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| Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 | | 9:32 pm |
Orientation
Today was the first day of orientation. It was mostly boring, but it's the official beginning of my new career. I'm pretty stoked. | | Monday, August 17th, 2009 | | 1:30 pm |
Pre-Orientation
I've taken the first step towards my new career. Today was pre-orientation, which is a poorly named first day of orientation. Basically, it's all paperwork. But now I've got my paperwork done, and I've got my student ID in hand. Now, all I have to do is sit through three days of boring orientation lectures, and then classes start on monday! Current Mood:  excited | | Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | | 11:58 am |
Key West
I've said before that I want to use this thing more, so I guess I'll write up our recent trip to Key West. CVS writes out our schedule a few weeks in advance, so I found out I had a five consecutive days off. I hadn't expected to get into school, so I didn't ask for an 'end of summer vacation.' As such, I had to take what I could get, and five days was more than enough time to get in a quick impromptu trip. We decided to go to Key West, but we thought we'd cut costs by stopping in Key Largo going down and coming back, since you can stay there for a LOT less. We started our trip after work on Sunday (I work until 6), and then driving to Key Largo. It's about 3-4 hours to Key Largo depending on traffic and the number of stops, so we got in kind of late. The hotel was about what we expected. We got up pretty early the next day to make the pretty trip to Key Largo. The keys are really pretty to drive through, so even though it takes over two hours to drive a mere 115 miles, it's not all that bad. You have water on both sides. When we finally made it to our hotel, we wanted to upgrade our room. Hotels.com said we could, but apparently Southernmost hadn't gotten that message. I didn't think I seemed that unhappy, but the person at the desk said she'd give me the upgrade for free because I didn't seem pleased. I was more than willing to pay for the upgrade, I just wanted to pay the hotels.com price, not their more expensive upgrade price. But I'll definitely take free. After taking all our gear to our room, we set out to explore. We saw Hemmingway House, something I'd strongly recommend. It's pretty cool, and the stories are worth the 11 dollars per person. We followed that with the southernmost point, which is kind of a tourist trap, but it's one of those things you kind of have to do. We finished up the day by going to a butterfly preserve, which Caroline really enjoyed. After that, we wandered down to the docks to watch the sunset and grab a cheap dinner. The sunset was kind of disappointing, and in fact, it was like that all week. Clouds blocked most of it every night. At least there are some neat things to see while waiting for it, but the southernmost bagpiper got a bit old after about five minutes. The other street performers were fun. The next day we had a trip booked to do a sunset cruise/snorkel trip. I have to say, the snorkeling in Key West is better than most SCUBA trips I've been on. Apparently, Key West has the third largest reef system in the world behind the great barrier reef and Belize. I've been diving a few times, but I don't think I've ever seen such a diverse amount of fish in one trip. And the best part was I didn't have to worry about air usage. I could swim the entire hour and change without going topside and missing the action, because the deepest the water got was about 20 feet. I cannot recommend that trip more. Go. Go now. Our last day on the island was spent deep sea fishing, something I was a bit worried about. I've been before, and we caught absolutely nothing. Charter boats don't come cheap, and a six hour trip is 185 bucks per person. Luckily, we picked the right boat. We started the day off with me catching a seven foot long sailfish. That was pretty awesome. Sailfish are strictly catch and release, so I had to let it go, but I'll get a sportsmanship award mailed to me for actually letting it go. Everyone on the boat caught a Mahi-mahi, but the one Caroline caught was the biggest. Mine was the smallest, but it'll still make for a decent meal. After that, we had to start heading back. We celebrated our anniversary at waterfront restaurant in Key Largo, and we had some of the BEST rum cake ever. Oh, speaking of deserts, the key lime pie in Key West is awesome. I recommend Kermitts. We thought it was better than Blonde Giraffe, the other major pie maker on the island. So now we're back home. It's a bummer having to go back to work, but it was a good trip. | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 11:32 am |
