I haven't "blogged" in quite sometime. Guess when I had Myspace I kept up with that stuff more. But since I haven't said much recently, figured I'd do an update. I want to use this blog more for posting random crap, so I'll probably do that more in the future. Anyway, 2010 sucked for the most part, but it had its fair share of decent moments. First, the stuff that sucked:
I've become a raging hypochondriac. If I have any kind of pain, now I think I'm having a heart attack or something else life-threatening. I associate this with my long hiatus from wrestling. When I was wrestling, I'd have constant pains. Head throbbing? That's because I got booted in the face by a 300 pound man. Ribs sore? Well, attribute that to getting cracked with a steel chair. Now that I'm not wrestling, any pain is much more noticeable and worrisome. The kidney stone flare up has caused me to spend almost every weekend since I've returned to Japan at the hospital. However, my stays at the hospital have shown me pros and cons:
Pros:
-Japanese doctors seem to laugh a lot, not sure if that's creepy or good-humor
-I see lots of random weird people in hospitals, like the old woman just meandering about with three or four nurses asking "Where are you going?" or the baby that screams for exactly one hour straight
-Learning that the word "kensai" actually means "examination" and not "cancer" like it sounds
Cons:
-I hate hospitals
-Never get an endoscopy without anesthetics because it feels like someone is ramming a garden hose down your throat or you are being mouth-raped by an octopus
-Having two surgeries for one kidney stone: major suckage
Now the good stuff: I have been to a couple of cool places since returning to Japan, primarily Yokohama, which is really awesome. I hope to go back there really soon. Also, I did National Novel Writing Month for the 3rd year, and successfully completed that. Also good.
I have since realized I like writing comic fantasy a la Terry Pratchett or on the darker side Joe Abercrombie. That seems to be my MO, so I'm going to keep trying to write stuff like that. Anytime I write something serious, I get bored and don't finish it. So no more of that. Aborted novels are reaching the 100s by now.
2011 is going to be a better year I feel. There are some things brewing that are going to change my life in big ways. More details when that comes to fruition. Until then, if you read all this, you have a great attention span.
Sorry, I'm not good at "tweeting."
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Books I'm Reading and Japan Redo
Since most of my stuff somehow all directs back to Facebook now, I will post my blogs here and then link them to Facebook to see if anyone has any thoughts on them. So here it goes.
I've been having an up and down time here since I've returned home. I still hope to return to Japan, and I'm being really impatient about it. I've only had 2 interviews since I started officially applying in March, and both jobs I didn't get. One was because I didn't speak enough Japanese and the other was...well, I have no idea why. Anyway, the more I think about it, the happier I am I didn't get that specific job. It felt like it would be really high pressure and it was non-salary as well. But I liked the flexibility of it and the fact that it was only private lessons. So I jumped back into the job search anew.
On the book reading front, I'm reading several things right now. Just think to give some immediate thoughts about each one that's on my "main reading roster" now.
1. Perdido Street Station: I got this as a Christmas gift from a special friend, so the book reminds me of that friend when I read it. My first thoughts about it in the first several chapters is that China Mieville is an extremely creative person. The stuff he dreams up for his Bas-Lag world is incredibly complex, yet still seems eerily familiar. I've written stuff similar to what he has before, but he owns his world, where I oftentimes get mired in my worlds. Mieville is probably the weirdest writer I've read, yet it still feels lucid. Altogether, I'm loving this one so far. I'm hoping some of his uber-strangeness will rub off on me.
2. Deadhouse Gates: I've been reading this book for over 2 years now. I really just want to finish it. But it's killing me. Steven Erikson is another writer like Mieville in that he writes incredibly original fantasy with bizarre characters and scenes. The problem with Erikson I think is that it seems like there is no direction sometimes. I have no idea what is going on half the time. I really loved the first book in the series, Gardens of the Moon, but this 2nd one is just dragging for me. I hope to finally finish this one so I can move on to the 3rd one, which I hear the series picks up again at.
3. Japanese Language books (various): I've been constantly reading Japanese stuff since I've been back. There was a point when I was living in Japan, when my now-girlfriend Kumi took care of most of the Japanese speaking for me. Anywhere we went, she did the talking. So I became lazy with learning Japanese. Now my interest has renewed. I really want to be able to be a translator one day. I've found I love to translate text. It's challenging and interesting for me. Keeps me thinking and keeps my brain clicking. One day I hope to be able to write at an advanced level of Japanese and maybe get something published in Japan. That would be AWESOME!
Well that's it for now. I'm having good and bad days recently. My Japanese Coach for the DS and Dragon Age for Xbox360 has been keeping me sane during all this down time. The part time jobs are calling now. I started doing Mechanical Turk for Amazon recently. So far my balance is $2.00. "Virtual sweatshop" indeed.
