Hey all, long time no talk. A bit of prior warning: this is gonna be a shorter post because it's for a special occasion. Things have been super busy and I've been pretty forgetful about updating. I actually remembered I hadn't updated in a while back in late March and I planned to update right on the big anniversary of my blog, but I got swamped at work that week, missed the date, and then kept putting it off until now. But it's time I got around to saying...
HAPPY 10 YEARS!!!
Crazy to think I've been regularly maintaining this thing for 10 years. At this point in my life, there are very few things I can say I've done regularly for 10 years so this feels like a bit of an accomplishment. And thanks to all you guys for reading it through the years as well. It's really crazy (and cool) to look back at earlier posts and see how drastically my life has changed. Growing up is really neat haha.
Now with that out of the way, it's time to discuss the future of the blog. More recently, I had been toying with the idea of shutting it down because I don't update much anymore but I think I have a different solution now. What I'll be doing is just lowering the amount of updates I make. This blog once had a great purpose of letting people know what I was thinking and sharing weird stories through high school and college, as well as letting people keep up with my life when we all separated during college. But nowadays it seems our group of friends is really good about communicating online so I feel like I'm keeping up with your lives pretty well and it seems like you're able to keep up with my life pretty well also. So for that reason I'm going to start doing updates differently. I'll be looking to do them quarterly (March, June, September, December). In addition, I'll try to start shifting to a different type of content in my posts. I feel like I can only tell you the same 5 things for so long before it gets tedious so I'll try to be doing less talking about mundane events and more talking about significant thoughts or interesting events or anecdotes. Hopefully that keeps the content here more interesting. I might break my plan quickly at the start here by making a post in April if I get time, but if not, then you have to wait until June.
So there we have it, no immediate plans to shut down the blog but the possibility doesn't not exist. In the meantime though, we have lots of good times to look forward to. For now...peace out.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Time for my Superbowl picks y'all! I unfortunately missed last week, but I'll recap how I did below (spoiler alert: I did well). At the end of this, I have a picture from my nfl.com picks to prove that I wasn't lying. I stand to either tie my record (8 of 11) or have a new personal best (9 of 11) so I wanna prove it's legitimate. First let's start with the conference championship games.
Green Bay at Seattle: Seattle by a field goal
If you had asked me before the game started, I would have decidedly told you Seattle was going to win. If you had asked me halfway through the first quarter, I still would have said yeah I think Seattle will win. If you had asked me at halftime, I would have rubbed the back of my neck and said with a lack of confidence in my voice that I thought Seattle would maybe squeak out a win. If you had asked me in the third quarter, I would have pretty much given up and said it was likely Green Bay. Surely well into the fourth quarter, I was convinced we didn't have much of a chance. But thankfully miracles happen and the Seahawks reward my faith in picking them initially! Thanks guys! Side note, that was one of the most fun (read: stressful) games I've gotten to go to.
Colts at Patriots: Patriots by 10-14 points
Well I got the ending right, but I had no idea it was going to be such a huge blowout. It was a pretty easy prediction though with New England having Browner and Revis able to keep points off the board (unless your team plays with Joe Flacco).
And now time for my Superbowl prediction. I wanted to say New England, but I have to give it to Seattle. I can't bring myself to root against my home team. Plus I'm starting to come around and think we do actually have a shot. That being said, I won't be THAT sad if we lose because I do think Brady and Belichick deserve another title to cement themselves as true greats since Tom Brady is nearing the end of his career (whereas Russell Wilson has years ahead of him still to make me happy with more Superbowl wins. So my prediction is:
Seahawks vs. Patriots: Seahawks by a touchdown
It's going to be a lot closer than last season's Superbowl, that's for sure. I think Doug Baldwin is going to go to Revis island and will have little to no production. But if he can keep his ego under control and not demand too many balls from Russell Wilson, allowing him to throw to other receivers, then we can do some good stuff on passing. As for our defense, I think they'll be able to stop anything Tom Brady can throw at them as long as they keep him out of the red zone where he has thrown down some impressive plays this season.
Go Hawks!
Green Bay at Seattle: Seattle by a field goal
If you had asked me before the game started, I would have decidedly told you Seattle was going to win. If you had asked me halfway through the first quarter, I still would have said yeah I think Seattle will win. If you had asked me at halftime, I would have rubbed the back of my neck and said with a lack of confidence in my voice that I thought Seattle would maybe squeak out a win. If you had asked me in the third quarter, I would have pretty much given up and said it was likely Green Bay. Surely well into the fourth quarter, I was convinced we didn't have much of a chance. But thankfully miracles happen and the Seahawks reward my faith in picking them initially! Thanks guys! Side note, that was one of the most fun (read: stressful) games I've gotten to go to.
Colts at Patriots: Patriots by 10-14 points
Well I got the ending right, but I had no idea it was going to be such a huge blowout. It was a pretty easy prediction though with New England having Browner and Revis able to keep points off the board (unless your team plays with Joe Flacco).
And now time for my Superbowl prediction. I wanted to say New England, but I have to give it to Seattle. I can't bring myself to root against my home team. Plus I'm starting to come around and think we do actually have a shot. That being said, I won't be THAT sad if we lose because I do think Brady and Belichick deserve another title to cement themselves as true greats since Tom Brady is nearing the end of his career (whereas Russell Wilson has years ahead of him still to make me happy with more Superbowl wins. So my prediction is:
Seahawks vs. Patriots: Seahawks by a touchdown
It's going to be a lot closer than last season's Superbowl, that's for sure. I think Doug Baldwin is going to go to Revis island and will have little to no production. But if he can keep his ego under control and not demand too many balls from Russell Wilson, allowing him to throw to other receivers, then we can do some good stuff on passing. As for our defense, I think they'll be able to stop anything Tom Brady can throw at them as long as they keep him out of the red zone where he has thrown down some impressive plays this season.
Go Hawks!
Sunday, January 04, 2015
Hey all. If you're looking for an update, look below. If you're looking for FOOTBALL, look HERE!!! As the top finisher in two, count 'em TWO fantasy leagues this year, it's my pleasure and duty to inform you who is gonna win in these playoffs. I'm chasing after that record of 8 out of 11 picks. This weekend I missed making my picks on the blog, but I'll run over them really quick and I'll be honest about what I thought.
Cardinals at Panthers: Panthers by probably 2 touchdowns
The Cardinals started the season strong, but key injuries just made it obvious that they weren't going to make it anywhere in the playoffs. They basically made it into the playoffs on the backs of the guys who got injured. Once those guys were out, the Cardinals were pretty much locked in, but they weren't a playoff caliber team anymore. On the flipside, the Panthers were crappy all season and stepped up at the end of the season to scrape their way into the playoffs. That plus this being a home game for the Panthers made this an easy call.
