Category Archives: Japan

Star Wars at Forty

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Note: I’ll not give any solid spoilers, but I will comment on a few things. I also can’t promise this will be coherent.

I can’t help it, even though I know it’s coming. That sequence of “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”, the pause, and then the punch and scroll brings chills every time it happens and I always feel ten years old even though that first happened, well, a long time ago in a country far, far away.

Prior to seeing this episode of Star Wars I not only avoided reviews and any hint of spoilers, which was difficult as I couldn’t watch it on opening night, I also didn’t watch the Japanese trailers as they are notorious for giving away key details. My goal was to go in as unbiased and unprepared as possible.

All in all I liked the movie, although I’m glad I saw it at a discount. The popcorn was also good.

If you can take seriously the notion that the members of the misnamed resistance (they are actually the badly managed vestiges of the old order in a long running civil war) are supposed to take seriously the orders of a magenta-haired admiral in an evening gown who wears no obvious signs of rank, then all the rest of the movie falls into place. (A–How do I know she’s an admiral? B–Because I say so and because she looks fabulous.) Something like that.

Well, that and you have to accept the notion of space bombers flying in close formation. You have to accept that, too. (See “badly managed” above).

Oh, and you have to accept the notion of space bombers.

The main problem is there are too many characters doing too many things that ultimately contribute nothing to the final. There is some sort of message about sacrificing yourself or not and letting the past go or not but that gets lost in all the subplots.

Kelly Marie Tran  and John Boyega steal the movie in their extended, yet meaningless sequence. They have great chemistry and Tran actually looks like someone who works in maintenance and gets her hands dirty for a living.

Adam Driver is excellent and his personality dominates the movie enough that you wonder why anyone would take Daisy Ridley’s Rey seriously.

The rest of the movie is mostly fun, although it does drag at times. It is also highly manipulative in the way it puts main characters in harm’s way and then quickly rescues them.

There are also odd sequences involving the source of blue milk that are there to either show off a special effect, answer a question no one ever asked, or both. Also, the movie ends too many times.

That said, I’ll look forward to episode nine when it comes out in a couple years. I’ve stuck with it for forty years, I might as well give it couple more.

 

If Not Purging Then Modding

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I have a bunch of things I’ve planned to work on over the winter break, including purging a bunch of crap, some via a giveaway, and that means I spent a good portion of yesterday and today modifying pens.

Specifically I have a bunch of gel ink pens that I’ve acquired by various means and although I have no plan to use them because I don’t like the design, I like the refills in some of them and I want to see if I can salvage something by making them fit in my Tactile Turn Mover pen (which takes Pilot G2 sized refills).

The modding process involved a lot of cutting and crumbling of aluminum foil and a bit of swearing. Eventually I found an old Pilot G2 refill and pulled the black plug out of the end of the refill. After a careful bit of shaving, trial and error, and more swearing I made it fit the Sarasa refill and it seems to work in the Tactile Turn.

This means I now have five refills I can swap in and out as necessary. (The rest of the pens, most of which came from various ISOTs will be given away someway, somehow.)

Of course, I didn’t think to record the modding process so there are no pictures. More on that, and  few pictures I hope, in a future post.

 

One Last Gasp Before the Last Gasp

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I’m more or less finished, except that I’m not. Sort of.

Today was my last day of test pass backs, which means I’m more or less finished except for checking final marks and the speech contest. (More on that in a minute. Sort of.)

The first class (a high school second year/11th grade class) had a bit of drama when three groups had to present their final projects or fail. The first bit of drama was that I’d forgot the third group was supposed to present and was surprised when the came to the front to do their presentation.

Then, 35 minutes into the 50 minute class, I called one of the groups only to discover they’d apparently forgot/didn’t finish one of their pictures.

(Note: the final project involved the students making a kamishibai out of “original” superheroes and super villains they’d created.)

