Saturday, January 29, 2005
The First Drink of the Day!
For some delicious ska, complete with monkeys and flying beer cans - go have a listen to "The First Drink Of The Day".
Speaking of alcohol, I had a pretty tidy night out last night with Tony and Belinda from work. For my 2nd-last Friday night in Japan for what will probably be a while, we hit up an izakaya down a crazy hidden little street out the back of Tamachi. The fact that it was so well hidden meant that it wasn't crowded and still had a very traditional feel to it. It rocked, and by the time we wandered out of there a few hours later, we were so full we could barely move. Good times.
I have also managed to sell off all my large pieces of furniture, which has been a great relief. By Thursday I will have a bed, and not much else adorning my room. I have managed to get the bed picked up the morning before I leave so that I am not forced to spend a night on the floor without my doona, which is also a good thing.
Thursday night saw a guy from Japan Post drop by to pick up a few boxes of stuff. Four boxes to be exact. With a combined weight of somewhere in the 70-kilo range, I am surprised he turned down my offer to help him carry them downstairs.... Now I just have to hope that they make it back to the Gold Coast safe and sound.
I also had a chat to some of my mates down in Nagoya this week, as I will (unfortunately) not be able to make it down there before I skip town. Turns out that Fuku-chan got married and is about 4 months from becoming a father, which is a little scary. A surprising number of people I know, around my age bracket are becoming parents or spouses, and while there isn't neccessarily anything wrong with that - thinking of myself as either a husband or father still freaks me out a little bit.
Sorry Kat, you will be hanging out at least a little longer for the rock.
Well, on that note, I am going to wander downstairs and forage around for something tasty to put in my mouth.
Less than 10 days to go...
Monday, January 24, 2005
The Bigger Picture
Nothing like having two weeks of work left, but no actual work to do. I'd stop coming in, but then they would probably dock my last paycheck - and we can't have that happening. I guess I will mooch around and be bored for a while.
There was more mooching to be had on my weekend, which was pretty uneventful. The highlight being the fact that my packing efforts are well underway. I figure I will be sending five boxes of 'stuff' (ie. CDs, DVDs, books, clothing and assorted miscellany) home, and as of the moment, 3 of them are packed and sealed, ready to go.
My efforts to get other people to sell my furniture for me are going well, and just about all the big stuff is accounted for now. All I need to do is negotiate prices. The fact that I would probably have to pay to get rid of half of it if I wanted to throw it away will weaken my bargaining position somewhat, but I shall see how I go. I am meeting some prospective buyers (aka. guys that I go drinking with from time to time) for some drinks tonight.
Perhaps the main reason behind this post is the fact that the world, or at least the way the media reports it, has some serious problems. Allow me to refer to an article in The Australian today:
Kitten torched
January 24, 2005 A KITTEN was doused with petrol and set on fire the day after two teenagers were charged over the torture of another kitten at a Sydney railway station.
RSPCA chief inspector Don Robinson said the 10-week-old kitten was found today cowering under a house in Mount Druitt, in Sydney's west, with second degree burns to 30 per cent of its body.Despite treatment, it had only a 50-50 chance of surviving, he said.
"A witness has told us they saw two male youths on Saturday night pour petrol on the cat and set it alight," he said.
Mr Robinson said he was keeping the exact location and time of the attack secret while the RSPCA and police worked to identify the attackers.
The kitten, named William after Braveheart's William Wallace, had probably been hiding under the house since the attack.
William is being kept at the same animal shelter as Shelley, the kitten tortured at Seven Hills railway station, also in Sydney's west, on Saturday, January 15.
Three boys were caught on closed circuit TV (CCTV) stoning, stomping on and twice running over an eight-week-old kitten with a bicycle about 2.30am (AEDT), police said.
The stray – later named Shelley after the police officer who rescued and later adopted her – was kicked onto the train line after being brutalised and left for dead.
Shelley suffered a broken leg and internal injuries.
Two teenagers, aged 15 and 18, are due to appear in court next month charged with aggravated cruelty. They face a maximum $22,000 fine and/or two years in jail if convicted.
A third teenager, also aged 15, escaped charge but will get counselling.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, police are questioning four teenagers today over the abuse of a cat in Shepparton on Saturday night.
The three-month-old cat suffered a broken pelvis and internal bleeding when it was kicked, swung by the tail and thrown to the ground.