I think I'll use this thing again
I know I've made the promise 'to post more often' before, but this time I really think I mean it. I started this journal to chronicle my time in Japan, a major chapter of my life. And in August, I will be starting a new chapter in my life, as I finally begin pursuing my career in life. Though I don't think it'll be QUITE as exciting as moving to Japan, I still think it'll be an adventure, and it might just surprise me. Someday, I look forward to reading this journal and seeing what I was thinking at some of these critical stages of my life. As for right now, I'm excited. I enjoy working in a pharmacy, but I hate the restrictions of being a technician. I WANT to help people, but I am bound by my status to defer even the easy questions to which I know the answer to the pharmacist. Even something as simple as a steroid like prednisone is used for inflammation is a question I am legally required to defer. In just under two months, I'll be back in school for real this time. I was briefly a student at MCC, but I knew in my heart that it was temporary. And it was easy. I took top marks in all four classes with very little work. I want to be challenged, and I know I'll get that at Lecom. I'm actually a little worried about a couple of the classes being a bit TOO hard, but I'll just have to work harder. It's been a long ride. I had a poor interview and ended up on the bottom of the alternate list, but through my perseverance, I was finally offered a spot in the class of 2013. I'm ready for it to begin. Current Mood: excited | | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | | 2:39 pm |
I'm in!
I never use this thing anymore, but I'll make an exception today. I just got accepted to pharmacy school! In four years, I'll be a Pharm D! | | Thursday, June 26th, 2008 | | 7:43 pm |
Milestones
It's been a while since I posted on here, but today is a bit of a milestone. As of today, I have been married to Caroline for exactly two and a half years. It doesn't feel like it has been that long, and yet, at the same time, it feels like we've been together a lot longer. There have been times in my life before I met Caroline that I could have sworn she was there because it feels like we've always been together. Though it doesn't really compare to being married for two and a half years, today I met my goal of bench pressing 200 pounds. I was hoping to do it before I leave for Florida, and we move in one week. I was able to do two repetitions of 205 pounds, which also means, I can bench my weight, since I weigh 202 pounds. In other good news, today my company shot what will eventually end up as a YouTube commercial for Biocoat. We make coatings for medical devices that, when wet with water, become extremely slippery. In the commercial, we will claim that we have coated a hallway with our coating. The video begins with me pouring soapy water on the floor, and then sliding down the hall as if it were a giant Slip 'n' Slide. It closes with our new slogan, "Slippery when wet." It was a LOT of fun to do. Every company needs giant Slip 'n' Slide day. As mentioned before, I'm moving in a week. I can't wait to get into our new house. Current Mood: cheerful | | Friday, May 30th, 2008 | | 8:52 am |
| | Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 | | 4:36 am |
We're still in Saigon. It's been a couple busy days. Yesterday, we took a city tour and saw most of the highlights. We started things off at a big temple, which I enjoyed. After that, we went to the Reunification Palace. Before the fall of Saigon, it was the president's palace, and it was really neat. I have pictures of everything. After that, we went to this big open air market. I'd already been there earlier in the day with Caroline and her dad, so I was looking for some more athletic shirts. In Vietnam, they come in handy since it's really, really, really hot in here. Anyways, while I was there, this guy shoves this pair of jeans in my hand. Apparently, in Vietnam, you can't really window shop, and once you have it in your hand, they expect you to buy it. The jeans were a really expensive brand in America, so I decided to ask what they wanted. They said about 42 dollars. I don't really like paying 42 bucks for jeans in the US, let alone jeans that might not even be actual brand name (they probably are the same jeans, just making it to that market by...other means). I tried to leave, but they weren't too intent on letting a sale go, so they asked me how much I'd be willing to pay. I figured I'd give them a ridiculously low number, and they'd let me go out of disgust. That didn't work. They kept bargaining trying to get me to buy them. Finally, they got down to my offer of 300,000 Viet Dong, which is about 