so i don't have the whole "holy crap i'm in Japan" thing that i did last time i was here. on the way to the airport and when i got on my flight out of phoenix i had it, now that i'm back it doesn't feel all that different tho.
anyways, the first few days here have consisted of orientation orientation orientation with a general helping of doom at our insurance orientation. general rule of thumb when in japan: don't need your insurance. while you're at it, don't do anything blatantly stupid.
kawagoe is a lot bigger than i thought it was gonna be and i can't wait to get more time to explore it. so far i've found about half of the seedy gentleman's clubs (they're the only flashing lights on after nine on weekdays) and the police bike impound full of thousands of bikes and the poor souls trying to find their mislaid bicycle among the throng. not a pretty sight. especially at ten at night. tho me and chris are considering going there and trying to buy a bike off the police for cheap, i might have a better chance of finding one my size among the masses than in my host family's garage.
speaking of host family, all my nice clothes i was gonna wear to the opening ceremony are still in the suitcase i sent to them when i got off the plane.
oops.
but i get to meet my host family tomorrow! so i get to finally see what these people are all about and unpack and organize all my things.
mmmmm, organizing things.
speaking of things, i bought a tiny tiny guitar at the friendly neighborhood convenience store yesterday. as soon as i have a wall to stick it on it will become another of my many many random decorations. now i just need a new robot to rockout on it. i'm pretty sure they come in the same scale.
but more on that later.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
final thoughts
in 14 hours or so i will be back in japan. i hope you all understand how weird this is. excitement, nervousness, fear, elation, i don't even know where to begin.
oh yeah, the fuckin plane. do you have any idea how long an 11 hour flight is? about 40 hours, that's how long. then there's the fact that i'm leaving on the 28th at noon thirty and arriving at 4 in the afternoon on the 29th. i don't know where those 40 hours go. i will have my computer with me and i will have much much studying to do. i have a test in 2/3 days. and that's 2 slash 3, not two thirds.
i'll be reunited with counterpart mustache (i think i like comrade mustache better) in japan and i can't say how happy i am to have him there. i'm gonna need someone to connect and goof around with on a regular basis and chris fills these positions and more. let the games begin.
and now for the philosophical part of the day: i have lately started to feel very stagnant in ashland. going to japan is more than anything an opportunity for me to redefine the son of schmidt and decide where i want to go. i have no expectations. i have no reservations. i only have hopes and dreams.
i'll see you all in the future.
oh yeah, the fuckin plane. do you have any idea how long an 11 hour flight is? about 40 hours, that's how long. then there's the fact that i'm leaving on the 28th at noon thirty and arriving at 4 in the afternoon on the 29th. i don't know where those 40 hours go. i will have my computer with me and i will have much much studying to do. i have a test in 2/3 days. and that's 2 slash 3, not two thirds.
i'll be reunited with counterpart mustache (i think i like comrade mustache better) in japan and i can't say how happy i am to have him there. i'm gonna need someone to connect and goof around with on a regular basis and chris fills these positions and more. let the games begin.
and now for the philosophical part of the day: i have lately started to feel very stagnant in ashland. going to japan is more than anything an opportunity for me to redefine the son of schmidt and decide where i want to go. i have no expectations. i have no reservations. i only have hopes and dreams.
i'll see you all in the future.
Monday, August 27, 2007
night happenings
so two nights ago i came home to find a 5 inch centipede inspecting my black duffel bag in my room. i tried to choke out an appropriate insult, failed, and then proceeded to fail in my attempt to pummel said arachnid to death with a soccer cleat before it escaped back into the closet. arachnids over an inch in overall size tend to have a negative effect on my pummeling. i swallowed my fears and proceeded to sleep.
last night as i lay down in bed i heard the distinct sound of a thousand little feet scuttling around on sheets.
SHIT!
thy nemesis has returned. the fool. i got up, hit the lights, and inspected the bed to make sure it wasn't around the foot of the bed. i pulled the pillow out of the cover and carefully inspected it to make sure it wasn't hiding on the backside. i looked inside the pillowcase and
SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!
i landed about three feet away and quickly armed myself with a flip flop. never underestimate the wrath of a half naked man with a strangely named shoe.
i set about pummeling the pillowcase with the shoe, but of course the centipede, knowing that he had been spotted, had made a beeline for anywhere that wasn't directly in the path of said misnamed shoe. so i went into a smashing frenzy and killed the shit out of that thing, poked it a bit, then smashed it some more just to make sure it was dead. i do not mess around when it comes to arachnids over 4 inches in overall length.
note: when moving the corpses of slain creepy crawlies, flip flops are no substitute for chop sticks.
last night as i lay down in bed i heard the distinct sound of a thousand little feet scuttling around on sheets.
