So I've been negligent by nearly a week. I've been having nightmares about returning to work, or at least night sweats. Lostin's extended visit was welcome and cozy, though a little greasy when it came to duck roasting time. I have been otherwise unproductive but snuggly, with Joephet, despite our perennial hestiations over what to actually order for dinner. I wish I had more to report, but I've been short of anything.

Oh, yes. I am disturbed that Susan Sontag has passed--Alric always had a crush on young Susan Sontag.

So I am excited to start learning Chinese again more consistently than before. It looks less likely, though, that I will be applying to Japan for the summer--better to stay here and contemplate buying a co-op or house, as long as the maintenance is tax-deductible-enough. I have enough on my mind in terms of getting my grants finished for the end of this semester. Then of course there's the entire textbook issue. I guess we'll see on that.

I have been swept up by the life of Zhou Enlai, while confused--wouldn't the Frankie Muniz character in Racing Stripes have more of an African accent?

So Joephet and the gang ambushed me with a birthday party last night, which was most welcome, as well as the earth-tone coat Joephet got me, just in time to keep me warm as I went all the way to work, now only slightly grumpily though all ready with my commissar hat.

Meanwhile, I have begun to realize that as far as CCP idols go, Mao is far off-base: Zhou Enlai instead was much more in the statesman sort of way, and I think a more realistic role-model, though I guess I haven't gotten to the cut-throat parts yet. I really ought to go off and learn me some wenyanwen instead of all this baihua.

So my brother was in town for the birthday, which involved the usual slate of walking around and looking for clothing and other bric-a-brac and of course the usual slate of weekend kendo, and ominous threats from sensei for those who dont' come for clean-up.

Funnily enough, we were seated last night at Kenka at a table for five, but only me and Rob Chin and my bro from my party and on the other hand an older white man (well, not that old, early- to mid-thirties) with a young semi-cute but not really at all and still wearing braces and barely speaking English. This juxtaposition was droll indeed, and rather pathetic.

So what with my birthday approaching I have been wondering what it is that I have actually somehow managed to accomplish so far, and so I have picked up a biography of Mao. By that standard, I am doing better than he was at this age, but then again he was a Hunanese peasant and card-playing comrade of my paternal relatives, so the fact that he was just a primary school teacher and successful bookstore renter-outer is not so scary. I suppose I just need to remove all opposition to my personal rule in the Party by my early forties and to overthrow the bourgeois-military-capitalist-roader elements in my country by the time I'm in my late fifties, exiling them to Rhode Island. Yeah... Time to start working.

So there are plenty of hilarious moments to report, I'm sure, such as the all-Latino rumble that almost erupted in science class today when the discussion turned to whether or not the apple in the Genesis story is actually an apple or not--there was quite a pandemonium of disagreement, and I still am not sure what exactly the alternative was, just some sort of metaphorical apple.

So the promotion test was remarkably crowded, which was nice in that it was good to see a fair chunk of the kendoka on the east coast. The only troubling thing, despite my inability to get any sort of real practice in--we were two rows deep shomen to exit--was the striking resemblance of the gathered to the clientele of the Web--a mix of too-young Asian kids, too-old white guys, and a bunch of older men. I exaggerate of course--even the Web is too hip to sport pleated pants.

I'm just amused these days, because I keep on giggling at the thought of Sensei saying, "That's what Kendo is." in all manner of inappropriate circumstances.

So I've missed a number of days, in my new and successful attempt to sleep a whole lot more than before.

White people are funny: in ordering tickets for House of Flying Daggers, they inadvertently get tickets for Flying House of Daggers, House of Flaming Daggers, House of Flying Dragons, etc, etc.

My training has gone to the next level, namely in full armor, and I suck big sweaty balls, but it's just a beginning, and the transition seemed somewhat melodramatic when it comes right down to it--just another step on a long journey.

Meanwhile, I have become a professional bowler. Well, if by that you mean I took my students bowling, and was paid to do so. I need to work on my game, as I tend to hook my throws far too much, and I have poor form, and bad fumikomi.

Hrmmm... time to shower and hustle to practice--my left ring finger is spazzing oddly, as if one of the tendons is damaged--if it gets too close to being bent, it jumps the rest of the way, like some odd sort of latch.

So I have not been blogging much, which I can only explain through my vague sense of self-satisfaction or some other sort of grooveness, which has meant that I am in a rather unreflective mood in most ways, contentedly strumming along from day to day and week to week in an unconcerned dilly-dally sort of way, though that's inaccurate, as I have actually been trying to pare down my run-on sentences when it comes to my expository research-prose and what not. No fuss, no muss.

So last night was my first night in tare and do, and I feel a good deal more serious. All told, it didn't make that much of a difference, I don't think, in terms of my still wayward technique, and most of the anxiety was beforehand. Still, it's good to have a little variety and a new routine.

The launch of the textbook project has also gone remarkably well--I just need to stay ahead of my galloping students, and vary the types of activities a little bit. Beyond that everythings all right enough, and I think this new unit and new beginning are exactly what I needed. Little else to report, as I am on one of these coastal arcs.

The only major interruption has been the lack of a cellphone for the past half-month, which has meant that I call up certain out of area coders much less and that I don't get to say goodnight to wifey and so on, but I can live with that--I can just go visit more often, I suppose...