Monday, December 03, 2007

Shazam!

Is this guy awesome or what!? He's the Siberian Santa Claus...and he will totally pwnzrr your sorry butt. Looks like a Jack Kirby-era Avengers villain, eh? No wonder them Russians is so durn tuff...

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Korea hoooo

Off to Korea tomorrow! I'm all packed and ready go, and we are looking forward to the trip. Gonna see Jema, gonna eat meat...it's gonna be cool.

We'll be thinking of all of you, and as always, if our plane packs into the side of a mountain, we here in the LotRS love you all! KANBE!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

On the way home tonite, I saw a barber shop with a sign declaring "This shop is safe". I can't imagine why one might be led to think otherwise.


On a brighter note...or at least less ominous, I've yet to permanently injure myself in almost two months of judo. Yay! It's a heck of a workout, and I've come to enjoy being hurled to the mat.

We're headed to Korea next week...kimchee farts and cheap beer ahoy!

Friday, September 28, 2007

OOUUUUCH!

Been along time...seems like a lot of my posts start that way....but heck, its been hot and I`ve been busy-ish.

Just got out of the dentist chair this evening. Went in last week and he routed out about three of my teeth because they happened to be touching. I was supposed to get fillings or caps or whatever put in the gaping wound in my jaw today, but after twenty minutes of prying on what`s left of my molars, he decided that they had mis-cast one of the caps, and now I have to go back in two weeks to get the other. Yay. And you wonder why people hate the dentist.

Other than oral agony, ther has been a bit of news since July. First and foremost, the trip back to the States in August was wonderful. To everyone we saw, a true deep and heartfelt thanks goes out. K had a wonderful time meeting you and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you again. I can report that the namesake of this blog is alive and well and quite a bit thinner than when last we met...lurking in the basement is doing wonders for him.

Speaking of that basement, an extra special thank you goes out to Uncle Richard for putting us all up and for putting up with all of us. Thank you thank you thank you.

We did have a blast though. K has taken to wine in a big way after hitting the wineries in Virginia, and is eager to go back to Tennessee, and to visit the donkey out in Alabama. Who`da thunk it...the girl who never owned a pair of shorts before this trip has taken to life in the rural south....a testament to the fine folks down there.

Back in the school groove here...not much is new on that front. The kids have been practicing relentlessly for the big sports day they had last weekend, so I`ve mostly just been watching them marching to ad fro. This week was my first kinda real week of actually teaching. I`m tired.

I`ve also taken up Judo. I have a Canadian friend here in the LotRS who just happens to be a martial arts enthusiast, has a 2nd degree black belt in judo, and has offered to show me the ropes, as it were. It is a heckuva workout, and fun on top of that...and very pragmatic. No high-kicking wannabe ninja type stuff...more like wrestling blended with a bit of tai-chi. Its all about balance, and falling down. Alot. That in fact was the entirety of my first lesson. If you can`t fall down correctly, you`re gonna get hurt, and if you get hurt on your first day, you`ll probably walk away from the sport (or limp away) with a bad taste in your mouth. I`ve gotten better at falling.

Other than that, I`ve managed to successfully stand up wakeboarding, and had my great white butt towed all over the bay. It was almost as fun as it was terrifying. Got me a nice case of swimmer`s itch in the process (google it, it rocks!). K and her father were extremely proud of me...I think I prefer judo, tho. We`ll see though. I`ve got judo on Saturday night, and then we`re headed out on the water Sunday afternoon.

I`m gonna leave it at that for tonite. Look for a report on the school sports festival here in a few days.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

TYPHOOOOOOOOON!!!

I'm home alone and our first typhoon of the year is bearing down on us. K is off playing with her friends, and I'm eagerly awaiting the torrential rains and gale force winds that will whip the bamboo grove next door into a writhing screaming privet of doom!
Actually though, where we are, all we'll get is the rain. All weekend. All three day weekend. And yesterday. And Thursday. And Wednesday. Weather is awesome. K did laundry thursday morning. It ought to be dry by monday or so. Damp, I say.

Monday, July 09, 2007

What a day.

