kevinsensei's LJ

Tiger Woods

2009-12-09T02:11:00Z

With the media frenzy surrounding him, Tiger Woods tried to relax by hitting up 18 holes the other day.

After that, he played a round of golf.
*bada-bing*

Autumn 2009 Pics

2009-12-07T02:54:14Z

The Last of the Indonesian Curry.

Collagen Nabe

The view from my building at work.

The Motorcycle Chick returns.


1960's Mustang in Japan. FTW!








		On the right, the Asus UL20A - My research budget at ~~work~~ play.

On the new toy

2009-12-02T13:28:08Z

Using Internet Explorer 8 via WiFi. I just finished installing Office 2007 plus the latest Service Pack. So far so good. Everything's in English and running well. I don't know if I want (need) to install the Adobe CS3 Suite or find some lighter freeware alternatives.

I think I'll bring it to work tomorrow and play with it some more. That reminds me, I still need to turn in the paperwork for it too.

I could potentially use this thing in my lessons. If I had a room with an LCD projector, I could show Powerpoints and videos. Perhaps load the textbook listening CDs on it and use it to play those as well.

I'm definitely taking it with me on on the plane for winter vacation. Load up a few videos and some music and I'll be set. When the battery on this thing runs out I can switch over to my iPod Touch. (^_^)

By the way, this display is awesome. It makes my other laptop display seem faded and blurry. Tomorrow I'll put some videos on here and see how that works out.

Of course, this isn't mine. It belongs to the university, which is cool. I'll be glad to give it up when my 3 years are done. I think I'll just buy my own NetBook then.

ok, time to hit the showers and hit the hay.

I hope I don't break my new toy

2009-12-02T09:24:11Z

I wasn't thrilled with some of the preinstalled apps, so I decided to reinstall Windows. I hope this works...

*crosses fingers*

ETA: The factory install is full of those preinstalled apps. *sigh* I decided to uninstall them. I got tired of using Windows in Japanese so I installed the English language pack. I'm doing a system backup now. Once that's done I'll start installing some apps. Office 2007 to start with, after that I'm not quite sure...

NetBook... NETBOOK!

2009-12-02T04:25:42Z

Bought!

I went for a bike ride, first down to the bank. Did what I had to do there and then went to Yamada Denki to look at toys. First the NetBooks. No home runs here. It was either small and not so powerful, or large-ish and more powerful. Prices were quite a bit more than what the same item costs in the USA.... Oh Japan. Fortunately the majority of them were running Windows7. I decided to check next door at Kojima. Even though this is a pretty small city, I like that there are 2 big box electronics stores next to each other less than a mile from campus (also from my apartment going the other way).

At first glance, I had mixed opinions about what they had to offer. They had more models to choose from, but most of them were either WindowsXP or Vista. Prices were about the same. Then I turned the corner, and hit a home run, well a triple actually. Read on.

They had the Asus UL20A (Japanese page here). It's somewhere in between the extremes listed above. It's in the middle of the NetBook pack as far as size goes - 296mm × 210mm × 12.1mm～25.9mm, 1.56 Kg. It has Windows7 Home Premium. Decent processor, the Intel Celeron UL2300 - better than the Atom, but not as good as the Core2Duo. Graphics aren't that great (Intel GMA4500), but on a NetBook that's pretty much all that's out there. Great HD space for a NetBook, 320 GB. Good memory too, 2 GB upgradeable to 4 GB. 12.1-inch screen, built-in webcam, WiFi, 7.5 hour battery life (O_O). Oh and the chassis is pretty slick too. :)

So how to buy?
I walked up the the counter with the item card, told the dude I worked at the university and wanted to use funding. He was like "No problem, I have to call someone to get one from the back. Let me copy your ID card and I'll do all the paperwork for you."

