While I was looking for a job back last year, I had one big problem: I had no idea how much people actually earn. Even if I asked people I knew from the university or encountered during my “internships”, or at jobhunting events, they’d just give evasive answers and refuse to tell.
Working out
I decided to return to sports starting this week. No big deal, just jogging every morning and going to the gym to work out on the weekends.
Orsay exhibition in the National Art Center
Yesterday I went downtown Tokyo to see an impressionist exhibition from the Orsay in the National Art Center.
Beer and Google-fu
After an eventful day I had my well-deserved (small) can of beer a few hours ago, and as beer usually does, it made me pee every ten minutes. I didn’t have any time to spare so I asked the internet why that happens.
Vulgarity
My Japanese vocabulary is painfully lacking when it comes to vulgarities. It’s true that in everyday life, Japanese swear very little, and even most of what would be considered swearing if translated to English is considered just barely worse than normal.
Almost Chinese
The other day I had dinner out with some colleagues, and I just picked the offer of the day, which turned out to be sweet and sour pork. I liked it so much that I decided that once I run out of chicken (which happened yesterday), I’ll try making some myself (sweet and sour pork, not chicken). Managed to squeeze it today in my lunch break (I didn’t cook it in the morning, because for one, I’m a lazy bastard who always wakes up way too late, and two, I wanted it fresh for the first time, not after cooling in my kitchen how hours).
Responsible democracy
If you keep forcing people to make decisions they can’t possibly make reasonably, don’t expect any reasonable results either. This occurred to me while reading an article on The Atlantic about fixing intersex babies with surgeries. Parents are asked (or even urged) to decide whether or not to do the surgery, even though even the doctors don’t have an exact knowledge of what consequences it may have. Then how can anyone expect laymen parents to make that decision responsibly?
Weeklies
Is it worth doing the weekly quests or not? For those that are doable in 2-3, the answer was obviously yes, since just sortieing 2-3 is worth it (even using 3 subs). The rest, however…
Stone gaze
One of my bosses at the studio gives me pretty good advice quite often, sometimes telling me stuff I haven’t even noticed before. One such thing is that Japanese can’t hold my gaze and I can assure a superior position in arguments this way, because of the power they feel in my stare due to my different facial structure. I was really fascinated by this idea and decided to try it in practice.
Article 9
I won’t pretend that I completely understand all the implications of the announced reinterpretation of the Japanese constitution’s article 9, the so-called “peace clause”. But I can guess the reasoning someone well-phrased in geopolitics would give for it.
