The Weekend Review - The Concert, the Camp & high on the Cool Factor

It's Sunday Afternoon
I just read through some of my recent posts and discovered I consistantly overuse the words 'busy' and/or 'realized' (or have, at least, recently). This can either mean A.) I am losing my English vocabulary (been a bit mixed up on the language front), or B.) that I am too tired to think straight when it finally comes time to blog. Or both. Either way, not a good sign. I'm having dinner with Kelly, Lena and Miwa in Harimacho this evening, but it will be an early night to bed. I need the rest. I just got home for essentially the first time since I left for work on Friday morning and the heavy load is hitting me.

The concert and English Camp this weekend were utterly amazing. I will put them in separate posts...

A Whoops at Work: More Cultural Differences & Language Barriers, a Reaction and onto the Damage Control
Before I close this post, one more thing. I think I made (a potentially cultural) mistake on Friday that I am going to have to own up to and get some help with. I was playing around with the template (HTML text) for this blog and changed something that caused my profile and appendices go to the bottom of the scroll page, rather than having them appear to your right (as they are now). I couldn't fix the problem and hadn't copied the text to a Word document before saving my changes, so I resorted to seeking out a young computer teacher (who I used to sit across from and talk to on occasion) for help. I am careful about introducing new people (or rather, coworkers) to my blog, but we get along well and I trust him.
So anyways, I approached this young teacher at his desk and he graciously followed me to my desk and attempted to understand my (non-work related) issue. I don't think he got it at first, because he tried to explain to me that the HTML on my Japanese computer was different than what I was accustomed to, but I tried to show him that it was managed through the webpage provider and was not part of the system. After several failed attempts to fix the problem, he told me he was going to get Edagawa Sensei, the new computer teacher. Ok, I really like Edagawa Sensei and think he's good at his job. He's pretty funny and really nice, but - again - I didn't want news of 'the ALTs blog!' to spread any faster than a confined bonfire, and in addition, this particular teacher recently transferred from a school where three of my friends work. I didn't think it was appropriate to explicityly expose a source of information and pictures about their personal lives without their permission. It's a public blog, yes, and some coworkers know what I generally put on here, and are comfortable with it, but it seemed disrespectful.
Well, in hindsight, I would say I reacted a little to dramatically, releasing a resounding 'no-no-noooo!' when the younger teacher started to stand to retrieve his colleague. He looked pretty shocked. I tried to explain my reasons, but I don't think I very successfully got the point across. After that, I hastily told him I would just fix the problem on my own and thanked him for his help; he left. Things didn't really seem alright at this point, maybe not surprisingly, so I stopped by his desk shortly therafter to extend my thanks *again* and give the explanation a second shot. This time, I made things even worse.
When trying to explain that *I* didn't want to be rude by releasing all this info about other peoples' private lives, I am pretty sure the message was received as me saying the teacher had been rude. To make matters (even) worse, I was standing at a friend's desk later that afternoon and observed him whispering to Edagawa Sensei, presumably about what had gone down (especially since they both looked around, saw me, and then looked away quickly). CRAP.
Right now, I don't really care if they find the blog or not... I am more concerned about damage to the my work relationship with the younger teacher, In Japan, 'maintaining the wa (peace)' in a group or professional relationship is extremely importantant and I have some damage-control to attend to. I think the best option is to talk to a third-party (whom we both know and are confortable with) and ask her to explain what really happened... but maybe I should just leave my personal computer problems at home from now on (or, uh, try to tone down the drama).

Also, ironically, the 'profile location' issue ended up having something to do with the view on my Japanese computer, not with the page itself. While I couldn't alter the page's appearance at work, the issue is now miraculously solved.... it's just something funky with the Japanese system, I guess.

Ok, I have to shower before dinner. Bathing can be a bit more involved in my 'cottage', and takes some time to prepare for, so that's all for now. More soon...