I Am Completely Serious

- Someone CUT IN FRONT OF ME IN A LINE omg.

- Suddenly I can’t understand what the heck anyone’s saying. I can’t read any of the menus on this computer, either. (There’s wi-fi, but I’m in the computer lounge because I can’t find a plug for my computer. The computer lounge smells mysteriously of Pantene.)

- Female service personnel are not all wearing makeup, and are not constantly smiling in a way that probably hurts. The men smile less, too.

- There are female tarmac workers and security guards. And one of the security guards snapped at me. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but her intent was clear. (Her intent was “don’t stand there while you put your stuff back in your bag, I want my nice clean table back.”)

- When Japanese women facetiously hit a guy who’s flirting with them, they usually back off and miss at the last second with a sort of gesture that sends them off at an angle, making it look like they made themselves dizzy with the gesture. I saw a Korean woman actually whap a guy earlier. This startled me.

- I don’t know if this is a Korean cultural thing or a coincidence, but I’ve seen two women sharing food/drinks. Like, two straws in the same smoothie. Is this usual?

- The guys act pretty much the same except louder, I think. I’ve noticed a bunch of younger guys affecting this slow, too-deep voice (what’s the opposite of a falsetto?) - Kimiho-san does that, I thought it was just a thing of his. Apparently not. I keep hearing this and looking around to see if it’s him.

- Seriously, it is totally weird how I can’t understand what anyone’s saying. The intonation is too much like Japanese! It would be easier if I was in China or Taiwan…

I need to get off this computer now. There’s a K-drama playing on a TV over there where some guy keeps randomly breaking into perfect midwestern-accented English, I’m gonna go see if I can figure out what’s up with that.

I am at the hotel in Nagoya, all prepared to leave in the morning. I am stressed out about this, so I may walk over to the airport (the hotel is attached, but far enough away from the tarmac that you can’t hear the planes) and buy chocolate in a while. I am American and female, this is what I do in these situations.

The hotel room came with an amusing striped nightshirt. I will probably actually wear it tonight, as I think I put my pajamas in the big huge suitcase I don’t want to reopen.

I ate oxtail porridge at a Korean place for dinner, because my one desire in this life is to HORRIFY MY FAMILY. (Apparently it’s actually beef.) Also because it looked good in the picture. It was okay, but kind of bland, so I dumped in the little bowl of spicy sauce they gave me. I don’t know if that’s what that was for? It didn’t really help all that much. I think I will google around for interesting-looking Korean foods, and then tomorrow see if they number among the amenities offered by the Incheon airport. (From looking around online, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably too risky for me to leave the airport unless my departing flight gets delayed at least an hour.)

There was a graduation ceremony yesterday, at which I wore a tiara and held a pink scepter with a little heart covered in fake pearls. We had to give speeches, and mine in its entirety was “The Princess has no need to give a speech!” (「姫様はスピーチをする必要がない！」) This was done largely at the instigation of Sensu-sensei and Kuma-sensei, who acquired these items for me at the 100-yen-shop last term, because I am The Princess. It did not appear that they had alerted any of the rest of the faculty to this.

Last day of classes, and I just now finished the last of my job interviews while-I’m-in-Japan-at-least. I can now panic about packing instead.

I have a vague desire to go purchase gyoza and cake, but also an irrational fear of adding to the pile of recycling I need to take out in the morning. I just got this stuff organized.

I had a job interview today, and made it back in time for most of last period. My class and another one had been divided into groups last week to perform little skits, and I got into the room just before my group’s taping. I did not have my script, had forgotten we were doing this, and was trying to eat a pastry.

Atom-sensei gave me her copy of the script, so I heroically draped my suit jacket over my shoulders in the manner of a drunken sarariman (much to the dismay of the rest of the group) and read my lines. We got the award for Best Performance, which was a small paper bag of junk food and a certificate signed by a teacher who hadn’t felt like showing up for this.

