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Sep. 14th, 2005 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7urghhhh I am at home without the car today, stuck at home to try and get something productive done.
I have retrieved all my old notes about this old novel and am trying to figure out how far back I have to prune it before I can let it grow with the dead wood gone. Alternatively, maybe I should just take a cutting and start over? I don't really know what to do with it, and I'm a bit hung up on things like hating the characters' names and being unable to tell at what point precisely the plot goes from interestingly complex to overly byzantine. There must be a line, but I really can't find it. And of course, I actually let the thought "why should I even bother with this?" cross my mind just now, which isn't a very good start.
Sigh.
For the moment, other matters:
1)
Last night Z and I went to see a fellow he met on the Stella! mailing list-- a man who's trying to open up a scooter shop in Buffalo to sell Stellas and Vespas and Lambrettas etc. (He'll probably also sell the pointy little Korean scooters people seem to like, too.) He had an ad in Z's newspaper, trying to sell a 2003 Stella with some body damage. So Z ostensibly came to check out the scooter from the ad.
It was seriously, heavily, mercilessly adorable. It's a little red thing, probably 2 1/2' wide, with just enough room on the seat for two, and chrome detailing and whitewall tires. (The wheels are only about 10".) The guy started it up and it was a lot quieter than I'd thought, given that it's a two-stroke (think: chainsaws and lawnmowers) engine. It also didn't smell too bad.
So I started to understand precisely where this obsession of Z's has come from: they're really nifty little things.
As for the body damage, it's the left front fender. It got crumpled in, and has been banged roughly out into shape again, but the seller said he didn't want to fix it entirely because potential buyers might find that dishonest. He would and could fix it-- cut out the damaged part and weld in a new panel, perhaps-- but had avoided doing so out of a sense of honesty. (And also, I think, because he was using the scooter for his own amusement in the meantime, and didn't find the dented panel to be a detriment.)
He's selling it for $1800; a new one will cost $2800 plus some additional setup fees. So Z is sorely tempted by how good a deal that would be-- the used one is mechanically sound, and runs really well. Also, if he started out with a used one he'd be less worried about messing it up. And he'd be free to customize it-- since it needs paint anyway, on the damaged panel, he could go with his plan to paint the entire thing Latvian Red* with a white racing stripe down the middle. (It would be a Stealth Latvian Pride scooter, as he wouldn't put any stickers or lettering on it-- just the flag's colors.)
So he's torn-- get the used one for cheap and spend money repairing and customizing it? Or wait until spring, as was the original plan, and buy a brand-new, probably fireapple red one? (The used one's red, it's just in need of some additional paint.)
I myself am undecided: on the one hand, it's only $1k more for a brand-new one with 0 miles and 0 dodgy history. But on the other hand, used Stellas with tens of thousands of miles on them seldom go for much less than new ones-- in order to get any kind of discount, you have to find a damaged one. They hold their value very well, and in two years they'll no longer be import-legal (due to two-stroke engines not meeting new emissions standards; yes, a 100 mpg scooter weighing 200 pounds is more ecologically dangerous than a 3-ton HMMWV getting 5 miles to the gallon, although both vehicles fulfill the same purpose, which is to get one dude from home to work and back.) so they'll all be collector's items, pretty much.
So... I dunno. New scooter, pristine and virginal? Used scooter, less worrisome and more customizable?
The debate rages on.
2)
I spent a while comparing the two biggest Teach In Japan programs, and have failed to make any kind of meaningful decision. I looked up Nova, a private firm that runs English language schools in Japan, and JET, a Japanese government agency that imports foreigners for government and teaching positions.
Nova: $21k-30k/yr., provides cheap furnished company housing and reimburses you for $200 of travel a month (on a rail pass, it seems); gives you 18 days of holiday a year including 8 fixed consecutive days at New Year; encourages renewal of yearly contracts and promotes to higher positions within the company; positions are all teaching. You don't have to speak Japanese. Your students have signed up for your classes and want to be there. They are interviewing in late October in Ithaca for positions beginning in November '05 and the first quarter of '06.
JET: $32k/yr, helps you find housing, pays for your trip to Japan and back, gives you Saturday and Sunday of every week plus all normal Japanese holidays off, also perhaps 12 paid leave days depending on position. You can only renew your contract once. Your position will either be working for the local government in international-type activities, or an assistant teacher to a public jr. high or sr. high school English teacher. You are expected to have a basic knowledge of Japanese, or acquire one once there. Their 2005 candidates departed for Japan on July 31st, and I assume that's the usual date, so I'd have kind of a wait if I wanted to apply here.
What does any of this actually mean? I don't know. I'll find out early next week what my hours at work are going to be. And I still haven't had any bright ideas about what to do with my life.
______________________
* Only the Latvians would insist that the red of their flag actually be the color of shed human blood (apparently, Pantone 1807C). You see the kind of people I'm dealing with, here.
