Entries this day: Plan State_of_My_Life_Address salsa

Plan

9:26am JST Saturday 12 May 2007 (day 13562)

I have an 80 minute break scheduled before my lesson with Kumiko, so I emailed her, offering to go hang out walking around Kichijoji. Suggested that she call first to confirm, but.

Tonight, meeting Keiko, Natalie, Pat, et. al. in Roppongi for dinner and chowin' dancin' (salsa). I've invited Ami. Then slumber at Natalie's and go with GET for a hike somewheres in greater Tokyo.

State of My Life Address

9:32am JST Saturday 12 May 2007 (day 13562)

State of My Life Address

1. Have recently watched Alex Collier interviewed by Rick K-something. The interview was quite quite cool, and has me reading a PDF (of transcripts) of lectures by Alex Collier, which are a bit more far-fetched, but still in line with the realm of possibility according to what I've personally seen of the world and the universe (which isn't actually much).

2. Have been working with Kim Sawyer on slightly adjusting my life to go where I'd like to go.

3. Have been meditating more frequently. Last night and this morning I got what I'll call positive feedback from meditation, in terms of being more in touch with time. I looked up just in time to catch last train last night (actually it turns out there was one more train, but it was still cutting it way closer than I thought). This morning I woke up gently 30 seconds before my alarm.

4. Arriving at work now. I'll leave the template below and see what happens.

11:33am JST Saturday 12 May 2007 (day 13562)

5. I'm currently working (teaching English) in Shibuya 5 days a week, and Kichijoji on Saturdays.

6. I've just sent 70,000 yen home to pay bills and save some cashola.

7. Working on a new website; it's unpublished as of yet, but we bought the domain.

8. Contacted my dad a couple days ago. They've made a lot of changes at the house where I grew up for high school and first year of college

9. Been enjoying ultimate frisbee most Sundays, but didn't go last Sunday (rain), and won't go tomorrow (GET Hiking), and won't go next week (day after NIN concert)

10. Have gone out with a couple of students recently.

11. Started a painting on canvas. 4 hours of work so far, and it's decently progressed. Carl suggested that I display it in a gallery in Harajuku. Actually paint a few pieces and put them in a dedicated room. Hmmmm.

12. Recently started thinking of my body as my animal. Like it's my pet. I'm me, the soul/spirit inside this animal. It's my job to take care of the animal, even if it wants to do crazy things, I tell it the right things to do.

11:21pm JST Monday 14 May 2007 (day 13564)

13. My shoulder is 100% lovely. I can do anything I would normally do with it, so that's allll good.

14. I've started carrying a little (little!) notebook in my pocket to jot down Japanese as I am given new vocabulary or see kanji that I'd like to learn.

15. My room is a hella mess. But I'd like to clean it up so I won't be quite embarrassed to have guests over.

16. I'm in the same living situation as 9 months ago. Private room in a 2LDK with laundry machine and internet. Living with Michael, Jesse's ex-roommate. For the 3 months before the most recent 9 months, I was sleepin' on their couch.

17. Haven't seen Jesse in a while, but I imagine he and Anna are a bit busy.

18. Currently working in Shibuya at English Village, as I have been for nearly a year.

19. My finances are getting better; I'm sneaking up on getting out of debt.

20. Have broken up with my girlfriend, but there are still some lingering moments. I've got eyes on Ami, but I told Reiko (receptionist) that I wouldn't date any students. What a pickle that's turned out to be.

21. My computer is dirty white MacBook with stickers: "Rediscover the web GetFirefox.jp" "NIN-Y2TXL" and a 'プリクラブ' pic featuring Jesse, Kellie, ?, me, Anna, Caroline, and Dan.

22. I-group is going well; as I am writing this (11:30pm Monday 14 May 2007), we've just had a good meeting tonight. My stretch for the week is to meditate 5+ minutes 10 times in the next 14 days. I'll check in with them in one week, and in two weeks.

23. Personal work with Kim is going well, I think. He's pointed out some places where I'm not maintaining proper boundaries, nor respecting the work I had done previously to cleanly break up with my girl.

24. I volunteered this past Sunday to go to Ogawamachi with GET. We made paper; it was super great, and I definitely want to go back and do more, this time with more colorful bits and bobs. Super thanks to Sachie for putting it together. Super thanks to Natalie for asking if I'd like to come. It was great to see/snuggle with her and see other GETs!

25. We've purchased our domain name: chatforest.com. I'm hopin' we'll be able to put together a supa awesome site.

26. No pets, but I believe Spot is doing well with Jennifer back in Houston. I need to email her.

27. I've been working on my marble track this month. Got the super-hard switch finished, and have been progressing steadily. I'm just about ready to declare it finished. (and then start another!)

28. Have some 7 gigs (roughly) of data (most of it music; the rest backups) stored online Amazon S3

29. If I lost my computer right now, I would lose a couple days of entries, and about 2 weeks of photos.

30. Sakurashinmachi station has its new escalators and fire doors installed. There are a couple of construction points that I don't understand yet.

