The Ultimate Recap

I haven't written on here for a while and a lot of things have happened so this will sort of be a recap of happenings since my last post. I have a feeling it's going to be sort of.. all over the place but I will try to keep it as chronological as possible so it makes a little bit more sense (even though almost all the topics are completely unrelated).

I had my "3 month review" the other day... (I've worked for my current company for almost 6 months now, I think) So I was a little bit surprised when they told me I was having my 3 month review. In any case I had a really good review and then received a 25 cent raise so now I'm up to the big $10.50/h. They also said that since it technically IS my 3 month review that I will be getting "retro pay" from my 3rd month up until the present. So that means I'll have an extra cheque for $50 or something which is good.

I started reading the book my sister bought me for Christmas. It's alright, I haven't gotten too far into it yet though. Just 50 pages or so I believe. I'm finding it pretty hard to get into. I think it's mainly because every time I've tried reading it I've been really tired. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read it when I'm not so tired though so I can get more into it and start enjoying it a little bit more. At the rate I'm going at, I won't finish the book for another month or something. >_< Mondo Gelato to get some icecream and talk to my friend Jay. I was surprised to see my friend Toune in there too. I graduated with both of these guys but Toune had moved back to Niagara Falls after we graduated and I didn't know he was back in Vancouver. I talked to them both for quite a while but I ended up talking to Jay the most. He started talking about this funny CG cartoon called 金卵(Kintamago) that you can find on youtube. He seemed pretty excited about it so I figured it must be pretty good. After we got back to my place after icecream we went on youtube to check it out. It wasn't very funny. We only watched one episode and yeah... not the most interesting or funny cartoon.

After that we headed off to Daikichi Sushi. We go there so often it seems. Hime always has second thoughts about going there because she is worried the lady who works there is going to think she is crazy. But I really like it and its cheap so I figure "why not go there"? ^_^

Ah yeah. So I installed Ragnarok Online II the other day too. This game currently isn't playable nor is it released in either North America or Korea. It's still in development. I know a few people working on understanding how this game works and I managed to find a downloadable and working copy of the game online. It looks really nice and I would really like to play it soon. If it's anything like Ragnarok Online, I will probably like it a lot.

The other night we watched The Elephant Man. Hime bought this movie before we went to my family's house for Christmas, we just never had time to watch it before now. It's a really good movie and it's also really well made. It was made in 1980 and was wonderfully done. It's also based on a true story after the life of "The Elephant Man" AKA Joseph Merrick. I watched the special features on my own time and they were also quite interesting. I'd suggest everybody watch this movie whether or not you think you'd enjoy it. It's not the most action packed movie - that's for sure. But it's a really interesting movie to see. Keep in mind its based on a true story after a real person (who looked VERY similar to the actor in the movie).

Saturday morning I had a phone interview with the Vancouver Japanese Language School. I'm planning on taking their 10 week course. It's one day a week for 10 weeks for $180. I applied and then had the phone interview. It went pretty well... I guess. I found out my weak point is definitely sentence creation. I can understand fairly well and my listening skills are also pretty good, but when it comes to responding... I really struggle. She said I placed into the Beginner 2 course but the course MIGHT not have enough people to run this time so she would get back to me. I really hope it works out because I would really like to take some REAL Japanese lessons from a teacher in a classroom lesson. It seems like it would be a really good school for me and from what she told me, most of what I would be learning would be how to communicate in Japanese... which, right now, is where my problem is.

After I finished work I went out for dinner with Hime. We went to this Persian restaurant and got two different dishes. I don't remember exactly what they were called but it wasn't the best food and it was also a little on the expensive side. Hime didn't like what she ordered at all and I thought both were kinda mediocre so I traded with her and ate hers while she ate mine... or most of mine. When we checked the time we discovered that it was already 9:45 and I had told Kenji that I would phone him at 9:30 so we had to rush out of there pretty quick.

I called Kenji and then Dom and then Jay. Jay didn't answer his phone but both Kenji and Dom did. I explained the situation and went to meet Kenji up by the Blenz. Kenji, me and Hime headed off to this place called 1215 on Davie street. It's a Japanese bar and it was pretty neat. There was this one Canadian guy in there who I've met before that was really loud and causing a lot of trouble it seemed. Stupid guy. In any case it was really fun. Kenji ordered this dish called たこ焼き (Takoyaki). It's more or less octopus but go read the wikipedia for more information on what exactly it is. It was sooo good. The first one I ate was incredibly hot but it was tasty. I really like trying new food. Later in the evening Hime ordered me a drink. A green tea drink.. I also don't remember what it was called. Maccha something. It was really really good. She ordered it with soy milk. Its made with Maccha and Vodka and soy milk and I'm not sure what else. Dom showed up just as 1215 was closing so we went across the street to Sugar Daddys.

