Sunday, January 29, 2012

Moving but Hypocritical

I admit The Help is a good movie, about friendship between white women and black maids in the 1960s and hope and change for a racially equal society. But mm, a white girl wrote about how black maids look at serving white families, the book became a hit, the writer was head-hunted by a publisher, that is, the privileged gets more privileged, while black maids who talked about their perspectives, exposing themselves to racial tensions, get in more trouble. Mm ...  

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Surgery

Not actually a surgery, but transplanting. The word "transplant" sounds pretty medical to me. What I did was to transplant my bamboos to a larger planter. My bamboos were sharing a pot with other plants. But they are getting taller and needed a little privacy (?).

I like this yellow pot and little decorative stones. Nice.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Siblings


Boys seem to have spent a night together on the chair. I saw them on the same chair last night before I went to bed, and they were still there this morning, dozing off. A lovely quiet Friday morning ...

Second Day as An Office Worker

Today, DS needed me again. She was attending a funeral and had to be out of the office for a few hours. In addition to get tax documents ready to be shipped, I answered the phone while she was not in the office. It was actually fun! It was fun enough to say, "DS Tax Service. How can I help you?" And I took callers' messages and rescheduled their appointments. I'm not a patient person, so I don't think I can keep doing this kind of work forever, but it gave me a great pastime away from teaching and dealing with irresponsible students.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Feel Like A Kindergartener

I ordered a pair of rain boots on Crocs' website a while ago, and the boots finally came here. I've gotten used to this delay in delivery. It takes a while for ordered items to be delivered in this country. It would be delivered next day in Japan. Anyway.

So, here is the pair. It's more yellow (?) than I expected. I preferred red, but red didn't have my size. Yellow was my second choice. I tried them on, and I felt like a 3-year-old. Oh well, I take it positively. These boots rejuvenate me!

Office Worker?!

DS is in trouble. Her employee can't come to work at least until next week, but tax documents should be ready and shipped. So, she asked me for help. I was like, "Yeah, anytime. I'm bored when I'm not teaching, anyway." But I don't know anything about tax. That's why I gave up filing tax return by myself loooooooooong time ago and tossed it to DS to do so on behalf of me.

Anyway, promise is promise. So, I went to DS's office this morning. She told me what she wanted me to do and taught me how to use the software. It was not so hard, thought time-consuming mostly because I'm not used to it.

It's tedious office work, sitting in front of the computer, which is not exciting. But I found it's really interesting to see how people use money (tax documents are all about how money was used).

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Confusing Weather


Wow, it's hailing! The weather is weird today, basically raining but sometimes sunny and hailing, which may be typical hippie town winter weather.

Friendly Creature


This feline creature is friendly, and he tried to keep my company. But the problem is, he sits right there where I'm working, and he tries to come closer to me, asking me to pat him. Come on, I can't do my work (watch TV).

I put a heating pad on the chair to keep myself warm. He knows it. So, when I leave for the bathroom or whatever for a while, he takes my heating pad. When I come back, I find him sitting on my heating pad. Get off, pal, it's my heating pad!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Wishy-Washy

I know I'm pretty wishy-washy. That's why I can't make up my mind easily. I thought I don't like teaching, though I like standing and speaking in front of people and I like American kids (most of them are sweet). At the end of last term, I confirmed that I don't like teaching. But today, after class, I felt like I would miss teaching if I quit for a job in the private sector. Because I'm more relaxed this term and I feel comfortable giving lectures (because I taught this class before), my students look relaxed and comfortable to be in class. They participate in discussion, and they seem to be enjoying my lectures. Now, I'm confused. The job market for Ph.D.s is grim. So, highly likely, I won't get a teaching job. And I know I'd better look for a job in the private sector. But I think I will miss teaching. Well, I don't know. I may change my mind toward the end of the term. I may be fed up with teaching by then. Man, I'm so wishy-washy.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My Name on National Broadcasting!

Wow, that's exciting! My name is credited in Nuclear Aftershocks on PBS, thanks to the director. No one may  pay attention, but it's really something to me. Woo-hoo!
My name is under "translator." I translated more than 500 minutes, but only 10 minutes or less are used in the film. Yeah, I know journalism consists of a lot of work that is not reflected in final products.

Monday, January 16, 2012

More Snow!



White! Snow paints everything white, which I like because I feel everything is bright and clean. Nice.

Sweets

For the last couple of days, I was craving for sweets. I was thinking of having chocolate, cookies, or whatever sweet, but I couldn't make up my mind what to have. Rather, I didn't know what I wanted. But finally, today, at  a supermarket, I found something that I hadn't expected. Caramel-coated popcorn. When I saw it on the shelf, I thought, "Disneyland popcorn!" Caramel-coated popcorn always reminds me of Disneyland. Actually, Disneyland smells caramel-coated popcorn. Oh well, that's my opinion.

