Final Day of the Week

I just finished my Japanese homework for today. Gotta go get my reimbursement from USG for the sushi event before class.

Yesterday I did really well on my pop-quiz for 393. I practiced skating for a little while after that. Then we had curry! Benson bought the carrots and potatoes while I provided the curry mix and chicken. It was a good party! Steve, Jack, Benson, Claire, Michelle, and Kristyn all showed up. The best part is we still had leftovers (which I am chowing down on now ^_^) One box of curry mix and 5 cups of rice makes enough for at least 7 hungry people. Yum Yum!

At juggling club we juggled and I took some pics.



Emily and Steve came over afterwards to play Smash in the lobby. Steve left about 10pm, at which point two other guys showed up and wanted to play. Cool cool. Emily and I then watched Lost in Translation. Steve Pitcern from Japan told me that it was an awesome movie. I thought it mediocre, mainly because nothing really happened. I could understand all the Japanese in the movie though ^_^

Good Day Good Day

I got my homework done at 4pm! That's right FOUR PM! The best part is I actually got the programming segment of it to work. Yay! I intended to spend the rest of the day playing video games, which I did a little bit of. I snuck into Fribbs and grabbed some food with Steve and Jack. Then I went over to Howe house to round up people for Smash Bros. I ended up not playing, but instead hanging out in Emily's suite until 3 in the morn. She lives with a bunch of interesting people, not to mention the guys who seem to hang out in there all the time. It was a good day.

I also made the last of the sushi for lunch. Yum.

Algorithms Homework

There is no delete and there is no replace
All you can do is insert space

Interview with Microsoft

I don't wanna talk about it.

VOTING

I forgot to mention that I filled out my absentee ballot and dropped it in the mailbox today. While filling it out I hopped on the net to see who all the candidates were for all the other positions. I couldn't imagine going to the polls to vote on all that stuff. I had no idea who anybody was besides those running for president!

I finished a good portion of the JET application. Just gotta get those recommendations and transcripts!

I also had a phone interview with Progressive about a job. I messed up one of the questions and I knew it so I apologized for it being a bad answer. The guy liked me though and invited me to participate in the next step of the interview process next month. Whooo! Jobs!

Getting Things Done

I realized that I havn't talked at all about my weekend since that post about the eggs.

Well the sushi event was a success in my opinion, albeit I didn't get a chance to enjoy it. Myself, Benson, Kristyn, and Olga worked round the clock making sure there were ingredients on the tables. There was a shortage of rice the entire time because we only had 3 rice cookers. Note to self: get more rice cookers next time! By the end of the day almost ALL of the ingredients were used up. I got to take home about 20 pounds of rice, 20 sheets of seaweed, some tuna, and a tiny container of carrots. That was it! We finished cleaning up a little after 8pm.

I went home and cracked open an ice cold brew. It was a loooooooong day.

At midnight, Steve, Claire, Kristyn, and I saw Rocky Horror Picture Show at Strosacker. It was quite the experience. I never wanna see that again.


Sunday I decided to do absolutely nothing the entire day. It was probably the best decision of my life. I played xbox for a good couple of hours, Benson and I drove the utensils back to Fitzgerald sensei's house, we made leftover sushi upon return, and then I went over to Emily's to watch the Exorcist. Relaxation is good!

The bad part is I only got a few hours of sleep...

Nailed it

I just got off the phone from my interview with Progressive. Now I get to go get interviewed on November 20-21. Hurrah!!

Food like a Madman

I've been cooking all this week getting ready for the sushi event today. I spent all morning preparing the eggs and the carrots.

Final Mid-Term

Tomorrow is the day! After my Japanese exam is over I'll be done!

I had an interview with CGI today during my lunch break. The guy doing the interviews works at the Cleveland branch dealing with the hospitals. It sounded like he had a pretty fun job. I told him my story about Japan, my experience with computers, all that usual stuff. His response was, "Too bad you're looking to be an intern, you would be perfect to work in my department!" I'm gonna take that as a good sign ^_^

He told me that if things didn't work out with me and the Jet Program, give him a call.

In other news, I may have gotten a really bad grade on my 393 quiz today.

I didn't do so hot on my compilers mid-term. The funny thing is, most people seemed to miss the same problems... There were a few problems where NOBODY got the correct answer. There better be a curve...

Finally, new juggling balls!!!

Back to the Grind

School sucks! I wish every weekend were 4 days long!

I spent the last day of break doing homework, alone, in my room... I was up till 3am doing algorithms homework and then I couldn't get to sleep. UGH! Once I pass the "tired" stage that usually hits me about 2am, it's really hard to get to sleep.

Today I received more attention than usual strolling around campus. Not only was I freelining everywhere, but I had my bright orange kyo (cat) hat on too. Everyone who was anybody stared at me ^_^ I like the attention!