5 minutes later I was walking out with a NetBook. \(^O^)/

So I'm actually at home right now typing this up. Not on the NetBook though. I just unpacked it and am setting it up. I have to go back to work to do a few things. When I get back, I'll post pics and gush some more about it, lol.

odd request

2009-12-02T01:01:31Z

I've been told to "please use your research budget as soon as possible". I have 80,000 yen in my budget, which I haven't touched. My plan was to wait until the last minute for tech prices to come down, and then take the plunge.

However, as I've now been officially requested to do so, I guess I'd better take a trip down to the electronics store today and pick up a few things. I'm thinking NetBook and/or an external BluRay burner. I was gonna hit up the bank for other stuff anyway once 10 am rolled around. I suppose I'll also ride on down to Yamada Denki and see what's up.

Oh and I made the survey about Study Abroad Programs (see: work-related drama from Monday).
I slimmed it down to two questions.
1. Are you interested in attending an information meeting about Study Abroad Programs?
Yes
No

2. If you would like to attend that information meeting, how far in advance would you like to know about it?
N/A (not interested)
1-2 Days
3-5 Days
6-10 Days
11 Days or more

I put the survey on-line, so I figure I'll also give the link to interested colleagues to get a greater sample size (and therefore more reliable data).

Whoops, it's 10 O'clock. Time to hit the bank and ~~toy~~ electronics store.

More on the PhD

2009-11-27T00:19:59Z

Thinking about it some more, my folks would probably not go for it. Sure they'd be happy for the first few months or so I'd be back. Then they'd start harping on me to get a real job. Hmmm...

Then I started thinking about the sheer volume of work required for it. ugh. It would be a different story if I had something that I felt passionate enough about to pursue to that level. As it is, I'd just be going through the motions to get a piece of paper and have people refer to me as Dr. instead of Mr. I do have strong feelings about the state of English education in Japan though. The current paradigm, while good for sorting out university applicants, is crap for teaching English for communication. I wonder what I could contribute to this discussion. Could I do a doctorate's worth of research on the matter?

Still, I think my Plan A is going to be: stick it out here to max out my contract and look for full-time ESL positions back home.

Plan B: stick it out here to max out my contract and return home to do the PhD.

Plan C: stick it out here to max out my contract and find another university position here in Japan. I don't really see this happening except for two things: 1.) the economic situation back home is still in the gutter or 2.) I meet someone here, we fall in love and live happily ever after.

Dr. Kevinsensei?

2009-11-25T04:02:32Z

Though it's still quite early, I might as well post about this idea running around my head.

The vast majority of tenured positions here in Japan require a doctorate. The better ones also require Japanese language ability (2-kyu) and publications.

Thing is, for teaching ESL back home a doctorate would make me overqualified. But then someone suggested to me that I could become a professor back home, teaching students studying to become teachers.

Then, a few days ago I got an e-mail from the director of my MA-TESOL program, coincidentally enough. Among the things he mentioned in catching up was that a new PhD TESOL program is coming up. From the sound of things, it should be underway by the time I finish up my 3rd year here at this university.

That would alter my career path options slightly. If I were to settle down in Japan, this would be way to go - go back home for a few years, get a PhD, some pubs, study Japanese for real this time, and come back. If I were to settle down in the USA, I would not be teaching ESL but rather as above, teaching EFL/ESL pedagogy to those studying to become teachers. Thing about that is the whole "publish or perish" mantra. I am really not into publishing.

Oh and of course, what the heck would I do a dissertation on anyway? Hmmm....

Anyway, all that's still a ways off. Just food for thought.

new neighbor?

2009-11-17T12:33:31Z

SO... Dr.J came over. He checked out my place and then we went over to the vacant apartment in my building and looked at it as well. (It has a lot of stuff built-in that I had to pay for, like light fixtures and a gas range for example. Lucky f-er.) Anyway, he's pretty much sold on the idea of living here. We can hang out and stuff outside of work, so that'll be cool.

Unfortunately, the yakitori joint was closed tonight. Oh well. We'll hit it up one of these days. We ended up just splitting a 6-pack & a liter of sake and some snacks. It was still a good time.

