Entries this day: Dream Meh State_of_My_Life

Dream

7:19am JST Saturday 10 May 2003

Playing sports on a hill and as I slowly climbed up the hill to my hotel I was collecting cheap balls and frisbees and such. The frisbees were ultimate calibre and a guy bit me on the back as I tried to get away with his frisbee but I started tohit him with it and he let me go as one of his friends was all, "it's only a frisbee"

The cool thing about this frisbee - it was printed on the underside instead of the top.

I got to the hotel and I had a nerf football. A kid was all coming up the hill and I gave it to him. I walked into the hotel wearing only underwear and I approached the front counter thing discreetly and waved the guy over to me. "Hey man; I know I'm not exactly fully dressed. But my clothes are all upstairs."

"We'll arrest you if you try to come in."

"No you won't; I'm just going to run up there and get my clothes and sleep."

"It doesn't look like you'll be up very early."

"Yeah I will; I have to be up at 7."

... be up at seven .... be up at seven.... seven 7 seven seven.. Oh damn. that's today.

Thank you brain for waking me up.

Meh

9:09pm JST Saturday 10 May 2003

Today was pretty busy at work, but I didn't freak and need a hug nor assistance like I did the last time (and Carla helped me).

I got off work around 6pm and decided to check my email to see if anyone is looking for an English teacher just like me.

I then decided I was too tired, so I headed.... not toward home, but toward the grocery store and bought some stuff, including what I hoped was soy milk, but turned out to be rice milk. And including what I hoped were blueberry cookies but turned out to be black bean crackers.

Came home, discovered my misconceptions, ate some anyway. Ate chocolate until my tum was like, "okay, enough chocolate" and a little pile of wrappers collected on the bed.

Decided to nap right after I finish reading livejournal entries and I just finished that. My resulting mood is like.... glad that I'm "up to date" on people's lives, and wondering if my own life is going along in an optimal configuration.

- - - -

Pretty much it is; I mean shit; I'm living in Japan and pretty much have gotten stabilized despite some setbacks that some might consider pretty major

Oh! It's time for a State of My Life Address.

State of My Life

9:18pm JST Saturday 10 May 2003

State of My Life Address

1. I'm living in Japan! I've been here since 27 March 2003.

2. Significant events include:

   1. Navigating without direct human help my way to my apartment from Shinjuku

   2. Losing my hotel key on my second day here (and finding it that same day)

   3. Being handed a practically free Japanese instructor, Koko.

   4. Being handed a free bike for the duration of my stay by Koko's mom

   5. Coming home to find said bike towed

   6. Signing up for 7.5 hours per week of Japanese lessons.

   7. Losing my wallet while trying to recover the bike

   8. Intentionally, deliberately, choosing to start over with a new wallet. "Fuck the loss. Move on."

   9. Getting great help from Koko canceling bank cards, getting new ID cards. Getting help from Koko's mom recovering the bike.

   10. Finding the bike towed *again*, but not as far away

   11. Learning where to park the bike without fear of towage

   12. Benefitting from Japanese lessons.

3. I've noticed some things including:

   1. I don't have to go back to the US after a year.

   2. I can really truly live on my own in pretty much any country in the world.

   3. I really can learn Japanese.

4. Part of me is considering learning Chinese as my next language. I know Tyler has done it; I believe I can do it.

5. I've signed up on www.findateacher.net to begin expanding my income streams away from just working at Nova. I should be able to make twice as much per hour tutoring this way.

6. I've created a white board calendar on my wall which currently monitors my schedule pretty easily, including three basic things:

   1. work schedule
   2. study schedule
   3. workout schedule

7. My workout schedule is pretty simple: Do twice as many pushups per day as the date. Today is the 10th of May. I did 20 pushups this morning. Next month I'll bump it up to thrice as many pushups per day as the date. I won't go past that. 93 pushups is plenty for one day.

8. I'm proud of how well I've been studying.

9. I'm happy that I've not jam-cram-packed my schedule with stuff. I'm willing to add tutoring (making moolah) to my schedule, but that's basically it.

10. My room is kindof a mess.

11. I've developed a way to teach some prepositions in a systematic way that I believe is pretty accurate and hopefully quite helpful:

    TIME
    IN (big)	months years	in July
    		in 2002
    		in March 2003
    		in August
    ON (medium)	days	on Tuesday
    		on July 15th
    		on Friday 21 June
    		on Monday
    AT (small)	hours minutes	at 4:15
    		at noon on Tuesday
    		at 8 o'clock
    		at 6AM

    LOCATION
    IN (big)	cities prefectures countries	in Japan
    		in Kawasaki City
    		in Yokohama
    		in the world
    AT (small)	houses buildings stores	at my house
    		at Nova
    		at Kawasaki station
    		at the police box
    ON (touching)	anything	on the table
    		on the ceiling
    		on the wall
    		on the floor

12. Work at Nova is not so bad.

13. I'm proud of myself for beginning the process of becoming self employed here and not just living at the mercy of Nova and how much money I can make with them.

14. I'm proud of myself for engaging the world around me, but not doing it in a desperate frenzy of socializing (read drinking and sexing to forget (read cover) all my problems) out late at nights and such.

15. Sometimes I wonder if I could learn more Japanese by being "out in it" but I imagine that I'll learn enough as I engage the world more carefully.

16. I'm really proud of myself for charging forward despite any obstacles. Overall, that's what I seem to be doing.

Thank you for your support.