Ok, so I’ve got a new vid up now on Youtube.  It’s pretty lame, so I titled it ‘LAME VIDEO - vBlog 12′.  Why?  Because I did a really rough 1 shot vid and the lighting is horrible.  I should’ve made it better, I know.  LUCKILY though, this is the first video with an actual camcorder!  and I’d say the actual film quality is looks better.  I want to go on to doing short skits and such, because I like writing and performing.  So it’s kind of exciting to have the ability to post better stuff on the internet.  If you want to see it, you can click here.

In other news, well, I honestly don’t know.  I’ve been pretty mellow this MEA weekend, doing homework and other necessary yet dull things.  Enriching your mind always helps though.  I’ve been reading Stork Naked by Piers Anthony, and it is amazing, as are all his other Xanth books.  Most under appreciated series ever.

Tomorrow I am going to VALLEY FAIR with my family.  Yes, it is exciting, because I haven’t been there in forever and I’m actually excited to go.  But that also signals the end of my four day break, and I really don’t feel like going to school.  I’d rather just be apathetic and rest in bed.  All day.  And stay in my house.  I might possibly grow up to be a hermit because I enjoy the solitude of my own company, and of course my keyboard.

I would also like to start working on a novel.  I usually get about a page or two into them before I get bored and stop.  I can finish short stories though.  So let’s try to push my limits.  Encourage me!

Oh and yes, for all the times I mention traipsing around with friends and such, I’m also looking ahead to my future and working on things that need to be done.  I don’t feel like pushing myself too fast and too much about my future.  Wherever I go will be fine, whatever college I attend will do, and no matter what, I will succeed.  That is all.

G’night folks!  (Oh, and expect a huge photo album update very soon.  With lots of photo-delicious-ness)

PS- I’m still loving Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer.  WordPress now supports tagging through it!  AMAZING! (I’m a total geek, forever)

Ok, so the site was down on my actual birthday.  But I had a really good time.  What did I get?  Lessee… a harddrive from my parents, two cds* from one of my sisters, a shower clock thing from one of my sisters, and a Sidekick case from my last sister.  And also a lot of great gifts from my relatives.  It was a really fun birthday.  At night both sets of grandparents came over and I had a mini-party.  We had rigatoni for dinner (my favorite) and a cake after.  The cake was not vanilla frosting with white cake because the store did not have them in stock.  Actually, they did, but they were all pink.  So my dad improvised and got me chocolate frosting, which turned out to be pretty good anyways. *Boys Like Girls and Santi by The Academy Is…

Today I went to the COLLEGE FAIR.  Which means I got to get out of school for the day and drive up to Minneapolis with my friends.  Actually Kent drove and Jess, Evan, and I all rode with him.  We stayed at the college fair for like an hour before we finished, then we went out to lunch.  Mark was with us, so it was really fun.  But he had to take the bus home, so we brought him back to the convention center and went back to Mall of America.  We had used that parking lot and went up using the Light Rail, which worked out really well.  So we went shopping at MoA for awhile.  Hot Topic was having a really really good sale because it was going out of business or something so I bought two tshirts for only $10, regularly $20 each.  And my FallOutBoy hoodie came in the mail yesterday, so that was good too.

We went to the Apple store at MoA today and all I could think about was getting the Zune80.  I can’t wait until November 13th…  I might get to go to an early preview show that they’re doing in Minneapolis though!  That’d be so cool…

So last night I went to Ashley’s house to watch some movies and hang out.  Callan was there too.  Originally we were set to see Journey Across the Universe or whatever it’s called, but it wasn’t playing around here.  And there wasn’t anything else interesting either.  So…Cal and Ash decided to rent some movies.  We were going to go to Callan’s house but her dad had business stuff, so we finally decided on Ashley’s house.  I came a bit late, but it was pretty fun.

This morning I couldn’t go to church though.  We still didn’t have water, so it was near impossible, and dad needed to work on the well some more.  It went out awhile ago, and he’s been trying to fix it ever since.  BUT tonight it looks like we got it working tonight!!  Yay!!  I feel like a Geico commercial.  Guess what?  I just saved $2000 on well repair!

