Joe Nakamura

11:16 pm: A kick in the crotch and some change
The last few weeks have been nothing short of heck-filled and snot-wiped. Two weekends ago I was in Seattle doing a con, then the a great plague hit Haskett, Byan, myself, and Dan (in that order). So I spent the better part of last weekend recovering from the illness, even though Alex was in town, so I don't even know how I kept things under a thousand. And this weekend is Wondercon. So needless to say that I'm running short on steam these days; however, all dark clouds have a silver lining, meaning, Yuko Tanaka is coming back into town next Friday. Yes, my super awesome international girlfriend will be gracing me with her presence before she graduates from her university in Tokyo in March. So I very excited for her to come back to San Jose. And that is all there is to that right now.

12:15 am: Sign me up...
So is anybody else falling in love with the Asian girl from the new Old Navy Christmas commercials. Anybody? No? Really? So it's just me then, eh? She's pretty cute. I mean, she doesn't say much in the commercials; she really only sings, and she can't really be distinguished from the other singers. But she's cute. Hmmmm, so nobody else? Well, then that just means more of her to love, I guess.

10:46 pm: Giving thanks...or something like that.
OK, well it's official, I have to spend not only Thanksgiving but also three other days with my family. I haven't been on a family trip since I was twelve, and this length of family time is something that I'm not really accustomed to, but it's one of those things that makes the family all happy, and I'm willing to do this for them. Yes, I know, how very noble of me.

It seems to me that the recent days,and weeks, and months have been spinning out of control. I've been find that I never really get a foot hold on a day, it just kind of passes. I suppose this is one of those things that happens when one leaves college. I no longer zone off and day dream rather than learn; instead, I find myself thinking about the next task at work that needs to get done, then I do it, and then I think about what else needs to get done. I guess that's a good thing, you know, working.

On a side note that Super Milk Chan opening theme on Cartoon Network is something I could listen to for hours.

11:11 pm: Help
So I've been thinking about going to a Halloween party, but I'd need a costume if I wanted to go, and since I'm a bit rusty on the whole celebrating Halloween thing, I was wondering if anybody had any good ideas for costumes, I'm pretty much just thinking cutting two holes in a white sheet.



And because I love BR...

LJ Battle Royale! by monmonito
Username
Weapon you got:	Sickle
Your goal in the game:	To be heard.
Number of students killed:	80
For fun, you kill:	moskyok
Out of a personal vendetta, you kill:	jdeguzman
Accidentally, you kill:	drtboi
You have an alliance with:	antipathy_
You develop a puppy-love romance with:	bbelew
Watch out for:	jenscrowl
Percentage of survival possibility:: 97%
Dying words:	"I love you man."
Quiz created with MemeGen!

07:56 am: And he's back!
Ok party people,
I'm back from Japan, and boy, are my arms tired. HA HA! No, but really, it is nice to be home. I'm still way to tired to write about the trip. Give me a few days. But soon, I will tell all about it. Time to go get a burrito.

10:11 pm: Japan...
Oh my God. I can't belive that I'm finally going to Japan. I leave on Sunday. I'm packing my backpack tonight and then I'm going to a wedding tomorrow and then it's Japan. What cool things am I goning to see? What new, exciting beer will I be drinking? I don't know, and I love that. Later peoples, I'll see ya when I come back. I'll miss you all, and I'll drink a cold one for ya. Please keep the America in one piece until I come back, huh?

10:46 pm: Sweet Relief
Man oh man, am I happy. I dunno if I ever mentioned it here, but I’m going to Japan on Sept. 5th. Yup, that’s right, Joe Nakamura is going back to the motherland. The plan is I’m going to meet my best friend, Alex, in Tokyo, but he had never gotten back to me about the details, but tonight he emailed with an itinerary. This whole time, as I’ve been getting my ticket, buy my rail pass, purchasing my hiking gear, I had no idea what my best friend’s plan was. The places I plan to visit are Osaka, then Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Toyama. I have no idea where those places are, so don’t bother asking. Man, do I feel so much better now that I now what the hell I am doing.

10:57 pm: I don't think this is quite right

Your LJ Pirate Quest by rachelthedemon
Username
Favorite Color
Age
Your First Mate	moskyok
Your Cabin Boy/Girl	danvado
Your Bodyguard	bbelew
The Bad Guy/Girl	jinjur
Your Obligatory Love Interest	antipathy_
The Fanservicey One	plastik_samurai
Your Coveted Treasure	The secret to World Domination
Number of people you kill to get it	23,973
Number of times you get laid afterward	308
Quiz created with MemeGen!

