Fun_BoneInHisMouth

If you can think of a better way to show Japanese children that their pronunciation sucks, I'd like to hear it.

The dog has a bone in his mouth...

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AV_EigoNoBuraora

This is a panorama pic of my very last day teaching at one of my schools. I invented several English-learning games that use Duel Masters cards as a component to them and they go over pretty well.

So this was the ultimate iteration of such a "DM" game, an English-powered battle royale brawler between three teams: team Kappa, team Ojiisan, and team DJ Sprinkle.

Since this was their last day of class, they had a year's worth of English to work with, so we went for conversational more than ever before. So basically the way it works is they use English to rally communal charge points and once everyone's out of ideas, the last team to opine gets to bank the points and choose a team to attack, using the charge points as damage. And then to cap each battle, we use DM cards as a randomized power/defense booster, as well as a special attack mechanic.

Even though we had a ridiculously short class period that day, that poor kappa took managed to take a BEATING.

Anyway, can't wait to try this with older kids who can really go even further with it. Gosh, I miss these kids! But fortunately, we're back for round two next year!

3...2...1...Dingdingding!

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Fun_JEe32

My senior year of college, I lived alone in Jonathan Edwards College room E32.

I slept in my own room and on a bed less and less regularly after Spring Break, opting to sleep at a desk in the JE library so I could always be close to JE's desktop publishing computer, its ample workspace, and the scanner.

I listened to Motion City Soundtrack while I drew my life away.

Wouldn't trade it for the world. Would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Yale 2014, don't blink.

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Fun_ChineseFoodSucks

I'm here at Yale over the break. It beats spending money to go back to California, having to be in the house, and not being at Yale.

The only downside to being at Yale over breaks is that there's no food. BUT the International Center is giving away free dinners, so I get to eat every day, which is neat. One of my life mottos is, "I'd rather starve than pay for food," so I'm screwed once I graduate. But that motto basically means that I hate paying for stuff, especially food, cuz it feels like such a waste.

So I went on Monday and they had tons of free pizza! No water, so I had to drink soda (ugh...), and not even root beer. So maybe it was because I hadn't eaten a meal since The Game tailgate (I did have two bags of Uncommon bunny crackers Sunday, though), but that was some of the best pizza I've ever had. Aside: Sally's is insanely overrated. Pepe's, Papa John's, even Pizza Hut pwn Sally. I am somewhat of a picky and simple eater, but fortunately I can eat the same thing every day for years. For most of elementary school I had a ham sandwich every day until like 5th grade, when I finally got sick of it.

Anyway, for today's meal, it was me, Johnny Salami, the Gaboozo bruddas, and we exchanged looks of dread as our naive dream shattered--they wouldn't be serving pizza all week. Worse yet, they were serving...Chinese food. I tried to load up on white rice, which was my strategy whenever we went out to eat in Japan, but I did try some of this red-sauced meat stuff. It was pretty all right, but the yellow rice was really spicy, and the white rice was incredibly bland.

So anyway we're all waiting for the inevitable horror to come that is Indian food. I tried Indian food Freshman Year and it still haunts me. As in Japan, when I arrived at Yale I promised myself to try new things no matter what as that is what college is all about, but I fear I've lost some of that adventurous zeal. But if I'm served free food, I feel doubly obligated to try it, even if I've had previous bad experience.

On the way back from food, I cut through WLH 112 and had a drawing session with jack kelly. I drew the picture, he wrote the script. I was feeling pretty patriotic after that gross international meal in a room full of internationals. Hopefully pizza counted as "Amurrca Night," so that Italy gets a chance this week. It's been so long since I had good lasagna.

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Fun_SpringBroke2

Continuing from last time, this is the second week of Spring Break spent at JE, where I anonymously tagged a new whiteboard every day until school resumed.

So it was St. Patrick's day, and enjoyed a chocolate milkshake and a slice of pizza. That was the single greatest day of purchasing I had all break, having survived on a loaf of bread and water from the bathroom sink.

Saving money is Serious Business.

Anyway, this board had some blue message on it; I think CL is a crayon.

This board had a Goku and stuff on it, so I countered with a pikachu.

Fun Facts: I was voted "Most Pikachu" Freshman Year in my suitemates' end of the year Mosts awards for our suite.

Baa: This was basically a joke joke award because my suitemates didn't know me well enough to come up with "real" joke awards after I won Most Quiet or whatever, although I did like earning the "Most Sneaky Mean Comment" award ("Ok, someone give him a push.")

Ho ho ho.

I was drawing and scanning in CT Hall late into the night, so to meet my midnight deadline for whiteboarding every day before midnight, I bolted over to draw at nearby McClellan Hall.

If you are in JE 2013, McClellan is where you'll be living Junior Year because despite what they tell you Freshman Year, Yale Hates You.

I love pairing frowns with smiles, like the comedy/tragedy masks, so on the board across from the above, I drew his complement.

By "Yale Hates You," I mean that you're getting annexed. Watch Colleges 13 and 14 not end annexing. I would be all for them if they made annexation as silly a cruel memory as Pierson's mascot being the slave, but if it adds students and we still have forced annexation, then 13/14's an unforgivable mistake.

