A deal with the devil

Well, I sold my soul, and if I had to, I'd do it again - I have an iPod. An black iPod Nano, in fact. Actually, it was a present from my parents, so it was their souls that got lost in the bargain, but trading their eternal salvation for my new mp3 player was well worth it. It plays songs, gives me a selection of games to play from, has calender/contact list/to-do functionality, and if the promo picture to the left is any indication, it can also transform into a pencil... but I haven't found the button for that, yet.

There is a drawback to this, though. The touchwheel is really sensitive, so you can operate it through fabric. Meaning that I can adjust the volume or change the song or whatever while its in my pocket. Though this saves me from having to reach into my pocket everytime I need to change the song, it does have the unexpected problem of suggesting to the people around me (say, on the train) that I'm groping myself.

So, for example, when I want to turn the music up, I have to push the touchwheel in a clockwise direction, and then anti-clockwise to turn it down... or when I'm scrolling down through the song list, I push the touchwheel in a clockwise direction, etc. But when the capacity of the iPod Nano is 1000 songs, that turns out to be alot of clockwise rubbing through the fabric... and inevitably, I'll overshoot and have to scroll back up the playlist. Long story short, I'm rubbing the touchwheel in my jeans pockets an awful lot, and I can only imagine what people are thinking I'm up to.

Clash of the Titans... or not...

It would've been spectacular. A Clash of the Titans!!! It had all of the ingredients that legends are made of - the classic story of two friends set against each other, battling it out in a desperate struggle to gain that upper hand - that single moment when time slows to a crawl, and you see that glimpse of outright hopelessness flash across the eyes of your opponent, the scent of despair intoxicating, and then you gorge unapologetically on their soul... A bitter sweet victory. A bloody defeat. (Some have called me a competitive person, but I can't imagine why...)

But sadly, that won't be happening... this year, at least. The stage was set for war. It seemed almost that the Cosmos had engineered the fabric of time to culminate in this one moment - a battle of brilliant legal minds - between Aunty M and myself. Both of us were drafted by the law faculties of different universities to represent their institutions in the English-speaking division of the National Negotiation/Arbitration Competition later this year. As it turned out, the draw put her team up against mine in round 1... well, at least that's what she told me. Apparently, the words "Lets crush Kallun!" were uttered. Foolish mortals... they don't seem to realise that they're dealing with a Titan here. Clearly, Aunty M neglected to read my post about my negotiating prowess.

But none of this matters. It is all moot. When I checked the draw on the internet myself, I noticed something very interesting. I noticed that yes, indeed, her team was set to confront my university. That much is true. The chest thumping becomes significantly less intimidating, though, when one reads that her team is actually registered in the Japanese-language division, and not English-language division for which my team and I are registered under. In fact, she'll be facing off against the Japanese-language team that my faculty is also fielding. I wish Aunty M and her team the best of luck, but sadly, it won't be me that her team will be crushing. There will be no clash of the Titans this year.

200 days wasted...

Well, alot has happened, but I don't really have anything to say. I do have an update, though - I was bored one day, and thumbing through a small magazine for foreigners, I found a column where people get to submit small stories about their time in Japan... and they get paid if their submission is accepted. I figured that this blog was nothing more but a collection of stories/experiences, and that I might as well submit one. I did, and its being published next month. The funny thing is that they have to translate it into Japanese as well for any Japanese readers, so it'll be interesting to see how someone else translates my turn of phrase.

The story comes from the April archives... and is called “Me and my 400 kg television”. Its a nothing story, but at least I'm getting paid for it.

Ice Cube Wars

I realise that I said that I'm too busy to post, but I have a paper to write over the next 24 hours (due 3 weeks ago), and I have writers-block, so I need to get into a writing frame of mind - thus this post.

When my parents - Mum and Charlie - visited me in Japan the other day, they stayed in a hotel located near my dormitory. There was nothing special about the place (and no, it wasn't a love hotel), but it did have 3 elevators... lined up in a row. "So what?", you ask. "Big deal", you say. Well, with my family, whenever there is three of anything, it lends itself to being the basis for a competition. So with these elevators, my parents and I each selected a particular elevator, and we would press the button, and if our elevator came in first, we won (there was no actual prize, as such, but we did get to point and laugh at the other two as though they were losers and that the whole competition actually mattered). Sometimes, if we got on at different times, it would be a race up to the 6th floor, where they were staying.

This one time, I got on the first elevator, and mum caught the second one while Charlie went to go and get the key from the reception. Now another important feature of this hotel, or the 6th floor actually, was that it had an ice machine. I, personally, have no use for ice but to use it for its very effective projectile function when I hurl it at people. So, being the first to the 6th floor, and mum quickly in tow, we raced to the ice machine to fill our paws will ice cubes to throw at Charlie when he got off his designated elevator. She stood with her back to the wall to the left of his elevator, whilst I stood against the wall to the right - our hands getting numb and wet from the ice cubes.

Mum had a better vantage point to throw the ice at Charlie, and as the elevator doors opened, she started to move. Like a panther - smooth, quickly and deadly - she hurled an ice cube with frightening accuracy (she's had practice, clearly) and her aim was true - or at least it would have been had the person that got off the elevator first been Charlie. Instead, some little old Japanese lady, 1 foot shorter than Charlie, who was dressed all in black and had probably just been to a funeral, all distressed about losing a loved one, got off an elevator only to be greeted by some foreign lady pelting her with ice cubes.

Actually, it may have just missed her face, but I wouldn't know because I saw only part of it - it all happened in slow motion. As the doors opened, I heard a ladies voice talking. I knew that it was probably the lady I saw in the lobby just a minute ago, but I couldn't get the words out of my mouth quickly enough to tell mum, and I only got to see her let loose the ice cube before I spun around - facing the other way, doubled-over against the wall, trying to hide - doing my best not to giggle. All I heard was mum saying "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry". We both burst out laughing once we made it to the safety of the hotel room.

Sigh. Who's going to throw ice cubes at little old ladies with me now that my mum has gone?

------------Exhibit #1: I caught my mum red-handed--------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Random Photos

Seeing as I'm too busy to write anything properly, I'll just post some random photos that I've taken since I've been here in Japan.

My big plan for 2006 is to go to Central America, and I want a better digital camera so I can take proper photos for when I go...

No time

I won't be able to post anything for another two weeks - I'm juggling too many balls, and the sky is falling. The firing squad blew me away on monday, and they're going to try and take another crack at finishing the job it in a weeks time... I should have plenty to post about after all this is done with. Sorry.