Undergraduate Admissions

Well, winter’s here. It only took me a few days to get used to it this year. Usually for the first few weeks, every time I go outside I think “I can’t believe it’s this cold!” but it’s only been cold for a couple weeks now, and I’m pretty much used to it. I guess that’s a good thing.

So much school stuff going on still…

I have some cool pictures from break (and after). I’m at work right now, but next time I post from home I think I’ll get them off my camera and throw a few of them up.

I was taking pictures and some videos in the airport over break because I had time to kill, and people kept asking me if it was ok that they walk in front of my camera. Of course it’s ok!  This is an airport! You getting to where you’re supposed to be going is more important than me taking pictures! People walking in front of the camera was what I wanted, really, since I wanted to take pictures of an airport in the most natural way possible. Those are the kinds of pictures I like to take. Pictures with people looking at the camera and posing aren’t very interesting to me. Also, I really like my new camera. It just makes everything look a lot better.

Well, I made it home ok after all. There was another flight that was supposed to go out this morning that was delayed for so long that it went out at about the same time as my scheduled afternoon flight, so they just put me on that. There were about five people on it, which I found funny given that I was originally on an overbooked flight.

Last night I had a really weird dream. Allow me to preface this by saying that I used to play the saxophone in high school (alto normally, bari in jazz band) but I haven’t played it once since. Well, last night I dreamed that I was getting ready to play in some band, like a school band, but there wasn’t any real explanation being that I’m not in high school anymore. Anyway, I somehow kept having all the wrong parts (of the instrument). First I was missing a neck strap, and then after that I had the main part and mouthpiece of a bari sax but the neck of an alto sax. At some point I dropped the mouthpiece and the reed broke, and after this I had an alto mouthpiece and a tenor neck, I think. I don’t know how these things kept changing. At some point I decided to stop worrying about it and just put the pieces together, and it wasn’t easy to play but it did work, which doesn’t make any sense at all.

Any dream analyzers out there have any idea what this means? I can’t even begin to guess what it could mean or why it came up in my brain now.

I had a good Thanksgiving break, but there’s so much to do now. I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow…

Thanksgiving break always seems pretty weird to me. It seems horribly placed. I mean, what is there after this, like two weeks left in the semester? (Especially for me, since I only have one final exam and it’s on the first day… not to brag or anything.)

Anyway, it’s looking like I might have some trouble with my plane ride back to Buffalo. See, even though I purchased a ticket, I couldn’t choose a seat on the flight, and up until now I still haven’t been able to. I can look at the seat map, and all of the seats are taken except for one seat that is marked as accommodation for disabled people. Maybe there are no disabled people on the flight and they’ll be able to assign it to me when I check in.

I’m a bit concerned that I’ll just end up being totally screwed, though. I don’t understand why it’s ok for airlines to do things like this; if I paid them the money to get a ticket to fly to a particular place at a particular time, they shouldn’t be able to say “oops, just kidding!” I know they’ll give me some voucher for a free flight or something if it does come to that, but quite frankly that’s pretty annoying, and not what I paid them for.

I guess there’s really nothing  anybody can do, and that’s why they keep doing things like this.

Anyway, that’s enough whining about airplanes. Thanksgiving break has been pretty cool (and pretty lazy) otherwise, and a welcome change of pace, really. I’m looking forward to getting back to work and getting the semester over with.

Last Thursday after class I wandered around UB and took some pictures. I don’t think I take pictures often enough, so I thought it’d be kinda fun. Unfortunately it was raining outside, so everything had to be done inside.

I thought this picture came out looking very interesting.

Baldy Hall is a pretty tall building. This is a view up the staircase from the first floor. (There’s also a basement floor, but I never go down there.)

I keep seeing this around campus. Apparently they need Japanese native speakers for some study. I like seeing it because I can understand most of it, haha.

They got these weird-looking statues when they were remodeling what used to be called the Campus Promenade which is now called Founders Plaza or something like that. Regardless, although most people hate them (including seemingly everyone who submits things to the Generation personals), I really have no problem with them. I like the warped reality thing they have going on.

