An update!

Wow... more than a month since I blogged last... Seems the blog went on hiatus in June and the beginning of July; sorry 'about that.

At least I'm a little better than a friend of mine whose last blog posts were named "Long time no Blogging", "Innlegg schinnlegg" and "Hisashiburi" (japanese equivalent of "long time no see!") before the long silence... When I no longer intend to keep this blog I will announce it, I promise.

Since last post I've been in Okinawa for a week (which was great!), occupied with new classes, and then hit by an apathy-spell lasting the rest of the rain-season (which is June). First of July came and went, and the sunshine returned about the same time, hopefully to help me I kicking the apathy away now that it's just 3 weeks until the final exams (eeeeek!).

I guess I could write some words about Okinawa and my first Karaoke-experience (after living 9 months in Japan...), but apart from that June/rain season was nothing but curtains of rain and fog. You didn't miss much.

July so far has been lovely, but is now turning into living he**. The sun is shining, temperatures usually lies around 28-30 degrees, and the humidity from 50% to 80%; making everyday life a list of priorities revolving around finding shade, getting enough fluids, air condition, etc. Temperatures and high humidity makes it hard to focus on the upcoming exams, even though, or perhaps just because it's only 3 weeks left. The end is near.

This sounds very ominous, but it's true; It's just a month until I'm back in the mother country. My mind is (unfortunately) more preoccupied with what has to be done (packing, traveling, socializing, etc.) before departure rather than cramming for exams...

I foresee few (if any) blog posts the next month; I will try to post once more before I'm heading home, but I cannot promise anything. When things start to happen here everything happens at once...

Djaa ne!

From the Forum of High Entertainment Value

Topic: Brand names (& economy):

1) "These days, a number of Japanese tend to buy brand name staffs including me."
This surprising fascination with staffs...
(English is difficult; staff, staff, stuff...all the homonyms and apparent homonyms...)

2) "Subject: There Will Be Blood.
Baffled by the title? No worries, it is just a movie,(...)"

3) "We prolly can make difference in our life style and every one will be happy too."
A real live person using "prolly" in a serious discussion!


Topic: Disney (& cultural hegemony):

4) "Mulan, A brave girl from china who is willing to sacrifice for her father Aladin, A thief in Arab who in the end becomes the hero who saved the kingdom Toys story which describes how a person values his toys,(...) "

Whoa.. Comma mistakes make new interesting interpretations...; Mulan, daughter of Aladdin the hero of the kingdom that describes, the kingdom called Toy Story....

5) " when have you ever seen a disney character wearing an eg. chinese / indian costume." Mulan? Pochahontas?

6) " so my essay is disorgainzed, but it`s up to our choice and our action."
who writes essays on a discussion forum???

7) "oops~sorry for reply at wrong topic"

8)
"I am probably one of people who didn't grow up with Disney. Of course, my parents showed me almost all disney films."
(...)
"That was why I stopped watching Disney although I still keep watching some films like Mulan, Pocahontus, Toy Stories and Nimo."
I think this person is deceiving him/herself...

9) "One more obvious example, Aladin, did anyone find something about American in his film? It mostly show Indian society and culture, is not it?"
Disney knowledge revealed! (I hope people know I'm still being sarcastic...)

10) "It yearned for Snow White after all as Mickey liked it. "
...some sentences just don't make sense, even when they're clearly on the topic...

11) "Ariel is the hottest disney character ever, period. (...) Wish she was for real, oops!"
...We did *not* want to know that.

12) "hakuna matata, what a wonderful phrase, hakuna matata,
ain't no passing craze...

It means no worries for the rest of your days It's our
problem free.. philosophy...

hakuna matata...."

this is the entire post....!


13)
"Oh!

I am so sorry for some misspelling.

T____T "

this is the entire post....!



---


I might still have missed some golden ones, I haven't read trough all of the forum yet, so theres a chance there might come some updates at a later point.

New quotes!

All quotes from the Sociology class forum again. The first part from a discussion board about Art.

1)
"Just like some western people is thinking why Japanese can't wait till the fishes to get cook and eats it straight after cutting, and Japanese are willing to splash their cash on those raw things. This so maybe eating raw fish is a kind of art, is just that some people in this world don't appreciate it."

My favourite part: "...and Japanese is willing to splash their cash on those raw things." Hahaha! This certainly reveals the writer's opinion of sushi!

