A Weekend in Vegas

Between August 18th and the 22nd, I was in none other than the fabulous Las Vegas for my brother's 21st birthday party. Originally I thought I wouldn't be able to make it because I planned to leave for Japan before this took place. After the flights to Vegas were booked I discovered that I wasn't going to leave until a week after they would arrive home. I was a bit bummed that I wouldn't be able to go and celebrate with him but was quickly relieved when I learned that one of my brother's best friends would be driving out to Vegas, meeting him there. Figuring that we could put two and two together, I asked if I could just ride with him. It worked out perfectly because not only would he not have to ride alone for the 4 (at the best) hours it would take, but I'd actually get to go as well. In the end two more friends were also able to come and before I knew it, we had a road trip on our hands.

Though I have been to Vegas once before, this pretty much qualifies as my "first time" for a number of reasons. Chief among which is the fact that I'm now well over 21 and not 6 years old anymore. I was busy with school when I became old enough but I really hadn't anyone to go with so it didn't matter much to me. Back then I was far too young to do or experience anything that one would associate as being part of the Vegas experience. Now, with that roadblock out of the way, I managed to do quite a bit with the four days I had at my disposal. In truth, there's probably far more that happened than I can now remember to type but I'll do my best to recount the events in as timely and interesting a fashion as I can.

DAY 1
My brother, mother, father, and grandparents all flew to Vegas. My brother's three friends Vinny (driving), Jake, Lauren and I all made our way starting from the OC area. Their flight was booked at night, so we had a head start taking off. Here's a picture of the pre-departure:

From left to right: Jake, Jonathan, Vinny, Myself, and Lauren

And for the record, here's a screen cap of my phone as we set off:

We took off a bit later in the day

 Alright, now it's time to throw some pictures on screen and I'll comment when necessary.

Our faces while they were still smiling, or reading nutritional information

Making our way out of Orange County

There's a whole lot of nothing most of the ride, but we had pretty clouds and sunshine

We made a pit stop to stretch a bit and get some food at the Barstow In N Out. It was pretty hot already by that point, if memory serves me correctly. We were in the high 90s maybe even at 100 degrees already. I was hungry and ordered two double doubles protein style (lettuce wrapped) along with a couple packets of peppers.  While we were eating, someone -I believe it was Jake- mentioned something about liking the Peppers. On top of that comment I uttered the word, "Pepperjack," to which Lauren added, "Pepperjack Cheese," to which Vinny concluded, "Cheesecake". Normally I don't like to recount "you had to be there" type stories but it was a memorably oddball and hilarious moment that gave us a good laugh and enough energy to get back on the road.

Glorious

I don't know about you guys, but Pahrump sounds like a place I want to be

 There were thunderclouds brewing off in the distance as we drew closer to state line, and of course by the time I thought to take out my phone they stopped altogether. Check out the video!

Lightning No Show At State Line

Shortly thereafter we stopped at Buffalo Bills and did a bit of preemptive gambling. I put in 10 dollars at a video poker machine, and cashed out with a single penny. Vinny, on the other hand, did much better and hit a thirty dollar hand netting about a 25 dollar profit.

The sign of things to come

BUFFALO BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILL'S

A little later on we finally made it to the strip. It was around 9pm by then and we were driving through the streets to get to our hotel. Most of the pictures I took were fuzzy at best because of this so I don't think anyone will want to see those. I'll have better ones from when we walked on foot in a later post. We sat around for a bit, walking through the mall that leads up to the casino of Planet Hollywood, while we waited for my brother and the rest of my family to arrive. I decided to give video poker another try during the downtime, 10 more dollars, with better results too. I walked out of there up, just over twelve dollars.

This trip's just about paid for itself by now

Eventually we met up in the room with my brother, and they did birthday shots as the clocks on our phones ticked over to 12am. Though I'm a non-drinker, I think it's worth noting that I totally downed that glass of water. In the rooms there's some article from a Hollywood movie (hence Planet Hollywood) and in ours we had the jacket that Keanu Reeves wore in Speed. On the opposite side of this wall was another poster of the movie, as well as one more in the bathroom in case you got lonely.

Keanu watched over us the whole weekend

After they had their shots, we met with my parents and grandparents on the casino level at the Heart Bar where they bought him his first "I'm 21, yay!" drink.

