Deltora Quest is getting all kinds of twists and turns. I guessed one of the big reveals but got completely bamboozled by the other. The fact that the had a big battle but still have 12 episodes left was also confusing. Iām so confused where the plot is going now and only time will tell if the writer is a genius or didnāt know how to end the series, hopefully the former. Itās fun to point out the differences in the Japanese voice acting and the English subtitles, but one unfortunate reality is I donāt think I would catch everything important if it were only in Japanese. Goes to show thereās still a lot to learn.
This is probably my new favorite ICE Out anthem. The lyrical genius.
Spam politics all you want, all the politics I see here are the yelling election vans and Sanseito waving their orange flags around. Happy to see what my home country is getting up to.
What you need is salt. And possily a flamethrower. However, I did not find a (gardening) flamethrower especially good at melting ice.
368 reviews +24 extra practice fell asleep and appeased the owl at midnight Deltora Quest Emails
According to Mr. Engineer I was sleep talking this weekend and said āall the documents are finished.ā Canāt escape paperwork even in my dreams XD. Shit is getting real, have to submit my visa change paperwork by the end of the month. Also have a deadline of March 3rd to find a place or give up and sign a university housing contract. Part of me considered the dorms again, I enjoyed my nearly four years in the dorms in undergrad (any other former RAs out there?), but Iām nearly 27 and idk if I want to live with a bunch of 18 year olds lol. Plus I got a bf and want a cat, need my own space for those.
A couple property managers got back to me, both starting off their emails with āwhat country are you from?ā Didnāt know that which country I came from matters that much, thought it was just my foreignness that mattered. One guy had ten questions, one of which was about my JLPT level. Guess this is better than being flat out rejected based on my foreign name? Who knows if Iāll just get rejected for being foreign at some other point down the road, though.
I am so confused where the plot is going in Deltora quest now but it is fun
it was a mostly-socialist/communist place with a lot of books talking about, well, revolution, and they flooded me with zines and stickers and ads and things ^^
When I saw this one, I immediately thought of you:
So yeah, they have social media, hope you donāt mind that i told them of you and your current condition, they gave me a lot of things that they said would be nice to pass over and let you know of, they also have socials and so on ^^
Would you look at that, not an insane amount of reviews today. However I am way more on top of my reviews now that I have other more pressing matters to worry about XD
The emails continue. So far one landlord has rejected me but another said I could view their property. Having a 50% success rate seems okay for a start. The other property manager asked if Mr. Engineer and I are married and she hasnāt replied since I said noā¦
So, essentially I can either have the apartment I want or a scholarship. Need to be married to get approved for an apartment, if I get married I lose scholarship opportunities. Personally I think itās a little unfair to remove scholarships from people whoās spouses make over a certain (not very high) threshold, because the degree only goes to one person, but I guess thatās how it works?
Watching the Olympics in Japanese definitely reminds me of how much I donāt understand. Now many of the words are specific but I feel like I should be less confused than I am. Also the subtitles are a good bit delayed so itās harder to look for hints in the subtitles like I can do with the nighttime police dramas.
Still have no idea where Deltora Questās plot is going. It feels like the shoved all the filler episodes at the end and honestly Iām kinda here for it. Getting to know the āhappily ever afterā is pretty fun.
The 11th was a holiday so no work and minimal studying. Delivered the fuck hat to its new owner, took Mr. Engineer to the gym, did a little shopping, enjoyed the huge variety of frozen foods available at Gyomu.
@golybidoof, you mentioned snow piles reminded you of me.
Letās get POLITICAL! (sung in the tune of āPhysicalā by Dua Lipa)
Thanks for supporting the cause in my wacky country. Hopefully we can all have a better world soon.
In the US we are taught socialism is bad and communism is evil, but living in Japan has really changed my perspective. I love socialized health care. I love that every school gets the same amount of funding per student no matter where the school is located. I love that childcare is heavily subsidized. Japan just had an election and through this I found out that the Japan communist party is pro LGBTQ and womenās rights as well as pro foreigner. Itās the most progressive party, significantly more so than the current ruling party which is the Liberal Democratic Party. The names really donāt match with what I learned about governments in high school.
