Wednesday, July 26, 2006

You don't get into university with no money, no future, and no past.

I have been dead tired recently. This is why my posting has been slow.

So, I am torn between doing ECE and doing an English major w/ Japanese minor. I have been toying with the idea of doing ECE and then doing my English major, instead of doing a year of college prep first. 

But it would cost more. About $2000 more. 

The thing is, I don't think Fleming College offers ECE. Fleming College is in Peterborough, the city my wife and I are likely moving to. This presents a problem with that plan that will need serious workarounds. One of them being drop this crazy ECE scheme and just do the one year University Prep course they offer specifically for would-be applicants of Trent U. 

On a side note, I have been thinking about dropping the Ontario Early Years places from my weekly work schedule as I have been dreading attending the main site (I work at two sites, one of them being the main site) since I started working there. These past few days have given me hope though. I seem to be more equipped to handle the dynamic environment the longer I work there, though I still can't remember any of the parents', or even the childrens', names. I have had good conversations about varied subjects with some of the parents there and realize I may be the only adult these people will get to speak to on any given day. This makes me feel better about the hardness of the job and, in fact, makes me want to attend my scheduled shifts with something like optimism in my pocket. Besides, the mothers who attend are mostly very, very nice people who have so much to say and have done so much. It breaks my heart to separate myself from that kind of person willingly.

It's strange to say that, since it's in a rich neighborhood. I always equate rich places with assholes.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Wriggle
Sakuya
So, I have begun collecting Wriggle, I have 25 of her.










I also have 23 Sakuya.













My premium figure list thus far:

Gym Uniform Mima ~ Jam ~ Sailor Medicine ~ Gym Uniform Sakuya ~ Mii ~ Bunny Haruhi ~ Maid Mikuru ~ Crying Nurse Sakuya ~ Golgo 13 Reisen ~ Cenobite Sakuya


Last night i traded Sakuya-sensei for Cenobite Sakuya and a drawing of Sakuya riding a goomba.



I have decided that when I trade in my 100 Sakuya for 1 rare, custom Sakuya it will be called Goomba Knight Sakuya.




Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I just found out a friend of mine died last week after delivering her baby.

One of the children I work for told me she loved me.

There was a bomb threat near my work.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

My throat hurts and i am coughing. :(

I got a couple new games yesterday for my Gamecube (my PS2 is nearly dead.) I will list them here:

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Super Monkey Ball
Waverace: Blue Storm
Warioworld

We initially wanted to buy a single game but they had a sale and we couldn't decide on a single title. With no money and only a limited amount of food we will need these games to escape reality a bit.

Super Monkey Ball is so addictive. Rolling around on these labyrinth-style boards trying not to fall off the edge while making it to the goal and getting as many bananas as possible. It's simple, frusterating fun.. And it's a party game!

Friday, July 14, 2006

The family and I went to a small amusement park called Centerville today. Br0n went on rides for the first time, even the scary ones. She is turning from baby-type into kid-type, she really needs a transformation sequence.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

I saw a Woody Guthrie documentary full of rhetoric and lies. His early, rambling, desperate, hungry, painted, reckless years is who I've wanted to be for probably about 8 years. It seems to take pain and euphoria to make a person whole. I haven't had much of either.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I have recently been collecting what are known as "premium" figures. They are not necessarily from the Touhou series, cost ten of what are known as "point items" (it's all very complicated) and are suggested for approval by the userbody itself. Some of them are quite cute sounding and as always I am looking for lots and lots of Sakuya.

I include below a list of my premiums.

Dentist Patchouli ~ Gym Uniform Mima ~ Sayo Yuki ~ Jam ~ Sailor Medicine ~ Gym Uniform Sakuya ~ Mii

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

This is a sad post.

That picture reminded me of a tragic story the manager of the daycare I was working at today (I'll call her Mao) told me about her subway ride in from work. She was pulling into Davisville station when the train suddenly stopped and the doors failed to open. After a while the lights went out and an announcement came over the PA to say that there would be a delay in the service and that it was due to an electrical problem.

It hurts to relay the story.

The doors on the very back car were opened though the exit was more towards the middle of the platform and people were being ushered through the cars and out the back of the train. The stairway was jammed, barely moving at all when Mau saw a women who had turned white and panicky who said, "I saw her head." It was then that there was an unearthly moan or cry from nearer the front of the train, from which Mau guessed there was a girl not over five years old in trouble there. The crowd began vulturing around and Mao and someone she had been talking to declined to do the same, though she gathered that the girl had somehow gotten trapped, the train still moving at the time, by her neck between the platform and the floor level of the train (about four inches across?) and was not dead.

