Burgled!

Tuesday I had an unwelcome visitor to my apartment. I had several heavy boxes that I was carrying up to my second floor room, and it took quite a bit of time and sweat to get them all inside. I probably made 8 trips up and down. I parked my car on the street as usual, and when I returned to boot up the old compy it was nowhere to be found.

Well I hadn't been locking my door because of the annoyance of doing it over and over with heavy things in my hands. I figured it would be fine because I was in and out so often it would take a ninja to get in and out unseen with my treasures. Well, the ninjas win this round. I spent a good chunk of the day talking to the apartment manager, the police, the crime scene finger printer lady, and my insurance company. It was a real laugh.

There was someone in the hallway during my box carrying, so maybe they were the culprit. I dunno. Good news is that my laptop is the only thing that seems to be missing.

Unfortunately for myself and my loyal reader(s) is a good chunk of photos were on that computer. The last couple of days of last year's Europe excursion are forever lost. Bummer. I guess I'm just going to have to go back sometime and take some more.

New Laptop is Here

My nice new laptop has at long last arrived in the mail. I have been without an internet connection at home for a solid month now, which has super sucked. I am embarrassingly dependent on my computer, even more so because I live in a foreign country. A week from now 3 of my friends from college will be in Japan wanting to do everything the country has to offer, and I'm relieved to have the beautiful trip-planning power of the internet.

Minus a couple of days off I am going to take when my friends come to visit and a trip to Utsunomiya to do some work visa tweaking, I have 14 days of actual work left. My Japan time is quickly drawing to a close.

I've been doing some fun stuff and taking a few pictures over the past couple weeks so stay tuned while I post a few things.

Pretty Pictures and a Run in with the Law

The last time I was in Japan was the semester I spent at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. I arrived for school just as the cherry blossoms were blooming in the trees. During some free time, I went to a sort of parade at Daigo-ji Temple, in which a long procession of Japanese in full period dress reenacted a court event that happened in 1598. There was a bit of a breeze, which caused the cherry blossom petals to float from the trees like snow flakes. Needless to say, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures that day.

This scene in particular caught my eye. Its so serene and symmetrical, it belongs on a postcard.

Fast forward to a month or two ago. My art major friend Amy Lenhardt was having a final art show in Jacksonville, showcasing all of the things that she had been toiling over for the past four years. I was very surprised to see a print that I recognized. It was a print made from an etching of one of my Japan pictures! Very awesome. I guess she saw where I had put my pic up on facebook, and liked it enough to want to recreate it. She even gave me one to keep. It looks pretty cool, I'll probably have to get it framed. I liked it so much that I decided against suing her for infringing on my intellectual copyrights.

Printolicious

I got my new laptop in the mail today! I have started on the long journey of learning how the hell to work the dreaded Windows Vista. The menus looks pretty, but I doubt its going to blow me away with functionality. My favorite little toy now is the webcam built into the screen. New electronics make me happy.

Its even got a remote! Ooooh, Aaaah