Jason’s Random Thoughts

Another milestone in my life is reached today as I can now officially say that I’ve spent a year of my life in Japan. Although this total is the sum of three visits, and it’s not really that long, it’s important to me as it proves that I really can stay here for the long haul.

That said, ask me in another four years if I still feel the same way.

Putting A Finger On The Intangible

Japan has quite a bit to offer its residents, natural and foreign alike. But, despite all the products and services, tangible or no, there is something missing.

During my time in Vancouver, I watched very little actual TV. This was for a number of reasons, one of which was mentioned here. However, one thing I remember quite clearly from my youth in Ontario was the number of colourful, high-energy breakfast cereal commercials. Not only were we entertained by the animated mascots, but we could also learn valuable lessons about life and prejudice.

Lucky Charms taught me that it’s okay to harass and rob the Irish. Trix taught me that taking away someone’s food because they’re different is a normal thing. Cocoa Puffs showed us that being dangerously hyperactive is not only a great way to get what you want, but the sole justification necessary to explain why we’re eating something that we haven’t payed for. Then last, but certainly not least, Tony the Tiger taught us that optimism, when mixed with a goal, can take us to unimaginable heights.

Who is there to teach these things to Japanese children?

No Complete Breakfast?

Something that’s surprised me during my stay in Japan has been the size of each breakfast. Both Reiko and her mother have a habit of waking a little early in order to prepare a selection of eggs, sausage, salad, fruit and just about anything else you might want to eat in the morning.  Not only does this require waking up at some Godless hour, but a certain amount of planning and effort as well. Why not simply let the kids pour their own bowl of sugar-coated grain, toast half-a-dozen pieces of bread and grab an orange? According to the TV, this is all we need for a complete breakfast.

This isn’t to say that I’d much rather eat a bowl of cold, milk-drenched flakes instead of a hot and fresh meal, though.

Has anyone else living outside of North America seen something like this?  I’d be curious to know what kinds of differences exist between what we see now, and the TV we’ve grown up with in Canada and the U.S..

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Summer is just around the corner, and the staggering heat of the Japanese sun will soon bake us into exhaustion with its ceaseless presence. Last year the mercury reached 43.2 Celcius in some parts of Gifu prefecture, and this past April we were treated to termeratures in the low 30’s. Aside from a few weeks in February, both the weather and the temperature have been quite enjoyable. So, with the beautiful climate and temperate weather, why the heck is my PDA freezing so much?

Naturally, I’m not so daft as to think the regional temperature has anything to do with my iPaq’s tendency to hit some silent and fatal exception, forcing it to become unresponsive to every request, bargain or plea I might utter. Heck, I’ve only had it for three weeks! But considering how the unit it replaced would only freeze if I was running some memory-monster or processor hog, I’m left scratching my head over how this technologically superior device could be prone to such creativity-inhibiting behaviour. Is it a problem with Windows Mobile 6? Is it a fault with some application running in the background? Did I fsck something up while configuring the system? Do I have just too much data stored inside?

Your guess is as good as mine, since I’ve tried quite a few things in an unsuccessful effort to determine the culprit.

A Reset A Day Keeps The Freezing At Bay

One interesting thing I’ve discovered is that the system is usualy less prone to failure if it receives a soft-boot in the morning. This tends to clear out whatever gunk it might have clogging up the system and enables me to accomplish quite a bit of writing a day. Heck, so long as I don’t write more than 3,000 words with the Block Recognizer, I can often go the whole day without any signs of trouble.

That said, when the system does decide to fail, it usually occurs when I have 500+ unsaved words written to a Word document. I @$#%ing hate it when I lose a really good blog post or several pages of my upcoming novel due to some unknown system error. Considering how I write each article by hand on a PDA rather than using a keyboard, this is like writing two pages of text on an A4 sheet (8.5″x11″), and then torching them with a lighter. Sure, you can write the article again, but what a waste of time!

Looking At Alternatives

Because of the freezing, I’ve actually been looking at the possibility of getting my hands on a wireless keyboard. “But if your PDA is freezing at 3,000 words and you can type at 170 words per minute, doesn’t that mean that you’ll need to reset your iPaq every 20 minutes?”

