Category Archives: Life and Stuff

A Slow Finish to a Good Day

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For a while I was going to have to do things by myself, but then the entire family arrived and things slowed down considerably.

The started well though whenI led another pen tour. The twist this time was the wife was a pen addict and the husband wasn’t interested at all. (Although he was helpful in acquiring rare ink by helping bypass the only one bottle of each color for one person rule.) In the end I plied him with beer, which seemed to help. (He even seemed to notice a couple pens and express how nice they looked meaning there may be hope from bringing him to the dark side.)

Unfortunately, I had to send them on their way and return home to help a teenager acquire a smartphone.

When I asked She Who Must Be Obeyed where I should go (home or to the phone shop) I was informed that our oldest had already been told where to go, so to speak, and that she’d be arriving by herself and I was to handle the purchase. This, of course, confused me more because 1) She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn’t trust me to make financial decisions about things involving money; and 2) She Who Must Be Obeyed needs a new phone as hers has, among other things, by passe the life of its internal calendar. (It stopped counting days at the beginning of this year.)

I was even more confused when all my girls arrived and we got in line to buy a phone. Our oldest, of course, insisted on an iPhone 6S (which is why SWMBO told her where to go earlier), although our oldest was also intrigued by the “new” old style form iPhone SE as it actually fit her hands comfortably. In the end she opted for the larger 6S.

This led to a two hour wait as this particular store spends a lot of time attempting to upsell things. (One of which we got.) After all that, time, though, they still managed to get our family name wrong on the license agreement.

I hope that means I don’t have to pay. But I’m pretty sure our oldest has already used up all her bandwidth for the month.

Both Awesome and Boring

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The best way to describe how I felt was “bored sardine.”

Our oldest had her high school entrance ceremony today and that meant I had to find a jacket and decent trousers and put on a tie. Unfortunately, it also turned out that we had to bring indoor shoes which meant we had to change out of our outdoor shoes, although we then had to carry them in a plastic bag. As a result, I was in the dress up version of a mullet: a blazer, trousers, and tie on top; Denver Broncos flipflops on the bottom.

Math and masses then took over to make things less than comfortable. The first year class has 367 girls which meant around 734 parents and various and sundry grandparents had to fit in a gym along with nearly 800 upperclasswomen and their teachers. This meant we had to squeeze into small chairs organized in tight rows that even Ryanair would find excessively cruel.

The ceremony started awesome as our oldest and a bunch of other girls walked in and all the older students sang Handel’s Messiah (which was invented in Lindsborg, Kansas) and then sang the Japanese national anthem.

After that things took a turn for the boring as each new girl’s name was read out as part of the first official roll call and they each stood, said “here” and bowed to the principal who bowed back. Now that’s about 5 seconds to hear a name, say “here” stand and bow and receive a bow from the principal times 367 girls which is around 30 minutes of time so boring I was actually looking forward to the speeches.

Then the speeches started and I could see people all around me nodding off (including She Who Must Be Obeyed). I even caught myself drifting sideways during the speech given by the head of the Parent Teacher association.

Eventually, half the crowd was turned loose to go home (where our youngest was waiting patiently/watching television) and the rest stayed at school to attend open classrooms and get more information.

Then, after our oldest and She Who Must Be Obeyed came home, we went out and ate way too much steak and salad bar, but it was all delicious.

An Oddly on Schedule Day

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Strangely enough, I actually stayed on schedule today, for the most part. What’s odd is the part I didn’t do was the part where I scheduled time to play a game.

I do not believe this is because, after all these centuries (give or take a few years)  that I am suddenly become a responsible person. Rather, it just took a long time to make a box.

I actually woke up later than I’d plan which put me behind. I then managed to catch up, somewhat, by knocking out my daily 10 ideas and a page or so of writing. That was followed by doing my actual “job” by producing “work” now that the company I work for has decided to trap me in my house on days I’m not assigned to the school where I work.

Note: Despite my whining, I’d much rather face the current house arrest than be forced to go into the office and work. Not only would I have to wear a tie but there is evil there that does not sleep. The great eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire, ash, and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume.

Unfortunately, the poisonous fumes have damaged the brains of management meaning I couldn’t send the “work” in until much later. (That’s part of the house arrest: appearances must be maintained.)

After the house arrest portion of the morning was finished, I focused on selling ink. That involved lots of bubble wrap, some packing peanuts and a small box that I crafted out of a larger box and then kept tweaking to see if I could reduce the weight to lower the cost yet still protect the contents. I then took that to the post office and sent it off.