It wasn't too busy so we grabbed a table for the 4 of us and ordered a pitcher and started to drink again. After we got the bill for the first pitcher I showed them all this stupid little magic trick which turned into a big talk about magic and us trying to figure out new tricks and whatnot. It was really fun. Kenji made up the neatest trick. I won't explain it because well... it's magic. But it was great. We got him to show the waitress and then she showed us this other really neat trick with a little bit of ash. After that Don got her to explain how she did it and then he tried to do it to us but I figured it out when he tried it. I haven't tried it myself but I think I might be able to pull it off if people were drinking hehe.

After we left we said bye to Kenji and then Don and I walked Hime home. He came back to my place to crash. We ended up talking and playing guitar until about 5:00am or something. I taught him how to read tablature and how to play Good Ridance (Time of your Life) by Greenday. I let him sleep on my bed and I slept on the floor with a bed made up of a bunch of different sweaters. It was surprisingly comfortable.

On Sunday I had to work alone from 3:30 - 6:00. It was really strange working by myself. I still took my lunch break so for 30 minutes there was nobody working and a lot of calls started to pile up. I really don't care though, I think it's stupid they didn't schedule anybody else to work with me. They fired the person that usually works with me on Tuesday and then never bothered to ask anyone to take the shift. They just let me tough it out all alone. So they can go suck on it for all I care ^_^.

When I got home from work I went over to my friends place to play D&D. Right now I'm a sorcerer. I'm level 3 and we're progressing quite quickly. The DM is really good and I'm really enjoying his campaign. We have to do a lot of roleplaying and its really fun. At the moment we have this illusion spell stuck on us that has turned us into these crazy monsters. I'm a mind flayer at the moment (well I'm not really, but other people perceive me as such). We have to drink this potion to keep ourselves in our regular form but it only lasts for so long. At the moment we're looking for ingredients to cure ourselves but its proving to be quite the arduous adventure.

On monday, after work, I bought some flowers and went to surprise Hime at the library. At first I couldn't find her anywhere but I think it's because I got there before she did. I searched the whole 2nd floor then went up to the 4th floor and looked there. It took me about 30 minutes to search both floors. After that I thought about it and figured "ah.. maybe I was too quick getting here" so I went back down to the 2nd floor and started searching again. I found her without too much trouble... In a place I know I looked earlier, so I knew I was too early. In any case I snuck up behind her and put the flowers down on top of her book. She was so surprised and made a little noise then looked embarrassed because it was so quiet in the library. It was so cute hehehe. After that we studied English together for a little while and then she went home. More or less...

Today I had free pizza at my work. Lots of free pizza. Because of the shift I work I got free pizza with the morning people and free pizza with the afternoon people. So I ended up eating 7 pieces of pizza throughout the day. Complimented with a bowl of baby carrots and another giant garden salad. So much food. It was nice. The pizza wasn't really the best pizza but what can you do. Tomorrow we have a company-wide meeting. We're speculating that the company is gonna bite it and we're all going to get laid off. I'm happy. I can't wait till the meeting hehehe. Severance pay FTW. But I can't get my hopes up too much until tomorrow though. I will post what happens tomorrow... Hopefully (I might forget.. or have other things to do).

So I have to start looking for a new apartment because my roommates are moving out in March which means I will also have to move out in March. I want to move in with Hime but she has to stay with her current roommate until April because they are in a contract for 1 year. It sucks. I think I might find us a place together and then just live alone for 1 month. Then again she will probably end up living with me anyway for that month hehe. I have to figure it out pretty soon. Before January ends.

Also Hime's parents are coming to Canada in February. I'm so excited. Well... excited and scared at the same time. It's a big thing to meet someone's parents. Especially when they travel from Japan. She said they just want to see Canada. I sure hope they aren't coming just to see me. Not that I think that's the case because well that would make me seem pretty conceited but I still worry that that's the reason. I would feel like such a burden. But I'm still so excited to meet them. From what she's told me I think I will really like her parents.

This Thursday will be Hime and my 2nd month anniversary. It doesn't seem like 2 months already but it is. I'm not sure what we will do but I will meet her friend late late Thursday night. Well... technically Friday morning. At around 1:30am probably. I'll have to make some plans for what we'll do on Thursday though hehehe.