Sorry for the Delay

I've been really busy....

In the last month, I've written my third novel (which took up a decent chunk of each day), kept up with my classes (another big chunk), kept up with work (a good chunk), been getting ready for our Christmas Candlelight celebration at church this Sunday, written two papers, taken one final exam, and prepared for the rest of them. As far as details go, there aren't that many, but these simple tasks take a lot of time. Plus, there's sleeping, eating, moving between buildings, flying around, saving the world - all that kind of stuff.

The one high point in the month, other than finishing my novel (yay!) was getting to fly to Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with my family there. We had a fantastic time together, and I got to see and do everything I wanted and then some. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner, complemented by a light blanket of snow outside, got to have our own private suite at the Timberwolves vs. Cavaliers game, braved the stores on Friday morning, drank some fantastic tea, went back to my old church on Sunday and to one of my favorite restaurants right afterward. it was just the sort of break I needed after the hectic world that is the end of the semester. Right now, we're staring down the last leg of the race - the last day of classes (tomorrow), reading/study days (Monday-Wednesday), and final exams (Thursday-the 19th.) After I make it through all of that, I'm going home on the 20th. Back to Oregon - HUZZAH! It's going to be great, and it's the prize at the end of the race. Right now, I've got to finish.

Well, back to studying!

I Hears Music

Oh, it's been a really good few days. I'm riding high!

I can safely say that I've made it through the con withdrawal phase, and now I am back once again to being a fully (or as close as I can get) functioning member of society. I've got some big projects coming up that have demanded my attention, and I've been able to have fun with each of them. I'm writing a fifteen page term paper on anime and its Western appeal for my Japanese Media class - I get to study anime and get credit for it - what could be better? I've got NaNoWriMo 2007 coming up in a few days, and prewriting is well underway. I've joined the sanctuary choir at South Main and will be singing with them starting this next week - it feels good to be back in a musical setting. Plus, I've wanted to get back into training my voice because I've had some sudden aspirations (delusions of grandeur?) to become an anime voice actor myself. I'm starting with all the amazing resources I have available to me - private voice lessons at the Shepherd School, enrolling in a couple of theater classes next semester, singing at South Main, and it will go on from there. From what I've heard, it's a tough road and a tough job, but I figure if there's a time where I'm going to start going for it, now is the time!

Sunday gave me a little bit of an anime fix after the con. After church, I met up with a friend of mine and we went over to the Houston Zoo to meet up with the Houston Cosplay Scouts. As it was a halloween-themed celebration day, everyone, including staff members, was in costume, so we didn't feel out of place at all. It was an absolute scream - going around and looking at all these different creatures, and realizing that they probably thought we looked as strange as we thought they did. Fun fun.

I got an e-mail just now that put me in a REALLY good mood. Go here to check it out.

halotournament.rice.edu

Aside from the front splash page, I made this site! I'm really proud of it. Isn't it pretty?

I had a little bit of a scare earlier today. On Friday I switched my computer over to the new Mac OS X Leopard. It's a great system and I'm having a lot of fun with it, but I ended up having to erase my hard drive in order to install it - apparently there had been something wrong with it the whole time I've owned it. Anywho, I moved all of my important files to my external hard drive (which took two hours over firewire - lots of stuff) and erased my drive. Today, I went in looking for my notes for my classes, and they weren't where they were supposed to be. I didn't necessarily 'freak out,' but I did start to panic a little bit - those were all my notes for the entire year. Luckily, I found out that I had simply placed them all in the wrong folder. PHEW! After a quick prayer of gratitude, I got on with my work.

(I know I'm going out of chronological order here, bear with me) Friday night, several friends and I went to the Hobby Center in downtown Houston to see Avenue Q, the broadway musical. For those of you who don't know the show, it is basically Sesame Street (with puppets) for people 18 and over. I don't want to give too much of it away, but suffice it to say that it was an incredibly funny show and we really enjoyed it.

This weekend saw one of the biggest events of the Rice University social calendar - NOD. The Night of Decadence. It is a party hosted by Wiess college, and it is the only Rice party to ever make the Playboy Top 10 College Parties List. Needless to say, I was nowhere near Wiess college that night. Do not want. Instead, the same group who I had gone to see Avenue Q with the previous night all got together and went out to Fuddrucker's for some gigantic burgers, then we came back and played Balderdash. I'm certain that this was a far better use of our time.

Saturday afternoon was another big event - the third annual Fast Warp Super Smash Brothers Melee Tournament. For those of you who don't know the game - it's basically just a game where characters from many different video game series come together and fight each other. It's been a really popular game for all ages for years now, and the new version should be coming out before next semester. I helped to set up and run the tournament, seeing as I am the secretary of Fast Warp, Rice's gaming club. We had a good time, and the tournament was really exciting. Apparently, it may fall to me to set up next year's tournament, seeing as we're losing a lot of good seniors this year. Scary!

