Wow, another academic year is coming to a close. Next week I will have completed my third year at CMA and will go to Guam on a two month internship, followed up by a two month cruise. A lot is on my plate right now. The knowledge of the upcoming work involved over the summer has kinda left me fried and burned out. I've even been unable to complete a few paper about subjects that I really enjoy. I just stare aimlessly at my computer screen until my eyes glaze over and I go to sleep.

So I took a break.

Last week I took it easy in school. My profs were all really understanding. I really don't know how to thank them! They let the time limits on the assignments slide and haven't demanded much from me. They gave me a little breathing room so I could regain my bearings.

How did this happen?

Easy, I like to work hard...really hard. I can do this so long as I get the occasional weekend away to recharge. Well, I didn't get a recharge time. Usually I fence and fight in the SCA, but since I injured my knee, I can't do that. I like going to the gym on a regular basis for a hard workout, but I have been so busy that I haven't been in over two weeks. The workload that stares me in the face becomes more and more overwhelming when I do not get an opportunity to relax a little and get my head clear. So I took a little break. Didi something different.

I pledged to a fraternaty that both my father and grandfather belonged to. Alpha Epsilon Pi...AEPi

I am really enjoying it. the people are fine and serious students who enjoy and organize a strong social atmosphere. They are respectful of schoolwork and the demands that academia requires as well as the party life needed to rejuvenate a tired soul.

Also, I realized that I took some proactive action about two months back to stock up for finals. You see, I know a few of my reflexes. I completely realize that I become jittery and irritable during finals. There is a tea dealer in China Town who introduced me to a blend called "blue tea" (it's actually a light green). It works with a couple of herbs to settle down overtaxed nerved without knocking the holy living crap-pola out of me. I shared a couple of pots of it with my equally nervous friend, Matt Mulczinski and we both feel much better. The stuff really works. I actually have been writing again and do not feel tired or burned out. I am going to keep some of that tea on hand at all times from here on out. It was worth the travel and the expense to get it. Fantastic stuff.

As for me, I will be traveling the world one last time with CMA. I will keep this log as a diary of my journey and hope that any of you who read it will find it amusing enough to comment on.

--Ciao
Just what I needed.

Tags: too much stuff
Current Location: The Ship
Current Mood: anxious

. Can you cook?

2. What was your dream growing up?

3. What talent do you wish you had?

4. Favorite place?

5. Favorite vegetable?

6. What was the last book you read?

7. What zodiac sign are you?

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?

9. Worst Habit?

10. Do we know each other outside of lj?

11. What is your favorite sport?

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:

16. Do you have any pets?

17. Do you know how to do the macarena?

18. What time is it where you are now?

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22. What color eyes do you have?

23. Ever been arrested?

24. Bottle or Draft?

25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?

26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?

27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?

28. Do you believe in ghosts?

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30. Do you swear a lot?

31. Biggest pet peeve?

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

Yay! it has finally stopped raining and being cold.

Today I am going to take a break from the daily academic grind and plan stuff for a short vacation. This weekend is the San Francisco China Town New Years parade and I managed to snag a hotel room for a couple of nights. So I will grab a bag and make sure my homework is packed away with a change of clothes. I gotta whole lot of drinking to catch up on. I be lookin' forward to this! Mwahahaha

In the meantime, there is a ton of papers I need to write followed up by a presentation and a couple of exams. In other words...normal

On a different note (sort of), I accepted an internship offer in Guam this summer. This sounds like a lot of fun. I get to be close to my second home in Japan as Guam is a bilingual place (English and Japanese). Also, finally getting to use some of my training in the real world is a welcome relief from the all encompassing world of academic theory! For the internship, I will be working with the US Coast Guard in the Sector 14 Planning Department and have been tasked with rewriting the entire oil spill containment and recovery policy.

All this and the tropics too!

In school, I've gotten to the point where I feel like I am spinning my wheels and have been asking some very important questions: "Why am I working so hard? Where does what this lead to? Why am I sacrificing so much to learn this stuff and how does it all fit into the big picture?" Hopefully these simple but important questions will get answered while doing this internship.

