just another web log

i love tacos

2008-12-23T20:39:00.001+11:00

ive been in emo overdrive lately. gasp.

for many reasons.. partially cos i have about a month to decide whether im going to recontract. i.e. stay in japan for another year and maybe learn some Japanese, or go home and once again become a cubicle drone who has a healthy bank balance in a time of economic instability. I still have no idea what to do, if i stay, then what am i gonna do after that? my Japanese wont be good enough to get a Japanese job.. so i'll be unemployed and probably broke and with no immediate prospects. but if i go home, ill go back to my same job and work 9 to 5 and my brain will die of monotony. and 35 years later ill retire, and no one will remember. the only thing i know for sure is that ill regret not doing one of the options.. *insert extra pessimisim*

then of course theres the ever recurring female problem. *sigh* whilst in Kyoto there was this place where you were sposed to walk from one big rock to another with your eyes closed, and if you make it, then you will find your true love (or something like that) and a friend joked that i should try it cos i have less time than the others. and its kinda true i guess. My biological clock is ticking.. blergh.

also there was this girl that i was kinda seeing.. im not really sure what happened really. we kinda talked a bit.. but then there was alcohol and some stuff happened. then it seemed to keep happening at subsequent events. but we never really got to see each other very often, and therefore didnt really get much chatting time other than drunk-texting each other. she said she wants to finish whatever was happening which kinda sucks.. but then she still often texts me to say various things of ambiguous meanings which just confoose me.

I'm not really she was ever really keen. the first time we hooked up we were both pretty drunk. and she pretty much ignores me when we are in large gatherings, maybe cos she is shy, or maybe she didnt want ppl to talk, or maybe she was embarassed, who knows. also she was always very indirect with how she says things. like she'd say "karaoke misses you" or "i was just thinking about what you're doing" but she'd never say "i miss you". she sometimes would say things like "i really like you" or "i think we get along really well", but those are things that you could say to someone who you just wanted to be friends with. even when she said it was over, she wouldnt say "im not keen anymore" she'd just say "it doesnt matter if im keen or not, im just confused" which i assume means something like "it's not you, its me". cept we all know that its almost me... *emos*,

it totally feels like another one of those situations where a girl is mildly keen cos she thinks im cute.. and ive been known to fall into the trap of liking a girl just because she seems slightly keen on me. which should be a good thing.. but it seems to be pretty disasterous for me so far.. because within a couple of weeks she realises that im totally boring and so she gets on with her life. and girls who would make the first move tend me to confident and pro-active. pro-active enough to move on to the next (more handsome|richer|smarter|younger|more interesting) guy. and so she'll say "its not u, its me", because you cant tell someone they are boring, thats more insulting than saying ur unattractive. you can pretty urself up.. but you cant interesting yourself up.

also i kinda get the vibe that she thinks that i was only interested in the physical aspects of our relationship.. since that was the only part which seemed to progress quickly. she is very attractive, like enough so people would be like "uh, how did he get a girl like that", if we were together. but thats not how it is.. if anything im suffering from lack of libido lately.. maybe cos i havent had a serious relationship in so long.. i jsut feel like i need someone to hold.. or someone to hold me.

i should probably just get over it. she is awesome and everyone likes her, and i did feel like we there was something intangible there, but she doesnt really fit my usually prototype. i.e. she is isnt asian and doesnt have glasses =p also we havent really had a lot of getting to know you time and we dont have heaps in common other than living in Japan... so i should just get over it. she's gone home for the holidays, i shouldnt really miss her. she certainly doesnt miss me. but i do miss her =( blergh, i need to build a bridge.

the other foreigners in my area are really nice people. they were quite concerned that my karaoke song selections have all been pretty emo songs about heartbreak and loneliness like James Blunt. but almost all of them are going home for the holidays, also im not really sure how many of them will recontract.. so its gonna be a lonely boring new year break this year. i do sometimes feel isolated and alone here.. partially cos of the language barrier.. but then i remember i felt that way in Sydney where i could speak the language and i knew lots of ppl..
xmas is not a public holiday in Japan, so ill have to go to work, then go home and reheat a supermarket dinner then watch "It's a Wonderful Life" then cry myself to sleep. *weeps*.

