nether words II

poop

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:30:26 GMT

It's driving me crazy that I can't remember the (probably slang) word for POOP in Japanese. My students were totally obsessed with it, drawing little soft-serve splops of dookie on anything they could get away with (the chalkboards at lunchtime, their desks, assignments they thought nobody would pay close attention to). Gareth is playing a videogame on our new X-Box (Blue Dragon) where not only are Poo Snakes one of the monsters, but random treasure drops show up as a little turd that looks exactly like what my students drew. And I can't remember the godsdamned word!

one and one are one eleven

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:36:45 GMT

Halloween was awesome. I hung out with my sister & her friends, we went on the zombie walk. It was weird to be shambling along listening to the police call out on their megaphones "Zombies! Stay on the sidewalk!" and whoop the sirens whenever people got too slow.

My zombie costume was my only costume. I wanted to do something with slit-mouth or something, and then I saw this Fever Ray video:

ETA: whoops, that's not the real music video. That can be found here or it's around #8 on the scrolling options for further watching on that video (If I Had A Heart). But the still for the "video" I embedded is the image I was talking about anyway.

Fortunately, I had a pet artist on hand (my sister!) so the paint job turned out waaaaay better than I could have managed. I loved this look and I want to do it again, and again, and again. I also want my very own corset (this one's borrowed from Susan). I wish we had a few more atmospheric dusk-light-level shots, because it was very spooky in the right light. Just...not so much in the blazing sun!

Sadly, I'm reaching the point where being unemployed is no longer fun, just a drag. I totally missed the boat this fall (applied for like 2 teaching positions and one tutoring gig) because of the wedding, so now I'm looking for retail work again. Dropped resumes off at the mall last week; no call backs yet. LAAAAAAAME. But I did start volunteering with the ICA, just so I don't feel like I'm totally wasting my time. I'm TA-ing with their seniors' English class once a week, and it's really cool. A totally different type of student than I'm used to dealing with, and a really interesting mix of nationalities, and of course it's cool to meet with people who are out of school, so to speak.

I need to quit playing Farmville and start obsessively reading LJ again, right? I'm sure it's better for me in some way.

How'd that happen?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:44:46 GMT

I'm, like, totally married and stuff!

I don't have any pictures yet, sadly.

I know I haven't given LJ much love lately, but that's all going to change! Really! Everything changes after marriage, so why should the internets be any different?

Also, I was right: not many of my friends came out to the wedding. Some had good excuse (Nathan & Megan, I'm thinking of you!!!) but others...well, I wasn't just being emo. But those who did come totally made my night, especially my sister & her friend who kept up with me on the dance floor like nobody else could. ^_^

Mon, 04 May 2009 22:19:43 GMT

1. My cat came home after being out on his own for four long days. So happy!
2. I love pickles.
3. I forgot how wanky Architecture In Helsinki was. O.o

That's all for now.

Last day

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:51:48 GMT

It's my last day at Kasakake Minami Chugakkou. Several students brought me cards and a couple even left presents (Yuna made cake! With a soymilk byproduct called okara!) and it makes me feel really great and loved and like I made a difference in these kids' lives. Although it also makes me feel uncomfortable, because one of the cards is from a girl whose name I don't know, and that always makes me feel bad. But mostly good from all the love flying around!

I've been organising my desk and deleting my files and things, trying to leave a few items for the next ALT: my best activities, a bunch of links I found really useful, some of my flashcards and things. I decided to leave the felt pens I bought (this was a hard decision: I love a good set of felts!) but I am SO taking my amazing Halloween flashcards that never got used home with me!

I'm full of trepidation about the future. Will I get a teaching job? Will it be cool or sucky? Will I land a position with the ELC for Program 3, thereby ensuring that I only have to make it through 6 weeks on what little I have saved, or will I have to try and find something short term to bridge the gap between mid-April and late June in some other field? Will I finish the shawl I'm planning in time for the wedding we haven't actually set a date for yet? Will I do the wedding wrong??? Too many questions! I think it's time for lunch.