So yep.  And Friday I was home sick from school.

    Just downloaded Flock, and now I’m using it to browse the internet.  Why?  I guess a couple of reasons.  I had already tried it two years ago, but I wasn’t that impressed.  It just didn’t have the integration I was looking for and Firefox was more stable.  Now however, the Flock team has put in some features that really make the browser nice to use.  Not least of which is the Media Toolbar, which is one of the reasons I use this now.  Plus I can update my blog right from my browser, it has a great web clipboard, and YouTube integration.  Flock is cool.  http://flock.com

    I had a great Saturday with Katherine and Mark too.  I bought two pair of jeans at Zumiez, and then went to dinner at Applebees with them.

    Then yesterday I went to the ‘Johnson Family Picnic’.  It was pretty fun, and I really enjoyed having lasagna for the first time since … a long time.  I also got to see family that I hadn’t seen since before I left for Japan, so that was really nice too!

    Good weekend, but I ended up being too tired out to go to school today.  I’m really looking forward to going tomorrow though.  Show off my new jeans ‘n stuff.  Plus I’m getting SAL off the ground this week.

Later~

Tags: mono, sick, jeans, zumiez, mark, flock, tech

Yeah, finally got DSL!!  I’m am so overjoyed about it, this is amazing, really cool.  Now I can do all the things I could do in Japan, without having to be in Japan.  Well at least all the stuff I could do from my laptop.  Which includes using Windows Live Writer, which is great.  WP has a decent admin look, but WLW is just so much better. I can also upgrade a buuuuuunch of stuff, and download new programs, and make my life a lot easier.  So yay!

Today’s school went well.  I talked to Nina, who is the German girl using Rotary.  She’s really cool, and we’re partners for Spanish.  I also talked more with Mark, from Hungary, but he still doesn’t say much and I still don’t know how much English he really understands.  He seemed a bit less nervous then Tuesday.

Overall my classes are pretty interesting. I guess I’ll list them out and opinions because I’m just that cool:

1) Chemistry - Science is usually one of my strong suits, hopefully this will go pretty well.  Seems easy.  I don’t really mind easy.

2) Mass Media - A boringly obvious class.  I am a BLOGGER.  I know how to use mass media effectively.  This is the age of the internet.

3) AP Government - This class is sooooo cool, I love studying politics.  I get in big long discussions, and everyone else tells me to stop talking.  I just get very passionate about the subject, and I think that it’s worth talking about.

4) Analysis - Retaking this.  I’m out of math, so I didn’t want to just press ahead.  I got like B’s in it last time.  Not horrible, I know, but I still wanted to take it as a refresher.

5) AP Comp - Um, not that interesting.  I’m much more interested in Creative Comp, but this class is SO helpful for college.

6) Humanities - Pretty much essential, and our school offers a great course.

7) Spanish III - It’s really difficult, since I never really spoke Spanish last year.  I’ll hopefully make it through though.

So yeah, all my classes have pretty good people in them.  It’s probably going to be a fun year.  I’ll add more if I feel like it later~

Because of a scheduling error, I have a free hour right now.  I feel kind of sick from mono, and very tired, but I’m managing.  It’s been pretty fun honestly.  It’s sad though, it feels like Japan never happened because I’m back in US school.

 Seriously, it absolutely blows my mind that I’ve already gone abroad for 11 months and completed a year of school in a different country. It’s weird to be back!!  I’m not sure I like that feeling, because I know I can never replicate the experience that I had, and it’s really like a book shutting.  Kind of depressing thoughts.  Plus I’m not as in contact with my friends that I met abroad as much as I want to.  I do have some phone numbers and a lot of emails though, so I’ll be doing some contacting.  Now that I have my sidekick, it’s been a lot easier.  It is a really cool phone.

 Ok, bell, going to lunch.  Yay?  I am kind of hungry.  Later~

Yesterday I had to go out to do some last minute stuff, which really wore me out.  Went to get a new cellphone, Sidekick 3, so now I officially am connected again.  I miss my old au phone of course though, never forget.  I got a haircut too, I think it looks decent.  Then I did some shopping and got two new shirts at American Eagle and two shirts at Abercrombie.  Couldn’t find any decent skinny fit jeans, store suggestions?  I like the scene look.