SHIT!
thy nemesis has returned. the fool. i got up, hit the lights, and inspected the bed to make sure it wasn't around the foot of the bed. i pulled the pillow out of the cover and carefully inspected it to make sure it wasn't hiding on the backside. i looked inside the pillowcase and
SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!
i landed about three feet away and quickly armed myself with a flip flop. never underestimate the wrath of a half naked man with a strangely named shoe.
i set about pummeling the pillowcase with the shoe, but of course the centipede, knowing that he had been spotted, had made a beeline for anywhere that wasn't directly in the path of said misnamed shoe. so i went into a smashing frenzy and killed the shit out of that thing, poked it a bit, then smashed it some more just to make sure it was dead. i do not mess around when it comes to arachnids over 4 inches in overall length.
note: when moving the corpses of slain creepy crawlies, flip flops are no substitute for chop sticks.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
its time its ok too
the first thing you'd notice would probably be the color. a rich, demanding shade of purple. not only that, but any color imaginable. stretched out, seemingly unending. because theoretically it is. it would take you a while to grasp how unfathomable this particular scene is.
you'd think back to how you got in this situation. but the harder you dig through for that memory, you only have the one. the last thing you were doing. sitting, standing, waiting. thats all you can handle. so you settle on figuring out what is going on, and where you are.
one of the first things you'd begin to think is, what time is it. but you know, in that small spot way down deep, that there's no answer. you cant feel it, but you know time stopped completely. and for a purpose. violent and epic as it had to be.
then you'd realize, you're not supporting your own weight. you look down to your feet and there's the same purple. you're floating and in what you don't know.
and you get that same feeling, you're not breathing. but you don't have a need, or a desire to. you're happy, and you couldn't care less about your situation.
and all at once your memory comes back to you. every moment you swore you wouldn't forget, and all the ones you tried to. firsts, lasts, people, attachments. flooding you with emotion. you're overwhelmed but don't want it to stop. with another rush you've picked your three favorites.
a face you unremittingly tie yourself to. a sound that leaves you unruffled. and a smell that sends you off your symmetry.
and it gets bright, and you close your eyes.
and theres only one emotion left, its familiar and you dont hesitate to welcome it.
its smooth and worn down, lovingly wrinkled, and preserved.
and you leave yourself floating in that brilliant space.
you'd think back to how you got in this situation. but the harder you dig through for that memory, you only have the one. the last thing you were doing. sitting, standing, waiting. thats all you can handle. so you settle on figuring out what is going on, and where you are.
one of the first things you'd begin to think is, what time is it. but you know, in that small spot way down deep, that there's no answer. you cant feel it, but you know time stopped completely. and for a purpose. violent and epic as it had to be.
then you'd realize, you're not supporting your own weight. you look down to your feet and there's the same purple. you're floating and in what you don't know.
and you get that same feeling, you're not breathing. but you don't have a need, or a desire to. you're happy, and you couldn't care less about your situation.
and all at once your memory comes back to you. every moment you swore you wouldn't forget, and all the ones you tried to. firsts, lasts, people, attachments. flooding you with emotion. you're overwhelmed but don't want it to stop. with another rush you've picked your three favorites.
a face you unremittingly tie yourself to. a sound that leaves you unruffled. and a smell that sends you off your symmetry.
and it gets bright, and you close your eyes.
and theres only one emotion left, its familiar and you dont hesitate to welcome it.
its smooth and worn down, lovingly wrinkled, and preserved.
and you leave yourself floating in that brilliant space.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
fire in the hills!
so here i am, ready to go. my last night at the bakery and my last paycheck eminent. my first plane leaving in 3 days. all my documents in order, all my bags packed up, all my stuff in storage in jesse's parent's shed.
news flash
jesse's phone rings as we get our keys in the door and before i can crash in the living room he's saying that there's a fire at his parents house. he says that most of my worldly belongings are in fiery peril and i need to tell him what i need, so i choke on my "ummm..." for a few seconds and try to remember every thing that i had brought up there 2 days prior.
my art, i stammer. it's in the big black plastic box, i mean bag. and my box of files! i gesture wildly with my hands doing nothing to actually explain any of the forthcoming dimensions. in the end we agreed on: a box about the size of a manilla folder. then i paced around the living for a few seconds and thought as hard as i could, and asked for the big fancy toy robot too, but only if they have room and time. the one's that actually rare and worth something. that one was a bit conflicting. then jesse hangs up his phone and i'm resigned to these three items full of items.
i'm too passive and immaterialistic to care too much. besides, everything i need for a year is packed away here, and the most important things have been spread among important people.
damn you Vulcan.
i mean please watch over my stuff. i'm sure i could find a maiden you'd like.
a few minutes later i hear jesse's conversation with his dad take on a more uplifting tone. as soon as they're done i ask and he says that there's choppers and water tankers all over the thing and it should be fine. they grabbed all of their family stuff and as much of mine as they could hold and got out of there.
