The Ronin Student

The Advent...
Well, I've got only one thing to say in regards to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Don't worry, its not a spoiler or anything:

Seriuosly, if you and your friends save the planet from complete obliteration...why would you not hang out again for almost two years? Kinda cold, if you ask me.

But, Advent Children is still freakin' awesome. It was kind of late when I watched it, and my eyes couldn't keep up with most of the fast-paced fighting action, but it was still great! I'm now looking forward to Derge of Cereberus even more.

If only they would remake VII now...
That would be nice.

Crazy happenings in the first week of college!
Yeah, so I'm now the secretary of the brand new UWF Anime Club. The nerdiness has come full-circle. Seriously, this is going to be a great year - a serious year, but a great year nevertheless.

I also spoke with the foreign exchange advisor about the possibility of going to Japan next Fall. He seems to think that Kansai GaiDai would be a good university choice. I'm not so sure since GaiDai is short for "Gaijin Daigaku" or "foreigner university" and I'd kinda like to see what a authentic Japanese University is like. I'm not asking for Tokyo U or anything here, but something that would better reflect their culture of higher learning. Plus, wouldn't a foreigner university's student body be made up of mostly - oh, I don't know - foreigners? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of foreign exchange?

Lastly, I was almost hit by a car today while trying to cross Campus Blvd. Last time I checked pedestrians did have the right of way...I'm pretty sure nothing has changed since then.

"A change in plans" or "I finished Samurai Champloo!"
I have decided to make the jump to Japanese 3! Honda-sensei seems to think that I know enough to make the jump. Unfortunately, I have to give up my bizarre social service English class due to the time slot. While social service would have looked good on my application for foreign exchange, I think Japanese 3 & 4 will look much nicer. I'll have to take this very seriously.

And now, Alex, I am the senpai and you are the kohai. Get used to it.

Also, as the title indicates above, I finished watching Samurai Champloo! It was a pretty cool series. I mean, it has pirates, ninjas, and samurai - what more could you ask for?

First Day of Class: Fall '05
A crazy day to start off the new semester!

Running late to my 10:00 class, I decided to take the Garcon Point bridge to the campus. While I was rolling down the window to pay the toll, the window fell off of its track and down inside the door panel. I have not seen it since.

Classes go fine until halfway through my Japanese class, it begins to rain. And this wasn't just rain, kids, this was a downpour. A torrent. The only thing that I could think of was the truck window that had fallen earlier in the day. The inside of the truck was probably drenched throughly at this point.

Speaking of the Japanese class, I cannot jump up to Japanese 2, because it is not being taught this semster. I already know everything that the course is supposed to cover: Hiragana, katakana, simple phrases, basic sentence structure. I'll stick with it, though. At the very least, it'll be an easy A....I hope.

So, anyway, after a mad dash through a pouring storm, I made it to my soaked vehicle and had to drive to work. I had to drive in this the pouring Pensacola weather with my driver's side window gone. People in the other lane were staring so much, I'm suprised that they didn't cause an accident. Lots of fun.

So that's the first day of new classes. Good to be back in college full-time, I guess. I've joined the newly-founded anime club on campus, so hopefully that'll bring in some fun. I have an English class that has me reading to illiterate children for social service hours - that will look great on my application for foreign exchange. And I have an old friend from high school in my Comparative Politics class! Not a bad way to start things off.

A first!
Someone called me an otaku today (and not in a bad way). First time ever. It certainly wasn't a bad thing.

I started the day off feeling very nerdy - again, not a bad thing.

Grandmaster, indeed.
Here's an addicting little game if you have a few hours to kill...
Its a little refreshing to see that I have such an extensive vocabulary. Its a little disconcerting to see that I never use it.

Click here to play Make-A-Word word game, and TRY to score better!

My brother and I tag-teamed to get this score...so don't feel too bad if you can't top it.

