Urban English School Blog

I need a new hobby...any suggestions?

Good morning everybody,

The weather isn't cooperating so far but the clouds are actually moving away from us, so it may clear up in time to see a bit of the eclipse this morning. I knew I should have bought those special glasses yesterday...I guess I'll have to risk it just to get a one-second look...basically the forecast for the rest of the week hasn't really changed since yesterday. It isn't going to be as hot as they were originally predicting, highs this week will be between 24C and 26C. The good news is that means that I can get out for a couple more long runs than I expected-the plan is 10km today, 20km tomorrow, 10km on Friday and 20km on Sunday. We'll see what happens...

So, I can never seem to find anything interesting to write about in my blog these days. Whenever I have a few days off, it's always easy because I'm doing stuff. But when it's just work, work, work, it's really difficult. It does prove the old axiom that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". I need to play more! Ha ha!

I suppose it's difficult to come up with ideas partially because I'm tired so my brain is working even worse than usual (if that is possible! Ha ha!) and also because I don't do much in the evenings besides wash the dishes, cook dinner and read or surf the net for about half an hour and then hit the hay. Not very exciting, is it?

I thought about starting to study Japanese again and maybe going for the Level 2 Japanese test next July but I know that if I try to study after dinner, I'll just crash on the sofa after about a minute of studying...ha ha! Studying Japanese is the perfect cure for insomnia for me!

I know I've been talking about it for ages, but I'm definitely going to look into learning the guitar again. This Sunday I'm off, so I'm going to swing by Yamaha Music School and see if they've got a private or group class on Sundays than I can sign up for. I know that Yamaha is insanely expensive but I've tried 3 other schools or private teachers and I couldn't keep it going with any of them. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and pay the extra if it means that I will actually go to class and study guitar.

I'm hoping that finding a new (old) hobby will help me on two accounts. One, it'll give me something interesting to write about in my blog...ha ha! And two, it'll keep me from snacking in the morning after I get to work. The time between finishing my preparations for the day and when the first class starts is the most dangerous for me. I'm all ready to start my day but I've got 30 mintues to kill, so what do I do? I go to Wants and buy some chocolate (not every day but often enough...). If I was learning guitar, I could pick up my guitar and strum a few chords for 20 minutes or so. Who knows? Maybe playing guitar will help me lose weight! Ha ha!

Also, I'm thinking about starting a Japanese blog. It'll help me study my kanji and grammar and hopefully build my vocabulary as well. I'll let you know when I start it-I'll definitely include a link from this blog (if I can figure out how to do it...ha ha!). Please feel free to offer feedback on my bad Japanese writing.

If you have any other ideas of hobbies I could take up, feel free to let me know!

Have a great day!

Pagetop

Thanks for nothing...

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was a lot cloudier than I expected it to be and the forecast for the rest of the week, including today, is looking a bit cloudier than it was even yesterday. They still aren't calling for any rain-which is good, but it's looking more and more like the skies will be too cloudy to see any eclipse tomorrow morning. We can expect a mix of mostly cloudy to partly cloudy weather all week it looks like, with highs around 26C or 27C. Not the blue skies I was expecting, but not too shabby either...you won't hear me complaining. Cloudy weather means I can get out for a run!

The solar eclipse will start tomorrow morning around 7:30 and last until 9:00 or so depending on where in Japan you are. A few elemendary schools have changed the starting time of classes tomorrow to 9:00 in order to keep kids off the side of the road as they fear there may be many distracted drivers. I can't say that I disagree with the idea-it's better to be safe than sorry. But I like the idea one school had of starting classes much earlier than usual so that all the kids can watch the eclipse at school. That way it's a good teaching opportunity, it's a chance to let the kids have some fun with their friends, and the teachers can be sure that they are looking at the sun safely. It's a win-win situation, well, except fo the parents who would have to get up early to get their kids to school...ha ha! I remember making solar eclipse glasses in elementary school and discussing what an eclipse is in science class in the few days leading up to the eclipse. Luckily for us, the eclipse was later in the morning, during regular school hours. It's a great opportunity for teaching-too bad it's a bit too early in the morning this year.
Solar Eclipse

I never thought about there being distracted drivers on the road tomorrow morning before I saw the news last night. I'll have to be a bit more careful than usual on my way to work as well. Luckily my route is mostly on large sidewalks (for those of you back home who wonder what I'm doing on the sidewalk on my bike-it's legal here) so I'm not too worried about it. A driver would have to be really, really distracted to come anywhere near me! Ha ha!

Seeing as no one offered to put a patch on my shorts, I decided to go out and buy one and put it on myself. Just one more reason why I don't need to get married-I can do minor clothing repairs all by myself! Ha ha!

I was a bit busy last night so I didn't have time to put it on, so that'll be tonight's job. I'll take a picture of my handiwork and post it on Monday's blog (if I remember) so I can show-off my patching abilities. Ha ha!

Have a great day!
PS Sorry about yesterday's boring blog. I'm not so interested in IPOs or investing so I wouldn't normally write about it, but because it was Facebook, I felt like I had to. It was the largest IPO in history.

Pagetop

Owning Facebook

Good morning everybody,

It's a going to be another gorgeous day out there today! We can expect a high of 24C today and it'll slowly get warmer over the next few days, climbing to a high of 27C or so by Monday. Also, there has been a complete about-face by the weatherman and he is now calling for sunny weather all through the week! It's still a little tough to say what the skies will look like on Monday morning-it could be too cloudy to see the solar eclipse in Hiroshima. I'm still undecided about buying "eclipse-watching glasses" or not...