I hope not.

The idea behind the keyboard is to get a device that would allow me to write much more in a day, and I’ll just keep my writing schedules. Sure, there is the potential to lose quite a bit of text if I’m not careful, but I have an idea for that, too.

Say Hello to Embink!

Within hours of aquiring a new portable computer, I had started (mentally) working on a new piece of software that would allow me to write a post on a Windows Mobile device, then upload it directly to my sites. I had discussed the possibility of creating this software before and, despite there being several applications out there that will allow me to accomplish most of my goals, none of them do it the way I’d like to see it done. So, with this in mind, it’s time to unveil Embink!

As of this writing, there isn’t any software ready for public consumption. However, there will be some code released in th the coming weeks as this project gets off the ground and I start working out the bugs while commuting to work. If I’m using this software daily, and it’s not living up to my exacting standards for software, I’ll be sure to get it corrected right away.

If you have any feature requests for this application, or would like to know what you’ll need in order to take part in the software testing, just let me know.

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It’s a question likely as old as the written word, and one we might not give consideration to while hammering out our ideas online. Is our content too long? Will length make an impact on the number of RSS subscribers? It’s certainly a valid concern and, after discussing it with some fellow bloggers, it might be worth asking about your own content.

In my case, the length of my posts is generally a secondary consideration as it’s not quantity I look for, but quality. That said, there is some question about the level of writing on here, and I’ve had dozens of visitors send emails telling me to stop using so many commas or to relax my stance on a subject or two. But never has anyone complained about the length of the content. It might be one reason for this site’s high bounce rate, though.

Looking to the Pros

When we look at some of the most successful bloggers, we often see articles ranging anywhere from 400 to 750 words. Regardless of the writing style or content, we can often see subscriber numbers in excess of 100. This is true for blogs about everything from online revenue to golf. But is this why their blogs are so popular? What sets many of these sites apart from the crowd?

Length might play a factor, as many of us now suffer from some learned form of A.D.D., which is bad news for long-winded bloggers like Nick Phillips or myself, but is it the only reason?

Not surprisingly, the answer is ‘no’. There are dozens of factors to success, regardless of length. Another would be the number of subjects.

Talking About Too Many Things?

One of the big no-no’s we hear about on various BAB (Blog About Blogging) sites is discussing too many subjects. I can speak from experience and say that this can be a big reason people stop reading a site.

Late last year I spoke quite a bit about Ubuntu Linux, and my experience with the Operating System. I’ve also covered Japanese politics, space elevators, new products from Palm and Apple computer, various NAS options, upgrading a notebook, this site, moving to Japan, troubles at work, my wedding, and a few other subjects. Suffice to say, with almost 600 posts on this site alone, very few subjects that I’m passionate about have been left untouched. In that time, I’ve seen readership flow and ebb with a particular subject line. However, despite seeing this predictable trend, I’ve never capitalized on the rising numbers with just one or two subjects.

Readership Is Nice, But It’s Not My Goal

My goal with this site is not to attract a huge following or be considered an expert in any field. I have other sites for that. Instead, the goal of j2fi.net is to invite discussion on various subjects and to vent some of my frustrations. Hopefully I can look back on this site in five years and see some personal growth, and perhaps I’ll even have the opportunity to use it as a springboard into other areas {link | Embink}. Very little of what’s discussed here is exceptionally unique but, with over 100-million blogs out there, can anyone claim to be 100% unique?

Probably not.

So I’d like to open the floor to you, now. Does length matter? Does the number of topics matter? What do you watch out for on your sites?

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Long distance relationships can be incredibly difficult and, just like local relations, come with a host of hurdles to overcome. Just as one expects from any serious relationship, being so far from a loved one requires such pious virtues as honest, love, respect, communication and, above all, trust. Many long distance attempts often end with the painful realization that there is little chance of one person moving closer to the other. Others, like Reiko and I, persevere to close the geographical distance and get married. However, some seem to have an altogether different problem: they can only be a long distance couple.

