I have a few classes of really little ones. It’s kind of like a Mommy and Me class, because they come with their mothers (and occasionally, a dad will come as well or instead) . They’re all two and three years old.
It’s funny, because at first I was so nervous to teach that class — I’ve never had much experience with really young kids. Most of my piano students and summer school students were from seven to twelve. But, I actually really love teaching those classes. The parents are all super nice, and the kids are ridiculously adorable.
Every week we do greetings like hello, my name is and their age. We go over counting, colours and the days of the week, then learn a new set of vocabulary and do a craft that’s related to the words.
One of the girls I teach went with her family to the states for a three week holiday. Her mum told us that one of the days of their vacation, they were on the train, and someone asked her (the child), how old she was.
She replied, I’m two.
Her mum was so impressed and proud! Haha. I guess it shows that our classes are paying off!
It made me really happy to hear that she was able to use the English that she’s learned like that. I know it probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I think it’s pretty exciting.
This morning I woke up the melodic sound of some idiot banging away at something.
God knows what it was, but that irritating BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG sound was echoing all around, and it’s more than I can handle. It sounds like someone’s hammering something. Why do they have to do that before 9:00am? Is it necessary? I think not.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s loud, repetitive sounds.
In other days, I booked my return flight to Canada for the Christmas holidays. So, I’ll be getting there on December 22nd and staying either until January 2nd or 3rd. I haven’t booked the flight back quite yet, because we’re trying to find a good route. I do not want to stop in Tokyo.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the site lately, and what I want to do with it.
Right now I feel like I want to put more into it, keep it updated, and add some content pages. About what, I’m not entirely sure so I’m open to suggestions, but I’d just like to make this site a bit more… hearty.
So yes. I’m going to make a better effort to post here more. That’s all I have to say.
I really like when it rains at night.
I guess it’s soothing, to hear it outside the window, hitting the tops of the buildings, the windows, the streets and what not. It’s supposed to be rainy season now, but we haven’t gotten that much rain this year, so I guess that’s lucky.
I’d rather have it rain all night, and then be a nice day.
It’s soothing.
And I am very irritated with you.
You probably have no idea, and you probably won’t ever know because before I know it, you’ll make up for it, but yeah. You make me annoyed, and oddly enough that’s part of the reason why I like you as much as I do.
So, if you know me at all, you probably know that along with my friends I run a site called Shattered-Tranquility.net that brings news about visual bands from Japan to English speaking fans.
This was supposed to be shorter, so here’s the point form notes if you don’t want to actually read this whole thing:
- Shattered-Tranquility.net was not an idea ’stolen’ from someone
- If you have a problem with the site contact me so I can fix it. Bitching about it elsewhere doesn’t help matters, it makes them worse
- We work hard on the site and don’t appreciate your negativity; constructive criticism is extremely different and we welcome that
- You may think you’re being helpful, but when someone is constantly hounded for stupid things, your ‘helpful advice’ or ‘correction’ can come off snarky and irritating when you word it in a snarky and irritating way
- We are human; mistakes are bound to happen
- If you don’t like the site, don’t visit. I know, it’s a revolutionary idea, but it will do wonders for all parties involved
- Visual kei fans are horrible to each other for reasons far beyond my comprehension
- We’re all in this together, so why the hell are we being ridiculous to one another?
- I’m a silly girl who wants everyone to get along, and wants to get along with everyone and would prefer to actually work out differences than argue and stomp away
- I do love S-T, and I hope we can continue to make the site a great resource for English speaking fans
Being the creeper that I am, I’m always looking for what people are saying about the site. I want to think that it’s only natural; I mean we put a lot of effort into that thing and there has been a lot of things (both good and bad) that have happened because of it.
One that that really irks me are these rumours I hear about the formation of the site. The biggest thing I hear is that we copied the idea from elsewhere — which in a sense we did, but not where people are saying from.
So let’s sit back for the tale of how Shattered-Tranquility.net began…
It all started on Octber 4th, 2007. I don’t really know what came over me, but I guess I was feeling restless and wanted something to do. I mean, before that I had the podcast, which got to be too much work and I lost interest in. Then we had Visual-Shinbun, which never went anyways, even though it was a brilliant idea. I guess with that site it was we had too many people, doing too little… meaning that nothing got done.