Well, that's about all to report for now - gotta go get some dinner before class tonight. Have a great halloween!

19 Year Old Caucasian Male Suffering from Con Withdrawal

I didn't want it to end. It didn't want to end. It ended. I wish it hadn't.

That was the most a-fricking-mazing weekend of my life, I do believe. I met tons of voice actors, found DVDs of a series I've been looking for forever and a day, attended some intensely entertaining and enlightening panels, met a bunch of great anime fanatics, many of which were in costume like myself, got a picture of myself drawn on-the-spot (anime style, of course), met the band that played Fridays epic concert, and just lived the anime life for three amazing days. The pictures detail the story very well, and seeing as a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll keep this set of words short and let you get the other 27,000 over at the photo site.

Pictures are here.
http://s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa8/BelgianCar/Oni-Con%202007%20FTW/

(FTW stands for "For the Win")


Today I turned 19. I've been very happy about that. I got packages in the mail today from the folks back in Oregon, and my friends here at Martel took me out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. It was yummy fantastic.

The only thing that's been kind of a downer today is the fact that I am now going through "Con Withdrawal," or the "I don't want it to end" syndrome. According to my friends who have gone through the same thing before, this condition lasts about a week. However, as they have rated this as a far above average con, the healing process may take a longer time. Luckily, I have my trove of swag and trophies to keep me company, along with my photos and my memories. They'll be there forever.

Especially the picture that I can't explain. I will never forget that one as long as I live. Go to the photo site to see what I mean.

Finished Tests, Oni-Con: Day 1, and Baker Blues

Pictures will come later. I'll say that up front.

I've finished my mid-terms, and have received three of the four scores back - I think I'm making a high-C or B average. I'm satisfied with that, and I know that I can work to improve it. I have yet to receive my Sport Management grade, but that is not of importance to me this weekend, nor is any other school-related issues.

This is Oni-Con weekend.

The first day of this three day convention was amazing, surpassing all my expectations. It's late, so I won't go into gross detail, but here's the gist of what I did:

Got a gigantic goodie bag.
Met Vic Mignogna, legendary voice actor.
Got Vic's autograph on the jacket of one of his most famous characters, which I purchased in the dealers' room.
Bought a puppet from one of my favorite anime shows.
Bought a fantastic print of a fan art work.
Ate dinner at Quizno's.
Saw Rentrer en Soi, the J-rock group, in concert, during which we slowly gravitated from seat to seat until we were in the VIP seating area.
Bought Rentrer en Soi music and merchandise before they sold out.
Came home.
Spent LESS than half of my entire budget for the con.

Tomorrow is probably the biggest day of the con, and so I'll be getting off to sleep before too long, but there is one more thing I can talk about. Baker Blues.

Baker Blues is the Fall public party hosted by Baker College. There was a live band playing lots of blues and R&B and everyone was outdoors. People were standing around chatting, dancing, drinking bourbon (if they were of age), and smoking cigars (if they were of age and interested). I stayed around for a little while, but I figured that I had to get home and get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day.

More from me tomorrow (maybe). ^_^

Progress, very progressive.

Three down, one back, one to go. The light at the end of the midterm tunnel has come into view, only to be pushed away again. I shall explain.

I've spent the last two weeks studying hard, getting ready for these exams, and I've taken three of them. I've received my Japanese exam back with a solid C grade. Before y'all panic, remember that this is one of the most rigorous schools in the country, and a C here may equivocate to higher grades elsewhere. I promise that I am studying hard and doing my best in all my classes. All that remains for me is Intro to Sport Management, which was supposed to be this Thursday. However, due to a bad bout of sick-professoredness, we have had a week of class canceled. As such, the midterm has been pushed back a week. Many students would be happy about this. I am not happy about this. I've been studying hard for this exam and I want it DONE! That's my M.O., and it has gotten me this far. Oh well, it's how we do.

On a more positive note, my roommate Steve (who is a 1-year exchange student from Hong Kong) celebrated his twentieth birthday today. In coordination with some of our mutual friends, we took Steve out to what we initially described as "one of the most wonderful, high-quality, friendly and American restaurants around." We took him to Hooters. We had a great time and made some definite memories that will last for the rest of the year and beyond.

Onicon is drawing closer and closer, as is my birthday. I'm very excited about both events, and I'm considering them my reward for surviving midterms. I think that's fair, no?

Okay, this is going to be a really long post.

Sorry I haven't written in over a week. Lots of things have been happening rapid-fire, and I am just now able to sit down and collect my thoughts and try to recall what has happened since my last post.

When we last left our story...

