Fortune Cookies

Why do they even make these? Do people actually take to heart what they say? Today I had Chinese food and got pretty lucky when I opened my wonderful fortune cookie. I didn't get 1 fortune... nor even 2! I got three! That's right, three small little pieces of paper with my destiny foretold:

1. "You would be wise not to seek too much from others, at this time."
2. "No Obstacles will stand in the way of your success this month."
3. "An admirer is concealing his affection for you."

Sadly the month is almost over so my success for this month better happen pretty quick. But I personally like the last the most. I'm not gay so I'm not really quite sure where the fortune cookie fairy gets her information but it always keeps you guessing. The first one does have a ring of truth in it though. I really shouldn't ask for so much - which I have been recently. I'll try my best.

New Jacket

This post is dedicated to my new jacket. Such an exciting topic eh? For me it is! I've finally got a new jacket after many... many years of using the same one. My dad bought it for me as an early birthday gift since I'll be needing one when I'm in Japan. I looked through most of the stores in Penticton and one in Summerland and I wasn't able to find any decent jacket. I found 1 I liked at The Bay but it didn't seem warm enough. Then I thought I found an acceptable one at Mark's Work Wearhouse but the sleeves were way too short. I had planned on going to Kelowna to look for one at some stores there but on our way home from Summerland today, my dad asked if I wanted to take a look at Canadian Tire. I said "sure" and we went inside. Immediately I found 2 jackets I liked - one more than the other. I chose one and tried it on and decided "I like this". I looked at the other one but it wasn't as appealing. I wore it around a bit to see if it was comfortable - it was great. So I decided to get it. Actually I made my dad take a picture of me so I could see it on myself. I thought it looked pretty good too. It's kinda long but whatever. The sleeves are long enough and and its warm. It's a down filled jacket so it should keep me pretty warm. Here's a link to the beige version if you're interested for whatever reason. It's a North 49 jacket from the brand World Famous of Sales. I don't think it's a very big name brand but it's a nice jacket so I'm not complaining.

Weather here is nice though. Today it was positive 1 but the snow stayed on the ground. I love the dry cold. I don't miss Vancouver's weather one bit. The picture above is near my place in Penticton and the one on the right is down mainstreet at the beginning of downtown. So this is a view of Penticton's downtown. Busy, isn't it?

This tasty looking treat is a shrimp dip my mom made to dip crackers in to. I'm not sure exactly how it's made but it has guacamole in it. It's super tasty and I ended up eating quite a bit of it. She made a giant plate of it and it was gone in no-time. I'll have to get the recipe from her and bring it to Japan with me =D (if I can even make it).

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!! =D I hope everybody had a good day today. And if you're not Christian then Happy Holidays to you! haha.

This picture is first thing in the morning this morning. 8:30am!! Usually we don't start the Christmas opening until a little bit later I thought but apparently not this year. My brother came down at 8am and turned on the light in my room. After a futile effort of trying to fend off the light I gave in and decided to get up. I went upstairs, had some coffee and then there we are - all ready to open presents. That's my sister, me and my brother from front to back. My brother and I are wearing our TMNT toques that we got in our Christmas stockings.

All in all everyone had a pretty good Christmas, including the dogs as you can see in the picture. They're all fighting over a new toy they got. In the end the big one (spotted) decided it was his and kept it haha.

I got some really nice presents including an Ipod Classic 80gb, FujiFilm A820 8.3MP Digital Camera, a new suitcase for my trip to Japan, GT4, the new Tolkien book, the next book in the series I used to read!! (My sister randomly chose the book thinking I might like it and it just happened to be the next book in the series I was reading. She didn't even know I had any of them), a gift certificate to The Gap, some cash, a t-shirt and some other presents ^_^. Thank you to everybody!!

After all the craziness of opening presents we had some Eggs Benedict for breakfast. I had 3 and was pretty stuffed after that. For the rest of the day up until dinner we were pretty busy with our gifts that we got. My sister got Guitar Hero 3, my brother got WoW, and my mom got a karaoke machine. Actually my mom was most busy making us food so thank you mom!! We had cheese and crackers for lunch and a wonderful turkey dinner as is tradition =D I ate so much and was totally stuffed after that too. Today was a pretty good day for food actually! I really can't complain hahaha.

Today it snowed also! So I got my wish, we had a white Christmas here in Penticton. It was pretty clear out for most of the day but in the evening it started snowing quite a bit - windy too. But it was really nice. Today was one of those days you don't really go outside so who cares if it's windy ^_^ This evening we played a game called Mad Gab - it's super fun. You have to try to read these seemingly nonsensical sentences but really you're saying something else... It's kind of hard to explain. Maybe check the wikipedia for more help. It was really fun though. We played with my whole family and my old baby sitter from when I was a kid. It was nice seeing her again. I haven't seen her in years! I won't put a picture of her because I'm not sure if she'd want me to but it was really fun. We played 'old vs. young' or "parents & babysitter" vs. "kids" and we won!! Take that adults! But in all honesty, it was a really close game. We played to 25 and we only won by 1 or 2 points. I don't remember exactly. This, on the left, is my Donatello toque I got in my stocking. It was an awesome day.