There then ensued a strange conversation where I asked if they needed paper and they just sort of stared blankly. In the end they created a fresh picture on the back of one of their returned exams thus violating the rule that all work should be done on clean paper.

The second class was unexciting and boring and I was actually hoping for a bit of drama.

Next week is fairly painless, except for the speech contest, which could lead to some interesting issues depending on what mood I’m in. (More on that in a future post.)

One Little Piece at a Time

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I was worried our youngest might learn some new words, but in the end, things turned our much simpler than I thought they would.

I mentioned before how my headphones and video card all died on the same day. Via the magic of the internet, and a part of a day spent not marking, I managed to find a part that seemed to fit my ancient, in computer/dog years, PC and didn’t cost more than a replacement computer. I also found easy to follow instructions for installing it.

This means, of course, that I was expecting problems.

The part arrived and I warned our youngest not to listen to anything I was about to say, especially if I sounded angry. However, I was able to get things up and running surprisingly quickly and without any swearing.

I was also informed that I’d be getting a replacement set of headphones. Eventually.

This means all technical difficulties are more or less solved (except for a couple other parts that need replacing).

Then there’s the problem of the dead fly in the cheese. More on that in a future post.

Closing Out With Little to Do

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Note: This one is out of sequence as Monday is supposed to be stationery, etc. day. However, work has dominated so today is actually a random Wednesday. Sort of.

If I’d had something for them to do they would have wanted to do what I expected them to do today but because I expected them to do it, they didn’t want to do it and expected me to have something to do.

That pretty much sums up test pass backs.

For reasons that are too complicated for me to understand (i.e. I asked once but have forgot the explanation), we are forced to keep our students a full 50 minutes during test pass backs even though there is actually only 10-20 minutes of actual schoolwork for them to do. (Note: There is apparently a way to get shorter classes, but I’ve yet to figure it out after 17 years at this school. i.e. I asked once but have forgot the explanation.)

Normally, students bring their winter homework to do during the December pass backs. If I try to get them to work on anything else, they slowly drift to homework. Today, though, my classes just stared at me as if to say “Here we are now; entertain us.”

Instead, I told them they were on their own and many of them invented violent games involving rock-scissors-paper and slaps to the head and/or back of a hand. (This actually kept me entertained.)

Oddly, even the homeroom classes didn’t bother digging out work even though they had easy access to it.

Tomorrow I’ll have something for my classes to do. I doubt they’ll do it, but at least I’ll be ready.

When the Time Cometh It Pours

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If i could summarize today with one word it would be:

bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!

Actually, the real word would involve a lot more profanity but that scream/thunderclap will have to do.

First, my headphones died. Well, actually the left earbud died, which wouldn’t bother me except they were less than three months old. This means the game of “replace them, damn you” email tag with the manufacturer and seller has begun.

Oh, and I also have final exams to mark which means I don’t have much time to play tag.

That would be annoying enough, except the graphics card in my desktop PC also decided it was time to die today. This puts me in that annoying state where I have to decide to upgrade parts or buy an entirely new computer. That leads to the decision of whether to pay up for a domestic computer, after a painful hunt to find an English langauge system, or import a computer from the USA.

I’ll decide tomorrow after I do some parts hunting at nearby electronics stores. I suspect there will be more swearing involved at some point.

 

Little Problems Not My Problem

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If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and it’s not your fault,
You will feel awesome and relaxed. –Kipling, more or less.

The past couple days I’ve been involved in some odd crises that effected me but none were my fault and none were blamed on me.

The first happened with my listening exam. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve experienced crises that were blamed on me but which were not technically my fault. I was a bit worried because this was the first year I used distorted voices to add a little flavor to the proceedings. I envisioned scores of students complaining they couldn’t understand and it actually would be my fault.

Before the exam, i was informed that there would be student taking the exams in another room but that the listening would be piped in from central control. I wasn’t sure what to do as I was given information but not instruction.