Ravens at Steelers: Steelers by about 10 points
It was the Steelers at home. Big Ben has two awesome threats on his side with Bell and Brown. I totally forgot though that January Flacco is a scary opponent and that the Ravens are really amazing on the road in the playoffs. I guess I shouldn't have counted them out. I got this one very wrong.
Bengals at Colts: Colts by about 10 points
I made this prediction assuming AJ Green would play. Since he didn't, that left the Bengals sitting with virtually nothing against the Colts. Yeah the Colts had a crappy game in the final week of the regular season, but I had no reason to doubt Luck would s how up for the playoffs. Plus, the Bengals just keep losing in the playoffs year after year. This one seemed like a pretty easy call to make.
Lions at Cowboys: Cowboys by a possession
This one I definitely got right. Granted I may have decided on that before Suh was ruled back in the game, but it still worked out for me. This one was a tossup for me hence my decision to call it by just a possession. It was going to be between Dallas having a great offense and Detroit having a great defense. I gave Dallas the edge because Suh was supposed to be out (again I decided this pick early last week), but looks like even with him in it didn't change much.
So I'm currently sitting at 3 for 4. Pretty good, but I could have done better. Time to get started for next week's picks.
Panthers at Seahawks: Seahawks by a possession
As a Seahawks fan, I know all about what I can expect from a team with a losing record coming into the playoffs. All I can expect is an easy win at home and then getting smashed in the following game by a team that really deserved to be there. Plus it's the Seahawks at home. My faith may waver depending on who wins the Packers/Cowboys game, but I think this game should go to the Seahawks for sure.
Cowboys at Packers: Cowboys by a possession
The Cowboys scared me this week, but they're just a strong team this year. I'm on the Cowboys hype train these playoffs and I think they'll come to get revenge for the Ice Bowl next weekend. The defense can and needs to stop Rodgers. If they don't it'll go to the Packers.
Ravens at Patriots: Patriots by a possession
Sorry, Ravens. I want them to win and I've happily watched them do it IN Foxborough and they do it the best out of any team in the NFL. But the Patriots this year feel stronger. I think they'll be able to hold off the Ravens. But not by a lot. They had a couple crappy games in the last few weeks of the regular season and I don't know how much faith I have in them. Still, I think if they win this game, they're going to the Superbowl. I'm giving it to the Patriots.
Colts at Broncos: Coltsby a possession by less than a touchdown
The amount of time I changed the team name above in my prediction troubles me. I want to believe the Colts are going to pay their old quarterback a visit and surprise him, but I don't know if I can believe that. The thing is, it's not because of Peyton Manning that I'm unsure, it's because of Denver's recently strong rushing game. I'm not sure if it'll be enough though. Screw it, I'm giving it to the Colts, but it's going to be a close game.
I hope I don't go 0-4 this week. I'll be excited to see how things pan out.
Cardinals at Panthers: Panthers by probably 2 touchdowns
The Cardinals started the season strong, but key injuries just made it obvious that they weren't going to make it anywhere in the playoffs. They basically made it into the playoffs on the backs of the guys who got injured. Once those guys were out, the Cardinals were pretty much locked in, but they weren't a playoff caliber team anymore. On the flipside, the Panthers were crappy all season and stepped up at the end of the season to scrape their way into the playoffs. That plus this being a home game for the Panthers made this an easy call.
Ravens at Steelers: Steelers by about 10 points
It was the Steelers at home. Big Ben has two awesome threats on his side with Bell and Brown. I totally forgot though that January Flacco is a scary opponent and that the Ravens are really amazing on the road in the playoffs. I guess I shouldn't have counted them out. I got this one very wrong.
Bengals at Colts: Colts by about 10 points
I made this prediction assuming AJ Green would play. Since he didn't, that left the Bengals sitting with virtually nothing against the Colts. Yeah the Colts had a crappy game in the final week of the regular season, but I had no reason to doubt Luck would s how up for the playoffs. Plus, the Bengals just keep losing in the playoffs year after year. This one seemed like a pretty easy call to make.
Lions at Cowboys: Cowboys by a possession
This one I definitely got right. Granted I may have decided on that before Suh was ruled back in the game, but it still worked out for me. This one was a tossup for me hence my decision to call it by just a possession. It was going to be between Dallas having a great offense and Detroit having a great defense. I gave Dallas the edge because Suh was supposed to be out (again I decided this pick early last week), but looks like even with him in it didn't change much.
So I'm currently sitting at 3 for 4. Pretty good, but I could have done better. Time to get started for next week's picks.
Panthers at Seahawks: Seahawks by a possession
As a Seahawks fan, I know all about what I can expect from a team with a losing record coming into the playoffs. All I can expect is an easy win at home and then getting smashed in the following game by a team that really deserved to be there. Plus it's the Seahawks at home. My faith may waver depending on who wins the Packers/Cowboys game, but I think this game should go to the Seahawks for sure.
Cowboys at Packers: Cowboys by a possession
The Cowboys scared me this week, but they're just a strong team this year. I'm on the Cowboys hype train these playoffs and I think they'll come to get revenge for the Ice Bowl next weekend. The defense can and needs to stop Rodgers. If they don't it'll go to the Packers.
Ravens at Patriots: Patriots by a possession
Sorry, Ravens. I want them to win and I've happily watched them do it IN Foxborough and they do it the best out of any team in the NFL. But the Patriots this year feel stronger. I think they'll be able to hold off the Ravens. But not by a lot. They had a couple crappy games in the last few weeks of the regular season and I don't know how much faith I have in them. Still, I think if they win this game, they're going to the Superbowl. I'm giving it to the Patriots.
Colts at Broncos: Colts
The amount of time I changed the team name above in my prediction troubles me. I want to believe the Colts are going to pay their old quarterback a visit and surprise him, but I don't know if I can believe that. The thing is, it's not because of Peyton Manning that I'm unsure, it's because of Denver's recently strong rushing game. I'm not sure if it'll be enough though. Screw it, I'm giving it to the Colts, but it's going to be a close game.
I hope I don't go 0-4 this week. I'll be excited to see how things pan out.
Oh geez I really forgot big time...
H...hey guys. Been a while hasn't it? Surprise surprise, I've been busy again so I forgot to keep the blog updated. I'll get to that now though. Right after this post, I'm going to start up my football predictions as Orion kind of made me feel like it would be fun to do that again. But first I should get you caught up with things that have happened since...October? Yikes. Oh and before I begin, happy 2015 everyone!
Work:
Work has been really good. November and December got CRAZY busy with me at times going the full week without playing any games. It got kind of annoying, being that I was always either at work, dating, or sleeping. I enjoy all of those things, but I do enjoy time for myself from time to time. Now that the semester has ended, life has improved drastically. I've been able to sneak away some much needed time to myself to do this and that and it's been nice.