lets panicking

2008-09-09T23:39:00.002+10:00

zomg.. i had my first mini freak out tonight.. it was pretty scary, but i guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. i was watching the season 2 finale of Spaced.. and it was one of those sad but happy episodes where it mostly works out except for one thing where everyone jsut has to accept it and realise what they have actually makes them happy.
i pretty much jsut became emo again for a couple of hours, so it only felt right to write in my diary about how much my life sucks i am.. even if it is an e-diary. since im here i may was well vent a bit about how socially awkward i am.. over the past few years ive tried really hard to remove terrible in your face jokes from my daily dialogue.. the problem is that there isnt much left. i just dont know how to talk to people about things which arent computer games or ultimate frisbee! hooray for being the biggest nerd english speaking nerd in all of Fukushima-ken.
But its not all bad.. the people are pretty awesome, so we like hang out and stuff and its fun.. but i figure one day we're gonna run out of "omg ull never guess what my JTE did today" conversations and then what the hell am i gonna do?
I guess this all sorta explains why i know so many people.. i dont "know" that many people.. if you get what i mean. and i end up travelling to the other side of the world to see if it was just the town and not me.. hrm. *mini freakout* gahhh!!

the grass still seems a bit greener on this side.. but it looks like it actually was me and not the grass that was the problem.. *sigh*

in other news: in japan ull oft be asked what your blood type is (it like represents your personality sorta like starsigns in Australia).. and my blood type is B Positive.. which im trying to also make my life motto.. but its not always so easy..

2008-07-07T15:28:00.004+10:00

I've signed up for an online TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) course in preparation for heading to Japan. I haven't gotten that far through it, but its been pretty basic so far. I'm really only interested in the later modules which include stuff abotu how to prepare classes, but i have to do the rest of this stuff in order to get a certification. yawn..

This past weekend was pretty trashy.. i went to a farewell in Wahroonga.. where i had a beer or five.. and backed it up with an all day wine and cheese session.. which i spent the end part struggling to find my balance .. and yet still recording 0.00 BAC on my friends breathalyzer. =p

Since last post i saw Prince Caspian and Dont Mess with the Zohan. they were both pretty awful. i wouldnt particularly recommend either. The former tried to be LOTR and fell horribly short by having a terrible adhoc screenplay padded with awful acting and unlikeable characters. The latter just seemed like it was a movie length SNL skit.. kinda funny.. but a bit much to hold on for the full 90mins.

i dont really have anything else interesting to post.. suprisingly nothing to write about frisbee. =p

take on a trip id like to go some day

2008-06-23T10:26:00.004+10:00

so i ended up running the minimos in 50:17 grr. i was aiming for 50mins! mildly annoying but its good to know that im close. i ran without a watch so im suprised by time was so close to required pace. also the timing chip they had only measured the ending time.. not the start. and i figured i took a good 10-20s to reach the start line, so i very likely did it in time. but unofficially (blergh)

afterwards i headed off to Lugarno (yeh i didnt know where it was either) for lunch. we had these massive lamb shanks which were tasty even though i wasnt really hungry. It was really nice to catach up with some work ppl from head office.. but the drive home was deadly. since id woken up at 6am for the run i was really tired. i had a few microsleeps on the long drive home. once i was saved from oncoming traffic by a small median strip (phew). in hindsight i shoudlve pulled over an had a nap.

last friday i went to the Sydney Film Festival to see this movie called American Teen. I went in with very low expectations cos it sounded like some boring reality tv-like doco-drama.

this past saturday was really busy. I had JET training most of the day which was awesome. from what i gathered by reading the forums i was very worried that the JET program would be full of anime nerds who spent their days flaming and trolling. but the people there were realyl nice and cool. suprisingly though there are 5 Sydney people going to Fukushima and 4 of them are asians (incl me). we also went to Akaneya afterwards to bond.. and drink.

afterwards i went to this 21st/farewell, where i was the only guy who turned up... there was like 11 girls.. and ian =p it actually sorta looked like a hens night cos the girl had this halo headband thing which sorta looked like those mini-veils that hens nights have. it was kinda weird at the start.. but then i was like.. uh.. this isnt so bad =p

my jet number is 20080300027.. i have no idea what its used for.. i imagine japan must have high tech serial number/microchip embedded in my forehead to keep track of my buying habits or something.

in other news: i finally got my green Ps (w00t!) also i get to burn a year worth whislt in japan. But annoyingly my licence expires in Sept 08? wtf? im going back to the RTA tomo to sort it out. I hope I dont have to pay for a new licence.. it seems liek they made the mistake more than i did, but if i know the gov it wont matter who made the mistake, ill have to pay.

shot through the heart! and you're to blame!

