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03:39 am
![[User Picture] height=](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/3328540/398316) |
what books i've been reading
I'm ill. That means I'm bored and frustrated. I hate resting. It just makes me think of all the things I'm not getting done: I have nothing else to do. As usual, me resting has only lasted a day or two: have a new page. Now I suppose I should go back to pretending to rest. How booooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^
Must rest, or people will get annoyed and I'll be punished. ;-)
nini.
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02:07 am
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aoiko design tweek and new page
I decided that my site's front page needed making more user-friendly about two years ago. Today, I finally got around to doing it. It should make it easier for people other than me to find things on the site. It is still very colourful, but there is less: even I thought it was excessive before.
Another thing I have been meaning to do for a very long time is a page of pictures of me and my clothes. It isn't finished yet, but something two years late is better than nothing. My main problem is getting people who are good at taking photos to take photos. I should also take some photos of my tie collection for it is nifty.
That is it. Enjoy.
Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome.
Current Music: Tori Amos - Doughnut Song
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04:09 pm
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bats in the kitchen
Greetings. Long time, no write. How's tricks? ^_^
Before I start on the meat of today's offering, here's the perennial warning-slash-advertisement: I rarely write in this diary anymore. Most of my productivity is now for abelard.org. What you'll see here is the occasional personal news or silly/interesting thing that doesn't fit the abelard site. If you want to keep following what I'm doing, read the abelard.org news page (my items are marked with a bright blue "t.a.s."). It's not all serious or politics-related - I'm also doing a semi-weekly photo showcase (link goes to the first in the series, all items link back and forward).
Right, now that's done, onto what I wanted to tell you about...
First, I want to tell you about one of the many insane French laws. A few days ago, I drove off to a local town and went and parked on the pavement in front of some other pavement-parked cars. It was a very sleepy town, so I couldn't see anybody caring. We all got out to do what we had to do. One member of our party seemed to be worried by the illegality of my parking spot and the officiousness (really just fine/bribe mania) of the French police.
Silly me made the assumption that the illegality was in parking on the pavement. I wasn't much worried because I wasn't the only one. However, we decided to go for a walk for a bit, so I agreed to move the car to another spot. Quick reverse, quick u-turn, and straight into a real parking spot on the other side of the road. "Are you happy now?".
Apparently not. What do I hear but that my current parking is just as illegal. Huh? I'm in a perfectly legitimate parking spot. No ticket needed. No time restriction signs. I'm told that my second parking spot is in fact illegal in the same way as the first. How is this possible you may ask. I certainly did!
In the France that brought you priority-from-the-right - otherwise known as why the French manage to kill so many people on their roads despite so much space... In the same France that rigged/mined the statistics from safety trials in order to try to make everyone keep their headlights on in the daytime - fortunately the French are far from obedient...
It is in that very same France that I am led to believe there is a law prohibiting the parking of a vehicle such that it faces the oncoming traffic. Anyone who drives around France comes to realise that the French can not cope with corners, roundabouts or turning across traffic. This law is apparently related to this peculiar French weakness.
One of Mr.Frenchman's most endearing tricks is to tailgate you until you get to a nice blind bend, and then overtake. If you are really lucky you'll meet another Frenchman coming the other way, not overtaking, but still well over the centre line and of course going much too fast. The French have issues with corners.
On roundabouts the French have a different problem. [Americans call roundabouts "turning-circles", but I'm told that most of America is so wonderfully empty that they have no need for such contraptions]. Many a time, one of these cheese-eating surrender-monkeys rushes up behind you, does the obligatory mile or three of tail-gating, overtakes you on a nice blind bend, and gets a goodly distance down the road. Then comes a roundabout. Now it is your turn to catch up and wonder what is keeping Mr.Frenchie as you crawl round the roundabout behind him. Once all those horrible bends are behind him, he once more rushes ahead... Only to be caught once more at the next roundabout. This can often be repeated four or five times in a row with the same car.
When it comes to turning across traffic, the government have obviously evaluated the Frenchman's ability to turn his steering wheel while watching the traffic and found it severely wanting. Thus you often find yourself forced to turn right in order to turn left: they take you off on a slip road that turns back to face across the road you were on. Then you wait for the traffic lights before you are allow to cross the road. All because the French don't seem to understand for what either the steering wheel or their eyes were made.
