It's already been months, again, since I've updated here. I've been using LiveJournal instead. But I managed to remember my Blogger Password!
Nothing new, sadly. Still bored in university, still broke, still learning Japanese...
This entry is useless, really. Just wanted to make use of this supposedly -new- blogger/google... >_<;
posted by PHy @ 12:55 PM
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I think we've started a trend...
Apparently, it's that time of the year again.
Just like last year, I find school depressing and boring, and I'm wondering if this is really worth it.
I'm not switching programs again - nothing else seems interesting, except peharps the composition certificate, but I refuse to enter that and have teachers force me into writting with their own style.
I'm not dropping out either - as soon as I stop school, I'll have to start paying back my student loans, so I can't stop until I can afford that.
My Japanese classes though are fun, even if I hate beeing forced to talk in class. I managed to nail an A+ last semester, and I have this semester's first exam this week. I'm going for another A, because I might as well get good grades in something.
Work - I was suppose to stop working after summer, but I was kept for three evenings a week in september. Then, I was suppose to stop just before New Year's, but I was asked to come in to do the inventory (which is pretty neat. Three full days of pay without seeing customers). And right after that, one of the guys decided he didn't want his weekends shifts anymore, so I took that. So, in the end, I got to work until mid febuary.
And now, after two weekends of staying at home, I'm freaking bored.
Not to mention broke, especialy since I've received my university bill.
I was thinking about taking a Chinesse class this summer, but I really can't afford it. Not this year I guess. I'll just work on Japanese for now.
Isn't my life pathetic? Months without an entry, and this is all there is to write.
posted by PHy @ 12:41 PM
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The Pinkies are taking over the house!
I don't exactly remember the why, but last week, I went a little overboard with my JList ordering. I think I remember something at work decided me to order the stuff, I just can't remember what it was.
Anyways, I got the first package yesterday, and the second this morning.
I bought a total of 4 Pinky:Street dolls (they're so kawaii, looking like super deformed chibi manga characters) and a Natto-chan metal pencase. I also ordered a monthly Fruits magazine, and got an email yesterday that I'd get the September number first.
I'm still waiting for my kotatsu table. But it's been only a little over 2 weeks, so I've still got a lot of waitng to do. I'm still happy about it though. The same seller put another (smaller) one for sale on eBay this week, and the price is already 2 times higher than what I paid.
I slept about 4 hours last night (or is that morning when you go to sleep at 4:30am?) before being woken up. I couldn't get back to sleep, and anyway I have to get to the bank before it closes at 2pm, but I'm acking all over, and I'll probably be tired all day long.
Gotta get ready now. Stupid bank's opening hours. I should just keep all my money in a sock under my mattress.
But then the dust bunnies colony would use it all to take over the world... (o_o;)
posted by PHy @ 10:25 AM
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♪♪Coffee in the morning, coffee in the evening...♪♪
Wait, those are the same thing now.
I'm now working a full 40 hours week at the store, for which I can't complain. I asked for as many hours as I could get, and that's pretty much it, without being paid for overtime. And it pays for all the spending I keep doing...
I bought a kotatsu from eBay. I've been wanting of of these for over two years now, but I always look for one in the winter, when they're way more expensive because more people want them. In the summer, with everyone complaining about the heat, I got one for a third of the price they usually sell for. It looks pretty nice too. All wood, unlike the plastic versions sold on most websites.
A kotatsu, for those who have retained their sanity and not learned useless trivia of Japan Cultural World thingie, is a low table, just the right height to be able to sit on the ground and work on the table. It's usually a good size, about a meter scare. What makes it special, is that there's a heating unit bolted underneat the table. You then put a futon, or some king of heavy conforter, on the table to trap the heat under it, and put a table top on top of the futon to get a straight surface. So when you have to get up at 5am to get ready for class, and it's freaging cold, you just sit with your legs underneat the conforter, all warm and comfy, without running yourself or your loved ones broke because you turned up the heat too high.
All in all, it's a neat little thing that'll work better than the old electric heater I used to sit in front of every morning during winter.
It's just that it takes 5 weeks to get here though...
On another note, yes, having people making christmas jokes at the register is getting old. But this week, I got one I appreciated. This couple from NewYork ask how we say merry christmas here, in french : Joyeux Noel. Then the guy answers that in NewYork, they say happy frigging christmas.
It beats being asked if it's not too early for christmas, or if the christmas songs are getting on our nerves, or what happens when it's really christmas, or why there isn't any snow...
But hey! Pretty soon I'll be coming home to my kotatsu, so it's all good. (That actully sonds really sad, doesn't it?)
posted by PHy @ 1:02 PM
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Today, for the first time ever, I walked in the bookstore near work, and picked up some random manga.
It turned out to be actually good. I've been buying josei manga lately, and this is apparently one. Ai Suru Hito. Although, it's for mature audiences (^_^;)
Work is going nicely, I'm officially signed up at university in translation, and I've decided to get my hair cut for the first time in about 7 years.
Life seems almost too normal.
I've also started again on my Japanese CD classes. I'm signed up for an actual Japanese class in september in university, but I wanted to get a head start (and understand all those movies I have without needing the subs)
The iPod is working great. I think it was worth the price, since I use it several hours everyday.
Which reminds me : I really need to stop spending on electronics, japanese imports and manga, and start putting away some of my paycheck to pay for school... (;_;)
But spending is so easy and fun...
posted by PHy @ 1:05 AM
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So, as stated in my last post, I got an iPod, now named Suki-chan, and spent 3 hours of my life getting it to work so it would ingest some music.
