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」。

GSA #15: On Losing Your Conference Virginity

That sounds horrible. But I wonder...if I extend the metaphor, how do I describe going to multiple conferences in a year? Or having a dry spell of conferences? Or going only to the same conference year after year? Curious.

Anyway, it turns out I have to prep for an upcoming conference. It's bad news, actually, because I now have less than a week to do it. (My own fault.) Hence the photo of the dudette (sorry...deity?) with flames coming out of her head.

What's more, it seems I haven't updated my Grad School Awesomeness series since this past April. Who knew that when I actually have things to do, I'm willing to give up writing posts for my blog?

Fortunately a friend of mine was cool enough to ask me for thoughts on attending conferences, and I now have a legit reason to type up a new post. Here goes.

--
My "first time" was a somewhat lackluster experience—isn't it for most people?—despite the nearly fool-proof setting and the actual characters involved. I think, at the end of the day, it was just somewhat anti-climactic. I came away thinking: I could've performed better.

Thank goodness for ACLA 2009, my "second time" for literature conferences. Boston is a lovely city, and in the five months since my "first", I'd considered how I could improve my performance when giving presentations. But then, I suppose you have to "do it" a good number of times before you can call yourself "experienced" in these things. I mean, looking back today, even my "second" left much to be desired...

I could have used some advice around the time I was starting out on the whole conferences bidness—advice that, now that I'm feeling panicky about going to yet another one, I think I might just give myself now.

1. Prepping the presentation—Oh, right, the most important part of giving a conference presentation: GIVING THE CONFERENCE PRESENTATION. I think it's better to talk than read, and now that I have a three-hour lecture class of my own, I think it's easier than writing a paper to read out loud. If I'm talking instead of reading, I can use PowerPoint (sorry, I just don't get Keynote) to keep me on track—which I hope makes the presentation easier for people to understand too, more than having me just read a paper (which can be boring). "Talking" the presentation using PowerPoint, then, helps me in multiple ways: I don't have to write a formal paper, I can keep myself within time limits, and I can (hopefully) make the presentation easier to digest for the audience. And the more I practice, the better my "talking" and PowerPoint slides become. Maybe. (If I practice.) (Except I was recently told that some people count conference presentations toward your tenure review only if you write a formal paper—so who knows.)
2. Asking and answering questions—This is important because it builds the skill of curiosity: wanting to know more out of sincere respect. (Yes, my random definition.) It's difficult, I think, to ask questions well—it's also fun to get better at it. I've learned to listen more carefully and to understand what makes for good (to me) presentations: how clear is the argument? how strong are the supporting analyses? how appropriate is the title for the presentation content? If I have an idea of what I'm looking for, then I can ask better questions to find out additional things, or things I thought were missing from the presentation. I also know what kinds of things to include in my own presentations, and to anticipate questions that might be asked of me. It also helps to think of conferences as mini, informal job interviews—a casual way to practice talking about your research, but with potentially a big pay-off if you make a strong impression. There's just less pressure involved than a real job interview. It's a total win-win-win! Also, for more intimate conferences like PAMLA, I appreciate the opportunity (during lulls in the Q&A, when audience members don't have questions) to ask questions of my co-presenters, so that we capitalize on the occasion of being in the same room among people working on similar topics. What a lovely way to get to know each other! 
3. Meeting people—Wait, did I just say "a lovely way to get to know each other"? Actually, I'm horrible at getting to know people—which is why I come up with artificial ways to strike up conversations with folks, like asking them questions about their research. (But isn't that what we're supposed to do at conferences?) Seriously, though, I want to practice talking with people, approaching them, introducing myself, learning about their work...without having it seem annoying or forced. In fact, I wished I had taken more time to get to know other graduate students and junior scholars at my past conferences, because I'm finding that those kinds of relationships motivate me to produce more work. So if possible—during Q&As, while waiting for sessions to start, or in those awkward moments of standing in line at the morning pastries-and-fruits buffet—meet new people! And remember that the random person sitting two seats away from you may be someone to organize conference panels with in the future. (In fact, in writing this post, I'm reminded of someone I met at ACLA 2009, and how we've kept in touch over the years—how lovely to get to meet interesting people!) 
4. Exploring the City—To be honest, though, just as important for me as getting to know people is getting to know a new city. Conferences are often the only times I get to travel, and boy, am I psyched about this upcoming conference in Portland, OR. (I'm running out of cities that 1) I've never been to that 2) are sites of academic conferences, so this may be the last time I get to discover a new city.) Of course it's important to attend conference sessions—to hear interesting presentations, to make sure the conference is well attended, etc.—but I love getting to see new sites, walk around cool neighborhoods, and eat and drink delicious things. Ah, the life of an academic...

Oy, conference...how I love thee. As long as I have fun and enjoy giving my presentation, then I'm doing something right. Now I just need to get myself out of bed so that I can prep this paper......

スマホ

こっちに帰ってきてやっとスマホが使える様になりました。めでたし、めでたし。

パソコンのブラウザーは結構ちゃんとしたサイト見てるけど、なんかスマホだとロクでもないサイトしか見てないわ。

1. Facebook（アプリじゃなくて）
2. Yahoo! １２星座占い
3. 美人になる方法
4. 日経ウーマン

これだけで自分の時間の使い方が分かるのが悲しい・・・

DAISO アドベンチャーズ #2：ほうきとちりとり

ほうきとちりとり、ほうきとちりとり、ほうきとちりとり・・・

こうやって書くと、呪文か何かみたいです。

ほうきは「箒」と書くそうです。全然知らなかった。ちりとりは「塵取り」で、なんとなく分かる。

今日は日本語の授業で、「鹹」と書くのに悪戦苦闘してしまいました。終いには生徒がアプリで調べてくれた。トホホ・・・

ダイソーで買うと、$1.50 の商品が二つ。ダイソー、ダイスキだぜぃ。おまけにターゲットで玄関マットも買ったので、これから私は魔女になって毎朝アパートの前をほうきで掃こうと思います。

I just received my Kuroneko Yamato shipment from Nagoya, so now I have most of my stuff here with me—which means I've gotta get serious about unpacking, cleaning, and settling in. It's a weird feeling when I have my things scattered in different places—Riverside, San Diego, Tokyo, etc. But now that I've got most of my books and clothes either here are at my folks', I can start refiguring out my library and dusting off books that'd been in storage for over a year.

Plus that "Professional Development Fund"? Book-Off, here I come.

DAISO アドベンチャーズ #1：チョコバナナポッキー

私、引っ越しました。よって名古屋の夜喫茶シリーズはもう（当分の間）更新できないのですが、代わりに（？）新しい近所での、新たなアドベンチャーズを記録しようかと思います。

なーんて言っても、こっちでは一人でふらっと外食する事が少ないので、喫茶店を紹介するより近所のダイソーで買った面白い商品を紹介しようかと思います。（説明になってない。）

そう、ダイソー。今年の七月にオープンしたそうです。アパートから歩いて２０分弱？ラッキー。（現在アメリカには４７店あるそうです。主にカリフォルニア、後はワシントンとテキサスだそうです。へー。）

先日は色々買いましたが、一番気になったのは「チョコレートバナナ味のポッキー」。実際ポッキーはグルテンが入ってるので滅多に食べないのですが、こればかりは気になりすぎました。袋を開けると、あの独特な化学的バナナの香りが・・・で、まぁまぁ美味しい。でもやっぱりポッキーより本物のバナナとクリームとチョコの方が好みかもしれません。