Wrongful

I've been writing legal websites for almost three months now, and while I am starting to find a writing groove, the job does continue to have it's challenges. There is the feeling that you've written the same thing over and over, that you're recycling ideas. There's also the challenge of remembering what took place in an interview you conducted over a week ago so you can write copy that is specific.

Then there are subjects which are just not easy to write. For me, there are quite a few - sometimes this is due to my lack of interest, sometimes I am out of my realm, but then there are times where I just don't know how to address a particular subject. The subject that to me always feels a bit weird to write about is wrongful death. First, I've never quite been comfortable with the term, and second it's difficult to sound sympathetic when writing what is essentially marketing copy. But even more than this, I feel like the person to whom I should be addressing the content is no longer around to be addressed. I kept thinking about how I'd REALLY like to write this type of webpage:


Ann Arbor Wrongful Death Attorneys

Death has a finality that can be depressing, if not disturbing. When you are the one who has succumbed to this event and you find yourself in a mortuary when you normally would be home enjoying a quiet supper with your spouse or other loved ones, you may experience a helplessness you’ve never had to deal with before.

But if you suspect that your death was wrong and you shouldn’t have died – that your demise is the direct result of another’s action, intentional or simply negligent, you need legal advice and representation. At Grimm, Graves & Pall, Attorneys at Law, our wrongful death lawyers can help you determine if your death was wrong or not. Contact us today.

A Matter of Determination
If you have just died, you probably have a lot of questions. You may wonder if your death was right or wrong. Even if you suspect you’ve been wrongfully done to death, or even deathfully wronged, you need strong advocacy. Our attorneys are alive and can assist you in matters that require a pulse, not to mention the ability to walk or speak. We routinely handle wrongful death suits related to the following matters:
• Misdiagnosis
• Product Liability
• Reckless Driving
• Premises Liability

You Have Rights
While we at Grimm, Graves & Pall have never died, we do understand the frustration and debilitating effects death can have on one. Perhaps you feel that you cannot effect change in your situation, or that you will never be able to enjoy the quality of life you once enjoyed. While these are both correct assessments, you do still have rights, whatever they may be. Our job is to secure those rights.

If you have questions regarding your death or are unable to determine for yourself whether it was the result of another’s wrong or it was simply your time to go, we invite you to contact the wrongful death attorneys at Grimm, Graves & Pall for a free post-mortem case review.



Now that I have that out of my system, perhaps I can write those pages better.

This is what Jean looks like when pretending to work

Sayonara!

I have been reading Basho's Haiku prose/poetry travel diary, "Narrow Road to a Far Province." It was a gift (one of three books) from Yoko, who is brilliant, and has been taking my short story reading course. This book describes the poet's journey from Tokyo (then called Edo) to the remote upper areas of Honshu. As I was reading, I got this brilliant idea of composing some haiku to put in this blog entry, but all I could come up with was:

A lonely gyoza
Left uneaten on a plate.
A fly heard buzzing.

The gyoza was an obvious (if you live or have lived in Japan) nod to Utsunomiya (宇都宮), which has over 30 gyoza restaurants. But then I couldn't make the rest of the poem work in any meaningful way, and anyway, I'm pretty sure, if I were in a room with a plate upon which a lonely gyoza sat, I'd eat it before the fly ever got near it. So I have abandoned the idea of writing anything of poetic value in this entry (I do have some pics below of sakura, or cherry blossoms, so perhaps I'll be inspired further down).

