Shouldn't be, should be writing. Am avoiding writing, but feel bad if I do anything else. Thus bored. I have to agree with sfida's insight on that subject. Being bored is definitely not the same as being horny.
What's up with Livejournal today? I can't see anybody's blog.
On top of that most people seem not to be home yet, though it's eight o'clock. Starting to turn Japanese?

Listening to: The Kinks - Turning Japanese
Feeling: ...

Though I did go to lab today, since I hadn't showed my face there yet this week, I left after less than an hour. There was a good reason, I promise. I didn't bring my computer today, since it seemed like it would rain. And with almost a week left before the deadline for the abstract of my presentation I figured I didn't really have to write on it today. Oh, the joy I felt when I came in to lab only to be told that my professor would very much like to read through it tomorrow. Seems I'll just have to pull out my mad bullshitting powers and slap something together. At least I have some pretty diagrams and pictures finished, so I should be able to make it seem a bit more substantial than it is. In any case, I left lab and came home to get started.
Today I also learned of two parties that I won't be able to go to. Why? Because I'm already going to a third one... which happens to be, at least partially, my own birthday party. Well, one of the other ones I might not have been able to go to anyway. The first I learned of was a reception following a lecture by some highly placed EU official, I found the invitation for it on my desk when I came in to lab. With a little post-it note from my professor saying "Urgent!", the deadline for registration was two days ago. The second party is a party of encouragement for the lab members taking entrance exams for master courses... or something like that.

And now, since it wouldn't be a proper post without it: weather.
The sun was shining as I left Kawauchi after lunch and biked to lab. I left lab in absolutely pouring rain with occasional thunder only to arrive home partially soaked (head kept dry by umbrella) but in perfectly fine and sunny weather.

Listening to: Bathyscaphe - Film Winder Knob
Feeling: Wet, bored and tired

Seems all my posts are about weather. Seems to be raining today. And I was looking forward to an afternoon of baseball with the lab. Well, not really actually but I wouldn't have minded playing. Instead I should probably have gone to lab. I didn't. Biking with an umbrella will keep your head dry, but not much else. So I could choose between going to lab and sit there soaked for the rest of the afternoon or go home and sit here soaked until I could be bothered to change clothes. If I'd had anything particular to do in lab today I would have gone of course, that much discipline I have. But I'm not Japanese, I don't go to lab just to be there... well actually I do sometimes, because otherwise I'd almost never show my face there.
Walking around in my room in wet socks has shown beyond reasonable doubt something I've known for some time now; I desperately need to vacuum my floor. It's natural for white socks to eventually aquire a greyish colour on the sole, but not dark grey from walking between my computer and fridge a couple of times or trice. I should clean now, since I have time. Will I actually clean? Or will I pull the curtains closed and hide from the world with a book and another glass of iced tea? The next few hours will tell.

Listening to: Audioslave - Gasoline
Feeling: the foot I'm sitting on is going numb

Is what it says on the back of my teeshirt today, another kanji I'll never forget now. Got it as an early birthday present from Sayaka yesterday and it's instantly become my favorite shirt. Right colour, right size and absolutely from the right person :)

What is more important, sending the right card or sending it on the right day? My grandmother's birthday is next week and I thought this morning that I should send a card today to be sure it'd reach her in time. So I left lab a little early so I'd have time to stop by the Kawauchi Coop and get a card before kanji class. Unfortunately they didn't have any I really liked, and the post had already closed once the class was over. I'll go downtown tomorrow after lunch and find one, write it right away, send it and hope it'll be on time.

It's getting a bit late, since I've got an 8:50 lecture tomorrow morning. Not that it really matters since I can't sleep well in this weather. Or eat really. My normally monstrous appetite was today reduced to a level where I only ate four slices of toast with cheese, about half a liter of ice cream (roughly half of it vanilla and the other half choco mint), five somewhat too salty olives and a multi vitamin pill (don't eat many of those, but since I'd obviously not gotten all my vitamins...). Been drinking alot though.