There were no hearts there despite it's namesake

The only picture I can legally show you from the first night

 Afterwards, we split up and had a night of it. More tomorrow!

-J

Self Discovery In The Red Spiral

The item I believed to have misplaced up until a few days ago is none other than a red spiral notebook. It looks exceptionally unexceptional from the outside, a bit tattered and worn even. I brought it along with the intention of keeping track of the day's events and reflecting on them. Naturally, I was so caught up in the moment of what was actually going on that I failed to do so nearly every day. In the very back are pages of emails, hand drawn maps, and phone numbers of the many people I met including the address of the host family I stayed with. I was so saddened at the thought of losing this notebook because I wanted to write them back so badly, and I'm ecstatic that I now can. Along with these really cool memories are exactly three journal entries.

The Red Spiral Notebook

The first entry is a rather short one, about a paragraph in length. It briefly mentions what I thought of the flight, as it was my first time flying, and where we were set to stay upon landing. The third entry was written entirely in Japanese and talks about the home-stay experience I had in Amakusa, a place I'd absolutely love to visit again. In between those was an entry that gave me a chill to read. Not the bad kind, but the type of feeling when you run across something from your past that simply sends waves of feelings and emotions through your veins.

Now might be the time to go on a brief tangent to help illustrate why this entry was so meaningful to me.

Before 2007 and my first trip to Japan, my studies were focusing towards a biology major. I had been told I was smart growing up, and as such, I should become a doctor. My father was (and remains) involved in the medical field so that certainly added to the push as well. I accepted this fate at an early age, wholly believing that a career in medicine is what I would pursue. It's a curious thing about being young that we often times adopt what has said or bestowed upon us without thinking whether or not we actually wanted these titles and paths. Perhaps we want it because there is a desire to appear pleasing and accommodating to those who raised us. Maybe it's as simple as not having developed enough. Whatever the case may be, I certainly didn't take much time to think about what direction my life was heading until I found myself in Japan.

So now, I flash forward now to the present day, and the second of three entries written in my red spiral notebook.

A very important day

There was a date at the top, which I'm glad I wrote, since it placed that writing at about exactly halfway into the trip. I was most definitely in Fukuoka as well, since I labeled it such. It was about a page long, so still not the most exhausting of entries, but it was an entry into which I poured my heart out on paper. In the opening sentence I mentioned how I needed to take the time to reflect on what had happened so far. There were no details or specifics as to what happened on the journey that coaxed this entry other than the word "dog" being brought up in conversation. It was enough to make me think about my own dog, which in turn made me think about my home. I explicitly stated that I was not homesick, so much to the point that I underlined the word "not". It wasn't to say that I did not miss anyone, but rather I was happy to be where I was. I talked about how I remembered what I left behind, what things I needed to fix, and what I had to solve before I could "make the switch permanent". It struck me so hard to read that line. It was written so casually, so passively, yet filled with so much conviction that I surprised myself in reading it. I went on to mention how I discovered myself by this point in the trip, how I added to the list of things I wanted to do with my life. In the final sentence I wrote:

I think so

"Maybe… is my life changing?"

It almost has an innocent or childish charm in the way I decided to word it, but also slightly chilling as though I knew that what I had written was meant for the older version of me sometime down the road. It wasn't something I could fully understand then but now I know. I had no qualms the day I wrote that sentence. On June 14th 2007, something rattled me enough to declare on paper that I was to make a change in my life. I can pinpoint that day now as the crux in which my life went the direction it's currently going. And it is fabulous to have that knowledge.

It's a bit a moving, really.

-J

Magical Babies & The Mystery Of The Supermarket

After the end of a day at the mall, I stopped at the Ralph's down the street from my house to pick up a few things for dinner. I was strolling through the relatively mismatched aisle in the back where they keep various byproducts of milk, random cuts of prepackaged deli meats (which have been separated from the regular deli meat section) and of course the Bob's Bleu Cheese Dressing. I never understood why it's there and not next to the rest of the salad dressings. In fact, now that I think about it: Ralph's has divided the dressings into three sections. Two of the three are stored in the cooled areas that circle the outer perimeter of the store. The final section however, lies situated next to the Prego and across from the brand name taco sauces, where the refrigerated storage of such items is not considered important (until they are opened) by men who are much smarter than me. My best guess however is that it has something to do with vendors waging an undying war for decent shelf space.