31. I'd like to start to see some parts of Japan. Some of us ultimate peeps are planning a hike up Mt Fuji in July. Now I'm thinking after going to Ogawamachi and having such a great time, I should crack out a guidebook and start taking some day trips and weekend trips. Definitely.

32. Haven't had any good earthquakes recently.

11:28am JST Tuesday 15 May 2007 (day 13565)

Adding my .emacs file after just adding image-insert:

(setq custom-file "~/.emacs-custom.el")
(load custom-file)

(tool-bar-mode)  
(menu-bar-mode)  

(add-hook 'perl-mode-hook 
	  (lambda ()
	    (set (make-local-variable 'compile-command)
		 (concat "perl -wc " (buffer-file-name)))))

(add-hook 'java-mode-hook 
	  (lambda ()
	    (set (make-local-variable 'compile-command)
		 (concat "javac " (buffer-file-name)))))

(set 'display-time-day-and-date "True")
(display-time)
(auto-fill-mode)
(global-font-lock-mode)
(set 'time-stamp-format "%:I:%02M%#p %Z %:a %:d %:b %:y")
(set 'time-stamp-timezone "America/Chicago")
(set 'mail-yank-prefix ">")
(set 'rmail-dont-reply-to-names "thunderrabbit")
(set 'mail-default-reply-to "rob <rob@robnugen.com>")
(set 'max-lisp-eval-depth 2000)
(put 'upcase-region 'disabled nil)
(put 'downcase-region 'disabled nil)

(prefer-coding-system 'euc-jp)

(setq image-diet "ppppm!mogrify -geometry 100%\C-munnnng")

(setq journal-start "\C-xb*scratch*\C-m\M-<Time-stamp:
<>\C-m\C-[xtime-stamp\C-m\C-[<\C-k\C-k\C-y\C-y\C-[<\C-s<\C-m\C-
\C-e\C-b\C-w\C-n\C-sday \C-m0\C-s
\C-m\C-b\C-b\C-b\M-d\C-x\C-f/journal/\C-y\C-xq\C-m\M-xauto-fill-mode\C-m\C-xi/journal/journal_header.txt\C-m\C-x\C-x\C-cT\C-cJ")

(setq watermark-images "!mogrify -gravity southeast -fill white -draw 'text 10,20 \"robnugen.com\"'")
(setq p-dream "<p class=\"dream\"></p>\C-m\C-b\C-b\C-b\C-b\C-b")

(setq p-note "<p class=note></p>\C-m\C-b\C-b\C-b\C-b\C-b")
(setq p-bar "<p>- - - -</p>\C-m\C-m\C-cp")

(fset 'view-journal-directory
   "\C-xbHTML\C-i\C-mg%m[0123][0123456789].*html$\C-mM600\C-m\C-[<\C-?")



(global-set-key "\C-cm" image-diet)
(global-set-key "\C-cv" 'view-journal-directory)
(global-set-key "\C-cs" journal-start)
(global-set-key "\C-cl" 'load-file)
(global-set-key "\C-cn" p-note)
(global-set-key "\C-cb" p-bar)
(global-set-key "\C-cw" watermark-images)

(dired "/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/textmodes/sgml*")
(rename-buffer "SGML")

(dired "/journal/*.html")
(rename-buffer "HTML-journal-files")

(fset 'gimme-digits [?\C-x ?b ?* ?d ?i ?g ?i ?t ?s ?* ?\C-m ?\C-x ?k ?\C-m ?\C-x ?b ?* ?d ?i ?g ?i
   ?t ?s ?* ?\C-m ?\C- ?0 ?\C-m ?1 ?\C-m ?2 ?\C-m ?3 ?\C-m ?4 ?\C-m ?5 ?\C-m ?6 ?\C-m ?7 ?\C-m ?8
   ?\C-m ?9 ?\C-x ?r ?k ?\C-x ?\C-x ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?0 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y
   ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?1 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?2 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x
   ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?3 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?4 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m
   ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?5 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?6 ?\C-m ?\C-e
   ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?7 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?8 ?\C-m
   ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?9 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C- ?\C-[ ?< ?\C-x ?r ?k ?\C-x ?r ?y
   ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?0 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?1 ?\C-m ?\C-e
   ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?2 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r
   ?t ?3 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?4 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y
   ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?5 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?6 ?\C-m ?\C-e
   ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?7 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r
   ?t ?8 ?\C-m ?\C-e ?\C-m ?\C-x ?r ?y ?\C-b ?\C-b ?\C-x ?r ?t ?9 ?\C-m])

(fset 'replace-<->-with-lt-gt-codes [escape ?x ?r ?e ?p ?l ?a ?c ?e ?- ?s ?t ?r ?i ?n ?g
   return ?< return ?& ?l ?t ?\; return ?\C-x ?\C-x escape ?x ?r ?e ?p ?l ?a ?c ?e ?- ?s ?t ?r ?i
   ?n ?g return ?> return ?& ?g ?t ?\; return ?\C-x ?\C-x])


