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Do you have a mountain?
Oct. 2nd, 2021 10:35 pm・ Someone whose English I correct online was telling me about the source of her fresh chestnuts, a cousin-in-law who owns a (local) mountain. “(People normally don’t have a mountain!)” she added, which for some reason I found absolutely adorable.
・ The other day I walked past one of the local North Korean elementary schools (it’s a very long story), with kids playing to recorded music in the yard, running around in their little color-coded caps. The tune was the Hokey-Pokey, sung in Korean.
・ I was translating a Hayashi Fumiko travelogue about Japan-occupied Indonesia in 1943; charming, evocative, informative, densely colonialist. Wondering whether she genuinely believed all the Japan-banzai stuff she put in, or whether it was there to please the imperialist powers that be (who were responsible for the career boost of sending her to Indonesia etc.). Something seemed familiar about this query...oh yes the Rebel. 哎哟, the more things change.
・ There is a thing that I want that I can’t have, and it really doesn’t matter in the grand (or even the pretty small) scheme of things, and it’s annoying me. (This is not in reference to chocolate but come to think of it THAT ALSO APPLIES.)
・ The above notwithstanding, how old am I going to be before I can stop losing my temper like a spoiled brat? (Almost entirely offline, in this case. I am, on the whole, peaceable in non-work-related online stuff because a) time-delay and b) I can walk away whenever I need to. Offline I occasionally have a hair-trigger snap reflex and I would like to get it under control and be a less unpleasant person any time now.)
・ I tutor a couple of Filipino-Japanese kids weekly for the Saturday juku, and while waiting for them to finish writing their essays, I get out my notebook and write notes to myself about my original thing. Occasionally whole scenes, more often lists of questions and tentative answers which are basically primitive meta. It’s a surprisingly good environment for figuring out what’s going on.
・ I have a ton of unposted photos, have a handful to start with. Purple flowers as usual, a street view with mountains, a cat (actually two cats) standing guard in the soldiers’ graveyard, and what I can reassure you is not a caterpillar.
( Read more... )
Be safe and well.
・ The other day I walked past one of the local North Korean elementary schools (it’s a very long story), with kids playing to recorded music in the yard, running around in their little color-coded caps. The tune was the Hokey-Pokey, sung in Korean.
・ I was translating a Hayashi Fumiko travelogue about Japan-occupied Indonesia in 1943; charming, evocative, informative, densely colonialist. Wondering whether she genuinely believed all the Japan-banzai stuff she put in, or whether it was there to please the imperialist powers that be (who were responsible for the career boost of sending her to Indonesia etc.). Something seemed familiar about this query...oh yes the Rebel. 哎哟, the more things change.
・ There is a thing that I want that I can’t have, and it really doesn’t matter in the grand (or even the pretty small) scheme of things, and it’s annoying me. (This is not in reference to chocolate but come to think of it THAT ALSO APPLIES.)
・ The above notwithstanding, how old am I going to be before I can stop losing my temper like a spoiled brat? (Almost entirely offline, in this case. I am, on the whole, peaceable in non-work-related online stuff because a) time-delay and b) I can walk away whenever I need to. Offline I occasionally have a hair-trigger snap reflex and I would like to get it under control and be a less unpleasant person any time now.)
・ I tutor a couple of Filipino-Japanese kids weekly for the Saturday juku, and while waiting for them to finish writing their essays, I get out my notebook and write notes to myself about my original thing. Occasionally whole scenes, more often lists of questions and tentative answers which are basically primitive meta. It’s a surprisingly good environment for figuring out what’s going on.
・ I have a ton of unposted photos, have a handful to start with. Purple flowers as usual, a street view with mountains, a cat (actually two cats) standing guard in the soldiers’ graveyard, and what I can reassure you is not a caterpillar.
( Read more... )
Be safe and well.
