This is my excuse for not getting anything done today: I had all my hotel bookings set for my trip to Japan – had some fantastic places to stay. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this when I booked them (or in particular, the one I had booked for the nights of the concerts), but I thought I’d check the directions today to see how I’d get from the concert venue back “home.” I planned to do it on foot so I stayed fairly close, just like I did last time. After all, the trip will be made alone in the dark. With that in mind… hahaha… here are my directions from Google:
ＮＨＫホール
Japan, 〒150-0041 東京都渋谷区 神南２丁目２−１
Head northeast
400 m
Take the crosswalk
24 m
Take the crosswalk
100 m
Take the crosswalk
66 m
Take the crosswalk
110 m
Take the crosswalk
47 m
Turn right
55 m
Slight right
18 m
Cross the road
33 m
Cross the road
40 m
Cross the road
18 m
Take the crosswalk
12 m
Cross the road
19 m
Cross the road
40 m
Cross the road
47 m
Turn left
22 m
Take the crosswalk
130 m
Cross the road
55 m
Take the crosswalk
120 m
Cross the road
52 m
Take the crosswalk
33 m
Take the crosswalk
100 m
Cross the road
25 m
Cross the road
38 m
Cross the road
110 m
Take the crosswalk
50 m
Cross the road
68 m
Take the crosswalk
38 m
Take the crosswalk
36 m
Turn right
110 m
Take the crosswalk
63 m
4 Chome-5-9 Aobadai
It’s THAT EASY!!! I shit you not, that’s all I get for directions. Because as I explained in this post, there is no such thing as a street name in Tokyo. Needless to say, I canceled that booking and made another one closer to the train station, from whence I can get a bus. Or at the very least, since it’s the closest station to the venue, someone has to know how to get there. In fact, I’ll follow the crowd. It’s in Shibuya, arguably the busiest part of the city.
So this is where I’m staying now – a gorgeous hotel three minutes’ walk from the famous Shibuya intersection, for a measly $140 Cdn. per night, breakfast included. Can’t beat that.
Not too bad an excuse for getting nothing done today, eh?
There are different types of believers in this world. Those who are religious (or not) are usually the first to come to mind. Some believe devoutly in one political party over another, others are positive there are aliens hovering, just waiting for the right time to be taken to our leader (which may or may not have something to do with the example before). But none of these have anything to do with my ponderings, nor my question to you.
This morning, while I was preparing my son’s tube-feeding, I started thinking about the difference between people who believe in superstitions versus those who swear things that happen which are related to one another are mere coincidence. And then I thought about Murphy’s Law. You know, the one that goes something like, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” I then started to wonder if there’s any correlation between the pessimistic old Irishman and the half full/half empty glass.
Keeping in mind the fact that I was thinking all this at 5:30am, I’m sure you’ll bear with me through my semi-conclusions to this riot of contemplation. Right? Okay. Here we go.
If a person believes in Mr. Murphy’s doom and gloom prophesy, he (using male pronoun for no other reason than ease) is more likely to be superstitious. Why? Because it’s his only defense against a probable negative outcome. It follows then (or at least it did in the wee hours of this morning), that superstitious people are glass half-empty people. So, Murphy = superstition = pessimist.
Alternatively, if a person does not believe the infamous Mr. Murphy had a leg to stand on, then she (see above pronoun explanation) is more likely to believe that relatable happenings are coincidence. Why? Because why not. This happens, that happens, chances are if we do it right in the first place then it’ll be okay. You see where I’m going next… she is the glass half-full person. The coincidence believer. No Murphy = coincidence = optimist.
All cut and dry, right? It is until I take into account that I believe in some superstitions and most of the time our dear old Murphy AND I’m an optimistic glass half-full type. What to do with this confusing information… Hmm… Oh I know! Ask my wonderful friends in WordPress land! Where do you fit in to all of this gobbledigook?
To make it easier, I’ve created a poll.
Please answer it as best you can.
