crayon519

Somebody made me do it, not saying who.

A meme. Yay.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
I get my middle name from my grandfather, and my last name from my parents. Other than that, no.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Does sniffling from watching TV count? Probably sometime watching Buffy again, then (I'm incredibly easy when it comes to the whole watery eyes thing). Otherwise, er, sometime around the run-up to the trial after my dad's death, probably. And even then, I'm not the full-on sobbing type, probably haven't done that since I was still in the single digits.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HAND WRITING?
Yeah. It's very neat -- of course, I always print, I never write cursive in any language.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Bacon? No, corned beef, actually.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
I'm pretty sure I don't. Pretty sure.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Depends what other person I was.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Of course not, I'd rather die in a fire.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
No.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
No.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Peanut Butter Crunch (with the Captain).

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Less than I used to.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
That peanut butter and jelly flavor ice cream Ben & Jerry's made for a short time. I miss it.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Uh, depends on the person.

15. RED OR PINK?
Red. Pink is wrong.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I'm really way too good at being mean.

17. [THIS QUESTION INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.]

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
Don't care. Possibly not even less.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
If I was wearing pants (which I'm not, I'm in my room) they'd be my black jeans, or at least they were today. If I was wearing shoes (which I'm not, I'm indoors, and in Japan), they'd be my black Nikes, or at least they were today.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Rush - Anthem [rotating through the stuff I haven't listened to in a while. This one was last listened to in early January of 2008].

22 IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Black.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Garlic, maybe. Food, certainly.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Friend Evan, I think. Don't spend much time on the phone in Japan.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football. American style.

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brownish blonde.

28. EYE COLOR?
Brown.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Wendy's hamburgers.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Neither.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
District 9.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Sage with big orange picture thingies. It's my Arches National Park Shirt.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs. Kisses are messy.

36. [THIS QUESTION WAS REMOVED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE. OR JUST PLAIN MISSING IN ACTION.]

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Who cares?

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Who cares?

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese [Revised Edition].

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Not using one right now. The one in my bag is a Rice University logo pad, and that's the one I would use if I was using a mouse, which I'm not.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Nothing, but Buffy on DVD.

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)?
A cat purring.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Rolling Stones at their best. Beatles more on average.

44. WHERE IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport or so.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Gaydar that's approximately five percent more accurate than random chance.

46 WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
United States of America

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Don't care.

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
In Tokyo. Oh, how? By poking random things on the internet.

The OCD among you can already tell me which three numbers were missing. Can't you?

Disturbingly easy draw for USA... England (okay, challenging, but also the first game against a notoriously slow starting Cup team that they don't even have to beat to advance), Slovenia (probably the weakest European team to advance) and Algeria (same for Africa).

Not only that, they don't play any of the four top teams until the semis, no matter what (Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy). And, they've had success in South Africa (that surprising upset of Spain this year in the Federations Cup). And...

...Well, expectations are high. And that's not good. Here's hoping, though.

Japan wasn't quite so lucky, but missed getting stuck in a particularly tough group.

[ETA: Nate Silver gives team USA a 48% chance of advancing.]

Second essay from class; the first was really craptacular morass of ungrammatical kanji soup, so not posting that one. This one's passable, maybe. It got turned in about a week and a half ago, so no corrections are necessary; I'll get those from the teachers, and at this point I don't even really have time to look at it anymore before moving on to the next thing -- so they really aren't useful.

Everything in this is more or less true, although many of the implications are not (for one, I don't ski, or even snowboarded in several years). I'm getting a little more verbose in Japanese these days.

デンバーの山

日本に移る前にアメリカのデンバーに住んでいました。出身地ではありませんが、十年間そこに住んでいたし、それにアメリカの中で一番好きな町です。今そこに住んでいないのに、デンバーの自宅をまだ持っています。

デンバーは山で有名ですが、本当に平野にあります。しかしデンバーのすぐな西にはロッキー山脈があります。山の景色のほかには、雨があまり降らないので天気がいつもよくて、地元のビールがすごく美味しいですが、デンバーの一番いい点は、山の隣にあることです。

確かにロッキー山脈にはきれいな景色がたくさんあります。ロッキーマウンテン国立公園がデンバーから近いですが、いい州立公園もあります。両方ともおすすめです。特にロックスボローという州立公園がおすすめです。一年中できることがたくさんあります。夏にハイキングと山登りができますが、特に冬にはスキーができます。

コロラド州はスキー場で有名です。そしてデンバーはたくさんいいスキー場に行けて便利です。ベイルやアスペンなどは一番有名ですが、デンバーからスキートレーンという列車で行けるので、ウィンターパークが一番好きです。デンバーに住む多くの人はスキーが好きです。実はデンバーに住む多くの人はスキーが好きなのでデンバーに移りました。スキーが好きなら、二、三時間で有名ないいスキー場に行けるので、住むいいところです。

デンバーに来るのがおすすめです。一年中することも見ることもあるので、季節はいつでもいいですが、特にスキーが好きなら冬にデンバーに来てください。

Or is the SFF.net mailserver (among other things) toast?

[Kinda would like to figure out what's up with his mail, but doesn't really have time to deal with it.]

[ETA: massive hardware failure, apparently all is now well.]

The death march continues! Kanji midterm last Friday, grammar midterm this Tuesday, oral (interview) midterm yesterday, listening midterm next Monday. You'd think, you know, maybe we'd get a break after our grammar test, but no, two vocabulary quizzes the next day. Then an essay and reading evaluation the next day (to go with the oral midterm). And two quizzes today. One of the guys was saying, hey, why don't we celebrate and go for monjayaki after midterms? But after our last midterm Monday, we have a major grammar test on Tuesday, then a major kanji test on Wednesday... Then I have track practice (like I normally do three times a week) eating up Thursday evening...