OK, if you hadn't guessed, I fancy Kiana. And although I didn't mention it, a few days before that last post, we got together, and I have been extremely happy since.
Sadly, she's back in California for the mean time, and I'm left with only her photo. But she'll be back in about a month. Anyway, for most who read this, that was all obvious.
As Stacy said to us, "[Of everyone, ]I think you two were the last to know about it.".
Well, since my post, I drove Carlos to the airport, and just like the last time I was with Carlos at an airport, a few days later I built a computer. Henny Ray arrived with my PC components and I spent a long time last night constructing it. I cleaned my whole acrylic case (I mean clean as in polished). I have set up Windows XP and moved all my old music and video and television and images over, as well as software. Tonight I'm going to install Doom 3 and Windows Vista.
But enough about me, let's talk about me.
And I signed up for Bulldog internet. I resigned, realising that Be internet would take too long. I can't wait until March. So I'll have internet, and I'll be able to Skype Kiana when we get it. Man, I can't wait.
Anyway, KK if you're reading, many kisses, speak soon.
The rest of you don't get kisses. Sorry.
Wednesday 21 December 2005
Tuesday 13 December 2005
So Far
I knew it was a fantasy: an update every day or more often. And for a while, I was capable of that kind of frequency, but as of late I have not been able to maintain that kind of dedication. My brief times online are restricted to downloading as many albums and movies and various commodities in massive hoards while I wait for an internet connection in my house. And I have been waiting a while. It should have arrived by now, but it hasn't, and I'm still stuck waiting for it.
The last update I made was a picture of the Rootkit controversy personified. While the controversy has died down, it's still relevant. However, I did update it as an image to a higher resolution and made it landscape with a new office and new backdrop and a slightly edited EULA.
But that's not what's happened in my life.
I've had an extremely bizarre time since my last actual update. My life has changed completely. Paradigms have fallen and broken and changed so dramatically that I'm still convinced that it isn't real. What I expected of myself has been completely changed around and bounced out of the window and back. If these metaphors aren't making much sense, then you have no hope for the actual story, or at least the reasons behind it.
It's been over a month since an actual content based update, and that's ridiculous. Especially since it's been one of my more memorable months. I mean, that's how long I was in Japan for! Ages! But it's been almost six weeks, and so I'm going to fill you in on what I remember.
We had the Hallowe'en party, and everything changed through that. It was after the party that I summonned the courage to ask out the girl I liked, and after the party that I started to become good friends with Kiana. Both of those had a dramatic effect on my life. One more than the other.
After the last main entry, I went and asked out Laura, the cute Chinese girl I had liked for a while. What surprised me is that she said yes, but after she came back from Northern England, which would be in a week. For that time, I was very happy. I mean, finally happy that I liked someone and they liked me too. What helped is that my new friend Kiana gave me so much good advice and support throughout it. In childish foolishness, I told everyone I could. I tried to keep it hush hush, but I was so excited that I just didn't. That's what made it hurtful when it all fell through after she came back. Without going into any details, it was nobody's fault, it just couldn't happen, and that was sad.
Emma was very helpful throughout that, as was Kiana, as they both were very supportive and logical. But I still felt bad, but optimistic, as I usually do. I think I summed it up to Emma by saying, "It's ok, this time I got really close!".
Not being with Laura, I had more time to spend with my friends, and in that time I got to know Kiana better, I spent more time with Emma and 'the gang', and I spent time making posters for the Christmas party. Ultimately I'd hoped for a better poster than the one I ended up doing, but it wasn't too bad. I also started Role Playing with Carlos, Ross and Kiana, and soon Sam joined as well. That was quite fun, I revived the character of Anivers and made him just as self doubting but arrogant as ever.
Off topic, but my loan finally arrived. I finally had some cash to throw about, and I spent a lot of it on upgrading my computer. And this is a serious upgrade. In 5 days, it arrives from America: AMD Athlon 3800+ X2 Dual Core, Asus motherboard and a X1800XL 256MB graphics card to boot, as well as some accessories to make it swish. I'll be building it soon. I still don't have internet though. :(
I also went to my first Bop. It was pretty terrible, but the music got better towards the end, and I spoke with Xing for a bit too. People kept stealing my hat (the one I bought for Hallowe'en but loved too much to stop wearing). It was that night though, that started my main life changes. I stayed over at Kiana's place and the next two nights she stayed over at mine. The next night I had to work doing the scanning work for my mother, and the next day, everything changed.
I realised that not seeing Kiana that night, I had genuinely missed her a lot. That day I saw Qian, and she just wasn't as attractive as I had remembered. She looked the same, I just didn't find her as attractive. It was then I knew it: I no longer liked Asian women. I mean, they're still pretty, but I no longer had a serious thing for them. In none that I saw, I didn't see what I used to. The 'Yellow Fever', as some called it, had passed. After the JCS meeting that night, Sam and Kiana came round to my place and with Emma we all stayed up late chatting. It was then that I decided to announce it.
When Carlos found out about that, his immediate question was, "So now you like Californian girls?". He was right. I did. Since I started this blog, I have had a thing for Asian women, and as of Tuesday the 6th of November, that ended. I still have the desire to learn Japanese and live there in the future, so, as I insisted all along, the enjoyment of Asian culture was not fuelled by sex.
Anyway, I have to revise for exams now, but a big shout out to my main Snowman, Helgi! Thank you for the Icelandic chocolate. I'll update soon and continue my life changing story of the last six weeks. I'll tell you about the new computer as well.
The last update I made was a picture of the Rootkit controversy personified. While the controversy has died down, it's still relevant. However, I did update it as an image to a higher resolution and made it landscape with a new office and new backdrop and a slightly edited EULA.
But that's not what's happened in my life.
I've had an extremely bizarre time since my last actual update. My life has changed completely. Paradigms have fallen and broken and changed so dramatically that I'm still convinced that it isn't real. What I expected of myself has been completely changed around and bounced out of the window and back. If these metaphors aren't making much sense, then you have no hope for the actual story, or at least the reasons behind it.
It's been over a month since an actual content based update, and that's ridiculous. Especially since it's been one of my more memorable months. I mean, that's how long I was in Japan for! Ages! But it's been almost six weeks, and so I'm going to fill you in on what I remember.
We had the Hallowe'en party, and everything changed through that. It was after the party that I summonned the courage to ask out the girl I liked, and after the party that I started to become good friends with Kiana. Both of those had a dramatic effect on my life. One more than the other.
After the last main entry, I went and asked out Laura, the cute Chinese girl I had liked for a while. What surprised me is that she said yes, but after she came back from Northern England, which would be in a week. For that time, I was very happy. I mean, finally happy that I liked someone and they liked me too. What helped is that my new friend Kiana gave me so much good advice and support throughout it. In childish foolishness, I told everyone I could. I tried to keep it hush hush, but I was so excited that I just didn't. That's what made it hurtful when it all fell through after she came back. Without going into any details, it was nobody's fault, it just couldn't happen, and that was sad.
Emma was very helpful throughout that, as was Kiana, as they both were very supportive and logical. But I still felt bad, but optimistic, as I usually do. I think I summed it up to Emma by saying, "It's ok, this time I got really close!".
Not being with Laura, I had more time to spend with my friends, and in that time I got to know Kiana better, I spent more time with Emma and 'the gang', and I spent time making posters for the Christmas party. Ultimately I'd hoped for a better poster than the one I ended up doing, but it wasn't too bad. I also started Role Playing with Carlos, Ross and Kiana, and soon Sam joined as well. That was quite fun, I revived the character of Anivers and made him just as self doubting but arrogant as ever.
Off topic, but my loan finally arrived. I finally had some cash to throw about, and I spent a lot of it on upgrading my computer. And this is a serious upgrade. In 5 days, it arrives from America: AMD Athlon 3800+ X2 Dual Core, Asus motherboard and a X1800XL 256MB graphics card to boot, as well as some accessories to make it swish. I'll be building it soon. I still don't have internet though. :(
I also went to my first Bop. It was pretty terrible, but the music got better towards the end, and I spoke with Xing for a bit too. People kept stealing my hat (the one I bought for Hallowe'en but loved too much to stop wearing). It was that night though, that started my main life changes. I stayed over at Kiana's place and the next two nights she stayed over at mine. The next night I had to work doing the scanning work for my mother, and the next day, everything changed.
I realised that not seeing Kiana that night, I had genuinely missed her a lot. That day I saw Qian, and she just wasn't as attractive as I had remembered. She looked the same, I just didn't find her as attractive. It was then I knew it: I no longer liked Asian women. I mean, they're still pretty, but I no longer had a serious thing for them. In none that I saw, I didn't see what I used to. The 'Yellow Fever', as some called it, had passed. After the JCS meeting that night, Sam and Kiana came round to my place and with Emma we all stayed up late chatting. It was then that I decided to announce it.
When Carlos found out about that, his immediate question was, "So now you like Californian girls?". He was right. I did. Since I started this blog, I have had a thing for Asian women, and as of Tuesday the 6th of November, that ended. I still have the desire to learn Japanese and live there in the future, so, as I insisted all along, the enjoyment of Asian culture was not fuelled by sex.
Anyway, I have to revise for exams now, but a big shout out to my main Snowman, Helgi! Thank you for the Icelandic chocolate. I'll update soon and continue my life changing story of the last six weeks. I'll tell you about the new computer as well.
Tuesday 15 November 2005
Not Much Here
Not that I have been using this much, especially not for technical affair commentry, but I think this is relevant.
In case you can't tell, it's in reference to the Sony DRM rootkit controversy.
In case you can't tell, it's in reference to the Sony DRM rootkit controversy.
Tuesday 1 November 2005
Continued Wait
I'm sick of apologising for not updating. That doesn't mean I'm not sorry.
But I should be coming to the end of my dry patch. And I need to make an update because so much has happened.
November has started. That means that Hallowe'en was yesterday. It means that I had a chance to enjoy Hallowe'en properly for the first time. Previously, my Hallowe'en parties had consisted of putting a costume on, and doing very little. This year, Emma planned an amazing Hallowe'en party, and implemented it perfectly to be what I regard as the best party I have ever been to.
I had a use for my party peripherals, such as my smoke machine, my strobe lights, and my colour changing light. I used them all, to amazing effect. The smoke machine was modified so that instead of just pumping out smoke, it piped into the back o Housei's carved pumpkin, and his scary, terrifying face poured out a wonderful volume of smoke, that flavoured the evening perfectly. Almost everyone we invited turned up, as well as Genki, who we didn't expect.
Ki had suggested that we dress as droogs from Clockwork Orange, and after a mad dash on Saturday morning, I had everything, save actual braces and a broom handle for a stick. But I used masking tape for braces, and it worked. Ki did my one eye make up, and she came dressed as one as well, making us a rather terrifying pair. Emma bought enough gauze and bandage to make a horrific mummy, and Housei used the same masking tape as earlier to make a somewhat lacklustre but amusing skeleton. Mizuki was a witch, Dan was a vampire, it was all very uniform. Ultimately, it ended in everyone dancing in a line in a dance that Emma and I had perfected earlier. There was no television, and there was good music until very late. I gave Laura a lift home, and when I came back, some of us watched Alien, though we didn't finish.
I can't describe the perfection that the party had, and I just hope that one day I can recreate it, hopefully with the help of Emma. There was so much dancing, and I really will remember it.
The day after, we watched the rest of Alien, then Aliens, then the second half of Gremlins 2, then Austin Powers Goldmember, then Audition. It was a day of movies. Kiana came over to watch Audition with us, and after the film, when everyone else went to bed, we started chatting, and we didn't stop until 9:45 the next morning. It was the first time that I've had to send someone home because I was too tired. I'd have thought that it wouldn't happen, but it did, and she shamed me with her stamina. Maybe it's the diet.
Anyhow, I have a JCS meeting tonight, and dinner afterwards, I need to go and get ready.
But I should be coming to the end of my dry patch. And I need to make an update because so much has happened.
November has started. That means that Hallowe'en was yesterday. It means that I had a chance to enjoy Hallowe'en properly for the first time. Previously, my Hallowe'en parties had consisted of putting a costume on, and doing very little. This year, Emma planned an amazing Hallowe'en party, and implemented it perfectly to be what I regard as the best party I have ever been to.
I had a use for my party peripherals, such as my smoke machine, my strobe lights, and my colour changing light. I used them all, to amazing effect. The smoke machine was modified so that instead of just pumping out smoke, it piped into the back o Housei's carved pumpkin, and his scary, terrifying face poured out a wonderful volume of smoke, that flavoured the evening perfectly. Almost everyone we invited turned up, as well as Genki, who we didn't expect.
Ki had suggested that we dress as droogs from Clockwork Orange, and after a mad dash on Saturday morning, I had everything, save actual braces and a broom handle for a stick. But I used masking tape for braces, and it worked. Ki did my one eye make up, and she came dressed as one as well, making us a rather terrifying pair. Emma bought enough gauze and bandage to make a horrific mummy, and Housei used the same masking tape as earlier to make a somewhat lacklustre but amusing skeleton. Mizuki was a witch, Dan was a vampire, it was all very uniform. Ultimately, it ended in everyone dancing in a line in a dance that Emma and I had perfected earlier. There was no television, and there was good music until very late. I gave Laura a lift home, and when I came back, some of us watched Alien, though we didn't finish.
I can't describe the perfection that the party had, and I just hope that one day I can recreate it, hopefully with the help of Emma. There was so much dancing, and I really will remember it.
The day after, we watched the rest of Alien, then Aliens, then the second half of Gremlins 2, then Austin Powers Goldmember, then Audition. It was a day of movies. Kiana came over to watch Audition with us, and after the film, when everyone else went to bed, we started chatting, and we didn't stop until 9:45 the next morning. It was the first time that I've had to send someone home because I was too tired. I'd have thought that it wouldn't happen, but it did, and she shamed me with her stamina. Maybe it's the diet.
Anyhow, I have a JCS meeting tonight, and dinner afterwards, I need to go and get ready.
Tuesday 18 October 2005
My Fault
Sorry, apparently over a week without updates. That's awful for me. Really awful. Imagine, that's less than fifty two posts per year, and I remember when I was doing more than fifty two per day.
Natasha pointed that out, so thank you, Natasha. Thatasha.
Yayoi, if you are reading this, I tried to email you before you left, but I think you must have cancelled your phone because the email came back saying that you did not exist. Please email me your new email address, and have a good time in Australia.
Whenever I've been on my computer at home, I've checked my torrents and started a few more, and occasionally watched an episode of South Park. So now I'm in Uni, and there are no torrents or South Park, I'm making an entry. Katou's gone. Carrying on the thread, Megumi left today. She came around for a while yesterday, and even with a few minutes notice, we threw a surprise party in the same vein as Katou's surprise party. We hadn't taken the balloons down, so it wasn't too hard, we just opened some party rings and crisps.
I've been seeing Qian a bit more. She's started her year and she's made new friends in the first year with her, but I sometimes worry about how she is, so I have been making an effort to speak to her and make her happy. I'm going to try and see Finding Nemo with her.
Or we could watch Robots. I just finished downloading that. And it's a DVD ISO, just like Madagascar, so I'm enjoying these computer animated films by the truckload. God bless the torrents. Of course, as soon as they come out on DVD I will buy them as I owe that to the studios.
Dan and Natasha went home early the other day, so Helgi and Vishal and Kelly and I followed their bus in my car, storming their kitchen, and after being chucked out, bombarding their window with conkers. It was hilarious, but I don't think they appreciated it as much as we all did. As in... Dan wouldn't talk to me. I think he's forgiven me though. Though he doesn't like me spending time with Qian, he thinks she's using me, but I know it's not the case. And besides all of that, being with Qian makes me extremely happy. I feel content and I start singing when I see her. It's because she's lovely. I still have her picture in my wallet.
Anyway, it's a small update as usual. If I continue in this trend, the next time I update will probably be after I move my computer over to the new house and have internet.
24Mbit, 24Mbit, 24Mbit I can't wait!
Natasha pointed that out, so thank you, Natasha. Thatasha.
Yayoi, if you are reading this, I tried to email you before you left, but I think you must have cancelled your phone because the email came back saying that you did not exist. Please email me your new email address, and have a good time in Australia.
Whenever I've been on my computer at home, I've checked my torrents and started a few more, and occasionally watched an episode of South Park. So now I'm in Uni, and there are no torrents or South Park, I'm making an entry. Katou's gone. Carrying on the thread, Megumi left today. She came around for a while yesterday, and even with a few minutes notice, we threw a surprise party in the same vein as Katou's surprise party. We hadn't taken the balloons down, so it wasn't too hard, we just opened some party rings and crisps.
I've been seeing Qian a bit more. She's started her year and she's made new friends in the first year with her, but I sometimes worry about how she is, so I have been making an effort to speak to her and make her happy. I'm going to try and see Finding Nemo with her.
Or we could watch Robots. I just finished downloading that. And it's a DVD ISO, just like Madagascar, so I'm enjoying these computer animated films by the truckload. God bless the torrents. Of course, as soon as they come out on DVD I will buy them as I owe that to the studios.
Dan and Natasha went home early the other day, so Helgi and Vishal and Kelly and I followed their bus in my car, storming their kitchen, and after being chucked out, bombarding their window with conkers. It was hilarious, but I don't think they appreciated it as much as we all did. As in... Dan wouldn't talk to me. I think he's forgiven me though. Though he doesn't like me spending time with Qian, he thinks she's using me, but I know it's not the case. And besides all of that, being with Qian makes me extremely happy. I feel content and I start singing when I see her. It's because she's lovely. I still have her picture in my wallet.
Anyway, it's a small update as usual. If I continue in this trend, the next time I update will probably be after I move my computer over to the new house and have internet.
24Mbit, 24Mbit, 24Mbit I can't wait!
Monday 10 October 2005
October is the Month of Exodus
Not long ago, Tsuka-chan left, and Katou's leaving tomorrow. Perhaps Tsuka wasn't technically in October, but it's close enough. Katou leaves tomorrow, and Yayoi is leaving for Australia the day after. Yayoi's travels don't really affect my life that much, but still, it's a rather large episode for her, and it's a large episode for Katou, and it's a large episode for Hosei, who is leaving shortly after (I'm not sure precisely when, but this month).
So it's the end of an era for the house. It was through Katou that we met most of our Japanese friends In England. It started at the Horse bar all those months ago, and it ends with him going back to Tokyo. I'm going to miss him a lot. He's a great guy, and although we never spoke on the level I wanted to speak at, I'm going to miss speaking all the same.
So last night, we had his leaving party. We celebrated his time here and we made him a ton of delicious food (okonomiyaki, cake, jelly), and we played many games, like DDR and Point Blank 3, and I received the dubious compliment that during DDR, I danced really well, but it looked like I was struggling for life the entire time.
This would have been a better day had I not been horribly ill. I wanted to work on Saturday, to get it out of the way, but I was too ill, and I slept. I wanted to go to the London Dungeon with everyone, but I was too ill, so I slept and watched The Office, Series 1 Ep. 5 and 6, and all of Series 2. That's all good, but I missed out on fun. What's more is that I've come home to work today, and I still don't feel great but I have to do it. I don't get ill often, about three or four times a year, and it usually doesn't last long either, so it's really annoying when it happens.