This apparently is the rationale behind the ridiculous parking law above. I am reliably told that you'll get a 50-100 euro fine should you forget that they you are a baby incapable of actually checking the road in two directions before pulling out into traffic. I am even told that there used to be a similar law in Britain. They must think I am seriously gullible!
Next I tell you a tale of very cute, but very stupid bat. I shall call him Jebediah. Two nights ago, Jebediah flew into our kitchen and took up a perch in the corner of the ceiling. There Jebediah sat and posed for this picture.
Jebediah is only about 8cm wide and maybe 12cm long, so I had to use full zoom, hence the picture is not as crisp as should be. Jebediah is so small that I didn't notice the even smaller spider sitting there talking to him. I think her name is Claudette, but don't quote me on that. I am told that Jebediah is sometimes known as a "common brown long-eared bat", a "plecotus auritus" or an "oriellard rouge".
After the photo shoot, it was my duty to shoo Jebediah on his way - it seems some people are worried about catching rabies or something. As I said before, Jebediah is not very bright. Even with his special echo-location sense, he keep shying away from the open window and back to the ceiling. As punishment for this lack of gorms, Jebediah was chased by a butterfly net. He was almost as good at avoiding the butterfly net as he was at avoiding the window.
However, eventually Jebediah made an error and fell into my trap; a trap out of which he was apparently unable to once more fly. Thus it was that Jebediah travelled back out of the window and into the big bad world. Hopefully he didn't drop dead from all the stress a few minutes later. He was after all very cute, and anything that eats all the flies, mosquitoes and other flying nuisances can't be bad.
Finally comes my chance to moan. My hand hurts. And why does my hand hurt, you may ask. Because I move too much in my sleep, cometh the answer.
Every month or two I manage to pull something or sprain something, or otherwise annoy something, in my sleep. Usually it is one of my thumbs, but this time it is the turn of the whole palm area. Maybe I broke my little finger or something. Usually things are all recovered in a day or two.
The strange thing about my hyperactive sleeping is that I very rarely overstep the boundaries of my sleeping area. If my bed is smaller, I don't move so much. If there are others nearby, I don't move so much. I very very rarely fall out of bed, although I apparently did so rather dramatically when much littler: I fell off the top bunk of a bunk bed and continued to sleep while the adult came to see what that great bang was. I don't seem to have problems sleeping, I just efficiently use the space available. :-)
And that's your lot.. Until next time.
Current Music: Hot Nights - Four Tops
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05:49 pm
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not the only fennel in the galaxy
I've been re-reading Asimov's Foundation series the past few weeks. I first read them when I was twelve or thirteen, which may account for me liking them despite them being pretty damn silly in terms of the science/sociology. They are fun nonetheless.
Anyway, here I am almost at the end of the fourth book, Second Foundation, and this:
... he was interviewing Fennel Leemor, Engineer Third Class, volunteer. 0586017135, p202.
I think I must have not noticed when I read the book for the first time thirteen-plus years ago. I've always liked the uniqueness of my first name. There are the people who confuse it with a surname and spell it with two els, or think it's a girl's name like Fennella, but I have never come across someone with precisely the same version: spelt like the herb and used as a male first name.
.. Well actually I have once.. I was told by someone about ten years ago that a friend had told them about someone by that name. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on mood, it turned out to have been me before I added my current surname onto the end of everything.
Now it seems Asimov had the idea almost thirty years before my parents. He used it once and not again, at least not in that book; and I'm pretty sure the parentals haven't read it.. But still, quite a shock to see my name in print like that. At least I'm still the only one kicking around on this here ball of dust. ^_^
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: The Cranberries - Carry On
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08:45 pm
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back in france
As mentioned before, my normal "news" posts are now being made at the abelard.org news page. The ones by me are helpfully labelled. There are four so far; I'm writing a couple of more substantial pieces at the moment. This diary will remain for more personal items like this entry.
