ToddGoesJapan

８月１２日

2012-08-12T10:56:00.000-04:00

Not too much has been happening the past few days...
I went to the school to take my math placement test and wound up passing all 9 modules. I was pretty shocked if I do say so myself, especially since it's never exactly been my strong point. So now I'm skipping all the remedial math (that I had planned on taking) and going right into the classes I need for my degree. Pre-calculus, here I come...
Other classes include Microeconomics, College Composition 2, and [online] Beginning Japanese 1. I'm curious to see how easy or hard this Japanese class will be. Hopefully I'll learn something new. If not... well, it'll just be an unbearably easy A!

I also just had a friend come back from Taiwan... look at what she got me... ooooh snaaap!

８月４日

2012-08-04T02:52:00.000-04:00

I still haven't found another job but I've finally registered for my Fall 2012 classes.
After this semester I will have hopefully finished up my English classes and Economics classes, wooo!
This will also be the first semester I'm taking a math (ew) and I'll be taking an online Japanese language class (aww yeah).

The girl I like is currently in the Philippines for an English intensive course and she sent me a picture of Boracay Beach!

７月２１日

2012-07-21T02:13:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm aware that I'm pretty bad at this whole blogging thing.
Anyway, since my last post I've been fairly busy. I went to the beach for a week with family.

When I got back I was let go from my job at Kroger... still haven't been told that I'm no longer working there. They told me that I would receive a call once I was back from the beach after a heated discussion. As I'm leaving, I turn around and see one of the managers giving me this disgusted face. At that point, I was pretty sure I wouldn't.

I'm still working with frozen cow treats, saving money to hopefully visit Japan this winter, and just taking it one day at a time. I can't wait for classes to start back and it's just now hitting me that in less than 3 months, I will be legally able to drink. (yay? sigh?)

Oh... and I also had my first encounter with a deer. Fuck.
I still haven't replaced it, packing tape works well enough.

５月３０日

2012-05-30T18:49:00.000-04:00

Oh life, you so crazy.
So you know that job at a certain ice cream place I was talking about?
Well they decided to take the 4 shifts I had this week and turn it into only 2...

I also start training tomorrow at my second job.
It's going to be a busy summer.
Gotta make that money to go back to Japan this winter though. It's not just going to fall out of a tree... well, it might. But I highly doubt it.

I want to see this place in the winter.

５月２８日

2012-05-28T14:56:00.000-04:00

Well... it finally happened
I got my bum ass a job. Cue the world ending and Ride of the Valkyries score.
Though I can't exactly say it was my first choice... it's some sort of income.

Ice cream, anyone?

５月９日

2012-05-09T17:07:00.001-04:00

Well now that school is out, I finally have more time on my hands to do what I want... however I've noticed that for the past few days I've just been catching up on sleep.

Still looking for a job, not too much luck on that front. Been applying like mad. I'm probably just going to print off a ton of resumes and drive around, dropping them off at places.

Apart from that, just been cleaning the room... feels much better not having to jump over mountains of school papers and clothes haha

５月２日

2012-05-02T23:19:00.000-04:00

Apart from school winding down, not a lot has been happening. I've finished two of my exams and have my final exam this Friday. The first two seemed easy... hopefully because they really were.

Tomorrow will be devoted to going and filling out applications for some work. I'll probably wind up working full-time for the summer and drop back to part-time during the fall. As if there would be any other choice.

I also wound up getting another camera to take to Japan this winter. I got a killer deal on it, so I'm going to actually keep this one. Best part? I got two lenses from another Pentax SLR that I sold one of my friends in the past... all it cost me was a toaster oven. One of them is a 70-200mm lens and the other is a prime 50mm f2.0 lens. Here's a picture I took with the 50mm.

Not at all what you'd expect me to take a picture of, right?

４月２６日

2012-04-26T15:59:00.000-04:00

What a typical rainy day... I don't know what it is about these days that make people just want to sleep...
Because that's just what I did. I don't remember hearing either (2 of them) of my alarms go off, I didn't hear my mom leave. Nothing.
My only class today was from 9:30-10:50am. I woke up around 10:20, so either way I would have missed it since it takes me 15 minutes to get to school. Emailed professor and we were just doing review and getting grades back for our 5 page Economics paper - I got a B.
Pardon the very boring post, I'm still supremely tired for some reason.

