November 9th, 2001. Brian gets a table.

It's a little after midnight and I have something to tell you. Tonight, I traded my pride for a table.

My flatmate told me that there is a place near our apartment, where I could get some free furniture. It's a small, dark side street that leads to a sharp bend, and right on that corner I saw it. The place was littered with discarded items...kind of looked like a furniture cemetary. A place where unwanted furnishings come to die.

Well, we were in luck, amongst the rubble was a great table that was just perfect for my needs. I am hoping to find electronics some day. Apparently, people throw out perfectly good televisions, VCRs, monitors, etc. for no reason other than they are a few months old, and there is a newer model on the market.

Sometimes, I love this place.

Here it is. This table is one of those heater tables. I don't think that we have anything like it in Canada, as we have central heating in all our buildings. See, the way it works is you plug in the table and sit with your legs under it. The heater springs to life and presto, you are toasty.

Unfortunately, the heater is busted (probably the reason it was on the side of the street). It would have been nice for the winter. Japan gets a lot colder than I thought it would. Even now, I find myself on the brink of busting out the scarf and gloves.

So, here is what I am using my table for. It takes up my entire room, but it's worth it. My back was starting to hurt from bending down to use the computer on the floor all the time. Being comfortable as I write is a welcome change.

I do have a problem though. I've decided to move out to the cheaper gai-jin house. The room there is actually bigger than the room I have in this apartment, but I wonder how I will get the table over to the new building. Perhaps I can con someone into helping me move.

This table changes everything, my room now feels like a little office. On the left, you see my executive travel alarm clock that my mother gave me, next to that is a picture of my girlfriend and I. Of course, there is my laptop on the table and various other knick-knacks.

I wish I worked out of here. I wonder what I could do though? I suppose that there isn't too much demand for writing emails as a living, is there? Internet access would be great. I could get my webcam up and running. Funny thing is that I've always wanted to have a cam on a website of mine, and now that I finally have a webcam, I don't have internet access. Argh.

In case you are wondering, this is not the same shirt I was wearing yesterday. All my clothes look exactly the same. My girlfriend used to tease me all the time about my outfits. Grey top and blue jeans. I don't do it on purpose. If I find something that I like, I just stick with it.

I mean, no one ever made fun of Batman for wearing the same costume all the time in Gotham. Well, he did switch from that nasty blue and grey tights to black rubber, but that was after 3 decades. I figure I have a ways to go before I have to change my look.