Rain-Man.org

Here in the Austin area of Texas, it’s been freezing the past day or so. Literally. The temperature as I write is 21 degrees Fahrenheit. For those of you in the rest of the world, that’s -6 degrees Celsius. Now, to people up north, it’s really not that bad, not when they have temperatures of below 0 F. I offer up the follow explanation, but not defense, for what drivers in Texas are so awful during winter weather:

1. Have you seen them try to drive in the rain? It’s bad. Now change it to a different form of precipitation, say, snow. It’s rare down here, so you have drivers paying more attention to the snow than the road.
2. The ground here usually stays warm, so when that snow hits, it melts, but the wind comes over and turns it into ice. Thin layers of ice we call black ice. That’s part of why people here can’t drive during winter: we can’t see the ice on the road.

What does this all mean? Perfect weather for job hunting! Well, except for when I have to venture out to the temp agency next week to see if I can find some work. As long as it gets me on my way to paying off a few bills and saving up money, I’m down with that. Of course, if I could get hired on directly with a company to have benefits, that’d be even better.

When I spoke with my mom about my idea, she kept asking, “OK, but once you’re in Japan and you learn more Japanese, then what?” I replied by telling her that I wanted to work in Japan, and she kept asking, “Doing what? What will you do in Japan?” At the time, I didn’t have the best answer really. Now, I think I’d like to stay in the publication design field or try to get into localization/translation.

It’s probably been about a year since I baked any bread, but this dry spell will ended in a few days. I have been asked to baked some rolls for Rainman, family and friends for Thanksgiving. I’m excited, though I do wonder how well my bread recipe will work when used for dinner rolls. I hope they’ll be OK.

Baking is a strange thing for me. I can be rather impatient with various things in life, so it’s a little odd I enjoy baking so. I only do my bread from scratch, and entirely by hand. I’ve never used a bread maker in my life, and if asked to make bread with one I would have no clue how to do it.

The feel of dry flour on my hands sends shivers down my spines and instantly makes my skin perk up with goosebumps. Even the mere thought of it now as I type this makes my skin crawl. But once it starts to form into dough, the fun begins. I can knead. I find the act of kneading bread to be relaxing. Almost therapeutic. I can be very rough, or as gentle as I want, and the dough is forgiving for the most part. The 6 – 8 minutes of kneading.

The first time I really had a thought of trying to make bread on my own was after watching a few episodes of an anime called Yakitate!! Japan. It’s one of those anime with crazy battles, but instead of physical altercations, the encounters happen in a kitchen where the best bread wins. It was a fun show (albeit it with a crap ending, in my opinion) that sparked my interest in the baking arts.

When I was young, I was a spoiled child. I wanted everything my way, and if it wasn’t, I would complain. Sometimes I would complain for no reason at all. Thankfully, I grew out of it.

I’m currently “in-between jobs” and looking for new “opportunities.” You know what I mean. I’m unemployed. Jobless. Trying to find work. But despite that, I’m still happy, though I do find myself a bit bored. However, since coming back from Japan, I feel I’m at one of the happiest points in my life. Want to know the secret? Life is no fun if you spend time worrying and complaining about things.

A few weeks ago I started reading Stephen Covey’s 21-year-old book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” It’s not a long book (a modest 300+ pages), but I do tend to take frequent, often prolonged, breaks. Anyway, it’s a book that I recommend, despite only getting to the third habit. It can be a well-needed and refreshing wake-up call to your life. Learning to take charge of your life and to live your life, and not just go through it, is a wonderful thing.

Many people want more money, more time, more skill, more something. Why don’t people go after it? Most of the time these people are lazy. Let’s look at the issue of time first. (more…)

Sunset from a rooftop (7th floor) close to Nakano-Shimbashi station

To use the word that a friend gave me that perfectly describes the situation, this post will be bittersweet. I am moving back to Texas. After 7 months in Japan, the first five of which were spent teaching English, I must bid a temporary goodbye to the place I’ve come to call home. (more…)