Date: May 20, 2000 Time: 11:12 pm Right now I'm feeling: tired Right now I'm listening to: Mai Kuraki Mai Kuraki : Stay by My Side Today I was reading: Dragon Magazine   Quote of the Day: "Risk taking is not easy--and the greatest risk of all is to try to know oneself, and to act on that knowledge." -- Walter Anderson Seeds of Destruction I cannot believe it. I wrote out an entry two days ago (a crap entry, to be sure, but an entry nonetheless) and was so goddam tired I forgot to upload it. What the fuck? Damn, I gotta get this under control. I'm still as tired as I have been all this week, that's why I haven't been writing. I usually write entries at the end of the day, but lately at the end of the day I have but one thought, going to sleep. Now. Which is of course, not now, or I'd be in bed, it was then.. that is, at the end of said day; that day being not today. (Comprende? I'm still really tired.) I only woke up twice last night, so I think I got five hours of unbroken sleep before I awoke. And no nightmares! Score! So, what the hell was I talking about? Oh, yeah. Sowing the seeds of destruction. So anyway, the teachers (mostly the smoking males) at school always play suck games on the computer in the teachers' room. Solitaire. Free cell. A crap-graphics mah jong wannabe. A couple days ago I stumbled across the most kickass mahjong tile-game I'd ever seen. I also have this really good shareware Tetris clone game so I took both of them to school and installed them on the computers in the teachers' room. Hehehehe HAHAHAHAHA!!! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't you see?!? They'll get even less work done now than they did before!! The siren-call three-dimensional images of mah-jong and the glowing shapes of Tetris will lure them away from their desks, forcing them to waste endless hours in front of the 17" computer screens. The socializing in the teachers' room will be at an end! I shall have my revenge upon all the chain-smokers... Oh, yes. Revenge will be mine!! *Jeff laughs maniacly They may curse my name, but they'll play my games. Oh, yes. They will, they will....... :) I've been seeing some things at work that really bother me lately. There's nothing really I can do about it, either. There's this room attached to the back of the teachers' room. Every now and then I'll see a teacher (or a pair of them) take one or a few students in the back there. The teacher(s) enter with grim determination, the students with an expression of dread plain on their faces. Soon thereafter, I hear shouting and the unmistakeable sound of a face being slapped. Sometimes they'll do it out among the desks and smack the students across the top of the head. I see it all the time at this school, it's unusual to see it at my other schools. I mean, for the most part, they are bad kids. But they get hit for the stupidest rules. For sneaking a snack in between classes. For dying their hair brown. Stupid shit. Why don't they concentrate on disciplining the kids who throw things or yell across the room during class, or kids who tease others mercilessly. I hate seeing kids get hit, for any reason. The worst part is seeing them cry. Mr. Kenshin Not many people at Isao JHS like Mr. Kenshin. He's not very typical, as far as Japanese people go. He doesn't really socialize with the other teachers. He doesn't stay at school longer than he has to. He's absent quite a bit. I've heard him described as lazy, "un-Japanese", not a dedicated teacher, and unable to carry his own weight. But he's one of my favorite teachers to team-teach with. He's pleasant, friendly (if you just try to talk to him), and easy to work with. This week during fifth periods, I have seen Mr. Kenshin at his desk with assorted Japanese students. "Bad" kids. He's been giving them private English lessons during his free period. I have never seen another teacher do this. While he's giving these private lessons to students to whom the other teachers regard as lost causes, his critics are at their desks reading a newspaper, chatting with eachother over tea, at the computer playing a game, or sleeping at their desks. ALTs: The Gatherings I've gotten together with the other two city ALTs twice this past week. It was fun and it made me wonder why I don't see them enough. Today we went out to an Italian restaurant, but I was so out of phase I wasn't much company. Some ALTs will be leaving in July. Contracts expiring and new JETs rolling in. I promised myself today that I'd make a serious effort to see as much of the ones I'm closest to before they leave. I'm going to miss some of them an awful lot.