The school year ended pretty neatly and I feel like Brandon and I did a good job this whole year. My students this year improved much more than the ones last year. I feel like I'm starting to get good at this job. And in some happy news, Brandon decided to stay next year. Our boss was happy to have him back (as was I) and in fact was so happy that he was able to make a few demands. Because of him, we're going to have a much more favorable weekend work schedule next year. Unfortunately that means my high-paying Saturday classes are going to be gone, but I'll be happy to have my weekends back at any rate. Additionally, Brandon secured a promise to teach our same students again next year. This will really be great because we'll know exactly what to teach them. I really like this class of students and I'm excited to make sure they get really great scores on the Korean SAT in a couple years. I'm excited for next year, because I know I'll have a good partner next year. The downside is Brandon is almost definitely leaving after next year, so after that I'll be "on my own" with some new partner unless I can convince him to stay another year. Either way, I'll only be here for two more years I think. Once my students graduate, I want to go with them. What I do after that depends on where my relationship is. If I'm still dating this girl, I'll move closer to her. If not, I'd probably think hard about bothering to stay in Korea. I really like being here, but I'd be happy to be back in the states too. It just depends how my life here goes.
Dating:
Dating is going pretty well. At this point we're working hard at learning how to be in a successful relationship and it's going pretty good. We see each other every weekend and do lots of stuff. Recently, I've been starting to save money in planning for moving out next school year. It'll be nice when I'm on my own and can actually have visitors without getting in trouble.
Gaming:
Brandon finally hit level 30 and he's been getting better at League. Next season I might hit ranked with him. My smurf is level 30 also, so I might play with him on that. I don't know how good he is exactly yet but he's pretty smart and thinks of good builds by himself. Also he seems to understand why recommendations are good on champions and he has a good knowledge of what he SHOULD do in games (the mechanics will follow soon I'm sure) so I feel like he should get at least silver. I secretly think high silver, but I didn't want to get his hopes up, so I just told him silver for now. I'm interested to see how good he becomes! In the meantime, I guess since October 31st was the last time I posted, I should mention I successfully ended the season in Gold. No decay happened and no punishment (wasn't expecting any though). It's a nice feeling to have that gold reward and gold banner on my loading screen.
Other things:
As I've said, my free time these past few months has pretty much been nonexistant. I have however spent a lot of time going to Korean class. That class is getting really stressful because I'm falling behind in it. I just don't have time to study like everyone else. Everyone else has a maybe 20 minute commute to class. That alone gives them a lot of time to study the material we cover in class. I however maintain my 1.5 hour commute time (that's one way) so I piss away a lot of time just riding the subway. I would study hard on the subway, but its nearly impossible between all the noise and the lack of space. Plus that's when I need to catch up on sleep which I'm missing out on because of the Korean class. Until now the teacher has been sensitive to my plight, but I think he's wearing thin on that and I can't say I blame him. I feel like the rest of the class is far ahead of me and I have a lot of catching up to do. Last year when I went home, I was able to skip a month with no trouble, but that was a different teacher. This time around, my current teacher said he would have to re-test me to make sure I learned all the material when I come back. I know I can study what we will learn this month, but I just know he wants to test me on other random stuff we learned months ago too. I'll be bummed if I can't rejoin the class because I've been in that class the longest (15 months straight). The longest anyone else has been there is the other American guy (9 months). After that, everyone has been there either 1 or 2 months. Of course seniority is no reason to keep me if I'm falling behind and I understand if I get kicked out. I've honestly been feeling burned out on that class recently and I feel like I have a good amount of stuff I could study really easily on my own to get caught up, so if I get kicked out, I think I'll consider dropping that class, the cost, and the 20 hours a week that I spend on it (of that 20 hours, 6 (yes, a mere 6) are actual class time and the rest are my commute and a little bit of homework).
In other news, the cat is doing well. I got her fixed recently and she actually had to get surgery a second time because she took off her cone of shame while I was at work and licked up the surgery site and it got filled with pus. She's doing okay now though. And when I say she, I'm not exactly sure what to say. I just found out this weekend that she has both ovaries (which we knew about since they took those out) and testicles (which turn out to be exactly what I thought they were). I was a little surprised because that means I was right on that day I first brought her home and assumed she was a boy. So I guess it turns out my cat is a hermaphrodite. Just an interesting thing I guess. It won't change much in the long run because soon she'll have neither set of parts but she'll be my sweet little kitty no matter what~~~. I guess I need to figure out what gender to refer to her as. I'll ask the vet next time I'm there.
One last thing before I stop, I'll be coming home soon. Looks like sometime next week. I'm shooting for around the 14-16th until sometime at the end of the month. Expect it!!!
Until I see (some of) y'all in person, peace out! I'll get going on that football post now.
Work:
Work has been really good. November and December got CRAZY busy with me at times going the full week without playing any games. It got kind of annoying, being that I was always either at work, dating, or sleeping. I enjoy all of those things, but I do enjoy time for myself from time to time. Now that the semester has ended, life has improved drastically. I've been able to sneak away some much needed time to myself to do this and that and it's been nice.
The school year ended pretty neatly and I feel like Brandon and I did a good job this whole year. My students this year improved much more than the ones last year. I feel like I'm starting to get good at this job. And in some happy news, Brandon decided to stay next year. Our boss was happy to have him back (as was I) and in fact was so happy that he was able to make a few demands. Because of him, we're going to have a much more favorable weekend work schedule next year. Unfortunately that means my high-paying Saturday classes are going to be gone, but I'll be happy to have my weekends back at any rate. Additionally, Brandon secured a promise to teach our same students again next year. This will really be great because we'll know exactly what to teach them. I really like this class of students and I'm excited to make sure they get really great scores on the Korean SAT in a couple years. I'm excited for next year, because I know I'll have a good partner next year. The downside is Brandon is almost definitely leaving after next year, so after that I'll be "on my own" with some new partner unless I can convince him to stay another year. Either way, I'll only be here for two more years I think. Once my students graduate, I want to go with them. What I do after that depends on where my relationship is. If I'm still dating this girl, I'll move closer to her. If not, I'd probably think hard about bothering to stay in Korea. I really like being here, but I'd be happy to be back in the states too. It just depends how my life here goes.
Dating:
Dating is going pretty well. At this point we're working hard at learning how to be in a successful relationship and it's going pretty good. We see each other every weekend and do lots of stuff. Recently, I've been starting to save money in planning for moving out next school year. It'll be nice when I'm on my own and can actually have visitors without getting in trouble.
Gaming:
Brandon finally hit level 30 and he's been getting better at League. Next season I might hit ranked with him. My smurf is level 30 also, so I might play with him on that. I don't know how good he is exactly yet but he's pretty smart and thinks of good builds by himself. Also he seems to understand why recommendations are good on champions and he has a good knowledge of what he SHOULD do in games (the mechanics will follow soon I'm sure) so I feel like he should get at least silver. I secretly think high silver, but I didn't want to get his hopes up, so I just told him silver for now. I'm interested to see how good he becomes! In the meantime, I guess since October 31st was the last time I posted, I should mention I successfully ended the season in Gold. No decay happened and no punishment (wasn't expecting any though). It's a nice feeling to have that gold reward and gold banner on my loading screen.
