Stupid PDA Drawings
November 27, 2002
I made a whole bunch of them back when I first got my Palm but ever since, I’ve stopped. UNTIL NOW! As mentioned in a few updates ago, I am using my palm more and more lately and so while at work one time, I drew a couple more drawings… this time using the WHOLE notepad field instead of just the one screen. Voila
I call it, The Town because it is a picture of a town. Be amazed at the details and the black and white somber moods.
Woohoo
November 26, 2002
Today has been the sweetest day at work ever. A normal day consists of most likely 8 or if I’m lucky, 7 lessons. Today I had 4 scheduled but 1 just got dropped so I have a grand total of 3! Having lessons fill up scheduled free blocks is very common and is expected. I come to work and check my schedule to see 5 or 6 but as the day progresses, they’ll fill them up. It’s the most dissappointing thing: you’re 5 minutes away from finishing a lesson thinking you have a free and when you check your schedule - they’ve filled it up.
Anyway, having lessons taken away is almost unheard of! I will remember this day as the best work day. Thanks go to the guy who cancelled this lesson OR thanks go to the new recruit who had this lesson thrust upon him. Ok, I did have a meeting today which usually means an automatic free right after - still, it means I have 3 frees today. I consider it payback for the full 8s they’ve given me these past few days.
What a great way to end this otherwise busy week (it’s my weekend tomorrow).
—
Ah fuck. Right after I had written that, I checked my schedule again. They had filled it with a new lesson. Bastards. Well, I’m on the subway going home now so I guess it wasn’t that bad. Four beats eight anyday.
New webcam
November 19, 2002
yay
Edit - 2002/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
Ahhhhh
Right now is probably the most relaxing time in the week for me.
I just finished vacuuming, taking out the trash, cleaning up some stuff that was scattered, washed a few nights worth of dishes, and had a light snack. Now for some high quality relaxing. Eri’s off to school and I’m to meet her in an hour or so near the subway so we can go grocery shopping. This gives me just enough time to update, play some Baldur’s Gate, listen to some music, and maybe think about stuff I want to do later.
Dennis, my quake is now patched up and ready to go. Give me the IP and we’re set.
You know, I remember Dennis saying one time that the 9/11 attacks reminded him of Deus Ex - where terrorists bombed the Statue of Liberty and set the world into panic mode. The UN (in the game) declared war on the NSF (the ‘bad guys’) and an antiterrorist coalition was formed. In the news lately have been warnings by many countries - Al Qaeda will attack some place, some time, somewhere. It wasn’t until I saw many of these warnings when I also realized how Deus Exy this all seemed. Kinda scary. It’s weird, there’s really no mention of much terrorist information on Japanese tv. I only read about this stuff on Yahoo and Google news. Either these sites are part of some big government propaganda to scare the shit out of people or maybe here in Japan they live in such an isolated society that they don’t really care. Cool.
It’s Update Day
Yes! It’s the happiest day! Update Day!
I am very jealous of Dennis, Justin, and Michelle because although I am where they invented sushi, I would have loved hanging out with them. Sucks to you jerks for not inviting me. I’m not inviting any of you to my next sushi day. Anyone who is not Dennis, Justin, or Michelle is invited. Anyone who actually shows up will get free sushi and demon sake or something. Those in Japan need not try. Bleh.
I feel very settled in this place now. My job is routine and it’s not as boring as I used to think. I am meeting a new coworker everyday - whether or not I’ll get to know them remains a mystery. My Thurs, Fri, and Mondays are easy. Usually I’ll get a free or two on these days. Today, I had two frees and a no-show. So I actually taught 5. Sat and Sun are the worst days because it is almost certain that I get a full 8. It’s going to be this way until the new year because I’m currently still on “probation” - means they pay me less because I’m “inexperienced” (I’ve been teaching since second year university… jerks). I did see two streams of new people so far which means I’m placed lower on the priority list - the higher you are, the more you teach. Some teachers I’ve talked to who’ve been there for awhile get something like 5 or 6 a day on average (I get about 7 or 8 average).
