Category Archives: Personal

Another Place Holder

Leave a reply

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.

Shutting Down Earlyish

Leave a reply

Today turned into another one of those lazy days where I just can’t be bothered.

I did lots of small projects to day, but that was mostly a way of putting off larger projects.

I’ve worked out a plan of sorts for this website, although I balked on doing some of the writing for an intended post (it’s not the writing, its the tracking down sources/necessary URLs).

I’m also plotting the possibility of doing National Novel Writing Month again this year. I suspect I won’t because of those larger projects I keep putting off. They involve a lot of revising. Because of that, NaNoWriMo might become National Novel Revising Month (NaNoReMo?). I like the crazy intensity of NaNoWriMo, but it’s not my biggest priority now.

Other than that, all I did was clean pens and change inks. Oh, and I fed the girls and washed some dishes, too. I also left the house, although not for very long, when I escorted our youngest to her table tennis practice.

Now it’s bed time. Long day tomorrow.

Before Me, Therefore Because of Me.

Leave a reply

Despite my best efforts to hustle, I missed the train by that much.

In fact, when I was halfway up the stair case, I heard the doors close. It then teased a minute by sitting still with the doors closed until I reached the top step. Then the train pulled away.

(Note: yes, everything happens because of me.)

This put me on a later train, that left me a few minutes and a bit of hustle from catching a good train. As I may have mentioned before, If I catch the 10:32 I get home at 11:10 or so. If I catch the 10:44, I get home at 11:44.

Unfortunately, the later train became the “how f@#king late is this thing?” train and I even missed the 10:44.

However, there was an express leaving soon after that and I was shocked at how empty it was. I even managed to get a seat, which was the only good thing about the delays. I ended up getting home at 11:44 and this is the result.

Now, it’s bed time.

Writing For Others For Yourself

Leave a reply

It’s sent. Now I wait.

I spent part of today writing up the letters I needed to send to the Kansas Department of Revenue in order to attempt to renew my Kansas driver’s license. This is the kind of writing I hate doing more than almost anything else

(Note: “anything else” includes business-related phone calls in ear-shot of other people, singing karaoke and having my eyes scooped out with a spoon.)

(Note 2: I am usually the one doing the eye scooping if I’m unable to escape singing karaoke.)

My BS detector can’t get past the tone of the writing. It all seems artificial and transparent and I can’t imagine anyone taking it seriously.

Also, the more important the writing is, the less confidence I have in my ability to produce something coherent. Even Kimberly is like “you’re on your own now, loser. I can’t watch this disaster take place and still live with myself. This stinks so bad even you should be able to smell it”. My reaction is, of course, “why you always gotta go to the sense of smell thing?”

My second reaction is “Loser? Really?”

Complicating matters, I had to write a letter for my department head and then persuade her to both approve it and sign it. (Luckily, she did.)

Now it’s all been sent and there’s nothing to do but wait. And save yen. I may be scheduling a trip in a couple weeks.

 

 

International Phone Calls and Government Agents

Leave a reply

Today’s post can be blamed on the Kansas government.

Because my Kansas driver’s license is expiring this year and because I’d rather not spend a thousand dollars or more to travel home and renew it, I decided to call the Kansas Department of Revenue and beg for mercy.

Oddly, the voice who answered was surprisingly accommodating.

As a rule, I hate talking on the phone, although that’s mostly when other people are around, and I especially hate dealing with government agencies. I also hate being in line on the phone and paying international fees to stay on hold.

However, I called right after the office opened and ended up second in line. The voice I got, who never told me his name, listened to what I was saying and then put me on hold for several minutes. When he came back, he had a number of specific instructions for me to follow that may, emphasis on MAY, save me a thousand dollars or more.

I have to do some writing and some copying and some submitting and then a lot of praying, albeit with Claudius’ qualification:  My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: / Words without thoughts never to heaven go. 

I still might end up having to go home (note: I have to have a valid driver’s license from the USA to get and keep a Japanese driver’s license without having to spend even more money. Long story.) and if things don’t happen quickly, it will probably cost me more money, but it’s worth the risk. (Second note: I suspect my mother is saying a much different prayer…)

Tomorrow will be spent writing a letter that begs for mercy. This could get interesting.

The Best Laid Plsna, Plnas, Whatever

Leave a reply

I had a post for today, then I didn’t. Well, something like that.

Worked on the review of a couple pens I’ve had for a while and even broke out a digital scale from the kitchen to see how much they weigh. I wrote a few lines and then checked the photos I’d taken.

That’s where the technical difficulties ensued. The picture files were fine, they just weren’t that good. This means I’ll have to go back to the drawing, er, picture board, before I’ll be willing to post them.

Some of this is stems from my experimenting with using a smartphone and/or a tablet for all my photos. This, of course, is a way of saying I’m too lazy to dig out and set up my regular camera equipment with its awesome lenses.