A few minutes before the exam was scheduled to start, it turned out that the tech guy hadn’t been informed about the room. It took two people (not including me) to tell him to push one button. All was well and the listening went well.

Today, though, was the JHS 1 exam and we had questions that involved interpreting maps. The problem is, the students had to notice that most of what they needed to do the section was in pictures in other parts of the exam. Most didn’t and we had a lot of questions. One proctor got frustrated enough to call in a suit.

I do not know what the fall out will be. Most of the students appear to have done well, but with a suit being called in, I suspect there will be more to it.

It wasn’t my fault, though, so I feel better than I probably should.

One Day of Madness and Panic

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I caught other people’s problems and am probably doing my best to guarantee mine. The days exams are due is that kind of day.

On Due Day, we have a rush of last minute panic as people finish their exams, usually after a wave of critiquing from other teachers. We also have to check the listening CD against the test itself to make sure it is possible to answer the questions. (Note: in the past I’ve checked to make sure the CD was fine without checking it against the test; This ended badly.)

Because we check each other’s listening tests, I caught a mistake in a colleague’s test. We caught it early enough, though, that she was able to fix it.

As for me, because I’ve had problems with the listening portions of final exams before, I decided to triple down and include funny voices. Both voices are mine, just one sounds a bit like the Batman voice from the Christian Bale Batman movies.

I’m already anticipating the waves of “I don’t understand” complaints and am ready to hand out many free points and return to boring listening tests. If it works, though, things could get interesting.

Doing What They Wilt

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As we approach the final days of classes for this term at the school where I work, we’ve entered a period that involves passing out review sheets, answering occasional questions, and doing our best to stay awake.

In my case, I become much more tolerant of bad behavior than normal. I don’t tolerate sleeping in class, especially students who can’t seem to wake up when the bell rings; however, once the review sheets are passed out, I stand back and watch what unfolds.

In every junior high school class, regardless of level, one third of students will work, with one or two actually completing the assignment. They, in theory, earn free study time that some of them mishear as “Free time! Let’s PARTY!”

The next third will keep the review sheet out and, perhaps, write one or two things, but for the most part they do very little. Many of them adhere to the “I don’t understand the first question therefore I am exempt from all questions” school of studying.

The final third ignore the review sheet completely in favor of chatting with their friends. Many turn their back on the review sheet and never bother getting their pencil cases from their lockers.

Because review time is their time (and exam time is my time) I do not care if they actually study. The only thing I will do for those who’ve written nothing is encourage them to do the same on the final exam. It’s easier for all of us if they write nothing and I have nothing to mark.

Spreading the Joy/Addiction

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I think I’ve got my colleague hooked now, and all it took was some colorful pretty dyes.

As I’ve used my nearly endless supply of fountain pens, my colleague grew intrigued by the also nearly endless supply of different ink flavors I used. She liked the teals and blue-greens and the orange inks. Eventually, she bought a selection of gateway drugs: a Pilot Cocoon in orange;   a Platinum Preppy; and a couple other cheap, small fountain pens.

She started out using cartridges, but would swap ink colors without cleaning the pen. This led to a few interesting colors getting ruined by leftovers.

Recently, and without any direct prodding from me, she’s decided to try bottled inks and converters. She bought a few cheap Chinese pens to play with. (Note: I will eventually give her a converter for her Pilot so that she may fully witness the horror that is Pilot converters.) She also bought an impressive first bottled ink.

I showed her how to fill the first converter full, getting ink on my fingers as is appropriate. I also brought a couple flavors from home for her to try (Kingdom Note Kabutomushi and Bungu Box Hamanako Mandarin) in her other pens.

Since then she’s refilled on her own, getting ink on her fingers as is appropriate, and had discovered which kind of nib she likes. She’s also discovered the joys of nib creep and getting ink on your fingers without even trying.

Next, it will be time for her to realize that spending over $50 dollars on a pen isn’t that crazy. Once that happens, the escalation will begin and she’ll be fully addicted.

Then my work will be done.