Since working here, I’ve read more books, studied more Japanese, and used my Palm in more useful applications. I was writing a new About page on the old Palm on the subway for the last two or three days. I’ve created some crappy monthly income statement to guage where my money goes (I still don’t know). I am trying to play Bejeweled more because Eri miraculously beat my mega score of 230,000 by 20,000. She’s been quite gloaty lately… I MUST beat her score… for the sake of men all over the world. I’m looking at more webpages on it - I have used up the whole 2m limit given at AvantGo. I’m still looking for ways to use this pda more constructively… ideas? Veo.com is coming out with a camera for the palm and I’m contemplating getting it or a cell phone with a camera. Either one will suit the purpose of; “crude picture taker that’s easily transported and not too valuable”. Bleh.
That’s really about it. Eri is sleeping at her own house tonight. Which sucks. That made a lot of grammatical sense. Anyways, it’s my Friday night! I will spend my Saturday (Tuesday) cleaning up and watching tv that doesn’t make any sense.
Three updates in a day? I must be dreaming!
November 14, 2002
You sure are friend. It’s probably true to because right now it’s 3:30am in Vancouver and all you little boys and girls are probably sound asleep dreaming of candy and robots. After getting my webpage to show up again, I felt the urge to write. Seeing how Dennis has a new webpage up has made me want to change my webpage. I’m slowly in the process but I really have no idea on what to do. I’m still saving up money to buy a good digital camera - I know which one I’m getting at least. It’s a stills/video recorder that can record up to 90 minutes of video with sound. It’s kinda expensive and right now money is pretty tight. Seeing how I’m only getting paid for October this month, I’m still wondering if I can stretch this month’s food budget until December. In the meantime, I’m playing with my old piece of shit camera just for kicks. I seem to have misplaced my battery charger… either that or maybe I left it in Vancouver. I could’ve sworn I saw it here. I finally got back to playing Baldur’s Gate today after a week of neglecting it. I fell asleep in the middle of it. Some guy on my floor is moving out so he’s selling me this small computer desk for 1000 yen (slightly over $10). It’s pretty sweet. I saw a similar one in the stores for about $100. Woo, I’m just throwing random thoughts all over this update. Dennis, you have to make a new icon for your new webpage. Actually so do I. Work, if you’re wondering, is alright as of late. I’ve been getting more frees (that means they don’t schedule the all 8 in a day, they give you maybe 6 or 7 so I can have some breather room). It’s getting quite breezy although it’s still quite tiring to talk all day. I have a small group of like minded individuals whom I eat with and bitch about things. It’s like something out of Seinfeld actually. I’m the George of all people because I complain the most and sometimes they don’t understand me. I’m waiting for Eri to finish her thesis so that we can start cooking. Uhh I think I am out of thoughts now.
Yay!!!!!
It works! I can finally see my fucking webpage! Thanks to Dennis for the technical consultation and making me think my host was blocking my ip. I think the answer was a lot simpler. Thanks to Eri - when she came over to try to be affectionate, the webpage suddenly worked again - I just shoved her aside for the joy of seeing my webpage again. She’s now saying, “No! Ha Ha Ha Ha… don’t write about me…”. Woohoo! Let it be known that from this day forward, November 14 will now be called, Webpage Came Back Day.
The problem I think is something about when my computer goes into sleep mode (I just slam the cover down and it sleeps), something messes it up because when I open it up, ICQ and Messenger are shown as online when in reality, I have to reconnect again. Well I unplugged the modem and replugged it and rebooted my computer and voila.. it works!
Honey, shut up.
Hello?
Hello.
Holy Wars
November 12, 2002
Brother will kill brother
Spilling blood across the land
Killing for religion
Something I don’t understand
Fools like me, who cross the sea
And come to foreign lands
Ask the sheep, for their beliefs
Do you kill on God’s command?
A country that’s divided
Surely will not stand
My past erased, no more disgrace
No foolish naive stand
The end is near, it’s crystal clear
Part of the master plan
Don’t look now to Israel
It might be your homelands
Holy wars
Upon my podium, as the
Know it all scholar
Down in my seat of judgement
Gavel’s bang, uphold the law
Up on my soapbox, a leader
Out to change the world
Down in my pulpit as the holier
Than-thou-could-be-messenger of God
courtesy of Megadeth
And A New Webcam
Actually I don’t have a web camera right now as I left it in Vancouver for my sister. This picture was taken in the first few days I got here. I’m going to post a bunch of pictures up of my apartment and of Japan but I’m still working on it, a little at a time. Soon.