Police believed the attack could have been an attempt to copy the torture of Shelley a week earlier.
For one, society has a few issues if teenagers are running around torturing kittens. But that's not my point. There will always be the odd weirdo/psycho/unbalanced sliver of society doing twisted things like setting cats on fire.
What bugs me is the overwhelming media attention that these types of crimes have been receiving lately. Domestically, people are being abused, killed and cheated, people are starving, poverty-stricken and greviously ill. Look beyond our borders and there are wars raging and natural disasters abounding. In the greater scheme of things, who gives a fuck about kittens? Really.
Wouldn't we be better off drawing attention to the plight of ill/abused Australians PEOPLE? I mean, good on the RSPCA for all their work - their hearts are in the right place - but human society, and Australian society specifically has slightly larger problems than a bunch of barely-pubescent louts playing with fire and furry animals.
Are we that desentisied to human suffering?
It remids me of the scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman stabs the homeless man and proceeds to stomp his dog to death. You don't blink when the homeless guy gets snuffed out, but the killing of the dog makes you cringe.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Science's Search for the Holy Grail
The article itself is about a certain Aubrey de Grey, who believes all people should have the right to choose how long they live. No, I am not talking about euthanasia or abortion - I am talking about life extension. de Grey believes that he has identified the 7 factors that cause humans to age, and ultimately die. He also believes that these 7 factors can be overcome within decades - that people alive today could well live to be centuries, or even millennia old.
As a bit of a science fiction geek, I find this stuff facinating, and the fact that de Grey has won some support within the legitimate scientific community is equally amazing, reducing somewhat the crackpot factor that tends to accompany people prophesising the kind of things he does.
The article, written by Sherwin Nuland, a bioethicist who interviewed de Grey - and beleives that the societal and emotional repurcussions of massive extension of the human lifespan is a negative thing - covers the issue from a few angles, and makes for a thought-provoking read. Check it out.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Become a terrorist - get a private jet!
Bringing Mamdouh Habib back to Australia from the US military prison on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has confirmed.
Mr Ruddock says details of Mr Habib's repatriation are still being finalised and it remains unclear when he will be released from Guanatanamo Bay.
Mr Habib has been imprisoned at the military detention centre by the United States for more than three years.
Mr Ruddock says for security reasons it is not possible for Mr Habib to fly to Australia on a commercial flight.
Mr Ruddock has told Southern Cross Radio the cost of chartering a flight could be high.
"Back of the envelope cost that I've heard of is that you could be looking at something like $7,000 an hour and it takes something like 40 hours to get him back," he said.
"They are the sorts of things that are being said."
People claim that Mr. Habib may still be a security risk. Firstly, if he is truly a terrorist I am surprised that nobody found anything to charge the guy with during his three-year stint in Guantanamo. Secondly, Let's be realistic - he is a portly little guy who has spent the last three years in an isolated prison cell without any outside-world contact aside from the occasional chat with his lawyer. Just how dangerous can he be? With two sets of handcuffs and some heavy sedatives, you could probably check him in as oversize baggage!
That $300k could probably make a meaningful difference to a few people if spent on education, healthcare, the environment - in fact, just about anything except chartering a private jet to fly suspected terrorists back into Australia.
This entire situation is just plain wrong. In the name of justice, I hope that the inflight movies are all shit.
Monday, January 17, 2005
The Week in Review
As a result, last Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights, I found myself in various locations, with various groups of people, drinking an assortment of alcoholic beverages.
It's been, for wont of a better word, great.
Tuesday night I broke the news to my local yakitori shop that I would soon be leaving, a move that resulted in a rather unpleasant hangover on Wednesday morning... a couple of the guys are helping to buy and sell some of my furniture though, so I suppose the headache was worth it.
Friday I caught up with Anne, Toni, Song and Belinda for what was probably my penultimate night out with my Thai mates for a few years at least. I managed to find a reasonably priced Izakaya on the 39th floor of the Yebisu Garden Tower in Ebisu. This was surprising, as the whole district is quite upmarket. So, after a few large ales from the Ebisu Beer Station on the ground floor, Belinda and I met up with the Thai crew and got stuck in to a rather large meal of various things on skewers.
