Selfed & Anyway, Blogs

Selfed

Oh, okay. So today to amuse myself, I started writing a little blog (auto)biography (Blogography? Biblography?) to post here so that when people click on the "About Me" link, they have something more edifying to read than my fraudulent claim of accounting acumen. When I try to write pointedly autobiographical pieces (which I've had to do in the past for art shows and such), I end up worrying about sounding like one of those people who corners you at parties to tell you how great they are and who never see the frantic effort you, their unwilling audience, are making in an effort to escape their self-important monologue. Because I try to avoid being one of those people, er, on paper, my autobiblogoraphical writing usually comes out sounding really, really strange.
How strange? Try this little section from my very first draft:

Tokyo Rosa was born and raised in the town where Bugs Bunny should have taken a left. Tokyo Rosa is a pseudonym. Tokyo Rosa's real name may or may not have been inspired by a once-popular American country-pop singer whose own nickname was “Little Miss Dynamite.”

Tokyo Rosa’s favorite foods are, somewhat predictably, dark chocolate and menudo. (Not at the same time. Often not even on the same day.) Once an adventurous eater, she can beat your own “Worst Thing I’ve Ever Eaten" story with a story about having consumed Trứng vịt lộn in order to avoid insulting a friend from Vietnam.

Tokyo Rosa has no political aspirations and reads no newspapers.

See what I mean? Strange. But: Is it that I'm strange? Is it that the writing is strange?

Anyway: Blogs

I spend way too much time online. I used to read novels (important ones, too, not SF crap and Stephen King's garbage). Now I surf the 'net and read other people's blogs. Let me introduce you to two blogs that I read semi-regularly:

The Handsome Businessman (remember him?) has a blog called Mono-roku (Mono is, of course, the Spanish word for monkey, which was a term of endearment between us at one time. Roku, translated from the Japanese, means something like "journal" or "logbook." So mono-roku is "Monkey's Journal.") I still read it from time to time.

(If you didn't click on the link to his blog, you should. Not only will you get a taste of what it was like to date a non-native English speaker, but you can also read about his getting a second tattoo. He's now at the suribori--outlining--stage.)

(Me and The Handsome Businessman at the top of Acoma Sky City.)

I also regularly read a blog called Life of an American Mommy Living in Japan. I've never met the woman who keeps this blog, but I know from reading that her name is Gina and she is from Colorado. She was going to university in Denver when she met an exchange student from Japan named Noboru. They've been married for ten years now and they live in Chiba with their two young sons.

I like her housewifey little blog partly because, when I do read it, I get a very "There but for the grace of God go I" feeling. But I also read her because I have a hard time believing that someone who went to and graduated from college produces writing like this:

When I picked up Branden from the bus stop this afternoon, I was surprised, that one of his teacher's told me, Branden had told them, his ear was hurting him! Mimi itai (sp?), I thanked her for telling me and she said, she had put an ice pack on his ear at school.

So, Noah feeling completely fine. And I'm feeling really crampy and a bit grumpy! And Branden feeling a slight earache! What a site, we must have been walking back to our house.

Her degree is in elementary education. To which I say: Good thing her kids are growing up in Japan.