2)
"As we know, in ancient time, there was Edvard Munch. One of his works, there is "The Scream". "

3)
"But still I’m a Traditional Art Maniac. I love PICASSO!!"
Dear Traditional Art Maniac, Picasso is Cubist, not traditional...

4)
"Make up, graceful movements, fashion styles, coke can bottles, flyers, and even the squash-up papers we throw in the rubbish bins...these are all forms of art."
So I'm accidentally an artist every time I throw away one of those annoying flyers...?

And the last part is on the topic of music, discussions about downloading etc.

5)
(...)"But i have to say i would rather spare my time and easily download my music off line :)"
...Download offline?!?

6)
"(arguments). On the other way, (... more arguments.)"
um... on the other hand...?

"I think downloading is an inevitable future for film and music industry, it is like a mission impossible which would take more than 10 Tom Cruises to solve."
That's at least 9 Tom Cruises too much for the world...

8)
"In my country if you walk through the pedestrian of the capital or the big city (...)"
Poor urban pedestrian!

ADDITIONS!
(topic: 'Internet restrictions' & 'cellphone use on the train')
9)
"In rash hour, salary man is reading newspaper or sleeping actually."
I certainly don't want to take the train in rash hour...

10)
"I have been residing in many online communities since I was 10 (...)"
...

11)
"It's like ridiculous the people who are controled by High-tech staffs."
Yes, hilarious!

12)
"By reading with a mobile in the train is not a problem. It makes to become quite and relexed to people in the train and any disturbance on someone."

13)
"However, it is difficult for people to restrict the use of cell phone, as well as me."
Some people can be quite unruly.

14)
"Don't you feel that the world is flat now? the border itself doesn't seem real."

post-17th celebration update

The Norwegian Constitutions Day was May 17th, properly celebrated an' all - blog post coming.
Plastic Tree Concert Review is still being postponed, due to ... well... life.

At the moment I have 2 reports, a Final Exam and a Japanese Midterm Exam looming on the horizon over my head, of course in addition to regular classes (luckily not more than 2 per day) and their homework (not so lucky) and my non-APU readings and writing projects...

+ what social life I can manage to squeeze in between it all!

たいへんだよ・・・・・

But, on a brighter note, there are nice things here too; tea & chat time with the girls, going to ofuro, the occasional dinner with various people, etc.

And in the QuarterBreak I'm going to Okinawa with a small group of friends
(but unfortunately at the same time as a horde of other APU students..)

Yay!

short update

I'm mostly repeating the same old routine up here on the mountain, so there's not that much to say. A few changes though; I've joined a circle (a student group or club or association or whatever) for practicing Japanese, and I've gotten involved in a collaborations for designing a t-shirt for my floor for a "World Festival" we're going to perform at in June. I did say "we", but I'm only contributing to the performance in off-stage activities, like (helping) designing the floor's t-shirt. The artistic challenges that this t-shirt project will let me play with will be a nice break from my other school work.

I've picked up again my Plastic Tree Concert review project, and I will finish and post it at some point. This is as much a promise to myself as to any of you out there, because you've probably lost interest already since I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I really want to write it. It's become my favourite procrastination activity - but I can't afford to procrastinate that much nowadays unfortunately...

other things;
The weather is shifting, awful, windy and rainy yesterday, and today the most beautiful sunshine and pleasant temperatures around 19-22 degrees (a bit cool, almost chilly actually, compared to last week). The view was clear enough that we could see to Shikoku - a fact I find very romantic. The view is one of the major things I'm going to miss from APU.

Middle left: The Kunisaki Peninsula,
Center Background: the tip of Sadamisaki Peninsula, Shikoku

And here are some more or less random pictures from Campus - taken with my phone so please excuse the quality...

1-2: Daffy and Donald (Look Aunt B! Donald in Japan!)
3-4: The invisible man, and alternative vases at the Osaka Ferry
5-6: Cake, and how to make animal figures out of sausages
7: Another proof there are fancy things in Japanese supermarkets
8: The Exoticness of APU - an Asian performance the amphitheater, lacrosse practice in the sports field in the middle background, and then view of Beppu and Oita
9-10: Random cool car in Beppu, and how APU teach hirgana to new students
11-12: Fantastic flowers blooming outside AP House
13-14: Sunset view from the APH bridge, and Christina noticing the price of pasta screws.
(100 yen ≈ 1 USD or 5NOK, you do the math...)