James Wynn

It seems recent times are abound with interesting turns.  I’ve just been hired by my university to work on a educational games, and they said that if I stay for graduate school it will count as a graduate assistanceship and thus provide a tuition waiver.  I had all but decided to put graduate school off for a couple of years, or at least until I found a program that suited my interests, but now if they are going to pay me to do it the prospect seems much more tractable.  I don’t officially start until next week, but the project sounds quite intriguing; its something about mobile educational online games.

As I recall there is also a program in its infancy for combining fine arts and the sciences, with one obvious application being video game studies.  If this program gets off the ground I may bind myself to Oklahoma for another few semesters to get an extra piece of paper.  I’m rather curious if a graduate degree will really help me find employment, or whether it will instead just provide a higher cap to move up to later.
In other news I finally bought my plane ticket to D.C.!!!  I’ve never been to the capitol before, and I haven’t seen the gorgeous girl who lives there in far too long.  Only six days now…

Since returning from Japan I’ve had terrible jet lag; stay up till 1am only to wake at 4am followed by an energy crash at 3pm. Luckily the crash is short lived. This insomniatic state has given a chance to work on things though.

For instance, this morning I added OpenID to my blog so that people from livejournal, deadjournal, or any other OpenID enabled blog can comment more easily. This also allowed me to comment on any of those blogs without having to be added to their communities. Few things irritate me as much as having to sign up to new networks every time I want to comment on a blog. So instead of spending 5 minutes creating a new account this morning, I spent 30 minutes implementing OpenID on my server. Hooray for wasting time.

My morning have also given me a chance to get to know my new BlackBerry a bit better. Its nice being able to read the morning mail and news from bed, or anywhere else for that matter. I was totally psyched when I finally got a phone with AIM, email, and a decent keyboard, but my head exploded when I realized that I could use Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Maps on it. Handiest damned phone I’ve ever used. Now I just need to get one of those nice bluetooth earbuds so I can talk without holding it. And yes, I promise not to wear it in public, that’s just creepy looking.

Aside from the mid-afternoon energy crash, the only other downside to this new allotment of morning is having much more time to think about D.C. Just being on the same continent as Jessie makes it so unbearably tempting to jump in the car and drive to her. But I will be visiting soon enough… well not soon ENOUGH, but soon…

I need more distractions… Please people, send me your blogs so that I may be entertained by your drivel.

Well, it seems that my time here in Japan is rapidly coming to a close.  My graduation ceremony and subsequent night of celebration is today, and I have but a mere three weeks before I must return to the land of pie.  Ready to be back, but I’m not ready to leave.  The worst part of the stay is nigh, the goodbyes and farewells.  Neither of which am I adept at.

I will be back in The States on the 15th, but not back to the Nompton-Trans-Metro-Area till probably the 16th or 17th.  I hate moving to new apartments, and moving between countries is even worse.  At least it should prove to be an easy semester.  If you want to contact me, email is the best bet till I get a new cell phone.  Will try to get that number circulating ASAP.

“No, it doesn’t work itself out.  People work it out for you and you think it works itself out.” — June Carter

I seem to have the worst luck with injuries. Anytime I have one, I never do it the easy way. We were playing catch and I catch a ball wrong and stub my finger. Not so serious I figured, I’ve done it dozens of times. We tried pulling on it and messing with it and eventually iced it and left it alone. But eventually I went to the hospital cuz it looked a little funny, and I could only move the tip in one direction.

So yeah, its broken. And as I said, I never do anything the easy way. Turns out the area of the bone where the tendons connect broke off. The tendon is fine, the bone is just screwed. Well, actually its about to get screwed. Or more acurately pinned. Two pins to be precise. I go in on monday for the surgery. Really I should count myself lucky; I’m getting to see a rare side of Japan (the inside of a hospital) and its considerably more cheap than getting it done at home. Socialized health care is awesome. I’m definitely a fan now. Six X-Rays and all my lab work cost me LESS than $90, and the surgery is only going to cost about ￥15000, which is around $135. A small fraction of what it would most likely cost in the states.

As for Penthouse Views, some friends and I went down to Osaka to party at the top of the Hilton. A nice buffet of gormet cakes and other various desserts accompanied by one of the best views in Osaka. Some of the best cake I have ever had; they even had Sakura Cheesecake. Once I gather the pictures I will post them.

“When a man cries, he cries alone, but when he laughs, the world laughs with him.” - Oldboy