I felt very proud of myself until I went to my elective, where I discovered I was supposed to have prepared a story to recite. (I have been busy, okay?) I couldn’t think of anything. I paused a lot and told the story about the time mysterious strangers at the Kentucky State Capital kept stopping me and asking me about my “squirrel friend.”

And now I have another job interview in about forty minutes.

My scanner feels it can no longer devote itself properly to the task of scanning documents into my computer. It has decided to focus on its art. When plugged in, it sings heartwrenching songs about its five brothers named Padraic, which can be heard from both neighboring apartments.

My immediate reaction to this discovery was relief, because it’s one less thing I have to -ing pack.

Check-Out Girl: Here’s your change.
Gaijin: Thank you. Uh, I need to turn a jar of coins into bills. Can I do that anywhere here?
Check-Out Girl: Oh, go over to the service counter.
Gaijin: Over there? Okay, thank you.

Gaijin: I wanted to turn this jar of coins into bills. Can I do that here?
Service Counter Girl: Oh… that’s a lot…
Gaijin: Yeah, sorry. And I’ve actually got a second one…
Service Counter Girl: …Sorry, but you should probably go to a bank or a post office.
Gaijin: I can do that at the post office?
Service Counter Girl: Yeah. The nearest one is -
Gaijin: No, it’s okay, I know where it is.
Service Counter Girl: Sorry about that.
Gaijin: No, it’s okay. Thank you.

I realized after having these conversations that I’d gotten through them without pausing to think about what I was saying or confusing anyone. No, this is a big accomplishment.

Spoilers: Continue reading “Tsubasa 198 & 199″

Is a six-hour layover enough to leave the Incheon airport and do anything in Seoul? Or will much of that time be taken up with customs and stuff? Apparently Americans don’t need to mess with visas, but it seems like I might end up standing in lines anyway… (I’ve never had a layover outside the US before.)

Some Guy In Pokemon Pearl: I am a sailor because I love the Pokemon of the sea! *sends out a Feebas*

Me: Wait-a-second - Feebas is a freshwater fish!

(Feebas is not a freshwater fish, because a) Feebas is a Pokemon, not a fish, and b) Feebas isn’t real.)

-

An apparent SEO company named “[chapeau noir] [software facilitating dual-booting of Windows on Mac OS X]” has been spamming me in ways that deliberately reveal who they are. Is this supposed to convince me to purchase their services? I mean, some of the spam looks like this:

Hi, I found your blog on this new directory of WordPress Blogs at [company's url]. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, i duno. Anyways, I just clicked it and here I am. Your blog looks good. Have a nice day. James.

I cannot properly describe all the ways in which this message fails to inspire me to give you money, ridiculous SEO company.

I don’t know if this is new or I’m unobservant or what, but I just realized there’s a comments section under Yahoo Weather (or, Yahoo!7 Weather, which appears to have been left behind by all Yahoo’s redesigns since 1998). And it’s the same comments section for every region covered. People say helpful stuff like “I hate this weather” and “good to get some rain” without realizing that no one who reads the message will know where they are. Maybe it’s some kind of postmodern art exhibit.

The suspicion that I’m going to get an offer for a job I only sort of want on Friday, when it’ll be next week before I hear anything from the people with the job I really want. (I’m 90% sure the guys I talked to today want to hire me, but the interviewers aren’t the ones who make the final decision - there’s a shadowy, mysterious Board out there somewhere, possibly they’re the Shin-Ra, and thus on the Plate, I don’t know.) Even were I unethically-inclined that way, it would get my visa in trouble if I said “yes” to Company A and then went with Company B if I get an offer.

It’s obviously not the worst problem to have, but still. (And now watch as they both reject me with extreme prejudice and anime smilies.)

