( So B & Z seem to be enjoying themselves. )

In space-related news, the long dry-spell of January is finally over! So we have the Space Shuttle Endeavor launching tomorrow/this afternoon in order to delivery the Tranquility node/module to the ISS. I believe this is the biggest of the stuff left to attach, so that's pretty exciting.

And then on Wednesday (rescheduled from Tuesday, presumably because of the shuttle being pushed back, and still dependent on weather), the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is going to observe solar dynamics. Probably the biggest benefit we'll see is further progress on advanced prediction systems for solar flares.

Oh, and also I thought that this was cool: Saline in space (which will totally lead to sick bays on space ships, amirite?). Day by day, I feel like we get closer to the movies~

( And now, on to the main event: President Obama's proposed budget for NASA. )

The moral of the story is that while I would love for us to be the first to return to the moon and build a moonbase, especially since I see it working really well as a testing ground for Mars that's within reasonable distance, the trade-offs in the new budget are good enough that I could live either way. Be end!

Today, I'm fighting off the sniffles that attacked me over the weekend. Going okay so far?

In other news, yay, new bridges that I'm sure everyone back home already knew about~

Just a quick little post to point y'all to 14valentines. It's an event that goes every year from February 1st to Valentine's Day; each day has a different theme regarding the situation and self-image of women all around the world. People post essays and artwork and stories that are generally relevent to the theme of the day (or just to more generally show their support). Check it out, yo. ^^

So, B and Z succesfully arrived in Japan, yay! And I managed to pick them up from the airport, and we made the long and exciting trip back to my house.
( Adventures in Threes )

( In other news: )

EDIT: Here's an update for the Brunswick Amtrak Expansion. ^^

My friends B and Z from UBC are getting here tomorrow. I'M A TEENY TINY BIT EXCITED.

In other news, this article not only tells me that I was right to skip out on the kerosene heater (like smoking two packs a day? all that black gunk on my floors was definitely from the kerosene heater), but also has kind of a neat gadget in it.

*runs off to prepare*

Edit: Yay, Amtrak! Obviously, I am most excited about the possibility of trains to Quebec someday, and also maybe faster trains to Boston. But mostly I just like trains, you guys!

RULES:
1. Reply to this post and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a neverending cycle of icon squee. Whoo!

( As per usual, Arisha put me up to this. )

More links to things I think are cool, yay!

Here, have some cool bacteria:

We had that lightswitch installed for you so you could turn the lights on and off. NOT SO YOU COULD THROW LIGHT-SWITCH RAVES.

Also, some cloning:

This is the older article.

Oh, so now you're the King of Bob.

Also, also, this might seem wacky, but I really like this idea:

High-rise farming (I had no quotes relevant to this situation).

Can you tell that I have read all of NASA? Please to be suggesting more places to read while I'm at work.

Pee-ess: I've had Curbside Prophet (or whatever) stuck in my head, except I've been singing it as Curbside Rocket. Much more awesome, y/y?

EDIT: Can someone please tell me why this sentence strikes me as so wrong?

"I think to play the guitar will be lots of fun." (As opposed to "I think playing the guitar will be lots of fun.")

So, if you had to chose one work (I was going to say book, but hey, art and movies and stuff would work too, I guess) to show to an alien in order to explain or illuminate our world culture, what would it be?


I think I would have to go with Fugitive Pieces, which I read last year in my Jewish-Canadian Lit. class. There were some people who didn't like it, but I don't see how: I thought it was beautifully, lyrically written, and it deals with love and loss (and the Holocaust) and finding your place in the world, so I think it would work pretty well.

Yes, as athena_crikey pointed out, I only ever seem to do stuff on the weekends. I think we're all just going to have to accept that and move on. ( Basically, sometimes (about once a week, really) I have the sudden realization that I'm in Japan, livin' the dream. ) All in all, I really enjoyed it. If anybody comes to visit during a tournament, I will almost certainly bring them to a day of sumo. ^^ The next thing on my cultural list is probably bunraku, cuz my sensei showed us a video of it last year and I am totally interested!

