Category Archives: Personal

The Creeping End of Summer

Today was my last day to fully relax before the start of the school year, although I didn’t actually plan it that way.

I’d planned to do some running, but then the sky fell and kept falling so I decided to stay home and enjoy it. It’s not so much that I was afraid of getting wet, it was that I was afraid of being able to get somewhere but not being able to get back.

Tomorrow I go back to teaching my Sunday class and then Tuesday and Thursday I start an evening class. Then next Saturday I’m covering a class for a few weeks.

Although I’ll still have lots of days off, I’ll always have something the next day which is different than having the day off.

That said, I did get some stuff done today, although my summer projects have been spotty. (Correction: the projects have been fine; my effort has been spotty.)

All this will save me some of the end of summer doldrums, even though they aren’t that bad here in Japan because the summer holiday isn’t as long as it should be.

Eventually I’ll go back to the official day job. Soon enough, unfortunately.

Crazy Japan Times Mere Blather Invasion: Summer Olympics 2016 Day Seven

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Olympic Golf: C-

Golf on TV: C

Golf highlights: A

Your Humble Editor’s one attempt at golf: F

A tie for first place in swimming: A

The tie turns out to be an Olympic Record: A+

Finishing with the second fastest time but only getting a bronze medal: C-

Simone Manuel: A

Hagino Kosuke’s silver medal in swimming: A

Hagino’s final 50 meters: A+

Michael Phelps: A

Michael Phelps now owning enough gold to start own gold-backed currency: A

Gold-backed currency: A

The fact the gold medals have a silver core with gold plating: B

Kaneto Rie’s gold medal in 200 meter breast stroke: A

Kaneto’s name meaning Gold Wisteria: A

Resisting temptation to invoke Duran Duran because of Olympic host city: B

Blame it on Rio: C

Michelle Johnson: Acting: F Everything else: No comment.

Michael Caine: A

Michael Caine pronouncing his name “My Cocaine”: A

Cocaine: A+

Cocaine (white powder version): DNI for Did Not Inhale

A Taste of Rugby!: New name for Rugby Sevens (ATOR! From now on.)

Fiji’s Gold Medal in ATOR!: A

Penalty boxes in ATOR!: C

Fiji’s ATOR! Jerseys: Pattern A

Rugby shirts that look like T-shirts not rugby shirts: C

Japan playing Fiji closer than Great Britain did: A

Japan getting crushed by South Africa: D

Japan’s rugby performance in general: B+

Jun Mizutani earning Japan’s first individual medal in Ping Pong (table tennis): A

Convincing your in-laws that watching TV counts as work: C-

Work: D-

Lost and Found With Little Rebound

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Sugar has been messing with me. There may be such a thing as a one year itch.

Today marks one year since I started my diet/lifestyle change. My weight has been down as low as 81.5 kg (179.68 lbs) but lately has been up around 85 kg (187.4 lbs). My goal has been to stay around 83 kg, which means I’m a bit over where I want to be. That said, this is down from my original 98 kg (216.05 lbs) and I’ve not been racing to get back there.

I’ve experimented with adding more carbs and more sugar back in the diet and that’s been a mistake. The weight gain hasn’t been a problem, but I can feel the physical and mental changes of having too much sugar roaming around my system. My energy levels are up and down and I sense there have been some personality changes (irritability and temper mixed with distraction).

This has messed with my sleep pattern which doesn’t help my mental state or my weight.

It hasn’t helped that I’ve been slacking on doing the daily exercise, especially since I’m not making the daily 5 kilometer (3 mile) walk to and from the school where I work. That has also made a big difference in temperament.

I’ve kept up the food journal, but have been slacking on that, too, by writing what I eat but not recording how much.

It may just be the arrival of the anniversary which has been making me think about all this more. We’ll see how I’m doing next year, though, just to be sure.

Poked Prodded Scanned Cancelled

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Today, I cancelled part of my own health check because I’d already refused it.

Several years ago the company I work for locked its management behind security doors. Since then, there’s a been a slow drift toward a corporate culture that excludes things like “rank and file employees who actually bring in the money” and “making notes” and “listening”. (not necessarily in that order).