So, it occurred to me that it would be cool if there was a news and gossip site — like PerezHilton.com, for the visual world. I mean, I hadn’t seen anything like that before, and even if there was one I certainly had never stumbled across it. With these happy little thoughts in mind, I updated my LiveJournal, wondering if anyone was interested in creating such a site.
If you really need proof, you can seen the screen shot here.
At that time, only two of my friends replied — Hideko and Mija. There were a lot more people on my LJ friends list at that time, and there were a few people I would have pegged to want to be part of it, but they didn’t. I figured, if they didn’t reply they weren’t interested. We started talking about it and getting our ideas together. We somehow pulled Yanique into the whole process as well (<3), started thinking up names, creating a layout… installed wordpress, got the domain name, and we were off. Well, two months later on December 6th, we were off.
And since then, it’s been one hell of a ride.
Initially, I never thought the site would grow to what it has. I wouldn’t say now that it’s something huge that everyone knows about it, but I think we’ve made a nice little name for ourselves. I also never thought that the drama would come along with it.
Oh my god the drama.
If you know me, you’ll probably realize I am not a dramaish person. I avoid conflict. I don’t mind the occasional fight every now and then, and yes, I’ll admit that I can allow myself to be pulled into petty arguments. Unfortunately, after about ten minutes I’m over it and want to move on.
… this fandom does not work that way. They like to beat things over the head until someone dies. Or thereabouts.
I’ve probably been kind of bitchy and snarky on the site from time to time, but when you feel like people are always jumping on your back over stupid reasons, it’s hard not to be. I mean really, commenting because you see a typo, is that necessary? Can you understand the post? Yes, you can. Generally speaking, my typos (which I do admit to making) do not impede the message of the post in such a way that it is rendered incomprehensible. So why be a jerk?
Then you get all the people commenting to correct you — which is fine if you make a mistake. Naturally, it’s preferable if people email us so we can get it and fix it right away, but for some reasons, fans of this fandom seem to think that’s the worst way to do things. I do not understand why.
I mean, we’re human. We make mistakes. We try not to, because no one wants incorrect information about their favourite band floating around out there, but it does happen from time to time — especially as our staff grows. And yes, we would like to know if we’ve made a mistake, but sometimes the way people comment is just so… disheartening.
Let’s say you worked hard to get the information and put it into a reasonably easy to read format for English speakers, and five minutes later someone was posting a correction in a snarky manner. If you can honestly tell me you would be totally okay with that, you deserve a medal.
There have been fights over photos, over hotlinking (which I mean come on, Hideko pays for the space, upload it to a free server if you want to use the images on the site, it’s not rocket science), news and of course, stealing.
I’ve also had a number of interesting things said about me, and a lot of people have accused me of ’stealing news from them’. This also makes little sense to me and really irks me, and although I know I shouldn’t react to it because I know that I don’t do that, I can’t help it. You feel like it’s a personal attack (well, I guess it is). Why would I take news from you when I can read it myself? O_O That’s what I don’t understand. I don’t frequent other visual kei sites at all, mostly because a) I can find news about the bands I want myself and b) I’m not as into the whole scene as I used to be, so why and how am I ’stealing’ this news from you?
And yes, I’ll admit we’ve probably jumped on people from taking from us in maybe not the best fashion (even though we generally try to contact them privately first), but when you spend your free time translating things (even easy things) it’s irksome when people go select, copy, paste, and don’t say hey, thanks person for translating this for me because I didn’t do it myself.
I think the worst part of the whole thing, is that when there’s an issue people go and bitch about it elsewhere instead of talking to one of the head staff (which would be Hideko, Mija or myself) about it. I mean, I think I’m a reasonable person and I want to get things resolved and fixed in a timely and appropriate fashion, but instead of messaging or emailing me, people just start more and more drama. And what’s the point? What do you get out of it?
Then we get the people who hate the site or hate a certain staff member. Well, I’m sorry that you stumbled on the site and found it so repulsive, but if you dislike it… why come back? O_O It’s very easy not to point your browser in that direction again. Or better yet, why not help us improve the site to make it better, that way everyone wins.