So I've been coping with that. And I hate it.
Anyway, after a brief 6 hour diversion of work, I'm about to go home and meet with Dan. I have a little money now, so that's a bit better. I'll make an entry soon. A lengthy one, with pictures and music and Live FMV from my living room...
So it's the end of an era for the house. It was through Katou that we met most of our Japanese friends In England. It started at the Horse bar all those months ago, and it ends with him going back to Tokyo. I'm going to miss him a lot. He's a great guy, and although we never spoke on the level I wanted to speak at, I'm going to miss speaking all the same.
So last night, we had his leaving party. We celebrated his time here and we made him a ton of delicious food (okonomiyaki, cake, jelly), and we played many games, like DDR and Point Blank 3, and I received the dubious compliment that during DDR, I danced really well, but it looked like I was struggling for life the entire time.
This would have been a better day had I not been horribly ill. I wanted to work on Saturday, to get it out of the way, but I was too ill, and I slept. I wanted to go to the London Dungeon with everyone, but I was too ill, so I slept and watched The Office, Series 1 Ep. 5 and 6, and all of Series 2. That's all good, but I missed out on fun. What's more is that I've come home to work today, and I still don't feel great but I have to do it. I don't get ill often, about three or four times a year, and it usually doesn't last long either, so it's really annoying when it happens.
So I've been coping with that. And I hate it.
Anyway, after a brief 6 hour diversion of work, I'm about to go home and meet with Dan. I have a little money now, so that's a bit better. I'll make an entry soon. A lengthy one, with pictures and music and Live FMV from my living room...
Wednesday 5 October 2005
Interim Update
While my internet is limited, my updates will be sporadic and short. However, today I received a request to update, and duly I shall comply.
Last night was the first meeting of the JCS. And I was quite impressed. I went along to the lesson and I acted an language assistant for the second time in two months, and for the whole lesson, well, much of the lesson, I corrected grammar and I helped people describe themselves with many adjectives I'd never seen before. That was disheartening, but hey, I lived. Then the meeting started, and practically everyone stayed for the meeting. It was huge, and Mizuki had trouble talking over them, so I took over the shouting and calling to attention part. Carlos was off finding a Cowboy Bebop DVD, so we organised many of the events without him, and it felt good to have an active part in the society as more than just a member. Then for the rest of the evening, they watched Cowboy Bebop, Azumanga Daioh and Read or Die, which I missed as I went home to speak to Ai, who I hadn't seen for a very long time. She pointed out that I was wearing her name on my shirt.
Then something surprising happened.
My first encounter with a Kaori was at Oxford. My second was in SSX Tricky. My third was my current housemate. I've had a few since then, but the second and third ones are the ones relevant to the next segment. I carried over a ton of technology to my new house the other night, including all my Playstation2 games (that I could find). On inspecting them Kaori noticed I had SSX Tricky, and said one of the characters was eponymous with her. I knew this, as she had been my favourite character when I played it (due to her size and versatility). Last night, Kaori told me she wanted to play. Against everything I expected of the XBox at my home, it brought me, Kaori, Katou and Mizuki together until two thirty in the morning, swapping the controller around, all playing for hours. I didn't expect everyone to enjoy it all so much, and I had a great time finally impressing someone with the tricks I had learnt the night before.
But this wasn't SSX Tricky, this was SSX3 for the XBox. I can't find Tricky anywhere, and I'm still looking. But that's not important. I'm getting the other XBox controller around and I'll get Dan to bring his, we'll have a full on party.
I also managed to finish the downloads of Hitchhiker's Guide and Madagascar, both of which are full DVD rips, and are amazing quality. With the installation of Alcohol 120%, I can run the ISOs and burn them easily, and my computer is nearing completion.
Dan and I noted that last year's computer crash was due to installing that program, leading us to jest that putting Alcohol in your system greatly decreases stability.
I can't be long, I must be off and all that tosh, but I hope I can update more frequently than before. I am registered now though, and that means I can get library books. Fantastic. EBooks are better. You keep them.
Last night was the first meeting of the JCS. And I was quite impressed. I went along to the lesson and I acted an language assistant for the second time in two months, and for the whole lesson, well, much of the lesson, I corrected grammar and I helped people describe themselves with many adjectives I'd never seen before. That was disheartening, but hey, I lived. Then the meeting started, and practically everyone stayed for the meeting. It was huge, and Mizuki had trouble talking over them, so I took over the shouting and calling to attention part. Carlos was off finding a Cowboy Bebop DVD, so we organised many of the events without him, and it felt good to have an active part in the society as more than just a member. Then for the rest of the evening, they watched Cowboy Bebop, Azumanga Daioh and Read or Die, which I missed as I went home to speak to Ai, who I hadn't seen for a very long time. She pointed out that I was wearing her name on my shirt.
Then something surprising happened.
My first encounter with a Kaori was at Oxford. My second was in SSX Tricky. My third was my current housemate. I've had a few since then, but the second and third ones are the ones relevant to the next segment. I carried over a ton of technology to my new house the other night, including all my Playstation2 games (that I could find). On inspecting them Kaori noticed I had SSX Tricky, and said one of the characters was eponymous with her. I knew this, as she had been my favourite character when I played it (due to her size and versatility). Last night, Kaori told me she wanted to play. Against everything I expected of the XBox at my home, it brought me, Kaori, Katou and Mizuki together until two thirty in the morning, swapping the controller around, all playing for hours. I didn't expect everyone to enjoy it all so much, and I had a great time finally impressing someone with the tricks I had learnt the night before.
But this wasn't SSX Tricky, this was SSX3 for the XBox. I can't find Tricky anywhere, and I'm still looking. But that's not important. I'm getting the other XBox controller around and I'll get Dan to bring his, we'll have a full on party.
I also managed to finish the downloads of Hitchhiker's Guide and Madagascar, both of which are full DVD rips, and are amazing quality. With the installation of Alcohol 120%, I can run the ISOs and burn them easily, and my computer is nearing completion.
Dan and I noted that last year's computer crash was due to installing that program, leading us to jest that putting Alcohol in your system greatly decreases stability.
I can't be long, I must be off and all that tosh, but I hope I can update more frequently than before. I am registered now though, and that means I can get library books. Fantastic. EBooks are better. You keep them.
Friday 30 September 2005
Awful
Last night I spent a long time typing out a post on my phone, only to have it deleted because of a memory problem. I need to get that junk heap traded in. It was about 3kb too, and that's three thousand thumb presses.
Today, I haven't eaten anything. Well, almost. I woke up, met Qian and helped her register, attempted to drive Tsuka-chan to the airport (but was horribly hindered by traffic), had some chocolate milk at home and a small toffee crisp at Natasha's house. The group, which is me, Natasha, Dan, Helgi, Kelly and Vishal, hung out there until we went to sing karaoke at Southland's bar. It was not the same as Japanese Karaoke, as it the sound was awful, the song list was terrible, and the pitch was just horrible enough to strain my voice.
Anyhow, that was my day. I've started lectures. Two lectures on Tuesday are so horrible and boring that I only pray that at least the first one gets better. I woke up fifteen minutes after the start, so that was a wonderful beginning to this year. I managed to run in all the same, so it was ok. Software Engineering is dull and seems to be all theory. After that, Project Management is as awful as it sounds.
Today wasn't as bad. I just had Graphics, which is a lecture on theory, and then an hour playing with Photoshop. And I used the time designing a poster for the JCS. The meeting went ahead yesterday, but I was at a Junior Senior concert with Tsuka-chan, which was brilliant. There was an irritating man in a thick knit sweater who was intent on bumping me all the time while he became more over excited by the prospect of seeing Junior Senior again. The opening act, called The Objects, were actually brilliant. It restored faith in drum machines and Korg synthesizers. I think they could easily make it big.
The concert time was spent with Tsuka-chan and Akiko, and we thought of nicknames for each other. Aki-chan, Tsuka-chan, and Dame-cha (being me [being a reference to Shikoku dialect and the fact that my name sounds like tea]). I really enjoyed going to a concert with them. It was quite memorable. I hope Tsuka-chan returns soon (we're thinking February).
I spent far too long writing this. I have left out so many details of my life, I feel terrible. But I need to sleep.
I'm enjoying the insanely cool stylings of Pizzicato Five. Goodnight.
Today, I haven't eaten anything. Well, almost. I woke up, met Qian and helped her register, attempted to drive Tsuka-chan to the airport (but was horribly hindered by traffic), had some chocolate milk at home and a small toffee crisp at Natasha's house. The group, which is me, Natasha, Dan, Helgi, Kelly and Vishal, hung out there until we went to sing karaoke at Southland's bar. It was not the same as Japanese Karaoke, as it the sound was awful, the song list was terrible, and the pitch was just horrible enough to strain my voice.
Anyhow, that was my day. I've started lectures. Two lectures on Tuesday are so horrible and boring that I only pray that at least the first one gets better. I woke up fifteen minutes after the start, so that was a wonderful beginning to this year. I managed to run in all the same, so it was ok. Software Engineering is dull and seems to be all theory. After that, Project Management is as awful as it sounds.
Today wasn't as bad. I just had Graphics, which is a lecture on theory, and then an hour playing with Photoshop. And I used the time designing a poster for the JCS. The meeting went ahead yesterday, but I was at a Junior Senior concert with Tsuka-chan, which was brilliant. There was an irritating man in a thick knit sweater who was intent on bumping me all the time while he became more over excited by the prospect of seeing Junior Senior again. The opening act, called The Objects, were actually brilliant. It restored faith in drum machines and Korg synthesizers. I think they could easily make it big.
The concert time was spent with Tsuka-chan and Akiko, and we thought of nicknames for each other. Aki-chan, Tsuka-chan, and Dame-cha (being me [being a reference to Shikoku dialect and the fact that my name sounds like tea]). I really enjoyed going to a concert with them. It was quite memorable. I hope Tsuka-chan returns soon (we're thinking February).
I spent far too long writing this. I have left out so many details of my life, I feel terrible. But I need to sleep.
I'm enjoying the insanely cool stylings of Pizzicato Five. Goodnight.
Thursday 22 September 2005
Registering
I should have ended that last post far sooner and gone home and slept. I set my alarm for 8:20 this morning, despite getting to bed at 4:30. It gave me less than four hours. After the alarm went off, I turned it off quickly and slept for another hour and a half. Meeting with Mizuki and Carlos at about 10, we all went along to print the postcard I made yesterday. For the first time, someone actually appeared to refuse business. He said he wouldn't be able to do as good a job as we wanted, and we should look online for a company. If it weren't for our necessity in time, we would have.
We drove back, and there was no parking. Right now, everyone going to the University is registering. That means that everyone has come to Roehampton, and parked in my parking space. I had to drive for miles and only through a knowledge of back routes and shortcuts could I find a semi close place to park. Annoying.
If this were any other blog I'd probably have a smiley in there, but rest assured, I won't.
I now have over 8GB of music. I have been getting about six or seven albums a night, usually in packs of four or five, and then a few individual ones. This all comes from BitTorrent and xdcc over IRC. I managed to temporarily destroy Emma's Japanese confidence by playing her Chinese Pop (CPop) and let her think it was Japanese. She was destroyed.
We drove back, and there was no parking. Right now, everyone going to the University is registering. That means that everyone has come to Roehampton, and parked in my parking space. I had to drive for miles and only through a knowledge of back routes and shortcuts could I find a semi close place to park. Annoying.
If this were any other blog I'd probably have a smiley in there, but rest assured, I won't.
I now have over 8GB of music. I have been getting about six or seven albums a night, usually in packs of four or five, and then a few individual ones. This all comes from BitTorrent and xdcc over IRC. I managed to temporarily destroy Emma's Japanese confidence by playing her Chinese Pop (CPop) and let her think it was Japanese. She was destroyed.
Wednesday 21 September 2005
Proper Minor Update
I'm sorry about that last entry.
I still have to wait until early November to be online properly, so apologies to anyone who is delayed in receiving email from me. But this will end when I'm connected to Be internet, and that's just one month a few weeks.
The past few days, since the update, a lot has happened. Going into it would probably cause trouble, as a lot of it is personal to me and the people it involves. Let's say that one day I do come back and read all my entries, perhaps this is an episode I can remember perfectly well by myself.
But aside from a few disruptions, the weeks has been good. It's been a preparation for the seminal Fresher Fair, where we make all the new friends for next year from all the first year students. We had a kind of mini fair on Tuesday, which is just for international students. That was pretty fun, and I met quite a few new people that way. It looks like the JCS already has some cool new members. The big pulling point is the Japanese lessons, which has been promoted to the number one spot on the promotional postcard we have created (which I created today). So with a television and name tags and lots of people to help, we should be ready to pull crowds on Friday.
One thing I have an issue with is the layout of people. On Tuesday I raised the issue of Kaori and Mizuki sitting next to each other, and Carlos and I sitting next to each other, and I said that it would be a clear divide and promote segregation. My idea was dismissed, with Carlos needing to be near Mizuki as he is vice president, but for the actual reason that Mizuki and Kaori wanted to sit next to each other and talk Japanese. Fair enough, they want to talk, but exactly as I predicted, Japanese speaking people went to the right hand side of the table, English speaking came usually to the left. As far as I know, I'm still Public Relations officer of the society, and that means I care about appearances. To me, that appeared to be monocultural, not multicultural. And this exact feeling is perverting many circles in my life now. Increasingly, I am feeling extradited from groups as I am not Japanese, and not for the reason that I do not speak the language. While it would be foolish of me to put this down to one cause, I can say a contributing factor is the presence of Katou, who as you know is living in the house. He is in England, despite very little conviction to learn the language, and seemingly no desire to do anything but spend time watching Japanese television and speaking Japanese to Japanese people. Fine. He can do what he likes. But he's created a huge divide in the house, which, despite Mizuki's best efforts, has been ever present through his intimate relationship with Kaori. The segregation leads to a mini-Japan, excluding all gaijin directly, as their omnipresence makes them practically expendable. The actions taken by some have been highly offensive. It's an ongoing cry, "I want to make English friends," but clearly the desire is superficial to the ease and convenience of having Japanese friends. I'm usually not one to speak ill of people who do not tend towards evil, but I cannot wait for Katou to go home so I can get my friends back. Personally, I didn't mind him moving in, and I didn't object. But as has been raised, I wasn't asked if I objected. I found out afterwards.
Perhaps that was a digression based on my frustration at how flakey some people can be, and how it's perhaps a result of nationalism, which I thoroughly detest. Can I let people know now that I do not believe my country is the greatest country simply because I was born here. I think that assertion is ridiculous, and the notion of patriotism is one that can only lead to prejudice.
Oh, and also, today I made tacos.
This entry about my life is a stub. You can help quasiblog by expanding it.
I still have to wait until early November to be online properly, so apologies to anyone who is delayed in receiving email from me. But this will end when I'm connected to Be internet, and that's just one month a few weeks.
The past few days, since the update, a lot has happened. Going into it would probably cause trouble, as a lot of it is personal to me and the people it involves. Let's say that one day I do come back and read all my entries, perhaps this is an episode I can remember perfectly well by myself.
But aside from a few disruptions, the weeks has been good. It's been a preparation for the seminal Fresher Fair, where we make all the new friends for next year from all the first year students. We had a kind of mini fair on Tuesday, which is just for international students. That was pretty fun, and I met quite a few new people that way. It looks like the JCS already has some cool new members. The big pulling point is the Japanese lessons, which has been promoted to the number one spot on the promotional postcard we have created (which I created today). So with a television and name tags and lots of people to help, we should be ready to pull crowds on Friday.
One thing I have an issue with is the layout of people. On Tuesday I raised the issue of Kaori and Mizuki sitting next to each other, and Carlos and I sitting next to each other, and I said that it would be a clear divide and promote segregation. My idea was dismissed, with Carlos needing to be near Mizuki as he is vice president, but for the actual reason that Mizuki and Kaori wanted to sit next to each other and talk Japanese. Fair enough, they want to talk, but exactly as I predicted, Japanese speaking people went to the right hand side of the table, English speaking came usually to the left. As far as I know, I'm still Public Relations officer of the society, and that means I care about appearances. To me, that appeared to be monocultural, not multicultural. And this exact feeling is perverting many circles in my life now. Increasingly, I am feeling extradited from groups as I am not Japanese, and not for the reason that I do not speak the language. While it would be foolish of me to put this down to one cause, I can say a contributing factor is the presence of Katou, who as you know is living in the house. He is in England, despite very little conviction to learn the language, and seemingly no desire to do anything but spend time watching Japanese television and speaking Japanese to Japanese people. Fine. He can do what he likes. But he's created a huge divide in the house, which, despite Mizuki's best efforts, has been ever present through his intimate relationship with Kaori. The segregation leads to a mini-Japan, excluding all gaijin directly, as their omnipresence makes them practically expendable. The actions taken by some have been highly offensive. It's an ongoing cry, "I want to make English friends," but clearly the desire is superficial to the ease and convenience of having Japanese friends. I'm usually not one to speak ill of people who do not tend towards evil, but I cannot wait for Katou to go home so I can get my friends back. Personally, I didn't mind him moving in, and I didn't object. But as has been raised, I wasn't asked if I objected. I found out afterwards.
Perhaps that was a digression based on my frustration at how flakey some people can be, and how it's perhaps a result of nationalism, which I thoroughly detest. Can I let people know now that I do not believe my country is the greatest country simply because I was born here. I think that assertion is ridiculous, and the notion of patriotism is one that can only lead to prejudice.
Oh, and also, today I made tacos.
This entry about my life is a stub. You can help quasiblog by expanding it.
I'm Not Dead
I'm really still alive. But every time I'm on a computer, I'm time limited. It seems like a whole chunk of my life is being left unblogged right now. I'm very sad about it, but I'll fill you in on the details.
I saw Adaptation again last night, it's still one of my favourite films. Yesterday we had the international fair, which is kind of like the Fresher Fair except just for international students, so I met a lot of new members of the society. Looks like they should be cool. Anyway, the Fresher Fair is in two days,m and I'm supposed to be making a postcard. I'm with Carlos and Mizuki, so I have to be quick. Southlands is full of people registering, and my logon won't work.
I'll update proper soon. Where did I leave off? Something about an iPod.
I saw Adaptation again last night, it's still one of my favourite films. Yesterday we had the international fair, which is kind of like the Fresher Fair except just for international students, so I met a lot of new members of the society. Looks like they should be cool. Anyway, the Fresher Fair is in two days,m and I'm supposed to be making a postcard. I'm with Carlos and Mizuki, so I have to be quick. Southlands is full of people registering, and my logon won't work.
I'll update proper soon. Where did I leave off? Something about an iPod.