Listening to: Primal Scream - You're Just Too Dark to Care
Feeling: Still sweaty, also tired... good night

today is.
But I have ice cream, ice tea and cold showers to get me through it. If it wasn't so humid it'd be a perfect day, as it is it's pleasant as long as there's a breeze. Tim said that Yuki had said that it was about 30 degrees... or something like that. Sounds about right.
Went to Yamaya earlier to get some cheese and müsli. Also got ice cream... not a good really a good idea when you have to bike home in this weather. To keep it from melting I had to get back fast, getting back fast meant getting back sweaty and miserable. But at least I have ice cream :P
Last night was kind of fun with nomihoudai and karaoke. Not much more to say about it really...

Listening to: Edo Boys - No One Sleep in Tokyo
Feeling: Sweaty

It's been years since I played Final Fantasy VII. I liked it, but like so many other old games I thought it was dead and forgotten already. Sure, there's always a few game crazy geeks who will remember any and all games. Those were my thoughts up until yesterday when I read in Zoe's blog that they're making a movie based on it (unlike making movies out of fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Combat this seems like it could actually be a good idea). So it's still got some life in it. And when I got back from lab today (still feeling a little bad about leaving before the seminar) I find Jeshua in the middle of playing it. Nifty, I didn't remember it was this good. And a few hours later I'm down in Joey's room making waffles and awaiting Ghibli Night when he pulls his latest Book Off find out of his back pack... A thick book of FF7 sheet music!
Is there a reason why FF7 is suddenly popping up everywhere I look? Maybe I should go and try to find a used copy of it tomorrow, I don't really have anything better to do.

Listening to: Supergrass - Cheapskate
Feeling: Pleasantly tired

This is the stuff that will hopefully get me through the Japanese summer. I have yet to discover something that is better to relieve the feeling of mugginess that seems to be more or less permanent lately. But as much as I don't like too warm weather, it's not yet hot enough for me to wish for what they've got at home right now. It's been rainy with temperatures close to ten celsius and northern Sweden has had some snow.
So I'll just pour another couple of liters of ice cold minty goodness down my throat and stop complaining.
To make this wonderful beverage I take a big bowl of water and heat it in the microwave for five minutes (I don't have a non-leaky pitcher that will fit in the microwave), put in a bag of mint tea and a bag of peppermint herbal infusion (both bought at Yamaya for cheap) and leave them there until it cools. Then I pour it into a pitcher (and some into my sink since my big bowl isn't made for pouring anything out of) and put it in the fridge. Serve with nice big chunks of ice. The microwaves can be substituted for a gas flame... at least if your water is in a fireproof container such as a pot. A frying pan will work, but I will consider you strange for making tea in one.
So now I've written instructions for cooking tea... is that an indication of boredom? Rethorical question, don't bother to answer.
As you can probably guess from the subject of this post, not terribly much of any real interest has been happening lately. Nick was going to post some amusing quotes from yesterday, but he apparently forgot them. Probably a good thing since I can sound a little mean sometimes if quoted out of context... or even in context I suppose ^_^

Listening to: Das Bandt - How to Save My Soul
Feeling: ...not really

It's been awhile since I've laughted so hard I cried. But this "World According to Student Bloopers" by Richard Lederer had me doing it for a long time. A little embarrassing considering that I'm in the computyer room at the international student center. It's apparently quite old (the text, not the center), but I hadn't seen it before.
Thank you ever so much Zoe for bringing it to my notice.

