A little bit of everything for the little elves in my computer reading this

March 7, 2024

tags: Life School Japan Programming

Currently listening: 泳いでゆけたらーRegal Lily

The spring semester is almost over. I'm currently taking:

These classes are alright, but man they're a lot of work. A lot of shit went down in my early years of university that led to me not taking some required classes, permanently shuffling my per-semester timeline. All this really means is that I ended up having to take a LOT of Computer Science and Math classes back-to-back. In fact, baring one sociology class, I've only taken STEM classes for the last two years, and on a pretty brutal schedule of 4 classes per semester as well.

Here's a breakdown:

Fall 22 Spring 23
Human-Computer Interaction Systems & Networks
Linear Algebra Web Programming
Assembly Language Systems Analysis
Social Control & Resistance Logic & Foundations

Fall 23 Spring 24
Data Structures Foundations of Computer Science
Digital Logic & Hardware Programming Languages
Operating Systems Databases
Discrete & Combinatorial Math Networks & Communications

Thankfully, this will be the last semester of such pain. This fall I'll be taking two 400 level compsci elective classes, and will have officially finished the core requirements for my degree. All that's left after that is some general electives, which as I've mentioned will be finished off in Japan in Spring 25.


Spring 2025

Currently Listening: ４５１ - ヨルシカ

It's still hard to believe I'm actually going. It's probably the amount of time between now and next March that's messing with my head, at least that's what I'm assuming. Despite my weird disbelief, I'm also finding my study abroad to be a new daydreaming topic.

I'm quite fortunate to have a good understanding of where I'll be staying and commuting, in terms of city, ward, schooling, and lodging. The university I'll be staying with has dorms for international students not too far off, meaning one could spend a theoretically large amount of time in street view planning walking routes or potential local eateries and book stores.

I might have done so in theory, but in practice I would never tell. Is it spoiling my experience by peaking around before I'm physically there? Undoubtedly somebody would say yes, but I'm not so sure.

When I applied for study abroad I had to pick 3 schools in my destination country, and rank which I most wanted to attend. Having the opportunity to do the same, I spoke to yumi about his time studying in Japan at 上智大学(Sophia University), which gave me the courage to place it as my top school. I thought that for sure I wanted to be placed in Toyko proper, and this would be the best school for it.

When I was approved for study abroad, the first thing I heard back was that Sophia was not accepting students via the program I was applying through, and instead, my second pick was bumped into first place.

At first I thought to rush and ask the advisor to switch me to my third option as it was in downtown Tokyo, but I decided not to. I'm not sure why, but I felt like it was the right choice to instead accept the opporuntity and take my hands off the steering wheel. Shinkuju is only 30 minutes and 1000 yen away should I wish to go, which I can surely afford by saving on lodging costs in the 郊外.


町田へようこそ、

Currently Listening: Feeling Lonely - Boy Pablo

I'll be staying in 町田市(Machida City), refered to by locals as a 下町(lit. "Lower city", low lying city) bordering on 神奈川県(Kanagawa Prefecture) from Late March 2025 to February 2026. Originally I had planned on only one semester as that's all I'll need to graduate, but since there's no rules in place about needing the credits I take for my degree it doesn't seem like anyone is going to stop me. I should still graduate at the same time as well; the university offices are more than happy to process my Japanese transcript while I'm still abroad, so I see it as a win-win.

Some pretty cool Japanese language classes are also on offer, and just generally speaking their JSL classes seem really well thought out. I'll write more on this another time.


All is quiet on the eastern front

Currently listening: 能動的三分間 - Tokyo Incidents

Japanese is going fine; I've been stuck reading 私の押しは悪役令嬢 since January and it's starting to really get on my nerves. I'm currently 82% of the way done, and will probably not finish until April if I'm being honest with myself. I'm picking a shorter, less difficult book next time.

I've also been slacking yet again with mining, though this is a pattern I've come to expect. University really takes a lot out of me, and the remaining parts go to running the compsci club, mahjong club, and student advocacy work.


The blog

Currently Listening: 愛を- Galileo Galilei

I've finally found some time between all the noise to hack away at the blog. Instead of putting it off I decided to just jump into the deep end and implement the big cool features I have planned, starting with the activity feed:

Pulling data from spotify and rendering it via templates

I've actually been hacking away on the software while I'm writing this article as well. It's mostly just toying with some CSS tweaks and learning how to style tables, but it's work none-the-less.

Something I'm also realizing only after writing so much of the CSS: the readability of this site is pure garbage. I've been toying with trying to make the text more readable, but there's only so much I can do against the backdrop of a pure rgb(0, 128, 0) and a scrolling gif background.


Currently Listening: 恋するスポーツ - さよならポニーテール

That's about all I have for now. Time to shower and watch dungeon meshi.

Sleep well.