My Final Speech

This is my final project for first semester Japanese. Today is a study day--test tomorrow. On a SATURDAY. I need to have this speech mostly memorized.

私はリサ・エイブルです。二十六さいです。四ねん生です。げんごがくをべんきょうします。たくさんのものがすきです。
おんがくがだいすきです。ロックは私のいちばんすきなおんがくです。えいがもすきです。スター・ウォーズは私のいちばんすきなえいがです。私はインディ・ジョーンズも好きです。テレビも見ます。でもあまり見ません。私のうちはテレビがありません、だからコンピュ─タ─で見ます。
ねこがすきです。私のねこはベッラちゃんです。私のルームメートのねこはアットくんとフィフルちゃんです。かわいいですよ。
本をよむのがすきです。ファンタシ─の本がすきです。こんしゅうジーアをよみました。　ジーアはかんこくの女の人です。よんでください。
たいていテレビゲームをします。ロールプレイングゲームがすきです。ワールド オブ ウォークラフトがだいすきです。
スポーツがきらいてすから。ズすポーツをぜんぜんしません、でもウィー・スポーツとウィー・フィットをします。
りょうりするのがきらいです、でも食べものがすきです。時々とんかつをりょうりします。おいしいです。
いろいろなことをするのは。　たのしいです！　

*yawn*

Ok, so it's been awhile. I have a busy house now, although now that my new roommate started her job, it's quieter.

It's the last week of summer vacation, and I'm excited. Financial aid got disbursed yesterday, so I should be getting a nice check in the mail. I need to decide between paying of my private student loan, saving the money in case I need it later, or buying a laptop. I don't need the laptop right away, but I'll want it before we leave for Japan.

I've already purchased some of my textbooks from Amazon. One of the 5(!) textbooks for my architecture class is GORGEOUS. It's a coffee table book, and the pictures are amazing. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing some of the sights in person.

Also, I'm glad to see Brent and I aren't the only ones planning a Star Wars location wedding cake:

It's been awhile...

But finally finals are over and I have free time again. Writing over forty pages of paper in a few weeks was a feat I never hope to accomplish again. I practically lived in the school computer lab the last two weeks of the semester. But, grades are back, I have over a 3.8 GPA, and all is well.

I'll be looking for a part time job this summer, but not until after my dad's visit. I already have enough stuff going on that weekend that I don't want to have to fit work into it as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing Dad and Laurie. It's been almost a year since my brother's visit, which was the first (and so far only) time family has come out to visit me. I'd like to go back and see Washington, I'm just not sure money wise. Maybe I'll take a look and my bank account and try to squeeze in plane tickets.

I'm all registered for next semester. Overall, it looks harder than this last semester, which worries me a bit. Art History 482? Yikes. Hopefully Japanese Architecture is as interesting as it sounded when I signed up. Also, I need a non-Western history class, and the only one that sounded remotely interesting for fall semester was Modern Korea. That has the potential to be a bit depressing. I swear though, if we need to write a paper, I'm going to try to write it on Starcraft. :-P

In other news, springtime is gorgeous near our apartment. There are ducklings and goslings out on the lake and they are adorable. It's still a bit chillier than I'd like, but then I remember the oppressive heat and humidity of last summer, and try to enjoy 60 degree days.

Some spring pictures:

A fun day of classes.

This semester, I was an idiot and scheduled all my classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. It's painful going into classes at 9:30 in the morning and not getting out until 7:10. I only have one hour long break, everything else is back-to-back classes. It sucks.

It was made a little more bearable yesterday by showing 3 out of 5 classes just how big of a nerd I was. Sadly, I could not work nerditry into my grammar or phonology class. I should ponder how I could accomplish that.

But in my Intercultural Communications class I talked about the racial diversity of Star Trek. In my History of American Pop Culture Class, I talked about how Bruce Campbell is the master of camp, and then I got to call Frank Miller a misogynistic dick. And finally, in my Sociolinguistics class, I got to help out with a mini-lecture on leet speak.

I think I've also figured out my fall schedule, though I probably should clear it through my advisers. As I've figured it out though, I'll be taking Japanese (for my major), Art History 482 Japanese Architecture (for my general university requirements), History 402 Modern Korea (for my minor,) Linguistics 464 Word and Sentence Structure and Linguistics 410 Linguistics and Grammar in ESL Education (both for my major.) Most of the classes sound interesting, thank goodness. I'm a bit worried about the Modern Korea one, but we'll see. I'm not even really sure why I'm getting a history minor. I think it was because I had all these extra credits I needed to take.

Also, why am I considered a senior? I've been considered that since I registered for Spring semester. I've only really had two years of college. I'll be graduating a semester ahead of the 4-year plan already. Maybe they're counting the year I spent in a Computer Information Systems program. I think I'll try to finish up that Associates when I move back to the northwest. Degrees like that are useful no matter what your field of work is.

Nerd Thesis

Well, I've finally decided on the topics for my two big research papers I have to write this semester. I've managed to make both of them fairly nerdy topics.

For Language and Society, a paper about how internet/gaming speech is moving into "normal" conversation. For instance, how "blog" and "google" are now commonly used verbs.

For Popular Culture (1850-Present), a paper about how comic books now tell stories as in-depth and thought provoking as novels on the New York Times best-seller list. I'm not the biggest comic book nerd out there, in fact, I hardly ever read comics or graphic novels. But there are a few I'm quite fond of.

Some snow actually melted today. I about had a heart attack from surprise. There has been just a ridiculous amount of snow this winter. 70-some inches. Why did people ever settle in Wisconsin?

Tuesday is the Wisconsin Democratic primary. I'm very excited about being able to get out there an make a difference. But this whole super delegate thing is just a big farce. How do they think the voters will feel if the person we voted for, the person we want to be the Democrat running for president, looses because of some overpowered super delegates? This election has had just an outpouring of involvement by the youth voters--do we really want to disenfranchise them? If they feel their vote in the primary didn't count because of some super delegate, don't people think that will translate into them thinking their vote won't count in the actual election? Bah, politics. It's just to.... political for me.

Whew....

Ok, I've made if few the first few weeks of school. 18 credits can be exhausting! The ease back into school has been helped by all the cancellations on campus. Professors have been sick, and all classes today have been canceled because of the storm.

I'm anxious for the rest of the presidential primaries. I desperately want Obama to win the nomination. I came to the realization that there has been either a Bush or Clinton in office as The President since I was 6. I'm ready for a change! Also, the concept of super delegates is stupid.

In nerdier news, evidently I should be hot for Spiderman.



I always pictured myself as more of a Batman girl.