Mao told me this story and I felt horror rising in me though I tried to remain calm and didn't say much throughout the rest of my mid-day break. When I got back to class I took some time to hug as many of my toddlers as would let me do so with love and tenderness and tried to give them everything I could possibly give them in the best ways that I knew how.

I hope so much that the girl was not crushed underneath. That she was ok and was taken to the hospital with non-fatal injuries. I suppose I will find out tomorrow when I get the paper.

I feel like crying again.

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

I had a pretty good day today. The toddlers I was working with were enjoyable and not terribly behaved, I got giant toddler hugs from two of them actually. One of the Teachers I was working with was pregnant. I have only one episode of Haruhi to watch before I'm caught up and can join a Haruhi fangroup. I also got two Sakuya from friends of mine to add to my collection of virtual dolls, I now have 8/100. The wife made an awesome open faced turkey sandwich dinner, too.

Life seems so good sometimes.

Sunday, July 2, 2006

I am collecting Touhou gashapon figurines.

Gashapon are figurines dispensed from machines and are rather popular in Japan. They are not unlike the toy machines you see at the grocery store. The word gashapon comes from the sound the machine makes when it dispenses your prize (gasha-gasha.) I have, in fact, seen more than one real japanese-style gashapon machine in Toronto but generally they don't have anything more niche than Dragonball or Hello Kitty figurines, neither of which are really my thing.

Touhou is a series of games originally propagated for the japanese PC-98 platform and which continues to be popular on NT based windows platforms. They are what are known as curtain-fire shooters which basically means the enemies generally shoot large complex spreads of bullets that beg you to dodge between and graze while trying to stay under the enemy so that you can accurately shoot it. The characters are highly collectible because they are all cute anime girls with different abilities and relationships to each other.

One thing differentiates my collection with other people's useless obsessions.

My collection doesn't exist in the analog world.

Yes.. I am collecting virtual dolls that don't even have images associated with them. This is facillitated by an IRC bot which acts as the gashapon machine and also keeps track of who has what. There are currently 25 people in the channel that has this bot, so it's not just me who is absurdly bent on collecting these.. names.

My collection thus far..
Chiyuri x2,
Cirno x3,
Elis x2,
Ellen x1,
Gengetu x1,
Hourai x1,
Kana x1,
Keine x1,
Komachi x3,
Letty x1,
Lily x1,
Mai x1,
Medicine x1,
Merlin x1,
Orange x1,
Point Item x2,
Reisen x2,
Rikako x1,
Rika x2,
Rinnosuke x1,
Sakuya x4,
Sara x1,
Shinki x2,
Suika x1,
Youmu x1,
Yuka x2,
Yukari x1,
Yuyuko x1

Quite extensive? No, not nearly as large as some of the collections belonging to people who remember to set timers at night and when they go to work. To remember to do that is the key to getting 100 of a single figure so that you can trade those in for a single RARE figure. I am collecting Sakuya, the girl with control over time which she uses to create an infinite amount of knives out of a single blade that she can then hurl at infidels.

I feel like such a loser.

Saturday, July 1, 2006

I get the feeling that this Hideshi Hino's Theatre of Horror is a sucky TV hour in jp just as Friday the 13th is in N America. I saw Lizard Baby from the same line of movies and it was terrible. It wasn't suspenseful and reminded me of an ep of the Twilight Zone except it didn't have a twist at the end. Maybe I will try watching the Ringu series or Ju On next instead of subjecting myself to this series.

I have been watching a show called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱) and it's really pretty interesting about a girl named Haruhi and her obsession with supernatural occurrences. Haruhi seems like some kind of catalyst for a larger plot involving alternate space, time travelling and the Earth coming into existence four years ago. At any rate it is still airing in jp and I have four more eps to watch before I am caught up to the current story line (the last ep aired was 13.) It's based on the Nagaru Tanigawa's Suzumiya Haruhi series of novels which I haven't read and, indeed, don't even know if it's been translated officially, unofficially or at all. Though if I actually do enjoy the TV series enough I will seek them out. I am actually learning a bit of jp. じょうずじゃありません。。。 But I'm not very good. If I get good enough I am thinking about doing some translation for a fansub group or two.