If you click this, Darlo can eat ^_^
29th August 08 @ 21.16
Well folks, this is going to be my last entry before I take off. Why you ask? Tonight (after I write this) I'll be packing away my portable hard drive ready for the journey. I was worried that my data would be corrupted when going through x-ray machines, but thanks to a PC Guide Article, my worries have been put to rest. That being said I'm still keeping my laptop in my hand luggage ^_^.
We had the last Shrotaku meet up and it went really well, especially considering an American dubbed Medabots got the top vote 0_o ... yes I did vote for it >_<. As always, full details can be seen at Shrotaku.co.uk, which I'll be updating after this entry.
Well that's it, I have no more phone credit (though funnily enough I do have free texts this weekend) so if I don't see you before I go to Japan ... or in Japan ... I'll see you whenever!
Weds 27th Aug 00.03am
Man, what a day! Went to Prestatyn and Rhyl and hung out with some friends for the last time before heading to Japan on Sunday. So much driving Z_z. Well, I think I'll do a quick email check and then head to bed.
G'nite y'all!
Tuesday 26th August @ 00:49
I've made a bit of a start to the Japanese section of the website. Go me! If you have a look at my Japanese profile, I'm about halfway down the page. Hopefully this'll keep on growing. By the by, if I've gotten any bits wrong (grammar, vocab, translation and such) please do let me know! Right I'm off to bed. I'm heading to Prestatyn tomorrow (today) to meet up with a friend before I head to Japan.
G'nite ^_^
Bank Holiday Monday 25th August 00.09 (morning ¬_¬)
Well ... last night was the night of Shrotaku's Death Note Marathon, where we watched the entire anime series along with the special episode and two films. A total viewing time of approximately 1232 minutes (20 hours 32 minutes). I'm pleased to report that I did stay awake for the whole event, which started at 10 am yesterday morning, though passed out shortly after it ended at some time around 8 o clock this morning. Top that off with a team-drive with my Dad to Sunderland, and that's how I spent my day.
Time to Japan ... approximately 7 days.
Sunday 17th August 22:25
First of all, I fly out to Japan in about two weeks. DAMN! Cue the fear, cue the worry, cue the fact that I've started to look at Kansai-ben and realised it's another language altogether! But I digress. I realy want to give thanks to two people today. First of all thanks to Dad for cutting my hair. Yes it was quite an achievement (requiring three pairs of clippers >_<) and very appreciated in this warm weather. Second of all I want to thank Viv, my sister, for buying me a strange and unusual gift from the car-boot sale. Scroll down and you'll see how gutted I was when my new bike broke. Well thanks to Viv I've got an equally funky (and much much stronger) tiny bike and we were taking it for a spin this afternoon. I'll be putting our pictures in the Randomidity section later on.
Sat 16.8.08 8:50pm
Well yesterday was mine and Simon's London trip. I guess I could write an entry about that. I could write an entry about applying for my student visa at the Japanese embassy. I could write an entry about shopping at the Japan Centre. I could write an entry about going into Orbital Manga. I could write an entry about finally seeing the TokyoToys shop in London. I could write an entry about cashing in my Funland (I think) arcade that I got 6 years ago. I could write an entry about entering my first live poker tournament (not including online and playing in mates' kitchens) at the Poker in the Park Festival. I could write an entry about what I bought (including the Manga Sutra 2, Kansai Japanese, Yotsuba and A Not-Rich's Guide To London). I could write an entry about how the Shat-Nav kept getting us lost when trying to leave London. I could write an entry about having kebab and chips in Watford. I could write an entry about having to sleep at a service station part way back because I was getting too tired.
... but I think that'd be a dull entry. Instead, I think I'll use this entry to let you know I'm eating an entire tub of Ben & Jerrys Fish Food Ice Cream!
Wednesday 13th August @ 10:35
My bad, I made a mistake on the description of one of the gift art pieces. Amoryl (who did the Darlo in Japan piece) is from the States, not Canada ^_^.
Tuesday 12/8/08 - Ten past eight at night (ish)
Well I'm pleased to say that I didn't wake up with a black eye. Thank goodness for that eh. Right, I've added the Gift Art section to the site now, and want to thank all the awesome artists who have given me work. There are still a few I've not put on yet, but I'll get around to them I swear.
I've also added the work on Gyamball to the AV page, as well as adding a new review; The Last Call (Vasilis Lolos). Tomorrow is another meeting for Shrotaku, Shropshires Anime Club, so if you're in the area be sure to drop by. Full details can be found on the website. Lastly I should be heading down to London on Friday to sort out my Visa for Japan, so again if you're there and fancy a beer be sure to get in touch.
