Testing this feature with cat videos

2009 is here!

For me, 2008 was not a bad year, but of course, I understand why so many people hated it. In any case, I hope 2009 will be better for all of us.
On the very last day of 2008, Masashi and I went up to Hokkaido to spend a few days with his family. It was good to see them all, and to breathe in the clean, cold air. For some more pics, go to my Facebook page.

Phasing out web page, phasing in Facebook

I've had two web pages, one personal and one for work, for several years now, but for the last few years, I haven't been updating them much at all. My work page used to contain lots of stuff-related to my classes, but that has pretty much been taken over by the university's in-house class management system. I still have that page for links and announcements about office hours and such, but it only gets updated a few times a semester.

My personal web page is even more neglected! I stopped updating the news section, and moved to this blog (which doesn't get updated enough, but I will try to get better!) And then I started using Facebook...so much easier just to write a quick status update. Is it convenience? Laziness? Or something else? I don't think anyone was looking at my web page anyway...

Something you'd never see in the U.S...

In early December, Masashi ran in the Naha Marathon in Okinawa. (He finished in 5 hours, 55 minutes, 55 seconds...) More than 27,000 people started the race, and about 19,000 finished. So 27,000 people, most of the running for more than 4 hours...and where do they put their stuff when they are running? They just leave it, scattered all around the starting/ending point. These photos just show a few views of the area around the starting point. Yep, people leave backpacks and tents, totally unattended, with no security guards in sight, for several hours, with total confidence that all their stuff will be there when they get back! (The tents and blue tarps are no for security--they are just to keep things dry in case it starts to rain.) Masashi's friends did the same. I think that they left their wallets back at the hotel, but they left backpacks with their jackets and long pants and even their cell phones right there on the ground! I just can't imagine this happening in the U.S.

YouTube Favorites

These days, I am enjoying YouTube. It's good to see SHORT clips in between other work. I was happy to find that I could find clips of British comedy, like AbFab and A Bit of Fry and Laurie (the latter is recommended for American fans of House who have no idea of what Hugh Laurie used to do!

I also like some of the YouTube stars, like HappySlip and KevJumba. And music is great too! I search for all the old Japanese folk songs that Masashi's friends sing at Karaoke, like this song Kokoro no tabi. I LOVE this song, and the video is fun too (great hairdos!)

end of the year

I haven't posted anything for a LONG, LONG time. These days, I am too busy even for blogging, it seems, although I can kind of keep up with e-mail. The very short updates on Facebook seem to be all I can handle!
Anyway, maybe my resolution for 2009 should be to update my blog regularly.