Hé les francophones!

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:39:38 GMT

I'm trying to say "as though she were my daughter." Does this phrase make sense?
...comme ce qu'elle était ma fille...

ack!

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:03:38 GMT

I arrived home exactly long enough to boil a kettle before the postie stopped by to deliver the package containing Posy's cheapo purple eyes! I was thrilled! It turns out, they're a little bit too big...I will go down a size when (hopefully this summer) I get her some quality eyes for good. I really like the purple, though; they're very appropriate to her character.

Where the "ack" comes in, though, is that I was so thrilled looking at her little face with its eyes all THERE and stuff, and I thought "gee, I should try on her wig." The wig came with the face; it was direct from the company. It looks like the wigs for this size of doll that they have on their site. But it doesn't seem like it will fit properly at all! :S It's really hard to say for sure, as this kind of doll they don't sell whole heads separately, just "face plates," so it's possible that the back of her head will stick out far enough to make this wig stay on. But so far it seems...unlikely. So, back in the summer, I wasted some $20 on a wig that's not going to be wearable, and probably too small for any other doll. *facepalm* Well, how was I to know? It was made by the same company!

I hope I find out that I'm wrong, because the overall look of it is just too perfect for my wacky gothy skater fairy girl (it's huge and pink). But it will be a while--I don't expect her body to arrive here until mid-March, sigh. Why does it always take so long?

In non-doll news, the weather here is freaking me out. Seriously. The sun is summer-warm today. IN FEBRUARY. It's not totally warm overall because the wind is very strong, but...at the moment, my heater/air con unit is BLOWING COLD AIR because it thinks my room is ABOVE TWENTY DEGREES. HOLY POOP. I HAVE NO WORDS. Japan is really messing with my sense of time and the seasons, I tell you! Crazy!

edit: crazier and crazier...apparently my aircon was set to keep the temperature at TWENTY-TWO! I'm so full of WTF!

wahooooooo!!!

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:18:02 GMT

My new computer is here, and it's honest-to-god the shiniest piece of electronics I have EVER owned! And, not only did it arrive a blistering TWO DAYS before expected, but I also didn't have to pay customs (which might or might not surprise people in the know, if such there be, but I sure had been mentally freaking about the possibility ever since it occurred to me about two days after Gareth sent it on its way, around the time I realised I had a grand total of $80 to get me through the next two weeks...)!

Anyway, it's really and truly super exciting for me, as I've had only secondhand computers since I was about 20--all vintage 2000 or earlier. This is the first brand new computer that's played a major role in my personal life since I was about 17, holy poop!

I haven't played with it much yet, but I most certainly will! ^_^ Ohhh and it's nice to have an English keyboard again, if for no other reason than that my favourite smiley ( the ol' ^_^, yes indeed) is so much harder to type on a Japanese layout.

I hope to get some photos uploaded soon...yay!

*hugs the laptop*

Now if only the little tiny package I ordered from Hong Kong (shipped last tuesday; left HK on friday) would get here... <.<

okay, maybe I'm still sick

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:54:07 GMT

I've had like a perma headache since sometime last week. I want to blame it on the cold air, which does sometimes give me brainfreeze if I bike to work without my "juanita the bandita" face mask and with my mouth open. But I also think it's related to the general malaise I bemoaned previously. Augh, stupid the world! Maybe I'm just hungry; this whole eating at 7:30, 1, and 6 thing gets a bit jaw-tightening from time to time...

oh my god

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:53:23 GMT

I just realised I had mis-corrected the word "doctor" on a student's worksheet. The student wrote "doctar" and I crossed out the A and wrote a little E above it...thank goodness it was possible to change it to look mostly like an O...
Egads, if I don't have my ironclad spelling hand, what do I have?

pet peeves

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:45:45 GMT

Sometimes I feel that linguistics has ruined me as a person, turning me into an intense hypocrite.

