How everything should be...

A great example where, paradoxically, being smart is cheaper than being cheap.

Also, this made me laugh (thanks Dan): Guys seek advice from girls, not other guys. Most guys think alike, so if one is confused, we're all confused.

Something to keep in mind... hahaha

Korean:
+ Starcraft
+ Taekwondo

Reply · 12 · Like · Follow Post · 21 hours ago

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  An Drei · Top Commenter
  

  = Zergs

  Reply · 11 · Like · 13 hours ago
• 
  

  Passnaught Vanyard
  

  + 북한

  Reply · 1 · Like · 2 hours ago
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  Lawrence Edenino Lao · Top Commenter
  

  To marry a korean girl you have to defeat the father in taekwondo and starcraft... difficulty level impossiburu!

悲しみと失望の間で希望は生まれるんだ

This is true, but I hope not in all cases

[Edit: to save future-me a google, reference from this blog, which is referencing this Bugy Craxone video]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Absolutely fascinating, but why the hell are there other people doing this???? DAMMIT

Looks like I'll be going to Urbana-Champaign in March.

Better get cracking on JET and Hopkins-Nanjing application...

CCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Also cereal guy for good measure, just because I like the picture.

Forgot a few things

Fascinating article on international marriage from the economist; particularly the Japanese women marrying down in terms of country-level, from urban to rural, etc. Maybe there's something in studying this type of relationship/sexuality/internationalism stuff? Toriaezu there's links to a few research bodies in the article itself, and I should ask Trish and Prof Lee about it as well.

博士号を取るとはどういうことか - Japanese translation of a very interesting and sadly true-to-life info graphic. Continue to long for life in simpler times, where it seems it was so much easier to discover new things. Also wonder if anyone else has drawn graphs of non-traditional methods of learning (street smarts, etc) as a response to this.

Not sure what this is about but apparently it's shocking and/or interesting.

Best advice I've had in a while

People are shocked when I tell them I'm lazy. I don't try to change the fact that I'm lazy; I exploit it. I try to make sure that the laziest thing I can do at any moment is what I should be doing.

http://matt.might.net/articles/productivity-tips-hints-hacks-tricks-for-grad-students-academics/

-----------------

A girl once gave me a wonderful birthday present. Shocked, confused and feeling most of all undeserving, I exchanged promises to hang out more after break and parted ways. I later changed the goal of my travels to finding the perfect something to express my feelings of thanks -- my birthday being when it is and the stubborn lack of close friends during college, I rarely receive any personal (read:non-facebook) acknowledgement, and have only once had a surprise party (A going away party by Waseda-gumi I will never forget. Watch the douga every now and then to cheer up, remember the fukai kizuna we forged) -- and eventually settled on a cd I sampled in a huge Korean bookstore within an even bigger mall. Travel and the break itself came and went, and I found myself ready. Ready to give her my gift, let her know how much her time and effort and that small gift meant to me, how much strength it had given me. Time went by, my resolve weakened. I wanted to give it to her, yet still I hung onto it, could not bear to part with it. I think much of it was due to my weakness, confusion and reluctance. Partly because it was probably the first such open display of affection I had ever received (or at least remember[ed?]), she was Singaporean and I was still recovering from trauma (not that it's fully fixed now or anything) and second guessing both my evaluation of her motives/feelings and my own attraction towards her (I once half-joked that I only liked Singaporeans, when another smartass tried to confirm/assert that I like asian girls; I like to think it's initially a combination of the laid back-ness [no pun intended], internationalism[?], foodie-ism and accent that seems to be shared among the island's people). Partly because, well, just a plain fear of rejection. After that initial promise we never really hung out, didn't talk much and I sure didn't give her that present. I still listen to it, now and then. It's good. So good, I feel regret for still having it, listening to it, enjoying it. Maybe even guilt, and the feeling that yet another bridge was not burned, only left to wither and might well have already crumbled.

(A work in progress, to be streamlined and fb-statused later)

(Also while checking old fb messages can be shocking, it also reveals that we did make some plans (to go to a concert) and communicate, and probably even met up, during/possibly after the break; memory is definitely selective, definitely fallible, definitely playing up to what we want to believe in or say. Gotta work on harnessing this power...)