Somewhat related but there is actually a movement centered around my area of the US calling for us to succeed and make our own country called Cascadia. It is mostly Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia but personally rather than stealing from Canada I would rather we just include California because it has a larger economy than all of Japan and a ton of farmland. When I first heard about it I thought it was a bunch of crazy people but now I think it is a better option. We could definitely use a Cascadia revolution right about now.
Ok so I found your log and my intention was just to catch up on your recent posts (since mid December), but thenā¦
Grad school journey, bubble tea, unreliable cars, Mr Engineer, knitting, cats, goshuin, snow, protest, Deltora Quest, road sprinklers
I got invested and read the whole thing. Soā¦ be prepared for the like bombing notification !
Summary of my excessive and random comments on the last 4 months of posts
as an adult it took me ages to keep a straight face with the German word fahrt so I totally get their inability to take some words seriously
Wow youāre a star amazing navigating that in Japanese
These kid anecdotes are so adorable
omg that is an amazing story
Maybe have bonus digital chapters, how tech literate is she?
From one (nice person) scientist to anotherā¦
No, unfortunately not all research is research. Some is sloppy, or deliberately misleading, or just downright poorly designed. So what happens is that to save time people get lazy and they will tend to (whether they realise it or not) filter research out based on reputation. And big name universities have clout from historically having a lot more money to have pumped out more (and sometimes but not always better) research, and a lot of that money was in the US although thatās changing. Itās not fair and it shouldnāt happen, but also, itās legit exhausting to read 10 papers and only 1 is quality enough to believe. But, you do get faster at filtering on more objective quality based measures, and itās worth it. The global research output is a big untapped treasure. Youāll find a lot that others miss if you have objective methods to review research
So for you, if you do quality work, and you take the trouble to communicate with the other leading people in your field, you present your work, and you do a great job at all of that, you will get recognised, and you will get cited. Most domains get super niche and soon enough you will know who are the influential bigshots, the sleazebags, and the up and coming new ideas smarties. I bet the person leading your lab is excited to have you! You seem like you have a great mindset for this and youāll be an asset.
Youāre right, it doesnāt matter (for the most part, in my time research from some countries was seen as too often faked, but Japan was not one of those countries).
Spend as much time as you can understanding what makes quality research, have the humility to get critique and learn from it, make friends with statisticians, and you will be successful. In my first field, most research came from precisely 2 universities (1 US 1 UK) but I came across great research from other universities that I could build on (and cite obviously) including Japan.
But also, not going to lie, academia has its frustrations, youāll have to be patient, and polite to people you know are cheating, and not lose your shit when they get ahead, more patience, and stay resolute to stay true to your values.
Itās important for people with integrity to be in research, and Iām glad someone like you is going for it
seriously these stories are killing me
hello, this made me sit up
I justā¦ what?!
Wow, to the letter how I learned to drive on slippery roads. Glad youāre still alive, too!
I appreciated these thoughts so much. I also feel lots of things including this and itās just so lonely and confusing sometimes when most other Americans I know either donāt want to talk about it or weāre just in totally different worlds. Relating is so hard, but your thoughts and how youāre channeling that into letters to your reps and protest knitting thank you
Congrats on the huge milestone!
Wow, thatās a thing
Aaaaagh, this goes into my eternal rant that we Americans have an embarrassing piss poor political education. Social policies ARE NOT socialism or communism. It kills me inside when even liberal politicians incorrectly use these terms.
Please tell everyone who will listen.
Social policy refers to government actions, like Social Security, education, or healthcare, designed to promote welfare and reduce inequality within a capitalist framework. Socialism is a distinct economic system where the state or workers collectively own the means of production, replacing private enterprise.
I also love social healthcare (experienced in three different European countries and they were all far and away superior to Americaās system), but please do all Americans a favor and donāt refer to it or compare it to socialism or communism because it is not and that misunderstanding is a key barrier to a lot of social policy in the US. I tell everyone I know about this, especially liberals.