On the one hand, I'm one of those people who loves using correct grammar (and punctuation! and spelling!) and likes to try and keep old meanings/words alive (effable, anyone?). I have tonnes of pet peeves when it comes to language, and I'll happily rant about them. I can be quite the elitist when the right topic comes up, and I'm a bit of a stick in the mud about some things.

But at the same time, linguistics opened my eyes to language as a changing creature (I was already primed by my own dedication to constructions my mother dislikes, such as "Me and Susan went to the store," which I know is wrong but still use...although I would never say "Susan and me went to the store," go figure...) and now there are some things that it offends me to hear people listing as pet peeves. In particular, I was recently browsing a forum thread on "pronunciation pet peeves." I expected it to be full of things like "nucular" and my family favourite, "mizzled" instead of "mis-led," or my own "g-awe-ge" instead of "gauge." But it turned out that those types of actual mispronunciations were outnumbered by "lazy" natural pronunciations like "supprised" (no R), or "probly" instead of "probably." I just want to shake people by their shoulders and ask them, in a loud voice that will hopefully su[p]rise them into thinking for juuuust a second, what the HELL they think THEY SAY when they're not paying attention?

I try to reconcile my two sides by the use of the word "style," which helps a lot (i.e. it's not good public speaking style to say "prolly," although it's in no way wrong in conversation), but I still feel like a total hypocrite, since I feel so very passionately about both sides.

P.S.
New computer is on the way!
Also, I think for the last two weeks when I've been sleeping so shittily and feeling slightly nauseous several times a day, maybe I really was sick, because the last two days I've felt like a new person, and I didn't even have to go to bed 9 hours before getting-up-time or anything! I hate it when you're just sick enough to, um, impact on your health, but not sick enough to do anything about it!

Radost' i Grubost'

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:50:09 GMT

Okay, I'm ready.
The first two chapters of the story of my dolls are up at Radost' i grubost'. The sidebar shows the chapters in their appropriate order, although they display on the page in normal blog style, newest first. Um, there are two.

I'm...open to critique, but be gentle. Chapter three is coming soon.

edit:
1. Chapter three is up, fwiw.
2. if you google "grubost," which I did just now because to be completely honest I couldn't remember what it meant, the first result is this lj...and the novel blog is in the first page of results as well. O.o

why is everything falling apart around me???

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:48:02 GMT

Seriously.
My bike has had like a perma-flat this whole month of January. There's one leak that I've patched four times now, and it's still finding its way past all the patches and rubber cement I can apply. So I borrowed a bike from the school...only to discover that it too had a flat tire. Also, apparently my work won't cover the cost of taking the bike in to have the tire replaced (I might replace it myself, except my previous attempts to remove the wheel have ended in FAILURE...as far as I can tell, I'd have to remove the whole rear gear system, which means getting the chain off, which is awful hard since it's in this protective housing that I can't seem to unscrew...I really don't think this bike was meant to be repaired much). So I'm taking it to a shop tonight, and hopefully it will only cost me like $50...

Of course, there's the computer issue. I've now been without a home computer for three weeks, and the strain is getting to me. So many things that I've taken for granted for years now, such as the ability to look up information, somewhere to play CDs and DVDs, instant communication and endless reading material, are unavailable to me. And the internet cafe is kind of wearing...it's not really noisy, per se, but there's a constant bustle, people coughing (which if I'm web-chatting with people is often reduplicated as their mic picks up the sound coming through their speakers and feeds it back directly into my ears...pretty horrid), dishes clattering, and of course the omnipresent muzak. Gareth is trying to order me a delicious MacBook Pro, and he thought by getting our student friend in whose name the purchase is being made to sign up for this "apple developers club" or something we could get a crazy discount (basically, you pay $100 for membership, then get a $500 discount on hardware), but it's been a week of apple constantly demanding more information, from birthdate to class schedules, not to mention being rightly confused about why the credit card being used to pay for this computer is in someone else's name...basically, if he can't get it sorted on Monday, G is going to march my mom into the UVic store and get the thing and damn the discount.
I can't really afford a Mac right now, that money should really be going towards paying off my credit card and saving up a cushion for the inevitable (if hopefully short) period of unemployment when I come home. But at the same time, I need a computer, and it might as well be something I can use for years without problems...enough with second-hand machines made in the year 2000 (both my desktop at home and the now-defunct laptop were Windows 2000 machines originally... :S). If I bought a PC now, it would be less expensive, but it would push my eventual acquisition of a Mac, which I've wanted for a few years now, back even further. So...I can't really afford it, but I kinda can, so there it is.

