Sick as a dog

Yesterday was not a good day. At around 11am while I was having my shower, my guts clenched up and I started feeling nauseous. This didn't go away but I decided to endure it. I managed to get to work but the classes were killing me. I could barely stand up and walk around, and at times just sitting up was a struggle. After three lessons I surrendered and left work sick (I think this may be the first time I've missed work because I'm sick. The last sick day I recall was during second year at university). I went to a nearby doctor that spoke English and was informed I probably had gastroenteritis. The doctor gave me a prescription for some pills that were given to me in a set of sachets for each dose, which is good because there's six different pills, as well as a needle to help out. I had to get the needle in my but, which was a little embarrassing and a first (why can't all injections go into the arm?). After that I struggled home and lay in bed miserable for the rest of the day. I didn't get much sleep and still felt terrible this morning. However about 24 hours after the sordid affair began, my guts gave a giant heave and I puked up most of the water and ice cream I'd managed to consume in the previous 24 hours, which had a surprising positive effect on how I felt. Today I managed to get through work with nothing much more than a headache, but I wasn't able to finish the burger I got at McDonald's for breakfast/lunch/dinner (it was the first meal of the day but I ate it at around 6pm, and after this I'm going to eat another meal).

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Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: None, although the music from my DS is playing in the background.

Too Successful

For a while now I haven't been spending as much time on Wikipedia as I used to. Back when I was procrastinating on a PhD I would spend a lot of time just reading articles on Wikipedia. Now, not so much.

Sure, part of the reason is I have less free time. But another big contributor is that Wikipedia is almost too successful. Back in the day, I'd just click on the Random Article link, and most of the time something interesting came up. Now, I'm deluged with articles about soccer players from Iceland, census designated locations in America, obscure albums in genres I don't know by artists I don't know, and other things that make me click for the next article instead of reading the one I got.

This overabundance of uninteresting (to me) articles is a by product of Wikipedia's success. As Wikipedia get's more articles, the fraction that are interesting to a given person will tend to go down, and the Random Article link will bring up more and more stuff that's not of interest.

Ah well, nothing stays good forever.

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Writing time: 9 minutes
Time since last post: 15 or so minutes
Current media: iTunes shuffle, currently Fatal by RZA

New Contract

Last Tuesday I signed my new contract with NOVA. Pretty much what I expected, although I was a bit disappointed by the raise I got. The raise I got was 2k yen per month, which is a bit less than what most people I know received (4k per month). There are a few reasons floating around in my head as to why, which are in order of likeliness: the company is in financial troubles and so is being stingy with increases, I'm not as good a teacher as others (I don't really like that one), and the fact that I was late twice (once by about 5 minutes, once by one lesson) not because I was sick or any other external reason, but I just forgot or lost track of time. Probably a combination of all three.

At any rate, a small increment is a bit shit because after one year I have to start paying city tax, which apparently is a fair bit bigger than the increment (by at least a factor of 2-4, maybe more). Ah well, most people don't bother paying, or at least not until the government gets serious about asking about it, although I have heard it can cause problems if you try and visit Japan again later on. But, since I am the type of person I am, I will probably pay the tax.

I'm going to try and sort out renewing my visa tomorrow, but that will mean heading into work early and hoping the copy of my contract for the immigration office has arrived. It wasn't anywhere Friday, but the area manager said it would be at the office by Thursday, so we'll see in the morning. Then I'll have to go into Osaka, and hand in some forms and stuff. Hopefully it won't take too long, as I have to start work at 2:15, so that gives me about 4 hours to pick up the contract, go into Osaka, deal with the bureaucracy, and get back out to Nishinomiya for work.

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Writing time: a while (I started on Tuesday, but didn't get back to it until tonight)
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: alex gaudino - destination calabria

Food Poisoning

Here's a warning. Avoid the fancy Japanese restaurant at the Bangkok airport. I think it was called KinRamen. I'm pretty sure it was their horrible katsudon that gave me food poisoning that caused me to be quite sick on the flight from Bangkok back to Japan, and has made life unpleasant for me since then. Today was the first time I've managed to get down a full meal since then. And given that I hadn't eaten much in the 24 or so hours preceding that, I've been quite peckish. Anyway, don't eat there.

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Writing time: 2 minutes
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: iTunes shuffle of all the track 3s - currently Wrong Number by GUD

Sore Throat

I woke up yesterday with a really sore throat. It feels like the top of my throat is inflamed, and swallowing aggravates the problem. Fortunately talking doesn't, or work would be really crap right now. I was hoping it would go away overnight, but it didn't. If it's still a problem tomorrow I'll try and find a pharmacy and attempt to make myself understood, and hopefully get something to help the problem.

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Writing time: 5 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: None