We all know how Moses jumped through many hoops and had to do a number of hits on Pharaoh and his minions in order get a well deserved vacation after 400 years of upper management screwing over the little guy even though he was once part of upper management. What goes around comes around. Reality sucks, huh? What is not widely known is what really transpired afterwards.

Moses took off east into the vast Egyptian desert with little knowledge of where he was going, with no GPS, and had thousands of people in tow. Somebody didn’t bother to build a bridge across the Red Sea so God stepped in and paved the way. Moses tossed some shekels into the toll basket and barreled right through. Pharaoh and the local cops were in hot pursuit of the Hebrews, but found the gate locked down because of a large water leak and also had to break off the upcoming 6-o’clock news story because somebody started a big fire and that kept them busy for awhile. Who knew sand would burn?

Mark Twain (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)  left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910 and one of his parting wishes was that they not be published for 100 years.

That time has come.

I'll be working to clear up my unfinished Kindle books before the big day in November, when the first of three volumes is expected to be released. According to The Independent, this should be some good stuff from one of the most (mis)quoted men in American History:

Another potential motivation for leaving the book to be posthumously published concerns Twain's legacy as a Great American. Michael Shelden, who this year published Man in White, an account of Twain's final years, says that some of his privately held views could have hurt his public image.

"He had doubts about God, and in the autobiography, he questions the imperial mission of the US in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He's also critical of [Theodore] Roosevelt, and takes the view that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel. Twain also disliked sending Christian missionaries to Africa. He said they had enough business to be getting on with at home: with lynching going on in the South, he thought they should try to convert the heathens down there."

In other sections of the autobiography, Twain makes cruel observations about his supposed friends, acquaintances and one of his landladies. 

I have been in Koshigaya Japan for the past 2 months and life is finally starting to settle down. I have more free time now so I will finally start to blog and post pictures here. I am an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) at two Junior High Schools, Hokuyo and Eishin. Both schools are in the city of Koshigaya which is about a 1 hour train ride north of Tokyo. Hokuyo is a country school and is one of the smallest schools in Saitama prefecture with about 245 students. Eishin on the other hand is the 5th largest in Saitama and has almost 1,000 students. They are very different and so far my experience at both has been pretty good. Yesterday I was planting rice with the 1st and 3rd year students at Hokuyo and last week I was helping the Japanese Teachers at Eishin make English listening tapes for midterms. Hopefully I will be getting pictures of both schools up soon. 

I'm sure you've all missed my monthly updates. :p What can I say... I'm a year old now... I just don't have the time... things to do... places to see... know what I'm saying? I mean, don't get me wrong, being shockingly cute and having a great smile is good and all but it's only going to take me so far. I need to get out there, circulate, make connections, plan my future, so I can take care of all these old folks when they stop bringing home the checks. I mean... seriously... Dad just barely drags his rear out of bed anymore... how much longer can I ride that gravy train?

Anyhow, here's the skinny on what I've been up to...