June 2011
33 posts
3 tags
Classroom Pictures 8 - Bless You!
In America, when someone sneezes, we say, “Bless you!”
2 tags
Looking For a Happier Life? Where Should You Live?
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) has made a great interactive chart with 34 countries. Here it is: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ The Index includes 11 categories and 34 countries. From the FAQ: ”Why choose 11 topics of well-being? Since it was founded in 1961, the OECD has helped governments design better policies for better lives for their citizens....
5 tags
Graduation Madness!
Or, “How Graduation Can Ruin Your Life!” Okay, so that’s a half-joke. Graduating from university is a huge deal and an amazing accomplishment. If you’re finishing a second degree or and advanced degree, you deserve twice the applause because you survived while leading a (we’re assuming) a productive life outside of school. So, before I go on, “Bravo!” ...
6 tags
Sakura, Ohanami, and Rodin?
These are my very late pictures from the Sakura season, our Ohanami party, and viewing the Rodin permanent exhibit in the museum at the park where we had our party. View the full album here: Sakura/ Ohanami Album highlights! Le Penseur
3 tags
Classroom Pictures 7 - Zetsubo, Emo
One of my students said she was “zetsubo”, which means “despairing”. I decided to explain that in America, people would say she’s being emo. Here is my emo Honoka.
5 tags
Hurricane/ Typhoon Season Kicks Off!
I’m not sure they have hurricane parties here in Japan. Too bad. Anyway, since I’m in Japan (a typhoon prone nation) and am from Mobile, Alabama (a hurricane prone area), I thought it would be good to go over the differences between hurricanes and typhoons. To put it simply, they are both just different colloquial names for Tropical Cyclones—which doesn’t sound nearly as...
May 2011
17 posts
6 tags
The Japanese Giant Hornet Will Kill You
It’s true. These terrifying bugs kill about 40 people a year in Japan. I ran into one of these monsters on a hike last Sunday. Honestly, I used to think the bumblebees back in Alabama were big (essentially harmless, but big). My friend Tomo told me that these can kill you. It was then, that the hornet changed directions and came at us. Instinctively, I brought off my fists prepared to take...
3 tags
Classroom Pictures 6 - Ran Ran Ru!
A student drew this on top of “Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater”, while we were packing up to leave.
2 tags
Faces Everywhere 5! Yakuza Face
I like to think of the sticker as a bandage and the marker a scar from a knife fight in the 1970s while Beat It plays in the background.
Berries!
I ate a wild berry from near a graveyard today and so far I haven’t died. It’s almost bed time, so this must be a good sign that, both, the rapture is not today and, also, that I am not going to die from consuming poisonous vegetation. I probably shouldn’t let this encourage me into trying more wild foods, but it probably will. There’s no way around it. Thus far, I have...
4 tags
George Takei vs. Tennessee's "Don't Say Gay" Bill
3 tags
Classroom Pictures 5 - Don't Throw the Baby Out
4 tags
Faces Everywhere 4 - Cigars! Cigarettes!
Feed me your cigarettes!
2 tags
Better Book Titles
This fairly new website is all-the-rage right now; and, being the kind of person I am who love literature and loves jokes, I’m enamored. You can find the website here: Better Book Titles Here are a few of my favorites: Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit...
14 tags
Same-Sex Military Weddings! Could It Be True?
Excerpt from Episcopal Cafe “According to the Navy Times, the new policy of allowing openly gay and lesbian to serve in the military has caused the Navy Chaplain Corp to issue a memo allowing for Naval Chaplains to perform same-sex marriages on navy bases. Naval facilities may be used for the reception. ‘“Consistent with the tenets of his or her religious organization, a chaplain...
3 tags
Classroom Pictures 4 - Daruma Cat
I can’t take credit for this. One of my students drew it.
1 tag
Sitting is Slow Suicide - How Sitting Can Help...
From MedicalBillingandCoding.org Via: Medical Billing And Coding
2 tags
Faces Everywhere 3 - Serious Chemical Container
He pities the fool.
6 tags
Crazy Weird Product from Japan neurowear vol.1...
I have to admit, this is kind of amazing.
7 tags
Google Chrome: It Gets Better - LGBT
