Working on the Weekend

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Last week I did school work on Sunday; this week I did it on Saturday. I clearly don’t understand what weekends are for.

Part of the problem is at the school where I work we are forced to use Japanese language laptop computers. This isn’t that big of a problem except the keyboards are different, making it slightly more difficult to type and the word processing programs are loaded up with clip art, making it more difficult to make decent looking worksheets.

As such, I’ve been doing some of the work at home where I can play with my own toys.

Eventually, when I have my days of house arrest, I’ll revise it and use it to fill an actual “work” day.

In the past I’d have done all this on my own laptop at the school where I work, but our personal computers are still banned from the system.

Next week, I shouldn’t have much work to do. The trouble is, though, if I work on weekends now, it frees up time during the summer. I think I’d rather have more time off then, even if I’m still technically under house arrest.

Odd Weeks are Ending

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June is here, sort of.

I’ve written before about the horrors of June at the school where I work and the thing you have to understand is that June is not a month, it’s a state of being.

The bad thing about June is that it’s nonstop. The good thing about June is that it’s stable and predictable.

For example, this week we taught two days, then had two days with no classes. This meant that today felt like Monday even though it was Friday. This makes it hard to focus and/or take the day seriously.

Now I have a regular weekend before a series of nonstop days that will eventually drag me down and break my spirit, at least if I’m being optimistic.

Somewhere in there, I have to write an exam. Of course, a time of existential crisis and burnout is, perhaps, not the best time to write and exam. On the other hand, the exams are usually a lot of fun.

Double Feature With Popcorn Meals

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Today I got the chance to see a double feature which is something I don’t think I’ve done since the Jimmy Carter administration.

I was able to do this thanks to a day with no classes falling on the first day of the month. Most Japanese theater chains offer discounts on the first of every month. Prices drop from around $18 to around $11. Since both Logan and Guardians of the Galaxy, Part 2 were showing at convenient times, I decided to see both back to back.

(Note: Since I am technically under house arrest on days off according to the rules of the company I work for then, officially, I was doing research on local entertainment facilities and will write about them in the future. Really.)

For complicated reasons I’ll mention in a minute, I had to choose a theater chain I’d never been to before. This had me worried about the popcorn. As I’ve mentioned in the past, part of my critique of a movie includes the quality of the popcorn served by the theater.

The morning started with Logan which, although it is a great movie, is not a particularly good breakfast movie. That said, the only actual flaw with the movie was the popcorn. I don’t blame this on the theater though as I chose poorly. My Hokkaido butter and soy sauce choice turned out to be some kind of dry spice and not something buttery. Luckily, this didn’t ruin the movie for me. Also, since this served as my breakfast, I was hungry enough to finish it all.

The only other flaw was people.  When I chose my seat via the chain’s website, I chose the exact center of the theater, which put me far away from the nearest person. However, five minutes before the movie started, in a large theater with only a dozen people in it, a guy sat down in the seat immediately to my left. Right as the lights went down for the trailers, a second guy sat in the seat immediately to my right. My space was suddenly reduced and the popcorn wasn’t that good.

Luckily, the theater has terrific seats with adequate space and armrests so that it was still comfortable if a bit unnerving. Also, the movie was terrific and I barely noticed the company.

For the second half of the double feature, I chose regular salted popcorn as my lunch. (Note: this theater chain’s biggest weakness is they don’t have an actual butter-like substance dispenser.) This turned out to be a good choice, though, as the popcorn was good.

No one sat next to me, which surprised me, as it was a much smaller theater. However, it’s been hard to find subtitled versions of Guardians of the Galaxy, Part 2–my usual theater didn’t offer any at all–which tells me there must not be much demand for English with Japanese subtitles. As such, there were only a few of us in the theater.

Luckily, it was another terrific movie. In fact, these were the best major studio movies I’ve seen in a long time.  Unlike the original Guardians of the Galaxy, which I liked despite a weak third act, I may actually remember events from Part 2.

Tomorrow, though, it’s back to regularly scheduled work.

Productively Lazy and Sluggish

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I didn’t do much today, but I did get a lot done. More specifically I didn’t move much.

Although I spent most of the day at the computer, I was working on things that involved pens and paper but didn’t involve the actual computer. Instead the computer provided background noise and images for me whilst I worked on other things.

