oh procrastinating!
today i have:
x done laundry
x cleaned bathroom
x set up stuff for summer_of_giles
x talked to both parents
x watched spartacus finale
x talked to gray_ghost about spartacus finale and possibility that japan will get bombed by korea
x mock interviewed another friend who is applying for a mechanical engineering position
x organized my food stores
x done dishes
do you notice the lack of homework on there? i do! apparently i really really really needed the weekend off. this is good for the brain. not so good for the homework monday, that's for sure. ugh.
last week sucked, mostly because i had trouble getting the pages done that i scheduled myself for this one reading i'm doing for my independent study. It was not *entirely* my fault - two passages were in classical Japanese (one wasn't so bad, but i did do an english translation for it, which takes a bit, and the other was so old that it's in a form of Japanese that really is written as mostly chinese called kanbun and i am not in love, trust me.) Anyway, there was that, and then there was the passage written in katakana (which is the modern japanese script used for foreign and loan words) that turned out to be DUTCH. Yes. that's right. DUTCH. took me a half an hour to figure it out though. oy. I ended up working until 2:30 am Thursday night to finish, and couldn't actually fall asleep until 3:30 am. It made for a painful finish to a week that was not so fun.
Because I also had two classes this week where people whose Japanese is better than mine (mine's better than it was, don't worry, but still, there's always going to be someone better) took these supercilious tones as if they knew more about literature than the rest of the people in the room, and it BUGGED ME TO NO END. Just because you can express yourself better doesn't actually mean you know more. One woman is new to my literature class on Fridays, which is supposed to be my fun class, and she basically has sat at the back of the room for two weeks and acted as if she was so above the rest of us in the manner in which she approaches literature. She literally said in class on Friday (when we were supposed to bring up discussion points), that she has taught the text in English in her own classes and she literally has said everything there is to say about it. And frankly, that kind of attitude bugs the shit out of me. I feel threatened. I feel as if my time is being wasted by them being in the room. And I feel as if these kinds of people are judging me and finding me lacking, and I do not like that. Because in my heart of hearts there's always the part of me that feels as if there's a million more books to read (because there ARE) and there's always more to know. And then there's the part of me that's like "dammit, this is not only my major, but I've actually passed my qualifying exams, and if anyone gets to act like that much of a know-it-all ass, it's me, because I did the time and studied the crap and WORKED for it. And if I'm not doing that, YOU can't!" Anyway, frustrating.
My present to myself this weekend was a friday night with Sam and Colin and Kat introducing them to the gloriousness that is Survive Style 5+. (trailer with english subtitles)
(yes, it is for reasons like the above that I study Japan. yes, this director is awesome. yes, your head will hurt a little if you watch it. but yes, you will be pleased in the end)
and a lot of eggs. This week, I decided, I'm going to do egg salad sandwiches, because i was reading a recipe that suggested using avacado instead of mayo in your egg salad. And I thought, hmm, that sounds awesome. and possibly pan-done Tortilla Espanola, just to have a little egg and potato going on. You see, I've basically given up eating Japanese at home. Some of it is Sam's influence, since he cooks a lot of tasty sounding things and mostly they aren't Japanese-inspired. But some of it is simply that I was never a big fan of a lot of the home-cooking-type things that the Japanese diet mostly consists of... (trust me, it's NOT sushi every night) and i've worn myself out of the ones I was a fan of. It's not a tragedy or anything, and it's not even hard to find most ingredients of the things i'm planning on cooking, but i feel somehow as if i'm failing in my job here by not eating Japanese all the time.
but my Mom is coming to visit in just under two weeks (12 days now!) so I figure I'm also going to get back into the swing of touristy Japanese eating with her... besides, it's always more fun to do that kind of stuff when you're sharing the tastes with someone.
