Alright, so I’ve been pretty bad with the posting since school started, but it can’t be helped; school and work come first. I’ll be pretty blunt with this post to cut down on length since people these days are impatient and rather just say “tl;dr.”

September was an interesting month, and a bit hectic I guess. The first two weeks were difficult because I was trying to adjust to my new schedule for school, work, and study fo Japanese placement test. Other smaller things were also in the way, but didn’t hinder me nearly as bad as that damn placement test which was completely useless.

The Japanese placement test. Great idea, horrible in application. Let me enlighten you folks for a few moments about this placement test. First of, this idea should have been incorporated years ago, but this is their first year using it. Before, the only way you could take a placement test was to argue with your current Japanese professor, your adviser, and then have the Dean simply override all of them in one false swoop forcing them to create the test and have you pay $200. Second, “Hey! I have a great idea! Lets make the students take this test at the beginning of the school year! That way they will fail because they spent the whole summer working day in and out, not studying to keep their skills sharp!” Third, “I have another great idea! Let’s make a test that has vague grammar sample sentences and f#*%with their heads by using multiple choice answers. The answers will be only slightly different from each other or all of them are technically correct, but the level of politeness is different so it will make them question who they are replying to!” Forth, “Oh and lets make the test really short! Each grammar rule gets only one question, that way we will never know if they really know it or not!” Those are the main issues I had with the test. Now I’ll tell you how I played with the entire system within the palm of my hand, and made a fool out of everyone in the department.

During the first week of school I heard rumors that any student who returned from Japan, transferred, or are in question of their ability in Japanese, will be asked to take the test. My original thought was, “Finally! The department is smart enough to incorporate this! I can jump ahead classes!” Later on I began to realize it was the worst idea ever; this was before the rumors started to spread about the test. Sure enough my hunch was correct, and students were dropping like flies on the placement test. Fortunately, I had a plan to get around this obstacle, so that no matter what the outcome of the test, I will not be moved from the current Japanese class. It was pretty damn simple actually. I told them to give me two weeks, because I was busy with work, and I need time to review. Everyone else was either gun hoe or thought they must take it immediately. In actuality the test is not forced, it is requested; I realized this the moment I asked for the extra time. Now for the funny part. Both my advisor and professor didn’t realize it at the time, but when I requested my two weeks classes were already one week in; as in, once I take the test, I’m two days past the add/drop date for classes. Just like the samurai, I have control over my own fate no matter what the outcome. Ha Ha!

I finally take my placement test; studied for it, but no were near my now refined study efforts. The results, I bombed that test like the Fat Boy bomb took out Hiroshima in a flash! F 50%! It was hilarious! So I meet with my professor to discuss my “situation,” when she finally realizes that it’s too late to change classes. I was laughing so hard inside I had to bite my cheek. After going over everything with her, and explaining my past troubles in Japanese I headed off. I knew I had to study hard to keep up in class, but I was not going to let a shitty test stop me at the beginning of the semester.

So how am I doing you may ask? The most recent grade I have, after mid term, says I’m getting a B- in the class. Way to go Japanese Department, you really know where I stand in Japanese! If I followed their method, I’d be retaking the lowest level of Japanese offered right now. This is actually one of the biggest reasons why I’m not as far as I should be in Japanese right now. By the end of winter break I should be far enough ahead of the game I might be able to skip levels in Japanese if I bitch enough to the department. I’m also planning on taking the JLPT level 3 test by late spring if all goes well. The best news about my current grade is, it’s only going to get higher.

That’s about it for big news in September that’s worth mentioning. In small news, I got myself the new iPhone 3G and hacked it two days later. I finally bought a really nice UMass hoodie that I still haven’t washed yet. I bought a new pair of $90 Puma’s for $26 off eBay. I started building a DDR pad for my friends and I’m still working on it (I’ll post about next time). I got my laptop repaired for free and I now have a new shiny screen that looks awesome. I’ve obtained a substantial amount of money, and it’s not from the school or from work. Lastly, I’m awesome, but you already know that.

Did I mention I’d keep this post short? Too bad.

I’m locking myself in my room starting now, and I’m not coming out until I need to take my midterm on Tuesday.

If you need to contact me, YOU CAN’T!!! I will just ignore you phone calls, IM’s, e-mails, etc.

Exceptions:

• You’re a pretty girl.
• You’re inviting me to a party.
• You wish to study Japanese and ONLY Japanese with me very seriously.

That is all.

P.S.
Yesterday my expensive Italian eyeglasses were run over by a bus, and I’m very sad.

      Oh hi there! Yeah it has been awhile and I should have posted sooner, but I had too much to take care of. Now I have a bunch of stuff to mention that I could never put all into one post. Therefore, I will make multiple posts over the course of this week and you can choose which to read. So without further adieu.

So the main reason why I didn’t post the last three weeks in August was simple. I picked up a new toy/project at the beginning of the month and didn’t want to talk about it until it was completed. The month of August was boring, nothing was happening so I was hoping that my new “running” moped would be a good and only interesting post I would have, thus I held off. Unfortunately this plan didn’t pull through due to replacing parts that take a weeks at a time to ship over from Japan.

I obtained the moped from an old guy who lives in Hadley. I meet him at Jiffy Lube when I was cashing him out at the register. We were discussing fuel prices and ways to save when I brought up that I wish I had a moped. He mentioned he had one in his shed with the transmission apart and was willing to sell it to me for $100. I jumped right on the deal and before I knew I had a vintage 1983 Suzuki FA50 moped with only 1500 miles on it. I bought it with the intention of ripping the thing apart to get it working again.

