A few (hopefully) quick notes, as I�ve just found myself extremely busy.

Until further notice, I dislike soap in my eyes, smoke inhalation, and gnats getting all up in my grill.

Not too long ago I saw Ben Folds in Hiroshima. It was cool.

I spent all of last week in an intensive week-long course in interpretation. It was tough. But I realized two things in the process. 1) Though my Japanese still needs some work, I kind of have a knack for this interpreting stuff, and I think it�s fun. 2) Intrepreters, in Japan at least, make assloads of money. Of all my post-JET options, that�s the only one that would involve a pay raise. The top people in the field make really good money, like medical doctor kinda money. Hmm. Tempting.

Actually, my Japanese seems to be the midst of a rapid advancement. A Great Leap Forward, you might say. Things are coming along.

I also met up with WTF again in Kyoto over the weekend, and thus came about the latest episode in the ongoing soap opera (or shoujo manga, if you prefer) that is my love life. I wasn�t directly involved this time, though, fortunately. The latest drama was sparked because she told the Cancerous Ex that she had entered a new relationship. He responded by threatening to commit suicide.

All kinds of things happened, the police got involved, more things happened� Ya know. Ultimately he didn�t kill himself, last I heard. In fact, the police ultimately decided he�s full of shit and is just trying to manipulate her into taking him back. In fact, the police say the whole cancer thing is a fabrication he made up to try and guilt-trip her back into his arms. In fact, the police say he confessed this to them. He denies this.

All this suicide threatening and what-not wrapped up only hours before I met up with her. I was worried he would show up at her place while I was there and shit would go down, but fortunately shit stayed up.

As it turns out, she doesn�t actually even know for sure that he HAS cancer. He hasn�t actually entered the hospital, he just goes in for �consultations� once a week. She�s never gone with him. He has no friends, and supposedly he hasn�t told his family because he doesn�t want them to worry. Yeah, do you smell that? It�s bullshit.

WTF now strongly suspects that he�s lying, but she�s just too kind-hearted to assume it. And apparently he has lost an astounding amount of weight since they broke up. Everyone she�s told about the situation thinks he�s lying, though. Apparently he�s got a long history of making shit up, too.

She tends to give the impression of being passive and easy to dominate, but in fact she�s quite willful and hard as nails, when it comes down to it. Though she would never phrase it this way and would probably be horrified that I am, I love her attitude of �Fine, kill yourself! I�m still not taking you back!�

I�m pretty pissed off at this yahoo, actually, because he�s really put her through hell with this faking cancer shit. She�s been really hurt by it. It�s so� stupid. What an asshole.

I�ve had a string of girls now with exceptionally shitty exes in their recent past. This one, at least, is smart enough not to take him back.

Speaking of which, Kami has started communicating with me again. She married Ol� Whatshisname, He Who Must Not Be Named (But May Be Referred To In Mocking Tones As �Pralines And Dick�). He�s gone back to Canada now, though, and she�s still in Japan. She is, of course, under orders to never speak to me again, but so much for that. She asked for my home address, even� I feel like I�ve just had a big sticker applied to my head that says �PLAN B.�

Oh, I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over the weekend. Johnny Depp was cool. He�s got to be one of the best character actors ever. He�s great. The dialogue was funny. There were lots of clever little puns that the Japanese audience wasn�t able to get (�Don�t touch that squirrel�s nuts!�). The music was awesome, too. I remember thinking halfway through, �Wow, these little Oompa Loompa songs are actually pretty damn good! � Oh, yeah. Danny Elfman. Duh.� (He did the vocals, too.) The art direction didn�t jive with my sensibilities too well, though. I found it a touch boring, visually. 3 stars

So, I�m busy. One reason is that all of a sudden I�m going to North Korea next week, and making the arrangements for that on such short notice has been� busy-inducing, you might say.

Another reason is that it is time to get going on graduate school applications, and now that I�ve started I�ve realized that certain aspects of that, namely letters of recommendation, need to be set in motion NOW.

And the third reason is that WTF will be arriving on The Rock the day after tomorrow, and my place is in complete disarray. It�s so messy it actually bothers me. That�s pretty friggin� messy, folks.

Oh, and as if it wasn�t long enough as it was, here�s another one to add to the list of Things That Will Certainly Mean The End Of The World As We Know It� Super Volcanoes!

maybe edison is ac/dc,

greyarea

Republicans For Voldemort!

Diaryland