A friend of mine in Jamaica has this problem and he’s asked me to put into words some of his painful realizations over the last few months.

Connected, Yet Disconnected

My friend, let’s call him “Bob”, has enjoyed a long-term and long-distance relationship with a young woman in South Korea. For the last three years, they’ve met online to stay in touch and share their lives. Every summer, Bob would fly to Seoul for 10 days to spend time with “Joo-Eun”, and she would spend a week in Jamaica every Christmas. Both 27 years old, they shared many common interests and seemed like the perfect couple.

Online we could see these two flirt with each other in the public chat rooms, and in their private conversations they would share anything and everything a couple might say in person. It looked like a match made in heaven, though separated by half a planet.

Bob and Joo-Eun decided that it would be easier if he were to move to Seoul, and started to make the arrangements. He studied Korean, prepared the necessary forms, obtained the proper work visa, and quit his job at the Radisson in Hamilton to start at another one in Seoul. Finally, he made the move from his home country to the hustle and bustle of South Korea in November of last year.

As expected, we didn’t hear from Bob very much online. He was living in a country he had fallen in love with and was close to the woman he had pledged to start a family with. However, two weeks later, Bob was back online for six hours a day from his home. Mae-ung, who had become very quiet in the chat room since Bob’s arrival, was also more active. Of course, Bob and Joo-Eun were not living together at the time, so I figured it might have been due to work schedules.

Unfortunately, this was not the case.

The Uncomfortable Silence

In February, Bob and Joo-Eun started to act differently toward each other. It was no secret that the couple had been arguing since Christmas, but they usually had a pretty good relationship while online together. However, they seemed to have run out of things to say. Bob would still talk about video games, Korean dramas and how subtitle-technology should be built into glasses so we can always understand what people are saying, but he wasn’t talking about Joo-Eun. He wasn’t talking to her very often, either. Considering how these two people had managed to survive a committed long-distance relationship, most of their online friends were worried.

We thought that perhaps the transition from long-distance to something a little more local was the problem and, since I’ve had experience with this, I was nominated as the group’s voice for such matters. The following day, Bob and I had a man-to-man and this is an actual exerpt from the conversation. Only our nicknames have been changed.

<Jason> I don’t mean to pry, but what’s goin’ on between you and Joo-Eun?
– 10 minute pause –
<Bob> its hard man
<Jason> what do you mean?
<Bob> we fighting
<Bob> shes fighting
<Bob> not me
<Jason> what’s she saying?
<Bob> she say i dont talk
<Bob> she say i dont pay attention anymore
<Bob> i dont get it
<Bob> I move to korea
<Bob> I take a shitty job
<Bob> i see her every chance
<Bob> but its no enuf

I stopped correcting Bob’s grammar and spelling years ago, but the message was quite clear. A communications problem had developed between the two, and some strong emotions had taken root, and the combination of the two were starting to cause some serious problems.

Deciding to dig a little further, I continued talking to Bob while messaging Joo-Eun to get her version of the story.

<Jason> Hihi Joo-Eun. I don’t mean to pry, but is there something going on between you and Bob? Everyone’s kinda worried.
– 30 minutes later –
<Joo-Eun> I don’t want to talk about it
<Jason> Okay. Everyone’s worried, that’s all
<Joo-Eun> then have everyone tell Bob to stop fantasising about his computer
<Jason> ???
<Jason> what do you mean?
<Joo-Eun> he doesn’t talk when we’re together anymore
<Joo-Eun> instead he answers everything in one or two words
<Joo-Eun> I feel like I’m talking to the wall
<Jason> Really? But you’re always chatting to each other online
<Joo-Eun> yeah … that’s the problem
<Joo-Eun> we *only* chat online

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks, and it’s something I should have seen earlier. Bob had been the only Jamaican in our little chat room for years. He didn’t go out very often before meeting Joo-Eun, and went out even less once his love life flourished online. Much like me in Vancouver, he had very little opportunity to communicate with people face to face. When left in a situation of prolonged computer-less discussion, he ran out of subjects to talk about. And, just like me, when he ran out of things to talk about, he would become quiet.

