2005-01-20
the Trev Report 2005-01-20
Welcome to the better late than never Trev Report! As some of you know, Signe and I went to the wonderful island country of Palau for winter vacation. I have been busy uploading my daily journal of the trip at http://jumex.blogspot.com/ or if you are a LiveJournal user http://trevmex.livejournal.com/ . We had a GREAT time, and if you want to read about it, it is all in the blog and I recommend you checking it out. And now onto the rest of the news!
Trev's Lovelife
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Signe and I are in love! Same as it ever was. She has been working on a kimono project recently for a contest at one of her favorite online kimono stores. She just finished it, and I will bet you anything that there will be pictures of her in it soon at http://www.signerose.org/ . Speaking of pictures, you can find a ton of pictures from our trip up at Signe's site as well. She did a great job of footnoting them, and if you have read my journal entries from the trip you will know when the pictures were taken as well. Signe is also getting ready for a trip back to America for her Grandma's 90th birthday. I can't go but I will be there in spirit.
Trev's Work
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Now that I am back to work I am getting back into the swing of things. Two weeks vacation make you never want to work again, but I am doing good now. I did have my big interview for the ALT PA position (see previous Trev Reports) in Matsue City next year. I was up against 2 other people, both of which are just as qualified as I am for the job. Although I would really like to get the position, I wouldn't be disappointed if either of the others got it either. I should find out the results in the next couple weeks, before I have to sign re-contracting papers if I don't get the position. Honestly, I wouldn't mind being here in Akagi (which is now Iinan, since the merger) for another year. I like the people here. It is a really good place to live. The only downer is that if Signe gets a job with the JET Programme, the likelihood of her being close to Iinan is doubtful. Another year apart, but we will manage.
Trev's Japanese
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The best part about vacationing in Palau (well not the best, but certainly a perk) was that there were a lot of Japanese people there to talk to. Unlike last year when I went to America and lost all my Japanese skills, I had some way to keep them up this time. Keeping a journal in Japanese everyday really helped a lot as well. When I returned to Japan I had little trouble at all going back to speaking the crappy 3rd grader-level Japanese I do so well. I have been doing this JET Programme Self Study Japanese Course as well. It is really helping me a lot and I am always learning new grammar and words from that as well. I still think it will be many years until I am at a level where I can work at a Japanese company, but I do feel that I am progressing...sometimes. Much like culture shock, language ability confidence comes and goes in an almost predictable cyclical pattern. In any case, I am feeling good now, and I just have to keep at it. I'll do my best!
Trev's Computers
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Besides the blog, mentioned above, I have been working on putting NetBSD on an old P150 laptop I got from the Board of Education when it moved in January. The stupid Ethernet PCMCIA card busted, so I have to get a new one, but besides that I think that it will work well. I am still having trouble getting X up on it though, but that is always the case. I always have trouble getting X up...no matter what.
Another project I took on is updating the webpage for the JAGS art committee at http://www.shimaneart.com/ . I haven't started on it. It is a nice looking site, so I intend to just maintain it with new information. I am glad to be getting involved with the JAGS committee. It has been too long since I have done any committee work. I love that kind of stuff.
Trev's Anime
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I haven't been watching much, but I have been reading Newtype, and with my recent subscription to Afternoon, http://www.afternoon.co.jp/ , I do get a dose of anime/manga goodness every now and again. I also just got all of the old series "The Mysterious Cities of Gold" on DVD from a fan in America at http://www.msu.edu/~skutt/mcog.html . This was my favorite cartoon when I was a child, and I am excited to watch it again. Signe said she would watch it with me, but we are still watching Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis right now, although we are almost caught up. (I can't believe that we have watched almost 8 seasons of SG-1 within a month).
If anyone has recommendations of anime I should watch, please let me know. I am so out of the loop, and I have been in the mod to watch something good recently.
Trev's Games
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I bought "Metroid: Zero Mission" and even though it is easy, as everyone says, I am still really enjoying it. I LOVED the original Metriod, and this is enough like it to remind me why I loved it so much. I am about halfway through "Golden Sun: The Lost Age" as well. That is a really great RPG for the GBA. I think I will get FF 1 and 2 next. I never played them as a kid (I played "Dragon Warrior" instead).
As for non-computer games, I got "Once Upon A Time" for Christmas from my Dad (mentioned last Trev Report). It is really fun to play with other people, especially Matt, the ALT in Kakeya, a nearby town. He is a real creative storyteller. It seems we have quite a few board game lovers in the area, so we sometimes have game nights. I am really glad, I love having game parties.
Trev's One Point Japanese
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So you want to learn Japanese, huh? Cool! How about transportation verbs!
There are three transportation verbs that as a beginner are good to know:
ikimasu - to go
kimisu - to come
kaerimasu - to return
To make a sentence with one of these verbs, all you do is apply the following formula:
[ place ] e [ ikimasu / kimasu / kaerimasu ].
'e' is a particle. You can think of particles as the glue that binds Japanese sentences together. 'e' is the particle that binds a place noun to a transportation verb. Here are some examples:
gakkou e ikimasu. (Go to school.)
nihon e kimasu. (Come to Japan.)
uchi e kaerimasu. (Go home. In Japanese you "return" home, instead of "go" home.)
Good luck with your studies! Japanese is a great language to know, do your best!
Well, that is about it for this edition of the Trev Report. I hope you all enjoyed it, and if you have the chance check out the blog every now and again. I never thought I would become a 'blogger' but so it goes.
Until next time, drop me a line sometime I always enjoy hearing from you.
Yours,
trv
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Trevor Lalish-Menagh
jumex@trevreport.org
www.trevreport.org
011-81-854-76-3021
Posted by jumex at 18:39
