I promise I am not dead.

J184 Tuesday October 23rd

I went for another run in the morning, my route taking me along one of the beach-side roads. I had a little time, so I gathered rocks and stones from the beach. The beaches here in Hitachi are strewn with a lot of what seem to be river rock, and I found a few interesting specimens.

I got back in time to clean up for work. 4 classes were scheduled today, but 2 of them canceled out. During my considerable non-teaching time, I hit the books to make up for the previous weekend's lack of study time. I reached the Geometry section of my review, and defeated it soundly. The Data Analysis section was considerably more difficult, exercising chunks of my brain that hadn't seen light in many years. I will re-do the entire guide as a follow up.

I cooked a nice dinner at home and watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. This gem from the year 2000 was Squaresoft's first foray into movie making. It was a full-length (though I strain the definition to use it) feature film depicting a host of CG characters fighting off ghosts.

The plot was a mix of Scientology and Final Fantasy VII. Alien ghosts and the spirit of the planet. Whatever. The effects were boss. The production design could have been better for the DVD, though. Whoever mastered the audio should be put on a small desert island. I had to keep adjusting the sound to hear the whisper-loud dialog and to prevent the explosion's audio from shaking my building apart.

In the final hours of the night I chatted with Josh about many nerdy things. We talked about Avatar for quite some time, what with the show starting up again and depositing heaping bags of awesome on my digital doorstep every week. The quality of that show cannot be questioned, and it warms my heart to know that many kids are experiencing such an excellent story.

J185 Wednesday October 24th

I put in a spot of Halo 3 before work. I actually played a few short games with Stickman. The day's classes weren't bad, but they weren't spectacular. Every Wednesday I face a massive block of 4 classes back to back in the evenings. They go by quickly, but it's a real mess to slog through all at once.

I folded fliers for an hour or two, and afterwards I bought office supplies and lunch at Ito Yokado on my break. I'd been struggling to come up with some good party game ideas. A few weeks ago we'd brainstormed a pot luck dinner during our upcoming Counseling Week, a bi-annual even wherein we talk to all of our students about their classes. During the evening, we'd dine on lots of food, drink a lot of beverages, and play a bunch of fun games with the attendees. The only problem was my difficulty with coming up with a good game to play.

J186 Thursday October 25th

The meeting came and went. Everyone was having trouble coming up with games, so we all pledged to work on them over the weekend. Reprieve.

Aside from that, it was a slow, uneventful day. I did some D&D planning for the weekend's upcoming game.

On the downside, I started to experience a familiar, long-forgotten discomfort. I shall spare you all the ugly details, but I had once again developed an intestinal blockage, similar to one that sent me to the Emergency Room last year in September. Reviewing my previous week's meals, I determined that the pasta I purchased and consumed two nights previous was the culprit.

I have vowed to never again eat that form of pasta, and indeed I give all pasta a second thought when I encounter it. I soldiered on as best I could, though with a slow-moving lump of poorly-digested matter is so large as to make its internal position known to you, teaching becomes somewhat challenging.

J187 Friday October 26th

3 classes in the morning, and another 3 at night. A busy day, which was good; it kept my mind off the steady build of pressure and discomfort moving through my gut. My bike ride in to work this morning was met with an eerie sight; NOVA was closed. Its doors were shut and its security shutters were down. Two small notices, one in Japanese and the other in English, were posted to the door, but I didn't have the time to read them.

After the day's work I hit Kumamoto for dinner. I wasn't feeling up to cooking, and the place is always good for a big, filling, hot, cheap meal. I tell you, it's the greatest. Returning home I noticed the web ablaze with positive news about The Orange Box. Valve, one of my more favorite video game studios, had released a staggering 5 games in one box, tagged for the insanely low price of 60 American dollars.

I am a big, big fan of the Half-Life game series, Valve's flagship product. It represents one of the best examples of video game narrative I have ever played. This game set included the latest episode of the series, as well as the highly-anticipated FPS/Puzzler Portal. Alas, though I have a Steam account, Steam being Valve's proprietary content-distribution software, my laptop is just not up to the task of running anything near the size of Half-Life 2.

