Jack of all Trades
They say a “jack of all trades is a master of none”. Is there really anything wrong with that? Well yes and no. Though that just might be me trying to justify my past two weeks of relative laziness. For one thing I was having trouble thinking of something worth putting up here as I had seemed to have boxed myself into a proverbial corner with the whole advice thing.
Surprisingly, hits kept coming to the blog at a tune of about 10 a day or so. If any of those hits came back let me just thank you kindly for stopping by. Sit a spell, take a load off. Enjoy. If any of those hits were scary content bots or whatever half-fed zombie AI programs they’ve got scouring the internet I’ll say this.
CASH 4 GOLD!!!!!!!!!!
That might get some attention. Anyway, read on for a rambling “I’m not dead yet!” list of what I’ve been up to recently.
Political Impotence (Results may vary)
As I write this post I’m heading into my 5th month of sobriety and my 9th month of a tobacco free lifestyle. Things were great for awhile then returned to a baseline that was kind of “meh” just these past few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, things are great, it’s just there are still two addictions that I can’t seem to shake. First is video games, which I won’t be going into here because video games are great and have been since I was 8 years old or so. (YOU CAN’T MAKE ME STOP!!!!!)
The other is more recent an addiction and one that is just as bad for health and well-being. What is it you might ask? (I’m guessing you didn’t read the title)
Politics. Or more accurately, giving a shit about politics and trying to care.
This isn’t intended to be a rant about how shitty the Republicans are (because they’re not my team) or how ineffectual the Democrats are (because they don’t do enough to make us all live in a socialist wonderland) or to crap on the whole damn system…MAAAAAN! *HIPPIE BONG RIPS*
No, I’m simply here to point out two recent events and how they prove my own limp ability to affect any change greater than my Facebook status and why I should stop aggravating myself but can’t. Just like an addiction.
One of the examples isn’t even about the US, dude. Check it…
Dinosaur Flash Fiction
It’s been awhile since I’ve written for Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction challenge because I’m a horrible lazy ink-slinger. (Or pixel merchant if you prefer, it’s more techno-current after all)
Anyway, this one is about Dinosaurs in celebration of Dinocalypse Now which sounds pretty bad ass. I really should get involved with this Kickstarter junk cause a lot of cool stuff seems to come about from there. Anyway, no title really. Just a nice 900 word or so chunk of fun writing. Enjoy!
The 5 Most Important Things to Learn in Japanese (In Order to Fake it)
So I’ve been in Japan for over five years now. I remember when I first got here people that had been here for more than one or two years were old grizzled veterans in this game called “Life in Japan”. Now I’ve passed the point where the traditional wisdom says that I’m here forever. Five years is what a lot of people say is the point of no return, either you get out or you stay forever. I’m not ready to pigeon-hole my self into staying here forever but my distinct lack of plans for the future that don’t involve being here might be working against me. That being said, despite my time here and my lack of motivation to leave, it is surprising how bad my Japanese ability is.
Seriously. I have trouble understanding and communicating on the same level as small children. Let alone try to have a normal conversation with regular people. How’d I survive this long? Because Japanese is surprisingly easy to fake. All you need is a good personality, the ability to drink heavily, and five simple phrases and the knowledge to deploy them at the right moments. After that, making friends is easy and after that you can work on actually being able to talk to them later.
Disclaimer: Yes I know I’m a loser for not learning the language after all this time. I’m just going to own up and say it’s because I’m lazy. Take me to weeaboo court or whatever.
