October 2008
42 posts
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In which we take to the driving course... and...
Second day at the driving school. I met the teacher who will be in charge of me for most of the time. It’s been a while since I last operated a car, and it’s been never since I’ve operated one on the opposite side of the road. Everything is reversed in a Japanese car… except the pedals, thank bloody goodness. So while I did not mistake accelerator for break, I DID try to...
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The driving school EPIC begins! In DETAIL!
You may recall that I had signed up for Japanese driving school, in the hopes that I will be able to operate a car for more than the one year my international driver’s permit will allow. The orientation was this evening. I went in bleary-eyed and expectationless, and came out… slightly confused.
I wandered in 10 minutes before the orientation was scheduled to begin, carrying my hat, a...
Why I don't like Oprah
I don’t like Oprah. I once debated with a friend for three hours about why I didn’t like her… but I think I’ve talked about all of this before, so I will just link this great article/podcast episode by Brian Dunning about the top 10 celebrities who promote harmful pseudoscience. Guess who tops the list.
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Something actually like a blog entry about things...
I signed up for Japanese driving school today. You have no idea how much this pains me and my bank account. I CAN drive and have an American license (from the proud state of Massholechusetts), but the Japanese government ain’t digging that I’ve only had it for two months in America (yes, I was a lazy, lazy bastard. Don’t be like me, kids). Plus, it’s angry diplomatically...
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Just because I can't access Twitter at work......
kxj:
GPS system necessary.
Today’s Amazon Gold Box deal is the Dash Express, which is a GPS system that gets live traffic information from other Dash users in the area. The socially-aware part of it is the cool thing, but it hinges on other people actually using it in your area… shouldn’t be too much trouble in D.C. And it’s only $300, which is pretty damned good for ANY...
The obvious: let me state it for you.
NEW LAYOUT WAAAAOOOOOT.
Thus ends a post Corey will hate.
Pro-America vs. Anti-America →
Jon Swift sorts things out, just in case you were confused.
FriendDA →
Like an NDA but with friends… get it, get it?? Read the story behind it.
Neil Gaiman needs a hug and a T-Mobile G1
He writes:
“Hello,” I said, like a man entering a cheeseshop. “I’d like to play with a G1, please.” There was a man and a woman behind the counter. They said they were sorry but they didn’t have a G1 for me to play with. … “Look, are we talking about the same thing? G1 phone. The one on that poster. And that poster. And that one…” The...
WatchI’VE BEEN DREAMING OF THIS APP AND IT’S FINALLY REAL!! </end geekgasm>
WatchOuttakes from Salute Your Shorts… classic!
Halloween costume ideas
karmcity:
Wear XXLarge clothing, and use padding to make yourself extra “hefty.” Glue or sew a small stuffed dog into the “butt crack” area. Carry a “Lost Dog” sign.
One of the many amazing ideas from the Costume Idea Zone. 95% of them involve wearing a shirt of a specific color and attaching something to yourself. Like this one:
Piece of Gum Under a Chair (or Table) Dress in pink clothes and...
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“If Josh SPORK more clearly, people would understand him.”
– One of my students’ responses to a workbook question.
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Lows
I tried to make this sound thoughtful and even poetic, but it’s just not working.
I’m down. It’s finally hitting me. That I’m in some foreign country and this is not my home. It’s like that mental disorder that makes people think parts of their body is NOT their body and they become incredibly uncomfortable until they saw off the perpetrating body part themselves.
...
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At least the eskimos have stopped biting
Speaking of none of this at all, “mosquito” seems to be a hard word for people to say here. One of the young teachers at my school was explaining that there were mosquitos all over school, but accidentally called them “eskimos”, much to the amusement of myself and another teacher. My friend’s student also made the same mistake and called mosquitos eskimos on another...
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My apartment is "haunted"
Heard this from one of the other JETs in the area:
One winter night two or three years ago, my predecessor was sleeping in front of the heater out in the main room (where I’m sitting now), when she woke up in the middle of the night. She thought she saw something run to the back room. When she looked around in the dark, she saw that it was a little boy. On the other side of the room stood a...
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Shuffling
Remember when you were little and how, whenever you came upon a slippery smooth floor, you would shuffle your feet across it as you walked as if it you were skating? One of the teachers here does this in the office. If you just watch her upper body as she walks behind a desk, she looks like she’s gliding across it. And the shuffling of her feet sort of sounds like a quiet choo-choo train....
How to hide a Boot Camp partition from OS X
In Windows (either via Parallels/VMWare/whatever or Boot Camp), rename the C: drive to something starting with a period. Boot Camp and any decent virtualization software should still be able to boot from the partition, but it will remain hidden in Finder. Now I am finally free of that “untitled” Parallels partition! Whoopee!
Never really been into Canon cameras... but now I... →
...and then Steve surprised no one
Well, Steve did the totally predicted and unveiled new Mac laptops… and got rid of trackpad buttons in his continuing crusade against BUTTONS.
I don’t get why ANYONE needs 39% more scrolling space, though… okay, maybe the people with big hands who want to do that awesome low-five trackpad gesture (disclaimer: it is actually a four-finger swipe, but I think Steve should look into...
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The extent of my melancholy
They closed down the public bath house near my house and turned it into yet another pachinko parlor. What am I supposed to do when my bathtub explodes?
Geeky note to self: What to do if my MacBook Pro's...
It’ll be Apple’s fault.
(Jie, take note because I think yours is in this lot too.)
BIG NEWS!! →
Nobel Prizes schnobel prizes… now THIS is innovation!
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Back from Nakashibetsu!
So the conference I went to (did I even mention that here?) turned out to be super fun. I got to meet a bunch of great teachers who spoke very good English, as well as some really nice ALTs, and had a good time with everyone!
I also got to try “milky ramen,” which looked like this:
…and tasted deeelicious! Unfortunately not pictured was our amazing dinner from an INCREDIBLY...
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DSi →
Well I’ll be damned.
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Job satisfaction
Students come into the teacher’s room at my school all the time, asking questions, looking for advice, plain chit-chatting with teachers… you name it. Recently, however, students have been coming in to thank teachers for all their help, since many students have been taking career entrance exams and have just heard back from the employers. It’s really something to see a teacher...
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My, these shoes are comfortable!
Sitting around the office with very little to do has given me a lot of time to think… and to shamelessly stare at my coworkers and make up stories about them in my head, but that is another story. Anyway, watching all the other teachers bustle about while I sit here idly (the only other person who seems to be anywhere close to my level of idleness is my supervisor, the reason...