This evening was spent in research, trying to find a version of the game that would work with my 360. Though I sought long and hard, the truth, or falsehood, of the issue eluded me.

J188 Saturday October 27th

Busy, as always. I went to G-Bros in the evening, and the Nova teachers confirmed the shut down. The official story is bankruptcy; the company tried to expand too large too quickly. Furthermore, their financial status made it company policy to *not* refund students who wished to cancel their contracts. I say again; if a Nova student wanted to cancel their contract, despite specific literature in the contract that stated they would get their money back, Nova did not honor the agreement.

Furthermore, a note of clarification: I don't work for Nova. I'm in a different school. My contract prohibits me from naming any specifics or details, but rest assured that my company is in no form of financial distress, and that I'm still happily employed.

Now, back to our story. Claire and Clive were already making plans to head home. Claire had already booked a flight back to Scotland that would leave in a week. Clive planned to stick around a bit longer, as were Matt and Genie. Those last two were going to start looking for employment elsewhere.

After a few hours I got up to leave. I headed out, but I had this nagging feeling. These were my friends, and my time with them was suddenly very limited. I headed back in and ordered another drink. I wound up spending two more hours just talking and drinking with my friends.

J189 Sunday October 28th
A day of relaxation was in demand. My week wasn't super-stressful, but it was a long one. I went for a run, to the oceanside cliff and back, and bought a few groceries on my cool-down walk back.

After grabbing a shower and cleaning up, I was set upon by a powerful hunger. I decided to head out again and get some ramen. I hit Kumamoto again, delighting in another bowl of their delicious noodles. Once I was finished there, I strolled down the street to get my haircut.

I'd been getting shaggier and shaggier, and it was finally time to clean up my act. I went to the same barber shop as before, a small place just across the street from G-Bros. On my way there I saw Dan in his van, along with Matt and a few other people. They were moving Matt to a new apartment. I begged their forgiveness, but I had to get my haircut, otherwise I would start to frighten my students. They were going to eat at Kumamoto when they were done, though, so we agreed to meet up there.

This was my second haircut at this barber shop, but I decided to go all the way. Before I had politely declined the shave that accompanied it. This time, though, would be different. My barber set about sculpting my hair with the focus of a painter. He was kind enough to turn the TV to CNN, letting me see English-language news for the first time in months. I watched a documentary about traveling through some unnamed Middle Eastern country. The camera crew shot lots of footage of beautiful, dry desert landscapes. Without my glasses, removed to facilitate the cutting of hair, I was only able to listen to the British reporter's smooth monologue.

After the haircut came the shave. My seat was reclined, and I received not one but two hot towels on my face. The downward creep of the mercury had not gone unnoticed, and the steaming cloths felt sinful against my skin. Before my soak, a pair of skin creams were applied to my face to soften my stubble and moisturize my skin.

After an application of hot shaving foam (which should be reviewed by the Vatican for sheer decadence) my barber got to work with an old-fashioned straight razor. Every hair was patiently sliced from my beard, my skin getting a rather close exfoliation at the same time. My beard zone was not the only place shaved, either; I opted for the forehead shave, as well, as is traditional in Japanese men's barbery.

After my shave and haircut, which was topped off by a shampoo *and* head/shoulder massage, I felt like 10 million yen. I paid the full amount, 3000 yen or about 3o dollars, and thanked my barber profusely. I biked back to Kumamoto to greet my friends with my freshly styled hair. According to them, I glowed with renewed vigor. I have to say I did feel very refreshed and relaxed. I ordered curry rice and ate with my friends.

Upon concluding our meal, the group split up. K and I decided to hit Joycom, the arcade catty-corner to Kumamoto. I found that they had a classic Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara. This gem was the second of a series of D&D based beat-em-ups that are rather hard to find in the States. K and I put in a few 100 yen coins and made our way through, but were soon overpowered by the unending hordes of baddies.

After our brief but valiant battle against the forces of darkness, K and I parted ways, each heading back to our respective houses.