10:31 pm: In to the Matrix...
So I've been thinking about getting a new car, and I think that I'm going to go for the Toyota Matrix. It's a nice practical car with losts of space for moving things back and forth; I mean, I really need a new car. In the winter, my car leaks; I mean, when it rains water actually comes into my car. So I think this weekend I'm going to go car shopping with my father, since he is, afterall, forking the bill. But, I dunno. I wonder what other people have heard about this car.

06:53 pm: Comic Con and babies
Out of all the comic conventions I do, Comic Con is the most tiring of the bunch. It's a lot of work, but it is always nice to hang out with the people who make our books. While I was away, Scott and Paige had their baby. Little baby Miles is now living with us, and he is the cutest little thing.

I don't have too much to say about the con. I had nice talks with a lot of the creators. They are all super nice people. I use to have a slight phobia about talking to the people who did our books because I usually had nothing more to say than "So how's that book working out for you", but I've gotten over that. Well, I'm just happy it's over till next year, and I just want to let all those who were there and who I talked to that I was super happy to see all of you again.

08:54 pm: Pretty in Joe! Sixteen Nakamuras!
A friend of my once described my love life as a bad John Hughes movie. Something always get in the way of my romance, either it be timing, distance, Godzilla attack: something always gets in the way of me getting romantically involved with someone who I really want to, and today was no different. I woke today to find an email from a young lady who I was romantic with while I was in England. I was a student from America; she was a student from Japan both compelled to stay and study in the United Kingdom. We met through a mutual friend, and we hit it off really well. We went on a few dates and we both had a good time, and since all good things must come to an end, I went back to America, and she went back to Japan. That was two years ago. Since then we have kept in touch but we've kept it light because there is no room for romance for two people five thousand miles away. But today, oh today, I received one the most uplifting emails I have received in a long time, the young lady is coming to San Jose, and SHE WANTS TO SEE ME. Since you asked, of course I want to see her, but the rub is (and there always is a rub) I'm going to be in San Diego for the Comic Con the whole time she is here. And without the help of wacky hijinks, I do not think I’ll be able to see this young lady while she is in California. So today I was most disappointed, but there is a reason for this. There must be, or I have to believe that God is totally teasing me, like how he teased Moses in the desert.

09:43 pm: On graduation, chicago, bad luck.
So I graduated. No really, I graduated from college. I checked my grades today, and I passed all my classes. Yeah for me!

I just recently returned from a business trip to Chicago. FYI: Chicago's nickname is not only clever but also truthful; it is indeed a windy city. I had a great time. I love going further east because the feel and the look of big cities are so much different than the look and the feel that big cities have here in the west. Big cities in the east have more of a culture and a history that are ingrained into that city. Unfortunately, San Jose has none of the charm nor any of the inspiration that cities like Chicago or New York or London have. But Chicago was fun, and the deep-dish pizza was great, oh...and I was snubbed by Jamie Lee Curtis. I kid you not. She walked right into our booth and looked around, and I said, "Hi" and was right about to give her a catalog when she held up the palm of her hand, as to indicate "don't cross the street", and said, "I'm not buying anything." Yup, it was pretty darn awesome.

So we get back home after all the star-meeting-book-selling, and my car would not start. It seemed the battery died. It happens, so I get it jumped, drive home fine and the damn thing would not start this morning. "Crap" says I, and I walked to work. So then I try to deposit my paycheck at the ATM, and I find out that my ATM card doesn't work. I recently go a magnetic money clip and the super, ultra, mega magnet that held my money in place also demagnetized my ATM card. That was mighty bad luck.

10:08 pm: Graduation, graduation, remember your graduation
My oh my, what a weekend. I graduated from college. It started on Friday when I had my department graduation. It was outside, and for some odd reason there was no microphone. I don't know why the heads in the English department did not think of having a mike...I dunno. But because most of the speeches were very quiet I decided to turn I need to bring the funny, and bring it I did. I was loud and funny. That was Friday.
Saturday was the spectacle (read: school graduation). I had to wake up super early to make sure my house would be ready for my relatives that were coming to see me. But then the show began. I was fortunate enough that Jennifer and her husband were there to graduate with me, or I would have been all by myself and it would have been no fun, so thank you Jennifer and Brian for making graduation an experience to be shared. Then the party started...needless to say, details of my party are, in my mind, rather sketchy, but everyone who came said they had a goodtime, and I am happy they all showed up...and that was my graduation day.

09:30 am: School
I’m done! Graduation here I come. In your face San Jose State!