The opposite direction from the previous picture. Let’s play a game called “spot where the remodeling work ended”!

This is the roof of Knox Hall. Maybe it’s just me, but I really think it looks like there should be some sort of martial arts movie battle out here.

I like this picture only because I never had a camera with a zoom lens before. Also, you can see those crazy statues a little more clearly in this shot.

Inside of the Natural Sciences Complex, more commonly referred to as NSC. It looks pretty empty, but if this was during the time when people are moving between classes (:20 to :30 and :50 to :00) there would be so many people crowded in here that I wouldn’t have been able to take a picture at all without being trampled. I’m exaggerating a bit, but really, the difference is astounding.

Well, I think that’s it for today.

The other day I was discouraged about my Japanese language abilities, I think because I made some mistakes in class that I thought were really dumb after I realized what I said. After that, I spent some time thinking about my attitude and realized that I have unrealistically high expectations of what I should be able to do. I generally feel like I should never make the same mistake twice; it’s bad enough making it once, so after that I should absolutely remember. This isn’t a policy that I had consciously instituted, but it is something that I’ve been holding myself to. It only struck me recently how absolutely insane of an expectation that is.

People make mistakes speaking all the time, even in their native language. There are tons of people (whose native language is English) who cannot pronounce the word “nuclear” properly (in addition to many other words). Saying things incorrectly must not bother them at all. Because I notice grammar all the time, I’m very conscious of my own usage, regardless of language. I really don’t like sounding like I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Once I realized all of the different things I’m now capable of understanding and expressing in Japanese compared even to right before this semester started, I felt a lot better. I’ve definitely learned a lot. It’s never enough for me, and I don’t know if it ever will be (no matter the subject, there’s always more to know and more to do) but at least I know I’m making progress. Japanese 401 is a lot of work, but the result is that I’m learning a lot more than I feel like I ever did before.

Lately, time just seems to be sailing by. I don’t think it’s going too fast or too slow, but it just keeps on going. I wish I could stop for a minute, but I suspect that things will just keep going like this until the end of the semester. Then after that comes next semester, and after that… I wish I knew.

I got a great new CD recently. It’s by a group called Santa Esmeralda. More cinematically-inclined people may recognize their name from one of their songs (a cover of the song “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, originally by…somebody else) having been in Kill Bill Volume 1. I thought it was a really cool song, so I decided to check them out. I ordered one of their CDs on Amazon in August, but it took until just a few days ago for Amazon to track down the CD and get it to me. It’s really interesting music. I don’t know how to describe it with any words other than “epic Spanish disco”. It’s definitely one of those things that I enjoy immensely without any explanation or expectation that anyone will agree with me. In fact, most people would probably think it quite strange.

’cause I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
oh lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood

I always hate this part of the year… There’s so much stuff to do. I tell myself (usually around Wednesday) that I’ll start things early so I can get them done early, but then end up doing nothing (until Sunday night). Then I end up just doing what I have to for the next day and not getting started on any long-term projects.

Here’s some of the significant stuff I have to do before the end of the semester:

1) Write a paper for Japanese class. I can write it about whatever I want, but it has to be at least five pages.  長過ぎるけど、頑張ったらできるよ。(It’s exceedingly long, but if I try hard I can definitely do it.)

2) Write an 8-10 page paper for New Asian Cinema. Since this paper is in a language that I actually speak, I’m not too worried. It’s just a matter of finding time (and motivation) to sit down and work on it.

3) Do a final project for Intermediate Digital Arts. We have to show off our continued progress on this project every Wednesday in class, so I’m gonna have to work on this project steadily despite my best efforts at procrastination. I think I like that we’re being forced to work on it every week though, because I can guarantee that I wouldn’t be doing so otherwise. I’m sure it’s a good idea, it’s just not how I usually operate.

Well, gotta get to work! It wouldn’t be Sunday night otherwise.

