I love this week’s Strongbad email. They really remind me of a PG rated South Park. Thy Dungeonman RPG is pretty fun.

Today I took a level test at NOVA for German. It was fun being on the receiving end of the questioning for once. The format was of course exactly the same as we do in English, but I was a little nervous even so.

I was placed in level 5 over all

• My Communicative Ability was Level 4.
• My Grammar was level 6
• My Vocab was level 6
• My fluency was level 5
• and My Listening was Level 5

I think all of that sounds about right. I knew vocab was my weakest point (I had no clue what words like “train station” and “luggage” were), and I was making grammar mistakes the whole way through with all the irregular past tense verbs (it is gefunden not gefinden, ist gegangen not hat gegehen). I expected to be in either level 6 or 5, given the criteria for the levels. Of course I said I would probably be in 7A since I have the whole self-deprecation Japanese cultural trait going on. Using this I think I would say I was either 7A or 6 in Japanese and probably squeeze out a level 5.
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My mom gave me some Sony MDR-EX71SL headphones. All I have to say is that they rock! The bass is really good, they are really light and tiny, and they cancel out alot of the outside noise. Earplugs and bassy headphones! (there is some Japanese grammar for you). I always spent half the time with normal in-the-ear headphones pushing them in towards my ear to get better bass. Inner-ear headphones just do the job for me.

Speaking of my mom, she is in the process of moving to Bellevue, Washington!! Crazy! The cats leave by the end of the month.

Penny Arcade has cooked up some funny stuff about gaming. The following is the best:

That is particularly helpful at LAN parties where there is a considerable gulf between skill levels, where tension is created and then intensified by successive reamings. In this case, the CSC – or Cat/String Complex comes into play. When playing with cats, one must occasionally relinquish the yarn or the creature becomes bored and seeks out other amusements. The metaphor is particularly apt – you need to throw a game every now and then to maintain morale in your prey.

Man can I ever relate to that! Especially back in the days of Doom2 and Quake 2. You want to win, but can’t win too much or else he’ll get too pissed off and quit. Age of Empires requires some of that too.

I read stuff like this and can’t help but think that there is another American civil war sometime in our future. There is a huge cultural rift in this country. While rational analysis exists, we generally choose to rely on simplified, demonizing rhetoric instead. Between devot christians in the south and environmentalists on the coast, I have little faith that our country can hold itself together. I wish the left would stop trying to make every action and person involved in the Bush administration evil and criminally suspect.
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Cultural differences in acceptable driving practices amaze me. The most obvious difference is that they drive on the left side of the road. I guess this is because the government was modeled after England after WWII. But whatever reason, it is here to stay. I find it funny though that only isolated countries living on an island still drive on the left…I am thinking of Japan, England, Australia and New Zealand. But then again India and South Africa still drive on the left too, so perhaps the British cultural explanation wins out after all.

The best part though is that it makes you realize how automatic your actions are. Last weekend I got into the car to drive. I sit down in the drivers seat. The door is on the right. What do I do? I reach over to left to grab my seatbelt, grabbing air. Smack! I hit myself on the forehead. Next, I go right and smack my hand into the door, trying to reach the shifter in the middle of the car (on the right on Japan). Finally, I need to turn left and finally do the right thing…assuming turns signals in Japan are the windshield wipers. Sheesh!

The worst part is how I have become so used to cars driving on the left. Recently I saw an American movie with cars on the right and it looked positively strange. I couldn’t decide what felt more weirded out about: the cars on the right or me being wierded out by the cars on the right.

Other differences:

• Turning left on a red light is always illegal.
• Parking on the sidewalk in the middle of the city perfectly acceptable…and very common! The parking area is just sidewalk overflow for most restaurants.
• Speed limits are really slow! 40km/h for two lane streets (about 25mph) and 60km on “highways” (about 40ish).
• Everybody seems to have radar detectors, which play happy, recognizable tunes (that quickly become very annoying) whenever they detect a cop using his radar gun.
• I am not sure about what the law says, but they are really strict about alcohol. People who are driving won’t even have a single drink at the bar. The idea of “one beer per hour” doesn’t fly here.

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Okay, yesterday I made myself curry. I was yummy and the first time I found myself at the grocery store buying freak veggies like long onion things and mushrooms….EEEEWW! The curry, which I thought was one of the instant varieties when I bought it turned out to be dehydrated curry or something. Unfortunately besides water it also needed beef and veggies so I went to the grocery store…horrors! While I was at it, I deicded to photograph the fun things in my fridge. See for yourself.

Since I had the camera, I snapped some pics of various parts of my house. The featured image is the sick sight greeting you in the sink. This is Japan’s version of a garbage disposal. It probably keeps the pipes from clogging up, but it is gross even so. Bleh! There are other fun pics, and no, our heater and dryer are totally different. See for yourself.

PS. The title is a common error students make when learning reflexives. I cooked myself dinner is fine, so they think I cooked myself is fine.

Teachers are not allowed to wear Earrings at public schools and discouraged from general office jobs due to images concerns. I talked about this with one of my students today and she essentially told me that wearing earrings == bad girl. Strange, because wearing kleenex for a skirt seems acceptable, but heaven forbit someone wears studs in their ears! She also didn’t seem to distinguish between hoops and studs as being more slutty provocative.

Finally, most women get their ears pierced in Japan in one of two ways: a.) by going to the doctor at a pricey sum or b.) doing it themselves with a pin. The “free piercings with purchase” does not seem to be very common here.

Oh man, Barbara Ehrenreich is such a liberal tool!

I changed the design of the front page slightly. Now instead of showing the last 15 days (at first it was 60), I now show the first 7 entries, following by excerpts of the next 13, making a total of 20. What do you think?

Also, I plan to soon make a category page, where you go to only read my Life In Japan topics for instance. Comments comments!