03:13 pm: Ack...
In thirteen days I'll be graduating, and damn I am so strapped for time. Where the hell did it all go? Craps. I have three papers I have to write, a ton of reading that needs to get done and I'm sure a whole lot of other things I can't even think of right now. Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god!


This small freak out is brought to you by "Alcohol"

Alcohol: “The cause of and solution to most of life's problems.”

Go out and drink some tonight with someone you love or by yourself; Alcohol doesn't judge.

09:44 pm: Beauty in eightteen days
Beauty. “Its variety is infinite, its possibility is endless. In normal life all may have it and have it yet again. The world is full of it; and yet today the mass of human beings are chocked away from it, and their lives distorted and made ugly. This is not only wrong, it is silly. Who shall right this well-nigh universal failing? Who shall let this world be beautiful? Who shall restore to men the glory of sunsets and the peace of quite sleep?”

-W.E.B. Du Bois

In eighteen days, my life as a San Jose Student will be over; however, in the game of trying to make a clean break from that institution, my head has been buried in books and my thoughts have been focused on deadlines. I have not taken the time to look around. Du Bois’s quote reminded me that I need to look up every so often during the course of these eighteen days and take a peak at why I’m trying so hard to finish school. I want to live in this world, this beautiful place.
Du Bois is right in stating that lives can become “distorted and made ugly.” It is the focus on the everyday negative-- the minor complications that fall on top of each other like so many fat kids in a doggy pile, while we are underneath them all-- that can really screw up a day. Today was a day like that for me, but I refuse to let the beauty be chocked away from me. In his essay, Du Bois lists four things that he found beautiful on that day; I will do the same:

1. Moon pies. They are good.
2. My Morning Coffee.
3. Battle Royale. Just looking at the DVD case made me smile.
4. The first Budweiser of the evening.

These things are beautiful to me in so many ways.

11:02 pm: He's so sleepy...
he doesn't know what he's saying. Yup, tired. That is what I am.

My friend Brooke came into town this week. It was nice to have her around because when she is around, I feel smart. Not to say that I feel superior to her, but I feel smart. She and I can talk language and writing not because we want to wave our egos around, not because we are trying to show each other who is smarter but because we really like to bullshit about that kinda stuff. It's not often that I stay up till one in the morning talking about Nabokov outside a bar, which is thumping techno beats while two transvestites smoke cigarettes and adjust themselves in front of me. I'm glad she made a visit.

11:33 pm: Shout-Outs
I'd like to give a huge ol' shou-out to my most bestest peeps for their wonderful accomplishments. Alex, getting into grad school without even getting your BS is a damn amazing feat; Myvan, getting into culinary school without making me dinner is an oversight that I hope you fix soon. I hate you both for be so being so damn talented and extraordinary. No really, I’m gonna hunt both of your first-born children and steal their souls.

In other news, the move to the 12th Street Terraces is complete. I have everything I need here DSL, beer, and the dead man’s chair. So, for those of you keeping track at home, I have moved a total of four times in the last two years. I’m hoping to be at 12th street for a least a year. I always say that the first year in a place is the toughest; I have yet to make that statement into a fact. Here’s to hoping.

11:10 pm: Moving
There is nothing I dislike more than moving to another house. It is not exciting. It is not fun. It is annoying. It is time consuming. And it always proves to be more of a hassle than it needs to be. In case you were wondering, yes, I am moving. I will no longer be trapped within the walls of the once splendid 13th Street Promenade. I will be moving to the warm and comforting 12th Street (A clever name for my new house has yet to be coined). I'm happy about the move. I'll be living with Scott and (as of this typing, the very pregnant) Paige.
I just have a lot of crap. I never know how I always have so much stuff. I mean geez; one would think I would learn to throw out some of this stuff. I still have flashcards from Jr. High. Sure, they have all the Latin and Greek roots, and sure they would be very handy to keep around. I just have so much stuff. I really need to learn to throw stuff away. Yes, I think that now that I am moving again, I should turn a new leaf, even if it means throwing away flash cards... that could be very handy in the future; they do, after all, have the Latin and Greek roots. I think I’ll keep them.

07:55 pm: email
At work, I always try to send out email responses to people who order catalogs. I always figure people just read them and throw them away. But this young lady thought this was funny,


i just checked my email.

this is what i sent: (to SLG)

hi. i want a catolog. gimme!

Teresa ***
**** ****** **** ****
Sacramento, CA 95828

thankyouverymuch!

this is the reply:

You want? What about my wants? Well, those aside, I've sent out your
catalog. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for your interest in our company.

Joe Nakamura
SLG Publishing


well..it made me laugh okay!!! jeezus. i take simple things very far.


Well Teresa, thanks for that. You made my day