Tuesday, June 6, 2000
No time today. Damn. |
Saturday, June 10, 2000
One of the things I hate most about keeping a journal is that if you somehow manage to fall behind a little bit, it always seems such a daunting task to catch up again. Everyday that passes only serves to make that task all the more daunting. Therefore, I hereby refuse to catch up. To wit: I've been alive these past 2 weeks and to busy to work on this. Apologies where required - let's move on.
Rainy season is here and I'm looking forward to seeing what new & exotic kinds of mold and mildew are going to appear in my house. They crop up in the oddest places - last year I found a particularly nasty blue patch in the pocket of my suit, despite the fact that it was in a suit bag with all sorts of dessicants. I was peturbed, to say the least. Imagine what my kitchen sink must have looked like.
Whoops. Kids are here. Time to go. |
Monday, June 12, 2000
Was originally planning on posting the woeful tale of my pneumatic problems, but started singing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" at the Board of Education and I can't get it out of my head - so I thought I'd share. Gordon Lightfoot is cool. No ifs, ands or buts. To wit (and I'm not sure if this is a true story or not, but it's a good one...): one day, John Candy and a friend were out on the town and managed to get quite drunk. So they up and wandered over to Gordon's house at about 3AM and proceeded to sing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" at the top of their lungs. Gordon's response? He came out and played guitar for them. I approve. |
Wednesday, June 14, 2000
Hoo boy. Hot today. Out hucking the frisbee around at around 10AM and I'm fairly dehydrated now. And I smell bad. Luckily I don't have class 'til after lunch.
Spoke with my Mom yesterday. I've decided to remove the autobiography section of this here page. I tend to forget that it is not just my life that I am covering; which leads me to include certain things that other folks might not want to see published on the Net (or anywhere else, for that matter). But don't worry, I'm thinking about changing it to a series of stories wherein I manage to get into trouble all by myself - besides, that's all people really want to read anyway, right?
As far as everything else is concerned, I'll just keep on muddling about in my own special way. It's a gift. Although I'm running out of interesting pages to link to - gotta waste more time surfing and less time pondering the many uses of my bellybutton (of which there are many). |
Saturday, June 17, 2000
Dreary Saturday afternoon. Finally made it back home after a long and arduous conference in Saga City. Nice to see everyone, but I didn't get a chance to speak to everyone I had hoped to. Barry's birthday is tomorrow, but I believe we'll be celebrating this evening. Whee.
I've been in kind of a funk lately. I don't know why, but my Uncle Deac has been on my mind lately. He passed away quite recently, and I guess it has taken this long for the fact to sink in. I never really saw him much, especially after we moved to Hong Kong and later Vancouver - so I know that distance was a factor, but even so, I guess I never figured how much he meant to me. I remember him singing "Joy To The World" to me when I was a child - you know, the one that starts "Jeremiah was a bullfrog/ Was a good friend of mine" - I guess he thought it was pretty funny. Hell, I can't help but laugh when I hear that song now. I've also been teaching folks over here a game he taught us as kids (I call it the Switch Game): one hand on your nose, the other hand on the opposite ear, slap your hands on your thighs and switch them. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Give it a try.
I have nothing but good memories of the times I spent with him, but I never let him know. It's funny, growing up you never really take the time to appreciate the people around you who you care about - check that, it happens even after you finish growing up, doesn't it? I guess that's what this is all about. I regret never having told him to his face, but I consider him to be one of my heroes and I hope he can be proud of the man that I have become. I hope he knows just how important a part he played in my life and that he can forgive me for never bringing it up.
Happy trails, Deac. I'll keep a bottle of mighty fine wine set aside for you. |
Monday, June 19, 2000
Phew. What a weekend. Five days long (sort of) and no rest for the wicked - or the non-wicked, it seems. Due to excessively expensive car repairs and the usual squandering of funds, I find myself with a mere 500 yen until payday. Two more days to go. Patience.
The conference was the run-of-the-mill, hang out and fall asleep standard we have all grown accustomed to - except this time we have photos - courtesy of David Barber. I particularly like mine. I always wanted to be a model... anybody hiring?
I also ran across a fine Marx Brothers site. I wonder if I can find any of their movies out here - it's been a while. I could use a few good laughs these days. Seems the blues are making the rounds; wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the end of the line for most folks is fast approaching. I was talking to Barry the other day and he pointed out that this is the last time that we will all be in the same place at the same time. It sounds kind of melodramatic, I know, but there is a sense of loss that I think everyone is aware of. Even when we get together in the future, things just aren't gonna be the same. Unavoidable, I know, but it still sucks. Sigh. |
Tuesday, June 20, 2000
This sucks. Usually I'm not terribly concerned about my financial situation, but this is ridiculous. I haven't even made it to payday and I've already spent 90000 yen. What the fuck? How the hell am I supposed to make it through July - let alone save any money at this rate? Goddamn. |
Thursday, June 22, 2000
 And suddenly it's Wednesday. I've now spent $1200 since payday - gotta love car insurance! Whatever. I bought some rice and some nori... sigh.
I can't seem to decide what's on my mind this morning. Do I want to relate the tale of when I was at the supermarket and forgot my wallet in the car, not realizing until I was stood at the checkout counter (knowing full well this will make Amy laugh)? Or about my trip up to the Nagoya Castle Ruins to deliver a copy of the yearbook page to the Korean CIR - only to find out that they had the afternoon off (which will make Rene cock an eyebrow)? Or even how the staff at the Celtic Heart were so bored due to lack of clientele they were styling and cutting their hair at work (I dunno who that would trigger a response from)? It was just a day. Nothing special, nothing surprising. Just a day in which I wandered about, did some stuff, thought some thoughts and spoke some words. Who the heck would want to read about that? |
Friday, June 23, 2000
There is nothing more annoying than taking the time and effort to write a massive "I haven't seen you in years" email only to have the computer crash on you - thereby eliminating the entire oeuvre. Rage, rage, against the dying of the "connected" light.
Also annoying is that I had something on my mind that I was intending to stick on here but which was unfortunately lost along with the email. But I'm gonna deal, goddamnit. I'm almost positive that it was something terribly interesting, though. |
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
 There is no particular reason this picture is here.
Rain, rain, go away! I don't think I've ever seen so much rain - not even when I was living in Hong Kong. Driving has been particularly exciting lately: the rain beating a constant chaotic cadence punctuated by the metronomic rhythm of the windshield wipers as music trickles and seeps from the speakers - the windscreen a surrealist winter landscape, awash with grey and white and blue; stale recycled air filling the cockpit like ether, burning my lungs with its banality; sound filling my mouth and numbing the surface of my skin, an aural anaesthetic of the first degree; and in the farthest darkest corners of conscious thought: "How the fuck did they get all that water up there anyway?"
Or something like that. Been a particularly good/busy weekend.�@Satoru's ALT Farewell Bash was perhaps the highlight - found out last night that 165-some-odd people showed up for it. Ginsei ("Silver Star") put on a fantastic show as well. I can't figure out why those guys haven't become huge yet. They blow me away every time I hear them. I figure they could be huge back home, if they could just get over there.
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