Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful...

Sure...we have 3 days of cold as all hell, but otherwise perfectly beautiful weather this past weekend (seriously, I didn't see a cloud for like 3 days), and now it turns to shit.


High today of -8C, 50cm or so o' the white stuff since yesterday with lots more on the way, & 10 m/s winds....yes, boys & girls...this is what living in arctic hell is like! w00T!

(of course, I probably wouldn't be bitching about it so much if I didn't have a cold and was out boarding right now, but that's neither here nor there)

I Have the Bladder of a 12 Year Old Girl...

I swear man...I guess I am getting older. I've only had 3 cups of coffee so far today, but have been back & forth to water the porcelain like 5 times in the past 3 hours.

Anyhoo, oh yeah...(Insert mandatory "Blah, blah, sorry I haven't updated the ol' blog in like half a year" apology here). How ya been in the meantime?

Just to get up to speed, here's what's gone on since what...last year?

• FamilyMart pulled a certain mook and the whole thing finally died down, although I've continued to get hits about it ever since.
• Gotta new English teacher at the town Jr. High who's turned out to be my nemesis. Had a bit of a tuff-up in the staffroom and although we've been able to be somewhat courteous to each other ever since, I still dread the 2 days a month that I have to teach with that horrible woman. Thankfully she's on the Superintendent of the BOE's shitlist as well, and hopefully she'll be long gone come April (please, oh Jesus, let this be so).
• Even though the BOE pretty much begged me to stay, I made the painful decision to end my contract come August of this year and my successor's already been decided (really a pretty cool guy who I have big expectations about). Yup, after 8 long years, my big adventure here in Happy Land is about to come to an end and I'll soon be heading back to the land o' the not-so-free-anymore w/ M. Really hoping that somebody'll be dumb enough to hire me...
• Ate way too much over New Years & gained like 5 kg. I suspect my Japanese mother-in-law is secretly Jewish and/or Italian. "What? You can't be full! You must eeeeeeaaaat!"
• After espousing it as "MySpace for Rich Kids" and swearing up & down that I'd never have anything to do with it, I finally caved & joined FaceBook once I realized its not that different from Mixi. It's amazing to see how many people I know are on it and now I too can be a sheep. Baaah. ;)
• Winter wonderland, my ass. I think the high temp here in Rice & Watermelon Town has been above freezing maybe twice since December. Average highs around -5C & average lows between -20C to -15C. My clunker Pajero regularly refuses to start in the morning, our front door freezes on the inside on a normal basis and the big kerosene heater in our living room has been running non-stop since about November, yet strangely, I've kinda gotten used to the cold. A friend from Hot-lanta asked me a few days ago how the hell I live in a climate like this, but from my perspective, I can't see how he stands it there in the summer. Hell, M & I thought 4C was hot when we went down to Sapporo over New Years...
  
• Last but not least, bun has been firmly inserted in oven! That's right folks...we're preggers and actually expecting a little hellspawn the likes of which the world has never seen before any day now! M & I're actually gonna be a Mommy & Daddy to an amazing little girl who, for the moment we've nicknamed our "Little Bean". Can ya believe it? I know I'm sure having a hard time getting my head around it.

Ok...guess that's it for now, so hopefully this'll satisfy the wants of a certain few who've bitched at me to update for sometime. I'm off to translate more Japanese hotel websites that feature words like "feature", "relaxation" and "tranquil", so for now, ta, muchly ;)

Sports Day Bento

Yeah, I'm like 2 weeks late a more than a dollar short, but here at XX Elementary we had our big Sports/Field Day two weeks ago. This was the bento/lunch box that M made for me for the big day...


Wow...can you say, "Hokkaido Hillbilly is loved"? And no, there's no way in hell I coulda finished all that in one go. We snacked on it and all the other stuff that wouldn't fit in the box for at least another day.

忙しい ・ Busy

仕事が多いだし、今週の日曜日は○○小学校の運動会だし、用具係に入っているから今日は、昨日の「ハプニング」についてあまり書けないほど忙しい。

まだちょっとショックと信じられない気持ちで、話しておかないと落ち着かないんだから明日時間があれば書きます。

結構面白いから是非、期待してください。　^_^

Lots o' work, XX Elementary School is having its big Sports Day on Sunday and I'm on the equipment committee, so I haven't even had time yet to write about yesterday's little "happening" I've been so busy.

I'm still sorta in shock & disbelief about what happened and I really need to get it off my chest, so I'll write more tomorrow if I have time.

