Entries this day: Dream State_of_My_Life_Address Work

Dream

11:39am JST Monday 29 March 2004

I dreamt that I kissed Kat last night. I'm attracted to her California-ness and the shape of her lips when her mouth is closed. She's fashionable and funny.

State of My Life Address

11:42am JST Monday 29 March 2004

State of My Life Address

1. I now live in 中原区, no longer in Tsunashima. Though my skates are still in Tsunashima.

2. I can write the kanji of my address. My Japanese is getting better.

3. Dan's AT's camera is still not fixed; I'm becoming a bit surprised at how long it's taking. Not worried; just surprised.

4. I'm enjoying Gaba a lot. When I don't have a lesson scheduled, I use the time to study Japanese. Lots of resources available - staff, other teachers, internet. Awesome. When I do have lessons, they are low stress and often happy fun. I still don't quite have the hang of the business books yet, but that will come soon.

5. I hung out with Miho from Nova for the first time last night. There are three Mihos from Nova that I know, but I don't have written designators (besides their last names which I'm slightly hesitant to use due to privacy issues) for them yet. How about T Miho.

6. I've been formulating a theory about how I live my life; I think janette used the word touchstones. What are the touchstones in my life.. internet and work. Work to make money, internet to simulate a feeling of connection with my friends.

7. I recently met a bit more carefully Jimmy da magnet from Gaba. He seems to have some wisdom / insight that I'd like to grok, and hopefully help direct that to a fulfilling income producing project; specifically my roller coaster book.

8. Recently I logged on to aim and chatted with several [former] YRUUers. Nice to hear their current life stories. At the risk of missing a name, I chatted with Joe!, Kate, Gene, Amanda, Colleen, Aimee, AnnieB, Calder, Padre, and Austin at length.

9. I've recently learned that Wende is engaged to be married. I'm really happy for her and hope she has the most fabulous marriage ever.

10. If I've got this correct, when my dad was as old as I am now, I was ten years old and in fourth grade. I clearly remember things from fourth grade. (1) Mrs Deleary, (2) wanting to be in 5th grade, (3) drawing messed up pictures of The Adventures of James Fond, depicting him in situations difficult to escape, but somehow he (apparently) always managed to get out, though I never knew how.

11. I don't have any pets.

12. I don't have a girlfriend.

13. janette and I email occassionally; I'm glad to stay in touch with her.

14. I don't have any debt; I paid off my credit card a few days ago (though now I'm under the minimum balance for my bank, so they'll charge me $10 per month until my balance is boosted to 2500 dollars. The credit card company charged $20 one time after my 0% interest offer ran out.)

15. I'd like to include meditation in my daily routine, but it just doesn't seem to become a priority.

16. I've been in Japan for a year and 2 days. In that time, I haven't left the country. I've had four visitors from the US, not including りえ, who came to see her family more than she came to see me: janette, ma & jon, janette & Fred. I'm really thankful for all the visits.

17. Maggie sent me a funny birthday card of Great Farters throughout History. She says she wants to come see me this year, and expressed regret at not seeing me in the past year. Oh Maggie, I love you.

18. The cherry blossoms are beginning to emerge; it's beginning to be Spring.

19. I'm considering going to Mongolia for a horseback adventure in June for my 12,500th day celebration. I might do something smaller (cheaper), but I definitely want to get out of the country, just because I haven't yet.

20. 今東京のちず持っています。私のへやの中あります。

    I now have a map of Tokyo in my room.

21. Jesse and I have hung out hackeysackeying on a couple of occassions; we haven't hung out overtly during non-work days, but we likely will. He, like me, is weird in a good way.

22. 来月ニこ週あやなさんと日本語を勉強します。

    Crap I forgot how to say two times per week. I might study with Ayana twice a week next month.

23. Jesse just called me, for the first time overtly outside of work. It's his birthday. He was born in 1976, making me, officially, as far as he's concerned, old. (Haha; I wonder how old Katy Carpman is these days.) I wonder how I perceive myself when I see myself hanging out with people younger than me. Apparently I think I oughtn't because I'm thinking about it at all. But really, he's not that young.

24. I've enjoyed living in my new apartment; recently (past two days, maybe three) I haven't really emerged from my room at night; I've been at work too late for myself to feel genki enough to go hang out downstairs.

25. I live really close to my work now. Awesome.

26. I have received a response regarding the history of Silent Football. The response is bizarre enough to seem plausible in that it's quite unlikely that one person could have thought of it, and yet still similar enough to be the source of the game I call Silent Football. The receipt of this response requires that I remove the Silent Football Rules from my site. But I am still looking for a loophole, the closest candidate being that the game described is different enough from SF to be arguably a different game.

Work

10:17am JST Tuesday 30 March 2004

Work was good yesterday. I empathised with a student when I told her she needed to change a long-believed rule of grammar. She believed she needed to say

I had been in England for seven years.

because of the "for seven years" part. She was speaking really well and I debated disrupting the flow, so I asked her, "do you want me to fix your grammar? Or do you just want to talk?"

"Um.. fix it, please."

I told her it should be

I went to England for seven years.

She was pretty adamant about her belief, and was nearly able to convince me that I was wrong. We dropped the topic for a while and when I thought about it more, I knew I was correct. "had been" requires a reference to a ending point for the action being described.

That was our first lesson together, and she had specifically selected me as her instructor just to get a change of pace. I wonder if she'll ever choose me again.