It Was In Our Way
Today, for no particular reason, we climbed a mountain.

posted by Peter Hynd 5:33 AM 0 comments [edit]

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Dont you hate it when you have a booger thats either out of reach or not solid enough to get out? That really bugs me, because a lot of the time it feels as though maybe a good 30% of my nasal passage is blocked by different sized boogers. Its weird cause you can blow it all day and pick away at it but your still going to miss some which is really my biggest problem. Or when your nose is just too dry to blow at all, then its pure manual labour, whip out of the shovel and start diggin. I just think someone needs to invent some kind of tiny booger vacuum or space aged revolutionary nose cleaner. If the idea hasn't already been concieved. I know it would make me breath a lot easier, because it seems like there have been times when my nose was 100% clear, and you can smell the air better and everything. I dont know if it has to do with pollution or your diet, or whatever, but i want to really taste the air better.

posted by Justin 7:27 PM 2 comments [edit]

Monday, April 21, 2008

At lunch time we have daily broadcasts at school. Usually music videos or comedy tv shows. I never thought in a million years I would see this, but today am I watching Speed Racer as I write this. So money.

posted by Tyler MacFadden 12:00 AM 4 comments [edit]

Thursday, April 17, 2008

So I'm in with a class of second year students today and I'm going around handing back quizzes when one girl stops me and says "Tyler um.." I'm thinking there's something stuck to my shirt or something and ask her if there is anything there. "Nope there's nothing stuck to your shirt, but..." and I notice. My fly is all the way down. Usually, the fold of the pants will hide even you fly being down in dress pants, but I got unlucky with the way the fabric folded and it was wide open.

The worse part is that this was 40 minutes into a 50 minute class. Pretty much every student had realized and I had no way to get out of this one smoothly. So I zipped up and just felt the heat rise as I sensed my face turning red. Tomorrow I have a class with them as well so I've planned to go in and deliberately check my zipped up fly at the beginning of class. Should be good for a laugh and make me look a little better after an embarrassing episode.

Now for some picture I took a couple weeks back of the cherry blossoms because if you're in Japan you need to have pictures of cherry blossoms in spring. That is the rule, nothing I can do about it.

posted by Tyler MacFadden 4:32 AM 0 comments [edit]

Sunday, April 13, 2008

What?

Who is Trevor Immelman and how did he come out of nowhere to win the Masters?

posted by Tyler MacFadden 10:55 PM 4 comments [edit]

Saturday, April 12, 2008

I spent 3 days with Liivi for her bithday. All of them were pretty good days too. I got her these little i.o.u's, its hard to describe but i wrote a bunch of them on really tiny paper and stuck em in a bottle and i put sand and rocks in there. Its cheap, creative and cute. We went to some cool Moroccan restaurant which was interesting. Then last night we went out to this club, some guy was hitting on Liivi and her friends told me to go rescue her. But she handled herself fine, and i've never had to rescue anyone like that anyway so screw it. Then on the way home these guys were walking on the sidewalk and one of them pushed his other friend into all the girls i was with. Oh man, if people are going to be dickheads, leave the girls out of it! I dont understand how we've adapted this culture of fucking with each other, and just seeing who can do it the best. I'm certain its not like that everywhere, but we probably have the fine people from Jackass to thank for some of that.

posted by Justin 2:18 PM 0 comments [edit]

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I need a kick in the ass.
So after 4 years of the same ol' I still find myself with a paper to write on the last day.
Rather than starting two hours ago when i was done with my morning, I have waited.
What am I waiting for? I guess i am waiting for that moment where my mind tells my mind, "hey, you've got no more time to spare."
I have hockey tonight and I am trying to use that as motivation to get as much done before hockey so i can go enjoy myself. i will be up late tonight and I am ok with that. what i am not ok with is the first page that i have to write becuase the first page dictates the rest of my paper. That is a lot of pressure. I could always go back after i finish and revise my first page to suite the rest of what I end up writing but that chance was blown. Maybe if i had started at noon like i had schedualed i would have had time to go back and fix what i havn't written yet but thats in the past or is it in the future?
regardless I thought writing anythign down would be a good start to get my mind going in the right direction but concidering i still have some reading to do i think i am just wasting more time. Well i would never say i am wastign time, i am simply not using it to my advantage.
What i would love to be doing right now is exploring the spring. that will have to wait another week or so.
Off to Poland I go, the year 1944.
The topic I have to write about is not fun. I love it. but one can only read about it so much till he or she becomes immune to the emotions the readings are supposed to generate.
now you heard another side of the story but you wanna know how it ends,
if you must know the truth about the tale, go and ask the milk man.

posted by Andrew Myszkowski 2:00 PM 1 comments [edit]

Monday, April 07, 2008

Well you know what I always say, "If you plan ahead, then when things happen, you're prepared."

