みにくいアヒル『が教える お金持ちになるための知恵』

（「おねーしゃん、お腹すいたから、クラッカー下さい・・・」と私に迫る、某アヒル一羽。）

たとえアヒルでも、「お姉さん」と呼んでもらえるのが嬉しい・・・


以前私はモデルの仕事に応募した事がありました。書類審査は合格でしたが、カメラテストで落選。残念。

って、全然残念じゃなかったんだけどね。実際モデルになりたかったと言うより、う〜ん・・・説明し難い。

で、そのカメラテストの時にお話ししたカメラマンさんが教えてくれたのは、モデルになりたい人達は、ちゃんと自分をどう可愛く見せるかを研究していると言う事。だから、笑い方も、写真の撮られ方も、勿論自分に似合う洋服もヘアメイクも ちゃんと研究・練習している。

そうですよね。だって、お仕事だもん。私、本は読むけど、自撮りとか苦手だし。一人だとやっぱサムイし。

それでですね、モデルにはならないんですけど、私ができる「お仕事」って一体何か、と思いまして。今はれっきとしたお仕事があるんですけど、それをもっと「極める」にはどうしたらいいか。

考えなくてもやらなくてはならない事は山程あります。でもね、何でしょう、その・・・目的地はわかってるし、道順もわかってる。あとは、どの乗り物で行くか・・・

今、『イヌが教える お金持ちになるための知恵』と言う本を読んでいます。（まだ終わってないけど。）その本のなかに、お金儲けをするには、自分が知っている事、自分ができる事、そして自分が持っている物を明確にして、それを基に行動するべき、と書いてあります。う〜ん・・・自分ができる事・・・

何だろ、一体。本を読む事？食べる事？う〜ん・・・絶対違う・・・


と言う訳で皆さん、メリークリスマス！来年の抱負等も考えながら、今夜はもう一仕事させて頂きます。

On Indecent Exposure

One of the things I hate about flashers is that whatever they're trying to flash me is usually totally uninteresting.

I don't know if you or someone you know has ever encountered a flasher. I sure hope not. I have, unfortunately—once in San Diego, and almost a second time a couple of nights ago.

(And man, it irritated me so much that I had to create a teaching moment out of it in my Anime class. My poor students. They were probably wondering why we couldn't just get on to talking about Akira. But the good students they are, they bore with me. Thanks, everyone.)

I've heard people talking about incidents of indecent exposure before—and often in those talks there are people who find the incidents to be funny. They laugh about them and make jokes. It's a light-hearted topic to them.

Often those people are men. That's not to say that all men find crimes of indecent exposure to be funny, or that women never find them to be amusing. I think it's just a social tendency. And I realize that different things count as "indecent exposure" depending on the social context. All I know is that, in past conversations I've heard, some people find indecent exposure to be funny, and most of those people have been men.

But you know what? That one time I was a victim of indecent exposure—that shit wasn't funny at all. Nope. At first I didn't know what had just happened. It only hit me later just how emotionally violent the act was toward me. And I was left with this strange feeling of shame and guilt. What had I done wrong? Was it my fault? Should I not have been walking there, at that time? Was I wearing something strange? Did I have a sign on my face that said, "Please jerk off in front of me"?

You wanna tell me I can't walk down Gilman Drive alone at 3 PM in the afternoon? You wanna try to blame the victim? Try again. Or better yet, you wanna try and tell me this is funny? Well let me tell you—being forced to see someone's body parts—any part—is as violent as having one's clothes ripped off and exposed, steps before being penetrated against one's will. It's sexual and emotional violence, undeniable and yet not recognized enough for its gravity.

So next time you hear people making jokes about flashers exposing themselves, I hope you have the courage and decency to tell them that that's not right. Because it's not right—neither indecent exposure nor making light of it. And next time you're going to Target on Yorba Linda at Placentia, and a dude in a motorcycle helmet tries to get your attention behind the 7-Eleven by saying "Psssst" the way Peter Pan does to Wendy, be sure not to give him the time of day.

Student Opinion Questionnaire

文学の授業の学生さんが、パンを焼いてくれました。「軽くトーストすると、美味しいですよ」と言われたので、家に帰って早速試したら、本当に美味しい。外側は硬くて、中はフワフワ。ほわ〜ん。

My first semester is coming to an end. I couldn't have asked for better teaching assignments or better students. Even the chatty ones...

今学期は色々ありました。何しろ一緒に仕事ができる先生方、スタッフの人々、学生さん達。カリフォルニアに戻って来れた事もひっくるめて——「ありがとう」。