Night's Plutonian Shore

So....just attempted my first lesson in Korean on Rosetta Stone....

Yeah, ROFLville! Apparently, I suck at pronunciation and vocab retention. I also can't read Korean at all, so that was fun trying to decipher everything after it's already been made into a sentence. Lot's of fun....NOT!

LOL! But I'm gonna keep trying. What trips me out the most is this is my first lesson and it was only 30min or so. If I'm having such a hard time with this, I don't even wanna think about later. I guess I'll just keep doing each lesson over and over until I'm confident I have the vocab/pronunciation/spelling down.

That's one thing about learning at my own leisure instead of in a class; I can take my own sweet time! マイペースでいいよ！ Yeah, eff that class/grade/GPA shit....

I saw this and thought to post it. Cause it's effing awesome!


Can you read this?:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty

uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal

pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a

rscheearch sdtuy at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't

mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the

olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer

be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl

mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed

ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas toghuht slpeling

was ipmorantt! Tahts so aewmose!

So I'm going to make a stab at updating regularly again. This is mostly so the feed will go to my Facebook.

I just watched the Pilot for the new Showtime series, "United States of Tara" about a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder and four distinct personalities; an average mom, a teenager, a housewife, and a biker dude. (That's right, biker DUDE, not biker chick. Meaning the personality is male.) It was very well put together. Of course it helped that Steven Spielberg and the woman who wrote "Juno" are paired up for it. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

I also just got a PS3 and the new game "Mirror's Edge". I just finished beating it. It was a little short for my tastes, but the game play was really cool. I enjoyed the story and the music. The cut scenes were animated like a cartoon. On one hand I liked it cause it was different, but on the other hand I thought they could have fully CG'ed the scenes. I mean this is the PS3, right? If you're going to make a game for this system then utilize all the system can do. It was especially disappointing when considering how short the game was. Since it was so short, why not make up for it with kick-ass cut scenes?

Still, the game was good and I look forward to seeing the sequel. The game is resolved at the end, but there is room for the story to go on.

So I've done several unprecedented things today...

Most obviously is this post I'm writing now.

Next I have *gasp* uploaded another piece of artwork on my DeviantART page. (I think the last time I did that was two years ago.)

And lastly, but certainly not least, I have started to file my Taxes about a week before they are due instead of the night before.

I feel like I'm on a role.

Also today, I've gotten my hair done, fiddled around on Facebook for three hours, and wandered around the North Campus School of Public Health building for two hours in search of the Kendo Club. After finally locating the room the club meets in, I waited around for an hour, forty minutes of which was spent dozing on a bench in front of the door, only for them to not show up. I was looking for them because my Japanese club wanted to ask the Kendo guys to participate in our Japanese Festival. The whole debacle could have been avoided had another member of the group showed up for more than just the first meeting or even if she'd shot an e-mail out saying she couldn't do the task she volunteered to do. Then we would have had weeks to try to contact the Club instead of the measly days I had to work with.

Ah well, thems the breaks, eh?

Ja ne!

Hey guys,

I was looking up Primary results on CNN and found this article about
Asian-Americans and Obama. I thought it was interesting enough to
post. I'll save my own opinions for later.

Here's the link: Does Obama Have an Asian Problem?

I think this opinion is a load of garbage.

In this modern world I'd like to think people don't make important
decisions based solely on immediate gut reactions. I'd like to think
we have progressed far enough that we can separate social/cultural
influences from our own opinions effectively enough that we don't vote
with the status quo unless we want to. Do I deny that those gut
reactions exist? Absolutely not. Of course we are effected by our
societies. They are a large part of building who we are and always
will be. But I try very hard to think about what motivates my
decisions before making a decision, and while I don't always do it
successfully, I want to at least give that same benefit of the doubt
to others. What ever happened to innocent 'til proven guilty?

And when did Asian suddenly mean Black people haters? I've never been
prejudiced against by an Asian-American. I can't quite grasp this
idea. Do I deny the existence of Asian racism? Of course not. Just
like there are racist Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, etc. There is no
culture on this Earth that has not prejudiced against somebody else
for some ridiculous and unfounded reason. That doesn't mean one should
blanket stereotype any of them.

Personally I hate being lumped in with a group without my consent. I
personally don't believe in racial traits as a truth. I know that I
don't like all of the things considered "black", and I know other
people who feel the same way. I think it's a little cheap and unworthy
to negate the individual in race-fired decisions. To do so is to limit
humans to nothing more than herd beasts. I think my Individual is
thoughtful enough to know when to follow a status quo and when to
become an outlier. I'd like to extend that consideration to other
people too.

