Sorry for the incredibly lame joke. It just seemed like the right time to make one. Time for a quick post to let you guys know how things are going.
I'm tired. Damn tired. I mean, I KNEW how much work being a teacher was, but actually doing it, even on this strange practicum, it's REALLY hard work. Totally mind blowing. I have a totally new level of respect for Nicole and Lindsey. Less respect for Jeromy, but that's just because I have to balance out those cosmic scales.
I'm teaching Grade 9 Applied English and Grade 11 Sociology. So far so good as my associate teacher thinks I'm ready to teach now, but that still hasn't stopped me from spazzing and stressing out. Catherine says I put too much pressure on myself and she's probably right.
I just need more sleep. Week 1 is done, Week 2 (now) is going to be easy, then I've just got two weeks more to go. To reward myself at the end of this whole thing, I'm going to get a Wii.
If there were an easier way to do things, most likely I'd still pick the hard way. It's just in my nature. It's also just my luck. On the bright side, when strange things happen to me it's almost always amusing to others.
Friday night was no exception. My unanswered call to Jeromy to spend some quality time together left me with nothing to do. Catherine had gone home to Brantford and I was procrastinating on doing my first lesson plan.
Instead, I wound up watching Deadwood, playing Megaman X4, and hanging out with Truffle.
Then I heard a very strange sound. I muted the television to listen for it and within seconds a "whoop" sound, very similar to an 80's-style video game lazer, came from my radiator.
Truffle freaked out and hid in a tube. I, on the other, got closer.
"Whoop!" Again, I had no idea what this sound was. I could hear a scratching, so I figured it was an animal of some sort. I called my dad who promptly suggested "racoon or squirrel." It was an emotional conversation.
I had two problems with this. One, after the mouse that invaded our apartment a year or two ago I swore never to put up with an uninvited guest again. That mouse was LOUD and it was tiny. I'm fairly certain that both squirrels and racoons are smaller.
The heating vent it was currently in was secure against the floor and wall. The problem was that the vent goes through the living room wall into the bedroom and the small pipe that connects them has an opening four times too big for it. The heater in the bedroom is secure against the wall, but NOT against the floor. In other words, that squirrel could soon be among us.
So I decided to fight back. I was going to plug that hole as best I could, then try and scare off my house guest. I was talking to my father on the phone at the time who found all of this amusing, because I had to move my bed out of the way in a very small room to access the pipe.
This failed because I broke the bed.
I was pulling on it and one of the support joints creaked then broke. Part of the bed collapsed. I was not pleased at this. The metal pin holding the two sections together was badly bent and I couldn't remove it. I also couldn't think because my dad was laughing at me.
I hung up on him.
Then I got a hammer and fixed that bitch. I straightened out the pin, set the frame in place, then called Catherine because I needed an alan key to tighten the joint and I didn't know where they were.
I quickly explained to her and David what the problem was, and once they stopped laughing, I was told where the key was.
I got the bed fixed, the hole plugged, and all was well. Although all the hammering, yelling, stuffing, and everything else in between scared off the squirrel anyway. I plan to tell people that this was my expected outcome all along.
I found this great program online as I was making up my lesson plan in short fiction next week. It's just a filler exercise should I need to make up a bit of time, but it's handy anyway.
My orientation days at the school went quite well. My associate teacher, Scott, is fantastic and assures me that I won't feel any stress at all. I accepted his statement and wondered where my intense stress headache was coming from.
"Don't be stressed," he said. Pfft. He doesn't know me very well.
Due to mounting pressure from the Dom, I gave in and got a Zipcar membership. For those of you who don't know, Zipcar is a service offered in many cities, including Toronto, that allows you to take one of their cars out for whatever you want.
You need to reserve the car, but included in your hourly fee of roughly $11 is gas and insurance. It's great for local trips because if you want anything longer or farther you're better off with a traditional rental.
At any rate, we got the membership several weeks ago, but only yesterday did we exercise our newfound power. Catherine finally got to driver her Mini Cooper.
She's obsessed with the make. There's a car lot around the corner where one is parked all the time and we booked it for a round-trip to Ikea yesterday. For three hours, we acted like Mini Cooper owners.
It's a pretty cool little car. The break is super sensitive, and the "go" as Catherine calls it needs a bit of coercing at first, but it's fun. As you can see, we had to take a few pictures.
