Author Archives: DELively

Schedules and Other Distractions

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Over the years I’ve come to accept that Christmas is just another random festival here in Japan. As such, especially as the girls have gotten older, our actual Christmas is fairly modest.

This year our oldest has plans that will keep her busy most of the day and our youngest has plans that involves cupcakes and will keep her away part of the afternoon. I have work to do but I’ll be able to do it at home and She Who Must Be Obeyed and I might sneak out for cheap sushi.

The advantage of Christmas being just another random festival is that restaurants don’t fill up. It’s just an ordinary day.

We usually make the New Year’s holiday our big celebration. This year even that will be slightly complicated, but more on that in a future post.

Until then, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone!

The Inevitable Ending of the Good Thing

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Today was the recital for our oldest’s orchestra club. Unfortunately, it ended the way I’d hoped it had begun.

The recital involved 19 different combinations of club members playing different songs with different instruments. Our oldest performed as part of a flute quartet and, judging by the crowd reaction, they rocked.

Unfortunately, because our oldest is a first year, she only got to perform once.

Somehow I managed to stay awake and reasonably attentive throughout the remaining eleven performances.

At the end, all of the older girls came to the front and performed a medley of Christmas tunes. They did a good job and the crowd gave them appropriate praise. However, when it was all finished, the speech phase started. There’s always a speech phase.

What annoyed me about this one was it came at the end of the performance rather than at the start. We were late arriving which, in my mind, meant we’d missed the speeches. Instead that speech was five minutes long, as was the second speech (by a different person).

Then, just to troll me, they called up a third guy to give a speech. Luckily, as I was contemplating setting fire to something, the third speaker was unprepared and gave a very short “keep up the good work” speech that was more of a series of comments and lasted less than a minute, including the time it took him to walk tot he front.

After that, I finally got to escape. .

 

Have Yourself a Merry Homework Christmas

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If there had been chocolate waiting for me, perhaps what happened might not have happened. Well, actually, it would have happened, but at least I’ve some chocolate right now.

Today was the last class before the new year’s holiday for my evening class. Because they won’t have class until 2017, I gave them a few homework assignments: write a speech; do some grammar homework; speed read a couple short essays; write 150 words of personal journal each day.

The more I wrote, the less happy they became. When I said “Merry Christmas” and gestured the writing on the board, they insisted on pointing out that what I was doing was not, in fact, that merry.

It doesn’t matter to me though. As I pointed out, it’s 2016 now, but their homework isn’t due until 2017. That gives them an entire year to finish it.

Now I’m on vacation. Sort of. (More on that in a future post.)

Technical Difficulties Meet Worn and Done

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Technologically, it was one of those days that remind me why I prefer analog tools such as fountain pens and paper.

First, Scrivener and I formed a new working agreement: if it stops f@#king with me, I won’t uninstall it.

I worked on a novel yesterday only 1) to find that I was actually editing a version that was in Scrivener’s trashcan and 2)  to discover today that everything I’d worked on yesterday was gone.

Much swearing ensued.

After a few minutes of using a hammer to “hit any key to continue” and playing with lighters and kerosene for a more permanent solution, I figured out the problem was that because I was using the program on two computers, Scrivener was confused. Once that was figured out, I went back to my laptop to open Scrivener and it wouldn’t open. Instead it gave me an error message.

Much more swearing ensued.

Then I reopened it on my desktop and it worked.

Much “Huh? What? Really?” ensued.

Then I tried again on my laptop and it opened without me having to change anything. That’s how I know Scrivener is f@#king with me.

After all that was resolved, and yesterday’s work was moved from the trashcan, I started up my printer to print the current draft and my printer announced that it had put itself on a death watch. It told me that parts of it were approaching the end of their working lives.

Much more swearing (and yen counting) ensued.

This means I’ll have to find a way around that alert or will have to finally break down and buy a new printer. As I’ve had the current one for 10 years, and it doesn’t like working with Windows 10, it’s probably something to consider.

Speech Acting Theory

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One of the problems with the way the school where I work conducts its annual speech contest is you pretty much always know who’s going to win. That was especially true today, as the guy6 destined to win performed the speech that sent him to a national speech contest.

