Author: Oggy (Page 14 of 29)

So for the last 10 years (at least), everyone’s been talking about how yesterday was going to be the end of the world. I’m a little disappointed. I had to wake up early this morning. I didn’t want to have to wake up early. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to die or anything, but the end of the world sounds a little exciting. I was excited, and I think that if it was the end of the world, I wouldn’t have had to wake up so early…

Relevant Video

Oh well.

Anyway, the holidays are upon us once again. I just wanted to let you know that I will be sending out gifts to many of you, but they will be late. I’ll be trying to get them out to you during my vacation, so you should receive them sometime in January.

Also, I need addresses. I should probably send an email personally requesting your address, but I’m lazy… so can you just email me your address. It saves a whole step. And if you’re lazy too, you don’t need to go to your email program or website, you can just type it in here (now I’m saving you a step, see how efficient I am). It will come to my email inbox, and you don’t have to do anything else. By the way, please don’t put your address in the comments on this page unless you want it to be publicly visible. I mean… that’s okay if that’s what you want. Very few people visit my site, but anyone can visit, and if your address is publicly visible, anyone who does visit can see it. That’s just the way it works.

Okay, I am rambling now.

Finally, for anyone who has seen the Hobbit. Should I see it in 2D or 3D? Why? I will hopefully be going to see it within the next few days, but I have to go to another city to catch it in English (which is the only reason I haven’t seen it yet).

One last thing, does anyone have the Kindle Paperwhite? I really want to hear about it. I’m considering getting one, and I was curious if it is that much better than the Kindle Keyboard. Please tell me. I must know!!!

Okay, one more thing. This is it. The Wii U is out now! I’m seriously considering this one as well. Just not sure about getting the Japanese version. It looks pretty awesome. I really miss my Wii Tennis parties.

Have a good non-end of the world weekend everyone!!!

Oggy

Hey everyone,

Things are going well. As you can see on the right, I’ve added my Twitter feed to my website. I’ve been using it a little more recently. I’m not sure that I will continue to use it so much. It is just my preferred means of communication for the moment. I don’t like the idea that it is limited to only 140 characters though. I’m not really a believer in the idea that if you can’t say something in 140 characters, then it isn’t worth saying at all. I’m usually pretty wordy. Oh well. Maybe it will help me be more concise with my students.

A few things have been happening. Nothing special with work at the English school, but I have been making drinks on the weekends. It’s been pretty awesome. It’s been amazing for learning Japanese too. I have spoken with so many random people. It reminds me a little of being back home, talking to random people at the bars, except that they speak Japanese. I have finally gotten the idea of basic communication in Japanese. I love it. I can understand a lot of what I hear, and I have even started translating a little for my friends who can’t understand (mostly simple stuff).

If you watched the news this week, you may have seen the news about the 7.3 magnitude earthquake. Don’t worry, I’m safe. No damage either. I think the earthquake caused a small tsunami (like 1.5 feet). This is what we think of that:

Yeah, I must admit, after the big one last year, it takes a lot to get me, and most of the people here, scared when it comes to earthquakes. I was teaching a children’s class on Friday when the 7.3 hit. There were 3 girls in the class, one four, one five, and one six year-old. After we realized that it was going to be a fairly sizable earthquake, the kids ran under the table, and I just sat next to the table to make sure they didn’t panic. I asked them if they were afraid, and the five and six year-olds said yes, but the four year-old just started laughing and said that she wasn’t afraid of anything. We are perfectly okay. Needless to say, it was very cute. She got up and started dancing while the earthquake was going on. We weren’t in any danger of the building falling down, so I didn’t think much of it.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. I made it through Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. I can’t believe that it took so long for me to read Ender’s Game. It’s a classic. I read The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I enjoyed them mostly, although I must admit that Katniss was extremely irritating in the second book. I was honestly threatening to slap her through my Kindle because I couldn’t believe how dense she was. Finally, I read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. This was an awesome book. I was surprised by how sexually explicit it was being from Japan, but it was entertaining. I read all those in 3 weeks and then came to a dead end. I didn’t know what to read next, so I took a week off, and then decided to pick up Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I think I saw a reference to it on a TV show, so I decided to read it. So far, it’s pretty good. I haven’t figured out why it has been challenged in the US (by people wanting it banned), but perhaps I’ll figure that out as I make it through the book.

I’ve been checking out the new Kindle Paperwhite. At first I didn’t think it was so impressive, but the more I see and read about it, the better it looks. Anyone reading this that can give me a fairly decent account of the pros and cons of having a Paperwhite vs the Keyboard version?

I think that will be enough for now.

Stay warm everyone, it’s getting cold.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
I hope you each get the opportunity to enjoy a food filled holiday with your loved ones.

As requested, I have updated my Amazon wishlist.
Here’s the link:
Amazon Wishlist

Well, I was asked while I was back home to update my blog more often. The main reason I haven’t is that after being here for two years, it has started feeling like home, and there’s not a lot of novel things that I’ve been doing. Basically, I’m not posting much so that I can avoid the monotony of, “I went drinking again at the same place.” or “Here are more pictures of the same places that I have posted pictures of before.”

Having said that, there is a little to post about this time.

So first of all, congrats Patrick and Amanda Kenna on an absolutely amazing wedding. I was so happy I could be part of it. I don’t have pics from the wedding yet, but when I get some, I’ll post them here.

My trip to Oklahoma was too short, and I wish that I had the opportunity to spend more time with everyone, but alas, time is fleeting, and I can only do so much with what I have.

I spent Halloween here, and it was uneventful as usual. They don’t really celebrate it here. We did have a work party, but it wasn’t a typical good American Halloween party.

The elections are over (finally). I have had to explain the American political system to a lot of my students, as theirs is entirely different. They don’t get to vote for their president, and most of the people here are apathetic (except for the nationalists, who are pretty crazy).

I had a chance to test Windows 8 recently, as it was just released. To make a long story short, I’d say skip it unless you have a multi-touch screen computer. If you can’t use touch, it’s a pain to learn all the gestures using only the mouse. I definitely won’t be buying it without a touch screen. If you’d like to know more, just let me know and I can explain more thoroughly.

And finally, I went to Choushiga (pronounced Cho-oo-shi-ga) Waterfall last weekend (pics added here). I was lucky as the leaves began changing colors about a week and a half ago, and by now they are nearly all brown and dead. Having said that, it was beautiful. The hike was nice as well. I sometimes wish that they didn’t add stairs into the mountain. Sometimes I just want to explore and find a crazy way down, and have to figure out a different crazy way up, but since so many people go to these places, it makes sense that they would add easy access.

I think that’s it for now. I’m off to read a nice book in bed. Have a good day everyone!!!

Just as I promised in my previous post, I’m updating.

I know I’ve been out of touch with everyone. Sorry. I’m really looking forward to catching up.

Things really haven’t changed at work. It’s still super busy, but I think they’re trying to get it back to normal. It’s apparently a very long process.

I did get a vacation in August. My dad came out and stayed for a week. It was crazy. I’ll be adding pica to the gallery after I post this. I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it, but I know he was happy to get home.

Also, I will be coming into the Oklahoma for 2 weeks in October. I am hoping that I will have an opportunity to see everyone.

On a final note, I have just updated the theme of my website for mobile devices (thanks Jessi!), so if you have a smartphone or tablet, check it out.