Friday, November 19, 2004
Spacing out
It is truly remarkable how little work I have accomplished today. The fact that nobody seems to care really only gives me an incentive to continue. The challenging part about being slack at the office is finding new things to look at on the internet. There's a lot of stuff there, but finding interesting things that you can view in the office without arousing attention from the higher-ups does offer some challenges.
Thus far I appear to be coming out on top.
I spent a bit of yesterday afternoon reading up on Irezumi, which is traditional Japanese tattoo (the hardcore, full-body "I am a human canvas" kind of stuff). Facinating stuff. I shall leave you a couple of links if you wish to pursue the topic much futher. I find the idea of having one's skin tattooed in its entirety intrugiung, and (dare I say it) attractive on some level deep in my subconscious. Of course, the cost and time commitment - not to mention the difficulty in finding an Irezumi tattooist to do the work makes the whole thing completely impractical. The fact that you couldn't flick a 'tattoo on/tattoo off' switch also turns me off the idea. Sure, it might be cool now - but give it 10 years. Or less. Tattoos are probably a less-than-clever idea for the occasionally impulsive. Myself included.
My impulses are much better suited to situations where questions like 'Do you want another drink?' are being posed. Last night I met up with Natsuyo and Ayaka in Yokohama for a rather lengthy stay at the Wara-wara Izakaya near Yokohama station. You know the one. Japanese as a language - in it's correct form, isn't overly difficult if you leave out the written side of things. There are numerous rules and few exceptions - unlike English, which is just a thrown-together linguistic clusterfuck.
One beef I do have with the Japanese language is the numerous forms that words can take, and should take depending on whether you are adressing a friend, a subordinate, a superior or the Emperor. Casual Japanese isn't that difficult, except of course that there are words that girls can (and do use) that guys do not (and vice versa, to a lesser degree). So, when trying to understand two Japanese girls in coversation, you do not merely need to understand Japanese, or casual Japanese - but you have to try to decipher the J-girl dialect. The fact that they talk a mile a minute only serves to make this task more difficult. Trying to do this after a full day of work (or at least, full day spent at the office) and a few beers will only confuse you.
That said, the night was fun, and I was only moderately tired with a mild hangover when I dragged myself out of bed this morning.
In other news, I don't really have much other news. That is all.
Thus far I appear to be coming out on top.
I spent a bit of yesterday afternoon reading up on Irezumi, which is traditional Japanese tattoo (the hardcore, full-body "I am a human canvas" kind of stuff). Facinating stuff. I shall leave you a couple of links if you wish to pursue the topic much futher. I find the idea of having one's skin tattooed in its entirety intrugiung, and (dare I say it) attractive on some level deep in my subconscious. Of course, the cost and time commitment - not to mention the difficulty in finding an Irezumi tattooist to do the work makes the whole thing completely impractical. The fact that you couldn't flick a 'tattoo on/tattoo off' switch also turns me off the idea. Sure, it might be cool now - but give it 10 years. Or less. Tattoos are probably a less-than-clever idea for the occasionally impulsive. Myself included.
My impulses are much better suited to situations where questions like 'Do you want another drink?' are being posed. Last night I met up with Natsuyo and Ayaka in Yokohama for a rather lengthy stay at the Wara-wara Izakaya near Yokohama station. You know the one. Japanese as a language - in it's correct form, isn't overly difficult if you leave out the written side of things. There are numerous rules and few exceptions - unlike English, which is just a thrown-together linguistic clusterfuck.
One beef I do have with the Japanese language is the numerous forms that words can take, and should take depending on whether you are adressing a friend, a subordinate, a superior or the Emperor. Casual Japanese isn't that difficult, except of course that there are words that girls can (and do use) that guys do not (and vice versa, to a lesser degree). So, when trying to understand two Japanese girls in coversation, you do not merely need to understand Japanese, or casual Japanese - but you have to try to decipher the J-girl dialect. The fact that they talk a mile a minute only serves to make this task more difficult. Trying to do this after a full day of work (or at least, full day spent at the office) and a few beers will only confuse you.
That said, the night was fun, and I was only moderately tired with a mild hangover when I dragged myself out of bed this morning.
In other news, I don't really have much other news. That is all.
# posted by Nils @ 4:12 PM 
