means that Tuesday (after a good 3-4 hours of sleep) afternoon was a long haul while I tried to see if I could catch precious minutes of sleep during the lectures inbetween my teachers' critical looks.

In a nutshell: I transcribed more of "Gone with the Wind" from a book in both English and Japanese, I watched "Gone with the Wind" due to said project, watched a 2 hour long Japanese movie (with no subtitles.. I caught the gist of it, but I couldn't tell you fine details) that was actually pretty terrible (the book was better), read some stories, took a Japanese chapter test, and spent several hours locked away in the library "studying" (the ratio of 'work' to 'conversing, drawing on the marker board, and playing around' is a little skewed). But if you do that long enough, 3 hours of "studying" becomes 1 hour of actual, legitimate studying. So, it's fine.

No plans for this weekend thus far. I don't think anything's going to be coming up anytime soon either, so it looks like I'll be trying to get some work done on Sunday and waste Saturday away (unless something shows up). If I'm lucky, I'll sleep in and be in bed for much of the weekend, but I really don't imagine that's going to happen.

Off for dinner!
Jason on 02.02.07 @ 04:29 PM JST [link]


February 2007
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