Work was awesome today. The kids were totally into the lessons. Hell, even if the salary isn't that great here (compared to other uni positions), I don't want to take working with kids like this for granted. They were SO good today. With days like this, I can see how some instructors have stayed on for longer, even with this crap salary. I'd definitely rather work for this much with these kids vs. working for more money with worse kids.

Manny Pacquiao's Punch-Out

2009-11-13T01:11:42Z

Food for thought

2009-11-12T12:08:38Z

So I know the Cute Counselor is no longer interested in me. However, I did give what she had told me some thought. For example, I used to have a more interesting wardrobe. It was probably at its most interesting when I was in high school and has been on a steady decline ever since. When I was in high school, I used to wear a lot of vintage items. I used to go to second-hand shops looking for interesting, yet cheap (as I was a broke-ass high school student), things to wear. In Florida, it's kind of hard to dress interestingly though because it's so hot and humid all the damn time. I lived for cooler weather. Anyway, as time went by I started shopping more and more at the malls, and now I pretty much only buy clothes at chain stores (ex: Gap, Old Navy, Uniqlo).

For now I'm kind of stuck with what I've got as far as my outside of work wardrobe goes. I'm still trying to save up to pay off my student loans during the break. Once that's done, I think I'm going to get back into vintage style, make it less bummy/more dressy while I'm at it. It's not too difficult to do here in Japan, there are so many used clothing stores. The catch is that it's quite expensive, easily more expensive than going to Uniqlo. I can get a head start by going to some shops back home when I visit for the break. At the same time, I might as well clear out my closets and donate that stuff to Goodwill.

Heck, I need to clean out my room too. I have way too much junk. One step at a time, let me start with my unused clothes. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan for the break.

Back to making things more dressy, I have been checking out what some of my colleagues (both Japanese and foreigners) wear to their classes. Pretty bland stuff, usually khakis (or even jeans) and either a polo or button-down shirt sans tie. If they wear a suit, it's usually a cheap, ill-fitting one. I haven't been wearing suits, mine don't fit well either. (must. lose. weight.) However, I have started wearing dressier slacks and shirts (with a tie). Now that it's cool I've also been wearing a blazer. I like dressing up a bit when the weather will allow. When it starts getting hot and humid again I'll probably have to go back down to khakis & polo shirts myself. Oh well. *sigh*

It's past midnight

2009-11-11T15:36:49Z

I just wanted to reflect on what a waste of a day today was.

Well, first it must be noted that I went drinking with my neighbors last night. We hit up the yakitori joint and that was a lot of fun.

Slept in, and it was pouring when I woke up. I was feeling sluggish anyway from last night's festivities so I went back to sleep. Woke up for real, went through my morning routine and it was actually lunchtime. So I went and had lunch downtown. I had a real nice bowl of tonkotsu ramen. This one shop had the best condiments: a pepper mill, sesame seed mill, and garlic cloves & press. I had extra pepper and sesame, extra extra garlic on mine and it rocked.

After lunch I went to work. Didn't do any actual work though, I just tidied up a bit, watched some videos and listened to some music. Took a walk, dropped in on some teachers, took a nap, listened to some more music and went home.

For dinner I was feeling lazy so I just went to the 7-11 and got a spaghetti bento. It was quite good actually, grilled chicken with tomato & garlic sauce. (What is with all the garlic today anyway? lol.) Watched some volleyball on tv. Japan was playing Brazil in the women's Grand Cup Championship or something. Good game, Brazil was just too much though. I seem to recall this being the case during the volleyball Grand Prix a few months ago. At least this one didn't have that lame NYC Boys theme song. Anyway, then after the game I watched Biohazard (aka Resident Evil in the USA) on one of the movie channels. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. Milla Jovovich rocks. After the movie, an infomercial for The Snuggie came on. Sadly it was merely the American infomercial dubbed over in English. I'd really like to see what a Snuggie commercial from a Japanese ad firm would look like. I bet it would be awesome.

