hot off the press!

i have news, news, news, and more news.

1) i passed the jlpt (level 2)!

apparently you only needed to score 19 out of 60 in each section (three sections) and have an overall score above 90 to pass. i'm glad my certificate for getting 60% looks the same as someone who got 100% ^o^

and congrats to sara (my california road trip buddy) who also passed!

2) i'm going to hitachi!

i just found out that my upcoming job in japan (next month? or april?) will be in hitachi, which, despite not being tokyo, i'm totally ok with. it's the 115th largest city in japan with a population around 200,000. that means it's about the size of tacoma, but about half as dense. it's a 2 1/2 hour train ride from tokyo, making weekend trips to the city both affordable (~$25 each way standard fare) and fairly convenient. in a year or so i'd like to move to tokyo, but in the mean time i'll get to enjoy the countryside a bit ^-^

3) i've started hormones and am doing biweekly electrolysis. (<--- the pain involved in electrolysis made me forgo an exclamation mark on this news point)

i haven't noticed any changes due to hormones yet, but it has only been two weeks. i was at least expecting some mood changes by now. but i shouldn't complain about my current state of emotional stability :P

electrolysis: simultaneously more painful and less painful than i had anticipated. some areas i barely feel any pain at all, while others make me wince pretty bad. no tears yet, but i think there will be plenty once we get to the mustache area and the neck.

oh, and the most annoying thing about electrolysis? you have to go a few days without shaving before a treatment. i shave on sunday, get zapped on tuesday, and then again on thursday. if i'm lucky my face will feel healed enough by friday night to shave again, which means i can only be clean shaven on the weekends. and when do i work? weekends. :( so i'm currently not in a great position to go out in public en  femme very often.

here's a pic (i had electro yesterday afternoon):

my webcam doesn't take fabulous pictures, but you can kind of see how i have prominent stubble below the red circle, whereas inside the circle looks pretty clean. after 6 sessions, i've had my whole sideburn area and cheekbone area zapped down to about where the jaw curves on both sides of my face.

i'm not sure how much i'll get done by the time i leave for japan :-/ at this point i may be lucky to just clear my face once.

4) i deleted WoW and got bored of playing n64 games.

i think after my weekend binge on majora's mask i'm done with single player games for a while. but i'm still going to game night (tuesday night LAN parties), of course. now i might actually read all the manga i bought back in december!

5) i'm now accepting donations to fund more electrolysis (so i could do 3 or 4 times a week).

everyone wins. if you like me, it's a chance to help me out. if you don't like me, you at least get to cause me some intense facial pain.

ciao!