A funny thing happened on the way to the campus...
So, I went down to the campus today to talk to my advisor about getting a hold removed and to ask about the foreign exchange program again. While I was walking to my 9:30 appointment, I came across a custodian and a young woman talking. The custodian was trying to give directions to Building 18 but the girl didn't quite seem to understand. I thought about it for a moment, then I interjected and said that I was heading in that direction and could show her the way.

As it turned out, this girl was a foreign exchange student from China. I think she said that her name was Juni - but I really can't be sure because she didn't speak very loud. Her English really wasn't that great but she did try.

The whole incident got me thinking about when/if I'll do the foreign exchange program. And if I do, will I ever be in a situation like that, with the tables turned? In any case, the day starts with me feeling like I have done a good deed.

This also confirmed that you do not need to be fluent in the language to participate in the exchange program. Spring or next Fall semester, then?

A quick sketch...
I was bored today at work, so I decided to sketch a little pencil drawing that I inked when I got home...

A little Zelda reference for you. Can you believe I actually get to do stuff like this on the clock?

By the way, I couldn't remember the design on the Hylian shield, so I drew the one from the original Zelda game. Now that I think about, I should've gone with the Deku shield design...

Some nerdiness...
So, I decided to pick up Genshiken - the anime about people who watch anime. From what I hear, its a great series. Who knows? We may be looking at one that challenges the Top 5, not that my Top 5 is ironclad or anything.

Secondly, I have found a video game series over in Japan that is a nerd's dream. It's called the Super Robot Taisen series. The basic premise is, "Wouldn't it be cool to have an Evangelion face off with a Mobile Suit?" Although it is listed as a simulation, I think it is a type of robot fighter. There are several verisons of it out there, but the one that I know the most robots in is called MX. Evangelion, RahXephon, Nadesico, and some Gundam are all in it. While I'm not a fan of Gundam, I wouldn't mind trashing a Mobile Suit with an Evangelion unit. Only downside is that with all of the seperate versions, I really haven't found one that has all the mecha I'd like. No Dai-Guard anywhere! There's a Big O, though.

The game is kinda expensive, so I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to pick one up yet. I still need to pick up the second Negima game.

Food fiasco!
Over the weekend, I attempted to make "nikuman" (that's what they call it in Japanese, but Alex has told me that his family calls it something else...). It is a meat-filled steamed bun. With some veggies in there, too. Anyway, my first batch rocked. They were perfect. My second and third attempts never made it past the prep stages. Why? It seems that yeast can be a very fickle thing. If the water is too hot, it won't rise. If the water is too cold, it won't rise. On the third batch, I added way too much milk. It was awful.

I guess I just got lucky on my first try. It doesn't help that the recipe I have is in the metric system and I don't have any metric measurers in the house - I basically just did all of the conversions in my head. I need to buy more yeast before I try again. And pork. How disappointing.

Official addict...
Addiction, thy name is Mahou Sensei Negima!...

Yes, I am now officially an addict for Akamatsu-san's latest franchise. It started with the DVDs (I'm up to Volume 2 now - this one came with a Nodoka card) and then, the Playstation 2 game (I'm eagerly awaiting the second one). All of this is resulting in hours upon hours of lost sleep. On the plus side of this, however, I am learning Japanese like crazy with all of this exposure to it. Heh heh.

Happy Tanabata!
Yeah, so today is Tanabata, a Japanese holiday. After my American Politics class, I dropped by the Japan House at UWF to scope out the festivities. There weren't so many festivities as there was food. But the food was excellent! I had real green tea (not the stuff that Lipton sells), some soba noodles, a real Japanese suika (watermelon - the round kind), and a delicious piece of food that I have forgotten the name of. It was a soy bean paste over a ball of mochi rice. Very tasty.

I also met my sensei for Japanese I there. She seemed nice, but I spoke with her friend, Megu, more than her. Megu seemed suprised that I knew Katakana and Hiragana. They asked if I knew how to speak any Japanese and I said I did, but then quickly followed up with "私の日本語はなかなか下手です" which got a decent laugh out of them. Basically, it means "My Japanese is pretty bad." ジョークです (it's a joke).

