Gloomy Sunday

Hopefully we'll find enough cars to want to go look at, when April 3rd rolls around. Just looking for the best deal on a Honda Civic LX.

Roughly about 4 weeks left of classes until graduation. Why does senior year mean that all of your professors give you ten times the amount of work to do? I wish I had a lot less projects to worry about getting done on time, and enjoy my last year of college! Hmm.

Starting in April, Takeshi has asked for Saturdays off as well his usual Sundays, which gives him (and us as a pair) two days to get things done for figuring out everything from apartments, to jobs, etc.

People are Boring

My Folklore class makes me want me to sew my ears shut. The class is centered around discussing folklore or rituals in food, or family oral stories, etc. But it's slowly transformed itself into an hour of sitting here and listening to people's shallow, materialistic, and godawful boring personal stories. God, people are fricking boring. Now I know what George Carlin was talking about. It's not even anything interesting. Listening to a girl talk about how her father and uncles have worked at Giant grocery stores for 30 years. That almost made me guffaw, it was so depressing, and bland. So what if they did? Sentences upon sentences that start with, "Um, well my __________ went here and that place has this, and they do this...."

One girl started blabbing about how she went to Japan, but who knows for how long. It infuriated me so much listening to her grandly "inform" the class about sushi...And I KNOW she's a total anime geek - so that's probably why she went to Japan in the first place. Whereas I have family there, and I never went there because of some cartoons, and oh wouldn't it be totally awesome to get even MORE anime and to go Japan? I usually don't think I'm totally superior to anyone, but I know that I know more about the culture than she does. I lived it - she just vacationed there.

And it's always the same 3-4 people answering, since the teacher doesn't make it a rule to choose people, and go around the room. Having to listen to Pennsylvania Dutch/ PA area blabber is even more unbearable. I have to sit here and listen to how they think other countries and cultures are, just because they spent the summer there. I don't give two shits about sauerkraut and pork, or chicken and waffles, shoofly pies, or Amish food. The teacher the other day said nonchalantly, that organic food is "elitist". Are you kidding me? I have a feeling she might be a republican.

Having this class is making me hate being in this town even more. Why did my college have to be in Pennsyltucky? Where they hate seafood, or anything of another culture anyway...Where they don't season their FOOD - no one does! Everything is so bland here. God forbid they put anything in their food besides lard and butter. And the artisty/vegetarian students in this school think they know it all, just because they eat veggie burgers and spent the summer in Italy. Yes, they're OH so cultured now. And then they return to a state that should be in the south. Bleh. I'm ranting only because I'm in the stupid class right now! Heh. The feeling should fade as soon as she sets us free at 9:45.

Finger-Lickin' Good

We just had dinner and boy was it good. Takeshi whipped up some home-made fried chicken and I paired that with a veggie dish. Right before coating the chicken pieces in batter, we tossed it with old bay seasoning, garlic, and a splash of soy sauce. Along with that, I took a full bunch of fresh, locally-grown asparagus and fried it with chopped garlic and a little butter. A very good Sunday dinner!

Classes end next month, which is getting crazier to think about, by the day. Senior thesis work is moving along, but I wish I had less classes to worry about overall! Finally turned in projects for our Multi Media class. It's a basic animation, but I'm proud of what I was able to do. Definitely don't want to do it for a living.



The somewhat space-ship console-looking interface of AfterEffects


This past Thursday I went to see Jane again to look at the banner and sandwich boards for the Senior Show. They look awesome and it's really cool to see one's design work in such a large format! The banner must be about 9 feet long. I can't wait to see them put it up on the front of the building, soon. I think she told me the end of this month?

This will be also be the week of calling possible internship sites to set up interview dates, after I sent them a cover letter and resume. I've contacted 4 places in total, so hopefully I've got enough chances to be taken in, so I can complete my internship. I'll be nervous until I've gotten a yes from someone! Fingers crossed.

Pudge-free Mind for About an Hour

Watching Biggest Loser: Couples right now. I try to catch this show as much as I can, because it makes me feel better about my pudge for about an hour, compared to the 300lbs.-ish women on there. I'm a evil person for feeling that way, sure, but they're just gonna' melt off all of that fat by the end of the show anyway. Probably'll look better than me, and have a six-pack too. Damnit!