Further to the poll, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Am I way out to lunch? (Or breakfast, as the case may be.) Should I keep my 5:30am thoughts to myself? Let me know. And don’t forget to vote! This is science, people!
Google is at it again, reading my gmail. You might remember the first time, when Google noticed I had written the word “attached” in the body of my email but I hadn’t attached anything. This time it waited until the right time to pounce.
I received a notification yesterday to let me know the good people (computers?) at their organization had added the flight information for my upcoming trip to Tokyo to my Google calendar. So I won’t forget I’m going, I suppose.
So I have decided: If I receive an email suggesting that I drink less before I go to bed so I won’t have to get up to go to the bathroom at 1:37 am, 3:03 am, and 4:26 am again the next night, I’m going offline permanently.
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
I had a weekend off but had very little sleep, but that’s not why I’m discouraged.
I got barely any work done on my novels, but that’s not why either.
I have a sink full of dishes that I haven’t the energy to do, but that’s not entirely what’s got me down.
I killed a fruit fly this afternoon by breathing it forcefully (by accident) up my nose and blowing it back out into a kleenex – that was actually the highlight of my day.
I want to go to bed but I have to wait for kids to go to sleep, but that’s not what’s really killing me.
I have so much to do that I don’t know where to start, but that’s not the worst of it.
What really has me discouraged? It’s all of the above combined. Except the fruit fly thing. That’s just funny.
How was your weekend? Please tell me it was better than mine.
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
Distemper, datemper… which temper do you want? You know, sometimes you just want to edit. But you can’t. So here we go.
I’ve been sitting here for the past fifteen minutes trying to come up with a word with “temp” in it that doesn’t mean it will soon go away: temporary, CONtemporary (new now, old tomorrow), tempus fugit (time flies), temperature (when does that ever stay consistent?) (okay, if you live in the desert maybe it pretty much does), template. Template! It’s something you use so that you can recreate the same thing over and over – without changing it!
Now what?
I suppose I can still talk about how things change, but that’s so depressing, isn’t it? Unless I’m sad, then I want things to change for the better. Contentment is so rare though, isn’t it? When I am content I try my best to stay in the moment, to remember details, and to enjoy it to the fullest. Contentment scares me though. I have to say I’m pretty happy with the way my life is at the moment. All three of my kids live at home, and they’re all relatively healthy (Alex has a lingering cough, but it’s nothing life-threatening) and they’re all relatively happy as well, and busy with their lives. It all makes me wonder what’s going to happen next. I try not to speculate. Again, stay in the moment. Just stay in the moment, Linda. Enjoy it. Even when I’m being kept awake at 2 am by a coughing kid… Yeah.
Sometimes enjoying my contentment is more of a challenge than others.
I have a hard time staying seated. When I’m writing or editing I have to get up at least every half an hour or so. I sometimes walk into the kitchen, see that there’s really nothing to munch on (because I’ve been smart enough not to buy anything to munch on) and go back to the computer empty-handed. That’s a good thing. I could so easily gain a hundred pounds without even trying if I gave in to all the temptations. Hey, there’s another word that’s not temporary… or is it? I suppose if temptations were constant they’d grind us down so much that they would no longer be temptations but reality instead. So yeah, temporary.
I’m going to temporarily leave reality now… (which means temporary unconsciousness… stream of unconsciousness Saturday… SoUS… French for suck… this really sucks, doesn’t it? Hahahahahahahaha!)
Okay WordPress, what’s up with the missing “Reblog” and “Follow” buttons at the top of my screen when I’m viewing someone else’s blog? There have been a few instances in which I’ve wanted to re-blog something but I can’t. Am I the only one who’s still seeing (or actually, not seeing) this?
I have looked on the forums and apparently you’re “working on it.” Please “work on it” faster. Thank you.
On a lighter note, I’ve had one visitor so far today. It seems they were careful not to peek though. 😛
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
lindaghill.com 