At the beginning of April, I went to visit some friends in northern Italy for a week or so. I've now been to two more never-before-visited-by-me countries: Switzerland and Italy. On the way there, I also visited two new-to-me cathedrals: one at Lyon and one at Lausanne. Lyon has a big old town and lots of nice glass. Lausanne, however, is something special. Both the town and the cathedral are smaller. The cathedral has one impressive rose and some pretty smaller windows, but the main thing for me was building itself, which is absolutely gorgeous out and in; it is just the sort of place that damsels in distress should hang around. Chartres has long been my favourite of these big religious-type places, but I do believe it has now been overtaken. Lausanne is just down the road from Geneva and near the lake. Although I didn't get much chance to wander around it properly, it seemed a pretty little town.
from top to bottom: an interior of the lausanne cathedral, the lausanne rose from the side showing some of the (now very faded) old painted walls, an exterior view of lausanne.
In Italy, I saw things like Mount Blanc from a distance, lots of old castles of various vintages, the Alps up close, a roman viaduct (which I went inside briefly), part of Tuscany and lots of sign posts to famous towns on the Italians' awful excuses for motorways.
I'm now back at base-station middle-of-nowhere-France. I know I'm back in the Europe of smeggy coldness, because there was significant amounts of snow both in Italy and France. Base-station is fortunately not that far gone, although it is probably not as warm and sunny as my previous base-station in southern Japan.
Some of you seem to find it odd that I've moved to France, which I suppose it is. I moved to France because that's where the main abelard.org base is and collaboration can be achieved more efficiently when everyone is within easy reach of each other. I expect to move onwards and upwards in a few years time. I'm still thinking in terms of an ideal of alternating half the year in Japan and the other half in America or Australia.
However, people should realise that I like moving; crossing a border doesn't make much difference to me. I also have plans to learn impressive numbers of languages and here I am sitting in one foreign language that I can learn quickly because I've seen it before, and sitting with a foreign language on either side of me (Spanish and Italian), both of which I want to learn and will be made easier by knowledge of French. In the end, where I live doesn't much matter: I just get on with learning what needs to be learnt and planning and preparing for the next move. I in fact quite like France, it's the French I have a problem with and they'll probably grow on me, if only out of necessity.
France shuts down for any excuse they can find. Their current excuse is Easter: despite having proper separation of church and state, unlike England, the French take their Christianist rave-ups very seriously. Thus I must wait until Tuesday or later to start sorting out things like bank accounts, a mobile phone and then some sort of part-time job. To open a bank account here, I have to make an appointment. 'Nuff said.
I'm gradually relearning my French. I probably already know more grammar than I ever did before. In approximately seven years of lessons, they never taught me the future, if clauses, use of object pronouns or anything else mildly useful. I've ordered the French version of de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America", volume 1, which should help me learn with due speed. I've been intending to read it for ages. If I were to get an English copy of it, I'd have no motivation whatsoever to read the original, so this seemed like a good deal. I'm also listening to hours of some talk radio station when I remember.
More news will appear when I think of it.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Labi Siffre - Lovers
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05:12 pm
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News From France 1
The title is not an error: I am no longer living in Japan. Late last November I surprised my bosses by handing in notice that I would not be renewing my contract from this April. After a month or so deciding between earning lots of money doing something boring/exhausting in Japan, doing something political with the US government, or finally going full time with my work on abelard.org (as I've been intending for over five years), I settled on the last.
My last class was on the 17th of March. My last day of 'work' in Japan was on the 23rd. On March 24th I started my trek. Now I'm living somewhere in deepest darkest France. I intend to use this time to work on turning abelard.org's customer base into an income stream and on producing more articles for that site. In other words, I will be doing a mixture of pursuing my political writing ambitions and running a company. This probably means that my writing will less and less appear on my personal diary, but it should also mean that my output will gradually increase.
I will also be working on learning French and of course I'll continue polishing my Japanese. At least in the initial stages, I expect to get some sort of part-time job, either teaching something (English, Japanese, maths, computing,..), or using my Japanese.
I'm going on a holiday slash research trip for a week or three from this weekend, thus the extended quiescence is not quite over yet.
As is my tendency when others are involved, I will be less talkative about details of my circumstances. It is enough to say that I am living in beautiful surroundings with pleasant company - in those terms not a great change from my setup for the last four years. I will certainly miss my mountains, cherry blossoms, Japanese architecture, the lovely sound of the Japanese language and of course the general lack of seriously ugly people and presence of seriously pretty people. However, this place has its own advantages. High on the list must be that here I'm really in the countryside, with all the attendant lizard, insect, bird, deer, clean air, peace, lack of people and prettiness advantages that that brings.