On other notes:

Great fencing lesson last night! I was taught a couple of very slick saber moves.

Crown tourney is coming up in a couple of weeks

Knee surgery is ALSO coming up in a couple of weeks (This little factoid is absolutely related to the two previous mentioned activities.)

My diet is working out very well and coupled with the constant weight lifting regimen, I am looking much thinner and more fit.

Soon, I will figure out how to add pics and things.

Until later...Mata ne

Tags: axe-cell-ant
Current Mood: cheerful

Things went really well so far today ( I never judge a day 'till it's over). I got up extra early to work on a powerpoint presentation on the Japanese language to teach in class. My classmates all seemed to have a good time. I managed to keep them laughing all while teaching the very very very basics of Nihongo.

We also got our cruise itinerary today. yatta!!!! My ship will pull into Niigata Shi during the first week of August--The biggest food and drink, and I mean booze...lot's and lots of booze (0_o).

Awesome!!!

I took the BART to the San Francisco airport yesterday to see my other SCA sword fighting friends off on their trip back home to Tokyo. It's great seeing a burly Japanese man dressed like a German Landskenect walking through SFO. I went in uniform. Must have been quite a sight.

BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit. Your basic train subway combo. Not to be confused with the Fairfield Area Rapid Transit, the Sacramento Heights Internal Transit or the Bay Area Keepers Association.

Anyhoo, I have an MRI scheduled for my knee on this Sunday. Surgery for the torn meniscus will be before I leave for Guam in May.

Heeheehee...food and drink fest...heeheeheehee

Tags: wheeeeee
Current Location: On the ship
Current Mood: amused

Wow, what a week! It seems like I am falling apart. No matter what I do to keep myself healthy and in shape, something seems to happen. First my knee went out (turns out I tore my meniscus...no biggie, easy surgery, done it before). Then, out of nowhere, I broke my finger while walking off the ship when my hand got stuck in one of the brow stantions. Just when this little factoid sunk in my head, I got sick enough to scare one professor into throwing me out of his office. When I got better, my doctor told me that I now have a cholesterol level over 250 and I should have had a heart attack by the time I turned 30. The problem with this is that I am 35. That one hurt!

You see, my friends and I always joke that the food at the galley was going to kill us, but we were joking dammit! Nobody took it seriously. So now I am on the oatmeal eating plan and currently have a diet equivalent to a plow horse (minus horse like proportions). For the past month I have been on this diet and have to admit that it is working great! My new goal is to try to get back to my original weight of 7 pounds 12 ounces (heehee).

To show how far the healing has gone, last night, I was able to fence again for the first time since I hurt my knee about a month ago. Using a new brace invented by the Borg and going to the weight room daily so I know I am in good enough shape to fight so long as I was very careful. Being overly careful, however, has a side effect. Since the injury, I have been favoring one leg over the other while walking and such. For those of you reading and are unfamiliar with my strange hobbies--fighting is just a wee bit more strenuous. The end result was that I pulled an ass muscle and freakn' can't sit. Then when I do manage to sit, I can't get up! Additionally, I can't sneeze, fart or sh*t without feeling like my ass is going to fall off. Fer cryin' out loud!!! This situation might be better if my friends would stop laughing at me when I try to do any of the above mentioned activities. Oooh! Wait till I heal up and grab a sword! In the meantime, I will just have to take the good with the bad.

Today was when some of the good came my way. It was a fine day in class (except for the sitting and standing parts). My last class was canceled because the professor needed the time to finish grading enormous reports and polish up a paper due for publication next week. So a little free time was to be had. As an added bonus, today was the first 70+ degree weather day of the year and a blessing I will gladly take. To walk about along the shore of the beautiful California Maritime Academy and enjoy the first showing of spring. I just have to make sure I don't sit, stand, sneeze, crap or pass gas.

Usually I really am quite serious. Honestly...

Tags: pain