and after having many many weeks where housemate and i were getting along, because i did slumber party at sam's on Friday (decided only at 12:30 am after the white russians and the week finally got to me - i was gonna walk home but that was basically vetoed by sam), she yelled at me as soon as I walked in the door on saturday. Because i wasn't home to chain lock the door, and because she is *so* respectful of the new rules that she wasn't going to lock it.... and so while the door was deadbolted, she yelled at me because it wasn't also chainlocked. (of course there was a short miscommuncation in the middle of her explaining this since she called it 'unlocked' the entire time ... and i was like, 'shit, did i not lock the main lock, so sorry!' and of course, no, that's not it). After we went a couple of rounds of me saying, "ok, look, I'm sorry the chain wasn't on the door, but I can't do that when I'm outside of the house. And I was still outside of the house." and her saying that it didn't matter where I was, "the house was unlocked for the whole night!" I bit the bullet and apologized for her feeling unsafe. Apparently what I should have done was called her at 12:30 am when I made the decision to stay at Sam's and told her she could lock the door. Cuz that seems like it would have gone over well, right?
9 more weeks people.
After taking a shower and cleaning the shower room (my weekend chore), I retired to my room and marathoned this awesome series called "Spy" WHICH YOU SHOULD WATCH IF YOU CAN GET HULU! it's on there! It is awesome! Adorable! Ridiculous!
And I went out last night to meet up with a few friends in Tokyo for authentic Italian pizza! Of course, it started out being three people, turned into six, and we ended up waiting 45 min for two of them to meet us at the train station, then nearly an hour to try to get a table (you just can't *do* a party of more than four in most Tokyo restaurants), and finally split into pairs to sit down and eat. By that time I was hungry enough that it tasted like HEAVEN, and me and my co-tablemate actually split two entire pizzas. By that time I was tired enough I didn't want to do the whole wandering for karoke, so headed home full, satisfied, and pleased that I'd picked a good table mate :D He and I got into a discussion of all the things I should be doing / eating before I go home, and we're going to try to meet up more often to taste and do stuff I shouldn't miss before I head back to the states for a while.
and now, to homework!
also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there
x done laundry
x cleaned bathroom
x set up stuff for summer_of_giles
x talked to both parents
x watched spartacus finale
x talked to gray_ghost about spartacus finale and possibility that japan will get bombed by korea
x mock interviewed another friend who is applying for a mechanical engineering position
x organized my food stores
x done dishes
do you notice the lack of homework on there? i do! apparently i really really really needed the weekend off. this is good for the brain. not so good for the homework monday, that's for sure. ugh.
last week sucked, mostly because i had trouble getting the pages done that i scheduled myself for this one reading i'm doing for my independent study. It was not *entirely* my fault - two passages were in classical Japanese (one wasn't so bad, but i did do an english translation for it, which takes a bit, and the other was so old that it's in a form of Japanese that really is written as mostly chinese called kanbun and i am not in love, trust me.) Anyway, there was that, and then there was the passage written in katakana (which is the modern japanese script used for foreign and loan words) that turned out to be DUTCH. Yes. that's right. DUTCH. took me a half an hour to figure it out though. oy. I ended up working until 2:30 am Thursday night to finish, and couldn't actually fall asleep until 3:30 am. It made for a painful finish to a week that was not so fun.
Because I also had two classes this week where people whose Japanese is better than mine (mine's better than it was, don't worry, but still, there's always going to be someone better) took these supercilious tones as if they knew more about literature than the rest of the people in the room, and it BUGGED ME TO NO END. Just because you can express yourself better doesn't actually mean you know more. One woman is new to my literature class on Fridays, which is supposed to be my fun class, and she basically has sat at the back of the room for two weeks and acted as if she was so above the rest of us in the manner in which she approaches literature. She literally said in class on Friday (when we were supposed to bring up discussion points), that she has taught the text in English in her own classes and she literally has said everything there is to say about it. And frankly, that kind of attitude bugs the shit out of me. I feel threatened. I feel as if my time is being wasted by them being in the room. And I feel as if these kinds of people are judging me and finding me lacking, and I do not like that. Because in my heart of hearts there's always the part of me that feels as if there's a million more books to read (because there ARE) and there's always more to know. And then there's the part of me that's like "dammit, this is not only my major, but I've actually passed my qualifying exams, and if anyone gets to act like that much of a know-it-all ass, it's me, because I did the time and studied the crap and WORKED for it. And if I'm not doing that, YOU can't!" Anyway, frustrating.
