Well the internet is back, life is slow and easy and I've had a week basically off. I taught nine classes in my first week for a big ole' $300 and it sure felt relaxing. My apartment is in order and all set up, I'm done with Aeon - so what in God's name am I going to do with the 15 waking hours surrounding my lonely lessons. Hell of a good question!

Aside from the obvious "work more" (and I do need to work about twice as much as this to get some forward momentum) the plan is to write, take photographs and explore. Throw in a little Japanese there too. While my older compatriots here think 25 is still time to screw around, I'd like to give some shape and focus to my life, not to mention get back on the wagon regarding my goals for the year. Anyway, stay tuned.

PS - here's a little nugget of advice: strong Peppermint soap should only be used on the tough thick skin of the hands and torso. I'll leave you to imagine the rest.

Tags: internet, life, kyoto

kaa kaa! whuufff .... gnnnunng...gnuuugngn ka,kakkkakakka!

She lives!

Being without internet is a grim existence indeed. Take a snapshot in your mind: Perrin turns his back on the glow of his open laptop like a spurned lover and stares out through the rainwashed window, over the stony graveyard, into the howling darkness.

Anyway, it has been three days since I left Aeon and I am still pretty stunned. It's like a vacation, minus the imperative to go somewhere and do something. On the contrary, I feel compelled to not spend money, as that will dwindle quickly. In an effort to do so I have begun a logbook for all of my expenditures - what a shock! I am a serious sugar addict. I don't down can after can of coke, but I have found that I almost always end up buying some little sweet treat here or there. I've been cooking a lot more recently too - that has lead to the discovery that I want to eat sweet things even when I am totally full.

So, ....... sorry girl just jiggled by on the running path ....... I bought 3 bunches of overripe bananas and froze them, which I hope will help curb this addiction more healthily.

If I want the slightest chance of uploading this I'll have to do it now - this wifi ain't fast.

3 days and counting until hookup time... the internet, that is.

I just bought the upgrade for Rapidweaver 3.6 and one of the features is faster uploading times. I had to upload the whole site again, which I think took over two hours. I'm trying again now - one of the big annoyances of RW has been slugass uploads that chew up my internet and computer's resources, so hopefully it will work better.

Tags: Software

Well there goes April! Right, so I got sick twice, wrote and submitted 2 writing projects, organized and prepared for my first bike tour and then fucked right off for said tour for a week. Life does have a gearbox and I feel like I have been running in overdrive since Kayla came to visit in April. It was this feeling of chaos and clutter that made hiding out in my new apartment with a beer and a book for 5 hours on Sunday such a treat. Rain was cascading down along the mountains and pelting the graves outside my window while I ate snacks and tried to figure out just where in world I was and where I was going. Didn't reach a verdict but the snacks were good.

The continued acceleration of leaving my school and trying to find extra work to ease the transition is going to make sitting in my new minimalist apartment by the graveyard without an employer in a foreign country feel like hitting the earth at terminal velocity. Full stop. I cringe at such whole-sale change, but wince at the alternatives: staying at my psychotically busy school with its unpaid overtime (got home at 10pm last night, thanks), 30 a week schedule stretched out with long breaks into a 40 hour fulltime commitment.

So the future holds a few things: free time, less money at first, more money hopefully later, freedom. Being my own man. Not handing over the bulk of my wages to the headquarters committees who pick their noses through every inconsequential decision. I hope to start writing a Kyoto book once my schedule is loosened up. Either way, things are going to change for the better around WW headquarters - stay tuned.

Well it has been a month since I noted how I am doing, so let's do it again!

--Writing. Not getting along with people at work sure helped me write a lot a couple months ago! Better relationships are good though, so I won't complain about that. Kayla came for a visit as well, and that, combined with losing 3 staff members within a month and the huge desire to be outside and in the springtime sunshine, enjoying the cherry blossoms in their fleeting beauty... Anyway, it has been stupid busy. So I haven't been writing daily, but I have published my first article ever, lined up another for publication, and have been asked to write a third one, the longest yet! I also submitted some poems to Tyler's journal; I got a form-letter reply saying they'd contact me so who knows what's going on with that. Either way, it is a submission done and with the one I do this April, I will be on pace for submissions.

--Reading. I knocked off The Tipping Point, and GTD. I am still staring at The Odyssey and dreading the enormity of the reading to go. It isn't the novels, it is the poetry anthologies. Anyway, deal with that later. I am swapping out Lost Japan for another book I already have and which is more pertinent to my current situation: Kyoto by John Dougill. So far it is a great account of the immense history this city has. I am not a big fan of "and in 1209 such and such said this and so and so reacted by writing a thinly veiled haiku" history style; fortunately this book divides the facets of the city by theme and traces the themes over time. I also got my hands on a free copy of On Writing by Stephen King, so I figure I'll read that instead of rereading If You Want to Write.

