Saturday 8 March 2008

Random acts shape people's perceptions of you/A lesson in being less judgemental (like that is ever going to happen!)

After stuffing ourselves silly on Turkish, off we trotted to an izakaya for cheap beer.

Midway through the drink order, the young waitress asked my colleague if she worked for a certain college. Nobi confirmed that she did and asked the girl if she remembered me. I was busy saying, probably not, I didn't teach that course, I left two years ago etc when Missy pipes up "I remember you being angry!" I was thinking, "H'mmmm...my reputation spread to students that I didn't even teach!" when she jogged my memory "You ran into my classroom chasing a boy who had said bad words to you". The horror came flooding back in a Bloody Mary haze of shame: some really annoying pseudo hip hop kids were blocking every one's way outside the elevator. I told them to go to class as the bell had already rung and was greeted by something along the lines of "Fuck you!" At which point I chased said whippersnapper and barged into his classroom yelling at him as poor old Tauchi-sensei looked on bewildered! Mt T enquired "Ahhh Lebecc, eh iz zer somesing long?" He was unable to make head nor tails of my "Rah rah rah rah, that little git rah rah rah, how dare he rah rah rah" rant so off I went.

Later Mr T came to apologise and offered by way of explanation the strange hypothesis that they had heard those words in songs and didn't understand the true meaning. I called "Bullshit" on that attempt to get away with it!

Nostalgic thoughts and blushes were ended when she offered to serve us a free drink. She then asked me if I could remember Mari-chan? Of course! Did I know that she had moved to Okinawa with her 30 something husband and 6 month old kid? Er, no I didn't!

Mari's future seemed written on the wall after she had told me she thought she was pregnant and what should she do. A false alarm and big lecture on the use of condoms later, after I quit the job, I heard she was sporting dungarees and an ever expanding waistline.

The waitress seemed like a nice girl, but I couldn't help but remark that she was, well, a waitress, and that that was the future that awaited most of the students after they graduated with their useless diploma from that college and hadn't she said she was on the University Transfer course?

Bill paid; Mari's email address proffered; enquiry as to how long she had been working there asked and answered: only during the holidays as she is studying English, Spanish and American Studies at Kyoto University!

Thursday 6 March 2008

Apparently this is what I look like to 15 year old Japanese girls













I especially like how I have been "Japanisized" in the one of them!

Tuesday 4 March 2008

I reckon Hilary is going to pull it off!


Come on Hilary or I'll have to face up to the responsibilities of my wager and buy my colleague lunch!

There has been a very slight movement, but still only a ripple, of negativity in the US press. The New York Times has tittered politely that Obama gets clapped for blowing his nose (wtf?)and YouTube has a video of a string of identical performances (yet again) by the man calming down a crowd when an over enthusiastic fan faints:
Obama: Er..get the girl a drink of water. Make some space down there!
Crowd: Whoop! Yeah!
Obama: Make some space down there. Get the girl a drink!
Crowd: Whoop! Right on! Go on give us another nose blow! Double Whoop!

The whole Cult of Personality thing that is surrounding him is really scary and I find the lack of discussion about it quite unnerving.

Why is no one demanding that he, too, offer universal health care? After all, that would surely bring about the "changes" he keeps promising. Why was there only a mild
criticism (almost apologetically issued) about the whole "Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim" slur? Why was he calling it a slur instead of using it as a change to start the "healing" he touts? Surely, citing religious bigotry would be the nobler move than to almost join in with the photo opportunists in his great haste to share his Christian credentials.

Of course he had Texas in front of him and high moral character won't bring in votes in Rednecksville. But those changes he promises? What a chance missed to start bringing them about? Those changes that his candidacy is based on. What changes are they again?

You can see how eight years of Bush would lead the poor bastards to embrace anyone with charisma, intelligence and, well, the ability to string a sentence together for one thing and Obama has them in abundance. But what is he ACTUALLY planning to do? It seems that the syncopic hordes don't care!