Today at Sunset...

Just before sunset I took this. Then when the sky was really pretty, my batteries died. :( Anyways this is two minutes from our new apartment. Much nicer than the old locale. 

New Picture Thingy

Trying out this picture service from blogger (Hello - Bloggerbot). You can apparently post your pictures to your blog for free, and you don't need any webspace. That's cool, because my SFU webspace is set to run out in a few days, and I can't link from deviantart anymore. :( The only thing I can't seem to do is put my banner on there - at least I haven't figured it out yet. Anyways it does seem to be a pretty neat little program.

My saddest day in Japan

For reasons related to the aforementioned climbing of the corporate ladder, I've recently spent my last day at the daycare/kids class center. It was a last minute change, so when I told the kids and their parents, most of them were taken aback. One of the older kids must have found out about it shortly before coming to class, because she handed me a hastily prepared goodbye letter, sporting drawings of various anime characters and the message, "Tank you very much", which was really touching, regardless of what it may say about the quality of my teaching. (Look, it's not a spelling-oriented curriculum, OK?) She also promised me "kore kara mo ganbaru ne" (something like, "I'll keep doing my best", but a bit more significant), and said "bye" about 6 times.

Man, oh man, I'm going to miss those brats like you wouldn't believe. I didn't cry, but maybe I had a close call or two.

All we have to do is make sure we keep blogging

I thought this was so rad. It made me happy. Que l'on continue:

Enter Blogman
The Unforblogged
Sad but Blog
Nothing Blog Matters

Black Blog
Misty Mountain Blog
Blogged and Confused
Immigrant Blog
Bloggle On
What is and Should Never Blog

Wish You Were Blog
Another Blog in the Wall
Dark Side of the Blog
Shine On You Crazy Blogger
Keep Blogging
What Do You Want From Blog

The Capitol of Weird and Other Updates

Yesterday we visited Roppongi Hills, the Capitol of Weird. There are a few new pics on deviantart but unfortunately we didn't take the tripod so most didn't turn out. Among the weird things we saw: strange, strange buildings, a giant spider (see below), the White Trash boutique, and Japanese guys standing on the corner handing out flyers wearing hotpants with sequins and nothing else. While there, we found a much better movie theater than the one in Shibuya and saw "Lovers/House of the Flying Daggers", which was great.

In other news, I changed the site's look again. It's still under construction and if anyone can tell me where the i tag is that is making the whole thing italicized, I'd be much obliged. :)


The Giant Spider of Roppongi 

The da Vinci Project - X Prize Competitor

The da Vinci Project - X Prize Competitor
Looks like Da Vinci (Canadian entry) is going to launch only a few days after Scale Composites (one of the leading teams in the X Prize). Originally I was very skeptical (I thought minimal heat shielding was a bad idea) but perhaps the pilot will be ok and not die. :)

2004 Movies

Return of the King

Pulp Fiction

Princess Mononoke

Laputa Castle in the Sky

Kiki's Delivery Service

My Neighbour Totoro

28 Days Later

American Splendour

The Missing

Open Range

City of God

Terminator

Kill Bill Vol. 2

Big Fish

Hero

Donnie Darko

Elephant

Mystic River

The Corporation

Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban

Spiderman 2

Rupert Murdoch: Outfoxed

Ferenheit 9/11

Terminator II

Lovers/House of Flying Daggers

I Robot

Rabit-Proof Fence

American History X

Bubba Ho Tep

Dune (Miniseries)

Children of Dune Miniseries)

The Life of David Gale

2004 Books

the Poisonwood Bible

Alias Grace

Ender's Game

The Moor's Last Sigh

Eon

Eternity

Cryptonomicon

To Sail Beyond the Sunset

The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

The Silmarillion

Broca's Brain

Master & Commander

Lolita

Of Love and Other Demons

100 Years of Solitude

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Life of Pi

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Onward, whoever you are

Met some new coworkers, a married couple, with whom I shall be parting company in about a week or so. Such coincidences: it turns out they've been set up in our old apartment. I hope they don't mind the left-over drool in our old pillows which (we suspect) have been recycled.

The better half of the pair has a name that one generally associates with your less reputable cinematic endeavors; her name was known before her arrival, and there was much speculation about what she might be like. It turns out she's from North Carolina, and (at least for her first few days) is in the habit of bringing The Holy Bible (English Standard Version) to work with her. She seems like a nice person, but looked a little withdrawn, and I can understand why. Besides the usual new-on-the-job jitters, the foreign workforce here is more or less rampant with liberalism, not to mention living in sin, homosexuality and the tolerance thereof, and the use of the Lord's name in vain.