Unfortunately, I thought I had to work this afternoon, so I left early. As it turns out, I didn't work and could have stuck around a little bit. I wanted to speak with some of the younger people there...but I didn't. I really didn't know how to introduce myself. Oh well, I'm sure that I'll cross paths with them again.

And Negima came in yesterday! I have to say, Japanese anime DVDs do not know the meaning of extras. There weren't any! No clean opening, no clean closing, no character design sketches - nothing! Not even subtitles! Granted, they would have been Japanese subtitles but they still would have helped. Nice packaging, though. I got these neat little character cards with Asuna and Konoka on them - their names written in Latin. Apparently, there is no "K" in Latin, as Konoka is spelled "Conoca." Weird.

UPDATE: Now that I look at it, it appears to be the Etruscan alphabet, not Latin.

Already?
Its already past the Fourth of July now. That's it. Summer is just about over. It's all gearing down to the last few blockbuster hopefuls at the movie theater - a dead giveaway, along with those "Back To School" sale ads you get in the Sunday paper. I really needed a vacation this summer, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get my way any time soon.

To be honest with you, I usually don't like the summer. I've been out of the public education system for a few years now, so the whole "summer break" thing doesn't really mean much to me. If anything, it meant the opposite, since I went back to college this summer. But no, I don't like summer. You get to run into all of those snots that you went to high school with and you have to pretend to sound interested when they tell you their life story after high school. And they'll tell you. Apparanently, it's just one giant party over there in Tallahassee and Orlando. Great. Go back, then.

Wow, I'm unusually bitter this morning. If I didn't have school and both jobs today, I'd calm myself down with some Negima episodes.

Thursday is Tanabata - a Japanese holiday. I think we call it the Star Festival. I'll be down at the Japan House at UWF after my class to check it out (despite the fact that I should be going to work immediately after class! ha ha ha!). Free Japanese food? How can I pass it up?

Geez....
It was bound to happen. I had been secretly dreading it all summer. Yesterday, the day finally came: school, the Breeze, and Cocodries all in the same day.

My day started at 6am. I went to school, half-awake and hungry. During my class break, I helped myself to a Mountain Dew from a vending machine. I am a firm believer that gluscose helps the mind "wake up". Class was over at around 11:20. I grabbed a bottle of water from the same vending machine for the drive to work. My AC doesn't work all that well in my car, so it helps to have a nice cold bottle of something to drink.

The Breeze was dead. Suprisingly, no one was sent home. Me and the other 2 ushers went to Arby's on our break at sat on the roof of the theater when we got back. From the roof, we could see the Blue Angels practicing for their show today. I had to enjoy this meal of mine, seeing as how it would be the only thing I would eat the entire day.

So, 5 o'clock rolls around and I leave the Breeze. I stay at my house for about 5 minutes - just enough time to change from one superhero costume to the next. Then, it was Cocodries. We weren't that busy. There was no reason for me to stay there as late as I had. I left there around 10. I got home and half-changed out of my work clothes before collapsing on my bed. I didn't wake up until 9 this morning.

This is easily the most challenging summer I have ever had. I am hating and loving it at the same time.

Bad movies ruin good songs...
You know, I'll like a song for a little while. I'll think its alright. I may download it or even buy the album it's on (very rare - I don't own much American music). Then, I'll hear the song - in a very bad movie. Suddenly, I hate the song. It reminds me of the time I wasted while watching a horrible movie. So, I delete the song. I toss the album or just give it to my sister or something. I don't have fickle sense of appreciation for music or anything like that - its just kind of hard to explain.

Then there are just songs that Hollywood won't stop using in movies. If I ever hear that "Let the bodies hit the floor" song in a movie again, it'll be too soon. You know what I'm talking about.

This post really belongs in my other account

scissorcreep. I don't know why I posted it here. Just lazy, I guess...