We have no need for a car (usually) but having the option to drive one around is nice. Besides, how else we were going to get to drive one?
Tomorrow, the practicum starts. Or at least the orientation. I already have a bit of insider info and I'm approaching the whole process with a mixture of excitement and dread.
I've been in hiding. Well, no, not really. Just busy with busy work. Teacher's college, for the two or three of you who know, isn't really about tough work, tons of essays, and late nights. What it IS about is a lot of busy work. You're always busy with some little assignment or another.
This doesn't always mean the assignments make sense. My first week I was asked to bring in a poem to read to the class. The next week, I was asked to write a poem about myself. I tried going the angsty-teen route, but it didn't work.
The third week, we had to bring in newspapers to tear up and create found poetry. Then my prof sent me home to put my group's poem on paper. Well, one of them I did properly. The other one, well, see below. In my defense, it was mostly my idea.
I know that's not a defense. The REAL defense is that I'm friends with all of you people.
Or am I still? I wasn't able to go to Jer's housewarming which I'm sure was a lovely time. I still need to get my butt over there as soon as possible. I'm also going to invite Jer and Megan (as well as anyone else who is interested) to join Catherine and I for a candlelit tour of Casa Loma at Halloween. We did it last year and it was fantastic. Much better than the day time with a focus on the castle's ghosts.
Aaron at least is coming down this weekend. I need to write him about that as it seems that depending on when he gets here, I may not be able to spend as much time with him. On Saturday, Catherine's aunt from England is going to visit us. There's only so much of me to go around, but I feel a tremendous need to share all things geek with Aaron. Besides, out of everyone who reads this blog, I get the feeling he needs a break more than most.
Aaron, don't give up your blog. I read that thing. You're depriving me of minutes a day as I invest in your life. Think about ME before you make such decisions.
My back hurts and I'm hungry. Tired, too.
But Heroes is on tonight. You guys should be watching that show. It's quite interesting. Lost is looking interesting this year, as is Veronica Mars. But the winner of all the premieres is Battlestar Galactica. I promise I'm TiVoing all the new eps for those of you who aren't caught up. It's just SO damn good. Season 3 is kicking my ass already and they've only aired the first two episodes.
One of the biggest drawbacks to no longer having a job is that I no longer have a stable, powerful computer to do all of my work on. My computer at work was a sizeable beast of a Mac, but my PC laptop has had five years of hard living and it's starting to show.
The internet will crap out for no reason whatsoever. It's not the cable box, it's the computer. All of a sudden, it just won't recognize the internet. I have to reboot.
Then there's the harddrive. If it isn't having some catastrophic failure it's slowly eating itself. During a marathon session of photoshop crapping out on me and my deleting a ton of things off the drive to free up space, the new issue is that after having freed up more than 2 gigs of space it now seems to have all disappeared.
Nothing new was put on the drive, but I'm down to 400 mgs of free space.
My hard drive is eating itself.
The easiest thing to do, I suppose, would be to wipe the whole thing and start over again. However, seeing as I am not possessed of a great deal of funds nor do I have a copy of Word readily available, I'm not about to do this now that I'm actually dependent on my machine to help me produce works that will enable me to graduate.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the source of my frustration this week.
Catherine keeps telling me I need to relax. BAH to that, I say. BAH.
October And the trees are stripped bare Of all they wear What do I care October And kingdoms rise And kingdoms fall But you go on
Is anyone else astonished that it's October already? How does that happen? How is it possible that I've been in school for three weeks, not had that job for three weeks, and all the other crazy life changes that have been going on lately.
And why is no one else blogging?
I know Aaron has no life any more considering he's pulling the reigns at The Ontarion, but Jer has no excuse. Nor Josh. Nor Nicole. Heck, what does SHE have to do all day?
Ah, my fair, sweet internet. Why is it that sometimes I feel that only you really get me?
There's something so sweet, so powerful, about going out and hunting for that one, elusive figure and the evil denizens (store employees) who try to stand in your way but fail miserably.
I know I don't work there any more, but my last day at FMG was actually a pretty good one. I did some work, but more importantly, I did some work making a few fond memories thanks to my camera.
Stop it. Nothing dirty (this means you, Jer).
No, instead I took a few moments to chronicle the misadventures of my former co-workers and myself. I uploaded them all to youtube and now present them here for you to enjoy.
