Grooving on not moving

A teacher and I were talking about where people decide to live. His situation and his sisters’ were very different, in that his sister even when faced with leaving her ‘home’ city to find other work in her career line refused to consider relocating. In her defense, she also has a husband with a good job in the same city, a home, and three kids. She literally did not consider at all moving as she has lived her whole life in that one locale. She is mentally and physically very settled in her city.

Time to settle down?

The teacher in question is different in that he has lived in a few places, and wouldn’t mind moving again and living elsewhere, given a place he wanted to move to and a suitable income to live there. I also fall in the ‘have passport, will move’ category. I have lived in Japan for a period, but I don’t consider not leaving. My parents on the other hand, have lived in the same place now since 1967. Somehow the thought of doing that gives me the chills, though I suppose at this juncture I am ‘moving’ in that direction.  I still wouldn’t mind moving though, and would welcome a change.

One last thing I left out about the ’stationary’ sister was that she also had a wide circle of friends in her home city. This might be a deciding factor for many people, as building a new network of close contacts takes time and energy, more so when your friends live farther away and you have to make real efforts to meet each other  when you travel. if you’re fortunate to have them on your business trip routes, that makes it slightly easier (and cheaper) to visit them, but still it’s not like where you can meet them anytime by walking out the door and running into them at the local pub or store. Then again, if you’re a common person in Japan, you might not meet your friends very often as all of you are very busy and of course possibly not living near each other (but possibly near a family member of some sorts, more on that in a future post).

Editing mode

I finally went through my blog and updated my posts as well as changed the title. It got me to thinking that perhaps if life could be edited as easily, events would lose some of their permanence and we would worry less. Less stress, fewer problems right? I’m not sure if that is always true, as a little stress is actually good for you.

But who is to say how much is enough? That is  sticky call to make, as too much stress may see us as another suicide stat whereas not enough my see us lingering as some social malcontent.

making the dough

I keep wondering what I’ll be doing this year to change my life. I seem to be doing the usual things, getting presentation ideas ready, and trying to organize a book. What else can I do? I’d like to have a  bigger web presence, but I lack the confidence to start loading photos and what not.

Making the dough

I’m also not sure that is what I want to do. Life is a compromise, and then you wonder if that is all there is to it. Well, I guess for right now, that’s it!

Must it be security or passion?

I keep thinking I need a job with a pension, but then I wonder if I would live long enough with the boredom. Sound like a cliche for a car ad? I suppose it is a dlilemna that many of us face, whether we can do something we enjoy and become financially ‘fit’, or do we have to buckle down and do what we have to or need to do to get by.

I’m considering applying for that DOD ESL  job, but I keep thinking I’ll be teaching ‘waterboarding’, though perhaps Obama’s emergence might save me the trouble. My wife keeps objecting only considering that if we renovate, she doesn’t want to leave the house?!  Beginning to sound like a ball and chain to me. I can understand not wanting to leave, but also after we do this full scale renovation, we can get a regular renter fairly easily I would imagine, and one that would pay top dollar for a small house in central Tokyo.

I think flexibility is key. I just am not sure what else I can do in Japan, I’m not as swift as Sam when it comes to figuring out what can be done online. Oh well, we can’t all be young geniuses, guess I’ll have to settle for being an average whatever.

Getting in touch

I had an emotional moment yesterday during karaoke.  I know, sounds like an odd place to get in touch with a lost feeling, but for some reason music does trigger that sometimes, even music using cheezy synthesizers to emulate rocking guitars. I just started tearing up, and the worse part of it was one time I was in the middle of singing.

Getting in touch

This happened twice,  the earlier time I was just thinking about a Chinese song my wife was singing called ‘I believe myself’.  Discounting the bad grammar in the song (‘I believe in myself’ would make a lot more sense), the Ayaka version features a simple piano melody with soaring vocals. It often makes me consider what I do believe that I can do. Right now, I feel puzzled and stuck as to where I want to go, and some things that I do want to do seem impossible to do. I feel vulnerable, and I’m not sure that is the feeling that I want to deal with, but you have to deal with the hand you’re dealt.

On a related note, I was thinking about something in a Donald Trump book  I read yesterday, ‘Think like a Billionaire’. I don’t agree with some of his opinions, but one of his comments really struck home.  He said that very rich people are often passionate about what they do. They don’t think of their jobs or business as work because because it’s something they really enjoy doing. He commented that if you have a job that you don’t feel passionate about, you should fire yourself and find something you enjoy doing and are good at.  Life is too short to spend your time doing something that doesn’t draw you in fully.

Of course he didn’t consider having to make a  living, and the other things you might enjoy doing besides work.  Sometimes it seems to be really wealthy, you have to be obssessed about what it is you want, which was another point that he made. So the question is, which obsession do you want to go with?