Tomorrow I’ll work on better pictures and then try to post everything. Or I’ll take better pictures and put off processing them until Wednesday. Either way, at least I have part of the writing done.

Although, knowing me, I’ll probably end up rewriting it all anyway.

Bad Memory Makes Bad Decisions

1 Reply

I would have sworn I had another year.

I think I set an alert for it, but it may have been on a different program than the one I’m using now.

Now I have decide to travel or not.

My Kansas driver’s license expires in November and this wouldn’t be that big of a deal except it makes it difficult and expensive for me to get and keep a Japanese driver’s license. I’ve written before about how complicated it is to get a license in Japan if you’re from a country that’s not Canada and drives on the correct side of the road (right).

This means I now have to decide if and when to go back. Going back will, oddly, save me money as Japan’s training courses are quite expensive. I can apply for a six month extension and then go back for Christmas and New Year but then I have to decide to go back by myself or take the girls. Since only two of the three girls are interested (She Who Must Be Obeyed is not) it may end up just myself and the kids. (Note: our oldest, being a teenager, is not interested in anything.)

Or, I may just go back by myself.

I have to decide soon, though. And I traditionally make bad decisions when air travel and money are involved. (More on all of this in a future post.)

Long Day Short Post

Leave a reply

Been pondering one of my daily habits, mostly because lately it seems to be neither daily nor a habit.

For a couple years I’ve been writing a “daily” list of 10 ideas on various topics, business ideas and writing ideas, but lately it’s been more of a burden than a benefit.

It’s useful for testing pens and paper, but leaves me with a lot of random sentences on random topics. It may be one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, and maybe it was, but now it would be scanned.

I have an impressive stack of notebooks full of ideas, but mostly they just take up space. I’ve got a few ideas for how to deal with them (tossing the batch is around idea seven) or at least bring more focus to them.

But more on that in a future post, after some rest.

 

Working Sabbath Days

Leave a reply

Note: As happens only occasionally, I revised yesterday’s post to correct a silly mistake and add some much needed detail. I think it’s a much better post now. The accuracy helps a lot, too.

A friend of mine once gave a compelling defense of mandatory sabbaths. He said that it’s good for everyone if everyone is forced to take a day off.

I kind of wish I’d listened to him.

Right now I’m on course to work, in some form or another, for 13 days straight with only a couple afternoons off. Because of this I’ve become a lazy slob in the evenings (well, more so than usual, technically) as a way to get some “time off”.

Granted, some of those days I’m only working for a couple hours (travel time included) but it throws off my rhythm especially as it is from 8-9 in the morning.

As a result, I’ll be shortening these posts substantially, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I’m teaching a night class and not getting home until after eleven.

On Tuesdays I have extra down time and could write posts in the afternoon, but I would rather use the time to focus on other things.

The Saturday class will end soon, though, and that will help a lot. Tuesdays and Thursdays, well, that’s different. Not sure how those will change.

 

Rules and Sweets on Culture Day

2 Replies

Note: This post was edited on 9/11/2016 to correct a mistake and add some information.

Today was the start of the annual school festival at the school our oldest attends.

She participated in the opening ceremony, but first we had to wait because it turned out that the festival didn’t open until 11 although we were told it would open at 10. Although we had to wait, we did get good spots to see our oldest play and the flag team perform.

No pictures or video though, that’s one of the rules.

Once we got inside we got our parent badges which granted us permission to take photos and videos inside the school. Members of the public without badges are forbidden from taking pictures.

This is because the members of the public included a large group of fairly suspicious looking men who appeared to be there by themselves and a surprisingly large troupe of police watching the outside. I’m not sure if the two things were connected, but this school has enough historical tradition behind it that, oddly, it has attracted its own class of perverts called “******mania” (Note: the asterisks conceal the school’s nickname not the word this father would use for them.)

Think of someone with a fetish for Catholic school girls in uniform–and you know who you are–and you’ll get the idea.

After getting our badges, we went in search of ice cream. Each homeroom puts on some kind of display. That can be selling and serving sweets or hosting silly carnival games. We had ice cream, then cookies, then played a game and had a student demonstrate a really cool touch-screen digital globe.

The main complaint I had, and this also applies to the festival at the school where I work, is that only sweets or instant ramen noodles can be served. Nothing that can go bad is ever served, which means no hot dogs, hamburgers or chicken. Also, although some drinks were offered coffee was not.

I eventually ran away to escape the crowd. I never did actually get a chance to see our oldest, which meant I never got a chance to embarrass her directly in front of her friends.

Unfortunately I can’t be there tomorrow when there will most likely be a larger crowd. The festival is one part advertising and one part inviting boys from other high schools to meet the girls. (It is an all-girls high school after all.)

Perverts and teen-aged boys. A father really ought to be there for that.