I'm including pictures here from the last week or so - it's been a busy time, getting ready to leave Japan. And I've been lucky to be able to spend time, between packing and getting things organized, with a lot of the people I've grown to care a great deal for. A week ago, I played tennis with Tomoko, Isao, Motoki, and Anthony. Soon after we arrived, Anthony and Isao went off to play doubles with some other players on another court which left me, Tomoko, and Motoki free to play tennis and pose for silly pictures:
Isao and Anthony joined us after a bit and I was able to get this cool shot of tennis balls (and Anthony in the background):
After tennis, we had a great lunch spread out for us at Tomoko and Isao's. I love spending time with Tomoko and Isao: one is always certain to be well fed, to never have an empty glass, and to always have great conversations. After spending the afternoon there, Anthony and I had to head out to a small party at Aiichiro and Fumi's. Michel, Seiko, and Kohei were also there. Aiichiro did himself proud by cooking up a great Chinese dinner. Seiko brought her violin so that Fumi and I could play part of Bach's double concerto in D minor. This was a surprise I found out about only a day or two before going over there, so I practiced with Fumi a bit and then we had a concert where we played only the intro part of the first movement - I have never played that piece well, and after such a long time of not practicing, my playing was pretty rusty, nevertheless, it was a lot of fun:
Aiichiro and Fumi had also invited a candidate for city office over for dinner and he made a short speech which Aiichiro translated for us - this was amazing, as it was the first time, I'd eaten dinner where a political speech was made. I found this much more agreeable than what most politicians here do, which is to drive around in vans with loud speakers and yell about how everyone should vote for them. One of the things he talked about was the issue of a memorial that the local Korean community wants to erect near a mine where several Chinese and Koreans, forced into labor there, died. If you check out Michel's blog, he does a fine job outlining the history of this controversy (unfortunately when I use Blogger in my browser, I'm not given the option to create hyperlinks). Here we all are minus Fumi (who was the photographer):
This next group of pictures was taken at my farewell party last night. Madoka booked us a large tatami room at a restaurant near the school and it was perfect. The atmosphere was much better than the last couple places we'd had such parties at. Here I am with Isao and Tomoko:
It was great. Everytime a camera came out (and there were many), people would dive over tables, squash together, make peace signs with their hands. Here I am in a couple such group shots:
Scott was able to come up from Nagoya to spend the evening with us, which was a great surprise to many of the students at the party:
It was also the last time to see Michel and Yoshiko on this side of the world, so I was happy they could be there. I'll miss you guys - come to Minnesota soon!
I was humbled by the many gifts students gave me: pictures, flowers, sake, books, a soroban (Japanese abacus), furoshiki (traditional Japanese wrapping clothes for gifts, lunches, etc.), picture albums and frames, and lots of cards with warm messages. Yet none of these made me laugh as much as the shirt my Friday night discussion class presented me with. The front had a picture of me with the class - taken a couple Fridays ago. The picture on the back made me jump and let out what may have been as close to a scream as you will ever hear come out of my mouth. Here 'tis:
After Anthony led a Matt trivia game (won by a student who I've never taught before, but talked to in the lobby many times), Yasuko made a toast, Stacy gave a speech, and the staff and teachers presented me with a really nice fountain pen. Then I got up and gave a short speech - I had to keep it short because it was like the third time that week that I was worried that I'd start crying in front of my students. But I made them promise to visit me in the Land of 10,000 lakes as well as e-mail me from time to time, so I hope to be able to continue the many friendships that have begun here.

Earlier in the week, I took some pictures of the cherry blossoms, and as my kid sis asked me to post them, I am doing so here. But first, another fat lady sculpture - I like this one a lot:
The last four pictures were taken in Hachimanyama, the park where we had our hanami last year:

Okay, let's try a haiku again for the picture below:

The cherry tree's limbs
Droop and claw above my head.
Attacked by shades of pink.

(I think I'm channelling a bored student in a seventh grade English class during a poetry unit, rather than the spirit of Basho)



Tomorrow Anthony and I will meet the new teacher, Dayne, who is fresh from training in Omiya. Then two days left of work and a ton of things to do before leaving for Seoul on Saturday.

A Free Moment

Because of a computer glitch or someone dropping the ball or some act of God, the workplan on the site I was writing for today did not appear in the system until today. Normally, I would have had to have stayed until I finished up the site as it would have been due today, but because of this snafu, my draft now is not due until Friday, which gives me about 15 minutes of play time before I have to go to a meeting and then head home. I suppose I could be productive and work on my site, but I have done the preliminary work on it and it can wait.

I (along with a few of my other cohorts here at the office) were invited to go to an actor friend's Halloween farce in Minneapolis tonight. So co-worker Grant and former co-worker Anne Marie and I will go see our pal Joe. There is a prize for the best costume, so we're all trying to think up something to wear on the fly. Anne Marie has not given us any idea of what she might be. Grant might go as a trucker. I have opted to wear a costume I'd worn to the last Halloween party I went to (oddly enough, my old roomie Natalie and I hosted said party). Is it kosher, I wonder, in the Halloween fashion world to repeat the same costume on two occasions? Even if there's been a span of four or five years since the last occasion? Well, I'm doing it any way.

I'll be going as a mad butcher: t-shirt with cigs rolled up in the sleeve, arm tattoo, heightened stubble, chewed cigar or cigarette in mouth, meat cleaver (plastic - I'm not an idiot), black eyes with purplish/yellowish bruising, my retro specs, and an apron and chef's hat with a fair amount of blood spattered about.