Not good. This is something that needed to be confronted head-on with Bob.

<Joo-Eun> if that’s not enough, he doesn’t do anything special anymore
<Joo-Eun> he used to buy me flowers or teddy bears while in Jamaica
<Joo-Eun> now he doesn’t do anything romantic
<Joo-Eun> he tells me that he loves me
<Joo-Eun> but it sounds like he’s just saying it
<Joo-Eun> like he’s convincing himself
<Joo-Eun> I feel so alone when I’m with him
<Jason> ouch…
<Jason> have you explained this to him?
<Joo-Eun> he gets angry when I bring it up
<Joo-Eun> I don’t think it’ll work anymore

Uh oh.

<Jason> do you still love him?
<Joo-Eun> I do … but it’s like we need to be in different countries for us to work
<Joo-Eun> I don’t know what to do aymore
<Jason> may I talk to him about it?
<Joo-Eun> I dno’t kno …

It was clear she was crying at this point. Joo-Eun’s typing ability was on par with my own, and she isn’t one to make so many simple mistakes. It was at this point that I took the plunge and completely inserted between the two.

<Jason> Bob, I was just talking to Joo-Eun
<Jason> she loves you quite a bit
<Bob> then why is she raggin on me?
<Jason> she says you two don’t talk anymore
<Bob> she says that?
<Jason> she’s also concerned because you’re ‘not as romantic’ as before
<Bob> I hate it when she say that!
<Bob> I’m not doing anything different!
<Jason> Mae said you used to surprise her with flowers, teddy bears and whatnot
<Bob> WTF!
<Bob> we’re always going shopping and I’m always payin man!
<Bob> i’m npt her bank man

Uh oh … This needs to be handled delicately. I don’t want to make the situation any worse.

<Jason> yeah, I know you do
<Jason> listen, Bob, this isn’t about money or stuff or anything like that
<Jason> she’s just saying that things have changed since you two started seeing each other IRL
– 10 minutes later –
<Jason> you still there?
– 20 minutes later –
<Bob> I’m going back to Jamaica
<Bob> we’ve decided to stop
<Jason> WHAT!?!?!?!
<Bob> its not your fault Jason
<Bob> Mae and I were talking just now
<Bob> its not gonna work
<Jason> but you’ve gone 3 years
<Jason> you’re going to walk away from all that?
<Bob> its over man
<Bob> i’m gone

With that, Bob disconnected and wasn’t heard from until mid-April … two months later. Joo-Eun was still online, but silent. I felt terrible for interfering. Everyone in the channel felt bad for the situation and, like many difficult subjects over the years, open discussion of the topic was taboo and limited to private conversations only.

That said, when Bob did come back, something weird was immediately noticed. Both Bob and Joo-Eun were chatting away like they did in the first few months of their relationship. The subjects were limited to video games, TV, movies and music, but they were leading the group in time spent online. Less than a week later, they decided to try once again.

There were rules, though:

1. They would be long-distance lovers only
2. If they found someone local, then the relationship would change to “close friends”

Although nobody said it at first, we all had the same thought. It was something along the lines of “WTF?“.

Are Delusions More Attractive?

Bob and Joo-Eun get along great when together in the ever-etheral realm of the interweb, but cannot endure more than two weeks together. Oddly enough, this is not the first time I’ve seen this, either. I’d be curious to know if there’s some complicated name for this increasingly popular psychological condition. If there isn’t, then I suggest the name of Interweb-Only Syndrome. If marketed properly, perhaps some Japanese quack can blow the issue out of proportion and create some foul-tasting elixir for the condition.

Heck, perhaps one already exists.

What’s most interesting about Interweb-Only Syndrome is that these people get along great when separated. They often live in their own imaginary worlds, and communicate mainly through some combination of text messages, emoticons, audio snippets and video conversations. When asked about their feelings for their distant significant other, we’re told in very eloquent terms of a love that transcends time zones, continents and oceans. However, when given the luxury of prolonged exposure without the need for distracting technological devices, the relationships seem to fizzle and die.

