Monday, October 3 @ 6:48 AM
Although I got worked up about two posts ago, the Hives show is sold out and I am ticketless. Boo hoo for me.But no worries! I had a different sort of celebrity encounter last Saturday at the American embassy, compliments of Monica and her frightening, militaristic step-father.
Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi and Pilot James M. Kelly, Mission Specialist Andrew S. W. Thomas Ph.D.Dr., and Commander Eileen M. Collins of the Discovery mission.
Yes siree, I met, shook hands with, thanked, and got the autographs of four real, live astronauts! (That statement was not entirely true, as Noguchi left soon after it started.) I was inspired for a bit, until I realized that I don't want to have much to do with math, science, or the air force in my adult life. They showed us a little movie from their mission, which was very cool and did a Q&A session.
Next Monday, we have no school and this week is only three days long. (Five day weekend!!) I am going to join my aunt at Fuji Speedway to watch F1 car racing. Exciting month of October. Halloween brings a conclusion to it all. We have a day off of school on the 31st. Perhaps the administrators are believers of the occult...
Oh yes, along with all of this stuff, I discovered a band yesterday! Very funny stuff. The band is Gogol Bordello, a bunch of "fucking immigrants" who have gypsy ancestors and are inspired by New York punk bands. As a result, they call their genre "Gypsy Punk." Accordions, violins, saxophones, acoustic guitar, and the only American is the drummer. The reason I stumbled upon them is because I was watching the preview for the "Everything is Illuminated" movie, and the guy playing the Ukrainian translator was intriguing, so I decided to look him up and, lo and behold, he's the lead singer. In the movie, he's rather clean cut, but in his regular day to day life, he sports a killer moustache.
Some samples of Gogol Bordello ridiculous-ness:
Bordello Kind of Guy
Sacred Darling
Passport
I almost pissed myself laughing when I first listened to them. The initial oompah of it all, along with the accent, was hilarious.
NOTHING ELSE TO REPORT! Time for a layout update, I know... but lunch meat will have to do until I'm less busy.
Friday, September 30 @ 11:32 AM
To keep eyes unharmed for the time being... lunch meat.Read on, comrades!
EDIT: I finally did something about the photos I took in Europe. Click here to start. They're arranged by country in chronological order, so once you've looked at the pictures from France, click on the "Europe 2005 (2)" link at the top of the page... I trust you can figure it out.
Hold your horses, you silly munchkins! Sorry to not post without prompting, but there's a reason. I'm busy, fer Christ's sake!!
... but since you took the effort to harrass me about it, here it goes.
I went to the first practice debate last Wednesday and was convinced to stay. Not so much by the fact that ASIJ is so far undefeated, but more by Monica's determination to make a better plan about material witnesses than the group we were supposed to be involved in wrote. It'll be worth a try and it'll be done in less than a month.
Also. I haven't bought tickets yet, but I'm probably going to go see the Hives (HOLY FUCK) on the twelveth. I'm pissing myself over here. At first I was reluctant to even consider going, because the tickets are worth an arm and a leg (as far as I'm concerned), but my lovely aunty offered to pay for me to go. And my debate coach agreed to let me skip as long as Monica and I present our plan next Wednesday. We may be screwed, especially since we haven't written an official plan yet.
She hasn't. I have very little clue what our argument's going to be.
I've been taking lots of pictures with my mom's stone-age camera for photo class. I have three rolls of film already, but only two official prints to show for it... both off of the first roll. Ho ho ho. Lots of fun, though. I took a roll of 24 in the two hours on my detoured way home from school today. Looking forward to developing it.
Uhhh, what else? I've been eating Quaker's instant, maple and cinnamon oatmeal, thanks to my introduction through Michelle. Delightful stuff.
And. And. And. And. I've got nothing left to say. I'll get back to you about the layout when I've got more time.
Wednesday, September 21 @ 4:06 AM
Greetings all.As usual, I should be doing my homework, but threats have been made on my life, so I am posting instead.
There. You happy?
No. I kid.
What is up with these one to two sentence paragraphs?
I'm not sure, but I certainly don't like them.
In any case, the reason I haven't been posting for ages (apart from pure laziness) is because my English teacher from last year told me that I should sign up for debate. I did, and it has been a complete waste of my time ever since. There are meetings after school (from 3 to 5 PM), Monday through Thursday, during which Monica and I do absolutely nothing and wait for two, tenth-grade "old-timers" to prompt us to do something. So, my time for homework and relaxing has been mangled and for that reason, I am quitting. Mrs. Gotterson (the english teacher, who is generally awesome,) told me that I should at least wait until the first debate has taken place, but I am skipping today because I have loads of homework... and obvoiusly, other priorities.