2008-06-13T11:12:00.003+10:00

on monday we had yum cha and lasertag. yum cha was normal.. laserzone was cool but we spent most of the time waiting in a horrible long line. although they kept screwin up our group, first there werent enough vests (overbooking?) then 3 people had vests which didnt work. but we did get a bunch of free games which was cool (although quite tiring). also frisbee was cancelled yet again.. so we filled int he time with 2 hours of 2 person karaoke.. *cough*splutter*.. bleh.. my throat is now sore =p

i've been doing a bit of running(~40km) in the last fortnight, its like so painful but still so fun. im running the 10k MiniMos fun run on Sunday, which i guess im sorta training for. Im very confident i can make the distance, but there are some pretty hectic hills in the run which make it kinda scary. Im hoping the adrenaline will carry me over those massive uphill parts.

im getting too good at turning off my alarm clock. I can sorta do it while im 90% asleep now, which oft leads to sleeping in. It might be time for a new clock anyway cos part of the LED is broken.. causing the numebrs to appear all wrong.

so today i went to the dentist to fix a chipped tooth, which i suspect i got from indoor this week. but apparently it wasnt even a tooth, it was a really really old filling, old enough that i dont remember getting it. The dentist just grinded off the filling and it seems fine now..... except for the 6 other cavities i have! which need to get fixed before I go to Japan. I suspect my old dentist was a bit sketchy, cos It hasnt been that long since i last went, how can he miss all 6 cavities?

i think i may have been clocked speeding this morning. gah! it will be mildly annoying to have a suspended licence when i apply for an international licence =p although apparently if i quickly go and get my green Ps, then ill have 6 points and thus not have my licence suspended.

in other news: it seems that ill be able to wear converse all stars to work in japan (yatta!) although i probably wont be able to wear different coloured ones =p

turning japanese

2008-06-01T12:04:00.004+10:00

so the big news of the past week or so is that i got confirmation of my position in the JET programme! yatta! Im headed to the sleepy town (technically a city) of Shirakawa-chi in Fukushima prefecture. I dont know heaps about it other than what ive read on wikipedia, but apparently its in the mountains, is close to the snow and is famous for its ramen and soba. Oh and google maps shows me at least two McDonalds and a KFC and a Baskin Robbins.

Speaking of Google maps, in Australia if you use the "get directions" function it shows you how to get there by car. but in japan it shows you how to get there by public transport and by foot. Which may by slightly annoying since im gonna drive everywhere in japan, but it is kinda cool that the train timetable (incl fares) is integrated into google maps.

i didnt do much else this week. i went to see Tuesday Spoils at the Lansdowne.. which was ok. the $5 steaks was alright too. also i saw the new Indiana Jones movie, and it gets a bleh from me, it wasnt particularly good. the story didnt really make much sense, the action was cartoon-like ridiculousness and dialogue was just plain awful.

also there was frisbee.. i didnt play league cos of my ribs. i got my ribs xrayed and the results were negative. i did play indoor.. but we still lost in the grand final. grr. i havent found indoor to be great since it quite advantages taller players, but this weeks semi and grand final were both heaps fun even though we lost.

since i misplaced my wallet some time this weekend ive sorta been living on shrapnel, luckily for me i have a lot of it. since i cant really take it with me, i though id count it up so i can either spend or bank it. this morning i counted $239.5. which took a couple of years to accumulate, but still thats a lot. most of it is $2 coins, $136 to be exact. ninety $1 coins, forty three 50c coins, fifty 20c coins, forty-eight 10c coins and forty four 5c coins.

must be toros in the atmosphere

2008-05-20T12:30:00.002+10:00

so this past weekend i went to play in the Stampede (v2.0) in Bathurst. at the risk of using a hyperbole it was pretty much the coldest place that any one has ever played any ultimate frisbee. my calves objected to me playing by choosing to cramp up at the same time.

on day one we made it thru to the semis undefeated.. but lost on golden point after i literally crashed out of the game. i managed to run into my own teammate whilst (successfully) attempting a D. it probly wouldnt have been too bad if i hadnt had a similar collision on the previous game. i stopped by the hospital for the usual blaise doctor telling me to take 2 tablets and call him in the morning. useless.

the party was ok. i was kinda floating on a rather toxic mix of panadine forte, sambucca, citrus vodka and melon snaaps. it was pretty fun i spose im still no fun at parties...

day two was the hat. where my team lost on golden point in the grand final. boo. i played pretty badly.. but i did get a big hand block which got a few cheers from some onlookers. the prize for winning was a case of Crownies.. and i ended up sneaking a couple anyway so i dont really care that we lost. there were special rules for this hat, with girls scoring 2 points. as well as layouts and greatests.