Other things:
As I've said, my free time these past few months has pretty much been nonexistant. I have however spent a lot of time going to Korean class. That class is getting really stressful because I'm falling behind in it. I just don't have time to study like everyone else. Everyone else has a maybe 20 minute commute to class. That alone gives them a lot of time to study the material we cover in class. I however maintain my 1.5 hour commute time (that's one way) so I piss away a lot of time just riding the subway. I would study hard on the subway, but its nearly impossible between all the noise and the lack of space. Plus that's when I need to catch up on sleep which I'm missing out on because of the Korean class. Until now the teacher has been sensitive to my plight, but I think he's wearing thin on that and I can't say I blame him. I feel like the rest of the class is far ahead of me and I have a lot of catching up to do. Last year when I went home, I was able to skip a month with no trouble, but that was a different teacher. This time around, my current teacher said he would have to re-test me to make sure I learned all the material when I come back. I know I can study what we will learn this month, but I just know he wants to test me on other random stuff we learned months ago too. I'll be bummed if I can't rejoin the class because I've been in that class the longest (15 months straight). The longest anyone else has been there is the other American guy (9 months). After that, everyone has been there either 1 or 2 months. Of course seniority is no reason to keep me if I'm falling behind and I understand if I get kicked out. I've honestly been feeling burned out on that class recently and I feel like I have a good amount of stuff I could study really easily on my own to get caught up, so if I get kicked out, I think I'll consider dropping that class, the cost, and the 20 hours a week that I spend on it (of that 20 hours, 6 (yes, a mere 6) are actual class time and the rest are my commute and a little bit of homework).
In other news, the cat is doing well. I got her fixed recently and she actually had to get surgery a second time because she took off her cone of shame while I was at work and licked up the surgery site and it got filled with pus. She's doing okay now though. And when I say she, I'm not exactly sure what to say. I just found out this weekend that she has both ovaries (which we knew about since they took those out) and testicles (which turn out to be exactly what I thought they were). I was a little surprised because that means I was right on that day I first brought her home and assumed she was a boy. So I guess it turns out my cat is a hermaphrodite. Just an interesting thing I guess. It won't change much in the long run because soon she'll have neither set of parts but she'll be my sweet little kitty no matter what~~~. I guess I need to figure out what gender to refer to her as. I'll ask the vet next time I'm there.
One last thing before I stop, I'll be coming home soon. Looks like sometime next week. I'm shooting for around the 14-16th until sometime at the end of the month. Expect it!!!
Until I see (some of) y'all in person, peace out! I'll get going on that football post now.
Friday, October 31, 2014
H....hey there :|
Guess it's been a while huh? Two months without any word from me. I feel like I've still found a way too keep everyone generally up to date but I really shirked my responsibility to sit down and post. I've been keeping really busy these days though so that's why. Before I explain what's been going on, I just wanna give a shoutout to Davis on his really cool and entertaining (as opposed to what I do here haha) blog. My sidebar now correctly links to that one. Check it out if you haven't yet. Also, if there are any weird words or errors in this post its because I'm on my phone (riding the subway was the only time I could spare to make a post) so it's sometimes hard for me to see that my phone suggested something that makes no sense. Anyway, here' s what I've been doing with my life.
Work takes up most of my time and I'm finding myself once again in this pattern od needing to get work done outside of normal hours. I'm getting back up to those 12 hour minimum days. And it's not all class prep either, a lot is just busywork and favors foe other teachers. I still like it though and it's going rather well. I'm still planning on renewing for next year. I hope I can move to teaching the next grade up so I can keep my students.
After work, my next priority is still Korean classes. I'm getting worse about it though because now after a year of going, that 6 hour block of time it takes up 3 days a week is feeling excessive. When work needs me on a Korean lesson day, I'm finding myself shying away from taking that work less and less because I know if I work late enough to miss the subway, I'll still get more time to relax at night. This month was really bad because I missed 4.5/10 lessons. I only attended that half lesson because I felt guilty for missing so much and besides, I had a quick date after it.
"Wait what was that? A date?" Yeah, I don't know if I mentioned but I was convinced in August to try out Tinder. After middling success for a month, I wound up meeting a really cool girl on September 10 and we've been seeing each other since. We're actually a couple now. She's really cool and I like her. It feels a lot better than the last girl I was with because she actually seems to outwardly desire to be with me. I'm actually on the subway to meet her at the moment. She lives on the opposite side of Seoul from me which can be a little inconvenient but we're working around it.
Aside from those 3 things, I've been playing a lot of league. I finally went on a tear recently and got from silver 2 0lp to my gold promos in a relatively short time. I won the first game in my gold promo (bo3) and was really nervous but fortunately Steven was on and offered to duo with me. The series went well, I took it 3-0 and now I'm a proud gold 5 0lp guy. Nowadays I play on my smurf a lot because my coworker has picked it up. It's pretty fun for practicing new champs.
Aside from that, my cat is well and I'm doing good myself. Hopefully all the things that take up my time sort themselves out and I can feel like I have time to myself once in a while.
That's all for now. If you we hanging on these two months, my apologies. I'll try not to do that again. Until next time (which its hopefully soon), peace out.
Work takes up most of my time and I'm finding myself once again in this pattern od needing to get work done outside of normal hours. I'm getting back up to those 12 hour minimum days. And it's not all class prep either, a lot is just busywork and favors foe other teachers. I still like it though and it's going rather well. I'm still planning on renewing for next year. I hope I can move to teaching the next grade up so I can keep my students.
After work, my next priority is still Korean classes. I'm getting worse about it though because now after a year of going, that 6 hour block of time it takes up 3 days a week is feeling excessive. When work needs me on a Korean lesson day, I'm finding myself shying away from taking that work less and less because I know if I work late enough to miss the subway, I'll still get more time to relax at night. This month was really bad because I missed 4.5/10 lessons. I only attended that half lesson because I felt guilty for missing so much and besides, I had a quick date after it.
"Wait what was that? A date?" Yeah, I don't know if I mentioned but I was convinced in August to try out Tinder. After middling success for a month, I wound up meeting a really cool girl on September 10 and we've been seeing each other since. We're actually a couple now. She's really cool and I like her. It feels a lot better than the last girl I was with because she actually seems to outwardly desire to be with me. I'm actually on the subway to meet her at the moment. She lives on the opposite side of Seoul from me which can be a little inconvenient but we're working around it.
Aside from those 3 things, I've been playing a lot of league. I finally went on a tear recently and got from silver 2 0lp to my gold promos in a relatively short time. I won the first game in my gold promo (bo3) and was really nervous but fortunately Steven was on and offered to duo with me. The series went well, I took it 3-0 and now I'm a proud gold 5 0lp guy. Nowadays I play on my smurf a lot because my coworker has picked it up. It's pretty fun for practicing new champs.