At one point I had my laptop set up on my desk in front of my regular computer so that I could work on a computer but not disturb old episodes of MythBusters. (Note: it is interesting to see the early seasons before they became popular. They had trouble getting stuff to use in their mythbusting. Then, they had an episode where they got the FBI to close off a highway and blow up a truck and you could tell they’d arrived.)

Somewhere in there, stuff got done, although there were a few odd computer issues. They weren’t that bad, though, so not much swearing was involved. Just a lot of angry sighing.

Tomorrow is another exam day and part of that will be spent watching movies as I attempt a double feature of sorts.

Late and Out

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Can’t be bothered today, even though this is post 1195.

I had noisy students who wanted to study a different class and even when I offered them a choice “finish this then you can study anything” they chose to play and talk. Some of them didn’t even study the other class

Some of them finished the work and then to study. Some didn’t work at all. . Others ran out of time whilst they waited for their friends to finish.

Eventually I finished and came home.

 

 

Once More, With Drift and Noise

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This week at the school where I work we find ourselves in another one of those drifty, gray areas between a weekend and a major event.

The major event is mid-term exams and because our particular classes don’t have mid-terms (we test at the end of the term and via frequent in-class projects) the students will not take our classes seriously this week.

This is especially true of my junior high first year students. They are approaching their first exam and that has them excited and nervous. As such, they are making a lot more noise than usual and spending a great deal of time merely chatting rather than working.

In one class, which got homework last week for being noisy and noisier, many students spent the day doing the homework they were supposed to have done. Others, who felt that forgetting their notebook somehow granted them free time, talked or worked on a worksheet, but will get a chance to finish next Monday at lunch time.

It’s funny how many of them thought this was a joke.

Working on Days Off

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I ended up doing some work today in order to get ready for work tomorrow.

This is not something I normally do as I have lots of free time on Fridays and try to do most of my planning then, but there was an odd confluence of events on Friday. First there was the encounter with the bad student and all the subsequent meetings. Then we recorded a listening, but didn’t have time to edit it.

This wouldn’t be a problem, except that I have three classes in a row starting first period tomorrow. This means I have to either be ready or be willing to throw any crap together and call it a lesson.

Normally, the latter would be enough, but as the co-person in charge of high school second year, it’s my responsibility to make sure everyone has the materials they need to do their jobs.

Therefore, instead of bailing out and playing tanks or something, I edited the listening and then did a worksheet to accompany it.

I then felt justified in being lazy, which isn’t the best way to do things, I suppose, but it was a Sunday.

Girls at the Bar

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We met our oldest at a bar. Our youngest was already with us. There were a lot of children around us already.

We celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary tonight (even though it was actually yesterday) by taking our girls to yakitori (chicken kebab) restaurant that is actually a bar, but is popular enough that families like to go.

The tell that it’s supposed to be a bar is that it has short stools rather than comfortable chairs (or even uncomfortable chairs with backs). In fact, as a bar it’s pretty bad too, as you can’t get comfortable with a few beers. It seems like a place you’re supposed to grab a snack and a drink on your way home from a different bar.

We went early, with our youngest, but our oldest was at club practice and she joined us after we’d already stuffed our faces full of chicken, pork, and fried potatoes.

This did not stop us from eating more when our oldest arrived.

It also did not stop us from eating cheese and drinking wine after we got home.

The restaurant/bar was pretty good, but it’s pricier than the alternatives. This means that next year we’ll take the girls to a different bar.

The Worst of the Best

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Today was one of those days where I was right about being wrong.

As the week drew to a close I had problems in all my first year junior high school classes. Yesterday’s was bad enough that they got homework. One student, who took one minute to move 15 feet to his desk, got double homework as a “delay of class” penalty.

This morning, though, was special.

My worst student, who was actually fairly good last class, has a bad case of wakarimasen dekimasen. If he doesn’t understand something, he feels he is entitled to free time. He didn’t understand the listening activity and put his head down on his desk, which I don’t allow. He even used his textbook as a pillow. When I tried to get him to sit up, he went full stubborn and kept his head down, which resulted in me puling his chair out from under him as I’d done in class before. He wrestled back spilling his desk.

He then stood up and gave me the finger. I laughed and he sat back down.

Eventually, his head went back down and I started bumping his desk to get him to sit up. He jumped up, picked up his desk and shoved it at me. At that point I threw him out of class.

