Craziness
Well, lemme tell ya, it's been a long couple of weeks since I last posted. First and foremost in the good news portion, I've been officially accepted to both the HUSTEP Program at Hokkaido University, and for an AIEJ scholorship consisting of a monthly stipend and airfare. There is a flipside though... when AIEJ was factored in, my Freeman scholorship was adjusted from 7,000 to 5,000. I'm not one to turn down free money, but that's 2 grand I certainly could have used. Also Jimmy, who was to be the other person in the hustep program, was informed that he was NOT accepted, after it had been pretty much assumed that he was. That fucking sucks, Laurel's trying to get him into a different program, but I can imagine it feels like shit for him.
Okay, so normal life at my summer job at PVH (Phillips-Van Heusen) consists of me, playing the part of the summer intern, backed up by Harry and Eddie, the IT Helpdesk guys. Now, Eddie moved away a few months ago, so it was me, Harry, and a few temps helping with computer rollouts. When Eddie's replacement finally arrived, Harry had just had emergency surgery and was out for a week and a half, making me the new 'guy in charge' as it were. Good god it was stressful. Never realized how much there was to do beyond taking calls, and I'm glad as ever that Harry's back.
Nick Wilson was over my place last week. He came in on Monday, and had a few interviews in the city, so he stayed at my place. They seem to have gone well, with any luck he'll be working in Japan soon. The highlight of it all was we went back to that Karaoke place with Vin this time. I think Vin was a little intimidated by Nick and I singing a bunch of japanese songs, but he loosened up by the end of it. I felt brave enough to tackle "haruka kanata" and "cherry" (by asian kung fu generation and spitz respectively) and did them reasonably well. I was even able to find "walther P38" this time which was listed as "Lupin san sei sono 2" which would explain why I didn't find it last time. When we left the people running the place wanted to know where we learned to sing japanese songs like "japanese people". Nick said it's because lots of Japanese folks can't concieve of anyone not japanese speaking their language... I'd still like to take it as a compliment.
We went to dinner with billy and one of his college friends too, but honestly I can't say I particularly care for being around Billy when he's hanging out with people from outside our group. He has this whole other persona that he likes to keep up, and is embarrassed by the mere association with Vin and myself. Granted, knowing this, I can be an ass and make reference to things we do... simply because I know it embarrasses him, but I think that's mainly because I don't think it should. My feeling is, why invite us out with your friend if you don't want us to be there. His friend seemed cool, even if he didn't say much. I guess Karma was in effect, because billy got mad at me at the end of the night. He had apparently told us to call him around 11 to see about hanging out, and we were already underground heading home at that point, and I think when we got out and Vin called him, he had been making his way to where he thought we were... understandable I suppose, but I guess it's one for one... probably should have called him before we went underground, but he doesn't seem pissed anymore anyhoo. Guess everything's hunky dory.
Finally, tonight I saw the latest Harry Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban. I quite enjoyed it, and the thing that honestly sticks out the most is seeing actors I recognize. The rat-y fellow from the movie is none other then the fat brit from Last Samurai, which I watched last night and was as such a hoot. Also, and I missed this in the first two, Ron's dad was in Red fucking Dwarf. He played the chef, Olaf Peterson, and was in a few episodes. What with the guy who played Captain Holister being in Aliens for a couple of seconds and Rimmer being the butler in Tomb Raider, those crazy brits are slowly finding their way to hollywood. Excellent.
Okay, so normal life at my summer job at PVH (Phillips-Van Heusen) consists of me, playing the part of the summer intern, backed up by Harry and Eddie, the IT Helpdesk guys. Now, Eddie moved away a few months ago, so it was me, Harry, and a few temps helping with computer rollouts. When Eddie's replacement finally arrived, Harry had just had emergency surgery and was out for a week and a half, making me the new 'guy in charge' as it were. Good god it was stressful. Never realized how much there was to do beyond taking calls, and I'm glad as ever that Harry's back.
Nick Wilson was over my place last week. He came in on Monday, and had a few interviews in the city, so he stayed at my place. They seem to have gone well, with any luck he'll be working in Japan soon. The highlight of it all was we went back to that Karaoke place with Vin this time. I think Vin was a little intimidated by Nick and I singing a bunch of japanese songs, but he loosened up by the end of it. I felt brave enough to tackle "haruka kanata" and "cherry" (by asian kung fu generation and spitz respectively) and did them reasonably well. I was even able to find "walther P38" this time which was listed as "Lupin san sei sono 2" which would explain why I didn't find it last time. When we left the people running the place wanted to know where we learned to sing japanese songs like "japanese people". Nick said it's because lots of Japanese folks can't concieve of anyone not japanese speaking their language... I'd still like to take it as a compliment.
We went to dinner with billy and one of his college friends too, but honestly I can't say I particularly care for being around Billy when he's hanging out with people from outside our group. He has this whole other persona that he likes to keep up, and is embarrassed by the mere association with Vin and myself. Granted, knowing this, I can be an ass and make reference to things we do... simply because I know it embarrasses him, but I think that's mainly because I don't think it should. My feeling is, why invite us out with your friend if you don't want us to be there. His friend seemed cool, even if he didn't say much. I guess Karma was in effect, because billy got mad at me at the end of the night. He had apparently told us to call him around 11 to see about hanging out, and we were already underground heading home at that point, and I think when we got out and Vin called him, he had been making his way to where he thought we were... understandable I suppose, but I guess it's one for one... probably should have called him before we went underground, but he doesn't seem pissed anymore anyhoo. Guess everything's hunky dory.
Finally, tonight I saw the latest Harry Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban. I quite enjoyed it, and the thing that honestly sticks out the most is seeing actors I recognize. The rat-y fellow from the movie is none other then the fat brit from Last Samurai, which I watched last night and was as such a hoot. Also, and I missed this in the first two, Ron's dad was in Red fucking Dwarf. He played the chef, Olaf Peterson, and was in a few episodes. What with the guy who played Captain Holister being in Aliens for a couple of seconds and Rimmer being the butler in Tomb Raider, those crazy brits are slowly finding their way to hollywood. Excellent.