Should be fun!

Hmmm...

Let's see.

I'm really only posting today out of some weird sense of obligation, not because I want to. And it's not like I don't have things to blog about:

- I had two days of interviews with the corporation I hope to be teaching English for in Japan in a few months time.

-I have gotten much faster at writing websites in my current job and am getting good feedback.

So...what gives? How come I feel not-so-forthcoming? I really don't know.

I think it could be several things.

First, I spend five days a week writing marketing copy for other people - that gets a bit tiring, I think.

Second, although I have had what I feel are successful interviews for this Japan job, I still won't hear definitively about my job until October 7th. So rather than feeling excited about a new job, I mostly feel like I'm in a holding tank.

Third, we use the Chicago Manual of Style here at work which means - among other things - I can only put one space between the period that ends one sentence and the word that begins the following one. Same goes for colons. Now at work I have to change my Word settings to catch this problem. When I e-mail work home and work from my laptop, I try doing the one space thing and get the wavy green lines because there aren't two spaces. I don't like to change my laptop settings because this removal of a space thing would be a fairly big step for me.

I know it's dumb, but psychologically, it's a tough one for me. I really like the look of those two spaces - they make sense to me and seem homey and human as opposed to the single space which makes me think the world is getting colder and colder.

I want to know why the rule was changed and who's responsible.

My apartment

A quick aside about work: This is the third day of being paid hourly to do very little work - we aren't taking calls this week so all I can do is have mini training sessions, write mock sites, and conduct mock interviews. I think I'll be ready to hit the ground running on Monday when I have my first two calls.

Last night, after looking at Jess's blog, I decided to try my hand at making a short video clip of my apartment so I could post it on my blog today. Some of you have seen my new apartment, but maybe I can tempt more Kato visitors up to Cathedral Hill to visit me in my studio. So here's the quick tour:



You like? You like?

YOU think of a title - my brain won't work.

I'm sitting at my desk at my new job listening in (well, not quite yet, but soon) to an interview with a law firm that one of my new work friends - A.M. - is going to be conducting. I have my own little cube - complete with Ice Bat, an ergonomically correct chair and keyboard surface - which I have no idea how to adjust, and my water bottle - to insure that I will pee every hour on the hour. That last statement reminds me of a conversation I was party to yesterday.

I was getting my keys to my new apartment - which is awesome, by the way - and walking down the halls with the caretaker when along came an old, crusty (lots of dead skin flakes trapped in spots around his stubbly jaw line) resident whom I'd remembered from the last time I lived there (SIDE NOTE - he'd received the package MSU sent me with all of my pre-TA materials the summer before I started teaching, but kept it in his little twerpy, stinky apartment. He kept coming up to my door to see if I was home, but as he never left a note stating that he had a package for me, I had no idea the books were there. He finally happened to come up at a time when I was home (two weeks after they'd arrived)).

Crusty is walking down and the caretaker asks how he's doing. He promptly goes off on a story about his prostate and how he's got this damn dribbling problem. Then caretaker says, "I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. That dribbling gives me a hell of a time." Is this what I have to look forward to? Dribbling?

Great Jorb!

Well, Kelly Law called me yesterday and said that Thompson-West liked my writing sample and I was approved to work there (pending the successful passage of a drug test). What they don't know yet is when I begin. It will either be around August 21st or sometime in September. Obviously I'm hoping for the earlier date as I want to be earning more money and working better hours.

Tonight Rick and Eric and I went to the Nordeast Palace for karaoke. We were again accosted by a toothless, drunken hag, only this time she was an angry toothless, drunken hag. One particularly annoying member of the crowd kept ruining songs, and after being touched and jostled one too many times, we left.

But ah, what a great night.

Signs Say Yes.

The interview went well today. I was there about 2 1/2 hours filling out paperwork, taking a writing test, and answering some fairly informal interview questions. The woman doing the hiring for Kelly Legal Registry told me that I basically had the job, pending Thompson-West's approval of my writing style. I should know in a couple of days. Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts and wishes.

Wish Me Luck!

I'm off to an interview this afternoon at Kelly Law Registry. I hope I get the job, as I would like to be making more money so that I can finally pay off bills, get an apartment, and work close to Schai Schai again.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

See ya.

P.S. I'm watching the first season of "Bewitched" on DVD. This show is just as funny as it was when I watched re-runs of it as a kid. Elizabeth Montgomery is dead sexy.