Not too terribly busy today, but I taught what has to be the worst class I will see this year. Its a group of 4th graders who are consistently off the freaking wall. Most of these kids were really good last year, but they seem to have been mixed together with the right combination of intelligence, rambunctiousness, and irreverence that a good teacher can harness and channel into a really crackerjack bunch...unfortunately the teacher they got has chosen to let her class run her, as opposed to running her own class. The result is absolute chaos...the wilder ones mill about the classroom actively ignoring any attempts to impart knowledge to them, they fight in the aisles...and that class also has one of the two socially retarded kids who wander in and out of the classroom screaming and kicking and crying and generally disrupting everything.
We were trying to play a game similar to musical chairs today, and so the kids were sitting in a circle, I was in the middle, explaining the rules, when one of the little bastards decided to "kancho" me, which means jamming his index finders into my rear end. The Kancho is great sport amongst the elementary school kids, boys especially...but is clearly out of bounds for perfoming on the teacher....except for these kids apparently. Their teacher did NOTHING, so I decided to mask my rage by playfully pretending to sit down on the little bastards lap. He squirmed, the chair collapsed, and we spilled into the floor. I felt like an ass for having lost my temper, but the little bastard was more subdued for the rest of the class, and the kids geehawed and did a good job with the game, so I guess I won a round. I guess.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Yup. Its hot.

The rainy season is in full effect here in the LotRS, meaning horrid humid muggy fatmans underpants weather until about the middle of July. We're enduring it as best we can, but the weather makes for difficult sleeping. We have AC in the living room, but the bedroom is au natural. After a week of waking up dripping wet at three in the morning, we got a fan. Problem solved, right? Wrong.
Fan Death!

Its a ridiculous korean superstition, or urban myth, or what have you.... but K adheres to it as well, as does her mother. Which means that I get my fan cut off at about 3 am....so I wake up sweating at about 5 instead. It is an improvement, but not so much as I'd hoped.

We're headed off to Kobe for the weekend with her mom and dad. I'm not especially thrilled, seeing as how Kobe is a Mecca for Japanese tourists because of it's international flavor...the same flavor that makes it a bit dull for international travelers. The food should be great though, and Daddy is picking up the tab...so I'm gonna make the best of it!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Happy Happy

Happy Father's day...yesterday. Hope you all had a good one. I know we did. Had a family intensive weekend again this weekend...saturday night was the old boys barbeque...heckuva good time. Sunday evening was dinner with K and her mom and dad, very pleasant, and her dad seemed to really enjoy having us there...as he does every time we go out there.
Seeing as how my evenings were a family affair, I decided to take a short junket out to the end of the train line to see just what the heck is out there. So, on saturday morning I packed up the bike and hopped the train to Kashikojima, a little town on the Ago Bay which boasts not much other than a couple of golf courses and luxury hotels. I got out and headed around the Pacific arm of the bay to a little(er) town called Gosa which is basically a semi-deserted fishing wharf and a very lovely beach.

I kinda panicked when I got to the wharf where I intended to catch a ferry back to Kashikojima ...it looked completely out of business. I stuck my head into a small restaurant (which also looked out of business) and found out that the boat was indeed coming and the restaurant was indeed still serving lunch, so I had lunch and waited around for the boat.

The boat came, the pilot checked to make sure I was actually a customer (seemed suprised) ...and directed me to the rooftop seats where I enjoyed a beautiful view of the bay on the trip back. The bay was lovely, riddled with little coves and islands...a regular pirate paradise.

So the weekend was good...today was ok, and tomorrow's gonna suck. Super busy at the least organized elementary school on my beat. Yay.

Making a trip back to the states in August though. If you are actually cool, you might just catch a glimpse...

Friday, June 08, 2007

In Memoriam

The family dog, Napoleon, passed away yesterday. We adopted him when he was about five years old, and he gave us 12 wonderful years. We mourn his passing, but celebrate his life and the experiences we shared. He was a good dog.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

And the lovely bride.

Kinda hokey, I know, the whole cat thing...but I've really taken to the heavy black line art thing...very graphic, high contrast....

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The proud Groom

A little sketch I worked up whilst recovering from the Reception party.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Hiro!

Just finally watched the final episode of Heroes...whew dogie. Fun 45 minutes, but left so much stuff spelled out for season two... Can't wait to see what kinda hijinks young Hiro gets up to in the early Edo period, tho.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Facebook

Just joined facebook the other day.
It really is a huge timesuck, but enjoyable all the same. I've managed to piss away my entire evening fiddling around with the thing. Yay.

Meee wanteee!