I am suddenly reminded of the late, great George Carlin:

They have guys who straighten that out. Guys with purple fingers, come around at midnight. And in the morning, everything's back. It's the mystery of the supermarket. . .

Well, that tangent aside, I came across this while in the aisle I mentioned earlier and had to take a picture:

The Last of the American Noodles

Though most (if not all) of the Japanese markets near my area have disappeared, there are plenty of Korean markets just down the road from me and they tend to carry just as much Japanese product as they do Korean. My point being: It's not overtly difficult to get my hands on slightly more exotic goods. This picture simply forced me to ponder the things I will soon leave behind. Since there's only about two weeks left before I take off I figured these last few posts should reflect my current state of mind and sensibilities. That in mind, I must say I don't fear I will miss too much other than the company of those I will no longer be in relative proximity to.  The last time in Japan was such an amazing experience; I knew that I'd be going back one day. Hopefully things will work out this upcoming year and I'll be able to have a nice prolonged stay without worrying about too many of the specifics as to how I'll manage it.

So in other news: it is hot and humid. It's gone down considerably but I'll take this moment to add the Southern California weather to the list of things that I'll miss. It's not typically too hot and there's a nice coastal breeze that rolls around in my area. It's not even the lion's den of hot weather I'll be jumping into but rather the lion's sauna. Hopefully by the time I arrive, the heat will have calmed down with the humidity index dropping. Maybe I'll go straight to a nice fall, which incidentally, is my favorite time of the year. While watching my nephew today I managed to capture this moment wherein my dog yawned in that way that makes one look as though they were a taxidermy project.

I call this one "Forever Sleepy"

Shortly after that, my nephew saw fit to attempt the old table cloth trick right from underneath her. It was not a success.

And the flowers are STILL standing!

I think that's it for now. I managed to find something that I thought I had lost after I returned from Japan, so I'll be talking about that in the next post as well as whatever else happens between now and departure.


-J

Compose Yourself Child

The other day I was running errands and helping plan events for my nephew's first birthday party, which as it transpires, is pirate themed. My sister suggested that one of the games should be a beanbag toss. I was charged with the task of designing the board as well as manifesting the idea into reality. I immediately set out to work in one of my absolute favorite programs to fool around in, Adobe Illustrator. After a bit of tinkering I came up with this design:

Those jagged bits on the left are either rocks or the world's most impressive Doritos

Those circular shapes on the rock and the boat itself are two of the "score" holes with the third being the crow's nest at the top of the mast. It's actual size is 5 feet wide by 3 feet high and required a trip to Kinko's to print it out. After getting that we ran to Home Depot and bought the most inexpensive plank of thin plywood would could find. It was far larger than the 5'x3' dimensions we required so we had it cut (the first two are free!) down to size and kept the remaining bits for backing boards and other games. Lastly, we grabbed a few of the undesired "oopsie" paints - which is the technical term for them - in the paint department. Now it was time to work.

The first mission was to sand down the board and give it a nice white coat of paint, which would be helpful in the next part. I then took the 5'x3' printed image and ran over the back of it with some charcoal making sure to cover the spaces that had black lines on the printed side. By now the paint had dried. I took the charcoal backed drawing and laid it with the charcoal side touching the white of the board. I grabbed some of my graphite dispensers, which resemble giant mechanical pencils in a sense, and drew over all the printed lines. After lifting the paper off the board we then had a nice outline for the all the lines I drew perfectly mimicked on the plywood.

Charcoal smudges will be but a happy memory when all is said and done

Next up was painting. There isn't a finished image of it yet as there are only bits of color placed so far. The plan is to tape over the parts we've painted already so we can get some nice straight black lines which describe the outline of the ship.  As soon as that's all finished I'll post it here. The last step of course will be to drill out the three scoring holes and then this should be ready to go.

In other news, I've been making a short but growing list of the things that I plan on taking with me to Japan. One of the items in particular is something I've held onto for a while but never wanted to use: a journal given to me by mother (probably years ago by now) because she thought I would like it, which I do.

