sailorstarsun

I feel like I haven't posted anything meaningful in a while. I blame work.

No, really.

I don't know if I've mentioned here, but my current work situation really blows. Like, remember how I had (literally) three times more work than any of the other native teachers last year? Yeah, it's that all over again. Thankfully it's not quite three times more, but once again, as usual, I have more classes than any of my co-workers, and every time I turn around I'm getting more classes added in to my schedule. I'm now working six days a week, since one of the other teachers here up and left to move to Tokyo (and in return for abandoning her students, she got promoted to Student Care Coordinator - but that's a rant for another day), and some of her classes were pushed onto me as overtime. Then they go and add more kids classes to my schedule. All after I already had more classes than anyone else. And no, nobody else is getting more classes forced onto them. Only me. And every single day, everyone else will have at least one hour - usually more - where they have nothing to do, except me. I don't get a break. I don't even have enough time to eat while at work.

My motto the past few months has been "I don't want to be justified in my anger." Meaning, as much as I don't like my tendency to flip out over nothing, I've come to think it's preferable to having a legitimate reason for being so pissed off all the time. However, in this case, I am justified.

Two of the other native teachers here, of their own accord, have gone to personnel and told them what's being done to me is bullshit. I didn't ask them to, I haven't even complained openly to anyone, but they saw it, and stood up on my behalf, because even they see that this is a really shitty thing to do to someone. It's not just me overreacting; other people are seeing it.

Last week the staff informed me that I would have to do some special lessons this week, and the other night one of the other teachers messaged me saying he would do them for me. And he did, and I'm extremely grateful that for once someone was willing to step up for me.

I keep telling myself things will get better. I can only hope so.

So that's the work front.


On the social front, I amazingly had a friend visit me. It was odd, because this friend has straight up said she wouldn't ever come here (she lives in Tokyo). This friend has traveled all over the fucking world to attend seiyuu events, but absolutely refused to visit a friend just a few cities away. And yes, I have visited her in the past, in Japan as well as when we both lived in California. So when she out of the blue wrote me saying "I need to visit you," I have to admit, I was suspicious. We had a lovely, fun day-and-a-half of hanging out, of course, but I can't help but wonder at the sudden change of heart.


As for games, a co-worker gave me an extra copy of 'Dragon Quest IX', and I've been playing that almost every moment I'm not at work. It's rather fun, and I especially like that the characters are my own created characters. As usual, I become addicted to anything I can customize.


In story news, I posted all of 'Between the Two' over at AFF.net, so if anyone was actually reading it, it's there. I don't know if I'll finish posting it here as well. It seems a bit pointless now, and is a bit more work. I think aside from short side-stories, I'll probably just post everything over there from now on, and link it here.

Which, with that said, I've also posted the first part of the thing I wrote for NaNoWriMo there as well. It's pretty much totally un-beta'ed, as I'm really no good at self-editing, and decent betas don't exist. But... There it is. (And I usually update on Tuesdays, my only day off, for anyone who wants to follow it for some odd reason...)

Over the holiday, I was grabbed by several side-story ideas. I started writing one in one notebook, but didn't take that notebook with me to Kyoto. In Kyoto, while waiting for the bus, I started working on another story on the iPad, but am currently a little bit stuck with that, and only seem to work on it when I have absolutely nothing else to do. Then, a few weeks ago, when I was going out to eat I figured I'd do some writing on the other story I'd started, but when I got to the restaurant I realized I'd brought the wrong notebook. .>_> So I started a new one in the notebook I had with me. ... In conclusion, I'm currently working on three short stories at the same time. I hate when I do that.


And finally, on the dolly front, I'm enjoying the new boy very much. I know I've been sharing pics of him on Facebook and Tumblr, but since I haven't introduced him here, I will. So...

Meet Clay!




Yes, he's that Clay, and no, I don't currently have any plans to get a Nicholai. (But if something perfect is released.............)

Clay's head is a smidgen too big for his shorty short body, which kind of suits him, and I'm absolutely in love with him. Totally enthralled. I want to spoil the bejeezus out of him.

And in dolly story news... I've been in absolutely no mood to take any photostory pictures for months now.

I blame work.





I have no reason to use this icon, but I'm going to anyway.