80s party was amazing. It's one of the two annual parties hosted by Sid Richardson College (Sid/Sid Rich/Richardson). The (optional) prerequisites for the party were to come with clothing and hair in the style of the 80s. The party took place in the Sid Rich commons, which is the primary meeting/eating place for each of the colleges. For this party, the tables and chairs were arranged into three large islands that people were able to get up and stand/dance on. There was a live band there who played just about every great 80s song from, well, the 80s. The party officially started at 10 PM, but I was invited to a pre-party at the room of a friend of mine who lives at Sid. I brought some friends with me and we headed over. The pre-party was basically just a bunch of people chilling together and having root-beer floats. Amazingly, they were actually able to get their hands on a working keg of root beer (not real beer, I checked before partaking). The whole night lasted until 2 AM, when we all left Sid and went our separate ways. Tired, deaf, and horrendously dressed, we made our way back to Martel, where we went straight to bed.

The next day, Saturday, was another big day for me. A bunch of people from the Anime club are planning on going to a large Anime convention in downtown Houston later this month called OniCon. We've pre-registered as a group, netting each of us a handsome discount on admission for all three days. Part of attending a convention like this is dressing up as one's favorite Anime character(s). I had ordered a costume especially for the event, and I had just a couple more things to take care of before the con. Even though it was still a bit early, I decided to go out and pick up a couple of props/add-ons for the costume and to get my hair cut and colored. I took the weekend shuttle out into the Houston metro area and found a place where I got my hair done exactly the way I wanted. Once I got home, I tried on the whole ensemble, and it looks great, as you can see:

And this is the character I'm going as - Kyouya from Ouran High School Host Club:















Pretty good, huh?

Sunday rolled around and I was busy at church with two major events: we had a visiting director of music, Dr. Anton Armstrong, the director of St. Olaf College's choir and a legend in the choral community. As a matter of fact, he worked with students from Gresham High School who went to the Bach Festival. Small world, eh? He had spent a weekend working with the church choir, and they gave an amazing performance. They also had a concert later that night that I wanted to go to, but I had an orientation at the Rice Recreation center that I had to attend. Oh well, they have the webcast for it here, so I was able to listen to it anyway:

http://www.smbc.org/live/archive.htm

If you have some time, it's definitely worth watching/listening to.

The other big event was the new members' class at South Main, which is called Main Spring. It talks about the history of the church, their vision and goals for their church community, and the opportunities available to members to serve in the church's function. I've gone for the past two weeks, and the last class is this next Sunday.

Sunday night: Rec Center Student Worker Orientation Game Night
(Snazzy title, I know)
Essentially, on Sunday night, the Rec Center closed early to allow the student members of staff to come in and, instead of talking about customer service protocols and all that junk, we divided into teams and competed against each other in a barrage of physical challenges, including an obstacle course, capture the flag, several cardio room races, and a final dodgeball tournament. After the games were over, they served us all dinner and we wrapped up the night with an informal Q&A with the adult staff in case there was anything that we were confused or unclear about with the operations of the Rec Center. After that, we were free to go, and I headed of to Fast Warp!

In case I haven't mentioned it before, Fast Warp is the gaming club on campus, playing everything from board and card games to role-players like Dungeons and Dragons. We had one of our usual game nights, and I brought my game "Argue," which was a big hit with the group. It is very interesting to see a bunch of college students kicking each other and juggling fruit while arguing why it is better to be buried alive (because it's a non-committal form of death) or burned alive (you're going be buried anyway, get some variety). A few of us were still going at 1:30 AM with a heated (well, tepid) game of The Settlers of Catan.

The school week got off to a typical start, classes assigning a lot of reading, but an eerie shadow was looming right around the weekend corner and is now breathing down my neck - Mid-Terms. Ooh scary. More on that later. My usual schedule of classes, working, and activities was playing out like usual - teaching exercise on the MWF lunch hours, Anime on Tuesday nights, Aikido on Wednesdays (I ordered my uniform this week, so that's a good thing).

Things started to pick up the pace again on Thursday in my Japanese Media class. At the end of the lecture, our professor read us an invitation he had received from the Baker Institute for Public Policy. If any of the students were interested, they could RSVP to meet the US Ambassador to Japan, J. Thomas Schieffer, October 2 (tomorrow) at 4 PM. Needless to say, I signed up right away.

The other thing that's going on in Japanese Media is that we are going to work together and create a video question for the Republican YouTube debates, which are coming up in November. More on this story as it develops.

Friday was a busy day with me working for my usual 2-3 hours at the Web Services office. The previous week, I had designed a website for an upcoming inter-college Halo 2 tournament, and this week I helped to put together a template for a tutorial website for building other websites. That night, I just hung out with my friends, even though there were several events going on around campus. We played cards and video games and just took things easy.

