Bragging rights

This post is going to be all about me and what I've been working on.

I'm such a slacker.  I admit it.  I enjoy relaxing, but am also constantly taking on too many projects.  It's like I have two sides that are at odds with each other.  Japan's workaholic culture doesn't help, but at least in Okinawa my lazy side can be comforted by the relatively laid back Okinawan culture and the ocean and tropical landscape.

But the real reason I haven't written for so long is that I've just been overworked. Since moving to Okinawa, I've been constantly busy at my school preparing lessons and hosting huge English Club parties, helping with speech contest after speech contest, designing and then grading the final exam for nearly 500 students and when I have downtime I just haven't had any desire to write.  That's not a good thing for someone who has professed to be a writer.  Yikes!  That being said, I have indeed written a few things since I came here.  Let me list a few of them in order to shamelessly promote myself and entertain you as the joker that I truly am.

In August, I wrote a piece about my life in Okinawa for the Hyogo Times.  You can read it here.

In September, I celebrated my birthday and my love returned to me.  <3

In October,  I co-wrote a script with two other kids who are also ALTs at different high schools in Okinawa.  We shot it in a span of 9 hours.  It's a short film that we created for our students for our Halloween lessons.  Mikine Dezaki did the majority of special effects and overall editing wizardry to make it look fantastic.  If he hadn't signed on we'd have been screwed I think because while I can do basic editing on my computer, I am by no means very professional.  Kudos to him.  You can view it here.  (This is the classic version...there is a director's cut, but it's not on vimeo).

I took on a huge volunteer project this year by stepping in to visually edit and redesign the Okinawa JET magazine.  The magazine hasn't come out yet because well it's sitting "virtually" on someone's desk waiting to be approved.  Until then, you'll have to wait in anticipation.  I won't be editing the Feb. version as I've decided to put more focus into projects for myself (such as this blog, as well as finishing up some articles for magazines I've been writing and working further on a long term dream of mine).

2012 is almost here...the new year awaits!