Edit- Ooooooooooh~ I just realized it's Tachi's birthday. Six years! Happy Birthday, Lovie. ♥

I've managed to move into my new place in Utsunomiya, but it was with a HUGE deal of difficulty. Because my life is full of special and bullshit. And I won't get into details, because that would take about 178 pages of bitchery, but let's just say I almost ended up with all my shit tossed onto the street. But through the power of super nice people (link because it's that same person) putting themselves out for me even though they totally didn't have to, I got moved.

Then slept on the floor for two days, because no bedding.

And now I'm in Tokyo for a while, for new job training. They've put me up in a tiny, dirty little guest house, where the other patrons come in and out at all hours of the night. Somehow, I've learned to sleep through it. And while working in downtown Shinjuku makes me go through this shit twice a day, it's also pretty exciting.

The training will be for another week yet, and today I discovered I was picked as one of the two teachers who will be teaching a brand new class the school is offering this year. (I say "picked" like I'm awesome or something, but actually it was probably a really random selection. It's not like they know anything about me as a teacher, since I haven't even started with them yet. They just needed two native teachers to be "guinea pigs" for this new thing, and... my life is full of special.) So next week I have to go through some extra training.

And, yes, I get paid for all this time. ~FTW~

Anyway. I'll talk more about the training later, probably, but really do want to keep this post brief.


Because the real most important part is~~~~~ this!
Which I actually did a few weeks ago, but my internet was being stupid at the time and wouldn't let me upload. Then I almost forgot about it.

But there. Enjoy. ;P

My life would be so much easier if any one single fucking person would ever fucking listen to any god damn thing I say, ever.

Sort of...

I`m back to work after my short summer vacation. Which isn`t a bad thing. I spent the past two weeks almost literally doing nothing but watching Kamen Rider Den-O and eating. .>_> I know I`ve gained weight (why is it so easy!?! .-_- ), and quite frankly, I was getting bored.

Not that being here is exciting by any means.

What pisses me off most is that the very day I have to start riding my bike to work again, it starts pouring rain. .-_- So I get to spend all day damp. And while the rain did cool the temperatures down a little bit... it was only a little bit. So I`m also dirty and sweaty. And damp. And my raincoat becomes something like a sauna when I wear it.

And for some reason, nobody has said a single word to me yet today.

Though summer vacation for the students ends this week, there are ceremonies and festivals and tests coming up. I don`t even know when classes start again. I have nothing to do, really. I have all the lesson plans I want to do done, though I guess I could spend a few minutes making copies of worksheets. That`s always fun.

But first, coffee.

So I made my 9th graders do speeches about their families, and to help/give an idea of what I was looking for, I wrote a sample speech for them. Well, actually, basically I just copied what the ALT before me had written, but changed things to make it more fun for me. ;P Because that's what this is all about, after all.

So this is what I wrote. Can you guess the POV? ;P

Hello, everyone.
Today I will tell you about my family.
There are five people in my family.
We live in a big house in New York.
First, I will talk about my parents.
My father is a lawyer. He likes fishing and reading books.
My mother likes reading, too. She also likes shopping.
Next, my older brother is a history teacher. He's 27 years old.
Last, my younger brother is 9 years old. He's an elementary school student.
We also have a cat named Luke.
Thank you.

Too much fun. >3

Of course, we all know I like my co-workers. Of course! We all know that.

But lately I've been really annoyed with them.

At the junior high school, I feel like they're always hovering. There are no desks behind mine, just a wall, and yet somehow there's always someone behind me. One of the teachers is always walking back and forth, back and forth behind me. I took count once (I get really bored...), and she walked back and forth behind me ten times in an hour. Ten times! That averages to a pass every six minutes!

Chick seriously needs a job or something.

And don't even get me started on Slurpy McSlurpleton, who drinks his tea much like a cow, only louder.

Maybe I'm having hormonal issues. Maybe I'm just tired and need to spend more than a few hours at home for once.


At least my students are still gems.

Kid: "I am a junior high school student."
Me: "Yes."
Kid: "Are you?"
Me: "No, I'm not."
Kid: "Oh, I'm sorry."
Me: "It's... ok."

It hailed this morning. Like, a lot. And of course, I had to ride my bike through it... for an hour. Luckily, I didn't slip, but I did see someone else on a bike wipe out. Ouch. By noon, the sun had come out, and the snow was gone.

My schedule of classes got changed again, so I ended up not having any classes until after lunch.