On the plus side, the guy who conducted most of the interview gave me an explanation as to why, when I’ve been interviewed by native Japanese people, they’ve always gotten kind of stiff and weird when I’ve asked if they have any specific procedures for dealing with kids with discipline problems. His reasoning was that Japanese people don’t like to think that “good kids”* ever act up in class, and therefore dislike the idea of outright disciplinary action - or at least dislike discussing it with someone they feel to be an outsider, even one they’re considering, you know, hiring as a teacher.

The default tactic for kids who act up is assuming that social pressure from the other kids will calm them down eventually. When that fails, there’s no backup system in place. And by this guy’s estimation, it’s failing now more than it did a decade ago, and was failing a decade ago more than it did in the 80’s.

This actually syncs pretty well with my observations - now that I think about it, even Doom-sensei and Sensu-sensei, who generally will talk about anything and have spent a lot of time abroad, have issues discussing anything approaching “kids behaving badly.” Doom-sensei once got really uncomfortable when I asked how the Japanese school system deals with disabled kids. And I’m pretty sure the Master’s she’s working on’s in Sociology.

So maybe it’s not the way I ask that’s rude, but the question itself that’s off-limits.

-

* And obviously there are only good kids in Japanese schools. The bad kids go to other schools. Schools in other dimensions, like in After School Nightmare and Drifting Classroom. (And now I totally bet that the relative prevalence of “weird school” stories in manga relative to in Western YA fiction is a reaction against social uniformity in Japanese school culture. And maybe the stigma against scolding kids is why manga loves angry, over-the-top abusive teachers so much, and why you so rarely see the “good” teachers get angry at anyone for anything. (Mayu from Fruits Basket seems intended to be read as being unusually harsh on her students, and seriously? She’s a creampuff. She’s got Kyo freaking out and climbing out windows and stuff, and does she ever do anything about it beyond making fun of his hair? (Though maybe this is partly gender-based - there’s a good-guy male teacher in early volumes of Yu Yu Hakusho who gets to yell at Yusuke…)))

Problems with which, according to my statistics, my website has failed to help people over the past two months:

why people hold grudges
i cuss too much
mangaka cant draw
why do i have self-destructive impulses
how do i find out if someone faked death
am i serious
can i borrow momo for a week?
serious deep thoughts
what is the longest someone s gone without bathing?
fuck alla yalls
plastic raincoates for gays
these brain numbers

Deeply unscientific survey! Here are links to a bunch of images of a Second Life avatar’s face, with different skin textures applied: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

I would be extremely happy if people who had time went through them and told me in the comments on the LiveJournal (rather than on the website, which is behaving badly) 1) what ethnicity each one “reads” as to you, as short or long or vague or specific as you want, 2) optionally, some kind of description of your own racial/cultural background (like, “white American,” “1/2-generation Taiwanese-Canadian”). This is for a Top-Secret Grumpy Research Project about Second Life skins.

Today I finally did my laundry and grocery shopping. I think it’s been three weeks since I did laundry? I had some really good green tea ice cream at a restaurant a few weeks ago, so I bought some at the store. It turns out that not all green tea ice creams are necessarily edible.

It’s made of something that looks and feels sort of like metal and sort of like plastic. I dented it last month, and now, when its temperature changes, the dent tings and buzzes like steampunk bees.

Tomorrow my class is going on a tour of a Mitsubishi factory. I’m still not sure how that got decided?

I remain deeply stressed by the search for gainful employment, and so accomplish nothing. Unless I get an email agreeing to certain proposed contract alterations tonight (I tried to renegotiate a contract today, I have no idea how to do that), I have another interview after the Mitsubishi thing.

Zimmy is back in Gunnerkrigg Court! Yay! (Actually, she has been since last week, but I’m too fretful to keep up with my webcomics properly right now!)

Reasons you, the person reading this post, should totally be reading Gunnerkrigg Court:

* It is a webcomic with an awesome art style and a female protagonist set in a mysterious steampunk boarding school with a big cast of interesting characters.