Those are probably two too logical solutions and therefore would fail in this fandom.
It’s like when someone was mad that we were high ranked on Google searches. Because yes, we control that. We sleep with the Google staff to make sure out site gets high up on the search results (… no, we do not do this before anyone takes this seriously). Come on, we have nothing to do with that, it’s not our fault if the site appears first, third, tenth, fiftith. Heaven forbid you have to scroll an extra 10 seconds (and let’s face it, it would never actually be ten seconds extra… unless you have a morbidly slow computer).
There’s probably a million and one things I could say about the site. It probably seems like I don’t enjoy it from the contents of this post, haha. I do though, because it is fun and I do like finding and translating news, even if I’m not really into the visual scene as much anymore.
I like it when I can talk with people, because I’m shy and … well, awkward so I probably come off cold. But I like it when readers come and comment on the site, and I like how people from the visual community can share their opinions. I just don’t like it when people get all asshole about things. This is honestly the snarkiest, bitchiest fandom that I’m part of, and I can’t believe how the fans treat each other sometimes. We’re all here for the same purpose, so why are we being such jerks to each other? It’s not a competition, no one is better than anyone else. We’re all just here, trying to enjoy the same thing and simultaneously ruining it for each other by being ridiculous.
I’m not saying everyone has to hold hands, hug and love each other, but is it too much to ask to be mindful of other people’s feelings and respect other people’s opinions? Apparently it is. And I do realize that this is not just the nature of visual fans, but the internet as a whole, which really is it’s entire undoing. People fail to realize that hey, there is actually a real live person on the other side of that screen. Maybe you don’t take the internet ’seriously’, but a lot of people do. The comments are still directed towards someone.
I am also not saying that I’m perfect or guilt free, or that any of the other S-T staff are, because no one is. But isn’t it time to give up on the competitive, bitchy attitude bullshit, and work together for something? I mean, really? We’re all human, no one likes their work criticized, it’s life. You get a bad grade in school, and your curse about the teacher (don’t lie, you’ve done it), you don’t get something you really want, and you blame someone else, that’s what we do. But why bring it on here and make it that much worse? It’s natural for us to want to stand up for something we work hard on, it’s not natural for you to go out of your way to harass us and try to bring us down.
I don’t remember what the whole point of this entry was, because it definitely ended up being longer than I had anticipated. I guess more than anything, it’s all this random shit that has been piling up over the past year and a half of owning the site.
I think that is all I have to say on this for now.
After I get all woejf wofj23of because of him, I can’t help but feel a bit guilty because I feel like I should still be feeling the same way about you.
Not that I don’t feel the same way still.
I mean, I don’t feel any differently towards you.
It’s just…
I want to say ‘things are different’ but they’re not really. Well, they kind of are. I (possibly) have a chance here that I never had before, or maybe I did, but never thought of it?
I don’t know. I still feel guilty.
Even though lately, you’ve been confusing and irritating. And I mean that in the best and worst ways possible. Because really, you must mean something that way. We’ll see what happens, I suppose. At the very least, you’ve stuck around for longer than I would have thought possible — and whether you realize it or not, you know more about me than a lot of people do. That’s saying something. It makes me want to hug you (despite all the times I’ve wanted to hit you as well).
Right. This is the time when I go to sleep and stop thinking.
So, my lovely braintwin was visiting this past week.
You know how they say bad things come in threes, well, we definitely got our fill of that.
I’m too tired to make any sort of long drawn out entry about everything, but she started off sick (jetlagged) for our trip to Ise. Despite being sick, she was a trooper and really stuck out the trip, which aside from her feeling like poo for the latter portion, was a lot of fun.
We went with three of my adult lady students, who are just so awesome. They took us to the Ise shrine, and I got yelled at for taking a photo. I must have made the god there mad. I asked Toshi if I could, and she said it was fine. Two seconds later, the guard is yelling at me. “NO PHOTO”. Ah well, maybe that ticked them off and explains what happened for the rest of the week.