The first one is entitled 'The Search for Water.' It features Nathan and I being dicks to our co-worker, Martin, who's heavily Spanish-accented pronounciation of 'Baafffalo' ranks among our funniest moments. Nathan and I would steal his water constantly and hide it in obvious places around the office. This time, we got his search on video. Of course, the second I started taping, Martin had to ham it up.
The next video is pure Nathan and I. The question I pose to him is "Do you ever wish you were white?"
Next up I scare the crap out of a woman named Sandra. Her office space is quiet except for her little stereo and she always zones out. This was the fifth time I'd done this to her and I think she was getting a bit ticked off.
Lastly, Sheila. She does this sort of thing a lot. Nate and I have but to ask and she performed like a little monkey.
All of that being said, I don't miss my job and I don't think about it at all. It's a nice feeling. Back to school work now (what little I have).
Now that work is done (can I get a collective "hell yeah?") I should be dancing in the streets. School has started and at present my demanding schedule has given me Mondays and Wednesdays off, with classes ending by 12:30 on Tuesday and Friday.
That's a bit too much free time for me.
I don't miss work and I don't wish my OLD job on anybody, but I have to admit it certainly did fill out the day. Now I don't have Nathan to talk to, hit, or ignore, instead I have the brimming-over silence of my apartment broken only by the sounds of Truffle rattling on her cage bars.
I'm sure that once the semester starts rolling I'll have more little assignments to keep me busy. I already have been given, and completed, a couple of very minor things. So far, if this is a taste of things to come, I'm not going to be challenged very much.
At least not until the actual job starts.
In the meantime, I have the internet to play with, karate practices to go to on my own, and images such as Mr. Optimus Prime (seen above) to share with my audience of, oh, say 10 people.
But at least it's something to do. I'm starting to warm to the movie version of The Transformers even if the Decepticons have all gone horribly wrong. Optimus, at least, looks enough like the character I know and love for me not to run out and grab a pitchfork.
Other than that, I'm just sitting around in my shorts waiting for something to happen. I'm working a bit for Julian (the psychiatrist) again and am owed a bit of cash from a few sources. Hopefully the Dom (Catherine, so called 'the Dom' due to her status as the Dominant Bread-winner) will let me splurge on something fun every now and then. Even though we saved for this bit of schooling, I need to watch my purse strings.
I haven't written anything here in more than a week, despite the many things that I found I had to blog about. Partly I was busy, partly I was stressed. Mostly, I think, I'm just avoiding things.
This is a period of big changes and not just for me. Jer and Meg have a new home together, Nicole and Jamie are parents now to little Isabel, Aaron is the EIC of the Ontarion, my dad just retired, my brother is losing his job, David is getting set up in Guelph and much more.
It all seems to be coming down to the wire. Faster and swifter than I would have imagined after months of counting down the days, today is my final day at FMG. I thought I'd be a lot more happy and giddy after the various struggles I had, particularly early on in my career here.
But I'm actually sad. I cleaned out my desk, gave Nathan a present and have been wearing a foam piece of cheese that Nathan brought home for me after his trip to Wiconsin for a baseball game. No one here seems to find this terribly odd. I take that as a compliment.
Earlier this week, my co-workers took me out for lunch to Jack Astor's. More than a dozen people showed up and that doesn't include the six or seven who couldn't make it. Whether I wanted to realize it or not, I made a lot of friends here. The job had become unsatsifying creatively, but I can't deny that it changed me. Gave me more skills, both professionally and in terms of office politics, that I can see myself using in the future. This job was far from a waste of my time though the moment for change has finally come.
All my work is done. There's a company barbecue today and maybe Nate will even drive me out to Toys R Us.
I started teacher's college yesterday. It was just an orientation, but I like the fact that it overlapped by a day with my job. Out with one, in with another. I have Mondays and Wednesdays off until mid-October at school. After the 9-5, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself.
But it's time to find out. I waited long enough. I've been patient.
All good things (or in this case, so-so) must come to an end.
I feel like I should tell someone to make sure to feed and water Nathan. I'm going to miss him most of all. Five days a week sitting next to each other and he's become one of my best friends. He's a good man who helped me a lot and has been a good friend. I hope that I get to see him as often as possible. We'll go see the Blue Jays.