Then I watched some basketball. They were showing a classic basketball game, Bulls vs Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals, game 3. It went into triple OT. I remembered this game yet I was watching it intently as if I were watching it for the first time, great game.

So yeah, basically did a whole lot of nothing today. Oh well. Good thing is that there's just 2 more days and it's the weekend again. I'd like to do something different this weekend, hmmm...

my last class today....

2009-11-06T07:06:23Z

my sore throat had started to return towards the end of the period so I let the class out a few minutes early. I had them in discussion groups, and they started off doing the task in English. However, it's the last class on Friday and sure enough the discussion drifted over into Japanese and then about weekend plans & gossip. I would have had them then just talk about their weekend plans in English but that actually was a lesson a few weeks ago. oh well.

In a few minutes my colleague is going to come get me so we can go drown his about-to-get-divorced sorrows.

Tomorrow's Friday already?

2009-11-05T14:37:55Z

sheesh, where'd the week go? (Not that I'm complaining. ;)

Monday was a half-day. Morning classes were canceled for post-festival cleanup. Classes in the afternoon were business as usual. I had The Robots and they were especially lifeless then. We were going over a listening exercise at the end of the class and by that time I had finally had enough. Every question was met with dead silence. Fine. Write your name, student number, and the answers for the last set of questions on a piece of paper and turn it in for a quiz grade. Thing is, they got most of them right anyway. If they'd have just opened their mouths and said something none of that would have been necessary. *sigh*

Tuesday was a day off. What did I do? I think I stayed home and did domestic stuff. Later that night my cold came on as reported earlier. Took some medicine and went to bed.

Wednesday was my "research day". Rolled into work somewhat late due to feeling under the weather. Had lunch, took some medicine, did some lesson planning. Came home, had dinner, took more medicine, and turned in early.

Thursday was business as usual. Took some more medicine. Classes were good. Mt. Fuji looked awesome in the early morning. Then clouds rolled in and it actually cooled off a bit. It definitely feels like autumn. I ought to make nabe one of these days.

Tomorrow I have some high school kids visiting one of my classes. Wouldn't you know it, the powers-that-be picked my 2nd lowest level class for observation, ugh. Heck, the high school kids visiting are probably better in English than most of these students are. (Yes it could have been worse, they could have chosen The Robots.) Still, it's not really a bad class. They're just quiet and take longer to answer/do stuff. Other than that, it's just a regular day. My co-worker and I are going out for a few after work. I need to show a little restraint. I've been using cheering him up as an excuse to get obliterated. I don't really need to get bombed every time. Besides, I need to take it easy financially too.

since I can't sleep...

2009-11-03T15:48:31Z

I was totally fine this morning, now I have a cold, wtf?!

It just came on as I was watching tv this evening. First my nose started running, then my chest got all congested and now I have a sore throat to boot. Great.

I have some TheraFlu, but I'd really like a bottle of NyQuil. I don't even remember what any of the cold remedies are in Japan. They've been having more and more commercials for those items on tv lately, so I guess I'd just better keep a memo pad handy.

In other news, I got a used car mag just to see what's out there. I think I'm going to go with a hatchback or a wagon. As much as I thought I wouldn't drive much and therefore a minivan would be a pretty good choice too, I went downtown by bus today. Round-trip bus fare cost almost 700 yen. Now I remember why I haven't been going downtown much to hang out. While once I get a car I don't imagine going downtown much due to the lack of parking, all the shopping malls around here have free/discounted parking (w/purchase). I could totally see myself doing that on weekends/after work to get stuff for the apartment, do some grocery shopping, buy some clothes, etc... I'm looking at taking the plunge with my Jan. paycheck.

I had a few other things I wanted to put up but I'm not feeling up to it atm. Hopefully tomorrow.

weird weather last night

2009-10-28T01:06:43Z

Never made it out to that gym last night. As soon as I got home, there was an enormous mass of freakishly dark, heavy clouds overhead. If it rained, it would be a storm of epic proportions. So I stayed home, had dinner and watched a video. By the time the video had ended, the cloud mass had dissipated into a regular mostly cloudy-type cloud bank (O_o) so I started up my laundry and practiced for a bit.