- Hank Hill


Preach it.

posted by Tyler MacFadden 7:04 AM 0 comments [edit]

Friday, April 04, 2008

This past week has seen a lot of changes at school. With the start of a new school year teachers all across the school board can change positions. There's some kind of rule/guideline in place so that a teacher can stay at one school for around 10 years at most. Generally, it seems much shorter however, closer to 3 or 4 years. The thing is most teachers don't find out if and where they are going to be moved until about a week before they transfer. Kind of stressful if you as me, but I guess they're kind of used to the system.

We saw 5 teachers leave this year and got 4 new teachers to replace them the following day. One less, because this year there are 2 special-ed classes instead of 3 like last year. I am no longer the youngest teacher as there is a fresh new 22 year old PE teacher in training who just graduated last month. Interestingly enough he is a local boy and grew up in the area where I visit the elementary school in the mountains.

The students have been divided into their new classes and the teachers have been divided into their respective classes as well. I'm with the 2nd year teachers again this year, but the old 2nd year teachers are now the 3rd year teachers and my direct supervisor is a 1st year teacher now so I'm with a whole new group and in a new spot. It's been a refreshing change so far and I like my spot because the teachers around me have things piled high on their desks and I feel like I'm in a fort.

I've also found out that I will be in charge of the 3rd year elective English class. I don't know how many people will take it as the students decide next week, but since it's elective I'm assuming mostly the kids whose English is a bit more advanced will be taking it. Since it's elective too I am not constricted by the textbook and can really do some interesting things.

posted by Tyler MacFadden 2:14 AM 0 comments [edit]

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Do people actually care about being anti abortion? That is the question running through my mind today. Because people were handing out flyers near Robarts and had these signs put up with graphic pictures of fetus' and such. So naturally i wondered if these people really actually felt the least bit of sorrow for dead fetus' that not only aren't their own, but belong mostly to people they will never meet. I for one do not understand how even a tiny spark of emotion or remorse can just appear in someone, causing them to demonstrate on the street and hand out wasted paper. Good quality paper too, it was thick glossy cards almost. Why aren't they more worried about the world's resources? Because after all the trees are gone we are infact fucked. One the other hand we have plenty of room for dead fetus'. I know, thats horrible. It just doesn't register to me, i dont feel bad for people i dont know except sometimes for the incredibly unattractive, because they need love also and rarely find it. Other than that i dont really feel bad for anyone i dont know. And why are they handing out abortion info to men? I was dressed pretty nice today, and hardly thought i resembled the kind of guy who had unprotected sex. Today's lesson is, dont waste paper, and dont boink strangers.

posted by Justin 3:18 PM 0 comments [edit]

Monday, March 31, 2008

I'm 2,500 words short of temporary relief. March seems to be the busy month for university students, to me it seems more a fitting time for them to see who's cut out for it and who isn't. To be completely bombarded with work until your emotions shut off and your just some scholastic machine, its not nice. When every brain cell i have is telling me to stop and just be happy and dont do things that make me miserable, then i know something really needs to get done badly. Screw all this stuff, and fuck grammar, my words shouldn't have to make sense. Sometimes i cringe when i hear professors talking about people who slip through the cracks, because half the time i can't figure out if i'm one of those people or i just can't figure out how big the cracks are. So i wish i wasn't the type of person to exploit every situation and opportunity i get, if those chances arise. I also wish i didn't have to ponder over every completely useless thing. I wish i knew of a better way to tell people i have direction and ambition and hope to make something of myself, rather than telling them i'm still in school. This isn't for me, i'm sort of certain that i've never been more certain, but then again i couldn't define the word if you asked. I'm sick of everything being half assed, and i can't wait until i find something interesting and lasting for me. I started smoking the odd Captain Black, why the hell not.