Anyway, insult to injury, my air conditioning/heater unit works by remote control only, and the AAA batteries I bought from the corner store apparently don't last very long. Despite my freakout the first time the remote refused to respond, they seem to be hanging on, but right now I'm keeping the batteries disconnected and just popping them in for a minute when I want to turn the heater on or off. I need to buy more/better batteries, but don't want to invest in 7-11 crappy ones again, which means taking a :20 detour after work, which kinda sucks when it's followed up by a :40+ walk home. Frustration city. Probably a job for tomorrow.

And finally, my CD player is dying. This whole time, I've mostly spent my evenings listening to music and knitting or reading. The music makes things feel mostly okay most of the time, and when I really feel like shit I've been getting a fair bit of mileage out of putting on angsty stuff like the Evanescence CD Fieren gave me for my birthday. Especially since my iPod is kind of useless without a computer to charge it with... I take it to work or the i-cafe when I remember, but it's so inconvenient and kinda unreliable. But now, so is my stupid discman. I guess it's understandable; it has been in my possession for about five years, and it was second hand then (although that's pawn shop secondhand, not VV secondhand...). But...couldn't it have hung on for another three freaking months?
First it was manageable--the sound cut out weirdly when I was walking with it, but if I held it in my hand apparently that cut down the shaking enough for it to handle. But last night it totally crapped out and couldn't read any discs at all...eventually, once I was at home, after I tried about five times over the course of half an hour, it worked again--I don't know if that was luck, or if being outside made it just too cold to work or what, but I don't trust it any more. And all I can think is WHYYYYYYY????????

And that's my life. Isn't it great?

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:10:20 GMT

Days 0-1 of my Kyoto trip are available for your reading pleasure in a lovely little backdated entry I like to call "Kyoto Days 0 & 1."

Just a little warning, I looked at it right now and it runs nearly ten pages in Word, so, um, not for the faint of heart. I just like to talk, you know?

Today I have also been reading Linguistics Cartoons. They're not that super good, especially considering the idea behind them is to illustrate linguisticsic concepts in such a way that a "bright, interested ten-year-old" could understand them (as an undergrad linguist, I have found many of them nearly incomprehensible), but a few are good, including this one and this one. xkcd it's not, but still kinda fun.

Also also, the doll I am NOT going to buy is named Siv. Which is a Nordic (maybe Swedish?) name that means bride, which is kind of appropriate to the character she is not going to represent. Because I need a new computer instead. Oh, the world. Why you gotta be so world-y???

I may regret this?

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:52:26 GMT

okay, so I might have to buy a new computer.
and then I saw a job posting for a 3000yen/hour (that's around $40 Cdn!) part-time tutoring job, about four hours a week.

the suck part is, it would be from 6-8pm, so I'd basically have to buy grocery store pre-fab food and wolf it down between getting home at 5 and leaving at 5:30.

the awesome part is, I'd be making an extra hundred bucks PLUS every week!

so, um, colours and light if you could?

it's a businessman, so I'm kinda worried that I'm not the right kind of teacher...but whatever, even if we only do a couple of meetings that would cover my internet cafe bills. stupid stupid broken computer.

now off to Kenzo Denki to look at RAM/new laptops and start getting a feel for the market...sigh...

P.S. yo nathan you're in the hood now...so cool! enjoy korea! have a street vendor food for me!
I need your & megan's addresses...I have post cards ready to send but realised I was missing vital information, haha

time for a reformat

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:10:00 GMT

O man, was that ever stressful, losing my computer for a week. :S

Strangely, it started working again yesterday, and though I can still tell it's sick (hence reformatting after this post) I have been able to salvage pretty much any data I wanted to keep and even do a bit of communicating, web browsing, and such. Phew.