--Japanese. Nothing doing. Lameness. I am going to go to a pretty secluded island for my vacation this spring though, so I am planning a big cram session before I go. Hopefully I'll come back after having some good language experiences and will be further energized.

--Photography. I am behind by about 300 photos, my new memory card seems to have a bad sector which corrupted a whack of photos from Kayla's visit, but on the plus side, the weather is great for photography, I love photos of cherry blossoms, I bought my first tripod set up last weekend and I started taking my first night photos, which turned out badass. I'll likely have no problem shooting over 200 during my 9 day vacation as well.

--Work. Work at Aeon is totally fricken crazy right now. Combine that with the extra Saturday lessons I am doing, plus the occasional sunday open, and my last full day off was nine days ago. Thus we have the reason for an apartment in total disarray. Good money though, and it helps the transition to whatever it is that I am going to do after Aeon.

I've felt recently that the attempt to actually do something cool instead of just putter along in the status quo actually attracts problems. February was more or less a nightmare: dealing with Grandma Jo and my breakup drove me into socialization overdrive to stave off feeling down, one of my few friends left the next week into the silent vacuum of California, relationships deteriorated around work with my manager in the hospital for a month and everyone stressed out, trying to do to much in too little time made me late for two private lessons, my house went nearly a month without a good cleaning.

November was pretty much without comment yet two months later February goes all to hell. Irritating.

I've had a few successes, despite all this. Let's do an overview.
--Writing. My daily writing hasn't been great this week, but before that it was pretty solid. It helped that the previous two weeks I was fucking off and writing when I should have been working; I really can't continue to do that, so my writing time needs to be elsewhere. The great news, however, is that I submitted my first article to a local magazine and it should be published in april. I am also going to send something into Ty's Pine Beetle Review, as soon as my editors get back to me.
--Reading. I've read six books so far, which would make it seem that I am on pace to finish the whole list in time. Unfortunately I have been knocking off mainly the easy ones, so harder reading lies ahead. I am about half done The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel and so far it is good, so good in fact that it makes me want to be a sailor... well, nearly. I am also rereading Getting Things Done and listening to an audiobook by the same author, whom I can thank for what little control I have over my life right now. I'm going to be meeting up with Matt at the end of the month, so I have to finish The Tipping Point by then and give it back to him.
--Photos. I am really behind so far. I think I have shot 600 instead of 800 right now, and there are two main problems. 1) my cards, combined, don't hold a hundred photos, so I either have to delete as I go and make room, or constantly swap and dump. That's annoying. 2) I have yet to figure out a fast and easy system for importing photos, deleting junk, editing the good ones and importing the lot into iPhoto. I guess the realization is this: if the photo isn't good enough to take the time to edit, it should probably be deleted or kept just for the "I was there, I did this" factor. That means that my photography and editing skills still have a long way to go, as most of them don't seem worth editing.
--Work. Teaching privates has been ok, but my coworker opted to stay longer so I can't count on that income right away. On the upside, I can go on Japanese EI for three months at 60% wages to help cover my bills for a while. The real challenge here isn't finding work - there are gobs of teaching jobs - but finding good work. I'd ultimately like to be working at a college or doing some contract writing work, but I have to do some figuring to get there first.

Studying Japanese and exercising have both basically sucked. I am going to change my Joe's goals system a bit: if I go two days in a row not doing something, the penalty will be doubled. Similarly, if I can go a week without missing something, that goal will be doubled for a day. I think I'll also raise the bar too: from now on my goal is going to be +5, as +4 is a bit easy to do.

So what's to come on Wendingwayfare? Next week I'll have my review of the Getting Things Done methodology and potentially some new photos. I'd also like to do a location spotlight, so keep your eyes peeled (or subscribe to the RSS feed).

Just trying this out.

And these videos are pretty funny.

Everything pretty much goes out the window when emotion rears his ugly head, so I'm happy to have just escaped last week and all of its drama. I have gone onto a full-scale socializing offensive in an attempt to enjoy life and spend as little time at home, and my wallet will attest that I have been successful. Last weekend was the traditional New Year's celebration here in Japan (they do also celebrate Jan 1st) so I was out past midnight or nearly so for the previous four nights. I hope to post some pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Regarding the goals:
--Writing daily has been, by far, the most successful. I've been writing and reading about 30 mins each minimum, which is not too shabby. It isn't 2000 words a day, a target I read about online recently, but it is an improvement.
--The book list. The Odyssey is so damn big! I am a third done, but I decided to start reading In Patagonia just to be able to write a review sooner.
--Taking photos has gotten a lot harder, but I have hit my target for January. I've realized that my lens length has some creative limits, particularly because I usually like to take wide photos, not portrait shots. The portraits I have taken are great, but they really require getting into people's faces, something I am still not very good at. In addition, the winter lighting in Japan is pretty dreary somedays and I am getting tired of photos of temples. On top of that, I've decided to shoot in RAW, that is, shoot in an uncompressed, unprocessed format in order to learn how to use photoshop creatively. The problem is that my cards can't hold many RAW photos and I spend a lot more time uploading.
--Submissions. I have been putting this one off, but I can't for much longer. I have a few poems I am going to submit soon, and I think I am going to aim for a cheap print publication, rather than a famous one or a 'zine (how I loathe the term).
--Work. I have now have 4 private students, accounting for about $300 a month. If a couple coworkers give me theirs upon leaving this number could double, though the hourly rate isn't fantastic.
--Japanese. This one hasn't been good. I think, like I tell my students, that I need to pick a specific time to study.

