I'm on a roll!

Yes, this is another update! Before I go off into telling what I've been doing recently, I just wanted to fix something I wrote in the previous blog; I said I probably won't have classes on Monday and Wednesday though I actually meant Monday and Friday. ^_^

I had the opportunity to meet my great aunts, Aunt Rita and Aunt Dotty, last Wednesday! They're my Nana's sisters who I haven't meant since I was very very little so I actually don't remember them at all. They had just arrived from a cruise going around to the different islands of Hawaii and were here in Honolulu for two days. Naomi and I were able to have lunch with them which was very nice. It was funny because the two sisters act almost exactly like Naomi and I do! We were exchanging stories and it was hilarious to see the similarities in our personalities and how we interact with each others' sister. I'm very much like Aunt Rita, the tomboyish crazy sarcastic one while Naomi is like Aunt Dotty, the sweet quieter mature one. lol! Very funny.

Aunt Dotty and Aunt Rita

I also have pictures I want to show from my final film production for my advanced production class. The name of the film is "F.O.B." which I realized I hadn't mentioned earlier (stands for "fresh off the boat"). It's a slapstick romantic comedy about two Japanese girls who come to study English in Hawaii and find themselves in a shocking but funny situation. :P I can't give it away since you have to see for yourself what happens. For this project I was elected as the producer by my teacher so pretty much I'm in charge of the whole project. It's hard work keeping everyone on a schedule, taking care of the budget, keeping up on the paperwork, and just overall making sure everyone gets along. There are some 'crew' issues going on but everything is thankfully still moving along.

The other film projects I'm working on include: 1) my friend Tommy's independent film project about a young girl's fishing trip in which I'm helping out as part of the crew, 2) my friend Robbie and Anthony's independent film project, a local Hawaiian love story in which I'm acting as associate producer, 3) my cinematography final project, as well as 4) my friend David's cinematography project. Then I have one 6 page paper on Media Ethics due next week as well as a cinematography portfolio due. It's the end of the semester for sure with all that's due in the next few weeks.

Another thing that has been keeping me busy was that a few weeks ago, Jeff and I were asked to do a short vaudeville musical dance number for a KCC production called "The Good Doctor". So for fun we decided to do it. ^_^ The song is "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and boy do I hate the song now for doing it so much. :P It's a real short 2 minute number which opens up the second act of the show. It's a lot of fun and I'm glad we had the opportunity though it's been a bit stressful. We went into rehearsals on Monday and the show opened yesterday (Thursday). Just a few more shows left; the last show is on Sunday. Tomorrow we'll be taking group photos and stuff so I'll be sure to post up some picutres.

Tomorrow's plan? Well, lets see... I'll be going to a late morning birthday brunch for a church friend of mine then will be going to help with Tommy's film in the afternoon, then I have a show from 8pm. Keeping myself very busy indeed. ^_^ Till next time!

Update! :P

Lo and behold, yes I am writing my blog right now and making an update. ^_^ I've pretty much fully recuperated from the surgery I had a month and a half ago. A week ago I was still hurting if I did too much exercise or movement but I'm doing great right now.

I've been busy with filming and stuff; last weekend my group from my production class finished filming everything so right now we're working on editing and putting it altogether. I'm hoping that the film will be finished by the end of this month. However, that doesn't mean I'm done with my projects! I've actually been called in to be associate producer for a couple of friends' films, as well as helping out for another friend's project. And I still have my own final cinematography project to get started on. :P I'm not complaining at all though; all this filming is terribly fun and though it's keeping me busy, I wouldn't have it any other way.

So there are only 4 weeks of school left, then one week of finals! I'm happy the semester is over so that I can go into summer, but as always, I'm kinda sad to know that the semester is ending. I'm gonna miss a lot of my classes and being able to see my classmates. A few of my film friends are graduating this semester so I won't be having class with them anymore which is sad. However, I know we'll be working on each other's projects in the future so I'm looking forward to that.

Schedule of classes has come out already for next semester. I'm probably thinking of taking 3 ACM class (directing, techniques in visual media, and global meda) and 2 History classes (historiography and 20th century Japan). So far my schedule will be that I have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday... not Monday or Wednesday! Very cool, though the three days of classes will be VERY busy, and I'll probably be working on Monday. Still haven't decided whether I want to take a sports class like karate, basketball, or volleyball yet.