i made the terrible decision to play league on monday. my ribs are still sore from the weekend's multiple collisions.. and we won both games so easily that it wouldnt have made a difference if i played or not. especially since the points i played i was pretty much just mucking around and not doing anything particularly productive.

in another amusing story. I sorta had a car accident, where i ran into the back of another car at a traffic light. it was this old lady who was maybe, and we both get out of our cars to inspect the damage.. to which she decides that ive removed a fair bit of paint from the rear of her car. i dont argue, then she goes back to her car .. at which point im assuming she is getting a pen and paper to exchange insurance information. but instead she just drives off. wtf? so i was thinking "uh.. i hit you, you arent supposed to do a runner". i dunno what she was thinking.. unless it was like a stolen car or something, but then why even get out to have a look?

i dont go to parties baby, cos people tend to freak me out

2008-05-08T14:00:00.004+10:00

so i finally won a hat tourney this. like 4 years ago i played in a hat final and lost on golden point.. and since then ive never really gotten close to winning.. so its nice to finally win. we managed to go undefeated all season with our rather stacked team.
i played like suck in the grand final.. but luckily my team played well to make it look like my terrible throws were actually ok. my forehands throws were all over the shop.. i wouldve subbed myself off.. cept we had no subs due to none of our beginners ever turning up.

however i did score a ton of freebies that nite. giant straw hat for winning the hat, nationals wine cooler for designing the logo, a frisbee holding backpack and a water bottle from a botched jersey ordered like 9 months ago. not bad =)

indoor started this week.. and i managed to squeeze in a pickup game before my 2 back to back late games. we won all three although the pickup game was actually a forfeit. i did the stupidest play ive done in a long time in the last game. we were up by a lot and in the last 5 seconds of the game i tried to make a ludicrous layout D. on the play i not only fouled the guy, i corked my thigh really badly.. on a meaningless play. there wasnt enought ime for either of us to score.. so the only possible result from that play was the end of the game.. or.. me injuring myself. this was compounded by the twisted knee and jarred pinky finger i sustained in the pickup (also a meaningless) game... so so stupid.

other than frisbee i had a rather busy friday last weekend. on top of a family dinner at this ramen place in eastwood.. i managed to make it to 2 farewell parties and also a birthday gig. how unusual for me.. id normal jsut pike on one or all of those cos i cbf turning up. also im so socially awkward, at some point in time i got sick of small talk.. which doesnt leave much at parties where u dont really know anyone... its all like.. "hey a person i vague recognise from uni 5 years ago, but was never really frens with"... "oh, hey.. i havent seen you in years.. are you still working at that same place?" ... *look around the room* ... *attempt to sound witty with esoteric reference but end up sounding smug* ... ... *explain what ultimate frisbee is* ... *absorb mocking about it* ... *attempt to sound interesting with other topical banter* ... *get a beer* .. *stand around looking at a painting or vase or some other inanimate object* .. *try and find an opportunity to leave* ...

luckily this time i actually did have somewhere else to be. i went to see Chris Duke and the Royals at the Excelsior. and i got there jsut in time to for the start of their set. although they rocked out the crowd was mostly ppl they knew (i think) and the dancing wasnt the normal skanking u get, but some weird shoving moshing instead. how odd. also they removed the reference to frisbee in the frisbee song.. but i did get mentioned in a shout out before the song so w00t for that.

this could all go so wrong, but we're just so happy...

2008-04-28T12:19:00.003+10:00

most of the last couple of weeks ive been house sitting in north parra. i didnt achieve much except for unlocking lots of recipes in cooking mamma.. and sucking badly at guitar hero iii. it was however much closer to the office timewise. distance wise its almost the same, but its only like 3 roads to get there.. and its mostly 90 or 80km/h. this of course led to me sleeping in even loger and leaving the house at 8:50 most days.

ive found that when im living alone im so keen to cook a meal on a weekend.. but on weekdays.. after work.. i just cant be bothered.. and i either end up eating out or eating junk. so im all fat and bloated now.. bleh...

