And more

A bit more Nova stuff.

Here are some translations from Japanese articles I've alluded to below.

Here, here and here.

Today is supposed to be the 'real' payday. So far, no money has arrived, and it looks very unlikely.

There have been no faxes from HQ either promising payment, so it looks like they have no idea either. (or they're just regarding their employees with utter contempt - either way, it's not good)


In other, more interesting news, scientists have dated the emergence of homo sapiens back 40,000 years or so - to about 160,000 years ago.

Also, my favourite conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, has a new movie coming out.

More Nova stuff

There was quite a bit of coverage of yesterday's 'strike' on Japanese TV and in the press. (and here too)

As for me, I spent today at the office of my new employer, learning about their teaching methodology and observing some lessons. I officially start in January so I hope going in early like this makes a good impression...

I start my paid holidays on Friday. My 'last day' is November 23. Aaaaah.

.....

We probably won't be getting paid, but what the hey... it's holidays!

Getting up to date...

With Nova's demise starting to go into action, today's going to be quite an action packed day.

The General Union are going to pay a visit to the labour standards authority here in Osaka to petition for the payment of wages as well as for them to do something about the company in general for breaking any number of laws.

This article describes the fundamental dodginess behind the latest wheeling and dealing to try to keep the company afloat, although it looks like that's all fallen through as one of the main people involved was arrested the other day on insider trading charges - and Nova was implicitly linked through the article (in Japanese though, so I won't post it). Companies from the British Virgin Islands indeed...

What most people want is for bankruptcy to be declared so that teachers can get most of their back wages paid and they can claim unemployment benefits if they're eligible. Arresting the president of the company for his repeated violations of the labor standards law would be a start.

At least the Australian consulate has said they'll help out Australian citizens. Hopefully I won't need it.

Today could be my last day at Nova...


Some music to lighten things up.

It was good to see that one of my favourite Australian bands, Art Of Fighting, got some nice coverage in the news recently.

Also I want to see the Ian Curtis biopic.

And I made another webpage for my band - which has been linked on my Facebook page - so I'm waiting for the sales to come rolling in... errrrmmmm....


This (October 15th - as it would currently be in the U.S. - so behind the times!) being Blog Action Day, it's about time I did a bit of an alternative energy roundup. This year's theme is the environment.

With Australia's almost complete non-participation in the development and use of alternative energy at an all time low, hurting our economy (thanks John. are you looking forward to the 24th?), at least someone is doing something about getting better and better technology out there.

From California comes a fellow who's invented a way to make small amounts of electricity from small amounts of wind. Ideal for small communities in under-developed regions of the world. Very cool.

A company in Japan has developed a method for manufacturing spherical solar cells which would be much better at collecting sunlight during all times of the day. That makes for much better overall efficiency and economy. Bewdyful! Sugoi!


Lastly, a few interesting tidbits to mull over.

a) What made America great was optimism, according to this article. That's something which is now is stunningly short supply...

b) There's a new country in the world, Richistan. It has no specific geographic location, but it's growing and silently separating itself from the rest of the world.

c) A couple have been driving their way around the world. 156 countries down, 35 to go.

and, d) Photos and footage from World War II - in colour. (with a 'u', dammit!)

Recent stuff

A fair bit of Nova news to catch up on.

News of the company hit the Aussie papers again. They've stopped recruiting in Australia. The sub-contractor recruiting company I went through has also cancelled their contract with Nova.

The government has ordered Nova to comply with an order to refund students who've cancelled their contracts. Word is that some students haven't been refunded up to six months after cancelling - including some of my ex-students.

In today's paper there was a story of a potential investor in the company, purchasing options of 200 million shares, raising about 70 million yen. For the record there are currently about 60 million shares issued in total by Nova, and Nova needs about 10 BILLION yen to settle its debts to students as well as pay outstanding debts and wages. If the companies who purchased the option decide to buy, then that'll raise only about 7 billion yen. It'd be a welcome shot in the arm, but it wouldn't do much in the long term. Sales are still bad.

Related: here's a calculator to work out how much unemployment benefits you can get in Japan through Hello Work. It's a lot less than people on the internet were saying. Babelfish is useful for translating the Japanese to English.


Going home isn't much of an option since I'd likely have to undergo training of some kind, and stories like this don't exactly provide inspiration. Fancy trying to study as well as work up to four part-time jobs just to make ends meet! Thanks Mr. Howard!

If you still want to try to help the environment, then here's a list of easy things to do.

You may have no choice regarding your flat-screen TV since most of them churn through more electricity than your fridge!

At least in New York you can still get a good night's sleep - thanks to your very own Sleep Concierge!

Another thing to do might be to plant some trees - or buy a block of land next to yours and make it into a park since that'll lower the temperature somewhat...

You can also keep telling yourself that things really are getting better. Sure, we don't have wonderful things like rampaging disease and dying before you're 40 of old age, but there's such a thing as willingly putting your head in the sand too!


And finally, just in case you don't know - there's been a genocidal war going on in Afghanistan for six years now...

I like David Letterman

But wait!

There's more!

I got moved from one school to another school this week - and now that school is closing next week! Yeeesh.

More Nova stuff has hit the English language press. Some of it is hearsay, but since no one up top is contactable or saying anything, there isn't much else to go on at the moment. Even the people who work in Head Office have as much clue as anyone else. It really is a shambles.

I've been reading up on my Japanese regulations and working out the best course of action.

There are "End of Nova" parties springing up spontaneously all over Japan as the foreign staff do what they do best when faced with stress- they drink!


When all else fails, I don't turn to the bottle (thankfully!), I turn to the Internet! Aah, the Internet. Teacher, mother, secret lover.... provider of work (hopefully!).

For Japanophiles and linguists here's a list of English words in Japanese. Anyone who's taught English in Japan may have a chuckle at this.

I found out that Jackie Chan has pretty good taste in movies. But also I found out that Lois Maxwell (*the* Miss Moneypenny) has passed away...

I found out that Subway can be worse for you than McDonalds - steer away from the cookies people!

I found out that boyhood is slowly, but surely, being banned. We're about to see a generation of tubby Emo-kids with no balls come through the system. Is that REALLY what we want?!?

Oh, and Yay! George Bush is gearing up to attack Iran updates! More on the war on terror, the war against the people of the Earth, the war against Nature, the war against freedom (not Bush's definition)... Oh it's so good to be alive right now!!

But some guys in Paris are fighting a war against the desecration and destruction of that city.

And anything that includes the figure, "The amount of energy thrown out by the burst was 10exp33 joules or the equivalent to the amount of energy that around 185.3 billion average Australian homes would use in a year," has got to be good!

Peace, Love, and Blue Smarties to you...