I got my tickets to go back to Japan! I'll be leaving here the 19th of May and will be arriving in Japan on the 20th. I'm very happy and thank God that I was able to get tickets at such fairly short notice and at a decent price. I'm looking forward to being home! Also, I found out that a few of my film friends might be in Japan for the summer so I'm looking forward to perhaps being able to hang out with them a bit.

That's all there is to say I guess. I'll try updating again soon. ^_^

Recuperating at Home

Hello all! I'm sure most everyone has heard by now but I had surgery two evenings ago to take out my appendix. :P Yeah, lots of fun. What happened was that Tuesday morning, I was feeling a bit queasy but it wasn't bad in any way; I thought it was just a stomachache. Then I had class from 1:30 and by that time it was kinda getting worse. Around 2:15 I just couldn't take it any more and as I was pressing my stomach, I realized that a certain 'right side' of my stomach hurt specifically. So I immediately ran out of the classroom (ok, more like limped out) to the UH health clinic to wait for Naomi to pick me up there.

It was truly God's blessing that Naomi and I are good friends with the Halls. It's their son, Braden, who I babysit at times and the mother is a nurse while the father is a doctor. They were able to give Naomi and me some very good advice of what to do. Queens Emergency Room was VERY crowded so I was actually waiting almost 2 hours in the ER waiting room before I was even given any pain medication. :S But yeah, Brad Hall really helped get the ball rolling and also talked to my surgeon who happened to be a good friend of his. Got taken care of very well by the whole staff.

Finally had surgery around 10:00 or so and was very sort of 'awake' around 11:15 after the surgery. :P Seriously, I don't remember anything except going into the surgery room and given oxygen. I didn't even get to count down backwards like you see in the movies.... how sad. :P

Was in recovery for a few hours before being taken to my room. Basically the type of surgery, laproscopy (probably spelling it wrong) is where they make an incision through the belly button and also two extremely small cuts under the bellybutton. So I have know scar on my right side or anything like that. Still 'patched up' so I can't see what scars I do have yet.

Anyway, was relaxing at the hospital until around 2:30 pm when I actually got to go home. Yay! Was mostly sleeping, watching some tv, and doing some reading while lying down. Got home and had a really painful episode as I was coming off the morphene pain medication they were giving me. Almost wanted to go back to the hospital. :S

But that went away with Naomi's prayer and I was soon just sleeping in my own bed whichw as nice. I slept well last night and am now at least sitting up so that I can write this blog. Sitting up actually feels a bit better than lying down right now... I think I'm getting neck, shoulder, back sores from lying down if you can believe it. lol!

Just wanted to let everyone know how I'm doing. Thank you all so much for your prayers! I know that a lot of you were worried and were praying for me. While in the hospital you won't believe how many phone calls and text messaging I had to do to let my friends know what was going on. I DID skip two classes on Tuesday which ALL my friends know I NEVER do. :P So that in itself worried them. I loooove the classes I skipped on Tuesday... very sad...

Anyway, again, many thanks! I'm gonna be home from school the rest of this week so I have a bit of a break though I know I'm just gonna have to be catching up with a lot of homework. :D Will update my blog again soon (I hope!)

Spring Semester

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It's been quite a while since I last updated and though I have quite a bit of homework for this next week, I have a loooong weekend what with a holiday on Monday so I decided to write. I hope this update finds all my readers doing well.

I have just finished my first week for the Spring semester of 2008. Going by the number of semesters I've taken, I'm doing my second semester as a Junior. However, technically I have enough credits to be considered a Senior. ^_^ Cool, huh? Also, I realized that I just have to take four more ACM classes next semester then I can graduate with my ACM degree! However, because I'm also majoring in History, I want to stretch out the classes of both majors so I get a mixture of different classes in a semester (I have seven more History classes to graduate with my History BA). So with 11 classes altogether left for my two degrees, I'm planning to stretch them out over 3 more semester since I hope to do an ACM internship as well as do a final thesis film. Exciting, isn't it? ^_^

Ok, so for this semester I'm taking (in level order):

KLS 164 - Beginning Karate: Yes, I'm taking a karate class... don't laugh! ^_^ This is just a one-credit 'fun' class for me. It's twice a week from 8:30 to 9:20 and so far I'm really enjoying it. I love being able to do some kind of exercise in the morning; it really helps me to wake up and keep my body from 'wasting away' since I'm not taking any dance classes nor being in any shows (so far). :P What's cool though is... I get a white karate gi! ^_^ So at least I look like a karate expert. Towards the end of the semester we have the option of upgrading our 'belt' which the teacher is encouraging the whole class. We'll see...

