Author Archives: DELively

Put Off the Knives by the Revenuers

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Was late to a knife show thanks to the Kansas Department of Revenue. Then wasn’t that impressed.

Emailed Kansas Department of Revenue yesterday about my driver’s license renewal and then got strange replies I should have got two weeks ago. (Long story for a future post.) Spent time sending in new and improved versions of forms and then headed to the knife show.

This delay meant I was late, which is unusual. My Canadian friend was on time and had already scouted out locations and/or dangers.

We walked the rows of what is usually one of the best shows of the  year but came away underwhelmed. The trend was mammoth tusk ivory handles (which look great) and black DLC coating (which looks black from certain angles) but there was nothing special. (Of course, my earlier news had complicated things.)

After saying no to a few temptations, we decided one pass through was enough and then went for burgers and beer.

The next show is the Tokyo Folding Knife Show. It’s in February and is usually my favorite show of the year. I’ll be there. Until then, I have to save in case I have to travel. If I don’t. Well. Then.

Making it More Than My Problem

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A couple of my students misunderstood angles today and they probably had some ‘splainin to do.

I’ll probably have some, too.

My Friday afternoon classes include JHS 1 (US 7th grade) and a JHS 3 (US 9th grade). Today, a few of the JHS 1s decide to cause trouble.

All they had to do was rewrite a conversation, memorize it, and present it to me. One pair, though, decided that practice time was actually free time. I warned them a couple times they’d go first yet they acted surprised when I called them to the stage. (Note: each classroom has a short platform at the front that serves as a stage.)

As I expected, they not only couldn’t get past the first few sentences, they didn’t even know which parts they were playing.

I put them in the hall to practice. This made them nervous as their homeroom teacher teaches and English class directly across the hall at the same time and each room has large windows

. Although they tried to slip away from the spot I put them in, the angles from the other room allowed their homeroom teacher to see they were in the hall. He came to the window and watched them a few minutes whilst the rest of my class laughed at the punishment the boys in the hall were going to receive.

Eventually they did their role play.

Now, I’m figuring I’ll have to have a chat with their homeroom teacher…

Gift Horses Looking You in the Mouth

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I won several things today, but only got to keep one of them. I burned through a lot of chances on the way. I got cranky, but am not sure if I deserved to be.

Today, before my evening class, I stopped by a convenience store to pick up a few things. Because I hit some magic expense number, I was given the chance to draw for something free.

My ticket revealed that I’d won a canned coffee. As I’d be buying one anyway later, I agreed to take the coffee right then. The clerk disappeared for a few minutes. She returned with only empty hands and an apology as that particular flavor of coffee was apparently out of stock.

She told me I could draw until I won something else. The second ticket revealed that I’d one a package of Haribo Gummi Bears. The clerk once again disappeared for a few minutes and then reappeared with empty hands and yet another apology.

My reaction was a polite “Gimme Gummi Bears! Me Want Gummi Bears!”. I was then allowed to draw more tickets. The next five or so were losers until I finally won some sort of hand wipes. I then had that odd moment where I was disappointed I was going to win those, even though they were free. I felt oddly guilty that I was happy to discover that those were also out of stock.

At this point the absurdity of it all began to hit me and I was like, just give a me a damned can of coffee, but was instead allowed to burn though a few more tickets until I won a set of dust masks. Those, of course, were in stock.

The masks are useful for emergency kits, but they bring the same joy as getting socks for Christmas. They ain’t Gummi Bears.

Virus Here Fever Here Fighting There

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I’m the only one who’s not sick, but I don’t expect that to last long, and I also have dishes to get done, so this will be a short one.

Our youngest has been home from school a couple days and according to the school she’s not the only one. In fact, because of this, they said not to hurry back. This means She Who Must Be Obeyed has had to miss work which is not something she’s happy about.

Our oldest is a teenager which means getting the dishes done will involve a fight. (It’s actually already started. More on this in a future post.)

Just Because You’re Paranoid

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It was such a nice day back after a three day weekend, that I feel compelled to write about it.

I started with my current worst class and was stunned when they remained quiet through a spelling test. Bad classes typically like to make strange grunts and other noises or like to make a show of either cheating or not caring.

After that they got through the assignment with little trouble. Of course, this is the third time I’ve taught this lesson so perhaps I’d finally figured out how to teach the lesson.

The next class were doing a different assignment, and although a few of them were bad, they mostly did the work.

My last class of the day were also pretty good, although they were doing a filler assignment because next week they won’t have class.

I left school feeling oddly positive because it’s rare to have all three classes be good. Then again, I’m pretty sure that’s never actually happened before.

Of course, this means the next day of classes will be a disaster, but that may just be my paranoia.

Sports Day Without Sports

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It was Sports Day today and we were scattered to the winds. I was home babysitting our youngest, who celebrated sports day and the new cool weather by catching a cold from our oldest.

Our oldest, “fully recovered” from her cold went to a concert somewhere in Tokyo (at least I think it was in Tokyo) with a group of her friends. She Who Must Be Obeyed went to work, even though today was a national holiday.