I served as head judge for the third year junior high school division of the speech contest. This involves standing up and smiling to random golf claps and then shaking hands and giving a short speech. (More on that in a minute.) My job is also stay awake during 28 speeches.

The speeches went well and the speech chairmen, who put the “chair” back in “chairmen” by almost never standing up, kept the pace up by calling the next speaker before the current speaker had reached his chair after leaving the stage.

A couple students choked, including one who swore under his breath and then panicked after everyone went “Ooooh” when the mic picked up his muttering. One of my students started out well and then panicked when he skipped a couple lines.

The winner had practiced his enough that he didn’t need his paper. He also has some acting training and has the presence, and the hair cut, to stand there looking pretty cool. The only battle, therefore, was for first loser. So to speak.

After all the speeches finished, there was very little time for the awards ceremony, the obligatory photo, and my comments. This was okay as my comments are usually ridiculously short anyway.

After my comments, everyone ran away to make room for the first year junior high division. I probably ran away faster than everyone else.

 

 

Rogue One: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

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The main problem I have with Rogue One is that I know how it ends. That said, I enjoyed the movie (the popcorn was awesome), but would classify it as good not great.

I like that, for the most part, the movie takes place back stage at a greater play. Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard’s terrific play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, who hangout back stage at Hamlet and interact with main characters, the main characters of Rogue One interact with and stumble across main characters from the other movies. (Thanks to unused footage from the original movie you may even recognize  a couple of the pilots.)

Unfortunately, because we know how Star Wars begins, we know what has to happen at the end of Rogue One. If you know Hamlet, you know what happens to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Stoppard’s play, which means, as the saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination. In the case of Rogue One, that journey has to end with a set of Death Star plans jammed in an R2 unit.

This wouldn’t be that much of a problem, except that the lead actors let the movie down.

For all its efforts at assembling a diverse cast (except among the Empire), Rogue One neglected to get two actors who either radiate presence through the screen or have such good chemistry that they generate energy. Unfortunately, either because of direction or acting style, neither Felicity Jones nor Diego Luna have the screen presence to dominate the movie. In fact, even during the film, I kept forgetting their characters’ names. It’s fair to say that CGI Grand Moff Tarkin has better chemistry with Orson Krennic (played by actor Ben Mendelsohn) than Jones and Luna have at any moment.

Jones is good as Jyn Erso, but at no time do I believe that her character has the charisma to inspire a group of rogues and bring them on a dangerous mission. Instead, and I blame the director for this, she spends a lot of time with a “Now listen guys, what we’re doing is REALLY IMPORTANT” look of determination on her face.

In the movie’s defense, her greatest attempt to rally the greatest number of people fails spectacularly so maybe that was all deliberate.

The rest of the cast, with the exception of a wheezing, scenery chewing, air mask sucking Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera/Frank Booth, are also good. The chemistry between Chinese actors Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen (as  Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus, respectively) is excellent and nearly steals the movie. I could easily see one of them replacing Diego Luna as Captain something or other. (I can’t even be bothered to look it up.)

The robot character, K-2SO, voice by Alan Tudyk, looks suspiciously like the robot from Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky and provides most of the comic relief. I especially liked an early sequence where K-2’s disappointed that Jyn gets to carry a blaster but he doesn’t.

The movie does have a couple throwback cameos that make you go “What? How is that possible?” and it suffers from the “You gotta win the war in the cleanest, most ethical, least damage causing way possible or you are evil” attitude that was part of the premise of Captain America: Civil War, but the movie does explain why the Death Star was so easy to destroy in A New Hope, and the space battle sequence, as has been pointed out by other reviewers, is remarkably easy to follow.

I recommend people see Rogue One, I just don’t expect them to rush out and see it twice.

 

Sunday Delivery and Economic Policy

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Because I haven’t transferred money to my US account since 2011, and because the company that used to handle the transfers has been bought out, I suddenly found myself having to reapply to transfer money to the USA.

This, however, was complicated by US law. I won’t go into details but the basic idea behind the law is “don’t trust Americans or we will hurt you because they are all tax-evading bastards”. Because of this, even Swiss banks have been playing ball, so to speak, and I had to fill out a fairly hefty application and copy two forms of ID. Then I had to answer any unanswered questions via phone calls and then wait long enough that I was worried I’d been rejected.

