Status update - October 2010

Here's the attempt at actually putting up some substantial ranting content on the web. Its been awhile so bear with me.

I got back from KASAMix late last month and time has pretty much flown by. Its hard to believe 5 weeks have passed. Maybe I'll actually get to the trip itself, but not in this post... this post is about what I've been up to since returning to the homeland.

I pretty much returned to the same slump in productivity that I was in when I left, which largely had to do with working outside my swim lane outside of my own volition. Jetlag didn't help much, so I don't even remember the first two weeks all that much. I basically watched a lot of TV and got frustrated over not getting the opportunity to share the wonderful tidbits of taiko information I accrued during KASAMix while I still felt very passionate about them. Unfortunately that window has passed.

It wasn't all bleak though. I made two new close friends while at KMix and they took up a good chunk of my leisure time. I managed to get into the class that I was aiming for, which A. was not a trivial task when you're not an official student and therefore not on the official mailing list and barred access to a lot of the official electronic resources... and B. is fun and interesting, but hard and frustrating (insert inappropriate joke here). I've also been working towards a photo package for the folks on Sado. I'm hoping I can establish a few lanes of communication. It'll be good excuse to write actual letters as opposed to the cheap thrill called email and even cheaper thrill facebook. It'll be an even better excuse to restart my Japanese studies.

Life is a mixed bag on the human relations front. KMix has really opened facebook up to the whole taiko community. Whatever facebook's secret sauce for 'suggested friends' is, it decided to point me at all the big players in the North American Taiko Community. By fate or chance, said community is now an official fb group as of 26 hours ago (as of 1818PDT). Pure awesomeness.

Unfortunately there are still no prospects on an actual relationship. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before, but I am in a bad situation when it comes to chasing tail. I've got three networks in close proximity right now: work, where I'm surrounded by married people; taiko, where I'm surrounded by mostly married people; and my parents. Of the first two, I'm the second youngest by a decent margin. Of the third, by a large margin. To a certain extent, this leaves me pretty vulnerable to certain types of man-eating felines. Fortunately, I'm not cat food. Other sources of fortune: being back in school is generally a good thing, although the graduate crowd differs quite a bit from the undergraduate crowd; then there's the Japan-letter thing (yes there will be a girl targeted, a guy as well but he's not part of this train of thought), which is unlikely to pan out in any direction, but if it does, it should be interesting (dialogue with both of them).

Lately, things have not been so good. I'm usually pretty amicable with people, if not that at least indifferent. Diplomacy and kindness are not my strong points, so often times tension can arise from disagreements. I have a tendency towards bluntness bordering on sharp, and certain types of personalities push me to acerbity, sometimes spitefully so(took me 15 minutes of swimming through the thesaurus to construct this sentence... ugh. BTW, acerbity is a cool word). Banter is one thing, but it can easily devolve into contempt and I like to stick with the former. First person I noticed this with, I ended up getting so frustrated I intentionally broke off contact, which lasted for years. Now we're great friends, but that might have been fate. Of late, I've been especially unforgiving of extremely tactless people, and they pop up from time to time. Spite is a double edged sword though. It makes me feel guilty, which makes me angry. I was able to get away with it in Japan where the spite was insignificant and the act was encouraged, but I have to work with the latest example... and it is hell. Sorry about trying to dance around the subject. I lashed out a few days ago, and I got so angry at myself I made a bet: a dollar for every time I was maliciously mean to this person. I already lost a dollar, but it was worth it -- done out of deep respect for those that came before me.

On to less significant things:

I've been getting into straight razor shaving. Its fun, and the smells are interesting. I haven't had to deal with stropping yet since I got a razor that takes disposable blades. In any event, the blades are a lot cheaper than the cartridge based monstrosities they sell to Jane and Joe these days.

I also found the taste that turned me onto plain yogurt over 4 years ago. I first tasted it in Paris, looking to sate my hunger at the uncle's condo. I hadn't been able to find it here in the US or Japan. Japan had other tasty yogurt though, and the search for cheap tasty yogurt eventually led me to grow my own cheap, but tart kefir. I wonder how goats milk will affect the taste... in any event, the name of the yogurt: St. Benoit.

Alright, that should be enough for now... especially since 10/19 is almost over. Hope this helps with the lack of reading Terry.