I was always hesitant to use it... until now

It seems as though we treasure "nice" things so much to the point that we negate the functionality out of fear that we'll destroy its form. I relate to this much in the way that some people are able to crack the spine of a book, whereas I to this day cannot perform such a feat, even if the book is not especially meaningful to me. In any case, it seems that this journal will serve as the official record of my travels in Japan beginning at the end of this month.

It'll be nice to be writing thoughts as they come to me again. I loved writing as early as elementary school, but abandoned it until much later over issues dealing with a teacher who made me feel quite stupid while indelicately pointing out a grammatical error. What made that worse in the following years however, was when I realized said teacher was completely wrong and possibly dumb. I still remember it to this day. The mistake in question was when I had written -as part of a story- the following line:

"There was a big old sign that read..."

She stopped reading it right there and told me quite simply, "signs don't read".

That was about 3rd grade if memory serves correctly. Evidently she was not familiar with the intransitive nature of the verb "to read".

Well anyway, I enjoy writing and all thoughts for better or worse will be forever immortalized under the cover of Charlie Brown's vague expression and penchant for semi-depressing/semi-reflective thought.

Comeback Kid

Recently, I've been spending time revising and editing my statement of purpose for this year's upcoming JET program. I felt very good about it last time and it might well have been. Unfortunately for me it also happened to not be what they were looking for. I played into the personal history and why it would've been important to me rather than what I could offer the program. In looking at the stack of revisions now, I can't believe how I managed to exclude so many things that probably [read: definitely] should've been mentioned the first time around. I still have plenty of time though, and there will likely be many revisions in between now and when I send it off. As per the advice of a friend and mentor I'm taking the weekend off from it. By Monday I should have a fresh pair of eyes filled to the brim with all manner of remorseless scrutiny and self-doubt.

It's going to be one hell of a paper airplane contest afterwards

So, that's the deal with those. At the end of the month I'll still be leaving for Japan, so there's that as well. I am a bit troubled about what to do if I manage to dig up a bit of work while I'm staying over there. I've already asked my professors to write letters of recommendation for me and I was hoping to have those in my possession early on because if I were so inclined I could send in my application from Japan without worrying about things coming in the mail back at home. The trouble concerns what I do if and when I acquire some experience, even if it's volunteer work. Do I rewrite the statement to pack that in as well? It's not that I fear cutting more out; it has been torn apart so much that it is not even the same statement as it was in the beginning. So that's fine. The problem is how to work those experiences in there while also demonstrating what abilities they've provided me with. I know there's a spot on the application itself where you can listen volunteer activities or work experience. So perhaps the statement is a place to mention what you can do because of X, Y and Z which are referenced in the application itself. Tricky business. What makes it all trickier is that no one knows how it really works. The people that are accepted can make claim they do, but no one is for sure. One of the most principal lessons that anybody writing will tell you is to know your audience and meet their demands. This, and answering the prompt are perhaps the two most important things. You don't have to write fancy. If you can answer the question, especially in a way that the one reading likes, then proficiency is nullified. Though I do have a prompt, I still like a clear vision of exactly who I'm writing for and what they care to hear. Make no mistake, this is not about pandering to the whims of a panel, but knowing when something is or is not relevant. When you have only two pages to make a point amongst the many one can make, you need to know this stuff.

Anyway, these are just my mindless thoughts on matters. And mindless thoughts, are of no consequence.

I was listening to Sleigh Bells just now, and it seemed rather appropriate:
  

I know you tried so hard, but you can't even win
      
     You gotta try a little harder, you're the comeback kid




Duly noted.

-J

Hoo Boy

Where do I start? I suppose I'll just open up with a few things about myself (nothing too extreme I promise) and then we'll see where it goes from there.

I graduated UCI with a degree in East Asian Studies, but I tell people it's East Asian Languages and Literature as that was the actual name of the department and because I feel more like a literature major than anything else in the end. I tried to apply to the very prestigious JET program and unfortunately was not offered an interview. I'm hoping to try again in the upcoming months, and in the meantime I'll be tagging along with a friend who did manage to make it in, looking for work and hopefully putting a few more bullet points on that bit of business they call an application.

I suppose that's enough for now right? Not too bad.