posted by Justin 5:12 PM 0 comments [edit]

I got stuck behind this fudger yesterday. I'm getting off the train, headed for the escalator, this fat bastard just infront of me is headed down too. So i try to sneak quickly to the left to slip by, but fatty has to turn sideways just a little bit to get on and i'm pinched between lard and the wall and i can't get ahead. The escalator wasn't moving by the way, stopped dead. This fat person, who's sex was unidenifieable, needed to take each step one at a time, and the descent was moving at a snails pace, an overweight, soon to be dead from a heartattack snails pace. So i'm almost bumping into this person from behind because he/she is moving so slow and the escalator is filling with people who are all surely watching this waste of space making everyone late for dinner. It was actually hard for me to walk that slow down the stairs, we were all taking one step at a time. This girl next to me is right behind fatty as well, and we glanced at each other, i took a look at my watch, then the glanced at the fatty then looked at this girl and rolled my eyes and she chuckled. Finally we get to the bottom of the stairs and something happened which i didn't think was possible. Theres a space at the bottom between the right wall and the left wall of the elevator. Foolish i was, for thinking i could slip by this person quickly, but the space between those two walls actually was not big enough for me to get by because again i was stopped in my tracks as fatty got closer and the gap narrowed. The girl started cracking up, she knew i'd fuckin had it. I had to stop and walk around to the other side where the girl next to me actually had to say "excuse me" so fatty wouldn't bump into her. This 300 plus thing had caused me a few moments of stress and i'm glad i didn't get stuck behind any other people. People like that should not be allowed outside, because we have not and will not adapt our lives to suit their overwieght needs. Instead they should be choked with a plastic bag over their head while they are sleeping, and that is how the overwieght problem should be solved.

posted by Justin 11:18 AM 1 comments [edit]

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Not two minutes ago my doorbell rang. I seldom have vistors and when I do it's usually the mailman delivering a package, so I open the door wondering what it is he has for me now. To my surprise it is a sharply dressed man and woman. They ask me if Japanese is ok, and I say yes. Then he passes me a little booklet opened to an English passage....

Jehovah's Witnesses!

Even in Japan you can't avoid em.

posted by Tyler MacFadden 5:15 AM 1 comments [edit]

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Ok I just did some quick (read 10 minutes) research into car rental for when you boys come to Japan. I browsed through a few sites and the cheapest I found so far was one for about 800 bucks for a full month rental. Obviously, I'm gonna keep looking, but I'd like to know from you guys what kinda price range you think is acceptable. Also remember that the price is split 5 ways between us so something like 800 bucks works out to about 160 a person. To put it in perspective too, the trip (train and bus) from Kansai Airport to my house would be 31 bucks a person. The night bus from my house to Tokyo is 130 bucks per person round trip. That's already 160 dollars. Of course, with a car there are additional fees for gas, and highway tolls (all highways in Japan are toll roads). But, the toll from my house to Tokyo is about the equivalent of one round trip night bus ticket, and again these fees would be split 5 ways. Just let me know what you think so I know whether you guys think the car is still a good idea (personally I do) or not, and how much you're looking to budget for transportation fees.

posted by Tyler MacFadden 11:13 PM 5 comments [edit]

A Sad, Sad Song
I'm not sure how many radio stations we have access to around here, but I would say there are at least 50 which reliably produce a good signal. Ok... now in my car I have 6 radio presets which I have carefully selected to maximize my chances of hearing songs I like while I drive.

Lately I have noticed a disturbing trend. Things are better later at night, but I find that during the day at least 1/3 of the time I will find myself settling on a station playing commercials instead of music, because the music I have to choose from sucks so hard that I dont even want to hear it. When I'd rather listen to some dweeb trying to peddle cut rate diamonds or that creepy fucker selling alarm systems, something is wrong. Very wrong.

Somebody once told me that if you think everybody else is wrong, you should probably reconsider your own position... Bullshit. The people have spoken, and their taste sucks.

posted by Peter Hynd 2:09 PM 1 comments [edit]