Aside from that, my cat is well and I'm doing good myself. Hopefully all the things that take up my time sort themselves out and I can feel like I have time to myself once in a while.
That's all for now. If you we hanging on these two months, my apologies. I'll try not to do that again. Until next time (which its hopefully soon), peace out.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Classic me, delaying a post until forever
Wow it's been since June that I really sat down and made a post. And now it's September here (although it's still August in Washington so it still counts as an August post!). I've been pretty busy all summer which has been nice here and there and less nice here and there as well. I guess I'll get into it now.
The cat:
I've named her Daria (Dari or 다리 meaning 'bridge' in Korean plus 'a' to make it a girl's name). I named her that way because she was found under a bridge. The school (all the way up to the principal) made a special exception to allow me to keep a pet in the dorms, the first time it's ever been done for this school. I think her cuteness won everyone over. She's had the chance to meet students and usually gets along with them, which is fun. The downside is she's kind of mean and likes to bite me a lot. I can't wait until she gets older and calms down. In the meantime, I'm collecting some sweet battle scars :/
Work:
Work has been going well. Since my last post, we finished our first semester, had summer break, and have now started our second semester. As of today actually our schedule changed and now school starts and ends 40 minutes later, so I'm working a proper 9-5 now. I'll need to adjust how late I feel like staying because I used to stay until 5, making it so I worked 8-5 every day. I figure I don't do anything good before cooking dinner anyways, so I might start staying until about 6 every day then going home to cook dinner and do whatever it is that I do. And being able to wake up at 7:40 is pretty nice. It's like being back in college (SCC, not SU when I had to start class every day (that I actually had classes) at 7:40).
Summer break was fun and interesting. I got rented out to another high school that asked our school if they could borrow a foreign teacher to teach a summer class. It was interesting and a valuable experience to get to teach students who aren't the super studious type I'm used to here. And the class was really easy to teach as well, plus I got paid well to do it (and since our summer classes aren't paid above our base salary, I was the only one that got paid any extra money). Even better, they liked me so much, they requested that I come back during the semester as well, but I have night classes/Korean lessons every night of the week, so I told them I couldn't do it, but I could probably come back during winter break.
Our school has sports day and the festival this week (rescheduled from first semester due to the ferry incident) and then next week is Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) so I'm working a pretty relaxed week this week into a 5-day weekend, then a 2-day week the following week. I'm looking forward to using one of the 5 days to just do only work and get super far ahead, then using the other 4 days to play Planetside 2 or grind or whatever.
Other stuff:
Aside from that, I've been keeping up on Korean lessons despite having to miss several classes during July and August. I was able to marathon league for a little while recently and I saw some gains in lp that I have more or less lost since then. I'm holding off for now and just waiting for this weekend when I can really set aside some time to play. I'm kinda losing hope of making gold this season which sucks because I think once again my main barrier is that I just don't have enough time to play during the year. Next year will maybe be my year. Honestly I would play a lot more if Planetside 2 weren't so a) fun and b) less time consuming. I can only play league on weekends really but during that time, I want to play with the guys. I just need to find alternate times to play it.
I also went on vacation to France with the family since they were there for 2 weeks. I joined them for the second week when we went to Paris then out to western France (Mont Saint Michel and Normandy). Since I enjoy studying WWII history and since I've had to look at a picture of Mont St. Michel that's been above our fireplace since forever, it was nice to get to see both things.
Aside from all that, general business has ensued. Nothing major worth reporting, especially since I should get back to work. Until next time, peace out!
The cat:
I've named her Daria (Dari or 다리 meaning 'bridge' in Korean plus 'a' to make it a girl's name). I named her that way because she was found under a bridge. The school (all the way up to the principal) made a special exception to allow me to keep a pet in the dorms, the first time it's ever been done for this school. I think her cuteness won everyone over. She's had the chance to meet students and usually gets along with them, which is fun. The downside is she's kind of mean and likes to bite me a lot. I can't wait until she gets older and calms down. In the meantime, I'm collecting some sweet battle scars :/
Work:
Work has been going well. Since my last post, we finished our first semester, had summer break, and have now started our second semester. As of today actually our schedule changed and now school starts and ends 40 minutes later, so I'm working a proper 9-5 now. I'll need to adjust how late I feel like staying because I used to stay until 5, making it so I worked 8-5 every day. I figure I don't do anything good before cooking dinner anyways, so I might start staying until about 6 every day then going home to cook dinner and do whatever it is that I do. And being able to wake up at 7:40 is pretty nice. It's like being back in college (SCC, not SU when I had to start class every day (that I actually had classes) at 7:40).
Summer break was fun and interesting. I got rented out to another high school that asked our school if they could borrow a foreign teacher to teach a summer class. It was interesting and a valuable experience to get to teach students who aren't the super studious type I'm used to here. And the class was really easy to teach as well, plus I got paid well to do it (and since our summer classes aren't paid above our base salary, I was the only one that got paid any extra money). Even better, they liked me so much, they requested that I come back during the semester as well, but I have night classes/Korean lessons every night of the week, so I told them I couldn't do it, but I could probably come back during winter break.
Our school has sports day and the festival this week (rescheduled from first semester due to the ferry incident) and then next week is Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) so I'm working a pretty relaxed week this week into a 5-day weekend, then a 2-day week the following week. I'm looking forward to using one of the 5 days to just do only work and get super far ahead, then using the other 4 days to play Planetside 2 or grind or whatever.
Other stuff:
Aside from that, I've been keeping up on Korean lessons despite having to miss several classes during July and August. I was able to marathon league for a little while recently and I saw some gains in lp that I have more or less lost since then. I'm holding off for now and just waiting for this weekend when I can really set aside some time to play. I'm kinda losing hope of making gold this season which sucks because I think once again my main barrier is that I just don't have enough time to play during the year. Next year will maybe be my year. Honestly I would play a lot more if Planetside 2 weren't so a) fun and b) less time consuming. I can only play league on weekends really but during that time, I want to play with the guys. I just need to find alternate times to play it.
I also went on vacation to France with the family since they were there for 2 weeks. I joined them for the second week when we went to Paris then out to western France (Mont Saint Michel and Normandy). Since I enjoy studying WWII history and since I've had to look at a picture of Mont St. Michel that's been above our fireplace since forever, it was nice to get to see both things.
Aside from all that, general business has ensued. Nothing major worth reporting, especially since I should get back to work. Until next time, peace out!
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
In memoriam: Eric Koolich
I learned just as I was leaving for my trip to Japan in early June that Eric had gone missing. The events that unfolded occupied my mind for pretty much the entire trip. It's really sad to see Eric go, he was always an interesting part of the group. It's hardly set in actually because I've grown used to not seeing you all every day, but I think once I'm back in Washington, it'll start to sink in that he's gone and I won't see him soon.
