The youths did a personality quiz as part of their programme today, and us teachers joined in as well. I’m not sure where they got the quiz from, but when I saw my result, I thought it didn’t seem to describe me that well. Here’s the description:

You are fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. You are also kind, considerate, and understanding; always cheer people up and help them out.

I don’t think I’m fresh, lively, charming or amusing, and certainly not constantly in the center of attention. In fact, I think I prefer being in the background. And you know, I’m really bad when it comes to cheering people up.

I thought this one suited me more, minus a few parts:

You are sensible, cautious, careful and practical. You are also clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. You don’t make friends too quickly or easily, but will be extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expect the same loyalty in return. It takes a lot to shake your trust in your friends, but equally that it takes you a long time to get over it if that trust is ever broken.

Maybe there are some things about myself that I’m not seeing, so for those who know me, which description suits me more?

I was going home from work earlier this week when the bus that I was on broke down. The bus driver printed out these complementary tickets from the ticket machines, and handed them to each passenger as we alighted the bus. The ticket allowed us to get a free bus ride anytime within a month.

I used my ticket when I went out earlier today. When I showed it to the bus driver, he nodded in acknowledgement, indicating that I could board the bus. He didn’t keep the ticket, or just tear it before returning to me to show that the free ride had been used. I’m not sure if there’s any standard practice when it comes to these things, and in the past I’ve also seen drivers just look at the complementary tickers shown to them by their passengers without doing anything to them. But how then does the bus company ensure that passengers who are holding these complementary tickets to not cheat and use them only once? There’s just no way to tell if the ticket has been used before. If the bus drivers are not required to keep the tickets or tear them, then such a system depends on the integrity of the passengers to make it work. A passenger with the intention to cheat can actually cheat the bus company up to a month’s worth of bus fares! It does add up to quite a bit, especially for those who take long bus rides, but maybe even if there are really passengers like that, the bus company is already earning so much from us that they are still able to more than cover their losses? There should still be a better way of handling this though.

テゴマスの「キッス～帰り道のラブソング～」だ。「ラブ★コン」のエンディングテーマだから、このアニメを見た人は絶対聞いたね。歌詞は素敵で大好きだ。　

君がいれば、私は強くなれるよ。だから、君にずっと側にいて欲しい。

Agnès b. 2010 spring/summer collection e-mook

The Agnès b. 2010 spring/summer collection e-mook was released last Friday (19 Feb), and my copy arrived in the mail today. Mooks (magazine books), as far as I know, a pretty much a Japanese thing, and the term refers to publication in the format of a magazine but sold as a book. Many well-known brands have published mooks, including Marc by Marc Jacobs, YSL, Paul & Joe, Jill Stuart, Agnès b., and the list goes on. Fashion mooks usually feature a catalogue of the brand’s upcoming collection, as well as other contents that probably differ in each one. The Agnès b. one, for example, features the brand’s history and development.

Whenever we meet, it feels like time has stopped for the moment, and we can talk about whatever we want, however long we want to. But when it’s time to leave, I realise that those few hours had gone by too fast. The days that we spent in school will never come back, but we still have all these occasions when we meet up to look forward to and treasure.

8 years and counting… I’m so blessed!