Of course, I've also spent about $75 so far at the local internet cafe...next time I go in, they'll give me $10 off, though. Although hopefully there won't BE a next time...

Next: I have ANOTHER freaking flat tire. This is number five, although my guess is that it's the leak I fixed poorly last time (which happened to be a failure on the part of a previous patch). I feel really unlucky. Always always the rear tire. Stupid bike.

Further: I started a Japanese class today. Bought a textbook for $25--the class is free which is nice. It was challenging, partly in terms of the language (I joined the level 2 class, where you're supposed to be able to read/write hiragana & katakana...but I can only just baaaaarely do so) but also in terms of my own...I don't know, vanity? Risk-taking behaviour? It was really stressful for me to be pushed in a language class, and the teacher used almost no English (she used a bit more Mandarin for the girl in the class from China...which I could sometimes understand, go me!) and I'll admit there was one moment when I was fighting back tears, just because that's how uncomfortable it makes me to be put on the spot to answer a question when I feel really insecure in my language skills.
But from a learning perspective, I think it's going to be really good for me.
And from a teaching perspective, it's really exciting--I haven't really observed such a low-level class that's taught in the target language before, and it's also going to be really neat to experience target language teaching from the perspective of, um, a non-native speaker. Because it's one thing for me to guess at what strategies do and don't get things across to students...it's another to experience it for myself!

Finally: this doll has been haunting me. I figure I can probably afford one doll this year and it was supposed to be someone else, someone with a name and a back story who I'd been thinking of for months already...but I think I might cave and get a sweet little ghostie. When I got into this hobby, I really thought I was going to have this balanced collection, with boy dolls, girl dolls, adult and child dolls...but so far it's kinda looking like I'll end up with a harem of weirdo girls...in which there will be a preponderance of unheimlich-type kids just around puberty. I'm sure that says something about my psyche...but what???

Okay, turning the computer off now. Talk to all y'all later...

sometimes the internets make me want to LOL and CRY at the SAME TIME

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:18:30 GMT

I was reading along, listening to someone describe herself as "of an older generation" as part of her explanation for a different outlook on certain things. I looked at her profile because I was curious about a photo of a doll she posted, only to find that she's younger than ME! Um. I know "kids these days" are already different from when we were in high school, friends, but...I don't know if we're really of an older generation just yet. Not until we're talking about our own teenage kids, please?!?

Also, in the course of the same discussion, somebody brought up the fact that there are people who call all hispanics "mexicans." She allowed as how she "gets where people would get upset about that." And then multiple people called her out for being inappropriate?

:(

Why are people so full of fail?!?

P.S.
It's nine o'clock. I slept for 3.7 hours last night. My bus doesn't arrive until 11:30. I am so cold. Thank goodness for McDonalds' free wireless which I have been using for the past five hours. I love Kyoto. I'm so happy I'm going home. I love/hate/mostly love that Kiryu feels like HOME.

things I cannot do with chopsticks

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:40:51 GMT

1. eat fish
I'm getting better at this, since I have to do it at school several times a month, but it sure is a challenge pulling the stuff apart. Sometimes they bake the fish so that it's basically falling apart anyway, so that's pretty easy, but often it's nice and firm and delicious and very difficult to eat with chopsticks, heh.

2. eat large pieces of meat
Perhaps I just need to get over my desire to eat like a girl. The boys just pick up whatever big chunk of meat (or other things) is in front of them and take bites out of it. Some of the girls do that, but more of them delicately pry the meat apart into bite-sized morsels with their chopsticks. I try, but mostly I just mangle my lunch.

3. squeeze a lemon
I had no idea that this could even be done until this evening when, at an enkai (work drinking party), I watched the school nurse do it with ease and even, dare I say, grace. I started to fumble for the lemon slice with my own chopsticks, mentally going "oh god no...I'm just going to squirt someone in the eye and drop this in the beer, aren't I..." but she reassured me that it was okay to use my fingers. Wow. It was really something!

things I can do with chopsticks

1. eat pretty much anything else.

