So, I'm trying to figure out if I'm supposed to be at work right now. There's another freaking typhoon going on outside at the moment. I keep hearing things tearing off outside and clattering around, and I'm not really in the mood to walk to work in that. It's only a ten minute walk to the school, but that seems to me plenty of time to invert another umbrella and get decapitated by aluminum siding or impaled by a tree branch. I'll pass, thanks.

I live in a little teachers housing area, and most of the teachers have left to go to school, anyway (in their cars, which I don't have), though classes have been cancelled. However, today I am supposed to be at the elementary school, and the 5th grade teacher's car is still parked outside his house. All of the other teachers I've actually seen leave for school have been middle or high school teachers. I'm especially reluctant to leave and head to the school if I get there and find it locked and empty and just have to walk right back.

I suppose I could call and see what they want me to do, but I'm afraid they'll just say, "Stupid gambaranai gaijin! Get over here now!" THEY can call ME, man.

There's supposed to be another public announcement at 11am on the status of the schools, so assuming I can understand any of it, I may head out then.

In other news, I spent a fair amount of time yesterday evening cleaning myriad blood stains off my kitchen floor.

Yes, it was human blood. Yes, it was my blood. No, I did not have my first period yesterday (ha ha? it's a little joke, see... nevermind.).

With certain exceptions, I don't get blisters on my feet. Over the course of my life, this has led me, over and over, into doing extraordinarily stupid things, usually involving a great deal of foot friction without bothering to wear socks and/or shoes. Yesterday I decided to play basketball with some of my middle school kids at lunch. But because I don't have an extra pair of tennis shoes (heaven forbid you wear your outside shoes in a gym in Japan!), I decided I'd just do it in my socks.

Yes. Bad idea. By the time I realized I was in a great deal of pain, I had a monstrous blood blister on one big toe and had torn most of the skin off of the other. It bled like a mofo. (Not that I've ever seen a mofo bleed, mind you. Do I lose street cred for admitting that?) You'd think I'd catch these things earlier, but no. I went to the nurse and got it cleaned and got bandaids put on it (she wants to check it again later and decide whether I need to go to the hospital) and went back to work.

When I got home I padded around in my socks for a while before noticing the blood all over the kitchen. I had been tracking blood EVERYWHERE. So, I went and cleaned the toe again and put new bandages on it and scrubbed and scrubbed at the blood like I was Lady MacBeth. Except with spots on the floor instead of my hands. Yeah, anyway.

There was another public announcement just now. I was able to make out the words "Good morning, everyone" and "typhoon." So. Huh. Alright.

And... we just lost power. Fortunately I got my handy dandy surge protector and a battery powered laptop, so I'm still here.

Anyway. In other news, my dad recently read a short story I wrote almost exactly five years ago, and he liked it. He's actually encouraging me in my writing. See, dad has always been against me doing anything with my life that's not "practical," like, say, majoring in music. He's always pushed me towards a career in science. I haven't really minded that because I genuinely like science and would very likely go into it anyway. He knows this; it's not like he's trying to make me into something I'm not. However, I've always felt urges to devote myself to pursuits not strictly science, and dad has always discouraged the idea of me going into humanity/history type fields.

However, dad is a huge fan of SF and to a lesser extent fantasy. He knows a great deal about the genre. I trust his opinions on these things more than most people I know. He also does not give compliments unless he really means it. He said my story could be publishable with a little polishing and that if I honed my craft I could become an excellent writer. I've been wary of "getting my hopes up" where writing is concerned because I'm all too aware of how hard it is produce good writing and how hard it is to make a living producing it. But this is high praise coming from him and makes me think maybe I should pursue this writing thing a little bit more diligently. I'm far from quitting my day job (or deciding not to go back to graduate school), though.

Power's back on. I was hoping for a rapid descent into total anarchy, but alas, it's not to be.

News nook.

Check out Jon Stewart on Crossfire. I love Jon. He's one of my favorite people in the entertainment/media industry. DEFINITELY my favorite person in the media industry. For the title of favorite person in the entertainment industry, though, he's got to compete with Weird Al. I won't lie to ya; that's a tough one to beat.

Bush bad!

Other Bush bad, too!

Interesting...

You know, I'm tired of the electoral college. I kind of hope that Bush wins the popular and Kerry wins the electoral college. Then maybe we can get everyone to agree to dump it. In 2008, of course. But if Bush was to win AGAIN like he did in 2000, well... That's a problem.

i'm a whisper in water,

greyarea

Diaryland