Distraction

I haven't been able to study AT ALL today, or much this week. Which is sad, because I haven't had any classes this week, so in theory, it should have been an opportune time to study. My goal for tomorrow is to blaze through a few chapters of my review.

Anyway, the big things that have been distracting me today were mostly e-mails. One big batch of e-mails for MAJET: planning the upcoming Art Show, setting up PR (twitter, e-mails, websites, etc.), taking care of orders for publications by National AJET, handling Micro Grant Fund stuff which was set up in honor of Taylor Anderson.

The other thing that has been distracting me is my car issue. My parents replied back to me regarding my concerns, and my dad gave his advice:

Harold, my advice is for you to dispose of your car due to:
1) age of car is 16 years old - too many old parts that may have no U.S. equivalent for replacements.
2) legality of using wrong-positioned steering wheel on U.S. roads.
3) cost of tariff tax at port of entry.
4) transport cost.

Best to do:
1) Do not make any repairs now - only those necessary
2) Sell car as is to the incoming educator taking over your position or anyone else.
3) start with a brand new car in the U.S.
4) kiss your car goodbye - thanks for the safe rides it provided.

All very good advice. But heartbreaking, because I love my car oh-so-much. Also, got some bad news, Dad. I had to take the care in for its biennial check-up and it needed to get its muffler replaced. Considering all the maintenance it has already experienced, doesn't it mean that the car will be working well in the future? Or does that mean it's "prone to injury" and I should expect damage to other parts if I brought it back to the US? I need to talk to a mechanic about all this; especially one with import car experience.

If I can't/shouldn't bring it back to the US, hopefully I can sell it here. If I were to buy a new car in the US, I've been eying the new ハチロク Hachi-Roku, a.k.a. Toyota 86, a.k.a. Scion FR-S, a.k.a. Subaru BRZ.

Toyota FT86 G Sports Concept

Word of the Day: 注意散漫　「ちゅういさんまん」　"chuuisanman" or "distraction" or "lack of attention."

Rant

This week has been fun and busy. Busy, but fun. Last weekend was Father's Day, celebrated in dozens of countries. Happy Father's Day, to those of you whom it matters! Like my brother, for example; his first Father's Day! Why isn't there an Uncle's Day? I wanna be celebrated, too! Haha. (My niece is adorable!)

As I mentioned earlier, I am now the co-president of an organization here in Japan. The committee and I have been working hard to plan and coordinate events that are coming up very soon. There was a big hullabaloo about it earlier because someone had suggested a new location, and all of a sudden, out of laziness, everyone (including me) were saying, "alright...yeah...sure..." It seemed like the event was completely decided without even discussing it. So once we started discussing it with people outside of the group (potential attendees), everyone was turning it down. And it made me think, "hold up, we never thought it through in the first place. Why are we going for this place anyway; whatever happened to the original plan?" Anyway, just all the discussion tires me out.

Played some more SFXT yesterday; since I leveled up to C+, I have been facing harder and harder opponents. So tough, in fact, that I had a net loss in BP yesterday (dammit!) and I'm actually now below the number of points necessary to level up to C+. Sigh.

Okay, so my biggest rant has to do with boxing. I finally got around to watching Manny Pacquaio's latest match, against undefeated champion, Timothy Bradley. Watching the match, it was clear as day that Bradley had no chance against Pacquaio. Manny was stronger, faster, dodged more/better, and got way more hits in than Bradley. I was expecting Manny to knock out Bradley; he had lots of chances, but he's just too damn nice. The way the rounds went were as follows:

Round starts. The boxers get close. Bradley tries to attack; Manny either blocks or dodges. With one minute left in the round, Manny switches from defense to offense and starts pummeling Bradley, getting tons of hits in while still managing to dodge Bradley's retaliations. This is how the fight basically went. This same sort of pattern for 12 rounds. I was really expecting Manny to turn up the heat and knock Bradley out. I really wish he did.

Finally, it's decision time. First judge scores it 115-113, Pacquiao. Second judge scores it 115-113, Bradley (wtf, really?). Third judge scores it 115-113, Bradley. And he was named the new WBO Welterweight champion. Everyone was shocked. Harold Lederman, a celebrated boxing judge and analyst who always comments on the fights as they happen, was shocked. He scored it 119-110, in favor of Manny. ESPN, CNN, Associated Press, Yahoo, and many other sports and news outlets judged the fight themselves, and all have given it in favor of Manny.

