Well, i did it. i signed up for JLPT. now that it's become more concrete, there should be more motivation to study. i've tried some listening sample questions a while ago, and they were very doable. probably thanks to my everyday exposure! i'll probably be starting serious study tomorrow, which will leave me just under 3 months till the test date. also around that period, i have to make plans to collect my new passport from the embassy in osaka, and meet up with my professor in kobe. my initial thought was to split the trip into an osaka leg and a kobe leg, but i realized that commuting between the two prefectures doesn't take that long. so what i might do is base myself in kobe, and do a day trip to osaka, or vice versa. still haven't decided on the method of transport...a flight seems like unnecessary expenditure, and the train takes too long. i might end up driving, after all. or i suppose the overnight bus would work too...

but i digress. i signed for the N2 level, which is the minimum required level to work in the japan office of a japanese company. not that i have any solid plans for that, but it gives me options. right now, the kiasu singaporean in me is freaking out, thinking whether to buy assessment books, ten-year series, all that stuff. luckily, my stinginess has driven me to find some resources available for free online, so i'll see how far i go with those first. i suppose i can do past-year papers closer to the test date, but i should at least get a start on the content now.

there was a small miscommunication yesterday. i was told that the town festival would go on for 2 days. it started on friday, so i was expecting it to last until saturday night. but i went down yesterday evening only to see the last few stalls being packed up. maybe they stopped in the afternoon or something. kind of sucks, because i was hoping to see more people. but at least now i know what it'll be like next year. also because i thought i had another night, i didn't buy some things that i was interested to try while i was there on friday. there's probably a lesson about not letting opportunities slip past you or something in there somewhere. oh well. at least now i know for next year.

good news is that the nights are getting cooler, to the point where i don't think i'll need the air-con very soon. perhaps one more week? not looking forward to getting my august bill. speaking of which, i just tried logging in to my electrical company website account, with no success. apparently, if you don't log in for a while, they make you answer your secret question. and i have zero idea what my secret answer was, or if i even set one. and to reset it, i have to provide my customer number or contract number, which they say is on the bill postcard that they send me every month...only that i stopped receiving postcards after switching to credit card payment. headache. i think i have a letter with my customer number somewhere in my desk at the office, so i'll go check on it tomorrow. the annoying thing after that is that they'll send you temporary login credentials in the mail. and no, i don't mean email. seriously, is there a need for this level of security!? i guess in the worst case scenario, someone could maliciously cancel your power contract and have your electricity cut off, but what are the odds?

oh, in the flurry of activity caused by the town festival, i forgot to blog about the queen's passing. since i'm not a british subject, i'm not feeling it too strongly. but i have to say that it caught me by surprise. part of it is due to the memes/jokes about her long lifespan (eg. when god came to create the universe, he found the queen hanging around), and part of it was her image. it's probably a bit of propaganda as well, but she was never shown as being frail or weak. in fact, i think she was in pretty good health until a sudden turn of events in the few days before her death. she also passed away about a year after her husband, prince philip. i wonder if it's true, that it's possible to die of a broken heart. i've seen anecdotal evidence; my paternal grandparents passed away within a year of each other, and jedi master's second dog died within two months of his companion. i also recall reading a possible scientific explanation about how grief weakens the heartstrings and reduces the heart's capability to function, but i don't think there's any specific study focused on this.

anyway, she lived a good life in service to her country, i think. it made me wonder if i could do the same. sure, i would never have to worry about finances or material needs, but could i live within the confines of the high expectations placed upon the royal family? i suppose coming out as gay would be heavily frowned upon. there's a popular saying that a cage made of gold is still a cage, but then, if i had grown up in that world and it was the only world i'd known, i suppose i'd have to live in it by hook or by crook. or i might be one of those royals who gives up their royal status and chooses to live as a commoner. but since i'm already a commoner in this life, i'll just take it as eliminating a few steps to end up in the same situation!

-random thought of the day: Hope the JLPT grant goes through when I pass.-