After that some new ink arrived and I made some sample pages. That led me to stare at the growing pile of odd and rare inks in the variety room and ponder the best ways to dispose of it, (after ordering more of the ink that had arrived, of course).

At first I tried to implement one idea. That involved attempting to use the features provided by my webpage host and then swearing a little and abandoning that attempt when the features proved to be less intuitive than I’d hoped. At this point the overthinking took over and I felt a bit of panic caused by freaking myself out and I finally distracted myself for a bit with a game.

Now I think I have a plan. A lot of ink and a plan.

Lost and Police, or Fail and Lesson Two

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It took a while, but I finally took our oldest to the police. She thought the police officer was kind of cute. (Officially, I didn’t notice.)

Our oldest, despite being a vampire, is also a teen, which means she is, on occasion, especially after the last fail and lesson, able to set aside her vampirism and wake up early for the chance to hang out with her friends for the day. However, being a teen, she is also prone to lapses in judgement, which is what ultimately led us to the police.

A short time after she left we got a call and our youngest started searching our oldest’s desk. We eventually figured out that she had lost her train pass. This was both an annoyance (as she had to pay each time she entered the station rather than swiping the card) and crisis (as it makes it slightly more difficult for her to get her official train pass when she starts high school which is important to She Who Must Be Obeyed who will go with her).

After our oldest finally came home (late) there was much arguing and, in the end, to preempt more arguing, I decided to take our oldest to the station to fill out a search request and incorporate a short train pass search on the way. (The latter involved flashlights and funny stares from fellow pedestrians.)

As we approached the station, because the card hadn’t been turned in at the station (which is normal for Japan) I suggested we see if it had been turned in to the police. It hadn’t, but our oldest got to fill in–to the best of my knowledge–her first police report. The policewoman on duty was very friendly and our oldest declared her “cute” to She Who Must Be Obeyed after we returned home which earned me suspicious glares even though, officially, I hadn’t noticed the policewoman was cute (albeit a bit heavy for a policewoman).

After the police report we went to the station and, in a surprise twist, was able to cancel the card and get a note that will slightly assist getting the official pass.

If our oldest remembers to take the paper with her when she goes to get her official pass.

 

The Accidental Barista

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About 20 days ago She Who Must Be Obeyed commented on how well our coffee maker had held up after several years of use. Ten days ago our coffee maker died.

SWMBO then decided she would first call the manufacturer and see if it was possible to get it repaired. (More on that in a minute.)

The death of the coffee maker also coincided with the end of our supply of ground coffee. Luckily, SWMBO had a secret stash of coffee beans she dug out and we began a much different coffee making ritual.

The ritual involves grinding beans with a grinder I got over a decade ago and that’s lasted a long time (I only bring this up to see if that phrase is a curse.) The beans are ground whilst the water boils and then we spend several minutes carefully pouring hot water over the grounds in a manner that makes me yell at trained baristas when they do it.

The problem is we can’t decide on a suitable replacement coffee maker and we’ve slowly gotten hooked on hand-poured coffee. The boiling water does make a difference.

Of course, the other issue is that because we’d run out of pre-ground coffee, we’ve been enjoying a higher quality coffee than usual. I also suspect this is why SWMBO put off calling the manufacturer. When she did, the manufacturer informed us (as I suspected) that the coffee maker was too old to be repaired. (Note: I suspect SWMBO was hoping to discover the coffee maker was under a recall and we’d get a free replacement; something similar happened with our electric carpet. Long story.)

While SWMBO and the girls were visiting the in-laws, I acquired more bags of good coffee. This has also slowed down the desire to get a new coffee maker.

Maybe, when the good coffee runs out, we’ll get a new coffee maker. Until then, we’re living in a handmade coffee world.

 

Either Laziness or Adaptation

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I probably got a lot more done today by not doing what I’d planned. However, I managed to be lazy in a surprisingly rigorous sort of way.

The plan was to go to the bank and get some cash and then, just out of curiosity, check out the local branch of Maruzen bookstore to see if they had the ink I’d already sold. (Sort of. Money had not yet changed hands.) The branch, despite being part of a fairly posh department store, manages to be one of the best stationery shops in the area. They have everything from expensive pens to cheap pens to “Draw you own comic book” starter kits with dip pens, ink and examples.

