wiggly's way

re-watching my own personal nba finals marathon (God bless you dvr.) i know the outcome, but still feel a solid 80% of the emotion. A. whats up with that? B. good times all over again.

untitled

the fog has lifted. the air is crisper, the sun is brighter, life is lif-ier. the re-music-ed era has begun. first rediscovery: 'animals.' dogs > pigs > sheep on repeat for the last 6 hours and counting. next up, who knows! random play, take me away!

Moose the Mooche

I passed well into adulthood not knowing how to cook. I could make one or two things, but I didn't really know how to cook. I was taught in Japan by a Chinese person. So I cook Chinese food. Or at least I cook Chinese style. Or my interpretation of Chinese style more accurately. The staple of nearly all Asian food is rice. I eat a lot of rice. My Japanese boss, surprised by this fact, once commented "You are American, you are supposed to eat bread." I said something like "Yeah, I guess" but I was struggling to think of when I ever ate bread in America. Of course I came up with sandwiches and buns of various types, but bread was far from a staple food in my American diet. In fact I probably ate tortillas more often than proper bread. The real staple of the American diet is meat. How great is that? How prosperous. I got real interested in Chinese history when I was living there and read several accounts of people living through the horrible famine years in the late 50's. I remember reading about 'lucky ones' being able to have meat as much as twice a month. I cannot begin to fathom such circumstances. And there's no question such conditions currently exist in various places all over the world. Before I ever left the U.S. I somehow knew that living abroad would give me a new appreciation for what I had in America, but it was impossible to know just how it would take shape. Not that I've had to suffer, but I feel like I have a better idea now of just how rich America really is. And how fortunate I am to have been born there. Anyway, I love meat.

Song-Song

So I got my music thing working again. It occurred to me that it would still work on the blog even if I can't listen to it in Japan. Its a hurtful reminder of my sad state of music these days. My vast personal library has been rendered inaccessible by malfunctioning hardware. I have but a tiny fraction of my stash on my actual computer but it mainly serves as a reminder of my loss. I hardly ever listen to music at home anymore. How depressing. That's also due in large part to my relatively recent foray into podcasts which is not a negative per se, but listening to music used to just be such a huge part of my life that its new absence makes me sad.

I imagine this has more than a little to do with where I live, but it seems like there are lots of trucks on the road in Japan. Like big trucks I mean. Not 18 wheelers exactly, but their smaller siblings where the trailer is permanently attached to the cab. Anyway, Route 2, my local thoroughfare, is crawling with them. It's at least a 1 to 1 ratio to cars. So I was thinking maybe that has to do with trains. In America no one rides the train. Not in Texas anyway. We use our railways for freight and cargo. Not so in Japan. Trains are probably the most common form of transport. And with people taking up all the space on the rails, all the cargo is relegated to the highways and byways. Or thats my theory at least.

Let Down

Until I can figure out my music situation, or give up and scrap the whole thing, I'm relegated to just telling you about the tunes. The soundtrack for this post is the reggae cover of Radiohead's 'Let Down' by the Easy Star All Stars featuring Toots and the Maytals.

I have lived in three countries in my life. One notoriously clean, one notoriously dirty, and one we'll call in the middle. In one of these countries there's a trash can every 20 yards. In public areas there are trash cans everywhere. I really liked that about this place. I never had to carry around trash for more than 5 minutes before finding a trash can to dispose of my refuse. In my current nation of residence, I can't find a trash can to save my life. Even disposing of my household garbage is a hassle. They have all manner of regulations regarding when you are allowed to dispose of certain types of garbage and even which trash cans you can put said garbage into. I have come to hate going out here because I can never find a trashcan in which I'm allowed to drop in a gum wrapper or tissue. I'm invariably stuck carrying a pocketful of trash around for hours on end until I finally find a trash can, only to discover it's only for plastic bottles or aluminum cans. And here's the kicker, this is the famously clean country. All these trash rules and regulations have in fact made me a worse litterbug. Not that I throw my trash willy nilly all over the ground, but I have been know to toss whatever I have into whatever trash can I can find.

2011

Against my better judgement I have made some New Year's resolutions. One of them is to give this blog another go. Scaled down of course. That is to say with lowered expectations. Not that I expect anything from this blog, but as a general rule I hold myself to impossibly high standards. Impossibly high. So we'll reconnoiter and reboot. I think I've been inactive for long enough that I shouldn't have any readers left. Regardless of truthfulness, believing it should help alleviate the (completely self imposed) pressure to be "on." SO... more to come. Sadly though, without musical accompaniment. It seems the music thingy on the side doesn't work from Japan. Or, more accurately "Due to licensing restrictions, some tracks may be unavailable in your country."

Free Jazz

I gotta be honest, this is really getting me down. The inability to interact with the outside world I mean. For as long as I can remember I've been told how lucky I was to be born in America. About how and why America was great. And I soaked it all in and parrotted it back out. As I furthered my education I learned a little bit more, things that weren't covered in the shiny ad-campaign-education I grew up with, and I became a critic (self criticism is one of my strengths.) I acknowledged those good parts that had been drilled into my head from elementary school, but I asked about those other parts that weren't talked about. I was uncomfortable with the discrepancy between the ideals that we advertised and the realities of our history. And that is pretty much where I stand today; I think it's important to acknowledge those realities, own up to them and take appropriate action to make amends and prevent recurrences. However, (I'm going to end with a quote, of myself from this very blog several months ago when it was still really cold) "I really didn't appreciate central heating until I didn't have it anymore."

I took a trip to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) a few weeks back. Here are some pictures. It was bee-yoo-tiful. And a really good time. On the way home we stopped at Hong Cun, a village that has preserved nearly all its old architecture and whathaveyou. I mean, they've wired in the internet and all, but it's as close as possible to visiting a Chinese village of 500 years ago. The Academy Award winning Wo Hu Cang Long (a.k.a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) was filmed there. Maybe the coolest thing I've seen in China yet (and it'll be hard to top.)