Friday 16 September 2005
The Nerve of Some People
After Dan and I left Southlands today, we drove to Wimbledon to all go to Nandos with Julia. On the way, there is some traffic, so it all slows to 30mph. Dan points out there's a cyclist next to me. I suddenly realise that this cyclist has crept up in my blind spot and was going alongside me. The cyclist overtook me and went to overtake the next car, a Honda Accord. I saw it gave him almost no room, and suddenly swerved to give him room. I noticed that he also had a huge problem seeing him. This guy was wearing all black, with no lights on his front, cycling towards the end of the day. As traffic speeds picked up, I told Dan to lower the window, and as I passed him, I shouted, "You've very badly visible," to let him know that he was in danger of dying unless he got some brighter clothes. I drove on, and came to a standstill later. The cyclist pulls up on my side, and practically puts his hand through my window. I wind down said window and the conversation goes as follows:
"What did you say?"
"I said that I could barely see you, and I don't think anyone else can either."
"Well. You shouldn't be driving like a granny then."
At this point he cycled off without another word. I was stunned that a man who had just been told that his visibility put him in danger would put blame on someone else's driving. I had told him because I thought he was in danger of being hit, and I would want any driver thinking that of me to notify me. He took it as if it were an insult, and acted like a jerk. Honestly, the nerve of some people. I should have followed him and shown him the possibilities of poor visibility by killing him, but I was in a good mood.
Dan and Julia and I had a good meal, as it was the first serious thing I'd eaten all day, and then we went to his place and played around on IRC for an hour or so, inventing very simple ASCII art, and annoying chatrooms full of people in the process. Great fun.
I went to my parents' house, and have since been trying to fix my computer. It's half way through its third format of the night, but I have high hopes, as the first two were faultless. Maybe now I can get an actual working OS running, and start actually downloading stuff. I can't wait for limitless downloading. I won't fill up 400GB easily.
I think we'll have a 400GB iPod within 5 years. Or am I being stupid? I read about how the video iPod has had another sign, with video Podcasting now slightly supported by Apple. Should be fun. If they can get the screen bigger, I'm buying one. But for now, I'll lust and use my handy MP3 CD Player and an old fashioned sound system.
"What did you say?"
"I said that I could barely see you, and I don't think anyone else can either."
"Well. You shouldn't be driving like a granny then."
At this point he cycled off without another word. I was stunned that a man who had just been told that his visibility put him in danger would put blame on someone else's driving. I had told him because I thought he was in danger of being hit, and I would want any driver thinking that of me to notify me. He took it as if it were an insult, and acted like a jerk. Honestly, the nerve of some people. I should have followed him and shown him the possibilities of poor visibility by killing him, but I was in a good mood.
Dan and Julia and I had a good meal, as it was the first serious thing I'd eaten all day, and then we went to his place and played around on IRC for an hour or so, inventing very simple ASCII art, and annoying chatrooms full of people in the process. Great fun.
I went to my parents' house, and have since been trying to fix my computer. It's half way through its third format of the night, but I have high hopes, as the first two were faultless. Maybe now I can get an actual working OS running, and start actually downloading stuff. I can't wait for limitless downloading. I won't fill up 400GB easily.
I think we'll have a 400GB iPod within 5 years. Or am I being stupid? I read about how the video iPod has had another sign, with video Podcasting now slightly supported by Apple. Should be fun. If they can get the screen bigger, I'm buying one. But for now, I'll lust and use my handy MP3 CD Player and an old fashioned sound system.
Thursday 15 September 2005
Curse the Flooding
The flooding of last week has meant that the Roehampton University library has been out of order. I can't print up any t-shirts, I can't go on the internet late at night. This means that the time that I most what to surf in must be spent doing something pointless instead, like sleeping. So I have been going to bed around 3AM quite regularly. It's awful.
So it's been another three or four days. That's not as bad as Ryan's blog, which I have been waiting for for months now. Well, almost months, but it feels like it. So anyway, the days have been spent being productive: The room that we were destroying, well, we destroyed it. And now we have rebuilt it. And it's amazing. Ok, we haven't quite finished yet, but it still looks stunning. My abnormal television is now in an alcove, and is out of the way. Half the room is pretty much devoted to the home cinema setup, with just the rear speakers needing wall mounting. Two sofas form go together, L-shaped, in another alcove, forming what Emma and I have dubbed the Love-Shack. My IB Art painting sits above it, between where the rear speakers will be, and I have to say that I am happy it has found a good home, with the wonderful magnolia just complementing it.
The other half of the room has the smaller TV in it, and a dining table, as well as my massive arm chair. We finished most of it yesterday, so I'm happy that it's over. Just a little sanding and one more coat of paint on one wall. That's been the focus of everyone while Kaori and Katou have been in Paris. They should return today.
That's about everything. Carlos flies in tomorrow and I'll go pick him up. When term starts again I'm sure we'll have a housewarming party or something cool to be getting along with. Dan's come around today, and we're both very hungry, so we'd better find something delicious or interesting enough to take our minds off it. He's made a whole desktop out of Shortcuts to the Recycling Bin, and I don't know if that qualifies.
Anyway, I've wasted enough of your time.
So it's been another three or four days. That's not as bad as Ryan's blog, which I have been waiting for for months now. Well, almost months, but it feels like it. So anyway, the days have been spent being productive: The room that we were destroying, well, we destroyed it. And now we have rebuilt it. And it's amazing. Ok, we haven't quite finished yet, but it still looks stunning. My abnormal television is now in an alcove, and is out of the way. Half the room is pretty much devoted to the home cinema setup, with just the rear speakers needing wall mounting. Two sofas form go together, L-shaped, in another alcove, forming what Emma and I have dubbed the Love-Shack. My IB Art painting sits above it, between where the rear speakers will be, and I have to say that I am happy it has found a good home, with the wonderful magnolia just complementing it.
The other half of the room has the smaller TV in it, and a dining table, as well as my massive arm chair. We finished most of it yesterday, so I'm happy that it's over. Just a little sanding and one more coat of paint on one wall. That's been the focus of everyone while Kaori and Katou have been in Paris. They should return today.
That's about everything. Carlos flies in tomorrow and I'll go pick him up. When term starts again I'm sure we'll have a housewarming party or something cool to be getting along with. Dan's come around today, and we're both very hungry, so we'd better find something delicious or interesting enough to take our minds off it. He's made a whole desktop out of Shortcuts to the Recycling Bin, and I don't know if that qualifies.
Anyway, I've wasted enough of your time.
Monday 12 September 2005
Oh, The Delays
The problems of not having internet access whenever, it's awful. Five days? I think that's the worst it's ever been. Maybe it's six now, I can't remember.
I found out that my scanning job that I was completing while updating last was only half of what had been left for me. I'm going to spend Monday scanning that in. That's a horrifying thought. It was bad enough. On Friday Emma and I took a trip to Kingston to stock up on paint and paint-rollers and wallpaper stripper. While shopping, it started to rain. And it rained properly. Heavily. I mean, it started pooling in the sheltered walkway we were in. Then the drains from below started spurting water, so Emma and I took refuge in Argos, where the same thing happened. The drain was spitting water onto the middle of the shop floor. I've never seen drains start pumping water upwards, it was shocking. The drive home was also slowed by the fact that Robin Hood gate was underwater by about forty centimetres, and so the traffic lights had failed.
The parking lot near Whitelands was under a metre of water, and at least two cars were flooded out. Apparently a Volvo was floating around Asda. Most of our road was also completely flooded, but my good old Peugeot held through, and the shortcut I took cut a lot of waiting time.
Ooh, I was a little distracted there (I stopped writing for about 40 minutes or so). Sorry, I'll continue.
After we returned, I cooked myself some ribs (with a bourbon BBQ drizzle, which was quite strong). Dan was on his way over, and begged for a lift, but the traffic was solid and despite his initial anger, he understood why I couldn't make it out. While he dried off briefly, and burnt his tongue on a very hot Kaori Curry, I cleaned up and the three of us, Dan, myself and Emma, went to Natasha's place for a housewarming party. It turned out that due to the flooding, we were the only ones to show up, even though we were slightly late due to the fact that we walked. But it was a very fun evening, where I met one of her flatmate's ex-boyfriends, who is a really nice guy. We watched some of Cruel Intentions, and we ate popcorn and discussed the benefits of not washing hands after using the toilet.
The three of us had a fun time, and after we walked home it was quiet enough to give Dan a lift back to his place. I felt bad, as I missed Weiwei's birthday party for it, and I'd really like to see her more before I go.
The day after, Saturday, we set about destroying the living room's decoration. We stripped the rest of the paper we hadn't taken off before, we went down to bare plaster in most of it, and we basically took it back to the 1950's mint green it was before it was papered and painted again. And since the students who have lived there for the past few years weren't proactive in decoration, we felt we'd really put the room back in time. We saw the huge crack in the kitchen dividing wall was more of a structural defect than a crack, and we'll set about filling it up soon. I went home to go online briefly, but it was brief (as in not enough time to update the blog proper). Emma and I had planned on going to central London for a week, and we really wanted to dance and party. But everyone that we'd asked had backed out apart from Kiwako, and she was already in central for a film. I gave Dan a bit of a hard time about it, because I thought it would have been great for him and Julia to meet some people and get some dancing out, especially after how much work they've gone through. But sadly, his excuses prevailed, and he didn't come along. We'd pretty much given up until a rogue text to Hosei received a reply. He was willing, and we instantly dashed towards central.
A kind lady gave us a travelcard when we approached the station, saving us about £5. We tubed it up all the way to Oxford Circus, where we met Hosei and a huge group of people at a pub near H&M. I met a girl called Yuko, who was from near where I stayed in Japan, and we exchanged Osaka stories until closing time, while Emma chatted with Hosei. Ki and Warren came half way through the evening after their film, and everyone in the group save Warren made along a route towards a club. The party was a goodbye party to someone I'd never met, nor did meet, called Hiro, as the group is from a Japanese teaching facility in London, that offers free lessons which I might partake in next year. Yuko is a teacher there. We all ended up at Bar 101, where I'd partied with Ki and Kyoko and Mizuki and Koji before, as it had free entry and free tissue (for earplug use). The music is never great there (though they played Galvanise), and Emma and I did the 'pointy thing'.
All the non Japanese guys still in the group were obviously in love with Yuko, and I watched them acting very pathetically around her. It was quite funny. No matter how desperate, I would not look like that. Since through most of the night Emma was distracted with an important conversation, I spent most of my dancing time dancing with Ki, and for a brief moment we went outside for a good old fashioned gossip. She was being pursued by a man trying to recruit a girlfriend for his boss, and whenever he showed up we made a humerous dash for the entrance/exit. Once back inside, I texted Emma in Japanese (and my dubious fluency impressed her enough to ask if I'd had help).
We started maing our way back, and after saying goodbye, it was just Emma, myself and Ki on the bus home. After getting to Putney, I drove Ki back to her place (with a stop off at Sainsbury's), and then Emma and I went to bed and collapsed. By then it was 4AM.
A note from Kaori for our return suggested that we leave at 11AM for a street festival (ref. Matsuri Festival). We laughed at this, but I sadly had to wake up at 12:15PM, and I was still tired, but operational. Emma and I trekked around trying to find a place to buy a bus pass, but eventually we took a bus to Hammersmith to buy one, costing us an extra £1.20 each. Great. But we took a variety of buses to Liverpool Street, which sadly seemed a but daunting to the tired Ki, who did not join us today.
We arrived after about two hours of bus travel, and various worries about directions, we arrived, and searched for the others waiting for us. It wasn't so much Matsuri as it was a market with art and a band and mostly Japanese people. But it was still fun and we still laughed and I enjoy the company greatly. We stopped for a sit down and some Indonesian food, and after we took a bus trip to one of Hosei's friend's house, and we hung out and chatted about bidets and rats. When it became late, we all made our journeys home, and it leaves me here. After getting back and having some cereal, I drove back to use the internet and check my downloads.
I have had some deep thoughts recently, but I'm really too tired to talk about them now. Sorry. Sometime I'll be able to update properly. The Univeristy Library flooded very badly and I think it's out of order, so no late night computer suite for now. I'll probably update again tomorrow, but for now, that's what's happened. Hope it was interesting. It was a difficult entry to make.
I found out that my scanning job that I was completing while updating last was only half of what had been left for me. I'm going to spend Monday scanning that in. That's a horrifying thought. It was bad enough. On Friday Emma and I took a trip to Kingston to stock up on paint and paint-rollers and wallpaper stripper. While shopping, it started to rain. And it rained properly. Heavily. I mean, it started pooling in the sheltered walkway we were in. Then the drains from below started spurting water, so Emma and I took refuge in Argos, where the same thing happened. The drain was spitting water onto the middle of the shop floor. I've never seen drains start pumping water upwards, it was shocking. The drive home was also slowed by the fact that Robin Hood gate was underwater by about forty centimetres, and so the traffic lights had failed.
The parking lot near Whitelands was under a metre of water, and at least two cars were flooded out. Apparently a Volvo was floating around Asda. Most of our road was also completely flooded, but my good old Peugeot held through, and the shortcut I took cut a lot of waiting time.
Ooh, I was a little distracted there (I stopped writing for about 40 minutes or so). Sorry, I'll continue.
After we returned, I cooked myself some ribs (with a bourbon BBQ drizzle, which was quite strong). Dan was on his way over, and begged for a lift, but the traffic was solid and despite his initial anger, he understood why I couldn't make it out. While he dried off briefly, and burnt his tongue on a very hot Kaori Curry, I cleaned up and the three of us, Dan, myself and Emma, went to Natasha's place for a housewarming party. It turned out that due to the flooding, we were the only ones to show up, even though we were slightly late due to the fact that we walked. But it was a very fun evening, where I met one of her flatmate's ex-boyfriends, who is a really nice guy. We watched some of Cruel Intentions, and we ate popcorn and discussed the benefits of not washing hands after using the toilet.
The three of us had a fun time, and after we walked home it was quiet enough to give Dan a lift back to his place. I felt bad, as I missed Weiwei's birthday party for it, and I'd really like to see her more before I go.
The day after, Saturday, we set about destroying the living room's decoration. We stripped the rest of the paper we hadn't taken off before, we went down to bare plaster in most of it, and we basically took it back to the 1950's mint green it was before it was papered and painted again. And since the students who have lived there for the past few years weren't proactive in decoration, we felt we'd really put the room back in time. We saw the huge crack in the kitchen dividing wall was more of a structural defect than a crack, and we'll set about filling it up soon. I went home to go online briefly, but it was brief (as in not enough time to update the blog proper). Emma and I had planned on going to central London for a week, and we really wanted to dance and party. But everyone that we'd asked had backed out apart from Kiwako, and she was already in central for a film. I gave Dan a bit of a hard time about it, because I thought it would have been great for him and Julia to meet some people and get some dancing out, especially after how much work they've gone through. But sadly, his excuses prevailed, and he didn't come along. We'd pretty much given up until a rogue text to Hosei received a reply. He was willing, and we instantly dashed towards central.
A kind lady gave us a travelcard when we approached the station, saving us about £5. We tubed it up all the way to Oxford Circus, where we met Hosei and a huge group of people at a pub near H&M. I met a girl called Yuko, who was from near where I stayed in Japan, and we exchanged Osaka stories until closing time, while Emma chatted with Hosei. Ki and Warren came half way through the evening after their film, and everyone in the group save Warren made along a route towards a club. The party was a goodbye party to someone I'd never met, nor did meet, called Hiro, as the group is from a Japanese teaching facility in London, that offers free lessons which I might partake in next year. Yuko is a teacher there. We all ended up at Bar 101, where I'd partied with Ki and Kyoko and Mizuki and Koji before, as it had free entry and free tissue (for earplug use). The music is never great there (though they played Galvanise), and Emma and I did the 'pointy thing'.
All the non Japanese guys still in the group were obviously in love with Yuko, and I watched them acting very pathetically around her. It was quite funny. No matter how desperate, I would not look like that. Since through most of the night Emma was distracted with an important conversation, I spent most of my dancing time dancing with Ki, and for a brief moment we went outside for a good old fashioned gossip. She was being pursued by a man trying to recruit a girlfriend for his boss, and whenever he showed up we made a humerous dash for the entrance/exit. Once back inside, I texted Emma in Japanese (and my dubious fluency impressed her enough to ask if I'd had help).
We started maing our way back, and after saying goodbye, it was just Emma, myself and Ki on the bus home. After getting to Putney, I drove Ki back to her place (with a stop off at Sainsbury's), and then Emma and I went to bed and collapsed. By then it was 4AM.
A note from Kaori for our return suggested that we leave at 11AM for a street festival (ref. Matsuri Festival). We laughed at this, but I sadly had to wake up at 12:15PM, and I was still tired, but operational. Emma and I trekked around trying to find a place to buy a bus pass, but eventually we took a bus to Hammersmith to buy one, costing us an extra £1.20 each. Great. But we took a variety of buses to Liverpool Street, which sadly seemed a but daunting to the tired Ki, who did not join us today.
We arrived after about two hours of bus travel, and various worries about directions, we arrived, and searched for the others waiting for us. It wasn't so much Matsuri as it was a market with art and a band and mostly Japanese people. But it was still fun and we still laughed and I enjoy the company greatly. We stopped for a sit down and some Indonesian food, and after we took a bus trip to one of Hosei's friend's house, and we hung out and chatted about bidets and rats. When it became late, we all made our journeys home, and it leaves me here. After getting back and having some cereal, I drove back to use the internet and check my downloads.
I have had some deep thoughts recently, but I'm really too tired to talk about them now. Sorry. Sometime I'll be able to update properly. The Univeristy Library flooded very badly and I think it's out of order, so no late night computer suite for now. I'll probably update again tomorrow, but for now, that's what's happened. Hope it was interesting. It was a difficult entry to make.
Wednesday 7 September 2005
Post 101
I won't number them for long, I promise.
There actually seems like there's less to celebrate with this post. Rather than the symmetry of the post number, it's rather an average post. I didn't post yesterday, and that was due mainly in part to not being near a computer and having the time to post. I had a huge problem, as I had lost my phone. I was sure that I'd left it at Dan's flat, but of course, I'd put it on silent while I was in the library, so only the vibrating function of the phone was a clue to its whereabouts.
This caused problems, as I had arranged to meet Qian in the morning to work on programming. I emailed her from Southlands, but the chances of her checking her email were small, so I drove to her place and took her to Southlands, where I found that teaching C++ is harder than I thought. I had to describe memory allocation much earlier than I'd hoped, just to get started. But I got into the groove quickly, and she was understanding more than I was after several weeks after about an hour learning, so I think I can give her a head start in it.
We arranged to meet again in a couple of days, seeing as I have had to work today (and I haven't finished, I'm just taking sporadic breaks). I have been scanning the same motorcycle magazines that I scan just about every month, but I have had to do twice the usual amount seeing as I was in another country last month.
Speaking of the other country, I'm listening to iTunes radio, and the song that Yayoi sang at Karaoke is playing. A piano instrumental version, but still, it's bringing back memories. Just as a song that I downloaded today has been doing. Fairyland, by Ayumi Hamasaki, played just about everywhere I went, especially in Tokyo. So when I finally remembered the name, with a little help from Yukina, I set about looking for an easy download site. All the torrents were unseeded, and eventually I found a French MP3 site, which I could understand enough to get a nice 320kbps version from. I'll play it to Emma and see if she recognises it.
