Well, as I begin to write this entry, I am also working on my philosophy paper (the last thing I will ever do for my undergraduate coursework), moving things out to my car, and cleaning the space in my room that’s slowly getting cleared out. I will finish my paper later tonight, email it in, get some sleep, and then check out of my room at 11:00 tomorrow morning, never to return. Oh, how good it feels to say that last part. Say it with me now – “NEVER TO RETURN.” Very good.
Packing my car up at the end of the year or the quarter or whatever always turns into a bit of an adventure. Due to the fact that I am a photographer and have in my posession massive amounts of equipment in addition to any normal stuff any college student might have, I have become rather adept at squeezing truly absurd amounts of boxes, bags, books, magazines, clothes, etc into the theoretically inadequate interior space of my Ford Escort station wagon. Nevermind that the weight of all this stuff is probably hastening the approach of said vehicle’s eminent death. I have most of my stuff in the car now, but I still have enough bits and pieces left laying about my room that I’m sure that, as always, in the end it will turn into a bit of an exercise in utilizing every little bit of unused space possible. Getting the last few things into the car is always an interesting experience.
So here’s something fun. I go tmy Japanese grade today and let me tell you something – I kicked some major ass in that class this quarter. My final grade was an A and included high points like getting something like 104 out of a possible 100 points on the quizzes. The final exam also went exceedingly well. I got 139/150 to start with, and if you add in the 14 extra credit points I got for knowing some Kanji, my final grade works out to a fantastic 153/150. That’s 102% for those of you keeping track.
And if I did that well during a quarter when I averaged 4 hours of sleep per night the entire quarter and during which I really only studied Japanese for a fraction of the amount of time that I should have, just think how well I’ll be able to do after I get out of here and both get plenty of sleep at night and actually put a decent amount of effort into studying. Should be interesting to see how things go.
While I’m thinking of it, I’m still trying to configure this thing so it’ll display Japanese text properly. Currently no luck as of yet. I downloaded and installed the Japanese language pack for MovableType, but for whatever reason (could be anything, including the possibility that I didn’t install it right) it does not, as of yet, work. I will get it working eventually, though, and when I do I will have a glorious, multilingual blog. Huzzah!
Also, Gainax is the shit.
On Wednesday, I went in to show my two professors the bodies of work I had produced for my independent studies this quarter. In my last entry I wrote about how shittily the mounting process went, etc. I went into this essentially assuming that I’d be doing poorly in both independent studies, as if I was not satisfied with the work, I figured my professors wouldn’t be either. As it turns out, I did fine, which was a relief, I must admit. They certainly had observations regarding how the work could have been improved, but in fact the world did not end (as I had feared in the back of my mind that it would). In the end, the experience was a rather encouraging one. When my advisor looked at the thigns I was going to show to the other professors (my advisor is also one of my professors), he was of the opinion that, while I wasn’t too wild about the work I had produced, most students in the program would be happy to produce such work, and that a rather large (and sadly so) portion of the students couldn’t produce such work. Overall, I talked with four people on the staff and got heartening words from all of them. I always get the feeling that they expect significant things from me in my career.
The portfolio submissions went well, as I just noted, and during the second one the current (interim) director of the program came through and the three of us started talking. We discussed things like grad school, and when I mentioned the grad school I’ve been thinking about in Tokyo, he relayed a bit of information regarding a previous VisCom student who went to grad school in Japan and went about it in a way that I am now consiering as an interesting, if slightly unconventional approach that I believe I may well put into practice.
The following is a general outline of how it would all come together…
As I think I’ve already said in the last entry, I put in an application for the AmeriCorps to start next fall. Assuming I get in (and I really really really hope I get in), I’d be doing stuff with the program for about ten months. While in the program, I would put in my application to go to Japan with the JET program to work as an assistant language teacher teaching English to high school or middle school students. It would be a lot of fun, a good way to get some valuable life experience, an excellent way to improve my Japanese quickly, and a way to spend some time in Japan and try to get my foot in the door at the grad school of my choice before I put in the application. Furthermore, if I live in Japan for a year or so before I apply to the grad school, I think they’ll probably give me a more favorable look, as I will have already proven that I can survive in the country. And if I were to get in, I’d probably go straight from JET to grad school, thus starting another chapter of things.
The grad school in question is Tokyo Polytechnic University in (obviously) Tokyo. I am specifically interested in this program. It’s organized like no other program I’ve come across, the facilities and staff look to be excellent, and what little I’ve been able to find in terms of real-world feedback seems to be extremely positive. I also just think that going to graduate school outside of the US would be a good choice simply for the added experience it would provide. The possibilities are enormous.
About the only downside of all of this that I’ve come upon so far is the probability that, if I take this course of action, I’ll likely not be able to travel to Japan this next summer as I had planned. This is purely for monetary reasons, and as much as I hate to bail out on a trip I’ve been working on planning for some time for reasons dictated by cash flow, I really can’t ignore the facts. I won’t get into the details here, but I think it seems pretty clear that this is the case. But then, if I’m going to live in Japan for 3+ years, I guess I shouldn’t be too upset about having to sacrifice an initial few weeks there next summer.
In other news, I’m looking into the prospect of having some custom ATA cases made for some of my photo gear. ATA cases are cases that are certified by the Air Transportation Association to be able to withstand at bare minimum of 100 times being used and shipped by air while maintaining full protection for whatever happens to be stored inside. These things are heavy and expensive but they get the job done. These are the kinds of cases you see film crews and the like hauling their gear around in. Anvil is probably the top manufacturer of these things, and arguably the best. A custom case to hold my Deardorff 8×10, 4-5 film holders, meter, loupe, and dark cloth would probably run me about $450-500 but would essentially last forever. An alternative are lower-cost air cases from the likes of Tenba or Lightware, and for the time being I may go for something from them, but eventually I’d like to outfit my gear with ATA cases as they’re practically bulletproof.
OK, it’s about 9:10 and I really need to get going on this paper. I do not intend to pull an all-nighter tonight like I’ve been doing so much recently (set a personal record of 6 in 14 days). If I feel compelled to post more later tonight, I’ll do so, but this will be all for now. And if I don’t post later, don’t be surprised if this thing is fairly static for the next 10 days or so. When I leave here tomorrow I’ll be going first to my grandparents’ house over by Springfield, OH, then to Zanesville for Thanksgiving, back to the first place, and eventually back to Missouri on the last day of the month. In the interim period I may or may not have much in the way of internet access, so whether or not I can make any updates between when I leave here and when I get home to MO is debatable.
But enough rambling. On to the paper!
