End of Fall Term 1

Well, Im done with school for this term. No more classes. I made it out of Japanese with a C, and FRINQ looks like it should be an A or B. Next term is going to be more rigorous. Japanese 102, the next term of FINQ has an instructor that is apparently pretty harsh on the students writing abilities. There will be a new paper every week or so. Thats fine, I can do it! Lastly is Math 95. I suck so hard at math, but once I am done with this class I wont have to take any more math the rest of my adult career. 14 credits... Not so bad... Bring it On!

Japan Night

So tonight was the japan night at PSU. It was really nice to hang out with duc and abe again. Its been so long since we did something as a group. The japan night was a great direction to go with it too. I feel like Ive been so out of the loop with my own interests lately. With all the random stuff Im trying to deal with I havent had any time for meditation, anime, tea, or even really just relaxing and listening to music. Ive been very stressed out. Luckily it looks like things are changing. I had a small token of good luck today. I got free parking from a guy who had bought an all day pass at shattuck as he was leaving.

The food was really good though what I think was supposed to be dango could have been sweeter and less like potato. There was a traditional dance number at the beginning. The dancers had this part where they went around in a circle and jumped. I was really impressed with the drummer and flutist as jumping dancing and keeping rhythm seems incredibly hard.

There was some taiko drumming which is always very impressive. A group called cherry bomb did a few covers. Apparently "complicated" is the biggest foreign song in japan right now. The contests and quiz's were all really fun. I think my favorite part of the night came towards the end. They had a tribute to otaku. It really reminded me of who and what I used to be and how happy it used to make me. That was all I needed back then. Ive decided that if I end up just getting student loans that I am going to join a club. Probably the JSS. Those were all things that I find very entertaining and to be honest I miss those things. I miss my old highschool japanese culture club. I miss meeting the new people and seeing the new faces.

As a side note, I couldnt keep my eyes off this one really cute girl that was up on stage for the cheer leading display. Totally blew me away. Maybe if Im lucky I can meet a nice girl in the JSS.

Ah I also saw my japanese teachers while in line. We spoke shortly but the line started moving so I had to keep it brief. I also saw Eschuwailah-san. We exchanged a jaunty laugh and went our way. It was a good day to be a student.

Edit--
I left my camera at home, Im disappointed I didnt get any pictures, oh well. It was still good enough to keep in my memory.

Ready... GO!

Alright! Its just over half way through the term and its time to really punch it into gear!
Ive been slacking off a bit lately, but I need to maintain my focus! Just four more weeks to go!

To quote the great Kintaro Oe... "Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study! Study!"

lunch +

So for lunch I tried the asian cart on campus.
I ordered the sweet and sour chicken but the cook messed up. He poured peanut sauce on it. I said I didnt really care and had him put sweet and sour sauce on it too. It actually tasted really good. A lot like peanut butter and jelly, but richer.

Also as inspired by priscilla's post here: http://badboysbeambitious.blogspot.com/2008/10/courtesy-of-urbandictionarycom.html

here is mine:

David
	A formidable foe to normal people. intelligent, strong forceful. a weird hybrid of a bully and a nerd. As well as the first dictator of the America and king of the new peaceful world. Also known as Timebomb and various other variations including at least TB. I am David. All other David's fall in march as we conquer the world. For a new Earth of peace void of general stupidity.

And just for kicks

	Dave
	1. Beloved 2. Better than David 3. The Model of Perfect. No man can come close to the glory of that which is Dave. Dave's are artistic and funny always knowing how to lay down a good massage. Skills that come with Dave include major dexterity in all matters and extentions of limbs and the what not. Daves have the largest units, brains, and balls. Don't mess with a Dave. 1. Dude, I looked at Dave the wrong way and he flipped me upside down slapped me across the face with his massive wang. 2. Dave slathered me up with oil, making me loose and limber and only God and that poor goat know what happens next. 3. Ur Getting a Dave! 4. Rebohcs

twiddling my thumbs

I woke up at 11:00. My first class is at 11:00 :(
I decided it wasnt worth getting upset over and instead decided to give the people down at the unemployment office a call. Turns out Im not eligible for the schooling deal where you dont need to spend time looking for work. Apparently for that you need to be within 40 credit hours of finishing a vocational degree. And I wont get any unemployment money since I am not open to working during tuesday or thursday. Guess its back to the drawing board.