.. on a related note: i apparently have high blood pressure! i went to the local medical centre to get this Certificate of Health filled out for JET. and the doc is like "um.. you're blood pressure is like totally high, if i write this on you're form you might get denied"... hrm.. everything ive read about high blood pressure eitehr says to lose weight or to take drugs to reduce blood pressure.. either particularly appealing options. but returned a few days later and i was diagnosed with White coat syndrome which basically means my blood pressure is high cos doctors make me nervous =p

last weekend i didnt do much. i went to this wine night things held by this guy from work. i dont often go to work social outings, partially cos i dont that many people who go to them and partially cos im not fun at parties. this party was pretty much what i expected.. a few hours of awkward conversations with big shot economists followed by drinking enough wine so i can just lie down till its time to go home.

this past anzac weekend i just sat on my fat ass for 3 days. i played a bit of starcraft (cos its like the only game which works on a macbook air) and i watched some Harvey Birdman eps and some Sarah Connor Chronicles. i made a brief step in the real world to go shopping for a new pair of work shoes.. which ive needed badly for about 2 months. i came away with some pair which seem nice, and i got the last one in store which was half price and in my size (score!)

in other news: my life isnt exciting... if only i could move to japan and start over...

See I'm a young soul in this very strange world

2008-04-14T15:03:00.004+10:00

so i've recovered from my illness which turned out to be shingles. which is very strange since no one can remember me ever having chicken pox.. and its a pre-requisite to getting shingles. hrm.. i guess i mustve just had a really really mild case of it. so mild that no one noticed i had it =p

on the weekend i went to hunt and connie's farewell.. which involved a small picnic in the park.. and some fake skateboarding (insert link to facebook). followed up by some laserzone-ing. its been a few years since i last went.. but its totally awesome. i got better each game.. but in the first game i didnt know where any of the bases were which sorta made my score heaps crap. also the first game had these annoying kids who would follow you around after u killed them.. and just constantly shoot at u until their guns turn back on.. grr.

the place also featured DDR for the wait between games =) im heaps rusty so the diagonal ones kinda screwd me.. but its still such a mad game.. ill have to break out the PS2 version again sometime =)

anyhoo the fare was cos they are leaving to travel around the world making a documentary... which is awesome. if only i could quit my job to do something adventurous..

.. speaking of which i got a letter in the mail today which was mostly fluff.. but included this segment "You are now scheduled for a placement in a Contracting Organisation, which is possible in almost all cases." w00t! in "almost all cases" im in.. although im not sure how many "almost all" is =p .. but if you're not doing anything from this July thru till next July, you should come visit me at some undisclosed location in japan which i might be at.. hopefully.

in other news: ur maybe wondering why ive got 3 posts in one day.. its cos i wrote the first 2 and forgot to publish them.. i guess i wasnt paying attention or something =p

cant get you out of my head..

2008-04-05T21:23:00.004+11:00

so im bedridden again.. but for once its not due to some horrible knee injury. its due to a horrible virus which has somehow gotten into my head. thursday was maybe the worst ive ever felt, i had this headache which the most painful thing ive ever felt, cept it happened every 2 mins in the right side of my head.

an overnight stay at my local hospital yielded little but a bunch of blood tests/swab tests/CT scans. i got sent home the next day with a prescription for painkillers and some rather pricey anti-viral meds. i need to take six of these $10 tablets a day for 10 days.. that adds up to crazy expensive =p but worth it if it can stop this terrible pain in my head.. *clutches skull*

.. other than that not much has been happening.. just the usual frisbee.. drinking.. sex and the city marathon...

everything was going perfect until.....

2008-03-20T10:09:00.004+11:00

last nite was the div1 final at hills league.. and boy did we play woe at the start. we kept dropping easy ones and were down 0-4 in about 5 mins. but we stepped it up after that.. out scoring them 8-2 the rest of the way. i managed a few good D's and another greatest! thats two in three days =p

i havent won a league since we won the first 2 of the first 3 seasons i played (thats a long time ago), so this was pretty exciting. although i did get cleated badly on my already blood blistered big toe.. causing a rather painful/icky mess in my shoes. bleh.. it probly did it some good though.. cos that toe is much less bad than the other one now..

This is no Bridget Jones!

