Cause It's One, Two, Three Strikes... That's Pretty Good In a Bowling Game!

Hello everyone!  Couple things to update all my blog hungry readers!

First is the Bowling League that I joined tonight.  So I realized during practice time that I haven't thrown a bowling ball in about a year.  My first ball was a glorious gutterball.  It looked like it was going to be mostly downhill the whole night with that throw.  Until the next three balls were strikes.  Basically, short story short, I got a 617, which is a 206 average.  Not shabby at all for not having bowled in a very long time, yeah?  And another perk of joining a bowling league at Clover Lanes is a free 600 games.  I don't  know how I could possibly use them all, they are good until September, at which point I get 80 free games.  Basically... I'd have to bowl about 10 games a night for 2 months straight.  Not happening, haha.  It is neat though that they give you unlimited bowling for the summer at no extra cost other than the League dues.  Which aren't that bad at all.

Second are some more pictures!  Enjoy!  You can click them all for a larger size.  Ask me if you want the original.

Third, LOST is over!  Yep it ended.  SPOILERS : They all die.  Whoops.  Hope you didn't still want to watch it.  It was good though.  I feel that there are things that they didn't answer, actually many things, like why did they build up Walt and then never even mention him again and why some of the Islanders weren't in the afterlife reunion.  It doesn't really make sense in that aspect.  Maybe they'll wrap things up, I heard there was going to be some sort of additional answer thing.  It'll never really end, haha.


Fourth, well, there is no fourth.  Just bed.  Good night!


Keep the comments and questions coming by the way!  I'll try my best to answer all of them!  =)

Welcome To Lone Star!

Hey all!  Sorry about the lack of updates!  And I also apologize for how short this one will be as well, but as I'm actually busy these days with work (as opposed to being a Pokemon Master), I actually get tired before 1:00 AM.  Inorite?  Crazy.


So as I blurbed in my last post, the job is going well.  I actually started taking calls last week, Tuesday afternoon I believe.  I did make a couple mistakes that landed me in the manager's office... but nothing too bad.  It's all a learning process, can't let anything get to me.  As soon as you let stuff get to you is when it all goes downhill.  And it's the kind of downhill that lands you in a lava pit, not t he kind of downhill you want when you go sledding.  Mmmmm... sledding.


I've moved in with the people I'm going to be living with, I like them a lot actually.  They're all technology people on top of being really nice.  Also the two that I'll be staying with through the fall like to cook so perhaps I'll get into cooking like I've always wanted to.  I just bought many bags of groceries for lunches including stuff for sandwiches, juices, applesauce, soda, and noodles.  Should be better for me than my daily fast food or Wegman's lunch.  As it is I think I've lost a few pounds, not because I eat fast food (obviously), but because I haven't really been eating too much in the way of a dinner.  Or a breakfast.  Hmmm...  I should start.


But bed!  I really should go.  My laundry just got done.  (I don't have to pay for laundry now, woohoo!  ^_^)  Also internet and Direct TV are included, so that's convenient as well.  This is so much more manageable than the $800 I would have had to spend at an unfurnished place.  I really like it here.

I also really love the camera I got for graduation from my grandparents!   The picture above is a small sample of some of the pictures I've taken.  Once I find a good online album place I'll put more of them up!


I would say I'll write more tomorrow... but I don't know if I'll get around to it.  I might.


Well, time to finish laundering and go to bed!

[More Soon!]

Too tired tonight to update.  Expect something soon.  Probably.

Long story short : I really like the job, and I found a place to live.  I'm renting a room in a 3 bedroom apartment with people from RIT that are into Game Design.  Staying at a place called Park Point, Google it.

Alright, bed time!  I'll update this post with more details at a later date.

A New Page

Hello all!  Welcome to my new Blog!  I've been thinking about things I've wanted to tell everyone over the last couple weeks, but for whatever reason, I haven't gotten around to it.  Between projects, take home finals, and just general business, I never found the time to sit down and write emails.  Not to make it look like I'm skimping out or anything, but I feel that writing a new Blog is probably the easiest way to tell a bunch of people that might be interested about reading what's going on in my life now.  So here goes nothing!  Or here goes something!  Whichever makes more sense. 

So as many of you may know (or might not know!), I just recently graduated from the University of Rochester.  Well, I guess actual graduation is the 16th or something, but since I'm not attending I didn't give much effort to remember the date.  I ended up with a Dual Major in Computer Science and Linguistics, and a Minor in Japanese, which isn't too bad, especially taking a Semester Abroad.  I learned a lot about myself, the world, other countries, and life in general.  I also found new hobbies, rekindled my passion for some old hobbies, and really just had a great 4 years.

So what am I up to now you ask?  You don't ask?  Well, I'm going to tell you!  I start my first day of work tomorrow at SunGard Higher Education, an IT company that services 55 Universities across the country.  I believe they do this by Phone and Email, I'll let you know more once I actually start the job.  I got a 6 month contract with them, so I'll be up here until at least October.  I wanted to be closer to home to be closer to Marissa, but I couldn't find a job there and I did find this one, so I just accepted it.  Gotta start somewhere and my loans won't pay themselves, so I wanted to get a jump start on that.  Hopefully in a year or so less can be living with Marissa somewhere or at least near her, but for now it's Rochester.