Currently, I have the bike put mostly back together after being in multiple pieces. I literally took apart everything and replaced what was necessary, including things I broke. I have the transmission apart again and I’m waiting for the last and final part to be shipped in from Japan that was on back order (a lousy shim). So far I have had to replace; fuel and oil lines, battery, spark plug, stripped or missing screws, piston rings, c-clips, and crank shaft mounting rods. I have had to take apart and clean; the transmission, the entire carburetor system, fuel and oil system, rear breaks, the cable lines for breaks, throttle and speedometer, and muffler. I still have to clean and re-grease the front suspension and breaks, replace one more fuel line, and place new shims and washers in the transmission with it’s new cover that was destroyed during it’s first run.

Begin Epic Tale:

Yes, it’s first run. During the last week in August I had the bike mostly back together and ready to start for the first time in five years. I added a little extra oil in the crankshaft and tried to start it. On the first kick nothing happened; this is normal since I was pushing the fuel through. The second kick I got a few putts from the motor; it was now primed. On the third kick that sucker started right up and was loud as a mother fucker. Blue smoke billowed from the open exhaust and steam was coming off of every crevice there was on that engine block. The bike ran like a dream, no misfires or anything, it was adjusted perfectly. So after I let it warm up, I decided to take it out for a spin.

With no rear break cable, a wire wrapped around the clutch to hold it in place, no muffler, and no helmet, I took off down the road. The engine was blaring ten times louder than a lumberjacks 6 foot chainsaw. People staring at me, dogs barking, birds flying away in terror from the obnoxiously loud engine; I thought I was a biker goon from the movie “The Road Warrior: Mad Max 2.” Now before I go further I need to note, before I started my bike up I noticed my back wheel was a little stiff to turn. I thought nothing of this since I figured the oil just needed to work its magic once I get the bike moving. Oh, how wrong I was. While I drove down the road, I decided to give it full throttle to loosen the back wheel up even more. So I got it up to 20mph and noticed I couldn’t go any faster. Suddenly the back wheel instantly locks up and my bike slides to a halt leaving a black rubber mark on the pavement.

At this point I was confused and gave my bike some gas hoping it would take off thinking my rear break just locked up momentarily; funny since I didn’t have one at that time. No matter how much gas I gave it it didn’t budge. So I turned off the bike, and carried the 109lb bike up and down small hills for a half a mile. I was hot, sweaty, and mosquitoes were swarming me; poking me in the eye every other damn second. Half way back to my house I realized what went wrong. From all the work I put into it, realizing my mistake, and the searing pain in my hand from holding the bike up from a small metal bar, I became so angry that I cursed louder than the moped for a full five minutes. I knew, that the part seized, before even confirming it, was irreplaceable.

Twenty minutes later I arrived back home, exhausted, swollen from mosquito bites and blurred vision from sweat and insects. I open up the transmission and there it was! The main gear shaft was seized fast to the white metal transmission cover! It literally melted the socket tight to the gear axle. It took all my strength to turn it and I still couldn’t pull it off. Filled with disappointment and RAGE I threw the cover to the ground, shoved the tools to the side, closed the garage door and went in to take a shower.

:End Epic Tale

That was almost a three weeks ago. Now I have a new transmission cover that I found on eBay from a salvage yard in Indiana. I also have a set of washers and shims which are still on their way from Japan to replace the missing ones that weren’t in my transmission. Apparently, the parts weren’t all there like the guy said who sold me the bike. So when the paper thin washer (shim) was missing, friction built up and caused it to seize. I had a gut feeling that something was missing when I put that transmission back together.

So there you have it, I have a super awesome, communism red, fuel efficient, broken moped! Hopefully the parts will be in by the end of this week and I’ll be able to register it and have it on the road. Until then, here are some pictures I took of the moped before I started it up. Enjoy!

Expect another post in a few more days covering most of my usual life happenings in September.

      A couple of days ago, I began to ponder what my name would be if it was in Japanese. This idea originally sparked my interest when my professor from Temple University Tokyo had the name Christopher 遙盟 (Yohmei) Blasdel. He was given the name from his Shakuhachi master 山口 五郎 (Goro Yamaguchi) after receiving an M.F.A in ethnomusicology from Tokyo University of the Arts.

After researching for roughly an hour, I concluded on the name, 林賢 武彦 (Rinken Takehiko). It was pretty easy to compile, but confirming it was a little bit more difficult. To begin, I needed to research the origin of my name. Edward, originally from England, meant rich or blessed guard. 武 (take) in Japanese means warrior, while 彦 (hiko) means lad or boy (ancient). When the two characters are combined the meaning changes slightly to warrior prince. As for the last name, Charlebois, it’s origin and meaning was a little bit trickier. Charlebois is French Canadian by origin; basically French slang. After finding out that Charlebois is a twisted version of Joiebois, meaning joyful forest. I found that Charlebois means wise woods in French Canadian. Way to go Canada! Thus, using 賢 (ken) meaning wise, and 林 (rin) meaning forest, I was able to get 林賢 after following the rules for Nanori soundings in Japanese. These are real names that have been used before. You can find yours as well if you follow the above guideline.

Besides fooling around with Japanese characters, not much has happened in the life of 林賢 武彦, but rest assured if something interesting does occur I will post about it.

       “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” is pretty damn good and you should watch it.

The short internet film was created during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America Strike by Joss Whedon. The film’s intention was to prove that you don’t need Hollywood to produce professional entertainment.

Point made.