Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Hey!! It's snowing here in Kanazawa. That's good because it means it's not raining, for one thing, and for another, I like snow. The good thing about snow in Kanazawa is that it rarely gets very far below 'freezing' here. Here of course that means 0 degrees, but to my American trained brain, it means 32 degrees. And ain't it a bitch that the whole Celsius/Fahrenheit conversion table isn't linear, so even though 0 degrees C = 32 degrees F, -1 degrees C DOES NOT = 31. Well, it is for me, at least when I'm trying to convert temperatures in my head for whatever reason. And I've gotten way far away from my initial point, which was that just because it snows here doesn't mean it's unbarably cold. Anyway, look at the pretty snow:



My friend Sheryl came into my office this afternoon to point out a crow that was dismembering another bird across the parking lot. Yet another reason I NEED a telephoto lens. What good is this fancy camera if I can't use it to photograph a crow eating another bird from 100 yards away out my office window??? Exactly.

Anyway, you see that picture down below? What's that look like to you? Brains, right? Sigh. I only wish I could say my wife was eating brains tonight.



But no, this was a special night as my wonderful, beautiful, Japanese, very different from me wife, dined on the semen bags of a fish. And I suppose in part that's why I married her, and why I wanted to live in a foreign country in the first place. There are only so many times in one's life when you can say to your wife or lover, at the dinner table, 'Baby, you've got some sperm on your lip.'

I am obligated to add a disclaimer here: I AM NOT MAKING FUN OF MY WIFE AND/OR HER CULTURE, ALTHOUGH I WILL MOST LIKELY GO TO MY GRAVE HAVING NEVER EATEN FISH SPERM. I AM A PICKY EATER, AND ANY ANIMAL PRODUCT THAT DOES NOT COME IN THE FORM OF A BREAST, STEAK, SAUSAGE, BACON, OR CHICKEN EGG, IS GENERALLY NOT COOL WITH ME. I'M SURE IT'S MY LOSS.

My wife is concerned that I showcase the sometimes odd (in my obtuse opinion) cuisine that she's partial to in an effort to demean or poke fun at Japan, which is not at all the case. If anything, it's to show how weak the American stomach (at least THIS American stomach) is when it comes to animal consumption. In fact, as I've mentioned before, I'm envious of the fact that Japan, among more countries than not, waist virtually no part of the animal being consumed. That said, I still can't bring myself to eat a lot of the 'delicacies' here in Japan.

I suppose it's poignant that I'm sitting here listening to WEEI sports radio from Boston, and a Dunkin Donuts commercial just advertised this:



Yep, those are M&M's.

So we've got a four day weekend going on here, starting tonight, which I am eternally thankful for. Mentally, I've thrown in the towel on this term of teaching. We've got about a month left of classes, and while I will by all means continue putting forth my maximum effort, I've got no expectations of connecting with this batch of students. It's partly them, partly me. The thing that bugs me is that there are good students in my classes, but they are overshadowed by the apathetic, lazy, rude ones. Even as I tailor my efforts towards those students who genuinely care, the rest of the bastards have already stolen my soul. Teach and learn.

Enjoy yourselves wherever you are.

Note: Upon spell checking I was mildly shocked to see that I had spelled Celsius wrong, but I actually got Fahrenheit right. Swore it would've been the other way around.