Spring break has started since yesterday afternoon. I'm making it a goal to get on the Wii Fit every single day during break. That's the thing about college sometimes - takes up my time at home too. Gotta sit in front of my laptop in class for hours and at home for hours. Gahhh. Hopefully when I get into my career, I won't have to bring my job home everyday. That would be very nice. :)

Laid Back Sunday

Yesterday I decided to do the laundry myself instead of waiting for us to do our usual, dreaded "Laundry Day" today, on Sunday. Even though both of us usually like to go to the laundromat together instead of alone (it's boring either way...), I wanted to give us (but mostly Takeshi) a break from that. Just to have a Sunday, his only day off right now, to actually breath and to not go anywhere unless we want to. But as fate would have it, we live in small-town U.S.A. where there is pretty much nothing to do without having a car, and even THEN, nothing is open on Sundays because people need their church-services. Blah.

I broke another wine glass while I was washing it today. My hands are mostly small enough to get inside those things, but I exerted a little too much force (i.e. not much) to break off a chunk in the sink. Have a small cut on the side of my hand. Itches. :(
GAH these breaking dishes and glasses! Will we ever have good luck, and keep some stuff around for a good while?

Everyone at college thinks that having Monday classes and THEN starting spring break on Tuesday is retarded. I agree. I'm almost in the "break mood" but then remember I have to wake up for class tomorrow. Almost there. And it's only a 3-hour class. Fah. I can do that.

Takeshi will be going to Chicago to do a stage at the Alinea restaurant April 13th thru the 19th. I looked at the hostel he'll be staying at. Looks a lot nicer than the imagery I had in my head when he said "hostel". I just grumble a little at the hours he'll be required to work - about 12-13 hours each day. Roughly from about 11am to midnight. Ugh. How does he do it?...

Fingers crossed for Spring getting it's big, flowery butt finally here, so I can do some spring cleaning!

March Already?

きょうは木曜日だよ。まいにち、日本ことをおもいます。。。
じかんははやい、ね？

How time flies. The other day we were ringing in the new year, and now it's March. Yikes.

It's hard to believe I'll be graduating in roughly 3 months. We're still researching places to move to after graduation. Still haven't narrowed anything down, which stinks. We've started to factor in "secondary cities" in our list of places. They may be a nicer transition than coming from a small town with a lower cost of living, to the big city where you have to live in shoebox-sized apartment for about the same amount of money.

Spring break is next week starting on Tuesday. I've never had a spring "break" ever, I think. Where I go off to the frickin' beach or something. Probably just working on classwork. I KNOW I'll be trying (in vain) to get through this animation work for my After Effects class. That class is a huge failure. The 2 teachers who lead that class are cool, 30-something guys, but as far as them knowing the basics of teaching a totally new program to us - they totally screwed up. Their way to help us with learning this program was say to, "Look at tutorials online - they can teach you better than anyone ever could."

----So why do we need you guys, then? Why am I PAYING to teach myself the program, essentially??

ばか。

Sooooo frustrating, this excuse for a class. うざい！

Anywho.

It will be nice when my parents are finally able to come back to the U.S. after doing their tours in other countries. I believe that's about 5-6 years from now. It will be nice to have family to visit. I wish the two of us and Takeshi's family could be closer to each other as well. Just build a teleporter to Suzuka-shi and then we could go whenever we wanted, without having to spend thousands of dollars to fly over! Oh world-of-the-future, where are you? Funny to think that people in the 1980s and/or earlier thought that by the year 2000, we'd all be riding in flying cars and all. Hah! Or, at least have a healthcare system that works for everyone.

I've been missing Japan a lot lately (as I have ever since leaving...) but mostly because - I miss the overall personality of the Japanese people! Here, I have to deal with loud, nosey, rude, and crass Americans. I never ever had anyone in Japan invade people's spaces without good cause, and everyone has more respect for others. Here, people just in CLASS, listen to their f*cking music loudly for everyone to hear and not use their stupid headphones. And the teacher told them to USE the headphones - but then they became inconsistent with their "rule" because not once have they ever told those people to "hey use your headphones please." Ridiculous. Some people should be stopped from ever having children, so they can't carry on their stupid genes.

The only time I ever saw Takeshi's friends or whatnot get rowdy was when they were drunk! Haha. Yeah, so overall, I miss that type of culture greatly. Americans could learn something from Japan - and from other countries as well.

Here is a recent classwork assignment for one of my college classes. We had to create wacky, whatever-you-wanted, business cards!