In the cheap seats. Nate'll hate that, which in turn, will amuse me.
And that's it.
I've conquered my past, The future is here at last. I stand at the entrance To a new world I can see.
I was so excited to see David in China as it had been more than 14 months since I saw him last. We had worked together at Rainbow Daycamp in addition to becoming more and more 'family' as a result of Catherine and I's ongoing relationship.
But he's such a ham.
If I wasn't rolling my eyes I was definitely laughing. You can't be around Dave and not enjoy yourself. He just has this quirky, manic energy and an infectious laugh. Also, he has no issues making fun of anyone or anything.
During our time in China, David was a constant source of amusement, often at odd times and doing things that you wouldn't expect a sane person to do. While we were on the Great Wall, I asked Catherine to shoot a small video of David and I walking along. David, however, decided to improvise.
There were many such bizarre incidents taking place in Yangshou, Guilin, Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, and then again once we were all together again here in Toronto. Sometimes you want to smack him, other times you ask him to pretend to be a dog while you videotape it.
You don't actually expect him to agree, but while we were touring a particularly steep section in the Summer Palace in Beijing, David decided to accomodate me. He even tried to get Catherine to participate, but she was having none of it.
Speaking of Catherine, she seems willing to permit David a score of odd behaviours that I would get reprimanded for should I ever dare to attempt them. David acts up, and it's hilarious.
In Nanjing, for instance, David spent a night bothering Catherine while she was writing postcards. He took each of her postcards and wrote insane things on them. The goal for her, he said, was to find a way to incorporate what he wrote on the back of the cards. We were all laughing, but I think if I had done it I'd have gotten beat up.
David wrote on one card "If there's a God in heaven..." and ended it with "you know my motto: an eye for an eye." David didn't find out until later that Catherine had set aside that particular card for her friend who was a bit religious.
Of course, that only made it funnier.
David brought a great deal of amusement to our trip which was good. He also cost a lot of money (inadvertantly) by making the wrong friends in Shanghai.
As a result, I now hate tea.
This installment of China Thursdays officially salutes David.
I'm borrowing slightly from Jer's blog, but this is such amazing news that it is beyond description. Jamie told me the news yesterday in the morning and I called him right away to get the details.
12:47pm - Isabel Quinn Wiens Shepherd is born via emergency C-section
"Once it was over and they were both good the scary gave way to the happiest moment of my life... nothing even comes close," Jamie wrote.
"We are home now and settling in. Nicole and Isabel are sleeping right now. We are both pretty beat as we didn't get much sleep in the 4 days we were at the hospital. Izzy and Izzy Q are both in high rotation right now... Baby Jimole, not so much... and Doc? huh? Grey's?... weak."
So that's it. The first amongst our core group from university has reproduced. Personally, I think Jamie and Nicole are going to be amazing parents and little Isabel will have no shortage of love and support from both her blood family and her extended family of aunts and uncles who show up for entire weekends and do nothing but play games.
Welcome to the world, Isabel. I promise that whenever I visit, I'll bring you a new toy.
Birds are softly chirping in the crisp, cool mountain air. Nothing can bother you here. No one knows this secret place. You are in total seclusion from that place called "the world."
The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity. The water is clear. You can easily make out the face of the person whose head you're holding under the water.
Above: One of the many odd sights in China that I took photos of. A man getting his hair cut on the city walls of Nanjing.
Nanjing is a blight on the face of the Earth.
Okay, that may be putting it a bit too seriously, but this place had few redeeming qualities. We left paradise on Earth (Yangshou) and wound up in a place that was entirely too much grey concrete to be pleasing in any form. David had just left his girlfriend behind and a late arrival into the city and a confusing taxi ride to find the hostel didn't help.
There is little to nothing to do in Nanjing. David takes all responsibility for us going there in the first place (he wanted to visit a couple of museums) but more than once I was wondering why we had gone there. We went to a bar street called 1912 our first night to find food. Even if I was a yuppie I wouldn't eat there. Tacky and expensive.
Hot, too. Damn hot. The humidity made it like walking through a sauna. The relief of our hostel room was cold comfort because the bathroom walls were entirely made of glass. Want to watch a loved one relieve themselves? Go ahead. Also, I developed a powerful ache in my chest that wouldn't go away.
