There’s a rather sad story on Page 2 of the Daily Yomiuri newspaper today that states “Suicides climb in 1st half of ‘09“. While Japan has long had more suicides per year than the rest of the planet combined, it’s a little unnerving to see the number continue to reach higher. According to the article, [...]
07.29.09 | Working in Japan | Jason
The world is a big place, and there are countless others who share our name that make it into the news on a regular basis. Searching for other people with our name on the internet has become so common-place that it’s not abnormal to hear about people who “Google themselves” to see what their namesakes [...]
The skies certainly opened up today. While on the way to get some kanji textbooks, the Mrs. and I ran into some pretty heavy rain. At some points visibility was down to just 50 meters.
Good thing the car’s wipers work. The last time I encountered this kind of storm was back in Canada when I [...]
07.26.09 | Living in Japan | Jason
Since before the release of Asus’ first EeePC, people have complained about the speed, or lack thereof, experienced on the netbook form factor. Issues such as boot time, lag between clicks, slow application load times, and limited screen resolutions have been the key concerns for many of the people who report on such issues [...]
07.20.09 | Business, Technology, Working in Japan | Jason
Many people who read this site have undoubtedly owned several computers over the last few decades with each new machine bringing a little more power and capability to our lives over the last. A lot of people I’ve worked with have jokingly mentioned that every computer had its own personality, and many others have [...]
07.19.09 | Home, Technology | Jason
With each passing year, movies get bigger and bigger. Very rarely can we walk into a cinema and see something lacking the touch of computer animation, and rarer still can we watch something that isn’t a remake of some other story. So you can probably imagine my surprise when, after watching the latest Fast & [...]
Five posts in one week! What gives!
It looks as though time is no longer in short supply, which means that this site will become quite a bit more active with yet another slew of rants interspersed with the occasional positive post on Japan. As many people know, I’ve been busy with a self-initiated, self-directed project [...]
With July in full swing and the mercury hitting temperatures over 35 degrees, this seems to be the single most common question asked when meeting someone. Before moving to Japan, I honestly had no idea what real humidity was like. Sure, the summers in Southern Ontario could get so hot that power grids [...]
07.15.09 | Japan, Living in Japan, Working in Japan | Jason
A few weeks ago I was accused of living under a rock because I didn’t know who Susan Boyle was, or why people were talking about her. When I asked the simple question of “why should I know her?” the response wasn’t so much about an answer as it was about stats:
Millions of views [...]
In the world of customer data, security is an absolute necessity. Anyone who does not take the matter seriously will likely find themselves in a world of hurt followed quickly by unemployment if a company’s customer data is stolen, compromized, or otherwise used in a way it was never meant to be. For this reason, [...]
07.13.09 | Development, Technology | Jason
Living in Japan can be a lot of fun, but sometimes there can be some interesting differences between one’s adopted home and natural home. One such example would be Japan’s understanding of cereal. In Canada, cereal would be considered “part of a complete breakfast,” whereas across the ocean a bowl of Special K or Corn [...]
07.10.09 | Japan, Living in Japan | Jason
A few days ago, while telling me how stupid I was for saying that I wanted a notebook computer to last at least 15 years...
The countdown is almost up on this year's winter Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and thousands of people residing bo...
Do you ever wonder about your neighbours? I wrote a few months ago about how one of my neighbours has the same camouflag...
Believe it or not, I had a terrible habit back in Canada. It wasn't one with drugs, alcohol, women, or even excessive ...
Over the last decade or so I've been battling a bunch of minor problems such as insomnia, headaches, chest pain, and blo...