Yesterday I slept for ten hours and then I pretty much did nothing, just read the entirety of Lieutenant Hornblower, watched some NCIS and Top Gear and talked to the big bro. All in all, quite nice.

In completely unrelated news: friggin' laundry! By which I mean that if I hang my laundry inside to dry it takes forever, but if I hang it outside it gets blown around in the wind and ends up pulling the pole it's clipped to off of the support (and on to the little balcony, thank goodness) and not drying and kind of breaking the pole, aargh.

This week I actually have some classes, yay! I get to talk about phonics some more with one class (yay for consonant pairs!), and Australia and differences in school discipline for the others. Umm... any thoughts/experiences with school discipline? I was thinking about it and realized that I don't actually know that well how we handle truancy. Does SoPo have a truant officer? What do kids actually do in detention? I never had to deal with any of this, aaaah, goody-two-shoes~ Help me out here, Julie guys!

So basically, this article says some of the stuff that is really frustrating about living in Japan, albeit with slightly less evident rage: I say, "Hey Japan, you're pretty hip to the jive with the whole efficiency thing! How bout that sustainability, eh?" and Japan is like, "What's... sustainability, precious?" And then I rage for a while about how everything comes in its own package.

Also, it's like coupons, but for the recycling you're already doing! I figure why not?

And this is a way to check the enviromental impact of your electronics- something I had never actually thought about. ^^;;

So! With yet another week of no classes for me, you can bet them I am just. Sparkling. But that's okay, because at least I have a shirogane class this week. ^^

In other news, there's a hotspring town in the immediate area that was apparently one of the inspirations for Spirited Away. ( Guys, I really need to stop staying up because 7 hours of sleep is my LEAST favorite amount, for serious. )

All in all, it was a very pleasant outing, which I followed up by lazing around and doing actually nothing for the rest of the weekend. In other news, pretty much done with rereading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower!

Next Saturday is the Gunma-alt Sumo-seeing Expedition Extraordinaire! So I will report back in the future. XD

By which I mean that they caught and killed the mouse that has been haunting the teachers' room for the last few weeks. Hopefully there was only one!

So, the past couple of days have been pretty mind-numbing. In reality, it hasn't been that different from what I would normally do, but somehow having the idea that I might be able to leave early makes it so much worse. I did in fact end up taking off early both days, and managed to head off to the post office. I would appreciate it, though, if you guys would start making livejournal posts or something here. >.>

In other news, today I was mysteriously invited along to a teaching class for the home-ec teachers of Tamamura (S-sensei couldn't make it, so I guess it wasn't really so mysterious as all that). Then we drove about five minutes away to what is apparently the only Tonkatsu school in all of Japan? I mean, it's the only ___________ school in all of Japan- possibly it's the only butcher's school. Or something. THE POINT BEING that people come from Kyushu, Okinawa, and even Taiwan and China to go to this place (and get their ____ license). O-sensei and M-sensei were the other two from my school, but there were ten of us overall. We made an extremely delicious lunch (Macaroni chicken gratin w/ white sauce; tonkatsu; shabu-shabu salad; and rice) and then got to bring home left-overs. Mmm, best mystery invitation ever! Now I have no motivation to do what I was going to do today, ie, put stuff up on my board of doom. *food comas all over the place*

The real point of this post, though, is that I haven't linked you all to something from NASA for a while and I thought this Star Trek-esque business might intrigue some of you. Remember, NASA stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration! Also, make sure to check the comments at the bottom- there aren't that many, but some of them are quite precious. :D

Why, hallo thar. Welcome to the recap post for the past couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy your stay!

