Monthly Archives: May 2012

In which I spend 13 hours more or less playing Tetris

NOTE:

While I’m in Tokyo, I will have no free internet. Therefore: Me posting this means that either I am mooching internet off one of the other kids, or paying 100 yen per fifteen minutes of wi-fi. Yikes.

Also, be sure to check my tumblr, where I’ll be posting photos!

I wasn’t expecting to write a post about going on an airplane. After all, I already did that last summer. I thought it was just going to be another plane ride. Cramped, long…you know, standard.

As it turns out, it was quite a different plane ride, for two reasons:

  1. I was (am) completely sick the whole time.

About three days before departure, I came down with the worst fever I’ve had in years: runny nose, the chills, fatigue, headaches– the real deal. Luckily, I was blessed with something called “ibuprofen” that can alleviate the symptoms somewhat…

But I was still delirious the whole time.

I’m pretty sure I used up all the tissues on that plane. At one point I filled a barf bag with tissues so I could take it back to my seat.

But that’s irrelevant. More importantly, this plane was…

This plane was recently launched by Japan Airlines, hoping to provide a better experience for those traveling for Japan. A typical plane ride has, you know, movies, TV shows, and music to entertain its passengers. But this one also had…


As you can imagine, I did not get much sleep on that plane ride. Did I mention that I’m addicted to Tetris?

And the food they served us was a step above ordinary freeze-dried, notoriously gross airplane fare. I was served seafood curry for dinner that night.

They fed us so much food. So much. By the end of the ride, I looked a little like this:

But in the end, after a 7-hour bus ride to Boston, a 13-hour plane ride to the Tokyo/Narita airport, and a 1-hour drive into Tokyo itself, I reached the youth hostel safely. And that’s all that matters, right?

And besides, I think the whole experience helped fix my sleep schedule.

But at that point, I had received an inordinate amount of sleep and was charged to go for the day. Coming next!

I depart tonight! In the meantime, I’ve been blog-tagged.

I am departing for Japan.

Tonight.

So I won’t be able to make a new post for a little while, I think. The hostel we’re staying at in Tokyo doesn’t have free wi-fi, so my access to internet will be limited.

For now, though, I’ve been blog-tagged by notlateone! (Who everyone should go check out, by the way– she’s a brilliant writer.)

So please entertain yourself with this little filler-post while I spend some time sans-internet. (No internet?! Inconceivable!)

HERE GOES!

The Rules:

1. Post the rules

2. Post 11 random things about yourself (optional):

3. Answer the questions the tagger posted for you in their post.

4. Create 11 new questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.

5. Go to their blog and tell them that they’ve been tagged.

Eleven Random Facts About Me:

1. For those who don’t know– I’m Vietnamese and proud!

2. My high school housed about 3,200 kids– and that was only the sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Our school wasn’t big enough to fit in the freshman. My graduating class was just over 1,000 kids.

3. The username I use for almost everything– comicsmaniac, comixmaniac, or variations thereof– I actually came up with in 2nd grade, while playing Neopets. 11 years later, it’s still relevant.

Although this I drew in 2008.

4. I really do have a good smattering of freckles, which is highly unusual for an Asian. It’s from a combination of sun exposure and unlucky genetics.

Gosh darn it, you!

5. Despite loving comics so much, the one genre I just can’t get into is superhero comics. Time and time again I’ll pick up a superhero comic and read it, but I’ll never get into it. Maybe I’ll try again soon.

6. I glare without meaning to, especially while 1. studying 2. playing video games and 3. walking around outside when it’s sunny. When I was in elementary school, teachers would stop me in the halls and ask me if everything was okay. At my parent-teacher conference in 5th grade, my teacher urged me to smile more. Man, did I look that depressed?

7. Once upon a time in my junior year of high school, I joined the boys’ tennis team. Long story. Perhaps I’ll write a post about it sometime.