I hit the Internet, eager to discover the whereabouts of the Orange Box. I decided to buy it, given that my only other choice was waiting nearly half a year to purchase it. I'd bought my XB0x 360...it seemed like a waste not to use it. I called a few of the local game shops, but none of them had it in stock. I contacted Simon, one of my fraternal little brothers, and requested his assistance in finding a copy. He's a competent Japanese speaker, and cut through the language barrier I had rapidly encountered in my own searches.

I spent a few hours preparing for the upcoming D&D game. Our next session was the next day, Monday. Nick, one of my players who lives in Tokyo, is a Nova teacher, so his future as a member of the party is up in the air. Tomorrow may be his last game.

A final jewel plucked from the Internets: Fool Wolf. Ages ago, when I was in high school, I had a subscription to Dragon Magazine. This was in the old(ish) days when D&D was still in its 3rd revision, before 3.5 came out. Dragon was packed full of articles and whatnot, new spells, new classes, lots of cool literature and philosophy about design and story. But the magazine also featured short fiction by a variety of authors. Some were unknown, but others had healthy followings. My absolute favorite series of stories followed the exploits of a wandering thief named Fool Wolf.

There were maybe 4 or 5 short stories in all, taking place in a delightfully pulpy fantasy world. Lots of savage jungles, ancient ruins, and barely-civilized cities. The main character was cursed by a powerful goddess that lived within him, bound there by an over-ambitious father. This goddess was usually kept at bay by Wolf's willpower, but from time to time she got out, and did...not good things. Wolf was forced to flee his people after the goddess possessed him and murdered his cousin, and he has been searching for a way to free himself from her.

The characters he encounters are brilliantly written. Most are fairly stereotypical fantasy characters, but the true artistry of the author is his descriptive style. Gregory Keyes wrote the stories, and his works have by far had the most impact on my own writing style. I recall the vivid details of the world and characters.

Anyway, the exciting news was that the stories were to be republished in a collection next year, 2008. I bookmarked the website with glee, adding it to my "Things to buy" list.

J190 Monday October 29th
In a hyphenated double word, D&D was face-melting. The better part of the afternoon was spent at GEOS, kindly opened by K, crawling through the last of the party's first dungeon. Monsters were slain, clues were found, and missing children were reunited with their parents. Alas, this truly was to be Nick's last game, and he and we bid one another fond farewells. His character, a wild human called Windfall, melted back into the forests that he had called his home.

The game may be shifted to Sunday for future sessions, given the lack of Nick. His holidays were Monday and Tuesday, whilst everyone else was on a Sunday/Monday or Saturday/Sunday weekend schedule.

Toward the close of the evening, Brooke called asking for a bit of help. She had been having some computer troubles, and asked if I could take a look at it. I biked over to offer my services, such as they were.

Her laptop was shutting itself off without provocation, which was interfering with her ability to use it for any long period of time. She normally kept it plugged into the wall, rather than running it off of its internal battery. It was an older system, so I theorized that the battery had suffered some malady due to accident or age, and that it was interfering with the power circuit. I instructed her to remove the battery all together and see if that worked. To our mutual delight, it did.

I suggested reformatting her drive, given the overall difficulties the laptop was having. She worried about keeping her data. She had just purchased a new iPod to replace her old one. It dawned on me that iPods can hold more than just songs. (Watch out for further scientific breakthroughs such as the Wetness of Water, and my personal favorite: Fire!: Actually Rather Hot!) Having never worked with an iPod before, I did some digging around. I unified her music folder, cleaning up any duplicates from her laptop's hard drive and her original iPod. I then went through her disc drive folders, showing her where the files she wanted to keep were located. Mostly she wanted to keep pictures and music.

I gave her some more instructions on which files to put where before I left. She said she could handle the rest herself. It was late, and I headed back home to sleep, as the next day was fast approaching.



Despite the connections being quite solid, I could find nothing wrong with her Internet, save that she appeared to just not have the service. I poked and prodded, but could find no settings that, when changed, produced the elusive aether. Her laptop is a tad dated, and she hasn't reformatted it since she first bought it. I suggested she try that, to fix its