If you had said X number of people in our graduating class would be dead before the 10-year reunion, I would probably have been able to fill out a shortish list of names, but there's no way Eric would have been on that list. The guy lived a really careful, well thought out life which in some ways admittedly annoyed me and in some ways was kind of impressive.
I first met Eric in high school, shortly after he moved here. I only really knew him through the part of our group dubbed as "The Asians," so we never really directly associated until college. He didn't really gel with parts of our group; not to say he wasn't accepted, just that he wasn't someone that everyone wanted to hang around with all the time. Eventually, our group of friends split up for college and those of us that stayed behind kind of banded together. Part of that involved Eric becoming a bigger presence in the group. He spent a lot of time at the UW interacting with people besides me and I spent most of my early college years tied down and busy at SCC, but when I moved to Seattle University, we started to talk more. Eventually, when I began playing League in 2012, we started to talk a lot more.
I had the chance to talk with Eric a lot about this and that and everything in between. He was a really strange guy at times, almost coming across like a robot that needed case by case programming on how to act in certain situations. At other times, it seemed like he knew what he was doing. One thing he always did was check for help from real people whenever he had a problem. As someone who grew up in the generation of the internet, it annoyed me a bit that he would often ask for advice on stuff when I felt that it was something that could be easily googled, but now that I think about it, he was not only getting genuine feedback that he could trust, but he was able to use those dialogues as a way of staying in touch, and that's pretty cool.
We also talked a lot about life philosophies and whatnot, conversations that sometimes kept us up for several hours late into the night (because his parents wouldn't let him play League late, but they would let him chat on Skype until the wee hours of the morning). To describe his life philosophy in detail would be difficult and I don't think I would be 100% correct, so I can't really do it here. But to put it kind of simply as I understood it, Eric was one of those guys that hated being static. He always had to be learning a skill or improving himself in some way. It seemed to be really all he knew. I enjoy taking my breaks now and then, but Eric never really took any. I mean it when I say the guy was practically a robot.
More recently, Eric began to work the social game. He started going out with people and I got to hear about a lot of his experiences (mostly drinking experiences and whatnot). Even while he was going out and trying new things on his own, he would still occasionally ask people for advice and whatnot. For me, computer advice shifted to drinks advice and stuff like that. It was cool to see him starting to live it up as I would put it. Judging from what I saw on Facebook, he met and talked with a ton of people often. I think that was something cool about Eric is that in places where I would probably be too bashful to start up a conversation, he would just start one up like it was no big deal and would keep going. I'm not sure to this day if it was because deep down, he was an outgoing person or whether he had no social inhibitions (or maybe those are the same thing), but it seemed to be something that did a lot of good for him. He began to build a huge amount of contacts and before I knew it, he was bragging about the awesome job offers he had coming his way. In fact, as I understand it, the Monday after he was found, he was supposed to have started a job. That's what really makes this so sad, but I guess there's really no good time for anyone to die.
It's hard to pick a favorite memory with Koolich, but I'll always treasure the advice he gave me on League. He's had a big effect on my soloqueue mentality. He duoed with me only a handful of times, but he always watched my stream and helped me out a lot. Because of him, I don't get mad in chat and rage at people about 95% or more of the time. I think that doing that has allowed me to focus on my own skill, which has been helping me improve. The last time I talked to Koolich was in League chat and that exact conversation is of course lost forever, but I know it was something mundane and to the effect of "Why aren't you in mumble" and "Hey wanna play ranked 5s later?" and "No sorry I'm playing with some other people." I should quickly mention that I liked that he tried to give everyone equal time playing with them in League, even if that meant sometimes he stopped us from being able to play ranked 5s. Anyway, the last conversation with him where I have a log of it is on Facebook. I was lamenting the unlikeliness of getting into gold at the rate I was going and he encouraged me that Keir and I would surely make it to gold. I'm definitely determined to do it if for no reason other than to prove him right.
So one last time I'd like to throw a thanks out there to Eric Koolich for all the good memories. There were some weird times, some great times, but at least they were all pretty memorable. Thanks for all the memories, man.
If you had said X number of people in our graduating class would be dead before the 10-year reunion, I would probably have been able to fill out a shortish list of names, but there's no way Eric would have been on that list. The guy lived a really careful, well thought out life which in some ways admittedly annoyed me and in some ways was kind of impressive.
I first met Eric in high school, shortly after he moved here. I only really knew him through the part of our group dubbed as "The Asians," so we never really directly associated until college. He didn't really gel with parts of our group; not to say he wasn't accepted, just that he wasn't someone that everyone wanted to hang around with all the time. Eventually, our group of friends split up for college and those of us that stayed behind kind of banded together. Part of that involved Eric becoming a bigger presence in the group. He spent a lot of time at the UW interacting with people besides me and I spent most of my early college years tied down and busy at SCC, but when I moved to Seattle University, we started to talk more. Eventually, when I began playing League in 2012, we started to talk a lot more.
I had the chance to talk with Eric a lot about this and that and everything in between. He was a really strange guy at times, almost coming across like a robot that needed case by case programming on how to act in certain situations. At other times, it seemed like he knew what he was doing. One thing he always did was check for help from real people whenever he had a problem. As someone who grew up in the generation of the internet, it annoyed me a bit that he would often ask for advice on stuff when I felt that it was something that could be easily googled, but now that I think about it, he was not only getting genuine feedback that he could trust, but he was able to use those dialogues as a way of staying in touch, and that's pretty cool.
We also talked a lot about life philosophies and whatnot, conversations that sometimes kept us up for several hours late into the night (because his parents wouldn't let him play League late, but they would let him chat on Skype until the wee hours of the morning). To describe his life philosophy in detail would be difficult and I don't think I would be 100% correct, so I can't really do it here. But to put it kind of simply as I understood it, Eric was one of those guys that hated being static. He always had to be learning a skill or improving himself in some way. It seemed to be really all he knew. I enjoy taking my breaks now and then, but Eric never really took any. I mean it when I say the guy was practically a robot.
More recently, Eric began to work the social game. He started going out with people and I got to hear about a lot of his experiences (mostly drinking experiences and whatnot). Even while he was going out and trying new things on his own, he would still occasionally ask people for advice and whatnot. For me, computer advice shifted to drinks advice and stuff like that. It was cool to see him starting to live it up as I would put it. Judging from what I saw on Facebook, he met and talked with a ton of people often. I think that was something cool about Eric is that in places where I would probably be too bashful to start up a conversation, he would just start one up like it was no big deal and would keep going. I'm not sure to this day if it was because deep down, he was an outgoing person or whether he had no social inhibitions (or maybe those are the same thing), but it seemed to be something that did a lot of good for him. He began to build a huge amount of contacts and before I knew it, he was bragging about the awesome job offers he had coming his way. In fact, as I understand it, the Monday after he was found, he was supposed to have started a job. That's what really makes this so sad, but I guess there's really no good time for anyone to die.
