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.