24 November 2008

Nothing to speak of

This weekend went off without much of anything. We went to Japanese church yesterday, which was nice enough. I like getting back in to the Japanese mindset every so often, with the bowing and the politeness and the language. Yoko said that my Japanese hadn't really gotten worse since coming to the UK and that was nice to hear. It's much easier for me to speak Japanese in a Japanese environment. A couple of people said things to me in English there, and it sort of tripped me up, like they made the record skip or something. I miss aspects of Japanese culture at different times, especially how things are categorized, with simple rules to follow. This can be incredibly frustrating when the rules don't work, but when they do, it's very nice.

I studied for the driving theory test for quite a while. I think I'm going to be able to do well, or pass at least. The driving test is something else entirely. I'm still not very comfortable driving here.

Proofs came in for two of my articles yesterday so I was looking things over and thinking that my level of writing last year was really not that great and I'm not really that happy with the articles being published as I don't really see things the way I did last year. I'm sure that won't ever change though, or at least, it won't change until I get older and more set in my ways.

My YouTube lab rats have been going at it, as they always are, but it's sort of depressing to listen to all morning long — the Christians complaining about the Atheists and the Christians who aren't Christian enough. The Atheists not caring about anything and using all this false, hyperbolized language that they think is making them sound smart, but just makes them sound like they are pretending to be smart. I want to make a rule: If you can use a shorter, simpler word, use a shorter, simpler word. Although all the misuse of the English language makes me look up a lot of words and think about their meanings.

Finally, I'm watching the second season of Rome, but it just makes me feel bad. At some point, you're tired of all this graphic depiction of violence and rape and hardship. The history is interesting enough, and I realize that I have only a very cursory understanding of the Roman Empire. Not that I should be expected to know more than I do, but still — it would be interesting to study.