2008-03-18T13:55:00.004+11:00

I've done nothing much except play frisbee since last post.. so my shoulder/knee/calves/feet/toes are all telling em that i need a day off =p My toes are actually the worst.. both my big toes are suffering from a weekend of playing in new cleats. They both have a horribly bulgy blood blister under the nail which threatens to cause some sort of gross toe killing explosion.

anyhoo.. regionals was disappointing.. we didnt win a game and finished in dead last. Which was in some ways quite predictable.. but i was clinging to a small shread of hope that we'd rise to the occassion and topple one of the teams which we supposedly had no chance of beating. while we werent winning anything on the field i did manage to get thoroughly plastered at the party.. as the numerous facebook photos will illustrate. My streak of 10 solid years of drinking without chucking came to an sorry end... as the bathroom in "pub across the road" said hello to the previously lost Hogsbreath ribs and steak..

on monday night was the first week of the NSL Hat.. my teams won both games.. partially due to the fact that two of our absolute beginner girls dropped out. i didnt really contribute heaps except a waist high foot block and a contentious (arent they all contentious) greatest.

in other news: if you have a chance, go and check out the Wombats, theyve got some pretty cool songs.

..woke up with hope and only found tears...

2008-03-14T13:00:00.004+11:00

gah!! i passed on a whole day of overtime (at double time its worth probly $600) to go to regionals this weekend.. but it looks like im not going to be able to play anyway =( at training on tuesday i layed out and landed badly on my right shoulder.. and now my right arm doesnt work properly anymore! gah!!! i think i might be doomed never to play in major tournaments. before mixed regionals i had minor tear in my quad.. before mixed nationals i managed to tear a ligament in my left knee.. and now its open regionals.. so ive apparently pinched a nerve in my right shoulder.. which doesnt sound that bad.. except it means that my right arm doesnt really do what i tell it to do. which makes it quite hard to throw and/or catch. not to mention to ridiculous pain everytime i move.

*sigh* welcome to my life..

in other news: i went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show last nite at Starcity. it was pretty cool, but the sound engineers kept making stupid misakes like accidently turning off a mic.. or doing something which resulting in heaps of feedback .. bleh.. we had pretty awful seats but it was still pretty cool cos we were close at least.

trying to find a way to tear a strip off these blues

2008-03-05T18:06:00.003+11:00

so yesterday i started the day by stepping into the water feature at work =p i managed to soak both shoes and socks and most of my leg.. and most of my bag. gah.. then one of my co workers spilled milk on my at breakfast.. gah!!

office life is sorta getting me down.. i need to escape to the snow or japan or something... the problem is that its too easy to make money in an office.. and incredibly hard to make money outside an office situation.. at least for a nerd like me.

not heaps interesting has been happening lately.. drinking a bit on fridays.. playing a lot of frisbee.. but thats nothing new. i did manage to split both my cleats open at the same time.. im going to play tonite with cellotaped shoes =p

a couple of weeks ago I went to a friend's baby's 1 month birthday. which was pretty cool, (you can see photos on facebook). seems people my age are really getting their act together and growing up.... i guess ill get around to that someday... someday a long time from now.. i dont even feel close to being able to be a grown up yet..

at home we've finished replacing all the carpet in the house with shiny new floorboards. it looks really nice and clean in my house for once.. but it does make the whole place echo pretty badly. i guess the carpet was quite good at absorbing sound. while the floorboards were being installed we had to reshuffle all our furniture and tidy up a lot of clutter which has accumulated over the past 27 years or so. i threw out what seems like endless boxes of high school text books, old clothes, worn out shoes, broken toys, VHS's of taped 1990s NBA games, obselete computer parts, floppy discs (5.25" as well as 3.5") and CDs (coastered and otherwise). But after all that i still have more junk than i can fit into my room.. wtf? i need to throw out even more stuff i think.. the filter needs to be a bit more coarse grained.. or im never gonna reduce it to a quantity which i can take with me when i move out.

Sharing the Love

2008-02-21T09:36:00.003+11:00

so i played in my first tourney of the new year. an opens one dayer. we finished 5th which is ok, but we only lost one game the whole day, which is mad. i played terrible in the game we lost, but pretty well in other games. my backhand has totally fallen apart, im not sure what to do about it. it works fine in practice.. but just disappears during the game. *sigh*

at the end of the tourney, a batch of pizzas turned up really late (after most people had left) so the few of us remaining were taking home whole pizzas and more. i also scored a box of corn flakes for the office =)

on the way home i stopped off at RPA (and no i didnt injure myself, someone else did) and we saw Tetsuya of the restaurant in the emergancy room. he sat next to me whilst waiting to see a nurse and i offered the lady with him a seat. but she declined.

in other news: i finally purchased a wireless router for my macbook air. also ive named him Air McLovin =p

.. this just in.. it looks like i need to work during Regionals.. gah. i guess i can get someone to fill in.. but its 8 hours at double time for watching a disaster recovery test. thats a lot of money to lose for a tourney....

a little less conversation....

