Getting an iPad

It’s been about three weeks now since I started using the iPad. It’s not the first time I’ve used one of course – with friends like @SteveNagata I was guaranteed to be one of the first few people in the country to try one out (which I was). I must admit, before I got one, […]

Gaijin Bubble – Being a good husband – Taking action

Sunset from our front door The intense feeling of ‘being a foreigner’ is starting to fade. These past few weeks there have been several occasions when I’ve been out and about, and completely forgotten that I’m a member of the 2%(ish) minority population of non-Japanese residents in Japan. Upon arrival back in Japan last September […]

Plans for 2009

George and I at work Just one more day of work at the office remains this year. Whilst I usually work alone on Saturdays, taking calls from those students of mine who are unable to call during the week, tomorrow the rest of the office crew will join me. They’ll be turning up in their […]

Purpose

My sister Jessie (left) and I, age: quite young Personally, I’m yet to feel the effects of the global economic slowdown. I’ve not been made redundant, my salary has not been cut, overtime is still allowed. But I can feel it’s just around the corner. Local redundancies are being announced on a daily basis, and […]

Dissertation: The benefits of procrastination

I was in the library just after 9am this morning; it’s now 1.45am, and I got home 15 minutes ago. A 16.5 hour day, not bad. It was punctuated by an hour spent with my classmates, first year and second students on our course, in a meeting about the Year Abroad. That was fun. It […]

Dissertation dilemmas

The experiment two nights ago worked. I created a new user account on my Macbook with access only to my word-processor (Scrivener), then reset my admin password to something like 673hdhsa568fdje8sosjyr8jdhs7si which I wrote down on a piece of paper and put in my sock drawer. I then went to the library, and could do […]

Up in smoke

Caw blimey gov it’s been one hell of a day. Just got back form the library (2am) where I’ve spent the last 7 hours trying to finish off this website for my employer. I’m always astonished by how long it takes. It was all working fine in Safari and Firefox, but then I made the […]

Time for an all-nighter?

caw blimey gov it’s gonna be one of those loooooong nights. It’s ten to one, but I’ve still got a tonne of stuff to do for tomorrow. What’s best: late night, or up early? The danger with going to bed now is that I won’t have time tomorrow morning to prepare for the afternoon. Hmmm. […]

A day in the life of Joseph Tame

Crikey O’reily. Talk about busy! Not a bad list of accomplishments for the day: 65 meaningful emails received 60 fairly meaningful emails sent Hair cut (meditation time as she wasn’t very talkative) Wedding invites redesigned & ordered Provided technical support for the folks having problems with Firefox Euthanasia Vocab learnt Enrolled on coaching course Had […]

Coping

As fresh as a Greek daisy. One of the first ever flower-shots I took, back in 1996 I’m glad I don’t usually have a car. Two parking tickets, a blow-out, and now today a section of the front bumper missing after someone reversed into me in the car park. I really am glad that on […]

My affinity with rubber

As enormous relief as the first five weeks of my final semester come to an end, and we begin three weeks of Easter Holiday. The break will give me a chance to catch up on the many tasks that have been put to one side, victims of the constant onslaught of daily homework. Things like […]