I found the ink I was looking for and despite cleaning all the bottles off the shelf, was pleased when the lady running the pen section not only didn’t sigh and tell me I could only buy one bottle of one color every seven years, she tried to find a fourth color for me.

This meant that half of the things I’d hoped to accomplish had already been accomplished. Despite that, I walked back toward the station determined to head down to Tokyo. However, by the time I reached the end of the shopping street (a couple blocks from where I started) and approached the station, I suddenly didn’t have the energy to complete the rest of my tasks. Instead I did some shopping for random food and snacks and then went back to the shopping street to have lunch.

After that I ended up at my other favorite stationery shop, Kimuraya, which is the kind of store where the shelves are stacked high enough even I can’t see over them and the only way to find something is to get lost. I found some dip pens and ink which meant I’d accomplished almost all the rest of my intended tasks.

That meant it was time to go home, after, of course, a short pause to try out the new Gelato place on the street.

Tomorrow I actually have to go down to Tokyo. I’m meeting someone though, so the only way to alter the plan is to convince them to come up here.

 

The Fail and the Lesson

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One of the odd things I’ve remembered now that I have a high school student in the house is the way I became a vampire in high school.

Our oldest is now a vampire and today that caused some problems.

I’ve mentioned before how I tend to reverse “polarity” so to speak during holidays. That involves staying up later and getting up later. As Benjamin Franklin wrote: Late to bed, eventually to rise makes a man, something, something wise. (No, really, look it up.)

As our oldest has become a vampire and I’m shocked by two things: 1) how fast it happened and 2) how merciless it is.

That’s what led to today’s Fail and Lesson.

Our oldest, enjoying a very rare actual day with nothing to do, made plans to meet a friend. However, complicating this was her also getting up early (5:00 a.m. ish) to see off another friend who’s moving to a high school in another prefecture where she will study soccer and probably end up on the Japanese women’s national team some day.

After our oldest came home, She Who Must Be Obeyed encouraged her to go back to bed and then I was instructed to wake her up at certain time so that she could meet the friend.

I made breakfast, hung the laundry, did my “work” for the day (no really, I did actual work that will help me with the school year) boxed some ink, filled in some mailing labels, washed dishes and made lunch for our youngest.

Our oldest woke up at 2:30, which was three hours past the time she was supposed to leave and well past her meeting time with her friend.

My reaction was something along the lines of “How did you get there I thought you went out oh crap I was supposed to wake you up why the hell didn’t you set your alarm if today was so important to you?”

She rushed out and eventually met her friend and a good time was had.

I felt bad about things until I found out that she had, in fact, set her alarm, but had slept through it. Unfortunately, no one else in the house heard it or we’d have found her asleep.

Now, though, having slept until the mid-afternoon, our oldest may have turned full vampire. We’ll find out in the morning when we expose her to sunlight.

 

 

A Lightbox in the Darkness

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If She Who Must Be Obeyed had come home an hour earlier, she probably would have turned around and gone back to work.

Instead, in keeping with the motherly tradition of following “I’m home” with a critical “What the hell is that?” whilst still in the entry way, she questioned why no one had opened the curtains.

I stated there were two reasons 1) it was raining so there was no sunlight to let in and 2) I needed the darkness. Oddly, this latter reason didn’t seem to comfort her.

I needed the darkness because this morning was an exended photo shoot of  pens and random stuff I plan to review and/or sell. This involved breaking out my lightbox–a Foldio 2 I got via Kickstarter–and testing the limits of the camera on my Samsung tablet. I almost broke out my tripod and DSLR but decided I wanted to see what the tablet could do. (This also meant I didn’t have to charge the DSLR batteries, dust off the tripod or wrestle with its aging parts.)

The Foldio 2 works well, but it requires the room be as dark as possible. That meant I kept the kitchen and variety room curtains closed and turned off all the overhead lights I could. Our youngest was practicing piano and doing homework and didn’t notice the darkness in the rest of the apartment. This surprised me as she usually has a natural scanner that tells here when is the best/worst time to interrupt someone else’s project in order to achieve maximum disruption.

After almost two hours, I emerged into the light with over 300 pictures. The next stop was to upload them all to my desktop and load them into Lightroom. That was followed by a brutal, occasionally depressing culling. The tablet didn’t do as well with ink swatches as I’d hoped. More on that in another post. I’ve scheduled other Saturday photo shoots, some that will involve my DSLR and the old tripod, in order to learn how to solve that problem.

