During my guitar lesson tonight, I commented to my guitar teacher that C is a very difficult chord for me. I decided it was my least favourite. And then he introduced me to F.

I changed my mind.

Dear students (and teachers) who are leaving ( Read more... )

So... I started guitar lessons on March 1st. And I am spectacularly inept after my second lesson.

At the beginning of the year, my kindergarten classes were failing pretty badly. They have gotten better since then but I originally thought that I could make them interesting by bringing a guitar to sing along with. If only I knew how to play. There is ( Read more... )

So... it snows in Kiryu. ( Apparently. )

I like things to be new. I like things to be shiny. I like things to be right. To work properly and to look the way they were intended.

Please don't think I am desperate for attention. Please don't think I am annoying. Please don't think ill of me because of my quest for rightness.

But know this:

I am a squeaky wheel.

When the list of promises I've broken is longer than the list of promises I've kept. When my spiteful anger takes more than a few hours to fade. When I feel like crying more often than I feel like laughing.

When the wine drinks itself, when the skull speaks, when the clock strikes the right time.

Has anyone ever been to Kiryu-shi in Gunma-ken before? Because it looks like that's where I'm going to be living for the next year or so. It's north of Tokyo and the topographical map suggests it might be in the mountains. It's an entirely land locked prefecture which will be a big change from EVERYTHING I am used to. And if it's extremely rural I  ( Read more... )

I would like to hesitantly announce that I am, in fact, heading back to Japan with the JET Programme. Provided my X-ray report actually does come in on Monday (it was supposed to come in today).

I think I will be leaving on August 1st. And I feel so overwhelmed. It was such a sudden announcement and there are so many forms to fill out that I think I ( Read more... )

Why is it impossible for a celebrity to just follow the rules? Is it so hard to not get arrested? What kind of example are they setting for the rest of us, who look to them as idols? As someone to emulate?

http://ca.music.yahoo.com/read/news/61987665

I really hate this. Small comfort, I suppose, but at least it wasn't Shingo.

There once was a bear who lived in the woods. Like many other bears, this bear hibernated through most of the winter. Every once in a while, however, this bear would wake up to gather food and take stock of the days. The bear was fiercely independent and liked to choose when, how and why she would take these occasional breaks in her hibernation. ( Read more... )