* The comic has a strong focus on female relationships, particularly the female protagonist’s with her proto-mad scientist best friend. When they acquire pretty male love interests with dark secrets and names like “Alastair,” it does not detract from their relationship.

* The heroine and her friend are allowed to be badass without being masculinized, as are many other female characters.

* “There is only one sensible resolution to this problem. I must construct a robotic walking device!”

* There are Battle Angel Alita references.

My only issue with it is that, in a comic which borrows a lot from Native American mythology, you’d think the dude could stick in one or two actual Native American characters. The main cast seems to be all white.

Feeling that I was not already stressed-out enough, my subconscious last night provided me with an extremely vivid dream in which my job search was complicated by a natural disaster that made fossil fuel prices rise disastrously. The dream had very specific and plausible ideas about what effects this would have. This morning I kept finding myself on Google trying to research what the chemical makeup of the Aichi area’s soil was like, and what vegetables would grow best in it. You know, so I know what to plant if the grocery stores run out of food.

I finally turned off the computer and played Pokemon for a few hours, which had the desired zombifying effect.

The other day I searched the Second Life map for Lothlorien. This is what it looks like:

There are two different ways to search for places within Second Life. One is the default “search” function, which acts like a normal search engine (a crappy one), and lets you choose whether to search people, places, classified ads, etc. The second way is to open up the map and use its search function. This works differently.

Second Life is divided into a grid. If the owner of the sim changes his/her mind about what to do with it after choosing the name, or wants to squat a name he/she thinks will bring in traffic, or rents the whole thing out to someone with slightly different ideas, the name might not have a lot to do with the actual contents. The Harry Potter-themed Wizard’s Alley is in a sim called “Sunset Harbor.” I don’t think there’s any harbor.

I decided to see what other inappropriately-Tolkien-named areas I could fine. Continue reading “Second Life Adventures - Sim Name Squatters”

* Definitely still in beta.

* The scroll-bar thingie on my touchpad scrolls down, but not up. (I assume this is at least partly because of some problem with my computer itself, since I’ve had similar issues on a few other applications, but those were all either kinda-crappy-open-source-projects or Second Life.)

* YouTube videos crash sometimes. What? Why? Don’t you guys, I mean, own YouTube? Some of Chrome’s documentation is hosted on YouTube.

* Sometimes there are artifacts left on screen after I select and then deselect something.

* The search-within-a-page-thing is apparently only accessible through a menu in the upper right. It doesn’t look like you can set it up to start searching whenever you start typing, a technique I use constantly in Firefox.

* Wordpress interface looks a little weird - there’s something resembling a “resize-here” point stuck into the bottom left of my text box.

* It’s pretty; the import from Firefox was smooth; address bar recommendations are thus far rarely confusing/irritating; I haven’t managed to make it crash yet; and double-clicking within a paragraph selects the whole thing, which is good (though sometimes the selection areas are shaped funny). And I like that the status bar only pops up when you mouseover a link, since checking URLs is all I do with it. This might cause problems for those 90’s-awesome websites that use Javascript to put Sylvia Plath poetry and stuff down there (though I haven’t yet searched one out to check).

* Not about Chrome specifically, but seriously, people - what is this thing with browser spellcheckers not recognizing stuff like “spellchecker,” “touchpad,” “Javascript,” “href” and “deselect?” Are these terms’ applications for “real” status still pending? It’s not like there’s some federal word review board that’ll get on you for including common non-OED words and HTML tags in the damn spellchecker.

* Edit: Ha! I made it crash immediately after posting this! I tried to disable the SnapShots mouseover boxes on LiveJournal, and it crashed so hard Vista wouldn’t let it use its recovery thing.

Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parentheticals That Cost Me Marks on My Thesis:

“3 Who, although a gifted academic, is still a douche.”

I actually pretty much said that about a Renaissance theatre guy named Stephen Orgel this one time. That paper got me my highest grade ever from that professor.