Last Post

As the title suggests, this will be my last post at this blog. Unless I someday find some other use for it. In the meantime it'll stay here as an archive. For the foreseeable future I'll be blogging exclusively at JapanLog (see lovely screenshot above). Please re-direct your links, rss feeds, bookmarks, etc there. And stop on by and say hello sometime.

Thanks for putting up with my cheapshots and pearl-casting.

Love,

- whitey

36 Books, in 2007, Part Three

For those of you wondering, yes, I made it safely to Japan. I'm blogging tonight from the comfort of my apartment in Nagoya. To keep up on my doin's in Japan, check out my other blog.

Following is the last part of my book list / reviews for 2007. I've pretty much reached my goal of 36 books for the year. By "pretty much" I mean there are a couple still on the go, but one's within pages of being done and the other half done; plus there are at least a couple I started but never finished (and left in Canada, and removed from the list) so that's got to count for something, right?

25-26. The New Kindaichi Files: The Amakusa Treasure Hunt Murders, Parts 1 & 2 - Amagi, Sato & Tamaki -- A bi-lingual manga I picked up in Tokyo last year. Pretty good mystery story, and takes place at some places that are historically significant to Christians here.

27. The Gutter - Craig Gross -- Good, inspiring read from one of the XXXChurch creators. Challenges the reader to take the love of Jesus into the world's darker places.

28. The Lotus and the Cross - Ravi Zacharias -- Ravi's autobiography. A very different kind of book for him, not so intellectual and very personal. Great story about a life well-lived and still going strong.

29. Samurai William - Giles Milton -- A little long, in fact boring at times. But I was too stubborn to quit once I was a couple hundred pages in. This book tells the story of a British explorer/trader way back in the 16 or 1700s who got stranded in Japan and ended up embracing the culture and becoming an important part of it. Interesting for its depiction of Europeans' first impressions of Japan, and for its look into the time of persecution.

30. Shazam: Monster Society of Evil - Jeff Smith -- Bone creator Jeff Smith does his take on DC's Captain Marvel. A fun read, even if you're not particularly into Shazam. Good, but I'm looking forward to seeing Smith do his own, original stuff again, like his current project, RASL.

31. Confucius Lives Next Door - TR Reid -- A good look into modern East Asian society (including a lot about Japan) and its values. A mix of travel memoir material and more intellectual stuff. And as the title implies, Reid talks a lot about the teachings of Confucius, and the influence of the ancient philosopher on Asian culture. Definitely worth reading, especially for anyone planning on living here but who's not from here (like me).

32. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching - Diane Larsen-Freeman -- I had to read this for my TESL course. An overview of several different teaching styles, with lots of examples of how each philosophy can be put into practice. Not bad; not amazing either.

33. Learning Teaching - Jim Scrivener -- Another one for my TESL course. Pretty good, though a little dry at times. It is a textbook, though.

34. Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief - Tadamichi Kuribayashi -- Kuribayashi was the General for the Japanese army at Iwo Jima. His recently re-discovered letters to his family were part of the inspiration for Clint Eastwoods' flick Letters from Iwo Jima (great movie by the way). The general's son was too young to read so he drew pictures with simple captions that the kid could look at and his mother read to him. I love seeing a different, more personal, more human picture of the "enemy". That's what this book (and the movie) brought to mind: The fact that in war, the reality is that our enemies aren't that much different from us. That's the futility of war, isn't it?

35. Foundation - Isaac Asimov -- Futuristic political sci-fi. Not bad, though a little dry at times. And I can't think of one significant female character in the whole thing; but maybe that's just a reflection of the time in which it was written.

36. Wrong About Japan - Peter Carey -- A father and son's journey into Japanese culture, which they enter through its "garish, brightly-lit back door" (ie pop culture). An entertaining read.

Christmas Classics from Pearls Before Swine (the former name of this blog)

It's been a quiet week here at cheapshots. I do still intend to post some more pics, but counting down to my departure (this Friday!!!) or the New Year just doesn't seem to be happening. Perhaps I will post some Christmasy photos in the days to come, but in the spirit of the holiday season, I'm dusting off some really old posts to share with you now: my Christmas-themed writings of 2004 (follow the links below).

Maybe between now and the new year I'll dust off some more classics. Since I plan on retiring this blog, maybe it'll be a "best of" or "greatest hits". If you've been reading for a while, any suggestions?

My opinions have changed on some matters in the past 3 years, but on this topic I'm pretty much feeling the same (although this year I may be slightly less cynical, probably because I'm leaving home in less than a week and feeling sentimental). So because of that here they are:

Things I Hate About Christmas:

• Part One


• Part Two


• Part Three


• Part Four


• Part Five (sort of)

Have a great Christmas, everyone.

A Few More Shots from Ottawa

These will be the last of my shots from my trip to Ottawa in October. Over the next couple of weeks I'll try to keep it to things that are more "fresh". I'll have to do some sort of a countdown, too. Two weeks from today, Lord willing, I'll be in Bangor, Maine, where my long trip to Japan begins.

Parliament Hill.

Inside the Parliament Building, on the way up to the Peace Tower, looking down on the lobby area.

Inside the Peace Tower they had miniatures of the sculptures that decorate the outside. This was my fave.

The Peace Tower. Glad I had my telephoto lens with me. That thing's tall. Seriously, I had no idea the Parliament Building was so stinking huge.

See? Telephoto.

Some of the adjacent government buildings on Parliament Hill. Have I mentioned how much I love Gothic architecture?

Discarded

This pic was shot in Charlottetown, PEI, back in November.

Speaking of discarding things, I've got a car, an iBook and various little things like comics, books, and other junk to get rid of (anyone?). I've sorted out most what's getting left behind but not discarded. And I shipped a couple of boxes to Japan this week. Moving to the other side of the world can be complicated, and like most of us I have too much useless stuff lying around, but I'm trying to keep things simple.

Meanwhile, my visa application is in process and out of my hands (probably sitting in some guy's in box at the consulate in Montreal right about now). And I've booked a ticket to Japan for December 28.

Won't be long.

Icy

The Shovelers

My dad and brother after a whole lot of shoveling last week after the big storm.