Entries this day: ROB_Update_December_2008 Work i-group kevin_at_Indo_curry

ROB Update December 2008

10:05am JST Monday 22 December 2008 (day 14152)

HI Everyone!

I hope this email finds you sitting or standing happily with your email-reader and plenty of holiday
cheer surrounding you and your family.  In a few days, half of my family-of-origin will be in Japan!
My brother Fred will be experiencing his second adventure in Japan, for 3 weeks starting this
Thursday, and I'm quite excited about it!  His visit corresponds with a week+ of holidays for the
New Year.  Though I have not made tons of plans, I've made more than the first time he came as a
soooper secret surprise with my lovely janette!  That was back in the day, like January 2004, so I'm
looking forward to showing Fred a bit more about Japan that I've discovered in the interim.

Summary of what's up in my life now: work, internet, Ami, meditation, art.

At work I've just recently finished (finished?) a custom invoicing system.  It took far longer than
the original plan, but the project was never carefully defined ("Make it automate what we do now").
The definition would be refined as each version was made.  I'm pretty happy with the result, in the
end.

Online, I have my ever-growing journal, slowly growing wiki and blog, as well as Uncle Cow's
website.  Have been playing a lot on Facebook, especially a game called "Friends For Sale," and
reading Slashdot and sites seeking to explain what's going on in the world: Project Camelot, and
Above Top Secret.

Lemme talk about art for a bit.  This is the department where I've been most creative, and therefore
most successful, in my mind.  I'm actively working on a painting for Colleen (my first commissioned
painting!) and I really like it.  It's almost finished (I plan to finish it within 2 weeks), and
then I want to scan it and make poster prints.  I just want one for myself, but might as well make a
hundred and see if they'll sell!

I'm *also* working on Marble Track Three.  And during its construction, I'm taking photos in a
time-lapse photography type way, so I can make a movie showing exactly how it was built.  And, just
to make it quite interesting, I'm using pipe cleaners shaped like people to be the construction
workers in the project!  If that makes sense, great!  If not, wait for the Youtube video! 

Speaking of which, many of the comments on Youtube for Marble Track Two are misspelled like, "Your a
loser get a life!" and "you have to much time on your hands."  ...  well wait till they see this!
It's going to take for-e-ver... !  Hahhahahaa!!

Sometimes, if I spend too much time alone, I get anxious and want to travel and date women and leave
Japan and learn a new language.  (This also happens when I'm not alone, but not as often.)  As a
result, some of me-an-Ami's recent conversations have been a bit stressful.  I see myself in an
amazingly similar pattern as when I broke up with Wende.  We had a life, a house, two cars, three
cats, and I was like, "eeeeek!" moved to Dallas, j, traveled around the US, then Japan, then the
world, and now seem to be settling in Japan, and I'm like, "eeeeek!"

So... is this really the same pattern?  (rhetorical question)

I'd like to be able to really talk to Ami about it, but it's tricky when we don't share a native language.

Work

11:15pm JST Monday 22 December 2008 (day 14152)

Work flew by while I made final changes to the PDF output of the invoices. Sho still had several tweaks that he marked. I called him 赤ペン先生 as a result. Andrew was like, "what???"

Andrew's last day before vacation is today. I was like, "what???"

i group

11:16pm JST Monday 22 December 2008 (day 14152)

I led I-group tonight, in a semi freestyle manner, as per my desired way of living. Freestyle everything, though it may be hard to implement on all levels.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. This is the night David arrived late (due to a work party, plus his train was delayed).

kevin at Indo curry

11:19pm JST Monday 22 December 2008 (day 14152)

Ate at the Indian restaurant with Kevin after I-group. It may be our last time to meet for a while, as he will be busy with preparation for his trip to Kyoto, plus a workshop in Arizona, plus his workshops in Japan. Nice. I'll miss him, though. Mos def.