I crashed all the Japanese classes today in order to advertise for our sushi event Saturday. It was fun.

Now I have tons of homework to do. Sucks.

Ice Skating!

I was seriously planning to get a lot of homework done today. It sadly didn't happen. We all decided to go ice skating at the nearby rink from 4-5. It was lots-o-fun! Claire used to play hockey and is really good at skating. Steve and I are okay because of roller blading a lot as kids. Emily did really well all things considered. She was zooming around in no time. We definitely need to do that again.

We dropped off Emily and picked up Kristyn to go to IHop. Yum. Steve and I got the unlimited pancake set of which we only ate an extra 3. Sooooo much food!

Back at my place Claire ditched us but not before telling us of treasure behind White building. We took Steve's car over there and went dumpster diving! Check out what we "found"



That's right! Four bowling balls and a full set of bowling pins!

We proceeded to watch Cloverfield (a very messed up movie) and Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guanatamo Bay (really funny) till 4 in the morn.

More Late Night Movies

I hung out with Emily the majority of the morning. We played Smash Bros in the lobby. She is really good with Zelda! I could only beat her with characters I knew how to play well (Lucas, Game & Watch, Olimar...) I was very impressed. Afterwards she showed me her dorm and we spent the next couple hours talking about Chinese and Japanese. I could understand most of her flash cards simple because the characters in Japanese and Chinese are so similar. We should study together sometime!

When Claire got home, Emily parted ways to do homework and I went to Claire's room. We then invited Kristyn over and had pesto spaghetti back at my place. Mmmmmmm! Thanks Claire's mom for the homemade pesto!

Smash Bros Brawl

I spent the entire day playing Smash Bros on my Wii in the lobby. I checked my playing time when I was done and it said almost 8 hours. There goes my day...

I did get laundry done and my room cleaned so it wasn't a total waste.

Later in the night Kristyn came over and watched Iron Man with me. Emily joined us halfway through the movie and brought carrots for Shiro. Emily went home after the movie to get some sleep while Kristyn and I watched Dawn of the Dead (the new one). She ended up staying the night on my couch because it was 4am when we finished!

Kagemusha 影武者

I went to see Kagemusha at the Cinemateque in CIA with Emily on Friday night. The internet went down about a half hour before the movie started, so I packed up my stuff and went to stalk Emily. She had the same idea and we just so happened to meet outside between our buildings. Haha.

The movie was really long (3 hours!) and really boring at points. The Japanese was pretty difficult to understand as it is set 500 years ago in the Edo period of Japan. I read the subtitles most of the time. The story is of this thief who impersonates the position of king in this warring clan. The king dies and the thief actually feels like the king. It was a very artistic movie with lots of landscape and army shots. The ending was really sad too.

Emily then came over to my place and we talked until 5 in the morning about random stuff.

FALL BREAK!!!

FALL BREAK STARTS NOW!!!

Don't expect to hear from me until Wednesday evening.

Haiku

Let the rain relax
Lean back and sip your hot tea
The week is done soon

Vertical Knowledge

I just had a phone interview with Vertical Knowledge. They are a small company of about 20 people (most of whom CWRU graduates) that work on various web-based applications and web-prowling projects. It looks like I will be able to work with them starting next semester and into the summer before heading off on the JET program should I feel fit. The interview went well. We are going to set up a more formal in-person interview within the next couple of weeks.

If that fails, at least I got some interview experience for my one with Microsoft ^_^

One down, Two to go

As expected, my algorithms test this morning destroyed most of the class. Out of 5 problems I knew how do do 3, which means I got at least a 60%. Yay I think...

Now on to compilers and project...

Even Maruchan Ramen can be GOOD

I made up some crappy ramen for a late-night study snack. I put in lots of extras that normally I wouldn't. First of all I added soy sauce to the broth to give it more flavor. Then I sprinkled ichimi and nori on top with a couple processed fish-cake things I bought at the asian store. It was good stuff.

This week so far has been hell. It will continue until 5pm Friday when I get out of Japanese class. The algorithms mid-term tomorrow is going to kill me. The compilers mid-term Thursday shouldn't be too bad. The programming project also due Thursday will most likely cause 3 people to be up all night. Great.

Programming Yo

But not really. I went to northside to get some hardcore programming done on our assignment and came back with nothing done. I'm gonna try to get some stuff done by myself.

Need.... Sleep...

I'm soooooo tired right now for no apparent reason.

Maybe it's because I only got 6 hours of sleep last night.
Maybe It's because I went to show-off juggling with the group at 10:30am.
Maybe it's because I spent the day learning how to juggle clubs.
Maybe it's because I chilled in Kristyn's and Joe's suite for a couple hours.
Maybe it's because I fell on my freelines and seriously hurt my left side.
Maybe it's because I spent 3 hours at Kaiwa club talking to some new ELS students
Maybe it's because I just had a glass of wine with my leftover curry.