ACM 312 - Cinematography: This is Anne Misawa's class who I had as a teacher already last semester. This seems like it's going to be a really fun class since we really focus on cinematography which is something I'm weaker at. Not only are we going to take 'moving shots' but we're also going to have project which include taking still photographs which I love to do. ^_^ Lots of friends from last semester in the class which is really nice.

HIST 322 - History of Japan II: For this class I have the same teacher, Dr. Piel, as from last semester when I took part one of Japanese History. She's a really great teacher which is one of the reasons I switched to Asian/Pacific history instead of American history. Hurray to her! I love her teaching style as it really makes learning history of fun, plus she really cares about all of her students. I have a few good friends from last semester's again in this class which we've already formed our group together. ^_^

ACM 410 - Advanced Cinematic and Digital Production: Another of Anne Misawa's classes... I have a feeling that this is going to be the hardest and least fun of my classes. :P It seems that there's going to be quite a few projects we have to work on throughout the semester, a LOT which involves working out of classes which will take up a lot of my free time. *groan* oh, well... we'll see. Thankfully, again this is another class which I'm surrounded by a lot of friends from last semester which should make the projects fun (hopefully). ^_^

ACM 450 - Advanced Screenwriting: Another screenwriting class with Joel Moffett, who is also my ACM advisor. Again, I'm going to like this class even though it's a tough class. I already have to have TWO stories ready by next class! Thankfully I kind of expected him to pull off something like that so I had one story already ready... :P I just need to have another one ready!

ACM 460 - Media Ethics: According to the title of this class, you can imagine that at first I was really sort of dreading taking this class... but since I need an ethics course to graduate, I though I should might as well take it. It turns out... I really really really loved this first class! It's a ton of fun, Professor Brislin is a great teacher and made the 2 hour and 45 minute lecture class to be completely fascinating. This is a class that really makes you think and theorize which is why I think I'm going to enjoy this class so much.

Private Voice Class: This is going to be with Lina; haven't scheduled a time with her yet which I will be doing in the near future. My goal is to really improve my singing by being consistent in singing within the upper register. ^_^

So that's all of my classes for this semester. It's about the same amount I've taken over all my semesters... however, it's the first time I've had so many upper division courses in the 400 level (3 this semester). So we'll see how this semester turns out. This semester is really showing me that I'm no longer a student going for an Associates Degree but a student pursuing a Bachelor's degree.

I'll still be working about 10 hours in the costume shop a week. So far we're not really having to prepare for any shows so we get to work on our own sewing projects. ^_^ Did some stock work and a little sewing here and there for the upcomign show "The Tempest" but mostly I had 'free time' in which I've been working on a t-shirt; I'll let you know how it goes.

Let's see... anything else... I'll be trying out for Diamond Head Theatre's "Flower Drum Song" on February 1st. I'll be trying out for one of the leads though at this point with all the work I have for school, I would be very much satisfied to get an ensemble role. Also, Diamond Head Theatre is a level higher than Army Community Theatre; just to get into Ensemble is reeeeally difficult so I'll definitely be ecstatic if I get even part of the ensemble. ^_^ Plus, because this a Rodger and Hammerstein show, there'll be a lot of dancing which I'll love to do.

I'll stop now and say good-bye for now. As I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of homework to do over the weekend and since I'm planning to go out for a movie later on in the afternoon, I want to get as much done as possible right now. Ciao!

Lots of News!

Aloha! Sorry for not having written in a while. School and just life in general has been keeping me busy and my priorities have been to be keeping up with homework. ^_^ I'm going to keep this short since I have to eat lunch before heading off to class in a little bit.

First off, I'm just love, love, LOVING school right now! I'm really enjoying all of my classes and the one and only class that's a bit boring (American Television History) is super easy and since I don't have to do much except show up for class, it's not that bad. :P My favorite classes would have to be my Digital Film Production class and Screenwriting. For the film class I'm in the midst of my first project in which I have to make a short documentary style video of how I've made Hawaii my home. ^_^ It's coming along pretty well I think... unfortunately I can't put it up on the web after I'm done because the copyright belongs to the ACM program. :P Oh, well, when I go back to Japan I'll be able to show it on my laptop or something. For screenwriting class I finished my first short, silent film screenplay which was fun to write. I'm thinking of actually filming it if I have the time. Now I'm working on a short film screenplay involving dialogue.