Unable to locate a karaoke bar afterwards (much to everyone's surprise) we went bowling instead. I can admit that I am a particuarly inept bowler at the most sober of times, so needless to say my performance was somewhat uninspiring. The fact we were all drunk helped to mask this, a little anyway.
I managed to catch the very last train back to Kannai, arriving there at around 1 am, determined to find a taxi. Unfortunately, every damn cab heading in my direction was occupied, so I wandered down the road, frequently checking for a hail-able ride. Rather than actually get a cab, I wound up wandering the full half-hour home. I guess the cabs are busy in the wee hours of Saturday morning....
Saturday night was supposed to be a quiet, relaxing affair. However a couple of my local friends called me up and suggested that I meet them at a local izakaya instead. Naturally, I obliged. Much food and drink later, (and after watching one of my drunken friends try to get the waitress to agree to a date with my other, slightly less drunken friend - moderately successfully - he got her number) we headed to the yakitori place, just as it was closing. Being the regular customers that we are, it was more drinks all round and I vaguely remember heading home around midnight.
On the seventh day, I rested.
Of course amidst all the fun and games, there have been all the annoyances that accompany moving, I need to contact all my utility providers to get them shut off on the day I leave, and arrange for the final bills to be paid after my Japanese bank accounts are closed. I have booked my flight home (I will be arriving in Brisbane on the 8th) and once that is paid for, I will need to organise to get that money refunded, which will no doubt cause a few minor problems around here.
Then of course, there is the issue of packing. Let's face it, nobody likes packing. It is a tiresome chore and having lived in about eight different places since leaving home at the start of 2000, I am well and truly sick of it. Regardless, I will take an afternoon off in the next few days to collect some boxes from the post office, organise to have them picked up, and proceed to pour my worldly collections into them.
You would be amazed how much detritus you can accumulate in a single year. I blame Amazon.com, HMV and Tower Records for a large part of it. There is also the problem of selling of my furniture.... most of the smaller stuff (microwaves, stereos etc.) is fairly easy to get rid of, however my utterly wonderful bed is proving to be somewhat more of a challenge. I guess I could just enlist a friend to carry it down to the canal under the cover of darkness and send it to sleep with the fishies.... I think that my crappy spare mattress and rug will be donated to the homeless guys I see when I go jogging...
Then, of course, there is the problem of getting my final bits of money, pension payments et al back from Nifco. While, in theory, it should be an easy process, it is shaping up to be a right royal pain in the arse. Time will tell just how big an issue this is going to be.
Well, my ranting over and done with for the moment, I should get back to, ummm, not much really... Expect more of the same over the next few weeks...
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Smugly Pleasured
Now all I can do is grin like an idiot until I get to my local yakitori bar after work....
Then I can grin and drink.
Smug Pleasure
It is pretty much official. The 4th of February will be my last day here at Nifco. That night, Belinda (who shares the same last day), myself and a large group of our collective mates will hit town in what should be a rather rowdy last hurrah.
I cannot wait.
Having successfully reduced my one month notice period means that I plan to fly back to Australia on Monday the 7th. This date could change slightly, depending upon flight availability, but for the moment, it is the goal.
That's only 26 days away.
Not that I'm counting.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Release: Continued
It seems that they may try to come up with a counter-offer or something to keep me here, I hope that they do because it will feel mightily good to turn it down. The job I have committed to was offered to me by my old boss, Ian at Nifsan (which Nifco has divested of since I worked there last) in Sales. It's not the most glamourous position out there, but the comission is attractive, and I can admit that for all the stereotyping that the members of the White Shoe Brigade recieve, the potential for earning money in real estate sales is not something I am going to sneeze at.
At least not yet.
Once I hear back from Mr. O, I plan on handing in my offical letter to the company and kicking off my one month's notice. I imagine this will be setting a rather large cat amongst the pigeons in our quiet little office, but I guess that's all part of the fun.
At this stage, I am aiming to be back in Australia sometime during the week starting February the 15th, so stay tuned.
Release
During my twelve glorious days of holidaying back in Australia (which I will probably flesh out further in a later post) one thing, above all else, happened. I was offered a job on the Gold Coast, starting as soon as I can hand in my one month's notice here, and get out.
After some serious though, I made up my mind.
I took the job.
As such, you can expect me back in Australia from around the middle of February. More details will follow, but I am currently too busy writing letters of resignation to go into them.
More to follow...