Soā¦ sorry, I feel like now Iāve gone overboard
This was one of the first words my coworkers taught me when I moved to Japan. A combination of it being the height of covid and the rooms all being heated by kerosine means that every hour people would start yelling ćęę°ļ¼ćand open all the windows for a couple minutes. We still have the signs on the windows despite people not being as strict about the ęę° these days. Iām sure Iāve taken years off my life breathing in all this kerosine, but then again my neighbors are all about 80 and heat their houses with kerosine so maybe it isnāt as bad as it seems.
The coworker I donāt like walked behind me real slow to read my email because the government office sent me an email asking when my last day is. Had the audacity to ask me ā大äø夫?ā when I looked at her staring at my screen. She spent all morning asking if Iām tired and when I went to bed and such. Like lady itās 8am obviously Iām tired lol. Plus I look like my Norwegian grandma and have permanent eyebags, this is just my face . Coworker is trying to be all buddy buddy because she loves gossip and is hoping Iāll tell her something, because an ALT leaving early is peak gossip. I plan to gaslight her if she actually gets up the courage to ask me. Despite me personally being sworn to silence apparently nobody else is following that and it is hot gossip around the board of education so much that all the other ALTs found out without me telling them.
Did I mention that one of my neighbors tried to break into my house while I was at work earlier this week . Mr. Engineer was in a meeting and suddenly someone was at the door calling my name and trying to open the door. I guess she saw that the lights were on when I was supposed to be at work and assumed I was sick and needed to be checked on? My neighbors are always like āthese weird Americans and their door lockingā while failing to realize their trying to open my door is precisely why I always lock my door XD.
Oh, and some second graders were waving at the teacherās room door looking for attention so I waved at them. They started writing stuff on the window with their fingers, which was backwards Japanese and invisible so was difficult to āread,ā but I did catch them writing my name in hiragana. Then trying to write something else and fighting over the correct way to write it (they are second graders after all, this whole letter stuff is new). These little ones are so cute, I feel bad I wonāt be here in April when they start English classes T^T
I wondered why I suddenly had 11 notifications hahahaha.
Glad you like the chaos that is my log.
In response...
Thatās incredible . German has some great words. Reminds me of when I invited a German bikepacker into my house and he said āUSB cableā in the German way and I just about died.
Sometimes life if just waving your hands around and trying to figure out the right words until you get your point across lol
Sheās tech literate for a 91 year old. So, not amazing but can figure out stuff when she needs to.
I didnāt know you were a scientist! Thatās so cool! To be honest I have only done two summer internships so I am not exactly a scientist yet. The issue of academic fraud is something I am aware of, but when I heard about it, it was in the context of the US and didnāt have much to say about other countries. Well, except watching out for pay to publish journals.
Academia is an interesting place. I remember going to a conference once and the biggest source of entertainment for me and my labmates was watching presenters argue with the owner of a supplement company who asked questions and argued with every single presenter. Or watching the PIs argue, that was also entertaining. I have my doubts on if I am actually a good fit for academia, since my alma mater rejected me for graduate school and one of the (notoriously strict) professors told me I wasnāt ready for graduate school. Graduate school is a lot of work and to be honest Iām not wildly excited about my project. However, this is the way forward into the kinds of jobs I want, so itās something I have to do.
Heck yeah it is. I also got a fancy knife this year. Previously I got apples and goshuin-cho.
Yeah Iām not going to pretend I know the difference, but I think Americans are taught to auto-reject any policy or party with those words attached. Like I used to always get mad at the Japan Communist party driving around their vans but turns out they are way more pro-foreigner than the other parties, more specifically the current ruling one (looking at you, Kimi Onoda). We never even take a second to examine the policies or consider them, but now that I live in a place where those arenāt taboo words and turns out they donāt turn the country into a hellscape.
Iām glad to have entertained you with my wacky life. Hope you enjoy future posts.
