I gave The Slideshow tonight to Uncle Shane and Aunt Shirley. (It's a shorter version of the abridged collection available here. I'll be leaving the online collection as it is, though - it's currently just fine for browsing piecemeal and contains some things that I found painful to cut.)

The Good News: It held interest. It wasn't nearly so onerous ( Read more... )

I'm in the midst of creating my slideshow, but as things go these days, it's mostly a matter of what to leave out, not what to put in. I've whittled the abridged collection down to 1,871 from the original of 7,306 (and counting: I've found more things to upload ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I took Grandma’s car for a spin to the post office to get the mail - it barely started, the temperature was around -20°C - and while I was out I got a Rockstar Juiced, drank it, put the finishing touches on this essay, and now I have the shakes, probably due to the cold and the caffeine... Aunt Shirley’s in bed, so I’ll just turn this thermostat ( Read more... )

I'm not quite up to the suggested length, but I might try to get away with a version of this. What say you? Internet Land, are there any questions you want me to answer - not so much work stuff, but about living in Japan in general? It'd really help. 01/26: A tenth “coping strategy” has been added.As I write this (Sunday night, 6:34pm, in Souris, ( Read more... )

I really don’t know where to begin with this ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Written at home under the snows of New Year’s Day

I got into Narita and called Masae - I said I was “standing under the ‘L’,” and maybe that wasn’t clear enough because she ended up paging me. =) First we went to the courier counter to pick up my suitcases - she was even going to pay for them (more than ¥4000!) but I couldn’t let her, social norms ( Read more... )

Written late Christmas Eve at a Super 8 in Queens; finished later at homeOne thing I will miss about Japan is the great service. Honestly, seeing the brash and sometimes rude airline / airport / hotel shuttle staff at their worst along this journey has been a huge shock. Most people are OK, but you still kind of have to approach them knowing that ( Read more... )