Summer heat...

...in May. Yes, it's a balmy 30 degrees in Fukuoka today, far too warm for my liking. At least the breeze is cooling.

So news. I've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. Pretty much since the new school year started. Part of this is because my classes are clumped together on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, leaving me with little time during those days to plan. As well, despite being in my 3rd year, I find that every year I still have to make new lessons. Probably this is because most of my lessons suck. But a part of it is because a lot of the classes have changed in terms of curriculum.

Here's an example. My English Expressions class, last year taught solely from the textbook, is now being taught via movies. I'm not personally all too happy with the way it's being taught now; as it stands, we only show parts of the movie, and so for the students the experience is rather disjointed. I'm hoping to use smaller elements (the WKUK "Sniper Business" skit, for example) so that the stories are self-contained, but we'll see how that pans out.

In other news: After much scrambling, I've got a weekly gaming group! A long sought after goal, myself and three other JETs are currently workout through the Scales of War Adventure Path offered by D&D Insider. A total blast. I'm actually saddened that we're skipping a week. It's odd how some skills, like being an effective DM, actually start to rust without use. But I'm getting back into the hang of things.

I guess that's more or less it. I'm just here enjoying a semi-day off. I have some work, but it's not too pressing...

Heisei 24

or 3 years from now. That, as it turns out, is when the old Fukuma teacher's housing (or juutaku for those in the know) is destined to be demolished. Which is why they didn't bother to tell me. Cause, you know, it's 3 YEARS from now.

There's a lesson in all this somewhere, about loose lips or the dangers of second hand rumors etc.

I eagerly await the day that I am the SOLE resident of the entire apartment complex.

Bye-bye Fukuma?

How odd things work out the way they do. There was some talk about me moving to Hakata, an idea which is seeming more and more remote, due in part to some real estate laws where I would have to live (at least on paper) with my grandmother for a year, or some such. More complicated than it's worth, plus I get the feeling I'd get sucked into some sort of family stuff, which I have scrupulously avoided these last 3 years. Not that I don't like my family. But I enjoy my semi-hikikomori/hermit status.

So here I was, ready to live here another year (and possibly another after that). But I just heard that this place, this dear old, decrepit apartment, is on the chopping block (or wrecking ball, as the case may be). I had heard rumors to that effect, but today was the first semi-confirmation I got.

It's all second-hand knowledge. My co-ALT, who is moving, had to go with some school office people to see what needed to be tossed due to years of ALTs leaving their crap for their successors. It was there that the office people mentioned the impending destruction of the apartment, and consequent move to...

Kasuya! Though the geography means nothing to those unfamiliar to this neck of Japan, it would mean an hour commute by train/bike to and from school.

Allow me to make a big hrrrmm....

OK, so the travel time doesn't really bother me, even though it will mean having to wake up and leave an hour earlier. And to be honest, it will free me up from a bunch of things here which eat away at my beloved me-time, so that's a bonus.

But it's likely that I will have to foot the bill for the move.

Honestly, I don't know how to feel about it, but as a person who has a bad tendency to nest, I think I'm looking forward to the forced change.

To move or not to move...

That is indeed the question that has occupied my mind for the last little while. Some history.

Many moons ago, my grandmother owned a house near Hakata Station. That house was torn down to make room for an apartment building, and in compensation, my grandmother got 4 apartments in perpetuity, whose rent would be substantially lower than similar places in the area.

Those 4 apartments have stayed in my family for a good many years. Last year, my cousin and his family moved out of one of them, and the apartment has remained unoccupied since then. Earlier on this year, specifically when my dad came for his early-March visit, the idea was brought up that I should take that apartment.

So I've been weighing the pros and cons:

PROs: Downtown location. Proximity to relatives.

CONs: Smaller. Higher rent. Higher transportation costs. Longer commute time.

So far, the cons outweigh the pros right? But the first pro, location is weighted significantly higher in my opinion. Life would really be a LOT more convenient living there, despite the overall higher cost of living. But really, that's to be expected considering that I'd be moving from the burbs to the city. People who came to visit me would not have to "enjoy" an additional 35-40 minute trip AFTER they've completed a grueling flight over the Pacific. Staying late in town would be a viable possibility as I could WALK home from Tenjin and environs.

This would also set me up in the near run for a place to live after my JET contract expires. I still intend, as of now, to renew for a 5th, but it'll be good to know that I'll not have to look for a place afterward.