Double Talking
I always joke to other people on how learning a second language is affecting my English. Up until recently, I was just playing around. But now, it seems that I have developed a strange type of double-talk-syndrome.

Let me explain. In Japanese, it is not uncommon to say a word twice in a row. In some cases, it actually changes the meaning of the word (like "iro" and "iroiro" for example - one means "color", the other means "various"). Saying something like, "hai hai" still means "yes" - but the point is, it is not uncommon. In English, however, it sounds kinda funny.

So when I'm at work and someone says to me, "John, can you run this over to table 34?" my usual response is something like, "Sure sure." If someone asks me how I am doing, I usually say something to the effect of "I'm fine. I'm fine." It isn't too noticiable...but I notice.

On a side note:
I am totally addicted to the anime series Mahou Sensei Negima. It will probably be the first anime series that I buy in Japanese. The DVDs start coming out next month in Japan. I'll have to start picking those up. Fun stuff!
Nothing else to report for now....

くそ...
So, today was the first day of filming for ScissorCreep. All did not go as I had planned. Out of the dozen or so people that said they would show up...only 4 actually made it out there. I guess 8:30 is a little too early for most people.
Sigh.

So with only 4 people, I decided not to do the whole baseball team thing today. Instead, I filmed a very random scene with me fighting one of my co-workers. He brought an axe to the shoot - so that was his weapon. Basically, it was a fight scene. I'll probably use it for the intro...or a flashback scene. I ended up throwing him in a dumpster after I "killed" him. Greg was a very good sport!

Lots of fun. I added two nice scratches (if you could call them that - they seem more like gashes to me...) on my scissors where I blocked the axe head and not the axe shaft. (Looking back, this was a very dangerous shoot.)

Now, I've got to work out the script for the actual "meat" of the pilot episode.

Batman, Finals, tooth drilling, and more!
I actually have a lot to say this time around...

I watched Batman Begins the other day. It is rival for the best Batman movie out there. Seriously. All-star cast.

I finished my "theater-for non-majors" class yesterday. Easily the most fun I've had in a college class. I actually got along with some of the "old guys" in that class, too. These three guys were all retired military, back in school for some reason or another (at around age 40-50...maybe older). They acted like regular college kids do - except much easier to strike up conversations with. One of the guys, Roger, had been stationed in Japan a couple of years ago, so we talked about Japan most of the time. The other two were just as easy to talk to and it really didn't feel like I was conversing with a member of a previous generation. I hope I am like that when I reach that age...
I'll make it a point to be that thing.

I have to get 2 cavities filled today. I am not looking forward to it.

I signed up for Fall classes today. I'll be taking (in no particular order) Comparative Politics, English Comp 2, Math for Liberal Arts Majors, Ethics, and Japanese. 5 classes. 16 semester hours. Monday through Friday. I also spoke with my advisor about the possibility of foreign exchange (again). I decided to look into it for next fall - I need more time to build a stronger foundation for my GPA and I need to learn Japanese a little bit more. I've gone quite far in one year...I imagine that the next year will be just as interesting.

I could also talk about how I was pulled over last night for driving with expired tags (for almost a year now) but I really don't want to. Suffice it to say that I am not happy about it. I can only blame myself, though.

ニューゲーム!
I bought Fullmetal Alchemist: Dream Carnival today. Unfortunately, since I am poor, I did not pay for express shipping. 7-15 business days. Ouch.

Another paper!
Yeah, I have another paper due in my Western Perspectives class. This time, however, I am not waiting until the last minute. I've been working on it on and off since Thursday. The whole thing is due on Monday by midnight. Right now I've got about four pages done. I need 6. It is a challenge. I've got two pages left and it doesn't help that I work both jobs today. It'll get done, just with a level of stress that I had initially hoped to avoid.

So, ScissorCreep. Yeah. Maybe I'll film some stuff tomorrow. Establishing shots and all that. It'd be impossible to assemble a crew/cast on less than 24 hour notice.

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