The reasons cited are often the same. One person no longer communicates, they seem distant, or they’re no longer as actively interested as they appeared through an internet communications service.

Is this a growing problem due to the exposure many of us have had to the internet? Is this a result of an inate low estimation of our self worth? Is this the result of our ability to personify our ideal self in a realm where nobody can confirm or deny the accuracy of our statements? Is this a problem at all?

Who am I to judge? I’m not a sociologist, and I still feel bad for getting discussing the issue with Bob and Joo-Eun.

Instead, I’m much more interested in your thoughts. Have you seen situations like this? What’s your take on Interweb-Only Syndrome?

– Published with permission from “Bob” and “Joo-Eun” –

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The Phoenix lander completed it’s 711-million kilometer journey to the Martian north pole this past weekend with a successful soft-landing and some beautifully clear pictures. Over the next 90 days, this stationary laboratory will continue our quest to find evidence for life on our closest semi-habitable planet. With this landing, JPL’s tradition of handing out peanuts before landing has continued to bring luck. As it stands, less than half of all spacecraft sent to the Red Planet arrive intact. That said, the craft that do make the journey in one piece often return far more data and operate far longer than the original mission called for. It’s a testament to the intelligence, creativity and tenacity of the human spirit to see these machines boldly go where no one has gone before, and I look forward to seeing what feats of technological prowess mankind will enjoy in the future.

I am a big fan of space exploration and astrophysics. Although I don’t have any formal education in this field, I try to follow it as much as possible through technical journals and documentaries. When a big event is happening, I want to watch it unfold on TV or, when it comes to theoretical physics and other non-observable topics, read a well-written article outlining cause and effect, with supporting calculations or references. Rarely do I forget my location when a big event happens.

• January 28, 1986 - Challenger is Lost - I was in 2nd grade and had just left for school for lunch when the news broke. Teachers had put TV’s on the local news channel to see the horrible tragedy.
• February 1, 2003 - Columbia is Lost - A horrible day … another shuttle lost, and the skuttling of all future shuttle missions. This event prompted a severe overhaul of the Space Shuttle’s safety systems and protocols, so hopefully we will not lose more people the same way in the future.
• January 3, 2004- Spirit Lands - I was at work for this one but, thanks to the internet, I was keeping an eye on the NASA website for updates.
• January 25, 2004 - Opportunity Lands - Just like with Spirit, I was at work and watching online.
• May 25, 2008 - Phoenix Lands - I was at the Ogaki Bank in Kakamigahara with my wife. When I mentioned how great it was that the vehicle had safely landed, she immediately responded with: “What’s the point of going to Mars, it’s a waste of money. We should give that money to the poor.”

Think Of Your Happy Place (x100)

I’ve heard this argument from so many people, and I’ve tried to share the other side of the coin so many times. But to hear my wife say that we should piss more money away on the poor is utterly deflating.

Last year alone the world “gave” over one trillion dollars to the world’s poor. Of that money, quite a bit went to schools, hospitals and medicines for those in need. Some went to food. Some went to shelters. Some went to providing clean water to those who have never seen the transparent fluid so many of us take for granted. Naturally there was quite a bit of “skimming” that went on by many in charge of collection or distribution of this wealth, but many benefited from last year’s contributions. Let’s also not forget that wealthy nations have been giving to the poor, both domestically and internationally, since before the second world war, and more so since so many European nations have backed away from colonialism.

In the last sixty years, wealthy nations have “donated” a combined total of over $200-trillion in money, resources, as well as relief and military aid. Yet, despite this incredible sum of money, the world is barely better off. We still have people starving to death. We still have leaders refusing to accept responsibility to provide the basic necessities of a comfortable life to their people. We still have hypocritical humans from all over the world who say we should do more, but do nothing themselves.

No, we don’t need to forfeit the advancement of science, technology or our understanding of the universe for the sake of those in need. But, at the same time, we don’t need to forfeit human lives for the sake of knowledge. What we need to forfeit is human greed, and the vicious cruelty that results from it.