First, I plugged it into a wall outlet to recharge the battery, so it wouldn't be trying to recharge only from my USB connection.
The problem I ran into, and that several others have reported on several forums, is that when installing from the cd, on Windows, the program will ask to connect the iPod to the PC to reconnize it.
I did this, and the programs finds it easily. Then, it states that the iPod needs to be formatted, so I accept, and 2 hours later, it's still formatting, with the "Do not disconnect" sign flashing on the iPod's screen, while the back of the iPod is starting to feel warm.
At first, I thought it was normal for it to take a while, since it is 20Gb, but after an hour, I started checking Google for how long it would/should take, and it seemed I was having a problem.
I haven't seen anywhere a tutorial on how to get around this, so I'll type up what I did, so this will be somewhere on the web, at least.
First, to disconnect the frozen iPod. Someone on a forum said they just disconnected it and it never worked again after that, so that's a bad idea. I simply rebooted the iPod as explained in the instruction booklet (37 pages for a 300$ player seems a little thin to me) that is, switch on and off the "Hold" button, then hohld the "Menu" and "Selection" buttons down for about 6 seconds together. The iPod reboots, the Apple logo appearing on the screen. At that precise moment, Windows gave the Ding sounds to notify that the new peripheric as disapeared. So at that moment, I unplugged the USB cable from the computer. I then removed the setup CD, and killed the setup program on the PC.
So lets give this another try. Here's what worked for me.
I had a previous iTune version on my computer, which I first removed. Then, I re-inserted the setup CD to restart the setup program.
When it asked to connect the iPod for detection, I told it to skip it. That simple. The rest of the installation went fine.
After rebooting the PC, I opened iTune, and then connected the iPod to the PC. After maybe 10 to 15 seconds, iTune/iPod Updater spoted the iPod, and asked to format it. I accepted, and that took just a few seconds.
I shut down iTunes, disconnected the iPod (once it said it was safe), then reconnected the iPod. iTune automatically starts up, and the iPod is reconized!
You can now proceed to fill it up with all your music collection!
Some people have stated that they find iTunes complicated. While it's true, by default, all you do is add stuff to your Librairy, the main list, and once the iPod is connected, it will automatically download that list.
The problem I saw immediatly was that that list is gonna get huge fast, and I don't want to keep a constant backup of all music files on my laptop, I don't have 20Gb of space left anyway. My solution is to connect the iPod, and in iTunes, click on the iPod's properties button on the bottom right. You can select to manually update the iPod. That means you have to move all music files manually from your main Librairy list toward the iPod's list while in iTunes. Once the piece of music is on the iPod, it can be removed from the Librairy without affecting the iPod. The drawback is that you have to always press the unmount button before unplugging the iPod when you're done. The other plus is that this way, the iPod can also be used as storage. It gets listed as a hard drive on your computer, and you can put anything on there.
Now all I need is an iSkin to protect Suki-chan on the go...
posted by PHy @ 2:21 PM
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From the moment I saw Germaine from a Foamy cartoon episode of Neurotically Yours, holding an iPuke, listening to Morrissey, asking herself "Yeah. What difference does it make?", I knew I would ultimatly get, one day, an iPod.
I did yesterday.
This week was the first time ever I saw a store giving a discount on those things, actually on the 6Gb mini, so I did what all good shoppers should do : I went to the competition, got a discount on the 20Gb version, and to close the deal, no payments or interrest for a year. Pretty sweat.
So I went home with the pretty little cube box, opened it, marveling on the really cool packing of the thing, and took out the white little thing, holding it like it was gonna break, and finally plugged it in the wall outlet to recharge the battery while getting started on dinner.
After dinner, I decided to get it setup on Ziggy-the-laptop (I name all electronics) to put some music in there.
After almost 3 hours, I was ready to trash the darn thing.
I Google checked it, and it seems it's a pretty regular problem. Apple just won't make this easy for Windows user.
But it's working great now. I'm refalling in love with it.
Two years of electronics engineering where needed to set this up. But once it works, you feel pretty good about yourself.
I called it Suki-chan.
posted by PHy @ 1:43 PM
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Work is going good (at least, I hope so) Got my first paycheck too. That always keeps you going for a while.
I received my stuff from JList tuesday. That was fast! Might be a new record! Got my Totoro wind-up toy and magnet, along with my Nekobus stuffed knitted toy (don't bother looking for it on their site, I got the last one!) and I also got my two weiner cutters. They actually work well, making great little penguins and tulips out of sausages.
I decided to try to spend the day at home today, since I seem to have gone out everyday since finishing school. The result : I'm so bored I think I'm gonna take a nap until it'S time to get dinner started.
Summer is finaly here. It's hot, and our trees in the backyard are covered with white and pink flowers. I really should work on my Japanese CD-Rom class, but napping sounds better...
No word from university. They said correction of the exams would take ten days, and that they would call everyone with their results. I'm eagerly awaiting a phone call, to make it official I've passed and I'm accepted in the translation program. I try not to stress about it and stay zen.
Starting to work fulltime next week instead of this part time will probably do me some good. It'll keep me from being too bored like right now, and keep me away from shopping centers for part of the week. Right now, a catnap will supply to these needs...
posted by PHy @ 2:51 PM
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