I can send email now. Have to use my local ISPs outgoing mail
server instead of webquarrys. Kinda hacked that wq didn't tell me
about the change, but I'm basically over it.
I added a sort to my journal.pl so the files are sorted the way I
want. ls can sort them anyway it wants and all is good.
My room is a mess.
I've noticed that I'm learning a lot about myself by being
alone in Japan. I have been practically isolating myself on my
computer, somehow hoping for some magic solution to all my wants.
At the same time, I've noticed that the type of outgoing behavior
that I seem not to be displaying is exactly what seems to attract
people to people who are outgoing, unlike me.
(wha?)
I'm outgoing as fuck in some situations, but in most situations, I
am completely reserved, not wanting to attract any attention to
myself. I'm like a cartoon character, wearing the same dark color
slacks and always a white shirt every day. Different color ties,
though. My one daily change. (but would I wear a fuzzy tie, or a
shag tie, or a burlap tie? Maybe; that would be pretty funny I
think.)
It's like I'm just SO afraid of what people will think of me.
Complete strangers in Japan, and I'm so worried about making sure I
fit in and don't disrupt their culture.
(( I don't want to be like Frank, specifically saying "No Pants
Shabu Shabu" just to get a reaction out of people on the train, but
I'd like to be a bit more outgoing. (Then whey don't I change?)
))
Sigh.
I am beginning to believe that I *must* be more outgoing in
order to become the full vision I have of myself in the future, doing
something big in the world. What the heck is all this about?
Is it possible to ease into this? If I just do things that I like
to do, will I be happier and more attractive through bright happiness
shining out through me?
I can see positive progress with my Japanese. Today I
remembered the day I learned my first Japanese word, konichiwa "hello"
(used during the day (not morning nor evening)), which was the name of
Christine's light green stuffed dragon.
Because I learned my first Japanese word, there must have been a
time that I didn't know any Japanese words. Now I know
several.
I get to work at KQ 3 days per week this month. So most of my
time at work is spent at a school where I can actually teach students
more effectively. Good feeling.
There are some students I don't get to say HI to at big school, but
change happens.
My webserver is being hosted on new hardware. Had to tweak
(simply add "sort") to my journal.pl to account for the change, and
have to use Yahoo!BB smtp server to send email now.
I have lived in Frank's old room long enough to make it a huge
fat mess.
As a result, I'm not sure that my new hat didn't simply get buried
last night as I was trying to find the password info for yahoobb; I
can't find it this morning.
:-(
I don't hate hate hate my job at Nova. I just don't like
it.
janette is still my chosen best
partner/confidant/mate/friend/etc. She's coming to kick it with me in
Japan in January. I wonder where we will visit, etc when she
comes.
In Japan, I have
been to
- Hiroshima once (1 day with janette)
- Kyoto once (3.5 days with janette)
- Nara once (.5 days with janette)
- Many places around Tokyo and Yokohama
- Amusement parks:
- Fuji-Q Highland (with Nami)
- Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (with Liz (atsuko))
- Tokyo Dome City (with Tomoko)
Figured out most of the train quirks that I need to
know
been studying Japanese. I'm about 7B according to Nova's
criteria:
- can formulate and respond to simple questions
- capable of giving some autobiographical information
- able to describe simple, concrete items
- sentence length is often limited to a few words
- pauses are common
- participates in, but rarely initiates discussion
- control of grammatical structures is limited or inconsistent
- speech is often characterized by frequent grammatical and
word order inaccuracies
- can understand common questions
- slower speech may be necessary for understanding
Taught English, working for:
* Nova (still am)
* Gateway 21 (1 student so far)
* myself (this has waned to one student, Shin)
Played Silent Football once
Ridden the shinkansen (twice alone and twice with janette)
not yet skated
The music school under (above?) us at KQ plays the same songs
repeatedly. This is to be expected from a music school. But they are
all English songs. I'm no music person; I can't name most of them,
but either they are English or worldwide. Elton John and Beatles and
stuff. I think.
My roommates are Matty and Dan. Matty has recently been fired
(officially laid off) for banging a student.
I have not banged nor kissed any students. Have hugged a few.
I plan to go to Tokyo Disneyland quite soon (18 November). I'm
excited, but not sure how much fun it will be (super crowded and not a
lot of coasters, I'm guessing). Going with Tomoko, who I've been
hanging out with recently.
Carla is my favorite teacher in Kawasaki.
Cory is my favorite male teacher at Kawasaki.
(Ali is Ali's favorite teacher at Kawasaki.)
I don't outright hate anyone at work anymore.
I have been in touch with Kim Sawyer who has encouraged me to
get some of my positive energy moving toward being published in the
roller-coaster-riding industry. I've taken some hi res pictures of
coasters at Hakkeijima (though it was raining) and Tokyo Dome City,
but I haven't written anything about those adventures yet.
I have just learned that my computer battery lasts much longer
if I turn the screen brightness down.
I am about 200 email messages behind in my Inbox.
I haven't resent my long email to all my peeps because it took
so long to write, and it almost doesn't ... apply ,, and it's not
really coherent. Like this bullet item.
I still don't yet have a seamless way to get images to my
website for easy viewage.
I have seen Kill Bill (liked it) and Matrix Revolutions (liked
it) recently.
I've been watching slash listening to NHK, Japanese public
television, and I can understand words occasionally.
I will get OS X 10.3 soon. It was just released 2 weeks ago
and I've heard it's really fly. Has X built in and Gimp I
think. Built in support for X terminals (I'm not sure what to call it,
but basically a graphical X terminal window on my machine, but with
the remote machine doing the processing) like we did on the X machines
in computer graphics class.
Woah.
I've just spent all evening not getting much done but kinda
screwing around with hoping to find a way to more efficiently process
images and write my name on the images, put them on my site, and send
them to rollercoaster ftp sites.
gah.
AND some terminal emulation setting is different, or actually it's
emacs (?) interpreting backspace as delete now when I'm SSHed into my
server on wq. I can change the emulation on my end, but then I have
to change it back when I'm done with emacs over there before I can use
emacs over here. Pooh.
BUT, my problems are nothing compared to the people I just saw on
TV - some show (in Japanese) about Afghanistan. That's some fucked up
shit.
SoML
excited
dreams
runes
YRUU
ultimate
KTRU
skate
sleepy
nihongo