Upon inquiry, apparently, she revealed that they're here in the hopes of joining a mission sometime in the future. I find that sort of activity a bit distasteful when it's done in some parts of the world, but in Japan I think I feel a bit sorry for would-be missionaries. There's not a lot of spiritual leverage to be had around here. In places less well-off, sure, maybe you can trade some basic necessities for pious devotion, but in Japan the best you can manage is a free English lesson or two, which doesn't afford quite as much persuasive power as food and medical care.

"Bless us, O Lord, for this grammar lesson we are about to receive, and the bounty of the subjunctive conditional."

One of my fellow elitist liberal coworkers (he has an upper class background, so he's actually elite and not just pretend elite) is waiting for the moment to pounce on this poor girl, asking her how she'd feel if some Arab came round trying to take away her Christian culture, etc. I found myself preaching restraint. I must be getting soft in my old age.

Life of Pi

I just put it down, after pretty much constantly reading it over the last few days. It's unbelievable good (ha ha)!

Strange...

Yesterday, while we were at home (Toby of course sleeping ;)) the doorbell rang. Now, when Toby's awake, it's no problem. He can answer it and find out what it's all about in Japanese. But Toby was not awake so I went over to look out the peephole and see who it was. I saw a guy with a clipboard and a large package, so I thought, 'must be a delivery, better answer it!' When I opened the door and he realized I wasn't Japanese, he kind of paused, probably thinking 'now what do i do?!'. But, being a good salesman, he immediately ploughed into his spiel. At this point I realized it wasn't a delivery, but I was curious about the package and he was obviously not a JW, so I let him go on. All I could make out was the word 'gyu' which means cow. I was very confused. Finally he said 'dorinku?' and I figured it out. 'miruku?' I asked? 'hai hai!' he said, very pleased that I understood and so encouraged that he went on again, the whole thing in japanese. At any rate, he started shoving this bag into my arms, it had milk bottles into it. Finally he says, 'sample!'. And that is how we got two free bottles of milk and some yogurt. He's coming back for the bottles on Friday (I managed to arrange that in Japanese, yay me!). I can't imagine a situation back home where you would be given free milk and yogurt, and then provided with a time in which to give the bottles back...

Weirdest job experience ever

At the daycare center the other day one of the kids was caught with his pants down. Well, not so much down as off. Also he had a piece from a jigsaw puzzle in his hand, and appeared to be, uh, sticking it up his butt.

The daycare teacher was utterly taken aback, and completely confused. She kept asking, "Why did you take your pants off? Do... do you need to go to the washroom or something...? Why did you take your pants off?"

He started bawling after that, because I guess he was a little embarassed or something.

I figured he probably just felt a little itchy, but I decided to stay out of it.

Anyway, yeah: getting promoted! I think I might try to have another shot at the karaoke joint by the old workplace, though. The selection there is unbelievable. It's like there really is a God, and maybe he's not doing such a good job of taking care of large parts of the world, but when it comes to this one karaoke place he is totally on the ball.

The New TV Season

I was really glad to hear that Enterprise got a 4th season. Just read that it's starting back up on October 8th! :D Unfortunately, 24 doesn't start up until January. I'm gonna be down to watching one U.S. tv show now (apart from the regular treks). I really miss Jeopardy - the Japanese version of Millionaire just doesn't cut it (well neither does the American one actually). I find myself doing Jeopardy style lessons with the students... hee hee ;)

Finally, We are Promoted

We just finished a rather stressful week of interviews, observations, and preparations to find out we have both been successful and we will be starting as supervisors as of October 1st. Toby's school is going to be very far, but mine is, ironically, closer to our old apartment than the new one. That's ok though. We're both pretty excited. I'm pretty sure I'm getting my own school as well - no other supervisors there. As a little present to ourselves: a slightly used PSII!!! :D :D :D Tony Hawk here I come!

Addendum: For those requesting photos of us, please check my deviantart page (link below in the left column).

Which Deadly Viper Assassin are you?

Shamelessly taken from a Cygnus Study post...:

Vernita Green (Copperhead)




You're Vernita Green! You've done a lot of things that you regret, and you're still trying to move on with your life. You won't hesitate, however, to use any means to save your loved ones or yourself.

Kill Bill: Which Deadly Viper Assassin Are You? (Vol. II spoilers... results with pics)

Happy Labour Day

Just a little reminder regarding what the day's supposed to be about.

Canadian Labour Congress annual report card

I'm actually rather surprised that unionization levels are holding steady.

Brief gripe

My gaijin peers in this country are distressingly unenthused by the prospect of blowing stuff up. I need to find less mature friends.

The Sound of Music

Part of our free/cheap furniture/appliance haul was a pair of speakers + subwoofer. I can't believe the difference it makes when you're listening to music...