Anybody want an HTC Inspire? I've rooted and unlocked it as well as taken some of the lovely AT&T bloatware off.
Item number: 330722901542

I love city lights

４月２３日

2012-04-23T21:12:00.000-04:00

I finally got my English research paper completed and turned in, now to just work on my Health paper - two double spaced typed pages, no problem. About why America is fat? I could write a book on that, give me a break haha.

I'm really looking forward to my visitor coming in this summer. Getting her room all finished up, just gotta find some sort of table or something...something...something. It'll be cool to spend time with her, hopefully I won't be too painfully boring lol

I also have a watch up on eBay, anybody in the US is welcome to bid on it... it's only at two odd dollars right now... should've put a reserve on it, figured it'd go up quicker. Item number: 330719288059

Apart from that, not much happening in the life of this college student. No classes tomorrow, so I'll be up all night probably working on this health paper and watching movies...after I get something to eat. My one square meal today didn't really fill me up. Omelette?

A feast fit for a king!

４月１８日

2012-04-18T16:07:00.002-04:00

Well, today I got the Galaxy and Macbook shipped out to their new owners. And this time I ADDED CONFIRMATION AND INSURANCE. Shouldn't have any problems now. SHOULDN'T.
Aside from that, I still haven't received my new debit card - "Oh, it will only take a few days"... a week+, I have a 5-10 page paper due tomorrow for economics explaining why JC Penny is a failing company, still need to finish up my English paper, apparently I have a health paper worth 50 points - which I need after I got my quiz back today, and I'm probably going to Richmond this weekend. So quite busy. Could I complain any more?
Man, I wouldn't mind some warm food on this rainy day... (yes, I could)

４月１５日

2012-04-15T23:29:00.001-04:00

I'm just going to bitch a little today - it turns out that when I went to my bank to put a hold on my account to prevent an overdraft, there was a $25 that I wasn't told about which in fact made me overdraft. So I'm going tomorrow to take the hold off and get my money back for that ridiculous charge that I wasn't told about. Had I known about it, I wouldn't have even bothered.
Now that I'm done with that, it's near the end of the semester for me, I've got a quiz tomorrow, a 5-10 page paper for economics and I have to finish my research paper [just small revisions]. And here I am on youtube, yet again... so figured I'd share what's distracting me:

Looks fun, no?

４月１４日

2012-04-14T20:47:00.001-04:00

Not a post complaining about eBay or anything today, sorry to disappoint you. Just posting to inform the few people that may read this, if they didn't already know, that I am attempting to go back to Japan this winter over my holiday break. I will be spending Christmas and New Years there. An awesome girl I know in Tokyo took some pictures of sakura for me :) such a pretty time. Maybe one of these years soon I'll be able to skip some school and head over for 花見！And you know if you ever want to help me fund that trip for this winter, you know what to click ;)

eBay update

2012-04-12T12:01:00.002-04:00

Just an update for anybody that is at least somewhat interested in what's happening in my life. I had a nice person donate $15 to my Paypal account, names won't be named, but they're awesome regardless.
I also called the customs office again and learned that my package has already left the US, it left out of New York and I asked the guy to e-mail me the documentation that said that so I could forward it to eBay. But... of course a snag has arisen and I have yet to get it. So it looks like I'm calling them again... seriously, what a pain in my ass.

Seriously, fuck eBay.