Saturday, with the shadow of Mid-Terms now eclipsing my view of complacency in any way, shape, or form, was basically me running to the bank to deposit a check, and then back to Martel to grab my study materials, then I was off to top-secret off-campus sanctuary of study (and no, I'm not going to say where it is - that would ruin the secret ^_^). I spent the better part of four hours of that afternoon there, typing away and putting together a study guide for my Archaeology exam, which is the first one coming my way (tomorrow, AAAAHHHH!). That night, however, was a different story...

Screw Yer Roommate is one of the oldest traditions at Rice University. Each year, students set their roommates up on blind dates with people they (usually) don't know, get those two people to do something unique/strange/otherworldy in order to find each other at Willy's Statue in the middle of campus, and then the two go out for a fun evening, then everybody meets back at Willy's Pub on campus for an afterparty. The event is meant to be a strange and awkward night for all parties involved, but people usually leave with at least a new friend on Facebook. My roommate Steve happened to be out of the area that day at NASA, but he still went and set me up with somebody for that evening. Her name was Yolanda, and the two of us were both freshmen and big fans of Anime. My roommate and Yolanda's roommate decided that the way that the two of us were going to find each other in the crowd would be to dress up like the two main characters in the movie Roman Holiday - her as Audrey Hepburn and myself as Gregory Peck. I borrowed a grey suit from a friend of mine, and we were able to find each other pretty easily. Pictures may be forthcoming. We went out into the village for some Thai food at Patu (a place where I will definitely take any friends/family who come and visit me from afar), then back to Martel, where we watched Howl's Moving Castle, a great new Anime film, on Martel's big screen TV. We headed to the afterparty, where we both met up with other friends, and we ended the evening there. It was a great night and a very interesting experience.

Sunday saw me heading back to South Main for church and the Main Spring New Members' class, as well as lunch down in the fellowship hall. In the time between the worship service and the beginning of lunch, I went into the church library and met some of the people that work there. It's been years since I was at a church that had a library, and it took me right back to First Covenant when I walked inside. All the old videos I used to check out every week were there, and I did check out a devotional book called "Meet the Bible," as well as a dual book with two of my favorite stories in one book - "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness" by Frank Peretti. I haven't been able to get a whole ton of reading in because of studying for mid-terms, but I have taken a little time for myself.

Sunday night was a lot like Friday - just hanging out with friends, playing cards and video games, and eating food from Sonic, which some of the people went out and brought back. Each of us has been teaching card games to the others, and I've brought Pinochle to the table, and it's really been a hit. It feels good to be playing that game again.

Well, I'm just sitting here working on my studying for tomorrow and beyond. It's interesting, tense, long-winded, and somewhat stressful, but thankfully they eventually will be over with. Wish me luck!

80's Party for the Win!

I'll explain later. Right now, it's 2:43 AM and I am ready to go to sleep. Suffice it to say that my first official college party as a success and I had a great time, even though I am now temporarily partially deaf in my right ear.

Work and Play

Not exactly a ton to report, but I want to make sure y'all know I'm still here.

Workload is still heavy, and we're now really beginning to enter into the meat of the various subjects that I'm studying this semester. All of my classes are holding my attention, but the ones that I think I'm enjoying the most are Japanese Media and Archaeology. The content is fascinating and I'm learning a lot.

Now that the Dynamo's away for almost the rest of the season, my Saturday nights are now open to whatever I feel like. Last night, I met up with a group of friends and we went out for sushi in downtown Houston. Good stuff! Afterwards, we came back to Martel for a game of Z-Ball and watching the movie "Airplane." Aside from that, things are beginning to settle into a 'business as usual' type routine. It may be a routine, but I'm still having a great time!

Going to Church, Learning Martial Arts, Playing Games, and Watching Cartoons

Just another day in academic paradise.

Over the last week, I've been working on assignments from my classes, and they are going well, but the real story this time lies outside the classroom. I've been getting involved with several different campus organizations, and I've found some that I think I'll really enjoy over this and future years.

First off - Jo Mai Anime - the Japanese Anime (cartoon) club. We meet on Tuesday nights for several hours and just watch some different selections of Japanese cartoon programs. Also, we get involved with large anime conventions in the area, like Oni-Con, which is coming up in October, right before my birthday. Having come from two years as president of the anime club at my high school, this one was a natural fit.

Next - Fast Warp - the gaming club. Another group that meets simply to enjoy themselves playing any and all types of games - board games, video games, role playing games, the works. They also work closely with the planning committee for OwlCon, Rice's yearly gaming convention. Amazingly, although I've only been to one meeting (there's only been one so far this year), I was elected secretary of the club. I ran for the office because I have some experience with administering websites and clerical work, and I had no opposition in the race. Funnily enough, neither did any of the other elected positions - oh well. Should be an exciting time.

Third - Aikido club - a club that teaches the theory and practice of the Japanese martial art, Aikido. Aikido is not about using strength to best an attacker, but rather to redirect momentum and energy exerted by the opponent and redirect it back at them. It is a complicated skill, and it will take a long time to learn correctly, but I believe (hope?) that I'm up for the challenge.