-----------------

As my advisor used to tell me, "Whenever I felt depressed in grad school--when I worried I wasn't going to finish my Ph.D.--I looked at the people dumber than me finishing theirs, and I would think to myself, if that idiot can get a Ph.D., dammit, so can I.

http://matt.might.net/articles/successful-phd-students/

Ahhhh

This girl.

http://jhskim.tumblr.com/post/11779811563

Really struck me. That was unexpected.

On another note,
I Zhuan dao na ye le from youtube videos, where there's links to this girl's twitter, tumbler, facebook, and the name of the university she goes to is out in the open... someone needs to rehaul their internet privacy! Although it doesn't seem like too many people are watching her channel anyway though?

Lonely...

I am starting to think, maybe, you know, I should join a forum. Join a forum, instead of remaining on the periphery, only taking in knowledge rather than contributing, doing something akin to facebook stalking only with people I don't and cannot get to know;

and maybe mom was right, I should find or be paying some educated in Japanese person to converse with and raise/maintain my ability level (and on that note seeking out Chinese more actively as well). I was extremely disappointed at what may be the only 見本 available on the internet for the OPI Superior ranking, but watching that argument about the Japanese prime minister's acceptance of donations from Korean nationals was at times disheartening [although I did 改めて実感 the feeling that emotion/rudeness/etc in Japanese comes through mostly in not the words you choose, but in the tone, etc that you choose them, much more so than English and, it would seem, the complete opposite of Korean, where there are apparently so many curse words?, I did not understand most of the background of the trial, what the 参議院 is or it's questioning processes (why did the guy keep sitting down... even when he started giving one word answers... and wasn't the accuser dude hella rude!?!?! And was accuser #2 regarded as passionate or just a loser? hmmm), or why the trial/witch-hunt itself is even important, and was lost at the dialogue itself many times...].

Still angry at that bastard and his ideas of a politically correct "gap year"; social etiquette be damned,! if you don't want to hear what I'm up to then don't ask. Too bad for you if I don't fit neatly into your self-consolation terminology.

Although I do wonder if I was a little to blame, having this lack of human contact (see above desire to join a message board or online community, or the ダラーズ) which lead to 油断 on my part towards the outsider (a concept which still troubles me to this day, those words by shakku).

Starting to wonder if I should just give up on the idea of grad school and get a job for now (it's that or ace the GRE in the next two weeks, ask for references by tomorrow AND have a clear idea of what I want to do...). Oscillating between knowing exactly what I want to do with my life and taking comfort in the fact that when I get tired of searching for it I can always sell my soul to the government/military. A far cry from my original "dog of the military" days, and a bit disillusioned at my own reality in opposition with that Ed brought: soul-selling with a purpose, for something otherwise unattainable, was supposed to have been the norm, no, the absolute, for all those voluntarily in the military. I am at once disappointed, laughing at some sort of naivety held within, and amazed at the influence which a favorite work can have upon a person.

Gotta write to 7-chan,

\and others\

[edit:] 蛋疼 this apparently describes a lot for me these days, haha. Thanks, chinasmack :)

This was interesting

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-best-questions-for-first-dates/

Need to get up and do something, rather than just reading about it. Tsuyoku naritakereba tsuyoku nareba ii jan?

"If you do not seek perfection you will halt before taking your first steps."

stuff to look into

http://emptynestdiary.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/not-rape-but-not-right/

http://projectseen.wordpress.com/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2011/11/14/142303990/introducing-the-infinite-player?sc=fb&cc=fp

赴任その向こうへと、瞑想に耽る

女子後輩からいきなり「何してるの」ってメールが来たと思ったら*、
不思議に　いやちょっとさみしくなったからなにしてるのかなって思っただけ　のような返事まで来た。

こっちの方が淋しいだろうが！

彼女でもないものの、そもそも最近（久々、てか元々なかったのだろうか？日本以外じゃ）僕ではなく相手が始めたメールのやり取り二番目になった(!)

それに今日百年一回の111111、つまり超単身祭日なのに
彼氏に対する愚痴を…



臨時許可をあげてみたらまさかリアルにｋｔｋｒ↑

リア充爆発しろｗｗｗ　（２ｃｈの影響か）



なぜ大学で良い友達作れなかったんだろう。
よく思うこの日々
思いながら連絡してくれる友さえ稀なり


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