Merry Christmas again!!

Christmas Eve

So here we are at Christmas eve. It's just right around the bend and everyone seems to be in the holidays spirit. We got the Christmas tree all ready and it's getting all populated with presents. Sadly it's pretty warm here today and the sun is shining so the snow is starting to melt. It better all be back tomorrow morning haha. Despite the snow melting it is very nice weather though - far better than Vancouver =D

I've got all my shopping done and am ready for the big day. Tonight We'll be going to a Christmas church service before all opening one present each (as is tradition in our family on Christmas eve).

Earlier today my mom found my "school history" book which she's compiled for each year of school I was in from Preschool to grade 12. It was really fun to look through and see all the class pictures of each year and some of the assignments I did. It really took me back. On Facebook I stole a picture my friend Kate uploaded of our Kindergarten class and put it on the group for my Elementary school and went through and tried to tag as many people as possible. I missed a few and I was kind of unsure of a couple others but I got about 75% of the class. I'm 2nd from the right in the middle row wearing a while button-up shirt. Pudgy eh? I've really changed since I was a kid (>_<). Some of the other people in that class I'm still friends with to this day and I graduated with almost all of them. Also there are triplets who were in my class. All of them are in the front row. The 2 on the left side and the 3rd girl from the right in the white shirt. Pretty interesting eh?

I just got off the phone with my girlfriend - I was her wakeup call but I was an hour too early. すみません姫君。I was calling because it's Christmas Day in Japan right now so I thought I'd say Merry Christmas to her first thing in the morning hehe. Also Merry Christmas to all you other guys in Japan =D I hope you have a wonderful day ^^ even if you have to work (>_<)

Snow!!

For the first time since I've been home it's snowed, and for the first time it's been moderately cold. Today it's a little bit brisk outside - temperature is 0 the last time I checked and it's snowing! Though hardly any is on the ground. I hope we have a white Christmas this year - the past few years it's been green and then we've had crazy flurries the following days (>_<) so we'll have to see. Christmas is getting close!! I didn't even realize its only 3 days away - I'm not even done my shopping yet!! Yeesh, what to buy what to buy.

I was supposed to go to a party last night but I didn't really want to go alone and I realized I don't have anybody's phone number in Penticton anymore. Like no-one. So I ended up contemplating it until it was too late to go anyway - but I had to stay home and make sure my sister and her friends weren't up to no good. She had a party here last night and damn it was noisy. Made me wonder if all my house parties in the past were the same. I asked my mom and she said they were. I felt pretty bad. I really had no idea parties were so loud - you never really notice until you're not part of them. I was upstairs in my kitchen listening to their music through my feet until late at night. I had to stay up until they went to sleep... which meant I didn't get to sleep until about 3:30am -_-' but whatever. As like all parties there were a few small issues but they got it sorted out and seemed to enjoy themselves. I think she had a good time so I'm happy despite being sleepy.

Home for the Holidays

And do you know what that means? A haircut! It's pretty short now and I'm not really sure if I like it but well, it's a bit too late to go back now so I'll have to enjoy it hahaha. What do you guys think? Good? Bad? I'm not really sure if I prefer it short or a little bit longer. Hmmm such hard decisions haha. In any case, Penticton is just how I remember it - well actually the past couple days have been warmer than Vancouver surprisingly.

I've been shopping and chatting with my family the past few days (and probably most all the days until I leave haha). I bought lots of stuff but I can't really put anything on here since they might read it so... Not until after the 25th haha. I also went to see a few of my friends last night. That was pretty fun. Two of them I probably won't see for a long time. One is going to Egypt and then to Afgan (he's in our army) and the other is going on a cruise to Hawaii! It's really interesting (>_<)

On another note, I finished watching My Name is Kim Sam Soon and I'm really impressed. It's a really well made drama and should be watched by all!! ありがとう私のお姫様と姫さんのお母さん。

I'll probably post a few more times while I'm here in Penticton. I hope all you guys in Vancouver are having a good time!! 隆さん、ゲームを頑張ってね。楽します下さい。 (Actually I'm not even sure if that's correct) but I hope you enjoy ^_^

My name is Kim Sam Soon

Or "My Lovely Sam Soon" if you want a translated name. Or 내 이름은 김삼순 if you can read Korean (I believe it's correct... but I could be totally wrong haha). Also here's the link to the Japanese wikipedia on it too if you'd rather look at it in Japanese. But DO NOT read all the spoilers because, well, that's just lame. I put the link there for reference. Use it wisely.

But, it's very good. It's a 16 episode Korean TV drama - Each episode is about an hour long. It might be a little bit hard to find in stores though.. I haven't checked myself. I've actually only watched a little less than half but I'm really enjoying it. It's quite hard to put down. My girlfriend introduced this drama to me because her mother told her to watch it. So now I'm telling all of you to watch it too. I don't have a true opinion about it since I'm not finished - but even watching the first 5 episodes is worth your time.

It's about a 30 year old girl named Kim Sam Soom (if you didn't already guess) who's love is baking. She's single and a little overweight (like all patissiers), doesn't have a college degree, but has a Cordon Blue certification from Paris. It's mainly about her guy troubles.

