February 6, 2001

Time seems to have a knack for getting away from me. I've always had every intention of keeping this a regular update of my life and times but I keep getting distracted by the very same life and times I'm trying to document. It's all very frustrating. Moreover, I've been thinking about the direction this here page should be taking, and I've decided that a somewhat less introspective tack is in order. Something a tad more quasi-intellectual or pseudo-witty would be the ideal, I feel. Unfortunately, my brain has been suffering from a severe lack of stimulation on all fronts other than those of The Japanese Language and Approaching August Anxieties.

In an attempt to get my motor running, I've begun reading the Revelations of John the Apostle and have also been reading up on Carnival. I think the original intention was to somehow blend the two together and come up with a story entitled Apocalypso - The Second Coming of Barry Helafonte or some such nonsense, but the two topics appear to be on divergent tangents. Perhaps the concept requires a little more time to ferment in the wine cellars of my subconscious. Either that or a whole lot more research is in order. I have to admit, there's something about the Army of the Apocalypse marching to the sound of steel drums that just pleases me.

On an entirely different tangent, I've been thinking about just how much time I spend alone here, even though other people might be around. Sitting at my desk working on birthday cards for the 7th graders or deciphering Akira certainly fills the many hours of my day at school, but I'm doing it all solo. I've realized recently that although I don't have days in which I speak to no one, I do have days in which I don't speak English - how's that for strange? People wonder where ideas such as Apocalypso come from; if I had to guess, I'd say that would probably be the reason.

So what's going on? I don't feel that I've become withdrawn on any particular level, nor do I feel particularly pained about this fact. It's just the way things go these days - and to tell the truth, I think I'm probably going to miss No-English days once they're gone. It's just an interesting side effect of trying to spend more time alone over here, I suppose. Tends to snowball.

Another interesting facet of this conundrum is that instead of finding the answers to my questions at hand, I keep discovering more questions. I feel like I'm opening one of those Russian dolls - the ones that hold increasingly smaller dolls as you open each one up. Or for a more scientific metaphor, a nuclear physicist searching for the smallest particle: "Aha! The atom... no, wait... the electron! Whoops - we got bosons, mesons and quarks here... oh, hang on...". Questions about my future, questions about my present, questions about myself - they keep cropping up by the dozen. Questions that I can't ask anyone about because no one has any of the answers I'm looking for. Which means I spend more time alone thinking about things and not speaking English. My very own self-perpetuating vicious cycle.

Hey, wait a minute - what happened to that less introspective tack I was taking? This doesn't seem to be it. It looks as if I've got quasi-intellectual and pseudo-witty down pat, though. Russian dolls and nuclear physics in the same paragraph... damn.

February 13, 2001

I've decided that anthropology and sociology should not be classified as sciences. They strike me as being far too subjective and open to personal interpretation and explanantion to be taken as True Sciences. Come to think of it, archaeology kind of falls into the same bag. Why am I mentioning this? I was driving home the other day and was thinking about pursuing the study of Japanese society and culture for a living. I came to the conclusion that although feasible, I don't think I could do that without considering myself to be a complete charlatan.

Think about it. How many books have been written about different cultures? How may times have you come across a sweeping generalization presented as a fact or explanation? "Japanese people are very polite" - yes, sometimes. Ever had a car tailgate you with its highbeams on for 10 minutes before swinging out and passing you on a curve? Is that polite? Is this a cultural difference or merely an asshole on the loose? It's never happened to me in Canada, therefore it must be cultural, right?

Right.

Anyway, that was my random thought for the morning. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it's at least semi-coherent - I'm not feeling up to snuff today. Might be I need more breakfast. Which, by the by, happens to be a topic of some concern to me lately. More Food. I've been ravenously hungry lately. I feel like a bear who's just woken up after a long winter's nap to find that all the fat I'd stored up is long gone. I don't know what has brought about this sudden increase in my metabolic rate, but I just can't seem to get enough food. Maybe I need to smoke more; although killing my appetite is probably not the answer. At the rate things are going, I'll be skin and bones in no time - even moreso than I already am. Yikes.

Well, it appears I'm having more than my fair share of random thoughts today. Looking back over these pages, I find I have a particular affinity for the non sequitur - though it doesn't seem to ever be intentional. It sounds strange; an intentinal derailment of your train of thought - but I've always felt that that was the key to good storytelling: the ability to veer off on crazy tangents for a while before returning to the original storyline. Spalding Grey is the Master of Digression, in my humble opinion. That's something I need to work on: post-digression regressions - or is it post-egression ingressions? Now I'm confused. Coffee.

February 20, 2001

First things first. I know that anthropology, archaeology and sociology are humanities and not 'science' sciences... jeez.

Have just returned from a 4-day expedition to Nagano Prefecture. I thought about writing all about it, but I decided to try somthing new today. Ergo, Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show - The Stats:

Date of departure Date of return Total hours Distance traveled Average km/hr. Gas fillups Gas tank capacity Estimated volume of gasoline purchased Est. # cigarettes smoked Est. Km/l Total cost Cost per km Cost per litre Cost per cigarette Avg. cig/hr Avg. hr/cig Avg. cig/km Avg. km/cig Avg. cig/l Avg. l/cig

2001 02 15 20:00 2001 02 19 18:30 94.5 2294.9 km 24.3 7 35 litres 210 l 100 10.7 72848 yen 31.7 yen/km 346.9 yen 728.5 yen 1.1 0.9 0.04 22.95 0.05 2.1

When it all comes down to it, there's really nothing else you need to know, is there?

I think perhaps one of the greatest things about statistics is you can do anything you want with them. There doesn't have to be any specific correlation between the figures, not to mention the absolutely no relevance to anything at all is required. Math is fun. Sometimes.

So here I am, back at school again - only now I actually have stuff to do. I've been volunteered to give a workshop at the ALT midyear conference this week. Luckily, I get to talk about Japanese Culture, so I really don't have to do much research, all I have to do is tell people what I think is interesting - hence the handout which I slyly converted into HTML format in order to (a) save paper, (b) entice unsuspecting ALTs to my webpage, and (c) hopefully impress Bill Gates enough that he will sponsor subsequent forays into the strange and sometimes scary world of sashimi and shamisen.

Wednesday, February 21, 2001

Payday. Happiness and jubilation. Having blown my financial wad on the trip up North, I've been surviving on couscous and fried eggs for the past couple days. Such a diet, although quite tasty, is not one I'd reccommend for an extended period of time.

See this picture here? You probably recognize it if you've looked at the workshop I uploaded. It pleases me. All the moreso that I know what he's saying - although I'd be willing to bet you could probably make a fairly accurate guess.

I think it's relatively obvious that I have nothing in particular to say today - I'm just throwing an enrty in to break up the once-a-week routine. What with the conference tomorrow, I know I'm not going to get a chance to add anything until 'round about next Tuesday, which would fall right on the one-week point.

Whoops. Got distracted showing kids all their pictures... and now I get to go to Costco. In Japan. Which makes this a decidedly uninteresting, unintelligent and uninspiring entry. Can't have it all, I guess.