Wednesday 26 October 2011

Cooking

On Sunday, i made cookies and this weekend, I'm planning to make a cheese cake. I bought a cake tin the other day for the cheese cake.
I enjoy cooking because it's fun to do and rewarding. Other people are happy too. The only problem is eating too much.
I know it's a bit burnt. The taste was ok though.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Went to the student counselling service...

...i don't think it's my thing. I don't like Telling personal stuff to a complete stranger. I like saying it to someone who already knows who the hell I am. I don't want to explain everything and the other person assumes additional info. And the lady smelled of smoke. I don't want to share my stuff with people who smoke. I'll get the hell out of the system ASAP.

Monday 17 October 2011

What I really miss right now:

  • Spoken Japanese
  • Onigiri from 7 Eleven
  • Ridiculous TV programmes
  • News presenters
  • Songs they play at Aeon
  • All the people at Aeon
  • Fish
  • Real Japanese rice
  • my mum's food
  • my mum
  • my dad
  • my room
  • Tsukuba
  • Doho Park
  • Chuo Park
  • the library
  • all the Japanese words
  • random Japanese books in bookshops
  • the feeling of Japaneseness (un-Europeness)
  • school albums (elementary/junior high/ high school)
  • my mum's bread

Saturday 15 October 2011

Friday 14 October 2011

Story from the Song and Story Night

It was the second S&S night and I enjoyed it as the first time. David is such a good story teller/entertainer. The first story really made an impression to me so I'll write it here so that I don't forget it.

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March always wore a hat. It was because he had a big secret that even his wife didn't know about. He had unusual ears. He had horse ears. But there was one person who he couldn't hide hide his secret. ----The hair dresser.
One day, March went to the hair dresser. When the hair dresser saw his ears, he exclaimed "what...? how....?!" March told him, "You must tell no one or I will kill you." The hair dresser said, "I will tell no one."
So the hair dresser was to keep a secret. But hair dressers are people who like to talk. To gossip. But the hair dresser kept his promise.
However, keeping a secret started to become a burden for him. He became ill and weak because of it.
The hairdresser went to the doctor about it. The doctor asked him, "what it the secret? I cannot help you if you don't tell me the secret." The hairdresser said, "I can't tell you. It's a secret." The doctor replied, "Well, if you don't tell someone, you will die soon."
The hairdresser went away. He went out among the forest and to a meadow. He got on his hands knees and spoke to the earth. "March has horse ears. Long ears he has."

This story takes place at the time of King Arthur. One day when the king visited this city. The piper played his pipe. This pipe was a new pipe made from a plant collected from near the meadow. As he played his pipe, the pipe began to sing. It sang, "March has horse ears . Long ears he has."
The king asked "March, is this true?" March's face became bright red and said, "No it is not true." King Arthur told him to take off his hat. He could not disobey the king. He took off his hat. Out came the long horse ears. King Arthur exclaimed "What great ears! Those are the best ears I have ever seen! Those are more magnificent than my horse's ears."
All the people admired March's ears. March became proud of his ears and never wore his hat to hide then again.

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As I listened to this story, it made me think how nice it would be to be out and not keep everything a secret. Then again, even if I'm out, I wouldn't be exactly "out and proud" because I'm rarely proud of being trans. Because being trans sucks ass. I'd rather have horse ears than be trans.

Monday 10 October 2011

Cool website

http://www.khanacademy.org/
I found it through an app by this academy. I thought it was worth sharing.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Biology revision

I revised biology yesterday and struggling to remember all these long biological words and here is my explanation of what I remember from yesterday. At least, this is how I understood it.
THE PASSAGE BELOW MAY NOT BE ACCURATE!!!!!


---------------------------------
There are two types of cells; Eup----- cells have a nucleus and P---- cells don't have it. The latter cell is more simple than Eup----- cells.
In the nucleus, there is a nucliolus which makes ridosomes. The nucleus has and envelope membrane which means it has two membranes that surrounds it. Endoplasm reticulum is connected to the nucleus. There are two types of endoplasm reticulum; rough endoplasm reticulum (RER) and smooth rendoplasm reticulum (SER). RER makes protein that is pinched off and taken to the golgi body to be synthesised into another chemical so that it can be used in other parts of the body. SER makes lipids and steroids. The difference between RER and SER is that RER has ribosomes around it which makes it look rough. SER doesn't have ribosomes so it looks smooth. Endoplasm reticulum has only one membrane.
Mitochondria has double membranes. Mitochondria contains strands of DNA and some ribosomes. Inside of a mitochondrion, there is a fluid called matrix.
Lysosomes contain a digestive substance and it is used to digest bacteria when a white blood cell contains the bacteria in a vesicle, or when the cell needs to self destruct, or when other cells need to be destroyed.
Cytoskeleton is a cobwebby thing that is made of protein that is used to put all the organelles in place and keep the cell in shape.
Ribosomes are small vesicles and the function is to produce protein?
The cell membrane allows some substances to pass through and some not.

