New stuff?

So, some of the newest things going on right now . . . I'm back in school. I suppose that's the most important thing that I can mention. Other than that, life is quite similar to how it has always been.

Becky and I read A LOT while she was out of school, and for some reason, I got really into zombie books. It seems strange that it would come upon me so suddenly, but I suppose zombies tend to do that.


Also, I've been doing a lot of Japanese lately, which has bled over into me and Becky's choice in movies. Anime has been one of our favorite things to watch lately, and I've been getting manga (in addition to zombie books) from the library all summer. You can see this on my goodreads account. It's very obvious.

So, now I must be going. I have to study for a Japanese quiz, and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. : )

Living with Depression on Vacation

So we finally got back from our vacation to Colorado and Moab. I figure we drove about 1,500 miles over the few days we were gone - from Wednesday to Monday. Now we are quite tired. At least I am. I do know, however that Becky is happy that we went, no matter how anxious and nervous I was during the experience.

I think she knows why was nervous. It usually happens when I meet lots of new people or go on vacation. I just so happens that this time, we did both. Pictures will be forthcoming on our joint blog, jeffandbeckydiamond.blogspot.com and possibly on this one, I haven't decided yet.

Swedish Numa Chef

Oh Barry my hero.

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False Doctrine!

So, the other day, Becky and I were visiting her folks, and for some reason, we started talking about doctrine. True to form, Allison brought up something seemingly completely unrelated.

She said that one of her friends (I wonder if she believes it?) said that there is a reason for Deja vu. Before we were born, God showed us a film of our lives, and our moments of deja vu are when we remember little snippets of that movie.

In probably my wittiest moment, I said "Well, that's a nice little false doctrine."

: )

Poor insane cat . . .

Okay. So there is this cat at our complex. I think it just hangs around our building, but this cat is freaking crazy! Here's our history with this warped little creature.

When we first moved in to this complex, all was well, but then we started hearing these horrible sounds! Becky and I would look at each other, and ask "What is that awful sound?" It really sounded like a baby with some sort of disorder. Finally, we found what was making the sound: It was a cat! I've never thought a cat could make a sound like that.

Then the war began. The "cat offensive" began one night when Becky was fed up with the sound. It kept getting louder! Now, I wasn't looking when it happened, but Becky opened up the door to shoo the bugger away, but it was sitting right next to the door. Naturally, Becky was freaked out by the satan cat there at our door looking like this.

I can only assume that the cat looked like that. Regardless, since Becky was so freaked out, she yelled at the cat, saying "You're gross!!"

The cat fired the first shot. We are just defending ourselves! Well, after the smoke cleared, Grossey (as we now called him) didn't come around for a couple of weeks. After which time, he attacked again! We were coming in the house one day, and Grossey ran into our house! We're still not sure why, but it happened. Then we went on the offensive.

The defense began one night in February. We heard that sound that told us that Grossey was just outside our window, so I thought Tonight's the night! I'm gonna get that little bugger! So I went out on our porch, and kicked the stupid thing towardss the stairs. Up to that point, I don't think it disliked me. It does now.

That was close to the end. Since then, we found out that the cat's real name is Robin, even though we still generally call it Grossey, or I call it "The poor little insane cat". We thought that the folks upstairs would take him with them (they were feeding it -- that's probably why it sticks around) but it's still here!! We don't know what to do!

Becky isn't supporting the war as strongly anymore. The Robin insurgency is getting to her. We feel like we should call the pound, but we know it's going to end up being put down because it obviously has something seriously wrong with it. That's where we are now.

Poor neglected blog. . .

So the title says it all. While I don't know if anybody is actually reading this, I still go through the motions of putting stuff up here in order to satisfy some twisted need I have to be "published."

Some new stuff: Look at the new widget! If you play Go, type your zip code in, and it will tell you where the closest club is. Cool, eh?

Second: I have dropped my Chinese studies minor. I'm now just a Japanese major, which will get me out a whole semester earlier than previously thought. So, we can start working sooner than previously hoped. : )

I was going to say something else, but I can't remember what it was. . . Let me know if you know what it was.