As for where I'm staying... I was almost considering a one bedroom apartment near where I am now, but $800 a month is a little steep.  I recently found Room Mate searching sites that let you find a place to rent with someone else, and I wrote to some people and maybe will be doing that.  I realize it's outside of my character, but if I can save $300/mo., that's almost $2,000 over the next 6 months that I could put to living / loans.  At first I thought I would definitely require an apartment of my own, but I have had the best experience ever sharing a place with the person I roomed with at college.  It's really too bad he wasn't staying in the area as he became my best friend in Rochester.  In the very least I'm going to miss living with him and playing games, making fun of TV, and having someone to talk about Pokemon with.  (Yes, I still love Pokemon, get over it!)  I think throughout the years I've gotten used to having people around, if nothing else just to say hi to, so if I can save $300 - $400 a month by rooming with tolerable people, I'm going to give it a try.  And it just so happens that the people I have written to have furnished apartments, something that none of the other places I've looked at have.  So... it'd be nice to have a bed and stuff up here and not have to worry about hauling it.  I have until the 16th of May to work this out, then UR gives me the boot (or makes me pay out my butt for late fees!)  At $50 a night... no thanks!  /end long paragraph/


As for hobbies that I mentioned previously... let's see.  I still love everything Japanese, so I'm on the never ending journey to become fluent in Japanese!  (To read more about this, read my blog about Japan!  ^_^)  I'm still into video games, not as much as I once was, but I still enjoy them.  Perhaps with less school work I'll play them more.  Manga!  I just got into that.  For those of you un-cool cats not in the know, Manga is the comic book form of Japanese animation.  It's like... a graphic novel, much like a comic book, but much more accepted in Japan than comic books are here.  I also really enjoy and have recently been practicing Poi and Juggling.  When I get a place and have the means to do so I'll record my crazy Poi skills (which have improved since last video).  And I still loooove photography, and am stoked to get a new camera from my Grandparents for graduation!  =)  Other random hobbies I've picked up over the last half a year or so are Texas Hold 'Em Poker (low stakes, don't worry!), competitive Pokemon online, and expanding my Japanese music library!


Let's see... some things I've learned.
1) Life goes fast.  Much faster than I could ever have expected.  I remember Christmas time when I was starting to get ready to apply to jobs and how I started around March, and honestly, April just seemed to never happen.  I don't really remember what happened in April but I soon found myself finishing my final projects in May and was like, "Holy Shit, I'm graduating in 2 or 3 weeks!"  It's a strange feeling.  It's like this feeling of being free yet sort of defenseless all at the same time.   Nobody's prepared for what happens next until they are thrown into it, and at that point it's all about who adapts the most.  Hopefully college has taught me things about myself that will let me survive and not be ripped apart by the metaphorical demons of reality.  
2) True love is a great thing to have.  As many of you might know, I'm still with the girl I was with when I graduated high school.  She's been a great support to me the whole time, and there isn't a day I wish that I wasn't closer to her.  We attend(ed) different colleges, still in NY, but far enough away to make visiting difficult.  I can't wait until we're both done with college, or at least undergraduate college, so I can be closer to her because she really means so much to me in my life.  
3) I'm really good at making friends with people a short period of time before I'll never see them again.  Like in Japan with Dobby, Emily, and the entirety of the Hakone and Baraki Nakayama males group, I just got to know a few people in the CS department and the Linguistics department I never knew before.  One of the CS people is Japanese and likes similar things I do, and it's possible that I'll never see him again.  And another I played Tetris with online in Web Programming and took a Graphics Course with.  It's possible I'll see them again now that I'll be up here for half a year+, but the idea is the same.  
4) On the counter side of that notion, I have learned that good friends are great things to have.  Alongside the person I've been housed with for the last 3 years, I've made a handful of good friends in the CS department.  It really takes the very last week of classes to realize that you might actually miss these people, which for those of you who knew my tendencies a few years ago, may come as a surprise.
5) Caring parents are great things to have.  I'm not just saying this because I feel obliged to; I really mean it.  They've been there when I have had questions about anything as well as helping me through college.  Not only my parents, but everyone around me in Waverly and the surrounding areas, and all relatives in general.  I probably wouldn't be where I was today if it weren't for them.
6) LOST keeps getting weirder, and I'm not convinced it will end coherently.  So there was this plane crash in Season 1, mysterious Others in Season 2, new parts of the Island in Season 3, rescued people in Season 4, time travel in Season 5, and giant smoke monsters that are really dead guys and more things that don't make sense in Season 6.  It's going to end in 3 episodes I think.  I found myself watching this, Supernatural, and House a lot my last semester, and I thoroughly enjoy all 3 of them.


I'm sure there are more than 6 things I've learned, and perhaps they'll come at later posts, but for now I'm heading to bed.  Sorry about not writing or updating anyone, and hopefully this will inform some people of what's going on.


And in a last ditch effort, if you liked this entry and want to see more, any sort of donation to help pay back my enormous college loans will guarantee further postings of wit, humor, and reality.  But really this is just an out-on-a-limb ploy, and regardless of whether you donate or not I'll continue to write.  Probably a bad strategy to admit that, but it really was meant as a joke.  Unless you want to.  By all means.  Send away.  I'll paint you some calligraphy if you do.  It'll say something meaningful, and not something immature like "penis" or something, promise.  But you might have to trust me on that one, because it will be in Japanese.


Anyway, I should go to bed now.  My first ever job starts in 8 hours!  Exciting!  I'll update this blog regularly, maybe I'll set a specific day, maybe I won't.


And if you're wondering about the URL, well, you don't see me making fun of your URLs!  I like platypuses.  They're weird.  Like life.


Thanks for reading, and more to come later (I promise!),
Damian