Last, but certainly not least, I've become a member of South Main Baptist Church, the church that I've been attending for the last few weeks since my arrival in Houston. Each week, at the end of the sermon, the pastor invites any people who would like to become a member of the church or would like to accept Jesus as their savior to come up to the front of the sanctuary. This is not to embarrass them, but just to introduce them to the congregation and welcome them into the church family. Afterwards, I would guess a good 90% of the congregation came up and shook hands with me. It was an amazing experience and really made me feel welcome. God's looking out for me, and He's really helped to make this an amazing experience.

I'm finally caught up on my reading for the day, and now I actually have a few hours to kill (nap) before I'm off to Jo Mai Anime tonight. Yay!

Samba!

An extremely busy, but very fun and rewarding day, I dare say.

The workload is picking up momentum, and pages and pages of reading are being assigned to me more and more by the day. So far I'm holding up, and I dearly hope that it stays that way.

On to the exciting stuff...

Two big events happened today for me on campus. First was my audition for Spontaneous Combustion, Rice's improv comedy troupe. We played a variety of different games to show off our skills and abilities to create something from nothing, and now it's just a matter of waiting. I don't know whether I'll get it or not, there were many very funny people auditioning. I just figure that if it's meant to be, it'll happen.

The other big thing was my debut as a Latin Fusion dance instructor. I arrived at the room about fifteen minutes early, to find that nobody had arrived yet. I hung out in the room for a little while, waiting, then I went to look for a schedule to make sure I was in the right place at the right time. However, within the last five minutes, a total of no less than fifteen people walked through the door for the class. It was a smash! People were getting into it, freestyling, making it their own, getting a great workout, and, above all, having a good time. Several people came up to me afterwards and told me that they really enjoyed it, and I knew that this is definitely something that is meant for me.

Only one class for me tomorrow, plus the reading that I've got to finish, then we're into the weekend again.

My, my, my...time really does fly when you're having fun - or when you're cramming massive amounts of new knowledge into your head.

Labor's Likelihood Lost

I find it funny that Labor Day is the one day when I have accomplished little to no labor whatsoever.

As I sit here, listening to a cricket orchestra outside my window, the night is still young. This has been a great weekend for recharging and taking things slow, culminating in today's (lack of) activity.

I suppose I should start on Saturday. My roommate Steve and I went out into the Rice Village area to do some exploring and investigating. Our first stop was Borders Books. Thank heaven there's one in this area, and an impressive one, too. Right as I stepped in the door, my mood lifted several points from 'pleasant' to 'WOOOOO!' On the first display table inside the store, my favorite authoring team, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, had a sparkling new hardcover on display and 30% off. Naturally, I snatched a copy of it right up. While in the store, I also picked up season 3 of House, which has mysteriously increased my popularity around Martel by several points ^_^, and the newest DVD in an anime series I've been following. Steve picked up an anthology of famous speeches from different times throughout history. I may have to borrow it off of him sometime, it looks like a great read.

After Borders, the two of us started walking to our lunch stop, Chipotle. I know that they exist in Oregon, and I believe in Minnesota, too. As such, you should already know of Chipotle's supreme goodness. If not, go and find one and have a burrito or two for me. We followed Chipotle up with a light (?) dessert over at Ben & Jerry's. Since Steve is an exchange student from Hong Kong, he had never partaken of the sweet fruits of Vermont's chosen sons. He had Chunky Monkey, and I had Creme Brulee.

Continuing our tour, we made our way to Anime Avalon, a shop in Rice Village that specialized in all things Anime. To my dismay, we arrived to discover that they would be closing for business on the eighth of this month. Fortunately, that also meant 50% or more off everything in the store. Does the word 'JACKPOT' mean anything to anyone? All of their rental DVDs were only $5 apiece, and I was able to walk away with three complete Anime series, three plastic model building kits which I'll be sending on to my beloved brother, some other memorabilia, and a translated version of 'Brave Story,' a Japanese novel that was made into a movie that was playing in Japan during the time I was there.

Saturday night was full of interesting events. The first football game of the season for Rice against Nicholls Stage (we, ahem, didn't exactly win); Wiess College was hosting the first party of the year, aptly named, "The First Party of the Year"; the Houston Dynamo was playing against Kansas City; and I got on the wrong bus to go to said Dynamo game and ended up riding in a two-hour circle. Luckily, I had my new Preston & Child book to keep me company. Anyway, a torrential downpour began after I was on the (wrong) bus for about forty minutes, and I decided that my presence at the game this weekend wasn't meant to be. I just came back home. I'm still, however, trying to figure out why two separate bus routes would be labeled as 'Route 68,' and were only distinguished by which side of the platform they left from. Oh well, we learn by doing.

