Long Lost Rob Update!!

Hello Spring, er Summer, I mean Fall!

HI Everyone!  I've been thinking for some *months* that I should write a Rob
Update, but I just never thought the update would be exciting enough to warrant
such a mass mailing...  the year+ of world travels and riding my bicycle around
Honshu (the name of Japan's main island) were just top top top notch.

My life still doesn't seem that exciting to me, but there have been several changes
since last time I wrote.

Though I'm still living in Japan, I am not working as an English teacher!  Now I'm
working with computers again; each day is filled with programming and internet
goodness, which overall is good, but I'm quickly noticing the effect of carpal
tunnel in my hands.  Part of me is thinking "suck it up; billions of people work
work work and have hardships of much worse sort," and another part of me thinks,
"but this is not following my dream!  I gotta get outta here!"  and then the first
part of me is like, "but you have no idea what your dream is!  Plus, we need the
money, so shut up and work!"

Or something like that.  I'm actually making a bit less money than I was while
teaching English, but I'm definitely enjoying the reprieve from edutainment, and
enjoying learning new programming languages and systems.

In the internet department, I've added a wiki to my website
(http://robnugen.com/wiki/), and wrote an extension for the wiki that earned me a
free Pro account on Smugmug! (Smugmug is a photo sharing site (like flickr or
others), but without the ads and clutter.  (http://thunderrabbit.smugmug.com)). 
The addition of the wiki started as a lark, thinking I may be able to use it to
index the hundreds of image directories I have on my site!   Though I haven't done
it yet, I'm thinking I'll be able to write another extension that does just that. 
And just today I toyed around with Jabber, a chat server thing, and am trying to
add chat to my wiki.

Okay, enough about computers!

I'm happily dating a woman named Ami, who's definitely the funnest and funniest
Japanese (male or female) I've met!  We've been dating for about 5 months, though
I've known her for over a year.  She was one of my students at my last (and last?)
English teaching job.  From my new apartment (I'll talk about that in a sec), I can
ride my bicycle (TJ Bike rides again!) to her house in about 18 minutes.  However,
since Ami still lives with her family, generally she comes to visit me.  Yes, I'm
slightly robbing the cradle; Ami is 26 years old; on the inside, so am I!

Ami's English ability leads us to speaking Japanese 99% of the time.  Even so, we
seem to have a level of communication that's higher than I've had with any other
non-native English speakin' girlfriend.

- - -

After breaking my shoulder 1.5 years ago, I lived on my friend Jesse's couch for a
couple months.  He and his roommate Michael offered a lovely place for me to
recover, with lots of food and internet.  Then when Jesse moved out of his room,
and eventually the apartment, I took over his room, and eventually his rent.  The
place was HUGE for an apartment in Japan, and I enjoyed living close to ultimate
frisbee pickup games on Sundays.

In Spring and early Summer, I decided to shake things up a bit, and surprise my
family in the US!  I organized the trip so it would coincide with SWUUSI, an annual
camp for UU's (http://uua.org/) from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
Mexico.  That way I'd be able to see a lot of my favorite peeps from back in my
Texas-livin' days, including my mom, and perhaps including my brother.

But, because the key word was to *surprise* my family, I couldn't tell them (or
anyone!) my plans, and things were organized with short notice in many cases.  But,
thanks to the assistance of my lovely assistants Suzanne, Karen, Molly, Maggie,
Suzanne again, Veronica, Dude, Jon, my mom, Frank R III, Jackie, Jason, Maggie
again, Molly again, my mom again, Colleen, Fred, James, Kim, James again, Fred, and
my dad,... the month long adventure in Texas and Oklahoma went wonderfully; I
successfully surprised my dad, my mom, my brother, Dude, janette, and everyone at
SWUUSI!  Also, the month featured a week with Ami, who flew in from Tokyo on her
first trip to the US!

