Vs the World

So I was turned on to Scott Pilgrim a couple of years back by a close friend of mine. I waited patiently for each new volume to come out and I loved it. For some reason when the movie came out I failed to go watch it, I think the main thing was that my Fiance doesn't like going to the theater. I finally watched and was not surprised by how good it was. I personally think it's better then the comic up until the end, the comic is able to delve deeper into Scott's psyche and his inability to grow up. Also the Final boss battle was covered better in the comic, but seeing as how the final volume of the comic and the movie were being developed in tandem it's understandable that there would be some difference. All in all I really loved the movie and will be purchasing it when I can.

Back

Ok well 5 days or so of silence is enough. My Fiance is doing much better and I think she will be alright now.

So I figure that in this post I'll do an introduction of who I am and what I'm about. I'm a 28 year old Texan who has meandered through college and life and is now at a crossroads without a map or a compass. I have a loving family and good number of friends that I don't see nearly enough. I'm lucky to have more people who I love and love me in return then I have fingers. I was studying Chemistry, but I'm a poor student and can't get past Calculus II, also I'm not even sure I want to be a chemist it just seemed to be the way to go at the time. I am a bonafide nerd, and I hit about all the cliches. I watch anime, play videogames, enjoy sci-fi, and even do table top role playing.

My Fiance is a yoga instructor and a stripper. She is tiny, tattooed and beautiful and way more intelligent then she realizes. She loves animals which is why we have 5 Finches, 1 Sun Conure, and 3 rats. She wants to be an Animal Behaviorist, but doesn't believe it will ever happen. We compliment each other in many ways, and I think I am having a very positive impact on her life.

I hope to one day find my calling, whatever it is, and be happy doing my job. I hope to travel and see the world, the farthest I have ever been is Hawaii and I would love to go back. I don't know if I'm really interesting enough to keep a blog, but I'm going to give it a shot. thanks guys and gals.

Short Hiatus

Sorry for the radio silence, I may need to take a few more days off of the blog as well. My Fiance has been in a state of distress and I have been taking care of her. I'm having to spend all my time tending to her. I don't mind at all but for the next few days I probably won't be bale to update. Sorry to anyone who actually cares.

The Japanese

So I said that I would post my plan on how I'm going to learn Japanese and here it is, it may not be the most popular plan with some people but I've picked my pony and I'm going to stick with it.

Step one, the first thing I am doing is going through Remembering the Kanji. It's a system to simply help you remember all 2000 shapes of Kanji. I have multiple resources to help me do this that can double up to help me later. This step is just the very first and on it's own it's pretty worthless, what it does however is gets me to the point where I can start to recognize the different Kanji and then ascribe meanings to them later. This leads us to...

Step two, where I go through the book 2001 Kanji Odyssey: Essential Japanese Kanji. This book takes each Kanji and uses it in multiple sentences. It lists the translation as well as the reading for the Kanji, and since most Kanji have multiple readings this allows me to learn what those readings are and how to recognize what they will be if I see the Kanji in a sentence. It will also help to teach me vocabulary and grammar.

Step three, will pretty much be done in conjunction with step two. I will be going through Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar. This book also gives sentences and there translations, so I will gain more vocabulary as well as of course Grammar.

From this point I will have a good solid basis to find literature, manga, shows, and anime and start to transcribe and translate them, using them as sentences to learn more vocabulary and grammar from. Since One Piece is one of my favorite animes and is simple on concepts I will probably start with that, but something else could easily catch my eye. All the while I will be practicing speech from any anime or source I can find, and I know of at least two conversational Japanese clubs that meet in my city so I will join up with them to start getting the grasp of speaking the language and producing sentences.

So that is my game plan, we will see how well it works, I first need to get through the 2000+ Kanji from RtK. at this point I am 110 Kanji in and should be adding more everyday, wish me luck.

A few days worth

I got very busy taking care of my Fiance, she had a lot of built up stress and so I have been spending as much time trying to keep her grounded as I can, I think we are still going to have to work on it. This is what led to me doing three hours of Yoga. She is a Yoga instructor at 24hour fitness and she had three classes to teach that day and wanted me to come with her. So I ended up going to three different hour long yoga classes and hammering my body, so even now I'm soar. Regrettably she is getting sick so we will probably need to take her to the doctor, she still has medical coverage under her ex-husband but that will probably be ending soon, but I haven't had medical insurance for several years, so hopefully she can survive until I find a job that offers it.

I have been thinking about trying for a degree in pharmacy, it's a high paying job and the pharmacist I have talked to don't seem to be under a load of stress, it's also a growth industry with all the baby boomers entering there golden years. The only problem is that it's four more years of college minimum. I was thinking about takning out some heavy student loans and living off those for the most part while I do it, but I would end up owing close to 100K by the end of it. On the flip side of that I would be making nearly 100K a year as a Pharmacist and so could probably pay that down relatively quick. Life decisions suck.

I haven't been able to work on the outline for my novel/story/buggering around with words on paper, for a while and I really need to make some time to do that. I'm in no hurry though, it's not like I have a publisher or a deadline. Although giving myself a deadline might be a good idea to light a fire under my kiester.

My Japanese studies have been progressing slowly but steadily, I think my next post will be about what my plan is to conquer that language. On a tangential note I saw an ad for American Ninja Warrior and am really regretting not having cable right now. I usually watch all my TV shows on Hulu or the internet, but I love Ninja Warrior (Sasuke in Japan) and want to see the new episodes. Hopefully this year on the American version they will have challenges that actually make since when held up again the Japanese show, because running with weights across a beach has little to do with massive grip strength and endurance.

Very very soar all over. Three hours of Yoga can kill a man. Just wanted to do a very brief post for now, been super busy.

Twosday

Day two:
I have restarted on my road to Japanese proficiency and will probably go over my plan in a latter post, but so far I'm not having much of a problem remembering what I had forgotten.
Went out with my fiance and got two new finches for a total of 5. one was a replacement for a bronze winged mannikin that she had bought a couple of days ago and had inexplicably died during the night. The second was a one eyed spice finch which I have named Rum.
Have started on the outline of the story I want to write, but to make sure I have everything in order it will probably be weeks or months before I really put pen to paper (figuratively speaking). I'm happy with the progress it is making and the route it is heading down.
Still need to start looking for a job, but I'm kinda enjoying the free time for a while.