I have started studying for the 1級. I can't imagine I will pass it, but stranger things have happened. I did the same thing when I took the level 2; I took a trial run when I knew about half the necessary Kanji and vocabulary. The next year I passed it. This time is a little different. I have a better grasp on comprehension in general, my vocabulary is probably 5 times what it was then. It's easier to understand written passages, even if it is full of words I don't know.

I heard "Honey White" by Morphine today. That song forever takes me back to my days in Atlanta, playing in my band and waiting tables. Waiting tables was a big pocket of cash every night, too much drinking and hooking up, and some of the best laughs. I met some great people from all walks of life: gay, jock, cheerleader, bodybuilder, stoner. We worked in such close quarters, we had to get along. The place was always full of drama, but the drama was what kept us coming back.

I helped my conversation partner move today. We will meet one or two more times, until she heads to Houston. Sad! I found her once I got back to the states, and she has exceeded my expectations, really letting me into her life. She has been really flexible in helping me in various areas with my Japanese, and knew how to explain things really well. Finding a replacement will be difficult. Plus she had no interest in learning English (doesn't need practice really), so it was all Japanese. Oh well.

Back to trolling the sushi restaurants!

I can't believe my last post was in February. So much has gone on. I just finished summer school, and am technically a sophomore now (I think). I am charging full speed ahead to get through college, because I was frankly tired of lying about having a degree. It's been an amazing experience and my life is so packed full, I haven't really had a chance to write. I don't mean to say that everything is perfect, and you should be so lucky to have my life; I am just enjoying where I am at, and grateful I am healthy, sober, and have great friends and family around.

I have installed slackware, but haven't messed with it much yet. Linux reviews always start with how easy or difficult it was to install, which at times was enough for me to blow it off, thinking that from the start it might be an issue. But it was pretty easy, mostly hitting enter, a few snags, but I got it done in a few hours. Not as daunting as I thought.

I am angling for a new job. Right now, I work for a real one. I shan't say more.

That's what I do, but not due to any choice on my part. I love my new laptop, except for the fact it crashes randomly. Because of this I have become recently acquainted with the windows debugger. It make deciphering crashdumps easy, so you can find out what drivers are causing bluescreens. Or you can buy a mac, ha.

Stuff. People are becoming aware that Americans have become craving monkeys. There are people like Annie Leonard, who created the Story of Stuff. But when viewed from an environmental point of view, a more important point is missed. Then there is  Reverend Billy Talen with What Would Jesus Buy. Paul Graham hits the nail on the head, with his essay Stuff.

At the beginning of this woodshedding process, I am really fidgety. I am sad and worried about my Japanese going down the drain, worried that I should just be consulting and trying to get back to Japan without a degree, worried that this degree is a nail in the coffin of my creativity. I'm antsy. A little wigged. Kinda all over the place.

So I am going to drink some tea, listen to gagaku and read.

I had somehow lost about half of my itunes music, stuff I bought, and burned myself. It was on my iPod, so I didn't even realize it for a long time. Anyway, I finally figured out how to copy it back onto my hd, and in the process managed to deleted it all. So I got some of it back, maybe 1/8. And while it is nice having Venom and Ween back on my hard drive, all the music I was listening to on my iPod is kaput. The Buddha sure was right about impermanence. I didn't believe it.

School is good. I am meeting with one of the schools I want to transfer to, to make sure I am taking the right classes. I dropped the statistics course, because I have a feeling it won't transfer, and I got general bad vibes about the class. The rest of the classes are good.