The Poor Exist For A Reason

Although most don’t like to admit it, the poor exist for a reason: we’re greedy and selfish.

A huge gap exists between rich and poor, but an equally large gap exists between poor and dirt-poor. This can be clearly seen in almost every city around the world, but I’ll use Vancouver as an example.

In Vancouver you will find lots of people who drive cars worth more than I could earn in two years as a computer programmer. But, you will find most people drive a simpler vehicle priced between $12,000 and $40,000. You can also see people that could only hope to own a reliable used car, but rely exclusively on public transit. And, finally, there are those that can’t afford a loaf of bread, and live in some filthy downtown alley. The gaps between these four groups is quite large, but they don’t need to be.

In 2002, I had gone from the second category to the third, and just about the fourth. When I moved to Vancouver I made several big mistakes and, as a result, was less than two weeks away from being homeless. However, after a series of just-in-time bursts of luck, I managed to get some solid work and maintained my position in the third category. Because of my good fortune, I decided to help out at a local homeless shelter and even bought and shared lunch with a few people that had nothing but the dirty rags they called clothes.

I did this for over a year in Vancouver before quitting. Why did I quit? Was it because many of the people that came to the shelters or had lunch on my dime abused our generosity? Was it because most of these people refused to accept work or some skills training, insisting welfare was their right? Was it because I couldn’t stand seeing all the young mothers tell their hungry children that there was no more to eat at the food bank because nobody donates until Thanksgiving and Christmas?

No. Witnessing those events play over and over for 20 months taught me quite a bit about the rich/poor divide, and what realities these people often trap themselves in. Instead, I stopped going because I wanted to have a personal life again. I wanted to see friends, meet people and have fun again.

I hadn’t been hungry in over two years, and I became selfish.

When people who demand we all donate more to help the poor hear me say this, they often say things like “you deserved to have fun,” or “wow, 20 months”. What they don’t say, though, is “it was the same at my shelter”. There are dozens of reasons for our avoidance of community service and reaching out to those in need, and 90% of these are probably valid. But the fact remains: the poor are poor for a reason. When someone chooses not to be poor again, they will have the motivation to build a better life for themselves. This is true for obscenely broke Canadians, ridiculously poor Africans, and a good two-thirds of all the poor around the world.

We Can Have Our Cake And Eat It, Too

What really gets me upset about statements like “we should give more to the poor” is that many think it’s just money they need. Money is a terrible thing to give because, unless you have lots of it, it’s a worthless commodity that gets mismanaged or stolen, and often does little more than drive up the cost of the daily essentials at the market. Money is important, there’s no doubt about it. But what many poorer people need is much less tangible: knowledge.

Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.

These words could not be more true. Rather than throw money at poorer nations, we should throw more educators and skilled trades-people at them. With the right mix of education and resourcefulness, these countries could become completely self-reliant in a generation or two. They might not have the same technological advantages as the Western nations, but they’ll be in a better position to make use of them. The same can be said about the poor in the wealthy nations. A little education can go a long way to solving our problems.

With all the intelligent people we have in the world, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to have skilled people visit an impoverished region to act as an educator. This, in conjunction with fiscally responsible spending, can do wonders in very little time. Perhaps this could be offered to retired people who want to ‘give back’, or to young graduates who want to see the world and do something other than teach a language (an important skill, but often an unnecessary luxury for many).

Knowledge Can Never Stop

Learning more about the universe and how we fit in is one of the most important areas of scientific inquiry. Not because we should know how black holes function, or why the Higgs Boson is so coveted, but because it works to answer one of our oldest questions: why?

We can no more stop asking this question than we can stop breathing. Both activities are an integral part of who we are and what we do. While some might be too scared to ask the big questions, or try to deafen us with their interpretation of reality, the fact of the matter remains. We are a curious species. We must know how and why things work.

I agree that something should be done to help the world’s less fortunate, but it shouldn’t be examined in such a black and white light. There’s an awful lot of gray in this world, and an incredible amount of wealth. Giving up on one socially beneficial budget item for another would be more than unfortunate, it would be irresponsible.

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