Life doesn't always work out the way we want it to, does it sweetie?

Well, I don't think I mentioned this in my blog before, but I made a pact with myself. And that was that instead of wasting away all my time here, at least once a week, I'd get out and do something. Today was supposed to be that day. I got most of my studying done yesterday, and figured I'd do some sightseeing in Kyoto today. So, I got up, and it was raining outside.
I checked the weather for Kyoto. Rain all day.

I checked the weather for Osaka. Rain all day.


Well, screw you, weather. I guess I'll just say inside all day, studying and practicing my juggling.

Oh, yeah. I juggle now. Or rather, I'm learning. My speaking partner Miku gave me a few souvenirs from a trip she took as a thank you for the gifts I brought her from America. She's really too nice. Anyway, one of them was three juggling balls. So ever since then, I've been trying to get the hang of them. This video has been pretty useful. Right now I'm on step 9.

I guess maybe if I study all day today as well, I'll have some free time during the week to do something interesting.

Anyway. On the off chance that any of you were wondering about dorm life, heres a brief update.

My roommate is still crazy, but we're getting along much better. After we had a friendly chat about how things are going between us, he no longer acts like he wants me gone or dead, and we have conversations about things other than how much noise my lungs are making.

I'm also getting along pretty well with the other people in my unit.


I'm not, however, getting along too well with one of their friends who likes to visit. Often.

Her name is Jen, and she's from 4chan. For those of you who don't know what 4chan is, consider yourself lucky, and pray you never really find out. In summary, 4chan is the cess pool of the internet. Everyone's identity is anonymous, and in most parts of the site, there are no rules. Which means that flaming, arguing, personal attacks, racism, pornography, violence, and offensive jokes are not only allowed, they are practically encouraged.

4chan would be easy enough to ignore, if only it stayed on it's own website. But they make a habit of invading other sites they don't like (which is pretty much every site that is not 4chan), and what's more, they are something of internet trend-setters. Which means that their jokes and sayings tend to spread to all parts of the internet like some horrid virus.

Jen is the worst example of a 4channer. Practically everything out of her mouth is a 4chan-ism. If she's not spouting out their jokes or lingo, she's dragging in her laptop to show people the latest pictures she downloaded from the site.

What's more, she seems to have taken an instant dislike to me, and even worse, whenever she's around, the level of conversation in the dorm tends to degrade to the same level things generally stayed at in my old unit.

I suppose, all in all, I aught to be thankful she doesn't actually live here, and that things are fairly nice when she's gone.

Oh, and I am trying a bit harder on the making friends thing, with some amount of success. One of my "pals" that I talk to a lot in my classes was talking about his plans for going to a cool restaurant and then to an arcade after class on Friday. Since I, as usual, had nothing planned, I finally got the guts to drop some hints that I would be interested in going along with him. He picked up on it, and told me that would be fine. We met at his dorm, and I got to meet a couple of his friends, and we all watched Dragon Ball Z before going out on the town and having a pretty good time. The restaurant was awesome, and I don't think I have gotten as full as I did that night since coming to Japan. The arcade was a bit small, but also fun. We had some fun shooting zombies in Silent Hill, and then struck wacky and embarrassing poses in one of the ever-popular and ever-present Japanese photo booths.

So, that's my life, for better or for worse.

Blog at you later.

This is TIM, signing off.