^_^

and speaking of unheimlich...

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:53:01 GMT

I watched The Stepford Wives last night (the original). Creepy.
I'm thinking about downloading the recent remake, largely because I was fascinated by the way the beautiful, made-up, well-dressed Stepford wives were portrayed, as opposed to the liberated, supposedly dowdy main characters...and I'm really curious to see how that split is shown in the modern one. Also, it's a bit wacky for me to imagine anyone going around to the neighbours and suggesting a "consciousness raising session," so I wonder how that was treated.

Also also, although there were some very good robotic moments by the women in the movie, I feel like, being familiar with Data, they were a little too human, and I'm hoping that's been a cultural shift--that in the modern remake the Stepford wives' inhumanness would be conveyed as much through subtleties of acting as through overt events like getting stuck on one phrase.

Anyway, I recommend it, especially if you're interested in 1970s fashion...!

how very unheimlich

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:55:41 GMT

People are weird.

“I was going to put a link to a fuller explanation of this not-totally-well-known concept that I’m trying to start a discussion on into my original post, but decided against it as I was curious if people would become intrigued enough to look for the term on their own.” Uhh...that’s a nice thought...but it might be nicer if you would just include a link to further explanation?

I guess I’m mostly cheesed off because I feel like people were responding with what I saw as misapprehensions based on the bare-bones explanation the OP made, apprehensions that I thought people might have moved beyond if they read the full article, or the process explained in different words. Heck, maybe I’m just cheesed off because I feel that the OP didn’t fully understand the concept, or at least didn’t understand it the way I do. I’m so argumentative.

What’s the idea, anyway, I hear you asking...
The Uncanny Valley
It’s actually a really interesting idea (called pseudoscience by some…I would love to see some actual research into it) that, while things tend to become more attractive to humans as they become more human-like, there is a point at which more resemblance to a human makes things less attractive (often expressed as them being “creepy”) before they again become attractive as they become indistinguishable from humans. So a computer isn’t very “cute,” while a somewhat humanoid robot is...but for many people there comes a point (say, the Borg?) where something is human enough that its not-humanity makes the observer uncomfortable, thus causing it to fall into the “uncanny valley.”

The misapprehension that bothers me is that the only thing that makes things uncanny is their resemblance to dead things, i.e. lack of movement and/or discolouration. There were several people responding (yes, this was about dolls) that they aren’t creeped out by BJDs because they are so stylized that their lack of movement isn’t creepy. Of course those people are right that they’re not creeped out. But I’m bothered by the sense that they shouldn’t bug you because they’re stylized, when in fact, the stylized-ness of the dolls is precisely WHAT creeps some people out. sigh...

I worry too much about things on the internet, don’t I?

wild child

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:04:43 GMT

I’ve been working on the story of Vasilisa and Rada. I’ve written two chapters so far, but right now I’m stuck on probably the most improbable part of the whole story, the part that’s pure fantasy in a way that even shapechangers and cross-dimensional travelers can’t touch. I’m trying to make it make sense that a girl could be found on the street in one country and end up being sent off adopted by someone from another country in a matter of days. I suppose it doesn’t have to be a matter of days, but in terms of Vasilisa’s character, part of the reason she is willing to entertain the possibility of bringing this girl home with her is that she doesn’t have a lot of time to think about it. Somehow making the commitment to extend her vacation by several weeks in order to go through the proper paperwork channels seems a little too committed, a little too pre-planned.

In an attempt to do some research that might help me figure this out, I stumbled on a website about feral children the other night. It’s pretty interesting, although also kind of soul destroying, especially the modern examples. The “raised by animals” section is particularly strange and interesting, especially since some of the stories seem like they’re probably quite accurate. There are also a lot of historical accounts, stretching back as far as the 1700s. It’s interesting for me as a linguist, because as far as I knew, there were pretty much just Victor and Genie. But it turns out there are a host of other examples, and some of them have (relatively) happy endings, such as Isabelle, found in the 1930s at around age 6 having lived in isolation with her deaf-mute mother, who had attained a “normal” level of linguistic and overall intellectual ability by age 8.

