internet & instant messaging

the communicative device of today sends partial truths. the recipient does not see facial expression, or eye movement to fully grasp what is being typed. hidden meaning (aka sarcasm), circumstance (aka busy with laundry, not intentional avoidance), and word choice is either misconstrued or not even apparent.  dissimilar to telephone calls, which impersonal communication first began, intonation cannot be sent through text messages. we begin to rely on emoticons and quotation marks to receive and convey emotion. the recipient is left to rely on what is being typed, or what is not being typed, and have no choice but to accept them as reality. from a psychological approach of observing this phenomenon, sending text messages can provide a veil of detachment for the sender and may result in expressing either his/ her innermost thoughts, or the complete opposite. in the cyber world, we are stripped of our identity. no one sees our physial appearance, unless we want them to, which makes it convenient for us to reinvent ourselves online.

could it be that the reason why the internet is so addictive to the young generation, men around 40-50s, is because these groups are full of people who are still trying to find themselves, still changing? the housewives who do go online are the ones unsatisfied with the current state of affairs either with their role or with their family, and the ones who don't have their lives evolving around their family? that is a big generalization. it's a theory. don't flame me for a theory.

such a backwards country

i feel like every step i have taken to get used to this place has only lead me to take 2 steps back, whether it is getting my students to come up to me and say something other than: you are cute, or my Japanese conversation, or getting along with my JTEs/ other JETs. there is so much to experience and learn here that i don't think one year is enough.

on a less gloomy note, the other male JET backed out of being Santa Clause for the kindergarten in our town, so take a wild guess at who had to take his place, or just answer, what do you think I'm wearing as I'm writing this in the kindergarten?? Wait, that's also pretty depressing. Um. The kids are adorable here. I will post some pictures of them soon.  my parents are coming next week

i wish i was a kid again...(-_-)

i'm so ready to start making an imaginary friend to talk to. it will be a male, i think. the male counterpart of myself. i think i might start getting really attached to myself. "so chris, what are you up to tonight?" "oh, i'm going to enjoy a quiet night in with Me, just exchanging thoughts over wine." (O.O")

kimono festival