Brought my sax to work today. Last week, some of my kids asked if I would come to the symphonic band practice this week. So I was like "Sure, why not?" Who knows, if it works out for everyone it may be a regular thing, which would be nice because I had been wanting to play with a group for a while now.

In my office now watching basketball via the internet. Boston vs. Cleveland, so far it's a pretty good game. I can't wait for tomorrow's game, Orlando vs. Philly. At least the Orlando Magic should be pretty good this year, unlike a certain collegiate football team... *sigh* They had one good game against BYU and then the wheels fell off. I still love my team, but the games are really hard to watch.

Ok, I'm gonna go plan some lessons, have a cup of coffee, listen to some music and watch a little basketball.

ADD/ADHD much?

2009-10-27T03:12:15Z

Man, I am just really restless today. I can't focus or sit still for the life of me. (@_@)

It's not like I'm that eager for the day to be over so I can go check out the gym. I don't have anything special going on in my classes either, it's just a normal day. So WTF?!?

Plan for the rest of the day: teach classes, go check out the gym, stop by the supermarket on the way home, have dinner, do laundry, practice sax, bath, bedtime.

If anything else comes up, I'll let you know.

The Renaissance

2009-10-26T14:28:43Z

I went to The Renaissance Sports Club & Spa after work today near Shizuoka station to see what's up. (Specific branch info here.)

It costs the same as the place I went to in Saitama. They have fewer classes but lots more cardio machines. There's also a tennis school but it costs extra. By extra, I mean it costs the same as the gym membership itself. So if I were to join the gym and add the tennis school the total would be about 200 bucks a month. However, the costs don't end there. This gym is quite far from my apartment. What I would do is, after work, take the train to Shizuoka station, work out, then take the bus back to my apartment. That commute (uni-gym-apt) costs about 500 yen. So that x 5 days x 4 weeks = another 100 bucks per month. So all in all, about 300 bucks a month. Damn. Or I could skip the tennis school and just do the gym - which plus commute totals 200 bucks a month. Still a heap of money, but cutting back on the alcohol would pretty much cover most of it (sad but true). Hmmm....

Tomorrow I'm going to check the gym that's closer to my place. It's actually not what I'd consider "close" but at least it's reasonably accessible by bike. I don't know what the facilities are like, but I imagine the price (for just a gym) will be about the same, 100 bucks a month. Probably no fancy pants tennis school but I can do without. I just need to get some exercise. What really bugs me about this place is the actual commute itself, the roads to get there are rather treacherous for bicycles. It is a somewhat harrowing experience. If I go work out, I want to relieve stress not build it up!

Dang, is that the time? Time to go to bed!

that was kinda fun actually

2009-10-26T07:39:30Z

My last class just now, aka "the robots". The material this week was a little better, but with the crap weather (cold and rainy) I feared the worst. They somehow pleasantly surprised me by being quite upbeat and talkative (in English no less, lol) today.

But still, I feel myself getting into a rut again. I need to snap out of it. I know what I can do, I'm just so f-ing lazy.

For example, my typical day at work has loads of free time. I spend most of that time just playing on the internet. I do make some decent lesson plans, but if I would just put in just a little more time and effort I could come up with some great ones. Also, I could be studying Japanese. While it's something that I don't really want to do, it is something that I need to do (at least if I want to improve my odds of getting a better job here in Japan).

Then once I get home I have two other things that I ~~could~~ should be doing: practicing the sax and exercising. I've been ok about the sax, putting together a decent practice here and there. I just need to be more consistent and also play some new stuff. I've been trying to get my chops back playing stuff that I had played in university. I should get some new pieces just to mix things up a bit. They don't need to be harder, just different. Heck, maybe they need to be easier because I'm not as good as I used to be, and it has been frustrating making mistakes with that stuff when I knew it inside/out back in the day.