This week in New Asian Cinema, we watched a film called Millennium Actress. It’s an anime movie. I used to watch a lot (seriously, a lot) of anime, but lately I barely watch any at all. For the first few minutes I was still getting readjusted to the medium, but after that I really enjoyed the movie. It was a lot better than I was really expecting; it was one of those movies that just really made a strong connection with me, and it was pretty deep and artistic. I’d seen Perfect Blue before, which is another anime movie directed by the same person, but Perfect Blue is really serious and pretty disturbing, where as Millennium Actress is basically the opposite. I can appreciate and enjoy the range of emotions explored by the more disturbing, but Millennium Actress is more the kind of movie that I really enjoy watching.

Yesterday there was a guest lecture that I had to go to for New Asian Cinema. The lecturer’s name was Susan Napier, and she lectured about anime. It was pretty interesting. She had some intriguing ideas, and beyond that it was just pretty cool to hear someone speaking about anime on a relatively scholarly level.

One thing that really struck me, though, is that she’s essentially coming at it from the point of view of an outsider; though she might watch and enjoy anime regularly, she was a scholar before that. Because of that, there were some small errors in details that a really dedicated fan would not have made. These kinds of errors don’t really bother me, but I think once it comes to the point where the people doing the scholarly research on the subject are the people who were significantly interested in the subject prior to their research, things could get much more interesting. I suppose it’ll just take time for more fans to grow up and become adults.

Ok, that got really nerdy. I apologize. It won’t happen again. (actually, it probably will.)

So, here’s a bunch of pictures.

First, some instant chow mein I made the other day:

I couldn’t believe it, but you use only one cup of water when you’re making it. Just one!

Have you ever seen religious bathroom stall graffiti before? You have now.

This is the lame setup that we watch movies on in New Asian Cinema. The TV is about as big as the one I have in my room. I guess I can’t complain though, since every other film class I’ve taken has been in a theater room with a projector.

This past weekend I got Chinese food for dinner with my parents. It was pretty good. This is the wonton soup, which I hadn’t had in a long time.

Hi Mom and Dad. (Note: It isn’t really that dark in my kitchen, that’s just the settings I had on the camera when I took this picture.)

Man, this weekend really went by very quickly. Seems like they always do lately.

Man, it’s been a really long week. Nothing particularly major has happened, but I’ve just been busy with all kinds of stuff. School and work as usual, obviously, but also some other stuff added to that.

The friend of mine that I live with bought Guitar Hero III for PlayStation 3 last weekend. If you don’t know what that game is, it’s a videogame you play with a guitar controller that pretty much everyone and their brother plays nowadays. It’s pretty fun, although I think the first one is still my favorite.

What’s really awesome though is this new game called Rock Band - it’s like Guitar Hero, but with singing and drums as well. I’m a drummer, and I love videogames, so a drumming videogame is basically the best thing in the world to me. I was at Best Buy the other day and there was a demo set up. It had the song “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath on it, and I actually know how to play that song on real drums, so it was the perfect test to see how the game is compared to real life drumming. All that needs to be said is that I got it 99% perfect on Expert mode on my first try, so it’s definitely pretty close. Also, it was a blast. This game will be great when it comes out.

I’m going to a Halloween party tonight. It should be fun. It’s hosted by the same guys who I work with whose parties I have gone to and really enjoyed before, so I have no concerns at all. It’ll definitely be a good time. I can’t decide if my Halloween costume is funny or tacky, but either way, it’s something. I’ll throw a couple pictures from the party up here tomorrow…maybe.

Speaking of pictures, I finally got a new camera. It can take some great pictures, and I can already tell that there’s a lot more possible with it than there was with my old one. I’m excited to learn how to use it (it has a ton of options) and really get to taking some cool pictures. I’ve taken a bunch of pictures with it so far, mostly just testing it out. But hopefully some of them turned out good. I’ll post tomorrow with some of the best ones. (I can’t right now because I’m at work, and the pictures are on my camera at home.)

You’d think the busier I am, the more I’d have to write about in here. Maybe it’s because most of what I’m busy with is mundane stuff that isn’t really worth talking about (”on Monday I went to work and then came home and did my homework…” ) or maybe it’s because the busier I am, the less time I have to stop and think about things. I’m not really sure.