2008-02-13T10:34:00.000+11:00

so i had my JET Programme interview yesterday.. and it was totally nothing like what id read about on forums and blogs. all these ppl were talking about how they got asked about Japanese history.. and current affairs in Australia and Japan.. and to sing the national anthem.. and to give a introduction.. and to make up a sample lesson plan..

and i totally had none of that. It was quite casual, i was in small room with sofas around a coffee table, with three interviewers. two australians and a japanese guy. There was an older australian guy in the middle and he did 90% of the talking, he made quite a lot of jokes, but at the time i wasnt sure if they were jokes or not so i didnt laugh or anything.

At the beginning they spiel on about how they though i had a good looking CV and impressive uni marks... ive always though it was pretty average. they mostly asked me about things i wrote in my application like peer networking and the anime club. They kept asking about why i was applying at this point in my career. They said that they were concerned that i would become bored at being an assistant language teacher after being such a "high flyer" at the Reserve Bank (in my head im thinking "lol, zomg! you have no idea what the RBA is like"). And they didnt seem to heaps like that i had no career path or goals.. or 5 year plan of any kind =p Then there were a few of the standard "what would you do in a situation where no one speaks english?" sorta things.. which i think i handled ok.. but not great. I usually just laugh off those kinda things, but i spose it would be different if i needed to get a non-english speaker to administer CPR or something =p

anyway i feel pretty good after the interview. they didnt really have anything in it which really stumped me.. and they appeared to be pretty positive about my application in general. unfortunately i have to wait until April to find out how i actually went. *sigh*

love is a battlefield

2008-02-06T11:01:00.000+11:00

due to rain there hasnt been any frisbee or cricket this week. yawn. im feeling really blaise and lazy.. but im also suffering from some bad insomnia. im sleeping for like an hour.. then waking up and i cant back to sleep till about an hour before im meant to wake up. *sigh* im not sleepy in the day.. im just lethargic, so ive decided to drop coffee from my breakfast menu. i dont think i need any more stimulation..

in othe news.. there is a photo of me on facebok which has stirred up some controversy this week. i wont propogate the hearsay by posting it here.. but no less than 4 unassociated individuals have commented to me about what the deal is. kinda funny how a random photo posted on facebook can cause ppl to make such assumptions. i mean ppl psot all kinds of crap up there. i think its partially amplified by the fact that im not drunk in the photo =p

if you dont know what it is, dont' fight it

2008-02-03T13:29:00.000+11:00

im being pretty angsty lately. well moreso than normal. no real reason.. just too bored and lazy to do anything about it. sigh. the weeks have been straight from the cookie cutter.. work work frisbee work frisbee work work. yawn-worthy...

the few exceptions were gus' bucks paintball and shelle and gus' wedding...
paintball was pretty hectic. i drove there so i had to drink a lot in the morning (as i needed to be sober on the way home) which made skirmish a lil bit more interesting =p it was totally muggy that day too.. so i was tired/hot/sweaty and only partially lucid. i kinda got hit alot.. i think because im been enough times that im not really scared of being hit anymore. thus making me a bit too brave when i should be hiding behind a crate.

the weakest part of the day was when these doods that worked there joined out game with like guns that could shoot 100m+ and just kept sniping everyone and then yelling "get out! get out! i shot you". i spose you need to do something to make yourself feel big especially if your life's greatest achievement is being "kinda good at paintball".

the highlights of the day were the "everyone vs gus" game.. and gus shooting chito in the butt from 10cm away with what he thought was an empty gun (or so he claims).

.. the next friday was the wedding...
i sorta turned up late-ish, cos i came straight from work, and i think i drove some stupidly long route to get there. It was in Riverwood which is like as far from my office as you can get and still be in Sydney.

i tend to overdress, even at a wedding cos i have all these suits n such which i never get a chance to wear =p i always cry at weddings *sniff* .. it was a good sized wedding i think, not too big like some others are. i got to catch up with some ppl who i dont see much.. which is cool.. but i couldnt drink which is not as cool.

i made a reasonably good attempt at a popup wedding card. i seemed to have misplace my craft box though, so i didnt have any good materials to work with. it was a bit of a hack job, but i think it turned out ok. i would attach a photo here, but i only finished it like 10mins before the wedding, and i didnt have a camera on me. i can tell you that it was WoW themed =p

.. yawn.. any hoo i have work to do.. cleaning the house...

raindrops keep falling on my head

2008-01-22T16:48:00.000+11:00

so.. im down another $10k just today... so i guess its too late to short sell now. i just need to wait it out.. gah! any tips on whats a good buy?