(Note: there are other ways to send money to a US account but they involve a trip to the post office, hefty amounts of paperwork each time, fees, and, on occasion, substantial profane language.)

Yesterday, though, I received notice that I had a registered letter waiting for me at the post office and She Who Must Be Obeyed called and arranged delivery today. The postal worker arrived at the very end of the requested time period–I didn’t complain because Sunday Delivery–and then he spent a full three minutes filling out paperwork. What shocked me was that 1) HE filled out the paperwork and 2) that he accepted a non-photo ID as proof of who I was.

I now have an account and a way to transfer money. That means I’ll have to actually attempt all that tomorrow. That’s when the real swearing will probably begin.

The Dilemma of the Ages

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I don’t like it. She either didn’t remember or did it on purpose. Either way I ate it and didn’t say anything.

There are only two foods in Japan, arguably in the world, I don’t like: Sweet omelets which are an everyday abomination served along side sushi, and Oshiruko, a kind of soup made from sweetened red beans and rice cakes. Oshiruko is a Japanese new year’s tradition but it reminds me of manju that’s been eaten and then puked up. (Note: I’m not sure why I don’t like it, but I think it’s because, at first glance, it looks like baked beans. It is not baked beans, though, and I guess my brain can’t handle that.) I’m also not a huge fan of mochi, the rice cakes served in the manju vomit. These are rectangular bits of chewy rice paste that Japanese consider to be a form of food.

Tonight, for reasons I don’t understand, She Who Must Be Obeyed served oshiruko  and mochi for supper. This wouldn’t bother me except it was the main dish. The side dish was a vegetable and sausage stir fry. This left me with a dilemma: do I order pizza and risk the wrath of SWMBO or do I eat it and say it was delicious and then cook something else.

I opted for the latter, sort of, as that is my husbandly duty (In sickness and in health; for better and for crappy food. It’s there; look it up.) I didn’t cook, but I did supplement with some cheese and a banana.

That got some attention, though, which may or may not be a good thing.

Stumble into the Sabbath

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Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8

I’m pretty sure that verse doesn’t mean “Do something, but not that thing you meant to do.”

In the grand judgment of “accomplished stuff” versus “wasted entire day” the verdict is “push” because I didn’t waste time effectively.

Although I had a basic plan, being finished with classes and marking for the term at the school where I work caused my body and my psyche to shut down and take a day off. I had stuff set out to do, but all I managed to do was stare at it and go “I should do that some day”.

That said, I managed to write a few things that will eventually appear on this site. Eventually.

I also took some pictures that will, in theory, accompany the things I wrote.

All this surprised me as one of my long term plans is to establish a day where I write and save a couple posts so that I always have something on hand for days I’m busy.

Granted, I wrote it all out by hand which means it’s not in an internet usable form, but tomorrow is another day. Sort of.

 

This Bluff is Not a Bluff

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It started with an excuse, then some panic. Then another student smirked when I told he just failed the term. I’m not sure what he’s thinking, but he seems to have been having a term long teenage moment so perhaps he’s not thinking at all.

Either way, I suspect I’ll have a rather lonely make-up test day unless he realizes I’m not bluffing.

My last class of the term started with a student admitting he was stupid because he’d forgot the pictures he needed for his final project. He thought he’d be able to do the speaking part without the pictures. I told him that was impossible and gave him and his partner some paper and instructions to draw some pictures. In the end they did their presentation and will pass, albeit with a lower score than they could have earned.

A second group did their presentations, but one member hadn’t done the two previous speeches. I told him a bad speech was better than no speech and he grunted a response.

Several minutes later I saw him playing with his phone and told him to come up and do his speeches. (In my world “playing with your phone” equals “I’ve finished my assignment and have nothing else to do”.) He had nothing ready and dismissed me with a smile. I told him he’d just failed with the lowest possible score (alas, I can’t give zeroes) and he smirked as if he thought I was joking.

On Friday he’ll discover I wasn’t joking. Then, next year in early January I’ll be waiting for him at the make-up exam. I doubt I’ll see him though. I may end up just standing in the room by myself.

Not the first time, won’t be the last.