My present to myself this weekend was a friday night with Sam and Colin and Kat introducing them to the gloriousness that is Survive Style 5+. (trailer with english subtitles)
Click to view(yes, it is for reasons like the above that I study Japan. yes, this director is awesome. yes, your head will hurt a little if you watch it. but yes, you will be pleased in the end)
and a lot of eggs. This week, I decided, I'm going to do egg salad sandwiches, because i was reading a recipe that suggested using avacado instead of mayo in your egg salad. And I thought, hmm, that sounds awesome. and possibly pan-done Tortilla Espanola, just to have a little egg and potato going on. You see, I've basically given up eating Japanese at home. Some of it is Sam's influence, since he cooks a lot of tasty sounding things and mostly they aren't Japanese-inspired. But some of it is simply that I was never a big fan of a lot of the home-cooking-type things that the Japanese diet mostly consists of... (trust me, it's NOT sushi every night) and i've worn myself out of the ones I was a fan of. It's not a tragedy or anything, and it's not even hard to find most ingredients of the things i'm planning on cooking, but i feel somehow as if i'm failing in my job here by not eating Japanese all the time.
but my Mom is coming to visit in just under two weeks (12 days now!) so I figure I'm also going to get back into the swing of touristy Japanese eating with her... besides, it's always more fun to do that kind of stuff when you're sharing the tastes with someone.
and after having many many weeks where housemate and i were getting along, because i did slumber party at sam's on Friday (decided only at 12:30 am after the white russians and the week finally got to me - i was gonna walk home but that was basically vetoed by sam), she yelled at me as soon as I walked in the door on saturday. Because i wasn't home to chain lock the door, and because she is *so* respectful of the new rules that she wasn't going to lock it.... and so while the door was deadbolted, she yelled at me because it wasn't also chainlocked. (of course there was a short miscommuncation in the middle of her explaining this since she called it 'unlocked' the entire time ... and i was like, 'shit, did i not lock the main lock, so sorry!' and of course, no, that's not it). After we went a couple of rounds of me saying, "ok, look, I'm sorry the chain wasn't on the door, but I can't do that when I'm outside of the house. And I was still outside of the house." and her saying that it didn't matter where I was, "the house was unlocked for the whole night!" I bit the bullet and apologized for her feeling unsafe. Apparently what I should have done was called her at 12:30 am when I made the decision to stay at Sam's and told her she could lock the door. Cuz that seems like it would have gone over well, right?
9 more weeks people.
After taking a shower and cleaning the shower room (my weekend chore), I retired to my room and marathoned this awesome series called "Spy" WHICH YOU SHOULD WATCH IF YOU CAN GET HULU! it's on there! It is awesome! Adorable! Ridiculous!
And I went out last night to meet up with a few friends in Tokyo for authentic Italian pizza! Of course, it started out being three people, turned into six, and we ended up waiting 45 min for two of them to meet us at the train station, then nearly an hour to try to get a table (you just can't *do* a party of more than four in most Tokyo restaurants), and finally split into pairs to sit down and eat. By that time I was hungry enough that it tasted like HEAVEN, and me and my co-tablemate actually split two entire pizzas. By that time I was tired enough I didn't want to do the whole wandering for karoke, so headed home full, satisfied, and pleased that I'd picked a good table mate :D He and I got into a discussion of all the things I should be doing / eating before I go home, and we're going to try to meet up more often to taste and do stuff I shouldn't miss before I head back to the states for a while.
and now, to homework!
also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there