Anyway, I recommend taking a wander through it, although you might want to keep it short, as I found the grim overpowered the interesting before too long.

And if anyone has input on how I can make my story make sense, or the reality of what would actually happen if an adult met an orphan on the street and brought her in to the authorities, I’d be happy to hear it.

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:31:17 GMT

So I hear it’s snowing in Victoria...! I guess maybe it’s gone by now; I haven’t heard since Saturday night when there were a good two inches and more falling. I have to say, even though I can intellectually process how annoying snow is (especially in Victoria, home of the crazy snow drivers) I really do like when we get it...and I’m extremely disappointed that I’m missing snow in December (which, of all times, is the one when a place ought, just culturally speaking, to get snow). I’m going to cry, seriously, if Victoria gets a white Christmas and I don’t...this is almost certainly the only Christmas I’ll ever spend outside the southwest coast, my chance to experience a “real” winter (without going quite as extremely real as, say, Montreal ;) ), my chance to maybe have a white Christmas. But I feel like I’ve traveled around the world to end up home again—the cold came on more quickly here (it was cold enough for gloves and face protection by the beginning of November) but seems to have settled at a pretty mild level, with nice warm afternoons still (now they’re more like 13° than 18° but still pretty comfortable in long sleeves). Gareth says he was talking to someone on the plane about Japanese winters, and the guy said the snow mostly comes in January and February, which I suppose makes sense, but is a bit disappointing to someone who all her life has venerated the idea of a white Christmas. sigh...

I’m going to Kyoto for New Year’s...in retrospect, I was a bit penny wise and pound foolish in planning my trip—I decided to stay an extra night to save $10 on my bus ticket, without thinking that it was costing me $20 for accommodation! So the upshot is, I will have five full days in Kyoto! I’m a little overwhelmed...I feel like with so much time, I have the time to do a lot, whereas on previous shorter trips (to Tokyo), I felt like because I had a short time, it was easy to pick a handful of places and stick to them. But it also sounds like in Kyoto there are a lot of places where one can just walk from one temple to the next...I even found a JNTO set of walking tours that I think I’ll print off before I go (there are five walks, so although some of them should only take 1-2 hours, that should be a good base). There’s a famous-but-not-overwhelmingly-busy Inari temple (fox spirits!) that I really want to visit. I love foxes! And you can get inarizushi there, which is one of my favourite kinds of sushi. I mean, I’m sure you can get inarizushi anywhere (I get it from the local conbini every few weeks). But it’s more specialer, you know? I may take a day trip to Kobe as well and see if I can find the fabled “boob park” where open-air musicians jam on the hemispherical mounds that dot the park. I was talking with a few other teachers about my trip, so I have some good ideas about where to go—for example, the Arashiyama area is apparently a very popular tourist location for the Japanese, which I generally consider a good sign. Also, you can buy all sorts of sweets there, including yatsuhashi (some kind of folded over triangular things filled with anything from bean paste to chocolate to strawberry cream), which sound pretty darn delicious.

Oh dear...I just got the envelope! Apparently it’s already time to pay for the school lunch this month (usually it’s around the 21st). And here I was thinking “Okay, I can make it until Saturday on my last $10.” I guess that’s what I get for sending Gareth home with most of my money (what was left of it after the trip to Tokyo). And also spending more than I ought to have on ingredients for eggnog and prizes for the penmanship competition that so far no students have joined. I wonder if I have enough money in the bank to even make a withdrawal… Yay! It’s fun to be an adult!

good idea? stupid idea?

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:09:49 GMT

1. The students at my school have issues with writing sometimes. Even the third graders (a.k.a. tenth grade/third year of high school, a.k.a. they've been writing in English for three years now) sometimes have near-indistinguishable hs, ns, and rs, not to mention confusing o and a. Like, probably almost a quarter of the students in every class at that level have some issues, and it gets more as you go down into the younger grades.

