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August 6, 2008
Birthday Tales
Another birthday, another year. I guess this is what happens when you get older. Far from a dreaded event, I still like birthdays when they come, but they're not as important as they used to be. My girlfriend and I went shopping on Sunday in Kobe for some odds and ends in the apartment (at Costco no less!), and we celebrated our second anniversary by having dinner at my place. As we just got back from a four-day/three night trip to Beijing not too long ago, I'm glad things are going at a slower pace. Not only does it help my budget, but it's nice to sit back and relax.
I still have plenty of time to do just that. Vacation will continue until the beginning of next month, and since I still have salary coming in things won't come to a crisis. Two big ticket items this month are clamping down on my budget pretty heavily: a plane ticket back to the States for winter vacation and the quarterly city tax bill. The way the local taxes are set up is that you pay for the previous year's income the following year. As I did halfway decent in terms of salary before changing jobs, I am paying the price for that now. So be it, I have the savings to cope. It still isn't pleasant to deal with though.
For what's left of vacation, i will try to make as much use of it as possible without breaking the bank. I have a few part-time positions lined up which provide work every now and then, which have been helpful before and are even more so this year. In addition, I'm now undertaking the mammoth task of creating grammar flashcards (about 600+ of them) for that wonderful Japanese exam. The kanji drill work I've done before has been good, as that's an area I'm not worried about as much anymore. If only studying grammar were as addictive. If only.
In the gallery, pictures are up from both Beijing and Thailand, but only a certain amount. I'll put the rest up on my Facebook account, though I believe I selected my best ones to be uploaded. From now on I might consider deleting a lot of the old pictures on the server, if only to free up space. I'm debating on how much I want to continue this blog, as it has become a lot more difficult to maintain. Not only for the question of content, but also for the question of readership (for those of you still around.)
Things are going well here. They aren't nearly as exciting right now, but as I said before, it is by design, so I have no complaints. If anything this will be a time to focus my efforts on study, and do something that I haven't managed to do for the last three years. Pass that exam once and for all. I can only hope. I can only hope.
P.S. Thanks for all the birthday comments, calls, and mails from everyone! You know who are, so thanks!
Posted by paul.koehler at August 6, 2008 11:36 PM