I showed up in time for my mentor inquiry class but turns out it was canceled today. :( I came downtown for practically nothing. Ive still got japanese today but not for several hours. Oh well.

I wish I had that girls number I could at least study japanese with her...

I never realised how loud the library can be. Maybe I should go up a few levels where there is no talking allowed.

A good day

Wow, today has been a great day.
I got up really early, around 5 oclock.
I took a nice long steamy shower. I cant imagine living in the old times when a hot shower was something you only got if you were rich. Showers are the 3rd greatest thing in the world. The first and second being love and friendship.

I headed out to school. I was really lucky and found a parking spot really quickly. It was a bit fair bit away, down on 4th by the umqua bank. I usually find a parking space down there but never this quickly. I had an extra 30 minutes before my first class so I went down to pay my parking ticket. Stupid thing was $40, just for parking in shattuck for 15 mins.

Class was really boring. I started to fall asleep during class but the guy next to me nudged me to keep me awake. I knew I had two hours before my next class so I went to feed the meter and exchange my backpack for the mithril messenger bag. I had my "show and tell" today.

I spent a good deal of time just walking around campus today. I wasnt really looking or doing anything in particular. I started watching the people as I walked. Some faces smiling, some sad, some anxious, some excited. It feels so strange to step out of yourself and just observe all the faces in the crowd. I thought to myself. I wish there was something I could do to make all those people happy. I wish the world was a happier place. I am going to be a teacher so at least I can make the world a brighter place for kids in highschool. Those kids are the ones that really have the hardest times.

Come lunch time, I met up with Tam again. He had some trouble finding parking so we just got something close and went to the burrito cart in the park blocks. Great burrito. I had a chicken chipotle guacamole burrito. A strange combo but I liked it. I ran into Matt wu again. He actually walked up and said hello. He was friendlier than he had ever been. He actually seemed geniunly happy to see me at PSU. I honestly was glad to see him too. I dont have any of the friends I was expecting coming here so Ive been making friendly with those in my classes and seeing a lot of people I knew years ago.

Lunch over I headed to class. I started out by explaining I am naturally a wanderer. I enjoy getting lost in the forest or downtown or in books. I went on to show them the kinds of books I enjoy such as the great gatsby, jungian psychology and the cat getting out of a bag. All followed up with an explanation as well as a slideshow of airsoft. My ego got a nice pump with every "ooh" "awe" "are those soldiers?" and "you're extreme".

Enough of all this though. I need to study up on some japanese before class.

The college culture

I was enjoying a garden bagel with hummus when I opened up a paper from the NW film center. At the end of this month there is a whole two days dedicated to Japanese films. I read all the synopsis's and I want to see all of them, but its a $7 dollar ticket for each film. : (
I need to find someone who wants to see them too. There is at least one wonky super hero film that looks good. I want to see the others, though bringing friends to see japanese romance/drama might be a bit weird.

Through my eyes

Yesterday I had nothing to do after my mentor session and I needed to find something to occupy myself with. So I turned my iPod to 101 classical hits and started walking. It was really something out of a movie. I got so pulled into the music it felt like I was watching people walking through a movie screen. I walked among them, through the crowds, not really going anywhere. All the hustle and bustle of the college life gets drained away when you let yourself get lost in the beauty of classical music and the beauty of the surrounding nature. Its strange, I know several people who live on campus and it seems they run around downtown most of the time, but I enjoy just being surrounded by the mix of nature/people/downtown that the PSU campus offers. I really would suggest that anyone with a music player and spare time try this out. Its some kind of amazing.

You know what really grinds my gears?

I hate it when people are unreliable. My room mate and I are taking japanese together. We decided to go halvsies on two of the books since they are just there for reference. He forgot the books today so he left work early so he could go and get them. But now he doesnt want to go to class, which leaves me without any books. Then he tells me just to study with the internet... He said the only reason hes not coming back is because he doesnt want to walk from the bus to psu. WTF? Hes got to do that anyway if he is going to school. Best get used to it. Hell I walked from PSU down to 9th and washington just to plug in a keyboard for Kash. Stupid unreliable room mate. I need to be with more mature reliable people.

The rest of the day...

Wow, what a day.
In mentor session we played that game from whos line is it anyway. Questions. Where two people talk to each other with only questions until someone messes up. You mess up you switch out with the next person... yup thats all we did the whole class.

