Revert

Today I noticed I talk about the future a lot in my blogs. That is going to change. From today forward there will be no (or minimal) future-posts. Way back in the day when I first started posting I talked about all the menial and trivial things of everyday life - I'm going to start doing that again. This is the turning point of my blog! I was getting steadily offtrack, but now I'm back on. For updates on going to Japan I still might make the occasional "future" post but for the most part, trivial and menial. やっぱりつまらないブログだね。 I hope it's not quite so uninteresting as I might make it sound like it's going to be haha. I'll be going back to my roots talking about what I did, what video games I'm playing, which movies I've watched, what TV shows I'm watching, what I'm studying and even the odd purchase I've made. Let me know if the change is for the better (in the next post... possibly later today!)

It's been a while

Wow, a long while! I got a job doing labour for a landscaping company here in town so I'm getting pretty good exercise everyday :) The pay is pretty decent too, more than I thought I'd be able to get trying to find a job at such short notice. My plans of going to Japan might have been shifted a little bit too. Right now I'm deciding between late November/early December or sometime in February haha. Hime said she would come visit Canada again if I was still here in February so I guess we'll see. I haven't decided on anything yet but I'm going to have to pretty quick. I know I always say I'll update again soon and I don't... But I hope to update again soon haha. Next month is Hime and my 2 year anniversary! Time goes by like *that*!! Well, 'till next post.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of updates!

A job?

I need a job now that I'm back in Canada. I need to save up a little bit more money before I go back to Japan. Sounds easy... but is it??? I'm a slave to procrastination and for some reason I procrastinate MORE when I'm in Canada. wtf eh? Anyway, so that's where it stands. I also need to get my act together with level designing.

If you don't know, I have a website with some of my school stuff on it at www.bquaal.com but nothing is recent and I haven't really done much level designing at all since I graudated!! I taught myself the basics of Hammer but nothing came of that. I learned it then never actually made a level. Lame. So anyway, I went to EB the other day and picked me up a copy of Unreal Tournament 3 (which includes the wonderful Unreal Editor) and so I'm off to learn the UT3 editor. It's mostly the same as UT2 just 100x better in every respect. Of course it still crashes and UnrealEd3 has some buttons and menu options that really do NOTHING what-so-ever (they even explain that the buttons are completely useless and have no functionality in the tutorial vidoes) but, it's a way smarter editor. I'm liking it. I've got through the interface and kismet (introduction) and am learning particles. I already have level ideas so lets hope I can bring some to fruition and get back on track with my life as a level designer.

Now, I would like to teach English in Japan... but if it were possible, I would much rather make video games there. I just need to learn Japanese first!! If I get anything together for levels I'll be sure to update here and add it on to my website. But we'll see. I'm sorry this post is all kinda garbled together with no flow or reason to it. I'm sort of rambling haha. I just wanted to throw out an update of where I am: I need a job!! Tomorrow is Monday, time to turn over a new leaf. See you on the flip side!

Canada

So here I am again. Back in Canada. For some reason I find it so much harder to blog when I'm in Canada and I'm not really sure why haha. I think part of it had to do with the convenience of being able to blog from my phone in Japan. So I could write while I was waiting for the Subway (or riding the subway) or any number of things.

Anyway, So I'm back for a while. Right now I'm a little hurting for money so I think I'll have to work for a monthish before I go back (lame eh?) And I'm going to have to go to Vancouver to get my working holiday visa. For some reason you have to apply IN PERSON. So I can't just mail it to Vancouver, I have to actually take the bus (or drive) there to drop off a sheet of paper, then come home. LAME!

Well yeah, so, I don't have too much to say haha. My teachers (from Ai) are in Japan right now having a good time and I'm jelous hehe - good thing facebook is here for me to look at their pictures.

My Japanese is kinda coming along, but not as well as I had hoped. Learning a new language is definitely not something to take lightly I guess (not that I do).

This post is completely random and has no structure lol. My appologies. Please forgive my random story stuff. Anyway, with that said... Before I left Japan I had a sports drink that tasted like fruitloops. IMAGINE THAT!!! I'd say it was disgusting but... fruitloops aren't really that gross so I can't complain too much. My only complaint is that sports drinks should NOT taste like that.

See you next post!!

P.S. I'll be posting something in Japanese soon I think (on my Japanese blog [translated]). I have an interesting story to tell... but I'm saving it for Japanese practice. I'm not sure how interesting English people might find it so I won't bother buahaha. I'll put a link to the post here after I write it - it might take me a while.

Chilly

Tonight it was chilly for the first time. Anyone who knows me knows I always wear t-shirts. Well tonight after riding my bike 4km home my fingers were a little tingly haha.