8. I ended up going to my university, Northeastern, based on pure and coincidental chance. My best friend took a tour of Northeastern during my senior year and returned with rave reviews. I ended up applying on a whim, and, lo and behold, they offered me a good scholarship. NU wasn’t even on my radar before– but now, I’m here! And very thankful for it.

NU from the sky!

9. For someone who really likes video games, I really suck at shooters. One time when I tried to play Call of Duty, I ended up just falling off cliffs the whole time and dying. Additionally, for someone who really likes video games, I really haven’t played that many. I have an extensive list of games that I’d like to play, but have never found the time to get around to. (Including: Bioshock, God of War, Skyward Sword, Xenoblade Chronicles, Uncharted, Mass Effect, and many, many more.) For those reasons, I don’t consider myself a real “gamer.”

10. If it wasn’t for my girly sister, I would have been a huge tomboy. I wasn’t fashion-conscious until my junior year of high school, I didn’t start wearing makeup (despite the urging of my mother) until the end of my senior year, and I still don’t have my ears pierced. My family often tells me that I dress like a hobo.

11. I have an acute lack of common sense.

And here are the questions I’ve been asked! Here goes:

1. What important lessons have you learned lately?

Hmm. Perhaps how to manage my time better? Because it’s essential in college, especially given all the stuff I do.

2. Are you happy with your academic progress?

Thankfully, yes. Anyone who knows me knows that I study way too much, stress out over test scores too often, and am generally a huge, huge nerd. As a result, though, I usually get good grades.

3. How would you define your spirituality/outlook on life?

I’m not very spiritual at all. I simply wasn’t raised that way– no churches, no praying, none of that. I’ve actually always been quite the pessimist, though I should really try to think positive. HAPPY THOUGHTS!

4. What is the number one time wasting habit you have?

THERE ARE SO MANY. Tetris Battle? Reading manga? Playing video games? Staring aimlessly out the window when I should be doing work? My roommates know how much Tetris Battle I play… it’s embarrassing.

5. If you had to pick a career/major other than the one you have/are getting right now…what would it be?

Alternative dream career: Travel blogger. Done. I mean, traveling and getting paid for it? What more could I ask for?

Actually, I’d also like to be a cartoonist. That’s been my dream since I was a little kid. Perhaps one day I’ll get good enough at drawing?

6. Let’s say life throws you lemons. What do you do with them?

Don’t ask me… ask Cave Johnson. (Portal 2 reference, anyone?)

7. Have you ever been abroad? Do you want to go abroad?

I’ve been abroad to Germany! It was amazing. I’ll soon be going abroad to Japan as well.

In Frankfurt, Germany!

8. What languages do you speak?

Save English, nothing fluently. I can understand and speak a bit of Vietnamese, as I am Vietnamese. I’m currently studying Japanese. I also know the following phrases in German: “I am from the USA,” “My German is very terrible,” “How much does this cost?” and “You are my most beautiful souvenir.” (I blame my phrasebook for the last one.)

9. Name your most interesting hospital trip.

When I dislocated my left shoulder in my sophomore year of high school, I was rushed to the hospital. Before they could put my arm back into its socket, though, they had to check it with an x-ray. And before they could x-ray me, they had to make sure I wasn’t pregnant. Now imagine me, left arm swinging out of its socket, stumbling to the bathroom to pee in a cup. I understand that it’s standard procedure, but I sure didn’t enjoy it at the time.

10. What’s the best part of your life right now?

College! Blogging. My dear family and friends! And the fact that I’m about to go abroad to Japan– that too!

11. How have you changed in the past year?

Huh. Well, the past year was my first year of college, where I definitely learned to “be myself” a little more. It’s the same old song and dance– I had trouble making friends in middle school, so in high school, I was very concerned about what people thought of me. I tried to act like the person everybody liked– cheerful, nice, whatever— but it was exhausting. This year at Northeastern, then, I acted like my normal self– dry, sarcastic, moody– and still managed to make friends.  Maybe there’s hope for me after all.

