On Tuesday, while I was at work, the checks from our new bank account FINALLY came in the mail, so Nick got a ride up to the car dealership and finished paying for our new car! It's such a cute little thing. We meant to take pictures today, but forgot to until the sun had already set.

At some point over the next few weeks we need to get some basic "car stuff", like a road atlas, small first-aid kit, some tissues and plastic bags to keep in the car, flashlight, things like that. And we have to get it registered and buy a license plate, but that doesn't need to be done until December, I think.

I didn't have work yesterday or today, but what I did have was BEAUTIFUL KATAMARI, the bestest game ever. :B I played the crap out of Katamari Damacy a couple years ago, and this new one is just as fun. The one thing I miss is Beth's pumpkin bread, since we were eating a lot of that during the time we played oodles of Katamari. It was in the fall or early winter, too. ;__;

And now, for something entirely different.

There's this.

Here's the instructor list. I would like, in particular, to point out these names: Jason Chan, Brom, and Todd Lockwood! TODD LOCKWOOD!!! &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts He's an instructor in this, too!

Unfortunately, tuition for the four-day workshop is 600 USD, 500 if you register before November 1. Then there's airfare and hotel. But, but... Jason Chan! And BROM! And TODD LOCKWOOD!!! D8

I'm thinking of possibly, maybe, asking my mom, gram, and Nick if they wouldn't mind contributing some money to that, instead of giving me birthday presents. It's close to my birthday, anyway, and... well, I would probably consider prostitution as a means to attend this workshop. XD Though, if my Mom agreed, I would have to be especially careful that she didn't try to give me any other presents on the sly. She's tricky like that. >_>

*Flails*

Uh, not much else going on. I'm working 1-7 tomorrow, then 10-2 (or 4, I forget) on Saturday. I get to see my puppy friends. :D

I want coffee. ToT It's after lunch now, and I don't have any more classes today, and I'm really sleepy. But I said that I wouldn't drink coffee for a week or so, to see if that's giving me the headaches. I've got a headache now, though, so...

Anyway, sorry to those of you who asked for a list of stuff I'm getting rid of. I was only at home for about 2 hours last night (aside from sleeping), so I didn't get a chance to get stuff together. I'll do my best to post some stuff tonight, so it should be up for you all in the morning.

I'm so glad tomorrow is a holiday! We confirmed out plans, and Nick, Beth, PJ, and I are going to the chiropractor for massages in the morning, around 9:40. Once we finish there we're going to take the JR (Japan Rail) to Naebo Station, which is right across the street from the onsen we're going to! I haven't been to one in a few months, which is really unforgivable. I'm soooooooo looking forward to it. Poor Beth, though, I'm so blind without my glasses that she always has to make sure I don't fall down any steps or walk into glass doors. She doesn't seem to mind, at least. XD

After onsen-ing tomorrow, I think we're just gonna go over to their place, probably play some cards, watch some movies. Just take it easy. :) People here must think the four of us are swingers, we hang out so much, LOL.

I'm going to try to ride the exercise bike some more tonight after I get home. It didn't totally kill my back when I rode it the day before yesterday, so hopefully I'll be okay. I have to exercise after the crap we ate last night! Nick made veggie chahan (same as fried rice), which was good, but then we went over to Beth and PJ's and made pumpkin pie and chocolate chip cookies. I've never been a HUGE pumpkin pie fan, but it was pretty good, and the COOKIES! They were TO DIE FOR!! Some of them weren't even totally cooked, so they were mushy and warm, and oh so full of butter and sugar. XDDDD I want more now, just thinking about them.

So, while we waited for the cookies and pie to bake, I plated Crackdown on PJ's XBOX 360. I've watched him and Nick play it many times, but hadn't actually tried it until last night. Holy crap, it was fun just running around wreckin' shit up! I was laughing maniacally as I kicked people to death, or threw cars at people, or blew stuff up with a bazooka. The best part of the game, though, is how far you can jump. As you get to higher levels your guy can jump retardedly high, and it's just so much fun bouncing from rooftop to rooftop, or across canyons. Wee! Unfortunately, for me at least, I don't think the game would be entertaining for more than 5 or 6 hours. Ah well, it kept me laughing last night. :)