Edit - 2002/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
Vancouver Riot?
November 09, 2002
Cool. Another riot in my hometown huh? Cool. Incidentally, my apartment is very close to “Riot Control Force 2″. Makes me feel safe to know if there were a riot in my neighborhood, The Man would be here to bash me with batons in a matter of minutes.
Nyahhh
November 07, 2002
Ok, I will not just put up links today (not that there’s anything wrong with link-only-updates). The links are right before this update.
So yesterday I saw my friends and we went to a funny little restaurant that served all kinds of food. In Japan, most restaurants specialize in one food so if you step into an udon shop, you can only literally order udon (several different kinds of udon though). It’s not like Vancouver where you can get spaghetti, steak, quesadilla, and (pshh) chinese stir-fry in the same place. The restaurant we went to was pretty good but most of the time was spent just having a couple of beers and playing janken for whatever food was left. I lost several times so I got stuck with the fourth round picks and a piece of lemon. Bah. I am craving a gianto plate of good ol fashion spaghetti. It’s the easiest thing to make but there’s no incentive for me to go buy the stuff and spend half an hour cooking. I’d rather go to the convenience store and pick up some sandwiches or o-nigiri for half the price and a tenth of the effort. Anyways, I digress. I haven’t seen one girl since June, one guy since July, and another girl since October. They were pretty high level English speakers and they also stayed in Vancouver for well over a year. When I was in Vancouver, they had no problems speaking English. Yesterday was probably one of the first few times they’ve had the chance to practice speaking so their levels were quite low. It was an hour into dinner and a couple beers downed before they were speaking more naturally. It’s not that I’m judging or anything, it’s just made me think you have to keep practicing something just to keep where you are. That sucks because I enjoy a whole variety of hobbies and therefore I will not have the time to practice and therefore I will never be good at something. Sucks to time constraints.
On a happy note, today I understood a woman when she was asking for directions. I even pointed her in the right direction (she was lucky I recognized the train line). I am such a divine gift.
I am running on 4.5 hours of sleep again. It will be like this every Thursday since I work at 7:30am. This shift sticks out like a sore thumb because I usually sleep at 1 or 2am every night because I usually work at 3pm. I do feel I accomplished a lot in the day though. I just can’t wait to get my hands on them monies that were promised.
For Your Interest
God is sending us bubonic plague again.
And fill your Darwin needs with this game.
And this is from a while back but I forgot if I posted it or not; survive death by being a diamond!
And Art Bell is retiring for the second time. Sigh. I don’t even know anymore.
And see these beautiful photos from all over Asia before Bush bombs the fuck out of them too.
Hello
November 06, 2002
Tonight I will go see some friends from the ELI whom I haven’t seen in a few months. It will be the first time I see people other than Eri since I arrived here. I’m excited! The only problem is I’m not exactly sure where we’re meeting so chances are I will be lost trying to find the place. Who knows. It’s kind of weird because it feels like we’re going to meet in Vancouver. Instead of Namba station, it feels like we’re gonna meet at Robson and Denman or something. Weird.
I just finished hanging wet laundry out on my balcony and my fingers are frozen dead. I could use the dryer but I’m too cheap to fork over the two bucks or whatever it costs. Besides, it’s a sunny (albeit cold) day today. It’d do my clothes good to air out the stenches. I hope people don’t think I have deep mental problems because beside my shirts, pants, socks, and underwear is a pair of Eri’s panties and her bra. Seeing how I’m supposed to be living here alone, it gives my neighbors a lot of strange thoughts about me.
I am currently reading, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I’m on habit 3 and I’m impressed with the book. Instead of promising quick fixes, it acknowledges that solving problems takes time and effort and is a longterm commitment. I recommend this book to anyone who feels they’re not living an optimized life (all of you). I wish more people read it so that I can talk to them about it. I picked it up because Eri’s company asked her to read it and write some sort of book report about it and since I’ve heard rave reviews about this book, I decided to read it with her. Actually, she’s reading the Japanese version. I have been reading more in this month than I ever did in half a year in Vancouver. Taking the subway really gives me a lot more time to pursue quiet hobbies. It takes about 15 minutes per trip plus free blocks and my break during work gives me tonnes of time to read.
Bye.
Sigh
November 02, 2002
I wonder when everyone will start to update again.