I have news... I went to auditions, got a call back, and got a role for Army Community Theatre's "Fiddler on the Roof" musical production! It's very exciting and I'm terribly honored that they offered me the role of Tzeitel, who is the oldest daughter of the main character. It's a pretty big role so it's just amazing that I landed it... on my first audition! First meeting will take place next Monday in which I'll get to meet the rest of the class. So far I think the director is great and of course the musical director is great... since it's Lina. ^_^ The choreographer is also really nice and (not to boast) but she said I was one of the best dancers. yay! It's also great that a lot of my friends got into the show: from "Evita" I have Kaori, Kenji, and Karen (3 K's!) and from other classes I have Shannon, Jen, Jason, and Marie! Jason got a big role so that's very exciting for him, too. Show opens November 15!!

Another exciting thing is that I might be working the Toyota Convention coming to Hawaii next weekend... we'll see how that turns out.

I miss you all! Can you believe that the 5th week of college is ending this week? I'm a little less than 1/3 of the semester done! I'll try to write more soon, perhaps after I've gone to my first rehearsal. Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Fun Fun Week So Far!

Been having a really great week so far, full of fun and busy-ness. ^_^ Let me give you an update on what's been going on so far...

Tuesday:

Couldn't sleep in because of time difference, but still slept really well. Went shopping to Macy's and I was able to get this really cute shirt at Wet Seal, my new favorite place to shop for clothes. ^_^

After a quick, light lunch at Chili's I headed over to UH to work at the costume shop for a few hours. Though school hasn't officially started yet, there's a lot of work already for the next show which is opening quite soon. :P Maria was able to come along with me so while I 'slaved away' (*wink*!) she was reading a book, talking with us, and even napping a bit. :P It was nice being back in the costume shop; Hannah and Kat were there so it was nice catching up on everything that's been going on while I was away for the summer.

So worked from 1:30 to 5:00 then headed for dinner at Big City Diner's. Met up with Jeff then we watched... "The Bourne Ultimatum"!! Words cannot describe how much I liked it! It just might be my favorite movie of all three. It was just really really good and this is one movie I can't wait for the dvd (or perhaps will go see in theaters again. ^_^).

After the movie the four of us went back to Big City Diner (:P) to eat... the BIG Oreo Sundae! It's just sooo good! HUGE sundae with three big scoops of ice cream, chocolate, caramel, and oreos. MmMMMmMMM! That's one dessert I really missed here in Hawaii.

Wednesday:

Met my father's high school friend and coincidentally someone Naomi's working for right now in the morning. ^_^ Met at Zippy's so I got to have Zippy's pastries for breakfast. Yum yum lemon bars!

Drove up towards North Shore and went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to go through the HUGE maze they have there. It used to be the world's largest maze back in 2001; now they're expanding it probably to try again. :P Anyway, it took an hour to go through the whole thing and find all the 'stamp' stations hidden in the maze (8 stations in all). We had the hardest time finding the last one which was annoyingly somewhere very easy to find after all. :P

Went to this little secluded beach area to look at green sea turtles then had lunch at Giovanni's Shrimp Shack. Very delicious garlic shrimp!

Then went to the beach for about an hour or so. It wasn't too sunny so it was kind of just right. I would have liked to have gotten more of a tan but I still had fun. The water was just so clear and felt sooo nice and cool to swim in. On the way home we stopped by Dole Plantation again to have their famous Dole pineapple ice cream. Very refreshing after a long, hot day.

For dinner I just made ramen at home and we watched "Much Ado About Nothing"... very natsukashii. I just love that movie with such a stellar cast. Kenneth Brannagh is truly a great director and actually a pretty good actor (best role of course being Hamlet).

Thursday:

Woke up a bit early so that we could pick up Renee so that she could take her placement test to start college at Kapiolani Community College this coming semester. We also went to admissions and such which went pretty smoothly. Picked up lunch at I Love Country Cafe and we all ate back at home; loved their BLT sandwich!