It's hard to pick a favorite memory with Koolich, but I'll always treasure the advice he gave me on League. He's had a big effect on my soloqueue mentality. He duoed with me only a handful of times, but he always watched my stream and helped me out a lot. Because of him, I don't get mad in chat and rage at people about 95% or more of the time. I think that doing that has allowed me to focus on my own skill, which has been helping me improve. The last time I talked to Koolich was in League chat and that exact conversation is of course lost forever, but I know it was something mundane and to the effect of "Why aren't you in mumble" and "Hey wanna play ranked 5s later?" and "No sorry I'm playing with some other people." I should quickly mention that I liked that he tried to give everyone equal time playing with them in League, even if that meant sometimes he stopped us from being able to play ranked 5s. Anyway, the last conversation with him where I have a log of it is on Facebook. I was lamenting the unlikeliness of getting into gold at the rate I was going and he encouraged me that Keir and I would surely make it to gold. I'm definitely determined to do it if for no reason other than to prove him right.
So one last time I'd like to throw a thanks out there to Eric Koolich for all the good memories. There were some weird times, some great times, but at least they were all pretty memorable. Thanks for all the memories, man.
In memoriam
It's really terrible that I have to make these types of posts, but I guess that's just the pain of getting older. I'm making this post just to start off a new label that I'm going to make. I'll be using it to write things about people I/we've lost to remember them by. The first post will immediately follow this one.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Filling in on life quickly
Hi all. I'm going to just post an update about my life in this post. I'm not going to mention what happened with Eric Koolich this month because that deserves its own post and it will certainly get one at some point later on during this week. I'm starting to have some free time, so I'll be getting to both of the posts I wanted to make during this week (I sincerely hope so at least).
Upon checking what I said in my last post, I may have sounded a little too depressed, confused, stressed out, or some combination of the three. I'm not thinking of quitting teaching immediately after I finish my program and I'm certainly not planning on just up and leaving Korea. I was just really busy at the time and didn't choose my words carefully. I won't be teaching for my whole life (unless I go get a masters and do that) but I've known that from the start. I don't mean to convey that I hate it now, only that I'm looking forward to someday doing a different type of work as well.
Work:
Work was horribly busy last month as it has been since the midterms for some reason. I don't know what happened, but this year was pretty crazy. However, all of a sudden my workload has dropped off dramatically and now I have a ton of free time. It coincided well with the fact that I need free time nowadays more than I did before because...
Cat:
...because I rescued a kitten! She lived near the school with her mom and 4 siblings (one died). One day, the three remaining cats just up and left and ditched her. The Chinese teacher brought her into the school and everyone didn't know what to do except one of the Korean teachers who knew I love cats and he told everyone that I should take the cat. That turned into a crazy two-week adventure of taking the cat to the vet, getting her accustomed to her new digs, and getting permission to keep the cat in the dorm. The permission thing went all the way up to the principal, who actually approved it personally with the caveat that "It's too bad the cat has to live in a small apartment so you can bring her to the office if you want." which basically means that he wants to see the kitten occasionally. I feel special now because I'm the first person to ever have a pet in the dormitory here. I'll post pictures of her on facebook soon. I'm excited too because I've had 3 boy cats, but this is my first girl cat. It's also my first time raising a cat on my own (or raising a kitten ever), but I've learned how to properly do it over the years, so I feel like I'm ready.
Japan Vacation:
At the start of the month, Brandon and I went to Tokyo for our big weekend. It was pretty fun, although I was reminded that I'm not really that fond of Japan. We had a good time, but it'll be a while before we go back. A fun story from the trip (the worst day):
We really wanted to hike Mt. Fuji, so we planned a day around it. We got up at the crack of dawn, took a big 2-hour bus ride to the base of the mountain, then waited about 40 minutes to take another 40-minute bus ride partway up the mountain to hike. Along the first bus ride, it started raining. Little did I know at the time, but that would be the last time I saw the sun all weekend. It poured on us the rest of the time. When we got up to the place to start the hike, Brandon had to use the bathroom. As he went in, an older guy grabbed him and pointed to a box full of coins. Apparently, it cost Y100 to use the bathroom. Ridiculous. After getting situated and ready to head out, we got to the start of the trail only to find that it was closed. A few other hikers were disappointed as well because there had been no signage (Japanese or English) to note that the trail was closed on this particular day. In mild rage, we hung around the place where the trail starts, enjoying the "view" (of nothing but straight up fog) and caught the first bus back. While enjoying the view, we found a free public bathroom that we better quality than the Y100 one. After that, we needed to find a way to fill the rest of the day that we had basically set aside for being on the mountain. There was an amusement park nearby, so we figured that would be a fun way to kill some time. It cost about $10 to get in, then would cost additional money at each ride you wanted to go on. No big deal we figured, let's have a good time. As soon as we paid the *non-refundable* entrance fee and entered the park, it cut loose and all the rides had to close due to weather. Since the rain was moving in indefinitely, we had to just leave and take the $10 hit. We left but not before unloading all of the hiking equipment (snacks and water) that we didn't want or need into a locker in the theme park in our rage. After getting back to Tokyo, we went to Akihabara, but a combination of the rain and terrible stuff there in general made it terrible. We went back to near our hotel in search for some drinks or something and happened to find a bar.
The bar we went to actually was really great. It was a new startup whiskey bar with a cool environment and the owner was an awesome guy. It's called Cafe Bar and it's in Kinshicho or something like that. Also, we found a good Ramen place there with God-tier ramen. That and the bar made the are we were in pretty cool. The second day we went to the bar, there was a girl working there. Since she knew a little Enlgish and was extremely cute, she talked to us the whole night. Unfortunately, she had a boyfriend but to be honest, I don't think I would have done anything anyway because it was the night before we were leaving. An interesting note though is that I found she had a friend that goes to SCC. She had her friend take a picture of the part of Seattle she was in. I figured it would be a longshot that I would recognize it, but she took a picture of Deseret and the ice rink on Aurora and I was like oh shit she's in Shorline. The girl didn't remember the name of the college her friend when to, but when I asked if it was SCC, she said that sounded right and her friend confirmed it. Crazy small world story.
Anyway, Japan was pretty neat. I'll go again to hike Mt. Fuji, but for now I'm good on Japan.
Other stuff:
Korean lessons are still going well. I've kept myself pretty busy with this and that, videogames and whatnot. I finally finished my computer, so I can start playing games on the weekends again. StarCitizen's dogfight simulator has come out, so now I've been pretty happy too.