So it was a good day to walk up a very steep hill and more than 300 steps to visit the tomb of some dead guy I'd never heard of. Part of the incentive was the hope that it was air conditioned, much like Mao's was back in Beijing. We walked a long way up and not only was the tomb not air conditioned, but the floor was slick with sweat and the guy wasn't even embalmed (or pickled as David puts it.
Here's a video of the disappointment:
Making the best of our day, we headed down to a tea house at the base of the steps. We wanted air conditioning (badly) and figured this would be a quick stop.
Three hours later we had a lot of tea to drink. We even had to brave the dreaded squat toilet. For the full story (with excellent details), feel free to ask. It's one of my favorites. Basically, I did it wrong, but still produced positive results.
The tea cups are incredibly small and there's a system you have to follow to drink. Catherine and David take a sip and do their best to look "serene."
To summarize, don't go to Nanjing. Stay in Yangshou or Beijing. We still wound up having some laughs and seeing some pretty neat things there, but overall, it's not a great city. It'd be like travelling to Canada to go and visit Cambridge.
I can feel it brewing in the pit of my stomach. Lots of life changes ahead, most positive, but my mind and body are eager to get the hell out of dodge.
People keep telling me to relax, I'll be leaving soon, and all that stuff, but I find myself becoming increasingly agitated over minor matters that in months past wouldn't have phased me. I'm not even talking about work complaints, just people in general or having to complete any sort of task.
My mind has quit. It's already at home, watching TV, and preparing for the next step.
It's also bogged down by an article I'm writing for Eye Weekly which I no longer believe in (either the story or the pub). I pitched it months ago (it has to do with the upcoming Toronto Comicon and me interviewing TV celebrities from shows long dead) and I modified it yesterday to be about the ridiculous prices these people charge their fans for an autograph and the paper went for it. Now I actually have to produce something. In reality, all I want to do is sleep.
Most celebrities charge about $20 per signature on a photograph they provide you which you typically have to purchase as well. If they even get 200 people in their line a day, that's more than $4000. Add it up over three days and the potential lines that can grow from a typical show attendence of 30 to 40 000 geeked-out fans and you've got enough for most middle-class families to survive for a year.
Why can't I have a career like that?
I suppose teaching is second best given all the vacation time you have. During the year you're worked to the bone, but at least you're mentallly crippled body has a chance to heal during summer.
I'm also annoyed because I have four blisters on my feet causing a lot of discomfort. Didn't get a single one when I was in China, but I get home and it's blister city.
Oh well. Season 2 of Veronica Mars should be in my mailbox any day now and I finally got the arms/tubes for my build-a-figure of Apocalypse. Minor victories all around on things that don't matter.
The main shining light right now is that today is Catherine and I's 7th anniversary. We've lasted a good long time and look forward to many years to come. I still can't get over how lucky I am to have someone so loving and supportive in my life. She even puts up with my rants and toys. That, my friends, is girlfriend gold.
To celebrate, she's going out tonight with her brother to see Blue Rodeo at the CNE.
Figures. Oh well, I have special plans in the works for us in a couple weeks time as we're super busy until then. Hopefully she really likes it, otherwise I'll be back to let everyone who reads this blog know.
But I'm leaning more towards a negative reaction. Early photos have been released of what the characters will look like from the upcoming Transformers live-action film will look like. I'm mostly having trouble because this is a reimagining of the generation one material that we all grew up with. Many favorites will be featured in the movie (for a complete list, see below), but they've all been given a more modern, stripped apart look with gears and other bits of tech showing through.
It makes the characters look much more alien and a bit less accessible. Not having seen any footage I can't say for certain how this will look, but I'm much more in favor of a classic look. Below us we see Optimus Prime, voiced by Peter Cullen who did all the V/O work for the cartoon series and movie.
Next up is a new character created for the film called Blackout. He looks cool enough, but why spend so much time making him look impressive when Starscream looks like a Quasimodo like character?
Blackout looks very tough and gritty. I think he's going to be one of the coolest looking characters in the film, even though for the bad guys those awards should be for Megatron and Starscream. Many will lament the loss of Soundwave from this film, but the filmmakers are aware of his popularity and have promised he'll appear in a sequel. For now, Frenzy, one of his tapes, will appear in the film itself. Hopefully he looks better than Starscream here...