All things considered, the month has been decent. My strong points have been writing, reading and photography, the weak ones exercise, Japanese and submission. And with that, I am back at it! Look for photos soon.

I'm looking at my list of resolutions to see how things are going. First off, this week has been one of the most miserable weeks in recent memory for me, so that I got much of anything done at all was somewhat exceptional. !) I knocked off 2 books. See below. Roald Dahl is nearly done, but The Odyssey is going to take me forever.
2) I did some writing and decided on the article topic for this month's submission: an intro to Japanese Buddhism. I figure it's a pretty good idea because I am both interested and ignorant in the topic.
3) I've shot nearly 200 photos so far, so that's on track.
4) The Japanese isn't moving forward. Got to move on that.
5) Joe's Goals is interesting. I am sort of swinging back and forth, particularly because of these extraordinarily shitty days. I also think I need to turn up the ratings on the ones I am routinely dodging, and turn down the easy ones.

Gah. I am in one of those moods where a quick finger to skip a depressing song is critical for getting through the evening. No "with or without you" No random counting crows song. Piss off Sting. Whew, ok, I think I can handle Paul Simon, at least this song.

I've had one report of wackiness with my site from someone using IE. Anyone else having problems? Post in the comments.

3 Things, because I should be in bed:

I have added new photos to the gallery, and finally decided on a layout for such galleries, after having my entire Saturday derailed by the issue. The pictures are of staff and students at my Christmas party.

Books have been suggested. I am now adding Sartre's Nausea and Financial Peace by Ramsey, thanks to Ty at TRR and Matt, my compatriot in geekery. The book list is at 16, and I'll add three from the Hiking world and :
Lightweight Backpacking and Camping: A field guide to wilderness hiking equipment, technique and style
Fixing your Feet
The Complete Walker IV

Four Pairs of Boots - McLachlan
Lost Japan - Kerr

BUT - I'll still keep that space open... that's right, you can still suggest 8 more books, and I'll read all 29 next year and write reviews!

Lastly, the super cool doods at Macheist are selling a fantastic bundle of mac shareware. $50 nets you $300 of award winning software. Check out the site if you or someone you know loves macs - it would make a good present, and 25% of proceeds go to a charity of your choice. My favorite is Delicious Library, which is a super sexy way to keep track of all of your books, cds, dvds or vids in one place. You can even use your webcam to scan in the barcodes.

Correction: I had intended to include the Tipping Point in my original list, so I didn't add Matt's suggestion. Now I see I forgot to write it down. Added!

Part of my reluctance to update recently was due to indecision about my site design. As it stands I have 2 blog-style entry lists with summaries and then main entries. I want to keep the two somewhat separate, as the travel's page is better for a potential employer to see. My photos, similarly, are buried in another section.

Anyone have any suggestions for different site organization? Bear in mind that I am not working with code - I am using Rapidweaver to put the site together, so some options, like one RSS feed for multiple pages, doesn't seem possible.

***
Three hours later I had purchased a new theme and was far deeper into screwing around with my site than ever before. Let me know what you think of it.

I have the same photo gallery published in flash over on the photo page. Let me know how it runs on your computers, as there is a less graphically intense version available.

Also, don't forget that both "Travels" and "Hobbyist Punditry" have separate RSS feeds. Subscribe, if you want to avoid senselessly coming to my site and oogling. Or don't and oogle. Both are cool with me.

Sometimes things just work, just click together with auditory certainty that everything is great, as though forces beyond all control have been running this tape in reverse and have got everything lined up.

Websites are not as such. The analogy is closer to something infernal: cries of anguish, an unearthly glow of latenight keyboard-slaving, curses and sulphur. In any case, my fell creation has been born unto this world to wreak what havoc it may.

Ominous allusions aside, my intention for this site is to provide travel information for the places I visit, and anecdotal stories about my haphazard experiences, particularly in Japan. In separate sections, I will detail new lightweight hiking gear that I have tested, as well as semi-amateurish photos.

If you enjoy what you read, have comments, criticisms or additions to my information, please leave a comment: they are appreciated.