Exercising I've been REALLY slack on. Last year when I was really into the gym, I noticed a big difference both physically and mentally. I need to get back into that bigtime. I don't feel a need to relieve stress at all - for real, this job is the most laid-back thing ever AND compare that to the elementary school where ms. you-know-who was on my case all the time. However, I AM out of shape. My clothes don't fit as well as they used to. I think I will stop by the gym after work tomorrow (it's raining today, and the gym is a bit far) and see what the membership plans are like. Actually, there's a big gym close to Shizuoka station. I was planning on heading downtown for a bit anyway. I think I'll stop by that one before I head on home.

rainy days and Mondays...

2009-10-26T01:52:20Z

And my trip (did I mention I was taking a little trip?) was a bust this past weekend, but I'm actually in a pretty good mood.

To recap:
Friday - classes were better than expected. (The text was an especially boring unit imo, but the kids had a lot of fun with it, go figure.) After work, I went with a colleague for a quick round of drinks and a bite to eat at an izakaya. Then I went downtown and picked up a new blazer and pair or pants. Finally went to the foreigner bar for a couple more drinks, chatted up the waitresses for a bit and then went home.

Saturday - I was supposed to go to Osaka/Kyoto to meet a Japanese friend who has just returned to Japan after living in the USA for a while. However, she e-mailed to say that she felt sick, possibly the flu, and couldn't make it. It was raining all day here as well so I just stayed in and watched some videos. Among them, I watched The Godfather again. Pretty good flick, but I don't know if it is the #2 movie of all time (according to the IMDB).

Sunday - Did some laundry, oh and Tootsie was on one of the HD movie channels so I watched it. Great performances from Hoffman and Murray. That movie is A LOT better than I remembered. Then again, the last time I saw it, I was in junior high school and it was the edited-for-TV version. Still didn't quite dig the ending though. Anyway, then CV came over and we hung out for a bit. We had dinner at an izakaya downtown and then went to a party. It was pretty cool but with work the next day, didn't really want to get too crazy.

So now I'm in the office about to go look over my stuff for today. But first...

Riding the bus in the rain today, I thought about the car once again. Today the commute wasn't too bad. However, doing that during the rainy season was not my idea of fun. I'm planning on being at this university for another 2 years. After that, I dunno. If I can find some sort of tenured instructor position somewhere, I might consider staying in Japan. Otherwise I'm probably going to head home and try to find work at a community college/Intensive English Program, that is, if the economy isn't still in the gutter. Anyway, back to the car. If I'm here for 2 more years, I would get enough use out of a car to make it a worthwhile purchase. Nothing fancy, just a cheap used car that's easy on the gas. Then my other friend was like "You should get a wagon or even a mini-van. That way, if you stay in Japan but move somewhere else, you can use it to haul some of your junk over there." Interesting idea, I think I'll check into it.

Alright, enough procrastinating time to do a little work.

needs sleep badly

2009-10-20T02:22:30Z

After work last night, I went downtown to meet CV. She asked me to print out some music for her. On the way there, I bumped into a friend who was somewhat shocked to see me in my work clothes. Prior to, we've only seen each other at BBQs and the like so I was always in shorts & t-shirts. She and I shot the breeze for a bit then I headed off to the Starbucks downtown where CV was there with a couple of her friends. There was one Japanese girl who works at a language school and is studying physical therapy, and a girl from Sweden who is a volunteer at a church. I am somewhat leery of these missionary-types here in Japan, but she seemed ok - didn't come at me with that missionary zeal to come into the fold (but an invite to visit her church was extended). After chatting for a while, CV and I went out for dinner. We started off at the wine bar and had an excellent combo of wine and plate of appetizers. That got me in the mood for some really good Italian. Unfortunately the place we went to was more of a "Japanese taste" Italian joint and wasn't quite what I was looking for. Oh well.