Here are some photos:
 
The first in an evening sky seen from the front door. Most of what you can see landward might as well be my personal playground.
The second is one of the many snake-like trails of caterpillars you see slowing crossing the roads, or squashed on the roads, as you walk around near here. I have dozens of close up pictures of various kinds of pretty insects taken in this area. Maybe one day they will see the light of internet.
The third is me about three weeks ago, shortly after I started re-growing the face fungus. I've long been loth to make public images of myself with my hair not properly blue. However, I've recently decided that I'm no longer willing to put up with my blue hair being anything less than brilliant all the time, which means I won't be returning to my natural colours until I can easily afford probably weekly re-dyeings at the hands of a professional. That probably means another year of patience, and given that the last new picture I published of myself was over three years ago, I decided enough was enough. The reason for the weird cropping is my wish not to publish the pretty girl (one of them particularly so ^_^) on either arm of me without their permission. The tie is one of my Valentinos; one day I'll also get around to showing you the rest of my lovely ties.
As of my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I had been tee-total for at least five years. When I originally stopped drinking a few weeks before my twenty-first birthday, one of my brothers told me that there was no way I'd be able to keep it up for the five or ten years I claimed as probable. I took that as a challenge. The challenge completed successfully, I now once more drink alcohol. However, I doubt I'll ever again get seriously drunk.
I don't believe there is much else of importance or interest: my life continues to consist mostly of reading, studying, writing and enjoying the pretty things in life.
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08:12 pm
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silence update
apparently i wasn't clear enough before： i'm in the process of moving and posting will likely be non-existent， or at least trivial， until mid-april。 i'm not giving details until everything is settled again。 it's all very positive and 'exciting'， but at the moment i'm too busy to keep up。 i will likely be out of email contact from monday or wednesday for at least a week。
Current Mood: tired
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11:31 am
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life update
i had parties on monday and didn't get to bed until three in the morning on tuesday。 i get up at half six on workdays， like tuesday was。 i will probably have another late night on friday。 i'm not quite as tired as i would expect， but that's not saying much。
i finally finished reading keynes' "essays in persuasion"。 it's a thoroughly enjoyable read： he writes very clearly about some pretty complicated subjects and has a lovely way with words。 he also somewhat unwittingly gives fascinating background to the gold standard， the depression， america's rise to world dominance and 1900s british politics - subjects on which nowadays most are ignorant， even while 'knowing' the words。 the stuff at the end about politics and social policy is somewhat less tight than his economics and his economic futurology。 i'm now even more non-plussed by hayek's anti-keynes diatrabe， and his accusation that keynes was a socialist， in "the fatal conceit"。
i'm currently reading goodall's "in the shadow of man" - goodall is another person who writes prettily *and* has something to say - as well as the usual slower reads on the side： herodotus' "histories"， the correspondence between john adams and thomas jefferson， a couple of japanese books about japanese and a french grammar dictionary。
i have lots of domestic busy-nesses at the moment， which should be over by mid-april。 i expect posting to get very light toward the end of the month。 i'll explain after it's all over。
if i was willing to move to aichi (where the expo was recently) for three years， i could probably get a girl who seems perfectly my type in both looks and personality。 unfortuately that would rather interfere with my plans and i don't allow that。 and no this is not the one who i've decided was playing me - this one's even better suited。 i'd post a picture， but that seems a bit rude。
japanese girls are so blatant in their comings on to me， and they always seems to do it together with their friends， that it is very hard to believe that they are serious。 i'm not complaining， however。 :-)
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Marc Bolan & T-Rex - Metal Guru
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10:52 pm
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new pancaldi designs
"if i were a rich man..."
