a thaumaturgical compendium

The new lesson went pretty well. It was a pretty boring lesson as these things go, but c’est la vie. H has been all big on doing more “international relations” rather than English conversation for the last month, but when I suggested we try something in that direction, he seemed very uninterested. I don’t know if it was that Ms. H was there or what.

Downloaded an EDICT reader so now I can look up kanji on the computer. I can’t get it to index by the number of strokes, but I can look them up by radical. Of course, tomorrow Jamie’s at city hall and wants to take the computer with her. Early tomorrow morning I will fax a note to city hall to make certain the fax is working. If it is, I can fax Coco’s, a phoneback service to the US, and the Fletcher school. Two years ago they admitted two people with GPAs under 3.0. I am very well qualified aside from the low GPA, so maybe I have some sort of a chance — but I doubt it.

Anyway, I better start getting ready. H has a birthday party. Mata ashita.

I’m sitting in the TV room in the midst of papers piled up all round. We decided to clean up all of our files and such. I ran into my old diary and am at a loss as to what to do with it. It’s messy and badly written, but includes some important events — my marriage, graduation, the move to Japan, my motorcycle accident, and lots of less important things along the way. Normally, I burn these things. Well, I’ll hold onto it for now. Folded inside was a list of things I would like to accomplish. They are fairly unchanged, so I’ll include them here:

To do/be…
1. I would like to become a skillful martial artist. Originally, this had been judoka, but recently, due to the difficulties with the local dojo and an interest in aikido, I’ve made this goal a bit broader.
2. I want to be able to play the piano fairly well. And maybe the classical guitar.
3. I want to become fluent enough in Japanese to be able to hold an intelligent conversation or easily read a newspaper.
4. I would like to get my pilot’s license.
5. I would like to be a fluent speaker of French.
6. I would like to become a competent sailor.
7. I would like to be more comfortable meeting and conversing with new people.
8. I would like to be a good diver.
9. I would like to be able to skillfully ski black diamond runs.
10. I would like to be able to juggle, do basic tumbling, etc.
11. I would like to be able to understand/design/build complex electronic devices.
12. I would like to be a good marksman.
13. I would like to race in rallies.
14. I would like to hang glide.
15. I would like to be able to play a decent game of tennis.
16. I would like to be in very good physical condition.
17. I would like to be well traveled.

I would like to have… (although, lately, this has changed to “to have use of”)
1. A cool car (Ferrari Dino, 348, Beck Spyder, Porsche 911/968, a Lotus Esprit, an Aston Martin, a BMW 8-series, ?)
2. A 40-ft. motor sailor.
3. A school of my own - -maybe on the East Coast, or in the Bay area.
4. An airplane — maybe amphibious.
5. An island house.
6. A B&B.
7. A good library.
8. A cool job.
9. A big dog.