12th August 00:23
Well tonight was my night to cook dinner. It wasn't too bad actually! Anyone who says Garlic doesn't go with rice and kiwi doesn't go with sweet and sour sauce clearly hasn't lived! There's a chance I'll be waking up with a black eye tomorrow. Not from a fight or even walking into a door. Tonight whilst trying to get my nephew to sleep I lay down and he stamps on my eye ... thanks Kai, really.
7th August 9:50pm
Today I went into work to break the news that I'd be leaving ... tomorrow. Add more to the list of people I've let down eh. Anywho I'm going to try to put this behind me and get ready for some study.
That being said tonight was the ReCon at Infinity & Beyond in Shrewsbury and I went along for a little cheering up and to tell more people about Shrotaku. Me, Steph, Strawsnake & Layer had success in the quiz and our picture's going to go in the Shrewsbury Chronicle ... must ask one of the guys who live in Shrewsbury to get me one of those!
6th August @ 17:49
My result came in and as expected I failed. Once again though I have continued my trend of "only justs", buy failing by 4 marks. Actually, scratch that. It was out of 90, I scored 36, the pass mark was 40, I failed it. In fact, I failed by missing 10% of the minimum to pass. FAIL!
Even though this hasn't affected me going to Japan (as I was resitting the exam informally), I do feel gutted about it, feeling I've let a lot of people down (cheesy and wank as that sounds). I mean yeah, I was expecting to fail, but I still held on to a glimmer of hope that I would actually succeed.
So who do I blame? I could quite easilly point the finger at certain noisy folk, but no that wouldn't be fair. I could point the finger at myself, yes, finger pointed at face! But that's not all. I've come to the realisation that Telford really doesn't work for me and I can't study properly here. Telford, up yours! GCSE's, A Levels, all done craply here. BTEC National Diploma; I did this in Shrewsbury and did quite well (considering even though I was still living in Telford I did most of my work in Shrewsbury ... except my all nighters). In Leeds even though I did hang out with friends, I still managed to get some studying done (during the holidays when I came home was an epic failure on the attempt of revision). Or perhaps it's that Telford tries to keep me from any success whatsoever. Let's face it the MCM Expo I did was shit, and the only things awesome that I've done (that I can remember right now), were when I was out of this place.
I knew a long time ago that I hated this place, I guess Telford wanted it's revenge.
4th August 08 - 22:03
A man needs time on his own to think and clear his head, and a solo car trip to Leeds is one way to get such a time. Unfortunately it's led to me being somewhats narked, sod it, I'm not sugar coating it, pissed off. Lets start from the today, no wait, Friday.
Friday was my first payday (in a hell of a long time), so to celebrate I decided to splurge a bit and get myself a toy that I could use in Japan; a small foldaway bike. Quite a funky little thing too to help travel around (small distances) in style.
Actually no, lets go back even further. As some of you know since I've got back to Telford I've felt a bit ... eh. This feeling of ehiness has escalated over time and as such (among other things I won't go into as it's not fair on those involved) I've struggled to revise for a test I had today. You see even though I passed my Japanese module, I failed the written exam. Because of this I was invited back to take the resit informally (so it won't affect my module mark either way) and that was today. Anywho, with my revision already slim when it came to starting work I found that I was only able to revise about 10-15 minutes a day during my lunch break.
Back to the bike, I made a bid for one on Friday that was quite close (so I could pick it up rather than pay postage). Then yesterday realising I'd be heading up to Leeds today I contacted the seller to see if he'd end the auction early, hoping I could pick it up last night. The seller was a reasonable guy and agreed, me picking up my new bike and giving him £45. I came back lasy night quite happy, even though I knew today's exam would be a downer.
Today I intended to head off at about 6-7 this morning giving me plenty of time to get there and also to avoid slow traffic. I left just before 8. In theory leaving at 8 o'clock isn't really too bad and would still give me some time to spare. How many slow mother-fuckers were on the road? I don't even know anymore! One pointlessly twatt decided to drive 35mph on national-areas, and 50 during 30 zones! Get that fucker off the road!
The roads themselves didn't seem to offer much support with roadworks, extra traffic lights, and diversion after diversion after horse-pissing diversion! After eventually getting on the M6 (a motorway for those of you not in the UK), my thinking and relaxation time began. Cool driving songs and a moment of thinking (on what exactly I have no idea) meant that I ended up driving too far north, missing my exit and ending up in Preston! I would have stopped off to say hi to a mate who lives there, but time was starting to become against my enemy.
Trust me when I say that the rest of my driving experience of the day did not get any better ... at all.
As for the exam, I'm just thankful that I was sitting it informally. That being said a shitty result will still reflect quite poorly on me. But after that me and some friends hung around for a bit, occaisionally riding my funky (though somewhats difficult to ride). Trouble is when riding back towards the car, the centre of the bike cracked and that sent the seat lock out of place.
I've now decided to abandon buying anything on such a wim unless it's absolutely needed ... like fucking apple sauce.