The alien is being overworked. In Japan you have to renew your lease every two years by paying an extra month's rent. Why? Because landowners can do whatever they want. I think it's about time for serfs like myself rise up against our feudal lords, burn their houses, pillage their grains and livestock and hang their loved-ones from their feet allowing the all the blood to rush to their heads, knocking them out and eventually causing their greedy brains to hemorrhage... or I could work three days overtime this month.

Closing in on 200 pages. The most intimidating thing now isn't completing the beast, but rewriting it. Oh well... Not too much to report otherwise. I'm already starting to get stressed out about moving nine months time, which is fairly irrational. Really what worries my is money, but that's nothing new or unique to me. Wish I had more to say, but I don't - so I won't. If you want to see continued postings of novel excerpts, let me know.

175 is the page count now. I've been planning a trip to Malaysia, so if you've been (Madeleine?) give me some advice. Actually, today's venom is reserved for those pedantic people whose plaintiff whining and pithering prose populates the post boards of Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree. While it can be a forum for decent travel advice, it often devolves into the backpacker one upsmanship that I so detest. Basically you write a post asking for advice about a place and seventy percent of the responses ring with "don't go there, it's overrun by tourists", and even obscure, off the track places. I'm going to jokingly post for advice on travel in the Sahara desert just to see if some soft-skull doesn't write back to tell me to avoid the place because it's gone touristy. What is it with these wankers? Why can't they just hand out some decent advice without making everything into a high-minded diatribe on how the best places are gone, or better yet - "that was good when I was there, but now..." I'd like to find one of these unshowered, unshaven heathens, grab him by the dreadlocks and say, "At least tourists don't stink" before popping him in his overpriced Oakley sunglasses sending him sprawling across his vegan dinner. Whoops, sorry about that, got a little carried away.
Later.

Still at the novel, but not at the frenetic pace I was before. Now I'm around 160 in the page count. I enjoy the process, but it can seem overwhelming at times, especially given that knocking out three hundred plus pages is only the beginning, then comes the rewriting. In other news, I celebrated my 29th birthday meaning the three ohhh is, ohhh so close. I'm finalizing a timeline for my move to Thailand. I just signed another contract with Nova putting me at 18 paid holidays - coincidentally the same number of working days I'll have in December. Guess who will be getting a month's pay out of the big guys as a sort of severance? That's right, if things go to plan I'll leave Japan at the end of November. It's about time. My raise plummeted this year from 15,000 yen to 5,000. That's a good enough sign for me. I'm out, but not so quick. I'm expecting a trip to Thailand/Malaysia in May and then I'll work through the last hot, humid summer in Japan (I'll be able to look forward to much of the same in Thailand). That'll bring me into the fall and clearing out the shitload of, well, shit that I've accumulated since arriving in Japan before I take off. Anyway, stay tuned...