2012-04-11T01:07:00.001-04:00

It's too bad I need them to pay my bills while I'm in school and out of a job. Otherwise I would have just let that negative balance stay in my Paypal account. So I slapped that Galaxy S back up on eBay to hopefully square away this shit with paypal. I'm thinking about getting a shirt and writing "fuck eBay" on it and posting it for sale. Haha, I'm such a prick.
Anyway, help me get this debt squared away so I can actually get back to paying my bills.
Item number: 330716093982
T-Mobile branded Galaxy S. I tried my hand at rooting and unlocking on this phone, it doesn't reject the AT&T sim that I put in it, so I guess we'll see.
Or if you just want to help by donating, I'm $209.46 in the red. Anything helps - a dollar, 50 cents, 5 dollars, and if you want to be really cool, you could just pay it off :D but I wouldn't expect anybody to do that.
Anyway, if you want to donate, click the button on the right. Thanks in advance!

Yeah...

2012-04-09T21:41:00.001-04:00

So scratch that last entry. As many may not know, I have been doing eBay stuff for the past 5 years. Recently, I was in an "item not received" case. Well long story short, (1 month ago) the guy paid me, I shipped it out the same day, I thought all was peachy. I get a message from him 3 days ago pretty much telling me "where is it? You're the seller, fix this now." ...Ok? And they didn't think to contact me earlier because....? Anyway, I escalated it into a decision from eBay support. I had evidence that I shipped the item out and all he had was his word saying that he hadn't received it. And well, they decided to go with his word. So they try to refund him $209.46. Funny thing... I don't have it. So my Paypal account is in the negative because of this. I call eBay to try and work it out, I call the post office and customs to see if they can help me. No help whatsoever. Ebay tells me I need proof that it arrived in the destination country. The post office or customs won't tell me if it did or not.
Fast forward to 4.5 hours ago. I'm like "Ok, nobody's going to help me solve this? FUCK YA'LL THEN!" Because as an unemployed college student, $210 isn't chump change. So I drive to my bank, tell them that I want to cancel all future transactions, withdrawing or depositing, from paypal to my bank account. So that's done. They can't touch my bank account. The lady at the bank totally understood my situation and tells me I should also cancel my card. So I get home and cancel my card. That's done - card is bad and I'm getting a new one soon. The bank lady also told me I need to email Paypal and let them know that they're not authorized to access any of my accounts. That's done (in a quite professional way, given the circumstances.)
So now I'm done with eBay. And *hopefully* won't hear any more grief about this whole ordeal. I told the buyer to call his post office and customs office (doubt he will) and to let me know if he receives it in the meantime.
What a great day.

(picture completely irrelevant, I just want to be back)

eBay

2012-04-08T22:20:00.000-04:00

It's been a while. I'd almost completely forgotten about this due to my school load being so ridiculous. But it's all starting to wind down, so it's good. Anyway, recently I've been eBaying stuff in to raise a little bit of money for my trip back to Japan this winter. Not saying that whoever reads my blog should bid or bump, but if yah want to ;) First, I got a MacBook: Item number: 330714208616

And second auction is a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S: Item number: 330714572032

However - I won't ship internationally, lately I've been involved in a case with some prick from Moldova trying to scam me saying that he never got his item. Funny thing - he bought two cases for it 18 days after I shipped. Plus I have all of the receipts and customs forms.

I can do anything, huh?

2011-09-01T01:07:00.001-04:00

Well the new school year has started off and I've vowed to myself that I would do my best in my classes. Though they are boring, I've noticed it's easier to just stop procrastinating and get it done. I've also noticed that I really don't have many people I can rely on in recent days. Apart from a few choice family members and one close friend, I really don't have anybody local that I can count on. Furthermore, my financial situation isn't exactly the best right now, I'll need tires before winter, insurance is slowly approaching, I need to pay tuition, and if all goes according to plan, I need to still save up money for when my guest comes in from Japan. These are times that I wish I had grown up in a spoiled household. I hate constantly thinking how I'm going to afford this or that, never even so much as going out with friends unless I can get them to cover for me. Then again, there aren't many people in town now, so the temptation is more or less gone for a while... at least until winter break. But you know? Everybody has rough spots in life. I'm sure somebody's situation somewhere, right now, is an ungodly amount worse than mine. I'll pull through, I always have, and as long as I have a say in it, I always will. On a lighter note - I had a plant tour with UPS today, I hope they call me in for an interview soon. It would be perfect scheduling for my class-load.

I miss this view...