A Moment of Japanese
Frying shiitake mushrooms in mirin while waiting for the glue on my tatebanko to dry – a good start to the weekend I think.
My desk has exploded with stuff – it needs to be organised but instead I keen putting stuff onto it. And until I can’t actually use the laptop properly, it’s unlikely to be cleared anytime soon. Also, being a laptop, I’ll just take it to another table. Hmmm… that means there’ll be more space to dump stuff. A chaotic desk is not very Japanese…
Found lunch
Aki left her lunch at home this morning, so instead of wasting it I took it to work. I did check what was on it – ham and mayo. But that’s not what was on it – ham, mayo and tabasco! I had no other lunch so I had to eat it. It wasn’t quite tears but it was close.
I had a productive early afternoon looking for printable worksheets for the students - Learn English Feel Good. The name is a bit odd but the worksheets are quite nice – I’m testing out prepositions tomorrow.
2011 was a year of much change for me – a hard but productive year. This year has started rather badly and I’m struggling to get into it – some days are bad and some are good. But as I force myself back into my regular routines of last year, things are starting to get into shape. There is no forgiveness when it comes to Sybella’s death but the anger and the sadness will fade and not be so controlling. As it is, I am sad when I see her picture but I no longer cry.
Prison Break
Not so much prison, and not really trapped either but I did have to break out of my pants today. The zip broke and I needed to pee. Now I have to hem my other pants or else I’m completely out of pants for work. Luckily, it’s summer and so there are plenty of dresses to be worn before I need concern myself with pants. And seeing as I’m not a real fan of hemming, it’s going to be delayed until necessary.
Students were writing out their family trees today and asked me to write out mine. Felt a bit heavy to not write Sybella on the board.
Also, I’m being very good with Kekkaishi and only reading a couple of chapters a month or a couple a day at work. Ah, I love shounen art 
I have some others that I’ve bookmarked for later reading.
A Mess
How do people let their lives get so messy? So self absorbed, I don’t think they even realise the ripples of their actions. In some cases, the full extent of their actions escape them completely.
We have all these things we admire in created characters – their caring, their protecting – and yet, in 2011, children all over the world still drown in uncovered pools, when will we learn to care and protect the real lives around us instead of just admiring it in created characters.
We are human, and so we do not learn from the tragedy of others. We have to experience it ourselves, but even then the lessons escape some. We are so good at deluding ourselves because that is how we survive.
Sybella
Little Sybella sometimes called Ella
She was just so clever
Blue eyes always bright
The world was her delight
Mischief, mayhem and trouble
She was there on the double
Dogs, cats, bugs and snails
She would follow all the trails
Now afar, a world apart
You will always be in our hearts
Class Before Christmas
Nightmare Before Christmas was a great success this morning in class. I knew at least half the students would enjoy it but I didn’t expect them all to enjoy it as much as they did. The cat siren pulled the most laughs and an exclamation of ‘cool’. The movies at the one campus are terribly grim – Hotel Rwanda, Yesterday. The one student said he preferred grammar to such depressing movies. I had to agree.
With tomorrow being the last day before the long Christmas weekend, I’m thinking I might do something different from the usual coursebook material. Something a little more communicative, I think. Yesterday I used the Kingdom Hearts story [greatly simplified] for journeys and traveling, and making life decisions along the way. Two students thought Sora was a girl and one thought Riku was the antagonist. All agreed that their shoes were crazy big.
Bleach
Why didn’t I think of it before? Nobodies would be ideal but shinigami are a pretty good second for the dress up tomorrow. And I have a bunch of Bleach cosplay that I haven’t had a chance to wear yet. My first thought was Byakuya but I don’t have a black wig. I also thought of Hitsugaya because I have Hyourinmaru but again no wig and also he’s rather small. So I’m thinking of an OC shinigami. I think it will be more fun than a generic Japanese-like spirit thing.
It did get me thinking about Bleach and how messy it’s got lately. I say lately but I haven’t read it in months so it may have improved and got a coherent story together. I really used to enjoy it. I still really enjoy Naruto though 
And strangely Silver Spoon – farming, weird.
Burning
My mother and sister are heading off for the weekend and have given me strict instruction to not burn down the house while they’re away. Coupled with my disinterest in cooking the weekend menu is looking preprepared. And unlike Aki-chan, I quite like that food. But I’m just as happy to get good food.
I finished up a doublet today so I’m thinking I’ll either work on some fiction or play FFIX tomorrow. There’s also Vagrant Story, which I’ve been wanting to try for a while. I need to get both sewing machines serviced – the one is having tension issues and the other bobbin fails. Tsukikoneko is having a birthday party tomorrow evening with the theme AVATAR. I would have liked to have gone as a Nobody. But with dead machines and limited time it’s not going to happen.
There’s not a lot I like about summer but I do like all the hours of light available in a day. It’s after 18h00 and the sun is shining – still a couple of hours of usable day 
Long Shadows
I bought Batman Long Shadows yesterday – it is great. I think I prefer Greyson as Batman. Or rather, I like how Greyson adapts to the role of Batman. I like how he er… changes some things. And I do find Damien very funny. Yes, I like the direction Batman is going in.
Still need to read some Red Hood though…
I don’t have any work this week so it’s back to doing odd jobs round the house. Today is a little bit of painting, however, it requires some delicate maneuvering - painting from atop a wall and around a gutter.