So, the world's largest social media network has gone public. That's right-if you wanted, you could buy a piece of "Facebook" starting from yesterday. The IPO (initial public offering) was set for $38 and share prices remained pretty flat after the opening.
Mark Zuckerberg Rings Opening Bell

That means that investors are not so keen on Facebook at the moment. The main reason is that it is hard to see how Facebook will increase it's profits. Facebook doesn't make anything. They don't sell anything. They don't even really provide any services, do they? How do they make money? Well, there are two main sources of income for them. One, of course, is advertising but less than half of the people who visit Facebook ever click on advertisers. I know I never have. Have you? The second source is income from the game makers who sell stuff for their games (not the free games)-like DeNa (the owners of the Yokohama Baystars).

The big speculation is how will they make more money in the future. If they find a way to increase their income, their shares will rise and all of the people who invested will become "paper millionaires". If they can't, the stock value will fall. What do you think? Is Facebook worth the risk? I'm not a professional finance planner but if I had a little extra money lying around I'd invest it but I wouldn't expect much...ha ha!

Some people say Facebook will be forever..I'm not so sure. It's a great way to keep in touch, but that's all. Remember AOL and MySpace? No!? Me neither! Ha ha! Everybody said they would last forever too...

Have a great day!
PS If you have stocks in Sony or Panasonic, you might want to sell them and buy Facebook shares...

Pagetop

A Letter to Momo

Good morning everyone,

It's a gorgeous day out there (or it will be) but it's too hot to go for a run, so I'm changing my routine to swimming today. Saturday will also be nice and sunny and warm. Don't get used to it though-from Sunday the weather will change. Unfortunately that means that we won't be able to see the eclipse on Monday morning. It's just as well, because I'm too cheap to buy the glasses and would've ruined my eyes looking at the sun directly anyway...ha ha!

Of course I've seen the ads for the new anime (well, new two months ago) "A Letter to Momo". Just by looking at the story and the style, I had assumed that it was from the Ghibli Studio-the same studio that brought us other classic Japanese anime like "Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle". But it's not actually. The only connection is that the artist worked for the studio many years ago.

Anyway, I heard yesterday that the story revolves around a ~~city~~ a ~~town~~...ok a village in Hiroshima. Well, on one of the islands off of Kure to be honest. I still haven't worked out the geography of the Seto Inland Sea yet. Is it based on a village on Osakishimojima? Or the small island next to it? And is it part of Hiroshima or part of Ehime or part of Okayama?

I also heard that the film took seven years to make and that each panel was hand-drawn! That's amazing!

Has anyone seen it? I'd love to see it if the Japanese isn't too difficult to follow. I read about the plot in English and while the story doesn't seem very exciting, now that I've got a basic idea of the plot I probably should be able to follow the story.

If the story is based on a place in Hiroshima and if I have time on my next long weekend, I'll definitely hop on my bicycle and go and check it out!

Of course I'll have to buy a sleeping bag and a tent if I don't want to sleep under the stars...Still, it'd be an adventure!

Have a great day!

Pagetop

Bags, bags, bags

Good morning everyone,

It's a cloudy start to the day but it should get sunny and stay sunny till the mid-afternoon. After that, the grey skies will return and there is a 50% chance of rain this evening. Tomorrow will see the clouds disappear and warm, sunny weather return for Friday and Saturday. From Sunday through Tuesday the weather will be a bit unstable so it's hard to say if it'll be partly cloudy, mostly cloudy or if it'll rain. I'll keep you posted...

The last three times I've gone home, I've used my bicycle messenger bag as my carry-on. It's great because it's big enough to hold everything I want and more importantly I can carry it on my shoulder. There's nothing I hate more than trailing a suitcase behind me onto the plane. The downside is that after being used 365 days a year for four years in all kinds of weather it is starting to show it's age. It has definitely seen better days. It's still good enough to use for work, but it's a bit rough to take on the plane. (mostly because everyone else has gorgeous and new bags...so I'm a bit embarrassed with my old, beat-up bag)

So, I went to check out some bags at Tokyu Hands. Have you been there recently? The whole first floor is pretty much just bags now. It's great! There are hundreds and hundreds of bags so you'd think that it'd be easy to find the one that I'm looking for. Do you think I could find? No way! Part of the problem is that half of the space is devoted to Porter bags which I'm not a big fan of. Don't get me wrong-they're really nice and seem to be good quality but they all look the same to me. I can't find one that suits me. They look like they are for businessmen...which I'm not!

After that I looked at some other bags but they are too casual-like for university kids. Which I'm also not...<sigh>

What I really want is a shoulder bag/messenger bag that I can use regularly-it seems like a waste to buy a bag just for flying on the airplane when I only do it once every one and a half years. At the same time, I can't really use my messenger bag anymore either...<sigh>

It's easy for women-you've got big shoulder bags, small shoulder bags, clutches, purses, handbags, etc...For men, we've got briefcases, backpacks, messenger bags and "man-bags". None of which suit my purpose.

Do you think I'm being a bit too picky? Ha ha! Probably...

Have a great day!

PS I haven't had any offers to put a patch on my shorts yet...

Pagetop

HOME Next page »

Pagetop