And now I’m supposed to come up with 11 new questions: 

1. Where is your “dream” place to live and why?

2. What was your childhood career choice? Has it changed since then?

3. Everyone gets those non-drug related “addictions.” (like video games, facebook, and the like.) What’s yours?

4. What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?

5. Name your pet peeves.

6. What do you like the most about yourself?

7. What’s the one thing you’d like to achieve before you die? Your most important goal, that is.

8. What trait do you admire the most in others?

9. What is the most outrageous thing you have ever done?

10. What are you most proud of achieving?

11. What’s the biggest “life lesson” you’ve learned as of yet? (Man, I sound like a college application.)

As for tagging… I tag… uh, whoever wants to do it! (I really don’t know who to tag.) Seriously, though, run along and do this if you’d like! And link me so I can see your answers. 🙂

I swear our GPS is trying to kill us

One of our local radio stations was having a free concert. Free stuff is free, so me, my sister, and her roommate decided to drive out to Philly to see it. Unfortunately, we had never been to this venue before. We decided to follow our GPS.

Yeah. Bad idea. 

For some reason, our GPS decided to take us through North Philly, which has a reputation as a… less economically affluent area. Now, as much as I make fun of Philadelphia, it’s not that bad of a city. Central City is nice. There’s some very safe and pleasant areas. If you don’t go looking for trouble you will, for the most part, avoid it.

North Philly is a little different, however. The borders of North Philly are fuzzy, but they contain a series of neighborhoods that has sunken deeper into poverty over the years. As a suburbanite, I can’t say much firsthand– but I’ve heard that the neighborhoods are highly segregated by race, that drug trade is common, and North Philly is home to a bit of gang activity. In other words, it’s not the place you want to be in.

But the crooning voice of our GPS (set to Australian-English: Male) decided that, hey, the fastest way to get to the concert was through North Philly. Who were we to argue?

Our GPS, in addition to falling in and out of functionality, also gave us a nice meandering tour of North Philly. We got to see all sorts of new things!

It seemed as though we would never get out of there. On and on and on we drove, nervously following the directions of our GPS whenever it decided to actually work. And the scenery rolled by… (here, courtesy of Google Maps)

My sister’s roommate and I eventually cracked under the mental strain, and totally lost it:

We ended up arriving to the concert an hour and a half late. At this point, there was no parking left at the venue, so we decided to leave our car by this fine alleyway:

…complete with lovely brick garden.

It was all worth it in the end, though. I got to see Tyler Glenn’s hair.

Neon Trees rocking some neon hair.

Everyday I’m tumbling

I started a tumblr. Well, we know where I’m going to be in my free time…

Okay. Sorry about that.

I have reasons though! Please excuse me as I try to justify its existence:

1. It might not seem like it, but every post I put up here takes several hours to make. Which, given the low quality of the drawings, is pretty sad. Anyway, sometimes I just want to draw short, status-like comics that really aren’t suited for WordPress. Thus, I’ll put ’em on tumblr!

2. I’m not a photographer, but sometimes I do want to put up a photo or two. Thus: tumblr! (This will probably be very relevant when I’m Japan.)

3. Shameless self-promotion.

4. WordPress doesn’t have an “Ask me Anything” function. Why not?!

5. BECAUSE SOME THINGS JUST NEED TO BE REBLOGGED. Although, if you do choose to visit my tumblr, these things are usually extremely, extremely dorky. I just like video games, okay?

Anyway! Tumblrs out there: click the banner below to go to my page!

I WAS INVITED TO WRITE A GUEST POST! What a flatterer.

Heya!

I was recently invited to write a post for Aha! Sensei, a blog that teaches the essentials of Japanese. It’s a great blog for beginning Japanese students– I highly recommend it!

And I was asked to write a post about my biggest “aha!” moment while learning Japanese, which would undoubtedly be when I learned about kanji radicals. You can read the post by clicking this link or the image below!

Also, everyone should go to his blog and read it and like it and comment on it. He’s doing an awesome thing for Japanese students, and it deserves as much love as it can get!