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September 2021

Hentaigana, and the Frustration of Learning Japanese

While I was doing research for another project I was doing, I went down a bit of a rabbithole.  I was trying to explain (and make sure I understood) the uses of voiced vs. unvoiced consonants.  I found a bunch of interesting things.  One was that there are some kana that are not well known and aren’t taught.  Another is that there are specific origins for hiragana, and some of them went down some rather odd roads before settling on their current form. Now, Japanese teaching and learning is a… Read More »Hentaigana, and the Frustration of Learning Japanese

The Terrorists Won, in 2001

Today, Sept 11, 2021, marks the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorists attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and killed about 3,000 or so people.  I’m not going to recount my experience of the event, because frankly, I didn’t really have one.  I was about 600 miles away at the time and it didn’t affect me directly.  That’s just simple fact.  It didn’t. I do remember that at the time I worked at a call center, and I went to work in the afternoon.  In the… Read More »The Terrorists Won, in 2001

I’m Tired of Tears

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away… Read More »I’m Tired of Tears

Biden’s Vaccine Mandates

I have two posts in line for today, and this one might be the less polarizing one.  Or not.  We will see. Yesterday the president of my country decided that he was going to implement a rule that would require mandates for people who work in companies with over 100 people, among other things.  His tone was particularly…  confrontational. Now, I am personally vaccinated.  While there are some people who cannot take the vaccines on the advice of their doctor, for the most part, I think everyone who is medically able… Read More »Biden’s Vaccine Mandates

Modern Computers Suck

Yknow, modern computers are a miracle.  I’m sitting here, typing on a keyboard with no physical connection to the computer, using a pointing device with no physical connection to the computer, connected to a worldwide network that it has no physical connection to, and it’s just a little square sitting next to three rather large monitors.  I can do so many things with these computers – look at scantily clad anime girls, write blog posts, look at scantily clad anime girls, do my finances, look at scantily clad anime girls,… Read More »Modern Computers Suck

Tsundoku, Part 2

When I was a child, there used to be this program (I don’t know if it still exists – oh look, it still does) called Scholastic Book Club. It was very much like those record clubs of the early 80s, where, if I remember correctly, you’d get some books for a much reduced price on joining the club, if you bought a few books at regular price within a set time period. I think this was one of the things that kickstarted my love of reading, though not the only… Read More »Tsundoku, Part 2

Project(s) News

Updates on this site and other associated projects: So after having moved to self-hosting for a couple of days, there are some upsides and downsides.  I don’t believe new posts will appear in the reader anymore, and subscriptions appear to follow to the old site.  This is going to mess things up for the short term until I figure something out.  That will probably take the form of an increased social media presence, but I need to be a bit careful with that.  There will be news coming on that… Read More »Project(s) News

Am I Otaku?

Am I Otaku or even weeaboo? This is a question I’m asking myself more and more lately.  I mean, I guess I fit some of the definitions.  I like JPop – enough so that I’m maintaining an entire website about it, and other pop culture things.  I’m familiar enough with different idols to have a semi-intelligent conversation about them (can you ever have a truly intelligent conversation about a Japanese idol?). I even have some anime figures sitting on my dresser, and some of them I can’t post to Facebook… Read More »Am I Otaku?

Tsundoku

Tsundoku is a Japanese word I relatively recently discovered.  It means, essentially, “Piles of books”.  Or, more accurately, someone who has piles of books that they haven’t read. I have always loved reading.  Ever since I was a child, I was an avid reader.  I learned how to read when I was very young – I was reading newspapers at three, and I never lost that.  I remember, I think, my first trip to the library – it was a school field trip.  I had so many books I could… Read More »Tsundoku

Being Cancellation Proof (or as much as possible)

First, a bit of site administrivia out of the way – I enabled wordpress connect for commenting, though that will require creating a subscriber account on this site.  I’ll set up a privacy policy at some point, but for right now, just rest assured I’ll only use whatever data I have to collect to maintain your account on the site.  I’m not interested in doing anything nefarious.  I’ll like other sites as I have time. So I’ve been thinking a lot about “cancel culture”.  This site is a little less… Read More »Being Cancellation Proof (or as much as possible)