Oh! I remember. Some people (let's be honest -- most people) ask me what I am going to do with my degree, or why I am studying Japanese. Things like this are why. It hurts, it hurts!!

It's been a while.

So I haven't posted anything for a while, so I figure I should add a little. Becky and I are just watching Conference, and here, there are Church-related documentaries and things like that between sessions. I just thought it was interesting that even though people are very different, the connecting thread is the Church. Other christian sects are not like that. Even Catholocism has different groups that have sort of broken off of the old church. The LDS Church, however is the same everywhere. People have different cultures, different languages and different histories, but on sunday, we all learn the same lessons and express the same desires. We want to be better people, and we all want to feel like we are a part of the whole, large picture.

"Sir"

So Becky and I were visiting her folks last night, and we received a gem of hilarious wisdom from him. We were watching the Emma Smith movie, and having a conversation about the historical church figures. Here's how the conversation ended:

Mark: Who's that?
Julianne: That's Father Smith.
Becky: Does that mean we should call you 'Father Johnson?'
Mark: No, you can just call me 'Sir.'

I am overwhelmed by the wisdom in these words.

I've come to the Dark Side

The worst has happened. Becky has been watching A LOT of Star Trek lately, which anybody will tell you I've never really liked. I've always been a militant Star Wars kind of guy. Sometimes, I would just feel like going around and beating up a Trekkie.

However, lately the repetition of watching Voyager, then the Original Series, then more Voyager episode after episode, the most shocking thing happened. I started liking it. For a militant Star Wars fan, and a person who has seriously considered joining up with the 501st before, this was a big, possibly terrible thing!

It's been happening for a while, in which I have gone through all seven of the normal phases, and last night, I finally came to the last one - acceptance. I am now a Star Wars nerd, but now I also call myself a Trekkie. It's still a little weird.

Yagi Sensei

Essays in Idleness

So in my Traditional Japanese Culture class, we recently read a group of thoughts by Kenko called Essays in Idleness. In one of the first passages, he admitted that he was just doing it because he was bored in his self-imposed secluded state. I'm not really secluded, but I do have thoughts in my idleness. Therefore, here is the first installment of Essays in Idleness by Yagi Sensei.

1

During this semester, International Cinema is going to be showing "Letters from Iwo Jima," which was directed by the great Clint Eastwood. But it also reminded me of some controversy some months ago involving Eastwood and Spike Lee. It's at this point that I feel that I need to put in a disclaimer; I am not racist. I don't have a problem with black people. However, I do have a problem with stupid people. Spike Lee just happens to fall into both categories.

Spike said that he thought it was offensive to make a WWII film and only showing a few black people. Here is a little fact-check for the guy.

The reason that there were no black people featured in the film Letters from Iwo Jima is simple. There were no black Japanese soldiers. The population of Japan is 99% ethnic Japanese, and it was more so in the 1940s when the film takes place. Duh.

The reason I took time to enter this is that I feel that all people - famous or not - need to find something better to do with themselves than whine and complain. Particularly if you have no knowledge of why something is the way it is, just keep your mouth shut.

In the words of Mark Twain, "It is better to live in silence and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Yagi Sensei

Introduction to Yagi Sensei

Hello. I am Jeff , but I am also known by Japanese nickname, Yagi Sensei. The story behind this is a long and confusing one, so I may bring it up in a later post. If there is a later post.

Anyway, a little more about me. I am happily married to my sweetheart, whom I met in 7th grade. You can visit that blog at www.jeffandbeckydiamond.blogspot.com. I am now a student at Brigham Young University (BYU) majoring in Japanese and minoring in Asian Studies with an emphasis in Chinese. That's just a fancy way to say that I am minoring in Chinese.

Some things that I like (not like it makes much of a difference) are playing Go, studying Japanese History, playing my Trumpet (I've been in the BYU marching band for 3 years), and playing with our Guinea Pigs, Han and Chewbacca.

Since I don't really have much else to say, I guess I will just kind of end right now. Um, yeah.