Catching up with myself.

So, it has been almost two months since I last spoke of my life on this web log of mine, not counting the Teegip just below this post. What to talk about...

For Christmas, I received a sketchpad and some drawing pencils. I made an effort to draw every day, and kept up with it for a whole eight days! Then my apartment got messy and I got lazy. I dropped out of that short-lived habit.

For Christmas, I did not receive my so-desired Nikon D40 DSLR with which I had planned to photograph any wild number of things for my viewing pleasure. My fam's po' so I gotta wait 'til tha cashflow begin again, y'know.

For Christmas, I did not make light bulb terrariums for my mother and grandmother as I had planned to do. Moss is a surprisingly hard thing to find in the dead of winter. Alas!

After Christmas, and after New Year's Day, classes began anew. Only six months left until I graduate, if all goes well. I also took the GRE in an effort to get the ball rolling on my application to DigiPen.

Over Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend, I went to New Hampshire with ten other members of the mountaineering club. Despite my doubts I could make it to the top of Mt. Washington, I let my friends talk me into going, and I had an extremely good time of it. I did not, in the end, make it to the top. But I will some day.

Last weekend, I went to an overnight thing at the Cincinnati Zoo, hosted by a friend. Normally it is a thing for little kids, but... so what?! It was a cool look behind the scenes at the zoo, and she is probably the best tour guide under which I have had the pleasure of touring. I was hoping to get a little more up close and personal with some of the animals, but I also knew that was hoping for too much. It would be dumb to let just any person get that close.

That about sums up what I've done. Now for what I plan to do!

The first priority deadline for DigiPen's application process is February 1. I now simply await the deliverance of my transcript and letters of recommendation, and everything will be there. Nothing to do but wait, and hope that if they do accept me, they also offer a scholarship. It's about the only thing in my life in which I no longer have an active role.

Next week on Tuesday I will go on a night hike. Excite! I hope it is not cloudy. Nothing worse than a cloudy night. Especially when you make the effort to get outside the city to an area where the sky is free(er) of light pollution!

Every day for the past week or so, I swore to myself I would start falling into the habits I want to follow. I want to write something on this blog at least once a week. I want to draw something every day, to get better. I want to start running, or doing something active, every day. I want to stay up to speed with my studies instead of lagging behind horribly like I did last quarter. I want to start cooking meals instead of nuking them; I want to make that damn egg salad and mabo dofu for which I have had the ingredients for weeks. I might even want to start practicing the bass guitar a little every day! I do not have it in my apartment, though. I should make a note somewhere to get it from mom...

Habits are hard things to start, and harder to stick to if they are still new!

Tonight I drew some crap in my sketchpad. When I say crap, I really mean I drew some stuff that is not good. But there is only one way to become good. At the moment, I am following this book that my grandmother got me with the sketchpad. It is supposed to teach me how to draw graphite landscapes. Some of those techniques are far more difficult to perform than I thought they were. I think I am getting better?

I have been sick lately (again), and so did not go to class or work out today as I had planned. Before going to bed, I might to try out this burpee thing I read about... it is supposed to be pretty good workout, and without lifting any weights or anything. I might not, though. As I mentioned, I'm pretty sick. I feel terrible. C'est la vie.

Interestingly, I do not have that strong desire to play video games I thought I would have all my life. I still enjoy them immensely when I have the time to play them, but... I just do not have that time, anymore. Not with everything else I want to do. And everything else I have to do for school.

I am a busy man, apparently. When the hell did that happen? D:

Leavin' for Kyoto

It's two hours before I leave to get my ass to Kyoto, and I'm still doing some last-minute planning.

I hope my first hotel has internet. I kind of doubt it will, since it's a capsule hotel (!!).

Not much to say, really. I will be traveling a great distance by myself and maybe meeting some people there but also maybe not. I am just happy I'll make it before the mountain gets lit on FIRE. I don't expect it to be the most amazing thing in the world, but I want to see it anyway! And maybe I'll spy some families putting those floating lanterns in the river. I hope so. I'm sure it will be very crowded, though. D:

Other than that, I will surely visit Hiroshima, Kobe, and Nara at least one day each, and Himeji castle, and... some temples and stuff. You know, the usual.

It will be fun!

For now, though, I must return to packing and planning.

Trip planning

I love to procrastinate when it comes to, like most things in life, planning trips.

I plan to go to Kyoto very soon. While I'm out there, I'll possibly be visiting Nara, Kobe and Hiroshima. Most of my time will be spent in Kyoto, I assume - assume because I still haven't finalized, well, any of my plans.

I guess there are temples and stuff and a castle and I even read about a zoo somewhere. Maybe I'll go there?

For now, though, I need to do two important things:

1. Decide when I'm going (as in, exact dates)
2. Reserve a hotel and possibly procure a Shinkansen ticket

Ahhh. Since the skies seem to have cleared up - almost entirely cloud free, now - I should probably go to the nearest JR station and see if I can't get me a ticket. Gonna be money. Maybe I'll look into an overnight bus instead, but I have a feeling it will be so tiny and uncomfortable for me that I may die during the trip. Hmm. Plus I wanna ride the bullet train! Wanna wanna!!