For lunch, I usually eat with one of the classes, but today when the office lady called the class-of-the-day they said they'd already finished eating. ... The fuck? What, did they shovel their whole tray in five minutes?
So I ate with the office ladies. It was fun.

Then came shortly before 6th period. Apparently someone in Sekijyo, where my school is, had to be taken to a hospital in Tokyo... or something. That's what I thought I heard, but never got clarification. Anyway, so they had to go by helicopter, and apparently the best spot for the helicopter to land was the junior high school's soccer field. So that's where they landed.
Since I had class 6th period, I didn't get to see the landing (thanks, schedule change!), but it was still there when I came back, so after a little bit, I got to see it take off. Was pretty cool! They really do just go straight up. Neat.

Speaking of seeing neat things for the first time at Sekichuu, yesterday I sat in on the kendo club's practice. I'd never seen kendo in real life before, so it was very exciting for me. Was super cool, and I told them as much. ... Then laughed as they figured out the translation for "super cool." ;P It's their fun new phrase.

And finally, while my company said they'd be looking for a new position for me, I went ahead and started applying to other companies anyway. I've still not heard from my company, so am inclined to believe they're not looking as hard as they act like they are. But I ended up landing an interview with another company, and it went pretty well. They said they liked my resume and liked me, so would give my information to one of the BOE's they work with. So... against my better judgment, I'm hopeful....

Oh, and finally finally, Friday is a holiday, so three-day weekend. I'll be spending Friday and Saturday in Tokyo and Yokohama, shacking up with some guy I've been talking to on the internet. Should be fun.

Or I'll be murdered.

Either is ok.



Oh, and I saw a dead cat on the sidewalk. .;__; And that, more than rain or snow or anything else, is the worst part of riding a bike everywhere.

Oh good. I was able to find a copy of my resume that I'd emailed off before, when I was applying to four or five companies a week and still took a year to find this job. That means I won't have to re-create a whole new one. (since my only other saved copy is on my dead computer)

And my grandma was able to find my diplomas, and sent them off, so I'll have those on hand if needed.


So, here we go again.

And to end the seven days of doll memes.. .^^

New story!

Which, not only do I now have to use a new version of Photoshop and a new page builder, but also a new FTP client, since ftpx decided to become dicks and charge for theirs. Found something just as good though, for free.

...

This is becoming so troublesome. .-_-



And in totally other news, today a first grader started to cry because I didn't sit by him at lunch. .;___; So I moved to sit next to him. He then proceeded to ignore me the rest of the lunch period. .^^;;

Since we're coming up on winter vacation, I've been doing a lot of Christmas-related things at work. Today I was teaching one of my fourth-grade classes, and did a little talk about how we celebrate Christmas in my family, and then after we let the students ask any questions. Most of the questions were asked through their teacher, who is pretty decent at English, but one of the kids asked if he could ask me directly, in Japanese. She told him I would probably be able to understand if he spoke slowly, so he made a big show of talking in slow-motion. .^^ So it kind of went "Iiiiiiiiichiiiiiiiibaaaaannnn biiiiikuuriiiiii shitttteeee naaaaa puuuuuuureeeeeeeezeeeeeeeeennntooooooooo waaaaaa nnnaaaann deeeesssu kaaaa?"

::laughs::

Though he was being a cheeky brat, I couldn't help but crack up at it.

And I have to wonder, if he's this saucy at nine years old, what's he going to be like at nineteen? .^^;



My other silly thing is last night I was playing 'Smash Hit 2', doing doubles, but decided to mix up the teams a bit. I usually do doubles with either Tezuka and Atobe or Tachibana and Renji, but I felt like playing with Akutsu yesterday, so I split my usual pairs up, and played as Akutsu with Tezuka, against Taichi and Atobe.

From the start, I imagined Atobe throwing a fit at being paired with Taichi.

When game started, I quickly realized I wasn't going to get to play. .^^;; Akutsu and Taichi just kinda stood there while Tezuka and Atobe seemed to only be playing with each other. And at one point Taichi actually said "僕もボールを打ったいです" ("I want to hit the ball too").
Until Tezuka knocked Taichi flat on his back (which highly amuses me that that can be done in this game XD ). I couldn't help but imagine Akutsu having to be held back from beating the shit out of his own doubles partner.
.... Then he hit Taichi himself, in the face.
.............. Twice.

AkuTez pair won, by the way.