Keep in mind, this is not technically legal, so I merely escorted him right outside the door and showed him where to stand, which was a place where he could still hear the lesson. He raged a bit, kicked the door a few times, sat down out of sight, and then stormed away (to the restroom it turned out).

At the end of class I went to see if he’d left anything behind and found his textbook torn up and scattered across the hallway.

A meeting with the homeroom teacher, the student, and a translator ensued. He’d mentioned the first part of the story, but left out 1) flipping the bird, 2) hitting me with a desk, and 3) me telling him where to stand when I put him in the hall.

(Note: the translator was there to protect me by 1) guaranteeing my point got across and 2) keeping secret how much Japanese I can actually understand. Long story.)

The meeting was interesting as he made a statement which the homeroom teacher wrote down. I made my statement via the translator (a fellow English teacher) and that was read to the student, who suddenly remembered parts of the story he’d forgot to mention.

By the end he’d claimed he didn’t understand what “flipping the bird” meant, although he couldn’t explain whey he’d done it. He claimed that even though his head was down he wasn’t sleeping so that made it okay. (I said it didn’t.) He also complained about my English Immersion style. I praised the times he was good and pointed out that he always rejected help, in Japanese no less, from fellow students. I also said that I wouldn’t punish him for today if he came back to class and started working.

Also by the end of the meeting, when he started getting good advice from the homeroom teacher, he went into pouty dramatic mode. He put his face in hands and leaned forward and whined. I pointed out to the translator that the student behaved exactly the same way in class when I tried to help him.

Eventually, I suspect, he’ll be moved down to the lower level class and become someone else’s problem.

Until then, I also need to take some positive news to the homeroom teacher. I may also have to take some sweets. And buy the translator a beer.

ensso Piuma Super Minimal Aluminum Fountain Pen–Initial Impressions

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The ensso Piuma is a great pen for three years ago. In 2017, though, I’m not sure how it fits into the market.

The Piuma came in padded black cardboard box with the ensso name stamped on the top. The pen was packed tight enough that I had a hard time getting it out of the foam. (Not a good initial impression, but the pen was definitely secure in the box.)

The ensso logo a decent look at the pan’s finish.

The Piuma is a good looking pen. I chose the black aluminum version with a black steel nib and every one who’s seen it likes the black on black look. In keeping with the “Super Minimal” concept It is a basic cigar shape with no clip. It is 140 mm (5.51 inches) long when capped and 128 mm (5.03 inches) long when uncapped. Because the pen is designed not to post, it is right at the edge of too small to be comfortable for my taste, but my budding pen addict colleague liked how it felt and wrote.

The ensso Piuma.

The Bock #6 nib is smooth and well tuned and although the pen’s black finish is quite slippery, which my colleague also noted, I like the lip at the end of the section. The shaped section puts it ahead of my Namisu Nova Minimal fountain pen which had a fairly fat and slippery section.

Detail of the Bock nib and the lip at the end of the section. The discoloration is the remains of leaked LAMY Petrol.

It is also a very light pen for its size: 1.12 ounces (32 grams) capped and .83 ounces (23 grams) uncapped. I imagine that once the slippery finish breaks in a bit it will be a good pen for longer writing sessions.

The only issue I’ve had, besides getting it out of the packaging, is that in the jostling of my morning commute it leaked ink all over section giving me LAMY Petrol fingers when I started to write with it. I checked the tightness of the feed and nib unit and the problem wasn’t repeated on the commute home.

My other problem at this point is where to put this pen in the market. It is of a style of machined pen that was a big deal a few years ago, but now seems almost retro. Even dubbing it as “minimal” reminds me of pens I already own including one that is nearly identical to the Piuma.

A pen configured the same as mine sells for $79 retail on the ensso website. This seems to me to put it in an odd spot in the market. It is too expensive to be a starter fountain pen and there are cheaper options–TWSBI 580s for example–with more ink capacity for people interested in taking the next step down the fountain pen rabbit hole.

I got mine via a Kickstarter campaign for US $45 (not including shipping) and that seems to be a better price point for a pen of this kind. It looks cool and is comfortable to write with and it does turn heads, but it may be out of date.

That said, these are just initial impressions and the Piuma is now part of my pen testing rotation. I’ll give it a proper review in six months or so once we’ve had the time to get to know each other better.