I used the day to do two important things: catch up on the TV show Bones and organize the variety hoard in the office. Bones has been a lot of fun to watch, most of the time, but is clearly past its prime and is on an obvious death march into it’s last season.

The variety horde, for its part, looks like something the Bones characters have to scrape body parts from. (Sort of.)

The organizing was required because the cool weather. Because it is little more than an uninsulated concrete box, the office is a giant condensation collector/mold factory during the winter.

Anything on the floor often ends up in a bad way. I also  have to move the last of the ink inventory before winter as the cold weather and long delivery times have been known to freeze and burst bottles.

Somewhere in there, I have to do my actual job, too.

 

Different But Similar in a Way

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Once a month I teach students who aren’t mine so that they don’t get confused.

That’s the theory anyway.

On Sundays I teach students who are preparing to study at universities in the USA, Canada or the UK (with special appearances by Australia). My regular class meets, well, regularly three times a month. I teach the higher level class.

However, once a month, I swap classes with the teacher who teachers the lower level students.

These students are interested in studying outside of Japan, but live outside of the Tokyo area, which makes it harder for them to study in a classroom. Instead they study prepared videos and texts and trek down to Tokyo once a month.

The other teacher and I decided to swap because it gets confusing (for us and the students) trying to keep track of who’s studying what and which speech can be used for each class. (Note: all of my regular students have to attend, but a few others are added.

Unfortunately, many of today’s students asked their regular teacher last week about my class this week. His response was the appropriate “How the hell should I know?”\

I was worried; however, all but one student came through. They did their speeches and managed to stay awake for all six hours of the course (not including lunch).

I won’t see them again for another month. However, there will be new students present next time I see them. That gets confusing.

The Marriage of Figaro and Wood Blocks

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I discovered today that the secret to getting people to like opera and classical music is to bore them so much with speeches beforehand that they’ll take any music they get.

Today was family concert day at a nearby community center where our youngest occasionally plays ping-pong. The concert featured the local Kawagoe Philharmonic Orchestra (link in Japanese). For various complicated reasons, our youngest was also involved.

The concert opened with speeches from some guy (not his real name) and from the first violin. There was also an impromptu interview with the first violin. Then the conductor, who looks as if he’s about 12 years old, came out and started the show.

They opened with selections from The Marriage of Figaro. This part featured three opera singers who put on a decent show. Their performance, though, was hurt by the concert taking place in a public auditorium that also serves as a gym. Because we were below the stage we had the orchestra between us and the singers which meant the voices got drowned out much of the time. A narrator, though, updated us between movements.

For the second part, our youngest and her friend joined the orchestra for a performance of The Syncopated Clock. This, of course, required a short interview of our youngest and her friend. When asked how they felt about performing, the friend said she was nervous; our youngest said she was looking forward to it. (This earned an Ooooooh from the crowd.)  They then took turns playing the wood block part of the song.

Of course, they were interviewed after they were finished.

(Note: our youngest earned the right to play by being “volunteered” by She Who Must Be Obeyed. Long story.)

The final part of the concert was selections from Carmen. An group of elementary school and junior high school ballet dancers from a local school put on a nice show during the performance.

After that, there was one more speech, and we all got to run away while the orchestra got a short break before their second show. Our youngest was only required for the first performance. Other’s were taking over woodblock duty for the second show.

Another Place Holder

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Doing other stuff, which means this post will be little more than satisfying a habit.

Good classes today, even finished speeches in all three, but came home and decided to drift.

Drift involves deliberately avoiding an from of responsibility whatsoever, even when I’d planned to do so. Drift doesn’t involve game playing or anything specific–no games or reading or anything else–it just involves the future.

Of course, I didn’t ponder the future. I just got annoyed wihen the lights dimmed.

I did get ready for some posts. I just couldn’t be bothered to do them.

Now it’s way past bed time.

More or Less a Placeholder Tonight, With Coffee

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It says a lot that my only complaint today involved coffee.

The weather was great. It was unseasonably warm but we were blessed with humidity that had fallen to “tolerable” from “God has forsaken us”. (An actual level; look it up.)

My usual waiting to go to work coffee shop was full and the one table that seemed to be opening up was occupied by a man that seemed to be starting a proper hoard and it was going to take him days to clean it.

Instead I went to a place at the other end of the building. I’d been meaning to go there before because they seem to advertise only coffee and pizza. Once inside I found an impressive oatmeal raisin cookie and ordered an iced coffee to go with it.

To my horror, the iced coffee was half milk. I thought they’d made a mistake, but every one on either side of me had ordered either tea or a concoction involving an Aeropress or a French press so I deduced that I’d received what I ordered.

However, because I was in a good mood, and because there was enough coffee to make the milk brown, I accepted it in good faith. Later, thanks to the shop’s generous second drink pricing, I got an espresso to properly satisfy the caffeine addiction.

Then I had to go to work. I’ll probably go back to that shop, mostly because they have free wi-fi that doesn’t require registration, but I’ll try ordering iced coffee with no milk just to see what happens. It could be fun, but it will depend on what mood I’m in.