It's hard to find a way to sit that will keep you comfortable for a long period of time. This is especially true on long distance busses, but is not in any way limited to those. Indeed it is a problem we've had to deal with since leaving the water. For even though that was arguably a breakthrough in evolutionary engineering, which certainly must have employed many of the very best genes at the time, it has left us removed from that supporting embrace so that we have to fight through every living moment not to collapse from gravitational stress.
The most logical way to approach this problem is that taken by the snakes. Spread the weight over a large surface and minimalize the pressure put on any single part. A good idea, so naturally evolution has tried it out and kept it.
But still we weren't satisfied, we wanted up in the world. So somehow legs were invented. Not the brightest idea really, but it once again gave evolution something creative to do with all those millions of years. Figure out how absorb the stress and the shocks inherent in not only concentrating the weight on a few points, but in lifting and moving these points one or several at a time.
And now to the final test, can it be done with only two contact points? It would require some serious computing to constantly monitor and adjust such a creature so it wont overbalance and fall, possibly falling prey to one of it's many legged cousins. And would two legs really be sufficient for the task of keeping any useful amount of mass away from the lovng embrace of Mother Earth? In the spirit of natural selection not much thought (in fact none) was given to such considerations and a few of models were quickly slapped together over the course of a few million years (tens or hundreds, something like that). These were apparently successful for a good long while, multipied and ate many of their four footed friends (it was already in style among creatures large enough to make a decent meal not to have more than four legs). But in the end they proved unequal to the task and died out. It must be said in their defence that many creatures with a greater amount of legs (even a giant centipede or two) threw in the towel and walked out of history at the same time.
Call it bullheadedness or stupidity if you like, but evolution will keep trying, in new ways and old. New models were soon n the making. One given wings that don't work and made too stupid to care and the other given an opposable thumb and a big energy consuming brain as week compensations for the pain and suffering.
So here we are today, still trying to use that brain and those hands to make comfortable bus seats. So that we at least for a while, say for example the while it takes between Sendai's and Shinjuku's respective stations, can again approach the problem of gravity along the way of the snake.
Beds and large tanks of water have been found to be too big and/or heavy to be economically viable alternatives to seats on a bus.

To conclude: Japanese bus seats aren't all that bad, a bit narrow (the guy who had the seat next to mine before he went and found another would surely agree) but there's plenty of leg room. Now I just wish I'd had the sense to bring my tea and snacks in with me instead of leaving them in my bag in the luggage compartment.

Listening to: Blue Öyster Cult - E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)
Feeling: Stiff and bored

Ever managed to drop one without noticing?
This guy just passed me on the sidewalk with his hanging from his shoe. Looked mighty funny, but then he dropped it and I had to shout after him loud enough that he'd hear through his earphones. I picked up the tie and handed it to him whn he came back around.
All this while a middle aged Japanese man (in a suit, of course) was leaning silently on a fence right next to me.

Before kanji class today I was sitting out in the sun on a bench composing a post on my pda. Since the pda has the keyboard and web navigation buttons very close to each other I of course managed to press "home" just as I was finishing up writing. So it was all lost. All my thoughts on pink flowers, hot weather, Japanese post offices, trips to Tokyo and more, gone, who knows where? Such a fragile existance, that of text in a pda.
In any case, the only thing of any relevance in that post was the fact that I'm going to Tokyo this weekend. Actually I'm leaving around midafternoon tomorrow.
Oh, and now I know that the kanji exam went better than I thought it would.

Listening to: Slade - Wild Winds Are Blowing
Feeling: Wrung out but content

After a couple of days of clouds, rain and comfortably cool temperatures today is sunny, hot and humid. At least the lab is airconditioned, I don't want to think about how my room will feel when I get home. It's got a window facing the sun all afternoon.
Backtracking a little, the kanji exam went well I think. Or at least better than expected, but I haven't gotten the results yet so I'll be careful in what I say about it. Didn't end up drawing or doing much of anything else creative after the exam, usually such urges seem to be driven by stress.
Ah, my tutor just came in and it's time to get some work done.