It's defo a doozy, so stay tuned. ;)

Web Zen LOLalrus

Because I had a shitty day (I'll expound more on that later...promise) and this picture just makes me smile. :)

Thank you, God for LOLcats.

link, via I can has cheeseburger?

はい・・・まだ生きている ・ Yup, Still Alive

English below...

ウイ～っす！しばらくだね？

「あらっ・・・北海道Hillbilly君はもう死んでいるかな？」と思っちゃう人もいるかもしれないけど違えます！ビンビンしているよ！＾＿＾

前回の日記から2が月間が経ったけど（早っ！）、「何でそんなに長い時間にブログで何も書かなかったのかい？」と言う聞いている方の為に、以下の言い訳を発表させて頂きます：

1）新学年が始まって、急に忙しくなってきた。
2）春休みの間に、パソコンのハードディスクが死んじゃった。
3）2番の結果で、デル・ジャパンは新しいハードディスクを送ってくれた。(Dell Japan ROKS!)
4）3番の結果で、WinXPの再インストールはものすごく面倒くさい出来事になって、「マイクロソフトはもううんざり！」と叫んで、Ubuntuと言うLinuxの種類もインストールをしちゃった。
5）Ubuntuのインストールで色々な問題があって、結局7回の再インストールは必要だった。（だけど正直にUbuntuのせいじゃなくて、自分はLinuxについて何も分からなかったから。その時に比べて大分なれたから今Ubuntu大好きだし、絶対薦められる）
6）実は何回も草稿の日記を書いたけど後で「あぁ・・・これはやっぱ載せられないべ」と思って、消しちゃった。
7）宇宙人による誘拐された・・・かもしれない・・・かな？；）
8）僕はただ怠け者。

好きな言い訳を自由に選んでください。しかし、正直に・・・95％は8番のせいだ。

とにかく、戻ってきた。これから続けられるかどうかさっぱり分っかんないけど・・・とりあえず、一か八かやってみる。


Wazzup? Been a while, eh?

To those of you who may be thinking, "Hmmm...I wonder if he's dead?", the answer would be a defo negateevo. Yeah, still alive & kickin'.

I know it's been like 2 months since I last made a post (wow...that was fast), so for anybody who's wondering, "Why the hell's it been so long since you wrote anything?!", I offer for your reading pleasure the following excuses:

1) The new school year started in April and I actually had to do some work.
2) My hard drive died over Spring Break
3) As a result of #2, Dell Japan sent me a new hard drive (Dell Japan ROKS!)
4) As a result of #3, reinstalling WinXP turned out to be a complete & total pain in the ass, I screamed to the gods, "MICROSOFT SUCKS" and ended up installing a dual boot of Ubuntu Linux.
5) Ran into a boat-load of problems with the Ubuntu install and it took 7 re-installs to get the thing running like I wanted it. (although to be perfectly honest, it was because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I've grown to really love Ubuntu and can now HIGHLY recommend it)
6) I actually wrote quite a few posts but then in mid-stride reallized, "Whoa...hold on a sec. I can't post this shit!" and erased 'em.
7) I was abducted by aliens...maybe...possibly ;)
8) I'm a lazy little bugger.

Feel more than free to pick your own excuse. But in all honesty...#8 probably accounts for about 95% it.

In anycase, I'm back. I have no idea whether or not I'll even be able to keep up regular posts, but for the time being I'll give it a shot.

ミクシィの友達に脱帽する ・ Props to Folks from Mixi

English below...

うい～っす、皆!　

一週間くらい、日記が全然書かなくてごめんね。最近疲れたり、仕事は思ったより忙しかったり・・・正直にちょっとブルーな感じだったから日記を書く力あまりなかった。

しかし・・・

実際日記を書くと、何となく「治療効果」があるから今日は頑張って、元気を出したい。

とにかく、皆さんの色々なコメント、ありがとうございます。本当に感謝する。

僕は頑張るからこれからもよろしくぅ！　：）

What's shakin', everybody?

For the past week, I haven't made any posts or whatsoever and I'd really like to apologize for that. Recently I've been tired, busier than I thought I'd be...and to be perfectly honest, in a bit of a slump emotionally, so I just haven't been motivated to write anything.

However...

When I actually sit down and bang out one of these posts, it's somewhat therapeutic to me in a weird kind of way so I'm gonna give it another shot and try to get myself out of this rut.

In any case, I want to thank all of you who've left comments. I really appreciate it!

I'm gonna try my best, so stay tuned for more! ;)