The next step is to post the pictures along with some prices and sell some of the stuff. But I also have a lot more pictures to take. I just hope I can convince She Who Must Be Obeyed not to be afraid of the dark. At least for a few hours.

 

An Annual Ritual of Much Touching and Pondering

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Everything must be touched. It is a curse.

One of the hoarding habits I have is an odd compulsion to touch everything I plan to throw out before I throw it out. I look it over, relive a few memories and then decide if I’m really going to ever use it again. Because of this, it’s impossible for me to simply throw out a box of stuff I haven’t touched in months without going through it first. Luckily, I’ve gotten a lot better at throwing stuff out.

I bring this up because the end of the school year marks an annual ritual I have where I purge the old school related stuff and make room for new school related stuff. I do this at school during exam pass backs and whilst waiting to check final marks.

I also rethink my desk space at home and try to declutter it by rethinking how I use it. (Lately that means “less space for writing” and “more space for gaming”.)

The problem is that rethinking the spaces on the desk requires rethinking the spaces in the file cabinet and “variety drawers” (which is totally not a dirty phrase). Moving stuff off the desk, if it’s not to a trash bin, requires moving other stuff.

At the same time, I’m culling my pen collection to get it down to the stuff I use (including stuff that stays at home) and to implement a one in/one out policy. I’ve already chosen several pens to sell. I also have 15 bottles of ink around that I hope to resell. (I acquire interesting stuff as it becomes available and then hope I can sell it. So far, so good.) Then there’s a number of knives that need to be culled.

Note: in an odd way, reselling the ink has made it easier for me to decide which pens to sell as I’m more comfortable with online buying and selling. I’ve also managed to arrange PayPal accounts to get money from my US account to my Japanese which makes She Who Must Be Obeyed Happy.

Today I cleaned one space–a trick recommended by Leo Babauta in his Sea Change Program–and plan to do another space tomorrow.

The trouble is, I start to think about why I filled that space in the first place and why i want to keep that stuff.

Or I’ll just buy some ink. Or play some games. We’ll see.

Longer and More Boringer

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It is commonly understood that the most boring things on earth are a Baptist sermon and a Japanese junior high school graduation.

Both start out with lots of hope, energy and spirit. People dress up in suits and, well, Sunday best, and sit in rows and, on occasion, sing songs. This spirit carries people through only part of the ceremony, though.

In the case of the Baptist sermon, God eventually takes leave by pointing out “I AM the Word” implying that it’s not necessary for God to sit and listen to someone else explain the Word. God leaves and goes and has brunch and gets ready to watch football (or basketball depending on the season). Those left behind suddenly find the spirit waning (with God present but not technically there you can expect nothing less) and they get restless and start thinking about brunch and football (or basketball depending on the season).

At this point there is at least an hour of actual sermon left and all that’s happened is the reading of the church announcements and one 17 minute prayer. (Attend a Baptist church this Sunday and prove me wrong…)

In the case of a Japanese junior high school graduation, the energy starts with the students walking in and, one by one, receiving their diplomas in silent dignity. Spirits are high and a few tears flow from parents’ eyes as tens of thousands of dollars worth of camera and smartphone equipment record the event.

Then the speeches begin and the spirit is murdered through repeated blunt force trauma.

In our oldest’s graduation today, there were five different speeches, not including two by students. The longest speech, about five minutes in, invoked John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” and my reaction was “ah, crap. Here we go.”

As a rule, when someone invokes JFK, you know the speech is going to go on a while.

As more people took the podium, it seemed that everyone was expected to give a speech. At one point I’m pretty sure the MC was saying “Has everyone given a speech yet? Have you given one? Lady at the back in the dark suit, yes, you, have you given a speech yet? Sorry, what’s that? Three months ago? You gave your speech three months ago when this ceremony began? Well done. Thank you.”

It should be noted: no one actually records the speeches on any of the tens of thousands of dollars worth of camera and smartphone equipment. Instead they save their batteries.

Eventually, after two hours, including an hour of speeches, the ceremony ends and the students and VIPs leave and the parents are locked in the room whilst the principal gives another speech.

After that we are set free to visit the classrooms where the actual fun begins. Our oldest’s homeroom teacher showed a slideshow, complete with music, of fun moments from the year. The class surprised him by serenading him with a famous pop song, changing the words to include his name and “arigato, sensei”. He burst into tears.

Everyone else started crying, too. Even I got something in my eye. And not because of boredom.