i have a fairly substantial tie collection， although mostly very cheap ones。 however， since discovering pancaldi， more expensive ones have slowly crept into the collection， including three pancaldis。 this is my current main tie shop - it is a very badly designed site， but has vast quantities of tempting goodies。 unfortunately there is nothing like the tie rack chain in japan， although i somehow doubt tie rack stocks pancaldis。
anyway， there are new pancaldi designs out and they're only (！) $260 a shot [they are usually $135， but these are even more limited editions than usual]。 um， yeah， not today methinks。 to inform in the unlikely event that i have rich friends wanting to give me birthday presents： i'd buy these three (in order) if i wasn't such a scrooge： technicolour， red and black and black and white。
in the last couple of weeks at school， the pointlessness has been getting to me and i've have stopped wearing the boring 'professional' white shirts。 instead i've been wearing all colours of the rainbow - shirts i've had about as long as the ties because i used to wear (lurid) shirt and (lurid) tie as my standard casual clothes。 i haven't been doing it for ages， in part because i've been suited up for work， so didn't feel like the hassle on my off-time too。 i shall probably return in the near future。
anyway， whenever i wear any particularly nice tie or shirt， the japanese students (and sometimes teachers) ask "who choose that？ girlfriend？"。 i think i should be offended。^_^ the assumption over here seems to be that if a guy wears nice clothes then he must have a girlfriend buying them for him。 about a month ago， i again got fed up with shaving， so i am now once more covered in face fungus。 again this change of appearance is taken as a sign that i must have got a girlfriend， as i found out this evening when i bumped into a friend。 apparently japanese men are not given to acting on whims as much as i do， at least not when it comes to their appearance。 it's not all bad though - on a day i wore my bright magenta shirt， my comment of the day was roughly translates to "anything suits you"。 probably not true though： i've realised recently that pale colours don't suit me at all - or at least i don't like them。；-)
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Rolf Harris - If I Were A Rich Man
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11:19 pm
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what's a hernia?
i promised myself that if my leg hadn't stopped hurting by monday， even if it was getting better， i'd go see a quack。 it was getting better， but it still hurt， so off i went after finishing what little work i had。
my usual doctor is seriously busy and doesn't seem to go in for the whole appointments thing， so i waited for an hour or so before he saw me。 after asking lots of questions， he got me onto an examination table and started testing my lack of flexibility。 things like how far he and i could lift one straight leg up (about seventy degrees at best)， with one foot sat on the other knee how far down i can push my knee (not quite level)， sitting with legs straight how far i can stretch forwards (about to my shins， maybe mid-shins， or the top of my ankles if i've been practicing)。 all this he seemed to find very disturbing： apparently i'm not supposed to be this inflexible， even though i have been since childhood。 the things one finds out。
next trick， wait for x-ray time。 get my left hip joint x-rayed from straight legged and cocked legged angles。 btw， x-rays are called roentgens [they say "rentogen"] in japan - i guess that's some german who had something to do with the history of their use， but i've never checked。 they of course have not the foggiest what an "x-ray" is and expect every foreigner to immediately know what a rentogen is。
wait a while longer and then back to see the quack。 it seems there's bugger all wrong with my hip joint， which makes him decide to refer me onto an orthopedics guy。 the japanese word for "orthopedics" is the same as their word for "plastic surgery"。 i had always assumed orthopedics was just some fancy medical term for plastic surgery， but it doesn't seem very related - it seems to be closer to physiotherapy。 perhaps this is why there are "plastic surgery" clinics *everywhere* out here。
that was the morning gone， so i took myself off to the my favourite ramen place to wait until the othopedics guy opened。 and so at two o'clock i was sitting waiting in another busy waiting room。 almost immediately i was called in for more x-rays， three more。 my theory is that they are secretly sterilising the foreigners。 that done it was once more back the waiting。
eventually it came time to see the wizard， who first of all showed me the new x-rays and agreed that there was nothing wrong with my hip joint， then put my on an examining table facing down this time and starting pushing and squeezing various places。 it hurt when he pushed somewhere in my lower back and when he squeezed somewhere in my left shin。 apparently that's bad， and goes to show that the nerve running down my left leg was not happy。 i'll believe you。
at this point i was mostly nodding and smiling in a "i'm sure you know what you are doing， but i haven't the foggiest what you are talking about" way。 he gave me a sheet of back exercises (at this point i still hadn't cottoned onto that i could have something wrong with my back such that my back doesn't hurt at all， but my leg does - nor had i cottoned onto that him telling me that "there is a nerve that goes up down the leg from the spine and the problem is probably with that" meant i might have back problems)， told me to come in for an mri scan the next day， gave me three lots of pills [they have had no noticeable effect] and sent me down the hall to be played with by lots of impressively pointless looking machines。