After I returned from teaching Qian, I put on a CD that Kumiko had burnt for me, another Icelandic band/composer. It was really interesting, and I enjoyed it enough to listen to it again that night. But after it finished, I fell asleep for three hours, so it was about nine in the evening when I woke. I spent the rest of my time watching an entire disc of Frasier, and then a quick trip to Tesco's at 3AM, to stock up on lemonade. After that, I think I slept.
But it was strange enough to disorientate me. My hours are suffering terribly, and I'll have to work them back to health.
This radio is almost unbearable. The music is great, but my torrents upstairs are taking so much bandwidth that it has to be 24kbps. Horrible.
I should get back to work. I hope you all the best. And seriously, those of you with blogs, update. Except for Hap, you've been good.
There actually seems like there's less to celebrate with this post. Rather than the symmetry of the post number, it's rather an average post. I didn't post yesterday, and that was due mainly in part to not being near a computer and having the time to post. I had a huge problem, as I had lost my phone. I was sure that I'd left it at Dan's flat, but of course, I'd put it on silent while I was in the library, so only the vibrating function of the phone was a clue to its whereabouts.
This caused problems, as I had arranged to meet Qian in the morning to work on programming. I emailed her from Southlands, but the chances of her checking her email were small, so I drove to her place and took her to Southlands, where I found that teaching C++ is harder than I thought. I had to describe memory allocation much earlier than I'd hoped, just to get started. But I got into the groove quickly, and she was understanding more than I was after several weeks after about an hour learning, so I think I can give her a head start in it.
We arranged to meet again in a couple of days, seeing as I have had to work today (and I haven't finished, I'm just taking sporadic breaks). I have been scanning the same motorcycle magazines that I scan just about every month, but I have had to do twice the usual amount seeing as I was in another country last month.
Speaking of the other country, I'm listening to iTunes radio, and the song that Yayoi sang at Karaoke is playing. A piano instrumental version, but still, it's bringing back memories. Just as a song that I downloaded today has been doing. Fairyland, by Ayumi Hamasaki, played just about everywhere I went, especially in Tokyo. So when I finally remembered the name, with a little help from Yukina, I set about looking for an easy download site. All the torrents were unseeded, and eventually I found a French MP3 site, which I could understand enough to get a nice 320kbps version from. I'll play it to Emma and see if she recognises it.
After I returned from teaching Qian, I put on a CD that Kumiko had burnt for me, another Icelandic band/composer. It was really interesting, and I enjoyed it enough to listen to it again that night. But after it finished, I fell asleep for three hours, so it was about nine in the evening when I woke. I spent the rest of my time watching an entire disc of Frasier, and then a quick trip to Tesco's at 3AM, to stock up on lemonade. After that, I think I slept.
But it was strange enough to disorientate me. My hours are suffering terribly, and I'll have to work them back to health.
This radio is almost unbearable. The music is great, but my torrents upstairs are taking so much bandwidth that it has to be 24kbps. Horrible.
I should get back to work. I hope you all the best. And seriously, those of you with blogs, update. Except for Hap, you've been good.
Tuesday 6 September 2005
Welcome One Hundred
This is is the 100th post in quasiblog - technoculture. It has lasted well, considering I started it just before my birthday in April and it's now early September. I have kept it up, and updated often enough to alienate anyone who isn't dedicated enough to embark on a small essay each day or two.
I looked back at what I created a few days ago. I spoke about what I did, what I had done, and it rekindled memories, but I surprised myself with the lack of detail included, and that I could remember more details about the events I had written about than what I had written down. They acted as more of a subliminal reminder. However, I believe my level of detail has increased with time, and perhaps as my memory fades, this blog will step in.
I found myself, linked from a friend's band page, browsing some myspace journals. I would never do such a think usually, but you know, I thought about scoping out some of the abysmal sites people use to convey their depression and how nobody understands. I found one link that reminded me particularly of mow much I hate the teenager who believes that the sole purpose of digital cameras is to make sure everyone on the internet can see what they look like with their middle finger raised. SomethingAwful linked me to one site that had so many images of the owner and her respective friends raising their fingers that I had thought I had stumbled upon a KFC site with missing tongues. Either that or they really hated the person taking the photos, I couldn't be sure. But in the way I see it, it's another thing to add to the list of things stupid children do for attention.
These blogs have the purpose of sharing photos of either the group of friends: drunk, stoned, raising fingers or in the process of doing all three. They also serve as ways people can say how their life has changed because of the new Mars Volta album, or how their parents are too stuck in the past (only when compared to the parents of other children, and these kids are probably lying).
I'm not going to sit around blaming the children, they can't help it, they're just too young to realise how they're being played off from three seperate angles: corporations, their peers, and their superiors. Corporations push profitable images, peers push social ideal images (misinformed), and superiors push advantageous ideals (whether noble or self benefitting). And children are slaves to this. The entire Emo movement (popular Emo movement) is that of expressing individuality by acting identically, and then acting opressed when people judge them. But that's the image pressed by peers and by corporations. Image is so profitable.
Anyway, this is a terrible tangent. My initial point was that of the one MySpace which I read, the girl expressed her desire to go new places and meet new people. While this is hardly a unique thought, it made me think of what I want. Going lost of places and meeting lots of new people, it's a great idea, but I don't want that. I want to go to a few very different places, but meet a few people and know them well. While knowing many international people makes for excellent diversity, it also leads to an unsatisfying depth of relationship. This is why I will appreciate knowing a few people very well, and attaining a clique in which understanding is key. I don't know many people that I know well, nor do I think many people know me well, but I am discovering more and more that Chris Kiew-Smith's words ring true: it's not where you are or what you're doing, it's who you're with. Your surrounding social environment makes the most impact on your life, which is probably why my childhood felt so different and uneasy; the social environment was not suited to me.
I would love to meet many new people, but right now, I want to meet one person, and know them really well. From there, social interactions will spread, but certain ones are necessary. I feel terrible over the loss of some friendships, and I regret them frequently. And thus, my desire to experience other cultures through people leads me to the paradox: to learn of someone elses culture, you must spend much time with them, but people from other cultures are usually time limited. I wish I could have put that more eloquently. Let me put it in an example: at the moment I am speaking via MSN to Yukina, someone who left the country before I got to know them properly. I found her fascinating, not because of her culture, but because of who she was. But who she was was someone part of a different culture, and therefore time limited, and needed to return. Thus, the problem occurs.
Anyway, problems like this plague me every so often. Much like my HDD is plaguing me now. I'm so eager to perform a low level format, but I'm scared of never being able to retrieve the data that might not be retrievable anyway. I'm also finding out of the time it takes to compile Gentoo Linux, and it's a bit of a time burden. Apparently the whole kernel compile takes about 72 hours, and I need to know plenty of Unix commands. Which I don't. But, it seems like a project. I can get it running pretty smoothly if I study it a little.
Ah, perfect. My one hundredth post, and I include a diatribe of social commentry, and some hyper-nerdy talk. And it's a second post for today. Keeps you on your toes, eh? I plan to one day update more than Slashdot. Maybe I write more than Slashdot, I should check. I saw Natasha today, it had been several months and a few MSN conversations since I'd last spoken to her (she IMed me today and we chatted until I found out she was a couple of buildings apart). I saw her flat and met her flatmates and Dan came along later to make it a rather complete day with regards to English friends (save for Helgi, but I can't really count him as English). I'll say goodnight there, I'm going to go and listen to another episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and then collapse asleep once more.
I looked back at what I created a few days ago. I spoke about what I did, what I had done, and it rekindled memories, but I surprised myself with the lack of detail included, and that I could remember more details about the events I had written about than what I had written down. They acted as more of a subliminal reminder. However, I believe my level of detail has increased with time, and perhaps as my memory fades, this blog will step in.
I found myself, linked from a friend's band page, browsing some myspace journals. I would never do such a think usually, but you know, I thought about scoping out some of the abysmal sites people use to convey their depression and how nobody understands. I found one link that reminded me particularly of mow much I hate the teenager who believes that the sole purpose of digital cameras is to make sure everyone on the internet can see what they look like with their middle finger raised. SomethingAwful linked me to one site that had so many images of the owner and her respective friends raising their fingers that I had thought I had stumbled upon a KFC site with missing tongues. Either that or they really hated the person taking the photos, I couldn't be sure. But in the way I see it, it's another thing to add to the list of things stupid children do for attention.
These blogs have the purpose of sharing photos of either the group of friends: drunk, stoned, raising fingers or in the process of doing all three. They also serve as ways people can say how their life has changed because of the new Mars Volta album, or how their parents are too stuck in the past (only when compared to the parents of other children, and these kids are probably lying).
I'm not going to sit around blaming the children, they can't help it, they're just too young to realise how they're being played off from three seperate angles: corporations, their peers, and their superiors. Corporations push profitable images, peers push social ideal images (misinformed), and superiors push advantageous ideals (whether noble or self benefitting). And children are slaves to this. The entire Emo movement (popular Emo movement) is that of expressing individuality by acting identically, and then acting opressed when people judge them. But that's the image pressed by peers and by corporations. Image is so profitable.
Anyway, this is a terrible tangent. My initial point was that of the one MySpace which I read, the girl expressed her desire to go new places and meet new people. While this is hardly a unique thought, it made me think of what I want. Going lost of places and meeting lots of new people, it's a great idea, but I don't want that. I want to go to a few very different places, but meet a few people and know them well. While knowing many international people makes for excellent diversity, it also leads to an unsatisfying depth of relationship. This is why I will appreciate knowing a few people very well, and attaining a clique in which understanding is key. I don't know many people that I know well, nor do I think many people know me well, but I am discovering more and more that Chris Kiew-Smith's words ring true: it's not where you are or what you're doing, it's who you're with. Your surrounding social environment makes the most impact on your life, which is probably why my childhood felt so different and uneasy; the social environment was not suited to me.
I would love to meet many new people, but right now, I want to meet one person, and know them really well. From there, social interactions will spread, but certain ones are necessary. I feel terrible over the loss of some friendships, and I regret them frequently. And thus, my desire to experience other cultures through people leads me to the paradox: to learn of someone elses culture, you must spend much time with them, but people from other cultures are usually time limited. I wish I could have put that more eloquently. Let me put it in an example: at the moment I am speaking via MSN to Yukina, someone who left the country before I got to know them properly. I found her fascinating, not because of her culture, but because of who she was. But who she was was someone part of a different culture, and therefore time limited, and needed to return. Thus, the problem occurs.
Anyway, problems like this plague me every so often. Much like my HDD is plaguing me now. I'm so eager to perform a low level format, but I'm scared of never being able to retrieve the data that might not be retrievable anyway. I'm also finding out of the time it takes to compile Gentoo Linux, and it's a bit of a time burden. Apparently the whole kernel compile takes about 72 hours, and I need to know plenty of Unix commands. Which I don't. But, it seems like a project. I can get it running pretty smoothly if I study it a little.
Ah, perfect. My one hundredth post, and I include a diatribe of social commentry, and some hyper-nerdy talk. And it's a second post for today. Keeps you on your toes, eh? I plan to one day update more than Slashdot. Maybe I write more than Slashdot, I should check. I saw Natasha today, it had been several months and a few MSN conversations since I'd last spoken to her (she IMed me today and we chatted until I found out she was a couple of buildings apart). I saw her flat and met her flatmates and Dan came along later to make it a rather complete day with regards to English friends (save for Helgi, but I can't really count him as English). I'll say goodnight there, I'm going to go and listen to another episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and then collapse asleep once more.
Monday 5 September 2005
Swedish Furniture
I'm starting to appreciate certain soundtracks I never gave much of a listen, and I thought I'd share a verse with you. I tend to do this sporadically, just inserting a verse of a song, and I know, it's a little blase, but every so often it works, and I know that I can come back to the blog and use it to reminisce.
Your face it dances, and it haunts me.
Your laughter's still ringing in my ears.
I still find pieces of your presence here,
Even after all these years.
But I don't want you thinking I don't get asked to dinner,
'Cause I'm here to say that I sometimes do.
Even though I may soon feel the touch of love,
I just don't think I'll ever get over you.
Last night, I put on Break of Dawn again, so that I could play along to Raven. But after it finished, I fast forwarded to the Garden State soundtrack, and I think I fell asleep to it. I woke halfway through the Sin City soundtrack, and then fell asleep until sometime during Surfing on Sine Waves. But that one particular song echoes with its simplicity, and I can appreciate it more in time.
I spent yesterday gallivanting around Croydon, in the Ikea shop. I always viewed Ikea as a kind of theme park in appearance, with a day care facility, restaurants, and the like. It's certainly a strange shop. Sadly, Emma is still in Wales, so she could not join us, but Mizuki, Kaori, Katou, Kiwako, Warren, Kumiko and Kumiko's friend. Hosei also joined us after we'd finished, as he was lost on the way.
I bought myself a rather nifty laptop bag, so that when I get a laptop running a nice, stable, networkable operating system, I'll carry a laptop around with me. Until then, it'll just have my CDs and CD player and my organiser in it. It's still nifty though. I also purchased some nice bitonal straws and an ice-cube tray that creates 'cubes' in the shape of doughnuts. The joys of Swedish ingenuity; the items are well priced and functional.
Computers are fun and useful.
After we returned how without Kiwako or Warren or Kumiko's friend, after a little looking at said items, I gave Hosei and Kumiko a lift to the nearby tube station, and left it there. It must have given a terrible impression of my driving, as in order to be saved several minutes waiting time for traffic to afford us a gap to enter, as I pulled out of the parking space, I sped into a short gap in front of the bus, and I did it at near full acceleration. It may have frightened them. Also, after dropping them off, I had to do an equally fast acceleration in order to get back in to traffic. I hope they don't think I'm a driving lunatic; the rest of the trip was managed without any real sudden or dangerous moves.
I drove to Dan's place in time to watch them eat, and then we discussed the creation of a hosting business. I won't go in to details, but it looks like fun. I then returned home, made myself some food, and fell asleep listening to music. But I think I already spoke about that.
My new shirt is being printed right now. When it's ready, I'll sport it to my trendy friends who can all admire it and it's amazingly witty logo on the front. I can't wait to let people chuckle at its double-entendre. For now though, I'll go and pick it up and admire it for myself, before returning home and waiting for Dan to come around.
Your face it dances, and it haunts me.
Your laughter's still ringing in my ears.
I still find pieces of your presence here,
Even after all these years.
But I don't want you thinking I don't get asked to dinner,
'Cause I'm here to say that I sometimes do.
Even though I may soon feel the touch of love,
I just don't think I'll ever get over you.
Last night, I put on Break of Dawn again, so that I could play along to Raven. But after it finished, I fast forwarded to the Garden State soundtrack, and I think I fell asleep to it. I woke halfway through the Sin City soundtrack, and then fell asleep until sometime during Surfing on Sine Waves. But that one particular song echoes with its simplicity, and I can appreciate it more in time.
I spent yesterday gallivanting around Croydon, in the Ikea shop. I always viewed Ikea as a kind of theme park in appearance, with a day care facility, restaurants, and the like. It's certainly a strange shop. Sadly, Emma is still in Wales, so she could not join us, but Mizuki, Kaori, Katou, Kiwako, Warren, Kumiko and Kumiko's friend. Hosei also joined us after we'd finished, as he was lost on the way.
I bought myself a rather nifty laptop bag, so that when I get a laptop running a nice, stable, networkable operating system, I'll carry a laptop around with me. Until then, it'll just have my CDs and CD player and my organiser in it. It's still nifty though. I also purchased some nice bitonal straws and an ice-cube tray that creates 'cubes' in the shape of doughnuts. The joys of Swedish ingenuity; the items are well priced and functional.
Computers are fun and useful.
After we returned how without Kiwako or Warren or Kumiko's friend, after a little looking at said items, I gave Hosei and Kumiko a lift to the nearby tube station, and left it there. It must have given a terrible impression of my driving, as in order to be saved several minutes waiting time for traffic to afford us a gap to enter, as I pulled out of the parking space, I sped into a short gap in front of the bus, and I did it at near full acceleration. It may have frightened them. Also, after dropping them off, I had to do an equally fast acceleration in order to get back in to traffic. I hope they don't think I'm a driving lunatic; the rest of the trip was managed without any real sudden or dangerous moves.
I drove to Dan's place in time to watch them eat, and then we discussed the creation of a hosting business. I won't go in to details, but it looks like fun. I then returned home, made myself some food, and fell asleep listening to music. But I think I already spoke about that.
My new shirt is being printed right now. When it's ready, I'll sport it to my trendy friends who can all admire it and it's amazingly witty logo on the front. I can't wait to let people chuckle at its double-entendre. For now though, I'll go and pick it up and admire it for myself, before returning home and waiting for Dan to come around.
Sunday 4 September 2005
More of Nothing
Despite trying in vain today to get my t-shirt printed, today has been pretty much me catching up on the internet. I feel almost as if the day has been wasted, as I have barely left my computer chair, and I have little motivation to do anything else. But then, I realise that I have absorbed information from computers around the world, and thus I am better informed of the technical world around me.
But aside from browsing Wikipedia (and nothing the lack of notable deaths in the past two days), I finally started looking at my hard drives, and started attempting to recover data lost many months ago. My former main drive, a nice little 120GB IDE drive still operates. I plugged it in, and despite all the data being corrupted, it still registers, and can still be read by less conventional programs. However I'm puzzled as to why it reads only as 80GB; this must mean that the 40GB partition in which I made my first Linux installation is still intact and operational and invisible to Windows. I'm puzzling over how to deal with that partition, I puzzled on how to get the data back from my drive. I have some work on there I really cannot lose, and I don't want to format it in case it is lost. But I'm getting impatient with this 20GB drive that I'm currently using, and impatient with this installation of XP that won't allow me to install anything with InstallShield.
The next thing to tackle is my pair of 160GB SATA HDDs. All my drives failed at the same time, and I attribute it to some kind of surge coming from a USB HDD that killed my computer a while back. They were operational enough to get data from, so I could save my music collection, and they worked at a slow pace until I low level formatted them, which never completed, and has made them useless since. I haven't tried that hard at getting them to work, but I'm starting again with my attempts. I want them to work so I can install all my preferred operating systems and finally has space to download lots of media files without having to back up every 4 gigabytes.
Yesterday was by comparison, eventful. After Emma left to go back to Wales, Mizuki and I started getting the preparations for the JCS Fresher Fair stall up and running. We wrote out a provisional calendar for the first semester, and then when we'd exhausted most ideas, went home. I received a call from Qian, who was moving in to a new house, so I picked her up from Asda and took her there, where we spent a large part of twenty minutes trying to find the way to drive there through the maze of estate dead ends and seemingly pointless walls. As her new flatmates weren't in, she had to wait with her shopping and I retrieved her suitcases stored in my house. When I returned, I dropped them off (having finally found the right road to get to her house), and re rearranged to meet on Monday.