Starscream just loses all the things that made him look cool. They could have easily based him off the upcoming Masterpiece toy that's coming out, making him look much more like Megatron's second-in-command and would-be usurper. Starscream is meant to be a tall, imposing figure. Instead, he looks a bit clumsy and bug-like. Hopefully, seeing as how this picture is the watered down toy version of the character, the film version is much more impressive.
Next up is Scorponok:
Based on the Headmaster character which arrived late in the life cycle of the original series, Scorponok was the leader of the Decepticon Headmasters and the eventual leader of the Decepticons themselves until Galvatron came back. He also appeared in some form during the Beast Wars cartoons. He looks incredibly vicious here, so hopefully he translates well to the big screen.
Last up is Bumblebee.
One of my favorite characters ever, he looks like he came straight out of Bionicle or something. Kids will likely love him, but I miss the VW bug version. There are issues with VW and Hasbro so that version may never see the light of day again. But Bumblebee was the kid Transformer for the most part. The little sidekick who could. Now he's a camaro.
Sigh.
Here's the final list of the characters appearing in the film:
Autobots: Optimus Prime (voiced by Cullen) Ironhide (also voiced by Cullen as he was in the original series) Bumblebee Jazz Ratchet
Decepticons: Megatron (maybe voiced by Frank Welker, the original V/O actor) Starscream (his V/O actor has since passed away) Brawl Bonecrusher (one of the Constructicons) Barricade (never heard of him) Scorponok Frenzy (one of Soundwave's tapes, but SW himself isn't in the flick) Blackout (never heard of him).
Getting around China is fun, so long as you do it properly. Our third day in Yangshou, we rented mini-motorcycles and I think I looked damn impressive on that hog. Finally, I can join the ranks of my father, brother, and uncle with my ferocious beast.
Okay, I was worried I was going to break the damn thing the whole time or run the battery out. Almost did, too.
Today is about the end of the Great Wall trip we had, possibly one of the best experiences of my entire life. That's a pretty big statement, but it was something I will never forget.
To try to describe something like the Great Wall to someone who hasn't been there is impossible. For many, including myself pre-trip, it was just a very, very long wall. Who would want to go visit a wall?
The answer is that everyone should do it, but only the way Catherine, David and myself did. Avoid the commercial and rebuilt sections that are overwhelmed by tourists, stalls, and markets. Instead, thanks to my Uncle Paul, we stayed overnight on an unrestored tower in Jinshanling along with two Americans, Mike and Naiella.
We woke at 5am the next day and made a 10km trek along the unrestored section, passing fewer than 10 people, until we arrived at the next town, Simatai.
The final leg involved crossing a long suspension bridge, but you had no choice, as David discusses in this video:
After that, we went by Flying Fox. I figured out much later that 'Flying Fox' is the name of a zipline that takes you back across the river we had just crossed and down to a boat. From there, they drop you off just shy of the parking lot where our driver was passed out and waiting for us. Catherine snapped photos of David going but refused to go herself, so Mike and Naiella helped her down the hill with her bags.
My trip down the zip got the video treatment:
Anyone going to China should do the trip to the Great Wall that we did. If you want the info, let me know and I'll be all too happy to share it with you.
For now, I'm getting back to work, though I feel absolutely horrible. I'm brutally sick and Catherine isn't here to take care of me.
I'd seen this story in a number of different venues, even on The Amazing Race of all places. I found an online story written by Tim Young that best summarized the story of Hachiko, an incredibly loyal dog.
The story touched me for a number of reasons. Part of it comes because Jack, my own loyal dog, used to sit and wait for me to come home every day. Both of my parents mentioned that when I was due home, Jack would get antsy and wait at the window or the door. I can't express how much I miss that. This is a story about the kind of bond you can develop with animals who become more than pets, but friends.
Here is the story:
Shibuya is known today as a popular gathering point for Tokyo’s young people. But long before loose socks and sandals with three-inch soles, before Tower Records and Studio Alta, Shibuya had another claim to fame: Hachiko.
The year was 1925. Every morning, Professor Eizaburo Ueno walked to Shibuya Station, accompanied by his loyal dog, Hachi, nicknamed Hachi-ko. Hachiko didn’t accompany his master to his teaching job at the Imperial University (now known as Tokyo University), but when Professor Ueno returned every day at 3 p.m., the dog was always at the station waiting for him.