sugar we're going down swinging

2008-01-19T17:32:00.000+11:00

this year ive managed to lose about $20k in the share market. gah! thats like a year's worth of savings. boo hoo. and its not just me the whole market is down cos people are panicking. i dont think i makes that much sense to sell when things are down.. if i had more money id be buying more while the prices are low. grab a bargain while u can =) ppl forget that the name of the game is to sell high and buy low =p

in other news.. my BMI indicates that i am overweight! 0.o
apparently there is a different scale for asians where a BMI over 23 is overweight! gah.. i guess i should actually stop eating carbs after lunch and continue with the Coke Zero. *goes to throw up last meal*

something's in the air

2008-01-18T09:24:00.000+11:00

so most of this week has been work and frisbee. i played 3 games over tuesday and wednesday which went ok knee-wise. although i did get sandwiched in div3 on tuesday and took a rather hard bump to my left bad knee. i had to sub off, which was probably better for our team, cos i was sucking badly that game. pretty much every forehand i threw was a throw away.. or ended up going to the wrong person. *gah*

wednesdays games went a lot better. i scored a Callahan in the first game.. and in the second game i was on a totally stacked team so i didnt really need to do much to look good. i played in the cup for msot of the game and my knees seemed to handle it pretty well, although we didnt have many long points so i cant say it was a really good test.

in other more exciting news... ive pre-oredered a Macbook Air! yes it is an impulse buy.. and there are already problems with it.. but it is sexy.. and i never buy stuff =p

one step closer

2008-01-14T22:04:00.000+11:00

today i found out that ive got an interview for the JET Programme.. so im one more baby step towards japan.. yay me. it also makes me scared of being returning home to some kevin rudd created recession.. instead of in a comfy govt job in 2 years (meep)

on the weekend i was quite busy. saturday involved yum cha at eastwood with some frisbee ppl.. it was ok. frisbee ppl are very white.. and they didnt really know what they were doing at yum cha.. which is kinda hilarious sometimes.

the rest of the day was futilely trying to depend a few patches on the Domain for the Jazz that was to be there later in the day. we were trying to retain a spot for about 20 ppl but for the first 4 hours we only had 4 ppl to hold off neighbouring picnic rugs who were slowly encroaching.

during the actual show we were squeezed in due to lack of rug space.. and i was too wasted thru most of it to know what was going on. i had this rather horrible drink which consisted of red wine, apple juice, coke and port. i dont recommend it. we also stopped for one of Harrys famous pies. mmm, good for sobering up a lil bit.

sunday involved waking up with a hang over.. and frisbee training. at the start of training it was painfully hot.. but later on it was pouring rain. so in the end it was not a very productive training session at all. the good news is that my knees are feeling better.. not quite ready for high level competition yet.. but theres a few tourneys in 1-2 months which im feeling good pretty good about now.

another turning point, a fork stuck in the road

2008-01-10T20:14:00.001+11:00

gah! time for a life changing decision! ive got 12 days to choose.. the clock is ticking.. oh the pressure! high road? or low road? Its time to pick a career path.. theres current job (which i know im good at) or new job (which i might suck at and/or hate) but gets me back into the city.. and looks better on my resume. but pays less.

.. although i cant help but feel fortuante that the most stressful thing in my life atm is choosing whether to take "senior position number 1" or "senior position number 2".

in other news: here is an amusing image..

2008-01-09T21:55:00.000+11:00

why do you build me up buttercup
bleh.. im exhausted from a day of oversleeping and slowly vegetating on the sofa during my first RDO of the year. i have no energy to do things nowadays.. and im eating lots of crap.. resulting in a rather roundly new look to the 2008 model.

last nite we had a frisbee team dinner at some jap place in Crows Nest. twas a good turnout for a frisbee thing, usually everyone just pikes =p the food was ok, cept the tonkatsu was a tad overcooked. we had about a dozen people and got a bunch of various dishes.. but our ordering pattern was very ad hoc and we werent really sure if we'd over-ordered or under-ordered. im always quite suprised how little japanese food people have tasted.. some people have never tried it! how does that even happen?

it seems to be tradition to end a team dinner some sort of ludicrously late finish due to sitting/standing around talking about stuff which may or may not contain a D&M. luckily i had an RDO today since this one made it till about 6am. it was mild on the intensity scale although i almost cried at one point. i wont go into the details here because itll be a story thats been too may times on this very blog =p