I've been having an up and down time here since I've returned home. I still hope to return to Japan, and I'm being really impatient about it. I've only had 2 interviews since I started officially applying in March, and both jobs I didn't get. One was because I didn't speak enough Japanese and the other was...well, I have no idea why. Anyway, the more I think about it, the happier I am I didn't get that specific job. It felt like it would be really high pressure and it was non-salary as well. But I liked the flexibility of it and the fact that it was only private lessons. So I jumped back into the job search anew.
On the book reading front, I'm reading several things right now. Just think to give some immediate thoughts about each one that's on my "main reading roster" now.
1. Perdido Street Station: I got this as a Christmas gift from a special friend, so the book reminds me of that friend when I read it. My first thoughts about it in the first several chapters is that China Mieville is an extremely creative person. The stuff he dreams up for his Bas-Lag world is incredibly complex, yet still seems eerily familiar. I've written stuff similar to what he has before, but he owns his world, where I oftentimes get mired in my worlds. Mieville is probably the weirdest writer I've read, yet it still feels lucid. Altogether, I'm loving this one so far. I'm hoping some of his uber-strangeness will rub off on me.
2. Deadhouse Gates: I've been reading this book for over 2 years now. I really just want to finish it. But it's killing me. Steven Erikson is another writer like Mieville in that he writes incredibly original fantasy with bizarre characters and scenes. The problem with Erikson I think is that it seems like there is no direction sometimes. I have no idea what is going on half the time. I really loved the first book in the series, Gardens of the Moon, but this 2nd one is just dragging for me. I hope to finally finish this one so I can move on to the 3rd one, which I hear the series picks up again at.
3. Japanese Language books (various): I've been constantly reading Japanese stuff since I've been back. There was a point when I was living in Japan, when my now-girlfriend Kumi took care of most of the Japanese speaking for me. Anywhere we went, she did the talking. So I became lazy with learning Japanese. Now my interest has renewed. I really want to be able to be a translator one day. I've found I love to translate text. It's challenging and interesting for me. Keeps me thinking and keeps my brain clicking. One day I hope to be able to write at an advanced level of Japanese and maybe get something published in Japan. That would be AWESOME!
Well that's it for now. I'm having good and bad days recently. My Japanese Coach for the DS and Dragon Age for Xbox360 has been keeping me sane during all this down time. The part time jobs are calling now. I started doing Mechanical Turk for Amazon recently. So far my balance is $2.00. "Virtual sweatshop" indeed.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Reboot
Haven't posted a blog in some time. Just some random thoughts I'm having about various things at the moment.
Wrestling: I'm on a roll right now, just picked up the NWA Mississippi Jr. Heavyweight Championship, which is the second NWA belt I've won in my four years of wrestling. If anyone knows anything about wrestling, they know the National Wrestling Alliance has a storied past and for a fan of wrestling (and then becoming a wrestler) it's a big deal for me to win any title with "NWA" in it. Even if the prestige isn't what it once was for the NWA, it is picking up steam again.
Writing: I've hit a dry spell in writing. I've dabbled here and there since returning to the US, but by and far, I've done absolutely zero writing since I've come home. I'm wanting to do something related to wrestling and writing, but we'll see what happens with that. I need a new project to pique my interest and just run with it. Right now I have several things on the fire that I need to just finish, edit, and send out. But alas, I am slow in many facets of my life.
Career/Life/Misc: I've all but decided to return to Japan. I'm 98 percent sure I want to go back, now that some things have settled down some, but there's still a part of me that wants to stay in the US. I don't know if I'll return in 2010, but I'm hoping to. I've been studying my Japanese here and there. I'm really hoping I can pick a position other than English school teaching. Maybe a university or international school would be cool. I'll see what happens.
That's it for me now! I have some other exciting things going on, that I don't feel like talking about yet, but when I do, I'll spill the beans!
Wrestling: I'm on a roll right now, just picked up the NWA Mississippi Jr. Heavyweight Championship, which is the second NWA belt I've won in my four years of wrestling. If anyone knows anything about wrestling, they know the National Wrestling Alliance has a storied past and for a fan of wrestling (and then becoming a wrestler) it's a big deal for me to win any title with "NWA" in it. Even if the prestige isn't what it once was for the NWA, it is picking up steam again.
Writing: I've hit a dry spell in writing. I've dabbled here and there since returning to the US, but by and far, I've done absolutely zero writing since I've come home. I'm wanting to do something related to wrestling and writing, but we'll see what happens with that. I need a new project to pique my interest and just run with it. Right now I have several things on the fire that I need to just finish, edit, and send out. But alas, I am slow in many facets of my life.
Career/Life/Misc: I've all but decided to return to Japan. I'm 98 percent sure I want to go back, now that some things have settled down some, but there's still a part of me that wants to stay in the US. I don't know if I'll return in 2010, but I'm hoping to. I've been studying my Japanese here and there. I'm really hoping I can pick a position other than English school teaching. Maybe a university or international school would be cool. I'll see what happens.
That's it for me now! I have some other exciting things going on, that I don't feel like talking about yet, but when I do, I'll spill the beans!
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