I have retrieved all my old notes about this old novel and am trying to figure out how far back I have to prune it before I can let it grow with the dead wood gone. Alternatively, maybe I should just take a cutting and start over? I don't really know what to do with it, and I'm a bit hung up on things like hating the characters' names and being unable to tell at what point precisely the plot goes from interestingly complex to overly byzantine. There must be a line, but I really can't find it. And of course, I actually let the thought "why should I even bother with this?" cross my mind just now, which isn't a very good start.
Sigh.
For the moment, other matters:
1)
Last night Z and I went to see a fellow he met on the Stella! mailing list-- a man who's trying to open up a scooter shop in Buffalo to sell Stellas and Vespas and Lambrettas etc. (He'll probably also sell the pointy little Korean scooters people seem to like, too.) He had an ad in Z's newspaper, trying to sell a 2003 Stella with some body damage. So Z ostensibly came to check out the scooter from the ad.
It was seriously, heavily, mercilessly adorable. It's a little red thing, probably 2 1/2' wide, with just enough room on the seat for two, and chrome detailing and whitewall tires. (The wheels are only about 10".) The guy started it up and it was a lot quieter than I'd thought, given that it's a two-stroke (think: chainsaws and lawnmowers) engine. It also didn't smell too bad.
So I started to understand precisely where this obsession of Z's has come from: they're really nifty little things.
As for the body damage, it's the left front fender. It got crumpled in, and has been banged roughly out into shape again, but the seller said he didn't want to fix it entirely because potential buyers might find that dishonest. He would and could fix it-- cut out the damaged part and weld in a new panel, perhaps-- but had avoided doing so out of a sense of honesty. (And also, I think, because he was using the scooter for his own amusement in the meantime, and didn't find the dented panel to be a detriment.)
He's selling it for $1800; a new one will cost $2800 plus some additional setup fees. So Z is sorely tempted by how good a deal that would be-- the used one is mechanically sound, and runs really well. Also, if he started out with a used one he'd be less worried about messing it up. And he'd be free to customize it-- since it needs paint anyway, on the damaged panel, he could go with his plan to paint the entire thing Latvian Red* with a white racing stripe down the middle. (It would be a Stealth Latvian Pride scooter, as he wouldn't put any stickers or lettering on it-- just the flag's colors.)
So he's torn-- get the used one for cheap and spend money repairing and customizing it? Or wait until spring, as was the original plan, and buy a brand-new, probably fireapple red one? (The used one's red, it's just in need of some additional paint.)
I myself am undecided: on the one hand, it's only $1k more for a brand-new one with 0 miles and 0 dodgy history. But on the other hand, used Stellas with tens of thousands of miles on them seldom go for much less than new ones-- in order to get any kind of discount, you have to find a damaged one. They hold their value very well, and in two years they'll no longer be import-legal (due to two-stroke engines not meeting new emissions standards; yes, a 100 mpg scooter weighing 200 pounds is more ecologically dangerous than a 3-ton HMMWV getting 5 miles to the gallon, although both vehicles fulfill the same purpose, which is to get one dude from home to work and back.) so they'll all be collector's items, pretty much.
So... I dunno. New scooter, pristine and virginal? Used scooter, less worrisome and more customizable?
The debate rages on.
2)
I spent a while comparing the two biggest Teach In Japan programs, and have failed to make any kind of meaningful decision. I looked up Nova, a private firm that runs English language schools in Japan, and JET, a Japanese government agency that imports foreigners for government and teaching positions.
Nova: $21k-30k/yr., provides cheap furnished company housing and reimburses you for $200 of travel a month (on a rail pass, it seems); gives you 18 days of holiday a year including 8 fixed consecutive days at New Year; encourages renewal of yearly contracts and promotes to higher positions within the company; positions are all teaching. You don't have to speak Japanese. Your students have signed up for your classes and want to be there. They are interviewing in late October in Ithaca for positions beginning in November '05 and the first quarter of '06.
JET: $32k/yr, helps you find housing, pays for your trip to Japan and back, gives you Saturday and Sunday of every week plus all normal Japanese holidays off, also perhaps 12 paid leave days depending on position. You can only renew your contract once. Your position will either be working for the local government in international-type activities, or an assistant teacher to a public jr. high or sr. high school English teacher. You are expected to have a basic knowledge of Japanese, or acquire one once there. Their 2005 candidates departed for Japan on July 31st, and I assume that's the usual date, so I'd have kind of a wait if I wanted to apply here.
What does any of this actually mean? I don't know. I'll find out early next week what my hours at work are going to be. And I still haven't had any bright ideas about what to do with my life.
______________________
* Only the Latvians would insist that the red of their flag actually be the color of shed human blood (apparently, Pantone 1807C). You see the kind of people I'm dealing with, here.