As I was walking in to the house from driving back, Mizuki was leaving to meet Kiwako, whom I had intended to meet up with in Japan, but unfortunately did not. We went to th Chinese place that we always go to, and had a long chat about Japan and earthquakes and all sorts, and after eating we went back to the house and relaxed while Ki saw Kaori again and met Katou. Of the conversations, most were in Japanese, with Mizuki occasionally turning to me to translate whatever the topic was at the time. The most memorable part, for me at least, was when they were all talking, and laughing, and one particular word kept cropping up. I recognised it, and when Mizuki turned to me to explain how the Asahi building had an unfortunate arrangement of bubbles that led it to be known as the 'poo building', I informed everyone that I knew the word "unko". The group realisation of the fact that I had been picking up on every time they said the word 'poo' produced a wonderful reaction.
I offered Ki a lift back to her place, and she showed me around, and not counting the area it's located in, it's a nice place. It's suitably student-messy, and it felt a lot more relaxed (but conversely more limiting) than our place. I was slightly bemused to see she is using a very nice and relatively new Powerbook, which just adds to the repertoire of Japanese Mac users that I have been meeting recently. As it approached 3AM I returned home and finished watching the last of Ki's DVDs, and the end of Futurama. I have now seen every episode, and I am now angrier than ever that it met its end at the hands of a network.
A few days ago, while Emma and I were looking over Kaori's essay and correcting minor grammar mistakes, I noticed a misplaced apostrophe when referring to the ownership by something that is plural. When it was pointed out, Emma discounted it by saying that only an English teacher would notice that. What I find irritating about that attitude is that it contributes to the degeneration of language, as it slowly erodes into poorer and poorer grammar. I didn't expect this attitude from Emma, as she never seemed to me to be a grammar iconoclast, but if she takes that stance, then what hope do I have of instilling the traditional values of grammar. I feel the entire Lynne Truss movement is wasted, and the idea of good grammar has now become a gimmick. I'm further saddened by The Times adopting the American spellings of certain words. Perhaps in teaching English, I can correct some of these terrible crimes against literature.
Anyway, now that I have finished my tirade on writing, I'll use my spell checker and get along to bed (I don't proofread; most of my readers don't have time to read all of my entries, why would I?).
But aside from browsing Wikipedia (and nothing the lack of notable deaths in the past two days), I finally started looking at my hard drives, and started attempting to recover data lost many months ago. My former main drive, a nice little 120GB IDE drive still operates. I plugged it in, and despite all the data being corrupted, it still registers, and can still be read by less conventional programs. However I'm puzzled as to why it reads only as 80GB; this must mean that the 40GB partition in which I made my first Linux installation is still intact and operational and invisible to Windows. I'm puzzling over how to deal with that partition, I puzzled on how to get the data back from my drive. I have some work on there I really cannot lose, and I don't want to format it in case it is lost. But I'm getting impatient with this 20GB drive that I'm currently using, and impatient with this installation of XP that won't allow me to install anything with InstallShield.
The next thing to tackle is my pair of 160GB SATA HDDs. All my drives failed at the same time, and I attribute it to some kind of surge coming from a USB HDD that killed my computer a while back. They were operational enough to get data from, so I could save my music collection, and they worked at a slow pace until I low level formatted them, which never completed, and has made them useless since. I haven't tried that hard at getting them to work, but I'm starting again with my attempts. I want them to work so I can install all my preferred operating systems and finally has space to download lots of media files without having to back up every 4 gigabytes.
Yesterday was by comparison, eventful. After Emma left to go back to Wales, Mizuki and I started getting the preparations for the JCS Fresher Fair stall up and running. We wrote out a provisional calendar for the first semester, and then when we'd exhausted most ideas, went home. I received a call from Qian, who was moving in to a new house, so I picked her up from Asda and took her there, where we spent a large part of twenty minutes trying to find the way to drive there through the maze of estate dead ends and seemingly pointless walls. As her new flatmates weren't in, she had to wait with her shopping and I retrieved her suitcases stored in my house. When I returned, I dropped them off (having finally found the right road to get to her house), and re rearranged to meet on Monday.
As I was walking in to the house from driving back, Mizuki was leaving to meet Kiwako, whom I had intended to meet up with in Japan, but unfortunately did not. We went to th Chinese place that we always go to, and had a long chat about Japan and earthquakes and all sorts, and after eating we went back to the house and relaxed while Ki saw Kaori again and met Katou. Of the conversations, most were in Japanese, with Mizuki occasionally turning to me to translate whatever the topic was at the time. The most memorable part, for me at least, was when they were all talking, and laughing, and one particular word kept cropping up. I recognised it, and when Mizuki turned to me to explain how the Asahi building had an unfortunate arrangement of bubbles that led it to be known as the 'poo building', I informed everyone that I knew the word "unko". The group realisation of the fact that I had been picking up on every time they said the word 'poo' produced a wonderful reaction.
I offered Ki a lift back to her place, and she showed me around, and not counting the area it's located in, it's a nice place. It's suitably student-messy, and it felt a lot more relaxed (but conversely more limiting) than our place. I was slightly bemused to see she is using a very nice and relatively new Powerbook, which just adds to the repertoire of Japanese Mac users that I have been meeting recently. As it approached 3AM I returned home and finished watching the last of Ki's DVDs, and the end of Futurama. I have now seen every episode, and I am now angrier than ever that it met its end at the hands of a network.
A few days ago, while Emma and I were looking over Kaori's essay and correcting minor grammar mistakes, I noticed a misplaced apostrophe when referring to the ownership by something that is plural. When it was pointed out, Emma discounted it by saying that only an English teacher would notice that. What I find irritating about that attitude is that it contributes to the degeneration of language, as it slowly erodes into poorer and poorer grammar. I didn't expect this attitude from Emma, as she never seemed to me to be a grammar iconoclast, but if she takes that stance, then what hope do I have of instilling the traditional values of grammar. I feel the entire Lynne Truss movement is wasted, and the idea of good grammar has now become a gimmick. I'm further saddened by The Times adopting the American spellings of certain words. Perhaps in teaching English, I can correct some of these terrible crimes against literature.
Anyway, now that I have finished my tirade on writing, I'll use my spell checker and get along to bed (I don't proofread; most of my readers don't have time to read all of my entries, why would I?).
Thursday 1 September 2005
Bed Room
In all the excitement of breaking the rules yesterday, I forgot to talk about the excitement of the previous night. It was probably the most odd thing to happen to me for a while, but at, I think, quarter past four in the morning, yesterday morning, I woke to find Emma in my room, standing in the doorway, with the light on. I struggled for a minute to work out what she was saying, and to pull the bedclothes over my less than clothed body, but quickly I found out that wasps had invaded her room.
Not just a few, but loads. Not thousands, but enough to scare her and me and everyone we woke up. Which was everyone. Emma had heard the sound of buzzing, she'd stood up, turned the light on, and just seen a swarm, so she ran to my room. She did knock, for a while apparently, but I think I was in deep enough sleep to not notice her until she was practically standing over me with a bright light in my eyes. So we all went around the house, closing the windows. We'd noticed the wasps' nest a few days previously, but they'd never bothered us before, so it was a surprise. After an hour of deliberating over plans and occasionally sneaking into the infected area to snatch a necessary item, like her phone, or some trousers.
At eight in the morning, the wasps had all left the room, despite the closed window. Emma didn't get back to sleep before work, but she managed to call the landlord, who was surprisingly in Spain. I woke after she'd left, to find notes and stuff, but it's all too much to go into. For the rest of the day, I hacked with Dan and helped him revise for his exam. We also listened to the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, which was very ahead of its time. That brings us on to today.
Dan says he passed his exam fully, so that's our work out of the way for another month. Shortly after we got back, and had watched another few Futurama episodes, the pest control dude arrived, and it took him about ten minutes to spray the nest from out of the window and be out of there, leaving us impressed and with loads of time to hang around not waiting for him anymore. We had our telephone line connected in the meantime, and now with a phone, the house becomes more functional. It's also a wonderful lead in to the world of the internet, which soon enough, I won't need to go to University for.
Last night I was lucky enough to meet some of the people who had been practically living in "Emma House" while I was away. I had met Hosei before, but I hadn't seen him since my return (and he's far more open to me now), and I met Kumiko, who's the only girl I have ever been able to talk about really nerdy things with, and actually have her respond. We discussed the introduction of x86 chips into the new Macintosh computers, and then the technical requirements for the Tiger OS (she's a bit of a Mac fan too).
We all went out to Kingston to party with Emma's work friends, but the Japanese section of the group pretty much clung together, and while Emma thought this typical of them and a perfect way not to make English friends, I really didn't blame them. The library team that Emma works with didn't seem like the kind of people I'd get along with brilliantly, so I hung around chatting to Hosei and Kumiko.
Since last night Emma wasn't prepared to sleep in the wasp room, after we all returned, she prepared beds for Hosei and Kumiko (the two downstairs sofabeds), and not wanting to be left out of the fun of a sleepover, and not wanting to sleep in a possible wasp nest, I stayed downstairs as well. We converted a normal, living room into an actual Bed Room, with practically the whole floor covered with two sofa beds. The four of us slept well, and after meeting Dan for his exam, I saw our guests off and continued on with my day, which included Tescos and moving my free speakers into the house (I got free speakers from Dan's place [they have a "swap table" in the apartment block]).
I don't know how many of you read Slashdot on a regular basis, but London is finally getting the chance to have 24Mbps internet, and I'm signing up as soon as they enable my exchange. Just imagine that beauty, twenty four megabits of internet, flowing into the free ADSL2 router they provide...
I'm salivating. I thought 2Mbps was good. Although, Yukina is awaiting 100Mbit fibre optic internet, and that kinda made my awesome speed feel quadri-downsized. Anyway, laters my friends.
(Woah, no spelling errors.)
Not just a few, but loads. Not thousands, but enough to scare her and me and everyone we woke up. Which was everyone. Emma had heard the sound of buzzing, she'd stood up, turned the light on, and just seen a swarm, so she ran to my room. She did knock, for a while apparently, but I think I was in deep enough sleep to not notice her until she was practically standing over me with a bright light in my eyes. So we all went around the house, closing the windows. We'd noticed the wasps' nest a few days previously, but they'd never bothered us before, so it was a surprise. After an hour of deliberating over plans and occasionally sneaking into the infected area to snatch a necessary item, like her phone, or some trousers.
At eight in the morning, the wasps had all left the room, despite the closed window. Emma didn't get back to sleep before work, but she managed to call the landlord, who was surprisingly in Spain. I woke after she'd left, to find notes and stuff, but it's all too much to go into. For the rest of the day, I hacked with Dan and helped him revise for his exam. We also listened to the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, which was very ahead of its time. That brings us on to today.
Dan says he passed his exam fully, so that's our work out of the way for another month. Shortly after we got back, and had watched another few Futurama episodes, the pest control dude arrived, and it took him about ten minutes to spray the nest from out of the window and be out of there, leaving us impressed and with loads of time to hang around not waiting for him anymore. We had our telephone line connected in the meantime, and now with a phone, the house becomes more functional. It's also a wonderful lead in to the world of the internet, which soon enough, I won't need to go to University for.
Last night I was lucky enough to meet some of the people who had been practically living in "Emma House" while I was away. I had met Hosei before, but I hadn't seen him since my return (and he's far more open to me now), and I met Kumiko, who's the only girl I have ever been able to talk about really nerdy things with, and actually have her respond. We discussed the introduction of x86 chips into the new Macintosh computers, and then the technical requirements for the Tiger OS (she's a bit of a Mac fan too).
We all went out to Kingston to party with Emma's work friends, but the Japanese section of the group pretty much clung together, and while Emma thought this typical of them and a perfect way not to make English friends, I really didn't blame them. The library team that Emma works with didn't seem like the kind of people I'd get along with brilliantly, so I hung around chatting to Hosei and Kumiko.
Since last night Emma wasn't prepared to sleep in the wasp room, after we all returned, she prepared beds for Hosei and Kumiko (the two downstairs sofabeds), and not wanting to be left out of the fun of a sleepover, and not wanting to sleep in a possible wasp nest, I stayed downstairs as well. We converted a normal, living room into an actual Bed Room, with practically the whole floor covered with two sofa beds. The four of us slept well, and after meeting Dan for his exam, I saw our guests off and continued on with my day, which included Tescos and moving my free speakers into the house (I got free speakers from Dan's place [they have a "swap table" in the apartment block]).
I don't know how many of you read Slashdot on a regular basis, but London is finally getting the chance to have 24Mbps internet, and I'm signing up as soon as they enable my exchange. Just imagine that beauty, twenty four megabits of internet, flowing into the free ADSL2 router they provide...
I'm salivating. I thought 2Mbps was good. Although, Yukina is awaiting 100Mbit fibre optic internet, and that kinda made my awesome speed feel quadri-downsized. Anyway, laters my friends.
(Woah, no spelling errors.)
Wednesday 31 August 2005
Technocriminals I
I'm thinking that technoculture is more of a techie geeky blog, and just the facts... well, is everything not as fun.
This makes a perfect place to announce the plan that myself and Dan have formulated for the next two years: break every computer rule that the University has.
I guess I'm starting small with this. Technically we're not allowed to access the internet from these computers. They merely have the OPAC browser. But we used some shortcuts and accessed the internet, so that's a small start. From there, we take it further. Dan is currently installing Firefox on his one, while I'm making a blog entry foolishly detailing our rule breaking. Oh, evil us.
I will blog the rule breaking exploits that Dan and I do during this year, unless somehow caught. Which we won't be, since I am doing this with no login. I think these no login computers are a good way to start. Bring on the anonymity. No splel check though
This makes a perfect place to announce the plan that myself and Dan have formulated for the next two years: break every computer rule that the University has.
I guess I'm starting small with this. Technically we're not allowed to access the internet from these computers. They merely have the OPAC browser. But we used some shortcuts and accessed the internet, so that's a small start. From there, we take it further. Dan is currently installing Firefox on his one, while I'm making a blog entry foolishly detailing our rule breaking. Oh, evil us.
I will blog the rule breaking exploits that Dan and I do during this year, unless somehow caught. Which we won't be, since I am doing this with no login. I think these no login computers are a good way to start. Bring on the anonymity. No splel check though
Tuesday 30 August 2005
Waiting for Podot
That title is a reference to the fact that I want an iPod, just not yet.
I just updated just the facts, but I really felt stifled in not being able to express myself with my usual length and depth of description. Emma has decided that she doesn't want to get the internet in our house. Well, she wants the internet, just not enough to pay money for it. She says £7.50 a month is too much to pay for internet access. I willing to pay that and more for internet access, but it's how it has to be. Typical. I guess that means that I'll have to try and sell 0.5Mbit instead of 2Mbit, which is half the price and maybe I can get them to agree. But it's that damn extra £2.50 a month that throws them off (don't question my mathematics, I'm not telling you about the mandatory phone line rental).
Anyway, that's all my task for the next few days. Dan's here right now, we're just rocking out in the Southlands computer room. We're avoiding the library because Emma's slightly on edge (rightly so) about the fact that Katou is now living with us on a semi-permanent basis. Emma doesn't so much mind this, it's just the fact that shwasn't't consulted, or even asked. Come to think of it, neither was I, but I get by without being too angry at too many things. I just hope he contributes to at least some of what we have to pay. He is using our shower, television, DVD player, fridge... the list could go on, but I'll just inform you that he uses a lot of electricity, and he uses gas as well for his cooking. I don't particularly feel like paying for him. He's getting lucky in not paying rent, but a free house for three months... I hope he appreciates it like I appreciated Yoko's kindness in housing me (as in, no more sulkfests from Katou).
Yuri's leaving the country next Monday, which is another one of the Roehampton group who is departing back to Japan. It's a shame we never got to hang out more, but we got to have a nice meal before she left. She took us to her house, and offered us free roam of most things. Grabby Kaori took most things straight out, but she shared them around when we got back. The only thing I was really interested in was the Panasonic HiFi, which I got for my room. I have to say, I don't expect it was a very expensive HiFi, but it does not sound bad, Since my one became communal in the living room, the one I have now is a decent enough replacement. Yeah, it's not 5.1 and doesn't have a subwoofer, but I can hook it up to my computer and have a mini theatre with stereo sound to almost rival the downstairs one. The speakers are detachable, and they're pretty solid, with a nice bass response. They're just bookshelf speakers, but still, they do the trick for me, especially if I balance the sound right on my PC.
I have also decided to convert one of my many useless closets into a small computer closet, which I can close away until I need to use it, and then it's like a mini computer room. Oh, the plans I have for my room. It should be a technological heaven by the time I finish with it. All I need from there is an iPod.
While I wait for University to start, I have very little to actually do. I have to work for my mother this weekend, so that should help me get back with debts, and after I find a small job, I'll sort out my bank account.
I picked up my sister from the Reading festival yesterday. It meant a long, extremely hot drive for hours, waiting in traffic for hours, having my time thoroughly wasted for hours, and then finding that a tree obscured the sign for the turn off to get back to Kingston. I do hate the world sometimes. But not enough for it to fester and make me go Emo. Apparently the Emo children are like rats at Reading: everywhere. They express their sorrow and individuality by dressing and acting the same. It's not cool to be Gothic anymore, now you have to be Emo. The whole fashion of acting "individually" is sickening. Another ploy for attention, and it fits in with the times.
When I finally arrived at the designated pick up point for my sister (who would have thought there were two brands of blue and yellow self storage facilities within a few hundred metres of each other), there was another group of people waiting to be picked up. They were pretty stereotypically a group of people having just left Reading. They were a little dirty, they had the standard amount of piercings, the correct portions of dreadlocked hair, you know, they had read the Emo/Rock Chick handbooks and followed them pretty closely. Then a 30 foot black limousine pulls up, and all four of them got in. It wasn't hired, it was actually owned (I think; the chauffeur seemed to know them well). I found it hilarious that their entire "misunderstood child of rock" image was shattered by their parents getting a limousine to pick them up from a rock festival.
Anyhow, I'm boring Dan, and he wants to do something fun, like steal a water cooler refill or something. Maybe he should revise. I'm going to read Slashdot.
I just updated just the facts, but I really felt stifled in not being able to express myself with my usual length and depth of description. Emma has decided that she doesn't want to get the internet in our house. Well, she wants the internet, just not enough to pay money for it. She says £7.50 a month is too much to pay for internet access. I willing to pay that and more for internet access, but it's how it has to be. Typical. I guess that means that I'll have to try and sell 0.5Mbit instead of 2Mbit, which is half the price and maybe I can get them to agree. But it's that damn extra £2.50 a month that throws them off (don't question my mathematics, I'm not telling you about the mandatory phone line rental).
Anyway, that's all my task for the next few days. Dan's here right now, we're just rocking out in the Southlands computer room. We're avoiding the library because Emma's slightly on edge (rightly so) about the fact that Katou is now living with us on a semi-permanent basis. Emma doesn't so much mind this, it's just the fact that shwasn't't consulted, or even asked. Come to think of it, neither was I, but I get by without being too angry at too many things. I just hope he contributes to at least some of what we have to pay. He is using our shower, television, DVD player, fridge... the list could go on, but I'll just inform you that he uses a lot of electricity, and he uses gas as well for his cooking. I don't particularly feel like paying for him. He's getting lucky in not paying rent, but a free house for three months... I hope he appreciates it like I appreciated Yoko's kindness in housing me (as in, no more sulkfests from Katou).