Anyways, today I’ve been just doing nothing.  Really tired out and stuff.  I won’t be able to go to the State Fair tomorrow either, which sucks.  My throat still hurts and everything too.  And last night I had a dream about seeing some of my Japanese friends and it put me in a bad mood.  *sigh*

So Monday I had to go to the dentist.  I was like deathly afraid.  I mean…I never went in Japan, and stuff…so…I was pretty nervous.  And I did come out with two cavities, so my fears were justified.  One was a spot they had already been watching though, so I only got one cavity in Japan.  I’ll blame it on the less-than-stellar toothpaste.  I swear I brushed for two minutes twice a day.  In fact, my teeth are pretty white now and I’m glad.  Brushing actually does work.

After that I went to student council, and got to see some friends.  It was ok, and only a short meeting.  Then I just went home.   Yudai sent me an email though, and said he’d send me some pictures from down in Georgia, so I’m really excited!  And then that night we got a huge storm, which knocked out our internet for most of Tuesday.  Not fun.

But Tuesday ended up being fun without the internet I suppose.  My sister got to go up to a place near Lakeville and ride a pony for her birthday.  She’s really into this cowgirl idea at the moment.  But my other little sister got to go too, I’m not sure why.  They’re always buddy-buddy though.  Twins separated by two years.  After that I went to Northfield and bought SEAWEED!  YAY!  I love the toasted seaweed, so I had to buy some at this healthy food store.  Plus I bought some fine udon noodles, which will be a VERY poor subsitute for the stuff you can get in Japan.  Next time I’m going to buy soba noodles.

Today I’ve done just about nothing.  BUT, I have updated and reworked the official forums for my blog, so if you want, you can visit/join here!   Pretty slick, huh?  Unfortunately my webcam is actually in the mail, so I can’t use it yet to do a video blog, which sucks.  Not that my internet could even handle it though.  We’re looking into a local cable internet provider, which may be perfect.  Later~

So, in the coming days, I will blog about adjusting back into life in America.  I’m sorry that blogging has not been part of my daily life now while I’m back home.  Part of it is because I’ve been busy with family that came into Texas, which was really fun.  Part of it is because I am no on very slow dial-up.  And lastly, part of it is because I have yet to install my favorite ‘Windows Live Writer’ application on this desktop.

I fear that now I have nothing more to share with everyone though.  I checked my statistics, and it’s reporting over 200 people visit this site per day, and now I feel bad that I have nothing interesting to say anymore.  I live in a farming town!  There’s only so long that I can milk the adjustment blogs, comparing Japan to life in my town.  Of course, I will be updating some other stuff.  Soon I’ll have a page up with little blurbs about most of the people that were regulars in my daily life.

The cool thing is that I will be seeing my host parents soon!!  That’s right, the Toyookasans are making a short stop in Minneapolis for a connecting flight, and I am getting to see them and hopefully take them out for lunch.  I am EXTREMELY excited!  That will make an interesting blog, and I’m sure the pictures will be pretty cool too.

It’s midnight now.  Why do I stay up so late?  I dunno.  Absolutely terrible habit I picked up in Japan.  I’m not saying midnight is particularly late, but usually I’m up until at least 1 or 2 doing basically nothing.  Right now I have ‘The Deathly Hallows’ to read.  Thank you Kimmy!  My aunt borrowed it to me.

So yep, short blog.  And to the people that care, I do appreciate continued readership, as long as the fact that this is no longer a family-friendly blog is known.  After the adjustment blogs run dry, I’ll delve into the ‘08 elections, school issues, and current events.  But of course, Japan will also stay as a main topic.  I routinely catch up on news.

I keep on thinking I’m finishing this, but one more thing pops up!  As a last note, I wanted to mention that Yudai made it safely to Washington and just went to Seattle on Saturday.  Lucky him, I want to go.  He won’t arrive in Wisconsin for…another 3 weeks or so.  For any of you who are curious.  I have been in email contact with him, and talked to him over the phone though.