18 bucks, and for that, I'll take them. In America, they'd probably set me back 150. And they look good. I could use a pair of jeans for the return flight anyway. Next, we went on a ride in a cyclo (a one-seat bike taxi thing), and it was probably one of the most intense things I've ever done. Traffic in Saigon is insane in a car, but to be IN the traffic where you can feel motorbikes whoosh by is another experience altogether. I'm not quite sure I'd want to do it again, but it was certainly something I'll never forget. We ended up the tour by going to an embroidery shop. It's amazing what they can do, and, like everything else in Vietnam, they are not expensive. The biggest one we could find was around 450 dollars. Before they told me, I had it pegged at over two grand. The thing was gorgeous, and I have no doubt that we'll eventually hang one in our house. Honestly, I couldn't frame one for what it would cost me to buy it and ship it to the US. They practically give the things away. Today we took another tour, this time to the Cu Chi tunnels. Considering dad was in the war, I wanted to see the tunnels the Viet Cong used in the war. I learned a LOT about how the other side fought the war, and I honestly didn't expect the tunnels to be as small as they were. Most of the entrances were tiny, and I barely fit in one, and even then, I got stuck at my chest. Perhaps if I went head first like I did with the hole in the temple with the giant Buddha in Japan, I could fit, but I wasn't getting above my arms otherwise. Caroline fit, although snugly. Then we saw some of the other tunnels that were meant for more people. Even then, they were just barely big enough for a person to crawl through. Altogether, there were about 150 miles of tiny tunnels in this region. I went through about 30 meters of one. It was really interesting for me to see what they did in the war, and I can see why it was so hard to fight the Viet Cong. I definitely came out of the trip with a better understanding, and it helped having Caroline tell me more about the war from the Vietnamese peoples' point of view. | | Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 | | 8:19 am |
In Hong Kong
I'm in Hong Kong right now. We're about to board the plane to Ho Chi Minh City. I've been in airplanes for 19 hours, and I am very, very glad my father-in-law brought some prescription sleeping pills. I slept like a baby on that last flight, and I'm in top shape for the rest of the day. I'll post when I can. If I can. | | Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 | | 3:40 pm |
Been Busy Lately
I've not really been posting on here as much as I'd like because I've been so very busy recently. In the past few days I have: Made the down payment on my house Signed all the closing papers Wired the money for closing costs Got my car serviced Got Caroline's car serviced Set up for my bunny to be boarded while I'm in Vietnam Bought new clothes for trip to Vietnam Picked out furniture for living room Confirmed invite for E3 Reconfirmed invite for E3 Booked flight for E3 Put in housing request for E3 I guess on paper, it doesn't look like that much, but in reality, it has been a lot of work. The stuff for the house required a lot of time on the phone to set up wire transfers, and there was a bit of a snafu regarding the down payment. It has since been rectified, but it caused me to spend more time on the phone. I also had to spend a lot of time on the phone regarding E3. But that's all behind me as I am now registered, and my hotel should be booked soon. Now all that's left is to go to Vietnam with my wife's family, enjoy a couple weeks on vacation, move to Florida, and spend a week in LA before coming home to a job that I haven't quite found yet but will no doubt find soon. It'll be nice to actually relax, if I ever get to. | | Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 | | 1:13 pm |
Couch Shopping and Workouts
Even before they accepted our offer on the house, Caroline and I have been shopping for furniture. Surprisingly, it was easier to find a house than it has been to find a couch to put IN the house. We haven't even begun to look at a dining room set, patio furniture, or anything else yet. At least we've decided on a few things we'll do for decorating, including stealing really nifty idea from IKEA. When I saw how simple it was, I have no doubts that I can't go to the hardware store and do exactly the same thing they've done for about half the price per square foot. It's not like I wouldn't have to put it together myself anyway. In other news, I've finally managed to keep the New Year's resolution to hit the gym. As a present, Caroline got me four sessions with a personal trainer, and it really jumpstarted my routine. I've