Up until now.. 短期大学

ひさしぶり！
The day of turkey carnage is fast approaching, as is the finale of the fall semester and although I would rather not be going to Abtech, this semester has flown by with little negativity towards many of my classes or teachers.  Up until now I have been writing essays upon various historical events in Art history 1 which seem to have very little to do with art... I appreciate the fact that most history especially in the beginning of time and on to 1300-1500 CE is mostly made up from the art of the time but the assignments I'm meant to write on seem somewhat distant from the topic.

I'm taking three other classes and apart from public speaking I have greatly enjoyed them!  Ceramics has been an amazing class and venture into another form of expression.  As we have began to throw pots (use the throwing wheel) I have been very frustrated but also very satisfied with myself.  I've found the practice of throwing a somewhat zen art, at least when trying to center the clay which you so strongly want to become something cool in the end.  It's like raising a child every time you try and center, build up into your cylinder and form the shape, except there's a very high rate of straying from the correct shape you the potter, parent of your clay child, want.  If this analogy were true it would explain why new generations are the way they are... More to the point, while centering clay it's almost as if you must be centered spiritually, mentally and physically, a workout which is hard to find otherwise.  I have signed up for Ceramics 2 for the spring semester which should hopefully lead to my being more competent as a potter and a greater amount of patience in art.

I'm also studying World history 1 which is pretty much exactly like Art history 1 up until World history went to China and Art history went to Greece.  That added a bit of complexity to keeping civilizations apart from each other.  After all we all know the Great wall of China Mesopotamia and the Pantheon in India... That's just an  illustration to clarify to you how my mind has been operating over the past few months.  World history is especially interesting because of my teacher, we found ourselves watching two midgets wrestling at one point on the projector...

Alas... we arrive at Public speaking. Oh Public speaking.. how I loathe thee.  In actuality though it's more a love hate relationship between Public speaking and myself.  I feel like even though I hate giving speeches that it's very educational but having to fill out a critique sheet for each of my class mates (13) X 4 speeches gets to be quite annoying.  I look forward to our upcoming impromptu speech in which we're giving a random topic to speak on, sounds interesting! 面白いね。

また

Over the summer not too much has changed or happened to me.  I have been able to go on a quite a few trips within the US to places like NYC, SC, NJ which has been a lot of fun.  The best of those trips was to Charleston with my best friend and a bunch of other friends over a 3 night period of humidity and really hot days, sort of reminded me of Tokyo. 
Other than traveling I've been working and playing far too much computer games. 
The Fall semester at Abtech starts around the 17th and I'm pretty excited about that, finally something to keep me busy, hopefully not too much lol.  I'm excited about my ceramics class and being able to make art that is practical.  Ever tried drinking soup out of an oil painting?  I didn't care for the taste..  I also want to become good at ceramics because it's very popular among the Japanese.
I've been trying to keep up to date on my Japanese too, it's still really hard for me since I have so few people to practice with.  Thanks to the internet because without it I would have that many less Japanese to chat with.
I really miss Japan! Hoping my photography will help me bring in more income for my future ventures to the land of Mt Fuji.

At a loss

Wondering what I should do now that the school year is over.  I have been looking at taking summer classes but I'm not sure whether I missed sign-ups or not, I wouldn't mind either way, class or not.  I have been school free for 2 days now and I've pretty much just played video games for most of it... To be fair it's because I got an invitation from Blizzard to play the Beta of Starcraft II but still, what a waste of time.  I should be drawing and painting and expanding my knowledge of stuff, like Japanese!  Without the linear path that school provides it's hard to get motivated though.  The grass is always greener on the other side though I suppose...
I'm still missing my friends in Japan as I always do but I feel like this warm weather coming back is helping to revive the feelings I had from my trip last summer.  The fact that one of my friends is in Japan for 9 months doesn't help make me feel any less envious either.  Everyone is beginning to travel which makes me so sad because I have no ability to get anywhere this summer =/.
Hopefully making this prequel movie of an original movie that my friends and I did last summer will help make things more interesting.  If anyone is interested in watching our rather silly but still entertaining movie, it's called "Shootout" and it's on Youtube.  The prequel is going to be about a character in Shootout and how he does something... not really sure of the entire script at the moment but we actually have a script this time!  Yay for that..
I apologize if this post was a waste of anyone's time, I don't feel like there's much body here.

