first of all, because i'm vain like that, my top ten cds for 2000.
as of this writing, there is no longer a journal available on my home page. requesting www.mindspring.com/~loserglenn/journal/menu.html gives the user a white screen with the words "this site is under construction". on tuesday, january 9th, i sent out an e-mail to my net.savvy friends informing them that my journal was at a new address. how this came to be...
at the bottom of all my e-mails, i give my e-mail address and the url to my homepage. well, i made the mistake of sending one of the men in sanbongi an e-mail a few months ago with the url to my homepage included. i got a letter back saying that my sister was very pretty, blah blah blah, could he give the address to the webmaster for the sanbongi town page. i was somewhat chagrined that i had been so careless, but i replied that, if he wanted others here to see my homepage, i would appreciate it if he directed them to my old georgia tech page. that seemed a clever solution, and my mind soon turned to other matters.
well, the morning of the 9th, i received an e-mail stating that he had read my diary entries for the 8th and 15th of december, and he was wondering why i didn't like the enkais i had attended. erk...after hastily writing him that mainly, my lack of japanese skillz was the problem, i deleted my journal from the mindspring server with extreme prejudice, and moved it to its current page. so that's that.
the past week has been relatively uneventful...the elementary school has been really cool lately, but i think that's more because i taught the first and second graders this week. young japanese kids rock. :-) at the junior high, i've been doing a bit more work. guess they're starting to see me as a teacher more; why, i've no idea. this coming thursday, the group i play basketball with, the sanbongi town office team, is taking on the junior high b-ball squad. i'm soooo fired up.
last weekend, from e-mails to various people: "church sunday was pretty mediocre. it's hard enough to sit through a sermon when you do know the language! it has been really cold this weekend. i think winter is starting to bare its fangs. i watched a few of my dvds last night, most notably _high and low_ (one of the ones you gave me for christmas) and _robocop_. _high and low_ was typical kurosawa: very well done, with clearly delineated and thoroughly explored themes of privilege, sacrifice, and justice. _robocop_, well, everyone knows about _robocop_. i was surprised to see that kurtwood smith, who plays red forman (the dad) on "that '70s show," was one of the lead villians. _robocop_'s effect on american cinema in the late '80s is comparable to that of _the wild bunch_ in the late '60s. anyway, a pretty lazy weekend. oh, friday night was a new year's enkai for the teachers at the junior high. it was alright. i got to hang out with the two of the younger teachers at my school who are genuinely interesting and nice people (one of them, h-sensei, is the guy who graciously gives me a ride to the junior high on the days i teach there). even so, japanese drinking parties (though that's a misnomer when applied to this party; the sanbongi teachers are a remarkably sober lot) hold about as much appeal to me as those in america do. " it should be noted that the enkai in question was also a retirement party for an older science teacher, who, according to one of my fellow teachers, had to retire to take care of her husband, who is apparently ill. that sucks. she's a good person, and, although i must confess some relief at not having her hovering over me while i make kanji flashcards, i hate to see her retire for that reason. anyway, at the nijikai (second party), i sang "like a rolling stone" and "save the last dance for me" for karaoke.
alright, previously on "my so-called winter vacation", i detailed my entire first day back in america. on to day two, and beyond. sunday, december 17th, i showed up at church unannounced and, while, a few people were indeed surprised (my sunday school teacher had come over the night before and been shocked that i was home. she's the coolest), it seems my mom had told a good number of people that i was coming for christmas, so i had to be content with surprising mel monday night. but i'm getting ahead of myself. for lunch, i went with a bunch of church people to the chinese buffet in jonesboro. it blows massive chunks. but, oh well, the company was great. :-) on the way back, i stopped in the barnes and noble in north fayette. it had just opened when i left, and it has become the place for me to buy dvds. excellent selection, with a ton of criterion collection dvds. then, the next day, i sat on my ass and played videogames, i think. that night, i drove over to mel's house to surprise her with her sudden manifestion (i'm the wind, baby). after she was duly surprised, she proceeded to celebrate by becoming sick for the rest of the week. the saturday before christmas, she had alison and i over to give us our christmas presents (i got a book containing excerpts for the hagakure, a japanese tome describing bushido, the way of the samurai), and she spent the whole time underneath a blanket, lying on the couch in her living room. i felt really bad for her, but i sat there wondering if she had turned into some pasty white apparition, ala marlon brando in _the island of dr. moreau_. but it was great to hang out with her and alison, especially on my last night before leaving, when we watched _young frankenstein_ and _princess mononoke_. alison feels guilty about only seeing me twice, but she really shouldn't. it's not like i'm *never going to see her again*. um, back to my first week. wednesday was trivia night, which was cool...i got to see matt and brandy. they are such great friends. well, all my friends are great friends, but them especially. i don't think i did much the rest of the week. went christmas shopping, kind of. bought a arcade stick for my dreamcast, which i am currently enjoying here in japan (it stopped working for a couple of days until i opened it up and fixed the problem). then, christmas day, i opened presents with my mom, sis, and grandma. i hauled in the loot, yo. lots of dvd and videogames. it was good to spent the day with my family, but my sister, grandmother, and i are a volatile combination. 'nuff said. more next time.been listening to: living sacrifice, random '80s stuff