been working out for about three months, and I'm definitely noticing changes. My waist looks thinner, and I have more muscle definition than I've ever had. I've even started to notice that things that used to be heavy are significantly lighter. I recently carried four packs of soda all the way from the underground garage to our apartment with a long wait for the elevator, and I was shocked at how easy I found that task. I've done this before, but I felt like my arms were going to fall off, and I'd usually set them down to rest during the elevator ride up. I only hope moving doesn't destroy my workout. The place has a fitness center, but despite being nice, it lacks the proper weights for me to effectively work out. Current Mood: chipper | | Saturday, April 5th, 2008 | | 1:18 pm |
House Hunting
I know I haven't written in this thing, but I so rarely have news that is worthy of writing down in my LJ. As a bit of backstory, Caroline has been working towards getting into medical school since we've been married. Unfortunately, her she did not get into med school on her first attempt, so she got into a post-bac, pre-med masters program. After expanding her search to include schools of osteopathic medicine (something she was interested in anyway), she got accepted to the Lake Eerie School of Osteopathic Medicine in Bradenton, FL. For those not familiar, graduates of schools of osteopathic medicine have the title D.O, and it's something like an M.D. with a bit of chiropractics thrown in for good measure. We flew down to Florida a week ago with four days to look for a home. My parents winter in Florida, and they had already done a little recon work for us. At their recommendation, we first looked into a neighborhood called Forest Creek, where we found a house that we fell in love with. Though we went to other neighborhoods that had features we liked better than what we found at Forest Creek, nothing quite compared to what we found first. After viewing 14 houses, we settled on our new home. I'd post pictures of it, but I think a video does it more justice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy_33YHqKHoWhen we were looking at it, we were told that they would not be able to budge much on the price. With that in mind, I made an offer about 20 thousand dollars less than the asking price to see just what they'd do. They countered with an offer that was a little higher, and we said we'd think about it. So we went to lunch, saw another house and came back. I said we'd just come back from visiting another house, and I thought my original offer was still pretty good. So good, in fact, I was willing to walk away if it wasn't accepted. That was enough to convince them that my offer was good enough, and we're taking what we saved on a house that "didn't have any wiggle room" to buy furniture. To say that we are excited would be an understatement. I cannot WAIT to get into my new home. I'm even getting excited looking at furniture. We think we've picked out a couch, but we still need to look at a dining room table. It's exciting stuff, and it might be enough to keep me writing in here. Current Mood: ecstatic | | Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 | | 2:14 pm |
It's official
Yesterday was election day, and Philadelphia has a certified Nutter for mayor. It says so right on his birth certificate. So I now bid welcome to Mayor Nutter. Will he be better than Mayor Street? I have no idea. All I know is that he has the best name for a mayor ever. Just for that, he has my full support. But mainly, I'm just glad that elections are over. I absolutely abhor all the TV commercials. They're all the same. "You may have seen a recent ad by Mr. X. In it, he says I totally suck. Well I'm here to say that those were nothing but lies. In fact, Mr X. is a bad person. I even saw him kick a puppy once. I'm completely awesome, so vote for me." If it were up to me, I'd vote that neither of you get any office. Ever. I don't even watch the stupid commercials (I skip them with my DVR), but their very being bothers me. Why can't people just say "I have served the community in the following ways. Please remember me come election day." Is that so hard? I might actually vote for a person that seemed like someone that is a decent person. In other news, I picked up Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for my Wii yesterday. I'd nearly forgotten what a hard game feels like. I'm getting completely smashed on each chapter, but it makes you want to come back and try it again. Try it better. I'm only on chapter three, but I am enjoying this game so very much. I can't wait to play it tonight. | | Sunday, October 28th, 2007 | | 4:56 pm |