Then I alone was dropped off at UH so I could buy my schoolbooks for this coming semester. TEN books in all! I'm guessing I'm going to have a lot of reading this year; fortunately, all the books looks either really fun or really interesting so I'm not having any qualms over the amount of books I have. ^_^ Book I'm most looking forward to reading? - "Japan Before Perry", "Art of Dramatic Writing", and "Film Directing Shot By Shot".

Went straight to work at the costum shop from about 1 to 5. Another fun day at the shop. Then Naomi, Maria, and Renee picked me up and we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We met up with Melody and Grant who is a 'theatre' guy and a good friend of a lot of my 'theatre people'. :P It was the first time to meet him; he was really nice and I liked him a lot. We were able to talk a lot about theatre and such. Plus he's into film, too, and actually has a small bit in a Ben Stiller film which is being filmed on Kauai right now.

After dinner, we rushed to Ward (Renee left though because she had work early tomorrow morning) and met up with Ericson to watch "Stardust". It was a very... 'odd' sort of film but I really, really liked it a lot. :P Kind of dark yet there were sooo many laugh out loud parts. Highlights? The 'strange' swordfight towards the end of the film. I can't describe it because it's sooo strange but it was hilarious! The whole theatre audience was cracking up! I really liked the 'old-timers' in the movie (Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer) but I particularly liked newcomer Charlie Cox as the lead. He had a really charming, naive quality to him which was very real; looking forward to more of his movies.

Aaaand... that's it! I've caught up! Plans for this weekend? Well, I've had a really relaxing morning so far; going to have lunch at home then Ericson's picking Maria and me up to go see "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" in the early afternoon. Later in the afternoon thinking of shopping at Borders. Dinner perhaps either eat Thai food or eat home then am going to stay home to watch the premier of "High School Musical 2" on tv tonight. ^_^ Tomorrow (Sat) I had a morning class from 9 to 12 which is a prerequisite for my directing class then afternoon is free until 5 at which time I'm going to go babysit. Ah, full weekend. lol!

Until later; ciao!

Beginning My Junior Year

Miracle of miracles, I'm updating my blog. :P Hello all and welcome back to my blog! My 'new year's' resolution will be to update my blog at least once a week... let's see how long it lasts. ^_^ I had a wonderful summer back in Japan; thank you all the family and friends who made this summer very fun and special (and to my appendix which also made this trip 'special'...) lol!

Arrived yesterday morning around 7:30 am; called Naomi and she came right over but didn't go home right away because... Maria was landing 2 hours after me! ^_^ Waited for Maria to come out of customs/baggage claim then headed towards home. The flight had been really good and felt very short, particularly since I watched 3 movies straight and before I knew it, we were landing. ha ha! At the same time, because I was up throughout the flight, I didn't sleep at all. And since it was a 'night flight' and I arrived early in the morning in Hawaii, you can imagine how tired/sleepy I was by the time I had dumped everything out of my suitcases. I didn't realize just how much stuff I had... I was seriously unpacking on and off until the time I went to bed. ^_^

So unpacked in the morning then for lunch it was off to Happy Days. Yum yum, missed the dimsung there. Got back home and by this time, Maria and I were exhausted. Maria took a nap then after writing some e-mails and chatting with my parents, I also took a 2 hour nap. Really, REALLY had needed that nap so it was good that I did.

Unpacked some more then for dinner, Naomi made beef and chicken quesadillas! Mmmmm, very natuskashii having home made dinners in Hawaii. ^_^ After dinner watched "Bourne Supremacy" and I must say, though Matt Damon is of course the coolest thing about the series, Karl Urban as baddie Kirill is very, VERY cool. *wink!* Then because I wanted to clean my room some more, I just popped in "The Ron Clark Story" and before you know it, Maria and I were just watching the whole movie on my laptop. lol! SUCH a fantastic movie; the acting in it is soooo good, not just Matthew Perry in the title role but also the kids who play his students. Sooo good.

Then it was off to bed around 11pm.

Plans for this week? Well, I'm hoping to watch a few movies at the theatres which I missed while being in Japan. But also have to work a few days at the costume shop which is going to be fun. ^_^ Will go to the beach and the Dole Plantation maze some time this week for Maria though the beach is more for me. ha ha! I'll let you know what comes up. ^_^

Until later! Sorry, no pictures but I promise to put up some next time. Toodles!