The semester coming to a close

It always seems like school semesters last forever until you get to the end and then I wonder where it all went.  Generally I cannot stand Spring semesters because of the gloom that looms for months until finally nature springs to life at the very end.  It's so hard to feel motivated while life looks so dead during the winter.  When spring finally comes it's such a great source of energy and positive thinking, such a switch from the past months.
Even though I cannot stand spring semesters this was an exceptional beginning to the year.  I got my first job since I had got back from Japan about a month before I started school and it was great to have money again.  Having my job also meant I was having to pay for school supplies too... quite the trade-off.  Art supplies aren't exactly cheap and I was privileged enough this semester to have to buy large expensive text books or LETB for my art history and psych classes.  My third class wasn't much better because it was a 3d design class which meant everything was built from something I had to buy each time we had a new assignment.  Bass wood, sculpey, wire, aluminum foil, matte board and 2 and 3 ply papers to build silly boxes that only serve to encroach upon my room yet I find myself incapable of throwing them out.  I cannot understand how anyone can destroy something that they (figuratively) gave life to, abortion of art...
learned quite a bit this year, I found that so many subjects piked my interest.  I am especially intrigued by astronomy and the fact that within our existence both atoms and entire universes coexist together.  It's a thought that cannot even be put into context but let me give you an idea, just one galaxy can be up to 1000-10,000 parsecs, a parsec is 19 trillion miles... that is enormous.  Multiply 19 trillion by 1000-10,000 and then understand that billions of galaxies lye within each universe.  It's literally a mind blowing thing to contemplate.  I wish that our government and all other governments had more money to devote to furthering space programs. 
I have been debating for a while whether I wanted to go to summer school, it's not really something I want to do but I DO want to finish school fast so I think it's a good decision.  I had also entertained the thought of going to Japan again briefly after I received an email from a friend in Japan.  Logistically I could not figure out how a trip to Japan over the summer would work so with that in mind and the all too appealing alternative of summer school *much sarcasm intended* I chose the latter.  I haven't decided exactly which classes I'm going to take but I had considered another psych class which would fulfill a requirement of sorts for my associate in fine arts degree.  I also need to retake public speaking to fix my grade on that, something I dread with all of my heart.
I have been thinking for a while that it would be nice to have a second job on weekdays to create a bit of extra income.  I would really like to try and save around $2000 this summer but I think that would probably be a bit difficult.  I'm looking at buying either a camera which would completely fulfill my camera needs or a nice lens, both of which are over $2400... I have never spent that much money all at once before but I would like the experience.
Lately I have been thinking that instead of getting a bachelors degree in photography I would get one in Japanese because I foresee more job opportunities and it would nearly make me a shoe-in for the JET program.  Skill in photography is much more dependent upon a strong portfolio than which degree you have unless you wish to teach in which case you'd require a masters anyways.  I would enjoy teaching photography I think and I would still be able to get my masters in photography after having a bachelors in Japanese which might be a course I pursue in the distant future. 
Unfortunately it is very early in the morning, 3:13am, as I write this and I should be getting to bed so I can be fresh for my psychology finals tomorrow. またね！

A galaxy of knowledge awaits...

My semester this year has led me down quite a few different paths of learning one way or another.  Psychology, art history, astronomy... all of those things are something that if you asked me a year ago I would have said I had no interest in! Can you believe that?!  Not interested in the fact that I can study the way people behave and think in psychology... or art history! Michelangelo painted upon the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, depictions of religious theme, bodies painted as though he sculpted them into the chapel itself.  Astronomy, how can our existence range from microscopic bacteria to galaxies that can span 10,000 parsecs (1 parsec for every 19 trillion miles.) trillion miles.  The knowledge that there is someone else out there.  If just one galaxy is 1,000-10,000 parsecs then imagine how large the universe is, multiple galaxies within every universe... It's not even possible to fathom the size of that. 
I haven't been able to take an astronomy class yet but it will definitely be one of my next classes now.  So far I have just been learning from wikipedia which has been quite intimidating with all the astronomical jargon they use.  Jargon is a huge reason I haven't been interested in many of these now amazing subjects! 

One of my friends who is going for an associates in arts suggested because I'm an artist type that I should take physics and astronomy for my two sciences and she got me really excited about learning both of those.  Then I looked at the required science classes I need for my associates in fine arts and I only have to take one science... so it's between astronomy and physics.  I hate that I have to choose, they're both extremely interesting. 

Sigh-sauce

School has been driving me absolutely nuts the last few weeks... It's not that I have had a LOT of work but it's just that I haven't been getting it done like I should be.  I'm making grades that are acceptable for myself but my parents keep saying, "You can get an A instead of a B on that if you work harder."  I know that but I don't want to work my ass off on school work, I need more me time without worries.  So far I have just had "me" time where I should have been doing school work which makes me worry about it... =( I would like to pick my psychology grade up to an A from it's current B status because I really enjoy psychology.  So far I have an A in design 2 and B's in psych and art history.  I'm happy with it but I'm currently behind, as I write this I should have had my two essays done for their due date tomorrow (3/1).  They aren't done though and that's why I have had a B in my art history class, because every essay I've turned in has been late! haha... crazy shit.

Building a life from 3 ply paper

I have been working on my grand scheme lately and arrived at a decision.  That decision is to probably do the rest of my time at ABtech (Asheville Buncombe technical college) and then go to WCU (Western Carolina university) and finish my last 2 years for a bachelors in photography!  The whole time I'll be at Western I want to not only focus on photography but also Japanese because my "grand scheme" is to go be a JET in Japan (Japanese Exchange Teacher).  So I have to figure out if I could learn more Japanese at WCU by finishing my 2 years at ABtech or not finishing there and then using the credits I still need for Japanese courses.  I have to stop by Western at some point, just gotta find the time =/.  I have been trying to figure out where in Japan I'd like to teach and there are too many places haha.  Fukuoka, Tokyo, my beloved Nagano or maybe some place like Hokkaido.  Pick up snowboarding or something if I was in Hokkaido.

