It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

There were midterms right around the corner; the sumo season officially began with the release of this basho's banzuke (rankings). There was good news about the summer; there was bad news about my favorite calculator. E-commerce had blessed Fort Dod with Karaoke revolution, e-commerce had dealt me the big screw, and no snowman was safe.

So yeah. My day to day life isn't random at all.

This big news of late is that I'm quite likely travelling to Japan this summer. I applied for Princeton's summer program, at which I'd basically just be taking a year of Japanese in two months, at the same time immersed in Japanese culture. The other day at the language table, Makino-sensei, the coolest little Japanese guy ever (he imitated shiko at the table, come on) who's also in charge of decision making for Princeton in Ishikawa, asked me when I'm buying my plane ticket for Japan. Good news. Also, I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to grab enough financial aid to make the trip feasable. I'm told that even if the East Asian Studies department doesn't give me as much as I need, there are other sources of funds that I can take advantage of if need be. Wow. I've never been overseas, and the prospect is exciting to say the least. I mean, it's Japan! I can ride the frictionless subway in Tokyo and watch senshuraku live in Nagoya!

So anything else I could write about is dull by comparison, but I feel like I should explain the random crap from the beginning of the post.

• It's midterms week next week. Booh!
• The banzuke came out on monday, and since nobody cares, I'll add that I was shocked to see Kotooshu at Komosubi, since he was predicted to be at M2 or M1 tops. That makes him tied for the record for fastest rise to the sanyaku. Ha! I just wasted ten seconds of your life.
• My roommate asked me a question about torques tonight, and in order to demonstrate a point, I grabbed a random object from my desk, namely, my favorite calculator. This baby's been with me since high school algebra. During said demonstration, I dropped it and it broke. In the five stages of grief, I'd say I'm still in denial. Every once in a while I stare blindly at the screen whilst repeatedly pressing the on button.
• Fort Dod bought Karaoke revolution, the singing version of Dance Dance Revolution. It's quite silly, and hence perfect for that circle of friends. Hey, I got to witness a grown man singing Genie in a Bottle. If that's not five minutes well spent, I don't know what is.
• I ordered this BMW lighter (near replica of Strong Bad's model) like months ago, and the guy sent me a Volkswagen lighter instead. I emailed him asking for the right one, but I still haven't received it. It's high time I took action. Maybe I'll fly to Australia and burn dog shit on his doorstep. Yeah.
• The other night, my friend Noah (trumpet player with the PUB) and I and some other people went on a snowman killing mission. Equipping ourselves with baseball bats, two by fours, a sword, a copy of what is perhaps the worst physics text ever written, and a video camera, we headed up campus to beat the living hell out of a snowman we'd been told existed in the Mathey quad. We looked more than a little ridiculous, which prompted Noah to tell us all: "If anyone asks, we're doing, quote 'nothing.'" Who will challenge my possibly correct use of apostrophes and quotation marks? Anyway, it was a pretty productive mission, as we managed to completely destroy not one, but two snowmen, break up a friendly snowball fight, and stick it to my crappy physics book.

To conclude, 'tis a far far better thing...meh. I got nothing.