It could be any of these things really. I'm not sure which and I don't really care. Time to go to bed.

Well.... Maybe after I finish my homework.

And Weekends are good for.... What Now?

We tried having a party last night. Didn't go over too well. Claire and I had valantino's for dinner and watched TV 'till Vaso showed up. Then we played Smash Brawl until 11:30. Then we played ping pong. Then real pong with Schell and his friends and Kristyn and Steve. Then everyone went home.

Today I skated up to Northside for the Intramural Cornhole Tournament. Sadly, I lost the first round in both singles and doubles. I thought I could throw better than that...

And the rest of my day has been doing important stuff for my future. I'm working on submitting my resume / application to companies I met at the Job Fair. I set up an interview with Microsoft. I finished as much of the JET program application as possible. Finally, I'm finishing up loose ends with the my Japan Study last year (getting transcripts and credit transferred.)

No fun for me this weekend!

Or Not...

I took my midterm today and feel like I aced it. That usually means I did really bad, but... It just seemed too easy!

Turns out that I do have another midterm next week on Thursday in compilers. Sucks.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! The sun was shining, it was warm, I could have worn a t-shirt and shorts! Under these conditions, what better thing to do than freeline all day? I practiced a whole lot trying to learn to ride switch. Sooooo difficult >_< I will get it eventually!

One and Only Mid-Term

I have my EECS 281 mid-term in less than and hour, but feel no anxiety or stress over it. It's a pretty easy class as far as I'm concerned. Even so, in previous years I did a TON of studying for all my other exams and tests.

I think going to Japan changed me into a worse student...

Homecoming

Today I went to homecoming (kinda.) I had to wake up bright and early at 9am to get ready for the parade. The juggling club participated and I wanted to be in it. Good practice of juggling while walking and we get to promote ourselves? It doesn't get any better than that! The juggling club ended up leading the band! You heard me. We were in the very front of the parade right behind the people holding the sign and in front of the band. It was amazing. Juggling while walking for 30 minutes is pretty difficult. I had my fair share of drops.

I spent the rest of my day in the village. I visited Ben and Bruce in the morning, then went over to Kristyn's suite for lunch. Kristyn has a really cool suite. It's on the 3rd floor overlooking the stadium. That means you can watch any game from the comfort of your own home! We watched a bunch of movies, the football, and soccer games until they ended around 9:30ish. It was a lot of fun.

Homework

I did lots of Japanese today. I finished half of the first chapter to my thesis. In class I was brain-dead (AKA me no comprehendo nihongo).

It finally got cold out 3 days ago. The very last day of September the coldness started. ewwwwwww. It doesn't look to be warming up anytime soon. Time to break out the sweatshirts and pants!

Job Fair

Today was the big day to show my stuff. The semesterly job fair was held in Veal today with the biggest company turnout ever. It's a good year to be a senior! I printed out 15 resumes, put on my black khakis and blue blazer, and headed off to the fair after class. I spent about 3 hours there talking to random companies. Some of the bigger names were Microsoft, Progressive, CGI, and Rockwell Automation. At the end of the day I had a free bag with tons of goodies in it (count tumbler, flashlights, pens, t-shirt, bottle opener, and even ping pong balls!) For my first career fair, I would say it was a success.

After the fair I had class, blah.

After class a company called Citgal had a presentation on the above floor. The two representatives are CWRU alumni. Amazing people. It was one of the most interesting presentations I've ever attended. One grad went over the differences between programming in school verses the real world. The other provided insight with real examples that happened to him. That is the kind of stuff I wanna deal with when I get out of college!

Juggling club started it's first meeting in Veal today. They used the raquetball courts instead of the gym as it was still dirty from the career fair. The courts are not good for juggling. It was insanely loud. Ugh.

Microsoft also gave a presentation at 7:30. Steve and I were a bit late after juggling, but managed to catch the end of the slideshow and were just in time for Q&A. I won a sweet deck of cards and more ping pong balls for asking questions. Steve, Vaso, and I stayed after everyone else left to play with the new Zune software and chat with the reps. They were also all CWRU grads! I hope I can get a job with people as cool as them!

雨

It's raining today and you know what that means? No? Well it means that I skip all my classes that's what! I don't have an umbrella and you would be really lucky to catch me walking around drenching wet in the rain. I spent the morning reading and doing 281 homework (the class that I skipped). I attended one class, compilers simply to turn in my homework. I then proceeded to skip 393 and go to Japanese 201 instead with Steve. They were having a test so Steve and I decided it would be fun to take the test along with all the other students. It brings back memories of "nice" tests...

Not much going on to be honest. Work progresses, school progresses, life flies by...