Weather (bad)

This is why Niigata is not a city of wonders:

Today: Windy and overcast with showers. High 46F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Tonight: Windy with rain showers likely. Low 41F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Tomorrow: Overcast with showers at times. High 48F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Tomorrow night: Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers late. Low 39F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Friday: Morning showers. Highs in the upper 40s and lows in the upper 30s.
Saturday: Chance of showers. Highs in the low 50s and lows in the upper 30s.
Sunday: Periods of light rain. Highs in the low 50s and lows in the low 40s.

Because, see, it hasn't stopped raining since I was born.

On the upside, I have a job interview in like an hour to become a proof-reader. Yeah, I know what you're saying, "Dude, I've read your blog and although I find it riveting, hilarious, and, well, the reason I get up in the morning, let's face it, you suck at grammer. You just suck." Well, that may be true, but you shouldn't say it. And seriously, where do you get off telling me what I'm good or not good at!?

I gotta take the TOEFL too. Great.

Also, I'm thinking of selling my car in favor of riding my scooter all the time. It's much more cost-effective. Now, if I only I could make it stop snowing in Febuary, January, and parts of March.

Japan/ Iran

I stayed up last night to watch the Japan/ Iran football game and am still in a bad mood about it. I yelled some of the most horrible things at the television. You know that ladies can't go to football games in Iran? Ridiculous.

Other than that. I may have sent the stupidest e-mail ever to my company that may or may not get me fired, I'm realizing. Being honest sucks.

Though, on the up side, I have an interview for a part time job on Wednesday.

Last full day of this school year

Today marks my last full day of this school year. I made a kid so angry that he started crying and threw both of his shoes and one of his socks at me while I was leading Simon Says. He was pissed. Real pissed.

I've got my fingers crossed that a job will open up in Niigata for me to work with the city here. If not, dude might have to pack up again in August. I'm not looking forward to doing that. But I can't attain my lofty goals in my current situation. My company certainly fulfills a purpose, but they don't seem to really care about their employees keeping their jobs and (or) performing well. Dude's pulling his weight, but I won't go under the bus for these folks. I would for this job in Shiga ken though. It's sweet, up in the mountains and whatnot. Close to Kyoto too. Also about $8,000 more a year to do the exact same thing as I'm doing here.

American History X, viewed at the behest of Mr. Berto, was a stunned/ stunning film.

Special Ed. Kids

Yesterday, I was hanging out with the special ed. kids, singing the how are you song. I like the how are you song because everyone has to shake hands and I think this is a good culture lesson for the kids about, you know, whatever. Anyway, the special ed. kids are particularly difficult to involve in the song as any sort of mixing and choosing seems to be hard for them. Except for this one kid yesterday who couldn't wait to shake my hand. I thought it was great until I noticed one of the teachers was having to scold him just about every other minute for sticking his hand in his butt. I noticed this right as we went into our second time singing the song and he bee-lined it right for me again. So, the moral of the story is: wash your hands. Especially given all the influenza and, uh, butt-related diseases.

Punishment

I've been getting into these ranting moods lately and I think I need to stop. Last night, my family called at 11:30, after I had gone to bed so I was kind of pissy and ranted to my sister for a half-hour more-or-less about how I didn't think punishment discourages bad behaviour and that as long as we used punishment as a means to get bad kids to behave, the bad kids were only going to get worse. Anyway, I got going pretty bad, so much so that I couldn't get back to sleep for another hour. For what it's worth, my desires for a procreation companion have subsided again, and I'm back to thinking I don't ever need to marry anyone. Sufficiency is a wonderful, isn't it? Well, until next week.

Tonight, I'm helping a couple of people write up a doctrinal statement for our cell group/ church. It's going to be interesting. I wrote one for myself on Saturday and it was great. I was surprised what got in and what didn't get in. Next, a statement on art and language, starting with , I believe all words are have value and usefulness, necessarily.

See, that wasn't so hard?

Dang, the first graders had the best questions for me: What does the French flag look like? Are you America? In America, do you eat rice with your hands? What kind of woman are you looking for? How much cash do you have on you? These kids. They're incorrigible.

What does that mean, by the way: they're incorrigible? It's from a Seinfeld.

Staying

I just turned down a lucrative position in Nagoya to stay here in the winter wasteland of Niigata City. Why? Well, dear diary, let me tell you: It's growing on me. I also lost my lucrative part-time job to an internal ALT at the school I was going to work at. Now, I am still looking for a job.

Meikun

A part-time job just fell in my lap at school about 10 km from me. I'm stoked. It looks like a happy place, except the dude they have working there now seems a little scary. Whatever. It's good news provided the pay is okay. That will make the wedding and grad. school a for sure and maybe I will go to Africa for Christmas to visit some misisonaries and see if I want to go there next.

See, that wasn't so hard.

I've been enjoying life big time: smoking the cigars, sitting in the public bath, eating the Korean grilled meat, and reading the Bible (at different times, mostly). All things I have missed for a little while now. Me and my friend Hiroshi and my Japnese teacher all ate the grilled meat on Monday night and Hiroshi had these herbal cigarettes that smelled like pot. I kept saying, *Dude, that smells like pot* and he just smiled and offered it to me. I refused as I was working on my Dominican. Oooo-la-oooo-la-la.

That really great Bright Eyes record talks about being young enough to still believe in war. I dig that. I've been thinking about how I learned to love war as a kid, how we were always killing each other in the forest. My parents never let us have toy guns as my father understood that pointing toy guns at each other was not a healthy thing. But we had sticks. I remember, when my family moved to El Paso, I took my favorite stick.

Last night, I dreamt about my daughter again. This has happened several times, the most startling when I was awake and I saw her in a friends dining room. Jon called it Divine Daydreaming. I don't know if I agree with that. I do not want a daughter in my waking state, best I can tell. At least not for a couple of years. I also think I need to meet a girl my own age first who might help facilitate the mother side of the father/ daughter relationship. But still. I woke up feeling weird.