Introduction
Hi there. Those of you that know me, which probably isn't many of you, will know that this is my first attempt at anything blog-like. To me, it feels like I'm only getting around to doing this after everyone and their brother has already done so first, but at the same time, if I hadn't been hearing about blogs so much these days I probably would have never gotten around to starting this one. The title, which I didn't realize I needed when creating this journal and required approximately a minute to think up, pretty much says it all. This blog, like myself, my life, and what ever else I'm doing in it, is a work in progress. And part of the reason for starting this is to try and jumpstart that progress and break myself out of this routine I've let myself slip into.
You see, I am not a creative person. Never have been. I've never drawn, painted, composed, filmed, or in any other way expressed myself when I wasn't being instructed to do so for others. The only thing I've ever been able to do, if you haven't guessed by now, is write. And even though these days practically anyone who can use a keyboard can do the same thing, I've netherless decided to start practicing through this journal, for a few reasons.
One is that I know from talking online that I can go on and on about certain subjects when I want to, and I'm sure this is as good a place as any to voice those opinions on them. Second is that I want to develop my writing sense and improve it beyond what it is now, along with my critical thinking abilities and my ability to put my thoughts into words, both of which could use a lot of work (again, note the title). This also ties into the third, and in a way the most sensible reason; to get better at my job.
My job, or profession really, is one I've recently chosen and have just started to work towards. It is translation, specifically from Japanese to English and occasionally from English to Japanese. For those of you who don't know, I am 23, and have recently returned from spending 3 and a half years of my life in Japan. I went over there when I was 19 to learn the language and while I was there ended up going to college, teaching English, and getting married, among other things. I skipped college to do this and as of today still have no intention of going. Since I was 12 I have had the often less-than-popular belief that the modern school system is broken and homeschooling, when done properly, is crucial to helping children achieve their natural potential, and that ties into my reasons for choosing not to go to college even now. But I digress. The point is, from now on my writing abilities are going to be crucial to the quality of my work and my chances of success, and that gives me a very...adult, if you will, reason to practice them and improve.
As a result, I don't plan to use this blog mostly to talk about my day, what I ate, what people said, my current mood, and things like that. It is of course very possible that those kinds of subjects will come up at some point, but it is my hope that they will be used as examples in a larger discussion with a little more meaning. That's my hope, anyway.
This doesn't mean that I'll completely refrain from talking about myself, though I do plan on not discussing what goes on between me and my wife, for her sake as much as mine. While I think that I think about myself too much as it is and that most, if not all of you reading this aren't interested, I'm hoping that when I do talk about myself here, it will help me to better understand myself, human nature, and maybe even help some of you understand yourselves. High hopes, I know, but I figure aiming high never hurt anyone, and it certainly won't hurt me. And once again, this is a work in progress, and so it's very likely it'll take me a while to get there. No problem. I'm confident that with practice and consistency, I can at least get close.
There's probably more I could say, but hopefully this will do for now. To those of you reading, thanks for doing so, and I hope you'll see for yourself as I live up to and surpass my own expectations for this blog.
You see, I am not a creative person. Never have been. I've never drawn, painted, composed, filmed, or in any other way expressed myself when I wasn't being instructed to do so for others. The only thing I've ever been able to do, if you haven't guessed by now, is write. And even though these days practically anyone who can use a keyboard can do the same thing, I've netherless decided to start practicing through this journal, for a few reasons.
One is that I know from talking online that I can go on and on about certain subjects when I want to, and I'm sure this is as good a place as any to voice those opinions on them. Second is that I want to develop my writing sense and improve it beyond what it is now, along with my critical thinking abilities and my ability to put my thoughts into words, both of which could use a lot of work (again, note the title). This also ties into the third, and in a way the most sensible reason; to get better at my job.
My job, or profession really, is one I've recently chosen and have just started to work towards. It is translation, specifically from Japanese to English and occasionally from English to Japanese. For those of you who don't know, I am 23, and have recently returned from spending 3 and a half years of my life in Japan. I went over there when I was 19 to learn the language and while I was there ended up going to college, teaching English, and getting married, among other things. I skipped college to do this and as of today still have no intention of going. Since I was 12 I have had the often less-than-popular belief that the modern school system is broken and homeschooling, when done properly, is crucial to helping children achieve their natural potential, and that ties into my reasons for choosing not to go to college even now. But I digress. The point is, from now on my writing abilities are going to be crucial to the quality of my work and my chances of success, and that gives me a very...adult, if you will, reason to practice them and improve.
As a result, I don't plan to use this blog mostly to talk about my day, what I ate, what people said, my current mood, and things like that. It is of course very possible that those kinds of subjects will come up at some point, but it is my hope that they will be used as examples in a larger discussion with a little more meaning. That's my hope, anyway.
This doesn't mean that I'll completely refrain from talking about myself, though I do plan on not discussing what goes on between me and my wife, for her sake as much as mine. While I think that I think about myself too much as it is and that most, if not all of you reading this aren't interested, I'm hoping that when I do talk about myself here, it will help me to better understand myself, human nature, and maybe even help some of you understand yourselves. High hopes, I know, but I figure aiming high never hurt anyone, and it certainly won't hurt me. And once again, this is a work in progress, and so it's very likely it'll take me a while to get there. No problem. I'm confident that with practice and consistency, I can at least get close.
There's probably more I could say, but hopefully this will do for now. To those of you reading, thanks for doing so, and I hope you'll see for yourself as I live up to and surpass my own expectations for this blog.
posted by Gabe at 1:35 AM
1 Comments:
Just thought I'd say hi. It's been quite a few years since we actually talked, and we were never really that close, but I saw the post from Penny Arcade and was surprised to find that you were the translator.
Anyways, my name's Chris, we used to play games at Joe's place every once in awhile. Long time ago back in our hometown. Anyways, good to hear you're doing well. Strangely enough, I've spent a good portion of the past few years studying Japanese and have done some translation work myself, mostly music, I'm in love with the job and would like to do it full time as well.
If you feel like replying, pop an email over to munsoc@gmail.com. And nice work by the way.
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