With Ami, we visited some places in Austin I had never previously seen: The Texas
Capitol, the famous bat bridge, plus a few new cafes, inspired by Fred's ongoing
quest to find the perfect hangout.  We also saw some things I had seen countless
times, but with the wonder of how big everything is in the US compared to Japan! 
Drinks in restaurants, aisles and displays in grocery stores, yards around houses,
vehicles on freeways, the freeways themselves...  they're all so huge!

Houston was generally as I had left it, although the light rail construction has
transformed into light rail traffic.  I didn't really have time (inclination) to
ride, but I'm glad the line finally exists!

During the week of SWUUSI, I enjoyed reconnecting with old friends, playing hours
of silent football, being "kidnapped" on a jet ski, nighttime banquets and daytime
scavenger hunts, plus silkscreening T-shirts, and generally enjoying running around
barefoot outside in hot summer weather.

During the month vacation, given that I haven't driven a car in 4+ years since I've
been gone, my license had expired, so I was dependent on rides from friends to get
around.  I felt a bit awkward at that, but didn't really have much choice.  I
wonder what it will take to ever get me driving again.  Trains in Tokyo are just so
*awesomely* convenient.

Back in Tokyo, I moved the remainder of my stuff out of Michael's apartment into my
new apartment, which is on my old (favorite) train line from my first two years in
Japan.  Though it's way smaller than the overall space I had in Michael's
apartment, my actual room size is about the same, and it's in a much quieter
location.  Instead of a freeway next door, there are many old Japanese houses,
squeezed between older Japanese houses, and paths squeezing between them.  My
walking path from home to the train station includes a few minutes walking between
gardens and a small (paved) river.  Quite lovely.

And, I live within shouting distance of a shinkansen (bullet train) line.  Much
quieter (and farther away) than the highway traffic, the 100 mph whir of what I've
begun to call the pulse of Japan, is barely audible, and only if my windows are
open.

Happily, I still live close enough to ultimate pickup games that Ami and I can ride
our bicycles there in 30 minutes.  She comes to watch us play most Sundays; she's
been getting better at throws, and will hopefully join in some games soon!

- - - -

There's a couple more things I've done recently, just to keep my life a bit
interesting:

1) FREE HUGS

A couple times per week, I've started hanging out by Hachiko in Shibuya
(http://hachiko-statue.notlong.com) offering free hugs!  This started when I saw a
guy holding a FREE HUGS sign.  I hugged him and used one of his extra signs to
offer my own free hugs.  I met him out there a couple of times during the
subsequent week, and realized I should just get my own sign.  He told me he had
made his own (laminated and everything), and offered me the one I was using!  Wow! 
He should have a sign that says FREE SIGNS!

I've gone out there several different times since then, and have "logged" as many
as 81 hugs in an hour!  Usually it's more like 30 or 40 per hour, but in each case,
after offering all those free hugs, I go home feeling *great*.

2) R.O.B.O.T.

No, I didn't buy a robot.  No, I didn't make a robot.  Since I don't buy any
_________, I made my own... religion!  It's called R.O.B.O.T., or Rob's Own Brand
Of Traditions.  I came across the idea in a book called _Shaving the Inside of Your
Skull_, by Mel Ash, I believe.

Anyway, I thought the idea was great, and *just* the thing I needed to do two
things: codify my belief system around spirituality, and get myself to do things I
know I "should" do, but have had trouble doing.  Basically those are things like
clean my room every week, meditate twice a day, etc.  It's online at
http://robnugen.com/R.O.B.O.T. if you wanna read about it.  PS: no one else may
join my religion, so don't try.  You'll have to make your own.  :-)

3) painting

Not as interesting as the above two, but I'm working on four paintings and plan to
show them in Harajuku or somewhere in Tokyo when they're finished.  I just gotta
get busy painting instead of busy on my computer.

- - - -

So that's about that.  Write me back if you get a chance, and come visit anytime!

   Love Love Love
    - Rob!