What a controversy. Even Bradley didn't think he won. The look on his face when they announced his win was complete surprise. Kinda like, "Man, what a loss. Oh well, I tried my best. Wait wuuuuuuuuuuuut??? I won???" I'm sure that went through his head, verbatim. Manny was asked after the fight if he thought he won. He said, "Yes, absolutely." I completely agree.

The judging was such a controversy that the president of WBO asked five world-renowned judges from around the world to watch the match and judge it for themselves. All five judged in favor of Pacquiao.

The three judges used at the night of the fight were all from Nevada, hired by the state commission. If they were the same judges who judged Pacquiao's last much, which was against Juan Manuel Márquez, I wouldn't be surprised. I think that Pacquiao should not have been given the "win" on that fight. If the three judges are the same, then maybe they were trying to make up for their mistake in their past judgment call? If they are the same, then this confirms their blindness, as they misjudged two times in a row.

I have no doubt in my mind who really won that match. I think they're planning on scheduling a rematch this November. I will try to make weight for that fight, too (boxing welterweight is a 147 lb. weigh-in). It just pisses me off that Manny's win streak has been tainted because of poor judgment.

The exact same thing happened to a good friend and martial arts training buddy of mine. He was part of our dojo's kickboxing team, and he partook in a boxing match. He was beating the other kid down pretty bad. It was a sure win. So he let up on the last round (or two?), only to have the judges give it to the other guy.

Stupid judges.

/endrant

Articles:
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/8079349/wbo-review-timothy-bradley-manny-pacquiao-fight-unanimously-scores-pacquiao
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/story/2012-06-20/Pacquiao-wants-rematch-with-Bradley/55725906/1

Word of the day: 盲目　「もうもく」　"moumoku," or "blindness;" literally "blind eye." The first kanji, 盲, can also be pronounced めくら "mekura", which means "blind," "blindness," or "blind person," but I believe it is more commonly used in conjunction with another kanji. 盲人 (moujin) would be "blind person," where the second kanji literally means "person."

Productive Day

Today was quite productive! Even though at work, I had no classes to teach, because it was test day. But I did give the Listening portion of the test; I hope my students did alright. I wrote the script myself (using the text book example as a base), but made it a little more difficult. Well, here's hoping! I also managed to work through most of my taxes. I should be able to submit it this week! And for those of you who think it's overdue, well, it isn't. For those of us who live abroad, we're given an automatic extension for the due date, and we can also file another form to extend it further (which is necessary in order to fulfill the strange "330 days present in foreign country" rule).

When I got home, I cleaned up my living room, put some things away on my book shelves, cleaned my yoga mat, sweeped the floor (actually, wiped it with a wet floor wipe), and worked out! Working out felt great (and terrible) since I hadn't done it in 2 weeks! And 8 weeks before that! I started P90X back in May, got to day 60, and had to drop it for a while 'cause of all my traveling. 75 days had passed before I had finally started it back up again (today). I started on day 61, where I left off, because I intend to finish this and move on to the 60 day Insanity Workout. It's unfortunate that I took such a long break from P90X, 'cause now all my results are messed up. The before/after shots won't make any sense. Really, I should probably start P90X over completely, but I really want to check out Insanity. Of course, I do have the option of just moving onto Insanity after I restart P90X from the beginning. Just a thought.

After working out, I did the laundry, bleached a towel and karate bag, and made myself a delicious Korean dish called bibimbap! Mmmmm, soooooo goooood. Just thinking about it makes me hungry again. Good thing I have leftovers. ;-) During dinner, I watched an episode of Breaking Bad. My brother was right; definitely a great series! After dinner, I washed the dishes, ripped open 25 milk and juice cartons for recycling, cleaned up some of my kitchen area, hung my laundry, brushed my teeth, and took a shower. And finally, after getting dressed, here I am writing a blog post!

Goodnight world!

Word of the day: 積極的　「せっきょくてき」　"sekkyokuteki," which means "proactive." It's a good word. :-)