The package shows that this snack is the combination of popcorn and pecans, but I realized the ratio of pecans is really small. I have come across only a couple of pieces of pecan so far. Mm, the picture of the bag is obviously exaggerated.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Snow!

The deck was covered thin snow this morning. Beautiful!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Bad Boy(s)!

Wh, wh, what happened in the kitchen?! With my sleepy brain, I panicked when I came to the kitchen this morning. Gradually, I remembered that I heard a thud noise last night while I was in bed. This was it!
 I left the opened bottle next to the sink before I went to bed last night. I assume that one of the cats jumped on the counter and dropped the bottle.
This is one of the suspects, making a no nothing face. I know you or your brother did it. You are a bad boy!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Third Night of Cat-Sitting


Finally, one of the cats seems to get used to my presence at home. He comes close to me while I'm working. He is not photogenic yet, though.

Why Is Brad Pitt in Such A Boring Movie?!

I started watching Moneyball in DVD that I borrowed from S, but I haven't been able to finish it yet. It is so boring that I can't motivate myself to keep watching it. The last couple of Brad Pitt movies that I saw--Burn after Reading and Inglourious Basterds--were fantastic. I just wonder why Brad Pitt is in this boring movie.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Casual Phone Interview

I got a call from the company that I'm taking exams with. The purpose of the call today was to tell me about conditions of employment and other miscellaneous stuff. It was pretty casual, and it was almost like a small talk. I asked why I passed the interpretation evaluation though I think it was a disaster. They admitted that my interpretation was very slow. But because my result of the translation exam was excellent, they said they saw potential in my interpretation though my performance was not great. Rather, they said that it was amazing that I passed the evaluation even though I have no experience in interpretation. They said 70% of interpreters who are working for the company have a master's degree in conference interpretation. Really?! They are a group of professional interpreters, then. I'm really intimidated now. Even if I'm hired, I don't think I can live up to their expectation.

Anyway, if they liked me in today's phone interview, they will set up an interview with management. Ohhhh, I'm really intimidated.

Contagion

S had a DVD night, and we saw Contagion over a lot of wine and appetizers. Mm, I think I had too much wine because I didn't follow the movie well. Or, I was simply confused with the other movie ... what is it? There was a similar movie about the outbreak of some kind of virus in Washington D.C. several years ago. I believe the original story was written by Michael Crichton. Oh well, I'm more confused now.

Anyhow, this movie must have been expensive to make. Look at these actors. Kate Winslet is awesome (she is a great actor. Her only stigma is Titanic), but she dies soon in the movie. Sucks. Jude Law hides his bald spot in the head by wearing a hat almost all the time, which makes him look more handsome. Matt Damon never dies because he is the main character. Toward the end of the movie, we were enjoying the movie by making fun of it, rather than devoting ourselves to the plot.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Really?!

Really?! I passed the interpretation evaluation?! I just can't believe it because it was just a disaster. But the head-hunting agency is now happy to schedule a phone interview with the company for me. I'm just wondering why I passed the evaluation ...

Monday, January 9, 2012

Disaster

It was just a disaster! The exam questions were not difficult, but I just couldn't translate under great time pressure. I stopped, took a lot of time, translating, posed a lot, made a lot of grammatical error, and so on and so forth ...

I'm now trying to think, "That's OK. It was a good experience. I'm not qualified to do simultaneous interpretation work anyway  because I have no experience."

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Phew

I got a call from the head-hunting agency by saying that I passed the exam. Woo-hoo, thanks M for her help! It was relieving, but the scary thing is the agency told me the next step would be an interpretation evaluation. What?! I have no experience of oral translation. I feel intimidated now. The evaluation is now scheduled next Monday, ayayayayayay.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Translation Exam

I was introduced to a job opening in a Japanese corporation by a head-hunting agency at the end of last year. It's a translation/interpretation position in a manufacturer. Because it was the very end of last year, the agency set up the first exam date today. I was told that the exam would consist of two long statements and 10 short sentences, both from English to Japanese and from Japanese to English. The exam is 2 hours and 15 minutes. Why this odd length?!

Anyway, for insurance, I asked M for help. I asked her to proofread my English translation. She kindly came over and checked my English. She didn't change my English a lot, but she gave me very good definitions of English words, which was really helpful.

I manged to finish the exam in time. The company is supposed to let me know about the result in a couple of days.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year's Day

Happy New Year!

But I was useless today. Because last night, New Year's Eve, we just kept eating, drinking, playing games and chatting until midnight, we all stayed in bed today, being lazy. We didn't have enough space for food or drink at all. It was a lazy day, but I liked it. It was so peaceful.