After that I went down to the PSU book store and picked up the book for ways of knowing. I got a used one since they were all out of the new ones. Which is a better deal anyway since its cheaper, and the one I randomly picked out had a whole bunch of notes and had the important parts hi-lighted already.

I decided to go back to my car and feed the meter since it was already an hour past due when I recognized a familiar face. It was Fabion (Faubian?). A friend of mine from Madame Albert's (my AP French teacher) lunch time movie showings back in high school. I havent seen him in ages since he graduated class of 03. We caught up with each other, where we've been, what we are doing. It was good to see him again. I was actually just thinking about him the other day and how I wondered what ever happened to madame albert. Turns out he talked to her recently and can probably get me in touch. Who knew in a college of 25,000 Id run into old faces more than the new ones who actually live in the dorms? We talked for an hour straight before realizing he needed to catch a bus and I needed to feed the meter so we went our separate ways after exchanging email. Luckily even though it was two hours past due, I didnt get any ticket sitation. I thought about just temping things and letting it go the rest of the day but ultimately decided I couldnt afford that risk.

Fast forward to Japanese. The first 3/4 of the class went fine but then the teacher started getting into verbs but since she wasnt supposed to speak in english she didnt tell anyone and everyone was confused as all hell, myself included. I actually started getting pretty frustrated because she kept calling on me and although I could repeat the words she had everyone say, I had no idea what I was actually saying. I realised something about japanese 101 today. Everything she covered was almost straight from the book. Mr Van Buren said we werent going to use the book at all for the ACT class. But as it turns out the native speakers really dont teach at all. All they do is lead drills and they expect the students to learn from the books on their own time. I dont have a real teacher, Im teaching myself. Luckily I live with jordan whos sharing the class with me so we spent a good four hours getting caught up and working on the next weeks lesson. We will be much more prepared for the next class. We made flash cards, studied verbals, adjectivals. I finally realized why Japanese seems so wierd. They dont actually need to have any subjects or verbs or adjectives or adverbs. A sentance is a whole bunch of concepts strung together with arguments. Im actually looking forward to the next class a bit. We also studied the first 20 katakana. Jordans got it down pretty well but I still need some work with them.

Time to get some sleep.

Today's anthropology class was really good. Its feels so good to be a student again in a classroom where the teacher has some level of passion for his work. There are two people in that class that wear fedora's one male one female. I need to ask the guy where he got his, Ive been looking for a male fedora for years. The female would be a pretty cool person to get to know. So far she has worn suits both days with the only noticeable variation is the pinstripe shirt underneath and the color of the tie. Very cool.

I saw matt wu while browsing the bazaar. He didnt stop, he seemed busy. I remember in high school he always talked down to me and I used to tease him a lot because of it. Its always been kind of a love hate relationship. Lol I used to call him wu-man. Pissed him off a little bit.

I didnt charge my batteries in a few days so my laptop and cell and iPod are all on the last bit of juice, I should be able to make it through the day if I can ever get a seat next to a power outlet but those seats throughout smith seem to be very coveted.

Well I need to get some food before the next class or im going to die.

Collegiate At Last

I realized today that I didnt really have a blog setup that wasnt really personal or philosophical. So this is for all the other things.

Today was my first day of class. I was a bit worried when I showed up. I hadnt realized that the FRINQ was going to start with the natural sciences. I have always been terrible at science. Luckily the entire natural science portion of the class is going to be anthropology. Everyone told me the FRINQ teachers are shitty teachers that cant teach real classes but my professor has a doctorate in anthropolgy, and he sounds like norm mcdonald so its twice as entertaining.

My mentor session isnt for another hour or so but I already met the student instructor, he seems energetic enough.

Its been so long since I have been a student of knowledge. It feels good to be back in a classroom setting. I forgot what its like to be a new student. None the less I feel that almost infantile curiosity growing. This is a good step for me, and Im really happy that Im here at PSU. When you want to be surrounded by people there is always a large crowd to get lost in, but if you want to get a bit of space you can just walk up and down the park blocks till the crowds start to thin.
I took my lunch under a large tree in the park blocks. I had Dole strawberry kiwi juice and an asiago cheese bagel with hummus, very filling.

I had forgotten what a beautiful place this is. I love that I am surrounded by trees, near the art museum and in a very diverse environment. There was a can drummer outside smith in the park blocks. I picked a bad day to leave my camera at home. Oh well. Im sure I will see lots of great things here. My future is now.