Hindsight

Attended the JET pre-departure seminar held by the local JET Alumni Association. Pretty informative and worth putting a suit on, I suppose :) It was an interesting and well organized event. Got to meet other JETs in Fukuoka prefecture in addition to all other local JETs who could attend. Some from Arizona even drove down to attend and some from even farther out: I talked to someone who flew from Atlanta.

Half the day passed and I started to feel accomplished and scared. For what we are going to be doing (or supposedly will do) I hope not to disappoint anyone out there.

Saturday (yesterday) spent time with nephew, played GBA games with him and a got through another stage of a PS2 release known as “Stuntman”. Arguably the most frustrating game in recent memory. But I’ve gotten far and I’m almost done with it. Probably my last game for awhile since it is now July. Four weeks and I will be in Shinjuku to start. Lots of things to think about but it’s late and I have work tomorrow. Be well.

“For movies no one knows, for anime and games that get oppressed by
people in our society, for commercials that are merely consumed and disposed
of, every day I work out beautiful melodies that leave impressions,
sacrificing my social life…what on earth am I doing? The time is yet far
when I can proclaim myself to the world a composer…”

Kanno Yoko

I’m up late again. When I wake up in five hours (or less), I’ll be groggy, and work will become even more challenging.. in terms of staying awake.

I read through weblogs by jumping from link to link, and just seeing the range of personalities again.

I gave L a call on the phone and told her I missed hearing her voice. Her finals are done soon, and we’ll be spending a little bit of time here and there together before I am off to my somewhat-new-life.

After packing so many things away it feels like I’m moving away forever. And in some cases I really do not want to come back to a lot of things.

I have a lot of photos that I never put into albums, so I spent this entire evening after dinner just organizing them. I had batches mixed in with other batches and I was trying to match up photos again (based on when they were taken, etc.) I didn’t get around to putting many in the albums I bought a few days ago, I’ll probably get to that tomorrow.

I found some pictures wedged in between others, and some of them really got me nostalgic. Friends who don’t write anymore, etc. Girls I used to like. Sappy James….

I thought about how I’ll be keeping these. Fifty years from now I’ll have everything archived somehow. I know it sounds premature but imagine looking back at all these photos you took. It’s even stranger now with digital cameras. I thought about it the other day after buying the photo albums…. In the course of our lifetime we’ll somehow have to transfer pictures from one storage medium to another if we want to push them into the next generation.

Even though I’ve used a few digital cameras, friends or otherwise, I still like the touch of a real print. There’s a certain warmth to it that seems more real than staring at a monitor.

Other photos I dug out had writing on the backs, phone numbers or wishes of a great future, etc. etc. I didn’t want to think about it too much, about how I miss all the people in the pictures.

Of course, there are still empty slots in my albums.

So far I’ve slept in, gone to Target to get some things and been organizing CDs to put away (I’m going to get a bunch of them to MP3 before storing).

At Target I spent a good deal looking around at how to wrap a present for one of my friends. Her birthday is coming up and I already got her a present but not any wrapping or such. I started by choosing a bag, down to the tissue and gift wrapping, color coordinated and all. Is that the web design sense being used again? I certainly hope so. A major personal accomplishment.

The Game Boy Advance Platinum was out with a free “Bobblehead” of Donkey Kong. Good god, bobbleheads? My friend up North tells me they are all the rage in Washington. True? I was tempted to pick the GBA up, but I have to hold onto my money better than in previous years.

I ended up picking up some stickers which will hopefully be put to good use in Japan, per Amanda and Josh’s recommendation. Thanks for the tidbit, A & J. Half of them are symbols though, with the other super-colored stickers with words… I still plan on getting some more.

In addition to the stickers I nabbed some basics. ISO800 Film to take some pictures of places around here and, of all things, a map of California. I figure I’ll be using it at least once to talk to someone about where I’m from and all the cities I’ve lived here.

I decided to post myself over at Classmates.com, forking over 36 dollars for one year of letting the world know my schools attended.

I went through a master file that my parents created, in a box with all my other files (bills, other college records, etc.). It’s amazing to see report cards down to the Kindergarten and pre school levels… All of them are almost intact.

Apparently I’ve lived in about 11 cities since childhood, probably more because I stopped counting sometime along the way.

Facts:
I have attended 7 schools during my K through 12 education.

I have lived in these cities from birth through college:
Fontana, Monterey Park, Costa Mesa, Bakersfield, Riverside, La Mirada, Bangkok (Thailand), Norwalk, Cerritos, Lakewood, Irvine (college dorm/apt), Newport Beach (college apt.), Buena Park, La Verne.

Alright, so 14. I could be forgetting a city or two….

It is no wonder I can be so detached to people and places sometimes…. and perhaps an explanation as to why I can also attain a sense of permanence online and a sense of independence otherwise.