This is a personal homepage, which originally existed for my own amusement but has come to be my way of communicating with my family, family friends, old friends, new friends, friends' kids, former students, colleagues, internet acquaintances, and perfect strangers.

This is not a business. I don't sell katoributa figures. I tried briefly, but my eBay auctions were less than a hit, and then I left Japan, which makes it harder for me to accumulate any kind of inventory. I apologize if you came here looking to buy one.

I used to make web pages. It was one of the ways I kept myself sane at work. (Okay, the success of that might be debatable.) It was one way I experimented with design and learned about the internet. It was one way to congeal the bits of my life which have formulated my somewhat vague identity. It was one way I assembled my photographs, not-very-good poetry, and thoughts. Those pages were always a repository for surrealism, satire, parody, and absurdity.

I used to make web pages. I used to like it. Then came this thing called LiveJournal. No HTML to edit, and by nature it organizes itself chronologically. No effort - and you know I'm anti-effort. But it's made me much lazier (if that's even possible). So this personal homepage, in its old-fashioned mid-nineties obsolescence, has been neglected since this blogging thing hit.

You'll find a photo archive (写真) on katoributa.com, but I'm afraid it's outdated and represents only the tip of the iceburg that is my travel photo collection. Most of my favorites from the last couple of years have skipped katoributa and gone straight to LiveJournal. I've been considering undertaking the daunting task of organizing them for katoributa for easy browsing. Oops, but if you saw my directory structure, you'd understand why I haven't already done this. Anyway, look at said archive if you want a younger, more innocent globe-trotting Susan.

The poetry (詩) here is old, as well. I don't know where most of it came from, but they're not true stories, for the most part. Some of them are, like the one about climbing Mt. Fuji, and the one about my man, the geek. The rest are just some words I caught and tied together, usually against their will.

For something more current, click on "日記" to go to my LiveJournal page. You don't have to register an account to read it or to post comments; however, I'd appreciate it if you sign your name when posting with the "anonymous" guest option. A lot of people wind up reading my LJ when they google stuff about teaching in Japan, or becoming a flight attendant, or living in Dubai, and they post questions for me. That's fine... but sign your name!

Hey, and as long as you aren't selling viagra or promoting your online casino, why not email me? I wish you would! chlorph at asvattha dot com.

That's all, I guess. Welcome!

Love, Susan