Sunday was rather uneventful. I went to church at South Main Baptist in the morning, then spent the rest of the day pretty much watching House, Tsubasa, and reading my new novel. I did get in an hour of practice, though, for my group fitness teaching, which starts this week - so I'm still staying active, even when I'm primarily spending my time sitting on my duff.

Today was, really, just an enhanced version of Sunday afternoon. I finished the book, watched several episodes of House, worked in the Martel weight room (staying active), and ate my three squares.

Back to work tomorrow, and hopefully the rest of my freakin' textbooks will arrive in the mail so I can keep up with my reading. I will not fall behind if it can be at all avoided.

Wish me luck, for tomorrow I return to the land of people who do things.

Wet

The title pretty much says it all. We've had thunderstorms every day this week.

I love it!

During the day, the weather has always been fairly clear and pleasant to move about it. Each of the past few nights, on the other hand, has been full of lots of wet and the sky going boom every few seconds. I missed that for a long time when I lived in Oregon, so it's nice to have that back again.

Classes are finished for the week, and I'm as caught up on my homework as I can be right now. I'm still waiting on a couple of my textbooks to arrive and can't continue reading until they do, but my Prof said not to worry too much about it. So I won't.

Martel had an outdoor barbecue tonight prior to the t-storm, and it was very similar to what happened on the first night the upperclassmen arrived. Burgers, chips, beer, the works. However, despite the presence of beer, it was definitely not your stereotypical 'college party'. Everything was very casual and social, and the whole affair reminded me more of a night at Edgefield than a college social function. I like that. People would get one or two beers out of the goat (more on that in the next paragraph) and would just enjoy each other's company. Did I ever mention how impressed I am with everything this school does?

The beer goat.
It has a beer keg inside a plastic garbage can filled with ice inside it. A tube runs from the top of the keg to the mouth, where the beer flows out. The control for the tap is the goat's left horn, which is pulled down in a fashion similar to any draft beer tap.

This place is amazing.





The weekend's here now, and I plan on getting some much needed R&R in.

An Unusual Amount of Nothing

I only have two classes in the morning, and the homework from the two of them was minimal. As such, I happened upon a large block of nothingness this afternoon. I wandered about the area investigating some different things, and I realized that it may just be possible that I am going to have some free time during my time here. From this, I have drawn that I'm going to have time on my hands to rest when I need to and plenty of time to finish my work. I'm gonna make it!

One thing more from the massive study session of yesterday. Here's a picture of my study face:







Serious looking, huh?







I'm off to Parliament at 10 tonight. That's the governing body for Martel. They make sure that the college is running smoothly and helps to facilitate Martel events and traditions. Plus they have free food. Should be an interesting experience, especially since this is a student-run governing body that can actually make a significant difference in school life, unlike those of high school. (If you haven't heard my rants about the impracticality and uselessness of high school 'governments,' that's a whole other conversation ^_^)

The torrent of textbooks has started to land in my mailbox. One came yesterday, and four more arrived today. Hopefully I'll have them all by next Monday. Otherwise we may have some difficulties, but we'll cross that bridge only if we come to it.

I miss my cats. A lot. Thankfully, I have this lovely little website called icanhascheezburger.com, which is just a bunch of pictures of kitties doing goofy things. Check it out if you feel so inclined or need a laugh.

And Now the Work Starts

I've just come off of a four-hour reading period, so I don't know how long I can last blogging. Let's find out.

I had my three other new classes today - Archaeology, Japanese Media, and Sport Management. I enjoyed all three of them, but two of them re-introduced me to a phenomenon that I had not known for many moons: Homework. Two chapters out of two different archaeology books, and four separate articles for Japanese Media - two of which were only available on reserve at the library.

The library, by the way, is absolutely amazing here. Trust me, if Heaven is a library, it looks like the Fondren Library at Rice U. Wow. Books on everything, everywhere. The place was very quiet and had hundreds of great places to read and study. As I type this, it is now 11:32, and I only finished my homework reading about half an hour ago, after going since about five this evening. Granted, I did take about an hour off to get food and assemble my bicycle, but my point is still valid - this is a lot of work. Will it be worth it? Of course!

Will it still be long, hard, arduous, and at times tedious?






Duh.

And so it Begins

Sunday was busy in the morning, then gradually lazified as it went on. I found a church near to campus called South Main Baptist Church. I went to their early worship service and then stayed for Sunday School. They were a great group of people and very welcoming. I'm going to be going back most, if not all Sundays while I'm here.

I started classes today. Japanese in the morning and Group Fitness in the afternoon. Both classes were just focused around self introductions and becoming acquainted with the class formats. The real work will start either on Wednesday or soon afterward. I have a class about the history of the Kimono tonight, and I'm just waiting right now until I have to head out for that. We've had some periodic thunderstorms here today, making travel across campus a little miserable. However, with the shuttle service and the two umbrellas I brought with me, I was able to make it through fairly dryly.