I'm starting to feel what it really means to be kanjied (being confronted with massive amounts of incomprehensible, but often important seeming Japanese text). I came home a little after noon today after Japanese class and have been either studying or trying to study kanji since then (it is now midnight). This was accomplished with the help of 1) snacks with enough cholesterol to clog up the sink drain and b) insane amounts of chilled mint tea to keep me alert and the mugginess at bay. So I'm feeling fat, somewhat hyper and my brain is trying to crawl out through my ears. But at least I'll have seen all the kanji on the test tomorrow in the recent past.
When sitting like this any and all excuses for not studying start sounding like good ones and I've had to constantly force myself to stop thinking about things I'd like to draw, paint, read, clean or whatever. I'm feeling a little proud for having managed it, though also a little stupid for having put myself in a situation where it was necessary in the first place.
Tomorrow afternoon, after the exam, I'll take time to draw something. Maybe start working with the new sketch Sayaka sent me. At least if I'm still feeling creative without the boredom hanging over me.

Listening to: The Velvet Underground - That's the Story of My Life
Feeling: see above...

edit: ah, and to top everything off, I'm out of toothpaste. Off to FamilyMart then...

On a request from Nick, here's a link to Troy in 15 minutes. Warmly recommended if you've got a bit of time to waste and nothing better to do. I found it funny even though I haven't seen the movie.
Thanks to Shanisasha for posting it in the Order of Chaos.

Today has been kanji, laundry (more kanji while waiting for the laundry) some quick grocery shopping and then more kanji while eating them. After dinner I spent a bit of time studying kanji and now I feel like I may actually have time to review all of them (though probably not learn all of them) before Tuesday.

I've had a wonderful day on the beach. Didn't study any kanji yet today, a fact that I, while feeling a little bad about it, don't regret at all.
The beach was all that it should be, lots of sun, salt water, snacks, games and pretty girls. And of course the sand that blows into everything and clings to the skin. Forgot to bring a ball or frisbee, but I'll be sure to remember it next time. People say the rainy season is supposed to start next week though, so it may be awhile before I'll get another chance.

Listening to: Nothing, but I wish I had Zombies' She's Not There here. For some reason I want to listen to it.
Feeling: salty and slightly burned

A pda with an internet connection is an excellent means of escape during impossible lab seminars in Japanese. Langmuir monolayers anyone? I've barely understood a word of this.

I'm either starting to develop one or I'm simply not drinking enough other liquids. In any case I start getting head aches around three or four in the afternoon unless I've had my usual half liter of green tea. Maybe it's time to pick another drink of choice, but most other bottled drinks (and I'm not counting water, if I want that I'll just go and fill an old tea bottle from the tap) contain sugar instead of caffeine to wake you up. Not that I have anything against sugar, but getting it in a drink removes the need for candy, and then where would we be? On the way to overweight? Quite possible.
So I guess I'll keep with the tea. Green tea is supposed to be good against some kinds of cancer, something that I doubt can be said about most sodas. Besides, the coop at Katahira now has little cell phone ornaments attached to the bottles of my preferred brand. If this keeps up it won't be long before I've collected them all and/or start getting doubles. In absence of a cell phone I'm hanging them on my pda (only three so far).

... but I'm starting to feel old. For some reason I always adjust my bedtime to when I have to get up the next morning, not to how tired I feel. And after sitting up late and getting up early a coule of nights (studying for the Japanese midterm) I think I should have kept to a monicaish sleepcycle today.
The midterm? not good. In fact it may turn out to be the worst exam I've ever written. I can't say for sure until I get it back of course, and though I have reason I'll keep off expecting the worst for now. Still have to get past the kanji exam on Tuesday, that's going to be hell since I don't think I can remember a fourth of the new kanji so far this semester. That leaves me with five days to learn over a hundred kanji, not to mention all the compounds. But that's what I get for going lazy and disinterested for a few weeks... make that half a semester.
So it's June. June has always been a good month, it's the beginning of summer, so school ends sometime in early June. Not here though, next holiday longer than two days isn't until late July. It still feels like June though, so I'm full of happy feelings and sunshine. Right now the prevalent feeling is exhaustion.

Listening to: Tractor - All Ends Up
Feeling: tired, topple over tired