WOW! That's about all I have to say.Yahoo! News - Woman Gives Birth to Giant Baby

Thoughts

thedaniel has hinted to the nature of "The Project." As for my own creative endeavor, I’ve been reading quite a bit, but with class work starting, the crispness is beginning to fade. That means I have to reread those books with utmost concentration so that I can weigh their authors’ thoughts in mind. However, the nature of classes means that I will be thinking very critically about the texts we must read, which I have already begun.

In preparation for “The Project,” and mental activity in general, I have been cleaning my personal space, and by that I mean, the hard drive. It has been very cathartic, like getting rid of all of the things that you keep convincing yourself that you need, but in actuality they are merely holding you back, mired in excess clothes, books, and random bits, or bytes if you prefer.

My research project is about begin again; a few more days and I’ll have access to the computers once more. I am not at all pleased with the progress I’ve been making, but my advisor has told me, and I quote, “[I]n discussing it with one of the top people there [they] [were] very pleased that we got [it] working in Phase One[.]” The “there” referenced is our grant agency, so apparently there are people pleased with the progress. Unfortunately, I can’t speak about the nature of what I am doing until it has been done, for bureaucratic reasons only, not because it is some mysterious thing. Thus, the computer cleaning is helpful for that project as well as “The Project.”

I’m also adding some new links to the side bar. Notice, if you will, that I have a link to the site feed. The other links I’ll let you check out on your own. I have also completed my Squirrel Nut Zippers album collection. I have, in fact, caught them all.

Thoughts

Ah! Life is finally normalizing after returning. We went to Saizeria on Wednesday, which is a regular occurrence, all the more so on Wednesday, when we used to have Saizeria nights. Saizeria is my haven for study. I can enjoy all I can drink, and it is rarely ever busy enough to guilt me into leaving. You see, the waiting staff is paid a fair wage; they don’t have to rely on tips, so as long as I’m not taking up a table that could be used for business there is no point in leaving. I can also enjoy faux Italian food. Thursday evening we had Nishida over, and despite how far our Japanese had deteriorated in the three weeks we were gone, we had a good time. We talked about the progression of Japanese authors, especially the similarities between Haruki Murakami and Kobo Abe. As for the last month plus, it had been quite hectic leading up to the 5th of December, but after the first two weeks were through all my exams had been finished and I could breathe a sigh of relief. We took three weeks to return to America to see friends and family. That was a great enjoyment and I was able to relax and get some reading done. Still, it is nice to get “home.” It is strange thinking of Japan as home, but it is, I think, where we feel we fit in. There are numerous problems, of course, like, our best friends are still in the states, we still are not fully functional with the language, and we have to move again in August anyway. That being said, I have a new project that I’m working on with thedaniel, but I’m not going to say too much more about it until we have a bit more thought put to it.

There's no place like home...?

After far too long attaching ourselves to the inside of transport devices and waiting patiently for them to carry us at high speeds over land, sea, and rail to our destination, we have returned.

As the plane came to a stop at Kansai, the Japanese woman I had been sitting next to on the plane for thirteen hours turned to me and spoke: "Do you often visit Japan?" she asked.
"I live here!" I replied with a grin.
"Oh? Osaka?" she inquired.
"No," I shook my head. "Shiga, Shiga-ken," I repeated above the growing din of travellers hauling things out of overhead lockers.
She nodded. "You're an unusual foreigner," she said.
"Well," I replied, laughing, "I teach English."

Yup. There's no place like home. Though I like Japanese customs: with a brief glance to our luggage tags just to make sure we'd actually grabbed our own luggage, they waved us through. Ahh.