The End of O-Week

Now that Saturday has come and (almost) gone, O-Week has drawn to a close. Only a couple of things to report.

First of all, we had Maptek - the top secret event that must be kept a secret from the public domain. As such, I cannot discuss it here on the blog. If you want specifics, we may be able to talk. Suffice to say it was amazing and super cool and epic and made of win and super happyful.

Today was really, really laid back. The first thing we had going on was a small group trip to the Super Target. I picked up some groceries and some dish rags for a friend. When we got back, the servery was closed for the day, so I cooked up some instant Pad Thai noodles. I found that the third floor kitchen is only a couple of doors down from our suite. As such, I realized that until such time as I have my own refrigerator in here, I can store cold food in there in the public kitchen. I went back to Target with my roommates later that day and picked up a George Foreman grill (only to be used in the kitchen, not the suites), and the ingredients for making panini sandwiches, so I'm set for whenever the servery closes.

I bought most of my books this morning on Amazon.com using their used book service. I got better deals on all of my needed books (about 12 of them in all) and they'll arrive here within the first week of class. At the end of the semester, I'll probably sell them at the bookstore and use the funds to buy the next set of books I need.

The big event of the day was my solo trip to Robertson Stadium at the University of Houston for the Houston Dynamo soccer match against the Columbus Crew. It was just like being back in Japan at Sapporo Dome. There were tons of fans, all clad in bright orange and screaming loud and proud. I picked up a replica jersey for myself and wore it during the game. The game was really exciting, and I enjoyed every second. I used the light rail and bus system to get to and from there, and it went really smoothly.

I'm planning on going out and checking out a church tomorrow morning, so that's what's up next for me. Tomorrow's probably going to be a restful day, because classes start the morning after. Wish me luck!

Victory = Mine!

The mad dash known simply as registration happened this morning at precisely 8:00 AM, and I was right there with codes and fingers at the ready. The air was electric, and you could almost hear the pounding hearts and heavy breathing of new students all over campus waiting for that hour to turn so that they could start punching the keys and hitting that submit button to try and get in faster than anyone else.

I won.

I got all five of the classroom-based classes that I was going after, and only one class that I was after - the Yoga LPAP - was already full up. Luckily for me, I had three alternative LPAP courses written down because I knew that they filled up quickly. It was a good thing that I did, because I ended up only being able to get in to the very last one I had written down - Group Fitness. Now I will be both a student and an instructor of this exercise format this semester - how's that for cool? The best part of the whole thing was the background music. I had Richard Cheese's album "Lounge Against the Machine" blasting from my speakers as I punched the keys with glorious fervor. First one LPAP class was full, then the second one, then the third one, leaving me with only one left. Amazingly, just at that moment, Cheese's cover of the song 'Last Resort' started playing - when I was about to attempt my last resort. Funny stuff!

Some other stuff has happened since I last made an entry. We had dinner on Wednesday at one of the Martel Associates' houses outside of campus. There were a couple of members of the Rice community there to eat with us, and it was a really fun, down-home style experience and helped once again to make Martel and Rice feel like a family and not just a super amazing school. That night, after we returned, we had the Roommate Challenge - a series of ten challenges that suite-mates attempted together. We played crab soccer, tried to assemble a puzzle with our eyes closed, dropped things off the fifth floor balcony, and all other sorts of crazy stuff. More good times!

Yesterday was definitely more laid-back than any other day we've had here so far. In the morning, we had an early breakfast of Einstein Bros. Bagels (which are amazing, for those of you who haven't experienced their wonderfulness), and then went out to the parking lot for a mock Beer-Bike. We had shopping carts instead of bikes, and we had a women's and men's race. After feeling the energy from just the mock Beer-Bike, and the wetness of the massive water balloon fight that took place just afterwards, I can't wait for the real thing.

The rest of that day was pretty lazy. Students met with their academic advisers, but I had already done that the previous day. There were a couple of short presentations in the afternoon, but the evening was when things kicked off. We had Houston Night Out, and we joined more than half of the freshman class in getting on the lightrail and heading down to Minute Maid Park and the Astros vs. DC Nationals game. Like most baseball games, our time there was just as much about socializing and being together as it was watching the actual game. Most of our team did get bored around the seventh inning, so we decided to head back to campus early, which was just fine. I wanted to have an early night so that I'd be bright and ready for registration this morning and, as you can see at the top of this entry, that paid off immensely.

Pictures!

Here's a couple of pictures of my room at Martel and one of my O-Week group at Lakewood Church during the scavenger hunt.

Martel College, Casting the first Jack!

We've been really busy 'round these parts.

I'll start with the scavenger hunt.

WOW!