Then I got home, fiddled around on the internet and went to bed at a reasonable hour. Then I woke up at 4 am for no good reason at all. I couldn't go back to bed so I stayed up. I'm at work now and feeling it, ugh.

Alright well I need to go shake this off somehow. Complaining about it on LJ isn't getting it done. *sigh*

In a weird mood

2009-10-19T02:19:49Z

Got up early, dragged my feet through my morning routine. Remembered that my class today isn't until this afternoon, went even slower. Eventually showed up for work. Met some other teachers in the lab, shot the breeze with them for a bit. Went up with them to another lab to check out some new computer software. On the way there, I found 2 USB keyboards in the rubbish bin, one with a built-in USB hub. I took them as I would like to use one with my PS3. I'm using the one with the built-in HUB right now. It was a bit of a pain to get it to work with this computer. It is a Japanese keyboard and Windows kept thinking it was an English keyboard. I did all the IME stuff and still nothing (for example, on a Japanese keyboard, the @ is the key next to the P where on an English keyboard it's [shift]+2). I had to install a driver, now it's ok. Well not 100% ok, the built-in hub is a bit wonky - maybe that's why it was in the rubbish bin. At least the keyboard layout is reading correctly now. It is also more comfortable than the one that came with this PC. So yeah, doing all that did give me a bit of a headache. I downed a couple Tylenol and had a cup of coffee.

This past weekend was pretty crazy. Went out drinking with a co-worker Friday night. We hit it pretty hard. In addition to the beers, we also split a bottle of shochu between us. Still, we managed to make it downtown and met up with CV and her friend. We went to the wine bar for a little taste then went to a foreigner bar. The foreigner bar was quite dead though. That was pretty disappointing. To top it all off, I got really sleepy. After a couple hours of that, we left.

Saturday I woke up late, did housework all day and then there was a little get together for CV. Her birthday is today actually. Oh I also bought her a little cashmere sweater-dress at the GAP for her birthday. We had a little karaoke party. That was fun. I killed my voice though.

Sunday was spent recuperating from Friday and Saturday.

In other news, my last few sax practices have been decent. I am not quite satisfied with the sound of the set-up on this horn though. It just sounds so... generic. I definitely need to get some new mouthpieces, at least 2: one for classical and one for jazz. My fingers are still out of sync too, I just feel so clumsy. Despite my gripes, I am having a lot of fun with it though. I need to get into an ensemble. Maybe the university's wind orchestra wouldn't mind if I sat in with them from time to time. I'd also like to get some people together to play in a quartet. Speaking of sax, I thought more about bringing my baritone saxophone from home - while it needs an overhaul, it is a Yamaha and what better place to get it overhauled than right here in Yamaha-land?

Oh and speaking of bringing stuff over, I also looked into bringing over my car. I wasn't too concerned with the whole driver's side being reversed thing, I've seen a number of cars with the same layout here. However, it's SO expensive. Nevermind. It would basically cost more than the car is actually worth. I do want to get a car though. I was just thinking about how cool it would be to go fishing! The beach really isn't that far away. It's just a pain in the ass to bring even a tiny amount of gear on a bicycle. So yeah, I'm also leaning towards just paying half of my loans off during winter break and getting a head start on the car.

Writer's Block: My Favorite Neighborhood Business

2009-10-13T13:55:57Z

What is it about your favorite local small business that keeps you coming back again and again?

Sponsored by American Express in association with NBC Universal for Shine A Light .

View 291 Answers

There is a yakitori joint down the block from my apartment. It's a hole in the wall with ambiance. Good eats, good drinks, owner knows my name - nice place.

well that wasn't great

2009-10-13T10:10:21Z

I just had a rather lousy practice. I guess I had my hopes up after listening to all that jazz yesterday and pretty much every waking moment afterward. Tone was pretty good, but fingers and chops were all outta whack, completely uncoordinated. I felt so clumsy. I knew what I wanted to play and I could hear it in my head, just couldn't get all the other pieces parts lined up. *sigh*

So yeah, if the sax girl calls tell her I had to pawn my sax to settle a debt to the yakuza or something.