Yuri's leaving the country next Monday, which is another one of the Roehampton group who is departing back to Japan. It's a shame we never got to hang out more, but we got to have a nice meal before she left. She took us to her house, and offered us free roam of most things. Grabby Kaori took most things straight out, but she shared them around when we got back. The only thing I was really interested in was the Panasonic HiFi, which I got for my room. I have to say, I don't expect it was a very expensive HiFi, but it does not sound bad, Since my one became communal in the living room, the one I have now is a decent enough replacement. Yeah, it's not 5.1 and doesn't have a subwoofer, but I can hook it up to my computer and have a mini theatre with stereo sound to almost rival the downstairs one. The speakers are detachable, and they're pretty solid, with a nice bass response. They're just bookshelf speakers, but still, they do the trick for me, especially if I balance the sound right on my PC.
I have also decided to convert one of my many useless closets into a small computer closet, which I can close away until I need to use it, and then it's like a mini computer room. Oh, the plans I have for my room. It should be a technological heaven by the time I finish with it. All I need from there is an iPod.
While I wait for University to start, I have very little to actually do. I have to work for my mother this weekend, so that should help me get back with debts, and after I find a small job, I'll sort out my bank account.
I picked up my sister from the Reading festival yesterday. It meant a long, extremely hot drive for hours, waiting in traffic for hours, having my time thoroughly wasted for hours, and then finding that a tree obscured the sign for the turn off to get back to Kingston. I do hate the world sometimes. But not enough for it to fester and make me go Emo. Apparently the Emo children are like rats at Reading: everywhere. They express their sorrow and individuality by dressing and acting the same. It's not cool to be Gothic anymore, now you have to be Emo. The whole fashion of acting "individually" is sickening. Another ploy for attention, and it fits in with the times.
When I finally arrived at the designated pick up point for my sister (who would have thought there were two brands of blue and yellow self storage facilities within a few hundred metres of each other), there was another group of people waiting to be picked up. They were pretty stereotypically a group of people having just left Reading. They were a little dirty, they had the standard amount of piercings, the correct portions of dreadlocked hair, you know, they had read the Emo/Rock Chick handbooks and followed them pretty closely. Then a 30 foot black limousine pulls up, and all four of them got in. It wasn't hired, it was actually owned (I think; the chauffeur seemed to know them well). I found it hilarious that their entire "misunderstood child of rock" image was shattered by their parents getting a limousine to pick them up from a rock festival.
Anyhow, I'm boring Dan, and he wants to do something fun, like steal a water cooler refill or something. Maybe he should revise. I'm going to read Slashdot.
Sunday 28 August 2005
Delayed Reloading
Last night, after logging off, my ex phoned and talked to me about things until four AM. By that point I was very tired. That's the latest I've been to bed in a while. I hope not to top it tonight, but I'll probably be drawn into watching Futurama season three before I actually sleep.
One thing I did forget to talk about last night was the presence of the eerie guy who always seems to go past me whenever I'm at Uni. I see him almost every time, and last night in the library, he was there later than I was, only occasionally leaving for the toilet (or to kill someone; he's creepy). Emma sees him around a lot too, but I don't think he's seen us together. Anyway, that wasn't important.
Emma and I made our way to Wandsworth today, hoping to see the council about their charging us of council tax when we're exempt and followed proper exemption practice. But they were closed on a Saturday. Damnit, do those people ever work? Even banks are open on Saturdays these days. So instead we shopped around for stuff at the pound shop, bought some glue to fix the kitchen fittings and mosied on down to Argos and Boots. Emma bought some dye to get rid of some almost invisible red patches, and then we returned home. We had every intention of watching The Matrix: Reloaded today, but we were denied as Kaori and Katou were watching a tape of a Japanese TV show called Triangle until the early hours, and Emma went to bed.
So that happens tomorrow, after we make the awesome stir fry that we bought ingredients for today, and after we go skating. And probably after some more Futurama.
I got a little distracted there.
I don't have too much to say, other than I spoke to Yukina online tonight, and it was good because it had been ages, and she always cheers me up whenever we talk. I'm at my parents' house at the very minute, so there's been no creepy guy, but maybe I could start stalking him and turn the table. No, to answer your question I have no actual content, but hey, I'm giving you little bites of my thoughts to think over and enjoy.
Take care and stay happy.
One thing I did forget to talk about last night was the presence of the eerie guy who always seems to go past me whenever I'm at Uni. I see him almost every time, and last night in the library, he was there later than I was, only occasionally leaving for the toilet (or to kill someone; he's creepy). Emma sees him around a lot too, but I don't think he's seen us together. Anyway, that wasn't important.
Emma and I made our way to Wandsworth today, hoping to see the council about their charging us of council tax when we're exempt and followed proper exemption practice. But they were closed on a Saturday. Damnit, do those people ever work? Even banks are open on Saturdays these days. So instead we shopped around for stuff at the pound shop, bought some glue to fix the kitchen fittings and mosied on down to Argos and Boots. Emma bought some dye to get rid of some almost invisible red patches, and then we returned home. We had every intention of watching The Matrix: Reloaded today, but we were denied as Kaori and Katou were watching a tape of a Japanese TV show called Triangle until the early hours, and Emma went to bed.
So that happens tomorrow, after we make the awesome stir fry that we bought ingredients for today, and after we go skating. And probably after some more Futurama.
I got a little distracted there.
I don't have too much to say, other than I spoke to Yukina online tonight, and it was good because it had been ages, and she always cheers me up whenever we talk. I'm at my parents' house at the very minute, so there's been no creepy guy, but maybe I could start stalking him and turn the table. No, to answer your question I have no actual content, but hey, I'm giving you little bites of my thoughts to think over and enjoy.
Take care and stay happy.
Saturday 27 August 2005
The Fun of Public Terminals
I have to say, the network administrators at this University have got some serious fixes to implement regarding Internet Explorer. Scratch that, regarding the whole operating system we have to use. Every time I log on, the first thing I see after the password screen (apart from the extended delay) is an error message, telling me that an "Installation failed", and that I have to agree that it is "Ok". Shortly after that, another error message about the CD writing software has something wrong with it. But back to IE, which was the reason for saying this... I'm on a public terminal, people use it daily, every computer in this university is shared, with no computers actually reserved for particular people, with no preferences saved anyway, so, no, Internet Explorer 6.0, I don't want you to remember my damn password.
I'm logged on to Blogger, I'm not going to log out and log back in before I leave my desk. Idiot.
Anyway, I'm here again because I didn't want to go home again like yesterday, and it means saving petrol. But after I left my home yesterday, I looked out and noticed it was a beautiful night, so I drove to the nearest place without street lights, the local car park where I learnt to drive, and parked there. I stuck my head out of the window, and turned off all nearby lights (but left the heater on, as it was freezing last night).
You know how it is; you look up to the dark sky, and as your eyes adjust, more and more stars appear out of the blanketing dark. I stared for a short while, seeing a greater number every few seconds, until I saw a shooting star. It wasn't my first shooting star, I've seen them before, but it was my first unsolicited shooting star. Before, I'd always been asked to go and look at them, or had read about a shower of them, and looked then. I'd never just looked in the sky and seen one. It was amazing. Very brief, very small, very short, but perfect.
I returned home and slept, waking today at eleven, despite a very odd dream that involved me returning to Japan for just a few days, and in that time, getting injured in an earthquake in Osaka while on the tube system. This injury affected my memory, so in the dream, I had no recollection of it happening. That was a strange feeling for a dream, it was a realistic feeling of memory loss, compared to a memorable dream I had about seven years ago, which had a school friend use the memory wiping thing from Men in Black on me, which felt like being pushed backwards in time. I'm hitting a very obscure tangent here, especially considering that I started this paragraph talking about returning home. But anyway, I met a rabid Ta and my dream was over.
Today I finished my coursework, printed it and handed it in on time. So unlike me! I found the dedication of the students here to be ridiculous though. Ok, the printer gets an error. What does a normal person do? Read the error message. Here? They run away. They leave the print server logged on, and they run away. Maybe in search of help, maybe just another printer. I read their error message, it told me which part of the printer to open, what tabs to pull and how to remove the jammed paper. I unclogged the printer and went on printing while all the unresolving students queued for the upstairs printer, or queued behind me. It was all good, I got it done and handed in.
While printing at the library, I saw Weiwei for the first time in a while. She didn't really say much, she just gaped and told me how skinny I was looking. She should have seen me after I got back and discovered the two for one Pepperoni Pizza Pouches at Tescos. But it was wonderful to see her, albeit brief and spent mostly waiting for her to close her mouth.
Emma and I watched the Matrix, and despite her telling me she'd seen it, apparently she hadn't. Well, she didn't know key plot details. And she hasn't seen the third one, which despite its bad reviews, I find key to the experience. Well, we have a bank holiday weekend, and if the lovers can keep the noise down, we might be able to watch in peace.
I read Maddox today. Turns out he hates blogs. I can't really fault him much on what he says, but I won't change what I do because of his opinions. I still think he's awesome. I think he makes my awesome list. If you haven't seen my awesome list, then it's because I haven't written it yet. Here it is:
Dan W
Maddox
QT
Johnny
Edward Norton
That's about it for now. And I think that's about it for the blog. I am actually getting tired. There's probably some crazy stuff I left out and will forget to add next entry and will be forever lost in memory, but you know, it probably wasn't that interesting anyway. Later.
I'm logged on to Blogger, I'm not going to log out and log back in before I leave my desk. Idiot.
Anyway, I'm here again because I didn't want to go home again like yesterday, and it means saving petrol. But after I left my home yesterday, I looked out and noticed it was a beautiful night, so I drove to the nearest place without street lights, the local car park where I learnt to drive, and parked there. I stuck my head out of the window, and turned off all nearby lights (but left the heater on, as it was freezing last night).
You know how it is; you look up to the dark sky, and as your eyes adjust, more and more stars appear out of the blanketing dark. I stared for a short while, seeing a greater number every few seconds, until I saw a shooting star. It wasn't my first shooting star, I've seen them before, but it was my first unsolicited shooting star. Before, I'd always been asked to go and look at them, or had read about a shower of them, and looked then. I'd never just looked in the sky and seen one. It was amazing. Very brief, very small, very short, but perfect.
I returned home and slept, waking today at eleven, despite a very odd dream that involved me returning to Japan for just a few days, and in that time, getting injured in an earthquake in Osaka while on the tube system. This injury affected my memory, so in the dream, I had no recollection of it happening. That was a strange feeling for a dream, it was a realistic feeling of memory loss, compared to a memorable dream I had about seven years ago, which had a school friend use the memory wiping thing from Men in Black on me, which felt like being pushed backwards in time. I'm hitting a very obscure tangent here, especially considering that I started this paragraph talking about returning home. But anyway, I met a rabid Ta and my dream was over.
Today I finished my coursework, printed it and handed it in on time. So unlike me! I found the dedication of the students here to be ridiculous though. Ok, the printer gets an error. What does a normal person do? Read the error message. Here? They run away. They leave the print server logged on, and they run away. Maybe in search of help, maybe just another printer. I read their error message, it told me which part of the printer to open, what tabs to pull and how to remove the jammed paper. I unclogged the printer and went on printing while all the unresolving students queued for the upstairs printer, or queued behind me. It was all good, I got it done and handed in.
While printing at the library, I saw Weiwei for the first time in a while. She didn't really say much, she just gaped and told me how skinny I was looking. She should have seen me after I got back and discovered the two for one Pepperoni Pizza Pouches at Tescos. But it was wonderful to see her, albeit brief and spent mostly waiting for her to close her mouth.
Emma and I watched the Matrix, and despite her telling me she'd seen it, apparently she hadn't. Well, she didn't know key plot details. And she hasn't seen the third one, which despite its bad reviews, I find key to the experience. Well, we have a bank holiday weekend, and if the lovers can keep the noise down, we might be able to watch in peace.
I read Maddox today. Turns out he hates blogs. I can't really fault him much on what he says, but I won't change what I do because of his opinions. I still think he's awesome. I think he makes my awesome list. If you haven't seen my awesome list, then it's because I haven't written it yet. Here it is:
Dan W
Maddox
QT
Johnny
Edward Norton
That's about it for now. And I think that's about it for the blog. I am actually getting tired. There's probably some crazy stuff I left out and will forget to add next entry and will be forever lost in memory, but you know, it probably wasn't that interesting anyway. Later.
Friday 26 August 2005
Again Minor Update
I thought I'd share with you some of the fine visual memories Japan offered me. Oh, and also, I fixed my RSS feed. It's http://www.quasiblog.net/rss/atom.xml, in case you're not familiar with the Firefox RSS button, or you aren't using Firefox, and in that case you should die.
Anyway, without further ado... I give you Kishiwada Castle.
The first, and most beautiful, and highest resolution photo I took with my broken camera phone. It's the smallest castle in Japan, I think, and it is very beautiful. I didn't actually bother going inside, because that would require paying.
Atop a tower in Tokyo I took this rather beautiful image. You can just about see me and the camera in the reflection. Think of it as adding authenticity.
And the final image a I leave you is this one. A few of you may know that my nickname when I was younger, occasionally, was Ritter. On our last day, Emma and I came across this ironic shop name, and I found it was very hard to frame this image.
Anyway, that's all. If you haven't read my last entry, get to it, there's more written content.
Anyway, without further ado... I give you Kishiwada Castle.
The first, and most beautiful, and highest resolution photo I took with my broken camera phone. It's the smallest castle in Japan, I think, and it is very beautiful. I didn't actually bother going inside, because that would require paying.
Atop a tower in Tokyo I took this rather beautiful image. You can just about see me and the camera in the reflection. Think of it as adding authenticity.
And the final image a I leave you is this one. A few of you may know that my nickname when I was younger, occasionally, was Ritter. On our last day, Emma and I came across this ironic shop name, and I found it was very hard to frame this image.
Anyway, that's all. If you haven't read my last entry, get to it, there's more written content.
Thursday 25 August 2005
Trinoctem Delay
This is a first. Or at least, the first in a while without good reason. I forget how faithful I have been to my updating over the previous four months. But I know that the times where I leave the blog unupdated for three days are rare. So here's a three day late entry.
But to be honest with you all, updating is much more fun when there is something to talk about. When Kaori and Emma returned back from the Library for lunch, they were guessing whether I would be reading manga, watching Futurama, or "smokey kitchen", which I'm guessing is their way of saying I'm a terrible chef, so the third option was that of cooking. Had they come a few minutes earlier, it would have almost been a combination of all three. However, the episode had just finished, and I had actually been reading a book on grammar, rather than manga, and the smoke in the kitchen was pretty latent, so it wasn't going to disperse quickly.
But their game pretty much summed up my last few days. Futurama, burning bacon, attempting to translate manga, I haven't had too much excitement saturating these weeks. I did some actual work today though. Dan came over to Southlands College and we eventually did some work. He is getting ready for the Quantitative Methods resit exam, and I have to get him able to pass it. We joked about Italaway and observed the film crews filling up Digby (for some reason they're filming a comedy there). We also joked about making a fort in the newly divided library computer room, and we took the photos off my phone and emailed them to myself. I can finally show people some pictures of my wonderful journeys. But I'll post them later. It was good to see him, I did miss him a lot while I was away. I missed some people an awful lot while I was away, just not quite enough to make me want to stay here.
He came back and we chatted with Emma and we sang a punk version of Runaway by Del Shannon, and after a little delegation over the meaning of "disrepute", I drove him home to the tune of Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys. And I got to see Julia when I went up briefly, despite the fact that she was sleepy.
Dan's constant begging of me to partake with him a devilishly dangerous and probably illegal ploy seems extremely tempting. I currently give us a 80% chance of succeeding and not being caught, but the punishment for being caught is too unimaginable, and I'm not willing to risk it. It is very tempting though. It wouldn't be fun to do, or even have that many benefits, but it would be fun to see if we could do it, and it would be fun to try and get away with it. There are so many times that I just wish to do something illegal just to see if I can get away with it, without hurting anyone. You know, victimless crimes and such. I'd like to try them with impunity.
But I'm digressing from my boring day.
The whole situation with Katou was sorted. He wanted Emma to apologise, and Emma refused outright. I admire Emma in her consistent refusal to apologise, and it's something that I'd do as well if I weren't so eager to placate people in delicate situations. Anyway, she told him what was what, and he understood. Neither of them wanted to risk saying something incorrectly, so they both used they own languages to talk. It was honestly quite amazing to see Emma argue in English, Katou respond in Japanese and Emma to retort once more in English, without any hesitation from either of them.
The Family Guy movie and Sin City both finished downloading. I watched the Family Guy movie, and I enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching what they can do without as much fear of censorship, but I didn't find it as funny as my sister, I found it more of the quality of an extended episode.
And you all know how I feel about Sin City.
I received emails from several friends I met in Japan, I will be sure to forward emails with photos when I get them all sorted. It feels strange to know so many people, and to be so confused over so many names.
Anyway, it's getting late, and I have nothing to do, but I'm getting bored of typing, I want to browse Bash. Maybe something interesting will happen, maybe it won't. Maybe I'll get married, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll dance the Funky Chicken... dance...
That's something interesting that happened! Emma and I had an 80s theme party night, with just us dancing until we were too tired to dance anymore. We emulated the club atmosphere, and I used all five satellite speakers on my system to really get the beat going. We had 80s music, and then we relented and had 00s dance/techno music, just because we could move more to it.
Anyway, consider that an epilogue.
But to be honest with you all, updating is much more fun when there is something to talk about. When Kaori and Emma returned back from the Library for lunch, they were guessing whether I would be reading manga, watching Futurama, or "smokey kitchen", which I'm guessing is their way of saying I'm a terrible chef, so the third option was that of cooking. Had they come a few minutes earlier, it would have almost been a combination of all three. However, the episode had just finished, and I had actually been reading a book on grammar, rather than manga, and the smoke in the kitchen was pretty latent, so it wasn't going to disperse quickly.
But their game pretty much summed up my last few days. Futurama, burning bacon, attempting to translate manga, I haven't had too much excitement saturating these weeks. I did some actual work today though. Dan came over to Southlands College and we eventually did some work. He is getting ready for the Quantitative Methods resit exam, and I have to get him able to pass it. We joked about Italaway and observed the film crews filling up Digby (for some reason they're filming a comedy there). We also joked about making a fort in the newly divided library computer room, and we took the photos off my phone and emailed them to myself. I can finally show people some pictures of my wonderful journeys. But I'll post them later. It was good to see him, I did miss him a lot while I was away. I missed some people an awful lot while I was away, just not quite enough to make me want to stay here.
He came back and we chatted with Emma and we sang a punk version of Runaway by Del Shannon, and after a little delegation over the meaning of "disrepute", I drove him home to the tune of Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys. And I got to see Julia when I went up briefly, despite the fact that she was sleepy.
