Advent

From Hubble With Love.

Picture perfect.

Some things are just awesome.

Whee

One word: HolyzarquonsingingfishIampsychedbeyondachocolatebunnieslifeexpectancyateaster.

I had some fun with the console last night. Setting it up would have been easier if it wasn't A) 12:30 AM B) terribly exciting and C) mind debilitatingly awesome. It only took half an hour to do, despite my being completely unprepared for any of the extremely simple setup instructions.

In any case, the thing rocks hard. I've barely had an hour's experience with it and I am already extremely happy. I will go straight back to my gamer's paradise box once this post is done.

For your enjoyment I took photos of my experience. Enjoy.

The Matrix Has Me

That's right, I'm back online. Took long enough.

I have stories to tell, and here they are.

1) I moved to Texas. I'm actually living in my own apartment now. It's a nice apartment. Pictures pre-Kevin's stuff cluttering everywhere will be provided later. It's cheap, huge, quality and extremely well positioned. 10-20 minutes to work, 20-30 minutes to relatives, a hop skip and a jump away from groceries. The only thing it's missing is a Mech of some kind for me to drive.

2) I got a car. It's a 2006 Toyota Corolla S. It's on a 4 year lease, with the option to buy, sell, return or trade at the end. I got some good deals and haggled down the payments too. I named it Tyrael. Tyrael kicks butt. Silver exterior, black interior, and sweet.

3) I dinged up my car. My advice to you all, looking at a ninety degree angle to the direction you are travelling is a bad idea. Green lights have a nasty habit of changing colors suddenly. Luckily I was driving slowly, and hit the brakes quickly, and only hit them at 10-15 miles per hour. I suffered only small cosmetic damage. The other car lost a bumper, had three panels bent in and a rear wheel tilted at a funny angle. I had it looked at recently. 1k. Ouch.

4) I just finished my first week of work. I'm in a place called the "Leper Colony" where they send all the techie people who don't have a security clearance yet. There isn't a whole lot to do other than orientation and watching videos about health, safety and ethics. I will have an interesting project coming up, but so far it hasn't be bad.

5) Not 30 minutes ago I finally got internet, having been here over a week. It was supposed to be installed before I arrived, but it wasn't. Then it was supposed to be installed Monday, but it wasn't. Finally, it was installed today after I took matters into my own hands. It's extremely relieving to be reconnected to the Matrix, my memories of the real world wiped clean.

And that's all. Wait, photos.

Apartment: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25706837@N00/sets/72157594225406242/

Car: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25706837@N00/sets/72157594225405687/

Shumatsu

Shumatsu is Japanese for weekend.

This weekend several things happened. I tried calligraphy, I got to wear armor in Kendo for the first time, and I went sightseeing with my host family. Some of that you may already been aware of, but today I have some pretty pictures! Only two, as A) I want to give my family a long slide show of my experiences in Japan (an endless stream here would defeat the purpose) and B) with a limit of two per post I avoid clogging my posts and page with far too many images.

That said...



Shodo, the Japanese art of calligraphy. In a two hour lesson, I showed the "good sense" that I am often attributed when I try activities that are very Japanese. I did very well, having never had a lesson before. This is the only picture I have of my experience, as I was too busy practicing and paying attention to bug anyone for photographs more than once. However, I have a wealth of calligraphy I did to show off, which I think makes up for it.



The picture's slightly blurry, and I have others, but I'm lazy so...

It may be difficult to tell, but that is me. I got to wear Kendo armor for the first time on Saturday, and will be able to for these last four weeks of time I have in Japan. Having started Kendo at the very end of September, I have apparently made stunning progress. I had my first Kendo match, which I lost, but only one of two points were scored on me (we ended by exceeding the time limit). My opponent was surprised to learn how short a time I had been learning Kendo. I was thankful for the praise, as I couldn't hit him. He had the inherent advantage of knowing how to block.

As these four weeks begin, I have a sense of sadness and relief at the same time. I love my life here very much, it has nothing short of devastated what I now see as low expectations of how great this trip would be. However, at the same time I miss home a heck of a lot. I am a homebody to the core, and as such the people, places and things of home have been continually growing in my mind. The sense of relief is extremely slight, being more of an expectation of when I return than anything else.

Until then, I will continue my studies.

Maneki Neko!

Behold Halloween in all its Japanese glory!

Yes, I have figured out how to post pictures here. I did a long time ago. However, I'm lazy.

Actually Halloween is rather underwhelming here, possibly because of the lack of pervasive advertisements for costumes, candy, ghouls, goblins and cauldrons. However, in addition to the epic teamwork's victorious effort depicted above, there was a pretty cool Halloween party hosted by Jason last night. Apparently the multitalented BCA director and professor also makes his own alcoholic beverages which I politely abstained from.

I went as a pathetic excuse of a pirate. I had made a newspaper hat and sword. I was No-Beard, who continually complained about how pirating these days was extremely difficult. Apparently, pirating in international waters results in liability for taxes from each and every nation in the world. When told that being a pirate meant you could break rules like that, No-Beard would respond, "But that's unethical."

I hope that you all had a great Halloween!

Jason the rather dead person and No-Beard say, "Kanpai!" and "Arr!"