15 lessons and 123 reviews lunch break practice, wow board games
Spent more time on reddit than studying whoops lol
I ended up playing board games with some 4th graders today. They needed another person and the games were simple enough so I gave it a shot. Both were math related, one was about multiplication tables and the other was money. The money one was a custom game made by one of the teachers and included tiles like āwater bill, pay 3000yenā and āget 200 yen if you can name a way to decrease garbage.ā Somehow we all landed on the garbage one and I think the funniest method was āshove my garbage into bags more tightlyā
Tomorrow is Valentines so I need to figure out the chocolate situation for Mr. Engineer. I was able to sneak some into my house yesterday and hid them behind my skincare stuff because he isnāt going to look there (or is he? lol). My plan is to make some cat footprint chocolates like the footprints we see in the snow from Chibi-chan coming looking for food. Perhaps this is an ambitious goal, however I did manage chocolate barbels for his birthday cake last year. He finishes work after me so I have an hour or so when I get home from work to get it done, or an hour while he is at the gym. Trying to make gifts for someone when they live (well, part time) with you is a challenge.
Completely unrelated to anything study related, but the salon I emailed never got back to me so I ended up cutting my own hair XD. Maybe that sounds nuts but it was actually pretty easy because my hair is so long itās very easy to have in front of my face. In fact, itās almost too long and I had to hold my hair up to actually cut it. For reference my hair is more than 50% of my height, or about 84cm. Cut off about 7cm of hair and it looks MUCH better now. Considering I donāt really trust people with my hair and itās so long hairdressers charge me extra now, I may just cut my own hair going forward. Itās really not that hard for me, just tie it in front of you like a beard (method two in this video) and cut the ends. The lady in the video only needed one hair tie but I needed five
Many years ago when I first started teaching some students told me that NHK has a movie on every Friday night so I try to watch it sometimes(things that my students decide I need to know about and tell me in English are precious to me). Mr. Engineer turned it on and it was the new Wonka movie and this movie has NO BUSINESS being as good as it is. Like Noodleās actress is actually 14 and she knocked it out of the park. Plus the natural hair? Love to see it. The cast is a great mix of people Iāve never seen before and very famous actors, like in addition to headliner Timothee Chalemet you have Mr. Carson from Downton Abbey, Key from Key and Peele, Phil Wang the comedian, and Mr. Bean! It was full of references to their work too. It was just FUN! Plus I love a cast that is super diverse for no reason at all. May have to buy this one on DVD.
Chibi-chan ran over at the sound of my front door today and special guest Obaa-chan walked right into my house. Obaa-chan is looking really rough these days and I donāt think she has much longer, so she got two chuurus and some wet food. Iāve noticed she isnāt so good at chewing these days so I save the soft treats for her, even when that means risking cat scratches by pushing younger cats out of the way.
3 lessons and 5 reviews appeased the owl Deltora Quest completed Japanese TV
Happy Valentines Day everyone! I made chocolates for Mr. Engineer and chocolate chip cookies for myself, so much chocolate was had (also ate some Alter Eco chocolates a friend got me for Christmas, damn they are good). Fun fact but I havenāt gotten anything for Valentineās Day from anyone except my mom for the past ten years (thanks mom!) because all of my boyfriends in that time have been from Asia. This means every time Valentines rolls around Iām like āhey, in the US guys give their girlfriends something for Valentinesā and every time they say āit isnāt my day! I give you something in March.ā And guess who never remembers that March holiday hahahahahahaā¦ha .
Apparently I complained enough for Mr. Engineer to jump the gun and give me something for Valentines lol. Cat shaped heating pad, good for my cold af apartment. We also took a walk around my area. Hopefully you can appreciate how truly bumfuck nowhere my house is hahahaha. It is truly gorgeous, though.
SPEAKING of apartments, one of the real estate agents came through and found two apartments that allow both pets and foreigners! Plan is to go visit them on Tuesday. My spoken Japanese has been struggling lately so we will see how this goes lol.
