MatthewMeyer.net

A long time ago — back when I lived in the US — I had an online shop on my own website. It was neat to host my own store, but when I moved to Japan I didn’t want to run the risk of messing up any orders during the chaos of starting a new life, so I closed the shop down.

Since then, the internet has changed so much that hosting my own shop isn’t all that great of a deal anymore. The networking possibilities at new, internet-based artist communities are so valuable that they eclipse the coolness of having your own private web store.

Back in Philly over the holiday, I talked with my friend whose girlfriend recently started selling handmade art she’d been working on for a while — and who is doing quite well at that. Apparently she made a lot of her contacts through Etsy, one of said sites, and he recommended I try it out as well. (Thanks Sam and Chen!)

I signed up the other week but I didn’t put any pictures up until, well, last night. I was tired so I only put up a couple, and then only a couple more today. And today some time, I made my first sale! I was shocked and delighted, naturally, as I hadn’t even put a lot of effort into developing the store front. In fact, even now I’m a little embarrassed at the utter lack of… anything… on my page. But I’ve got a little motivation to add more now.

Anyway, that said, here is my link: http://osarusan.etsy.com

As usual, this was another busy week, and I find myself with the energy to write only on Monday night.

Of course, there was nice news with last week officially ending the dark reign of George Bush. Work was extremely busy as it has been since last fall… and I officially told the HQ that I will not be renewing in July (or was that last week… either way). Oh yea that was the other week, because I went to Hello Work last week. Man I can’t believe January is almost over! This month flew by, and I know from now on it will only get busier: busier at work, busier looking for a job, busier looking for a place to live after I leave this apartment (it’s Aeon’s apartment after all), busy worrying about Hitomi’s surgery, et cetera.

Yesterday Echizen city had a tiny cultural festival. It was the equivalent of the thing that I went to last year when I made my presentation about Philadelphia, except this year I did an English discussion circle about Obama. Unfortunately, hardly anyone came. One woman who was very good at English stopped by and we chatted for a long time, which was nice, and some of the folks from the local English conversation club “Hello World” were there the whole time, as staff but also participating in the discussion.

The “festival” was tiny, but nice. Near me there was a tea ceremony group, and a few Chinese women doing a Learn Chinese thing with this really annoying yet catchy CD that shouted out Chinese phrases to rhythm and music. I’d say 90% of the people at the festival were part of Echizen’s Brazilian community and basically stuck to the Brazilian party (basically bible dance class) and basic Portuguese language lessons (good morning and thank you). Some of the ALT’s came as well, and it was nice to see them outside of Facebook and have a short chat. Unfortunately they got roped into doing some ad hoc volunteer work when they just came to see the event, but they were good sports about it. Some parts of the festival were really disorganized, unfortunately.

Two people who I always see at every cultural event came to my booth too. One of them is an Iranian woman who I see at every Echizen International Association event. She was interested in what we were talking about and we chatted in Japanese for a while, though some of the other folks there seemed not to be happy that she was only asking questions in Japanese — but what did they want? She can’t speak English. Eventually it was awkward though. She was outwardly friendly enough but whenever I answered her questions she gave no reaction whatsoever. Where most people would say, “Oh I see,” or, “Okay,” or, “Huh…” she simply stared directly into my eyes with a burning intensity. A burning intensity that I can only guess was some sort of private declaration of war against me and America. It would’ve been nice to talk to her more but the staring was just so intense, and everyone was throwing me questions out of turn and in different languages that things got confusing.

The other familiar face was not quite as pleasant as a hate-filled Iranian death gaze. It was an absolutely insane Japanese man who I instantly recognized from last year’s event, he having had a lengthy 1-sided conversation with me that I couldn’t understand one bit of at my Philadelphia booth. I was busy explaining English pronuciation to the Chinese ladies who were genuinely interested when one of the organizers ushered me over to this man and told me he wanted to debate about Obama. I was having fun talking to the Chinese women because they were really friendly and genuinely interested in talking, but I figured I’d better go as I was really there to talk about Obama. The ridiculous part is that the insane man once again couldn’t speak a word of English, nor could he use simple enough Japanese for me to be interested in what he was actually saying; so while I, with native pronunciation, could actually be helping the Chinese ladies with their pronunciation, and the two Japanese volunteers could have understood and handled this insane jerk better than I could have, we ended up reversed. The crazy man had no interest in debating whatsoever; he wanted to argue — not even about Obama specifically; just about politics in general. He demanded that I tell him what Obama will change and what he won’t change, and then he told me I was wrong and that politicians all lie, and I said I hoped Obama wasn’t lying, and he said I was wrong again and that change can be bad or good, and I said he was right and I hoped Obama would change the country for the better, and he told me I was wrong and that politicians and lawyers are word magicians. And he asked me why Obama will torture Cubans, and I told him that Obama ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison to close, and he told me I was wrong and demanded I tell him what Obama will change and what he won’t change… and this cycle went on for about 45 minutes until I decided my volunteering committment was over, and I got up and walked away. He continued to argue with a piece of paper for a while.

