Blech

So I managed to catch some sort of bug in Japan. Not sure what it is, but it feels uncomfortably similar to walking pneumonia (hacking cough with lots of phlegm, dizziness, stomach cramps, etc). Despite taking tons of Airborne and vitamin C while in Japan, I suppose being surrounded by 4-5 sick people really didn't help. I just hope I didn't give it to my grandpa before I left (my mom is sick now, too).

But man, the sickness combined with the severe jetlag, combined with the general tumulous state of mind that I'm in really isn't a good combination. My head is in a fog and I have no sense of space or time (not particularly a good time to be driving, I suppose).

Have you ever thought that your life would be so much easier if you could simply read other people's minds? Or maybe life would be that much harder knowing the ulterior motives of everyone surrounding you? I consider myself fairly skilled at reading the motives of other men, but with women... I don't think women understand other women. At our core, I think men and women essentially want the same thing, but we simply approach things from completely different vectors. It's cause for all sorts of confusion and miscommunication. I suppose that's why it's refreshing to meet people who simply speak their mind, but not in a way that puts you on the spot or places any sort of unwanted pressures on you.

On a side note, finally sat down to start watching the first season of 24 from the beginning. I bought the DVD box set for seasons 1 and 2 on the Black Day sale at Best Buy for $20 a season, but haven't had the time to watch them since. Pretty awesome stuff so far (I'm only 3 episodes into the first season). Jack Bauer really *is* the man.

Time for a Bit of a Change

Having spent a little time away from home and having helped furiously clean my grandparents' house, I have made up my mind to do the same thing at my own home: get rid of all the junk I've collected.

I'm as much of a pack rat as anyone. I keep all the boxes to all my electronics, I've never sold a single videogame back to the store in my life, and I have odd knick knacks that serve absolutely no purpose, other than simple nostalgia value. As far as the videogames go, I always held onto them for library purposes (i.e. just in case I needed them for reviewing or whatever), but there are clearly games in my library that will never serve any purpose other than to collect dust, and possible act as a frisbee in the near future. I figure that with as many games as I have (nearly 200 DC games, and nearly 250 games between PS2/Xbox/GC... I think), there's gotta be at least 50-100 games that I will never *ever* touch again for the rest of my life. If I can get $3-5 for each of those games, that's a sizeable chunk of change. And if anything, there has *got* to be a better way for me to store all my enormous peripherals like the maracas controllers or the Steel Battalion... thing.

And what the hell do I need 4 different sets of plates and bowls for? It's nice to have extras for when company comes over, but that's maybe, what... once every 4-6 months?

That's it. I'm cleaning house. At least if I do, I'll have less stuff to move when the time comes.

Back

Well, I'm back in the US of A. Been a long trip. A real long trip. I'm mentally and physically exhausted.

My grandfather was in good spirits when I left, and I made him promise me that he'd keep breathing until I got back to Japan in a couple of months, or at least until he's thought up names for all of my future children. :)

But man, what a whirlwind of a trip. I'll have to take the time to sort through everything and then post about it later. The parts that I *can* post, at least.

And no, I didn't go back to that bar. Sickos.

Update

My grandfather's blood transfusion isn't lasting as long as we had hoped. The first time he had it done was at the beginning of December, and he was doing well until the beginning of January. He had another transfusion done around the 6th of January, and we were hoping it'd last for a month again, but since yesterday, he has been getting worse.

Well, "worse" makes it sound much more horrible than it is. He talks nonsense a lot of the time, but he always talks about how good he feels. Maybe he's lightheaded or something, but man, I can only be hope to be that euphoric when I'm that close to death. I think he can't tell the difference between his dreams and reality, and he's said that he's gone horseback riding, drank the best sake he's ever had, and something about dolphins and afros (not sure about that last one).

He's got a great appetite, though, despite missing 2/3 of his stomach (removed due to stomach cancer). He's constantly craving food and eating and talking about how great it tastes. It's saddening to see him slip away, but at the same time, it's a relief to see that he's peaceful.

If Gatorade Were Really Made from Gators...

...it'd taste a lot like chicken soup, I've learned.

Yes. I ate gator. Deep fried gator. Deep fried gator nuggets to be exact. And they tasted a lot like chicken. Well, the texture was slightly different, but it was suprisingly normal.

Kangaroo was on the menu as well, but that was all sold out. I guess they eat them some kangaroo here in Japan.

There's one more animal on my list of "animals that I never thought I'd end up eating, but did" list.

Hello from abroad

I'm still alive.

Things are all right here. Grandfather is hanging on, due to the blood transfusions, but each transfusion is having less and less effect on him. While we originally heard he would only last a month, he's been given a few more months. He isn't in any pain, and has been surrounded by family, so he told us that he was happy and ready to go whenever the time came. I don't suppose you could ask for much more.

My mom came down with the stomach flu, leaving the rest of us to take care of *two* sickly people. Yeesh. At first, we thought it was something contageous, so we were all walking around wearing Michael Jackson-style masks so as not to infect my grandfather, but turns out they weren't necessary.

Did the usual temple-visiting on New Years, and went to a club with my brother and cousin where we danced the night away with some of my cousin's friends. It's been pretty tame otherwise, aside from the occasional night out with my friends, but it's been good. First long vacation I've had since I've started working.

On a side note, turns out my father *doesn't* have lung cancer. He's got some weird growths in his lungs, but a specialist told him they weren't cancerous, but needed to be watched. Whew.

Now I'm back at work at our Japanese office, and will be here until the 23rd. I suppose I come here too often, as people I know keep coming by and asking, "What are you doing here?" And when I answer, they simply say, "Oh. All right... see you later." I suppose the shock of seeing me sitting at one of their tiny desks has worn off.

Met up with foomfoom for the first time in years earlier this month. It was unfortunately brief, but it was good to see him. I have a video message from him for the folks back home, which I will be sure to play for everyone when I return. I've got plenty of interesting pics of my trip, too.

That's enough time screwing around at work... I'll post more details sometime later.