Revving up

I recently am almost chasing my own tail as I try to kick my social life and my work life up a notch. Doesn’t always seem to be working. Sometimes it seems I don’t have the energy to do both, and I wonder if I’m playing two different games, neither of which I particularly relish, at the same time.

Revving it up

Running in place has never appealed to me, yet it seems like this treadmill I’m on doesn’t go any slower. Now, there is more weight attached to my end as well, as my significant other has too much time on her hands, and doesn’t seem to know how to use it.

Of course there are times when I too have too much time, and that’s why I can work on this blog, ha ha!

Buzz time for getting wired

Recently I seem to really need my caffeine fix. Don’t know why, but the days seem longer, and I definately want to ‘run on’. The beginning of semesters are always busy, but this year I am also laminating for the future, have set up some blogs to try out for different classes, am considering using wikis in the future.

Face book time? Not really, not my cup of tea. But who knows what will happen as technology worms its way into my life. I might even buy an ipod! Well, I won’t go that far yet, I like music, just not into plugs in my ears. Don’t know why, I just don’t.

So anyway, life is buzzing by, but it always seems like things are moving somewhere, but not necessarily the way you’d like. But is controlling where events go living? maybe not, maybe not. But one would like to think that some aspects of destiny could be controlled that way, wouldn’t one?

Sep. 17 Loss of time for better endeavors

Ever wonder where the time goes? Recently I find I’m watching far much too TV, and wondering how I can make better use of the time.  Considering studying Japanese seems like a good idea, and also researching more business ideas. Want to float this sale of kids’ clothes idea with my better half, though I have to wonder if the declining birthrate here really offers a large market for left over warehouse inventory.

Working out is another option, and one I’m contemplating considering, though urges to flex muscles come and go. Sweating is easy in the summer, but sometimes the sports club makes me feel old as the number of retirees at our club makes me feel like ‘retiring’ too.

Making new habits is not easy, though the ‘laminating business’ is picking up as I ready another semester’s offerings. With last semester’s batch, I’ll have a complete academic year’s worth. Copying is just not my bag, as the copy room ‘heats’ up pretty badly every semester.

Using blogs will be another point of interest, though I wish I had more chances to use blogs and a better developed one. But all good things come with time (and soemtimes money).

But time is a resource, and do we all really make the best use of our time? I suppose it depends on your goals. Sometimes having free time is a great destresser and other times it can be a burden. It just depends on what you think you need to do.

Sep. 9 2008 click in a clique

Remember when you were in high school? And there were various cliques, like at my school; jocks, gear heads, stoners, preppies, etc. And did you ever have the feeling you just never fit in anywhere?

Well it turns out that a bunch of teachers at my school branch didn’t feel very welcome as they were unable to join any of the already existing social groups. They considered also forming their own worker’s union, as they felt unduly pressured to join the present one at the branch.  So they formed a group that aptly uses a name reflecting their subterfuge status, which sometimes has group events that only members are invited to. What they failed to recognize, was that in feeling rejected by the other groups ‘ insularity, they have gone and duplicated the same standards that they disliked when they arrived. Nothing like copying what you loathe, yes?

Sep. 7 2008 What we remember en route

When you look back on your life, what you remember sometimes tells you about the type of person you are, or just simply about the way your mind works. My wife had asked me to meet her and some friends near  a street that I have gone up probably countless times on my way to a university in the Shibuya area. She named a chain coffee shop’s location, which for some reason I had simply blanked from my mind. Yet I could probably tell you about where I wasn’t when Armstrong and company landed on the moon, and maybe recall my first kiss, both events of which happend a lot less recently than my passing the said coffee shop on or from teaching at that university.

It could be the significance of an event to oneself, or simply what strikes one as memorable. For some reason, I am one of the worst people at finding places via landmarks. If you give me a street address and a map, chances are I can locate and show up on time at the said location. But let me loose in Tokyo, where even taxi drivers frequently ask directions, you risk not seeing me any time soon, regardless of how many times I have supposedly frequented that venue.

Perhaps I’d have a better chance if the destination is a place I have visited rather than just it being a point in passing, but still my orientation skills seem to be continually rusty one at best. Ive gotten lost by not remembering which exit I used even when I had been to the same place half a dozen times, and at all times perfectly sober (or as sober as one can be in such instances). Still I seem to reverse the location of landmarks in my mind, and trusting these mirror image markers to lead me to my destination, but rather they lead me astray. Luckily I have not gotten lost on the way to work recently, only en route to social events. Perhaps the thought of spending money is a factor, I can’t really explain the unexplainable. But then in that case, I should get lost more often in the case of going to even a vending machine or a convenience store.