This picture btw is of Sapporo Station North Exit(札幌駅の北出口). Pretty eh?

I recently made 2 new friends here in Sapporo. Asuko and Maccha. Both are pretty cool. Asuko Ive only talked to twice but Maccha Ive seen a few times now. We even sang karaoke together! haha. I also met another lady Ive studied with a few times now. Her name is Sachiko. She's really short haha but also pretty cool. Starting in October she's going to be a Japanese language teacher so she'll be able to help me a lot (^o^)v well, time to sleep. Go read the translated version of my other blog for different updates! 日本語のブログもよんでください。

gnight(-_-)zzz

Japanese Blog 日本語のブログ

Hey so, recently I've been studying a lot and I thought, what better practice than using what I've been learning!! So I've been posting on my Japanese Blog a lot more often (from a few days ago). I will probably be writing things more often on that blog than on this one just because I want to practice (I'm sorry all you English people, but I'll try to post on here sometimes too).

So if you are Japanese, go here to read what's new. It's also set as an RSS feed in the column on the right, under the video. (If you're not Japanese you can view the horribly translated version via google by clicking this link... you've been warned).

僕の日本語のブログはここだよ。読んで頑張ってね☆私にコメントをあげてください～☆どうも！

Street Fighter 4!

Big flatscreen LCD in the arcade! I beat the game with only one credit too! Its an awesome game too! Im not sure if its out yet but go play it if it is. Or when it comes out, go play.

P.S. this is my first post from my phone... let's see how it works (*^O^*)

Flin Flon

Last week I took a short drive out to Flin Flon, Manitoba with my dad to visit relatives. I'm going to be moving to Japan at the end of next month so I wanted to see my grandparents, especially, before I left since I'm not sure how long I'll be gone for. On the way out there I took a lot of pictures... But I won't make you suffer through them all. I did find this interesting old house on a hill near the highway though so I snapped a picture of that. Sorry, it's a little overcast but there's not too much I could do about that haha. The picture on the left is of Flin Flon as you're driving in to town through Creighton. You can see the giant smoke stack in the background puffing away 24 hours a day haha. You can see it everywhere you go. Actually I just found out it's the 7th largest building in Canada o_O it's 251.5m that's kinda interesting.

After I got there I went to see my grandparents and they're doing pretty good. I was there for 4 days and visited them 3 so I think I did pretty good haha. We went out for dinner one night too, it was nice. I haven't actually been to Flin Flon since probably 2002 so it was pretty nostalgic to see the city and all the people there. My grandparents have moved from their house I remember to a retirement center but it's a nice place and they seem pretty happy where they are :) Especially my grandpa, he kept bragging they have one of the only 2 bedroom places haha.

After that I spent some time with my uncle and dad fishing from the dock at my uncle's cabin. It was really cold and windy but we actually managed to catch one! Surprising eh? It was pretty fun though, I also haven't gone fishing since the last time I went to Flin Flon so.... like 6 years ago probably. It might have even been longer, I don't really remember. And then my aunt and I went to a club and ended up drinking quite a bit together haha. It was a pretty fun night. We were swing dancing together making fools of ourselves probably. Everyone else was grinding away around us and we were bumping into them spinning around and whatnot. I think we probably took up a quarter of the dance floor for the most part. Most people moved out of the way haha. I don't have any pictures of that though, I didn't bring my camera =/

Well after all the fun in Flin Flon it was time to head out. We stopped at a few places on the way home so I have a couple pictures to share. But first, I found where Bill Gates took his picture for Windows XP haha. That's not from Saskatchewan suprisingly, it is just out of Drumheller on the way to Calgary ^_^ Then it was off to BC!!

Our first stop was Drumheller (which is before the previous picture hehe oops). Anyway, I got my picture taken with a giant freakin' dinosaur. This thing is gigantic!! You'll probably have to click on it then find me standing on it's toe before you really notice the sheer size of this thing. I was blown away haha. For a little reference I'm 6' tall or 183cm (I'm a little taller than it's toe).

Then off to Banff to the Banff Springs Hotel for a bite to eat for lunch. Now that hotel.... is a nice hotel. It's like an old castle turned into a hotel. It's amazing and the architecture is beautiful. It's one of those places you just want to go explore for hours and hours until you get lost and have to explore your way back. The food there was a little pricey, but it was good. And it's not too often I get the chance to go eat there anyway haha. It ended up being a little over $50 for 2 sandwiches and 2 coffees haha. But what can you do right? The view was awesome. I took that picture from my seat (we sat on the patio). I just turned to the left and pointed my camera over the railing. I didn't even need to stand up haha.

