Jean Of mArc

A couple of years ago, I had a blog generously hosted by Pete Freckelton. However, I didn’t really have much to say, I don’t think anyone read it, and most people who did read it had probably already heard me say it to them in person anyway.

However, times and situations have changed, and I’ve recently had numerous requests to keep a blog. Why? Because I’m going to teach English in Japan. In the book Stuff White People Like, it says that every white guy wants to do this, and I’m no exception. The only difference is that I not only want to, I’m going to in July!

This means that for the first time ever, I will be living outside of Nova Scotia. Yes, I have taught some English at a Summer Camp in Hong Kong, and stayed in Calgary last summer working at Wycliffe, but in both cases I was only there temporarily. This time, I’m actually living at my own place, paying my own bills and making my own salary. Actually, this is the first time I will have a full-time job for more than 4 months at a time (usually I only have them during summer break). To go further with this, this will be my first full year NOT being a student! I guess these are the reasons that people want me to start keeping them updated on what’s going on. Besides, most of the time, blogs of people in foreign countries are more interesting than local blogs because they get into all kinds of unheard-of-in-our-land situations.

If you want to be with the in crowd and stay in-the-know on this blog, I recommend registering it with your favourite RSS client. If you want to be REALLY cool, then you’ll have to know what RSS is. Well, let me explain:

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndicate. Basically, it informs you of when websites update, rather than expecting you to check every single website in the world every single day, though if you prefer that method I won’t stop you. In order to be informed, you need an RSS client will show you the headline of the update, along with a line or two of explanation and a link to the site, much like getting an e-mail. There are hundreds of RSS clients out there, but here are three simple ways to get set up:

1. Go to Feed My Inbox, and simply type in http://www.jeanofmarc.com and then your e-mail address. After you click on a link in a confirmation e-mail, you will now get an e-mail every 24 hours IF there is an update. If not, then you won’t get an e-mail from them that day.

2. If you use Thunderbird, go to the “File” menu and select “New -> Account”. In the dialog box that pops up, select “RSS News & Blogs” and press the “Next” button. Enter “http://www.jeanofmarc.com”, press the “Next” button, and finally press the “Finish” button. Now you will get RSS feeds in a section of Thunderbird separate from your normal e-mails.

3. Subscribe to www.jeanofmarc.com with Google Reader. This is what I do. Basically, you can subscribe to websites using Google Reader, and rather than get them in your e-mail, there will be one page you can go to to read every website that you subscribe to, and view ONLY the posts you haven’t read yet. I don’t recommend this for my site though, since I will soon have other sections to browse through, and you won’t see those with Google Reader.

Anyhow, I plan to use this website for several things, not just to tell you about what I’m doing. My intentions include:

1. Music: I’ll upload any musical works that I have been involved with, past, present, and future. Well, not really the future, since when it actually gets put there it’ll be the present. Unless I use a time machine…

2. Japanese-Learning Stuff: I’ll be learning the Japanese language, and as such would like to upload some resources that will be useful for myself and anyone else learning the langauge.

3. Cooking: I really like cooking, and so it would be nice to have a section with recipes and such. Nothing fancy, but it’ll include any recipes that I get from people and they don’t mind me publishing it.

Anyway, those are just some ideas. I’m tired of typing, so that’ll do for now.