CAPRICE

I've been busy getting sorted at my new school and my new apartment. So, still no webaccess from my new place just yet. But we're going to try to get that sorted by this week and hopefully cable internet will also bring with it cable TV and english television too!

Meanwhile I've also fallen ill. Really tired out over the weekend of moving and then starting work on monday. But I was so excited about moving to the water that I just had to go for a run to the beach with Laura. I so should've known better.

On thursday, when I got off school early (Oh yeah!), I finally got myself a mountain bike for what I think was a grand steal of $180. Its just some local brand but it had the new Shimano grip-gear shifts that Reubs kept talking about ages ago, so I bought it on a caprice. Funny, the series of the bike is also called... CAPRICE!

The new job is going well. Very pleasant and chilled out. And I like working on a closer relationship with the principal. Jay's from church so it makes the working relationship a lot less formal and we've thrown some suggestions around fr what I can do about the new term starting in september. He's already said he'd like me to think about extending the contract to sometime middle of next year. I said I'd think about it. The only thing hindering me now is my cold. Have to do some updates and some things on the web but while I have been on hiatus, it looks like my article got published! The Malaysiakini.com website is down on technical problems at the moment but the source is still up on Jame's website. So here it is!

Audio: A cacophony of noises from folks jamming with the instruments after worship.
Biblio: Finished Yann Martel's Life of Pi. Not bad.
Cerebrio: Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you.

MY ULTRA MAGIC T-SHIRT

I'm staying home today. Actually, I'm skivving work. But it makes no sense to twiddle my thumbs in the classroom when there are no classes, no students and no one else in school! What is it with these crazy Japanese thinking they can shuffle us gaijin around like pawn and use us as their clowns?

So, obviously I've been packing while every other teacher at the GEOS schools are stuffed in their suits for training at Shikoku. Sorry, my suits are packed. And when I'm taking a break like now, I'm here. Free-browsing or downloading a good months load of music to keep me entertained. I'm also in two minds about buying an ultra magic t-shirt from my comic merchandiser. Once again economical logic overides carnal pleasure. And, does it make sense to make an international order to accumulate more stuff here? Packing, I wonder, where and when did I accumulate this gunk in the last six months?



Tenryuji, Arishayama.

Audio: Riot on an Empty Street by Kings of Convenience.
Biblio: -/-
Cerebrio: I came with a suitcase, a backpack and my notebook. How is it I have 5 bags now?

Bamboo forest at Kodaiji.

NO MORE SUITS!

at least for the next six months...

WHEEEEE!!!!

*The Chilibuddy loses all composure, shakes it like a polaroid picture and begins to flail her arms about her hovel.*

To celebrate, I bought myself a bottle of SPF50+ sunscreen! ;-)

Audio: A Woman Like A Man by Damien Rice.
Biblio: -/-
Cerebrio: Can't remember what it feels like to be a kid! Oh no!

WANT TO LEAVE IT WANTING TO COME BACK

Tea-house at Arashiyama

I've been playing with myself again. Experimenting with different types of composition and lomo-cropping. Have been secretly coveting a RevOlver, that goes for Y9800, from my favourite shop, The VillageVangard, since coming back from Tokyo. But am beside myself on the matter since I go digital media. Hardcopy photos are good for posterity but a rather expensive option for lomo shots. Lomos are great for snapping a moment but unjustifiable to spend money developing medium format for a cat/dog/plane/loo/car/insert-appropriate-lomo-subject shot from the hip. I'm still old skool photography.

MORE QUESTIONS Parte de Seconde

When someone asks you, "A penny for you thoughts" and you give them your two cents, what happens to the other penny?

When cheese gets it picture taken, what does it say?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why are wise men and wise guys opposites?

Why did kamikaze pilots wear pilots?


I'm moving in a couple of days so I'll have very limited access to the internet. Which is not a favourble option, but I will be busy sorting out my new place and be entertained by my new housemate from Wales. It's bittersweet though, moving again because its a better thing and place I'm going to but having to acknowledge that this last shindig didn't live up to its expectation. I blame the company for misrepresentation. I would have liked to kickass here but there ain't much ass to kick around the sticks. I want to forget this ever happened.

I'm excited about moving and less scared like I was the last time. I'm feeling good and hoping that my next six months will rock. I want to make you wish you were here. Don't want to be tired. Don't want to be scared. I want the next six months to refuel my youth and make it burn bright again. If this second wind is all I've got left to squeeze out of my youth, I want to make it kickass. I want to make it worth having lived.