the machines i was sent to were， in order， a cold air hair dryer attached to a huge washing machine which according to the side goes down to -40 degree celsius [three minutes waving it around randomly]， a heat lamp which is apparently "microwaves" [i bet they say that just to impress； ten minutes]， a "low frequency" electrocution massage machine [they stick four or eight suckers on you and send lots of different patterns through you for ten minutes] and a "laser" [a tiny handheld thing that looks like one of those eye examining lights， which you hold to your skin for 15 seconds at a time ten times； i have my doubts that it actually does anything other than making beeping noises， or is in fact a laser - i couldn't even feel the thing]。
my treatment chart said that my back was the problem， but me not having understood what the doctor had not bothered to explain because it was obvious， blithely told the nurses that no， my back doesn't hurt， it's my leg。 i did that again the next day also。 this could explain somewhat why the treatments seemed so pointless： there was no discernible effect whatsoever。 i'm told they are supposed to reduce inflammation or something， but as i didn't have any inflammation to start with。。。
anyway， the next day i returned for my mri。 given all the hype， i was expecting something far more impressive and enclosed。 i could see light in my peripherals in pretty much every direction。 i was strapped in and told to "not move for about forty minutes"。 this is a particularly stupid instruction： obviously actually not moving is not possible， so what degree of movement constitutes too much？ i knew they were taking pictures of my abdomen area， i also am very aware that that area moves rather a lot when i breath， especially if i'm trying to not move！ then there are the random involuntary twitches and the 'jumping' each time the jackhammers stop because you are so relaxed。 apart from those jackhammers - the machine makes loud repetitive noises， which occasionally change pattern， for most of the forty minutes - it is very very comfortable。 i would happily have a bed like that。 when the jackhammers weren't at their loudest， i could even listening to silly japanese djs twittering on about valentine's day。
after that it was back for those four "therapies"， again doing then in the wrong place because i hadn't re-seen the doctor yet and found out what i needed to know。 it seems they expect me to continue this for about a week。 whatever rings their bell。
finish that and back to the waiting， then in to see the quack again。 this time he had lots more fun pictures for me to look at， including ones of "what it should look like"。 basically disks in the spine are supposed to look white on mri pictures。 my lowest disk "looks" black - so black it is basically invisible。 the disks are not supposed to show as touching the spine bone bits， nor are they supposed to stick out beyond those bone bits。 my lowest one looked like one of those curved topped screws sent in between the spine bits。 i have no idea what the colours are supposed to signify， but clearly things were not as they are supposed to be。 they even have a name for this sort of not supposed to be： a disk hernia。 i've no idea what it means either。
anyway， i'm supposed to keep doing my exercises from the sheet， keep coming in for the "treatment" and maybe get my spine pulled "sometime if i feel like it"， which basically means never， because both my knowledge of and interest in things medical is such that i will always take the path of least effort。 i'm apparently not to worry - as if！ - because it's not serious。
today i went in again for treatment and this time got them to do the things on my lower back。 they did at least seem to have some effect： i could actually feel the laser this time， and the electrocution massage felt really good。 i'm still fairly nonplussed by the whole cold air hot air thing though。
i've been doing the exercises on my sheet like a good boy since monday， and from tuesday my lower back has started to feel slightly odd。 i guess it's adjusting back to sense or something， so going through a troublesome faze。 the exercises themselves make my back feel really comfortable， so that's good。 they're all apparently aimed at straightening the lower part of the spine。 who knows， i might one day be able to get flexible， or even get back muscles！
the leg has been gradually healing itself since the heady heights of friday night。 i can still feel it， but it could hardly be called pain。 the headache's still there。 my main quack has told me to come back on friday if it is still there， or anytime if it gets worse。 i think i'm just tired， but who knows： these quacks seem to find the unlikeliest of reasons for things。
that lot would probably have been more interesting if had the slightest interest in anatomy or medicine。 there are some things [admittedly very few] that i take a sort of pride in being ignorant about - it means i can just not give a damn。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: [none]
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11:45 am
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ow ow ow
although there are number of things i feel i should be keeping abreast of and writing about， in particularly the jihadi reaction to free speech/mockery and the contemptible cowardly behaviour of much of the western fossil media and political world， it's not going to be happening soon methinks。