Dan's constant begging of me to partake with him a devilishly dangerous and probably illegal ploy seems extremely tempting. I currently give us a 80% chance of succeeding and not being caught, but the punishment for being caught is too unimaginable, and I'm not willing to risk it. It is very tempting though. It wouldn't be fun to do, or even have that many benefits, but it would be fun to see if we could do it, and it would be fun to try and get away with it. There are so many times that I just wish to do something illegal just to see if I can get away with it, without hurting anyone. You know, victimless crimes and such. I'd like to try them with impunity.
But I'm digressing from my boring day.
The whole situation with Katou was sorted. He wanted Emma to apologise, and Emma refused outright. I admire Emma in her consistent refusal to apologise, and it's something that I'd do as well if I weren't so eager to placate people in delicate situations. Anyway, she told him what was what, and he understood. Neither of them wanted to risk saying something incorrectly, so they both used they own languages to talk. It was honestly quite amazing to see Emma argue in English, Katou respond in Japanese and Emma to retort once more in English, without any hesitation from either of them.
The Family Guy movie and Sin City both finished downloading. I watched the Family Guy movie, and I enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching what they can do without as much fear of censorship, but I didn't find it as funny as my sister, I found it more of the quality of an extended episode.
And you all know how I feel about Sin City.
I received emails from several friends I met in Japan, I will be sure to forward emails with photos when I get them all sorted. It feels strange to know so many people, and to be so confused over so many names.
Anyway, it's getting late, and I have nothing to do, but I'm getting bored of typing, I want to browse Bash. Maybe something interesting will happen, maybe it won't. Maybe I'll get married, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll dance the Funky Chicken... dance...
That's something interesting that happened! Emma and I had an 80s theme party night, with just us dancing until we were too tired to dance anymore. We emulated the club atmosphere, and I used all five satellite speakers on my system to really get the beat going. We had 80s music, and then we relented and had 00s dance/techno music, just because we could move more to it.
Anyway, consider that an epilogue.
Monday 22 August 2005
HDH
I'm not explaining the title. Think of it as code. It's early afternoon in a miserable London day. I'm not complaining about the weather, it's refreshing, I do, however, feel that it puts off people to visit, and through that medium, that of people visiting, I am allowed to reach the outside world.
I say this because Qian arrived home yesterday. Home as in Mount Clare, the dump where Roehampton sticks the foreign students. Her actual home is back in China, where she wants to be. I saw her for the first time in months today, and it was hard, because I could tell that she, like me, wants to be back in the East. She hates this place maybe as much as I do, maybe less. But she didn't disguise the fact that she, after just one day, wanted to go home. She said it outright.
I have been seriously considering going to China next year, but apparently while she was there it was 38°C, and that number is scary. But still, maybe, maybe.
But seeing her again, speaking to her, it made me realise that I had really missed her and that I do owe her a lot. She gave me a lovely large Chinese fan, and she gave a little present to me for my sister, which is really beyond thoughtfulness. We both need to do resists, so this week will be spent probably doing work. But I appreciate seeing her again, I had forgotten how comforting her voice is, how comforting it is just to be near her.
To say there was an altercation at the house last night isn't quite true, but Katou was angry, it was my fault, and perhaps I take the language barrier for granted. Emma and I know that if we need to talk privately, we just obfuscate and we're either not understood or ignored. However it led to the belief, through a small comedy of unintentional misunderstandings, Katou believed we were bad mouthing him; waluguchi, as he put it. Emma and I didn't manage to sort it out that night, so some bilingual explaining might be on the cards.
But the actions within the house, while I won't go into them, I can see it as a problem at least until Mizuki returns, which may be a while, since we got her return date wrong already. But Dan coming around yesterday proved a fluid catalyst to the dynamic, which due to the recent changes, was necessary. I'm in Southlands with him now, maybe he'll come around again. I have some spare bacon that needs cooking.
Anyway, I probably should work, and so should he. It was wonderful to see Qian again, and I think seeing her probably sorted any issues I had arisen during the revelatory American Beauty viewing. But it's sorted. She, she's the original LL3 girl. It think it had been too long since I saw her. Bless.
I say this because Qian arrived home yesterday. Home as in Mount Clare, the dump where Roehampton sticks the foreign students. Her actual home is back in China, where she wants to be. I saw her for the first time in months today, and it was hard, because I could tell that she, like me, wants to be back in the East. She hates this place maybe as much as I do, maybe less. But she didn't disguise the fact that she, after just one day, wanted to go home. She said it outright.
I have been seriously considering going to China next year, but apparently while she was there it was 38°C, and that number is scary. But still, maybe, maybe.
But seeing her again, speaking to her, it made me realise that I had really missed her and that I do owe her a lot. She gave me a lovely large Chinese fan, and she gave a little present to me for my sister, which is really beyond thoughtfulness. We both need to do resists, so this week will be spent probably doing work. But I appreciate seeing her again, I had forgotten how comforting her voice is, how comforting it is just to be near her.
To say there was an altercation at the house last night isn't quite true, but Katou was angry, it was my fault, and perhaps I take the language barrier for granted. Emma and I know that if we need to talk privately, we just obfuscate and we're either not understood or ignored. However it led to the belief, through a small comedy of unintentional misunderstandings, Katou believed we were bad mouthing him; waluguchi, as he put it. Emma and I didn't manage to sort it out that night, so some bilingual explaining might be on the cards.
But the actions within the house, while I won't go into them, I can see it as a problem at least until Mizuki returns, which may be a while, since we got her return date wrong already. But Dan coming around yesterday proved a fluid catalyst to the dynamic, which due to the recent changes, was necessary. I'm in Southlands with him now, maybe he'll come around again. I have some spare bacon that needs cooking.
Anyway, I probably should work, and so should he. It was wonderful to see Qian again, and I think seeing her probably sorted any issues I had arisen during the revelatory American Beauty viewing. But it's sorted. She, she's the original LL3 girl. It think it had been too long since I saw her. Bless.
Sunday 21 August 2005
Quick Update
Nothing to Report.
Well, not much. I saw American Beauty last night, only six years late. I have to say, it is spectacular, and a film that any self respecting human should see. It affected me strongly, in the way certain sad films do, and I have been stuck thinking strangely since. Emma said I was more quiet, and I think I can attribute it to being slightly disturbed by it.
Maybe it was the company I viewed it in, which I won't go into detail, but it reminds me of what I'm missing out on.
After the film I listened to True Love Waits by Christopher O'Reiley, and it's a stunning CD. I also listened to Hail to the Thief by Radiohead, which, while not my favourite Radiohead CD, has some really wonderful songs and some outstanding moments. Speaking of wonderful songs, I enjoyed the soundtrack to American Beauty almost as much as the film itself.
Anyway, I know that I'm brief, I won't keep you. Quasi out.
Well, not much. I saw American Beauty last night, only six years late. I have to say, it is spectacular, and a film that any self respecting human should see. It affected me strongly, in the way certain sad films do, and I have been stuck thinking strangely since. Emma said I was more quiet, and I think I can attribute it to being slightly disturbed by it.
Maybe it was the company I viewed it in, which I won't go into detail, but it reminds me of what I'm missing out on.
After the film I listened to True Love Waits by Christopher O'Reiley, and it's a stunning CD. I also listened to Hail to the Thief by Radiohead, which, while not my favourite Radiohead CD, has some really wonderful songs and some outstanding moments. Speaking of wonderful songs, I enjoyed the soundtrack to American Beauty almost as much as the film itself.
Anyway, I know that I'm brief, I won't keep you. Quasi out.
Friday 19 August 2005
We Have Normality
So the final stages of this weird and wonderful Summer of change are closing. Everyone's returning to the house, people are coming back to (and leaving) England for good, and I'm about to get back to the normal way of life. Last night the group came back from Iceland, and it was great to see Kaori and Katou again, who both greeted me with a happy hug.
Seeing their Iceland photos took me back there. They saw the same geyser as us, and took an identical video, like us, they want to the same shopping mall (the only one), and saw the same city. While their route was that of touring southern Iceland, and my family did the Reykjavik-Akureyri-Geyser triangle, coming through the middle of Iceland, and missing most of the awesomeness that the group just experienced. All the shopping they did at "BONUS" reminded me of the obscurely eyed pig that advertised them. It's also very strange to actually be living with Katou. Seeing as he had to get out of the "Korean Guest House" that he was staying in as it closed for the Summer, he's been living here, and last night was the first time I shared a roof.
But it's great to have them back. My attempts to contact Yukina after getting back were in vain, as I discovered from Kaori that she'd left for Tokyo before I'd returned, which was a great shame because I held out hope on seeing her again. But some things are confined to memory.
Anyway, some of you have noticed that I didn't update again yesterday. This is despite access to the internet. It's because nothing's really happened. It was waiting for the group to return and watching films with Emma, which as the saying goes, is nothing to write home about. There's still not much to say, other than I have huge fears that I may have lost Stuart's bicycle key, which is very embarrassing.
Anyway, I can't be too long (my catchphrase) as I'm going to Tesco's soon with the group to replenish stocks of food. In my case, lemonade.
A final thought: I hate this place, I can't stand the people, they're are 90% a yobbish conglomerate, with shaven heads and cigarettes, I can't stand their existence, let alone their rule over Britain. The working class hold on England is disgusting, and so is the presence of the people who deride joy from causing others pain, of which I found none on my travels and know of many here. I really can't wait to get out of here, out of this hemisphere, and into some place where I feel a lot safer and more welcome.
Here's my plan: We will be departing England shortly, before making a brief stop at Japan. After Japan, we will head to our final destination, Canada. Thank you for riding Quasiair, we hope you enjoy your life.
Seeing their Iceland photos took me back there. They saw the same geyser as us, and took an identical video, like us, they want to the same shopping mall (the only one), and saw the same city. While their route was that of touring southern Iceland, and my family did the Reykjavik-Akureyri-Geyser triangle, coming through the middle of Iceland, and missing most of the awesomeness that the group just experienced. All the shopping they did at "BONUS" reminded me of the obscurely eyed pig that advertised them. It's also very strange to actually be living with Katou. Seeing as he had to get out of the "Korean Guest House" that he was staying in as it closed for the Summer, he's been living here, and last night was the first time I shared a roof.
But it's great to have them back. My attempts to contact Yukina after getting back were in vain, as I discovered from Kaori that she'd left for Tokyo before I'd returned, which was a great shame because I held out hope on seeing her again. But some things are confined to memory.
Anyway, some of you have noticed that I didn't update again yesterday. This is despite access to the internet. It's because nothing's really happened. It was waiting for the group to return and watching films with Emma, which as the saying goes, is nothing to write home about. There's still not much to say, other than I have huge fears that I may have lost Stuart's bicycle key, which is very embarrassing.
Anyway, I can't be too long (my catchphrase) as I'm going to Tesco's soon with the group to replenish stocks of food. In my case, lemonade.
A final thought: I hate this place, I can't stand the people, they're are 90% a yobbish conglomerate, with shaven heads and cigarettes, I can't stand their existence, let alone their rule over Britain. The working class hold on England is disgusting, and so is the presence of the people who deride joy from causing others pain, of which I found none on my travels and know of many here. I really can't wait to get out of here, out of this hemisphere, and into some place where I feel a lot safer and more welcome.
Here's my plan: We will be departing England shortly, before making a brief stop at Japan. After Japan, we will head to our final destination, Canada. Thank you for riding Quasiair, we hope you enjoy your life.
Wednesday 17 August 2005
Another Missed Entry
I feel terrible about missing days. It's like those days are lost forever.
But then I think that it doesn't matter, because all this is is a publicised journal, and therefore it reflects as such, and nothing more, public thoughts, and if I were to view a day unentered as a day lost, then all my thoughts that I have kept to myself are also lost, and only a shining public side of history remains.
And that just isn't true.
Anyway, one thing that I didn't cover at the point of last entry: due to a clerical error and a complete misunderstanding, I was Program Terminated. For all of those reading who don't understand the Roehampton lingo, basically means I cannot return to University to continue at my second year. And, much like yourselves right now, I discovered this with jaw agape, and eyes white. So I spent yesterday morning marching around Roehampton speaking to more and more senior people to get this entire situation rectified. Eventually, I made it to the Program convener, Rodney Stratford, who took me for Computer Architecture in the first semester. He knew me, he knew what I was capable of (I came top in his exam), and he knew that this was a mistake, so I explained the circumstances of it, and he made some phone calls and, fingers crossed, it'll be overturned, and the missing coursework can be handed in at a resit.
What it made me realise is that things are so easily lost in the beurocrap. Via paperwork, electronic or otherwise, there is no room for humanity, and therefore a human has to deal with what is obviously a grave error. The paperwork system in Roehampton deals in a clinical way, with no forgivings and no understandings, that lead to these stupid problems.
Terminating someone who is coming top in most exams and spends most of his term time helping others understand the coursework assignments is ridiculous, and yet by their own error they do it, leaving me and the convener to sort out their mess. Now I'm not saying I'm a perfect student; organisation is an issue for me, and some work that I did was late, however, the degree of reaction taken by late work is by far an overreaction, and I don't see it as beneficial to the student or the University.
But... it's their system. I can't change it, I just found my way around it.
I spent the rest of the day doing some hedge trimming and I watched the second volume of Kill Bill. At lunch, Emma made pork with ginger, and that was really good. My stomach reacts better to Japanese style food than Western food still (did I mention I am still ill?). I'm guessing it just misses Japan. When she returned from work at 5 we painted the bathroom and then chatted and finally started watching Final Destination 2. Apparently the pain fumes and the large screen gave her a headache, so she left after 15 minutes, and I decided to stop and watch the first one, seeing as I hadn't seen it in a while. Now, since I have been learning a little more about film since I first saw it, I noticed the bad parts of the film a lot more, but since I'm such a huge fun of graphical symbolism, the end scene still makes the whole film for me. I think that's what the second film lacked, despite being technically made better.
That was my yesterday. Today, I woke and went into Roehampton with Emma and now I'm on the computers typing away, emailing friends in Japan, about to go and cook some eggs.
I'm probably going to make a short entry on jtf now, and it won't be the same, so if you want the fill quasiblog experience, I recommend you read both.
But then I think that it doesn't matter, because all this is is a publicised journal, and therefore it reflects as such, and nothing more, public thoughts, and if I were to view a day unentered as a day lost, then all my thoughts that I have kept to myself are also lost, and only a shining public side of history remains.
And that just isn't true.
Anyway, one thing that I didn't cover at the point of last entry: due to a clerical error and a complete misunderstanding, I was Program Terminated. For all of those reading who don't understand the Roehampton lingo, basically means I cannot return to University to continue at my second year. And, much like yourselves right now, I discovered this with jaw agape, and eyes white. So I spent yesterday morning marching around Roehampton speaking to more and more senior people to get this entire situation rectified. Eventually, I made it to the Program convener, Rodney Stratford, who took me for Computer Architecture in the first semester. He knew me, he knew what I was capable of (I came top in his exam), and he knew that this was a mistake, so I explained the circumstances of it, and he made some phone calls and, fingers crossed, it'll be overturned, and the missing coursework can be handed in at a resit.
What it made me realise is that things are so easily lost in the beurocrap. Via paperwork, electronic or otherwise, there is no room for humanity, and therefore a human has to deal with what is obviously a grave error. The paperwork system in Roehampton deals in a clinical way, with no forgivings and no understandings, that lead to these stupid problems.
Terminating someone who is coming top in most exams and spends most of his term time helping others understand the coursework assignments is ridiculous, and yet by their own error they do it, leaving me and the convener to sort out their mess. Now I'm not saying I'm a perfect student; organisation is an issue for me, and some work that I did was late, however, the degree of reaction taken by late work is by far an overreaction, and I don't see it as beneficial to the student or the University.
But... it's their system. I can't change it, I just found my way around it.
I spent the rest of the day doing some hedge trimming and I watched the second volume of Kill Bill. At lunch, Emma made pork with ginger, and that was really good. My stomach reacts better to Japanese style food than Western food still (did I mention I am still ill?). I'm guessing it just misses Japan. When she returned from work at 5 we painted the bathroom and then chatted and finally started watching Final Destination 2. Apparently the pain fumes and the large screen gave her a headache, so she left after 15 minutes, and I decided to stop and watch the first one, seeing as I hadn't seen it in a while. Now, since I have been learning a little more about film since I first saw it, I noticed the bad parts of the film a lot more, but since I'm such a huge fun of graphical symbolism, the end scene still makes the whole film for me. I think that's what the second film lacked, despite being technically made better.
That was my yesterday. Today, I woke and went into Roehampton with Emma and now I'm on the computers typing away, emailing friends in Japan, about to go and cook some eggs.
I'm probably going to make a short entry on jtf now, and it won't be the same, so if you want the fill quasiblog experience, I recommend you read both.
Monday 15 August 2005
Still Ill, Still Tired
My hope of meeting Emma this evening diminished with more rest, and finding her three missed calls on my charging phone made me feel guilt. I really want to be better, but I evidently lack the ability to fight off this illness, and it seems the stomach pain is getting less frequent, but worse.
Anyway, I have a joyous announcement. I have started a new blog, on this very server!
It's the top link in my ever expanding link sidebar, and it's the creation for everyone who's ever seen my blog and wet their trousers at the sheer enormousness of its wordiness. It's quasiblog - just the facts, and its a cut down back to basics form of my blog, with pasted extracts and the best parts which you might not have time for. Some may say, "Why bother? I don't read your blog anyway.". But then they'd have to be psychic to know about it this, and I'd rather encourage them to solve crimes than read weblogs.
But seriously? Why bother? Because it's a fun idea and took less then ten minutes to implement. No new news, and no improvement on the condition since this morning. I'll let you know tomorrow if something's happened.
Anyway, I have a joyous announcement. I have started a new blog, on this very server!
It's the top link in my ever expanding link sidebar, and it's the creation for everyone who's ever seen my blog and wet their trousers at the sheer enormousness of its wordiness. It's quasiblog - just the facts, and its a cut down back to basics form of my blog, with pasted extracts and the best parts which you might not have time for. Some may say, "Why bother? I don't read your blog anyway.". But then they'd have to be psychic to know about it this, and I'd rather encourage them to solve crimes than read weblogs.
But seriously? Why bother? Because it's a fun idea and took less then ten minutes to implement. No new news, and no improvement on the condition since this morning. I'll let you know tomorrow if something's happened.
Resolution
Well, for any of you who have been following the saga between Jenny and myself, you'll be pleased (or unhappy) to know it came crashing to a conclusion a few minutes ago. If you aren't familiar with it, the story started at this entry and continued in this post, and then made an appearance in a post in Erin's Blog, before coming to a screeching hiatus here.
Anyway, it concluded via MSN, and short of pasting the long transcript here, I'll leave you with the conlucsion of the issue, edited extremely slightly for context reasons.
Quasi says:
But my admission of oversight error, does it somehow enable you to warn people about my absolute 'incapablity' and 'rudeness' of arriving unannounced at their houses?
EuGéniA says:
but probably i shouldn't have done that......
EuGéniA says:
I know....
EuGéniA says:
yeah ripton
EuGéniA says:
hehehehe i always got your point.
Quasi says:
I'm glad that's in the open.
EuGéniA says:
but i never wanted to admit it...