However, on May 21 of that year, Ueno died of a stroke while at the university. Hachiko went to Shibuya as always to meet his master, but 3:00 came and went, and the professor didn’t arrive. So Hachiko waited. And waited.
The akita must have known something was wrong, but nonetheless he returned to the station every day at 3:00 to meet the train. Soon people began to notice the loyal dog’s trips made in vain to meet his master. Ueno’s former gardner, the Shibuya Stationmaster, and others began feeding Hachiko and giving him shelter.
Word of Hachiko’s unaltered routine spread across the nation, and he was held up as a shining example of loyalty. People traveled to Shibuya simply to see Hachiko, feed him, and gently touch his head for luck.
The months turned to years, and still Hachiko returned to Shibuya Station daily at 3 p.m., even as arthritis and aging took their toll. Finally, on March 7, 1935 — nearly ten years after last seeing Professor Ueno — the 12-year-old akita was found dead on the same spot outside the station where he had spent so many hours waiting for his master.
Hachiko’s death made the front pages of major Japanese newspapers. A day of mourning was declared. Contributions poured in from all over the country to memorialize the dog that had won the hearts of the nation. Sculptor Takeshi Ando was hired, with the money that had been contributed, to create a bronze statue of Hachiko. It was placed on the exact spot where Hachiko had waited for so long.
Within a few years, however, Japan was at war, and any available metal was melted down to make weapons. Not even Hachiko’s statue was spared. However, after the war, in 1948, Ando’s son Teru sculpted a new Hachiko—the statue that stands outside Shibuya Station to this day.
This is not the only monument to Chuken (“loyal dog”) Hachiko to be found in Tokyo, however. Aoyama Cemetery, two kilometers west of TAC, contains a memorial to Hachiko on the site of Professor Ueno’s grave. Some of Hachiko’s bones are reportedly buried there, but in fact, Hachiko can still be seen, in the fur—stuffed, in the National Science Museum, northwest of Ueno Station.
Back in Shibuya, Hachiko’s statue sits in a noble pose, forever waiting for his master. And, appropriately, his statue, the best-known landmark and meeting place in Shibuya, is where hundreds of people every day sit and wait for their friends.
To really get the full impact of the following post, I'll give you some background. My co-worker, Li, came over today with a letter (four pages long) from a Spanish employee who not only quit but went into great detail why he was quitting, alleging there was racism, discrimination, and unfair treatment for call center employees, all of which I can believe is true.
Still, the wording of the letter was hilarious. He got his point across, which is the important part, but it just inspired me to create my own letter. He began his with "I am quit, I feel so free."' Amen, brother.
Here's my version, which I do not claim to be totally true or even appropriate. Large parts of it ARE true, but bent enough to be amusing. It made others laugh, which is good enough for me.
Brians letter
I am so quit. I feel so free. This is my letter to say I quit and now I am free.
Company 536 Kipling Avenue August 11, 2006
For a long time I have wanted to say I quit but needed money. I have money and am go to school so now I say why I am so free and glad to be quit.
Calendar My calendar was stolen away from me for one day. I do not blame first media for this but blame policy that allowed this to happen. A co-worker racistly took my calendar and would not give it back but laughed. I was upset about this and others laugh at me as well. This is racist. I got my calendar back but had to steal it when no one was looking I made another calendar and put it up in the place but no one noticed. I feel I was within my rites.
Lucnh I was given a bad manual when I started so I think I was only get 30 minutes lunch and only took that long all day to eat. I hav big lunches so this is often a problem and I can’t walk anywhere except to the bathroom because not enough time. It was 6 month before I find out I get hour lunch and was not allow to take 2 hours lunches for three months to make up difference. I accrued to time which is not given to me and first media policy say I shit out of luck. Bad manual is to blame and no one helped me just laughed.
Natahn He is a bluly who laughs at me. He hits me with carrots and laughs. Many times he say he is my friend and I believe him but company policy let him bully me. I no longer think this is what Nathan says friends do. I have described me situation to other and they say hitting with carrots is not friendly. I tell Nathan this and he steal some grapes. Grapes are not cheap and I know I will not get paid money to replace them. I feel this is a racist action and p olciy that is in book doesn’t write about grapes. Please fix this so future employess are not racist.
policy Policy says I can’t go out front doors and have to sign my name if I want to leave or I get in trouble. I don’t see others get in trouble and think this a violation of rights if I have to sign my name. it’s very hard to use a pen and I like to type so I don’t likes to sign my name.