After that it was a short drive to Lake Louise to see what they had to see. We didn't stay long (it started to rain) but it was pretty neat place too. I'd say Banff is much more interesting, especially since there's a city nearby and stuff to do, but I guess some people might disagree ^_^ It was nice all the same though. Other than that, it was a short drive back to Penticton so nothing interesting to report there haha.

First day on the job

Last night my brother drove me down to Princeton to start my new job this morning. It was an early start and a tiring day.

This is the first time I've done any real physical labour for any extended period of time and wow it's tough. I'm a Diamond Drill Helper. Only 2 people work a shift together. I'm actually working with my dad so it's pretty cool. He's the driller and I'm the helper. He does all the pressing buttons, pulling levers, fixing, and everything to do with running the drill in general. My job is to move everything around the drill so he can do his job as fast as possible (we get bonuses by meter drilled).

So, I'm tired. Totally pooped. I didn't even do all the work today - there's a second helper teaching me all the ins and outs today and tomorrow so, come Monday, I'll be in rough shape probably haha. I enjoy it though. It's really repetitive but I'll get the hang of it. I guess I'll have to eh haha.

Unfortunately I don't have my camera so I won't be able to upload any pictures for a few days but I'll be getting it on Saturday so check for some pictures around Monday or Tuesday probably.

I'll keep studying Japanese out here at night too when I'm not writing my blog (I don't have much time from when I get home to when I want to sleep). I get back here at about 7pm then have to eat dinner so that's about 7:30ish? And 10 is probably about the latest I want to sleep haha. So that doesn't leave too much time, but it'll be enough. Also, to any of my friends in Penticton, sorry I wasn't able to hang out before I left - it was kinda short notice ^_^

While I've Been Home

Nothing too amazing has happened but I'll attempt to highlight the interesting... or mildly interesting.

It all started out with a near-finished retirement home going up in flames on the 7th of April. This fire was started around dinner time and wow did it go up fast. The entire construction site was covered in wood and the building was, also, entirely made of wood. As you might have guessed already, it was found to be arson. Three teenagers deemed to be the culprits were arrested at the scene but only one's name was given out in the morning paper (due to the criminals' age). Damn kids nowadays eh.

A week later I expanded the garden in my mom's front yard so it would look nicer and would be easier to mow the grass. My sister and I dug out all the grass around it and dumped it into a big pile. I ended up getting pretty dirty. In the end we ended up with 850kg of sod (grass and dirt) we had to lug up to the dump. We were planning on putting down some wood chips the next day when BAM it snowed 10cm overnight. What in the hell? The past few days had been gorgeous! The average temperature was around 16 and it had even got to 22 the weekend before. Now it was -1. Good ol' Penticton - never ceases to amaze me.

My brother arrived home from College and I gave him the some of the souvenirs Hime had bought him in Japan when I was there. Most of it were random different candies and sweets. One of them being a strange honey-looking candy you have to spin up on sticks and then eat after it gets thick and full of bubbles. It's a pretty strange candy but they (my brother and sister) had a lot of fun with it.

On April 27th I went to hang out with a few of my friends I hadn't seen in a long time. We went out for dinner at Anthony's (I think), had some food and a drink then came back to my place to play video games. We played Guitar Hero III, then switched over to the classic SNES and dusted off Mortal Kombat II and Street Fighter II Turbo haha. It was a pretty fun night. It ended a little prematurely but everyone was tired and one of the guys had to work early the next morning so we called it a night.

We decided to give our dogs a bit of a grooming on the 29th because they were getting pretty scruffy haha. Hallie got the nicest job of them all - we thought it would be cool to give her a lion mane and a mohawk down her back haha. It turned out alright. We just didn't shave off anything around her head and we left a strip on her back about half way down. For all those who think this is animal cruelty - I assure you she is completely content with losing as much fur as she can since it's starting to get warm. And we're bringing them to the groomers soon anyway. And she likes her mohawk! ^_^

Yesterday I attended a Japanese Tea ceremony in Penticton at the Japanese Gardens we have here. It was pretty neat. They had one girl from Osaka that flew over here to be here for the ceremony (she doesn't actually live here) I was pretty surprised haha. I believe her name was Mutsuko. She sat there all alone on that mat waiting for water to boil and then meticulously adding and stiring the maccha. Very interesting - I don't think I'd be able to sit there that long. Atsuko was the one playing the instrument. I didn't get to hear her play much since I forgot my camera at home and had to go get it but from what I heard it was also really nice. It was a beautiful day to have a Tea Ceremony. I'm so glad I was able to go.