We go to Yale to go to Yale, not to go to New Haven.

Back at JE, I explored the empty husk of the college and found a hallway of pretty much vacant boards.

Couldn't think of anything, so I went with a kind of alien rat-dog.

I was thinking of how my cousins used to have a Scottish terrier.

Boston's the way to go, though...terrier-wise.

The problem with whiteboards is that they're not as easy to get into the swing of an idea, as paper or computer-drawing is. So it's easy to get stuck on a dud idea.

Fun Facts: I took a lot of photos of people Freshman Year, but pretty much stopped afterward. But as my photography declined, my drawing increased.

Baa: I hate having my picture taken, yet I often have to photograph myself for model references when a mirror doesn't work for the pose...

The big finale, based on how my dog is often in the way around the house, and we have to scream at him to move. Well, I don't, but others do.

In any case, watching TV is better than staring at a dog, right?

I should be at Comic-Con...dangit.

I completely blew it.

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Fun_SpringBroke1

Thanks to my combination of cheapness and my desire to be at Yale for as long as possible, I stayed on campus during Spring Break, deciding that every day I'd hit one of JE's whiteboards. Here's week one's adventures.

I wanted to be as spontaneous as possible with these, just pack a dry erase marker, find an open whiteboard, and draw. My three rules were: tag once daily before midnight, don't tag it if the suite seems occupied, and do not be seen.

First up was "my" suite. Easy. The only guy living there was a total hermit, if he existed at all.

Fun Facts: I was going for Kamigawa sorta.

Next was the suite across the hall.

I later learned that at least one person was still living there over the break, so I erased it, quite happily, actually.

It's kind of ugly. But it does Remind me of someBody I used to know...

Next a suite downstairs.

Easter Eggs: Death Star, Millennium Falcon, TIE fighters, Star Destroyers, "my nightmare."

Fun Facts: Not really my nightmare, but I was scared of aliens for a long time.

Baa: I'm afraid of the dark.

And across the hall from yesterday for day four.

Easter Eggs: An apple from either Paradise Lost or Death Note.

Fun Facts: They say Superman's the greatest!

Baa: But I disagree.

Entryway A sucked about using their whiteboards, even A21, who had a 4 color marker set hanging unused off their board! I found B to be the opposite: theirs were mostly already taken up.

Leaving my entryway, I found the emptiest B board I could, which had a guy on it already, so I just did some tweaks.

Man, it's ugly. Kinda reminds me of Sam Waterston.

Easter Eggs: "Pablo was he" references a name I liked to introduce myself as Freshman Year.

Fun Facts: It's supposed to seem like someone defaced my tag.

Baa: I like introducing myself with fake names if I don't expect to ever be named/remembered afterward or if I don't think the other person really cares.

This was a fun one. It had a grid on it, so I turned it into a game of breakout.

Entryway C was fun to draw in because it was still crawling with people, so I had to really dance around them in order to draw unnoticed.

I felt like a real little tagger, dodgin' the coppers and stuff, except I wasn't destroying a building for "art."

Fun Facts: Tagging where it's literally JUST a dude's name isn't art.

To close the week, I made some blue squiggles into a little sky scene.

Fun Facts: I don't normally draw my clouds so bubbley.

Baa: I try to draw my clouds like Eiichiro Oda does.

Ok, so that was week one of my first Spring Break spent at home--Yale.

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Fun_BoardingSchool

Finally done with that Lit Comic, but for now, here are some more whiteboard drawings, which I drew over Thanksgiving break while in the ghost town of JE.

First up is a man in black. I was really hungry at the time, and didn't know what to do for food, so I drew food in the background.

Fun Facts: I don't usually drink soda ever.

And then here's a little Zuko.

Math final tomorrow. Then a paper and then we're done!

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Fun_Boarding2

Play that funky doodle, whiteboards.

So this was from the night after my last final, three or four in the morning. I blasted music in the senior seminar room and drew spontaneously because I realized that there I was, happy that all my schoolwork was finally done, but with no one to celebrate with, so this was as much of a party as I was getting.

They say at Yale you'll have profound, late night conversations; that was definitely true last year, but this year drawing and music's all I got. So this is my late-night-conversations.

Fly Home.

From right before leaving for Christmas Break.

Mummy.

Feeling gloomy that day.

Kelly Study Break.

This is the biggest drawing I've ever done of her.

It was funny how I'd get stares from passersby outside the seminar room's massive windows, as they saw this giant drawing behind me.

Recharge.

From after Thanksgiving break, gritting my teeth for another stay in Swing Space.

Robot inspired by the Iron Giant.

Someone wrote me an insightful little comment under my guy's bitter welcome message.

Is it Over Yet?

From the midsts of that happy little episode I call Room Draw 08.

My gosh, I suck at life.

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Fun_Boarding1

We had a bunch of whiteboards around Swing Space, so I drew stuff when I couldn't sleep or when I went roaming around the wretched building during study breaks.

Inspired by the Iron Giant.

Having a bad day.

Doctors.

Zombie love.

Northern California was great, by the way, but now we're back south again.

And counting down the days till Japan.

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