Do you have a mountain?
Oct. 2nd, 2021 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomi・ 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.
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.
Be safe and well.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-02 02:43 pm (UTC)Heh. I do have to say, "mountain" does sound rather bigger to me than what you can generally own! Even though that's not actually true given the vague definition of "mountain". *g*
(Weirdly, I don't feel the same about the German "Berg". Language and brains are both weird!)
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.)
*HUGS* No matter the reason, and no matter how small, that sucks!
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 10:38 am (UTC)Yes! 山 in Japanese can (hence the original discussion, I guess) mean anything from, like, Mt. Fuji to "the hilly terrain in your back yard," to stretch a point, while "mountain" to me sounds big-time.
*HUGS* No matter the reason, and no matter how small, that sucks!
*hugs back* I mean, I am really a very lucky spoiled person who can have MOST OF the things I want! just, you know, whining.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-02 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 10:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 05:35 am (UTC)I really feel you on the temper. I have one too -- here's wishing us luck.
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Date: 2021-10-03 10:59 am (UTC)I have one too -- here's wishing us luck.
Indeed! (Maybe I'll make one of those construction site signs for myself, "_XX_ days without snapping at someone"... oy veh.)
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 10:20 am (UTC)*HUGS*
Love the photos! The one with the tons of electrical wiring looks very anime-like.
(Definitely a caterpillar. :DDD) (Did someone lose jewelry in a bush?)
Something seemed familiar about this query...oh yes the Rebel. 哎哟, the more things change.
Oh yes. And oh no. It's not been a good day for me today for world politics ruminations, and I'm already feeling depressed again at so much... ignorance and evil on one side and so much impotence on mine. ;(
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 11:03 am (UTC)*hugs back* I'm just whining really...sigh.
The one with the tons of electrical wiring looks very anime-like.
It does, doesn't it? You see where Miyazaki is coming from.
(Did someone lose jewelry in a bush?)
I think probably someone dropped it and someone else stuck it in a bush so it wouldn't get stepped on, but God knows. Maybe it'll become the base material for a spiderweb.
Oh yes. And oh no.
*hugs again* it's so frustrating. I mean, things do change! I think the world is in fact better in most ways than it was when Fumiko was writing in 1943! But oh dear, it's gonna take a while longer.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 11:36 am (UTC)You're right! And I lost sight of that. I was just looking at all the terrible things that happened this year (or in the last month, even), and it's so depressing.
This is the first thing that made me feel better today. Thank you. <3 It may not be much, and it might take a long time, but maybe at least we have achieved something and might achieve more in time.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 11:38 pm (UTC)Glad to hear it <3 (Some days you just have to fall back on repeating that line from Guardian, you know? I just looked it up again--镇恶者之心，扬善者之德. I don't totally follow the Chinese but basically just trying to be good for people.)
no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 02:12 am (UTC)A thing being small doesn't magically make it not frustrating. *hugs*
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Date: 2021-10-04 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 09:03 pm (UTC)*hugs*
FWIW, this is what I did: I made a deal with my then-partner that if I lost my temper, I'd do the dishes. As a consequence, I did the dishes every day for the subsequent week... Ouch! I hadn't realised just how often it was happening. Having the consequence of doing the dishes helped me notice when I was doing it, and the act of washing dishes gave me time to think about the cost of being snappy (ETA: as well as giving my temper time to subside in a safe not-interacting-with-my-partner way). Eventually I got out of the habit. But you can't break a habit until you can step back and see it happening, and then consciously put in place a new reaction, and then make the new mode become a replacement habit. If that makes sense?
(Also, fwiw, I did this in a context of a Landmark course. I don't know how much that weighed in.)
*more hugs*
no subject
Date: 2021-10-23 04:01 am (UTC)FWIW, this is what I did: I made a deal with my then-partner that if I lost my temper, I'd do the dishes.
This is an interesting idea, thanks for sharing it! Not just penance but some calm time built in to reflect while doing something useful. I would have to change the specifics, because I am already the regular dishes-doer! but I can think of some possible alternatives, and I might talk it over with my partner too. It makes a lot of sense. <3
(Also I owe you some ZXC & Zhang Shi talk! sometime soon. <3 <3)
no subject
Date: 2021-10-23 04:09 am (UTC)(And yay, I look forward to it -- but no rush/no pressure at all! <3 <3 <3)