Two of my university friends, James P Ryals and Jeremy Ashton have started up an ACC blog. Not only were they very interesting people to start with, but they both were deep into journalism. Meaning they is good writers, just like mi!
They’re blog be here: Instead of Texting (see you can tell they’re good just from the title, they do correct capitalizatioN. Just like your suppossed to. And it are funny. Read them 
So, it doesn’t matter what language it’s in, the Japanese are still masters of haiku. Here’s one that one of my students wrote:
While washing his hands in the bathroom, Goro looked up at Kazuo.
“YoYoshiyama is nice and cute and all, but isn’t she a little over maternalistic?”
Goro had a bad habit of trying to smugly use difficult words. Kazuo, with his glazed over eyes as usual, looked down at the 20 centimeter shorter Goro.
“Hmmm, why’s that?”
“What? You don’t think so?”
Goro puffed himself up. Due to his red swollen face, he often looked like her was straining himself.
“Yoshiyama, She completely thinks we little babies. Huh! ‘Go wash your hands’ she says!”
“I guess…” mumbled Kazuo. With eyes that seemed stuck in a dream, he continued to leisurely wash his hands.
Kazuko, who had come back from throwing out the garbage behind the school building, put her hand on the door to the neighboring lab. This science lab was the room with all of the chemicals, so it had two doors, one from the classroom and another to the hallway. The one Kazuko was opening was the one from the classroom.
*******
With classes over, the school building was quiet and kind of bleak. Occasionally, the sound of a classroom door sliding open and close echoed hollowly down the empty hallway. Someone was playing Chopin’s polonaise on the auditorium piano. Third year student Kazuko Yoshiyama had just finished cleaning the science room with classmates Kazuo Fukamachi and Goro Asakusa.
“That’s good enough. I’ll take the trash out. You two, go wash your hands.”
“Oh, thanks…”
Kazuo and Goro walked off to the hallway sink. As she watched them walk away, Kazuko again, felt like laughing. The two of them were a truly funny pairing. Kazuo was tall and thin. Goro was short, fat and round. While both of them had good grades, Goro was a hard worker, if not a little too straight. On the other side, Kazuo was a dreamer. He seemed kind of vague and you never knew what he was thinking. He was a little creepy from time to time, too.
*******
This is the first page of the book. More to come. A side note. All three are junior high students. They’re the equivalent of an American 9th grader, so they’re 14-15 years old. For those that didn’t know, Japanese students clean the schools. There are no janitors. So in the hallways, there are sinks (like this) for the students to wash their hands and get water to wash the floors, rinse the rags, etc. Personally, I think it’s great and American schools should do it, too. Kids keep it cleaner and save money on janitors salary.
As for the names, Kazuko and Kazuo, in Japanese, they’re completely different. I would refer to Kazuo by only Fukamachi, but he gets called that later. So, ummm just be careful.
[Edit] So, reading the next paragraph, they go to the bathroom, not to the hall sink…
It’s 5.1K one way and the green is up a massive hill. The loop around the moat is 1.7k and I’m going to cut it out for the first month.
View Larger Map
So, my rafting china friend has a new site. it’s called www.ThankSarah.com In his own words, “nothing up yet, but you will be able to pay a dollar or two for me to send a postcard to the RNC or Alaska governors mansion thanking Srah palin for sinking the GOP ticket and making barak obama president!
she was right , she could help bring the change washington needed, by being an obnoxious ass!
schadenfreude!!!”
Mmmm Salt in wounds
So, through the webcomic xkcd I found this site called Project Euler. I’ve solved ten of the 200 some problems and I get a nice bubbly feeling every time I get one, only to have it crushed when I go read the forums to learn there was a much simpler way to do it, if only I hadn’t forgotten my math. Sigh
So, looking through my collection writings from college, I came across this. I loved it then and I still like it now. I don’t think I ever showed it to anyone. I thought I could post it here and it’d be safe from anyone ever seeing it (cause no one looks at this site…). Here it is.
So, Like I was just sitting the minding my own business when this old dude came up to me and offered me his shoe.
He was like, “This is my shoe. I’ll sell it to you for your sock.”
I was totally taken back, I mean, I’m used to people asking me for money, and I dole out my fair share, but I didn’t quite know how to react to this. So not needing to feign the confusion that I felt I replied, “Excuse me?”
“I said, ‘This is my shoe. I’ll sell it to you for your sock.’” He told me.
“Yeah, I got you the first time. But why? The shoe offers so much more protection that just my sock.”
Now he just stared at me as if I were a tropical fruit grown in a not quite tropical location. I could see him preparing himself for a schpeal, so I, in turn, prepared my self for his lecture. “Boy, you had best lern somthin. Dem shoes might protect your feet, but come winter, it don’t matter, you’re feet are frozen, you see, so why bother to protect them. And I’m keeping one of my shoes so I can protect the sock from getting wet, so boy just buy my shoe, it’s only one sock. ”
I was pleased with the brevity of his sermon so I told him that I would give him my socks. I was like, “Dude, I’ve got like 20 pairs back home, so you like can have both of my socks and you can keep your shoe to boot.” I smiled happily at my cute little pun but the old man frowned and shook his head.
“Boy, you ain’t hearin a word I say to you. I don’t want no charity. I offer this business deal to you. You buy my shoe with your sock. Take it or leave it. There’s a plenty of fishies in the see and by golly I’ll get me one of them. It’s a great deal boy! Shoes are expensive! Socks are cheap! You’ll be making a killing!”
So I gave in and gave him my sock, and he gave me his shoe. I figured I could trick him by leaving the shoe there but he called after me and squalled, “Boy! Don’t you be leaving you’re trash around.” Don’t ask me how I know that when he said “your” he really said “you’re.” I just do, and to be honest I believe it was the first time I actually heard someone say “you’re” when they meant “your.” I was pretty tripped out about the whole thing. So anyway he was ranting and raving about me being a boy that was raised by animals and that I shouldn’t litter, and that it was a crime and he could get the cops. So I picked up the shoe and threw it away.
I last saw the old guy walking away shaking his head and muttering something about damn kids that don’t know a good deal when they see one.
Now see, boy that’s why you should buy this shoe from me for your sock. Don’t be like me. I was a fool when I was a boy but I knows now.
You can see pictures again. I’ve got 11 for you to look at taken in loverly Scotland. Don’t worry, none of them are of me wearing a kilt and mooning the attacking English army. I couldn’t find an English army…
Those of you on Livejournal, you can get to it by my site or by going here: Brian Schuch’s pictures