I don't know if anyone enjoys reading about it also, but I recently had good closure and am definitely over my ex-girlfriend now. I know that she broke up with me back in October, but I had only just started to get over it in early December. Then, a bunch of crazy stuff happened (Grandpa, a couple quick trips back and forth between Washington and Korea, lots of work, new students, tons of stuff in general) and she kind of slipped my mind of a few months. Recently though with the weather getting warmer, I started to feel a bit lonely and I thought about her again. However I recently learned from Patrick that my ex-girlfriend (according to Patrick's wife) is a bit controlling and crazy and his wife actually told him she regrets having set me up with her. It's stuff I could have realized on my own sure, but just hearing it from someone else kind of opened my eyes and now I'm totally fine. In fact, I was considering starting to try to go out and do things rather than play games on weekends, but shortly afterwards, I got my kitten so now that occupies most of my time. There are still some girls I could ask out that I see and socialize with often, but I don't think things would work out with them, so I'm holding off. I don't really have time to be dating anyone at the moment. Besides, I live with the cutest girl I know anyway (the cat, I'm already becoming a crazy cat lady). Anyway, that was just a bit of good news. Overall, things are pretty good at the moment.
So I owe the universe a couple posts about people that I hope we never forget. I'll definitely make those posts this week or next if I get the time. Until next time, peace out!
Upon checking what I said in my last post, I may have sounded a little too depressed, confused, stressed out, or some combination of the three. I'm not thinking of quitting teaching immediately after I finish my program and I'm certainly not planning on just up and leaving Korea. I was just really busy at the time and didn't choose my words carefully. I won't be teaching for my whole life (unless I go get a masters and do that) but I've known that from the start. I don't mean to convey that I hate it now, only that I'm looking forward to someday doing a different type of work as well.
Work:
Work was horribly busy last month as it has been since the midterms for some reason. I don't know what happened, but this year was pretty crazy. However, all of a sudden my workload has dropped off dramatically and now I have a ton of free time. It coincided well with the fact that I need free time nowadays more than I did before because...
Cat:
...because I rescued a kitten! She lived near the school with her mom and 4 siblings (one died). One day, the three remaining cats just up and left and ditched her. The Chinese teacher brought her into the school and everyone didn't know what to do except one of the Korean teachers who knew I love cats and he told everyone that I should take the cat. That turned into a crazy two-week adventure of taking the cat to the vet, getting her accustomed to her new digs, and getting permission to keep the cat in the dorm. The permission thing went all the way up to the principal, who actually approved it personally with the caveat that "It's too bad the cat has to live in a small apartment so you can bring her to the office if you want." which basically means that he wants to see the kitten occasionally. I feel special now because I'm the first person to ever have a pet in the dormitory here. I'll post pictures of her on facebook soon. I'm excited too because I've had 3 boy cats, but this is my first girl cat. It's also my first time raising a cat on my own (or raising a kitten ever), but I've learned how to properly do it over the years, so I feel like I'm ready.
Japan Vacation:
At the start of the month, Brandon and I went to Tokyo for our big weekend. It was pretty fun, although I was reminded that I'm not really that fond of Japan. We had a good time, but it'll be a while before we go back. A fun story from the trip (the worst day):
We really wanted to hike Mt. Fuji, so we planned a day around it. We got up at the crack of dawn, took a big 2-hour bus ride to the base of the mountain, then waited about 40 minutes to take another 40-minute bus ride partway up the mountain to hike. Along the first bus ride, it started raining. Little did I know at the time, but that would be the last time I saw the sun all weekend. It poured on us the rest of the time. When we got up to the place to start the hike, Brandon had to use the bathroom. As he went in, an older guy grabbed him and pointed to a box full of coins. Apparently, it cost Y100 to use the bathroom. Ridiculous. After getting situated and ready to head out, we got to the start of the trail only to find that it was closed. A few other hikers were disappointed as well because there had been no signage (Japanese or English) to note that the trail was closed on this particular day. In mild rage, we hung around the place where the trail starts, enjoying the "view" (of nothing but straight up fog) and caught the first bus back. While enjoying the view, we found a free public bathroom that we better quality than the Y100 one. After that, we needed to find a way to fill the rest of the day that we had basically set aside for being on the mountain. There was an amusement park nearby, so we figured that would be a fun way to kill some time. It cost about $10 to get in, then would cost additional money at each ride you wanted to go on. No big deal we figured, let's have a good time. As soon as we paid the *non-refundable* entrance fee and entered the park, it cut loose and all the rides had to close due to weather. Since the rain was moving in indefinitely, we had to just leave and take the $10 hit. We left but not before unloading all of the hiking equipment (snacks and water) that we didn't want or need into a locker in the theme park in our rage. After getting back to Tokyo, we went to Akihabara, but a combination of the rain and terrible stuff there in general made it terrible. We went back to near our hotel in search for some drinks or something and happened to find a bar.
The bar we went to actually was really great. It was a new startup whiskey bar with a cool environment and the owner was an awesome guy. It's called Cafe Bar and it's in Kinshicho or something like that. Also, we found a good Ramen place there with God-tier ramen. That and the bar made the are we were in pretty cool. The second day we went to the bar, there was a girl working there. Since she knew a little Enlgish and was extremely cute, she talked to us the whole night. Unfortunately, she had a boyfriend but to be honest, I don't think I would have done anything anyway because it was the night before we were leaving. An interesting note though is that I found she had a friend that goes to SCC. She had her friend take a picture of the part of Seattle she was in. I figured it would be a longshot that I would recognize it, but she took a picture of Deseret and the ice rink on Aurora and I was like oh shit she's in Shorline. The girl didn't remember the name of the college her friend when to, but when I asked if it was SCC, she said that sounded right and her friend confirmed it. Crazy small world story.
Anyway, Japan was pretty neat. I'll go again to hike Mt. Fuji, but for now I'm good on Japan.
Other stuff:
Korean lessons are still going well. I've kept myself pretty busy with this and that, videogames and whatnot. I finally finished my computer, so I can start playing games on the weekends again. StarCitizen's dogfight simulator has come out, so now I've been pretty happy too.
I don't know if anyone enjoys reading about it also, but I recently had good closure and am definitely over my ex-girlfriend now. I know that she broke up with me back in October, but I had only just started to get over it in early December. Then, a bunch of crazy stuff happened (Grandpa, a couple quick trips back and forth between Washington and Korea, lots of work, new students, tons of stuff in general) and she kind of slipped my mind of a few months. Recently though with the weather getting warmer, I started to feel a bit lonely and I thought about her again. However I recently learned from Patrick that my ex-girlfriend (according to Patrick's wife) is a bit controlling and crazy and his wife actually told him she regrets having set me up with her. It's stuff I could have realized on my own sure, but just hearing it from someone else kind of opened my eyes and now I'm totally fine. In fact, I was considering starting to try to go out and do things rather than play games on weekends, but shortly afterwards, I got my kitten so now that occupies most of my time. There are still some girls I could ask out that I see and socialize with often, but I don't think things would work out with them, so I'm holding off. I don't really have time to be dating anyone at the moment. Besides, I live with the cutest girl I know anyway (the cat, I'm already becoming a crazy cat lady). Anyway, that was just a bit of good news. Overall, things are pretty good at the moment.
So I owe the universe a couple posts about people that I hope we never forget. I'll definitely make those posts this week or next if I get the time. Until next time, peace out!
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