I get easily stressed out though, so I've been in a terrible mood ever since debate started. It's a hassle, but I'm going to hold out for four more meetings. I CAN DO IT!!!!
In other news, my return flight on the round-trip ticket that I came here on at the end of summer can only be delayed until the twenty-first. Winter vacation starts on the twenty-second. Normally, I would just make up whatever was on that day and haul ass, but we have the first half of mid-term exams. Woopieee. So, I'm trying to negotiate with the powers at school, since all I have on the twenty-first is a Japanese exam and there are more days for taking and making-up exams after we return from winter holiday. Maybe they'll excuse me if I say I'm sick. I think they would. But now they have virtual evidence in the principal's email account. Foiled again!!
So yes, most of my time has been used up by school and I'm really doing little more that's of any consequence. Occasionally (about once every two weeks), I go over to Monica's house to watch movies and pig out on AWESOME, homemade kimchee.
I finally finished all fourteen discs of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Wonderful stuff. I want to make a couple of discs with compilations of my favourite sketches, since it's hard to switch between discs and sit through the introductions in order to watch just one sketch.
I think it's time for a new layout. Maybe this weekend...
Wednesday, September 7 @ 5:42 AM
Well, it certainly has been a while. Since my last post, I have traveled to and from Utah and Pennsylvania, through Portland to Japan, and started school. And now, I'm conveniently connected to high speed internet in the comfort of my mum and I's apartment. A time for celebration, downloading, importing, and posting. Which is what brings me here.(I really should do some homework...)
As a brief summary, I had a busy, busy summer, connected by a total of thirteen flights. I went to Paris to meet up with my sister, met with the rest of the family in Scotland, flew down to Germany, took a train through Switzerland to Italy, went from Italy back up to Scotland, went to Utah through Canada, went to Pennsylvania to visit my favourite friends, flew back to Utah, and then flew to Tokyo via Portland. If you want details on any specific part of my journey, send me an email. That's been set up properly too!
When I got back, I was greeted by a fabulous new computer (G5 iMac: SCHWEET!) equipt with a 3D atlas with which you can plot routes around the globe. My major paths around the world added up to a total of 24,559.5 miles. The first period of my first day of class, my math teacher gave me extra credit for travelling the fathest during the summer. I've got my scattered life triangle* to thank for that!
*Here's a Saya theory for you. A student's life is divided between three things: school, friends, and family. Although I've got a diluted sense of the latter two here in Tokyo, the main reason I'm here for the next two years is high school. My closest family's base is in Utah and my best circle... square... triangle of friends is in Pennsylvania. For a demanding and spoiled student, that calls for a lot of travel. Which is precisely what I got. Thank you to Mom and Pop for making it possible. And to my late grandfather for paying my tuition. And to my friends for letting me bum around at their houses. And my sister for living in France for a bit and giving us a reason to go to Europe. Too many people to thank, so I'll stop there.
(From this point on, please excuse the use of colon (:) in place of apostrophe ('). This keyboard is really hard to use because it:s set up for Japanese. Dad, is there any chance that you could send over the extra iMac keyboard we had sitting around the house? This one is really driving me up the wall...)
We:re now halfway through the second week of school and things are sailing pretty smoothly. Homework has been done sans sweat (which might change from today) and the amount of work for my five academic courses is nicely balanced over the two day block schedule. Not taking Spanish also helps to lighten the load a whole lot, not to mention the amount of stress placed on me by Señor Psycho. Debate club will start next week, the one and only extra-curricular activity I will probably ever be involved with, so that may change my situation a wee bit, but it only lasts for a couple of months.
Mom and I have almost completely settled into my grandma:s formerly empty apartment. We brought over a bookshelf from my grandma:s house, the computer is connected to the internet and sitting contently on its lovely, new, red desk with a lovely, new, matching, red clip lamp. I:ve started with my tsugaru-shamisen lessons again, which is a nice distraction from school at the end of each week. Surprisingly, I havn:t really forgotten how to play over the summer, so we:re diving in where we left off. As far as I remember...
In closing, I miss everyone soooo much and hope you:re doing well in work, college, high school, or whatever it is you:re doing. Japanese food is great and so are the vegetables. I wish I could share them with you.
Hopefully, I:ll have more to post from now on, and if not, I:ll try to fill this up regularly with random crap. For example, this website that I stumbled upon, which is probably the most entertaining I have seen all month: Celebrities Playing Table Tennis.