Of course, there would be some associated hazards as well. McDonald's, KFC, Mr. Donuts, Yodobashi, all dangerous temptations to me.

Still, this is something I must consider very carefully...

Cat Shit One

A little bit of background. Cat Shit One, released in the US as Apocalypse Meow, is a manga about a American recon (LRRP?) unit in Vietnam. The manga, which I've only seen the odd page here and there, provided the odd mix of gritty historical action and cute animals. In the manga, various animal species represented various ethnicities. Rabbits were Americans, cats Vietnamese, panda Chinese etc.

The animated feature looks like it'll be set in modern day. From what I've been able to read from the opening text sequence, the members of Cat Shit One are PMC Contractors.

Cool story bro.!

House of Suns

Of course, like many people, I do the bulk of my reading in the hours before I go to bed. Sometimes, it's just a few minutes. But more often it's about an hour.

When I finish a book during these times, and I go to bed glad to have finished and wondering what I'll read tomorrow. Usually I feel satisfied by my read. Sometimes, rarely, I feel a little miffed or disappointed. But ultimately I'm not too picky a reader, and even if I didn't quite enjoy the journey, I always appreciate the fact that I took that journey.

But sometimes, in a great while, I finish a book that so shakes my reader's paradigm that cannot go to sleep. My mind is so stimulated by what I have read that it continues to dwell on the story well into the wee hours of the morning. Often times I will wake up, having gotten a scant few hours of rest, still thinking about said book.

House of Suns, the latest offering from Alastair Reynolds, is such a book. Other authors who have done this include the likes of Dan Simmons, George R. R. Martin, and Iain Banks. These are authors whose works are often genre-defining, or genre-busting that they for ever ruin, or at least raise the bar, of the genres they represent.

Martin did that for me for fantasy. Simmons, Reynolds and Banks do that for me for science fiction.

Let's talk about Alastair Reynolds. I remember the very first time I picked up one of his books. This was during the heyday of my employment at World's Biggest Bookstore, when the employee's discount forever implanted in me the realization that reading wasn't just a hobby, but a lifestyle choice for me. During this time, I was a science fiction and fantasy whore, picking up just about anything, mostly based on the cover art. I've read gold, and I've read dross.

Revelation Space was a big, black, shiny trade-paper back, an imposing, 500+ page tome. I started it, but within a few chapters, I realized this was not for me. I was new to the science fiction field, and not ready for idea-driven science fiction. I needed the requisite hard sci-fi as a warm up. Space-ships that morph shape? Future worlds where spider-like carriages traverse spire-ridden chasm cities? No thanks. Give me plasma-drives and kinetic-kill cannon, and worlds where I could logically (if not always intrinsically) see where we and science were headed. Revelation Space was too grand for me. I put it down for more near-sighted fare.

It wasn't for many more years that I finally pulled it from the shelf. By then, I was a little more seasoned. Dan Simmons had opened my eyes to space opera and idea-driven fiction, and I had even finished my first Iain Banks novel. This time, Reynolds had me hooked, and I soon devoured what other books he had.

House of Suns isn't set in his standard universe of Chasm City. Or, perhaps it is, but it's at such a remove as to make it seem a separate universe. The story centers around two shatterlings, two of a thousand clones of a single person who travel to the galaxy and occasionally return to exchange their memories. The story happens over time scales that are impossible for we humans to understand, and so Reynolds treats it as the characters in the story treat it--of only passing significance.

The story is also told through three points of view, made all the more interesting in that it is all in first person. I recently also finished Charles Stross' Halting State, which also did interesting things with the narrative, so Reynolds' mode was an easy swallow.

At it's core, the story is a mystery novel. A event happens, which the characters must find answers to. Crisis and conflict ensue. Meanwhile, the story is threaded with a sort of parallel tale, that recounts how the clones came to be some 6 million years ago (which is incidentally about 1000 years in the future for us). The end of the book happens at so far a remove from us and our time that it is of no bearing to us. Yet the ending is also immensely satisfying, because of it's humanism.

If I'm being vague, it's intentional. I have no desire to ruin the book, but to merely persuade others to read it. I often find that endings in books can be problematic. Though they represent two of my favourite authors, I usually have problems with the ends of their books. Stross simply wraps up his books too quickly. Banks does the same but is almost cliched in his bitter-sweetness. Reynolds isn't really an exception here, but there's something that seems more fulfilling.

Again, vague, and I apologize for it. Normally, once I've finished a book, I consider what to read next. I think I may have to wait a while before I crack open another book.