Stone idols can get cold.

They apparently need bibs too.

Audio: Ordinary by Train.
Biblio: Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
Cerebrio: Digital cameras should have lomo-functions!

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS

If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

If you shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

If one syncronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to drown too?

If you take an Oriental (person), spin him around a couple of times, would he become disoriented?



Sannenzaka

Audio: Vindicated by Dashboard Confessionals.
Biblio: Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
Cerebrio: No matter what praises have been sung, that book is a really cliched bestseller....

BUSY AS A BEE

Busy as a bee since Tay came down last week. This weekend was another crazy one. My and Tay played our own little game of Amazing Race trying to catch the train back home last night from Kyoto. We managed to miss every single connecting tranfer by the skin of our noses, including the last train home. So we didn't get back home till this morning at 8am. The good thing about it was that at least we had a lot of fun. Good, clean, healthy pyro fun. We set off fireworks by the Kamogawa! But, I don't want to see another temple or shrine for a very long time.

Snapfish had been unavailable over the week too. Prempting the time they will kick me out, I have signed on with a new image host. This is late, from two weeks ago.

Kiyomizudera

Kiyo=Clear. Mizu=Water. Dera=Temple.

It will be another busy week again. They are happening rather often these days... Five days to pack up and ship out!

Audio: Batucada by Towa Tei and Bebel Gilberto.
Biblio: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
Cerebrio: Life is going at my kind of speed.

BEING INTIMATE

When two people are in love, they require privacy to properly communicate. That's why we have honeymoons. Little real communication is possible in public, but volumes are spoken in moments and nuances where there is privacy. In the busyness of life, communication is impossible unless there is privacy.

One prying eye is all that is needed to spoil it. The minute we are conscious of an observer, our privacy for intimacy and intimate communication goes out the window and we become conscious of the observer rather than with whom we are talking.

You cannot communicate when there is an audience. Privacy is intimate communication...

Audio: Little Girl by Nina Simone.
Biblio: Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Cerebrio: Ho-hum.

DO YOU SEE THE FACE?

Whose phone calls or visits are never unwanted or never too long?

Who would you like to have in your life to ward off moments of loneliness?

When you travel, who would make your travels more enjoyable?

When you are in pain, who would you like to comfort you?

When something good happens in your life, a promotion at work, a successful re-finance, who do you want to share the news with?

Whose face appears to you?

Whoah

LOVE ME AS IS

I thought I had a restful four day weekend. But, it seems I've ended up quite exhausted. Maybe its the having to go back to work. Only ten more days... Or, maybe its all the salsa-ing I did last night. And the mambo.

G-gg-guan-ta-naaa-me-raaa. Guajii-raaa Guantanamera.

I barely got up in time to make the train for church. I got up 4 minutes before the train leaves the station. I live 7 minutes away. So I was late. But, not only was I late, my brain was so not awake that I went to the wrong building. Morning church has to occilate between two venues. So I lost even more time. Spent rest of the day in a cloud of haze.

On the train into the city, I got to thinking about the people I think of in high regard. There are some people whom we have a healthy respect for. Members of our family, friends we've grown up with, acquaintances we've had at school (who were perhaps too "with it" to have been friends with us) ... ... I have some of these people in mind.

They're the people, I wish I could be and they make me want to be a better person. I suppose if "role model" came to mind, it would be made up of different facets of all these people.

By now, we all know better that no one's perfect. Still, we get dissapointed by some of the decisions they do end up making. What was Ms. Scarlett thinking in the drawing room? Why on earth did Mr. Mustard do that in the libary? And I get sad when I see how these people live in other facets of their life and let me down in the choices they make for lifestyles. Who am I to berate others for being "unequally yoked", moving in with their partners, having sex before marriage, or even falling away from the flock? Naive I am not, neither am I innocent. Exhibit A. Guilty as charged. What makes me so sad is when I remember that some of these people, whom I look up to, I may never look on them again when I get to Heaven. It's just so sad. But I guess, God didn't give up on me, so I shouldn't give up on them. And God loves me as am so I should love them as are.

Audio: Come Up by Steve Harlry and Cockney Rebel on VirginRadioUK.
Biblio: Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything
Cerebrio: Haha! They're giving out "RESERVED" tissue packets in Singapore! Hey, anyone in Singapore, I want one! Ok. Am zonkered.

THE TENJIN MATSURI

It dates back to the 10th century when the Osakans wanted to avoid diseases during long, hot summers. I say! They were on to a good thing! Nothing like getting stuck in a crowd! >>