i try not to go outside at night. my town seems to take on this surreal quality after the sun goes down, resembling a scene from _mad max_ or _escape from new york_. i live in an urban wasteland. my town's population is just 8,000, and i can't see the stars at night. the south sky has an eerie pink/orange glow, a result of the extreme light pollution around sendai. even in fayetteville, which is about as far from atlanta as my town is from sendai, you can see the brighter stars at night. not so here. the local winners' club also comes out at night, hanging around in various places along the main street. it's a pretty spooky atmosphere. it really makes me wonder what exactly japan traded away in its race during the past half century to become an economic superpower...
today i finally played some basketball. of course, when i say "playing", i mean shooting around while various junior high students watch, occasionally yelling "dunk!" (i can't dunk.) i taught the basketball club a couple of things, which was fun. (i don't mean that i schooled 'em...i mean that i actually showed them how you should use two hands to pass. i also taught one of the bigger kids the drop step in the post.) i can't wait for baseball season to end...hopefully then i can play on a basketball team. >:-)
i was over an hour late for work yesterday...my computer's clock for some bizarre reason slowed down till it was about 1 hour and 10 minutes slow, so i woke up late. not realizing this, i took my time getting ready, and fried some fish using butter and soy sauce (it was splendoriforous). when i got into work, someone made the comment "oboemasita ne." ("you remembered.") which i wondered at. then before lunch, i noticed the disparity between the office clock, and my computer's...i didn't really feel all that bad, and i didn't explain, since no one really seemed to care, but i hope they don't get the impression that i'm a slacker now...i got into work around 8:50 this morning, in any case. apparently the network card they gave me is incompatible with my computer, so i'm gonna have to look into getting an american pcmcia lan card. damn. there is a community computer for all the teachers, but i can't use napster or icq on *that*...
i got one of my boxes a couple of days ago. i had sent it at the end of june, and it had my winter coat, some winter clothes, a couple of sweaters, and some books and videos. so i was glad it got here so quick...there's still another to be delivered, though. today, some lady shows up at my door, and manages to convey to me that there's a futon to be delivered (for my loft). there seem to be about thirty different pieces involved in the construction of futon. i threw 'em all into my loft...the first unlucky soul who happens to crash at my place can worry about putting it together. that loft will be nice for the winter months.
been listening to: lost dogs, gordon lightfoot, eternal tears of sorrow, the 77s, five iron frenzy, and sinergy.