( Bonenkai, anyone? )

So that was the night of the 22nd. ( I left for Oz on the night of the 23rd, )

Overall, it was a pretty amazing trip, although it was a teeny, tiny bit too short. ^^; Also, I quite enjoy this whole traveling at night thing- it makes me feel like I have an extra day at the end. (Although it kind of stinks when there are about four movies that I really want to see available on the plane, but instead I conk out. >.>)

It took me an extra two hours to get home once I got back to Japan, though, for a total of five hours. (The first extra hour was due to my taking the regular train instead of the limited express- in my defense, on my normal line the difference is about twenty minutes, which was the time until the next express. How was I to know the difference on that particular line is more like an extra hour? The second one wasn't actually my fault, since it had more to do with the limited services available during the New Year's holiday.) Luckily I caught the 11:50 bus from the station back home, because if I had missed it the next one wouldn't have been until 1:38. o.o

I had originally intended to go and check out the local shrine at around midnight, but I underestimated how tired I would be after traveling, and also how cold Japan would seem when I came straight from the beach to the middle of winter. ^^; So I hung around most of the day until about 11:55 when I though to check for fireworks, at which point I discovered the Johnny's Countdown on tv, and was happy. ^^

Spent the next couple of days lazing around/cleaning, until yesterday (the third), when I accompanied my supervisor to a New Year's Party at the house of her daughter's friend. The son of that house is a first year at my school, so they politely invited me. I was really worried it was going to be awkward or something, but it was actually a lot of fun. We ate shabu-shabu, played memory and then Mario Bros. for the wii. I was amazed when I looked up and realized it was three hours later. :D

Now, I'm sitting at work, since I didn't take nenkyu, wondering if I'm allowed to just go home. It seems like a lot of the other teachers are just showing up for an hour or so and then bailing. Mystery~ ^^;;;

Last night I headed up to Lake Haruna with a couple of people to see the "illuminations", as the Japanese call Christmas Lights. All in all, it was way prettier than I expected. Also, it was actually kind of cold, yay!

Other than that: TWO DAYS 'TILL AUSTRALIA!! FOUR DAYS 'TILL CHRISTMAS!! *runs around in crazed circles*

(1,2, 3,4,5, everybody in the car and come on let's drive to the, liquor store on the corner~)

Yeah, so I woke up at 5:13 or so this morning to another earthquake. (Just scroll over Gunma and you can click to see the intensity where I was.) It took me pretty much the entire thing just to work out what was going on- if there is ever a more serious one I will probably die you guys, because I just can't muster up the understanding to get into a doorway. >.> (Also, apparently there was a bigger one later, but it was far enough away that I didn't feel it.) I'm just not used to this idea that the ground could shake- I always spend about thirty seconds just working out what's going on. They've been kind of fun so far, though!

Last night my Eikaiwa class had a sort of half Christmas party/half Bonenkai at a local restaurant. Good times were had by all, I believe. I really like all of the members, so the time flew by. ^^

Also, aaagh, it's getting cold and for some reason my hot water ran out this morning just as I was stepping into the shower. Not pleased. Hopefully it was just that my neighbor used up all the hot water or something, and not an actual problem. >.<

Also, also, yaaay, new icons! ♥ athena_crikey

Oh, and as an update on the adapter thing, athena gave me an idea that totally worked, so my computer is charging again. Excellent news, what?

(Five days to Australia.)

It's been... *checks last space post* oh, a whole week since the last one! Yay! (I think I need a space icon.)

( Probably you're all bored of the Final Frontier Newsletter by now... )

In real-life news, this morning I had a class in which students, who as T-sensei says "aren't normally interested in English", were a little interested due to my presence and the betting game! Awesome! Also, for English class with K2-sensei's first years, I got to help them practice the pronunciation of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" by singing it to them line-by-line and having them repeat. Aaaaagh. That was less than awesome. >.>

Oh, something that's excellent about living in Japan is that I never have to buy fruits and/or vegetables. Possibly this is just from working at a school (and also because I a.) live alone and b.) don't eat that many veggies anyway so they last forever), but man, people are always giving me food. Like yesterday, I came back from class to discover three giant apples and a pack of mushrooms on my desk. "Uwah", I said. Turns out that some farmers came to give the students food and then the teachers got the extras. And there were a ton of extras. Probably I could have taken four or five apples if I had wanted, but these things are GIGANTOR, so I didn't.