Last year, I was informed I had to go to a health check on a day I was supposed to teach classes. I was also informed that I’d be expected to take a barium swallow GI test and then go to school. I suggested to the scheduler that this was a bad idea and after several emails and calls ended up with a camera shoved down my throat.

This year they wanted me to miss class again and after several emails I ended up with a health check scheduled for today. When I arrived I discovered that I was scheduled for the barium swallow and quickly cancelled it.

Luckily there was good news. My blood pressure and weight were good, but I still don’t understand how a couple taps and checks from a doctor count as having been checked by a doctor. (Granted, it does count as having been SEEN by a doctor).

After I got home I contacted the company I work for about the cancelled test. I’ll be interested to see what happens.

Preparing for Tomorrow Never Comes

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I spent part of the day preparing for tomorrow. Unfortunately, I’ve heard that never comes.

After a lazy morning playing tanks with a friend via the magic of the internet, I actually got down to work doing some writing and preparing for my time off/house arrest. (I’ve written about that before, but more on that in another post. Bad language guaranteed.)

I worked out what days will be “house arrest” and which will actually be vacation and outlined what I’ll be doing during my “house arrest” and, for that matter, what I’ll be doing when I’m free to do whatever I want (spoilers: pro-level time wasting).

I also planned tomorrow. It will involve trips to the bank, shopping, eating too much, more shopping, walking, writing reviews and a trip to the post office.

The latter is the most important as I’ll be delivering boxes of ink. This has two results: earn a little money and clear up some space. Right now, clearing up space is the most important part.

Of course, the way my planning goes, I’ll probably end up doing something else. There’s always tanks and if that doesn’t inspire me, there are other games.

Whither the Rulins

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I should have done this yesterday but couldn’t be bothered. That tells you all you need to know about today’s topic.

As part of a way to avoid new year’s resolutions, I ripped off Woody Guthrie and came up with 16 Rulins for 2016. The ideas was to come up with general guidelines rather than specific resolutions.

As you might suspect, I have followed a few, ignored others and have accomplished a few that surprised me. The biggest surprise was the first few. I’ve sold myself more and sold some of my stuff. I still resist that as the hoarder in me comes up with uses for stuff or dogs me with memories and sentimental feelings.

The biggest surprise was creating a second source of income, albeit a small one, by creating a small business of sorts. (If refreshing a website and buying and selling a bunch of ink every now and then counts as a business.)

That led to me failing spectacularly when I listed a bunch of ink I had available and even the crickets couldn’t be bothered to make any noise.

The next phase is the “Use it or Loose It” phase. I’ve got bunch of stuff photographed and ready to sell (and have even sold a few things already). It’s also time for a mid-year office decluttering.

My mistakes haven’t been smarter and I’ve not had as many adventures with the girls as I could have and I’ve not been learning something new each month.

I’m tempted to produce a set of mid-year Rulins just to remind myself they exist.

But, I didn’t include a Rulin’ about not procrastinating so I think I have a lot of time to do that.

Reviewing, Revising, and Rethinking Sundays

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Thanks to the recent technological failure this site experienced (at least in Japan), I’m still two posts behind on where I should be in this blog. If I were on track this would be post 850 (or maybe 851). Either way it’s time to sit back and rethink a few things.

For a while I’ve been considering taking a day of rest from the regular posts. Sunday is the natural day to do this, especially as I’l be working on almost every Sunday from now until October.

The forced break was refreshing, but I also felt the pressure to produce the daily post. This was mostly out of habit but I took it as a positive sign.

On the other hand, even though I’m technically behind, I still like doing the daily posts and am glad that it’s all become automatic. That said, there’s a thin line between forcing yourself to do something and phoning in anything just to do something.

Because of that, I feel as if it’s time for some small changes. I can imagine Sunday being either a shorter post (under 300 words) or just some photos of some random something or other.

This will be especially true during the coming exam period when it’s best that I avoid computers as much as possible. I’ve also been pre-writing things a lot more, both by hand and on the website, but that has yet to become a habit.

Today will be the first short post. Next Sunday, we’ll see what happens.

Funny Noises That Should Cause Concern

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I’m pretty sure I heard it happen but didn’t think it was that big of a deal. I probably thought something shifted and fell at the bottom of the pile. Then, today, I saw what actually happened.

