Most people will do almost anything to avoid cognitive dissonance.

Yes, you too. 

Rule # 16.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan seems like a damn cool, super nice guy.

His turn in Watchmen as the Comedian was one of the best things about that movie. Along with Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, natch.

Still looking forward to The Losers flick quite a bit. Between it, The Expendables and The A-Team, the summer seems to be full of cool 80's style action film ass-kickery.




And The Losers comic is still quite awesome.










Via Green Lantern, Thor, Doc Savage: Apr 7th Comic Reel - Comic Book Resources

Training.

Well, the only thing consistent about my training the last couple weeks has been its inconsistency. 

Last logged workout was on 3/30.  Since then...

3/31 - P90X - 24 - Kenpo X

4/1-4/3 - P90X - 25 thru 27 - missed wkouts, no excuse

4/4 - "rest" day, which after missing 3 days, just feels like a mockery of the term

4/5 - Atlas Lesson 1, handful of Sun Salutations... 
P90X - 29 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Health for Life Legendary Abs II Routine, Level 1

4/6 -  Atlas Lesson 1, Sun Salutation A x5, Sun Saluation B x3
P90X - 30 - Back & Biceps
2m rounds x5 Bas Rutten MMA wkout/thai boxing
20m eye relaxation/guided visualization

4/7 - Atlas Lesson 1, Sun Salutation A x8
Pushups/Pull Aparts [throughout the day]  7x 10reps
P90X - 31 - Legs & Back
Health for Life Legendary Abs II Level 1
5 rounds Bas Rutten MMA wkout/Thai Boxing 2m rounds
15m eye relaxation/guided visualization

"Pope Benedict's Commandments."

"Stop raising your hand Alligator."

Eddie Izzard is awesome, and not for the usual reasons - 43 marathons in 51 days.

Watched a bunch of Izzard comedy specials... in fact, all of them, I think.  Didn't know about this though.  This is really pretty cool.  Via RossTraining.com Blog : Eddie Izzard – 43 Marathons in 51 Days:

"British comedian Eddie Izzard recently ran 43 marathons in 51 days. With no prior running experience, the 47-year-old spent all but 5 weeks to prepare for the challenge. When it was all said and done, Eddie covered over 1100 miles throughout the United Kingdom to raise money for the Sports Relief charity group.

...about human potential. There is much more than most realize. It doesn’t fall out of the sky however. You must get up and find it. The best way to get ahead is by getting started. If a 47-year-old man with no formal training can run 43 marathons in 51 days, I’m certain that we can all get up and do something. There is no reason to fear hard work. You’ll eventually learn to embrace it."

He finished running last September, but you can still donate to the charity he ran for here.

On 'serious' pursuits & being 'ridiculous.'

The Art of Being Ridiculous; or Why Being Serious is a Waste of Time | Illuminated Mind:

"The reason most ridiculous people end up embracing this path is because they realize the bullshit false dichotomy of legitimacy and seriousness. In other words, they know that just because something is considered a “serious” or “approved” pursuit, it doesn’t mean it’s worth doing. They follow their hearts and leave it to other people decide whether they’re serious or not."

This isn't helping - killing reporters in Iraq, pregnant women in Afghanistan.

Unbelievable.

For the first link, video and pictures on the click-through.

Iraq: Wikileaks video of US military killing journalists - Boing Boing:

"Update: As of 2PM PT, a Senior U.S. official is confirming authenticity of this video.

Wikileaks claims to have obtained and decrypted video that shows US occupying forces in an Apache helicopter intentionally firing on a dozen civilians in Baghdad, including journalists working for the Reuters news organization: 22-year-old Reuters photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40...

The transcript (and audio) seem to show the air crew lying about encountering a firefight. When they finish shooting, they laugh at the dead."

US military admits role in killing of Afghan women - Boing Boing:

"The US-led military command in Kabul admitted, after an earlier denial, that American forces killed three Afghan female civilians in February, and tried to cover up their deaths. There are reports that "Special Operations forces dug bullets out of the bodies of the women to hide the true nature of their deaths," and "that an Afghan-led team of investigators had found signs of evidence tampering at the scene, including the removal of bullets from walls near where the women were killed." One was a pregnant mother of 10 and another was a pregnant mother of six."

Anything obligatory is rarely worthwhile.

Rule # 15.

On crying, onions, and being a little bitch.

Via Stop Crying | Robots with Feelings

The truth on worrying.

Namaste, Bitches: Touching you, touching me.:

"Don't you all know by now that worrying is really just the same as praying for the worst? Worrying is the biggest waste of time known to man. I know that people mean well when they express worry, but worrying never helps anyone or anything."

Reminder of the day - "I maintain that Truth is a pathless land..." - Krishnamurti

"I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised; nor should any organisation be formed to lead or coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organise a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organise it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallised; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others."

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

On sarcasm - worth remembering.

Japanese humility, or something else?