In any case, if you don't believe me, believe the facts. I'll list some for you. It won 12 different awards (check the wiki) and the finale was watched by 50.5% of the population of South Korea. FIFTY PERCENT. I was shocked. Actually I still am. That's quite amazing.

Watch it! If you do watch it, leave me a comment and let me know what you thought =D (but no spoilers)

150 Finally achieved!

To be honest, in my Anki deck I have more than 150 but I don't really want to mess with the numbering scheme at the moment in the list I'm using because I have it all set up for Mnemonics and whatnot. So after I finish the 318 words in the list that comes with Anki, I'll add the rest of the words in my deck. I'm at 151 to be exact! That's the number of Pokémon in the Red/Blue versions isn't it? What an interesting coincidence o_O

Okay, enough random game references. It's time to start learning grammar. I've learned some in the past so hopefully I'll just pick up where I left off... Or something along those lines =D

Also for anybody that's interested in learning Japanese I've been slowly adding links on the right to different websites and blogs that should help you in learning Japanese. Some are better than others and I've tried my best to put them in order of Best to Really Good (because none of the links are mediocre). However the list of blogs is not in any specific order so if for some reason you're on my site and see your blog in the list and it's in 4th or something - it means nothing and is not any kind of personal slander. It's there because it's worth looking at.

If you're wanting to read all the posts I've made about studying and Japanese you can click on this link here or you can click on "Japanese" under "Sort By:" and it will pull up a list for you.

Unofficially Unemployed

I was laid off yesterday but technically not from the right employer. I was working for Electronic Arts as a contracted employee of the company Angus One. And let's just say Angus One's "Professional Recruitment & Templine" isn't all so professional. Throughout my employment with them I watched a lot of people get laid off. Most were given only a couple days notice of their termination. For us it was same-day notice. Well actually that's wrong... and that's why I'm "unofficially unemployed". Angus one has yet to contact us to let us know we've been let go. Electronic Arts apologized profusely for the lack of professionalism on Angus One's behalf (in nicer words of course) and told us that Friday was to be our last day. EA was pretty good about it though - I give them props. I would have rather stayed but you can't have everything, right? The entire day of work yesterday consisted of Street Fighter, Guitar Hero, Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii, Memphis Blues, Pizza, Pop, and other various snacks. It was a pretty nice last day at work.

So now income might be a problem since I have none. And since I'm planning on going to Japan in January sometime and I'm going home for the holidays to visit family, I'm not sure how I'm going to make any money. I've been trying to think of some simple "get rich quick" scheme but none seem too promising. But there's gotta be something I can do back home. Maybe shovel people's driveways in the morning? That's what it might come down to unless I can find a job in some warehouse - possibly for a liquor store. We'll see, we'll see.

Sick Days?

So today I was sick so I stayed home from work. I felt like crap when I woke up and I didn't even want to call work to say I was sick hahaha. I ended up falling asleep again and then waking up at around 10:30 to call in - which isn't good at all, but I figured... at least I am calling in. When I called I surprised myself when I started to talk - my voice was all weird sounding. I hadn't actually talked to anybody this morning so I had no idea. It was pretty strange.

Actually, apparently my gf is also sick. Interesting eh? I wish she wasn't sick but at the same time it's kind of interesting that we both got sick the same day haha. So it's actually not as bad as I thought ^_^

Recently I've been studying Japanese a lot. I've been trying to learn at least 10 words a day and so far it's working out!! 10 words a day is surprisingly easy. I've been doing it with the help of that Anki program I mentioned in a previous post and my own short 10 word lists I've been bringing with me to work and wherever else I go during the day. I've compiled a list of the words I've learned recently from the Japanese Proficiency Level 4 word list here and I've also put a link under the "Japanese Study" heading in the right column if you want to check it out. I've also been writing some of my mnemonics... which might be useful for some people (but they are my own so it might be hard to grasp why I chose the certain mnemonic) but help yourself!!

Hopefully soon I'll be learning some more grammar and then I might be able to actually speak a little Japanese! =D I'm really excited. I really miss my gf though. I hope I can get my passport soon so I can book my flight... I don't want to get a flight if I can't get my passport in time. But... I'll get it all figured out eventually.

To Japan!

Actually, I'm not quite there yet. I'm still working on this passport thing and trying to get the money together but so far it's looking up. My pending day of departure is early January and I'll be staying there for a few months... if all goes as planned.

But that's the problem! I'm not sure what that plan is. I gotta figure out if I'm going to keep my apartment, move back to Penticton, sell all my stuff, keep all my stuff, etc etc etc. It's tough. I've been talking to my parents about it a little bit but I think they're also in the dark with what I should be doing.

I finally got most of my Passport stuff together - Just need a guarantor to sign my picture to say that I am who I say I am. Then I'm ready to go! Passport Canada is pretty strict about this whole guarantor thing though yeesh.

But I'm still super excited despite all this crazy stress about what's going to happen. I know it'll all work out - I just gotta figure out how to make it haha.

In the mean-time I gotta study and plan and study and plan. And work sometimes too.