wave of relief.
the really weird thing is that as i was putting the stuff in the shed i was joking with jesse about fire in the shed in some fashion or another. i somehow fear that i brought the whole thing down on myself somehow.
p.s. this is not a story in case you might be wondering.
p.s.s. i promise not to make up anything that would be this disastrous, or at the very least say so at the beginning.
news flash
jesse's phone rings as we get our keys in the door and before i can crash in the living room he's saying that there's a fire at his parents house. he says that most of my worldly belongings are in fiery peril and i need to tell him what i need, so i choke on my "ummm..." for a few seconds and try to remember every thing that i had brought up there 2 days prior.
my art, i stammer. it's in the big black plastic box, i mean bag. and my box of files! i gesture wildly with my hands doing nothing to actually explain any of the forthcoming dimensions. in the end we agreed on: a box about the size of a manilla folder. then i paced around the living for a few seconds and thought as hard as i could, and asked for the big fancy toy robot too, but only if they have room and time. the one's that actually rare and worth something. that one was a bit conflicting. then jesse hangs up his phone and i'm resigned to these three items full of items.
i'm too passive and immaterialistic to care too much. besides, everything i need for a year is packed away here, and the most important things have been spread among important people.
damn you Vulcan.
i mean please watch over my stuff. i'm sure i could find a maiden you'd like.
a few minutes later i hear jesse's conversation with his dad take on a more uplifting tone. as soon as they're done i ask and he says that there's choppers and water tankers all over the thing and it should be fine. they grabbed all of their family stuff and as much of mine as they could hold and got out of there.
wave of relief.
the really weird thing is that as i was putting the stuff in the shed i was joking with jesse about fire in the shed in some fashion or another. i somehow fear that i brought the whole thing down on myself somehow.
p.s. this is not a story in case you might be wondering.
p.s.s. i promise not to make up anything that would be this disastrous, or at the very least say so at the beginning.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
atoms
i was having a discussion with george recently, in which we were just joking around. the norm, death, killing one another, music. but somehow we got to a point where i said something that seems to be almost a theory. the theory being:
when were alive our atoms will move at a certain frequency. our eyes are accustom to this frequency, thusly we can see eachother. now, what i think could be is, when we die we turn to a gas. our atoms start moving at a frequency that our eyes cannot see and that the frequency of the atoms is the opposite of the atoms in a living body thusly we can pass through the living. essentially, both the living and the dead occupy the planet, we just cannot see eachother, harmony, and ignorance.
i thought about it, george told kyle, kyle told his manager and the consensus is, its not such a crazy idea. simultaneously via our conversation we kinda defeated the purpose for an afterlife.
when were alive our atoms will move at a certain frequency. our eyes are accustom to this frequency, thusly we can see eachother. now, what i think could be is, when we die we turn to a gas. our atoms start moving at a frequency that our eyes cannot see and that the frequency of the atoms is the opposite of the atoms in a living body thusly we can pass through the living. essentially, both the living and the dead occupy the planet, we just cannot see eachother, harmony, and ignorance.
i thought about it, george told kyle, kyle told his manager and the consensus is, its not such a crazy idea. simultaneously via our conversation we kinda defeated the purpose for an afterlife.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
invasion
everything becomes perfectly silent before an attack. first of all the wind stops and the bugs all disappear. most of them take cover if they can. the birds are the second ones to figure out something is wrong, some of the more intelligent ones call out to their partner's. most of them just park in the nearest tree and try to make themselves as small as possible. then things start getting quiet, the vibrations in the air start canceling each other out and everything starts sounding hollow and flat. you can still hear your heart pounding in your ears and feel it in your fists tho. then, if you're paying close enough attention, you'll feel a slight breeze immediately followed by the return of sound: the rustling of everyone around you turning towards wherever they think the wind came from. sometimes you choose right and one of them is just standing there. sometimes you choose wrong and don't really have a chance to regret it. sometimes the breeze hits you right in the face and one of them appears dead in front of you. you don't even have to blink. then the world explodes and a few seconds later any where between three and twenty bodies are sizzling on the floor. and then you get to breathe again.
the stories say that their breath has blown down entire cities, but the stories are hundreds of years old so most of us soldier boys nervously laugh it off. the scientists tho, they say that an invasion fleet could displace enough air to have a major effect on global weather patterns. the only question i have is why they haven't done so yet. if they can randomly materialize a small squad anywhere on the planet every four hours why hasn't a major force appeared yet? why do they keep throwing these measly raiding parties at us with such abandonment?
my brother, the scientist, the official ass kisser for the newly appointed party, he called me the other day. told me he thinks he has an answer. i don't know whether to shoot him before he tells me his brilliant plan or after.
the stories say that their breath has blown down entire cities, but the stories are hundreds of years old so most of us soldier boys nervously laugh it off. the scientists tho, they say that an invasion fleet could displace enough air to have a major effect on global weather patterns. the only question i have is why they haven't done so yet. if they can randomly materialize a small squad anywhere on the planet every four hours why hasn't a major force appeared yet? why do they keep throwing these measly raiding parties at us with such abandonment?
my brother, the scientist, the official ass kisser for the newly appointed party, he called me the other day. told me he thinks he has an answer. i don't know whether to shoot him before he tells me his brilliant plan or after.