We finally finished Deltora Quest! Also I figured out where the plot was going, it was leading to the coronation I just forgot hahaha. Mr. Engineer told me that the anime only covers HALF the series and there are another 8 books worth of adventures to read. However those next 8 books are very difficult to find in the original English, with my library only having the first 8 available. However, the full series is easy to find in Japanese. So, maybe I need to read these in Japanese hahaha.
Deltora Quest ramblings
The story was really quite unique and well done. Iām disappointed it wasnāt more popular, but given the time frame it was competing with Harry Potter which was probably the most hyped series in the world. The author clearly read a ton of fantasy books and included those elements in her story, plus the last 10 episodes of basically just doing (totally canonical) nonsense was really fun. Also hello depictions of healthy relationships??? Leif and Jasmine have such a wonderful cross gender friendship and their relationship to Barda is so good and realistic to how teens and adults should have relationships. I love when kids series include an adult main character, it models good relationships with adults. Like understandably the reason many kids shows have no adults involved is because no adult would let their kid do crazy stuff but I think having those characters is really important. Jasmine and Leif also feel like very authentic teenagers (I say this as a former teenager and a junior high teacher) but are also clearly trying to be good people. Sure they are dramatic but they arenāt doing crazy or unhealthy stuff like how many characters and relationships in media are often portrayed.
After dropping off Mr. Engineer at the station, I decided to give the neighborhood the potential apartments are in a little walk around. It was pretty quiet and empty, as to be expected for a Sunday evening. Also pretty old, older than the buildings looked like in the pictures. This place is also fairly close to the ocean so the buildings suffer similar salt damage to buildings by my current house most likely. I also decided to give the walk from the apartments to the school a shot and while it is reasonable, the walk is closer to the 30min range than the 20min range as stated by Google. I feel pretty comfortable walking around at night by myself in a Japanese city, being from the US and all, however I did notice I have to walk on the edge of a district Iāve heard has Yakuza activity so thatās something to consider. The sketchiest thing I saw walking back tonight was a couple teens playing music and standing in a parking lot. Which, in the end, isnāt sketchy at all.
The other thing this walk showed me is it might be possible to bike to school. Part of the route has a bike path and the streets seemed pretty quiet, but I will try the walk again on Tuesday night to see if that is still true. Previously I had essentially written off getting around by bike because I had no confidence to ride a bike in the city, because learning to ride a bike on the street in the largest town I ever lived in (50,000 people) was still a challenge for me. Using a bicycle would cut down the commute to about 15 minutes, as there are still a lot of crosswalks to wait for. Itās pretty flat too, which is good because I canāt really do hills on a bike lol. Iāve never lived in a city before, so this will be a huge change of pace for me.
Thank you! I can never get the chocolate to look smooth, but it worked better this year. I literally just broke up the chocolate bar and stuck the whole thing in a cup of hot water to melt it and cut off the corner to put the chocolate into molds. Not the proper technique, but it worked. However, my kitchen is so cold the chocolate hardens really fast. Why canāt this tradition be in April or something XD.
Thatās very unfortunate. More people should read books by Aussie writers.
Thank you! Moving is probably going to be hard, and it would be a lot easier to go with the university apartments (closer and furnished), but I also donāt want to give up on my dream of having a cat. After 8 years of living in job related housing, finally having the opportunity to get a cat is something I canāt pass up without a fight.
11 lessons and 38 reviews
appeased the owl
å¤ćÆē«ćØćć£ćć
Deltora Quest
Emails
Olympics
!
amazing navigating that in Japanese
omg that is an amazing story 
seriously these stories are killing me
hello, this made me sit up
. Coworker is trying to be all buddy buddy because she loves gossip and is hoping Iāll tell her something, because an ALT leaving early is peak gossip. I plan to gaslight her if she actually gets up the courage to ask me. Despite me personally being sworn to silence apparently nobody else is following that and it is hot gossip around the board of education so much that all the other ALTs found out without me telling them.
board games
Japanese TV