I'm still trying to work on my career as a photographer and most recently a wedding photographer.  Almost finished editing all the pictures I shot from my last and first wedding ever shot!  That's great news cause I really dislike editing... If I could choose I would have an editor and I would just shoot the pics and let him/her deal with editing it.  Takes too much of my time to deal with tweaking pictures, the art in photography is of capturing the moment not changing it after the fact.

School so far has been challenging and fun, I've been making some solid B's in two of my classes and A's in my design class which has been nice.  Surprisingly though the only class where I didn't turn something in on time where I had been previously doing excellent was design 2... I hated the project I had been/still am working on and it was due last monday =(.  It's my inner artist procrastinator saying "You don't need to do that right now! go play video games and eventually everything will work out the way you want!" but alas my lack of a project wasn't forgotten by my teacher so, there goes my hopes of an A on that one.  It's otherwise been a fun class that has bent my brain in numerous ways, I am now a master of creating boxes, spheres, tetrahedrons, icosahedrons, octahedrons... pretty much any sort of "hedron" you want just name it!  I'm ready to build my future house out of 3 ply paper like the rest of my projects have been lol.

My first wedding "_"

Shot my first wedding today... it's some serious stuff lol.  I was lucky because I got to start off shooting a friends wedding but I wasn't quite aware of how much running I'd be doing.  I couldn't figure out who was more stressed out, me, the bride or the brides mom.  I shot around 600 or 700 shots at the event which started for me at 2:00 and I got to leave at 8:00.  I arrived at 2 with the bride to get all those great shots of her getting her hair done although those shots are the least attractive ones of a bride who is stressed about the upcoming life changing event.  I found shooting the groom, groomsmen and brides maids the most fun although it seems women in general become more stressed than men when concerned with weddings.  Shooting the groom and groomsmen was what made it fun and less stressful, they are stress free just having a good time helping each other with their ties and such, CAUSE IT'S A WEDDING and that's what they are for... good times.  The location that the ceremony was held was on the east side of a large mountain which meant no romantic sunset = /, It also meant bad lighting for me when it became dusk.  I found that I was more prepared for poor lighting than I had though but even so when the sun went down everything became very orange and yucky = ( from the incandescent light reflecting off of the yellowish wooden ceiling.

I think I came out with some decent shots but, truthfully, I haven't even looked through all the images yet, too much school stuff to do that right now.  Gotta get some sleep tonight for a psych test tomorrow, my second of 4... or 5 tests... To bed now!!!

Wake up to a new world

Everyday I wake up and think about Japan hundreds of times a day. Most of the time I just think about all the fun times I've had and what might be possible concerning Japan and myself in the future. Of late I have felt more focused upon going to school so that I may one day reach Japan with a degree that I'm proud of and be able to teach future Japanese youth. This has been my goal for a long time but I haven't always had the inspiration to accomplish these things. 

I made a new Japanese friend over the internet within the last few days and she inspires me because she tries very hard to learn English. She wants to come and study at a university in the United States and I want to go and study at a university in Japan. I started watching a Japanese TV show called "My Boss My Hero" the other day and, although it sounds silly, I feel more inspired by watching Japanese television shows. I don't know what about Japan I like so much but Japanese television has it lol.

I want to teach Japanese youth about all the things that I see from my perspective, not just from MY perspective but from a perspective outside of Japan, and not just show Japanese but all people a more worldly way of seeing. I wish everyone had a little more worldly way of seeing because it would open our world up to a peace and understanding that's not even fathomable. Ignorance is the downfall of our world's people. 

I am normally someone who acts like he knows everything but it's just an unconscious front I use to cover my lack of knowledge, I feel like I should know more. I am just beginning to learn about all the amazing things all over the world and I'm humbled by them. For a long time I haven't had my eyes upon what the world truly offers to us all. I now see the potential of it all.

The plan...

Lately I have thought very little of traditional education... or getting a typical education. I still have a deep love of Japan and it's amazing culture. I'm trying to channel that love into incentive for me to get a four year degree so I can teach English there in a few years. I find that sort of ironic because the school I want to go to is Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) which is a pretty expensive school. I wont be able to get in without some SERIOUS scholarships. I want to study documentary photography or photojournalism rather, the kicker is that after I graduate I don't even plan on doing anything with that degree but to instead head to Japan to chill with my friends and hopefully get into the whole teaching thing.

If I could have it my way and the world excepted this kind of thought I would just travel around the world and gain an understanding of all these amazing cultures. You don't get jobs based on how many countries you've been to though and you certainly don't get the kind of money to do that without a job... I guess there's something to knowing your basic English, math, history, etc but what could be more educational than travel??? I do like history by the way but I have yet to meet anyone who can teach it in an interesting way.