Again....three intractable wants have been torturing me of late. Most recently,
the Fender Telecaster (American made, of course)



The second, easier to stave off, but still a dull ache of desire....a surfboard.


Last, but definitely not least... the beautiful steel framed hand lugged full touring bicycle.



If wishes were donuts...we'd all be fat.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Mission Accomplished!

Or rather fait accomplit if you prefer. In this long absence, K and I finally finished all the wdding rigamarole...the Hawaii experience, the Reception to end all receptions, the aftermath.

First - Hawaii
Hawaii was actually really nice, very different than I expected, but quite agreeable all the same. My first mistake in the runup to Hawaii was to watch the entire first season of Magnum PI...nothing like watching a 20 year old tv show to give you an accurate impression of a place. Did help me figure out what to pack though...cutoff jeans and aloha shirts baby.

Waikiki was a rude awakening... a tourist emporium the likes of which I personally have never seen, having never been to Vegas. Resort hotel after resort hotel, and exotic boutiques to fill the spaces in between, with throngs of half dressed people milling about ... put me in mind of Logan's Run, sans dome and palm crystals. Did see some folks in serious need of renewal, though.

The ceremony was full on church style...I kicked off the proceedings by taking the lords name in vain in the middle of the aisle, in front of the priest and my mother. Rock and Roll. We did a quick run through in about 5 minutes, and then it was time for the main event. K was absolutely beautiful...laughing during the dress rehersal and crying during the wedding, and beaming in all the photos. I was my awesome self, wearing a tuxedo that I had to trick her mother into letting me wear (she was pulling for a tux that can only be described as silver lame...I told her my choice was the same as the tuxes Hugh Grant always wears in the movies)...and the attendees were pleased indeed.

The following days played out at a frenetic pace...we had a wonderful afternoon on the beach and bbq with my parents and team america, a fantastic post ceremony dinner at a wine and tapas restaurant...and I got me some shoes. No trip to the US is complete without a shoeshopping junket...size 10.5 is mighty hard to come by here in the LotRS.


Second -- the Japanese Reception

Take every dream, every worry, every hassle, and every joy you can associate with a wedding reception, remove your parents, add a microphone toting play-by-play Master of Ceremonies and a sushi bar, throw in a pre-party earthquake, and you get the general idea. We really did have a rocking little earthquake about thirty minutes prior to the party...came as quite a shock to me, getting dressed as I was. I hiked up my britches and headed outside with the menfolk to scan the bay for tsunamis. No tidal waves were coming, and the party went ahead as scheduled. It was nice...K's grandfather was there...and a little out of it by the time someone passed the mic to him...he sang lullabies to her until someone gently took the mic away. It was very sweet.
The rest of the party was more or less par for the course...everyone ate enough and drank enough and went away happy.

We are finally more or less free of wedding obligations and are trying to settle down and figure out how this married thing is really supposed to work...its a bigger adjustment for us than I think we bargained for, but we're getting through as best we can. She's still adorable.

Monday, March 05, 2007

and the Beast...


We gots us a new refrigerator on Sunday...at the behest of K's mom. She did the shopping for us...basically we were told "You buy this one!!!!". We however could not afford the thing and were not sure our little kitchenette could house the thing. Mom would not be denied, however. She insisted, then she offered to pay, then she INSISTED on paying...and here it is. I swear...we could sleep in the damn thing...

Linux again

Its been a while since the last linux post, and with good reason. I have had nothing but good luck with the lastest distro I've tried...Ubuntu.

I killed windows last month and have been able to do everything I want to do with Ubuntu...iPod, photoshoppy stuff, wireless internet...it rules. So I got crazy. I installed an opensource firmware package on my ipod that allows me to play .ogg and flac type media files (not just mp3). Works great so far, and you can freely add and remove and transfer files without using itunes or an itunes clone (in linux...). The firmware is called Rockbox...
and it does indeed rock. I think I love open source....


Saturday, March 03, 2007

How'd it go?

Skiing was great. No broken bones, and I only fell down about three times. A rousing success. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that we went again two weeks later!

The place we went both times was in Gifu Prefecture, about a four hour drive from here. We stayed at a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan) which had a natural volcanic hotspring bath system, and we spent the evenings lolling about in the outside bath with beers chilling in the snow . It was really great.