(fset 'image-insert [?\C-x ?b ?* ?S return ?\C-y return ?\C-y return return ?\C-p ?\C-p ?\C-p ?\C-s
   ?t ?h ?u ?m ?b ?s ?/ ?\C-m backspace backspace backspace backspace backspace backspace backspace
   ?\C-a escape ?x ?r ?e ?p ?l ?a ?c ?e ?- ?s ?t ?r ?i ?n ?g return ?h ?t ?t ?p ?: ?/ ?/ ?r ?o ?b ?n
   ?u ?g ?e ?n ?. ?c ?o ?m return return ?\C-k ?\C-p return ?\C-k ?\C-x ?k return ?\C-c ?h ?\C-y
   return ?\C-c ?i ?\C-y escape ?y return])

salsa

7:08am JST Sunday 13 May 2007 (day 13563)

Keiko invited me to salsa last night for Pat's final huzzah in Tokyo. We chowed at Outback Steakhouse where we were joined by Ami after she hung out with her friends. So great to see Keiko and Eri again. So great to have such a lovely 49th PB reunion!

We headed to a salsa club which was hella crowded compared to other salsa clubs that we went past. Natalie had headed out first to meet one of her mates (one = three girls from China)

Downstairs where I was uneasy at first until Natalie reminded my feet how to salsa. She did a lot of classes on 49th, many of which I attended, but wasn't confident enough to just start without a reminder. But then she was like, "oh this is Merengue, " and "this is chimichanga" (or something) and "this is 何とか" The songs ended and she put me together with Faye..

(oops gotta go hiking; more later perhaps)

7:55am JST Sunday 13 May 2007 (day 13563)

(On the train now with Natalie)

The club was pretty crowded

8:36am JST Sunday 13 May 2007 (day 13563)

(On the (third) train now with Natalie (and Kazzah!))

At first I was answering Faye in Japanese because that's usually the most effective, but then she was like, "日本語わかりません" and I was like, "where are you from?"

"Shanghai"

I suddenly fell in love with her upon hearing this. Hmmm; perhaps she can teach me Mandarin; perhaps we can do a language exchange; hmmmmm .. but it turns out she lives all the way up in Chiba (which to me seems miles away) and works in Ueno (though closer, still on the other side of Yamanote line from me)... so I gave up on the idea a bit, but still highly enjoyed her smile.

Her English was pretty good for not being fluent, but the club was hella noisy so still a bit difficult to communicate.

Song ended, and I moved over to Ami, who was decorating the corner of the room as a wallflower. She refused to dance at first, but I persisted and she ended up being dancier than I guessed after all the initial hesitation.

Natalie pointed out that Sachiko, one of the members of our little party, 60+ years old, was sittig directly facing us as smiles and locked eyes turned to smiles and smooches.

Oops.

So we shifted and then disengaged and I was dancin' with myself for a bit, and then with Yuuka, and then with Rose (who will be on 58th as guest care), and then with both of them, and Rose pulled both of us over somewhere, but I disengaged because I wanted to dance with Faye again. I went over to where she was sitting and was like wait a minute; she's not Faye! and I confirmed with Natalie, "THE GIRL BEHIND YOU ISN'T FAYE, IS SHE?" and she was like, "NO" and I wondered where she had gone, and if Rose had been (inadvertantly) leading us to where Faye was.

Danced again with Ami, and then later Faye returned and I was a bit shy at first (she was talking to her friends, dancing with whom I wasn't interested), but then just sorta went over and took her hand and she got up. She was all tense at first, but then soon relaxed and then was completely relaxed and groovin' wonderfully with her lovely smile. Found out she works for a small company in Ueno, and has been there 7 years. Don't remember why she doesn't know Japanese.

Song ended; kiss on cheek. Didn't (haven't) dance(d) with her again.

Ami had been grabbed by Keiko, who's an extreme salsa professionaly compared to me. Went over and Ami was much dancier than she had been before; it was fun fun.

I felt a bit conspicuous being so affectionate in (a Japanese) club, but we definitely had a good time dancing.

She asked to see my Crazy Dance, but I was unable to do it with such slow music. Then the next song was much bumpier and I switched to about 6 or 8 steps per second for the entire song (7 minutes), which wasn't *strenuous* per se, but was a bit hard to keep my brain relaxed so I could maintain that level of energy. Each time my legs or brain began to cramp up, I reconnected with Self and observed from an objective observer position, monitored my breathing, and sorta went into a meditation.

At one point she was like, 「なに考えるの?」「瞑想する」and she laughed 「なんで？」「暗記する」 「なにを？」「この時、今の事」She smiled.

(( "What are you thinking?" "I'm meditating." "Why?" "I'm memorizing." "memorizing what?" "this time; this moment." ))

Time to leave so we headed upstairs and outside. Keiko and Eri came out a bit later and we took pictures.

Natalie came out a bit late-r and we zoomed to the station, leaving behind Keiko and Eri, who intended to make a night of it. (their last train would have been at like 11pm)

Unfortunately Ami missed her train by just a bit; she took a taxi home.

Natalie and I went to her house where we quickly crashed out so we could wake up early this morning.