11:11
my friend cameron is slowly turning into a robot.
his cellphone went off the other day while we were walking around by the cemetary on walker st. so i asked him who he was talkin to. turns out it was just an alarm going off telling him that an auto message would be sent to his girlfriend in a few minutes. he then went on to explain that his girl usually sends him a message at 12:34 telling him to make a wish. my girl does the same thing at 11:11. girls are cute.
but since cameron is an overly productive and automated person he is now writing and testing software that can take all the hassle of our simple human engagements and automate the parts that can be automated. like greetings. hi, how are you? i'm fine how have you been? how many times a day do you hear this? how many times a day do you feel like people don't actually mean what they're saying, like they're just robots? well cameron kinda wants to take this idea to the next step and start using greetings, especially text based ones, that essentially condense all the information of a greeting down into a few words and even fewer assorted letters on a screen. have i mentioned that in addition to being nerd he's a linguist?
so having been sufficiently surprised and delighted that once again cameron had taken an active interest in the inner workings of her mind, his girlfriend sends him her wish for the day along with some other snippets of daily life that drive the program to suggest several other canned responses and sometimes even automatically reply for him. whenever he comes up for something that would make a good 12:34 wish he puts it into his phone and the program automatically sends appropriate responses to his girl and lets him know when a real response is required.
he also has a calendar program that reads all his voicemails and schedules appointments based on the messages people leave him. it's actually kinda impressive, the thing has a database on every person he knows and appends to his calendar things to bring up at coffee, new happenings in his friends daily lives, things to remember not to bring up, and who's dating who. i almost want to believe he's working with tom and cruising myspace with this thing.
why he does this is beyond me, like i said he's a nerd and nerds are usually a bit anti social. he's just finding a way to have his technology take care of his interpersonal interactions so that he can focus his time and energy on other things. it's kinda impressive in a sick sort of future shock sort of way.
however, the entire time he was explaining the thing to me i was trying to search back through all our recent conversations in the back of my head. i'm almost sure that i've gotten messages from this system of his, maybe even had conversations with it. maybe i haven't actually talked to him on the phone in months.
i don't think we're going to be friends for much longer.
p.s. i really don't think this is even possible yet. but i like knowing people's schedules
his cellphone went off the other day while we were walking around by the cemetary on walker st. so i asked him who he was talkin to. turns out it was just an alarm going off telling him that an auto message would be sent to his girlfriend in a few minutes. he then went on to explain that his girl usually sends him a message at 12:34 telling him to make a wish. my girl does the same thing at 11:11. girls are cute.
but since cameron is an overly productive and automated person he is now writing and testing software that can take all the hassle of our simple human engagements and automate the parts that can be automated. like greetings. hi, how are you? i'm fine how have you been? how many times a day do you hear this? how many times a day do you feel like people don't actually mean what they're saying, like they're just robots? well cameron kinda wants to take this idea to the next step and start using greetings, especially text based ones, that essentially condense all the information of a greeting down into a few words and even fewer assorted letters on a screen. have i mentioned that in addition to being nerd he's a linguist?
so having been sufficiently surprised and delighted that once again cameron had taken an active interest in the inner workings of her mind, his girlfriend sends him her wish for the day along with some other snippets of daily life that drive the program to suggest several other canned responses and sometimes even automatically reply for him. whenever he comes up for something that would make a good 12:34 wish he puts it into his phone and the program automatically sends appropriate responses to his girl and lets him know when a real response is required.
he also has a calendar program that reads all his voicemails and schedules appointments based on the messages people leave him. it's actually kinda impressive, the thing has a database on every person he knows and appends to his calendar things to bring up at coffee, new happenings in his friends daily lives, things to remember not to bring up, and who's dating who. i almost want to believe he's working with tom and cruising myspace with this thing.
why he does this is beyond me, like i said he's a nerd and nerds are usually a bit anti social. he's just finding a way to have his technology take care of his interpersonal interactions so that he can focus his time and energy on other things. it's kinda impressive in a sick sort of future shock sort of way.
however, the entire time he was explaining the thing to me i was trying to search back through all our recent conversations in the back of my head. i'm almost sure that i've gotten messages from this system of his, maybe even had conversations with it. maybe i haven't actually talked to him on the phone in months.
i don't think we're going to be friends for much longer.
p.s. i really don't think this is even possible yet. but i like knowing people's schedules
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