random thought: i've always heard that the eskimoes had several hundred words for snow, indicating it's importance in their society...well, americans have quite a few words for money...
monday was payday, and now my bank account has enough for a month of living, i think. i try to be relatively frugal, but even so, when my account hits that 500 dollar mark or lower, i get kind of antsy...unfortunately, the gym was closed, so there wasn't really that much i could do as far as going out...i did go to the local pizza hut booth in the food court of cowboy, but the supaa there was closed, so i went home immediately after. tuesday, after another exciting day at the town office, i came home and got a call from one of the furukawa alts, and he picked me up and drove me around furukawa, which was really nice of him. i'd be meaning to get a guitar since arriving in sanbongi, so we went to the local music store and i bought a fender stratocastor (with a kick-ass purple finish, i might add) and a marshall micro stack, all for under 9 man, or 900 dollars. oh. my. gosh. you would have thought i was saving the company business or something from the reaction of the store owner. bowing profusely, apologizing because he couldn't find boxes for the amp, etc. in america, my guitar purchases were usually pretty ho-hum. maybe here they get a lot of people who try out the various guitars and then leave without making a purchase...
when i went to the cornerstone music festival in july, i hung out some with terry and his wife tamara, from houston. (terry is the proprietor of failure.net) well, tamara has the equations for heisenburg's uncertainty principle tattoo-ed on her arm, which drew quite a few inquiries from various festival goers...so much so, in fact, that i'd venture to say that she's the most popular physics lecturer ever to set foot on c-stone festival grounds. :-) anyway, the principle states that the momentum and position of an electron at any one time are unknowable...any attempt to measure one quantity makes the other uncertain. so, in other words, the simple act of measuring the system (of an electron, in this instance) alters that system in some way. well, i've been having heisenburg peaches for breakfast these past few days. :-) any attempt to skin them has irretrievably altered the peach. they're just that juicy. anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
well, maybe not. back to my random musings...as i wrote in an e-mail to a friend, i recently rewatched _mitchell_, joel hodgson's last episode with mystery science theater 3000, and was rather underwhelmed. one of the comments that did bring a smile to my face was towards the beginning of the film, with joe don baker on sneaking onto the lawn of one of the heavies, where joel points, and says "hey, the lunatic is on the grass."
a few years ago, i had a conversation with a man whose son went to a metallica concert, and the man mentioned how his son has "just felt the evil in the air". i dunno, maybe when i went and saw the offspring in germany in 1995, if i had been more attentive to the Spirit, i could have detected the waves of malice flowing from dexter holland's dreadlocks. i realize i'm being a little heavy-handed, but i guess i just find it amusing how the church of america can pick a random icon of pop culture who gives a vivid description of the darker side of human nature, and call that icon darkness. going back to metallica, if their representation of satan is to be believed, apparently the devil dislikes war, drug addiction, the death penalty, and has a hidden fondness for the old testament. oh, and he wants to save the environment.
i'm going to save my rant on american christianity for a day when i'm cold and bitter, but i've definitely tired of the persecution complex that some christians have acquired. a star wars quote that a friend of mine likes to employ comes to mind: "i must've hit a nerve to get her all riled up like that." one of the best ways to disabuse someone of the truth of your religion is to reflect your deity in a way that lacks an appreciation of deprecation, witty repartee, and general good humor. so someone poked fun at the object of your worship. well, go ahead and respond in kind. or better yet, take the high-handed route and refuse to associate thenceforth with the sinner. after all, that's what Christ commanded, right?
anyway, the rest of my week. tuesday, i played my guitar and napped. wednesday, i played my guitar, napped, and went to english conversation class (where, it should be noted, one of the group of kind middle-aged ladies who constantly buy me stuff brought me a bottle of sake. and not the paint-thinner stuff, either...). the "english" conversation "class" is the subject of another rant, one which will not be put on the web (at least, not by me ;-) ask me about it in e-mail if you're really that interested. thursday, i played my guitar, napped, and ate dinner with an elementary school teacher who was kind enough to invite me to his house and meet his family. he's a lucky man, he has a beautiful family and a beautiful house as well. :-) there's a really scenic japanese garden, too. i took part in a semi-authentic japanese tea ceremony (semi, meaning that i couldn't sit in the proper way for a tea ceremony), as his mother is a tea ceremony guru. for dinner, i was served a "vegetarian" meal. ("vegetarian" in japan means no meat, but seafood is okay, thank goodness.) the highlight was the fried eel which was served in a delicious sauce over rice. i returned was driven back to my apartment bearing a load of gifts from his family, including something for my mom, which was a really nice gesture. on the drive back, there were very few lights in the valley we drove through, and i was reminded of durango. i miss almost everything about colorado, as i've mentioned before. approaching sanbongi, i could see the large neon sign for cowboy, the local mall, from a good mile or mile and a half away. but enough of my yawlin'.
friday during school hours i went and swam with some of the elementary school kids and played water basketball with the boys. it was a lot of fun, but i got a mild sunburn. for lunch the day before, i was treated to a do-it-yourself sushi smorgasbord, with salmon, seaweed, rice, shrimp, tuna, eggs, etc. very delicious. the cafeteria ladies sure do know how to please a sushi lover. for lunch today, i had a yakisoba set lunch (set=with various other things, like rice, soup, fried meat...) and got yet another comment on my skills with chopsticks. wow, gee thanks, we don't have chopsticks in america. we use our hands to eat, always. mmm...finger. well, now i'm tired. i'll talk more about my weekend in my next exciting entry!
been listening to: terry taylor, thelonious monk, pink floyd, eternal tears of sorrow, evanescence, and celldweller