I know it's been forever since I've posted on here, but I'm still alive and well. There hasn't been THAT much news going on, so I never take the time to post. I have, however, updated my photo galleries. I've added some pictures of our bunny, a few shots of the pumpkins we carved, and a picture of my DS that was signed by Miyamoto. To be honest, the only news I have is I have upgraded to Leopard, and I love it. Very much. It's stuff like this that makes me happy to be a Mac user. Anyways, enjoy all the new pictures here: http://pics.livejournal.com/jyoudan_sensei/ Current Mood: cheerful | | Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 | | 1:29 pm |
| | Thursday, July 12th, 2007 | | 1:01 am |
| | Sunday, June 17th, 2007 | | 9:56 pm |
| | Thursday, May 17th, 2007 | | 12:29 am |
Thank goodness for friends
When things start falling apart at the seams, thank goodness for friends. Thank you Jody, LK, and Caroline. I don't know what I'd do without people like you in my life. | | Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 | | 11:18 am |
Weekend
I've been meaning to sit down and write about this weekend. It was a pretty good one, I think. We started things off somewhat early on Saturday by watching a matinée showing of Spiderman 3. I actually liked it a lot. In some ways, I like it better than the first one, but in others I don't. In the end, I was pretty satisfied with what I got for 7.50. After that, we hit up Wendy's and Chick-Fil-A. Wendy's has a new burger with mushrooms and onion, and it looked pretty tasty, but they are a bit lacking in the fries department. So we went next door to Chick-Fil-A to get fries and a milkshake, which was quite tasty. It's one of the better milkshakes I've had, and considering it comes from a fast food restaurant, that speaks very highly of it. Later that night, we watched Children of Men on DVD. I suppose it's not a bad movie, but I get the feeling it would make a better book than movie. It jumps right into things with very little explanation. You're able to piece things together about the beginning by the time you get to the end, but it would have helped to know what was going on. I get the feeling that it's the kind of movie that makes a lot more sense the second time you watch it, but I don't really feel compelled to watch it again. On Sunday, Caroline and I went down to the river for another picnic and to fly kites. I found out last week that she had never flown one, so I decided that was something I had to change. We'd picked up a couple cheap plastic ones at Target, and they flew pretty well. The weather was perfect for kite flying; plenty of wind but not so much as to destroy our admittedly cheap kites. Not surprisingly, Caroline's kite featured Hello Kitty. Mine was Justice League, and that was mainly because that was about all they had. Sadly, there weren't any cool kites for boys at Target. After a few minutes, Caroline got the hang of flying her kite, and we both had them at the end of their strings. I got mine caught in a tree twice , and it managed to get untangled both times. The first time I wasn't paying attention to my kite; I was trying to untangle Caroline's line. The second time a gust of wind sent it sailing right into the top of the tree. I figured it was a goner and had just said so when another gust of wind picked it up and sent it flying again. We followed up the kite flying with root beer floats for a pretty nice end to the day. It's nice to have good weekends. We're both so busy during the week that we need a couple days to unwind. Current Mood: happy | | Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 | | 9:21 pm |
Two in one day
There was something I forgot to put in my most recent post. Yesterday I got my invitation to E3 in the mail. A year ago, I would have been so happy, but this year is very bittersweet. I am among the few that got in, but I can't make it this year. I can only hope I get invited next year. In somewhat better news, today I got a new DDR pad. I've played DDR only a handful of times since I graduated from Tulane, and it has never been seriously. I played for around two hours tonight, and I actually did pretty well. I was worried that I'd lost my skills, and while it's true that I'm not as good as I used to be, I've not completely lost all my skills. In fact, I still passed a couple really hard songs, though I will admit I BARELY passed. I've been wanting to lose a few pounds, and I know that I can stick to DDR. I also know that it's one heck of a workout. I just hope the pad holds up. So, sometimes things are a bit of a mixed bag. All in all, the good far outweighs the bad, but I have to admit that it breaks my heart that I can't go to E3. It's part of having a job and being an adult. Current Mood:  tired |
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