-------------------------------
that's all I can remember.
Now I'll check for mistakes...

The cell that has a nucleus is called an Eukaryotic cell.
The cell that doesn't have a nucleus is called a Prokaryotic cell.
There is a Nucleolus in the nucleus. ER is Endoplasmic reticulum.
The area inside the endoplasmic reticulum is called cisterna.
The fluid inside a cell is called cytoplasm.

Friday 7 October 2011

Last friday night & first week of class

There was a night out with the LGBTQ group last friday night. We got together at the Ram (a bar run by the student's guild (Exeter's student's union)) at 8 pm, then walked down to another bar, then went to the Vaults (local gay bar) at 11pm. I didn't drink anything at the first two places but I had one glass of orange juice at Vaults. What else did I do? Well, I danced for 2.5 hours straight! (...or rather, 2.5 hours gay.) I even danced with 2 random fat gay girls. It was crazzzzyyyyy! I had a lot of fun! I came back at almost 3 am. Oh and I remember eating 6 bananas that day. I think that was why I was able to dance for such a long time.

This week, the class actually started. The subjects are pretty boring; writing, listening and speaking, reading and study skills, maths and biology.

One thing I can say is the maths teacher is rubbish. (That's what the japanese/french guy said.)

Surprisingly, I think I'm going to enjoy biology. Although the new vocabulary is overwhelming, the teacher is nice and it's actually interesting. Knowing how the body works is really interesting for me, especially now that I'm really into knowing more about nutrition. I even borrowed a book from the library about nutrition. I'm taking notes about each elements such as vitamin A,C, B, and other minerals. I want to get the note taking done and focus on biology.

Oh and I also became the person for Student Staff Liaison Committee for foundation science. Each course apparently has to have one person to represent the course. And I became the person. The reason was that the teacher told us it would look good on my CV and other people didn't want to do it. I thought I might as well take responsibility if I like to boss around the people who use our kitchen, you know?

Annnndddd I caught a cold on Monday and haven't feeling the best this week. Which is why I can't go partying with the LGBTQ people tonight. I had to carry a box of tissues all week and I had fever on Tuesday night. That's always how my colds go. Runny nose -> fever -> cough. I'm in the last phase now. I have a sore throat. I'll take it slow this weekend.

Aaaaannnnnnddddd we had a fire alarm last night (like every night). Last night was cold. I was talking with Lina (my former class mate. Chinese girl.) that "it's really cold tonight, aren't you cold?" I told Lina that I've been ill this week. And somehow I managed to hug her. I wondered why I was able to do that because I usually avoid physical contact with anyone other than a family member. And it was nice. After the fire alarm stopped and we went inside, Lina brought me a Chinese medicine for my cold and we talked in the kitchen for a while. AND today, she cooked me dinner! She said she made it because she thought I might not want to cook if I'm sick. I was already in the middle of making my dinner --- spaghetti. I gave her half of my spag. I liked her dinner but I was stuffed by the time I had my dinner and her's. She's really nice. And thank Gaga she already has a boyfriend. No drama attached.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Need to learn to give up...

One of them bought a 4 pint bottle of milk. And they bought 3 of them. 12 pints of milk... Really?
What's more, the same person occupied one third of the fridge! I felt really sorry for the guy who had to put his food in other spaces.
And as for the russian chick, I know she was in her room at the time of the flat meeting. She didn't attend. It's absolutely hopeless.


My new English class is completely different than my previous class. Theres hardly any Chinese people. What I mean by that is there's one girl from Hong Kong and I'm not sure if that's exactly Chinese.
There's students from: Nigeria, Turkey, Oman, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and half French half Japanese guy.
These people are 16-23 years old. One Nigerian guy asked, who old are you and later, he revealed that he's 16. He look like he's 28 or something. He's big and macho. Another Turkish guy asked me the same question. He was an average looking guy. He has facial hair like a regular guy. He's 18... The same as me. The half french half Japanese guy is short but has a very deep voice. He's also 18.

I
HATE
BEING
TRANS.

Saturday 1 October 2011

How can someone...

...who is 20 years old not know how to open a can?

Here is a step by step way to open a can:
  1. Go to the kitchen.
  2. Open the drawer and get the can opener.
  3. figure out how to use the can opener.
  4. Open the can.
Pretty simple, right?