It trips me out, invariably, whenever I run into one of my former students who've graduated and moved on, one of the first things out of their mouths is "You remember me?" - filled with what can only be described as shock, awe and surprise.  Which always prompts me to respond, albeit in my sad Japanese - "Of course I remember you."

Now, I'll grant that about 80-90% of the time I'm not going to remember their name - because Japanese is hard, and my facility with the language sucks - but of course I remember who they are.  I remember their faces and their personalities, if they liked English, their sense of humor, who their friends were...  I mean, I remember them.

Of course I do.  I don't think I'm ever gonna forget these kids.

Happened again today.  Ran into a former student and her mom out at the grocery store and as soon as I got out the 'hisashiburi' [long time no see] her mom blurts out "You remember her?"  But my student was likewise and obviously surprised I remembered her...  So I did the standard 'of course' and asked her how she was doing and how high school was before we all continued on our merry shopping way.

So I wonder, is it that they don't think they merit or expect being remembered?  Which plays into the Japanese cultural trope of humility.  Or is it they don't expect a gaijin teacher to remember them?  Which plays into a different, somewhat less flattering, Japanese cultural stereotype.  Or something else?

Either way, I'm glad to surprise them in a small way and pop whatever expectation bubble they had, even if just a little bit.

Spring vacation English class shenanigans.

Featuring reading presentations...

...massive amounts of pictionary...


...including this, quite frankly, genius drawing.  Guess what it is...

...if you said 'wedding' then you are worthy.

Followed up by a shopping game - building budding capitalists in the economic powerhouse that is Japan.  It starts early.


Including the purchase of dorayaki - which is the first time I've ever had it, actually.  It's basically two pancakes with anko filling.  Which is trippy.

Great kids...

Afterwards I got to check out the graduation album for one of my elementary schools... check it out, it's me - lower right...

The annual moving of the desks.

Every year, and it still strikes me as a bit odd, once the new teachers get in, we all spend the better part of an afternoon moving everybody's desks into new groups in the teacher's room.  This year I moved from being with the first grade teachers and the very front of the room [which never failed to discombobulate the poor students coming to the teacher's room for help]  to moving to the rear of the room with the third grade teachers.


Where am I?

Zoom...

...and again.

Featuring, in the place of honor, a pic given me by the teacher in charge of the judo team, of me and the judo kids who graduated last year.

Just awesome kids.

The passage of time...

Noticed the recent city magazines featured both old and new Fukuma JR train stations.  Like I said, the new one is nice, but the old one had an essential Japanese 'character.'

The key to successful enkai-ing...

...is skipping lunch the day of.  Cause there is much food to be had.

This was not entirely unlike southern fried catfish.

Paying respects and pouring libations for the outgoing English teacher.

Big turnover at Jr High this year.  Maybe the biggest in my time here.  The nine folks here plus a couple office staffers for a grand total of eleven...

...including the art teacher, Sandy's former student, martial arts technique trading, vacation time hallway badminton buddy... who here stands on the dais so he can be taller than me.  I'll miss him.

Last end of the year enkai of my career...  Should have, let's see, two more 'start of the year' enkais, plus my farewell parties... and that'll be all she wrote.

Spring is springing in Nippon.

The trees/flowers say so.

Watched this past weekend.

The Mentalist, The Daily Show, Smallville...

Doctor Who - the premiere of the 11th Doctor.

You know, I've got geek cred, comic book style - but I'm no long term Doctor Who fan.  I've a vague idea who the guy with the muffler was, but I never watched Doctor Who till the relaunch with Eccleston.

And I enjoyed the hell out of Eccleston's run, and thought Tennant verged on brilliance during his time as the 10th Doctor.

But I felt a bit trepidatious with the advent of Matt Smith and the new era, and watched the debut ep with a wary eye.  Clearly, I should not have worried.  Because it was deft, funny, and a bit awesome.  Should be a fun ride this year.  Karen Gillian as Amy Pond seems particularly sharp.

Finished watching NCIS Season 6, and can now say I've seen every ep of the series.

I blame my father-in-law and whatever basic cable channel runs the show constantly back in the US, for my addiction that started during last summer's visit back to America.

Here's the thing, at its core, it's another cop procedural, so it's not really breaking a lot of new ground - but it's a very well crafted and acted [particularly, imho, Mark Harmon and Rocky Carroll] procedural.

And you know, as a former jarhead I... appreciate... the fact that it emphasizes those parts of military service that are admirable and worthwhile, while never devolving into the chest-thumping jingoistic patriotism that it could very easily pander to.

Though it does, as a cop TV drama, far too frequently dip into the 'we are on the side of good and our hearts are pure, so we may break all the laws we feel like' cliche which irks the hell out of me.  And I continue to fail to understand why more folks don't simply lawyer up and tell Gibbs to kiss their ass.  But hey, let's not mix our entertainment with reality, yes?  And it is an eminently entertaining show.