It was unlike any activity I've done in my life - a mad dash not only around the campus, but around the Houston metro area as well. We had to find Cheese Balls, gelato, a kumquat, a special order from Amy's Ice Cream (any of you who come to visit me in Houston, I will take you there. It wins.). We also were looking out for anything from a picture of our group in front of Lakewood Church or the Water Wall to 50 points for each James Bond theme song we could sing as a group (how's twenty one of them sound?). The hunt was frantic, crazy, and everyone was trying to find Chuck Norris (worth two million points). Once all was said and done and counted up, our team finished in third, a very respectable result.

The next day started earlier than the previous days, and we had lectures to go to. Some were more exciting than others, but we made it through them all. That night was when the fun started. We had the Rice Rally, the Rice Carnival, and time with our Sister Group from Sid Richardson College (Death from Above! ^_^) The rally was, as you might guess, a big rally of all nine colleges cheering for their unity as one Rice U. We all got Popsicles and free t-shirts and were told the abridged history of Rice, which was really fun.

The Rice Carnival went on right after the rally, and was a frantic and crowded room where local business and school organizations were trying to grab everyone's attention. Chipotle and Papa John's did this very well (A free Chipotle burrito and a free small pizza - life is good!) I got a couple more ideas for jobs and diversions for my time here, and all of them sound like fun.

Our sister group from Sid Rich met up with us later that night and we went into downtown Houston to the Water Wall, which is a massive, black, curved monolith that has water running down the front side. We played a game of Mafia at the center of it and then went over to Amy's Ice Cream for a late-night snack.

Now, because the title of this post might cause one to wonder, I will briefly explain what a Jack is in Rice University life. Jacks are an institution almost as old as the residential college system itself, and involves all of the colleges pulling large, goofy pranks on each other. Martel had their first one go into operation last night. The target: Wiess College. Wiess has a nasty little habit of never creating a theme for their O-Week while all the other colleges do (our theme for this year is Dr. No-Week, a James Bond theme). As such, we decided that we would be generous and give Wiess a theme for this week: Wiessmen Blo-Week! (All members of Wiess College refer to themselves as Wiessmen, regardless of gender.) We painted a bunch of posters and printed off pictures of blowtorches, blow-dryers, blo-pops, and Bill Clinton, snuck over to the Wiess commons, and plastered the entire room with them, including a big sign that said "You're Welcome! Martel College" It was SO fun, and we pulled it off without a hitch.

Five hours of sleep later, we arrived at today. More lectures and talks in the morning, and then a relatively lazy day for O-Week. We had an academic lunch today where we dined with faculty members from our supposed areas of interest, and I went to the Asian Studies table. We had a great lunch and some great conversation. I'm really looking forward to getting these classes started! We then went over to the College Master's house and had a fun little meeting with Jerry and Michelle where we just chatted and got to know a little bit more about each other. Now I'm here on some down time before I go off to a one-on-one meeting with my academic adviser, and I'M TAKING A NAP!

Pictures are on the way, so don't worry.

Or ask me about them.

There's two kinds of people in the world...

Greeks, and everybody else who wish they were Greek.

Martel's Greek heritage came out in full force tonight. After a presentation in the computer building, we returned to Martel College to discover the upperclassmen and the college masters there awaiting us. There is a ceremony that has been a part of Martel life since its creation. Each student has passed through our sallyport and passed along a silver torch to signify their entrance into the Martel community. Afterwards, there was a huge party in our commons with food, drink, and festivity. It's good to be Greek!

I'm just here to change into something more comfortable and then I'm off to a massive scavenger hunt that apparently is a real scream. More on that later - bye for now!

Sweaty, but satisfied!

Just got back from a late-night game of Ultimate Disc - in my pajamas of all things. I never thought I'd get used to the late-night workings of this place, but apparently I don't know my own flexibility. Sleep will come eventually, but it's just kind of chill time now.

Here we go!

Well, I've finally arrived, after all the waiting and waiting, and more waiting still, here at the beautiful Rice University. This place is almost as much an 'intellectual resort' as it is a school. I've yet to really delve into the academic facets of the place (I've only been here about six hours as I type this). However, the facilities of the place are quickly showing how great they are.

I am staying in a place called Martel College, one of nine residential colleges here on campus. I have three roommates - Steve, William, and Chris, who share a four-person suite with me. The building is gorgeous and has been well furnished. I've unpacked and started to settle into my room, and I think I'm going to be very comfortable here for the next year.

We're just having a bit of down time between activities right now, so I figured that this would be a good time to kick off my chronicle of my time here. I have no idea how faithfully or consistently I'll be updating this thing, but I'll do my best. If you want to contact me, you either know my e-mail address already - otherwise feel free to post a comment here on the blog.

Tonight is matriculation and some different college activities, and a great week awaits. Let's see what happens...