Later on he found me in the kitchen and started to ask me about all the ALT’s there; if they were getting money from the government, if they knew this or that, and if they had children and families.

Why me??? And why does it seem like all of the crazies want to learn English???

Anyway… today I spent the whole day in Fukui city shopping for a big thing, and then later on Hitomi’s friend from Osaka came to visit and we had sushi and I came home on the late train… and I just got home and started to clean and do laundry. Probably I’ll be exhausted tomorrow when I start my work week, which is great because this week is going to be busier than last week (as usual).

Okay, but one cool thing about this week was that Lost started again. And I really, really liked the first 2 episodes; and it totally confirmed that I was exactly dead-on right with my theory about the island’s time/space traveling that I had at the beginning of Season 4. Yes!!

Ahh, I really want to redesign my blog. I had been working really hard on a re-design since December, but in early January I scrapped it all because I didn’t like the way it turned out. So now I’m turning ideas around in my head again. I hope I can get a good plan formulated and executed before I finish at Aeon.

Bom Dia!

Obama Song Reprise

Once more, post inauguration!

I really want to watch the inauguration! Sadly, it will be taking place from 1 am to 3 am (or later) here, and I have to work… so that won’t be happening.

And I just managed to find a site that would actually stream it love to Japan as well! Dang.

Oh well, I’ll just watch the video in the morning I guess.

(Oh, and there’s good news: I don’t think my arm is broken.)

I can’t believe it’s finally here! Today is the day we’ve been waiting for bated breath and ants in our pants (who were holding their breath too). It feels like Emperor Palpatine has finally died and we can all sing our Ewok Yub Yub song. Maybe Obama won’t be able to pull off all the things he wants to do, but even a ground sloth could be a better president than Bush was.

Lately I haven’t been in much of a mood to write. It’s a shame because I have tons of nice photos and videos to post. But I’ll try to post them. My free time is so much better spent resting these days, it seems, than painting or writing or anything creative or productive.

Work is busy as usual… nothing to report.

Recently I talked to a few people I haven’t talked to in… well… years it seems. It’s amazing how much people and things change. It’s also amazing how well we can keep track of stuff like that on websites like Facebook. And it also amazes me how not-close I am with pretty much everybody back in Collingswood. Not that it’s ever been any different than that, but you reach points where it hits you in big chunks.

Today was a little productive, though, which is a plus. I had 2 Japanese lessons as usual, and then I went to the hospital. (I think my arm is broken… not sure though. Will go again on Wednesday, as the x-ray doctor wasn’t in today.) Then I called and went to the unemployment office to inquire about steps I need to take to prepare for this summer when I leave my job. And I cleaned my room a bit (mainly packing up my garbage… my garbage drop off zone changed and I don’t know where to bring it now, so I have to store it in my spare closet for the time). I guess it sounds like a shitty weekend when I put it all out like that, but I feel good that I was able to do a lot stuff on my own in Japanese (regardless of the fact that each attempt was totally fruitless).

That’s really all the news I guess. I feel kind of lost right now, having given up on one of my dreams to buy my granfather’s condo, my job future (and consequently my future as a legal resident of Japan) being uncertain, and friends and familiar things back home having changed (though that’s not really a bad thing; it’s a natural thing so it can’t be regretted). Not having a plan or a set future is a mixed blessing. During the times when I’m feeling ambitious it’s liberating and exciting; when I’m tired or uninspired it can be even more draining.

I went snowboarding yesterday for the first time in my life. We (coworkers and some students) drove up to Katsuyama — the same place where we had the summer barbecue, if you remember those photos — early in the morning. It had been snowing since the day before and continued to snow all day, which made me really happy.

I fell down. A LOT. Everyone said that I did a very good job though, especially for my first time. I dunno, I guess it could have been a lot worse too, so I was pleased with how I did. Next time I go, though, I think I will try skiing rather than snowboarding. Snowboarding was fun and perhaps a bit easier than skiing, but skiing looks *much* more comfortable when you fall, and also you don’t have to look sideways when going forward. Plus, walking in skis in much much more natural feeling than with a snowboard.

I am in so much pain today its ridiculous. Particularly my arms have no strength at all, because I kept falling on my wrists. A few times, though, my wrists couldn’t take another beating so I fell hard on my butt. So my butt hurts a lot too. Muscle pain is mostly gone, though I’m a bit stuff. The truth is, I hardly used my muscles at all… I was mostly falling down.

Turning was the hardest thing to do, and that’s important on a snowboard cause you can’t stop without turning. By the end of the day, I could go slowly down hill, I could even stop, and occasionally I was able to zigzag around for a long time. But inevitably at some point the board would angle itself straight downhill and I would blast off at high speed. I was actually able to ride that way fairly well, keeping my balance. But at some point, I would have to turn or slow down, and no matter how I tried I could do neither of them, and I would take a really nasty fall instead. For the sake of falling easier, I want to ski instead.

Today I am in pain, so I will just rest at home. I have a ton of chores to do anyway. But it’s snowing and the sky is white, and it should be like this all week, so I am really happy.

I hope I don’t hurt this much tomorrow at work…