My culture may influence me, but it doesn't control me.

Hisashiburi De!

Well, I'm not gonna say much because frankly, I'm kinda tired. I'm supposed to be moving next month in prep for going to a 4 yr college. I got straight A's last semester and I'm feeling really lazy, so I'm not sure what, if anything I'll get done in my summer courses. I'll be taking Watercolor and Drawing next month to round out my Associates with two electives.

That's all for now.

Ta-Ta!

I finished a three day meeting in Baltimore as one of the people representing students on my Community College's Presidential Search Advisory Committee. To explain, our college's President is resigning at the end of this fiscal year, so we've got to find a new one to take over. A committee of representatives from all the internal constituencies and external community sectors was formed to whittle down the numerous candidates to 3-5 for the Board of Trustees to hire from.

While at the BWI Marriott, (Simply fantastic! The pool was magnificent. There was a tiered waterfall at one end that fed into the rest of the pool. Beautiful. $480/night to stay there.) I was approached by the Concierge. She wanted me to come mentor at her newly started Youth Program with her church. I explained that I'd only be able to do it Saturdays. We exchanged contact info.

That aside, my conversation with her really got me thinking about my time in Baltimore. Up until about three years ago I'd lived in B-More for roughly sixteen years. I came from the commonly known area between North Ave. and White Lock, thus named "White Lock City" by the city youth.

I have a real Love-Hate Relationship with Baltimore.
( And it goes on... )

Yes, I just used the Japanese word for "storm" in my subject title. Why? Because I suddenly remembered that was the Japanese word for it and decided to write it. No, I didn't use it in reference to the J-pop boy band of the same name, whom I still assert that not a damn one of them can sing to save their life, though they're all super-cute (Matsumoto Jun is a sexy beast!) and their songs are quite catchy.

Now on to my real post.

Today was a "calm" day. You know, the peaceful time you have just before some event of great activity and change happens. I have these on occasion. I'll be moving in the next few months. Not sure where yet, or with whom, but hopefully I'll be able to find a roomie soon. This will be a time of great change for me as I'll be moving without my Aunt. Hopefully I'll make it OK. Just before events like this I have a period of time, from an hour to a whole week, of just full-on Nirvana-esque tranquility. What happens after can be a good or bad event, but I always get very calm before it happens and my mind seems to think about anything and everything no matter how base.

So today I went to get my hair done down at the Haircuttery at Dupont Circle (An adventure all on it's own.) and I was in this "wandering mind" mode the entire time. I thought about everything and nothing, with the thoughts usually shifting every time something new came across my gaze.

Low and behold I saw something curious. At the Gallery Pl/Chinatown Metro Station a sign meant to indicate what train was coming to which side of the tracks said, "Branch Station via Anacostia." Now as I stood there I had to break down this sign. It is understood that the train coming along this side of the tracks will take me from my current station to Branch Station, provided it has a green light lit on it. But with the use of the word "via" does not the sign imply that I could perhaps catch a different train to Branch Station when coming from Gallery Pl/Chinatown? But the Metrorail Green line is the only train I can catch between the two, and that line has to go through Anacostia anyway, so why put the "via" there? Are there some Green line trains that skip over Anacostia?

This is what I was thinking about. Some of you might ask why I'm being picky about this. The answer is no reason at all. Sometimes I get very anal about stupid stuff like that. Is it going to bother me? No, but I will remember it from now on and think about it every time I see that phrasing in Metro Stations. This is how I am. I really concentrate on little stuff during my "wandering mind" moments. To fit my mood, I was listening to Hyde's Roentgen English album on my Mp3. Soft and mellow rock and a crooning voice was just what I needed. Spice that up with a couple jazzy songs and I was really relaxed today. Great stuff.

That's all for now.

Apparently, gators aren't the only thing Florida wants out of it's cities. In recent reports in the Metro Express paper, which I often get on my morning bus ride to school, it is now illegal to feed more than 25 homeless people in Orlando, Florida without a permit from the City. The article, very ironically I might add, describes a park sign that basically says, "Don't lie on park benches or in the shrubbery" in a "horizontal" manner. The comment is obviously directed at the homeless.
( The rest of my tirade on the society... )

Yatta!!! My sister just had her baby this morning! I am officially an aunt for the first time in my life. Yay! That's all I wanted to say. Nothing else I'm really pressed to talk about now. I'll update if anything strikes me.