The day after Ise was Kyoto, where we went and got all Maiko’ed out (as in, dressed up as apprentice Geisha). We went with my friend Eri and her sister Miho, who are both just so sweet. So that was really fun, and the photo shook was pretty awesome. I’ll upload some photos into the photo galleries here on the site later. We went to the Kiyomizudera, Kinakakuji and the Bamboo Tunnel — all great places to visit in Kyoto. Again, photos will come later.
We made a brief interlude back in Nagoya, after Kyoto while we were waiting for the nightbus to Tokyo. We got offered apples in a plastic bag by some completely random guy. It felt like Snow White.
Really though, who goes around offering random strangers outside of a station apples from a plastic bag? O_O
Long story short for Tokyo — I got extremely sick. As in, hallucinating and throwing up for a few days sick. It was weird because I knew what I was saying and thinking wasn’t making sense, but I couldn’t make it stop. I guess I told everyone there was pain in my stomach that was like iPhones, and they were flipping (or turning, or something). Kim, being as sweet as he can be, was so awesome. And braintwin played nurse to me. T_T I felt so bad putting everyone out like that, and I really wish I didn’t get so sick. We were supposed to take the bus back to Nagoya, but ended up taking the Shinkansen, with Kim in tow.
We did end up catching a live (and omg SIN from ViViD is hot in real life), and bought a couple things for S-T, so that’s a bonus. I’m really glad that we got to see lynch. too. They are always good live; never disappoint. アンド (AND) was surprisingly good live as well, very… JOKEResque. If I had to compare, that is. That’s the easiest way to describe them. It felt really good to go to a live, so I’m looking forward to checking out a few more.
Anyways, back in Nagoya we realized that braintwin had lost her glasses. T_T Kim went back to Tokyo to see if they were at his place, but no dice. Turns out, we lost them on the bus. We did get them back, so that’s all good. We spent yesterday wandering around Oosu for a bit, but I was just so easily exhausted because I hadn’t eaten any solid food except a piece of toast for like, three days.
So, overall it was really nice to get a chance to hang out! I just feel awful that I ruined it all by getting so sick. I mean it’s not like I intentionally wanted to (who would want that), but yeah. At least we got to see some of the sights, go to a live, and hang out and talk.
I feel like there are more things to say, but I’m done for now. As they come back to me, I shall update.
Where I don’t like answering the phone. I mean, my phone. If it’s a phone at work or something, that’s one thing. But my own person cell phone, I do not like answering.
I don’t know why.
I never have. As long as I’ve had a phone. Which really has only been about five years. Landlines, I’m okay with answering. But cell phones… I get really weird about. I don’t have any sort of odd paranoid thoughts about it, I just simply don’t like answering it.
SO. That brings me to today.
This morning, bright and early (at eight o’clock) my phone rings, waking me from sleep. I had to work at 9:30, so it’s not like it was the worst time to be awake. However, I didn’t recognize the number, so I didn’t answer. I do not want to talk to someone I don’t know at eight in the morning. It rang again. Different number, which seemed weird, but I didn’t answer.
It turns out, I have voicemail on my phone. WHO KNEW. BECAUSE I SURE DIDN’T. Not until I got some this morning.
From my mother.
Naturally, I called her back right away beacuse I thought maybe something was wrong. Why else would she call me at eight in the morning and on my cell phone no less, especially when I just talked to her on Tuesday.
Long story short, she just wanted to talk. Nothing was wrong, which is a relief. I also don’t know why it gave me actual numbers for the long distance call. O_O Like, it looked like a regular cell phone number… weird.
Cut to this evening after work. I get another call, but it’s “Blocked Number”. Again, I don’t answer it. It rings again… from the “Blocked Number”. So I figure, oh what the hell, I’ll answer it and see what happens. It ends up being Hideko, calling to make sure the number I gave her worked. Good thing I did answer it! It was really hard to hear her for some reason, because it was all muffled, but she’s on her way, so I’m excited.
I need to get over this not wanting to answer the phone thing though. I have no idea what it is. It’s not that I don’t like talking, I just really… hate answering. The same with things like Skype. I do not want to answer if people I’m not intending to call, call me.
Hm. This may come off sounding more crazy than I intended.
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Teaching EFL in Nagoya, Japan 
. Majored in 「liŋgwistiks」.
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