On the Table

[l33tminion]

Last weekend, I met an old family friend, Barry, and talked to him about my travel plans for the spring. Barry's an interesting guy. He lived in Japan for five years, teaching English conversation, but he first went there to ride the subways. The guy briefly had the distinction of having ridden on every line of every subway in the world. When he was six, his parents let him ride the T on his own, and he had been to every T stop and on every bus line before he was seven. Seriously, the guy may be more of a public transportation fanatic than my dad, and that's really saying something. He suggested that I do whatever I can to learn some Japanese before the trip (which I am trying to do) and to take the homestay option instead of living in the dorm at IES (I'm still thinking about it).

The guy also does publicity for theaters in the area, which means I may be able to see more theater shows this year.

IES has recieved some of my application materials, but they apprently didn't get the form my advisor mailed in. I talked to my advisor about that, and the situation is being resolved.

I'm still insanely busy. I've got an essay to write for Social Relations in Cyberspace (and I have to interview three people for the essay) in addition to all my usual work. The essay is due next Wednesday.

I've memorized 20 characters of Hiragana so far.

I'm going to the Time Spiral prerelease tournament this Saturday (hopefully). The new set looks really awesome.

My copy of Kingdom Hearts II arrived from Amazon, so I played a bit last night after not playing all summer. That game is good stuff.

Some Oliners are trying to organize a few DnD campaigns. With any luck, I'll be in one of them.

Comments

[pandatini.livejournal.com]

I could help a little maybe with the Japanese learning. I did first year Japanese last year tho I've probably forgotten a lot of it. I don't remember how many kana there are though. 46 it looks like ... I assume you haven't started learning voiced and unvoiced sounds yet ... kana is fun, basically just brute memorization. It gets better after that.

[kihou.livejournal.com]

Until you start trying to get your kanji down. Then it gets evil.

[pandatini.livejournal.com]

I wasn't mentioning the evil of kanji because I was trying not to scare him away ;)

[l33tminion]

One thing at a time. :-P

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

Did they put in more subway lines that he hasn't ridden yet, or has he still ridden every subway line in the world? (You said he "briefly" had the distinction of having done so?)

I aspire to do the same. :D

[l33tminion]

Did they put in more subway lines that he hasn't ridden yet

Yeah. They keep building subway lines, and travel is expensive.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I redid the poll.

[l33tminion]

Filled it out again, thanks.