Today was “tame the hoard” day and the goal was to tackle the pile of old laptop computers that has begun to stack up. I started with the oldest. Although it is desperately outdated, it has the best keyboard of any computer I own and because of that I’ve held on to it. I installed Linux on it to prevent the “XP is dead. XP is dead. The world is less safe because you are using XP. XP is dead. You are killing the world” messages I kept getting.

Unfortunately, the flavor of Linux I installed (note to nerds: yes, I know it’s supposed to be “GNU/Linux” so there) didn’t play nice with my wifi and I decided to scrap the computer. (Although I may have to resurrect it temporarily. Long story.) I pulled out the memory and the hard drive and set the rest aside.

Then I took out my second oldest laptop and set it on the desk and was surprised when it wouldn’t sit flat. I thought I might have lost a rubber foot but then realized the battery pack had swollen as one of the batteries dies. I remember, not so long ago, hearing some funny noises in the variety room, but I thought it was just something falling, not a battery pack trying to explode. I removed the battery pack and am now trying to figure out what to do with it. The devil over my left shoulder wants to put it in the sun for a few days to see what happens. The devil over my right shoulder suspects that might be a bad idea.

The last computer, a Samsung netbook a friend passed to me for free, is still working fine. At least it is for now.

The next problem is my desktop computer. It is also starting to show its age. It’s old school enough to have DVD drive and old enough that the drive only opens when it damned well feels like it and then it lectures about how when it was my age it didn’t have fancy-schmancy optical drives it had a cassette drive that took six weeks to load one simple game and it was happy to play that game. I felt embarrassed for it as I’m 49 and it will never actually reach my age. (Yes, that’s right, I spent the afternoon arguing with a senile computer. So what?)

The decision now is to repair or replace. The truth is the deciding factor isn’t the money, it’s the hassle.

Back Doing Stuff More Slowly

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I slept through the migraine but woke up today moving in slow motion.

A post-migraine hangover leaves me feeling weak and sluggish and with the slight remnants of the headache as if the migraine thinks it’s an empty bottle of booze and doesn’t want to be ignored now that it’s all gone. (Something like that.)

The pain hits when I do little things like lean over to pull on socks or bend down to put on and tie my shoes. It doesn’t hurt, it’s just a twinge, almost a memory of the pain which, since I slept through the worst, is especially annoying.

The results in school manifest as either a marked lack of interest in anything that goes on:

I’m not prepared for my next class. Sigh. Can’t be helped. That student just set fire to that other student. Sigh. Now I have to fill out paper work.

Or it manifests itself as permanent annoyance:

Student: Good morning!
Me: Shut the fuck up.
(Note: the latter comment is more of a feeling than an actual expression.)

Today was minor annoyance at one student although, in my defense, when I checked on him he hadn’t written a single thing the entire class, so I made him stand until he caught up. When he didn’t catch up, I confronted him again and he said, rather timidly, that he didn’t have a pencil. If I’d been in permanent annoyance mode I’d have snapped and reminded him he was in his homeroom and should have easy access to pencil unless he didn’t have one in the school and no friends to borrow one. (That would have come out, though, as “Are you fucking kidding me?” as I walked away shaking my head, triggering more twinges of pain and more annoyance.) Instead I just told him to borrow a pencil from someone.

I got home and took a nap, which helped a little, but the feeling doesn’t go away until I have had full night’s sleep. Even now I can feel twinges of the “hangover” which means it’s time for bed.

The Pain With Rain Stays Mainly in Dwayne

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A short one today because, after a pleasantly cool and dry beginning of June, the weather responded by entering the season of Humid in a surprising way. The surprise has given me a headache

The weather decided to bring the humidity but left the heat behind. This had the odd effect of making it seem cool enough to wear warm clothes when, in fact, that was just a trap. Even wearing light clothes, at least if you actually had to leave the house, left you feeling sweaty and damp.

The weather also brought annoying mist that made umbrellas useless but only left you annoying wet rather than soaking you. The weather also brought air pressure changes that have messed with my head. In fact, right as I sat down to write this, as part of what seems to be a new seasonal tradition, I got my migraine spot. I quickly took some medicine and am now writing a compulsory post before heading to bed.

The website is still “Banned in Japan” but I don’t have the energy to deal with the host tonight.

I’ll save that for tomorrow. I’m hoping that’s the only headache I have to deal with tomorrow.