"We're the heirs to a glimmering world." Oh I hope so...

• J-term has been going quite well so far.  Japanese is rough -- we're doing one chapter a week instead of two -- as is having to get up earlier in the morning (though I did this all right last semester -- I don't see what the big deal is), but it's not kicking my butt.  We had an exam today -- written and oral -- while I had a headache, but I'm pretty sure I kicked ass on that.  :D  As a result we have a day off tomorrow, which means a good deal of sleeping in. No partying for this lonely soul, though -- and in many ways, that's a good thing.  ;-)
• Because we only have one class for this month, you'd think that there'd be more...stuff, going on.  Apparently not.  Just some lame movies Monday and Friday nights, "Trivia Nights" every Tuesday (not interested), "Pub Nights" every Thursday (crappy pub bands and people getting drunk), not a lot of interesting lectures or plays or anything like that -- at least not things that are widely advertised.  Not to mention the utter bizzaro that are the Winter Term Workshops.  Offerings included: Art & Theory of Seduction, Beatboxing Workshop, Beer Brew, Bridge, Instant Hypnosis Technqiues for Fun, Feel Better Fast, Avalanche Awareness, Paths to Communication, Self-Hypnosis, The Lorax Returns!, Understanding the Power and Sacredness of Pregnancy (WTF?), etc.  Not to mention that most of these classes involve either knitting (seriously, over half of them must be about knitting in one form or another!), dance, or some form of martial art (from karate to yoga).  I'm sure that many of these seem cool or fun or whatnot, but I ended up laughing at most of them.  Seriously, they're the kinds of things you'd find as part of my town's "adult education" program, or as some late-night classes at the local community college or something!  Not that I'm knocking them, but they just seem so...ridiculous (I can't think of a better word).  I'm not interested in knitting, I'm not interested in things that aren't going to happen anywhere near where I live (I'm talking about the avalanches!), I'm not interested in alcohol or scrapbooking or cooking or logrolling or self-help bullshit, etc.  I admit there were a couple of things I did find vaguely interesting, like yoga, and I'll see what they offer next year -- who knows, maybe they'll be something worth paying good money for (you have to pay for these workshops).  In the meantime, I'm not standing in a long line outside CCAL at 7 AM on a December day to sign up for these things.  :/
• So anyway, there's hardly been a lot of things going on around here.  I've been doing Language Tables some days for lunch (it's supposed to help with your language skills, but I end up getting lost in everything they're saying and the food is often terrible), and on Wednesdays I've been going to anime club and whatever movies the Japanese Department have decided to show.  The anime club usually meets on Saturdays, but I haven't been interested in their usual lineup (to the point that I don't know exactly what it is right now).  But during J-term they do an alternate lineup on Wednesday evenings, and since they've been showing Mononoke, an anime I've been sort of interested in seeing for a while now, I've been going.  And last night one of the Japanese professors screened The Taste of Tea (IMDB), which was long, surreal, gorgeous, weird, and dragging in places but otherwise quite good.  But this has been the extent of my get-out-of-the-fucking-dorm-room activities.  There were two things today that I was interested in that I missed -- something on transgender issues and a MOQA-sponsored discussion on masturbation -- but looking at the temperature right now, it's -12°F outside.  Let me repeat that: IT'S -12°F OUTSIDE.  There's no way I'm going out there for any reason unless I have to.  :(  (BTW, I would watch the inauguration on Tuesday if I didn't have class until 12:30, therefore missing all the good stuff.  D:)
• I found out recently that the Rev. Al Sharpton will be speaking at our college on February 11.  I have a rather cool but generally favorable opinion of him; nonetheless, his recent remarks on same-sex marriage are encouraging, and I'll definitely be seeing him -- it should be very interesting.
• The worst thing about J-term -- at least for me, anyway -- is the loneliness, the fact that I don't have anyone real close here.  Last weekend I was hanging out with some people I met this year, and while it was certainly great to be with them for a little while, I've come to realize how hard it is to find people or groups of people I can mesh with.  Early freshman year my roommate and I hung out with a certain group of people that I found out were, well, shall I say, strange and eccentric in a more annoying than interesting way.  Not to mention quite immature.  I always seem to have this problem: this group's too weird, that one's too girly, that one only cares about getting high and drunk, this one has someone who's a total asshole, etc., etc., etc.  Radiohead got this one wrong -- meeting people is not easy.  Granted, I've met a lot of interesting people so far this year, but it seems I haven't made a huge connection with any of them -- maybe a handful, but nothing more.  Sometimes it seems the only way to truly connect with people is if you're partying and drinking.  So sometimes the loneliness stings a bit.  Not all the time, of course, but sometimes I just wish I knew at least a couple people better.  Which means I spend most of my free time online.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since I enjoy it and have taken to reading lots of poetry as of late, but still.  :-|
• What will I be doing this long weekend?  Finally read Watchmen or catch up on LoGH like I've meaning to for so long?  Watch one of the Saturday movies (this week it's I'm Not There, the Bob Dylan biopic)?  Actually go to MOQA and Sunday Night Group meetings I've been missing?  The world may never know!  XD
• Didn't watch Bush's farewell address tonight -- though by this time anyone with half a brain knows exactly what he's going to say anyway, like there's some sort of formula at work.  It just makes it hard for me to believe that the past eight years of hell are ALMOST OVER.  XDDDDDDDDDD
• 今晩コンピューターを使って、遅くたくさん寝ます。(My lame attempt at trying to write Japanese -- I'm still learning!)