2. It's Christmastime and it's weird for me to be here where I'm so not surrounded by Christmas stuff. Like, they play frosty the effing snowman in stores (I don't like that song...) and most big stores have some Christmas stuff, but it's sort of a side bar, not the main show.

therefore...

3. I thought it might be fun to have a penmanship contest at school and get students to write out one of maybe three Christmasy passages, and give a little stocking set or something to the top student in each grade. I know it probably won't help the students who need practice, but I feel like even just having a silly contest to be like "see, people DO care if you write nicely" (even though in the greater scheme of things they don't) would be sending the right message. Plus...Christmas! And there are some students who I can tell put a lot of effort into writing nicely (some almost too much--there's this one kid who's pretty good at English, but often doesn't quite finish things, and as far as I can tell it's because he's concentrating on penmanship at the exclusion of anything else...) and it would be nice to reward them for that. BUT at the same time I'm hesitating, because I don't want to get into a situation where like everybody in the school submits a paper and then I just can't decide between them and I'm tearing my hair out...what criteria will I judge them on? Of course neatness will be a factor, but after that, which takes precedence: standard letter shaping or individual style? Do I allow my subtle prejudices free reign and go for small, tight printing over large, bubbly letters, or try to keep it even? If I don't judge based on my own aesthetic preferences, what do I judge based on? Maybe I shouldn't bother...!

So I'm hoping for a little input from friends, especially anyone with teaching experience--or if you've participated in something like this before. I haven't talked to any other teachers about this yet, but I should soon as I'd probably want to get a poster up next Monday. So, uh, help? Words of wisdom?

huh, what? riiiiight on.

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:22:57 GMT

Apparently there exists a Japanese singer (andor band) called flumpool.

Who knew?

uhh...someone needs to go back to psych 101

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:32:24 GMT

Okay, I know I really shouldn't read the stuff that comes up on Hotmail's pre-inbox page. I have only myself to blame for what I read that comes out of MSN. But still...

This was in an article about choosing a baby name, with a specific focus on unusual/unique names.

Having a unique name has its benefits—everyone knows who people are referring to when they mention you; it's a great conversation starter (especially if there's a good story behind its creation) and an unusual name can help you stand out above the crowd. Another bonus of having an original name is that no one will have a preconceived stereotype about it. Plus, the more original the name, the harder it is to create a derogatory nickname.

So far, so good.

If you're planning on choosing an unusual name for your child, make sure to weigh the pros and cons. Think about just how unique you want it to be. Some names could cause embarrassment to a child that could have lasting damage to their psyche. Being stuck with a name that's too weird, hard to spell or easy to make fun of could cause your child to be less socially desirable, according to a study by the Department of Physiology at the University of North Alabama.

Okay, I might be wondering if it was really the Department of Physiology who published this study, but I can definitely see that some names can make some people less "socially desirable."
However...

It could cause your child to become an introvert who chooses to spend time playing by themselves rather than risk altercations with other kids.

Uhh...what? Being damaged by bullying to the point where you'd rather be alone than risk negative social situations is not the same as being an introvert. And while it's certainly possible that introverts are (at least partly) grown and not bred, the idea that if your child is an introvert it was caused by a weird name...that's just so wrong. In fact, it's way more likely that the kids with weird names who get teased are introverts than that teasing makes kids introverted. Because, while no one is totally exempt from teasing, extraverts are way more likely to make friends despite being called "Michael Michael motorcycle" or the fact that they're named Thor and that's weird or whatever. But an introvert might lack the wide support net the extravert has, or it might just be that their inward reaction (maybe thinking over their own feelings about their name, or just trying to ignore the person) would be more enticing to teasers and bullies than an extravert's laughter, return name-calling, etc.

I'm not saying people who name their kids Moon Unit shouldn't be prepared for the possibility that their kid will have problems stemming from that choice. But ffs, it doesn't MAKE you an introvert!!!