on wednesday night i pulled a groin muscle in my sleep (the same one that i've pulled in my sleep a couple of times before)。 although usually it recovers in a day and is not much more than annoying， by friday morning it was seriously painful and got worse all day。 i did not sleep well last night， and it doesn't appear to be any better this morning。 there appears to be no position i can put myself in that stops it hurting， although it hurts a bit less if i keep it under stress。
none of my usual (very) light stretching seems to effect it。 now the other leg is getting stiff from the lack of usual movement。 i can normally bring my knees straight to my chest and touch the floor with half my palms (although i never get more than a ninety degree split on legs)。 now i can't lift the left to my waist and the right only just above。 i can get my outstretched fingertips to just below my knees。 all a very strange sensation。
probably related (i tend to only pull things when i'm not feeling well)， one of the colds i seem to constantly carry appears to be doing its damnedest to take me down， so i have a lovely headache to go with the surprisingly large amount of pain。
the upshot of which is you're unlikely to get much useful output from me for a further while。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: [none]
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01:11 am
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for the record
i'm being played. annoyingly efficiently it seems. now to again spend far too long working out how to reply.. then no doubt wait for the reply that never comes, then after about two days of waiting give up on the whole thing again (there are good reasons for that degree of impatience).. until the next message appears out of the blue, a week or two later.
hmm. i wonder how long she can keep this up before i give up properly: ie not just to the stage of "there's no way i'm making any further effort without some act on her part", but to the stage of "even if she does eventually sent me something, i'm not going to do anything". i thought i had already reached that stage, but apparently not.
you never know, it might even work out despite her stupid games. that bothers me: i don't like letting people get away with bad behaviour. humbug!
i've been intending to write up the bits that go before this for a while; i think my methods, the way i think and my decision making process will make amusing reading. bog knows when i'll get round to it..
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: drug store cowboy - 日々これ以上
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12:07 pm
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system notice: the holidays are here
i'm now back from the first year camp， so i'm now officially on holiday。 i have an appointment at the hairdressers in one hour's time to get myself bleached and re-blued。：ー）
will be flying up to tokyo this evening and off to france tomorrow morning。 i won't be back home until early september。 i'll probably be even less communicative until then。
by the by， i have started translating that violin book： i've done the prologue and about half of the first chapter。 it is a lot more difficult that i thought： it takes some thinking to find a good way to phrase the english such that you get the nuances of the japanese and yet still have mellifluous english。 ie the english is a bigger problem than the japanese， which is kind of neat and most definitely good practice for a someone who wants to write for a living。 anyway， the translation will take rather longer than i expected。
right， bye-de-bye。 be good while i'm gone。 end of line。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Al Green - Look What You Done For Me
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05:33 pm
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my so called life: mini update
i'm now basically on holiday。 i had one class a day this week， will have two next week， one the week after and a two day school camp with the high school first years straight after that。 i don't have to sit around school when i don't have classes， which is a very nice change。
i've now booked myself into the hairdresser to get re-bleached and re-dyed to my natural electric blue。 that's at 1pm on the 3rd of august。 i get back from the camp a bit before midday (i hope！)， at which point i'm properly on holiday， hence the timing。
that evening， i take the last flight from kagoshima up to tokyo， find myself a room for the night and take a flight to france the next day， arriving at my less central destination late evening the same day - aren't timezones fun？ i'll be kicking around there for about a month： i go back to work on the fifth of september。 i will thus be revisiting the hairdressers soon after landing back in kagoshima midday on the 4th。 t'will be most spiffy to be blue again， even if it is for a very short time。
tomorrow i'll be driving up to fukuoka for my first social visit there in almost two years。 the occasion is a visit by one of the other oxbridge lot who studied up there with me almost three years ago now - he's jetting through on his way to some neuroscience conference in tokyo！
i now have eight or so book reviews waiting to be done。 not sure how many i will do in the end， or when。 i am as ever plowing on in the meantime。 i also have many more of my amusing kanji articles lined up (i have notes of what to write about， but i've only vaguely starting writing one of them)。 i also have the translation of the violin book to be getting on with。 no rest for the wicked。 i haven't been keeping up with current news at all。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: P!nk - Is It Love?
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