Entries this day: AM Dream Hmmmm Today Z basketball_study stretch

AM

8:08am JST Sunday 4 May 2003

Yesterday Mike was in a room next to me and he said something like, "I would like to wake up naturally, but I have to use an alarm," to explain the word naturally. He went on to say that he would be able to do that when he was 70, when he is retired.

Dude. I wake up without an alarm most days. I like that about myself. I just go to bed at a time called earlier.

Dream

7:49am JST Sunday 4 May 2003

I was with friends in a house on the beachfront. The house had thick glass walls like an inch thick facing the water. Across the water I could see a train bridge and maybe a train station. We were talking in the living room and suddenly there was a large swell of waves and the waves were gushing into the house, though they were dampened by the walls they weren't completly stopped.

I was afraid for the safety of my computer and asked if the hosue would remain standing and I was assured it would. I ran up the hall and another wave came causing a river of water to flood down the hall toward me. I knew I could just stand carefully and let it flow by.

I saw a friend of mine out on the beach and he was pretty far away and possibly in dangered by the waves. I stood by an automatic door in the hallway and it opened; I hoped he saw it. I heard the yammeryammer Japanese voice greeting as the door opened.

After the water went by, I ran down another hall looking for the room where I had left my computer and I went past many rooms with science experiment looking things, or like science museum displays that would appeal to various ages. They were all in glass rooms and I didn't go investigate them more fully.

I got to my computer and it was in a room where a little robot was supposed to be cleaning a miniature floor. This was an experiment in artificial intelligence, so I knew this was "just" a robot, but it seemed to have a good ability to speak English sensibly if innocently. It cleaned for a while and then the tray got more and more full of rice, making it impossible to get everything; the robot needed a different tool besides just a buffing wheel; it needed a shovel. But it kept working anyway, knowing it was doing that which it had been asked to do.

- - - -

I got back to Kawasaki and Carla told me that she and Benny were going to some bed and breakfast type thing down down down somewhere and she was really looking forward to it, and I was envious that Benny had already been so bold as to get her to go out with him, etc even though she's been working here for years and he's been here the same month+ that I have.

(beastie boys reference intentional)

Hmmmm

8:56am JST Sunday 4 May 2003

I'm wondering about riding my bike to work and thereby getting exercise and 'saving' money ('saving' because I've paid 1500 to get my bike untowed and I dunno how much to fix a flat) versus riding the train to work and having time to study Japanese.

If my primary goal here is to learn Japanese, then the choice is obvious.

Today

5:46pm JST Sunday 4 May 2003

Pretty okay day at work. Relatively straightforward. Had one good lesson, one great lesson, and one not so good lesson and one faux pas in another lesson.

The great lesson was a man to man where she asked me specifically for help with language to use as a telephone operator for a hotel. She told me the situation and I gave her language like, "for the safety of our guests, we cannot connect you unless you have their full name or first name and room number." and "if there is no answer, please don't hang up and I will transfer the call to voice mail." or some shit like that.

She seemed really happy with the new phrases.

And she was really cute but she's too young for me I'm sure.

The faux pas was me bringing up this cat's daughter's birthday tomorrow (which he had mentioned in a previous lesson) when the current lesson was talking about manly subjects like Japanese loyalty to companies. But shit, he wouldn't speak up at all, so I tried to connect with him about anything I knew. Whatever.

Z

10:47pm JST Sunday 4 May 2003

Instead of going to get my bike tire fixed, I studied a bit and fell asleep a lot. Dreams filled with the concept of learning Japanese, trying to learn Japanese, bits and pieces of words floating around in my head.

Woke up naturally just before Frank yelled "WHAT???" in the other room and then the washing machine beeped its 10-beep "I'm finished" alarm.

In my head I wondered "what brings you joy, Frank?"

Soon as I got into the room he was all, "I gotta ask you a favor; when I lose I get really angry." He's playing Sega basketball.

"So what's the favor?"

"Just don't comment on it. Your predecessor had to learn the hard way."

"Did you kick his ass?" I ask, thinking the question is ludicrous.

"No; I very rarely resort to physical violence."

Oh, well that's nice.

The .... apparent accuracy of this video game is pretty amazing. Taking into consideration number of fans the various teams draw, and using two announcer's voices, a voice for the local announcer, players' voices, tennis shoe squeaks, buzzer horns, advertising in the arena... wow. Pretty far cry from Adventure for the Atari 2600, which I think I could still play happily. Maybe 1 game on the most difficult level.

basketball study

1:56am JST Monday 5 May 2003

Frank is watching recently recorded basketball games recorded and sent by his mom. He knows the outcome of all the games, but hasn't seen the actual games.

I've been mostly studying, or maybe mostly watching, but pretty close to half and half overall. I've got the concept of particles in my head. Like �� and �� and �� and one more that I've forgotten. There are many of these, which basically specify how nouns are being used in sentences.

I can say shit like �������@�������������@NOVA���@��������, which I think means "I will go to Nova at 10" and breaks down as I (subject) 10 (at) Nova (object) go.

This is almost certainly not exactly right, but I certainly hope it's at least close enough that a native speaker could figure out what I'm trying to say.

stretch

3:11am JST Monday 5 May 2003

I'm just now getting to bed (I took a phat nap after work) and I had a flash thought. Back in Dallas in my last couple days there I went to the store (Target / Ross) by myself to get clothes. That felt like a real stretch like ooh I'm going shopping without a girlfriend to show me what to do.

Compared to the shit I've been doing here...... that was nothing. Hooray for personal growth.