O

Oh, hello there. It's been a while since I've seen you in these parts. Oh, I suppose it's been a while since I've been here, too, but hey now, you know, we're both here, in this same spot, the same place, let's see what we've got in our face.

I wake up in the morning and there is dew on my blankets. The papers on my desk are damp and the wooden window frame sweats cold, fat beads.

Originally, I thought I would put some cardboard between my window panes and the double layer of bubble wrap I had attached (bubble to bubble!) to it. Then, I thought that that home improvement store might have insulation for sale too, and wouldn't that be cool if I could look up what "insulation" is in Japanese on my cell phone dictionary, and I did and then typed what I thought the kanji reading was into the phone's Japanese-English translator and it came out as "insulation." Yes, I thought, how cool! My Japanese is highly functional at an everyday level.

I went in and asked where the "dannetsuzai," kanji meaning "interrupt" "heat" "materials" (smile), were and I bought a cardboard box plus. Later that evening...
















there was some cutting and taping and rearranging of fiberglass packaging and, oh, I suppose that yes, I should have put on my gloves before pushing that fiberglass around, but oh I had thought, "Oh, I'll just get it done, rwfle rfle rfle, I've worked with this stuff before and it didn't hurt that much, OW!"

But, after some gloved hands movement...
















Cut the box in half, cut the box in half.
Sandwich!
















Slit. Slip.
















Voila, a warmth panel.
















Journal Entry #454: Completed another insulation panel last night. Loath to go outside in the cold, I sprayed the completed piece with water resister in the indoor doorway (known here as a genkan). This was revealed to be a poor choice, as I consequently incurred a headache and had to go outside to get fresh air and leave one of the house's windows open all night anyways to air out the domicile. Upon returning to residence after my occupational duties were finished today, I installed the secondary panel (see Depiction 3). As is visible, this panel is much larger and will fit its window home - frame, that is, more snugly, than, the previous, version.















Depiction 3 (By the way, yes I now live my life in first-person shooter point of view.)

In my excitement upon installing, I have activated the previous resident's electric heater. I eagerly await seeing how much heat will be kept inside my quarters tonight. Perhaps, some guitar playing will be in order tonight to celebrate.

LIARS' DRUM'S NOT DEAD OH MY GOSH YOU ARE SO GOOD DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN DUHN.

I found a delicious mushroom called maitake that I put in my soup all the time now. I've been making lots of oden, working on my recipe and getting that just right taste. I realized that even though I love that maitake, when I put it in it changes the taste completely so I can't really call the finished meal oden, but it sure is delicious. I'm thinking of going down to basics again and using a thin, more subtle base next and relying more on the flavors of the ingredients mixing in the soup. In perfect timing, one of the English teachers recommended out of the blue I put shimeji, maitake, and shiitake (all mushrooms) into a soup and only use a little soy sauce and hon dashi (Japanese soup stock?) and maybe some salt because it would be delicious. The most important thing, though, he said, was just putting a whole bunch of mushrooms in there. Haha. I'd actually been thinking of making a maitake soup since it's smell and taste are strong enough to make a soup on its own. So, I think that'll be the next cooking project. Mmm.

Also, I have come more to terms with the fact that my job affords me a whole lot of free time and not a whole lot of satisfaction, and have begun using my time at work productively and enjoyably. This means: printing out Spanish articles, going through them, highlighting phrases and words I don't know or that look useful, looking up everything I don't know, and reading it again so that I understand it, at least mostly. I also realized it had been a long time since my Dad told me how a toilet works, so I looked up that and how to fix some common toilet problems. I also now know how a car engine works and oh man, now I can see how some people can get so into cars. The engine is such a cool thing! You really have to appreciate the awesomeness of the car engine to get into cars I guess. Then you understand all the different ways you can tweak and modify it to change the way the car performs and all that kind of stuff. So now I know what it really means to "turbocharge" a car!

Also, I bought myself a new toy after taking the Japanese test. A digital voice recorder and a stereo microphone attachment. I bought the cheapest one that could be attached to a computer, and although I indulged a little with the separate microphone to get better sound quality, the recorder's really just meant for meetings and classes and the like. I've used it a few times though, and it records beautifully. Just the sound I was going for. I've been playing really regularly and can feel myself getting more in touch with my self, my sense, and my guitar. All of that's me in some sense, I feel. My jams last about an hour to an hour and a half now and are full of more and more awesome parts in which I can just really feel my emotions and something deep inside me. Or not even that. Just...feel it.

I'm getting a little tired and I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight. I went to bed a little late last night and the night before. Today was awesome. I taught kindergarteners. Right now, my favorite grades to teach/play with are kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd. Oh yeah, I was going to try to make some cookies tonight. I'll have to wake up a little bit. Time to get moving.

Time to get grooving.