Cleaning people have touched my stuff at night but I can’t confromt them because they are not here during they day and I told I can’t leave a letter asking them not to touch my stuff. They turned spiderman to backwards and moved other things around that are mine. I think they have also thrown out my fruit which I paid for and was told I would not get money back. This is a racist thing.
I fell out of my chair once and company did not offer to help me up take me to doctor or fix my chair. They laugh at me in a way I found racist. Just because I am white does not mean I am snow blind to actions of laughter against me or my chair. I know the chair is company property but I have to sit in it so please buy no slippery chairs for futurer employees. I went to the doctor for this and he said he can’t fix me.
I feel so free to be leaving and going back to school. I don’t like racist things or bombs. First media gave me money but also a bully which I didn’t ask for and am returning to your attention.
Iza-pumpkin!
If there were an easier way to do things, most likely I'd still pick the hard way. It's just in my nature. It's also just my luck. On the bright side, when strange things happen to me it's almost always amusing to others.
Due to mounting pressure from the Dom, I gave in and got a Zipcar membership. For those of you who don't know, Zipcar is a service offered in many cities, including Toronto, that allows you to take one of their cars out for whatever you want.
Hell, I am too.
One of the biggest drawbacks to no longer having a job is that I no longer have a stable, powerful computer to do all of my work on. My computer at work was a sizeable beast of a Mac, but my PC laptop has had five years of hard living and it's starting to show.
Ah, my fair, sweet internet. Why is it that sometimes I feel that only 
I know I don't work there any more, but my last day at FMG was actually a pretty good one. I did some work, but more importantly, I did some work making a few fond memories thanks to my camera.
Now that work is done (can I get a collective "hell yeah?") I should be dancing in the streets. School has started and at present my demanding schedule has given me Mondays and Wednesdays off, with classes ending by 12:30 on Tuesday and Friday. 
I haven't written anything here in more than a week, despite the many things that I found I had to blog about. Partly I was busy, partly I was stressed. Mostly, I think, I'm just avoiding things.
I feel like I should tell someone to make sure to feed and water Nathan. I'm going to miss him most of all. Five days a week sitting next to each other and he's become one of my best friends. He's a good man who helped me a lot and has been a good friend. I hope that I get to see him as often as possible. We'll go see the Blue Jays.
There is little to nothing to do in Nanjing. David takes all responsibility for us going there in the first place (he wanted to visit a couple of museums) but more than once I was wondering why we had gone there. We went to a bar street called 1912 our first night to find food. Even if I was a yuppie I wouldn't eat there. Tacky and expensive.
I can feel it brewing in the pit of my stomach. Lots of life changes ahead, most positive, but my mind and body are eager to get the hell out of dodge.
for the bad guys those awards should be for Megatron and Starscream. Many will lament the loss of Soundwave from this film, but the filmmakers are aware of his popularity and have promised he'll appear in a sequel. For now, Frenzy, one of his tapes, will appear in the film itself. Hopefully he looks better than Starscream here...
One of my favorite characters ever, he looks like he came straight out of Bionicle or something. Kids will likely love him, but I miss the VW bug version. There are issues with VW and Hasbro so that version may never see the light of day again. But Bumblebee was the kid Transformer for the most part. The little sidekick who could. Now he's a camaro.
Getting around China is fun, so long as you do it properly. Our third day in Yangshou, we rented mini-motorcycles and I think I looked damn impressive on that hog. Finally, I can join the ranks of my father, brother, and uncle with my ferocious beast. 
I'd seen this story in a number of different venues, even on The Amazing Race of all places. I found an online story written by 
Within a few years, however, Japan was at war, and any available metal was melted down to make weapons. Not even Hachiko’s statue was spared. However, after the war, in 1948, Ando’s son Teru sculpted a new Hachiko—the statue that stands outside Shibuya Station to this day. 
To really get the full impact of the following post, I'll give you some background. My co-worker, Li, came over today with a letter (four pages long) from a Spanish employee who not only quit but went into great detail why he was quitting, alleging there was racism, discrimination, and unfair treatment for call center employees, all of which I can believe is true.
