Long Time, No Post
Betcha thought I was dead. I mean, it’s been ages since I’ve posted regularly. Sad, really. And I’d apologize profusely, except that it was kinda unavoidable. I got crazy busy last summer, and the momentum took me all the way through to…where are we now, 2010? Sheesh. It had been so long that I blanked when I attempted to sign into my Wordpress Dashboard in the Hong Kong airport to make that last slapdash post. Not a good sign.
Tons of people have been asking me where I’ve been, why I fell off the face of the planet, etc. The most recent was my hair stylist, Shin, whose face you might remember from a goofy video I did a while back. He asked how come I wasn’t posting. Well, things are beginning to slow down a bit, so hopefully I’ll be back up and running soon. But no promises! There comes a point at which blogging for fun becomes a serious hobby…and then it begins to feel like an obligation…or, dare I say it? …it can even feel like a job. (Full body shudder!) So, to do a minimalist catch-up message, here’s what has been going on since last summer.
- I became a prefectural advisor for ALTs in Ehime, which instantly killed tons of free time and gave me a good share of new responsibilities as well. I think this is a great thing, because I feel cut out for this job, and confident in doing it. So don’t take my comments as a complaint. It’s just that I am no longer the guy who lives on a tiny fishing island with nothing to do. (Now I’m the guy who lives on a tiny fishing island with loads to do.)
- Went to Tokyo twice for PA training, and once for giggles.
- Gained a technical high school to visit, which turned into one of my favorite visitation schools.
- Organized and ran two large conferences here; the Prefectural Orientation for new 2009-2010 JETs in Ehime, and the 2009-2010 Midyear Seminar (which happened in January). Also showed up at the new supervisors’ meeting last June to talk. And had a few meetings in the capital for business-y stuff.
- Visited my girlfriend a whole bunch. I miss her lots, so I think that’s a great use of my time.
- Took a trip to Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, which I briefly mentioned earlier.
- Turned 26. Holy freaking cow.
- (Today!!!) Dumped and re-imported my entire Wordpress database into a MySQL 5 setup. Then upgraded Wordpress to the most recent version. I first had to learn how to do all of this. It was a little freaky. But I did it! No wonder I was starting to get spam, huh?
And if you’re wondering where this crazy thing is headed, I’m right there with you! I was originally on board for a 3 year stint here. 4 was not in the cards until I was scouted for the PA position and other things fell into place to make it appealing. And now, the same thing is happening, and it’s possible I’ll be in Japan for one year longer now. I’m sure my family will be thrilled. Ha ha. Anyhoo – I’ve not given up on this blog or anything, it’s just sat on the back burner for a long time. It’s been good for me, to be honest – reclaiming some of my life from the reaches of the internet. Still, I look forward to popping back on here and seeing the community come back (if you’re still out there). Thanks for sticking with me! Please be patient as I fix the site up. (I have links to non-existent stuff and broken plug-ins galore. I’m working on it, though.) Alrighty – now that that’s off my chest, I can get back to catching up. New posts coming soon. (No, seriously! At least, sooner than 4 months from now…ha ha ha.)