I found out today that I'll be teaching 21 to 22 classes a week during April and July, which means I'll have 4 or 5 classes every day. That is a LOT. But it will be at 発寒中 (Hassamu JHS), where I used to work, and it will only be 2 months, so I think I will survive. Unfortunately, it means that I will have very little time for RP during the week, since morning/early afternoon here is usually when people in the States are online. :(

On the plus side, I will likely be able to negotiate leaving early two or three days a week in exchange for the huge class load. According to our contracts, we're not supposed to teach more than 20 classes a week, so I'll be doing them a favor by taking on the extra one or two. I hope the kids there now are as awesome as the kids who were there last year and the year before. I miss my 3年生 from last year. ;_;

Oh god, I've still got like an hour and forty minutes before I can leave. DX What am I going to do to occupy myself??

Okay, enough whining from me. I will try to have the Japanese stuff posted tomorrow!

I finished my second novel in Japanese yesterday. :) It was a translational of Lewis Carroll's first story about Alice, before he published "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". It was called "Alice's Adventures Underground", and lacked some of the scenes present in the completed story. So, sadly, no Cheshire Cat, who was always my favorite character, and no Tea Party or meeting with the Duchess. It was really interesting, though, and I think the person who translated it did a good job of preserving the "I feel like I'm on crack when I'm reading this" quality of the story.

Since I've been feeling deprived in the Bleach and D. Gray-Man area lately (manga take waaaay too long to come out, never mind that a shit-ton of work goes into them and manga-ka usually produce upwards of 15 pages a week), so I started reading Trinity Blood. It's a bit harder, vocabulary-wise, than the other two, but there are still furigana, so looking up kanji I don't know is easy enough. I read it last night before bed and today while I was riding the exercise bike, so I'm almost finished with the first tankoubon. I'll have to pick up the next couple issues tomorrow after school.

Nick got up at 5am yesterday and waited in line outside Yodobashi Camera for 3 1/2 hours (in very cold weather) to get a Wii. PJ went with him, so I didn't feel bad about bowing out. I mean, I wanted a Wii, but I didn't want one that badly. Anyway, he and PJ ended up being 10th in line, even though they got there before 6am, and Nick said there were over 150 people there by 8:30am. They were only selling 150 Wiis yesterday, so I'm sure there were a lot of disappointed people. Nick got home around 10:30 or so and started playing around with it, then played Zelda: Twilight Princess for a few hours. I actually didn't get a chance to play yesterday (GASP), but I played for maybe 3 hours today, and oh my god that game is so much fun. The way the controls work is kinda weird at first, but you get used to it after just a few minutes, and it soon becomes really intuitive. It's the kind of thing you really have to try to understand, but trust me. Super fun, especially fighting with the sword, and aiming the sling-shot etc.

The graphics are, essentially, nice Gamecube graphics. If you were to compare them to the graphics in XBOX 360 games, well, the Wii would be crushed. But it seems to me that the Wii and the XBOX 360 (and the PS3 for that matter) are such completely different gaming platforms that you would be doing them all an injustice to compare them. XBOX 360 has gorgeous graphics, and an excellent online system with XBOX Live and the arcade games. Then you have the Wii, which is much less impressively graphically, but has this unique and easy-to-learn interface and endlessly fun party/multi-player games. They're just so different. I can't speak for the PS3, since I won't buy one until the price comes WAAAAY down, but I imagine it's similar to the XBOX 360. Probably more ideal for RPG gamers.

Anyway, them's my 2 cents on the Wii. I think it was a good purchase. Expect to hear lots of goobing about Twilight Princess in the near future. XD

It seems that I managed to do almost nothing productive this weekend, which is a real shame. I have so many requests to work on, need to update my website, submit some stuff to DeviantArt... I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow, in a bad way. Blech, why can't weekends be longer??? ToT

Happy New Year, everyone! Well, it's 2007 here, anyway. ;) I spent the day with Nick, Beth, and PJ preparing food and stuff, then around 7 a few other peeps came over. We ate, played some Wii Sports (Patrick was nice enough to bring his new system over :D ), ate some more, played Pictionary, ate again, and now we're playing some Wii minigames. They are so much fun, and I'm sold on getting one. It's just a matter of when. I got a short look at Twilight Princess, which got me VERY excited to play it.

If you're drinking for New Years, be careful, and don't drive. Enjoy the last 12 hours of 2006! <3