My Summer Reading List and an Offer to Play a Toilet This Weekend

Here's what I've read and am reading this summer:

1. A Year in the Merde
I just finished this one; it's laugh out loud funny about a Brit in France who keeps stepping in it so to speak.

2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Okay, here's where I have to admit that I've never read any of the H.P. books. I'm not sure why; usually it's the type of fantasy read I go for. Well, I have to work at a certain bookstore this weekend at the release party for Rowling's latest book. I figured if I'm going to help out, I should at least read one of the books so I can nerd out with the kids (Side note: I will be wearing my round Danish frames that evening, perhaps with a cigarette in my mouth and a robe and scarf so I can look like a balding, aging, disillusioned Harry - I know the kids will love that). One of my managers, whose name I'll change to "Crazy Lady" to protect her identity, told me that I will be on a microphone projecting my voice out of a toilet in the elevator. I haven't read or seen the film of the second Harry Potter book, but I am supposed to be the voice for Moaning Myrtle (With a name like that, I'm gonna have to go with a phone sex operator voice on this one - the families will love it).

I've read the first couple of chapters - so far so good (already better than the film). I am also going to try and get through the entire Harry Potter series at some point in the next few months (but I'm gonna read them between other books).

3. Never Let Me Go

I have only read about a chapter of this one, but it's getting good reviews and the premise sounds intriguing to me. I've read three other novels by Ishiguro - he's got this amazing way of conveying tragedy so gently and subtly, you hardly realize it until you're in the thick of it.

4. Sophie's World

I know very little about this book except people who've read it have told me it's a great read. It sounds fascinating to me.

5. Middlemarch

When I had lunch with Dr. Mink a few weeks ago and I let her know I'd never read a novel by George Eliot, she gasped audibly and suggested that this book was probably the best Victorian novel ever written. It looks large and dense and will be the perfect book to bring on the plane when I head overseas - wherever I end up.

For Christy

Fraulein Jenkin asked me to post something interesting on my blog as she was bored. I can't imagine that this blog will cure that condition, as I am already bored composing it. Here's Christy sitting bored and waiting for me to come up with something (so far, she appears unimpressed):

Well, I could show you some pictures from my bakery in St. Paul. Here is my boss, Mel.

Say hi to Mel; she's probably blurking on my site even as I speak. She likes to see what I get up to down here in Kato. She's from Michigan, which explains the silly hair net thingy she's got going on. Mel is the BEST manager I've ever had. She'll totally go to bat for her employees, and is great fun to work with. I title this photo,

"Size Does Matter." Melissa is holding up a brilliant loaf of my pan de casa, which turned out huge that day. I was proud because it meant that the retail bakery gossips up front would be thrown into a tizzy trying to get the huge bread in the now too small plastic bags.
Here I am in my baker's hat and apron. I'm on break, but I wanted to show you what I look like as I labor over my dough, worrying, "Will it rise?" "Did I remember to add the salt?"

And here I am after the bread has come out perfect and I can relax and be happy again.

And now a conclusion to this blog in honor of all 101 students:

In conclusion, I believe bread is be good. Everyone must eat bread to live in this world of ours without dying of starvation in their own homes. It is really hard to make!!! According to a website by a student at MSU, he was quoted is saying: "Without bakeries, where would the animals go? Nowhere?" (http://www.anskov.blogspot.com). I learned alot about the imporatnce of bred and their are many many things that our good about it. Next time the world ends, think to yourself, "what about the bread?"

"It's a Living, Breathing Thing"

This is what Linda always says about bread when she's talking to new bakers or addressing a bread problem in the bakery ("Well after all, Matt, bread is a living, breathing thing. You have to be careful with it."). I woke up reluctantly at 3:29 (a minute before my alarm went off) and drove to St. Paul to bake. I almost ran into the median.

Everything (as usual) came out well except for the damned oatmeal raisin bread which has become the bane of my existense. I can't for the life of me master this bread. It always either sits like a rock and doesn't rise, or it rises and splits like a tub of guts. Today it split. I egg-washed each loaf and tried to cover up the mess with extra oats, but you could still see the splits. Then I told Michelle that if Linda asked her about it to let her know that there was no way in hell I was going to stay and fix it and that if that didn't work, I'd quit. This attitude on my part was completely unwarrented, and I'm sure Michelle didn't give it to Linda in quite tha way. I'm so pickin' tired right now that little things like this are setting me off and I just don't care about any of it. I can't wait to not be working at the bakery anymore.

I'm going to sleep now.