We also stopped by Takayama, a famous city in Gifu. Why it is famous, I'm not so sure...it is very old and it is a must see tourist destination for the Japanese themselves. Japanese tourist destinations resemble nothing as much as an old-timey themed outdoor shopping mall...souvenir and snack shops lined both sides of the streets, and were doing landoffice business both days we were there.

Watching other people spend money gets really old really quickly tho... so we hit the sake breweries. Turns out Takayama is famous for its sake, and in the tourist mall there were several sake shops and a brewery which you could tour for free. We toured. It wasn't a big operation, the explanations were all in Japanese, and it was COLD inside...but you got a free tasting at the end of the tour, and a souvenir sake cup. I have 6 souvenir cups now, and several litres of sake. Yay.

Since we got back, we've been busy with the day to day stuff...and we're getting a new refrigerator tomorrow. A new BIG refrigerator. Too big really....at the behest of K's mother...that'll be fun!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

We've moved

K and I are finally cohabitating... we moved into our new apartment on friday last week and have spent the last week unpacking and shuffling shit around and trying our best not to get on each other's nerves. It's been exciting.

She quit her job last week, and has been on a full-time housewife jag. She gets up when I do and fixes me some breakfast and when I tell her she doesn't have to do that, she says "its my job". I'm not so sure i's into that...we'll see how it goes.

This weekend is the big ski trip, we're headed up to Gifu or Nagano or somewhere like that. I haven't been on skis in about 10 years, so it'll be interesting to see just how badly I hurt myself.

I'll let you know.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and heck, Happy Valentines Day too!

I add the Valentine wishes because it is now almost February...been a full two months with no news... Sorry about that.
Now news posts, I should say. There has been, on the contrary, quite a lot of news. Mom and Dad came over for Christmas, and we marched past more UNESCO World Heritage sites than you can actually name on your own, ate and ate and ate and ate....and drank.... Mom decided raw fish was objectionable in theory only, and devoured a small shoal worth of sashimi while here. Dad and I topped her though...we may indeed be responsible for the sudden upsurge in interest in protecting fish stocks among the Japanese.
Mom also decided that sake was damn fine stuff, something Dad and I also reconfirmed...for the umpteenth time. All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas holiday...tiring..but wonderful.

Speaking of Christmas...K and I officially tied the knot on Christmas Day. It was a beautiful 45 minutes of standing at a window at the city hall watching a flustered little old man try to decipher the forms needed to process a wedding to a foreigner....there were many phone calls and reference books and redundant questions... Romantic, eh?
The actual real wedding ceremony happens in April, in Waikiki. That little jaunt will also serve as the honeymoon. I'm looking forward to checking out Robin Master's estate, taking a ride with T.C. on the Island Hoppers chopper, and sipping a martini at Rick's Cafe. Maybe even take tea with Higgins and the Lads. I also want to listen to the Ventures song "Diamond Head" while sitting atop Diamond Head, and watch the waves come in on the North Shore...nice.

In the meantime, we will be REALLY busy I think. We are moving into our new apartment next weekend, so two months after packing up my old apartment, I get to repack my stuff and pack hers too. Yay. We ge to buy a new bed and sofa, though, and she hired movers who will bring a truck, load it up and unload it all for less than $300. Nice. I will leave for work from the old apartment on that friday, and come home to the new place. I'm excited.

K is also quitting her job. The 30th will be her last day at that monument to self abuse. 80 hour work week anyone? I thought not.

So we'll have the new place to contend with, Hawaii to prepare for, and god knows what other fun little incidentals will pop up along the way...


Oh, and on a geek note...my friend just got a new MacBook. I played with it for 30 minutes and fell deeply and hopelessly in lust. I WANT MAC. K said I could get one if I really wanted one, but I don't thing she really meant it. So enraptured was I that I went home that very evening and formatted my HD and installed ubuntu Linux. No halfway, no more MS anything. If Ubuntu cant do it , it doesnt get done. I'm appeased somewhat for the time being....but I can almost gaurantee there is a mac in my future...and maybe sooner than later.

Also, I bought a game for k's PS2. Medal of Honor: Europe...a WWII themed shooter that is really pretty good. I wanted a game where I could shoot aliens, but shooting Nazis is a fairly satisfying, cathartic undertaking as well. I also want a Nintendo Wii, maybe we'll get one as a housewarming present...

That's all for now, kids. I'll try to do better about this thing in the future...