I was really looking forward to this practice too. I think that also had something to do with it. Hmmm....

In other news, I had two real strong cravings today that were quite a challenge to resist. As I was wrapping things up in the office this afternoon I had a real strong craving for a cup of coffee. I was just like:
"Man, that would just taste so good right about now!"
But I held fast. One thing would lead to another and before you know it, my sleep patterns are wrecked once again. Then later I saw a co-worker at the train station, we chatted for a bit and he looked like he was about to ask me to grab a round of drinks at the pub. Then the thought flashed
"If he doesn't suggest it, I will."
Then I was like
"No! Don't do it! You're trying to cut back on alcohol, remember?"
That beer would have really hit the spot too. Heh, I'm in my apartment now wondering why I don't just go across the street for a bottle or two. No. I'm going to make dinner, watch a video, and that'll be the end of it.

Oh, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous today. I took my classes outside for a few minutes to do an "observation" exercise - got them to write down everything they could see and hear. They seemed to enjoy it, the mood was certainly lighter once we returned to the classroom.

Anyway, I'm going to get over this bad practice. I haven't been practicing regularly so this is pretty much payback for that. I need to play a little every day. Yeah.

jazz and stuff

2009-10-13T00:23:59Z

Just finished up a long weekend. It was rather mundane for the most part. A few interesting tidbits stood out though.

Friday night I went with a friend to a wine bar in downtown Shizuoka. Pretty cool little joint. While it wasn't really a dress-up place, I did feel a little out of place in my shorts, t-shirt and sandals. I definitely want to check out that place again, maybe even become a regular.

Saturday I did domestic things all day - laundry, house cleaning, watched some videos (I liked Terminator 4 btw, I don't know what the bad reviews are all about). Then went out with a friend for yakitori at that place near my apartment.

Sunday for whatever reason I started to feel a little glum. Couldn't figure it out. Nice weather, no problems that I can think of, just felt rather blah. I didn't even make it out to my friend's birthday party that night. I guess it would have been good just to get out and try to snap out of it. I just couldn't be bothered though.

Yesterday I went to a jazz festival with CV at the Shimizu S-Pulse Dream Plaza. That was pretty cool. Great weather, good music, I even had me a few imported beers and some boiled peanuts. I hate to nitpick btw, but the jazz vocalists - great voices but their pronunciation was SO bad. ("When I FERU in RABU UIZU you..." ugh.) I talked with a few of the musicians here and there. One of the jazz saxophonists teaches at a high school in my neighborhood! She actually goes to the yakitori joint near my place occasionally. We talked shop for a bit and she was like "We should have a jam session sometime!" I was like "Yeah! Sounds good!" on the outside but I was really thinking "Let me get in a few months' worth of practice and I'll think about it" - lol.

But yeah, the jazz festival got me really pumped up about playing jazz again. I actually can't wait for work to be over today so I can go home and practice. (note to self: in my free time today I should probably download and print out some stuff to practice.) Oh and one of the big bands there didn't have a baritone saxophone. I don't know if they don't have anyone at all to play the part, or that person was just absent at this performance. I mean heck, if they don't have one I can bring my bari back with me over the break and jump right in. They were an amateur group, about as good as my high school jazz band - heck they played one of the charts (almost as good as ^_^) we did! Now that I think about it, I didn't see ANY baritone saxophones at this thing! Most of the groups were small combos, the saxes they did have were alto & tenor. Thing is, my bari needs an overhaul and it would be a tremendous pain in the ass to get it from Orlando to Shizuoka. Well, maybe I just need to get it from Orlando to Narita then I can kuroneko it to my place in Shizuoka. Hmmm...

Well one of my classes this morning just got canceled. For the semester. Sweet. One less thing to plan for. I do need to use the time constructively though. The typhoon got me out of work mode and as such I didn't plan a few classes. I guess I'd better go do that now.