EuGéniA says:
but yeah
EuGéniA says:
i am sorry.....
EuGéniA says:
stupid i am sorry ok?
Quasi says:
So why did you then go and make eleven entries insulting me on my blog?
EuGéniA says:
HEHEHEHEHE
EuGéniA says:
i just wanted to piss u off
EuGéniA says:
at that time, i just wanted to piss u off
Anyway, now that's over, I'm probably going to go and take some more medication. My headache is returning. I hope I'm well enough to see Emma this evening.
Anyway, it concluded via MSN, and short of pasting the long transcript here, I'll leave you with the conlucsion of the issue, edited extremely slightly for context reasons.
Quasi says:
But my admission of oversight error, does it somehow enable you to warn people about my absolute 'incapablity' and 'rudeness' of arriving unannounced at their houses?
EuGéniA says:
but probably i shouldn't have done that......
EuGéniA says:
I know....
EuGéniA says:
yeah ripton
EuGéniA says:
hehehehe i always got your point.
Quasi says:
I'm glad that's in the open.
EuGéniA says:
but i never wanted to admit it...
EuGéniA says:
but yeah
EuGéniA says:
i am sorry.....
EuGéniA says:
stupid i am sorry ok?
Quasi says:
So why did you then go and make eleven entries insulting me on my blog?
EuGéniA says:
HEHEHEHEHE
EuGéniA says:
i just wanted to piss u off
EuGéniA says:
at that time, i just wanted to piss u off
Anyway, now that's over, I'm probably going to go and take some more medication. My headache is returning. I hope I'm well enough to see Emma this evening.
Day Off
Yesterday was the first time I didn't post in ages, and I realise that isn't like me unless I can't get to a computer. Well, yesterday, and for today so far, I have been horribly ill, so I couldn't get to a computer.
I won't go into details or I'll have to start putting up disclaimers, but it hasn't been pretty, and yesterday I was mostly confined to the house, apart from a short time at Tesco's getting some food, seeing as food is necessary for life and all. Today I'm feeling a bit better, but it comes and goes and I don't like it. It reminds me of when I had a Cryptosporadic Infection, which is a notifyable disease (the other notifyable diseases include Bubonic Plague and Anthrax). So apart from the films I watched and the colours we mused over for the bathroom, I haven't done much. I spoke to my sister about her new phone, which she's taking back, and I sorted some work with my mother, and I changed my template back (I did like the Japan one, but I'm not in Japan anymore).
But yeah, I've done nothing since. This is quite a short entry, just made because it's been too long. This entry also allows me to clear up some things that I didn't want to deal with in Japan because I was enjoying it all too much, so some loose ends can be properly tied up, or at least less frayed.
I haven't seen people about yet, and Kaori and Katou and Hosei aren't back from Iceland for a few days, so I will be looking for people around if I'm not sick tomorrow. I hope everyone is well, I have missed you all much, but it won't be long now. Keep rocking, and keep commenting, I'm back in this dull country, and I have to deal with it and its horrible inhabitants (I heard about the racism suffered by some of my friends' families due to the bombings, which includes being badly beaten, because they are Indian). So I guess for the next few years I have to suffer the awful people this country is breeding, but then again, enjoy some of the joys it offers (usually from abroad). I'm rambling, I'll speak to you all soon.
Jenny:
Cram it.
I won't go into details or I'll have to start putting up disclaimers, but it hasn't been pretty, and yesterday I was mostly confined to the house, apart from a short time at Tesco's getting some food, seeing as food is necessary for life and all. Today I'm feeling a bit better, but it comes and goes and I don't like it. It reminds me of when I had a Cryptosporadic Infection, which is a notifyable disease (the other notifyable diseases include Bubonic Plague and Anthrax). So apart from the films I watched and the colours we mused over for the bathroom, I haven't done much. I spoke to my sister about her new phone, which she's taking back, and I sorted some work with my mother, and I changed my template back (I did like the Japan one, but I'm not in Japan anymore).
But yeah, I've done nothing since. This is quite a short entry, just made because it's been too long. This entry also allows me to clear up some things that I didn't want to deal with in Japan because I was enjoying it all too much, so some loose ends can be properly tied up, or at least less frayed.
I haven't seen people about yet, and Kaori and Katou and Hosei aren't back from Iceland for a few days, so I will be looking for people around if I'm not sick tomorrow. I hope everyone is well, I have missed you all much, but it won't be long now. Keep rocking, and keep commenting, I'm back in this dull country, and I have to deal with it and its horrible inhabitants (I heard about the racism suffered by some of my friends' families due to the bombings, which includes being badly beaten, because they are Indian). So I guess for the next few years I have to suffer the awful people this country is breeding, but then again, enjoy some of the joys it offers (usually from abroad). I'm rambling, I'll speak to you all soon.
Jenny:
Cram it.
Saturday 13 August 2005
Getting Used to London
I got to sleep at around midnight last night, which left me eight hours sleep, but that wasn't really enough to combat the jet lag, but I wasn't late in getting up or getting to Victoria to meet Mi Jeung. In fact, I was early, but confusion over which McDonald's we were meeting at and where to find each other meant I had to wait for her to call me, and then from there it was ok. We made our way to Waterloo from Victoria by tube, and from there, walked to the Tate Modern. It's an amazing building, and we wandered the experimental architecture area and the Real Life floor for hours. The beauty of it was that she actually knows about art, and as it turns out we both studied Julian Opie, and we could talk about art with much less of an explaining tone, and I appreciated that. She studies furniture design, so she took notes and made sketches of form and design, and we had a great time wandering the huge gallery, despite the fact that I was feeling very ill for some of the time. We walked across the Millennium Bridge and bought some food at Marks and Spencer, before realising that at that time, we were both exhausted. Jet lag hit hard.
So I took her as far as I could towards her station, and we arranged loosely plans for the next few days, but nothing solid. I waved goodbye to her as my train left Clapham Junction, and went to the station, where, as I was phoning Dan to ask to meet him, I spotted an old friend who I hadn't seen for about a year. It was Andy, who I worked with at the Entertainer for 6 months, and it was really weird, because aside from a little facial hair growth, he hasn't changed much. Apparently he's designing shoes now, so it's going well for him. I thought he'd changed his number, but it turns out he'd just lost his phone for a while when I tried to contact him. We chatted for a bit, and he kept saying how much weight I'd lost. I realised that he wasn't a friend I wanted to lose contact with, so I'll give him a call sometime and we'll meet up. He hasn't seen my TV yet, so I can show him sometime.
I met with Dan, and we grabbed some food from Tesco's and we chatted for ages about Japan. I don't have many stories about it, but I always have something to say about it. When Dan and Andrew started playing Brian Lara Cricket on the XBox, I just fell asleep for an hour and a half. I'd taken some of Andrew's painkillers because my head had really been thumping, and I feel better now, but I have to sleep. I think another night of rest will get me working better, or at least I hope so.
Not much news, just plenty of desire to sleep and rest and be back to normal from Japanese time.
So I took her as far as I could towards her station, and we arranged loosely plans for the next few days, but nothing solid. I waved goodbye to her as my train left Clapham Junction, and went to the station, where, as I was phoning Dan to ask to meet him, I spotted an old friend who I hadn't seen for about a year. It was Andy, who I worked with at the Entertainer for 6 months, and it was really weird, because aside from a little facial hair growth, he hasn't changed much. Apparently he's designing shoes now, so it's going well for him. I thought he'd changed his number, but it turns out he'd just lost his phone for a while when I tried to contact him. We chatted for a bit, and he kept saying how much weight I'd lost. I realised that he wasn't a friend I wanted to lose contact with, so I'll give him a call sometime and we'll meet up. He hasn't seen my TV yet, so I can show him sometime.
I met with Dan, and we grabbed some food from Tesco's and we chatted for ages about Japan. I don't have many stories about it, but I always have something to say about it. When Dan and Andrew started playing Brian Lara Cricket on the XBox, I just fell asleep for an hour and a half. I'd taken some of Andrew's painkillers because my head had really been thumping, and I feel better now, but I have to sleep. I think another night of rest will get me working better, or at least I hope so.
Not much news, just plenty of desire to sleep and rest and be back to normal from Japanese time.
Friday 12 August 2005
Igirisu, Igirisu Desu
Final Destination: London.
Status: Arrived.
Mood: Happy.
Yeah, I'm back in England, and I already made the mistake of trying to push Shift + 7 in order to get an apostrophe. That'll be a habit that will take a while to shake. Prepare for many "I&ll"s and "he&d"s. But I came back today. But before I get to all of this, I'm going to talk about what happened after the last entry at the Mac store, which feels like last night, but was actually about 40 hours ago.
As I left the store, Emma had made friends with new people, though they'd gone by the time I came out. She thought the air conditioning was too high, so she uttered the immortal words "I'll go wait outside in the hot". It put her in a friend making mood, so as we wandered looking for dancing places, a group of gaijin asked us places to drink. We gave them a direction, and they went it, but we soon bumped into them again as somehow we both made a circle. We chatted with them for a while. The main dude was Canadian, and the main girl was from Nottingham, and it was strange to hear a different English accent at long last. We led them in the direction of Pure, as it seemed alcohol was taking their fancy that night.
Emma and I decided to spend the last minutes before returning to sleep/England just waving to people on the bridge, seeing who we can get to respond. We should have played it long ago, it was great! We got some smiles, some waves, and eventually one guy came up to me and told me he loved me. Bizarre. But after he'd moved on, more people came. Some shook our hands, it was amazing. The Love dude came back, shook hands, and with his friend, clearly drunk, we chatted. His friend, dressed in a striking green top, spoke to me. He didn't have enough consciousness to speak in English, so he spoke very fast in Japanese, in an accent I later found out to be from Gifu, where they use strange, different words for complicated sentence parts, like... pronouns. But I managed to see past the fact that he called himself a house and we talked about the American dream and how it applied to Japan. He then found it fun to take me arm in arm with him to find girls. He'd break out a new cigarette each time he came to a group, and asked for a light. The second group he came to, as it turned out, were tourists from Shikoku, and the one girl was so excited to be near a gaijin that she started chanting it and jumping around. I told her I was German, and didn't speak English, but as it turned out, she didn't speak English anyway, so I told her I was actually English. We went to a quiet and atmospheric little bar. Our group (consisting of me, Emma, the two drunk male friends and the three accosted females), was the only patronage there. It could pretty much only fit us anyway. The reason I was happy about it was that I held a conversation with her (the excited-over-the-gaijin girl), entirely in Japanese, for hours. Occasionally we needed translating help, but we spoke fine. She is a Kimono teacher, and said that when I return, she'll teach me how to wear one. She also insisted on giving me a gift of a tiny fan and facial grease removing wipes, which I tried to refuse, but ended up being charmed by the eccentricity of it all.
After the bar closed, we found we were too poor for karaoke, so we had to part ways, but not without phone numbers and emails. I ended up completely satisfied with my trip, as it was another perfect end to an evening, with fun, with confidence building language training, with weirdness, and with another example of how Japan is just nice without good reason to be.
I slept well. Albeit for about four hours. We approached bed at about three and woke at seven. Well, I woke at seven, Emma was showering at six thirty and getting ready to leave. Due to myself not being energetically motivated, I slumbered out of the door packed at eight, the time we were meant to be at the airport. The train left at 8:18 for the airport, and took about 50 minutes, meaning we were over an hour late for check in. Not that it mattered, as KLM had overbooked our flight by 150 seats. It seems KLM are eager to take bookings and money but not actually have the flights to back it up. But unlike in Amsterdam, they were very apologetic, and pretty much upgraded us to a direct flight that left two hours later and arrived over an hour earlier. We were put on a Japan Airlines flight, and we had time for a final teriyaki burger, and time to cart around the extra hand-luggage that I had to carry due to Stuart's extra clothes. But at 11:50, we boarded the plane, and I had huge problems, as someone was sitting in my seat, so I made my way to the back and put my luggage in an overhead at the back, and the seat they found for me was booked and oh it was a mess. After a short wait, they went and moved the person in my seat one along, and the person in their new seat to the back. I ended up sitting next to the person who was in my seat, who, as soon as I saw her writing, I knew was Korean. She seemed shy, and we didn't speak much for most of the flight, apart from occasionally sharing sweets and gum. I decided that I might as well be friendly to someone coming to London, so I asked her about her trip. I wasn't quite expecting that she would be quite so friendly. It seemed she was shy of her language skills, as she didn't speak much English, and everyone spoke to her in Japanese. We spoke for pretty much the rest of the flight. Emma joined us briefly and chatted, and we discussed what to do in London, and pretty much there and then decided we'd spend it together.
She came back to my house with my family, which with the unexpected appearance of my mother, made it quite a squeeze in the car back home. After I hugged Becky hello and did the usual brief and rushed formalities, I drove Emma and Mi Juang to our actual house, and she seemed to love just looking at England and the weird things all around. I drove her to the station to get to Victoria, gave her directions for Clapham Junction and changing, and arranged to go around art galleries tomorrow.
I'm really enjoying friendliness and new found friends at almost every corner. I'm scared of the soon to be overflowing Inbox, seeing as how many times I have given out my address, and how many photos need to be sent to me.
I'm feeling good, I'm happy about this holiday, it was perfect. And taking one look at England, I want to go back to Osaka. I missed everyone, but I seriously feel like Osaka is more suited to me, it's just a nicer city. The vending machines are cheaper, and the ticket machines work, and it's cleaner, and there are so many fewer thugs in Japan. I'm worried about Mi Juang's safety, as she's just come from the world's safest country to London on her own for a tour. I felt so safe in Japan, it felt right. Well, only a couple of years. For now, I have a comfy chair and internet, and I'm really happy with the last month. All is well.
Status: Arrived.
Mood: Happy.
Yeah, I'm back in England, and I already made the mistake of trying to push Shift + 7 in order to get an apostrophe. That'll be a habit that will take a while to shake. Prepare for many "I&ll"s and "he&d"s. But I came back today. But before I get to all of this, I'm going to talk about what happened after the last entry at the Mac store, which feels like last night, but was actually about 40 hours ago.
As I left the store, Emma had made friends with new people, though they'd gone by the time I came out. She thought the air conditioning was too high, so she uttered the immortal words "I'll go wait outside in the hot". It put her in a friend making mood, so as we wandered looking for dancing places, a group of gaijin asked us places to drink. We gave them a direction, and they went it, but we soon bumped into them again as somehow we both made a circle. We chatted with them for a while. The main dude was Canadian, and the main girl was from Nottingham, and it was strange to hear a different English accent at long last. We led them in the direction of Pure, as it seemed alcohol was taking their fancy that night.
Emma and I decided to spend the last minutes before returning to sleep/England just waving to people on the bridge, seeing who we can get to respond. We should have played it long ago, it was great! We got some smiles, some waves, and eventually one guy came up to me and told me he loved me. Bizarre. But after he'd moved on, more people came. Some shook our hands, it was amazing. The Love dude came back, shook hands, and with his friend, clearly drunk, we chatted. His friend, dressed in a striking green top, spoke to me. He didn't have enough consciousness to speak in English, so he spoke very fast in Japanese, in an accent I later found out to be from Gifu, where they use strange, different words for complicated sentence parts, like... pronouns. But I managed to see past the fact that he called himself a house and we talked about the American dream and how it applied to Japan. He then found it fun to take me arm in arm with him to find girls. He'd break out a new cigarette each time he came to a group, and asked for a light. The second group he came to, as it turned out, were tourists from Shikoku, and the one girl was so excited to be near a gaijin that she started chanting it and jumping around. I told her I was German, and didn't speak English, but as it turned out, she didn't speak English anyway, so I told her I was actually English. We went to a quiet and atmospheric little bar. Our group (consisting of me, Emma, the two drunk male friends and the three accosted females), was the only patronage there. It could pretty much only fit us anyway. The reason I was happy about it was that I held a conversation with her (the excited-over-the-gaijin girl), entirely in Japanese, for hours. Occasionally we needed translating help, but we spoke fine. She is a Kimono teacher, and said that when I return, she'll teach me how to wear one. She also insisted on giving me a gift of a tiny fan and facial grease removing wipes, which I tried to refuse, but ended up being charmed by the eccentricity of it all.
After the bar closed, we found we were too poor for karaoke, so we had to part ways, but not without phone numbers and emails. I ended up completely satisfied with my trip, as it was another perfect end to an evening, with fun, with confidence building language training, with weirdness, and with another example of how Japan is just nice without good reason to be.
I slept well. Albeit for about four hours. We approached bed at about three and woke at seven. Well, I woke at seven, Emma was showering at six thirty and getting ready to leave. Due to myself not being energetically motivated, I slumbered out of the door packed at eight, the time we were meant to be at the airport. The train left at 8:18 for the airport, and took about 50 minutes, meaning we were over an hour late for check in. Not that it mattered, as KLM had overbooked our flight by 150 seats. It seems KLM are eager to take bookings and money but not actually have the flights to back it up. But unlike in Amsterdam, they were very apologetic, and pretty much upgraded us to a direct flight that left two hours later and arrived over an hour earlier. We were put on a Japan Airlines flight, and we had time for a final teriyaki burger, and time to cart around the extra hand-luggage that I had to carry due to Stuart's extra clothes. But at 11:50, we boarded the plane, and I had huge problems, as someone was sitting in my seat, so I made my way to the back and put my luggage in an overhead at the back, and the seat they found for me was booked and oh it was a mess. After a short wait, they went and moved the person in my seat one along, and the person in their new seat to the back. I ended up sitting next to the person who was in my seat, who, as soon as I saw her writing, I knew was Korean. She seemed shy, and we didn't speak much for most of the flight, apart from occasionally sharing sweets and gum. I decided that I might as well be friendly to someone coming to London, so I asked her about her trip. I wasn't quite expecting that she would be quite so friendly. It seemed she was shy of her language skills, as she didn't speak much English, and everyone spoke to her in Japanese. We spoke for pretty much the rest of the flight. Emma joined us briefly and chatted, and we discussed what to do in London, and pretty much there and then decided we'd spend it together.
She came back to my house with my family, which with the unexpected appearance of my mother, made it quite a squeeze in the car back home. After I hugged Becky hello and did the usual brief and rushed formalities, I drove Emma and Mi Juang to our actual house, and she seemed to love just looking at England and the weird things all around. I drove her to the station to get to Victoria, gave her directions for Clapham Junction and changing, and arranged to go around art galleries tomorrow.
I'm really enjoying friendliness and new found friends at almost every corner. I'm scared of the soon to be overflowing Inbox, seeing as how many times I have given out my address, and how many photos need to be sent to me.
I'm feeling good, I'm happy about this holiday, it was perfect. And taking one look at England, I want to go back to Osaka. I missed everyone, but I seriously feel like Osaka is more suited to me, it's just a nicer city. The vending machines are cheaper, and the ticket machines work, and it's cleaner, and there are so many fewer thugs in Japan. I'm worried about Mi Juang's safety, as she's just come from the world's safest country to London on her own for a tour. I felt so safe in Japan, it felt right. Well, only a couple of years. For now, I have a comfy chair and internet, and I'm really happy with the last month. All is well.
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