Also, yesterday I managed to break my second adapter, which means that I am once again without the ability to charge my computer in my house. *woe* Hopefully my sister still has hers in Australia, or there goes skyping at Christmas. >.>

But! It's now 6 days until I depart for Australia!! And tonight there is an Eikawa class X-mas party, and the 22nd is my school's bonenkai (end of year forget the past year party), so the time should fly by even faster than you would expect. XD

EDIT: Icon made!

Anyway, this quiz was hard, but it seems relevant to certain of your interests.

Also, I appear to have done well, though I reckon it was mostly by guessing~ (except, obvs, the bits on English and the couple of questions on Japanese. :p)

Your result for The Absolute Language Test...

The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly In The Plane

77% Eloquent, 60% Well-Versed, 23% So-So, 6% Amateur and 8% Ignoramus!

Guys, did you know that the closest city to Spaceport America (which is clearly what you name the place after you're done calling it the Southwest Regional Spaceport [and by "you" I obviously mean the New Mexico Spaceport Authority]) is called Truth or Consequences?! They named themselves after a radio show, what is this amazingness. They're going to run shuttles out to the Spaceport, in case you have the cash for a $200,000 flight but can't afford to rent a car! Also, the Spaceport is scheduled to be finished in just one year! Also, also, to the delight of some on my friends-list, this concept drawing looks like a sting-ray! Yay! (Unfortunately, this motto appears in their welcome statement- "When it comes to outer space, New Mexico is bringing it down to earth!". So sad.)

Also, Virgin Galactic's first two spaceplanes are the Enterprise and the Voyager (though Voyager hasn't been built yet). Also, also, Shatner is too much of a chicken to go up in the Enterprise, ahahaha. XD Further, if their line of Spaceshiptwos is successful, Virgin Galactic is gonna aim for SpaceshipThree, which will either be orbital or actually use sub-orbital flight for transit.
Also, in a way that's not creepy at all, the Enterprise's carrier aircraft is named Eve after the head of Virgin's mother, with this vaguely exciting nose-art.

Clearly, as Dromemicius said, we're living in the future now, you guys. (Guys, remember when video-calling somebody was the height of future technology?) It is also clear that I have finally discovered how to link stuff in my lj without it looking really ugly~

One thing I'm learning to do in Japan- stretch my extremely meager drawing skills to the limit. (The Cheat is to the limit! Everybody come on fhqwgds.) My teacher wants me to draw a room for prepositions/there is statements. Guys, perspective is hard! And so is drawing stuff and then putting other stuff on top of it- I'm totally gonna have to draw it in pencil first, woe. *is laughed at by all actual artists* But at least this means I have something to do today! :DDDDD

In other news, I think the best part of this is the continuous use of the word "spaceport". Heck, yes, sci-fi got there first and named it for you! Also, world's first spaceport will be in New Mexico?

And in other space news, WISE is supposed to go up on Friday. (It was supposed to be Wednesday, but the forecast was bad I guess.) Yay for telescopes! ^^

So, I went to see Inglourious Basterds with a couple of people last night, sort of vaguely against my will (It wouldn't have been my first choice). It was better than I expected, but I came out wanting to talk it to death (like always- I swear, those WA movie trips back in the day gave me a really, really bad habit), and the people I was with didn't want/were really tired. So. DISCUSS. Have you guys seen it? What were your thoughts?

So, I went up to Minakami this past (long) weekend with the awesome J.L.

( Day One )

( Day Two )

( Day Three )

Woah, long entry is long; sorry y'all.

J.L. and I are planning to go back in the spring, so as to see the cherry blossoms, ride the mysterious steam train, and use the onsen again at a time when we won't actually freeze before we get in. :DDDD

In other news, I still get really nervous/embarrassed about giving omiyage. Blushing all over the place, wtf self. ^^;